Micah The Wanderer - Book 1: Outbound - Part 1

Part 1

The Imperials that came to our village were looking for guides to take them south into the foothills. Their leader, a tall blond north man named Jarl Thorval, had heard that we hired out as guides and that we were honest. In other words we wouldn't try to rob them and leave them stranded in the middle of nowhere. I had just recently persuaded my father to let me hire out as a guide and this was my first opportunity. There were older and more experienced guides in our village but most of them were hired out to other concerns at the time and couldn't take this job. Jarl then picked five of those remaining including me.

The next day as we left the village I was equipped with what my father called a hand and a half sword, actually an overlarge belt knife, a small skinning knife, my bow and arrows, a canteen and my pack with two changes of clothes and as much dried food as I could carry comfortably. I was very impressed with myself as I walked out ahead of the merchant's wagons and down the south road. I had not considered that in all my wandering I had moved at my own pace. Wandering as I would, stopping when I felt like it, exploring and examining things as I pleased.

Now I was working for someone else I had to move at their pace, much slower than I liked, stop when they wanted to, once for lunch, and stay close to them to point the way for them. In short, I was bored. To ease this boredom I fell back to where the Imperials that weren't actually on duty were riding on the back of a cart. They took turns marching around the caravan, two in front, two in back and one about halfway in the middle. This gave some protection in case the caravan was attacked giving the remaining soldiers time to get to wherever an attack was taking place. The five that were not walking would ride in the back of a cart about a third of the way back in the column talking, dozing, playing cards or just watching the scenery go by.

I approached the side of the cart and tried to start a conversation with one soldier that was just sitting staring off into the trees. His name was Jan Marcasius and he was the second in command of this unit. As I tried to strike up a conversation with him his eyes snapped down from the trees he was studying so intently and launched into a harangue so foul that I will not inscribe those words here but simply say that he impugned my mother, my father, made graphic suggestions about what I should do with myself and then said that they weren't paying me to stand around and talk but to help guide them through these parts. This continued for several minutes and I was heartily embarrassed as I slunk away from the cart to resume my spot in front of the caravan.

I walked on for several minutes until a voice right by my side said:

"Don't let it bother you young one."

The voice speaking so close to me startled me and I drew my sword without thinking.

"Whoa. Take it easy."

It was Jarl Thorval. He moved amazingly quiet for someone in armor. He was smiling at me and looking at the drawn sword in my hand. I flushed with embarrassment and sheathed it.

"Sorry. You startled me."

Jarl grinned.

"I'd hate to see what you would do if you were downright surprised. That was a pretty good draw for someone so young."

"My father is the village smith. I've been around weapons and armor my whole life. Father said I should know how to use them so I could better repair them."

"Is that what you plan on doing? Being the next village smith?"

"Well no actually. I want to travel, to explore, to wander the world and see what there is to be seen."

Jarl looked thoughtful for a moment and then grunted.

"Anyway, that's not what I came to speak to you about. It's about what happened between you and Lt. Marcasius."

My head sank back towards the road in front of me. "Great," I thought, "Now he's going to chew me out too." Jarl looked at my sullen expression, grinned again and said,

"He is a bit of a prick isn't he?"

My jaw nearly hit the ground. Here was the Imperial leader not only talking to me but making fun of one of his men with me. I grinned somewhat weakly and said,

"Yeah, kinda."

"No kinda about it. He's a prick. My regular second in command got thrown from a horse and has a broken leg. I got stuck with Marcasius because no one else was available. The men don't like him either. Do you know how someone becomes an Imperial?"

I shook my head no and he proceeded.

"Well you know that we will train anyone who can afford it. If someone shows the aspects that we think exemplify what we think of as the Imperial ideal, honor, mercy, chivalry, we will ask them to join us. Others wish to join us simply for the money, which we make a great deal of by the way. These undergo physical ordeals and tests of will and if they pass they too may join. I'm afraid Marcasius is from the latter category, but as long as he doesn't violate our code he will remain an Imperial."

