by J. Hepburn
Helgaer attacked while Camille was still stepping backwards, catching her wrong-footed and pressed her backwards. Camille cut Helgaer's first attack to one side but found her riposte counter-attacked. Helgaer continued pressing as Camille retreated in a wide circle to stay in the clearing as she tried to keep Helgaer's sword off her arm or body.
Helgaer finally broke through as a stone turned under Camille's foot, pulling the attack at the last second to tap lightly between Camille's breasts.
Camille staggered, looking ungainly for a brief second before finding her balance again.
She saluted with genuine respect.
When they closed again, it was Camille who tried to press an advantage, her lighter sword flickering around Helgaer's but never managing to dodge it entirely. Helgaer made Camille leap sideways with an occasional probing counter-attack, but Camille was quicker on her feet this time and did not let up. She barely seemed to use the same technique twice, but she found Helgaer's short, direct movements, although they seemed so easy to evade, impossible to escape.
A look of disbelief crossed Camille's face for an instant as Helgaer managed at last to cut at her wrist, numbing Camille's fingers.
They stood in silence for a while, both breathing easily, as Camille massaged her wrist.
"Again," Camille said when she was ready.
They cut back and forth a few times before Helgaer struck Camille's sword so hard, with what seemed just a flick of her own wrist, that Camille lost her grip long enough for Helgaer to lightly tap her on the side of her neck.
"How long was Tola teaching you?" Camille asked as she found her water skin.
"Everyone in Vreeland learns to fight." She had sparred without expression or any emotion, but there was definite amusement in Helgaer's voice now.
Camille shook her head as she replaced the skin's stopper. "With staves, you said."
Helgaer held her sword up to examine it, lightly turning the grip in her hand. "They are not so different. How long were the Gharaj teaching you?"
"Four months, but after them, I have had lessons from hunters and my friends in the village. I thought I could look out for myself." She shook her head again. "How hard are you trying?"
Helgaer merely grinned at her.
They squared up again. This time, Helgaer knew she had Camille's measure. She could not see an easy opening all the time, but she knew she could weather any of Camille's attacks and find a way through. Without having to use her left arm, her wound was not paining her much. She broke through Camille's attack three more times before Camille conceded.
"I thought I would be able to teach you something," Camille said, staring at Helgaer with a mixture of respect and disbelief.
"There is much you would be able to teach me about the bow, and you have been teaching me even more about hunting."
Camille shook her head. "You fought with your brother when you were children, didn't you?"
"I always beat him then, as well."
"Did you ever manage to beat Tola? Fairly?"
Helgaer shook her head, her triumphant grin gone. "Only while wrestling. Never with any sort of weapon."
"By the gods. Yet you hope to take revenge on her killers."
"That is why we will have to kill them one by one."
"Well, I'm glad I could teach you something, then."
Helgaer nodded gravely. "When we find him."
Camille only frowned at that.
They were silent for a little while, each alone with her own thoughts. Helgaer studied Camille while Camille stalked to the edge of the clearing to look out across the forest. "You must get lonely, living there."
Camille hesitated a heartbeat too long before answering. "Living alone suits me. People have not treated me well."
"People are like wolves, always searching for a pack when they don't have one."
"Oh, I thought you were going to say they were dangerous, territorial and had valuable skins."
Helgaer did not laugh. She stepped up to Camille, who seemed suddenly wary.
"I know the look on your face. I saw it in Tola. She admitted it to me, not long before she died. You pride your loneliness, but you desire company."
"You think I helped you because I was lonely?"
"I think you helped me while you were lonely. No man or woman can know her own mind fully."
Camille cocked her head on one side. "You put great stock in destiny and obligations. Why do you care about my destiny?"
Helgaer shook her head in frustration. "Because, for at least a little while, I am part of it. You say I put great stock in obligations. I do. You saved my life. Even if you just did it to kill bandits, that is important. In a storm, even enemies are friends."
