The Despoiling, pt 1

"Earth daughter…"

"Come to me…" A faint smoky voice whispered as Hlina woke up groggy from her dream.

The dream.

She had been walking into the cave again. Not the bathing cave in the village, and not the little cave where she grew up. No, this cave was dark and ominous. A fetid stench like a stagnant bog, an open privy, and a mass grave permeated the area surrounding it. It was far to the north and west. That much she always remembered. That and the walking. Passing by the little cave that had once been her home. Visiting her mother's grave. Stopping for the night and making camp at the old sight where she killed her mother's murderers. More walking the next day. Days of walking, and then coming upon her mother's people, the village where she was born. It seemed small and stagnate.

Dokkalfar women folk walked about the village completing daily tasks. Many in varying stages of pregnancy. They looked tired, none of them smiled. The luster for life that had been in her mother's eyes, even after their exile, before her death, was not present in any of these women's eyes. Their long ears drooped to their shoulders depressively.

Half-breed children ran around everywhere laughing, and playing while others argued and fought. A few were dark skinned like their mothers, but most were a lighter brown to almost white. Their eyes glimmered in shades that were of both alfari and human heritage. Ears ranged from long and pointed, drooping over slim shoulders, to short pointed ears that laid back against their heads, to rounded human ears.

The dokkalfar women's hair ranged in colors of pure white to golden-blonde, strawberry-red, and aspen-leaf green that always had a pale platinum sheen to it making it seem too vibrant to be natural. Of their half-breed children though, their hair ranged from their mother's alfari pastels to their father's human shades of blonde, red, brown, and black.

The children also ranged in age from infancy to their early twenties. For the most part the dokkalfar womenfolk ranged in height from four and a half feet tall to five and a half feet. They were slim of frame, slight of breast, wide of hip and thickly muscled from the buttocks down to ankles. The half-Alf girls resembled their mothers a great deal. A couple girls were as short and slim, but for the most part they were taller, standing five feet to six feet high.

Hlina herself was taller still by at least a couple of inches, she thought.

Many of the girls were broader in their shoulders, thicker chested, and most had breasts that would have been on par with Hlina's massive bosom in her previous life. They still had slim swooping waists, and wide hips and thick buttocks and legs.

Of the boys only the ones that looked the most like their mothers were short and slim, standing no taller than five feet tall. They also seemed to be the most angry and vicious. To a boy the lighter their skin the taller and more bulky they were built though they all seemed to retain the alfari athletic frame instead of their father's more square builds.

More than once Hlina saw one of the older boys slap, pummel, or beat what she could only imagine was their mothers or grandmothers. More than once she watched as a dokkalfar woman curled up on herself, laying on the ground, crying and wincing in pain as she tried to protect a gravid belly. As her dream continued it got worse. Of the young half-Alf girls, daughters of these human men and dokkalfar women, she saw more than a few that were already pregnant. They were barely old enough to be considered anything more than girls, and yet, here they were becoming mothers.

The human men she saw were all angry and violent, even more so than their sons who were following in their fathers' footsteps. What she saw, what she witnessed, what they did to the dokkalfar and their own daughters, it sickened her!

It was a nightmare!

Every time the dream came, it was a little different, and every time she reached the village she hurried past. The cave. The voice. That was what she sought. That was what she must find. North and west she ran from the village to a valley strewn with the bones of men. A hundred men or more. Still further north she ran until she found it.

The cave with the large black putrid maw.

——(!)——

Hlina gave a start as the memory of the dream lingered, and then she realized her arms were coiled around Chenoa's waist and her face was buried in soft furry breasts. Espowyes eventually got Chenoa's attention and won her heart and hand as a mate. It took a year after Espowyes came back to the village with Hlina as his mate before Chenoa realized he wasn't going to chase her around anymore. Once that happened she suddenly became interested.

Hlina moved her face back from Chenoa's large soft breasts and took a deep inhalation. Somehow Chenoa always smelled like wild flowers or lavender. It clung to her fur and Hlina enjoyed it immensely. Sliding her upper most hand down, since she was laying on her side between Chenoa and Espowyes, she rubbed the other woman's large round belly.

