It had been a couple of years since I had been home to Edinburgh. I hadn’t called ahead to let my parents know I was coming, so I was expecting them to be pleasantly surprised when I finally got there.
I parked my car in their driveway and shrugged. Their lights were on, but their car wasn’t there. The front door was locked, which was unusual for them if they were home. I sighed as I slipped my key into the lock and pushed the door open.
They weren’t home after all. I groaned loudly and finished unloading my overnight bags from my car, locking it after I was all done. While I shouldn’t have been very surprised, I was bit a upset because it was almost christmas. Shouldn’t they expect their own daughter to come home?
I sprawled out on the couch and turned the television on, looking for something to watch. Nothing. I glanced out the back window across the yard and into the forested lot behind our house. I was happy to see it was still there, that no one had bought it out and built a ghastly house.
I smiled to myself and thought about all the memories I had attached to that little wooded area. Almost my entire childhood. Granted, I was in my twenties now, but that didn’t mean I wasn’t too young to remember what it was like to be a kid. I decided it wouldn’t hurt to do a little exploring again, like when I was younger.
It was only two in the afternoon, and unusually bright and clear for a winter day. I turned the television off and gathered a thick coat to wear over my long sleeve shirt and jeans. I didn’t know how long I would get caught up exploring out there, and I didn’t want to get in over my head. The days were cold, but the nights were even worse.
I figured I had at least a good three hours to explore, kick around some stones, and walk on some logs before nightfall. I locked the front door and made my way out into the yard. Walking across the empty yard was invigorating, the chilled air frosting my breath already and tickling my cheeks.
I folded my arms and squeezed myself to stay warm as I stepped from my parents’ yard into the forested lot.
I ignored the no trespassing sign as I always did.
***
The woods were a lot thicker than I remembered. Despite autumn knocking most of the leaves down, a lot of the shrubs and plant life were overgrown. I navigated through some familiar trails and over a couple of downed trees before I reached a small clearing.
Looking backward down the trail, I couldn’t see the house anymore. I grinned and rubbed my hands together to keep them from numbing. I went further into the forest and found a small treehouse hanging from one of the trees, limp and mostly torn down. I hoisted myself into it and sat on one of the remaining planks of wood, closing my eyes and just letting the wind and the cool air wash over me. The trees were covered in a kind of thin frost, which made them shimmer in the light. I ran my hand along the plank of wood I was sitting on and smiled. The old treehouse hadn’t been built for me, but I thought of it as mine. I still remember the day I found it, amazed at how anyone could leave it untouched for so long. Names were carved in the tree and planks of wood, and I marveled at them.
I stole my first kiss from a boy in the treehouse. I shuddered at the thought as I remembered his name, Blake Colville. He had a strong chin even when he was young, and I almost felt like cursing myself for letting him slip through my fingers. There had been other boys after him, but then college came and changed everything. I was innocent back then, with Blake. Not anymore.
I huffed and leapt down from the treehouse, planting my feet on the ground. I looked around and decided to go a bit deeper, never having gone very far into the woods when I was younger. I was always a little scared.
Of what? I don’t even know anymore. Monsters? Standing there, it didn’t look very menacing at all. The woods were barren and frost-covered, but not terrifying.
I walked along the beaten trail a bit more and found the ground rising in elevation. It was odd. I never noticed the forest sat on a hill before, which seemed like something obvious. I figured the trees must have hidden the elevation change from me.
I came across the face of a hill. Strange, I wondered. Sunken in the side of it was a dark, cavernous cave. I shrugged and folded my arms, squeezing my hands tight underneath my elbows. I should’ve brought gloves.
I walked to the edge of the entrance and leaned inside, as if it was too dangerous to actually step foot across the threshold. A chilled air seemed to pouring out of its mouth, or was it warm air moving inside? I took a precarious step into the cave and braced myself, as if it I expected the entrance to cave in on me.
I took another step and breathed a sigh of relief. Nothing to be afraid of after all. It was strange though, shouldn’t I have noticed the hill before?
I pulled my phone out to turn it into a flashlight. After my friend had shown me how, I never went anywhere without my little phone for that reason. People never seemed to realize how useful a flashlight was until they didn’t have one. The light beam didn’t go very far into the cave, hitting a wall that turned sharply about fifteen meters in. I chuckled and moved to meet the wall.
