The universe. Beautiful. Infinite. Unknowable. Man has studied the heavens, seeking answers, since he first cast his eyes upward. He has asked, 'Am I alone?', but the heavens have refused to answer. He is an unremarkable mote of life inhabiting an unremarkable planet in an unremarkable galaxy, a galaxy occupying the unfathomable vastness of space with other uncountable, and equally unremarkable, galaxies.
The universe took no notice of this speck of life, but other beings stirred, restless in their slumber. Light and Dark. Good and Evil. Young and Old. Male and Female. Yen and Yang. Man had no words, no concepts to describe the celestial beings that existed beyond his comprehension. He has sensed their existence, as all living things did, but the beings weren't unlike a gentle breeze... unseeable and untouchable, and yet there, their passage subtly influencing their surroundings.
Light and Dark have always existed and always will. In man's limited understanding, Light represented all that is good... love, compassion, trust, and peace, while Dark embodied his uglier instincts... lust, selfishness, suspicion, and anger. Light and Dark were as old as the heavens and as new as a sunrise. Their struggle always has been and always would be.
In man's primitive concept of time, Light and Dark, Good and Evil, meet once every ten-thousand years in their eternal battle for dominance. As man went about his life, secure in his foolish arrogance, blissful in his infinite ignorance, he had no concept of his place in the universe... or that powers beyond his understanding stirred, their sleep almost over...
.
.
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Light
I woke, the planet's star low on horizon. My sleep was over and I was corporeal again. As I took control of the body, I felt the cool hardness of the ground, the tickle of the plant life, and the warmth of the early morning sun. I sat up and began examining my form. I lifted my appendages, one on each side, mounted high on the central trunk of my body. At the end of each appendage were ten shorter appendages, five on each side. I found I could control the appendages and discovered they were strong and nimble, perfectly designed for grasping and holding. I had two more, similar, appendages, at the base of my trunk. The lower appendages were not as dexterous as the upper, but they were massively strong.
The body wanted to rise from the ground, so I allowed instincts to take over. I rose gracefully, realizing I was bipedal as I came to rest comfortably upright. I saw no fur, no scales, no covering of any kind, and I ran my upper appendages over my body. The five smaller attachments were sensitive to touch, and I found that my flesh was warm and soft. My new body felt strong, powerful, and full of life, with little fat and strong muscles clearly visible under my skin. My small, nimble attachments continued to explore my host. My skull was mounted on a short, stiff stalk that allowed me to direct my sensing organs as my head swiveled. I had keen stereoscopic vision, with my eyes mounted high for good visibility, and I found a thick mane of long golden hair at the top of my head. I breathed deep, my chest rising as atmosphere filled my internal cavity. I touched the large swells below my head, causing a trill of pleasure to wash over me. I touched again, caressing them as the centers hardened. I was likely a female and the swellings were mammary glands to provide nourishment for young.
I moved, allowing the body's instincts and muscle memory to do the work of locomotion. The body was full of lifeforce, so unlike my previous hosts. I touched my mammaries again, feeling the life energy swell within me as my nipples hardened. My fingers continued to explore, their touch pleasant as they glided over my flesh. I reached the base of my trunk and discover a small, slit like opening surrounded by more light-colored hair. I explored the opening with my fingers and pleasure exploded within me, the aural energy of the body blooming in a seemingly never-ending swell.
I moaned softly, not in pain, but in pleasure. I touched again, and again the lifeforce swelled, building and infusing me as it was stored. I smiled. With practice, I could control the energy to finally defeat my nemesis once and for all. I settled to the ground and lay back, touching myself, one hand on my mammary, the other gently probing the small slit. I found a small lump within the slit, a tiny bit of flesh that when touched caused the body's aural energy to increase rapidly. With a soft moan of pleasure, I continued to explore the slit as lifeforce built within me. I stroked and touched, building the energy and storing it within the cells of the body.
It had been eons since I controlled such a magnificent creature. I continued to touch myself, exploring the body's limits as I built aural energy. I begin to move, unable to remain still as my lifeforce swelled, growing until the body could no longer contain its aura. I wailed loudly as the aura exploded from me in a powerful wave of energy, of lifeforce, radiating out from me as my body emptied itself of stored aura.
I lay panting, my body shivering. I'm stunned by the power of the aural release, but my body is unharmed, the sudden release of the excess aura pleasurable in the extreme. The power of the sudden, explosive release of lifeforce had surprised me, and I'd been unable to channel or control it. I touched myself again, wanting to recharge my aura. Now that I understood the body's limitations, I was confident I could learn to control and direct the release.
My aura began to build again with my touch, but more slowly than before. I'd have to conserve my aura, as after its release the body was slow to recharge, but recharge it would. I moaned softly as the rate of recharge increased. This body was a wonder of evolution, so much better for my purposes than my previous host.
When I'd last met my foe, we were plants, drawing our sustenance from the ground. The aura of the plants was weak, useless, and we spent two hundred orbits of the small, dim, red star slowly entwining each other, fractionally choking life from each other with each rotation of the planet. We were locked in a stalemate, neither having an advantage, until our hosts had perished of old age, and we'd once again slipped into our long sleep.
This time it would be different. With this vibrant being, I would finally vanquish my ancient enemy forever.
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.
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Aphrodite
I glanced at Vanessa Gleeme, stage name
Venus
, and I couldn't stop the sneer from twisting my lips. I hated that fucking blonde bitch, and if it wasn't for Randal, the head bouncer, standing behind us, I'd gladly scratch her fucking eyes out. I hated her bleached blonde hair, her big fake tits, and I especially hated her holier-than-thou attitude. I hated her now even more than I'd hated her when we worked rival clubs in Atlanta.
Venus glared at me, her eyes full of hate, but I didn't care. She was nothing but a bitch. We were about the same age, pushing forty, and we used to be the two headliners at our respective clubs. Venus headlined
Chasers
while I did the same at
Discretions
, the two leading gentlemen's clubs in Atlanta. The two clubs were owned by brothers who'd had a falling out, and they were both intent on driving the other out of business. No tactic was to extreme, and the girls working each club hated each other with as much passion as the brothers did. More than one dancer became scratched up and bruised because of the rivalry.
The life of a stripper was no picnic, and as eventually happened to all of us, we'd finally aged out of our premium clubs. Our bodies may have softened slightly with age, and we had a few more creases around our eyes, but we were still trim and athletic with flat stomachs and good muscle tone. By an ironic twist of fate, we'd both ended up in this shithole of a club,
The Lumberyard
,
Where Men Go to Get Wood
, in Westlake, Georgia, stripping and dancing for military guys that were young enough to be our sons. Puck, the shithole's owner, thought he could improve his club's image by bringing in big talent, but he couldn't afford the truly premiere girls, so he'd hired Venus, and now me, and promoted the shit out of the fact we headlined in Atlanta. Venus had arrived about a year before I did, and she'd lorded over the other girls like a queen until I'd arrived.
While Venus and I upped
The Lumberyard
's game, and outclassed the rest of the girls by miles, it was still a shithole, and in the light of day anyone could see the stains on the walls from when small river at the back of the club flooded after a heavy rain, the abused and scarred furniture, and the stained and tatty coverings on the wall. I hated this fucking place, but the cops didn't hassle us, Puck tended to look the other way if I wanted to supplement my income with a handsome, oversexed, airman, and Randal and his crew did a good job keeping us girls safe.
The Lumberyard