She remembered the night Espowyes took her back to his den on their marriage night. Of how he had gently taken her as his mate. She felt that she had been too young for children then, though she was a whole year older than when she had started dating Daniel's father. With every breeding she had hoped desperately that she wouldn't get pregnant, but it had been two years now and she was still childless. She was still young. She knew this. She still had plenty of time, but she was ready and now she was worried if she even could.

She was fifteen when she started dating Daniel's father as freshmen in high school. They dated all four years and well into college and were sexually active the whole time. She had been absolutely frantic about birth-control. At first for fear of getting pregnant so early while still in school, and then later because a child would have put a halt to all her dreams. Her goals. Daniel's father never thought about any of the consequences. If she didn't make him wear a condom he wouldn't. She never gave his reluctance much thought, at least not until after she was pregnant. She just thought all guys were like him, always eager to seed their lady. She was successful in rebuffing his eagerness until her twenty-first birthday.

Six years.

Six years!

One party. Too many drinks. Not enough to eat. Long hours juggling classes and part-time work, and four weeks later she found out she was pregnant. The night she told Daniel's father was the last night she ever saw him.

There were no such devices here in this world. No condoms. No pills. Nothing! And still she wasn't pregnant. After a year she went to the she-wolf foremothers and asked why she hadn't been gotten-with-child, and they steadfastly refused to answer except to say, "If the Moon Goddess wishes for you to have a litter of cubs, then you will conceive."

It still infuriated her! Combing her fingers through Chenoa's fur calmed her down. Down Chenoa's belly her fingers glided, then up to the waist, and over and down Chenoa's hip to her buttocks. Chenoa's eyes opened and she smiled. She could feel Chenoa wagging her tail. Chenoa's eyes were as crystal blue as fast moving glacial river water. Chenoa leaned in, and Hlina tilted her head up to receive a kiss.

Espowyes' roused from his slumber as his rough hands caressed her waist. She was sleeping between him and Chenoa with her back to him. His hands slid down to her hip and buttocks.

Chenoa's mouth peeled back and growled lustily as she pulled Hlina on top of her as she rolled onto her back. Hlina had to hold herself up on hands and knees while lavishing Chenoa with kisses.

Cool air stirred in their small abode as Espowyes moved behind Hlina. Arching her back so that her flat belly was touching Chenoa's larger, pregnant belly, Hlina sighed in mild disappointment that Chenoa would give birth within a few days. Her thoughts flew away on wings of excitement as Espowyes' clawed fingers dug into her soft round buttocks until he was just on the point of drawing blood. Gripping her cheeks tight, he spread her apart and pushed inside!

She sighed into Chenoa's mouth. He was so deep inside her now. She looked down into Chenoa's eyes, and with a satisfied smile she kissed her sister-wife. She had taken to this bisexual lifestyle a lot more readily than she ever would have imagined she could.

Their mouths were pulled apart by Espowyes pulling her hips back to meet his mighty collisions. All too soon she felt a swelling inside her womb as he knotted her, and then warmth as he seeded her. Euphoria filled her up like a balloon. She felt like she would float away, and then she was being stretched out so thin. Her ballooning orgasm popped at her peak, but inside it was an explosion that ripped through her body. Destroying her. Recreating her. She howled joyously as that warmth, that joy, spread throughout her whole body!

It was mid-morning before she left to start her chores. She walked funny. She always walked funny after being bred. Soft chuckles from the other men and women followed in her wake. They weren't even discreet as they sniffed the air as she passed by. The men smelling her arousal, the women catching the scent of Espowyes' seed running down her thighs.

It was utterly humiliating!

The she-wolves didn't have such issues when they were bred by their mates, or at the least, they hid it better than she was able to if they did. To her, after breeding, she always felt like she still had the large gourd of a butternut squash still shoved up inside her.

Did the she-wolves feel the same sensation after breeding?

Walking in tender humiliation, her feet kicked out in wide crescents that exaggerated the sway of her broad hips. Her tenderness not letting her inner thighs touch. She looked like a woman walking with the long end of that imaginary butternut squash still sticking out between her thick thighs.

Making her way as quickly as she could manage to the bathing cave first, she wound her way around rock formations with natural hollows to a spigot and twisted. An ingenuitive blacksmith had rigged a large boiler over a fire pit to boil water. Turning one of several spigots as she resulted in hot water pumping out to the large natural basin making a perfect wading pool.

