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The Solitary Arrow - by Mack the Knife
   Part Two
   The hands were not kind to the duo as they were dragged out of the tent,
leaving scratches from their long, hard nails, and bruises from casually
thrown kicks and punches.  Harlan felt he bindings on his arms cut, along
with some of Harlan.  Then he was retied to a tree, near to the now quite
obviously dead Eleean.  The orcs laughed and smacked him around a bit,
backhanding him and cursing him in their foul tongue.
   The orc in the ornate garb and mask emerged from the largest tent.  He
walked to where two burly orcs held up Hyandai's body.  He grinned beneath
the mask, showing a mouth full of browned yellow teeth.  In passable
Haldaan, he said "You give us good fun, elf-wench." The masked orc reached
out with a taloned hand and grabbed her shirt between her small breasts. 
When he pulled, the cloth ripped and the front tore open, revealing the
perfect small cones.  He reached out with that hand again, and grabbed one,
he squeezed it hard enough to leave a bruise.
   Hyandai smiled at him, then said, "You will make a woman of me?" She
wiggled her hips suggestively.  This performance brought a round of guffaws
from the assembled orcs.  The leader seemed slightly taken aback that his
attempt to terrify the elf had lead to other results.  Harlan's hands were
working fiercely behind the small tree he was tied to, pulling, twisting,
and clawing at the rope that bound them.  He would have been surprised to
know it, though, because that was the project of Hyandai, or rather,
Hyandai's mind.
   The masked orc gripped the top of her skirt, and ripped it downward, as
well.  It and the undergarments Hyandai had been wearing ripped and fell to
the ground.  Harlan distantly thought 'She's magnificent.' Before He
realized that she could hear him.  Her tiny body was now exposed, the
narrow slit between her legs had no pubic hair, like human women.  The
hunter's body flinched as Hyandai recoiled from the image of her own body
being laid nude before the slavering orcs.  Harlan was also a bit disturbed
by what he was seeing.  The elf-maid was lovely beyond anything or anyone
he had ever seen, and to see such disgusting creatures pawing at her made
him ill and angry.
   "Thank you." Said Hyandai's voice in his head.  "Even under these
circumstances, I'm flattered."
   She had managed to work one hand to where it could pluck at the ropes
entangling the other hand.  She was making headway against the crude knots
that bound them.
   The leader ordered her laid upon a low table that had been being used
for food.  He cleared it with his arm and her body was laid upon it.  The
bindings on her ankles were cut and they were tied apart at different
corners of the table, spreading them wide, and incidentally, giving Harlan
an excellent view of her spread womanhood.  It was pink, and soft-looking,
like rose petals, and perfect.  He felt his organ twitch just thinking
about it.
   "Again, you flatter me, but please, we need to escape." Hyandai thought
to him.
   Harlan mentally flensed himself.  "My God, I'm sorry, Hyandai, my
crudity must disgust you."
   He felt a mental shrug in his own head.  "Not really.  I do look good,
do I not?" She said, then thought "Oh, my.  You are rubbing off on me,
male." Then he felt her depart for the hands again.
   The leader pointed to a particularly burly orc warrior and growled
something to him.  That orc chuffed and raised his crude tunic upward,
exposing his massive organ.  It was the same mottled gray as the rest of
the orc, but appeared to actually have muscles within its shaft, unlike a
man's pole.  It flexed and bent around obscenely as that orc moved squat
over Hyundai's body.
   In his head, he heard Hyundai say.  "No one ever said anything about
THAT in the tales." She nearly gasped it out.
   Her body looked tiny beneath the brute, less than half his bulk and much
slimmer.  His organ was as large as her upper arm in girth as well as
length.  The orc squatted more and placed the swollen head of his cock at
the entrance of her tiny slit.  She squirmed beneath the orc, and pushed
her hips at him.  She screamed something in what sounded like orcish at the
orc, which caused him to look at the leader, confused.  The leader laughed
at his uncertainty and said something else to the orc.  The orc shrugged
and pushed forward, spreading her open with his huge rod.  Hyundai screamed
and thrust into the penetration, forcing more of the hammer into herself.
