We all headed back to the castle to give our news; it was getting late so we knew that we had to sleep in the castle once more, not that I minded. Upon entering the castle we headed to our rooms, I asked a maid where the Princess was, which she told me that she was asleep so we were left to go to bed ourselves. When I tucked Elora in, she said she wanted something to drink so I was on a fetch quest. Heading to the kitchen I was surprised to find the Princess sitting at a table in the dining room adjacent to the kitchen, she was holding a glass of wine and swirling it around, looking deeply depressed. She didn’t notice me so I quietly walked behind her and knelt next to her. 

Her head moved towards me and she displayed a lazy smile.

“Helloooo Teela… how are you?”

I frowned at her slur speech until hit dawned onto me as to why.

“Are you drunk…?”

She nodded.

I suppose she was still in grieving as she had just lost her father, so she had taken a route that I wasn’t exactly fond of but I couldn’t exactly berate her for it. Sighing, I sat next to her.

“Delphina… I know that…”

I trailed off as I heard something from her, I moved my head in front of her and realized that she was asleep. She was lending her head on her hand and softly snoring. I quietly laughed and moved next to her and picked her up. Holding her in a princess carry, I quietly walked towards her bedchambers. She was quite light, which was nice. Laying her on the bed, I was about to turn away before I heard her mumbling.

“Mother… Father…”

I paused.

I guess, even though she was strong, she was still a daughter who missed her parents. She was also all alone now so she still needed some time. I was confident that she’d push through. Leaning over her, I placed a kiss on her cheek and left her room quietly. I moved back to the kitchen and go the drink Elora wanted and returned to our room and fell asleep.

……………………

I woke to the sound of some talking, peeking one eye open I seen that Sarya was talking to Cinda near the window. I looked over to see that Elora was still asleep, snuggling under the covers. I placed a kiss on her forehead and got up to move closer to them.

Sarya turned to me and smiled.

“Good morning Teela, Cinda and I were just talking…”

“Morning, about what?”

“Well… we were wondering what we should do about Jetina. We want to find her something to do here in the castle.”

“Well… I think it’s best to just ask the Princess. I’m sure that now she’ll have no shortage of things for Jetina to do. That way she can learn something’s and still have a place to stay.”

Sarya nodded.

“That sounds good.”

I looked over to the other bed to see that Zephy was still asleep, laying sprawled out over the entire bed. I rolled my eyes but left her to her sleep. Leaving with Sarya and Cinda, we moved towards the throne room, however, one of the maids directed us to the gardens were we found the Princess sitting at the table, looking over some notes. Without a word we sat at the table and she looked at the other end and smiled.

“So… did you find her? I would have asked you last night but I was… tired.”

I bit the inside of my cheek to stop myself from smiling. The Princess glanced at me for a moment and her cheeks redden for a brief moment. I guess that she remembered last night.

“Yes, we did. Her name is Jetina. We were wondering if you would allow her to stay here so she doesn’t get picked up by another person. I’m sure she’d be glad to help around the castle and such.”

The Princess smiled and nodded.

“Jetina? Yes… we could us some extra help. I can see to it that she would stay here and learn some talents that would help her in the long term.”

She looked at Cinda.

“This is the least we could do, so I’ll certainly find her something…”

Cinda’s gaze fell to the floor.

“Thank you…”

The Princess waved it away.

“Think nothing of it Cinda, you’ve helped the kingdom more than enough. I’m just glad that there was something I could do in return.”

After some more talking we came to an agreement that Jetina would serve under the Princess herself as she would personal teach her things when she would have the time; and a scholar when she was busy. I had asked if Cinda was sure that she didn’t want to stay with Jetina but she was insistent. She said that she didn’t want to cause any trouble to the Princess, because Qwarnell weren’t exactly welcome in the kingdom anymore so she would need to leave, it was also best for Jetina as well.

Needless to say I offered her a place to stay in our company, saying that we were heading to places to assist people and to travel. She took my offer with her thanks and so that was that.

Since there was little reason for us to stay we were getting ready to disembark, the Princess gave her unending thanks and told us that we would always be welcomed in the kingdom. And also told us that she had sent word to the Prince of Longris to leave us be, as we were under her protection. As proof, she gave me a small pendent and hung it on my neck. It was suppose to be the crest of their kingdom so it was also a means to tell others that we were important to them.

With everything finished, we then packed up all our things and left the city and headed north. The Princess said that if we were wishing to help people, then the people in the north could use some help because of the intense environments and dangerous wildlife.

So we had taking her advice and headed north, of course after a long ride we were force to stop as the sun started to set and setup camp. With supper done, we all sat down to eat, Sarya and Zephy were talking about the north, Zephy was interested in the animals to hunt and Sarya about the rare flowers that grow there. I was holding Elora as she ate and Cinda was quietly eating her food.

After supper we were taking turns in the bath, mainly because it was just a small pond, barely enough to fit one person. It was more like a puddle. After Sarya , Zephy and Elora finished, I helped Elora. They all headed to bed, I was just finished tucking Elora in bed. I just headed back out and started to unclothe, just as I started to walk to the pond I pushed the brush out of the way and seen Cinda with her bare back to me.

“Uh…”

She turned to look over her shoulder and then hid her face by hunching forward.

“Ah… I apologize… I thought I was next for the pond…”

Most of the time I would be flustered by the fact that I seen another naked woman, besides Sarya or Zephy but this time I wasn’t. Mainly because when I see her back I felt my heart lurch at the sight.

