North by No Way (Fal and Secrecy)

[falzar]

Carl was quite pleased with himself. His carefully planned raid had gone off without a hitch.

They had hit the Thorsen village of Rijki just before dawn and had taken out most of the warriors, losing few themselves. Going from hut to hut, they liberated all of their people that these enemies had kidnapped to enslave. There were also a few slaves not of his village. He would not leave them. The Thorsens tortured people for sport.

They took or sank all the Thorsen dragonboats, but did not touch any of the fishing boats or equipment. A hungry enemy was a desparate one. These people would be concentrating on fishing, not raiding.

He was striding through the village when his first mate ran up. "Carl, you have to see this."

In the previous Hetman's hut, a woman was chained with heavy, silver manacles. As he watched she began to grow fur and fangs.

He almost stepped back, but instead said, "I mean you no harm. If you swear not to attack me or my people, I will free you."

 

[Secrecy]

The silver manacles didn't seem to stop her, though perhaps they should have. She seemed angry--furious, really--at being so bound. She had not been a slave of the Thorsen's long. To them, she had been like a wild horse. Around evening campfires, the men would laugh and discuss how each would break her spirit and make her into a slave. But when the morning came, no one wanted to go near her. She'd been there for months, food thrown to her from the entryway by men too frightened to approach. She'd been locked in fury those long months, stopping her raging, shifting bloodlust only when she'd exhausted herself and lay insensate in her manacles.

But she was far from insensate now. Carl had time only to glimpse a tall, shapely woman with thick black hair and dark blue eyes before that woman was gone and a tiger stood in her place. The manacles were a little too tight for a tiger's wrists and she roared in pain that only made her more angry. Her teeth were daggers, glinting in the faint light. She roared again, this time her hot breath made it far enough to tickle his face.

Her haughty eyes--still blue even as a tiger--stared into him.

 

[falzar]

She froze him to the very core, but he was a Viking lord and he would not flee or tremble. "My name and title are both Carl, you are quite frightening, but what I have to say is this. I have freed my own people from the Thorsens. All the Thorsen fighters are dead.

I would like to free you, but I can not do this unless you can calm yourself and swear no harm to me and my people.

Otherwise, I will have to leave you here, which would sadden me as you are an interesting person like none I've met. I offer you a place as a freewoman in my household, to come and go as you please. Or, if you feel any debt, you may assist me until you decide what you want to do. If you can understand what I say, please return to a form that can talk."

Closing his eyes and breathing deeply. He extended his empty sword arm, palm up to her. "This is my sign of my faith and goodwill, I let you decide whether you will attack while I have no defense."

 

[Secrecy]

The tiger hesitated, the flicker of human intelligence in those uncanny blue eyes. It had been long since anyone had bothered to speak to her, it took her a moment of turning the words over in her head to truly understand them. Before that though, she felt them in her heart. She backed up, the sight a strange one, a tiger that could easily have torn him limb from limb if she'd been free instead moving back. She stared at him for a long time, but then her fur began to ripple, the stripes running together like unset dye in the rain. Her limbs shifted, body rising.

When the strange transformation was complete, the woman he'd caught a glimpse of was standing in front of him once again. She wore nothing and seemed unashamed by her nakedness. Her tallness had not been illusion. She was taller than he was, and she stood with the supine grace of a cat, long straight dark hair fell to her waist, gleaming in the dim light. Her deep blue eyes continued to study his. Her skin was oddly tan for this region, as though she had spent many long hours in the sun. Though the sun did not reach inside this tent. She stared at his hand, then back to his face, her lip still curled back in a cat's expression of distrust.

"I do not walk among your kind." She said, as though they shared nothing in common. The words came slowly, awkwardly, as she tried to remember how to form them, "But I will go with you, for now. If you will take these bindings off." She held out her wrists, rubbed raw and oozing by her struggles and her transformations that disregarded what girth the manacles could safely encompass.

 

[falzar]

He called his smith and the man nervously broke through her shackles.

"If you wish to come with us, I offer you a place in my household as a freewoman. You go where you choose. I you choose to spend some time with me and tell me of yourself, I would enjoy that. My chef is very good with fish."

He smiled and purposely turned his back on her, giving her trust as he ordered his men to make ready.

"Have you a name that I may call you lady?"