Herb Quest Pt. 03: Live to Ride

That decided things quickly.

Caryll grabbed her nearest subcommander, pointing to the dead Mage on the wagon.

"Contracts over, she's dead." Caryll said receiving a brisk nod in reply.

"Orders. Break off in sections. Every man for himself. Rally point is the camp from last night. Wait three hours then begin hopping, one camp site to next. Final rally at ships." Caryll shouted to her subcommander.

Her subcommander winced at the order but despite that he turned and began yelling it out to his men, word spreading quickly.

Caryll rode to a detachment of her horse archers who had kept up a constant barrage despite the lull in fighting.

"Three more then run for it!" Caryll called.

As the first of these arrows sped forth toward the centaurs, in front and on the flank, finally ordered themselves enough to charge again. Caryll watched until the third flight of arrows was in the air, then, along with the survivors of her company, she fled.

The retreat, at least for Caryll, went badly as soon as it started. A bunch of centaurs burst into the group she was riding with causing the riders to scatter. Caryll found herself being pursued by three centaurs and galloping east towards the hills instead of south to the ships. She leaned low over the neck of her mount, urging every bit of speed from the mare as she sought to outstrip her pursuers long enough at least for her to alter course back to her men.

It was reckless, suicidal even to ride in this manner. Flat out through long grass over unfamiliar terrain. A rabbit hole or loose rock, just a small thing would be enough for her horse to break a leg and herself to be thrown from the saddle. She had no choice though; the centaurs were keeping pace despite their smaller size and Caryll worried that their stamina would outstrip her mare's too.

The ride was one of the most nerve racking she'd ever undertaken. By the time the steppe faded behind her and she entered the rockier terrain of the low hills, her horse was blowing torrents of air as it heaved for breath, the mad gallop now reduced to a trot. The centaurs weren't much better off and the gap between them had closed but she still had to turn her mount and draw her sword before they arrived. If she was to die, it would be face to face, not speared from behind as she tried to run.

The lead pair of centaurs were almost on her, both with spears lowered like lances. Caryll found herself grinning, the problem with lances were once the enemy got inside and past the tip, they were useless. Her battle trained mare responded to a touch from her knee, sidestepping and half turning as the centaurs attacked. Caryll took one spearpoint on her buckler, the impact driving the tip high and wide, her sword slashing out, almost disembowelling the centaur as it tore across its stomach. The other centaur had found itself out of position as Caryll had moved her steed. As it now sought to turn and reengage with her, Caryll instead closed the distance, leaning forward with the slash, powering her blow so that when it caught the centaur at the base of its neck, the shining steel sank deep into its chest.

Caryll pulled on her sabre to free it before the last opponent got close but the dying centaur collapsed suddenly, ripping the hilt from her grasp. She turned her horse and moved further up the scree, her tired mount picking its way uncertainly up the slope. Desperately she leaned to one side, plucking a fist sized rock from the ground. As the last centaur closed on her she flung the rock at him, catching him on the head, his eyes crossing then closing as he buckled bonelessly to the ground.

With a sob of relief and exhaustion, Caryll slid from her saddle and sat on the ground, clutching her reins as she drew in deep breathes of air.

The crack of a hoof on rock brought Caryll back to her senses, she scanned the area, expecting yet another enemy to be closing on her but aside from the centaur beside her and the two others further down the slope, there was no one else in sight. The centaur beside her twitched, a leg striking out blindly, hitting off the rocky ground. As Caryll watched she felt the bite of bile fill her throat. The centaur in front of her trashed, the horse half at least while the human half seemed motionless. There was a slight shimmering aura around the creature, a magical aura, and as she watched horse and man began to separate. Where before there had been a centaur there now lay a young man of maybe nineteen summers and a stallion just a hand shy of her own mount in size.

The stallion whickered and got to its feet, it moved away from where the young man lay and began cropping on a few tufts of grass. Despite her shock, Caryll reached inside one of her saddle bags, removing a length of rope. She quickly fashioned a lasso and looped it over the stallion's head. It pulled against her experimentally before seeming to accept the leash and returning to foraging among the rocks.

