Coffe at the Arabesque Cafe

[Hand_Solo]

"Holy shit! Those were...Did you?...From heat stroke? You really think we saw that because of the heat? One of them had a fucking tail!" shouted Louise, gesticulating wildly at David. As she spoke, a juggler effortlessly juggling three ebony wood clubs walked by, closely followed by a middle-aged man with his blazer held distractedly in one hand, dragging along the ground, his tie worn around his forehead like a headband, drenched with perspiration. "Lizards" she hissed, and then she smiled at Louise and licked her lips with a tongue that was clearly forked before she moved off into the crowd, closely followed by her admirer. Louise stood, jaw agape, until David rested his hand lightly upon her slight shoulder. She gave a bit of a start as she turned sharply to face him. "That woman. The juggler. Forked. Her tongue. It was forked."

"It sure looked that way," said David. "Then again, they can do that with surgery these days. Maybe she's just goth. I mean, it's pretty clear we're gonna see some freakshow shit if we stay here. If it gets to be too much, we know we can leave, so let's just enjoy the spectacle. Louise."

"Oh, I'm enjoying it, all right. I was just thinking to myself what she could do with that forked tongue of hers."

David laughed, but he found some very interesting mental images forming in his twisted brain as he thought about what Louise had just said. A forked tongue might just mean double the pleasure, he thought, and he was certain as he thought it that Louise was thinking the exact same thing. His train of thought was interrupted as a beautiful Eurasian woman stepped out of the crowd and stopped as she caught sight of Louise. "You look delicious," she said to Louise, and then she kissed her, briefly, but rather passionately, before she drifted off once more into the crowd. Louise stood for a moment with a bemused smile on her face before returning her attention to David. "That looked nice," he said. "It was," she replied, "it was." Her lips now tasted of some fruity lip gloss, and tasting it reminded her of the kiss, the girl, the way she'd looked as she'd walked into the crowd. "God," she said to David, "that was unbelievably hot for some reason. We need to find a place to get more intimate soon."

"I don't think that'll be a problem, but, uh, we should probably get out of this tent here first, don't you think?"

"Probably a good idea," she said. "It'd help if we didn't keep getting distracted so much. I guess maybe if there weren't so many distractions that'd be easier." All around them a sea of skin glistened in the firelight, dappled with shadow, streaked with reds, yellows, and oranges from the fire in dappled bursts. They considered staying and playing, but they worried they'd be caught up here and miss the additional wonders spread out through the other six tents, so they continued to make their way to the exit. People were definitely leaving their inhibitions at the door, and neither Louise nor David had any doubt that this tent would degenerate, or perhaps evolve, into a giant orgy by the end of the night. Perhaps, he thought, they might be joining it at some point, an interesting thought, though he wasn't quite sure how he felt about it.

Finally, after negotiating a complex path through the dense crowd, they made their way out into the open once more, feeling like they'd emerged from the clinging confines of a kelp forest into open waters, even though there were still many people crowded about them. Relatively speaking, the numbers were less, and that gave both of them a sense of relief, a sense of escaping from confinement, bursting forth into a more open space. "Jesus Christ, I thought I was gonna suffocate in there," gasped David, breathing deeply in the fresher air outdoors.

"No shit," replied Louise, "That was too much. I'm more lost now that when we went in there. Was that supposed to be an explanation of the show? Did we miss something?"

"I've no fuckin' clue," laughed David. "That was utterly beyond anything I've experienced before." They talked together of the crazy ringmaster, the pillars, the fire, the dancers, and especially the reptilian trapeze act. Louise was tempted to go back to see if they put on another performance, but David wanted to to see what was in some of the other tents, and Louise finally agreed, as she was very curious herself as to their contents. They stood off to the side of the main flow of traffic for a bit to cool off, even the warm breeze in the area between the tents a relief after the stifling temperatures within the main pavilion. Both of them were still perspiring freely, flesh sheened with a thin layer of sweat, and both of them were unable to keep their hands off each other. From what they could see, it was a common affliction among the people in the crowd. Hands were everywhere, and clothing was in short demand. "Pan must be having his way with the crowd," panted Louise as David's hands roved over her, pulling him towards her, running through her hair.

"Well, he's sure as fuck having his way with me," panted David, his breath heavy against her neck as he kissed and nuzzled her. She could feel the sexual energy radiating from him, burning within him. It was primal, it was powerful, and it felt very good to her, a warm glow in which she could bask, feeling her nether regions brim with wetness. She wanted so badly for him to feel her, and finally, she couldn't resist any longer. She grabbed David by the hand and led him around the back of one of the smaller tents. There were still a few people passing by, but they were infrequent, nowhere near as thick as they'd been in the central space. David knew without being told why she had brought him here. She stood facing him, and his hands were upon her shoulders. As they kissed once more, his hands slid down her back, resting briefly on her shapely bottom, and then reaching down even further as he leaned down a bit, his large hands finding the bare flesh of her legs below her skirt and then working their way up the backs of her legs to feel the firm, soft flesh of her ass, and then working between her legs from behind, the wetness of her sex. She was soaked with arousal, and feeling it drove David wild. She thought for a moment that he might try to take her right there, and though the idea was appealing, she thought it was still too public. "Not here," she said, pushing him back a bit, "Wait, not yet." He panted with desire, but he managed to get himself under control once more, but just barely. He was thoroughly and utterly aroused, inflamed with desire for her.

(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

For a moment, as she looked into his eyes, she saw something wild there, animalistic, and it scared her. She knew she was skating on the edge of control, and she worried about what might happen if she pushed things too far. She wondered how hard it would be to stop him if he decided to take her, especially if she didn't really want to stop him. She knew for certain that if she told him to stop, really stop, he would do it without hesitation. However, within the framework of this consensual game of seduction in which they were engaged, particularly on a night like this, in a place like this, the normal rules and boundaries were bent a bit, skewed, distorted. Even when they'd started, the rules had been a bit vague, but the intent of the game was clear. She was to seduce him as much as she could, and he was to resist giving in completely to his urges as much as he could, until finally, one or the other, or both, gave in to irresistible passion.

