“Naturally you didn't know. But that is only part of it. Nereus very much wants to sire a boy. That is the root of his disenchantment with me. He intends to do that with you.”

  “But I don't want to do it with him!” Doris wailed.

  The goddess shook her head. “This is an instance wherein you have no choice in the act, only in the manner of its execution.”

  “That doesn't seem like much of a loophole.”

  “It will do. Once he sires a boy, Nereus' ire at me should abate and we can be friends again.”

  “You are not friends with your husband?”

  “Not at present.”

  “But then why does he keep compelling you to—to--”

  “Lust is not friendship, dear. It's a need. He curses me as he inseminates me.”

  Doris gazed at her a moment, appalled. “I'm sorry.”

  “Do not be concerned. If he becomes too obstreperous I put jalapeno juice in his mug of mead. That causes him to become more polite, for a time.”

  Doris almost laughed. Clearly the females in this venue were not helpless. She returned to the business of the moment. “But what of me? He means to rape me!”

  “It is not rape, dear. You are eager for it.”

  Unfortunately true. “You said it will not be gentle.”

  “I will give you an amulet to increase your strength and shield you from the pain. That will make it bearable. The larger challenge will be to birth and raise the boy in your culture without generating attention. If his nature is discovered by your kind, there will be mischief.”

  “Mischief? Of what kind?”

  “He will be magical, and as a child he will not be knowledgeable enough to conceal it.” The goddess considered briefly. “In fact, I had better provide you with competent assistance: my 50th daughter, Nerine.”

  “Nerine?”

  “The last of the nereids. We have not yet found a suitable assignment for her. This should do.”

  “If this girl is a sea nymph, how will she be able to help raise a child on land? She will need help herself.”

  “She will indeed. You must be patient with her, informing her of the several pitfalls of land dwelling. By the time the boy is birthed, she should be competent.”

  “I hope so. But there's something else: how will I be able to hold a job if I have a bas—an illegitimate baby?”

  “The amulet will give you favorable fortune. You will manage.”

  “Good luck? Like winning the lottery?”

  “Yes, if that helps.”

  “It may not; big winners become the cynosure of the community. My situation would become known.”

  The goddess nodded. “Then it may be best if you do not enter the lottery. Settle for lesser luck, enough to get by on. Nerine should be able to advise you as to its proper use.”

  “Nerine,” Doris said dubiously. She had been given more to handle than she felt comfortable with, to put it mildly. “Maybe I should meet her.”

  “That seems reasonable.” The goddess snapped her fingers.

  A splendidly nude nymph appeared. She had greenish hair to her knees, a lovely sweet face, and a body that would win any beauty contest without trying. “Yes, mother?”

  “Go with the mortal woman here, Nerine. Nanny her baby boy until he is of age to make his own way. Then return here.”

  “As you wish, mother. Why is this boy important?”

  “He is your half brother, Neris. We must not let him founder alone in an unkind realm.” It seemed that not only was Doris to be rudely impregnated, her son was already named. Well, in a dream everything made sense.

  Nerine nodded. “Ah. Father found a loophole.”

  “Yes. Another virginal Doris. See that Neris grasps his heritage.”

  “I shall,” the nymph promised.

  “Wait!” Doris protested belatedly. “You can't just go like that into my world.”

  Nerine glanced at her. “Why not? I am garbed as you are.”

  She was truly innocent of mortal human ways? “Because any man who sees you will try to grab you and—and molest you. You need some clothing, at least. I don't go about naked when I'm home.”

  Both goddess and nymph laughed. “That won't be a problem,” Nerine said.

  “I assure you it will be a problem! Our men are just as crude and lustful as yours, only less powerful.”

  Nerine shook her head. “I will be invisible and inaudible to all but you and the boy. We nereids become apparent to others only when we choose; it requires an effort of will on our part. Do not be concerned.”

  Oh.