On her back were a lot of scars. Some that were big, some were small, some that looked like were made from blades and others from holes that I could only guess were either stabs or arrows.

Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

Cinda noticed that I wasn’t answering her so her next question.

“Does it bother you…?”

I slowly moved up behind her and knelt next to her.

“Yes it does… but not for the reason you think…”

I sighed.

“Cinda… back at the ghost town, when the bounty hunters demanded we surrender you, why did you step out?”

“Because they wanted me, isn’t it obvious?”

“Maybe, but that was reckless…”

It was her turn to sigh.

“What is your point?”

“Don’t you value your life?”

She was quiet to the point that I didn’t think she was going to answer.

“I don’t, but I valued other lives…”

I frowned at her cryptic words. Moving closer to her I looked closer at the scars on her back and noticed something, that there were a few new ones. They were likely from the battle at the abandon town, however, there was some other scars that looked a bit older than that. I placed my finger on one of them and traced it, she gave a small shiver as a response.

“This scar…”

I tried to think of where she could have gotten it, and then it came to me.

“From the last mission.” The words slipped out of my mouth before I could hold back.

Her shoulders tensed at my words. These scars, where they came from. It was the only place I could think of where she got them from.

“Yes… that’s… where they came from…”

She looked over her shoulder.

“You’re curious as to what happened aren’t you?”

“Well…”

“I… suppose if you must then I’ll tell you. I owe you that much.”

I wanted to tell her that she didn’t need to bring up a painful memory, but I instead let her continue.

“I was told by the King that there was a small town that had reported a few disappearances, while it wasn’t confirmed that mages were involved, I was still sent in. We had reports that mages were in the area but never entered the town. Still, we suspected that the information was false because they were quick to deny mages entering. As I entered, I could feel the uneasy of the town. 

People seemed afraid and paranoid. I started to investigate the surrounding buildings and managed to find one that had a strong presence of magic. It was a barn with a small trap door…”

She trailed off as she gazed down at the ground.

“I wished I never went down there…”

I placed my hand on her back and rubbed it soothingly, which made her sigh.

“As I entered the underground area, I found… their experiments. It… seemed like they had taken the locals and started to experiment on them. Men. Women…. And children. That was when they spotted me.”

She breathed in deeply before continuing.

“I had killed as many of the mages as I could find and destroyed their experiments. All of the people that they had done those things on were dead, so I didn’t want a single one of them to leave alive. As I was about to kill the last of them they set off their contingency plan. The entire ‘lab’ was under the entire town. So they used Manipulation magic to bury the lab and the entire town. They believed the secrecy of their research to be more valuable then the lives of the townsfolk. The mages weren’t spared.”

She hung her head low.

“I… failed those people…”

I could feel the pain she showed. She wanted to help those people and take revenge for the fallen but because of those mages she couldn’t save the ones that were still alive. That guilt was enough to destroy some people, but she still moved forward. How many times had she felt this way? How many lives had been lost that she felt responsible for? She had the enormous burden of keeping the people safe from rouge mages, yet she was still an unsung heroine. Nobody wanted to comfort her, even the Princess couldn’t be there all the time because of her father.

I fully understood the reason why she didn’t want to tell the Princess as to what happened.

She didn’t want to see the disappointment of them.

I looked at her back, the painful times were a part of her and no one soothed her.

Until now…

I leaned down and place a kiss on one of the scars of her. She jumped at the contact.

“Ah! W-w-what are you-“

I placed another kiss on another of her scars, then another and another. She was now shivering at me kisses.

“Teela… what are you doing!?”

“Making it better…”

I grabbed her hand and laid her on her back and started at her neck. She was breathing hard as I nipped and kissed her neck, she shuttered and mewed. I trailed the line down to her breasts, which she immediately covered with both hands.

“Teela… this is… embarrassing…” Her voice was soft and meek.

I lifted one of her fingers and place it in my mouth and suckled the tip, nibbling it as well. She was biting her lip as she watched. I slowly lifted her hand to reveal her breast, I took the opportunity to latch my lips on the nipple which made her arch her back.

“Ah!”

She let go of her other breast and I took it in my mouth as well. She was panting hard as I switched between them, until I trailed down to her stomach, the scar that she hid when she changed clothes. It was visible and I gave it the same treatment of kissing it.

She shifted her hips left and right as I continued to kiss her scar, and then I started to trail down between her legs.

She immediately closed her legs.

“Teela… I-I… we shouldn’t… we’re both women…”

I moved past her hips and started kissing her legs, and then he knee and finally started to kiss the top of her feet.

“Yes… but perhaps a woman is what you need…”

I slowly moved back down and was between her legs again and slowly opened them. She didn’t resist as I buried my head there. She covered her mouth as she let out a muffed cry of pleasure. Not stopping, I nipped and suckled at her flesh, she tried her best to stay as quiet as possible and soon her muffed cries of pleasure as she reached her orgasm. As I rode her orgasm she was left panting.

“Teela… I-I…”

I loomed over her to see a tear starting to form, I was about to wipe it away until she embraced me with both of her arms and held me tightly. I didn’t move as she continued to hold me for a few more minutes before whispering.

“Thank you…”

I could see that she was getting tired so I picked her up and carried her to the tent and laid her down. She wanted me to stay with her so I covered us with a blanket, she snuggled close as she drifted off to sleep and I quickly followed.