She started screaming in orcish.  And the orc shoved into her deeper,
penetrating almost ten inches into her tiny frame.  He started pounding
into her, going a bit deeper each thrust, until he was bottomed out in her.
His huge balls slammed into her ass, and he began humping faster and
faster, grunting in his language, which set the others to laughing in their
chuffing way.
   The hand was very nearly free, and Hyundai came up for air.  "I hope
he's not doing permanent damage to me, I have to go back eventually." She
said distantly.  She mentally nodded in approval to Harlan for having the
decency to not have an erection at this point.  "You're a good man,
Harlan." She said in his head, then jumped back down to the hands, and
their desperate task.
   The hugely built orc was thrusting frantically now, and gouts of globby
gray fluid was oozing from around his cock as it slipped into and out of
her tight body.  Hyandai's body screamed again, arching her back against
the weight of the orc's hands on her chest.  She was having an orgasm, and
it was a good one, apparently.  She collapsed onto the table again, and
kept her hips thrusting with the orc's penetrations.  The orc grunted
something out and dug its claws into her tits, squeezing them and causing
blood to begin to flow from the deep gashes his claws caused.  He finally
stood up, sliding his rod out of her in a fast and uncaring fashion.  He
had done what he wanted, he was through with her.  An audible pop sounded
as the head came free, and a gush of the lumpy gray liquid followed it out,
covering the table between her stretched legs.
   The leader signaled another orc to take the first's place.  He happily
chucked off his armor and ran toward Hyandai's body, his cock hardening and
flapping against his legs as he ran.  He squatted over her, and simply
slammed it into her, causing her to buck upward.  He wasn't as impressive
as the first orc, but was no slouch, either, having eight or so inches, and
a thickness of her wrists.  She pushed up to meet him and actually looked
up at him and whispered to him in orcish, and set that orc aflame, he began
fucking her in fast short strokes.  She whispered something else, and he
spent.  Howling loudly as he shot his gray semen into her now stretched
pussy, it gushed out immediately, and further coated the table.
   Another of the orcs was ordered into place, this one between the two in
size and build.  He began much the same performance, except he seemed to
like to do it facing the opposite direction.  Harlan's hand came free at
last.  It was slick with blood and sweat, but it was loose of the binding.
"Kill the leader." Hyundai said in his mind.  "The rest will flee for a
while, at least." Harlan looked over and saw the bow that must have
belonged to Eleean lying near his still tied up corpse.  The arrows were
scattered on the ground nearby.
   Harlan gauged the distance and took off.  The orcs didn't even notice
for a second, enthralled with the fine show Hyandai's body was putting
forth.  He dove for the bow at about the same time that the leader noticed
he was moving.  The masked orc screamed something guttural and pointed at
him.  He grabbed the bow on a roll and an arrow as he came up on his knee.
He quickly slipped the arrow onto the string and pulled it back, drawing a
bead on the lead orc's skull.  The voice in his head said something in
elven and the bow started humming in his hand.  "Loose it!" Hyandai's mind
told his.  He fired.
   The arrow leapt from the bow like it was fired from a arbalest.  The bow
itself actually recoiled in his hand and forced him to compensate with his
body.  The arrow itself seemed to turn into a glowing silver-white
lightning bolt between himself and the leaders head.  The masked orc caught
it right above the nose, in the forehead as he was screaming out another
order.  The arrow continued until just the fletching stuck out from his
forehead, the shaft stuck out the backside of his skull by almost two feet.
He made some incoherent sound, something like 'book.' and fell forward onto
his face.
   Harlan was already knocking another arrow before the orcs realized that
their leader was down, they turned to face him and then one screamed
something.  They all looked at the fallen masked orc and blanched, or as
close to blanched as an orc can get.  The six remaining orcs fled the camp,
running for their lives.  Harlan shot one in the spine, causing him to fall
to the ground, twitching.  He picked up the remaining arrows, and held them
in his right hand as he walked through the camp.  Hyandai's body was still
lying on the table, she was smiling up at him.  "Do you want to make me a
woman, too?" She said, happily.  "If you do, please be a little gentler
than that first guy, he hurt me some." Her face took on the look of a
petulant five year old.  "I do not like him much, he will have to be nicer
next time he wants to have sex with me."
