A Warrior's Redemption

  *****

  Two miserable days later found us soaked, hungry and tired, not to mention downright itchy. I was pretty sure we were lost as well. We had been traveling southward through the forest towards Santarus.

  The forest had opened up some, but it was still rough going to get through the overgrown understory of the forest. Father John had the point and continually insisted that we were not lost, but I had my doubts.

  He’d been but a little boy when he had lived here before and there were simply no landmarks to be seen other than the trees in front of us. Still, he seemed confident of our progress and I was willing to trust his judgment for a little while longer before interceding. He hadn’t said much in the past two days and I could tell that it still bothered him that we had destroyed everything as we had. It had been for the best though and I hoped that he came to see that as I now did.

  He stopped and waited till I drew abreast of him, “Over that way the forest breaks up into some grassy parks, which will increase our speed since we won't have to fight through this understory.”

  “Lead on, John. I’m game for a chance to see the sky again.”

  “Me too!” echoed the others in the group, sounding like a chorus in their exuberance to be free of the forest, at least temporarily.

  Father John hesitated for a moment and then continued, “There is a village that way that we won’t be able to avoid. It’s run by women.”

  Seth leaned forward in the saddle, “Go on priest. What about the women?”

  Father John looked somewhat annoyed at Seth’s obvious interest but continued, “It’s a matriarchal society. Men are seen as less than women and do the work normally left to the women. But they are not hostile to outside men in general. They just think they are better. It’s perfectly safe to visit the village. We just have to be careful not to get them angry, as they can be rather forceful when angered.”

  Seth was looking at me with pleading eyes, which I ignored. I was tired of fighting this jungle and it would be nice to have a roof over my head for a change.

  “If you say it’s safe enough, that is, if we behave ourselves!” I said with emphasis, as I looked at Seth sternly. “And that it’ll cut time off the journey, we’ll go that way.” Father John nodded and turned his horse in the direction he had indicated.

  Soon, true to his word, the forest broke up into a series of grassy parks that appeared as if they were islands in the sea of trees around them.

  Several hours later we could see smoke in the distance up ahead of us. That must be the village run by the women that John had spoken of. This, no doubt, was going to be a unique experience.

  As we drew closer to the village, I began to see just how unique an experience it was going to be. It was like seeing two villages instead of just one. John had told us that the men were forced to live in the lower village and take care of the children, while the women lived exclusively in the upper village and only occasionally invited the men there for purposes of procreation.

  Not quite sure yet of what we were getting ourselves into, I followed John, already regretting my earlier decision to come this way. The lower village’s living conditions were extremely poor at best.

  The men who gathered around the hovels weren’t much to speak of. They had the worn, broken look of slaves about them, which made me uneasy. There were girls running around in bountiful supply, excited by what must be a strange occurrence for them, but I didn’t see any boys. That was odd.

  We were coming to the end of the village when one man caught my eye. He was staring at me intently. So intently that I felt awkward and thought I might have to look away. He pulled a young girl with raven black hair and skin the color of dark mahogany in front of him and made a gesture with his hands, a gesture I could see echoed in his eyes as well.

  He wanted me to take the girl away from this place when I left. The whole scene had made me uncomfortable and I looked away, unsure of what was going on here other than that I didn’t like it.

  My attention was drawn to the second village higher up off the plain and more encased in the shelter of the forest, which is when I saw the women. So had the others, if the mumbled, incoherent affectations that I heard rolling off the lips of Seth, who was directly behind me, indicated. I had never seen such women as these. Most of them were of a taller build, with some being shorter, but all of them were muscular and lithe of form. Some had long flowing hair, while others had their hair cut close to their heads, but one thing was universal, none of them were wearing practically anything.

  They were decorated in all manner of beads and pretty trinkets, with elaborate tattoos that seemed to flow across the large expanses of bare skin in continuous patterns. Some had short skirts of leather, while others had breach clouts that left a lot exposed. Most wore a bright strip of fabric that encased their breasts, while others were completely topless. I could hear Seth swearing under his breath now, but for a different reason other than a moral objection, as to the wanton appearance of these women.

  Why had John, a priest at that, not told me of how extreme these women had taken their little society? We came to the center of the village and John dismounted, as did the rest of us.

  It was one of the most uncomfortable moments of my life. My body had completely let me down. It had been manageable, while seated in the saddle, to remain objective looking and seemingly in control. But having to dismount and stand revealed an embarrassingly hopeless reaction to how much visual stimulation I was receiving anywhere and everywhere my eyes went.

