Slave Girl Ch. 66-73

Feeling as old as Drusilla I will myself to my feet. The cave mouth faced to the West so the rising sun did not shine into it directly but the bright sky of morning was enough to illuminate the long straight cavern. The floor near the entrance is covered in dried blood, both the harpy's and my own. Feathers, rocks, sticks and splintered bones were the majority of the cave's contents. Near where I had fallen I see my father's dagger along with a familiar glint of silver. The bracelet. I walk across and first pick up the weapon. I bring it to my chest and hold it near my heart.

Closing my eyes I take a deep breath and reach out with my spirit. "I...I think understand now." I whisper. "I found someone Dad. I love her. I love her like you loved Mom." Opening my eyes again I look down to the blood caked weapon. "I miss you and...I love you Dad." I sigh and bring the pommel to my lips. "You might not approve of everything I do but...I'll do you proud. Just you wait and see. I'll make you proud."

I look about and find the bracelet again and pick it up off of the ground. I look through it to see what would be normal with a mundane bracelet. The portal was gone, magical lettering along the interior is dark, and it just felt...inert in a way it hadn't been before. The magic had long since been used up.

"Shit." I mutter.

I look deeper into the cave knowing the other half of the bracelet I held had to be back there somewhere. Moving carefully and quietly through the bones and detritus I scan the floor. Seeing the shine of silver under a shattered rib I reach down to find not a bracelet but a silver dinarius.

"What the?" I turn the coin in my hand a moment before looking about the lair again. Soon I see another glimmering among the bones, and then another! Following the trail from coin to coin my gaze finally comes to rest on a torn leather sack wedged into a crack at the back base of the cave. Moving closer I see more silver inside of it. Looking about I see more things. A broken bow, a rusted knife blade, a grime caked belt buckle, and other things. It seemed Rosa was not the first of its prey the harpy had brought back here.

Getting down on my knees I start to rummage around and gather the items together. I clear a spot to pile them, my main focus on the dinarii but anything of interest ends up on the pile. The majority of what I discover is broken and ruined beyond all value or use. I do find the other part of the Janus faced bracelet near Rosa's torn capelet and place the two halves beside the rest. Despite my best efforts my activity must have made too much noise as it isn't long before I hear those three wonderful words. "Good morning Master."

"Good morning Rosa." I say, looking over at her.

She sits up and smacks her dry lips. "Ugh, I taste it. What a wretched smell. I wish we had water." Blinking her big eyes she looks over to me. "What are you doing?"

"Treasure!" I smile. "Look at all of this stuff." Directing with my eyes I draw attention down to the small mound of items I had collected. "Money, a gem, a hairpin, a belt buckle, a bottle full of pepper still sealed, a pair of dice, a metal pen, two rings, a jeweled broach, I think it's gold! I'm not done searching either." I hold up a filthy and frayed hooded green cloak. "There's even some clothes." My voice darkens as I run my hand across a black splotch on the garment. "Though most of it is...soiled."

"Those poor souls."

"Yeah." Looking about the scattered and shattered bones I say. "There's no way to even give them a burial. I pray their souls found the other side."

She shudders. "I would have been among them had you not come."

"That wasn't our fate." I say. "I hope they don't mind us taking this stuff."

"I doubt the dead care of such things."

"Yeah. Some of this stuff is pretty old. None of these coins are later than Vespasian's reign, most are older. I wonder if the harpy found an older abandoned lair or something." Saving the best for last I hold up a rectangular wooden item I had found in the leather sack that contained the silver. "Look at this."

Pulling my tunic tight around her Rosa turns to face me and squints. "A box?"

"I thought so too." I shake my head as I trace the symbol carved into the front of it, that of two pillars with an elaborate circular design between them. "It only looks like it. There are leaves of parchment inside all bound together on one side. The exterior is a part of it, like a cover to protect the pages within. I think it's a codex."

"A book?" She says. "Wow! What is written in it?"

