Pulling hard against the current with my paddle straight down in the water, I executed a sharp turn around a thick bank of cattail reeds. I knew that right here the river channel opened into a wide, deep pool with a sandy bank on the right-hand side. It's one of the finest places to swim on the river, which means you need to be damned careful as you maneuver your canoe blind around the corner. The last thing you want to do is hit a kid on the head with the prow of your boat. At the speed the current is propelling you, you just might kill them.

And today was no exception. Although, there was something exceptional.

As I came around the corner I saw two swimmers in the middle of the channel and I immediately banked the canoe to the right, out of the current and into the reeds. As I did, the two swimmers slouched down into the water, but not quickly enough; I'd noticed immediately that they were girls, and that they were naked, or at least topless.

It's not at all uncommon to surprise a couple of skinny-dippers in this pool, it being so far away from anything else, accessible only by a long hike or a canoe. But these two girls were not your usual skinny-dippers. These were two unbelievably beautiful young things, a dark-haired rosy-cheeked sweetheart that was maybe fifteen, and a thin little blonde that couldn't have been even twelve years old.

"Hi," the older girl said, smiling up at me from the water.

"Hello!" I paddled carefully backwards to remove the prow of the canoe from the reed bank. "Sorry to disturb you."

"No problem," the girl said.

I found her lilting voice quite pleasing to the ear. There was a hint of an accent, which I couldn't place.

I freed the canoe from the reeds and steered carefully along the sandy bank.

"Enjoy your swim, ladies," I said by way of farewell as I passed them and turned the canoe back towards the current.

"Hey! Don't leave!" the older girl said. She dove, the bare skin of her back flowing with water, a nice full pale rear end momentarily lifting above the surface, amply demonstrating that she was, in fact, naked.

She swam up to me and grabbed the side of my canoe.

"Woah! Careful!"

She giggled. "I could tip you out!"

"I know, be careful!"

"Swim with us!"

The water was clear enough that I could make out her breasts, round and full, rippling underneath the surface.

"I don't think your parents would appreciate that."

"We don't have any parents!"

I laughed. "Sure ya don't."

The girl stood up, the water shallow enough now that it only came up to her ribs. She did not bother to cover her breasts.

"Seriously," she said. "We're river nymphs."

She lifted her arms in the air, accentuating her breasts even more.

"We're here to fulfill your dreams."

Her breasts were absolutely stunning, especially with her arms up in the air. Round and full and pale, her aerola large and dark; a beautiful vision of firm, soft, awakening womanhood. The girl herself was equally as beautiful; dark hazel-green eyes, wet auburn hair hanging around her shoulders, a round, rosy-cheeked face with a broad wonderful smile.

I certainly could see her fulfilling my dreams. I opened my mouth to say something but found it hard to formulate a response. "Well..."

The girl smiled at my stammering.

"Come on now, you know you want to swim with us."

I could swear she gave her shoulders a little shimmy, causing those sweet round breasts to ripple.

"It's certainly... inviting."

She giggled.

"But," I nodded towards the other girl, "your friend seems a little young to be fulfilling my dreams." The younger girl was cute, no doubt about it, but she definitely wasn't a teenager yet. The little blondie was still crouched down in the water, hiding her body, looking at me with wide blue eyes.

"That depends on what your dreams are, I suppose," the older girl said.

"I suppose it does."

"Well, she must be going to fulfill them or else the gods wouldn't have sent her."

"The gods? You mean like Zeus?"

She smiled. "Sure, like Zeus."

I shook my head at her, grinning. "So, seriously, where are your parents?"

"Come on, take a chance! What if I'm telling you the truth?"

"About being a river nymph?"

"Yeah!"

"Sweetie, I know I don't look that bright but I am in fact not entirely gullible."

"OK, so even if we're not nymphs, what does it hurt to swim with us?"

"Nothing, unless your parents show up."

"Why would they care?"

"Because you're naked, and I'm a middle-aged man."

"They won't mind, they're free spirits!"

"Sure they are."

"OK. Our parents went into town for the day and won't be back till late. Now will you swim with us?"

I laughed. "Is that true?"

"Nymph's honor," the girl said, holding two fingers in the air. She giggled and her breasts shimmied.

"You're something else, girl. What's your name?"

"I'm called Egeria."

"Oh really? Let me guess, that's the name of a river nymph?"

The girl laughed, and as I watched her breasts jiggling delightfully I came to the conclusion that they were the finest set of tits I'd ever seen in my life.

