Chapter 13

Aco woke the next morning and waited. The last few weeks had been a struggle to sort herself out. This morning, it was only her. Just Aco, not The Claw, not Little Aco, just ... Well, at least she thought so. She dressed in her duty clothes she wore as a cook and dishwasher. They needed a good cleaning and some repairs, but with as busy as she always was, she never had much time to take care of those matters. She reached for the pack with the mask’s secured inside. She stopped herself, ‘I don’t need them anymore,’ she thought. She slipped the pack under her bunk and headed to the kitchen. As soon as she arrived, she was put to work cracking eggs with two other women. Robin joined her and between four of them, they made short work of getting the eggs in the big mixing bowl and whipped up. Aco looked at the carton they had finished, ten dozen eggs.

The grill was already hot, the metal cooking plate smoking from the old oil still on it. One of the others wiped it down with a fresh oil-soaked cloth to prepare it to be used. That done, Aco and Robin lifted the big mixing bowl to the grill and began pouring the egg and milk mixture onto the hot surface. Another woman began moving the liquid around as it began to cook and become solid. With the second set of tools, she began spreading and mixing the eggs as they finished pouring them on the grill. They backed away and took the bowl to the washing station. Aco filled the bowl with water from a water barrel and scrubbed it out so it would be ready for the next batch. Robin had gone to help prepare the meat rolls for the hungry crews that would begin arriving soon.

When the first meal was completed and all the kitchen staff had eaten, Aco was told she was free until the last meal again. She and Robin were able to take time now to clean up and wash their clothes. The public showers were busy so they washed and dressed as quickly as they could. Several of the men looked at Aco and they showed their interest quite openly. Several of the women also looked both of them over and made it clear that should they want additional company, they only had but to ask. Several of the men and women paired off and went off to find a bit of privacy while they watched.

Robin shivered as they dried off and dressed, “I felt like a piece of meat on a hook on display today. What was with all that?” she asked.

Aco didn’t answer right away. Robin could tell she was thinking about it. It was when they finished dressing that Robin noticed that Aco didn’t have even one mask with her. “Robin, we are two women that are very fit and fine-looking. We have looks that attract many to us with sexual desire clouding their minds. I guess we need to get used to this happening fairly often.” She pulled a simple dress over her head and cinched the belt around her waist. “Who knows, we might even find a few good bed warmers to play with every now and then.” She was smiling now and the level of light in the room seemed to go up with it shining from her face. “Now, we both have a ton of clothes to get washed and dried by last meal, so let’ get busy.” She picked up the large bag she had brought along, it was full of laundry in need of washing. “Tonight my little Songbird, I want you in my bed, warming it for me.”

“In the bunkhouse, Aco, are you nuts?” said Robin.

“Just a little my love, just a little. We wouldn’t be the first or only ones like that as you are well aware,” said Aco.

They exited the bathhouse and walked a few doors to the left to the laundry. It wasn’t busy so they were able to get started right away. Robin continued the discussion, “I do enjoy our times together Aco, but with an audience?”

Aco chuckled as she turned a hand crank that ran the clothing through a wringer to get most of the water out of the cloth before putting them in the hot air barrels to dry. “Maybe we can teach them a few lessons. They all seem to be in such a hurry.” She lifted the still damp pile and slid them into the barrel and closed the lid. She began turning the crank handle that spun the barrel and tumbled the clothes in the hot air that was piped in from a furnace outside. The furnace also supplied the hot water for washing. The other night I swear I heard a couple get started, then ended fast. The bed bumped three, maybe four times, he grunted and was done. That woman was not pleased with him at all from her muttering as she moved to her own bunk.”

“Three humps and a grunt. That is just rude Aco,” Robin said, her voice full of disdain.

“I thought so too. Turned out, that is how he is all the time. Always have a backup to take care of things when he’s done.” She continued to spin the barrel with one hand and reached over and gave Robins left tit a squeeze.

Robin pulled away from Aco, “What has gotten into you today Aco?” she asked. Robin looked into Aco’s eye and something in them made her shiver with unease. She was turning her laundry to get it to dry as well. She paused, checked it after a few minutes of silence, found it still slightly damp, so she continued to keep the barrel going. Aco still hadn’t replied to her question. They finished in silence, Robin in her thoughts at her friend’s sudden change in behavior, Aco thinking about what she wanted to do to Robin if she could get her alone for a few hours. Yet even as she thought this, a tiny voice in the back of her mind whispered to be careful.

