Over a breakfast of leftover rabbit, all of the men sat and talked, feeding her bits of gossip and information. Many of their observations had her laughing until her cheeks hurt. She had never enjoyed the company of men before and she was happy to be included.
Lion told her why they had come to Droildorf Hall. “The people are very respectful but jumpy. If I raise my voice the slightest, I swear I can hear their knees knocking together in fear. We have run out of room and if people keep flocking to the castle, we will run out of resources to feed and house them all.
“Since Droildorf was closest, I decided to pay the man a visit when my men did not return. I took down a few of the soldiers but one slipped up behind me with something hard and heavy. I woke up in the cave with Drago giving me nourishment.
“We now have three more halls to break to heel and then we can relax in the comfort of Tremble again. My plan is to have each of my most trusted men take the reins and rule the places. Each of them has unique gifts and talents, and I trust them with my life.”
Before we leave for the next hall, Nord and I must complete the bonding ceremony with you to keep you safe. I am sorry you did not understand the significance of the vows you gave to each of us. Truthfully you would be ours anyway if we had met under different circumstances. Our marriage was foretold many years before our time.
“Our country is old, older than any can remember. The sages have kept a living diary of the past and pass it down to the next generation when the time comes. I will tell the holy man to share our history with you sometime soon so you will understand what we are and what will happen.
“In my arrogance I found that even the most insignificant words coming from them are true and that I had better learn to decipher and act on every word from their lips. They warned me of the betrayal at Droildorf. They warned me about the bash in the head with a rock.
“They did not tell me that we would meet our wife on this journey, but I think of it as an added bonus. Now it is time to make our way home, I want to get there before darkness falls.”
****
Mouse came around the corner of the bend in the path running fast and almost slammed into Nord.
“A band of men are ahead perhaps a half mile from us. They are not of the friendly sort that I can see. They look like mercenaries and have two captives with them. Both of them appear to be hard used. The leader of the band just gutted one of his own men and left him to rot.”
Lion grinned, even his eyes showed his glee. This must be the band of miscreants who have been terrorizing the farmers and villages around Tremble Castle these past months. He rubbed his hands together as if they itched. Today was a good day to remove the cutthroat thieves from this world.
He gathered the men and Rane together and the plan unfolded.
Rane still felt as if she witnessed a miracle. Nord was in his bear animal form. He was a beautiful giant sized white bear, even larger than his human form. She stroked his soft fur and laid her head over him as she watched Hawk take wing and Mouse become the giant rat-like creature. His fur was as soft as a rabbit pelt and a light grey in color. His fangs dripped venom that would incapacitate his victim and render his prey unable to move for hours. Drago was a dream creature with his shiny scales and forked tail. The large brown eyes looked around the small party, then he flew off in the direction Mouse had come from.
Lion was the animal that had her most amazed. Where the giant man had stood, was now a beautiful giant striped orange and black cat. He lay on his belly for her to pull herself up onto so she could ride on his back. Her legs were splayed as wide as they could go for her to balance on the muscle covered wide back of the cat. Her hands were full of beautiful orange and black fur.
She had been warned before the transformations of men to animals and the changes she would see. Lion was primarily a cat animal that sported sharp spikes around his neck and a long blade over his spine. He would take on his Tiger battle cat for her comfort today.
They passed the body of the murdered mercenary and left it where it laid. By the time they caught up with the band of men it was well past midday and Rane was refreshed from a short nap on the furry pillow she rode on.
The men looked rough, and were laughing, making no effort at stealth because they had never been seen before. They preferred the cover of darkness to steal and terrorize. Rane watched as the men walked in twos and threes spread out across the path. One man in the middle of the trail looked back at the man behind him to joke and stopped in his tracks with his mouth wide open.
The man next to him turned to find out what the holdup was and cried out. His companions gasped as they saw a beautiful woman with long hair riding a huge cat. The fangs hanging from the beast’s mouth were longer than the knives the men carried. The cat’s head was taller than any of the men staring at the animal were.
“I am Rane, Mistress to the beasts of the Isle of Tremble. You may give up your weapons now and be taken to Tremble Castle for a fair trial. Or, you may attempt to fight my beasts. They will give no quarter to you once I unleash them on you. Each will die. What is your decision?”
Rane could plainly see they were planning to fight.
“What makes you believe we will give up because you are riding an overgrown cat? What are you, a witch?” The man who appeared to be the leader of the pack of thieves advanced toward her as the cat watched his every move.
“I will kill the beast and have you under me within a few minutes. You will pay for threatening men for no reason. I will teach you the place a female belongs. It is not riding around the countryside with your skirt above your knees pretending to be the mistress of beasts. The Lord Tremble must be soft to send a woman to do a man’s job. Is that it? Is that his secret? He does not have the guts for fighting himself, he sends a woman to fight his battles?”
Rane felt the tension in the muscles beneath her thighs. For the plan to work correctly she needed to draw as many of these men toward her as possible and as close as she could get them to come.