Of course, none of this was spoken, but they both knew exactly what was going on. They toyed with the rules a bit; he did his best to arouse her as well, and at times, she passed up perfectly good opportunities for arousal in the interest of prolonging the game, keeping David at an even peak of desire without overloading his fragile male senses, perhaps causing him to whip it out in public and jump her bones or worse. There's no telling what could happen once he released his long-repressed sexual yearnings. More than once, she'd pleasured herself late at night thinking of just that, imagining him taking her forcefully as she dithered her clit with a clever finger or two until she reached a squirting orgasm. Or two.

But now, here, so far at least, the game was still afoot. She was still seducing, and he was still resisting. Barely. She could see his tension in the musculature of his arms, his chest, the rise and fall of his breathing as he looked at her. She could tell exactly how badly he wanted her, how badly he burned for her. She burned for him as well, but she delighted in this drawn-out teasing, and she was determined to play it out for all it was worth. Of course it would make him suffer; it made her suffer as well. That was part of the fun. It would make the pleasure that much sweeter when it finally washed over them. The true hedonist knows how to prolong the craving, knows that it is far sweeter than the actual fulfillment of a desire could ever be. She'd kept him in that state of craving longer and more intensely than anyone he'd known, and it was a powerful feeling, an energizing feeling. He felt charged with her, illuminated, luminous. He could tell as he looked at her that she felt charged as well, that they were doing this together, for each other. It was wildly entertaining, not to mention wildly arousing.

Finally, they managed to cool down enough that a modicum of blood began flowing brainward from their nether regions, and their thoughts, sluggish as they were, turned once more to the entertainment at hand. "We need to pick another tent, David. Do you wanna just pick one randomly, or do you have some system in mind?"

"I think we should just wander around a tiny bit, Louise," replied David. "Random chance has served us pretty well so far this evening; if we just start moving, I'm pretty sure we'll end up where we're supposed to be." Together, they walked through the crowd in a roughly counterclockwise circle until they came to the next largest tent, which they passed in the favor of the one beyond it. "We'll come back and see it if we have time," said Louise. There was something about the smaller, darker tent they were headed for that had drawn them in the same way they'd been drawn to the center of the main pavilion. It was something beyond their understanding, perhaps beyond their control even. As they neared the tent, they sensed that it was much cooler than the preceding one had been. In fact, it radiated a damp coolness as they approached it. Both of them found it refreshing in the extreme after the hellish heat they'd just experienced. As they neared the entrance, Louise trailed one of her artist's hands along the dark burgundy canvas of the tent, and it did indeed come away damp, a fact which she demonstrated to David by wiping her hand on his cheek. "Ewwww!" He recoiled in mock horror. "You don't know where that wetness came from! This could be the corpse exhibit for all you know." She laughed at the thought of wiping corpse-water on David's face, but then she began to wonder exactly what it was that had made her hand damp. She really hoped to herself, both for her sake and David's, that it wasn't something really gross. She sniffed it tentatively, and it didn't smell like much of anything, which was a damned good sign.

As they approached the entrance, they heard some sort of splashing within, which would certainly explain the dampness of the tent wall. How the hell the carnival managed to find any water at all out here in the middle of the high desert, let alone water in such quantities, was something else entirely. Nevertheless, it sounded as if vast amounts the stuff were sloshing around within the confines of the tent. In addition to the sounds of the water, they heard other, less-recognizable sounds. Deep bellowing sounds, sharp hissing sounds. Sounds that made the hair on the back of David's neck stand up.

As they reached the main tent flap, they were greeted by an elderly seafaring man. He was dressed in the garb of a 17th-century seaman, and he looked as if he might actually be old enough to have seen the 17th century firsthand. He was withered and sun darkened beyond imagining, and the salt air had worn great furrows in his ancient visage. Still, his eyes were sharp as he greeted Louise and David, explaining to them that within this tent were the fierce and unimaginable creatures captured by Captain Morrison during his many sea voyages. Oh, indeed, explained the man, Captain Morrison had been a real sea captain before he'd started the Carnival and Emporium of the Macabre. Many of the performers and exhibits had been collected during the Captain's travels abroad, his many circumnavigations of the globe, his vast exploration of both the northern and southern hemispheres. From pole to pole his travels had taken him, and within those travels, he had encountered some magnificent specimens of what were known in common parlance as sea monsters or sea serpents. David gave an involuntary shudder at the words. He'd told Louise before that one of the things he feared most in all the world was sea monsters. Ever since he was a child, they'd terrified him beyond all reason. Now, he found himself contemplating entering into a tent that was supposedly filled with the things. Even in captivity, however one arranged such a thing in the first place, he wasn't sure if he could bear the sight of a sea monster. The old man, sensing David's unease, explained that the exhibit was perfectly safe for the most part, and that strong bars separated the beasts from the viewers. Louise squeezed his hand in reassurance, and he looked at her, trusted her, took a very deep breath, and together, they went in.

Like the tent before it, this one was extremely dim. Large metal and glass tanks of various shapes and sizes lined the walls, and all of them were covered or otherwise surrounded by heavy metal bars of various shapes and designs, some rather ornate, others very plain and utilitarian. The air was very damp and cool, and smelled of the ocean, or perhaps the ocean mixed with the smell of a pet store that deals heavily in saltwater fish. It was so chilly that Louise put her sweater back on, and David rolled down his sleeves. They walked together through the dim light, milling about with other people. This was, without a doubt, the most disorganized carnival either of them had ever attended. They'd been left to wander unguided virtually the whole time they'd been here.

They approached the first of the tanks, large and oval-shaped, and surrounded by heavy iron bars. The water within was murky, and in the dim light, they could see nothing. Together, they edged a bit closer, until they were only three or four feet away from the bars. Suddenly, a huge dark bulk lurched upward from the water in a tremendous splash and lunged towards them, crashing into the bars with a resounding clang of scales on metal and a bellowing roar before sinking back into the dark water in a cloud of bubbles and foamy salt spray. Both of them screamed in shock and surprise, and stumbled back from the bars. It had happened so quickly that neither of them had gotten a good look at the thing, whatever it was. The head had been at least as large as a 55-gallon drum, black and glistening, with unmistakably large teeth jutting out at all angles and baleful predatory eyes recessed beneath bony crests.

