Rane's Giants

by Lynn Ray Lewis

  When Rane came out of the water and quickly donned her clothing, she came around the rock he sat on, looking at him questioningly.

  “The words, Lady, remember the words. You spoke them freely. It is too late to change your mind now. Especially since you have said them not only to me, but to my brother, Lord Lion, also known as Lord Tremble of Tremble Castle by the Sea.”

  Rane thought of the words “My life, take my…” Oh. Goddess. She looked at Nord as she comprehended what he was telling her.

  “The words mean that I have given myself into you and Lion’s keeping? At his nod and small smile, “I have bound my life with the two of you?”

  She looked so lost Nord pulled her to him and settled her on his lap. His thick arms came around her and urged her head to lie back on his shoulder. She was so small that he wondered what the gods were thinking to pair her with him and his brother. There was no question that she belonged to them. From the moment she first touched him he knew she was destined to be theirs.

  The family curse—or trait—depending on how you wished to word it, said the brothers would share a love. They would have children with that love, and be healed of pain by their love. If the brothers allowed jealousy to come between them, the love would wither and die. Should that happen, the brothers would know untold pain and sorrow.

  Nord suspected she was the one when he saw her. Then the touch of her delicate fingers confirmed it. The gift of her blood sealed her fate. The fact he felt energized with the first sips of her blood, instead of becoming sick to his stomach, was enough proof for him. He could take blood donations from other males, but only a potential mate could share her blood between the brothers without them becoming very ill. She was theirs now. Lion would be happy to finally have found their wife. In fact, Nord was looking forward to seeing his brother’s expression when he realized the little lady was theirs.

  She was a pretty little thing with light brown hair and the most amazing green eyes. Her height was a deterrent in its present size, but once he and Lion completed the bonding ritual, her shape might very well change. He did not care if she changed size for his comfort. He rather liked her shortness with her wide hips and full breasts.

  The change that would come was for her comfort. A woman as small as Rane could be crushed between the brothers very easily. Not to mention they had cocks that matched their size. Forcing the issue of her small size might split her in two, no matter how softly they made love to her.

  Right now she sat on his lap needing reassurance.

  “I thought you understood the words when I had you repeat them so many times. You have been destined to be ours since the moment you saved me from the lord’s dungeon. The prophesy that Lion and I were told is complicated, but simply put, we will share a love that will be the mother of our children, the healer of our bodies and souls. She will meld the three of us together so tightly there will be no room for jealousy or hurt feelings between us.

  “Should one begin to feel the claws of jealousy, then all will be lost. Our love will wither and die, and we will roam separately, in pain, and alone for all time.”

  Rane tried to think. There was a lot to think about. It seemed she had, by her own ignorance, given her life to the brothers Tremble. The idea was hard to absorb. How was this supposed to work?

  “I cannot see how this will work, Nord. The two of you are giants. I am not nearly a large enough woman to deal with your manly needs. Are you certain this is our destiny? I had never thought to be wed, let alone to two giants such as you and Lord Lion.” The fact that most men were afraid of her because they saw all female healers as witches, had much to do with that resignation.

  Yes, his little lady needed to be reassured so he bent down and kissed her lips. The startled gasp quickly turned to a hum as she began to accept the feeling of his kiss.

  He let his hands run at will over her squirming body while his lips kept her mouth occupied in a deep open-mouthed kiss. His big hands measured her plump breasts while his fingers lightly pinched at her nipples. This he did over and over, until she broke the kiss and put her arms over his shoulders.

  His hands abandoned her breasts, and she whimpered until she felt her dress being lifted up and over her thighs as he spread his legs, which spread hers. His mouth came down on hers again as she felt a thick finger trailing through the curls of her sex. The finger wandered to the small nub at the top of her slit and when it began to rub on the spot, she cried out into his mouth as the kiss continued.

  He raised his head to look into her startled eyes.

