Tomboy Island

Alex did not know what he was dealing with. He had seen enough Monty Python movies not to just carelessly approach something cute and apparently harmless though. “Stand back,” he told the other three, then, very carefully, placed one foot in front of the other.

He did not take his eyes off the creature for even a moment. Any little gesture it would have made, Alex wanted to be prepared for. A little closer… then a little closer still… the squishy looking thing did not move until he was halfway across the distance. At that point, it raised its hindquarters from the stone.

Alex remained still for a moment. He noticed a little bit of tension in the fae being. It relaxed, he continued to move slowly, until he was close enough to touch it. He stretched out his hand. The smile of the being was empty. Did it even have a mouth or just a void line, stretched in the suggestion of amusement like the pixels of an emoji? Would that maw part to reveal horrid teeth?

The former pilot touched the forehead of the thing.

F E A R L E S S    M O N G R E L

I grant you one chance.

The words scratched themselves into Alex’s thoughts. The cute little creature suddenly hopped back, dashing through the green gateway like a supersonic hare. Physical matter rippled like illuminated dust disturbed by a gust moving through. There was no cave wall there, just a suggestion of one.

The creature stopped at the other side of the wall, sitting in… something. Alex could not quite make out the shapes on the other side of the fae arch. It was green, lush, and verdant. Alex knew that those were the concepts of that other place. He could not visually perceive them. Not from where he stood.

The being waited for Alex. He hesitated. ‘Should I follow?’

An otherworldly grin awaited his answer.

Alex took a deep breath. ‘This is probably a horrible idea,’ he thought to himself. ‘But we will see where it goes.’ “I’ll be back in a moment,” he promised, hoping that was the case. One stride after another, he stepped forwards. He did not hesitate again, not even when he reached the wall.

His foot felt grass for a split second, then he fell.

Capricious laughter echoed all around. Alex plunged. Amusement echoed in his ears. Alex descended. All around him, verdancy took shape and liquified again. Alex felt warm air howl on his skin. They giggled, cackled, they cried out in boundless amusement.

Alex landed in a cushion. He blinked. He could feel it but all there was were swirling shades of green and the fae creature. It still sat in front of him, as if he had never fallen in the first place. The man felt around. He was in a chair of some kind, but his eyes refused to focus on anything.

‘I’m not ready yet,’ he knew. ‘I’m not magical enough yet to perceive this… is this the fae realm?’ The thought was exciting and strange because it was exciting. There was no fear in Alex’s heart. Did he crave this? Why did this feel so homely?

The creature before him laughed. Suddenly it was bipedal, standing on nubby little legs while clapping with equally short arms. Its voice did not reach Alex’s ears, but the intention did. He was supposed to hold onto something, anything. He was in a… house? A private glade? Wherever he was, there were items around him. Trying to focus on any of them was impossible, but he knew there were many of them.

Thinking on it would not serve him, Alex understood that much. He let his instinct choose and his instinct surged ahead as if it had a mind of its own.

It did have a mind of its own.

The mind was him.

His hand reached and closed around…

________________________________________________________________

 

“Alex!”

Consciousness rose from nothing. Grunting and groaning, Alex sat up. He blinked several times. His eyes were dry, as was the inside of his mouth, as if he had spent days out in the sun. He rubbed his forehead. Bits of dried sweat crumpled off.

He kept on blinking, until he had enough wetness back in his eyes that he could actually see. Selana was on top of him. “Thank fuck,” she pressed out and embraced him the moment he managed to focus on her.

“How long was I out?” he asked.

“Just five minutes or so,” Tess told him. “You stepped into the wall and two seconds later fell back out.”

“‘Fell’,” Valeria put it in air quotes. “It looked like you were dropping through water.”

“Just another bit of surreality,” Selana said and backed off. “So, did you go even further beyond? What did you experience?”

“Green,” Alex said, then gave them the short report of what he had seen or, rather, not seen. “I think I’m starting to understand the nature of magic… somewhere between antiquity and modernity, mankind lost its touch with the lower instincts that clue into the supernatural. Not sure what to do with that knowledge though.” He scratched his head. In doing so, he realized that something was in his hand.

Its shape reminded him of an almond, but its surface was smooth so it also resembled an apple seed. Unlike either of these things, the seed was huge, easily bigger than a grapefruit. Hard and warm, it laid in Alex’s hand. The dark brown, slippery smooth surface glistened as if oiled.

“Magic,” Alex mumbled and held up the seed. “It sure is interesting, isn’t it?”

His tone was as conflicted as the expressions of the women around him. Even Selana, who always sought a thrill, must have instinctively understood that, with every step they took closer to whatever this island had chosen them for, they moved further away from a return to civilization. With that came the question of whether they ever wanted to return.

Alex pushed that question aside for a definitive moment in the future. Once he had found everyone, once he had made everyone who could be made a haremette into one, the question would have to be answered. It was futile to make a decision while the group affected was still forming.

The more interesting question was: what to do with that seed?

