Children of the Moon  

By Rocky Macelli

Chapter XVI

Eponin shuddered and dropped her head down to nuzzle a sweet-smelling, sweaty neck. "Ngh…" She panted softly,  "I'd forgotten how good this is…  No I take that back,  …it's never been this good."  She felt boneless and knew she should move before she crushed the woman under her, but simply couldn't move. 

She started to roll away but an arm held her in place, "No stay there." Darista whispered into the ear by her cheek.  "You're not too heavy; you feel good right where you are."

Passion spent, Eponin had a short moment of panic.  This was all happening much, much too fast.  On the other hand she had known the healer all her life…  The speculation was curtailed by a moist tongue that was tracing the shape of her ear and a pair of hands that were doing things to her bottom that she didn't know she liked until this very minute.  "Again?"  The Arms Master asked rhetorically.

"Again."  Darista qualified.

Before she knew what was happening Eponin found herself on her back looking up into sparkling hazel/green eyes that were hooded with arousal.

"Dee… I want this. I do.  But you're going to have to slow down, it takes me a few minutes to get another arrow onto my bowstring, if you know what I mean."

The Healer just giggled and started placing soft, sucking kisses on her chin and throat.  Warm skilled hands cupped and fondled until the moist lips could make their way down to join them. 

Eponin found an arrow on her bowstring much faster than she had ever imagined.  Running her hands through the sleek auburn locks that fanned out over her upper chest and shoulders, she felt her breath catch as one breast was drawn in and treated to the most exquisite attention that bordered between nursing and gentle chewing. 'Oh Sweet Goddess,' She thought, 'I can hardly believe this is happening.'

This had all started out very innocently, or at least it had on her part.  The healer had suggested meeting for the midday meal, which was so pleasant that Pony found herself inviting Darista to join her for the evening meal.  She had not been planning a seduction by any stretch of the imagination, if anything the meal had been a nice familial event where she and her daughter entertained the healer in their small home.

No, it wasn't until Estrian left for some adolescent pursuit that the tall woman found herself with a lap full of amorous Amazon.  Dormant desires surfaced with a furious ardor that soon consumed both of them and they wound up in the Arms Master's small room. 

Heart hammering, Eponin heard a loud bellow and then realized with some embarrassment the voice was her own.

Never ever… 

She had prided herself on keeping silent and being in control in all situations, especially those of passion and here she was, lowing like a cow in heat.  What was happening to her?  She reached down and tenderly pulled the smaller woman up into her embrace.  Smoothing Darista's hair from eyes, she captured her gaze and looked for the secrets held there.  "Why now?"  She whispered, terrified that she might wake from this wonderful dream.

"Mmm…" Darista sighed, as short nails made circling patterns on her back.  "I have been waiting for nearly twenty years for you to notice me, you big goof.  My question would be: What took you so long?"

Estrian was excited.  She raced for home full of news for her mother.  "Mom!" She called, whipping around the corner into her mother's room.  "Mom…" She stood stock-still and blinked.  Clearly her mother was not alone…  'Ewww!' She thought, quickly turning around and clapping one hand over mouth. 

"Yes?"

Wanting to run, far, far, away Estrian fought that impulse and gathered herself up to relate what she had raced here to tell her mother in the first place.  "A bird has just come in.  The Queen has sent for more warriors and scouts."  The words came rattling out faster than a woodpecker against the bark of a tree.  She drew a quick breath.  "…Can I go too Mom?"  Estrian wanted to look over her shoulder to judge her mother's reaction but didn't dare.

Eponin tugged the blanket higher so that it was tucked under Darista's chin, where her head rested on her shoulder.  She cleared her throat.  "We're covered, you can turn around." Her daughter slowly turned around but after a quick glance at the bed, stared pointedly at the lacings on her armguard.  "Now, go a little slower and tell me what has gotten you so excited."

"A message has come from the Queen, she wants more warriors and scouts to help look for Karrah's girlfriend.  There might be a fight.  The Regent sent me to get you."  Estrian found the courage to pull her head up and look her mother in the eye.  "I want to go too but Regent Ephiny says that I have to ask you first." 

