The Kaidia Chronicles 5: A Rough Return Home (F/FF)

[novascorpio]

Rose and Mytheria practically burst into Kaidia's dark home, slamming the door shut with a thud behind them. The two giggled together in the near pitch darkness. The only light that shone through the windows was that of the pale moon high in the cloudless night sky.

"We gave them the slip!" came Mytheria's excited whisper. "We did. I can't believe I let you talk me into that." Rose said in a hushed tone. "Yeah, well, we got it and we can sell it." Myth replied with glee.

Just then, the torches of the house all flared to life with a quick, low, collective roar. Rose and Myth both squeaked and jumped. Both of them looked around until their eyes found Kaidia sitting in her chair off in one corner, near shelves that held Kai's favorite books. Kitiara was sitting on the floor, leaning against Kai's leg, her head in the warrior's lap. Kai was quietly scratching the neko behind an ear while she eyed Myth and Rose. For a moment, the catgirl's happy purr was the only sound in the room.

Kaidia raised a hand, silver rings glinting on her fingers. "What's all this now?" she gestured to the thief and the tavern girl. Rose and Myth looked at each other and stuttered a bit before Myth tried to change the subject by pointing at Kit. "Who's that?" she asked inquisitively.

Kai's fist slammed down on the arm of her chair, causing Kit, Rose, and Myth to jump. "Do NOT change the subject, Mytheria Redmane!" she growled dangerously. The warrior knew something was up and she wasn't being told what. It was causing her to become a tad cross with the two girls. "I will ask again. What is going on?" Kai repeated her inquiry. Kit had one eye open, watching Mytheria and Rose trying to think of an answer.

"W-well, you see, Kaidia... the Temple of Neersa had this jeweled necklace and we all know they're one of those temples to the new gods and the new gods are all hogwash and the necklace wasn't serving them any purpose so we liberated it and were going to sell it and put the gold we got to good use, you see." Mytheria explained. Kaidia didn't look too thrilled. "Liberated, hm? Interesting choice of words." the warrior said as she rose from her chair, causing Kit to slip away and to her feet.

Rose and Myth backed up to the door as Kai approached them. The mercenary stopped just in front of them, holding out a hand. "Give it to me." she demanded. The bar maid and the redhead looked to one another before Mytheria grudgingly held out the jeweled necklace and dropped it into Kai's palm. Aside from the initial weight of the jewels, the necklace was unremarkable. The jewels were clear, worth a decent amount but not enchanted in any sort of way. Plain as could be. Another would be relic from one of the new gods' religions. She tucked it into a hip pocket, then reached out and took Rose and Mytheria each by an ear, then started off towards the long table that rested against the back wall of the house, leaving two long sides and one end open for people to sit at.

She put both Rose and Myth at the end and pushed them both over it, side by side, Myth on the left and Rose on the right. Mytheria began to regret her choice to wear the short skirt she'd put on that morning. It was loose and meant to make everyone look at her legs. It only fell to about mid-thigh. Kai flipped the skirt up and tugged down the soft but plain panties underneath, much to Myth's embarrassment. Kai then moved to Rose and reached under the girl to undo the bar maid's leather breeches and jerk them down, along with a pair of richly dyed blue panties. Rose blushed. "Those were meant to be a um, welcome home surprise in bed tonight, Kai." she muttered quietly. The warrior showed her first hint of amusement for the night with a chuckle. "They're still a nice surprise, Rose." Kai said with a smirk. The mercenary stepped back, taking in the two bare bottomed girls, bent over the table. "Stay put." she commanded and then stepped away and went upstairs.

Kit had settled herself into a chair that sat against the wall, out of view of the two girls. She figured it'd be nice to see Kai go to work on a bottom that wasn't her own, let alone two. She was practically purring at the thought.

Kai came back down the stairs, her favorite torn length of harness strap in hand. Both Rose and Myth stared at Kai with wide eyes. Rose knew that thing would sting, Myth was remembering her first go around with the dreadful length of leather. Kaidia stepped up behind the two girls.

"I am highly disappointed in both of you. Stealing from a temple? Really? Even if the place is a sham, that necklace is their's not your's. Even though they're con-artists scamming gold out of the pockets of gullible villagers, stealing from them isn't the correct thing to do. Two wrongs do not make a right." Kai scolded. "Yes, Ma'am." Rose and Myth responded in unison, knowing better than to back talk at this point.

"Mytheria, I thought I'd made it clear that your days as a thief are done. I will NOT tolerate this sort of misbehavior. And Rose, you're supposed to be the mature one here. The boss when I'm not around and here you went along with her!" Kai continued, her voice elevated a little. Both of the girls cringed under the tongue lashing. "Sorry, Ma'am." was their only reply. Anything else might not be safe for their already endangered backsides.

