Warning! The section below contains rape. Readers' discretion is advised. If you wish to skip, the passage is marked by asterisks.
*'Don't try to bite.' My father warned. Average height, he was wide and buff...and at the moment, had his member out in front of my face. I glared up at him, locking my jaw shut. His icy blue eyes grew colder. 'If you disobey I won't be gentle with you bitch.' ~Since when has he ever been gentle with me?~ I wondered as I continued to glare up at him. 'Fine.' He snarled and fear coiled in my gut as I turned to try and scurry away but he forced my shoulders down, laying his weight on me. I hated myself for being so afraid of him, but all my thoughts washed out as pure terror settled in. 'I've got something for you.' The words he always said before he violated me sent me into complete panic as my breathing hitched and I thought my heart would explode. He yanked my pants and underwear down with one beefy hand, then plunged himself in as tears sprang free of my eyes and I shouted. I knew nothing could stop him. He thrust in and out, driving the breath and screams from me with every thrash. It continued for an eternity, until finally, picking up the pace and ferocity, he spasmed, gasping he came, biting my ear, drawing blood but thankfully not taking a piece of it off. He left me afterward like always, but I was too warn out to move. I knew I had to go get cleaned up...but I felt so weak...and Dad came back, he turned me over, grabbing my legs up, 'I've got something for you.' He pushed his member into me once more.
'No! Please!' I hated how he made me beg. It always fell on deaf ears anyway, but I had to try. The words were torn from me as I felt the air forced from my lungs by his thrusts. Again he pounded into my already used ass, over and over.*
Heavy breathing not my own awoken me as I dreamt of my childhood against the mossy bark of a branch high in a large tree. The pant was from a young child by the sound of it. In the haze of my nightmare, I thought it was me as I was back then. I blinked, feeling out of sorts and had a migraine pounding in my temples from the skin of ale I'd consumed at the beginning of the night. I hated sleeping...and drinking helped me relax minutely. I focused on the ground below to see a young dark haired teen racing from tree to tree, fearfully looking over his shoulder....and the sound of heavily armed men crashing through the forest followed. ~Oh? What do we have here?~ One of the armed men in Efruigro black armor threw a spear, narrowly missing the youth's head. The danger to the child sent a stirring in my gut. My muscles flexed. I was getting ready for a fight. The knight who'd thrown the spear followed close behind it and grabbed the child's wrist, pulling him to a halt as the kid struggled for all he was worth, panic fueling his tired little muscles.
"Let go!" The child screamed, raising the hair on the back of my neck at the soul-wrenching tone. I slid on my black leather helmet, the back of it layered and looked like rising hackles, the front covered my whole face, emit the eye slots. Holding my staff comfortably in my fist, I dropped from the tree, landing on the guard, my weight breaking his spine without so much as a word from him. He was dead before he hit the ground. The boy gasped and moved away from me but I was already moving toward the engaging, armed Efruigron men. Three of them. I twirled the staff around me without a word to them. They knew I wanted a fight, and they unsheathed their swords, ready to give me one. I struck first, hitting one in the gut before he could even move to defend himself. Following through with my swing I hit another in the helmet, denting it with the strength behind my blow and stunning him as he staggered back, but he remarkably stayed on his feet. The third had enough time to charge me, but again, I followed through with my first strike and swept the feet out from under him. He fell toward the kick I placed to his chin, choking him a bit as he crashed to the ground. All three of them charged me again and with one more swing of the staff I sent them tumbling away, then attacked. I catapulted off my staff and kicked one of them in the helmet, landing on his head when we met the ground, he grunted and didn't get up. I swung my staff, sending the one with the dented helmet into a nearby tree. The third rushed me with a raised sword, but I went under his guard and sent him to the ground with a thrust to the solar plexus, knocking the air from his lungs. The one I had sent into the tree rushed me with a roar and I delivered a swipe to his helmet, enraged, he stayed on his feet and I delivered another hit to his helmet, right in the dent. Screaming, he tried to get closer to me, the one temporarily stunned by me knocking the breath from him recovering behind me. I delivered an uppercut with my staff to the enraged one, sending him stumbling backward then jabbed the one behind me in the solar plexus again, causing him to whine in pain as spittle flew from his lips from the force of the impact. Smiling, I once again swiped the one before me in the dent in his helmet and continued the swing to hit the one hunched behind me in the head, sending him to the ground where he groaned in pain but didn't try to get back to his feet to attack. The one before me was still on his feet. I catapulted toward him, feinting a kick but instead I landed before him and swiped my staff downward, landing a blow on his shoulder strong enough to dent his armor and break his collarbone. He screamed, driven to his knees by the force of the blow, dropping his sword and grabbing his wounded arm. He wouldn't be swinging around his good sword arm for a while. I swung at him again, making him flinch and hiss in pain as he jostled his broken shoulder.
