Bounty (closed to Nouh_Bdee)

[MarieDavisRPs]

Bounty

(closed to Nouh_Bdee)​

Terra was feeling pretty good about herself as she walked her horse unhurriedly down the East River Road. The previous night, she'd made an absolute killing in an Inn filled with soldiers, highwaymen, bounty hunters, and other such drunkards.

She'd flirted her way into a one-off night as a tavern wench, promising the Innkeeper half her tips and a sloppy sucking of his cock after he'd closed down for the night. Delivering drinks and food while rubbing her delicious body up against one man after another, she'd picked pocket after pocket, purse after purse, without ever once raising an eyebrow.

She'd collected coins numbering two gold, eight silver, and thirty-eight copper, as well as snagging a jeweled handled dagger, a silver pendant, and a gold chain worth almost the value of all her coinage which, likely, she'd only get a quarter of that worth when she sold it in the next town.

And that didn't even include the tips she'd gotten more letting men grab her ass, hug her waist, or plant their hungry lips on the bared flesh of her boosted and well displayed tits.

And the Innkeeper sucky-suck? After the last patron had departed, passed out at his table, or headed upstairs with one of the other legitimate tavern whores, Terra took him to the back room, pulled down his pants, then gave him a push over a stack of sacked flour and ran for her horse. She was half a mile out of town at a full gallop, laughing all the way, before he ever got outside to search for her.

The East River Road was very aptly named, running along the bank of the Great River that cut through the land for more than a hundred miles. It began in the north where three tributaries met just below the City of Kreet, located near the base of the Central Range. It ended at the sea, of course, where the ever warning cities of Urnak and Relma faced one another across the river which at this point was almost a mile wide.

Terra had never been to either Kreet in the north nor Urnak of Relma in the south. Cities weren't a draw for her; she liked the rural lands and the freedom, independence, and solitude they offered. That was, of course, until she needed coin, but she could get earn that in the small villages that ran up and down both sides of the West River.

It was never a good idea to remain on one side too long, though, particularly after she'd cleaned up so well in one night at a tavern where someone would eventually return to a sober state and realize they'd been robbed. The sun was about to rise over her left shoulder, and Terra preferred to be on the other side of the river before it was fully in the air.

She left the main road, taking a smaller one that she knew led to an abandoned ferry landing. Although no longer officially in service, Terra knew the boat itself was pushed up onto the bank; with her horse, she could pull it back into the water, load the both of them up, and be easily across to begin contemplating ways to spend her newfound fortune.

But it wasn't going to be that easy, as much of her life thus far had been. As she was nearing the river enough to hear the water through the trees, she heard something else as well: combat. She urged her horse off into the trees, quickly dismounting and tying it to a tree. Pulling her bow from its saddle tie and quickly stringing the thong, she hurried as silently as possible through the trees toward the fight.

Terra had no intention of joining the tussle of course; although she was well trained with both her bow and sword, she was no warrior by any means. She had no interest in risking her life for some Lord or Lady. Her only interest was in what might be left behind by those who fell during the fight: arms, armor, purses, even good boots could be gathered from the dead even while the living were still trying to cut or stab or pound one another to death.

Stopping behind a large, rotting log, Terra looked out to the beach to find a pitched battle between two very different looking groups of men. Being somewhat of a local and familiar with the area's other criminals, she immediately recognized one of the groups as the Korro Clan. They were Highwaymen who generally kept to the main road, robbing merchants and Nobles.

Terra immediately thought that maybe they should have stayed away from the river this day, because they were taking a beating from the second group of men, who she presumed belonged to the boat tied a couple of dozen yards upstream. This group of men was unfamiliar to her in both face and dress; as she watched, Terra paid particular attention to the weapons and clothing of these men, both of which obviously came from a higher social class than the Korro.

The battle continued, and one man after another fell. Terra was shocked when it was finally over because ... well ... there was no one left standing at all! There were men who were dead and there were men who were dying, but it didn't seem as though there were men who would soon rise and depart, either by boat or by foot.

Terra remained where she was for the longest time, uncertain of what to do. She'd never seen two warring parties truly and fully kill themselves as these had. Finally, though, with an arrow notched, she rose, curled out around the rotting log, and approached the battle scene. She checked each man, one after another; the wounds were horrific, with some weapons still sunk into the bodies of the attacker's targets.

With no one left alive, Terra forced herself to begin searching pockets and snatching up purses. The weapons of the Korro Clan weren't worth the effort of even carrying them away from the scene, but most of the weapons of the others were of high quality construction. After filling her pockets with coins and other small valuables, she snatched up an armful of swords, daggers, and bows.

She looked around herself, wondering where she could hide them for future retrieval. Then a thought came to her: the boat. She could put her loot in the boat, float to the ferry, then return for her horse. It was a lot of effort and exertion, but it would be very much worth it.

Terra hurried toward the boat and was about to deposit her loot when she let out a scream of surprise and dropped everything in her arms. There was a man laying in the bottom of the boat!

(OOC: Imagine him not on a horse.)

She whipped the short, thin sword from her hip and held it out before her as the man lifted his bloodied skull to look at her. His head swayed to and fro, as if disoriented. He opened his mouth to speak, but nothing came out. Then, he just slumped back, passing out cold from his wound.

Terra looked around in panic, fearful of more surprises. But none came; the man in the boat was the only person still alive, other than her and a few of the men who were bleeding out around her, of course. She studied him for a moment, taking in his clothes, weapons, leather armor, and more. Then she noticed some of the items in the boat: trunks, shields, a fallen banner, even the sail that was flapping loose in the wind.

And then she smiled. She might not know this man's name, but she knew who he was. The crests on many of the objects indicated he was from a Noble family located on the far shore of the island continent. By boat on the sea with good winds, it could take a skilled sailor with three additional crew more than five Moons to reach the shores of this man's homeland. By land, it would take only two ... if you didn't have to deal with Highwaymen, murdering Hill Folk, kidnappers, and of course those who would want to steal this man away from Terra to sell him to his family.

That was, of course, exactly what she was considering: ransoming this man to his family. Nobles such as his kin would pay her a lifetime's worth of gold to regain the future of their bloodline and, thus, their power. (It never occurred to Terra that perhaps this man wasn't the heir to his family's fortune, obviously.)

But such a trek was daunting. There had to be an easier way to cash out on this man. The Miller, she thought to herself. The Miller was ... oh, what was a nice way to put it ... he was a despicable human being who would do anything for money. Ironically, he was an honest man, though. If she could get this Noble to the Miller, the latter would give her a fair price for him. It wouldn't be as much as she'd get getting him back to her rich father. But the Miller was only eight or nine days from her on a slow walking horse, and there were few dangers to face between here and there.

Yes, that was her decision. Terra kept her sword before her as she stepped into the boat. She prodded the man for a reaction, even sticking him in the arm with the tip of her sword, getting no reaction. She sheathed the weapon, found rope, tied him securely about the feet and hands, gathered her booty from the shore, and pushed off.

Ten minutes later, she was rowing the boat up into the little slough in which the river crossing raft was located. With the hull slipping solidly up into a muddy bank, Terra took some sips of water from a wooden canteen, then dumped the rest of it over the man's face. She'd been told that would wake an unconscious person, so she was relieved when she saw him mill about, groan in pain, and finally open his eyes.

