Flowers in the Forest

Having studiously kept his distance while working, Tovor finally made his slow approach down the gentle incline towards the water's edge. He could hear the gurgle of water as he neared from the waterfalls that fed the pool, lending a pleasant, peaceful atmosphere.

Even as he mentally prepared his greeting, Tovor stepped out onto the water's edge and looked around. The warm spring sunlight illuminated the scene, and across the water a deer raised its head from where it had been lapping at the water to observe him suspiciously.

A moment later, the deer turned and skittered away, a brief commotion that sent a number of birds in the branches above to flight. Frowning, Tovor scanned the far bank carefully, then let out a rueful sigh.

Alone. Of course.

There was a whole forest to explore, there was no reason to think she would be back again.

Laughing quietly to himself, Tovor took the opportunity of privacy to clean himself up, before moving on with his day.

Over the course of the next two weeks he returned to the pool most days. The traps he had laid in the area proved fruitful, benefiting as expected from the wildlife making use of the freshwater. With no further meetings, the elf drifted into the back of his mind as he settled back into a normal routine.

Then, one afternoon he came across one of his traps, carefully sprung with a thin length of branch, stripped bare of leaves and smaller twigs.

No hare had ever managed that before.

This time he was happy to share the story with his friends in the pub in the evening. A story that didn't involve him perving on one of their mysterious forest neighbours was rather safer fare, and Lyreiss leapt to the idea of elves before he'd even finished relaying it. Though he played it down, he wasn't averse to a little glamourisation of his work, and he was pleased when Lilvia joined the conversation, clearly excited by the whole idea. After all, if an elven beauty was some far off ideal, there were perfectly good opportunities closer to home.

For the next few days he didn't return to the forest pool, instead contenting himself with errands in town as the weather turned, bringing leaden skies and heavy rain. His father had always seemed immune to such things, but Tovor had no desire to be outside when even the animals had the sense to keep in cover. It also gave him a chance to spend more time with Lilvia.

Once the rain cleared he got back to work. He always enjoyed being out in the forest after a period of rain; the air was crisp and clean, even if the soft ground could get a little treacherous.

Circling around through his traps - tossing away a days old bloated, fetid hare along the way - Tovor made his way back to the forest stream, now swollen with runoff, and followed along the bank.

When he heard the singing over the sound of the water his heart quickened and he checked his step, almost not daring to believe. Had she returned again, so soon?

Without even thinking he quickened his pace, easing through the forest, damp fronds tugging at his breeches as he went. Her voice grew louder, a siren call drawing him in ever closer.

As he approached the small lake - the surroundings now as familiar to him as any in the forest - he slowed his pace, picking his way carefully through the undergrowth. If she were decent, he could announce himself. If not...well...

He wasn't sure he could trust himself to leave, like he knew he should.

Taking a slightly different approach to the water, his hunters extinct warning him away from repeating patterns, he came up behind a large tree, it's base almost enveloped in lavender bushes. Just beyond, he could see the glint of sunlight on the rippling water.

Slipping close to the damp wood of the tree, Tovor craned to peer out over the water.

It was the same elf, and she stole his breath with nary an effort. A thrill of excitement ran through his body, and his hands clenched tight, fingernails digging into the palm of his hands.

She was naked as a babe again, and Tovor could almost believe it was her natural state if not for the stack of gear he could see a little way back from the water's edge.

She was sat at the water's edge, knees drawn up to her chest, working some sort of lather into her hair. Her legs were the same flawless blue of the rest of her, long and elegant, with just her feet dipped below the surface. As she worked her hair, she would dip one hand in to cup more water onto herself. His eyes devoured every movement; the fine lines of her arms and shoulders as she reached overhead, her full breasts jiggling as she worked, the sparkling rivulets of water tracing her curves as they ran down her body, those beautiful lips as she called out her song to her audience of trees.

Minutes passed - how many, he couldn't say. Tovor could scarcely breathe, his noble resolutions whipped away in an instance. When in his life could he hope to see such beauty again? How could he, but a weak man, do anything else?

Eventually, the elf seemed satisfied with her work, shaking out her hair, sending lather fanning out around her. Then, in one elegant movement, she stood.

