With Honey and Venom

"What hast thou done to me,

Girl, with the dream in thing eyes?

Brightened the sun to me,

Lightened the skies;

Made there be one to me,

One only sun to me

Not in the skies.

What hast thou done to me,

Girl, with the dream in thing eyes?

Darkened the sun to me,

Blackened the skies;

Made there be none to me,

Nor star nor sun to me,

Only black skies."

-"Et Melle Et Felle," Anonymous

What prompts people to fall in love? Is there truly such an emotion so vivid as to allow two different people to come together and care for one another so deeply as to be monogamous?

In my experience, there is no such thing; lust is the only factor in any relationship, and it depends solely on the strength of it to determine whether the two are monogamous or not. So far, there has never been a monogamous couple. The man will stray eventually, seeking out other bed-partners.

Love has never existed in any relationship.


II...Be Careful What You Wish for


The sunlight streaming into the well was what roused me first, and I groggily answered the demonic call before it burnt out my eyes through the lids. I looked up, lifting a hand that felt like it weighed a ton to shield my eyes. I didn't know what had happened, or even where I was, but the last thing I did remember was that I had been climbing down a well to retrieve my lost cell phone...and there had been a roof over the well. "What the...hell?" I asked aloud, wincing at the dry scratching of my vocal cords. Then I remembered I hadn't eaten since...well, I hadn't eaten breakfast before starting my chores, and I had no idea what time of day it was, or even what day. This started to freak me out, but being the rational, logical person I was--

"HOLY FUCKING SHIT!"

Okay, so I kind of panicked. But, hey, who wouldn't? I mean, come on! I was in a WELL for god's sakes! Sheesh... So, after screaming my lungs out and scrambling to right myself (I had landed in an uncomfortable heap at the bottom, my head wedged in a corner while my right leg was tucked under my bottom and my arms spread out along two adjoining sides), I stretched my arms out to the sides, holding myself stationary as my legs did the same. I started to walk up the sides of the well, breathing hard at the strain it caused my crotch; I was never good at doing the splits, and this incident just reinforced my determination to avoid it at all costs.

So, after reaching the well's lip, I used my meager upper-body strength to haul myself out, cold fear washing over me for a moment when my legs dangled, and then I was up and over the side, tumbling into the tall grass beside the well. "Safe," I murmured, laying a hand on my chest, just above my breasts. My heart beat wildly under my hand, and I closed my eyes to attempt to slow it down.

After a minute or so, I opened my eyes and stared at the intense blue sky, wondering aloud to myself, "What...happened to me? Where...am...I? Why...why is the sky so blue?" Of their own accord, my eyes closed once more, and my mind drifted in nothingness, seeking out...something...

Gasping, my eyes jerked open and I scrambled to the left, flipping over and over. I landed on my back as a spray of dirt rained down upon me, and I looked up. Disbelievingly, I rose shakily to my feet, standing in front of a giant that dwarfed even my own six foot-four frame. That wasn't all: it was an ogre! "What the hell!"

"I sense a great soul within you," the beast growled in Japanese, the words barely discernable. "I shall rip that soul right out of you and devour the rest!"

Shrieking, I raced for the nearby tree line, my leg muscles pumping hard, but my weight slowed me down (stupid weight training...). "I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die, I don't wanna die!" I chanted to myself (in English, as I always reverted back to in instances like these). "Oh, freaking hell!"

"Get back here, meal!"

I tripped on something, flew through the air a moment, and landed with a heavy thud against a tree, my head knocking solidly against it. Dizzied for a moment, I stood and swayed, my vision going in and out. The beast advanced on me at an accelerated rate, seeming to double the distance every time I blinked. I probably had a concussion, no thanks to my previous fall in the well. Seeing my death in his beady little red eyes, I ducked and tried to make myself as small as possible, my hands gripping the back of my neck to protect it, so I had at least a slim chance of survival if he didn't sever my spine or if by some miracle missed me. "Oh, please, ancient gods, if I ever needed you now, I need you now!" I prayed, tears of fear and panic blurring my vision, eyes still wide as adrenaline pumped through my veins.

A loud roar filled my ears, and I hurriedly shut my eyes, feeling the Grim Reaper breathe down my neck, the hairs standing on end. I didn't want to die right here like this: so coward, running from a fight, and I hadn't even had sex yet!