“I advise you to step no closer, my friend does not like you and when he does not like someone he lets them know in a very painful way. Again I advise you to put down your weapons and go to Tremble Castle to be tried for your crimes.”
The unwashed, overconfident thief came closer raising his sword. “No, witch, why don’t you and your cat join us, when we meet up with the rest tomorrow, you can tell us all we need to know about the lord of Tremble. We will swarm the castle as planned with the information we get from his personal witch and he will be defeated. Come, witch, we meet with the others at Rock Cross. You can come as my mistress or my slave. Pick wisely.”
He was finally close enough, and his followers were crowding in behind him cheering him on. The scream from the back of the small crowd pulled the leader’s attention for a second. Long enough for thick, white fur-covered paws to pluck her from the back of the cat and perch her high into a sturdy tree beside the path.
The huge rat was the only sight the leader of the mercenaries could see. The scream startled him into looking away from the witch. When he turned around she was gone and a huge paw swiped his head sideways, knocking him to the ground. His sword was gone somewhere in the bushes and the cat stepped on top of him heading to the fray between his men and the witch’s beasts. The rat sank his fangs into his arm, tearing at the flesh, and he felt his body seize. He could not turn his head or move his limbs. His arm was missing most of the flesh, but he did not feel it. The creature was chattering at him, but he could not understand what was said.
The sight of the great white bear was a wonder to him. A beast such as that was only to be found in children’s stories. Yet there was one here swiping its huge paws at his men, knocking them to the ground, some with sliced skin, some with missing body parts.
The hawk kept diving onto the heads of his men using its razor sharp talons to pluck the eyes out of their heads or yanking the hair on their heads. The men were so busy protecting their faces they did not see t
he Dragon swoop in closer to the ruffians. His claws tore at the heads and faces of the enemy in his attack. The leader of miscreants tried to close his eyes to the carnage, but the lids refused to obey his mind, and he was forced to witness the beasts decimate his band of eighteen men.
The battle between beast and mercenary man was short and bloody. Two mercenaries were left alive to tell the tale before they would be dispatched to the demons. The leader of the group and a smaller man who rolled himself into a ball, refusing to fight, were all that was left alive.
The two captives were led away from the scene by Mouse and Rane. Rane ran her hands above the woman and found her to be pregnant and in a great deal of pain from a dislocated shoulder and multiple rapes. The girl wanted no part of the large whiskered rat and kept whimpering in fear all the while Rane healed the worst of her injuries.
The man was blinded by his swollen shut eyes. He could not see what was going on and was afraid to voice his questions, not wanting to draw attention to himself. Rane went to him and told him to sit down while she tried to help him. The man tried to resist, but Mouse placed his front paws on the thin shoulders and pushed him to his knees.
The man was seriously in pain. He had been beaten and raped by the leader of the mercenaries and his men. The girl was his wife. The mercenaries had grabbed them as they were making their way to Tremble Castle from Gorgile Hall.
They told the tale of falling asleep by a pond, and awakening to the sight of a horde of men. When the husband attempted to defend his wife, they shamed him by making her watch, as he was used by man after man, and left in a heap tethered to a tree while they raped her. He felt ashamed that he had not fought the men to his death, but the girl reassured him he was no less of a man in her eyes, and they would never speak of it again.
Rane ran to Lion, and requested a favor in the ear of the large cat. The answer was given with a nod of his shaggy head and the prisoners were brought to where the former captives sat huddled together.
The man’s eyes were less swollen after Rane healed him, and he could see from small slits where the swelling had gone down. He looked from the cat to the small woman with awe, and accepted the short sword she offered to him with much dignity.
He approached the leader of the mercenaries and could only see the man’s laughing face as he taunted him with the knowledge that there was nothing to stop him from raping both him, and his woman.
He lifted the sword and hacked at the man with blow after blow of hatred. He didn’t stop until his wife came from behind and spoke to him, then placed her hand on his and took the sword. They moved away from the assemblage and sat under a tree, holding each other and crying together.
Chapter Eight
The last captive was blindfolded and forced to walk with the small party into the town of Tremble. All the men were back in human form and Rane was placed between Lion and Nord as they slowly made their way into the castle.
No fewer than five servants came rushing as soon as they realized Lord Tremble and his brother were home. Thankfully it was almost time for their evening meal. They were very hungry and devoured the abundant food set in front of them.
Lion got the attention of his housekeeper, Sivdjia. “Take our wife to my chambers and have a tub of water delivered for her to take a bath. Then have a seamstress meet with her to take measurements for gowns to cover her. I want you to pass the word along that she is ours. Anyone harming or hurting her for any reason forfeits their life should they treat her with less than the respect they give to me, or my brother. Her words are my words, do not forget.”
He turned to Rane. “You will go with Sivdjia and enjoy your hot bath. We will take care of some important business here and set guards and patrols to flush out the remaining traitors. In two days we travel to Gorgile Hall and reclaim the place.”
He laid a kiss on her lips then pulled away and walked off. Nord was shadowing him but took a moment to blow her a kiss.
