A Heroine of Greyhawk - Chapter 1

Chapter I : Beginnings

My name is Tania of Melanon, and these are my stories.

I was born twenty-seven years ago in a place that no longer exists. I am just less than six foot tall, with my honey blonde hair down to the bottom of my shoulder blades, and wavy. My eyes are blue. I know you may not believe this, but it is true, I look just like that. I dress much differently now than I did growing up, so I will wait to describe more of myself until later. I am the third child and first daughter of the Baron of Melanon. He was one of the many noblemen of a nation then called the Shield Lands.

The Shield Lands were a collection of noble fiefs. We owed fealty to no king really. We had a Lord Protector, but it was not taken too seriously by most of the noble houses. I am not sure about the history, but for some reason we Shield Landers did not care too much for Furyondy. Our nobles did what we wanted on our lands. We cared for our people, our serfs, and our lands, but we did not take orders from Furyondy too well, and barely from Lord Protector Holmer. To the east were the Bandit Kingdoms and to the north was the Horned Society, and we Shield Landers were the ones fighting off raids, not Furyondians.

My youth was that of a protected child, the only girl of a protective father who had the power to give me just about anything I asked for. Our fiefdom was not all that rich, but compared to the peasant girls and the girls that lived in the town that surrounded our keep, I had it made. I did not know it at the time of course, but I know it now. The peasants wore stiff dresses and had one very nice dress for festivals and religious holidays, and some of the better off girls of the town had some nice things. As far as I know, I was the only girl in the fiefdom that had a silk dress made by the Elves of Celene, and I was probably the only one that had any kind of pearls from the seas far to the south.

I had few playmates. Sometimes my parents would bring in the young daughters of some favorite to play. I know they left calling me a bitch, but I was raised being told that I was special, that I was going to be a noblewoman. All the keep's servants bowed when they left, and had done that as long as I could remember. All I knew was that I was supposed to be in charge of these girls and that I was better than them. I know different now, but I did not then.

I did grow up with two older brothers, which makes a girl a little tougher. When Father was away with his retainers helping others fight off raids from the Horned Society to the north, I could go out with my brothers and practice swordplay, but if Father ever found out, the boys were flogged and I was always given a sharp lecture about the duties of being a noblewoman. My Mother would stand behind him and nod.

My Mother was beautiful but distant. That was how she was raised, by tutors and governesses. She was from Chendl, the capital of Furyondy, a former playmate of the now Queen of Furyondy. Somehow I always suspected she was disappointed that she had been married to a Shield Lander. Father was a leader down to his fingertips. He was the leader of the fief. He had written the Melanon town charter in his own hand, and led the barony's troops anytime they were called out to fend off raids. We lived far enough in the interior to never have to worry about that but Father believed that if we did not help the fiefs on the edges of our motley nation of fiefs, we would eventually be on the borders.

So I grew up in our barony. Father protected me, Mother taught me to act like a noblewoman and not like a girl, and time passed over the rolling hills and fields of my home. I traveled with Mother to Furyondy and once even to fabled Greyhawk City to make some purchases. That trip was incredible, but of course Mother kept me close, and our guards kept everyone at bay. I can still remember the first time I saw a prostitute in the River Quarter, and halflings in the city.

At sixteen I was betrothed. Father had told me that he would give me a chance to voice my opinion of my future life mate since he and Mother had been betrothed at twelve years old. He did not want to do that to me. Instead he waited until I was sixteen, and then gave me a choice of three. One was some nobleman from the northern Shield Lands, a member of the Knights of Holy Shielding; the second was a boy of thirteen, a son of a powerful family along the Nyr Dyv lakeshore; and the third was a seventeen-year-old son of the Count of Critwall. I had met the Count's son, and he was a skinny, pock-faced boy. He was no warrior like Father.

Father kept pressing, and finally I chose the Knight. He was older and I heard he was a powerful warrior. I prayed nightly to Myhriss asking her not to make him some psychotic march lord that beat his wife to sleep every evening. It did not matter though, since I was fated to never marry anyway...

Everything in my life changed when the invasion happened. I remember everyone rejoicing when the news was spread that the Horned Society and the Kingdom of Iuz were at war. Two nations of ugly evil killing each other was something everyone in the Shield Lands could appreciate, even a naive little noble girl like me.

What we did not know was that Iuz had a plan. The Unnamed One had been planning for decades and the mages and evil priests of the Horned Society never had a chance. They were assassinated, destroyed, and disintegrated. Iuz had aimed at the leadership of the Horned Society, knowing full well that he could easily command the humanoid armies of the Society after that. We had no idea the war would end so fast.