   He was almost ill at the thought.  The real Hyundai said in his head. 
"See, she's fine, Harlan.  We did well." She squirmed inside his mind.  "I
am starting to get too comfortable in here, my friend, please sit beside
her and stare into her eyes, and get her attention."
   Harland did as he was told.  He sat down next to Hyandai's body and
looked into those beautiful, but very blank golden eyes.  "Look into my
eyes, Hyundai, then I will make a real woman of you, not the fumbling of
those orcs, they were children." He said.
   She grinned wide, and looked at him, staring intently.  "Good, I have
only 'lanta taarien' two time, and I want more."
   The voice in my head snorted in disgust.  "Two times and that harlot is
complaining?" Harlan wondered what 'lanta taarien' meant, but decided to
ask later.  "Do." Hyundai said.  "Now it not the time." Harlan found his
hands working of their own accord, or rather, Hyandai's accord.  They
untied the bindings of rope from her wrists and ankles, their movements
were quick, nimble, and precise, and Harlan wondered that his own fingers
could move so elegantly.  He found his blanket near the leader's tent,
tossed aside, and draped it over her shoulders.
   Their eyes locked and he heard himself speaking again, in that peculiar
tongue that was neither his nor elven.  The voice in his head echoed the
sounds he heard, and they grew fainter, suddenly, like a wall collapsing on
an old house, his mind expanded to fill his skull again.  He collapsed onto
his side, laying over the Hyandai's body.  Harlan could feel the soft flesh
beneath him, but could not move.  He felt sparks of pain shoot through his
mind, pulsing from place to place and triggering random twitches and muscle
spasms.  He could hear his voice, uttering random and odd sounds, and he
felt drool run down the side of his face.
   He slowly subsided from this frenzy of activity that his body was
undergoing.  Hyandai's arms were around him, and she was singing in her
beautiful voice.  The words were elven, and he couldn't understand them,
but they soothed him none the less.  She rocked his twitching form, holding
him tight to her chest.  And tears fell from her cheeks to his face.  He
felt the warmth of her embrace and the cool of the breeze on his
tear-soaked face.  Harlan's mind slowly came back to its normal state,
calming and gaining control of one function after another.  The tiny elf
maid clutched him, holding him still as he regained his composure.  She
still wept though, for the tears were only partially his.  Her mind was now
absorbing the remnants of herself that she had left in the body when she
departed.  Though the effect was now much lessened, it still hit hard.  She
keened out her elven song, and the air reverberated with the sorrow she put
forth, the sky darkened a little, as if to do homage to her pain.  Her tiny
hand slid over his face, wiping at her fallen tears.
   Finally, he found that he could speak.  "Do not weep, Rapier." He said.
"All is well, now." He looked up at her with pained eyes.  Her own eyes
were clenched shut tightly and tears still fell from them.  He looked down
toward her fiancee's corpse, and then back at her, and could dimly feel the
wet and smell the stench of the orc's spend on the table and her legs
beneath him.  All was certainly not well, he conceded, she had been raped,
repeatedly, and her fiancee's body was erected as a foul marker not ten
paces away.
   He tried to sit up, and found her arms unresisting now.  She curled into
herself when his weight left her, drawing her knees to her chest and still
wailing the eerie elven words.  Harlan stood up and took up the sword of
one of the orcs, and walked over to Eleean's body, where it was bound to
the trunk of a large oak.  He cut the bindings, and caught the body as it
slumped away from the tree.  Gently, he laid the body on the ground, and
began to remove the bindings and then took off the sack that covered its
head.
   Eleean had been almost as beautiful as his betrothed.  He had the same
slender shape of face, and his hair was shorn short, but equally soft and
luxuriant, of a golden hue that matched her eyes.  Harlan picked up the
body and found it alarmingly light, elves were truly slight of frame.  He
carried it over near to one of the tents, and used the crude sword to cut a
large chunk of one of its side panels.  He placed the roughly square piece
of canvas onto the ground and placed the body on its center. 
