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Priest

By: TheGreyKnight



Spanking.

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Click Here to listen: .mp3 format or .ogg format. (7.5 min/mp3)

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Priest and Worshipper



Welcome to the mind of Alli

He talks calmly, quietly, as if to a frightened animal. He knows too well the delicate balance of His dark games. His appearance inspires faith and trust, His actions elicit a thrill of fear. 

His black robe hangs in dignified folds, and brushes against the whiteness of my own – a contrast impossible to miss. His fingers continue their soft stroking of my neck, rhythmic and calm, until He rests His thumb in the hollow of my throat.

'I can feel your fear in your pulse' He murmurs. He increases the pressure slightly, and I swallow nervously, feeling the small constriction His finger causes.

'I can feel your soul' Again He speaks calmly, but His words do nothing to allay the growing trepidation. I breathe deeply, the air shuddering through me, soothing me. He will not hurt me…my thoughts race over and over.

His thumb releases its pressure as He moves to fetch the soft black collar waiting nearby. The small silver cross twinkles obscenely in the dim light. I hear His robes whispering as He moves behind me.

'Kneel for me in respect' He murmurs. He has no need for volume, as His voice controls me utterly. My legs buckle and I sink to my knees, white robe flowing around me. I hang my head forward, exposing the delicate vertebrate of my neck to His view. His strong fingers stroke them, as He earlier stroked my throat, then I feel the leather as it encircles me.

Soft at first, then more snug, until the collar becomes a constant reminder of the pressure His thumb exerted. My pulse races in anticipation and excitement, clearly visible under the collar, thudding and betraying my silence.

'Now stand, sub, and be graceful and still' I obey, trained past the point of no return. I will follow Him anywhere, and do what pleases Him.

I watch from lowered lids as He glides in front of me, silent, the only sound His robes moving. He raises His hand but I do not flinch (He will not hurt me….) and a smile touches His lips. His eyes, darker than any shadow, are watching me, assessing, as He gently flicks the button at the top of my robe. The front panel falls open, giving a tantalising glimpse of my skin, but the clasp at the waist holds fast, my modesty preserved for a few moments yet. 

With a speed that surprises me His hand is around my waist, and His lips are on mine as He kisses me roughly. I stumble, taken unawares, but His arm is around me, and His lips continue to bruise mine, relentless. I offer no resistance and become still and pliable in His arms, which pleases Him, I can feel Him smile, His smile is on my lips also. With His free hand He strokes the base of my throat again, dipping and lingering in that shallow hollow that conceals my life. His lips are sealed on mine, His tongue forcing its way into my mouth as he presses again on my throat. His arm tightens around my waist, squeezing me intently and I resist the urge to fight Him. He is all, I will obey Him.

He tears His mouth from mine, props me up on my feet, and steps back. 

'You please me, little sub' He murmurs, and stretches His hand out again to my robe. The waist clasp obeys Him also, and my robe falls open, all I am exposed to His view. I gaze off to the side, allowing him privacy with that which He has ordered. I know what He sees, He gave explicit instructions. The whiteness of the robe is matched only by the whiteness of the painfully tight corset underneath. My breath is ragged due to its confines, but what He demands, will transpire. My nakedness is neither covered nor marred in any other way, as He has ordered. No stockings adorn my legs; no underwear teases His eyes. He wants nothing covered to His view, except by the corset. My skin is pale in the candle, floating like moonlight under the sharp piercing white of the robe and corset.

'And have you fasted?" He asks with languid curiosity. He knows the answer, but will force me to speak, as He knows I will not otherwise

'Yes, Priest. Two days as you ruled' He smiles again, white teeth in brown skin, and eyes as dark as sin itself.

I brave to look at Him again, but He does not catch me, His dark eyes are watching my chest rise and fall with my breath. The silk and bone fabric pushes my breasts up painfully, and each breath is plainly obvious. He traces the outline with a finger, slowly, and watches my face as He does so. I am silent, but aching, I cannot speak to Him or anyone of my longing now. Words have gone. He knows. 

His lips cover mine again and He pushes the length of His body against me, forcing me to feel His strength. I respond with my weakness and lean into Him, my breasts against his chest with every breath. Soon I cannot breathe alone anymore, His mouth over mine, His arm around me, I am faint with longing and lack of air. The edges of my vision blur and grow a little dim, I am frantic inside, but immobile and pliant outside. Like a saviour He breathes His air into me, His warm and sweet breath becoming my life.

As I breathe through him I feel His hand move from my breast down to His robes and I hear his waist clasp open. He breaks the kiss, I gasp and hang my head back, my neck open to Him. 

He lays me on the table behind, my robe like a sea of white peace around me. I wait for Him. He does not undo His robe fully, simply opens the waist, but I do not see any of this. 

I am lying where he placed me, waiting for my Priest. He stands between my legs, our black/white robes mingling places his arm under my waist again, arching my back, opening me to Him. My neck is vulnerable, and my corset rides up slightly, exposing all of me to him. He is not looking, He has seen everything before, but he cannot resist tasting my neck. As He leans forward to do so, He slides into me, the length and breadth of Him a surprise, an intrusion and I gasp again. 

I will not try to escape, and He buries himself in me completely, resting silently, His eyes boring into mine. I cannot look away, am hypnotised by the sight of His soul, the feel of Him deep within, and the taste of His breath still lingering in my lungs.

He raises His hand, covers my mouth. 

At first I interpret it as a lovers touch, soft and warm, but the strength in Him frightens me, and He sees the fear in my eyes. It excites Him and He thrusts into me with force. I cannot cry out and His hand tightens over my mouth, His eyes boring into me as I become wetter and wetter and more and more panicked. Finally, when I begin to see stars that dance in time with his plunging He replaces His hand with His mouth again, and breathes life into me. He is filling me, my mouth, my lungs, my cunt, everywhere is filled with Him. His weight on me is overpowering, I cannot resist and I cry out my orgasm into His mouth, responding to Him in the only way He wants. He is flooded by me as I answer His body's questions with my own, and I see Him smile again, that odd satisfied smile, as He stares at me. 

He is not satisfied, I know He won't be for a long while yet, and I know there will be more fear before He is happy. But the burning in His eyes is worth it, and I am resigned to obey and please Him until my soul and body burn as one.



Priestess



Invocation:

Blessed be Akana, she whose name is Beautiful Cruelty, Terrible Pleasure, Sublime Pain.

Edriel was so thoroughly absorbed in the pornographic scroll that he didn't notice the high priestess until she planted her foot squarely in the middle of a particularly delectable picture.

"Oh, Mistress Sekba!" He snapped his head up at her, blushing as he stared past the red linen loincloth and up to the firm, small breasts, bound perfunctorily with a strip of black silk. Sekba's stern face was surrounded by a lion's mane of tawny blonde hair, and her reddened upper lip was curled in disdain. Seen from below, the sharpness of her chiseled features was heightened, and she loomed like a granite monument.

He was almost glad to be relieved of the sight as he prostrated himself at her feet in expectation. No male was allowed to speak to the priestesses unless he was asked to, and Edriel tensed against the stone floor, bracing for the customary kick in the ribs. 

"Get up – your lot has been drawn," she growled. It was the longest sentence that she had ever addressed to him. Mouth hanging open, he scrambled to his feet, smoothing down his plain brown kilt with his large, strong hands. Though he had to look down to gaze into the priestess' catlike green eyes, he felt appropriately cowed by her cool stare and lowered his head, not daring to ask the question.

As if mocking his inability to speak, Sekba narrowed her eyes and purred, "You'd like to know, wouldn't you?" She chucked him under the chin in a gesture so freakishly tender it felt sinister. "You'll be finding out tonight." Without further explanation, she glided out of the room with a panther's gait, leaving the curtains swaying in her wake.

Edriel let out a relieved breath when she had gone, but his chest was rapidly tightening with apprehension. When he had dedicated himself to the temple of Akana six years ago, he had already been familiar with the rules of an initiate. As a male, he was not allowed to aspire to priesthood. His only chance at being allowed into the mysteries of the goddess was to have his lot drawn by the sacred oracles. Only when this happened would he be assigned a mistress among the priestesses, to whom he must devote his life, body, and soul. To this end, he had been training since his arrival in the arts of love, worship, and pain. For Akana was best pleased by the ancient practice of shamaat – the domination of a female over a male. A longing to learn this craft had driven Edriel to leave his scholarly existence at the university and take up the arduous life of a temple novice. Now, after six years of training and menial work, the oracle had finally deemed him ready for initiation. 

There were hours until evening, but they would be filled with preparations. In a moment, a contingent of already-initiated males would come into his chamber and guide him through the process of bathing, dressing, and praying that preceded the ceremony. As the rest of the temple readied itself for the rite, Edriel would be sequestered in his room, steeling himself for what was about to happen.

The sound of giggling came from the young women's wing, and three hard-bodied, sun-browned girls slipped through the curtains into Kephera's quarters. Their muscular arms dripped with piles of silver jewelry and sensuous red silks, and they grinned as they entered the room, baring sharp white teeth. The inside of the chamber was bedecked with garlands of blood-red flowers and berries. Behind a fragile filigree dressing-screen, Kephera laughed and crossed her arms over her ample chest. Two initiates were cajoling her, gently trying to remove her gown of white silk, the garment of an uninitiated virgin. Tonight she would don different clothing altogether.

Kephera was of foreign birth, as evidenced by the soft, supple roundness of her limbs and the gentleness of her manner. Dedicated to the temple as a young child, she was one of Sekba's most promising virgins. She had been introduced to the art of shamaat at the age of nine, schooled by Sekba herself, and had excelled. Her shy demeanor hid a rough, animal sensuality that few knew about, and Sekba was proud of what she had created in the young woman. Tonight, Kephera would go through initiation with a virgin male. It would be the beginning, Sekba sensed, of a long career that might end in taking the high priesthood vows. 

In the hallways it was dark and still, but the inner sanctum of the temple resounded with singing and drunken cries. Torchlight flickered dizzily off the marble walls, throwing scenes of revelry in and out of shadow. A gathering of the devotees was always riotous, especially when a much-looked-forward-to initiation ceremony came up. 

At the center of the chaos sat Edriel, holding a cup of spiced wine in shaky hands. His friends surrounded him, teasing and snickering, some of them secretly envying him, others almost as nervous as he was. The time of transition was always risky for a male; many initiates were unable to bear the trials of the first night and were exiled from the pleasures of the temple. 

This was a night of strange occurrences and arcane customs. Venerable old priestesses wound flowers into their gray tresses and pinched the tight rear ends of beardless initiates. Sober mistresses got drunk and cavorted wildly with their mates, recalling the nights when they themselves were first united in the sacred bond of the goddess. Everywhere Edriel turned, laughing women flashed their bare breasts at him and made drunken grabs at his crotch. He was tingling with an uneasy excitement, like a child who had stayed up too late at a party.

Finally, the room grew quiet as the torches along the walls went out, leaving the sanctum unlit except for a few candles on the altar at the front. The high priestess materialized on the dais, her face lit eerily from beneath. She was completely naked, her lean, angular body covered with intricate ceremonial designs in black paint. Holding up her arms for utter silence, she began to recite the ritual invocation.

"Blessed be Akana, she whose name is Beautiful Cruelty, Terrible Pleasure, Sublime Pain." Her voice was throaty and rumbling, resonating to the core of Edriel's being. She looked him in the eyes as she continued the ancient prayer. "Blessed be Akana, she who kindles fire in a woman's depths, she who gives us sway over men, who stirs up their longing for us that we may be powerful over them. Come forward, you who would be bound in her service."

Drawing on all his fortitude, Edriel got to his feet. Everyone looked at him now, and even his friends wore serious expressions as they watched him ascend to the altar. When he reached his place beside her, Sekba placed a hand on the back of his neck in the recognized gesture for dominance and control. He lowered his head, not only to accommodate her smaller stature, but in reverence for the power she emanated, tonight above any other moment he had known her.

"Edriel, initiate of Akana, your training has been six years long. Are you prepared to give your body, your soul, your will, and your existence into the hands of the mistress that has been chosen for you by the oracle?"

Edriel nodded mutely. He wanted to say much more: That he felt a stirring within him that had waited years to be satisfied. That he would gladly have waited another six years, and then six years more, for the opportunity to worship the goddess by submitting to one of her priestesses.

Lost in thought, he jumped slightly at the touch of Sekba's cold hands. She was buckling a red leather collar around his neck. When it was fastened, she turned silently toward the doorway at the back of the room. The pair of guards solemnly opened the double doors into the corridor.

There, solitary and breathtaking, Kephera stood draped in crimson silk. Her ivory breasts were bare, graced at the tips by small pink nipples pierced with silver rings. Her skin, translucent in the glowing candlelight, was pale and delicately veined with blue. In contrast, the belted cloth that hid her hips and thighs was deep, brilliant red. Her forehead was adorned with a fine silver chain, and in the middle was a ruby that looked like a droplet of bright blood. Jet black kohl was painted around her blue eyes, making them catlike and fiery. Between her breasts a sterling chain hung, sparkling with tiny diamonds. At the chain's end was the symbol of Akana: a large black lion's claw tipped with silver. 

She moved wordlessly toward the altar, the crowd parting on either side of her. Her eyes never left Sekba's; the high priestess had been her first lover, her only teacher, and her sole caretaker since childhood. She had first practiced the intricate techniques of shamaat on Sekba's secondary mate, a docile male named Thisel. Now, as his narrow face looked respectfully out at her from the throng, she felt transformed. She had been introduced to him as a meek, fumbling girl. But tonight, her every movement was suffused with confidence. It was time to claim her rights as a novice in the priesthood.

The mate whom the oracle had chosen for her stood at the altar by Sekba's side. For the first time, she allowed her eyes to caress his slender body. A kilt of smooth white linen clung to his every contour. Fragrant oils had been massaged into his pale skin, giving it a glowy sheen that accentuated his graceful hips and long, straight collarbone. His hair and eyes were dark, and he had a concentrated gaze that set him apart from the grinning, blushing coyness of the other initiates. Suddenly, powerfully, she felt an overwhelming desire to possess him.

The rest of the ceremony was a blur to both youths, lost in their separate thoughts. As she sang invocations in her deep voice, Sekba clipped one end of a silver chain onto Edriel's collar and placed the other end in Kephera's hand. Unconsciously clasping the chain until its links bit into her sweating palm, Kephera only half-listened to the initiation vows that she had waited so long to hear.

At last, the crowd parted again, and songs of worship were chanted to wild applause as Kephera led her mate back into the corridor. The heavy door swung shut behind them, and the hallway was cool and dark and silent. She could hear the collared initiate breathing heavily, and his scent of maleness teased her nostrils. Her mouth felt dry as she wrestled to restrain herself from taking him right there outside the door, while the drunken carousing continued within. Instead, she felt along the chain in the darkness until her hand rested on the back of his neck. She had seen countless priestesses make this gesture to assert dominance and ownership over their males. His skin beneath her palm filled her with a rush of possessive passion, and before she was fully aware of what she did, she pulled him down to her and bit him sharply on the back of the neck, sinking her teeth in until they were on the point of drawing blood.

A moan came from Edriel's lips as he felt himself surrender willingly to her unspoken command. It was this moment – not the years of training, the dictate of the oracle, or the holy incantations of the high priestess – that made him truly hers. Beneath his loincloth, he felt his manhood stirring as he let himself be consumed with his desire to submit, to be owned.

He followed on the end of the chain, echoing his new mistress' soft steps down the stone corridor. They walked a long way in tense silence though the empty temple before Kephera stopped. She pushed aside curtains still hung with celebratory flowers and led Edriel into the musky darkness of her fragrant chambers. He stood obediently and awaited her pleasure. He heard her moving around him with feline grace, making small adjustments to the furnishings and curtains. A screen was pushed across the doorway, making the airy, curtained entry into a barrier to secret them away from the goings-on of the temple. 

Finally, he heard a flint being struck, and he glimpsed her silhouette from behind, outlined by the flicker of the candles she was lighting. After a moment of stillness, she turned to face him, licking her lips slowly and deliberately. She stared him down, her calm blue gaze inflaming a passion that made him feel tingly and weak. 

He fell to his knees. "Permit me to worship you, my goddess." It was a calculated risk; even on this most important of nights a male could be reprimanded for addressing his mistress without permission. He lowered his head and concentrated on her feet as she stepped toward him. Slowly, her sandaled foot inched up until it rested firmly in the middle of his bare chest. She pushed, gently but cleanly knocking him onto his back. He lay spread-eagled, his open palms facing upward and his lips parted in anticipation.

With a fluid motion, she dropped onto all fours, straddling his body. Her blonde hair hung around her heart-shaped face, and her eyes narrowed to peer at him through a veil of dangling curls. She studied every facet of his face like a child examining a new toy. Her eyes probed the fine line of his jaw and his dark, unruly eyebrows. She sprawled her palm on his bare chest, marveling at the subtle olive shade to his skin that contrasted her own milky pinkness. During this exploration she completely ignored his intently watching eyes, perusing him as if he were a sculpted figure rather than a breathing, intensely curious man.

At last she cocked her head at him, a ticklish smile crossing her face. She licked her lips unconsciously, focused so fully on him that her body seemed to act on its own. Watching his face as she went down, she lowered her head to his chest and her wet lips opened. He could feel the tingly sharpness of filed feline teeth close gently around his nipple as she held it firmly in her mouth. Her tongue circled it slowly; she was taking her time, tasting him inch by inch before she decided what to do with him. Her supple lips began to suck lavishly, and her nails dug into his shoulders as she worked, absorbed completely in the languorous process of enjoying him. Soon her strong tongue was pressing his sternum, working its way down his chest to his belly-button. 

She paused there and looked up again, sizing up his reaction. Edriel lay entranced by the dreamy slowness, not yet feeling any urgency tugging at him. His manhood, however, was beginning to stiffen, encouraged by the silky brushings of her breasts against his thighs. She saw this as well, and giggled to herself softly, stroking his inner thighs with light hands. He twitched, his toes curling as he felt her warmth and her breathy attention turning to the area below his waist. 

Kephera, delighting in this teasing game, casually dug her fingers in underneath his buttocks, so his own weight squeezed him down into her hands. She kneaded the fleshy orbs, massaging gently and then digging her nails in to keep him off-guard. He greeted both sensations with low moans. Now he was beginning to feel a steady burning between his thighs, and his hands scrabbled at the carpet as if to anchor him to earth while his brain felt so dizzy with sublime sensuality.

