The pace was relaxed. The next ruins site was a month away, and none of them were in a huge rush to get there. Having had enough of the dead cities and dead places for the time being, they planned to stop at most of the settlements along the way.

“This ale tastes like piss,” Thokri said.

“How do you know what piss taste like?” Anna asked.

“I’d tell you, but you would never look at me the same again,” he replied with a wink.

Anna stared for a moment, then turned away shaking her head.

The village, if you could call it that, was at a crossroads. That seemed to be the only interesting thing about this place.

“At least we are out of that city,” Elaine said.

“I’ll drink to that,” Lyreen said with a slur.

“You’ve drunk enough. Let’s get you to the room,” Voekeer said.

“OOOOHH, that sounds like fun,” Lyreen replied, walking her fingers down his chest.

“Alright, come on,” he said, picking her up and carrying her away.

“Weeeee,” she said.

Thokri stood up and saluted with is mug. “Do us proud lad,” he said.

“Here, here,” Barika chanted.

“God, I need to find a man,” Elaine said.

“There are plenty here, lass,” Thokri replied, waving his mug around.

“Eh, no. I’d rather not catch anything,” she said, putting her head on the table into her folded arms.

“Well, if you do, I have an ointment for that,” Barika said smirking. Elaine groaned in response.

“What would you catch, and why does it need ointment?” Anna asked. Barika put her hand on her arm.

“I’ll tell you later child,” she said.

“This again. I usually just find out something I didn’t want to know in the first place. I really need to learn to just be quiet,” she thought and then sighed.

“Yep, I really didn’t want to know that,” she thought as she laid in bed that night. “At least I have my own room this time,” she said to herself.

A thumping was coming from the room next door along with moaning and cries of pleasure. “Why did I have to get a room next to them?” she thought. “It does sound like he’s taking Thokri’s advice though,” she thought.

She woke early the next day and headed out to find the bakery. She found the place and left quickly in disappointment upon hearing the terrible news.

“What kind of bakery doesn’t have cupcakes?” Anna muttered as she walked through town unsure of what to do now.

“Aren’t you a pretty thing? Why don’t you come with me? I’ll show you a good time,” a voice called.

She turned to look. It was a scrawny man that looked like a wet rat, maybe one that had died recently by the smell.

“Yeah, no,” she replied. She turned and walked away. She normally didn’t say anything, but really, the nerve of this man.

She was suddenly spun around facing the man. He held a knife in his hand. “Bitch, you’re going to come with me,” he said, spittle flying.

She slowly reached for his hand, still holding her, and squeezed it, pulling it off her arm and then twisting it in a manner she had learned from Thokri.

“I’ll tear off your arm and stuff it up your arse if you don’t drop that pig sticker,” she said, sounding like the dwarf. He dropped it. “Good, now YOU are coming with ME,” she said with emphasis.

“I’m glad he dropped the knife. I think it would have been messy if I actually had to rip it off and stuff it in his butt,” Anna said.

“Lass, that’s just a saying. Please don’t do it,” Thokri said, shaking his head.

“Well, I could have,” she replied.

“I know, lass. That’s why I told ye not to,” he replied.

“So, what happened to the ne'er-do-well anyway?” Voekeer asked.

“Well, he bought me some candy after I asked, and then I threw him out of town,” Anna replied, emphasizing the word asked.

“Seems like he got off easy,” Voekeer replied.

“He flew twenty or thirty feet before hitting that tree,” Anna replied, shrugging.

“What!?” Voekeer, Lyreen, and Elaine said in unison. Barika sighed, and Thokri shook his head.

“He was still moving when I last saw him,” Anna replied.

“Lass, that’s not what thrown of town means,” Thokri said.

“I know, but it was fun. I mean, he called me a bitch. He’s lucky I didn’t rip his rat face off,” Anna replied, holding up a clenched fist.

“Gods, I wish I was you sometimes. I’ve wanted to do that to so many of those men,” Elaine said. The other women nodded in agreement.

The weather was starting to cool. Fall was here, and the leaves were starting to change.

“It’s so pretty,” Anna said, looking at the forest as they walked.

“It is. I’ve never been this far north. I’ve never seen so many colors in the fall,” Elaine said.

“How did you get to the frontier?” Barika asked.

“I took a ship from Eagle’s Bay and sailed to Fishport,” she answered.

“How about you? I know Anna just walked out of the forest one day, but I doubt the rest of you did,” she asked.

“We took a caravan to the coast, and then took a ship to Fishport. I can’t recall the name of the harbor we sailed from,” Voekeer said. The other adventurers shrugged. None of them could recall the name.

