A Warrior's Legacy (20 page)

A beautiful roan mare was bogged down in a
marshy bog. Her backend haunches were sunk in deeper than her front
shoulders were. She was shivering visibly from both fear and
fatigue.

Raya’s black hair hung free and didn’t show
any of its glow in the sunlight. Her shimmery black cloak was
completely mud splattered and she was knee deep in the mud herself.
She was urging her mare on in a soft encouraging voice that sounded
more like a plea to me.

The mare tried again valiantly, but she was
stuck fast and soon gave up exhausted. Raya had been pulling hard
on her bridal, but gave up when the mare did. She stepped forward
and leaned against the mare’s chest looking exhausted herself.

I would give a good bet that she was
shedding some tears too. She seemed to be very attached to her
horse, which was something I could understand well. One of the
stranger aspects of the whole situation was that both the mare’s
head at the eyes and Raya’s head were wrapped with a black
cloth.

Why would Raya blindfold herself and her
horse?

I dismounted and walked to the edge of the
bog they had fallen into. The mare had noticed me, but was too
exhausted to warn her master.

“Looks like you could use a little help
Raya.”

Raya spun around at my voice her sharp teeth
bared and her claws ready to strike at anything that approached.
She was such a wild creature this strange girl of the night.

“Easy Raya! I’m not here to hurt you. Do you
want my help to get your horse out?”

I wouldn’t say she relaxed any, but she did
manage to utter a monosyllabic, “Yes!”

She’d proven to me before her wild natured
behavior and in her present condition of frayed nerves I didn’t
trust being right next to her, because in the passion of the moment
she might lose her temper and run me through with her sharp
fingered hands.

“Alright you’ve done enough in there come
back out and stand up here on the bank where you can encourage
her.”

Raya didn’t move but just stood facing the
direction of my voice her face mutinous.

“Raya if you want my help you do it my way
or not at all!”

She gave a strangled sounding grunt of
frustration before she began to slog through the thick mud.

“To your left more Raya.”

She corrected her course and reached out
blindly for the bank. She was completely exhausted looking as she
tried to pull free of the thick mud. Her hair was soaking wet and
what part of her face that was visible was streaming with
perspiration. It dawned on me then that she wasn’t used to the heat
of the day and on top of a several hour long struggle to free her
mare she was dressed up in a cloak made heavy by mud.

She would’ve fallen back into the bog, if I
hadn’t grabbed her arms and helped pull her up and out the rest of
the way.

She was surprisingly heavy for her size.
Another mystery to be discovered no doubt. I led her by the arm
over to some dry looking ground, grabbing my water satchel off of
Relentless as we went by him.

I stopped her. Her lips were dry, which
meant she needed fluid in a bad way. She’d sweated too much out,
but convincing her of the next step was going to be hard.

“Raya you’re burning up. You need to get
this cloak off and get cooled down or you’re going to get heat
sickness, which you may already have!”

My hands went to the clasp of her cloak, but
her hands came up and grabbed mine.

“Let go. This has to come off.”

Her hands went to the clasp and I read her
intentions, “You want to do it?”

She nodded and I let my hands fall away. I
hated not being able to see her mesmerizing eyes. The cloak came
apart and fell wet and heavy to the ground. She wore a woolen
overcoat sort of dress that went to her knees. No wonder the girl
had been sweating!

“That needs to come off too Raya.” I said
thickly wondering if she would obey me and if she did what if
anything she had on below the woolen dress.

Her fingers reluctantly went to the big
buttons down the center of what was more of a shift coat than a
dress. Enough buttons undone the heavy shift fell to the ground and
as it did Raya folded her arms defensively across her surprisingly
ample chest.

The women of Assoria typically weren’t
endowed in the chest as much as the women I had grown up around
were, but Raya was an exception to that. As well as was the rest of
her.

I had never seen another woman that could
compare with her. She was the most physically fit woman I had ever
encountered. There were fit and lithely muscled warrioress’s among
my own people and the women of Assoria, but nothing like this!

