Now George is alone with the Priestess and encounters something that makes him fearful to even open his eyes. NC-17 ADULTS ONLY PLEASE!!!
She kept her head bowed and her eyes closed, like she was deep in a meditative state for a while. I had
been given no other instructions then merely sitting so I didn't know what else to do. I just sat there
silently. I could still hear the chanting and singing going on downstairs and it filled the room along with a strong wafting incense. After a short while, she raised her head and looked at me right in the eyes. Her face was expressionless, serious. Not the seductive smiles of your usual sex worker.
“I know why you are here,” she said to me in a heavy accent. I was surprised she spoke English. “You wonder if you are paying the price for decadence. It was a decadent friend who leads you astray often that put you in the situation but you did it to only help him for he had gotten in trouble. The source of all your current ills lies here.” Then she pointed at the right side of my stomach, nearly putting her fingertips right over where I felt something was lodged in me. I wondered how she knew but was grateful that she did. For the first time since I've been on this particular trip, I felt like I was finally maybe doing the right thing for myself. Maybe this woman can help me. I'll contemplate what led me here on this path later, after it all plays out. But I did feel like I was being led by a higher power to here.
“You're soul is not broken. The spell has lodged in your root chakra where it was intended to be,” She continued. My ears were tuned into nothing but her as she kept on speaking to me. Despite the fact I was sitting naked on a floor which was a little unnerving to me. “You lack the knowledge on how to dislodge it but I can remove it for you. Then you will be pure again. Or as pure as you were before. Do you accept my help?” she asked me.
“What does it involve?” I needed to know.
“Nothing from you. This is all on me.”
With those words she stood up, towering over me in all her splendor. “I am the one who will be fighting what torments you. The worst that will happen to you is nothing will change.”
“That is pretty bad,” I stated. “But I do accept your help. It's why I am here.”
“It is not by chance you are here,” She purred. “I believe you understand that.”
“I have understood nothing is by chance for a long time now,” I said. “I have been studying such things.”
She stroked my hair and let herself give me a slight smile. Then she took a few steps backwards away from me. I continued to just sitting there while she pulled her clothing off with a few quick moves. Her jewelry still remained swinging and clacking, each gemstone resting over a chakra as well that crown on her head.
What amazed me was suddenly there was a tail. Furry and striped weaving from behind her. I hadn't noticed that before. And she closed her eyes, but it was like her eyelids opened up into a second set, green and glowing like a forest.
I was startled. Shivers ran down my spine and I resisted the urge to get up and run. I knew how a deer must feel when it is confronted with the tiger.
Her hands on my shoulders were a great comfort. They held me in place but there was a soft warm strength in them that kept my fear in check.
She instructed me to lay down stretched out on my back and I complied. She waited patiently while I melted into place on her floor. The music surrounded me engulfing me. So did the smoke. My head was sort of spinning with sensual delights, unanswered questions and emotions.
“Just think of what pleases you,” She instructed me. “Anything. No matter what it is. Just let it please you to think of it.”
I felt her hands on me, stroking my thighs, my legs, between them. I thought of my wife and all the pretty girls I had known. I thought of long blond hair and nice legs. Soft skin. And then I thought of John. He just invaded my thoughts. How handsome he looked at this one particular party in an earthen tone turtleneck and blazer. How insecure he was and not afraid to show it by his expression to be surrounded by all those cool swinging cats. How surprised I was that he was looking so attractive at
that moment yet his personal nervousness as he stood in the corner in that mod living room was visible to everyone. How I went up to him for a chat and how badly I wanted to tell him how he was the best looking bloke in the room. How there was nothing to worry about and that he belonged there. He was a better poet and had accomplished more then anyone else standing there that night. How when he saw me he got cheeky and made jokes like he always did when he was feeling anxious. How I laughed at his comedy and that seemed to calm him down and make him feel like he was a part of that crowd. But that image of him in that turtleneck and blazer standing in that corner by that silver lamp drinking from that glass stayed in my mind for a very long time. That was when I realized that he still had the same hold on me that he once had when we were all back in school. I had merely gained some of his respect was the only difference now.
How when we said goodbye that night as he was leaving with his wife, he actually kissed me right on the cheek in front of everyone. That got a few giggles and I knew he was probably only doing it for a laugh, but I felt there was an undercurrent behind it. And if any of those hip cats in that room picked up on that same undercurrent, they'd just think it was all cool.