Caryll approached the man cautiously; she gingerly placed her fingers to his throat until she found his pulse. He was just knocked cold. She made her way down to the bodies of the 2 other centaurs, they still seemed normal, no shapeshifting going on. Caryll recovered her sabre before returning to her mount and cut another length of rope which she used to bind his hands together. He had a leather pack slung across his chest but apart from that was completely naked. As she pulled the pack off of him, he gave a low murmur and his eyes flickered open.

She moved away, taking up a seat on a low boulder and looked at the man as he groggily shook his head and attempted to sit up.

"Who are you?" he asked blearily.

"My name is Commander Caryll and that's the last question you'll be asking for a while" Caryll said placing his pack on one side of her, her sabre on her other side. "Now who, or what, are you?"

"Umm Eldash, Eldash of Rivermount" he answered as he tried focusing on his captor.

"Rivermount? That's in the Western kingdom. How did you end up her, north of the mountains?" Caryll asked.

"Taken, umm, taken in an Orc raid when I was a boy. Sold into slavery until one of the people bought me." Eldash replied. He seemed to be more coherent now, sitting upright. He had appeared panicked for a brief moment until he spotted his stallion safe to one side. Once he had seen his horse his agitation had disappeared immediately.

"The people? You mean the Centaurs?" she asked him. She needed to get his tale from him, the information he could provide would offset the calamity of losing Margo and the cartographers. If he had the right information, it would make the whole expedition worthwhile.

"Yes, where are they?" Eldash asked. He flinched as Caryll hefted her sabre and abandoned his question. "Yes, they call themselves the people but we'd, er: you'd call them centaurs."

"Ok, so explain to me how you were a centaur one minute and then suddenly...." She waved her hand, encompassing him and his mount.

Over the next ten minutes or so, Eldash explained how centaurs could sense humans who were naturally attuned to animals, a kindred spirit, as he phrased it. Eldash had been one of these so they had taken him from his slavery and adopted him into their clan. Their shamans could then use their magic to bond human and horse together, one mind, one spirit, one body...creating a centaur from the two. There were conditions though, the magic required the two entities to separate regularly, at least once a week. Death or deep unconsciousness would also cause the two being to split back to their natural forms which is what had happened when Caryll struck him on the head. The other two she had slain had been natural born centaurs and so remained as such in death.

"Ok, I have all that. How badly does it hurt?" she asked him interestedly.

"It's the worst pain I have ever felt in my life, and it's worth it for what I gain." The answer was simple and heartfelt.

On the topic of pain, Caryll had picked up a number of cuts, scrapes and other wounds during the melee at the campsite. She had no medical equipment with her, her own kit had been stowed in one of the wagons. She opened his satchel and pawed through the contents, at the bottom was a small cloth purse, opening it she found a needle, thread, an ointment she recognised by smell as one for cleaning wounds. There were also some clean strips of cloth for bandages and a small wad of herbs she didn't recognise.

"What are these for?" she enquired about the herbs as she laid out the other items on the boulder top.

"Pain relief." he replied staring at her.

Caryll peeled off her armour and tunic, sitting topless on the boulder, oblivious to her nudity as she examined herself for wounds. She had at least a dozen cuts and deep scratches but none that required stitches. Most had clotted until she had peeled off her tunic, once she had broken them open again, she felt each one clearly. That was all in addition to the bone deep ache in her muscles from the fight and flight.

Idly she nibbled on the edge of one of the herb leaves, spitting out the tiny splinter of it as the bitterness of its taste filled her mouth. Instead, she dapped ointment onto a piece of cloth and cleaned her wounds. A couple of minutes after she began this, she felt a definite lessening in pain. The herb had worked.

As Eldash stared fixedly at her, she took two or three leaves and stuffed them into her mouth. She chewed them quickly and swallowed, taking a gulp from her water skin afterwards to wash away the taste.

Caryll finished cleaning her wounds and she stowed the items back into the pack before finally regarding Eldash properly. While she had been unmindful regarding her semi-nude body, it was clearly not the case for Eldash. He had been staring at her tight muscled torso and small firm breasts, staring at her while touching himself so that his cock had swelled and hardened. At the sight of his hard young cock, Caryll felt a wave of... some strange sensation. Strange enough and powerful enough that she had become unfocused briefly, sliding unceremoniously from the boulder to slump to her knees on the group.