She arched her back to allow her hungry mouth access to his nipples again, and this time she alternated back and forth, sucking hard and flicking with her tongue. There was still no hurry to her movements, but she was getting quicker, more purposeful. Running her hands down his chest, she sucked and nibbled at his captivating hip-bones, provoking more moans from her newly claimed mate. From there, she ran a dry tongue up the side of his ribcage, titillating the sensitive line that ran up to the underside of his arm. Then her hot mouth was at his neck, and her teeth and tongue manipulated his earlobe, her long tongue occasionally flicking inside of his ear, navigating its crevices in a way that made him gasp and squirm with pleasure. 

Unthinking, and bucking years of training, Edriel reached out to put his strong arms around her waist and pull her closer.

SLAP! The side of his face stung, and a red mark was quickly rushing in where her hand had struck his smooth cheek. Her eyes burned at him through the darkness, and he knew he had made a mistake. He suppressed a tremble at her glaring wrath, even as he grew perversely aroused with the anticipation of a satisfying punishment. 

Kephera was still only for a moment, then reacted with a second rush of motion. Seizing his shoulder and the back of his head in an iron grip, she twisted him onto his belly, jabbing a knee into his side to pin him down. His breath quickened as he pressed into the floor, his manhood throbbing in expectancy. A low growl issued from his mistress' throat as she descended on him, her teeth gripping the back of his neck in a disciplinary bite. Her hands clawed him wildly, her nails etching scratches on his shoulders and hips. Sharp teeth nipped and punctured all over his back, and her breath on him was warm and heavy. 

After a while, she had worn her anger out on his smarting skin, and, unexpectedly, her tongue began to lick the wounds, caressing wetly the welts and scratches she had so recently inflicted. Her lips brushed his shoulder blades and traveled down his spine until they rested, still, on the cleft of his buttocks. Her tongue darted out to taste him there, and she nipped him, this time gently, on the left cheek just above his thigh. Edriel gasped and let out a shuddering breath. His muscles tightened, aware that what would come next would mingle pleasure and pain so drunkenly that he wasn't sure he could endure it.

As if sensing his trepidation, Kephera signaled to him to get up, and he followed her to the bed in the center of the room. Piled with silks and downy comforters, the bed was one of the most luxurious of the temple's love-nests. It was wide and low, with a sturdy post at each corner, wound with silk ropes and silver chains. His mistress selected an oversized cushion from the foot of the bed and laid it on the floor. Understanding, he knelt facing the mattress. Standing behind him, she placed her guiding hands on his shoulders and pushed his chest down onto the bed so that his back was straight and his belly was flat to the comforter. She moved with gliding steps to the opposite side of the bed; lifting his chin, he could see her across from him, bending to unwind a white silk rope from the bedpost. Leaning across the bed, she clasped one of his wrists and pulled it out straight, stretching it to reach the end of the rope. She expertly knotted the restraint around his wrist, making it secure but not painful, then repeated the process on his other arm, securing it to the other bedpost. He was now spread helplessly, though not uncomfortably, beneath her catlike gaze.

Satisfied with this part of her work, she moved back to the other side of the bed, kneeling behind him. She placed her warm hands between his thighs and firmly pushed them apart, opening him wide. He moaned. He knew what was coming, and his entire being burned and shivered for it. 

"This is just for the first time," she whispered, and he felt another sensuous silk rope wind around his thigh just above the knee. She drew it apart from the other leg, toward the bedpost. In a moment, the other leg was bound as well, and he knelt fully spread, his hips upraised in almost painful anticipation. "If you do well, I won't need to use these again. They're a part of your training." He could feel her feathery breath as she spoke the words, her face close to the small of his back, making him tingle.

Slowly, her hand stroked down between his buttocks. He felt a creamy lubricant being applied as she rubbed him with the soft tips of her fingers. "Blessed be Akana, she who on this night of initiation looks down with pleasure upon her devoted worshipers..." Her whispery voice consecrated the act of shamaat that was about to take place. When she had finished her prayer, she brushed his back with a lingering caress and stood up, crossing back to the other side of the bed. 




Priestess



Priestess....

Soft is the hot white sand underneath my bare feet. My toe ring glints in the sun. I'm standing in the blazing sun in the middle of the day on the highest dune I could find. My heart still races and I can feel the delicate little fingers of sweat as it caresses my skin on their way down underneath my chiffon skirt and loosely draped top. I had the intense urge to come here today, to this specific dune. Slinking away I left the hustle of the busy city far behind me. – So secretly that even Ayeshja the high priestess didn't see me leave. She'd be furious by this time if she found that I tied up the last client she sent to my tent. One of the big overweight underdeveloped men I had to 'heal'. She just doesn't understand my special gifts I have...only those that need me will find me. ...

Suddenly my breathing stops cold and I can feel cold little spiders crawling over my back... I squint my eyes to search the horizon for what I heard. But I can't see anything. The hot desert breeze tousles my fine auburn hair a little bit...I pull my cape over my head to protect my already sunburned skin from further burning. Besides the temple duties I have to tend to the garden as well. That's another thing that I'm very good with. The garden...everything I touch seems to grow immediately. 

I can hear it again.....on the breeze.

I slide walk down the belly of the dune I used as my vantage point and the hot sand burns my ankles and shins. I don't feel that...all I know is that I should go. Keep on walking. 

I hear it again...a long shrill noise, carried on the breeze to me. My heart jumps and I get gooseflesh....I start running as I reach the foot of the dune. My ankle bracelets jingle happily in my stride. Faster I run and my breathing is harsh and sharp now. 

Up up against the next dune....as I get closer I can hear that its voice...tantalizing and caressing my name....

I creep up the last part of the dune to prevent whoever is on the other side to see me there. The hot sand burns my tummy and flows caressingly around my firm breasts. I poke my head over the edge...

My jaw drops into the sand as my eyes focus on the object that called me here... and call did he for sure...

There...in the middle of a little plane he was. Skin shining like a red ruby, mane as black as onyx. A flying horse. So rare that few people have seen them. A legend... He's going on wildly – milling around and stomping his feet. Like he is waiting for something.....restless he trots on, swishing his black tail and sticking it high in the air. The sun catches in his hair and I can see the rainbow colours hiding amongst the black ones. He is magnificent. My breath leaves me for the second time that day....

Savannah ...I hear it again. I look up and stare at him...he looks at me and suddenly grows quiet. Curiosity shines in his eyes....he jumps up impatiently and shakes his mighty black wings....rolling his eyes and glaring at me. 

Savannah.....

As if hypnotized I slide walk down the other side of the dune now....being pulled to him by some unknown source of power. He rushes away from me and starts to gallop to the foot of the next dune where he suddenly stops. I can smell him now. Raw desert, sweat and desire, lust. 

The legend goes that the one that is being called by the winged horse....is the chosen one...the one with the most sensual energy and healing powers. 

I'm now in the middle of the plane...where he was just a few minutes ago....I can see him turn around...bucking and lifting off the air as he shakes his wings....

I stand still, sweat running from my hair now...I let the cap fall backwards from my head....I get a message...loose the draped clothes...gosh it's soo hot suddenly...

I loosen the draped top and in a swish the fabric flows off my body and nestles around my feet in the hot sand...a green pile of shining chiffon. 

He turns around again and shakes his head ...eyes fixed at me he starts walking in my direction...his black mane falling around his face.....

He's so beautiful while he's walking towards me...suddenly he starts trotting and then breaks into a canter....at last he starts to gallop full speed, mane and tail streaming behind him in the wind. Wings folded neatly against his side he charges right at me. I stand my ground. Not afraid at all. Galloping, muscles exploding powerfully with every stride he grows bigger and bigger as he comes for me...

I'm not scared. I step forward and hold out my hand.

Then he's there...he stops in a little cloud of dusty sand in front of me – the rush of his momentum plays with my hair that's hanging down my back... He trots closer, resting his soft muzzle in the palm of my hand. His hot breaths making me shiver....his eyes look at me intently, deep passionate eyes. He sniffs at me and walks so close up to me that I can feel his body heat, his skin – sweaty and hot. His neck is next to my face now...his nose in my hair...

Then – ever so gently he nudges me towards his back. Commanding me to get on, urgent and without even asking whether I want to or not.

I get on, not having much of a choice. His skin is so hot but its not burning my naked body at all. He opens his wings and start trotting on....breaking into a canter and then galloping...flapping the enormous black wings beside me...

Then we lift off and I have to hold on not to fall ....

Then we're soaring through the sky, floating on the wind....then it strikes me...I've dreamt of this moment so many times...

He's the one that's been haunting my dreams...



Priestess



Tarue stood nude before the full length mirror in her cell. The mirror was perfect of surface, evenly silvered. It was the work of several skilled, careful craftsmen to cast such a device. It was an expensive luxury. She would have marveled at when she was a novice.

For a Priestess of Worship it was a necessity. She must always have a clear, unclouded view of herself in order to reflect the glory of the Goddess before her worshippers. The mirror represented truth, not vanity.

At the age of 30 summers, Tarue was no longer the svelte girl who had taken her first vows to honor the Earth Goddess at 14, when her menses began. Now she was in bloom, full of the power of the Goddess.

She had matured physically through her noviate, and was the most beautiful of her class. Her breasts had filled out like summer melons, the nipples long and firm, the areola broad and brown and sensitive to the touch. The rounded orbs defied the pull of the full earth.

Later, as a Sister of Access, she had borne a child, a joyful time among the sisterhood. She nursed the little girl for a year. In that year her breasts had settled lower on her chest. But they were even bigger, and she knew the worshippers were stunned by the perfection of their shape, their sensual smoothness, the firm fullness of them.

Her hips had broadened. She looked critically at herself in the glass. She was in almost perfect proportion, the High Priestess often told her. She was as tall as most of the men who worshipped at the shrine of the Goddess. Her shoulders were broad, as though to support the bounty of her breasts. Her skin was pale and unlined. Part of that, she knew, was that she was a little heavier than when she was 20 summers old.

Her black hair fell down her naked back to her rounded buttocks. She brushed her hair each night, some hundreds of strokes, which helped both the hair and the tensioning of the muscles that supported her chest.

Her eyes were black and snapping, under eyebrows that were unplucked but carefully trimmed at the edges to subtly shape them. Her nose was prominent. One day far in the future, after the Romans spread their civilization this far East, it would be called a Roman nose. She opened her eyes a bit wider, to ease the little lines that tried to appear at the outside corners.

Her lips were lush and the color was that shade of red which must have some artifice but appeared natural. Her mouth was wide, her teeth white and perfect. Her cheekbones, indeed all the planes of her face, loved the light. She was in that ageless zone when a woman is full and complete and still sculpted.

Her legs were straight and full and rounded, up to the holy junction. A thicket of black hair covered her mons, and, growing thinner, crept up the sweet rounded belly almost to her navel. The pubic hair curled down to the tops of her thighs. The sisters would never have seen a need to cut back the very glory of the One they served.

"I thank the Goddess," She murmured, satisfied that she was worthy to continue to serve in the ritual of worship.

She scooped up a heavy, plum-colored robe and wrapped it around herself, suddenly modest. It was not meet to admire oneself for the gifts of the Goddess. She slipped on a pair of simple, leather sandals and walked past a hanging curtain into a hallway. She made her way to the Temple of Individual Worship. A bell rang the hour, which was one glass since the sun had disappeared. The breeze off the plains was cool. It was not the holiest of hours, but it was still propitious.

She entered the candle-lit chamber with no ceremony, but the three persons already there stood at once, to honor the Goddess she represented. She nodded to them.

The Worshipper was a hero, granted the rare opportunity to be in a full priestess and not a Sister of Access. Indeed there were only three Priestesses of Worship at a time. And now there were only two, as Sister Maune had recently passed away. The only higher rank was the High Priestess, who Tarue thought was the most beautiful woman in the world although she had lived 50 summers.

The hero was a soldier's cloak and sandals cross-bound up his calves. Tarue remembered that he had performed some marvelous act of courage, facing a host of enemies with his bronze sword, saving many of his comrades. He was a fearless warrior who had risked his life for those of his men. Now, however, he looked rather like a frightened boy.

Tarue settled onto the stone dais at one end of the rectangular room. The wall behind was blue, decorated with semi-precious stones that cast back flickers from the candlelight. The dais was not cushioned. All the softness of the worship ceremony was to come from the humans locked together. The priestess spread her cloak, which was at least thick enough to block some of the chill. She was naked, open, proud. She was not the Goddess. But in some sense tonight she would become the Goddess.

Miko, a novice, knelt beside the boy who was to sacrifice his essence to the Goddess. As Tarue disrobed, Miko dropped her own cloak. She was wearing a white loincloth, flaps fore and aft which would not bar investigating fingers. She was there to prepare the worshipper.

The warrior stared open-mouthed at the brunette beauty on the dais as Miko took away his cloak and untied his sandals. He had worn a short kilt under the cloak. Miko's hand magically disposed of it. His member was strong and full and big. Miko took it in her hand and looked admiringly up to the worshipper – who still stared at the priestess – and then took his maleness into her mouth and pumped him.

Preparing for the act heightened Tarue's senses. She could hear the slurping of the girl's ministrations to the worshipper. Miko, she thought, was not subtle. And then again, the priestess thought, neither am I. Already I am wet with the Goddess's juice.

Behind the girl Miko and the hero stood Ceeil, a larger girl, blonde and high-breasted and round-bottomed. Ceeil had also dropped her cloak, although her part in the ceremony did not come until later. Ceeil was the daughter of a priestess and a stray Northerner. She had inherited her mother's empathy and her father's coloring. 

Ceeil reached out and stroked the warrior's back, her hand continuing down until it cupped and kneaded his firm bottom. Don't get over-anxious, Tarue prayed silently. He is for the Goddess tonight.

Miko rose and smiled at the soldier. She kissed him on one cheek, and Ceeil kissed the other, a curiously sisterly sharing of the power of his manhood. Then they turned him toward the dais. Ceeil whispered directions in his ear. He nodded jerkily and moved forward.

He's only a boy, thought Tarue. She smiled encouragingly. A faint smile finally spread over his face. As he drew near, she raised one hand and brushed it first against his hand, which was out-reached to her, and then fondled his arm, and settled her hand against his shoulder.

She spread her thighs, not wantonly but in anticipation of his need.

Slowly she guided him down to the shrine between her legs, the place the Goddess had given all women to allow the proper worship of the Earth Mother. He moved his face gently between her thighs, nuzzling the smooth perfection of her skin.

Oh Goddess, he shaved, thought Tarue to herself. Oh wonderful young man. "Lick there," she instructed him. "Both sides. Up the ... yes, and now the little nubbin.... Oh yes there, so gentle, give the Goddess your loving tongue and hmmmmm...."

As a Sister of Access she had learned the human arts of love, thrilled to the release of orgasm, of giving her partner everything in a single gushing moment. Then one night she experienced the fulfillment of the Visitation, the sacrament of the Lady, the in-dwelling of the Goddess at the moment of climax. Thus she became a Priestess of Worship. 

And now, perfectly prepared, and with this brave and innocent warrior to honor, she felt the beginning of the transformation. Her body began to fill with the power of the Goddess. The power stretched against the inside of her skin. She felt everything, the warrior's powerful arms wrapped around her legs and his hands clutching, softly, at her ass. She could feel even the ridges of his fingerprints as he tried to touch and memorize her perfection.

She felt his tongue as though it were a wand of power invading her inner wetness with its own moisture, licking her to a froth, tasting her, worshipping her. Her nipples pointed hard at the stone ceiling, and off toward the broad sky beyond.

Now she was full of the Goddess, her senses stretched to the horizon, feeling at the same time bound by the gravity of the earth and supported by it. 

"Fill me," she commanded. "All of you." The warrior reared up, his lips dripping her honey. He crawled awkwardly atop her and gently put the head of his penis at her vulva.

"FILL ME!" she cried. And his thick and warm manhood slipped past the fleshy gates of her garden, roamed up the wetted path, and at the end of a long thrust rammed into paradise. "AAAAAGGGG," cried Tarue. She was as full as she could ever remember. Time slowed, as always during the connection with the Goddess.

Tarue was the container of the Goddess. The human woman was the Earth, her cleft open to be pounded by the lightning and flood of the Sky God. Within her foamed the creation of all things soft and yielding and blood-filled and vulnerable.

"Praise Ishtar," moaned Tarue. "I am Thee." The Goddess has many avatars, and Tarue worshipped her as Ishtar, although she knew the Goddess was a great mystery and the avatar was only a way to let Tarue understand a little of her power. Now that power infused Tarue's body, and the understanding was physical and emotional and not at all intellectual.

Her enhanced empathy scanned through the young warrior, sensing his strong body. She was part of him. She felt his fear that he would not be able to fulfill his duty, that somehow he was unworthy of this act of worship. He was, as Tarue thought, a frightened youth despite his military prowess and his great physical gift, which she wanted to keep within her forever.

The young man rabbited against her loins, growing more distracted as his fear of failure grew. Tarue whispered into his ear, using language that the Goddess herself seemed to impart to the priestess.

"My bull, fill me, my ram, thrust, thrust, I need you, fill me with your hot seeeed...."

The young man's pulse slowed to a steady gallop, he took a great breath and blasted, shot off like a mighty catapult, fired round after round of male essence into the womb of the Goddess. He was all men, worshipping the female, filling she who holds creation within her body.

Tarue felt every jet of semen. The Goddess let down warm female juices to mix with the essence the worshipper had given up. The Goddess inhabited the priestess. Tarue could not separate herself from the Goddess at this moment. The spendings were holy.

One moment Tarue stretched over the plains, felt the sky ploughing her earth, accepted the power of the male to touch her own immortality. Her womb was connected to the future, wherever it might lead. A moment of complete surrender, and then the Goddess slipped away, leaving Tarue satisfied and humble.

Miko helped the young, dazed worshipper to rise from the dais and then knelt before him, using tongue and mouth to clean the ambrosia from his body. His penis began to harden again. He looked down at Miko and smiled. Mouth full, she smiled back with a promise in her eyes.

Tarue watched, still dazed herself, still limp and lying on her cloak. She was still aglow.

Miko will never become a priestess, Tarue thought as clarity of mind returned. She is perfect in her physical skills. But she will never experience the Goddess in such a way. Best to release her from her vows so that she may become a wife to some good man. Perhaps to this young man whose penis so held her fancy at this moment.