Pointing her sword out so that the point was just inches from his face, she said with a tone of accomplishment, "You are my prisoner, Nobleman. Resist my demands, and I'll slice your balls off and send them home to your crying mother."

She waggled the end of the sword near his crotch, laughed, and said mostly to herself, "This is going to be great!"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin Torrell never won an argument with his father. He kept trying, though. He felt like being an annoyance was part of his job as the fourth son. He didn’t have an inheritance, an ordination, or an officer’s commission, so all he had was his persistence. When it’s the only tool one has, one uses it. Plus, so far in his life it had gotten him…

Nothing. It had gotten him nothing. But, what else was he going to do? Let himself be pushed around by his family? No.

So, Kavin argued.

“It’s a bad idea, father. By myself, I can blend in, go unnoticed. It works! I did it when I recovered that brooch mother’s wearing right now from Hagnar’s Tomb! It will work by the Great River, too!”

Lord Torrell slammed his fist on the table. “No son of mine is travelling to that god-forsaken land without an armed escort, Kavin. I won’t hear of it!”

Kavin paced back and forth in front of the long wooden table. “Father, your men will wear their armor with the Torrell insignias and they will carry a Torrell flag and wield their armory-issued swords and--”

His father cut him off. “Of course! You have to show strength to these savages, Kavin! I wouldn’t expect you to understand, but that’s how to deal with them! Further, with the slavers operating out of Kreet, and the war between Urnak and Relma, it’s just too dangerous to send you alone!”

Kavin was getting animated, waving his arms and raising his voice. It was as sure a sign as any that he was losing this argument. “That’s my point! It’s too dangerous for me to take them! Father. Listen. You’re not sending the whole army with me, and that’s what it would take to wipe out even one of these bandit clans. And that’s what it would take: As long as me and your men are alive, they’ll see us as a walking treasure chest. They won’t be able to resist!”

Lord Torrell raised his own voice, more dedicated than ever to sending his men with Kavin. “Then maybe you shouldn’t go, son! Are you even sure that this blade exists? Or that it lies where you think it does?”

Kavin lowered his voice. “I have to go, father. These stories of enchanted blades don’t come around every day. If there’s even a chance it’s real, I have to try.”

Lord Torrell sighed, resigned to seeing his son off. “Very well, then you’ll take some men.”

******************
Six Months Later
******************

“Captain Steffens, are you sure we need to disembark? Here?”

The young, acne-faced guard frowned. “Another of your theories, young master?”

Kavin was indignant. He had spent months researching the possible locations of this artifact, and weeks more learning about the area so he could disappear, and act like a local, and this fatuous twerp showed him nothing but scorn, insisting he wear his formal armor and disregarding all his advice about the local area.

“It’s not a theory, Steffens! Clan Korro is active on this side of the river here. They are a large and dangerous clan of highwaymen and thieves. If we need supplies, we can get them on the other side!”

It wouldn’t exactly cheer Kavin up, less than an hour later, when Captain Steffens took an arrow through the eye proving Kavin right.

The battle was quick and bloody, and if the Korro Clan had had more than a small party of scouts working the river, Kavin himself would be dead. As it was, he had barely dispatched one of the men that faced him before the other caught him in the side of the head with his club. Kavin was shocked to be alive as it was.

He was even more shocked to be tied by the wrists and ankles in his own boat, the blade in his face held by a young woman spouting what sounded like lines from a show put on by a mediocre playhouse. Oh well, at least he was alive.

Barely.

He squinted, his head pounding. His throat was dry. He wished some of the water dripping down his face had gone in his mouth.

“And what are those demands?” he croaked out.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Terra looked up to survey the shoreline, then the old, decrepit Ferry House with its moss covered, stone walls and absent, reed roof. With her hostage well bound by the sailing knots her father had taught her before his untimely death, her greatest danger at the moment was having more members of Clan Korro appearing or, possible but less likely, members of the local Lord's militia.

“And what are those demands?” her walking, talking treasure chest asked.

Looking back to him with a smile, Terra answered, "Do as I say, when I say it, as it was said. Do so, and I won't do something you might very well dislike ... such as turn you over to the Korro."

She doubted that the man even knew who Clan Korro was; Terra was incorrect, of course, though she didn't know it. She briefly explained that they were the most vicious of the local Clans and, knowing he and his had just killed half a dozen of theirs, that Clan Korro would kill him, cut him open, and display him on the East River Road for others to see.

"And they likely will not do it in that order!" she added, wishing him to understand just how vicious the Clan was. She stood and with a skillful leap, departed the boat and landed on the shore just inches from the gently lapping river water. She turned, telling him, "Get out."

Terra never once lowered her sword's point from a position of quick and potentially fatal attack. Even though she had the advantage at this moment, with his hands tightly bound and only eight inches of rope between his bound ankles, Terra could see in his eyes and his body language that he was not a man to underestimate.

Sure, he'd been easily eliminated from the fight that had resulted in two dozen dead, and most people might have seen that as incompetence or cowardice. But Terra didn't. As he exited the boat and climbed the bank per her orders, this man carried himself like a dangerous, skilled warrior. Terra wasn't going to let him turn the tables by being lax or overconfident.

"I am Terra," she told him after she gestured which way to begin walking. "What is your name?"

She didn't know whether or not he'd tell her the truth, a lie, or nothing at all. Either way, she followed up with, "What is your House? Who is your family?"

Again, she couldn't know what his response would be or even if there would be one. Her questioning continued with the inquiry she truly wanted answered. "If your family rich? I mean ... can they pay for your safe return? Will they even. I mean, do I need to cut off one of your fingers with a family crest ring upon it, to show that I actually have you?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

It was difficult, climbing out of the boat and dragging himself to his feet on the sandy riverbank with his hands bound and feet tied together, but Kavin managed it. He looked at the young woman, who gestured for him to start walking. He did, with slow, deliberate steps to avoid tripping over her rope hobble.

Terra seemed off, somehow. Her words, her tone, her mannerisms, everything seemed a little too...theatrical, over-the-top, amateurish. Kavin was starting to wonder if she had ever even kidnapped anyone before.

Either way, he certainly wasn’t going to tell her his real name. Heh.

“Kavin.” Well, it would be easier to remember if the first name was real, and it’s not like some upstart highwaywoman by the Great River was going to be familiar enough with the noble houses of the East to remember the name of the fourth son of House Torrell.

His face displayed incredulity, followed by condescension. “My house? Family? Do...do you think I’m so little lordling?!”

He looked down at himself. “Is it the armor? Woman, this is a fucking uniform. I’m a fucking mercenary.”

He thought he could pull off the act if it came to it. If she asked for a martial demonstration he was good enough to give her one, and then that could be how he escaped. Still, he would be careful. He was unarmed, tied up, and an idiot with a sword was still dangerous.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

"Kavin," her captive responded when Terra requested his name. She'd never heard that given name before, let alone known a person born to it. As he continued speaking, though, Terra recognized his accent. She'd heard it before, in and about the Inns of the port cities of Urnak and Relma; the way of speaking had come from the traders, diplomats, and visiting Nobles of distant lands. It only further convinced Terra that this Kavin was likely from a wealthy house.

But then he told her, ""I'm a fucking mercenary."

