Chapter 14

"Tell me all about it!"

"Steph, you aren't going to believe it. I don't believe it. I now have a gold mine, and I'm a baron."

"Shut up!"

"No really. I have a castle."

After Rolly got done telling his story, Stephanie said the words he dreaded to hear.

"Take me with you one of these times. Pleeeese! I read in your rulebook something about companions."

"Steph, if you got killed I don't know what I would do. What if we both got killed? Think of Mom and Paula."

"Rolly, I wasn't sure if I wanted to go to college and I thought about joining the Army. Mom was ok with that."

"Am I ever going to hear the end of it if I say no?"

"I'll make your life miserable."

"That's what I thought. OK, maybe one time, if you train to my expectations without complaining."

"Thank you, thank you, thank you!"

"What have I gotten myself into?"

Rolly was pretty sure that he could kick his sister's ass enough in training that she would give up, and teaching her to defend herself wasn't a bad idea. It was actually win win win for him. She would shut up, she wouldn't go, and she would learn six ways to kill a rapist with a dull stick.

Two days later Rachel came home. Working the rodeo for the past week had been exhausting. She had functions to do at the rodeo grounds; she had to keep up with her office in Topeka, and then there were social functions most nights. In her hotel room bed she missed the calming presence of Rolly. Even when he wasn't with her back home he was close enough that she could drive over to see him, or he would come to see her. It was comforting. He was a rock of stability that helped her during the pandemonium of her new job.

She didn't even bother to call, but instead drove straight over and found him working with some of the cattle. He kept a small herd on pasture that wasn't fit for tilling. It was easy enough to fatten them up with what he grew on the farm. Mostly they were sold to friends and the local butcher shops.

"Rolly, you shaved! You look so handsome. Wait, does that mean you went?"

"I said I was going at some point and I didn't want you to worry."

"What do you mean, worry?"

"You needed to concentrate on the rodeo and not have to think about what I was doing."

"It only takes Fifteen minutes!"

Rolly knew that tone of voice and warning bells started going off in his head.

"There was a chance I could come back dead. My body would have been spit out of the portal in front of you. Stephanie was a mess when I came back."

"Stephanie! I bust my ass training you and you go without telling me 'to protect me, ' but she gets to be there? What? I wasn't around and you got horny for one of those sluts! Fuck You!" She was away in a cloud of dust.

Tommy was right about her temper, Rolly thought.

For Rolly, it had been two years since he had last seen Rachel, and he was still dealing with not having Saleen by his side. Cassandrian women were addictive, which, if the powers that be had thought of it, was another good reason why heroes shouldn't sleep with damsels while still on Chaos. He had never really had time to form a deep emotional bond with Rachel before he left, and now he just couldn't raise the emotion needed to go after her.

Twenty minutes later Stephanie was getting an earful from a still livid Rachel. Rachel had made herself even angrier on the drive over. The gist of it was that after what Rolly did to her she couldn't keep the horse there any longer, and could she please board it at Stephanie's mom's place?

Stephanie, being the youngest in the family and very pretty, rarely had a chance to use her innate wisdom, but she really was quite intelligent, so she did her best to diffuse the situation. She would defend her brother at a different date, after Rachel cooled off.

"Rachel, how many months did you take care of Caesar without saying two words to Rolly? I have Pinta over there now, so we can ride together and I'll make sure Rolly isn't around. Otherwise you are going to have to drive further, or pay more money, and not have anyone to ride with."

"You're probably right. But right now I never want to see him again."

"I'll call you tomorrow; we'll talk after you've calmed down."

That night, Rachel waited by the phone so that when Rolly called she could tear into him, but he didn't call. In the end she cried herself to sleep, but she didn't know why.

She spent the next day thinking about the situation. Had she broken up with Rolly? Had he broken up with her? Were they ever in a relationship in the first place? They had never discussed it. Do friends with benefits break up, or just drift away? Was he drifting away?

Stephanie called and defended Rolly by saying pretty much the same thing that Rolly had. It sounded better coming from Stephanie somehow.

If he cared that much about my feelings before he left, why didn't he call last night? Didn't he miss me when I was gone? she wondered.

"Rolly had a difficult mission. It took him two years and his head isn't back on straight yet. How would you feel if you had been in a stressful situation with strangers on another planet for two years? It's not like you two were married or even in a long term relationship before he left. He may not be the same person you knew before."

Stephanie left it at that with Rachel but had a long talk with her brother.

The next Saturday, Rachel drove up to the farm at her usual time and wanted to talk. Rolly admitted that she seemed like a stranger after all that time, but he told her that for the first month he was gone he had thought about her a lot. And then things started happening, and she got lost in all of that. He thought that maybe rather than try to force something right now with them in different places, Rachel should go in a different direction for a while, and later maybe something would happen.

