Satyr's Folly

Eli had been missing for a month at this point. We were on a research expedition that was meant to last over the summer with another colleague, Sam, just us three when he went missing. We had no course of action with country officials, and with only a week left of funds, we didn't have much time left to find him.

We were searching for artifacts that had found their way out of Greece. Few left a trail to follow, but one in particular had the most interesting stories. It was some sort of statue, stolen from a temple that had been demolished. Captains' logs claimed that boats came alive, sprouting new leaves and branches from the planks. Entries told of nights turning suddenly to day, and men turning wild, trying to take the artifact for themselves and escape with it. Stories had told that all animals seemed attracted to it, predators killing off the men one by one.

We had narrowed its location down to a forest in Africa, and luckily managed to convince the university to fund our expedition. What was infuriating was how we didn't have much to go on once we were there. We could only guess how the forest looked over a hundred years ago, leaving us to wander aimlessly through the jungle. What we considered our base was the nearest city, and each week we'd take an outing to a different part of the forest to set up camp. At least, until Eli disappeared.

We kept returning to the same area he'd disappeared in since then, in an attempt to find him. We knew getting lost was a possibility from the beginning, but why he had disappeared in the first place was a mystery. One night we went to sleep in our camp, and the next morning he was gone. There was no evidence of a struggle: It was as he simply walked off. We knew better than to use the bathroom without waking another person up, so why was this the case?

The officials offered no help in finding him- when people walk around in a forest alone, they disappear. We were forced to keep our camp there, hoping he'd come back, hoping if we stayed there we could find him. If I had known what I knew now, I probably would have stopped searching for him. Now I couldn't be more happy that I didn't.

Sam and I couldn't have been more lucky when we happened across his journal lying on the forest bed. He had disappeared with it on him, and seeing it gave us chills. It was surprisingly close to camp, which made us worry. Had he really stepped out for a moment with his journal, just to disappear? He hadn't even taken his flashlight with him when it was the middle of the night. Were his last words inside?

Luckily they weren't, only dull entries very similar to the ones we all had been keeping up to the point he had disappeared.

We started reading from that week's pages, noticing something strange immediately. He had talked about a remarkable smell that hadn't been present anywhere else in the forest, like a spring breeze with fruit in the air. The other strange thing was his interest in the vegetation. He kept track of the trees he saw, their type, the animals, noting how some seemed like they didn't belong, not native to the area.

I thought something was strange about this specific zone, having been unable to put my finger on it. But seeing it in writing, I felt my eyes opened, almost certain he was right. Sam looked at me strangely when I mentioned it, but he only seemed more convinced Eli really was gone now that we had his journal. Having made no progress in our search for the artifact or Eli besides this, it seemed he was ready to move on.

When we were out the next day, I thought back about to what he wrote. What he noticed about this area. We had been looking for any evidence of Eli trying to survive out here, his clothes, tracks. This time I was looking at the trees. We were supposed to be in a rainforest biome. I wasn't sure if my eyes were playing tricks on me, but through glimpses in the opening I thought I saw plants in bloom, flowers that shouldn't belong, sunny green meadows.

I thought I was going crazy until a sweet smell hit my nose from a light wind. It was heady, filled with the scent of fermenting fruit, cooler than it should have been.

"You smell that?" I immediately asked, Sam turning around quizzically.

He took a moment to look around. "Smell what?"

Eli's description instantly popped into my head. "You know, a... Spring breeze?"

Sam looked at me like I was going crazy. "You're just imagining it."

I turned and looked at the direction the brief wind had come from, the smell stronger in this direction. "I swear..." I said, beginning to step further in. It was definitely growing stronger.

"Wait! We have to mark!" Sam said, struggling to keep up as he worked with his equipment.

I ignored him, moving on, my confidence growing as the smell got stronger. I was walking blind, not caring where I stepped with my nose leading me forward until I heard a rustle in the brush near me. I froze, my eyes darting to the side where I thought I saw movement. The light thumps of footsteps and the sound of foliage moving grew louder until branches parted and a figure finally stepped into view.

