There are two secrets to having a good run. First, pick a jogging path that will keep you engaged and intrigued. Second, keep hydrated.
“What a…” Lily huffed. “…Beautiful day for a run.”
The young woman had been setting a brisk pace. To look at her, one could be excused for believing she was just a girl in her mid-teens. She had vivid green hair, pulled back into a bit of a pony tail to keep it out of the way during her run. Her outfit was dark, and managed to look just a touch old-fashioned, in that it was a shade more elegant than your everyday running clothes. But she wore the ensemble well, and from her bouncy, energetic, stride she was no stranger to a good long run.
From her appearance, one would never have suspected she was an ageless witch of incalculable power. But, then, that was the idea.
A brisk mountain breeze had kept her from getting overheated, but as with any good exercise routine she’d worked up quite a sweat. Her throat was a bit parched, but she’d run this path countless times before and she knew just what was waiting around the next bend. She wiped her forehead and grinned as the midpoint of her run came into view.
“This is why you run in the mountains,” she breathed, trotting up to a little scenic overlook.
A bench, a couple picnic tables, and a fence had been set up for travelers to linger and take in the magnificent panorama of the pint valley stretching out below her. A few hikers and another runner or two were already enjoying the view. She slowed up and took a deep, cleansing breath right beside one of the picnic tables. Now that she could properly enjoy it, she snagged the large, rugged water bottle from where it hung at her hip and took a swig.
There was one woman seated at the table. She was drenched with sweat and currently had her back to the overlook so that she could tie her shoe.
“Don’t you want to look at the view?” Lily said.
“Got a long run ahead. Can’t waste time…” the woman said, a bit more breathless than Lily despite at least a minute or two of rest already.
“But you’ve got to take the time to enjoy the little things,” Lily said. “Fresh air, a sunny day, cool spring water… Oh! And chipmunks!”
She pointed excitedly as a trio of the scampering critters wove between the fence posts and ran off down the hill. She set down her water bottle and practically pranced to the fence to watch the woodland creatures frolic.
~~~
Still seated at the table Susan mopped her face and neck with her towel. She’d remembered to bring THAT. But as her try mouth and cracked lips were reminding her, she’d completely forgotten to grab a bottle of water before she left. At first she thought she could make it through the run without it just this once, but boy was she wrong. Her throat practically burned, and she just knew the tremors she felt in her calves were just waiting to become full scale cramps.
A sparkle caught her eye. It was a glorious drop of condensation rolling down the outside of the fancy, high quality water bottle the frustratingly chipper young woman had set down. Susan licked her lips. It looked so good, that pristine water just teasing her.
She glanced to the young woman, who was still fawning over the rodents she seemed so enamored with.
It would have been nice to say that Susan’s next act came after at least a moment of hesitation, but such was not the case. The moment the thought occurred to her, she snatched the water bottle and popped the cap. The moment she put the bottle to her lips, she was in heaven. The water was cold, like it had been pulled right out of the refrigerator. She could feel the life returning to her as she slurped greedily at the bottle. It had been her intention to just steal a sip to take the edge off her thirst, but once she started, she couldn’t bring herself to stop until she’d completely drained every last drop.
When she was through, she felt like a new woman. From the way the energetic teenager was up on her tippy toes gazing over the fence, the chipmunks that were distracting her must be just about out of view. Rather than linger long enough to catch a lecture from teen for stealing her water, Susan decided to get moving again. She stood put her rehydrated legs to work
~~~
Lily smiled happily as she paced back to the table.
“They’re just so cute the way they… Oh, she’s gone,” Lily said. “Fine, don’t say goodbye.”
She raised the bottle to her lips to take another quick sip, eyes still turned to the beautiful view. When no water came, she tipped the bottle up, and up, and up. Finally she took it from her lips and shook it upside down.
“Well what sort of an underhanded…” She huffed a breath, blowing a lock of stray hair away from her face. “Fine, if that’s the state of manners these days, so be it.”
