Chapter 15: Bandits
“What on DROMIN are you doing?”
The surprised voice cut through my reverie like a knife and I jolted awake to find Asha’s hand around my cock, apparently trying to massage my soul through my balls and into her palms. The sensation would have been heavenly except for the blonde Knight, sitting aghast at her bedroll across from us with a horrified look on her face.
Erica rolled across and kissed me as I felt my cock deflating after my orgasm. My dream with Bambinae had obviously played out in real time as well and when Erica withdrew, smiling with a lovesick grin, I looked over to Asha who had my cum dripping between her fingers.
“Good morning, Master,” she cooed gently and then got up nonchalantly to wash her hands. Erica, on the other hand, whispered into my ear.
“My turn next time.”
Laura was beside herself with embarrassment and anger. “Did you really order them to wake you like that?”
I laid my head back on my bedroll as I came down from my orgasm. My cock was still out and on full display, but I didn’t care at this stage. It wasn’t anything that Laura hadn’t seen when she first found me, or the next morning. The dream blowjob from Bambinae was amazing. Mind-blowingly amazing. But she was right, Asha had made a mistake and I had no idea how to deal with it. I’d technically given my consent to her last night, though granted I thought she’d take a little longer to exercise it. But in front of the other two girls? I wasn’t angry with her… how could I be? But she couldn’t have picked a worse time to demonstrate her submissive streak. I’d have to address it later. For now, there was Laura.
“Answer me!” the knight insisted.
My brain finally registered what she had asked. “No, of course not!” I objected, pulling up my pants.
“Master would never order Asha to do that. It was her choice!” Erica started indignantly, but Asha chuckled and cut her off.
“Well... it was definitely my pleasure,” she said... “but he did order me to.”
That’s not what I meant! The mischievous elf had twisted my words. It was beginning to look like she was only submissive if I gave the right commands.
“I said I’d leave the decision up to you!” I protested, and realised as the words left my mouth that I wasn’t making the situation better.
Laura shot me a look and I could swear she was about to grab her sword when Asha knelt down next to her and whispered in her ear. I watched the blonde knight’s eyes go wide in shock and her cheeks redden in embarrassment. “You... you actually like...” she couldn’t even finish the sentence, but Asha grinned and giggled as she nodded.
Erica piped up from next to me. “Laura, I know you are trying to protect us, and we appreciate it... we really do. But please understand... we want a relationship with Master. He’s so muscular and manly, but also sweet and respectful. And he’s the champion of the Goddess of Fertility! When you consider our options were to be the third wife of some old ugly man in our village... we want this more than you could know.”
Laura sighed and looked at me. There was a long pause as she glanced between the girls, my now deflating cock and then the fire. She seemed to be considering something before she shook her head in disbelief and muttered. “I hope you realise how lucky you are... right?”
I nodded and chuckled. “I’m going with... luckiest guy alive?”
Laura rolled her eyes. “Sounds about right. Now are you finished fucking him? Because we have shit to do.”
“We’re done.” Erica smirked. “For now. What should we do, Master?”
I shrugged my shoulders and covered myself up. “Ask Laura. She’s the expert in this kind of thing. I never needed to do any of this stuff before.”
Laura frowned. “You said you were a music teacher... but surely you had to camp whilst travelling?”
I shook my head. “In my world we could travel vast distances in mere hours. We never needed to set up a camp. Unless of course you wanted to. People went camping for fun. But I never understood that.”
The trio of women were stunned. Laura quickly checked skills that I possessed that would be useful in a wilderness scenario and the very short list left me feeling pretty useless. Asha and Erica could hunt and skin wild game, Laura had decent carpentry skills from being taught how to construct defences and field stretchers. I had a lot of theoretical knowledge, but after Laura’s line of questioning I quickly realised that if I didn’t have these three at my side would have rapidly gotten lost and starved to death or died from exposure.
“So you can light a fire and cook. You can fight. You can heal.” Laura surmised. “But anything outside of that we need to teach you.”
I grimaced. “Yeah... sorry... but I’m a fast learner. I can pick up skills pretty quickly.”
“Well there’s that at least. Let’s break camp.” Laura started to pull her gambeson over her slip. “Whilst I won’t wear my insignia, we’re going to need to wear armour. We will probably be stopped on the road unless we look formidable. Girls, help Mathew put on that set of armour there.”
