THE WITCHFINDER'S PRIZE

BY MOTORHOME MAN

[ part 1 ]

The girls’ parents had told them over and over again to keep away from the castle. It was now three months since the latest girl to go missing from the village had disappeared, and no trace had ever been found of her. If she had been caught by a wild animal, surely some evidence of her killing would have been found. But none had ever come to light. Instead the rumours had started again about the castle. For the past three years, children from all the local villages had been disappearing. At first no one suspected, it was normal for local wild animals like bears to occasionally catch a young child and kill it for food. But for three years the number of children disappearing had been far more than normal.

About three years ago, in around 1615, a new lord of the castle had been appointed. His duties included local law and order. This included looking out for heretics, plus anyone suspected of witchcraft. That particular part of the lower Rhine had thankfully been free from the terrible witch-hunts that had occurred in other areas. But the lord had always been a shadowy figure, rarely seen. Instead his sergeants had administered local justice. They too were sinister figures, rarely encountered but brutal whenever they were called in on any local matters. Anyone causing them any trouble was likely to end up in the local jails, guilty or not. Public floggings, and the occasional execution, were not unknown, and were usually staged to worry the local peasants into accepting the situation that they found themselves in without thinking of rebelling. It was sometimes the turn of a young child to endure one of the public floggings, the sergeants particularly enjoying the staging of a spectacle in which a young boy or girl between the ages of five and ten would be publicly stripped, spread-eagled totally naked and attached to an ‘X’ cross in the village square, and flogged repeatedly across their bare bodies. Sometimes several children would be treated in this way at the same time in a particular village if there were any obvious signs of dissent. Those children crying out in anguish at this sight from the forcibly assembled local population would be rounded up, similarly stripped totally naked and stretched against whipping posts with their wrists tied high above their heads. They would also then be publicly flogged, across their bare backs and fronts. It was certainly not unknown for twenty or more young children to be whipped in this way in a single session. Rather than instilling any thoughts of rebellion, this type of event had the effect of keeping the local inhabitants in check.

The girl who had disappeared three months ago had been seven years old. Her name was Sarah, and she had been a real beauty. Pretty little angelic face, long blonde hair – a real stunner. She had gone to the woods on the morning of her disappearance, and never returned. A huge search had turned up nothing. And that was when the rumours about the castle and its occupants again started up. Was something strange going on? Were children being abducted? And if so, why?

All the local children were told by their parents to keep well away from the woods, and never to stray near to the castle. At first these instructions had been rigidly kept to, but as time went by many of the local children started ignoring them.

Anna and Mary’s parents had told them so many times to keep away that the two girls had eventually tired of the warnings. Two amongst seven sisters, the two young girls were free spirits who were always together. Anna was seven, and Mary barely nine. Both were gorgeous. Young beautiful bodies, pretty angelic faces with big blue eyes, and long honey-blonde hair. Anna’s was down past her waist, Mary’s almost as long.

Several times the two children had ventured very close to the castle. They had crept up to its huge forbidding walls through the dense forest, where they thought no one could see them. The sense of excitement for the two little girls was intense as they got one day to within several feet of the outer wall. They had then dared each other to rush from the bushes where they hid and run up and touch the massive stone wall. Both had done so several times. Little did they know what danger they had put themselves in . .

And so it came to pass one day that the two young sisters returned to the castle to try out their little game again. The two little girls spent half an hour, running to the wall and touching it, and then running back to the bushes. First Anna, and then Mary. Their child bodies were hot and sweaty after this. They paused for a few moments to lie down in a bed of soft moss and rest. They were wearing simple peasant girl clothing, comprising of simple smocks and dresses with leather sandals. Beneath, each wore a loin cloth-like panty tied around their little waists. Their smocks were dusty and sweaty after their exertions.

Anna reached out to her beautiful sister and stroked her lovely face. Mary gently pulled her to her and embraced the sensuous little girl, planting a sloppy kiss on her sister’s soft tender child lips. The two embraced for several moments, enjoying the togetherness of their little bodies. They had done this several times before, and the last time several days before they had adventurously pulled off their smocks and had cuddled partly naked. Both had felt warm shivers pass through their immature sweaty bodies as they tenderly fondled each other. This time they went further, excitedly pulling off most of their clothes as they wriggled around in their little nest, giggling at the feel of the moss and lichen on their bare flesh. Practically naked, they embraced again, their warm flesh together as they played at kissing. As they kissed and fondled they both felt lovely feelings aroused inside that they did not understand, but were excited to feel.

