First Name, Second Name, Last Name
Copyright© 2021 by BluDraygn
Last Name - Part 2
Fantasy Sex Story: Last Name - Part 2 - First Name, Second Name: The blacksmith's son, Devlin Fittlegault, sets out on his first adventure to rescue a captured knight and earns a new name. Last Name Parts 1-2: Devlin is older and leads his own adventuring party. After winning a costly battle, his employer refuses to pay up. His revenge nets him a new title, and something more.
Caution: This Fantasy Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa Fa/Fa Consensual Magic Reluctant BiSexual Heterosexual Fiction High Fantasy Furry Cheating Harem Polygamy/Polyamory Anal Sex Cream Pie Oral Sex Pregnancy Revenge Royalty
A knock on the door halted Devlin’s hand as it lifted a spoonful of stew to Maris’s lips. She could feed herself well enough, but the infection left her too weak to hold the bowl for any length of time. This way was quicker and more comfortable. The fighter also thought she was enjoying being pampered by him.
Dropping the spoon back into the bowl, he set it on the floor next to the bed and stood up as Maris wrapped herself in blankets and rolled toward the wall. Stretching out her lithe body, she did her best to look like a bunch of linens the human had thrown off as he got up that morning
Devlin cautiously opened the door and peeked out to see a woman in a dark wool cloak with the hood pulled down over her face.
“You are Devlin Fittlegault?” she asked.
He winced at the use of his surname, “Yes.”
“I am one of Queen Ressa’s handmaidens. Please, let me in.”
“Of course,” replied Devlin, his surprise showing on his face.
Once the door was closed, the woman pushed her hood back, “Mr. Devlin, the queen heard of her husband’s disappointing decision concerning your compensation. While she is unable to secure payment for you, she would like to offer you some kind of reward for your service to the crown.” The woman’s face suddenly turned bright red.
“Are you okay?” asked Devlin.
“I am fine, but thank you for asking. The queen invites you to come to her handmaiden’s quarters at the base of her tower two nights from now. The ladies there shall make themselves available to you for the night.”
The man was struck speechless for a moment. Was the queen whoring out her handmaidens? On the other hand, it was nice to know the queen felt he was mistreated. It took away some of the sting of her husband’s actions. “Will you be one of those ladies?” he asked.
“Yes.”
“And you are okay with this?”
The woman stepped up to him, tracing her fingers around the lump forming in the front of his pants. “Quite honestly, I’m dripping with anticipation,” she whispered.
A quiet cough came from the pile of blankets on the bed.
The woman spun around, her eyes wide with fear, “I thought you were alone,” she hissed.
Devlin sighed, “You need not worry about Maris. She won’t speak to anyone of this.”
“Why should I trust you?”
“You trusted me enough to invite me into your bed. Maris, do you want to show the woman why her secret is safe?”
After a slight shuffling of the blankets, the furry tip of a cat tail poked out from under the blankets before disappearing. The handmaiden gasped, “She’s a...” Looking up at Devlin, she asked, “Why on earth would you bring her into the city?”
The fighter’s face fell. Leaning over the bed, he rolled the hidden cat-girl onto her back and gently lifted one end of the covers exposing the bandage-wrapped remnant of the feline woman’s leg. “It got infected from the fight, and this was somewhere warm and dry for her to recover. The medicine lady says she still has a few days to go before I should move her.”
Devlin accidentally exposed the cat-girl’s sex. The woman pointed at it, “Do you two...”
“We have in the past—”
“But he said he won’t touch me until I’m better,” came the cat-girl’s muffled voice from under the blankets, “even though I told him it would help me recover.” Under her breath, she muttered, “I don’t think he wants me anymore.”
The woman sat down on the edge of the bed, “I’ve never seen a monster girl, may I?” she asked with a light tug at the covers.
“I suppose,” said Maris, letting go and allowing the handmaiden to pull the covers down.
“My goodness,” she breathed as she revealed more of the cat-girl’s body, “you are gorgeous.”
Maris blinked, “What?” Humans typically reacted with disgust when they saw her, especially human women. This was very unexpected.
“Your eyes and ears are so pretty, and your breasts are amazing,” she reached out and lightly ran her hand over Maris’s chest, “and sensitive too,” the handmaiden said with a smile as the cat-girl’s nipples stiffened. “Don’t you agree?” she asked, looking up at Devlin.
