Hopeless Liberation Chapter 7
Chapter 7
Gwen
How are you gonna get out of this one, Gwen?
_ _ I peered through the thirteen bars -yes, I counted them all, since there was very little else to do- of my cell, which were made of a dark-brown metal. Iron, no doubt. I wondered if all of the other cells had iron bars. I may have known the answer to that question if I hadn't been knocked unconscious when the knights found me in the woods. In fact, I didn't even know that I was in Sleeping Sun until I asked one of the guards on duty when I first woke up.
I still remembered that day when Tess and I had split up to hunt for breakfast. The last thing I could I recall before finding myself inside of the small cell that I was currently sitting in was twisting the neck of a squirrel with my magic and walking over to pick up its carcass. Then, there was nothing but blackness, like I had just fallen asleep, and I woke up in my cell, which had no chairs, no bed or even just some hay to lie on. The only furniture I was given was a black chamber pot that had been placed against the right wall of my cell, which I suspected was cleaned out every night while I slept. They must have seen me kill that squirrel with magic. It's the only way they could have known I was a witch. I found myself then remembering the cold stone ground burning my back with its chilly touch when I first awoke in the prison, as well as how my spine felt like it was made entirely of ice.
I had tried to use my magic to break the bars when I first woke up, as well as attempt to tear down the wall in the back of the cell, but the salt that was mixed into the chilly stone around me was interfering with the tethers I found, making them feel as though they were flickering in and out of existence like candlelight, which made them impossible to use.
Since then, I had done very little else. All there was to do was sit, lie down, eat whatever scraps of old bread that were slipped through the bars, drink from a bowl of water I was given everyday, sleep and wonder if Tess had been captured as well. If she had been caught like I was, why wasn't she in the same cell as me? Then again, keeping two witches together in a cell wouldn't have been the best idea. Yet, I still heard none of the guards watching me mention Tess. So I wasn't going to ask them if they had her, since they may not have known that I even had a sister.
Two men sat at a table across from my cell. The table was only ten steps away from the bars that held me and had been pressed up against a stone wall. One knight, a ferret, sat on the left side of the table in a wooden chair, while the other knight, a jaguar, sat to the right in an identical chair. Both of them wore armor, but they had removed their helmets and set them down on the tabletop. Aside from the two helmets, the table was completely empty, not even holding any food or drinks. Now that I thought about it, none of the men on guard duty had ever eaten or drank anything. Their captain probably doesn't want them getting fat and drunk on the job. Just my lousy luck.
_ _ I was currently sitting in the far back of my cell, leaning against a stone wall that had a window about the same size as my hand, so there was no way that I could have squeezed through it, even though it didn't have any bars. The stone of the wall wasn't as nearly as freezing as the floor, probably because the other side of the wall was being touched by sunlight. I usually spent most of the day curled up against the wall, finding comfort in the warmth it gave me. At night, though, the wall would grow as cold as death and I had no choice but to lie on the floor and hope to fall asleep before my back began to freeze.
At least I'm not in chains.
_ _ The thought was a little comforting and I glanced down at my bare wrists, which I held up to examine. I then stared at my legs, stretching them out and imagining how chains would have been just as cold as the floor of the cell. Why didn't they chain me? I didn't want to be chained up, but it didn't make much sense to have a prisoner like me not wear any chains or rope. Also, why didn't they clothe me? Actually, I had come up with a possible answer for that particular question. All of the guards on duty, even while talking with one another, would occasionally stare at me from out of the corners of their eyes. And it wasn't as if they were checking to make sure that I was still inside of the cell. No. There was something in those split-second gazes that I recognized as they landed just a few inches below my face, where my breasts hung. If Tess knew, she'd probably want to gouge their eyes out. The thought of my sister losing her temper always made me want to grin whenever a guard gave me a lustful glance, but I resisted, wanting to prevent the knights on duty from thinking that I was just as interested in them as they were in me.
I had also been wondering for the past few days why I hadn't been executed yet. They knew I was a witch, so why hadn't they just killed me by now? Was this part of my execution, though? Was I supposed to starve and lose my mind until I was begging to die? No. That couldn't have been the reason. They were feeding me. It wasn't much food, but it was enough to keep me from the brink of starving. And nobody had even spoken to me since I first woke up in the cell, so I wasn't exactly being tortured. What's going on? Yet, regardless of whatever reason had delayed my execution, I hoped that it would provide enough time for Tess to save me, if she even knew what had happened or was still alive. The knights may have found her, too. She wouldn't have gone down without a fight. Please be okay, Tess.