We broke camp and the girls took delight in dressing me up like a knight. It wasn’t full plate armour, but it was functional. There was a gambeson, a thigh-length chainmail hauberk, a breastplate and pauldrons, and knee-high leather boots. It was topped off with a sallet-style helm with a visor that could be flicked up when not in use. All in all, it was heavy, but still quite comfortable. And in the cold air, it was beautifully warm.
Finally, they strapped my sword to my belt and the girls stood back and admired me.
“My Knight in shining armour...” Erica cooed and she lifted my visor and kissed me.
Laura stood up, having easily managed her own armour in the same amount of time, and looked at me approvingly. “Well at least he looks the part.”
So, after everything was ready, we led the four horses about a kilometre back onto the road and began our journey towards Westfall again. I didn’t know what to expect. I knew from my history books that cities could be as little as 5000 people, and if we were still only about three days away, I would expect more outlying villages and towns if it was much bigger than that. However, as it appeared, the small village we had come from was one of the largest in the region, and it couldn’t have held more than 500 people.
Asha and Erica explained that their father only made the trip to Westfall once a year, after the harvest and that other farmers would make similar journeys at other times of the year, depending on what they produced. From their description, it seemed like the city held 8000 or thereabouts, with most of the satellite villages and towns being east of the city, the direction most of the trade went.
That made sense to me. A small village out of the way of the major trade routes and mostly subsistence farming and small-scale export, wouldn’t draw the attention of raiders and brigands, which would explain the lack of defensive wall around the small village.
Asha did recall that there was a small hamlet a day away from the city which acted as a resupply hub for hunters and trackers. Laura also remembered passing through it on her way to attack the Necromancer, and she frowned.
“There’s an Inn and a resupply post. That’s about it. And there is a roughness about it that could work against us. Those sorts of border villages are great resupply for brigands too.”
The day progressed calmly, and whilst it wasn’t my idea of a great time, the company was good and the conversation flowed readily. Laura used the day to fill me in on what she knew about the law of Grixoninia and how it was governed. Crime and punishment were pretty much handled at a local level throughout each town and small village. They still followed the ‘hue and cry’ model of catching criminals, ascertaining guilt and delivering punishments were meted out by a local sheriff.
It seemed therefore, especially in towns, that guilt was presumed before innocence and the local sheriff held a lot of power and influence over how severe the punishments could be.
In the cities, the city watch took over from the hue and cry as soon as they were roused, and the apprehended was judged by a magistrate. I could tell that, in Laura’s opinion at least, they weren’t the most honest of people.
“So basically, if you’re caught committing a crime, or you are suspected of committing a crime, you’re going to be fined, flogged or maimed at the very least as some sort of punishment?”
“Yes. And if you resist arrest, any lawful officer is allowed to use lethal force to detain, or just outright kill you.”
Asha piped up from behind me. “It’s why I surrendered so quickly when the knights found me trying to leave our village. If I ran, they would be allowed to kill me.”
Laura’s face darkened. “But that would have drawn the attention of the village and complaints may have been made. They wanted to wait until there was no expectation of you coming back. Bastards,” she added the final word, spitting into the dirt.
“So the Iron Shield are given authority over mages in cases of law, but in all other matters, the city watch and magistrate control crime and punishment, with the Lord’s personal Knights being able to intercede where they see fit, acting on behalf of the Lord.
Then at a higher level, a King’s emissary may overrule a local Lord if they deem it necessary, but it causes political tension, so it’s not something done lightly.”
I followed her summary and knitted my brow in thought. “I understand, hmm. Well then, there are plenty of common threads to my world there, but from about 800 years back in time. I read a lot about the society and life in the middle ages, so hopefully I won’t make too many mistakes.”
We had stopped for a break and had spread out and around the shade of a large tree when we were approached by a man who seemed to melt out of the forest. He approached calmly and non-threateningly, but Laura instantly stood, wary, and I appreciated her suspicions. This was not a friendly individual, no matter his demeanour.
He was dressed in cloth and torn fabrics, all of which had seen heavy use and abuse in the forest. He had tanned leather belts that held pouches and, I noted, at least three knives of various sorts in easy to draw positions. His boots looked new, something hard to miss considering the condition of the rest of his outfit and, as he smiled, I noted he was missing several teeth.
