Ayanna at the Lake (Ayanna)
From Toosigma
| Title | Ayanna at the Lake |
|---|---|
| Author | Philip Mann - Ayanna |
| Campaign | Shattered Prisons |
| Session | Intersession |
| Posted | |
| Game Date |
Ayanna stepped through the dense trees and onto the remote shore of Laylim Lake, a crystal clear body of spring water hidden in a high valley far from the tended farms surrounding Silvervale. The lake has been a place of seclusion and quiet for her for the two years since she has been in the wood. Today however, she was not here to indulge her need for peace. The elf had walked through the forest for many miles to reach this location following a feeling of dark cold that tugged at her intuition. She had learned in her time in the forest that her intuition was one of her best advisers, so she followed it this day without question.
A gentle breeze blew across the water causing pockets of ripples along the otherwise glassy surface. A small group of mallards swam not too far away, dipping their bills into the water and tossing it up onto their feathery backs. She could barely see the small family of deer drinking from the other side, alternating between dipping their heads into the cool waters and scanning for danger. Everything seemed completely normal, completely peaceful to the little elf.
She walked along the shore trying to determine the source that pulled her. She looked and listened to everything around her, but nothing seemed out of place. The dark-cool sense, as if a cold winter wind was at once blowing against her and pulling her toward the lake, began to fade. Ayanna considered that it could have been nothing at all, or something that was now past. In any case, she was here and she decided it was where she would spend the remainder of her day.
Ayanna stepped lightly to the edge of the water, feeling the damp soil push up between her toes. The water was quite cold as it always was, even in spite of the warm Lharvion afternoon. She looked deep into the black water, seeing only a reflection of herself on its smooth surface. She took a moment to wonder at herself in the mirror of water. From her shapely legs covered in dirt and leaves, across her firmly defined torso hidden by unflattering garments, to the golden locks that framed a face that was beautiful in spite of being unwashed. Ayanna knew that she could certainly use a bath and, as she surveyed her clothing, realized that her attire was likewise overdue to be washed.
The little elf waded slowly into the lake, being careful not to disturb the surface any more than she had to. She could feel the brisk water against her skin as it soaked through her simple garb as if it wasn't there. As her slender waist sank below the ripples, she gently began removing her clothing to wash the articles as well as her own body. She easily lifted her angora shawl over her head and began inspecting it as she sank farther into the water. It was made in the spring from the angora wool combed from the rabbits as they shed their winter bulk to prepare for spring, woven carefully by hand in a way that Aemylithria showed her. It had worn very well, and felt so soft against her skin that she originally asked to make a dress the same way. The nymph told her that it was bad to use any one resource, as abundant as it may be, for all of her needs. Instead, her course ramie dress would have to suffice until its years had been used-up and she required another.
Observing the shawl to be still in excellent repair, and Ayanna lowered it completely below the surface of the lake to soak as much of the grime away as she could without too much rubbing. She then turned her attention to her dress, made of course ramie linen that took weeks to produce. The fabric was very strong and stayed remarkably dry, even when the rains of early summer crossed the plateau. She dyed the fabric green when it was first made, but she made a mistake in the process and the green slowly turned to brown over the summer. Now, with just a hint of jade left to it among the darker brown shades, Ayanna contemplated whether to try to recolor it or not as she slipped completely underwater to allow her dress to float free of her form.
Now naked, with just hear head and shoulders above the water where she stood, Ayanna carefully inspected her dress as she had her shawl. The fabric of the dress did not hold soil, and a few gentle shakes after it was completely soaked was all she needed to release what little grime remained.
Ayanna cleaned her garments and gingerly waded back to shore where she hung everything on low branches to dry. She then waded back into the water, not stopping until even her flowing hair sank below the surface. She remained submerged for a long while, swimming a little and wading a little, until she felt she had washed her body thoroughly. Slowly, she swam up until she could see out of the water. She looked to the shore, now dozens of yards away, to ensure that her clothing was still there though she could not imagine where the impulse came from. She had no fear of anything being stolen as the forest does not steal from its own. She felt as safe as any Man in his stone-built dwelling as the whole forest was such a protective home to her.
