A Tale of Fur and Flesh Read online

  “You said you would miss me if I were gone,” she flirted, running her fingers through Snake’s slick black hair. She brought her face so close to his she could feel his cool breath on her lips. His aroma was that of darkness. “But we have only just met. Have I made such a profound impression on you? Or were you simply humouring royalty?”

  “I am a snake. I humour no one,” he scoffed, eyes burning with indignation. How proud a creature was this snake, yet how easily shaken…

  “Perhaps you will humour me,” returned the princess. “You are chillingly suave, dear Snake.” Lally savoured his name in her mouth. The seductive s-s-s, the popping k. Her breath steadied and deepened, as though she were breathing through her spine. No man could resist her. Could a snake? Endeavouring to find out, the princess ran her practised hand along the inner side of Snake’s leg, wrapping her fingers around the restless appendage between his thighs.

  “Damnation!” exclaimed the snake. “Princess, that is my…”

  “Yes, I thought it might be,” she interrupted.

  The jet black shaft between his legs was smoother than anything she had ever touched. Snake’s thick tail culminated in a set of rattling spheres that flitted noisily about to evade her grasp. What a fascinating male part! The attempts Snake made at escape only encouraged Lally. She wanted anything she could not have.

  “There is a matter of dire importance I must discuss with you,” Snake objected.

  “Pray, let us converse,” Lally agreed. “After.” Forcing her lips upon his, Lally attempted to pry open Snake’s firmly shut mouth with her expert tongue. He did not respond to her kisses. At least, his mouth issued no response. His gleaming shaft became thicker and harder in her hands. Was she not a monarch? The pale creature had no choice but to do as she wished. Droit de seigneur. “You shall kiss me, Snake,” she instructed, “or suffer the consequences.”

  “I cannot,” he cried, squirming under he firm grasp. “As much as you provoke my thorough desire, my tongue is razor sharp. It would cut yours to shreds, your highness.”

  Lally could not conceal her disappointment. A desire to feel the warm mingle of tongues overwhelmed her. In a surprise motion, Snake took her tightly in his grasp and pressed his thin lips against hers. Lally’s senses reeled. In a meandering motion, Snake planting quick pecks along Lally’s cheek, down her neck and across her chest. His male tail stiffened and jumped in her hand until she let it go to tear open her silk bodice. The cold emanating from Snake’s core rendered her nipples erect. She only wished the snake could lick them without cutting her to pieces.

  He placed his hand at the small of her back while she eased herself onto the wide branch. His dark form hovered over hers. It made her tremble with fright and anticipation. She wanted to feel him inside her body, and all over it. Sharp kisses grazed her naked breasts. Along her straining nipples, Snake ran the crease of his lips, but when she sighed it was because of the sensation below her hips. Snake’s curious tail rattled and shook against her lower lips. Her abdomen quaked at the intense vibrations. It was unlike any pleasure she had ever experienced.

  She couldn’t keep still under the assault of pulsations against her mound. Gyrating against the rattle of the snake’s sex, Lally writhed with desire. Her balance suffered. She began to tumble from her branch. Her back slid against tree bark as she fell to one side. In an act of quick-thinking valour, Snake threw himself upon her. Her heart raced at the incredible save. Full of gratitude and pure lust, Lally forgot herself and tried again to kiss the snake’s mouth. He pulled his head away before she got to it.

  “There is danger, princess,” the breathless snake began, his cool black chest heavy upon her. If only she could kiss the brave creature…

  “Danger indeed,” Lally replied, wild with desire for the saviour-snake. “I shall tumble to my death if you do not hold my small wrists firm against this branch.”

  Stretching her hands above her head as she lay upon the bough, Lally invited restraint at the hands of the dark lover. With caution in his black eyes, Snake tented his long form over her. He was nearly everywhere now. Above and upon her, but not yet within. Her toes wriggled in anticipation.

  “Come inside,” Lally invited. The tentative creature looked down at her. His mysterious hesitance made her want him all the more. “Cross the threshold into my body and find a home in me.”

