Slave Girl Ch. 66-73

As it sees its own blood on my weapon it lets out a deafening shriek. "KREEEEE!!!"

Silently I stare into it with all of my burning hatred.

Its disturbingly large perfectly round eyes stay locked on me as I shift to its left, its head turning with me as I moved. The ledge was maybe six feet at the deepest and ten in width with the cave mouth just off center. It had a slight slope to it and I was trying use that by moving to the higher edge to try to gain some sort of advantage. Seeming to be cognizant of its injured wing the beast remains in the mouth of the cave, not wanting to risk a fall. Also, it knew what I was here for. It knew I had to come to it. A sheer drop to jagged stones behind me, a mythical beast in front of me, I hunch down and ready myself. My mouth is bone dry and I can taste the reeking stench of the creature's lair.

It studied me, sizing me up and gauging the threat I posed to it, as I did the same. I saw how hopeless this was. It was larger, stronger, with teeth and talon that could tear a healthy ox to shreds. None of it mattered, it stood between me and my Lady. Be she alive or dead I would spend my last breath trying to see her again. Each of us sensing the tension about to snap we bear our teeth and hunker lower as I prepare to charge it.

The harpy suddenly lurches, as if shoved. It starts to twist and shake as I watch two small pale hands appear up at its shoulders then the tips of two sharp horns peek into view. Rosa had climbed onto its back! As quick as a blink of my eyes her long sinuous tongue strikes out and wraps around the harpy's throat. Its huge eyes bulge grotesquely as Rosa's powerfully muscled tongue squeezes for all its worth.

"KRRLLK!"

"RAAHHHH!" I charge forward in the distraction and slam my shoulder into the harpy's chest, driving my dagger deep into its belly and sending all three of us back into the cramped quarters of the cave.

In the dark and the stench I fight on instinct. I stab and stab and stab again, ramming the blade to its hilt again and again with all of my strength. Its great foot grasps me around the ribs, squeezing the breath out of me with incredible power, as I tear its feathers and bite its leathery flesh and punch and kick and stab with wild fury. Above me I hear its gurgling screeches cut off by Rosa's strangling constriction.

It is no fight for the poets. It is nasty and brutal. There are no tactics or maneuvers or grand speeches of honor. For dear life we thrash and scrabble blindly, each of us doing all we can to inflict damage on our enemy. In the chaos it flails backward with me on top of it and I hear a sickening thud and a hard grunt as Rosa is driven back into the solid stone with all our weight on top of her. An instant later, its neck free from Rosa's choking pressure, it sucks in a wet gurgling breath and lets out ear-splitting cry. "KREEEEEEE!!!"

That bellow of desperate rage gave me a target. I thrust the dagger upward and feel its sharp blade bite flesh. As quickly as it started the harpy's piercing call is cut off. Below me the monster bucks and spasms, no longer fighting me but seized by the throes of death. I push the blade deeper, in under its chin, and hold to it tight as I feel its life and strength gradually drain from its body. It felt like hours, though it was no more than half a minute, when I finally feel it slump dead.

Rolling off of it I heave with what strength I had left to hoist it off of Rosa. I kneel down beside her and let my relief out in a great gasp as I see her chest rise and fall. She was alive! Unconscious, but alive! Words cannot describe the joy that fills me.

"I got you." I whisper. "I got you."

I cradle her in my arms and lift her limp body from the floor. One...two...three steps toward the light of the cave mouth and I collapse back to my knees. I am breathing slow, each breath a labor. My limbs are heavy. I'm tired. So tired. Keeping her held to me in my left arm I feel along my right flank at an ache in my ribs. I pull my hand away to see it glisten with bright fresh crimson mixed in with the harpy's amber life blood.

"Well...fuck."

Chapter 69

Pulling Rosa with me I shift over to slump against the cool stone of the mouth of the cave. I cough and swallow and taste iron. Keeping my right arm held tight against my side to try to slow the bleeding I gaze down at the most beautiful woman in the world.

Feeling weaker by the moment I straighten her clothes, her simple tunic and torn shorts crafted from my old paenula. Her capelet had been lost somewhere in the struggle. Keeping her close to me, laid across my lap, I brush her violet locks from her sweaty face. I notice her a cut up the side of her light, just a shallow one thankfully, but I tear a strip from my tunic and dress it as best I could anyway. Miraculously, beyond the bruising, that was the worst of it. Her petite size had helped her, she had been small enough and light enough the harpy hadn't needed to sink its talons into her to carry her off.