_ _ I lowered my wrists after realizing that I still had them raised and I leaned my head against the wall behind me, straightening my neck against the warm stone. My ears twitched and, since there was nothing else to do, I began to eavesdrop on the guards' conversation, which I had somehow ignored since their shift started. I wonder why I haven't been listening.
"How can you think Eliza is sexier than Danielle?" the jaguar asked the ferret, his voice raised.
Oh. That's why.
_ _ "Eliza's got a great ass!" the ferret said, matching the volume of the jaguar's voice with his own. "You could eat a whole goddamn meal off those cheeks!"
"Yeah, I know," the jaguar said. "But how is she sexier than Danielle?"
"What makes Danielle so special?"
The jaguar's eyes became wide and he shot the ferret a look of disbelief. "Have you seen Danielle's tits? They're fucking huge!"
"So?" the ferret asked, crossing his arms.
"So?" the jaguar laughed. "What are you, some kind of faggot?"
"No,"
"But you've seen them, right? Her tits?"
"Yeah! I fucked her last night. Remember?"
"Did you fuck them?"
"Her tits?"
"No," his friend said, sarcastically. "Her ears, dumbass,"
"I didn't fuck 'em," the ferret answered. "Just her pussy and her mouth,"
"Well, I fucked her tits last week," the jaguar proudly announced. "And it was amazing. It was like my cock was between two silk pillows,"
"Really?" the ferret asked, seeming actually surprised.
"Hell yeah!" the jaguar said. "I'm thinking about going back to see her tonight, so don't even think about trying to fuck her two nights in a row,"
"But you just told me how great it was to fuck her tits!" the ferret said, shifting in his seat. "Now I'm not gonna be able to stop thinking about trying it,"
"Well, just jerk off tonight, or go to one of Jessica's other whores, or see Eliza, since you like her so much,"
_ _ "I think I will," the ferret said, slightly tilting his chair back. "Besides, I can just rub my dick between her ass cheeks. Can't feel any different than doing it with boobs,"
A moment of silence passed and the jaguar made a groan, as if he were thinking about something. He then started to rub the front of his helmet, which still sat on the table, as if there was some kind of stain on the metal. "Which do you think feels better, fucking a girl in the ass or in her pussy?"
As much as I tried not to imagine those two in bed with some poor girl that had to put up with their annoying chatter, I failed to drown out their conversation and had to suffer even more of their dull debate. Maybe this is how I'm supposed to be tortured.
_ _ "Umm..." the ferret said, setting his chair back in its normal upright position as he thought. "Depends on the girl, I think. Some have tighter asses and some have tighter cunts,"
"Really?" the jaguar asked, as he stopped scrubbing his helmet with his thumb. "I always like fucking pussy more. It just feels more natural,"
His friend shrugged. "Like I said, it depends on the girl,"
"Like her species?"
The ferret squinted his eyes and stared at the other knight across the table. "What do you mean?"
For a moment, the jaguar considered his next words. "Do... Are some species tighter than others? I've only slept with jaguars. And a lioness once,"
"Well..." the ferret said, trying to come up with a satisfying answer. "I've fucked a few snow leopards that had really tight asses. So, maybe species does matter. I'm sure fucking an otter would be tight as hell. It'd probably be like sticking your dick in someone's nose,"
The jaguar sighed, either because he was unhappy that his friend didn't know the answer to his question or because he was just tired. "I wonder if someone's written a book about it,"
"Probably," the ferret said. "But finding out for yourself is a lot more fun than reading about it in some dusty old fucking book,"
"Yeah," the jaguar said. "No doubt. But I think the captain would disagree,"
My ears perked at the mention of a captain, who I had never met or seen.
_ _ "The captain's...weird," the ferret agreed, hesitantly.
