Summary:  Lost in a sandstorm, the Cartwrights find a shelter in a mysterious cavern

Rated:  MA  WC  4300

The Cavern 

Their horses were stepping heavily. In order to protect their faces from the sand specks hurting their skin, they were lowering their heads. They had placed a bandana on their mount’s eyes. Being temporary blind, the horses had just to trust their riders.

Adam and Hoss were riding on the front, Ben followed and Joe brought up the rear.
“I hope you know were you’re going”, he shouted but none of his brothers heard him, the wind piercing their ears.”

“Do you see what I see, Hoss, or is it a mirage? I happen to see a cave with a lantern enlightening the entrance.” Adam asked, screaming to be heard. “Do I dream?”

“You’re not dreaming”, Hoss shouted, “or we’re both victims of the same illusion. Me too, I’m seeing a cave and a lantern.”

“Pa, Joe, come here quick. We’ve found a place to take cover. Look at that.”

Ben and Joe moved their necks forward and caught sight, them too, of this surprising and unexpected appearance of civilisation, right in the middle of the desert, right in the middle of a sandstorm. Well and truly, there was a lantern shining and enlightening a crevice in the rock.

“Maybe it’s a mystery” Joe declared, stating aloud what they were all thinking “but this is not the moment for speculations. You do what you want, but, as far as we are concerned, Cochise and I, we get in.” And jumping from his saddle, he took Cochise’s rein, leant down and disappeared inside.

Ben, Adam and Hoss didn’t loose time in thinking. They penetrated into the cavern and found themselves in some kind of a vaulted room with a burning torch, fixed to the wall, giving light. Before they had the time to explore their refuge further, a girl emerged from the bottom of the cave. She was a lovely brunette with jet-black eyes, long hair waving around her rosy cheeks, obviously a very charming apparition.

– “Welcome to the shelter, gentlemen”, she said gently. “Follow me, we will take care of your horses and then, we will look after you.”

The four men look at themselves, stunned, and, speechless with surprise, followed their guide.

She was dressed with a puff-sleeve green corsage and a dark red skirt on which a vivid white apron was spreading. On the nape of her neck, a well-behaved ribbon, reminding the skirt’s colour, imprisoned a heavy lock of her hair.

The corridor was quite narrow and they had to queue for around thirty metres, then, they came out onto a high and long gallery where stalls had been settled. Several horses were already there and men were busy rubbing or feeding them. The Cartwrights stared wide-eyed : what on earth could be this barn built inside the mountain. “But where does air come from”, Adam wondered.

“It comes from air vents pierced in the ceiling”, the young maid informed him. Adam blushed, realizing that he had thought aloud.

“If you’re okay”, the girl said, “we can leave your horses here, these men will take care of them.”

“Oh, Miss”, Hoss interrupted, “we can do it ourselves.”

“No use, let them do it, it’s their job. Come on a hot supper is waiting for you.”

There could not be a better reason for making Hoss change his mind. With his father and brothers, he followed close behind his charming cicerone who led them to a large, very busy room, sort of a giant dining-room.
“Fantastic!” Ben whispered. « A hacienda built in a mountain’s cave ! »

“Yes, “ Adam replied, “I’m admiring the architecture.”

“And me”, Hoss retorted, “I’m appreciating the good smell of soup.”

– “And me” Joe commented, “I’m admiring the population.”

Half a dozen of young beautiful ladies, all dressed the same way, were busy bringing to the people sitting at the tables well-filled trays. There were single men, of all kinds, all conditions, farmers, clergymen, sinister-looking cow-boys, or colonists families with their kids. In the centre, a band composed of two violins, one accordion, one guitar and one piano, was laying a lively music. The young maid who had welcomed them showed them a round table situated just at the right distance to hear the music without being disturbed for the conversation..

– “Set menu, to-night, implies vegetable soup, omelette with pieces of chopped bacon, rabbit terrine, fried potatoes and plum cake, is that all right?”

– “Splendid!” Hoss answered. The others merely nodded but it was clear that it was perfectly all right.

A few minutes later, the maid came back with a heavy soup tureen. Another maid, as fair haired as her colleague was brown haired, brought a jug of water and a jar of wine.”

