Chapter 1: The Flames Within
The town of Dumsin was as beautiful as ever on this lovely summer day. The soft summer breeze caressed the mighty golden-leaved trees, the sun rays illuminated the scarlet roofs of cozy wooden homes, all nature seemed to be in full harmony with the small settlement. No wonder, as its inhabitants did everything they could to not anger the guardian spirits of surrounding woods and rivers. Living in the golden forest would be hard for many settlers, but dumsinians respected this place and built their relationship with it on care and cooperation.
Katrina, a beautiful young adult from among the local farmers, couldn't stay inside on a lovely day like this. Once finishing all of her chores, the redheaded girl leaped out of her little wooden house onto the garden, feeling the summer warmth with all of her beautiful and completely naked body. The redhead's mom shouted at her to wear at least a short tunic on her way out, but Katrina only laughed in response. The weather was simply too good to bother with clothing. Besides, walking through the cobble-paved town roads in her birthday suit always felt better for Katrina, as it filled her entire body with liberating energy and pleasant excitement. The girl didn't have to worry about the law, either: unlike in the rest of the Tholcing Kingdom, here nudity was quite common, even in public.
The naked girl ran down the street, greeting everyone on her way. The town was extraordinary loud today, with people talking loudly and running about their business, while all the roofs turned crimson, illuminated by the burning sunset. Katrina hurried to Uncle Menag's store, clutching a couple of golden coins in her hand. The memories of sweet chocolate candies and fruit jellies flooded the redhead's mind, causing her to drool a bit. So what if she wasn't a kid anymore? Those sweets were still the best she ever had.
...It was only when she got to the square she noticed giant pillars of smoke. The horrifying realization struck the young girl's mind like an arrow to the head: it wasn't an exceptionally red sunset, it was the light from burning buildings! Townsfolk hurried and passed each other buckets of water in hopes to extinguish the hungry flames, but the fire only kept growing. It swallowed wooden buildings, market carriages, and tents like a giant monster, the locals' attempts to fight it were futile. Even the mages couldn't do anything, their attempts were only focused on helping the wounded and shielding people who were about to get burned. The enormous wall of the furious element swiftly approached, encircled the poor townsfolk, toyed with them like a predator with defenseless pray.
Katrina simply ran away. She tried to forget the burned houses, the horrifying screams, and Uncle Menag's store which was turning to ash right in front of her eyes. The wall of fire seemed to close in on the nude girl, swallowing the entire rows of houses on its way. The redhead panicked, her thoughts became cloudy and irrational. In the last attempt to save herself, Katrina jumped into the well and let the cold water engulf her as everything burned above her.
Then, Fire Knight Katrina woke up in her cramped tent with an angry grunt and hit the floor with her fist. The girl was drenched in sweat, despite the fact that she slept fully nude and without a blanket.
"Damnit," the knight whispered to herself, still half-asleep.
Come on, Katrina, it was almost seven years ago, these nightmares are ought to stop already. Easier said than done. Sometimes it felt like the memories won't bother the nude warrior anymore, but then they'd come back in the most unexpected moments. Katrina crawled out of her tent and looked at the sky. It was still dark outside, the forest edge filled with lush greenery was barely visible, only illuminated by the soft blue light of the moon.
"Alright, back to sleep!" The girl concluded, as her grand quest was about to start tomorrow morning and bad dreams certainly weren't an excuse to slack off.
The girl landed back in her sleeper and closed her eyes. It wasn't the time for self-pity. Nearby there was a town named Zardiw that was in dire need of help, and the knight was ordered to provide it. Katrina decided to distract herself by thinking about her upcoming duty. They called it "The mage craze". According to the town's mayor, it was akin to an epidemic of insanity, which swooped all the mages from the local academy seemingly overnight. It wasn't that surprising to Katrina, all these smartass wizards were known to create problems for themselves. Now, the redhead wasn't sure how a naked pyromancer girl with a sword could fix this, but she was used to improvising.
A sudden thud from outside the tent interrupted Katrina's thoughts and made her grab her blade. The weapon was quite imposing, a two-handed sword with a golden handle and a brightly red magic stone at the center, which held all the enchantments together. The blade swiftly slipped out of the scabbard and everything outside went silent. Maybe it was just the wind, or Katrina's loyal black horse named Ash stumping her hooves in the dark? Before the knight could think this through, another thud followed, and then another, and more one, closer and closer.