Everything I did was difficult. I just...wanted to rest. I wanted so badly to sleep, but I wanted even more to be here when my Lady awoke.

With a hand caked in blood and gore I stroke my Lady's warm cheek. I trace her long elegant pointed ear with a finger tip. They were so soft and velvety at the tips. I run my thumb along one of her horns to feel the texture. I touch her sweet lips and stroke her long luxuriant hair. So beautiful. So beautiful.

"Mmm." She stirs and blinks her eyes open. They are hazy at first as they track about while her groggy mind struggles to make sense of things.

"Hey." I whisper with a gentle smile.

Her eyes find me and her senses soon clear. She sucks in a gasp as her eyes fill with tears. "Quin." Reaching out she pulls herself into me and hugs me with all of her strength. It hurt, but I ignore the pain and hug her back with my one free arm. Pulling back she gazes up at me as she hold her palm against my cheek. "I...love...you. I love you Quin."

"Hahhhh." I sigh happily. "I love you Rosa."

"I was a fool to deny it. I was a fool." Her eyes widen. "The harpy!"

"It's okay." My vision sways. I feel dizzy. "Everything is...okay now." I try to clear my throat but end up coughing again. I swallow down the blood before she can see it. "You're safe now. I...got you."

She looks up at me momentarily at a loss for words. "You...saved me. Again."

"We...saved...each...other." Each word coming between shallow breaths.

Hearing the feebleness in my wavering voice Rosa's attention sharpens and her body tenses. "What's wrong baby?"

"Just...a little wound." I say as I rest my back against the wall. "It's okay. It's okay. You're safe now."

Rosa sits up and my arm falls limply away from her. "Quin?" With frantic concern Rosa starts to check me over. I continue staring at her, admiring her beauty and basking in her love. "Oh gods!" She quickly finds the wound at my side. "Baby, you're bleeding bad." She pulls her tunic off and folds it up then presses hard against the deep gash.

"It's okay." I whisper, still smiling at her. "It's...okay."

"No, no it is not okay."

I cough and crimson spatters out onto my legs. What a pretty red. Reminds me a little of my ropes.

"Baby." She pats my cheek. "Baby, stay with me."

"I'm here." I say floating in a numb fog not entirely like my waking dreams in the heights of my submission. "Morpheus is heeeere."

"No baby. That's Charon. You stay away from him. He's come to take you away from me." She pulls the belt from my waist and uses it to secure her make shift dressing in place. "Don't you go my boy. You hear me?"

"Yes...my Lady." I grin. "I love...you."

"I love you too."

"Don't...cry."

"Stay with me Quin." Her hands move up and down my body as she desperately tried to think of what she might do. "Don't you leave me baby. We're going home, remember?"

"Yeah." My grin grows. "Home."

"That's right baby, we're going home. You and me."

"Lady?"

"Yes?"

"Tell me..." I heave with wet choking cough. "...tell me...to kiss you."

Her worry etched feature softens. She leans in close and turns her face to offer me her cheek. "Kiss me." I kiss her, my lips leaving a red print. "Good boy."

"Good booooy."

"Quin? Quin!? Stay with me baby!" Each word she spoke got quieter and quieter as the light fades away. "Stay with me..."

Silence.

Dark.

...

Light.

The soft sigh of wind rustling through grass surrounds me. It is warm and soothing. The sun feels so good shining down on me. The rich soft fertile earth beneath me better than the most luxurious bed. I could smell...life. Fertile and abundant and all around me. I slowly open my eyes to see a clear blue sky. Sitting up I find myself in a field of golden wheat stretching out for as far as the eye could see. Turning my head I look to the great hill that I somehow knew would be there. Carved into that hill is a throne. Upon that throne a kindly and rather plain looking woman, yet more grand than any of the Wonders of the world. On her head she wore a garland crown weaved of interwoven stems of various grains.

"Hello Mother." I say as I rise to my feet and approach her. The wheat tickles my bare thighs as it dances with the breeze.

"Hello my Son." Her voice lifts my heart and with it my body. I drift through the air before coming to rest upon her wide lap. I curl up in her soft gown and pull the cloth around me, the flesh of her thigh cushiony and warm. With a hand as large as I am she tucks me in and rests her enormous palm over me as gently as a down blanket. "Is it time to rest already?" Her voice thrums through my entire being, not simply through my ears. "You are so young yet my Son."

I scrunch up my face in an impudent pout. "Mmmm. I just wanna lay down a little." I whine. "Just a nap."

The giant hand slowly pets me. "You can stay. You can sleep forever. If that is what you wish."