"Yes, it's the name of a river nymph. It's my name!"

"And your friend? Does she speak? What is her name?"

"She speaks if you would like her to. Her name is Charis."

"Charis isn't a nymph-name."

She gave me a demure smile. "No, it's the name of a goddess."

"You must be a smart girl, 'Egeria,' to know all these Greek names!"

"Smart to know my own name? And the name of my best friend?"

"You're funny, 'Egeria.' Anyway, yes, I would like 'Charis' to speak."

The younger girl, still crouched to hide her nakedness in the deeper water, smiled at me. "What is your name?" she asked me.

I was amazed at how sweet her voice sounded, high and melodious, with that same unidentifiable lilt that the older girl had.

"Um..." I found myself stammering. "Jim... James..."

"Good to meet you Jim James," the girl said, her voice both childish and regal at the same time.

"No... no," I stammered again, "just 'James.'"

"OK, James. Come swim with us!"

I found myself strangely enamored with the young girl. There seemed to be something almost magical about her.

"I think maybe I will!"

And so your hero, Mr. James Henry Mackelby, actuary by day, lonely divorced beer drinking loser by night, forgot all about his concerns for the ladies' parents, for uncompromising situations, for society's and even his own personal mores, and pulled his shirt off and his pants off and jumped into the water in only his boxer shorts.

The water was cool, which was good, because I needed some serious cooling down. But whatever benefit I might have hoped to derive from this coolness was quickly negated as the older girl ("Egeria" I believe she claimed her name was?), came swimming over.

"We're naked, you know," she said. "You should be too."

"I don't think that's a good idea."

She smiled. "Cari's never seen a grown-up man naked before you know." She gave a little pout. "Are you going to deprive her of this chance?"

"Cari... I like that nickname. Do you have a nickname, Egeria?

"Jeanie. Eugene."

"Jeanie, huh? Seems a little commonplace for someone named 'Egeria.'" I tried to give her a teasing grin.

"I suppose."

'You're something else, Jeanie. So, I take it you have seen a grown-up before?"

She smiled, sweet dimples on pale round cheeks. "Yeah. Lots."

"Really?"

"Yeah. I'm... It's not like I'm a virgin or anything. Now about those undies of yours..."

The girl reached down and started pulling my boxers down. I helped her.

Immediately, I felt cool fingers wrap around my cock. As if on autopilot, I reached down between her legs. Jesus Christ the girl's puss was hot and soaking wet!

We both leaned our faces together and our mouths met and opened wide in a huge tongue-in-throat kiss.

Not willing to let go of each other's sex parts or remove any tongues, we walked awkwardly to the shore, where she lay down on the sand, gripping my cock and pulling me down onto her and into her.

Her body was unimaginably comforting. Warm, open, and unconditionally accepting; she was soft and full and giving. Within seconds my cock was slipping effortlessly in and out of her soaking wet pussy.

At some point during our lovemaking, at some point while our bodies joined together inside her, I became convinced that she really was a river nymph. There could be no other possible explanation for the fact that I was making love with this beautiful girl, having hot wet sex with this teenager, right there on the shore in broad daylight.

She had her arms and legs wrapped tightly around me, smiling broadly, as I came inside her, thick, hot explosions of adrenaline-fueled male sexuality filling the young girl's womb with semen.

Some hours later, we were sitting on the sandy bank, the late afternoon sun bathing the woods in a beautiful orange glow and casting strange lovely dancing shadows among the branches and the leaves.

The girls were dressed now, beautiful light summer dresses, Jeanie's yellow, Cari's white. The younger girl was sitting on the ground, legs crossed, as the older braided her silken hair, intertwining cattail leaves in amongst the braids, then creating a wreath of cattail leaves and laying it on Cari's head.

The younger girl rose reverentially, taking a clump of cattails into her hand and holding them in front of her like a primitive, sylvan scepter. I sat, mesmerized. The girl indeed looked just like a river nymph; no, something greater than that. She looked like a princess, or even a queen. A queen of the fairies!

Jeanie laughed and applauded, and I applauded as well, and the younger girl blushed and the remarkable spell was broken and she sat down, a little ten year old girl again.

Jeanie looked over at me. "Would you like a cattail crown Sir James?"

"I'm not sure I'm worthy!"

"Of course you are," she said. "Besides, our little faerie queen needs a king, wouldn't you say?" She nodded at Cari, who smiled her sweet little smile.