Kit was watching with a little smile, her ears perked forward, her tail flicking back and forth lazily as her golden eyes took in the whole spectacle.

"You are about to be very sorry, girls." Kai growled before she lit into Myth's bottom with the strap, raising a welt across the middle of the redhead's bottom and eliciting a yelp from the young woman. A twin stripe was quickly painted across Rose's rear, accompanied by a similar yelp. Kaidia wasn't in the mood to be dealing with brats, so she immediately fell into a rhythm, her strokes across the girls' bottoms were quick, concise, and sharp.

Rose's right hand grabbed the edge of the table as Myth's left hand took the other edge in a hard grip. The girls' free hands found one another and held each other in a tight hold as Kai's strong arm delivered lash after lash across the pair of presented bottoms. A few welts were raised across the backs of the girls' thighs. Both the redhead and the brunette jumped, kicked, squealed, yelped, and cried out as the strap burned across their bottoms, time and again.

Kit winced faintly, golden eyes wide as she watched Kaidia deal out the merciless strapping. She and the warrior had only been here for about an hour before the two girls came stumbling in. Kai was irritated, weary, and likely the last thing she needed was Myth and Rose behaving like little brats or so Kit assumed.

Rose's left hand squeezed Myth's right as the redhead started to tear up and sniffle. Rose was a little stronger, she hadn't quite gotten to the point of crying yet, despite the fiery welts across her backside. But then again, Kai was far from finished with the two.

Kaidia readied herself for another strike when her ears picked up the sound of many feet pounding the dirt street outside her home, along with the clamor of angry voices, and the clanking of weapons. It was all drawing nearer. She threw the strap down on the table. "Girls, make yourselves presentable and be ready." the warrior said quietly.

Mytheria and Rose looked at each other whilst tugging up their panties. "For what?" Rose asked in a sniffly voice while pulling her snug pants up over her stinging bottom. "Trouble." Kaidia replied without a hint of amusement. She strode to one of the many weapon racks that decorated her home and took a sheathed sword in hand, then turned and tossed it to Kitiara. Two sheathed daggers found their way into the hands of Myth and Rose.

"I only expect you two to use these if you have to." Kai said to the redhead and the bar maid, giving them each a serious look. The girls nodded. The warrior turned her attention to Kit as the sound of someone's fist slamming on the door rang out. "If this goes sideways, you take them out the back and out of the city to the south. I'll catch up to you." she said with a voice that brooked no debate and no argument. The neko just nodded and moved to stand near the girls.

Kaidia went to her door and flung it open, scowling into the crowd of clergymen, guardsmen, and the faithful of Neersa. The makeshift mob outside her door carried weapons of all sorts. Swords, sickles, pitchforks, torches, daggers, and axes, all out, ready to use. But despite all that weaponry, all the angry glares, and all the righteous bravado... they all stepped back when Kaidia crossed the threshold of her house and stepped onto the dirt path outside her door.

"We're here for the two girls who stole the necklace of Neersa!" the man at the front of the crowd said with an authority to his voice that Kai knew he didn't deserve.

Without a word, she pulled the jeweled necklace from her pocket and threw it into the dirt at the feet of the man who had spoken, the head priest of the temple. He looked down at the necklace, then back to Kaidia as the warrior turned to walk back into her home. "Such disrespect to a temple relic! Neersa will see to it that you pay for your insol-" the priest shouted, starting to condemn the sellsword.

"Do not tell me of your false god's vengeance!" Kaidia roared as she turned around, eyes ablaze with anger, cutting off the priest's words. The priest jumped back into the guardsmen behind him at the outburst. But he quickly gathered himself and began his rhetoric again. "The almighty Neersa will destroy you unless you repent from your wickedness and turn over the theives tha-" the holy man started again and was again cut off. This time it wasn't Kai's angry voice but a lightning bolt from the clear night sky that came crashing down between the warrior and the priest with a deep, thunderous crack and a blinding flash.

When the priest could see again, he looked down to where the bolt had struck, and gaped in horror. There, on the scorched earth, lay the cooling, melted remnants of the necklace. The priest looked up, still slack-jawed. "Some holy relic you have there, priest." Kai said with a smirk. Instead of taking the destroyed necklace as proof that his beloved Neersa was just a myth, the holy man became enraged and charged at Kaidia blindly. The rest, of course, followed his lead. Kaidia looked back over her shoulder, into her house. "GO!" she shouted to Kit, Myth, and Rose. The trio of girls didn't need to be told twice and they all bolted out the back door. At the same time, everything in the home disappeared, leaving it bare, as if no one had lived there in ages. Not that the three girls really had a mind to question the phenomenon as they ran like hell out of the house.