'Damndamndamn  …DAMN!' Eponin thought, very aware of the small hand that was slowly stroking her belly under the cover of the blanket; oddly surprised at how calming it was.  'The Goddess must be pissing herself with laughter.'  She sighed and looked down at her new lover with a silent apology in her eyes.  "Saddle up our horses, I'll join you shortly."

The young scout shot out of the room like her heels were on fire, one part excitement at being allowed to come along, and one part pure horror of catching her mom in bed with the healer.  They watched her scurry off and allowed the luxury of a hearty laugh at the situation and themselves.

Combing her hand across Darista's scalp, Eponin leaned in and placed a simple kiss on the woman's brow.  "I was starting to look forward to waking up with you."  She said with a bittersweet smile.  "Can I court you again when we get back?"

The Healer chuckled.  "Don't you think we're a little passed the 'courting' stage?"

The tall woman gave Darista a squeeze and then swung her legs out from under the covers and over the edge of the bed.  She leaned on her arms for a moment, snorted, and then looked over her shoulder.  "Yes, I suppose we are but it sounds so much nicer than 'When I come back can I screw you senseless?'"

Laughing, Darista stood up on her knees and draped herself across Pony's shoulders, looping her arms around her neck.  "Actually, I'll look forward to both." 

Hervic's throat was dry and the back of his nose tickled.  Ever since he'd gotten his nose broken, any type of dust played havoc with his sinuses.  A blunt and dirty finger rubbed at the scar on his chin; then he hawked up and spat, narrowly missing the huddled form curled up in the straw in the corner of the stall.  "You'd best tell me where you got that sword old man, my brother will not be as gentle with you as I have been."  He drew back one booted foot and gave the body on the ground yet another kick.  This resulted in a less than satisfying moan and also stirred up the chaff in the air causing him to sneeze repeatedly.  Angrily he wiped his nose on his sleeve, wheezing slightly, forcing him to breathe through his mouth.

Bright sunlight filled the barn as the large door swung open, Ellon strode through, casting his shadow down the center aisle, coming to a stop beside Hervic.  "This is the farmer that sold Tem's sword to the smith?"

"Yep, scrappy for an old bugger -- I think he loosened one of my back teeth."

Grabbing a handful of graying hair, Ellon forced the farmer's head back, inspecting the swollen bloody face.  One piercing green eye looked up, regarding him with a fiery hate, the other was blackened shut.  "Where'd you find 'im?"

"On a farm just outside of the little village where the smith is.  He says that he found Tem's sword.  I think he knows more than he's tellin'."

Ellon leaned in until he was nose to nose with the farmer.  "Alright  …'Farmer' if you found this sword, where did you find it?"

The farmer glared back, working his jaw enough to speak. "I have a grain field in summer fallow in the back quarter of my land.  I found the sword buried next to a burnt out pyre."  His voice sounded like a rusty hinge and barely rose above a whisper but the conviction behind it was sterling.

Herodotus met the man's gaze daring him to call him a liar, knowing that sticking to the truth or silence was his only course.  The younger man's beatings had been repeated over and over again all the way to Therma, yet nothing these monsters could do to him would make him say more.  He was simply grateful that he had been alone when the man showed up at the farm.  He would say nothing that would lead them back to his wife and daughter.

If only he hadn't found that damn sword.  He cursed his own foolishness that no doubt would lead to his death.  What did he think he was doing -- selling the sword to the smith?  He could taste the blood in his mouth where his teeth had cut his cheek and his kidneys throbbed almost unbearably, if he survived he was certain he'd have blood in his water for the next fortnight.  Herodotus knew his vision had been fogged by a misty red anger ever since 'that night', and all reasonable thought had turned to petulance.  Hecuba had put up with his moody rants for a couple of days before packing a few things and taking Lila to her sister's for a few days. 'Thank Hera!'

Ellon drew a small dagger and ran the flat of the blade almost lovingly across the stubble of Herodotus' cheek.  When the farmer failed to flinch, Ellon frowned, "I could carve you a new smile farmer."  He growled running the tip of the knife from ear to ear, finishing with a flick that clove Herodotus' earlobe in two.  Seeing a grimace of pain, the cult leader grinned with satisfaction.  "Have you more to tell me …Farmer?"  He drew out the word farmer to make it sound like it was something repulsive he'd found on the bottom of his boot.

