Anio and the Sour Cherry Princess

This story contains: heights, food, dragons, bondage, bodily transformation, woman-on-goddess, supernaturally permanent (or is it?) edging and denial, and a spot of cold weather. All the characters are over 18.

(This is on the abstract, fairytale-dream-logic side. Sex starts towards the end.)

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When the sour cherries didn't bloom for the second year in a row, the people in the village at the base of the mountain gathered in dismay. One of them would have to go and find the Cherry Blossom Princess, they said, and remind her of their village. She must have forgotten them.

But the wood carvers had wood to carve, and the farmers had fields to tend, and the mothers had poppyseeds to grind and children to raise and husbands to hound after. No one could be spared to look for the path to the great tree. For everyone knew that the Cherry Blossom Princess lived on the moon above branches of the great world tree, but nobody knew the path to take to get there.

The villagers argued back and forth amongst themselves until finally, at the back of the crowd, Aniko stood up. Aniko had no husband and no children. She was not a wood carver or a farmer. She was healthy and strong and clever, and she would go up the world tree to the moon to find the Cherry Blossom Princess. And the wood carvers and the farmers and the mothers all looked at one another, and agreed that Aniko was healthy and strong and clever, and that she would indeed be the one to find the Cherry Blossom Princess.

And so Aniko packed some bread, and some poppyseeds, and a little water in a water skin. She took a sturdy walking stick, and set out to find a path to the moon.

On the first night she looked up at the yellow moon hanging in the sky and did not see any paths to take to it. How could she reach a place that she could see had no stairs and no roads and no bridges at all that led there? But at the very least, she thought, if the moon is so far up, and the great world tree reaches up too, then the path I should take must lead upward as well. And the highest-up place she knew was the mountain. So, she reasoned, she would begin by climbing it. Perhaps the great world tree was at the peak, and if the moon scraped it she would be able to jump across.

And so with her mind made up, Aniko began to climb.

The path wound up the mountain until it wasn't a path anymore. Aniko walked with her eyes on the moon, and the mountain seemed to grow even taller and rockier under her feet. Soon Aniko felt that she was higher up than she had ever been. And soon after that, higher than anyone from her entire village had ever been. The further she climbed, the colder it became, until the wind bit at her clothes and ice crystals formed on her breath. But Aniko just planted her stick in front of her, and continued her climb.

For three night and three days, she climbed. And as the end of the third day neared, the moon did not look any closer to her at all. In fact, it gazed its yellow eye down upon her and seemed smaller and father away than ever.

After her long walk, Aniko was very tired, and bitterly cold, and she began to look around for a place to rest. Just below the mountain's peak, she saw a cave mouth that was protected by a rock face from the wind. She crawled behind the rocks for shelter, and to her surprise, found a man seated cross-legged on the floor of the cave. He was very beautiful, with long hair and narrow shoulders, and moonlight gleaming on his chest, and his eyes were closed.

I'm sorry to disturb you, uncle in the mountain, Aniko said, May I take shelter in your cave? I don't have much, but I can offer you a little bread, and some poppyseeds, and water from my water skin.

When the man opened his eyes, she saw that they were as red as embers. But he accepted her offer and ate her food, and listened to her story of the sour cherry trees and the moon and the Cherry Blossom Princess.

I know the way up the world tree, he told her when she had finished, Tomorrow when the moon full in the sky I will show you. And so they slept all the next day in the cave, and the next night climbed to the very top of the tallest peak.

The peak was very high, and the night was very clear, and far away Aniko thought she could see the lights of her village at the base of the mountain, and even of other villages father than that.

I can take you up the world tree to the moon, said the man with the red eyes, But the world tree is not a place like here. To travel up it you must be as light as the wind. You cannot go to the moon weighed down by material things. And to demonstrate what he meant, the man began to take off his clothes.

Even though it was bitter cold, and the wind was blowing, Aniko put down her stick and her water skin and stripped off her clothing. The two of them stood there naked on the mountain peak, the wind whipping around them in the clear, cold night.

Suddenly, the man before Aniko began to grow taller and wider. His face grew longer and his teeth sharper and his hands curved until standing in front of Aniko was a clawed, red dragon.

I am the Red Eyed Dragon, the red eyed dragon told Aniko, Ride on my back and I will carry you to the moon. But be warned-- audience with the Cherry Blossom Princess is not always free, and many who fly on my back up the world tree never return.

Aniko looked down the mountain to the village below, and up at the moon above, and at her clothing on the ground in the cold dark night. The moon, she decided, must be as good a place to never return from as any. And with that she climbed onto the dragon's back.

The wind whipped Aniko's hair and tugged at her body. Cold pricked her nipples and the tips of her fingers. Beneath her, she felt the cool scales of the dragon sliding against her slippery nakedness. Aniko and the dragon flew through the black sky, with the world shining below them and the stars shining above, until they passed into a cloud and Aniko could hardly see the dragon's red head in front of her. Ice crystals tingled against her skin and goosebumps arose all over her body. When they emerged from the cloud, she thought they had somehow turned around, for now it seemed the stars were below them, twinkling through the branches of an enormous tree, and above them stretched a great white wall of glowing stone.

The Red Eyed Dragon flew along the wall, closer and closer, until they came to an opening flanked by tall white posts. Between the base of the posts curved another dragon, black this time, and even larger and more ferocious looking than the first.

When he saw Aniko, the black dragon began to change, until he was a tall, broad shouldered man with a hard face and jet black eyes. I am the Black Eyed Dragon, the man said after he had heard Aniko's story, And I will take you to the Cherry Blossom Princess.