The city of Tres has its own Thieves Guild chapter. Word had been sent with a member acting as a messenger about Aco and that she was no longer a guild contractor. The guild in Tres had a long-standing agreement with Aco from past interactions. She would do simple collections so long as no bloodshed was expected after the one case had gone wrong several years earlier. The message they had received was to not use her services, was looked at and rejected out of hand. The Claw was only ever requested as a last resort in Tres. The local temple of the Brotherhood also viewed her as a last resort. Some of the dream messages recently had reinforced that policy. The Duke that ruled for the King had no knowledge of her current presence, and both groups wanted to keep it that way for as long as she was in the city. All would remain calm so long as nobody acted to draw attention to her.

On the night before roll-out, everybody had worked to arrange all the wagons in the order they would depart. The call to roll would be one hour before sunrise. It would take over five hours before the last group would be out of the yards. The supply and service teams all would move out the night before and set up at the first way-point. This would be at the valley over the first ridgeline they had to cross. All the facilities would be ready when the caravan began to arrive. This group had a full company of guards to protect them from road agents. Spring was always a bit rough as supplies would be low and raiders would attack anything they could.

Aco was riding in the wagon that carried bags of wheat-flower for bread and rolls. She had her weapons at hand as did every other man and woman in the service train. An hour before they were expected to arrive, a horn sounded from the back of the line. It was the call to arms. Aco stood, holding onto one of the posts that held the rain cover in place, looking around in case the rear attack was a diversion. She spotted movement up the slope near her and she yelled that they were under attack in the center. One platoon had remained in the center so they could respond to any force in need of reinforcement. They rode over and looked where Aco had pointed. Arrows flew out of the trees and brush, striking several of the guards. She heard a woman from a nearby wagon cry out in pain. An arrow had hit her before she could make it under cover. Aco heard her crying, so she wasn’t dying yet. She knew what she had to do now. She reached down into her bag and pulled out the one mask she had decided to keep on hand in case she needed it. Now, she needed it. The Claw rose up inside her mind to take full control. She began moving towards the hidden attackers. She saw arrows flying towards her and she flipped herself to her right, avoiding them. Another wave came at her a few seconds later and she leaped up and over the half dozen shafts. The arrows slammed into the wood of the wagons behind her with loud thunks of shattering wood. She pulled her weapons, the claws out, raising them over her head, she screamed a battle cry at her attackers. She leaped up into the nearest tree with a bowman hanging in the lower branches and had seen her move, but lost her when she had jumped. He never saw anything again after he hit the ground, breaking his neck after Claw had ripped out his throat. She roared and performed a jump and flip towards the next bowman in line. She almost seemed to be flying as she went from tree to tree. As she passed through each tree, a body fell dead or dying from it to land hard on the ground below.

Back at the caravan, Robin made it to the woman that had been hit in the leg by an arrow. She was able to pull the arrow from her leg and stop most of the bleeding with a tight pressure wrap. The team leader crawled up to check on them. “What the hell is going on out there,” he asked. He had seen bodies falling, and had heard the scream that Aco had let out as she charged into the attackers.

Robin didn’t want to answer that question. “I can tell you that when the attack is driven off, I will be busy for the entire night, maybe longer fixing wounds.”

“Doing what,” he wanted to know what Aco was doing. “We need to set up for the main body tonight,” he said.

“I will also also be trying to bring Aco down from her battle high. I am the only person that can calm her down afterward,” said Robin, telling him only a small portion of the truth. “Now start arranging to help the wounded,” she snapped.

“Whatever it is she is doing, she had better be doing it quickly. Once this is settled, we need to be moving again to make up the lost time.” He crouched and moved further back along the train to check on conditions. The fighting in the trees only lasted a few more minutes then there was silence in the midsection. Aco walked out of the woods, brushing a leaf off of her shoulders then straightened her tunic and pants. As she did, she left bloody handprints and streaks on her clothing.

Robin saw this and yelled, “Stop where you are Aco, I will bring something to clean you up and bit.” Aco froze and looked down, then held out her hands as if seeing all the blood for the first time. Robin watched as Aco fell to her knees and began to vomit. This surprised her as Aco had never been blood shy before. Robin dipped water from a water barrel into a bucket, grabbed a wash-towel from Aco’s pack along with fresh clothing. When she made it over to the kneeling woman, she could see tears running down her face.

“What did I do?” she asked. She sounded like a child that had just done something bad and was about to be punished by her parents when they got home.

