Passing

I making up for the break by posting two chapters which I wrote in a single day, hopefully a sign the block is good and broken.

The Spring Revisited

Kit led me down a path leading into the woods behind the Resort. Before long we came to a clearing, with two trees standing side by side in middle of the clearing. Kit stopped in front of the trees and stared. I was fascinated that the trees around the clearing made an almost perfect circle and then my attention was drawn to the trees before us. Twilight was already beginning to settle around us but a darkness formed between the two trees that was something more than the fading sunlight. It grew into an inky blackness through which nothing could be seen. Kit smiled at me and taking my hand he stepped with me into the darkness.

There was a moment of disorientation and then we stepped out into another clearing. The trees were almost the same arrangement as the clearing we had just left but that was where the similarities ended. It seemed much later, the sky over head was darker and yet everything glowed with the light of full moon that could not be seen. The bark of the trees was silver and seemed to add to the soft light around us.

A young man walked towards us. I found myself captivated by his face. Long dark brown hair flowed over his shoulders like water, broken only by the pointed ears marking his elven heritage. His face could have graced any magazine cover or Hollywood poster. If there was a picture in the dictionary next to ‘handsome’ or ‘gorgeous’ it would be his. I swear his teeth sparkled when he smiled.

“Kit, Love!” He called out. “What brings you to see me and who is this lovely lass at your side?”
“Hello Dannon,” Kit said.
Something in his tone suggested that there was some sort of history between these two and Kit was obviously uncomfortable in his presence. I wasn’t sure if it was my imagination or not but it seemed Kit moved slightly to put himself between us.

“I brought you this from Lady Beth,” Kit said handing the Elf a letter on the resort stationary.
As Dannon read the letter, I took in his unusual dress. He really did look like something out of the Lord of Rings. Silver armor with a matching sword hanging at his waist. The bejeweled breastplate was adorned with a howling coyote exactly like the Resort.

Dannon finished reading the letter.
“Of course I will be glad to escort you and your companion to the Spring.”
He stepped close and leaned whispered in Kit’s ear. Kit stiffened and trembled as Dannon spoke to him in some language I didn’t understand. Then Dannon turned away and called out to the woods in the same language. Kit seemed shaken and I wondered just what had passed between these two. I reached out and touched Kit’s shoulder.
“Kit? Are you ok?”
He turned and embraced me with something of the desperation I remembered from our earliest encounters.
“Yes, I’m fine as long as you’re with me.”

A horse came trotting out of the surrounding forest and walked up to Dannon who spoke to it some more in that flowing language he had used with Kit.
“Swift Wind,” he said turning back to us and gesturing to the steed. “She has agreed to take us.”
Swift Wind had to be the most magnificent horse I had ever seen. Her dark hair was broken only by a red stripe that ran along her side almost like a racing stripe. There was a look in her eyes that contained an intelligence no Earthly horse possessed.

Dannon mounted her with a smooth graceful leap and reached out his hand for me.
“Come lass,” he said.
I glanced at Kit who seemed reluctant.
“We can walk well enough,” he said.
“Oh come now love, I can’t leave the gate for long.”
He spoke to Kit again in that other language.
“All right,” Kit said reluctantly and helped me up into sit in front of Dannon.
I was worried that I would interfere with the reigns but I noted that Swift Wind had no tack or for that matter anything to hold on to but her mane.
“Don’t worry love, Swift Wind and I will not let you fall.” Dannon said as he put his arms around me.
“Come Kit, you had best change if you’re going to keep up.”

