All the Fuss

Christi settled the bag slung over her shoulder into a more comfortable position and set out for town. She was in good spirits, even though she harbored no illusions about actually having the opportunity to sell her sword. She'd gained the confidence of her brothers and father some time before, but today's coup was acquiring her mother's reluctant acceptance. That was the key that let her set out on the road this sunny spring afternoon.

A breeze rustled through her dark brown hair, helping to keep the temperature comfortable. Between that and the dry road, the journey promised to be pleasant.

It would be evening by the time she reached town, but her father had presented her with a few coins for food and lodging — enough to stay for three days if she was frugal. Even if she couldn't find work, she was finally venturing out on her own, and the feeling was euphoric.

The grass alongside the hard-packed dirt road somehow seemed greener and the sunlight more brilliant as her quick, confident stride ate up the distance. Lost in her whirling thoughts of anticipation, she was almost surprised when she topped a hill and saw the town.

Jarlsfeld wasn't a large town, but it was growing. Christi was older than most of the buildings, which had started springing up when a nearby baron had increased taxes within his holdings. She barely recognized it as the sleepy hamlet where she'd once journeyed weekly with her brothers to learn her letters and numbers. One new building had arisen and another was under construction at the edge of town since she'd last visited only a month before.

A wide smile spread across her face as she continued down the road.

The rutted streets were filled with people moving to and fro. Some were burdened with goods, while others appeared to be socializing. With the sun drawing ever closer to the horizon in the west, much of the traffic was concentrated on the inns and taverns. Christi set her course for one such establishment her father had recommended as clean and reasonably priced.

"Christi? Is that you?"

Pausing at the sound of the voice, Christi turned to see one of her few friends hurrying toward her. "Hey, Renna."

"Oh, wow. It's been forever since I've seen you," the blonde said as she approached.

Christi shrugged. "Winter kept us bottled up, and we weren't in town for more than an hour or so last month."

"I was going to the Cat's Eye. Want to come?"

"That's where I'm planning to stay if they have a room."

"How long are you staying?"

"Depends on how long my coin holds out. Maybe three days."

Renna squealed in excitement. "We'll have plenty of time to catch up and have fun then."

Shaking her head and chuckling, Christi continued on with Renna at her side. Her friend was flighty and excitable, but not quite enough to be annoying. Though more inclined toward what most called manly pursuits, Christi

was

a girl, and female companionship filled the gap in a life dominated by a family full of boys.

The sound of music and laughter reached their ears as they neared the inn, growing louder when another patron opened the door to go inside. Christi had heard plenty of stories from her brothers, but the actual experience as she stepped across the threshold put those tales to shame. Excitement positively filled the air.

Renna leaned in close to be heard above the noise and pointed. "There's a table over there. I'm going to go get it for us before someone else does."

As the blonde darted through the tables and patrons, Christi made her way toward a door at the side of the room. The balding man behind the counter looked up from his books as she approached.

"Have any rooms?"

"I do. You have coin?"

Christi reached into her purse, pulled out a silver half-crown, and placed it on the counter. The innkeeper picked it up, gave it a tap on a piece of stone, and then bit down on it for good measure. Apparently satisfied that the coin was real, he placed it inside a strongbox and selected a key from the wall behind him.

"Up the stairs, third door along. That coin is good for two nights. Do you want your change?"

Christi shook her head and took the key. "I'm staying at least that long."

The innkeeper's suspicious expression softened. "Very good. It quiets down some after midnight."

"I've slept through worse," she said as she headed for the stairs.

The room was simple, but more than adequate. The bedclothes looked clean, and sitting down on the bed demonstrated that it was comfortable, as her father had told her. A small chest of drawers next to the bed supported an oil lamp and provided storage. Sitting on a table along the wall was a pitcher, three clay cups, a metal basin for washing, and a few washcloths.

Satisfied, Christi stripped off her leather armor and laid her sword on the bed. The pitcher was full, so she took advantage of it and the basin to wash off a little of the sweat from the road before putting on clean clothes and heading back downstairs.

