Slave Girl Ch. 20-32

"Rosa."

"They are going to bring the monsters here." The panic in her voice rises. "The monsters will come! Make them be quiet. Make them put out their fire. Please Master."

"Rosa."

A hooting owl sends my slave scrambling into the corner of the room. Huddled in a ball she covers her head with her arms and starts to rock back and forth. "I don't want to be here anymore." I hear her say very quietly, not to me but herself. "I want to go home. I don't want to be here."

I look at poor Rosa. She'd been scared early on but never like this. She had been adapting so admirably to our rural living despite being a lifelong city girl. But that mention earlier in the day of a monster sighting had changed everything. She had never been able to settle after that.

Taking our blanket I shift closer to her. Reaching out I take her by the shoulders and guide her to me. "Come here."

She doesn't resist. Crawling up onto my lap she curls up and clings to me tightly. "I'm scared Master."

"I know." I say gently as I pull the blanket around us.

"It's going to find us Master." She lets out soft sob. "I don't want to die."

I wrap my arms around her and hold her. I kiss her horned head. "Nobody is going to die tonight."

"But..."

"Shhh." I stroke her long soft hair. "I won't let anybody or anything hurt you Rosa."

I feel her relax a little. "I miss the city." She confesses. "I miss the walls and the soldiers and the people. I miss the safety."

"Hmm. I feel just the opposite. Out here it's easier to tell the monsters from the people." I say. "You've seen the other travelers and the farmers along the way. It's not as dangerous out here as you think. We get on fine in the country. We just have to keep calm and look out for each other."

She sighs and snuggles in, just the top of her head peeked out from beneath the blanket. "What if it finds us?"

"I'll fight it if need be. You'll run and hide and..."

"NO!" She clings harder, her fingers digging into my sides. "No! We'll run and hide...together. Or we fight it together. I'll fight with you."

"Rosa..."

"I won't! I won't run and hide without you!" She whimpers. "Not again! Never again!" The next thing I knew she had broken down into tears. I hold her to me as she weeps in my arms. "We stay together!"

"Is everything okay in here?" The young mother of the family pokes a head around the door frame.

"We're fine." I tell her. She nods and pulls back to give us our space.

Much like Rosa had done with me just the night before I hold her and soothe her. I wasn't practiced at this sort of thing but I do my best to let her know that she wasn't alone and that I was here for her. It wasn't long before she settled enough to talk again.

"This isn't helping anything." Rosa peeps guiltily, wiping tears from her cheeks. "I need to be brave."

"It's better to get it out than hold it in."

"Says Mr. Stoic man."

I smile and kiss her head again. "I wasn't so stoic last night."

"Mmm." She hums. "I wish we were there now. Or any place with a good roof and sturdy doors. I feel so...vulnerable out here."

"Rosa, I don't mean to pry but...you said again." My voice is low and calm, again I take her treatment of me the night before as a guide. "You said you wouldn't run without me. You said never again."

"It's..." She pauses. "...just something that happened a long time ago. It's not important."

"It is important. I would like to hear about it."

"That life is gone."

"Yet you carry it with you." I whisper softly. "Please Lady. Let me help you carry the burden. I'm your boy, aren't I?"

"Quin...I..." She starts as if she were about to deflect again.

"Please my Lady. Let me in."

After a long moment she takes a deep breath and tells the tale. "I was nine years old, my little sister only six. We were a part of my father's party heading West from Heliopolis to look into an obelisk that had been uncovered in the desert. It was Danae and I's first time out of the city, the first time Papa let us come along on one of his expeditions. We were so excited."

"His? Your father was a man?"

She pats my chest. "Yes Quin. My Amazon half comes from my mother. Amazons can bear children too. We can both sire and bear children. I warned you about believing those story books." This was a huge revelation to me. I'd always been told Amazon's raided so as to kidnap women to mate with. She continues. "My demon blood comes from Papa. He was a wizard. A powerful one too. Something about his demon side made magic easier for him. Mama was his bodyguard." Her use of 'was' told me half of the tragic story already. "They fell in love. Their relationship was shunned but...wizards live by their own rules. Power affords them that freedom." She falls silent for a time. "It was dark that night, so very dark beyond the campfire. We had camped in a wooded oasis. Danae and I were playing at the edge of the light as the adults drank and told stories. There was no warning...only the screams of the dying men and the rattling hiss of the hydra that had sprung upon us. It all happened so fast. Papa got Danae and I under an unseeing spell...it was the last thing he would ever do. If we hadn't have been there..." She trembles and shrinks against me. "...he could have used that time to protect himself."