From then until he rotated back his turn for riding in the cart we talked of his adventures as an Imperial and what was involved in the code. It was very straightforward and honorable. No raping or pillaging, mercy to surrendered enemies. No mistreatment of non-combatants. All very high ideals in the world we live in.

The rest of the day went fairly quietly as I thought over what Jarl and I had discussed and soon it was time to set up camp for the night. The wagons and carts were drawn into a circle in a large clearing and a fire started in the center. The merchant's servants prepared a simple but filling meal and Jarl assigned watches to all his men and the scouts. Probably mindful of our earlier clash Marcasius was on the first watch and I was on the second. I lay down under a cart and drifted to sleep almost immediately.

---

It seemed as if I had just dropped off when someone shook me awake. Jarl poked his head under the cart, grinned and said, "Come on get up. Beauty sleep will do you little good."

I was still groggy but snapped back, "Well I doubt we'll be here long enough for it to do you any good either."

Jarl laughed quietly and said, "Fair enough lad. But get to your post just the same."

He looked at me a moment and asked, "Have you stood night watch on a camp like this before lad?"

I shook my head and he proceeded.

"It's fairly simple. Your position is straight out that way." He said pointing. "Find a spot near some trees or brush, something you can blend into in the dark. Don't walk around. That's a mistake many new ones make. In the dark your ears are more important than your eyes. If you walk around you can't hear someone walking up on you. Most important of all, don't fall asleep! If I come around in a couple of hours and catch you asleep not only will you not get paid but I'll feel perfectly within my rights to send you home with some stripes across your back. Understand?"

I nodded, stood up and proceeded in the direction he had pointed. I moved what I considered an acceptable distance into the trees and found a likely looking clump of alders to stand amongst. I tried leaning on one of the trees but when I felt my eyes drifting closed I stood upright and shook my head to clear it. There was no moon but the stars lit the forest fairly well.

After standing for what seemed about an hour my body started making certain demands that I could not deny. I didn't want to leave my post but also didn't wish to soil myself. I finally moved downwind from my original position to a small clump of shrubs where I crouched down to complete the business at hand. I was finishing up and was about to stand when I heard movement in the trees from the direction that I had come. This could not be an intruder because it was coming from the camp so I assumed it was Jarl Thorval coming to check up on me. I remained crouching where I was embarrassed by what I was doing and afraid I would get in trouble for leaving my post. I was just about to stand up and announce where I was when I heard the person mutter close by.

"Where is that little creep?"

The voice was not Jarl but Marcasius. What was he doing out here? I heard him moving around the clump of alders I had been standing in and realized he had followed me out earlier to see where I was and I had not heard him. That made me shivers slightly. This man did not have good will towards me and could move very quietly when he wanted too.

He spoke again, "That little shit. I bet he snuck off somewhere to catch a nap. Well I'll handle that when I get back."

Get back? Back from where? We were in the middle of the woods. As I was wondering this Marcasius moved out from the alder clump and moved towards where I was crouching. I froze, afraid that he had seen me somehow but he passed by the shrubs I was crouching in without a glance. He was staring into his hand where it appeared that a faint green glow was coming from. I watched as he walked off into the woods and battled briefly with myself before I stood and followed him as quietly as I could.

He moved it seemed randomly through the trees but the glow that I thought I had seen began to increase until he entered a small clearing. He stood with his hand outstretched and I could see a medallion with a large stone resting in his open palm. It was from the stone that the glow came.

It seemed that he had reached his destination so I moved silently around the edge of the clearing until I was looking at Marcasius and the clearing from the side. He stood there with his hand outstretched for a moment and then said something in a language I had never heard before. He stepped further into the clearing and the stone got just a little brighter. The words were repeated again and another step was taken. The whole clearing was now lit by the stone and I crouched low to the ground so that the light would not shine on my face. As I crouched there the words were repeated again and then something incredible happened.

I had heard of tree spirits. It was an old tale. Old women would tell their children about them to keep them from the woods. I had heard the tales as a youth but had not credited them until I saw the tall olive skinned man step naked out of the side of a tree in the clearing. He was well over six feet tall. His hair was dark green and had a mossy look to it. His bare arms, legs and chest rippled with muscles. The organ between his legs hung nearly to his knees and was a slightly darker green color than the rest of his skin and had another mossy looking patch of hair at its base. His face was completely unlined. He could have been fifteen or fifty-five and he looked angry. He barked something in the same language that Marcasius had spoken and advanced towards him.