"What... what the hell?" she muttered as she tried to steady herself. She found herself more interested in looking at Eldash's crotch than getting back to her feet.

"You ate three, that's two more than most would take." She heard his voice say.

Chapter 3:

Caryll slapped herself hard across the face as she tried to regain focus. Her mind and body seemed at odds with each other however. She knew she needed to regain her feet, regain her weapon but instead her body seemed content to remain seated at the base of the small boulder, gaze fixed on the young man now approaching her. He was lean and muscled, not overly tall or striking in looks but in perfect physical health, especially the healthy sized erection that bobbed as he slowly walked towards her. Why hadn't she noticed his physique before this? She shook her head in puzzlement, why was she noticing it now?

Eldash stood beside her now, he leaned over to grasp her sabre, turning it so he could use the blade to clumsily saw at the bonds around his wrists.

"I heard of you; you know? Before I mean. You were famous even in my small village. The great Battle Hawk." Eldash gave a grunt of satisfaction as the rope parted. He stooped down on his haunches and regarded Caryll. She felt feverish, her body flushed and tingling, the sensations becoming more acute now he was so close to her. He grinned as he looked into her dilated pupils, seeing a flash of pink at her mouth as her tongue snaked out to lick at her lips.

"My old man" Eldash continued, "he ran the town tavern. Never carried a blade in his life but to hear him talk he was a real expert on it all. He reckoned most of the generals in the three kingdoms couldn't lead a wet whore to a dry bed. Not you though, he reckoned you were born to battle. My sisters, they'd argue and fight over who got to be Caryll the Battle Hawk when they played with wooden swords, whirling round the courtyard at the back of the tavern." He gave a sad chuckle and propped Caryll's sabre against the rock. His hands now free, he leant forward and began pulling her leather pants down past her hips. To her own amazement she found herself helping, raising her ass off the ground so that he could pull them off of her completely.

Eldash didn't bother reclaiming the sword. He looked down at the now naked warrior for a moment before moving to check on his horse. Caryll continued to shock herself with her own behaviour, emitting a low moan of disappointment as he walked away from her.

"If they still lived, wonder what my sisters would say to see you now, fingering yourself like a low born whore" he called over his shoulder as he ran his hands over the flank of his horse in greeting. Sure enough, Caryll glanced down to find she had pushed two fingers deep inside her own pussy, curling them inside her, all instinctively, unconsciously.

She continued to probe her own wetness with her fingers as she watched Eldash from behind, his firm pale ass, strong legs...'stop it, stop it, stop it!' she mentally commanded herself but her body ignored her pleas. Caryll watched as the young man swung himself up onto the back of his horse, having removed the rough leash she had placed around its neck earlier. He leaned forward, whispering words into the ear of the stallion who seemed perfectly at ease with a nude rider atop him. Once more her view of rider and steed became blurred as the magical aura returned to engulf them both. She could see as Eldash's legs seemed to sink inside his horse's torso, the beasts own head and neck, rearing back to sink into its rider's chest. Both man and horse were making pained gasping sounds, the stallion's bulk shifting, shrinking, so that as the shimmering faded the smaller centaur was back. Once again, the only part of Eldash to remain was from the waist upwards.

Or was it?

His lower body may have disappeared, but the erection it had sported had transferred itself to the centaur, a horse cock displayed prominently beneath it. It wasn't of the same immense size as his stallion would have owned, it seemed to have settled somewhere between man sized and horse sized. It must have been eighteen inches long, a short sword made of flesh, a stabbing weapon, one that could ruin a woman.

Eldash the centaur trotted back to where Caryll sat, his approach causing her to worry at her pussy with greater ferocity.

"You did this to me didn't you? What have you done to me? Is this some centaur-shaman spell?" Caryll groaned out the questions as he drew up beside her.

"It was your actions, nothing I did." he answered smugly.

"The herb I ate? You lied, you said it was a painkiller! Bastard...uhh!" she retorted.

"I didn't lie, you know that. You aren't feeling your wounds anymore. I just didn't tell you about the other properties it possesses." Eldash replied.

