Naked Crow Read online

  Naked

  Crow

  by

  P.Z. Walker

  Copyright © 2014 P.Z. Walker

  All rights reserved.

  ISBN: 1494805936

  ISBN-13: 978-1494805937

  DEDICATION

  This book is dedicated to all nudists and naturists around the world. I hope that more people will learn that nudity in itself is not something bad or even evil.

  General notice.

  This is a work of fantasy fiction, and as a work of fiction, any resemblance to people, places or things is entirely accidental. The creation of certain buildings and locations is entirely the work of the author to avoid conflict and comparison with existing structures.

  This work of fiction deals with nudism and will mention nudity. It's sad that this has to be mentioned, as nudity should not be the shocking state that a person can be in that's it considered these days. Note that this means nudity, not sex.

  ACKNOWLEDGMENTS.

  Thank you to all people who helped to make this book see the light of day and the ink of the printer.

  Chapter 1.

  Sheila turned around in her bed. The alarm had received a death threat and so far it complied by being silent. Unfortunately the snooze button only held its promise for three minutes, so with a sigh she sat up, switched off the alarm and growled at the new day. It was a ritual that worked every time, and it was an easy one compared to the other little rituals she did during the week. Sheila was sort of a modern witch who did things with herbs, tarot cards and other tools to help people where she could. Her grandfather from mother's side had been a Native American from the Crow tribe, and that had made her a bit of an odd one.

  She was not a witch like those in many stories and TV series; she was a native witch and medicine woman, and a member of a local witches' coven, one she'd found after searching for a long time. She had spent much time asking around until she'd decided on joining this group. This one didn't dabble in much of the nude stuff that many other groups thought so important. Going into the woods in the middle of the night, provided the night was not too cold, was close enough to the old traditions for her.

  Sheila dragged herself out of bed and snipped her fingers to get the coffee-maker going. That too was a ritual; a two-step ritual even. Step one: snip fingers. Step two: drag body to kitchen and flick the switch on the machine. By the time the coffee was ready to be drunk, Sheila had showered and dressed. She had learnt to be quick with that, otherwise the coffee would be bitter. Breakfast included a quick check of e-mail, and after that she gathered her things and went off to her workplace. It wasn't a very glamorous job: she was an assistant at a dentist's practice, but it was a solid job as long as people had teeth, and that was fine with her for now as it paid the bills.

  On the way in she stopped at the house of her friend Josy, who also worked at the dentist's place. Josy was the oral hygienist and somewhat interested in witch-things without going through the trouble of actual trying them. That was how they had gotten to talk, resulting in a rather odd friendship. Josy, Sheila knew, was a member of a nudist resort not far out of town, and very fond of that. If Josy had her way she'd talk about that place nearly all the time they weren't talking about witch things, so Sheila did her best to keep the talks safe: on witch stuff. Josy was a great person, but her enthusiasm inevitably led to yet another invitation to her nude club, and that was not something Sheila cared about.

  "Hey, Josy," Sheila said as her friend hopped in. "More mouths to stare in today. How many?" They always made a bet on that, just for the fun of it. Most of the time Josy got it right, and that made her mock Sheila's witchiness a bit, but it was all in fun. Of course it helped that Josy knew her own agenda, but Sheila enjoyed the silly banter they had over it.

  At work, the day was just another day, with lots of calls, plenty of mostly unfounded complaints, and patients showing up too late, so by the time Sheila drove Josy home they were both pooped.

  "Thank god I'm going to the club again tomorrow," the oral hygienist sighed. "Fridays are always the worst, don't you agree?"

  "Yeah, next to the other days of the week that go rough," Sheila agreed as she barely avoided a man on bike. "Watch it, sucker, I don't want you chipping off paint!" After a few moments she glanced at Josy. "What? No attempt to invite me this time?"

  "Why? Are you interested all of a sudden?" Josy grinned.

  "No way!"