  “Here is the amulet,” the goddess said. She rose gracefully and presented Doris with a sparkling blue bracelet that appeared in her hand. “Wear it on your left wrist.”

  “Thank you.” Doris fitted it onto her wrist, where it fit snugly, looking entirely ordinary.

  “Now it is time for your tryst with Nereus. He is growing impatient.”

  “Uh, yes.” There was a renewed tug at her groin. The dream would have its denouement, regardless of her preference. “But where--?”

  “This way,” Nerine said, stepping toward a door that appeared before her.

  “Wait!” Doris repeated. “You're his daughter. You can't watch him have sex.”

  “I can't?” the nymph asked, genuinely perplexed.

  “You forget we are gods,” the goddess said. “Not only do children know of the indulgences of their parents, they often participate. Not that I have allowed it with my children. Also, Nerine is older than she may appear to you.”

  “How old are you?” Doris asked.

  “I lost count after a thousand years.”

  Oh, again. “Still--”

  “Humor her,” the goddess said to the nereid. “She's mortal.”

  “Of course.” Nerine reached out and took Doris's right wrist. Then she shimmered and became a blob of flesh that shrank and coalesced around that wrist. She was now another bracelet, a sparkling green one.

  Doris gazed uncertainly at both bracelets. They seemed to be a matched set, but would they really help her get through the threatening ordeal? It was past time for this dream to end.

  Now pass through the portal. It was Nerine's voice sounding in her mind, evidently from the green bracelet.

  “Uh, yes.” Doris stepped toward it.

  “Good luck,” the goddess called after her. She hoped the wish was sincere, considering that it was her husband Doris was going to.

  It is, Nerine's thought came. She knows you mean no harm.

  Then she was through, entering a hallway. Suddenly the song with its terrible urgency was back full force. Indeed, it would not be rape, technically; she had to have this relief, and soon, even if it was strongly akin to a need to vomit out poison.

  An amusing analogy.

  “Thank you.” She strode forward, almost running, goosed by her groin.

  The hall led to another bedroom suite. She pushed open the door and entered.

  There was Nereus, a solid man, standing naked with a huge erection. Too huge; that monster would never fit inside her. She desperately desired the culmination, but this was dangerous.

  Do not be concerned; he will make it fit. Think of it as like riding an enormous eel.

  He would make it fit. That was not unduly reassuring. And what was this about riding an eel? Were they substitutes for horses, down under the sea? But the song compelled her forward, into his bearlike embrace. There was no courtship, no sweet words, nor did she want them; she wanted this done with as rapidly as possible, for more than one reason. But how was that outsized member ever going to get inside without splitting her asunder? There simply was not room.

  He clasped her and threw her to the bed. No kissing, no subtlety at all. His giant member probed her groin, seeking entrance. She closed her eyes in a vain effort to shut this awful thing out. Her feelings were excruciatingly mixed; she wanted it in, but comfortably. If only it would shrink to manageable size!

  Ride the eel.

  What? Oh, yes, Nerine had said to think of an eel. Well, what choice did she have? Her groin was eager for engagement, but she feared she would be wrenched apart into two halves by the wedging of that imperative member. She imagined a giant eel, a sea creature to be ridden. She mounted it, clamping her knees on its sides authoritatively. “Go, eel!” she said sub-vocally. “Give me a ride out of here!”

  Then she was indeed riding the eel. It was vaguely like a bicycle, with the seat at her groin, supporting her, stabilizing her body. It bucked and shot forward, carrying her through the living sea, past startled swimming fish, on into the encompassing darkness. What a glorious ride!

  Then she realized that the monster did not have to get inside; all it needed to do was press at the entry, sealing the connection, and discharge its load into the hole. Like connecting a hose to a tap and turning it on.

  Only the thing was pushing inside, not outside, forcing her aperture wide open, distending her small channel impossibly. Pain flared.

  Invoke the amulet.

  Oh, yes. “Do it!” she muttered to the blue bracelet.

