The Fall of a Kingdom (closed for kittenofdeath)

[SnowHeart]

The wind rustled the branches of the forest, an overcast of grey clouds rolling over the vast green expanses of the kingdom of the Elves. Not a very well known race, being very reclusive and rarely being seen outside of their forests if ever. That's not to say that they never left, they were just skilled in sticking to the shadows and out of sight. The race of Elves were quick, quiet and deadly. Unfortunately, they were also a very proud and arrogant race. Part of the reason they never left their forest was because they believed themselves to be better than the other races, a view which had become well-known outside of their forests to the other races of the world. Humans, goblins, halflings, orcs...all knew of the pride of the elves. Some of the more nefarious of those races, goblins in particular, sought to take advantage of that fact. Though it is a story for another time, there were plans being hatched in the deep, dark places of the world that involved taking advantage of that arrogance. Then again, there were plans for taking advantage of any sort of negative trait that a race may possess, but each of those plans deserved a time of their own which has yet to come.

As for the humans...their greatest, and only, strength was in their versatility. That said, they were lacking in anything that really made them stand out as beneficial, though their negatives weighed in rather heavily. Xenophobia was primary, as well as the need to rule over their fellow humans. Kingdoms rose and fell, and then rose again from the ashes of a previous kingdom. They all seemed to burn, set ablaze only by the fires of their own greed and hatred. The cycle always began again, and this time a highly militarial government had taken seat, crushing anything that stood between it and total control of the region. They destroyed villages, towns and keeps, even churches and various Holy Orders broke before their onslaught. Once it owned the region, the regime set its gaze on the world. So far, they had yet to push out of the territory that they owned, kept in check by the various races of the world - mostly the orcs of the west and the dwarves of the east. A great river ran through the center of their territory, which helped move supplies to their forward military camps. It forked in the middle of the capital, which many believed to be the center of the continent and well-prized for its hold of the region and ability to move troops and supplies rapid through its three forks to the west, east and south. The river came from the mountains to the north, which held the woodland realm of the elves at its base. The mountains belonged to the goblins, for none had been able to break that bunker of an underground kingdom.

To the south was a great desert where the river ran deep into the earth, where none have gone and returned from. Various nomadic tribes roamed the deserts, horse lords and feudal kings claiming "territory" and constantly killing each other in a never ending war that barely rated a sidebar most of the time. The barbarians were always killing each other, who cared about the desert? They would exterminate themselves eventually, and they never seemed to leave that forsaken place. At least, that's what was believed.

Back in the great forests of the north, however, is where our story begins with a group of elves on a routine patrol of the goblin border. The elven kingdom had an uneasy ceasefire for the time being with the goblins so they could keep closer tabs on the outcropping of human power from the south. The group of elves had scouted this route hundreds of times to the point where they had grown complacent, walking in almost the same footsteps they had each time they had passed through. Now would be the time where something would slip by. Or, perhaps, they would walk into an ambush that could have been avoided had they not been so careless. The three of them, two men and a woman, walked into their last patrol of these forests. For the men, it would be their last moments on this earth. For the woman, it would be her final moments as part of the kingdom of the elves. None of them knew, all the way up to the point where they were caught by a weighted net that pinned them to the ground. A quick assault knocked them all unconscious, and while two of them would never wake again, the third would soon find herself in a dark corner of the woods surrounded by a group of four goblins.

Snow felt slow and groggy, her eyes blinking to try gathering some semblance of what had just happened. Standing at full height, she was roughly six feet tall, weighed around fifty kilograms and was rather blessed in her feminine features with long legs, smooth skin and D-cup breasts. Her blonde hair passed her shoulders and she had eyes the color of nature's deep green. All she could remember was walking their normal route, one they had practically memorized. Then there was a great weight forcing her to the ground, then nothing but darkness. She shook her head, her eyes finally opening completely. She was looking down at the ground and found that she could move her arms. She was kneeling on the grass, and she noticed rather quickly that she was lacking her gear. All of it. She was kneeling on the ground in nothing but her underclothes that barely covered her, but at least they had thrown some kind of blanket over her. Probably just wanted to make sure she didn't have any tricks up her sleeves. She turned her green orbs upwards to try understanding what was going on, and then she spotted them: Goblins. What happened to the ceasefire?! She looked around for her comrades but couldn't spot them. She did see her gear over by a cluster of tents. A longbow with a quiver of feathered arrows, her curved sword and pair of curved daggers, and her leaf-green camouflaged leather outfit.

Snow struggled to stand, but noticed that her arms were tied behind a post behind her, and her ankles were likewise bound. She gritted her teeth, eyes filling with rage for her captors. "You will pay for this trechery," she muttered, much to the amusement of the goblins nearby. They didn't seem to be paying her much attention, they were standing around a table with some form of map on it. The young ranger took this opportunity to look around the small clearing they were in, trying to plan an escape. She needed to break her bonds first, then needed to get to her equipment. If she could just get to her sword or her bow, she stood a high chance of killing them. Goblins weren't all that skilled in individual combat, they were more in he business of running down and grouping up on their enemies. Even so, she could handle four lowly goblins. She did her best to feel out her bindings, electing to start with the ankles first. Luckily, she could reach her ankle bindings with her fingers and it made it much easier to begin undoing them. The pole didn't seem that high, she could very likely vault off of it without removing her wrist bindings if she just had her legs free.

