Posted by NBabe on February 13, 2000 at 21:34:26:
Three delicate looking fingers curled around the taut bowstring, an
arrow nocked between the index and middle finger. One pale, sinewy arm
raised up, the other drawing the string steadily back until the arrows
white fletching almost tickled the archer's chin. Blue eyes sighted
down the wickedly barbed arrow, taking aim at the figure half concealed
in a tree some fifty yards distant. The shooter blew at a feathery lock
of blonde hair that had fallen over his fine featured face and raised
his aim a fraction of an inch.
"Take your time." the woman crouching next to him cautioned.
------------------
Sondra looked out over the shady forest path, her dark brown eyes heavy
lidded with boredom. The thick branch she sat upon was beginning to
feel uncomfortable and she leaned forward, placing an elbow on the
smaller branch whose leaves concealed the lower half of her body and
cupped her chin in one hand. Nothing had moved on the path for hours,
not so much as a squirrel, and the youthful swells of her small breasts
heaved beneath the supple leather cups of her brief armor as she sighed.
Her trim, pale skinned body still ached from the night before and
Sondra, overcome by the ennui of sentry duty, let her eyes slip shut,
her thoughts drifting back to the previous night.
She'd stumbled into the campsite at nightfall, exhausted, legs covered
with mud and scratches, and just ahead of her pursuers. Her heart felt
like it would burst from her chest, not only from her exertions but also
with pride. It wasn't often a woman as young as herself survived the
first part of the initiation. Most were cut down by the hunters.
For her efforts she received a brand on her upper forearm and as the
sizzling iron burned into her flesh she felt dizzy from the pain, but
the thought of the consequences kept her on her feet. With this second
part of the ceremony dispensed with she was laid down on a heap of furs
before the campfire, her throbbing arm salved and bandaged, a cup of
strong wine warming her stomach as she awaited the last test.
Strong warrior's hands stripped the brief leather armor from her slender
frame soon she lay naked before her kneeling comrades, her mind whirling
with wine and anticipation. Callused fingers explored her lithe
seventeen year old body, caressing her shoulders and chest, cupping the
tender swells of her small breasts, tracing the curves of her hips and
belly and on down to the light patch of brown fur covering her
womanhood. Sondra had stretched lazily beneath the light, loving
strokes, the warm glow in her belly spreading downward despite the
ordeal of the chase and branding.
------------------
"Adjust for the wind now." the tall woman advised and the archer moved
his aim slightly.
------------------
As if a secret signal had been given, mouths joined the hands exploring
her body. Soft, lush red lips descended to take her own in a gentle
kiss while another drew lazy swirls around her taut breasts, it's
tongue flickering at the stiffening points of her small pink nipples. A
third began dotting the smooth, flat plain of her tummy with light,
darting kisses, making it shiver and spasm with uncontrollable pleasure.
A fourth and final set of lips gently plied the silky, supremely
sensitive flesh of her parted inner thighs, drawing closer and closer to
the pulsating warmth flaring deep within her lower belly.
It hadn't taken long for Sondra to climax and suddenly she found her
arching, trembling young body in the center of a delirious vortex of
soft feminine flesh. Now she let her mind float as she sat and sighed
in her tree, gathering random sensations from her memory of last night's
passion.
Anaka's scary eyes looking down at her, gold flecks within their deep
green iris' sparkling with desire, seeming to penetrate her own eyes to
her very core...
Zilla's slim body pressing against her right side, long wild black hair
obscuring her face, all wiry muscle and jutting bone covered with tawny,
tattooed skin...
A mass of curly blonde hair covering her stomach, Tanda laying atop the
lower half of her writhing body, looking so odd without her jewelry,
heavy stiff nippled breasts pressing slickly against her achingly
sensitive thighs...
And then, the voluptuous blonde was gone and Chambra's broad shouldered
frame was laying fully atop her, eclipsing her pale skinned body. Long
legs entwined with hers, the swollen lips of her mons rubbing urgently
on one muscular thigh, bellies smacking wetly together, firm womanly
breasts mashing and flattening her own soft bosom against her chest as
orgasmic fire consumed her again and again...
------------------
"Now, just let go of the string."
------------------
A sizzling sound intruded on Sondra's daydreams, much like the sound of
last nights fire but distant and growing louder. Suddenly the young
sentry was jolted back on her perch as something slammed squarely into
her chest. Her eyes snapped open, panic wide, chestnut brown hair
swirling about her head, her entire body quivering from it's impact.
Her hands shot out to grip the branch she'd been leaning on, arresting
her backwards fall and she hung there for a confused moment.
She righted herself automatically, her wide brown eyes scanning the
still utterly deserted forest path. Slowly Sondra lowered her gaze and
her grip tightened on the branch as she took in the sight of a white
fletched arrow jutting out at an angle from between the gentle swells of
her leather covered breasts. Dazedly she thought it should hurt more
than it did, but there was little pain, only a creeping numbness
stealing through her trembling body. A last, incongruous memory flashed
across her mind, the feeling of shivery pleasure as Chambra's tongue
glided up the tender valley between her breasts where the arrow was now.
"No...I..." Sondra groaned and a dribble of blood fell from her lips to
stain the white feathers protruding from her chest. It felt like ages
since she'd last drawn a breath and she tried to draw her hands to her
numb chest but her arms refused to respond. Her vision flared, the
started to gray around the edges and a strong tremor ran through her
left leg. Then the last of the air left her lungs and with a girlish
sigh the young sentry slipped from her perch.
------------------
"Good shot boy." Vara smiled, ruffling Vetho's mass of unruly blonde
hair. Together they watched the sentry woman topple from the tree to
land on her back with a dull thump, her limp body rebounding once before
coming to rest on the forest floor. "Let's go see what we've got." she
said.
The two moved silently toward the dead sentry, alert for the presence of
anyone who might have heard her fall. Vara looked back at her
apprentice and nodded approvingly, seeing that he was walking as she'd
taught him, heel to toe and treading lightly.
"It looks like I've taught you well." Vara said as they stood over the
dead woman. "She was probably dead before she hit the ground."
Her pale skinned body was slightly arched, her small breasts thrusting
towards the sky beneath their leather cups, displaying the arrow that
had slain her. Her head was thrown back, face partly obscured by a
tangle of soft brown hair. Her right arm was bent upwards with a hand
curled next to her head while the other lay limply across her bare
midriff. Slim leather clad legs twisted aside, emphasizing the jutting
curve of one hip. Curiously, only one of her feet still had it's shoe
on, the was other bare and starkly pale against the dead beneath it.
"Now." Vara asserted, gesturing to the dead sentry. "It's time I taught
you to see. Take a look at her and tell me what you see."
With a serious look on his handsome young visage, Vetho knelt beside the
corpse and brushed the hair from her face. Slim eyebrows arched above
wide brown eyes staring glassily up at him, her round, unlined face
drawn in a look of surprise. She'd had a prominent jaw, her mouth small
and thrust forward, bloody lips parted as if she was about to say
something to her killer. "She was pretty." he commented.
"Men!" Vara thought, then said aloud. "How old do you think she was."
"Well," the blonde boy said slowly, giving the young woman a second
look. "I guess she was a little older than me, but younger than you."
Vetho never saw the hand that cuffed the back of his head.