– “Hold on, young girl”, Ben said, “we didn’t order this wine. I’ve got enough money to pay this dinner but I don’t know how expensive this wine can be, I might not be able to buy it.”

“Bur, Sir, here, nobody pays with money, you have to pay with services.”

“What do you mean ?”

“We take in travellers lost in the winds ans sandstorms, we feed them, give them a roof and a place to rest and, in exchange, each of them or just a member of the family does my boss the favour she asks for : take care of the horses, cleans the rooms, fix what is broken, decorate for those who are artists…”

“So, the manager, here, is a woman ! I’d like to see her, is it possible ?

“Sir, she shows herself only when she wants to and to people she chooses. She was the one who decided you will be offered some wine. Do you want some ?”

Puzzled, Ben accepted. His sons pushed up their glasses and the fair haired girl filled them with wine. At the end of the meal, Ben got up.

– “Well , I feel better . I don’t know what services we will be asked to do, but it was worth it. Come on, boys, get up ! »

‘ “Tell them we’re very good at taking care of horses”, Joe suggested. “Or that we could clen up the dishes with all those pretty little things that have been fussing around us for two hours.It will be a pleasure.”

Ben was on the point of turning back to lecture him when he saw the languorous blond and the spicy brunette come to them. With a large grin, he stepped forward towards them.

– “Well, ladies, as you can see, I’m ready. What is your… price ?”, he asked with sort of mischief. “The four of us, we can do lots of things, do you know ? My son Hoss is second by none for horseshoeing, my son Adam is a brilliant architect and he does what he wants with his hands, I have no rival in ledgers books. As for my younger son, Joe, he can do any kind of chores, even dish washing. So, just give your orders.”

– “No use, Mr Cartwrights, you can just have rest. He will pay.”

As she was saying that, the blond was pointing her finger at Adam.

– “Him alone?” Ben asked, incredulous.

– “Yes, him alone. The boss was positive. She said: “Bring me the one all dressed in black.”

– “No doubt, it’s me”, Adam agreed. “Grabbing his hat, he bowed graciously before the girls and said: “Ready to follow you.”

– “Wait a minute, son”, his father exclaimed, “we’ll not let you go like that, without knowing where you go and what they’re expecting from you.”

The maids giggled and Adam looked at his father with a mocking grin : “I don’t think I’m taking a big risk, Pa. besides, they didn’t take my gun off.”

Ben realized that he was making a fool of himself. He moved to let his son come past and watched him disappear behind a curtain at the back of the room.

– “Do you think he will soon be back ?”, Hoss asked his father.

– “Do you think the girls will soon be back ?”, Joe echoed.

– “I wonder what she wants from him”, Ben groaned. “Maybe she has some decoration works to be made…”

– “Smart guess…” Joe said with a mocking tone that triggered off a revelation for Ben.

– “You don’t mean that… You don’t imagine…”

– “Yes I do”, Joe replied, perfectly beaming. “I hope older brother will be equal to the situation. We have been treated as princes, he must treat her as a queen.”

– “Joe, stop immediately these uncalled-for and scandalous remarks. Besides, you may ne totally wrong.”

Hoss had listened to this exchange, without being sure he understood but, seeing his father’s irritation, he preferred not to ask questions.

Meanwhile, Adam was worming his way into narrow corridors, led at great speed by the two red skirts. Suddenly, the passage opened on a wide, half circle-shaped antechamber. A big door had been set in the rock. The room was furnished with a large wardrobe, a couch and a small table.”

– “Please, Mr Cartwright, will you be kind enough to leave here your gun and your boots. The place you’re getting in is warm and wet and your gun would become unusable if you keep it. Don’t worry, no harm will be done you.”

In Adam’s mind, worry vied with curiosity. Everything, in this matter was mystery: this lantern keeping light in the middle of the storm, this cavern surprisingly wide and deep, these surrealistic barn and dining-room, this meal incredible in the desert and now, this door hiding a “ warm and wet place”…

He casted his eyes at the girl who was talking to him and then, he turned back towards the other for scrutinizing also her physiognomy. He could see there no evil deed, no mischief.