"Not sure. I just found it." I say as I place the item back down. Picking up the two rings of the bracelet I show them to her.

"Oh no!" She whispers. "I forgot...the magic?"

"It seems dead to me but I can't tell."

Rosa gets to her feet and shivers. I hide a grin as I catch a peek of her usually impressive penis all shriveled up from the cold. Adorable. Tightening the tunic around her she approaches me and kneels at my side. She takes the two halves and studies the slender rings of silver. "They don't seem damaged at all." Placing the two faces close together there is a moment of concentration before she lets out a breath and shakes her head. The two parts remain separated. "I can't. Maybe later...I don't know Master." Looking over the gathered loot her demeanor brightens a little. "Well...this will certainly help us."

"It sure will." I put an arm around her and pull her into a hug. "Come on, let's find the rest and get out of this cursed place."

She nods her horned head and scrunches her nose. "Sounds good to me!"

Chapter 73

Working together we gather whatever we could find of value. I had found most of it already but there were a few more items we are able to add to the pile. We bundle it up in the leather bag, which was still usable despite the tear, but keep the coinage separate in a rough cloth pouch that we find.

I jingle the pouch. "I still can't get a cow like I wanted, but it's enough for a couple of laying hens."

Rosa smiles. "It's a start."

My tunic and Rosa's vest were both so blood-stained we didn't want to wear them. I opt for donning the green cloak with only my underbreeches on under it while Rosa cuts arm holes into her capelet and uses a bit of string for a makeshift belt. We look at each other and cannot help but laugh. Filthy, bruised, haggard, in cobbled together clothes...it looked like we'd been through all of the labors of Hercules back to back then challenged the gods for more.

"You look terrible." Rosa giggles.

"You look beautiful!"

She raises a brow. "I think your vision might be clouded."

"Perhaps."

"Tell me you love me."

"I love you!"

"Love you too baby." She gets up on her tip toes and kisses my cheek.

"Come on, let's get out of here."

I use the leather drawstring to tie off the top as well as the tear of the bag and pick it up. We move out onto the ledge. Peering down over the drop we see the sprawled out broken body of the harpy beneath us. It was a hell of a drop with only unforgiving stones as a landing. I point out the narrow lip of the fissure that I used to get up here. It angled downward until it was about eight feet from the ground.

"I was thinking that I could..." I start to say, but Rosa was already on her way.

With her natural dancer's grace, and aided by her lithe physique and slender feet, Rosa was hugging close to the cliff and walking sideways down the lip.

"Huh."

I bring the leather bag to my face and bit down on it, letting the bulk of it tuck in under my chin, then lower myself to hang from the fissure. Hand to hand I climb back down the angle just as I had on the way up. Rosa waits at the bottom for me to catch up and drop down.

"Help." She reaches her arms down toward me.

Setting the bag to the side I hold my arms up. "I got ya."

She hops from the narrow lip and straight down into my arms. I catch her and lower her to the earth as gently as a feather. She sneaks a cheeky smooch in along the way which lifts my already soaring heart.

Taking our time we make our way down the loose scree. Once I feel the comforting cushion of actual soil beneath my sandals I fall to my knees I let out a huge sigh, feeling at last that this encounter was truly behind me. I lead Rosa along the ridge then down the slope toward the road. From a long way off we can see our belonging strewn out, starting from a stone and down the green slope. A curious fox is still sniffing about looking for something to eat, it would find nothing there. I scare the pest off by clattering a stone off of a boulder near it and we watch the tawny canine scamper away.

Walking up to my old pack I groan. It has split all along one seam and spilled almost everything that was inside of it out into the elements. I come to a stop and peruse the mess. Rosa meanwhile rushes into the middle of it frantically searching for something. Whatever it is she finds it and slips it into her inner capelet pocket.

"What's that?"

"None of your business."

"None of my business?"

"You heard me."

"Were you hiding something in there?" I say suspiciously. "You sneaky little slave! What have I been carrying all this time?"

