Chapter 8: Adventure the Second - Conclusion

ROBERTA

Roberta was put back into the cellar after working for the rest of the day. Now that the blacksmith had removed her chain she was free to move about. Not that there was far in any direction to move in this tiny room! The rings around her ankles were still there. It would take a file to remove them and there was insufficient time, so the smith had said. She guessed the chain would be re-attached after the fight.

She had readily agreed to fight Rodrigo. As part of her preparation she had spent the afternoon carrying heavy rocks out of the village to a clearing in the woods about a mile away. At first she had been accompanied to make sure she didn't slack or pause. It soon became clear, though, that Roberta didn't slack. There was no such word in her vocabulary. This wonderful strenuous activity after over two days being kept chained all day and night in that loathsome cellar was such a relief that every sinew in her body sung with joy as it was exercised to its limit once again.

The more she thought about the coming fight the more she felt she might be in with a chance this time. No swords would be involved and that was very bad news. Roberta's skill with the steel blade was legend. Rodrigo was a master of unarmed combat. That was what this man had been used for in the training. He had made sure than a Golden Guard would be a deadly foe even without her weapons.

His brawny arms could crush most men's ribs in seconds once he got a bear hug hold on. His fists were like rock and they moved like lightning, propelled by his muscular arms and shoulders. It had been a left hook that had sent her crashing bloodily into dreamland the last time she had fought him and lasted for all of eight minutes - to her own surprise.

If she had had any sense she would have let him knock her out after having survived the necessary five minutes, but stupid Roberta, with all the self confident arrogance of a seventeen year old Leading Cadet, had actually thought she might win! Rodrigo had warmly congratulated her after she had finally woken up with a headache that had lasted for days.

"You are the best trainee I have ever fought against, Roberta! Look at this eye of mine! None of you have ever done that to me before! Have a cup or two of wine with me, my brave girl!"

As a rule, this was totally forbidden to all trainees. It was hardly encouraged even for mature members of the Golden Guard to taste wine. Roberta, even now, had little taste for strong drink. Clear, fresh and cool water was all she needed. But she had willingly accepted Rodrigo's offer and later staggered tipsily to bed.

She'd been well caned later, of course, after Rodrigo had left. That had been her last caning before she had graduated, and the last punishment of any kind for well over a year - until she had started her slide into disgrace and ruin.

She munched on the food and drank the water in her cell as she looked forward to her contest. The stuff they had given her tonight was as foul as ever, but at least there was plenty of it! She wondered how they fed their pigs! She doubted it was any worse than that they fed to her! But, then, she was just a Slave these days and no better than a pig.

PAULA

Up above in the hall, the feast was taking place. Poor Slave Roberta was so far beneath the ground that she would have heard nothing. It was three flights of stairs down to where they kept her. Rodrigo was in a jovial mood as he downed one flagon of wine after another. Paula sat with James at the back and he had his arm around her. They kissed frequently and James was getting more and more daring as his hand crept under her dress and felt her erect and very hard nipple.

Paula was hoping that all this was not going to lead to her losing her virginity. If James, getting more desperate and audacious by the second, had anything to do with it, she would have lost it already! Soon enough one clammy hand found its way up her long skirt and into her crevice. She allowed him to explore and fondle her vaginal lips and move a little way inwards, then she slapped his face hard. The crack of that little hand hitting that manly cheek resounded around the hall and fifty shocked glances were directed at the furiously blushing boy.

Paula was not bothered again and James left, accompanied by two members of the council. She guessed Roberta might not be the only one to get whipped around here in the near future. Serve the dirty little sod right, she thought. Then she felt sorry for him and crept out of the crowded hall, pleading that she needed some fresh air.

Sure enough, James was tied facing the barn wall with no shirt on. His broad and manly back had received three lashes before Paula could get across to him.

"Please don't hurt him! It's partly my fault! I led him on a bit. I feel terrible about seeing him whipped. Let him go. He's learnt his lesson!"

The two angry men ignored Paula and continued whipping James, taking it in turn to flog him. Paula, who had seen Roberta lashed many times and enjoyed watching it, was sickened to see James treated like this. She stood and watched with increasing anger as James got twenty lashes and then she had had enough. She placed herself between the whimpering boy and the two men and they were forced to stop. Then she untied him and helped him put on his shirt. His back didn't look too bad and she took him home and dressed his cuts, which were deep and long. Paula's professional eye saw clearly that the pair had done a good job on the lad! She hoped they would be used on Roberta in a few days' time! Only the very best was good enough for her former Mistress and present Slave!