"The Gharaj have a saying: The enemy of my enemy is my friend. But you have to choose which one is your enemy."
"People can put aside their quarrels. The weather is not so considerate. Make your decision when the skies are clear again."
"But Captain Koda?"
"He dies before I seek shelter. Vengeance is more important than personal concerns."
Camille appeared about to say something, but did not. She raised an eyebrow. "You are part of my destiny?"
Helgaer raised her own eyebrow.
Camille waited until it became clear that Helgaer was waiting for her. Then, she kissed Helgaer.
All of Camille's self-control seemed to be unleashed. Without stopping the kiss, she started scrabbling at Helgaer's belt.
After six months with Tola, Helgaer was no stranger to passion outdoors. With awareness born from habit, she steered Camille towards a flatter patch of ground.
Camille dropped Helgaer's belt, then pushed up her shirt. Helgaer pulled it off, still wincing as her left arm rose too high, as Camille's mouth pressed into the skin over her belly.
Camille moved up, lapping at Helgaer's sweat. She made a frustrated sound when she encountered the breast binding, then dropped back down towards Helgaer's waist.
Helgaer dropped her shirt carefully behind her while Camille untied her pants. She stopped Camille long enough to lie down.
Helgaer's wolf-skin pants were too thick to slide far down her legs. Neither of them cared to spend the time unlacing her boots.
Helgaer impatiently reached down to pull Camille up towards her.
Camille ducked under Helgaer's hands. She knelt over Helgaer's legs, pinning them down. Helgaer's head dropped back to the ground, her hands going automatically to her tightly bound breasts.
Camille had enough access for her tongue to wet along the outer lips of Helgaer's kunta, then probe between them. Helgaer moved her hands to under her buttocks, lifting her hips up towards Camille's mouth.
With her saliva adding to Helgaer's own growing lubrication, Camille wriggled two fingers inside Helgaer's kunta, wetting them thoroughly and then working them in and out until they moved easily.
Helgaer closed her eyes and tried to relax.
Camille's persistence almost overshadowed her skill. Helgaer was sure she would have no trouble finding a climax from Camille's relentless stimulation alone, but there was a subtlety in the way Camille used her fingers and her tongue that exceeded what Helgaer knew how to do to herself.
She didn't shout—she was too used to hiding herself to be loud—but the muscles in her neck and jaw bulged and she arched off the ground between her feet and her shoulders.
Camille sat up, licking her fingers clean. Helgaer grabbed her arm. She tried to pull away, but not even she was a match for Helgaer's strength.
Helgaer held Camille against her, on her right side, staring into her face.
"You do not want to take pleasure."
Camille froze.
"Tell me," Helgaer said. "I will not force you, but I would like to know." She let her arm relax, so Camille could leave if she wanted to.
Camille started pushing away, but the expression on Helgaer's face seemed to make her slump. She sagged, her head dropping to Helgaer's shoulder.
&nb
sp; "I can't trust it."
Helgaer felt moved to gently stroke her hair, but said nothing.
"Katrin taught me that. She didn't mean to, but she taught me a lot without meaning to. I realised, before anything else, that she only ever pleasured me to catch me and then to keep me. She lost interest in my pleasure early on. Whenever she deigned to let me enjoy my body instead of hers, she lost interest in me almost immediately. Do you know what being left like that feels like?"
"No."
Camille's hand had slid up Helgaer's body, but seemed to lose interest when it encountered the binding flattening her breasts against her chest. It slid back down to tickle the thick hair at the top of Helgaer's kunta.
"You are not the first woman I have lain with since Katrin. Never more than once and only while travelling. I have never taken my pleasure from them. Only given."
Camille paused, but Helgaer said nothing.
"I met a woman once, a matriarch of a respectable family. We both ended up frustrated. Neither of us would submit to the other. I think she would not have respected me as much as she did if I had given in."
"Not everything should be a fight."
Camille twisted around until she could stare Helgaer in the face. "You say that?"