I looked from beautiful little Cari over to Jeanie. Had she read my mind? Or was it a mere coincidence that she came up with a faerie queen at just the same time that I had?

She smiled at me, perhaps a knowing smile, then busily wove a crown of cattail leaves and stuck a cattail flower in the front of it, which stood up like a strange botanical symbol of royalty.

I rose to my feet, and Cari stood up with me, and Jeanie laughed and applauded. "All hail the king and queen of the cattails!" she said. I took Cari's hand and held it in the air and she blushed but smiled broadly.

The late summer sun was almost set after our coronation, and I had a good haul up-stream back to my campsite which would really suck in the darkness. And despite my earlier conviction--inspired by momentary sex-fueled madness--that Jeanie was in fact a river nymph, and a similar momentary madness in seeing Cari as a faerie queen, I was concerned again that these girls had been away from their parents for far too long now, and they needed to hike all the way back to the park's main campsite, which would also really suck in the darkness.

"Well, my dears," I said to them, "what a wonderful day I've spent with you. But I'm afraid I've got to get going or it'll be too dark to find my way back to my campsite. And your parents must be worried about where you are by now, and you have a long hike ahead of you.

"This is where we make our home," Jeanie said.

I grinned at her. "Right. River nymphs."

"Right. But we are hungry. Will you give us food?"

"All my food is back at the campsite."

"We will go with you and you can feed us there."

"Jeanie, are you serious? Are your parents really not here?"

"They are not."

I breathed out heavily. I wasn't exactly sure what was going on with these girls. I figured they must be runaways, either that or they are pulling my leg for some weird reason. But Jeanie seemed honestly concerned about where they were going to get their next meal, and the fact that no parents had come looking for them in the last several hours, even with the sun setting now, would seem to indicate that she must not be lying.

OK, runaways it is then. And of course I have to feed them. They will starve out here if I don't.

And so we piled into my canoe and rowed off into the sunset. Literally.

It's a family tradition that I take my kids camping in the late summer every year. Our favorite camp site is a "primitive" site in a state park not far from our home, accessible only by canoe. I'd booked a solid week, but life being complicated, the kids could only stay for the first three days and I had to take them back to their mom. Since I already had the time off from work and the camp site reserved, I figured I may as well take advantage of the opportunity for a little meditative time alone.

It was starting to look like I wasn't going to get much of that. Not on the first night at least. On the other hand, a night spent with sweet little Jeanie held great promise...

I worked up a nice big fire and we roasted hot dogs and the girls ate about a zillion of them and polished off a bag of chips as well. I was beginning to wonder how long it'd been since they'd eaten. I happened to have leftover fixings for s'mores so we had a fine fireside dessert and then we sat around the fire watching the stars blinking into existence in the sky.

As we sat in silence, listening to the fire cackle and watching the stars, the younger girl, Cari, began to speak.

Her voice was high-pitched and youthful but strong and lilting with an even more pronounced and unidentifiable accent.

"It was many, many years ago,
It was in the month of May,
A girl with pale cheeks aglow,
On the water's edge did play.

She gathered reeds and cattail leaves,
A basket for to make,
Just as she'd done for many eves,
Down by her father's lake.

There a giant fish swam to the shore,
A pike, was four feet long,
She knew this fish she'd seen before,
For he sang her a magical song.

The girl entranced did start to dance,
The fish grew arms and legs, and stood.
The girl and her knight they made romance,
And she gave him her maidenhood.

When nine months later, a child was born,
From infancy he was dark and strange,
All the lord's people for this child did morn,
And as he grew he began to change,

A horrible creature, alas, he became,
And he hated his mother now
The fish's son cursed her very name,
And he made an awful vow.

He vowed that he would kill her,
And hide her body in the sky;
Her skin changed to green, and withered,
And then his mother, she did die.

The son then turned into a pike,
But before he took his fishy form,
His mother's dear body he did strike,
And into nothingness did she transform,

The poor sad creature lay on the ground,
A fish without his water,
And he died, no man's body ever found
Nor one for his loving mother.

Now you who hear my tale of woe,
Do not despair, there is yet love!
On magical nights, magical lights do glow
The mother's atoms dance above!"

The girl lifted her arms into the air, and as she did, the northern lights began to shine and shimmer around her like a halo.

"Yes, life and love triumph over ill,
And motherhood is the greatest of deeds.
And you and I shall remember well,
The maiden who played in the reeds!"