I brushed my hand against the stone and followed it into a twisty corridor. The air was chilly, but smelt of something wrong. Foul, even. I found myself walking slower, each foot needing more and more motivation to go in front of the other.
The wall twisted around and spit me out into a large opening. A small pool of water was frozen in the center of the room, but not much else. As I shined the light around, I found scattered beer cans littering the floor. I sighed. It was always beer.
Another curving corridor led me further into the cave, and I began to wonder how long it went. How far did it go? Would I still find beer cans in the back of it?
My phone beeped at me and I glanced at it. The battery was low. Of course, that was going to happen. I groaned and turned back to make use of the last remaining battery life, but a gust of wind howled through the curving walls and blew me against a wall. I scraped my wrist and dropped my phone in the confusion, switching the light off. I dropped to my knees to feel around for the phone. It was pitch-black and disorienting, with wind lightly gusting from seemingly every direction.
My blind hands found the phone and its jagged edges. It was broken. I felt like crying.
I regained my composure and stuffed the phone’s remains into my coat pocket. I tried to discern which direction I came from, eventually deciding that no matter what, the cave couldn’t be that deep. I braced my hand against the wall to my left and hugged it, grazing against its rough surface as it turned and twisted through hallways and switchbacks.
My feet slipped against ice. I was getting close. I reached out with my other hand and held both chilled palms against the wall, letting it guide me out. The light struck me and I burst out into the open woods again, gasping for air. The claustrophobic darkness finally gone.
Something was wrong though. The sky was off. It was orange and ruddy.
Sunset?
***
I glared up through the tree tops and tried hard to imagine how I might have been in the cave for three hours. I squeezed my eyes shut and shook my head, my hair catching on the zippers of my coat. The ground was covered in a thicker layer of powder too, not the thin frost that I remembered. I tread through it lightly, looking for any of my old foot steps. At least I knew where to go now, as vague as that was.
My stomach growled. I groaned.
I retraced my steps through the woods along the trail. But it was wrong. There were turns and twists that shouldn’t exist. When I came across the old treehouse, it was completely gone, save for a single piece of wood nailed to the trunk of the tree. A sign. I leaned in close and tried to read its worn letters, but a layer of frost was sunken too deep in the wood to read. I reached up to wipe away the ice.
A sound made me jump, and I turned to face it. Something was leaping from the trees, jumping from limb to limb. A squirrel? Most likely. I wasn’t in the mood to be spooked though, it already felt like I was the victim of some kind of practical joke. I squinted into the tree tops and found what was making the noise. It didn’t look like a squirrel. It was too... black. Too large. Too wrong.
It leaped down to another branch and hovered there. The only word I could attach to it was bat, but that was wrong too. It dug its claws into the branch and swung down underneath, before opening a wing and preening its feathers. I felt nauseous and confused.
After it cleaned itself for a good few minutes, it looked at me. Its eyes weren’t that of a dumb animal like a dog or a cat, but knowing. They pierced into me and felt haunting. Then it opened its mouth and spoke.
“What are you doing here?”
I shuffled my feet and looked around. I glanced back at the sign but still couldn’t quite make it out. The orange sky grew darker as the night fought the daylight.
“I’m... what?”
It turned its head around and repeated itself. “What are you doing here?”
“I’m trying ... to go home...” I didn’t know what to think, what to say. Was it really talking?
It let out a shrill bark and flew to another tree branch, the sound of its claws digging into the bark was sickening. I avoided making eye contact with it.
“You’re not from around here are you?”
I shook my head. “I don’t think so. Not anymore anyway. How can I get home?”
It blinked. “I’m sure you’ll find it.” It preened itself a bit more. “It’s getting dark though... I’d suggest you hide. Unless you want the satyr to find you.”
I gulped at the word, letting it sink in for a minute. “A satyr? Like, from fairy tales?”
It didn’t seem to understand what I meant. I shook my head. “What’ll happen?”
It didn’t answer me, but flew to another branch, a light bark on its voice. I shuddered as I watched it vanish in the tree tops, out in the distance.
My stomach growled again and I relented. Maybe I could make it back home, but after seeing that thing, maybe I couldn’t. I ignored the sign and started hiking down the trail again, crossing the small frozen stream and trying to make it to the edge of the woods.
After several minutes of walking, I began to panic. I should at least have been able to see where the tree line ended, but it seemed like it was just getting deeper and thicker with every step. The sky was darkening quickly, and I looked up to try and tell how much time I’d have before it was pitch black.
