The mortar and pestle have a rhythm to it that lets you stop thinking for a while, once you find it. Just grind, rotate, grind.
I’ve worked at the apothecary for six years now. Master Aldric gave me a sweeper job when I was just starting to figure out my life. I graduated to labeling about a year in, then measuring, then mixing. Now I handle most of the tonic orders myself, and I’m learning some of the more complicated compounding requests. The work isn’t glamorous, but I’m good at it, and there’s a quiet satisfaction in being good at something, right?
I used to think I was good at relationships too.
Brennan was a carpenter, good with his hands, and he found steady work in that trade. He had an easy laugh and he was good in bed. We made sense on paper. It was a nice, comfortable three years with him. I cooked, he fixed things around my apartment without being asked. We learned his favorite teas together, and I kept them stocked for him. He got to know my regular customers and the difficult ones all by name just from me talking about them. It felt like we were building something.
It seemed only right that we put a name on what we were building. After the second year, I found myself longing for something more. A house, kids, a family, you know? I hinted at rings, proposals, engagements, the works. I mentioned my friends who were getting married, and how nice their weddings were. Nothing. So, I took things into my own hands. Bought a ring, a small silver band with a green stone, the color of new leaves. I rehearsed what I wanted to say. Then when he came over one night, I made his favorite meal, and said my piece on my knee at his chair, offering him the ring.
He stared at it for a long moment. Then he told me I was too pushy. Too attached to my plans, to my own timeline, to the shop of all things! He said ‘a man likes to feel like he’s the one steering.’ I guffawed and asked him when he was going to start steering us. He just shook his head, put his coat on, and left. His food was still untouched on the table, and I was left there on my knee in my own kitchen like an idiot.
The grind, rotate, grind routine had kept me sane the past three months. I kept the ring, the stone matched my eyes and it fit my right ring finger. It sounds counterintuitive for someone who’s trying not to think about it, but it honestly made me happy.
The sunlight on the water today was coming through the canopy at my favorite angle, catching the surface of the spring in long, bright ribbons that shifted whenever a breeze moved the branches above.
I found this place about two months ago, entirely by accident. I was taking a walk. A long walk out of town. It was a bad mental day. I’d gone further off the marked road than I meant to, and I ended up following the sound of water without really deciding to. It opened up through a gap in the treeline, a small, clear pool fed by a thin cascade from the face of a mossy rock shelf. I’ll admit, I sat on the bank that first day and cried, sobbed rather. I hadn’t let myself do that until then, but I felt better on the way back home. I’ve been back at least once a week ever since.
I made myself a nice little ritual once I knew the pool was just deep enough to wade in. I left my clothes folded on a flat rock by the bank and stepped in naked, just skin and cool water and nobody watching. There was something therapeutic about it, shedding the apothecary’s assistant title for a bit, just floating alone with my thoughts, my ring, and nothing else. Becoming one with the water, with no opinions on my life or my timeline.
Today I started by washing off the stains from my hands. It was dried valerian root today, terribly pungent stuff. Then I floated on my back, eyes half-closed, the shimmers of light dancing on my skin. The water was the perfect temperature as always, just warm enough to relax in without overheating. I closed my eyes, my ears below the waterline, taking the deep breaths I’d gotten so good at.
Then I heard a ‘plunk’ in the water next to me.
I opened my eyes, turning my head, and I saw a single, slender eyestalk poking out from the water like a periscope. Smooth, ridged, and tipped with a small glistening eye with a slit pupil, much like a cat’s eye. It swayed gently, keeping its focus on me. I waited for the panic to start, but it was absent. So, I stared right back at it.
The eyestalk tilted, in a motion that I read as curiosity. Another small tendril rose beside it, thinner, delicate. Then a third. They moved gracefully above the water, small droplets sliding off them. I kept floating, my eyes locked on its one eye, as it began to drift closer. One of the delicate tendrils extended towards my ankle. It was slow, and I could have pulled it back and run out of the pool, but its gentle motions felt harmless. I kept my ankle in place just beneath the surface, and I felt it brush the top of my foot, then curl around my ankle like a question. Its touch was smooth, almost velvety.
