Starglass

“C’mon, look alive, old man,” Pan slapped his thigh, laughing at Eros, “we’re going down to the Earth Realm later.”
“What? Why?”
“For fun, of course.”
“We have fun here.”
“Quit whining. We haven’t frolicked with humans in centuries. Besides, we’ve been invited by some of my fae friends. We’re going.”
“So you’re dragging me off to the British Isles then, I assume. Which one—don’t tell me, Scotland?”
Pan made a face.
“Dion and I were there last year. You should have seen him in a kilt.”
Ero snorted.
“What did you wear? Assless fur chaps, goat boy?”
Pan laughed even harder, telling Eros everything he needed to know about that. Finally, the satyr sobered enough to speak. “I want to visit ‘ye old England.’”
 “Ugh, Stonehenge gives me indigestion.” Pan gave him a funny look. “Too much pull on the leys. Haven’t been there in ages.”
“Lightweight. Never mind though, we aren’t going there. The smaller fairs are where all the entertainment is anyway. That’s where the younger set goes. There’s music and booze… you’ll love it. Here, I brought this.”
“Where did you get that?” Eros reached for the gold glass ball Pan pulled out of his bag. The satyr shifted it out of his reach before he could lay a finger on it. “Is that what I think it is?”
Starglass was extremely rare and hard to get your hands on. Pan waved his hand over the orb. A soft gold glow immediately flickered in the middle of the glass ball then radiated outward, illuminating the satyr’s doltish grin. Eros sat up and moved closer, focused on the ball. As Pan swirled his fingers above the top of the glass, a shining swirl of dust started to move inside, spinning into a tiny cyclone within the confines of the glass.
“Show us anything to do with the festivals in England on the Earth Realm.” He demanded.
The gold dust liquid inside the ball swirled once more, faster and faster until the glass finally cleared. A silvery, opaque fog hazed it for a few moments, then wept down the inside of the orb, settling at the bottom until a moving view of figures inside a shop somewhere appeared. Three people—two females, one male, all human.
“Ah, that’s not right,” Pan circled his fingers at the top of the glass to clear it.
“Wait.” Eros stopped him.
In the scene within the orb, stood one of the most beautiful females he’d ever seen. Creamy, fair skin, corn silk hair falling in soft, shiny waves and wide green eyes captured his attention. She spoke to the other two humans in the scene in some kind of earthly bookstore.
“What are they saying?”
Pan snapped his fingers and, instantly, their voices came through.
“I can’t go anywhere this weekend. I have to read this and work on my paper.”
The lovely blonde creature held something up, but all Eros saw was her beautiful face.
 “What is that in her hand?” Pan pointed at the glass.
“Goddess,” Eros murmured, tracing the vision of her in the air outside of the starglass.
 Pan snorted beside him, breaking the trance the sight of the woman had put him in. Eros blinked, straightening.
Eros looked at the blonde woman’s slender bare arm as she lowered it. He imagined pressing his lips to every inch of her alabaster skin. Following the graceful line of her appendage down to her fine-boned hand, his mouth watered thinking of how he would suck each digit into his mouth one by one, swirling his tongue around until he had her panting with desire. She would taste as sweet as cream. Finally, he caught sight of what she held in her hand. Cocking his head at the lower round of the starglass ball, a smile pulled the corners of his lips up. He let out an amused chuff.
“What?” Asked Pan. “What is it?”
“Some book on the ancient Celts. Cernnunos is pictured on the front. That must be what she’s studying, poor girl.  I could give her much better things to study, and that’s a fact—Anatomy 101, for example.”
“The stag?” Pan interrupted his line of thinking. “That old sot? Mister ‘god of the wild hunt’. Is he around still?”
“Absolute boor.” Eros laughed at his own joke.
“Haha, right? Freakin Celts-- ‘I got your maypole right here, baby’.” His impression sounded ridiculously Elvis-like.
“You're unwaveringly crude, my friend.”
Pan bowed.
 “Always. If that’s who she’s interested in, I could pass for a fertility god tonight.”
“No!” The word slipped out before Eros could stop it.
He didn’t want Pan’s hands anywhere near his fair-haired beauty. “Help me find her, then leave her to me. You can play with her friends or your nymphs or whoever.”
“Maybe the friends and the nymphs,” Pan stroked his scraggly beard. “Yes, glad to see you’re coming around to my way of thinking. Fine, I’ll leave blondie to you.” He stopped the scene in the orb, then hid it away in his bag only to dig another couple of items out of it. “Might I suggest you wear these?” He made another obnoxious flourish with his hands, producing a crown made of antlers and another of ram’s horns. We’ll attend the festival as Keltoi. Maybe your pretty human will like you as the stag, god of the wild hunt.
 Eros rolled his eyes, but took the crown.
“All right, we’ll go to the Earth Realm.”
 Pan wagged his eyebrows suggestively then left, cackling the whole way. He probably saw visions of some recreated orgy of pagans around a bonfire in his depraved head. In days of old, writhing naked bodies had danced in the flickering glow of such fires and humans had flirted with the spirit world whether they knew it or not. Some had known. That beautiful vixen in the starglass with her book of Celtic gods—did she?
 
 He would go to the Earth Realm festival tonight, but only to observe.
 
Copyright © 2021 Amanda V. Shane, First published as The Wild Hunt in the Wild At Heart PNR Flash Fiction Writing Circle. All rights reserved.

Thank you for reading my story from May’s 2021's Wild At Heart PNR Flash Fiction challenge. The theme this month was "Fertility God/ Goddess (or Maypole)" with a 1,000 word max. This little snippet will take shape in a full novella next month that will be offered as a free download in my newsletter.  Subscribe now to get you your copy of Midsummer Lover in June!

Click on the links below to read all of the other fabulous stories submitted:

Prickly Pregnancy by Miri Stone
https://www.facebook.com/notes/144227464414318

Forgotten Love by Cassie Laelyn
https://www.facebook.com/notes/1186808571761946