This is a historical adventure tale. The spicy parts get going about a fifth of the way in.
In the third year of Established Calm, as the Han dynasty slouched at last after centuries of glory into irreparable decline, an embassy to the Middle Kingdom arrived from the impossibly distant barbarians who styled themselves the Imperium Romanum.
Their ambassador, Aulus, had taken the maritime route through the Red Sea, circumnavigated India and sailed past Jiaozhi up the South China Sea.
In the Eastern Palace of Luoyang he performed the three kneelings and nine kowtows to Emperor Ling, then delivered gifts and a greeting from the philosopher emperor An Dun, who was no other than Marcus Aurelius. The gifts were Baltic amber, worked silver, saffron, perfumes, a stout casket of gold coins stamped with the faces of the Caesars, two yellow-haired serving girls, and fine wool dyed the indelible purple of the murex. The greeting had been meant to include a proposal for alliance against Parthia, but Aulus, seeing the sorry state of the Han, tactfully left this out.
His mission dispatched, as soon as he could politely depart Aulus sailed not west but still further east to the island chain of Wa, today's Nihon, which was divided back then into a hundred feuding kingdoms. These islands impart a heroic disposition to their inhabitants, so he had no trouble recruiting a new crew for an even stranger journey. His Egyptian sailors were glad to settle in the strongest of the kingdoms, led by the shaman queen Himiko, who was happy in exchange to reprovision their ship, for she valued their sharp physiques and timeless religious knowledge.
East of Wa they passed from the seas of history into those of myth, following the watery road that Xu Fu the court sorcerer of Qin is said to have taken six centuries past. Everyone knows that Fu had stopped in Nihon and taught farming, sericulture and medicine to the ancient Japanese, who in gratitude adopted him as a local god, but even the scholars of Luoyang were uncertain where his final road had led.
Aulus has a strong guess from his dreams, and this sufficed for the crew, for Xu Fu had gone to find the Elixir of Life, and what is heroism if not to brave danger and hardship for the sake of life?
It took three months of miserable sailing, harassed by wind and sea demons, before they found the secret current of fresh water hidden between furious salt waves. They followed this Sweet River south and further south until at last one bright morning they sighted the white line of a beach between sky and sea.
This had been the greatest feat of seamanship since the Argonauts, to be exceeded only centuries later by Sinbad and Magellan. They were all half dead and wept as they kissed the sand.
They saw at once that the island was inhabited, or had been, for piled stones marked a trail. They debated if it were safer to survey the coast from the ship, but their hearts were now too hungry for solid ground, and anyway it seemed safer to reconnoiter by foot. Leaving four men to guard the ship against thief and tide, Aulus led the other sixteen inland.
They had never seen nature so beautiful, so bountiful, or so gentle. Bare sand gave way gracefully to grasses and ferns, then to handsome stands of bamboo and flowery shrubs, then to a broad leaf forest that shaded them from the midday sun but left plenty of space for light and breeze. Waterfalls everywhere offered clean drink, and at each rest they found coconuts and wild fruit. They spotted game too, birds and small shy deer and at least one boar, but they did not slow down to hunt.
In the late afternoon they found the first village. It was like any small farming-and-fishing village that Aulus had known, except for the cleanliness and beauty of its people. No lameness or infections here, not so much as a rotten tooth or ordinary lice. The villagers greeted them warmly—no fear of strangers either!—and they swiftly found they had language in common, a kind of old Huaxia dialect, antique in diction and sweetly musical.
That evening they ate rice, taro root, and fish seasoned in herbs—a feast after weeks of short rations. It showed their natural trust in these natives that they made no objection to sleeping each to a separate hut. Aulus himself stayed up late in the lodge of their local chief, or rather village official, for they knew true government here. They spoke at length by lamplight and consulted records on bound bamboo slips.
This land, Yingzhou, was a long sinuous island, mountainous in the south, sloping down to rich fields and watery basins in the north where they had landed. When Aulus asked who ruled, the old official explained with a chuckle that as a rich and hidden land without fear of war, they never had much need of rule, just a little gentle organising of roads and trade.
But all men need a master, the Roman objected. How else to keep them in their place?
"Tomorrow," answered the official, "you will go to meet the Furen of Waterfall Court." Aulus couldn't quite tell through the veil of language if the term, meaning "great lady", referred here to their queen or to a local goddess. On this the old man would not be drawn out any further.
So they set out at dawn with packs full of leaf-wrapped rice and fish. Two young guides escorted them. Other villagers went to their ship with food and a reassuring letter from their captain.
It was only a day's journey, and horses were rare on the island, so they went on foot. The slow pace gave them ample time to marvel at the natural and human beauty they saw everywhere. The strangest sight to these hardened men was how even the largest towns lacked any defensive wall or palisade.
That night they slept at the foot of a mountain, not enormous but high enough to command a view over the fields. Another guide took over in the morning and led them up a broad zigzagging wooden walkway. Temple maidens in light, almost transparent silks passed them on the path, lighting incense at shrines.
They heard the musicians before they saw them. Ladies on flute and zither accompanied the clear, immortal voices of cascading waters. Then they rounded the last bend and the Waterfall Court was before them.
Aulus had seen palaces stuffed with gold and marble, jade and chalcedony. This was different. The Court did not impose; it welcomed. The wooden palace was built so harmoniously into the mountain that one could imagine it had grown there. Elegant carvings enchanted the eye. Tiles and paving stones lay exactly where needed for comfort; cushions and hangings of silk were as natural and appropriate here as the wings of the butterflies that played among the pools into which a dozen waterfalls fell.
All through the audience hall were handmaidens, ladies in waiting, priestesses, musicians in colourful silks. There were men paying court too, slim and handsome, like the young guide still at Aulus's side. His men of Wu looked ragged by comparison, but tough, in a compact group behind him.
Atop the throne—no more than a cushioned bench, but a throne all the same because she sat there—was the woman who Aulus saw at once was queen and goddess both. She was as beautiful as the land, as sweetly young as the falling water, as approachable as a farm girl next door.
"I am the lady Youmei, the Furen, the breast and womb of Yingzhou."
Aulus bowed.
"Your servant Aulus Felix, mariner and former ambassador. Are you this land's ruler?"
"Not ruler. Its bride. The soul of this island suffuses my feminine centre, my yin. From our union arises the land's abundance."
Aulus had heard a hundred other pompous royal boasts of some divine connection to their domain. Looking at the lady Youmei, for the first time he believed it.
"Youmei... not You Mei the sorceress, the lover of Xu Fu? From the days of the Qin? Then you found the Elixir of Immortality?"
She laughed lightly. "Only the waters around us. When Xu Fu and You Mei brought refugees from the Qin, all the land was dead bare rock, for Yingzhou was overrun by fire devils. Xu Fu gave his life to drive them away. Here on this mountain, with his last breath he married his lover to the island. Then water broke through the rocks, all the land burst into green, and the survivors had their new home.
"And this connection passed from mother to daughter, teacher to pupil, lover to lover. There is always a Youmei of Yingzhou. The more she embodies her feminine soul, the more bountiful the land."
