The Bramble and the Eel

I saw nothing, but heard splashing from the bank. I dropped down to my haunches, careful not to splash. My hand found a pile of rags and fish bones beside me when I shifted lower amidst the tall grasses. I smiled and thanked the prince.

Mosha Bramble stood naked in the stream, shoulders shining above the water. Her breasts bounced gloriously as she washed herself. I couldn't take my eyes away when she reached up to wash her hair. Her dark nipples hypnotized me in their orbit up and down and this way and that.

She finished while I debated interrupting the bath we both so enjoyed. She waded straight toward me in search of her clothing. Seeing my opportunity to catch the girl unaware, I grabbed the pile and crept away from the naked girl.

I saw more of her as the river grew more shallow. Her flat stomach and wide hips sloped gracefully into long legs that appeared impossibly smooth. A delightful tangle of pubic hair adorned her mound, right above a neat little slit.

She looked adorably frustrated as she searched for her missing clothes. Her plump ass jiggled as she spun in circles and bent over looking through the grass. I couldn't decide if I found it more adorable, erotic, or hilarious. When she started toward me, I decided the game had gone on long enough.

"Miss Bramble! We meet again. I'm glad you're dressed for the occasion."

"You filthy, disgusting excuse for a lord! Give me back my clothes! I truly thought you incapable of debasing me any further."

The girl held an arm over her breasts and a hand cupped her lower region to keep it from my view. I took a step forward and her body shot back instantly.

"Do not run from me, girl. As much as I would love to see your behind run away from me, you are wanted by the crown."

"I'm not going with you. I will escape any chance I get, my lord. I promise you."

The girl ran, until running became swimming through the deep end of the stream. I threw her clothes away and rushed toward the end of the stream. My footfalls were quickly bogged down by mud and sucking water. The girl looked over her shoulder as she ran, she saw me tripping and struggling against the water filling my armor.

I cursed myself for my foolishness, I cursed Mosha's beautiful ass for distracting me from my cause. I kicked and splashed furiously after her but she only watched, confused from the other side of the river. How inane I must have looked to her, a knight in shining armor drowning in a creek.

Somehow, my cape got twisted around my legs in my fight for air and I was dragged under. I forced myself up as much as I could, toward the light of the surface. Alas, my armor was too heavy for my spent legs and I sunk, till blackness took my vision.

The next I knew I was weightless and staring into the sun.

"I don't know why I did it, my lord. But you will fucking live."

I coughed up river water while the nude barbarian watched and seethed. I didn't hear most of what she said because of the water in my ears. After I rolled over and smacked the side of my head to unclog the dregs, I was confronted with the rage of the girl.

"Look at you. What kind of eel can't swim? My lord, I really should have left you in there."

I reached for my sword like they were a misplaced pair of glasses but found nothing. The girl approached, blocking out the blinding sun. She stood over me with my sword, still dripping and huffing. Even then I couldn't help but stare at her plump breasts hanging proudly off her chest.

"Miss Bramble, could you tell me why I'm naked? And I must ask you to return my sword."

My savior huffed and tossed my sword onto what I guessed was my armor from the metallic thunk it made on impact.

"What else would you require, my lord? To give myself up into your bondage once again?"

"I fear that I must, as it is my duty as warden of this forest to keep out trespassers and brigands."

I got to my feet and started toward my effects only for the woman to stand in my way. She looked me squarely in the eye so I paid her the same respect despite our state of undress. Her lips were drawn together tightly and I actually felt concern whether she'd attack me.

"Mosha. Please step aside. You had hold of my life but you do not have just ownership of my belongings."

"You'll have to take them from me. Where I come from, the dead don't have the right to property, but, where you come from, not even our living have that right."

We stared at each other. Dogs waiting for their rival to pounce.

Being the gentleman I was, I allowed her to make the first move.

She attempted to shove me, but I was ready. She was put slightly off balance by my dodge and I capitalized on it, shoving her from the side in turn. She fell to a knee while I hopped around her to my things. I was a fingernail away from grasping my sword but alas she was tenacious.

I was knocked over my gear after she slammed into me. She descended upon me like a wolf, pinning me down and scratching and punching.

