Tribal Law [Chapter One]

The sun beating down, one of hottest days she could remember. Like a great fire burning just over head. The crickets chirping in the tall grass, and the grunts of the bandits that held her captive can be heard. All around her, their camp, her eyes quickly dart to each, "one, two, three..." She counts in her mind. Ten, twenty, giving up any idea of escape. A cloud rolls past the sun, slumping against the pole she is tied to. "Relief at least," she whispers to her self. Closing her eyes, she remembers, remembers her homeland. How they the elves were so prudish, so arrogant in their ways. How the elders drilled it into her, all the knowledge a child of the elves should know. Plants and animals, magic of the forest they called it. Horribly boring she called it, she wanted to be free. To see the out side world, and what a world it was, full of amazing people. People that didn't care if her ears were pointed or if she knew the difference between a fern and a grass. Those musty old elves an their books, their plants, their animals of the forest. "Bah," she snorted, "I'm better off where i am." Opening her eyes for a second to look around, "Well maybe not better, happier.. maybe not happier either."

The cloud rolled on past and the sun glared once again. Its angry hot eyes beaming down it's rays of invisible torment. With the single purpose of torturing this lonely elf, tied to a pole, in the middle of a camp of bandits. She cursed the sun, the sun god and maybe even the moon too. Tears formed on the rims of her eyes, for the first time in her life she was stuck. There was no escape, no talking her way out of this one. She couldn't even sit, her legs and feet ached, her back itched from sweat an slivers from the old wooden pole. She didn't even know what these brutes planned to do with her, "they have dogs," she though to her self, "maybe i will end up dog food." Giving a small chuckle, "wouldn't those old coots love that. Circle of life they said..." Letting out a low depressed moan.

Her back she could no longer stand, there is nothing more powerful then itch that cant be scratched. Scraping her back against the pole she tried and tried. To no avail, more splinters, more itching. "Why," she pouted, "why did i have to wear a backless skirt today of all days." It was in fact the same cloths she wore almost every day. A wonderfully crafted skirt. Backless with cloth strips to cover her breasts, tied behind the neck. Four more strips going down from those to connect to the skirt, which was really just a front and a back. Slits going down each side an inch from the waist, allowing the legs to move in and out of it. "The perfect outfit for trading," she thought to her self, "show a little skin and they melt." That's right, this little elf, only eighteen years old by human standard, ran away from the elvish lands, to become nothing other then a trader. Its not that she is greedy, far from it. She just loves meeting and seeing the people in the world. What better way was there then by trading, going from village to village.

The hours rolled on, and the sun moved in the sky, the air began to cool. Finally a little reprieve, the wind picked up, blowing the sand and dirt all over her. "The gods hate me," she moaned. Like she believed in any of that crap. She always felt any one that puts their faith into an imaginary all powerful being, must be mentally handicapped. Or just too lazy to find a solution to their problem them selves.

"Ugh," she said, "I'm itchy!" Too loudly, she caught the attention of some of the bandits near by. Getting up an walking over, a nasty grin across their lips. Their blackened, and rotted. As they drew closer, she could smell them on the wind. A horrible stink of unbatheed man. Stopping just in front of her, the stink making her nose twitch. Leaning in to look her straight in the eyes. "You look hot, need to cool off do ya?" His mouth curling into a laugh. She stared at him in disgust, if she thought his body stink was bad, his breath was worse. Might as well be sniffing flowers before. She wanted to say "Bathing, you need it." But the smell was so bad she couldn't open her mouth, she held her breath.

A back handed smack across her right cheek awoke her from her stink filled daze. Now he was angry, "I asked you a question, you dirty elf!" Another hit and another, "Cant you talk!" He screamed, his anger rising higher and higher. The other bandit laughing a disgusting cackle that would frighten children.

If she thought the smell would kill her before know she knew the truth, it wouldn't be an odor that did her in. She was in trouble, these people didn't care that she was an elf, a unique thing to see these day, they didn't care that she was a women, if only by a few years, and they certainly didn't care that she was considered a kid not that long ago by most races standards. Hit after hit she received, bruises forming across her face. Her checks began to swell only to be crushed by another strong blow. Blood oozed from small cuts now forming on her cheeks. The blood mixing with tears as she cried from the pain. She is going to die here, in this dusty camp of thugs.