Seeing everything where she left it, Ayanna consider swimming back when a sound on the far side of the lake drew her attention. It sounded like the bray a mule combined with to scream of a man. She spun around quickly to see a saddled mule running down the shore, fleeing a pair of wolves that were chasing it. The mule had no rider, so Ayanna began swimming quickly toward the opposite shore where she believed the source of the man-scream could be injured.
Her pitiable strength and significant weight for her size caused her to take far longer to reach the shore than she wanted. The wolves had not come back, and neither had the mule, so the elf believed the pack animal had become part of the food chain in spite of its domestication. As she waded ashore, Ayanna thought only of helping someone who could be hurt and not of her vanity, so when she peeked over the bushes where the rider had fallen, she was greeted by halfling who had suddenly forgotten how bad his bleeding head hurt.
“Blessed Olladra!” the halfling exclaimed upon seeing Ayann's naked form. “Fortune has indeed gifted me the most beautiful woman in the world!”
Ayanna stepped around the bushes, responding to his assertion, “Silly little man, you are injured and should not be talking.” She had no love for city-men as this halfling appeared to be, but she also could not leave an injured beast to die if it was not beyond help.
She disappeared from his sight for just a moment as she paused to pick a handful of leaves that would help stop his bleeding. When she reached him, he was trying to sit up to see her, but he kept falling down every time he would put weight on his arm. Ayanna had seen this many times with animals, they would try to stand on broken limbs as if they could not feel that they were broken; she knew immediately that this halfling was injured far worse than he knew.
Reaching his side, Ayanna and gently pushed his chest to cause him to lie down. His eyes never left her, as if he was trying to memorize every inch of her exotic beauty. She crushed leaves in her hands and pressed them to the cut on his head. She felt his right arm and, determining it was uninjured, told him to hold the compress tightly so she could tend his other wounds. Instead of placing his hands on the compress however, he reached for her unbound breasts with his good arm.
His hand upon her, Ayanna thumped the compress on his head with her thumb to get him to reflexively grabbed for the injured area. “You should keep your hands to your own body, or I may not be able to stick around and help you,” she bluffed. She knew she would tolerate nearly any indecency while his life was in danger, but she did not want to have to tolerate anything worse than his eyes and imagination on her body.
With his good hand now firmly planted on his head to control his bleeding, Arianna was free to work on the arm she knew to be injured. She could feel to his city-made shirt, that his arm was broken in several places. She could not see any bleeding, so she told him she would have to set his arm.
“It will hurt,” she told him sincerely, “but if it is not set it will heal badly.”
The halfling made some noise to the affirmative, but she could tell that he lost a lot of blood and was probably going into shock. She quickly checked to ensure he was not injured elsewhere, and she went to work setting his arm. The first solid movement made him scream, and the second made him pass out. But his arm was straight, and she used some fallen limbs and vines to split his arm and then tie into his body. The compress stuck to his head as it was supposed to, so his bleeding would be contained long enough for her to retrieve her clothing.
Ayanna cast a ward on him to make him undetectable to any animals that might come by as she checked his wounds once again. She believed that it was her role to help all that she could, especially those who were not deliberately trying to corrupt the world around them. Also, as unwelcome as his fondling may be, the small man's actions were certainly not harmful to her so long as she could actually get away.
She made him as comfortable as she could and trotted quickly down to the water. Ayanna waded back into the clear water and began to swim back to the other side as quickly as she could. Her nature blessed her as she could not hold herself above the surface enough to breathe if she needed to. No, the little elf was a very poor swimmer and spent a great deal of her time closer to the bottom than the surface.
