Moon Witch Ch. 01

My head spins. In the excitement of last night, I hadn't thought much about the danger I was really in. I hadn't even questioned much how they had known of my secret hideaway. If they'd known there, of course they would know where my home was. Oh, gods. "What about my sister?"

"We left her alone," Reno says. "Unless you'd rather we bring her to the-"

"That's enough, Reno," Erik says from behind us. Reno settles down, resuming his gentle touch on my inner thigh. I close my eyes and gulp, resigning to the circumstances. The only thing I can do now is to watch and wait for my escape.

We ride for the better part of the day. By the time we stop, my crotch feels sore from riding and I feel thoroughly soiled by Reno's roaming hands. I'd done my best to endure his increasingly bold touch, but by evening, there was a frustrated need rising in me that I didn't know what to do with. As much as I'd hated Reno, I'd never been touched the way I was touched, and it was a feeling that made my stomach clench in a not unpleasant way.

"Let's break for camp. We'll be back soon." General Erik dismounts, indicating for Reno to do the same. Reno helps me slide off the large chestnut, his hands lingering a little too long near my bottom. But I don't complain, not yet understanding the situation that I'm in. Perhaps if I stay quiet and watch, I can find myself an opportunity to get away.

The two men set up camp while I'm placed on a log. I watch wordlessly, observing the dynamic between the two. There's a certain ease in their actions that suggest that they've done this together a thousand times before. After collecting some firewood, Erik disappears into the night to gather food, leaving me alone with Reno by the fireside. The general seems a bit apprehensive in leaving us behind, casting a glance back, an undecipherable expression clouding his otherwise grim features. He leaves me with the other man.

Reno messes around some with his equipment, laying down bedding and such, but it's not long before he pulls me roughly by my wrist ties to the outskirts of our camp. "This way, witch."

"What-" My breath is knocked out of me as he slams my back to a large tree. My head ricochets off the rough bark, leaving spots in my vision. I groan, my head woozy.

"They say that witches have tighter pussies, but I've never had the privilege of meeting one to test out the rumors." Reno laughs, every cruel intention stitched into his features. "I knew you were getting aroused earlier today," He murmurs, slipping the straps of my pinafore off my shoulders with a perverse tenderness.

The closer Reno had gotten to my center, every time his hands slipped under my skirts to touch my bare skin, my body had betrayed me, making me tense with hot cheeks and fists balled in my skirts. I guess it was more evident than I'd thought.

"Please," I whisper, still struggling to catch my breath.

"Small but they'll do the job." Reno grabs my breast painfully hard. I raise my wrists to push it away, but he easily bats away my weak movements and places a hand over my throat. Panic wracks my body as he rips open my buttoned shirt, buttons flying into the surrounding brush. I become aware much too delayed that my chest is nearly completely out on display. My fear is realized as my assailant pulls my binding aside, my breast popping out of its confinement.

Reno's eyes are hungry as he leans in, mouth nearing my breast. His grip on my neck is tight, and my vision begins to darken. I close my eyes, mostly in fear, but also a little bit of heated anticipation.

"What the fuck?" A deep voice shakes me out of my woozy stupor. I look past Reno to see that the general has returned. "Get off her."

In a flash, Erik has come close to the pair of us.

The general thrusts his elbow into the other man's head, who recoils with a groan. The hand on my neck vanishes, and without it keeping me propped up, I crumple to the base of the tree. "Erik," Reno gasps. But the general spins him around, grabbing his skull and twisting it. A snap shoots through my eardrums and Reno drops to the ground with a dull thump.

My mind subconsciously registers the fact that the body of a freshly-killed man lies just a few feet from me. "Get back to the fire." Again, it takes me just a few moments to register what I've heard. While I pull myself up and drag my battered body back to the glowing embers, the general has made off into the night with Reno's body.

What has happened? My life has changed drastically in the last 24 hours. I've been kidnapped, stolen from my life that had finally been looking up. Though the general seemed grizzled and grim from our first meeting, I'd pegged him for a kind man underneath a hard exterior. But as Erik is... well, a general, I should have known better. Perhaps he's lived through thousands of battles. Then again, I never imagined when I met him that I would witness him snapping another man's neck a mere couple of feet away from me. I also never imagined that I would be assaulted, nor dragged away from the only thing that keeps me going: Era.

With that bitter thought, I feel tears welling up, blurring my view of the crackling flames. Now, I'm without my one strength and facing who-knows-what on my own. I'll be missing her birthday, and worst of all, I don't know how she'll manage without my magic. We do have some funds saved up, of course, but...