In between spurts of laughter, "Don't kill her" said the brutes side kick, "you know the boss wants her for him self, and if you do her in he will kill you too!" At the word boss the thug almost seem to get scared. "Great," she thought to her self, some one worse. "Ah yea," he said rubbing his head with his now bruised hand. "Got a lil carried away i guess, i cant kill her, but he didn't say anything about not making her life a little more fun, right?" A mind boggling "Uhh" followed from his lackey. Before he could actually answer the question, the thug reached out with both hands, that nasty horrific grin returning to his lips. Grabbing onto both straps that formed the top of her skirt, and tugged as hard as he could. The cloth digging into the skin of her neck an finally ripping free, her breasts now hung free of any all restraint. Glinting in the light of the setting sun, the sweat an dirt from the wind easily seen. Her breasts weren't huge like those of human women, even those her age. But they were big enough she always though. Just right as a matter of fact. Just enough to catch the eye of the people she tried to haggle with, just enough to entice them, just enough to distract from what they were trying to do. Now in the setting sun, they were bare for all to see, not that many were looking, they were busy with what ever it was bandits do in their camps. She had never shown any man, or any women for that matter. She cried, not from pain but from exposure, she felt dirty, and all she wanted was to get away.

Snapping her from her daze was the words "But we aren't done yet, are we?" another "uhh.." followed. The thug grabbed the cloth behind her, the only part guarding her soft legs and butt against the wooden poles rough surface. Her eyes widened, tears still flowing like little streams, stinging their way down her cheeks. "No!" She said in her mind, fearing to speak out loud. A great rip followed an the cloth was gone. He held it up for her to see then dropped it to the ground. It was only the back half but the damage was done, nestled between her ass cheeks now was the worlds most splintering pole. Humiliated and in pain, she didn't want to think about what they would do next, she just wanted to be far away. She closed her eyes an tried to think of what it might be like to go back home, would the elves ever let her return after running away? She tried to imagine it but she couldn't, their laughing, her being so exposed, it was all too much. Before she had time to really think though, the thug grabbed her lower jaw in his hand. His dirty fingers pressing into the cuts on her cheeks. Popping open her eyes just in time to see the worst thing yet, he kissed her. With all his foul breath being shoved in to her mouth, she could taste it. She gagged on the taste, reviled, but she couldn't get away. No freedom to move or even push him away. She had no choice but to endure it. When he finally broke away she coughed, spit and did anything she could think of to get that out of her mouth. Nothing worked, it was like she was infected, it latched onto her lips, and tongue. There was no escape, not from this camp or this taste. "Well your cool now!" She heard them say as they walked away.

She slumped forward, leaning over to look at the ground. The pole adding fresh slivers, but she didn't care anymore, she finally had come to terms with it, she really was going to die in this awful place. There was no one coming to save her, who would? She had no one, ran away from her family. She had been alone since then, four years now she had been running away from the elves. Doing what she wanted, seeing what she wanted to see. Now in the setting sun, the coming night, she would die alone, and afraid.

The hours passed, the sun had set an the moon had rose up into the night sky. It cast a pale white light across the land. Her eyes closed, she slept, she dreamed. In her dream she saw her self, as she is now, tied to a pole, her nakedness all the same. The bandits still laughed, they still drank. But something was different, a sound, the sound of a man screaming in fear. The sound of fighting, and battle. Off in the distance it could be heard, getting closer and closer. "Monster!" She heard one call out. The camp in her dream became alive with the buzz of the bandits trying to understand what was going on. One would rush out into the tall grass, only to be thrown back. "What's out there?" They called to each other. The body of the thrown man, slashed an cut, clean through his leather armor. Blood an bile seeped through onto the ground, he was dead.

A growl is heard from the grass, it sounds like a beast. Deep an low, it hangs in the midnight air. "How many?" Another called, panic rising in the group. Two men take off running towards the sounds, weapons held high and at the ready. Stomp, stomp they charge through the grass, the try plant life letting every thing around know exactly where they are, the swoosh of the blades of grass moving around them, the crunch of each boot fall.

The elves heart beat beats faster an faster, moving her head to and fro in her sleep. She mumbles the words "Don't go," her own panic rising as her nightmare progresses. From the darkness of the grass the sounds of men dying can be heard. Those two men, are now dead. The growl gets closer and closer, almost to the edge of the light cast by the camps fire. A great roar fills the night, echoing across the land, the crickets become silent, The bands shake in fear. A small group of men drop their weapon an run away, fleeing past the tied up elf. "Wait!" She calls in her dream, "Untie me first! Please!" To no avail, they are gone, terrified out of their minds they flee.

