The Amazon

The amazon's great sword tore through the air a moment before it met the neck of another ruffian. Blood splattered from the cut, on her sun-burned skin and blond hair, making her look ferocious, like a lioness of the steppes on the kill. The three remaining ruffians did not back down though. Of course they wouldn't. They were three, armed with swords and shields and wearing fine leather armors, and helmets while she was one, and hardly dressed at all with pieces of cloth that barely covered her beautiful breasts and her groin.
What the smelly pigs would do to her if she failed, the amazon could only guess by their sneers and lewd stares. "Too bad for them" the woman thought and answered their smiles with a vicious one of her own and a sword thrust that severed the arm of the second ruffian.
More blood flowed, painting the stone walls crimson and she took advantage of the man screaming in pain and anguish as all his hand below the wrist rolled on the cobblestones to manage a hard kick in his groin. "Two more to go" she thought.
A little while later, as the moon light glittered across the street and four dead lackeys lay unmourned and unburied, the amazon strided towards the castle.

The great gate loomed over the street and the watchful eyes of the guards. And there must have been at least twenty guards, with halberds and full plated armours.  Arcadia leaned against the wall of the castle. Up ahead she could hear the laughter of the guards and the curses of their captain as he caught them drinking. Below, through some rusty old iron bars, the stench of the dungeon and the sewers came to her nostrils.
The guard turned the corner. His superior had threatened him again, to be vigilant or to lose his head. So he was. He had however no reason to notice the iron bar that was missing.
Arcadia walked through the filthy, foul smelling water, sword in hand, trying to make her way trough the dark. She didn't dare light a torch, and she didn't carry one, and the only light was some moonbeams whence she too had come.  Distant sounds confused her. As she moved further away from the street the laughter of the guards died away, and with it the light of the moon leaving her in corridors of total darkness.  She moved that way, half-naked through the dank smelly dungeon, almost blind, and without hearing anything but the sound of her feet through the fetid water and the beating of her own heart. Suddenly she jumped, as a sound came through the dark. And her heart raced. This, was no sewer rat.  Something else crawled through the tunnels. Something large and confident, something that didn’t try to mask its presence at all. A light flashed, bringing tears to her eyes. Somewhere, a door screamed through rusty hinges.  The amazon fought off her momentary blindness and tried to focus. The place reeked of magic so foul that it masked the smell of the water. She cursed her foolishness.  It was too late to leave now.
The underground hallway was lit now, with a sickly green light that made shadows dance every time Arcadia moved.  Heavy rusted iron doors lined the corridors and black mold crawled the walls. She had to get out.  The walls seemed to stretch forever, identical and repeating, with the iron doors looking down at her like silent guardians.
The breath hissed like a huge snake, passing over her, caressing her like a dead ghost lover, trying to drag her into his cold embrace. But it wasn’t the breath that almost made her shout and cut the air at an invincible foe. It was the voice.
“Release me...” said the voice, a cracked whisper of someone who has been left to die, of someone old and tired, of someone who could only be released by death. And yet a cold voice, a voice that never held mercy for anyone. She turned and looked at the direction of the voice. And there she saw it, another door, iron and rusty, but unlike the others lit from the inside.  “Please, release me...” said the voice again, and the amazon with a racing heart and swift feet went towards the voice.
“Ymir and Freya” the amazon cursed through gritted teeth as she reached the door and for a moment it seemed that the light was growing stronger. Arcadia kicked the door down with a kick and the light died. 
“What the hell is this?” The amazon cried out against the dark. “Where are you?” and as a cold wet touch made her skin crawl, she added in a lower voice “....what are you?”
“I” she heard the voice answer and from the tone she could tell that she was smiling, “am” and as the light came back heard the voice add “very grateful to you.” It did not take time at all for her eyes to adjust. A beautiful woman stood before her, completely naked save for a pair of high heeled boots that reached to her thigh, her long black hair almost touching the ground, her body writhing with forbidden promise of pleasure and ruin. Her beautiful full breasts and her waist just above her buttocks, which seemed made of marble caught the attention of the amazon and that made her smile. Despite the grime and filth of the dungeon nothing seemed to have touched her.  There was nothing human about that smile Arcadia realized. Her large eyes held large yellow orbs like a cat’s, and a cold inscrutable light emanated from them. Arcadia realized what she had done, as the creature passed a cold hand over her, caressing her breasts and belly. She was taller, taller than the amazon and seemed to be getting taller, and change. Whenever she smiled fangs started to show.  “Thank you for releasing me” the demoness said. “I would like to reward you now” Frozen as she was the amazon thought she could see tentacles rising from the dark corners. Breaking the demoness spell she brought her sword in front of her putting it between their bodies.
“You are still weak from your captivity.” Said Arcadia in a grim tone. “I will have your head demon if you try something stupid.” The demoness changed posture. Recognizing the cornered wolf in the amazon, the creature realized that she was right. She could kill her. And she would. The demoness took a step back. “What do you want from me then? Did you set me free just to kill me?”
“I did not know what was I doing.” The amazon asked. “Maybe had I known I wouldn’t have opened the door?” “I want to know where the exit is. The way up, to the palace.” The demoness stood aside.  “There” she pointed with a slim white hand towards another door inside the cell. Human bones lay on the everywhere around it some of them chewed.  When she looked at her again her characteristics had changed, to something sinister. Long, curled horns protruded from her forehead, and a serpentine tale danced above her well-formed buttocks. Large talons appeared at her feet, and her skin seemed to take a darker, reddish hue. “I do not want to kill you, creature” said the amazon. “Do not make me. Whatever you had done, your imprisonment seemed to be punishment enough.  Leave me be and so will I.” The demoness smiled. “We are sure to meet again though.” She added, as she vanished into the darkness.
“I hope not.” The amazon answered through gritted teeth as she advanced to the darkness once more.
The cell led to a door. The door led to a corridor, and the corridor, to a staircase, which led to a guard room. Empty and cold, with a lone window shining moonlight into it, the guard room appeared to have been abandoned for a while. The stone arc which was the entrance to it seemed to lead to another set of corridors which the amazon could tell were the lower levels of the castle. Soon, she had passed even the great iron gate, unseen for the second time that night, and from a different angle.  The guards’ conversation and the officer’s curses had seized, or were not edible at the great hall of the castle, where the amazon now stood. At her feet, spilled whine and half-eaten meat, like those on the great table spoke of the banquet that had taken place before. A wedding banquet.  Arcadia growled. She was close. She made her way with fast leaps to the higher towers of the castle. It wasn’t long before she found it. The master’s bedroom. The guard outside seemed almost drunk but Arcadia laid him low with a hard blow to the neck just to be sure.  Noises were coming from the inside.
The amazon tried the door.  It had been left open. Inside, a huge man blocked her view, a towering wall of muscle that seemed to reach for the ceiling. Somewhere in the back, the cries of a girl could be heard. The monstrous giant moved to the sound of Arcadia entering and the amazon saw her, a girl barely a woman with brown hair and beautiful, in a different way than the amazon. Where she seemed strong, the princess looked fragile and tender, where she was voluptuous, with rich breasts and lips, the princess seemed smaller and with barely visible curves through her nightgown. Tears stroke the girl’s face, and Arcadia was taken aback for a moment. That moment almost cost her life, as the lord’s mighty hand swept for her neck, and would have caught her if the girl hadn’t shouted out. It was a hand thick as tree trunk, and only when he turned wholly to face her, the amazon realized the nature of his strength. Tattoos covered the giant’s head and in the centre of it a single eye glowed.  His mouth was filed with sharp teeth. It was true what they said, that the lord of the Zhalketh had done unspeakable deals with forbidden gods.  “You stupid whore” the Cyclops roared “Did you think you could come in here and steal what is mine?” The Amazon once more dived to the side, to avoid the sweep of a huge sword this time.  “I will tear you in half!!” roared once more the beast, as he tried to grab her, but this time he had made a crucial mistake, as he left his weak underbelly exposed. The amazon dived once more and pierced, making him roar in anguish. She passed below his legs and climbed like a tiger on to his back, cutting and stabbing. The monster roared and screamed and rammed his back on a wall, trying to slam her but Arcadia was faster. She landed on the ground before he hit the wall, and stabbed him in chest making fountains of blood explode. “She’s not for you.” The amazon remarked quietly. And as the monster fell, in one final clumsy attempt to grab her, she stabbed his eye, all the way to his brain. 
She took the girl and run then, the same way they had come, back to her father’s kingdom and to her employer.