"Why were you hunting a kid?" I asked as I pushed his chin up to look at me with the end of my staff.
"He's not a kid, he's a royal. A royal to a dead country, a country that is now ours. He has to die." I raised an eyebrow as the guard hissed the words at me. So that was why Efruigron soldiers were here in Adroso? They just took over the country's capital in so short a time? Incredible. I looked over my shoulder at where the kid stood in shock between two large trees, watching with wide, dark eyes. I had heard tales of the dark prince. The prince of night compared to his blond, light eyed father and mother. Some even said it was a bad omen, that he was evil spawned. This kid certainly was around the same age as the rumored Prince of Adroso.
"Well, he's not going to die today." I patted the man's helmet, making the man growl at me in rage. I smirked behind my own mask, then, my staff resting on my black leather armored shoulder, I walked up to the lad.
"T-Thank you for saving me!" The prince stammered as he looked up at me with those wide dark eyes. He was tall for a kid, making his age hard to pin-point, he stood about 5 inches shorter than me...putting him somewhere around 5'7''. His dark brown hair hanged a little past his shoulders, pulled back into a neat ponytail. I nodded my head, then turned and walked past him toward the river without a word. There was a moment of silence then I heard his little feet scurrying after me. "U-Um?" I stopped and turned toward him. He jumped back, almost bumping into me at my sudden halt. He seemed intimidated by my presence as he fisted his hands in his red nightgown...red...the color of Adroso. "W-Will you help me?" He gathered enough courage to ask, meeting my gaze.
I smirked again, liking his valor. "Help you with what?" I asked as I turned back around and made it to the little river, kneeling I took off my leather helmet and dunk my hand into the stream, bringing the fresh water up to my lips. The prince stayed behind me, still hesitant and fearful.
"Survival." He barely whispered the words, as if forcing himself to say it passed numb lips. I looked back over my shoulder at him, my lips in a grim line. When I nodded and stood, he beamed up at me. "Thank you! What is your name sir?"
I looked over at him from where I had been studying a vine running down from a large, moss covered tree. "Call me whatever you like."
He frowned and a crease formed between his dark eyebrows. "Why do you say that?"
I saw him jump when I drew the antler handle hunting knife on my belt. I paid him no heed as I cut a portion of the vine off. "Because I don't like my name."
Despite his jumpiness, his voice was calm and curious as he asked, "Why?"
"Because they remind me of my father." I looked back at him as saw the hurt in his eyes. The rumors were that the King and Queen of Adroso hardly ever spent time with their son, least they contaminate themselves with his taint. But they were still his parents if he was indeed the little prince. And if Adroso was taken over, there was a superior chance that both the King and Queen were now dead.
"You do not get along with your father?"
"I did not." I stepped toward the youth, causing him to tense. Every fiber of the boy's being screamed for him to run, it was written all over the kid's face. The terror. My heart squeezed. ~He's just a child.~ I've been in war...I've seen the atrocities men are capable of....I've just never understood it. I knelt before the youth and held out my hunting knife to him. Staring into my face, the kid slowly reached out and took it. I watched him test the balance. ~Good. He's been around weapons.~ I undid my belt and slipped off the brown leather sheath, threading the vine through it, I tossed it around the kid, and tightened it as a belt. He placed his little hand on my fingerless glove, stopping my motions as I tied the make-shift belt.