– “Well, let’s choose adventure”, he said to himself, knowing that, in any case, he would have made this choice. He untied his belt, gave it to the maid, sat down to remove his boots allowing the miss to see his black socks.

– “Okay, now, shall we go to this warm and wet place?”

– “You go there », the blond said, opening the door.

A thick steam invaded the room he entered. He could not see a thing at a few inches.

– “Damned, how hot !” he groused. “It reminds me a book I read about the Roman people. They called it thermal baths. Whatever, where is this woman who’s expecting services from me ? “

He called “Hoho” but received no answer.

– “I have definitely to get out of this, I’m literally melting.” And he started feeling the walls to find an exit. The room was big. He needed at last five minutes to find a leather door that he opened with relief.

– “Whow ! At last, I’m out of the trap, but not by the way I got in.”

He examined the place where he was. It was again a wide room covered with green mosaics. On the wall, they had set hooks and towels were hanging on. This sight rejoiced him. He glanced around to get sure he was alone and, satisfied on this point, quickly undressed from head to foot and dried his body. Then, after having made a loincloth with a towel, he explored the surroundings. The room had two doors, the one he came from, that he carefully avoided, and another he headed to. He went through and found himself… outside.

As a matter of fact, he was still inside the mountain but a wide hole discovered the sky and the stars. He was in the middle of a volcanic crater, not very deep and, in the bottom, the waters of a natural lake were shining. Torches set in the wall preserved both light and heat.

Without thinking further, he dropped down the towel and… naked as Adam, dove into the water.

It was good to submerge in fresh water after this long ride through wind and sand. He suddenly realized that the thermal bath had been beneficial, cleaning his skin. “Had I known , I’d have undressed immediately ”, he thought .

He was swimming the Indian way, body on the side, one arm forward to cut the water, the other arm acting as a row. He had been moving to and fro in the pond for five minutes, having absolutely forgotten why and how he was there, just savouring the pleasure of swimming when he heard the noise of a dive. He raised his head, trying to locate the noise and took of a swimmer coming to him.

As the swimmer approached, he realized that it was not a “he” but a “she” and that she was as totally undressed as he was himself.

Noticing that he was able to touch the bottom, he raised up in the water and waited. Only his wide shoulders and his head were emerging. A short time after, the unknown woman reached him and, shameless, clang to him”

– “You will excuse me but, me, I’m out of my depth.”

He looked at her and what he saw delighted him. She had big dark almond-shaped eyes, topped by perfectly arched eyebrows, quivering nose wings, high cheekbones and a triangular chin. Her long hair was plaited. As it was wet, he could not, at the time, specify yhe colour but he didn’t care. Unconsciously, he put his hands around her waist, a slim one.

– “Are you the boss ?”

She laughed: “It’s the name I’m given by this girls’ squad of mine but my actual name is Liana.”

“Liana ? This is the first time I hear this name. Anyway, you deserve it, you’re as supple as a liana. But I’m here to do you the service you will ask for. What can I do for you ?”

Her laugh resonated, a silvery sound in this sonorous acoustic of the mountains circle. “First of all, you can help me out of the water. Carry me there, where you can see white towels.”

He obeyed, beginning to have a very precise idea of the way he was supposed to reward his host’s hospitality.

He lifted her up. She had hanged her arms around his neck and her body streamed with water against his. He laid her gently on the bank and took a step backward to be able to admire her. No, definitely, if his mission was to make love with her, it was hardly a chore. She had the fine figure of Diana the Huntress, a Greek goddess whose statue he had the opportunity to admire in Boston, when a youth. Her bosom was round and high, she was wasp-waisted, the hips were thin and the legs perfect.

She let him watch her without saying a word and without moving when he turned around her to have an idea of her back. He was not deceived by the buttocks, firm, oval-shaped. No doubt, she was a beauty and the mystery around her made her still more attractive.

She suddenly decided that he had had time enough for examining her attentively and caught a white towel spread on a deckchair placed there on purpose, she turned back to Adam and proposed :

– “Come on, let me dry you out.”