“Absolutely,” said the fighter as he stared at Maris. With her recovering, he had been trying not to see her sexually and had even purchased a couple of whores to help him resist his urges, but the queen’s attendant had destroyed that image of Maris with a few light touches.
The woman stood up and flipped her hood back over her face. “Remember, two nights from now. You will need to get into the castle on your own. At the end of the hallway between mine and the other attendant’s room is a window accessible from the stables’ roof. My room is to the right. Be safe, be silent, and don’t be stupid,” she said as a black-bladed knife flickered under her cloak.
“Something doesn’t feel right,” said Devlin, “For the most part, I am a stranger, yet you are inviting me into the queen’s tower? How am I supposed to know this is not a trap? Why would you allow an unknown such easy access to the queen herself?”
Her eyes were appraising as she peeked out from under the hood. “The queen’s other attendant and I occasionally entertain men in this manner. Our first duty is to the queen, and we are not permitted to marry. I have no means of convincing you it is not a trap, but I can say that attempting to force your way further into the tower than where you have been invited will most certainly be the end of you. If you choose to come and are caught, I shall disavow any knowledge of this conversation.
I look forward to seeing you again.” Brushing her hand across the front of his pants, she slipped out through the door, closing it quietly behind her.
“Did that just happen?” asked Devlin.
“I don’t know,” said Maris, looking down at her nipples, “but I’m already hoping it happens again. What the hell did that woman do to me?”
The fighter looked down at the cat-girl, and his cock twitched in his pants. He got the feeling it was more accurate to wonder what the handmaiden had done to ‘them.’
“You need relief,” said Maris, noticing the movement.
“I’ll survive.”
“Good, because I think you should save it for the queen,” she said, brushing her fingers across her nipples before propping her head on her hands and staring at the ceiling.
“The offer was for her handma—”
“I was right here, Dev. I heard what she said. But she’s sending her handmaidens because she can’t come herself. I guarantee, if she weren’t the queen and married to that ass Lermin, she’d be sitting on your cock already and a happier woman for it. She wants to fuck you, and I think you should do it. Besides, I think we deserve a little vengeance for Lermin treating Brek, Naro, and Sifid like their lives were worthless.” She looked over at him, “What better way than fucking his woman and getting some royal pussy?”
Maris rolled over and reached under the bed. “I believe Naden told us the first queen threw herself from her room’s balcony,” she said, pulling up her belt. Taking two small and two large metal climbing claws out of a pouch, she held them out to him. “My claws work well, but sometimes I need fingers instead of paws. These are enchanted to bite into rock and stone as well as wood. They should get you up to her room.”
Maris’s claws made quick work of climbing up the castle walls while the storm chased most of the guards from the ramparts. Those still braving the weather were rare enough to avoid easily. Once inside, he pulled his hood down and walked as though he just wanted to get out of the driving rain. The guards either left him alone or told him to get out of the awful weather. For the latter, he waved before dropping his voice and calling back that he was trying. It wouldn’t have gotten him very far on a clear night, but people weren’t keen on asking questions in the middle of a downpour.
Lightning danced through the sky as Devlin pulled himself up onto the stable roof. Just ahead was the window to the chambers of the queen’s attendants. He was sorely tempted to open the window and take the queen’s initial offer. Remembering the vizier’s statement that he would receive nothing from the kingdom, he slipped the larger set of climbing claws over his boots once again and began scaling the queen’s tower.
Born the son of a blacksmith, Devlin worked hard to maintain the strength in his arms. It paid off as he ascended the side of the tower with no more difficulty than scaling a very long ladder, aside from the wind constantly trying to throw him off.
The balcony was on the eastern and leeward side of the tower. The queen who originally moved the queen’s residence there wanted to be awakened by the sunrise each morning. Luckily for him, this kept Devlin out of the most direct wind, and his biggest worry was a guard looking directly at him during a poorly timed lightning strike. When he finally reached the stone ledge, he cautiously pulled himself over the waist-high stone railing and pressed himself against the wall beside the glass-paned double doors. The overhang from the tower roof kept the area around the door and where he was standing relatively dry, but stray gusts of wind and the splashing of runoff from the roof were going to keep him soaked.