She stopped dead in her tracks. A Mercenary? A Merc?? Well, that was disappointing. Her purse full of gold coins had suddenly become fantasy.

Or had it? If Kavin was good at his job, meaning good at being a killer, then he'd likely made enemies; the friends, family, and possibly even subjects of his victims might like to see him once again, just before they put a noose around his head and pushed him from the top of a stone wall. Terra might be able to sell him yet.

The problem now was knowing who would pay well for him, and that took Terra right back to her original plan: take Kavin to The Miller. The Miller might very well know who would put up the most gold for a hated murderer. Hell, The Miller might even buy Kavin straight up, sort of an investment as he looked for someone to pay him a larger sum. Terra wouldn't get as much as The Miller would, of course, but the risks of this venture would then no longer be on her head.

She began moving forward again, directing Kavin off the dirt road and into a beaten path. They'd only gone a few yards into the trees when she suddenly rushed up behind him and stomped a boot down on the short rope binding between his feet. His forward motion remained that, motion, and a wide smile filled Terra's face as he slowly fell forward like a tree being chopped down.

"Timber," she said with a laugh as he put his bound hands out before him to lessen any personal damage. She ordered, "Stay down!"

Terra had carried a rope from the boat with her, and now she through the loop she'd tied in it around Kavin's already bound feet. She tossed the rope over a branch of the nearest tree and tugged as hard as she could until Kavin's feet lifted right off the ground. As she looped the rope around the tree's trunk and fastened it, she noted that the man was very much in the position her father used to put the family's goats, just before he cut their necks and slaughtered them for sale at the Market.

"Don't worry, I'm not gonna kill and bleed you," she said, assuming he would understand the reference. "I just need you to be a good little boy while I go back for my loot."

She was laughing as she hurried back to the boat to retrieve the weapons, armor, coins, and more that she'd stripped from his colleagues and the Korro they'd killed. Terra peeked back at him often to ensure he wasn't getting loose; whether he tried or not, he wouldn't, as she's learned very skillfully to tie up a man. It was something she'd had to do often over her years of thievery.

It took three trips to get everything from the boat up into a section of thick undergrowth where no one would find her treasure. She kept the coins and a couple of small but valuable objects, and as she walked back to Kavin she looked at them more closely. Her original thought that he was a Noble or a Noble's son just wouldn't leave her head. Wishful thinking, the other half of her brain told her. Just sell the Merc' to The Miller and be done with it. A smaller bag of gold or even silver is still better than no gold or silver.

She unstrung his feet from the tree, rolling up the rope and tying it to her waist with a leather thong. Gesturing back toward the road, which would take them upstream to her horse, Terra said playfully, "Giddy up. We've got a long walk ahead of us."

The road was seldom used after the abandonment of the ferry, but it hadn't become so overgrown yet that the ropes between Kavin's feet would snag and impede his movement ... much anyway. At the pace he'd set, it would take an agonizing hour or so to get back to where she'd tied up her horse. It would seem like much more than that, of course, almost like waiting for water to boil over the fire for tea.

But once they'd begun, whether it was with or without conversation first, Terra would note how nice Kavin's backside looked in his leather trousers and think to herself, I could stand to look at this man's ass for a bit.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin was shuffling along, following his captor’s “demands,” when suddenly the rope between his feet was pinned to the ground, and he was falling on his face. Then she compared him to a falling tree, literally adding insult to injury. This woman was trying his patience.

And that was before he was dangling upside down in the air, blood rushing to his head while she walked around doing fuck-if-he-cared for what felt like an hour. It might have been bearable if not for her laughter.

Oh, her laugh was pleasant, actually. It was a high, musical sound. What grated on Kavin was that someone he had such a low opinion of was laughing at his expense. He couldn’t wait to find an opportunity to get free.

Finally he was cut down, but then he was forced to march along the road. Compared first to a pig and then a horse, Kavin’s indignities kept piling up. It was a long walk, made especially so by the rope tying his shoes together and catching on the low brush.

After half an hour of walking, Kavin was desperate for something, anything, to occupy his mind. So desperate, in fact, that he was willing to try to have a conversation with the abductress behind him.

“So, Terra, what’s your plan, here?” He tried to look back over his shoulder as he walked. “Who’s going to pay a ransom for little old me?”

He kept musing, not really listening to what she said at first.

“Sure, maybe there’s a price on my head back east, but I haven’t had the chance to piss anyone off around here yet.”

Or maybe it wasn’t a ransom? Although that made even less sense.

“Or, if you’re trying to find someone who needs a merc, you know they’ll pay me and not you, right?”

He kept shuffling through the low grass, one foot in front of the other.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

They'd traveled up the road half an hour before Kavin asked, “So, Terra, what’s your plan, here?”

"I'm going to sell you," she admitted without shame.

“Who’s going to pay a ransom for little old me?”

Kavin spoke about being a mercenary and about how he might be more welcomed by whoever's she took him to than she was. Terra considered that as they walked. The Miller had always been fair and honest with her in the past; he had a reputation to maintain.

Still, even if he did buy Kavin from her, how could Terra know whether or not the Merc might be out and about the next day, working for The Miller ... and maybe looking to get revenge against her.

It was a risk, but what choice did she have? Terra needed coin, a lot of it, if she was ever going to get away from this nomadic life of hand-to-mouth thievery. Right now, what with her take from the Inn last night and the battle field this morning, Terra was sitting on more coin or loot that soon would be coin than she'd ever had at one time. Just one more good score was all she needed.

"Just keep walking, Mister Merc," she said, chuckling. "All you need to know is that as long as you do what I say, you'll stay alive. Don't for a second think that just 'cause I'm a girl, I won't put my sword through your chest."

They continued on for a while in silence before Terra asked Kavin to tell her something about the East. She'd heard a great many things about the wealth and power of Counts and Barons, with castles and aqueducts and stone roads and more. There was peace and law and order and prosperity.

Meanwhile, here in the west, very little of that existed. Warlords ran roughshod over many of the villages and small towns, stealing their food, conscripting men into their militias, and kidnapping young females for their brothels.

Even those not subjected to the terrors of the Warlords live horrific lives: famine, disease, theft, murder, and more plagued them. The Nobles of the West took half of what their peasants grew, raised, or otherwise earned. Without a strong King to keep them in line, the Nobles were barely better than the Warlords, if they were better at all.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin was frustrated. He was tired, sore, and bored. The girl didn’t even want to talk to him, she just wanted to poke him with her blade and make him march. Well, she didn’t say he couldn’t talk. If she didn’t answer, at least he would be doing something other than slowly shuffling his bound feet.

And then she asked him to talk about home. That was...fraught. He had to think about how to say something without giving away that he wasn’t who he said he was. He’d give her a quick answer, and then turn the conversation back to her.

“It’s nice enough, I suppose. The lords keep order. That makes less opportunity for people like us, you know what I mean?”

He paused for an instant, humming before he asked her some questions.

“So, Terra, are you from the area near the river, or have you come here recently?”

“Is there anything you like to do? You know, other than scavenging battlefields and tying up wounded mercenaries?”

“Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”

At least he was alive, and he had no intention of pushing her to the point of using that blade on him, at least not while he was unarmed and bound. He didn’t doubt that she would. But if he could keep prodding her, getting under her skin, maybe there would be an opportunity.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“It’s nice enough, I suppose,” Donnick said about life in the East. “The lords keep order. That makes less opportunity for people like us, you know what I mean?