Swift Wind let out a mirthful whinny and took off at a gallop. I let out a gasp and looked back but couldn’t see Kit.
“Where is Kit?” I called alarmed.
“There lass,” Dannon said and gestured to the side. Running alongside was a coyote.

~~~

The coyote labored to keep up but at last Swift Wind put up a burst of speed leaving him behind. Then we were at the rock ridge and the path I remembered that led to the Spring. Dannon lowered me gently to the ground just as the coyote ran up. The air around the coyote shimmered and in his place stood Kit. His naked body was covered a moment later by clothes.
“Damn it Dannon….!” Kit yelled.
“No thanks necessary love,” Dannon cut him off. “You’re inside the wards here and I have to get back to the gate.”
They rode off as Kit growled at his back.

“Are you all right?” Kit asked taking me in his arms.
“Yes,” I said.
As well as I can be surrounded by Elves, Magical Horses and a lover who changes into a coyote.
“Come,” he said taking me by the hand and leading me up the path.

As I struggled to digest everything that I had seen and learned in the last day. I had a million questions and didn’t know which to ask so I settled on the first one that came to mind.
“When you change, your clothes don’t seem to change as fast.”
“My clothes don’t change at all,” he said with a grin. “If I changed with clothes on, I would change into a coyote wearing clothes. It doesn’t work very well, so I send the clothes away before I change and call them back after.”
“Where do they go?”
“That would be a little hard to explain, just call it magic.”
“It must make getting dressed easy.”
“Not really, I can only pull things out of ether space that I send there in the first place. I’ve never been able to master making clothes appear on me unless I was wearing them when I sent them away in the first place.”
“Oh.”

~~~

As we passed through the cleft in the rock that opened onto the banks of the spring, we were swarmed by a group of small flying figures. I looked and saw they were small people like Tinkerbell from Peter Pan. They wore various levels of clothing from a leaf loin cloth worn by one of the males to a elaborately created dress of leaves and flower petals on one female. Their wings also differed from butterfly wings to clear like a dragonfly.

Kit laughed. “Pixies,” he said.
One of them flew up and hovered in front of me as she chattered away. I held my hand and she landed on it chattering away as did so.
“She is welcoming you back,” Kit said.
“You understand them?”
“Yes, she says she remembers when you came here before and she is so happy you came back to see her again.”
“Ok,” I laughed. “I’m happy to see her again too.”
This seemed to please the Pixie as she took off and started doing happy circles and swoops with the others joining in.

Kit pulled me close and kissed me.
“Your bath awaits,” he said and started unbuttoning my blouse as he kissed my neck.
Not to be outdone I started in on his clothes as well. Soon our clothes lay together in a pile on the shore as Kit took my hand and led me into the warm spring waters. A tingling sensation swept through my body as we waded towards the center. I felt better than I ever had before and I had an energy I hadn’t known in years.

“Feeling better?” Kit said grinning.
“Yes,” I said amazed and then I noticed my hands.
All the lines that had developed over the years were gone.
“Amazing” I said looking at them, then as I lowered them I saw my reflection in the water and stood in shock. I looked like I was 18 again!
Kit’s warm chest pressed against my back and I saw his reflection join mine.
“Yes, the Spring restores youth as well as heals the sick. It’s effect doesn’t last once you return to the Mortal World but as long as you are Underhill you will be young again. That is why the Irish call this place Tir Na Nog, the Land of Youth.”

He turned me around to stare into my eyes and suddenly I wanted nothing more than to be in his arms, to feel him inside me. I could feel his hardness pressing against me showing his desire as well.
“Another side effect of bathing in the Spring, it tends to make you horny as hell.” Kit said with a mischievous grin.
He picked me up and waded quickly over to the moss covered bank where we had made love so many years ago. He laid me down on the moss and lay beside me. He stared deeply into my eyes and I found myself lost in his.

“Melody,” he said his voice deep. “I’ve missed you so badly. Please don’t leave me again.”
He kissed me again.
“Be my mate, Melody, now and forever.”
Somewhere in the back of my mind a warning sounded but I wasn’t listening. I wanted him just as much as he wanted me.
“Yes,” I whispered.