"Weird?" the jaguar said. "I don't think I've ever seen him at Jessica's, or any other brothel in the City,"
"But he's a captain," the ferret pointed out. "He's got to keep up his appearance. Imagine how embarrassed Queen Talis would be if the captain was caught with his cock out for some whore to suck. She wouldn't be very happy,"
"I just don't understand how a guy could live like that, without fucking anybody. I'd rather die,"
"Some guys like jerking off better, I hear. And who knows? He could be fucking Queen Talis in secret,"
The jaguar laughed and shook his head. "No way. I'd bet my balls that she doesn't like to fuck. She seems too prissy. That's probably why she never had any kids. I wouldn't be surprised if she wanted to keep everyone from fucking, too. I mean, she raised taxes on brothels a while back, for Christ's sake,"
"Maybe," the ferret said. "She's also not very pretty and couldn't have been all that hot when she was younger, either,"
"Poor King Talis," the jaguar said. "He died without any sons and without a pretty wife to fuck,"
"I'm sure he messed around with some of the kitchen girls. Probably gave them extra gold for it, too. No man could go his whole life without a good fuck, especially with all those women around him,"
"Unless he was a faggot," the jaguar added.
"Queen Talis' fault if he was. It's not natural for a guy to be pent up like that. Probably twisted his brains and shit,"
The jaguar nodded. "Thank Christ I make enough gold for whores. I can't imagine being a boy again, having to wait until everyone was asleep so I could think about the girls I saw that day. Now I get to fuck all the real girls I want,"
Suddenly, the ferret rose and stretched his arms toward the grey ceiling. "I gotta go use the privy. I'll be back in a minute,"
"Don't fall in the chamber pot," the jaguar said, as the ferret turned and left. "I'm not gonna be the one who pulls you out of your own shit,"
A laugh echoed from far away and I heard a door open. Then, I heard a door close and pawsteps that slowly faded into silence.
I looked at the jaguar, who had begun to rub his eyes, which now appeared droopy and unfocused. No doubt from a late night of whoring. I wouldn't be surprised if all the whores know his name by now. He seems like a guy who'd fuck any girl. Hell, if I asked him to, he'd probably...
_ _ A grin crept across my muzzle.
Slowly, I stood up and approached the front of my cell. After wrapping my fingers tenderly around the freezing bars, I leaned forward, making sure that a single iron bar slid against the center of my chest, allowing my breasts to squeeze through the spaces between the other bars on either side.
The jaguar turned his head and his eyes widened at the sight of me.
I gave a wicked smile. Looks like I was right. "You know, what's the point of fucking a whore when you can fuck me for free?"
The jaguar tried to contain his disbelief and looked down at the table, tracing the edge of the wood with his thumb. "Why would I fuck a witch? Aren't your pussies supposed to have teeth or something?"
"No," I said, as I slowly slid a finger down my belly, soon finding the tender slit between my legs.
After releasing a tiny moan so that the jaguar would look up at me again, I slid the finger inside myself, gasping a little for air. My finger then slithered deeper into my warm body, the walls around it growing moist, until it could go no deeper. Gently, I withdrew my finger, which was surprisingly wet, and held it out for the knight.
"See?" I said. "No blood or teeth marks,"
Before the knight could say anything, I slid the wet finger into my mouth and began to ravish it with my tongue, as though I were sucking on a piece of ice. While I licked my finger clean, I glanced at the guard with a proud gaze, watching as he sat in stunned silence with his ears raised. His lips were even parted a little, as if he were eyeing some kind of feast that he wanted to eat. This is too easy.
_ _ After I finished sucking on my finger, I pulled it away from my mouth and began to cover my nipples with spit, hardening them with a cool coat of glossy drool.
Once both of my nipples were hard as rocks, I set my hands back on the bars and eyed the jaguar like he was the sexiest man alive. "So, are you going to finish what I started? Or do you need a little more persuasion?"
The jaguar's mouth still hung open, but nothing came out of it. His eyes had lost the weariness that had been inside of them before and they now focused longingly at my breasts, which were practically reaching out to him from between the bars of my cell. Come on, you piece of shit. Listen to that little guy in your trousers. Try to fuck the naked girl you have locked up.
_ _ Miraculously, the jaguar swallowed and managed to form some words. "W-What about the smell?"
I shrugged and turned around. Then, I began to rub my ass against a freezing bar, gliding the iron between my cheeks. It took all of my willpower not to shiver from the cold, but the chance of escaping eased my discomfort very easily. "If your friend wants a turn when he gets back," I said, looking over my shoulder in order to stare at the knight, "he can have one. I have more than one hole, you know,"
"And what's in it for you?" the jaguar said, sounding unsure as he watched my ass slide down the bar.
