Free Wine of the Gods 03: The Black Goats by Pam Uphoff Page A

“Thanks, Never," she called as she skipped out the door.
    "I'll put it all in a special crate." Harry carried the crate through the back door. “See?"
    It had little red hearts painted all over it. He started laying the wine bottles in it. "Hmm, are you su re you brought them all in; I thought there was more left over."
    "I brought up all the ones in the basket. At one point they were spread all over the village; no telling how many we missed. Or people kept for later."
    "Right, well, these are going to the very back of the cellar." He carried the crate out.
    Delight sighed. "It was a wonderful orgy. But I'm too old to do that again."
     
    ***
     
    "So, you still alive?"
    Lefty pushed himself up to a sitting position. "Yeah. Now that I know what it is, I keep telling myself it doesn't hurt. But it does."
    "Have some wine." The brown girl pulled two bottles out of her sack, then frowned. "I don't have a corkscrew or any glasses."
    Lefty dug into his pack and pulled out a battered tin cup and a thin-bladed knife.
    He had to destroy the cork to get to the wine, but he didn't really care. He poured the girl a cup full and took a swig from the bottle. After a bit of work, he managed to swallow the wine with out too much of the cork, and spit out the chucks he'd trapped with his tongue. The next swallow was cork-free, and delicious. "This is good stuff. How can you get such good wine up here, and how much trouble are you going to be in for bringing it to me?"
    "Who cares? The Auld Wulf makes it. This was left over from the party." She pulled the bottle from his suddenly limp hands and refilled her cup.
    "Uh, should you be drinking this stuff?" He took the bottle back. "You heard what the Sheep Man said about it." He took a sip.
    She frowned at the wine in her cup. "I think I'm too young for it to work on. I think boys are stupid. And you might need more. Anyhow, you haven't grown your parts back yet, so I can't seduce you."
    "Oh, right. That's good. I mean, because you're so young, it's, umm. Good." He scooted back against a tree and took a long chug. This stuff was good .
    She grinned. "But I could practice. Happy said Never made such a hash of seducing that pretty boy because she hadn't had any practice."
    "What?" Maybe he shouldn't have drunk so much, so fast. The girl scooted over and leaned against him. She was just old enough to have some curves. Lovely curves. He'd never properly appreciated curves before. Or improperly. He took another swig, then topped off her cup. "Just practice, right?"
    "Right. You've probably never kissed anyone, either, have you?"
    "Well, not a girl." He'd never wanted to, probably because he'd never met someone like the Brown Girl. Well, the missing parts . . . Sure couldn't call him a virgin, though.
    She hopped up to her knees and planted her lips on his.
    "Yuck." She wiped her mouth.
    "Yeah, that was kind of drooly." Lefty wiped his own mouth and took several deep swallows from the bottle. He put it down carefully as the cramps twinged.
    "Oh," she gently rubbed his tummy. "Drink more."
    The world was spinning around rather a lot, but her tummy rubs were helping. He lay flat and stared at the clouds above the trees. He could see flashes of lightning, just cloud to cloud so far, and he vaguely wondered how tall the tree they were under was but he couldn't remember why it was important. The hair on his arms was standing up with static, which he thought should bother him. The girl frowned at her fingers, and he giggled to see miniature lightning jumping from finger to finger.
    The Brown Girl lifted his head and held the cup for him to drink more wine, and he sighed happily as her fingers rubbed his belly, sending tingles, pleasant ones, up his spine. She kept making him drink and the pain went far, far away, taking his consciousness with it.
     
    Lefty had this weird dream. He was running around a beautiful green meadow dotted with flowers, and the Brown Girl was teasing him, and laughing and