  It worked; the pain faded back, becoming merely a distant foundation being rammed by a pylon. A pylon being driven several feet down into the rock with each sledgehammer-like thrust. What a penetration!

  Meanwhile she still rode the eel, sliding through the deep sea, past sponges, seaweed, giant squid, sharks, and curious smaller fish. She glanced down and saw that she was impaled on the creature; its massive snout had disappeared several feet into her cleft, and she had become a figurehead, or maybe a hand puppet, a human figure on a stalk. Her body hadn't split apart; it had somehow stretched to accommodate it. The worst was over.

  Then the thing bucked and spewed its copious ejaculate. A fire hydrant flow pressured into her, blowing her up like a water balloon. Yet it also brought her orgasm, an intense pleasure that suffused her whole being. Relief at last! The song was gone from her mind, the compulsion from her groin.

  But it was not over. Her belly distended, and still it came, inflating her impossibly, stretching her flesh, sinews and bones to accommodate it, rendering her into a globe with relatively tiny arms, legs, and head projecting from its surface.

  “This better be a damn dream!” she muttered.

  To a degree.

  A degree? It was way past time to wake up.

  Then she popped off the eel and floated up through the sea. But her swollen body did not jet the liquid back out; her aperture had sealed, like a tied-off balloon, and she remained bulbous.

  She bobbled to the surface and floated there, a ball amidst the waves. There was the beach, not far distant, illuminated by the lamps of the street behind. She stretched forth her arms and legs and swam toward it, glad that they remained in working order.

  By the time she reached shallow water, her body was back to normal. The water balloon had released its fluid as she swam. She got to her feet and waded out to the sand. There was the beach chair with her clothing safely beneath it. She quickly dressed.

  Doris stood and gazed back at the surging sea. She must have gone for a swim, and been taken by the dream, and now it was done. There were no such things as gods and goddesses, form-changing nereids, giant copulative eels, pylon-driving sex, or balloon-inflating ejaculations. It had all been her naughty imagination, indulging in an exploit her rational mind would never have tolerated. She was supremely glad that it was over.

  It has only begun.

  Doris froze. Then she looked at her wrists. There was the blue bracelet on her left, and the green one on her right. Oh, no!

  Now we must go to your home. I have much to learn about your culture.

  So it was real, at least in part. Maybe the sex had been ludicrously exaggerated, but she had encountered the sea goddess with her name. And made the acquaintance of the nereid Nerine.

  The sex was not as extreme as it seemed. The charm facilitated your accommodation, and in due course abated the distention.

  That too had been real? Magic indeed! But what about the worst? “Am I then pregnant?”

  Yes. My little brother is in place.

  She would birth the sea god's baby. That had been the point of her summoning and evoked urgency. Her unsought adventure had indeed just begun.

  Yet, considered as a whole, she did not regret it. Her dull life had been dramatically transformed. She was even coming to like the notion of having a magical son. Assuming she could somehow manage the complications of being a single mother who would lose her job the moment her pregnancy became apparent.

  Nerine

  Now Neris was ready for bed, but not nearly ready to settle down. “You left out some details,” he said accusingly. “Exactly where did that eel put his snout? How did that put me in you? Why did you feel like a balloon?”

  Nerine saw Doris suppress a wince. Mortal humans were uptight about things like sex and defecation. The boy had caught his mother slipping in ellipses where such things occurred.

  “It is not proper for some things to be told to children,” Doris said. “That is part of our human culture, and you are half human.”

  “You're not going to tell me?”

  Neris was good at getting his own way; it was part of his godly heritage, especially when he was dealing with women. But there were limits. “I am not.”

  The lad had hardly begun to fight. He turned to Nerine. “You're my sister.”

  “Half sister,” she clarified. “We have different mothers.”

  “I'm half godly. Is not telling me things part of the godly culture?”

  She had to answer, though she knew Doris disapproved. She lacked the mortal ability to deliberately lie; evasion was the limit. “No.”