Suddenly the growl is above, high in the sky. The bandits look up to see something falling from above. With a great thud the beast lands in front of the bandits. In its clawed grasp it holds the dead bodies the two that attacked before. The beast looks like a monster told to children, like a weird mix of cat and wolf. It stands on all fours, a long tail whips about. Its mouth is filled with razor teeth ready to shred the meat from the bones of its kills. It has clawed hands in front that dig into the soft dirt, truly a beast of legend. Dropping the bodies to the ground, the beast looks around, surveying its surroundings, his eyes lock onto the elf. Their eyes meet, they stair into each other as if looking into the soul of another. Terrified she looks away, closing her eyes.

Awaking from her dream, she quickly notices that it was in fact not that much of a dream. The camp is alive with the fire of battle, but unlike before they are not fighting a mythical monster come from the underworld. They are fighting a man, a man that looks oddly like a cat. He wears a loin cloth, and wields a wide stone tipped short spear. Going down his back is a dark colored fur that can be seen in the fire light. His skin turned from dark to light on his chest an belly, with black spots mixed in between. It hung tightly across his muscled but slender body. Also a long cat like tail shoots out from under his loin cloth exposing his butt cheeks to the light. Staring in aw of the creature, she cant help but think that he is some kind of forest god or spirit. Something she never though existed.

Just like in her dream, he scans the camp, almost looking for something. Also just like in the dream, he locks his gaze onto her. Staring to intently into her eyes, her tear, fear filled eyes. His eyes are filled with a animal passion, an anger that burns brighter an hotter then the sun the day before. His emotions flow into her through that gaze, over whelming her, she lets out a yelp an turns her head in a feeble effort to hide. Snapping her eyes shut to hide the sight of him, but its no good. His eyes are bound to her mind, she can feel them looking at her.

She hears him let out another angry roar, calling any to challenge him, he seems almost mindless a savage beast, a monster hell bent on destruction and carnage. But deep with in those eyes she could sense something more, a gentle kind soul of a man, not a monster.

The fighting resumes, the sounds of the bandits dying one by one. Blood splattering to the ground, bodies crashing into the dirt. She dares not open her eyes for even a second, so much carnage fills the air. She can taste the blood in the air, hear the screams echo across the plains. The tall grass sways in the wind of the chilly night air. Before long the sounds die down, and for just a brief second she chances a peek. What she sees will haunt her dreams for as long as she can remember. Bodies, torn to pieces, arms an legs no longer attached to the whole. The soft dirt of the camp has been dyed a bloody red, every man that stood alive in this place yesterday have now reduced to nothing.

Over by the camp fire, stands the thug that abused her, he cowers before the beast. Yelping in fear, begging for mercy. His cries fall on deaf ears, he tries to crawl away, he tries in vain. She watches wide eyes, unable to look away as the beast reaches down and grabs the man buy his cloths. Lifting him with ease the cat looks him the eyes, filling the man with even more terror. He wets him self unable to control his own body any longer, the smell of fresh urine enrages the beast even further. Letting out a deep growl, the cat hurls the man head first into the crackling camp fire. Sparks fly and burst in the air, and the fire grows dim, the light fading away.

She stares in disbelief as the thug that abused her, beat her, and stripped her of her pride and dignity tries to crawl away, his body broken. He reaches out to her with a charred an shattered hand, then slumps to the ground, lying still, he is gone.

All that remains the beast and her, his eyes once again fixated on her. Her naked breasts shining in the remaining light. Her tear washed face glinting, he watches her. His eyes take in every inch of her physical form. The minutes pass but all he does is stare, almost like he is trying to understand what she is. His rage calms, and dissipates, his breathing returns to normal. Letting out a growl he turns an starts to walk away, leaving her there. With out warning her mouth moves, sound escapes, "wait..." She calls to him, but unable to believe what she just did.

The beast turns around so fast that she couldn't even follow it with her eyes, and before she knew it he was standing inches from her. The night had grown quiet, nothing made a sound, the beast instilled fear in everything around him. And yet deep inside she still felt that gentle spirit. He was so close now that she could smell his animal like breath, hear the blood dripping from his wounds. Once again his eyes took her in, his massive cat eyes. Now that he was closer she could see, that he wasn't all cat looking, his face resembled more of a man then beast, like some kind of cross between the two.