"Why are you doing this? Why did you save me?"
"Because you're innocent." I answered simply, looking him in the eye. His dark eyes glazed over with tears and he hugged me. I froze. ~My god.~ His body felt so small and tiny against mine. He was about 10 or so....so it wasn't like he was a toddler. But...my god, I'd never felt something so small next to me. I avoided people. I had no friends that had families, and with no family myself...this was the first child to be this close to me. And the feel of his tiny arms around me...I became scared at how fragile this boy was. How easy it was for him to die. And I didn't want that. He was the first one to ever give me a hug that felt genuine. Sure my father hugged me...but I had hated that. This one was completely different. I cleared my throat, uncomfortable with this whole damn thing now.
"Thank you. Really." I nodded, my chin touching his little shoulder and my heart beat frantically, swelling. Prince or not, this child had asked me to save his life, and I always gave my all into anything I did. I'd be dead before he lost even a hair on his head to his enemies. He finally let go of me and I stood, feeling my cheeks heating at the unfamiliar contact from another. He smiled up at me. I was amazed someone who had been through what he must have could smile like that. I looked away, still uncomfortable from the hug, to pick up my helm near the river. "So I may call you however I like?" I nodded, replacing the helmet on my head and picking up my staff from where I'd left it leaning against a tree when I'd gotten a drink. "Drake, the name of the dragons." He finally said as he followed me through the woods. I smirked at him over my shoulder and he smiled. "Who are you Drake, to have weapons such as these? I've never seen so many." He said, eyeing the knives layering my belt, the sais strapped to my thighs, the bow, quiver, sword, and short staff all strapped to my back. "Are you a blacksmith?"
"Mercenary."
The boy gapped at me before quickening his pace to keep up as I trekked through the thick woods. "The Black Mercenary?" I nodded. We traveled in blissful silence for a while. Before the kid started asking questions once more. Ah, the curiosity of youth.
~Does he ever shut up?~
"What's it like, being a mercenary?"
"Bloody, but it's what I'm good at. And I get to pick and choose my employers."
"Freedom." He commented, jumping down from a boulder. I nodded. He was blissfully quiet for a while as he considered that. "Do you have any siblings?" I shook my head. After that he fell thankfully quiet. When I stopped near noon he collapsed to the ground. Frankly, I'm surprised he'd kept up this long. He was a prince after all. He groaned, massaging his leg muscles. "I'm beat." I'd disappeared into the woods before he even finished that sentence. "Drake?" The little prince asked with a panicked tone. I ignored it, focusing on the signs of rabbit I'd found. I crouched. Spotting one. I silently drew my bow and plucked a black wood arrow out of my quiver. Aimed and fired. There was a grunt from the rabbit on impact, then nothing. The arrow had punctured his heart, killing it instantly. Removing my fingerless gloves, I set about gutting it with my black dagger. I couldn't help thinking of the princeling as I skinned the rabbit. He was out here, alone, chased, and only his nightgown to defend him against the wilderness. His tender feet was beating all to hell from his dash through the woods. For how long he'd kept that up, who knows. I looked back down at the rabbit skin in my hands....I didn't have salt...If I was gonna make him some moccasins, I needed salt. I shoved a stick through the rabbit and, taking the pelt with me, made my way back toward where I'd left the boy. I found him curled up with his back to a tree, his face buried against his cross arms resting against his knees. I set the stick against the wood of a tree and left again to get firewood. The Prince hadn't moved. He jerked when I dumped the wood I'd found down, he turned to glare at me and shocked me with another hug. "Don't leave me like that again!"
My heart squeezed as I went to set my hands on his tiny shoulders, then froze at the sight of the blood covering them. He was a royal prince, scared by all that had happened last night, and I was a lowly, blood mercenary. I had no right to touch him. No right to touch any child with the blood that stained my hands from years of killing. "Your feet will feel better if you soak them in the stream." He remained to hug me for a while longer, then nodded and made his way over to the water, hissing at his open cuts met the stream. I set up a firepit and taking the flint out of my belt purse, started the fire, roasting the rabbit over the top of it. Then I joined the boy by the stream, keeping him upstream of me, I washed the pelt of blood.