As soon as the bath was filled she disrobed. There wasn't really much to remove, a loincloth worn in the fashion her mother had worn, silver bracelets on each wrist, woven bracelets on each ankle encrusted with turquoise, and bird bone and citrine breastplate that was Espowyes' mother's marriage gift to her. The only item she didn't take off was her mother's waist chain, still wrapped around her neck like it had been the day Espowyes took her as his mate two years previous.

Slipping into the hot mineral water, she sighed exultantly as her aching vaginal muscles were soothed by the water's hot caress. Another sigh escaped her, a longer more contented sigh as the hot water soothed all the rest of her. Laying her head back on the cold stone rim, long curly black hair floated all around her as she let her mind go blank…

——(!)——

Hlina opened her eyes and found herself sitting on a large round stone deep within the earth. A cave she thought, but as she looked around the space was massive and there was no exit.

Wherever she was, the large open space surrounding her was easily of a scale with a stadium capable of seating fifty-thousand people. In its center, the only thing in the massive space was the large boulder she sat on. It looked like a large sphere with only two-fifths of its mass above the cavern floor. The cavern itself seemed to be lit by a yellowish light that became more orange and then red by the time it reached the floor. Other than that, she saw that she was naked, and more interestingly, the stone beneath her buttocks and thighs was very warm.

Looking down she saw that she was sitting cross-legged on the very center of the stone. Standing up, she turned in a complete circle as she examined her surroundings. When her circuit was complete there was a tall woman standing at the base of the stone that wasn't there when she started. She stood there unmoving except for dark brown eyes that looked up at her, examining her, weighing her. She suddenly felt self-conscious in her nudity even if the other woman didn't appear to be self-conscious at all in hers.

The other woman was of a height with Hlina and as dark of skin, the same long curly black hair, and the same dark brown eyes. The differences between them were small. The ears, Hlina's were long pointed alfari ears while the other woman's were rounded like a humans. Hlina was still slim while the other woman was pregnant. She was incredibly gravid, with a belly so large she must have been full term or more, and carrying multiples! And yet, she stood tall and straight backed like the weight of her burden was nothing at all. Lastly, the woman had hugely gravid breasts that hung low to rest on her belly that stood out from her chest like two massive, fat missiles pointing slightly towards each elbow and downward. However, despite her nudity and her pregnant state, she held herself with a queenly air. Her chin tilted up even with Hlina looming above her, and with an expectation that Hlina would come to her, not the other way around.

Hlina nodded to herself in acceptance and descended the slope of the boulder. As she approached she saw small rocks and earth moving in a slow swirl around the other woman's feet. She felt surprised, but also, somehow, it felt muted as if she shouldn't be surprised by what she saw at all. That what she was seeing was perfectly normal.

"Who are you? Where am I?" She asked as she came to a stop still on the boulder two steps away from the swirling earth and rocks.

"I am Gaia, daughter," The other woman answered.

Gesturing to the vast cavern around them she continued, "This place you are in is your soul. Your inner world. Your body, your real body, is laying back and dozing in the bath while your mind is in a heightened state of meditation."

"Why am I here?" She asked, shaking her head, not understanding.

Gaia smiled. It was a motherly smile. A smile Hlina remembered receiving from her mother on many occasions when she said or did something that made her mother proud. Gaia answered in a warm purr, "Why don't you come closer?"

"Why should I?" She replied immediately, her tone suspicious as she shook her head, "I don't know you."

Gaia nodded as if she expected the response and said, "It was I that led you toward playing your son's game. So that you might come to this land and be reunited. I am fond of mothers, you see."

She gestured to her own belly as she broke eye contact only to look down at her own gravid state before lifting gaze back up to Hlina's before continuing, "I empathize with them, with you. As for the reason why; many thousands of years ago I was awakened not by the Creator, but rather, by devices created through the unholy union of the Fallen's magic and Man's science. I was awakened, and then I was split asunder. It nearly destroyed me."

Gaia's voice fell away while remembering the pain of the past. When her eyes focused again she continued, "The pain of your loss drew me to you, but your loss was no greater than any other mother that has lost her child. No, rather, it was your son's transference to the Garden Realm that caused me to act."