"Ow!"
"Pay attention." Vara ordered, hiding a smile beneath her usual stern
mask. "Look again."
Vetho silently studied the dead girl. "Hey!" he said, pointing to the
arm laying across her belly. "She'd got this burn mark, looks kinda
like a lion's head."
"That's the bandit Chambra's brand." Vara replied, crouching next to her
assistant, "And very new by the looks of it. I'd say she was initiated
just recently. Now, what else do you see."
"Ummm..."
"Does she look hungry?"
"Huh? Well, no."
"So they've been doing well." Vara concluded, absently slapping the dead
girl's thigh. "Not going hungry, probably had some easy pickings
lately. What else?"
"Well..." Vetho said hesitantly.
"Go ahead and search her boy."
Drawing his knife, Vetho reached down and cut the leather bra from the
dead girl's chest. The soft rounded mounds of her small breasts
shivered slightly, their stiff pink nipples pointing accusingly up at
him, but that was all.
"No need to be shy, boy." Vara said softly. She took one pale hand in
her own dark, long fingers and pressed it to the dead girl's bosom.
"Feel how full and stiff they still are? I'll wager you caught her
daydreaming; probably fantasizing about a boy like you." she teased.
Vetho blushed furiously, yet a small smile crept across his lips as he
cradled one small, supple mound of flesh, the nipple scraping
delightfully against his palm.
"Finish the job boy."
Vetho's hands wandered down to fumble at the dead girl's waist, untying
the drawstrings of her tight leather trousers. He wriggled the leather
from round young hips soft with a residue of baby fat, taking off the
remaining shoe to tug at the trouser legs until they came off entirely.
Downy brown fur met in a 'V' over her sex, her legs looked strong and
sleekly muscled like an athlete's and a number of shallow scratches
slashed across the soft pale skin. "She cut herself." Vetho commented.
"She'd been running, probably ran through a patch of nettles." Vara
replied, "Look at the way they slash upwards, must have stung like hel."
Vetho ran the fingers of one hand across the silky white surface of the
dead girl's thighs, pliant skin springing back at his touch. "What's
this?" he asked throatily.
Vara leaned over, looking at the brown dots spotting the insides of her
thighs. Again she took his hand in hers and raised the fingers to her
nose, her narrow nostrils flaring. "Here." she said, bringing his
acquiescent hand to his own face. "Smell."
The blonde boy sniffed his fingers, the coppery/musky smell invading his
sinuses like an exotic drug. He looked at his mistress questioningly
and Vara smiled back at him. "She'd been a virgin until just a few hours
ago." she said confidently. "Looks like we might get a lucky break."
"Huh?"
"If Chambra's been partying all last night, we might catch her off
guard."
"Oh."
"All in all, a good start Vetho." Vara stated decisively. "If the rest
of them are as easy, we'll collect this bounty without breaking a
sweat."
Vetho nodded his reply, his eyes fixed on the dead girl laying naked
before them. Vara studied her apprentice for a moment and let a fond
smile curve her thin lips for a moment as she took in his handsome
profile. "Go tie her to one of the mules boy." she said at last. "We
haven't got all day.
------------------------------------------------------------------------
---
>From a clump of leafy gorse bushes Vara and Vetho studied the woman
standing guard at the end of the trail. It had been slow going through
the forest, walking on either side of the trail instead of upon it. But
their caution was rewarded when Vetho spotted the second sentry hiding
behind a blind made of pine and poplar boughs, invisible from the trail
but open from behind.
Vara sized the woman up. She was smaller than the first sentry, but
held herself with a warrior's poise. Propped next to her was a longbow
almost as tall as she was and a quiver of arrows was slung across her
slender back, almost hidden by a wild fall of tangled black hair.
Mottled green and brown cloth covered her slim body, a loose blouse and
knee length skirt that concealed most of her body.
Vara gave a signal and they quietly faded a few yards back into the
woods. "Well boy." she said, a broad grin breaking out across her dark
face. "You spotted her, you take her out."
Vetho nodded seriously and began to string his bow.
"Not that." his mistress interrupted. "Use your garrote. I was to see
if you've been paying attention to your lessons."
The boy nodded again unquestioningly and put down his bow. After
unslinging his quiver he drew a long leather cord from his sleeve,
knotted at both ends and carefully waxed. He drew the length of leather
taut between his fists, snapping out a non-existant kink, then with a
deep breath started slowly toward the sentry.
Vara watched her young apprentice carefully as he made his way toward
the green clad woman. She'd trained him for almost a full year since
fleeing the late Queen Adiani's domain, renting a villa in a border town
not far from Princess Marion's castle and living well on the dead
queen's jewelry. Vetho had grown almost a half foot in the time she'd
been teaching him, his formerly skinny frame filling out nicely with
adolescent muscle. He was an obedient student, but a slow learner,
although what he learned he made his own. She'd made him practice
constantly with the bow and knife, garrote and baton; drilling him
mercilessly for the time he'd have to demonstrate his skill in the real
world.
It would have been an idyllic life except for one thing. Try as she
might, Vara couldn't help developing a fondness for the earnest young
man, and it had become more and more difficult for her to ignore his
developing male body as well. It had almost been a relief when she'd
heard of a bandit group marauding in the great forest border between
Marion's and Charmaine's lands, bandits with an attractive price on
their heads.
When her apprentice was only a few tense feet away from his target, Vara
began to sidle forward, one hand absently caressing the hilt of her
sword. Vetho was about the same height as the dark haired woman and out
weighed her by about twenty pounds, and he had surprise on his side, but
it paid to be careful.
------------------
The closer Vetho got the sentry woman, the slower he moved. He took a
wandering course through the trees, keeping as much cover between him
and the dark haired woman as he could. As he approached, Vetho had to
fight to keep his muscles relaxed, his body centered and still. Vara
had demonstrated what happened to fighters who were caught off guard
when they were tensed up. It had taken him a week to recover.
In what seemed like no time at all the young man found himself stepping
out from behind a tree, only a few short feet from the woman's back.
The sentry was about as tall as himself, standing with one hip cocked as
she rested her weight on one booted foot, her arms folded across her
chest as she watched the trail. He could smell the woman's unwashed
body, a sweaty, musky odor that blended subtly with the stronger scent
of the pine branches that had gone into the making of the blind.
Vetho took a slow step forward and froze as the woman stirred, his heart
hammering in his chest; then he breathed a mental sigh of relief,
seeing that she'd merely shifted her weight to her other foot. Again he
forced himself to relax and take another step forward, the cord in his
hands slack, his gazed fixed on a point just above the woman's frizzy
black hair. More than anything he wanted to show his mistress/teacher.
Show her that he had learned well, was capable of using the knowledge
she'd given him, and was worthy of...well...of what? He didn't know.
All at once Vetho was directly behind the sentry woman, close enough to
feel the heat from her body, smell the oily scent of her unwashed hair,
hear the whisper of her breathing. Almost automatically his arms raised
up, his wrists crossed, slipping the leather loop over her head and
pulling it taut, cutting off a gasp of utter surprise.