After several minutes of this action the two girls realised that they had been away a long time, they should start to go home. Quickly but reluctantly they put their clothes back on, kissed each other sweetly once more, and prepared to leave. Then, Mary heard something. It began as a rustling in the bushes nearby, and then grew. Both girls began to feel frightened. Suddenly the warnings of their parents came into their minds. The two girls realised that people were approaching, heading straight for where they were lying.

Before the two children could get to their feet to run for their lives, several men came crashing out of the bushes all around them. The two girls screamed and tried to run. It was far, far too late. Each girl was seized by a huge assailant. Mary was brought crashing to the ground, while the man who had grabbed Anna swung her round like a little rag doll and enveloped her in his massive arms.

For several seconds the two girls fought wildly, screaming at the top of their lungs for help. But none came. No one was around to hear their terrified cries. Their fighting was totally useless. Their assailants were seven in number, and each was a massive, powerful soldier. All of them seemed well acquainted with what they were doing. Both girls were easily overcome, their resistance puny and utterly futile. The soldiers simply laughed at the girls’ pointless struggles.

The soldier holding down Mary then roughly pulled her to her feet. Without hesitation one of the other soldiers lunged forward and punched her fully in the belly. It was a huge ‘thud’. The wind was knocked totally out of the little girl, and she would have doubled up if she had not been held in a vice-like grip. Instead she instantly brought up most of her breakfast. The soldier holding her gruffly turned her upside down and shook her hard, causing her to spew more out onto the earth. The other soldiers laughed.

Then it was Anna’s turn. She was already terrified at the sight of her sister being so roughly handled, and started to kick and buck again. The result was the same – a soldier simply punched her in the belly as she was held tightly. She was then punched again, twice as hard, and dropped to the floor where she lay writhing, doubled-up and screaming. She too lost control of her belly and spewed out her breakfast.

The soldier who had punched her then seized a handful of her lovely hair and roughly hauled her to her feet. The squealing girl was then pulled roughly to a convenient tree. Several lengths of very coarse rope were produced. One was looped over a convenient branch. Unable to fight back, Anna’s wrists were seized, and roughly tied together with a free end of the rope. They were tied painfully tightly. One of the soldiers pulled on the other end of the rope and Anna’s wrists were yanked over her head. Within seconds she was hanging a few inches in the air, suspended painfully by the wrists. Too terrified to fight back, her ankles were also easily tied together with more of the chafing rope. She hung hopelessly in the air.

Mary was faring no better. In a heap on the floor having been sick, she too was seized by the hair. But she was simply forced to kneel down facing her sister while her wrists were painfully tied behind her back.

And so both little infants had been captured and were helpless. One moment they had been carefree children, experiencing each others’ young bodies, the next they were captives of brutal soldiers. Both began to sob uncontrollably. Why were they being treated like this? What was going to happen to them?

It was Mary who started to beg first. “Please, Pleaseeeeee let us go! We’re only children. Pleaseeeeee!”

The soldiers ignored this plea. Instead most of them had turned their attention to the hanging Anna. They leered menacingly at the helpless girl. But the soldier who had punched both girls, who seemed to be the leader of the men, was ready to start the next phase. Swaggering over to the hanging child, he grabbed a mop of her hair. Pulling her face close to his, he spat in her face.

“You’re mine, you little pig!” he exclaimed.

Mary gazed in horror. To stop her running away while the others had turned their attention to Anna, one of the soldiers took some of her long blonde hair in his fist. “Try to run, and you get this” he growled, pulling a long dagger from a holster around his waist, and holding it to the little girl’s throat. Mary whimpered and said nothing.

The lead soldier who had spat in Anna’s face looked into her terrified eyes with hatred. “Little heretics, calling up evil spirits in the woods, showing off your naked little bodies to the devil! You know what you deserve!” and again he spat at her. Anna was horrified by his words, and started to plead. “B-but we’re not, we weren’t doing anything, pleeeeese let us go, pleeeeeese!” The soldier scowled darkly at her “Shut up, little witch! ” he growled, and struck her face with the back of his massive hand. Anna squealed and was knocked backwards with the force of the blow. She swung helplessly from her already aching wrists. Rapidly and horrifyingly the realisation was growing on the little girls that they had been watched during their little games. Now they were thought to be witches, which was excuse enough - if any were needed anyway - for them to be seized.

Eyeing up the swinging little seven-year-old, the soldier began to lick his lips. He then seized the front of her smock. With a cruel laugh he wrenched at the flimsy material. A tearing sound and it came apart. Another pull and he ripped it completely from her body. This left her hanging, topless. It exposed Anna’s beautiful body. Her infant flesh was a soft golden colour. Her belly was a child’s pot, pulled tight by her hanging attitude, with a big, prominent belly-button. Her chest was flat as a board, with two tiny pink nipples. Pulled taught because of her hanging attitude, her ribs stuck out prominently beneath her flesh. Several of the soldiers also began to slaver when they saw her immature beauty. Anna screamed.