She paused again, shaking her head at some unknown thought before she continued, "I felt his transference. It was that which caught my attention, but the Bifrost was incomplete, resulting in Daniel Reas Wells of Spirit, Power, and Soul being transferred while his body, a burned out husk, remained behind. I followed his spirit to its implantation in his father, a son of Lauma. I was present when conception took root in his mother, a daughter of Seline. So I came to you, a daughter of Midgard, and gave you the dream."

"You sent me the dream," Hlina said more to herself than as a question, "You knew I would follow my son here to this… Garden Realm?"

Gaia nodded, "I had hoped you would. I hoped that you wouldn't take your own life instead."

"Why?" Hlina asked, determination filling her voice, "Why would you do this for me?"

"Daniel Reas' birth cries were like thunder in my ears. However his cries were not the only ones I heard, but he is the greatest of you. The goddesses Lauma and Seline both have their representatives though only Seline Oracle is near Daniel now. There is no doubt though, both Oracles will bond themselves to your son, if they can, to their goddesses' benefit. So too will I, for my need is greater than theirs ever was or ever will be. To do so, I need you to be my Oracle," Gaia answered, but when Hlina only looked at her in confusion she explained, "I need an avatar, an anchor, to this world. Someone that I might bond with, and through whom I might create an unbreakable bond with my Champion."

"So you will possess me? Inhabit me? What then happens to me?" Hlina asked, her tone worried as she took a step backwards away from Gaia.

"Nothing happens to you, my daughter," Gaia answered reassuringly, "You are yourself. Only when I need to speak to the Champion will I exercise my will over you. There will be no memory of those moments, but when I have completed my task I will withdraw and you will be in control of your body once more."

"Who is this Champion you need to get in touch with?" Hlina asked.

"Why, I thought that much was obvious, it is none other than your son, of course," Gaia chuckled, "That is why I guided you to come to this world. I am considered a mother goddess, and who better to represent me and my interests than Daniel Reas' mother!"

"So I am just a tool to use to manipulate Daniel," Hlina declared indignantly.

"Of course not daughter," Gaia replied reassuringly, "I am not that type of person, and you would be a very poor tool of manipulation even if I were. Your love for and loyalty to your son would never allow you to be used in that way. Also, you look nothing like who you were in Midgard. Daniel Reas would not see his mother in you now."

"No!" Gaia nearly shouted as she shook her head adamantly. When her head shaking stopped she smiled as she continued, "Rather than manipulate I wish to persuade. I wish only to communicate with my Champion, and to do so I need an Oracle, and you are her."

"In exchange for being your Oracle, I get what?" Hlina asked, her tone neutral, her demeanor guarded.

"Aside from being reunited with your son?" Gaia replied softly, confidently, "You would be regarded as the equivalent of a High Priestess to those that worship me. Also, I will give you my blessing and a portion of my power."

Raising her gaze upward Gaia pointed as she continued, "Look."

Hlina did so and where she was sure there hadn't been anything but the top of the dome there were three spheres of energy. They hung suspended in a triangular pattern. The first a red fire ball angrily spouting small gouts of flame that would stretch out before curving back towards the ball just like it really was a sun. The second was blue and seemed to glisten like water. It's surface seemed to stir and ripple as if there was a constant wind blowing across it. The third, the last ball of energy completing the triangle, was a deep yellow-orange energy cocooned by a hard shell of pieces of earth tightly packed together but not uniform so that the energy within glowed through the cracks.

"What are those?" She asked in surprised awe. She could feel their power. Her body nearly vibrated in anticipation. When she concentrated on one for any length of time her womb started feeling warm and aroused, or her heart started beating rapidly, or her head felt fuzzy and euphoric.

"Those are sources of power within your body," Gaia answered, "If you were among your own people, you would be trained as a Priestess of Gaia. You would be considered one who listens to the whispers of the elements. One who listens to my whispers. As a daughter of the Earth Mother, an earth daughter, as my Oracle you will be more than just "one who listens", you will be my voice. You will be my right hand. My body. You will be my living image. Your strength and command of the elements will be many times stronger, and when you need me I will be your boon and balm."

"Fine!" Hlina answered, bringing her hands up to bring a halt to Gaia's sales pitch. Looking Gaia directly in her eyes, she new hers must be glinting as she continued in a determined voice. Nothing else mattered more, "I will do anything. I will be anything… you need me to be so long as you reunite me with Daniel, and I am able to stay with him for the rest of our lives!"

