FicWad

Amaranto ushered Aramel and Chase-lee into his large cabin on the edge of the wood, about three hundred feet from Aramel's simple hut. Chase-lee said that she would milk the goat as soon as she had heard Aramel tell the tale of his adventure on the mountain, tying Fern to a post next to Amaranto's house before following the men inside.

After settling onto a settee covered with a down-filled mattress, Aramel told his friends his story. "I was walking on the mountainside when an avalanche came and buried me. I survived after Fern fell through a hole in the ceiling. I was trying to dig through it while she was fleeing from the falling rocks." The story was getting shorter every time he had to tell it.

"You should never have gone to the far side by yourself," Amaranto admonished. "We were worried when we hadn't seen you for days." He and Chase-lee sat together on a second settee opposite Aramel's.

"I was too lost in my grief," Aramel admitted. "I wasn't thinking about my safety. I forgot where I was and how far I was wandering. But I wouldn't be so worried about a simple avalanche. Something is happening in the mountain, or perhaps inside the land itself. Have you been feeling the ground moving? It is like a rumbling or disturbance deep within the earth that you can feel under your feet."

Chase-lee made an impatient clicking sound with her tongue and changed the subject. "You have been grieving for too long, Aramel," she said with a frown. "Fernly has been dead for two years. How much longer are you going to mope around, whining constantly and forgetting about yourself and your friends? For two years you have done nothing except walk around like a man with no ambition. You are wasting your life this way. These so-called rumblings are only in your mind. You should be getting on with your life like any other twenty-year-old man would do."

Amaranto, annoyed by her words, gestured to Chase-lee to stop, putting his hand on her arm. "You speak too harshly, Chase-lee. If Aramel is still grieving that is his business."

Chase-lee stood up. "I'm going to milk the goat," she snapped. "The poor thing's udders looked like bursting. You can't even take care of a goat properly," she spat at Aramel before stalking to the cabin's front door.

"Stay and have a drink. We should talk about these strong feelings of yours," Amaranto offered. "I don't think Aramel has the problem, but you seem to have a lot on your mind, Chase-lee."

"Maybe I'll come back later," she said. She loved her friends and thought perhaps she had gone too far in chastising Aramel. She did not want to alienate either of them, but especially him. "I need to let off some energy and the milking will let me do that. I'll bring a bucket of milk for you when I'm done." She left, slamming the door shut behind her.

"She's a strong-willed woman," Amaranto commented with a smile. He looked closely at Aramel's face, which remained expressionless, as if he had not heard Chase-lee's words. His friend looked very tired, almost numb. The dark-haired youth was huddled against a corner of the wall, sunk as deeply as possible into the comfortable settee.

"I don't think she's right at all," Amaranto continued. "You should take all the time you need to grieve. But I am very interested in what you are saying about the mountain. I've known you all my life and I think if you felt rumblings then what you told us is true. But what could it mean?"

The tall, dark-skinned man rose and walked over to a sideboard where an earthenware jar stood beside some cups and bowls of fruit. He poured a cupful of sweet, thick wine which he handed to Aramel. "Have some of this. It might help you sleep deeply. You look like you need a good long rest."

Aramel took the wine gratefully and drank it down. "I'm very tired," he said. "I've been walking almost non-stop and have only eaten something yesterday morning."

"I have some plantain." Amaranto walked over to the sideboard again and took some of the soft fruit out of a bowl. "And some mangoes." He peeled the plantain, split a mango and scooped out the juicy fruit, mixing them together in a small bowl before passing it to Aramel.

"Eat, drink and sleep here tonight," he told his friend. "Tomorrow we can talk more about your theories."

Aramel smiled and ate the fruit with relish, took another deep drink of wine and settled himself against the cushions.

Amaranto got up and moved toward to the door. "I'm going for a walk around the woods to make sure everything is settled for the night. If you're sleeping when I get back I'll be quiet and go to bed myself." In the back of the cabin was a smaller room with a bed where Amaranto slept.