  “You will see that being made love to is not as bad as you are expecting, little one. I am going to give you a taste of what we will do for you to make you happy. Lie back against me and enjoy the feel of my fingers in your sweet pussy.

  “Do you feel my finger on your little clit? That is just one of your pleasure centers. Let me see if I can find more okay? How about this one? This is where my cock will join our bodies together. Your entrance is so tight that you will squeeze my prick until I beg for mercy. Now I will push my finger inside of you just as my cock will go inside when the time comes. Your sweet pussy is sending cream to ease my way. That is good. When your pussy gives me such cream it means it wants me to enter and slide over this pink flesh.”

  Rane heard him weaving words of enticement into her ear, and loved the feelings his voice was creating deep within her womb. The feeling of wetness coming from her body made the thought of what happened while she was sitting on Lion’s lap clear to her. It was her body readying itself to take him inside. The feelings his finger was drawing from her were breathtaking.

  His finger began to slide in and out of her delicate flesh, and all she could do was sit and enjoy the pleasure. He dragged moisture up and over the small knot of nerves he called her clit, slipped back inside of her opening then repeated the pattern over and over until she was moving her hips in rhythm with his finger. Something was building inside of her body and she cried out softly in a low moan.

  He added a second finger in to the play, she lost her ability to remain as quiet as possible. When he added the second finger, he also used his other hand to cup her breast and play with her nipple, plucking and pinching it.

  The cheeks of her rump were split, and his cock enjoyed the feeling of her involuntary hip movements. His words of encouragement added to the foreign pleasure, as his fingers began to glide faster and the fingers playing with her nipples pinched harder.

  “Can you feel how your little pussy loves my fingers sliding inside and how my finger loves to kiss your clit? My cock is jealous of my fingers burying themselves so deep in your creamy soft flesh. My lips are jealous of my hand and fingers too. They long to lick and suck on your nipples. The next time we are together like this, my lips will lick and suck wherever they want on your beautiful body. My tongue will lick the cream from this pussy and fuck you as deep as it can go inside your snug depths. Wouldn’t you like that, dear one?”

  As he spoke, he pushed both fingers deep, and his thumb wiggled over her clit while his fingers pinched down hard on her nipple. She couldn’t stop the scream that came from deep within. Her brain was showing such a burst of colors that she wept from the pleasure. She could not stop her hips from moving and jerking as she rode out her pleasure on his fingers and the hard ridge between the cheeks of her ass. Her body bowed and she whimpered as the pleasure kept coming in little spurts until all she could do was twitch. His fingers withdrew and she slumped back onto his wide chest.

  Nord pulled her knees together and her skirt down to cover her legs. Then he held her for long minutes, finally hearing her deep, steady breathing, which told him she was asleep. He gathered her into his arms and carried her to the cave, lying her down on a pallet of soft fur.

  He checked on Lion and noticed that much of the bruising on his face was gone. Hawk and Max had set the rib back into place, and wrapped a length of cloth around him to hold the rib where it belonged. Drago finally arrived, and Nord wondered at th
e grin on the man’s face, but said nothing.

  He laid his weary body down beside Rane and closed his eyes. Morning light was only a few hours away and he needed rest to take on tomorrow’s tasks.

  Chapter Five

  Lion woke to the taste of blood being siphoned into his system. From the taste, Drago was the one who was contributing his life fluid this day. He felt a strange tingling in his body that had nothing to do with the blood Drago was giving him and he pulled back from the wrist at his mouth. He automatically licked the spot his spikes had made to seal the wounds.

  When he opened his eyes, Drago was smiling at him from above his prone position. He tried to sit and groaned at the pulling in his ribs.

  “My friend, you might want to take it easy for a few minutes. You have a broken rib Hawk and Max reset last night. You are wrapped to hold it in place. The stab wound has almost healed and from what I heard, your skull was crushed in. Rest easy. I will get Nord and he can explain everything to you. There is one thing for sure, this has been an interesting adventure, and it is not over with yet.”