Aulus looked around him at the clear pools, dignified surroundings, flawless people. "Then you must embody it well."
A cloud passed over Youmei's face.
"And yet these may be our last days. Have you heard of the Nightmare Fire Clan?"
"In the Middle Kingdom, yes. A brotherhood of bandits and extortioners, like the collegia of my own—"
Their guide struck at Aulus, a knife that wasn't there a moment ago slicing through the air. He met Aulus's own short knife in his throat and collapsed face down. The flutes and zither stopped.
Aulus nudged the twitching body over with his foot. The guide still clutched a long, wicked blade.
"Yes, I've heard of them."
Some ladies screamed. But other courtiers kept their heads, and with a few of Aulus's men, they cleared the body away to be burned decently, then washed the floor, lit incense and beat drums to drive off the assassin's ghost.
"Let us talk," said Youmei, "with more privacy."
She led Aulus out of the audience hall through winding wood-paved paths with awnings for rainy days, past shrines, libraries, and gardens to her own quarters, a large long chamber of carven wood. On one side lay her bed, low and wide and surprisingly simple. On the other water flowed into a bathing basin, channeled from the mountain cascades. Next to this basin was a fountain of dancing water, and in the center of the quarters was a low table at which they sat.
Aulus felt the shock of the attack catch up to him.
"Why the hell don't you have bodyguards?"
Youmei sighed. "I suppose we need them. Understand, we have known peace and plenty for so long that violence doesn't come naturally to us."
Aulus shook his head. "The Nightmare Fire Clan... the most vicious offshoot of the Yellow Turbans. But they were wiped out. Their Dragon Head, Lung Tao, was driven away."
"So he was. Lung Tao came to our shores just as you did. He declared right where you stood that he would take our island for himself, make our people his slaves, make me his concubine. Even though he was alone, he leapt at me in front of everyone and pulled away my green sash that has been worn since the first You Mei, and said he would come back in a year to bind my wrists with it. That was eleven months ago.
"Since then he's been gathering numbers. There have been reports of thefts, disappearances, burnings in the outlying towns. Yet our searches have been fruitless.
"Perhaps it is weakness that we welcome you as openly as we welcomed Lung Tao. But I think I'm right to trust you."
A handmaiden arrived with cups and a steaming long-spouted pot. She took a long time ritually pouring their tea, giving Aulus time to form his thoughts.
"It seems to me," he said at last, "that you are going to ask me for three things. To locate the Nightmare Fire Clan, to stop Lung Tao, and to bring peace to your island."
Youmei took her cup and sipped. She had been pale from the attack, and the tea seemed to revive her.
"I know it is very much to ask. In return you may ask from me any three gifts you wish."
Aulus hesitated.
"Honoured lady, I have come to your court. I have seen your beauty. Now I can give you only one sincere answer. Take no offence, please, when I remind you that you have three holes."
Youmei looked perplexed. Then she turned bright red.
"You would ask for my body? And as payment?"
"If I hunt the Nightmare Fire Clan the likely outcome is my death, be it quick or by long unspeakable tortures. Who then is asking more of whose body?"
To this there could be no reply.
"But I do not ask," continued Aulus. "I have confessed that your love is the only gift worthy of such danger. Anything else I asked would have been a lie. Yet I named myself your servant, and I accept your three errands gladly, asking nothing in return."
Youmei set down her cup.
"I don't know what to say."
"Then, great lady, let me offer one more thought. In my native Rome we keep it simple, we say that men are men and power means male power. Yet here in the East I've learned that yin and yang perpetuate one another in cycles and are the stronger for it. I think our energies mingled might have a greater chance of victory than mine alone."
A long time passed as neither said a word. They only thought, sipped tea, and looked at one another.
"I will think about it," said Youmei.
The next day Aulus set out on a horse lent by the court, smaller and slower than the great Ferghana horses imported by the Middle Kingdom, but sure-footed. He went alone and unarmored, insisting that one man could conduct this search better than a hundred. His crew stayed at the mountain, lavishly accommodated.
Ten days later, at the first light of dawn, the horse came back, bearing Aulus pale and half-dead. He had tied himself into the saddle and thrown away all other supplies, and this and the horse's gentleness were all that had kept him from falling.
His men eased him down and at Youmei's instructions carried him on a sledge up the mountain to her own chamber, where her temple women undressed him, washed him with sacred water, and put a few drops between his lips.
Hours later he opened his eyes.
"I'm dying," he said.
"You're healing. Our waters are curative."
By evening Aulus was sitting up and even ate a little rice. "Your island is really a dormant chain of volcanos," he said. "The rocks here are clearly fire-born. The name 'Nightmare Fire' made me think there might be some connection, so I rode south into the mountains.
"The way gets ever steeper, wilder, rockier, as you must know, but your horses are brilliant in bad terrain. And you still have little villages tucked between the mountains. I stopped in them and asked the villagers for every old story they could remember, telling them in return the exploits of Perseus and Hercules.
"Lady of the Waterfall Court, the story you told me of your ancestor was lovely but a bit too clean. You haven't seen enough of the world to know that generations lay pretty stories over the past like a carpet hiding damaged wood. What I heard in the mountains is that the island was already bountiful when your people arrived, but perilous from active volcanos and those who lived here already—the 'fire demons' of your story. They were hard to wipe out because they knew when the volcanos would erupt and used them to their advantage. Xu Fu beguiled the mountains to sleep by mating their fiery souls to You Mei's yin, and the former natives dwindled away. The rest you know.
"I believe that Lung Tao descends from those first-comers: a 'fire demon', if you will, whose ancestors fled to the mainland. When they drove him out of the Middle Kingdom he came back here to take what he sees as his. So I went looking for the largest of the sleeping volcanos, somewhere a whole clan could hide in empty tunnels.
"At last I spotted armed men in crimson cloaks among the rocks. Knowing they could only be bandits I followed them. In short, I was an idiot, not considering that they would have lookouts. By the time I spied their camp a dozen men were attacking me with blowguns. A dart hit me in the knee.
"From there all credit goes to your horse. How he got me home I'll never know. I barely had time to secure myself as best I could before my strength ebbed away. They must have used snake venom. I still don't know how I'm alive."
"Lie back now," said Youmei. She unfastened her hair and let it fall in black cascades down her shoulders. Aulus noticed for the first time that he was in her bed and naked under a silk blanket. Youmei glowed in the light of the braziers. "Lie back and let me tell you another story.
"In my youth, when I first grew curious about the physical acts of love, my first partner was my handmaiden. She is three years older than me, wise, generous, and patient, with a loving laugh and gentle nature. I already knew that I was destined to be the new Youmei, through my maternal grandmother, and so beyond the feelings we all naturally develop I was also discovering a well of magic.
"Her patience was what I needed most back then. She'd let me kiss all over her arms and legs and chest till I was breathless, and would leave it at that when I went no further. She'd touch me where I asked to be touched, kissed when I begged her to kiss, listened when I shared my dreams.