Peeking through the glass, he saw the queen pacing back and forth as a different maidservant from the one who visited him sat to one side, stitching glittering beads onto a piece of fabric. The queen’s dress was not the extravagant one she wore at court. The silky, cream-colored fabric was made more for comfort than show and hugged her curves just enough to tantalize. Noticing the tiny bumps on the front of the dress from hardened nipples and the aroused flush in her face, he was beginning to believe Maris was correct, that her offer of the handmaidens was fucking her by proxy. He saw the women talking but the water constantly pouring off the overhang made it impossible to understand what they were saying.
Removing the claws from his boots and hands, he placed them in a pouch and waited.
“He’s not coming in this weather, Ressa,” said the woman’s attendant without looking up from her sewing.
“I know,” the queen replied. “But after Jemma described her visit, I was hoping he would. It’s been too long since the last time.”
“I can’t disagree with that. That handsome knight from Lantaris and his cleric friend you sent me to last month. Mmmm. I still have dreams about that night.”
“Bitch, at least you got to experience it firsthand.”
“I’m not trying to rub it in, Ressa, but I don’t have an ax over my head. As much as I hate to see you frustrated, I prefer to see you alive.” Jabbing her needle into her work, she held up a hand with her fingers apart, “If Jemma didn’t lie, it’s a real shame he didn’t show up. If he took me in the rear, he would certainly be one of the bigger men I’ve had back there.”
Ressa groaned, “Stop teasing me, Teel. I’m already in this state, and you are just making it worse. I haven’t even had a man back there yet.”
“I keep telling you if you want to try it, then make use of mine and Jemma’s toys, or it will hurt the first time.”
“I understand that, but that’s the only place I’m still a virgin, and I want the first time to be with flesh and blood. Before that can happen, I need someone I want to do it with because it sure as hell isn’t going to be my husband.”
“Unfortunately, it won’t be our adventurer friend either,” said Jemma as she came into the room. “If he hasn’t shown up by now, then I doubt he’s coming, so I locked the window.”
The queen’s shoulders slumped, “Dammit all to hell.” Sighing, she held her arms up, “This isn’t how I wanted my night to end. Undress me and rub me down, please. Don’t be gentle. I want to pretend it’s him.”
The other attendant walked into the room, and a moment later the queen raised her hands above her head. Both handmaidens came over and lifted the dress off her, the woman was even more beautiful naked, and Devlin felt his mouth watering at the sight of her pert breasts topped by small pink nipples. She worked to keep her body fit, judging by the slight definition of her stomach and legs. Above her sex was a small tuft of trimmed blonde hair matching that on her head.
Devlin stripped as her attendants began giving her a rough massage that only increased the aroused flush in her cheeks. Though the storm hid any noise from inside, he was convinced that she moaned each time one of the women tugged roughly on her nipples.
He wrapped his clothes in his oilskin cloak, more to keep them from getting blown away than to keep them dry as they were already soaked from the climb. Devlin then slipped the platinum ring over his prick and stood there with the runed piece of ebony in his hand, naked as the storm continued to rage around him.
One of her attendants reached down and began rubbing the queen’s sex. He took that as his cue.
This high up, there was no need for locked doors. Devlin turned the latches and pulled the doors open, making all three women jump. Soaked from the rain outside, he strode forward. Tugging at the doors as he walked through the wind from outside shut them hard behind him.
Seeing who it was, Jemma hissed, “I told you not to be stupid!” as knives appeared in her hands. She went to lunge forward only to be stopped by Ressa’s hand blocking her. The handmaiden watched in surprise as Devlin stepped up to the queen. If Ressa rocked forward, his jutting cock would brush against her skin.
“We were not expecting you on such a stormy night,” she said, staring him straight in the eye.
“The storm is why I had to come,” he replied. She stiffened for a moment as he reached behind her head and gathered a handful of her hair.
She swallowed hard, “Why is that?” she asked, her breath quickening as he pulled her into him, trapping his cock between their bodies. His skin was cool and wet. As hot as she felt, Ressa wondered how the water on him wasn’t turning to steam as her breasts pressed against his chest.
“So your husband can’t hear you scream my name,” said Devlin, covering her mouth with his.
“Your Majesty?!” squeaked Teel, unable to believe what she was seeing.
On the other side of Devlin and the queen, Jemma cursed under her breath as her knives disappeared into her clothing once again.