"He protected his daughters. It is what any father would do."

"In her rage Mama attacked it, cleaving one of the great serpent heads clean off of the body. It's true what they say...two heads grew where the one had been. It pulled her pieces to Quin. We saw it. It tore Mama to pieces!" Rosa breaks down sobbing once more, hard wracking sobs, her tears wetting my chest through my tunic. My heart bleeds of her. Again I hold her and stroke her and let her feel my arms around her.

"Mum...the woman is crying." One of the children next door whispers too loudly. "Why is she crying?"

"Shh child. Leave them be." The mother says. "Go to sleep now."

Hearing this Rosa sniffles and endeavors to collect herself. "Gods, I'm scaring the kids."

"They're fine." I say.

"No. They don't need to hear me like this. I don't want to worry them." I go to object but Rosa reaches up to touch my lips with the tips of two fingers. "Just hold me Quin." She kisses my cheek. "Hold me and don't let go until the morning light."

"Yes my Lady."

"Kiss me." I kiss her cheek as usual. "Good boy." Then after a short pause. "Thank you Master."

We lay down together with the blanket over us. She has me spoon her, my much larger body nearly encompassing her slight frame. She is still shaken but having let out some of her fears through story and tears, and with my strong arm around her and my big body pressed tight in behind her, she is able to settle down and find some rest.

Chapter 28

We rise before the family. Keeping our voices low we get ready and creep through their room and out of the building. The air is cool and damp, the world around us glowed with a sheen of dew. I rub my smooth cheek, my face still felt nice from the fresh shave, as I wait for Rosa to finish relieving herself. Her Violet head pops up from the bush she had squatted behind and she returns looking as ready as ever for the day ahead.

Curiosity gets the better of me. "Could you stand and pee if you wanted to?"

"Sure." She shrugs.

"Huh."

With a playful glint in her eye she says. "Is that a challenge?"

"Huh?"

"Think you can pee further than me do you? We'll see about that big guy."

"Pee?" I chuckle. "What?"

"Oh? Or do you think you can shoot further?" She shakes her head. "Bullying a poor innocent little Amazon girl like me, big meanie. I'll put you in your place Master."

I am grinning hard. The sun was out and Rosa had found her humor again. A good night's rest safely cocooned in my embrace had worked wonders for her. Stepping closer to me she slips her arms around my waist and hugs me.

"I'm sorry how I acted last night. I'm trying really hard to brave. Sometimes...it's difficult."

I wrap my arms around her shoulders and hug her back. "You are doing great. I'm really proud of you Rosa."

"Thank you."

Before we part I lean down to kiss her head between her horns. "Hey, your horns are growing."

"Told you it wouldn't be long. They grow quick." She reaches up and feels them. "I should get a proper file at some point."

"We have one."

"That one is for tools. Too coarse."

"The sharpening stone?"

"Too fine." She says. "I could let them grow I suppose. What do you think?"

"I'm...not sure."

"I kept them short for cuteness reasons. But long ones look soooo elegant." She says. "Papa's were...majestic. They can really creep people out though."

"Let them creep out. You should decide. I think...um...I think you'd be pretty either way." I feel my cheeks blushing but ignore it. "I think...I think you're very beautiful Rosa."

"Aww." She grins. "Thank you Quin."

I try to keep eye contact but my old bashfulness gets the better of me causing me to glance up and down between her face and the ground. "I think...you're the most...beautiful...woman...I've ever...seen."

"Oh Master." She says merrily. Taking my hand she kisses my palm and rubs her soft cheek into it. "You'll make a Narcissus out of me talking like that."

"I mean it."

"I know." Closing her eyes she whispers. "Don't fall in love with me Master. I'm just a slave girl."

"And my Lady."

Her smile grows. "Yes. And your Lady."

I wanted to say so much more but...a dumb farmer like me didn't have the words. Not like the learned men and honey tongued poets Rosa was accustomed to. What could I say that could compare? Just then, as if timed specifically to spoil this moment, my stomach lets out a loud angry growl.

"Hungry boy." Rosa pats my belly and she steps away.