"Many years later she left the court to marry a local farmhand. I was Youmei by then and officiated the wedding, and later blessed each of her babies. I saw that for her the courtly life had been a cheerful game, but her deep satisfaction is belonging to her family and to the earth. Of course we still sometimes hold hands or share a quick kiss, but more in happy memory, for I age slowly and now she feels more like an aunt to me.
"After you rode south I went to visit her. Of course I could have had her summoned but some lessons are best taught at home. She had told me before of the reviving way she likes to welcome her husband home after a hard day in the fields, and now they let me watch her perform the ritual.
"First she washed off the dirt and sweat of his labours, as we've washed you. She gave him something to eat and lay him down. Then she kissed him on his manhood, just kisses, whispering little words of admiration and gratitude."
And the lady Youmei rolled down Aulus's blanket. He was happily surprised, and her story was already stirring him, but he was also still terribly weak and almost raised an objection.
Instead he watched as she put a gentle kiss right on the head of his cock. She kept kissing sweetly along the shaft to his base, down to his balls and back up to the tip. Her hands massaged his legs, avoiding the swollen black bruise just above his knee.
"By then my handmaiden told me was getting wet, as she used to get for me, and as I am getting now, from the smell of your manhood and the feel of you on my lips. She eased her finger inside herself, here, like this..."
And Youmei pulled aside her robe at the hips, revealing to his eyes the glory of her pussy.
No fatigue could stop Aulus from appreciating such beauty. Her soft curling hairs, thick and black, were like the lush forests of Yingzhou. Her smooth lips reminded him of an island fruit, of the gentle banks of streams. The moisture already forming there glistened like sunshine on waterfalls.
He watched her tease herself a little then slip her forefinger inside.
"And then she gave him this little sample," she said, and so she did, letting the robe fall closed and touching her moistened fingertip to Aulus's lips. She smiled at the way his nostrils widened as he breathed in her fragrance, at the little touch of his tongue, the new life that showed in his eyes, as if her pussy had its own healing magic.
"Then she showed me how to warm up a man."
And she returned to his balls, played there a while, bathing them with her tongue, keeping them warm. Then, keeping her tongue very wide and flat and wet, she dragged it from the base of his cock up to the tip, went back down and repeated the motion.
The warm sensations made their way up through Aulus's blood to his brain. He had received more expert blowjobs, but would never prefer them to this simple, affectionate village wife's method delivered from the lips of a queen. He could feel her breast pressing on his upper leg through her robe, and it further awakened his hunger.
"Now I think you're ready to do almost anything to me," Youmei laughed. "But our yin and yang are still circulating. Now's the time for you to be passive and I active. Here, my handmaiden showed me how to calm you."
She rose up and, looking in his eyes, slipped out of her robe completely. Aulus saw her bare shoulders, her smooth flat belly, her fresh perfect chest. She took his hand and put it to one breast, then lowered the other to his lips.
"Yes, go ahead, kiss me. And squeeze, yes." Her hand found his cock and fondled it. "It's satisfying, isn't it? Bite me a little too. I used to do that to her, and I loved it."
After he had taken his fill Youmei went back down on him and touched the head of his cock to her lips.
She paused a moment.
"My handmaiden said that once I put you in my mouth I should keep you there until you come. That way you can just stay in the present moment, knowing it'll happen." And she sank her lips down, filling her mouth with him for the first time.
For a little while she held him deep, enjoying the full hard feeling. Then, slowly, she started moving.
Aulus let her do everything. At the top of her slow strokes he felt her tongue flick back and forth over the sensitive underside of his glans. Then she'd take him back in and he'd feel her rubbing him against the top of her mouth, not far from her throat. She didn't force him any deeper, she didn't gag or choke; it was all smooth warm loving waves.
She took her time, and Aulus lost track of time, sinking into her ministrations.
Eventually though he started to get restless himself—he was never good at staying entirely passive for long—and it was as though she could sense the shift in his energies, for she changed position, keeping him sheathed in her mouth but shifting her hips over to the side where his hand could easily reach her.
Aulus stroked her thighs, her backside, and marvelled at the firm flesh under soft skin. Youmei took his hand and guided it to her pussy.
When his touch met her womanhood he caught his breath. Even to a fingertip she felt so soft and full of passion. Normally before touching a woman's centre he would be careful to moisten his fingers, knowing how a dry hand can irritate the delicate skin, but she was so beautifully moist already that her pussy bathed his fingers as her mouth bathed his cock.
He explored her then, feeling how her inner lips sweetly parted from excitement, sampling the delicate beauty just inside, at the threshold of the entrance within her entrance. Teasing her there clearly excited Youmei: she pushed her hips back on his fingers, and her head bobbed faster.
When he straightened his front two fingers at her entrance and angled them to go in, she thrust her hips down and they sank inside. Aulus's mind did not know where to focus, on the hot exciting magic of her pussy or the ecstasy rising in her mouth. Each time he concentrated on one, the other drove his excitement higher and higher.
He wasn't quite on the edge of coming, and he wasn't far off either, so he let himself relax and bask in the sheer bliss of all she gave him. Youmei sensed this too and sped up. Now she was plunging him into her mouth for all she was worth, working him with her tongue and lips, putting her heart into it. He curled and uncurled his fingers to enjoy the tight wet heat inside her.
Then it came. Aulus's rapture rose and rose. He knew she could feel him stiffen and twitch involuntarily; she tossed her whole body up and down to drive her mouth onto him, and suddenly it wasn't just about to happen, it was happening: his essence rose in him like fire and poured up and out, pulse after pulse, into her mouth, into her loving gracious mouth.
By the time he had caught his breath and she had swallowed, he was completely healed.
The next day courtiers and sailors alike hailed the revived hero, but Aulus waved away all that, and the mood of triumph in the audience hall gave way to fear, for they had struck the hornet's nest.
Aulus showed their hideout on a map, only two days' hard ride by the direct route.
"Lung Tao is surely building up an army, cobbled together from disaffected locals, from whoever of the Nightmare Fire Clan he'd managed to bring with him from the Middle Kingdom, and from the former natives if they still exist." Those courtiers who knew their history winced. "The smart move now will be train an army of your own. With your much greater population and resources you're sure to crush them."
The lady Youmei looked appalled. "Train an army... we'll be torn to shreds. And if we do overwhelm them at last, what we will have turned into..."
"I know. So instead of being smart, we will be foolish. I will go south and challenge Lung Tao to single combat. Two of my men accompany me, not to fight but to carry my armour and bring back word in case I fail. If I do, then please reconsider the smart move."
The Furen of the Waterfall Court could only accept. But she kept him one day longer to gather his strength, though every delay risked the Nightmare Fire Clan's counterstroke.
That night she made love to him with her mouth again, this time aligning her body in reverse of his so that her own hips were over his mouth, letting him see and smell and drink deeply from her as she pleasured him with lips and tongue. Aulus had known women of many lands, but never before had he tasted one so fresh, so delicious, so naturally exciting.
The different angle gave new sensations: now her tongue caressed the top of his cock, as his underside rubbed her soft palate. The juices of her pussy were like a drug: they got in his blood, made every touch an ecstasy. Her hands explored him. His hands held her cheeks apart to let him drink deeper.