  “This act is not new to you, princess?” Snake inquired.

  Lally released a wry chuckle. “I’ve known a shepherd or two.” Or six. And the stable hand. And the gamekeeper. They could hardly refuse royalty, could they?

  “I must not,” Snake replied, though he moved not a muscle in retreat. He remained hovering over her naked body as her pale breasts rose against his black chest.

  “But you must, for I say so!” Lally countered, scorched by impatience. “Your tail does not argue. He is eager to plunge to a watery death.”

  Snake’s eyes glowed as he observed her from above. The ice in her manner melted under his gaze. “As you desire, princess-s-s,” the creature finally conceded. The defeat in his tone caused Lally’s breasts to swell with satisfaction as Snake sank down upon them. Kissing the soft skin of her underarms, the rattle-tip of his tail too timidly prodded her cunt.

  “Come now, Snake. Fill my abyss with the entirety of your sex,” Lally bid.

  Her tongue, denied pleasure once before, plunged skilfully into the snake’s ear. He released a rumbling moan. His grip on her wrists strengthened as she nibbled the lobe and licked at the outer flesh. It was working. Snake could hardly deny his desire now.

  With the force of a cobra, Snake thrust his tail-shaft into Lally’s cunt. Never could she have anticipated the thrill his sex would produce. Inside her body, his tail trembled. It thrust not only back and forth, but in any and every direction, expertly rubbing the heavenly centre of her cavern.

  Held firmly in place by Snake’s powerful grip, Lally could scarcely writhe with pleasure. She encouraged his motion with cries of affirmation. Snake’s cool chest slithered against her as he thrust. His skin was soft and smooth, smoother even than the silk of her gown. He slid left and right, his body exerting a welcome pressure upon hers. Her skilled cunt clamped onto his rattling tail, elevating the sensations against its tender walls.

  Wrapping her bare legs around his, Lally trust forward against the snake. His laboured breath cooled her neck. The pulsing of Snake’s tail in her cunt encouraged her to she push against him, to push hard. As his exertions increased, Snake’s exclamations sounded more pained than pleasured. His breath had been earthy and cool. Now it was tinged with a metallic aroma. Something was dreadfully wrong. And yet the sensation Snake produced within her core was so thrilling and deep she could not halt the act. He was everywhere. She felt his vibrations pulsing through her veins to the very tips of her toes. A deep moan exploded from Lally’s throat as she threw her hips up against his. Even when she felt that he was through, her cunt resonated with intense aftershocks of pleasure.

  Snake released his firm grip on Lally’s wrists. He scooped her into his arms. A guttural hiss exploded from him as he arched his back. Lally ran her hands along the snake’s cool sides, augmenting his body’s spasmodic convulsions. When she felt something cool and wet upon Snake’s skin, she brought her hand to the level of her eyes.

  The liquid was scarlet. Gott im Himmel, it was blood! There was blood everywhere! Was it hers? She forced Snake upright on the branch. No, no, except for the scratches along her back from the tree bark, Lally was not injured. The blood flowed from Snake! It gushed from a set of wounds on his right side.

  “Snake! What has caused this gash?” Lally shrieked, covering his wounds with her hands. Snake did not respond. His eyes fell about her waist, where she had earlier strapped her knife. Her heart sank. Lally had done this! She had killed the pale creature. “Why did you not tell me my knife was piercing you?” she demanded. But how could she feel angry with Snake for suffering when it was she who murdered him?

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nbsp; “The pleasure was overwhelming,” he admitted. “I could not bear to stop, and now I shall not be able to watch over you as your mother requested.”

  The jaded misery of her young heart exploded. “My mother?”

  Life drained fast from Snake as the blood of his physical form seeped from his side. “The creatures of the forest adored the late Queen Gwladys,” he explained. “We vowed to watch over you, her daughter, and to protect you if you faced peril. The time is nigh, princess Lally. There is danger for you in that castle.”

  Snake choked on the blood escaping into his throat, just as her mother had done when she lay dying. Lally’s concern for Snake was genuine, but what was all this about her own impending doom? “Please live, dear Snake,” she said with an encouraging smile. “I must know of this danger you mention. The time for what is nigh? Please tell me!”

