Chapter 2

Marion of York was pissed, to put it mildly. She hadn’t wanted to accompany her older sister Cecilia and father Charles to London. She usually loved traveling to London, but this time it was for Cecilia’s engagement, and her fiancé, John of Sussex, gave Marion the creeps. They had spent almost a week in London getting the wedding contract ready. When Cecilia and John were married, John would become the lord of Charles’s lands, which would stay in the hands of the York family. Marion would continue to live in the castle until she married. Charles was making these arrangements to avoid a situation with his greedy neighbor, who had been eyeing his lands and daughters for years; plus, Charles knew that his health was failing and that he wouldn’t be long for this world. Every day, he felt weaker, and it took longer to get going in the mornings. He hadn’t told his daughters yet, but they could see he was getting worse by the day. Marion strongly opposed this contract because she suspected John would steal and merge the land with his family’s lands in the south. Having him around wouldn’t be as bad as having Richard as lord, but not by much. The only good thing about John was that he could manage an economy where Richard couldn’t.

After signing the contract, John traveled with them to check out his new land, Marion, and the other women of his soon-to-be castle. John was twenty years old and the scion of one of the most powerful families in southern England. He was tall for the time at 180cm and had long black hair with cold brown eyes. He was only interested in power, fame, glory, and sex and would do anything to get those things. Marrying Cecilia was just a means to that end. With his marriage to her, he would have the resources of York and the surrounding areas to further his power. However, he wasn’t planning on merging with his family lands because John wanted complete control. If he joined, he would have to give up some of his power to his father or older brothers.

When the group left London, John was in an excellent mood. The trip to York would take them a week and a half at best, but the carriage was comfortable, and he could pass the time by flirting with Marion and talking plans with Charles. He didn’t care about Cecilia, which suited her just fine. This was a political marriage, nothing more. Cecilia figured that the more attention John paid to Marion, the less he would bug her. She would have to provide heirs, but that was all. John hoped to use his position as a leading noble in the North to give him leverage in the constant aristocratic power struggle. He would do this by building the economy and his military simultaneously. Josh was one of the few nobles who realized that you had to have a stable economy to have a strong army. This view led Charles to approach John’s father in the first place.

The group had been traveling for three days when they were ambushed. Their guards were cut down within moments because although these men were very experienced, loyal, and brave, they had been caught by surprise. Soon, although they managed to cut down four of their attackers, all six guards were dead. The remaining six attackers were circling the carriage. Marion recognized the men’s colors; they belonged to their greedy neighbor, Richard. She recognized one of them as Richard’s son, William, the same man her father had kicked out of their castle when he had pursued relations with Cecilia the year before. With the guards dead, her father and John decided their only chance was to try and kill the men attacking them. They both knew that if they surrendered, they would be killed anyway. They burst out of the carriage and were quickly cut down without achieving anything of note. This move left the ladies defenseless, and William ordered them removed from the carriage. They were then brought before him where he told them:

“Well, wenches, we are going to have some serious fun, and then you will most likely die. However, I will give you a choice: If you show enthusiasm, you will live. If you just cooperate, your death will be quick and painless, if you do not well...”

Both ladies started turning pale since this was their worst nightmare come true. Marion despised William, his father, and all the people loyal to them. Just as William was cutting the dress from Cecilia, they heard a booming male voice:

“HALT, DROP YOUR WEAPONS!”

The voice echoed through the forest, and the trees seemed to quiver at its sound. Although the words themselves were strange, the message was clear. The ladies looked up hopefully, and the men spun around. There, thirty paces in front of them was a massive humanoid creature dressed with leaves and small branches so that no single patch of skin was visible. It held a small black object in one hand but had no armor or weapons. Then William spoke up:

“Says who? A stupid, unarmed swamp thing?” His men snickered.

The humanoid understood him.

“Says who, you ask? I am your worst nightmare. A man that can kill you where you stand, and you won’t be able to do a thing about it. Now, this is how things are going to be. I am going to count to five. If you and your men are not out of here by then, I will kill you.”

The humanoid made this threat in a way that sounded like he was ordering lunch, not facing six heavily armed and experienced soldiers. It sounded so calm and confident that it rattled some of William’s men. William snorted; ‘this was going to be too easy,’ he thought. Looking at his men,

“Lads, time for some more entertainment. Kill that thing and take your time at it.”

Both ladies knew the stranger was dead. When William’s men moved toward the humanoid, it couched slightly, bringing the small black object to a horizontal position. The next thing the ladies knew, there was a sound like thunder, and the small black object jumped around in the humanoid’s hand as a quick jet of flame shot out the end of the object. The men around them started falling, blood and meat exploding from their necks. Within seconds, the only one left was William, who was now using a nearly nude Cecilia as a shield.

“So, I see Mister Tough Guy in armor is just another coward who uses an innocent woman as a shield; how pathetic.”

The humanoid stood very still as though he was debating something.

“Get out of here, beast. Nothing here concerns you,” commanded a very nervous William.

Marion thought this was a stupid move on William’s part, but then again, he wasn’t known to be the sharpest tool in the shed. Her thoughts were soon confirmed.

“Beast, is it now? Well, I will tell you what is going to happen. You let that lady go, and I will put my weapon away. Then we can see who is the better in a real man’s fight.”

Luke knew this was a dumb move, but he didn’t want to risk hurting the lady even though the chances were slim. Two, he wanted a bit more fun from this engagement. And the third reason was as old as sex itself; he wanted to show off for the ladies.