  Whatever Drago was talking about must be amusing him greatly because Drago rarely smiled like that. He was normally stoic, this was hard to assimilate with the man Lion knew and loved as a brother. It was too much to contemplate and Lion felt an almost desperate need to get up and relieve himself before he was truly labeled an invalid that could not hold his water.

  Lion grasped the arm Drago held before him to pull up into a sitting position. From there, after a few moments of gasping for breath, he allowed Drago to assist him to stand. Drago stood by his side to ensure Lion could stand and move on his own with no mishaps.

  “Why do I feel like I have been buried beneath a pile of heavy stones? My head bangs like some gnome is beating a drum inside, and my rib feels bruised. And if I do not empty my bladder soon, we will have a flood in this cozy cave. Direct me to the doorway, Drago.”

  When Lion finished watering the rocks a few feet from the cave, he stood in one place and slowly turned around in a tight circle getting his bearings and enjoying the view. The dense forest was beautiful this time of year, showing off for those who took the time to separate the differing greens and reds of the leaves.

  He could hear the swift current of water rushing over rocks and downed trees, and knew they must be close to a river. He spied Hawk sailing up over the rocks with a large salmon in his talons and smiled as the huge bird of prey dropped the fish at his feet as it turned back for more prey.

  The wolf sitting on the rocks above their rustic home was on guard while basking in the sunlight of the day. He looked as if he had no care in the world, but Lion knew from experience that it would take a great deal of stealth to get past the wolf’s ears and eyes. Max was indeed an asset to any group of fighting men.

  Mouse was sitting upright when Wolf came back into the cave with the large fish.

  “I will clean it, Lord Lion, it is not like I have been of much help since the Lady Rane brought me from the dungeon. The leg is almost healed, but she insists I sit or lie around all day and not put weight on the limb. Lord Ludwig tried to remove my leg on the rack. He almost succeeded but the bone broke in a very painful way. When he was distracted, the Lady brought me from that place to here with the help of Nord and Drago.”

  Drago came back and apologized for not finding Nord or the Lady Rane. “She insisted on going to the village and helping the people that are left in that squalor. Nord is watching over her while she tends to their hurts and pains.

  “Lord Ludwig is currently planning the funerals for burying his dead, one of which is his depraved younger brother, Simon. No one is grieving for any man lying in the hole the lord ordered the villagers to dig. When it became obvious the only villagers who were left were barely young enough to walk a few feet before collapsing from old age, Lord Ludwig made his soldiers finish digging the grave while the villagers were gathering firewood for a funeral pyre. He plans to incinerate the bodies at sundown.

  “The dead were killed in three ways. Four were burned to death, two other’s died from undetermined causes, two bled to death, one fell to his death, and the princeling was missing limbs when he fell from the heavens to his brother’s feet.

  “Lord Ludwig is rattled and attempting not to show his fear to his remaining men. He has demanded that every remaining villager attend the funeral to show respect for men that had no honor in life and less in death. It is my belief he will use the villagers to act as shields for him and his men.”

  Lion nodded his head. He knew exactly how the princeling had managed to fall from the heavens. The others’ deaths only meant that when he and the rest of his men attack this night, there would be fewer men to have to kill.

  He clapped Drago on his shoulder, and they sat near Mouse to discuss and plan the takeover of Droildorf Hall. It was an attractive property, and before Lord Ludwig gained control of the place, it had been a thriving community. The end game would be to repatriate those refugees that were currently bursting the gates at Tremble Castle.

  He learned the Lady Rane was a healer, and she had tended all of the men’s wounds, including his own. The idea that a small woman had almost singlehandedly saved five men as they were was almost laughable. To think that one could save a man his size was completely unbelievable until Drago told him of the Lady’s discovery of him in the dungeon, and the subsequent events she and Nord orchestrated with the help of Max.