Ceeil was still naked, her blonde fullness fevered from watching the ceremony, her inner self adew from the nearness of the Goddess. Her blonde pubic hair seemed brown between her thighs, so awash was she with passion.

Ceeil's eyes were bright. "When you urged him on," she whispered, "you spoke in some arcane tongue I've never heard. But he understood."

Tarue smiled and smoothed the blonde head with her hand as Ceeil devoutly knelt between her legs to lap up the spendings of the Goddess.

Tarue leaned back, Ceeil's mouth bringing her body back to a human rhythm, settling the priestess back into real time with the flickering of the acolyte's tongue.

Tarue would have a worldly orgasm now, and then she would gladly arouse and satisfy Ceeil in the same way. Ceeil had the spirituality to go beyond the human experience, to channel the Goddess and bring Her glory to the worshipper. Ceeil would be a Priestess of Worship one day, as Tarue was.

"Lick me, darling," Tarue said. "Take my love. Give me yours."



Priestess



Duzi's had the good fortune to live in a land of abundance. Trade routes crossed this land, and cultures far and near merged. The temple on the hill was a good example of many beliefs blending. Built in ancient times, many gods for many occasions were worshiped. At night they could be seen shinning their approval.

It was late fall, the leave had turned color and were falling. The gods of light and dark had been fighting for months, with darkness winning. It was a crucial time, for if light did not get some new life, the earth would become dark forever and everything would cease to be.

One early evening with the signs of darkness taking hold, Duzi heard a knock on his door. Opening the door he recognized Bacch, a Priest from the temple. Upon being seated the Priest came straight to the point. "If there is to be a Spring planting and a Fall harvest we must honor the god's demands and bring new priestess into the temple. The gods have honored you by choosing your wife, to serve for a year, should she prove to be worthy."

Duzi call his wife Inanna into the room. She had heard the Priest pronouncement and trembled, half in fear of the unknown, and half in excitement at the thought of becoming a Priestess. Inanna herself, was the child of a Priestess and had secretly desired to live with the gods and have her first born come through their blessing. As worshipers, women were only allowed in the outer court of the temple. The women in her land were prized for their modesty, and faithfulness to their husband was an absolute requirement. But as a Priestess she would be in the inner sanctum of the temple where the men worshipped and presented their offerings to the gods through the bodies of the Priestess. Once a Priestess always a Priestess. Inanna could return to the temple and perform the sacred rituals whenever she desired. It indeed was a high honor to be a chosen.

Disrobing, Inanna stood quietly while the Priest examined her body. Declaring her fit for duty, he pronounced his blessing upon her.

"A woman moves in cycles, new moon to new moon her body tracks time, until a new cycle begins; the cycle of new life. In eagerness open yourself to the gods and let the men of this land caress you voluptuous breast and taste your sweet kisses. Open your soft thighs and let those who work the land plow your vulva, the flesh of their erect horns finding delight in your soft folds. Promiscuous Priestess, supreme rapture is your to enjoy everyday and yours to give. Let your beauty entice them in, to plant their seed deep in the wet ground of your loins. May many men enjoy the caress of your vagina as they leave their cream in your body. May the gods honor your faithfulness and allow you to conceive and bring new life into the world. Let you beauty fight back the forces of darkness, let a new cycle of life begin through you."

Inanna left with the Priest that evening. Duzi wouldn't see or hear from his wife again until she had finished her training and began public service.

In training, Inanna learned first hand what passion, bliss, and ecstasy meant. Bacch, the Priest who had called her, was her benefactor. New Priestess entered "worship training" where they learned sexual rituals from their benefactor and experienced Priestess. It was important in the gods eyes, that they master receiving sexual gratification as well as giving it. Orgasm were most pleasing to the gods who would blessed the woman with add vitality when she had one. Experienced Priestess taught the new Priestess about feminine power. Just the sight of their body put men under their spell. They learned how to care for their body, how to talk, walk, and dance, as part of their seductive rituals. The gods gave a great measure of sexual pleasure to women. A women could experience it many times, with many men, in the time a man could enjoy it just once. Through orgies, with the Priest and Priestess, Inanna expanded her knowledge and learned the art of making public temple sex, a sacred ritual.

Inanna was a Priestess dedicated to the gods of fertility and potency. Bacch would take Inanna to pray before these gods. Inanna would kneel, holding phallus in each hand, while Bacch would take his erect penis and slide it into Inanna vagina, while reciting a prayer.

"Oh god of fertility, behold this beautiful woman as she offers her womb to your service. We feel your sensuous enjoyment flowing in our bodies too. Let your seed flow through me, into her fertile field. Let her conceive and bring her pregnancy to term. Open the flood gates of conception on all nature. Blow back the darkness and let the happy sounds of copulation ring in the earth and on the seas. Let the flowers bloom again and the trees grow taller. Let the grains flourish and the fruit grow to ripeness. ..."

All the while Bacch prayed, Inanna would repeatedly squeeze his penis, eliciting pleasant feeling to radiate around his buried shaft. So strong had Inanna vaginal contractions become, that before Bacch could finish his long winded recital, he would find himself ejaculating, which he assured her were the gods expressing their delight in her comeliness and a positive answer to his petitions.



It was the custom for the benefactor Priest to bed his new Priestess until he grew tired of her or she missed a period. To encourage fertility a wreath was placed on the bedroom door and a evergreen tree was brought in. The greenery celebrated life, the circle was the vulva, through which life came. Candles were lit, to encourage the sun god, sacred mistletoe was placed over the bed to inflame passion. A Yule log burned in the fireplace bring light and warmth. Hollyberries were set about as food for the gods. So it was that Inanna slept with Bacch for three months. Missing her period was the signal for her public Temple service to begin.

A new Priestess in the harem always generated a lot of interest. As word spread, Inanna had her first promised blessing fulfilled, as numerous men came to see and touch her naked body and have their genitals stimulated by her vagina, filling Inanna's love cup to overflowing with their cream. Duzi came to see her too, though custom did not allow him to have intercourse with her. But friends, neighbors and strangers could and did.

When a Priestess became pregnant in the course of her temple work, her husband was elevated to an Elder who assisted in Temple Weddings. A Temple Wedding was a secret rite, for those who could afford it, that bound the husband and wife forever. When they passed into the after-life, they would be given a star of their own to populate, he as the reigning god, she as the goddess. Duzi joined twelve other men (13, the wheel of the year, being the number of periods a woman has each year) and three Priestess (companionship, pleasure, life), in an inner room at the temple. The bride would be instructed in the art of making love. For three days the bride, first by watching then by practicing, learned the natural rhythms for releasing orgasmic energies, first in herself, then in her lover. The interaction between the masculine and feminine, played out in her body and mind, affirming her role as consort, pleasure source, and life giver, thing critical for a goddess to know.

Meanwhile the groom was also seeing two Priestess (wisdom and control), who tutored him on how a woman thinks and what she needs from her husband, if she was to be ready to welcome his advances. He was shown the woman's erogenous places and practiced stimulating them with drills on his two instructors. The coaching placed special emphasis on pleasuring a woman to orgasm, orally and vaginally, something every god must master. Morning, noon and night, his schooling had him engage in coitus with the Priestess, as he learned erection stamina and ejaculation control.



The final ceremony brought the bride and groom together, along with the five Priestess and the thirteen Elders. The flickering light from the many candles bathed the room in sensual warmth. Fresh cut evergreen boughs, scented the room. The bride lay naked, arms and legs spread out, forming a pentagram, tapping into the powers of Spirit, Air, Water, Earth, and Fire. Elders formed a five-pointed circle by kneeling and holding her head, hands, and feet. Forming a wider circle around the bride, the five Priestess knelt, facing outward, heads lowered, rears raised, putting their genitals on display. One after another the remaining eight Elders impregnated the bride with sperm, sent by a god of their choosing. The groom watched his bride wither and twist in ecstasy as the unrelenting stimulation continued. Her "hill of Venus" glistened with the overflowing cum. When they had finished, it was the groom turn to demonstrate his manhood with each of the women. Pushing his penis into the vagina's of the five Priestess, he slowly moving in and out eight times. With the vaginal juices from each, coating his penis, the groom knelt before his bride and shoved his stiff rod into her wet canal, letting companionship, pleasure, life, wisdom, and control, seep into her soul. Then with strong thrusts, the husband lay claim to his wife's body. With each movement he removed more and more of the other god's semen, leaving his to dominate the mix. The five Priestess moved in and using their hands, stimulated the genitals of the five Elders in the pentagram, letting their ejaculating semen decorate the wife's body, as the husband's sperm exploded into his wife's vagina. Before withdrawing, Husband and wife had a ring placed on a finger, symbolizing their intimate union and his now exclusive access to her vulva.

Duzi's had the good fortune to live in a land of abundance. The gods bless his wife's womb with their seed. Through her devotion, darkness had been defeated once again, as the sun lingered a bit longer each day. All was well until one day traders passing through, told of a star that fell to the earth. All that could be found of this visiting god was a huge hole and hard heavy rock. There was no god to be found, perhaps he had died.

Duzi beliefs were challenged. He was confused by the changing times and the new teachings. He went often to the temple, looking for solace. 



Priestess-Bride and the Spirit



WRITER'S NOTE: This story takes place after the events of MATING WITH THE PRIESTESS. It is not a treatise on religion, just a story about marital love and the supernatural events in the lives of the Carter family and their allies.

Priestess-Bride and the Spirit

Astrid slowed down to maneuver the sports car between pot holes in the oyster shell driveway. She'd been to Cartier Plantation hundreds of times, but never alone. It already felt different.

As priestess she would normally preside over the Solstice ceremonies of the Sisterhood, but as newly weds, she and Lucius were excused from their duties so they could spend the holy night together. They would have come to Cartier together if his cousins had not called him to the law office. He would join her in a few hours.

Though gaily painted, the raised Creole house loomed big and grey under the cloudy December sky. As she stepped out of the car she tried to comfort herself with pleasant memories. "Momma brought me here to be initiated," she said out loud. "I was elevated to priestess here. I was married here. Now I'm here as... Mrs.... Lucius... Carter..., lady of the house." Reassured with herself, she reached into the trunk for her canvas suitcase and the picnic basket and started up the front steps.

"Enter through the left door, like the Creole lady you are," she continued as she fumbled with the lock. 

Designed for cooling in the Louisiana summer, the house was especially chilly. Astrid looked at the marble fireplace and remembered standing in this room as an eleven year old girl, with her mother, grandmother and older sister bidding her welcome as an initiate of the Sisterhood: In the Old Way, a girl was welcomed into the women's assembly during her first menstrual cycle.

She found the thermostat, grateful for the renovations Lucius' family had made in his absence, and turned on the electric furnace. Every New Orleanean loves the smell of a furnace on the first cold day of winter as it comes to life for the first time in six months. "Not too warm," she said aloud as she adjusted the thermostat. "I want it cool enough to cuddle tonight."

Leaving the picnic basket in the dining room, she stepped into the master bedroom, plopped the suitcase on the antique bed and unzipped it. The first thing she saw was her tartan wool dress. She picked it up and held it to shake the wrinkles out. Lined with soft silk, it was usually too warm to wear in Louisiana, but from experience she knew it was perfect for winter evenings at Cartier. For an instant she considered being naked under it, but decided against that. "The last time we were here we were naked in front of the entire coven," she said out loud and reached for the teddy she had packed. "Tonight, I want him to undress me and do it UNDER THE COVERS!"

"Good idea, dear."

Astrid almost jumped out of her shoes at the voice. She spun around to face Sister Elizabeth, the ghostly nun who frequently visited Lucius. Astrid didn't like those visits: Elizabeth and Lucius had been lovers before Liz took her vows as a novice, and her visits usually heralded something unpleasant in the battle against Lucius' enemies. 

But this time Liz was smiling, almost glowing. She turned to the ancient armoire and opened it, taking a handful of hangers. "Please continue changing your clothes dear," the ghost said. "Hand the suit to me and I'll hang it for you."

Astrid hesitated, and then decided that if it came to a duel between them, her state of dress or undress would make no difference, so she removed the polyester jacket and handed it to Liz.

"I've never undressed in front of a nun," Astrid said as Liz put the coat on a hanger, "not to mention a DEAD nun."

Liz giggled. "If I had a penny for every time a teenager said that to me in physical education class I could have put a new roof on St. Genesius myself. Not the 'dead nun' part, of course!" She turned her back completely to Astrid as if to say "I'm not afraid of you either, dear," but neither commented on it. Astrid kicked off her shoes and unzipped her skirt. Liz hung it also as Astrid unbuttoned the blouse. 

"As I was saying, dear, I think you're absolutely right: Lucius should have some very feminine attire to remove from your body tonight. You didn't have much of a honeymoon in Montana."

A chill ran up Astrid's spine at the thought. What should have been her honeymoon was a life-and-death battle with Aaron and Phinneas, Lucius' vampire brothers. The combination of Lucius' powers and the Native American magic of the Aberdeens had sent them back into hiding, but there had been casualties.

Astrid peeled off her pantyhose as Liz hung her blouse. Liz reached behind Astrid, saying "Let me get that for you, dear," and unhooked her bra, which dropped over Astrid's arms onto the bed. Astrid was now naked and started to reach for her lingerie when Liz suggested "Why don't you use the bathroom before you put that on, dear."

It occurred to Astrid that Elizabeth was acting far too familiar with her, but nudity and bodily functions were not private matters in the Old Way. She grabbed her makeup bag and proceeded to the bathroom. She started to close the door, then thought it would make no difference to the ghost. As she sat on the toilet to relieve her bladder she asked "So, Liz, did you come to help me change or do you have another reason to be here?"

"Correct again, dear," said Liz. "I've come to give you an assignment. I'll wait until you come out to tell you. 

Astrid washed her hands and face, dried them and stepped back into the bedroom. Liz had put away the suitcase and everything except the lingerie, tartan dress and Astrid's white squaw boots. She rolled the teddy in both hands and held it up. Astrid put her arms and head through it and closed the crotch herself, tying the ribbons in neat bows. Liz wrapped Astrid's garter belt around the priestess' hips and stood back to let her put her stockings on. As Astrid clipped the second stocking to the belt Liz knelt in front of her and put the squaw boots on her feet. Then she stood, picked up the tartan dress and held it up for Astrid.

Wrapped in the warm dress over her most sexually provocative lingerie, Astrid sat down on the bed and asked "So what have you come to tell me?"

The ghost sat next to her like a sister or best friend might.

"Do you remember Katie Boudreau?"

"I remember the name," Astrid replied. "Philippe Trufont's former girlfriend, really sad situation."

"Terribly sad situation," said Liz. "You must reach out to her."

"I... I've never met her."

"Tell her we were friends."

"Were we?"

"We are," said Liz. "I usually see only possibilities of the future, but in Katie's case, I have been allowed to see what MUST come to pass. She will eventually recover her sanity if you bring her into the Sisterhood."

Astrid was offended. "The Sisterhood is no place for mad women! Our faith is as real to us as yours is to you!"

"Exactly my point," the nun replied. "In order for her to complete the Master's plans she must meet Him through the Old Way. I'm sure that sounds strange, coming from me, but I have been enlightened since we last met."

"Enlightened?" Astrid asked.

"Allowed to see what would have happened to the six women Lucius and Philippe killed. Next time I see Lucius I will apologize for my anger last time. Their executions were entirely appropriate."

"I never discussed that with Lucius..." Astrid started to say more but couldn't find the right words.

"I'm sorry you had to forego a true bridal trip, dear," said the ghost. "Make up for it tonight. Say nothing to Lucius of this conversation until you hear from me again." 

Liz placed her hand over Astrid's heart. A warm, happy feeling washed over the priestess, but she managed to stammer "T... two questions..."

"Go ahead dear," said the ghost.

"You and Lucius....?"

Liz smiled. "I didn't realize that even though I was still a 'technical virgin,' as the girls say today, that I had given him my heart when we joined our bodies. But darling, I'm dead now, and in this life YOU are his soul mate. Be happy with him." She kept her hand on Astrid's chest.

"Will... I... have... his... children?" Astrid stammered, almost loosing consciousness.

"It is a possibility," said the ghost. It was the last thing Astrid remembered for the next few hours.

Astrid was curled up on the bed in her warm dress when Lucius woke her with a kiss and a soft "Hello, Sleeping Beauty."

Astrid wrapped her arms around him and wrestled him down to the mattress. She smothered his face with kisses. 

Lu was surprised: Astrid was not usually so aggressive in the bedroom as to judo-flip him into the sack. One of her hands held his neck so he couldn't avoid her kisses. Her other hand fumbled with his shirt buttons. When she broke to take a breath, he managed to ask "May I take my shoes off?"

Astrid responded by rolling down to his feet. Each hand untied a shoelace, then she pulled the shoes off and dropped them to the floor. She pulled off his right sock and rubbed his foot with both hands. An impulsive smile crossed her face and she bent down to take his big toe between her teeth, looking at his face as she pretended to nibble on it.

"Astrid, are you alright?" Lu asked.

"Never better, dear," she said, reaching for his left foot.

"May I take the rest of my clothes off before you resume this mugging?" he tried to joke.

"Good idea! You do that while I turn down the covers," she said and stepped off the side of the bed. "Come on, up!" she ordered.

Lu rolled off the opposite side and started to undress. Astrid flipped the covers half-way down and pulled off the tartan dress. Lu paused to admire the sight, which was exactly what she wanted him to do before she climbed back into the bed.

Lu dropped his clothes on the floor, turned off the light and joined her. She quickly covered them both and resumed her attack, wrapping herself around him and pressing her silk-wrapped body against his bare one. 

Under the covers his hands fumbled blindly for the ribbons, to expose her crotch. As soon as the bows were untied she was on top of him, taking his manhood into her body with enthusiasm. She didn't raise herself up in a "cowgirl" posture, but continued to press against him as he thrusted upwards and she ground herself against his groin. It would be difficult to say whose orgasm began first, but hers continued long after he had filled her with his sperm. 

As they recovered their breath Astrid rolled off her husband and snuggled under his arm, her cheek on his chest. Outside, the clouds had parted and moonlight shown through the window to illuminate the lovers.

"What got into you tonight?" Lucius asked her.

She chuckled, her body moving out of rhythm with his labored breathing. "You mean besides my husband? Just a little girl-talk with a friend."