“AH... Good people...” he started, leering at the twins and eying Laura’s sword as if appraising whether she knew how to use it. “I was wondering if you could spare me a small morsel? I’ve been foraging already a day and a half, since brigands left me with nothing, and I'm understandably hungry.”
I nodded, despite our collective impressions, and got to my feet. I pulled a pouch from my satchel and threw the man the bag of dried and salted meat. “There you go. Generosity is important; let no man eat whilst another starves.” The words flew from my lips like it was Bambinae speaking through my mouth. I couldn’t explain it, but I somehow knew this from her scripture.
The man caught the bag with surprise as Laura approached me and whispered.
“What are you doing? Surely you realise he’s a bandit scoping us out? We need to put on a show of force, or he’ll bring his friends and try to rob us.”
I smiled and patted her pauldron kindly. “Bambinae wants us to be kind first. Sure, it might make us vulnerable, but she will protect us and honour our decisions to be kind. Trust her.”
I could tell she didn’t understand, not at first, but something I said must have gotten through to her, because she nodded in agreement and I moved forward to the curious man.
“You asked for my help. You wanted food, I gave you a day’s jerky. We have a water skin you can take, beyond that we cannot help you.”
He eyed our horses and the girls with interest, and the way he seemed to look at them both the same made my blood boil.
“I know what you’re doing. And I know what you’re planning.” I said quietly, stepping closer and dropping my voice. “Take what has been freely given. I have been kind to you. Kindness is stronger than steel. Do not mistake my kindness for weakness.”
The man snarled and jumped away from me. “Thanks for the jerky. I best be off.” And he wandered into the forest again, disappearing from sight.
Laura frowned at the situation. “Rest is over, time to move.”
I wholeheartedly agreed.
It was late in the evening when we made camp. We wanted to push through as fast as we could to make it harder for whatever bandit group was in the area to set up for an ambush. The atmosphere was tense. In the back of my mind, I was thinking about how unprepared we were for this kind of thing. Laura could defend herself, she had armour and a decent sword and enough skill that in a fight against three of her fellow knights, she’d still killed one of them before she’d been subdued. I considered her the most capable fighter of the two of us. I could grapple, and maybe I would be able to use Bambinae’s power against the bandits, but if I ran out again, I wasn’t sure how useful I’d be. Grappling was fine in close quarters, but I couldn’t pretend that I’d have any defence against a bow or crossbow.
The girls had bows, but they weren’t fighters. They also looked terrified and like they would freeze at the first sign of trouble. There just wasn’t a malicious bone in their body. I couldn’t ask them to fight or kill. I’d only just taken a life for the first time a few days ago and, whilst I hadn’t had the time to fully process it, when given the chance to sit and contemplate what I had done I was sure that I would have nightmares about that kid Donatu trying desperately to gasp for air and slowly turning blue.
Not to mention the blood on my hands, literally, from the fight with Deriostos and his men. I’d broken down with the girls that night when Asha had soothed me, but I was going to have to fully re-live that fight at some point as well and it wasn’t a post-traumatic stress I was looking forward to.
I looked across at Asha and Erica, the two sweetest and kindest girls I’d ever met, I couldn’t subject them to that. I didn’t want them to have that on their conscience.
But apparently Laura didn’t have such qualms.
“Both of you string up your bows and get your arrows in the dirt. If you see something in the tree line, put an arrow in it first and then see what it is.”
The elves looked at the knight, shocked. “We can’t shoot someone!” They admonished Laura, simultaneously.
“You shot a deer yesterday, what’s the difference?” shrugged the Knight.
“PEOPLE AREN’T DEER!” exclaimed Asha whilst Erica nodded terribly.
Laura shook her head. “A typical bandit group has at least five members, probably six or seven, and about half will be archers. This means that if we’re attacked, they will outnumber us. This isn’t optional. If we are attacked we will NEED you to shoot some of them for us to survive.”
“Why do you think I avoid using my magic?” argued Asha, starting to turn red, “I never wanted to hurt anyone! I can’t risk it! I couldn’t live with myself!”