------------------
Patiently, Zilla watched the branch strewn trail. She's stationed
herself near the end of the track behind a blind she'd made herself on a
slight rise in the land overlooking the trail. She was confident that
her position was undetectable from the front and the trees were sparser
behind her, giving her ample room in case she had to beat a hasty
retreat. Sondra would signal her if someone was coming up the trail and
she was within easy shouting distance of the clearing if something came
along she couldn't handle. But that, she thought smugly, was a rare
occasion indeed.
Fifty yards up the trail she'd positioned their new initiate, giving her
a playful slap on her leather clad rump as she began to climb her tree.
Zilla hadn't expected the young brunette to survive the three ordeals
but she'd surprised them all, crashing through a patch of bramble in the
last stretch when they'd all thought she'd take an easier way back to
the camp. Then she'd almost lost it during the branding, Zilla had seen
her eyes flutter as the iron sizzled her flesh, but she'd stood up after
all.
But where Sondra had really surprised her was during the last test.
She'd refused to lose consciousness no matter how many times they made
her virginal body orgasm, hanging on towards the end through sheer
strength of will, receiving their every kiss and caress patiently,
exhausting them all with her acceptance. Zilla felt her lean body warm
at the thought of last night, the young woman's flushed pale skin
glowing erotically in the firelight, her youthfully slender body
writhing and moaning beneath their collective touch.
Something flashed before Zilla's eyes, snapping her out of her reverie
and suddenly her air was cut off. She raised her hands automatically
but the cord was already tight around her throat. Her warrior's
reflexes braced her well conditioned body instantly, keeping her from
being jerked off her feet as she felt a body press against her back.
It was a man's body Zilla realized, even as she twisted her arms back,
hands groping for a hold on her unseen attacker. Panic yammered in the
back of her mind. She'd been a mercenary for many years now and knew
the risks inherent in the trade. She'd resigned herself long ago to the
possibility of death; after all, there was always a woman with a faster
sword or a better aim. But what sent Zilla's heart dropping into her
stomach with dread was the strong male scent filling her nostrils.
------------------
The writhing warrior's nails found his wrist and Vetho gritted his teeth
as they dug in, pain flaring up his arm. He tried to arch his back and
lift his victim off her feet but the woman's other arm wrenched back,
grabbing a hank of his long blonde hair, pulling his head forward.
Fighting back tears of sudden pain, Vetho hung on determinedly.
Unable to jerk the the struggling sentry off her feet, Vetho and his
victim began a slow, awkward dance. The dark haired woman's buttocks
ground against his crotch as she tried to stamp a boot heel down on his
foot, but Vetho had was well aware of the tactic and carefully kept his
feet back. Vetho's face was buried in his victim's dark hair, but
despite the distraction the young warrior focused on the task at hand,
keeping his elbows out straight and his cord tight around her throat.
The struggling warrior suddenly pushed off with both feet and they
stumbled backwards. Vetho's back fetched up against the rough bark of a
tree and the back of his head bounced off the trunk, his vision swimming
as pain exploded through his skull. His legs felt weak and he planted
his feet far apart as he dared, steadying himself, arm muscles
straining, refusing to give up his hold on the strangling cord.
------------------
"I will not be killed by a stinking man!" Zilla's mind screamed. She'd
lost her grip on her attacker's wrist and hair and she threw her elbows
back furiously but they met nothing but air. Her body arched as he
pulled back, jerking her up onto her toes, her blouse molding around her
small thrusting breasts as it drew tight against her writhing frame.
Bright points of light flashed before Zilla's eyes and she felt herself
growing weaker, her strength draining from her oxygen starved body.
Zilla was staring straight ahead as she fought and squirmed, her lithe
body growing weaker by the second, when a vision appeared before her.
One moment there was empty space, and the next there was a tall ebony
skinned woman. She was lean and strong looking, clad in a green tunic
with a sword belted around her waist. Zilla's hands clawed weakly at
her chest, as if she could force air into her lungs, a dark veil drawing
across her mind.
Then the tall woman was standing before her and Zilla reached out, one
curled hand pawing the front of the apparation's blouse. She was mildly
surprised to feel her fingers brush rough cloth and soft flesh beneath
the tall woman's shirt, then her arms dropped to her sides. The tall
woman raised a hand, placing her palm over Zilla's gaping mouth, long
fingers bracketing her nose, their fingertips pulling her staring eyes
shut. "Hush..." the woman said and the darkness consumed her.
------------------
"You can let her go now." Vara said.
Slowly Vetho forced his arms to relax, the leather cord slipping from
his grasp as the dark haired woman slipped to the ground. His breath
came in ragged gasps, his arms trembling with sudden relief even as
triumph thrilled through his wiry frame. "She'd dead." he muttered in
between deep breaths, as if to confirm in his mind the evidence laying
at his feet.
Vara reached out to take the young man's shoulder in a firm grip.
"Dead." she confirmed simply. "Well done Vetho."
Sudden pride swelled in Vara's chest and she had to resist an impulse to
pull the young man to her and enfold him in his arms. The beautiful boy
was becoming a handsome young man, and she was painfully aware of his
eagerness to prove himself to her. From long experience Vara knew that
such desire bred the kind of recklessness that got young men and women
killed. And anyway, she thought dismisively, this was not the time or
place to sort this out.
At the same time Vetho was resisting a similar impulse. His blood sang
in his veins as he looked up into his mistress's wise dark eyes, his
lips yearning for the soft feel of her lips. Only the barest sliver of
caution prevented him from throwing himself at the woman he'd idolized
ever since she'd taken him on as an apprentice, the lust he felt
balanced by a possibility of rejection he knew would be unbearable.
They stood for a timeless moment over the dead woman, looking into each
other's eyes, the air between them vibrating with tension. The dead
woman's scent filled their nostrils, earthy and musky with a hint of
blood, rising from her limp body like a heady perfume. Vetho felt his
mistress' hand burning on his shoulder, while Vara felt her young
apprentice trembling beneath her casual touch.
Then Vara's hand slipped from Vetho's shoulder and the moment was gone.
"Let's see what you've got." Vara said, a little huskily.
They knelt on either side of the dead woman. She'd fallen on her side,
facing the tall dark skinned woman who'd been the last person she'd seen
on this side of life. Vetho grabbed a shoulder and pulled his victim
onto her back, his strangling cord still buried in the soft flesh of her
throat. His hands were steady as he reached out, unbuttoning the
sentry's mottled green and brown blouse, and soon they were staring down
at the dead woman's naked torso.
"Wow." breathed Vetho.
Tattoos adorned the dead woman's tawny skin, swirling over her trim body
in a tide of color and pattern. A running woman, bow in hand, chased a
pair of stags across the flat plain of her belly while an undulating
dragon floated overhead. It stretched around either side of her body,
it's tail gripped in it's fiercely grinning jaws just beneath her
sternum, it's scaly coils underlining the curves of her pale nippled
breasts. Concentric red circles were tattooed around her right breast,
the left bearing a single blue rose on it's rounded upper slope, a long
shafted arrow occupying the wide cleft between them. Clouds floated
above her small thrusting bosom, filling the space up to the bony curve
of her collar bone, a dark storm that looked like it would break at any
moment and pummel the tattoos below with driving rain.
"Beautiful." Vetho breathed.
"More like painful." Vara snorted, a little put out at her young
apprentices admiring stare. "But do you know what they mean?"