  “You must flee the castle, princess Lally. Come to the woods and share your love with the creatures who reside here. When you do, they will be released from their animal forms and become human. Their skins shall be yours to keep, and with them you shall form a mantle. Henceforth, you shall be called Allerleirauh and you shall be protected by your coat of ragged furs. How I wish I could live on to protect you, your highness…”

  The snake’s breathing became strenuous. A fit of coughing overtook him until his pale face became tinged with blue. Lally’s hot tears flowed onto his core and mingled with the blood of his wound. “No, you must not die!” she shrieked. “You must not and you shall not! Tell me, Snake, what danger is there in the castle? Snake?”

  But there was no response. The creature did not cough now. He made no sound. He did not breathe. He did not move. Snake was dead and Lally had killed him. Her screams resounded throughout the woods as her eyes shed a torrent of tears. Whatever ill awaited her at home, it was well deserved. Murderer! The princess all in black cried until she fell into darkest slumber.

  Chapter Three

  When Lally awoke, her victim had vanished. She lay upon the wide branch of the mulberry tree. No sign of the murdered snake. Had it all been a dream? But the bodice of her dress remained torn, and her breasts had taken on the pattern of the tree bark against which she slept. When she stretched out her arms, her hands met something smooth and black. It appeared to be the shed skin of her alluring Snake—metallic black, long and wide. The ache in her heart, which had been washed away by the tides of sleep, now resurfaced. What had Snake said as he died? That her love would shed the enchanted coats worn by the creatures of the woods. That she must amass these hides and form a protective mantle. That there was danger at home…

  “There is no danger in my castle,” Lally disputed as she climbed out of the tree. “There is hardly any life there. What peril could there be?” Perhaps the king’s councillors sought to punish or reform her. If Lally were truly in danger, the enchanted walnut mother had given her ten years ago would open up to provide assistance.

  To conceal her bare chest as she returned to the castle, Lally fashioned the wide snake skin into a new bodice for her tattered gown. With the skins left over, she made tall boots as well. Advisors and chatelaines would certainly whisper and gossip as she passed by in her ripped crimolines and black snakeskin. Elderly townspeople would find her appearance frightening and children would avoid her in the streets. Lally crept home on the tiptoes of her snakeskin boots.

  “Your highness,” a deep but urgent voice greeted her as she snuck in the door. “Have you any idea what time it is?”

  “Well, councillor Offal, the moon is in the sky, so I should guess it is night time. It surprises me that such a learned man would require my assistance in determining the time of day,” Lally mocked. Offal had always been an easy mark.

  “I haven’t time for your tomfoolery, princess. The king is about!”

  “About to what?”

  “Enough of your humour,” Offal replied, grabbing her by the wrist. “Your father has left his chambers today. He is currently in the council room and he wishes to see you.”

  Lally’s heart beat wildly in her chest. She even dared to throw her arms around councillor Offal, despite his abhorrence of physical affection. “Father wishes to see me?” she cried as he pushed her away. “Oh, I must change gowns. I could not bear for him to see me like this after ten years apart. I wish to be pretty for him, as I was when I was a child.”

  “Come with me, daft girl,” Offal muttered, leading Lally up the main staircase. “You are a woman now, not a child. I would appreciate if you would try to appear a proper monarch before your father. We will open up your mother’s chambers and you shall wear a gown of hers. I always did favour the one silvery as moonlight.” Stepping back, he paused to take a longing look at Lally. His expression appeared spellbound as he observed her face. He leaned in close. For a small moment, she thought he might kiss her and she knew she would let him. But instead he said, “Why is there tree bark in your hair? And blood on your hands? Never mind! I do not wish to know. Just clean yourself up before your father sees you. The king is suddenly an impatient man, so do be swift.”