When Amaranto had shut the door behind him, Aramel rose and disrobed, hanging his well-worn trousers on a hook on the wall. Naked, he returned to the settee and settled on the cushions, covering himself with a thin cotton blanket he found in a hamper at the foot of his bed.

He was asleep when Chase-lee entered the cabin, carrying a small bucket of milk. She glanced at Aramel's sleeping form before setting the bucket down on the floor beside the sideboard. Staring at Aramel, she frowned slightly while she considered whether she was doing the right thing by giving in to her desires. Quickly removing the wide sash she wore tightly wound around her upper torso, then slipping out of her loose silk trousers, she placed her clothing on top of the hamper and stood for a moment naked.

Chase-lee was beautiful in an exotic way with dark wavy hair cascading down her back to her waist. Her dark brown eyes were huge and full of expression. Her skin was tanned by nature, her body slim but shapely. She had loved Aramel for a long time and had lusted after him for the past year, during which time he had developed from a lanky youth into a handsome, well-muscled man with a shock of long, straight black hair, dramatically bright, dark eyes and full, sensual lips.

Her desire for him was causing an ache to grow between her legs. Trying to suppress her desire any longer would be unbearable. Carefully, she pulled back the thin blanket covering Aramel and stared at the sleeping man still on the cusp of youth. When she lifted the blanket he stirred and rolled from his side onto his back. Her gaze took in his glossy hair spread on the cushion, his slightly parted lips, glowing, tanned skin and the shock of soft black hair between his muscled thighs. She saw that his thick cock was semi-hard and caught her breath.

She wanted him badly. Carefully, she lay down beside him and pressed her body against his, feeling an electric shock when her vagina brushed his hip. She could not suppress a small moan escaping her lips and rubbed herself against his warm skin, her vulva wet and throbbing.

He began to stir. She slid her hand down between their bodies, putting her fingers flat against his cock. It had become harder, growing longer and thicker in her hand. Her desire for him was too much to hold back. She gazed at his slightly open mouth, then pressed her lips to his, at the same time grasping his cock and guiding it upwards against her vagina. She shivered violently, stuck her tongue between his teeth while sucking hard on his lips and climaxed, her spasm making her own body writhe against his.

Aramel awoke with a start, the remnants of a vivid sexual dream in his mind. He felt the warm, sweaty body next to his, the slim fingers around his manhood and smelled the sweetness of female sex. His eyes flew open, and without thinking he raised his upper body onto his strongly-muscled arms and mounted his companion. She was already wet and open for him, moaning loudly for him to enter her and not to be gentle about it.

He thrust his hard cock into her warm wetness. "Harder!" she cried. He pulled out almost entirely, then pushed back into her, harder this time, then again and again and again. She screamed and arched herself underneath him, scratching long fingernails down his back.

Aramel flung back his hair and shouted almost as loudly as she had. He came with a last strong thrust, his cock throbbing inside her until he was spent. After calming down, he stared at her in horror.

"Chase-lee!" he cried. "No! We shouldn't have done this."

"Why not?" she asked, grabbing him by the shoulders. "I love you, Aramel. You wanted this as much as I did."

He shook his head and sat up, climbing off of Chase-lee and sitting on the settee beside her, holding his head in his hands. "You don't love me. It is only lust."

"What do you know, Aramel? You don't know anything! You are the most exasperating man I've ever met!" she jumped off the settee and grabbed her clothes from the hamper.

"And you've met a lot," he murmured.

"I should kick you for that," she shouted, dressing quickly before stomping toward the door. Just before she could fling it open, Amaranto pushed it wide and entered.

He knew immediately what had occurred because the hot smell of sex permeated the small space.

"I'm sorry to interrupt," he apologized. "I can go and sleep in Aramel's hut if you'd both like to stay here tonight."

"I'm going home," Chase-lee announced, banging the door shut behind her. She disappeared into the night.

"It was a mistake," Aramel groaned, close to tears.

Amaranto sat down beside the distraught young man and put a sympathetic arm around his friend's shoulders, trying not to smile.