Panther Tales Ch. 07

The next two days passed slowly. They spoke little, but spent a lot of time holding and comforting each other as best they could.

True to Darkness' prediction, when the sun came up the third day after the massacre Markeela was there. She too had seen the bodies and the carnage, but while Ally, Darkness and Snow had grieved, she had immediately begun scouting and planning.

Markeela shook off any attempts to hug or touch her. She took a stick and began drawing a map in the dirt, explaining what she had discovered in her quiet, raspy voice.

"We're here," she began, drawing a small circle. She added a long, crooked line.

"This is the trail. The...the attacks came here," she poked the end of the stick into the ground, making a dot, "and here."

The others watched as she added two more circles to her map.

"This is the village you all stopped in."

She tapped the stick against the ground, thumping the other circle softly. Her lips quivered with anger.

"This is where the soldiers came from."

Snow tilted her head and looked at the Gorean girl. "How do you know?"

Markeela met her gaze. "I followed the trail back there. I saw it. There's maybe thirty fighting men, another ten for support, and a dozen or so kajira."

Ally ran her hand through her hair. "Way too many for any kind of direct assault. But maybe a night raid? Take out at least a few and steal the girls away?"

Snow growled softly. "We will not be slavers. I won't have anything to do with that. If the *prisoners*," she stressed the word, "want to come with us and be free fine. We won't force them."

"We can't anyway," Darkness added. "Dragging reluctant girls with us will slow us down too much."

"How secure is the place?" Snow asked. "How hard to get to the prisoners?"

Markeela was now pushing the end of the stick into the soil, digging a small hole where the soldier camp was drawn. "Usually four sentrys patrolling. The girls have a big tent they sleep in when they're not serving. I don't know if they're chained."

"Okay." Snow looked at the other Panthers. "We can definitely take out the sentrys. Then we go to the kajira tent, offer to take any of the girls with us, and kill anyone that gets in our way as we leave."

"Or we die," Ally tacked on.

"Or we die," Snow agreed.

In the deepest part of the night, the four Panthers huddled, the soldier's outpost just barely visible in the distance, lit by the dim light of a single fire. They had swallowed their horror and returned to the cart, gathering up the darkest clothing they could find. They were wrapped and hooded in a variety of brown fabrics, a parody of a Free Woman's robes.

Darkness whispered last minute reminders. "If you're spotted, limp and whimper and act like you're lost and maybe injured. With any luck, the guards won't attack. Put your big weapon down and use your dagger."

Ally and Darkness slipped away into the night to circle around to the far side of the camp. Markeela and Snow crept closer and closer, freezing when they saw a shadow moving in the dark-the closest sentry.

Markeela put her lips next to Snow's ear. "That one's yours. If you fuck this up, you better pray they take you before I get my hands on you."

Snow made a tiny snorting noise and gripped her sister's bicep. "You worry about yourself, Panther," she whispered back, and waved her hand in the direction of her target. "That fucker is already a corpse-he just doesn't know it yet."

The other girl grinned and patted her shoulder, than darted away, swift, silent and deadly. Snow waited until the guard was past her position, then pulled her hood tighter around her head to hide her blond hair. Crouching low in the tall grass, she snuck up behind him as fast as she dared.

The sentrys made it easy. They were patrolling in name only, shuffling listlessly around the camp perimeter, heads hanging with fatigue, just killing time until their replacements relieved them. Snow's quarry didn't even look around until she was upon him.

He never had a chance. He didn't even have time to cry out before her war hammer smashed into his face, knocking him off his feet. The spikes in the club's head sunk in deep, and the club was wrenched from her hands as the big man fell. Snow yanked her dagger out of its thigh holder and thrust it into his throat, not caring that his blood splashed all over her. She twisted her hammer free and trotted towards the rendezvous spot, her adrenaline pumping, her electric blue eyes blazing with bloodlust.

Ally was already there, her smile fierce and terrifying, her short spear coated with blood. They listened intently, but heard no loud noised or cries of alarm. Darkness and then Markeela joined them after a few moments, both their weapons bloodied.

"Follow me, "Markeela whispered, and they slipped into the camp proper. The kajira tent was near the center, large and plain brown, surrounded by a few hastily erected wooden buildings. The Panthers paused outside the tent, looking around warily. There was no sign of activity anywhere.