I turn. I toss. I roll over. Then I sit up and push Mother's hand away. Looking about I ask. "Where is she?"

"Who?"

"Her."

Ceres smiles, though I do not see it I can feel it in my heart. "She is trying to bring you back. She is reaching out to the Lord of the Forest. She beseeches him to aid her in tapping into her magic. She has the power to do it too, though it will cost her some of her own mortality. But your soul is promised to me. It is neither hers nor Silvanus' to claim."

"Yeah." I say as I kiss her thumb. "I love you."

"I love you too my Son." Her hand cups me behind my back and I lay back into it to smile up at my radiant Mother.

"Can you bring her here?" I ask. "I want her here. I wish her to be with me. I...belong with her."

"I cannot."

"Oh." I furrow my brows as this pesky burr of 'her' bothered my otherwise serene spirit. "Why not?"

"It is not her time yet Quintus."

"Quintus?"

Upon hearing my name memories start to stir. Vague dreamlike visions of a place far, far away from here. A proud and noble man in uniform. My father. A tall dark haired woman bent over a pot, the savory smell of soup. My real mother. A farm. Friends. Grandparents. Work. Family. Grief. Belonging. Setting off alone. A journey. A slave girl. A sexual liberation. Love.

I blink my eyes. "Goddess!" I bolt up to a sitting position and avert my gaze. "Forgive my audacity!" I scramble to knees to supplicate before her and tremble in fear as I realize I was in the presence of Ceres herself!

She laughs and the infinite golden fields rustle as her laughter rolls through the wheat like waves over the ocean. Scooping me up in her hands she sets me down upon the earth at her feet and stands. "On your feet. Come along my Son."

"Yes my..." My voice catches. "...Lady?" Those words are familiar yet...I cannot remember. As I lift my head I catch sight of a glimpse of green among the golden stems of grain. As the crop sways in the gentle breeze I see flowers of vibrant magenta among the green leaves of the plant so different from the rest. I rub the back of my left hand as I study it. "What is this?"

"It is a rose." Ceres answers. "A lovely flower I have always thought."

"It...doesn't belong here." I crawl toward it. The twisted scrawny shrub was out of place among the tall perfect stalks of grain. A flaw, a hint of the savage among Ceres' perfectly cultivated crops. In comparison it looked...frail, yet tough and hearty too. "Why is it here?"

"I did not plant it." She says. "Perhaps it is a weed. Perhaps it ought to be removed."

"No!" I flatten the stalks around it to give it more light. "No. It is beautiful."

"Yes, it is." She says. "Now come along Quintus."

"Quintus?" I whisper.

Though I wanted to obey something keeps me there, kneeling before this small plant with the tender pink flowers. Ceres turns to face me, towering over me and the spindly little shrub.

"I know this plant. I have seen it before." I say as I struggle make sense of the visions. "A...mountain. A wet, cold mountain. A wild place. Far from your fields." I look up at my Goddess, squinting against the sun. "Where is she?"

"Who?"

"I..." I shake my head as I try in vain to remember. "I...can't..."

"Quintus. Am I not first in your heart?"

"No." The truth flows from my heart. Only after I have answered does the meaning strike me. "Forgive me great Ceres!"

Again she laughs, an uplifting laugh that fills my spirit with the joy of family, hearth and home. "It is no shame to love a mortal above a god. It is as things ought to be for the living."

"Am I...alive?"

"You stand at the cusp my Son." She says with gentle patience.

"I...cannot go."

"No?"

"No."

"Why?"

I look to the rose. "She planted this. She put this here." Though I cannot grasp the details the emotions were as clear and pure as the sky above me. "I...need...her."

Ceres kneels and bends down low. Laying her great hand over my head and shoulders she whispers. "Then go to your Lady."

With that a wave of vital energy radiates from my groin and out through the rest of my body like a spreading wildfire. My near serenity is shattered as with that energy returns passion and pain and suffering and worry and all of the travails of living. "Haahhhh!" Reaching out I grab the base of the rose bush with both hands and hold to it with all of my strength.

My eyes are filled with light!

...

Darkness envelopes me.

A cool wet wind washes over my face. I am laying on hard stone. My ribs hurt. My throat dry. The cloying air is fetid and pungent enough to mingle with the taste of blood in my mouth. Opening my eyes I see more darkness, but turning my head I also see an opening where the moon and the stars are shining in the heavens above a partly cloudy sky. In my last recollection it was light out, still daytime. Now it was night? Where was I? How did I...? The last thing I remembered was Rosa at my side pleading with me to stay with her. That's right! The harpy! The battle! I was wounded! I was dying!

