by Noah Layton
He grabbed his own sword as Rolo’s shaking hands moved sharply to ready another arrow.
Tomas bounded towards me, swinging his sword over his right shoulder. I deflected the strike and slammed my clenched left hand into his stomach.
He guffawed loudly, stumbled back a yard and attempted to raise his sword. A brutal twinge of pain ran up my arm as I swung my sword around in a horizontal swipe, cutting into Tomas’s neck sharply.
I withdrew the sword with a spray of blood as he slammed to the ground.
Rolo had already moved back from the doorway and had another arrow at the ready.
Figuring it was my only option and having no more time to think, I rushed him.
He panicked again and raised his bow. The arrow fired too early, missing his intended target of my chest.
Instead it hit me in the left side of my gut, slamming in several inches.
I groaned out in pain.
‘Motherfucker!’ I yelled out, slashing out at his chest and slicing through his skin. Rolo yelled out and dropped his bow, staggering to the side.
With a final swipe I hacked into the back of his head. His skull crunched beneath the power of my blade.
His body went rigid, and he dropped to the ground limply.
I glanced back to the house to see Tomas’s body, then back down at Rolo’s.
My own bounty hunting guild had tried to have me killed. That was bad enough, but the real insult was that they would send a pair of amateurs like these two to come and kill me.
What a botch.
I looked down at my stomach to see the source of the pain. Yep, the arrow was buried several inches into my skin, along with the head. My overshirt was turning a dark red as blood dripped out too quickly.
It had definitely hit something important.
I wrapped my fist around the stem and moved it ever so slightly.
A brutal jolt of pain rushed through my body. I moaned out through gritted teeth.
‘That’s just great…’
I raised my arm and studied the first arrow that had hit me. The stem was buried in my flesh, but the head had passed through completely. I could snap the ends off and remove it easily enough.
The metallic taste of blood suddenly appeared in my mouth.
I had to get moving.
I whistled for my horse. He trotted from the forest into the clearing, stopping right at my face and licking at my cheeks.
‘Least you’re still loyal to me, buddy,’ I grunted painfully.
I patted him and rounded to his side, getting a foot in the stirrup and pausing. Every movement I made sent the arrowhead slicing against my insides.
‘Okay, okay, you can do this...’
I mentally counted down from three, then jumped up and swung my leg over. I had done it a thousand times before, but this simple series of movements sent my body contorting in small ways that I had never thought about prior to this.
‘Arrghhh!!!’ I yelled out. Blister stirred and I patted his back in an effort to calm him.
I needed to get patched up, which meant finding a doctor. The city was big, but our guild had eyes and ears scattered all over the place. If one of them saw that I was alive, I would be even deader than I was going to be if I didn’t pull this freaking arrow out of my gut.
Which meant there was only one alternative.
I was going to have to remove it myself.
But I would need liquor for that, and all I had to my name was my horse, my weapons, the clothes on my back, my telescope, a lockpicking kit, and 50 gold pieces in a satchel.
There was more back at my quarters but that was deep in the city, and there was no way I would make it that far.
A few gold pieces would buy a bottle of something strong. I would need the alcohol both for disinfecting the wound and for numbing the pain.
I had to find a tavern outside of the city, and a less-than-respectable one that wouldn’t raise a fuss when I looked this bad.
I moved Blister back down the trail at a slow trot, clutching at the skin around the arrow in a desperate attempt to quell the resonant pain that struck every time his hooves hit the ground.
The trail continued for some time until I was back in the open. Straight ahead were luscious fields of crops and tall grass, glimmering in the early afternoon sunlight. Farmland for miles, and amongst them were farmhouses and other buildings as far as the eye could see, randomly dotted about the landscape.
I was unfamiliar with this part of the land and had no idea where the nearest tavern was beyond the city walls.
The taste of blood was getting strong in my mouth.
I was getting desperate.
The nearest building was along a trail 500 yards between the fields. In a spot this remote it was unlikely that it would be a tavern. If it was a farmhouse I would need to ask for the favour, but if they were unwilling I would need to hold them at sword-point.
I had no intention of killing anyone. I just needed some resources to fix myself up, and then I would be gone.
I pushed Blister on and headed along the trail between the fields. My luck ran out when I realised that this definitely wasn’t a tavern. It was the most peaceful and quaint-looking farmhouse that I had ever seen.
Four windows and a heavy oak door. Red brickwork. Flowers sitting in troughs hanging from the windows. A stable nearby and a yard out front filled with farm equipment.
I kept my hand on the handle of my sheathed sword as I approached the yard, searching about for any sign of life.
‘Hello?’ I called out. ‘I’m in need of assistance. I don’t mean any ha-’
I coughed violently as liquid rose up my gullet. Drawing my hand away from my mouth, blood pooled in my palm.
Shit.
I looked down to my gut. My overshirt was matted with blood and everything felt warm.
My vision closed in from the sides and I had a sudden urge to vomit. Suddenly my balance gave completely.
I tried to remain steady but it was no use. My arms went limp and I fell from Blister, slamming hard into the dusty ground of the yard. My head knocked against the ground, and the last thing I registered was the clopping sound of footsteps.