Lucius' stomach growled. Astrid turned her head to look him in the face. 

"I brought bread, cheese and wine," she said.

Since the ancient house was still cool Astrid put her tartan dress back on. Lu found his robe in the armoire and let her lead him by the hand to the dining room.

Astrid's picnic basket was exactly as she left it. She pulled out a chair and motioned to Lu.

"Let me serve you, my 'ISHI,'" she smiled, using the ancient term for "husband."

As Astrid prepared his plate she asked "What was so important that Jacques needed you at the office, today of all days?"

"Oh," said Lu, "just a matter dealing with one of our sugar farmers. The Boudreau family has had a difficult time since my brothers bit their daughter. Jacques just needed my authorization to help them complete... Astrid? Are you alright?"

She was frozen, staring at him wide-eyed. "Boudreau? Katie Boudreau?" she asked.

"I think that's her name. Do you know her?"

Liz had told Astrid to keep their conversation from Lu, so she said "I've heard of her. Can I meet her some time soon?"

"Sure, I'll set it up after Christmas."

Astrid set a plate of cheese and bread in front of Lu then poured a glass of wine. Next, she surprised him again by climbing into his lap, picking up the wine and taking a sip herself before holding it to her husband's lips. She fed him with her right hand, occasionally taking a bite herself, while hugging him close with her left arm. He kept his arms around her hips the entire time.

As Astrid took the last bite of cheese Lu broke the silence. "One other thing, Sweetie: We got a strange Christmas card today. Something I can't read."

"Really?" she smiled, ready to drag him back to bed. She really didn't want to talk about Christmas cards. Although the Old Way recognized the Deity of Jesus, neither Brotherhood nor Sisterhood held ceremonies for December 25th. The night of the solstice was their holy time.

"It's written in what looks like your women's runes. You need to see it... it's in the pocket of my coat."

That someone would use women's runes peaked Astrid's curiosity, so she got up and went to the coat rack. She pulled out the red envelope and took out the card. It was just a drugstore card, "Merry Christmas and Happy New Year," but her eyes popped at the cryptic writing.

"It's from 'MOON!" she cried. "She opened a portal and Philippe is with her!"

"But he's only been in the other world a few months... how did she..." Lu didn't finish before Astrid flew into his arms again.

"Her abilities have surpassed mine!" she screamed in his ear. "And they can be together, too! On the most special night of winter, they can be together!...And so are we..." She began to smother Lucius with kisses again.

Lu didn't get the chance to say how happy he was with his granddaughter's supernatural powers. He just wondered if he was going to survive a full night in his priestess-bride's bed. 

Neither of them looked out the window to see the translucent form of Elizabeth smiling at them in the moonlight.



Priestess in the Dark



Black leather, white hair, gray eyes, 5'4, ruby lips. Blue crescent. That damn clue crescent. It had been on her chest right between her beautiful breasts. He had seen it, and it had been ethereal. Glowing brighter than the light or color should've allowed. He was having dreams about the damn thing. Damn it! Who, what and where was she? 

Another night and he was doing what had become a ritual, turning around in his covers unable to find comfort. He had drawn that haunting blue symbol on so many sheets of paper, and yet it was unwilling to let go of his mind. He would go insane before that thing gave him any peace. He ran his hand across his chest trying to calm himself. For one reason or another, it gave him joy to feel the muscle under his hand. It had never been there before, but in the last few weeks he did everything he could think to make himself more attractive to his mystery woman.

For that's what she was nothing more than a haunting apparition that should've faded into the cellar of his memory already. Here she was, however, moving him under the sheets, not even being present but refusing to let him sleep none the less. 

Throwing back the covers, he needed release, he needed to be free of his phantom. Pulling on his only pair of blue jeans and a brown sweater that had grown taut over his newly formed muscles, he headed towards the door. Grabbing the key ring and slipping on a pair of jogging shoes, he headed across the street to a place he had never visited before in his life. The liquor store. 

This is what men do, right? When women refuse to give them any peace, they headed to the nearest liquor store or pub and had it out with a bottle of whiskey, rum or whatever they drink. He didn't know. 

He'd tried getting drunk once in college, because he was tired of being the only one without anything to do on a Friday night. Ultimately, however he didn't remember much about that night except waking up in a dumpster outside of the West side Pizza Hut. It goes without saying that drinking never happened again. Up until now.

Stepping in he heard the small bell above the door giving away his entrance. The portly man behind the bar looked like he hadn't waited till work had finished to start his drinking. The man was nearly falling out of his office chair as he leaned in towards hi computer screen. The fun was pressed up against his ear and pudgy cheek and he spook languidly into the receiver. Looking around, John realized there was more of a selection of intoxicants than any man could've ever asked for. He had no idea where to start, so headed for the displays. 

Picking up a bottle of Whiskey with silhouettes of naked women, he imagined it sold well amongst college guys. Passing it by, he saw a display with tropical islands. It promised an enjoyable getaway from all your modern day problems. The rum on the display was cheap and seemed like with the right additives could do the trick of erasing his woman from his mind. Walking to the front of the store, he placed the rum on the counter. The grotesque man who should've been running this place was still wrapped up in his phone call in the back office. He could hear the man's slightly inebriated words as it echoed through the store. Apparently he was making excuses to someone he had recently offended. Shifting his weight, Matt took a look around the store. It was a shit hole. The shelves looked dilapidated and bent under the weight of the alcohol bottles. The lights in the back coolers seemed to have stopped working some years ago, and the cash register was older than God. Matt doubted that if this place sold anything else that it would've stayed open for very long. People will go anywhere for a little relief, even if it looks like it should've been condemned. He was here, wasn't he?

He felt his frustration growing that the clerk had not once looked in his direction, and didn't appear to be winding down his conversation. Matt pulled out his wallet and placed a twenty on the counter. Grabbing his hooch he headed out the front door, the little bell declaring his exit. 

The night was cold. It pierced through the brown sweater and raised the hairs on his chest. He sped up towards home. For a few seconds he listened to the sound his shoes made through the slush and snow. That blue crescent was there again, as if it was tattooed on the back of his eyes. Looking to his right he saw the moon. It wasn't a crescent, but full, barely reaching above the horizon, an intense yellow-gold. A harvest moon. Somewhere he imagined she was standing under it, doing whatever it is she does that leaves blood on her clothes in the middle of the night. He knew that her hair would be slightly golden from the light of the moon. Her eyes would be piercing, haunting and unforgettable. He could imagine her lithe body sliding underneath the leather that fit as if she were born with it on. She would be beautiful right now, all stealth and sex. 

Shaking his head free for a moment, he picked up the pace and started jogging towards his apartment. He needed to get away from the moon.

After three hours of drinking rum and playing fighting games, sleep had finally claimed him. He looked pathetic as he lay on his black silk sheets clutching his rum bottle. His clothes were still mostly on, he'd managed to get his shirt over his head and out of one arm but had collapsed before he could get it off the other. She had watched periodically through the night until he fell asleep. Now she sat crouched outside the picture window looking right into his room. His chest rose and fell with his breathe, and his mind refused to clear of the images he had of her and him tangled in his sheets. She smirked at the amount of discomfort he was feeling, and the yearning he could not get rid of. 

She slid her body through the windowpane, and quietly up to his side. The sparse decorating was what she expected. Black curtains were draped on the windows, they matched the black silk sheets and the headboard. It was beautifully dark and secluded. The only thing that astounded her was the picture frame sitting on the side of the bed. It was made of macaroni painted many different colors. In the center was a picture of a little girl with red braids. She had a toothy grin and dark brown eyes. Whoever she was, she had to be related to him. Her eyes had the same brightness and love she had seen in his. 

Closing her eyes, she enhanced the intensity of his horny dream. He groaned in his sleep and shifted under the covers until he was flat on his back. She saw what she had caused. He was hard. She couldn't help the giggle that escaped her. It was all too delightful. He was in such discomfort, and so incredibly craving her. Slowly she peeled off her leathers and made sure that he was seeing it in his mind. She slid the material off her arms, but held it against her chest as to not reveal herself quite yet. He started grinding against the sheets that covered him, moving his hips in circles. Slowly she took the midnight leather away from her chest revealing two perfectly round breasts with pale pink nipples. As the cold air hit them, they grew hard. 

She ran her hands over her nipples feeling the pleasure and giving him a show. She knew her hair was amazing as it fell over her shoulders like rain. It was her pride and joy. She threw her head back, making the pure white tendrils glitter in the moonlight. Moaning in pleasure and she tilted her head slightly to the side so she could see the effect her little performance was having on him. He was almost uncontrollable as he moved under the black silk. His hand had crept under the covers and into his pants while he still slept. Now he was working his length.

Drawing her hands down her stomach she slid them to her pants. Moving her hips sensually back and forth she began to lower the clinging material. She knew he was already imagining what he would see when she had them completely off because he began to move his hand faster.

As the leather finally fell to her ankles she stepped out of them towards the bed where he slept. Closing her eyes she evaporated the clothing he had managed to keep on. She pulled back the thin layer of blanket that kept her from seeing all of him. There he was long, hard and ready beneath the moonlight that was streaming in through the window. His chest and stomach were tense from longing and his hand had fallen away from between his legs and lay grasping at the sheets next to him. He was so ready for her, and she surprised herself at how excited she had gotten in the process. She could feel a little wetness drip down her thighs. 

Suddenly, she felt his hands grasp her hips. He pulled her body towards him and flipped her onto the bed. She lay on her back in surprise as he kneed her thighs apart and climbed on top of her. Because he was still technically asleep, he fumbled a little before he slammed himself into her core. With a need she had never experienced, he pumped in and out of her body. Even though he seemed to be still a sleep, he kissed her neck and ran his hands up the sides of her body. When he reached her hair, he roughly pulled it back exposing the white flesh of her neck and bit hard. She cried out and began to writhe underneath him reaching for her own climax. 

Rocking together, they both rode the waves in near silence. She closed her eyes and tapped into his mind. Feeling his pleasure and intensifying his with her own, they both sped up. They came slamming their bodies together in a frantic urge to give and receive pleasure. As he filled her she felt his mind slip away from her grasp. Looking up into his face his eyes opened and stared right back at her. 

Then she was gone.



Priestess of the Heavens



(Hey all, This is an official LOL moment. This story was written for the Earth Day contest. For some reason I had fixed 4/15 in my mind as the deadline date. So, things have been busy, on 4/14 I put aside time to proofread, etc - went to check out the guidelines and found out the deadline was on the thirteenth and the contest was closed. I'm still very proud of the story, one of the longest I've ever set down. It was a lot of fun to create. If you're curious about the deities invoked, just google Inanna and Dumuzi and a lot of stuff comes up. May the goddess bless you all!)

***

Kari laid back and moaned as Tricia's kisses trailed down from her breasts, across her belly, and then caused her to gasp as her lover's lips arrived so gently at her labia.

"Oh baby," she purred. "How I'm going to miss this."

"You might miss it," said Tricia, looking up with a gentle smile, "but I'm going to make damned sure you don't forget it."

Tricia returned her attention to her task at hand. 

They had been together for three months; three wonderful, blissful months. Kari had been home on her quarter leave and they had met in a bar on her first night planetside. Beers had led to margaritas, margaritas had led to shots, and shots had led to Tricia's flat. Just like that, they had become a couple -- but always with the reality looming that Kari would be returning to space.

Tricia's tongue dug deep into Kari's pussy, spreading her velvet lips and stopping -- teasingly -- just below her clit. Again and again, Tricia kept nearing the magic spot. She knew what she was doing. Kari was soon begging for her to go further.

Finally, after what seemed hours of blissful torture, Tricia's tongue found the mark. With such heightened excitement, it was only a matter of seconds before she pushed Kari over the edge. Kari had always been multi-orgasmic, but she'd never experienced the sort of climaxes like the ones she had with Tricia. Tricia seemed to be psychically connected and knew how to push Kari just far enough to rock her body, but still remain one jot below the point where the orgasms would be too intense to allow her to peak any more. Kari's eyes were rolled into the back of her head for what must have been at least forty minutes until Tricia finally pulled the trigger and Kari's body shuddered with the equivalent of an epileptic seizure under her lover's tender but insistent ministrations. 

"Well, I certainly won't be forgetting that," sighed Kari as Tricia moved up to take her in her arms. "Now it's your turn."

"No," said Tricia with a hint of sadness in her voice. "You took care of me this morning. I just want you tonight. Just you and me together; that's the memory I want."

Kari snuggled into her, one hand finding its way to Tricia's breast and resting there for the rest of the night.

***

Global warming had proven to be real, but that had merely been one of numerous problems plaguing the planet. The nuclear obliteration of South Korea, the subsequent retaliation against North Korea and the radiation clouds that war had spawned... it had all added up to one fucked up planet. The just-recovering oceans had suffered mighty setbacks, entire crops had disappeared. Between fighting the increasingly vicious climate and the subsequent loss of foodstuffs, mankind had lost over a billion souls from its peak of 21 billion.

The only salvation had been the perfection of the space elevators which allowed enough materials and water to be lifted out of orbit in order to create the wheels. The Agro Corps had created one hundred massive Agro-Stations - wheels - spread out in an orbit a half a million miles closer to the sun than the earth. 

The wheels were marvels of engineering -- the pinnacle of human engineering. Imagine a huge donut-like cylinder with spokes. On the outside edge of the wheel was steel, the inner half was glass (actually transparent polyform with sophisticated radiation shielding built in). From there, the wheels were set to spinning at a rate so as to generate as close to 1 earth gravity as possible. Further, the wheels were started spinning on another axis perpendicular to the sun on a thirty-hour rotation, assuring that each segment had a facsimile of night and day. 

The planting schemes were a mix of soil and hydroponic strategies with the hydroponic farms residing primarily in the spokes of each wheel where gravity was less due to the shorter axis and centripetal forces therein. The regular earth gravity on the main outside surface also allowed the Agro Corps personnel to serve multiple stints without suffering the bone loss inherent with extended weightlessness.

The wheels were largely automated, with drones and droids to provide the majority of the labor. Each wheel was staffed with two crew members who worked in three month shifts. The work was fairly easy physically, but the emotional stress was considerable. Hence, the crews were paid handsomely for the efforts, made even more rewarding by only having to work half of the calendar year.

"Two more rotations," said Kari reassuringly to Tricia. "I'll be home in a quarter, and once more after that. How many other jobs let you retire at twenty-eight, babe?"

"You're right," said Tricia, wiping away tears. Just don't go falling in love with your crewmate before you come back."

"Not likely," said Kari. "I drew the short straw and got a boy who just graduated from the academy. I'll try to keep my hands off him, okay?"

That news actually seemed to cheer Tricia up a bit, and Kari's spirits were lifted by the fact that the last view of Tricia's lovely face was one of a cheerful smile.

As Kari prepared for her ascent, she looked out the window -- down from Pike's Peak and clear to Kansas. She gazed out on the once-bounteous plains, now dotted with only the occasional patch of green among grid after grid of endless city.

Lowering her eyes, she intoned the prayer she had created many years ago.

"Mother Gaia, may you bless our ailing planet; torn by wars, overfilled with life and undernourished. I go now to the stars to grow food for your billions of children. Bless me in my travels and look kindly on my efforts. I am the child of your womb and stay grateful for the life you've breathed into my body. Until I pass again into the air, the river, and the soil -- may I be your faithful servant."

When she arrived at her transport, she had the first chance to survey her partner for the first time in person. Pax Trentor, twenty-two years old and a recent graduate of the Agro Corps Academy. Unlike Kari, who came from fairly homogenous North American Anglo stock, Pax Trentor was one of the beautiful products of the international melting pot that had grown in strength in the twenty-second and twenty-third centuries. His facial features were lovely mix of many Asian nations and his skin was a brownish bronze reflecting the same. His body certainly denoted an upbringing which had included good nutrition and physical activity, standing at over two meters in height and superb muscles evident, even below his uniform. 

His smile of greeting was transparent -- and humorous in a way. The sexual unions of the Agro Corps were legendary. Little Edens, they were called, the great floating wheels in space. The wheels were not cool in the temperature department -- generally hovering around 38 degrees C. Many crew members opted to go clothing free... and often indulged in the fantasies that one might imagine could happen on a desert island in space with only one other person. In truth, the human Corps members were only there for emergencies and checking on routine maintenance. While crises did happen, the 3-month shifts could quite often be romps in every sense of the word.

Kari's second mission had in fact been a bona fide romp. Her partner, Graciela, had been one of the most sexual beings she had ever encountered and they had quite nearly lost the station to a meteor due to their mutual distraction. 

Since that voyage, Kari had been more cautious. She had not gone out of her way to request female/female wired co-pilots. She had also learned how to deal with the randy young males she was often paired with. It was immediately apparent that Pax would need 'the talk'.

"Kari Jacobson, reporting for duty," she said, all-business.

"Welcome aboard, Corpswoman Jacobson, said the young man. "Pax Trentor at your service. It will be a pleasure to have such an experienced and beautiful crewmember with whom to share duties."

"Yes, " said Kari, calmly. "Pax, let's get unloaded and then we'll take a tour of the Wheel ."

There wasn't much physical work to perform, the droids and bots took care of that. However, it was always important to double-check the manifest by hand.

"Oh my," said Kari midway through.

A droid was pulling a pearlescent container behind it.

"Service Droid 12, please see to other duties, we'll take care of this one."

"Yes, Corporal Kari Peterson," said the droid in a friendly voice.

"What's that?" asked Pax curiously.

"That is the ultimate backup plan," said Kari, rubbing the glistening surface of the container. "The best of the best genetic material humankind has to offer. In this cryo-crate are eggs and sperm. If, gods forbid, something happened down below -- this is message in a bottle the earth has sent that they would want us to open."

"Wow," said Pax. "I always thought the crew would... you know."

"Yeah," she said with an indulgent grin. "It's funny how the boys tend to let their studies slip a bit in that obscure area of the Agro Corps. You won't catch any women forgetting it. To quote: 'Section 9, Paragraph D, reproduction. If a global catastrophe should strike the earth and the Agro Corps should be the sole viable population, the members shall have no more than two children from their own genetic material and the remainder shall be fertilized and implanted from the earth's genetic stock which represent a random sampling of all nations as well as genetically engineered stock representing a hybrid of many nations."

"Wow," said Pax. "I never... why wouldn't we do tubes?"