As the neko, thief, and wench ran, Kaidia drew both her sword and the blade that had belonged to Cortessa. These people were here to take her girls, harm her girls... and Kai wasn't having any of that.

***********************

Kit, Rose, and Mytheria had bolted out the back of the house and followed the stone wall of the city a short distance to the southern gate. Unfortunately for the trio, the gate was guarded more heavily than usual. "Damn it to hell." Kit hissed under her breath. Mytheria reached up and tapped the neko on the shoulder. Kitiara's head turned and she looked back to the redhead questioningly. Myth pointed to the stone wall that they were all currently pressed against. Kit's brow rose and her eyes watched the thief tapped on the wall, about two feet off the ground. Myth's knuckles hit one block, then another, then a third. The neko's keen ears perked. The block was hollow. Mytheria smiled brightly. Rose glanced between the two, then gave the block a push with her foot. It slid into the wall a bit. Then Myth simply kicked it and stepped back. Kitiara stepped over and bent down, seeing a clear, if somewhat small tunnel, to the other side of the wall. She glanced up to Mytheria with an arched brow.

"I am a thief, Kitiara." the redhead said with a smile and a shrug. Kit rolled her golden eyes and gestured to the tunnel. "Go. Quickly." she said. When Mytheria got down on all fours and started into the tunnel, Kit swatted the girl's bottom. The redhead gasped and Rose giggled. Once Myth was through, Rose slipped through as well. Kit crawled through last, then lifted the false block and pushed it back into place. After a moment's glance at her surroundings, Kit headed south, Myth and Rose just behind her.

***********************

The last of the city guard fell to the ground, a bloody mess. Kai stood over him, both swords dripping with blood, her eyes frighteningly calm, and her body devoid of injury. Most of the men on the ground were groaning and holding wounds. Kaidia had avoided killing most of them. She had just wounded the guards and the few townfolk who'd joined in the mob. The clergymen, well, they were all dead. This might speak to the warrior's thoughts on the new gods but seeing as how there wasn't anyone there at the moment who had the presence of mind to analyze Kai's psychological mindset, it would remain a bit of a mystery.

Kai turned at the sound of clanking armor and a savage smirk curved her lips. The noble's elite guards. Knights, all of them. They were marching down the street toward Kaidia and the battle ground that the street had become. Kai started toward them and met them on a clean patch of the dirty street.

A knight at the front of the procession of armored men and women unfurled a scroll in his hands and began to read. "Kaidia Valengaard, you are hereby placed under arrest by order of His Grace. The charges are as follows. Mur-" and the knight was cut off when a stone pinged off his helm.

He looked up, clearly insulted, and glared at the smirking Kaidia. "I will not be coming with you lot, knight. You can either choose to let me go or experience pain the likes you've never felt before." the warrior said calmly as she wiped her swords off on her pants and sheathed them. The knights looked at each other, then to Kai, then to the mass of dead and injured men laying behind her, then back to each other once more, and then they all drew their swords and charged, battle cries ringing in the air.

Kaidia grinned.

*********************

Kit, Rose, and Mytheria whirled around as an explosion within the city walls lit up the darkness around them and briefly turned night to day in the city and beyond it's walls. Kit's ears laid back and all three girls squinted as the brightness remained for a few long moments before the darkness engulfed them once more.

"What in the nine hells was that?!" Myth asked in a loud whisper. Rose just shook her head. Kitiara sniffed the air. "Kaidia." she said. The two girls looked at the neko questioningly, then squeaked as they were each swatted on the rear. They whipped around to look straight up into the eyes of a none too pleased Kai.

"Crap." the thief and the tavern wench said in unison. Kai crossed her arms. "We need to find some shelter. In the morning, I'm switching a pair of girls raw." the warrior growled out, then turned and started off into the night. Kit stifled a snicker while Rose and Myth lost all the color in the faces. "Come along. There are ruins not far from here where we can spend the night." Kai said over her shoulder. Rose, Myth, and Kitiara quickly followed.

"Where uh... where are we headed, Kaidia?" Rose asked a bit meekly. "Vortha." Kai responded shortly. Mytheria, Rose, and Kit all exchanged glances. "What's there?" Myth asked. Kai paused and looked out into the black of night, in the direction she knew the city of Vortha to be.

"Home." she responded, her voice matching the quiet of the night.

[Hallie]

very well written

[Often123]

Another great one, Nova. Hallie is correct.

[joedimwit]

Better and better. My only wish would be to be able to read this story in novel form. Well done.

[joedimwit]

Novus, find me. I wanna see how this story continues.

[Often123]

It's too good to end, so I hope Novus will continue writing.

[freakgirl]

I can't wait for chapter six!

[Often123]

Dang, she's no longer on this site. A great storyteller.