I'm vaguely aware that I'm losing my grip as sobs shake my core. It occurs to me that I should be using this time to plot, or plan an escape, but all I can think about is all I'm losing. Besides, I haven't the faintest idea how to get back home, nor could I cover all that ground on foot anyways. Given that we've gone through the forest on horseback, if I were to go on foot by myself, I would be subject to all sorts of dangers. The wicked stories of the beasts of the forest sends shivers down my spine as tears run down the tip of my nose, dripping onto my tied wrists. I'm consorting with my conflicted and lonely thoughts, head down, when a hand settles on my hair.

I sniff and raise my head. My face is a messy mixture of snot and tears but I don't care. The general takes a seat next to me.

"I'm sorry you had to see that."

I sniff but don't respond otherwise.

"I've known the kind of person Reno is for a long time. As soldiers, we've had lots of experience bedding women. Spoils of war. Willing subjects of our king. Whatever it is. But I'd told him not to lay a finger on you."

"That's very kind of you." My voice sounds hollow, even to me. The irony is not lost on either one of us that none of this would have happened without his influence anyways.

"Miss Selene, I wish you wouldn't hate me." General Erik runs his fingers through his hair, seeming agitated.

I let out a non-committal noise. Silence stretches thin between the two of us. He seems to want to explain himself, but I only want to hear him say he'll escort me back home. "Why do you have me?"

"Reno was certain you were a witch. Healing my wounds, ridding me of that curse, in the span of a few hours. Even you have to admit it seems pretty indicative of magic?" The general almost seems to be asking me for my own opinion. When I don't respond, he sighs and continues. "I think he couldn't resist your pull. Even that just confirmed his suspicion that you were some enchantress."

"What do you mean?" I ask, my voice thick from crying.

"There's something about you, Miss Selene. Surely you know the stories I'm talking about?"

I shake my head, sticking to as much of the truth as I can. Hiccups punctuate every few words. "My parents died when I was young, and I've lived alone with my sister ever since. I don't often see anyone other than my clients. There hasn't been anyone around to tell me stories for years."

"I forget that your people don't like magic." General Erik shakes his head. "I'm sure you know that witches exist. Enchantresses are like witches that are just that much more in tune with their magic. It completely drenches their being. Legend has it that particularly strong ones have a pull that affects men, ah, in strange ways."

"Are you calling me a witch, then? An enchantress?" I ignore the last part. I can guess at what these 'strange ways' he's insinuating are, given Reno's earlier actions.

"I can have my theories, can't I?" The general smiles tightly. "You seem quite adamant to disprove my questioning, Miss Selene. Yet I can't help but feel a pull from you. And your healing is like magic. I don't think you can blame me for my conclusions, no?"

I don't answer, and a not uncomfortable silence settles between us as we both stare into the crackling fire. My eyes ache from my tears.

"I was told as a young girl about moon-glow." I steal a glance at the general, but no spark of recognition shows. I've thought of the perfect half-truth to cover up my magical healing. Hopefully he may just write off this 'pull' as his own manly... Wants. "It's a mushroom that surfaces once a century. It is said that it can be used for healing. I was lucky enough to find some yesterday night, and couldn't resist the temptation in sneaking some into the medicine I concocted for you."

"Ah," says Erik. "And this magical mushroom was the answer to my prayers last night. Thank you for saving my life."

I don't know what to say. All that comes out is, "So you can let me go back home to my sister now?"

"I- Well, you see, I've been ordered to bring you back. The king believes it would be beneficial to have a proficient healer with us."

"Please. General, she needs me."

"Miss Selene, I have pledged my life to my king. You are asking me to betray the one person who I and my people have the utmost faith in."

"And you're causing me to betray the only person I love! She's the only one who loves me! We need each other!" I say hotly, standing up. My head feels woozy again and my throat is choked with emotion. "Please, I'm begging you. Untie me and allow me to return home. You could let me go and no one will know."

"I'm sorry." The grim general doesn't look at me, instead electing to stare deep into the fire. "The only thing I can promise is to protect you. I will escort you to the king, but I also give you my word that you will be kept safe and whole."

I shake my head, turning my face away so he can't see the tears that drip from my lashes once more.

-

She doesn't know of her pull, I think to myself. If this girl really has barely seen another soul in the past few years, it would make sense. I assume that she's never had a man, for who could resist?

Selene has her face turned away from me now, her dark hair hiding her countenance in silk sheets. I shift uncomfortably, partly because of the situation, but also because being this close to her, catching hints of her sweet fragrance every so often, is driving me crazy.

Stop, she's mourning the death of her life as she knows it.

I fight the urge to draw her into my arms and instead leave her near the fire to sleep. Without Reno here with me, the journey back will be much more tedious.