"Good, I thought you were going to leave your sword and armor on," Renna said and then giggled as Christi approached.

"Still have my dagger."

Renna rolled her eyes and laughed. "Now, we wait."

"For what?"

"For someone to buy us drinks."

"Who's going to buy us drinks?"

"Some guy who wants to see us naked," Renna answered and twitched her eyebrows.

"Yeah, like that's going to work. Are they really that stupid?"

"Well, I've done it once — but I wanted him in the first place."

Christi snapped her gaze to her friend. "Really?"

Renna giggled and nodded. "After that, a lot more guys bought me drinks, because they thought that was why I snuck off with him. I'd actually followed him in here and flirted with him from across the room until he bought me a drink."

"So, was it any good?"

The blonde closed her eyes and moaned. "He had a

huge

one. I keep hoping to see him come back into town again. He was way better than the other boys."

Having grown up around animals and her older brothers, Christi was hardly ignorant of sex. The right set of circumstances simply hadn't arisen to make her consider it — though she took care of her own needs often enough.

"I thought I was going to pass out when he licked me down there."

Christi scrunched up her nose upon hearing that. It was something else she'd heard whispered about, but the idea of it was both repulsive and intriguing at the same time.

Renna must have caught it, because she asked, "You've never had a boy do that?"

"No." She didn't volunteer that she'd never done anything with a boy.

"Oh, it's

so

good when they do it right, and you don't have to worry about them coming before you do. They all want you to suck on it, so it's only fair that they return the favor."

Renna laughed, and then nodded off to the side. "That didn't take long."

A serving girl walked up to the table and sat down two foaming tankards. "From those guys over there," she announced with little enthusiasm, and then hurried back to the bar.

Turning to where the barmaid was pointing, Christi saw a couple of men a little older than her raising their drinks and wearing nervous smiles. She shrugged, picked up one of the tankards and saluted back before taking a long pull. Free beer was free beer.

Renna batted her eyelashes and flipped her hair in the direction of the two men before taking a sip. Her lips still behind the tankard, she said, "The dark-haired one is cute."

"Probably never done an honest day's work in his life," Christi countered as she took another drink.

"Well, I guess I'll have to make him work for it if he's interested, then."

Christi laughed and then took another pull of her beer, wondering how long it would take for some boy to send over another.

****

Walking up the stairs late that night took quite a bit of concentration. As Renna had predicted, the free drinks kept coming. After a couple of tankards, Christi had even begun to enjoy the game and imitated her friend's flirting whenever another round would arrive. She never had the slightest intention of letting any of the young men win

the prize

though. Not a one of them was her type. They were pampered townsfolk.

Renna was a different story. After only one tankard, it was obvious that she'd set her sights on the dark-haired young man. He'd escorted the unsteady blonde home a short while earlier.

They probably only made it as far as the nearest shadowy spot, if the kissing and groping were any indication.

As little as she wanted to admit it, the display had affected her. Christi's nipples were stiff and the ache between her legs had made her consider approaching one of the men for a few fleeting moments as she stood to go to her room.

The feeling didn't go away when she lay down on the bed, either. If anything, stripping off her shirt and pants only made it stronger. As she ran her hands over her firm breasts and felt the turgid points, she gave in. A moment later she pushed her panties down.

Combing her fingers through the dark nest of curls between her legs was enough to make her gasp. Near the bottom of her nether lips, the closer-trimmed hair was slightly damp. It was far wetter than that when she slipped a finger between her folds.

Christi moaned and traced the parting of her lips with her fingertip, and then wriggled deeper. A second finger joined the first, and slipped into her canal. She whimpered and tensed at the sting, but then moaned again as the feeling of fullness overwhelmed the discomfort.

Well-practiced at pleasuring herself, she pumped the digits in and out of her depths while her other hand slipped into place between her legs. Centering three fingers over her hood, she rubbed them in a slow, circular motion that rolled her clit with delightful pressure and tugged at her nether lips.