“Well,” I said, “you’re definitely not a fish.” I stayed afloat, allowing my legs to dangle out for the creature. Another tendril rose from below the waterline and slid along my calf, then up my thigh. This one was thicker and stronger, I could clearly feel the smooth texture of its skin on mine. Another thin tendril wrapped around my other ankle, and the eyestalk floated closer to me as it pulled itself to me. Each touch was careful, delicate, like it was exploring and learning the shape of my body.
Both of my legs were comfortably held in its coiling limbs by now, still gentle, still curious. I turned my head up to see myself, my legs just under the water, the stripes of tentacle along them, the eyestalk now close to my face. I reached a hand out, mimicking its gentle approach, fingers delicately moving to touch the base of the stalk. The eye momentarily pulsed, the iris expanding for a heartbeat, but it allowed me to feel it just as it was feeling me.
I felt another thick tentacle graze my side, pressing and sliding over my ribs. Then the underside split open against me, flattening out across my side. It was warm and textured, with hundreds of tiny nub-like suckers latching on and pulsing in waves, gripping and releasing my skin in gentle rhythm. It held me steady in the water. A second one dragged up my stomach, rising up my chest and between my tits. It paused there before it spread wide and flattened itself out as well, wrapping around to cup my left breast. Those same warm tiny suckers gripped me, pulsing, making my nipple harden. The flattened tentacle- or was it an arm now? tightened its grip, squeezing my tit and making my breath hitch.
The eyestalk tilted slightly. I looked back at it and bit my lip slightly. The arm on my tit paused, then it squeezed again. Firmer this time. I gasped as it rolled my tit in a slow, thoughtful circle, making my nipple press even harder against its nubs. I didn’t notice that another tentacle arm had risen and flattened out against my other tit until I felt it squeeze that one too, making me arch my back and say “ooh-” in surprise. I’d long since stopped floating on my own. I probably should have swum for the bank. Instead I let it hold me, and found, somewhat incredibly, that I felt safe.
More of the creature’s body drifted closer through the water, drawn in by the arms already gripping my sides and tits. The eyestalk floated right in front of my face as the broad central mass pressed against my chest and stomach. Its arms or tendrils curled outwards like a starfish, except far more flexible – almost like an octopus in the way they coiled and explored. As it settled over me, more of those arms wrapped down my sides to my hips. I felt that its entire underside was covered in thousands of those tiny suckers that fluttered over my skin. It covered me like a second skin, warm and rippling. “Mmh, that’s so nice…” I cooed. My skin was tingling as it gripped and kissed every millimeter of me.
A thin tendril found my right wrist, coiling it loosely and tracing up toward my hand. It moved across my knuckles, played with my fingers, inspecting them one by one, all while the rest of its body was still caressing the rest of mine. Then it found my ring. It explored the thin band carefully, poking the green stone in the middle, sliding its tendril over the metal and moving it along my finger. I flexed that finger, curling it inwards to keep the ring on me, and it didn’t try to move it again, just resuming its curious exploration while listening to my body.
This whole encounter had been that way, exploratory, each touch a question first, and my moans as it caressed my sides, my hips, my legs, and my tits affirmed that I very much liked what it was doing. My body was being listened to in ways I hadn’t known I wanted until now. Brennan had never quite managed that.
I kept my left hand on the creature’s body just under its eyestalk as I felt it squeeze and caress me. My nipples were aching in such a good way. I hadn’t even noticed that my legs were spread wide until I felt a row of suckers settle right at my clit. “Ah-” I gasped as my hips bucked, my body clenching in pleasure I didn’t even know I was looking for. “Fuck…” I whispered. “Fuck-!” I then gasped as I felt a thick, round appendage press and slide against my pussy, just pressing it and rolling over my lips. “Mmh…” I whined as I rolled my hips back into it.
