The woman was waiting. Without speaking, she held out her hand to Mika.
Mika took the small, soft hand and drank in the sight of her as happily as a drowning man views the sight of land.
She was tall, rising nearly to his chin, her hair a mass of tumbled curls the color of ebony and shining with blue highlights. Her eyes were dark brown flecked with gold and her wide, generous mouth a delicate shade of rose. A sultry smile lifted the corners of her mouth and there was little or no need for conversation, so implicit was their unspoken understanding.
Her name was Starr, and she wore a tunic of some dark blue material, shot through with a sparkling, silver weft. Although it covered her modestly from throat to knee, it was impossible to disguise her more than ample physical endowments. She was shod with tall, roanskin boots trimmed with long fringe dyed blue to match the dress. A silvery blue shawl completed the outfit.
Mika cleared his throat several times, feeling himself fill with lust just looking at her, wanting more than anything in the world to wrap his arms around her and hold her tight, to lose himself in her and never return.
But of course that was impossible, for he could feel the eyes on him, watching from all directions. As always, there was the game to be played and others' needs to be satisfied before his own.
Behaving most circumspecdy, they walked hand in hand through the village, trailing the roan behind, talking politely of things that did not matter and did not interest them until none but children watched them; then they silently stole into the forest that surrounded them on all sides.
They tied the horse to a tree and left it to graze. Tam and the princess were left to their own devices as Starr led Mika deep into the heart of the forest to a small, mossy clearing obscured from sight by tall ferns and dense bushes.
Overcome by his feelings, an equal mixture of joy and lust, Mika completely forgot his fear of the curse, or rather, the condition of his body assured him that if he were going to be stricken, it had not happened fully, yet.
He detached the beautiful, blue cloak from the shoulders of his tunic and laid it down on the thick carpet of moss. His tunic quickly followed, and then his soft boots, leaving only the magic gem on its thin, gold chain and his cumbersome metal gaundet. Thankfully, she took no notice of his deformity.
Starr gazed at him openly. Her eyes widened with appreciation, and her breathing became more rapid. She reached for him, her desire as open as his own.
He put out his hand and stayed her gendy, smoothing her silky hair with his gloveless hand. She obeyed him, standing proud and still, allowing him to slowly undress her with fingers that shook with longing.
The dress dropped from her shoulders, and Mika gasped with pleasure at the sight of her beautiful, proud body. She held her arms gracefully at her sides, allowing him to caress her with his eyes, even though she shivered as the cold air stroked her naked body.
Mika smiled down at her, stepped forward, fitting his body against hers, and wrapped him arms around her. He felt her warm breath on his shoulder as the soft points of her breasts pressed against his chest.
His mind was enflamed, and his knees buckled as he sagged down onto the cloak, bringing her with him. The dread curse was forgotten, mind and body enflamed with the need for gratification.
Then his body began to move on its own, ignoring his frenzied mind, following age-old commands that needed no thought or direction. His soul sang with joy, and he was but a heartbeat away from the final moment of ecstasy when something… some great, heavy, oppressive, black force intruded, thrusting its way into his concentration and shattering it completely, like plunging a red hot sword into freezing water.
He felt the prickle of unfriendly eyes on his back. The short hairs on the nape of his neck were electric with danger.
Still locked in position, Mika turned his head and looked over his shoulder, wondering what enemy he would see, and there… there looking back at him, was the princess!
Glaring was a better work. Hatred blazed out of her blue and green eyes, and Mika felt his lust for Starr dwindle away as though it had never existed.
Starr moaned as she ground her hips up to meet Mika's and circled his neck with her arm, trying to pull his head down to hers.
"Mmmmmm," he muttered, kissing her perfunctorily, but quickly twisting his head around to glare back at the wolf who was still staring at him.
"Oh," cried Starr as she raked his back with her nails.
"Owww!" yelped Mika.
"Ummmm," murmured Starr.
Mika cast one last furious glance at the princess, then turned back to Starr, hoping to recapture the wonderous feeling he had lost.
Starr moaned and wriggled in response to Mika's kisses and caresses, but try as he did, he could not free himself of the princess's ominous scrutiny. No matter which way he moved, he continued to feel the force of the princess's gaze on his unprotected body; the moment slipped away and was not regained.