“It was a piss pot anyway,” Thokri said.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

“You say that about anywhere that isn’t dwarven in construction,” Barika replied.

“Baa, I’m right, and you know it,” Thokri said.

They reached the next settlement after a week of travel.

“What in the name of the Stone One are they doing?” Thokri swore, muttering in dwarven under his breath.

Three young women were hanging in cages, stripped despite the cold.

“You there. What’s going on in this place?” Voekeer asked a passerby.

“Them there, they are witches,” he said and hurried off.

“What’s a witch?” Anna asked.

“It’s a term for a woman that makes potions and has some magic, usually self-taught. It’s not very polite. You don’t hear it often in civilized places,” Elaine replied.

“What do you mean?” Anna asked. She was confused why the women were up there. They were just making potions and practicing magic, despite the terms used to describe them.

“She means we are in bumfuck nowhere surrounded by inbred goat fuckers,” Thokri said.

“That’s a good description of this place and its people,” Lyreen replied. She was looking at the women.

Thokri had gone over to the women and was giving them water. “Easy, lass, not too fast,” he said, holding his water skin for her to drink from. Voekeer and Barika were doing the same with the other two.

“What do you think you’re doing? Get away from those harlots,” a man said, walking over.

“I thought they were in there for being witches,” Anna said.

The man looked at her in disgust and walked by, ignoring her. He pulled Voekeer away from the cage, walking past Thokri. “I said stop,” the man said. Voekeer pushed him away.

“Don’t lay your hands on me. I’m not some frail woman you can bully,” Voekeer said.

Raising his fists, more men started to surround them.

“That is enough,” Barika said slamming the end of her staff into the ground. It began to glow, and then she began to glow. “I am a priestess of the goddess. You will explain to me why these people are in cages, and you will do it now,” she said.

There was a hum in the air when she spoke. The men lost all their bluster. “Sorry ma’am. We meant no disrespect. It’s just that they stole the life of children and consorted with evil spirits,” he said.

“They were seen dancing naked in the moonlight...and...and they stole men’s manhood while they slept,” another man added.

“Why does it always come back to that?” Anna thought.

Barika sneered at all of them. “What proof do you have she took the lives of children?” she replied, ignoring the other accusations.

“She gave them some evil brew, and they died,” the man replied. He started to become heated.

“I said enough. I will hear from them now,” Barika said, glaring at the man until he looked down.

She walked over to the women. “Well, what do you have to say for yourselves?” she asked.

“A fever broke out, worse than I’ve seen. We tried black root and sharp leaf tea, but it didn’t work. After that, I used knarlbark extract, but nothing worked,” she cried. “We couldn’t do anything. All the littles one that caught it died,” she continued.

“Is this true?” she asked the other women. They nodded in agreement. “Lyreen, Elaine come here,” Barika said, waving them over. “Elaine, have any of them used death magic recently?” Barika asked.

Elaine took off her cloak, handing it to Voekeer, and lifted her hands. The tattoos started to glow with an evil light.

“So pretty,” Anna thought, looking at the sparks only she could see.

“Nothing. They have never used death magic,” Elaine said.

“She lies,” a man yelled.

Elaine turned to glare at the crowd. “I consort with spirits, and I raise the dead, but I don’t lie,” she said coldly. Her tattoos flared brightly and then went out.

“Lyreen, let’s put this to rest. How much mana do they have?” Barika asked the woman.

She took a few neutral beads out of her pouch and handed them to the women. They barely glowed. “They couldn’t make a fire with that much mana,” Lyreen replied.

“Tell me, have any of you sworn oaths to the goddess?” Barika asked.

“No ma’am,” they said in unison.

“Well, why are they in here? They couldn’t have cured that sickness. It would have taken the goddess’s grace, and that’s what those poor children died from. They didn’t consort with any spirits, evil or otherwise. Say what you will about necromancers, but they know their craft, so why are they in here?” Barika said, waving her staff at the crowd.

“What about the other accusations?” the first man asked.

“Lad, women get paid to dance naked in most human cities. You should have just clapped if you saw them,” Thokri said. The crowd started to murmur.

“As for the last accusation, these women don’t have the mana to light a candle, so the only way they could steal someone’s manhood is with a knife. So, who here is missing theirs? Come forth and show me?” Barika asked the crowd.

“The lot of them lack stones. Let’s just spring them and get out of here,” Thokri said. He broke the lock on the woman’s cage with his knife. Voekeer and Lyreen were having trouble, lacking the strength of the dwarf. Anna walked over and snapped them off with her bare hands.