Five minutes passed as I waited there, consciousness fazing in and out, shivering like a cornered rodent, and adrenaline pumping through my veins urging me to fight back, or at least flee. When the ten-minute mark passed (I'd been counting in my head), I cautiously raised my gaze, blinking when nothing moved to gobble me up. I uncurled, standing, and looked down at the fallen ogre. It lay less than ten feet from me, but it was obviously dead, the broken log sticking up like a flag of victory from it's back.

Blinking, the sweat from my running excursion cooling in the small of my back, I edged closer to the body, prodding it with one sandaled foot. When it did not move, a smile bloomed over my face. The gods had answered my prayers!

Still happily not watching where I was going, I headed back toward the well, wondering if I could find some sort of civilization nearby, when I tripped…in the exact same spot that had caused me to trip when I'd been running from the ogre. After I picked myself up from the ground, sure I had several more cuts in embarrassing places, I glanced near my feet, wondering what sort of stupid rock had tripped me.

A glinting something greeted my gaze, sticking up out of the ground near the ogre's feet. So, it had tripped on the same thing I had? What a clumsy goof, I laughed to myself bending down to pick up whatever it was. When I had cleared it away from the dirt and grass of the ground (it was stuck in there, though I had no clue as to how), I beheld a wonderful item: a torque, like something a rich lady in the Dark Ages would wear with a low-necked gown. It was breathtakingly magnificent, along with the purple crescent-moon shaped pendant tangling from tiny metal links crafted into the torque.

"Wow. You're a damn lucky piece of fine metal," I told it in English, smiling. It was a gift from the gods, I decided, and then looked down, examining it closer. It looked solid at first, but when I pulled at it on either side of the pendant, it separated in the back. It didn't like it had any clasp, or a hinge in the front; was it a bendable metal? It's couldn't be gold, since it had a pure silvery shine to it. Curiously, I put it around my neck, closing both sides around my neck, my fingers dancing around the small strip of bare skin it left. I sighed in exasperation, having hoped it would fit around my neck, but obviously my neck muscles were too thick to fit around. Stupid neck.

"Oh well," I muttered. "I could always go and get a claps welded onto it." My fingers reached back to take it off, but where there once was a strip of bare skin, there was now only cold metal. "Uh…" I felt all around the back of my neck, but I couldn't find the opening. I even searched the front of the torque, but the opening had seemingly… "Vanished… Shit," I sighed, "This day just keeps getting weirder and weirder. I'm too damn tired of all this weird shit happening…"

And so saying thusly, I started my search for civilization, feeling a bit choked from the collar-like torque, and still bruised from my encounter with the…demon… "Crap. Demons…are real!"

A drum beats in the darkness…

The gods were taunting me, I was sure of it. Back home, you couldn't trust anything in nature, the soil and water were so polluted. Back home, water came in bottles, pre-treated and bacteria-free. Hell, back home, you couldn't even trust a fresh spring from under ground! So…why was I contemplating drinking out of a fresh cold spring that was bubbling up from the surface? Stupid gods, I murmured in my mind, poking the bubbling surface of the water. It seemed clean enough, since there were no nasty murky-brown particles in it, but I didn't want some amoeba floating around in my stomach trying to get me sick for swallowing it.

"If I get sick," I said to the ancient gods if they were listening, "this is all your fault. You shoulda known I would try and drink this stuff since I'm so damn thirsty." With that, I reached both my hands under the surface and brought them up, the clear, sparkling water just begging to be swallowed, and I lowered my face, ready to drink…and started choking.

Gasping for air, I released the water, falling on to my rear-end, my hands reaching up to the torque to try and release the pressure on my neck. If I didn't know better, and I did, I would've sworn right then and there someone had a leash on me! But, the weird thing was, as soon as I had released the water from my palms, the choking sensation had lessened until it was just no more than a slight twinge if I turned my neck too swiftly.

"Okay…" I pronounced slowly, carefully. I thought perhaps that maybe, just maybe, the ancient gods had heard me and were getting a tad too vengeful. "I really didn't mean to put the blame at your door, o' merciful gods." To make doubly sure they wouldn't continue their harassment of me, I sent up a quick homage to them, then turned to try and attempt another drink. And the same thing happened. "Okay… What's going on here?"