The creature drew me a little closer as its arms reached lower and held me by my lower back, making me arch into its touches while it kept rubbing my pussy, suckling on my clit, squeezing my tits, all while that eye kept looking at me so… longingly. I smiled mid-moan and reached for its body over my chest, caressing it and cooing. “You really know how to treat a girl, ah… not in any hurry at all…” I rolled my hips into its lower tentacle, rubbing myself in the opposite direction of its rubbing, trying to feel more of its texture. Something caught on my slit as I ground on it upwards, a ridge dragging across my lips… like a cock head…
“Mmh… that’s what you want…?” I asked it, looking into its eye. Its grip tightened slightly on my legs, holding me open. Its body parted from my clit, only for its cock head to rub on it directly, pressing, swirling, making my body shudder in pleasure. Oh, it liked that. It responded to my tremor by holding my body just a little tighter, squeezing me. It… he… I was assuming it was a he by now. “Yes… fuck…” I bit my lip as he continued rubbing his cock tentacle on my clit, my hands clenching on his body. His cock moved lower, prodding at my aching pussy, still teasing me.
“Please…” I begged quietly, rocking my hips into his cock. Its skin was just as soft as the rest of him, but the hard firmness of it told me he was just as needy as I was. I was getting desperate to feel it inside me. “You feel so good… please… f-” my breath hitched as I felt that cock tentacle angle itself, pressing firmly to my pussy, finally parting my lips and sliding inside me, inch by careful, slow inch. “Ahhh…” I sighed, moaned at the feeling. He was warm inside me, throbbing, velvety against my walls, filling me up so comfortably, sliding in deeper, deeper, until his cock pressed delicately at my cervix. I gasped as he bottomed out. “Mmmh… there we go…”
His cock pulsed, and I felt it grow even thicker inside me, stretching my pussy nicely. Then he started to move, gently, his cockhead dragging along my folds and making my hips buck as he withdrew, followed by pushing back inside me and stretching me all over again. “Ah… deep…” I moaned to his eyestalk, tilting closer, watching every expression on my face, listening to every whimper from my lips. “Gods…” He pulled out, then pushed back in, my pussy fluttering around his cock as it seemed to wriggle inside me. “So good…” Brennan had never taken this much care of me, and I didn’t realize how badly I needed it until now.
The underside of his body pressed against my clit again, his suckers pulling and caressing my sensitive nub and making me bite my lip to try and contain my moans, just soft “mmh, mmh,” sounds slipping out. My fingers dug into his soft yielding flesh as his suckers seemed to rub my clit faster this time, like he knew exactly what I needed. “Haaah..!” I cried, my mouth openly moaning in the pool, his thick cock tentacle pressing and pulling faster now. “Fuck… I’m… ahh…!” I arched my back, gasping and moaning as I came around him, my body letting go completely into his grasp, onto his cock, shuddering and clenching around him in the best orgasm I’d had in years.
I opened my eyes, still gasping, still feeling his cock churning into my pussy. I rubbed his body again, the green shimmer of my ring catching in the setting sunlight as I stared back into his eye. It was so tender, so thoughtful, so… knowing. I felt like he understood me, without having to say a word to him. He clenched my body again, and I arched my back and clenched my pussy around him in response. “Mmh…” I let my body go completely in his grasp, trusting him, wanting more of him. “Deeper…” I whimpered, rolling my hips on his tentacle cock a little faster to urge him. “I want it… I want you…”
His body seemed to heat up slightly, his suckers giving my nipples a particularly enthusiastic squeeze. “Ah,” I gasped, feeling his cock drive in me harder now, a little faster, pushing in even deeper than before. I’d never been particularly loud in bed, but I heard myself crying “fuck, yes, just like that,” to my new lover in ways I never knew I was capable of. “Yes, yes, ah..!” Our bodies rocked back in forth in the water as he fucked me in earnest, ripples flowing up over the bank, his body splashing slightly as he rolled his body into me harder. “Gods, you’re so… fuck-!” I writhed in his grasp and he held me tightly as I came again, my head craning back to let out a screaming moan into the forest.