Reverentially, the hunter folded the sides then the top and bottom of the
canvas over the fallen elf.  It formed it into a shroud.  The entire somber
activity was punctuated by the singing of the maiden, lovely and wrenching
to the heart.
   The people of Haldmoor buried their dead, but Harlan knew of others,
even some in his own village that believed the dead should be burned.  He
walked to near the maiden, who continued keening in her unearthly voice.
   Very quietly, not really wanting to interrupt the lovely song, he asked.
"Do you burn your fallen, or bury them?"
   She did not open her eyes, and the echoes of the last note she had sung
were still floating through the air, when she said.  "Fire." Then resumed
the heartbreaking song.  The words filled the empty space left by her
stopping, and soon it was as if it had never happened.  When Harlan
returned to Eleean's body, he was somewhat in doubt as to whether she had
spoken at all.  Harlan gathered up some nearby wood, and also grabbed the
grubby blankets and cloths from within the tents.  He made a passable bier
from the materials, standing only about two feet high but full of highly
flammable materials.  He then searched the orcs goods and found some lamp
oil, and doused the whole with half of it.  The other half he soaked the
canvas that Eleean was wrapped within.  He placed the elf's bow on his
chest, and found a sword in the large tent that matched Hyandai's closely,
and knew it must be the young elf's blade.  That he placed on his chest, as
well.
   Harlan knew nothing of elven custom, but Hyundai had opened her eyes a
few times as he industriously prepared Eleean's last ceremony, she did not
stop him, and her song seemed a fitting dirge for the fallen elf.  He spoke
a few words of his own faith, just to cover more options should they be
needed by the soul of this small man, then set a brand from the camp's fire
to the oil.  It caught readily and the bier was aflame in a short time. 
Hyandai's keening tune rose in pitch and volume, filling the air
completely, he could not even hear the roar of the consuming flames over
the sound, but it did not hurt his ears, it was more as if the only sound
that mattered now was her grief, and her words.  Harlan found himself
weeping for the young elf lord that he did not know.  The flames were hot,
and the body seemed to burn more readily than he would have thought.  The
finely wrought bow on the chest seemed to simply vanish after short while
and the blade laid there as if unaffected.
   Harlan walked the camp, gathering things he recognized from his pack
from among the detritus that the orcs tossed about.  He found his own bow
in the leader's tent, and also the quiver.  His hatchet interested him less
than a broadsword, seemingly wrought of fine Sanistian steel, in a ornate
scabbard of polished ebony wrapped about with silver.  He clipped that to
his belt.  He fetched out the maiden's own weapons, as well, her ornate,
and delicate bow, and her slim but very keen blade.  Most of an hour had
now passed since he had shot the orc leader and he began to worry that the
handful remaining might return.  The elven song seemed to have no
conclusion and he wondered if it was the elven way to simply keen oneself
away upon their beloved's death.
   However, she seemed to sense his standing before her, in a state of near
readiness to go.  He felt it in the air when her tune began to drift down
in volume and intensity.  The air itself seemed to lighten and the light to
brighten.  The crackling and roar of the flames began to make itself heard.
With a last haunting and somberly quiet note, she stopped singing, and
opened her incredible golden eyes.  She stood up and stepped off the short
table, and stood before him.  He noted how tiny she seemed standing right
in front of him.  She was such a small creature, and she was now alone, in
the wilderness with a man not even of her own people.  His heart ached for
her, to comfort her, but he did not know how.
   She turned about again, and regarded him with her lovely eyes.  He
picked up her weapons and pointed northwest.  "There should be a stream
that way about a quarter of a mile." He said to her, not speaking intent
only fact.  She smiled briefly and set off in that direction.  Harlan took
a last look about the camp, then followed her.  A while later, for she was
not walking quickly, they came to the brook.  It flowed slowly through a
deep pool there, and it was clear.
   He turned to walk away and give her privacy but a hand leapt out of her
makeshift shawl.  "Please," She said, "do not leave me alone, I cannot bear
it." Her eyes were imploring and he could not deny them if he wanted to.
   Harlan smiled to her, and sat down on the raised bank of the small pool.
He had his back to the water and heard her enter it.  She seemed to not do
much once in the water, she simply soaked in the cleansing purity of it. 
