The Secret Ingredient

"You're a beautiful one, aren't you?" she murmured to it, the chorus of the wilderness around her absorbing her praise. "But you're so big," and as she caressed it she grasped it, her hand unable to circle its total girth. And then she realized this was her test.

She had to be able to take it, to fulfill the pact.

***

She was sitting cross legged, staring over the valley, watching the river flow below. The appendages had slunk back into the ground around the tree. She was eating her sandwich, trying to wrap her mind around the task put before her.

If I succeed, I'll never need to worry about money again, she thought. I can just paint to my heart's content, and promote my work to the people who can appreciate it.

*

She lay on her back, ready for a total surrender this time. Naked, she offered herself to the alien that inhabited the blue tree, like in the stories of sylphs and dryads and witches. She had reached for one appendage, coaxing it further out of the ground, so she could suck on it to get the fluid that would make her relaxed and dizzy and hopefully able to accept the pain of what she had to do.

A few at a time, more had grown out of the ground to join in the offering. They moved over her in long, luscious caresses, wrapping around her, constricting her in strong hugs that expressed a kind of desire she had only ever dreamed of. They licked and sucked at her skin; they lavished over her and she luxuriated in the inhuman pleasure.

Some had attached to her clit and nipples and sucked at her in sync with the sucking she performed on the one in her mouth.

She had begun to feel a low vibration in the ground under her, and thought the creature whose tentacles these were was humming in pleasure with her.

Two feelers were thrusting in alternance in her cunt; she had already come twice in the past half hour, and she lay on the ground, legs fallen completely open.

Another, thinner tentacle was twisting around her anus, rubbing at it, and Lessie, in a drunken stupor, knew she would let it in, though she had no prior experience of this sex.

She freed a hand at last and reached to pet it. Juices from her full cunt had been flowing down to slick her hole anyway and she gave it a slight nudge. It wriggled and pushed at the ring of muscle and finally wormed its way in.

She sucked on the appendage she held, bringing it deeply into her mouth, almost gagging, and it rewarded with a few more spurts of the intoxicating serum she greedily swallowed. The thin tentacle at her ass twisted and worked its way further in.

It was a new sensation, a pleasant one, and when another feeler decided to join it, she relaxed herself even more. Now four of the vines were fucking her, together or in alternance, and she could feel them rubbing against each other as well. She climaxed again, and they all pulsed in unison with her, flooding her every hole with hot, sticky spurts.

While she recovered, more and more of the thin ones penetrated her, her cunt and her ass. This is it, she thought, this is the final preparation. They slipped in one by one, incrementally stretching her, and she breathed through her nose as the sting of it started again. When her hips jerked, they changed their strategy. The ones in her ass moved deeper in, stopping at each ring of muscles, then moving past when it relaxed. She could feel them worm around inside her. It made her slightly nauseous.

At the same time she felt a swell begin inside her cunt. Those already in there simply expanded her insides; she could see her stomach start to distend and move as if she were pregnant.

She knew she would be before nightfall.

*

When the big indigo-swirled tentacle appeared again, she was ready for it. She knew she could take it. All the others left her, leaving her feeling empty, and when it snaked above her, swaying as if dancing, she stared at it in hypnotized rapture. The colors shimmered on its translucent skin, and as it moved closer, she could see it morph its blunt head into a conical point, shaping itself to make insertion easier, and she was grateful for the effort.

Lessie rose on her elbows, bracing for the penetration. Tensing up again.

The heavy thing lay on her instead, as if seeking warmth and caresses.

"There there, beautiful, monstrous thing that you are," Lessie whispered to it as she caressed the smooth length that pulsed and sought her heat, pushing against her chest, up into her air, and she hugged it close. She kissed it, then licked and sucked at it, eyes closed like with a lover. It started moving up and down her body rubbing a textured area against her clit, bumping, swaying and squirming and Lessie found herself so aroused she stopped being afraid and started wanting it.

Thick, ropy tentacles came out of the ground and turned her over, ass up in the air, spreading her and holding her tightly, binding her ankles. The serum spigot one came back out and extruded a bead of turquoise bliss for her to lick and then suck on. She lost her head again, half numb, half tingling, and the monster tentacle stroked her a few more times, spreading a hot, thick slick on her before finally muscling in.

Like a battering ram with a soft head, it pushed in in increments, and Lessie cried out in pain and strained against the vines holding her to get away as the conical head passed her resistance, then further and further in. When it hit bottom, it stopped moving. She got a new squirt of liquid fire as her reward, and she sucked it up thankfully.

She lay on her stomach, her bonds loosened. She felt full and warm and the afternoon sun still shone through the leaves making the river sparkle. She twisted her hips and reached between her legs for the thing that possessed her. It felt good that it was there. She throbbed and the fullness inside her started moving.

Its head had changed back to its blunt form again, and at each thrust it bumped against her g-spot; Lessie felt a new wave build inside her. She raised her hips again, pushing up on her knees, letting the thing pump inside her relentlessly, feeling an occasional squirt of that thick liquid lubricate their intercourse. It leaked out of her hole and dripped over her clit, and some other vine reached up to catch it and lave at her, very softly. Another vine caressed her ass before slipping in.