The black eyed dragon who was a man led Aniko through a palace that was a maze of white walkways and shining courtyards. She padded along behind him naked and barefoot, past fountains and statues and many strange sights. In one courtyard, a school of silver fish swam through the air. In another, a man carried a huge barrel up a steep slope while water poured out of it from a crack at his back. In a third, an old woman with red hands mended a blanket that seemed to sprout a new hole with every stitch, and in a fourth an enormous white hedgehog bathed in a golden pool.

If you want your vllage to be remembered, the Black Eyed Dragon told Aniko, you will need to please the Cherry Blossom Princess so well she cannot quickly forget. The Princess has not had any pleasure for some time, for she is forbidden to lay with a man, and there has not been a new woman on the moon in many a long year.

Aniko thought this sounded reasonable enough, and followed the Black Eyed Dragon into a room hung with sheer curtains and hundreds of small white flowers. In the centre of the room was a bed strewn with soft blankets and embroidered pillows, and among them sat the Cherry Blossom Princess.

The princess had dewy skin and rosy lips and cheeks. She gazed at Aniko with hazy, half-lidded eyes, and her hair fell like silk over naked shoulders to her pink nipples.

If you want your village to be remembered, said the Black Eyed Dragon to Aniko, you will need to stay on the moon as a living reminder of the fertility of the sour cherry trees, and the hunger of your village. Are you prepared to give your pleasure forever to the moon, as a sacrifice for your people?

Aniko thought of her village. Of all the wood carvers and the farmers and the mothers. She thought of the sour cherry trees barren in the fields. She thought of the windy mountain she had climbed, and the Red Eyed Dragon in his cave, and the palace of the moon and all the strange sights she had seen on her journey. Aniko considered what pleasure she could have in a village on the side of a windy mountain with no husband and no children and no sour cherries on the trees year after year. Most of all, she considered the Cherry Blossom Princess before her, with her white skin and her pink lips and her hazy eyes. And more and more it seemed to Aniko that the moon might not be such a bad place to spend her life and her pleasure after all.

Aniko allowed the black eyed man who was a dragon to lead her to the bed and to the princess. The dragon guided her until she was prostrate on her knees on the bed. Cherry Blossom Princess, he said, A woman has come to the moon to give you pleasure and be remembered. Are you ready to accept her?

The princess nodded hazily, and the dragon tied Aniko's hands and feet with silver rope. Then he tied the Cherry Blossom Princess with the same rope, until her hands were stretched upward and her legs spread wide. And then he put one hand on the princess's hair and one hand on Aniko's, and guided the two of them together.

The Cherry Blossom Princess was very soft and tasted very sweet. Aniko allowed herself to be led up and down the princess's body, doing whatever the Black Eyed Dragon asked. She tasted nipples and lips, and other, sweeter things. While she did this, the dragon moved between them, holding Aniko still, or guiding her movements. He ran his hands over Aniko, stroking around her chest and down her back and between her legs, until she began to feel very strange.

Aniko felt her nipples and lips grow firm and swollen like ripe sour cherries. She felt a buzzing between her legs like a bee in the mouth of a flower. Her arms and legs began to grow heavy like the roots and limbs of a tree, until Aniko could hardly move.

With her head between the Cherry Blossom Princess's pink legs, she felt the princess shaking, and heard her cries. The dragon who was a man pressed Aniko on, and then pulled her away, pressed her on, and pulled her away. He touched Aniko until the aching and singing of her swollen cherry nipples and her swollen cherry breasts and the bees buzzing between her legs were everything in the world without release. Aniko shook and cried into the Cherry Blossom Princess, and the Cherry Blossom Princess shook and cried over Aniko. And the Black-Eyed Dragon said to Aniko:

This your pleasure, do you give it to the Cherry Blossom Princess?

Yes! Cried Aniko, into the soft pink flesh.

This is the fertility of the sour cherry trees, will you hold it for the Cherry Blossom Princess?

Yes!

This is the hunger of your village, will you hunger for the Cherry Blossom Princess?

Yes! Yes! Cried Aniko, who was desperate for release. But the swollen cherry feeling only swelled harder and the buzzing bees buzzed harder, and her heavy tree limbs grew heavier until Aniko was no longer a woman but a vast and unmeetable need.

When the dragon determined that the Cherry Blossom Princess had been well-pleased, the swollen-cherry-and-buzzing-bee body of Aniko was carried to a courtyard in the moon palace where a sour cherry tree grew. She was lashed to the tree with silver rope, and round cherries and soft flowers and thick branches grew in her mouth and over her breasts and between her legs.

Down in the village at the base of the mountain, bees crawled into sour cherry blossoms. And Aniko felt their tickle between her legs and deep inside of her. Cherries ripened in the orchards, and Aniko felt their weight and ripeness in her nipples and breasts. Villagers tested the fruit, and she felt their hands caress and squeeze her. They plucked the cherries, and she felt fingers pluck and press at her sensitive flesh.

Sour cherries returned to the village. The farmers and woodcarvers and mothers looked at the moon in the sky. They knew that Aniko had found the Cherry Blossom Princess. The harvest was plentiful that year, and every year after that, and to this day the sour cherry trees at the base of that mountain still give the sweetest and ripest fruit.

To this day, no one has seen Aniko leave the courtyard on the moon, where she may still be buzzing with the bees who tickle the cherry blossoms and swelling with the fruit of the sour cherry trees. And to this day, whenever the people who live at the base of the mountain eat a sour cherry, they think of Aniko, on the moon, and her eternal, torturous delight.