I stepped off the trail and found a small row of bushes with a worn tunnel underneath them. I ducked down and crawled into the woody alcove, glad I found something that might shield me from some wind. A small berry bush protruded into my little lair, but the berries looked wrong. They weren’t red or blue, but white with purple stripes swirling around them. They looked more like taffy or candy than anything. I pulled a couple off the branch with ease and popped them into my mouth. They tasted like a mint.
I felt woozy and warmth after I swallowed them. Not drunk, but like I had just taken a gulp of pure oxygen. It was an odd sensation, but not unwelcome in the state I was in. I grabbed a couple more and feasted on them, before I pulled my arms inside my jacket and laid my head down to try and get some shut eye.
A movement scared me awake. I was groggy and unsure of how much time had passed. I slowly creeped out of the underbrush to see if it was the bat-creature again. The sounds were noisier, more aggressive, and huge. A large shape loomed over the bushes, snatching giant handfuls of the whitish berries and stuffing them away. Huge hooked horns jutted from its head, and I realized immediately what it was.
The Satyr. It was too dark to make out any definite shape, but it was definitely large. As I stared through the tightly knitted vines and branches, it cocked its head and turned to face me.
I shrank back as quietly and quickly as I could, trying to hide. It moved closer to my hiding place, its hard hooves crunched on the fresh snow. It stopped near me, and I could see its ankles and fur-covered legs outside the entrance to the thicket. It turned around and grunted, its voice hard and loud.
I held my breath and waited for it to leave.
It sniffed around the bush, dipping its head into the thick branches. After a long pause, it started picking berries again, tugging on the branches each time it grabbed a handful. I exhaled slowly to keep myself quiet.
I still couldn’t believe I was even hiding from a satyr, let alone taking the advice of some bat monster that talked to me. I shuddered at the thought. This wasn’t Edinburgh any more, that was for sure.
The satyr stirred and walked away, its stride odd and strangely enchanting. I let out a breath of relief and tried to relax. I finished the rest of the berries I had gathered and reached my hand up to pull some more from the branches, threading my wrist carefully through the thorns.
A powerful hand squeezed my wrist and pulled on it, scraping my arm against the thorns and shocking me. I screamed and tried to wrench my arm back out of the bush but the force was much stronger than me. A voice called out through the underbrush.
“I thought I smelled someone in here.”
I squirmed against its grip and shivered. “Let go of me!”
“Come out here.” The tight fingers released me and the satyr’s legs reappeared at the entrance of the thicket. Not thinking, I crawled out to meet the satyr, still rubbing my wrist to try and ease its pain. I rose to my feet and stared at the beast.
It was at least two feet taller than me, with long fur-matted legs that terminated at the waist. His upper half was that of a strong man, bulging pectorals and biceps included. His face was a combination of a goat and a man, a strange and unnerving appearance. His nose was protruding like that of a goat, but he had the fierce-blue eyes of a man. Stubble marked his cheeks, but his chin wore a long and hooked goatee. He grunted as I stared at him, and I looked away.
“What are you doing in here?”
“I don’t know,” I sighed. “I —.”
“These are my plumberries. You haven’t been eating them have you?”
I shook my head quickly, but my cheeks burned and betrayed me.
“You liar, I hate liars.”
I squeezed my eyes shut.
“Look at me.”
“Sir,” I began, opening my eyes and glancing at his strong torso, flicking up to only meet his eyes for a brief moment. Something burned in my chest when I met his eyes, a thrill rose in my body. “I just want to go home.”
“Sir,” the beast repeated. “Funny.” He reached out and touched my hair, dragging his hands through it. He leaned in and inhaled deeply, savoring my scent. “I’m Isac.”
I tried to look away but couldn’t. Something was enchanting me. “I’m... Sadie.”
“You want to go home?” His tone had a mischievous tone to it.
I nodded slowly. “Very much.”
“Come to my lair. We’ll get you fed first.”
I shook my head and tried to break the gut wrenching knot that was tightening in my stomach. “No, I just need to find a way back. I was in the — .”
“I insist,” The beast said. Isac grabbed my wrist and pulled me, making me stumble and almost lose my balance. He began to move quicker, and I had to run to keep up. His grip was too strong to fight off, and I felt anxiety and relief. Was he going to help me? Did I want him to? I thought about what I had gotten myself into as we crossed through the forest, across several bridges and frozen streams. The snow began to fall again, twinkling through the tree tops. His somewhat majestic form leaped from foot to foot in front of me, and I felt a strange sensation I hadn’t felt in a long time.
