Chapter 9

The group of four, following Kat's directions spent almost three weeks traveling through a few of the forests, across the mountains, and eventually came to the end of the forest and started into the desert.

For the most part on their travels the group wasn't hassled too much because of Dusty and Seth, but Kat and Suzan for their part still had to put up with some inconveniences.

A few men felt that they really had more to offer than either of their traveling companions. And of those few a couple were quite eager to prove it regardless of the various objections the women put up, and needed to learn the hard way that no meant "no".

The day before the group rode into the last town they would see before they entered the desert, they came to those few willing to make their home here on the edge. Here there were always rare minerals and items to be found that were not available anywhere else. Some people were willing to stay here and to do what it took to earn that living.

One thing that they found was that the prices were really high in this town. Not just high, but sometimes four and five times what they might have paid anywhere else. As Dusty remarked on it, Kat mentioned that it was another way that people there made their living.

What they were doing was one step away from highway robbery because they would often sell people things that were expensive, but travelers who didn't know what they were doing would buy everything they were told they would need for a long trip. Then a few days or so out they would find that they were having problems carrying it all and start dumping items they were sure they could do without.

Then people would follow the travelers collecting what they cast off, sell it back to the outfitters and then the outfitters would do any cleaning they needed and then turn around and resell the items again. It was a way that they made a profit for themselves.

Dusty was amazed that anyone would do that, but as he looked out over the start of the desert he could see the various tracks and what looked to be the remains of various creatures that were just outside the view of the town. It seemed that he still had a lot to learn about where he now lived.

They took on the bare minimum of supplies. Between Kat and Seth they estimated what they would need for the round trip and then set about collecting everything. The plan was to rest in town for two days, give the horses and themselves a chance to rest up, and then start their trek across the desert to get to the nest.

The first day in this desert border town was interesting.

Every rough character that they could have imagined was out in force. There were fights everywhere on a continual basis. Dusty and Seth narrowly missed a few and a couple they couldn't.

Seth broke one man's jaw with a single punch as he tried to outright steal one of their horses in the middle of the day and Dusty did a snap kick while looking the other direction as someone tried to pick his pocket and also knocked another out during a different event while they were out shopping on the first day trying to find supplies.

Word got around about the two of them and it seemed that the more obvious characters left them alone easily. They were testing the men to see if they would be easy prey for some of the more brazen thieves.

But as for the women it seemed that someone was always grabbing or groping them in a crowd. Both Suzan and Kat constantly had someone, more than likely men but they weren't always sure, copping feels on both their breast and butts all the time. It was the worst during the times they were trying to get around the heavily crowded market square.

It wasn't as if there weren't other women around. Dusty saw various females all over the place. But most looked as if "hygiene" fell pretty low on their list of things they were worried about. A few might have been pretty with a good hot bath and better clothes.

Though that might have also been a defense against the same level of attention Kat and Suzan were getting now. Those females may have worked out the less appealing they appeared the less attention they would attract by those they didn't want it from.

After a while the two of them just stopped acknowledging or responding to what was going on, but Suzan's temper was starting to show at times. She had worked hard on trying to keep it under control after the fight with Joseph had showed her how easily she could lose a fight if she gave in to it, but this was getting out of hand.

Try as she might she never could quite catch whoever was doing it and she didn't want to unfairly lash out at innocent people either. It was truly frustrating.

Kat, while starting to eventually get distressed over it, acted less like it bothered her than Suzan. But it still did, she just did a better job of hiding it.

If it had stayed at that the rest of them might have gone on and ignored it even though it was irritating, but later that night as they tried to have a meal in the only Inn in the border town while it seemed that most of the really rowdy men congregated there and they hooted and hollered at the women and made quite a few crude remarks.

Dusty wanted to kick a few butts when it started, but Kat pointed out that this was normal for a town like this. If they didn't want to have everything they had stolen in the middle of the night while they fought off the entire town, the best thing they could do would be to ignore what was going on.

Even though it irritated him that his wife and the mother of his children had to put up with this type of treatment, Dusty realized that their mission was too important to risk over getting offended over words. Even their success meant that maybe some of the animals in this town would be saved as well.

After the first night they seemed to get a better grasp on it and started turning a deaf ear to what was going on around them.

One man during that first night, while he wasn't quite as rough looking as some of the others, still kept coming around their table and paying the ladies complements. He was a blonde man with curly hair and piercing blue eyes. While he wasn't quite as big as Dusty he had a willow like quality to him.

Both Dusty and Seth were immediately on guard. They noticed that for someone who would seem to normally be attractive to women this man wasn't hassled by any of the other men. At most they acted as if they didn't even see him half the time.

In their experiences, someone like this was often the most dangerous and needed to be watched. But other than paying way too much attention to Suzan with his flowery complements he didn't do much else. Even when she said she was married, flashed her wedding band, and asked him to please stop he still watched her from across the room.

While this irritated Dusty, he didn't interfere with his wife. She was a big girl who had fought an entire kingdom to come back to his side. One stupid male caused him no concern. It was the level of disrespect he kept showing him that irritated Dusty.

