Val walked in the darkening forest, naked as ever, her feet softly crushing the moss underfoot. She held in front of her a single small white flower.
"Find the Headless Hunter", Rom had said, "only he can give you the weapon you need to fight the Lizard Priests."
"And kill a God?" She had asked.
"Maybe," he had replied sadly.
Her instructions were simple but confusing. Walk in the woods with her flower. The Headless Hunter would find her, and recognize her as a friend, thanks to the flower.
So Val walked, glancing around. As the sun set and the stars appeared overhead though the forest canopy, Val shut her eyes and let her new senses take her safely through the woods. The trees loomed around her in pale blue filaments, as the mat of moss and fungus underfoot created a vast net of glowing tendrils. She walked through the field of life energy, her own energy a brilliant red agains the pale vegetable blue of the forest.
A shadow crossed her sight. A shape, blurry somehow. Val opened her eyes and saw, there, standing by a tree, the Headless Hunter.
It had to be him. He was a large man, muscled, his body hairless and smooth, naked apart from the lion's hide draped over his shoulder. He was also, truly, headless. There was simply nothing where his head or neck should be. No scar, no sign of a head ever having been there. But strangely, Val knew he was looking at her. Somehow, two shining lights were always glowing where his eyes should be. If she looked, she saw that the light was just a reflection of the moon light on a leaf, somewhere behind him.
But as he stood there, that same reflection seemed to look her up and down, examining her.
He stepped closer. Val noticed the length of wood in his hand, a club of some sort, polished and shaped into a lethal weapon. She also noticed the long cock swinging between his legs. His hairlessness made it look even longer.
"You seek me," Val heard in her head.
"I do", she replied nervously. Could he read her thoughts?
"You seek a weapon. I know of the threat you face. I will give you what you need."
"Thank you," she mumbled. She had no idea what to do now. Was there a protocol? Do a little curtsy? Tip him?
He was standing in front of her now, a good foot taller than her, if not more. Val looked up to where his face should be. There was nothing, except the trees and the stars beyond. Somehow, two stars were lined up perfectly to be his eyes.
He swung the lion pelt off his shoulder and laid it on the ground near Val.
"Rest. It will take me some time to create your weapon."
Val sat, the lions fur soft against her thighs. The Headless Hunter turned away and stepped into the bushes. He quickly returned, the skull of a stag in his hand, the antlers still attached. He stood in front of Val again, a dozen feet away. Two stars, seen through the leaves and branches, shone where his eyes should be.
Slowly, he placed the stag skull on his head, where it sat, seemingly unsupported. The large antlers rose up above him. It was both eery and beautiful, the bone white skull glowing softly in the star light.
The Headless Hunter reached down and dug his finger into the ground. He pushed and shoved his hands deep into the moist earth until his hands were wrist deep. Then he started pulling. His great shoulders strained and his arms budged with the effort,
Slowly, he pulled the skin of the earth off.
Val watched, fascinated, as the moss and dirt underfoot was pulled like a rug, revealing what looked like snake skin, a living sheet of pulsing scaled skin, green and brown.
"The Great Dragon", whispered the Hungry Woman in Val's head. "Few people get to see the true nature of our world."
The Headless Hunter reached up and broke off one of the antlers rising from his stag skull. He plunged it into the heaving scaled earth beneath. The antler pierced the skin and sunk into the flesh. A jet of dark red blood shot out, covering the Headless Hunter.
He waded in, stepping into the wound, spreading it open, until he could fit inside. He hacked away, opening the pale pink flesh more and more until he was waist deep in the gash. With a final effort, he ripped it open further and disappeared beneath it.
Val could only stare at the pink pulsing flesh, wet and bloody, a gash in the floor of the forest like an obscenely large vulva.
She waited for the Headless Hunter to reappear, but he didn't. Minutes passed in silence, the forest hushed around her. And then the forest creatures started their murmur again, as if it was normal for the forest to sprout a pussy in the middle of the night.
Val curled up on the lion skin, her arms under her head, and waited. Somehow, she fell asleep.
Valentine was woken up by a playful ray of sunlight as it danced between the overhead leaves, glancing across her eyes. She pushed herself up. Gone was the lion skin. She was instead curled up on the mossy ground, alone, the forest alive around her. But the Headless Hunter was nowhere to be seen.