"I'm starving." I confess.

"I saw a few lemon trees over there." She motions to in behind the old cottage.

"Yeah, this place used to be an orchard." Our foraging had been fruitful the day before but I was craving something with substance. Some meat and fat to fill out the fruits, berries and herbs we'd collected would be wonderful. "Let's grab a few then stop at the next stream. I'm in the mood for trout."

"Yum! Me too!"

It only takes a couple of minutes to find a tree whose boughs hung heavy with ripe fruit. These were no small bitter lemons but a plump variety with thick rinds and pleasantly juicy sour-sweet flesh. We each eat one as our breakfast before gathering more to take with us. Using Rosa's capelet we bundle about a dozen of them up and are soon back on the road.

Once we are on our way I ask. "Do you wish to talk some more? About...your family or anything."

Rosa looks Eastward toward the rising sun and takes a deep breath. "Not now. It is too nice a day for dark thoughts."

I nod. "Agreed. But I'm always here to listen."

"I know Master."

Rosa was still nervous, very much so, but she faced her fears like an adorable Hercules. If things got too bad I would slip my hand into hers and after a fortifying breath she would nod her thanks to me and persevere. Her vulnerability only made me adore and admire her more. She had a courage I could only dream of. My great fear, speaking with and getting intimate with women, I had only overcome because she took control and guided me. While I could support her with her fears it wasn't the same. Knowing what I knew now I respected what an ordeal all of this was for her and realized how each step she took through this wilderness was a small act of bravery on her part.

In the very next vale we come to a bridge that crossed a deep narrow river. The forest here is old. The thick twisted trees were probably alive when Romulus and Remus were still suckling at the she-wolf's teats. The thick canopy gives the area a dark otherworldly feel. Here and there green motes of light glided through among the foliage.

"Forest nymphs!" I whisper as we step off of the road beside the bridge. "I've never seem them before."

"You haven't?" Rosa steps closer to me, clutching her flute and lemon bundle close to her chest as if they might protect her.

"It's okay. They're as harmless as the others, just much more rare. Wow."

Rosa's eyes follows one of the motes as it lands on a fern frond not even ten feet away. "They're so pretty. They can't hurt us?"

"Not even if they wanted to as far as I know." I say. "I'm not even sure they take much notice of us. They say an hour is like a day for them. Imagine how slow we must seem to them."

"We would look to them like these old trees do to us." Slowly Rosa turns to look around. The ancient forest was much different than the drier hills and mountains we'd been traveling through. "There's magic here, isn't there?"

"I think so." I walk up and pat a nearby trunk. "Silvanus definitely cares for this place. If we searched I am sure we'd find a shrine close by."

"I've...I've never seen any place like it. I almost...feel it. The cities have nothing like this." Slowly her trepidation was turning to wonderment as she looked about the ancient woods. Along with the nymph motes were birds and bees, butterflies and bright flowers blooming the small clearings between the grand old trees. "This is incredible!"

"And this is just along the road. Imagine deeper in." I reach across and take the fruit from Rosa. "Silvanus loves woodwind music." I glance toward her flute. "If you play for him he may bless us."

She looks at her instrument then back up. "Play for a god!?"

"What better offering is there?" I say. "Besides, as long I can hear your flute I will know you are safe while I'm down there fishing." I kneel down to set our belongings down in a hidden nook out of sight from the road. Opening the pack I pull out my dagger and fishing equipment. "If I hear the music stop I'll come running. Okay?"

I expected resistance to leaving her alone while I made the short but steep down to the river but the woodland beauty seemed to have captured her, making her forget her fears for the moment. She nods and walks to the dappled edge of the nearest clearing. There she pulls her slippers from her slender feet to feet the cool soft moss on her soles. She giggles and wiggles her toes. "I'll be right here Master."

"Good. I won't be far away."

I hear the sweet notes begin of yet another song I didn't recognize. Her repertoire was impressive. Climbing down through the thick bushes I make my way to a landing of smooth stones along the bank of the river. Above me Rosa's flute chimes through leaves and branches to fill the sylvan space with a serene music, the burbling of the water only accentuates it. I move along under the arch of the bridge to a shallows just on the other side. The lord of the forest, clearly pleased by Rosa's playing, blesses me with a bountiful catch. Salmon no less! Enough to feed us for days

My net straining with the wriggling weight of my catch I make my way back under the bridge to the rocky landing. The melodic sound of my slave's lovely flute growing as I went. I was just readying myself for the climb when the sound of something heavy hitting the ground followed a loud rustle of leaves grabs my attention from just across the river. Unfortunately Rosa hears it too. The music stops dead.

