The Western Woods near Alverone had long been known locally as the Blighted Wood. The reason was obvious as one drew near the forest. Most of the trees were grey and leafless. On the few trees that retained a semblance of life, the bark was grey and brittle, the leaves strange hues that did not appear at all healthy. Even in the wet, fertile spring, the trees remained grey and the soil was parched and devoid of undergrowth.

No one would cut wood or hunt in that forest, nor would they even enter it without very good cause. It was said that nothing healthy and normal enough to be worth cutting or hunting lived amidst those blighted trees anyway. Every now and then, a hunter or woodcutter would go missing or be found wandering with their mind and body strangely altered. The locals always said that they had entered the wood, deliberately or not, and been taken by its curse.

The source of the blight was the subject of many legends. Some said a strange light had fallen from the sky into the heart of the Western Woods many generations ago, corrupting the earth. Others said that a ruin in the heart of the wood harboured a remnant of the Lost Ones, the outcast deities that lurk in the dark fringes of existence. Still others whispered of lost rites performed in the past at a stone circle deep in the woods that unleashed such a remnant. All of these made reference to a monstrous being in female form, perhaps even a Lost One, who reportedly dwelt in the heart of the Blighted Woods. They called her The Dark Lady and she was the subject of many tales of her own.

Whatever the cause, the curse had afflicted the woods for many generations. Stories about the Blighted Wood and the Dark Lady were engrained in the local culture. Outsiders, while acknowledging the strange state of the Western Woods, talked about diseases or other causes. They did not believe in fallen gods or blights from the heavens. But, scoff as they might, even the outsiders gave those withered trees a wide berth and the Great Northern Road had long since been redirected around the Western Woods.

Everyone noticed the raven-haired man when he passed through Alverone. His jet-black hair and piercing green eyes could not be missed, let alone his massive form. He gave no name to anyone, merely asking around about the local legends of the woods.

After receiving few answers to his queries, the raven-haired man left town. He was last seen headed west towards the Blighted Woods. The townspeople who saw him go watched nervously until he was gone, then shook their heads sadly. They began reminiscing about what had happened to those unfortunate others who had intruded upon the Blighted Woods.

The raven-haired man’s name was Severus. He was a scholar and magus of one of the learned magical orders in the city of Madrygor. Tales of the Blighted Wood and its Dark Lady had reached Severus several years before. They had disturbed the scholar and led him to delve deeper into certain otherwise forbidden books to which he had access. With this learning in his heart and mind, Severus had come to confirm his fears and do what must be done to put the blight to rest.

As he went deeper and deeper into the forest, Severus found himself aware of being watched. Things moved in the shadows, peering out from behind stunted trees or around rocks. These things were squat and stunted, human but just barely. The scholar knew what they were, and what they had once been, and he shuddered at the thought. Their eyes gleamed with an unhealthy light as they watched the raven-haired scholar pass, but they did not act. They had been told to watch visitors, but let them pass. Someone else was waiting to deal with them.

Severus knew when he had reached the heart of the blight. It was as bad as he feared. A strange web of thick black tendrils wrapped the stunted trees and trailed along the hard, dead ground. In places, they penetrated the soil like noxious roots pumping the life out of it or, perhaps, pumping some venom into it.

The mass of black tendrils all led back to one tree. It was horrifying monster of a tree like no tree the scholar had ever seen before. Multiple gnarled trunks twisted around each other like great serpents before splitting into branches. Long, vicious looking spikes covered those branches in lieu of leaves. The bark was black and cracked, oozing a reddish-brown pitch that looked rather like blood. Bones of men and animals were heaped around the monster tree’s base, which lay inside a kind of crater in the ground. A rank odour drifted over the whole area, growing stronger as Severus neared the tree.

A naked woman sat on one branch between two spikes and watched him, a wicked smile on her thin black lips. She was pale, the whitish grey of ashes, and her hair and eye sockets were the black of fire-blasted wood. Her body seemed nearly perfect in shape, curvy with large breasts and wide hips. But her nipples were as black as her hair and eyes, and the shapeless thatch of pitch black fur between her thighs seems to be writhing in a way that hair should not. When the woman parted her lips in a grim smile, her teeth were perfect serrated triangles, the teeth of a predator.