"Yes," Gaia said simply, "Of course. That was my intention from the beginning. However, you must also consider this; you are his mother only in spirit now. You are no longer his mother literally. If you wish to stay with him forever, well, you might have to marry him."

"Marry him!" Hlina gasped in shocked outrage, "But he is my son!"

"He was your son," Gaia replied, "Now you are a young dokkalfar woman who is the Oracle of Gaia. Only your spirit remembers that you are his mother. Besides, this world's outlook on such things is quite different from the world you came from."

Hlina nodded grudgingly, but her mouth was still twisted into a grimace as she stepped down off of the boulder and took Gaia's hand. Her feet alighted on the cavern floor and the swirling earth and rock parted around her feet as she stood directly in front of Gaia. Both appeared to be near mirror images of each other, minus Gaia's pregnant state and Hlina's long pointed ears that drooped over her shoulders and quivered with anxiety.

Hlina didn't know what to do when Gaia caressed her cheek, but her hand was warm and she felt a sensation of affection flow into her. Unconscious of her actions, she leaned into Gaia's caress. She closed her eyes, but they popped open again when Gaia placed her free hand on Hlina's lower belly. It slid down to her crotch and two fingers slipped between the folds of her sex. It took only a moment, Hlina's mouth opened in shock, and before she could pull away Gaia's fingers slipped inside her!

Hlina froze! Her mouth opened to object but all that came out was the sound of a lusty inhale as euphoria suddenly bloomed inside her womb and spread out like a warm wave of summer heat caressing her body. Her skin prickled as the next wave was as cold as the winter wind. She sighed and the next wave of power penetrating her body was as refreshing as spring rain showers, and her body hummed. She felt like deep fertile earth soaking up the seasons. Absorbing nutrients. Expanding. Growing. Full of life. Teaming with it!

——(!)——

As Gaia worked within the world of Hlina's soul, Chenoa walked into the bathing cave to find eight of the tribal foremothers standing in a semicircle watching... something. Curious she moved up and around until she had a better view, and as soon as she did her mouth fell open.

Hlina hovered within a bowl shaped hollow in the cave floor. Hot water she had been bathing in hung suspended in the air all around her. Flames from the fire pit, heating the cave and boiler, suddenly jumped out arcing over towards Hlina. The water moved aside so that the flames were not extinguished, and they began to dance. Splitting apart into two spheres of red flame that spun about Hlina's head so fast in two separate orbits that cast the illusion of the sign of eternity. The flames moved so fast that they became two red halos. The bath water hovering suspended all around Hlina started to coalesce into seven blue spinning rings around Hlina's body. The closest and smallest ring only inches from touching the red halos and Hlina's toes. From the most inner ring there were only inches separating the next six rings. Each one started spinning. Each on a different axis, and so fast that nothing and no one could come closer than those rings to Hlina. A vibration rumbled through the cave and loose dirt and rock began to move and swirl along the floor from the entrance to the very back of the cave. The earth seemed to give a great harrumph and everyone stumbled. Trying to keep their footing, everyone looked on in wonder as every piece of loose earth and rock jumped into the air and hung suspended. The rings of water began to spin faster and faster, and as they did the earth and rock suspended in the air started gathering and swirling around the bowl of Hlina's bath.

Chenoa climbed to her feet as did the foremothers, but none of them dared take their eyes from the scene in front of them as the earth and rock, swirling around the rings of water began to climb upward, coalescing and created a dome of solid rock above Hlina and the rings of water and fire. Crouching down to sit on their heels, they continued watching between the bowl of the bath and the dome of solid earth and rock. Hlina's mouth opened wide and her back arched. It didn't seem to be in pain. I was more like how Hlina appeared when in the throes of her orgasm.

The two halos of red flame changed. Each halo broke apart and transformed into snakes of red and gold flames. Slithering through the air toward Hlina's mouth they quickly slithering inside. Hlina's eyes opened wide in a look of ecstasy as they beamed fiery red light. Sweat suddenly burned off her skin and turned into a cloud of steam that hovered above her body but trapped inside the rings of water.

