Tannah the Warlord Pt. 02

Aretta stormed into her tent and saw Tannah sitting up atop the bedding with a hand on her face, her hair a complete mess. She looked up and Aretta avoided her gaze, looking around the floor for her underwear. She caught a glimpse of the strap-on cock and wondered if she should put it on for later.

Instead she grabbed a delicate pair of panties off of the floor and pulled it snugly up against her womanhood. She shoved a foot through one pant-leg and drew her pants up around her hips. Aretta moved toward the spot where her shirt was laying and felt a hand on her chest. She turned and saw Tannah standing up, completely naked.

Tannah moved in close, kissing her forehead as Aretta looked down. She wanted so badly to throw the woman onto her bedding and make love to her, but remembering her and Beustalar together made the idea sour in her mind.

"Are you okay?" Tannah asked, "We're riding out in just two hours, I need you in a mood for bloodshed today," she said, cradling her head in her hands. Aretta pushed her hands away angrily and took a step back, then she grabbed Tannah and pressed her lips to hers. She kissed her deeply, feeling her vagina muscles tighten as Tannah's tongue moved against the inside of her cheek.

She backed away after a long passionate moment, her juices soaking the crotch of her underwear and her mouth watering for more.

"Well ..." Aretta said, bending over and grabbing her tunic off the floor, "then you've done a good job," she barked, pulling her top over her head and gritting her teeth as the fabric rubbed across her erect nipples.

The corners of Tannah's lips curled up in a slightly unsure smile and she exited the tent completely nude.

The next hour was a blur of preparations as the entire company donned their gear, tended to their mares and ate breakfast. Aretta noticed a few more eyes than usual on her as she consumed a light meal of boiled oats.

She was happy for any kind of distraction that morning, anything to keep her mind off of the impending battle, even drama. She was certainly ready to kill to protect Tannah, her general, her lover. She was ready, even though she'd never taken the life of a human, or a reptile.

"I am ready aren't I?" she thought to herself. She was more prepared to kill than to die, she decided, realizing that her heart was racing. Aretta took a deep breath and stared at her breakfast, hoping the adrenaline of combat would make things easier.

"Don't think, just do what needs to be done," someone said. She looked up and saw Gerhas sitting across the table and to the left of her. Aretta glared at the man who'd tried to rape her, unsure if she should take his advice. She hadn't even realized he was there, that kind of lapse in awareness was unlike her.

"You're shaking," he said, glancing at her hand. Aretta looked down and saw her spoon wobbling in the bowl. She heard Gerhas set his utensils down and stand up, slipping out from between two broad shouldered men and walking away without looking back.

Aretta gritted her teeth and then put another spoonful of warm goop in her mouth as she watched him retreat. Despite her hatred for the man Aretta took his advice, expunging all thought of death and bloodshed from her mind.

Her other frustrations greatly helped steer her thoughts while Tannah pulled the straps of her breastplate tight. She didn't say anything as the gorgeous dark haired woman dressed her in armor, locking her in with sharp tugs until her whole body was clad in metal.

Tannah held Aretta's helmet under her arm and leaned in to kiss her on the cheek. Aretta leaned back avoiding her lips and Tannah smirked. Instead she kissed the palm of her hand and slapped Aretta playfully in the face, then grinned and dropped her helmet at her feet.

Aretta's eyes grew wide and she blushed hotly, glaring at Tannah's leather wrapped butt as she turned away and left the tent without another word. Aretta tightened her arming cap under her chin with reckless yanks of her fingers and picked up her helm, lowering it over her head to conceal the rage on her face.

"Hyah!" Aretta shouted, less than an hour later, kicking her mare into a gallop as the war horns blared. Metal plates scraped together all around her as the train of warriors rode over the hill, their hooves beating the road in a rapid rhythm.

Primitive huts appeared in the clearing below as Aretta topped the hill, riding beside Tannah, her hands clutching the reins.

Greenish bodies stood still along a worn road crisscrossing the ramshackle village, their feathered heads pointed toward Tannah and her mercenaries. Aretta saw a lithe, feminine looking, lizard-person run into her house and slam the door.

