IN THE PREVIOUS CHAPTERS...
The plan hatched by Artemis, under the dark influence of the Night Lord, takes more and more shape. Her most trusted General, Bardas, prepares the ground forces that will launch against the city of Heath Hill. The purpose of the attack is only one. Capture Queen Alexandra and deliver her in the hands of the Night Lord. And with her, also her sister Alanor, who had long since fallen into the hands of the Queen of Troygrove...
https://www.literotica.com/s/daughter-of-the-sun-ch-08
***
The massive silken pavilion which had been erected in the middle of the forest could have comfortably sheltered twenty people or even more. However, under those walls made of thin fabric which filtered the early golden light of the dawn, there were only two.
Queen Alexandra Rosendhal was standing in front of a well furbished rack, carefully selecting one of the numerous bows which were hanging from it, her small, pale hand gently caressing those wooden curves with the same light delicacy of a tender lover.
Just awaken from a well resting sleep, the splendid thirthy-one years old Queen of Heath Hill was nude as the day in which she had come to the world. A cascade of thick fiery red hair fell softly down her back, almost reaching to her small, slender buttocks, so perfect in their round softness to appear, in that dim light, as sculpted from the purest white alabaster.
Everything about her provided an idea of ββagility and speed; the small but strong muscles rippling under the pale skin of her legs and arms, her stiff abs, her small but firm breasts...her body was that of a born warrior, of an intrepid and courageous woman always committed to action.
"Heading out, already?" a sleepy voice murmured softly behind her, almost as in protest. "Another morning outside, hunting for dangerous wild beasts?"
"Well, that's precisely the reason for which we came into the woods, am I wrong?" Alexandra replied without turning, as she picked one of the long bows from the rack and carefully tested the tension of the string with her fingertips.
"I believed we came here so that we could be free to fuck each other for days, without fear of being interrupted," the voice behind her objected, with a barely concealed annoyed tone.
"That's for sure one of the reasons," Alexandra laughed, with a spark of malicious amusement in her beautiful, light-gray eyes. "Thus not necessarily the only one. Yesterday it was a great day, having taken down that magnificent moose. Today, I want to take down another one. Or maybe a boar, or even a brown bear, if the luck and the benevolence of Friya will assist me," she concluded, invoking the favor of the Goddess of the Forests and of the Hunt.
Alexandra always loved hunting, by woods and mountains; it was an activity which made her feel in deep contact with the most primordial nature, allowing her to become for a while almost as one with it. There was something inherently erotic in the way in which the bow was drawn forcefully before the shooting, in the vibrating sound of the release, in the way in which the arrow penetrated into the unprotected flesh of the prey.
And to make the whole experience more intense and immersive, she always held the habit to go hunting completely naked, turning herself in this way into a wild creature of the woods just as her preys, totally free and at perfect ease in the surrounding environment.
She loved to sense the immediate contact with the nature, with the living earth, to feel the gentle touch of the leaves and of the soft branches caressing her body as she ventured carefully and slowly into the thick vegetation, the perception of the hard soil, of the fresh grass, of the soft moss under her agile and silent feet.
She had learned the noble art of hunting in her early twenties when, not yet Queen but as ambassador of her city, she had lived for few years by the court of Lothorel, the isolated and densely wooded Kingdom on the south-east of the territory of Heath Hill, on the other shore of the Inland Sea, the large body of water which separated them.
The inhabitants of the mysterious realm of Lothorel were without doubt the best woodmen in the world, and their almost mystical connection with the nature went back into the millennia. It was the women of the court who initiated her into the mysteries of the art of hunting, together with those of love.
Alexandra always remembered with extreme pleasure those long hunting trips between women, the sense of excitement and danger they shared while entering the darkness of those thousand-year-old trees, the spirit of camaraderie that emerged strengthened from their adventure, binding them in the common goals of success and survival.
But above all she remembered their wild and joyful celebrations, at night by the silent woods, dancing together in circle around the large lit fire, on which the carcass of the beast hunted that day was slowly roasting. It was rare that such celebrations didn't quickly turn into group orgies, in which the huntresses rewarded themselves for their efforts, by giving each other mutual pleasure. At that time, Alexandra had gained for herself many new female friends...and many lovers as well.
The forest of Tharsis, the dense and luxuriant wooded area which grown not far south of the city of Heath Hill and in which she was standing now, was her favorite hunting ground. A magnificent yet potentially dangerous place, densely populated as it was by any sort of wild beasts, deer, elks, but also packs of wolves, large brown bears and wild, aggressive boars provided with razor-sharp tusks.
But the forest hid also other, less lethal, but not for this less dangerous, perils. Even though they had become so rare as to suggest that they may had completely disappeared, some people believed that the ignominious race of the satyrs, strange humanoid creatures between men and goats, was still populating the inner depths of those ancient woods.
An encounter with a satyr could have easily turned into something very unpleasant, especially for a group of women or, even worst, for a lone girl who had inadvertently ventured too deep into the woods. They were physically strong creatures, provided with a brutal temperament, very difficult to win in combat, which sometimes even acted in packs, which make them even more dangerous.
And, in addition to the brute force, they also had other means to subdue the victim who had recklessly ventured into their territory. Their powerful music, made through flutes and pipes that they carved from the wood of the trees, was said to be so captivating to cause actual stunning in women, inducing them to dance naked for them as if drunk, in a pressing and exciting frenzy that only served to make them more subservient, eager and predisposed to mating. It was in this ugly way that they were said to reproduce themselves.
Alexandra had never seen a satyr in her life, nor did she really believe in their existence, although, from time to time, some rumors come to her ears about some lone village girl who had fallen prey to their charms, disappearing into the woods for weeks, before being accidentally found by some woodcutter or hunter, wandering lost and stunned among the forest, her clothes forgotten who knows where.