Lords of Eros

3. The Valley

"I don't get it," Tascha frowned.

"Well, you know Grieg's 'In the Hall of the Mountain King,' right?"

"Of course."

"Well, there's this classic prog rock album, by King Crimson, called

In the Court of the Crimson King

. Somebody apparently thought it was clever to put the two things together. At the time I thought it was hysterical."

She cocked her eyebrow at him and smirked, "I guess you had to be there."

"It gets better," Don couldn't resist chuckling a bit. "You know 'Kubla Khan,' by Coleridge? Well, it turns out the full name of the place we were looking for is the pleasure dome in the hall of the court of the crimson mountain king." He laughed again. "Nothing? Seriously?"

Tascha rolled her eyes but smiled.

"Anyway..." Don sighed. "The next day we got some decent hiking clothes from the Wardrobery."

"Better than the ones we had before?"

"Better than we got from the Manor, but as good as what we got from the Wizard. Plus, we scored some nice hiking boots and backpacks, which we filled with fruit and bottles of water."

"You found actual bottles?"

"Yeah, it turns out all you have to do is ask a blank and they'll get you one," Don nodded. "Stephanie had learned a bunch of tricks like that while she was running around all those years."

"Cool."

"I also retrieved the staffs we got from the Wizard. They were still in the lockers where we'd left them. Nicole didn't want one, but Stephanie took Shelonda's. Then we headed out."

"Just the three of you?"

"Yeah, Amy wanted to stay at the Resort, and Liu and Jimmy wandered off the next morning anyway."

"I'll bet you were sorry to say goodbye to Amy," Tascha smiled.

"Well, yeah, I was," Don grinned. "She was a lot of fun. By the way, Stephanie said that the way Amy and Shelonda, and Victor, though I never did see him again... She said it seemed quite odd that they followed us around so consistently. Apparently, the people who don't remember their other lives tend to be very easily distracted, and not inclined to form close friendships."

Tascha frowned thoughtfully, "Interesting. What do you think about that?"

"Honestly, I think it's just that we tried to be friends with them, and we didn't ever think of them as interchangeable fuck toys."

"Well, sometimes..."

Don laughed, "Yes, some of those orgies were like that, but we made an effort to treat the people we met, well, as people. Amnesiac, horny-as-hell people, but people."

"Stephanie didn't do that?"

"Not so much," frowned Don. "She'd been there a long time, which might have jaded her a bit, but I got the impression she never really thought of the forgetful as people. Remember, Robert the Scholar said a similar thing, about them being basically children. He said they don't really develop personalities, but I think he was wrong. I think they come to Eros with personalities, and the environment just serves to accentuate one particular side of those personalities—the horny-as-hell side."

"I remember," Tascha grinned.

"Also, it seems like there is a set of Erosians between the blanks and the forgetful: folks with fully developed personalities but who aren't the forgetful or the fully conscious, like us, Stephanie, and Nicole. I think the Wizard was one of those, and maybe Madeleine, too. I call them NPCs—it's a gaming thing, 'non-player characters.'"

"I know what 'NPC' means, Don, but yeah, that does sound plausible."

"Anyway, Nicole, Stephanie, and I headed out, looking for the Crimson Mountain. We reasoned that since it was, plausibly, a mountain, and we were very sure it wasn't downriver from the Resort or in the region from that river valley to the Manor, since we and Stephanie had pretty well covered that area, that we ought to head uphill, into the hills beyond the Resort and the Abbey of Records."

"Makes sense."

"It took a couple of weeks of hiking and climbing before we found anything of particular interest."

***

"Is it just me, or does that mountain look particularly red?" Don asked. As usual, he had gotten a bit ahead of his two companions, and so was the first to crest the slope they had been climbing all day.

Stephanie came up next, looked out into the distance, and said, "Yeah, definitely."

Seeing that the other two had, finally, stopped and seemed to be looking at something, Nicole hurried a bit, so that she was breathing a bit heavily by the time she caught up. After just a moment, she said, "Well, damn!" She took a few more deep breaths before she pointed out, "That's a long way away."

Don nodded, and Stephanie grinned, "But closer than it used to be, right?"

"That's fair," Nicole agreed. "Looks like we get to go downhill for a bit, though, so that's good."