"Logistics," explained Kari. "If we get down to a few hundred parents, how exactly would you propose we supervise raising thirty or forty newborns apiece? I'm guessing you studied the Yukon experiment. Two-thousand madmen raised by droids. Nope, if we had to start reproducing, it would be a maximum of two kids per womb at a time, no more than one pregnancy ever thirty months per woman. We'd want to replenish, but with carefully nurtured kids."

"I see," said Pax. "Well, let's hope we never get there."

"Indeed."

They had been towing the cart and had reached the inner locker where the crate was to be stored. Kari held up a hand to pause and then knelt beside the crate to whisper.

"I bless thee, oh children unborn. Dream for now of celestial joy among fields of stars. Should you find your way to us, know that we will care for you with love and kindness down your path through corporeal awareness."

Pax wore a bemused expression, but said nothing as they stored the crate safely away.

The unpacking finished within the hour and Kari suggested they take their tour.

They passed through each section and arrived at section three where Pax let out a gasp of breath at the sight before him.

"And here you see the Amazon," said Kari. "Our true chaos system... sans the fauna, of course."

The other sections had been orderly. No one section was like the other, due to the crops grown and techniques used -- but each had a distinct pattern to it. This one was beyond random. There were hills and valleys, two streams, and myriad species of plants. Things flitted about from here to there that might have been birds, but when one zoomed by them Pax could see it was a dragonfly bot.

"I'd read about it, of course," said Pax, "but I don't think anything could have prepared me for this."

Another tiny flyer came zooming up to them. It was more bee-like in shape and zoomed in front of them, examining them closely.

"Sorry little guy," said Kari with a giggle. "No flowers to pollinate here."

"We've got one wheel with real insects and birds," she said, "but that one is there for the animals themselves so we can see if anything new develops. The Amazon section on all of the other wheels is there for the plants. The bots serve to pollinate and engage, emulating birds and bees, but it's really to see what new medicines and foodstuffs evolve with free reign. So far, we've cured almost a hundred diseases and found drugs to increase the average life-span by thirty years. Damned shame longer life isn't what the twenty billion people down there need."

Pax nodded in agreement. It was one of the great conundrums of their times, they had devised better agriculture and aquaculture, they had gotten medicine right, but the wars, suffering, and malnutrition continued in so many places.

"Now for the best part," said Kari.

She led him down a path which opened onto a perfect waterfall. It was beyond perfect, really, for countless crews had tweaked it over the decades until every feature was pleasing to the eye. The whole thing terminated in a cascade of water into a deep pool.

Pax was enthralled and could only stand there gaping for several minutes.

"We don't show pictures of the falls to the folks down on earth,'" said Kari, breaking the silence.

"Why not?" asked Pax.

"First, they wouldn't get the water part. With water management at such a premium planetside, fountains are only for holidays. What people wouldn't understand is there's no water loss up here. It evaporates and goes right back into the atmosphere. The only water we have to replenish is what goes into plantstuffs. Other than that, we don't lose a thing. Look over there, see that marsh?"

"Yeah."

"That's actually the primary water filtration system aboard. Between papyrus, cattails, and a steady supply of poplar saplings at the edges, we end up with the cleanest water you can imagine -- and not a drop of chemicals is needed to get it. Want to know a secret?"

"What?" asked Pax.

"We've got fish in there, too. Edible fish."

Pax's eyes widened in appreciation. His attention soon turned back to the waterfall.

"I bet a lot of crews have had their share of fun in there," he said a bit suggestively.

"Yes, Pax. About fun."

She sat him down and started talking. By the end of their chat -- Pax had seen his hopes dashed, but his respect grow for his co-pilot on their garden in space.

"So, Pax," said Kari. "I'm sorry to break the news that my 'gate only swings toward the secret garden' as my grandpa used to say. With that said, we should set some ground rules. You respect me, I'll respect you. Simple as that. In terms of clothing, I tend to lean toward the skimpy side. We're shielded plenty well in here, but this section is a great example of how steamy it can get. I usually opt for shorts with a tool belt and maybe top to keep the girls in check -- but not much else. I do understand though, that it might be distracting to you to be in a candy shop and not allowed a taste -- so I'll put on more modest attire if you want me to."

"Oh," stammered Pax. "Whatever you feel comfortable with, and I'll do the same."

"Fair enough. Now, do you drink?"

"Drink?" said Pax, surprised. "Sure, but how did you get any aboard."

"Worst kept secret in the corps, Pax -- follow me."

She took him around the side of the water fall mound and pushed through some overgrowth to a small grotto-like opening. On the back wall was an archaic looking bust of a nude goddess.

"Oh Ninkasi," intoned Kari. "Goddess of pleasure and alcohol, reveal to us thy secrets."

She reached up and pushed her hands against the statue's breasts, at which point a secret door swung open to reveal a small but sophisticated distillery hidden behind.

"Wow," said Pax in amazement. 

"Every wheel's got one. Pick your poison."

"Umm, how about just a beer?" said Pax.

"Beer it is," said Kari. "Barley isn't a usual crop, but we always have plenty of rice, and the recipe for rice beer is pretty decent."

They were soon kicking back with their feet in the pool at the base of the waterfall, night was coming on, so they could look up at the stunning star field afforded by no lights from endless cities and they got to talking.

"What's your background? Your interest, Pax?" asked Kari once the alcohol had loosened their tongues a bit.

"Engineering," he explained. "I did some work on ceramics in my teens, but structures in space are where I'm headed. I got recruited by the corps when I was eighteen because I won a contest for improved wheel design. Lately I've been tinkering with better transports. They're working on three of my designs in the shop right now."

Such accomplishments weren't unusual for Agro Corps members. They were truly the best of the best. Though they often didn't do a lot of real work on the wheels, the Corps had found it critical long ago to have their elite spend a lot of time on the floating gardens. That was the only way they could truly grasp the way the system worked. Nearly every improvement and innovation in the system had come from people who had done time on the wheels.

"How about you?" asked Pax. "What's your passion?"

"Oh me, I'm an odd one," Kari mused after taking a sip of beer. "I've got doctorates in socio-psychology and theology. Humanity is my interest. What makes 'em tick? What makes 'em fight? "

"That's gotta be tough," said Pax.

"Why tough?" she asked.

"Wel, you're trying to figure out how to fix things, right? So, here you are serving a mission in a way, helping out humanity -- but you are also looking down at our planet and seeing our lovely human race continue to mess things up."

Kari was surprised. Pax had zoomed right in on her lifelong conundrum in the space of a few hours. She had written him off as something of an intelligent pretty boy. It was another reminder not to pre-judge anyone, ever.

"So, Ms. Kari, how would you fix things for our billions?"

"That's complicated," said Kari. "Ask me how I would set up a new society so it could thrive in a peaceful manner -- I think I could do very well. However, ask me how to fix a machine that's been in motion for more than ten thousand years, with billions of moving parts, and I think I'm about as clueless as you."

"Oh, I can be pretty clueless," laughed Pax. "But theology, why that?"

"it's all tied together," said Kari. "What people believe; how they worship; what they don't believe, what they used to believe -- all of that factors into how a society operates."

"And you?" asked Pax. "What do you believe?"

"Me? I'm about as polytheistic as you could get. You don't study the world religions with an open mind and not gain an appreciation of all the different deities. However, if you made me choose, I'd lean toward the ancient faiths from Sumeria, pre-Christian or Muslim, pre-pretty-much-anything. But let's not get into that tonight. Let's keep it light."

***

Kari soon learned that Pax was a joy. He was funny, and intelligent, and incredibly responsible. 

He jumped at Kari's suggestion that they do some work themselves. While two people couldn't make a dent in the over hundreds of hectares of hydro-racks and soil in each wheel, many corps members found that doing even a little farming themselves helped to pass the time. 

With such work, clothing was indeed -- optional. About a week into their time they were doing a particularly heavy job in a hot section. Kari couldn't help but shed her top and her trousers, working in boots and shorts only. Soon enough, she caught Pax admiring the sweat rolling down her ample and round breasts. She gave him a quizzical look and he simply grinned with chagrin.




Priestess of the Heavens



"Such a waste," he said, chuckling. 

"Oh, I know a lot of gals who would disagree with that sentiment," she responded with an additional punch on his arm.

"You know, strangely enough -- I don't find that thought comforting right now," laughed Pax. "A million miles from the nearest straight woman and you talking about that body doing something with another woman... no, I'm just about due for a cold shower. Third one in two days, if you must know the truth."

He walked past her toward the living quarters with one more glance at her body.

"Damn," he whispered.

She watched him go with... admiration, you might call it. It wasn't as though she hadn't noticed him as well. The human form, male or female, is a lovely thing. She had certainly noticed his rippling chest as he'd been shoveling or hauling supplies. She had nothing but admiration for his body. But 'admire' is a very different word from 'desire'. She also admired vintage sports cars from the time of petroleum. There was nothing as gorgeous as an ancient Ferrari, but that didn't mean she wanted to fuck it.

Three weeks in, they hit the first day of spring and decided to raid the still with a vengeance. About ten rice beers in, they got to talking about the occasion and all of the different festivals around it.

"Spring Equinox, all of that -- we've been celebrating it since before we even recorded history."

"Really?" asked Pax.

"Oh yeah," said Kari. "This is when the fertility rites took place -- as people got ready for planting. This is Inanna's day. 

"Banana?" said Pax, struggling with the word due to the beer.

"Inanna, Paxy," said Kari, hitting him on the shoulder, "Inanna! This was her time of the year. You prayed to her, sacrificed to her, other stuff."

"You girls are always into those goddesses."

"What girls?

"Lesbians. I had a couple of friends at the Academy. Dagmar and Butch..."

"Wait a minute, you had a Lesbian friend named Butch? Really?"

"Yeah, her real name was Jessina - but it was an opposite nickname -- you know, like calling a tall guy tiny. Butch was all lipstick. Hottest girl in the Academy. Anyway, she and Dagmar were always talking about the ancient goddesses, pagan stuff. Why is that?"

Kari contemplated this for a while -- trying to find the words that best described the odd mystique around the ancients.

"So, I'm into women, right? "

"So am I," agreed Pax with a wry grin.

"Okay, yeah yeah yeah," said Kari. "But you're not a woman. When you're a woman who loves women -- it makes you very aware of what it means to be a woman. Start from the uterus and work your way out from there. That makes you see what it's like to be a woman in society, both the good and the bad."

"So, that ties into ancient Sumerian goddesses how?"

"So -- I came from New Utah. Still, today -- in the twenty-fourth century, lesbians and gays can't expect to rise to the highest level of heaven after they die. Legally, the church can't outlaw them, or excommunicate them -- but that doesn't mean they can't pressure you otherwise. Try being a teenager sitting through seminary, having your biggest crush be on the two girl missionaries who stop in every week and have them tell you god thinks you're doomed to never 'ascend to the highest level'. The point is, once you become aware of women from the center of your being, you look back over our history and you A) get pissed off at the way women have been treated most of the time and B) Find yourself drawn to those times when women -- when the feminine -- was acknowledged."

Pax pondered this and queried further: "So, do you hate the big religions? Christianity? Islam?"

"No, Pax," said Kari patiently. "I find each religion has a vast array of beauty and kindness in its beliefs. However, if you look at where things go wrong through the ages, it is most often when religions are used to exert power as opposed to providing guidance. When the power equation comes into play -- men generally are the more power-hungry, and as a result imbalances come about both between masculine and feminine, and with the more base foundations like respecting the ebb and flow."

"Can you give me examples?"

"Sure," said Kari, thinking it over, "here's a good one. In Sumeria, there were temples to Inanna, who was the goddess of fertility. There may have been sacred prostitution in the early days -- but it was there on a ritual level, to celebrate the act of giving life. However, the priestesses were also in charge of monitoring the crops, and they also probably worked hand in hand with the Priests of Enki who oversaw irrigation systems. However, the kings eventually saw that people made donations to the temples where the sacred rights took place and where there were beautiful women in the form of priestesses. Soon, they figured out that sex sells -- and turned the temples into nothing more than glorified brothels with the state collecting the money. Those wise priestesses were stripped of their power, killed if they complained, and made into common whores. Those priests, they were put in charge and became nothing more than pimps. No one put it together when the crops started to fail due to overplanting and poor water management leading to excess salinization in the soil. In the beginning, you had a time in those early days of Sumeria when the king paid tribute to the High Priestess of Inanna -- the goddess of love and fertility. The King, went to her."

"Cool."

"It was beyond cool," mused Kari. "It was a time when someone like me or my friends... it was a time when someone who was smart and intelligent could seek out a true profession -- and we're talking over seven thousand years ago. Any woman who wanted could live in a temple among the other priestesses. She could study, learn, be a healer, help society. There were millennia when women -- lesbian or otherwise -- didn't have that option."

"That is pretty awesome. Thanks for explaining it to me."

"Thanks for listening, Pax" said Kari, taking another sip. "Worst case scenario, all the priestess had to do was sleep with the king once a year in a sacred ceremony in the spring. Even if a baby came out of it, it belonged to her."

"Good for her... what was that?"

Pax was suddenly more interested.

Kari rolled her eyes at her slip-up and then tried to explain things as clinically as possible.

"Each spring Equinox," she started, "the King, his retinue, and all of the citizens and farmers in the area would proceed to the temple which was on the edge of the river, near the most fertile fields. The sacred marriage bed would be brought out -- most often in the largest room of the temple, but sometimes in an actual field. Before the assembled onlookers, the king would then lie with the high priestess -- spilling his seed into her fertile fields, much like the farmers would soon do with the real seed into the in the soil around them. In fact, drunken revelries followed and couples were encouraged to take each other in the fields."

They sat in silence for a while.

"So... you knowing all of this stuff," said Pax. "That would make you the equivalent of a Priestess of Inanna, sort of."

"Yeah, sort of," agreed Kari.

It took a few moments for the implications to sink in.

"Wait a minute, Paxy babe. Did you just proposition me?"

Pax looked up to the sun and the stars, trying to appear nonchalant.

"Yeah, sorta," he said with a shit-eating grin. "I mean, we are here among the fields. It's the equinox.

"Oh Pax, my dear friend let me put it to you this way? If you were up here with a guy -- no matter how horny, would you get with him?"

He contemplated this for several moments.

"Good point," he said, laughing. "Well, I tried. But, you must realize that if Inanna-Banana is pissed off with anyone for not performing their duties -- it'll be you."

"I'll live with it, smart ass" she said, smiling.

He wobbled to his feet and crossed to her. 

"Well, g'night," he said.

He bent down to give her a kiss. It was the first time he'd ever done such a thing. It was all innocent though -- brotherly and sweet. She returned it with the same sentiment.

"You," he continued, "are the most beautiful, smart, amazing lesbian I've ever known."

"And you're not bad for a straight-boy, yourself," chuckled Kari. "You sure you can find your way back?"

"No problem," slurred Pax.

He meandered his way back to their quarters, weaving in and out among the plants.

Kari nursed her last beer for a while longer before stumbling back, herself.

Opening the door, she was surprised to hear distinct sounds of sex emanating from Pax's room. Her kneejerk reaction was embarrassment at having walked in on him until she realized through the beer-induced fog that there was no one else he could be with. It was a bit funny to look the quarters. Pax obviously had been ready for a hot date -- albeit with himself. His clothes and boots were strewn in a trail from the entry all the way to the door of his sleep chamber. 

Kari skirted the edges of the common room and crept up to Pax's door. She knew he often kept himself occupied in his room and had heard enough to gather the general idea of what was going on. Tonight, she was able to gather a better idea of his activities due to his inebriated state and forgetting to close the door to his room.

Peering around the corner, she saw that the porn was straight, no surprise there, but that wasn't the thing that caught her attention. Her eye was instantly drawn to the perfect view she had of Pax's body. It felt almost like a framed picture, her view down his muscular chest and arms to the shapely penis below. Not massive, by any means, but certainly long enough for the long sensuous strokes he was applying to the shaft. She was surprised to see he shaved which made his cock which made it even more beautiful from an aesthetic perspective. 

She watched him stroke himself and was utterly fascinated by it. She was certainly horny. Hell, she'd been alone for nearly a month. Though her eyes were riveted to his cock, she realized there was no desire within her what he was stroking beyond an aesthetic perspective. When she looked further inside of her and asked the tough question: "Would I enjoy any of that?" The stark answer was 'no'. She realized she was far more interested in the mini-vibe waiting for her in her room than anything Pax had to offer. She lingered a bit longer, just to see if Pax was going to finish himself off -- but he seemed to be taking his time so she retreated to her room and sought out her own relief from the head of lustful steam she'd been building up.

Back in her room, she pulled up the vid that Tricia had sent two weeks before. The distance between the wheels and earth made it impossible to have two way communications -- so vid conversations most closely resembled the paper letters from days of old. People would send vids to the wheel, and the Corps members would view them and then compose a reply. Tricia had sent an amazing strip tease that had led to her pleasuring herself, and Kari had 'joined' her several times already. Tonight, she grabbed her microvibe which was shaped like a thimble that fit perfectly on the end of her finger.

With Tricia's image to spur her on, she was soon massaging her clit with her truly magic finger. As she grew close, she licked the fingers on her other hand and reached down to massage a nipple. 

"That's it baby," she moaned, imagining it was Tricia's mouth on her breast instead of her hand. Just one pinch was all it took to send her skyward. The orgasm rocked through her body with surprising ferocity. Kari arched her back in rapture. Images of Tricia's tongue down below surged through her mind as she began to feel tremors shaking her thighs. Grabbing a pillow, she practically shoved it down her mouth so she could scream out and fully surrender to the heavenly climax.

She awoke the next morning in almost the same position. Her hand was still between her, the pillow was still draped over her head, and the bed sheets were wildly askew from her thrashing.

"Ooh, thank you Tricia," she said, purring. "That was a lovely night."

She looked to the console and was excited to see a new message had arrived from that very same person. She mused on how hot this next vid might be, but grew concerned as soon as she saw the worried look on her girlfriend's face. Tricia's nose was also runny and her eyes were red.

"Hi Kari," she said, trying to force a smile. "Listen, I need to..."

Tricia stopped and brushed back some tears.