Marcasius merely laughed, held up the stone and said one word.

Whatever he said the man stopped dead in his tracks and fell to his knees. An expression of pain twisted his features and he fell forward on his face. Marcasius laughed again stepped forward and with his booted feet kicked the man in his side hard enough that I heard ribs crack where I crouched in terror.

This was magic, terrible and powerful. The man on the ground looked as if he could tear Marcasius apart with his bare hands but here he was groveling on the ground in pain with one word. Marcasius was drawing his foot back for another kick when another voice tore through the air in a scream.

From the tree next to the one the man had emerged from another tree spirit appeared and ran to his side. This one was a woman, also naked. Her skin was a darker green than the males. Her hair was greenish-blue and hung to her shoulders. Except for walking in on my aunt when she was bathing when I was a child I had never seen the naked female form. My breath caught in my throat as my cock hardened in my leather breaches. Her breasts were not large but well formed and the nipples were slightly lighter than the rest of her skin. Her stomach was flat and I noticed without a navel. The hair between her legs was greener than that on her head and curlier. I could tell nothing else about her more private areas because she flashed across the clearing to the male and interposed her body between him and Marcasius.

What followed looked something like a negotiation between the woman and Marcasius but it took place in that strange language and I didn't understand any of it but what came about was that the male climbed to his feet, shot Marcasius a venomous look, looked at the woman in a pleading fashion and then sighed and walked back in to his tree. As soon as the male was gone Marcasius barked something in that unknown language at the woman. She spun around and shot him a dangerous look, and then she seemed to fold in on herself. She hung her head and walked over to Marcasius where he stood holding the amulet.

When she was directly in front of him she dropped to her knees and reached out her hands to the front of his trousers. She fumbled briefly, obviously not familiar with clothing and then drew out Marcasius organ. Except for some glimpses of friend as we skinny dipped I had never seen another mans organ, especially not a hard one. My sexual encounters up to this point had involved one of the neighbor's girls standing on the other side of a slat fence and taking my hand and sticking it up her skirt for the count of five when we were both twelve. So when this beautiful female creature leaned forward and took his flesh in her mouth I think I forgot to breathe for a couple of minutes. From the side where I was I could see her sticking out her tongue and licking up one side of his member and down the other. He gave her what I assumed were instructions in that strange language and she tilted her head and reached under his organ to lick his dangling orbs, first one then the other. He said something else and she returned to licking along the side of his flesh. I was mesmerized by this until I saw the tears coursing down this beautiful creatures face.

She had just got to the head of his member when he reached out and grabbed her hair and brutally shoved it into her mouth. He held her head as he pumped in and out like a machine. The tears were flowing down her cheeks but this seemed to excite him and he increased his speed. Her head was snapping back and forth and I could hear her gagging on almost every thrust. Suddenly he froze with his flesh buried in her face. She struggled briefly and then I could see her throat making swallowing motions and I knew he was shooting directly down her throat.

He held this position for a few seconds and then yanked his spurting member out of her mouth with a pop and used his hand to pump the last of his load onto her face. The white gleamed against her green skin for a moment and then he shoved her away hard with a laugh. He said something in that odd language that caused her to go pale and then he spun on his heel and stamped off into the woods as he fastened his trousers up. I was sure he had threatened to return again to force her to do his will. I watched the woman as she sat on the ground, beautiful but battered. Her lips were swollen and puffy from his jamming his hardened flesh in them. Her hair was in disarray from where he had held her by it.

As I watched her she did something incredible. She raised her hand to her face and scooped the remains of his semen from it and then stuck her fingers in her mouth. She licked her fingers and went back for more until there was none left on her face. As she was doing this the male had once again appeared from his tree and had watched her do this. She looked up just as she finished and saw him watching. She flushed as she saw him looking jumped to her feet and ran into her tree. The male tried to stop her but apparently could not enter another spirits tree without permission. He returned to his tree with several backward glances and disappeared into it.