I bucked and threw elbows back but she deflected most of them with her shoulders. I did my best to crawl toward my sword, now knocked even further away. Mosha stopped fighting me as I grabbed the sword, and to my enormous surprise, she tried to shove a finger up my back end.

I admit I yelped quite louder than I would have preferred.

I mustered all my strength to throw her off me, like a raging bull I rose up and tossed her hard onto her flank. I stood and drew my sheathed sword against the furious, naked Mosha. Blood dribbled from her lip down her chin. Her dark eyes still burned with hatred for me. Or was it something else?

Mosha got to her feet and charged straight for me. I swung my sword, scabbard and all against her chest but she took the hit in stride. She tackled me to the ground, pinning my arms down with all her weight. I lifted myself right into a kiss with the wild girl.

Her lips pressed messily against mine, the battle continued in another form. I tried to resist but found my arms and tongue too weak to fight. She released her hold on my arms and we wrestled as lovers. We tumbled and rolled over each other on the damp sand, our only care in the world the next inch of each other's skin to caress.

I ran my hand down her back, appreciating the sensual curve of the small of her back. She bit my lip and I kept going further down. Her cheeks, so heavy and firm, rounded gloriously to meet thick thighs that made me harden under her.

This made the girl smile. She started to rub her slit over my drooling cock, slicking it in her juices and my own. Moans passed through our lips like muttered apologies. The girl rose up and suddenly, ah! We were one and our union took hold of me. I brought myself slowly into her, until I could go no further. She sighed like a blade was being drawn from her as I withdrew.

Her shining breasts called to me and my lips and I was raring to answer. I caught a nipple between my teeth and brought her down to me.

"You fucking fiend. Harder, my lord. Fuck me. Fuck me harder!"

I growled around her tit and started to quicken my pace into her sheath. The heaven that was being inside her made it difficult to focus on her delicious nipple. I spat it out after one last kiss in search of easier prey. Her neck, damp with water and sweat was my next target. I hated my teeth against her skin, alternating between biting and sucking until she moaned encouragement into my ear.

I thrust up into her as deep as I could, quickly becoming addicted to the texture of her heavenly soft ass as I thrust along it into her pussy. Mosha panted and whimpered, unable to even open her eyes. I laved at every inch of her throat until she pushed me to the ground.

I watched, transfixed, as she ground herself into me. Shockwaves traveled up her sides and the gentle womanly curve of her stomach. A satisfying thud sounded with every bounce of her posterior. The pressure built around me inside her, I knew she was nearing her end.

I grabbed her ass and brought her flush to my groin. Slowly, I sawed in and out of the wild woman. She shuddered with the penetration, my cock rubbing every bit of her inner walls. The depths of her began to churn my own impending orgasm. With every thrust my threshold neared closer and closer. Her walls clenched impossibly tighter around me as she came, forcing me to bottom out inside her to luxuriate in the delightful iron velvet of her grip.

Mosha gripped my shoulders and used me to extend her climax, moving her hips in circles around my staff, finally pushing me over the edge into my orgasm. Weightlessness spread up my body starting from my toes. My mind went blank with bliss and I barely felt my arms bounce off the ground as I lost control. It felt as if her pussy was sucking the very essence of my life out of me. Shot after shot spasmed out of me and filled her belly, satisfying the girl's need for more, leaving her spent upon my chest.

My member throbbed weakly with the last of my seed and slipped out of her, unleashing a flood of our joined fluids. Mosha groaned into my neck and started rubbing her mound into me.

"Mosha... Again? Already?"

"I told you I wasn't a virgin, my lord. I can tell you're pleased so I won't beg your forgiveness."

I laughed and embraced her, to her initial reluctance but soon she was rubbing her face into my chest. I wasn't entirely sure how my fugitive had become my lover, but there was something she had said about strange embraces... I was happy, I think, despite the possible breach in chivalry, because it felt good, and certainly felt better than fighting her.

There was something singular about bedding Mosha than the few others I'd had the pleasure. Firstly, there was no bed. And secondly, the liveliness she embodied stayed with her when we made love. I had never experienced anything like it, or her before. I had never pardoned a criminal in my woods before, or defied a mandate of the King, but I couldn't see myself arresting Mosha.

