A Mage and a Whore

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Blah, I really did not want to write the rape scene, so I blew through it. It is pretty inept. I like the rest of the chapter though.

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      Adeline struggled to her feet and scrambled to the closest alley away from the road, limping on the foot she tripped with. Probably the ankle was sprained, it was hard to tell. She had to get out of view of any ‘neighborhood watchmen,’ men who volunteered to keep the streets free of poor riff-raff. They would, at best, beat the crap out of her and toss her back to the slums. At worst… well, she didn’t really want to think about it. She had seen plenty of young girls, boys too, strangled or broken necked, naked, and bleeding from various orifices and thrown to the side of the road like trash. Sometimes she even recognized the victims.

      Breathing hard she tried to orient herself, but she had no idea what direction she had come from. She had never entered this part of town before. Desperately she wove her way through the streets, ducking from alleyway to alleyway, trying to get to safety. As she went her mind raced. Where could she go now? Where was safe? Perhaps it would be best just to kill herself now and cleanly rather then wait to be beaten to death or strangled. A sound stopped her short. No, not watchmen, just drunken young men. It seemed a little early in the day for that, but then the upper class never could keep reigns on their children. Adeline froze, hoping not to be seen by the trio. They were singing off tune and smelled horribly of alcohol and sweat. One saw her. He broke into a crazed grin.

      “Well, lookee here, a pretty little slut looking for love. Well, seemsh you’ve come to ther right alley.” He thrust his hips at her provocatively and then nearly lost his balance.

      They must be very drunk indeed to make advances on me. They probably think I’m actually attractive. Just my luck. She turned to run, but even completely inebriated the men managed to chase her down. One literally tackled her and she fell on her stomach, scrapping her chin and the heels of her hands and ripping her dress.

     “Whereya goin’ shweetheart?” The man breathed in her ear. His breath reeked more than he did. Not to mention he weighed a ton. Adeline squirmed, trying to crawl out from under him as he got up to rip her dress off. Unfortunately the other two had caught up, and one grabbed her by the leg.

     “Whatsh the matter, slut? Never been with men ash handsome and virile as ourselves? Dun worry, we’ll be gen’le.” Thehy all laughed and Adeline went still. It would hurt less if she didn’t fight, and they probably were not planning on killing her. She squeezed her eyes shut and obediently opened her mouth as one man shoved himself in her mouth while the other two tried to figure out her dress. She almost laughed as she was invaded. For all the mouth-raper’s talk, he couldn’t even get it up. He rambled on vaguely about how big he was as he tried to force his limp dick further into her mouth. Adeline took comfort knowing that the bottle would be the death of this one sooner or later, it made him a whole new level of stupid and delusional. Meanwhile the other too realized they could only get the dress off by pulling it over her head, but they could get at what was underneath simply by pulling it up really far. One of the men positioned himself at her entrance and tried to thrust in. After a few misses he made it and Adeline almost bit down with the sudden shock. The man’s half-hard cock was not exactly huge, but that really hurt. She felt something rip and a stinging, burning sensation. What had that asshole done to her?

     Apparently the asshole was also confused. He pulled out and looked at her bleeding hole dimly before realization crossed his mind. “Shit,” he said, sobering quickly, “The slut’s a virgin!” In Astor, their place of residence, raping a virgin was, for some reason, considered much more of a crime than raping a non-virgin. It was the difference between a slap on the wrist and actual jail time, or worse if the girl was from a good family. Everyone froze as Adeline opened her eyes and tried to see what was happening. She had missed what the man had said, but all of a sudden she was watching the three men stumbling gracelessly off, trying to pull their pants up. She scrambled back to her feet, breathing heavily. As she pulled her dress back down she worried over her bleeding a bit, but she was far to muddled to really think about what had just happened. The Geno, she thought at last, Maybe he will take me in…maybe…oh Sun Father, Moon Goddess, I don’t want to die. Tear ran uncontrollably down her face as she found her way to the other wall and the front gate, blissfully without further incident.

     By the time Adeline had finished relating her story to Lycen she was half asleep in his bed, curled into a ball. He had given her some bread and a little fresh milk Livana had kindly fetched for the girl, and now her hard day was finally overtaking her, threatening to pull her down to sweet oblivion.

     Lycen sighed. “That man, Russell, is an idiot.”

     “Hmm?” Adeline asked, not really hearing him.

     “Well, he refused to take you back because he thought I had cursed you, but he took my money. That was what I cursed.”

     Adeline started and looked up at him, surprized.

     “What? The bastard deserves it. In a week or so he will loose most of the power in his limbs, leaving him only barely able to take care of himself. Also his penis may or may not fall off. I cannot really remember the whole curse.”