As she neared the far side where her clothes awaited her, she stood on the bottom and began to walk while submerged. She wondered to herself if running around the lake might have been quicker, but stopped when the icy feeling that originally called her to the area reawakened within her. She tried to locate the source, but it seemed that it was all around.
Slowly, Ayanna resumed her slow walk toward the shore hoping to see what vexed her before it was too late. She broke the surface of the lake without causing a ripple just in time to see an Aundairian scouting party melt out of the forest. She counted four of them in total, all camouflaged to blend in with their surroundings. One, it seemed, had seen her clothing hanging on the limbs and had alerted the others to watch for her. Almost as soon as she realized what they were doing, however, she heard one far to her right call to the others pointing toward the water. She had been spotted.
Immediately the patrol spread out along the shore to better cover their ground. As they all approached the edge of the water and began calling taunts, it became obvious even to her that they knew she was alone. She thought, as the two on the outside began wading in after her, that it was unlikely she could outswim even one, but she also knew that she had allies in the wood.
Ayanna stepped forward just enough to get her mouth above the water to cast a spell.
“Hey, look boys,” one yelled, “I think she's comin' to get some!”
“Come here honey,” the on her left called while he lowered one hand to his crotch. “I bet I've got just what you're lookin' for right here.” They all laughed with him.
She tried to concentrate on casting her summons for help, but an arrow struck her shoulder from within the trees and her spell was lost.
A strong female voice called to her from the shadows where the arrow came from, “No spells for you, Sweety.”
A woman, tall and athletic, stepped from the wood where she had been standing so still that the little elf had missed seeing her. She had a rigid stance of a soldier, but carried herself with an air of authority that commanded attention. She held a bow in her hand as she reached for another arrow.
“Damn it,” she barked at the men. “I told you to capture or kill anyone, not to play around. Now, secure her as a prisoner before I put an arrow into each of you and report you missing in action!”
The men responded to her command as a group that would throw themselves off of a cliff at her word. Ayanna tried to wade away, but the powerful men overwhelmed her efforts and they dragged her back to shore through comments about her needing a diet. She was bound and gagged with a proficiency that scared her.
“Hurry,” the woman commanded, “and don't forget her clothes. We don't want any other Reaches scum to come looking for her here.”
“Aye aye, ma'am,” the nearest responded as he stuffed her dress and shawl into a pouch on his belt.
The woman grabbed the the spot where the arrow penetrated her shoulder firmly and snapped the shaft off with her other hand. She appeared to be concentrating, not on what she was doing, but on not making eye contact with her captive. It was as if she wished the elf to be invisible and, in so hoping, she would be. The woman strode away with the broken shaft leaving two of her men to check her binding. They lifted her naked body into the air between them as the whole troupe moved stealthily away from the shore and into the wood.
The group marched quickly and quietly for several hours to the east without stopping, eventually blindfolding Ayanna so that she could not longer see where they were going. Ayanna tried to fight and get loose of their grip, but each time she squirmed she was greeted by a firm kick to the ribs. Within short order she had no fight left and she hurt all over. After that, she would receive a blow at random as she silently wept. They said nothing, communicating only by hand signals as they went.
The scouting party stopped sometime after nightfall to make camp. They unceremoniously dropped Ayanna to the ground next to a tree and went about the business of preparing a cold meal while the woman in charge of them kept watch. She never looked at the elf, instead she kept her eyes glued to an unspecified distance from the camp. Even when the little elf squirmed to loosen her bonds, the commander looked at one of her men and motioned toward Ayanna. The man, without an instant of hesitation jumped to his feat and kicked the captive in the stomach until she curled into a fetal position crying and gasping through her gag. He then forcefully covered her mouth with his hand to suppress the noise.
“Keep quiet and still,” he whispered menacingly in her ear, “or I'll bleed you right here and leave you to die.”
Ayanna understood the threat and bit her tongue to silence her sobs. She wanted to live, to get through this and return to her pleasant life, so she fought to control her reactions as best she could.