Robin got down with her and pulled the bloody top off. She had Aco stand and remove her pants. Aco was following instructions but did not seem to be aware of what was going on around her. Robin managed to wipe most of the blood off Aco’s hands, but the weapons would need a good cleaning and oiling later. She picked up the soiled clothes, helped Aco to her feet then led her back to the wagon. The group leader was watching and as soon as Aco was on board, he called out to begin the count. The count went back but did not return as it should have.

Things had not gone as well for the rear third of the supply train. They had lost half the drivers to arrows, a full platoon of guards had also been injured or killed outright. The assistant drivers had not fared much better. The archer’s had been careful with their shots so as not to injure the draft animals. It was close, but the surviving guards and staff managed to drive off the raiders. The problem now was they didn’t have enough survivors that could drive the teams. A runner was sent to the front to report, but a hidden archer took him down before he had made it halfway to the front to report.

Aco heard the scream of the downed man and her eyes blazed in rage once more as the Claw came back to full control of the mind and body. She pulled the cowl back on to lock the mask back in place, then quietly said, “I will need help to come back later Robin, be ready.” She leaped off the wagon and was gone. What she had forgotten, she had not put on a new tunic or pants. She was naked, except for the cowl, charging into the woods once more. Almost at once, screams of terror and pain began to come from the tree line. Several men ran out, dropping their weapons as they ran.

Robin was glad that the other mask was locked away and powerless for now. Had she been able to transform again, not one of the raiders would live to see the sunset. Then again, most wouldn’t anyways once Aco got through with them. The screams continued to move further away as Aco made her way to the rear of the train.

Aco was seeing the world through a reddish haze. She could feel her heart beating, hear every little thing around her. She saw an arrow coming towards her, but it was moving so slowly, she was able to sidestep and pluck it out of the air. She used it to stab one of the men that was charging her with a dagger in his free hand. The other held a small buckler to block attacks in hand to hand. He fell as the arrow was driven up under his ribs into his heart. She released the arrow and jumped up, grabbing a branch that had to be a full ten feet over her head. She grabbed it, swung up and over it to land on her feet in a squat. The other raiders that had come to assist in repelling the attack on their flank all froze when they looked up and saw her in the tree.

Only one man spoke when he saw the masked face, and it was a death sentence for all of them. It was a hoarse whisper, full of sudden terror of the death that now faced them. “Claw,” was all he managed before she was on them.

She dropped down at the dozen men that had gathered to repel her attack. Her weapons were pointed down and out, allowing her to slash open the faces of two men as she dropped in front of them, then she spun as she landed, gutting three more before anybody could move away. She leaped and flipped over several more, smashing one in the back of the skull as she landed. He fell as she had shattered his upper spine where it joined the neck. She screamed in rage as she charged into the rest of the men. She felt the cuts as blades managed to strike her, but she ignored the pain racing through her arms and ribs where she had been slashed. She sliced and stabbed, killing one after another. Then suddenly, she was alone, surrounded by dead and dying men. She grabbed one of the men that were still breathing, “Where is your camp?” she demanded. He saw the face of the monster and went into shock from terror, falling limp. She grabbed another, this one just pointed and said, “North, just a little north.” He expired before she could gain any more information. None of the others could or would answer her. None of them were breathing when she finished.

Aco had a nasty suspicion about this raiding party, they had been too careful about who they were shooting. She would need to check their base to be sure. She still had not noticed she didn’t have any clothes on, even as branches lashed her bare skin and cuts that had been inflicted by the weapons of the large group she had destroyed. She raced north and found the base camp in a few minutes. She saw four men sitting around a fire, drinking, and eating. Off to the west end of the camp, she saw what she suspected what she might find. Women and children in chains secured to post that had been deeply driven into the ground. The clearing, the fences, and heavy wood post told her this was a regularly used location. A fast estimate put the body count at over a hundred prisoners. Aco didn’t trust this scene. It was too easy looking to take. She began circling around the camp away from the prisoners. She came around a row of tents and saw through an open flap a man sleeping. She counted ten like this. ‘Nightguards,’ she thought. They would have to be dealt with in due course, but not yet. As she came around the far side of the camp from the road, she came to the largest tent. She could hear a girl crying, begging for someone not to hurt her. The girl was crying out a plaintive no when she suddenly broke into a scream of agony. Aco looked around and didn’t see any way to get in the entry flap, so she used one of the claw blades to slice open the back wall of the tent’s canvas. The man’s back was to her as he was thrusting into a girl of no more than ten or eleven tied down to the table. Her eyes were closed, head flailing back and forth as she cried out each time he pushed into her. Aco moved quickly, reaching around to cover his mouth with her right hand, and slashed his throat open with her left. She pulled him back and lowered the body to the dirt floor. The girl was hurt, but not bad. Her body would recover in time. Her mind, well, that depended on how she was helped later.

