Helpful Encounters

Codes- FF, oral, MF, discussion of polyamory.

Intro- This tale was inspired by a thread on social media about whether a stranded woman would rather meet a bear or a man in the wilderness. Read below to find out more details. All onscreen characters in this story are my original creations, though they are partially inspired by real people. This story is connected to others I have written, but can also be enjoyed as stand alone.

The mention of C.J. Box's character Joe Pickett in this story is to advertise the character. Same for fellow online erotica author MelissaBaby's character Ranger Ramona, whose story is available on Literotica. And same for Yoshi's Uncle Goro Majima, who was created by Sega. I like the characters enough to feature them in my fictional universe offscreen. Hope readers appreciate the passing mentions. Actors James Franco, Elliot Page (who was known as Ellen in 2018, the year in which this story is set, having not yet transitioned to male), and a few other real life celebrities are also mentioned herein for fanfic purposes- I have enjoyed their work but I'm not inclined to write an in-depth story about any of them right now, so I'm adding them to a recurring original female character's past relationship history and leaving things at that. It's fanfic versions of the celebrities of course, not the real people. The recurring character in question is not real either.

As always, this story is fictional and meant for mature open minds. If you don't appreciate graphic sexual content because of your environment or other reasons, or you're not a fan of similar stories to this, you're not my target audience and you are politely asked to cease reading this story. If you are appreciative of my work, though, your feedback is appreciated.

That said, on with the show.

***

Lake Tahoe, Nevada. Autumn 2018.

"Shit," Faith Thomas mumbled, looking at her phone. "No bars. Shit."

She was a Caucasian woman in her early thirties with medium length cinnamon brown hair bound in a ponytail. Violet eyes made her otherwise average-featured face stand out. Her slim figure was currently clad in a dark blue cotton blouse, matching jeans with black leather low-heeled boots, and black blazer jacket. I look great, Faith had thought assessing herself after she'd gotten dressed that morning. Of course, that doesn't matter much at the moment.

Faith had just realized she was in a bad situation- namely, that she was lost in the woods.

Her car had run out of gas back on the road some distance away. The gas gauge didn't work- the rental company at the airport had warned her about that. But they had also assured her it was filled up by the last customer and given her a good deal on it, so she had accepted it. She had to skimp on something- her work credit account and savings hadn't left much in the budget after the flight and hotel booking. At least she was going to an all-inclusive resort for the weekend. The only driving she'd be doing was from the airport to the resort hotel and back, thus it had seemed safe to risk a cheap rental car. She liked to drive herself over taking taxis and shuttles so she could retain some measure of independence. She had thought the car would not have issues. Risking those issues had been her bad decision she was only realizing now.

The trip would be good for her career, her bosses had made that clear. She had volunteered to make it and represent the company at the convention that weekend. The event was at a Nevada resort hotel called Garin-Ruiz, a new venue on the shores of Lake Tahoe. Faith, other executives from her tech manufacturing firm, and other employees of other related industries were meeting to enjoy paintball, golf, skiing, and other fun stuff while networking. Faith couldn't remember what specific activities the resort offered at the moment. She would indulge in them if the mood struck her and other people with whom she wanted to connect wanted to enjoy them once she was reminded what they were. Or she would indulge in the spa or restaurants or gambling she knew the resort also featured, though she was more into watching the latter than actually playing- too much personal bad luck in the past. In between recreation, she would make necessary connections at the convention for her career. That had been her original plan anyway. Now, though...

My car ran out of gas back on the highway, Faith reminded herself. I was barely able to pull over and get it off the road onto the shoulder once it started to slow down. My dad ran out of gas a few times in his old beater truck, I recognized what was happening. Of course, I also had bad cell reception and no other drivers stopped in response to my waving in distress. Thus I couldn't call a tow truck. I thought no big deal, modern world, there might be better cell reception not far away and I could get back to the car before dark. So I went into the woods just off the road looking for a signal. I found one, then lost it in the middle of searching for tow truck company phone numbers. I moved to another spot in the woods, looked again, found better reception again, then the call cut out in the middle of my waiting on hold. That was an hour ago according to my phone and- big surprise!- it started to get dark sooner than I expected. And I lost track of where I am relative to the road. Shit!

