Penthesilea
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 Warrior Queen, DarkLady, Phoenix, Ghostbuster
Posts: 47422
Location: The Castle.....
Joined: Jun 21 st, 2006
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Re: Penthesilea's Castle...posts 1500 to 1699
Reply #82 - Apr 18th, 2008 at 2:31am
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#1586 [Rewritten by Penthesilea]
Penthesilea crouched behind the boulder with Hellion at the ready. Kodiak was scouting ahead and she was waiting for his return. She didn’t much care for that arrangement but letting him have his way was a better choice given the situation than arguing with him was! The man knew that she was a warrior, a registered member of the Mercenary’s Guild, but for some reason his protectiveness had kicked into high gear since he’d rescued her. Penth considered the possibility that seeing her bound naked to a tent pole waiting to be raped might have damaged her credibility in the “I’m a warrior and can take care of myself!” department but damn it! Everyone can have an off day!
She heard a small sound, the scuff of a boot on gravel, and she tensed. Kodiak appeared and she relaxed. He motioned for her to follow him and she did. They were making good time but they were still a good ways out from Kodiak’s camp. One thing in their favor was that the exercise would help Penth’s body clear the potion out of her system more quickly. Her last test, made when they had stopped for a brief rest, had shown that the potion was still working but it was considerably weakened. She hoped her next try would be successful. She knew that the girls were looking for her magickally by now and she suspected that she had been on the receiving end of a “You can’t see me!” spell while she was unconscious. Breaking that sucker was very close to the top of her list of things to do once her magick was back! They made their way cautiously through the relatively open area that Kodiak had scouted. There would be more cover on the other side and once there, they would find a place to wait out the heat of the day. Their water bottles were getting low and finding a water source was also a high priority. Penthesilea was reasonably sure that her magick would return well before thirst became a large problem but neither one of them wished to deal with it. Dehydration would sap their strength and if the raiders found them, they would need all the strength they could get!
They made it to cover without incident and found a small running stream. They filled their bottles, added purifying tablets from Kodiak’s survival kit and then doused their heads in the stream cool themselves. They risked making a tiny, smokeless fire to toast their bread and made a meal of that, cheese and slices from a hard roll of air-cured, dried sausage. Then they build a small inconspicuous shelter and settled in to wait until the sun passed its zenith. Penthesilea was dozing until Kodiak’s throwing himself on top of her brought her to full wakefulness and then she heard it too. Voices, men on horseback and nearby. Kodiak’s reaction told her that he didn’t recognize any of the voices he was hearing. Once he knew she ws awake and alerted to the problem, he slid off of her and together they gathered their gear, which they had already packed up, and slipped from their shelter. Fortunately, the riders were making so much noise themselves that they didn’t hear what little sound Kodiak and Penth were making. Kodiak needed only one look to know that the riders were not his troops. The Lord Marshall and his Lady both swore silently and in agreement.
The next couple of hours were spent eluding raider search parties. The exercise might have been amusing were it not for the seriousness of the situation. Finally, the two fugitives had had enough and decided to steal a pair of horses and make a run for it. It didn’t take long for them to acquire their first horse. One of the raiders dropped behind his party to answer nature’s call and not wishing to subject himself to comments from his patrol mates, he didn’t tell them to wait for him. That rookie mistake cost him his life. Kodiak was on him and had broken his neck before he had his pants unbuttoned while Penthesilea took possession of his horse. Kodiak started to insist that Penthesilea take it and run. She pointed out, rather sensibly but with considerable heat, that she had no idea of where their army was last camped and no one in the army had ever seen her, not even the commanders. If she managed to find it and that was a big if, her claims of being the Keyholder Penthesilea would likely not be believed. At least, not until one or more of Kodiak’s commanders tried to help himself to her body and got incinerated for his trouble. Reluctantly, Kodiak saw her logic. He had had to recruit quickly and take what he could get and any unescorted woman riding into that camp would be prey, especially one as desirable as Penthesilea.
Penthesilea took it upon herself to acquire the second horse. While Kodiak waited on the first horse, she found a likely looking trail and climbed a tree, positioning herself on a sturdy branch that extended over it. Before long, another patrol passed under her. Her target was the last man in line. Silent as a ghost, she dropped from the limb onto her quarry. She had her arm around his neck before he realized that she was there, choking off any outcry. She slashed his throat with his own knife pulled from the sheath on his leg. She dumped him from the saddle, got herself firmly in it and gathered up the reins. That is when their luck ran out. One of the riders turned to speak to the man she had just killed and saw her. Penth didn’t waste breath on swearing. She brought her mount around hard and headed back the way the patrol had come with her former captors in hot pursuit. Kodiak didn’t need any sort of signal from Penth to know that it had hit the fan. The sight of her pounding down the trail at full speed told him all he needed to know. He spurred his own horse into motion and together they tore down the trail, out of the woods and back into open country. As much as he wished otherwise, Kodiak had to take the lead. As Penth had previously pointed out, she didn’t know where they were going. He stayed close to her as they raced ahead of their pursuers. Kodiak thought that they were still several miles from the army’s camp and he didn’t know if the horses would last that long. If either of them floundered, they would have to stand and fight. He wouldn’t leave Penthesilea and he knew without asking that his headstrong Lady would not leave him behind either. So Kodiak prayed, as he seldom did, for a miracle to save them.
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Penthesilea's Castle...posts 1500 to 1699 (Read 17695 times)
