"Gaia?" I gasped in disbelief, "The Goddess? The Earthmother?"
"Yes," She answered with a nod, "Those are the names and titles men have given me, but I am no god. I never have been, and I have never wanted to be. That desire lies squarely within the covetous nature of the Fallen, and the arrogance of Man."
"If you're not a goddess, then what are you?" I asked.
"I am me," She answered in such a way as to sound as if it should have been completely obvious, then with a sigh she continued, "I am the spirit and consciousness of this world. I am nothing more, and I am nothing less. I'm a creation of the Creator just as you are."
"If you are not a goddess," I asked as I very obviously ogled her up and down, "Then why do you appear before me as the pregnant Earthmother so many worship?"
"Do you not appear before those who know you in a manner that commands authority or communicates your benevolence as the situation demands?" She asked in return. Looking down at herself she added, "I appear before you in the form that, from present day to time immemorial, all those for before you have depicted me in their idolatry. I have done so that you might know and understand the significance of my expending the effort to communicate with you."
"Look," She commanded as she gestured down her body.
Looking at her gravid belly, her earthen skin became transparent showing me that the entire earth was in her womb. Looking up into her dark earthy brown eyes, she was smiling as she explained, "I am depicted as the Earthmother and seen as pregnant, and rightly so, I am always pregnant with life and new growth!"
"You might always be pregnant," I said, "But you don't have to appear so, do you?"
"This is true," She answered, "But then, this exaggeration fits me very well. It illustrates just how over-abundantly pregnant I truly am. However, for you, I will change to something more… appealing."
I hadn't meant to imply that I found her unattractive how she was, but as I watched the earth, rock, and water swirling at her feet, it sped up its rotation as Gaia's body slimmed down to the appearance of a woman that was pregnant only a month or two. After her belly slimmed down then her breasts shrank from gargantuan to merely tight perky handfuls. Once her adjustments were finished, she purred, "Now, down to business, I cannot maintain this link much longer."
"Yes, of course my Lady," I answered with a respectful bow, "How may I be of assistance?"
Closing the distance between us she held out a hand for me to take and then placed her other hand on my lower belly just below my navel as she whispered, "I have come to give you my blessing, and to mark you as my Champion..."
Yellow magic enveloped Gaia's hand, and then warmth penetrated my abdomen and filled my intestines until I felt her magic coalesce and connect to my Well of Soul. In a flash we were inside the void of my inner world. Above me I saw my Wells of Magic. Three giant suns that radiated energy. Further above my Wells hovered a large white moon that cast light down in a beam that connected to my Well of Power.
"Beware the other Gods," Gaia said suddenly from beside my consciousness, "They are not who they appear to be… Though, Seline and Lauma are the most benevolent and least maligned… Still, each serves their own purposes and those are not usually to Man's benefit…"
"Could the same be said of you," I asked.
"Yes, and no," She answered with an honest nod, "I suppose you could say that what I do is for my benefit, on the other hand, anything that benefits me also benefits all you and every plant and animal across the six fragments of me. However, I am resilient. I was here eons before Man's creation, and I will still be here if you destroy yourselves. So, I do not seek out assistance lightly…"
Nodding my ethereal head in understanding, I asked the next logical question, "What is happening that would make a being that literally sees us as little more than fleas on her back condescend to asking me for my help?"
She looked at me then and for the first time I saw fear in her eyes, "For eons I slept and I dreamed, and then roughly five thousand years ago Men and the Fallen aligned to create bridges to escape the judgment of the Creator. It was the activation and use of those devices that woke me from my slumber. No sooner did I awaken than those devices split me asunder. Now there are six of me where there was once only one. They are all me, and yet, I am all of them. Where I was once strong, I am now weakened. Midgard is where the core of my life-essence resides, and it is there that Man is poisoning me. Death precedes Man like a forest fire wiping out life wherever they go. Forests disappear and with them billions of living creatures. Within the oceans creatures great and small are being wiped out. All of it in the name of profits and greed. All the while those that proclaim to speak on my behalf are nothing more than hypocrites concerned only with maintaining their own wealth, power, and influence. This has weakened me to such an extent that it has allowed for something to sneak in from the dark realm and it poisons everything I love."
"What can I do in the face of such overwhelming calamity," I asked as I shook my head and shrugged my shoulders, "I am only an Alfar. I'm not even in Midgard anymore!"
Gaia smiled at me as she took my hand and purred, "You are a son of Midgard and a son of the Garden. You are more important than you can possibly imagine. You and your companions who came here with you connect two fragments of me together like thin strands of thread."
"Wait!" I interrupted, "I'm not alone?"