Finally, she said.  "You can turn around, if you wish to speak with me,
which I would have you do."
   He turned about on his rump, hanging his legs over the high bank.  She
was up to her neck, sitting on the bottom of the small pool and seemed
indeed to be simply soaking.  "I'm sorry that we couldn't save Eleean." He
said, gazing down into her eyes.  "I hope I did well in giving him his last
rites."
   She smiled beautifully, causing his heart to race.  "You gave Eleean a
final sending that any elf would have wished for." She said.  "You knew him
not, and still sought to honor his passing." A few tears fell from her
eyes, sliding down her cheeks and fell into the water.  "You exceeded any
elf's expectations, and even surpassed my own, which were not low."
   Harlan blushed under her kind words.  "I would have done so for anyone,
Rapier." He said, standing up and walking to a nearby sapling.  "It would
be rude to do otherwise, and unforgivable in the eyes of God."
   Hyundai nodded slowly, and watched him move.  "You risked your very mind
allowing me to take host inside you, and saved me much pain." She said
quietly.  "I am happy that you are not injured by it, and grateful beyond
words for it."
   "If it could be done, I would risk it every time a woman is taken
without her will." He said.  "I am glad I could help you then, no one
should ever know such pain."
   She slid through the water, her fair body somewhat visible through the
water, and stood still again, smiling up at Harlan.  "You have the heart of
a hero, Harlan." She said, with gladness in her voice.  "And you've proven
yourself a very good man." I would ask of you one more service.
   "It is yours Hyundai." He said.  "Ask what you will." He looked down
into those lovely eyes, and they shone upon him, making him feel special
and blessed.
   She chewed her lip a moment, thinking.  An action she had never done
before, Hyundai seemed always able to speak without any delay.  "I need
time to recover from injuries." She said.  "The orcs have harmed me
gravely, though it does not show." She lifted her hands form the water and
reached behind her neck, when she moved them again, a necklace appeared
between them shimmering faintly for a moment, then becoming solid.  She
held it out toward him, taking both ends into one hand.  "I need a defender
and guide, and I need shelter for a week or two." She looked imploring
again, she was desperate.  "I will pay you for your services with this
locket, which would fetch a hefty sum from a merchant, I assure you." She
paused a moment.  "Or, when I am recovered, I can repay you in a coin more
dear." Her eyes looked toward the water as she said this.
   Harlan looked at her unbelievingly.  "I will not do this you ask,
Hyundai." He said.  "I cannot become your mercenary guardsman.  "My arm is
at your service already, if you could not tell." He was actually somewhat
hurt by her offer, hurt that she thought she had to make it to get him to
help her.  "I refuse your payments, beautiful maiden, I cannot take your
jewelry or your flower.  I will help you, and you will accept my help." She
smiled again.  "I thought as much." She said, rising from the water and
causing Harlan to spin around to look away.  "You are a good man, and I am
glad to have made your acquaintance.  Else the woes of this day may well
have been worse." Her voice quieted to almost a whisper.  "Especially for
me." She was silent a moment, then said "You may turn again, I am robed."
   Harlan turned around and regarded the small person before him.  She
gazed up at him with those haunting eyes.  He finally thought it time to
say something of them.  "You're eyes are so lovely, the gold is
unbelievable." He quietly said while he drank them in.  "No woman I have
seen has such eyes, or I would doubtless remember."
   She smiled.  "I offer myself to you, and you refuse, then you try to
charm me." She tilted her lovely head, her wet hair cascading over her
shoulder.  "Do you humans always play with ladies' affection thus?"
   "No, I'm not playing with you, Rapier." Harlan said.  "I just wanted to
let you know why I stare at your eyes so much."
   She blushed a little.  "Well, Harlan the Hunter.  You may have noted
that when you stare, it is often being returned." She said, and looked down
like a young girl.  "You're eyes are pretty impressive to me.  Elves do not
have blue eyes, and to me they look like the sky.  I feel when I look into
them like I am seeing forever."
