They call me Red Fire. This is partly because of my hair and partly because Red is the only name I admit to. I'm what they call a heroic adventurer, going around righting wrongs, and if I happen to accumulate a little treasure while doing this, good luck to me.
You can think of it as my way of stimulating the economy. I find unused and lost treasure and spend it, spreading the wealth. The people I buy things off then spend the money on other things and the economy flourishes, everyone being better off. Then I go looking for another treasure, because I'll be broke.
I have a boon companion, name of Blake Ashertongowtre. Yeah, like he's going to answer to that. We call him Black Ash, mainly because he's as black as the ace of spades. In our line of work we're a distinctive pair and quite well known.
Being well known is a bit of a draw-back, especially if there's been acts of banditry in the area. People hear of them and look at us suspiciously, which is totally unfair. We don't rob honest citizens.
Being well known is also an advantage, as we hear stories and get tips to lost treasure, usually on the understanding that we'll share with the person who gives us the tip. We do, too. It's just good public relations. Stiff one tipster and we may miss out on a dozen good leads. I'd just had a tip from a barman and Black and I were heading out to investigate.
The story was that a wicked witch had cursed a princess who lived in a castle in the forest. On her sixteenth birthday she'd fallen into an enchanted sleep from which she'd be wakened by love's true kiss. Her parents, the king and queen, and the entire population of the castle had then fallen into a deep sleep, and slept yet. Brambles and thorns surrounded the castle and none could enter.
This had happened about fifty years back. Not believing in magic I had another theory. Someone had slipped poison into the castle water, probably powdered sleep-curse. This would cause everyone to fall asleep. Forget love's true kiss. No-one woke up after taking sleep-curse. The fact that a new king appeared on the scene right smartly after the curse took effect is a pointer as to who might have done it.
To keep it simple, Black and I headed into the forest to find this enchanted castle. When you think of it, a king in his castle with all those nobles and their jewellery and the king's treasure chest, a fortune waiting to be had, and who more deserving than Black and I.
The barman had told us where the trail used to be that led to the castle. Fallen into serious disrepair as no-one wanted a bar of that castle. We managed to follow it and found the castle. Bramble and thorns surrounded the castle they say. Try fifty years of neglected rose bushes and wild unrestrained growth. Of course there were brambles and thorns.
Simple logic dictated that the lightest growth would be along the trail and that's where Black and I chose to hack our way through. All I'll say is that if that was the lightest growth the gods above will need to help anyone who tries a different path.
We got to the main gates and they were open, the portcullis still raised. Whatever hit them appeared to have hit them fast. Passing through the gates we heard noise from what was probably be the guard room. It sounded like a muted growl.
Not wanting to be taken by surprise by scavengers or predators we eased up to the guard room. We eased the door and looked in and that's when things started to get a little kinky. There were two guards there, lying on the floor, snoring, not growling.
Black and I looked at each other and when I nodded Black eased up to one of the guards and nudged him. He snored on. Black gave him a harder nudge by kicking him sharply on the knee. He went right on snoring. We looked at each other and backed out of the room.
"Weird," I said.
"Magic?" suggested Black.
"I don't believe in magic. Let's just call it weird."
We moved on into the castle, moving slowly. We found more sleepers. People in the castle seemed to have just slumped over where they were and gone to sleep. No-one seemed prepared for it. Whatever had happened had just swept through the castle and left them lying there.
"Whatever it was, it was fifty years ago," I pointed out. "If it was still active it would have hit us as soon as we entered the castle."
"So why can't we wake them?"
"You can always try kissing one."
Eventually we came to the main dining room and it was jackpot time. The king and queen and their court were there, sitting at the dinner tables, asleep. Scattered here and there around the room there were servants curled up on the floor, sleeping happily.
"That tiara that the queen is wearing looks as though it would bring a pretty penny," I said. "The rings and necklace aren't to be sneezed at, either."
"You're right there," said Black. "They all seem to be wearing their best jewellery, all trying to outdo each other."
The dowagers among the diners were going to be the biggest scores, but even the young women were loaded. I will say this for the king, he sure seemed to like a lot of fair young damsels in his court.