"No," Gaia chuckled, "You are most definitely not alone. You and ten others forged a path here through a forth incomplete Rainbow Bridge, and from it a more complete fifth bridge was created that transferred thousands across the six fragment worlds. For the first time in millennia I have the power to contact you and ask for help."
"Five bridges," I gasped at the thought before asking, "What the hell is happening on earth… I mean Midgard?"
Gaia sighed, "This is why I need you. The Fallen are breaking loose from their prisons, and agents of the Evil One are conspiring to create a Rainbow Bridge that will connect all of the others. Once it is complete Ragnarak will begin as they try to recombine all six realms, all six fragments of me, back into one. I do not know what will happen when this happens, but I fear that I may be destroyed, and everything and everyone along with me!"
"How can I stop this?" I asked in a strangled voice of someone that suddenly had the weight of not one but six worlds squarely on my shoulders!
Gaia smirked, "First things first, I must prepare you."
Within the void of my mind she pushed me backwards and so that she was sitting astride my astral body. Taking my dick in her hand she guided it to her sex and she sank down my length as she moaned, "So, this is what it feels like… I think I am more jealous than ever now that I know..."
Gaia settled her hips down and plunged my member as deep inside her sex as she could, and somehow I was aware that her womb opened up and allowed me deeper inside her core. Her dark earthy brown eyes never blinked as she stared into mine, and I was suddenly filled with her presence. I felt like I was goin home. No, I was home!
Then I felt life… abundant… overflowing Life! And love…
Love that transcends time and space, and is so much more than its romantic, physical manifestation… It was unlike any experience I've had.
We weren't outside having physical intercourse, so my Magic wasn't responding like it normally would. Rather, we were inside my meditation void, somewhere within my mind and body, and the Wells of my Magic were all around us. As Gaia slowly rocked her hips she brought me to my climax, and as I moaned she suddenly leaned in and kissed me. Warmth and energy flowed from her into me as if kissing me had completed a circuit as my orgasm erupted inside Gaia like a volcano spraying lava deep inside her.
As my magic blasted into her, the planet earth within her womb moved lower. When it made contact with the head of my dick I was suddenly filled with life. All the power, the pure essence of life, residing within Gaia across six fragmented earths. I gasped as Gaia pulled me in for a kiss. She pulled me deeper for more penetrating kisses as she pressed her wide voluminous lips against my mouth before opening hers and licking her tongue across my teeth as she breathed a different kind of power into me. As my mind and astral body expanded I realized she was supporting me, keeping me from exploding with all the power pouring into me!
My skin felt stretched out, my bones creaked, the marrow within was on fire, and my mind expanded as I saw billions of animals, creatures great and small, and every human and genetic hybrid alive. Then as soon as my consciousness expanded, it wavered, then trembled, and then imploded! The sound of my own screams burst like a soap bubble popping and I was just myself again. There was no air here, inside the void of my meditation, but I was left feeling like I just completed a marathon and was breathless, heaving for air and feeling really nauseous.
"You did well," Gaia sighed in relief before admitting, "I was more than a little nervous. I've never done something like this before, and I was hoping it wouldn't kill you."
"You didn't know whether this would kill me or not?" I asked, flabbergasted.
"Not a god, remember," She chuckled, "Only worshiped as one, but this is why Seline used her Messenger, and later her Oracle to grant you her power in stages. If she hadn't her power would have destroyed you just as mine almost did."
"Almost!" I squeaked.
Looking up, she pointed as she whispered, "Look."
Tilting my head upward, I saw above the earth spinning slowly on its axes, and there was a yellow beam of energy linking Gaia to my Well of Soul, "The reason I came here, to you as myself is because I need you to save my Oracle. She has been poisoned by darkness and she will arrive soon. Please cleanse her of this evil and as my reward I will give her to you as a wife."
"I will save your Oracle," I promised as Gaia stood up and pulled me up to stand beside her, but once I was standing in front of her I asked, "Will I see you again?"
"Good," Gaia asked as she chuckled and rubbed her breasts against my chest before purring, "Would that please you, to see me again?"
"I would," I replied with a nod.
"Then you will be happy, because every time you look upon my Oracle you will be looking upon me," She said as she leaned in and kissed me. When she pulled back she whispered, "As my final gift I give you strength and endurance to withstand the days that are coming, and I give you insight so that you will see the world as I do. I leave it to you to explore it's power… Goodbye my lovely boy… See you soon…"
With her last words her presence vanished and I was left floating in nothingness but surrounded by my astral world…
——(!)——
When I opened my eyes Huxian, Shahad, and Coella all stood around me, staring at me, until I finally asked, "What?"
"Are you alright," Quebracho asked, the concern in her voice palpable, "I could feel you were talking to someone… It even felt like she was with you… like I am, but I couldn't hear anything and I couldn't talk to you!"
