The Conquered Amazon

[thegibe]

OOC: This is a closed thread between Pywakit and myself.



Many thousands of years ago, when legends were real, there lived a people known as the Amazons. Situated between the Hyrcanian (Caspian) and Euxine (Black) Seas, these people were isolated, powerful, and highly unique. For you see, women ruled the Amazons - and women only. Men had only two roles in their society - slaves when captured through war, and the means of prolonging their civilization.

Through their many conquests and campaigns the Amazons flourished, and their stories both frightened and intrigued menfolk of other lands. Warriors nearly unmatched, cold and fearless - they were also the epitome of exotic beauty. Men were in such small population in their culture they barely existed; in fact, the only men who did mingle with them were used as sex slaves. Male children were either killed or sent away - only females could truly be citizens.

The Amazonian civilization - among others - is at its zenith. The feral and mysterious warrior-women spread rumor throughout the land of their persistant conquest. Tanais is one of these lands. Situated on the Northwestern edge of the Lake of Palus Maeotis (Sea of Azov), where the Tanae River delta drains in, Tanais is a small and relatively influential kingdom. Governed by King Paelus the Gentle, it is a kingdom ruled by justice and peace. It's army is small, led by the General Damon ex Nikolos.

This is the kingdom the Amazons have set their eyes on. Already a small contingent has been sent out to scout the area, led by a tribal queen, and through the information provided by its spies, Paelus has sent out his man to meet them.

* * *​

General Damon ex Nikolos was a powerful man. In his mid-thirties, he was powerfully built - at the height of his warrior physique - and was looked up to and respected by most men in the lands. Known as being a brilliant military strategist and warrior, he was also thought of as fair and steady. Both a good man and the king's right hand, he was influential and had most of the pleasures that the small yet wealthy kingdom of Tanais had to offer.

But he had no wife, nor any mistress of the sort. No woman, no fair damsel who had flung herself at him, had yet to appeal to him. However, some inner seer, told him this would change soon.

* * *​

The forest in this area was thick, wild, and General Damon ex Nikolos did not find it to his liking. Reaching up, he ran his tanned fingers through his short blonde hair, his clear blue eyes staring intently. For two fortnights he and his men had been out here, acting on vague information provided by their foreign spies.

For two fortnights his men - about tenscore of them - had wondered every night the same question - would tonight be the night they would be slain in their beds by the demon women? But that night had not come.

Warrior's intuition had informed Damon that the battle was fast approaching. His heart, in fact, beat faster this day. He could feel the conflict in his heart - he knew it would be today. And he laid his plans.

Clustered in a grove, the general sat on horseback amongst only onescore of his men - his best cavalry. The rest lie in wait. Casting a smiling gaze about his men, he smiled slightly trying to quell their looks of rising fear. The forest was deadly silent. Although Damon felt something of a tremor in his own heart, he overlooked it. Standing straightbacked and proud, the general cut a commanding figure on his white warhorse. His leather armor covered by finely-wrought plate mail and helmet plumed with scarlet-dyed horse hair only accentuated his muscular physique. The saber at his sword was deadly sharp, and his gauntleted hand fingered the hilt casually.

Soon, the instinct told him, soon.

 

[Pywakit]

Myranda

Queen Myranda grinned as she watched the foolish men go about the business of readying their campsite. They had chosen one of the sacred clearings to do so, and it had taken every ounce of Myranda's resolve to resist calling the attack when her scouts had first found the campsite. No... it was best to let them sit for a day. Now that the men had time to grow nervous and distracted, the time for attack was drawing near.

Myranda took a strip of leather from her pouch and tied back her fierice array of brilliant red braids; no need for them to get in the way in the battle to come. She checked her leather armor to make sure it was all in place. Whereas the men below wore cumbersome metal suits for armor, Myranda and her women opted for quickness and agility. They fought with long daggers and bows, were experts at the skirmish. Armor could do you little good against warriors like her women, trained to strike with such precision that the narrowest of chinks in a suit of plate might as well have been a gaping hole.

She whistled, the sound mimicing the hunting cry of a raptor, but her women knew what it meant. It was dusk, and in the dying light of the day's sun, these intruders would soon pay the price for their actions.

Yet something nagged at Myranda. Something seemed strange about their campsite, but she wasn't sure what it was. It was almost as if the men below were too complacent, as if even though they knew to expect trouble, they simply didn't care.

She shook her head, then dipped her fingers into the warpaint and applied the streaks of red and gold and black to her face to match the streaks in her braids. She took a deep breath , drew her daggers, and let loose a primal shriek of rage. The battle was on!