  "See, I knew, that's why I didn't ask. Don't want to be predictable all the time. Going to your witchy circle this weekend?"

  "Nah. Will is on vacation and Lizzy's off to see an aunt far away, so we're skipping this week."

  Josy just nodded, as her friend pulled over. "Have a good weekend. Call me if you change your mind, you have my cell."

  "Yeah, you too and don't count on it," Sheila grinned. She hit the car horn as she drove off, and for the thousandth time wondered how Josy would keep her things like her keys and phone with her while she was running around stark naked among other naked people. Without her wanting it, images of what would go on at such venues crowded her mind, and despite Josy's explanation that they were just undressed people having a good time, Sheila had difficulties to push away the visions of orgies and other unmentionable things.

  Once home, Sheila dressed in something comfortable and found several interesting magazines to read until she felt like dinner. Friday nights were part of the weekend, and weekends shouldn't be rushed. They were over too soon anyway.

  The magazine she read was one of her favourite New Age publications. The articles in it were better than the fluffy things, there was some real knowledge in it, like things about herbs and energy-work, and they often had specials about Native American things, something she felt very attracted to thanks to her bit of Indian blood. After two articles she wondered if she should read another one or get dinner going. "One more," she decided. "No rush." She turned the page and gasped. There was a picture of three naked people! They were only shown from the back, but... nude!

  "What the hell..." she wondered. The image promptly brought back her visions of Josy and her nudist friends, doing whatever. As she shook her head she decided to read at least the first two paragraphs. After all, this was no smut magazine, this was serious.

  After finishing the entire piece and rereading several paragraphs, Sheila shook her head again. "Being closer to nature, sure," she told the magazine as she put it aside and went to fix her favourite Friday food: pizza. "Feeling uninhibited," she muttered as she fired up the oven, "and having the ability to sense through more senses. My ass." As the oven wasn't impressed, Sheila went to her bedroom mirror and considered her ass herself. "See, too much of that." In a streak of dare she pulled down her sweatpants. Her underwear came down too, even though she hadn't meant that to happen, but it convinced her that the specific body part was unacceptably large. "Unfair distribution, dear Mother Nature, something went horribly wrong when you put me together."

  The oven made it clear that it was ready to receive the pizza, so she covered herself again and felt relieved about that.

  Later, pizza devoured and the magazine finished (she had carefully skipped to beyond the nude practices article), Sheila stretched out on her couch. She felt good and secure between her own four walls. Tomorrow, she decided, she'd go out into the woods and do her own little energy there, wearing her best witch's outfit, just to prove the article wrong. So there.

  The start of Saturday was a ritual too, be it the one that involved cleaning and shopping and other exciting things like that. Sheila shrugged that off, it was something that had to be done, so the sooner she got started with it, the better. By now she had worked out a very good schedule to do things as fast and effective as possible, so as she settled down for lunch in her favourite
little restaurant down the road, she felt very pleased with herself. Having a small apartment wasn't always so great, but for cleaning it was the perfect choice for someone who didn't like cleaning very much.

  "Hey Sheila, the regular?" Fritz, the waiter at the place, put down a cup of coffee for her. He knew Sheila well. He'd started work there in his late teens and now, in his early thirties, still did the same thing - with the difference that he owned the restaurant. He just liked waiting on people.

  "Nah," Sheila grinned, "I'll have the scrambled eggs, hash browns and toast, instead of the toast, scrambled eggs and hash browns."

  Fritz grinned. "Out on a limb, huh?" She always had the same, but this was their little joke. He spotted the bag she had with her. "Out on a trip?"

  "Nothing major. I'm going to the woods this afternoon."

  "Ah. Herbs and magics," the waiter understood. Sheila's hobby was known to many people and nearly no one mocked her about it as she didn't get annoying over it. "Going to toss some rabbit bones too?"

