Well, it turned out that being orally raped and having my
nose broken was worth it. The info I was able to give to Alakath is more than
enough for his plan to work, or at least he said it is. I still don’t know how
he intends to relay it to the King, but he assured me that the King will
intervene, and maybe even shut down Jonah’s brothel.
Before you ask, yes, Alakath immediately noticed my broken
nose. It had started bleeding again while I was asleep, so the blood caught his
attention. He then noticed it was misshapen, so he fashioned a splint for it
with some stuff he kept in his pack. He said I need to take it easy while it
heals, but I think he knows I probably won’t be able to.
I think Alakath also noticed my lack of support for the
girls, because he gave me a few Furre and told me to go with Starlight to buy
her some underwear and myself some as well. I took her to the bath first, as I
believed that she probably wanted one. I also wanted to wash again already. I
just felt so dirty for some reason.
Our trip to the bath was interesting to say the least.
Unlike when I went earlier, the place was packed. I forgot that in the morning,
so many men go there that the attendants, in order to keep people moving, allow
certain men to bathe in the women’s area. These are usually guards and people
with reputations similar to Alakath.
When we arrived, the women’s area was half full, and it was
only men in there. This didn’t seem to bother Starlight, but it sure as hell
made me nervous. Fortunately, there was a corner that was devoid of anyone, so
we stripped down and eased into the water there. Aside from a couple sets of
wandering eyes, we were left alone for the most part.
Right as we were finishing rinsing ourselves, a young fox
came over to talk with us. I knew him fairly well, as it was common for us to
be in the bath at the same time. He always just asked how I was and other small
talk usually. Every now and then he’d ask if I’d heard anything about the relic
thing. He’s the one who tipped me off about the scholar.
I’m always hesitant to pass any info on, because although I
trust him, I don’t trust him enough to not go after it without at least
splitting any of the money he’d get for it with me. Yes, I know I plan on doing
the same, but that’s exactly why I don’t trust him when it comes to the relic.
It turned out, this was one of those times he wanted to talk
about the relic. He asked what I last heard about it and I told him the same
thing that I told him the last time: that the scholar didn’t know anything
about its location yet. Of course, I don’t really know that. I haven’t tailed
the scholar in a few weeks. I will again once this deal with Jonah is settled.
He then engaged me in his usual small talk, and seemed to
completely ignore Starlight. We talked for a little bit more before he went
back to the other side of the bath. Starlight and I then got out of the bath,
dried off and got dressed. When we walked out, the young fox’s eyes were glued
on me, which made me very uncomfortable.
Our trip to the clothes stand went without too much
incident. I was feeling really self-conscious, though. The splint wasn’t
exactly comfortable, and the fact that my boobs were bouncing freely with every
step wasn’t helping my feelings whatsoever. I knew that most of the guys
noticed this too, as nearly everyone who wasn’t staring at Starlight’s modest
tits were staring at my larger ones.
But we made it without any harassment, which I’ll count as a
victory. The girl at the stand, though, was a bit snarky with us as we walked
up. I guess she judged all braless women like that? The snarkiness diminished,
though, when I explained what we were after. She then looked each of us up and
down, I guess trying to eyeball our sizes, before reaching into a couple of
boxes and pulled out a package from each. She said she only had simple,
athletic wraps for bras at the moment (a luxury I had been trying to save up
for!) and matching colored thongs, also athletic in nature.
Alakath had given me just enough money to pay for them,
which was eight Furre. She handed me one package, which read “D/32” on it and
Starlight the other. I glanced at it and it said “C/28”. I guess these were the
sizes of what were in the packages. The girl told us that if we wanted to go
ahead and put them on, that we could slip into the alleyway behind her and put
them on in the darkness. I thanked her for the offer and proceeded with
Starlight into the alley.
We went just far enough to where the shadows of the
buildings concealed us enough to be discreet, but still able to see. We opened
the packages and I found mine would be a tight fit. Which was fine, because I
always wrapped my girls tightly anyway, although the girls spilled out a good
bit from it being a bit too tight. Anyway, we put on our new undies and got
redressed before returning to the street. The stand girl waved at us as we
began to head back towards the tavern.
We were about a block from the tavern when someone yanked me
and Starlight into an alleyway. I tried to yell out, but a paw was covering my
mouth, so whatever came out was muffled. I glanced at who had grabbed us and
saw that it was Johan and Berith. The big bear told us to be quiet, as Jonah’s
goons were at the tavern. Apparently, someone had tipped him off that that’s
where we were hiding.