'Not even a mouse,' Snow thought to herself. Darkness nodded and the group entered the tent, brandishing their weapons.

The girls were all asleep, crowded in the tent, piled up like kittens on the fur covered ground. A single lamp burned low, offering just enough illumination to pick out the girl's individual forms.

"Silence!" Darkness hissed into the gloom, her voice quiet but filled with authority. The others echoed her word as the kajira woke with a start, scrambling to their knees out of instinct. She waved her sword back and forth menacingly. "First girl to make a sound dies!" she snarled.

Snow counted eleven in all, kneeling, crouching or sitting, some stuffing their fists into their mouths to keep themselves quiet. Most of the girls shrank back, trembling, their eyes wide with fear, but she noticed one, a small black haired girl, looking at the Panthers hopefully.

The kajira made a few tiny squeaks and whimpers, but nothing louder than normal sleep noises. Ally stepped forward, her hands on her hips, her bearing regal.

"We offer freedom," she said simply. "If you would be free, come with us now."

The girls looked at each other, shocked and amazed by this unexpected announcement. The black haired girl Snow had spotted was the only one to react. She scrambled forward on her hands and knees, shaking with excitement.

"Please," she moaned. "I'll do anything to escape this place."

Ally reached down and pulled the girl's upper arm. "Rise, little Sister," she said gently. The girl stood on quivering legs. She wore only a brief slave's rag around her hips, and her brown eyes glistened with joyous tears.

Darkness waggled her bloody sword again, scaring more sqeaks from the rest. Markeela poked her head out the tent's flap.

"It's clear," she murmured, and looked at the former slave girl who would go with them. "Ready?"

The girl nodded, and Ally gently squeezed her shoulder.

"We run. Fast and quiet."

They darted through the narrow opening and sprinted for the forest. As soon as they were out of the tent, they heard the remaining kajira start to scream.

It didn't matter. By the time any of the soldiers roused, dressed and managed to drag a coherent story from the near hysterical girls, the Panthers were long gone.

The girls ran until they were gasping, 'rested' by walking and staggering, holding each other up, forcing themselves to keep going until they were ready to drop from exhaustion.

Markeela, who knew the forest better than anyone on Gor, found them what she called a safe spot around midday. For the last mile or so, she trailed the group, carefully erasing any sign of their passage.

"I'll stand watch," she said. "Get some rest. We move on at dusk."

Darkness curled up and fell asleep, but Snow and Ally had to help the newly freed slave. She was in agony, her legs cramping from the strain, and the two Panthers kneaded and massaged her spasming muscles. She was so tired she could barely move, but kept mumbling "thank you...thank you so much for rescuing me...thank you..." until finally her eyes closed and she sighed happily.

Snow looked at her Panther sister and smiled with love. "We did a good thing today. Thank you."

Ally leaned over and kissed her lips softly. "Get some sleep," she said, and added teasingly "little panther cub."

Snow laughed and shook her fist playfully. They curled up close to the new girl and gave in to their fatigue.

She was an Earth girl, only an inch or two taller than Snow, with jet black hair that flowed in graceful ringlets down her back and surprisingly large breasts for such a small frame.

She had been victimized by being in the wrong place at the wrong time. Gorean slavers had targeted one of her best friends, and she just happened to be staying overnight at the other woman's apartment when they came for her. She guessed she had been on Gor a little more than a year.

Her real name was Judy, but they decided to call her July. It was the month she had been abducted, and close enough to her old name to allow her to keep her identity but still accept her new situation.

"The entire time I've been here, I kept hoping to wake up from this nightmare. Now I keep thinking I'm going to wake up from this good dream."

Her time with the soldiers had been a horror for her. She could deal with the work and the chores, but being used sexually by 'those gross fucking animals' had driven her to the brink of suicide.

"They kept telling me how beautiful I was, and how beautiful I could be. All the time, I was wishing I was a four-hundred pound circus freak or something."

Snow listened and nodded, her teeth and stomach both clenched, and a plan began to form in the back of her mind. She filed it away for later. First, they had to pay a call on a small village.

'Those sonsabitches will find out,' she vowed to herself. 'Payback's a bitch...and so am I.'