Laura squared off against the girl and I could see the soldier coming out. She’d been the caring supportive mother type all this time. She’d been ready to defend the girls’ honour, protect them against her former comrades and beat me around the head if I so much as did anything to upset them, but that woman was gone now and the one standing in front of us was a Knight in command.
“I don’t care what you did before or what you thought about how the world works!” The knight berated her harshly. “You seem to think you have a choice to kill or not. Well, the simple fact is that you’re right; you do. When the bandits come to attack us tonight… and I’m almost certain they will; you will make a choice between shooting them or letting us all die. Let me be clear, up to this point, you could make your choices about whether to fight without consequences, but tonight? Tonight, not making a choice to kill is making a choice to die.”
She let that hang in the air.
The girls looked at me for support, but I couldn’t deny that Laura had a point. I hesitated, which only served to send the elves’ eyes as wide as saucers.
“I don’t want you to have to fight.” I said finally, but held up a hand when Laura began to protest. “I really don’t WANT you to HAVE to fight.” I stressed to them. “… but Laura is right. If we are outnumbered, you will be killed. The two of us are not enough to fight off an entire group of bandits.”
“But you killed seven fully armoured knights with your bare hands!” exclaimed Erica.
Laura thrust a bow and a quiver of arrows into her arms. “He surprised them with his power and his unusual fighting style and separated them so the most he fought was two at a time. If we get ambushed, they will attack us all at once and we will be the ones surprised. He can’t protect you if they put an arrow through his chest before he even lays eyes on them. Shoot first, investigate later.”
That put a damper on the girls’ evening. We set up the camp and I insisted that Laura and Asha stayed on guard whilst Erica and I did the actual work.
Erica wasn’t happy, and she huffed a lot as she moved around the camp. “It’s not that I’m a pacifist. Asha isn’t either… we’re just scared. We’ve never had to… I mean what if you’re depending on me and I freeze? Or I panic and miss a shot and one of you gets killed?”
I pulled the young elf into a hug and gave her a little squeeze. “I seriously do not want either of you to lose that innocence. But this isn’t a situation where you two are the damsels in distress and Laura and I save you both. You are going to need to be brave.”
She thought for a little while and then nodded into my shoulder. “Then we better get to work.”
The camp was set up in very little time, even with Asha and Laura standing guard and, once we were done, Erica decided she wasn’t going to stop. She pulled Asha aside and the two of them moved through the brush setting hunting snares and deer traps around the perimeter. Some of them were designed to hold, others to maim.
“They aren’t something we usually use to hunt, but we were taught by father to make them if we were ever lost out in the forest and ran out of arrows.”
I was impressed, and even Laura seemed to nod in approval. Chancing that the bandits would try to attack when we were asleep and likely close to dawn, Laura and I decided to forgo our watch and instead cleared brush away from the campsite and piled it into rough barricades to provide Erica and Asha cover to shoot from. The end result wasn’t pretty but, working with the Knight, we were able to create enough cover to protect the two elves and still provide overlapping fields of fire. The brush was set up in two semicircles to control access and allow the girls to cover each other.
It was close to midnight before the camp was set and none of us had heard any sign of the bandits. But we had moved quickly and, assuming that their scout would have had to get back to his group and they would have to track us, we believed we had enough time for one watch before they made their move.
“I’ll stay on watch.” Laura asserted, after looking at the two exhausted elves and, to be honest, I wasn’t looking too great either. “I’m used to pulling all-night duty, it’s not uncommon for Knights to forgo sleep for several days. You three rest. I’ll wake you in four hours if nothing has happened yet, because they will most likely attack before dawn.”
The girls collapsed onto their bedrolls and I lay down between them. None of us were in the mood for anything overly affectionate, not to mention I stank to high heaven and was covered in sweat and dirt. But the twins, on the other hand, were unusually clean.
“How are you two not covered in dirt like me?” I asked in a long yawn.
“Wre efvs” mumbled Erica as she lay down her head. “We can’t get drty… frm… natu…”
My brain couldn’t fathom this. The how and why that this would be a thing was beyond me now.
Usually, I’d never be able to sleep without washing off, but I was so tired that the minute I hit the bedroll, I was out like a tonne of bricks.
I was grateful Bambinae didn’t have any words for me either. I was in desperate need of uninterrupted sleep.