It had happened when she was very young, so young that all she could remember of the accident that had claimed her parents' lives were just flashes... and pain. The pain wasn't something that had happened to her physically—the person who found her and rescued her from the smoldering wreck found her relatively unscathed—the pain was from the shock of the accident, and of gradually learning she no longer had her parents anymore. Learning that she was alone. That was a pain that remained with her as long as Rebecca could remember... although at least it was more of a dull ache now that she was eighteen. She had come to live with an old aunt of her mother's, her closest living relative... Aunt Flor was always kind to her, never mistreated her, but Rebecca had always felt alone. Perhaps the fact that her aunt had lived by herself in a remote corner of the woods, at the end of a little valley somewhere up in the mountains of Idaho's panhandle... what most would consider the ends of the world; a desolate place for a young girl robbed of her parents to grow up. And yet... Rebecca never felt resentful of her life. She was lonely, of course, but she loved growing up in the woods. She always felt safe there—it had been her playground growing up, after all.
Her aunt, a very independent spinster her whole life, had also been a teacher ages ago in the little town five or six miles away, and had taught Rebecca herself, all the way up to high school level. It had been a fine education, except that again it had isolated Rebecca from the outside world and from developing in ways she might have done otherwise, had she grown up with her parents far away in their old home. In fact, the only place Rebecca ever got to see was the little town a few miles away... to her it had always seemed like a big and far away place, as funny as that might seem. She got to ride there from time to time with her aunt, when her aunt's old friend Tom (almost as old as Aunt Flor, anyway) came rattling down the road in his old station wagon. Flor refused to own a car, which Rebecca thought made sense, seeing as how it was a car that killed her parents. As it was, Aunt Flor was oddly protective of Rebecca whenever the two of them went into town. Her aunt was seen as a hermit of sorts, an old eccentric who kept to herself... not that she was the only one who did so, in those parts, so she was usually left alone. Flor kept Rebecca away from the parts of town that had bars, hotels, gas stations... any place where you'd usually find strangers. It was the same old stores and groceries that her aunt frequented, and occasionally some other old friend's house in town, to pay a visit.
This extremely sheltered, remote existence was not entirely lost on Rebecca. As she got older she found herself more and more curious about the town and the outside world, but she dared not question her aunt, nor sneak away. Still, when she was off in the woods somewhere, she found herself wondering what it would be like to sneak into town for herself, by herself, and see just what it was her aunt was trying to hide from her. These ideas grew stronger, and bolder, as Rebecca went through her teenage years... and she found herself confused as she progressed through puberty. Her young body was changing, in ways that her aunt offered little help in explaining... not surprisingly. In fact, as her aunt aged, Rebecca noticed her attention wandered more and she seemed to pay less attention to Rebecca, although they never went to town anymore once old Tom died, when Rebecca was sixteen. Her aunt lost interest in going anywhere after that—her other friends periodically visited and dropped off supplies. Poor Rebecca found herself more alone every day, unable to figure out what was happening to her body and still longing, deep down, to go off and explore.
It wasn't long after Tom died, when Rebecca was seventeen, when she found herself wandering further into the woods that summer. It was the one place she always felt safe, and felt happy, which was why she was spending almost all of her time there. Winter came, and Rebecca was back spending most of her time at home with an aunt who was unintentionally growing more distant. These thoughts... these fantasies... these hormones running through her body, making her feel things she didn't understand... Rebecca didn't know what to do, but the one thing she decided she'd do this coming summer was spend as much time in the woods as possible. Maybe... just maybe... stay there. Just a few days at a time, at first, to see what it was like—to see if her aunt would even notice...
Spring arrived, as did her eighteenth birthday. Aunt Flor didn't even notice. It had been the second or third birthday now that her aunt had forgotten, engrossed more and more into an old television that she so rarely used to watch in the past. Rebecca didn't notice, either—she had been dwelling on these little ideas of hers so much that winter that she could hardly contain herself. Her body had won... the teen's hormones, without any outlet, had been running rampant and she had been entertaining bolder and wilder ideas, things she would have never dreamed of before. She had no idea where these delicious fantasies had come from, but she DID know that all she wanted was to explore this new part of herself, and see what fun she could have without her aunt's knowing about it.
The weather grew warmer and warmer, and the leaves in the forest returned in greater lushness as it did. Rebecca had already been walking and wandering her usual paths during the day once it had been warm enough to do so... but now, now it was time, she felt, to let her heart run free and live out her wild fantasies. It was late April, and been unusually warm all month. Over the next ridge was a small lake, a couple miles away from her aunt's house and in the opposite direction of town. She'd found it about three or four years ago and had visited it regularly—and it was where Rebecca would try several things her newly devious heart had been dying to do now, for months. She covered ground quickly and made it there before noon. The lake was completely enveloped within the forest; the nearest settlement to it for miles was her aunt's house. It covered roughly the same area as a football field, maybe slightly smaller, and it looked beautiful to her in the noonday sun. The ridge bordered the lake on one side and there was a wall of rock on that side; it was also where the lake was deepest. The forest bordered both sides of the lake up to the opposite end, which was shallow, marshy, and muddy.
Rebecca's heart was beating hard... time for the first step. Without even really needing to do so, she looked all around her, making sure there wasn't another living soul in sight. There wasn't. Her aunt was several miles away over the ridge in the neighboring valley, and she was the closest human being. Rebecca knew this, but making sure no one else was around relieved her—and thrilled her. Slowly, savoring the sensation as if she'd never done it, she pulled her shirt over her head, and removed it. She'd left her underwear at home (another little kink she'd developed over the winter). The feeling of the cool air on her breasts sent a delicious shiver down her spine. She'd never taken all of her clothes off out in the wilderness before. Emboldened, she took off her shoes, and her socks, and stood barefoot and bare-breasted in the damp grass. Rebecca licked her lips, and a mischievous grin crossed her face. She pulled her shorts down over her smooth, bare hips, and they fell to her feet. She stepped out of them, her heart pounding—she was naked! Outside!! In flash, without even thinking, she picked up all of her clothes and flung them behind her into the woods—she could always find them later. Rebecca didn't need them. Naked girls didn't need clothes, after all... and she instantly knew she LOVED this.
Rebecca's teenage body had developed into the sort of body that would have made other girls at school jealous, if she had gone to school. Constantly bounding through the woods her whole life had given her a lean, strong shape, and it served her well now, as a young woman. Her breasts were firm—not huge, but very good-sized. She loved her breasts. She didn't even really know what they were for, but she loved how they looked, how they felt... and she loved the shiver that ran down her spine as a cool breeze lapped at her nipples. Rebecca gasped as she saw them harden. She'd never noticed them do that before. Feeling even bolder, Rebecca strode away from her clothes and up the rocks, to the little cliff on the far end of the lake, about thirty feet above the water. She took a deep breath, grinned, and shouted, "I'm naked! NAKED!! I'm not wearing ANYTHING!" The birds stopped for a moment, and continued singing. The forest accepted her, whether she was naked or not.