"Well," I said, lifting my butt away from the cold bars and turning around, "besides getting six hot inches of cock inside me, I won't die a virgin,"
The jaguar's ears stiffened and his whiskers rose. "You're a virgin?"
_How the hell does this guy even manage to put his boots on in the morning? _ "Yes," I lied, sighing as though I were burdened by some kind of curse. "I've lived in the woods all my life and have never known the comfort of a man in bed. That's the price you pay for living alone for so long. So very...very...long,"
Immediately, the knight jumped up from his chair and walked towards the bar door of my cell, allowing me to see the ring of keys hanging at his right side.
He reached for the keys with a desperate shaking hand and I stepped all the way back into my cell, hoping to keep him from thinking that I was trying to escape.
Quickly, the bar door swung outwards and the jaguar stepped inside. He tossed the key ring aside and gripped the handle of his sword, which hung at his left side and was inside of a sheath. "You see this?"
I gave a naughty smile and nodded.
"If you try to run," he warned, "I'll use it on you,"
"Why would I run when I have exactly what I want standing right in front of me?" I asked, breathlessly.
He moved forward and pressed himself against me, the cold steel of his armor hardening my nipples even more. He then proceeded to kiss my neck as his hands explored my back, slowly edging down until they reached my ass and squeezed it.
I let out a moan and wrapped my arms around him. Then, I slowly ran my right hand down to his left hip, where his sword was sheathed. How can I draw it without him hearing?
_ _ A moment and a few kisses on my neck later, I knew exactly what to do.
"Oh, sir knight," I whispered, shaking in his arms. I then grabbed the handle of his sword and continued to talk, hoping my moans would keep him from hearing the steel. "My virgin pussy is tight. How will all of your big cock fit in it? I'm wet, but not that wet!"
The sword was a quarter of the way drawn, but the jaguar moved down and the handle of the sword slipped from my fingers. Luckily, as the jaguar crouched, his sword slid back into its sheath and was silenced by the clanking of the knight's armor.
"I can make it fit," the jaguar said with a smile, bringing his muzzle between my legs.
Slowly, he slid his rough feline tongue across my wet lips and looked up at me, watching for a reaction. I gave him a moan, the only real moan I had made the entire time, and watched him as he put his mouth to further use.
How the hell am I supposed to reach his sword now? Not only was the knight's weapon now out of my reach, but it was also becoming increasingly difficult for me to focus with him licking my vagina, which was actually getting wetter with every warm lick I received from his tongue. If only I could use magic.
Then, I realized that I didn't need a sword or magic to deal with the knight.
Tenderly, I lowered my hands down and brushed them over the jaguar's head, folding his ears back for a quick moment. Slowly, as he continued to lap at my pussy, I moved one hand behind his head and another beneath his muzzle.
The jaguar looked up at me with confusion.
I gave him a smile.
In an instant, I applied pressure below his muzzle and at the back of his skull. Then, I twisted his head in one sharp movement, cracking his neck like a twig.
He fell to the side, his head awkwardly turned over his left shoulder, and stared wide-eyed at the wall. I was certain that he didn't feel any pain. It was a better death than he deserved.
_ _ I quickly bent over and drew the dead jaguar's sword, nearly falling over from its weight despite holding it with both of my hands.
Then, as I stepped over the dead knight's body and ran out of my cell, I realized that I was still in disbelief over how he believed that I was a virgin.
While running down the hall, I discovered that there was a line of empty cells to my left, all of which were identical to the one I had been locked in. However, straight ahead, I saw a black metal door, which had a faint line of light that glowed below it.
Once I reached the door, I came to a halt and slowly creaked it open with one hand, the metal squeaking with every inch. Through the small crack of the door, I saw brown wooden walls, a red carpet and some flickering candles on a table across from me. No guards.
_ _ As I tried to determine how long it had been since the ferret left to use the privy, I opened the door all of the way and entered into another hallway, which ran from my left to my right. In front of me, however, just next to the table that held the candles, was a wooden staircase that ascended upwards into the building.
I looked to my right, seeing the hallway stretch back with doors on both walls. To my left, I noticed a large door at the very end of the hall that reached out a brass knob for me. That's probably the door I want.