Yes, she had a locator app, but it too had lost her phone's signal and was thus no help.

The woods were eerily quiet around her. It would be better if birds, insects, and other animals were making noise, but they weren't. And Faith had no idea where she was. Yes, her phone had a location finder app, but no reception meant it couldn't find her location either. And her anxiety level was now so high that she could not remember which direction the road was when last she knew.

In other words, she was in trouble and there was no clear escape.

She closed her eyes briefly, activating her usual tactic for calming herself and thinking of happier times.

***

Seattle, Washington. Earlier the same day.

The bed was shifting. Faith noticed and woke up.

"Sorry," a soft voice said, sensing her shift and rise. "Didn't mean to wake you."

"It's okay, Moira," Faith said, recognizing the voice. She opened her eyes and smiled at her petite blonde girlfriend Moira Martin. "What time is it?"

Moira blinked her light blue eyes and checked her wristwatch. Faith chuckled- her girlfriend was a few years older than her and still liked a watch even though phones showed the time too and were just as convenient with more apps. Faith couldn't remember where her phone was at the moment and she saw Moira's watch on her wrist, so she asked Moira the time. She also took the opportunity to admire Moira's curves, which her short sheer purple lace nightgown did little to conceal. Moira wasn't her first female lover- Faith had known she swung both ways since college experimentation, depending on the people she met and her whims- but Moira was her current girlfriend and worthy of appreciation. Her blonde halo of hair, those perfect handful small champagne glass shaped breasts under the nightgown's fabric, her shining blue eyes, her smooth coltish legs... and the trimmed tunnel between them was Faith's recently secured personal passport to paradise. She smiled and licked her lips, recalling the many times they had coupled before.

"7:30 am," Moira said, then caught Faith's appreciative glance and smiled back. She cast a similar glance of appraisal over Faith, widened her smile, then spoke again. "You feel any contact lenses near you?"

"Contacts?" Faith instinctively blinked.

"Yeah," Moira replied. "I forgot to take mine out before we started making out last night. Remember?"

"Yeah." Faith chuckled, recalling how much fun the making out and what followed had been.

They'd been enjoying a night out consuming drinks and sushi, mutually celebrating three months of dating and getting in one last date night before her business trip. They had held hands at the sushi bar, relaxed in each other's company, and then gone home and started vigorous making out. Disrobing followed- Faith had stripped Moira's cream pullover sweater and khaki slacks off her, been pleased to find the nightgown beneath. It was an enticing frame for Moira's body, and skimpy enough it did not inhibit Faith's touches. Both of them had appreciated that. Faith herself had been stripped naked by Moira and was still nude that morning, though the bedsheets covered her. She liked to sleep in just a pair of panties- those had been pushed off her by Moira last night. By the time their subsequent activity was over, she had not cared about putting them back on.

After they undressed the previous night had come more heated exchanging of kisses. Then breast fondling, clit fingering, oral attention to each other's pussies, a sixty-nine... and then they had fallen asleep. Faith smiled, recalling the moans sparked by her many climaxes and those she had coaxed from Moira. The memories were strong enough to bring a comforting flush to her skin and get her heart hammering a bit too. She could also recall the spicy taste of Moira's girl-cum on her lips.

Both women were bisexual, but had met men who weren't good people and thus had sworn off them in favor of dating each other in their present circumstances a few months back. Moira was the more cynical of the pair. Faith recalled her joking once she'd rather meet a bear when alone in the wilderness than some guy. At least she could probably avoid negative attention from the bear.

Faith wasn't that cynical yet, or so she liked to think. She just hadn't met a lot of nice men recently. In the months before she met Moira there had been the one boyfriend who got overly handsy before she was ready for him to do so that she dumped. And the one guy in that shopping center parking lot who had approached her and flashed a knife, demanded she accompany him into the nearby alley before she kicked him in the knee hard enough to unbalance him, pulled her arm out of his slack grip, and ran away. Followed by the next guy who hit on her in a really inappropriate situation, not respecting professionalism, forcing her to walk away from any benefits their business relationship could provide. And a few other guys who had approached her with cheesy lines but not the looks or funds to back them up. All those guys were real and awful, but she wasn't soured on men yet.