What really did irritate him was that all of these actions combined put a damper on his love life.

Because with the others in close proximity on the way here it had been almost two weeks since he had been with his wife, and that first night she was so angry over the way she kept being felt up that he knew better than to bring up the subject.

He couldn't remember the last time she was this angry without something to take it out on and it wouldn't be him if he had anything to say about it.

The second day they finished getting their supplies and tried to stay away from people as much as they could. They were tired of this town already and they had only been in it for less than 48 hours so far.

They decided to have dinner and then call it an early night and leave just before dawn.

One of the other things that irritated them was that there were no indoor restrooms, bath's, or showers. Kat found no less than ten magical watching devices and fifteen mechanical ones, including a good old fashion peephole, in the women's bath.

She and Suzan took water back to their rooms and washed up. They badly wanted a good hot bath, but not that badly. Thankfully the restrooms were free of them, but they were only one person facilities.

Close to the end of dinner Suzan, still pissed at all the catcalls and crude remarks that she had to listen to while she ate eventually needed to go to the restroom. Kat asked her if she wanted her to go with her, but Suzan declined saying she was fine because all these men were cowards anyway and that she was good.

Dusty didn't want to let her go, but his protest died in his throat as he saw her face. Self preservation again reared its head and he wisely closed his mouth.

Suzan left her sword at the table as she went out the double doors and headed for the restroom on the left far side of the building.

As she finished, Suzan had just barely made it around the corner of the Inn's front from the side of the building when she heard "Hey hotness where are you going?"

Looking she saw the same man with the curly blonde hair who had been paying way too much attention her last night.

"Look I'm not in the mood for this. I told you I wasn't interested," said Suzan as she started past him not even looking his direction.

Moving quickly the man lashed out and grabbed her in both of his hands, spun her before she realized it, and then with her back against his chest he trapped her arms within his as he started massaging her breasts through her clothing.

"Look you little tease. I know you want to sample what I've got. I saw it in your eyes as you watched me last night. So stop trying to act like you weren't and quit it with the good girl act. We're going to do this the easy way or the hard way, but you are going to get screwed tonight either way. It's up to you how much you'll enjoy it."

"It'll take less than ten minutes for me to give you a sample and then you can sneak out later tonight and I'll really rock your world. I'm bigger than any man you've ever been with because all the women say I'm hung like a bull. I'll get you off more times in one session than you've ever had before," said the man softly into her ear as he continued to play with Suzan's large chest.

He started to lift her shirt as he went to bite her ear while he held her against him.

The people inside the Inn were surprised to hear what sounded like a large animal, maybe a horse, but didn't realize where it was, hitting the side of the building at full speed. It was so loud all conversation stopped as the occupants tried to look around and see what it was.

About two seconds after it happened it happened again, but this time everyone could see that a few windows on the far side of the Inn rattled.

What sounded like the beginning of a male scream was quickly choked off as it was followed by the second thump which was then gone so fast the hearers weren't sure they heard it.

Dusty was out of his chair like a shot and not sure he was going to like what he was going to find. He quickly started for the door, followed by Kat and Seth, and gradually more and more curious patrons got up and also started heading for the door to look outside.

As quickly as they got outside the Inn, by the time they got outside there was a third even louder thump against the same wall.

Looking down the street to where the noise was coming from, they could see that it was Suzan and she was completely working over the blonde man who had grabbed her earlier.

Every time the man went to fall down she would hit him with a high knee that lifted him up in the air and then she kept him pinned to the wall as she repeatedly punched and kicked him. She refused to let the man fall even with his head and arms flailing all over the place from her blows.

It was apparent to all onlookers that he had long gone unconscious from the beating and the blows being thrown now were pure over kill on her part, but she was still yelling at him about keeping his dirty hands to himself as she continued to rain blows on him.

They just barely caught the flash of her bracers as quickly as she hit him. If it wasn't for that they wouldn't have seen any of her blows in the wane light.

Dusty raced down the side of the building and wrapped his arms around his wife to stop her. He couldn't let her kill an unconscious man no matter what he might have done.

Earlier when the man had lightly bitten her ear, Suzan had launched into action.

She first broke his hold by shrugging upwards. Even though he was strong, he was surprised she was far stronger and shrugged him off so easily.

As his arms came free, she then hit him hard enough with her elbow just below the rib cage and just above the stomach while her back was to him that he lost all wind in his lungs. He couldn't catch his breath to save his life and found he was gasping for breath trying to breathe through the pain.

While she still had her back to him, she caught his still out stretched arms from underneath, moving faster than a blink of an eye, and quickly flicked her wrist. The resulting wet snap could be heard from both arms as she broke both of his forearms.

The man couldn't have screamed if he wanted to, but the combined pain and lack of being able to breathe caused him to start to black out.

Then as he was starting to slump forward she spun and hit him in the chest hard enough that he was then pinned between the wall and her knee. She felt something snap in his chest but she no longer cared what it might have been. No one touched her like that without her permission.