She just hoped that the goblins were too absorbed in their planning to notice her.

 

[kittenofdeath]

It all came down to money, without money nothing could be achieved in this world, if one wanted found themselves without it, then they faced a daunting uphill battle to accomplish anything. Van found himself in such a situation, he desired the current government, who had only established themselves via a bloody coup and were a blight on the land, to be destroyed. This, obviously takes a whole lot of money, far far more money than Van currently possessed, or had ever seen for that matter, hell, Van struggled to keep himself fed these days, financing a revolution just wasn’t on the cards.

You see Van was, or if you ask him is, a paladin, a holy warrior of the god Vaulten, a god whose worship was outlawed on threat of death when the high priest refused to bow down to the new regime, a threat they were deadly serious on, and with the Vaultenites being a relatively small, and somewhat unpopular, religion in the human world, it didn’t take much to gut the core of the faith, destroying the gods power base on the mortal coil and in turn stripping it of the power to aid his followers in their time of need.

And thus Van found himself far from the heart of human civilisation, preaching the word of Vaulten where he could, laying the seeds of a rebellion when he had the chance, and searching out old tombs, bandit camps and non human enclaves he could raid and plunder, after all, it all came down to money in the end.

Van cursed the forest around him, traversing it in plate armour was not the most effective way, and even for a seasoned campaigner such as himself wearing the bulky gear for so long was unpleasant. He focused inward as he trudged forward, feeling out the tiny spark of warmth within him, the one last link to his lord he had left, it brought him solace in the dark times despite its inability to flare in the the raging pyre of holy might it used to be. However just as he was beginning to feel it, a noise snapped him away, at first he was furious, how dare someone interrupt him, but then he felt a hope rise in him, clearly this was a sign.

The sign was that he was about to be ambushed. A weighted net dropped from above him, stopping him cold in his tracks as a small horde of goblins rushed out from the trees with crude weapons clutched in their grimy little hands. Van tried to draw his sword, but he could barely get the long blade half way out of its scabbard with the net in the way, and as much as it shamed him, he knew this would not be a battle he would with with just his might. The first strike was from a rusty machete, it did nothing to him, but he doubled over regardless as though it had been a telling blow, an act he continued with all the following hits, his armour protected him from any real harm, he just had to protect his head until the right moment.

One of the Goblins held a club that was little more than a hefty stick, perfect, Van continued to poorly block everything they threw at him, until the little bastard with the club decided to take a swing at his head. He dropped his guard and took it, the attack barely drew blood, but Van was sent to the floor by it, eyes closed and unmoving.

One of the goblins cautiously prodded him with a spear, luckily too stupid to avoid the armour plating, and when Van failed to respond after a few attempts, the Goblins broke in to revelry, they had dropped a big prize and were going to be rewarded well. Van of course, was faking it, they uncovered him and then he let them drag his limb body along, truth be told it wasn’t that much worse than walking, and he had the benefit of knowing that he was being taken to an enemy encampment unrestrained, and with his sword only a meter away being held by some puny Goblin he could break with his mailed fist.

Van couldn’t help the slight grin that formed at the side of his mouth, a goblin camp didn’t have much in the way of supplies he could take, but boy would it be fun burning it and them to the ground.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow kept her head down, doing her best to look like she passed out again. One upside about the situation was that the way they tied her up prevented them from seeing her hands. The only other upside was that she was still breathing, and the pain in the back of her skull told her she was still alive. She played back the patrol over and over again in her mind, trying to find out where they had gone wrong. But the more she thought about it, the more she had trouble finding out what they did right. She grimaced and winced as her head rang sharply. She was going to kill whichever goblin hit her very slowly and very painfully. Her companions had said specifically that they had run that route dozens of times at this point, and they would notice anything out of the ordinary. Well, apparently they hadn't noticed the trap they walked right into. She would have to find out what happened to them after she was free and those goblins were dead. This camp had more tents and gear than for just four goblins, so it was likely that there were more of them around somewhere, maybe out catching more elves. Not like there would be any other races this deep in the woods, right?

She felt around with her feet, looking for something sharp nearby to help her cut her bonds. A rock with a particular edge poked her, so she wrapped her feet around it and lifted it up. Too far back for her fingers to reach. She popped the rock up in the air a few inches into her waiting fingers, then she set to work cutting the ropes holding her down. They were just strong enough to prevent her from straight-out snapping them, but they seemed to be old and easily cut. Leastways, she made her way through them quickly enough. They were on the edge of the forest, from what she could gather, though she wasn't familiar with this particular neck of the woods. That was unusual, since she had walked these paths since she was a child. No matter, all she needed to do when she was done here was do some recon to find out if there were more camps like these and, if so, where they were. They needed to quash this rebellion here and now before it spilled into the deeper parts of the forest. Not that the goblins would do well once they were within the forest's inner deep and dark. If you get lost in these woods, you will never find your way again without help from those who walked those paths for ages. And those people, the Elvish kind, did not take kindly to trespassers in their domain.

