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From: sarlim@aol.com (Sarlim)
Subject: The Hunter (mf fantasy) by The Erotic Pen
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The Hunter
by The Erotic Pen            Sarlim@aol.com

I had been in the hills, tracking my quarry for several days when I first
heard the sounds of angry voices in the clearing ahead of me.  I
cautiously advanced and from the cover of the bushes watched the scene
before me.

Three men had encircled a woman.  Of the men, two appeared to be warriors,
one armed with a spear, the other with an ornate battle axe.  The third
man was holding but a staff, which he had pointed at the woman while he
chanted in some language unknown to me.  I had had very little contact
with users of "the art" while in the service of the local Baron, but I
could well guess this man to be a wizard.  

The woman possessed a natural and wild beauty that I found most
attractive, like some nymph or nature spirit taking female form. Her hair
was dark and unkempt.  Her skin, bronzed of someone who spends their days
outside. Her eyes while dark and lovely, where wide in fear, no doubt at
the thoughts of what her tormentors had in mind for her.  She wore simple
tanned hides fashioned like a short cloak.  The hide cloak was clearly not
designed for modesty, and revealed so much of her lithe body that this
alone may well explain the three men's interest in her.

As I readied my bow and nocked an arrow, I remembered the words of my
first arms' instructor:  "Take out the mages first," he had said.  "A
warrior you can always fight with sword and shield, but a wizard can
defeat you with a single chant if you give him the chance."  I stepped out
from behind the bushes and released my arrow.  The wizard's chanting ended
with his last heartbeat.  His shocked eyes locked on the still quivering
shaft that pierced his chest as he collapsed to the ground.

My second arrow was nocked and ready as the startled spearman recovered
his wits and charged at me.  I took aim on him as I drew the bow, and then
my stomach knotted as I heard "the sound."  The twang of a taut bow string
breaking is one all archers dread to hear, even more so when you are about
to be skewered like a boar on a spear.  I've always had the worst of luck
with bow strings at the most critical of moments.

While I lack the brutish strength many warriors prize, I do possess speed
and agility that would make many an elf envious.  Side-stepping his
thrust, I grabbed the spear near its head and spun the man around.  His
momentum carried him past me and to the ground as he lost his footing.  He
had let go of the spear during his fall, a fatal mistake he soon
discovered as I drove the spear into his chest.

The third man was upon me but a second later, the first swing of his axe
barely missing me as I dodged and drew my swords.  I fight with two
swords, a style many warriors have a difficult time defending against. 
But this one was not hampered by my unusual style.  His next attacks came
in a flurry.  I was hard pressed to defend myself against him. I knew his
skill at arms was greatly superior to my own.

Within a few moments the fight ended.  My parry failing, the man's axe
cleaved into my left shoulder.  Collapsing to the ground in pain,
consciousness slipped from me as I watched the gloating face above me dim.
 The sound of screams followed as I fell into blackness.

My memories of the next few days are very vague.  My wound had poisoned
and I was feverish.  The dark haired woman, I remember that she told me
her name was Nara.  Skilled in herbs and healing she was.  She had taken
me to her home, an old stone house in the forest that many years before
had belonged to a tree-cutter to heal my wounds.  She also told me how she
had taken the spear I'd left in the one man's body and struck from behind
the man who had wounded me as I passed out.

One clear memory I have is of awakening one night, still feverish, but
more aware than I had been in days.  I was lying naked on a straw pallet
in front of the fireplace.  Nara leaned over me, and tended my wound,
rubbing an oily herbal balm around my shoulder and chest.  "The tincture
will speed your mending and ease your fever,"  she said.

As her oiled hands worked their own kind of magic on my broken body, I
studied her closely.  Her dark and wild hair framed her lovely face.  The
firelight reflected in her dark eyes.  The desire for her grew in my
heart, as well as other more obvious places.  She smiled as she noticed my
growing erection.

"I'll admit I owe you at least that much, my savior," she said, as she
stroked my stiffening manhood with her fingertips. "Unfortunately, you are
too weak for such things.  Let's discuss other things now. How did you
happened along at such a fortunate moment?" As she spoke, her hands
returned to my shoulder.