Filled with rage, he rose to his feet and threw a rock at the princess; but she merely ducked and took shelter between two boulders where he could not reach her easily and contined to watch him, a sullen expression in her odd-colored eyes.
"Is something wrong?" Starr asked, arching her eyebrows as he returned to the cloak. She snuggled into his embrace, her head cradled on his arm. "Do I not please you?"
"I like you just fine," muttered Mika. "It's not that at all."
"Oh, what is it then?" she asked, curling a tendril of chest fur around her finger.
"Uh, nothing," Mika said glumly, now knowing with certainty that the curse had begun to take effect. What a time to happen! It could not be simply that the princess was watching, a thought he dismissed as unlikely. Tam had often watched him cavort with other women with merely an amused expression at the foibles of humans, and it had never had this dwindling effect on him.
Mika sighed, nearly consumed with despair. He sat up and grabbed his tunic, Starr all but forgotten. Now more than ever he realized how important it was for him to get to Dramidja and find the red stone.
As he bent over to put on his tunic, the stone dangled from his neck, spattering intense blue prisms of light across Starr's body. Perhaps curious, or perhaps merely annoyed at the interlude which had not developed as expected, she reached up and, before Mika realized what she was doing, grasped the magic gem and pulled the thin chain over his head.
"It's beautiful," Starr said as she slipped the chain around her neck, allowing the glittering, blue-green stone to drop between her breasts. "You don't mind if I keep it, do you?" she asked playfully.
Seemingly out of nowhere came a streak of black and the stone was seized, snapped shut between strong jaws that pulled the chain tight.
"Urrk!" gasped Starr as the chain cut deep into her throat, threatening to cut off her air.
"Help! Do something!" she gurgled in a peculiar, high-pitched voice. But Mika could do nothing, for he had fallen to the ground, his hand gripped by the terrible, red flame of pain that burned its way into his flesh and left him crying out in agony. He did not have to remove the metal gauntlet to know that somehow he had angered the demon and now possessed a third horrible demon digit.
Mika was never certain how long he lay naked on the cloak, wrapped in pain and misery, but it could not have been long, for when he regained his senses, things were much as they had been when the pain began.
Starr was still on her back, her hands wrapped around the chain as she tried to prevent it from biting further into her throat.
At the opposite end of the chain, the gem clutched firmly in her teeth, was the princess. Her feet dug into the ground as she jerked on the chain with all her might. Each tug elicited some further gasp from Starr, her face darkening perceptively and her eyes and tongue protruding in an ugly manner.
Disregarding his own pain, Mika leaped to his feet and ran toward the princess, who swung around in the opposite direction, avoiding him. The change of direction caused the chain to pull against the mass of Starr's hair, thus easing the pressure on her throat. Unfortunately, this change of direction also jerked her forward on her hands and knees and brought her face to face with the snarling wolf.
The princess gave a sharp tug, and Starr fell forward, breaking her fall at the last moment by planting her palms against the ground, bracing herself against the wolfs strength.
"Help!" shrieked Starr, her voice nearly drowned out by the princess's growls.
Mika grasped his sword, and with one swift blow, severed the chain that connected the two women. The princess gave Starr one last malevolent look and then dashed up the bank and was gone, the remains of the chain dangling between her teeth, the gem still in her possession.
"Oh," sniveled Starr as she dropped to the cloak and wailed. Mika sank down beside her and cradled her in his arms, smoothing her hair tenderly and murmuring soft words of comfort.
"Why did she do that?" Starr asked shakily, her eyes magnified by tears as Mika daubed gently at the cuts on her neck with damp moss, grateful that she had not been killed.
"Uh, it's a long story. The necklace actually belongs to her," said Mika.
"That's silly," Starr sniffed. "How can a necklace belong to a wolf? And how come you have two wolves? I didn't think that was allowed."
"It really is a long story," said Mika. "And I don't really have her, she's just sort of traveling with me."
"Well, I don't like her. She hurt me," Starr cried. "She's dangerous. You should get rid of her before she kills someone."
Mika sighed. Drenched in his own misery, he stared at the gauntlet, all the while doubting that Starr was very high on the princess's list either, and wondering how on Oerth he would ever get the magic stone back.
They dressed in silence, and Starr wrapped the shawl around her neck to cover the ugly red bruises. Walking apart with no sign of their earlier warmth and affection, they made their way back to the village.