The steam gathered. Coalescing. And the rotating rings of water absorbed it all. The water grew and the rings spinning sped up until they appeared to be a solid sphere of water. With shocking abruptness the rings of water stopped. Every ring was in a different place on a different axis when they shrunk, binding Hlina arms, legs and hair to her body. Hlina's eyes seemed to bulge, her mouth was spread far open in a soundless howl of delight that her jaw looked like it may break!

Then the seven rings of water changed. Breaking apart just as the fire had and transformed into seven huge serpents. The basin Hlina had bathed in could hold ten people easily, Chenoa thought. There must have been nearly seven-hundred gallons of water encapsulating Hlina, that was now gargantuan snakes. If they went the way of the fire serpents Hlina's body would burst. Sure enough the snakes moved toward Hlina's mouth, but not just there, they also slithered down between her thighs. Hlina's body swelled and she started to convulse as the largest serpent slithered between her thighs and pushed its way into her bum.

Chenoa unconsciously grabbed her own buttocks as she gasped and heard eight others do so as well.

Seven water serpents disappeared as they penetrated Hlina's body. Through mouth, nose, vagina, bladder, and anus. As they disappeared Hlina's belly and breasts grew, and then the dome of earth crumbled and fell down to encapsulate Hlina from head to her toes. The earth and rock moved about Hlina's skin but it never took on any shape. It just moved to follow the water serpents to mouth, nose, sex, and buttocks. Rock and soil penetrated and invaded Hlina's body.

It seemed like Hlina would soon split apart from the sheer volume of more than a thousand gallons of water and earth that filled her up. As Chenoa watched Hlina's belly and breasts grew supernaturally large. Her gravid pregnancy grossly overshadowed her body like she had a small earth inside her womb. It hung suspended over Hlina like a globe. Her breasts were fat missiles as long and thick as Hlina herself and yet they stood up above her body defying gravity. Chenoa started feeling ill and thought she might heave up. However, as soon as the last tendrils of earth disappeared inside Hlina's mouth and between her thighs, her belly and breasts, so overly large that they nearly touched the ceiling of the cave, began to shrink. They shrank too quickly, and within seconds Hlina was her own original size and self again. Chenoa and all eight foremothers dashed forward as Hlina floated down to lay in the bottom of the hollow bowl used as a bathing pool once more.

——(!)——

Hlina screamed as power, euphoria, and pain filled her up like a cup that was overflowing. She didn't know how long she screamed. It felt like eternity. It could have only been seconds. She watched as fire blasted from her mouth in a massive gout of flame. It gathered itself at Gaia's direction, and then with a gesture flew toward the red sun-like ball of energy near the domed ceiling, and added its power to it. As they combined the red orb of power swelled larger and larger until it was nearly three times the size it had been originally.

Next water and earth burst from her mouth, from her bladder, vagina, and rectum. It didn't explode from her in some dirty way. Rather, the mud seemed to grow and gather on her skin like liquid armor, and then the water started separating from earth leaving a crusty shell. There were hundreds of gallons of earth and water. Hlina was aghast that it all seemed to come from her body. There was no way that her small form had held so much!

As the water and earth separated, The water separated into seven rings that surrounded her and Gaia. The earthen armor fell away from her skin and coalesced into a dome that hovered above them. As soon as the earth and water quit evacuating from Hlina and were completely formed rings and dome, Gaia gave two quick hand signals. The dome of earth flew towards the yellow-orange orb of power. It flipped over in mid-flight so that it was a bowl and came up beneath the earthen orb energy. The bowl closed over the earthen energy sphere shutting its light away. There was a massive shudder and the earth shielding Hlina's energy cracked and expanded outward until it was roughly ten times larger than the sphere of energy within. The shards of ill-fiting earth surrounding the inner sphere then moved out to join the outer sphere of earth rock and the yellow-orange energy within grew stronger.

Last were the seven blue rings of water. They flew toward the last ball of blue energy. Each one was spinning on their individual axis, but as they approached the blue sphere they all stopped their rotations. They stopped so that each ring was synchronized and parallel to the others, and then they moved up so that the ball of blue energy was in the center of the rings. As soon as all was in place the rings started spinning again, each on a different axis, each at a different speed.