  "Something like," she nodded, "and stop ridiculing the traditions of my ancestors." It was something very sensitive within her. Even though she didn't look native American with her wavy, blond hair, her black eyes carried some of the heritage.

  "Right. I won't be a minute." Fritz kept word, it was a full five minutes before he returned with her food and more coffee. "Enjoy. Coffee's on me today."

  "Generous!" Sheila said as she attacked her meal.

  With a stomach full and a trip to the ladies' room behind her, she headed to the woods. The patch of land with trees weren't really worth that name, but it was the best the area had to offer, and you could wander there for a few miles anyway. The clouds parted to show a pretty blue sky and a cheerful sun was out to make this day a really nice one. In the small, secluded parking between the trees, Sheila changed into her black witch's outfit. It was safe to do that here, there were no other cars, so no peeping Toms around. Then she left her car, locked it, and with her bag in hand she started walking to the familiar place where her group sometimes got together.

  As she walked down the path, she noticed that the sun was quite warm. Summer was very much making itself at home. The familiar feeling of perspiration trickling down her back made her a slightly less happy witch; this meant more laundry, and she'd just gotten rid of a load. Still she pushed on, her plan firm and her steps confident. She reached the small open spot she liked for her own doings. She pulled the blanket from her bag and spread it on the ground. There she kneeled and took her tarot cards, spreading those out as well. See, all went fine. No need to get naked at all, even though it was warmer than she had expected. Sheila took the magazine from her bag, She had brought that as a reminder why she was here in the first place. Then she started reading the cards she'd spread out in front of her. Occasionally she had to shift position, as the heat of the sun reached all the way down to the ground. The skinny trees around did nothing to stop the heat, and the few bushes around weren't any use either. Sheila winced as her dress caught in a twig and the sound of tearing fabric followed as she moved to the side a little. Maybe she shouldn't have chosen black today, but black was the colour of the witch, even when the temperature made it feel icky against her hot skin.

  After a while, taking a few good swigs of water, she felt hot. "That's all your fault," she blamed the magazine. She paged to the article about rituals in the nude. "Your fault, not mine." She frowned for a moment as a thought hit her. It was warm. She was alone in the woods. And she was here to prove to herself that a clothed ritual was just as good as a naked one, but how could she prove that if she didn't do the other side as well?

  Sheila got up and walked around, her dress catching in more twigs and bits of forest. She listened carefully to make sure that she was indeed as alone here as she thought. There were no sounds of cars or people, no barking dogs either. She bit her lip. Would she do this? Would she be brave enough to take all her clothes off here in the small forest, and read a few cards?

  After walking back to her blanket she slowly unbuttoned her blouse. She wore her bra under it, it wouldn't be a problem if people saw that. It was a nice bra, after all. Not very confident yet she took off the blouse. It took her longer to gain the courage to unzip her skirt. A little bit of wind came through the trees and caressed her back and shoulders. It felt nice, much better than before. "Okay, here goes." A few movements later she stood on her blanket in her underwear, arms crossed over her chest, spying around and listening intently. The only thing around was the occasional breeze of warm wind which played around her.

  "It's your fault," she reminded the magazine as she slowly reached for the clip of her bra. Once that was off she crossed her arms over her breasts again, to make sure no one saw her, even when no one was there.

  Slowly she lowered her arms. She'd gone this far, the final step had to be taken too. And then shuffle the cards and read at least three. Or two. With her eyes closed she slipped off her panties and quickly kneeled down. After all, the smaller she appeared, the less chance that anyone saw her. As more wind touched her everywhere, also in places where wind had never touched her before, she relaxed a little. The oppressing heat from the sunshine overhead had gone together with her clothes. "Still it's not proven," she muttered as she opened her eyes. Quickly she gathered the cards, shuffled them quickly and laid down another spread, a simple one about yesterday, today and tomorrow.

  Chapter 2.