I think everyone in the Shield Lands relaxed. Not physically, but emotionally and spiritually, we just relaxed. Not me really, since I had no idea of what battle was like. All I knew was that sometimes a few peasants and a retainer might not come back from fending off raids in the north. I would get a nice dark dress then stand behind my parents while they held funerals. I saw the bodies, but they were always nice and clean. The faces were always peaceful, and we would all pray to Pelor and Heironeous to protect the dead warriors in the next world.

Messengers from Furyondy came to the nobles of the Shield Lands, seeking alliance against Iuz. Father laughed in his face, telling the messenger that he would not let his lands become playthings of the King of Furyondy, no matter his reputation for good. Father was not the only noble to do this I learned later. We all paid for not trusting the King's motives.

I remember the day exactly. It was the last day of Harvester. Most of the grain from the fields had been brought in and the leaves were bright and colorful on the trees. We all could feel the cool breezes of winter on the wind, but for now we had the festival to plan for. The first day of Brewfest was a festival day, a day everyone dressed up and no one worked. I always looked forward to festival days. It was one of the few days in which Father would allow me to go amongst the common people of town.

Mother and a lady named Hilia were with me in my room helping me get dressed. Hilia was the wife of the man Father had put in charge of the mill down by the river, an older woman in her early forties. I was putting on my festival gown. It was beautiful, made of fabrics brought from Veluna. Colored like the blue sky overhead, it would hide my body's curves just like Mother wanted. She never wanted anyone tempted while I was in the town. Always she told me to save myself for my future husband, Artur. I was not told if he had saved himself for me...

I was holding my arms up as Mother and Hilia slid the second layer of skirting over my head. We were having problems since there was a wonderful but gusty breeze blowing through my third floor window. Hilia had almost cursed after the first skirt had been such a bother. I had held my breath knowing Mother would have banished Hilia from ever setting foot in the keep after cursing before me.

When the skirt finally went over my head, my wandering eyes looked out the window naturally enough. The hills to the northeast had people on them. Horsemen I thought at first, perhaps as many as a hundred. I thought it was odd, especially since they were riding across the fields, which my Father had declared a crime for doing. I did not think anyone would dare ride across the fields, reaped or not.

Next I saw huge men loping behind the riders. Even at a quarter mile's distance I could tell they were not ordinary men.

"Mother, where are men ten foot tall?" I asked naively. Today I cannot imagine how I could ask that, but I was that innocent.

"Don't speak such foolishness, Tania," Mother said sharply.

I did what I was told. Mother was not the most patient woman. The figures came closer and I saw that some of the townsfolk were looking that way too. No one down below in the courtyard could see what I could from up in the tower of the keep.

Then I heard the first scream. The town was small, not more than maybe two hundred people counting children and probably the dogs. "Mother!"

She had already turned to look out the window at the sound of the scream. Her expression changed from the calm she always had to something else that frightened me.

Mother dropped the skirt and bolted to the door.

"Mother, what is it?!" I asked. I had never seen her act like this. She never ran anywhere.

She went to the stout oak door then turned back to me. "Listen Tania, do not open this door until I return, understand?"

"Mother, I..."

"Quiet!" she hissed at me. "Do you understand, you stay here with Hilia!" With that, she slammed the door shut.

I started towards the door, but Hilia touched my arm. "Stay here, Lady Tania, do as your mother asks."

I stopped, and then turned to look out the window. It was as if the world was turning upside down. The riders were not on horses but oversized wolves. They rode through town hacking at people no matter who they were. I saw people slashed in a splash of blood. I could only stare. I had never seen much blood other than accidents around the keep. The large men ran up to the gates, but before anyone could close them three of the ten-foot men with the twisted faces smashed them back open. They swung heavy clubs that were like tree trunks. The soldiers that were in the gatehouse were bashed to death. I could hear skulls being crushed all the way up on the third floor. It was horrible but I did not cry. Mother would have never approved. All the warriors of the keep came out to battle the large men and the others on the wolves that had ridden in.

Suddenly the door to my room flew open. I spun around halfway expecting one of those men to crush me with a club. Instead it was Mother.

"Tania, take this!" she said. Her voice was unsteady and crackling. I had never seen her like this. She thrust a gold medallion into my hand. It was no larger than an inch across and worn thin. A symbol of the sun was on it, the symbol of Pelor, the god of the healing sun. Mother snapped the medallion from the gold chain. "Swallow it! Hilia, give me that goblet!"