– “I’m not sure I will be patient enough”, he replied with a meaning crooked smile and, without adding anything, he hugged her and kissed her. They both savoured this kiss. She could feel his sex, hard, rising up, against her belly. Then, she parted from him and started running towards a door half-opened, that he hadn’t noticed, his attention having focused on something else, which had prevented him to explore the surroundings.

He stood up there, motionless for a while, then, leaning forward, he declared aloud, speaking to himself:

“Well, this arrow I’ve got between my thighs is showing a way, let’s follow it !”

And nonchalantly, he headed to the door and went in the room, brilliant with whiteness : the walls, the ceiling were white, curtains too and also the wide bed and the screen behind which Liana had disappeared, so he could see only the nape of her neck.

Just at the minute he located her, she left the cover of the screen and appeared in a white negligee she had passed on her still wet body, so the clothe stuck to her skin making her incredibly attractive.

If she wanted to have him losing his control, she was not disappointed. He rushed towards her, lifted her from the ground, carried her on the bed and tore off the nacre button, circled with silver, that was fastening the negligee.

Lying over her, he began to caress her, using his hands and his lips. She let herself be cherished, sometimes holding on to his shoulders sometimes completely flat, opened to him. Soon, his fingers’ exploration became more intimate. Suddenly, he stopped, drawing his fingers out of her feminity.

– “But… but…”

Anxious, she straightened up on her elbows.

– “What’s wrong ?”

– “You’re a virgin ! »

She blushed : “Yes, and if I chose you, it’s just because I don’t want to stay so anymore. I beg you, don’t reject me.” Tears were forming in beads in her eyes, giving her the look of a doe at bay.

He laid his hand on her forehead, pushing back the hair with a tender gesture.

– “Little girl, little girl, are you sure of what you are doing ? You just met me, I’m a stranger passing by and you want to entrust me with the mission of making you a woman ?”

– “You don’t understand, Adam, I know you. You are the one that doom designed for me. I was waiting for you. As soon as I caught sight of you, through the Venetian blind, I recognized you. Oh, Adam… I will explain everything… after… if you accept. I beg you… I beg you…”

While imploring him, she was caressing the nape of his neck and offering her mouth. Desire prevailing over curiosity, he could not help touching this mouth with his and then, with infinite gentleness, he started again caressing her until she opened instinctively her legs.

– “Cross your legs over my waist”, he whispered to her ear and he penetrated her slowly. She just moaned lightly when he pierced the hymen that was luckily thin. Seeing that pain had been fugitive, he went on in his come and go, accelerating progressively and felt that she was beginning to swing and heave herself in order to meet him.

She moaned again but, this time, obviously, it was not for pain. This reaction galvanized him and he exploded into her while she was gripping him and giving out a sigh that was almost a cry.

They staid a few moments, collapsed and silent on the bed, savouring the waves of pleasure flowing back, then Adam, his researcher’s instinct getting over it, declared:

– “And now, little girl, you promised me an explanation. How did you know my first name although nobody had pronounced it before you?”

“So, he had noticed that”, she said to herself. Although being in full sexual excitation, he had noticed in a corner of his brain this anomaly. Beyond any shadow of doubt, Adam Cartwright was a man out of the ordinary, a man that would not be satisfied with tales. She rose up, put on her negligee, looked in vain for the button to fasten it and sat down on the bedside. Seeing that, he rose up too and went to sit down on the ground facing her. In spite of her effort, she found unable to avert his gaze from this lap and this penis that, as she could guess, was not actually at rest.

But Adam, without losing a piece of what this negligee was showing him, was too much intrigued to abandon his questioning.

– “Yes ?”, he said, as if she had said something.

– “Well, that’s the point, you are in a parallel world.”

– “What ?”

– “You heard me: you and your family have got across the space-time continuum, thanks to the storm. These are things that happen from time to time. Don’t ask me to tell you how, it’s a fact, that’s all. They call that mirages but they are not. Did you never had the impression that something exists and, suddenly, you see it vanish ?

– “No, but I believe it happened once to my brother Joe.”

– “In the world where I’m living”, Liana went on, “some people are born with the skill of prediction and persuasion. I’m one of them.”

