The Fountain of Youth

by Jennifer White

 

In the year 1685, the ship H.M.S. Discovery departed London, England, on a voyage of discovery. Captain H. C. Wallace had obtained at great expense a map which was rumored to lead to the fabled "Fountain of Youth". A water spring of such pure source, that it would restore the person drinking from it, to a younger age.

It was the dream of most men of time to make a great discovery. And so H. C. Wallace gathered up a crew of 97 men, a fast boat, and the necessary provisions for such an undertaking.

Winds were fair as they set out. The crew were in good spirits. Among the officers onboard, was Dr. John H. Longfellow, a prestigious scientist. He kept the ship's scientific journal for the voyage.

 

When the H.M.S. Discovery left sight of London, it was never heard from again. It was assumed that all aboard were lost. Sailing was still dangerous and many ships setting out did not return.

However, in the year 2004, at an antique store in The Bahamas, a young woman named Heather Longfellow made a startling discovery: an old book which appeared to be the scientific log of The Discovery! She was the great-great-granddaughter of the ship's doctor, and the story was the stuff of family legend. Now she had found the actual log!

She sat down to read it, so she could determine whatever happened to her long lost relative. The book was very dry and boring at first (in the upper-class British ways of scientific method used at the time). Too much details about nothing. But after endless days of circling at sea in search of the uncharted island, at last there was a breakthrough. Now the story became interesting. Very interesting.

* * *

 

"August 2, 1685. We arrived at the island spotted last night, and made anchor in the cove on the northeast shore. I have never seen water so blue nor sand so white. The men were eager to go ashore, and I must admit that the officers are of the same mind. Our heads are filled with thoughts of fresh water, vegetables, or dare we hope - meat.

Boarding parties being organized, all hands will go ashore for leave. Cpn. Wallace will divide us into 2 groups for search. He will lead team Alpha, I am to lead team Beta. We depart on the longboats at noon."

* * *

 

Heather read the journal with gathering interest. Dr. John Longfellow was very meticulous in his detail, listing the native flora he found, along with drawings. He also wrote his observations of the crew. Heather thought it was funny how superstitious they were back then. She read:

"Everything here is so magical and pure. The men all insist that this is no mortal land, and surely we have found the land of the object of our quest."

She was glad that people didn't talk like that anymore. There was no magic in the world, and people back in those days just didn't understand.

 

The crew was all ashore now, and split into two parties. Team Alpha, led by the captain, headed to the left. Team Beta, led by the doctor, headed to the right. The island appeared fairly large, so it would take days to explore it.

The doctor moved around the shoreline until they found an easy passage into the interior of the island. It was hot, humid, and the sun was oppressive. For three days, team Beta explored the island.

 

On the fourth day, they made a remarkable discovery:

"Our scouts reported that they heard a thundering crash of water ahead. Given the high mountainous geography, the possibility of a waterfall seems very likely indeed."

"Proceeded towards the sound. We can hear the crash of water, and see the mists rising. It appears to be only one more hours hike to attain our goal."

 

The doctor and team Beta came over a hill, through a clearing, and saw a remarkable sight: a pool of water, perhaps 100 feet wide by 200 feet long. At the southern end, a mighty waterfall cascaded down from the mountains. It was surrounded by trees and vegetation, with ripe, low hanging fruit available for picking. As hungry and tired as the men were, they ignored the food. They didn't notice the scenery. They only noticed one thing: in the water were a group of over forty naked young women!

 

The men all rushed to take off their clothes, and to run into the water to join the women. They had been months at sea, and hadn't seen a woman since leaving port. They were tired and dirty. They ran into the water, and swam out to where the nubile young women were.

Only the doctor remained ashore, taking notes as fast as he could. What were so many women doing out here? Why were they naked? They seemed eager to greet the men who were swimming out towards them. The doctor started to walk around the pool of water, drawing a map and better defining the size of the perimeter.

"It is the fountain of youth!" yelled one man.

"Jennings! Come here!" ordered the doctor.

Jennings was 47 years old, ancient for a seaman of the time. His face was scarred from battles when he was in the Royal Navy, and he only had one eye.

When he came to the doctor, dripping wet, it was hard for the doctor to believe what he was seeing. Jenning's face was smooth, and free from scars. It looked very boyish in fact. He now had two eyes! He was smiling, unable to contain the joy he felt for being restored. Jenning's hair had grown longer too, as his body had regenerated.

"Please doctor, can I go back to the ladies?" he asked.

"Go man" said the doctor, who watched Jennings return to the depths of the pool. The doctor longed to test the magical qualities of the water on himself, but it was important that he remain levelheaded now, and write down observations. There would be plenty of time to bathe later.

* * *

 

Heather was astounded. If this was true, then her ancestor had in fact helped find the fountain of youth! It was real! But why was it still a secret then? What happened to the ship? Why did it never return? She would have to wait until the next day to have more time to read.

