Seeds - Eight

Part 8

Steam obscured the white walls of the cubicle. Even so, the cool autumn air made itself known through the thin spray of water. The water was several degrees below scalding but more than hot enough for Conway to feel rivulets of cool sweat trailing from her armpits and down her neck. The tiniest reminder of the coming frosts licked across her toes and occasionally touched a hardening nipple. She dipped her head forward to catch the stream on the back of her head, allowing the water to pool on her hands before guiding it down shoulder length hair and letting it splash to the rough stone-chip floor. Lathering her hands she put the hard block of soap on a ledge beside her, working her hands over her light-olive skin, paled by winter and the forest.

Conway had never envied endowed, or pretty women; to her it had seemed like nothing but a curse. The practicality of hard muscle on a sturdy frame held a different beauty far from the idealization of imaginings. She sat on the bench bolted to the wall and tugged the curtain aside; Balt worked himself from his stained overalls. A great runner with alluring V shaped abs and obliques pointing at a cute bush of jet-black pubic hair. Wide shouldered and narrow of hip, his tight skin proudly announced the musculature below to minute detail. He hung his overalls on a hook, flashing dark underarm whiskers. His perpetual blush deepened his pale white skin when he noticed her staring. The head of his penis hid in the dark bush. Unconsciously, his hands slipped over his drawn-up testicles. She tilted her head, a come here motion.

Balt took the curtain, slipping into the cubicle. He flinched as hot water burned the sensitive skin of his lower back.

'It's better when you're sitting.' Conway smiled warmly, 'Come here, buddy.'. She spread her legs tapping her thigh, 'Come, sit.' He made no eye contact, dropping to his knees and leaning towards her crotch. 'No, no. We'll worry about mama tonight.' she took him under the arm, stood him up and turned him around, his eyes flashed uncertainty. 'You worked hard.' she told him, pulling his hips down until his hard buttocks settled on her left leg. She pulled his head into her neck and nuzzled him, 'Just relax buddy. It's just us here, forget everything else.' she cooed softly stroking his hair with her cheek. She took his hands away from his crotch and dug gently through his bush until she cupped and kneaded his testicles. His breath in her neck came hot and fast.

It was not long before he reached a full erection. Her grip was iron and water pooled and gushed repeatedly around his length, she pumped him until he wriggled with tingling turgid sensations. But she held him tight, bringing his head down to her chest where she kept him, 'You did good, buddy. I'm so proud. Close your eyes, and let it out for mama. Ok?'. She began cooing a song she'd heard from a guitar carrying drifter on the roof of a skyscraper as a girl.

'Hush a bye, don't you cry, go to sleep my little baby

When you wake, you shall have,

All the pretty little horses

Dapples and greys, pintos and bays, all the pretty little horses

Way down yonder, in the meadow, poor little baby crying mama

Birds and the butteflies and flutter around his eyes

Poor little baby crying mama

Husha bye, don't you cry, go to sleep my little baby'

Balt went rigid, spasming and shooting clear strands across his stomach. It turned white and hard, like egg white poured into boiling water.

'Heh,' she kissed his forehead, praising him, 'good boy.'

They sat for a while, her fingers idly working congealed ejaculate from the treasure trail running down from his navel, and flicking it towards the drain. 'Hand me the soap, buddy.' Conway washed him thoroughly and tenderly before pushing him out of the cubicle to tend to her own hygiene. When she'd dried herself off, she wrapped a towel around his waist, tying it securely in place before instructing him to hold out his arm; she draped the soiled clothing over it then wrapped the second towel around her own waist, leaving her breasts bare.

They went down the corridor through a door, normally locked with a barred gate. A raised stone platform stretched from the showers to the bunkhouse reserved for the rangers. Near the compound gate sat a young guard nursing a blackening eye with a cold wet rag. A pair of older guards stood over him grinning at his misfortune.

'Hey!' Conway called, stopping halfway across the stone trail, 'We're done. You can lock it now.'

The older guards looked innocently up at the trees as the younger peered at the ranger woman with his good eye and responded with a wan nod.

She leaned back, grabbing Balt's hand in hers and leading him to the rangers' bunkhouse. Her room was like a large cell, a small writing table opposite the door, a plain wooden dresser against the right wall and a double-wide bunk folded flat against the left. She pulled the bunk down, the double chains bolted to the wall snapped stiff and then creaked as she lowered her weight down onto it.

'Ranger?' came a voice down the windowed narrow corridor.

Conway called back, 'Last room, general.'

Traener's white bushy moustache appeared in the door, the wrinkles around his eyes deepened to furrows from internal strain. He stood, straight backed and relaxed with the practiced rigidity of a man who knew the importance of presentation. Conway pulled the self-conscious Balt onto the bunk beside her, then leaned forward and pulled out the chair for the General of Trade Camp.