"Listen -- things are not good here. There's some really, really, really bad shit going down in China. A separatist group has made a big grab in the Northwest of China and most of Mongolia and they've also grabbed a third of China's weapons. Russia is justifiably freaked out, as is Japan. As for America, our president might have been good for some things -- but he sure as hell isn't good at diplomacy. I don't know how to describe it, but I've never had this sort of feeling before. Of course, probably part of the way I'm feeling is just this stupid flu that everyone has. Anyway, I'm blabbering. Just... just take care of yourself, okay -- and keep your fingers crossed for us down here."

Kari jumped up and got quickly dressed. She found Pax already at the communications console with a worried look on his face.

"Tricia call you?" he asked. "My mom sent an emergency vid." 

Pax turned back to the console. "Moon base 1, Moon Base 1, this is Wheel 23 requesting information."

They tried hailing several more times until a harried looking comm agent appeared on the screen.

"Wheel 2-3, this is moon base -- please stand by for a wide broadcast."

The next few moments were filled with tension as they watched the screen anxiously. Finally, a stern looking woman appeared on the screen -- reading from a prepared statement.

"To all members of the Agro Corps and any other non-planetside citizen or military member. As many of you have already heard, there is a difficult situation on earth. There have been several skirmishes already and all sides have suffered losses, though nukes have yet to be deployed. There have, however, been several rumors of biological weapons being deployed. What type is unknown but for everyone's protection, all transport has been halted to and from Earth until further notice. "

Kari looked down to discover their hands had drifted together as the Moon's C.O. had been talking.

"What kind of biological weapons could they mean?" asked Pax.

"Your guess is as good as mine," said Kari, wiping away some tears. "That stuff is as nasty as you can imagine."

"Holy shit," said Pax in barely a whisper.

***

The first plague hit...and it was ethnically based. The gene engineers had found a way to target those with specific DNA strands frequent in national populations. The first people hit were people with ancestors from the British Isles and Teutonic states - clearing a wide swath through Europe and the broad population in North America. That wave actually hit the moon as well, which had more of a mobile population than the wheels. Nearly two billion were lost in the space of a week. The moon base lost ten percent of her five thousand with that wave. Kari also lost the majority of her family.

In retaliation, a virus was loosed that targeted people with ancestors of Mongolian and North Asian markers - it was a fast acting virus that caused internal hemorrhaging -- another billion lost in the next two weeks. The moon lost another thousand.

What the genetic engineers didn't seem to factor, however, was the mutation factor and the intermingling of the gene pool in the past two centuries. Plague C, as it was later called, jumped the constraints of both of the originals and spread like wildfire through Russia and South America. The only lucky continent was Africa -- though losing a full third of the population seemed a morbid gauge of 'luck'. The moon, luckily was spared that version. It seemed the initial quarantine had spared them any further infections.

Pax's family was gone in Plague B. He had great grandparents from China and the steppes on both sides. Tricia, miraculously survived -- though communications were limited and Kari could only get news of her through text missives. 

They were four months in. August was approaching. The next wave took Tricia. It was the pollen of late summer that triggered this one. The blooms of late summer grasses triggered the plague -- that was how specific the masterminds behind the illnesses were. 

The good news, for Earth, was that her dwindling resources were ample for her decimated population so they didn't need the food from the wheels. The bad news was they were living the fate of Damocles - the threat of another pestilence hung menacingly over the collective consciousness of her people. That plague did indeed hit -- there had been a mutation which jumped over and did hit the African continent this time.

On the wheels, the crew members felt like ghosts. Two months into the crisis they had ramped down production of the crops, switching the plants over to non-fruit-bearing varieties for the most part. All harvested foodstuffs had been preserved and stored. Pax had done the math and figured out that even if they didn't' grow any more food -- they had enough to last the two of them for the next seventeen centuries, give or take, without growing another thing. They were prisoners -- well-fed prisoners, but prisoners all the same -- or perhaps 'exiles' was a better word.

For Kari, one of the most difficult parts was watching Pax. They were both grieving, without a doubt -- but she knew that Pax was suffering in other ways. He was a young, sexual being -- marooned on a space farm with a gorgeous woman who had no interest in him. She saw his increasingly lingering stares and truly did feel sympathy for his situation. He spent more and more time in his room -- and she knew exactly what he was doing there.

In September, the new commander of the moon sent out another wide broadcast (the first C.O. had been an Asian-American and perished in the first waves).

"Hello Agro Corps members and spacers. I'm sorry to say, I don't have the most cheerful news. The genetic engineers who created the devastation on the earth have perished, for the most part -- many from the very viruses they created. We have a handful of remaining scientists who were able to remain quarantined or survive the plagues. They are endeavoring to create tests and cures for illnesses that remain. However, they fear there still may be the possibility of sleeper viruses in our own population that could take as much as another year to be triggered. Since we don't know when many of these illnesses were released, we can't even let you intermingle with each other. Statistics point to a ninety-nine percent chance that you on the wheels are safe, but we can't risk that other one percent.

Pax and Kari cursed under their breaths -- contributing to what was doubtless the collective groan of all two hundred people manning the wheels.

"Sadly," said the captain, "we can't even bring you back to the moon. Our surviving crew are doubtless carriers of death for the vast majority of you. For now, we can only advise you to look after your plants, care for one another, and keep your fingers crossed that we at least get an all-clear within the year. Until then, we still have to require that no contact be allowed between wheel personnel. I hope the next time I address you, I'll bring you better news."

The screen went dark and the two of them sat in desolate silence. A year more -- together. 

"I'm going to go out to section five," said Pax.

"To do what?"

"To have the droids plant barley. I'll be damned if I'm going to be here another year without real beer. We need hops."




Priestess of the Heavens



"Sounds like a plan," agreed Kari. "I'll go to three and put in some grape vines."

Several hours later, Kari was in the shower when she heard Pax return. The bathroom was up against his room, so she could easily hear the moans and suggestive music filtering through the walls once she turned off the water.

She dried off and contemplated their situation. Wrapping a towel around her body, she picked up a tube of lotion - walked purposefully through the common area and straight into Pax's room.

"Fuck, Kari!" cried Pax. "Ever hear of knocking?"

"Oh please, Pax. It's time to stop keeping our doors closed. We're family now. We're everything to each other, in fact. Now lie down."

"But..."

"Just, lie down Pax. Don't make this complicated."

He laid back and Kari squeezed a big dab of lotion into her hand.

"You're about to learn one of my hidden talents, my dear," she said, grasping his half-rigid shaft in her hand.

"But Kari, you're..."

"I'm a woman, I know, Pax," she said, smiling. "And I have it on good authority that young men such as yourself happen to get great pleasure when receiving manual pleasure from members of my fair sex."

"I..."

"Just shut up, Pax," she admonished. "This is a big gift horse, don't look it in the mouth... 'cause all you're getting is the hand, anyway."

"Oh my god," groaned Pax as Kari had him quickly back to full firmness and began sliding her deft hand over his rod.

"That's good, isn't it?"

He nodded. 

"This isn't the first time I've done this, you know?"

"It isn't?" he managed to gasp.

"Oh no. Back in high school when I was still figuring things out -- I became quite the expert at this. I think it was my subconscious way of avoiding having to go all the way but still not be labeled a tease. The guys didn't seem to complain too much."

She stopped talking and focused in on her work. It was sort of like riding a bicycle (though she wasn't riding ; ) She quickly remembered how to bring Pax so very, very close but slow just in time in order to keep him right at the edge.

"Oh Kari," he groaned after what was the third or fourth 'near miss'. 

She felt his hand begin to caress the towel wrapped around her and fumble toward her breast. She reached down with her free hand to take his tenderly, but firmly.

"Not yet sweetie," she whispered. "Baby steps, okay?"

"Sure," he replied, removing the offending hand. "Sorry."

"Don't be, Pax," she murmured. "It's understandable... and it's me. It is really, really me. I'll make up for it though -- you get the two-handed special to finish things off."

With that, she squeezed out a bit more lotion and pulled one leg up on the bed to give herself a better angle. With both hands, she really began working him into a frenzy and began reading his rhythms, allowing him to thrust upward into her hands as she squeezed him in opposing circular twists. At last, she pushed him past where he could stop. She couldn't help but smile as the white stream erupted from his one-eyed monster and spilled over his belly and her hands.

"Oh god oh god oh god Kari!" cried Pax. "That's so... so good."

"I'm glad, Pax," she said.

She suddenly felt a drop of water on her breasts (which she realized were now free from the towel). She saw with some surprise that she was crying. She looked to Pax and was stunned to see that he was crying as well.

In all the vastness of space -- in the awareness of the horror occurring on their home planet -- in the loss and grief they both shared -- neither of them had realized how lonely they were. 

"I've missed this," she managed to get out through her tears. 

"Missed... being with a man?" 

"No!" said Kari, laughing and crying at the same time. "I have not missed 'the cock', thank you very much -- it's kind of hard to miss what you've never had. I've missed being close -- being intimate."

"Me too," whispered Pax.

He sat up and pushed the hair away from Kari's face. He leaned in and her breasts pushed sensuously against his chest. They kissed. It was a soft, gentle kiss. In many ways it lacked passion, but it did not lack love.

"Thank you Kari," he murmured into her ear. "I'll never forget this."

"Me, either," she agreed.

She picked up the towel and wiped off her hands, then tossed it to Pax as she stood.

"Well, goodnight Pax -- and for god's sake clean yourself up."

Kari crossed back into the bathroom and looked at herself in the mirror. It was odd. For a while, she had been feeling ugly, somehow. Now, looking at her firm, trim body in the mirror, she felt pretty for the first time in months. Her cheeks had a glow that surprised her. 

She asked herself: Did she still long for Tricia? Or any woman for that matter? Damned straight. However, with no one other than Pax for the next year at least, she felt a shift beginning in her consciousness. It was small, but it was a shift all the same. Not a shift toward being straight...but a shift toward a new reality.

The next morning, she awoke to the smell of frying breakfast and coffee.

"Good morning," she said, smiling.

"Good morning," replied Pax, an even bigger smile on his face. 

He handed Kari a coffee and turned back to the frying up plantains and vegetables. 

Kari sat quietly and sipped at her coffee, contemplating the events of the night before.

Pax soon finished cooking and delivered two delicious plates, sitting down at the table across from her. They ate in silence -- shyly meeting eyes now and again before glancing away. 

"That was delicious. Thanks Pax," said Kari upon finishing.

"You're welcome, Kari."

Again -- silence.

"So..." said Pax, letting the thought hang there.

"So..." said Kari.

"Last night," started Pax.

"Yes. Last night. Listen, Pax -- I... Fuck, I don't know how to say this! Three months, it's a long time -- but it's livable -- even for a horndog 22-year old guy like you. No offense."

"None taken."

"But," continued Kari, "go beyond that. Quarantined, barred from seeing any other people, even on the wheels. Our planet plague-infested, our families and friends dead for the most part. There's the old dinner party question -- right? Would you? If such-and-such was the last person on earth, would you? I'm not going to bullshit you -- would I have preferred that you have different plumbing and some lovely breasts to press against mine? Absolutely. As it is -- I... I'm lonely too, and I know you are suffering a lot."

"Suffering?" chuckled Pax. "So, last night was a sympathy hand job?"

"Yeah," said Kari frankly. "And the truth is, I can be a very sympathetic person. So Pax, do you wanna be my boyfriend?"

"Well, when you put it that way."

"We'll have to take it slow, though. My pace, my rules. If you can work with me on it -- I'll do my best to take care of you."

"I'll take care of you, too," said Pax, enthusiastically.

"Oh Pax, that'll be harder than you think."

***

Kari's words had proven more prophetic than she would have thought.

The tongue was soft and the fingers were deft and tender. The hand caressing her left breast really knew what it was doing. Kari closed her eyes and did her best to imagine Tricia, or Graciela, or Lakshmi or any other lover in her past.

Five minute passed. Her body was responding, but her heart... or her mind, or whatever-the-fuck part she needed to respond -- wasn't.

Ten minutes. 

Fifteen.

"Pax. Pax. Stop."

"Please," murmured Pax. "I can do this."

"I know you can, but I can't, sweetie. Stop."

"Fuck!" Pax cried, throwing himself back and leaning against the wall.

"Pax, baby. You know this isn't you. It's me. It is so much me, you can't believe it."

Things had gone well for a while. They had shared in some wonderful mutual masturbation sessions, which had been surprisingly intimate. Being in the presence of someone else who was pleasuring themselves was a quite thrilling experience. 

They had gotten used to kissing and shared many vigorous make out and petting sessions. Kari had continued to milk his cock quite dry on a regular basis -- though she had yet to muster the courage to go all the way, but it seemed Pax was more than taken care of. 

Yet, there was still this final barrier. She just couldn't get entirely aroused with Pax. 

"Think of it this way," she said, taking his hand in hers. "Imagine watching a documentary, or a horror film, and trying to jerk off at the same time. The mind just doesn't want to go there."

"So, I'm a horror film?" asked Pax. 

"I'm leaning toward documentary, babe," she said softy.

She leaned across to him and tried to give him a kiss -- which he returned coldly.

"Pax. You know who I am," she said, caressing his arm tenderly. "You know I'm giving you all I can."

"I know!" he said. "It's just -- I want to give back! I want to do something for you."

"Honey, you are. Kissing you, holding you, sleeping next to you. Just having you with me has changed the way I feel. I swear to god, there were times that I thought about killing myself. Everything looked so dark and lonely. Ever since you and I have been... doing whatever we've been doing -- ever since then I've cheered up. But Pax, I'm made this way. I can't change it. Let's just be patient and treasure each other and what we have. Whatever it is."

"Okay, okay, Kari," said Pax. "I understand, I do. I'll do my best to be patient."

They continued to monitor the news from Earth and it grew more bleak. From a peak population of more than twenty billion people, the world was now down to less than four-hundred million -- a number not seen since the year 1500 CE. The surviving population pools were mixtures of anarchy and order. The ordered pools were discrete populations isolated in small, well-protected garrisons -- often in underground military complexes. 

The months progressed. Kari and Pax plateaued on their level of intimacy. Kari could not break through her innate and organic barrier toward full intimacy with Pax. Though they were both grateful for the other's companionship and had found a true love for each other -- it could only be a love of friendship. Each of them had a somewhat haunted look in their eyes -- contemplating what life might mean if it truly were just the two of them for the remainder of their days.

It seemed, however, that the pandemics had finally come to an end. 

Winter (on Earth) arrived and there had been no reports of any new outbreaks. A few populations had been hit by lingering viruses, but there had been nothing new. The geneticists were pounding away at identifying the virus markers so they could screen all remaining people, including those on the wheels. The short-term goal was to ascertain whether any of the wheel staff were infected so they could be allowed to intermingle. Long-term, the hope was to develop vaccines for the highly complex viruses which had been engineered.

Winter solstice was approaching. Pax approached Kari about a week before the holidays and broached the subject.

"So, Christmas is coming up," he stammered, "but I wasn't sure if you wanted to do a Winter Solstice thing or something else."

"No, Christmas is fine -- in truth, the date was just the way of the early Christians rolling in the old solstice and Saturnalia celebrations into the new religion."

"Great," said Pax, "to tell the truth, we weren't too much of anything in my family, Christian or otherwise -- so however you want to celebrate is fine with me."

"That would be lovely, Pax," she said. "Do you have any black clothes?"

"Any... yeah. Yeah, I brought my dress blacks -- don't know why, but I did."

"Perfect. We'll meet in Section 2. Midnight."

"Sounds good," agreed Pax. "What about gifts?"

"Well, don't go shopping -- it's a long trip. Handmade, and meaningful."

Pax arrived at section two, as Kari asked, at the fallow Section 2. The internal lights were out and the glass was shielded so through either side beyond the visual line of the wheel, countless stars were in sight.

In the center of the great, bare field, Pax could just make out a white figure and a glowing light. As he drew closer, he was treated to a nearly mystical sight -- especially aboard a space station. There was Kari, dressed in a gorgeous white dress, standing beside a table laid out with well over twenty plates of different foods. The glow came from some sort of fire pit, which intrigued him the most. The flame was enclosed in a metal pit structure, attached to which was some sort of filter directly above the flames.

"How?" he asked simply when he reached her.

"Well, we had some old wood that I hadn't composted yet. I wasn't too worried about how much oxygen a little fire like this would take in all this space. I didn't want to set off any alarms or foul the glass, so I rigged up this chimney/filter thing to scrub any smoke before it hit our amazing glass up above."

"I'm impressed," said Pax.

"So, presents?" said Kari.

"Oh, yes," said Pax. 

He held out the round, cylindrical object in his hand which was wrapped in simple cloth. She opened it with excitement and gasped upon looking inside.

"A scroll?" she said with excitement.

"Yep. Handmade. From papyrus, even. It's not easy, took me three tries -- but it turned out alright."

"This is a priceless gift," she said. "Just the material alone. I can't wait to see what's on it."

She unrolled the scroll from the top and read curiosity. At the top, in carefully drawn letters was simple text.

"The Prayers and Remembrances of Kari, Priestess of the Heavens."

Her eyes filled with tears as Pax explained.

"You see, I thought about writing down some ancient prayers to Inanna and Gaia, Ishtar or Ninhursag -- but I would have just been guessing at the important ones. I thought it was best left to you."

"Thank you Pax."

She kissed him tenderly and then crossed over to the table.

"Are you ready for your present?"

"Sure," he said.

She reached under the cloth covering the table and pulled out an item which truly made him gasp.

"A cricket bat!" he cried out.

She loved him more at that moment than ever before. In that moment, she saw exactly how he must have looked when he was ten years old when he'd gotten presents for holidays. His eyes were bright and excited, he could barely contain himself from jumping up and down.

"Not just a bat," she said slyly. "A ball, and wickets as well."

"Oh my god! Oh -- My -- God... or goddess, or whatever."

He scooped her up in his arms and twirled her around.

"I'm glad you like it," she said, kissing him fondly.

"I love it!" he cried.

"I could turn on the lights, we could play right now."

"No, plenty of time for that later. Tonight is about tonight, Midwinter's Eve."

"Okay, but let me show you one other surprise,"

She tapped a sequence on her wristcomm and lights came up on a huge area in another part of the section. Just starting to show were tiny tufts of green.

"No way!" cried Pax. "Grass?"

"Mm hmm, and I've had the droids rolling and smoothing it out. We're going to have the best park, pitch, field you ever imagined."

"Why stop there," said Pax. "Let's plant the whole thing. Let's build a park here. We can build up some hills, put in trees. The pitch, anything we want."