It gratified him that she enjoyed his attentions too, so much so that at one point she sat straight up, abandoning her handmaiden's advice to keep him in her mouth, and ground her hips down on him with frantic urgency. If she were not so light of figure, she would have hurt his jaw. Her moans let him know she was getting close, but he felt and tasted when her dam truly burst: a flood of nectar into his mouth, thinner and subtler than her regular juices but just as sweet.
Then she returned to his cock with new passion.
She could get him deep in this position, and when she sensed his ecstasy peak and pour up from his granite hard cock, she pressed herself down firmly just as his hips lifted up.
After they cleaned off in the basin, her ladies in waiting came to towel them off. Youmei invited Aulus to sleep in her bed, and there they shared their first kiss.
By way of pillow talk she told him of other lovers. "You've noticed that I am not a virgin. There have been adventures. Just last year with the farmhand and my former handmaiden together, to thank them for always being so generous to me. A carpenter once whose strong arms caught my eye. But my first and longest was the son of a marquis of the western lowlands.
"This was not so long after I had discovered how much delight my body can give and receive, still well before I became Youmei, and I was ready for love. He was paying court with his father for the summer. Ah, what a summer. The flowers of the mountain opened to full ripeness, and he opened me from virgin to woman on a meadow of flowers, in the sunlight."
Aulus stroked Youmei's side, luxuriating in her.
"How did it end?"
"We grew up. Few first loves are really suited for maturity, and we changed a lot when we attained to our separate offices. It's still a great pleasure to see Ziyuan when he visits, but we've never tried to rekindle the past or even spend a night together. I think we both treasure the magic of those memories too much to complicate them. And also...
"Aulus, you may be skeptical of overly pretty stories, but this is well attested in both our written histories and our elders' living memory. The prosperity and beauty you see in Yingzhou today are but a shadow of the glory of those times when the Youmei embodied her yin to the fullest, when she and her lover opened her deepest well."
Aulus gave Youmei's breast a gentle squeeze. "Her deepest well? I like the sound of that."
"Yet it's a mystery, as woman is a mystery. What the deepest well actually is and where it lies is said to vary from Youmei to Youmei. The only known constant is that you can't force it and you can't fake it."
Youmei sighed. "Whatever it is, Ziyuan and I never found it. And now my reign is threatened by far less charming mysteries."
So when Aulus set out the next day with his two men, all on horseback, he still had the memory of Youmei's taste and smell in his mind, the feel of her in his hands. The echoes of climax in her mouth made him shiver. Their yin and yang were still mingling, even at a distance, giving each new strength. And the speculations about her deepest well gave him curiosity, which is the strongest of all motivations to stay alive.
All this, Aulus knew, she had given him intentionally, the gift of the lady of the island.
Perhaps that is why when all three returned, Aulus, was not remotely injured. He was triumphant.
They dismounted and ascended the mountain path without speaking a word, but at the sight of their expressions the musicians burst into song and all thronged the audience hall to hear his story.
The first thing he did after the ritual greeting was restore to Youmei her green sash. There was no mistaking the magical badge of office: its intricately worked brocade, centuries old and impossible to imitate, still shimmered.
"It was a gamble," he began, "but I'd suspected that Lung Tao might accept the single combat. Imagine yourself in his shoes: scion of an ancient house of a murdered people, in exile, stuck wasting his exceptional talents on a brotherhood of cutthroats, then forced by the armies of the Middle Kingdom to flee. How he must have ached for a clean fight like in the grand days of the Spring and Autumn Period. So I offered him one.
"Of course I had to reach him first. Those darts of theirs had gotten me thinking. Even as a nascent army, the Nightmare Fire Clan was clearly accustomed to bandit methods. And their victims have been villagers softened by long peace. So a mile from their camp, I donned a full suit of good Roman armour: helmet, mail, cuirass, greaves. At a quarter mile I dismounted, took up the long rectangular scutum that shields the whole body and a trusty gladius, and went the rest of the way on foot.
"I must have looked strange indeed to them. Their darts and arrows bounced off me. The first two boys who came at me went down in blood, poor devils. Then when I was close enough I shouted at the top of my lungs that Aulus Felix lover of Youmei challenges Lung Tao.
"And he came. Smart man, he wore armour too, lighter than mine, and wielded a snake spear. We met on flat, grassy ground. His men came out to watch from the rocks, at least a hundred. My two watched from hiding.
"He was younger and nimbler than I'd expected. It was like the gladiator shows we put on back home between the light and heavy, him keeping his distance and prodding with that damn spear, trying to get behind me or wear me out; me trying to close in for the kill.
"A time comes when there is no room left for stratagems, just man against man. I closed in.
"And I stabbed him through the fucking head.
"He was wearing your sash as a scarf. His blood didn't stain it at all, the fabric refused even to taste it. They shot a few more useless arrows but no one else challenged me. We rode back as hard our horses could bear, expecting every moment an ambush that never came.
"My guess is they're taking time for funeral rites and to contest the leadership, but they'll be coming. Furen, my efforts have only worsened your danger. Lung Tao wanted to capture you, your court, your land. The Nightmare Fire Clan will want only to kill, as vengeance for their Dragon Head and for ancient wrongs."
And again the joy in the Waterfall Court gave way to fear.
That evening Youmei let Aulus undress her. He had seen her body before, but every time would always be a revelation. For a while they watched the setting sun, his arm over her bare shoulder. It was warm but she still shivered.
"There's too many of them for you to wipe out," Aulus said. "Even if you could gather the force in time, which you can't, they'd just melt into the mountains and regroup somewhere else. These civil insurgencies are ugly and indecisive; handled clumsily you could end up murdering each other for centuries."
The sun turned red as it dipped below the horizon.
Youmei closed her eyes. "You're planning to be foolish again."
Aulus nodded. "To sue for peace. I'll have to go unarmed. There's no other way to do it."
"And the price of peace?"
"Will very probably include my head, yes."
She did not know how to answer; she owed too much to her people to beg him not to do it, but she trembled.
Aulus picked her up in his arms and carried her to bed.
At first he only consoled her, paying attention to her mood, resolved to do no more than that if need be. He kissed her closed eyes, her cheeks, her shoulders; he caressed her sides. Slipping out of his shirt, he embraced her. The feel of pressing chest to chest reassured them booth.
He found that the best posture was to wrap one strong arm around her, keeping her safe, while his other hand stroked her unbound hair. Raised Roman, he found it hard to weep, but he managed to shed a few tears for Lung Tao who should have had a better life, for those two luckless youths. Youmei felt him shake and touched his cheek.
He kissed her neck, and she responded, turning her head to give him access. The comfort of shared grief was a beginning. Strange how death, fear and pity can even be an aphrodisiac, as life instinctively reaches for love.
When his kisses descended to her breasts she was ready for him. He breathed in the delicate scent of her skin between them, and he hardened. He fumbled off the rest of his clothing as he kissed her, now taking in the soft firmness of her belly, thinking as he did so of those stories about her magic. Was the soul of the land truly in there, joined to her yin?
He found it didn't matter a bit. She was already magic enough for him.