***
It was more like a house than a lair, but it was dug into the side of a mountain. The face of it had two small windows and a hard wooden door with iron bars strapped against it. The location was hidden under trees and rocks in a hill.
He wrenched the door open and pulled me inside, finally releasing my hand after he closed the door. I rubbed the red skin to try and cool it, but was grateful to find a fire in the room. The furniture was strange and the decorations were even stranger. Odd trinkets and doo-dads littered the tabletops, which had a slight curve to them. The chairs were all oddly shaped, looking more like step ladders than actual seating. A large fire roared, smoke pouring up the chimney. He locked the front door and turned to face me.
“I’ll get you something to eat. Sit down.”
I followed his instructions and found a seat in the middle of the room. A table that I could only compare to a coffee table sat in front of me, a bowl filled with plumberries sat out. When he left the room, I reached forward for a handful. Anything to try and keep me sane in this place.
After I swallowed a good dozen, he came back into the room, his hooftsteps making strange noises on the wooden floor. He sat down on a stool opposite of me and stared at me intently.
I blushed and looked back down at the plumberries, before growing self conscious and looking at the belongs he had on the walls and tables.
“I...” I started. I paused and gathered my thoughts. “Where am I?”
He seemed amused by the question, “Where are you... Oh.”
“What?”
“You’re from Earth aren’t you?”
I shook my head, most in disbelief and not wanting to absorb what he just said. He nodded knowingly and shifted in his chair. “I knew it. You don’t smell like you’re from here... its different — wrong almost.”
I clenched my jaw and tried to fight back the rising tide of emotion. If I wasn’t on earth, how as I going to get home? “I might know a way... for you to get out.”
I exhaled sharply and looked at him in the eye. I couldn’t tell if he was being truthful or not, but the woozy berries made me hardly care anyway. He grinned and stood up, moving closer to me.
Without thinking, I touched his skin, planting my hand on his stomach. It was hard and rough, but not unsettling. He grunted in response, and I brought my fingers down to the tuft of fur where his human half met his goat half. The fur was soft in my fingers, cleaner than I thought it would be.
He sighed. “I’m surprised you held out for so long. Most can’t contain themselves for more than a few minutes. I’m impressed.”
I could barely hear his voice, I felt entranced, zoned out. Tunnel vision. He knelt down next to the couch and brought his face close to me, his lips inches from mine. I could feel the dry static reaching between the gap, tempting me to bridge it. He breathed softly, and I caught a whiff of his scent. A dreamy, inviting smell. Like honeysuckle and oak. I kissed him, not knowing what I was doing, but feeling like I had no choice.
He lavished the kiss, dragging my lip from my mouth and sucking on it. I squirmed under his touch, reaching my hands around him and clasping his head, bringing him tighter against me. His hands fumbled for my clothes, pulling my top off and exposing my chest to the warm air in the lair. He grunted as he moved from my lips to my neck, sliding his tongue against my nape and making me sigh with delight. I felt lost in it, letting his hands explore my body, rough and tenuous.
He fondled my breast, taking it in his mouth and sucking on it gently. I raked my fingers through his hair and pushed him against me, urging him. It wasn’t anything I had ever been into before, but but it felt right, like I had to let him. He pulled my ass off the couch and let it hang in the air, my feet planted right below them. He spread my knees and then continued to kiss my chest. His warm and soft lips teased me, making me hot and sweaty.
“Isac,” I moaned. He cast a glance up at me and moved to my stomach, kissing it feverishly and without care. I struggled to keep my mind from clouding over, to keep it sharp. What was I doing? This... this monster was having his way with me and I was letting him?
He pulled at my pants, undoing the buckle and fly with incredible dexterity. I stared down at him as he shifted the pants from my hips down to my ass, then pulled them off. My panties were exposed to him now, and I only realized then how wet I was. How?
He teased me, tracing a finger up my knee and next to my thigh, avoiding my pussy. I groaned and threw my legs around his chest, hugging him against me and feeling his heart race against my clit, an incredibly lifting feeling. He gave me a wicked smile and pushed me back, separating my heat from his body.