I sat, mesmerized by the magical beauty before me. The most beautiful girl in the world.

But Jeanie laughed and jumped to her feet and applauded. "Wasn't that wonderful, James? Aren't you in love with your faerie queen?"

I turned to her and opened my mouth, but no words came out.

Jeanie laughed again. "Now do you believe?"

"It... It's true? It's true!?! You are river nymphs?"

"I am a river nymph, yes. But a nymph could never conjure the Aurora Borealis!" The girl laughed then, and danced. "Only a goddess of a star could do that! Cari is a star!"

I looked back at the young girl, her hair still adorned with cattail leaves. She lowered her arms, and the northern lights faded behind her, and she shone, and she smiled, oh so very sweetly. The most beautiful smile I have ever seen.

"The star goddess of the cattails," I said quietly, smiling at her. She smiled even more broadly now, an almost childish grin.

Jeanie laughed and spun around. "Yes! And you are her knight and consort!"

"Me?"

"Yes! You, Sir James, you!"

"Why me?"

She stopped spinning and laughed and I smiled, her laughter was infectious. "Who better than you, Sir James?"

"Yes," the younger girl said, her voice almost startlingly pure and soft and high, "who better than you?"

The nymph patted her belly. "Besides which, Sir James, I let you make a baby in me earlier this very day. How could I allow an argument that you are not worthy? Now come," she extended both hands, one to me and one to Cari. "Tonight is your wedding night!"

We three, the three of us, climbed into my tent. I spread sleeping bags out on the ground for padding, and as I did, Jeanie began undressing her queen, first taking the braids and cattails out of her hair, then lifting her dress over her head, and little Cari, the sweetest and most beautiful girl on earth, was naked.

And she stood in front of me as I undressed and I soaked in her remarkable form. Her body was thin and pale, with long and lanky legs and arms. She had just the hints of budding adolescence--a tiny bit of blond curls of hair on her pubic mound, an almost imperceptible swelling beneath pale nipples. She smiled at me, knowing that I was looking, letting me look.

After I had undressed I sat down cross-legged on the sleeping bags, and signaled to Cari that she should do the same. As Cari sat next to me I noticed that Jeanie had taken her clothes off as well and the three of us were naked now.

I kissed beautiful Cari on the lips and she gave me a sweet, nervous smile.

Then Jeanie lay down, with her head on my lap. "Come down here with me, Cari," she said. "I want to show you something."

And Cari lay down too, her head on my lap as well, both of them facing right at my cock. Jeanie reached out and lifted my shaft.

"These are his balls," she said.

Cari reached a little reverential hand out and gently petted my scrotum.

"You should kiss them," Jeanie said, and Cari leaned in and gave my balls the sweetest little peck.

Then Jeanie lowered the shaft so that my head was pointing at them.

"This is his head," she said. She ran her finger over the little hole, gathering some of my precum, then rubbing her finger and thumb together. She lifted her finger to Cari.

Cari licked her finger and made a funny face.

"That's his semen," Jeanie said.

Cari looked back down at my cockhead, then lifted her own finger and touched the tip, then lifted it to her mouth. She looked up at me and smiled.

"Now," Jeanie said, "rather than using your finger, use your tongue."

The young girl smiled, her face going a little red, and leaned over and licked the tip of my cock. Her tongue was soft and wet and silky.

She sat up and ran her tongue over her lips, making a funny face, but her eyes were twinkling and she smiled.

"And now," the river nymph told the goddess, "take his whole head in your mouth."

I sat up on my knees and the little girl opened her mouth just as wide as she could and leaned down to my cock. Her mouth was warm, oh so amazingly warm, like the comforting glow of a distant star, and she held my head in her mouth while Jeanie gently massaged my shaft.

"You should touch his balls," Jeanie said, and Cari reached a little hand out and gently cradled my sack in her cool fingers.

Eventually Cari pulled off of my head, sitting back, and Jeanie smiled at her.

"Are you ready now?" she asked the girl.

She nodded, her eyes wide, her face reddening.

"I'm worried," I said, "that she is too young."

Jeanie smiled. "I will make sure she is ready. She will be fine."

At that, Jeanie knelt at the feet of the girl, reached out and put her hands on her knees and spread the young girl's legs. In the dim light of the moon, shining through the mesh windows of the tent, I could see the little girl's sex, a pale mound with just a hint of pubic hair, immature reddish labia.