Slipping down from the tree, the woman walked slowly towards the scholar, moving her body in a suggestive manner. She was clearly after more than a friendly chat. It was then, as the monstrous woman moved in her slinky way towards him, that Severus saw where the web of tendrils originated. They came down from her hair and spread out across the clearing around her tree. As the woman came towards him, those strange strands of night were moving around him; writhing and rising from the ground. He dropped his pack and slipped off his coat.

“I am ready, Dark Lady,” he intoned softly, “Are you?”

She grinned. Suddenly, a writhing mass of tendrils seized the scholar, entangling his arms and legs and pulling him down to the ground. Severus didn’t resist. He knew that he must give in, must lure her closer, if he was to have a hope of releasing the woods from the darkness that had infected them. The soft tendrils tore at his tunic and trousers. Slick with some noxious, oily secretion, they slid over his exposed chest and torso, tickling and caressing him while soaking him in their juices.

The Dark Lady walked up and stood over Severus, her feet on either side of the scholar’s hips. The mass of black tendrils masquerading as pubic hair descended from between her thighs. These new tendrils explored his cock and balls, slowly wrapping around his swollen member. They pulsed around it, massaging it and arousing the scholar to an incredible level of intensity. One probed his anus, slowly penetrating him to explore within. But never, ever did they let him reach climax. All the while, the Dark Lady grinned as she inflicted her erotic torments on her victim.

Looking up at his tormentor, Severus was suddenly struck by the thought that she was beautiful. Perhaps he was intoxicated by the erotic assault on his body and the strange secretions that coated his skin, but he saw the woman as the most beautiful thing he could ever recall seeing. Even the dark eyes like the sockets of a skull and the horrific tendrils that were her hair could not dissuade him. Severus realized he was seeing the beauty of that which had been corrupted; that which, he hoped, still lay within.

Exerting the full strength of both his will and his body, the scholar strained against the tendrils that held him fast. Resisting the urge to give in further to their erotic delights and torments, he sought release. But they were strong and the pleasures they lavished on him seemed to grow stronger, sapping his will to be free.

Out of the corner of his eye, Severus saw the watchers he had noticed earlier gathering around the clearing. Their yellow eyes shone as they observed his erotic torment. That could soon be him, he realized. How many of Alverone’s men had suffered the fate he was now facing, drained of their humanity by the erotic torments wrought by this dark seductress? He had one option left to escape, one he was holding in reserve.

“Lashava nishar behaya notego,” he slowly chanted, recalling the ancient Ashvari words he had studied and memorized so carefully, “Lashava nishar onhaya notego shan.”

A shocked, angry look came over the woman’s face as the tendrils relaxed their grip and slithered away. In an instant, Severus pulled free. He slipped out from under her and stood upright. The defensive spell would only keep her at bay for a short time. In those few minutes, he had to shift things in his favour.

Severus put a hand beneath the Dark Lady’s chin and tilted her face up to his. Steeling himself, the scholar placed his lips on to the cold, black lips of the woman and kissed her, ignoring the repulsive odour and taste of her slimy drool. He kissed that Dark Lady like he had kissed no woman before, save one he had loved and lost long ago. Even as the taste of blood and bile filled his mouth, Severus kept on kissing the Dark Lady.

As the scholar kissed her, his hands sought out her breasts. They were firm and ripe in spite of their large size and he delighted in stroking and squeezing them. Severus’ fingers found her big, black nipples and rubbed them roughly, causing them to harden.

Pulling his mouth away, Severus gazed into the dark holes that were the lady’s eyes. There was a light inside that had been absent before, a hint of a life beyond the blighted horror to which he was making love. Her tendrils were starting to stir again but the scholar simply focussed on the woman, on bringing the pleasure that would release her.

Suddenly, the Dark Lady grabbed his head, not with tendrils but with her hand. Pulling his mouth back on to hers, she slid her long, black tongue inside. Severus met it with his own and they duelled with their tongues. It was the first sign that the woman was starting to emerge from the monster.

The scholar felt tendrils starting to slide up his legs, circling his calves and then his thighs. A light tickle on his scrotum told him their goal. But Severus kept up the kiss, pushing his tongue back into the woman’s mouth. His hands worked her breasts even more roughly. Tendrils wrapped around his biceps, seeking to pull his hands away. Severus resisted but they seemed to lack the strength, or perhaps the will, they had possessed earlier.