David was as white as a ghost. He told Louise he didn't think he was interested in seeing any of the other exhibits in that tent, and that if she wanted to, she was more than welcome, but that he'd wait outside for her. "Are you nuts? Let's get the hell out of here, David. That fucking thing almost ate us for dinner." Together, the two of them left the tent far more rapidly than they'd entered it, ignoring the laughter of the old salt as they burst from the tent like a couple of cowardly land lubbers.

(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

"Come back and I'll show you one of the smaller ones," cajoled the old man as they moved away from the entrance of the tent. Louise turned and flipped him the bird as they walked away, causing him to cackle insanely. David was still visibly shaken, and paler than usual. "I need a smoke," said Louise, holding on to David's arm, steering them away and around the side of the tent. As made their way out of the most densely packed area of the crowd, they noticed a beautiful blonde sitting on the edge of a smallish tank, her feet dangling in the water. She bore a strong resemblance to Veronica Lake, long blonde bangs snaking over her right eye, a beautiful, sensuous profile. She had a cigarette in one hand, and as David and Louise walked towards her, she asked if either of them had a light. Louise offered her Bic, and when the woman returned it, Louise used it to light her own Marlboro Light. As her eyes adjusted to the dim light, she realized that she'd been mistaken about the woman's feet dangling in the water; she had no feet. The sequined gown which fit her svelte form so closely was no gown; the sequins were, on closer inspection, scales. "I'm smoking a cigarette with a mermaid." said Louise, beyond shock at this point, and yet still shocked.

"You got a problem with that?" asked the blonde, her beautiful fish tail breaking the surface of the water in a flash of scintillatingly brilliant silver and blue. She let it sink back below the surface of the water as she exhaled a long gunmetal stream of smoke through her nostrils, fixing Louise with a pointed stare.

"No, not at all, just a little surprised to tell you the truth. I don't talk to mermaids very often. That's what you are, isn't it?"

"Whaddya think, sweetie? She's kinda cute," the mermaid said to David, "but she's not too clever. Does she belong to you?" David laughed at her question. "No, not at all. I don't think she belongs to anyone. She's rather feral, and would probably kill anyone who tried to tame her. That's what I like about her." With this, the mermaid eyed Louise with even more intensity, and David was almost certain that he was now witnessing a mermaid putting the moves on Louise. Surely, he'd never see such a thing again. He made careful note of everything for future reference. Louise and the mermaid talked as they spoke, talked of life on the land, life in the sea, and oddly enough, the two of them seemed to form a rather close bond in an incredibly short amount of time. As the mermaid finished her cigarette, she said that she needed to get back to work, but before she slipped back under the side flap of the tent that went over the middle of the tank, she leaned over to Louise and whispered something in her ear, and then, with barely a splash, she was gone under the water. Louise was left with a mirthful smile upon her face, and as she and David walked back out into the central area to find another tent, she explained that if they could make it to Clam Beach on the night of the Summer Solstice, someone would be waiting for them, someone who'd promised to show them things they'd never before seen. David just laughed and shook his head. It was all too unreal for him. He was glad, though, that he'd been right about the mermaid putting the moves on Louise. It gave him a slightly smug sense of satisfaction. Then again, it was no great feat of deductive reasoning; he'd seen her attract both men and women time and again. There was something about her that was incredibly attractive. Obviously, he felt it strongly himself, he thought, as he followed her along towards the next tent.

They moved on even further, and finally pushed through the crowd to a large, light burgundy pavilion that was more oval than circular in shape. It wasn't damp either, and that was reassuring to David. He'd seen more than enough sea serpents in the last tent. In fact, he didn't think he'd ever take a bath again, let alone swim in the ocean. He'd stick with the shower from now on, preferably with a weapon in hand in case something forced its way through the plumbing.

The new tent, though, didn't smell of water at all. In fact, it smelled of the desert, of ancient places, of time. It was a cool smell, sharp on their nostrils, and it stilled their thoughts, sharpened them. They looked at each other with cool, keen passion as they made ready to enter the tent. No one stood watch at the door to this tent, but no introduction was necessary; clearly it was the hall of mirrors. Glass lanterns hung above the mirrors, suspended from a network of ropes criss-crossing the tent, providing a shimmering, lambent glow that seemed to make the mirrors come alive. Louise stepped into the tent in a trance of amazement, and David followed after her. "Byzantium?" she asked, "Do you really think these mirrors are from Byzantium?"

"I don't know. Could well be I guess. I've certainly never seen anything like them," replied David, "They're... they're...well, I don't really know what to make of them, come to think of it." The mirrors were indeed odd, odd enough to defy ready description. David was no historian, no antiquarian, and he had no idea whether or not the mirrors had, in actuality, come from Byzantium. He was certain, however, that they'd not been crafted by the hand of any artisan born within the last century, probably much longer than that. The heavy gilt frames were more ornately carved than anything either of them had ever seen. The tableaux and scenes that arrayed the perimeters of the mirrors were strange and marvelous, perhaps even a bit eerie. Some of the forms depicted therein were discernably human, but many were not, and sometimes the humans interacted with the other figures in ways that were not altogether comforting, ways that hinted at dark myths and things long forgotten except in childhood nightmares and the visions of madmen.

Some of the frames were worked in Egyptian motifs, close-spaced hieroglyphics surrounding the entire perimeter, interspersed with pictographic vingnettes. Some of the inscriptions looked as if they might have come from the Papyrus of Ani, but neither of them were Egyptologists. Other frames were decorated with designs that couldn't be so easily placed, though David suspected that if they'd asked, they'd probably be told they were Atlantean designs. Furthermore, he thought to himself, they just might be Atlantean designs. Maybe they could go back and ask the mermaid to make sure; she'd probably know.

Though the frames were remarkable, the mirrors themselves were even more remarkable. Neither of them had ever seen mirrors even remotely similar to these. The glass was soft like rainwater, and radiated a delicate inner luminosity, a soft, numinous light that arrested the eye with it's soothing beauty. The mirrors were ground in a myriad of different configurations to bend and twist the light in amusing patterns, patterns to delight the eye and confound the mind, to place reason at the mercy of the senses.

