Now I just need something to cook this on, maybe something like a frying pan. She thought to herself. She caught a rabbit a couple of hours ago and was thankful to the Trinity that her training covered how to skin one. She thought she could just skewer it with a stick and place it near the fire, but she wanted a more palatable meal even though she's starving, and her situation is not ideal.
I can afford a bit of luxury, she thought. She's not exactly in a desperate state. She's been teleported near a trading post where all kinds of merchandise are being sold and bought. Not in a desolate place where she must try very hard to get food and water.
She felt a bit of remorse when she saw slaves, mostly women, on cages, and being auctioned. Most of the merchandise are food, spices and wares. But also, in a large part of the bazaar there are many kinds of curiosities. Strange items from different lands. In the corner of her eye, she spotted something in a cage that's moving but not alive, nor was it a slave or an animal.
It made her grimace. It's something that she's hated for a long time. Even hunted and fought, just a while ago. It's an undead skeleton warrior, with sword in hand. Being displayed as an attraction while also being auctioned.
She finally got a hold of a pan where she could fry the rabbit meat. Seasoning she didn't lack as there were many being sold. She bought a thin slice of butter too along with a piece of thyme. She had some copper left from the expedition. One of the few good lucks that she's had so far. However, she knew that it would be in her best interest to watch her spending more. After all, she's alone in this strange land, teleported away from her party.
A twenty-minute walk from the trade post and she's back in her small makeshift camp by the river. A dozen or so travelers have also made camp nearby. She didn't leave anything of value except for the rabbit meat, but she's still thankful to the gods that she found no signs of other people investigating her camp. She scanned the meat with magic and found that a small part of the rabbit meat has a disease.
She could have used a healing spell if it was still alive, but now she can only cut out the diseased part while being grateful that scan spells still work on deceased animals. It had only been a few hours since she was teleported away from her expedition party, but she's calm about her situation. Something that surprised her about herself. She only thought that maybe that was the case because it's not her first time being teleported. For now, I need to regain my strength so I can think of my next move with a good mind.
She gathered firewood, dug a small hole in the ground and placed them there. She lit them up with the faintest fire magic that she knows. Placed three stones around the hole that she dug and placed the pan on top of them. She proceeded in cooking the rabbit meat with a half satisfied half worried smile. After eating, she laid onto the heerbedde from her pack that was luckily teleported with her. Intending only to sleep for a couple of hours, she had an eleven-hour slumber instead.
When she awoke, she thanked the Trinity again that she and her camp were unmolested by people and wild animals while she was abed. From a distance, she could hear music, laughter, and talk from the trading post. The sky is dark. It's the hour of the wolf, she reckoned. Maybe past that. But it's also no wonder to her that the trade post doesn't sleep. Now, it's only a matter of finding out which trade post she's in, and in which country or continent it belongs to.
She thought of going back to the post and asking people for information on her whereabouts, but she reminded herself of the need to be careful. She's a woman alone, and the trade port is mostly made up of men. The worst kind of men, unfortunately. Bandits, pirates, slave traders, and all manner of people who ply their trade with dark deeds. She thought of asking the other people camping nearby, but she thought against it at the last second. She reckoned that merchants would be less likely to do something vile to her or trick her because they at least have a trade to protect.
Despite being mainly a healer, she possesses some skill with the short sword because both of her parents had been warriors, and they resolved to teach her martial skills from a young age. Knowing her way with the sword, however, won't stop a group of men from easily overpowering her. They could make a slave out of her, sell her, or worse. There's always worse when it comes to the minds of people. And she doesn't even have her sword. That's maybe for the best. For a sword flailing around with her in the teleportation trail could have cut her all over. Possibly even dismembered her.
All she has right now is a dagger, a memento from her lord father. She thought that the only reason no one had bothered her so far is because she's wearing light chain armor on her breasts, and a leather jacket, indicating that she's a combatant, and it has the symbol of the Trinity. Although the pleated skirt that allowed her to move easily while fighting undead and demons now work to her disadvantage, because the sight a woman's legs could invoke deep lust in the hearts and minds of men. Especially men like pirates and bandits who are so far away from the graces of the Holy Three. Besides that, most of the people in the trading post were very busy. Although she did get a lot of looks.
Looks that cannot be avoided. Besides her exposed legs, her silvery white hair tends to draw a lot of attention wherever she goes. She also has small sharp eyes and pale yellowish skin that is uncommon in most parts of the world except for the Ajean continent. On top of that, her right eye is the color of lavender, while her left eye is as green as the grass in an early morning spring.