"Once you stepped into the circle of rotating earth, you sat down and we haven't been able to rouse you from your meditation," Coella explained.
"It was much like that night beside Sequia's tree," Huxian added.
I stood up and nodded. I looked at Shahad, and then cut my eyes back to Huxian before explaining, "Gaia came to me."
"The Earthmother spoke to you," Quebracho and Shahad chorused in my head.
I shook my head no, "She came to me in a vision, or in my meditation, or something. She stood before me within that circle of moving earth as clearly as you stand in front of me now. Then she touched me and we were inside my… soul… or something. A void where I go when I meditate and I'm able to see my Wells along with books on lecterns that show me my skills and abilities."
"You didn't describe your inner world when you first made contact as you have today," Huxian said as she cupped her chin and mulled over my testimony. Looking at me she continued, "Describe everything you saw, just as you saw it, when you were there. Leave nothing out. Then tell us what Gaia said, and did. Leave nothing out."
My cheeks blushed under the chestnut colored fur covering my lion's face, but I did so. As I told them everything Huxian nodded along while Coella's mouth fell open.
"Wow," Quebracho purred salaciously in my ear, "To actually have relations with a goddess. Not many could boast of such an achievement and yet you have done so twice now… At least it explains why you smell so warm and earthy! It makes me feel on the verge of frantic to sink my… roots into you… Or, even better, have your root sink into me!"
"I smell the Earthmother on you now," Shahad transmitted in what felt like a honeyed purr, "You smell… intoxicating…"
"He smelled intoxicating before," Coella commented dryly, then her eye opened wider as her pink cheeks blushed a deeper rose color, "I mean…"
"I think we all know what you mean," Huxian chuckled as she rubbed her gravid belly, "However, I believed it until now his smell was only affecting those of us with a connection to the moon and Seline. Either way, it sounds like your inner world has refined and grown, Virdy!"
"Yes," Shahad agreed with a nod, "My King did smell intoxicating when he was an Arboreal, but afterward, once reverted back to his natural form, he was less… potent. Now, I am finding it very distracting. I am finding it hard to keep myself from entering a mating frenzy. If I weren't already carrying an entire fertilized colony in my womb… I don't think I would be able to control myself! And, if he transforms into an Arboreal now… I don't know what I will do… I may have two or three colonies in my womb before I am done with him!"
"Well!" I chuckled as I scanned across from Huxian to Shahad, "This has been a great discussion, however we don't have much time. Gaia said that her Oracle is on the move, and headed this way."
"What about the bears that live here," Coella asked as she gestured to the village around them.
I smiled and took her hand as I walked past her. She resisted at first, but as I firmly held on to her, she relented and walked with me as I led her to a broad and spacious cave entrance. The wide entrance looked like it naturally narrowed, but it was all a façade where there were small slits in the walls where a massive clawed hand could reach out and gut an invader without the defender being exposed. The slits were so well hidden that even knowing they were there I couldn't find them until a rough, gravelly voice demanded, "Who goes there?"
"Coella of the Moonberry Village," She answered quickly.
Looking for the slit in the wall I saw a dark silhouette before I answered, "My name is Viridian Vale from Valeheim in the Valelands, Druid of Annwyn, Guardian of the Forest, Guardian of Glen'nathel Moonlilly the Oracle of Seline, Champion of the Moon Goddess Seline, and Champion of the Earthmother Gaia."
"Champion of the Earthmother," I heard whispered behind the wall several times as the title worked its way through the guards.
Suddenly the same gravelly voice said, "We beg your pardon Champion of the Earthmother, but please wait as you are until we can get confirmation from our shaman."
"Of course," I replied as Shahad and Huxian sauntered up.
Huxian took my free hand and began rubbing her belly nervously as Shahad flitted around examining the crafted walls as she found the seams and traced them with her hands. When she landed she transmitted, "Their craftsmanship is superb. I could barely find the seams in the rocks. I may have to hire these bears when the time comes to build my Hive."
There was some commotion behind the gate and then it opened just wide enough to allow a single large bear woman to step out and face us.
"Hello, my name is Orsa. I am shaman Eferhilda's apprentice. I will be testing you to see if you are indeed blessed by the Earthmother," She introduced herself then explained.
Orsa was a bear of a woman very literally. She stood seven feet tall and was broader across the shoulders than two of me in my natural form. She was covered from head to toe in thick brown fur. She had eyes that were so brown they were nearly black, and her hair was a curly, thick, brown mane that fell down her back to a tuft tail that wagged between the thick muscles of her buttocks. Her legs and arms were muscular, her hips were broad, and her waist was thick while her breasts were very voluminous. The fur covering her face, neck, chest, breasts, and belly was shorter and finer so that we were able to see the finer details of her features.