When Devlin and Ressa finally separated, she looked over at Jemma, “Make the room private,” she ordered as Devlin’s hands went to her waist and picked her up. The queen’s legs wrapped around him as he carried her over to Ressa’s bed and laid her on the plush covers. Cursing under her breath again, Jemma brushed her hand over a crystal sphere embedded in the footboard, activating the room’s soundproofing.
“Ressa!” hissed Teel, appearing next to Devlin’s elbow, “Is it wise to do this today?!”
The queen looked at her attendant, “Are you going to make him stop?”
Glancing between her queen’s soft curves and the powerful body holding himself above her, Teel covered her mouth with both hands and shook her head.
Devlin’s cock nudged the lips of her sex, and Ressa looked up at him, “Are you as good with this hammer as you are with your other one?”
“Let me show you,” he said, pressing insistently forward.
The queen grimaced as she stretched to accommodate him, and a small moan escaped her lips as the head of his prick nudged the entrance to her womb. He stopped to give her time to adjust.
She gave him a questioning look.
“I’m here to fuck you, Ressa. Not damage you,” he said, pulling out slowly then using her wetness to make the next stroke a little faster.
She shivered at the lack of honorific. At this moment, she wasn’t a queen, only a woman that wanted ... no ... needed to be fucked. She lifted her legs up and caught them behind her knees.
“Then fuck me. If my husband finds out, he will kill both of us. Fuck me good enough to make it worth the risk.”
“As you wish,” said Devlin as he began speeding up.
Jemma looked over at Teel, who looked like she didn’t know whether to drag the man off her queen or cheer for the monarch. Growling in annoyance, Jemma started taking off her clothes.
“What are you doing?!” hissed Teel, talking over Ressa’s rhythmic moans.
The queen’s moans were quickly turning into shrieks of pleasure, and Jemma pointed at them. “There is no taking it back now. The damage is done. Now I’m going to help My Queen however she needs me and hope that one of those tasks is finding out what that cock feels like inside me.”
Teel blinked rapidly as she looked between the two rutting like animals on the bed and Jemma. Ressa’s voice rose into an ear-splitting wail as the woman clawed desperately at the intruder’s back. Teel had seen her monarch orgasm enough times to know what it looked like, and that was one of the most intense she had ever witnessed. Shrugging, the queen’s attendant began taking off her own clothes as well.
Ressa laid on her side with Devlin’s arm around her back. With a finger, she slowly spun the ring around the base of his cock. “Is this magic?” she looked up at him, “I’ll be disappointed if your size was some artifact’s trickery.”
Devlin chuckled, “No, it just keeps me hard like this. It doesn’t change my size.” The fighter groaned as Teel’s mouth moved away from gently sucking on his balls to licking the shaft of his cock. Jemma was also busy holding her queen’s leg up and gently running her tongue over the monarch’s sex.
Ressa giggled, “You walk in and fuck me until my quim begs for mercy, and now here you are acting like a gentleman.”
“All things in their own time. You needed me to be that way when I came in, but you don’t need it now. If you ask me as a queen, then I shall take my belongings and leave,” he patted her belly, “I have what I wanted.”
“And if I ask you to come back?”
“If the night is like tonight, then it would give me great pleasure to come back.”
Ressa smirked, “I’m sure. And if I tell you to leave the kingdom and never return?”
“Then I would need to wait a few days, but I shall do as you ask.” He looked down at Teel, who tentatively flicked her tongue across the head while looking up at him. He nodded to let her know he wasn’t over-sensitive anymore, and the woman took the head into her mouth while swirling her tongue around the tip.
“Why will you wait?”
“I have an injured companion at the inn who needs a few more day’s rest before I can move her.”
“You have a woman and came here?” Ressa looked unimpressed.
“I was going to spend a fun night with Jemma and Teel. My being here with you was that woman’s idea.”
“Even more interesting is that it’s a cat-girl,” said Jemma.
Ressa propped herself up on an elbow and looked down at him, frowning. “You brought a monster girl inside the city?”
“She lost a leg. I needed medicine for her wounds, or she would have died. She was in too bad of shape to leave her alone out in the forest.”
“I wish you could see her,” said Jemma, “I didn’t know they could be so pretty.”
“Do you do use this on her as well?” asked the queen, wrapping her fingers around the base of his cock.
“Not since she lost her leg.”
“And his friend is none too happy about it,” said Jemma.
