by Ther Renard
"YOUR MOTHER FUCKED PIGS!" Rogette shrieked, resorting to insults when she found it impossible to best Atrocious by simple force, at least, not without really hurting her.
"AT LEAST SHE DIDN'T GIVE BIRTH TO ONE!" Atrocious retorted at the top of her lungs as she tried to free her braids from the death grip Rogette had on them.
"I really do think we should stop this," Ayla said once more.
"But it's so cute," Kira smirked. "Look at them."
Ayla did look at them. By that stage Atrocious was tugging at Rogette's tunic, threatening to tear it entirely off her body. Smooth flesh was being exposed at a rate that was rather exciting, even if it did lack the finesse of a typical strip tease. "You might have something there," she agreed.
"OW FUCK. You hit me in the FUCKING VAGINA!" Rogette shrieked suddenly.
"SORRY. YOUR VAGINA JUST GETS AROUND SO MUCH ITS HARD NOT TO HIT IT. RIGHT KIRA?" Atrocious hollered back at the top of her lungs.
The shrieking and fighting continued unabated for quite some time. Neither Atrocious nor Rogette were willing to either give quarter or do enough damage to actually hurt the other person, so they ended up rolling around near the embers of the fire, forcing Ayla, then Kira to lift their feet as they went past in an awkward tumbling mass of arms and legs and increasingly bare body parts.
The entire place had borne the brunt of their outburst. Chairs and tables were scattered hither and thither, some intact, some in pieces. The battle could have gone on forever and a day had their fracas not eventually sent Atrocious hurtling towards the stone surround of the fireplace with dangerous speed. She would perhaps have brained herself if she had not been caught in Kira's strong hands and hauled summarily over the knee of the very same.
Smack, smack, smack went Kira's palm. "Ow, ow, ow," went Atrocious as the warrior's hard hand met with the shredded remains of what passed for undergarments. Atrocious had already screamed herself hoarse at Rogette, so her cries had a husky desperation as Kira punished her. It was not clear if she was being punished for fighting, or for losing. It didn't really much matter, for it hurt the same way regardless.
Rogette sat a few feet away, panting and looking on with a measure of satisfaction. After all, it had been Atrocious who had started it all with her snide words and silly rebellion. Rogette was no longer even slightly inclined to help the thief escape the warrior's punishment.
Kira's lips were set in a determined thin line as she spanked on and on, ignoring Atrocious' high pitched squeals and pleas for clemency. The young woman was in a state of nigh undress, her clothing in such a state of disrepair that she might as well have been naked. The curve of her breast was exposed, as were the pale lines of her back and thighs. If Kira was distracted by having a pert bosom wriggling and bouncing against her leg, she did not show it. All her attention was focused in a frowning glare directed at Atrocious' bare bottom.
The warrior was not given to clemency by nature. It was her habit to vanquish her foes, and though Atrocious was not a foe, she was a sharp tongued, very spoiled little wretch who had gotten them all into a great deal of trouble and not shown the slightest bit of appreciation for their help. It was not entirely surprising that Kira was thorough in her discipline, landing slaps to Atrocious' kicking thighs and sometimes catching the sensitive skin between them if she flailed too much.
Eventually Kira stopped and held the naughty thief in place over her lap. She did not say a word to Atrocious, but she did stroke her bottom with a light, comforting touch, a small kindness.
"So," she said, turning to Ayla and Rogette. "What do you suppose we should have for dinner?"
"Rump roast," Rogette quipped.
They all laughed heartily at the jest, for it was a goodly one.
"I hate you all," Atrocious sobbed.
"Where did you find her?" Rogette asked over Atrocious' sniffles. “I mean, how did you three come to be traveling together?”
"She was wandering around in the forest," Ayla explained. "She approached my cottage."
"And then she kidnapped me!" Atrocious wailed in between the light slaps Kira was still bestowing on her behind. "And she was going to sell me!"
"I can see why she didn't," Rogette said, completely unsympathetic. "You're too much trouble to sell."
"And then soldiers came after her and now here we are," Kira said, looking satisfied as she dealt a sharp slap to Atrocious' red bottom. "Trying to work out what they want with her."
