Chapter 4

“We’re in the area where Harriet should be,” Sid said standing up in his stirrups. He looked around the plain without seeing any sign of her.

“The grass is pretty tall. She could be sitting down and we’d never see her,” Cynthia said with a worried frown.

Her butt hurt from riding so much, but she wasn’t going to complain. Saving the Damsel had become very important to her, and she wasn’t going to be the weak link.

“I’m not looking for her. I’m looking to see if there’s some sort of trail through the grass,” Sid replied.

“What do you mean?” Cynthia asked.

“Look behind us,” Sid said gesturing over his shoulder with his thumb.

Cynthia turned in her saddle and looked behind them. The wide open plain was filled with grass that had turned golden in color. The grass was dry and brittle. The horses had beaten down a swath that was at least six feet wide. She realized that a person moving through the grass would leave a similar trail though one that was not quite so wide.

Puzzled, she asked, “How do you know this stuff?”

“Oh, you pick up a little here and a little there. Before long, you know a lot,” Sid answered. He looked over at her and, giving her a big grin, asked, “Have you learned anything this trip?”

“Tons,” she answered.

She had learned so much during her two days in Chaos that it was hard to believe. She had learned everything from how to set up a camp and how to tend the horses. She had experienced first hand how miserable it was to ride through a rain storm. She had even learned that rather than throwing the core of her apples away that she could feed them to her horse. Of course that lesson had come with another one on how to hold the apple core so that the horse didn’t bite her.

Nodding his head, he said, “We’ll ride a mile and then check for sign.”

“Okay,” Cynthia said nudging the horse to a walk with her heels. This was her second day on horseback. There were still three hours of daylight and she was pretty sure that she’d be spending all of them on horseback. She figured that she’d walk the rest of her life with bowed legs.

“I’m worried,” Sid said. He was very confident that they were in the area where the Damsel was located. The great rift was a couple of miles to the east of their location. They had made much better time than he had anticipated. Cynthia hadn’t complained once about riding the horse. If they were lucky, they’d find Harriet quickly and be able to leave without having to face the men chasing her.

“We’ll find her,” Cynthia said. She had not gone through all of this to fail.

“I’m sure we will,” Sid said. He hoped that she hadn’t gotten washed away in a flash flood through one of those little creeks that dotted the area.

They rode silently for a few minutes and then Cynthia said, “It looks like it is going to rain again.”

“I know. That won’t make our search any easier,” Sid said looking up at the sky. The words were barely out of his mouth when he felt a drop of water hit him on the top of his head. Sighing, he said, “Time to put on the rain gear.”

He looked over to see that Cynthia was already wearing hers. He pulled his rain cloak out and put it on. Cynthia was standing on her stirrups and asked, “What is that jagged line over there?”

“That’s a creek,” Sid answered glancing in the direction she pointed. All of the creeks ran towards the great gap.

“Maybe she’s walking along the creek,” Cynthia suggested.

“She’ll get killed in a flash flood,” Sid said.

Cynthia pointed and said, “Someone is climbing out of it over there.”

“Let’s get over there,” Sid said kicking his horse into a fast pace. The string of horses followed him.

Cynthia was right behind him. She hadn’t quite gotten down how to ride at a gallop and her butt was making painful contact with the saddle. Rather than try to keep up, she let the horse slow down to a more sedate walk.

She said, “Riding this horse is going to kill me.”

She arrived to find Sid bent over the prostrate body of a young woman. Climbing down from her horse, she went over to Sid.

He looked up and said, “She’s in pretty bad shape.”

Cynthia knelt down and examined the young woman. She had cuts and scrapes over her bare legs. The rough edges of the grass had cut her legs. The dress she had been wearing was barely held together. The woman had obviously cut off parts of it to use as shoes. The evidence remained in the form of a few scraps wrapped around her one of her feet. There was a very nasty bruise on her forehead.

Worried about the condition of the woman, Cynthia asked, “Is she awake?”

“She fainted when I arrived,” Sid said cradling her in his arms. Gesturing to the horse with his nose, he said, “Get some watered wine.”

Cynthia went back to her horse and got one of the water bags with a knot in the strap that indicated it contained watered wine. There wasn’t much left in it. She carried it over to Sid and handed it to him.

She said, “She probably needs to eat.”

“She’s in pretty bad shape. We’re not going to be able to travel tonight,” Sid said disappointed at what that meant. Even two hours ride from here would simplify their lives significantly. He sighed and said, “We’ll have to camp here.”

As the rain started to come down in driving sheets, Cynthia said, “I’ll set up camp. You take care of her.”

As she took care of the horses, she kept glancing over at Harriet thinking that the woman must have gone through hell to look like that. She heard a gasp and turned to look. Harriet was struggling to get out of Sid’s arms. Sid said, “Calm down Harriet Librarian of Cassandra. I am Sid Jones of Earth.”

“My Hero,” Harriet said relieved and then went limp in his arms. Now that she had been rescued, she could rest.

Cynthia laughed and returned to taking care of the horses. After that little chore was over, she looked around to collect firewood. That was when it dawned on her that there weren’t any trees near them. She wondered what they would do for a fire. They had two or maybe three hours until sunset. At least the rain had stopped. Although it had lasted less than fifteen minutes, it seemed to Cynthia that everything was soaked.