Also, the General had called off the deal he had made with
Jonah. Instead, he also wanted to drag me into serving him as a slave, similar
to Eliza. One of his lackeys apparently had also found out our hiding spot, and
was also waiting for us there. When they said that, I couldn’t help but shudder
and start crying. Dammit, I hate being so emotional!
That’s when Berith told us that Alakath was trying to keep
them distracted to give me and Starlight time to get out of town for the time
being. Berith was going to escort us to his brother’s farm about a day’s hike
south of town. Straight through the heart of Bruumweild territory.
When he said that the farm was south of town, Starlight
started saying “No” over and over and over. Johan put a paw over her face and
told her to calm down. The Feral clan probably thought she was dead by now and
wouldn’t be looking for her. Although, if they passed one of their hunters by
chance, it was possible she would be recognized. Plus, with Berith there, it
was highly unlikely that they would attempt to do anything. She gulped and
agreed to go.
But I still wasn’t comfortable with the idea. I understood
that I needed to go somewhere where neither Jonah nor the General would consider
looking, but I didn’t feel like traveling with Berith was such as good idea. I
just didn’t know him well enough to trust him like Alakath does. I’d be more ok
with it if I were with Alakath I think, but not knowing Berith very well made
me uncomfortable going so far away to some stranger’s place. Plus I doubt
Berith’s brother would take us in for any amount of time for charity, he’d
likely want something in return.
I agreed to travel, though, since it really was my only
option. I only hoped that the long hike didn’t upset my broken nose any. Johan
nodded before he disappeared, likely going to his home to avoid Jonah’s thugs
or the lackey of the General. Starlight, who had been quiet all day, aside from
her spell of no’s earlier, asked if Alakath would be meeting us out there.
Berith could only respond with “If he’s able”. She then asked if we could try
to help him instead of running away, and Berith said this was Alakath’s idea to
begin with. I think she’s really gotten attached to him.
But after a few minutes, Berith finally convinced her that
this was the best plan. Berith commented, though, that the dress Starlight was
wearing would hinder our progress and recommended we get her a new outfit, one
more suitable to hiking long distances. Her dress was already sagging a bit at
the shoulders, likely from being worn for the past few days without end. He
told us to wait here in the alleyway and out of sight while he went and got her
something more suitable.
We sat down on the ground behind some crates that were
haphazardly stacked against a wall. I told her not to worry about Alakath so
much. That he’s one of the best swordsmen in town and everyone knows it.
Jonah’s thugs won’t dare actually attack him. He’s probably just trying to
convince them to turn on their boss. Ok, maybe I was trying to convince myself
as well that he was going to be ok.
Starlight just sighed and rested her head upon her knees. I
could tell she was crying, and seeing her cry made me start to tear up. I
placed my hand on her back to try and comfort her. She just kept crying. I
pulled her closer to me and rested my head on her shoulder. She still didn’t
stop crying and I started to cry myself. I don’t even know why, besides the
fact that she was. I don’t know how long we were like this.
Berith eventually returned, and his deep voice jerked us out
of our pity party. He tossed both of us packages. Starlight’s had a simple tank
top with shorts. The package he tossed me, though, had a leather vest and a new
dagger with a sheath. In fact, it was the same dagger I was going to get when I
could afford it. Its sheath was affixed to a belt that I could either wear over
the shoulder or around the waist, depending on the situation. I think my
expression gave away my confusion as to why he had bought me this.
He explained that he wouldn’t be able to stay there for
long, and that I needed to ensure our safety while he was gone. Until either
Alakath or himself could train Starlight how to wield a weapon, they had to
rely on me to protect her in their stead. I nervously asked who would protect
me, and he chuckled and said I would do for myself just fine. Then he said that
ultimately, Starlight and I would be protecting each other. But the hope was
that the isolation at his brother’s farm would suffice to keep us from harm.
With that, we began the long march to Strongmouth Farm.
Berith said we should be there by nightfall, if all goes smoothly. I just hoped
that it would, since I was tired of being shit on by fate. But fate must have
had diarrhea, since we’re camped out in the middle of the woods, not even
halfway there!
We made it about eight miles before shit happened. We were
in high spirits, the road was serene, quiet save for some birds and other
jungle life. Starlight stayed huddled close to Berith, which was understandable
since her prior captors hunted these parts, but even she was chipper the whole
time. That is until shit suddenly hit the fan.