Snow felt a breeze roll through the clearing, blowing the thin blanket off of her and leaving her exposed once again. She sighed internally, just one more thing to go wrong. The rock cut through the bindings on her feet and then she slowly began working on her wrists. It was about that moment that her long ears flicked and she noted an approaching group along with what sounded like a sack of metal being drug around. They were around the corner a short ways, but would be there momentarily. In her rush to free herself, she dropped her rock. Another sigh, and she reached for it again just as the group came around a bend in the road, dragging what looked like a suit of armor behind them. One of the goblins had a fairly large sword which he would have been able to use even if he tried. It was fairly amusing to see it, actually. Snow stopped moving then, letting herself slump over again and appear to be unconscious. The goblins brought in the suit of armor, which she could now see contained a man. A human man. What a human was doing here was completely lost to the young ranger, but she wasn't overly concerned with it at the moment. She needed to free herself, kill these goblins and then-

"What do you think you're doing?" Asked a thick, disgustingly sharp voice from behind her.

Her eyes snapped open and she glanced over her shoulder in time to see the rock kicked out of her hands and several meters away. A filthy, brutish goblin was behind her and had noticed her escape attempt. He planted a foot against her to stop her from moving, then grabbed a handful of her hair and yanked her head back sharply. She winced at the pain, and her eyes burned with fury. The goblin peeked around at her, then slid her eyes over her tied form.

"Trying to escape, are we?" It rumbled. "Maybe we should have some fun with her and then end her, huh boys?" He called out to the group. There were cheers and they all seemed distracted, pretty much ignoring the metal sack of human they had been dragging just moments before. They approached her, a dozen goblins, their hands reaching out for her soft skin and golden hair. She gritted her teeth, furious that she was so helpless. They closed in around her and she cried out in frustration. She did not, however, beg nor plead. She wouldn't give them the reaction they wanted. Not today. She gathered herself, preparing her last attempt at freeing herself - this time by force. The brute behind her stepped around, his other hand reaching out to grasp her luscious orbs contained within their thin fabric. As soon as she felt the first finger touch her skin, her eyes snapped open and she swung her free legs around. Her shin slammed into the goblins head in a beautiful cross kick, even more impressive that she made the kick from a kneeling position. She wasn't going down without a fight. She twisted her body, using the gathered momentum from sending the goblin flying to snap the pole holding her in half.

The goblins were moving on her in that exact moment, however.

 

[kittenofdeath]

Goblins were disgusting creatures, without a doubt the worst part of being dragged along by them was the smell, the incessant chattering in their high yet gravely voices was annoying, but the smell, god the smell, it was like the very idea of bathing was foreign to them. It took a considerable amount of willpower on Vans part not to slaughter the tiny green abominations in the hope that the carrion stench of their insides would drown out the ground in funk that surrounded them like a miasma. But Van was a higher form of life then them, falling to such baser desires because of them would have been a insult, so he ignored it as best he could, reciting his lord prayer in his mind over and over again to bar it from his senses.

Before long his patience was rewarded, and his 'captors' unwittingly delivered him to their camp, another few moments for them to disperse a little and he would spring in to action to slay them all. But just as he was about to lunge at the one holding his sword, he heard one of the goblins speak in a much sharper and alerted tone. He cracked one of his eyes open, the little sliver of vision only getting him a blurry view of the commotion, which appeared to be another captive who had been caught trying to escape, that would prove an excellent distraction.

And then he was dropped to the floor, the hit to the head he let through earlier hadn’t been a hard blow, but hit still wasn’t pleasant hitting the same spot on the ground, these goblins were going to end up very, very dead for that. By the sounds of things the prisoner was female, and goblins being the crude and vulgar creatures they were, had some rather unbecoming plans for her, but, they were in fact very distracting plans, so much so that Van was able to stand, retrieve his sword from the ground where it had been abandoned in favour of a goblin getting its hands on the womans body, and survey the scene before him.

The woman was fast and agile, but unarmed, and her hands were bound behind her back, and there were a great many goblins grasping at her, she made a good showing of it, but it wasn’t long before she succumbed to the numerous green bodies dog piling her to the ground, all of them hooting and hollering as goblin sized clothes and strips of torn fabric from the womans garments were quickly thrown from the pile. Van walked up behind one of the few goblins not in the pile and cleared his throat, his sword already at the ready, the goblin, too stupid to realise that all of its allies were in front of it, turned, staring stupefied at the armoured human before it for a moment.