  Not being in control of my body was quite humiliating, but worse than that was the feeling that I was somehow letting the Creator down by allowing myself to be affected by the bare and very beautiful female bodies on full display all around me.

  Thankfully, John did all of the talking. Having come to an agreement that we wanted shelter for the night and that we would be moving on in the morning, they invited us to a feast in our honor that night, which he accepted on behalf of all of us.

  Their spokeswoman was a tall voluptuous blond, whom Seth hadn’t yet managed to take his eyes off. I began to notice an increasingly sensual demeanor of the women towards us and I made a quick decision and turned Flin around. I led him away from the others and back towards the lower village.

  I myself had been the subject of a lot of hungry looks, but I did not intend on satisfying any of them, much to my body’s dismay. About the best thing I could do right now to avoid affronting their barbaric sense of hospitality was to remove myself from the situation as best as I could.

  I made my way back towards the lower village, my face completely red, knowing how it must look to these exotic women and what my actions probably insinuated to them. It was not the favorable view that any red blooded male would want thought of him by beautiful women, or anyone for that matter.

  The carnal side of me wanted to stay and keep looking and, even more than that, it wanted to reach out and touch the forbidden, but something stronger than the carnal side of me was screaming out to just keep walking away.

  I didn’t see Seth and the other two men follow the women into the upper village, so intent was I on leaving the scene of my own moral crisis of conflict. Nor did I see what became of John. I knew what would be happening soon back there in the village, and the regret that flashed through my body at what I was missing, was a palpable feeling of loss.

  Surely it didn’t really matter in the big scope of things what happened in this isolated village filled with barbaric, sensual eyed women who had nothing but a sensual promise of a good time in their eyes?

  Somehow it did matter though and so I kept walking uncomfortably away from my passion’s desire, while I called myself every kind of a fool in my head for doing so. I had never had sex before, which was a secret that I kept closely guarded and private. Everyone that had known me in my adult life would never have guessed it of me, given my years in the arena. As a reward in the arena for simply surviving or for giving a go
od show to the audience, fighters were gifted with better food and weapons with which to defend themselves.

  Serving girls and slave girls alike were thrown into the cells of a select few of the better fighters almost every night. I had been one of those better fighters for almost my entire duration within the arena.

  One look at the frightened faces of the girls, or even the older women that were thrown into my cell at night, had always proven a greater deterrent to me than acting out on any of the manly desires that I had bottled up inside of me ever since I was an older boy. Instead of adding to the pain and misery of their lives for a few moments of pleasure on my part, I had instead talked to them and shared my food with them and let them spend the night in peace. I had become friends with quite a few of them over the years. Even now, since I was free of that world and didn’t have the strictures of a cell around me and there were women who openly expressed interest in me, it still felt wrong to indulge myself.

  I had the sense that there was something better, something worth waiting for someday for me and so I held on to that dream and guarded it jealously, hoping that it would come sooner rather than later. I remembered my mother and what she and my father had together and knew that was what I wanted for myself.

  It was worth holding out for and now, with my newfound faith altering the very threadwork of my life, it was simply the right thing to do. Looking up at the sky as I led Flin towards the lower village I said, “Lord, knowing the right thing to do sure doesn’t make it any easier! Help me!”

  The voluptuous blond was leading Seth by the hand towards a hut while three other women pressed themselves close to him sensuously along the way. Seth could hardly contain himself over his good fortune.

  Their progress was abruptly stopped by another woman, who reached out and stopped Seth’s journey toward the hut with a firm grip on the front of his tunic shirt. The woman was tall and very beautiful. She had dark black hair and her skin was the color of dark chocolate.

  Seth was busy drinking in her exotic beauty, when she asked authoritatively, “Your friend does not care for women? Does he prefer boys instead?”

  Seth was puzzled by what she meant until, following her outstretched arm, he saw that she was pointing at Roric’s retreating form.

  “Him! Oh no, I’m pretty sure he prefers women! He’s just a little shy and too serious for his own good sometimes.”

  Seth disappeared into the hut with the other women. The blond leader paused, “Are you not coming Kana?”

  “No, I want him!” Kana said, pointing after Roric’s retreating form.

  “Have it your way Kana, but you’re missing out,” The blond said before ducking into the tent.