The company fanned out as they descended. The riders at the head of their group raised slings holding balls of linen doused in pitch and lit them with torches. The enemy seemed to stare wide-eyed as Tannah's men hurled their blazing packages.

They struck thatch roofs, setting the huts ablaze easily under the dry sunny weather as the burning balls rolled across them and fell to the ground. The villagers fled as the company charged through their narrow street, brandishing spears and lances. Aretta heard hisses of anger as the creatures took cover and hid.

She glanced left and right, watching for signs of danger. She saw only reptilians, fleeing and scared, riding past a scaled body that had been run through with a lance, dragged, and left to bleed out in the dirt. She thought about it for only a moment and it sickened her, but she gritted her teeth and focused on her anger, squeezing the reins tightly against her palm.

A horn sounded and Aretta turned her head, peering through her face guard and seeing dust rising in the distance.

"The enemy, northeast!" a voice called out. Aretta glanced at Tannah and saw her signal to follow as she pulled on the reins to direct her mare down one of the side streets. She looked at the woman's butt couched in her saddle, allowing the memory of it bare and jiggling in Beustalar's tent to seep into her mind.

She felt her blood boil and clutched her spear as she rode close-by. She rode between blazing huts toward a scene of absolute chaos. Those tall pointed clubs were flailing in the distance, barely visible over the towering armored riders.

She saw a muscled man knocked to the ground by a charging steed and trampled as others fell behind him. Despite the ferocity of their warriors their line was no match for Tannah's mounted charge, and soon Aretta's horse was marching between green-skinned bodies laid across the road as they advanced.

They emerged into the plain and Aretta could see the massive horde mounting before them. She had never seen so many armed fighters in her life. Daunted, her heart began to thump faster in her chest but she remained by Tannah's side.

Soon, as they spread out to meet their foe with the village burning at their backs Aretta could see them closing in. One muscled lizard man ducked under a lance and charged low toward the deeper ranks. Instinctively Aretta dropped out of the saddle and raised her spear, taking him in the throat.

She felt the weight of his body through her arms as he collided with her weapon, its forked head digging into his neck and stopping him in his tracks. He hit the earth and coughed up foamy gore as she yanked her spear out of him. She let everything fade into the back of her mind as she saw three more creatures dodge spears and rush toward her.

She was dimly aware of Tannah, on foot beside her, her shield raised and her blade bare. She saw two spears transfix one of the enemies running toward her and turned to focus on the other two. She thrusted, pulled back and then drove her arm forward again in a feint that slipped past the enemy's guard and pushed her spear point into his eye.

In a split second the other creature's club came toward her and was knocked away by Tannah's shield. She caught a glimpse of his bare chest oozing blood from a gash across it, Tannah's blade dripping crimson as it ended its arc. Wounded, he stepped back but Tannah lunged, slashing open his neck and dropping him under the feet of his advancing allies.

Aretta saw round shields and roughly carved spears advancing behind the thinned line of club warriors that no-doubt served as shock troops. She turned her body as two spear points were aimed at her, narrowly avoiding one while the other skidded off of her breastplate.

"Grrrahhh!" she shouted, deftly slipping past the shield of one attacker and pushing her weapon into his chest. She held it in place with one hand and gripped the shaft that had slid past her, yanking it away with a gauntleted fist.

One of their wooden poles struck her helmet hard, making her stumble. Aretta pulled her spear from her enemy's body and rammed it into the shoulder of the creature who replaced him. She yanked it back as he recoiled from the injury and then drove it into the ribs of the foe who was facing off against Tannah.

"Erraaachh!" he howled right before Tannah's curved blade lopped off his hand at the wrist. The lizard man brandished his gushing stump, splattering blood across Aretta's face-plate as he fell against the row behind him.

Aretta saw the faces of the creatures in the further ranks. Despite their reptilian eyes and features she recognized the terror on their faces as their weapons were turned away by armor. Tannah's line moved forward as enemy spearmen fell, their primitive phalanx propping up the injured as they slid to the ground.

Still they pushed past the impaled bodies that leaned into them and came jabbing their sharpened points at Tannah and Aretta and the outnumbered men beside them. Four came at them at once, squaring off cautiously with their weapons resting against their shields.

A spear scraped across Aretta's tasset and she turned as it was deflected, catching it between her thighs and snapping its point off, riposting with a thrust that stuck in her foe's shield as he backed away.