For one long second Tovor had no idea what he was looking at. His breath stopped, his heart stopped, and the world stopped, as the elf faced his hiding spot across the water in all her glory, stretching one arm overhead and yawning. Before he had drunk in the vision of her stretching like a man dying of thirst, but not now. Now he was stunned, unable to comprehend. It did not fit.

Hanging between her smooth, perfect blue thighs, was what appeared to be a long, thick penis. He watched on in horror as the elf lowered one hand to scratch at her large, smooth balls.

It didn't make sense. The elf...was a man? But that could not be; elves were different to humans, but not that much, he knew. Everything else about her was the perfect picture of feminine beauty, and yet...

She had a cock. A fucking cock!

Still disbelieving, he scrunched up his eyes, rubbing furiously. A vision, a delusion, surely. His mind was overheating. His briefly paused heart was now hammering in his chest, his palms damp with sweat.

He opened his eyes again. The delusion was persistent if nothing else. The elf was lazily washing her dick, a soapy lather building up. As she scrubbed, her manhood began to sluggishly rise to attention.

It was big, that much was already clear. She was tall for a woman, though perhaps not for an elf, of a similar height to Tovor himself - it helped him with...scale. As her cock grew, even at a distance he could easily tell that it was comfortably larger than his own, her slight frame serving to make it seem more so.

This was not what he had come for - this was something else entirely, something strange and wrong.

Once she had cleaned herself the elf shook her hands, before moving forward into the water. Her half-hard cock swayed from side to side as she did so, the thick length a shade darker than her skin.

She let out a cute gasp against the cold as she waded deeper, clasping her arms around herself. Tovor felt like he was frozen in place, staring on as she sank. A few more paces, and her misplaced manhood vanished under the water, and moments later she was in up to her shoulders, still hugging herself.

Once more she looked every bit the perfect woman, as though the vision he had seen but moments ago had been a figment of a feverish mind.

As though a spell had been broken, Tovor finally tore his eyes away. He wanted to leave, get a far away from this place as possible. It was all so very strange, the bizarre conflict encapsulated in the elf too much to take in. He had to leave.

It took all his willpower to keep to a careful walk as he made his way away from the forest oasis. His joints ached with pent up tension, and he wanted to scream with frustration. Something was so wrong with a world that only wanted to crap squarely on his head. Every special thing in his life had to be tainted with the most unlikely surprise. As he went, almost as though to mock him, the elf began singing once more, her sweet voice belying the deadly surprise she harboured.

It wasn't fair! Picking up his pace as he put more distance between them, Tovor rushed through the forest back towards his own sanctuary. He wanted nothing more than a stiff drink to calm his roiling nerves.

He didn't go out to the pub that evening; he couldn't face his friends. His little secret fantasy had been crushed, and he was in no mood for merriment. A night of gloomy brooding with a bottle of whisky helped dull his mind, but it couldn't take his mind off what he had seen.

Just who was she? What was she?

Tovor had no answers, and was glad when insensibility finally reached out to take him.

For weeks he didn't return to the pretty little forest sanctuary, abandoning even the traps he had left in the area. He wanted to forget everything about what he had seen, even the good now linked so inextricably to the bad. Especially the good; he felt something cold in the pit of his stomach whenever he considered his amorous thoughts towards to elven enigma. He had been so attracted, to someone with...

No, it was too much. He needed to do something else, take his mind off it.

The festival was still a month away, but already his friends were becoming busier. The mayor had enlisted his daughter to procure all manner essentials for the day, and Yolindra in turn was happy to working closely with Lyreiss. Each year Pillidis and his siblings would man a stall at the festival market selling some of their more exotic produce, along with carved wooden trinkets and candles, and the run-up was always a busy time. The general mood of the town lifted, and business ticked up at the pub too, with Lilvia working long days to keep up.

His friends noticed his gloomy demeanour, how he was quieter when they met in the pub, but Tovor waved it off. How glad he was that he'd never mentioned the elf before! After a while, as the shock ebbed away, his mood began to lighten. After all, what had he ever really expected to happen anyway? He'd introduce himself, and the elven beauty would fall into his arms? Not likely.