Her chest was encased in a halter top of
leather, which left her shoulders, belly and lower back completely
bare. She had leather shorts that conformed tightly to her legs and
ended just above the knees. Her shoulders were solid corded muscle,
which trailed down to equally strong forearms. Her belly was
completely ribbed with muscle and her muscularly corded thighs that
swept down to merge into defined calves showed easily how she could
have conceivably jumped the abyss of several nights ago that she
had almost lured me into.

What did this girl eat?

And beyond that what did she do to get so
physically fit?

She didn’t have a bit of extra fat or flesh
on her muscular frame minus her ample chest. Yet she didn’t appear
mannish at all, but was altogether entirely feminine looking even
with all the muscles, as evidenced by the arching curve of her form
from her chest down to her wide hips.

It was like the muscles were a natural
occurrence on her instead of something that had been gained through
exercise. She was beautiful and powerful and I was grateful for my
own great strength, because without it this woman could probably
mop the floor with me.

I realized I had been staring fixatedly at
her body for a long time and I blushed slightly as well as from the
urge that came to me to ask her to keep shedding layers of clothing
off.

“I’m sorry! It’s just that the rest of you
is as mesmerizing as your eyes and face are.”

Her eyes?

“Why do you have your eyes covered?”

Her cheeks were rosy whether because of my
comments or being overheated I wasn’t sure.

Her voice was soft almost to low to hear,
“If I or my horse see daylight it will cause us to go blind.”

Go blind to just seeing daylight! What was
going on here?

“Are your eyes closed?”

She nodded and I took the cloth away from
her eyes.

She gasped and reached for it, but I held it
out of her reach. I soaked it with the cold water from my bottle
and started mopping her face with it. I swallowed hard as my eyes
involuntarily followed the path of several rivulets of water as
they ran off her face and down her neck to disappear into the cleft
of her breasts visible above the leather halter top.

Dousing the rag again I laid it around her
neck and gave her the water bottle and then forced myself to step
back.

“You stay here and look beautiful and I’ll
get your horse out. Does she have a name?”

“Starfire.” she said softly.

I turned and grabbing the length of rope
that I kept on Relentless I headed out into the bog towards the
stuck mare. She stirred nervously as she smelled and heard me
approach.

“Easy girl I’m a friend. We’ll get you out
of here Starfire.”

She seemed to settle down at my calming
touch on her. I fastened the rope securely to the saddle and then I
slogged back out of the sucking mud to the bank. I backed
Relentless up as close as I dared to the edge of the bank and
stopped him.

I fastened the other end of the rope
securely to him and then eased him forward to take the slack out of
the line.

“Whoa boy.”

I jumped back down into the bog and eased up
alongside of Starfire. I got ready to push behind one of her front
legs.

“Okay pull Relentless!”

Relentless knowing what was needed of him
instantly pressed forward his massive muscles bunching and snapping
as his hooves sank into the soft ground deeply. With sucking
protest the mud started to let go of the mare.

I was pushing so hard I was starting to see
stars in my eyes. The mare was moving forward farther and then she
got her back legs under her and surged for the bank taking me along
with her. Relentless didn’t leave any slack, but just kept pulling
the mare up the bank. Once on top I yelled as best as I was able to
as I was out of breath.

“Stop Relentless! Stop!”

He jerked to a halt and so did the mare and
I. The mare stood there quivering and dripping muddy water. I
gently felt over her back and legs checking for injury, but I found
none. She was just tired.

Relentless came back around and start paying
the mare more interest than he should and I realized that the mare
was in heat. I quickly pulled Relentless out of the way and tied
him off to a tree.

I turned and saw Raya patting her beloved
mare on the shoulder with one hand. Her back was to me and I
watched the scene unfold for a moment glad that I had been here to
help her. I walked up towards them wanting to assure Raya that
Starfire had checked out all right.

When I had drawn close to Raya I said, “She
seems fine except for being fatigued by the ordeal she went
through.”

