Fire Knight Katrina Ch. 01

Chapter 1: The Flames Within

The town of Dumsin was as beautiful as ever on this lovely summer day. The soft summer breeze caressed the mighty golden-leaved trees, the sun rays illuminated the scarlet roofs of cozy wooden homes, all nature seemed to be in full harmony with the small settlement. No wonder, as its inhabitants did everything they could to not anger the guardian spirits of surrounding woods and rivers. Living in the golden forest would be hard for many settlers, but dumsinians respected this place and built their relationship with it on care and cooperation.

Katrina, a beautiful young adult from among the local farmers, couldn't stay inside on a lovely day like this. Once finishing all of her chores, the redheaded girl leaped out of her little wooden house onto the garden, feeling the summer warmth with all of her beautiful and completely naked body. The redhead's mom shouted at her to wear at least a short tunic on her way out, but Katrina only laughed in response. The weather was simply too good to bother with clothing. Besides, walking through the cobble-paved town roads in her birthday suit always felt better for Katrina, as it filled her entire body with liberating energy and pleasant excitement. The girl didn't have to worry about the law, either: unlike in the rest of the Tholcing Kingdom, here nudity was quite common, even in public.

The naked girl ran down the street, greeting everyone on her way. The town was extraordinary loud today, with people talking loudly and running about their business, while all the roofs turned crimson, illuminated by the burning sunset. Katrina hurried to Uncle Menag's store, clutching a couple of golden coins in her hand. The memories of sweet chocolate candies and fruit jellies flooded the redhead's mind, causing her to drool a bit. So what if she wasn't a kid anymore? Those sweets were still the best she ever had.

...It was only when she got to the square she noticed giant pillars of smoke. The horrifying realization struck the young girl's mind like an arrow to the head: it wasn't an exceptionally red sunset, it was the light from burning buildings! Townsfolk hurried and passed each other buckets of water in hopes to extinguish the hungry flames, but the fire only kept growing. It swallowed wooden buildings, market carriages, and tents like a giant monster, the locals' attempts to fight it were futile. Even the mages couldn't do anything, their attempts were only focused on helping the wounded and shielding people who were about to get burned. The enormous wall of the furious element swiftly approached, encircled the poor townsfolk, toyed with them like a predator with defenseless pray.

Katrina simply ran away. She tried to forget the burned houses, the horrifying screams, and Uncle Menag's store which was turning to ash right in front of her eyes. The wall of fire seemed to close in on the nude girl, swallowing the entire rows of houses on its way. The redhead panicked, her thoughts became cloudy and irrational. In the last attempt to save herself, Katrina jumped into the well and let the cold water engulf her as everything burned above her.

Then, Fire Knight Katrina woke up in her cramped tent with an angry grunt and hit the floor with her fist. The girl was drenched in sweat, despite the fact that she slept fully nude and without a blanket.

"Damnit," the knight whispered to herself, still half-asleep.

Come on, Katrina, it was almost seven years ago, these nightmares are ought to stop already. Easier said than done. Sometimes it felt like the memories won't bother the nude warrior anymore, but then they'd come back in the most unexpected moments. Katrina crawled out of her tent and looked at the sky. It was still dark outside, the forest edge filled with lush greenery was barely visible, only illuminated by the soft blue light of the moon.

"Alright, back to sleep!" The girl concluded, as her grand quest was about to start tomorrow morning and bad dreams certainly weren't an excuse to slack off.

The girl landed back in her sleeper and closed her eyes. It wasn't the time for self-pity. Nearby there was a town named Zardiw that was in dire need of help, and the knight was ordered to provide it. Katrina decided to distract herself by thinking about her upcoming duty. They called it "The mage craze". According to the town's mayor, it was akin to an epidemic of insanity, which swooped all the mages from the local academy seemingly overnight. It wasn't that surprising to Katrina, all these smartass wizards were known to create problems for themselves. Now, the redhead wasn't sure how a naked pyromancer girl with a sword could fix this, but she was used to improvising.

A sudden thud from outside the tent interrupted Katrina's thoughts and made her grab her blade. The weapon was quite imposing, a two-handed sword with a golden handle and a brightly red magic stone at the center, which held all the enchantments together. The blade swiftly slipped out of the scabbard and everything outside went silent. Maybe it was just the wind, or Katrina's loyal black horse named Ash stumping her hooves in the dark? Before the knight could think this through, another thud followed, and then another, and more one, closer and closer.

"That's it!" Katrina exclaimed as she dashed out of the tent and into the darkness of the forest.

As she felt the night breeze with her nude body and heard the rustling of the leaves under her bare feet, she saw a hooded figure appear in the distance.

"Who are you? You've got five seconds to reply, or I'll consider you my enemy!"

