Chapter 4

Robin’s Story

The little girl had no memory of her parents as she grew up. She was raised and passed from family to family over her early years of life. She didn’t so much as have a real name as she grew. She was called girl, brat, monster, terror, hellion, and many other things she didn’t understand until she was much older. About the time it was estimated she was about seven, she landed in the home of a barmaid. This woman was unmarried but did enjoy the company of the little girl. The girl didn’t try to cause her any trouble as she grew. She learned quickly now that somebody was willing to teach her. The girl’s current mother insisted she was to learn her letters and numbers. The barmaid would take her with her when she went to work some days. The child was helping wash dishes and clean the bar every night after closing to earn her way.

This pleased the woman as the help was always needed. The owner of the tavern was happy as well. The child was free labor as far as he was concerned. When she wasn’t busy, the girl enjoyed sitting and listen when a bard, minstrel, or other entertainer was performing. She would listen to them play and sing every chance she could. Over the next three years, she learned as many songs as she could. She would sit and sing with the bards if they allowed it. She had been told that she didn’t have the feathered bards cap, she wouldn’t be allowed to perform for money

.

One of the performers she had met, though he liked her for her talent. She had a beautiful voice that could carry over the noise that was normal in any tavern. He taught her more songs and began teaching her how to keep the rhythm with a small drum. He gave her some basic lessons on the lute and flute as well. These continued until he stopped coming back. He had told her she had a voice like a songbird, a Robin. She took the name as her own, and soon those around her called her Robin Songbird all the time.

The barmaid vanished one night when it was busy. Her body was found raped and beaten in the morning in a nearby alley. Her attacker was never found. The performer that had been teaching Robin also vanished. He had told her he had been hired on at a local lord’s house to perform. He never returned, having displeased the Lord of the Manor in some manner.

Robin was hurting from the loss of the woman that had been her mother. She also was saddened about the man that had given her a possible future as an entertainer. Other bards and minstrels refused to allow her to join them on stage, but she would listen to their songs and watch how they played. As she grew, she developed into a fine figured woman. Her breasts were round and full, her backside a slightly larger rounded shape than most. Her face was fair to gaze upon, her hair a glossy dark brown that shown when she had it clean and brushed straight.

She did continue working in the tavern, now being paid as she had taken the place of the lost barmaid. He paid her well as she could perform a little on nights when no other entertainment was in the house. She had turned sixteen with no notice or fan-fair when an incident occurred that changed her life forever. The performer that was working one night was taken by her appearance. He had seen her playing and singing on nights when no other was working. He decided the girl needed a lesson about not poaching on a real bard’s work.

He told her he could teach her a few songs on the lute if she was interested. Robin was interested and agreed to meet with him later that evening. She met him at his room, he pulled her in forcefully as soon as she knocked. When she tried to break free, he smacked her across the face, splitting her lower lip and bloodying her nose.

“This is a lesson slut, to teach you not to work a tavern without the cap girl.” He raped her violently. She had tried to escape, but his speed and strength were too much for her to overcome.

The next morning the rapist was gone, but she still had to work. She had trouble walking with her legs so badly bruised when she resisted his attacks. Her insides hurt from when he had forced his way into her. She was still bleeding from the forced entry. The worst part was when he had shoved himself into her anus with very little preparation. She had screamed as she felt like she had been ripped and split in two by him. She later learned the man was smaller than average and was bad-tempered because of how others treated him over that shortcoming. She didn’t really care how he felt. She just wanted him to suffer for what he had done to her.

Robin healed over time and continued to work and learn. She avoided the advances of men as much as she could. In time, the offer of coin overcame her fear of men. She was approached by both men and women. Men she found the be rough and course, in a hurry to get in and be done. Women took their time, so she learned to pleasure them and herself from them.

When Robin was about eighteen years, she decided she needed to earn her feathered cap to perform openly. She had been saving as much money as she could and began buying the things she would need to survive on the road west. Several of the friendlier players had told her about the school in Fairham’s Cove. It was there she could go to earn her cap. She parted ways with the tavern owner and was soon away from the town she had spent most of her life in. She had seen a map of the region at the city hall and realized she was on the furthest southeastern port city in the kingdom. When she inquired about how long it would take to make the journey to Fairham’s Cove, the man she was speaking to laughed. “Girl, you will be walking for at least a year or two, maybe more if you hole up during the cold months.”

This news didn’t make her any less determined to make it to the west. The journey would just take much longer than she planned. She could sing and play, and if she needed the coin badly enough, she could offer her services for a night. One thing bothered her, in all the time she had spent with men, she had never once gotten with a child. She worried the bard that had raped her had damaged her so that she was barren.

