"Eddo... what is happening?" Staan whispered down to him while trying to half cover his mouth so the converging women couldn't hear him.
There was a tinge of nervousness in his voice, and that more than anything else unnerved Edovan.
"Hello, ladies. Um... I mean fellow guild mates... hahaha...!" Staan laughed nervously.
Edovan glanced around at the women. Many of them were beautiful, some of them quite stunning. It occurred to Edovan in that moment that this island had a much higher than normal percentage of truly gorgeous women. The Boar was chock full of them, of course, but then again it was a brothel, and a world renowned one at that. He supposed there had been some artificial selection for its staff at work, but this... this was different. This was a fighter's guild. Being pretty wasn't really a huge help in combat, and yet Edovan was sure that there were many many women here that could easily put a few of the girls at the Boar out of a job if they chose to. And that was when Edovan noticed something else from his position a mere 4'8" off the ground that Staan, at 7'2", would never have seen. His heart skipped several beats and beads of sweat began to form on his forehead. Several of these women were wearing rather short open skirts or dresses, and several of those were not wearing any underwear.
He scanned the crowd, swallowing nervously as they closed in around him and his friend, his little face perilously close to the woman directly in front of him, whose wild strawberry blond thatch was advancing toward him at an alarming rate. He instinctively backed away from her, but the top of his head slipped under the hemline of a green cotton skirt and bumped into something soft and warm and completely bare behind him. He heard a feminine squeal of delight from above him and he knew exactly what had happened. It was the same noise the little blonde had made when he had poked his head out his little door portal and face planted into her nethers. He froze in place... not wanting to move forward or backwards. Hemlines were closing in around him from all directions like some sort of canopy as a forest of bare and shapely legs rose up around him. If only he could sink into the ground...
Just as the last of the light above him had disappeared, suddenly strong hands gripped him under his arms and hoisted him high in the air. He found himself perched again on Staan's wide shoulder. There was an audible noise of disappointment rippling through the mostly female throng surrounding them. Staan ignored them and deftly slipped through the masses to the open space in the middle of the circle. His strong voice excusing himself and apologizing all the way. Earlier, Edovan had been mortified when the previous crowd had turned as one to see him in this same embarrassing position, but right now he was just glad not be drowning in exposed privates. Well, logical brain was glad. Lizard brain was furious and was calling Staan every horrible Nord racial slur Edovan had ever heard. Just as Staan reached the open area, a hush fell over the crowd as they all turned at once toward a new development:
Mountains had finally arrived.
She strode through the crowd with little effort as they parted around her and fanned out to the edges of the stone circle that delineated the outer ring. She looked like a bronzed goddess, her darker skin oiled and shimmering in the noonday sun as her muscles rippled beneath it. She had changed from before. Gone were her dwemer accoutrements and huge steel cup bra. Instead some ambitious but misguided fool had attempted to bind her prodigious endowments with strips of dark red cloth. Normal cloth of course would have had no hope of containing her, but Edovan would have been able to see the enchantments and runes on this cloth from across the compound. From twenty feet away, as he was, he could tell the runes were dwemer in nature, though of a type he'd only ever seen on that strange dwemer structure the guild was using for a headquarters. That cloth! He'd seen it before. It was exactly the same as some of the curtains he had seen in the entryway!
Even with the runes everyone else could see it was straining to the breaking point as her "mountains" yearned to break free! The same cloth was wrapped around her hips and pelvis in a type of sarong, with a single longer piece hanging down in front to just above her knee. She also wore no gloves and no boots. Her hands and feet were bare. Aside from the enchanted cloth wraps, she carried only a single buckler of a design Edovan had never seen before. A simple hammered metal curved circular shield, unmarked and unadorned which she carried via a single leather strap on the back side. It was bigger than her previous one but otherwise unremarkable.
The message was very clear.
She didn't need any help to fight someone as insignificant as him. She probably would have preferred to fight him naked if that would have been allowed (and logical brain thanked the gods it wasn't!). Edovan still wasn't quite sure about that shield though. It was the only part that didn't fit. He stared at it hard from his vantage point on Staan's shoulders, but could discern nothing else about it.
Mountains herself was surveying the crowd with a sneer.
"What in Oblivion is going on here?" she demanded. Her deep voice thundered in a mocking tone. "This morning you were a bunch of strong, seasoned warriors. What happened while I was napping? Did you all change professions to work at the Horny Boar???" she asked, almost chuckling at her own wit.
The crowd answered in an eruption of angry cursing, drawn weapons, and combat stances. One second they were a flock of sex crazed women trying to be alluring as possible and the next they were hardened fighters, hissing through their teeth, weapons at hand. If Mountains had meant to snap them out of whatever spell they were under, it had failed. Now they were a mob of very attractive, alluring women, bent on murdering her for impugning their fighting status.
Edovan had came to the place in his mind where he was ready to combat this giantess and face the consequences, but this... well, this was different. This was going to be a bloodbath. Mountains was unarmed and barely armored, and there were almost four dozen armed but not much more armored female warriors. Edovan, who was usually quite good at predicting battle outcomes, had NO clear idea of how that would turn out. Except that it would be bad. He had to do something... or say something. But he had no idea what. He was about to open his mouth and just wing it when suddenly the entire crowd went silent and still... even Mountains. From his perch on Staan's shoulder Edovan craned his head over the crowd to see who or what could possibly have this effect on such strong warriors.
The Commander had arrived. Unlike all the other ladies, she was fully outfitted. Clad head to toe in her special black scaled mail with accompanying black chest piece, shin and thigh guards, bracers, gauntlets, collar, and an open face horned helm, she was an imposing figure indeed. The horns got Edovan's attention right away. Her whole outfit was radiating power in waves... but those horns. They were Dragon! It clicked with him then where the scales on her mail came from. She strode forward into the crowd with long purposeful steps as they warily parted around her and she took her place calmly in the center of the ring between Staan and Mountains. People weren't just being quiet or still, they were actually averting their eyes. By this point everyone has sheathed or tucked away their weapons once more.
"I trust you are aware, Little Mouse, that you WILL be required to stand on your own two feet for this challenge?" She asked, pointedly facing away from him, but her gaze still pierced him over the shoulder piece of her armor, her head tilted slightly back.
The crowd of women tittered around them and Mountains actually snorted, but then quickly pretended to be looking at her shield. Okay, NOW he was mortified. Edovan flushed so red he looked sunburnt for a second, which was not an easy feat for a dusky, golden skinned Bosmer. In one fluid motion he slipped off Staan's shoulder to land deftly on his feet before the big man could unintentionally further his humiliation by moving to set him down. Much to everyone's surprise he then turned toward him and handed Staan his staff.
"Hold this for me..." Edovan said quietly.
There were audible gasps of shock from some of the women, followed by a painfully quiet breeze of whispers gliding through them.
The Commander nodded, turning to look at him approvingly, and continued:
"I also trust that you have been given the rules and conditions of this Initiate challenge, but as the commanding officer I will remind you. You will fight till one of you is either prone against their will, incapacitated, or ends up out of the ring by any means possible. Or... and I fervently hope this doesn't happen..." she said, a note of disdain in her voice. "One of you yields ... to the other. Keep in mind that as the judge of this challenge, it is I, and I alone, who will determine incapacitation."