I stayed where I was for several moments before I decided on my course of action. I stood and began to make my way back towards the camp. I had to admit that what I had watched had inadvertently aroused me but it had disgusted me more. If these were the kind of men these Imperials were I wanted nothing further to do with them. I decided that a direct confrontation with Jarl to see if he accepted this behavior from one of his men was the way to see what was what.

As I approached my guard position and the camp I began to move more cautiously just in case Marcasius had sent someone to watch my post in my absence but there was no one there. The sun was just rising as I approached the camp. The merchant's servants were moving around stirring the fire and preparing the morning meal. As I looked around the camp I saw Marcasius sitting on the ground propped on the wheel of a wagon.

When he saw me a lazy grin spread across his face. I knew that he thought that I had been sleeping while I was supposed to be on guard and that he was just waiting on Jarl to wake up so he could inform on me. I continued to scan the camp until I saw the distinctive blond hair of Jarl sticking out of a blanket under the guard's cart. As I moved toward the cart I saw a frown cross Marcasius face and I am sure he was trying to figure out what I was doing. I knelt down and reached for Jarl to wake him but his hand shot out and caught my wrist before I could touch him.

His eyes shot open and he said, "Guards should not come in to the camp until they are replaced or called in."

I pulled my arm from his grasp looking him directly in the eyes as my father taught me. "I have an important matter to discuss with you, something more important than guard teachings or protocol."

I guess he saw something in my eyes because his ever present grin faded; he sat up and said, "Tell me."

I began from the point I had assumed my post and told the story as quickly and succinctly as possible. When I told of what could only be called the rape, I saw Jarl's face darken in anger and leaned back away from him. I was afraid that my cowardice in not stopping what happened had angered him.

But he reached out and gently placed his hand on my shoulder and said, "No Micah. I am not angered with you. You are still little more than a boy and no matter what kind of a bastard Jan is he is still an Imperial. He would have surely slain you and told us that you had run away home like a baby. No, you did the right thing. Now it's my turn to do the right thing. And you know I'm not going to mind one bit."

He leapt to his feet, called over a couple of the Imperials that were standing around waiting for breakfast, held a brief quiet discussion and sent them around the camp gathering the other Imperials. I saw that they had all started to converge on Marcasius position, a fact that was not lost on him. By the time the others had got to him he was on his feet and reaching for his weapons. He didn't have a chance. It doesn't matter how great a warrior you are, eight Imperials in close quarters will take you down.

Jarl signaled for me to follow him and by the time we got to the others Marcasius was standing with an Imperial holding either arm and his weapons on the ground in front of him. I was amazed at the speed and efficiency of these men.

Jarl stepped up to him. "I hear you were busy last night after your watch Jan."

Marcasius looked defiant and said, "I don't know what you're talking about." He glared at me and said, "Whatever that brat said you have no proof."

Jarl looked back over his shoulder at me and said, "Really?" Then he winked at me. His regular grin was back.

He turned back to Marcasius and rolled up the sleeve of his shirt to expose a plain gold band wrapped around his forearm. 

"Do you see this? This is for detecting magic and magical items. The master-at-arms gave it to me before we departed Imperial house. Apparently you're not very popular there and they were hoping I would catch you doing something you shouldn't. Even so we wouldn't have known about this if it hadn't been for Micah."

He had waved a hand at me and Marcasius looked at me with a look of pure venom.

"Now let's see what we can find out."

He held out his forearm and stroked the gold band as he said something in another language I didn't understand. I found out later that it was an ancient dead language. The result was almost instantaneous. A spot on Marcasius chest flared briefly with green light and then dwindled to a small green point visible through the weave of the linen shirt he was wearing.

Jarl said, "Ah," and approached Marcasius. He reached inside his shirt and removed what I could see was the amulet from the night before. He removed it from Marcasius neck and held it out at arms length where every one of his men could see it. He whistled softly and said,

"That gentleman is a control stone. It's only the second one I have ever seen in my life. I don't suppose you would want to tell me where you got it would you?"