It was six months on the road that she stopped in a small town to resupply and rest for a day when she spotted the bard that had raped her. She had never thought about getting revenge, but now she wanted to gut the bastard for what he had done to her. She knew he was performing that night at the town’s lone Inn. She knew he would be staying there.

That evening when he returned to his small room, set aside for visiting entertainers, he had a surprise waiting for him. He opened the door and stepped inside. He didn’t see her waiting behind the door, nor the dagger that drove into his gut’s. The attacker proceeded to cut his small cock and balls off. He felt it all but was unable to resist because of the pain. She shoved the cut off parts into his mouth and forced his jaws shut. His eyes were bugged out in terror when he finally saw her in his fading vision as he bled out. “This is for making it so I can’t have children, you bastard,” she whispered into his left ear before she cut it off as well. That was the last thing he heard in the living world.

She left the village and continued west, knowing she would be wanted for murder if they ever figured out it was her that had killed the man. She made it to as far as the eastern edge of the Planes Guard region when winter caught up with her. She was further north now, and the weather was colder than she was used to. She quickly found out that a performer that was not licensed by the Bards could not openly work at any establishment in this city. Robin knew she had a few options based on her past experience. She managed to be hired on as a serving wench in a lower class tavern. That job lasted long enough for her to be thrown out for breaking several noses when the men became a little free with their hands on her. She did manage to work in a better place; cleaning rooms, doing laundry, washing dishes, the menial tasks that tended to have a high turnover rate of workers. Robin stayed away from the customers as much as she could. She also avoided several of the staff that had taken more than a casual interest in her. Here at least, Robin saved up enough money to last her the winter in a few weeks. Any coins found in the empty rooms were fair game, and she garnered more that way than she was being paid.

It was during her stay that she met many of the folks in shops around the town. She also learned that she could perform as a bard for money at the market stage. She had to stay off of the stage, but she could play as much as she liked below it. It was when spring came that her life took a new and far more interesting turn.

She had noticed a strange woman in muddy robes arriving from the eastern gate the day before. She had a hand-pulled cart with some clothes and a small amount of travel gear on it. The one look she had under the hood that hid the woman’s face told her much. She saw a white mask covering the face. The rest of the day, she spent performing in the market and earning enough copper and silver to pay for a few meals and a warm, dry place to sleep that night. At the small boarding house, she was staying at, she heard that one of the drunks had been badly beaten and had disappeared. The next morning his body had been found in an alleyway by an abandoned warehouse. Robin didn’t think anything more about this as this was a fairly common occurrence for a drunk or thief to be taken down if he or she got caught.

She was passing the entrance to the caravan yard when she saw something interesting. No, it was someone’s actions that made her stop and watch. It was the woman she had seen the day before, but now she was wearing a golden suit that seemed to flow over her body as she moved. Her face was a creature that she didn’t recognize but made her uneasy to look at. It wasn’t so much as what the woman was wearing that got her attention. It was the way she was moving. She was jumping, flipping, bending, and moving in ways that defied logic and reason. At one point, she was bent over backward’s and she had her head facing the ground from between her legs, then did a walkover to end standing on her feet. Robin pulled her small drum around and began tapping it to the movements of this strange woman. The dancer suddenly made a faster gesture to her. She sped up the rhythm until it was where the dancer wanted it. She was all but flying several times as she jumped and spun back and forth across the circle that had formed around her that nobody was will to cross into. Robin watched, waiting for a set of movements that seemed to say the dance was about to end. So she hit louder and ended the beat as the strange woman landed on her feet, her arms extended into the air, her face looking up as if to say, “I am the greatest.” ‘Maybe she is the greatest,’ thought Robin.

Now something unexpected happened, coins began landing at both their feet. Robin was not one to pass up thrown coins, so she collected those that landed by her. She waited until the crowd had moved on and went to talk to this incredible dancer.

Week Three on the Road.

Aco and Robin were making good progress as they traveled. The last crossroad town they had gone through had been helpful. They had about two more weeks before they would be in the region controlled by Planes Guard City. They listened and asked about conditions and were pleased to hear that all was fairly quiet. The roads were still dangerous as always but could be handled if armed and prepared for trouble. It was just one day later they ran into trouble. Six men were blocking the road at a choke point between several large trees and an unusually large boulder next to the road. They stopped and waited to see if the men would let them pass or would try to take them.

“Well look what we have here boys. A couple of little girls we can take back home and play with,” said the oldest of the group. Aco could tell he was older by his wrinkled face and grey hair that ran halfway down his back, tied in a ponytail. The rest ranged from the early twenties to mid-teens. Aco heard movement behind them and glanced back to see two more younger teen-aged boys and two women came out to block their retreat. The group was armed with farm tools, one rusty sword, and a battered-looking longbow.