I just couldn’t tell if it was Blister heading away from me or if somebody was getting closer.
2 – My Hero
The sun was rising when I awoke.
My eyes skittered open. I tried to sit up and look around. About a second into that movement I realised what a bad idea it was.
My head felt like I had just been on a three-day drinking session and then gotten into a barfight with an orc – and lost.
I let my head sink back and remembered everything. Go seek a bounty. Get betrayed. Hit by two arrows, kill rat-bastards who try to murder me, go looking for help, and…
Pass out. Then I woke up here.
Where the hell is here?
I took in my surroundings. Desk, chair, closet, bed, flowers in pots, a woman’s dress hanging on the nightstand, a lantern shedding a little more light about the room.
And a bed – one that I was lying on. Pretty damn comfy bed at that, too.
Looking down at my lean body, I found the arrow that had pierced my gut to be gone. I was wearing nothing but my underwear, and many rolls of bandages were wrapped around my gut. A small stain of blood was marked against it, but it hurt a lot less, that was for sure.
The arrow that had pierced my arm was gone too. I was bandaged and fixed up, apart from my head feeling like complete ass, but after almost dying that was to be expected.
I still had no idea where I was, though.
‘Hello?’ I said quietly, propping myself up despite the throbbing pain at my brow. ‘Is anyone there?’
Footsteps in the hallway, then the door creaked open.
I forgot about the pain for a second, instead wondering what I could use as a weapon. I hadn’t even thought to look for my belongings. I was just happy to be alive.
The red-alert in my mind switched off the mome
nt I saw my host.
She was a young woman in her mid-twenties. She had a slender and enticing frame, standing around 5 feet 6, with a pretty face and blonde hair tied back in a ponytail.
She would have been able to pull off the look of the innocent farmer’s wife if the red summer dress she was wearing didn’t push up her large breasts against her chest.
‘Good morning,’ she smiled. ‘You’re finally awake. For a while there I was worrying whether you would come around at all.’
‘What the hell happened? Who are you?’
‘Calm yourself, you’re safe. I found you in the yard in a very bad shape.’ The blonde woman took a seat next to the bed, gracefully sinking down and eyeing me carefully.
‘My wounds were pretty bad. Are you sure?’
‘I have operated on enough animals to know when a wound is healed or not. You had a slight cut on one of your kidneys, as well as a small artery, but they’re disinfected and stitched up. You’re going to be fine.’
‘Thanks,’ I said, propping myself up against the headboard. I couldn’t help glancing over at my host’s ridiculously accentuated breasts as they heaved with each of her breaths. ‘Do you live here on your own?’
As I looked up to her eyes, I caught her eyeline drifting across my toned chest before rapidly flitting back up to me.
‘Uhh, no,’ she said swiftly. ‘I live here with my husband.’
‘You do? I hope he’s not too angry about me being here.’
‘He doesn’t know, and he will not have to. He is away on a hunting trip with his friends.’
‘Really? I would have thought there would be too much to do on a farm for him to just take off like that.’
‘There is. It leaves me with far too much do here on my own while he goes out enjoying himself.’
‘Sounds like you’ve got a pretty tough deal.’
‘You could say that. Right now I am more interested in you, though.’
‘Oh?’
‘How is it that you came to be out here with a pair of arrows sticking out of your body?’
‘I, uhh… I was attacked by bandits on the trail home. I’m a travelling merchant. Managed to escape them but realised I wouldn’t be able to make it back to the city to find a doctor. Thought that this place was my best shot, and it looks like I was right.’
‘Is that so?’ She said with surprise, resting her chin in her palm as she leaned towards me a little. ‘I find that difficult to believe.’
‘… Why?’
‘Where is all of your produce?’
‘They stole it, of course.’
‘And what about…’ The busty blonde woman reached into the pocket of her apron and pulled out a crumpled, blood-stained piece of paper. ‘This.’
With my headache subsiding a little, I managed to focus in on the paper. It was the wanted poster for Booker Torow, the hit that I had been hunting right before…
‘Okay,’ I said. ‘But even if I told you, you wouldn’t believe me.’
‘Try me.’
‘Fine. I’m a bounty hunter from the city. I was hunting a criminal with two new recruits when they turned around and tried to kill me. Managed to take them out but not before getting hit myself.’
‘Why did they try to kill you?’
‘Because the leader of my guild told them to, apparently.’
‘So you have been betrayed?’
‘Pretty much.’
‘My…’ She sighed, sitting back and straightening her posture as she delicately placed her hands on her slender legs. ‘That is some rather unfortunate luck.’
‘I don’t know about luck,’ I replied. ‘They wanted me dead for some reason.’
‘And you don’t know why they would want to have you killed?’
‘I’m not sure, but there’s probably a few reasons. Maybe I broke the cardinal rule; don’t outshine the master. I’ve had a lot of kills as of late.’
‘So you are rather skilled at your profession.’
‘If you can call killing bad guys and getting paid for it a profession.’
‘I would certainly say that it is a profession, and a rather… Impressive one at that. You are a man that keeps people safe. A dangerous man who is not afraid to get his hands dirty…’
‘You run a farm, I’m sure yours are much dirtier than mine. And I’m sure your husband’s are even dirtier.’