By the time he nuzzled her gently curling hairs, her need was fully awakened. Her hands went urgently to his shoulders; her legs parted. He did not tease her then but went joyfuly to her pussy.
It was his second time tasting her, and he loved it, tracing first the petals of her flower, then licking broadly, then kissing all over her beautiful parted lips, then licking deep. His favourite was to wrap his mouth around her little hood and suck it inside, exposing the jewel to the caress of his tongue until he could tell it was getting too ticklish for her; then he'd dive his tongue as deep into her hole as he could go, pushing himself up to her, even grabbing her hips and pulling her firmly to him. He loved how she tasted different deeper in, subtly stronger, like a precious liquor.
When she started lifting her hips towards his mouth he knew he was ready. He sat up and brought his cock right to her, stroked her entrance with it as if knocking at her door. Youmei took him in her hand, rubbed him against her more firmly, then eased him ever so slightly inside. Then she wrapped her arms around his back, inviting him to do the rest.
He pressed forward.
They were joined. They were fucking. Her pussy clasped him like an oily vice, so tight that he went extra gently. If she were not so beautifully wet inside, and so enthusiastic, it would be hard to move at all. She felt hotter than other women, and he wondered again if the spirit of the volcanos really was mingled in her being.
He still had the taste of her on his tongue, and tasting her it was almost like his cock could also taste all that gorgeous moisture with which she was bathing him.
As the messenger of his passion stroked in and out of her, telling her in the deepest way possible of his admiration and desire, the way became easier, and Youmei pulled him to her. He went a deeper at each stroke, and then, looking into her eyes, drove himself into her as far as he could go.
He was truly inside her now, all the way inside the most feminine place of the most feminine woman he had ever met.
They were in fact a perfect fit. She could just about accommodate his entire length, and his tip pressed into the back of her, kissing her cervix and the little secret sensitive corners behind it.
And now pure wonder grew into pure bliss. Fear and sadness were miles away. They looked at each other and smiled joyfully between kisses, thrust and plunged and thrashed with a mutual urge to go as deep into one another as they could, to give everything of themselves, to take everything. Their hands were live coals on each other's skin, exploring, devouring, loving.
Aulus pulled out and slid down to lick Youmei's pussy again in the midst of her excitement. He couldn't have described in words the subtle change in her flavour, but all her passion and pleasure and welcome were in it, all her wanting. He drank her up greedily and licked and licked her, and before he put his cock back inside he used his fingers in her.
With Youmei so excited there was no need to be gentle: his index and middle fingers pressed firmly into the sensitive ridges deep in her cunt, feeling her like a blind person feels a face, getting to know her, so that when he withdrew and turned her onto her side and entered her from behind, his cock knew everywhere his fingers had explored.
At this angle he was able to kiss the smooth skin of her back, the nape of the neck where her hair began, all while fucking her in long smooth strokes. Her pussy clasped, squeezed, pulsed and spasmed. When he lifted up a little he could watch himself sink into her body, watch her lips wrap around his every thrust. He also saw the little hole in her rear, so shy and delicate: it was winking ever so slightly in time with their motions, and sometimes contracted reflexively without her even knowing. For now only his eyes touched her there.
Youmei's soft little sighs had deepened into moans, and they tore out of her louder as he worked her ecstasy higher and higher, the angle allowing him to hit the best places inside her again and again. Aulus concentrated on her pleasure, moving fast but firm, finding what she loved and keeping at it, until she cried out in joyful release.
He pulled out again and gave her time to recover, kissed her shoulders.
Then she got on her back again and spread her legs and arms wide. The sight of her completely available to him was glorious. The love in her eyes, her hair all over, the rise and fall of her breasts, the curves of her limbs, all open to him and wanting him.
He went back inside her, now with long hungry thrusts, over and over, greedy for his own pleasure now, hotter and sweeter at each stroke, until then they both felt his cock pulse up inside her again and again, splashing her deepest places with his tribute to her femininity.
They stayed connected like that, him on top of her, savouring their oneness. He had never felt Youmei's sweat before, and noticing it now, found that he loved her natural fragrance, almost undetectable but intoxicating.
She stroked his back, and he stroked her hair.
When they disengaged at last, it felt decadent to let the servant women come in and wash and towel his body while he watched other women do the same for Youmei.
Curled up in bed together, they drifted gently into sleep.
Yet Aulus's sleep was full of nightmares. Lung Tao's ghost had followed him, vengeful and bloodthirsty. It treated him to previews of the gruesome treatment waiting for him at the hands of his brotherhood.
Finally the sunlight filtering into Youmei's chamber drove off the ghost, and as his sleep began to lighten Aulus felt a much more delightful treatment.
Indeed, as he woke, he found he was already fully hard and that Youmei had him in her mouth, sucking him gently up and down. When she sensed that he was awake she bobbed her head faster. A happy sigh escaped him.
It was a wonderful way to reenter the world. As life returned to his limbs the exquisite feeling of her hot, wet mouth intensified. His cock was already throbbing, beginning to jerk and pulse on its own.
Youmei felt how close he was getting and rose up from him, positioned herself astride his hips and sank him into her pussy at a stroke. Then smiling, she rode him, bucking and tossing her hips, driving his hard cock all around inside her like she wanted to feel him in every corner of her cunt, every soft wet wall.
He felt the flow of his orgasm rising up through him. Youmei's eyes widened as it burst into her. She sank down over his body, kissed his cheek.
"Now," she whispered, "when I speak in front of everyone this morning, only you will know that under my robe your come will be leaking down my thigh."
And thus they gathered in the audience hall within the hour, for there was no time to lose.
This was Aulus's first experience of Youmei as a politician, and he was impressed. She explained to the court in plain language the danger they were all in and the need to try for peace, and this swayed them better than any grand rhetorical flourish.
When she asked if any of her ministers would risk death and worse to accompany Aulus, every one of then stepped forward, and she ***********ed the four most capable to negotiate on her behalf.
Finally, she gave Aulus back her green sash as token that he went with her full authority. With this, a chaste kiss, and the acclamation of all the court, he and the four ministers set out.
Youmei watched him go for a long time. When he was out of view from the court itself, she went up to one of the mountain's high lookouts over the south road, where could see them dwindle in the distance until they vanished at last over a hill.
It tore at her heart to be parted. Yet it was some comfort to feel him still dripping from her pussy.
Then the wait that followed was an agony of uncertainty. All wondered if it would be Aulus or a murderous rampage of the Nightmare Fire Clan to come back up that road.
Weeks of nothing passed and doubts circulated through the court. Should they send a new scout? Should they make plans to flee? Youmei calmed her people, but there was no one to calm her inner terror.
At last, toward the end of the sixth week, it seemed that both their hopes and fears had come to pass. Word arrived of a strangely mixed entourage sighted on horseback. No one knew what to make of it. Soon Youmei could see them herself from the high lookout: her four ministers were returning with three armed figures in hooded crimson cloaks.
Aulus had not brought any arms. Youmei's heart cracked in two. Yet her duty was to her people and she had no time to weep.
She arranged herself to receive them from her throne in as much dignity as she could muster.