'It's a right mess.' he said taking the seat by the table, 'A right, gods damned mess.' he slammed his fist on the wood, 'I might have to shut this whole operation down, or move it further up the mountain.'

'Yeah.' she answered noncommittally.

'Listen,' he said leaning his elbows on his knees, 'I'm going to cut through the guff here. I lost a couple of hundred men and must assume the fifty that remain are the totality of my force. I'm blind out there and I need to stabilize this situation somehow before I can provide a full report to Army and Grow. I need rangers here yesterday, and now I hear that madman Bannon has fucked off east after the enemy.'

'What about reinforcements from Army Camp, sir?'

'They train in batches of fifty and we just received this year's trainees last month. There's nothing there that'll ameliorate our situation.'

'Then my guess is, general,' Conway wiped imaginary dust off her naked knee, 'that you're shit out of luck. From what I remember of the job board, there were at least twenty-six rangers ranging the trade route right up to the city. I can confirm that the attack reached as far as guard post twenty-three.'

His eyes were as large as tokens, 'That leaves only the last six miles across the plains-'

'Yeah. And we were expecting five rangers to return this week. Bannon was on his way in and got caught up in this nonsense. I'm not sure, but I think that Luri somehow convinced him to go after them.'

'You mean Reince's little incubate? Can't be, I don't see anyone convincing Bannon to work against his own interest.' She shrugged at him. He asked, 'How do you know this?'

Conway hiked her thumb at Balt, who blushed and hid a half-erection behind his hands.

The old general stood and patted Balt on the shoulder, 'Good job, son.' he said, glancing to see Conway's reaction, 'Is this the same one I met?' She shook her head silently. He sat again, 'Listen ranger, I have men combing the road. I need you to find Bannon or any other ranger and drag their asses back here. I can't afford to wait days or weeks to have more eyes out there.'

Conway eyed him seriously, 'Are we negotiating general? I need to replace cannister and bolt from last night, and you're asking for more work.'

His brow drooped suspiciously over his eyes, 'Are you about to bend me over and fuck me Conway?'

'I'm very gentle, sir, you can ask him.' she nodded at Balt, 'Pay me the equivalent of a two-week range for last night, a one-week range for this, and-' Conway let the words hang meaningfully, 'you open up Supplies and Armory, and I don't pay for what I need.'

He tensed, leaning back in the chair. His fingers tugged at his already perfect lapel, saying gruffly, 'Two-single weeks and you return what you don't use.'

She shook her head, disapprovingly, 'Make it a two-week and a one-week, and I'll share another bit of information, general.'

He leaned away from her, suspicious, 'Tell me first.'

She smiled warmly but her lips remained sealed.

'Fine, fine.' he said, defeated.

Conway reached out her hand and he shook it. She said, 'Duran Dugar should be in by tonight, seems like he missed the whole thing.'.

Traener stood and shook his head, 'So that's how you fuck me, withholding and keeping me desperate. Fine Conway, just promise me you'll put in the effort to turn that madman around.'

'I promise, sir. There's one more thing. Will you hand me that book?' Conway pointed at a thick leatherbound journal. Traener gave it to her and she opened it in the back and tore out a page, which she handed to the old man.

He glanced at the drawn maps and the locations indicated there, 'What's this?'

'A defensive strategy of sorts. When Duran gets here, show him the plan and have him gear up and organize a defensive line on the road with the remainder of your men.'

Traener held the paper out as if it were on fire, he sounded baffled and vaguely angry, 'You're assuming I'll greenlight this. Do you have any idea how much this would cost? Camp and Army would depose me for the waste alone.'

'Sir,' Conway said reasonably, 'that was an army. If they return and our plan consists of nothing but closing the gates on them, you might as well shoot yourself in the head right now. Commit or die.'

His bushy white brow raised as if he hadn't considered the possibility, then he nodded brusquely, turning to the door, 'I'll go find the engineers. I'm checking with my own eyes what you take.'. He left and they heard him grumbling.

She turned to Balt, 'Get dressed. Pack flares and your climbing rope, double check the knot on the hook, ok? I don't want a repeat of last time.'

'Yes, ma'am.' he replied, seeming dissatisfied as he stood from the bunk, 'So, no ice-cream?'

'Well,' she said tartly, 'I was going to pretend to be an ice-cream.' she opened the dresser, 'When we get back you can eat til your jaw breaks off, I promise. But for now, we need to go running again.'

His handsome face drained of disappointment, 'Alright, mom. Remember, you promised.'

Conway pulled on a fresh shirt, fastening the top button, 'Hey,' she said, 'bring your slingshot.'

His head tilted sideways, 'What for?'

'Just do it, buddy. We're already half a day behind.'