The fresh pain snapped him back into consciousness and he started to scream, but it was short lived as she then hit him with hard to see multiple crosses, hooks, and uppercuts to the head. With his arms broken, he could only flail as she swiftly started working him over.

At first she refused to hit him hard enough to knock him out. She wanted him to feel each and every powerful blow that she used. But they rained on him so quickly he couldn't have followed or dodge them if he had tried to.

Again the man started to black out, but just as he started to pitch forward from the wall Suzan had him up against, she again pinned him back against it with her knee. Again something snapped, and again she didn't care. And again she started whaling on his head and body with her fist using the uppercuts to keep him upright.

She was in the process of doing it a "fourth" time as the now completely unconscious man started to fall forward once again when Dusty wrapped her up so she would stop hitting him before she killed him. Then the man finally fell heavily to the ground and lay there unmoving.

For a few minutes the two of them struggled, she tried hard to get free of him and Dusty tried just as hard to keep her from killing this man before she eventually calmed down.

The blonde man looked to be in very bad shape and might not live through the night after what Suzan had done with him. He lay on the ground extremely battered and bleeding. His face was starting to take on a mottled bluish purple look as the obvious swelling started.

Once she was calm she turned and looked at Dusty, not only was anger still on her face, but defiance as well. She refused to apologize to anyone for defending herself against a rapist. Maybe next time he would think twice about trying to rape someone because he thought he could get away with it.

She didn't expect Dusty to seek an apology from her for what she had done because she knew he would see it as her defending herself, but others in the town might feel she had gone overboard, and right now she refused to apologize to any of them for what she had done. They had all been groping and insulting her for days, and she was sure some of those had been women as well.

"He had it coming. The bastard said he was going to rape me and went as far as put his slimly, disgusting, disease ridden hands, all over me. He was trying to tear off my clothes and he was going rape me out where others could watch him and this is what he got for it!" said Suzan as she first glanced at Dusty then at everyone staring at her outside of the door.

She stayed looking defiant as she looked over the crowd in the doorway and windows, as they tried to see what was going on.

No one met her gaze except for Dusty. While he also felt the man had it coming for touching his wife like she said he did, the man also got the lesson that every other man in town needed for touching his wife, but all at once for the same offense.

She had been carrying that anger for a while and this stupid man had paid the price for uncorking the tempest in the bottle.

Kat slowly walked up and kneeled down to check on the blonde man's condition.

A very soft, almost hard to hear, murmur went out over the crowd as her hand started glowing white and she passed it over the man.

"I'll heal the internal injuries so that he'll live, but I won't set any of the bones except for the ones in his chest. I don't want them to puncture his lung again if he moves, but both of his arms will need to be set by that healer we went past earlier today because I won't let him go without some pain for trying to rape a woman," said Kat loudly after a moment so that everyone could hear her.

While she too felt Suzan may have gone a touch overboard, she agreed with her that the man needed a lesson. Someone who used force to rape women would need a large incentive to quit or they would continue to do it. Memory of a good savage beating at the hands of one of his victims should be enough to make him start to think twice about it.

The crowd silently watched as she healed him. The blonde man went from labored breathing to an easier breath as Kat worked. After a few minutes she said he was no longer in any danger and could be moved.

Seth, picked up the man like he was a sack of potatoes said "I'll drop him off at the healer and be right back" and then like that he was gone into the night on his mission.

While Suzan walked back into the Inn like nothing happened, it was different because this time instead of the men pressing in on her and making crude comments they parted like double doors swinging open and gave her a wide berth.

Suddenly all the men were wondering how dangerous she might be. The man was called "Knife" because it was his weapon of choice and he wasn't someone to fool with. His lighting speed had let him knife more than one person before they realized they were even hit. His speed was nothing to discount or ignore.

But this woman was beating him like he owed her money and she had come to collect on that old debt, and it looked like she was planning to leave him for dead afterwards.

That display proved that she was really dangerous, even more so than Knife!

When Kat came in a little behind her they stayed parted to let her pass as well. At no point had she ever said she was a mage and that new knowledge greatly bothered them.

The town didn't have any mages as residents, but a few different times mages came out of their way to test spells in the desert, and they passed through this town. The people in town could see their magic when they used it for miles.

Afterwards they would often visit the site where the mage had just been and would find huge blasted craters, weird ice formations, or sometimes even strange caricatures of what might have been some well known creature before, but now it was all twisted and mangled. Some of those who practiced the Dark arts did so well away from prying eyes.

No, they wanted nothing to do with any mages either.

Suzan sat down to finish eating and started acting like nothing had happened. She was happy to finally take out some of her aggression on some of the idiots around her. She should have done this a long time ago and then taken her chances with the repercussions.

Seth soon came back and joined them after dropping the man off. The healer looked him over and told Seth that the man had a concussion as well and would be out for a few days, but he was told he would live. Dusty was happy to hear it because killing a man who couldn't defend himself would eventually haunt Suzan and he didn't want that on her conscience.