A Scanner Deeply

Heimatar Region -- Dammalin System -- Planet 3 -- Vherokior tribal plains

It should be easy... Just like with the other women... Just like when she did it in the circle of elders... They had trusted her. They had let her go in on her own. They said she knew what she was doing.

Was she? Not really. She had winged it. All bluff. Yet she had gotten through. Maybe she was OK at it. They said it was unsafe to go it alone.

Yet what she had seen in there.... what she had felt and touched and breathed while walking the « little smoke »... she had never experienced anything like it. Granted, at age fifteen, in one of the most isolated systems in the galaxy, in the middle of the ochre and red desert, there wasn't much to witness and compare... Yet. She knew that what was in there was most surely beyond anything she could ever find in the « real world ».

She had to try again. She had to see if she could manage it on her own. Maybe find a way to go there when she wanted... a shortcut... she wished it in her bones...

Calixte walked to the edge of the circle she had painted saffron on the powdery ground. Red on red beneath the dark sky. The stars beyond. Did they really hold something else? They shone sienna through the swirls of smoke.

Here was the plant mixture. Here were the words.

Here was the brazier, burning red hot.

Now came the smoke. Now rose the chant.

She swayed. Round and round.

The world dimmed and she felt the pressure of the air ease on her body.

Round and round.

Nothing comes to dreamers but dreams.

Round and round.

It was so easy. She closed her eyes and it felt like opening them. She saw the path rising through the circle and she stepped onto the smoke. The smell of the plants and the taste of the mixture dimmed as well. She was walking upward on the unsubstantial. She reached the Plain of White. Now that she was here, would she remember where to go?

There, the first bearing point. The red arch. Behind it would be the place she had met...

She opened her eyes wide and took the whole experience in again.

... she had met the Dancer.

She couldn't remember the face, nor the clothes. And it had seemed so natural, to give him her hand and to let herself swirl. Such ecstatic giddy joy. The joy of turning and flying in the sure arms of the Dance itself.

She reached the arch. It was the same rough sandstone it had been last time, its surface grooved by unknown winds, its grain crumbling under the brush of her hand. The powder looked like blood on her fingertips.

As she looked up, the Plain had changed. Like last time, right? It had changed color. Had it changed to that exact tone of orange? It seemed off.

She looked around, expecting a familiar face or step.

None came.

She saw a dim path beyond the arch and started walking down it. It was somewhat of a dirt path. Orange red, dimming iridescent and then white as she looked to the sides. Eventually, she reached a dip in the path and it seemed the road was leading to some kind of cave. Maybe it was the home of the Dancer. Hmm... meeting him in his inner sanctum... what would it be like... The elders had told her she was lucky to have seen the Dancer on her first trip. Hmm... She would show them... she could be more...

She stepped into the mouth of the cave. She couldn't see anything. 'Act what you want', they had said. She held out her hand as if bearing a torch. And there it was, in her right hand.

The sudden light startled her a bit. Had she really conjured up a torch? Cool!

The walls were sandstone as well. It left a blood red trail on her bare shoulder as she brushed it against a corner. Her shoulders were bare. She was naked, indeed, except for her belt, loincloth and pouch. Interesting. She didn't think she had been completely naked last time. Oh well, why not. She could conjure up more clothes if she needed them... She was proud of her body. The men of the tribe, she new, were vying to be able to call her first when she turned of age. Her breasts were not large, but they were firm and pert. Her nipples stood straight out of a small dark areola. They were tight from the cold right now. Her hips were not large either, but she knew the curve of her butt and the way her slender legs met under it made other women jealous. Even the more beautiful, experimented ones. They knew in a few years she would be the most beautiful by far. Few could withstand her fierce stare. Yet most men wanted to meet it and plunge deep inside and see if some of the sensuous life she exuded was also meant for them.

As she progressed, she felt the air getting warmer and smelled a definite scent rising around her. She didn't know what it was, but it smelled strangely unfamiliar. She thought she should know it -- there were few scents she didn't know on the plainlands -- yet she could not place it.

The grotto continued downward into the earth -? - ever changing shape but never getting any wider or narrower.

She trailed her left hand on the walls. They were warm.

The hallway -- of sorts -- seemed to straighten out and she could see further ahead. As she took several steps forward, she thought she distinguished a human shape.

Yes, it was a woman.