She yanked it free just in time to take a poke at the man on his left, causing him to halt his attack and step back. Aretta turned her body and drove her spear point into the exposed thigh of the creature to his right, dropping him to one knee as he screamed in agony.

Through the slits of her helm she saw Tannah run him through, catching another spear under her arm, turning and breaking it with her shield arm as she withdrew her blade from his body.

Aretta knocked away her remaining enemy's spear as it came sailing toward her neck, then gripped her weapon with two hands to pull it out of the meat of her victim's leg. He thrust at her again and she ducked under it, then jabbed her point at his ankle.

The man nimbly yanked his foot away and Aretta's point struck air, but she hooked his other ankle with the forked tip of her weapon, tripping him. He landed on his side, exposing his body to her and Aretta thrust her spear point into his stomach.

Suddenly another spear head struck her pauldron and rattled her helm as it skidded off. She growled as she pulled her weapon out of her enemy's gut, sidestepping another thrust.

"Hraaah!" she shouted, slamming the shaft of her spear against the attacker's weapon as he thrust it carelessly under her arm. It bent against her body and shattered, then she shifted her stance and drove her point under the shield of her attacker as he raised it to block Tannah's blade.

She drew back and studied the row of hesitant enemies facing her. Aretta could only make out another two ranks of warriors through the dust and chaos of bodies. The shouts of people and the cries of the injured was a cacophony that was beginning to make her head hurt.

Then a horn sounded. Aretta didn't recognize the pattern, then she realized it was the enemy. The creatures before her began taking steps backward, pressing shoulder to shoulder to cover the flight of their allies. Aretta could hear horses galloping in the distance and lizard men hissing words in a foreign language.

Aretta felt Tannah's gauntleted hand on her arm and turned her head to see Tannah walking back through the ranks of her men. Confused, she followed the woman back to where their horses were and watched her put a foot in the stirrup and throw her leg over the animal.

"It's a rout girl, ready your horse, we'll catch them in the plain beyond the trees, hyahhh!" she cried out, pulling the rein and kicking her beast as Aretta scrambled.

She lifted herself into the saddle and sat down, clutching the reins in one hand and trailing behind while more armored warriors began doing the same. Aretta caught a glimpse of the broken enemy phalanx as she rode past, segments of men standing shoulder to shoulder, as iron clad mercenaries surrounded them.

Her heart thumped to the rhythm of the hoofbeats and she could taste blood in her mouth. She saw them emerge from the trees and into the open as they fled toward a smoke signal in the distance.

Aretta and the others closed quickly, darting into the crowd of foes travelling two-to-three bodies per horse. Aretta raised her spear, poking at the driver of one heavily overburdened beast. He evaded the first thrust, turning to look at her with fury in his yellow eyes.

Aretta kicked her steed and raced ahead, spearing their mount in the breast and watching it fall, sending three lizardmen into a tumble that tripped the horse behind them as they all disappeared into the dust.

She saw Tannah ride through her field of view, drawing her blade across an animal's ass, causing it to startle and drop its rider. The weapon was ideal for this type of combat she realized. It was able to cut flesh with little chance it would get lodged and it was just as useful up close.

Another pair rode up beside her and she batted a small club away with her shield, her curved sword opening up the side of her attacker's neck in the same motion, causing blood to fountain down the side of his beast as he fell limp in the saddle. The club slipped from the passenger's fingers and Tannah sliced the driver across the ribs as she rode past.

Aretta saw his entrails dangling until they were caught in the feet of the animal and torn from his body. His insides spilled over the creature's mane while he grasped at his intestine with one bloody hand.

Aretta lost count of how many she slew after that. Sometimes she'd be struck by clubs as she stabbed them, running them through with her spear, hooking them with it's fork and dragging them out of the saddle to die under the hooves of fleeing allies. Just like every other job she'd ever done, soon she felt removed from it, and she acted without thinking just like Gerhas advised.

When Aretta finally dismounted she felt dizzy and had to remove her helm to retch into the dirt. It wasn't until she wiped the bile from her lips that she realized how much blood was on her face. She sensed a tender spot on her eyebrow as she felt around and realized one of the blows to her head must have split the skin above her eye.