Using one of the swords that they had taken from the robbers, Cynthia cut down the tall grass. The tough grass was hard on the sword’s edge. Sid had shown her how to make logs out of the grass. She would tightly bundle a bunch together and tie them together. The trick was getting them into a tight enough bundle that they’d burn slowly.

It was slow hard work, but Cynthia didn’t mind. It gave her something to do besides watching Harriet sleep while Sid was hunting for some fresh meat. The young woman had woken once to eat and then had fallen back asleep. She went over to where the woman slept to sharpen the blade. Running the rock along the length of the sword like Sid had taught her, she wondered where Sid was.

It was getting close to sunset when Harriet woke up without Cynthia noticing. She watched the woman sharpen the sword wondering why she was here with a Hero from Earth.

Finally, she asked, “Where are you from?”

“Earth,” Cynthia answered.

“You’re a woman,” Harriet said staring at Cynthia wide-eyed.

“I’m glad you noticed,” Cynthia said with a smile. She definitely didn’t feel very feminine wearing the leathers and doing manual labor like this.

“Heroes from Earth are all men,” Harriet said.

“I’m a Hero Companion,” Cynthia replied.

Despite her weakened condition, Harriet sat up in her excitement. She faced Cynthia and asked, “Do you mean the Hero that rescued me actually has a Companion?”

“Yes,” Cynthia answered a little surprised by Harriet’s reaction.

Waving her fists in the air, Harriet shouted, “This is so great! My Hero has a Companion!”

“Calm down,” Cynthia said thinking that the woman was about to have a heart attack or something.

“Are you going to take care of his needs tonight?” Harriet asked excited at the prospect.

“Maybe,” Cynthia answered feeling a little uncomfortable discussing the matter.

With the pending attack the previous night, she had done nothing with Sid. After riding all day, she didn’t really want to make love. She figured that she might give him a blowjob that evening if he wanted.

“Can I watch?”

Cynthia stared at Harriet totally shocked. She swallowed and asked, “You want to watch?”

“Could I?”

“Why would you want to watch?” Cynthia asked.

“Only the greatest Heroes have Hero Companions. I knew that Sid Jones was a great Hero, but to learn that he has a Companion is just so...”

Cynthia looked at Harriet wondering what the woman was trying to say. She had no idea why her traveling with Sid on this adventure was such a big deal.

She asked, “Okay. So what does that have to do with wanting to watch?”

“It builds the anticipation for when I finally get to reward him for rescuing me,” Harriet said looking at Cynthia as if she should know that. As far as she was concerned that was the whole purpose of having a Hero Companion.

“Oh,” Cynthia said. She understood all about the how Damsels rewarded Heroes and it wasn’t with just a simple kiss.

Harriet said, “Please let me watch.”

“I guess,” Cynthia said not knowing what else to say.

Sid returned to camp carrying two long strips of meat. Gathering meat in the wide open plain was difficult. Any game animals saw him long before he could reach bow distance. Smaller animals disappeared into the tall grass. He had finally come across two snakes sunning themselves in the creek bed.

He went over to the fire and said, “We’re going to have to leave tomorrow.”

“What have you got there?”

Sid held up the two strips of meat and said, “Steak of snake.”

“Sounds delicious,” Cynthia said rolling her eyes. There had been a time when she would have protested. After eating dried meats, sausages, cheese, and stale bread, any kind of fresh meat sounded good. She had just about reached the point where roast buzzard would have sounded appetizing.

“Yes it does,” Sid said with a grin.

Looking through the remaining food stocks, Cynthia said, “We’ve got a few tubers left. There are some spices here. How ‘bout we make shish kabob?”

“That’s a good idea,” Sid said thinking that Cynthia had turned into quite the competent camper.

Harriet said, “I’ve never heard of that dish.”

“It is chunks of meat that are speared on a long stick with tubers between them. You can cook them over a fire,” Cynthia replied. She picked up the sword she had been using to cut the grass and said, “This is perfect.”

“I agree,” Sid said.

Cynthia cut the strips of meat into good sized chunks and threaded them onto the sword. She hummed to herself as she worked. She glanced over at Sid and casually mentioned, “Harriet wants to watch us tonight.”

“Watch us do what?” Sid asked.

“She wants to watch me take care of your needs,” Cynthia said.

“What?” Sid asked staring at Cynthia open mouthed.

“I told her she could.”

Hardly able to contain her excitement, Harriet said, “This is going to be so good.”

After a very interesting evening, Sid woke in the morning feeling very rested. He had no doubts that anyone chasing Harriet knew exactly where she was. Cynthia’s screams must have carried for miles around. He sat up and looked at the horizon. Harriet’s pursuers were expected sometime that day. From the briefing he figured that they would reach this camp site between mid-afternoon and sunset.

Cynthia woke up and stretched. She was feeling wonderful that morning. She must have had thirty or forty orgasms the previous evening. Who knew that performing like that in front of an audience could be so liberating? She hadn’t even guessed at it.

Smiling over at Sid, she said, “Good morning.”

“Good morning,” Sid replied.

Cynthia looked over at Harriet. The woman still looked like she was in pretty sad shape. She asked, “Should we wake her?”