The three warriors tramped in first, the minsters following. They halted a little before her without bowing. The middle warrior threw back his hood.
"Aulus Felix, former ambassador, newly initiated brother of the Nightmare Fire Clan, greets the Lady of the Waterfall Court."
He shrugged apologetically. "It was the only way to make peace."
Keeping her serene expression was the greatest feat of self control Youmei had ever had to perform.
"We welcome you and your brothers."
His brothers—a chieftain who had come with Lung Tao from the mainland, another recruited from the last remnants of the primordial natives—removed their hoods and barked their own greetings. They were lean, hard, extraordinarily violent men, but what mattered is they were men, and therefore capable of reasoning in their own self-interest.
Now the chieftains, with some help from Aulus and the ministers, put forward their brotherhood's demands. Lands of their own in the south. Right of return for exiles still in the Middle Kingdom. The right to keep and use their weapons. Places in court. Equal status for their ancestral language. Jurisdiction over their people by their customary laws, including marriage by kidnapping. The southernmost volcanos to be reawakened. Youmei to wear a crimson belt alongside her green sash. Annual tribute of grain, silk, and metals.
Most of the demands were completely unacceptable. But they were a starting point. Parley, they agreed, would be work for the days to come. First they would feast, drink, share stories, learn a little more about each other.
All that day and evening Aulus had to stay with his new brothers, calming tensions and unknotting misunderstandings. Youmei set the example for her court by honouring all three, listening attentively to their folk tales and laughing at their rough jokes.
They were dashing figures in their own way, the Nightmare Fire Clan, with a romantic air of danger. Little surprise then that as the night wore on the bravest of the ladies in waiting brushed against one boldly and shrieked laughing when he pulled her onto his knee. A handmaiden, seeing her window of opportunity closing, fell straight into the arms of his brother chieftain. And so they retired in pairs to guest chambers, and no one in the court raised objection, for all felt what a good omen this was for the union of their peoples.
At last Aulus and Youmei found themselves embracing in her chamber with only the moon to light them. They were exhausted body and soul, but happy.
"How did you ever convince them to make you one of them?"
"It was their idea." Aulus held her to him, enjoying the feel of her against his chest. "They have an artistic appreciation of killing and were intrigued by how I had dispatched Lung Tao. Recruiting me was a way to learn Roman methods and perhaps avert the disaster they knew would come from avenging their Dragon Head. And the rites of initiation were plenty to satisfy his ghost."
Youmei suddenly understood the weeks of delay.
"Was it very bad?"
Aulus shrugged. "When you see my body, you'll find some ugly new scars, and tattoos in strange places."
Youmei embraced him tightly. "Now I feel even worse. Aulus, about the... third gift. I must confess to you I never really offered it in good faith. I was desperate and didn't know you, so I let you believe what you wanted. The truth is I don't like it there, I've never liked it there, I'm not capable of liking it there."
Aulus frowned. "How do you know?"
"Never in my life has the idea excited me. It just seems dirty and pointless. Both the marquis's son and my former handmaiden tried. Even their gentlest fingertip either hurt me or disgusted me.
"So you see," she continued, "there's no way I can give it to you with pleasure. I never back out of a promise, even an unspoken one. If you insist, I'll bite down on my green sash and let you to do it to me there. But it would be an agony for me and I think a sadness for you."
Aulus swallowed back a rush of disappointment, waited for compassion to take its place in his heart. "That's all right," he said, forcing himself to mean it. "As I said those months ago, I don't ask anything in return. And you've already given me so much I never expected."
"Can I offer you the rest of my body in exchange? All of me, everything you like, as often as you like. Everything except that."
Aulus made himself smile. "It's not a matter of exchange, but that does sound truly beautiful. Tonight though, let's sleep. We'll need sharp minds tomorrow."
Thus a little shadow fell over the joy and relief of their reunion, and that night they did not make love. They did at least undress and kiss, and admire each other, Youmei exclaiming at the hardships written in Aulus's flesh. Somber spirits did not diminish at all the appreciation they had found for one another.
No ghost disturbed them that night, but they both had unhappy dreams.
The next day was long. There's nothing less romantic than the slog of negotiations: the offers and counteroffers, the posturing, the misunderstandings, the threats, the backtracks, and then tired agreement to go over it all again or to table this dispute for now and try another of the countless others.
Aulus could feel the longing to fall back on simple straightforward violence, but each side knew they lacked enough advantage to do more than wound and be wounded back.
All day it felt like they'd made no progress at all, but somehow when they broke off for the evening meal they found that they were closer on a few questions. Exiles who found their way to the island would be welcome, but no ship would sail to the Middle Kingdom to gather them. Tribute for a year only, then trade on favourable terms for ten years, then ordinary commerce. No woman would be forced into marriage by any means, but for the willing an auspicious ritual kidnapping could be incorporated into the wedding ceremony.
The mood of the feast was warm, and afterwards Youmei and Aulus went to her bed tired but cheerful.
"It's been hard to think all day about compromise," said Youmei, "when last night I didn't compromise with you. Maybe there is a creative way to give you what you want."
Aulus was already untying her robe. He kissed her cheek. "What do you have in mind?"
"You have noticed the eagerness of some of our ladies to take care of your brother chieftains and your crew. I've asked around and found three beauties who enjoy that particular entrance and would love nothing more than to share it with the hero who saved our island. You can have all three. I'll even join you if you like, in other ways."
The thoughtfulness and love that lay in her offer moved Aulus to his core, and he embraced her and kissed her before he could answer.
"That is generous, creative, and beautiful," he said. "Were you anyone else I would accept in a heartbeat. But the joys I've had in your bed leave no room for other women; I'm just in no mood for them. I'd rather have one kiss from you than all they can offer." And he kissed her again.
"You keep shocking me with your nobility," Youmei laughed. "Very well. Then it's your turn to propose a way forward."
Aulus did not have to think long.
"Let us try together," he suggested. "Patiently. Maybe we will find what others did not. Give me seven nights to explore with you. You can say no and end the experiment at any time. If after those nights you feel the same as you do now, I'll hold your end of our bargain completely fulfilled."
It took Youmei rather longer to think about it.
"It makes me nervous." She exhaled heavily. "Just thinking about it makes my skin crawl. But that is a thoughtful and generous offer, and I accept. And more than just accept, I'll do my very best to keep an open mind, to try to enjoy it. Though I don't think I will."
She took his hand and moved it to her backside. He gave her a squeeze, and they went to her bed.
And so their reunion began for real, and both felt at once the full longing of missing each other through those anxious painful weeks, the desire that had burned in them all that day as they'd struggled through tedious haggling when they'd rather have been fucking. They went at each other like starving people to a feast.
He was everywhere. He cupped her breast, he stroked her thighs, he nibbled the nape of her neck. She guided him into her and they joined in a perfect fit, their bodies made for each other, her hungry pussy enveloping and squeezing, his thirsty cock thrusting and stroking.
She scratched her nails down his back; he crushed her body in his arms.
When they came somewhat to their senses, still locked in passion, they slowed a little and Aulus took the opportunity to kiss her nipples while still inside her. Then he withdrew and went down on her. Youmei sighed happily with his attentions to her petals, her jewel, her entrance.