Terra could understand that. It was harder to be a bad guy in a place of law and order, she correctly presumed. She waited for more from him, but he offered nothing until changing the subject.

“So, Terra, are you from the area near the river, or have you come here recently?” Kavin asked casually, as if they had just met in the market or an inn and might be contemplating a friendship. “Is there anything you like to do? You know, other than scavenging battlefields and tying up wounded mercenaries?”

She ignored him initially, only leading him to continue, “Lovely weather we’re having, isn’t it?”.

"Shut up," she said, just as casually. She thought it important to maintain their current relationship of kidnapper-kidnappee. But after another couple of minutes of another part of her brain -- and of her body -- wanting a different kind of relationship with him, Terra told Kavin, "Yes, I'm from the River Valley."

She didn't go on right away, but she just knew somehow that he was going to pepper her with more questions. "I grew up on a goat ranch not far from her. I hated goats, but my father and mother knew nothing more."

She paused a bit, not certain she wanted to tell him more about her personal life. But she begin again, "A local Noble, a man who'd given himself the title of Count, was bickering with another man, a Warlord who wanted to believe he was noble. Our home was between their lands. One night, when I was young ... twelve, maybe thirteen ... armed men attacked our home, stealing our stock, our grain--"

Her words stuck in her throat, "...and my older sister. They were the Noble's men. I recognized two of them as I hid in the barn. They wore nothing that identified them as such, though. And they dropped an already dead man, one of the Warlord's, from a horse near my dead father's body, to make it seem as though the Warlord's men had attacked and my father had killed him. It was all an effort to scare our village into accepting the Count's protection."

Terra went quiet for a bit, fearing she might cry if she continued. She changed topics, delving into the dangerous politics of the River Valley and Western Region. She talked of Warlords and wanna-be Nobles and all they put the locals through.

"Tell me about your family," Terra asked. She didn't know whether or not making such an inquiry might tell her more about his true identity. She hadn't given up on the idea that he himself might be from the Nobility. Terry knew it was hopeful thinking, but she wanted to know whether or not he was a walking, talking treasure chest before she sold him to The Miller. "They have money...? A castle? Servants? I bet you lost your virginity to a cute little peasant girl almost before you had hair between your legs, some sweet little thing whose father was your daddy's Smithy ... or a peasant farmer in need of a new sow."

(OOC: Mods, don't worry, there won't be any flashback on prohibited topics.)

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin wasn’t surprised by Terra’s story. He’d heard plenty more just like it in his research about the River Valley. Uncivilized was a good way to put it. Kavin didn’t envy anyone who had to live here. The sympathy he felt for Terra would’ve been a lot stronger, though, if she wasn’t threatening to cut parts of him off every few minutes. Still, it might be advantageous to let her see him sympathize with her.

“That must’ve been a miserable way to grow up, after that happened. I can’t imagine.”

She was still walking behind him, so he couldn’t see her face, or show her his empathetic frown, but hopefully she thought he was being sincere. He was, too, at least partially.

As Terra talked about what life was like in the River Valley, it was harder to hate her, and harder to despise her. She wasn’t as dumb as he’d thought, despite her rather amateurish hostage-taking skills. And even though he knew most of what she was telling him, it was different hearing it from someone who lived through the barbarity and oppression endemic to the region.

Kavin wished there was a way to do something to reform and then strengthen the local lordship, to give these people some order. Sadly, the only way to fix it was probably to get out and let the Valley rot.

Kavin thought about trying to tell her more about the East from the perspective of his fictional mercenary persona, going into the way the law was applied to people: putting them in stocks for theft, hanging them for murder, taxing them just enough to be oppressive without starving them. There were positives and negatives, but he would take it over the constant fear of death in the West. Of course, he didn’t mention that to Terra, wanting her to believe he came here for opportunities as a mercenary. So, he tried to answer her question about his family in a way that wouldn’t arouse suspicion.

He told her about his overbearing father, and his brothers that got along with everyone much better than he got along with anyone. He mentioned his sweet, but passive, mother, and his little sister who was far and away his favorite member of the family. He told her his father was a smith. That he was successful but no smith had enough work for four sons, so he left to seek his fortune, working as a mercenary around the Great Forest before taking the job that brought him to the River Valley.

“Why so interested in who I’ve bedded?” he asked with a smirk. “Interested?”

He couldn’t deny that she was beautiful, but there was one thing in the way of him trying to seduce her.

“When I have sex, I prefer that there be only the one sword involved, so don’t get any ideas.”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“That must’ve been a miserable way to grow up, after that happened,” Donnick said about Terra losing her family in such a violent way. “I can’t imagine.”

The man sounded sincere in his sorrow, though, he could have simply been trying to lessen her determination to sell him to the highest bidder. It was hard to tell, and not only that, Terra didn't want to believe Donnick because, well, she needed to sell him!

He spoke of his parents and siblings and of having to come west for work. And again, every word out of his mouth sounded genuine, something Terra would have preferred was all a lie. How hard she would have laughed had she known it was bullshit. She began to worry more about what The Miller's response was going to be when she presented him with a mercenary, not a Nobleman.

“Why so interested in who I’ve bedded?” Donnick asked when Terra made her snide comment about him growing up in a family of power and money. “Interested?”

She laughed, challenging, "You wouldn't know what to do with a woman like me."

“When I have sex, I prefer that there be only the one sword involved,” he teased, a reference she knew all to well to be referring to his cock. “So don’t get any ideas.”

Again, Terra laughed. She carefully reached her sword out and ever so gently stuck him in the back of his arm. As he flinched and looked back at her, she told him, "Oh, relax, it's just a little prick."

Then glancing toward his groin, she smiled wide and said, "You should know what that is."

Terra laughed hard enough that her voice came back to them from the forest in echo. They traded comments, insults, and other such jabs as they continued onward, then fell into silence once again for a while as they caught sight of the river through the trees and knew they were near where his men had fallen earlier.

"I know you want to honor your men with a proper burial," Terra told him with a sincere tone, "but we can't remain here for that much time. I promise you, they will be attended to. I have friends less than two miles from here, on the path we'll follow north. I'll pay them to give your friends a proper send off."

Terra gestured Donnick in the opposite direction, and a moment later they were at her horse, which was still right where she'd left it hours tied to a tree. She tossed him one end of the rope she'd been carrying wrapped over one shoulder, directed him to tie it in a secure knot around his torso, then let him untie the thong around his feet.

"So, here's the situation as I see it," she told him after she'd told him to turn the knot to his backside, away from the hands that would want to untie it. She notched a bolt in the small crossbow she'd collected from one of the morning battle's dead. You can be a good guy, a nice guy ... not give me any trouble ... and when we get to The Miller, I'll collect your money and maybe you'll find some work. Of course, The Miller might kill you because you have wronged him or someone about whom he cares, or the people he sells you to might kill you because you've wronged them or someone about whom they care. But that's just the risk you have to take."

Terra mounted her horse, continuing, "Or, you can try to run away and maybe, maybe not get a bolt in the back, or get found in the woods by Clan Korro, which will be looking hard for you because my next stop will be at one of their villages where I'll tell them you killed their Clan members. Either way, with you dead or not, I'll go back for my little hidden treasure and get across the river away from your smelly hind end, and I'll sell my shit and finally get my little goat ranch."