"What?" I said without thinking. Before I knew what had happened, Mother slapped me, which she had never done before.

"Put it in your mouth, Tania, now!" Doing what I was told, I put the little gold medallion in my mouth. Mother shoved the goblet into my hands, and I drank down some wine and swallowed the medallion.

Mother put her hands to both sides of my face and drew me to her. "Ten, Tania, remember, ten!" With that, she gave me a hard kiss on the cheek. I started to ask her what she meant, but never had a chance.

How Mother knew what was going to happen, of even if she knew, I will never know. I suppose she had went downstairs and saw what was happening in the keep and knew that our people had not been prepared to fight off an invasion. They were invading all over the Shield Lands, but right now my whole world was my room.

Mother turned around and slammed shut the door. Quickly she locked it and threw the key in the corner. "Come, kneel down with me!" she ordered.

Hilia and I did what we were told. We kneeled down with Mother. She started praying to Pelor. I was so confused. I could hear screams of dying men and women from town and the courtyard below. I tried to ignore them. I concentrated on Mother's words and repeated them. Anything to drown out the terrifying noises from below.

I drank in Mother's words like they were a shield I could use to protect my sanity. I never heard the heavy footsteps coming up the wide stairs of the tower. When the first pounding hit the door, I looked up but Mother put a hand to the back of my head and pulled my eyes back down. She spoke her prayers louder.

Suddenly the door burst open. Mother leaped up and pulled out a dagger. She must have had it all along but I never noticed. I backed away as three things came in. They had the bodies of men but the faces were those of men and pigs somehow mixed. Their skin was a mottled gray. I had met my first orcs.

Hilia screamed but Mother dove at the first. Her dagger drove deeply into his leather jerkin and penetrated his belly, making the leering grin on his face disappear. Mother tried to pull it back out but it stuck on the leather. The orc swung his bloody, rust-spotted sword and slashed Mother across her arm. He shoved her back knocking her to the floor. As I watched, the three orcs hacked my Mother to death.

The orcs looked at Hilia and me. They said something in their weird snorting language then came at us. I was frozen in place, frozen in fear. I looked at Mother's body as one grabbed me roughly by the arm. The other two grabbed Hilia. She could not stop screaming, but that was not why they did what they did. Hilia was a pudgy woman, grown stout from a steady diet from the mill and sedentary life. They did not want her for their pleasure, so they did what orcs would do I learned. The two orcs took either one of Hilia's arms and shoulders, took a running start, and threw her out the window.

I heard her scream all the way down until the sickening crunch on the cobblestones below. Then they turned to me.

With a jerk of my arm that made the orc's fingernails cut into my skin, I pulled myself free. "Pigs!" I said then spit on the face of the one that had held me. I figured I would be next out of the window, and this was the only way I knew to be defiant.

The three orcs looked at me. I knew I was attractive but I was hardly athletic. I was pale, soft, and skinny, like I was supposed to be for a nobleman's daughter.

The one I spit on moved behind me and grabbed both my arms. I cried out when his fingers dug into me, but I gasped when the next orc grabbed the front of my beautiful festival dress and ripped it down the front. My pale breasts, still developing, were exposed.

"How dare you!!" I gasped out, shocked that anyone would touch me like that. Now I know better, but then I was an utter innocent.

They snorted some kind of reply, but the laughter told me that the orcs did not care what I thought. The one in front of me dove in. His harsh, coarse lips locked onto my tender, nubile nipple and the orc sucked on it. It hurt painfully with his sharp teeth nibbling on my pink bud. His other hand, almost a claw, attacked my other breast. He squeezed it painfully, making me scream in agony as he drew blood with his fingernails. I thrashed wildly but I had no chance of breaking free from the grip of the orc.

He worked my breasts over, torturing for me but arousing for him. I wailed and twisted but there was not a thing I could do about it. My nipples were in agony but the orc only laughed at my anguish.

Why he got me, I will never know. I guess the other two had already had someone and it was this orc's turn. I finally figured out that I could kick him, which I did. My toes bounced off the hard leather boots and hurt my foot. I yelped but seeing the blue slipper and the glimpse of my pale white leg must have reminded him of better things. He snorted something to the one holding me.

Down I went. The one holding me dragged me to the floor. I was pulled down kicking and screaming. I was innocent but when the molesting orc unbuckled his swordbelt then dropped his mangy trousers, even I knew what he had in mind. Out came his cock, a short, thick little thing, mottled purple and gray. It was about two inches wide but not much longer. It was the first one I had ever seen and I must have stared in shock. They gave snorting laughs seeing my stunned reaction, so he waved it over me while the third orc came over to watch more closely.