Stretching out in front of them, the most direct path toward the decidedly reddish mountain in the distance led down into what seemed to be a thickly forested valley that was swathed in a thin blanket of white fog. Off in the distance to their left was a gap in the surrounding hillsides where they could make out what seemed to be a river, which presumably flowed through the valley from the highlands at the other end of the valley which included the mountain that was now their goal.

"It's one hell of a view," Stephanie pointed out. She then gave the other two a mischievous smile, and said, "Want to take a break and christen this 'Threesome Pass'?"

The answer to this kind of question was almost always "Yes," which accounted for a good part of why it had taken so long to get this far. They had all become quite good at getting quickly undressed, and they had established the tacit rule that the first two naked would get started without the third, who had to wait until there was a reasonable break in the action. So, this time, Don found himself standing there, naked and with a raging erection, admiring the view, both of the valley and mountains spread out around him, and of the two women in front of him as they made out hungrily, their fingers stroking each other as their mouths and tongues continued their ongoing love affair. Don enjoyed the contrast between Nicole and Stephanie. Both were petite and about the same height but were otherwise quite different. Nicole's dark skin and slender build, including her tiny breasts, and her straight black hair were a wonderful counterpoint to Stephanie's tanned but much lighter skin, taut muscular build, generous breasts and thick, chaotic brown hair. Nicole looked very much like what she was, a young college student who had until recently been quite innocent, while Stephanie seemed a wild, almost dangerous, stripper or porn star. Don was quite happy to watch, dick in hand, as the women slowly lowered themselves to the green grass, never breaking their torrid kiss and their fingers never leaving the other's clinging sex.

It was only when Stephanie pushed Nicole back on the sward and moved down between those dark thighs to add her tongue to the mischief her fingers were doing that Don moved to get in on things. Stephanie pointedly stayed up on her knees as she began licking at Nicole's clit, leaving her firm ass up in the air, beckoning to Don. He stepped into place, pausing to run his appreciative hand over Stephanie's tight buttocks, and then knelt, pushing his cock into position. He moved the head of his organ up and down between Stephanie's dewy lips, enjoying the sensation of her wetness on him and teasing her a bit. Unfortunately, teasing her meant teasing himself, and he had had enough of that already. With a very happy groan, Don pushed himself deep into Stephanie's tight, hot embrace. After holding still there for a moment to appreciate her exquisite grasp, Don took her narrow waist and began to work in and out of her. At first he took his time, using long, deliberate strokes, almost all the way out and then deep into her, feeling her cervix kissing his head, but it wasn't too long before he was fucking her hard and fast—short rapid motions, his balls slapping against her clit—driven by his mounting need to fill her with his seed. He looked down over Stephanie's muscular back to where he could see cute little Nicole holding Stephanie's head as she shoved herself up against that talented tongue and those plunging fingers. Then Nicole was crying out in the open air, letting the whole world know she was having a wonderfully intense orgasm.

In another few minutes, after Nicole had stopped twitching and giggling, Don found himself on his back in the grass as Stephanie rode him in a reverse cowgirl. She leaned back on him, her hands behind her supporting herself on his chest, as she moved slowly up and down on his cock and Nicole lay between Don's legs licking at her clit. Don just lay there, hands on Stephanie's waist, enjoying the show and the feeling of Stephanie's pussy, and occasionally Nicole's tongue, on his engorged cock. When Stephanie lowered herself a bit more, Don was able to reach around her and cup her tits in his hands, pinching her nipples a bit between his fingers. Then she was shuddering on top of him as Nicole's tongue worked its magic.

A bit later, Don found himself thinking he must be the porn king of the world as he stood there in the open air, surrounded by that majestic landscape, with these two gorgeous women kneeling before him taking turns sucking and licking his cock. It didn't take much of this before Don's own climax surged up, his balls tightening as his cock spasmed and loosed a thick, long gout of white cum to splash all over their upturned faces. The girls laughed as Don trembled and groaned, shooting another three streams for them before he stumbled back a bit. They kept him there though, sucking and licking up every bit of the stuff before they let him go.

***

"Don?" Tascha was looking at him across the table.

"Oh, sorry," he laughed. "'Just got a bit distracted with a memory."

She smiled, "I can believe it. There have been more than a few times when I've caught myself reminiscing this week."

"Anything in particular stand out?" Don leaned forward a bit.

"Ha, there are several things I keep going back to, but you need to finish your story first."

