The blackness of the forest was total, the trunks of the trees blending seamlessly into the darkened earth as Alette made her way beneath the ebon boughs. She didn't know truly what it was she sought as she walked amidst the silence that echoed around her, deafening her senses as she tried to find something, anything, that might resemble a path forwards. That was when a gentle breeze broke the stillness, shivering the branches above and around her the way a breath might disturb a lover's hair and as Alette stopped a voice as smooth as velvet and thunderous as a storm whispered through the trees.
“Why have you come?”
Alette spun on her heel, searching for the source of the voice as it echoed all around her. There was nothing however, just the gentle rustling of the leaves upon the branches.
“Why are you here?” the voice echoed again.
Unsure what more she could do, Alette answered.
“I've come seeking a boon.”
“A boon.” the voice echoed, its tone unquestioning.
“Yes.” Alette said uncertainly, still unsure from where the voice was coming. “I wish a child.”
Now the voice laughed, the sound rattling the trees like skeletons as something dark and amorphous flowed just beyond her vision.
“Spread your legs girl, I'm sure someone will oblige you.”
Anger overrode caution in that moment as Alette spat venomously at the disembodied voice that dared to mock her.
“I am no stablemaid! I am a woman of noble birth and I will not be reduced to a mere trollop!”
“And yet you'll wander out into the forest, seeking something beyond your comprehension in the hopes that it will serve you.” the voice replied with a dark chuckle.
“I will not tarnish my noble virtue with just anyone.” Alette said as she continued to seek the owner of the voice. “If I must despoil myself then only something as grand as a god will do.”
“A god.” the voice rasped with sudden ire. “You have a god, pray to him.”
“I have!” protested Alette, forgetting herself as she spied a movement of shadow and smoke which she turned to pursue. “He has not answered me! You are here! You are real! Grant me my boon and I will do as you will!”
The shadow she followed vanished amidst the blackened trunks of the trees, seeping away into the darkness and once more leaving Alette seemingly alone as silence embraced her once more. Panic mixed with anger within Alette's mind as she tried to find her bearings, realizing too late that she'd lost herself in her dash to catch the voice's owner.
“Please.” she pleaded, feeling humiliated by her outburst against her own faith. “I have no where else to turn and my husband already considers leaving my bed for another.”
“That is what men will do.” the voice replied after a long moment in which Alette's hope sank into bleakness. “They will blame their own fallow seed upon their women and claim they need another.”
Alette froze, feeling the form of a body against her back as it pressed into her. She didn't dare move, unsure if this was the shadow's owner or something more that had come upon her in this ancient place. A black arm reached down to her waist, touching her dress and pressing it between her legs exploratively as a deep breath hissed in her ear.
“You are fertile. It is as it always is, a verdant field with a fallow farmer to tend it.”
“I am no brood mare.” Alette said as a cold hand with what felt like claws touched her neck and throat. “Will you aid me old god of the forest or taunt me?”
The thing holding her laughed, releasing her as its cackle spread through the trees around them. Alette spun, attempting to catch a glimpse of the mad laughter's owner but finding nothing but the trunks of trees amidst the shadows as the cackling continued.
“What is your answer!?” she cried into the laughter.
“Yes.” hissed the voice in her ear. “I will take you.”
Without a chance to answer in kind or even affirm her choice in the matter, Alette was lifted upwards from the ground and into the air. Her feet kicked desperately as they left the earth as shadows embraced her and turned her about. She caught a glimpse of glowing eyes, blazing a bright crimson red, amidst the swirling shadows and the flapping of wings overwhelmed her ears as she was buffeted and held in place by her unseen accomplice. Then the shadows were upon her, in her, and she let out a moaning wail as she felt herself penetrated and fondled as her husband never could have managed.
A part of her mind reeled with shame from this unholy copulation but another felt joy at the culmination of these past weeks and all the effort she had put into finding a way to alleviate her from the fear of her husband's displeasure. Then as soon as it had begun, the coupling came to an end and she found herself laid down once more upon the ground as the shadows withdrew and dissipated from her body.
“W—wait!” she called, getting to her feet urgently as she sought to pursue the receding shadows. “Will you not let me gaze upon the sire of my child?”
There was silence then, as deafening as any roar, and then the shadows from admist the boughs and trunks seemed to coalesce for a terrifying moment as Alette saw the form of the thing she had just given herself to. Six red eyes gazed at her from an angular head that seemed more animal than man as curved horns extended back from the skull and wings as black as the very shadows that they were made of loomed large behind the figure. Then as soon as it had appeared, the apparition was gone as if it had never existed, leaving Alette staring in terror at the place where it had appeared.
“Go.” the voice spoke again, fading into the trees. “Return to your world, bearer of my seed. Take our child back into the light and may they bring you what you seek.”
Alette did not wait to hear what else might be said, her heart was clenched with fear for the creature she had seen. It resembled the demons and forsaken angels that the holy father so often cautioned against in his fiery sermons. She could never confess to what she'd done, lest she be burned as a heretic and her child...her child. She touched her flat stomach, her long golden hair streaming behind her as she ran. She was with child. A happiness overtook her fear as tears reached her eyes.
No matter the father, she cared not. She'd yearned for so long to bear her lord an heir and now within her the seed had been planted. No more would she suffer the whisperings of the court or the ire of her husband. Even if the father was an unholy ghost of the past, it had given her what she had for so long sought and desired. She cared not from what dark depths it had crawled from.