"I'd like to kiss it now," he said, and Youmei stiffened.
"Kiss it?" Reluctance came into her voice. "Are you sure?"
"Oh yes." And he guided her to turn over on her side, her lower leg stretched straight out, her upper bent with the knee almost to her chest, exposing her behind. "I want to kiss you there and lick you too."
"But it's dirty."
Aulus shook his head. "No part of you could ever be dirty to me."
She was doubtful, but she was also resolved to be brave, so she bit her lip and focused on breathing as he kissed the smooth skin of first one cheek and then the other, caressing them as well with his hand. Then both hands were on her cheeks, spreading her open, and he was kissing the delicate skin of the cleft between them, not quite upon her hole, but near.
When his lips first touched her there, where no one had ever kissed her before, she froze up. Yet it wasn't so bad, she told herself. In fact it really didn't feel like much of anything, just a fleeting kiss, but it sent nervous shivers up through her belly all the way through her shoulders. It still felt dirty, forbidden.
The next kiss on her hole softened her a little. This one was slower, his lips lingered longer, and it felt warm. Youmei began to relax through the third and fourth, reasoning that she could endure this much for him. She squeezed her own breast idly, teased her nipple.
It was another shock when she felt his kisses turn into slow patient licks. The sensation reminded her of wiping herself in warm water, but more slippery. His tongue lingered on her, giving the gentlest of presses, letting her rear hole relax and open the littlest bit on its own, so that the sensitive inside of her ring could feel his tongue.
He only stayed down there a few minutes, but Youmei was completely out of breath when he rose grinning from her backside.
He turned her onto her back and Youmei felt with some satisfaction how achingly, throbbingly hard she had made his cock, like iron. More surprising to her was how wet she had become. As though her pussy had a mind of its own and loved what had happened. He eased his manhood between her lips and she felt the potency of her own arousal almost pull him into her.
Deep he filled her cunt, deep they connected, long and lovingly, making up for the time apart. Her orgasm came first, and forgetting herself in her rapture she pulled him close and thrust her tongue into his mouth before remembering where he had been.
There was no difference to the taste of his kiss that she could detect. But now she was complicit. She kissed him again as he came in her.
The next day's bargaining went easier. Everyone was cheerful. The chieftains of the Nightmare Fire Clan had clearly been enjoying their evenings too, and between love, feasts, wine, clean beds and harmonious surroundings, they were coming to appreciate the advantages of civilisation. The court for its part was admiring its dangerous guests, realising that joining with these people could remedy their softness, get a little more yang back into their blood.
Respect led to new creativity in agreements. The southern mountains would be theirs forever, with none allowed to trespass, but the villages between the mountains would be independent, and the Nightmare Fire Clan would undertake to guarantee the freedom of the roads for all travellers. Youmei would cooperate with their shamans to attempt to awaken their volcanos, but the rest of the island would stay wedded to her She would not wear the crimson belt, which could be interpreted as a tether, but she would carry a dagger as a symbol of alliance and the new vigour.
That night she welcomed Aulus to her arms with enthusiasm. Again they warmed each other in other ways first: he devoured her mouth and her breasts, she leaned against the wall and took him into her pussy from behind. She knew that her other hole was on both their minds, and she didn't much enjoy that thought, but she followed along when he guided her onto her elbows and knees.
He took time caressing her body in this position, and worked his kisses toward her bottom, but so attuned were they to each other's moods that he noticed something wasn't right, and he stopped and checked with her.
"I suppose I don't understand why it's necessary. Wasn't what we were doing by the wall just now wonderful? Isn't the rest of me enough for you?"
In answer he turned her to her side and cupped her pussy in his hand, treasuring its warmth and femininity.
"No place in the world has ever given me more pleasure than what I hold here," he said. "Nowhere." He kissed her. "The more of you I have, the more of you I want. To me it's only natural to celebrate and make love to the entire woman."
So he kept stroking her pussy, lovingly, as he kissed back down and licked her behind for a second time. His tongue didn't quite push in but narrowed to a tip that teased the centre of her hole.
Youmei's pussy got wet again, very wet, and Aulus's fingers slipped effortlessly inside.
Then he showed her something new. Sealing his lips in a ring all around her back hole, he sucked it in, drawing a shuddering breath from her. Each time he sucked on her that way, they both felt her pussy squeeze his fingers. He stroked her, still licking her back hole, and she gave out a little whimper.
Then he got on top of her and entered her pussy for real, cupping her bottom in one hand. As their passions rose and he thrusted faster, he put his fingers right over her hole. Youmei's eyes flew open, but she was so excited by the hard cock plunging into her that she found it was tolerable, even stimulating. She felt no pleasure or pain from the simple touch, more like intense surprise, like a sudden fall, or like a touch on the neck when you thought there was no one there—almost too much, but mingling with the intensity of their connection she could ride it.
Aulus, meanwhile, loved feeling her shy soft hole beginning to warm to him. He didn't go in, but the momentum of their thrusts naturally moved his fingers back and forth over her, rubbing her, and he felt every friction as kisses from her backside.
And so the exhilarating nights followed boring but necessary days. All through the negotiations Aulus and Youmei would focus on the needs of the island, but now and then they would catch each other's eyes, and each would be wondering what new exploration they would try that night.
Soon Aulus was opening her door, easing the passage of his fingertip with oil from a clay pot as Youmei held her breath. The first time, her little hole squeezed shut so hard that they almost lost all hope, but Aulus rubbed more oil on it, patiently caressed her limbs with his free hand, and waited until she relaxed on its own.
It was a great milestone when his index finger slipped through her tight ring of muscle. The exotic heat and tender flesh he could feel inside were intoxicating. Youmei was amazed that she could tolerate it.
She found it was easiest to let him explore her with his finger as she took his manhood in her mouth. Sucking on him was a soothing distraction. Aulus could tell from her motions when it was time to hold his finger very still, and when he he could slowly slide it in and out.
On the sixth night he surprised her by asking her to finger him. Youmei had never touched inside a man before. It felt strange! It gave her a distant sense of how a man must feel entering a woman, the soft slippery warmth. Soon she had two fingers up him and used them far more energetically than he'd dared with her.
The very next night it happened.
He had already rubbed some oil inside with his finger, and now he was deep in her pussy. On her own initiative she took him out of her and began to rub him with her hand against her little hole.
It wasn't easy to get him into her, and she nearly panicked and gave up when his head stretched her open. He had always felt large inside her, but now he felt unbearably huge. Aulus waited, and Youmei breathed. Her shock did not go away, only changed, as the fear of being on the verge of pain shifted into a kind of uncomfortable exhilaration.
When she felt ready, she pushed her hips back the smallest bit.
"You're in me," she breathed, astonished. Youmei could hardly believe that she really had a man in her there.
She was glad that man was Aulus.
He reached his arm around her. His fingers found her pussy and began to stroke.
The next inches were a slow struggle. Her ring squeezed him so tightly that every movement risked becoming too much for her. But then, as his head got past, something wonderful happened: they found he could move in and out a little. She still gripped him just as tightly, but the looser skin of his shaft let him slide within that grip.