Flutes were playing haunting melodies to dancing snakes under the torchlight. Half-naked dancers swayed to the tunes and the wine flowed like a crimson river. “To our savior!” the king shouted. “To Arcadia!” The toast was joyfully shared by all in the room. The amazon sat in the right of the king and made sure to avoid the stares of men all night long. They would have to sate their appetites with someone else as many had already done to the dark corners of the great hall. She wasn’t in the mood to kill anyone at the moment. On the other hand the princesses’ stares the amazon didn’t make any attempt to avoid. “Tell me” asked the king “what reward do you seek for that great deed?”
The amazon’s eyes went slowly from the princess to her father. “I…wish to ask the moon well…a question” answered Arcadia. “Only that?” the king seemed puzzled. “You do not want gold? Slaves?”
“No,” answered the amazon firmly as she had been taught. ”Greater wealth awaits me if I have this knowledge.”
The king shook his head. “Very well. You are a wise woman indeed. My daughter will do her duty and guide you there, were only she and the stars above will know what you asked.”
The amazon smiled and the young princess returned the smile.

At the height of the moon, they went to the moon well the two women alone in that secret mystical place. The princess led the way dressed in a transparent cloth that left her beautiful figure to be seen under the light of the moon. The amazon followed admiring the girl’s beauty. Under the song of the water she heard the princess’ voice say: “You know you really saved me back there. He was about to ravish me… but you were in time…I kept my innocence…” Turning to see the amazon she saw her completely naked, in all her beauty, with her full breasts exposed, her blond hair dancing in the moonlight, a tigress, wonderful and fierce. “Well,” smiled the girl “Do you have a question?”
“Yes” Answered the amazon. “When do I get my reward?”
The princess’s grin became wider. In a moment, her dress lay on the grass leaving her completely naked.
“I am right here.” She answered.