“Deal,” said William, and he released Cecilia as Luke put away his gun. As he released her, her dress fell off, but this was the least of her concerns at the moment. She ran to Marion and embraced her. Then Marion asked the stranger:

“Where is your sword, kind stranger?”

“Sword?” snorted the stranger. “I won’t be needing one.”

‘What kind of word is “won’t”? This man is more arrogant than most nobles but doomed,’ thought Marion. She had good reason to doubt the stranger would live, for although William was an idiot, he was a very noted swordsman; it was his only good quality.

William made the first move when he charged the stranger. The stranger didn’t move until William was almost upon him, then with absolutely terrifying speed, the stranger side-stepped William’s attack and grabbed his right wrist. The stranger then took his other hand and struck William in the elbow, snapping it. Marion heard the bones break and cringed. William, though, didn’t have time to register the pain because the stranger then grabbed William’s head and, with a quick motion of his hands, broke his neck with a loud crack, snapping it just as easily as someone would snap kindling for a fire. The stranger then threw William to the ground and brushed off his hands.

The stranger then moved quickly to check on the other men, for those attacking to ensure they were dead and for the attacked to see if he could give them any aid. All of them were dead. The entire time the ladies cautiously watched him, Cecilia had not even realized she was naked. When the stranger finished, he walked up to the ladies with his hands stretched out and his palms facing them so they could see that he wasn’t a threat. As he passed the wagon, the stranger looked in a trunk and found another dress for Cecilia. He also removed the strange outer clothes that he had been wearing. Luke was now dressing in a t-shirt, camo jeans, and boots. Finally arriving in front of the ladies, Luke handed the dress to Cecilia, who quickly put it on. Marion was struck by this act of kindness on the man’s part since he initially seemed utterly ruthless. She was expecting to be raped by this monster. In passing, Marion noticed just how damn handsome the stranger was. He was clean-shaven, had close-cut hair, and a strong chin. His blue eyes showed not only intelligence but also concern for the ladies. His shoulders were broad, and his bare arms had extremely well-defined muscles. Marion could almost imagine those arms wrapped around her. This thought caused her heart to flutter, butterflies to fly around in her stomach, and moisture to form between her thighs. She had never met a man who caused her to have thoughts like this, and she had even met the current king of England, Edward the Confessor.

Walking up to the ladies, Luke was having difficulty deciding which one was better looking. The older sister had long, almost Chestnut colored hair; her skin had a very light tan, few freckles on her face, and warm brown eyes. The rest of her body was good-looking, too, with about C-cup breasts capped with large brown areolas and nipples. Her stomach had some fat on it, but not bad. Luke liked his ladies with meat on them anyway and hated when women were so skinny that their bones showed. The worst thing from his perspective was that her pussy was a jungle, and had never seen a bush that thick before. He had been to some of the world’s most remote jungles, and her bush was thicker. Looking at it, Luke thought that his dick wouldn’t even be able to get through it without a brush cutter and a map. Although she wasn’t naked, so Luke couldn’t make a direct comparison, the younger one was also stunning. Marion was slightly taller than the older one, probably about 175cm. She had long hair that looked to be the color of twenty-four-carat gold, her eyes were colored like the highest quality sapphires, and her skin, at least what Luke could see, was snow white. To top things off, she had nice full lips, dimples when she smiled, an adorable nose, and a perfectly oval face.

“Good afternoon, ladies.” Seeing the fearful look on their faces, Luke continued: “You have nothing more to fear; I will not harm you.”

Cecilia was still in a state of shock, but Marion had recovered for the most part.

“We thank you, kind sir. I do not want to think what would have happened to us if you had not stepped in.” Luke gave her a slight nod. “What be your name, kind stranger?”

“Luke. What would your name be, and what is the name of your companion here?”

“I am Marion of York, and this is my older sister Cecilia.”

Luke bowed to her and Cecilia. Marion was starting to relax; Luke’s calm manners assured her he wouldn’t harm them. However, Cecilia wasn’t, which was normal since Marion had always reacted faster to changes.

“So, tell me, Marion, what happened here? Why were you attacked?”

Luke could tell by how this lady was talking that he was in pre-Norman England because her speech was a mix of English, German, and what sounded Norwegian to him. At least he could speak all three languages, so he didn’t have too much problem understanding these women. The nobility would have spoken French if Luke had been in a post-Norman invasion era. Luke was glad she spoke old English since he couldn’t speak French and had no desire to learn. Another plus for him was reading the Anglo-Saxon Chronicles in Old English in college during a required elective class. So, he could understand what these ladies were telling him as long as they didn’t speak too fast. This was the first time in his life that he had ever been glad to have done that lame assignment.

“The men that attacked us belonged to a neighboring earl, Richard. He has been lusting after my family lands for many years now.” Marion broke down a little, thinking about her father. “Sorry. Richard was furious when he heard that Cecilia here was to be married to John of Sussex. This would have kept our lands out of Richard’s hands. His men were waiting in ambush for us, surprising our guards. Our father and John were in the carriage with us, and they decided to rush out and attack the remaining men once our guards had been slain but were killed without achieving anything. William was Richard’s son and the man you killed with your bare hands. Before you intervened, William told us they would have fun with us and that we would be enslaved or killed. How we died would have been our choice; if we cooperated, then death would have been quick, and if we did not cooperate, we would have faced a long and painful death. William has killed many people before and was addicted to killing, so I do not doubt that you saved us from a horrible death at William’s hands.” Marion finished and broke down in tears.