As for her order, the Trinity is known throughout the world for their crusade against the undead hordes in the west, the demons that spawned south of the Wolfenhil continent, as well as their missionaries all throughout the world aiming to spread their faith by passing it to people through words. They are backed by the crown of Wolfenhil and it is their country's state religion. So despite her perceived disadvantages, she has some confidence that her order's reputation could save her from unfriendly eyes and intentions.
The last thing she remembers before being teleported to this strange land is that she and her allies were about to defeat an undead horde, when in desperation, a powerful skeleton magus sacrificed two-thirds of their remaining army to cast a teleporter spell that seem to have scattered the punitive expedition force that the Holy Order of The Trinity all over the world.
She decided to get more sleep and wait for sunlight before gathering information in the trading post. She reckoned it would be safer that way. Night tends to awake evil thoughts among men, especially when seeing a woman alone. She may not be the prettiest girl in the world, this she knows. But she also knows that she's not ugly.
She's been described as comely a number of times and had her own line of suitors before she decided to join the militant cell of the Trinity. Besides, it seems like her kind of appearance is a rarity in these parts, judging from the looks she got when she first went to the trading post. She also didn't see anyone who would look even remotely close to her appearance.
Part of her blood is originally from the country of Paegea where the people have pale and yellowish skin and small sharp eyes. She thought that the men in the port might take her for a rarity and they might want to take her captive because of that. She's not wrong to think so. But she trusts her chances are stronger during the day.
When she awoke and washed her face, she went to the trading post just as she planned. She could not understand the language of most of the people speaking. Their language sounded a lot like a growl or snarl, but since this is a trade post, she's bound to encounter someone who speaks Fernish, the common tongue in the continent of Wolfenhil. Most of the people around her in this post have red brown skin, which made her worry that she's been teleported to the five warring islands in the far east, which is will be the furthest she could have been teleported to.
Her eyes met with a merchant's, and his comely smile instinctively drew her in. "Greetings" she said to the merchant who she thought could not have been more than 30 of age.
"Greetings, friend. Might you be from Xiyi, Paegea? Or Nobiru, perhaps?" The merchant replied, attempting small talk. In her mind, she shrugged it off as his attempt to charm her into buying his wares.
"No," she said with a courteous smile "I'm originally from Wolfenhil, but I was at Aynara fighting--",
The young merchant gave a confused look "Oh, can you speak more slow? My Fernish is not good" he interrupted with a polite smile in return. She thought to herself that he might be a good man and that he could actually help her.
She could not have been more wrong. His aim was to distract her. She suddenly felt a hard and warm thing press on the middle of her rump. It took her a couple of seconds, and she realized what was going on. A pirate was pressing his bone against her backside. She was about to turn around to confront the man when another man came in front of her and attempted to kiss her. It was the merchant. She turned her face to the side to avoid the kiss, but he licked her neck instead and lifted her legs.
Soon after, another two came to help the first two men to carry her off to a storehouse which contained different kinds of merchandise that they're going to show off in the bazaar later on in the day. Panic set in. She struggled, but all her limbs were being restrained, and her mouth was being covered.
There were people who saw what happened, but they knew better than to meddle with the affairs of corsairs. Worse, some mountain bandits saw what happened and asked if they could take a turn on her once the pirates are finished. She couldn't understand anything of the rough growl that they spoke for their language, but she could more or less tell what they meant through their grin and laughter.
The four men were able to pin her down and lay her completely flat to the ground with ease. Two of them put a knee on each of her wrist so that she couldn't raise them up. Her arms are now wide open, and she couldn't do anything but struggle hopelessly.
"I've always wanted to taste some Ajean beauty like this hahaha, and with silver hair!? It's our lucky day, boys!" said one of the pirates to another in their native tongue. "Don't worry, sweetie. We're gonna fill you with our warm seed that you'll end up liking soon enough." The merchant told her in Fernish with a strong accent.
She kept struggling but it was ineffective against four grown men. One was covering her mouth while the others kept her arms and legs restrained. The merchant who she was just talking to, began kissing her repeatedly on the neck and below her ears. He began untying the binding of her leather jacket and said "Your holy order will not save you now", while grinning.
He removed her chainmail and inner clothing until her bare chest was exposed. The merchant began sucking on her right breast like a wild beast, while the man restraining her left arm began fondling her left. She wanted to scream so badly, but with a hand covering her mouth, all she could muster were muffled cries.
A very hard bone from the merchant kept pressing and rubbing on her between her legs. The man who's restraining her right arm kept trying to kiss her lips, but she shut them tight. Though she kept feeling his tongue trying to force its way past them. That man bending forward to kiss her allowed her to notice the skeletal warrior on the cage on her right side, a few meters away from them.
