The Seat of Power

The Throne was ancient. Just how old it was, was beyond memory, even racial memory. It was of a dark wood bound on both sides by iron and bolted together by glass nuts and bolts. The right hand side was straight and level, while the left arched up over the seat back at a forty-five degree angle.

A rust colored fur pelt lay draped over the center and on it sat Eva in all her glory. She looked twenty-five but was closer to twenty five hundred. Her slender body was athletic, succulent, and firm. Only her dark gray eyes gave any hint of her age.

Her hair was blonde on top and dyed crimson red on the sides where it was plaited and woven into dreadlocks. The locks hung down to the bottom of her shoulder blades in the back and to her shoulders on the sides.

Red cords around her waist held a knife sheath at her left hip. More red cord wound around her wrists. On the left arm, it wrapped in a crisscross pattern to her shoulder. It was also braided into a slave ring and bracelet on her right hand. Other than the cord and soft short red boots, she was naked.

Eva was a witch and her staff of power was a twisted stick with the skull of a goat lashed into a three-way fork on the top of the stick. The eyeholes of the skull shined ruby red, as did the nostril holes. It seemed ominous and evil. It menaced anyone and anything it was pointed towards.

The view behind Eva was of a skeletal city. Metal frameworks were all that remained of the mighty buildings of old. The yellow gold sky and brassy clouds look somber and hushed. No wind stirred, no bird chirped, no sound could be heard at all.

Eva sat as still and silent as the dying world around her. Only her eyes moved and they did so in quick flicks and glances, never resting, always in motion. She was not alone on this world. One other inhabited it, her greatest enemy, Adonis, the Lord of the Depths, the Lord of the Sea, as she was the Lady of the Land and Air.

*****

A thought had been nagging at the back of Eva's mind for a while now. With all of her people and most of the animals gone, the world was a lonely place. She wondered if it was the same for the Lord of the Sea.

Her family had guarded the land and air since the beginning of time. His had done the same for the sea. Why the Lord of the Sea had attacked the land, she had never figured out.

She stood up and walked to the opening overlooking the land. Devastation and death was everywhere. Nowhere was the green of life. All was brown or black. She sighed and crossed the room to her cauldron. It surface smoked with steam and it bubbled softly.

Waving her hand, she cleared the steam and stared into its depths. Her thoughts were on Adonis. She had never seen him and he had never seen her. All she knew of him were the stories that she had been told as a child. Supposedly, he was blue green and ugly, a big cunning brute with no manners.

Using both hands, she smoothed the waters and tried to bring forth an image of her enemy. She wanted to see him but without the communication, the caldron allowed. She got a wavering image of a young man about her own apparent age. She wondered who he was? He didn't look brutish or ugly.

The image turned suddenly and anger filled its face. "So you finally show yourself, do you bitch! You destroy my world and only now do I see you!" The man yelled.

"Destroyed your world? You destroyed mine!" Eva shot back sharply. "I was only defending myself."

"Your people are the ones who came with nets and captured my people. You are the ones who polluted the seas with your garbage and sewage. You are the ones who poisoned the air, that cut off the sunshine so the plankton died."

Eva had a shocked look on her face. "We fished for food, yes that is true but as for the other..." She paused to think. Had her people done all those things?

"Fishing is one thing, but slaughter to extinction is another!" Adonis yelled.

"What about you with your storms and rains, your tidal waves and floods!" Eva yelled back.

"I was only defending myself, trying to cleanse the pollution and the mess you had made of this world. Trying to rid the lands of the teaming billions that used too much and gave nothing back."

"My people prospered yes and they were growing to greatness when you destroyed them!" Eva yelled hotly.

"They were killing and destroying the planet!" Adonis yelled.

Eva waved her hands and cut the connection. The look on his face had scared her. If looks could kill, she would have been dead.

****

She sat on her throne and thought about the man in the water. He didn't seem brutish, other than that first remark about her being a bitch. He certainly wasn't ugly. Quite to the contrary, he was beautiful. Even his blue green color seemed natural on him.