Not satisfied with making her half naked, the soldier then grabbed the top of her simple little dress. This too was yanked with force. It immediately gave with a loud rip, and fell to the floor. Poor Anna now hung, clad in just her rough loin cloth, her sandals having been lost in the struggle. She looked around with panic in her eyes, first at the grinning soldiers, then at her sister who was totally helpless to aid her.

The chief soldier was not yet satisfied. Taking a hold of her loin cloth, he ripped it from her body. Anna screamed again, as did Mary. Anna now hung, totally naked. All of her seven-year-old torso was completely exposed. The ripping away of her loin cloth had exposed her sex. A little child slit with puffy flesh on each side, with not a hair was in sight.

Mary screamed again. This attracted the attention of several of the soldiers back to her. Three of them headed for her.

“Oh my god, nooooo!” screeched the little girl. The soldier holding her by the hair yanked her to her feet, keeping the blade to her throat. She too was dragged to a tree. She was roughly pushed against its trunk, so that she stood with her back and her tied wrists against it.

“Stand with your legs wide apart!” growled one of them. Mary did as she was told and inched her feet further apart around the tree trunk, while the blade was held to her throat. Her ankles were then tied with rope looped behind the base of the tree, to keep her standing spread-eagled. Her hair was then seized and she was bent double. Her wrists were untied but at once re-tied together again above her head. She was then stood upright and the rope hoisted high above her, pulling her wrists well over her head and forcing her into an inverted ‘Y’ shape. Her wrists were pulled so hard that she was stretched roughly up the bark, so that she was soon barely supported on her tip-toes.

She was already whimpering as one of the soldiers seized her smock and ripped it from her body. This made her topless like her sister had been. It exposed her lovely nine-year-old body. She still had something of a pot belly, but her chest was just starting to have the merest hint of flat mounds. Her nipples were large and pink. Her belly button was a big fleshy protrusion. Two soldiers then grabbed her little dress and yanked it off in one go. This left her standing, with her legs far apart, in just her loin cloth. Her sandals had been lost in the vain struggling. Not hesitating, one of them then seized her loin cloth and ripped it away from her. She screamed as the cool air touched her. She was totally naked. The soldiers stood back to admire and feast their eyes on the banquet before them.

Mary was totally naked. Her soft virgin flesh looked golden and magnificent in the light. Her long slender legs were obscenely pulled apart, exposing her totally hairless cunt. It was a perfect child slit, like her sister with puffy little mounds of soft flesh on either side. By then all the soldiers had a massive hard-on, from the sight of these sensational little girls bound tightly and helpless, and from the anticipation of what was to come next.

Both girls were sobbing and gasping for breath, terrified. It was obvious that something awful was going to happen to them, they had been brutally punched and were now stripped and tied. They were roughly facing each other across the little clearing where they had been seized, with the seven huge soldiers eyeing them up menacingly.

Mary saw it first, and screamed. One of the soldiers drew from a holder on his gaiters a mean-looking coiled whip. He unfurled it, letting its two thin, evil-looking strands fall to the ground. Each strand had several tiny knots near its end. At the same time the soldier who had spat at Anna did the same, but his whip had three long thin strands. Both girls groaned in horror.

The soldier near Mary positioned himself in front of her and slightly to the side, so that his blows would strike her body cleanly without contacting the tree. Mary screeched and braced her child body, trying to turn away and make herself the smallest target. The soldier tried a couple of practice strikes first, letting the whip contact the earth, where it threw up dirt as it contacted. This terrified the girl, knowing that it would next do that to her body.

"This will prepare you for the tortures to come, little witch!" growled the soldier. Staring right into her eyes with a look of hatred on his face, the soldier let her have it. Swinging forward with all his weight behind it, he sent the whip whooping through the air towards her torso. The two strands caught her across her belly, one just above her belly button and the other striking her right across her fleshy belly button. Poor Mary screamed“ AIEEEE EEEEEEE EEEE EEEEEA RRRRR RRHH HHHH HHHHH HHHHHH!!”

Two thin red lines at once appeared across her pot. The air was completely knocked out of her.

The soldier slightly repositioned himself, and sent the whip crashing towards her a second time. This time the thin hard strands caught her across her chest, the upper one cutting right across her left nipple. The blow was so hard that it knocked her upwards against the rough bark, causing her to cry out in pain not just for the whip blows but for what the coarse bark did to her bottom and shoulders.