He asked this as he looked at Marcasius. Marcasius only stood there with his hands pinned behind his back glaring between me and Jarl.

"No I guess not. Well let's see how this has been used."

For the first time Marcasius looked worried but continued to glare at us. Even at this point I don't think that he thought they could actually have more than my word for what happened. And I don't think my word would have carried a lot of weight against an Imperial warrior if he chose to deny what I said.

Jarl held out the amulet again in the hand that was nearest to the gold band, said another word in that dead language and tapped the gold band three times with his other hand. The green glow reappeared around the amulet and then a ball of light detached and hovered about six inches from the amulet. The ball of light expanded slightly and then images began to appear in it. I recognized the clearing and the male tree spirit as he ran towards his tormentor. The faces of Imperial soldiers standing around watching this became grimmer as Marcasius attacked the helpless creature as it writhed on the ground. The scene proceeded to the point where the female tree spirit knelt in front of Marcasius and reached for his breaches. Jarl closed his hand around the amulet and the little ball of light disappeared with a barely audible pop.

For a second no one spoke until Jarl said, "I think that's enough."

I looked at Jarl's face and it was white with rage. His fist was clenched so tightly around the amulet that I feared he would cut himself on it. I looked around the circle of Imperials and every one of them was looking at Marcasius with a similar look of rage or an equally intense look of disgust.

"Take this thing," said Jarl pointing at Marcasius, "and shackle him in our cart while I decide whether we are going to drag his ass all the way back to Imperial house or I'm just going to slit his throat right here and save the council some time."

The Imperials moved away with Marcasius between two of them. Several of them paused as they passed me. They said nothing but merely placed a hand on my shoulder and nodded. I could see that for the first time some of them were not looking me as a child but as a comrade in arms, maybe not their equal but worthy of their friendship. I turned back to Jarl. He had sunk down to the ground with his back against a wagon wheel and his head in his hands.

He lifted his head as if sensing my attention. "Do you know what amazes me the most about this?"

I shrugged and shook my head no and he continued,

"To create a stone like this," he said brandishing it wildly, "you have to have the cooperation of the creature it controls."

I looked at him skeptically. "Those two didn't look like they were cooperating to me. They looked like they were forced the whole time. The male looked like he was ready to kill Macasius."

Jarl grinned up at me. It wasn't his usual grin but it was better than the terrible rage that had been there before. He thumped the ground next to him with his open palm and I sat down next to him.

"You don't understand." He said. "This stone could be centuries old. There's a chance that those two did not even exist when this was created. That's what makes these things so terrible. Some tree spirit a thousand years ago falls in love with a mortal and out of devotion to them helps create a stone that gives that person not only control over them but all their species. Now comes a thousand years and a thing like Jan Marcasius finds one and decides that he's never going to want for sex again. He has probably been doing this for years. We just never caught him before."

Jarl looked at the amulet in his hand again. Then looked over at me for a moment before he asked, "Tell me Micah. Why did you follow Jan? Did you dislike him so much you were trying to catch him doing something wrong? Did he embarrass you so much you were seeking revenge?"

I looked at him a moment before I spoke. "I'm not really sure why I followed him. Something wasn't right. I don't think it was a coincidence that he left the camp in the area where I was standing guard. I think he was trying to catch me sleeping or do me mischief. When he kept walking into the woods I was even more concerned. He had just come off guard duty. He should have been asleep himself. I knew he was an Imperial but even Imperials can be betrayed. I followed him and saw what I saw. The fact that he did it by stealth in the night convinced me that he was doing something he shouldn't. Then seeing what he did to that man and woman, I couldn't just let it pass. If this was how Imperials acted I wanted nothing to do with you. If not I wanted him punished for what he did. It had nothing to do with what he said to me. After talking to you I wasn't concerned about him anymore in that sense. No one should be brutalized the way he did those two."

I stopped and looked at Jarl. I had been rattling away because I was upset. Jarl had a look of sympathy on his face.