Vetho shook his head and his mistress again took his hand, guiding it
over the dead woman's body. "Here." she said, brushing his fingertips
over the supple skin bearing the blue rose. "This is a clan marking.
She was a member of the southern tribes once upon a time. Probably
banished for whatever reason." She moved his hand to the other breast,
placing it fully atop the soft mound. Five thin lines ringed the
pebbled surface of her nipple, the first and incongruous red compared
the other four blue circles. "And here is where she recorded her kills,
five by the look of them. I'm sure she would have loved to add a
sixth." she said pointedly.
Vetho squeezed the tawny round orb gently. "Maybe I should add her." he
said distantly, savoring the feel of his hand trapped between his
mistress strong hand and the dead woman's still warm flesh.
Vara shrugged at the comment and lifted his hand. "I doubt it pays to
count." she said. "It didn't do her any good in the end."
"The dragon and clouds are probably just decorative." she continued,
drawing her apprentices hand down the sentry's body. "But here, the
woman hunting, this is significant."
His fingertips brushed the hunting scene, trailing from the huntress on
the left side of the dead woman's shallow navel to the stags frozen in
mid-leap on the right side of her flat tummy. "What does it mean?" he
asked, as if he were addressing his victim.
"At some time she must have been an acolyte, maybe even a priestess of
the goddess Partha. The southern tribes revere her. She must have done
something pretty nasty to get kicked out of the clan."
Vara studied the young man for a moment, noting his rapt expression as
he crouched over his victim. "Let's see what else she has to say." she
said, releasing his hand.
Vetho tugged at the sleeves of the dead woman's blouse, exposing her
narrow, strong looking shoulders and arms. Wiry muscle bulged beneath
her tattooed skin, her arms a jungle of coiling vines and brightly
colored birds from wrist to the socket of her shoulders. A brand marred
the colorful artwork on her left forearm, the same snarling lion's head
that the young sentry had so recently had burned into her arm.
"More decoration." Vara said, "Except for Chambra's brand. It's
covering the place where her family emblem should be. Now what does
that tell you?"
"Um...she didn't like her family?"
"Right. She could have had the brand put anywhere. She could have
blotted out the clan symbol on her tit or the goddess on her belly but
she chose that place. Some dispute with a family member caused her
banishment, maybe she killed a sister or brother. That would explain
the first red ring."
Vetho's hand moved from the dead woman's arm back to her right breast
and he traced a speculative finger around the red ring. "I bet she
killed her mother." he said.
"I doubt it." Vara replied. "She would have been hunted down and
killed out of hand for that."
"Maybe she ran away." the young man said and Vara shrugged. "I guess
we'll never know." she countered. "Now let's see what her legs have to
tell us."
A pair of metal pins held the woman's skirt about her waist and Vetho's
nimble fingers deftly unfastened the pins and twitched the skirt open.
She was naked beneath the warm woolen cloth, her strong legs parted to
display a shaven crotch. Her right leg was bare of tattoos, only a pair
scars marring her well tanned skin on her hip and shin. But her left
leg had an odd decoration of lines and symbols that stretched from mid
thigh to knee and Vara smiled at sight of the strange tattoo.
"You know what this means?" she asked and Vetho shook his head, his
fingers tracing the lines curving over the smooth muscles of his
victim's thigh.
"A few years ago there was, well, this kind of fad. Every bandit that
had a bit of loot to bury wanted the location tattooed on her body.
Looks like your girl here had something socked away for a rainy day."
"Do you think we can find her treasure?"
"Maybe." Vara frowned. "But we haven't got time to puzzle it out now.
Go tie her to one of the mules. We have more work to do yet."
------------------------------------------------------------------------
----
Crouched behind a clump of alder trees, Vara and Vetho scanned the
campsite on the far side of the clearing. Four tents formed a
semicircle around a stone ringed campfire, three of the average pole
rigged type dominated by a larger frame tent. Five horses nickered
softly nearby, tied to a rope strung between a pair of saplings. A
breezed stirred the smoke curling from the campfire, the only movement
they could see in the entire clearing.
"I don't like this." Vara whispered. "There should be someone on
guard."
As if summoned by her observation, an arm pushed the flap of one of the
smaller tents and a blonde goddess emerged.
Her shapely, naked body dripped with jewels. Alternating chains of
silver and gold draped her rounded shoulders, obscuring her chest and
the upper slopes of her large, proudly thrusting breasts. A sapphire
was set in her round navel, winking in the sunlight from the shallow
bowl of her tummy above a thin gold chain circling her waist. A sparse
skirt of jeweled strings depended from the chain, draping the curves of
her flaring hips and thighs, giving tantalizing glimpses of her blonde
haired crotch as she walked.
The blonde woman's limbs were slender and beautifully shaped, bracelets
circling her thighs and biceps, calves and forearms, a pair of thick
bands like golden manacles rode her wrists and ankles. Rings flashed
erratically from her fingers and toes, a confused semaphore of polish
gems throwing off bolts of light like a careless goddess. Jewelry
swayed and clicked as she strode to the campfire, pausing to throw on a
couple of branches to keep the fire going, then turning to enter the
large tent.
"She looks like a moving treasure chest." Vara commented in a low
voice, turning to take in the stunned look on her young assistants face.
Again, Vetho never saw her hand move.
"Ow!"
"Pay attention boy!" Vara hissed. "You can ogle her all you like when
she's dead."
"Yes mistress..." Vetho blushed.
A minute after the golden goddess had entered, another woman left the
large tent. Metal plates rode her broad shoulders and heavy forearms
and she wore a cuirass of stiff boiled leather that covered her from
waist to mid breast, exposing a generous amount of cleavage and leaving
her chest bare. A thick leather skirt was wrapped around her wide hips,
ending above the knee and metal greaves guarded her shins. A pair of
thick bladed knives, almost as long as a shortswords rode the curves of
her full hips and she carried a crossbow cradled in her right arm. "Now
she means business." Vara whispered as they watched the burly brunette
stride to the fire and sit down on a thick log. "And so do I."
With a frown creasing Vara's thin lips she gestured a signal and they
slowly crawled back into the cover of the trees.
------------------
Vara removed her boots and flexed her long narrow feet, digging her toes
into the loamy earth. Across a grassy stretch of clearing, about forty
yards away, stood the back of the large tent and the tall amazon wanted
to move silently for the last part of the journey. She and Vetho had
circled the clearing in opposite directions, keeping under cover of the
surrounding forest, each about their assigned tasks. Taking a deep
breath Vara readied herself, letting her mind drift to that calm place
where thought and action melded into one inseparable, lethal reflex.
Crouching barefoot behind an alder tree a few dozen yards along the tree
line Vetho was also trying to calm himself. He eyed the picket line of
horses carefully, fingering his knife thoughtfully as he awaited the
signal from his mistress. At last he heard the signal, a passable
screech owl, and with a last deep breath began to move toward the
horses.
Vara's knife gleamed wickedly in her hand as she crouched behind the
large tent. Muffled sounds drifted from behind the canvass wall and a
grim smile crept across her face as she poked a hole in the cloth near
the base of the tent and leaned down to look through it. "And in the
middle of the day yet." she thought, straightening back up and raising a
hand toward her apprentice.
