There were just two of them in that cabin, a man and a woman.  They gave me shelter for the night when I was on my way to the Smuggler’s Pass.

Asking questions was not safe in that land torn by the war for years and none were asked.  The woman was very young. She looked innocent and beautiful with blond hair and eyes blue and deep like lakes.  She glanced at me a few times and blushed slightly when realized that I spotted her attention. The man was much older than her, but I hardly remember him as we barely said a few words to each other.

As there was only one bed in the cabin, I settled on the floor near the stove that was making the cabin warm. Exhausted by my travels, I quickly fell asleep.  

I woke feeling pain as if a needle pricked my heart, but it was just a bad dream.  I heard my hosts whispering.  No words could be discerned but it sounded as if she was pleading with her man against something he was insisting on.    

When the whispering stopped, the bed creaked and I heard the rustle of clothes being taken off, more creaking, woman’s gasp followed by an unmistakable rhythm of copulating with the man on top. 

Afraid to make a move, I held my breath listening to the man’s grunting and panting, to woman’s begging him to be quiet, to her whispers turning into whimpers that were getting loud and untamed, to his grunts turning into growls, and to her moans joining and surpassing his in a feral howl.

Once that was over, the man fell soundly asleep.   I lay on the floor, stirred, excited, mesmerized.  I was young and it had been a long time since I was with a woman. My turn with a prostitute before they sent me into battle did not count. 

For long minutes or maybe an hour, I did not hear her breathing and she did not hear mine. Both awake, we conspired in our mutual silence. It was pitch dark, but I was sure that the woman was looking at me and that she knew I was looking at her.

I was dying to have her. Most likely, tomorrow I would be dead anyway, I thought.

Still in the dark, I cautiously stretched my hand on a hunch that I could reach hers and I did. She squeezed my palm.  I gently pulled her toward me, she followed, slipped out of the bed and joined me on the floor. Already naked, she touched me and gasped, feeling how strongly I was ready for her. 

Embracing her with one hand, I pulled her toward me.  The other hand made a brief stop to cap her breast hardened under my touch. She gasped again feeling that hand on her mons, suggestively opened her thighs. 

The man turned on the bed and his snoring stopped.  Her nails dug into my back and her thighs tightened their hold of my hand.  In a few seconds though, the snoring resumed.  Exhaled with relief, she opened her legs for me. 

Impatient and ready for each other, we could not wait any longer.  I loved the heat of her body under me and suddenly I saw her eyes in a flash sparked by our kiss. With a smooth movement of her hips, she took me in.  As if making a pledge to stay silent, her tongue moved in between my lips. Our bodies became one and in a second, the dam we built in waiting broke with a rapture. 

No, not the end, that was only the beginning of us merging into a single body.  Inside her, I did not lose my strength, and she kissed me deeper.  I felt as if a beastly force awakened within me, was swelling me, hardening my raging member. My thrusts, her pushes were paced with the beating of our hearts, hers under my hands, mine pounding in my ears. We began to fit each other’s breathing, short and intermittent.

Even just for a short moment, but she was mine now and I had to claim her, mark every inch of her with my touch, my scent, with every essence of my desire.

We turned, we traveled every passage, we turned again.  We climbed, we jumped, we flew, we fell. In overwhelming silence, in final thrusts, baptized with the hotness of her moist, I filled, I fed her insatiable womb.  We came, we gasped for air, we stayed one.

Embraced, we closely held each other.  A premonition of dawn entered through the window and touched her face.  The snoring stopped again; the bed creaked.  My instinct was to jump, to fight for her, but with surprising strength, she tightened her embrace.

“Don’t be afraid,” she said, “just one more kiss.”

Hearing the man moving toward us, I saw how her face became distorted, her smile widened, and how sharp long fangs protruded over her lower lip. 

I was astonished but not afraid. Just let me be with you, I thought…

Abruptly, a distant rooster’s crowing ended the night, and suddenly weightless, she escaped my hold.

Like two plumes of smoke, she and her man flew out of the door chased by the second rooster’s cry. 

~~~

Deep within the war zone, I was back on a narrow trail toward Smuggler’s Pass. A deep gorge yawned black to the left. Beyond it and ahead of me the dawn was dancing on layers of snow on top of dark blue mountain peaks. I would be safe on the other side of the range. 

Stopped near the crossing point, I was court-martialed on the same day.

Damn rooster, I wish I'd stayed with her, I thought facing the firing squad with my back to the gorge.

Come stranger, take shelter near Smuggler’s Pass. I will rise from my gorge, I will invade your nightly dreams as if this were your own story.