"Oh, fine," he shrugged. "Where was I?"

***

It was late in the afternoon by the time they got down to the tree line. As they entered the forest, Don was struck by the overwhelming beauty of it all. In every direction he saw the kind of panorama so many Romantic painters tried to capture in their depictions of sylvan paradise. Every tree spread majestic, thickly leaved branches in a vaulted ceiling. Every trunk was thick with green moss. Between the trees was a hazy mist that promised a warm fog as the sun set. The ground was covered with moss and soft fallen leaves. A soothing quiet pervaded the entire setting.

"Damn!" Stephanie breathed.

Don nodded silently, but Nicole remembered other peaceful woods and warned, "Watch out for dick vines!"

"You guys ran into those too, I take it," Stephanie said as she followed Don deeper into the forest.

"Yeah. It was... unpleasant," Nicole murmured.

"It'll be easy to get lost in here," observed Don.

Stephanie suggested, "We could try to make for that river."

So, keeping together and watching out for lively phallic projections, the trio made their way into the forest as the sun sank in the sky. Dusk was fleeting here, golden green shifting quickly through gray and silver blue, and then threatening a deep indigo night. They thought they would have to completely stop, but then, slowly, blinking yellow dot by blinking yellow dot, the canopy over their heads became alive with tiny lights that seemed to drift slowly among the maze of branches and leaves. It was mesmerizing, and all three of the travelers found themselves standing still, watching the lights that Don, at least, assumed were fireflies.

A motion out of the corner of his eye drew Don's attention, and then another. His voice came out in a whisper, "Some of these are moving faster..."

"Yeah, like, deliberately," Nicole agreed.

Don was sure he heard something like giggling, and then, abruptly, a tiny naked woman was there inches from his face, hovering in midair. If she had been full-sized, she still would have been petite, with relatively long legs and tiny breasts. Don focused carefully and saw that she had a pretty little face with a pixie haircut, naturally enough. Though they were flapping quickly to keep her in more or less one place, Don could tell that she had diaphanous wings on her back. It was only fairly late in the encounter that he processed the fact that this creature was glowing.

"Hey there, big boy," the tiny woman winked and buzzed in to give the end of his nose a kiss. Then she was gone.

"Uh," Don managed.

"Fairies," Stephanie suggested.

"I suppose we should have been expecting something like this," Nicole chuckled.

Don felt a little breeze on his neck, and then heard a voice in his ear, "Aren't you wearing an awful lot of clothes?"

Another voice, that sounded like the first 'fairy' said in his other ear, "Yeah, show us what ya got, big boy!"

Nicole giggled, and Don noticed that each of the girls had little winged people flying around her as well.

"How would that even work?" Nicole asked, apparently in response to something one of her inquisitors had said.

Stephanie saw Don's inquisitive expression and said, "They seem as horny as everything else."

Don chuckled, "Well, that's not surprising, but what she said: how would that even work?"

"Well, some of us have smaller things to be stimulated, you know," Nicole grinned.

"Hey, I think I have demonstrated that I do know that," Don laughed.

"Wouldn't you like to feel us licking and rubbing on that big thing you've got hidden away there?" asked a tiny winged temptress in front of Don. She managed to arch her back to thrust her little breasts forward suggestively.

"Well, that does sound interesting..." Don admitted, but then stopped. Suddenly the little cloud of fairies, or whatever they were, that had ganged up on them were gone, flown abruptly back up into the leaves.

Don, Nicole, and Stephanie now found themselves surrounded by a quite different group. About a dozen people were ringed about them with bows and arrows aimed at them. Though they had different skin and hair colors, and styles for the latter, as well as some dramatic face painting and/or tattoos, they were all slender of build, and none of them were taller than Don. Each of these archers had noticeably pointed ears, and most of them had dramatically arched eyebrows. They were wearing clothing that seemed to mainly consist of large leaves, though that was arranged for functionality rather than modesty, which was in any case a largely foreign concept in Eros. All these observations were taken in very quickly, because almost as quickly as the little, winged creatures had flown away, one of the newcomers was addressing our trio.

"Wherefor art thou trespassing here, crude humanity?" asked a female with long dark hair and bare breasts.

"Well, I don't think 'crude's' fair," Don frowned.

"Tis thine nature," she scowled.