The third blow hit her across her lower belly. The fourth again hit her pot belly. This left eight big red stripes across her pre-teen torso. Mary was screaming, wailing and sobbing at the same time, her little body shaking with fear and pain.

While this was happening, Anna was screaming also. But not from watching her sister being whipped. Instead, she was about to receive the same treatment. But for her, it would be worse. As she was hanging from a branch, there was free access all around her body. Two of the soldiers glowering at her had also produced vicious-looking whips. One had walked around behind her, the other bore down on her from the front. The soldier at the front spat in her face, the look of hatred in his eyes terrifying further the shaking child. The soldier behind her seized her lovely long hair, and wrapped it around one of her arms so that it was out of the way. By doing that he had exposed the whole length of her lovely back. Now all her child torso was exposed. The little seven-year-old whimpered helplessly, and began to beg.

“Pleeeeese don’t hurt me, I’m only a little girl, I don’t mean you any harm, pleeese!!” She was utterly horrified by the response – spitting in her face again, the soldier growled “You worthless little witch, I’m going to kill you!!” And then other soldier – “You’re both going to die in agony for your sins!!”

Anna screamed. The soldier walked several paces back from her hanging, sweating body. Anna began breathing faster as her little heart raced. She tried to brace herself, but it was no good at all. From behind her, unseen, she heard the whooshing sound of a whip in full flight. An instant later it caught her full across the small of her back. The crack was so hard she was flung forward, a spray of sweat flying off her body. “AAAIEEEEE EEEEE EEEEEEE EEEEEE EEEEEEEE EEEEEE EEEEEEE EEEEE!!!” Her shrill scream pierced the air. The force of the blow arched her head back, and so she didn’t see the whip coming at her from the front. The two cutting strands caught her full across her immature belly. “AAAAAAGGGGGGGHHHHHH!! AIEEEEE EEEEEEEEEE!! AGGGGGGGG GGGGHH HHHHHHH!” The little girl screamed so loud the soldiers glowering at her sister were momentarily distracted. Again a spray of sweat flew off her as the whip found her body. Her lovely flesh was soft and tender, and moist from the film of sweat covering her. It caught the full force of the next blow right above her sex slit, and before she could even start to scream the next one from behind got her right across her shoulder blades.

At the other end of the clearing, Mary was doing no better. After receiving the first eight lashes across her nine-year-old body, she was given the chance to see two further soldiers also producing whips. The first soldier advanced menacing at her, and spat at her. “You little pig, you’re going to squeal in agony as you die!!” and seized her crotch. Mary was close to passing out and really had lost all sense of reality already. This was lucky for her, because her little sister was enduring blow after blow from the whips. Her hanging torso was being unmercilessly flogged, from both back and front. The soldiers were sparing her nothing, and deeply enjoying her torture. The helpless little girl was thrashing around screaming, her child body being whipped without mercy.

“STOP!!” The words boomed out across the little torture clearing. At once the soldiers ceased their sport, and as quickly as they could came to a ragged form of erect attention. Striding purposefully into the centre of the clearing was a tall, handsome figure, clearly in complete authority over the soldiers. Around 30 years old, he had an unmistakable air of authority that none of the rough soldiers could muster. Gazing momentarily with a look of contempt towards the leader of the soldiers, he first strode over to Mary. Whimpering and quietly sobbing, the little nine-year-old was still in her inverted ‘Y’ stance against the tree, but her body was slick and shining with a film of sweat and her head was lolled forward. Her lovely blonde hair was plastered across her forehead. Her magnificent young torso was covered in lash marks from the whipping that she had just received. The handsome man carefully but purposefully took a mop of her hair in his hand and yanked her head upward, so that he could look into her face. The little girl continued to whimper, tears streaming down her pretty little face from her baby blue eyes. “Mmmm”, murmured the man, and let go of her hair letting her head drop.

Then he strode over to where poor Anna was hanging. The naked seven-year-old was hanging limply from her wrists, unconscious from the flogging. Somewhere during the torture her bladder had given up the uneven struggle and had let rip, leaving a pool of mess on the hard ground below her toes. Her body was running with sweat, and her back and front were both covered with prominent welts from the flogging. Her long blonde hair had become unfurled from her arm where it had been wrapped and it hung limply and matted against her body, covering some of the worst of the whip-marks.

“I prepared them good, didn’t I!” leered the soldier in charge. The handsome man swung around to him and spoke for the first time, slowly but with authority “That’s my job, the Witchfinder will not be pleased if they are too badly handled before he gets them. Now cut them down and get them inside before any of the peasants find them”, and with that he left the clearing, leaving the soldiers grinning at each other, but disappointed that their sport was ended - at least for now.

To be continued . .