Painful as it was, at least this way he had seen two extraordinary things.

Tovor had never really gotten too involved in preparations. Come the day he would help lay out the archery range and test the bows they made available to all comers to ensure they hadn't warped or rotted in the intervening year, but otherwise he just worked as normal. The local tanners were always keen for every scrap of hide they could lay their hands on ahead of the festival, and Tovor was happy to provide what he could.

Before long, his encounter in the woods started to take on an almost dreamlike feeling in his mind. It had been strange enough at the time, as though he had stepped out from the world for a time, and even as he ran it over in his mind time and again the images swirled and mixed. Her beauty that bit more radiant, her voice that bit more sweet, her cock that bit more intimidating. Two weeks out, and he could almost convince himself that he imagined the whole thing.

After a lean day of hunting in the woods north of the town he finally convinced himself to return, if nothing else to retrieve and reset his traps. And anyway, there was nothing for him to be frightened of. He had just been shaken up, it was no reason to completely avoid what had proved to be a prime area for ranging.

He set out mid-morning with a light load, just his bow, quiver and knife, along with an empty sack, a waterskin and a haunch of bread in the inside pocket of his jacket. After near enough three weeks he was unlikely to find anything still worth taking, but he might be lucky.

It felt odd to walk the same paths again, after all that had been running through his mind. It was strange to think how a patch of the same forest he had spent most of his life traversing could become so indelibly linked to a single experience. Or a single person, in the form of the mysterious elven hybrid. The tweeting of the birds above, no different anywhere else in the forest, put thoughts of her singing into his mind. The flow of a nearby stream, one he passed over each time he came out that way, reminded him of her gently sculling across the pool. A standing stone, tilted against another, pointing to the canopy above brought visions of...

Well, indeed. The mind worked in strange ways.

He checked his traps as he went, deciding to leave them in place. Some were untouched, while others had been triggered and subsequently further disturbed when scavengers came to make the most of Tovor's inattention. One, he noted with a quickening pulse, had been carefully triggered in the same way he'd noticed before. The thin, sinewy twig used to poke it had been tied in a knot at one end in a way even the cleverest animal would find impossible.

Taking a few deep breathes to calm himself, Tovor reset the trap and moved on.

The idyllic clearing was quiet this time, though he still approached cautiously, passing through the undergrowth on the gentle downward slope to the water's edge. Stopping just at the edge of the treeline, he looked out across the open water.

Deserted, of course.

He let out an explosive breath he didn't even realise he'd been holding, slumping sideways against a tree. He felt ridiculous.

"What a good day," he said to the quiet of the forest, and laughed. It was a good day. A good day to slowly go mad, or maybe come to his senses.

The sun was hanging directly overhead, spilling light into the clearing. Hopping down a boulder to the edge of the pool, he dipped his water skin and took a long draught, enjoying the cool refreshment.

He sat on a rock for by the water for a time, chewing on his bread thoughtfully, his eyes resting on the opposite bank where he had seen her before. It all seemed so peaceful now, and with all his pent-up tension it felt good to just sit back and relax. It was almost his way of reclaiming the forest - his forest - in his own mind.

Eventually, he stood up and stretching, tilting his neck one way, then the other, trying to work out the strain. Reaching for his bow, he turned to leave.

The elf stood watching him from the edge of the treeline.

Tovor let out a strangled bark of alarm, almost stumbling back into the water, wheeling one arm to steady himself. The elven beauty cocked a head at this, but made no motion to greet him.

She was dressed, for once, in ranger leathers, a mixture of greens and browns that hugged tightly to her slight figure, the tightness emphasising the elegant curve of her hips and full breasts. She too had a bow slung over her back.

Unbidden, his eyes flicked downwards, but of that last apparition there was no evidence.

"You know," she said in clear common tongue, her voice every bit as musical as her song had been, "it is quite rude to spy on someone bathing."

Tovor felt his blood run cold, and he cringed away. Neither her expression nor demeanour had changed, but he suddenly felt alarmed by her outward calm. Numbly, he let his bow fall to the ground.