Aco switched to her ‘I am so going to kill you screaming face, then had second thoughts and pulled out her dragon mask, slipping it on then pulling out her weapons of choice, the three-pointed curved Sie. Robin muttered, “Like hell, I’ll be a plaything for this filthy lot.” She drew out a dagger and short saber that had been a gift from a man that had tried to attack her before she had met Aco. He still had his balls, so he had counted himself lucky when she took it and walked away. “I’ll cover our rear, can you handle the...” She didn’t finish what she asking as Aco had already acted.

Aco charged and jumped into the air, spinning in a flip over the group’s head, driving her weapons down into the unprotected head of one of the would-be rapist. He screamed and fell, rolling around on the road. He dropped the hayfork he had been holding and was trying to keep his brains from pouring out of his punctured skull. He didn’t do a very good job and was soon still and silent, on his back, eyes blank and dead, looking up at the sun. Aco landed, cartwheeled to her left, screaming in rage at the men. She came back to her feet and leaped at the oldest man, the only one armed with a real weapon. The man held up the old sword in an attempt to hold the flying demon at bay. He had seen the face and shit his pants as it flew over their heads. Aco saw the blade come up and moved her left-hand weapon to catch and drive the blade down. With her right, she slashed at his face, catching his left eye, then drove the point into his head, killing him instantly. As she finished the flip and landed, she had pulled the corpse around with the point still embedded. The youngest teen of the group saw all this and decided he didn’t want anything to do with this monster.

“RUN!” he screamed at the rest, “Run before it kills us all and eats our souls!” He ran down the road and out of sight, quickly followed by the other teens. The last of the older men looked at Aco as she turned to face him, yanking her Sie free of the corpse.

“Girl, or whatever the hell you are, I am going to cut off your head shit down your throat for killing Pa and Jebba,” he said.

Aco didn’t say a word and make a sound. She went into the mode her mother had taught her on one to one fighting. She jumped at the man, spinning as she moved, lashed out with her left leg, her foot catching him under his chin as she passed and landed behind him. The impact of her foot had driven his head up and back, snapping his neck. He dropped like a puppet with its strings cut. Aco stood still for a second, arms raised, looking at the sky, silent, waiting for another to attack her. None came so she focused on Robin.

Robin didn’t remain idle when she saw Aco jump, she spun back to the boys and women behind her. They had started to close on the pair when Aco had moved, a move they quickly came to regret. Robin spun around, swinging her blade while starting to sing a battle song she had been taught. The sword did its job on the oldest woman by gutting her, dropping her innards to the dirt even as she tried to stop her approach on Robin. She stumbled as her feet became entangled in her own entrails, falling flat on her face in the dirt. She quivered for a minute before she finished bleeding out, then was still. The other woman and the two teen boys froze in place, looking down at the woman on the road.

Robin saw they had stopped and asked, “Was that your mother?”

All three nodded yes. “She made a bad choice, now do the smart thing and run, or you will join her in the dirt.” They started to back away, then froze when Aco had come to stand next to Robin.

Aco looked at the mess on the road, then looked at the survivors, “Clean up this mess and go home children, or I will feast on you souls.” She was speaking in a low, rumbling voice that sent shivers of terror up and down their spines. Robin was not an exception to this effect either.

The woman, or more like an older girl motioned for the boys to drag their dead mother to a nearby ditch, then walked over to the other corpses. She went through the pockets and inside the shirts, pulling out several small pouches. She went to hand them to Aco and Robin, but both refused the payment. Now Robin spoke, using a sing-song style of speaking, “Keep the money, you will need it with the elders gone.”

The girl looked up at Aco, then backed away in fear. She was seeing the dragon’s face for the first time now that Aco had pulled her hood back. She stuttered, “Thank you, mistress.” She dropped to her knees and bowed to Aco. “With them gone, we can make the farm work better now and I will gut the next “BOY” that tries to come to my bed.”

Aco was appalled at the girl bowing before her in worship. “Stand girl, I am no god to be worshiped.” She quickly swapped to her normal neutral mask before the girl could look up, slipping the black mask into its pocket in the sleeve.

The girl got back to her feet and looked at Aco, now seeing a white face that had a faint outline of a nose, lips just two rounded flat lines, and a little outlining in red around the eye holes. “Your pardon Mistress, I did not realize you are not a demon or monster because of the face you had on.”

Now Aco was getting annoyed, “And stop calling me mistress,” she snapped. Robin snorted, then chuckled, “Oh you think this is funny Songbird?”