Van watched at the confusion in its eyes turned to fear, a grim smile etched on his face, and just as a scream began to leave its mouth his sword sang through the air and removed the goblins head from its shoulders with one clean sweep.

As the goblins began franticly turning to see what was happening, Van launched in to action, moving with a practised speed and brutality as he cleaved though very goblin he could see. Some panicked and tried to run, some went for weapons, and some even charged him barehanded, and bare arsed in some cases, but even without the massive gap between his power and theirs, their having to start from the tangled positions atop their captive made it a simple task to just cut through them with impunity.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow let a few elbows fly and even headbutted one of them before she was overpowered and forced to the ground. Hard, ugly green cocks started to appear in front of her as the goblins took off their clothes. Her own clothing, brief as it was, was torn apart and thrown away so she was now completely nude in front of them. She was now pinned under them with her arms still tied behind her and her legs being held spread so she was completely on show for them. Some of the goblins had already started to stroke their cocks and clamber onto her, one of them pulling her hair to try shoving his cock into her mouth, the swollen and bulbous head pressing against her full, soft lips. She did her best to keep her mouth closed, but when she felt one of them climb between her legs and start to press himself against her other lips, she gasped and her mouth opened. Their hooting and hollering made it seem like several of them were about to cum already just from feeling her soft, nude elven body. Thankfully, before they could actually get their cocks into her and violate her body, there was another scream from behind all of them. This scream was different; instead of being a horny scream it was a scream of terror that was cut off with a gargle, then a head slowly rolled passed her.

Heads snapped around and the goblins, for the most part, moved on from their prey and onto their aggressor. A pair of goblins continued to feel up her body, paying particular attention to her round, heavy breasts. She growled at them and brought a knee up into one of their heads, knocking him unconscious. The other squealed, noticing that he was suddenly alone in his attention to her, and tried to run only to be cut down by the sack of metal from earlier. Snow turned to look over towards him as he towered above the pathetic goblins and cut them down easily. A fallen goblin dropped a dagger nearby, which the elf proceeded to roll across the grass to and snatch up. She rolled to her feet and into the cover of the forest on the edge of the clearing. Once out of sight, she cut the bindings on her wrists and moved quickly to where she spotted her gear earlier. She snatched her longbow and fired an arrow into a pair of goblins who were about to enter into the treeline opposite the clearing, but the human from earlier seemed perfectly able to handle the rest of them. She vanished back into the forest with her gear, swiftly sliding on her clothing and fastening her chestpiece. She was, however, lacking her underclothing, which left her skirt feeling a little breezier than normal. She strapped on her blades and secured her daggers, then slipped her quiver over her shoulder and peered back into the clearing with her bow in her hands and an arrow on the string already.

Things seemed to have calmed down, goblins being on the ground missing various body parts or with massive lacerations across their chests. Her eyes fell towards the ground as she crossed the clearing to pull her arrow out of the goblins on the other side. She felt violated, the taste of the goblins cock and precum still fresh on her lips. She wiped them off and took a drink of water from her flask. She walked over to where she had been held down, drawing her curved blade and cutting off the head of the goblin she had knocked unconscious in one smooth motion, then sheathing her blade again. They paid with their lives for their treachery, just as she said they would, but it was not by her hand. She sighed and turned to the human from earlier. She could not believe that she was about to do this, but the honor of her people compelled her. Something like this hadn't happened for an age. The young ranger made her way to the human, offering him a gentle smile. She crossed her hand over her chest and bowed before him.

"Thank you for your assistance, sir knight," she started, looking back up to him for a moment, then lowering herself to one knee. "You have saved my life. As honor commands, my life is now yours."

A life debt to a human. A human male, at that. What would the others say if they could see her now? A life debt was a promise of servitude until released from her oath, and it was a limitless debt. He could ask her for literally anything and she would comply. Not without her own fair share of complaining or comment, of course, but still. Life debts were normally between elves, but they were not restricted to just their race. Although, she had never heard of a life debt to anyone other than an elf. The young ranger turned her green eyes to look upwards at the human she had just sworn herself to. "My life and skills are yours to command," she finished. Now hopefully he didn't ask her to do anything demeaning, like wear a collar, which she had seen once before. Not that she was too terribly opposed to the idea. Swearing a life debt provided a certain attachment to one's partner.

Regardless, she watched and waited for his response to the situation, on her knee in front of him.

 

[kittenofdeath]

It was a rote thing, fighting the goblins, literally the only part of his armour that they could penetrate with their piddly weapons was the helm, because he wasn’t wearing one, and keeping the opponents half his size form hitting him in the head was a laughably easy task, even with their numbers advantage. The melee was over within a minute, Van couldn’t guarantee that none of the foul little bastards had gotten away, but he could say with certainty that they wouldn’t be coming back to such a killing field any time soon. The one who did return though wasn’t what he had expected, an elf, a female elf, Van had met male elves before, haughty arseholes every one of them, but never had he seen a female elf.

Were they all that attractive?