Vetho had finished cutting the horse's traces by the time his mistress
raised her arm. A mischievous grin curved his full lipped mouth as he
drew a small rattle from a pouch on his belt and retreated a couple of
yards from the line of horses. He watched Vara's arm intently, and
after a moment it dropped and he gave the rattle a sharp shake, hissing
under his breath in a fairly accurate imitation of a rattlesnake.
------------------
Anaka was thinking about her life when her horse bolted past.
She'd been an outlaw of one stripe or another for almost ten years now
and she'd enjoyed the life. Most of the time she'd spent on her own,
roaming the northern border, taking advantage of the occasional forays
the northern tribes made. The big silver haired women were vicious
fighters, she'd seen more than one unwary garrison soldier decapitated
by a skillful stroke of a northerner's ax. But they rarely raided in
large numbers, preferring to land quickly, steal everything that wasn't
nailed down, a disappear back into their longboats before a garrison
unit could arrive.
It was a situation that had suited Anaka quite well. She'd become adept
at highway robbery and having the local authorities preoccupied made her
job much easier. The money was good and the occasional fight made for
an interesting, but not too interesting life. It was her partner she
couldn't stand, she thought, and a residual flash of temper made her
sharp green eyes flair briefly. Anaka remembered, after a particularly
unsuccessful robbery, the look on the big woman's face as her head came
off her shoulders. She'd looked surprised and faintly disappointed, as
if their fight had been unfair.
"Twasn't." Anaka mumbled, throwing a stick onto the fire. "And it was
all her fault anyway."
Of course, not having a partner made things a little difficult. And the
courier they'd been intent on robbing had gotten away, making it unsafe
for her in the north. She'd wandered south for awhile, shucking her
bandit's life and taking on the garb of a mercenary. But the pay was
low and it seemed that every rich merchant that hired her expected her
to give up her life for whatever cargo she'd been hired to guard. It
hadn't taken her long to switch sides again.
A loud neighing made her sit up straight and the sound of running hooves
brought her hand to the crossbow she'd laid next to her. The word
'Ambush!' leapt to her mind but a moment later a riderless horse
thundered past, it's eyes rolling in panic. She sat still for a moment,
the image of the fleeing roan mare suspended in her mind.
"Damn it!" Anaka swore, rising to run after her horse.
------------------
Vara's knife slashed through the canvass wall and with one long stride
she stepped into the tent. Immediately her nostrils assaulted by the
thick musky scent of sex and it took a moment for her eyes to adjust to
the dimmer light inside. One tent flap was peeled back for light and a
triangular patch of sunlight illuminated a pair of women staring back at
her in astonishment.
They knelt facing each other upon a thick pile of animal furs, the
blonde with her shapely back to Vara, a pair of darker skinned, thickly
muscled arms wrapped about her waist. Her head was twisted sharply
around to look at the sudden intruder and her body blocked Vara's view
of the second woman, but the tall amazon could see a pair of angry black
eyes peering over the blonde's shoulder, deeply set below the dome of
the woman's hairless head. "Surprise!" she caroled, an evil leer pasted
across her dark face and threw her knife.
She'd aimed at the blonde woman's arching back but even as the knife
left her hand her target was moving, rolling to one side in an athletic
leap. Her movement exposed the other kneeling woman, her hands held out
wide before her as if she were still embracing her blonde lover. Vara's
knife struck the bald woman squarely in the abdomen, plunging in just
below her sternum and jarring her broad shouldered body back onto it's
haunches.
The bald woman let out a gasping shriek, reflexively hunching over the
knife, her thick fingered hands flying to the sudden wound. Vara drew
her sword as the beautiful blonde rolled to her feet, jewelry jangling
angrily on her shapely body. Her voluptuous bosom still glistened with
mingled sweat and her companion's saliva, heaving on her chest from the
sudden exertion. "You...you cunt!" she sputtered at the grinning
intruder. "What do you think you're doing!"
"Collecting an easy bounty." Vara laughed, lunging at the astonished
blonde.
Her shapely foe danced back, letting out a little shriek of anger as the
tip of Vara's sword skittered across the chains covering her chest.
Vara's return stroke again jangled the chains before her lithe foe leapt
out of range and this time the blonde shrieked in pain as Vara's sword
nicked the inside curve of one bouncing breast. "This is going to be
easy." Vara thought smugly, then a hand clamped painfully around her
ankle.
Suddenly Vara was tumbling backwards, her back slamming hard against the
packed dirt floor. Pain bolted up her long leg, her ankle wrenched by
the bald woman's hard tug. She realized her sword was gone as levered
herself up on her elbows, peering down to see a snarling face glaring
back at her behind muscular arms, strong hands scrabbling for purchase
on her bare legs.
Vara kicked out reflexively, smashing the heel of her foot into the
wounded woman's face. The bald warrior's flat nose broke with a
sickening crunch and her groping hands flew to her face, blood
spattering the ground below. Vara writhed back out of reach, still a
little dizzy from the fall when a furious yell rang out and her head
jerked around just in time to see the gorgeous blonde lunge at her, a
wickedly curved knife held high in one beringed hand. Vara raised a leg
as the blonde's knife swished down, shooting a hard kick into the
charging warrior's naked belly. The blade slashed through Vara's
mottled green tunic and a split second later she was jarred backwards,
her arms flailing as she stumbled.
With a grunt Vara rolled to her feet, her searching gaze quickly finding
her sword laying a few feet away. Her gazed darted back to her blonde
foe, who'd regained her balance and now held the knife before her at a
low thrusting angle, her feet planted in a knife fighter's stance.
"She'll bury the blade in my back before I can get to you, Longinus."
Vara thought and dropped into a defensive crouch.
The blonde woman glanced at her downed lover and a low growl escaped her
lush red lips. The burly bald woman lay on her side in a fetal curl,
her strong arms pressed tight across her bleeding gut, the lower half of
her face a red mask of pain. The shapely blonde's growl turned into a
full throated cry of animal hatred and she lunged at Vara, her knife
flashing out at the tall amazon's chest.
Vara dodged back as the razor sharp tip of the naked woman's blade
slashed across her tunic. The pain in her foot subsided as adrenaline
flooded her warrior's body, her dark eyes widening in the onset of
battle. She twisted aside from her foe's return downward slash, turning
the maneuver into a spin kick that took her attacker flush against the
side of her head. Her screaming foe lashed out wildly as she staggered
away, her knife slashing across Vara's midsection.
An ear piercing shout erupted from Vara's thin lips she leapt straight
up into the air, spinning as she threw out a foot to strike her half
stunned foe squarely in the chest. The blonde flew backwards from the
impact of Vara's kick, her bosom jouncing on her chest as she fell.
Instantly Vara regained her balance and winced as she put weight on her
already wounded foot, realizing it mush have been cut by the mass of
chains on her foe's chest. "Damn it, I hate foot wounds!" she muttered,
moving to scoop up her weapon.
With Longinus' leather wrapped handle firmly in hand, Vara turned and
strode to where her downed blonde foe lay groaning on the floor. The
naked woman raised her knife and Longinus flicked out, slapping the
blade from her hand. Vara brought the point of her sword around until
it hovered over the prone woman's slender throat. She sneered down at
the blonde, enjoying the furious glare in the eyes of her defeated foe,
her shapely body quivering with impotent rage Yet even bruised and
defeated, the bejeweled blonde gave off an aura of sensuality that was
hard for Vara to ignore.