     Adeline smirked and laid her head back down. That goatlicker had hit her often enough for her to appreciate a curse like that. In her drowsy mind things seemed alright for the moment. She was comfortable, clean, and not hungry or hurting. She drifted off to sleep.

     The next morning Adeline woke up only to see Lycen’s glowing eyes. Startled she pulled back and slammed her head on the side of the wagon. “Owww!” She squeezed her eyes shut and rubbed her head while she got control of her rapid heartbeat.

     Lycen flinched. “Sorry,” he whispered, “I was… uh… just checking to see if you were still okay.” He turned away and busied himself with something on the other side of the wagon.

     “No-no, I’m sorry! I s-shouldn’t be so flighty!” The girl scrambled upright, fighting with the covers so she could bend over, arms out, in a proper submissive posture.

     Lycen peered at her over his shoulder, “The sun is just barely up, we will be leaving soon. Since you do not have any shoes to wear you will be stuck in here with me until we get to Ballard. You may go back to sleep if you like.”

     “Yes sir,” she murmured, ducking her head down. She wished she had better learned her etiquette, she was trying to be respectful but she felt really awkward and unmannered. “Umm, where did you sleep last night, sir?”

     “I told you my name is Lycen, you didn’t call me sir before.”

     “S-sorry, sir, that was before I figured it out.” The mage looked at her, questioningly and she babbled on, “I mean, Russell took you money and gave me to you not expecting to get me back. Th-that means you own me, right? I-I could call you master, if you like…” She trailed off, staring at the covers under her as she fidgeted with them.

     Lycen regarded her a moment more and said, softly, “The Geno do not own people, it’s idiotic.”

     Adeline flinched. “Sorry sir.”

     “And my name will do just fine.”

      She nodded, then paused. “If you don’t own me, then can I make a request?”

     Lycen had turned his back to her again. “You may request anything you like.”

    “Will you answer my question? Where did you sleep last night?”     The Geno shrugged. “The floor.”

    “But there’s no room on the floor.” That was true; there was barely room on the bed. With all the boxes in place there was only a narrow walkway from the bed to the door.

     Lycen’s reply was almost too soft to hear, “The Geno do not need a lot of sleep.” He was lying. He did not want the poor, frightened girl to know he had been watching her all night. He was worried about her. She had been pretty well traumatized, and it was his fault.

     “Get in bed with me? Please?”

     Lycen started and turned around. Adeline sat on her knees on the bed. Her tunic was beginning to fall open at the neck showing hints of her protruding collar bones. She really needs to eat better…

     “P-please? Lycen?”

     The mage stared at her. He was exhausted from staying up all night and Adeline looked… soft. And warm. But the bed was far too small; they would practically be sleeping on top of each other. He coughed. “I really need to help the others get ready to set out. You should get some sleep. I’ll have breakfast for you when you get up.” And with that he hustled out of the wagon.

     Adeline sighed and got back under the covers. She was somewhat relieved, but frustrated all the same. Shit. I need to get used to being around him some way or another. He doesn’t like it when I flinch and stutter, I can tell. If I keep it up… ugh…She was no longer sure if the mage would actually hurt her, especially with a priestess of the greater moon and a paladin of the sun god around, but she could wind up tossed out in the cold easily enough. The paladin sure did not seem to want her around. Worries dance in her mind as she fell into a troubled sleep.

     Lycen really was not needed or wanted to help the others make last minute checks on their gear and horses before hooking some to the wagon and loading others with the rest of their supplies. Livana and Temple both had horses to ride, but none of the other’s did. Rim sometimes rode her huge antelope, but she usually walked. Temple would walk to, but his armor was heavy so he usually justified riding by scouting ahead and coming back several times a day. Livana, Evin, Sylvain, and Rim had all eaten befor showing up, but Livana brought some breakfast with her for Adeline. Lycen’s stomach rumbled, reminding him he had neglected the most important meal of the day, but he smiled (not that anyone could see it) and thanked her then put the meal, a small loaf of bread that smell as if it contained a mixture of meat and vegetables inside, on the small table across from the bed where Adeline was sure to see it when she got up. After giving her sleeping form one more concerned look over, he left the wagon once more.

     They were starting to move now, but at a slow, steady pace. No one liked him walking with them, it made them nervous, which made the horses nervous. Lycen thought it was dumb that they were using horses when they would be better served with mules, but apparently donkeys were somewhat of a rarity in these parts and every wealthy so-and-so they sucked up to gave them a horse. The mage sighed. He liked mules a lot more; horses could be so finicky sometimes.

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Lol, I think I use the word started too often. Started to what? Doesn't matter, they only just started. >.< Sorry. Anyways, I wrote this pretty quickly and did not do a second reading, plus I have no beta, so I apoligize for any mistakes. Love ya'! ^.~