“As a matter of fact, I do. I saw some of how you moved Aco. You are so fast and deadly, with the black on, you look like a demon of some sort.”

“I am no demon or monster as you are well aware,” said Aco. As they spoke, the girl backed away, not wanting to be too close if they should begin to fight. Aco had been keeping an eye on the girl, then the two young boys when they had returned from moving the bodies away from the road. “Now, you three go home and tell the others they are lucky I wasn’t in the mood to just do away with the entire lot of you, now go away,” she snapped, allowing some of her annoyance to show now.

She watched as the three ran down the way the others had gone when they had fled. Robin spoke, “That was odd Aco. First attacking as a family, then just dumping the bodies like that. Most folks would have taken their kin back for a proper burial.”

“Well, whatever the situation, be ready in case they try again,” said Aco.

“Yeah, I don’t feel like being ambushed in my tent again.” Robin picked up the arms on the wagon, waited for Aco to grab the other one and they began moving towards Plains Guard again.

The family members that had run away, did not try to follow them any further. They had lost both parents and the oldest son to the two women on the road. As far as they were concerned, they were free of a terror the two travelers had no knowledge of, and would never find out about.

The pair continued that day until nearly full dark. They wanted to put as many miles between them and that family as they could. This night was different in one manner, Robin slept as Aco did, in the nude. They didn’t come together, but both knew it could happen if they continued to grow closer as they traveled.

The next morning, Robin joined Aco in her stretches and basic exercises. She couldn’t match Aco in the flexibility, but she was getting better at some of the simple acrobatic moves. Jumping, flipping, cartwheels, and somersaults had become easier as she practiced the moves. This morning she did it as Aco did, again in the nude.

“I see what you mean about clothing being in the way of stretching Aco. I will do it this way from now on when the situation allows for it.” She bent down and was able to touch her forehead to her knees this morning. The practice was beginning to pay off. “Now, if I could bring my back, back around, I could really make something of it.” She tried to push herself further, but her joints and muscles could not stretch and bend the way Aco’s could.

Aco cautioned, “Don’t overdo it, Robin. Push too far and you could get hurt by tearing the muscle in your back.” She smiled when Robin backed off enough to not put herself at risk of injury. “Robin, I was born able to do what I can do. It has taken a lifetime of training and practice to be able to what I do.” She unwrapped her legs from around the back of her head and slid her feet under her body and levered herself to standing. She watched what Robin was doing and moved to help her with the stretch. She held Robin in the position with her head on her knees again to help take the strain of the bend off her. Robin lifted her head back, then pushed it back down, opening her legs enough that she was able to get her ears down between her legs. She tried to close her legs on her head, but the stress of the bend was holding them open now.

“Let me up Aco, this is beginning to hurt now.” Aco held Robin to come back up, but slowly so she would not cause her back to cramp. “Aco, I think I have found my limit. Thanks for helping me.”

“My pleasure, Songbird,” said Aco, “Or should I call you Hunter. That song you sang while in the fight was scary.”

“That? That was a simple tune I learned from one of the friendlier bards I have met. He said it was sung by some warriors he had met when he was still training at the school. He wanted to join the group that was visiting the king at the time to assist in their ‘War Against Evil’ as he said it.”

“Really, what was the group he wanted to join?” asked Aco curiously. She was wiping herself down now with a damp cloth in preparation to slide a loose dress over her head.

Robin was wiping the sweat from her body now, “It was a long time ago. He said they were completely destroyed in a battle far away a few years later.”

“Merc’s,” said Aco.

“Yeah, I think that was the name he used for them.” Robin finished her wipedown and sat on one of the wheels to pull up her underclothes. She slipped a long tunic dress on the went down to her ankles and then wrapped a rope belt around her waist, making sure to keep the upper half loosely gathered. She pulled her sandals on and wrapped the wide cords up her calves to her knees to keep them from slipping as she walked. Last she picked up a wide strip of cloth and wrapped it around and over her head to keep the sun off.

Aco meanwhile had pulled on a pair of short pants, then pulled on the boots she used for long walks. The under socks came all the way up to the top of her thighs. The shirt she pulled on over her head draped loosely down to just above the knees. She then pulled the tight headcover on and secured it to the top of the shirt, locking it in place. She slipped the mask stacks into their pockets in the sleaves, flexed her body to settle everything in place, and announced to the world at large, “We march on, the road is long and we are facing the challenges of each new day.” She drank most of one of the skins of water, grabbed some dried beef from the hanging bag, and chewed it, making sure the rest of the supplies were ready and secured. She put on her smiling, happy face, and was ready to go. It was only then that she realized that she had been bare-faced all morning and Robin had not seemed bothered by her looks. Even though it hurt, she smiled under the mask.