Quiet whimpers and moans tumbled from her lips as she increased the speed and pressure of her fingers. The wet sound of her labia sliding over each other grew louder. Her heart raced. Her face flushed. She sucked in a deep, sharp breath.

And then she came.

Christi pushed hard on the fingers buried inside her as her bottom lifted from the bed. The scream trying to escape her throat emerged in a series of choked whimpers as waves of orgasmic energy coursed through her body. Finally, she sighed and her tight muscles relaxed, leaving her panting and twitching from the aftershocks.

Bringing her fingers to her lips, she sucked them clean of her juices. The scent of her womanly perfume and tang of her wetness set off another wave of aftershocks, and she writhed from the pleasure.

Long, blissful minutes later, her breathing slowed, and she drifted off into a contented sleep.

****

Though she felt a little hungover, the rising sun drew Christi from her bed. She'd come here for a reason, and she was determined to follow through. After a wash to remove the abundant evidence of pleasuring herself in the night, she dressed, strapped on her armor, and belted on her sword.

A wagon yard on the west side of town shared by several merchants had become the normal gathering place for sellswords, and Christi headed there without delay. Along the way, she chewed on a piece of jerky from her kit to break her fast, though it served to make her cottonmouth worse.

There were a few men in the wagon yard, leaning idly against fenceposts and buildings. Everyone looked her way as she strode confidently into the yard to join them. A water barrel with a ladle hanging on the side caught her attention, and she changed course toward it.

Though she expected it, the men whispering to each other and leering at her was still irritating.

Even as she drank, she could tell it wasn't going to be a good day. There were no wagons in the yard, and no merchants coming or going. That could possibly change as the day went on, but most chose to set out early from what she knew, so as to reach their destinations or a suitable campsite without undue haste.

Regular drinks of water eventually chased away her cottonmouth. Leaning against the weathered boards of the building near the barrel out of the direct sunlight helped her mild hangover as well. After an hour or so, she had more or less recovered.

A couple of the other loitering sellswords rolled a chunk of log over near a fence, and one used a piece of charcoal to draw concentric circles on it. The pair began to throw daggers at their target, and many of the other men soon wandered over to join.

Christi shook her head and snorted at the pitiful accuracy the group was demonstrating as each man stepped up to a line scratched into the earth with a boot heel. If they weren't any better with their swords, they were in the wrong line of work.

The man who had thrown when she snorted turned toward her, apparently having heard her. His throw had been better than the rest, but still had missed the center of the target by at least two finger breadths.

"Why don't you show us how it's done?" he said as he walked to retrieve his blade. There was no doubt as to the challenge in his tone.

Christi pushed away from the wall and pulled a dagger from its sheath on her outer thigh. It was a well-worn blade she used as a tool, rather than a weapon. She knew better than to play such games with a blade that her life could depend upon.

Amidst chuckles and whispers, she strode toward the line. Four paces before reaching it, she whipped her arm back and sent the dagger tumbling end over end. A moment later it thunked into the dead center of the target.

The wagon yard slipped into stunned silence for a moment, and then one of the sellswords let out a derisive snort.

"Nothing but luck."

"Bet you can't do it again," another agreed.

Seizing the opportunity, Christi asked, "How much?" as she walked over to retrieve her dagger.

The man rose to the challenge and slapped a copper coin down on top of an old crate.

"Anybody else want to try their luck?" she asked as she spun on her heel with dagger in hand. By the time she turned at the line, five more coins had joined the first.

Christi's arm whipped, and groans rang out as her dagger sunk into the dead center of the bullseye once more.

"Double or nothing," one man said as he retrieved her dagger. "But from where you threw the first time."

Christi shrugged and took four steps backward, wearing a crooked grin the whole while. Three men bowed out, not willing to risk their coin.

They were wise.

She had already taken a step toward the pile of coins before her dagger stuck into the wood. "Pleasure doing business with you, boys."

Most of the men wandered off, the novelty of the game having suddenly lost its luster. Christi raked the coppers into her hand and did a quick mental tally. They were small coins, but it was something.