"No more questions." She commands indignantly.

I grin. "Yes my Lady."

She winks. "Thank you Master."

The next order of business is water. Blessed, wonderful, life-giving water. We had half a skin of water left and drain every drop of it. It doesn't quench our thirst but it goes a long way. After that I start to gather items.

"It was raining yesterday. Everything would have gotten soaked." I walk to my rope and kneel down to inspect it. Thankfully it was still in good shape. I hug it tight and rub my cheek against its coils.

"Just a bit of damp and a night in the open air." Rosa says. "And the oil flask broke. Nothing so bad." Picking up the pack she pulls the what was left in it out. "Good thing you packed your papers deep." She waggles my property scrolls, for both her and my land, in her hand. "You wouldn't want to lose these!"

"Oh! Thank the gods." I sigh in relief.

She stares at them a moment. "It is so strange still, knowing that I'm property."

"Rosa..."

My Lady grins and tosses them too me. "Thankfully I'm a clever girl and I enslaved my Master with my feminine wiles."

I chuckle. "That you did my Lady, that you did."

She giggles and slings the empty pack over her shoulder. "Help me find my sewing kit. I'll have this fixed up in no time. I can stitch that bag too."

We quickly find the sewing kit. Rosa finds a nice flat rock to sit on and use as a work surface and immediately sets to work. I watch her expertly repair the sacks and remember how my mother had been the one to collect the needles and thread from her own kit to send with me. It seemed a lifetime ago now. I cannot help but wonder how the meeting between Mom and Rosa will go. It may be months or years away but it would happen eventually. Deep down I knew my mother could not approve of us. Deep down I also knew that wouldn't matter. I valued my mother's wisdom but she could never know Rosa like I did.

I collect up our belongings, rebinding anything that had unraveled or come loose, and ready them to be packed up again. Beyond some broken pottery and a few water stains on my reading scrolls our belongings had fared as well as they could have. My dagger I keep securely at my side, we weren't out of wilds yet. I then start to look around for some more water. Beyond a few shallow puddles I find none. The pack and the bag stitched up we redistribute our load between the two, careful to hide our newfound valuables deep within, and pack them up. Using the puddles we clean up as best we could. It felt soooo good to scrub the blood and filth and stench off of my flesh. The water was cold and reinvigorating, for me at least.

"Heeeeee!" Rosa peeps between clenched teeth, her pink nips wrinkly and as stiff as I'd ever seen them. Her whole body shivers. "Brrrrrr!"

I try not laugh at her and splash my face one last time. Waiting for the ripples to calm I look down into the water to see my reflection. I looked different, tired and drawn out, but also...older. Not so much in the face but in the eyes there was a new confidence and calmness that had never been there before.

"Careful." Rosa quips. "Remember Narcissus."

I grin and rub my rough stubbly chin. "No worries there."

I go to our stuff and hoist the pack onto my shoulder and feel that familiar weight again. I reach for the bag.

"Oh no." Rosa says as she lifts it and loops the handle that she had crafted with some of our twine over her own shoulder. "I think you've been carrying more than your share for long enough." She straightens the bag at her hip like a satchel and looks up at me. "After you Master."

A grin slowly grows on my face. "Very well."

We step back onto the road and find our walking sticks where we'd dropped them. I notice Rosa staring at the spot where I had been kneeling, the spot she stood over me as my Lady and struck me. I rest a hand onto her shoulder, letting her know that all was forgiven. She brings her hand to mine and squeezes it back. I could see that it would take some time for her to forgive herself.

The landscape is majestic, grand mountains as far as the eye could see aglow in the warm light of late morning, but even this grandeur cannot move me. Home. Home. All I wanted was home. Our eyes turn and peer off far to the South. Home was waiting for us there.

I thump my walking stick into the road. "Stay close."

Rosa stands tall at my side. "Yes Master."

As we take our first steps we leave this nondescript spot along the road changed people from the pair that had arrived here less than twenty four hours before.

To be continued...