The Dark Wilds

[GentleValkyrie]

The Dark Wilds (closed)

There was so much wrong with this. She was running through the woods at night. Everyone in the village knew not to go into the woods at night - the monsters were here and they were shy in the light, but they owned the darkness. It was wrong to go into the woods at night.

But she had gone. Fighting with her brother always made her reckless, made her braver than she should be. He was next in line to be Governor of their village, the little clutch of houses between dark wild woods and dark wild sea, clinging to the mountain under the bright sky. The only home she had ever known. The place of eternal safety that had been the same for all human memory, season after season. The village clung to survival, fishermen and hunters going into the wilds to one side or the other, women staying close and tending the growing things, children and tamed plants.

Her brother, the hunter, saw himself as the protector and thus the owner, of the village. He dreamt of making changes, pushing back the woods, laying his stamp on the world instead of letting the world teach him how to live.

She had gone into the woods to clear her head, align herself with the peace in the great trees, the hush and stillness of the eternal riot of nature. She didn't intend to go far, not out of where she could see the village, climb up to the overlook and watch the village from above, where she could see the ocean, see the houses laid out like toys, tiny sparks in the gathering darkness. It looked so perfect from here. Peaceful.

Everyone knew not to run in the woods. Not at all, not at night. These were not tamed plants, but great old trees, churned up earth and roots that tripped. This was not a forest that was kind to interlopers, and at night it was owned by things that hunted man more often than they were hunted by them. And hunters liked to chase.

She ran anyway, even knowing that she could be drawing eyes of yellow and green and red. Even knowing that the path was twisted and the ground could draw her down in a sprawl in an instant. None of this stopped her. She ran, heart pounding, long legs pumping, feet thudding, long blond hair streaming behind her. No time to worry about any of the things she had known since childhood.

She needed to be back in the village now. She never should have left. That's what she knew from what she had seen from the overlook. Tonight was a new night in the village. Tonight the village was full of flames and every hand would be needed to put them out. Her talents with healing would be needed later on.

She got closer and couldn't understand the chaos she was seeing through the trees. There didn't seem to be a water brigade set up at all. No line of buckets passed hand to hand from the well to the houses. Only screaming and running and men in armor. Fighting.

Raiders.

Raiders had come to the village. Raiders were the stories of travelers from distant lands, they hadn't come this far north since her grandfather was a boy. The notch in the mountain, the forest and the ocean kept the village safe. Until tonight. Tonight the village was full of flames and fighting.

Her footsteps slowed, smoke beginning to burn her nostrils as she breathed. Raiders in the village. They seemed bent on destroying everything they touched, killing old men and little children, encouraging the flames to devour every building, panicking the animals. A lone woman with a knife wouldn't save the village at this point. Nothing would.

She turned to move back into the darkness of the trees, dazed and thinking of hiding, perhaps. The rough, strong hands closed on her arms and her screams joined the rest, rising in the air like smoke.

 

[Braschi]

"Fucking piece of shit," he muttered for the millionth time under his breath, as if that would make it come true.

Sure, the rookies always got the worst jobs; he was OK with that. But it was high-time he stopped being considered the rookie and got to participate. "Go guard the forest," Ali had said. It was always go guard the fucking forest, while the rest of the "squad" went plundering. They always had a good time, and they ended up with most of the loot while I he, Paydro, was left holding his dick. "Fuck 'em," he added, also for the millionth time; but it lost some of it's ring when they were surely in the middle of the village raping someone. Or drinking beer. Villages always had beer; and honestly, that was part of the reason for the raids. Sure, they'd share afterwards, but it's never nice to get sloppy seconds after they'd picked the best stuff for themselves.

Paydro was young, like most of the raiders; in this line of work, you had to be pretty lucky to get old. If the forest didn't get you, the rivers did; and if you weren't murdered by your mates during the trip, you'd get shot by someone in the village you were raiding. But for Paydro, that was a much better and longer life than he could expect if he returned home to the City, and get strung up for murder.

To be fair, it wasn't really murder; more like a dispute over ownership of a pigeon pie with a baker that rather got out of hand. And that was only because Paydro was really hungry and didn't have any money. 'Course, if you thought about it, he didn't have any money because a few years earlier raiders had come to his village and killed his parents, leaving the boy to beg his way to the City and become a man in a long string of abusive apprenticeships. In the end, the only thing he really was good at was stealing, so he might as well make a living out of it.

Or he would, if he wasn't always given guard duty. He was shit with a gun -a little bit better with a knife, if you asked the City police- and even shittier at following orders. But, the raiders were not noted for their administrative prowess or military discipline. Not that there were any real militaries left for them to compare to.

The guards were sent into the forests around the village before the raid; they weren't really meant to "guard" anything, but fire warning shots in case there was a group of hunters trying to return to the village, or another near-by village sent help. But this village was so far north there was nothing nearby. Just the sea and endless forest. There probably were more people beyond the mountain, further inland. But you didn't wander too far in the woods anymore, and it was always a question of how human they'd be after so much isolation.