He watched silently as she went about the task of retrieving her arrows and killing off the unconscious one, he was curious about her, but he was no fool and he stayed wary, his sword never leaving his hand even as she approached him, his hard eyes boring in to her and showing no signs of anything even close to weakness within them. He inwardly scoffed at her bowing and calling him 'sir knight', Van had been of notably non noble birth, but as she continued her decent to one knee, the blank mask of stoicism cracked in the form of one small raise of an eyebrow to betray his confusion, the elves he had met would sooner see him as an animalistic brute than something to prostrate oneself before.

And then he lost it completely, his head tilting to he side slightly as his jaw went a little slack, did she really just say what he thought she had said, surely she didn’t mean what he thought she meant, it was a simple cultural misunderstanding. Clearly when Van had met elves the concept of a life debt had never come up. “What?” He asked, starting to gather his wits about himself again “what do you mean mine to command, are you trying to swear some kind of oath of fealty to me or something?” Because what else would it be, the only other things he could think of was indentured servitude or slavery, neither of which his faith prohibited of course, it was just unusual for people to willingly enter either.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow sighed and rose slowly back to her feet. This was about what she expected.

"Yes. An elven life-debt is a oath of fealty, of sorts," she explained. How could she have expected a human to understand their customs? "If you have a request or command and it is within my ability to fulfill, I will see it through, regardless of what it is." Her green orbs turned towards him, offering him a smile. "Honor commands that I swear this oath to you as payment for my life. Since you saved it, it is yours until my life, or yours, ends." She left out that the life of an Elf was extremely long, so she would probably be serving him for the remainder of his life. Even if he turned her away, she would be forced to follow him and instead live as his second shadow.

She didn't even want to start on swearing the oath to a human. That had never happened before in recent memory, as far as she was aware. She didn't know if it had ever happened before, though she hadn't paid much attention to life-debts in the past. The young ranger hadn't expected to need saving in any way, shape or form. She shook her head and lowered her eyes. If only past her could see her now. Maybe she would have paid better attention to her surroundings. She shrugged and looked back up at him, waiting for a reaction or for him to say something. The wind picked up and blew through the clearing, tossling her hair and causing her clothing to gently whip about in the wind, particularly her short skirt. She reached up and brushed a stray lock of hair behind her long, elvish ear.

Snow took the time to look him over. He seemed just as rugged and arrogant-looking as every other human she had ever seen. His full plate armor and large sword seemed to say that he was a slow, hulking form of combatant. Just as she expected of a human, all strength and little finesse. Not as bad as the orcs, that is. They were all strength with no finesse or intelligence. She could nearly see the proverbial gears turning in the knight's head as she looked him over. On that note, she cast her gaze around the clearing. She couldn't let any of her people see her like this, swearing a life debt to a human of all things. How embarrassing. Better to let them think she was gone or dead than practically a slave to a human. Hopefully her thoughts on him changed over time, but for now...

The elf turned towards her new "master," crossed her arms under her breasts in her tight top and awaited his first command. The wind blew through the clearing again, causing her hair and gear to flutter.

 

[kittenofdeath]

This was a curious prospect, an elven life-debt... It could be incredibly useful, but as it was he knew too little, and Vans trust in others of his own species was minor at best, let alone someone from a completely different race, not to mention that said someone was getting a very raw deal from it all. Ok, Van would put the elf to use, as far as he could use her, but first he would need to test the waters of just how far she would go. “Ok then elf, I will accept your life-debt, on the condition that you pass a test.”

He brought his hand up to his chin and considered for a moment, devising his test in his mind “for the next few minutes, you wont move unless I tell you to, you wont talk unless I tell you to. If you question me in any way you fail, if you refuse to do anything I say, you fail, and if you fail, then my first and last order to you will be to go and beg on the streets of the capital until I say otherwise, which I never will.” Obviously, it was a very easy test to fail, and his order of going to beg in the capital was one he could never really enforce, if she wanted an easy out, this was it.

“Understood? Good, lets begin” he lodged his sword in to the ground and circled her, eyeing her like a temple initiate that had earned themselves chastisement, though as he did he couldn’t help looking at her curves and his gaze started to turn far more predatory, less an initiate and more a hunk of meat in a butchery “you will agree with everything I say, repeating it back to me as earnestly as you can, for example” he stopped in front of her, his face hardening once again in to an impassive mask as the test began “Elves are a pathetic race, and serving others is their only true calling.”

 

[SnowHeart]

A test? Perfect, he doubted her ability already. This spoke well for them going forward. Though, he was right to do so. She was fairly helpless before he came along. She would just need to do her best to prove herself in the coming years. Well, at least standing still and being silent was something she could do with relative ease. She wasn't particularly interested in begging on the streets of the human capital for the rest of her days, so listening to him was her plan of action. She didn't even consider that she could disobey his order when she was out of his sight, it was simply unheard-of for the debt she had sworn.