Lily took a few steps away from the table to give herself some room to work.
She cleared her throat.
“Oh ancient forces of nature. Oh wise spirits of the elements. I call upon you to set right what has been wronged.”
As she spoke, her voice deepened. Not in tone, but in power. Though still the cool, carefree voice of a teenager, it seemed to fold upon itself. It reverberated as though she were in a stark catacomb and boomed as if shouted from the mountaintops. It was power. Raw, distilled, arcane might. Wielded effortlessly by someone who looked like she should be on a cheerleading squad.
“Summon the refreshment that once filled this bottle. Return it to my side. Deliver it to the home where once it dwelled.”
She pointed her bottle along the path.
“And quickly, please,” she added brightly.
~~~
Susan lengthened her stride as she started to round a curve and head back down the slope of the mountain. There must have been something extra in that water. Not only were the cramps in her legs gone, they felt pleasantly warm, and perfectly relaxed. All the tenseness, all the tightness had eased away. Running was a pleasure. If only it wasn’t for this darn wind.
She could feel the breeze pushing against her, a very real and powerful resistance that was slowing her down. Soon she found it was taking effort just to keep her pace. Then effort just to keep moving.
“What the heck?” she huffed. “Is there a storm… coming?”
Susan trailed off as she looked to the trees beside her. They were barely fluttering. There was no hint of the gale force wind it would have taken to make running suddenly so taxing. Yet she could still feel herself being pulled backward. Her hair was fluttering in the wind, whipping and rippling. It was the most focused and selective wind she’d ever seen.
Her mind swirled as she tried to work out what was happening, her arms and legs only felt more and more relaxed. Her once overheated skin now felt cool. She raised a hand to block the breeze and saw that her skin was no longer sweaty. It had become glossy and smooth. Before she could question the change, the hand started to stretch and flutter before her eyes. It didn’t hurt. It was just a sort of pleasant. Like the satisfying tingle one gets when stretching a stiff muscle, or scratching an itch. But she felt it deeper, more thoroughly than ever before… and now she felt in her head as well.
With a dizzying twist, she felt herself drawn backwards. Her feet yanked off the ground. As her body pulled in the direction of the wind, it stretched thinner and thinner. Her shoulders slumped and tugged against her shirt, then slurped through the neck. Slick, shiny skin glided effortlessly out of her panties and running shorts. As they plopped to the ground, she coiled through the air toward the source of what was now certainly suction.
~~~
“Ah, I should have known,” Lily said, watching the swirling form of the woman being drawn toward her.
She held the water bottle out expectantly, but when the gleaming form of the water thief reached her, it took a sudden nosedive, plopping into the soil beside her. The landing was a bit of a splatter, the thirsty thief’s body far more fluid now than it had been a few moments ago. For a second or two, she was less a woman and more a mud puddle. Gradually, the muddy form started to rise up and regain its features.
Lily crossed her arms and glanced vaguely to the sky. “Really now. That is not what I meant and you know it.”
She looked down to the woman, who was now more or less herself again, though sitting woozily on the ground and plastered with mud.
“What… What happened?” Susan said muzzily, like she was just coming to terms with reality again after a pleasant nap. “And why am I… oh!”
Susan blushed a bit and covered herself as she realized her clothes were in a scattered pile along the road behind her. The only thing keeping her from being completely nude was a few smears of mud. Lily looked down to her with little regard to her state of undress.
“Oh, it’s nothing unusual. Magic can be impish sometimes. Especially if you use real imps. You use actual imps.” She huffed irritably. “You give it room for interpretation and it is like it willfully misunderstands.”
As Lily spoke, she gestured with the water bottle.
“I ordered the water back to the place it once dwelled and since it was spring water…” She gestrured at Susan’s current state. “This. I’m terribly sorry about that.”