"Don't try anything with me again, James!" she warned him. "You're a nice boy and all that, but you are not for me! Now run along home and rest. In the morning you'll be fine!"

She gave him a quick kiss and pushed him out of the house. After this little drama she returned to the festivities which were really getting under way by now. Rodrigo asked her to dance with him and he proved to be a wonderful dancer, despite his great bulk and all the wine he had consumed.

"I hear that you own the Slave who I am to fight, Paula. And that the Slave is a woman. No woman has ever defeated me! Poor cow! I hope she came cheap, because you will not find her much use to you after I have finished with her!"

"I hope you are wrong, Rodrigo! She cost me every last penny! But we shall see how it goes - after another day of feasting. I like the feasting around here! It's great stuff!"

"Indeed, Paula. They know how to throw a great party! Did you manage to rescue that amorous and rather inexpert young fool from having his back too badly hurt?

"So you saw it all tonight! You seemed too anxious to finish of the red wine to notice things like that! I see you are a hawk eyed man as well as a fearsome warrior! Yes! I let him get about twenty or so and pleaded with them to let him off the rest. Mind you, I am due to leave in a few days time. After I have gone they may resume his painful lesson in good manners!"

"You need a real man to take away your innocence, Paula! And you're looking right at him as we speak!"

"No false modesty with you, is there Roddy!" laughed Paula, who had possibly - just possibly - consumed a smidgeon more wine than was good for her!

They continued to dance for a few more delightful minutes and then Rodrigo led her to a bench by the wall and the couple watched the proceedings. Happily for Paula's much prized purity, Rodrigo was a gentleman as well as a lethal fighter. But his interest in the little girl was pretty obvious and she warmed to him - in a way.

"You'd like to fuck the arse of me, wouldn't you, darling?" she whispered.

"Sure thing, sweetheart! Be a nice way to end the day!"

"I'll tell you what, darling! Beat my slave and you can have me! It's as simple as that! Now, will you please take me home? I'm tired and more than a little drunk! With more feasting ahead on the morrow, I think I need my beauty sleep!"

Rodrigo left her at her front door but not before giving Paula just about the most exciting goodnight kiss that she could ever recall. Not that she had experienced too many. Hers had been a sheltered life until she met Roberta after which she had lost all interest in men. Or almost all interest. There was one - but that was just a pipe dream!

Rodrigo did things with his tongue that made the little girl's pulses pound and her head reel. She broke free and shut the door behind her. Wow!

As she fell asleep she thought that whatever the outcome of the Great Fight, she, Paula, would be the winner! While it would be wonderful, as ever, to see Roberta triumph, her defeat would mean Paula being deflowered by Rodrigo! And that would be something like going to Heaven early!

In the morning she awoke rather late with a headache and a feeling of nausea, a condition she suffered in common with most of the villagers. By this time, of course, Roberta, her fighting slave, had been hard at work for hours! She saw her carrying a great rock, the weight of a man, across the square and out of the village. Those muscles looked awesome! She wondered if Rodrigo had seen her!

But Rodrigo was still asleep. He had more than a little overdone it last night and would not stir until late afternoon, when he would rouse himself and resume the feasting - and dancing with that bewitching little Paula! He was aware of a big woman carrying rocks about the place and guessed that he would have the pleasure of breaking her back across his knee next day, but did not recognise in that Superwoman, the Golden Guard Trainee who had given such a hard time four years ago. Roberta's hair was still short. Short enough for her to pass as a man were it not for her firm and jutting breasts and her wide juicy cunt peeping brazenly from out of her golden bush!

Roberta certainly recognised Rodrigo and she was not impressed. The man was overconfident and riding for a fall. She guessed from his late arrival on the scene and bleary eyed appearance when he did surface, that he had feasted well last night. That was no way to prepare for a fight, especially a fight with Roberta! Far from regretting her isolation, Roberta was glad of it now. It was far better for her to languish under ground by night rather than to ruin her chances by over indulgence above it.

He was not going to be a pushover, even in his unfit condition. In fact Roberta knew that she might quite easily be beaten by him. The odds were probably slightly in his favour. He was still a fine figure of a man, wearing only his breeches in the warm afternoon sun. But there was more than a trace of fat on that once trim belly. She guessed he might be slower off the mark than four years ago. And she was as fast and deadly as ever! And she'd need to be! Would she ever need to be!

