Anne knew she should be afraid. Knew deep in her bones that things could go incredibly bad for her if things didn't happen the way they had for the past 100 years, but she also knew she was far more excited than afraid. Her time had finally come, and she knew her followers would keep her as safe as they could. She had prepared for years, all the deep control techniques that allowed her to control every muscle of her body and theoretically should bring the beast to orgasm instead of letting her be devoured. But it was just that - theory. Anne had never had sex before. She was the virgin high priestess of the moon, and tonight was the night of the beast.
The Blood moon of the lunar eclipse was here, and though she couldn't see it through the heavy blindfold, she could hear the way the crickets song increased. There was an electric fire to the air that made her skin prickle, and the crackling of the old fashioned torches threw heat onto her bare arms. The cold of the autumn night made her shiver just as much as the anticipation for the event, and she was glad of the heavy silk robe she wore over her lithe form that trailed along the grass behind her. The blades tickled her bare feet as the procession moved along, and she was very grateful for the strong arms keeping her upright and moving so she couldn't stumble and upset the ceremony taking place even now.
The silent procession was the start of the ceremony. Moving from the edge of the forest along the well-tended pathway, the priests and priestesses dressed in red gowns carried ancient torches crafted when the beast first appeared over a century ago. The white-garbed virgin in the center was always a trained and willing sacrifice, one of the many priestesses, and she was led in the silent procession for well over an hour through the darkening woods, timing their arrival to the sacred glade to be an hour before the eclipse. The heat of the lanterns and the scent of so many in the woods was a draw for the strange wolf-like beast that claimed this forest for his, but the reason why he only appeared to claim his sacrifice during one of the rare blood moons was still something of a mystery. He prowled every evening, this was fact, and killed any who entered the forest after dark, but this special ceremony was devised those 100 years ago to quell the bloodlust and keep the wolf from entering the town itself. It seems to have worked as well. The few times the ceremony failed, there was a slaughter of men and women in the town itself that plunged the whole populace into the deepest despair and terror imaginable.
Many had attempted to rid the forest of this beast or to protect the populace of the town from its terrors but they had all failed. Armies had swept the woods from end to end, finding no sign of it, and the one time the army had stationed itself in the town to protect it after a failed ceremony they had all fallen sick to the point of death before being slaughtered by the beast. Government funding for beast eradication now went into providing the temple with all the funds and willing volunteers it needed to conduct the ceremony of the blood moon, and any other spells and ceremonies of protection and appeasement needed to keep the people safe. Anne herself had overseen 3 other blood moon ceremonies, all successful, and was well trained in the occult arts of protection and warding needed to keep the beast happy and far, far away.
The rustle of robes seemed to part and flow away as Anne sensed they entered the clearing. A final spike of adrenaline sent her heart racing as the 2 priests on either side of her stopped her in what she knew was the center of the clearing. A hush fell, and they all stood silent, waiting for the song of the caller-bird. Not 30 seconds later the distinct and otherworldly chuckling trill floated into the clearing, followed by others, a whole flock of the strange black birds with their white-tipped crests fluttered into the clearing and settled into the big brass bowl of fruit and seeds 2 burly priests carried with them. The noise marked the start of the ceremony, and with their arrival the priests and priestesses around the edge of the clearing started to beat their cymbal sticks onto the ground, setting a shimmering clamorous beat that drove Anne's heart even faster. With the sound of clashing metal and the chuckling voices of the caller-birds, Anne was walked to the northern edge of the clearing and turned to face the center. Her blindfold was finally removed, and she blinked and squinted, eyes watering with pain at the sudden light after being in darkness this whole time. The torches blaze stabbed at her retinas and she fought the urge to cover her eyes with her hands.
Two priestesses came forward with short, sharp daggers, and the priests on either side gripper her arms tightly and offered her arms to the armed women. They gave Anne an encouraging look, and as one sliced a very shallow cut from the outside of her shoulder down her arms, across the inside of her elbows and to the wrist. It was far too shallow to actually kill her, but the pain was exquisite, and Anne inhaled sharply through her teeth. Rags were pressed to her wrists, gathering up some of the dripping blood, and it was then smeared across her cheeks and her neck. Next the armed priestesses sheathed their blades and grabbed the heavy silk garment at the shoulders, pulling it forward and down, leaving Anne nude and slightly shivering in the rapidly cooling air. Her bronze skin flickered in the torchlight, casting dancing patterns of light across her pert breasts and flat stomach.
The priestesses laid out a woolen pad on the flat stone table behind her, and the priests on either side of her helped her up onto the table. Anne wriggled into the pad to make it comfortable, and offered her wrists to the priests to be bound above her head with silk to the metal ring in the table. The priestesses used more blood from the rags and traced lines and runes across her nude form. Glyphs of protection, of warding, of healing, and of pleasure. When the priests were done, they retrieved jugs of oils from others in the circle and began to massage it into her cuts, helping cleanse them as well as let their aphrodisiac ingredients work their way into her system. She glanced over at her right hand man, and the dark-skinned priest showed 3 fingers. She had about 30 minutes before the moon would begin to eclipse and the beast would come.
The oil thoroughly worked into her cuts, Anne was just starting to feel the effects of the special blend when they began to massage it onto the rest of her body. Moving from her arms to her breasts, the specially trained priests knew all her most pleasurable places and how to get her as horny as possible. This was vital, for if she wasn't willing and ready, when the beast came to take her, she ran the risk of being devoured instead of taken, and the ceremony would be a failure. They massaged deeply and teasingly, flicking her nipples and spreading tingling bliss under their palms as they glided from her breasts to her neck, and then down her stomach to her thighs. She couldn't help but moan softly here and there, and decided that if she survived this, she was going to have these two men for an evening all to herself. They pressed deep and hard on her thighs, opening her up to their ministrations, and poured a generous portion of oil across her smoothly shaved mound and over her damp and ever-moistening vaginal lips. They didn't touch there, not yet, because they knew as well as she did the teasing pleasure of needing and not getting something made her that much hotter.