StoneHeart and FlameTongue

~~~ Quick Series Recap ~~~

StoneHeart was waiting to have a heart-to-heart conversation with the god of the standing stones when the horse came to let him know that FlameTongue's village was under attack. He got back in time to limit the injuries and fatalities to the aggressors.

~~~

A couple of the women that I didn't know yet came over. Together, we stripped the corpses. Another brought me a crude wheelbarrow. I piled the pieces onto the thing and headed off in the direction that the men had taken when they left. I had just traveled far enough that I thought it was safe to dig when I realized two things. One, I hadn't brought anything to dig with. Two, there was a cluster of trees ahead that the path went through.

I decided to hang the corpses in the branches as a warning to any others that would come this way. The trees didn't look like nut-trees or fruit-trees or anything that the villagers might need to approach closely. I was really hoping that I wasn't fucking things up for the clan by leaving the corpses there.

When I got back, I asked Meredith about it. She said that she thought that would be fine. Her daughter was scowling at me. The girl's mother glared at her - and then walked past her, swatting her on the ass as she passed her. The fiery-tempered redhead took a step towards me. Her fists were clenched at her sides.

"I'm supposed to get to know you and see if we can get along," she informed me, somewhat tartly.

I started to smart off to her - but I caught Milda and Meredith watching for my reaction. I sighed.

"What should I call you?" I asked her.

"Gwen," she answered.

"Gwen, were those men from the same clan or village that we wiped out last night?"

She shook her head, no.

"Do me a favor and please converse with me," I told her. "There are times to remain silent - such as when we're sneaking up on a group to kill them. However, when we're talking, I'd prefer to hear your voice. Your tone helps me figure out if I'm communicating clearly or pissing you off."

"Okay," she said.

"Thanks. Do you know how to find the group that were coming to attack you at the stone circle?"

"Why?"

"Two reasons," I answered. "One, I want to talk to their new leader - to convince him to leave us alone. Two, if we somehow wiped out all of their men, we can take their women and bring them here."

"So you can have more wives?" she asked, testily.

"No...," I told her, trying to be patient. "If what your mother explained to me is true, then it is just as true for other clans. Why would we leave them to the mercies of those who will kill or rape them? Let's bring them here and put them to work. It'll make us stronger - and we'll actually be sparing their lives. We can also claim resources from their old village. I want a defendable wall here - so people can't just march in and start swinging weapons around. We can use those women to help build a wall that will protect us all."

She stood for a moment and just looked at me.

"They would require more food - but we would also have more to gather or hunt...," she said.

"Precisely," I replied. "You're no doubt an excellent hunter. Others maybe not so much. We take them with us and they can help us carry."

"I know how to find them," she said.

"Get a weapon and some provisions - whatever you need. I want to get there and get back before we have more visitors. I want to start on this wall as soon as possible. If need be, I'll make do with a stone tower that everyone can retreat into."

"A building made of stones?"

"In the world that I came from, we built with lots of materials."

She nodded and then hurried off to start filling a burlap sack with things to carry with her. Milda brought me a bowl of cold porridge. It didn't taste like much. I wasn't really sure if I even had to eat to fuel this new body. I hadn't really felt hungry. I ate it anyway.

When she offered me a skin of water, I tasted it before I took a long pull. It was not the best-tasting water.

"Where do we get water from?" I asked her.

She pointed off in the distance and said, "A stream."

"Okay," I said.

I took a long drink from it and handed it back, thinking that we probably needed to find something better to store water in.

Gwen came walking back over. She had a sword strapped to her waist.

"Yours - or your father's?" I asked.

"My... father's," she said, her voice cracking slightly.

I grabbed her elbow, pulled her to me, and wrapped my arms around her.

"When your mother sent the horse to get me," I told her quietly, hugging her against me. "I was sitting at the circle. I interrupted someone's prayers and was sitting on the ground by one of the outer stones so that I wouldn't bother them a second time. I was thinking back to all of the times that your father came to the stone table. I feel like I owe him something - though I'm not really sure he had anything to do with me being freed from the circle."

I let her go and looked into her eyes.