"Master!" She screams. "Something is here! A monster!"

"Stay there!" I call out, but I could hear her crashing through the foliage in a desperate rush to get to me. Behind me I hear whatever it was that startled her get closer as well, nearly upon me already! Rosa was running directly toward the very thing that frightened her. "Shit." I mutter. I hadn't the time to make the climb and get away before Rosa got here. I sling my catch behind me and pull my dagger then spin to face the potential danger. In a flash Rosa is just behind me holding up her flute in her trembling hands as if it were a sword.

She is panting hard, her eyes wide with terror. "I've angered him! He didn't like my playing. My music brought it here! I'm sorry!"

"Rosa." I say, my eyes scanning the opposite bank. The rustle gets closer, leaves and low branches sway. Whatever it was it was big! "Just keep calm. Stay behind me."

"Oh gods have mercy on us!"

Through the bushes comes the head of a great stallion of purest white. His mane shone of silver. Deep dark mysterious eyes regard us as little more than a benign curiosity before he shakes his mighty head and lets out snuffing grunt. Stepping out further we see two massive wings folding up along his back. Dipping his head down low he drinks from the clear running water.

"A pegasus!" I gasp in awe.

A moment later a smaller one with a copper mane, a mare, steps out from behind to join her mate at his side. I lower my weapon and sheath it. Stallion and mare on one side, Rosa and I on the other, we stand transfixed and watch the mythical equines drink their fill. I put my arm around her shoulders and hold Rosa to my side.

"Quin! Look at them! I've never seen...they are so...I can't believe..." Her hushed voice drifts off. The moment had left her speechless.

"Silvanus heard you." I whisper. "And I don't think you angered him at all."

Chapter 29

Rosa and I stand in silence as we watch the pegasi quench their thirst. The stallion finishes first and raises his head to look at once more as he waits for the mare to finish. And then, as quickly as they had emerged, they turn and disappear back into the ancient forest.

"I can't believe that just happened." Rosa whispers. She looks up at me with a huge grin. "They were magnificent!"

"You wouldn't see that in the city."

She leans into me. "Not a chance."

We stay there for a time just taking in the green dappled atmosphere and burbling song of the river. It was a pleasant change from the harsh direct sunlight and sharp wind of the more arid mountains that lay both behind and ahead in our journey home. Nothing is said, nothing needed to be said, as we enjoy the moment together.

The peace is broken as a group of noisy travelers pass over the bridge. Looking down at us they call out a greeting and wave. We wave back and step apart. The ebbing struggles of the salmon slapping on the stones pull our attention back.

"We can't eat all that!" Rosa exclaims when she sees the haul.

"I wasn't about to throw back Silvanus' gift."

"Mmm, good point."

I start picking leaves and twigs out of Rosa's hair and clothes. In her mad scramble to get to me she had sprinted straight down the bushy slope. "You okay?"

"Are you kidding? After that I am buzzing like a bee!" She smooths out her long hair. "That was amazing."

I tell Rosa to start gathering firewood and take it to the clearing where she'd been playing her flute as I set to work cleaning the fish here at the bank. Our "breakfast" was going to take us right through until almost lunchtime at this point but I wasn't about to rush things in a place like this. Before long we have a cooking fire burning with spits of sizzling herb coated salmon above. Beside we have the lemons and other things we'd foraged laid out for our meal.

"This is way too much." Rosa giggles. "We couldn't eat all of this in three days!"

I look at her. I look at the bountiful food. Then I think back to generosity of the slaves that had given us a roof in the storm.

"You know what? You're right." I say. "We should share our blessing." I motion off toward the road. "Why don't you see if somebody else could use a fresh cooked meal while I finish this."

"That's a great idea." She gives me long look. "Too bad though. I was going to tie to that tree and have my way with you after we ate. Ah well."

"Wait! What?"

With a teasing wink and wiggle of her cute tush she skips off toward the road. Even though I am pretty sure that she was joking, now that she'd brought it to mind...GAH! Curse my good intentions!