That night, she dreamed of the fountain of youth. She dreamed that she found it, bottled the water, and became rich from selling it to people eager to have the bodies they did when they were young.

* * *

 

The next evening, Heather eagerly returned to the journal. She found the crew where she had left them, reveling in the legendary fountain of youth.

 

The doctor made his way around the pool, and was near the far end from where he had emerged from the jungle. He was near the base of the rock wall where the waterfall cascaded down from up high in the mountains. And it was here that he made a puzzling discovery: piles of clothes.

He poked at them with a stick. They looked recently worn, and smelled of men at sea. But then one caught his eye, and made his heart beat quickly: the captain's coat. Not just any coat: the one worn by captain Wallace himself!

If that was captain Wallace's coat, then these were the clothes of crewmen. But where were they? Why weren't they chasing the women in the pool, as the men from team Beta were doing?

He studied for clues. There were all sorts of footprints, but they were all coming out of the jungle. None went back out. That meant that the men of team A never left the pool.

But if the men never left, then where were they? He looked out at the women again, and a cold chill went up and down his spine. They were of the same number as team Alpha. They had no clothes. And they were in the same place that team Alpha should be. They had to be the missing men!

"Jennings, come here, I need you!" he yelled loudly.

A naked person came swimming up to the shoreline, and stood at attention. But Dr. Longfellow gasped. The person in front of him wasn't Jennings anymore. And he couldn't tell whether to call Jennings a man or a woman anymore.

Jennings face had moved past boyish youth, and had now become an image of feminine beauty. He had long beautiful hair, down to the small of his back. He had lost all of his body hair, including his beard. And on Jennings chest, were a pair of pretty breasts, just like those of a girl of 15 or 16.

There was a curve to Jennings hips now. His body was looking more and more like that of the women swimming in the pool. The only reminder of his maleness was the small male genitals between his legs. But they were greatly shrunk, down to the size of an infant boy.

"Jennings?" said the doctor.

"Yes sir!" he replied. His voice was crystal clear now, and high in pitch. The doctor was stunned. Not only was the water of this pool regressing the crewmen in age, it was also turning them female!

The forty-some women they had discovered in the pool were formerly the men of team Alpha. And by now, team Beta had become almost completely female. The doctor was the last man left from the crew, unchanged.

"Jennings, fill these bottles, then put them in the sand over there."

The doctor removed two bottles from his backpack, and threw them towards Jennings, who filled the bottles, replaced the cork, and put them in the sand where the doctor indicated. Dr. Longfellow wanted a sample of this magical fluid, but he didn't want to risk even touching it, lest the effects rub off on him.

He also had Jennings soak a strip of cloth in the water, then allowed it to dry also. If there was an agent in the water, it stood to reason that it would bind to the cloth, and he could study it later.

 

It was only after the bottles had completely dried, that the doctor wrapped them in rags, and returned them to his backpack, along with the dried strip of cloth. By then, Jennings was no longer recognizable. He was completely female now! And a strange thing: he no longer responded to 'Jennings'. He seemed to have completely forgotten himself.

It took a great amount of coaxing for the doctor to convince the women to leave the water. He talked him into washing their clothes in the pool, then returning to the ship with him.

But the disturbing thing was how they behaved: they all acted like they were in heat. One after the other, they tried to use their wiles to get him to make love with them.

"I want you" said the woman who used to be Jennings.

"When we get back to the ship" lied the doctor. "You'll have to follow me back to the ship."

* * *

 

Heather was stunned. Either this document was complete fiction, or else this was the most remarkable discovery of all time. But it was late, and she needed to go to sleep now.

It wasn't until the next day, when her husband left to see the football game with the guys, that she was able to resume her reading.

 

The doctor somehow got the crew back to the ship. They seemed to have forgotten who they were, but they did remember how to man a ship. He barked out orders, and soon they were under way, heading back to London.

Dr. Longfellow wrote in his journal that he was the acting captain for the time being, and that he hoped there was a way to restore Captain Wallace. He wrote how it was hard to get used to having cabin *girls* serving dinner.

Now that the cook had become a woman, she had done a much better job than when he was a man. The doctor wrote wryly that at least some good had come of the trip.

As the doctor finished his meal, he washed down the last of it with a glass of water. The water had a strange taste to it. Strange in that it tasted fresh, unlike the rainwater that was collected onboard, sitting in barrels for a long time, until it tasted from staleness.

"Where did you get this water?" he asked the cabin girl.

"From that bottle over there" she said, pointing to an empty bottle on the shelf, with the cork lying by its side. She edged closer to the doctor, and started to take off her shirt.

"Put that back on!" he ordered. "Leave!"

The doctor was shaking. He had just drank water from the fountain. He wrote with a shaking hand in his journal:

 

I have locked myself in my cabin, and have stripped naked so I can observe any changes. I have consumed the cursed water, and I fear that I am now doomed to the same fate as the rest of the crew. Within moments of drinking the water, a felt a surge of energy course through my body. I was filled with a warmth all over.