"I promise to try to do right by you - and by his widow," I told the young woman. "I may not look it - but I have been around for many, many years. I understand that you do not wish to tie yourself to me. I was - quite honestly - very content with my life before. Now that I'm here, I feel like the circle god gave me this body for a reason. The only time I ever heard the god speak to me was when your father was approaching."

Gwen studied my face.

"I will do my best to honor his memory," I told her, "but I will not be your slave. I will not stand for backtalk. I won't make demands of you without reason. Part of my intention with this trip is for us to learn to work as a team. If you and I can learn to be partners in this, I think we can learn to be partners in saving this clan - and maybe - someday - we can learn to truly care for each other."

Gwen nodded.

"I see the sense in your words and I accept," she told me. "I will agree to work with you - on this trip - and in securing our people."

Yes," I said. "*Our* people. I only saw your father once in a while but he was a man of strong beliefs and he loved your mother - and you - very much."

Tears welled up in Gwen's eyes.

"I miss him," she said.

"I wish we could have gotten back here fast enough to save him but..."

"He was already dead. Mother told me."

"I had guessed. Ready to go see what his killers left behind?"

"Yes."

"Can I offer you comfort to ease your mourning?"

She looked at me. I opened my arms to her. She embraced me and held me for a few minutes. Her body shook with sobs a few times and then she dried away her tears.

"You know," I said. "I watched my own mother cry at my grave."

"How?"

"The god or spirit that brought me to this world. When I died on Earth, I attended the ceremony where they laid my body to rest."

"Do you suppose my father is watching us?"

"If he is, I pray that he will guide us."

"I pray that as well," she said, nodding.

I gave her a friendly smile.

"I am ready," she said.

"Then let's be off. Lead the way, gorgeous."

She smirked at me but took the lead.

"Can I pat your butt - like I do Milda's?"

"No," she said, snickering.

"You might like it..."

"I think not," she said firmly - though she was grinning. "Maybe I'll pat yours..."

"I would *definitely* like that...," I said, laughing.

She laughed as well.

"Maybe I won't then," she said more quietly.

I laughed again. She shook her head at me, still grinning.

We traveled for almost two hours before we came to a small hill. We stood on top of it and Gwen pointed at the village. It was twice the size of ours. It was set on a bit of a ridge - with a wide stream at its back.

"This is much more defendable than our place," I told her.

As we watched the people moving around, I pointed out the various aspects of the place that made it easier to defend.

"Why did your clan pick the spot where they are?" I asked her.

She shrugged.

"Maybe because it was close to the circle?" she said. "I'm not sure. We are known as the Clan of the Circle."

"What is this one called?"

"Clan of the Night Raiders," she answered.

"Classy. You see any men in the village?" I asked.

"Very old and very young - no warriors," she answered.

"Let's go see who wants to talk...," I told her.

She followed me down into the wide valley that looked like it probably flooded once or twice a year - during the rainy seasons when the waterway jumped its banks.

We made our way most of the distance across the low ground before the terrain rose again. We were still a stone's throw from the homes when a woman and an old man came to meet us. Both of them had swords in their hands.

"What do you want?" the woman asked.

"We're from the Circle Clan," I told her.

Her eyes shot to Gwen.

"You!"

"What?" the redhead asked - though we both knew what was coming.

"Where is my husband?"

"He tried to take what wasn't his," I explained. "We killed him."

She dropped to her knees and cried out. I believed that her grief might be real - right up until she grabbed a handful of dust and jumped to her feet. As she flung the dirt into Gwen's eyes, she raised the sword. I grabbed it by the blade and yanked it from her hand. The woman gaped at me - standing there holding her weapon's sharp blade in my fist.

I waited for Gwen to get her eyes wiped clear of debris and then tried to hand her the sword. She slapped the woman across the face so hard that the sound echoed across the valley. As she stood glaring at the woman, I pressed the sword on her. She finally took it.

"If you have none to defend you then we're claiming this village," I told the woman.

"Take it if you can!" she raged at me.

She pounded her fists against my chest. The old man beside her watched her for a few moments and then tried to hack at my head with the sword that he was holding. Gwen slashed her sword down on his collarbone, cutting into his neck and shoulder. He turned on her and she finished him off.

"We'll have to give them a show of force to claim the place," Gwen told me.