"Sounds like a plan," agreed Kari.

"Now, what's all this?"

"Surprisingly, we don't have a lot of records about Midwinter from the Akkadian and Sumerian records. The Druids and Nordic religious had their Yule logs -- but that isn't really where I live. What I do know is the winter solstice was a time of contemplation in Akkadia and Sumeria. Even today, rituals persist where people gather and have a feast of dried fruits and nuts and they stay up all night, contemplating the stars."

"We can certainly do that," agreed Pax. "Plenty of those here."

They stayed up through the night, feasting and drinking -- and sharing stories of their families and friends. It was the first time either of them had truly opened up since the catastrophe below. Both of them shed many tears, but they also laughed a great deal, too. As 'dawn' approached (meaning, the wheel was turning to expose their section sunward), they fell more quiet. Kari had brought large blanket and spread it out on the smoothed ground.

"On Earth, we would have been watching in wonder as Venus transitioned from the evening to the morning star," explained Kari. "But here, we can simply look out at her brightness."

"Venus?" asked Pax. 

"Inanna, Ishtar, Aphrodite, Venus -- the list goes on. Her name changed, but the bright star we now know is a planet has always been a woman -- has always been the goddess."

"Amazing," said Pax.

Kari's head was cradled on Pax's arm. She turned to nuzzle him playfully, kissing his neck and whispering in his ear.

"You know," she suggested, "it isn't documented all that well, but there are lots of hints that people would often bring in the new -- longer -- day in very special ways."

"Oh really?" asked Pax.

"Mm hmm."

"Well how about this?" asked Pax. "How about if we lay here and hold each other?"

"Are you sure you don't need more?" she asked.

"I'm sure, Kari. I'm well taken care of -- my dear friend. Let's spend today the way our souls were meant to -- like brother and sister.

"Okay, sweetie," she said with a smile. "That's... that's the sweetest thing I think you've ever said."

"Mmm..." muttered Pax. 

He was already drifting off. Kari stayed awake for a few minutes longer, gazing down at his handsome face and giving a silent prayer of thanks to the Goddess for blessing her with such a kind companion on their difficult voyage."

***

It seemed they were in the clear. January and February rolled by with no new outbreaks. The genetic engineers planetside felt like they were making good progress on isolating the markers for the four viruses that had ravaged the planet. Once isolated, they could transmit tests to the wheels for the Corps crew to validate that none of them were carriers. After that, it could be several years before effective vaccines could be developed.

Kari and Pax had been watching the grass closely. With the careful attention of the tender bots, it had come along well and by March 1st, their year anniversary of arriving at the station, they had their first Cricket match (if a two-person game could be called such a thing). They actually programmed four pruning droids to fetch the longer-hit balls and had a truly wonderful time.

It took Kari a while to get the hang of bowling with the straight-arm technique, but did have a good bat and was able to actually hit the first 'six'. After a couple of hours, they soon found themselves lying exhausted on the grass -- laughing contentedly.

"This is a good thing," Kari said to Pax. "It feels almost..."

She trailed off, unable to complete her thought.

"Almost normal?" offered Pax.

"Yes," she said, brushing away tears. "Is it wrong of me to feel guilty for having fun?"

"No," he said. "It's what we have to do -- it's what we owe them, to keep living -- it's the same they owe us."

Two days later, the next news hit. They had suspected something was happening planetside, mostly because the usual stream of encouraging news had slowed to a trickle. On the fifth of March they received notification of a special announcement which was mandatory viewing.

The screen lit up not to show the moon's commander or the acting planetary council, but a woman on earth with deeply pockmarked face which looked vaguely familiar. Once the name showed below, Kari recognized her from photos of Seepa Mehta, the top genetic engineer left alive. The pictures they'd seen of her had been a striking Asian woman of middle years. It was clear she had been hit by the third plague, a pox virus with only a ten percent survival rate.




Priestess of the Heavens



"My greetings to all out there," she said in a gentle and somber tone. "I send out this address to the planet, to the moon, but especially to our beloved members of the Agro Corps who have spent this past year in frightening isolation. The reason I single you out will become clear in a short while."

"As we are all painfully aware, we have all my great strides in isolating the markers for plagues A, B, C, and D. We now know the markers and believe it will take roughly five years of work before we have reliable vaccines. You might ask why it would take so long, and I would respond to you that these were not natural viruses with predictable patterns. Rather, they were engineered as weapons - and as such were meant to be hard to decode. These, however, are child's play compared to the affliction I am about to reveal."

"Though it is hard to remember now, you might recall a particularly virulent strain of influenza which passed through our population late last spring. At the time, we merely chalked it up as a very contagious, but cold-like flu with moderate symptoms."

"We have since learned more. We now categorize it as Plague 1A. What we didn't know was the true damage which been done. 1A had a diabolical payload which has just begun to be evident. Since November, our average birthrate per capita has gone down over sixty percent with a frightening number of stillbirths. At first we blamed it on side effect from the other plagues, but then we examined the surviving infants and saw a peculiar marker in their blood which we were able to correlate with nearly ninety-nine percent of the adult population. "

"We then examined the babies and found the disturbing signs I am about to share with you. They are sterile. Most have been born with no internal sexual organs or if they are present, the testes and ovaries are improperly formed and will never mature correctly. This is not an aberration, or a trend -- this is in over ninety-nine percent of the children. Further, the virus is so prevalent we have found new infections in all healthy babies within the first month of the child's life."

"I say this without false modesty... I am one of the top five geneticists who has ever lived. Even for me, 1A is nearly indecipherable. If I am lucky enough to find a cure for 1A in my lifetime, I will be lucky. It also has a natural mutative property so even when I do find a cure, I cannot assure it won't change properties and evade any vaccine I can provide. 1A is pervasive, strong, and amazingly adroit at achieving its obvious goal -- the elimination of the human race. 1A is pervasive on the Earth and on the moon. I truly have little hope of finding a true cure."

"However, we have our wheels. We have our beloved, nurturing wheels that have already proven to be the salvation of mankind and may do so once again. It is my proposal that the wheels be moved into closer proximity, with five colonies of twenty wheels locked together. Your population is untainted by the disease which has quite nearly spelled our demise. The only thing I can tell you with any surety is all of these infections must have a host to survive. You and your children will not see the earth again, but some day -- when you have grown into thousands and the childless children of earth have grown old and died, you will be able to return once more to the loving arms of Gaia -- may she bless you."

The screen went blank. Kari and Pax sat in dismal silence. Though the human race had suffered numerous blows, they had endured it. Now, however, it was entirely final. The earth was gone.

Pax rose first and went to his room. After a few minutes, Kari went to him and lay down on top of him.

"Hold me, Pax," she said, kissing him softly. "Just hold me for a little while."

"I'll hold you as long as you want, Kari," he said.

They stayed nestled in each other's arms and eventually fell asleep.

In the morning, Kari awoke to see Pax up on one elbow, staring down at her.

"I had a dream," she said softly. 

"What about?" asked Pax.

"I can't tell you -- but I'll tell you this. We can't do anything for the next couple of weeks. No sleeping together, no pleasuring -- you can't touch yourself either."

"Okay?"

"You'll see why. I'll be sleeping in my room, but trust me. I have my reasons."

On the evening of the 21st, the spring equinox, she had told Pax to meet her at a pre-appointed place, the fountain in Section 3. Pax arrived at the pool wearing, as he'd been told, a white robe and nothing else. 

He had to catch his breath at the image awaiting him. Kari was also dressed in pure white -- this time a robe. Her hair was braided and wrapped around her head in a sacred pattern she'd taken from an image found on ancient Akkadian pottery. Around her neck was her favorite piece of jewelry composed of lapis lazuli beads and pearls. Her skin glistened with olive oil pressed from trees in Section 4 and her eyes were lined with a charcoal pencil she had created from the cinders left from their Midwinter celebration. 

Beside her was a table with a large pitcher of beer made from the barley Pax had planted. This was a double-strong batch, containing over fifteen percent alcohol.

Pax approached solemnly, taking his cue from Kari. 

"Drink, oh shepherd," she said, offering him a glass she poured and held to his lips. 

Once he had taken several droughts, she also took a drink from the same glass -- polishing off much of the glass. She filled the glass again and repeated the process -- then once more, so both of their heads were more than a bit light.

"This is the day of life," she explained, taking his hand and sitting with him beside the pool. "For today, I am Inanna. She lives in me. You are the Shepherd Dumuzi, my chosen. Let us be festive and rejoice in a renewal of life."

"We meet beside the waters as they pour into the earth. The ancient Sumerians made no distinction between the word for water and semen. The ancients gathered in places such as this, where the waters of Enki poured and churned into mother earth, mixing with her and bringing new life each season in the fields. 

She removed her robe and Pax gasped at the beauty of her glistening, naked body.

She smiled and stepped toward him, releasing the belt on his robe and pulling it off of his shoulders.

"I have prepared myself for thee, oh Shepherd. Have you done likewise? Have you denied yourself bodily pleasures and set yourself apart from other women?"

Pax could only smile and nod 'yes'.

She kissed him deeply, letting her glistening body slide up against him.

"Do I please thee, shepherd? Do I quicken your blood?"

She reached down between his legs and let her slippery hands feel his testament in answer.

"I see the Cedar grows strong with our union," she said.

She then took his hand and led him to a portable camp bed she had set up in a small grove to the side.

She whispered a prayer to him in his ear, though his head buzzed so from the intensity of the experience that he couldn't' remember much of it.

He did remember when she knelt before him, however, and took him into her mouth for the first time. She paused, looking up into his eyes.

"Make your honey sweet and thick, my beloved friend. I will drink you with pleasure."

It was not long before she did just that and had her very first taste of a man. For Kari, on this night, it was not unpleasant. It was the salt of the sea, of the sacred waters spilling into her throat.

"Will you make me ready, lord?" she whispered to him as she lay back on the bed. "Will you prepare me for your fullness?"

Pax did as he was ordered and knelt before her, kissing her tenderly between the legs. To his surprise, for the first time she seemed to be truly responding to his attentions. As she drew closer to an orgasm, she beckoned him up to lay beside her -- guiding his hand down to where his tongue had been.

"Like that," she gasped. 

His finger had found the perfect little circle and she held onto his wrist as he pushed her, for the first time, over the edge.

It was not a tumultuous climax like she generally had with her female lovers, but it was a climax all the same. Pax was grinning like a Cheshire cat.

"Well done, sir," she said.

"Why thank you, ma'am."

"Are you ready?" she asked him, reaching down to caress him with her hand. "Oh! I guess you are."

She pulled him across her, and he paused with an infectious grin on his face.

"What?" she asked. "What is so funny?"

"I uh... I shouldn't say it."

"Go on, Pax."

"First, I'm sorry for breaking the serious mood."

"Don't be," she said with a warm smile. "This is meant to be a joyous occasion. Now just tell me."

"Well, it just occurred to me. Here we are, on a space vessel in the twenty-fifth century, and I'm about to boldly go where no man has gone before."

"Oh, you smart ass," said Kari with a giggle. "But true -- very true. Now get in there before I change my mind."

"Do I need to go slow, I mean, if no one..."

"Oh Pax, you might be the first man, but you're sure as hell not the first thing -- come on."

Pax positioned himself gently at her opening.

"Are you ready?" he whispered.

"Absolutely."

She reached around his back and pulled him insistently toward her. Well lubricated as she was by his attentions (and her own attentions prior to his arrival), he slid easily into her, all the way to the hilt."

"Oh -- my -- goddess," gasped Pax. "Kari, Inanna -- whatever I'm supposed to call you -- you have no idea how good this feels."

"I think I sort of do," said Kari, who was doing some gasping of her own.

"Really?" asked Pax.

"It certainly doesn't suck. Now make love to me, Pax."

They were two lovers learning each other's bodies, but for Kari it was an entirely foreign and almost out-of-body sensation.

It wasn't easy. Though she put on a pleasant mask for Pax, the first few moments were almost impossible for her. It was counter to everything her body was telling her. If it weren't for the pleasure her dear friend was deriving, she might not have been able to proceed but the sound of his moans and the sweat of his body against hers gave her sensations to focus on. 

His manhood inside her was the most foreign thing. She'd played with her share of toys with her girlfriends, but it had never been a person. 

The turning point came with Pax's orgasm. 

"Oh Kari!" he cried. "Oh Kari, it's been so long! Oh Kari, my love!"

As he spilled himself into her, she closed her eyes and imagined the stream of life flowing into her womb... of the new life which might soon be forming from their loving act. Though she'd known that was the intention from the start -- it took that tangible physical sensation to truly bring it home in her mind.

"Oh yes, Pax," she cried. "Don't hold back. Give me all you have."

Though he had felt foreign in the beginning, as he lay gasping in her arms, his heavy weight upon her, his slickened cock nestled inside of her -- she welcomed all of it. She welcomed the feel of the lover inside of her arms and for the first time understood the sacred nature of their act. She felt herself transported back over six millennia and saw a woman much as herself -- a lover of women in a sacred position of power. She saw that this union was not a sacrifice but a blessing, an affirmation and renewal life. For them, the act was now even more sacred -- the potential life even more sacrosanct. 

"Thank you Kari," murmured Pax. "I...oh my god that was amazing."

"It was, wasn't it?" whispered Kari. "Think about it Pax, we might have just made a baby."

"Oh my god, that's..." Pax rolled off of her and smacked his forehead. "That's what this was about? Can you believe it, I've been so stunned with everything I didn't even... but Kari, we've got the fertility banks on the wheel with everything you need."

"No Pax," said Kari tenderly. "You have to understand it from my perspective. If we're going to populate it this brave new universe, from where I come from it isn't going to start with a turkey baster. "

"Okay," said Pax, nodding. 

Her hand had drifted down to the 'foreign object' she had recently encountered so intimately. 

"Oh my, Pax!" she giggled. "Ready so soon?"

"Kari," he said, "it's been over a fortnight without anything, and well over a year without any real sex. I'll be more than ready for a few more times, at least."

"Well, you'd better be," she whispered. "Because some of the prayers around the ritual I use they talk about Inanna and Dumuzi doing it fifty times before Dumuzi was sated."

"Fifty?" mused Pax. "I don't know if I can get to that number. But for you, I'm willing to try."

"That's so agreeable of you," she said with a laugh.

She flipped herself across him and reached down to guide his glistening, honeyed rod into her. It took a little maneuvering, this new skill she was acquiring and he slipped out on first try.

"There it is," she purred as he found his way all the way in. 

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, almost meditating at the sensation.

"Hurt?" asked Pax with concern.

"No... just new, sweetie. Just new. Let's see how this works, shall we?"

It worked very well. 

With the mix of their juices providing a fascinating blend of lubrication, Pax began a slow rhythm in and out of her. Their bodies soon found a perfect rhythm together and Kari discovered she was bucking her hips in a gyrating motion against his. 

There was still something missing... the innate emotional element. She still lacked that 'whatever' with Pax that she would have had with a woman. However, it was replaced by the spiritual element, by the divine aspect of the creation of life. With that spiritual component replacing the emotional, she discovered herself reveling in the physical. 

"Oh gods, Pax, this is so good," she moaned. "I've never, oh gods fuck me! Fuck me you wonderful man. I love this with you inside of... Oh!"

It tripped over, something she never would have imagined possible let loose with ferocity. 

"Pax, I'm cumming," she was able to gasp out. "I'm cumm....Aieeh!"

Her whole body was shaking from the climax. Her hips, her legs, her chest. Her hands grasped at the sheets in almost panicked fashion. Pax stopped for a moment which was not what she needed.

"No!" she cried out. "Don't stop! Keep going no matter what until you cum! I have to have that. I have to feel you inside of me again."

Pax did as ordered and continued pounding into her from below. Though he was doing the majority of the work now, due to her near paralysis, they kept up a steady pace.

Orgasm after orgasm followed for Kari. She couldn't even open her eyes as, like waves in the ocean, one followed the other before the last one could even recede. 

Pax seemed driven by something sacred himself for he seemed tireless. The sweat was pouring off of their bodies, but they continued on, driven by a heightened passion that neither wanted to let go of.

At last, the exhaustion of countless orgasms began to slow Kari down. She altered her pace and began lifting as high as she could off of his tireless cedar. 

"There!" she said with an almost violent descent. "That! Is! Perfect!" she cried.

She took a breather, falling down onto Pax's chest and kissing him hungrily.

"Are you ready to cum, Pax?" she asked. "Will you fill me up again?"

"I will," he whispered.

"Fuck!" she cried as he slammed up and into her, then again.

"FUCK!" she yelled, as another climax began to explode within her.

"Oh Kari," cried Pax through gritted teeth. "I'm..."

"Do it, Pax!" she ordered him. "Cum for me!"

Responding instinctually to her own passion, the orgasm that ripped through Pax was almost violent in its intensity. They gripped at each other in fierce desperation as their bodies became inexorably entwined. Even as the last throes of their pleasure were dissipating they remained clinging to each other, their fingers interlocked, their lips touching tenderly. 

As the two of them drifted off into an exhausted slumber, Kari could feel his heart beating through his chest -- almost in sync with her own. Two lines from a sacred poem drifted through her mind as she surrendered to sleep:

Sweet is the sleep of hand-to-hand. Sweeter still the sleep of heart-to-heart. 

They didn't awake until the early rays of the sun streaming into the morning of the wheel. She was still laying on top of him, her hair spilling across his face.

Though he had slipped out of her sometime in the night, she could feel his renewed firmness pressing against her.

Her stirring awoke him as well. He opened his eyes and smiled at her. Another verse entered her mind and she spoke them aloud to him.

"Last night as I, the queen, was shining bright, Last night as I, the Queen of Heaven, was shining bright, As I was shining bright and dancing, Singing praises at the coming of the night — He met me — he met me!"

She stopped then, and kissed him lovingly.

"Nice to meet you," she sighed.

"Nice to meet you, too."

"I don't know if we made to fifty," she said, "but I think if you put yours and mine together, we're at least at twenty-five?"

"I wouldn't doubt it," agreed Pax. "You were amazing!"

"I was certainly surprising," said Kari. "Never would have suspected that, trust me."

"So, are you like -- bi now?"

"Gods, no," she said, laughing. "I'm worshipping...I'm procreating...I'm replenishing the race. I don't know how to describe it -- it's sex, but it isn't my sexuality."

"Whatever it is, I'm not complaining," said Pax.

