As she was starting to groggily fight her way back to the realm of consciousness, Rebecca felt an irresistible warmth beside her and nuzzled in tight against it. “Like what you feel?” Matthew’s voice purring in her ear was enough to snap her suddenly back to her senses and make her suddenly slide away.

“Guess not,” he laughed, as he slowly reached out a hand and stroked a few stray hairs back away from her face.

“Where… where are we?” Blinking a few times to clear the sleep from her eyes, Rebecca half shivered as she remembered the unearthly chill of the foreign landscape she’d experienced from atop the rooftop. Biting her lower lip gently, she resisted the urge to slide forward and snuggle herself back up against Matthew’s bare chest.

“We’re in Hel,” Matthew told her calmly, and in all seriousness.

Puzzled, Rebecca asked, “Hell? Isn’t that supposed to be some type of burning lake of fire?” Pulling the covers tightly around her, she couldn’t imagine anything being any further from the place where she currently was.

“No,” Matthew laughed, as he slowly stretched and slid out of the bed. “That’s H E double-L hell. This is H E single-L Hel. Hel, as in deepest recesses of Niflheim, the ninth and last of all the worlds of existence. Bordered by the eternal river Gjoll, home of the Ironwood, and birthplace of the rivers Leipter and Slid. That’s the Hel we’re currently resting in,” Matthew explained calmly, his naked body pale and muscular in the dim light of the room as he unabashedly walked over to the massive wardrobe and pulled opened its doors. Reaching inside, he pulled out a golden fur robe and wrapped it casually around himself before walking around the bed to be be closer to the side Rebecca was now on.

Not bothering to even pull the robe shut, he stood calmly at the side of her bed and stretched his hand out to her. “Come. Join me. I can take you for a tour of this place if you want.”

Hesitant, Rebecca slowly took his hand and wormed her way to the edge of the bed, before stopping and blushing slightly. “Where’s my clothes?” Glancing around, she didn’t see them hanging on the screen again. In fact, she couldn’t see them anywhere.

“I’ve taken them down and cleaned them,” Matthew chuckled. “They’re drying now and you can have them back in a little bit. Come on now. Join me,” he demanded, tugging on her hand once again gently.

Biting her lip and hesitant, Rebecca slowly eased out of the bed and trembled lightly in front of him. Softly, Matthew took his left hand, reached out and stroked her cheek gently, and then reached down and gave each of her nipples a slight little tug. “The cold does such amazing things to the female body, doesn’t it?”

“Yeah… Well, it does some things to a male body too,” Rebecca snorted back, trying to hide her embarrassment, “and you’d think with what it does, you’d want to cover that pitiful little worm up with that robe of yours.”

Instead of being offended, Matthew simply chuckled lightly and then pulled her up and hugged her tight against his chest. “Come on,” he insisted as he finally let go of her and pulled away lightly, “I know where we can talk and relax at the same time.” Holding onto her hand, he gently tugged Rebecca towards the door, leaving her no choice but to follow.

Going back out to the hall, Matthew purposefully turned to the right and led her quickly down the hall into the darkness. Embarassed at her own lack of dress and worried that she might see another disturbing nightmare-inducing painting like was on the other hall, Rebecca kept her head down and focused on simply keeping up with the rapid pace Matthew was walking. Down to the end of the hall, and then down another of the strange platform-steps, they moved together in silence.

At the bottom of the steps, Rebecca stopped as a sudden warmth and light opened up past the small hall leading from the staircase, and led into a massive ball room. Crystal candelabrums hung majestically from the ceiling, reflecting light in all directions and making an array of wild shadows dance playfully across the wall as they swayed and rocked rhythmically to a wind only they seemed to feel. The floor here was a deep cherry-red wood, polished to an illustrious shine, and elaborate tapestries depicting scenes of wildlife and nature hung loosely around the walls. Large enough for a thousand people to swirl, dance, and cavort in at a time, the ballroom was massive and well beyond anything she thought ever imagined that she’d end up seeing and traipsing through.

“It… It’s beautiful.” The words seemed inadequate to her, but her mind simply wouldn’t supply anything else to describe what she was currently seeing.

Looking around, Matthew shrugged slightly. “It’s just a big empty room,” he told her, seemingly unimpressed or moved by the beauty around him. “Though,” he added with a half smirk, “I do feel like it looks quite a bit more appealing now than it did a short while ago.”

“Why’s that?” Rebecca asked, confused.

“It’s because you weren’t in here a short while ago,” Matthew answered, before pulling her up, groping her ass tightly with both hands, and then kissing her passionately.

“Wha.. Ho.. Spp..” Shocked speechless, Rebecca just sputtered when he finally released her. Taking her hand and tugging her along again, she followed meekly, as she was trying to blink away the confusion in her mind. This place! And him! And she was naked! And the game… So much had happened so suddenly, one thing just after another, that she was lost in a daze and let herself be led along, passing one wondrous area after another, with none really registering in her fog-filled mind as she tried to muddle through her own inner turmoil.

“Here.” Stopping suddenly, Matthew tugged off his robe and tossed it gently to rest on top of a stone bench nearby. Easing forward, he slowly worked his way down a long set of steps and into a massive pool of steaming, tea-green water. “Join me,” he laughed, as he swam gently out into the water and splashed some gently in her direction.

“Where are we now?” Snapped out of her inner rumination, Rebecca glanced back and forth in childlike awe. Behind them was another of the dark staircases which she had apparently let herself be led them obediently, and before her was a massive underground cavern that stretched almost out of sight. Steps led down to a pool which filled the majority of the cavern and crystal stalactites and stalagmites grew together to form thick crystalline pillars which reflected and refracted the light that seemed to shine naturally from all around, casting rainbow cascades dancing merrily all about.

“We’re bathing in the bowels of the netherworld,” Matthew answered her laughingly. “There’s names for all these places, but they’re all in Nordic, or old English, or whatever the hell it is they’re in. Names which break the jaw, twist the tongue, and make someone want to say ‘Bless you’ after you say them. The Higher Gel Meer* River, however the hell you’re supposed to pronounce it, is what we’re bathing in here, warmed by deep volcanic lava that flows and swirls through tube catacombing the mountain all around us.”

“It’s the River of Life,” Matthew laughed, “so I suppose that means it’s supposed to be good for the skin or something. Come join me,” he offered again.

“Fine.” Hesitantly, Rebecca eased down the stone steps until she could gently test a toe in the steaming green waters. The warmth of the water seemed to try to worm its way up her leg as a slight tingling sensation caressed over her foot and gently ripped up her body. Shivering, and not from the cold this time, she slowly worked her way down into the gentle embrace of the water as it caressed and seeped its slightly electric touch deep into the recesses of her inner spirt.

“Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh…” A feeling of blissful warmth filled her being, and her mind blanked under the sudden calm contentment which rippled around her. If the rest of this place was a cold, barren Hel, she felt like she’d finally find a secret refuge of Heaven here buried deep inside it.

Laughing, Matthew watched her as she slowly sunk deeper in the water, before bobbing back up to drift lazily on her back and indulge in the moment. Though he had a lot of things which he wanted to teach her, for now, he was just going to let her relax and recover for a bit. He remembered how much his first experience in the stream of life had affected him, and he didn’t want to do anything to ruin that moment for her.

There’d be time enough for teaching – and loving – later. For now, he was simply content to watch as she floated effortless atop the waters, with her hair gently drifting out in all directions around her.

* Hvergelmir – Spring of Life in Norse Mythology, said to originate as a bubbling cauldron in the center of Hel