We came around a particularly sharp bend in the path when
out of nowhere there was this commotion up ahead. Berith made us stop, then had
me sneak up ahead and see what was going on. I nodded and slunk into the brush
so I could stay hidden.
When I got close enough to make out what was going on, I was
stunned. There were about five feline Ferals attacking a duo of Huskies, one
male, the other female. The Ferals were using somewhat crude looking blades
whose edges were tinted a bit: a sign they were poisoned. The huskies were
standing back to back, swords drawn and shields up. The two appeared to be
young, but well trained, warriors, although neither were fully armored. The
male had on what appeared to be leather greaves while the female had just a
thong on. I wondered why they were so minimally covered, but they didn’t appear
concerned about it.
The Ferals were constantly lunging in, slicing at them. The
huskies blocked or parried every blow the Ferals gave, but I could tell that
the female husky was starting to fatigue. Her knees were starting to buckle
with some of the stronger swings from the Ferals. I quickly slipped back to
Berith and told him what was going on. He pulled his axes from their holsters
on his back and told me to stay with Starlight. With that, he let out a
ferocious roar and charged in.
Starlight commented that the two were likely trespassing on
a clan’s hunting grounds. Although this area is claimed by the Bruumweild, none
of that clan are feline. The one feline clan she was aware of, the Vanja clan,
were known to pursue trespassers until they had killed them. They also always
used poisoned blades. And unlike the Bruumweild, the Vanja never took male
prisoners. Only females.
After a few minutes, the clanging of blades stopped. We
expected Berith to return, but instead the female husky came around the bend.
She said that our friend, meaning Berith, needed to be rushed to the nearest
hospital… which was in Maidenhelm of course… and she needed help moving him.
Both me and Starlight followed her.
What we saw would have been traumatizing if I had never seen
anything like it before. Fuck it, it still is! The path was strewn with blood
and entrails, most of which belonged to the now dead Ferals. Berith was
kneeling down, tying a scrap of clothing from one of them around his leg, where
one of them had managed to slice him. The male husky laid dead, his throat
slashed open wide. A poisoned blade was jutting from his chest where the heart
was.
The female husky and I ran over to where Berith was
kneeling. He was just starting to stand up on his own when we got to him. His
sweat was plainly visible, even through his fluffy fur. It was obvious the
poison was already affecting him. He said he’d be fine to return to Maidenhelm
by himself, it wasn’t the first time he had been cut by Vanja blades. But he needed
to make sure we got to his brother’s farm safely.
The husky, who introduced herself as Gladia Rosebud, said
that it was best if we all traveled as a group back, because she feared that
those five weren’t the only ones around. Berith huffed and told her to cover
her tits if she was going back with him. She said that her clothes and armor
were by a stream a mile and a half to our left and she wasn’t going to risk her
life for it just for the sake of modesty. I said she could have my shirt I was
wearing under the vest. She sighed before agreeing to that. So I turned away
from Berith, forgetting that I had on the wrap under my shirt (I didn’t want
him seeing the girls!), took off the vest and shirt, which I passed to her
before putting the vest back on.
She had put the shirt on by the time I had turned around,
then we set off back towards Maidenhelm. The trek back was quick, and tiring,
but (thankfully) without any incident. Berith was sweating profusely by the
time we got there, more from the poison than the effort from moving at the pace
we were. Before we emerged from the treeline, Berith bade me and Starlight to
stay put, and asked Gladia to stay with us. She nodded and propped up against a
tree as we watched him walk towards the gate.
Once he was out of earshot, she said that she was thankful
for his help. She said that right before Berith charged the Ferals, one had
managed to slice her brother’s throat and she only would have been able to hold
them off for a couple more minutes before they would have overwhelmed her. I
think it was just starting to sink in that her brother was gone forever, as she
started jerking before completely breaking down into full on sobbing.
I walked over and knelt beside her and pulled her into a
hug. She just nuzzled into my neck as she continued to cry uncontrollably.
Starlight came over and knelt behind her and began rubbing her back, before
leaning in to hug her herself. We stayed like this for quite some time, as
Gladia couldn’t regain any form of composure.
Finally, though, she settled down and just whispered “thank
you” before slowly staggering to her feet. Starlight asked what had brought
them to the area, and Gladia sighed. She said they were looking for a relic
called the “Eye of Vanja’s Bane”. The same relic I’m slowly gathering info on!
Anyway, she and her brother heard it was somewhere in the jungles surrounding
Maidenhelm and went to investigate. They had stopped to bathe and cool off for
a bit when the Ferals pounced on them. They fled until they found stable ground
before turning to defend themselves, having had just enough time to grab sword
and shield.