Waking up from my stunned amazement at seeing my first male member, if the orc's cock could be called that, I started kicking. The orc easily pushed my legs apart with his forearms and reached down. Both of my sky-blue skirts were ripped open in the front, revealing my pale pink satin panties. My favorites, I had bought them in Greyhawk City, but the orc did not seem impressed.

He pulled out a dagger, which made me freeze in place. I thought he was going to stab me. The orc wrapped a hand around my panties, his hairy knuckles rubbing into my curly pubic hair. Down came the knife, which made me really stop moving. He did not kill me, although I wish he would have. Instead he cut my panties, then let the satin fall away. Putting the dagger back in its scabbard, he put a hand on either side of my chest, and came down on me.

I felt the cool air brush against my sex. The pinkness of my virginity peeked up at the orc. I tried to kick at him again, but his thick body kept my legs pinned and spread wide.

"Oh Gods!!" I cried out when the orc's cock touched my womanhood. His hips came farther down, and his member penetrated me.

I threw my head back. "ANNGHHH!!!!" I shrieked in pain as the orc shredded my virginity and punched his thick little cock inside me. I was in agony. Writhing on the floor I never noticed the other two orcs laughing and enjoying my cries of pain and shame.

The orc on top of me put all his weight down on me. I could barely breathe. In three short, excruciating thrusts he forced his cock inside me. Backing out, he thrust again which brought fresh wails from my lips. My head thrashed from side to side, sending my long blonde braids flailing around like harmless whips.

I do not know how long he fucked me. It was an eternity, but somehow it passed quickly. All I remember is he got off of me and I gasped for air. I may have passed out from asphyxiation. I remember getting my vision cleared in time to see him kneeling over me from between my bruised legs.

I lifted my head up in time to catch the first spurt of his disgusting grayish white sperm as it splashed across my bare chest. He held his pug cock in his hand and sprayed me with his cum. It spurted across my chest and face. I turned my head to the side, only to receive a broadside across my cheek.

I did not hear the footsteps but there appeared a man at the door. He had a wrinkled, scarred face and wore a blood red robe that covered him from the neck down. He was holding the black wooden handle of a scythe and had a strange symbol on a black chain around his neck. The blade dripped dark ichors that hissed when it hit the stone floor of my bedroom. I have learned since then that he was a priest of Iuz.

The man snorted something at the orcs in a their weird language. The orcs ignored him as my rapist spurted a weaker blast of cum over my bleeding pussy. Angered, the evil looking man slammed the butt of his scythe into the floor and said something again. Even I could make out that he was not happy at being ignored.

The orc cumming on me finished by shaking his cock at me, which only dribbled out the last bit of cum down onto my ravished sex. Jumping up, he pulled up his pants and gave a snort at the one holding me.

Too weak to stand now, I was dragged up to my feet and held up by my arms. My beautiful festival dress was ruined as pale gray cum ran down my chest and cheek. The one that had raped me drew his sword.

Raped and savaged, I knew what was next. Mother had prayed before dying, so I did the same. I started to mutter prayers to Pelor, just like she had. She had not lost faith, so neither would I.

The orc looked back at the evil priest and snorted something, but the reply from the man was definitely negative. So the orc shrugged and turned back to me.

"BLLUUGHH!!" I gurgled as the sword was thrust deep into my belly. Looking down I could see my blood oozing into my dress then dribble onto the floor when he pulled the rust-spotted sword out.

I tasted the iron of the blood as it came into my mouth then seeped out the corners of my lips. I looked at the orc, wanting to ask why he had done this to me, to my family. Before I could say anything, the man slammed his scythe into the floor again, making the acid from it hiss onto the floor. Grabbing me by the neck and arms, the orcs pulled my dying body from the orc holding me. With three long steps, they reached the window.

Out the window I went, my body limp. I could not feel anything. My beautiful sky-blue dress floated around me as I fell. The descent seemed an eternity. Down I went, my lovely, pale, thin body slowly turning as I went down. My dress and long braids waved behind me.

I heard a crunch as the back of my head and neck hit the cobblestones. More bones broke as the rest of me landed. My head was at a terrible angle, and the last thing my blue eyes saw was my Father, lying not far from me, his unseeing blue eyes looking back. Blood seeped from the wound, staining my beautiful dress. Then I died.

Continued in Chapter 2

---