"That's it!" Katrina exclaimed as she dashed out of the tent and into the darkness of the forest.
As she felt the night breeze with her nude body and heard the rustling of the leaves under her bare feet, she saw a hooded figure appear in the distance.
"Who are you? You've got five seconds to reply, or I'll consider you my enemy!"
Katrina assumed the battle stance, her nice breasts jiggling a bit from the sudden movement, but the figure didn't budge. Maybe it considered what to say or simply decided to glare at the fire knight. It wasn't surprising, as Katrina was an owner of a great body. She was tall, athletic, and moderately broad-shouldered. It was a pleasure looking at every single part of her, be it her strong arms and legs, her toned, flat belly, her perky butt, or her round D-cup breasts which would playfully bounce each time her owner made a sudden move...
And, of course, her tight pussy, which was an unreachable dream of so many men across the Tholcing Kingdom. Even her fiery red hair didn't cover any of this beauty, as Katrina kept it in a single long braid behind her bare back. As for body hair, the knight didn't have any at all, allowing everyone to see her shape wholly. Various small scars on Katrina's body didn't ruin her image but made it more imposing and confident. Just like the serious gaze of her tiger-yellow eyes, which complemented the prettiness of her face.
"Well?" The girl decided she's given this creep enough time to glare at her.
Yet, instead of an answer, the figure bent down and hit the ground with all of its strength. A mere second later, a wave of force erupted from the ground and bolted towards the fire knight. Katrina reacted flawlessly and went out of the way with a swift roll. Her bare back got covered by grass and dirt, but the knight was used to it. She shouted at the figure, but it just attacked again, sending another shockwave. Katrina evaded it and activated her magic: her hand immediately lit on fire up to the wrist.
"I guess we have a battle, then? Alright, you asked for it!" The nude warrior swiftly moved her hand across her sword, the blade ignited and covered the forest edge in dim, orange light.
The hooded maniac let out a sick laugh and kept hitting the ground, chanting nonsensical words. Katrina felt the ground beneath her bare feet tremble and jumped away, swiftly landing on her hands and then going back to her feet in a stunning fit of agility. A moment later the ground exploded as if someone struck it from beneath, and a dozen of stones were sent flying towards the knight, trying to hit her naked body.
"Geomancer, huh? How fun!" Katrina shouted, but the hood didn't seem to listen.
She parried all of the stones and dashed towards the earth mage. Another shockwave made her take to the side, but while evading, Katrina lifted up her leg and rushed it across the air, as if hitting the enemy from a distance. A bright, orange flash lightened the forest as a fireball came out from the knight's bare leg and dashed towards the figure. He barely managed to lift the earth wall which absorbed the fireball but was destroyed in the process. The hood started to cough, the dust must've gotten into his mouth.
"You're mine now!" Katrina said with a confident smirk as she charged toward the enemy.
As a last attempt, he launched another rock at her, but the burning sword simply sliced it in half like it was a piece of lard. Katrina struck the creep's jaw with her strong elbow, his hood came off his head as he fell down.
"Who are you?!" The woman asked in a commanding tone and placed her bare foot on his chest.
Illuminating the foe's face with her burning sword, Katrina bent down a bit to get a better look at him. At this point, any ordinary man would've completely lost his concentration, allured by the sight of her majestic naked breasts. But this one wasn't ordinary, far from it. He looked like a man in his thirties, with a beard and mustache that were common for folks in this part of the kingdom, but his skin was of a bluesy gray color and his eyes were entirely white as if filled with fog. He opened his jaw, showing his unnaturally sharp teeth, and let out a screech that Katrina would expect to hear from a wild beast, not a human.
"Not a very talkative type, are you?" The knight placed her hand on her hip and lowered her sword, "tell me everything or this situation is gonna get a whole lot hotter. And not in a good way!"
The foe opened his mouth again, but let out the same screech and suddenly hit the ground with his free hand. The ground trembled again, Katrina evaded and nearly got struck by the enemy's hand, which surprisingly had sharp, animalistic claws.
"Who the hell even are you?!" The girl shouted, but couldn't keep her balance and landed on her butt.