My eyes locked with the stranger's, their expression calm as it took me a moment to recognize their features.

"Eli?" I gasped, looking at the man standing before me before we both broke into a smile.

In two steps my arms were around him, hugging him tightly with my face pressed against his furry neck. The smell I had been following flooded my system as I breathed in, its source seemingly coming from Eli himself.

I pushed myself back to get a better view of him. Only now did I realize he was naked. For having spent a month apart, he couldn't have looked more different. A thick beard had filled in on his face- much more growth than there should have been- but that wasn't all. His entire front side had a forest of fur spreading down from his shoulders, trailing along his arms and washing through his middle. I hadn't seen his body this exposed before, but it definitely hadn't been this lean and muscled, ripples flowing under his skin from his movement.

I should have noticed the red flags- like how his head was shaved and beard lined. How he was walking around without wearing anything. How he was a few inches taller, as if standing on his toes. How he seemed at peace with it all. It was as if the smell was having an effect on me, making me apathetic to the situation, a dull numbness settling into my head. I could only focus on one thing at a time, ignorant to how Sam had entirely disappeared.

"I found the statue" Eli mentioned, his sharp gaze captivating mine.

My eyes grew wide. "Really?"

Eli nodded. "I set up camp around it, waiting for you to arrive." He said, turning and motioning to follow with him through the way he came.

I didn't think twice about stepping after him, trying to avert my eyes from his nude rear. I felt I was doing a good job at it, not paying attention to his hirsute hindquarters parading in front of me, not noticing the fur that was way too dense and shaggy to be human, not seeing the puffy tail sitting right above his peach. It was as if the distracting smell were leading me again, now much easier to follow given its source was right in front of me.

It was like entering another world as the brush changed, the sun growing lighter in the sky, the damp oak traded for grass and budding bushes. We reached a small opening filled with sunlight, a cool breeze drifting through the space that tickled my skin and made waves along the dense carpet on Eli's skin.

Against a tree sat a statue that seemed to radiate with the nature around it. Green growth covered its bottom that was sunk in the ground, while its top displayed the figure of a man with goat legs, a set of pipes, and horns sticking from their forehead.

Any common stranger would probably have thought this was the statue of a devil, but from the features carved I had no doubt it was Pan, the Greek God of the Wild. I felt naked in the glade as I stepped toward it, nothing but bright nature surrounding me. I didn't even consider that Eli was there, having placed himself to the side watching, no sign of his camp.

The artifact seemed to be humming with energy, taking up all my attention with an ethereal glow. I couldn't help but feel cold as I approached, a mischievous malice innate to the figure. It was as if my humanity didn't belong with it. I couldn't stop myself from reaching out to touch it, a sense of fulfillment washing through me having found what we had spent so long searching for. Little did I know what kind of fulfillment I would be receiving.

All it took was the slightest touch from my fingers to feel electricity suddenly coursing through my arm to my body. I flinched back, retracting my reach, only to feel fire shortly following the path of the shock along my skin. I let out a cry of anguish as the sensation spread to the rest of my body, sweat breaking through my surface the moment the inferno washed through. The feeling of clothes brushing over my body was torture, forcing me to tear off all of my wear as soon as possible.

The moment I finished was when I saw what was happening to my hands. I gasped from shock as the burning faded into a gentle tingling, dense hair beginning to spread from my fingers making its way up my arms. I stretched my arms away from my body, hoping it would slow down the process, but only increasing my view of the stands curling up my arms and beginning to wrap themselves down my body. It swirled down my chest, encasing me in a fuzzy coating down my stomach and into my groin.

My lower half felt like it was crawling with ants as much thicker fur grew down there. The space between my legs was almost instantly filled with soft shag, my thighs filling out with a thick damp mat that I could pull my fingers through.

