Chapter 2

Cove spent the warm summer night in a daze, trying to reconcile his fully remembered dream with his boring existence. Ignis, a sexy woman made of lava, had convinced him to become her champion, and he had undertaken a quest to stop a man who was able to transform into a dragon. He finally had to euthanize the dragon man when his transformation back into human form had gone horribly awry. This had all happened in some magical realm, another world. After he had saved a damsel in distress, Ignis had possessed the young woman and taken Cove’s virginity. Then he woke up with his sheets soaked from a wet dream.

He had stayed up all night playing video games (it was summer!), so his sleep schedule was backwards compared to most people. He ate ‘breakfast’ at 8 PM, did his chores, and watched some TV. He played some more video games, talked to his friends online, and it was all so mundane! Why had his mind produced such an exciting dream world that was so much better than real life? There, he was a hero who was getting laid! Here in the real world he was a zero, and still a virgin, since dreams didn’t count.

His Mom noticed his distraction during his ‘dinner’, her breakfast, and asked him about it, but he couldn’t explain what was wrong. ‘Sorry, Mom, I wanna kill bad people and have sex again.’ Yeah, he figured that would get him thrown into a rubber room real quick.

When he got tired around 10 AM he headed back to bed. He really hoped he’d have another dream about Ignis and her world again...

He opened his eyes to find himself back in the lava chamber. “Yes! I’m back!” he exulted.

Ignis arrived shortly thereafter, bubbling up from the melted stone pool. Her feminine features were more defined today, looking reminiscent of the young woman she had possessed, but still fiery and magmatic (he wondered if that was a word).

“Welcome back, my champion, my lover,” she purred with her deep voice.

Cove blushed and moved forward to embrace her, but the heat from her body was too intense, so he had to back off.

“I’m sorry, Cove, but my true form would harm you. We will have to continue our trysts through intermediaries.”

He saw the ebon marble and knife at the side of the lava pool and picked them up. “So I just have to get some woman to touch this?” he asked, holding up the marble.

“It isn’t that simple,” she explained. “The marble would need to drain the magic from an enemy first. Only then may its power be used for other, more pleasurable activities.”

He considered the small round object, and how its dark surface seemed to suck in the light. “So, do you have another asshole we can stop?”

Cove could smell brine as he neared the end of the declining tunnel Ignis had directed him down. He wondered how big this world was, if all the people were within walking distance, before he emerged into a massive cavern. Those strange glowing crystals had lined the walls of the tunnel, allowing him to see where he was going, and more of those seemed to be embedded in the roof of the grotto, though they were high up so it was darker. He could hear lapping waves in the distance.

As he approached what appeared to be an underground lake, he heard a feminine giggle. Frowning, he squinted as he approached a figure who was halfway out of the water. It was a beautiful naked woman! Or at least her torso was naked, though her breasts were tantalizingly hidden behind her long red hair as it cascaded damply down her chest.

“Oh, hi!” he greeted her. “Are you in trouble? Do you need my help?”

The woman just smiled and beckoned him near, giggling again. He stepped closer. She swam back a bit and gestured to him again, nibbling her lower lip in the universal sign of sexual desire.

Enchanted by her gorgeous face and alluring body, Cove decided to just go for it. He pulled off his jeans and shirt and considered the ebony blade and marble. The orb he tucked into his briefs, but he left the knife on top of his clothes before he slipped into the water. It was cold! He swam over to the woman. “What’s your name?” he asked her.

She tilted her head at the question. He wondered if she was mute. She drew closer, now that he was in the water with her, tracing a finger along his slim chest. He noted that her hands had pronounced webbing between her fingers, and what looked like gills on the side of her neck. Could it be...? He moved his hands forward and ran them down her hips, feeling fish scales there. Yes! She was a mermaid! He pulled back and gave her a grin.

She bared her teeth in a mirror of his smile, and he noted that her teeth actually seemed quite sharp. He had a momentary reflexive sense of danger before something grabbed him from behind and pulled him under the water!

Fortunately, the gasp of surprise at seeing the mermaid’s chompers had pulled a breath of air into his lungs before he found himself being held under the water by something! He was able to turn enough to see a burly male form with a fish tail holding him down ... a merman!