He stared at me a moment. "You will make a fine Imperial someday. You have good instincts and a sense of honor. Jan lacks both. I and the order have no objections to Jan having sex with a tree spirit, an orc, troll or even a wild boar if he could get one to hold still long enough. But forcing anyone or anything is wrong no matter how you look at it."

He looked at me speculatively. "Do you think you could find the clearing again in daylight?"

"Yes." I answered. "It wasn't that far and I'm a good tracker if I can say that without sounding like I'm bragging."

Jarl chuckled at that and reached out his hand with the amulet and gave it to me. I looked at him in alarm and nearly dropped it. This was a magical object and I was terrified of it. The closest I had been to any magical objects before was the occasional hero with a badly spelled sword that had passed through our village on his way to this abandoned castle or that forbidden forest. I held it by the end of its chain with my arm extended in a way that it probably looked like I wished I had longer arms.

Jarl smiled at me. "Don't worry it's not dangerous to humans. In fact you now have control of every tree spirit you can find. Absolute power to make them do whatever you want."

I tried to hand it back to him. "I don't want it. Take it. I don't want it."

Jarl raised his hands to show he wouldn't take it back. "I don't want you to keep it. I want you to take it to that clearing. Call the tree spirits forth and give them the amulet."

"But I don't speak their language. I heard it last night and I didn't have a clue. What am I supposed to do? Scratch in the dirt and hope they don't try to take my head off before they figure it out."

Jarl grinned a true grin at me. "You really don't know anything about magic do you? Part of the spell when it is working is to give you the ability to understand and speak the language of the creature you are controlling. It would be real silly to be eaten alive by a dragon just because it didn't understand Imperial tongue telling it to stop. Ok?"

I nodded so he kept talking.

"Tell them that the man who did this thing will be punished, that they should take the stone and destroy it if they can and hide it if they can't. Ask them if there is anything we can do to make amends. There probably isn't but we need to make the offer anyway. This may take a while so we are going to camp here all day. That gives you plenty of time to find the clearing, give them the stone and talk to them awhile. Ok?"

I nodded again too nervous to speak.

"Off you go then."

As I made my way out of the camp I looked around and saw that several Imperials were watching me and that Marcasius was out of sight in the guard's wagon. I moved through the woods to my guard post of the night before. The trail Marcasius left was fairly easy to follow in daylight. It was obvious that he was no woodman and that he probably knew just enough to get by.

As I moved through the woods following the trail I glanced down at the talisman in my hand. Even in the daylight I could see the green glow as it started to appear. I stepped around a tree and there was the clearing in front of me. I cautiously approached somewhat unsure of myself. I had never used magic before and was terrified that I would screw up and wind up spread across the landscape. I gritted my teeth and stepped into the clearing holding the amulet in my outstretched hand. You could see the glow from the stone even in daylight but it didn't dominate the clearing as it did the night before.

I stepped over facing the two trees that I had seen the spirits appear from, cleared my throat and squeaked out. "Hello?"

The sound of my voice was changed. I knew what I had said but could not understand the actual word that came out of my mouth. I was actually trying to look down and see my own mouth when the head of the male tree spirit appeared from one of the trees and roared at me.

"Be gone human!"

Only that's not the sound that he made. I understood what he said but did not actually know the words he said. This was really weird. Well I needed to put my amazement aside so I could speak to these creatures.

"Uh, hello, my name is Micah. I come from the camp that the man who was here last night comes from."

The hate in his eyes was almost a tangible thing as he looked at me as if I were some repugnant creature that he could barely stand to look upon. More of his upper body had appeared as if he was a swimmer and the tree he stood in was made of water. His olive skin had taken on a flush that I took to be caused by anger. I am sure that if it hadn't been for the previous encounter with the jewel I held in my hand he would have lunged for me and done his best to inflict grievous bodily harm on me.

That gave me a thought. "How are your ribs? Is there anything I could do to help?"

He looked at me as if I had just grown another head and stepped forward until he was completely clear of the tree. "Haven't you and your people done enough? Can't you just leave us in peace?"