"Notice someone missing?" Black asked me.
Not knowing who should be there how could I possibly know if someone was missing? I gave him a confused look.
"No princess, or no-one who stands out as being a princess."
He was right. There were some older people and a few young men at the king's table but no obvious princess.
"Doesn't matter," I said. "We don't want her anyway."
"We don't?"
"Definitely not. Imagine if you woke her with a kiss. You'd be her true love and have to marry her. Everyone would wake up. The king would make you his heir apparent. The current king would come after us with an army. His family has had the throne for fifty years and they're not going to give it up just because some old king wakes up. Finding the princess and kissing her is a major no-no."
I looked around at the glittering spectacle.
"You start on that side," I said. "Dump a table-cloth on the floor and toss all the jewels and things on it. Don't forget the cutlery. It looks as though it might be gold. I'll start from this side."
I started removing jewellery and tossing it onto a table-cloth.
"Forget the cutlery," I called to Black. "It's only plated and not worth carrying the extra weight."
I was moving along quite nicely when there was a sudden scream. That sort of brought me up short. Was someone having a nightmare? Looking over at Black I could see he was, ah, wrestling with someone.
I wandered over to see what the problem was. Black's trousers were down and his cock was firmly inserted into a struggling young lady, a maid from the way she was dressed.
"What's going on," I asked. "Apart from the obvious."
"This monster grabbed me and started raping me," wailed the maid. "Get him off me."
"She was in my road and so I went to move her aside," said Black. "She felt soft and warm so I stroked her a little. Her responses were normal and she was ready for me so I slipped it home. As soon as I did that she started struggling and screaming."
"Interesting. So it's not a kiss that's required to wake them. I suppose we could go around and wake up a few people and let them get on with a general orgy to wake everyone else. Why don't you pull out of the poor girl while we ask her what happened? You can always continue later. Or with another woman," I added quickly when the maid glared at me.
Black gave a grunt and withdrew. The maid gave him a nasty look, closed her eyes and went to sleep.
"Hum. That makes it harder. It seems you can't be her one true love after all. Why not plug back in and see if she wakes again."
Black gave a grin, lined up and nailed the maid as neat as you please. Her eyes popped open again and she screamed again.
"Hey, quieten down a bit, while I explain," I said quickly.
She shut up but it was obvious that she wasn't happy.
"What's the last thing you remember?" I asked her.
"You mean before this animal attacked me?"
"Yes. From the dinner. You were obviously serving or something and then nighty-night. SO WHAT HAPPENED?"
She flinched at my raised voice but answered.
"It was the witch," she said.
"The witch?"
"She had a curse on the princess. On her sixteenth birthday she was going to fall asleep for some reason and sleep for a hundred years. She was confined to her bedroom for the day to keep her safe. Then in the middle of the dinner the witch appeared in the middle of the room, laughing. That was all until I woke up with this animal poking me."
So maybe there was such a thing as magic but it didn't seem to be impacting Black and me. Probably whatever the effect was it only hit those who were there when the spell was activated.
"Well, young lady, when Black poked you he also woke you up. When he pulled out you fell asleep again. It seems to me that if he completed his poke and brought you to a climax that might complete the job of waking you up. Why don't you go ahead and try, Black."
"Wait, wait, wait," the maid howled. "He can't do that to me. He's black."
"Well, yes, I already said that."
"I mean, his colour is black."
"Your colour is white and he's not being rude about it. Just think of him as heavily tanned. Besides, he's got a nice big dong and that's what you should be concerned with."
Black started pumping into her while she squealed and wriggled.
"Remember, woman, if you don't climax it may not break the spell. Better move with him and see if you can get there."
I received another nasty look but the maid settled down to being fucked. She seemed to know what to do and I watched in appreciation as she fucked Black just as hard as he was taking her. I could see the tension building in her and Black was certainly doing his bit to encourage it. He reached his end run and was really pounding her. Her legs were wrapped around him and she clung like a limpet, taking everything he could dish out.
She reached the climax point before he did, giving a shriek and letting him loose, and then he really cut loose, hosing her down. She gave a heartfelt groan and slumped back against the table. Black gave her one last poke, a wink and withdrew.