"I...what do you mean?" he said, weakly.

She cocked her head and frowned.

"Come now, friend, I can see it in your eyes," she said, "I was wondering if you would return, after last time."

Last time. When he had seen her...secret? Was it a secret? Had he unwittingly stumbled upon some deep shame of hers?

"I...I..." he stammered, then fell silent. Had she seen him, or was she guessing? Had he left tracks, tracks she could tell were fresh?

"Come, let us talk, you and I," she beckoned him, "I know you have been spying on me, huntsman, so do not worry yourself to think up denials."

Feet like lead, he dragged himself forward, up the gentle slope from the edge of the water. As he approached she waved him onwards, and they walked a little way into the trees. They walked a little way to where her pack lay on the ground beneath a young oak, and she shrugged off her bow before turned to him. He stopped around six paces away, watching her nervously. At closer quarters he could see that his previous assessment as to her height had been correct - he had maybe an inch or two on her at most. He beautiful face was calm and neutral as she watched him, her cool blue eyes searching his.

He already knew she was exceptionally beautiful by any standard he had to gauge, even compared to those few elves he had seen in the city, but up close she took his breath away. It was though she had stepped from the pages of the most fantastical of storybooks.

"My...my apologies, my lady," he managed in a weak croak.

At his admission, she seemed to relax a little, a ghost of a smile crossing her lips.

"It is no small thing for a man to gaze upon a Warder of E'es Irivase," she said calmly.

He stared at her helplessly, not recognising the name.

"Are you truly sorry, huntsman?" she asked after letting the silence stew for a time, "would you repent for you bad faith? For invading my privacy and seeing what you should not?"

He shrank back from her, wincing, though she did not sound truly angry. Her voice was still calm, but each word cut him.

"Yes, truly, I am sorry my lady. Please, forgive me, it was never my plan. I never meant to spy, I just stumbled upon this place and..."

"Chose not to announce yourself."

"Please," he implored, "I was taken by surprise, and you...you were already..." he wrung his hands nervously, "I know it was wrong of me, but I was stunned by...by your beauty. My lady, I am shamed."

She smiled then, a brightness lighting up her face, and his heart swelled despite everything.

"That, friend, is a good start," she said lightly, "perhaps we can come to an accommodation, yes? I would so hate for a sourness to stand between us as people and as neighbours."

"An...accommodation?" he said warily.

"Quite so," she spread her arms, "no great thing, assuredly. But I have been wronged, and I would know that you are truly remorseful."

"I...of course," he said, "please, how can I show you?"

Her smile widened, her blue eyes glittering.

"You are a handsome young man, master huntsman, and these forests can be so lonely," she said, "tell me, did it excite you, watching me in the water?"

He flushed.

"I...well...ah..." he paused, tongue-tied, "you are very beautiful, my lady. But..."

She let out a trilling laugh.

"But...?" she raised an amused eyebrow, "my...ah...condition?"

He nodded mutely, his cheeks burning. A 'condition' was it? It seemed rather more than that to him.

"I see, well, then this may be a good opportunity to show good faith," she said, "it has been some time for me, you see. It can be a little...complicated."

"Complicated." He echoed.

"Indeed. People are not always understanding," she said, "so, does that sound a fair repayment?"

Repayment? She wanted to sleep with him? Surely he had misunderstood.

"I'm sorry, my lady. I am not sure..."

"I would lie with you, my young spy," she said brightly.

Tovor's blood seemed to want to go to all places at once. His face burned with nervous embarrassment, whilst his manhood swelled at her lilting words, his heart hammering fitfully in his chest. To lie with an elf! Even in his wildest fantasies could he not dream such a thing, but with such a twist.

"You wish me to..." he began, trailing off.

She gave him a quizzical look.

"Well, of course I will be taking the man's role. I have a penis, after all."

"But...but you're a woman!" he exclaimed, "I mean...aren't you?"

"Do I not look like a woman?" she asked coolly. Tovor had never been close enough to speak with an elf before, male or female, but it was obvious there was no way she could be mistaken for anything but a woman.

But women did not, as a rule, have cocks.