The capital city of the Providence of Rosa, Helena, is lucky for the fact it was built to have the best of two views. To the west it faced out towards the dark and rolling waves of the grand Pacific Ocean that divided its vast lands from the mighty Empire of Argo. Half the city and the mighty seat of the kingdom gazed upon these waters that rumor had were filled to the brim with many a dangerous and mysterious creature that sailors would often sing about over ale in the pubs and whore houses.
As for the otherside, the eastside of the stone city and mighty seat, gazed into the thickest and most dense of forests comprised of evergreens and pines that painted the gagid mountains where tales of hiding fae and dragons often surfaced by the way of the traveling Nomads who called the troubling woodland simply the woods. No one ever got confused when a man brought up the Woods, for everyone knew which woods that man may have been talking of for nowhere had trees that swore so loudly nor ravens that could eat a whole horse or black Corpse Roses that poisoned the nose that bent for sweet fragrance.
When the letter arrived from Rodger, appearing to Queen Maria Perez, she was dressed in the finest of brown leather garments and in the midst of a hunt. It had been quite a trying couple of months between political policies and the problem of her missing son, Prince Fernando. The majority of her stress fell on the predicament of her son’s disappearance, leaving the daughter of Emperor Akio at the altar on their wedding day.
The event often flashed before the Queen’s eyes of the girl dressed in a fine golden silk gown only to find that Fernando had never arrived to stand at the front of the alse. The girl’s face had contorted into a mixture of… why there wasn’t a way to describe it. And it was that face that the Queen’s mind often returned to.
Peace of mind was her goal on this hunting trip and a small escort of five guards accompanied her. They were dressed in black metalic kelts, torso breastplates that recreated the muscular male/female anatomy with a tattooed crescent moon over the right peck, and helmets outfitted with a mohawk of black and white feathers that ran from the forehead to the base of their head where the skull met the back of their necks. For weapons each had either a macuahuitl, axes, spears, or throwing knives.
Her husband had wanted thirty guards but Maria had refused such a large number. If she had agreed to such an escort, they would have been too loud and would have scared off any chance of returning with a fine bounty for the cooks to prepare for their dinner tonight.
Anyhow, her skills of defense were well known across the realms and her white jaguar Llorena stood by her side. The mighty guardian was always by her side. Llorena’s sister, Serena, held the same mindset and was still in the castle with Maria’s husband. No doubt Selena was sound asleep as the King fucked some nameless whore from Andre’s brothel or played chess with one of his closest friends.
Mara squatted behind a bush, a misty rain falling from above as she held her sights on a crimson pelted buck, its black antlers reaching into the air at fine points. Slowly she pulled an arrow from her quiver, notched it to her bow string, and pulled it back without a ripple of sound breaking the silence of the Woods. For a second she held her breath till the creature met her gaze and she smiled, releasing the arrow.
The arrow cut through the air at a high speed, whistling slightly, and sunk into the creature’s beating heart. A cry ripped through the air from the creature as it stood up on its hindlegs and kicked out its forelegs into the air, as though to the Goddess in a plea for more time till it crumpled to the Woods’ ground. It’s forelegs hitting the soggy ground first, then the rest of its body.
The guards hands clapped in response as the Queen stared at the now lifeless creature.
“Fine bounty, Queen Maria,” Remora, one of the Queen’s constant gaurds, said. “I dare say it may be a new record.”
Briskly the party of seven walked towards the fallen creature. Up close it was quite large, from head to toe it was of the same height as Llorena but the black antlers added a good five and a half feet in stature to it. The arrow protruded out it’s chest, any sight of blood was masked by the crimson of its pelt. Its beady lifeless eyes seemed to bore past the Queen and her guards and into the distant woods, as though in search of its herd it had travelled too far from. Much like Emperor Akio’s daughter, Ichika, all those days ago gazed at an empty spot.
Llorena sniffed at the creatures wound and licked it with a quick flick of the tongue before Queen Maria shooed her away.
“Not for you,” she clucked at Llorena. “You know better then that, Llorena.”
Bending down, the Queen pulled the arrow loose from it’s mark and returned it to her quiver made of ivory.
“Shall it be hollowed out, your highness?” Josephina asked, at least that’s what the Queen believed was her name.
“Remove its shit bag,” Maria said, grimacing at the creature. “But make sure to wrap the stomach, liver, heart, lungs, kidneys and a good portion of the intestines. Leave the eyes and tongue in it’s head, those can be removed later by the cooks’ staff.”
“And the deer’s antlers?” Another guard asked.
“Saw them off at the base of the head,” she responded, bored of the talking. “Bring them with us. I’m sure my husband, the King, will enjoy them.”
“You heard her highness,” Remora said. “Crack to it.”
Just as the men began to cut into the large deer the wind hitched and twitched through the pine needles and the evergreen leaves, whipping the blades of grass here and there, followed shortly by a large pop at Maria’s feet that made every one, including Llorena, jump.
“Its okay,” Maria said, holding her hand up to her guards. “Continue your work.”
Bending down, Maria picked up a corked glass bottle with a rolled up parchment. She had received many teleporting message but in all her years she had never grown used to the rudeness of the messages’ arrival. Her fingers moved to the cork naturally and positioned themselves to open it, but her heart thumped and her mind’s eye wandered to the possibility that this was from Rodger. Turning the bottle upset down she was met with an ornate R that always was featured on the bottom of Rodger’s bottles and frantically she placed it in a pouch to her side where she often kept coins, balls of hard sweets wrapped in paper, or snacks for Llorena.
As she watched the men continue their work and as they walked back to the castle, her thoughts wandered to the message and what had been found of her son.
Was he died? Did the savages of Earth kill him? Or did he find her son? Were they already on their way back with him?
No.
If they had found her son they wouldn’t have messaged ahead.
To not open the message was killing her curiosity, but she couldn’t risk it getting out. Guards could be gossip queens while on their night watch or in their sleeping quarters that they shared with the rest of the castle staff under the city streets. And her husband, the King, couldn’t be informed about it right away. She had to know the gravity of it in order to prepare his light heart on the news of what sort of disgrace their son might just have brought down on them.
So, Maria sat through the dinner the cooks had prepared with her kill while Alejandro, her love, complimented the food deeply and smacked his fat lips. Her mind occupied by the letter and its mysterious contents, no doubt he noticed she was distracted but he knew better then to ask or press for sex later that night.
The Queen’s mind was so occupied, that why, she denied herself the lovely intricate frosted cakes that Rodger’s father Gabriel, the Royal Baker, had made for after dinner. Cakes that so many across the land had heard of or tasted during the rare festival invite from the Perez family.
That night, each one had a different color. There was a red cake, a blue cake, a pink cake, an orange cake, a lavender cake, a green cake, a lime green cake, and so on. The flavors of course were random. You could get a turkey flavored cake or something along the lines of cotton candy. The Queen swore she once had a sugary green bean cake and it had been quite good.
Tonight though, her son had ruined cake once again for her and as her King and husband ate, all she could do was talk lightly to make polite conversation till night fell and she could be alone to open the message in a bottle.
Source: reddit.com/r/eroticliterature/comments/rt5my0/forbidden_desires_part_17