They walked down the rough hallway created by the closely spaced mirrors, laughing in delight at the effects produced by some of the mirrors, and recoiling in disgust at the images displayed in others. One in particular disturbed Louise greatly. It was a large, rectangular mirror set round with a copper frame with gilt accents, and adorned with symbols that resembled nothing more so than some of the Native American petroglyphs David had seen at the Modoc Plateau. The thing that disturbed Louise was the fact that neither she nor David cast a reflection in the mirror. When they stood before it, the mirror remained empty, save for the reflection of the mirrors opposite it in the hallway. Louise stepped away, stepped back, and found that she still cast no reflection. She stood next to David a moment longer, staring deeply into the perfect glass of the mirror, and then, wordlessly, pushed David on down along the hallway of mirrors until she could see reflections again on either side. Finally, she slowed her pace, and once more they stopped to observe the mirrors. The one they'd stopped in front of made them appear almost translucent. Louise thought she could almost see the bones in her fingers, the shadows of her femurs beneath the soft, toned flesh of her thighs. It delighted her, yet at the same time scared her, and she could tell as she looked over at David that he was experiencing the same range of feelings. He'd raised his hand to his face, and was tracing the line of his jaw as he gazed intently into the mirror. When Louise looked back into the mirror, she could make out the bones of his hand, and could even see the hint of his jaw and teeth through his face. It wasn't long before the two of them decided to move on further into the maze of mirrors, leaving their insides on the inside where they belonged.

They rounded the corner at the far end of the pavilion and curved around to the left. Before them was a long hallway of mirrors interspersed with clear panes of glass, all arrayed to confuse people trying to pass through. There were many false paths, but only one true route through this section of the hall of mirrors, and it took them a good while to find it. Some of the mirrors functioned almost as trompe l'oeil, reflecting things that weren't really there, impossible scenes--Greek ruins, city scenes that could have come from London or Paris of the early 1900's, strange mysterious figures that receded into the mist of shadow as they approached, leaving them staring at their own reflections in another dead-end corridor, leaving them to back track in an attempt to find the proper course. Finally, they made their way through the confounding hallway after bumping into the glass many times.



(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

They were disoriented and a bit annoyed as they emerged into the next section of the tent, another long hall somewhat like the first one they'd seen. Again, they were treated, or perhaps subjected, to a wide array of optical illusions and delusions. Both of them were fascinated in by the amazingly diverse ways in which the arcane mirrors were able to bend and coax light, ways they'd never before experienced. They wondered what laws of optics and physics governed the grinding of such mirrors. Perhaps it was best not to know. It was highly probable that they were formed in an unconventional manner, especially given everything else they'd seen so far this night.

Louise walked ahead a bit as David stopped to examine one of the mirror frames more closely, and when he caught up to her, she stood transfixed in front of an enormous mirror, one of the last ones before the exit. She stared into it, and a single tear traced a slow trail down her cheek. David walked to her side, and putting his hand on her shoulder, turned to look into the mirror. The mirror showed them as they would look after time had ravaged them, after they'd accumulated all the years that were theirs to collect. Ancient they were, but as he looked, he saw that Louise was still a fox. Long beyond silver, passed far into white, but still a fox. And, he told her so, right there in front of the mirror, and as he did, the image didn't seem so bad after all. Still, she wasn't sorry to leave the hall of mirrors behind. It had showed many things, many facets, and though she'd delighted in the pleasantries, she felt drained by some of the things she'd seen. She put her arm through David's as they walked, and she was glad for the closeness. The mirrors had left her feeling oddly empty. She hoped the next tent they explored would contain something a bit more lighthearted.

As they walked towards the next tent, the crowd parted in great haste to allow the passage of something that resembled a rhino, but with the addition of some sort of hard carapace on its back, and several extra eyes not found on the normal model. In addition, the lower legs of the beast were covered with thick, black hair, almost like the mane of a horse, but shorter, and perhaps a bit stiffer.

The handler was a tiny girl, or at least appeared to be a tiny girl. A closer glance revealed an androgynous creature not so easily classified. Deep violet eyes with vertical pupils like a cat did little to aid in classification. Whatever the nature of the handler, given the difference in size between handler and creature, the handling clearly wasn't taking place through brute strength, but through trust. All of the creature's eyes radiated love for the handler, utter trust, and together, trainer and beast moved calmly through the crowd, passing through a large corridor between two tents, roughly on the opposite side of the great circle of tents from where David and Louise had originally entered. As they stopped to watch the passing of the strange pair, David looked up and saw a sign hanging from a metal arm affixed to one of the supporting tent poles. An arrow pointed between the two tents with a simple, single-word inscription: Menagerie. That single word was enough to spark their curiosity. After the grim and confusing spectacle of the house of mirrors, animals might provide just the kind of diversion they were seeking, though David found himself cringing a bit inside at the thought that the animals might be mistreated as they often were in carnivals and traveling circuses. It would sour his evening to say the least, and so far, in spite of the weirdness they'd encountered, or perhaps because of it, he'd had a wonderful time. Louise was superbly stimulating company, but the carnival itself had been beyond anything he'd exected, and he found himself left with more questions than answers by the strange things they'd seen.

The trainer had been whistling a simple tune, and as they made their way towards the menagerie, Louise found that it had become stuck in her head, that she was whistling it softly herself. The scent of straw and manure reached their nostrils on the warm breeze of the valley, and as they got closer, they saw that the menagerie was almost as large as the Carnival itself, but that the vast majority of it had been blocked from their view as they'd driven in by the circle of pavilions.

Pens, cages, and freely roaming beasts filled the plain in all directions. The diversity and oddity of animals were apparent even from a distance. As they got closer, the diversity and oddity became overwhelming. They saw the androgynous handler they'd seen earlier, standing now as the peculiar rhino-thing drank from a large trough, deeply and with much noise. The handler saw them, smiled, and welcomed them to the menagerie, one of the few friendly faces they'd encountered among the performers. "There are many fearsome and wondrous animals here," said the androgyne," but none that will harm you. Walk here in safety and enjoy. These beasts are the beloved of Cernunnos, as are all the four- leggeds. And I assure you," added the trainer with a rather accusatory gaze at David, "All the animals here are well kept." With that, the ersatz rhino finished drinking, and the pair wandered off towards a long row of cages.