"Mosha, my dear. I presume you feel the same sort of... confusion that I do."

"Mmm. I think I do. Are we friends, or foes?"

"Exactly. I'm not entirely sure what we've done is the most appropriate, but I'm certain throwing your lover into a dungeon definitely is not."

"Ha! You can't clap me in irons but you can clap me with your cock, eh? I like it."

"Accurate, that is accurate. I'll let you go but if you wanted this to continue, I'm not certain how we would go about that."

Mosha's eyebrows rose and a smile suggesting she thought I was joking began to form.

"Oh, do you like me, John Eel? I hadn't thought that far ahead yet. I don't know how we would either, you're practically a different breed from my kind."

"Of course, you're right. We're too different, despite this pleasant time we've shared. Actually, I've just been betrothed to a princess, as well. I probably shouldn't have done this."

"Betrothed! My congratulations, my lord. And to a princess. You know, I'm something of a-"

An arrow zoomed mere centimeters over Mosha's head. The girl wasted no time in jumping up and fleeing into the forest. I rolled to my feet and got low, searching for the shooter from across the river.

There, near where I found Mosha's clothes was Prince Paul himself! He wielded a longbow and had another arrow nocked. His face was contorted with rage, the fire in his eyes I had seen before a charge back in the war was now directed toward me.

"Prince Paul! My liege!"

The Prince said nothing and I knew I should run. I wanted to explain myself to him, if that was the only honorable act of the whole bizarre adventure.

I took a step forward and he fired. The arrow was flying low, giving me room to leap out of the way. Paul was already loosening another arrow by the time I rolled into the bush. I could hear the solid thunks in the tree trunks, driving me to duck and zigzag between trees. I was starting to doubt my chances of getting away from the Prince when a pair of arms thrust out from behind a tree and brought me to the ground.

Mosha pulled me to her breast and we huddled together in the undergrowth. The arrows stopped flying but we knew he was out there, hunting. I looked up at her and saw the measured calm in her eyes. She glanced at me and nodded, before resuming her scan of the forest. I knew Prince Paul was a fantastic archer but I knew little of his hunting abilities.

Time stretched on, the silence of the forest teeming with our tension, in our tired bodies and the threat to them lurking somewhere out there. We dared not adjust our position and we were wise not to. The Prince was suddenly beside us, without a sound he had braced against a tree, bow at the ready.

He peered through the forest, slowly sweeping near and far. He made no sound and scarcely took a breath, we certainly took none either so close to him. Satisfied, or unsatisfied, he slung his bow over his shoulder and walked back the way he came as quietly as he had crept upon us.

We waited, sitting in that uncomfortable position listening hard for any sign of the Prince in case it was a trick. No sound save the birds' could be heard. I looked to Mosha for confirmation and she nodded. I fell to my aching knees and helped Mosha to her feet. We took a moment to stretch before sneaking back toward the stream.

After making sure no one was lying in wait on the other side, we crossed the bank into the stream, washing off the remains of our lovemaking and our escape in silence. Mosha didn't seem too bothered by the encounter, after what I had put her through. I felt almost sick to my stomach at the thought of what the Prince thought of what I'd done.

My sword was nowhere to be found near my armor. It was clear, then. The Prince had stripped me of my knighthood. Mosha saw me hesitate before I dressed but didn't press it. I didn't know what else I could do then but stick with her. The question was whether she would want me along.

"Mosha, I think you know I can't go home now."

"I do. No more princess."

"Yes, that likely contributes a good deal. That was her brother."

"Ooooo. Well, I tell you what. You can come along with me back to the Glade. It's obvious I'm not going to be able to get out of here any time soon."

"Are you certain? Won't they react poorly to a former knight walking into their camp?"

Mosha chuckled and slapped me on the back.

"They will. But we can get married, or we can't get married. Either way, you're no longer a knight. So let's go, my lord."

I know she was mocking me but the prospect of marrying her was interesting.

"You want to get married?"

"Well, if you've gotten me pregnant, we'll have to. Isn't that what your people believe?"

"The best of us usually wait until after the wedding to get pregnant but, yes."