Rogette looked at Atrocious and asked the question that had been asked many times before to no avail. "What do they want with you?"
"I don't know!" Atrocious howled. "I stole a horse from one of them."
"Must have been a special horse," Rogette said, turning her attention back to Kira and Ayla. "And she must be special to have the two of you putting up with her. I would have pushed her into a deep hole by now."
"The only deep hole around here is the one between your legs," Atrocious snapped viciously. She was still see-sawing half naked over Kira's lap and neither the position nor the flaming red hue of her bottom seemed to have improved her disposition.
"Enough!" Kira thundered, reaching for her leather belt. "Another word out of you and I'll thrash you so hard your mother will feel it."
Atrocious opened her mouth, likely to make yet another ill-considered response. She never got to make it. The tension in the room was broken by yet more tension as a mail clad fist pounded on the far side of the closed door.
"Open up in the name of the queen!"
"Oh my gods," Atrocious whispered in a squeak. "They're here."
THUMP THUMP THUMP THUMP
"OPEN UP!"
"Get up," Kira said in a low voice, patting Atrocious' bare bottom with a calm and comforting touch. Atrocious obeyed immediately, sliding off Kira's lap and pulling the remnants of her britches up quickly. It was bad enough being cornered by soldiers, she wasn't going to be caught with her pants down too.
Faced with the prospect of imminent arrest, Ayla and Kira kept their cool. Rogette, well Rogette appeared to have somehow winked out of existence entirely. Atrocious could not see her anywhere.
"Where's Rogette? Where did she go?"
"Shh," Ayla said, reaching for her. "Come here and be quiet."
Atrocious went there and was quiet. She watched as Kira slid back into the shadows behind the door, readying her sword. Flashes of the blood and gore from the last time the blade had been drawn splashed themselves in her mind's eye. She fervently hoped she wasn't about to see more bloodshed.
When Kira gave the signal, Ayla went forward and opened the door. Peeking out behind the witch, Atrocious saw a tall, slim lady in the gold and red of a captain's uniform and a helmet with a crimson plume. Underneath the metal brow her eyes were hard, her expression unyielding. She was battle worn, one heavy scar ran across her chin and disappeared under the side guards of the helmet, and another made her left eye close slightly more than her right. She was not old though, there was an undeniable youth reflected in the condition of her skin which was pleasantly translucent and plump across her cheekbones.
Behind the captain, several soldiers covered the exit, each one of them seemed to be more heavily armed than the next. The captain glanced at Ayla for a brief moment before dismissing the powerful witch as nothing more than a minor distraction. "Stand aside, citizen," she said. "We are looking for a murderer."
"A murderer?" Atrocious emerged from behind Ayla. "There are no murderers here."
She knew she'd made a mistake the moment the captain's eyes fell on her. Wordlessly, the woman reached for a scroll at her side and having unrolled it, glanced from Atrocious to the scroll and back again several times. "You are Atrocious," she said when she had made herself sure, "charged with high crimes against the kingdom."
Atrocious opened her mouth to deny the charges, but it was Kira's voice that seemed to come out, as she spoke before Atrocious could.
"Sylvie?"
As impressive and scary as the captain was, h
er face drained of color when Kira spoke. It was as if she'd heard a ghost, or become one herself. Either way she was clearly deeply affected.
"Little Sylvie. It has been a long time." Kira moved to the center of the room and the front of the little party, putting Atrocious firmly back behind her. This time Atrocious was more than happy to stay behind the woman who had nominated herself protector.
"Kira." The captain stammered ever so slightly. "This does not concern you."
"Oh but it does concern me, Sylvie. It concerns me a great deal." There was gravel and savagery in Kira's voice, restrained by the assurance that comes with natural dominance.
"I am not... you cannot tell me what to do anymore." There was a definite tremor in the captain's voice, a tremor that was growing by the moment. Peeking out from behind Ayla, Atrocious thought the captain might actually cry.
"What is Atrocious charged with?" Kira asked the question in a tone that strongly indicated she expected a prompt answer.
The captain's lower lip trembled as she formed the word. "M... murder."
"Murder?" Kira threw her head back and laughed. "That girl's never killed anyone."
"She slaughtered thirty nuns according to the warrant, ma'am."
"Thirty nuns?" Kira's brow darkened as she fixed the unfortunate captain with a stern and searching look. "Have you been smoking that weed again?"
Sylvie took a quick step back. "No maim! I mean ma'am!"
There was a tittering from the soldiers, laughter at their captain's expense. Atrocious couldn't help but giggle too, the woman was looking sheepish and guilty as hell.
"Don't you lie to me, Sylvie," Kira pressed the point. "You think this..." she paused and dragged Atrocious out by the scruff of her neck. "You think this girl killed thirty nuns?"
Sylvie looked doubtful. "Sometimes looks can be deceiving, ma'am."
Kira took Atrocious by the forearm and held the limb up for Sylvie's inspection. "See any of the muscle development that would indicate even the slightest proficiency with any weapon?"
Peering close at Kira's behest, Sylvie shook her head. "No, her wrists seem excessively limp."
"Hey!" Atrocious objected. "They are not limp."
"Unless she slaughtered them by annoying everyone in the convent to death, you have the wrong woman," Kira said, ignoring Atrocious, but dropping her arm.
"HEY!" Atrocious objected all the louder.
The matter might have been settled then and there, put to bed by the twin powers of logic and a captain intimidated by meeting her old mentor in the wild - but for Rogette.
"DEATH TO IMPERIAL SCUM!"
A screech came from the heavens as a brightly colored figure came flying off the roof and went barreling through the soldiers, knocking them down like bottles of mead. After using them as human landing pads, Rogette grabbed the first soldier that came to hand and held a curved blade to his neck.
"Let Atrocious go, or this guy gets it," she snarled. "Also, give me all your money," she added as an afterthought.
With the solid dose of violence initiated by Rogette, the tables began to turn. Captain Sylvie stood up straighter, coming out of whatever trance Kira had induced in her. Already soldiers were scrambling to draw their swords, ready to cut the aggressor into shreds. The situation was tense and could have turned desperately bloody but for Kira wading through what remained of the upturned soldiers and planting herself before Rogette.
"Stay your blade." The order came in a hard, clipped tone.
"I hate Imperials," Rogette growled, pressing the edge harder to the unfortunate soldier's throat. Up close, it was obvious that he was barely more than a boy. A few wispy whiskers around his chin and upper lip were the indicators of a failed attempt to grow facial hair. It was doubtful he'd ever seen any action before, he whimpered as a single bead of blood formed on the point of Rogette's knife and rolled down the shiny silver surface.
"I said, stay your blade." There was considerable force of will behind the words, enough that the soldiers who had righted themselves and were considering taking a shot at Rogette moved backwards, clearing a space around Kira, Rogette and the hostage soldier.
"My blade is stayed," Rogette bit back, jutting her chin out with determination.
"Let him go." Kira's voice sank low, dangerous and quiet like a predator ready to take down its prey.
"Listen Kira," Rogette spoke in a way that was probably supposed to be placating, but instead came off as patronizing. "I know you're a big deal. Hell, I'd be the first person here to start a singalong about your great deeds, but these verfulckers started it. And I'm not going to leave this guy alone until I get myself paid, you hear?"
Kira did not give any further warnings. There was a burst of activity as she moved in, then a high pitched squeal of pain in among the twelve flailing limbs. At the peak of the scuffle, the threesome burst apart. The soldier crawled away on hands and knees as fast as his limbs would take him. Kira stepped back without so much as a hair out of place. She held Rogette's blade, flicking blood off it with a practiced twist of her wrist.
"You bitch!" Rogette exclaimed with anger and incredulity, clutching at a bleeding surface wound on her forearm. "I fucked you and this is what I get?"
"Three times you disobeyed me." Kira's dark gaze swept over the wounded robber dispassionately. "Count yourself fortunate to still have an arm."
She turned on her heel and walked back through the gauntlet of Imperial soldiers, leaving Rogette seeping blood in the dust.