She thought about her tragic fate, being in a secluded storehouse with four scums wildly tearing up her virtue, and only an unfeeling, evil undead, her most hated creature in the world, to accompany her.
The man restraining her legs began pulling her undergarments down. He and the merchant were able to do it with ease. The merchant who's been leading the charge, who also appears to be their captain, pressed and rubbed his bone harder on her mound. With her undergarments gone, nothing now separates his bone from the lips between her legs. She could feel its hardness even more. She felt hopeless and could only think of the shame that this would bring to her order and family.
The pirate captain said in Fernish, "alright sweet lady, time for the main course". She kept struggling but all it did was make her more tired and more hopeless. The pirate captain kept rubbing the tip of his bone onto the folds of the flower between her legs and started pushing inwards. "Hahaha! See that? She's getting moist!", he told his crew mates in the snarl of their native tongue.
The pirate captain's second head was already inside her when she suddenly thought of activating her strongest wind spell from her right palm which was already pointing towards the direction of the skeleton due to how the other pirate restrained her right arm.
FRAGMENTING GALE
Her wind magic produced a loud boom. Enough to startle the pirates, even the captain, and he momentarily stopped pushing inside her. From a look of surprise, their expression now changed to that of concern. Her wind spell tore the skeleton warrior down to tiny pieces, and they were all pushed out of the cage.
But everybody knew that that won't be enough kill an undead. It only took a couple of seconds, and the scattered pieces of bones started moving. The pirate captain who was all over her now stood up. His concern is now completely on the skeleton. With his cock still out, he pulled out his cutlass. The others followed.
The skeleton reformed its humanoid form quicker than the pirates expected. She's still in a state of shock but managed to get a hold of herself, pull her undergarment up, and went behind some merchandise boxes. This time not to hide from the pirates, but from the skeleton. Her spur-of-the-moment plan worked. The pirates will now have to deal with the skeleton instead of ganging up on her.
She thought of running through the entrance, but she worried that she would take the skeleton's attention away from the pirates. So she opted to see what's going to happen between the corsairs and the skeleton warrior.
The skeleton gave out a ghastly cry that sent shivers down her already anxious mind. It then charged at the pirates. Evidently with combat experience, they adeptly dodged the skeleton's attack, and counter attacked with slashes that broke several bones from its back and made a few pieces fall to the ground. But in a matter of seconds, the bones went back up to their former place, as if being pulled by an unseen force that binds them together, and the skeleton was whole again.
The skeleton shrieked again as it charged at the pirates. "Holy water! Do we have holy water!? Find a vial!" yelled the pirate captain in their native language.
One of the pirates escaped from the storehouse to find holy water outside. The remaining ones continued to battle the skeleton. Did they really want to defeat it? Or do they want to get it back in the cage in order to sell it? Do skeletons even fetch a high price? These thoughts raced through her mind.
The three remaining pirates kept adeptly parrying, blocking, and dodging the skeleton's attacks. But the more they counterattack, the duller their blades become, and the skeleton only gets its damaged parts repaired again and again, no matter how many of them falls from the pirates' slashes. They realized this soon enough and started to run outside. Luckily for her, the skeleton chased after them. Soon after, the whole trading post was in chaos. She started feeling safer and safer.
The trading post was small. It may not even be authorized by whoever governs this country since there were no competent guards posted. Which kingdom would want to guard pirate and bandit scum anyway? The people here knew how to fight, but not against magical beings like the undead. People ran towards different directions at the sight of the skeleton being freed from its cage. Once all the people of the trade post have ran out. She began a short chant, "Goddess Ea, your leal acolyte calls for aid. Lend thy power to dispel unholy deeds." and with a wave of her hand towards the skeleton, she cast:
Dark Dispel
Several onlookers who were running from the skeleton but were still near enough to look back and see what happened reported seeing several swords made of white light fall from the sky and pierce the skeleton. It then fell into pieces, never to reanimate again.
The spell did what she intended to do. Remove the dark magic that binds the undead into this world. She then closed her eyes and said a short prayer.
It was not the end of her problems, however, for the onlookers reported what happened to King Rikotor. The Pirate King of Galubar.
King Rikotor then sent a unit of his cavalry into the trading post to see what happened and if the girl who easily defeated a skeleton warrior with magic was still there.
She saw them riding from a distance. She expected this would happen. She had hoped for it.
Chapter End
Illustrations (AI generated)
https://imgur.com/RMEYKdL
https://imgur.com/av2cWzv