As they wandered aimlessly through the cacophonous chaos, one of the first things they encountered was a group of miniature giraffes. They resembled larger giraffes in all but height; the head of the largest came only as high as David's waist. They appeared very friendly, and as Louise held out her hand in wonder, one of them nibbled gently on her fingertips, exploring them with its long powerful tongue, or what would have been a long and powerful tongue had the giraffe been full sized. A good half a dozen of the diminutive creatures were being loosely herded by an immensely tall, angular woman with skin the color of copper, wearing a white muslin kaftan and a tight, ornate skullcap that must have been covering a closely shaven scalp. The woman towered over David by almost a foot, and she smiled down at him and Louise with what they could only interpret as some odd form of benevolence as she gently herded the miniscule giraffes past them. Louise turned to David, stunned. "You're tall. Very tall even. She was... taller than tall. I don't think I've ever seen a woman that tall before. Do you think maybe she was wearing stilts under her robe or something? I mean, she was well over seven feet. had to have been."

"Feeling a little jealous, Louise?" laughed David, patting Louise on the head as if she were a little child, and then removing his hand very rapidly before she did it for him--at the elbow. Still, she was smiling as she replied. "No, not at all, I'm very happy with my height. I'd never have been a gymnast if I were that tall. It all evens out in the end. Besides, I thought you said you had a thing for short women."

"I do," he said, "I most definitely do." And with this, he gazed approvingly at her tiny body, thinking of the vast catalog of lewd and lascivious acts he would like to carry out with her, pleasuring her petite frame with his own large, powerful body, letting her tame him and gentle him with her touch, like the beasts all around them had been gentled and tamed at some point. She could read what he had in mind as she looked into his eyes, and it made her blush a bit. "If you keep looking at me like that, we're gonna have to leave the carnival to go fuck, and I don't wanna miss anything. We should at least try to hold out until we've seen a few more of the tents," said Louise.

David agreed, reluctantly, but fully wanting to see more of the carnival himself, and together, the two of them continued on in a circular arc through the menagerie, taking in the insane profusion of wildlife around them. They saw big cats of all sorts, mostly caged, lions, tigers, and even twin albino ligers. Ocelots, cougars, leopards, and some cats they'd never seen before, peculiar creatures taken from the depths of jungles dark and mysterious, with glinting eyes and flashing claws.

As they moved on around the loop, they came to a section of elephants, including one that appeared to be a wooly mammoth, replete with gigantic tusks that nearly dragged the ground. As they watched, one of the handlers, a small boy with a distinctly green tint to his skin, threw a bucket of water on the creature to cool it, though with such thick fur, David wondered how much cooling the beast really felt. Still, it was probably better than nothing at all. "We can see if they'll do that for you if you get too hot, David," laughed Louise as they watched the efforts of the handler to cool the animals. "Better hope there's a bucket handy when you need one," quipped David in return.


"Oh, if not, I'm sure I can find some other way to douse you," she said with a smile that might have been considered coy if it hadn't been so downright pornographic. "Jesus, Louise," said David, "that's not helping matters at all."


(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

"Oh? And which matters are those? Cooling you off, or heating you up?" With this, she continued walking as he tried to stammer a reply, and then gave up, following along after her, shaking his head. He found that he couldn't keep his eyes off her hot little ass as she walked in front of him, and briskly moved up beside her again to avoid the temptation to run his hands and mouth all over it. He didn't think that he'd be able to resist that temptation for very long, and even in the relaxed erotic atmosphere of the carnival, it might have been a bit unseemly. Plus, once he started, he was afraid that he wouldn't be able to stop, and besides, here in the menagerie, it might get the animals riled up, and that was probably best avoided if at all possible. David could only imagine what would happen if all these animals were spooked. They'd be devoured, that much was for certain, and then, most likely, half of Reno would be devoured as well as soon as these beasts could run there in a ravenous horde of claws and teeth. All that separated Reno from certain destruction was one very grabbable ass. The fate of Reno was in David's hands, but alas, Louise's ass was not. And, painfully, he kept it that way for the time being.

On past the pachyderms they finally made their way, coming to a large cage filled with lemurs and things that looked vaguely like lemurs but weren't. Some of them were chattering, and it sounded like the same tune Louise had been whistling as they'd walked between the tents into the animal show. As he listened more closely, David realized that the creatures were chattering in both unison and harmony, a remarkable feat for something with a brain the size of an English walnut, and a beautiful musical expansion of the theme they'd originally heard whistled by the rhino handler. The two of them had a discussion about the improbability of lemur creatures singing in harmony, but the evidence was there before them, singing, scratching, and now, pissing. "At least they're not flinging poo," said Louise as the two of them walked on. "Thank god for small favors," said David in return.

They saw, as they continued, things that looked somewhat like turtles but weren't, things that looked somewhat like kangaroos, but weren't, and things that looked somewhat like emus but weren't. No turtle ever had retractable eyestalks and a prehensile tail. No kangaroo ever had a large single eye and a bifurcated tail. And no emu ever had teeth. Louise and David gave the toothed emus a wide berth as they passed them; there was a bloodthirsty look in the beady eyes of the creatures, and their handler, an obese man in greasy overalls, seemed particularly inattentive.

David joked that he wasn't sure if Louise would be able to protect him from the foul fowl. She groaned at his shitty pun as they walked onward, almost back completely around to the passage between the tents now. They had no idea how long they'd wandered through the aminals, and it felt like they'd not even seen half of what was there to be seen. They could have spent all night amongst the wild creatures and not seen all of them, but there were other spectacles to behold that night, and they didn't want to miss anything. With more than a bit of reluctance, they made their way past the remaining creatures and back into the main part of the carnival.

As they returned to the central space within the circle of pavilions, they could sense immediately that while they'd been occupied with the animals, the tenor of the festivities had changed, taken on a darker and more frenetic pace. Many of the spectators had shed their clothing entirely, bodies glistening from the heat. Large crowds of people were making their way to the main tent now, drawn irresistibly by some primal magnetism, as well as by the drumming, which had assumed a fevered pitch at this point, powerful thunderings that reached out through the night, drawing in the crowds, bringing them together.

Both David and Louise found themselves even more aroused by the wanton display of flesh and sensuality passing by them. "God, David, it's so tempting. Maybe we should just go back to the main tent. I think that's where all the fun is happening."

"I dunno, Louise, I just don't wanna miss out on what's in the other tents, but maybe you're right. It does look to be hoppin'."

"That's the understatement of the century I think. A freakshow orgy is more than just a bit hoppin' don't you think?"