His tail swished back an forth like an animal very annoyed, "could you..." She began, trembling with the fear that still held her. A growl cut her off, before she could finish. She gave a small yelp an turned a way from him, closing her eyes once again. Fearing that she would end up like the others in the camp, just a nothing shredded body to feasted on by the vulture in the morning. She could feel him still staring, still watching. Hearing his deep breathing, in an out. Before long she could feel something else, a clawed hand feeling her breast. Snapping her head back an shooting him an angry gaze, "Hey!" She shouted with out thinking. His ears shot back and his tail stopped moving, he stared at her in a started way. Snapping her eyes shut once again she did her best to cower, hoping that he wouldn't kill her. But little good it did the other man, she thought to her self.

Suddenly he grabbed her face forcing her to look at him, he turned her head from side to side, looking over the bruises and cuts on her cheeks. With out warning the beast grabbed his spear an brought it forth. Wresting with her bonds, and his grip she struggled to get away, anything and everything. She knew it was over but she had to try, she couldn't just give up. With a strong swing the beast slashed his spear down the side of the pole, and her bonds fell away. She was free, and she fell to the ground, unable to stand.

She watched as the great beast slowly turned around an began to once again leave. She felt as if this was still just a dream, but she knew it couldn't be. The pain was real, her exhaustion was real. It took all her strength to get to up an stand, she knew she must be crazy, must be insane to even be considering something to stupid. But she knew she had to do it, she had to follow this creature, she had to know him. Something deep down told her that this is why she was out here, away from the elves. This beast was the one calling to her, driving her on. Grabbing what was left of her torn dress, she rushed after him, as best she could.

She stumbled after him for hours, keeping close enough to see the beast but fearing to get any closer. She was almost positive that he knew she was there, his ears would rotate to her direction often. But he never stopped walking, it didn't even seem as if he knew where he was going. Just walking away, was he running from something? Did he have a goal in mind?

After three hours she could walk no more, she fell to the ground, asleep. Her exhaustion took her. In her sleep she dreamed, dreamed of giant cat eyes always watching her. Never letting her out of their site, running and running she tried, but they were always there.

Tossing and turning she awoke, to find a fire, the smell of cooking meat. Sitting up and looking around, what should she find but the beast, sitting by the fire, his eyes closed. His spear lay on the ground next to him, broken. Did he break it finding food? She thought to her self. Sitting up more she slowly moved closer to the fire, the beast seemed to be sleeping. Fighting the urge to run away, she inched closer and closer. Finally she was next to him, his size easily dwarfed her own. He was not what she would have ever expected a forest spirit to look like, she always figured if they were real, they would be small an fairy like. But this was so much bigger, bigger then anything she had ever seen.

With out thinking she reached out a gentle slender hand to touch the beast. He awoke in an instant and before she could even react he was over top of her, pushing her back to the ground with one hand and his spear tip, poised high ready to strike. He let out a long low growl an breathed heavy. Fighting the urge to look away, she held up her hands, to show that she meant to harm. Staring into his eyes though she could see something didn't expect, the sight of sorrow, he was sad.

The beast slowly got up an sat back by the fire, his breathing returning to normal. She sat up slowly an moved next to him once again. Determined to understand what he was. Slowly she began to speak to him, "Can you speak?" She asked aloud. He responded with a growl. "What's your name?" She tried again, but again he responded with a growl. It was apparent that he either couldn't speak, didn't understand or just refused too.

Then she had an idea, reaching out once again she touched his arm for the second time, as gently as she could. He looked at her again with those sad but fierce eyes, while she had his attention, she she placed her other hand on her still naked chest and said "Mizuni." Again he responded with a growl, so again she did it. "Mizuni," she said, three more times and finally she thought he understood. He almost started to try an say her name, but stopped. Instead he placed his large clawed hand over top hers still on her chest. He let out another low growl, but this time it didn't sound angry or violent. Then he took that same hand, placed it on his own chest, opened his mouth, then closed it. Confused she tried again, and again the same response.

Mizuni was stumped, she had no idea what that could mean. So she figured she would do the next best thing. "If you wont tell me your name" She said with slight snicker, her fear starting to fade. "Then i will just have to give you one." She thought for a moment, then said "Kobal, that will do nicely." Holding her hand to his chest she said the name, waited a moment then said it again. Kobal, as she now referred to him as, grunted an then laid down.

Mizuni ate some of the meat that had been by the fire an went to work fixing her skirt. Using her hair and a cactus thorn she found she stitched it back together, it wasn't perfect but it would do. Soon as she was done, she put her dress back on an feel asleep, this time she was no longer plagued by nightmares, she almost felt at peace.