"I...I cut you...you bitch!" she snarled, shaking her tangled blonde
curls in disbelief. "Why don't you bleed!"
--------------------
The tall warrior grinned cruelly down at Tanda and used her free hand to
tear the already shredded tunic from her long torso. A trio of cuts
adorned the supple leather bodice she wore beneath her tunic, tightly
molded to the front of her lean ebony body from neck to crotch. It was
cut narrow at top and bottom leaving her wiry muscled arms bare to the
shoulder and her long, slender legs exposed to the hip. "I don't run
around naked in the middle of the day, slut." she laughed.
Dismay curdled the Tanda's beautiful features and for the first time she
was fully aware of the sword pricking the bare skin at the base of her
throat. Her gaze followed the bright length of steel up to the strong
looking hand on it's hilt, then on up one lean muscled arm to her
attacker's angular, unforgiving face. A shiver of fear ran through
Tanda's shapely body as she realized she was a hair's breath from death.
"Wait!" she blurted out, her voice suddenly tremulous, Don't...don't
kill me!"
The tall warrior's disdainful smile widened on her angular face, but
Tanda thought she could detect a spark of interest in her dark, pitiless
eyes. "You're not much of a warrior." Vara murmured speculatively.
Vara became intensely aware of sweat trickling down her limbs and
flanks, her strong lean body uncomfortably warm beneath her leather
armor as if she were standing before a smoldering fire instead of a
defeated opponent. The blonde woman's shapely legs were spread
invitingly wide, the tender lips of her mons parted and swollen. Her
back arched slightly and Vara's gaze was drawn up the gentle swell of
her tummy to the taut thrust of her firmly rounded breasts, the
perfectly smooth round orbs seemingly begging for the touch of her lips.
A subtle transformation seemed to sweep through the woman laying supine
at her feet, as if her very vulnerability added to her already
formidable allure. One part of Vara told her to run the blonde through
and claim the bounty she'd collect from her corpse, and yet...
Tanda felt confidence swell in her chest, driving back the sick feeling
of fear roiling in the pit of her stomach. Cautiously she ventured a
smile at her captor. "Please..." she murmured, her voice low and
tremulous. "Please let me live."
Vara felt like laughing in her face, but found herself hesitating.
There was a curious quality to the shapely blonde's voice, an insistent,
throbbing tone. Vara knew she was trying to seduce her, it wasn't the
first time a defeated opponent had offered his or her body to her in
exchange for his or her life. Yet despite herself, Vara said, "Why? I
can get just as much for you dead as alive."
"I'll be so good to you." Tanda ventured, "So good and..."
A strained grunt interrupted the Tanda's desperate bargaining and both
women's heads swiveled towards it's source.
The bald woman stood a few feet away, her broad flat featured face
twisted into a bloodstained mask of pain and fierce determination. Her
powerful looking arms trembled as she clutched the knife protruding from
the ridged plain of her belly and her thickly muscled legs trembled, but
somehow she managed to straighten her broad shouldered frame. Dark eyes
glared at the tall warrior standing over the fallen blonde and slowly
her hands left her bleeding belly, curling into thick fists. "You
skinny bitch!" she growled hoarsely.
Vara stood rooted to the spot, surprised to find the wounded woman on
her feet. She could almost feel the hatred flowing from the bald woman,
intense waves of cold anger that instantly froze the warm erotic glow
washing through her tall frame. And yet the woman wasn't staring at
her, but rather at her blonde lover.
"Chambra!" Tanda blurted. "I...I didn't mean...!"
"I'll kill you both." the bald woman growled.
As if a spell hand been lifted all three women jarred into action.
Tanda scrambled backwards, panic drawing her face into a grinning
rictus. Vara's sword swept up, intent on splitting the bandit leader's
head in two but at the same time the bald woman lurched forward, her
blood slick hands darting up to grasp Vara's wrists. Again Vara's eyes
widened, shocked at the wounded warrior's unbelievable stamina. "She
can't do that!" her mind shrieked in the face of all evidence. "Not
with a knife in her gut!"
---------------
Vetho stood by the crackling campfire, listening to the muffled sounds
coming from within the large tent as he watched for the guardswoman's
return. He scanned the direction in which she'd run off, chasing the
panic stricken horse, an arrow nocked and ready for her return. He
hoped he'd get a chance to demonstrate his skill with the bow again,
especially since his mistress had forbade him to follow her into the
tent.
Still, he kept his ears peeled, listening intently to the sounds coming
from the tent. There had been some initial screaming, then quiet and
Vetho figured, (with some disappointment) that Vara had finished the
tent's occupants quickly. But then he heard more screaming and the
sounds of a scuffle and his head jerked around at the sound of a high
pitched shriek.
"Kill her Chambra!"
He took a step toward the open tent flap, then hesitated. Vetho was
used to obeying his mistress' orders unquestioningly. Not just because
he loved her, which he certainly did and with all his adolescent heart,
but also because he trusted the experienced warrior's judgment. When
Vara told him to do something, it was usually with good reason.
He could dimly see into the tent through it's half open flap and he
could hear the unmistakable scuffing and swearing of two warriors in
close combat. The shrill voice continued to repeat it's order, grating
in his ears as he tried to think of some way to help his mentor. He
took another hesitant step forward, the caught himself up again the two
combatants stumbled into view.
A broad, deeply suntanned back blocked his view of the other fighter,
strong arms raised to grapple for the sword wavering above their heads,
but he could just see Vara's long sinewy arms and the top of her head.
Her opponent was completely bald and rivulets of sweat ran down her
upraised arms, trickling down her burly back and broad, firm buttocks.
Vetho glanced back but could see no sign of the sentry who'd run after
the horses. He turned back to the tent and saw the broad shouldered
warrior was slowly bending at the waist, overpowering Vara, driving her
to her knees. Vetho spat in frustration and raised his bow. "She said
for me not to go in." he rationalized, taking aim at the center of the
bald woman's muscular back. "But she never said anything about one of
my arrows."
---------------
Vara's arms began to shake from the effort of keeping her own sword from
her throat. "You wouldn't do that Longinus, would you?" she thought
crazily. She'd tried everything she could think of to distract her
raging opponent, kicking her shins, stamping her foot, even kneeing her
crotch once; but nothing seemed to get through. They'd staggered about
the tent, Vara trying to wrench her hands from her foe's iron grip while
the wounded bandit fought to bring the sword wavering above their head
down upon it's wielder.
Incredibly the pressure became more intense and Vara was forced to stand
still, knowing if she moved a foot the big woman would topple her to the
floor. Her thin lips pulled back from her teeth as she strained to keep
on her feet, sweat rolling down from her short black hair to streak her
shining ebony face. Even as her lean body bowed beneath the pressure
Vara kept her gaze locked with the snarling bald woman's, alert for the
slightest sign of weakness.
"Kill her Chambra!" Tanda shrieked from across the room and Vara wanted
to tell the blonde to shut up but didn't dare turn her attention from
her opponent. She felt her legs begin to buckle and the bald woman let
out a low predatory growl, sensing weakness in her foe. Longinus' long
bright blade inched toward her upturned face and Vara felt a tremor run
through her tall frame, her strength almost gone. "Are all of these
northern bitches berserks?" she thought bitterly, and fell at last to
her knees.