"A bunny?" I nodded. "They have such soft fur." I nodded again. "What are you going to do with the pelt?"
"Moccasins." The boy nodded. I could tell he wanted to keep the conversation going, but I had no intention of that whatsoever. I washed my arrow and set it off to the side to dry before I replaced it back into my quiver. Then washed my hands. As the rabbit cooked, I fashioned and rectangle shaft and used vines to stretch the rabbit skin. We ate in relative silence, then I put out the fire, got a last drink from the river, grabbed the rectangular frame of wood, and continued on our way. I could tell the kid was exhausted because he actually traveled in silence. But I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little worried for him. I started another fire before turning for the woods, I hesitated just before leaving the firelight and looked back at the kid, remembering how he had freaked out this afternoon. I walked slowly back to where the kid was collapsed against a tree trunk, his eyes closed. "Hey." I said softly. He cracked his eyes open. "I'm going hunting."
His eyes came open and he sat up. "Can I come with?" He was trying to hide it, but I heard the fear in his tone. I nodded, studying him. I took him with me into the woods and showed him the signs of grouse. I took my bow and plucked an arrow out, notching it. Then I howled, startling both the kid and the bird out of the bush it was hiding in. And it was mine. I aimed, shot, and the bird fell dead, the arrow having took its head off. "Why'd you make that noise?" The kid asked breathlessly.
"Scared the grouse."
"Well it scared me too!"
I smirked, "Sorry." The kid grumbled under his breath, pouting. We collected the bird, then my arrow, and returned to camp where I cleaned the bird up and set it on a spit over the fire. I looked to where the kid had collapsed once more against the tree. "Kid." He didn't respond, breathing deeply. I sighed, going over to him. "Kid." I tried again. This time he peaked his eyes open once more. "Wash your feet in the stream, then we'll put some medicine on them." Groaning, he got up to do as I said. "What's your name?" I finally asked, crossing my arms as I watched him.
"Merlin." So he was the prince for sure.
"We should come up with a nickname for you, it is no longer safe to use your own."
He looked up at me, bone tired, but he still smiled. "I gave you a name, so now you give me one."
I shifted, uncomfortable, thinking. "Leo."
Merlin smiled. "I like it." He turned back to the river. "Lion. The manifestation of Adroso. I still get to keep a part of me this way..."
I nodded silently. We didn't talk for a while before I spoke slowly, "You will always be yourself boy, no matter what name or title you go by. You are you."
He smiled up at me, tears in his dark eyes. "Thanks." we let his feet dry before I took a cylinder out of my belt purse and spread ointment on his cuts. He fell back asleep as I cooked the grouse. I went and shook his shoulder lightly to rouse him when the bird was finished. He blinked his eyes open, sitting up and rubbing the sleep from them. His actions were always so innocent. It was a welcome change to my life. He shifted closer to the fire and I cut him off a piece of breast. He smiled, warming my heart. "Thank you." I nodded and cut myself a piece before sitting on the other side. "They say monsters make their home here in the Maiwalds Grove." Merlin said, once again resting crossed arms on his knees drawn up toward him, staring at the fire. "They say evil spirits live in the water here. And Dreameaters stalk the land."
I went to a large, low hanging branch. "I sleep in trees Leo, would you like to try?"
"Sleep in the trees?" He looked up at me in surprise, taking his mind away from fairy tales about late nights in the Maiwalds Grove.
I nodded. "It keeps someone from sneaking up on me and gives me time to prepare if a predator is near." Merlin nodded eagerly. I couldn't help but smile behind my helm. "Try sleeping here for the night and see how it goes." I patted the low branch with my gloved hand, feeling the rough bark under my fingertips. Merlin scurried over and I gave him a boost up onto the branch. He was so exhausted, he seemed to sleep as soon as he laid his cheek against the bark. I sighed, ruffling his hair before I could stop myself. I was acting strangely in the presence of this little prince. He seemed to soften my soul.363Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡVSqeFWMroE
