The Band

Part One

Chapter One

Night was falling and Arryn was getting nervous. The horseshoes of her "borrowed" horse clicked against the loose stones of the road as she crested a hill and let out a long sigh of relief. Ahead was a wooden walled village, flickering torches dotting the walls and the distant shapes of people visible moving about the streets. It was something like civilization out here in the wilderness, or the closest that someone might get to civilization in the depths of the countryside. They would probably be eager for coin and they would probably have a passable inn, or at least someone with a spare room.

"Fucking finally." She muttered, spurring her horse onward toward the town.

"Hold there!" A guard shouted, peering at her through the darkness. Arryn knew she must look a mess, her dark brown hair unkempt and wild, her face dusty and dirty from a long ride. She hadn't bathed in a few long days, aside from the occasional whore's bath from a creek or relatively clean pond. Her eyes were rimmed with dark circles and she was slumped in the saddle. She pulled up the reins and slowed to a stop. The guard reached out and took the reins.

"You look like shit." He offered, bluntly.

"And apparently this is a town of assholes." She offered back. He shrugged.

"Just calls 'em as I sees 'em." He said. "Go on, there's an inn just there on the right. A few coins will get you a bath, a meal, and a room. I'd suggest them in that order." He wrinkled his nose and Arryn looked at the guard incredulously.

"Gee, thanks. Make a girl feel welcome." She said. He shrugged again and turned back to his post. Arryn spurred her horse on again under the wooden gatehouse and into the safety of civilization. Sort of. She eased her horse toward the stable tucked against the side of the inn building that the guard had pointed out. She dismounted and a young boy appeared out of nowhere, taking the reins and leading the horse into the stable.

"Brush him down for a copper!" He said. Arryn dug into her "borrowed" purse and tossed the boy two coppers. He grinned at her and rubbed the coins together. Arryn stepped up the wooden steps and pushed open the door, finding a nearly empty room lit by a crackling fire in a large stone hearth. There was an older woman behind the counter and two others sitting at a table drinking from tankards. They spared her a brief look when she walked in and then looked away.

Arryn was beginning to feel like she looked much worse than she thought.

"Want a bath?" The woman asked, looking up.

"Apparently I am in dire need of one, per the guard and your question, so yes." Arryn said. "And a room. Something to eat would be good. It's been a long road."

"Anyone that comes here has been on a long road, we're a long road away from anywhere else. Never you mind that dolt at the gate, the gods gifted him with a body and head and forget to do much else with either of them." The woman said, reaching back for a key that hung from a hook behind her. "Third door on the right, upstairs. That'll be yours. Give me ten minutes to draw something hot for you, food will be ready after that."

Arryn caught the key after the woman tossed it to her and nodded at the two men who spared her just one more glance. She trudged up the stairs and found her room, slipping the key into the lock. Inside she found a mirror and realized that, yes, she did need a bath first.

She was coated in dust and grime and a quick sniff confirmed she smelled both awful and intensely of horse. Her clothes were rumpled and the dirt from the road was worked deeply into it, coloring everything a dull brown. She shook her head.

She emptied out her satchel and set some things out, looking longingly at the bed. It would have to wait. After ten minutes she headed down and the woman tossed her another key.

"Baths are back there, on the left. Spare clothes too, I'll wash those rags for you. I'll have something for you to eat when you're done."

"Thank you." Arryn said. The woman was brusque but everything seemed nice enough for a small town. Those two men were gone now, leaving the inn empty but for Arryn and the woman behind the counter. Arryn made her way to the door and pushed it open, finding a lock on the inside that she slid across. The room was lit by a hanging lantern, windowless and full of steam from the bathwater. There was a bucket full of more steaming water in the corner, along with a cloth.

"Excellent." Arryn said, feeling some of the tension of the road leaving her shoulders already.

She unlaced her tunic, one at a time pulling the threading away until it fell open at the center. She pulled the tunic apart and stripped it off her arms, then her underclothes followed. She groaned at the feeling of relief. Her generously sized tits falling free of their constraints, she began to breathe again. Nothing like taking everything off after a long journey. She peeled off her trousers too and caught sight of herself in the mirror again.

She was somewhere around five foot nine, maybe ten. Her brown hair fell about her shoulders and back, tangled and messy. She knew she was shaped well and she had worked hard on that too, keeping her belly taut and her limbs defined. It worked well for her purposes, it was that much easier to "borrow" from foolish, lust-struck men. She stuck her leg forward and blew a kiss at herself, then giggled and strode to the bucket. Stripping layers of grime from her face, she wiped her neck and chest, her belly and legs. Once she was clean enough, she stepped to the steaming bath and lifted a leg. It washed over her toes like a soothing magic just releasing all that tension. She lowered her leg and moaned, stepping her other leg in and sinking into the tub until she was up to her neck in the water. There she floated for a time. She drifted, the hot water soaking into her muscles and loosening them. She combed her hair with her fingers and cleaned the worst out of it, until she felt presentable again. Then she felt a pang and looked at the door. It was locked.

She lifted her lower back and her tits appeared from the water, large enough to stick out from her chest and appear out of the water. With a thumb and forefinger she pinched a nipple, gently toying with and squeezing it. She imagined that hard bodied soldier from a few towns back. His girlfriend's tongue had been downright magical, the way she'd worked it over Arryn. A good memory.

She thought of that tongue and let a hand drift down to her pussy, brushing her fingertips over herself. She moaned lightly and then jolted upright when someone knocked at the door.

"Food's ready." The woman called out, then toddled off down the hall with thumping footsteps.

Arryn swallowed the dryness in her mouth and blinked, heart pounding.

"Fuck." She muttered, standing and grabbing a towel to dry herself off. She dressed in those spare clothes and gathered up the dirty bundle, piling the key on top and unlocking the door. There was a plate of food waiting and Arryn's stomach grumbled, her other need forgotten with the smell of warm bread and a thick slop to dip it in.

"Let me take that dear." The woman said, snatching the bundle of clothes away. "Tuck in!"

Arryn did, sitting and digging in with gusto. She tore strips of bread and dipped them, barely taking the time to chew before gulping it down. The woman chuckled and refilled Arryn's plate twice. Then she poured a small cup of a dark red wine that tasted sweeter than anything ever had to Arryn. Arryn downed every last drop and smacked her lips, savouring the decadently sweet and fruity wine.

"Delicious." Arryn said, setting the empty tankard down. She wiped her mouth and blinked. Something was wrong. The woman's face was blurry. Was the wine that strong? Could it have been? No, Arryn had spent a lifetime drinking marks under the table and had a constitution to go with, a single glass of wine wasn't strong enough to put her out like that. That only left one option. Arryn tried to bring her hands up and form sigils in the air, calling the elements to her but they didn't answer. She was already toppling off her seat and the floor was rushing up to meet her.

"Glad you liked it." The woman muttered. "Always figured you should enjoy your last meal."

"Oof." Was the last word Arryn managed to form, when she hit the floor like a crumbling pile of bricks. The impact drove the breath out of her chest. Everything she saw was swimming around her head now, blending into a bright display of colours and sounds that she couldn't focus on. Darkness pressed in around the edges. She felt the presence of others around her and she felt rough hands on her, then she fell into darkness.

"They'll love her."

Arryn had been having the worst dream. She opened her eyes slowly and blinked, feeling groggy and distant. She'd been dreaming of cruel hands carrying her and moving her brusquely. She'd dream of rough fingertips tearing at her clothes and thick, coarse ropes being bound around her wrists and legs and over her body. She dreamed of being tied to stakes driven into the ground and splayed out, naked and helpless. Luckily it was all a dream, she thought. She blinked a few times and wondered under which hedge she'd managed to fall asleep this time. There was a covering of trees above her, the morning sun bright in the sky.

She tried to sit up.

She could not.

She tried again.

Nothing. So she lifted her head, the fog slowly clearing. She looked down and was horrified to find that she was bound in place. Her legs were bent at the knees and her ankles were tied by thick ropes to two wooden stakes driven into the ground. Her hands were pulled behind her back and tied to her ankles. She had been stripped naked and now she was open to the world. Her legs were spread and there was a harness of ropes that drew attention to her bared pussy. Her tits thrust upward to the morning sky, nipples stiff in the cool morning breeze. Damp morning dew slicked her back, pressed against soft grass. She looked around as best she could and tried to shout but she couldn't.

Her mouth was bound by a strip of leather that was tightly tied around the back of her neck.

This was really bad, she thought. Really, really bad. She couldn't move her fingers and that caused her chest to tighten.

"Good morning." A woman's face appeared over her and she recognized it. Arryn thrashed against the ropes but it was no use. So she grunted through the leather in her mouth.

"I know." The innkeeper woman said. "You're confused, you're scared."

Arryn was mostly angry but she couldn't interrupt the woman, not with the strap between her lips. The woman knelt down and patted Arryn's head, looking sincere when she apologized.

"Sorry dear, it's the price we pay. Just know that we appreciate what you're doing for us."

The price for what? Arryn thought. Doing for them? And how sorry could this woman possibly be? She was doing this to Arryn, after all. Arryn lifted her head enough to see the guard from the gate, and another guard with him too. The men were both too caught up in staring at Arryn's nude body to follow the woman. The rude one from the gate had a hand down his trousers, clearly masturbating himself with his mouth half open in a lewd stare. The woman had to return and take them both by their ears, pinching and scolding them and dragging them away. The sound of their yelping drifted away and Arryn was left with nothing but the sound of the forest around her.

Arryn shifted and tested the ropes. Working her jaw and rubbing her head against the ground, she managed to loosen the leather strap and slip it up her head and then used her tongue to push it out of her mouth. There wasn't going to be anyone around so she saved her screaming energy and focused it into figuring out the ropes around her ankles and wrists. It was an uncomfortable position but she was absolutely certain that it would get much, much worse if she didn't get out of the bonds. She was a sacrifice and you didn't tie a sacrifice in such a compromising position without a reason.

When the ground rumbled beneath her body she worked at the ropes harder.

Arryn tried to move her fingers but it wasn't working, the rural folk that she was growing to despise had secured them too. They had bound her hands in those same leather straps and her fingers were tightly wrapped together, while sturdy ropes were laced around her wrists and ankles. She cursed and tried to wriggle her fingers free but it was to no avail. Whatever was coming through the forest was breathing hard and walking harder, the ground beneath her shaking as it came close.

"Shit." Arryn breathed out, wriggled against the ropes. She was vulnerable and those fucking hicks had accidentally crippled her best, maybe her only defense. Then the footsteps stopped.

The breathing didn't though. Arryn slowly turned her head and her heart skipped a beat.

"Shit." She repeated. It was all clear enough now. The rural bumpkins were sacrificing travelers to a tribe of Beastmen among the thick forests that surrounded the town she had stopped in. There were three of them that had come for her now. That was not good.

Beastmen were just that, a freakish combination of beast and man that roamed the forest and caused all sorts of problems for anyone that preferred to remain uneaten by vicious monstrosities. They were not bred, instead created from some sort of twisted energy that formed the creatures of the forests into humanoid monsters. They were brutal and well known for consuming or burning entire villages, sometimes even walled towns. They had been a plague for generations.

Two of the ones that stared at Arryn now, their red eyes gleaming with excitement, were half man and half deer. Antlers protruded from their thick heads, slabs of muscle were laid over each other and they both carried spears that looked more like small trees than spears. They were at least nine or ten feet tall and looked down at their sacrifice with a glaring eagerness that chilled Arryn. The other was shorter, maybe only seven feet tall. It was far more squat, thicker muscles and an enormous, crude axe in one hand. It was half man and half bull, a pair of thick horns curving back from a head and two massive nostrils flaring.

Arryn struggled against the ropes again. The three beasts set aside their weapons and strode closer, sniffing the air and forming a triangle around her. They circled her and she glanced from one to the next, only able to move her head and not finding the ropes any looser no matter how hard she tugged and pulled her arms.

Beastmen did not feel shame and did not wear clothes. They stalked her, erections growing as they stared down at her body. One of them leaned down and roughly groped her tits, laughing when she spat curses and thrashed her body against the restraints. The other two laughed, a grotesque, dark noise. The bull came forward between her legs and Arryn could do nothing when he rested his cock against her belly. It was heavy and warm against her skin, the bulbous tip between Arryn's tits. The bull laughed at her and rubbed his cock against her skin, dragging the still growing mass across her belly. The flattened tip left a trail of clear syrupy precum and began to swell with bestial excitement, growing until it was grotesquely large. The tip of it bumped against Arryn's chin and the bull's balls were still resting against her pussy. The fucking thing could practically skewer her.

"Let me up and I'll burn you all!" She shouted, struggling to free her fingers. It wasn't a negotiation, she wanted to kill these filthy creatures with purifying magical fire. She couldn't, but she wanted to, very badly.

One of the deer like ones stood at her head, legs on either side. She looked up from her restrained position at the beast. Its cock jutted out, growing even larger than the bull's. It leered down at her, stroking itself to a full erection. She turned her head and the beast growled, reaching down with one hand and taking a hold of her head, tilting it. The thing had a grip like iron and Arryn couldn't do anything as it began to guide the pulsating member toward her mouth. The third deer groped her tits and rubbed itself against her, saying something in the guttural language of the beasts.

The three beasts laughed again. Arryn begged the gods, anyone, to loosen the ties around her fingers. Just a little, just so she could incinerate them. She could burn them to dust but for just a little movement in her fingers. The third deer stroked itself and watched, waiting for a turn with the sacrifice. The bull took hold of that immense shaft and Arryn was helpless to do anything but squirm against the ropes.

The bull suddenly roared when a sword tip was thrust through its back and out its chest. Blood poured down around the blade before it was ripped free, leaving a thin wound that bled profusely down the bull's front. It stumbled and clutched at the wound while the deer stepped back, surprised and without their weapons. They launched themselves across the clearing for their piled spears while the bull fell to a knee and struggled for breath.

"I

told

you we should have warned her!" A voice called out from the trees, an arrow following it. The arrow struck a deer in the shoulder and sank to the fletching, drawing a screeching scream of pain from the beast.

"I know! I know." That voice was deeper and harsher and Arryn knew it was an orc. She managed to lift her head to see, proven correct. The orc was tall, not as tall as the bull but not too far from. She held the bloodied longsword in both hands and watched the deer. They had retrieved their weapons and now growled and snarled at her. The orc snarled back through the tusks that stuck up from her bottom lip. An arrow sailed into the clearing from the forest again and this time struck a deer in the eye, snapping it's head back. It fell back, dead while the other looked for the threat. It was too slow to begin swinging at the orc, and the orc danced around the clumsy blows delivering sharp blows in return. Bloody cuts appeared on the beast's skin. A dozen, two dozen, three dozen. Slick with blood, the deer slowed and fell to a knee, breathing hard.

The orc stepped behind the deer and planted the tip of her sword against the meat of the shoulder, where the thick slabs of shoulder muscle met the equally muscled neck. The orc put both hands on the cross hilt of the longsword.

"Get fucked." The orc said, driving the blade down to the hilt and piercing every organ on the way, including the deer's heart. It let out a keening noise and then fell silent, falling forward and off the blade to land with a heavy thud in the dirt. The orc knelt and used the deer's fine furred body to clean her blade of a sheen of red blood.

"Shanzi!" A voice chided. Arryn turned to see who it was, silently padding out of the trees. She was human, or her upper half was. She was also nude, her tits out and bouncing as she trotted toward Arryn. Her long, messy hair was filled with flowers and leaves between the strands and it had a deep green hue. Her ears stuck out under that mess of hair, long and pointed and furred. She trotted to Arryn on those chestnut legs that ended in hooves and a black tail swished as she moved. She had slung a bow over her shoulder and a simple belt held a quiver at her waist and a small knife in a little sheath.

"What?!" The orc shouted, standing.

"Untie the poor girl. No manners at all, this one." The satyr said, kneeling and sucking her teeth. She pulled her knife free and placed a hand on Arryn's arm to comfort her. Arryn waited patiently. The satyr used the knife to saw at the ropes and it only took a moment for the wickedly sharp blade to part the ropes and they fell away from Arryn's wrists and fingers. She dropped to the earth uncomfortably when the ropes were no longer tethered to the stakes that had been driven into the ground by her knees. Rubbing her wrists, Arryn sat up.