I am grateful that you let me share your fire and food with me, the night is cold and foul things are abroad in the dark. Perhaps I can offer this short tale, one concerning the meeting of two interesting women, in return for your hospitality.
Nasarah strode through the jungle like a hunting cat, her stride long and fast, her glowing red eyes searching the underbrush and shadows for any threat. It was hot and humid, her dark skin was shiny with sweat and her long black hair lank and stringy. She wore only a woven green and blue loincloth, a rope belt supporting a pouch, and some leather bands around her wrists and upper arms. She carried a long two handed sword sloped back on her shoulder. No thorn or stone under her bare foot gave her pain or slowed her pace.
Suddenly she grinned, her lips parting slightly to show a hint of fangs, then in one quick motions turned and slashed with her blade, a flat horizontal snap that cut open the stomach of the tribesman who was leaping out at her with a stone axe raised in one hand. Blood and entrails splashed over her feet and shins as she drove her elbow back without looking, smashing the face of the second ambusher coming up behind her. As he reeled back in an explosion of blood she dropped her sword and grabbed him by the neck, snapping it almost casually before tossing the corpse aside.
The quick spasm of violence had silenced the jungle for a moment and Nasarah heard something move in the nearby brush with a muffled cry. She collected her blade and moved quietly around a tree to see a woman trying to crawl away despite her feet being bound together and her hands tied behind her back. A stick had been forced into her mouth and tied to her like a horses bit. She was nude, her pale skin scratched and filthy with dirt and her hair stiff with dried mud and leaves. Nasarah watched the woman struggle for a moment, smiling, then strode up to her.
"You'll need to move faster than that to escape the Sharinda, let me cut your bonds, girl."
The girl in question wrenched herself around, her eyes wide with alarm at those words, but as she looked up to see Nasarah standing over her she seemed to relax. With a knife from her pouch Nasarah sliced of the cords off her so the girl could sit up, pull the bit and rope off her head, and spit out blood and saliva.
"You are a mess, girl, can you walk? What's your name?"
The girl shook her head and lifted up her feet to show that they were cut and bruised. Nasarah looked around and listened, then sniffed as if testing the scents on the wind.
"We can't wait, girl, I'll have to carry you", she said, then took the girls hand and pulled her up, ducking so she could sling the girl over her shoulder, making her grunt and whimper. With her sword carried loose in one hand Nasarah moved off the trail and disappeared into the dense brush.
It was evening when Nasarah found the clearing she sought, with a clean spring and some fruit trees surrounding it, where she could lay the girl down on soft grass. The girl had passed out during the journey and Nasarah left her there while she gathered some leaves, a selection of ripe fruit, and some roots. When she got back the girl was awake and sitting in the spring washing herself off with stiff, painful movements. She looked up and smiled.
"Thank you for rescuing me, I guess you saved me from rape and worse. My name is Ariselle."
"I am Nasarah, and you were in no danger of rape."
"You think not? Why is that?"
"The Sharinda do not fuck anyone not of their tribe, it is the worse that I saved you from. You were to be served as dinner, alive, as is their custom," Nasarah said before biting into a large juicy langa fruit, the juice running down her chin.
Ariselle stared at her for a long moment before going back to washing herself, she ducked under the water and scrubbed her hair, which was revealed to be blonde and cut just above her shoulders. The cloud of dirt and leaves was carried away by the current down a small stream as she stood and walked gingerly to the bank and sat down on the grass, wringing out her hair. She was short and slim, with small and firm breasts tipped with delicate pink nipples that had hardened in the cool night air and a neat patch of blonde fuzz between her legs. Her eyes were blue and set in a pretty face with faint lines around her mouth and eyes that marked her as older than Nasarah had first though. At the moment those eyes were looking over Nasarah with frank curiousity.
Nasarah was tall, with very dark brown skin, long straight black hair, and a rather curvy form. Her hips were wide, her bottom round, and her breasts full and heavy with nipples so dark as to be almost black. She smiled as Ariselle let her gaze roam over her rescuer, then pointed to the collection of fruit, "you should eat something, Ariselle, and I need to wash," she said as she turned away and removed what little she was wearing before stepping into the spring.
She stood hip deep in the water with her back turned, then ducked under the water and swam across the spring. She glided under the moonlit water like an eel as she turned back, rising up with water streaming from her long black hair down her shoulders and across her breasts.
Ariselle picked up a red stango and bit into it, smiling at the sweet taste, then spoke softly.
"I am in your debt, Nasarah, and I thank you," she took another bite of the fruit and wiped her mouth with the back of her hand, "but would it be indelicate of me to ask why your eyes glow red here in the dark of night?"
Nasarah ducked her head under the water and rubbed her fingers through her hair, then came up again and smiled broadly, showing a mouthful of fangs.
"I am not quite human any more, Ariselle, to be blunt, I am...different."
"Will you share the tale with me?" asked the pale woman as she bit into another piece of fruit.
Nasarah stood in the hip deep water for a moment, looking up at the moon, then she looked back to Ariselle.
"My family were poor goat herders, far from here. I was a little girl when a man stole me away, and not for the reasons you are thinking, either. He used me as a vessel, and put into me the spirit of a demon, binding me to his service. I became a weapon, a girl that he could send to kill his enemies," she said as she washed, her eyes glowing quite distinctly red, "a very dangerous girl."
She continued to wash as Ariselle watched her and ate more fruit.
"One day I returned to his hidden cave, having slain my latest victim, and found that the sorcerer had died. Old age had done what his enemies could not, and I was free of his commands and will."