_ _ While the sword limply hung in my right arm, I sprinted towards the door and turned the knob. Then, I swung the door open and emerged outside into a cloudy morning.
That was when I ran into the knights.
Six of them wore armor, but only five wore helmets. Among them was a gray wolf that stood only a few steps away from me, who, for some reason, only wore trousers. The wolf's muscular bare chest, however, was dressed with dozens of scars, one of which was fresh and had a tiny line of blood oozing out of it. His tunic and cloak were in his arms, which held the clothes at his belly. Even in my desperation to escape, I was able to admit that he did have a very nice body. His eyes, which were brown and blue, ignited at the sight of me, as the solitary ear on his head rose. At first, I thought he was looking at me with lust, like the men in the cells, but, instead, they held a kind of gentleness. Pity, maybe?
_ _ The only other man who wasn't in a full suit of armor was a coyote, who wore a purple sash around his arm for some reason and, before gazing up at me, had been staring at the gray wolf's butt.
I raised the sword I had taken from the jaguar's corpse, needing both hands to lift it, and stared at the men, all of whom, besides the wolf, gripped the handles of their sheathed swords.
"We don't want to hurt you, miss," the coyote calmly said, his fingers still lingering on his sword's handle. "Just put the sword on the ground and we'll walk you back to your cell,"
"I'd rather die than be put back in a cell," I said, slightly raising my sword, which seemed to grow heavier with every heartbeat that boomed through my ears.
"You're outnumbered," he said, as if he were giving me some kind of advice, rather than a threat. "Think this through,"
"I've already thought about it,"
A burning pain erupted in the back of my head and I cried out, just before another surge of agony ripped through my right shoulder blade. Due to both the shock and pain, I dropped the sword down onto the ground and lost my balance, just before falling down onto my knees.
In a final attempt to escape, I reached for the sword, brushing my arm against the cobbled road. My fingers, however, curled in distress as more blasts of agony erupted between my legs from something metal that began to continuously slam against my vagina.
For a moment, I thought my suffering would never end, but the coyote took a step forward, looking at whatever was hurting me. "Enough!"
Suddenly, my pain ended and I twisted my head around to look over my shoulder, noticing that the ferret from earlier was standing over me, his eyes filled with disgust as he set down his leg, which had been pulled back into the air as though he were going kick me.
I turned my head back around to look at the coyote, my body still stiff from the pain it had endured and my eyes almost wet enough to prevent me from seeing the pity in the man's face as he stared down at me. He looked at me like someone who was watching a dying wild animal and I feared that my execution was finally going to happen.
"Take her back to her cell," the coyote ordered, looking up from my pathetic state as his ears fell back.
Quickly, one of the armored knights walked forward and tossed me over his shoulder, like I was nothing more than a towel to him. He then carried me back through the door, my arms helplessly dangling down his back as he held me in place with a cold firm arm. The ferret followed closely behind, giving me a detestable look as he closed the front door, making my body grow even more sore as I remembered how he had hurt me not more than a moment ago.
_ _ With every step the knight carrying me took, all of my body felt like it was being beaten again as I lay on his armored shoulder. I tried to struggle out from beneath his arm, which wrapped itself around my lower back, but moving only made the soreness of my body worse and I nearly let out a cry of distress. Escaping is going to be twice as hard now.
_ _ We passed through the second door and moved along the row of cells, which seemed to be almost smiling at me evilly, their bars looking like discolored teeth.
_ _ We then turned and the knight carrying me took a step into my cell. He suddenly stopped walking. "She killed Winston!"
Seeing this as my second chance, I lifted the knight's helmet with my left hand, spilling out cougar-scented brown fur, and bit into his neck, sending a gush of red over my nostrils and filling them with the metallic scent of blood.
The knight screamed loudly and threw me from his shoulder, forcing my teeth to tear a chunk of fleshy fur from his neck.
I landed in the middle of the cell and sat up, spitting the moist flesh and fur from my mouth.
Without hesitation, I rose and charged at the knight, hoping to tackle him by surprise and throw him off of his paws. Sadly, he was ready and punched me in the ribs with a metal fist. It felt like a hundred needles were stabbing me in the chest as I fell down on all fours, causing the world around me to grow hot with pain.