She gestured the crossbow up the trail to the north, saying, "Let's go."

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin kept his amusement to himself when Terra told him he couldn’t handle a woman like her. She had no idea what he could handle and what he couldn’t.

“I’ve heard of small pricks, but I always thought they were a myth,” he said with a smirk.

She was confident, to the point of arrogance, and after they traded insults and jokes for some time he found her a bit harder to dislike, despite the sword at his back. As a nobleman’s son, Kavin wasn’t used to being challenged. He was used to women lying back and spreading their legs, not threatening to cut off his balls. He wasn’t completely smitten, of course. He would still sooner fight her than fuck her. All he needed was an opportunity.

When they passed the battlefield from earlier, Kavin didn’t want Terra to realize that his relationship with those men had been filled with antipathy. He thought that might have been suspicious. So, he just thanked her solemnly.

With the rope tied around his waist, he thought he would be in a better position to escape than with his feet tied, but Terra’s guard was still up. He needed to wait, following her orders for now until an opportunity presented itself. Besides, if they made it to this miller, Kavin knew he would simply be a nameless mercenary, and maybe he could pretend to take a job as a chance to escape.

He couldn’t think of anything particularly witty, so he simply agreed with her, but with a healthy dose of sarcasm in his tone.

“Yes, your magnificence, your orders shall be followed to the letter.”

With that, Kavin walked and Terra rode, with a few breaks to pee and shit, until it was time to camp for the night. Terra tied him up by looping a rope around a large tree trunk and tying it to each hand. It was loose enough for him to move, but not enough to get to the knots in any way that could get him out.

“Well, you’ve thought of everything, haven’t you?”

He had an idea, though. Maybe after Terra fell asleep, he could work the ropes back and forth and wear them down on the bark. Hopefully she would sleep far enough away not to hear that. He’d just have to wait and see. He watched her get the camp ready.

“What’s for dinner, dearest?” And just in case she thought about not feeding him: “An emaciated merc won’t fetch much money, you know?”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“Yes, your magnificence, your orders shall be followed to the letter,” Kavin responded when Terra told him to be a good boy.

She laughed. "Your Magnificence, I like that."

They chatted a lot more than Terra had initially thought they would, seeing how she'd actually intended to keep distance between them. She'd learned that from her goat herder father: Don't befriend the goats, don't name them, don't fall in love, 'cause eventually you're going to be roasting them over a fire.

Terra wasn't going to roast Kavin, of course, but selling him to someone who might very well hang him, behead him, or -- like the goats -- roast him over a fire was pretty much the same thing.

She kept her guard with him closely when they came toward the end of the day and she picked a place for a camp. She'd hoped to reach her friends' little home in the woods by nightfall, but that just simply hadn't happened.

“What’s for dinner, dearest?” Kavin asked after she'd secured him to the tree. “An emaciated merc won’t fetch much money, you know?”

She'd been getting into her saddle bags when Kavin asked. She pulled out a dehydrated chunk of pork, wrapped in a dried cabbage leaf, crossed to stand over him, and dropped it into his lap. Smiling wide, Terra said, "Eat up. There's plenty more where that comes from."

She turned and walked away, laughing. The only way Kavin could possibly get what was considered peasant food was to pinch it between his knees and lift it to his mouth. It was possible, Terra knew, as she'd once had to do it while she'd been tied to a tree similarly like this. But one wrong move and it would fall aside, and chances of retrieving it again would be next to impossible.

"I'll be back," she said over her shoulder as she pulled her strung bow from around her torso and notched an arrow. Looking to Kavin, she warned him, "I'll just be in the woods a bit, deep enough that you can't see me but not so deep that I can't put an arrow in your chest if you even attempt to free yourself."

Terra retrieved a waterskin, rag, clean undergarments, and a bar of soap from her saddlebags. She made her way into the woods, directly across from her captive's side of the big tree. She found a stump to lay her things upon and began stripping off her riding clothes, one piece at a time, all the while looking through the foliage at Kavin.

She was sure he couldn't see her in the darker undergrowth, despite his looking her way several times as she used the wet, soapy cloth to wipe clean her naked body. What she had failed to take into account was that a couple of times, the cloudy sky had parted for brief moments to allow the full moon to cut through a gap in the canopy and bathe her in light.

Had Kavin been looking her way at those two or three very short gaps in the cloud cover? Had he seen her youthful, shapely figure, her firm breasts, her narrow waist, and her long, fit legs? Had he both peeked and been able to see that the patch of kinky brown hair that would normally decorate her at the meeting of her thighs was now as bare and smooth as a baby's butt? Terra had begun shaving herself down there, along with the full extent of her legs, after learning that the most sought after whores in the most exclusive brothels of Kreet, Urnak, and Relma did the same.

Terra had recently taken advantage of her smooth, lower body and nethers to take advantage of a wealthy Noble. After he'd run his fingers up and down her smooth legs, over her bare buttocks, and even inside her hairless pussy, he'd been convinced to leave his bodyguards behind and take Terra to a room above the tavern. It had been a mistake, obviously, with Terra filling him with drugged wine before she robbed him of his coin and other valuables and got away before he got his cock wet in her hole.

Drying herself off and redressing with fresh undergarments, Terra returned to the camp to build a small fire close enough to Kavin to keep him warm. She told him again that she'd be watching him, disappeared into the forest, and returned a few minutes later dangling a fully skinned and gutted rabbit from its back legs.

"Would you like some of this, or was the cabbage and pork filling," she said with a smile. As the rabbit roasted over the fire, Terra retrieved another waterskin, this one filled with a weak wine, and crouched down close to her hostage. She offered him some, saying, "It's not strong, but its safe to drink, not like much of the water this far down from the springs or mountain runoff."

She returned to Kavin's side again when the rabbit was ready, untying one of his hands so that he could feed himself. She stayed out of his reach and warned him yet again to play nice, and after she'd given him a choice of peeing at the woods edge or holding it for the night, she tied him up again and told him, "Sleep tight."

Terra removed her saddle from her horse, laying it down on the other side of the fire from Kavin. She unfurled her bedroll even farther from the fire; she could see him through a gap between the saddle and the ground, but the light of the fire did not shine on her face, therefore preventing him from seeing if she was asleep or watching him. Terra was pretty confident in her knot tying ability, but then she'd escaped such confinement once, of course, so she knew there was the possibility of Kavin doing it as well.

She'd actually planned on watching him intently for a while and warning him when he made suspicious movements, simply to make it clear to him that escape was impossible. Yet the exhaustion of the day had been greater than Terra had imagined, and almost as soon as she'd shut her eyes she was asleep...



It wasn't long after that, by the current size of the fire burning between them, that Terra's horse made a sound that she knew was a warning. Silent and still, she opened her eyes to peek around; she saw nothing, but she heard enough to know that at least three men were sneaking toward the camp.

She lifted her head for a better look, and her movement was spotted, by six men! Terra rolled out of her bedding, snatching up her bow and and arrow from her quiver, and before her ambushers knew what was happening, she'd already put a missile deep into the chest of one of them. She rolled again, this time toward the fire; she'd gone to bed fully dressed, and with a swing of her leg, she showered two of the now attacking men with a blinding, searing rain of ash and coals.