Helgaer grinned back disarmingly. "Oh, I won't try and claim Tola and I didn't treat it as wrestling, but we were happy to lose."
Camille snorted and dropped back down to her place on Helgaer's shoulder.
"'Pleasure'," Helgaer mused. "We call it the brief death."
Camille froze for a second. "Your people think death is glorious."
Helgaer grinned. "Yes."
Camille laughed, just enough for Helgaer to feel it against her body.
*~*~*
On the way back to the cabin, over different paths, Helgaer killed a pheasant with her sling.
Helgaer prepared food while Camille checked and adjusted the wolf skin, then prepared some feathers for arrows.
Camille changed Helgaer's dressing. She also untied Helgaer's breast binding. Helgaer nearly protested, but did not let it get past her lips.
Helgaer put the farmer's linen shirt on for the cold, but took her time and let Camille see her.
She did not feel self-conscious about the way the linen showed her breasts, or about her nipples becoming visible as the air cooled.
When they went to bed, there was no suggestion that Camille would sleep on the furs.
Helgaer took her boots off quickly. Camille removed her shoes.
Camille was kneeling on the side of the bed, about to blow out the last candle where it sat on the table when Helgaer stopped her.
"Undress."
Whatever Camille was about to say died in her throat when she saw Helgaer's expression.
They both stood very still for a long time before Camille slowly pulled her shirt over her head.
Helgaer's hands wrapped around Camille's rib cage. She pulled them together, kissing Camille lightly and slowly, lingering on her lips until she felt Camille relax.
Her mouth followed the line of Camille's jaw to her neck, then down to one shoulder. She moved down, bending forwards and hunching her back, her lips alone touching Camille's skin until they sealed over a nipple. She sucked it into her mouth, her teeth closed gently over it, and her tongue massaging it.
Camille shuddered, letting out a groan that was equally desire, release and relief.
Helgaer's hands, which had stayed on Camille's shoulder blades, slid down her back tenderly to her waist. Her mouth moved across, giving exactly the same treatment to the other nipple.
Camille's hands crept up to Helgaer's shoulders. She made a frustrated sound when she encountered cloth.
Helgaer quickly pulled off her shirt, but did not untie her pants. She untied Camille's hose instead while Camille's hands slid down to cradle and squeeze Helgaer's breasts.
Helgaer pushed Camille's hose off her hips, then loosed her braies, not reacting as Camille's thumbs began to tease her nipples.
Helgaer gently but firmly pushed Camille onto her back before pulling off hose and braies together.
Helgaer was gentle and light. She did not push Camille's limits, not trying to penetrate her even with the tip of her tongue, but was persistent. Her hands roamed over Camille's thighs, her belly and waist, and over the barely-there softer texture of her breasts. Helgaer's fingertips were more assertive on Camille's nipples. Her tongue did not stop moving, all the while exhibiting a defter and more clever touch than Camille had been expecting.
Camille did not relax easily. She fought her own pleasure unconsciously even while she willed herself to relax and accept this. Eventually, Helgaer's patience and persistence won out.
Camille shouted, grabbing Helgaer's head as her hips bucked several times. She screamed. She pressed Helgaer's face against her, seeking as much pleasure as she could get, then her legs came up and she trapped Helgaer's head between her thighs, squeezing for several long seconds before she suddenly went limp.
Helgaer slid up the bed gently, favouring her side, but now moving easily despite it. She rolled Camille towards her, into a hug. Camille's uppermost arm and leg wrapped around her.
Camille held Helgaer tightly, body jerking a couple of times as she did not quite cry.
"It's like lying with a wolf," Camille said eventually, muffled against Helgaer's shoulder.
Helgaer, grinning, untied her pants. Together, they worked the heavy fur down her legs until she could kick them off. Somehow, without breaking the hug, they managed to pull the woollen blanket over them.
"What can you hunt?"
Helgaer stared at Camille in surprise.