And so it was that she remained perfectly still, an immobile statue except for the wind rustling her long, blonde hair and clothing. She listened to his footfalls when he left her field of vision, feeling slightly self-conscious when she could tell he was looking at her form freely and openly. She sighed internally, but gave no other outward notice when he asked her to repeat after him. She figured that it would start like this, from what she knew of humans. Demeaning her and her kind was just the start, but she would let him think what he wanted. It wasn't her place to change his mind on these things. Not yet, anyway.

"Elves are a pathetic race, and serving others is their only true calling," she repeated earnestly, as if agreeing with a viewpoint she shared dearly.

Her eyes looked to her master, eagerly awaiting his next command. She had every intention of following his orders as well as she was capable regardless of what they were, since there was no thought of disobeying him that even fleetingly graced her thoughts. She watched the remained of the clearing using her peripheral vision without actually moving her head or eyes. Just because she needed to appear at attention didn't mean all of her attention needed to be focused in one place. She wasn't in the mood to be ambushed twice in one day.

 

[kittenofdeath]

To be truthful the tone of her voice surprised him, there wasn’t even a waver of hesitation or quiver of doubt in her voice despite the overwhelming likelihood that she thought what she was saying was a big, hot, steaming load of garbage as opposed to the truth she said it as though it were. He had been expecting some level disgust in her task, he didn’t think that she was going to refuse it but a glare as she said it or a more spiteful tone was what he thought would be the result. This was either a very good thing, or a very bad thing.

“Ok, very interesting, lets continue” and with that he began listing a number of other rather unpleasant statements, such as her lack of intelligence and how she felt when the goblins had been holding her down with their cocks out to say a few. Not to say he expected any resistance on her part, her first performance had been more than enough to show her resolve, or at least her skills as a liar, but it never hurt to be thorough. The last statement was different though, it wasn’t offensive or demeaning at all “you will stand there, unmoving, to the best of your ability” he waited a moment, letting her start to get out the repeated statement, then quickly closing the tiny gap between them and ramming his mailed fist in to her stomach, only pulling the strength from the blow at the last second to stop it from causing any real damage, but still leaving enough force in it to drive the wind from her and drop her to the floor if she didn’t move out of the way.

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow continued to repeat everything that he said just as eagerly as before, regardless of how demeaning or downright insulting it was. She was fairly seething on the inside, but there was little the human could say or do that would break her resolve. Even when she agreed that she couldn't wait and was eager to be fucked by all those goblin cocks from earlier like the elven slut she was. Her green eyes betrayed nothing, even though she was already devising ways to murder him in his sleep. Not that she would ever actually follow through with it; her honor prevented it and demanded that she follow through her life debt. What was she without her honor?

The last statement he offered for her to repeat was different, and she almost didn't realize it since she had just been mindlessly repeating everything he said to her. She started to repeat it, but was cut off midway when he closed the distance between them. Humans were slow, and this one was no different to the elf's eyes. She could have sidestepped the attack, but he had ordered her to remain still. And so she watched his armored fist slam into her stomach. He must have pulled his blow, since the leather she wore was enough to absorb most of the hit. It still drove the breath out of her and dropped her to her knees, waist-level with the human.

Snow's eyes turned up to look at him and she slowly rose to her feet. She had to admit that she hadn't expected him to go to the physical abuse so soon, but it matched what she expected of humans. Her breathing was instantly normal and she gave no indicatiom that the blow had affected her. Standing a mere foot away from him, her eyes shone with her resolve and she finished the statement. He would have to work harder to break her. Much harder.

 

[kittenofdeath]

The elf could take a hit, and was willing to, that was useful, all things considered this was starting to look like a rather fortuitous acquisition on his part, not that he had decided to trust the little non human before him nor her claims about this 'life debt', but even if it did turn to ruin in the end he could make great use of her before then. “You have to understand elf, if I accept this 'life debt' of yours” he spoke, doubt still in his voice as he spoke of the debt “then I will use you, for I have a quest that I must complete and nothing, absolutely nothing will stand in my way.”

“You will be a tool and I will not tolerate disobedience, if I order you to slip in to a village at night and kill every male child you find, you will do it, if I order you to seduce you way in to a lords chamber to kill him in his sleep you will, and if I order you to go and suck off a guard around the corner as a distraction, I expect a smile on your face the whole time.” He raised his hand and firmly grabbed one of her breasts, groping the mound of flesh as he continued “this life debt will not be an oath of fealty, an oath of fealty can be broken should your honour demand it, this will be slavery, you will sign away your life, your honour, and your body to me to do whatever I want with it, whenever I want.”

“Is this what you want? To be my slave, if it is then kneel and pledge yourself to my service, otherwise leave this place.”