‘I am talking of a different kind of mark… The mark of the blood of men whose lives you have taken. There is something… Attractive about such a thing.’
The blonde woman ran her fingers gently over her neckline and down to her cleavage, eyeing me intensely.
‘Attractive?’ I replied. ‘You’d need to be a little strange to find what I do attractive.’
‘I don’t think that’s the case at all,’ she said, leaning into me with a whisper. ‘Would it be strange to find me attractive?’
‘I don’t think so,’ I said. ‘But I’m not entirely convinced.’
‘Not entirely convinced?’ She said with mock-sarcasm, her mouth falling open in fake-shock. ‘Then we must do something about that…’
The woman moved onto the bed, moving between my legs and pulling the sheets back over my waist.
‘What are you doing?’ I smiled, knowing exactly what she was up to.
‘My husband has neglected my needs for so long…’
‘He sounds like an idiot to me.’
‘Very much so.’
Her slender fingers teased me beneath my boxers, sending a jolt of pleasure up my body to even out the pain from my healing wounds.
The throbbing in my head was gone completely, replaced by a completely different throbbing.
‘For somebody who hasn’t done this in a while you’re pretty damn good.’
‘I have been so desperate to taste a real man for so long,’ she moaned in response, bringing her wet tongue closer to me.
I watched in anticipation, totally on-board with her belief that this would speed up the healing process as she ran her fingers into the waist of boxers and began to pull them down over my throbbing length, and-
There was a sudden clopping of hooves outside the window in the yard.
My host and I both glanced over at the window. She rushed to it and looked down to the yard.
‘By the gods, it’s my husband!’
‘Are you kidding me?’ I hissed in a loud whisper. ‘I thought you said he wouldn’t be back for days!’
‘He said that he wouldn’t!’
‘Where are my clothes?’
‘In the barn with your horse.’
‘At least everything’s in one place,’ I chuckled, sitting up and pushing myself off the bed, suddenly feeling a little better. ‘You don’t think I could just stay up here and pretend to be your patient?’
‘He is the jealous type,’ she said. ‘You have to go!’
‘Don’t need to tell me twice. This isn’t the first time I’ve been in a married woman’s bed.’
I headed to the window, watching her husband hitch his horse by the door. There was no going back down the stairs because I would run straight into him.
There was only one option.
I waited for the clueless husband to head inside, then pushed the window open quietly and ducked out of it, straddling the ledge.
Twelve-foot drop to the yard below. I could land that.
Famous last words, right?
‘Hey,’ I called over to the maiden.
‘Yes?’ She said with an eager smile, glancing over at me.
‘Thanks for saving my life. You’re a good woman. And believe me, you’re far too sexy for an asshole like that. I’m not an assassin, but if you ever need somebody to get rid of him for you…’
‘Go!’ She said with a hushed laugh. ‘At least you still have a sense of humour for a man who was almost murdered.’
I moved my other leg out and crept along the ledge. The sun was rising, and the brisk early morning breeze hit my naked body in cold strikes.
I shimmied along a little further, my foot sinking into a plant pot filled with wet mulch.
‘That’s just great,’ I muttered to myself, lifting it out and frowning.
At the end of the ledge on the house’s corner I lowered myself down the brickwork. I tensed up my arms and made the descent steadily; I had to be careful not to rip open the healing wound on my stomach.
My back and arms tensed, I hung from the ledge by my fingertips and let go. The drop from the hanging position was only five or six feet, but my bare feet striking the hard ground of the front yard sent a jolt of pain through my legs.
I staggered and landed on my side, barely catching myself on my open hand. My other felt for the wound; the bloodstain hadn’t grown and the pain hadn’t returned beyond the dull ache that I had grown used to.
I was home free.
I rushed to the stable door and found Blister chewing on a bale of hay. He looked over at me casually, then returned to eating his hay like I hadn’t been gone at all.
‘Nice to see you missed me, buddy.’
Stacked on a footstool nearby, likely one used for milking cows, were my clothes. They had been washed and folded, and next to them my weapons and boots were propped up against the stable wall.
The beautiful nameless blonde woman was right; her husband really didn’t deserve her.
I pulled on my clothes as quickly as I could, equipped my weapons and saddled Blister up. With one foot in the stirrup, I leaped up onto his back and patted him.
Slowly, I edged my horse out of the stable while keeping an eye on the front of the house.
No sign of the lazy husband, but taking the dirt trail back out to the open road in full view of the house ran too much of a risk of being seen.
The moment I was clear of the stable doors, I arced around to the right and set Blister off at a gallop through the fields to the west.
I was out of view in no time, breathing in the clear morning air as I took in the breathtaking nature of the land. This was the kind of place a sensible man came to retire.
But I wasn’t a sensible man. I was a bloodthirsty one, seeking revenge on the bastards that had tried to have me killed.
A few hundred yards clear of the farmhouse I headed back south across the fields to the main road, then arced east towards the endless structures and high-reaching towers of the city. Smoke rose in the distance, filling the sky with a haze.