Eva shook herself. She didn't need sexual thoughts and urges clouding her mind. She needed to be sharp and figure out a way of getting life started on this planet again. That and find a way to keep Adonis from killing it off again. Visions of his tall, slender, but muscular body floated behind her eyes.

She shook herself again and stood up. This would just not do at all. She needed a clear head and that blue body was raising havoc with hers. An idea blossomed in her mind and she chased it away. That would never do, it was impossible.

However, the idea would not stay away.

*****

A day later, Eva stood on the shore of the sea. Her cauldron was beside her as well as her throne. She nervously paced on the warm white sand. Ever so often, she paused to look out over the bright blue water. She was nervous this close to the sea.

She was also nervous about what she was going to do. She was literally placing her life on the line. One rogue wave and she would be no more. She was powerless against the water and all things in it. It was not her realm.

Flopping down on her throne, she sighed and fidgeted with the laces on her right boot. She was stalling and she knew it. It was the only way but she didn't like it one bit. Her first idea had split into two. One was straight forward and the other deceitfully.

One would make her supreme and the other would half her power. The problem was she did not think she could pull the first one off or if she had the nerve to even try. She did not know if the Lord of the Sea would go for the second. She wasn't even sure the second was possible.

There was only one way to find out, she thought as she jumped to her feet and hurried over to the cauldron. With a wave of her hand, she cleared the steam and then calmed the waters.

Adonis appeared almost instantly, his back turned her way. He was as gorgeous as ever. Eva clamped down on that thought hard and fast as she waited for him to turn around.

A moment passed and then Adonis stiffened and whirled around. "You are back!" His voice was less hostile than the day before but not by much.

"Yes, I came back to ask for a truce and a meeting."

"A truce? There is no war and why should I meet with you?" He emphasized the word "should" hard as his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"We are the only two people left on this planet, why shouldn't we talk?" Eva asked calmly.

"I don't trust your kind and I never have." he told her sharply.

"You don't even know me and I am all there is of my kind, just like you are the last of your kind."

Adonis paused in thought a second. His voice held less anger as he said, "Yes, that is true. We are the last there are." He paused again in thought. "I can't take the air any longer than you can the water."

"Meet me at the beach by the old city."

"Why there?" He asked. His voice once again held suspicion.

"Why not? It is close for me for one thing and I'm there right now for another," Eva said and held her breath. He could drown her with a wave of his hand, now that he knew where she was.

"I see," he said and then grinned. "That is a little chancy isn't it?" He raised his hand. "If only I was a vengeful man," he whispered mostly to himself.

A few seconds later, he said, "I will meet you within the hour.

Eva nodded and waved her hands breaking the connection.

Now she had to wait. It would give her more time to steel her nerve and check over her plans carefully. Two options were still open but.... She sighed as her mind painted a picture of Adonis in all his glory, his arms wrapped around her. Their lips locked in a deep kiss.

She shook her head and hurried over to sit on her throne. She hadn't had thoughts like that since she was a child and now wasn't the time to start them again.

*****

The sun was warm on Eva's body and the cool ocean breeze caressing her skin felt sensuous to the point that her nipples had hardened. Thoughts of Adonis were not helping matters at all. She kept having to draw her hand back from her lap. The cool breeze across her sex told her how wet she was.

That was not good in one way and excellent in another. Being sexually excited would hamper her mentally if she decided to do away with Adonis. On the other hand, if she decided to seduce him then.... A splash out on the open water broke her chain of thought.

Eva stood up and shaded her eyes as she looked for the source of the noise. The sound had come from out toward the mouth of the bay. She suddenly gave a gasp of surprise as Adonis rose from the water only a few yards from her. He was a foot taller than she and probably three times the weight.

His chest, arms, and legs were massively muscular and sculptured like a god. Her eyes instinctively dropped to the thin cloth wrapped around his hips and just as quickly returned to his face. The cloth covered and concealed everything from his waist to mid thigh.

Eva tried to hide a smile as she saw his eyes rake her body from head to toe. The two pauses they made were at her sex and at her breasts. To farther hide the smile, she said, "Welcome, oh King of the Sea."