Devlin raised his head, “What?”
She’s worried you don’t want her, Mister Fi—”
“Devlin ... just Devlin please.”
Teel let his cock slip out of her mouth with a pop. “I just realized I didn’t know the name of the man whose cock I was sucking until just now. I will say that there is something very naughty about knowing this has fucked a cat-girl and just came inside My Queen.” Ressa’s attendant slurped him back into her mouth, her tongue going wild with renewed enthusiasm.
“I have something to admit,” said Jemma, “when I touched your friend’s breast, I went and found an empty room at the inn then used that hand to get myself off.”
Ressa’s eyes widened, and Teel stopped sucking to look over at the other attendant. Blushing bright red, Jemma stammered, “I—If you ask him back, Ressa, then I have a request.” looking at Devlin, she said, “I—I would like to taste her. If you can, make love to her before you come here.”
Devlin looked at the queen, “Ressa? If I come back, we all know where this will be going,” he said with a wave at his cock.
The woman was looking a little flushed, “You shouldn’t be neglecting your woman like that, and I must say I find the idea of something coming out of a monster girl and going inside me quite ... exhilarating.”
“Naughty,” said Teel before running her lips up and down the underside of his cock.
“Dirty,” Jemma chimed in.
Having had many monster-girl lovers over the years, Devlin failed to see what the big deal was but guessed that it had something to do with the taboo and forbidden nature of monster girls.
Ressa threw a leg over Devlin and scooted back as Teel let go of his prick and pointed it at the queen’s pussy. Small flickers of pain crossed her face as she slid down his shaft once again. She was very tight, and he did pound her somewhat hard earlier. Once he was fully seated inside her sex with the head of his prick resting against her womb, she looked down at him and said, “In five days, you will take your friend and leave this city, never to return.” A flicker of curiosity crossed his face, but if what Teel mentioned was a concern, then never being seen here might be wise. “Until that time, every night it storms, I expect to see you here. However, from now on, you can come in through the window by the girl’s rooms, and they will bring you up. On the fifth day, be in the city center at noon. I will have something for you.” Ressa leaned over and whispered in his ear, “Now fuck me again, Devlin. Swing your hammer and never let my body forget the man who gave this kingdom its heir.”
Without answering, Devlin reached down and grabbed her ass with both hands and began sliding her back and forth as his hips jerked upward.
A few minutes later, a bolt of lightning lit the air, and the crash of thunder that followed drowned out the sound of Queen Ressa’s scream as she climaxed.
“I received your message, My Queen. I must say this is a pleasant surprise,” said King Lermin as he sat on the side of his bed waiting for her.
Ressa turned to her handmaidens, “Jemma, prepare my husband. Teel, prepare me. I am not here for pleasure, husband,” she said as Jemma carried over the bench from the king’s writing table and set it on the floor sticking out from the side of the bed. Dropping to her knees, she quickly undid Lermin’s pants and took him in her mouth. “I am quite unhappy with how you treated that adventurer. He lost some of his people and, by your own decree, avenged twenty of the kingdom’s fallen soldiers while you all but spit in his face.” Teel crawled under Ressa’s dress and removed her undergarments, then waited for the monarch to bend forward so she could put her tongue to use, getting her queen slick as the woman wasn’t even slightly in the mood. She eventually dipped a finger in a small bottle of lube she had brought along just in case and used that to be sure. “However,” Ressa continued, “It is my duty to give the kingdom an heir, and now is the most opportune time for me to take.” Jemma directed the king to sit on the bench’s edge and lay across it, letting his head rest against the bed. The attendant then helped her queen roll up the front of her dress to mount the king’s prick. Ressa slid up and down him a few times when Jemma and Teel lifted his legs up.
“What are they doing?” cried Lermin when he felt a finger smear lubricant around his pucker.
“Getting the job done,” said Ressa. She began moving again when the king’s eyes suddenly widened. The king struggled for a moment until Teel’s finger found a spot inside his ass that felt a little different and began massaging it. Not even a minute after she took him inside her, Lermin was straining to get deeper as the contents of his balls emptied into his queen.
Teel and Jemma set his legs down and helped Ressa walk backwards and not get any of his cum on the hem of her dress. Teel climbed under and helped her put her undergarments on before she spoke again. “An admirable job, husband. I shall call upon you for more of the same tomorrow.”