She hastened forward, glad to see a familiar shape. « Hello? »

As she was moving forward, she didn't seem to get any closer to the woman. She felt the texture of the walls change under her fingers as she moved along. They were no longer rough, but smoothed out, slowly. Almost yielded to the pressure of her hand.

« Hello? » She peered into the distance to try and recognize the woman.

« Yes. » said a voice next to her. Startled, she jumped two feet sideways and backed to the wall. It was the woman. How had she gotten here so fast?

« Nice to meet you. » she said and smiled. She placed a hand on Calixte's shoulder. « Fear not. »

The smell was definitely stronger up close to the wall. Like a strong incense, warmer, headier. It felt so soft. She let the torch drop to the floor, casting crimson shadows about, and let her arms fall to her side, palms against the wall. So soft. She let her whole body rest against it, head back.

« It's nice here, isn't it? » asked the woman.

Calixte nodded, rapt.

The woman placed both hands on the wall, on either side of Calixte's shoulders. And smiled. Almost with regret.

Calixte felt herself gently sink into the wall, the woman sinking with her.

Under her hands and her back, she could feel now firmer shapes resolve. Now her legs were touching it. The shapes felt soft. Some were firm, some more tender.

The smell was getting intoxicating as she was sinking deeper into the fabric of the wall. It was starting to make her very aroused, burning like molten gold in her veins, making her pussy very wet and her skin very sensitive.

The woman was naked as well, with a fabric belt. Kind of a sash in front of her pubis. She had beautiful large breasts and long wavy auburn hair, like a fiery mane cascading down her shoulders. Calixte was now almost laying on her back, the woman above her.

The woman smiled and reached a hand above Calixte's head. She pulled at a piece of the wall. No. It was not the wall. It was a penis. An erect and somewhat hairy cock. She slid it into her mouth and started sucking on it, languidly. With her other hand, she was suddenly stroking some smooth legs. Someone -- or something with human legs and arms and hands -- shaped up behind the woman and grabbed her hips, grinding its pubis against her. The woman moaned.

Calixte looked around and realized the shapes she was feeling were human appendages... legs, hands, asses, breasts, heads... intricately woven bodies. They all seemed waiting for something. She reached for a shoulder and caressed it. So soft.

Everything started moving at the same time. All the shapes seemed to come to life and slowly move.

She couldn't think clearly. The smell was too strong. She couldn't control her movements. She saw herself reach for a cock and stroke it. Her other hand pinching a nipple. Something slid against her thigh and butt and she hoped against reason that it was a hard cock, seeking her burning pussy. She felt two hands reach from behind her and cup her breasts. She let out a moan as a hand slipped inside her legs and fingered her pussy very slowly and deliberately. She ground her pussy against the cock she was stroking and let herself fall back on the pile of moaning bodies, caressed by more hands than she could count.

« Welcome to Aphrodisia, the antechamber of Eusethia. » she dimly heard the woman say.

The word echoed a little while in her crazed brain as she moaned under the insistent thrust of the cock near her, trying to get in.

Holy shit... Eusethia... the name finally found its mark. They had warned her of her. The elders. They had told her to beware of the sensual trap.

Her senses came back in sharp focus. She brushed the penis away from between her legs and scrambled back. At the edge of her vision, she thought she saw some of the bodies crumble into broken greenish stone.

« Come back, Calixte. You are here to serve. And be served. »

The smell was back, trying to insinuate itself back into her. Tearing herself away with difficulty from the yearning of her body, she held her breath.

« Calixte... Stay... You can only stay... »

She swallowed hard. It felt as if she had swallowed ice and it was melting down her throat into a deep pit inside her stomach. She grabbed the torch and ran. Panicked, she smashed it into the far wall and it burst into incarnadine shards of stone, twinkling around her.

She was falling. Breathing hard. She coughed on dirt. Red dirt. Bracing for impact. She passed out.

She woke in the middle of the circle. Dawn was lighting. Not exactly, but she knew the hour was near. That sort of in-between hour that's not really night but where the dawn really hasn't started yet. The lost hours.

She trembled. She knew she couldn't go back to the tribe. They would know what she had done. Just by looking in her eyes. She was cold. She would have to go far. To the stars and back. Far from the tribe. Far from the « little smoke ». Far from the fear.

She would not fear again.

Yet she knew that wherever she would go, she would take carry the yearning for the Dancer with her.