Chapter Eight
"Hold still," Ayla said as she applied salve to Rogette's wound. After a good cleaning it proved to be little more than a flesh wound, nowhere close to any of the important tendons or veins. The cut showed nigh surgical skill, something considerably impressive given the speed at which it had been inflicted.
"It stings," Rogette complained. "Is it going to scar?"
Kira glanced over, then looked away with an unsympathetic snort. "It's a scratch."
"It may scar," Ayla said, unraveling a length of bandage. "It is too early to tell."
She had been maintaining a very, very low profile since the arrival of the soldiers, but with Rogette dripping life force everywhere, Ayla had finally stepped in to patch the robber up. She worked quickly and quietly, the hood of her robe pulled well up over her head hiding all but the very tip of her nose and a few stray wisps of blonde hair that escaped the cover.
“Nobody makes me bleed my own blood," Rogette muttered under her breath, glaring daggers at Kira, who ignored her entirely.
The soldiers were still present. Atrocious had Captain Sylvie's ear and appeared to be making inquiries of a somewhat heated nature. The captain was listening, her arms folded over her chest, a look of mild amusement on her face as Atrocious gesticulated up at her.
After glancing over at the women cautiously a few dozen times, the young soldier who had been at Rogette's mercy approached Kira sheepishly. If he'd been a dog he would have had his tail tucked between his legs. He'd removed his helmet, revealing mousy brown hair that fell to his collar and the full extent of his attempted beard, which was revealed as a set of patchy wisps over his lower cheeks. The only triumph he could claim was a pair of bushy sideburns. Unfortunately they only made his pink soft skin look pinker and softer than it otherwise might have done. "Uhm, Ms Kira?"
Kira looked at him and raised a questioning brow wordlessly.
"I just wanted to say thank you," he said, speaking in a quick burbling of words that tumbled out so fast they ran all over one another and barely made sense at all. "It's amazing just to have met you, let alone to have been rescued by you. I pledge you my sword, my shield, my life if need be." With that dramatic statement he dropped to one knee in a clanging of chain mail and weaponry.
"That won't be necessary," Kira said, smiling in spite of herself. "But you are welcome."
"If you ever need anything, anything at all, make inquiries at the Imperial palace for Mercutio Tyronius Alfrich," the soldier said. "Or Mer
c, if that's easier."
Kira's second brow rose with the first in an expression of unbridled surprise. "That's very kind of you m'lord."
"Oh you don't have to call me that," Merc smiled a bashful smile. "Nobody else does." He retired from Kira's presence with a low bow and one long, vicious look at Rogette.
~~~
"The matter will have to be settled by magistrate," the captain of the guard determined once the scuffles had settled down. "It would no doubt help if you would come, ma'am." Here she addressed Kira. "Atrocious will need someone to vouch for her. These are serious charges and they carry a serious penalty."
Ayla and Kira went into a small private huddle for a few moments, then emerged. "Very well, I will accompany Atrocious to answer the charges," Kira announced.
"What about you two?" Atrocious turned to Ayla and Rogette. "What are you doing?"
"We will stay here and await your return," Ayla said in a low whisper, drawing her cloak about her face so that only her eyes showed. "You will travel faster in a smaller group."
Atrocious looked at Kira doubtfully. Without Ayla's moderating influence, the prospect of being at Kira's mercy was something of an intimidating one. The way she'd handled Rogette had given Atrocious flashbacks to the incident with the bandits, a reminder that Kira was perhaps the most dangerous person she had ever known. But the decision was made without any reference to her, and for the umpteenth time Atrocious felt fate step in and carry her off in another direction without so much as a 'by your leave'.
Preparations were made swiftly and before she truly had time to come to terms with the fact that she was being hauled in as a potential mass murderer, Atrocious found herself wandering along a road with a cohort of Imperials and Kira by her side. She was not restrained in any fashion, Kira's presence seemed to be enough for the guard.
It was a miserable trek to be sure. Though the sun shone brightly along the trails, she could not help but be morose. For all she knew she was willingly going to her execution, with only Kira standing between her and an overblown charge that almost certainly carried the death penalty.