On Sunday, Stephanie came out ready to train. The first thing Rolly did was put a sword in her hand. He wanted to get her up to speed with that weapon while it was still fresh in his memory.

After that day she more or less moved in and told her mother that Rolly had hired her for the summer, and that he needed someone to take care of him and make him shave every day.

In addition to sword work Rolly kicked her ass with physical training and a lot of self defense and hand to hand combat. To mix things up they did horsemanship skills and some woods craft. After a month she was in pretty good shape, and so he took her 'camping' Chaos style for a long weekend. Every day he would go back to the farm to take care of things, but he left her out in the woods the whole time.

After that there was another two weeks of hard training, by which time Rolly was starting to get the itch again. He missed Susan and wondered how his friends were doing at Glenn Mac. He needed to test Stephanie one more time. The whole summer she had not complained once, nor had she asked when or if they might go. Truth be told, the combat practices were scaring the shit out of her and she didn't know how she would hold up in a real situation. Rolly told her that was good. Hard practice would make the actions automatic when the time came.

He needed to test her one last time. He checked the weather and told her to pack for five days. Her mission was to get from point A to point B and back unseen, and she should take precautions because he might sneak up on her at night and try to kill her in her sleep.

He sent her on her way the next afternoon. In the middle of the night it started to rain, and it rained off and on for three days. On the second night, in the rain, he crept up on what should have been the obvious choice for a campsite, but he didn't find her. He did find a noise maker though. He checked up on her a couple more times and she looked like a miserable, drowned rat, but she was moving steadily, and being quiet and watchful.

On the fifth day she walked in the back door, dumped her pack on the floor, stripped naked next to the washing machine, got a soda and piece of cold pizza out of the refrigerator, and went up the stairs to take a shower, all without saying a word.

While Stephanie's training was proceeding, Rachel decided to get back into the swing of things. She started dating a man that she had met through work. Jeff was the type of guy that she had always dated, and she honestly thought he was quite a catch; successful, well spoken, and well groomed. She was twenty-six with a good career in front of her, and it was time she thought about settling down.

"Steph, write yourself a note. I don't know how long we'll be gone. You might be an old lady when we get back."

He didn't know a girl could bounce up and down so much and hug at the same time.

After the 'remember notes' were put on the kitchen table, he held Stephanie by the shoulders and walked her in front of him into the cabinet.

Susan looked up, screamed, and ran from the room.

"Rolly, why is that girl wearing wings, a halo, and a white bunny fur bikini?"

"I told you, it's her job to make me happy."

"You are such a perv."

A red faced blonde, now in more appropriate attire, walked back into the room, and greeted the young woman standing in front of Rolly.

"Hello, welcome to Crossroads?"

"Susan, this is my sister Stephanie, she will be my companion on this mission."

Susan nearly tackled the surprised girl with a big hug. "Stephanie! Oh, how nice to meet you. I've heard a lot about you. I'm so glad you're here. You're going to be his companion? I'm so excited!" She took a breath and calmed down a bit. "Very few caretakers have heroes who take along companions. Rolly, are you sure she's ready? You've only been on three missions."

"She's better trained in some ways than I was my first time, and I was hoping for an easy solo mission, or something close to Glen Mac so I can take people along for protection."

"I think there is something like that. I'll have to check its status in the morning. Oh Rolly, I missed you so much!" She nearly climbed up his body to give him a smoldering kiss.

The situation made Stephanie blush.

"I'll say hello properly later, but right now why don't you show Stephanie to her room. And she likes the clothes I come home in so why don't you get her something to wear. I'll be in the living room with a nice scotch and water."

With that Susan took Stephanie by the hand and almost dragging her out of the room.

Three, two, one... Rolly mentally counted.

Susan ran back in the room, flustered.

"Scotch and water."

The drink appeared on the table, and she handed it to Rolly. Then she bolted back out of the room, leaving Rolly behind chuckling to himself.

It was a solid hour before the two girls came back into the room. This time they were both barefoot and had on sexy, short Greek chitons belted with golden chains. Around their upper arms they wore slave bracelets. Rings on their toes completed the costumes. Rolly wondered how many outfits they went through before they decided on those get-ups.

That night Stephanie was treated to a meal that could only be found in the most expensive Parisian restaurants, complete with a selection of vintage wines.

"You've outdone yourself tonight, Suzy."

"You like it? I learned a lot in cuisine class. Tuition was expensive, but Daddy was happy to help me out because it is one of his interests."

That opened up a new conversation between Susan and Stephanie about the Cassandrian finishing schools and the relative qualities of men on both planets. That led into the three types of women and the reason for the hero/damsel system. When Rolly had explained it, Stephanie though it was a way for her brother to play soldier and get laid, but after Susan explained it Stephanie felt sorry for the planet, and she was in awe of the damsels' bravery. She was really going to be doing something as a Hero's Companion worth risking her life.