  Lally often sorted through mother’s things, though always in private. How strange it felt to look at mother’s gowns right under Offal’s nose. The gown silvery as moonlight was nowhere to be found, so Lally chose the copper dress from among her late mother’s apparel. Offal stepped out of the chamber. When she was dressed and ready, they rushed to the council room. He still held her by the wrist, as though she was a child.

  “Oh, father!” Lally exclaimed, running to greet him. He had aged terribly. His white hair and beard were now long and straggly. But what did she care? It was father! He had come out of his grief to rejoin the world of cheerful people. Leaping into the old man’s lap as she had done in childhood, she cried, “Father, I have missed you terribly! Why did you never respond when I asked you to wander the woods with me? To take lunch with me? To teach me alchemy and mathematics? Well, never mind. That’s all in the past. Here you are now, and here you shall stay with me forever!”

  “And here you shall stay with me forever,” the King repeated as Lally threw her arms around him and kissed his sunken cheeks.

  She hated to think it, but his nearly transparent flesh made her cringe. There was something changed in his voice as well. Lally tried not to be disturbed by its slow and unfamiliar tone, but there was something in the way he spoke that made the hair of her arms stand on end.

  “My councillors have counselled me,” King Galyn continued. While Lally waited for her father to continue his thought, she slid from his lap and took a seat next to him. He was gazing so intently at her face, at her hair, at her adult body, she felt uncomfortable being so close to him.

  “Then they are serving their purpose,” Lally finally chuckled to pierce the silence.

  “They prophesy danger from the Kingdom of the North.”

  “Danger!” Lally exclaimed. Snake’s warning bubbled to the surface of her mind. The danger he spoke of was political! Well, that was no worry. If there was war, it would be between their people and her people. She would be safe within the confines of the castle. What a relief!

  “Council has urged me to take back the reins in anticipation, to show the North we are not a Kingdom to be trifled with.”

  “That is wonderful, father,” Lally encouraged. “You were always a fair and considerate leader. The people will be as delighted by your return as I am!”

  With a joyful heart, she kissed father’s hands. Supinating his palms, he took her cheeks in his bony clutches. His cold fingers sent shivers down Lally’s spine. She bolted upright in her chair, sliding away from her father. It was only then she noticed her treasured walnut sitting on the council table. Customarily, it was kept beneath her pillow. He must have been inside her chambers.

  “That gown was your mother’s,” he said, casting his gaze along the copper silk of Lally’s fine bodice. That look, that stare, did not match the affectionate gazes she remembered from the halcyon days of early childhood. Was
this man, whose breath wheezed from his beak-like nose, truly her father? He had grown so very old in ten years. And there was something indefinably yet unmistakeably different about him.

  “Yes, “ she said. He pressed his hand to hers. She slipped her hand away from his. “It still bears the tiny tears from that day the sky opened up. Do you remember?”

  Father’s stare was blank at first, but Lally poured her hope into him. He must recall that day. His eyes lit up. “Yes, I do remember. We were perambulating through the clearing when we were hit by heavy rains. Your mother scooped you into her arms and we ran through the thicket until we reached the shelter of the trees. Her dress—that dress—was torn along the hem. ‘Every adventure is worth some sacrifice,’ she said to you.” His smile was wistful when he said, “You look just like her.”

  Lally smiled pitifully at the mournful king. Would he never abandon his grief? Perhaps he only required her help and encouragement. She would do anything for her father, if only he would be well again.

  “I must inform you of a certain matter,” he went on. When he again placed his hand on hers, she did not flinch. “My councillors advise that if I am to resume my leadership of the kingdom, I ought to have a queen by my side.”

  “Must you?” Lally asked. She tried to consider the matter strategically. “Yes, I suppose you must. It would convince our people and our enemies you are quite yourself again.”

  Her father nodded slowly. “I am in complete agreement.” There was a strange gaze in his silence. It made Lally feel embarrassed, though she was not certain why. Her father tapped his palm against the council table with great resolution. “As I look upon your womanly form, my mind is set. Lally, I should like to marry you.”

  Lally offered a generous chuckle. “What a strange sense of humour father has acquired during his years of seclusion. I am not quite sure I understand it, I admit.”