Feeling unfulfilled and slightly confused by what just happened, King Lermin began looking for something to clean himself.
“Draw me a bath as soon as we return to my chambers,” Queen Ressa told her attendants as they made their way through the castle halls. She heard the light tapping of rain beginning to strike the tall windows on one side of the hallway and smiled.
If there were gods of weather, they were with him those five days as Devlin visited the queen the next three nights before the skies cleared.
Maris admitted that she wasn’t ready for full-on sex yet, but that didn’t stop her from enjoying the feeling of Devlin slowly sliding his prick into her and holding it there as she rubbed herself to climax. She was as turned on by the thought of her pussy juice inside a queen as the queen and her attendants seemed to be.
The third night, Ressa gave him her last virginity, which turned out to be a slow and uncomfortable process she wasn’t keen on repeating any time soon. Afterward, she was quite happy to lie on top of him with her ass filled with cum, stretched around his prick as Jemma and Teel licked her to a series of orgasms. When Devlin tried moving, it became immediately apparent that her abused bottom could not take a second round.
Jemma developed an infatuation with Maris, or perhaps monster girls in general, and visited the inn on the fourth day. Devlin accepted some of the blame for the queen’s attendant stopping by. The second night he came calling, Maris and Devlin gave the woman a special treat. He licked the cat-girl until she came, then did his best not to swallow the entire trip back to the queen’s tower. When Jemma met him at the window above the stable, Devlin immediately kissed her, transferring whatever remained in his mouth to the attendant. It only took a moment for her to realize what he was doing. Much to Devlin’s surprise, he had to catch the woman and hold her up as an intense orgasm ran through her. When Jemma visited a couple of days later, she made it clear that she was off-limits to Devlin. Before he left the queen’s quarters the previous night, Ressa had claimed the right to be his last woman until he left the city. While her words held no real power, the fighter was abiding by the young queen’s wishes out of respect.
However, Jemma wasn’t here for him and instead approached the cat-girl. Maris preferred men by a long margin but wasn’t against finding pleasure with another woman. It helped that after Jemma’s first visit, the cat-girl’s curiosity was piqued. As the queen’s attendant began making love to the thief, Devlin activated the rune on the piece of ebony and was about to give them some privacy when both of them asked him to stay and watch. Soon after, he sat in a chair slowly stroking his cock and thanking the day he bought the little piece of soundproofing magic as Jemma and Maris’s moans and shrieks of pleasure bounced around the small room. The handmaiden made up for leaving him stuck with his hand by pressing up against Maris’s back as both women opened their mouths. Stroking himself furiously next to the bed, he came with a yell and painted the women’s faces with his seed, then watched as they cleaned each other off, the handmaiden licking it off Maris’s face. At the same time, the cat-girl used her finger to gather his spunk from Jemma’s mouth and cheeks before sucking it off with a happy moan. It was a sight Devlin could get used to.
Jemma had tears in her eyes as she left, understanding that the chances of ever seeing either of them again were very slim.
That night, Devlin and Maris left town but only to set up camp in the woods not far from the city. Though far from destitute, with no jobs on the horizon and clear skies above, they couldn’t see a reason to waste money on a room. The only thing left was for him to be in Teremin’s city center tomorrow at noon.
“Hear ye! Hear ye!” bellowed the herald, his voice magically amplified to carry across the city’s large circular market. “Let the one known as Devlin Fittlegault step forward!”
Devlin groaned. He hated the name Fittlegault but refused to change it out of respect for his father. It was a good thing he was leaving town. The fighter wouldn’t need to listen to people with regular surnames from their occupation like Miller, or Tanner, or Smith choke when they heard his name. It would have been much easier to introduce himself as Devlin Smith.
He made his way through the crowd to stand in front of the herald and called out, “I am he.”
The man inspected him for a moment before nodding, then addressed the crowd again. “Let it be known that at the orders of a foolish commanding officer, twenty of Teremin’s soldiers lost their lives to a great beast! Devlin Fittlegault’s party slew the creature at great expense then single-handedly brought the errant commanding officer to justice, avenging our lost soldiers!”
“My boy was one of those! Thank you ... Devlin!” came a man’s cry from the crowd. The man’s words cause a cheer to run through those who were listening. Some of the people standing nearby even reached out and patted him on the shoulder.