Woman of the Forest
Forest Goddess: Devana
Devana was true to her word--she demanded much of Pawel, but no more than he could handle.
Their coupling and erotic adventures were, indeed, the sustenance SHE needed, but Pawel was left drained. In the steppe, where he grew up, the women would summon the men when it suited them. True. In the steppe, conditions were so hard that the summoning was rare, and no man lived with a woman. Pawel was with Devana, day and night, except when hunting, gathering food, or taking care of private necessaries.
While he was about his private business, Pawel still felt that Devana was watching. Most peculiar. Pawel had never known a woman interested in spying on men doing the necessities of daily life. But, he never caught her at it. She was the forest goddess and though they were not in a forest, the groves they used for their private business were cover enough for her invisibility.
Devana 'spoke' to Pawel in such a way, that he 'heard' her words in his head. She spoke of the 'old days' when more people believed in the gods of the land. Now, they had largely been seduced by the 'sky gods', as she dismissively called the prevailing beliefs.
Her sustenance had come from the people. As Pawel knew she needed the love of men, all types of lustful behavior made her stronger. She needed women also. The women seeking a child would come to her to make them pleasing to their husband, to make their husbands lie with them so that they would conceive and not spill their seed on the ground wastefully. These were poor people, and even in times of abundance, often the husband would seek to limit the number of mouths the family needed to feed. But many women had a need for the love of a child, the children were frail, and many women saw the need for enough to ensure that some would survive.
It was deceitful and not proper for a good marriage. Devana was a ruthless goddess and did not care for such niceties, the woman would repay Devana when she became pregnant. When she made water, the pregnant woman had to save this for Devana...sometimes she would drink it to get the essence of new life, sometimes she would bathe in it, to rejuvenate her ancient skin.
Devana was there in the midst of the forest to school the young men and women in their roles in keeping their race alive. Under a spell, she would bring lovers to her place in the middle of the forest, and they would lie together...they thought in privacy, but Devana would enter their minds and school them in the ways of love.
Once the lovers were asleep, she would again take possession of their bodies for her own pleasures, for in each moment of rapture, she was refreshed and renewed. From the young men, she got fresh seed; from the young women, a type of love that she also needed, softer and yet one that gave her deeper pleasure and even more rejuvenation.
This, all of this, Pawel learned from Devana, as if in a dream. In a dream also, he asked, "How can one so mighty, have fallen so far as you had when I found you?"
"Pride, I found this forest of all the forests of this part of the world, as something special...I was so strong, so happy...here, even between two wretched towns...towns of the old and dying...these, I...I alone! Could renew. The old women would be young again and the old men would again have vigor and lie with their wives. These places would be reborn. "
"For this miracle, I would be renowned on Earth among mortals, and among the gods.
"So, I found a home in the middle of this forest...but there were gods, gods who were spiteful, gods who were jealous, gods who wanted power over me, wanted my power.
"They trapped me in the woods with a band of ghost wolves; wolves the mortals heard, but never saw; wolves who never fed, never died, never slept; wolves tied by magic to the forest.