"Speaking of, how about we see if we can reach that number fifty?"

"I'm at your service," said Pax, he flipped her over and plunged into her.

***

She was thirsty. Her womb was thirsty. Pax was the only one who could slake that thirst. For the next week, they were inseparable and insatiable. Kari found herself fantasizing about different ways to seduce and couple with Pax...and often dreamed about the feeling of his warmth filling her from inside.

The first time it didn't take. Interestingly, once she had confirmed that and she was past ovulation, her desire waned quickly. It was probably a good thing, allowing them to focus on the necessary tasks at hand. She actually stopped even sleeping next to Pax because her body was too tempting to him and without the desire for reproduction, she couldn't reciprocate in the way he wanted.

With Pax's background in engineering, he was busy with the specialists devising ways to configure the wheels for the upcoming population. The plan was simple in concept. There were one-hundred wheels with two staff apiece. The wheels would be pushed to five points in separate areas, to minimize risks as much as possible. Twenty wheels, joined together, to form a base population of forty. 

With Kari's background in social sciences, she was working with geneticist specialists and population experts on how to expand a population of two hundred to a steadily growing and healthy population. It was a difficult task, for they wished to draw on lessons from the past in order to nurture a thriving, stable, peaceful populace. 

Pax's 

When the time arrived, Kari did not need a calendar or a test to know when her body was ready to try again. A dream stayed sharp in her mind. They had been beside the waterfall, but it hadn't been in the lush vegetation of the wheel. It had been an oasis in the desert. The dream had changed and she had been the earth, her vulva had been the pool below. Pax was standing at the top of the hill and a white stream was pouring out of him, flowing down the hill, and churning sensually into her.

When she awoke she could feel the moistness between her legs and had a strong renewal of yearning for Pax.

He woke to the feeling of her sliding into bed next to him. Her hand groped hungrily for his morning stiffness.




Priestess of the Heavens



"It's that time, huh?" he murmured with a smile; sleep still heavy on his eyes.

"Oh yes, it's time."

This time, her desire was so strong they had to schedule work shifts in opposite sections of the wheel if they wanted to get any work done at all. 

Their favorite spot was always the waterfall. They would bathe -- purify each other in the water and then retreat to the marriage bed in the sacred grove. They tried nearly every position, but would most often end up in the missionary position -- still the tried and true method with the best odds. 

Kari was almost certain of the exact time when she conceived. Pax had been taking her from behind when she had sensed him growing close. Falling onto her back and raising her feet high in the air, she had welcomed him into the deepest angle possible, her ankles actually resting on his shoulders. When he came, she gasped at the sensation of his heat shooting into her. It seemed to go deeper this time, so deep in fact that it almost hurt in a way. A bell seemed to go off somewhere -- she wasn't sure how, but she knew.

"Is something wrong?" asked Pax, seeing the tears on her face.

"No Pax," she said. "Everything is wonderful."

The epiphany that she'd just conceived seemed too private silly to share, but she fixed that moment in her mind and knew it was one she would never forget.

The next few nights she kept herself apart from Pax -- but the night following, he found her in his bed when he went to his room.

As he entered her, she sighed and kissed him gently.

"Thank you," she whispered.

"Thank you for what?" he asked.

"For giving me a baby," she replied.

"Really?" he asked excitedly.

"Oh yeah," she said, kissing him. "It's definite."

"Boy or girl?"

"Well, we won't really know yet," she said, "but I'm not going to find out. If we're going this old school, I'm sure as hell not going to find the answer to that question."

***

She continued going to his bed. It was hormonal, she knew it, but there was something in her psyche that wanted comfort, companionship, and yes -- protection, during this time. They didn't make love every night, but she discovered a new tenderness for Pax now that she was pregnant. She also had to admit that the mindblowing orgasms brought on by the changed hormones of pregnancy were nothing to complain about. 

She mused at times on their relationship. How many women over the ages had made such a compromise? How many had been willing to share their lives with someone who was at least a good man. She imagined herself in 1950's America, or most of the world in pre-industrial times. If she'd been forced down the marriage route in times like those, she would have counted herself lucky to have a companion like Pax to share life with.

The wheel staff had been so busy with the logistics and loneliness of space that they actually hadn't spent much time thinking about the forty people with whom they would be living for the rest of their natural lives. That idea hit home four months later when they received a hail on the comm. They were nestled together in Kari's bed when they heard the signal.

"Wheel 2-3, this is wheel 2-4. Wheel 2-3, please come in."

Something in the voice sounded familiar to Kari, though she couldn't quite place it. She and Pax dressed hurriedly, throwing on the nearest available clothes.

Kari typed her wrist comm and spoke a quick reply. 

"Wheel 2-4, this is wheel 2-3. On the way to the vid screen. Looking forward to having a real face-to-face."

"As are we," said the voice. "Just thought since we're going to meet up in a week we should make some introductions."

Again, the voice sounded familiar. Kari and Pax stood in front of the vid screen.

"Comm, please enable video communications with Wheel 2-4."

Standing on the other end were two women, one was a short but voluptuous woman with rich chocolate skin. The other was beautiful in her own way. Though a bit unconventional in her looks, she was tall with fair skin, angular features, and jet black hair which contrasted amazingly with her striking blue eyes. Both of them were dressed in formal, but civilian attire. Clearly they had made effort for this first impression.

Kari's hand went to her mouth in surprise.

"Grace!" she said in shock. "Grace, is that really you? I had no idea."

"Corporal Graciela Perez reporting for duty," said the sensuous Latina. "Glad to see you dressed up for us."

"Grace, by the gods I never... how are you?"

Kari found herself crying. All four of them, in fact, found themselves overwhelmed at the first approximation of direct contact with anyone in nearly a year and a half.

"I didn't know you were up top either," said Grace. "I saw your name, but I thought I'd wait to actually talk to you until I... I'm glad to see you're alive Kari."

"So am I," agreed Kari.

"Well, I see these two know each other," said Pax. "Grace, I'm Pax Trentor. And you are?"

The other woman looked to Pax with those bright blue eyes and flashed him a smile that spoke volumes, thought Pax didn't seem to pick up on it.

"I'm Kyriana," she said in a strong Australian accent. "Pleased to meet you, truly."

The four of them then exchanged pleasantries, compared notes, and then talked a lot of shop about their upcoming merger -- though they didn't go much below the surface on the personal level. 

When they signed off, Kari gave a deep sigh and tried to marshal her many conflicting feelings. Ten days. Ten days before she and Pax would no longer be alone.

"So, you know each other?" said Pax, softly.

"Do I!" said Kari. "We did a shift up-top together. "

Kari didn't need to go any further -- Pax was able to infer the rest. 

"Well, she's pretty," he said softly.

"So is Kyriana," offered Kari, not sure of what else to say.

"Who knows which way she leans, though."

"Oh Pax," chided Kari. "I've got the most accurate Lesbometer you've ever seen. If Kyriana could have crawled through the vid screen, she would already have you in the bedroom... if she could have waited that long."

"I see," murmured Pax.

Kari's guts were churning more than she had been willing to let on.

"Pax, we knew."

His vacant face was worse than any tears he might have shed. In a desperate, lonely time they had found a way to love each other in a fierce, protective way. Kari evaluated her feelings toward Kyriana and she realized she was jealous somehow. 

Whether or not Kyriana and Pax ended up together, Kari had a deep love for him that she knew would never go away and she dreaded the idea that someone else might hurt him emotionally. Yet, she couldn't deny that things had changed between them in that brief video call. She knew that her heart had leapt upon seeing Grace, or that her libido had jumped up a couple of notches at the thought of having a woman in her bed again.

"Come here," she said to him in a kind but firm tone. 

She sat him down in a chair and then straddled him, wrapping her arms around his neck and staring directly into his eyes.

"Can you answer me something?" she asked. "Can you honestly tell me that you weren't a bit excited to see that lithe and supple-looking straight girl? Answer me truthfully, because something pressing against my pelvis seems to run counter to you answering anything other than 'yes'. Did you find her attractive? Were you excited by the prospect?"

Pax looked away, but she took his face in her hands and brought him back to her. 

"Pax, answer me."

"Yes, I was excited by her," he said shyly.

"And you should have been," she said, quite serious. "Pax, baby - you win. If we really would have been stuck here on this desert island in space forever, with just the two of us - I would have chosen you over any man I've ever met. I would have been happy, too. We would have been happy -- as happy as possible given the fact that both of us are innately attracted to women. I am so excited to be having your child, you have no idea. But no matter how we slice it, both of us would have always been hollow in here."

She put her hand over his heart and took one of his hands and placed it over her left breast.

"And in here."

"We have a new world coming to us. Thirty-eight other lonely souls, and you'll end up partnering with Kyriana, or someone else, or several people over your life. Looking at the usual odds, Grace might be my only choice for while -- but who knows. You and I will find someone who makes us whole. That's so important in this lonely cosmos."

"You're right," he said as he hugged her.

***

Grace and Kyriana would be arriving in less than a day. They had reached out to the wheels beyond that. 25 would reach them in another week, 26 two days after that. In wheels 21 through 40 there were - luckily -- twenty-two women and eighteen men. Six of the women were lesbian and two of the men were gay (and the men were thankfully, already partnered together). This left a good mix of couples for at least temporary bonding in the years to come.

Wheel 24 was now visible to them and growing larger by the hour. 

Kari and Pax were watching it, their heads resting on the comforting grass of the sports pitch. They were still tired from a vigorous game of soccer.

Kari had been surprised. They hadn't made love again. Pax, actually, had been the one to suggest it.

"A)," he had explained, "I think it will make it harder. B) whether I hook up with Kyriana or someone else, I'd like to have that tension, you know?"

They sat in silence, Pax's head resting on her leg, both of them staring up through the glass toward the stars and the approaching wheel.

"Pax..." she started.

"Shh," he said. "Close your eyes and listen."

"Listen for what?" she asked, but still, she closed her eyes.

"For the children," he said. "Before we know it, we'll hear them playing here -- playing soccer and cricket and who knows what else. Maybe we'll even create new games up here."

She concentrated and she could hear them - children laughing, parents cheering. Digging further she envisioned feasts and celebrations, binding ceremonies and graduations, and (hopefully, far in the future) funerals.

"I can hear it," she said happily. 

The next day found them helping each other get ready. They'd showered together and were rushing about, sans clothes as they often were. 

Kari held up a blue dress and a summer-yellow jump suit.

"Which one?" she asked.

Pax's eyes were having a hard time focusing on the clothing, since Kari's naked body was between the two items.

"Do you really expect me to answer that?" asked Pax. "With the bounty in front of me?"

"Oh please, Pax," Kari said admonishingly. "You've already moved on."

"Moved on?" said Pax in a wry tone. "Moved on from breasts? From a naked woman's body? Not likely."

"You know what I mean."

"Yeah, well -- the dress is what I'd choose," said Pax. "The color suits you and it shows more cleavage. You've gotta do something to compete with Grace's bad girls."

"I can't compete," said Kari, "but you're right, I might as well share my wares a little bit. Couldn't hurt."

"Hang on one second though," insisted Pax. 

Still naked, he knelt in front of Kari and looked up into her eyes. Wrapping his arms around her legs, he leaned in and kissed her belly where there was just a bit of a bump starting to show.

"I'm not sure how many more chances I'll have to do this," he said tenderly.

"Hey you," he whispered to her belly. "A few months now and we get to meet you for the first time. You're mom and me, we're different in some ways. We... we found ourselves in a situation no one ever would have expected and we made the best of it. We made more than the best of it -- I think we did better than anyone else in our situation could have. You need to remember one thing, though. I love your mom more than anything else in the universe, and she feels the same way about me -- but we're... we're just the priestess and the shepherd -- and the equinox is over. She'll fill you in on the rest when you're old enough to understand."

He kissed her belly once more and then hugged her tenderly, his cheek resting against the baby below.

"Hey shepherd," said Kari in a loving tone.

"Yes, Inanna-incarnate?"

"Equinox isn't quite over."

Before he could protest, took his hands and lifted him up to face her. Tipping her head back, she beckoned him into a passionate kiss.

"But..."

"We need this, Pax. Come on."

Kari led him into the bedroom laid him down, climbing astride of him and lowering herself down to rest on his chest.

"Let's see if I remember where that thing goes," she mused as she slid downward. "Mmm, how does the expression go? If you fall off the horse get right back on? Well, this cowgirl seems to be ready to climb back aboard."

It was tender, intense, and final. When Pax exploded within her, much like when she had known she had conceived -- they both felt a bell of realization -- a note that this unusual but lovely chapter was indeed over.

The merging of the two wheels was a complex process better left to the computers than any piloting they could provide. 

Pax and Kari found themselves sprinting toward the joining spoke and arrived just as the airlock connected and the system started its final check -- which involved a fifteen minute external inspection by service droids and full pressure check.

"Are you alright?" asked Grace's voice from the comm. "We couldn't get ahold of you for a little while there."

"All fine," replied Kari. "Probably just magnetic interference from the docking engines."

A few minutes later saw the doors opening at either end of the corridor which would be connecting the two wheels for the foreseeable future. The two pairs walked toward each other slowly. For some reason, Kari felt the need to loop her arm through that of Pax and walk with him -- as a couple -- toward their new companions.

As they drew closer, she could see the slight disappointment in Kyriana's eyes -- and the curiosity in the eyes of Grace. 

They stopped and faced each other, a strange and surreal tension filling the air. The people of their world were dying and they had been living with only one person for so long. It was as though their minds wouldn't accept the reality of having someone else there... of the possibility of a society actually becoming real again.

Not knowing why, Kari made the first move. She took Pax's hand and led him not to Kyriana, but to Grace. She took Grace's hand in hers and placed it into Pax's.

"Grace, I'd like you to meet Pax -- a truly wonderful man."

Grace smiled into his eyes and reached up on tiptoes to kiss him gently on the cheek before hugging him.

"It's nice to meet you, Pax. Thanks for taking such good care of Kari."

"We took care of each other," he said softly.

Kari crossed to Kyriana and took both of her hands in her own.

"How hard has it been?" she asked tenderly.

"You have no idea," said Kyriana, sobbing. 

Kari pulled her into a tight hug.

"Grace was lovely," Kyriana said, whispering into Kari's ear. "But it's just... just so..."

"Lonely?" offered Kari. "And I do have an idea, trust me. You're in good hands now, dear."

The four of them turned to each other. Now Kari crossed to Grace and Pax walked slowly to Kyriana.

Kari's hand went to Grace's cheek, then her other hand followed and she took Grace's face in her hands and brought her into a slow, loving kiss.

"Oh my god," moaned Grace as their bodies melted into each other. "I've never felt anything like that before in my life."

"I know," murmured Kari. 

Her own skin was singing at the contact. They fell into a kiss again, more passionate this time. Grace's hands were clasped around her back, pulling her into a deep and dizzying embrace. Their bodies melted together -- their nerves crying out at having found a companion once again.

"Damn, girlfriend," said Grace.

Her hand had drifted down to Kari's breasts. 

"Did you do something? Get work done? I don't remember them this big, and I knew 'em pretty well."

"No work," whispered Kari. "Nothing unnatural. See if you can guess."

Grace looked at her in puzzlement for some time. At last, a light dawned in her eyes and she gasped. Her hand pushed further down and came to rest on Kari's belly.

"Oh my god," she whispered. "How far?"

"Three months," said Kari.

"We decided to wait," said Grace. "Thought we'd get to know everyone, you know?"

"Sure. Good plan," agreed Kari.

At the same time as Kari and Grace's meeting, Pax and Kyriana had been meeting each other for the first time.

Pax reached out a hand to Kyriana for a handshake, but she would have none of it. She pulled him quickly to her and hugged him so fiercely he wondered if she'd ever let go. She buried her face in his chest and breathed in deeply.

"Oh my god, the smell," she said happily.

"What?" asked Pax. "I just showered. Just before you got here."

"No, you smell like a man," she said with a chuckle.

"We smell different?" he asked.

"Only a man could ask that," she said.

She had a good smile, a warm and open kind of smile that was purely inviting.

"Kari, can I ask you a question?" asked Kyriana. "And please tell me if it feels too forward."

"Anything."

"Would you kiss me?"

Generally, Pax wasn't a big fan of Australian accents -- but the word 'kiss', sounding like 'keese' with the differing 'i' vowel sound was one of the most seductive words he could ever remember hearing.

"Absolutely," said Pax.

Their lips soon touched and Pax now knew what Kari had been speaking of. Though he'd been with Kari, his body had never truly had the chance to appreciate the difference of the imperceptible chemical/psychological magic of attraction. The feel of Kyriana's body responding at every level to the touch of his gave him his first true glimpse of what would have been missing had they been fated to live their lives with only each other.

Kyriana's tongue danced with his and her hands caressed his back, his chest, his face. His own hands sought out her body, caressing her supple back and his fingers pushing hungrily through her hair.

"Oh my god," whispered Kyriana. 

She was dizzy to the point of feeling wobbly on her feet.

"Oh my goddess," said Pax. 

Kyriana smiled, but didn't understand the full weight of what Pax meant.

When they were all well 'acquainted', Kari made a suggestion.

"I think," she said, "that we should have a right and proper feast at the waterfall. Do you want to use yours, or would you prefer ours?"

"Yours is better," said Grace. "I did a shift on this wheel a couple of years ago. It's much more romantic."

As they walked, each couple hand-in-hand, Kyriana whispered to him softly.

"I need to make a confession," she said.

"What's that?"

"Well, since this is going where I hope it's going -- I thought I should be totally up front with you."

She was blushing furiously.

"Go on," said Pax.

"Pax, I slept with Grace. A lot. I'd never, ever had sex with a woman before. It was just so lonely. I'm not ashamed of it, or anything like that -- but I thought you should know in case you had any problems with it."

Pax chuckled. 

"Kyriana, that would make two of us who slept with a lesbian during the lonely times. I can state with good authority that they make excellent companions, in bed or otherwise."

***

They had feasted. They had consumed generous quantities of alcohol (except, of course, Kari -- though she found the mood alone intoxicating enough). They were now all naked and seated in or around the waterfall pool. They had spent their time beneath the cascades, but had now moved to the far end of the pool, away from the deafening noise of the water.

They could not stop laughing. There was an euphoria in their newfound communion. It was the end. They knew there would be tough times ahead, that even with their edens in space -- the journey would not be easy. Yet, they were not alone. They were together - a society.