All characters are 18 or over.
*****
Dixie stretched with a yawn as she walked down the porch steps and headed towards the woods behind her house. She lived way out in the country at the base of a mountain range, and for years she had heard rumors that strange things lived in the woods and in the mountains. Obviously, she discarded everything as silly superstition from a bygone age, but sometimes, in the middle of the night, she thought she could hear drums deep in the woods.
Probably just a couple of deer or elk having a go at each other
, she rationalized every time.
This morning she would take the forest loop as her bi-weekly walk. It had been several months since she last walked through the woods, but that wasn't going to stop Dixie. Tonight was Midsummer's Eve, and the nearby town would put on a festival for this afternoon, and have a fireworks show when night fell. It would do her some good to go out and socialize for a while. She spent too much time at home, reading her books or playing around on her computer.
She sighed and stretched again, quickening her pace until she could no longer see the house behind her. The path split up ahead, and she took the trail leading towards the right.
For nearly half an hour she walked, the path winding through the trees, and she heard plenty of bird calls and animal noises around her, and rustling in the bushes. The morning was warming up fast, the breeze stilling as the day relented to summer's heat.
Taking a quick swig of her water, Dixie sat down on a nearby boulder, listening to the woods around her. She looked around as she rested, taking in the sight of the trees, and she noted a well-worn deer trail off to her right. The path lead further up the mountain, and looked steep, but she couldn't help but wonder where it led to.
Hold on, is that a flute I hear?
she thought to herself. Some sort of wind instrument was carried on the slight breeze, floating down the mountain. She stood up and listened for it harder, closing her eyes to concentrate on the sound.
As if by some unknown force, her feet took her towards the deer trail, and her pack lay forgotten on the ground. She started climbing the mountain, following the sweet music in the air.
Higher and higher she climbed, her previous walk forgotten, and all the while the flute music grew louder and louder. It was nearly midmorning before the path leveled out and she could hear the music more clearly. She also heard running water, and she hurried along the path in search of her goal.
The trees suddenly fell away to reveal a waterfall and a clear pool at its base. The clearing was rocky, the stones covered in moss and lichens, and the sun beat down onto the water. The pool shimmered in the light, twinkling in invitation, but her gaze wandered to a large rock on the shore of the pool, to the mysterious flute player hiding up here in the woods.
She could hardly believe her eyes. The creature before her looked like a normal man from the waist-up: curly brown hair, a little goatee, tanned, rough skin. But from his navel downward he was covered in hair, and instead of feet, his hairy legs ended in hooves. She even spotted a little tail peaking out from behind him. His eyes were closed as he played his panflute, and she silently approached him, creeping steadily closer even against her better judgment.
And then she stepped on a twig.
The creature immediately stopped playing, his eyes flying open, and he stared at her in utter shock. She froze in place, the two of them staring at each other for what seemed like eternity, before she finally found the courage to speak.
"What are you?" Dixie breathed, and the odd hairy man frowned at her.
"I'm a satyr," he said, as if it were obvious, and he put down his panflute "Whatever are you doing on this mountain? Don't you know it's Midsummer's Eve tonight?"
"Yes, I know. What does that have to do with anything?"
He smirked at her. "Young maiden, if you stay up here much longer, you'll find yourself in quite the vulnerable position. Pretty females like yourself shouldn't be wandering these woods. All of my brethren are gathering on the other side of the valley for a feast tonight, and any humans that join us are never seen again."
She took a wary step back. "What, like...you kill them?"
"No, no, no!" he laughed, and he got up from his spot on the rock, slowly advancing towards her. "Nothing like that. What I mean is that humans who join us...we fuck them. We keep them to breed and fuck and play with."
Oh.
The silence was rather loud in her ears, and she stared incredulously at him. "Alright...so apparently satyrs actually exist, and if humans join them tonight, they're never seen again and become permanent fuck-toys?"