  The card for yesterday was no surprise. A boring day deserved a boring card, and the ten of wands was just the ticket for that. One card done, two to go. Today. Oh, of course, the card of surprises, four of wands. Well, wasn't that spot on. She had surprised herself quite severely by dropping her clothes here in the middle of nowhere, and she still couldn't believe that she'd done it, sitting and reading cards. A quick glance down convinced her though, she wore nothing. Good. One more card. She knew she'd do the whole set of three cards as it all went so well. Relief rushed through her as she picked up the last card, but as she turned it over and saw the Death card, she had to swallow hard. Sheila dropped the card and reached for her water bottle. She took a good sip and looked at the card again. "Oh no. No bad stuff, no transformations, no nothing. You know that I don't do that change-stuff, I'm perfectly happy the way I am."

  Sheila shook her head as she put the card back upside down again so she didn't have to see the image. She knew it didn't always mean something bad, but that didn't mean she had to be happy about it. She sat back, as her knees started to complain about abuse. Leaning on her hands behind her she looked up at the trees around her. With her legs stretched in front of her to let the blood flow again, she closed her eyes as the sunlight touched her face and the wind played with her blond hair.

  A sudden strong gust of wind made her grin. It was tempting to lie down and let the wind play over her body, but she was here to prove something and - with a slightly grim feeling she reached for the magazine that was still open at the article with the naked witches. "It's all your fault. You lured me here and made the weather too nice, and now I haven't proven that there is no difference." She refused to say out loud that the undressed part of her work had felt better; she just couldn't.

  After a while longer she forced herself to get up, collect the cards and go back home for some refreshments the forest didn't offer. "Hey, who took that third card?" she mumbled as she couldn't find the Death card. Somehow the wind had blown it away. She found it a few feet away. With the pouch containing the deck in one hand she crawled to it, stuck the card where it belonged and got up to stretch herself one more time. That was the moment she banged her head into a low branch of the tree she was close to. A sharp pain seared through her as she saw stars in many pretty colours, and then she fell down in a black void.

  When she came to, the sunlight was still there. Sheila touched her head and found a good sized bump on it. "Damn, damn." Slowly she got up and brushed some leaves from her skin. At that moment she froze: she heard two or three loud voice
s, and they were coming closer. The people were shouting and laughing, and there she was, all naked, standing in the forest. Ignoring the pain in her head she stumbled forwards, grabbed her clothes, bag and blanket, and crouched low behind the bushes, closing her eyes and hoping that the people would just walk by quickly without discovering her. In her head she screamed out and promised herself that she would never do this again, in a never ever kind of never way.

  Her wishes were granted. The three people passed her, never being closer than some fifty feet, and the voices faded away soon. Frantically Sheila put on her clothes, haste making her stumble, and the stress she felt making her nauseous. The heat that couldn't escape from her clothes any more didn't make her feel much better, so she forced herself to walk to her car slowly. Once inside it, with the air-conditioning on, she relaxed and breathed more easily. Only when her heart had stopped racing, she drove off and didn't stop until she was home.

  *

  Sheila pushed the memory of everything that had happened in the small forest to the back of her mind. Her head still hurt, and after she'd jumped in and out of the shower and she was watching television, she kept blinking her eyes. Something wasn't quite right with how she saw things. She reasoned that she probably had gotten a mild concussion as she had hit the tree, so she washed down a few painkillers with a cup of coffee and lay down on the couch to let the medication take effect.

  It was several hours later that she woke up from a restless dream. She didn't remember what had happened, but flashes of colours, scared people and all kinds of other weird stuff came back to her in leaps and bounds. Her head hurt somewhat less, but as she looked around the living room things had gotten worse with her eyes. Everything had an odd colour around it, mostly very faint. She raised a hand and almost wanted to run away from herself as she saw brilliant colours of yellow, red and blue dance around her fingers. "What the heck is that?" she wondered, blinking frantically to make the colours go away. Suddenly they were gone, and everything looked normal again. "Phew..." Carefully she blinked again. No colours. Good.