Rolly and Susan didn't get much sleep that night, but by the magic of the restorative drink he felt refreshed the next morning when he went into the planning room.

"So what are our mission options?"

"It's a simple one, but I doubt any of the new heroes, other than you, have the money for it, and experienced heroes have passed on it before because it was non-critical. Now it has become critical. A year and a half ago a damsel was kidnapped and taken to a remote cabin by a trapper to help his ailing wife. The wife died six months ago, and now the trapper has died somehow. She has enough food for a little over a month. The problem is that the distance from the nearest bank is about five weeks on good horses, so we need a hero with enough money to travel fast."

"No danger?"

"Not that we can pick up. The villages on the way are small and poor, so I doubt that bandits could survive in the region. Look tough and you shouldn't be bothered. The bad news is that you will have to leave first thing tomorrow."

The day was spent memorizing maps and routes. Rolly had Stephanie memorize the entire region between their target area, Glen MacTynnen, and the city of Wentford, where the shire reeve could get her an audience with Lord Timson.

The bank was in a good sized town so they had no trouble getting Stephanie outfitted quickly. Rolly gave her the better of the first swords that he had taken. It was from one of the idiot brothers, but he couldn't remember which. She was tall enough that the length was good for her. He had doubles of a lot of basic items like utility knives and fire kits. They did need to pick up an extra backpack, bedrolls etc. For himself, he picked out his brigandine jacket, sword, dagger, longbow and crossbow. He would pick up a crossbow for Stephanie.

After spending the rest of the day gathering enough supplies for months on the trail out and back, they spent the night at one of the better inns. In the morning they loaded up two pack horses each, saddled their riding horses and hit the trail. The packhorses were loaded light and at least one each would serve as an additional riding horse to keep all of them fresh and moving fast.

Most of the way was over prairie, and it was late spring so the horses had good grazing and stayed fit.

They finally came to the first village on their map and were able to replenish their supplies somewhat and get a good hot meal. They had been traveling too fast to do much hunting, and jerky stew was not the best fare to begin with.

The next leg of the journey was through foothill country, and at two of the villages they had to swap out horses and ended up with a shabby looking mule as a replacement for one of them.

The last week was spent well past all civilization moving into the mountains along streams and on game trails. They would be lucky to find the cabin on the first try, but luckily Rolly was good with a map, and eventually they ran into a trail marked with blazes on the trees. The blazes were quite cryptic, but they were enough to confirm the direction Rolly felt was right.

Based on landmarks and travel time, Rolly thought they were close when they made camp five weeks after starting out.

The next morning he decided to scout the trail on foot.

A half-hour up the trail he saw a clearing, and then a cabin in the distance. Before investigating further he went back to get Stephanie and some supplies for the damsel.

The clearing was quite large, and it looked like the trapper had done a bit of farming. Rolly wanted to circle the perimeter to make sure it was safe. Staying back in the trees, they silently began making their way around the cleared land.

When they were halfway down the near side of the clearing the wind shifted.

"Smells like something died. Let's hope it isn't the damsel."

"It couldn't be the trapper; he died too long ago. This smells like three day old roadkill. I really hope it isn't Damsel Katrina."

"Rolly, I saw something move."

"Where?"

"See that rock outcropping by the back corner of the field."

"Yes."

"OK, to the left of it, about a quarter of the way down the edge, back in the woods some. There, it just moved again."

"It's big."

They watched for a few more minutes trying to make out what was moving in the forest.

"It's a bear! Should we be worried?"

"No. These aren't park bears; they probably had to watch out for the trapper for years. We never had any problems in the gold fields, and there were lots of bears around. They make a good stew."

"Look, it's sniffing the air."

"It looks like whatever is dead is over by the rocks."

"Hopefully the damsel killed a deer and has some food."

They watched as the bear edged up to the rocks.

"What was that? It was so fast!"

"Something hit the bear."

The bear roared, and suddenly the rock outcropping came alive.

"What is that, Rolly?"

"Shit! Fuck!"

"Rolly!"

"It's a fucking dragon!"

"Dragon! You never told me there where dragons!"

"Shhh, be quiet."

"I am being quiet!"

Rolly wasn't afraid of the animal. Surprises that significantly decreased the likelihood of him living a long life tended to piss him off.

The dragon reared its head back and spread its wings in response to the bear's challenge. As it did so its color changed to a pattern of reds, grays, and black.

"Look, it's got big eyespots under its wings, just like those big moths back home."

"That thing must be the size of a circus elephant."

The bear pulled back and then paced back and fourth in front of the dragon, roaring at it. The dragon hissed back. The bear then broke and ran for the forest, but just as it reached the edge of the clearing it slowed and collapsed. It tried to drag itself further but couldn't, and then it lay still.