"I was tracking a bear," I sighed, wishing she had kept her hands on
something other than on my wounded shoulder.

"A bear!"  She cried, surprised.  "Whatever for?"

"It seems a wild bear had raided a village's stock pens.  Fearing that
next time one of the villagers would be killed, the Baron sent me to hunt
it down."

"You are a man of nature.  You know that bears do not often go near the
villages of men.  It was most likely driven from its home and merely fed
on the stock while it traveled to a new one," she argued.

"Perhaps," I replied, "but any bear so without fear of men is a threat to
the Baron's subjects.  And as he is my lord, I must do his bidding."

"So you, a man of nature, would blindly do his bidding.  Kill an innocent
animal, just because he commands it!"   Her hands on my shoulder were
becoming much less gentle.

"Blindly no, but unless I know the bear will not be back, the Baron's
concern for his subjects is justified," I said.

"Tis of little concern now," she said, putting a fresh bandage on my
wound. "It will be many days before this shoulder will bear the pull of
your bow."

We said little else that night before I drifted off into sleep.

My fevered dreams over the next few days were most disturbing.  While I
had dreamed of pretty ladies before, never had they been as wild and
surreal as these.

I dreamed of hunting and of being hunted.  Not hunting like a human would
do, but like an animal, running naked and unarmed through the deep forest.
 Nara was also in my dreams, both as huntress and the hunted.  The sex in
these dreams both aroused and disturbed me.  Nara and I finding each other
in the forest, our naked bodies tense in  anticipation as we approached
each other.  In some of the dreams Nara was on her hands and knees, I
would penetrate her opening from behind like a stag takes a doe.  In other
dreams she would throw me to the ground, then kneel above me and lower
herself onto my rigid member.

A few days later I awoke finally free of  fever.  The fire had burned low,
casting a soft red glow on the inside of Nara's house.  Nara was asleep on
the straw pallet beside me, her naked body held close to my own.  I
remembered then that she had slept with me every night, her body keeping
mine warm when the fire died during the night.

Her naked form next to mine set my desire aflame.  I reached to her with
my right hand; stroked her face softly, my hand traveling down the side of
her cheek to her neck, and finally to her breasts.  Her large nipples
hardened quickly as I gently caressed them with my fingers.  I moved my
mouth over one breast, my tongue circling her now hard nipple.  Nara
moaned aloud as I took her nipple into my mouth, gently sucking.  Nara
held my head to her breast now.  I moved my hand down across her belly to
her thighs.  I began running my fingers up one thigh and down the other,
moving my fingertips through her silky hair in between them.  Nara spread
her legs, revealing her moist opening to my exploring fingers.   Slowly I
began sliding my fingers into her, excited by the hot wetness I found
within. Then with long strokes I began pulling my fingers from within her,
to rub them along her engorged clitoris, before sliding them back deep
inside her warm wetness.

Nara's hips rose to meet the thrust of my fingers, matching the rhythm of
the strokes of my hand.  As her body stiffened, I increased the speed of
my hand's stroking.  Her body shuddered with pleasure, and she drew her
legs together, capturing my hand within her as the waves of her climax
fell upon her.

With a gentle yet demanding strength Nara pushed me flat on my back, as
she straddled my body.  She reached down between her legs and took my
erection in her hand and gently rubbed its head back and forth along her
opening.  Then slowly she lowered herself onto me, taking my shaft deep
within her.  She rocked slowly on her hands and knees, holding herself so
that her nipples brushed my chest as she moved.  Her hair fell about my
face as we looked deeply into each others eyes. My hands caressed her hips
and bottom as she rode me.

The heat of my desire, enflamed by the heat I felt upon my member from her
passion, overtook me.  I thrust up to meet her strokes and my passion
erupted deep within her, triggering another wave of pleasure for her.  She
collapsed onto my body.  Our juices flowed together, became as one,
filling the small room with the musky perfume of our lovemaking.