As each of Hlina's sources of power grew they lowered from the ceiling until they were halfway between the top of the boulder in the center of the cavern and the domed ceiling. Then above the three spheres of power appeared a much larger replica of what Hlina immediately recognized as planet earth.

"Earth!" She gasped as another wave of euphoria expanded throughout body leaving her panting breathlessly as beams of light connected the replica earth above to her sources of power.

Her consciousness became aware of billions of peoples spread out across six different realms of Gaia's being. She was only faintly aware of Gaia's arms, and the feeling of the other woman's lips pressing against her mouth in a kiss that was not a kiss. Gaia breathed power into her, supporting her through the experience. But when she was done she was still left breathing heavily as her consciousness slowly shrank until it was only herself, and Gaia holding her. Supporting her. Caressing her.

Gaia's hands were soft against her naked skin. Tender fingers gliding up and down her back, following her muscles and tracing the edges of bones. From shoulders to shoulder blades dancing fingertips followed her spine all the way to her tailbone before small hands grabbed heavy handfuls of cheeky buttocks.

Before Hlina really knew what was happening Gaia was laying her down on the edge of the warm boulder in the center of the cavern that was the inner world of her soul. Gaia followed her down, half of her own accord and half because Hlina was pulling her down on top of her. Gaia's pregnant belly pushing against her own flat abdominals. Huge swollen breasts hung down not unattractively begging to be squeezed, to be kneaded, to be suckled, to be nibbled. Hlina found herself grabbing two greedy handfuls of soft dark brown flesh and squeezing, and kneading, and pinching, and twisting thick erect nipples!

Simultaneously, Gaia leaned in for more kisses as she supported herself on one elbow and ran her free hand down to Hlina's smooth pubic mound. She curling her fingertips into Hlina's soft flesh, and Hlina's spongy folds of her sex parted to reveal pink flesh, velvety soft, and moist with arousal.

Gaia was not ignorant of how to please a woman's body, she had please her own for millennia, and so, Hlina found herself sighing luxuriously as Gaia's two middle fingers deftly rubbed from her clitoris down her vulva all the way to her vagina. Gaia's thumb remained poised at the top of the slit of her sex, resting on her pubic bone just above her clitoris. The rest of Gaia's hand caressed her crotch, gently cupping her as pointer and pinky fingers walked down the short distance, nails digging into the soft, puffy, brown flesh of her labia in just enough titillating pain to heighten the pleasure of her middle fingers gliding down her vulva. When Gaia's walking fingers reached the inner, bottom curves of her buttocks, sharp nails dug into her cheeks as the two middle fingers delved deep inside Hlina's vagina!

Hlina sighed in pleasure. She vibrated.

Gaia knew the perfect amount of pain to give. Withdrawing her fingers up Hlina's vulva Gaia pinched her clitoris between fingers and thumb, and then back down they went delving deeper inside her again. The pain! The pleasure! Always increasing. Expanding her euphoria until some unknown time later, it could have been minutes, it felt like hours, her consciousness exploded in orgasm!

The guttural moans escaping her lips were gentle things, but as Gaia ministered to her body her moans climbed to mewlings, breathy exhalations, gasping inhalations, and as exultations climbed higher and higher in octave she breathed more deeply until her throat was raw from her mouth was wide open in full bodied screams of ecstasy. Her eyes crossed, rolled up, and then closed. Her back arched. Her thighs shook. Gaia was finally finished, every muscle in her thighs, sex, and belly twitched weakly.

"Remember daughter, I am always near," Gaia whispered, "I will always hear you when you call out to me. You have but to ask and my power will be yours to use…"

It took a long time before Hlina realized that Gaia was gone and she was alone. Breathing hard, her heart beating even harder, she gazed up at the three orbs of power above her. Gaia had said they were sources of power in her body, but what were they exactly?

——(!)——

Upon awakening she found herself laying in the dry bowl of the rock basin she had been bathing in previous to her dozing and meeting Gaia. Her eyes fluttered open and there was an audience of she-wolf foremothers surrounding her, and Chenoa. Chenoa, at least, looked at her in complete astonishment. Her jaw slack, her mouth agape. The foremothers on the other hand looked at her too sharply.

She was beginning to feel nervous, like she had done something wrong, when the oldest of the she-wolf foremothers and the leader among them, Tenaya leaned over Hlina and offered a hand to help her out of the empty bowl as she said, "You have been chosen by one of the goddesses I take it?"