"I told you, I found the damn sword."

"Alright…   You found the sword.  Where's the money?

Herodotus frowned.  "What money?" He asked confused and received a slap in his bleeding ear for his trouble.

Ellon's lip turned making his scowl even more menacing.  "The money the smith paid you for the sword, you old fool!"'

Gritting his teeth and sucking in a deep breath, Herodotus reined in his temper.  "I didn't take money for the sword.  I needed a new plow shear, so I took one in trade." 

Ellon looked up at Hervic and the younger man just shrugged.  He released the farmer who dropped back down into the straw with a groan.  "Put him in the cellar with little brother and the slut.  I think you're right, he knows something but I wager a couple of days without food will loosen that stubborn jaw of his."  Then he turned and stomped out of the barn without another word.

Chapter XVII

Xena slowly made her way through the treetops, coming to crouch on a limb adjacent to one of the Amazon scouts that watched the goings on in the town.  "Anything new?"

The young woman nodded and pointed to a large barn on the edge of town.  "The ugly one is back, the one with the scar, that Karrah said Arris saw.  He had something draped over a mule and he took it in there."

Nodding thoughtfully Xena rubbed the back of her neck.  "Is the number of strangers still at two score?"

The scout trilled a quiet whistle and a short time later another birdcall came back.  "Yes, no new comers since yesterday."

The Warrior appraised the distance between the tree line and the large building.  "I think I'll go see what our friend brought in that was so important.  Watch and give a signal if one of the strangers shows up."

The young Amazon nodded and Xena dropped silently to the ground.  All her senses were engaged as she made her way to the far side of the barn and then leaped, twisting in the air up to the open door at the loft.  Moving stealthily through the stacks of bundled hay, Xena moved through the dappled sunlight of the loft to a large gap in the floorboards and peered down into the dim light of the stalls below.

"C'mon old man, I'm not carrying you."  The nasal voice came up from below, followed by a sneeze.  Xena moved so that she could better see what was going on.  A man was giving half-hearted kicks to someone that lay in the straw at his feet.

Shifting silently to the hole in the floor for dropping feed down to the animals, the warrior lowered herself over the edge until she was directly above the scarred young man.  He struggled a bit at first as thighs of corded muscle wrapped around his neck, holding him until he passed out and dropped in a heap to the ground.

The tall woman lost little time as she pulled free the hooded cloak and used a strip cut from it to hang the unconscious cult member, by the arms, from a lantern hook.  Grimacing at his unwashed stench of many days-old stale body fluids, spilled food and blood, she pulled away his belt and let his pants fall to his ankles.  Confirming her suspicions, both the Amazon circumcision and the fist-moon tattoo were there; just like the man she had killed a few days previous.  Leaving him swinging, she turned to the man he had been kicking at.

It was obvious that the man had been badly beaten. Xena rolled him carefully onto his back.  Even with the grossly swollen face, Xena was stunned to discover Herodotus: Gabrielle's father.  She couldn't leave him here that was certain.  'Gods!  What to do?'

Curling her lip in disgust she picked up the malodorous cloak and put it on.  Forcing back the impulse to gag she stooped and, as gently as she could, scooped up the battered farmer.  Peering out the large doors of the barn, Xena couldn't see any of the cult members; still she moved quickly and quietly carrying her burden to the tree line and the relative safety of the Amazons who watched above her.

The Amazons who waited back at the poplar grove worked silently at various tasks or passed the time whispering in small groups.  Gabrielle had been going over a hastily drawn map of the town with Solari, when the alert in the form of a crow's call cut through the hushed hum of activity and everyone looked up to see Xena hurrying into the small camp carrying a body.

Gingerly the warrior set her burden down and sent Amazons running to fetch water and bandages.

Gabrielle came up from behind her.  "Xena, what is going on? Who is that?" Then she backed up a step. "…And Gods, what is that awful smell?"