Unexpectedly, the knight that I had bitten kicked me onto my back, just before pinning me to the floor with an armored paw on my shoulder. I tried squirming and screaming, but he continued to hold me in place.
_ _ "Bitch needs to learn a lesson," the cougar hissed. "Noah, hold her down so I can fuck her,"
Dutifully, Noah, the ferret, walked behind my head and bent over to hold my arms, which I had raised in the hopes that I could claw at his face with my fingers.
Then, the knight who had ordered Noah to hold me took a step back, undoing the armor on both of his legs. Soon, his bare brown paws and legs were out in the open. He also took off his helmet, revealing his golden eyes that glared at me while he stripped off his loincloth as well. His cock was already hard.
"Come near me," I screamed, "and I'll kill you!"
The cougar smiled as a few droplets of blood from where I bit him glided down his neck. "I'm going to enjoy fucking you in your ass. And, since you bit me, I'm not even going use my spit to make it less painful for you,"
"Don't touch her," a cold voice came from behind the cougar.
As the cougar turned to see who the speaker was, I saw the coyote from outside standing in the open doorway of my cell, his blue eyes sharper than the talons of an owl.
"Captain?" the cougar said, innocently, as if he wasn't just caught trying to rape me. "What are you doing here?"
He's the captain?
The coyote raised a sword, which he had been holding at his side, the same sword I took from the jaguar. "You forgot this," he said, lowering the blade to his side again.
The cougar let out a low snarl. "That's Winston's sword. She killed him and took it! Sir, this bitch needs to pay,"
The captain motioned to something towards my right. "It seems that Winston's death was his own fault,"
Both the cougar and I turned our heads to see what the captain was talking about. There, pressed up against the wall, lay the ring of keys that Winston had used to unlock my cell door.
"Winston either opened the door himself," the captain said, as the cougar and I looked back at him, "or walked too close to the bars. Either way, he acted carelessly and paid the price for it,"
"He tried to fuck me," I said, attempting to tug myself free from Noah's freezing hands that were still clasped around my wrists. "Smell his muzzle! It probably still has my scent from when he went down on me,"
The cougar turned to shoot me a scowl, while the captain continued to stare at his knight with a stern gaze.
"Noah," the captain said. "Smell Winston's muzzle,"
Gently, Noah released me and I sat up to stare at the two knights that stood before each other in the open doorway of my cell. Would I have been able to get past both of them? Probably not.
_ _ Behind me, I heard Noah's armor clank as he moved towards Winston's body. I then began to hear him sniff the air.
"Well?" the cougar asked, still grimacing down at me.
Noah stood up behind me and sighed. "It smells like pussy,"
The captain and cougar exchanged glances.
"See?" the coyote said. "It was his fault that he died. He should have known better than to try and have sex with a prisoner,"
"Sir," the cougar said, his voice tense. "Let me fuck her, or at least beat her some more. Winston needs justice,"
The captain's eyes narrowed and his fangs were drawn from behind their lips like swords. "The girl will receive a proper trial when Queen Talis returns from her trip to the Fanged Peaks. I'll inform her of Winston's death, but I'll also have to mention that he opened the door,"
"But she's a witch, sir!" the cougar protested. "She's going to die anyway. Why can't we just beat her a little?"
Slowly, the captain raised Winston's sword and pointed the tip at the cougar's neck. "You won't touch her, Fredrick. If you do, I'll see to it that you're locked in the cell next to hers,"
Fredrick tilted his head back away from the blade and remained silent, his tail twitching with fury.
"Now," the captain continued, lowering the sword, "get dressed, pick up Winston's body and take it to Sevar,"
Without a word, Fredrick sullenly put his loincloth and armor back on. Once his helmet covered his head again, the cougar walked by me and, with the help of Noah, carried the dead jaguar away.
Moments later, the door at the end of the hall squeaked open and boomed closed.
The captain, who had turned to watch his men walk down the hall, shifted his eyes over to glance at the keys that still lay on the ground. Then, he stared at me.
Cautiously, while he still held Winston's sword in his hand, the coyote walked into my cell. His eyes never left me, as if I were going to pounce on him at any moment. I had considered running past him, but, since he had a drawn sword and my body was still sore from the beatings it had endured, I reconsidered.