Hlina looked up in astonishment and nodded.

She had found out two years ago, after joining the Howling Forde Lupus pack, that almost all Animal names meant something. It made her think back to her previous life and the Native American tribes she had grown up with and around in Seattle and surrounding areas.

Tenaya meant, 'A great leader has been born from my womb'. Apparently Tenaya's mother had great aspirations for her daughter upon her birth. Of course, she was a great leader. The chief of this tribe was always the alpha, and that didn't mean that the alpha was strictly male. Tenaya had been the alpha for many years until she grew old and was challenged by Wanageeska. Still, even though no longer the chieftain she held much respect and sat at the head of the council of she-wolf foremothers. Looking up into the woman's bright golden eyes, Hlina sudden swallowed at the fierceness of Tenaya's gaze.

After Tenaya was Sokanon. She was the shortest of the she-wolves with a silver coat of fur. She was also the plumpest, with broad hips and a bosom that dwarfed Chenoa's breasts, which were as large as a man's head. Her name meant 'She who is like the rain' or possibly 'She who is as refreshing as a summer rain'.

Meanings could be very general, or very specific at the same time, but only the name giver usually knew the full meaning of a name.

Pala, a strong, regal she-wolf stood straight-backed, but was aged enough that the blue fur about her face had turned completely white. Her name meant 'A guardian standing in an meadow near water'. Then there was; Sassaba, whose name means 'With the moon goddesses help I bore a she-wolf'. Nayeli's name meant 'She is an expression of my love'. Catori, 'She is spirited'. Tayen, 'She who was born on the night of the new moon'. And lastly, Lequoia who was tall and built thick and wide. Her fur was a deep russet color which Hlina thought lent to her name meaning 'She who resembles a sequoia tree', or 'She who was made in the likeness of a sequoia'.

"Yes, Gaia," Hlina answered breathlessly as she nodded and took Tenaya's hand.

Tenaya only nodded before pulling Hlina up to stand beside her before saying, "Most Animal tribes do not have priests or priestesses. That is a practice of the Primes. We have shamans. Tayen and Catori are our shamans. They listen to the light of the moon, and to our goddess Seline. You see, we follow and worship the same gods and goddesses as you Primes."

"The people you come from must be worshipers of Gaia, else she would not have communed with you," Sokanon said as she took Hlina other arm.

"Is there a difference between the shamans of Gaia and Seline?" She asked, curiosity tinging her voice.

"There is," Catori answered instead of Tenaya, "Shaman of Seline can hear her voice on the beams of moonlight, and she sings to us on the full moon when we are at our strongest. We can also draw power from the moonlight and Seline, to an extent, enhancing the power we already possess."

Sassaba nodded as she interjected what she saw as important, "Shamans of Lauma listen to the trees and forests. They can hear her whispers from a single tree, but the deeper they are within the forests the louder her voice becomes until she is loud to their ears as I am here speaking to you now. On the other hand, Shamans of Ahti listen to the crashing waves of the ocean, it is said, and they hear her song in the giant ocean storms."

"But you are not a shaman of Seline, Lauma, Ahti," Pala interrupted with a chastising smirk for her companions, "You are a divinely chosen representative of Gaia herself. So what you should know is that shamans of Gaia listen to the elements. Earth mostly and the most strongly, but also fire, wind, and water."

"Yes," Tenaya said, interrupting as soon as Pala took a breath, "And there are Animal tribes that worship Gaia as well. The bear tribe to the south of us, and the bee queen to the east of the bear den, and I hear there is a mixed village further south. The point is, almost every Animal that makes it home, burrow, or den inside the earth is strongly connected to and worships Gaia."

"They could teach you more specifically about your abilities than we can," Tayen said as soon as Tenaya paused, "But, although our goddesses are different, the principles of controlling our powers are the same, and we can teach you that!"

Hlina looked around as all of the she-wolves nodded.

Bowing before her elders, Hlina said, "Then I would be honored if you would teach me."

Tenaya tightened her grip on Hlina's hand. She looked up, and the older she-wolf was smiling at her as she said, "Then your studies start today. Come let's gather your things and head to Tayen's home."

Hlina nodded, but allowed Tenaya and Sokanon to lead her there.