Then my ankles broke. At least I thought they did. It felt like I had cramped, feet forced down sending me falling to the forest floor. My feet felt like they were being compressed, forced together with all my muscles and bones pushed into a tight space. The feeling stopped as suddenly as it had started, leaving me panting on my hands and knees. I dropped my head to look at what had happened, gasping at a long phallus dangling between my legs. It wasn't my own, despite being attached to my body. And below that- hooves. My toes had turned to hooves.

I felt Eli's hands on my back helping me get up, his grip pulling at the hair now covering every inch of my body. It took me a moment to stand up straight, now a few inches taller, getting used to the new form of my legs.

My body was as naked as my colleagues. I didn't feel naked though. The fur was like a warm coat, holding enough body heat to my form, the slightest breeze tickling my surface like soft hands grazing my skin. I swore I could feel a plush tail on my backside.

Despite the whole situation, I felt... content. Happier than I ever had been. I couldn't help but laugh as I looked at Eli.

"We're goats" I remarked.

"Satyrs" A third voice corrected, bringing our attention to the statue.

At least, where we thought the statue was. We were no longer in the forest. Instead we were standing in the middle of a field, trees on the horizon. In place of the sculpture, a figure of the same appearance stood at our height. Pipes hung from his neck above a round portly body, legs similar to the ones Eli and I now had supporting it all.

"Welcome to the wilderness" Pan greeted us, bowing in a playful gesture. Eli nodded back, a sense of recognition in his face.

"Eli's told me a lot about you" Pan mentioned toward me, singling me out. "Kept asking me to allow him to go back for you." He paused, looking me up and down. "I'm glad I did" He said with a wink.

For the first time I felt concern. Having thought back to all the decisions I had made, I realized I was trapped. There was no chance we were near where we'd been, and I felt any chance I had at returning slowly dying. I looked at Eli. "But what about the expedition? What about our research? What about-" My eyes widened, realizing who we had forgotten about. "Sam!"

Pan tittered. "Don't you worry about that, he'll find his way back. I'm sure of it."

My feelings betrayed the words. Pan read my expression.

He sighed. "Here, I'll take care of it now" Pan said, raising his pipes to his lips.

The old faun maybe played two notes, but for the seconds they sounded the world couldn't have felt more alive. The sun shone brighter, the air smelled sweeter. My mind relaxed to the song, my human worries washed away. Animal instincts began settling in- no thought of the future, no care of the past. Just existing in the moment. My eyes dulled as the song ended.

"There you are, my satyrs" He said. "Now that you aren't work colleagues, I'm certain you'll find yourselves able to play much more easily"

"Work colleagues?" I thought. My animal mind had no idea what those words meant anymore.

Pan smiled and winked. "I'll leave you boys to it" He said before turning and skipping away, his figure trotting.

I turned to Eli and my heart skipped a beat. My eyes threaded over his body, through the curls of his fur and up to the deepness of his eyes. He was looking back at me with the same sense of enamorment, the space between us suddenly feeling small. His hand rolled up my back and pulled me close. I breathed in, refreshing his strong scent in my head once again.

A dull memory came back from the first time I saw him. I had been attracted to him, but had never acted on it. Something was different about that time, not that I cared to remember. He was here now in front of me, the fur of our bodies entwining as he leaned forward and kissed my lips.

His tongue parted my mouth, his beard scratching my face as spit moved between us. In seconds we let ourselves fall to the grassy ground, our bodies keeping us warm as we embraced. He was lying on top of me, a fuzzy blanket on my body, his shaft beginning to harden between my legs. His hands ran up the sides of my body, dragging against the curls on my sides as he positioned the tip of his cock with my hole. His tip wet from the amount of precum it could produce, slick, enabling it to easily enter my body. My muscles relaxed under his weight, allowing him to press me into the ground and take me. I couldn't stop myself from submitting my body entirely to him, our smell heavy in the air.