They bantered back and forth a bit, and finally decided that they'd take a look at at least one more of the smaller pavilions before returning to the main one to see exactly what was taking place there. The draw to join the thronging flesh was certainly powerful, but they reasoned that an event of that size and magnitude would neither form nor disperse with great rapidity. As it had taken a good while to reach the current level of insanity, they were fairly certain it would be going on for a good while as well. If not, they'd make their own orgy for two later on after the carnival was over.

They made their way against the predominant flow of the crowd towards one of the tents they'd not yet visited. As they did so, Louise unbuttoned her shirt down almost to her navel; she wasn't wearing a bra, and as the breeze caught the edges of her shirt, her small, pert, and incredibly enticing breasts were revealed, and then again concealed again in turn as the fabric moved. "That's making me stiff, I hope you know," said David. "Oh, I know," replied Louise as she gazed intently at David, "Of course I know. Why do you think I did it?" David reached out and touched her breasts, delighting in the feel of her soft womanflesh. "You think they look good now, you should see them with nipple clamps," said Louise with a smile as her nipples stiffened even further under David's admiring touch. "Now stop that before you get me too worked up to see the rest of the carnival!"

"You're the one who took them out in the first place, so don't blame me. You know how much I like nipples," said David as he removed his hand from Louise's breasts with much exertion of his atrophied willpower. "That actually looked physically painful for you, David. You could probably leave your hand there if it made you feel better. I don't think anyone would notice at this point, let alone mind. "I dunno, Louise, you're playing with fire. I don't know if I'll be able to control myself." She grinned like a pyromaniac in a fireworks factory, and he gently slipped his right arm around her shoulders, pulling her closer to him, and deftly sliding his right hand beneath the open lapel of her shirt, letting it come to rest with great nonchalance upon her right breast, his thumb brushing her painfully erect nipple in the process.

Thus arrayed, they made their way with much tickling and giggling to the next tent, the central one of the three unexplored smaller tents to the northwest. The tent was different than the others somehow, and it wasn't until they got closer that they were able to identify the difference; the entire tent was made of closely woven metal mail, painted or anodized in some fashion to a deep burgundy hue to match the other tents.


(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

"No mere fabric could contain the artistry of the Master," boomed a voice to their left. They turned to see a large man, a Turk, perhaps, standing watch at the main flap of the tent. He was bare-chested, and wore billowing pantaloons of deep burgundy that matched the color of the pavilions. Huge muscular arms were crossed in front of his barrel chest, and in his left hand, he grasped a formidable scimitar, wide-bladed and wickedly sharp, handled in ornately worked silver. "Within," he continued," you will see the Master wield elemental fire as no man ever has. You must, at all times, remain absolutely silent, no matter how strongly you wish to give voice to the wondrous feelings engendered within you by the performance. Those who cannot abide by this edict shall be removed from the performance," he finished, glancing meaningfully at his massive blade before holding aside the mail curtain to admit them to the pavilion. David imagined briefly having to explain to Louise's next of kin that she'd been decapitated for giggling at a carnival performance. He imagined Louise's aged grandmother sitting in a rocking chair, taking the news stoically and reflecting on how carnivals nowadays were far more dangerous than when she'd been Louise's age.

As they entered the dim interior of the chainmail pavilion, it took a moment for their eyes to adjust sufficiently for them to find their way to the seating, cushions on the floor around very low tables. They sat down next to a couple, both stripped down to underthings. Just as David was folding his long legs to take a seat on the low cushion, the darkness erupted with fire. In the midst of that fire stood a man, a short, stocky man, a man you would quickly forget if you passed him on the street or got change from him at a store, a man unremarkable in all respects, all respects save the fact that his body was now wreathed with living fire that danced and flowed at his command.

He was naked save for an ornate loincloth and belt made of the same mail from which the pavilion was constructed, and as the show progressed, it became apparent that no canvas tent would have contained it, no matter how many times the fabric had been treated with fire retardant. Within moments, fire poured from his body in torrents that defied all belief. "Holy shit!" exclaimed Louise, and David half expected her head to go flying, but apparently the part about absolute silence was just hype. "You haven't seen nothin' yet, honey," replied the woman seated next to them, "He's been at this all night. We haven't even seen anything else!" She let out a sloppy exaggerated laugh that reeked of wine, resting her hand upon David's leg. As her hand moved up his leg, Louise reached across David and briskly slapped her hand away in annoyance. "I've been working on him all night. I haven't even had him yet. Wait your turn." and with that, she returned her attention immediately to the performance. The woman sulked, but thereafter, she kept her hands to herself, and David's hand remained comfortably perched atop Louise's breast, gently toying with it, circling the nipple, pinching it, running his hand along the smooth flesh of her, delighting in the feel of it beneath his fingertips, the warmth against his palm. Louise wasn't the jealous type, but she'd be damned if she was gonna have some floozie make David squirt in his jeans after she'd spent all night working him up. Still, that wasn't very likely; every time they'd fucked, it had taken him a goodly amount of time to shoot his load, almost an annoyingly long time, she thought to herself.

On the sparse stage, the act suddenly went supernova, eliciting an audibile gasp from the audience. Fire erupted from the Master's hands, and they could see why he was called the Master. Two pillars of flame rose from his palms and blossomed out against the ceiling of the tent, sending cascading plumes of flame racing down the walls and erupting into florets of fire as they struck the ground.

From the first moment, it had been apparent that this was no regular fire-breather; there was no apparent source for the fire, no fuel. He generated it with his body, or else plucked it from the very aether itself. Wherever it came from, once it was there, the master gave ample demonstration of why he had been so named, why it was that he had eared his appellation. Fire flew from his hands and assumed marvelous shapes. Dragons and warships flew out over the audience before evaporating into shimmers of heat above their heads. Vines of fire twined around his arm, blossomed, withered, and faded away, only to be replaced with more intricate and verdant growth. At times, birds of flame would materialize above his head and light upon the branches of the flaming foliage as it grew around him.

As the show progressed, four nubile women, devoid of all clothing, obviously for safety reasons, joined the Master on stage, and he made his fire to play upon their writhing naked bodies. None of them were burned, so complete was his control over the elemental flames. Together they danced around him, and he clothed them in flame, and then once more revealed their flesh to the audience, seducing the women with fire. Now, once more they danced naked, and he erected an intricate gazebo of flame around them, himself at the center. As the beautiful women danced around him, the colors of the flame changed from primarily reds and oranges to mostly blues, indigo, and purples, tinged with brilliant green at the tips of the flames where they burned brightest. Then, for a moment, the fire seemed to freeze in place, crystallize into something not quite fire, and then it was gone.