With more leverage the blade descended faster and Chambra felt a glow of
impending victory spread through her naked, thickly muscled body. Her
wounds forgotten in the heat of battle, she redoubled her efforts
against the kneeling amazon, her eyes thirsting for the sight of her
foe's blood. The blade kissed the kneeling woman's upturned face,
drawing down one long, angular cheek before continuing it's quivering
downward journey to her throat and Chambra leered down at her foe's
defiantly staring face, the taste of her own blood on her lips a tonic
to her senses.
Vara's entire body shuddered on the edge of exhaustion, but still her
iron hard will wouldn't allow her to give up. She'd lost all feeling in
her hands, couldn't drop her sword if she wanted to now, and an
incongruous feeling of shame swept through her at the very thought of
abandoning her beloved Longinus. The blonde woman kept screaming for
her bald lover to kill her and Vara wished she'd killed her when she had
the chance, but it was too late for regrets now.
Vara didn't immediately see what caused her foe to straighten up with a
jerk, letting out a loud grunt of surprise. Blinding pain flared down
her arms as Chambra's hands tightened convulsively on her wrists and her
own hands spasmed open, dropping Longinus to the floor. Then her vision
cleared and Vara was staring at the barbed head of a blood slick arrow
hovering a scant inch from her forehead.
The burly bald woman seemed to collapse in on herself, falling to her
knees before her opponent with another strained grunt. Suddenly face to
face, Vara stared into her foe's dark eyes, reading the look of utter
incredulity shining there. Chambra's hands fell from her wrists and
Vara felt her own hands tremble with pain as blood flooded back into
them. The wounded bald warrior reached out, grabbing Vara's bare
shoulders and a spasm shook her muscular frame, making her stiff nippled
breasts shudder on her broad chest. "Kill...you..." she wheezed around
a mouthful of blood, and began pulling Vara toward her impaled body.
With the feeling yet to return to her hands, Vara pushed her wrists
against her dying foe's strong shoulders, fighting against the pull with
arms that felt like wet noodles. The bloody arrowhead jutted from
between Chambra's taut round breasts, it's sharp tip exactly even with
the erect tips of her thrusting nipples. Vara estimated they were about
the same height as they knelt before each other, and the arrow couldn't
fail but to penetrate her heart. "NO!" Vara barked in her foe's face,
aghast at the through to dying in the bald woman's embrace.
The flow of time seemed to slow to a trickle as Vara fought against her
mortally wounded enemy. Some feeling returned to her hands and she was
able to press her palms against Chambra's shivering shoulders, but still
her body was drawn inexorably forward. Vara looked down between their
bracketing arms, staring at the barbed arrowhead touching the supply
leather covering her hammering heart, the dent it made in the leather
slowly growing deeper. The tips of Chambra's stiff brown nipples
brushed the leather covering Vara breasts and an electric shock thrummed
through the tall amazon, confusion swirling through her as the thrill of
unexpected pleasure clashed with the prospect of immanent death.
All at once the pressure stopped and Vara looked up at her foe.
Chambra's scared visage had lost it's look of mortal concentration, her
snarling blood stained lips slackening, her angrily glaring eyes
replaced with the shallow glaze of death. Summoning as much strength as
she could Vara gave her foe's shoulders a hard push and Chambra's rigid
body toppled backwards. Vara realized she hadn't drawn a breath in a
long time and gulped in a huge lungfull of air, sagging back onto her
haunches as she gazed at her dead foe.
Chambra's once powerful body lay splayed in the sunlight streaming
through the partially open tent flaps. Her legs were bent backwards and
to one side, her body leaning on one shoulder, her strong arms spread
out at shoulder height on either side of her arched body. The dead
bandit's sun-browned torso was partially propped by the arrow protruding
from her back and Vara's knife still jutted from her flat belly, but
surprisingly little blood ran from the wound, just a trickle of crimson
the ran down the ridges of muscle to stain the thick black bush covering
her sex. Sunlight glinted off the blood smeared arrowhead between the
still mounds of her firm brown breasts and the sight of it struck a cord
in Vara's dazed mind. Slowly she raised her gaze, taking in the sight
of her apprentice standing a few yards away outside the tent.
With a shaky laugh Vara pushed herself to her feet, pausing only to
scoop up her sword before walking past her defeated foe and out into the
bright day. Vetho stood sheepishly as she approached, nervously
plucking the taut string of his bow. They stood looking into each
other's eyes for a moment, then a broad smile creased Vara's thin lips
and she raised a hand to ruffle her apprentices feathery blonde hair.
"I didn't go in the tent." he said disingenuously, smiling back at his
mistress, then his face fell as she pushed him down to the ground.
Longinus was a bright blur above the crouching young man as Vara lunged
forward, thrusting her sword into the chest of the woman who'd crept up
behind her unwary apprentice. The stricken brunette let out a gasp of
complete surprise, her shining green eyes shock wide as Vara's sword
plunged between the soft mounds of her breasts above the edge of her
stiff leather armor, impaling her beating heart. The thick bladed knife
slipped from her raised hands, falling to stick in the ground at her
booted feet.
With a viscous twist Vara jerked her sword back and a spurt of blood
shot from the gaping wound in Anaka's chest, painting a crimson stripe
across Vetho's hunched back and spattering Vara's bare feet. Anaka
swayed on her feet, her mouth moving silently in protest, her empty
hands still extended above her head as she stared at her killer. Her
chest gave a single hitch, swelling the broad upper slopes of her bloody
smeared bosom and with a soft groan she toppled backwards, landing with
a heavy thud on the ground below.
Vara stepped past her still crouching apprentice and gazing thoughtfully
down at the dead brunette. The slain warrior stared blankly up into the
clear blue sky, her round face frozen in a perpetual look of surprise.
A small spatter of blood stained her chest and the round upper slopes of
her breasts, surprisingly little considering the lethal severity of the
wound that had killed her. The pebbled brown half moons of her nipples
peeked above the stiff edge of her leather corset, one hand resting on
the leather cup of her left breast. "You shouldn't try to sneak up on
someone in boots." Vara murmured, giving the dead woman an admonishing
kick in the ribs.
"Are they all dead?" Vetho asked, moving to stand beside his mentor.
Vara turned to look down at her youthful apprentice and a slow, wicked
smile spread across her face. "Not yet." she said.
---------------
Tanda sprinted away from the tent she'd shared with her now dead lover,
her naked body shining beneath a thin sheen of fear sweat. Long,
bounding strides widened the space between her and the tent, her shapely
legs slashing through the thigh high grass as she ran, her jeweled arms
pumping at her sides. Thirty yards away the grassy clearing ended and
the forest resumed, it's cool dark shade a beckoning sanctuary. Her
large bosom jounced high on her chest, throwing her gold and silver
chains into her face and blocking her view her goal. With a cry of
frustration she threw an arm across her breasts, flattening the firmly
rounded mammaries to her chest, slowing her pace ever so slightly.