Adonis shook his head. "A King without a kingdom isn't much of a King."

Eva nodded. "I understand that, believe me. We have both lost so much."

Adonis looked up and down the beach and then off toward the decaying city. "It's as desolate here as it is in the sea."

"There is very little left. Maybe we should start over. Maybe we can make it better for both sides." Eva said and then held her breath as she awaited his reply.

His eyes returned to her and then he sighed deeply. "Too much has been lost. I am the last one of my kind and from what you said, you are the last of yours."

"Maybe we should start a new kind if that is possible," Eva whispered.

Adonis cocked his head to the side and stared at Eva, suspicion very evident in his gaze. "The land and sea can not mix. They never have at any rate, not that I know of anyway."

Eva started to reply but Adonis took several steps back and disappeared under the water. "Hey, wait a minute, lets talk about this," she yelled across the water.

A moment later, his head appeared. "My time in the air is limited, like I told you. I had to get back to my environment to refresh myself."

"Oh, I'm sorry, I misunderstood. I thought you had left. Is there anything I can do to help?"

"I have to stay wet and ever so often I need to pull more oxygen from the water than your air has available. I'll sit here on the bottom which will help and then I can duck under as I need to."

Eva turned toward her throne and then thought better of it. She moved to the very edge of the water and sat down cross-legged on the cool damp sand. "I will sit here then so we will be on even terms."

Adonis looked at her thoughtfully and then said, "You seem to be a thoughtful, caring woman, not the shrew, I was always told you were. You don't seem the type to fly off into rages and fits of anger."

Eva chuckled and replied, "And you don't seem to be the ugly dumb brute that I was always told you were."

Adonis looked thoughtful for a moment and then sighed. "How did this all come about? Where did it all go wrong?"

"I think you named the problem yesterday when you said there were too many people in the world and not enough resources. My ancestors let things get out of hand as progress took over."

Adonis ducked under water for a moment and then reappeared. "Yes there were too many people and this progress you speak of used too many resources and polluted everything, the land, the air, and most of all, the water."

After a moment of silence, Eva said, "Everything is clean once again but there are no more people and very few animals on the land."

"The same can be said for the seas," Adonis replied and ducked under the water.

When he surfaced, Eva asked, "So now what do we do?"

Adonis sighed and then shrugged. "Not much it seems. We've spent most of our lives trying to kill each other without ever seeing each other."

Eva chewed her lower lip a moment and then asked, "What if we combined our powers?"

Adonis looked at her suspicion very evident in his eyes. "And what would we gain from that?" What would you or I gain from that?"

Now was the time for Eva to be cautious. "Maybe a son or a daughter with the ability to live on land and in the sea. One with the power to return the people and animals to the land as well as the fish and mammals to the sea."

Adonis's eyes narrowed as he ducked under for a moment. They were still that way when he surfaced. "And who would raise such a child?"

"It is normal for both parents to raise a child if I'm not mistaken."

With a nod of his head, Adonis agreed with her but suspicion was clear in his face. "How can I trust you?" he asked a moment later.

"What have you got to lose? What does either of us have to lose? Right now we are the King and Queen of a dead or nearly dead world."

Adonis looked thoughtful as he submerged this time.

Eva took a deep breath and blew it out slowly. A mother had a lot of control over the way a child was raised but then again, her own words about a dead world haunted her. She suddenly wondered if maybe she should play this straight. Maybe that was the best answer to everything.

Adonis surfaced and then stood up. He towered over Eva so much that she had to lean back on her elbows to see his face. She suddenly felt very vulnerable and helpless. She also realized her staff was leaning against her throne. She was more or less defenseless.

Reaching his hand down, Adonis smiled for the first time. "Come, enter my kingdom for a while. Let me show you the beauty and wonder of it."

Eva reached up for his hand and was pulled gently to her feet. "I can't swim," she admitted and then quickly added, "I've never been able to hold my breath for very long."

Still smiling, Adonis nodded. "I can swim and breathe for both of us."