Katrina assumed the battle stance, her nice breasts jiggling a bit from the sudden movement, but the figure didn't budge. Maybe it considered what to say or simply decided to glare at the fire knight. It wasn't surprising, as Katrina was an owner of a great body. She was tall, athletic, and moderately broad-shouldered. It was a pleasure looking at every single part of her, be it her strong arms and legs, her toned, flat belly, her perky butt, or her round D-cup breasts which would playfully bounce each time her owner made a sudden move...

And, of course, her tight pussy, which was an unreachable dream of so many men across the Tholcing Kingdom. Even her fiery red hair didn't cover any of this beauty, as Katrina kept it in a single long braid behind her bare back. As for body hair, the knight didn't have any at all, allowing everyone to see her shape wholly. Various small scars on Katrina's body didn't ruin her image but made it more imposing and confident. Just like the serious gaze of her tiger-yellow eyes, which complemented the prettiness of her face.

"Well?" The girl decided she's given this creep enough time to glare at her.

Yet, instead of an answer, the figure bent down and hit the ground with all of its strength. A mere second later, a wave of force erupted from the ground and bolted towards the fire knight. Katrina reacted flawlessly and went out of the way with a swift roll. Her bare back got covered by grass and dirt, but the knight was used to it. She shouted at the figure, but it just attacked again, sending another shockwave. Katrina evaded it and activated her magic: her hand immediately lit on fire up to the wrist.

"I guess we have a battle, then? Alright, you asked for it!" The nude warrior swiftly moved her hand across her sword, the blade ignited and covered the forest edge in dim, orange light.

The hooded maniac let out a sick laugh and kept hitting the ground, chanting nonsensical words. Katrina felt the ground beneath her bare feet tremble and jumped away, swiftly landing on her hands and then going back to her feet in a stunning fit of agility. A moment later the ground exploded as if someone struck it from beneath, and a dozen of stones were sent flying towards the knight, trying to hit her naked body.

"Geomancer, huh? How fun!" Katrina shouted, but the hood didn't seem to listen.

She parried all of the stones and dashed towards the earth mage. Another shockwave made her take to the side, but while evading, Katrina lifted up her leg and rushed it across the air, as if hitting the enemy from a distance. A bright, orange flash lightened the forest as a fireball came out from the knight's bare leg and dashed towards the figure. He barely managed to lift the earth wall which absorbed the fireball but was destroyed in the process. The hood started to cough, the dust must've gotten into his mouth.

"You're mine now!" Katrina said with a confident smirk as she charged toward the enemy.

As a last attempt, he launched another rock at her, but the burning sword simply sliced it in half like it was a piece of lard. Katrina struck the creep's jaw with her strong elbow, his hood came off his head as he fell down.

"Who are you?!" The woman asked in a commanding tone and placed her bare foot on his chest.

Illuminating the foe's face with her burning sword, Katrina bent down a bit to get a better look at him. At this point, any ordinary man would've completely lost his concentration, allured by the sight of her majestic naked breasts. But this one wasn't ordinary, far from it. He looked like a man in his thirties, with a beard and mustache that were common for folks in this part of the kingdom, but his skin was of a bluesy gray color and his eyes were entirely white as if filled with fog. He opened his jaw, showing his unnaturally sharp teeth, and let out a screech that Katrina would expect to hear from a wild beast, not a human.

"Not a very talkative type, are you?" The knight placed her hand on her hip and lowered her sword, "tell me everything or this situation is gonna get a whole lot hotter. And not in a good way!"

The foe opened his mouth again, but let out the same screech and suddenly hit the ground with his free hand. The ground trembled again, Katrina evaded and nearly got struck by the enemy's hand, which surprisingly had sharp, animalistic claws.

"Who the hell even are you?!" The girl shouted, but couldn't keep her balance and landed on her butt.

The enemy seemingly forgot about his magic and grabbed the girl's arm with savage fury. Yet, instead of being scared, Katrina smiled.

"Bad decision!" She exclaimed and ignited her entire arm with a furious spark.

Geomancer's hand and sleeve caught fire, forcing him to withdraw with inhuman screams. Katrina quickly got back to her feet and dealt the finishing blow, her sword went through the monster's flesh like a knife through butter.

"Whew!" She wiped her brow and let out a sigh of relief.

Near the tent, Ash neighed and stomped her hooves, as if celebrating the win of her owner. The naked girl calmed her down, it wouldn't help if they attracted the attention of more monsters like this one. Then, Katrina carefully put the corpse on its back and examined it. Its emerald robe was of the local magic academy, albeit it was dark and covered in dirt. Seemed like this guy was an apprentice in earth magic. If that's what the mage craze did to people, the mayor seriously downplayed the problem. Katrina was told they lost their minds, talked gibberish, and saw hallucinations, nothing about them having claws or being able to cast spells far above their level in magic.