They had held their ground for quite some time before one
managed to slip past her brother’s defense and Berith showed up. Berith made
quick work of them, but not before taking a slice in the leg himself. It was
Berith who plunged the Vanja blade into her brother’s heart, in order to bring
his death more quickly and mercifully. And at that point, she was there with us
and unsure of what to do moving onward.
I offered to let her come with us, as she was more combat
experienced the either me or Starlight, and our numbers would offset our
disparities in experience. She smiled at that, and nodded. She said she needed
to pass the news on to family, but we could do that as a group. Her family was
in Drayden’s Burrow, a town nearly eight days walk away, and she would enjoy
the company on such a long journey.
After that, we sat about and waited on Berith to come back,
which he eventually did. His leg was bandaged, but he didn’t show any signs of
having been poisoned. As he got to where we were, he just motioned for us to
come along and kept going. Gladia asked if he was ok, to which he replied that
he’ll be fine once we get going good. The effects of the poison were neutralized,
but the poison itself still needed to be worked out of his system. And he aimed
to sweat it out.
The pace we took was brutal! I was completely out of breath
by the time we got back to where we were before. He had us stop for a bit while
he took the time to give Gladia’s brother a semi-proper burial. Only the lack
of ceremony, though, made it improper in any way. Once he had finished that, he
bade us move on again, at that same brutal pace.
I was struggling to keep up as we moved along the path. My
short, chubby legs were quickly feeling like strings of jelly trying to hold up
heavy lead weights. I think Gladia at one point had literally grabbed me by the
vest and was dragging me along, and did so without slowing down at all! It
turns out, Starlight was also struggling, and Berith had slung her over his
shoulder and continued to march as if it were nothing. She actually appeared to
be unconscious even.
I heard Gladia talking, but I couldn’t make out any of it.
Berith was responding, but I also couldn’t understand what he was saying. My
vision was getting blurred, and I knew I wasn’t far from passing out. My legs
were becoming less and less responsive…
Next thing I knew, I was bouncing along, face rubbing
against Gladia’s ass, my nose bleeding. It was completely dark as well. I
didn’t see any torchlight, but I knew Gladia could probably see, being a husky.
I didn’t see Berith initially, but I felt a giant hand on my lower back. He and
Gladia were also talking, apparently about where we were going to rest for the
night. Berith insisted we were about a mile from a clearing we could set camp
for the night. We’d be there in a few minutes. Gladia said something about him
not carrying a sack of potatoes like she was, and I couldn’t help but elbow her
in the side.
She actually laughed at that, before commenting that I was
finally awake again. But she continued carrying me. I knew better than to start
squirming, as that would make her drop me. Instead, I asked how long was I out.
Berith said about four hours. It was only as dark as it was because we were in
the heart of the jungle. He then said that we were close to a glade that he
planned on us setting up camp in.
Almost on que, there was light from the twilight sky
providing a little light, enough for me to see that had I even propped myself
up, I would have found my face in Berith’s crotch. Glad I had the sense to not
do that lol.
With very little warning, Gladia set me down on my feet,
which barely had the strength to hold me up. She placed her hands on my sides to
help steady me, as I was very wobbly. Berith kept walking with Starlight over
his shoulder until he was at the approximate center of the glade. Slowly,
Gladia and I made our way over to where he had just laid Starlight down. I
don’t know how I didn’t notice earlier, I guess because her fur hid them, but I
noticed several cuts along her arms and upper torso. Most of which had been
stitched, and some of which had come open along the way, as her fur had
splotches of blood by some of the cuts. I guess the pace was too much for her
injuries.
After Berith covered her with a blanket he dug out of his
pack, he ventured off around the glade, picking up an assortment of limbs that
could be used for a fire. Gladia told me to keep an eye on Starlight while she
helped him gather wood. I sat next to her and rested my hand on her shoulder.
She was a little cold to the touch, which to me was odd for it being a warm
summer evening. I guess the blood loss played a role in that.
She was shivering the entire time they were gone, but it
wasn’t long before Berith was back with a huge load of wood in his arms. He
dropped it on the ground and immediately set about lighting it. A few minutes
later, he had a slow burning fire going. Enough to cook a simple meal on and
keep Starlight warm. Also enough for me to have the light to write. Gladia
returned shortly afterwards and contributed her significantly smaller pile to
the burning wood. Here’s hoping that Starlight is ok at the end of the night…