“It’s, uh… It’s all right. If you’ll just let me get my clothes, I’ll—”
“Oh, no, no, no. The water’s still going back where it belongs.” She pointed the tip of the bottle at Susan. “And that’s right here.”
~~~
Susan’s mind wasn’t quite back to full capacity as she looked curiously at the pinky-size opening of the water bottle. Not until the suction returned with a vengeance did she think perhaps it might be a good idea to get away from the strange woman who was talking about magic.
She leaned back and instinctively shielded her face from the wind, but the current of air simply snatched her fingers and drew them into the mouth of the bottle with a moist slurp. The sensation was startling, but delicious. Like the firm fingers of a masseuse pinching and kneading at her joints and muscles as the squeezed into the bottle. Her hand sloshed into the bottle, shiny and flowing like the contents of a lava lamp. The hungry, relentless current of air started to pull of little goopy streamers of flesh to squelch in along her arm as it was drawn inside.
Confusion and anxiety colored her expression, but not nearly as much as the blush on her cheeks. She watched and felt as her arm filled and conformed to the shape of the bottle, becoming smoother and cooler as it packed ever tighter. The ravenous mouth of the bottle reached her shoulder, its suction growing stronger. Her vision started to twist as her face stretched toward the bottle and pinched in along side her arm. It was disorienting, but exhilarating, as her eyes and ears squeaked through the neck of the bottle and plumped up again inside.
More and more of her body flowed juicily inside, mounding and folding atop her. She filled every bit of space, her breasts and midriff blooping inside and flattening against the smooth walls. Her toned hips and thighs offered the slightest bit of resistance before a soft squish sent them inside to pack her ever-tighter. She could feel the divisions between bits of her anatomy start to blur. Hair matted against her and spread across her skin like blobs of ink blending together. Her lips smeared like wet paint across the side of the bottle. She was becoming one wobbly mass of viscous fluid. Even as her brain struggled to cope with the absurdity, she all but purred at the way the sensations of her body pressed and squeezed and combined. It was like being caressed all over, like being wrapped in a warm blanket, but the blanket was herself.
~~~
Lily smiled pleasantly to herself as she watched the last of the thief flow into the bottle. Weakly kicking legs and curling toes wobbled and swirled before coiling into the bottle. When the last juicy bit had squeezed in, she capped the bottle and held it up.
“Oh, look at you. Adorable.”
Lily tapped the bottle with her finger. A pair of eyes blinked and focused on her. If she really squinted, she could make out the various bits and pieces of the woman. A cheek flattened against the bottle. Legs and arms twisted up and wrapped around. She was a hopeless tangle of limbs, a whole woman impossibly packed into space enough for a liter of water.
Susan twitched and shifted inside the bottle, but the dreamy look in her eyes suggested she wasn’t necessarily eager to escape the embrace of the bottle.
“You look like you don’t quite mind the bottle treatment. That’s all well and good, but this is a punishment. And if I wanted a bottle of woman, I would have brought one. So…”
~~~
Susan tried to drink in the sensations of so much of her body pressing so firmly into so much more of her body. She’d barely processed the muffled words of her captor. The shaking, however, did not escape her notice. Suddenly her whole world was heaving to and fro. What little division remained between this part of her body and that started to fade. Breasts plumped into each other and blended into her chest. Tangled arms combined and mixed with her midriff. Her body swirled. It was exciting, exhilarating. The best theme park ride ever. But instead of winding her up and leaving her vibrating from the tension, it steadily whirled her mind into a pleasant, sleepy, stirring fogginess.
~~~
Lily gave the bottle a vigorous shake for a few seconds then paused to check her handiwork. The features of her captive had all but faded to nothing. Only a pair of eyes, blinking in vague confusion. A soft swizzle caused them to waft away, leaving only crystal clear, refreshing water.
“There,” Lily said. “Good as new. No hard feelings.”
She popped the cap again and took a long, nourishing swig.
“Now we can both stay hydrated.”