Given the situation, Paydro knew he was there just because. And so he didn't take his post all that seriously -as if he took anything too seriously- and instead of guarding, he spent most of his time cursing his luck and glancing over his shoulder at the flames flickering through the cracks between the trees. He'd hear all about it while the other guys on his squad laughed at him. "Assholes," he summarized bitterly.

That's when he saw the girl standing not more than a few paces away. He was conveniently covered in some foliage, and she was clearly distressed. Damn, she almost ran passed him. For a second he thought it was another one of the guards off her post, but then the light caught the blonde hair falling over her shoulder, and his heart leaped. He froze, his mind working frantically. She was hesitating; he had less than a couple of seconds to act. Seize her was obvious, but even as he slipped into the shadow behind the tree and quickly circled around until he was behind her, he was working out the more important question: what to do next.

When she moved further into the forest, he was a shadow behind her. He was really good at stealing the contents of people's pockets, but wasn't all that good at stealing the entire contents of their clothes. He seized her by the arms from behind, and when she screamed, he realized it'd been a mistake. The noise probably would get drowned out by the sounds from the village, but he wasn't going to take any chances.

Paydro lifted her bodily off the ground, just enough for her to lose her footing and then pushed her almost face-first it the dirt, pinning her down under the weight of his own body. He held her arms back, so she couldn't push herself up, thought it was a bit of a struggle; he wasn't as strong as Ali.

"Ssshhhhh!" he admonished her. "Be quiet or you'll attract the others."

He took a quick look around him in the forest, but everything seemed normal. The guards were mostly out of sight of one another. For a second he considered tying her up and running. But they were too far north, and he would need a boat to get anywhere near where she could be useful. He needed to think.

"If you don't be quiet, I'm going to have to gag you," he meant it to be menacing, but it came out in an urgent hoarse whisper. He was going to have to tie her up no matter what, but it would be better if she wasn't kicking and screaming.

 

[GentleValkyrie]

The raider picked her up and for a moment she was flying, toes grasping at air and then she fell with a breath stealing thud. She groped for her knife, squirming and struggling under the weight of the raider on her, yelping as he captured her hands and pulled them behind her back.

"Be quiet or you'll attract the others."

His voice was desperate, whispering like the trees, and younger than she would expect from a hard bitten raider. Why would he want her to be quiet? His men were drinking in the screams of the others, but he wanted her to be quiet?

She fought, trying to kick at him blind, winded from the adrenaline and panic, not to mention the person pressing down on her lungs. She struggled to breathe, running out of ability to scream. She tried to get a better look at him, tossing her head and trying to get her hair clear of her eyes.

"Why? What do you want?" she coughed out. "I thought you people liked screaming, you cause enough of it." She tugged at her caught arms. "I'll be quiet if you let me up."

 

[Braschi]

Paydro did his best to hold down the squirming girl, but he wasn't the biggest man. Well, not even average in weight, really; he just had that wiry strength of a man who was so often a second away from dying. Realistically, a strong Outsider girl like her could probably have taken him in a fair fight, which was exactly why he was going to make sure any fighting was not fair.

"I'll be quiet if you let me up."

Paydro was stupid but not that stupid. Instead he answered her previous statement.

"I'm not like the others, I'm just a guard. Now if you will stop squirming, maybe we can come to some kind of arrangement." When you can't steal, bargain. Preferably from and advantageous position, so he pushed all his weight on her again forcing her into the dirt, hopefully reminding her he was in charge. Also, it was an excellent time for him to run his hands over her rags, looking for anything else useful she might have.

His hand stumbled on the hilt of her knife and he instantly felt foolish. He'd been so focused on just getting her that he hadn't bothered to take any precautions. Ali probably would have done this first, but Paydro hadn't really raped a girl before. Though, the idea was starting to build in his head, what with all the squirming she was doing, rubbing against him. He'd been captivated by greed seeing her blonde hair, but now that greed was starting to turn into lust.

If he had been a more practical man, he might have kept his urges in check. But, well, there was a reason Paydro was just a guard and a thief -and not the sort of man who owned guards and thieves.

 

[GentleValkyrie]

She grunted as he shoved her hard into the ground again and went stock still, anger flooding her gut as his hands started wandering her body. She felt him pause as his fingers ran into her knife.

Her voice dripped with contempt, "Did you think I was out here alone without anything?" How stupid did he think she was?

"I hope you're carrying something good for more than cutting herbs, by the way, it can be dangerous out here even on the best of days." The scent of burning wood wafted over them. This was not the best of days.

She struggled against him, trying to unbalance him while his hands were moving, or at least hit him in the face with the back of her skull. She huffed and went still for a moment. "What kind of arrangement?"