"No," I conceded.

Her smile became enticing . . . enticing and dangerous. "And having talked with me some, if I invited you to continue this discussion more . . . privately." She paused to add significance to the word, reminding me suddenly that I was having this conversation with her in plain view of any number of the hundreds of soft-headed idiots who had descended upon these woods in the name of "New Age love and magic." "You would say . . .?" she prompted.

"Yes," I sighed. "I would say yes." I didn't like the feeling of being outmaneuvered, and I liked being outmaneuvered even less, but she had a point.

Two of them that I can see from here, the monster in me chortled. But I'm willing to bet there's a third I could see if she was positioned at the right angle.

I startled at that. To my eternal shame and the monster's eternal amusement, I actually startled at that.

Got so caught up in her that you forgot about me along with everything else for a moment, didn't you, Gore?

Needless to say, I saw no need to answer that.

"Then follow me to my tent," the girl told me with a sparkle in her eyes and mischief lurking upon her lips. As she turned to lead me I saw that she had a series of tattoos representing the phases of the moon trailing down her spine, starting with the dark of the new moon at the middle of her back, but with the full moon conspicuously absent in tattoo form, but provided in implication by her own shapely posterior.

I like where this is going, the monster said with with smirk I could hear.

I didn't. This situation was exactly why I hated it when granola chewers gathered in my woods.

*****

Once we arrived at her tent it was just as stifling hot as every other tent I've ever been in during the summer months. She paused to ensure our privacy, as well as made the tent even more unbearable to be in, by sealing the tent flap, then flashed me a knowing grin as with a gesture she invited me to "make myself more comfortable."

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