And so the show went on for quite some time, becoming quite erotic at times. At the finale of the show, the Master created simultaneously four flame lovers to seduce the four maidens. The four pairs danced around the master in a delightfully choreographed routine before the show progressed to a stage that left nothing to the imagination. The four maidens were fucked there upon the stage by the four flaming lovers, and from the expressions on their faces, the experience was anything but unpleasant. During this part of the show, Louise noticed that David's hand became far more active upon her breast, breasts in fact, as his attention had now extended to both of them, much to her pleasure. His hands conveyed his reverence for her flesh in his touch, and it sent waves of pleasure through her body.

On stage, as the four women climaxed simultaneously, a rare feat of timing, the four flame lovers rose above them, and for a moment, Louise saw clearly the stag horns upon their heads before they burst into cascading showers of multicolored sparks as they struck the roof of the tent, fading out completely before reaching the audience. With this, the master and the four dancers bowed deeply to the audience, the lack of skirts precluding the need to curtsy. The show, though Louise, had left little modesty remaining to preserve. Still, she was incredibly worked up, and David's hand upon her breasts had made her incredibly wet once more. The cushion upon which she was sitting was soaked, and she casually moved David's hand down to feel it. His eyes widened, but he said nothing. Still, she knew how worked up her wetness got him, how turned on he got when she squirted, so she knew he must be literally squirming in his seat with arousal right now. Indeed, she saw that David had been a good little boyscout and had pitched quite the tent in his jeans. She looked up and saw that the woman with whom they were seated had noticed as well, and she raised her lip in a feral snarl. The woman paled a bit and looked away.

As they exited the tent, Louise told David that she thought it just might be time to go to the big tent to see the real show.

(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

If Captain Morrison's Carnival and Emporium of the Macabre had a heart, surely that heart was now close to bursting. And indeed, the carnival had taken on a rather organismal aspect, as if it had become a living creature of sorts, an organism in which they as spectators had taken a part in some bizarre endosymbiotic relationship. As the carnival energized them, so, in some sense, did they energize the carnival. It seemed to be working overall to their advantage though, as both of them felt fabulous. Though the hour was late, neither of them was the least bit fatigued, far from it in fact. They were both abuzz with energy, ready to play and explore all night if the opportunity presented itself, and from the looks of things, it surely would.

The surge of the crowd towards the main pavilion had grown even stronger than it had been when they'd entered the metal tent of the Master. Some people were even pushing and shoving to get through the crowd, though it hardly seemed necessary. The movement of the crowd seemed to carry everyone in it inexorably towards the main tent, which now appeared brightly lit, several more flaps having been opened, and the fire at the center having grown to immense proportions. Other instruments had joined the drums now, low drowning stringed instruments from the Middle East, guitars, and especially pipes, the pipes of Pan. The droning tune reminded David of something he'd once heard on a recording of the Master Musicians of Jajouka; it was the music they played for Bou Jeloud, the Father of Skins. Bou Jeloud, as David well knew, was simply another manifestation of Pan, the same who was celebrated in the Roman festival of Lupercalia. The keening pipes droned on hypnotically, punctuated with seemingly random shrill notes that set Louise's teeth on edge. There was something about it that agitated her. The drumming, everything was just a little bit syncopated, came at just the wrong time. It was like a tickle inside her brain, or an itch she couldn't scratch. She found that she couldn't stand still. "I don't like that music," she said to David. "It makes me feel uncomfortable."

"It's meant to," replied David, "This is music to get people worked up into a frenzy. In Morocco, when they celebrate, a young man of the village is chosen to represent Bou Jeloud. He runs through the crowd on the night of the celebration, whipping the women with olive branches; it's supposed to do wonders for fertility,"he laughed, "Pan's always been a god of the generative powers, and of course, sex." With this last, he fixed her with a wolfish gaze. "I...I can see why Pan would choose you, why he'd come through you, or into you, or whatever. There's just something about you, David, I mean, I can just, you're just radiating it right now. I can almost see those stag horns on you myself." She laughed nervously with this last, and together, the two of them stood for a moment, a tiny island of stillness in the oceanic swirl of the crowd.

"Just, uh, promise me you'll stay near me tonight, Louise"

"Why, are you worried I'll get spanked with an olive branch?" she teased.

"No, just, well, if Pan does show up here tonight, I have a feeling it won't be some shepherd boy dressed in animal skins. Just remember, there's another side to Pan. Remember where we got the word panic. Things could get weird and ugly here really quickly. I just wanna be able to leave in a hurry if we have to. Pan delights in lust, but he also takes great pleasure in blind, driving fear. As much as he'd like to see everyone here coupling beneath the stars, he'd like to see us all driven like leaves on a wind of terror. Capricious, you might say."

"Uh, David, that's sorta what I meant when I asked if Cernunnos was bad. We're here at some weird pagan lust festival, and now you tell me he's the god of terror?"

"Er, well, yeah, he's both. It's complicated. I don't think we have anything to worry about, just, stay sorta close, and if we do get separated somehow, meet me at the car. You remember where we parked?"

"Yeah, I think so," replied Louise, "or if not, I think I can find it pretty quickly. Just don't leave without me."

"Oh, I'd never do that, Louise, honest. I..."

She cut him off, putting her finger to his lips to silence him. "David, stop. I know you wouldn't. You take things way too literally sometimes. Now, let's you and me see what's going on under the big top." With that, she removed her shirt entirely, letting it slip to the ground, kicking off her shoes as she did so. "Much better. I'm undecided on the skirt; we'll see how it goes."

"Don't you think you might need your shirt later?"

"Maybe, but fuck it. I never liked that shirt anyway, and I don't want to carry it around. I wanna be free, unencumbered. I can't remember what I did with my sweater either. I think maybe I left it in tent where we saw Mr. Firepants."