"I can get away!" she reassured herself, her mind still spinning with
the last glimpse she'd had of her lover. The very thought of the bloody
arrow protruding from Chambra's chest, the invincible warrior she'd
seduced and made her protector for so long, made her heart thump even
faster. But in the end it didn't matter, there was always another
warrior, another big muscled fighter she could twist around her finger.
She threw a quick glance over her shoulder and saw a pair of figures
standing next to the back of the tent, the tall ebony skinned warrior
who'd fought Chambra to a standstill and shorter blonde figure, holding
a bow. An itch suddenly developed between her shoulders, as if she
could feel her pursuer's calculating gaze. "I'm too fast for them!" she
rationalized, unwilling to give up the confidence she had in her own
personal immortality. "Too fast, too smart, too beautiful dammit!" Her
lovely face creasing with determination, Tanda poured every ounce of
strength she had into her legs.
--------------
"Take your time."
--------------
Panic began to ease it's grip on Tanda as her feet thudded rhythmically
against the ground, her legs pushed to their limit. "Too fast, too
strong, too clever..." she whispered beneath her breath in time to the
pounding of her feet. "Too fast, too smart, too beautiful, too
clever..." She felt the wind rushing against her face as she ran,
making her curly blonde hair fly back like a shining golden flag. Her
jeweled skirt flailed her sleek hips as she ran, a fortune in gems
whipping her thighs. Twenty short yards to the trees and she'd be safe
from the bounty hunter's arrows, triumphant again.
---------------
"Adjust for the wind."
---------------
Calmed by her endlessly repeating mantra, Tanda began to make plans.
Once she made it to the trees, only ten yards away now and closing fast,
she made her way a deer track she knew ran near the main road. Though
she was naked, without food or weapons or water, she still had her
jewels and her magnificent body. Surely she'd find someone on the main
road, a traveler or merchant or somebody she'd be able to bribe with
money or sex in return for protection. "Too fast, too beautiful, too
clever..." she smiled.
---------------
"Now, just leg go of the string."
---------------
Tanda began to enjoy the workings of her body as she ran, the flexing of
muscle beneath the flawless tawny skin of her slender limbs, the warm
rush of air against her naked body and face and hair. It would almost
be disappointing to reach the safety of big oak she was angling toward;
she felt like she could run forever. She was almost in the shade of
it's reaching branches, almost safe, almost free.
...too smart, too beautiful, too clev-UGHHH!"
Tanda's leaping body jolted strongly in mid-stride, as if some invisible
enemy had struck her squarely in the back with an invisible fist.
Suddenly breathless and dizzy, the force of the blow sent her stumbling
and she fought to keep her pace, her arms flailing for balance, but her
legs could move no faster. She dropped to one knee, her back arching,
her mouth open wide in a voiceless scream of denial. "NUH!" she gasped
out and pushed herself to her feet.
Her breasts bounced freely again, still tautly erect with fear inspired
adrenaline as she fought to resume her headlong flight. She gulped in a
breath and pain flared through her curvaceous body, making her vision
shimmer and her legs suddenly wobbly and weak. Nine, eight, seven
staggering yards and she could see the tree's rough bark, feel the
coolness of the air against her body as she moved into it's shadow.
The pain grew and flared into agony and Tanda looked down at the arrow
protruding beneath her jouncing breasts. it's barbed head sticky with
her own blood. A high keening sound unwound from her parted lips and
her shapely legs rebelled, collapsing her to her knees. She glared at
the arrow impaling her beautiful body, protruding from her abdomen as it
had grown there beneath the lush sweep of her bosom, her eyes shining
with shock. "Tuh...too...!" she sputtered. "...too..."
Tanda tried to force herself to her feet but could only manage to pitch
forward onto her hands and knees, pain rolling back and forth through
her like an unstoppable red tide. She pushed herself into a slow crawl,
her body shivering uncontrollably, a fortune in precious stones and
metals brushing the dirt as she covered the last few feet to the
spreading oak. "I can't die." she wheezed plaintively and collapsed
onto her face.
The impact drove the arrow back through her shuddering frame and the
mortally wounded blonde convulsed, trying to drive her dying body
forward even as her mind was at last overwhelmed by the red tide.
Tanda's arms stretched out ahead, beringed hands groping and clawing at
the loamy earth while her legs kicked weakly behind, limbs still trying
to obey the commands of a consciousness that had already died.
---------------
The tall warrior watched her apprentice place one pale, delicate looking
foot on the small of the prostrate blonde's back and reach down to grasp
his arrow. The arrow protruded from almost the center of her body, a
handspan above the snarling lion brand that rode the flat plane of her
right shoulder blade. With a single quick jerk Vetho pulled the shaft
from the dead woman and a tremor ran through the shapely body beneath
his foot that seemed to travel straight up his leg and zero in on his
groin. An odd smile quirked his full lips as he looked back at his
mistress, his pale blue eyes shining with triumph.
"You've become very good with that bow of yours Vetho." Vara said,
kneeling to roll the dead woman onto her back. "Though your strangling
technique could use some work."
Tanda's body jingled as it flopped onto it's back, the movement of the
jewelry laving her still body giving her a momentary illusion of life.
Her eyes were closed and a dreamy smile was frozen on her beautiful
face, as if she'd died peacefully in her sleep instead of crawling in
the dirt with an arrow through her gorgeous body. "Come here boy." Vara
ordered.
The blonde young man moved to kneel opposite her and Vara regarded her
apprentice over the Tanda's shapely corpse. He stared patiently at her,
waiting for her next order, his handsome young face open and impassive,
yet she thought she could detect a glint in his pretty blue eyes. "He's
becoming a man." she realized and her heart gave a sudden lurch at the
thought. "He saved my life today and he's not a boy anymore, but
somewhere in between."
Without warning Vara leaned forward, grasping the back of his head
pulling him to her, pressing her lips to Vetho's generous mouth. He
stiffened in surprise as Vara kissed him, her lips moving passionately
against his own, his head spinning with a confusion of emotion. Just as
he began to return his mistress' kiss she pulled away, one long fingered
hand giving his blushing cheek a brief, gentle caress. "V..Vara..." he
began breathlessly.
"Thank you Vetho." Vara said, gazing fondly into his pretty blue eyes.
"You've done well today."
"I...I..." Vetho stammered.
Then as quickly as it had appeared Vara's grateful smile vanished, her
angular face resuming it's normal stony look. "Strip her." she ordered,
gesturing to the dead woman. "Then bring her back to the camp."
"Yeh...Yes mistress." Vetho replied.
Vara rose smoothly to her feet, giving her apprentice one last cryptic
glance before turning to stride back to the half circle of tents. "I'll
go get the mules." she called over her shoulder. "But I want these
bitches naked and ready to go by sundown."
Vetho watched his mistress leave, his gaze wandering over her strong
back, and not for the first time he admired the flex of her high, firmly
rounded buttocks moving beneath the tight stretch of her leather armor.
At last he returned his attention to the corpse laying before him and he
looked down at her beautiful, utterly still body. The soft curve of
Tanda's lips smiled back at him, as if she'd seen what her killers had
done over her cooling dead body, and approved.
"Yes mistress." Vetho smiled back and slowly began stripping the jewelry
from the dead woman's shapely body.
FOLLOWUP NOTE:
This story is by a guy named Motif, i found it on another site (not his) and knew everyone would
love it. I am trying to figure out how to get him to post more here.