It is only then I notice the weight upon my chest. Something warm, something breathing, something with a horn that poked into me. Rosa was still at my side though her body lay slumped over me as if she had passed out on top of me.

"Rosa." I say in hushed voice as I smile weakly. I take a deep strong breath in and slowly let it out again. "Rosaaaa." We made it. We survived. We were going to be okay. With a weary trembling arm I lay it across her. As my hand finds her shoulder. "Ouch." I look at my hand and, by the pale light of Luna, can just barely see a sharp thorn embedded in my finger. I flick the annoying spine away then put my arms around my Lady and feel her stir.

Chapter 70

"Mmmm?" Rosa rustles.

I pull her closer to my face and kiss her head, right between the horns, and nuzzle into her lucious hair. Her body tenses in surprise and she looks up at me.

"Quin!" She gasps. "You're alive!" Her face breaks into a huge incredulous grin, she had such cute fangs. "YOU'RE ALIVE!"

"Of course." I say. "You told me to stay. I wasn't about to disobey my Lady."

Collapsing on top of me Rosa breaks down sobbing. Tears of joy. Tears of relief. Tears as an overwhelming outburst of the fear and tension she'd been holding inside of her. Grabbing my head from both sides she begins kissing me all over my face. I hold her close and laugh joyously. Many long wonderful minutes are spent just clinging to each other, not wanting to let go.

"How...how are you?" Rosa feels around my body, particularly at my ribs where the harpy's talon had stabbed me. In the dim light however there wasn't much to see. More than anything though she just wanted to touch me and feel me and make sure this was real. I hold her close for the same reason, just wanting more than anything to feel her on me. Half laughing, half crying, she asks. "How are you feeling? How's my boy?"

"Sore." I say. "But not bad considering." I press against the blood crusted dressing, impossible as it was it felt no more than a bruised rib underneath. "It must not have been as bad as I thought."

Kneeling up a grim look comes over Rosa's moonlit face. "No. It was bad." Her tired voice trembles with emotion. "It was real bad. I...I thought I lost you. I thought you were gone."

"But, how...?"

"Magic." She answers in a hushed tone, seeming to disbelieve it herself. Looking down at her hands she is silent a moment before whispering. "I was desperate. You were dying. I didn't now what else to do. I called out for help, to the forests and the mountains, to my father's spirit, to the old green king himself. I reached out and in, deep down. I..." She swallows. "...I offered myself as sacrifice."

"Rosa."

"I couldn't lose you Quin. I couldn't." She brings her hands to her bare chest. "It aches inside. Like...a piece of me has been torn away but...I'm okay."

"You healed me? You used magic?"

"I must have." Her brows furrow as she recalls the experience. "I remember...green. A green light." She shakes her head. "I passed out after that." She lets out a sigh. "And woke to find you holding me. Oh gods baby, I thought you were gone."

"I'm here, I am right here." Reaching up I touch her soft cheek with a finger tip and smile. "We survived, that's all that matters." She smiles back, happy for a moment, before a great sadness comes over her. "Rosa?"

She bows her head. "I am ashamed." She whispers. "I am so ashamed of myself. What...I did to you. How can you ever forgive me?"

"It's okay."

"No baby, it's not. It's really not. I struck you! I struck my beautiful boy." She shakes her head bring her hands to her knees, entering what I now recognized as a Kneel. "Even as that monster carried me away...all I could think about is what I had done to you. I...never...meant..." Her voice fades away.

"Rosa."

"My fear, my anger, my emotions took control of me...just like...after Danae..." She shudders and shakes her head again. "I am not Lady enough for a boy as pure and as precious as you. I am not worthy of you." Her shoulders slump. "I don't deserve you Quin."

I look upon my Lady, my heart overflowing with love. I had heard these words before. I had heard them come from my own mouth on that day, that special day, when I gave myself to her. I try to hide my smile.

"Deserve me?" I say, paraphrasing her own words back to her. "To be deserving of a boy isn't something you just are or are not. It's work, it's a process, it's a commitment. It is about having faith in yourself. It is about being strong enough and brave enough to let your boy see that special side of yourself that is only for him to see." She raises her head and looks me in the eyes. "It is a journey, together." My warm smile widens. "And if you fall short...you will be corrected and forgiven. We will learn and move forward." I reach up to touch the dark print my bloody lips had left on her cheek. "Don't be afraid my Lady, I will never let you fall too far. I will always be there to catch you."