Now it was Eva's turn to look suspicious. Adonis chuckled and said, "There has to be trust on both sides. I cannot go very far on the surface but I can see a lot of your land from the oceans, rivers, lakes, and creeks. We can tour your kingdom first if you would rather."

Eva turned toward her throne and her staff of power. Then she turned back to Adonis and smiled up at him. "Trust is a hard thing but...." She spent a moment removing her boots and the leather thongs and then she took a step toward the water and shivered. It looked so alien to her.

Adonis took her hand as she made another step that had her right on the water's edge. She gasped softly as a small wave curled the water around her feet and ankles. It was cool and tickled her skin as it moved over it. The sand shifted under her feet as the wave retreated.

Eva looked up at Adonis, a hint of a smile on her lips but there was an expression on her face that barely hid the fear she was feeling. He took a step toward deeper water and ducked under but did not pull at her arm. She shivered as she took another step and the water came up to her calf.

"Water can be very powerful but it can also be soothing and sensuous as it caresses your body," Adonis said softly as he surfaced. She took a small half step.

The thought that he could drag her down and be done with her kind forever, fleetingly crossed his mind. It was just as quickly replaced with thoughts of loneliness. Even an enemy was better than being all alone. Anyway, his upbringing held him back from harming a female of any type.

Eva was now thigh deep in the water. It was far deeper than she had ever dared to go. She had wiggled her toes along the edge of a small creek one time but that had been about all of her experience except for her bathtub, which was filled with sun warmed rainwater.

A small wave flowing past her raised the level enough for the cool water to caress her sex. She shivered deeply and came up on her toes. The cool water was in sharp contrast to her very warm sex. She hadn't realized how hot it was before. She made a soft whimpering sound as she moved a little deeper and came down off her toes.

The water caressed her warm sex and her ass as the wave receded. Thoughts of standing in a high wind on the edge of a cliff crossed her mind; only this was more solid, more like a lover's feather caress. She whimpered again but not so much from fear this time as the water moved around her lower body.

Her next step was longer and took her out to chest deep. The water lapping at her breasts and nipples made her shiver and bring her free hand up to brush lightly over her right nipple. It was as hard as a small pea. She whimpered softly as the wave surged across her again, the water covering her breasts. She felt light.

She was even with Adonis now and he smiled as he watched the varied expressions cross her face. "I think you are enjoying the caress of my kingdom," he said, the smile turning to a grin.

"It.... It is rather interesting," Eva replied breathily.

Adonis took a step closer to her and placed his free hand in the small of her back. "Relax and lean back. Let the water support you. I will keep you safe."

Eva had gasped at his touch. His hand was very warm. She had expected it to be cold or at least cool like the water. She moaned softly as she slowly leaned back. She could not relax, being out of her element, but his hand felt so good as she added pressure to his touch.

She had most of her weight on his hand when she realized her feet had left the sandy bottom. She gasped loudly and thrashed around, her arms extended outward to the side to break her fall, but she did not fall, even when her toes appeared above the water. She was astonished and even more surprised when she felt how light his touch was on her back.

His hand became firmer on her back and she felt herself moving through the water as he moved her in a full circle around where he stood. She whimpered softly as he stopped her. His hand remained on her back but her ducked under, only to resurface a minute later. "I'm going to do that again, only this time I want you to scissor your legs up and down with your feet extended."

Eva looked up at the big blue man above her and nodded. "I don't understand but I will try and do as you say."

"Good enough," he replied and started to move her again.

Eva hesitated a moment and then slowly pointed her toes away from her body and moved her feet up and down. Two things happen at once. His touch got lighter except for his fingertips and the water flowed across her sex stronger, the faster she moved her legs. It tickled for a moment and then she moaned softly as it turned to a more sensuous feeling.

A moment later, Adonis said, "Stop."

Eva quite moving her legs up and down but spent a moment or two spreading and closing her legs at different speeds. The water flow across her sex changed but the sumptuous feeling did not. In fact, it got stronger. She shivered and then wondered if she could have an orgasm from the waters caress. Adonis did his thing again.

Adonis surfaced and waited until the woman looked up at him. "I see you are getting to know the water better," he said with a grin.