 

[thegibe]

General Damon ex Nikolos

Even as the general finally found himself beginning to relax, finally beginning to think that they would endure yet another sleepless night in this infernal forest, he heard the battlecry rent the still air.

A woman's voice, that much was obvious, and it was soon joined by many more. An imperceptable shiver swept through the men, and their faces became grave, subconsiously huddling closer together. The Amazons came on.

They were a sight to behold. How many score of them, the general could not immediately discern - but there were enough. Dressed in only leather armors (if that), they would have been silent on soft feet if it werent for their piercing cries. The horses milled nervously, one even rearing up on it's hind legs.

Damon's sword sang as he unsheathed it, leaping forth like a tongue of flame. Waving it around his head, he shouted his own battle cry.

"Death on the wind, men! Death on the wind!"

His men joined in, their voices ringing through the clearing, mingling with the Amazonian's.

The light and nimble warrior-women quickly flitted through the cavalry, their slender knives piercing like wasps throughout the throng. An arrow whizzed by Damon's horse, miraculously finding it's way through the joints of his lieutenant's armor. The man let loose a cry of pain, though he grasped the arrow and tore it forth. Smashing the arrow between his teeth, he roared as his mace crashed down on an Amazon attempting to pull him from his steed. With the sound of a crushing mellon, she fell to the ground, never to rise.

A dark-haired beauty assailed the general, and he found himself hard pressed to fend her off. Dispite the battlelust he was being overcome by, he could not help but notice the way her breasts were barely concealed by the scrap of clothing he wore. Damon felt a pang of remorse as he knocked her cold with the flat of his blade.

Peering through the enemy during a brief lull after this, one woman caught his eye. While most of the Amazons were dark haired, this one had hair of fire, though it was dull compared to that which burned in her eyes. Years of experience marked her as their commander. Waving his sword once more, he shouted his battlecry.

"Death on the wind!"

 

[Pywakit]

Myranda

Myranda was lost in a red haze... her battle lust. She knew it well. In battle, things seemed at once completely chaotic and impossibly ordered. She saw her sisters falling under the iron weapons the men wielded, but she saw men falling as well, blood flowing from chinks in their armor where arrows or long, thin knives had kissed. The battle was evenly matched, she realized. Something needed to happen to even the odds.

She saw him then, bearing down on her on a great white warhorse. He had about him an obvious air of command, and Myranda realized this was the leader of the men. She knew if she could bring him down, the men would be broken. It all seemed so simple. She roared a challenge to the man, tightened her grip on her twin daggers, and charged him.

And suddenly, things upended all around her. SHe wasn't sure what was going on, only that her stomach was in her throat, the sky was below her feet, and then she landed on her back. The wind knocked from her lungs, she tried to stand but the man, the leader, was there. As she tried to roll aside, one of the horse's metal-shod hooves swung up and struck her. There was light, and then only darkness.

 

[thegibe]

General Damon ex Nikolos

The Amazon leader might have interpreted his shout as a challenge - but it wasn't. It was the signal.

Throughout the whole ordeal, despite the infiltration of the light-fooded Amazons, the cavalry had managed to stay together, stay within certain boundries. And suddenly - after Damon's shout - trip wires sprang up from the ground, lacing between them. After that appeared Tanais's main forces - about ninescore infantry men. Rushing from who knows where - some even dropping from trees, the footbound men quickly overran the Amazons.

Armed mainly with maces, the soldiers took prisoners, not lives. In the case of noncapitulation (which amounted to nearly every case), the Amazons were knocked unconcious, then bound.

As Damon had charged the fiery-haired leader, she had fallen to a trip wire, and after briefly attempting to rise was knocked unconsious by the general's warhorse. Dismounting, he checked her pulse to make sure she wasn't dead, before binding her hands and feet himself. A quick gaze about the scene told him the easy fact - the Amazons were finished.

His efficient men were already either pushing the women into line, or carrying them to caged wagons which had been driven forward during the battle - preparing for the march home. Damon turned his glance to the captive leader as his lieutenant appeared, bandages covering his torso.

 

[Pywakit]

Myranda

A noise finally made it through the blackness. It was the low, rumbling sound of deep voices in conversation. Mens' voices. Myranda tensed her body, ready to leap into action as soon as she woke, but in so doing a lance of pain shot through her body. She moaned, more from shock than actual pain, and immediately hated herself for displaying such foolish weakness. She tried to open her eyes and failed. They seemed glued shut. She tried again, and this time succeeded.

