A Biker Fantasy

"Why else would I bring them to our bed?" Jessie asked.

"That's what Marcus said too." I replied. "He also wants me to be with Lai to build a bond in case something happens in the war."

Jessie nodded. "That would be a great idea for all of us." Jessie said. She saw my look and hurried on. "I have looked deep into your mind, my love. And I know this is foreign to you."

"That's for sure." I muttered.

Jessie ignored the interruption. "You are a good man. And I trust you and our love to last through anything."

She gave me an impish grin. "Besides, the twins were starting to think that you didn't like them."

I rolled my eyes at that. "If you only knew how hard it's been not to... But what about Lai? How is she going to feel about all this?"

Jessie laughed. "Lai is all excited about it. Marcus and I discussed it with her yesterday, and she is eager to try you." Jessie giggled again. "She keeps asking how good you are in bed."

Now my daddy raised a fool, but not a total idiot. I gave in and went along with the plan. I'm not as young as I used to be, but I make up for a lot with experience.

That night, Lai joined us in bed while the twins entertained Marcus. She left very happy in the morning. I was flipping exhausted.

The next night was the twins’ turn. Once I got used to the fur, (it felt a lot like mink) they felt as human as Jessie and Lai.

Cassandra knew of course. I honestly don't think a single thing went on anywhere in the house that she didn't know about.

"You are adapting to our world better than you think." She told me at breakfast one morning. "The Goddess has favored you indeed."

A few mornings later, I was done brushing my teeth. (Another fad that had caught on) when I happened to yawn in front of the mirror to my surprise and shock, I saw sharp, curved fangs extend down, then retract.

I went to show Jessie. Jessie ran to get Ranal and Cassandra. Ranal was shocked too. But Cassandra was calm. She had been expecting something like this. "The Goddess told me that you would become fully of this world." was all she would say.

Shortly after that, I noticed my hair and beard growing back in their original blonde and red. Hey, this might not be so bad after all. I thought. Finally the day that I was waiting for arrived. The new troops were trained to a fine edge, and the enemy was right where I wanted him.

Marcus and I took the troops out and split them into 4 squads, just like in training.

Jessie stayed home with Lai and the twins, though they weren't happy about it.

The virtues of cleanliness showed when our scouts reported that they could smell the stench of the mercenaries a good half mile away when the wind was right,

Guided by one of our best scouts I surveyed the mercenary camp from the top of a nearby hill with my binoculars. The enemy camp was no longer the sprawling, haphazard mess it had been before. This was good for us, it meant that they were coming together as a cohesive unit, and therefore easier to take the leaders out since they were pretty much gathered in one place.

And their horses were gathered in 4 separate herds on different sides of the camp. I eased back down the hill and rode back to talk to Marcus.

"There are almost 4 thousand of them." I told him. "But they made a couple of bad mistakes."

Marcus looked worried. "But there are only 40 of us. We don't stand a chance against that many men."

"Marcus, think!" I scolded. "Of course, in a fixed battle they'd have our asses for lunch."

A couple of the non-coms snickered.

"But," I continued, "we aren't going to fight them in a stand up battle. Hit and git, remember?"

I laid out a piece of paper and outlined the general area. I marked in where the camp was, where the commanders tents were in the camp, and most importantly for tonight, where the horses were. "Marcus, send each squad out to take out the sentries nearest the horse herds. Take out the guards watching the herds as well. Then herd the horses, slowly, dead away from the camp. East and West herds turn north as soon as you pass this line of hills. North herd travel about 5 miles, then stop and wait for the others. South herd, drive due south for at least 5 miles, then swing west. The main herd will join you at the Forel River at the big horseshoe bend."

One of the non-coms spat. "I thought we were going to kill the bastards, not become horse thieves."

One of the other non-coms smacked the dissenter upside the head. "Fool!" he snarled. "Don't you remember your tactics lessons? Disrupt their transportation. Besides, how well do you think these cavalry troops are going to fight once we set them afoot and they have to walk a few dozen miles to their next battle?"

I marked the man for promotion, provided of course, that he survived the night's activities.

Since the troops were far better trained than I was, I put Marcus in full charge, then sat back and observed.

The sentries and horse guards were taken out with crossbow bolts through the head, or by garrotte. The men eased the horses out and away from the camp, following my directions as best they could. No one raised the alarm, and by dawn, I was with the three combined herds heading towards the Forel River.

A few scouts left behind on fast horses caught up to us about noon. "They are running around confused and angry." laughed one of the scouts. "When we left, they still hadn't sorted things out."

I turned in the saddle and waved at Marcus to close up and ride beside me. "They are not entirely stupid." I told him. "They will eventually start following the horse herds. This many animals make a trail a blind man could follow."

Marcus nodded. "I'll take a squad and set up an ambush about an hour shy of where they would have to stop for the night. I'll hit and run, right when they're the most tired."

"Remember, these are horse soldiers, and they won't be able to walk as far as we could." said the scout.

"Good point." grinned Marcus. "Care to join me on our little party?" he asked the scout.

"Yes sir!" said the scout.

Marcus clapped me on the shoulder and peeled off to collect the members of his squad. I dropped back and told the other non-coms to keep the herd moving. I sent riders with a message south to find the other herds to tell them to use a few grenades to lay an ambush for the troops following them, but not to stay themselves. I wanted the herd to keep moving. Marcus and his men joined us around midnight. He was exhausted, but exhilarated as well. "You should have seen it!" Marcus crowed. "We let the vanguard go by, then we hit the ones who carried their supplies. Anyone who had a fancy uniform got shot, and we left after 3 volleys."

"Great job!" I told him. Then I went and personally praised each member of his team. At dawn, I had another squad go set up an ambush, this time where they would stop at a stream to drink and rest.