The woman broke off the kiss. Her hand took one of his, removing it from her breast and guiding it down her smooth, soft belly. Between her legs, the tendrils had receded. Instead, he found soft, wet lips awaiting his touch. Smiling at the Dark Lady, Severus stroked her pussy tenderly, enjoying the feel of those soft lips under his fingers. The woman stared up at the scholar. She was smiling slightly, mouth open as her breath came in soft gasps. Tendrils fell from Severus’ body.

Now that Severus had the Dark Lady compliant, he lifted her in his big arms and lowered her body to lie prone on the ground. Tendrils slithered and coiled around her naked body, creating a kind of nest. Pushing her legs apart, the scholar lay between them with his face at the nexus of the woman’s thighs. Slowly, Severus stroked her slit with his tongue, lapping up the surprisingly sweet nectar that he found there.

“Yes,” the Dark Lady croaked softly, her first word.

Her tendrils now slid over his body, not seeking to restrain, but to caress. Their slick secretions coated his skin again, but now left it warm and tingling, full of life. A tendril once again probed his ass. He let it enter, felt it tickling and teasing a sensitive place that he had not known his body possessed. The fact that the Dark Lady seemed intent on sharing pleasure, rather than teasing and seducing, both relieved and excited him. His plan was working.

The scholar’s tongue probed inside the woman’s pussy as he used a finger to massage around the sensitive little nub above. Severus had much experience of the female body and put it to full effect. The Dark Lady writhed and moaned as he continued to used his tongue and fingers on her most intimate space.

Cock hard as a rock, Severus crawled up over his lover. Piercing green eyes not unlike his own now shone out of the darkness of her black, sunken sockets.

“Please,” the Dark Lady said repeatedly between gasps. Her tendrils wrapped around his cock, coating it with their slick oil.

The scholar smiled, kissed the woman, then plunged his cock into her dripping hole. She gasped in surprise, then put her arms around his torso. With fingers, not tendrils, the Dark Lady caressed Severus’ back as he began moving inside her. She smiled at him, then closed her eyes and lost herself in the feeling of being taken rather than taking.

Tendrils wrapped around Severus’ legs and arms, holding him there, keeping the scholar from doing anything other than fucking their mistress. Others caressed his body, their moisture making them feel to Severus almost like dozens of little tongues licking his flesh. Additional tendrils entered his ass, coiling with the one already there to form a kind of cock that began fucking him back.

Severus’ climax, when it arrived, nearly left him senseless. It was a massive wave of pleasure that pulled a roar of joy from his lips. His body kept moving, kept fucking the woman beneath, but there was no control. The scholar had become a kind of lust-driven automaton.

It was only when it had passed, when he had poured the last of his seed into the Dark Lady, that Severus realized she, too, had climaxed. Eyes closed, the monstrous woman was gasping and quaking. Her ashen skin split open, like a snake shedding or the husk of a seed opening.

Severus dismounted and jumped back, watching in both shock and joy at her transformation. The ash pale skin peeled back and crumbled, the tendrils shrivelled into grey dust. What remained was the most beautiful woman Severus had ever laid eyes on.

This woman’s small body was a contrast to the one that had imprisoned her, dark and sleek rather than pale and voluptuous. She was slender and sported small, firm breasts capped by little, dark brown nipples. Bright green eyes shone out from an alien, but beautiful face. Around her head spread long, dark brown hair. The scholar gazed on her, captivated and unable to react.

Slowly, the woman got up, the hair falling to her tight little ass. Looking around at the devastation wrought by the monster, her face fell for a moment. Then she looked up at Severus. A smile came to her lips.

Springing to her feet in an almost impossible move, the woman threw her arms around the scholar and kissed him deeply. As he recovered enough to return the affection, the scholar felt fingers gently exploring his cock and realized, to his surprise, that it was still erect.

“You can help me make this better,” the woman said softly, her voice a soft quavering alto, strange but oddly musical.

“I can?”

“Make love to me. It strengthens me,” she responded.

Then she kissed Severus again, her lips pressed hard against his. Her fingers moved back to fondle his balls as she rubbed his cock against her lower belly.

After a moment of hesitation, Severus returned the kiss. His hands glided from shoulders to ass, stroking her smooth skin. The feel of her nakedness against him was arousing him fiercely. Never before had he remained hard after such a powerful orgasm and never before had he been ready again so quickly. Then again, the scholar had never been with a goddess before, for such this woman must be.

“I’m ready, my lady” he growled.

“Then take me,” she replied with a smile.