 

[SnowHeart]

Well, at least he was a human with some sort of goal. Most of the ones the elf had met in the past were just going on a killing spree and trying to fuck everything that had breasts and a pussy they could get their hands on. Her expression didn't change throughout his little speech. She expected as much, to be used like a tool. She was efficient and skilled in dealing out death, so she wasn't too concerned. She imagined that she could use her body for seduction as well, so she could do that for him. Not like he would be seducing anyone as he was, so balancing eachother out would make their partnership a strong one. Now just sucking random guard's cocks wasn't something she was excited about, but she would do so if commanded. She would do a lot more if commanded, including walking into the town barracks naked and keeping every guard distracted. Frankly, she would strip right there in front of him if he told her to and stay naked for their entire journey unless he said otherwise.

Speaking of getting hands on something, he reached out and grasped one of her heavy breasts in his mailed hand. He played with it freely and she made no move to stop him, although a spark of emotion may have been briefly revealed had he been paying close attention to her deep green eyes: Lust. A little quirk about the life debt was that it altered the elf's view towards their master. Snow nodded and lowered herself to her knees, laying her hands on her lap before him.

"I, Snow of the Woodland Realm, swear my life, skills and body to you to use as you see fit. I will be your slave in whatever way you want, whenever and wherever you so desire" she declared, lowering her head and closing her eyes. It was done. She was now bound to this human by more than just words. She could feel it in her soul, and she was sure he could as well if the stories were to be believed. Snow opened her eyes and looked up at her master, waiting for his response and wondering what exactly his quest was. She was always yearning to adventure beyond these forests and see the world outside. Having an agenda and serving someone with a plan, who seemd to have his wits about him, was all the sweeter. When the wind blew through the clearing, she was made aware again that she was lacking her underclothing. What other tests could the human have? Some form of demonstration was likely to prove that she could deliver on her end of the deal. A sparring match, perhaps? She hadn't had a decent fight in a long time, it was mostly against initiates and practice targets which didn't offer much of a challenge. This human had some skill with a blade from what she saw before.

Regardless, she waited on her knees before him, gazing up at him while her hair and clothing blew in the wind, the skirt teasing its way up her legs to slowly reveal more and more of what it was hiding. She would like to know how to refer to him, but assumed he would introduce himself and explain what was going on. The likelihood of him knowing the way around this forest was slim to none, however, which meant she would need to lead them out.

 

[kittenofdeath]

Something was off as he looked down at his newly pledged slave, his throat was heavy and despite the nice wind that blew through the little camp he felt oddly warm, admittedly he had just gone through the physical task of slaughtering goblins, but that shouldn’t have him feeling the heat within him like he had just sprinted uphill for ten minutes. The cause of the abnormality escaped him though, and that fact infuriated him, enough so that his impassive mask started to break and let the anger show on his face.

“Stand elf” he said as he abruptly turned away, suddenly becoming aware that he was losing his composure “I don’t intend on staying here longer than I must, and I'd rather be far away from the stench of these foul greenskins before I rest for the night” he wandered towards the nearest of the little hovels the goblins had erected. “Search the camp as best you can and take what you find, the lord provides for those who do not waste what they are given, we'll depart when we're done.”

He did the same as he had ordered her to do, the likelihood of there being anything of real value here was slim, but he didn’t exactly have much of his own supplies left, he had enough trail rations in his pouches for a day, no water left, and he had been sleeping on the ground ever since he got bear guts all over his bedroll. Unluckily he found nothing of note, some scattered coinage that barely came to the cost of a proper meal, a small elven dagger of fine quality, one can never have to many weapons, and small discarded book, probably a journal by the look of the writing, in a language he recognised as elvish, but couldn’t read. All in all he could have found nothing, and should be happy that he wasn’t, but his mind was clouded by the thoughts of his new slave, how he could use her to further his goals, how he could use her to entertain himself, how he could just hold her close and enjoy the warmth of another being.

Ok something was definitely, without question not right, Van was a man possessed of an exceptionally strong will, but he was a man none the less, to lust after a creature as attractive as this Snow character was natural, despite her being non human. But the extent to which he was finding his mind and body dwelling on thoughts of her was well out of character for him, to be beholden to such urges was a weakness he had worked from his being long ago, so why now of all times was he succumbing to the distractions of the flesh?

He finished searching his half of the camp and met back with Snow, the anger that had been in his face now softened to irritation mixed with disappointment, at how his thoughts were betraying him and the lack of success his search had respectively. “I hope you search was more fruitful than mine” he said, idly playing with the dagger in his off hand as he did “unless elves can secretly eat metal or paper I didn’t find anything of immediate use.”

 

[SnowHeart]

Snow's interest peaked slightly when she saw his mask of composure start to falter before he abruptly turned away. She rose to her feet at his command, casting her gaze around the clearing to, once again, ensure they were not being watched. At this point, only an Elf could have been hiding from her gaze, or perhaps a halfling. Her senses were slowly starting to return to her, and they were sharper now than they had been for years. She felt...alive. This kind of feeling was something that had been absent for decades. It was truly breathtaking, and even the very concept that this human, this man, was responsible for her sudden awakening was almost too much for her to grasp. She chuckled internally at his comment about his lord. Humans were such strange creatures, always looking to a higher power to satisfy their beliefs. She'd yet to meet another race that was so beholden to leaving their own fates in someone else's hands, to believe that they were not the masters of their future. She shrugged after he turned away. If that was what helped him sleep at night, who was she to take it from him or anyone else?