9:00am: over night I have noticed several changes. Perhaps because I did not bathe in the water, it seems to be changing me slower than the rest of the crew. But there are signs showing already. My arthritis has been cured, the slight limp in my right leg is gone, and the wrinkles in my face have disappeared.

However, I notice that my fingers seems more slender and fine. I have not shaved in 3 days, but my face is smooth. And I am rapidly losing the hair on my chest.

10:30am: Measured myself, and I am over one inch shorter than before. My hip measurements show no change, but I have lost an inch from my waist. I am starting to develop curves. Also detected budding on my breasts. They itch greatly, and now feel somewhat sore. It was driving me crazy, but a single drop of water on them from the bottle soothed me, so I can continue my observations.

12:00 noon: My hair has grown much longer. My face in the mirror reminds me of when I was buy a lad, however my features seem softer than I remember. Definite swelling in my breasts now. My height has lost another half inch, and another inch less in the waist. Have lost a quarter inch of circumference in my penis, and can no longer attain an erection.

1:30pm: The changes seem more rapid now. I went to check on the size of my penis, and found that it had almost completely disappeared. It was smaller than that of my son when he was born. I have gained weight in my rear, but I now have a slender waist like that of a woman. My breasts have grown greatly, and I fear that I will soon need a corset to support them.

2:30pm: My genitals have now completely changed, and to all outward appearances, I seem to be a woman. My breasts are very large now, and jiggle when I move. I have been brushing my long hair as I look in the mirror, and wish I had the proper combs and pins so that I could wear it up, as is the fashion these days. And ah, for the lack of cosmetics aboard ship here! The men who designed this vessel did not take a woman's needs into account.

3:00pm: I had a great scare: I felt a craving within myself which I had never felt before. Almost by accident, I touched myself between my legs. I realized that what I wanted was stimulation down there. I used my finger to penetrate myself, as well as exploring the clitoral structure at the top of the opening. Experienced an orgasm, and it was *wonderful*!

The scare came when I realized that as I stimulated myself, I was imagining that it was being done by a man. I want a man! It is driving me crazy. I cannot wait until we make land, so I can find someone. I *need* it, and I am going crazy with desire.

4:00pm: I fear that I have gone mad. I can no longer think. My inner desires are taking over. I can barely force myself to write this. I leave this log as a warning to all: do not attempt to land on the island! Stay away! Do not let this happen to you! I am going to fire the cannon into the hull below, to scuttle this boat before we reach land. I cannot allow this ship to return to civilization!

* * *

 

The log ended there. The doctor had become a woman, but had been driven insane by the change. If he in fact did sink the boat, that would explain why it never returned to London. The ship hadn't been lost: it had been sunk on purpose.

Heather cried as she read this. Her great-great-grandfather had died as a woman. He had been terrified of being female, which seemed so silly to her. How could you not like it? What was wrong with him? He would rather die than to be a woman? He was indeed mad.

Heather flipped through the empty pages at the end, but as she did so, something fell out of the book. A one inch wide by four inches long strip of coarse white cloth. Was this a bookmark, or could it be the cloth that the doctor had soaked in the fountain of youth, then dried?

She decided to perform an experiment on herself. She was almost forty, and as with all women of that age, she was growing dissatisfied with the effects that time and gravity were having on her body. What if it really was true? If the rag contained the substance from the fountain, it would make her younger! And she was already a woman, so it wouldn't effect her like it did the doctor.

Heather put the strip of ancient cloth into a glass, and filled it with water. The cloth was so old that it started to dissolve, turning the water a murky white color. But she could see even now that it was clearing as the cloth completely dissolved.

The phone rang, disrupting Heather's attention. She went to the next room to get it. It was her mother. Heather started to tell her about the book she found, but left out the part about the effects of the fountain. She wanted her father to know, but she wanted to break it to him herself. She was so wrapped up in conversation, that she didn't hear her husband William return home.

Heather said good-bye to her mother, and hung up the phone. She walked into the kitchen, where she found William drinking a glass of water.

"Where did you get that water?" she said.

"It was on the counter, over there" he replied.

"Oh no!" she said, running over to hug him.

"What's the matter?" said William.

Heather was afraid to tell him.

"Aah" said William.

"What?" replied Heather.

"I just feel so good! I'm so full of energy, and I feel warm all over" he said.

Heather's face went pale. His change was starting. Just like the doctor's had. There was nothing she could do to stop it now.

"Come to bed with me" she said.

"Why? We never make love this early."

"I want you. Now!" she said.

She knew it would be the last time. Even as her husband kissed her, she could detect the subtle changes in his face. She wanted to cry. By tomorrow at this time, he would be a woman too, just like her.

  

  

  

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