The following days passed quickly.  My wound continued to heal under
Nara's expert care.  We spent our nights making love on her straw pallet
in front of the fire until, exhausted, we fell asleep in each others arms.

One day, several weeks after my battle with her attackers we had gone to
the nearest stream to bathe and retrieve water.  We had laid a blanket
upon the bank of the stream under an oak tree and made love.  As we held
each other, I asked Nara to come back with me.  "I want us to stay
together,"  I said.

My heart was crushed when I did not see the look of happiness on her face
that I anticipated.  Instead, I saw one of concern.  "I cannot go back to
your village with you Tannith.  I think they would like me as little as I
would like them," she said after some thought.

"Then I will gladly stay here with you," I said. "I greatly prefer the
wilderness myself, and we could live well, just the two of us, together."

"No Tannith.  Though I hold you dear in my heart, my path is already
chosen for me and it is a solitary one," she replied with conviction.

Nara refused to listen to my arguments or answer my questions about "her
path."  Ending our conversation and leaving me puzzled, Nara stood, pulled
on her hide garment and as she began walking the trail that led back to
her house, she said:   "Your wound has healed enough for you to go, and I
fear I've allowed you to stay too long as it is.  With tomorrow's dawn you
must leave."

For a long time I sat there, trying to think of some argument I might use,
wondering if she felt in her heart as I did in mine.  I decided to try
once more, to speak with her at our evening meal, perhaps our last
together.  I dressed and began the long walk back to her house.

Had my head not been hung low with depression, I may have missed the
tracks I saw along the trail.  The tracks were of a bear, and very fresh. 
The bear was traveling  toward the stone house, and Nara.  I ran with all
the speed I had.  The door to the house stood open, but the house was
empty.  In the doorway, I repeatedly yelled Nara's name as loudly as I
could.  No answer came.  Back into the house, I grabbed my gear, donned my
leather jerkin, belted on my swords, and slung my bow and quiver on my
back.   I went outside to look for tracks that would lead my way.

As I exited the stone house, a familiar voice called my name.  Coming out
of the forest was Jerick, another of the Baron's foresters, and several of
the Baron's soldiers.

"Tannith, we'd all feared your life over when we learned the creature you
tracked was a shape-shifter," Jerick said as he rushed up to me.

"What are you talking about Jerick?  Explain yourself,"  I ordered.

Jerick began his story.

"Not but a day or two after your leaving, three men came to the village.
They said they were hunting a wild shape shifter, intending to use the
evil creature's organs for their wizard's potions.  When news of this
reached me I petitioned the Baron to give me some men so that we might
find you.  He outfitted us, at no small expense mind you, with arrows and
crossbow bolts made of silver, but the trail was cold by the time we
began.  Still, we spent many days searching for you.  When we had given up
all hope we found this house, and within it, your possessions.  With
renewed hope we left the house, just as the very creature you came for
burst from yonder path.  It surprised us greatly, and before we could
ready our silver arrows and bolts, it plunged into the forest again.  We
gave chase.  And then we heard your voice calling out behind us.  That's
when we gave up our pursuit and returned here to find you."

Understanding crashed upon me as a boulder hurled by one of the great
giants. Nara could indeed never live with me among humans. And though I
longed to stay with her, I knew her nature would not allow her to remain
with a mate for long, no matter how they cared for each other.

Hiding my pain I turned to Jerick and said, "Come Jerick, now that you've
found me, we must return."

"But what of the evil creature?  It must be stopped."

Looking at him sternly, and with a commanding voice I said,  "It was the
men that hunted her that had evil in their hearts.  No man is in danger
from her unless he means to do her harm.  And then it's me he should fear
if ever I find out about it."

A sly grin crossed Jerick's face.  "A 'her' is it?  Well I suppose you're
right. After all, she'll most likely head deeper into the wilderness now.
And I am longing for a hot meal."

As we began our trek back out of the forest, I knew she was watching us. 
I could not see her with my eyes, but I could feel her gaze upon me and
heard the sound of a bear's roar in the distance behind us.  The beastly
cry was Nara's long, sad good-bye.

"Good-bye, Nara," I answered.  "You will always be in my heart."

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