Reno. My thoughts turn to how I'd killed my second in command. I've killed countless men at the command of our king and in response to the demands of my position. Yet, the wild and white-hot rage that blinded my vision when I saw Selene pinned by the neck was something I hadn't experienced before. I had had the full liberty to kill Reno from his direct disobedience of my command not to touch her regardless, but there was still a dark fog of guilt that settled into my heart. Perhaps it was because I'd also felt the same magnetizing temptation that Reno acted upon.

She truly seems clueless about her pull. Whether it be a result of her being a witch in secret or just her own brand of womanly enticement, there's something I feel in her aura that I haven't felt with any other women I've bedded. Even now, asleep, her curled-up form on the ground shows the subtle curve of her bottom, her hips flaring out from a small waist. The tightness at my groin intensifies as my mind flashes to my hands grabbing those hips.

As much as her beauty is distracting, something else bothers me about her. Is she a witch? Reno was absolutely sure of it. Witches in this day and age are rare, as many were hunted down and killed before my time. Even the witches in our kingdom seemed to mourn the loss of their kind, with less and less being born. Within the past few generations, being able to find someone who can practice magic has become rare.

Selene seemed to echo a lot of the anti-witch sentiment I've commonly heard, but it doesn't change the fact that she has a pull, and damn if it's strong. Even if her healing was helped with these moon shrooms or whatever they're called, everything lines up much too perfectly.

The problem there is that I've only ever heard of the strongest witches having pulls. Enchantresses. Even then, all I knew about it was only anecdotal evidence from the Queen Enchantress when she was in rule, generations ago, and she was known for being cruel and very, very powerful. Wouldn't that mean that Selene is more than capable of ending me with just a sweep of her fingers? She'd seemed genuinely afraid for her life and wellbeing, though. Her tears and heartbreak were real. So maybe after all, she's just a healer whose innocent nature speaks to every man and his dick.

As I settle down to catch a few hours of rest myself, my thoughts alternate between making sense of snapping Reno's neck and making sense of Selene. I make no progress on either matter and only succeed in confusing myself before sleep overtakes me. When the sky lightens, my body is up and running before I can process it.

Shaking the issues out of my head, I wake Selene, pulling the sleepy girl up onto my horse. Tethering Reno's horse to mine, I set off towards the king's camp at a slow trot. At only a couple days away, we are close enough that not abandoning Reno's horse is possible. Selene is nestled against my chest. She's fallen asleep once more, and the small girl feels good in my arms. Her pull is calling to me again, making my pulse quicken.

We ride the whole day, me in torture from her magnetizing presence so close to me, and her thoroughly ignoring mine. I suspect that she suffered a mild concussion from Reno's rough treatment as she spends most of the time riding asleep, curled into me. When she's not asleep, she wordlessly takes in her surroundings with her back straightened, refusing to lean against me. If she's uncomfortable with being so close to me, she doesn't say anything about it. Instead, we ignore each other as we continue making our way past the forest and into a stretch of sand, feeding on the dried fruits and meats in the packs of our horses and camping for the night somewhere along the day. Now, a host of colorful tents pepper the landscape.

"Tell me about your king." Selene speaks, really breaking the silence for the first time in a couple of days. "I am to be... Hired, by this man, yes?"

The horses have slowed to a walk. I want to make her feel as comfortable as she can be, considering I've essentially become her kidnapper. "Yes, Miss Selene. King Azrath is his name. He is a fair man. Some say he is cruel, others say he is far too merciful to the weak. But this may be more of a reflection of what my people are like. I'm aware those in your kingdom say that we are barbaric, feasting on the weak. But in my eyes, King Azrath does well taking care of his kingdom and his subjects. We are a small but happy force."

"And do they often kidnap their healers? Or..."

"Yes, a result of our small population. At least comparatively. Once, we were known for our strong magic and subsequent healing power. The Queen Enchantress, in fact, was in power generations ago. She has been one of the most celebrated witches in the history of our corner of the world. But yes, healers are definitely rare. The practice has fallen out of trend as our last several monarchs have moreso built physical force and intimidation. Not to mention that with less and less magic in our people as time goes on, we have had little alternative but to find something else to be good at." I can't help but to chuckle. We've become quite good at being a brutal people. "Our senior healer is the last in Azrath's service, and he's recently fallen sick, himself. It's the kind of sickness which results from old age, so he is most likely approaching the end of his life, now."

Selene nods in front of me. "General Erik, I know you feel guilty about delivering me to your King, despite it being your duty."

"Yes." I'm guiding the horses towards the stables now.

"If you must talk about the moon-glow, tell them I came across it by chance. I used it all. There is none left." Her wrists are still tied together, but her fingers twist at each other. When I don't immediately respond, considering this request, the little healer whispers so I can barely hear it. "You owe it to me. You owe it to my little sister."

-

If you enjoy my writing, please consider leaving your comments, voting, and following me. I appreciate your thoughts!