Chapter 9

Sultry: Another country heard from; 9

Cassie stripped out of her shirt and put on the chain mail shirt.

"Fuck ... that's cold." Her nipples were bearing witness to the fact that ... indeed ... the metal was cold.

"You're supposed to put on a quilted shirt first, dummy." Sultry wasn't kidding either.

Her first expedition with a mail shirt had been a similar chilling experience. Jack had let her make as many mistakes as it took to learn. Mail and nipple took once.

During the seven years of rescues, she made mistakes but she didn't make any twice ... Milo was a lesson learned ... too bad it was more than ten years from mistake to fixing it.

The ōdachi scabbard was a thing of beauty, the sheath for the wakizashi and the scabbard for the katana matched.

The Daisho koshirae was also a thing of beauty but totally wasted on Chaos. If the katana wasn't in her hand she would be wearing it.

She called for her box and put the koshirae away. She hung the ōdachi, from the cords that hung around her shoulders, the katana and wakizashi went in the left side of her belt.

She kissed Cassie.

I think I'll find a way to mount this monster of a sword on my saddle, Sultry thought.

Before she sent her box away, she took out the quilted shirt she had used for years and gave it to Cassie.

Cassie stripped off the mail and donned the undershirt and then the mail ... she put on her regular Cassandra made Chaos over-shirt.

Sultry stuck her finger in the go away box hole ... the standard miniature thunder clap occurred ... and they walked out into the lobby.

Behind them there was a second snap and Hero Alfred stepped out of the vault.

"Damnitall ... time sure is weird here. I've been home three weeks on Earth ... to say nothing of the two months it took to knock Solange up. Sultry, I'm your Hero for this trip ... Eva said."

They left the bank, Hero Al had his Chaos armorer made sword in his hand, Cassie carried her short bow with arrow nocked, The Powers that Be, Seven being manifested, carried throwing knives and Sultry un-slung the ōdachi and carried it out in her left hand ... still in the scabbard.

She was practicing drawing the blade and putting it back in the scabbard when a gang of ... I don't know how many ... bandits charged out of the alley between the general store and the inn. They were already swinging swords and hollering all sorts of nasty words ... most of which involved people getting out of the way. And the townsfolk were doing their best. A mother dropped her girl-child in the middle of the street.

Sultry was in mid swing and took the leader of the bandits quite by surprise.

The look on his face as he looked back at his forearm and the hand holding his sword lying in the dust and filth of the street was one of pure shock. A tiny thing of a girl was playing with her daddy's weapon and accidentally took off his arm. It had to be an accident ... girls don't fight with swords.