"That's just racist, isn't it?" Nicole put in.

"'Speciesist' would be better, I think," Don suggested.

"Fie on thine prevarication, humans," the woman scowled. "State thy purpose."

"Shouldn't it be 'thine' or 'thy' in both of those sentences?" Nicole asked, apparently on a roll.

Don decided not to further antagonize the folks with the arrows pointing at him and his friends. He said, "We didn't know we were trespassing. We are trying to get to yon Crimson Mountain."

"Oh, 'yon,' nice!" Nicole whispered.

"That may well be," the woman scowled, "but thou mayest only pass through this vale with permission of milady the queen."

"Queen of the ... elves?" Don asked.

She seemed to relax a bit and said, "Aye, and of all the fey folk."

Don smiled a bit, "Wouldst thou escort us thither, that we mayst pay our respects to her grace and beg her permission to continue on our journey?"

"Damn, professor!" Nicole hissed as she stifled her laughter.

The elven woman lowered the point of her arrow, apparently signaling her companions to adopt a less hostile, but still guarded, stance, and said, "Aye, human, we shall do as thy ask. 'Twas well said."

Don bowed and said, "Thank you, fair...?"

"Lyrandiel," she almost smiled.

"We shall be in thy debt, fair Lyrandiel," Don smiled.

Lyrandiel led the way into the dark forest, which was illuminated now by the wan yellow glow of the creatures Don was thinking of as fairies. The other elves continued to surround the party and follow along behind. None of them talked with Don or his companions.

"Are we sure we can trust your new friend?" Nicole asked.

"I don't think we have much choice," Don shrugged.

"Don's right," chimed in Stephanie. "When dealing with communities like this, I've always found it easiest to play along."

Nicole frowned, "I don't know. I'm getting a serious Sisterhood vibe here."

"Sisterhood?"

As they followed Lyrandiel further into the forest, Nicole and Don related the tale of Tascha's capture by the Sisterhood and their valiant, but ultimately futile, rescue attempt. Don found himself a bit surprised that Stephanie had managed to avoid running into the Sisterhood in her travels.

At the end of the story, Don said, "But ultimately, playing along with their view of the world was productive, or would have been if Tascha hadn't freed herself before we got there."

"I like this Tascha," Stephanie decided. "Too bad you didn't find me earlier."

"Agreed," nodded Don, "and she definitely would have liked you."

At last, Lyrandiel led them into a wide clearing that had additional lighting provided by what seemed to be stationary balls of pale blue light, hovering about twelve feet in the air and arranged evenly in the space. In the center of this clearing was the massive trunk of a gigantic tree that had a stairway spiraling upward around it. Lyrandiel proceeded directly to these stairs, and Don and the others followed silently.

Don had to admit that the elven aesthetic was very much on point, and that the subdued and suffused lighting lent a magical air to everything. He could certainly understand wanting to spend a long vacation here.

Eventually they were guided into a cavernous area near the top of the main part of the trunk. A warm, golden glow filled the air. Dozens of fairies flitted about overhead and there were many elves moving to the side and looking the newcomers over with curiosity and occasionally some measure of disdain. All the elves were slender and not particularly tall but varied in other respects. Only a few were armed, and none seemed as outwardly martial as Lyrandiel and her companions. Those who weren't naked wore long, flowing robes, mostly in pastel colors. The naked elves seemed to have no sign of body hair.

Don and the others were directed to stand before a raised platform flanked on the right by a dozen beautiful elven women and on the right by a dozen handsome elven men. Seated on a kind of throne with a high, twisting back was a gorgeous woman who reminded Don of Gal Gadot.

***

"Not Cate Blanchett?" Tascha interrupted.

"No," Don laughed, "though I admit that's more of what I expected, too."

"Not that you were complaining."

"Oh, definitely not!"

"So, Gal Gadot, eh?"

"Not her," Don shook his head. "She just reminded me of her. She bore a resemblance, and a kind of imperiousness, that reminded me of her. It was like the way the Lady of the Manor reminded me of Monica Bellucci."

"Mmmm," Tascha smiled.

"Are you thinking of the Lady or Monica Bellucci?"

"Both! Oh, and now Cate Blanchett is joining in," she laughed. "Go on, back to the elf queen who looked like Wonder Woman."

"Just her face," Don protested. "Okay, and her hair, but she was thinner."