He stood to his hooves and I stared up at him from my back, my head cocked up against the back of the couch. I couldn’t believe what I was seeing. His cock had emerged from his fur, hard and shiny. His horns seemed to nearly scrap the ceiling from where I laid, and he was rippling with energy, his muscles tense and veins popping. I wanted him. I couldn’t explain it, but I just did.
He ran his hand from my hip to my breast, groping me as he readied himself. Bringing his hips against mine, he thrust his cock inside me, only pausing to let me moan out in surprising ecstasy. For a long moment, I thought he was going to let me sit there and sweat, my back already sticking to the couch whenever we moved an inch. He grunted as he withdrew from me, before he brought himself back with urgency. I yelped and bounced up, but his hands caught me and cradled me by my hips and waist. I was all his.
He wasn’t as gentle as I expected. His foreplay was only a ploy, for now he showed his true nature. His rough hands groped me with a passion I’d never experienced, his hips thrusting into me with a rhythm I could only have dreamed of with a vibrator. He held his thumb tight against my clit, shaking me at my very core with every stroke of his finger. I sighed and grunted, letting my voice carry through the lair with abandon. Who cared if I never found my way home if this is what I had to expect? A hot and pulsating feeling glowed inside me, rising to my chest and hardening my nipples before escaping out my mouth in a scream. The orgasm flooded my cheeks, and made my eyes roll slightly.
He grunted once more and I knew his moment was soon too. While part of me was screaming for him to stop and not finish inside me, another part relished it, desired to feel him loose his load. I gave myself up to my feral instincts and wrapped my legs around him, hooking my feet against his fur covered ass. He shook me against the couch as he raged, his hips gyrating. He bellowed loudly, sweat trickling down his cheek and dropping from his chin as he did. As he finished, I thrust myself against his cock again, pushing his skin against my clit and feeling the throbbing force of his orgasm rise and dissipate through my body. I squeezed my eyes shut and held onto that moment as long as I could, only barely noticing his rhythm slowing, before he stopped. I unlatched my feet and let him go, feeling rubbery and indistinct.
He grunted and collapsed down next to me on the couch, his horns nearly knocking against my forehead. I readjusted myself, my back and legs sticky with sweat. He wrapped his arm around me and sighed with relief.
I inhaled, smelling his scent again. It was stronger now, which made me want him again. I burned but knew I had limits. I still felt shocked and dizzy, and I finally passed out.
***
When I awoke he was standing over me, about to put a blanket on my naked body. I shook when I saw him and my mind burned to place me somewhere I knew. I remembered and shook my head.
“Thanks,” I said, grabbing the sheet and pulling it up to my neck. I looked around and saw the fire had died down a good amount. The bowl on the table was refilled with berries, but everything else looked the same. He was looking at me expectantly.
I remembered what I was trying to do in the first place.
“Look...”
“You still want to go home?” Isac said. I nodded plaintively and looked him in the eye.
“I think I know how to do that. I found something out in the woods the other day, maybe it’ll help you.”
“Are you serious?”
“Yes.”
“Why are you helping me now?”
He shrugged and looked away from me. He dropped his shoulders. “I know what its like, let’s just leave it at that.” He paused. “Get dressed and we’ll go.”
I leaped up from the couch and tossed pulled my pants back on. After I finished dressing, I pulled my jacket on and he escorted me outside, where the snow was falling again. Giant snowflakes piled up on my shoulders.
He led me back through the forest, taking me to the cave again. I shook my head. “Not here. I don’t wan to go back in there.”
“Not in there.” He moved to the side of the cave and knelt down on his hooves. He reached down into the thinning and frost-bitten grass, before grasping something. He yanked up and a door opened, revealing a soft light. “In here.”
I walked to the edge of the trapdoor and stared in. Inside was indistinct. I looked at him.
“Just promise me you’ll come back.”
“How would I come back?”
He didn’t answer. After a moment, I climbed down and slipped into the hole, and he closed the trap behind me.
I felt a sharp pain rip through my entire body, making me wheeze. When I opened my eyes again, I was lying on the ground outside the cave again.
It was almost sunset, the sky ruddy and orange. The layer of snow that I had began to grow comfortable with in the other world was gone. I climbed to my feet and dusted my jeans off, feeling strange and odd.
I crossed back into the forest and found the tree house, as intact as I expected. I passed it without a second glance, moving across the bridge on the small creek. After a few minutes, I found the edge of my family’s property again.
I sighed heavily and stepped into the yard. I felt different. Like something had changed inside me for good.