Just willing to soothe the more soured Moira, her friend of a few months she had met working in the same building. Faith was a tech software designer, Moira was business manager slash receptionist in a female doctor's office which Faith visited in the same building. They'd shared a couple lunches in the building cafeteria, exchanged tales of woe featuring male jerks, confessed to lesbian experimentation in college that led to bisexuality, and one thing led to another. They had both been missing sex in general and a woman's touch in particular. Sure, a lot of influences in the media discouraged sex in general, but neither Faith nor Moira was willing to forsake the pleasure of sex entirely, no other partners were available, and therefore they had hooked up. It started when they both wanted to see the same movie in a theater and didn't want to go alone, went together for companionship, downed a few drinks in the dinner theater or maybe got better food and conversation time at a nearby restaurant combined with more drinks... repeat three or four times. Faith hadn't kept track of how many dates they'd enjoyed before their first time together. It was at least three. She hadn't memorized every date's events either. What was important was that in the present they were regularly sharing a bed.

"I remember," she told Moira, smiling again. Moira's moans and sighs last night were echoing in her mind. "That lingerie you wore for me still looks great on you."

"Thanks." Moira beamed. She ran a hand over her heaving bosoms and stomach. It was obvious to Faith she had good memories of the previous night too.

"I fell asleep before I could get it all the way off you," Faith recalled, looking her girlfriend up and down.

"Yes." Moira shook her head and smirked. "And I forgot to take my contacts out before we got started. They fell out of my eyes somewhere between our first kiss in here last night and us falling asleep. I wasn't thinking about them at the time." She laughed. "Now I am. I found one on the floor. Not sure if the other landed on the bed or not. It isn't on the floor far as I can tell."

Faith nodded, understanding the circumstances. She didn't wear contacts, so she didn't have the same issue losing them like Moira. But she had helped Moira find her contacts before.

The brunette patted the sheets around her, checked under the pillow and sheets in her immediate vicinity. She could feel Moira's admiring eyes on her as the sheet slipped off her torso. Faith didn't bother to immediately appreciate her girlfriend's gaze. First she had to find the contact lens.

It wasn't under her pillow. She checked under the one Moira had used last night. Nope. Faith kept searching.

There! It was under the sheets near where Moira had slept. Faith smiled and held it up.

"Thanks," Moira said, taking the lens. She placed it in the case she was holding in one hand, then put that case on the bedside table nearby. The blonde then sat down on the bed beside Faith. "Hey, what time's your flight again?"

"Noon," Faith recalled. She grimaced. "I was hoping to get a little more sleep."

She left unspoken that she was too awake for that now- Moira knew her well enough already as the type of person who once they were awake did not easily get back to sleep. Nor was she made for short sleep sessions like some other people she knew.

"Sorry," Moira sighed, eyes steady on Faith.

"It's okay," Faith said. I can study company manuals for the convention conferences, she thought. Or review my packing and other preparations. Or, since I have time and just seeing Moira in that nightgown again got me in the mood...

"Hey," she said. "You have time to hang out this morning?"

"Yeah," Moira confirmed. "Day off. I need to grocery shop, but I can do that this afternoon." Her eyes showed she suspected what was on Faith's mind.

"Still feeling frisky?"

Moira pouted, then smiled at Faith's hand running along her arm for emphasis.

"Not really," she teased. "But I could get that way."

Faith grinned back at her and beckoned her close.

Withing seconds, they were making out once again. The sheet fully slipped off Faith's body, aided by Moira's hands. Faith then slipped the straps of Moira's negligee off her shoulders and pushed it off her. Last night it had presented little barrier to her touches, and it had been fun caressing Moira through the fabric or moving it aside, but this time she wanted to see her girlfriend naked. Moira sensed this, grinned and kicked the garment away as it slid down her body, then resumed cuddling with Faith.

Moira's nipples were dark and small, much like Faith's. Both women's bare bodies shone in the sunlight streaming into the bedroom through the venetian blinds. The brunette trimmed her cunt curls into a different more rounded shape from her girlfriend's, however their pubic hair was the same dark brown color. Both soon found themselves rubbing the hard bud just beneath the other's patch of hair.