"Alright, let's figure it all out tomorrow," Katrina concluded and extinguished her sword.

"What a night, huh?" She said calmly to her horse, petting her long mane, "well, I'm going to that nearby lake for a couple minutes, don't miss me!"

Katrina still planned to get some sleep tonight, but first, she had to wash the fight off her body. The nude girl was covered in sweat, dirt, grass, and some blood from head to toe; her tent might've been cramped and small, but it still had to be kept clean. The girl dropped the sword and went for a short walk under the gorgeous night sky. Maybe she should've ditched the tent and just used a sleeping bag instead? No, that probably would be too dangerous, especially with freaks like that one running around. After a short, yet refreshing and calming skinny dip, Katrina returned to her improvised camp and went back to sleep.

"Rise and shine!" The nude girl's inner voice told her as soon as the sunlight filled her tent. The morning came too quickly and, after that night exercise, Katrina would surely prefer it to be late for a couple of hours.

But the knight had no choice, the town of Zardiw was in danger, as she was able to see for herself, and any delay could mean more victims. After a quick breakfast cooked with her own flaming hands, Katrina instantly got to packing her travel bag. It was all going at a steady pace until she heard a whistle coming from the nearby country road and instinctively drew her sword again.

"Hey-hey, girl, no need to be aggressive," said a large, well-dressed man in his forties or fifties, sitting atop a fancy merchant carriage, "I get that you're a crazy mage and all that, but I don't wanna fight, I just admired the view!"

The knight looked at him and, realizing there was no threat, put her sword down with a laugh. She just imagined how it all looked from his perspective: a man was just riding by, minding his own business, and then he sees her, a stark naked warrior girl, bent over and grumbling over her travel bag. Must've been quite an experience!

"I'm neither crazy nor a mage, buddy," Katrina put her sword back into the scabbard and landed her hands on her hips, then asked with a hint of challenge in her eyes:

"Do I really look crazy to you?"

"Well..." The merchant took a long, longing look at the girl from the bottom up.

Katrina didn't mind and patiently waited for his answer. She saw absolutely nothing wrong with people admiring her body, to the contrary, it was quite flattering and enjoyable. In her opinion, nudity in general was not to be ashamed of, and she opted to prove this in any way she could.

"I gotta be honest, you look quite crazy to me! I haven't seen any zardiwians walking like this my whole life."

"I'm not a zardiwian, I'm from a different province, where we view nudity differently," Katrina explained rather proudly and bent over again to finish her packing, "I came here on a mission to assist the local corps in fighting off the mage craze. You know anything about it?"

"You were? I wonder who sent you," The main asked with a smirk, clearly he treated this like a joke.

"Someone who cares about the situation," Katrina parried, "and I can see why..."

The naked knight stopped packing and glanced at an odd small hill nearby, covered by some leaves and branches. With a swift move, she swept some of the greenery away and furrowed her brows. The merchant nearly screamed as he saw the blue-skinned corpse.

"Is he... Dead?" He asked, shivering.

"I made sure of it," Katrina nodded coldly.

"Well, girl... No idea what tribe you came from, but you're in for quite a ride," the man's tone suddenly became somber, "the insane mages run amok, there's about a hundred of them. They just chant nonsense, cast their spells with no restraint, kill anyone in sight... Mayor ordered martial law, almost no one's going in and out of that cursed place. It's very risky, I suggest you just turn back and tell whoever got you here that it was too much to handle."

"Sorry, that's not gonna happen. I got my orders, plus I can't leave these people," Katrina replied and threw her bag on top of Ash, "I'll meet you in the city if I'll need more information. Name's Katrina, by the way."

The girl got on the horse and ordered her to go, the merchant's gaze froze on the redhead's breasts as they started bouncing in an almost rhythmical fashion. But he hurried to refocus his attention, as not only boobs, but the entire figure of Katrina riding her horse in the nude was absolutely majestic. If not for her bag, Katrina could've been mistaken for the goddess of nature herself. Partially because the knight opted not to use a saddle and instead rode bareback, as she believed that it would allow her and Ash to achieve better cooperation.

"And I'm Jorgon," the man finally replied after a pause, "hey, girl... I get that you like to spend time outside in the buff, but I suggest you put on your clothes now. There's a guard post nearby."

"No need," Katrina said, then added with a slight grin:

"I haven't even brought any."

Before Jorgon could fully realize what she just said, the redhead drove the horse forward at a gallop and rode into the sunrise, towards dangers and adventures. With the wind caressing Katrina's nude body and the determined goal marked on her map, it was obvious that her mission has now officially begun.