There were two lovers, guilty of treason
to their kingdom because they absconded often at the king's enemy forest...
There, unbeknownst to them their caresses were peeped upon...
...by friend and foe...
Close to the border lake, at which shore
they hid their canoe...
Thus, in moonless summer nights, when
their passion ...urged them to frolic under their love boat...
They would tiptoe down to the lake and disrobe
in the dark and make love...
...but their silhouettes would reveal
them to the border guards.
Their soft murmur would alert quiet
watch dogs...star light glinting off their roused bodies would tip keen eyes
guarding a fragile truce...
And terse panting would also excite
patrolmen ...it was hard to decide for sentinels if duty commanded to halt the
loving being made, or, to keep watching beautiful flesh in joyful sin..
...and so it was, night after summer
night, in the absence of the Moon, that the truce held, supported by love and lust...
It so happened that the soldiers who
would be at each other throat's beside the lake, were instead enthralled by the
careless youngsters...and themselves, more than aroused, would, on their
leaves, take furious reprisals against wives and mistresses!
They would...
Well, suffice it to say that all ladies
at both kingdoms were ecstatic, and that they knew about what was going on...at the lakeshore.
But, as word of mouth would have, the
lake itself was regarded as the fountain for the power of love and for their
men's energy...and so it was that.. with the lake's water being thus regarded,
made ladies all over also covet being loved over there...
And how well loved they were! They
walked their lovers, their husbands, and even other ladies' husbands in
moonless or moonlighted...nights, and their washing took them there too!
They even began loving their own or the
enemy's guards, and the lake's reputation grew...up to the point that even
crowned heads and nobility began tripping in more than one sense there after dark,
to feast on the vigor of simple but passionate people of both sides.
And it just happened that by Autumn the
reasons for war were being forgotten...
And would have been totally so if it was
not for the king's odious Lord Justice who impotent as he was would have
nothing to do with the "nonsense" lake...and commanded the king's
army to "rescue peace and morals" by mounting a surprise attack on
the first of September's new Moon night.
The bad news spread and gloom, despair
and unfulfilled want settled all over. Damsels turned into wenches and nagging
was nonstop.
Harassed by frustrated women, the
combatants prepared for battle. They
dressed up as required by military rule, spit and polish and all...their
order of battle was simple: get to the lake and fusillade at will any enemy
luckless enough to be caught in the open...
The obstreperous Lord Justice would
like, they were told, to turn the lake red with the neighboring kingdom's
people blood...and all these orders and preparations were discussed amidst
homesteads in sorrowful farewells, because it was well known that past wars had
been deadly for both sides...
But alas!, one of the soldiers to march
front and center to the fight was none less than the young man that started it
all, the one that so enraptured, that so enticed all watchers with his loving
prowess, his stamina and juvenile ardor. And he marched desperately, looking
all over...watching every window, balcony and trellis, for her, for a keen,
heartbroken visage that missed him so much already...
And she was not there for him in his
moment of need. Thus he was marched to the lake in the late evening and made to
dig an outpost close, very close, to the very bushes that hid the canoe where
so many happy nights he made his love his. And a certain fragrance wafted
around...a perfume he recognized instantaneously, because it was hers! She had
anticipated an opportunity and hid herself there early on, with such good star
that the miracle she prayed for had come to be, and her love got close to her
at a time of great peril. The night fell and as always happened, darkness
emboldened them to the point of slipping once more into each other arms, with
an urgency not felt before...
And they embarked in their minute
vessel, flinging clothes onto the lake, with careless abandon. Making
noisy, orgasmic pairings of body, ...of
soul, of night, of stars, of world. Their excitement was so great that all
troops in the vicinity just kept hearing the lake's fame and reputation come
alive, more feverish than ever; what with the trembling cooing and gasping reverberating
from the tiny canoe all over the shores of the soon to be battlefield, all men
at arms enjoyed and remembered their own nights nearby...and suddenly realized
that the night's call for duty was being drowned by the night's call for love.
Such realization just made them come to
their senses, and unafraid of the irate tirades of the Lord Justice, they began
to withdraw...out of the lake's beach trenches and breastworks they came... in
pairs, in squads, jolly and merry they went past him...
All the while mimicking the lovers
passion, imitating their noises, their climaxing, and decided to cool the
king's officer with a lake dunk...
...And once soaked by his own men, the Lord
Justice skulked nearby, looking for revenge, looking for loaded muskets...
Thus armed and alone at the lakeshore he
aimed for the lovers' canoe and fired once and again, reloading and firing
until he sunk them...
Soldiers ran back, alarmed and enraged
when their officer's ill deed was revealed. They made him pull the now limp,
bloodied young bodies out of the water...
Harsh voices were heard and shouts, with
cries calling for a lynching... but general sadness and despair took over the
crowd and hence allowed the murderer to escape.
Time went by...people continued talking
about that Autumn night...
And the talk kept the lake's magic never
diminished, never ceasing to amaze the high excitement gift its surroundings have for all couples ...of
all ages, faiths, colors and of all stations in life.
In recognition, both kingdoms, grateful
for peace, fosterers of love, consecrated a shrine at the lake's midst, to
those who died because they knew not how to be apart...
And it is known, up to these days...that
in the first of the Autumnal moonless nights, out of the lake's center, wind
and current will conspire to sing and resonate...in the same key and rhythm,
the same pitch and fever, as were heard some centuries ago, once upon a time.
By
@MauFerD for @Zambinella's literary blog.
Monterrey,
NL, Mexico, 2013.
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