That squad caught up to us at suppertime. They had one casualty, a trooper who had gotten careless and exposed himself while still in bowshot of the enemy.

I rode off a mile or so to get a recon report from a dragon. It was Skyfire. "The mercenaries are still coming." The dragon said. "But they are getting cautious."

Skyfire actually smiled at me. A truly horrifying sight. "There is a herd of wild cattle a couple of miles north of the main group. If you'd like, I would be happy to stampede the cattle in their direction."

"I love the way you think Skyfire."

The dragon chuckled. "Of course you do. You have a dragon’s evil mind yourself from what I've seen."

"I thank you for the compliment." I replied.

Skyfire took off and winged rapidly out of sight. I rode back to the herd. I looked around and found Marcus. I filled him in on what the dragon had planned.

" A dragon's evil mind huh?" Marcus said when I was done. "Yes, that would describe you very well."

When we reached the Forel River, we found the rest of the horses and the other squad waiting for us. After a few hours of rest, I had them start swimming the herd across the river. Once all the horses and men were over, I sent the herd ahead. There was a narrow pass up ahead where we could collapse the nearly vertical cliffs with explosives to close off both ends of the gap. Once trapped in there, killing all of them would be easy. I had the explosives specialists plant their charges of black powder at both ends of the pass. As soon as the herd had completely passed through the mile long gap, I had them blow the far end of the pass. A wall of debris a good 60 feet high made exit impossible.

I split the men into two groups and sent one up on either side of the pass. Then we waited. About noon on the second day, the ragged and thoroughly pissed off mercenaries followed the tracks of the horse herd into the pass, thinking of nothing but revenge.

As soon as the last of them were inside the kill zone, the troops blew the open end of the pass, filling it with rubble. I had told the men to use bows to save ammunition, since the enemy was trapped and could not get away. Still, a few gunshots rang out as sharpshooters picked off the mercenaries who had the presence of mind to try to climb the piles of rubble blocking the exits.

Screams and pleas for mercy echoed up from below, but the men had all seen the aftermath of the mercenaries’ visits to the local towns. And many had lost family or loved ones.

When everything was quiet below, I sent for wagons to bring barrels of crude oil and alcohol. The crude oil came from surface seeps a days travel away.

For 3 days after the wagons arrived, we poured the barrels of oil down onto the pile of dead and wounded below. With a steady stream of wagons bringing oil to both sides of the pass, we soon had everything below covered in a thick coat of oil. Then the men heaved the alcohol barrels down into the canyon to burst on the rocks and corpses below.

Finally, Marcus and I moved the men back. At a signal, both of us threw torches into the opposite ends of the canyon. The fire caught with a WHOOSH! and the flames nearly singed our heads off!

The fire burned for a full day, sending towering clouds of black, stinking smoke into the sky that could be seen for dozens of miles in all directions.

When the fires died, and the smoke cleared, Marcus sent word out for work crews to come and clear the piles of rubble away so that the pass could be used again.

The pay was the horses that we had liberated from the mercenaries.

Back at the City, Marcus and I were tired, filthy, and happy as hell to have survived. We had lost only 3 men. The one who had been foolish and got an arrow through his guts, and 2 that had fallen into the canyon in their eagerness to kill the enemy.

Marcus was quiet all the way home. This was his first major battle, and he had rappelled down into the canyon after the fires had died to look around. "Like a scene from hell's worst nightmares." Marcus had said when he climbed back up. He had then walked away and threw up everything her had eaten for the last day or so.

I had been down there too. Little was left of the mercenaries but half melted weapons, charred pieces of bone, and odds and ends of metals that had melted and flowed together. I figured it to be the gold and silver they wore and carried as money. “Let the clean up crews have what they could find." I had ordered.

King Jules was ecstatic that we had rid his lands of the mercenary army, But his happiness was tempered by the fact that we still didn’t know who had been pulling the mercenaries strings. Or why.

As for myself, I was just glad that we had gotten away with so few casualties on our side.

Marcus allowed the men a few days to rest and celebrate, then sent out patrols to look for any mercenaries who had deserted or had been stragglers when the main group had been wiped out.

Marcus burst into the bedroom where I was busy trying to keep up with three girls at once.

“Bill, we have a problem!’ he said. “When one of our patrols was a week overdue, we sent another squad out to look for them. Only one man came back, and I doubt that he’ll live through the night.”

“Shit!” I said, “Sorry ladies, but I have to take care of this.”

My wife sat up and reached for her clothes. “We’re coming with you.”

Marcus waited impatiently for us to finish dressing, then led the way downstairs to the main hall where the wounded man was being cared for by Cassandra.

As soon as he caught sight of me, the man raised his head and started talking. “We found Kerin’s squad on our third day out,.” He paused to take a couple of painful breaths. “They were all dead. The only way we knew it was them was by what was left of their armor and equipment. Everything else was burned to ashes.”

Suddenly the man stopped talking. His eyes bulged and his back arched until only his head and heels touched the floor. Marcus grabbed his mother and yanked her to the side just in time as the man burst into eye searing flame. When the flash of light died away, nothing was left of the poor man but a pile of ashes lying on the flagstone floor.

Cassandra looked up at me with her eyes wide. “She’s back.” Was all she said before she fainted.

“Who’s back?” I asked.

Jessie was pale as a ghost, and had to try several times to get the words out. “My sister.” She said at last, then buried her face against my chest and started to cry.

Marcus stood there looking at the ashes that had once been a friend, and cursed in a low monotone.

I looked up and saw the catkin twins watching from the staircase. “Find Ranal, and tell him to get the king somewhere safe.” They nodded and took off at a dead run,

I tightened my hold on Jessie.

Someone was gonna pay.