There was confusion amongst the attackers, but even so, Terra knew she was in trouble. She notched and released another arrow, sticking a man in the gut, then rolled back to her bedroll again. She snatched up her dagger, looked to Kavin, and threw it through the air directly at him. It stuck in the tree just an inch from the rope binding his arms.

She didn't have time to explain to him what to do; she simply hoped he understood as she was rolling away from a man swinging an ax down into the dirt, as opposed to her body. She got to her feet, snatched up the sword of the first man she'd killed, and engaged her attacker...

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin managed one bite of the pork and cabbage wrap before it fell off his knees and onto the grass below. Her laughter told him she’d expected him to struggle to get it in his mouth, and he glared at her until she disappeared into the darkness of the evening. Then he glared at the place he’d last seen her, until a few brief moments of clear moonlight illuminated her, bathing herself with a waterskin.

She was an attractive young woman, that was sure, but Kavin was able to put that aside thanks to his hunger, fear, and the fact that he would kill for a bath of his own. He could ignore her fit, toned, shapely body, the way the water slid down her smooth skin, washing away the day’s impurities to reveal her tantalizing figure. It didn’t interest him in the slightest how sexy she was, and his pants were tightening for an altogether unrelated reason.

He actually forgot about her naked body when she returned for the second time, looking pointedly at the pork wrap lying firmly out of his reach before asking him if it was filling. As pleasant as her body might be, her personality was enough to put it out of his mind. Still, he accepted the rabbit and the wine, unwilling to starve himself to make a point. He even picked up the cabbage and pork after she untied his hand.

A quick pee later, Kavin was re-tied and back against the trunk to sleep. He waited until she was clearly asleep, and then he started sawing back and forth, trying to wear out the rope. He could hear threads snapping, the rope thinning behind him. He was so close, one more motion would free him, when he heard the horse sound the alarm.

There were six men creeping through the grass toward their fire. Kavin pulled, snapping the last of the rope just in time to pull her dagger out of the tree. Despite his privileged upbringing, Kavin was no stranger to fighting, and he showed that off now. He ran toward the men Terra had blinded, burying her dagger in the closest man’s chest and taking his sword just in time to run the second man through.

The odds were even, now, but Kavin had no intention of letting them stay that way. He faced the last man, a burly ruffian with a heavy sword, exchanging a few blows with him before rolling underneath a particularly clumsy swing to slice chunks out of the back of his legs. Slitting his throat was child’s play at that point.

Kavin almost ran. He should have. He could have. Terra was well and truly busy with the ax wielding remainder of whatever band of bandits had attacked them. He didn’t even need to take the horse. He could just disappear into the night.

He couldn’t do it. As bad as Terra was, these men were worse. He couldn’t let her die like this. A sword through the back takes a man out of a fight pretty quickly, and Kavin was just pushing his off his new sword when he saw Terra pointing her bow at his face.

He’d just saved her life, and that was the thanks he got? Of course, he’d have been killed if she hadn’t blinded those two men and killed two more first, but that wasn’t relevant. He paused for longer than reasonable, holding his sword, thinking about running or trying to disarm her. Surely she wouldn’t actually shoot him. Well, once he thought about it, he knew that if he ran she would absolutely shoot him. Maybe she wouldn’t shoot him if he didn’t run, though.

“No.”

Seeing her confusion, he continued. “I’m not going to drop this sword, and you’re not going to tie me up anymore. It’s dangerous out here—you need me free to fight with you, and I have no interest in dying tied to a tree. So lower your bow, help me get these bodies out of our camp, and we’ll take your shit to this miller person to sell it.”

He turned away, not waiting for an answer, and started dragging one of the bodies away from their campsite.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

(OOC: Hey, I hope you don' mind, but I am changing my characters name from Terra to Marie. Almost all of my other main characters in all of my other RPs are named Marie, and every time I start to write this character's name I have to stop and think ... and thinking makes my brain hurt. )


After killing the last of the raiders and realizing that only she and Kavin were left standing, Marie didn't hesitate to notch another arrow and aim it right for her traveling companion's face. She'd needed his help to beat this band of savages for one and only one reason: to keep her walking, talking treasure alive.

Of course, Kavin wasn't looking at it from that point of view. He hadn't just saved his own life but had saved hers as well, and for it, he thought he deserved a prize: freedom.

He told her how he felt, dismissed her threat, and began cleaning up the camp. Still, Marie stood there with a notched arrow aimed at him as he worked around the camp. Finally, after he was moving his second body off into the forest, she called out, "Leave it! We can't stay here. Chances are they weren't alone."

She snatched up the only sword that looked like it was worth the energy required to carried off and went for her horse. Stuffing the new blade through a leather thong on the saddle, Marie launched herself up onto the horse and told him, "You're free to go your own way if you want. Or, you can go with me. But I can't promise that I won't still try to sell you if I get the chance."

She smiled wider, an evil sort of grin that could have been taken any number of ways, then reached out a hand. "Are you going to take the chance and come with me? Otherwise, your boat's back that way."

Either way, Marie would wheel her horse around and head back toward the ferry and her stash of weapons, armor, and other valuables hidden there in the thick undergrowth. She -- or they? -- could make the ride by sunrise likely, after which they could use the ferry to not directly cross the river but at least float downstream a couple of miles to beach it on a rocky spit and unload to the west side of the Great River.

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin couldn’t think too long, or he knew Marie would ride off without him. That was what he’d wanted earlier, but the fight had reinforced for him how dangerous the River Valley was. As much of an ass as Marie was, at least she didn’t really want to kill him, and they’d fought off one attack together already. He was surprised to conclude that his odds of survival were better with her than without her.

Kavin grasped Marie’s hand and climbed into the saddle behind her. He ignored the press of her shapely body against him as she directed her horse back toward the ferry. He wasn’t sure where to put his hands to hold on, but Marie didn’t seem as uptight as some of the women back east, so he just wrapped them around her waist.


As they rode, Kavin tried to come to some sort of understanding. “I’ll tell you what, Marie. We’re safer together than alone, so you let me stay armed and unbound, and I won’t try to escape. Deal?”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Kavin's suggestion made sense, at least for now. There was no way of telling who else might be out there in the dark of the early morning. Marie didn't have to make a decision on Kavin right now. She could wait a few hours, a day, more before turning a dagger on him and binding him for sale again.

Of course, he might do the same to her. Marie was an attractive woman with a great body. There were more than enough wicked men with the coin for buying a sex slave here in the West. Hell, Marie had heard that there were rich, powerful, unscrupulous Nobles in the East, too, men who yearned for sex slaves from the barbaric West. Odds were just as good that Kavin might sell her instead!

They moved slowly on the trail through the trees until they reached the road, when Marie urged her horse into a gentle canter. She couldn't help but notice how familiar Kavin was getting with his hands on her waist. She kind of liked it, though, which made her think more about another possibility. She was a rogue, he was a merc; maybe there was a future for them together.

There was only one problem with this option: Marie had never wanted to be a man's woman. She liked the way Kavin held her, and she was beginning to like the thought of having Kavin's cock inside her. But after ten years of being sexually active -- those first years mostly against her will -- Marie had never had the interest in fucking the same man more than a couple of times in a row, if that. Oh, she wasn't a slut or anything; she'd simply never wanted anything that might be described as a relationship.