I had seen him last night in the glow of the amulet and the additional light of the moon but in broad daylight he was an impressive specimen. Once again I noticed the muscular physique. Once again I couldn't help but notice the large organ between his legs. Though still flaccid it hung down almost to his knees. The hair above it was not as mossy looking in daylight but had a curly look to it. I brought my eyes up away from his crotch and looked him in the face. The night before I couldn't see his eyes very well but I could now. They were a jade green and the pupils were slit like a cat. His face and chin was either clean shaven or tree spirits did not have hair on their faces.

"You don't understand." I said. "My commander has sent me here to apologize. He wanted me to tell you that the man who did this thing to the two of you will be punished. He wanted me to give you this stone of control and tell you that you must destroy it if you can and hide it if you can't. He wanted me to ask you if there was anything that we could do to help make amends for what happened here last night."

I was holding the amulet out in my open palm as the man stood there with a dumbfounded look on his face but before I could say anything else or he could move a slender arm emerged from the other tree and took the amulet from me in a single motion. As I looked that way the woman emerged from her tree as easily as the male had earlier. Up close she was beautiful beyond compare. Her eyes like the males were green cat's eyes. I tried to stop myself but I couldn't help letting my eyes travel down her nude body. Her breasts were even more magnificent in sunlight than they had been in moonlight. The flat plain of her stomach leading down to the thatch of curly hair between her legs was like a sculpture. I tore my eyes away from her body and looked back at her face.

She cocked her head to one side and said something in her own language. I no longer had the amulet so I couldn't understand a word of it so I just shrugged my shoulders. She smiled and held the stone out to me while the man looked at her as if she had lost her mind.

I reached out but only touched the stone with one finger hoping that would be enough. "I'm sorry I can't speak your language without the stone."

She cocked here head to one side again. Then she reached out with her other hand a grabbed my wrist. "Come. I would speak with you." She looked over at the male for a moment. "You should come too Minos. This concerns you as well."

Her beautiful bare ass rolling as she walked away dragging me by one arm was enough to distract me until my arm had disappeared up to the elbow in the side of the tree. I panicked briefly and tried to stop but her strength was the strength of the tree and she didn't even pause as she pulled me in. The incredible strength of these creatures, Marcasius must be insane to play his games with creatures that could dig their fingers into solid rock like the roots of a tree. I closed my eyes as my head approached the side of the tree and I didn't even feel the passage through the bark.

She released my wrist and spoke again. "You can open your eyes now."

I did and could hardly believe what I saw. The tree from the outside could be surrounded by two men with linked arms. Inside I was in what looked like a foyer of a large cabin. Granted a cabin made out of living wood. I stepped through an archway and was in what could be called a common room. There was no furniture but the wood of the floor was humped up to form what looked like chairs and other places to sit. The whole place was lit with a bright yellow glow that seemed to come from nowhere and everywhere at the same time. I could see two more arches leading off from this room and what looked suspiciously like a staircase running up the far wall.

From across the room she looked at me. "Please sit."

I complied by lowering myself to the nearest thing resembling a chair.

"My name is Azell. Welcome to my home."

I realized that I did not have contact with the amulet but I had understood her. Minos if that was his name had just entered the room when I turned to her.

"I didn't touch the amulet. How is it I understand you?"

"You are in my tree. In my domain you can understand me and I can understand you as long as you remain in my tree. Now to the business at hand, you say that you wish to make amends for what the other man did? What can you do for us? You have given us the stone so it is safe but that hardly makes up for what happened. You say the man will be punished but not by us. We are the wronged party. We should be the ones to decide his fate."

She looked at me with those green cat eyes that looked so much more sinister inside the tree.

"I cannot tell you what will happen to that man. I can only say that he will be punished. He belongs to a group of men that takes a very dim view of the kind of thing he did. I do know that unless they talk to their superiors they will not hand him over to you. Ask for something else and if I can do it I will. I feel more responsible than the other men of the group because I followed him here last night and did nothing to stop what he was doing. He is a trained warrior and I am only a scout but I could have tried."

Her eyes widened slightly at this declaration and she looked over at the man as he stood near the doorway. It seemed that something passed between them and I felt that they were communicating without words. They held each others eyes for several seconds and then she turned to me.

"Very well. Strip."

Continued in Part 2

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