He kissed me again and then his talented mouth worked its way down to my neck. His hand caressed my stomach on its way to my thighs. He sucked gently on my breast as his finger slid inside me. I arched upward as an orgasm swept me. I wanted him and I wanted him now. I pulled at his shoulders.
“Please Kit I want you in me.”
He didn’t hesitate but climbed over me. He lowered his lips to mine for another passionate kiss and I moaned into his mouth as his hardness slid into my waiting depths. I grabbed onto him as our bodies rocked together. I was amazed at the energy and passion that swept over me. I rolled him onto his back and proceeded to ride him hard and fast. I felt my climax approaching and I could tell that his was near as well. Suddenly he lifted me off of him and as I whimpered my dissatisfaction at the sudden emptiness, he rose up on his knees and positioned me on my hands and knees in front of him.

He slid into me again from behind and I felt his warm body pressing against my back. He thrust into me with even more passion and once again my climax neared. Then it was on me like nothing I had ever experienced before. I screamed and clawed at the moss under me at the rapture of that release.
Kit leaned over me and hoarsely whispered “I love you” as I felt his hot spunk fill me. Then I let out a sharp yelp of pain as I felt his teeth penetrate my shoulder.

~~~

I lay together with Kit, exhausted, as I contemplated what all had happened. I had found that fairy tales were real and the old lover I had come to say goodbye to was living one, that he still loved me, that thanks to this fairy tale I wasn’t going to die in few months after all and to top it off I just had what was by far the greatest lovemaking I had ever experienced even with Kit biting me in his enthusiasm. I was happy.

Kit stirred and leaned over to kiss me.
“How do you feel?” He asked.
“Wonderful,” I answered.
“I’ll petition Prince Terendil to allow us to move to the Elfhame here Underhill. You can stay like this always.”
“And how would I explain that to the kids?”
Kit frowned and looked nervous.
“I hadn’t thought of that.”
“Thought of what?”

Kit sat up and looked at the mists rising off the spring.
“If you stay, you probably will not see much of the kids.”
“What do you mean?”
“Time is different here. I mean that literally. If you stay here, time in the Mortal World will pass you by without you realizing it. Before you realize it, everyone you knew will have grown old and died.”
“You’re kidding me.”
“No, you ever hear of Rip Van Winkle?”
“Yes.”
“There more truth to that story than you think only he wouldn’t have slept all those years, he would have lived them Underhill but it would have seemed a short time to him. When he returned to the World Above, that was when he would have aged to the old man that appeared in his home town after all his family had died.”

“That’s terrible, are you saying that would happen to me if I stay here?”
“It’s quite possible, if you stay long Underhill.”
My mind was in turmoil as I considered this new bit of information. Had come all this way to regain my life and my lost love just to have to choose between him and my children?

Suddenly a Pixie girl flew up chattering loudly.
“What? Slow down I can’t follow what you’re saying,” Kit said.
The Pixie landed on Kit’s hand and slowed only marginally.
“Shit!” Kit said and jumped up, running over to a stone basin that sat near the spring.
He took a small bucket that sat near the basin and scooped water from the spring into the basin. He muttered something to the Pixie who produced a bag of powder from her flower blouse and sprinkled it over the water. Then she dropped down and lightly tapped the water with her hand. As she did this Kit was chanting words I didn’t understand.

I came to stand next to him and looked in the basin. As I watched the water clouded and then glowed revealing an image of a silver forest like the one where we entered Underhill. The trees here however did not look as healthy and the silver trunks didn’t shine. The entire place had a darker, gloomy feeling to it. Walking among the trees were Claire and Peter.
“Spirits,” Kit said. “They are near the border.”
He rapidly said something to the Pixie girl who flew off.
“What’s happening?” I demanded.
“I sent her for help but I can’t wait, Pixies are notoriously flighty. Stay here, you’ll be safe as long as you stay by the spring.”
And with that he transformed into a coyote and ran off down the path. I absently noted that he hadn’t even slowed to pick up his clothes. Worried I turned back to the basin which still showed my children wandering through the dark woods and watched.