They traveled onward for a couple of miles until Marie could sense the horse's building exhaustion under the weight of two riders. She slowed the animal, threw one leg over the beast's neck to drop to the ground, then told Kavin to dismount and give the animal a breather.

"How would you repay me?" she asked after a minute or so. She could see he didn't understand her question, so she clarified, "If I don't sell you to The Miller, I lose a nice purse of silver, perhaps even gold. I still think you are lying to me, that you are actually an Eastern Nobleman. The Miller, he knows everything there is to know. If you are more than a simple Mercenary, he will be the man who will know. So, I ask again. If I don't sell you to him, how will you reimburse me for my loss?"

Marie looked past the horse's bobbing head to stare Kavin in the eyes as the first bits of orange, morning light illuminated his face. She said with a serious expression, "Unless you're just planning on killing me and stealing the wealth I've already accumulated."

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

It was easier to think without his hands around her waist, but he still thought Marie might have a point. If this Miller knew anything about the East, he might recognize the House Torrell sigil on his armor, and put together who he was. Maybe if Kavin could find a new set of clothes, it would improve his odds of going unrecognized. Or, he could try to convince Marie not to take him to the miller, especially if she was bringing up the idea on her own. He had some experience negotiating, though, so he wasn’t going to make it too easy.

Kavin chuckled. “You don’t think saving your life and helping carry your shit counts?” He didn’t mention that they’d saved each other’s lives. “Or how about the fact that anything I could have used to pay you you already stole from me, back at the boat?” He shook his head. Maybe a little bit of bluff mixed in would help. “I don’t think I owe you anything, Marie. Especially since I’m not some fancy blue-blood. I’m just a merc from across the continent, so if this miller is so connected like you say, I’m probably headed to him anyway to look for work.”

He didn’t want to completely shut her down, though. If she decided to be reasonable, he’d listen. “What did you have in mind? Want me to take some job and give you the payout?” He crossed his arms, waiting for her counter.

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

Marie wasn't surprised by Kavin's reaction, and she even laughed when he brought up that a good portion of what she'd stolen the day before had belonged to him or his men. Actually, most of what she'd claimed came from the Easterners as the Clan Korro guys' weapons had mostly been poor quality and they hadn't had much coin of which to speak.

“What did you have in mind?” he asked about her insistence that he somehow compensate her for not selling him into either slavery or the gallows. “Want me to take some job and give you the payout?”

Marie didn't say anything for a moment, as she really hadn't thought it out that far. Finally she offered, "You call yourself a mercenary, a sword for hire, yes? So, I'll hire you, as you suggested."

She brought the walking horse to a stop, mounted it again, and offered her hand out again, asking, "You coming?"



They didn't task the horse as much as they had earlier, walking it most of the way to her stash of his valuables so that he could select the weapons and armor of his choice. They left the rest hidden in the forest and continued onward, not across the river on the ferry but farther downstream here on the Western side. They'd traveled until late in the afternoon, stopping occasionally to rest the horse, relieve themselves, and eat from her saddlebags.

Finally, they emerged from the road in the forest to look upon an island in the middle of a wide portion of the river.

"The Island of Tranx," she told him. By far, in this region, this is the most noble of the Nobles. This island has been in the hands of a direct lineage for as long as long can be. At times, the House of Tranx has controlled vast tracts of land on one or the other or both sides of the river. They are the closest thing to Royalty that this portion of the continent has ever known."

Marie hesitated a moment before adding with a solemn tone, "And I despise them with every fiber of my body."

She turned the horse, telling him they needed to find a safe place to camp, where a fire would not be seen from the island. A few minutes later, they were building a fire on the anti-river side of the tall standing root ball of a recently fallen and massive conifer. Marie had put an arrow through a rabbit eating peacefully near the trail, and as she slaughtered the animal, Kavin built a fire.

"Four years ago," she finally began telling her story, "I fell in love for the first and only time. His name was Pratt. He was a kind man, a good man, who should never have gotten mixed up with me. His father had been in the South Shore War. He'd been in charge of disbursing coin to the soldiers, and when the enemy rolled over his camp and killed nearly everyone, he'd managed to get away ... with the coin box.

"He wasn't a thief. But he had no one to return the coin to. The Lords had all been killed. The Officers had all been killed. None of the Lords had family that would have expected a box of coin to be returned to them, and besides, it wasn't their coin at all. It belonged to the men, all of whom were by now dead.

"So, he brought the box back to his village and used it to help his family, friends, and neighbors. He didn't buy up land for himself. He didn't purchase all the cattle or hogs or goats and force others to buy from him at monopoly prices. He built a modest hut and spread the wealth, particularly to the few soldiers who'd escaped that tragic war.

"Pratt was born, and he continued his father's good will after the old, ailing man had died. Then came the Tranx. They'd heard of the box of coin from years earlier and claimed it was their own, through some roundabout lineage to the long dead Lord. They came to Pratt's village, they demanded what remained of the coin, and when they were told there was none left to be had, they took hostage the entire population of the village, saying that since the people there had profited from the stolen coin, they would repay the debt through indentured servitude.

"There was no one to stop them, although Pratt tried. He paid for his actions with his life," Marie said, her tone now very solemn indeed. "They executed him as a threat to the others. Men went to the mines and to road and wall construction, a job that routinely left a man dead within a year, if that. The women were sold into slavery, sometimes sexual slavery. The children were sent all about the West and even the east, also as slaves. Hell, some of them may have made it to the East. You could be one of them.

"No one really knows who exactly went where, and the entire population of the village was lost," Marie continued. She'd been staring thoughtfully into the fire but now looked up into Kavin's eyes. "All except for one. Pratt's little sister, who now would be a young woman ... is in that fucking castle."

She reached to her waist and removed a purse containing a majority of her current wealth. She tossed it through the air to Kavin, watching him catch it before she said, "Any you are going to get her out."

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin tossed the purse right back to Marie. Of course he was going to agree. If this girl was being held against her will, Kavin felt compelled to help, even without the prospect of his freedom and more on the line.

“We’re going to get her out, in exchange for my freedom and your help.”

Marie was resourceful, and she hadn’t killed him yet, so maybe she could help him recover Aen Lammen for Varatel’s Tomb.

“The reason I took this job was to find something in this area, and I want you to help me get it and bring it back east. You and the girl can come with me for all I care, and then we go our separate ways. No one should have to stay in this God-forsaken Valley.”

He was curious what she would say. This would tie them together longer than either of them wanted, but without his weapons, money, and equipment he hesitated to set out alone.

He was going to help either way, though, so as soon as she answered he would ask, “Would anyone on that island recognize you?”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“We’re going to get her out, in exchange for my freedom and your help.”

Well, that was unexpected: a mercenary declining pay for a job. Maybe he was the adventure driven Nobleman Marie thought him to be. Then he spoke of his reason for being in the West. Still, refusing the purse didn't fit, unless he was a noble -- lower case -- sort of sword for hire.

"You and the girl can come with me for all I care, and then we go our separate ways," Kavin continued. "No one should have to stay in this God-forsaken Valley.”

He wasn't wrong about that. Until and unless some well liked, well organized, benevolent man -- or woman? -- of power was able to get the other powerful men and women to follow him or her, the West would always be a barbaric land.