He fucked me through my orgasm, his cock just plunging in and out of my aching pussy, kissing my cervix with every stroke, making me cry “ah, ah,” over and over. If he had a mouth I’d be kissing him so hard right now, but he was the one kissing me all over. My nipples pressed into his suckers, my clit was on fire, my eyes were glazed over but still staring so lovingly into his eye, and I could almost sense that he was staring back just as lovingly. “I… haaah… I want…” I saw the shimmer of my ring on my hand where it pressed against his body, still rocking with every thrust. I stroked his body, my hands moved up to his eyestalk, and I knew. I clenched around him, still whimpering with every thrust, and slipped the ring from my finger. My hand moved without thinking, sliding it up his eyestalk. He stilled for just a heartbeat, his eye tracking the motion, and then his body surged forward as the ring settled around his eyetalk at the base, a perfect fit, and he drove into me so deep I screamed again.
He kept his cock buried deep this time, thick and pulsing inside me, and I whined and rocked my hips, trying to get more of him even though there was nowhere left to go. The tentacle curled inside me, dragging its ridges against the front wall of my pussy, and his eye craned forward, closer than it had ever been, watching me. Then I felt it… his cock swelled at my entrance, stretching me wider, and something smooth and firm began traveling up the shaft. I gasped as it moved deeper, my pussy stretching around it, wider and wider as it climbed. When it reached my cervix I felt the pressure, insistent and warm, and then it popped through so easily I cried out. “Ohh, fuck-!” My legs shook. My whole body clenched around him as the egg settled into my womb, hot and full and perfect, and I came so hard I couldn’t breathe. He held me safe, held me together, as my body accepted what he gave me.
Then my pussy stretched again. Another egg, thicker this time, or maybe I was just more sensitive. I felt every inch of it traveling up his cock, felt my body open for it, felt it press into my womb beside the first. “Gods, ahh, holy- mmph!” I moaned. A third egg followed that one and I whited out, my body clenching in one long continuous orgasm, helpless and grateful and so fucking full.
He stayed inside me for a while, holding me snug in the water while I floated, half conscious, my body loose. His body felt so firm around me, still so warm and snug, and I opened my eyes to find his eye still watching me. I’d never felt this calm. I smiled, looking at the ring snug around the base of his eyestalk. It suited him. My womb felt full, stretched, the eggs settled deep and warm, and his cock was still there, thick and snug against my cervix, like he didn’t want to leave yet. I stretched, squirmed a little, and he slid out of me slowly, his body releasing me into the cool water. I pulled myself up and onto the bank, sitting back in the fading sunlight. He floated up next to my leg, one of his small tendrils rubbing my calf.
I sat there for a while as the sun dipped in the sky, my feet still in the water. He didn’t leave my side. He just stayed close, tendrils caressing my legs and my feet, his eyestalk occasionally tilting towards me with more adoration now than curiosity. I rubbed my belly, now slightly swollen.
I thought about my apartment back in town. The apothecary, and the neat rows of labeled tonics. A life that I’d started building for myself, carefully. Then I looked at the treeline, the fading light coming through the branches, across the shimmering water. This clearing wasn’t so far from town. A person could make something here, if she wanted. A small cabin, somewhere to sleep maybe.
It wasn’t a plan, yet. Just a thought. But I’ve had a lot of thoughts, and a lot of those thoughts became plans, and some of those plans became real. I wanted to make this one real. He nudged at my ankle, and I leaned down to stroke his tendril. “I’ll be back,” I told him. “Soon.”
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