Xena ripped the cloak from her shoulders and tossed it a short distance away.  "Sorry.  Have someone bury that."  She paused and looked over her shoulder at her lover.  "I'm so sorry Honey, it's your father; I found one of the cult members beating him."

The little Queen fell to her knees with a gasp and gently drew his head into her lap.  "Papa?" She asked quietly, invoking a name she hadn't used since she was a child.  Tears rolled down her face as she accepted a wet cloth and began to gently clean the blood from his face.  "How did he get here?" She asked without looking up.

"The scouts that are watching the town spotted the thug with the broken nose bringing him into town on a mule.  I didn't know it was your father until I had taken his attacker out."  The warrior paused to take an offered blanket and tuck it around the older man's body, "…Gabrielle, I checked -- he had both of the marks.  These are the men who have been trying to kill you."

Gabrielle was neither shocked nor surprised.  It would seem that all the violence of their lives over the last season had been leading up to this point, she was only sorry that her family, particularly her father, had to be subjected to its painful backlash.

Herodotus blinked and looked up at his eldest daughter with one bloodshot eye.  "Gab…" he sucked in a painful breath, "…rielle."

"Shh…" Gabrielle breathed softly, "don't try to talk."

The farmer reached up with one shaky hand and grasped the smaller hand of his daughter, despite his being badly beaten; he gave it a good firm squeeze. "Your old man's tougher than you think." In counterpoint to his claim Herodotus wheezed for a moment but then gathered himself and gave Gabrielle a bruised but cock-eyed smile.  "Takes more than a addle-pated bully to kill an old buzzard like me." He paid for the long string words with a round of bloody hacking.

"Easy," Xena chided her lover's father.  "Seems that a rib has damaged your lung.  You shouldn't move or talk until I can wrap them up.  He nodded and only moaned as sure hands stripped him to the waist to set and bind the fractured ribs.

Herodotus awoke to find himself shifted to into a litter that kept his head and shoulders elevated and wrapped in a blanket of warm skins.  He blinked and looked around in the early morning light, as fuzzy confusion emerged into painful realization.  His many aches and pains reminded him of what had occurred over the last few days.  A small smokeless fire burned immediately to his left and to his right…  He shut his eyes tight, taking as deep a breath as his battered chest would allow.  The pain let him know he was alive  …alive because of the woman that lay off to his right, with his daughter asleep in her arms.  Finally he willed his eyes to open and look upon what he had only glimpsed before, only to find a pair of pale blue eyes looking back. 

"How are you feeling?"  Xena asked in voice pitched low, to keep from waking Gabrielle.

"Painfully alive, thanks to you."  He said, meeting her gaze and holding it.  "I was a fool.  I found the place where you'd burned the body and I dug up the sword.”

The Warrior held his gaze, however her eyes held no recriminations.  “I see… and they came looking for you when they found out you’d sold it.” She replied, even and low, watching Gabrielle’s father close his eyes and nod.    “…Hecuba, …Lila?”

“Safe.”

“Good.  We’re moving you a farm North-West of here at daybreak; the people there will care for you until we’ve cleaned out this nest of vipers and can take you home.”  

The farmer shifted on the soft pallet, trying to find a more comfortable position and lifted a shaky hand to rub at his eyes.  “Did you find out who these animals are and why they are doing this?”

“We think that they are a vengeance cult that wants to wipe out the Amazon tribes, and because Gabrielle is their leader they are trying to kill her.” Xena answered, watching Herodotus’ reaction carefully.  “We also think that they have been going after the extended families of Amazons who live outside of the tribes.  A girl and a young man from this area are missing.”

“I never saw anyone other than the thug that did this to me, and another taller man that cut my ear.” Gabrielle’s father said, tenderly running a finger over his damaged ear.  “The tall one must have been the leader because he ordered him to put me in a cellar with what he called ‘Little Brother and the Slut’.  I’m thinking that might be the youngsters you are looking for.”  The farmer started to wheeze, leading to a barking cough. 

The noise woke the young blonde Queen with a start.  She scrambled from her blankets to her father’s side.  “Papa, are you all right?”

To be continued...

(c) 2004 S. Day

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