Raya nodded and for a moment all I could do
was to admire the lovely form of Raya’s rear encased in leather
before me, when suddenly she moved with blinding speed.

She had a heavy branch in her hands that she
had concealed in front of her. I barely got a hand up to help block
the branch’s impact with my head.

The impact drove me to my knees and then the
branch exploded across my back jarring my breath from me and
knocked me to the ground. Desperate to defend myself I started to
push up, but a terrific blow to my head arrested my movement and
sent me back to the ground.

The little ungrateful witch had turned on
me! I tried to stay conscious, but the darkness closed in fast.

My head hurt! I moved and winced, my back
hurt to. I ignored the pain and pushed up from the ground. The sun
was gone and it was twilight.

Relentless was still tied up where I had
left him. I scanned the area and my attention focused on the
traitorous witch that sat on top of her horse a short distance
away. I should’ve left them both in the mud!

I got to my feet feeling a little dizzy. I
touched the back of my head and it came away bloody.

“I’m sorry! I truly am, but I couldn’t risk
you following me back. Contact with daylighter’s is strictly
forbidden. I should’ve never visited your campsite.”

She turned to go and I saw my sword fastened
to the side of Starfire and my hand went reflexively to my side
noting the absence.

Bitterly I said, “Have you turned thief
too?”

She stopped briefly, “You would use it to
follow me. I will see that it is returned to you safely. I am not a
thief!”

“You expect me to believe you about anything
after this?”

She didn’t say anything but started up the
trail at a brisk trot with my sword in tow. I stumbled to
Relentless and pulled my bow off the saddle and notched an arrow
and brought it up so Raya was clearly in sight.

‘Release the arrow Zevin! She betrayed
you!’

But my fingers wouldn’t obey and I relaxed
the tension on the bowstring, even as I felt so angry inside that I
thought I might break apart in wrathful pieces.

Darkness closed in fast and any hope of
tracking her faded with the coming of it. Relentless pawed the
ground aggressively snorting. I glanced at him and then back out
into the darkness. I climbed into the saddle fast and untied
Relentless. He bucked around a little being in a bad mood, which I
wasn’t in the mood for.

“Enough! You want that mare then go get
her!”

I let the reins go slack and Relentless
surged forward into the night. His senses were far more acute than
mine were and he had the beastly desires of a stallion in search of
a fertile mare giving credence to his actions.

It was a strange ride. I couldn’t see
anything at all. I kept my head low and let Relentless make his own
way through the darkness.

Relentless’s head was to the ground with his
ears perked forward as he trotted fast through the dark like a
hound dog on the trail of a fox. Horses when they wanted to could
follow a scent trail better than a dog could.

At one point I saw the greater darkness of
an abyss of some magnitude off to my left and my mouth went dry. I
was putting a lot of faith in Relentless and I hoped he didn’t
disappoint me.

On and on into the night we went. No
stallion had ever worked harder to get a mate I was convinced of
that. The early gray of morning began to lighten the dark up some,
for which I was very grateful for as I could see again some. It
looked as if we were headed towards a solid wall of rock up ahead.
I saw a darker hole at the base of it. A cave entrance.

So it was true these people of the mountain
lived in caves. How was I going to find her in there in the
dark?

What if she found me first?

It didn’t matter she had taken my sword and
I had to get it back. Victory could depend on it. I saw something
moving up ahead of us. It was Raya. I saw her for only a moment
before she disappeared into the black hole of the cave entrance. I
quickened the pace and we were soon at the opening into the
mountain.

I pulled Relentless up, after all his hard
work I hated to disappoint him, but it was unavoidable. It was
better that I go from here on foot. I tied him off securely and he
tossed his head at me angrily.

“Sorry buddy some other time.”

I wrapped some rope around a stick and lit
it with a spark. Makeshift torch in hand I stepped into the cool
damp darkness of the cave and followed the clearly delineated
tracks on the cave floor.