Aco slipped back out of the tent and continued on her way around. She came across a dirty looking man that was asleep under a tree by the corral. She counted close to sixty horses and mules. She slipped around the sleeper, tipped his head forewords a little, then drove a blade into the spine at the base of his skull before he could react. She set him back as she had found him and continued her search. She reached the end of the prisoner chain and remained hidden. She didn’t want any of them giving away her presence too soon. She made her way back to the starting point and looked at the four. She estimated fourteen men to deal with in total now.

She waited and finally, one of the men spoke, “They are taking too long. The supply train should have been easy.” He stood up and started walking towards the big tent with the girl and the corpse. Aco knew her time was running out. Three to one odds were better, then she remembered what she had done in the woods. That had been twelve to one. She had the cuts to prove it too. None of the men were looking her way, they were watching their partner that was going to the tent. She moved as soon as he opened the flap and looked in. In a second she heard him cursing loudly. The three started to scramble to their feet to find out what had happened. She was able to backstab two right away. The third heard the grunts and cries and began to spin around to face her. She stabbed low and caught him in a spot she knew would kill him in a minute or less depending on the type of cut. She made sure it was a slash inside as she twisted the blade hard, opening up his liver.

She ran at the fourth man, her face and arms now covered in blood, her metal claws dripping and raised to strike him down. He tried to get his long dagger out but wasn’t able to finish the move in time. Aco drove her left hand at his face, pushing a finger into each eye. She drove them deep and he went stiff, shaking as his brain short-circuited from the sudden damage. He started to go limp as she pulled her hand free. Now she heard what she was expecting, the sleeping men had started to wake up from the shouting.

Aco was panting hard now from the continuous battle stress. She was beginning to tire from the exertion and a bit of blood loss. One of the cuts was proving to be deep enough to be a problem in that regard. She ignored the feelings of pain and weakness and charged the nearest tent with a man in it. She grabbed the long dagger from its dead, eyeless owner on the ground and used it to good effect. She drove the blade down through the tent into the man that struggled to get out and repel the attack on the camp. He collapsed with a cry and did not try to get out after that. She managed to take down two more in the same manner when the rest managed to get out and bring weapons with them. One thing Aco had not counted on was how her current lack of dress was impacting the men she was after. They would freeze on seeing a nightmare mask-wearing, naked, blood-covered woman charging them for a second or two. That gave her the openings she needed. She was able to kill all but one in about a minute. She knew that at least one of them had managed to get a good strike on her back. The burning slice hurt with each movement. The pain only served to make her rage burn hotter. The last man standing naked from sleeping in his tent, looking at her, his cock waving half hard in the breeze and growing. It was one of the largest she had seen on a man and that almost was her undoing. She recovered as he had started to move towards her with his sword out and at the ready. She jumped up and over his charge, spinning around and grabbing his throat and hair as she passed over him, dragging him to the ground by his head. His head smacked into the hard ground, stunning him as she had made an effort to keep this one alive.

The combat high she was feeling had her arousal so high she ready to fuck any man she could reach that still lived, so she felt she could risk it right then. She slammed him to the ground, stunning him with the impact, rolled him on his back, seeing that he was more than three quarters hard now, she mounted him, driving his member all the way into her body in one swift motion that sent her mind and body over the edge. She slammed down repeatedly, building to an ever greater orgasm that she would never forget, should she be able to remember anything of the action she had just faced. He didn’t fight this sudden new type of attack. She had her claws on his throat, pushing in enough, he knew she would kill him if he resisted. He also knew what she was, the mask told him he was a dead man at her hands. Nothing he could do would save him from the fate he now faced, so he knew he would at least go out getting fucked by the hottest looking woman he had ever seen. She reared back, screaming out the orgasm that had been building in her since she had entered the camp. She slammed down hard one last time, then looked at her victim. “Are you a slaver,” she asked, her voice a cold hiss. He nodded that he was. “A shame, I would have loved to keep you around for this huge meat pole of yours, but alas.” She drove her claws through his throat and grasped the windpipe and yanked it out of his throat. The shock caused his body that was ready to pop to fire his juices into her in one last attempt to reproduce in the instant of its death. She felt the pulsing and reveled in the feeling of this ultimate way to kill. The dead man’s cock quickly deflated and she climbed off of the corpse before his bladder could let go inside her. She looked at the chained slaves and started to search for the keys to free them. It took a few minutes, but she found them and released the first woman in the line. She handed her the keys and began making her way back to the road to rejoin the train.