Sivdjia led her into a beautiful room with two low couches and several large chairs. A bench sat by itself at the foot of the huge bed. Beautiful tapestries lined the walls of the room and Rane wanted to examine each of them. She would have stood looking at them all day if the housekeeper had not ushered her into a small bathing room through a curtained alcove. The room had a wooden seat ‘necessary’ that most dwellings had only heard of. No braving the cold night air for the occupants of this room.
The housekeeper smiled at Rane, and pulled a flat metal door in the wall opening revealing a four-inch hole in the wall above the large deep tub that appeared to be carved from white sparkling stone. She picked up a trough from behind the necessary, and placed it under the hole in the wall then yelled into the hole. Within seconds, steaming water sluiced down the trough into the tub and Rane squealed in delight.
Wasting no time Rane looked around to make certain she was alone with the housekeeper, and pulled her thin dress from her body, then stuck her toe into the water already filling the tub to the half way mark. The water was hot but welcoming to her sore muscles, and she thanked Sivdjia for her efforts as the water stopped, and the woman bent to help wash Rane’s hair.
The soap smelled heavenly. Not flowery, but more like fresh cut grasses and mint. Sivdjia left her to soak after wrapping her freshly washed hair in a length of cloth.
“I will be back in a short time, Lady, mind that you do not fall asleep in the tub. As small as you are you might drown, and I have no wish to be the one to tell the Lords Tremble that their mated wife had perished in her bath.” She flashed a dimpled smile at Rane and left the room.
Rane felt the day’s excitement leave her body as the hot water continued to leach the stress from her muscles. The memories of the past two weeks played over and over in her mind. The memories of the way both men had made her body sing and the way her heart nearly burst at just the sight of them made her squirm in the water.
She still wondered how either of them would fit his cock inside her body. She knew they would insert those cocks into her small pussy and felt a thrilling fear. It would hurt the first time. She knew that. Yet the question remained would it always hurt to take them into her body?
The water began to cool, so she stood in the tub and held onto the side as she stepped out and onto the stone floor. She wrapped her body in the clean, soft square of cloth and walked into the large bedroom.
Sivdjia was there with three women. All the women seemed friendly enough and the seamstress, who Sivdjia introduced as Olive, asked Rane to stand on the seat of the big wooden chair so she could measure her for new garments.
As she turned around at the woman’s request, her ears caught the muttered “her ass is wide and her tits rival the castle milk cows.” She whirled around on the chair to see Sivdjia slap the girl into the wall behind her. The girl who was now being yanked to her knees by the hair on her head was very slender, and obviously very young.
Rane wanted to tell the housekeeper to let the insult slide, but the child had to learn manners and respect. She was certain Lion would not put the girl to death over so small a transgression, but the girl had to learn to hold her tongue.
The seamstress looked frightened and the other girl never said a word. She shook her head in disgust and watched as Sivdjia held onto the girl’s hair and shook it every time she finished a sentence as if shaking her head painfully would settle the words into a lazy brain.
“This is the Lady Rane. She is the mated wife of the Lords Tremble. I have been given instructions that her every request and word be taken as if it was their words. I was also informed that any insult or injury to her would put the person at death’s icy door. Oriel, you have gone too far this time. Now you jealous little bitchling, do you still wish to insult one who has done nothing to garner your ire but exist?”
The girl shook her head. Sivdjia pulled her to the chair where Rane remained perched and yanked the girl’s head back to look at Rane.
It seemed the girl was not nearly as graceless as she first appeare
d to be. With tears swimming in her blue eyes she apologized prettily, if Rane had not seen the gleam of rebellion in her eyes, she might have taken the apology as it was said.
“I am sorry to have made an unfortunate jest concerning your attributes, Lady. Please accept my deepest apology.”
“No Oriel, I will not accept such an apology. It is obvious you do not mean one word you have said. Your only regret is that you were caught. I am not so grand a lady that I cannot bear a few insults issued by a child such as you. Yet Sivdjia is correct. You should feel fortunate the Lords Tremble did not hear your insults. They seem to treasure my wide ass and milk cow breasts.
“You need to learn manners and respect for other people. If your mother is here, I will wish to speak to her tomorrow. I do not wish to see you suffer, but you risk your life, and it would be a great loss to those who love you. I would wish for friends in this place rather than enemies.”
Rane nodded to Sivdjia who was watching in satisfaction as the new Lady of Tremble stated her opinions.
Olive, the seamstress, finished her measurements and promised to have a dress ready for the Lady before morning. Then gathered her measuring strings and pins, turned, and left the room.
Oriel and her sister, Madia, slipped quietly from the room also leaving Sivdjia with Rane. “Those two have in their heads the lords will take them to wife. They have tried everything including attempting to seduce Lion and Nord to entice them into marriage. You will get little help from their mother should she come to see you tomorrow because she is the one that helps them hatch their schemes.
“Everyone here knows the legend. They all know that your mating and marriage to the lords is set.” She sighed and helped Rane down from the chair. “Lord Tremble needs to wed them off to men who will keep them in line, and the further away from each other and their mother, the better for all of mankind.”
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