Severus sank to the ground, pulling the goddess down with him. Turning away from the scholar, she knelt, then bent down low, pushing her taut little ass up in the air.

“How about this way?” she said, giggling and wiggling that lovely little bum at him.

Holding her steady with his hands on her hips, Severus moved his cock into position at her slit. She was so small, he was worried about entering her with his large erection. Would he hurt her?

“Don’t be afraid,” the goddess encouraged, clearly sensing his hesitation, “Take me as you wish. I can handle it.”

Taking her at her word, the scholar plowed into her.

“By Heaven, this is good,” he gasped.

She was tight around his thick rod, but also wet enough that he was able to enter her with surprising swiftness. Her tightness felt so good, like no other pussy he had ever entered before. Slowly, he moved inside the goddess, fucking her with slow, even strokes. The woman moaned and began moving her body to meet the scholar’s thrusts. That took him deeper inside her, burying his cock in her pussy with each impact of their bodies.

As they fucked there on the ground, Severus became aware of sounds and movement around them. Not the strange lurkers who had stalked him earlier, but the noises of birds and animals. It was like the woods were waking up or coming back to life.

Suddenly, as his climax approached, they seemed to be transported to a glade at the heart of a verdant woodland. The blight was replaced by green. Colourful flowers dotted the grassy meadow around them. Even the monster tree became a huge, flourishing oak shading the glade. Was this a hallucination? Or a vision of what the woods would become now that their goddess was freed from her curse?

Then Severus climaxed. His eyes shut and he groaned loudly at the explosion of pleasure. He barely noticed the goddess’ climax, her cry of joy and the pulsing of her tight, wet sheath around his cock. The vision of the woods seemed to reach a climax as well, a green spectacle full of life where once the monster’s blight had reigned.

Then it was over. The green faded, save for a few buds here and there starting to emerge. Severus slipped free of the woman and knelt there in the still dead glade as his body quieted. The goddess turned over and sat up, smiling at him. Crawling over to Severus, she gave him a long, sweet kiss.

“Thank you again. You saw it?” she asked.

“I saw the green returned.”

“That’s what the pleasure you have given me will let me do. It is a gift that I can work with as I bring this land back to life,” she said, stroking his cheek with her fingers.

They kissed again, then Severus sat on the ground and the woman settled into his lap with her arms around his neck. For a while, they cuddled like that, kissing and caressing each other under the sun. After a while, the goddess wiggled free and did a little dance. Severus watched the graceful motions of her body with delight.

Little bits of green were becoming more obvious around them, hinting at the day when the vision fuelled by their sex would become reality. The monster tree’s spines drooped, with buds appearing at their bases. A hint of colour began to infuse its black, dripping skin. Perhaps it really was becoming the oak it had been in his vision.

Getting up from the ground, the scholar found his coat and pack. His shirt and pants had been destroyed but the coat was big enough to cover him and his boots were intact.

“It is time for me to go, isn’t it?” he said.

She smiled and nodded.

“I have much to do and so do you. Good journeys, my friend. You have done enough good to last a lifetime this day,” she said, giving him another hug and kiss, “May I see you out of my land?”

“Of course. Your company will be welcome,” he answered.

The goddess took his hand and they wandered through the woods. Every now and then, they would stop and kiss or just talk quietly. Severus wondered if more sex was in the offing, but it never came to that. Perhaps he had given her all he could.

At the edge of the woods, they kissed one last time. Then Severus headed out towards the Great Road. He avoided Alverone, going straight in the direction of his home city instead. There was a village inn not far down the way where he could rest and dress more properly.

The people of Alverone never connected the raven-haired traveller to the sudden revival of the Western Woods. As green returned, as living things returned, they marvelled at the ending of the curse. Those who had been lost returned, some of them generations past their time, with no memory of where they had been and strange looks on their faces.

As hunters, woodsmen, and others began to enter the woods again, stories of encounters with a mysterious beautiful woman amidst the revived trees abounded. Men sometimes returned from the wood with a happy, giddy smile on their faces and a lively spring in their step, though they seemed unaware of the source of their joy. Some folk, who knew old stories from before the blight, recalled that there had once been tales of a goddess known as the Lady of the Wood. Perhaps, they said, she had returned and finally defeated the curse that had blighted her woods.

In far off Madrygor, a raven-haired scholar heard traveller’s tales of the Western Woods’ revival and smiled fondly.