She climaxed again, a subtle sensation this time, one that seemed to go on and on, making her arch her back and cry into the soft moss under her. The thing in her cunt slowed then, and a new sensation began. From the corner of her eye she could see where it came out of the ground. Pulses were moving up its length, like a string of pearls.

She felt the first one get laid into her body. It was a new stretch of her vulva, quickly passed, until another one was pushed in. She counted them. Six fit while the main ovipositor receded to give them room as she filled with the creature's seeds. Then it was out.

Lessie breathed a sigh of relief. This wasn't so bad. Getting to this point had been a challenge, but after the last two days of training for it, she knew she would not feel the initial pain of stretching her again. She also knew she would never settle for a puny human again.

She put her hand on her stomach, feeling the pearls there. Lilith had told her the things could not evolve on planet earth, they would at most live a month if she took care of the few she would keep for the exchange.

More were coming.

Surprisingly, the ovipositor tentacle met with less resistance when it penetrated her ass. More eggs were pushed into her, each one giving her a little jolt of pleasure, and she lost count after maybe twenty when a new orgasm shook her. Panting, she took every egg she could, this time her belly distending unmistakably, until she was crying with a sensation she couldn't name and the last egg came back out and fell on the moss between her legs.

She fell on her side and the main tentacle relented and moved close to her again, as if demanding some reassuring cuddle. Lessie pet it, murmuring: "Oh that's a good monster, yes. You filled mommy up good, and now you want me to take all these to the river, right?" If the thing understood her, she couldn't tell. "Give me a minute before I can stand up, okay?"

She picked up the fallen egg. It was dark blue, the outside translucent, the center cloudy, about the size of a golf ball — soft and squishy and heavy in her hand. Completely alien.

After a moment, she sat up then reached for and slipped her dress over her head. The sun was low on the horizon and she had to make her way back.

But first, she had to keep her promise.

She gathered her backpack and tried to get up. She was heavy and her balance was off, and as she struggled, another egg slipped out and she gave a little cry. She fell back down.

This was going to be as hard as she thought.

Some of the stronger tentacles came out swiftly to help her up, and one offered her a dilute solution of the sex serum, to slake her thirst as well as give her a little boost. When she was steady on her feet, she looked at the trail leading down to the river.

Alone, she waddled down the well-used trail, careful not to slip and spill the precious brood she carried — even knowing it was doomed. It took long minutes to get to the river.

When she got there, she sat on a rock overhanging the river. She bent painfully over her belly to remove her shoes, then everything else; she was covered in sticky juices and crushed moss and her fingers were grimy where she had had to grasp roots or rocks to keep from tumbling down the hill.

The water was cool. She knelt in a shallow pool so she could bear down on her brood. It took a few moments to relax muscles that had tightened like a vise so she could make the trip, but then the first egg came out, then another, then a string of them. The relief as her belly flattened again was immense, and she saw the cluster float out into the current with some regret.

She had pressed fingers to her cunt to keep those there for herself. They were part of her reward.

She rinsed herself, dressed again, and made her way up the hill back to the blue-leafed tree. When she got there, only one mushroom-like appendage was there, and she straddled it so it could reach inside her and feel how she had held up the bargain. Then it receded back into the rich dark earth.

*

"You did good," her aunt Lilith sighed, eyes closed and voice like a reed about to break.

"Lili... does it know the eggs won't survive?"

After a moment, the older woman replied, softly. "I think it must know by now, but keeps hoping. Maybe it's just lonely and this is how it gets attention. Affection."

Lessie thought on that for a moment. "I'll keep doing it then."

"Thank you." Lilith squeezed her hand feebly, "You can let the others back in now."

Lessie walked softly back to the door, grateful the girdle-shorts she wore helped keep "everything" in and hid her condition to her parents. They filed back in, the few that had bothered, and her aunt expired within the hour.

Her parents refused to come to the "witch's cottage" and took a hotel room instead.

*

Between her trips to the Witching Tree, Lessie had signed piles of paperwork with the notary to take possession of the small estate. Everything was in order, as if her aunt had decided on her inheritance years ago... but had hesitated to share her secrets. Understandable, Lessie thought, one hand soothing her distended tummy, feeling the life grow inside.

She had read more of the notebooks locked inside the little commode in the writer's office in between bouts of crying. A week had passed since her aunt's passing and since she had collected her special eggs. She had lost one since then, the thing slipping out into the toilet and disappearing before she could do anything to retrieve it. She was more careful now.

In the notebooks were drawings detailing the shortened life-cycle of the alien creatures she was hosting. In another week, the grubs would break out of the eggs, creating a strange sensation inside her as they would squirm around and sometimes vibrate with energy. She had two options then: she could take them out right away: they would die within a day outside her body. Or she could keep them inside her body for a full cycle, let them feed on her period blood, wait a few more days, and then take them out. That was the optimum growth.

Then she had to set them to dry out on wire racks before she ground them up and sold them as powder.

There was a very short list of customers. The powder had a distinct sweet taste and was slightly narcotic, like the serum she had consumed abundantly during the "transaction" with the monster. The serum wouldn't keep however, turning quickly into something acrid like vinegar. Her aunt had detailed in the notebooks many experiments she had tried to keep the precious liquid.

The grub powder sold for its weight in gold; she had customers from everywhere in the world. Her aunt had put aside a small supply. She had learned to maximize yield, and only visited her pet a few times a year,

Lessie knew she would be visiting it more often. Much more often.