And then I sat there, still on my knees, watching in rapt fascination, as Jeanie, the beautiful river nymph, leaned down and kissed Cari's sex. Cari lay back and closed her eyes and smiled, a smile of pure joy, and I suddenly had the distinct impression that this was not the first time these two had done this.

As the river nymph kissed her goddess's sex, I moved over to the young girl's face. She looked up at me, smiled sweetly, and opened her mouth.

I pushed my cockhead into the little girl's mouth and she sucked as Jeanie the river nymph licked her pussy.

Eventually, and with apparent reluctance, Jeanie pulled her face away from the little girl's pussy.

"I thinks she's ready," the river nymph said.

I took my position knelling between the young girl's legs. She looked up at me, her face red and accented with a sweet, nervous smile, and I took hold of my cock and directed my head down to her pussy lips.

She gasped as I entered her. She winced as I pushed in hard. Her eyes were closed tight until I pressed with all of my weight into her hymen, and then she opened her eyes, beautiful ice blue eyes that were like stars themselves, and she looked at me, she looked into my soul, tears like golden starlight falling down her cheeks, as I ruptured her hymen.

I lay on top of the young girl like a man on a woman, blanketing her small body entirely, both of my large hands on the top of her head, holding it to my chest, as I methodically made love to her, her vagina wet and hot, but tiny, oh so very tiny, only two-thirds of my cock could fit inside her and my thick head was stretching her wide open, she could barely stretch open enough for him as he drove deep inside her.

She grunted and groaned as I made love to her, not sounds of pleasure, but of acceptance.

Her immature vagina was the most amazing little thing I'd ever fucked and it wasn't long before the heat of her body and the tightness of her sex brought me to orgasm. I lifted my head up and looked down at her beautiful face, pale with the exertion of her maiden performance, and she smiled at me.

"Oh, Cari," I whispered, almost at orgasm now.

"Sir James," she said in a soft voice. "My love."

"Oh Cari! I love you!"

"I love you too!"

The first shot was an unbelievable release, full of love and passion and the sexuality of the stars. Warm, beautiful stars, and shining shimmering lights and magic and wonder and I fell so in love with little Cari right then, with the star goddess of the cattails, the pure and wonderful love of my life.

When I had finished we held each other and kissed, and then I rolled off of her, to the side, and I saw Jeanie sitting near us, and her face erupted in a giant smile, eyes twinkling, when she saw me looking at her.

"That was so beautiful! Wasn't it Sir James? Wasn't it the most beautiful thing in the universe?"

"It was." It was.

"Isn't she the most beautiful thing in the world?"

"She is!"

Cari sat up a bit so that she was leaning on her elbows.

"I must go now," she said.

"Already? But.." I wanted to tell her that I never wanted her to leave. That I had fallen in love with the star goddess and I couldn't bear to be away from her for one moment.

She smiled at me. "I will be back. I promise."

"But when?"

"Soon."

She leaned over and kissed me. "I love you, Sir James. Goodbye for now."

"I love you, Goddess Charis!"

Fireflies. Everywhere. An unbelievable display of light, all around the campsite, all around the lake, all around the universe. And as the star goddess walked out into the clearing of our campsite, the fireflies surrounded her and she laughed a joyous laugh and she spun and as she spun, she began to change.

Before my very eyes she began to change into light itself, her body become a million minuscule particles no bigger than the fireflies and then each particle becoming a million particles and each of them dividing again until she was nothing but dust, bright beautiful stardust that shone like heaven itself and she floated into the air amid a concaphony of fireflies in an exquisitely beautiful dance, a mating dance of light, light making light.

Jeanie and I stood in awe, in rapt silence, watching the goddess become before our very eyes a star again. And she was gone.

Jeanie took hold of my hand and we stood and watched as the fireflies slowly calmed and returned to their normal rhythmic blinking. And then, perhaps the moon had set, or had passed behind a cloud, but it seemed to me that the heavens were much brighter now; the stars were thick, the Milky Way an undifferentiated swath of light, shining in hues of orange and yellow.

Jeanie and I returned to the tent and made love, she was on top of me, riding me, and when I came she looked me in the eyes and smiled so wonderfully and said, "I will have your baby, Sir James. Before I leave you, you will have given me your baby."

I smiled at her.

"And Cari will have your baby too, you know."

"She's not old enough."

"Not yet, but soon. And she will be back many many times, to make certain."

"Will you come with her?"

"I will if you want."

"I do."

Jeanie laughed a beautiful wonderful laugh as I rolled her onto her back and made love to her again.