As she rested in her evil smelling cell, she imagined Rodrigo carousing up above and making her chances against him more favourable by the minute!

Meanwhile, Paula was resting from the non-stop and ever more energetic dancing. She had certainly wined and dined well this last couple of days and had a whale of a time! James had not turned up tonight and it was just as well. It would only upset him to see how friendly she was getting with Rodrigo, who had pretty well monopolised her this evening! James was just a boy, but Rodrigo was a man with a capital M!

She guessed that this professional fighter had a girl in every village and town he visited and had left a trail of broken hearts and squawking fatherless brats in his wake. But Paula had no intention of being one of them! Before she had left the bandit's cave, carrying no more than a pack on her naked back and her weapons, she had been given some of the ointment they had used to soften and resensitise Roberta's hardened leathery skin and a magic potion to use if and when she decided to sleep with a man. Philippa had assured her that this powder would mean that no embarrassing surprises would materialise in nine months' time if she did allow Rodrigo into her bed and her body!

Rodrigo went on drinking and dancing with an ever more willing Paula until well after midnight. He escorted her home once again.

"How can you behave like this, Rodrigo, when you have a hard fight ahead tomorrow! Roberta may lose against you, but it won't be easy! Go home and sleep it off!"

"Roberta? Golden Guard Roberta? Is that the giantess I saw working like a slave? How has it come to this? I had her marked out as a future Commandant! How came she to be a Slave and your property?"

"You hadn't heard? You must be just about the only person I've met that hadn't heard about all her troubles."

"I have been on a long journey this last few months. And I left the King's service two years ago. This town is the first place I've been to since returning. Tell me all about Roberta!"

Paula led him into her cottage and the pair talked for almost an hour before Rodrigo went back to his room in the local inn.

Rodrigo was impressed by Paula's belief in her Mistress/Slave, but, like Roberta, he did not believe in Philippa's mystic powers. She was no more than a barmy old crone with half her marbles missing - as well as all her teeth! Roberta was guilty as hell and in the morning he would save the executioner a job! He'd kill his opponent!

He slept well enough, but as he drifted off into sleep he recalled the black eye that the defiant young trainee had given him four years ago as she gamely went down under his battering fists, fighting every inch of the way. It might not be as easy tomorrow as it had been last year against that useless peasant boy!

ROBERTA

Roberta woke early and they came for her at dawn. She asked to be given time in the morning to train further for the contest which was to be held in mid afternoon. She carried the remainder of the rocks out to the clearing in the woods. Goodness knows what the purpose of all this was. Perhaps they intended building some kind of temple there. They had enough material to erect quite an edifice!

Three hours before the fight she was taken back down to her cell to await her entrance to the arena. As the seconds ticked away she became calmer and calmer. She had never been afraid of a fight, not even when she was in great danger. Whatever happened she would acquit herself well today! She slept for three hours and was roused ten minutes before the deathly struggle was due to begin.

PAULA

Paula woke early as well. She must be getting used to all this drinking and eating! Her head was clear this morning and she went out to take a morning stroll around the village. Roberta was already busy, she was pleased to see. The two exchanged a glance but nothing was said. Paula had taken to heart the warning that sexual relations between women were banned around here! But the original purpose of their coming to this town was still very fresh in Paula's mind. As soon as they were away from the place Roberta would give her sweet little arse the caning of its life!

On second thoughts, though, decided Paula, perhaps they had better wait for a few days after the fight to give Roberta's strong right arm time to recover from all the hard work it would be doing against Rodrigo. If Rodrigo won, then Roberta would no doubt go back to the cellar, in chains once more, to serve the rest of her time. If she were still alive, of course - that was doubtful!

Paula had sensed Rodrigo's disbelief after she had told him Roberta's side of the story. All Paula's talk of sorcery and potions and poisoned food had clearly not convinced a man who was every bit as sceptical as Roberta. She began to regret offering up Roberta as the challenger. All she would get in exchange for losing her friend would be a night of passion with a man who would swiftly dump her as soon as he had slaked his lust on her body. Although she would enjoy being made love to by Rodrigo, she would still miss Roberta.

Then the time finally arrived. The square began to fill up with villagers, both from this town and the rival community. Many were still bleary eyed after two days of feasting and wining. A few private fights had broken out over the last two days and a number of young men sported various types of facial bruises.