That was when I felt myself erupt. She had me in her mouth sucking as I had done to John that fateful night. There was a river flowing down me, washing everything inside me out of me through me and right into her open maw. When she swallowed, it wasn't with the usual routine I had come to expect. She snapped her teeth like she was biting a hunk of flesh as I slipped out of her mouth. Her growl was very feral.
“This one was no match for me,” she said and I wasn't sure what she meant but after I realized she must have meant whoever cast the original spell. “Primal base undoing anything above it. So easy to destroy if one is strong enough. But one must be very strong.”
That was when she enfolded me in her arms, laying beside me as I panted and had to close my eyes. I couldn't stay awake and keep them open but I felt that thing inside me had slid out and was gone and I felt exhausted in its wake. As I dozed, I felt fur, and whiskers and knew she wasn't human anymore but I couldn't look. I didn't want to see.
“Are you going to devour me?” I asked her. I had heard of such sorceresses who often ate the men that came to seek their services.
“And deny the rest of the world what you still have to give it?” She replied. “That would be selfish of me. Besides, I'm not all that hungry right now.”
I woke up covered in a blanket still on the floor. The music and singing had stopped but the young handmaiden was there with water and some light food. I sat up to take it from her noticing that the Priestess was gone. I wondered where she went. I had hoped to speak to her before I left.
I got dressed and was led back downstairs and to my surprise, the Priestess was there with the Matron only she was now dressed again in a robe.
“I now make payment?” I inquired to them both knowing the usual procedure. To my surprise, she shook her head.
“Not from you,” She said. Then she handed me a gold coin I had never seen before with an engraving of a woman sitting on a tiger. “Do you know of....” and she named a place I had heard of and was planning on visiting. It was a temple on a mountaintop that was said to be very holy and cleansing near a remote village. I had often wanted to experience it but had only recently gained an opportunity.
“How did you know?” I inquired of her.
“Just a guess,” She replied. “You seemed the type. If you go there, take that coin and throw it over the edge of the mountain while singing,” and then she gave me three foreign words to say. I repeated them several times to be sure I could pronounce them.
“I shall,” I told her. “But are you sure you will take no payment for your services?”
“If you wish to give money, there is a community center in the village that provides services for the poor. Give them the money. I've always supported them when I can.”
“Okay,” I said but still slightly perplexed though a large part of me did understand. There was much more to this woman then the surface sex worker or even Priestess of a local private temple.
I made my farewells and got a cab to take me back. I felt lighter and cleaner then before and was grateful for that but that gold coin perplexed me as I looked at it. I didn't understand all the symbols on it. I knew it wasn't money but more of an emblem or maybe even a religious object. I just knew that this favor to the Priestess seemed important to her and I intended to keep my part of the bargain. It was after all, my payment to her for what she did for me.
It was a few days later that I arrived in the remote village near the temple. It was poor and relied mostly on tourist trade. We bought many interesting things in the shops. I was surprised to notice many featured cheap replicas of the same coin I had carried with me. I asked one of the shopkeepers about it. He told me an interesting story that someone translated for me.
“The village has been poor for a long time. Though we work hard, we struggle. A long time ago a sorceress came to these mountains. She was both a blessing and a curse on the village. She lived up in the mountains and some would go there to ask for favors. She granted some but many times at a price. She often devoured those who came seeking her as payment. Eventually, she seemed to have left. No one saw her anymore and no favors were granted ever again. It was said that the village was too poor even for her and that she left to seek fortune elsewhere.”
I also learned the temple wasn't connected to this legend in any way and that it's adherents did not encourage the locals to follow such foolishness.
The temple was what I had hoped it would be. It was cleansing and simple and we got to pray to the monks and I left them money in their donation bucket for allowing me a small piece of their time. But I did go ahead and do it. I stood by the edge and took that coin out of my pocket, gave it one more look and then threw it off the side of the mountain while singing those three words. I swear I head it bounce against the rocks but then as I took my breath after saying the third word, I heard a tremendous roar coming from the forest. My skin tingled and I looked around wide eyed but saw nothing. I asked the others who were gathered nearby but none of them heard the roar though tigers did live in the forest and a very hungry one with no fear might approach the gates in the night.
I'm still not sure what it all was that I experienced. Just one more mystery but I know I reaped the blessings from whatever it was. When I got back and told John all about it, he laughed and said, “Man, I bet that was some good hash you smoked.” But I know he believed me.