By highsun, most of the men waiting in the yard had decided that the day was a bust. The few merchants who had rolled by the wagon yard either had guards in place, or must have felt that they didn't need them. Christi joined the exodus, stripped off her armor in her room, and took advantage of her winnings to have a filling meal at the inn.

Walking through town afterward, she noted even more changes that she'd missed on her last visit. Here, a store that had expanded. There, a house torn down to make room for another storefront. The place was becoming a true town, rather than a collection of farmers and tradesmen having decided to live in the same place.

The clatter of wood on wood attracted Christi's attention, and she wandered that way.

With growing prosperity came those hoping to take advantage of it, and not all of them were willing to earn their way with honest sweat. The small jail and attached office of the constable had expanded to include a barracks, and it was to there that the sound drew Christi.

In the yard outside the barracks, two young men fought with wooden swords. Several more men of about the same age looked on, along with an older man, who had the look of a veteran fighter.

Christi leaned against the corner of a barn to watch. The men were dripping with sweat as they clashed, and neither looked all that skilled to her. After a few passes, one of the pair feigned a high cut, and his opponent fell for it.

She shook her head as the victorious man thrust his wooden weapon into the other's chest. The feint and the stab were both sloppy. If she'd been on the receiving end of it, the man wouldn't have even been able to attempt the stab. Her sword would have ended the fight before he had the chance.

"Hold," the older man declared. "You may as well have screamed you were feigning that cut, Rosh. And you should have seen it coming, Gregor. You are getting better, though. We may just make soldiers of you two yet."

Christi snorted and shook her head. If the hopes of law and order hung on that pair's shoulders, the town was in real trouble.

"That's enough for now. Get some grub, but don't overdo it, because we're going to march afterward."

More than a few grumbles and groans greeted that announcement as the young men turned back toward their barracks.

With the show over, Christi pushed away from the wall. Before she could take a step, the older man turned and walked toward her. She could see several scars on his arms, and a few looked as if they had been serious wounds. Since he was still breathing, she assumed whoever had given them to him had come out second best.

"Something to say?" he asked as he approached.

She shrugged. "Nothing you didn't already say, except they look pretty green to me."

He looked her up and down, but his gaze wasn't the mindless leer she was used to.

"What's your name?" he asked.

"Christi Crimm."

"Kin to Crimm the Grim?"

"My father."

He grunted and nodded his head. "Know him by reputation. Met a couple of your brothers. Jorfal Korikson."

She shook his hand when he offered it, finding he had a strong grip — which she matched.

"Hope that bunch isn't the town guard," she said as they let their hands fall.

"Recruits. Some of them may be some day. Take it you're not impressed?"

"I could have taken them both out at the same time."

A grin spread across Jorfal's face. "That so? Well, that would be something to see."

"Well, good luck with them. You're going to need it." Christi chuckled and turned to leave.

"Care to back up those words with a sword?"

She froze in her tracks and turned. "You really want me to humiliate your green recruits?"

"No, I thought I'd cross blades with you myself. Your brothers were a fair challenge, and I don't get one that often."

Christi shrugged — intrigued. "I've got nothing better to do. Why not."

"I do at the moment, though. Come back about supper time, after I've finished drilling the green horns?"

"You've got yourself a deal. Want to make it interesting? A wager?"

Jorfal let out a great, booming laugh. "I don't usually bet, but I'll wager you a beer."

She was hoping to earn a few more coins, but it was something. "Done. I'll be here. You'd better be good for that beer."

"You'd better," he countered as she walked away.

****

Having exhausted the possibilities of exploration, Christi ended up talking with Renna most of the afternoon. The other young woman's evening had gone as imagined. She was walking somewhat bowlegged, and couldn't wait to relate every detail of her tryst.

When Renna left to wash up in preparation to meet her lover again, Christi wandered over near the constable's office. The day had turned hot and sticky, so she found a shady spot and settled in to doze.

The sound of the recruits marching back to the barracks roused her some time later. She waited until Jorfal dismissed them, and then stood to stretch while the men dispersed.

"Come on over and pick out something you like," Jorfal said as soon as he was alone on the practice field.