He moved closer now, the massive cock swinging beneath his body, a pendulum of pleasure. Caryll began reaching out towards it. As soon as her fingers touched the warm hard flesh, she felt an ocean of arousal swell in her breasts. She was not a stranger to sex but it had never been a priority for her during her life. Battle, the camaraderie of her men, her steeds and the caring of them...these had been the true joys in her life. Until now.

The centaur's cock, though slightly smaller, was indistinguishable from a normal horses penis. The shape, the sheath it protruded from, the smell...it all screamed 'horse' in her mind. But her body reacted to it like it was a rod of ambrosia, her heart pounding hard with the pent up lust she was feeling. Caryll scooted forward on her ass, beneath the body of the centaur, till her face was but a scant inch from his large throbbing erection. She could hear his excited breathing from above her, obviously anticipating her next move.

She bent forward so that her tongue could trace a line of wet saliva along his length. He was too large for her to attempt to swallow his cock. Caryll would have needed to unhinge her jaw to have any hope of accommodating this massive pillar of flesh. Instead, she nuzzled her mouth against it, gumming at it with her lips and tongue while her hand began stroking its length. Her hand moved slowly at first, long sweeps down the impressively long shaft. As her ardour grew and the taste of his flesh filled her senses, her hand began moving more swiftly in shorter strokes until she was jerking at his rigid flesh with abandon.

"Yes, Gods yes, amazing...fucking amazing!" Caryll heard him muttering as she pleasured him.

The whole time she had been focused on his cock, her other hand had remained locked inside her own pussy, frantically trying to fill a void inside herself that her own delicately sized fingers were incapable of doing. She needed something more substantial to satisfy her. Mentally she doubted her body was capable of such an act but her needs had to be met. They were in control and the risk meant nothing to them, the reward, the pleasure was all that mattered.

Caryll released Eldash's cock and twisted to all fours underneath him. Looking down the length of his human torso, Eldash could see the back of her head, the crown pressing against his chest. He shifted himself about, hooves skittering on the stones beneath them as he lined himself up. A slight bend to his back legs and the tip of his cock traced between the crack of her ass, pre cum glistening on her smooth white skin. Another slight adjustment and the head was pressing against her pussy lips.

She drew in a long shuddering breath as she felt the massive cock rubbing against her pussy. The slightest pressure would see it begin to force its way inside her. A horse cock, a Centaur's cock, just the width of a hair away from entering her body! Caryll groaned in need and pushed back, the head spreading her pussy lips wide, straining to find the room to move further inside her.

The properties of the herb she had chewed on were multitude it seemed to Caryll, pain relief, lust enhancement and now it seemed that it allowed her body to cope with the stresses of mating with a Centaur. It took almost a minute but finally an inch of cock was inside her. At the back of her mind a faint, disappearing voice hoped that this achievement would be enough to slake her need. It wasn't! The more cock that worked its way slowly inside her struggling overloaded pussy, the more she craved. Eldash hadn't even fucked her yet, it had taken what seemed an eternity, just a constant light pressure, his cock worming its way deeper and deeper inside her. Now it was six inches inside and he slackened off, giving her pussy time to reconcile with the sheer girth of his cock.

She found herself hovering on the edge of an orgasm. The stretching sensation as she was filled beyond dreams or nightmares, the drug induced need to cum, to fuck, to hump cock, any cock, all cock, all of it had her taut as a drawn bow. That was exactly how she felt right now, like a bow ready to fire, desperate for release.

"Fuck me...fuck me." she moaned

"What's that?" he asked. "Is Commander Caryll, The Battle Hawk, Queen of Cavalry saying something?"

"Fuck me, please, please...fuck me!" there was an edge of panic to her words now. She might not care for his mocking tone but she definitely didn't care for the unsated primal need suffusing her body.

"You spent your life in the saddle, riding stallions, mares, trained and magnificent war horses. Now you want the horse to ride you?"

"Bastard." she spat, "Yes damn you, I want the horse to ride me, I want your big centaur horse cock to ride me, fuck me, fuck meeeeeee!"

The last syllable was drawn out to a pitched whine as Eldash began to move inside her. It was imperceptible, a slight withdrawal, a tiny push forward, then repeated. Imperceptible but enough. The orgasm that had been burning low like a banked fire now flared up, flames searing through every nerve ending in her body, every pleasure point.