A ten- or twelve-year-old kid came sprinting up with a knife. He tried to stab me. I shoved him down. He jumped up and came at me again.

"Your son?" Gwen asked the woman.

She nodded, still glaring at me.

The next time I shoved the kid aside, he went Gwen's direction. She stabbed him in the chest.

"Crass, but effective I guess," I told her.

"You can't let the leader's spawn live," she explained.

"I get it, okay?" I told her. "I just wish there was another way."

I locked eyes with the woman whose wrist I was gripping.

"I suppose I have to rape this one to claim her?" I asked Gwen.

"She likely won't let you have her any other way."

"I don't need her."

"You need to make her submit in order for the others to fall into line."

"You fuck her then," I told the redhead.

I looked at the woman.

"You have any other brats that Gwen needs to chop up?"

She glanced at the home that was obviously hers. Gwen headed that way. I followed her, pulling the woman along behind us.

A crowd of women and kids - along with a few old men - gathered to watch.

Just before we got to the door of the home, a woman came out. She was carrying a dead baby and a bloody dagger.

My captive shrieked in outrage and grief. I glanced at Gwen.

"Your verdict?" I asked her.

"The bitch saved me from having to do it myself - but I don't know that I would trust her after seeing that," Gwen replied.

"Give this one the boy's knife and we'll let the two of them fight it out."

I released the wrist of the clan leader's wife. She ignored Gwen's proffered blade and turned on the other woman bare-handed. The killer leered at the clan leader's widow and threw the dead child at her. It landed in the dirt and rolled to a stop.

"Classy," I muttered.

The two circled one another. A woman on the sidelines started to intervene - but I barked at her to stay back or she was next. She scowled at me - but nodded and stepped back. I pointed for her to retrieve the baby's corpse. She went and picked it up and came to stand beside me.

The baby's mother decided that she was done fucking around. She charged the killer, ducked under a badly-aimed strike, and cold-cocked the bitch right in the jaw. The murderer's bell was rung. The mourning mother took the killer to the ground, landing on top of her. She began choking the shit out of the baby butcher.

The killer feebly tried to strike the mother with the same dagger that she had used on the child - but the enraged woman knocked it aside again and again. Finally, the angry mother ripped it from the woman's hand just to take it away from her.

As soon as she got it into her fist, it was like a lightbulb came on. Before, the knife was an obstacle. Now, it was suddenly something completely different.

I finally pulled the grieving mother off of the dying woman when the vengeful widow had carved up the killer's face, arms, and chest so badly that I thought I was going to lose the porridge that Milda had fed me earlier.

I grabbed the widow up, turned her around, and held her to my chest.

"She's dead," I told her. "It's over. She'll never harm another."

With her hand still grasping the knife, she clung to me and wept. I held her and caressed her back.

Gwen looked at me and then glanced at the dagger. I carefully shook my head, no, at her. She nodded and stood by, waiting.

After probably ten minutes of standing there, holding the sobbing woman, she sniffled and rubbed her face against my shirt. She pulled her head back and looked up at me. She brought the knife around, held it out, and opened her palm.

"I won't fight you," she said. "Claim me. I submit."

I turned to Gwen.

"Do I have to fuck her?"

"Yeah."

"Go see how big of a mess is in that home," I told Gwen.

She took the dagger from the woman and went to check. I picked the woman up like a bride and held her in my arms. She caressed my cheek. I kissed her tenderly on the lips.

"You're a big one," she said softly.

"Wait until you see the rest of me," I told her, winking.

She giggled.

Gwen came out with a bloodied sheet.

"You should be okay now," she said.

I looked down into the woman's eyes.

"We're going to wrap the baby in the sheet," I told her. "You and I will bury the two children when we've finished this."

She nodded.

I turned to the woman holding the baby.

"You and Gwen please get the two bodies ready for burial."

I glanced at the butchered killer's body and then back to the woman.

"Take the filth out and see that it's burned please."

"As you wish, my lord," she said. "It will be done."

I looked down at the woman in my arms.

"What is your name, beautiful lady?" I asked her.

"Jeanne," she said, running her fingers across my cheek.