  “So where did that eel's snout go?”

  “Why don't I tell you more about how I came into the picture? There's a lot I can tell you about that and the godly culture that you need to know.”

  He looked at her cannily. “Are you being evasive?”

  And he had caught her. “Yes.”

  “Where did that snout go?”

  Nerine looked at Doris. “Oh, bleep,” the mortal woman swore. “He won't quit until you tell him. I'll go watch TV.” She got up and walked out the bedroom door.

  That was tacit leave to answer the boy. So Nerine did so. “There was no eel. That was symbolism. That is, something that stands for something else.”

  “For what?”

  “The penis, in this case. Nereus put it in your mother's cleft and sent his essence into her, and that made you inside her. The same way he put it in my mother and made me.”

  Neris knew about the penis, having one himself. “He pissed in her?”

  Norine smiled. “No. When a man is having sex, as it is called, his penis gets stiff and no urine comes out, only semen. That's what makes babies. You can't do that yet, but when you grow up, you will.”

  He considered. “You have a cleft too? Show me.”

  Nerine lay on his bed, spread her bare legs, and showed him her cleft. “The penis goes in that hole,” she said, poking her finger in. “The semen comes out of it and finds the mother's egg inside her body, and when they join, the baby forms. It takes a while for it to grow big enough to come out of the mother, but in time it does. That is called childbirth.”

  “Okay.” His curiosity was satisfied and he was getting bored. “Now tell me about you and the godly culture. It'll put me to sleep.”

  “That's why we tell dull stories to children,” Nerine agreed, getting off the bed so that he could have it. Then she told of her experience.

  The sea goddess Doris snapped her fingers. Nerine responded immediately, conjuring herself there. “Yes, mother?”

  “Go with the mortal woman here, Nerine,” Doris said. “Nanny her baby boy until he is of age to make his own way. Then return here.”

  Was she finally to get a useful assignment, after waiting patiently for three thousand years or so? She concealed her excitement. “As you wish, mother. Why is this boy important?”

  “He is your half brother, named Neris. We must not let him founder alone in an unkind realm.”

  Her half brother! That was the news of the millennium. “Ah. Father found a loophole.” All the nereids knew how frustrated Nereus had been about the lack of a male heir.

  It turned out that the geis on Nereus applied literally to the name Doris, not the woman herself. So he intended to impregnate a mortal Doris and get his son at last. True, the boy would be half mortal, but it was that or nothing.

  There was some back and forth about clothing, which the mortals generally wore; they had an unhealthy thing about healthy nudity. Until the mortal woman came to understand that no one else would see Nerine in her natural state. That, oddly, made it all right. She would have to study the mortal culture carefully, to pick up on their other peculiarities. This business about mortal men wanting to molest any bare woman they spied was intriguing. Had she known about that before, she might have gone ashore, made herself visible, and tested the effect. Of course they could not have done anything with her unless she also made her body solid. That would be an experiment for another day.

  Doris goddess gave Doris mortal a blue magic amulet to bring her luck, mitigate pain, and assorted other incidentals. Then Nerine transformed to a matching green bracelet on the woman's other arm. She spoke to the woman mentally; it was easy to do, since they were in physical contact, directing her to Nereus' chamber, where the god waited with his mighty phallus ready. The woman hesitated, though her vulva was burning with eagerness, thinking there would be a problem with the fit. Nerine encouraged her, suggesting that it would be like riding an eel. In due course the eel plunged into the hole and the copious semen followed. It was done.

  The woman's imagination magnified the stages, so that she felt as if a half-foot wide member were ramming into her finger-thick aperture, and the emission was gallons instead of half a cupful, but she did get through it. The mild distention of her tight vagina soon faded. She was no longer virginal, and conception had taken place. They swam to the surface of the sea and thence to the shore, where the woman donned the clothing she had left behind. Nerine needed no clothing, of course.