The elf turned away and set about to searching the other side of the goblin camp. She expected nothing of interest from here, other than what the goblins might have pillaged on their way here. She was, however, interested in how they came to be here, so she set her gaze towards the largest of the tents where the table stood out front. On it was a map and several sheets of paper with goblin markings on them. Luckily, Snow understood the Goblin tongue. Living in such close proximity to the monsters had its perks. A clear route was marked on the map before her with some goblin markings on it. Along the route were several small dashes with "supplies" written next to them. The papers consisted of letters, orders, requisition papers...all the kind of things expected of an organized scout troupe. Snow's eyebrows raised slightly as she went over everything. This particular group was the deepest scouting group the goblins had sent thus far, clearly feeling emboldened by their previous successes along the eastern side of the forest. And this sheet of paper here seemed to be a detailed path of the route that her patrol took through the woods here. The goblins had been planning this ambush for a few days, and they'd fallen right into the trap.

Her fist clenched itself tightly. The goblins had been secretly assaulting them for weeks despite their ceasefire. They would pay for this betrayal. Several forward camps were marked on the map with the names of the camp's commanders listed next to them. These goblins weren't the smartest; she wondered why they were chosen to go on this mission. Scouts should be a little more discreet than this, leaving out all their leader's information for anyone to find. And oh, was she just the one to find them. Her eyes turned upwards when she heard the rustling of metal approaching her. She gestured for him to come closer, then pointed down at the map with Goblin gibberish written on it.

"Seems that our group here have some friends in the area," she started, pointing to the three forward camps within the elven borders. "And they've left some supply caches for their scouting troupes, the closest of which is here," she said, tapping a marking on the map with her index finger. "If you're looking for some better supplies, that's where I would go. These scouts were poorly armed because they weren't supposed to be fighting, but the encampments would have stronger forces and more supplies."

She looked up to him again and felt her heart flutter slightly as she looked into his eyes. She shook her head and looked back down at the map, appearing to be examining the markings more closely. She sifted through the papers on the table otherwise, but could find no other notes on what happened to the rest of her patrol. She didn't find any of their gear or belongings nearby, no trace of what happened to them. That was when she noticed the book that her new companion was carrying. She felt her eyes drawn upwards to him again, but forced them to remain on the book. Nobody told her that a life-debt was this strong. She held out a hand towards the book. That journal looked just like one of her companion's.

"May I see that?" She asked, again reaching towards the journal. Perhaps it contained some clue as to what happened?

 

[kittenofdeath]

Goblins had a language, it was crude and basic but it existed, Van couldn’t speak a lick of it though, why would he lower himself to learn such a feeble tongue, just hearing it was grating on the ears and he didn’t imagine that speaking it would be any more pleasant an experience. What he could read was a strategic map, and what he saw flew in the face of what he had come to expect from goblin scum, they were an undisciplined rabble at the best of times, what was in front of him though definitely spoke of forethought and an overarching strategy. At first he assumed that he was just wrong and the greenskins had dotted themselves at random, somehow making a good mockery of a deployment in the process, but the elf confirmed his initial read of the map.

Ugh, the elf was being useful, he should have been glad about that fact, but rather than that his mind was instead rallying against every positive thought that entered it if it had literally anything to do with the long eared bitch, and they were long ears, they looked smooth, kinda cute even. Before his mind could translate that innocent thought in to a blast of rage, he noticed her head turning and found himself staring her in the eyes instead of the ears he didn’t even noticed he had turned to gaze at. First his face tinted red slightly, embarrassment from almost being caught staring at her ears, then his rather tame thoughts of how they looked turned to much raunchier ones of gently biting them as he took her from behind. And then the anger response kicked back in, his teeth clenching back the urge to just throttle something.

He regarded the book in his hand, taking the free cue to distract himself from the conflicted signals his body was kicking about. It was useless to him, couldn’t speak elvish and apart from the paper quality it seemed worthless, no harm in giving it to her so why not? He held the book out to her, but as her fingers clasped around the offered book and brushed against his hand, even gauntleted as it was, all the feelings came rushing back to the forefront and his grip tightened like a vice, anger at himself for letting his thoughts become compromised, embarrassment over looking at her ears, and finally the burning lust he felt for Snow.

His eyes slowly travelled up the length of her arm and locked on to hers as the swirling mix of emotions played out on his face, all semblance of composure long gone for the few seconds they stared at each other. But in the end, anger won out again, he ripped the book out from her grip and hurled it across the room in one swift motion. “Take whatever you want I couldn’t care less, I said we're leaving and I meant it!” Once again he turned away in a huff and stormed off “hurry up or be left behind” this time he wasn’t on his way to one of the little huts, he just picked a direction at random, dubbed it 'forward' and went, stomping and stamping though the brush leaving a trail a blind man could follow.