I kissed her once again and carried her inside of the home. She pointed at a bed. I carried her there and set her on the mattress. She began to strip. I peeled off my shirt and unfastened my kilt. I had nothing else on. I turned to the woman.

She looked to be in her late 30s, based on my Earth perception of years. She was a fit woman with slightly sagging breasts. I told her to lie back. I knelt by the bed, threw her legs over my shoulders, and buried my face in her quim.

She cried out in alarm but quickly switched to mewling and moaning. I heard someone open the door. Jeanne looked over at them and told them to go away. The door quickly closed again.

The MILF dug her fingers into my hair and tugged on my dark gray locks as I licked, nibbled, and sucked her clitoris, outer labia, and her inner folds. Her pussy wasn't exactly the cleanest - but I decided that we could work on hygiene later. For now, I needed this woman to snap into line so that we could reduce the number of lives lost to what we'd already accumulated.

I got Jeanne to cum twice before I pulled my face from her sex. She was panting for air by the time I quit. I wiped my face on her blanket, turned her so that she was aligned with the bed, and then moved her so that her head was on the straw-filled pillow. I climbed onto the bed. She looked down at my stiff member.

"Will it even fit?" she asked.

"It will now," I promised.

We took it slow - but she got it inside of her without too much trouble. She took hold of me and guided me to her entrance. After that, I took it as slowly as she needed. Once she had it all, she looked up at me and smiled broadly.

"It fit," she said, beaming.

"Let's see if it'll fit a second time," I told her.

I pulled all of the way out - and pushed back in again - a little more quickly.

"Gods!" she gasped. "I've died!"

"Don't die on me yet, gorgeous," I told her. "Let me cum at least once first."

"I don't think I can take it!" she exclaimed.

I slowed my pace a little. I sucked and groped her tits as I slid my cock in and out of her. She came twice more before I reached the point of no return. I kissed her hard, shoved all of the way inside of her, and flooded her with my seed, praying that the curse was ended.

She gasped as the heat of my spend registered in her mind.

"Oh!" she exclaimed. "It's so... Oh! I... I... think..."

She grabbed my face and kissed me harder than she had so far. When she was done, she looked deeply into my eyes. Her pupils were sparkling.

"A daughter," she said. "She'll be strong."

"Hopefully not strong-willed," I muttered.

The woman giggled and kissed me again.

I finished cumming and then I fucked her until she got off once more. After that, I pulled out of her. She offered to clean me up with her mouth. I let her. I brushed my fingers through her dark brown locks and told her that I was sorry that her children could not have been spared.

"It is our way," she declared.

I pulled her face off of my cock and kissed her. She threw her arms around me and hugged me fiercely.

"Let's get you dressed and go tend to your little ones," I told her.

"You have a gentle heart for one so strong," she said.

I laughed - and then told her what the circle god used to call me. She laughed as well.

We dressed, put somber expressions on our faces, and went outside. Jeanne was holding my hand. She raised our joined hands into the air in front of the people of her village.

"This is StoneHeart," she declared. "I do not know why the circle god calls him that. He is a tender and generous lover. I have never felt so full or satisfied. Even now, I carry his daughter. The gods have told me. She will be strong - like her father."

"And her mother," I added.

She kissed me and then turned back to the people.

"StoneHeart plans to move the Circle Clan here. We will talk about choosing a new name. Together, we will be strong. If you no longer have a husband and wish a child, I believe you can convince StoneHeart to help you out..."

She glanced sideways at me and grinned.

"Let's get your little ones settled," I told her.

She turned back to her people.

"We go now to bury the past," she informed them.

The graves were dug. No words were spoken. Jeanne put her children in their final resting places and then threw the first fistful of dirt onto the cloth-wrapped bodies. Everyone who had gathered helped add more dirt. No tools were used. All of it was done by hand. When it was over, she turned to me. She hugged and kissed me again and then took me by the hand. We walked back to her home.

"Will you be safe for now?" I asked her. "We probably won't be back until tomorrow at the soonest."

"Our clan was strong and news has not spread of our decline," she said. "We should be okay. Hurry back to me, my love."

"I will," I told her.

She hugged and kissed me again. I released her and turned to Gwen.

"You ready?" I asked her.

She started to nod and then smiled and said, "Yes, my lord."