Two days had passed. They were sharing the bed without nervousness or shyness. Helgaer had ventured out into the forest alone, finding her way back to the hut without difficulty. Camille had shot a small boar, an animal with delicious flesh and valuable skin, but so much aggression she had needed two shafts to kill it.
She was repairing arrows now, stripping off damaged feathers and replacing them with pheasant. She had cleaned and cut the feathers while they sat outside the hut in companionable silence enjoying the sunrise. Now she was binding them onto the shafts with sure and nimble fingers while Helgaer stood one side of the clearing sending a constant stream of small stones into the dead centre of a target on the other side.
Camille looked at Helgaer after asking the question, her fingers finishing an arrow without her apparently needing to pay attention.
Helgaer collected her thoughts. "Birds I can kill easily. Foxes or rabbits, if I catch them by surprise. I'm used to trapping squirrels in trees, and in the mountains we have a ground-dwelling squirrel that can be caught with traps set for hares."
"Nothing large."
"I never did get the hang of a bow." Helgaer was still feeling unsettled by Camille's tendency to bluntness.
"Did you ever bind your breasts while shooting?"
Helgaer blinked in surprise. She had to think about that for a second. "No."
Camille put down the arrow she had finished before walking into the hut. She returned with an old quiver of second-rate arrows and one of her older, plainer bows.
Helgaer took a deep breath. "Camille–"
"Try. I will insist until you do."
Helgaer relented. She took the bow but drew just one arrow from the quiver.
Camille said nothing as Helgaer settled the grip in her hand before nocking the arrow.
Helgaer turned towards the target, tried to remember everything she had been taught, took a deep breath, then raised the bow.
She only drew it halfway before she hissed and released, dropped her right hand instantly to her wound. The arrow skidded along the ground without reaching the target, but the line was not bad.
Camille leapt forwards, dropping the quiver.
"I'm alright," Helgaer said quickly. "It pulled sharply, is all."
"Let me check."
"It feels fine."
Camille gave Hel
gaer a look that Helgaer was learning to recognise.
She walked over to the bench, pulling off the old farmer's shirt.
Camille unwrapped her quickly. The wound was no longer scabbed. Fresh, pink skin was building a wide, thick scar. There was no fresh blood.
"I think I will leave the binding off while you stay here," Camille said slowly. "Your skin needs to breathe. Put it back on if you leave the clearing or do your sword practice."
Helgaer sighed. Even good healing was a sign that she was still carrying a handicap.
Camille heard the sigh. She looked up at Helgaer, her eyes hooded and her hand lingering on Helgaer's skin. "You expect too much of yourself."
"You have told me that before." Helgaer's tone bore a touch of sullenness, but she did not pull away from Camille's hand or put the shirt back on.
"It is still true."
Helgaer's face was unreadable as she stared across the clearing. Camille kept her hand on Helgaer's side, just under the wound.
They were both silent until Camille felt moved to break it. "I am worried your body will fail you in the middle of a fight."
The ghost of a smile appeared on Helgaer's lips. "My body has not failed me so far, if I listen to it."
Camille froze for several heartbeats before jerking her hand back, making Helgaer smile more broadly. "Make sure you are listening with the parts of you that matter, not just the parts that speak loudest," Camille snapped.
Helgaer laughed, the carefree and joyous bark of Vreelander pleasure. She pushed herself upright, walking slowly into the clearing with her shirt hanging casually from her hand.
Camille looked after her speculatively and, she had to admit, appreciatively. There was fat under Helgaer's skin, as her people needed, but it did not hide the hard musculature that wrapped her torso, shoulders and arms. Vreelander men Camille had met had reminded her of bears, they were so stocky and thickly bearded. Helgaer looked like an alpha wolf. Her shoulders were wide, her body tapered to a narrow waist above broad hips, and she moved with the rolling, casually strong gait of an animal. Camille had no doubt at all that uninjured, Helgaer would be able to run all day and then fight to prove her honour.