When Tannah found her sitting above a pool of her own vomit with blood streaming down her face she came quickly and knelt beside her, removing her own helmet and inspecting her closely. The cool air felt amazing against her skin as Tannah touched her face.

The sounds of the injured being put to death all around her gave Aretta a dark sense of comfort. The battle was over. She let out a relaxed sigh as Tannah spoke words that she was too out of sorts to understand.

"Hey!" Tannah nearly shouted into Aretta's face, startling her. "... I said, are you injured!?" Aretta stared into Tannah's eyes and then shook her head, feeling numb.

"I don't think so," she answered, her vision narrow. Over the dark haired woman's shoulder Aretta saw a man drive a blade into a wounded enemy's stomach while the creature tried with futility to grab at the sword edge, his hands too slippery with his own blood to grasp it.

"Come with me," Tannah said, taking Aretta by the hand and standing up. After a short ride her and Tannah were back at the camp inside her tent together, their armor folded up neatly to the side while Tannah dabbed at Aretta's scrapes with a wet cloth.

"I wasn't ready for this," Aretta said, her voice monotone. "I wasn't ready for that kind of violence ... and you knew it." Tannah looked briefly into her eyes as she pressed the cloth to her skin.

The stitching in her eyebrow felt like a swollen lump that was mostly numb from the needle passing through it over and over, but she still winced when Tannah put pressure on it.

"It isn't like a fight in the training yard, that's true," Tannah said as she studied Aretta's face for more cuts. "But you get used to the chaos. Unfortunately there aren't many drills that will prepare you for a real battle."

Tannah leaned back, crouching between Aretta's legs. She took Aretta's hand and placed it on the cloth to hold it in place while she reached for a bandage, then began wrapping it around the top of Aretta's head.

Aretta thought about the scene in the village. What had happened to the creature who had fled into her home? She was afraid to ask about the fate of those living there.

Once when she was a girl they'd burned a woman alive in the town square in Aumtgrist. She didn't recall that woman's crimes, all she remembered was the smell and the way her skin peeled back while she screamed.

As the day wore on more of Tannah's warriors returned from the battlefield. A few of them came back on liters with their armor stripped off. The injured men took up only a single tent and the dead were arrayed along the outskirts of the camp.

Seeing these men with their bodies broken and mangled from the waist down or their faces battered and unrecognizable made Aretta feel lucky to be alive. Two of them died simply by falling from their horses and three of them had lost their helmets in the fighting, giving the enemy an opportunity to thrust a spear into their throat or land an unexpected blow from a club.

The day was mostly a blur until the first dinner shift, but seeing Tannah stand in front of her men to deliver a speech about the day's work grounded her a bit.

"Today, we lost seven honorable men," Tannah shouted from atop one of the cluttered wooden tables. "Through mere circumstance seven of our number gave themselves to whatever gods they prayed to ... and for their loss each of them sent over a hundred of the enemy to their grave!" A chorus of hoots and battlecries went up all around Aretta. Wine splashed her ankle as it spilled from a mug raised high in celebration.

"Today our company won a major victory against intruders into our realm! We have annihilated their central stronghold and shown them that even at their fullest fighting potential, outnumbering us nearly twenty to one, they cannot best us!" she called out, causing an even louder outburst of approval.

Tannah looked around at the cheering crowd. Aretta thought she could see the corner of her lip curl upward in a smile as she watched them yell and get rowdy with one-another.

"This beast isn't slain yet, but we've thrust a spear deep into it, and tomorrow we will pursue it ... and as it bleeds out and dies we will give it no space to lick its wounds and recover its strength! We will hound it until it is gone from this land or from this earth!" This time their shouts went up as she spoke, rising in volume even as she spat the final syllables of her declaration.

She raised her mug and drank deeply, wine spilling down her cheeks as she finished it off.

"Hurrah!" she exclaimed and the men echoed her as she stepped down off the table and into the cheering mass of bodies. Aretta pushed through the crowd until she was directly behind Tannah, following her despite a train of her advisors all huddling around.

Tannah disappeared into her tent, shoving away the first man who tried to follow her inside. Aretta glanced at them as she squeezed past and slipped between the tent flaps.