Hunted or hunter

The forest was dark and still, only the huffing of the dogs as they cast about for a scent on the brisk night air,... We’ve played this game before, the men knew the rules, carelessness meant that someone would lay with their life bleeding into the soft humus of this endless array of timber,... They knew as well as I, it wouldn’t be me.

They had brought in dogs, well trained and vigilant,... But for naught because the only thing that marked sign on the forest floor was my shadow, and with the moon hiding her charms behind the thick cover of wet clouds there wasn’t even that as an offering,... The sensitive canine noses would only know the spoor of the creatures that I shared this domain with, and they would serve no clue for even they weren’t sure of my presence.

Were it not for my forays into the village they would have gladly forgotten I even existed,.. It served as a distraction if nothing else,.. some nights I merely avoided them, some I would lead them a merry chase,.. the main motivation for risking the occasional price of one of their number was the quite substantial bounty promised for my capture, dead or alive, though the provost would like me alive, his drive for revenge made the promise of torture a secondary thing,.. his comely daughter was not the first or only young woman to fall prey to my hunger, some were from far more powerful families that he in turned answered to.

There was a rash of paid hunters that the high placed had paid retainer to, with the promise of dream fulfilling riches upon delivery,... Some saw it as their destiny, for some it was, but not the vision they thought,... A few still molder in forgotten corners of these woods, the small scavengers picking their bones ever cleaner, finally it was decided that the outlay of moneys in advance was a waste and the fat bounties were left as the main inducement.

In all honesty many stalked these woods in hope to avenge a supposed wrong to family or lover, the bounty just a small secondary restitution,... It’s not with malice I do as I have, my purpose is true and steadfast, and I would not impinge upon these persons were it not a matter of fulfilling my own true destiny,... In matters of survival, as in the hunt, if the contest becomes one of hunter versus prey, I will not go lightly into the role of the prey.

This night though, something was different, there was a woman amongst the searchers, I could feel her,.. risking a bit of exposure I drew close to the group to see what I could figure out,.. from the cover of darkness I beheld her, I reached out a tentative tendril to see what could read, she looked up and met my eyes, and a strong connection flashed between us, bewildered and taken off guard I locked my mind down and bolted, survival fires raged in my blood,... I put distance between us, setting in confusion deep in one of my most inaccessible sanctuaries I pondered what had transpired.

Having no real answers I closed my eyes and opened my awareness to the wilds,. I could feel her casting about for me and felt her touch my awareness, as if she could sense it,.. closing down and drawing back, I decided I needed to remove my traces to be safe from her searching,. I would seek answers later,... Moving to the deepest recesses of the cavern, well below the forest above, I crawled into a niche that was appointed with cushions and covers, made myself comfortable and systematically withdrew into myself till I was little more than a spark to the outside world,.. I myself would be hard pressed to track something of such minuscule signature without knowing the source,... I felt she would lose the trail and have to give up for the time being, that would give me breathing room to plan a counter to her hunting,.. A sleep like trance would carry me to the next day and then to plan.

I awoke with a start, and panic rushed through me, I found myself bound hand and foot and could not work free,.. Somehow she had found me, I was still in my niche and I could see only her setting in the dark watching me,... Taking that into account I then calmed myself and began to ready myself to take what ever advantage came to me, my resources were still many and even with this situation I was not yet in the hands of the village.

"How?" I asked meeting her gaze in the flickering light of the torches she had set,.. Slowly opening to the senses that gave me advantage, she looked at me with wide amber eyes and said simply " I can taste you.",... She went on, " I thought at first you had taken your own life because the voice in your head was gone, I was left just the telltale taste of you,.. when I found you,... I trussed you up because it was obvious you were in some kind of trance and would try to run once you awoke.", she pulled a small twisted smile and said, " I know you now, you could never escape from me."


She knew me?!, we would see about that, she was about to know much more than she had counted on,... As I engaged her in trivialities, I found out she had been using her talent for a number of years to track down everything from lost kittens to wayward husbands, all at a price of course, while she spoke, I plied my skill, relaxing her and wending my way into her psyche, finding the root of her dreams and fantasies,... As I worked she went on to explain that she was in such demand she could pick and choose, and though she often refused strange cases like mine the bounty would set her many years ahead in her plans to be a landowner, she couldn’t pass it up.

As she went on about how she went about her adventures, I warmed her trust and heated her passions, molding them making me the center of her desire, as she talked on about the dilemma of how to get me to the surface without giving me a chance to make a break, she faltered and made indecisive noises about if she even intended to follow through how she might just keep me for herself,.. and half checking herself she quieted and contemplated those thoughts,.. it was too late I was integrated into her, it seemed even easier than it ever had been before, as I made the final touch, I thought she would never be the same woman,... Like the women in the village, she would forever be mine.

You will be mine!, the words rang through my skull like the echo in the cathedral caverns , but the voice was not mine, it was clearly hers,.. looking at her wide eyed in surprise she turned to reveal she too was in a state of shock, her eyes wide and liquid, even more apparent was her state of arousal, her nipples tenting the course material of her shirt were signposts to the blush that ran across the open expanse of collarbone rising up lighting her cheeks to the tips of her ears,..

As I gazed upon her nervously licking her rich swollen lips, her eyes focused in a darting glance away from my face,. I looked to see that she was not the only one effected, my erection loomed as a savage statement of my condition, as I had made the final topple of her libido into the soft cushions of abandon, I had wondered why my heart seemed to swell tenfold in the process,.. when I looked back to her she was a fingers breadth from my nose,. That beckoning mouth slightly ajar, her pink tongue at the brink of the precipice,... trussed as I was, when she grappled me in a grip of deep kissing, her tongue leaping to twist and tangle with my own all I could do was submit,.. but never was submission such a climb heavenward.

Next she thrashed in shaking effort to remove my bonds and clothing,...Once free, my hands leapt to doff her of her encumbrances, In the wake of wrestling her severe bun of a hairdo came undone and the flow of her tresses became part of the song of our rolling thunder to claim the territory of the others lust,... The humid smell of our sex must have permeated the caverns along with the moans and growls of our sexual congress, for our passion seemed to regenerate and grow the more we ventured into the heart of the fray.

Between bouts we talked in breathless whispers, word of adoration, words of wonder, and a mixture of puzzling the alchemy of the effect we induced on one and other and plots of how to make the most of this union,.. she the clever wench she was, already had formulated a plan to relieve the provost of the bounty,...In the mix of several rounds of ravishing the wet and swollen features each found fascinating she lay the plan out for my appraisal, and I had to admire the brilliance of it, of course it was interspersed with admiring the other things she laid out before me, our passion knew no bounds, alas our energy did ,even with the occasional spooning nap we eventually sunk into a couples coma of exhausted sleep.

We awoke with a hunger that was almost as keen as our sexual one and as I rounded up food she dressed and went to scout the whereabouts of her companions, she returned somewhat abashed at the fact that we had been at one another for the better part of two days, and even though she admittedly wished to continue after we fortified our famished bodies she knew we had other fish to fry,..

As I assembled my meager belongings to travel fast and far upon her return ,she prepared to visit the village holding and put our plan into action, I would meet her in a nearby pass that would take us beyond any dealings with the provost and his ilk,.. As she picked up her huntsack to leave I caressed her leather clad leg and kissed her,.. she smiled in restraint and said ,.. "See you soon",.. and with the edge of irony in her voice she looked about the dingy cavern and said exiting with a blown kiss , "We really have to stop meeting like this".