"Well," said David, "I think I've got an extra dress shirt in the car you can wear. You'll swim in it, but at least it's clean. Or, maybe I'll parade you back to Reno just as you are now, a wild Amazonian woman. All you need is a bow and some arrows, or perhaps a spear." With this she took the stance of a haughty warrior princess, a pose that made David burn with the desire to wage war with her for the right of primal conquest. He wanted to mount her by right of superior strength and might, or die trying. No words were spoken between the two of them, but both of them knew. Both of them were eager for combat.

"Come, warrior woman," said David as he grabbed her by the hand and started moving towards the big tent once more. She noticed as they wove slowly through the crowd that David was actually moving with the music with a strange and clumsy- seeming grace. She watched him, felt his shoulders and hips with her hands as they moved through the crowd, and soon enough, she felt the music herself, felt the syncopation guide her, move her, as if she were walking along the shifting sands of the crest of a dune somewhere beneath a Moroccan moon. She felt herself drawn in by the music, felt it working upon her, loosening her, freeing her, lifting her out of herself. So powerful was the feeling that for a moment, she wondered if somehow someone had slipped her something psychoactive, maybe something in the smoke from the fire. She looked up at David and noticed that he was almost in a trance, eyes half closed as he swayed to the rhythm of the music, the two of them snaking sinuously through the crowd.

Closer and closer they came to the main pavilion, and again, as it had before, the heat became more intense as they neared it. David's shirt was unbuttoned now, hanging loose, sleeves rolled above his elbows. He'd removed his shoes as well, noticed Louise. And socks? How had she missed all this? She wasn't even sure when he'd done it. It seemed almost instinctive to have one's feet bare when approaching something like this, to remain grounded to the Earth, in firm contact with the soil. As she looked around them, a cursory glance revealed that most if not all of the spectators had doffed their footwear at some point during the evening. How strange, this crowd dynamic, the things that transpired unspoken. David found himself wondering what stories would be told tomorrow about all the lost shoes, and he wondered who would find them all. Louise, at that moment, was far more focused on how good the high desert sand felt beneath her bare feet as she wiggled her toes through it. Soon, David's thoughts were more in line with her own as together they inched ever closer to the great throbbing hub of this spectacle.

More than once now, they'd had to step around people fucking on the ground, and as they neared the main pavilion, the frequency of such encounters increased. The couples so engaged seemed completely oblivious to their surroundings, so David and Louise courteously left them to their business whenever they encountered them, and continued on their way towards the center. David was worried that they were going to accidentally step on someone at some point, but luckily, they were able to avoid doing so.

The closer they got, the harder it was to resist a total capitilation to their lust. They burned for each other, ached to fuck like beasts of the field, yet still they held out against it for the most part, though now with Louise's entire upper body exposed, David's huge hands had been far more liberal in their exploration of her flesh. Often they rested on her shoulders, or slid down an arm, and just as often they rested on her breasts, fondled them, toyed with the erectile jewels of her nipplehood.

(cont)

 

[Hand_Solo]

When it came, it came suddenly and without warning. One moment they were standing shoulder to shoulder in a dense, very horny crowd, and the next they had been knocked to the ground by a blinding flash of indigo light and a noise like an underwater thunderclap. Louise fell directly on top of David, knocking the wind out of him as he broke her fall. All around them, bodies were sprawled. The main pavilion had disintegrated, but at the center, the ring of stones still stood, and the fire still burned, though now it burned with an otherworldly purple flame. From the lambent purple flames rose a thing, not goat, not man, not anything they'd ever seen. Higher and higher the form rose, shadow but not shadow, fierce eyes beneath the horns of a stag. Soon it towered over the crowd, rumbling with an almost inaudibly low roar,waves of dark fear radiating out from it in near-palpable tendrils of dread. David grabbed Louise and used his bulk and strength to carve through the crowd like a rabid bison, Louise right behind him. All around them people were fleeing in absolute terror. The current had been reversed; the wave had crested, and now it was flowing in the opposite direction. As Yeats suggests, the center cannot hold. People streamed away from the remains of the main pavilion in absolute Panic.

Many people in the crowd were openly weeping now, screaming in terror as they fled the carnival. David and Louise fled with virtually everyone else to the parking area, which rapidly became a bedlam of confusion. Luckily, they were some of the first people to reach the cars, so they made it out of the lot and onto the road before the inevitable traffic jam hit. David was stark white behind the wheel, hands death gripped, and Louise sat in the passenger seat with her her knees pulled up to her chest, sobbing quietly. They sped along the tiny access road, heading back towards the road to Reno, only a few cars ahead of them, headlights cutting through the absolute dark of the high desert pre-dawn, starkly illuminating flat plains and sparse sagebrush. Once, an owl, or at least something resembling an owl, flew right in front of them, but they narrowly avoided hitting it, David swerving ever so slightly.

The rest of the Drive back to Reno was relatively uneventful. By the time they'd reached the city, the sun was just coming up, and Louise had slipped into one of David's shirts, which looked incredibly sexy on her little pixie body. David found it very arousing, and realized that in spite of all their arousal, they'd never actually gotten around to doing anything about it at the carnival. In spite of this realization, he felt too exhausted to do anything about it, and one look at Louise told him without asking that she felt the same. They pulled into a restaurant to grab breakfast, and barefooted, they made their way past the "No shirt, no shoes, no service" sign with utter contempt, heading to the bathrooms first to wash up a bit. Both of them were filthy, and they couldn't really even fake cleanliness, but they did their best, and the waitress didn't say anything about their lack of shoes; they looked like they could use a good meal. She thought to herself that they might even be homeless.

After breakfast, they decided to drive straight home. Both of them were exhausted, and David stopped at a cafe on the way out of town and got a huge cup of coffee with a few shots of espresso to avoid falling asleep on the way home. Neither of them spoke much on the trip back; there really wasn't anything to say. They were both having difficulty digesting the things they'd seen and experienced. In the months to come, Captain Morrison and his Carnival would often be the topic of discussion between the two, but right now, with everything fresh, both of them were craving silence, time to think, time to reflect.

(fin)

 

[Hand_Solo]

Ok, so it looks like lots of people are at least looking at this. If you get this far and your brain is still working, can you at least post something like, "Me read, ug."

 

[Hairy]

Great story line and wonderful sexual tension.. A bit over the top as far as reality, but well written (extremely) and intense. Would love to see more or be able to read anything else you have written. Keep up the good work. You have a true gift with words! Hairy