  “She insists she has no title such as Lady before her name, but when you see her, you will understand why the need to honor her as a Lady is automatic. Lady Rane has earned her title, and your brother has developed an affection for her like none before. We all owe the woman a great debt for saving our lives.” He continued to list the happenings of the past two weeks.

  As Lion listened to Drago, his mind kept going back to the statement Drago made about his brother’s affection for Lady Rane. She was a healer, her heart was fierce, and her bravery unquestioned. Could she be the one they had hoped to find? Would she be the one to complete the prophesy? He could barely wait to meet the woman.

  ****

  Nord guarded the healer from his position perched in a fringed pine. His form of a great horned owl watched as Rane patched up the blisters on the old man’s hands. So far she had tended the hurts of three others and listened to the happenings of the past evening.

  He tensed when three soldiers came into the village to patrol the area, and watched them round up the villagers for the evening’s funerals. When they happened across Rane, they insisted she come to the hall with the rest of the villagers. She tried politely to refuse with the excuse of tending the two infirm elderly ladies who had caught a lung fever from being exposed to the night’s air last evening.

  Rane shrugged, and assisted another woman to her feet. She left the two bedridden women on their pallets when the soldiers continued to demand she be present along with the rest to honor the brave soldiers who had died defending the village. The idea that those horrid men had died defending anyone not useful to them was a laugh, but she knew better than to call the soldiers on their blatant lie.

  She looked around the trees and on the ground but did not see Nord. He promised her she could continue to tend the old people in the village as long as they stayed or until Lion awakened and had another plan. He would return before dark to escort her back to the cave but would find her gone at dusk.

  After the funeral she would go back to the cave, and hope Nord would not be too upset with her over this decision. She could not let the old people go to this gathering alone with no one to champion them. Anytime Lord Ludwig gathered villagers, the poor souls always paid dearly.

  As they passed the spot where her hovel had stood, she stopped and said a short prayer to the Goddess. She mourned the medicinals and the little shelter that Old Erma had shared with her all those years.

  That horrid Simon would be at this gathering, and she prayed for strength to fight him off. After what Nord had given her last
night, there was no way she would allow the sadistic Simon to touch her in any manner without defending herself. She would bide her time, then hurt him as soon as she could see a way to escape.

  They reached the spot where a large deep hole had been dug into the ground. The villagers stood in a small semi-circle around the hole, and watched as ten shroud-covered bodies were lowered into the hole, and placed on top of a thick pile of small dry branches.

  Ten? Rane had expected four.

  After the bodies were settled into their grave, Lord Ludwig came out of the hall flanked by four of his henchmen. They all looked to the sky, and Rane wondered what they were looking for. They came to the small gathering spot and began to grab villagers, placing them between each soldier with Rane and three others surrounding Ludwig.

  This did not bode well for the common people. She knew the villagers, of which she was one, were being used as shields. Shields from what, was the question.

  Lord Ludwig began his speech about the men. The list of virtues given to the dead was more appropriate for the death of holy men. Even as deluded as the lord seemed to be concerning the integrity of the dead, he spoke eloquently.

  As he named the dead, Rane gasped when he spoke of his love for his brother. She did not know the evil Simon was one of the shrouded bodies. The lord gave her a knowing look as if he thought she actually cared for the cruel man.

  If only he knew how happy she was deep inside the man would not continue to visit his cruelties on people any longer.

  Lord Ludwig tossed the first torch into the pit, and each of the soldiers also threw torches to aid the incineration of the bodies. The men gathered again around Ludwig and they walked back into the hall, leaving the villagers standing around wondering if they could go back to their homes.

  Della came from around the building, barely keeping herself upright, and she was carrying a small bundle of cloth. As she drew nearer, Rane could see the girl had been beaten badly. Her poor face was swollen, and one eye was swollen completely shut. The bruises and split skin showed the severity of the beating she had endured.