After picking up the keys, which rang as they bounced against each other, the captain walked out of my cell backwards, still keeping his eyes focused on me as I sat on the ground.
When he was finally out in the hall, the captain closed the door and locked it.
The coyote then grabbed one of the chairs from the table and set it down in front of my cell door, right after placing Winston's sword on the table. He sat down on the chair and hunched over with his hands folded between his armored knees. "If any of my men make more advances or try to touch you," he said, "tell me. I'll see to it that they're properly punished,"
Gradually, I crossed my legs and gently rubbed my back, making sure that nothing was broken. "It sounds like you don't trust them very much,"
"Some less than others," the captain said, sighing as he leaned back in his chair. "I think it's the endless days of guard duty in full armor. The heat makes them tired and they start acting stupid,"
"So," I said, lowering my hand from my back, relieved that no serious damage had been done, "how do you think they'd react if they found out you were gay?"
The coyote's eyes widened and he seemed to stop breathing for a moment. "How...?"
I shrugged. "It wasn't hard to figure out. When I walked outside, I saw you staring at that wolf's ass,"
The captain began staring at me as though I were some nightmare of his that had come to life. "Please," he begged, "don't tell anyone,"
"I wasn't going to. Not like anybody would believe me, anyways, since I killed one of your knights. And why would I try to expose you in the first place?"
The captain blinked, obviously confused. "To... To blackmail me into freeing you. Not that I would help you escape. I'd be executed,"
"That's what I figured," I said. "But I also know what its like to be forced into hiding for being something that most people look down on,"
The fear in the captain's eyes finally vanished and was replaced with sympathy. His ears even pitifully fell back behind his head. "What's your name?"
"Gwen," I answered. "And you?"
"Orin," the coyote said. "Orin Kisler,"
"I wish we could have met under different circumstances, Orin," I said, feeling rather grateful for the coyote saving me. "You seem like a decent person,"
Orin's ears rose back up again. "I just don't understand how anybody could rape someone else. If my men are that desperate, they can go to a brothel,"
"You're man Winston was a fan of brothels," I said, slightly grinning. "Apparently, some girl named Danielle had breasts he liked. But that wasn't enough to keep him from opening my cell,"
Orin shook his head, sighing. "Idiot,"
"The ferret isn't any better," I said, hoping that Orin could keep Noah away from me in the future. If he could, I wouldn't have had to hear Noah bragging about some whore he fucked. "He wouldn't shut up about some girl named Eliza and her ass,"
"Christ," Orin groaned and rolled his eyes.
After releasing another sigh and moving his hands onto his knees, Orin looked down at me. His gaze traveled lower on my body, but didn't linger like Winston's did and he quickly looked back at my face. "Why are you naked? Is that some kind of witch thing?"
Surprised that Orin was still interested in talking with me and seemed sincere, I answered, "Magic uses up the energy of your body, like swinging a sword. But, if you push yourself too far without rest, your body slowly disintegrates. First, your clothes fall apart. Then, your fur sheds. After that, your organs and flesh start to thin out. If you keep going after that point, something important breaks and you die,"
Orin sat silently in his chair, nodding.
"Why?" I asked, teasingly. "Don't like my boobs?"
"Um..." Orin said, his ears falling back again.
"I'm kidding," I said, chuckling at his discomfort.
Orin smiled when he realized that I was only joking and even gave a small laugh. Then, his smile leveled out and his ears stood back up. "Well, Gwen, it looks like you've made some dangerous enemies today,"
"Enough people already hate me for being a witch," I said, uncaringly. "What's a few more?"
"Good point," Orin said, rising form his chair.
"You aren't going to stay?" I said, feeling my ears flick.
"I have business at Fort Balther. Apparently, the captain there captured some prisoner of interest. He didn't mention who it was in the letter he sent me, but he did say that the queen should visit soon. But, since the queen left the City two weeks ago, I need to go out there myself,"
"Must be important,"
"But," Orin said, his voice growing serious, "if any of my men hurt you, tell me when I get back and visit you again tonight. I'll deal with them,"
"Only if they're still alive by then," I said, smiling to show that I was being cheeky.
A smile sprouted on Orin's muzzle. "I'll go get someone to watch you. See you tonight,"
"I look forward to it,"
Orin scooted his chair back over to the table and marched down the hallway, his pawsteps soon followed by the opening and closing of a door.