Clasping my hands together, I tapped the intertwined fingers against my lips, thinking. Experimentally, I put my hands in the water again, lifting them out cupped and filled with the sparkling water. When I brought it to my lips, the chokehold started again. I moved my hands away from my mouth, and the choking sensation lessened. I brought my hands lose again and it started again. So…it was the collar-torque that was causing the choking sensation? I wondered why…

Sighing, I instead used the water to drench my head, the collar allowing me at least that much. The cold liquid slid down the back of my neck and beneath the collar, cooling down the heated flesh. Metal was not something to wear if you were already wearing two layers of clothing in a warm environment. This kind of perplexed me, since it had been almost freezing when I had woken up, before falling down the well that is.

Ah, oh well, I thought to myself, rising to stand and turning away from the water, no matter how much my throat ached for the liquid. It would just have to deal with spittle and phlegm for now.

I continued on my search for civilization, mentally marking the path to the spring in my mind, just in case I could get water from the stupid thing at a later date or time. It would be something to look forward to, that water was. I stumbled across the forest floor, shivering in the shadows and sweating in the sun patches alternately, wondering how I could survive such an environment if the temperatures kept going to the extremes. I mean, I'd grown up in a relatively hot and humid place, but it wasn't like the desert or the beach. I'd suffered the winters, but the shadows in the forest were way colder then the worst winter back home.

Pausing to lean my back against a tree, I closed my eyes, letting my senses drift and mind wander. I was tired and still sleepy from that evil thing known as jet lag. My leg muscles were cramping, my throat pulsing and dry, and the beginnings of a headache were forming just behind my eyes.

This was exactly when I felt a presence nearby. It had been like last time with the ogre demon, that little sixth sense that let me know danger was coming. So, I was a little closer to my animal side then most people were, but that had saved my life, so I wasn't complaining. But whatever this new presence was, it didn't seem hostile like the ogre had.

So, cautiously, I peeked one eye open, peering through the lashes to see what had caused my animal sense to twinge. I saw nothing, so I opened both eyes and started to look around. "Hello?" I called out carefully, not wanting to draw too much attention if the thing did turn out to be hostile, but still wanting to know if a sentient being was there and would be kind enough to point me in the direction of any nearby civilization and a precious and very much needed bathroom.

"Why do you wear my collar, wench?"

I whirled around, catching a glimpse of silver and gold before a hand went around my neck, pushing me against the tree I had previously used as a resting post. I winced as the chokehold began anew, making my dry throat even more painful. My eyes were scrunched tight, and it took me a moment to realize this, and by the time I had opened my eyes, the hand that held my throat was tightening.

I gasped for air, the personification of beauty standing right before me having effectively knocked what little breath I'd had. Gorgeous, long, silky straight and smooth hair drew my gaze first, my fingers itching to dance through the locks. Then my eyes met his, and I swore my mouth started watering: the sheer golden magnificence of his gaze made me want to weep with the beauty of it.

"Answer, human, less you have a death wish," he said, his perfectly sculpted lips lulling me as if he were a snake charming a mouse.

I blinked, then drew my consciousness together, thinking it must've been the concussion I'd gotten earlier. Drawing in a breath before speaking, I took one more peek at this beautiful creature, and then spoke the words that sealed my fate: "It saved me from getting eaten by a demon."


End Chapter


Post Scriptum Author's Note: Yeah, I know: the uberly cheesiness of the whole thing. A little reminiscent of Kagome's beginning in the feudal era, except it's now perfect with the epitome of perfection. Bet you can't guess who! Anyways, I'll explain a few bits first: I didn't mention Adele grabbing her cell phone originally because, well, she wasn't supposed to have it in the first place. But, it seemed like the perfect thing to draw her down the well (since, sometimes, my phone lights up without the annoying ring tone sounding). So, yeah… Oh, and I finally looked up the name, and it turns out Adele really is a girl's name, just German in origin. But since Adele is of Nordic descent, it's not going to be her real name. Notice that in the first chapter I put that she said, "My name is…Adele." The pause meant something. The reason why she chose to be called Adele is because her real name is just embarrassing. I mean, come on: who would want to be named "Winifred"? So, yeah, enough of my ramblings (review, damn you all!). Ehehe… Just kidding. Hope you liked chapter two, and special thanks to Lexia Riddle for being the first reviewer.