She smiled and we began walking up stream, toward the Glade. I didn't feel very worried about the very sudden change in my station in life. I theorized it was due to Mosha's influence, whether she meant to rub off on me or not.

"You're rather future-minded for a, uh, what do you call yourselves?"

"We call ourselves Gladers. The knights and kings call all of us who don't obey them barbarians and savages and you know, you've called me them all."

"You're right, we, now."

"Don't be down, John. I was going to tell you earlier but your friend interrupted us. In the Glade, I'm the Chieftain's daughter, a princess of my own savage right. So you've not really lost anything. I can attempt to keep you alive as well."

"You're a princess? But why were you in the forest all alone?"

"Because my father wanted me to marry some dunce whose father owns alot of spears. But now, I've beaten him and chosen my own man. I'd say we both gained a lot from this. I'm not some fool's breeding slave, and you have an even more beautiful princess to marry."

"Mmmmm. The more you say about it, the more I look forward to it."

Mosha wrapped her arm around my shoulder and we began in earnest for our new, old home.

"Now that's the attitude. Don't be afraid to use your civilized swagger on my father, but do not call his village a camp to his face. Pride makes a chieftain, and loses his foes' heads."

Hours flew by with my new bride-to-be on the footpath northbound. Land gave way to waterways and slices of an ancient lake the deeper we traveled into her people's domain. I knew my former kingdom did not officially recognize her people's ownership of the land, but nor did they claim it for themselves. Other than that I had to rely on Mosha's colorful descriptions of her the ways and history of the Gladers.

The Glade was its own kingdom, once upon a time, but my kingdom came along and condemned anyone who didn't follow Chivalry. The Glade never recovered from the attacks during its pivotal moments as a state, and now struggle to maintain their identity against the brand of savage the King had put upon all who resided outside his borders.

I hadn't known of our role in creating our own foes in the forest, but I now understood my role in keeping them there.

++++++++++++++

A few hours later, we came across the first bit of evidence of humanity in this strange, albeit beautiful stretch of waterlands. A narrow wooden board stretched over logs driven deep into the Glade over the largest body of water we had encountered.

"This is the footbridge. It's ancient. Be careful."

I nodded and followed Mosha over the bridge, carefully. I noticed she kept her eyes on her feet so I did the same. About halfway over the bridge, I began seeing platforms join the bridge. Mosha tapped me and I looked up to see a vast amalgamation of wooden structures and rafts that was their village.

Spearmen stood on towers of banded logs, the metal joining appeared to be scavenged and very old. They glared down at us until we passed between them, and we were met by even more guards, and the Chieftain himself. He was a wiry looking man, with a damp, stringy beard hanging down his chest. I couldn't believe such a sight on the eyes as Mosha was begot by such a gentleman.

"Hold, Mosha. Why have you brought this intruder to our home?"

"He is my husband-to-be, dad. I've brought him home for our wedding."

"Husband! But he's a knight! You've gone too far this time, Mosha."

"This isn't another trick! He's not a knight any longer. He was cast out when they discovered... us."

The Chieftain wanted to grin out of instinct but had to maintain his suspicious demeanor for his people. I wondered how many other knights they had received in the Glade. How many they even let leave.

"You are my child, Mosha. I know what my dear old pa had to put up with now. We will let you bring your captive in, but he will be watched, intensely, until we convene the Moot tonight."

"Thank you, my lord."

The ragged man took a step back after hearing me speak, obviously amused by what he heard.

"My lord? I like the sound of that! It would be nice to hear any of you lot show me the proper respect like this lad does! Take him home, Mosha. Introduce him to Dolo."

"Alright, dad. See you tonight. Let's go, John, this way."

The crowd of men and guards parted and I followed Mosha down the central plank until we reached her abode. It was taller than all the other shacks and considerably sturdier. Mosha knocked on the door that looked like it was carved straight out of a tree.

We waited on the cramped porch for an inordinate amount of time before it opened. An impossibly small old woman with wide open eyes answered the door and beckoned for us to come in once she recognized it was Mosha.

The interior of the place was just as wooden as the outside. Every piece of furniture and every surface was carved meticulously out of whole trees. Axes hung over the hearth so wicked they likely felled the very trees that comprised the house and its contents.