   It was Harlan's turn to blush at her words.  He had been given
complements before, by a few girls.  But these were usually simple ones,
like `you're handsome,' or `you've a nice smile.' He had never had one
delivered so thoroughly and so directly.  And more to the point, delivered
by someone so stunningly beautiful.  He felt his ears burning with the
intensity of this blush, and wished he could hide for a few moments.  That
she found any feature of him appealing made him glad.
   He couldn't help comparing himself to Eleean, who was beautiful and most
certainly graceful and cultured.  Compared to such as him, Harlan was but a
clumsy oaf who spoke as if his mouth were full of rocks, or so the hunter
thought.  He didn't notice as he looked away, at the eyes of the elf before
him, as they wandered over his form, looking at his corded arms, and his
broad chest, and his thick, powerful legs, and his wide, open face.  By the
time his embarrassment subsided, she was again looking to his eyes.
   Despite her rather severe and personal injuries, she was not immune to
being a bit aroused by his presence, and his smell, which lingered on the
blanket she now wore.  Her mind was just as confused as his, and hers was
the more disciplined.  She was pleased that he liked her, and was amazed at
how much it pleased her.  While she had found him merely somewhat
attractive when they first met, she was now very deeply infatuated with
him, his demeanor had proven to be respectful, honorable, and generous. 
She knew many elven men who could learn much from this human.
   Her mind flinched at her injuries.  She knew they were not life
threatening, but she would not be fit to travel for some time, and she was
still deeply hurt in her mind by the abuse of her body.  Having left only a
small part of herself in it, the pain was lessened, but there was still
pain.  She was grateful in her mind, too, for she had not conceived from
the brutal copulations.  Orc seed was known to be particularly effective at
this, and she had heard of the abominations that could result.  She had
already cleansed herself of the foul spend, but was glad that she had not
had an egg at that time.
   The hunter turned about again.  "Hand me your cloak, lady." He said,
holding his hand over his shoulder.  A bit confused, she did as she was
bid, and he took it.  He took his skinning knife from his pack and made a
few slits in the cloth, then a couple more, forming a hole, and slits for
her arms.  He handed it back over his shoulder to her, and she put it on,
now she was clad in a very long poncho with slits for her arms.
   "I am robed." She said, and smiled when he turned around.  "Somehow, I
doubt that it will become the height of elven fashion this summer, though."
He took string from his pack and put it about her waist, pulling the sides
inward to her, the wide blanket drew in and pleated itself to her body.  It
was now looking like a passable gown.  He knelt and cut the bottom off
where it would no longer quite drag the ground.  "So," She said,
appraisingly, "Hunter, warrior, priest, surgeon, and tailor." She grinned
at him.  "You are a man of talents."
   He smiled gently.  "Well, when one lives alone, and often far from town,
one becomes self-sufficient." He said, standing up.  As he rose, he locked
eyes with her again, and was again reminded of her slight stature.  She
peered up at him and was still smiling.
   He picked up her bow and sword, and belted the sword around her waist
with its fine silver chain.  He handed her the bow, and the ornate quiver.
"It will do for now, I suppose.  Though it's not nearly as alluring as your
other clothes." He said, appraising her.  The makeshift tunic-dress was not
particularly attractive, but her long, shapely legs and arms protruding
from it were quite attractive.  Luckily, the orcs had not gotten around to
removing her soft ankle boots.  "Where shall we go m'lady?" He asked her,
bowing low.
   She giggled and said "Those foul creatures will surely try to track us
down.  We should probably find a place they cannot follow us." Her golden
eyes regarded him.  "You know the land here more than I, where would you
go?"
   He pointed south, remembering a cave he used from time to time when the
weather was poor.  With any luck, there might even be a few supplies of the
stuff he had left there on occasion.  "I know a place, south of here." He
said, eyeing the foothills that peered from between the trees.  "We can
cross the rocky scree toward it, thereby throwing off trackers, I hope."
   She nodded and they set off.  He seemed to not notice her walking closer
to him now than before, almost touching arms with him.  She was quite taken
with his manner, and he was taken with her in general.  He did not,
however, notice the lingering glances that she cast at him as they walked,
nor did she detect him doing the same.
  
102 - The Solitary Arrow - Part Two