This was too much for the crowd, and they quickly dispersed, leaving the first man alone.

“Lad, if you want to get laid, try talking to women. It works better than caging them up,” Thokri said to him.

His face turned red, then he realized he was alone and quickly left.

“Baa, that’s what I figured. The horny fucker wanted them,” Thokri said, then spit.

They wrapped the women in their blankets and left town. The women were sisters. Their names were Jane, Anna, and Loran.

“It really is a common name,” Anna thought.

Their mother had been the local wise woman and would sell potions that were used for convenience, but she would give them to the sick and injured for free. She had passed away from an unknown ailment last year, and the man had tried to bed all three of them over the course of the year, only to be turned down by each of them.

“Why did he try to hurt them when they wouldn’t fuck him?” Anna asked.

“You’re starting to sound like the dwarf again,” Lyreen said.

“What’s wrong with that, elf?” Thokri replied.

“Anyway, men like him don’t like to be rejected. He felt slighted, and he lashed out,” Elaine said.

“Like the rat man,” Anna asked, remembering his reaction to being told no.

“Aye, lass, but no one bounced this one off a tree,” Thokri said.

“I think I would have like to see that,” Voekeer said.

“It would have been satisfying,” Barika said.

“Are there spiteful women as well?” Anna asked.

“Aye lass. I’ve seen women just as spiteful as those men. I knew a lass who found out the man she was after had picked another woman, and, well, he wasn’t much of a man after she got done with him,” Thokri said.

“Thokri is right. I’ve met some downright evil women. It’s just, out here on the frontier, men seem to be more, uhm, rough,” Lyreen said.

“Womenfolk are just worried they will be replaced with goats, so they keep quiet. That’s all,” Thokri said.

“Just when I think you show some wisdom, nope, there it goes,” Lyreen said.

“Lass, I have the wisdom not to take troll balls from someone,” Thokri said smirking.

“I hate you so much,” Lyreen replied.

“Troll balls?” Jane asked.

“Lass, let me tell you the tale of a warrior with the biggest tits I’ve ever seen, who’s feats of strength will be told in the halls of the dwarves for years to come,” Thokri said.

Lyreen groaned as he told the sisters of the battle with the troll in a manner only a dwarf can. The others added the parts that he missed. Even Lyreen told her part of the tale. The sisters looked suspicious of the story until Anna backhanded a tree and knocked it over. Then they just stared in awe at her for the rest of the day.

“I have the biggest tits you've ever seen?" Anna asked, looking at Thokri.

"Aye lass. I have seen a few women bigger, but never bare and pointing in my face," Thokri replied, holding his hands apart as if to show their size in an exaggerated fashion. He wasn't that far off in truth.

“You got the pointy part right,” Elaine said, muttering to herself.

“Wait, they are really that big?” Jane asked, looking at Anna.

The sisters had been quiet for most of the trip, only answering questions. They sat near the fire wearing some of Elaine’s spare clothing. She was the only one close their size.

“Bigger. The dress squishes them a little I think,” Lyreen said with a sigh.

“I thought they were padded,” Jane said softly.

Barika laughed. “No, not even a little padding,” she said.

“Oh,” Jane replied. The wide eye look was back.

“I’m sure you’ll see them on the trip. We have a hard enough time keeping her dress on and whole,” Lyreen said with a laugh.

Anna grabbed her dress and left the tent to put it on. She had given hers to the sisters. She had spent the night with Barika. Elaine hadn’t wanted to share a tent, Thokri was really loud, and the elves were an obvious no.

“Barika doesn’t mind if I sleep naked either,” Anna thought. She stretched, placing her arms above her head, one hand holding the other, and arched her back. She didn’t need to, but had seen the other women doing so, and decided to copy them to look more normal. Putting her arms down, she walked towards the fire pulling on her dress.

The sisters stared at her as she sat down.

“What?” Anna asked. They all blinked.

“They were telling the truth,” Jane said surprised.

“Why would they lie?” Anna replied. They paused for a moment.

“So, the troll happened too?” other Anna asked.

“Yes. Troll blood is hard to get out of your hair by the way,” Anna replied. They looked around again.

“So, how big is a troll’s...you know,” Loran asked, cupping her hands as if holding something.

“About this big, but I did just pull it off, so it might have been bigger before,” Anna said, holding her own hands out demonstrating the size.

“Wow. What about the other thing?” Jane asked.

“This long, and this wide, but it was flopping around, so I can’t be sure,” Anna said, using her hands to show the size again.

“Dam, I never want to hear a man brag again,” other Anna said. Her sisters nodded in agreement.