– “Prediction, I see what it is, but persuasion ?”

– We have the talent of inducing people to think the same way as we do. Do you remember? You were hesitating to take me because of my virginity but I just had to gaze at you and, suddenly, you decided that, finally, it was not that much important.”

– “Huh”, he mumbled, not very happy to discover he had been manipulated.

– “But it’s true”, she pleaded, “that it’s not so important. The prediction not being realized, that would have been serious !”

– “And what’s this prediction ?”

– “From our mating, I will give birth to twins, a boy and a girl, and they will save my planet.”

– “And you ?”, Adam asked, worrying for the pretty young woman whom he just had made love with, more than for these improbable twins to be, who were to live in a world that wasn’t his.

– “Me, I will live happy remembering the pleasure and tenderness you gave me. That’s why, Adam, we must not waste in talking the little time we have left.”

While saying these words, she put off the frail white clothe that so little protected her from his look and she squatted down in front of her lover holding her breast in her hands and pushing it towards his mouth.

He didn’t resist. “To-morrow”, he thought, “I will go further in that space-time continuum story and I’ll see how I can do to take her with me, back to our world. What does she believe ? She is the first virgin that I introduce to sex, I am not going to just give her a first experience and run away, leaving her to her destiny, whatever it is. And over all, I like her too much to let her go.”

And seizing the right breast, he started sucking at it greedily while she was roaring with pleasure.

For three times, he made himself the master of this body that wanted nothing else than to be submitted. While sinking in a deep sleep, he felt something hard under his back and took the object in his hand but lost consciousness without having the time to see what it was.

When he emerged, before opening his eyes, he threw his left hand at his side, thinking he would touch his mistress’ body but, instead of it, he felt a buffalo vest and heard a familiar voice groan: “Okay, okay, I get up .”

– “Hoss, what are you doing there ?”

– “What are you doing there ?”, his brother replied, emphasizing the “you”, “when I fell asleep, I was…”

Interrupted by a neigh, he could not finish. Screwing up their eyes, they tried to get their bearings in the darkness. They happened to be in the first room at the cave’s entrance. Ben and Joe, waken up by the horse, shook themselves.

– “Lola, where is she ?” Joe exclaimed.

– “Who’s Lola ?”, Ben asked, with grumpy tone.

– “But Pa, that’s the lovely brunette who welcome us on this very spot. After Adam’s departure, remember, she took us to our bedrooms and… since her friend, the blond one wanted to stay with Hoss, I went away with her and… you see what I mean ?”

– “I see perfectly”, Ben retorted, trying to look stern but prompted to be indulgent by the fact he also had passed the night with a lady friend.”

Hoss scratched his head. “I don’t understand, I was with Lydia, I… was undressed and now, I’m just as if all that had not existed. Do you remember, like me, the dinner we had ?”

– “Yes”, Joe confirmed, “and also the so animated tavern.”

– “And the fact that we were not to pay with money but with services ?”, Ben asked.

– “I remember so well that I was the one called for the payment”, Adam whispered, “and this payment was very pleasant.”

-“Let us search the exits” Joe proposed, beginning to rummage, “we can’t leave the place like that.”

Hoss and Ben imitated him but could not find any opening in the rock wall.

– “Well, well”, Ben said after a while, “there’s nothing and nobody else than our horses and ourselves. We must face the truth, we’ve found here a shelter, we’ve slept and we’ve dreamt. What’s strange is that we made the same dream.”

“At least for the beginning”, Joe remarked, with cheeky tone.

“In any case, we must all be in lack of feminine presence, if I judge by the content of our dreams”, said Ben sententiously, not realizing he was betraying himself.

“Do you remember, Pa, this time, when I was chasing an outlaw and I believed I saw a phantom town. I even had the impression I had been living there for several days… It’s the same phenomenon.”

“Dadburnit, that’s true”, Hoss remarked.

Adam was listening, silent. Unclenching his right hand’s fingers, he had just discovered there a nacre button circled with silver. He knew, him, that it had not been a dream.

“I’ll come back”, he promised to himself, “oh, yes, I’ll come back and I’ll find her.”