“Would anyone on that island recognize you?”

Marie cocked her head as if some dog hearing an unfamiliar sound, contemplating his reason for asking. It was pretty obvious Kavin intended for her to go inside. "No. I don't think so. Especially if..."

She stood and went to her other side of her horse, opening the saddle bags. A moment later, Marie came back around the horse, wearing a long, full, and curly wig. She smiled and struck a bit of a pose, asking playfully, "Hello, I'm Ingrid. Have we met?"

She laughed, removed the wig, and tossed it to Kavin as she returned to where she'd been sitting atop her still bound bedroll. "I stole that a couple of years ago from the wife of the Warlord I was robbing. I've used it a couple of times."

Marie studied him for a moment, then asked, "So what is this plan that's gonna get me caught, raped, and beheaded ... and am I going to like it?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin laughed. Was he actually starting to enjoy Marie’s company? She wasn’t so bad when she wasn’t pointing a sword at him. He decided to tell her as much.

“You should try not threatening to cut people’s balls off more often. It makes you seem almost pleasant,” he said with a smirk.

He did have the beginnings of a plan, but it still needed work.

Kavin patted the insignia on his armor. “The lord that hired us, Lord Torrell, he only has three sons, but no one out here would know that. I could masquerade as…” He put on the most pompous, overbearing lordly affect he could manage. It was a decent impression of his brother Darian. “Kavin Torrell, fourth son of Lord Torrell.” He went back to his normal voice and gestured to Marie. “Ingrid could be his wife, sister, betrothed, servant: whatever you think you can pull off.” Kavin just hoped it would work. “We’ll be there to do some diplomatic something or other. That’ll get inside. That’s all I have so far. What do you know about the Tranx? Their daily lives, I mean. How the castle works.”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“You should try not threatening to cut people’s balls off more often," Kavin said with a smirk. "It makes you seem almost pleasant.”

Marie laughed, at both the crudeness of his comment and the misbelief that she could ever stop being the person who threatens such things. "My father always told me to be who I be."

Kavin explained a portion of his plan, asking, “What do you know about the Tranx? Their daily lives, I mean. How the castle works.”

Marie began describing the security of Island Tranx, and she could see Kavin's mind working around the situation. "There are two docks, both of which are guarded day and night by two men, sometimes more. The man who calls himself Lord Tranx and his family ... his second wife and his five loyal as fuck sons, they all live in the house in the middle of the island. They are guarded by at least 20 men, again, day and night.

"The stone keep at the island's north end, that's where Melanie, Pratt's sister, is held," Marie continued, the emotion of recalling her deceased lover returning to her. She drew a deep breath and released it, saying with obvious despair, "The Keep is where Lord Tranx has always kept his mistresses ... to separate his ... interactions with them from those that involved his wife. I'm sure ... I'm sure ... Melanie has been forced."

It was hard for Marie to envision the innocent young woman she'd known and with whom she'd begun to find a sisterly love forced into sexual servitude for Lord Tranx. The man had a reputation in regards to his sexual partners; he was dominant, overbearing, even brutal and cruel. Had Melanie been subjected to this horror? Would their be any innocence left if the girl by now?

"A man I spoke to recently about the island..." she continued, not explaining that that talk had occurred while the cock of the man in question was slowly softening within Marie after finding its euphoric joy, "says Lord Tranx keeps most of his men in the Keep, so that they don't stink up his and his wife's home. That would be a problem, except that this informant of mine also told me that more often than not, those men not on duty are drunk as fuck or in bed with a half dozen slits kept on the main floor of the keep for their pleasure. It's a long boat and horse ride to the nearest brothel, after all.

"So ... ten or more men in the Keep, unless their is a reason for them to leave it," Marie said, wondering whether or not Kavin was already working on some sort of diversion, "And ten or less men in the Great House, along with possibly five sons who would give their lives to save their father's. Melanie is kept in the large tower on the second and third floors, with a servant who departs when Lord Tranx comes to visit."

To visit, of course, was a subtler way of saying to get his cock wet, which for all Marie knew hadn't yet begun but, likely, had.

She studied Kavin a moment, finally asking, "So ... ideas?"

 

[Nouh_Bdee]

Kavin paused in thought. This was quite the puzzle. Two people had no chance against nearly thirty in open conflict. They would have to find a way to avoid conflict as much as possible.

“We’re going to need all of them drunk. Maybe drugged.”

They would need to sell some of their spoils to buy what they would need. How to avoid getting drunk themselves, though… Maybe there was something Kavin could think of to help with that.

“This Torrell lordling says he’s visiting the West, and has heard all about the Tranx as refined, regal nobility, right? So he shows up asking for hospitality, and he brought booze. What do the Tranx say to that? Do they let him in?”

If they did, that would be one obstacle overcome.

“He could hint to Lord Tranx that he enjoys a few violent delights, maybe gain an invitation to the tower?”

Then would come the hard part, because Kavin wasn’t satisfied with just getting Melanie out. That would almost be easy. They could jump into the river once they had her and disappear. A garrison of drunks wouldn’t be able to find them. That would be harder to do with the added half dozen slits who also needed rescuing.

Having all the men drunk/drugged would be vital. “You might have to pretend to offer yourself for the men in the keep as extra entertainment, along with the tainted distillates, of course.”

 

[MarieDavisRPs]

“We’re going to need all of them drunk. Maybe drugged.”

"My favorite kind of man is a drunk man," Marie replied, not saying anything that wasn't pretty much true. It was so much easier to take advantage of a man who was simultaneously horny for her and blitzed out of his mind on booze.

Kavin explained his idea, asking, "What do the Tranx say to that? Do they let him in?”

"They will," she said without hesitation. "Lord Tranx is not the type of man to let an opportunity pass him up. If he thinks you have something to offer him, he'll let you on his island, in his home ... hell, he'll let you fuck one of his daughters if he thinks he'd going to profit."

She watched for a reaction from Kavin at that last thought, then informed him, "Yes, in addition to all those boys who will kill for him, he has four daughters who will fuck for him, even the older three who are each already married, two of them with children. But ignoring that, continue, please."

“You might have to pretend to offer yourself for the men in the keep as extra entertainment," Kavin warned Marie, finishing, "along with the tainted distillates, of course.”

"I said Lord Tranx had a lineup of cheap pussy, not us," she countered, throwing a now-stripped rabbit bone through the air at his head. "But ... I'll make sure to make the appropriate men think I might be available if it comes to that."

Marie stared past the small fire at Kavin for a moment, a slight devilish smirk on her lips. She dug her fingertips into the dirt near her ass to remove the grease from the hare she'd been eating, then wiped the dirt off on the back of her trousers. Standing, she circled the fire toward Kavin as she eyed him steadily, coming to a stop with a boot on either side of the man's knee.

"What makes you think that Lord Tranx's men would have even the slightest interest in me," she asked as she was unbuckling her belt and pushing her trousers and underwear down together. She bared herself from her waist to the tops of her boots, midcalf, then lowered to sit upon Kavin's own thighs. As she reached for his own belt, her intention to bare him similarly, then mount herself upon the cock she presumed would be hard by then, she told him, "I think for this plan to work, we have to know whether I have what a man wants ... don't you?"