The obvious.

The journey back to the camp was eventless. Them arriving back at the camp did raise some eyebrows. Everyone was around at that moment, eating and chatting, taking their earned afternoon break.

“So, I just made contact with fairies.” Alex told them the story of what had happened, then told them of what he had decided to do with the seed. “I’ll just plant it over there.”

“Maybe we won’t have to forage for food anymore,” Blair suggested.

“Ya think?” Charlotte sounded doubtful.

The redhead shrugged. “I am thinking giant beanstalk.”

“As long as it does not disturb our camp,” Yahui said.

Alex took an extra five steps away after he heard that. He had no idea what happened next, but today had been a chain of good events coming from his gut instincts. A reasonable person would have stopped. He was past that point so he would keep going. Something interesting was bound to come of it.

Patting down the earth on top of the seed gently, Alex took a step away and beheld the freshly upturned soil. The harem was lining up around them. Just because of the origin, they all anticipated that they wouldn’t have to wait long for the seed to grow.

A shrub broke through the surface of the dirt. It was just a little stalk of green first, but it expanded rapidly upwards. Leaves separated from the growing centre of the plant. Within ten seconds, the bark had turned from fresh, flexible green to the brown of a maple tree. Leaves turned a pleasant shade of autumn red under the rays of the sun.

The twig kept on growing, until the stalk was a narrow trunk. Roots loosened surrounding soil. Other trees around visibly shuffled so the new member of the jungle had the space to grow. They almost did not manage to keep up.

The narrow trunk expanded further, until all of the crashed passengers had to take several steps backwards. The roots now emerged on the nearby beach. Like displeased neighbours forced to listen to a rave, the jungle whispered, while the youngling kept on growing.

The trunk now was twice was wide as the span of Alex’s arms and still there was no sign of stopping. The visible roots were girthy enough to put other trees to shame. The party had to take yet further steps back. Even the extra distance that Alex had put between where he had planted the tree and the camp ceased to matter. The tree was benevolent, though, and deliberately avoided the camp with its expanding roots.

Yet still larger, until the base of the red-leafed maple’s trunk was as wide as a family home. The tree stretched up and up, its canopy putting the surrounding forest into its shadow. It was an autumn-crowned king in its realm when it finally stopped growing.

Where it faced the slack-jawed group, the surface of the tree changed. Roots wove into a staircase that led up to a door made from smooth bark and fairy engravings. At several points across the surface of the massive tree, windows formed, softly orange tinged amber crystals replacing glass as the barrier to the outside world. “For real?” Charlotte muttered.

“Not sure if I am angry about the time wasted making the camp or just impressed,” Blair added.

“W-w-w-w-what is happening?!” Sara stammered.

Alex took a deep breath and did as the man of a harem was supposed to do. He took the first step, grabbed the door handle, and opened it up.

The inside of the tree was expansive. Much of the overall structure was still solid wood, putting thick walls between the individual cavities. Some rooms were the traditional squares, many were cylindrical or had curved floors. The most notable of the latter was a chamber where water ran down the walls and pooled in a natural bath, big enough for the entirety of the group to fit in.

Light fell in through the windows, giving everything a slightly orange feeling. The floor was smooth wood, pleasant to the touch, the walls were naturally decorated by the patterns of the tree’s growth and more of the fae markings. Stairs led upwards, all the way to an exit that allowed someone to climb up into the canopy.

The most interesting room was adjacent to that exit. It was the only door inside the tree, the other two doors being the one by the entrance at ground level and the exit at canopy level, and opened only upon Alex’s touch. Inside it was a beating heart of green crystal, pulsing visibly with power.

Just being in its presence let Alex feel the primordial mind of the tree. There were only slow thoughts and few things it cared about. It had an aversion to the nearby saltwater. An aversion swiftly followed by a wordless assurance that it would swim through if required - which naturally caused a question.

“You can swim?” Alex had to ask out.

More than that, the tree could wander. Slow, by Alex’s standards. Rapid, by the standards of a tree. It was the man’s servant and would go where he told it to, as long as he gave the order with the first sun rays of the day. Uprooting was such a hassle otherwise.

The final discovery was the chamber adjacent to this heart room. It was a massive room. Its ceiling was part of the canopy, the gaps between the thick and thin branches sealed by amber crystal providing natural light. The circular room had a floor made of a material that Alex could only describe as silk-cotton, for it was as smooth as the former but as soft as the latter. Shrubs of the material rolled around the room like tumbleweeds made from good dreams.

“Seems like we have a wandering tree house now,” Alex said, not knowing what else to say.

Suddenly he was shoved. He fell into the bed chamber face first. It did not hurt in the slightest when he landed on his nose. Rapidly he turned around, only for Evelyn to mount him. The dragon woman had a submissive pride in her eyes that burned brighter than any fire of passion before. “You are my Master,” she stated, with certainty redoubled, “and this is a home worthy of us!”

Her dripping wet cunt enveloped him a second later.