And she found that it felt good. Aulus of course was in the heaven of her warm private depths, but now Youmei too felt a sort of glowing comfort inside that spread and blended with the good feelings in her pussy. This was real fucking now, real motion in her own behind, and she wan't just permitting it, she was there sharing it with him, they were loving one another.
With pleasure came relaxation, and at last the guardian ring of muscle surrendered enough to let him slide freely, and more pleasurably for her, while still treating them to a wonderful tightness. All within was soft and tender.
Aulus tried longer strokes, all the way out until he barely penetrated her, then all the way in, and Youmei found she could take him.
Something woke up in her then, something aroused and primal, as his cock went all the way up the back of her and his fingers played upon her pussy. Her moans became ragged. Though she had barely moved at all she was beginning to sweat.
Desire took over. Youmei pushed her backside at him, making intense little grunts as she did so. "You can go faster," she said, and Aulus obliged.
Then, as she climbed higher into feelings she couldn't even put a name to, on a sudden impulse she pulled himself off of him. Before he could say a word Youmei turned him onto his back.
She looked closely at his cock. She could see no mark or stain. Tentatively, nervously, but with determination, she put a small kiss on the shaft. She sniffed, and found it was fine. And then to Aulus's amazement she took him into her mouth, tasted him with her tongue, bobbed her head for an unforgettable minute.
After she released him, she put more oil on his instrument. Then, dipping her finger in oil, she slid it up herself as he watched, preparing herself for more, feeling a little of this other way into herself that he had opened.
Then she positioned herself astride him, like that other morning when she had ridden his cock.
Aulus could see everything from this position: her perfect breasts, her flat belly, her aroused pussy, and above all her indescribable expression as she guided his cock back into her behind, melting into a flushed look of euphoria as she sat down on his hips, taking him all the way to the root, the thickness of his base stretching her even further.
Still with him up her all the way, she rocked her hips in little circles, stirring his cock inside her, so as to feel it touching everywhere, at every angle. He felt everything she gave him.
Youmei smiled at him, wide and loving. Then she leaned back a bit and arched her hips up: her tight ring rode up his shaft almost like her mouth. She lowered and pushed him back in deep. He could feel the head of his cock press up inside her: at this angle he was rubbing on the very depths of her cunt from the other side.
It was as if this new contact touched off a fire in Youmei. She repeated the motion, then again more firmly as she got a taste for it. Her breaths tore from her as she sped up her motions. She was staring at him wide-eyed, shocked at herself, mouth open.
And she gave herself completely into it. Her body took over. Her hips lunged back and forth on their own, fucking him into her, doing what her body wanted and needed.
Youmei's mouth formed one word: "Fuck... fuck... FUCK..." over and over, an expression and a command. Aulus obeyed, thrusting his own hips up to meet her, getting himself even deeper, pressing up inside her.
And then everything happened at once. Her grip on his shaft throbbed wildly; her whole body conulsed—her hands squeezed his arms and she screamed out her joy. The rapture flooded her so completely that Aulus actually saw her clear fluid jetting from her pussy. His own ecstasy rose up like a column of blazing light and poured into her welcoming depths.
It was one of those pure moments that seem to last forever.
Afterwards, it was bliss to feel her collapsed on top of him, light and graceful, utterly overwhelmed by her own tide. He stayed inside her, loving the little squeezes, the shivers that passed through her body, aftershocks of the earthquake.
They stayed like this, hardly even able to think, stretching out their time. At last he softened enough to fall out of her, and they sat up.
That was when Aulus saw the light in Youmei's face.
She was almost physically glowing. Pure vitality radiated from her, a feminine magic that lit up new strength in him just by looking at her.
She felt it too, and smiled.
"We found my deepest well," she said. Even her voice was newly powerful, bright as the sun, yet light and laughing and carefree.
And the next day everybody knew.
The sun rose on a changed island. The leaves were greener, the waterfalls sweeter, the fruits of the trees fuller. The village elders felt new youth in their bones, shy young lovers found freshness and confidence. Birds sang everywhere as if a dozen Springs had arrived at once. A mountain rumbled in the far south.
Word spread that a temple maiden had heard a scream from Youmei's quarters last night and would have run for help if it hadn't so obviously been one of joy.
When Youmei came before the court she was radiant. Her eyes, her voice, her entire being glowed with the full expression of her nature.
After such a morning, agreeing the last remaining points of the peace was easy. The chieftains of the Nightmare Fire Clan returned south with signed proclamations, rich gifts, and a surprising explanation to their brothers who wondered what it meant that wildflowers were blossoming among their mountain boulders.
Half of Aulus's crew wanted to remain and enjoy this abundance they had never before known. But homesickness is a strange thing, and the other half were ready to sail back with him to the lands of history.
Youmei tried to convince him to stay. He could do so much here. He could stand as a bridge betweel the two peoples, help her guide the flourishing of the island. They could make children. Perhaps the next Youmei would have his features.
Aulus begged forgiveness for once again doing the foolish thing.
"It was a dream that brought me to your island," he explained. "There is a woman. I've dreamed of her all my life. I'm sure she is real. I can almost see her curling hair, the set of her mouth, her deep eyes full of intelligence. Maybe I knew her in a past life, or will meet her in the next.
"It is she who led me wandering. If Morpheus had sent me ordinary dreams, I could have stayed at home managing my family's olive plantations. I am grateful: the world offers golden opportunities to a clever and lucky traveller.
"Then something more than a year ago—just as Lung Tao came to your shore, I expect—a new figure entered my dreams: an enormous and sinuous blue green dragon. It roared at me, 'Come!'
"Doesn't sound like much, but that roar shook me to my soul, and kept returning.
"In Antioch I met an Arab who traded with the Han, and he told me that this could only be their Azure Dragon of the East. Now Lucius Verus, who is the junior co-emperor with Aurelius, happened to be at Antioch preparing for war with Parthia, and so proposing an embassy was easy."
Of all these strange peoples and places, only the Han meant anything to Youmei, but their energies were so mingled that she felt the distances he had traversed.
"Far out at sea, past Wu, my dreams changed from the Azure Dragon to the Vermilion Bird of the South, and that's how we turned and found the secret river to your land.
"And then, last night, I dreamed of a White Tiger towering over the western horizon."
Everyone knows there can be no arguing with dreams like these. So Youmei took him to her as deeply and thoroughly as she could in the time they had, which is too brief for any of us, even those who live a hundred years.
Of course they explored her deepest well again. Many times. But they didn't limit themselves. Everything gave them delight now, from lying in each other's arms each with a finger up the other, to holding hands and watching fireflies among the mountain heather at sunset.
The sadness of approaching loss made every moment special.
The night before Aulus was to set sail, Youmei came with him to the little village where he had first met her remarkable people. The villagers set aside a hut for them. Youmei took him into her pussy and pleasured her own behind with her finger.
He could feel her stroke him through the thin wall of flesh separating the two magical places, and Youmei felt completely filled up, especially as he kissed her deep and poured himself into her.