"That feels... ah..." Moira breathed between smooches of Faith's mouth.

"It feels great," Faith replied quickly, then kept rubbing. Her right hand massaged Moira's snatch, her other arm held the blonde close. Her lips roamed over Moira's face and neck.

Their hard nipples rubbed against each other. Faith and Moira paused their kisses briefly to kiss and suckle at each other's breasts. Then their lips were moving back up, meeting again. Tongues licked at each other as they made out.

They aligned their legs close together, made their clits touch each other. Then the shorter Moira moved up on Faith's body, rubbed her clit against the brunette's stomach. Faith moved her fingers in Moira's pussy in sync with the blonde's body, kept caressing her clit.

Moira kept caressing Faith's clit in response and twisted her body around slightly. They were both quickly getting too excited to maintain the kissing, and breath was as important as touch if not more. They admired each other with roving eyes, fell into a position on the bed where Faith was prone and Moira was comfortably astride her. Rubbing their bodies together in close proximity, not pressing down with her weight. They kept caressing each other's clits, and their other hands rubbed each other's torsos. Nipples were tweaked, nails trailed across necks, spirals were traced on stomach and shoulders. Faith moaned, and Moira gasped.

Then juices were flowing, hearts were hammering. Faith reached climax first, then Moira seconds later. Faith kept up her touches on Moira's clit even as the other woman's tunnel tightened around her invading digits. Moira did the same for Faith.

They both kept rubbing each other through their climaxes, cried out in rapture.

Faith collapsed after coming, fell back on the bed. Moira, once recovered from her orgasm, laughed and kissed her mouth, then started buffing a path down the brunette's body with her lips.

Faith accepted the touches, rubbed Moira's blonde waves of hair as her head traveled. She also rubbed her own breasts and stomach, wanting to make the feel of Moira's kisses linger on her skin.

When Moira reached her cunt, Faith moaned as she felt the other woman nip and lick her clit with teeth and tongue. Then Moira was twisting around on the bed, moving her own cunt to Faith's lips. They had taken turns giving each other oral pleasure the night before. This time it seemed Moira wanted another orgasm faster. Faith was willing to deliver, so she bent to Moira's cunt, rubbed her girlfriend's legs while holding them apart, kissed and licked away.

Reaching a second climax did not take long for either of them. They had relaxed and spooned in the afterglow, then both found themselves in the mood for breakfast. They had gotten dressed in two of Faith's T-shirts- they wore the same size- and fixed food, ate, then gone back to Faith's bedroom, kissed a bit more but stopped short of further lovemaking. Time was pressing down along with other anxieties on Faith's part about her travel preparations. Moira had gotten dressed and left. Then Faith got dressed herself, checked her bags and studied in the time she had remaining for that, and ran to the airport around ten.

***

Now she was lost in the woods alone.

"Shit," Faith said, opening her eyes again after reviewing the pleasant memory. She checked her phone again. Still no bars. "Shit."

To make matters worse, she was hearing strange sounds from nearby. Something large crashing through the brush. Furtive snuffling, animal noises. Faith grimaced and flicked on her flashlight app, then shone it in the direction of the noise.

A large black furry animal was not far away and approaching her. A bear!

Moira's joke that Faith had been thinking about earlier flashed into her brain. When lost in the wilderness, would you rather meet a bear or a man? A bear, because you could be sure it wouldn't want to sexually harass you. Faith had laughed, then seconds later had realized the humor was bad. After all, a bear wouldn't want to sexually harass a human woman, generally, but it wouldn't want to help her get out of being lost in the wilderness either. Nor could it speak to her, or lead her to safety in some other way. Talking animals did not generally exist outside fiction. Same for ones trained to help lost travelers.

"It might want to kill you just as easily as a man," she had pointed out to Moira. "Or more if it smelled blood."

"Well, I guess you're right," Moira had admitted. "But hey, at least the bear won't pull a knife on you and threaten rape, right? Or make smarmy advances and ask you out when they're supposed to be teaching you kung fu?"