“Good girl,” he said. He reached into the pouch where he had crammed her clothing and pulled each item out. “Now, if you think you can continue to be a 'good girl', I'll get you dressed.”
Ayanna nodded, but another of the soldiers interrupted him.
“Oh, she's not getting dressed yet,” he said quietly. The other simply nodded, stood, and walked away knowing what this other had in mind. He was a large man, menacing in size and demeanor. He loomed over Ayanna, making her feel as tiny as a rabbit before the wolf. Her cowering made him grin.
The little elf tried to fight, but the large man simply overpowered her. Her legs were bound at the knees and ankles, and her arms were bound behind her back, so her fight was insignificant to him. He shoved her against a tree and easily flipped her onto her stomach.
“I haven't had a Reaches bitch in a few weeks,” he told her as he tried to wrestle her hips into the air. Ayanna continued to fight. “Stamina, I like that; keep struggling sweetheart, I'm going to breed you regardless of whether you want it or not!”
She never tired and his frustration soon got the best of him. He stopped trying to mount her and simply began hammering punch after punch into her bare back. Blow after blow hit her and knocked her to the ground, but she never stopped trying to keep him from penetrating her body. After what seemed like an hour, the beating abruptly stopped as a forceful boot stomped her to the ground and the female leader's voice told him that he was on watch and that he better use the little time afterward to get some rest or he might become a liability. Ayanna was not sure what she meant by “liability”, but she hoped it meant that she would not tolerate him wasting more time beating her.
The soldier left, and the commander knelt next to Ayanna and rolled her onto her back. For the first time, the elf could see the slitted pupils of this woman looking deep into her soul. She felt sick in the same way as she had when she first stumbled into a poacher's camp. She could feel that this woman was bathed in death and that life was meaningless to her for its own sake.
“I am going to cut your bonds, elf, but don't even think about running away,” she threatened. “I can see in the darkness better than you, and I can hide the pieces of your body out here where nobody will find them.” She paused to be sure her captive understood before handing her back her clothing. “Get dressed and sit right here so I can tie you up again.”
Ayanna complied. The commander removed a gleaming blade from its sheath and the elf closed here eyes as the woman moved behind her. She expected to feel her throat slit or to feel the blade buried deep into her back, but it did not come. Instead, with a blade so sharp it didn't pull the rope at all, her bonds fell to the ground. The woman handed her the ramie dress, never moving from behind her, and Ayanna quickly pulled it over her head. The woman then draped the shawl over the elf's shoulders and leaned in close to hear ear.
“I'll be watching you,” she breathed into her ear. Ayanna felt the edge of her knife sliding along her shoulder where the arrowhead was still buried. “If you try to escape or try to use your spells, I will destroy you. But, I may let my men have you first.”
With a flick of her wrist, the commander slashed into Ayanna's shoulder and dislodged what remained of the arrow. The elf started to scream through her gag but found a hand on her throat so strong that it squeezed her sound into a tiny squeak.
“No noise, elf. None at all.”
Her powerful grip released Ayanna's throat and the elf slumped to the ground. The commander reminded her that she would be watched before seating herself a few meters away against a tree.
Injured and trapped, Ayanna wished for some kind of sleep throughout the night knowing it would not come. She was scared, but she tried simply to be still and not provoke the dangerous woman whose eyes never seemed to leave her. Holding tightly to nature, she called silently into the wood for help, and a growl from behind the commander as the sun broke the horizon told her that her call had been answered.
The wolf charged and Ayanna ran into the wood. She heard the sounds of battle behind her and thought that she might have enough time to flee, but the impact of an arrow into her back told her that she was very wrong. She turned to gain cover behind a tree, but a second arrow burned into her hip and sent her crashing to the ground. The elf had no way to run, so she cast a spell to help her hide and she hoped that would be enough...