The first thing she noticed was the bars of the cage she was in. A combination of rage and humiliation filled her as she looked around the straw-covered cage wagon she found herself in. She tried to sit up, but her arms and legs were tied and she could barely move. The voices were coming from a pair of men nearby; she recognized one of them as the general she'd tried to attack... what... a few minutes ago? An hour? How long had she been out? No matter. She had to focus now on escaping her bonds, then this cage, and then she'd have her red revenge. For now, she lay perfectly still, straining to hear what the men were talking about.

 

[Breath of Air]

(Ack, sorry, didn't see it was private. Ignore my stupidness, lol.)

 

[thegibe]

General Damon ex Nikolos

OOC: No worries.


The march back to the city would take three days from the site of the battle - and two of them had already passed. Most of the Amazons were proving to be a major obstacle. They were disobediant, fiery, and violent. Already two had escaped their bonds and attacked their captors - those had been killed, as an example. Although Damon had discouraged this, he could not stop his men in all cases.

"So, General, what do you think will be done with all of them?" his lieutenant was asking, gesturing towards the group of captives they had obtained.

Damon shrugged slightly, eyeing them. "Slaves, most likely. They'll have to be broken hard into submission, but my guess is they'll go for a lot of silver. After all, even if they are evil little beasts, who wouldn't want something like that?" He gestured to the beautiful women.

The lieutenant smiled slightly. "I suppose you're right. Oh, by the way, will you be taking any? You've got first choice of course - it was your victory!"

Damon responded in his usual manor out of habit, "It was our victory." But he considered the man's words nonetheless.

His eyes strayed to the leader once more. Something about her was immensely appealing to him, some kind of inner drive he couldn't place. Almost like his warrior instincts, in fact. Perhaps he would request her when they stopped at his manor in a few hours time...

 

[Pywakit]

Myranda

Myranda looked up at the massive manor house they were approaching, although she couldn't really make much sense out of the whole thing. The trees in the yard... they seemed so... ordered! Not as if they grew where seeds fell, but as if they grew in lines with the house. And the strange bushes around the house, squared at the edges almost like walls.

She tossed her hair and looked back at the man she knew now was the leader of this group. He was talking with someone at the head of the line of cages and wagons that he'd been leading for days through the countryside. Myranda had seen strange things along her journey from the forest into these civilized lands, but she had remained silent the whole time. Always before, the caravan had stopped only at nightfall, and guards had been placed at the cages. She'd seen several of her women violated, and a few were killed as they had tried to escape. She had marked the faces of those men well. They would pay. Eventually, they would pay.

This leader, though, the one who even now was glancing at her and pointing at her as he spoke to this other man... he would suffer a specific fate. He had not violated any of Myranda's women, nor had he beaten them. He had, in fact, stopped several of the men from taking advantage over the last few days. Myranda felt sure he did this for some reason other than honor... how could anyone who lived in a place like this know anything of honor?

Now the two men were approaching her cage. She sat up as best she could under the shackles and manacles, determined not to show weakness to this man. She may have been captured, but she was still a queen.

 

[thegibe]

General Damon ex Nikolos

"You're sure about this, General?"

Damon heaved an inward sigh, glancing at his lieutenant with whom his patience was beginning to run thin. "Yes, Drakma, I am. Now stop pestering me about it."

"But, Sire, forgive me for pressing you but - don't you think the king will disprove? She is their leader - he will want to interrogate her!"

"The king will not cross me, Drakma, I know this. I will discover what information I can and send by messenger, that will be good enough for him. Do not forget who truly weilds the power in this country, Lieutenant. I command the army, Paelus knows this. She will come with me, along with two others of my choice. I have made my decision - quiet your doubts!"

With that, the general rode away from the lieutenant, who was still shaking his head dubiously. His doubts were, after all, well founded. Of all the captives Damon could have selected as his own, he chose their leader. Why? He could not completely decide, but he flet as though he were doing what he must.

The night before, he had selected two other Amazons - two beautiful dark haired women, apparently healers. Damon called a guard towards him, and instructed the leader to be brought before him.

Gazing down at the conquered Amazon, he addressed her at last. "Tell me, Lady, do you understand our language?"

 

[Pywakit]

Myranda

Myranda looked back at him at first. For a moment, she considered not replying to his question. By pretending to not understand his words, she could perhaps cause him to lower his guard. She could listen and learn what he spoke of in her presence. But then she saw that he was more than a simple soldier. This one was smart, and observant. When she spoke, her voice was low and threatening.

"Yes. I do speak your tongue. Enough to tell you this, at least. You may have defeated me with your treachery and traps. But know that I, Myranda, Fire Queen and Hunt Mistress, have not forgotten what you have done to my sisters or myself. You had best fill me with arrows now, before I escape from this cage and cut you from groin to gullet."