For clothing she wore iron anklets and bracelets. Strips of bark were woven into a belt with bags on each hip and a loincloth covering her sex. Covering her breasts and belly was a bra and breastplate of woven bark mixed with raw gems of turquoise and coral. Woven into her hair, just behind fluffy round bear's ears were colorful blue and red feathers from some unknown avian flock.
"And how are you going to test me," I asked as I looked her up and down skeptically.
"Do you think it is another wrestling sex test," Quebracho snickered from just behind my shoulder, "I do always enjoy the hot fights and the intense sex afterwards."
I shrugged both inwardly and outwardly without thinking. I kind of hoped that was what it was too. Orsa was the first bear I had ever met or seen. She was thicker and curvier than Leandra, who was also very large, but also very attractive for her kind.
"I can see that you are not what you appear to be," She said in a husky rumble, "Please, transform into your natural form."
Shocked by the fact that she could see through my hybrid-lion form, I released it and shrunk to my normal Alfari self. Orsa watched with a smirk on her dark brown lips as Quebracho quickly moved my Barkskin armor, overlaid with woven green leaves and accented with red and gold filigree, to cover my nudity. Once I was covered Orsa curtsied, "Greetings my Lord. It has been some time since we were visited by a Druid, and never one such as yourself."
"So other Druids visit the wild Animal villages," I asked curiously.
"Sometimes," She answered with a shrug of her shoulders, "A Druid will appear and inform us when hunters are headed our direction. They tell us if we must move, or if we must hide, and then quickly depart."
"I had no idea," I said.
"Though, we've never seen a Druid like you before," She commented as she looked me up and down, "To actually be able to take our form… somewhat…"
"I am unique," I retorted, "The first of my kind."
"Well," She sighed as she shook her head, "You must be if you also claim to be a champion of two goddesses."
"So how are you going to confirm what I say is true," I asked, bringing us back on topic.
Stepping forward, Orsa knelt down and placed her hand on my l abdomen. A yellow glow enveloped her hand, and I wasn't sure if she was actually channeling magic or chi. As close as she was I heard her inhale before a low moan escaped. She closed her eyes in an effort to concentrate. I felt her power waver inside my stomach as she took another deep inhalation, and then my magic reacted. It uncoiled like a sleeping cat, and then the hair on the back of my head felt like it stood on end as it arched its back and hissed. When her magic wobbled mine struck with claws and teeth!
Orsa cried out as it struck and snatched her hand back, but it was already too late. My magic followed hers and leapt from my lower abdomen to her hand. She screamed as green fire outlined her body and fur as white electricity arced between her fingers before crawling up her arm and covering her body, "What have you done to me!"
"Run!" I yelled as I waved my hand for Huxian, Coella, and Shahad to retreat. Turning back to Orsa I replied, "I don't know. My magic has never done this before. This only happens the first time I breed my mates!"
"What?!" Orsa shrieked as my magic sunk into her skin and disappeared inside her.
She withdrew, her eyes fierce in her outrage before she roared, "Is this a plot? A plot to take my chastity?!"
She growled and she lunged forward, swiping her long black claws at me as I danced back. She was in a rage, but at the same time she was licking her lips as my scent filled the entry to the cave. Roaring again in outrage at being able to reach me, I jumped inadvertently, at that moment she sounded very much like a huge grizzly.
Gathering the magic within me that hadn't jumped into Orsa released my aura. I stepped into Orsa's next attack and caught both her wrists. She leaned in trying to overpower me with her size, weight, and strength. I on the other hand had leverage and my own strength. With a quick twist and a pull I used her own weight to flip her over my shoulder. As soon as she was on the ground, I jumped on top of her straddling belly as I pinned her arms to the ground and unleashed Intimidating Roar right in her face!
She screamed, and turned her head away in submission, and I felt the intense desire to mate her right then and there, but instead I growled, "I promise, I did not come here intent on finding a young beautiful bear-girl and taking your virtue! At least, not on the sly, and definitely not by force. However, now that my magic is inside you, I have no idea how to retrieve it except by mating. It is the only way I know of, but maybe your shaman will have a solution."
"Virdy!" Huxian screamed from the entrance of the cave, "Please hurry! Come quickly!"
Looking up, I saw Huxian, both of her hands were aglow with blue Foxfire and she was casting fireballs at things I couldn't see from where I was. I heard the "Whir" of Coella's spear spinning in the air, and the "Vroom" of Shahad's wings as she flew back and forth in front of the cave entrance.
"Oh Gaia, have mercy!" Orsa whimpered as she looked where I was gazing, "The army of the dead is here!"