Elven (in)justice

Roana pulled Liana towards the window. She swept all the items aside and brought up a chair. She sat with the mage bent over her lap.

"What gives? Let me go!" Liana struggled. A closer look at the elf's sword was enough to make her stop.

"Come, merchant. As the wronged party, you are within your rights to discipline this criminal."

"I- I don't think that's necessary."

"I insist. If we don't punish her, this knave will never mend her ways. Toshi, look for other implements of justice."

"On it, cap."

Peonie nervously walked next to her naked friend. "Sorry," she whispered as she struck her pale posterior with her palm. Liana barely felt it. Truly, she was more uncomfortable about being naked on the display window. At least the unpopularity of her shop meant that no one was seeing her shame.

A colorful explosion of light shone at the entrance of the store. Everyone looked a Toshi, who was holding an empty tube of fireworks. "Oops."

"Look, someone's naked over there. And she's getting spanked!"

"How scandalous!"

"That's way more interesting than this fruit stand. Let's go watch!"

"You are being too soft on the criminal! She is barely even yelping in pain!" Roana complained to Peonie.

"Eeeeeck!" Liana whimpered and closed her eyes. People began congregating near the window to stare at her. The only mercy of her situation was that her front was covered by the elf's legs. The crowd could only see her naked backside, which was thankfully not under too much duress. 

"See? She is getting hurt!" Peonie half-heartedly defended her slapping technique.

"I don´t know," Toshi commented. "That doesn´t sound like pain. That sounded just like how the captain squeaked that time when I accidentally brought the whole royal guard to do their morning jog in the same lake she was coincidentally skinny dipping. You should have seen her face when th-"

"Toshi! You agreed to never talk about that incident again. And you? You are doing it wrong! I´ll show you proper technique." Roana pushed Peonie aside. "This is how you punish a criminal!" The elf brought down her palm upon the mage's behind with unbridled fury. Liana yelped and waggled her legs with each strike.

"Wow, captain. Where did this anger come from?" asked Toshi, struggling to be heard over the mage's squeals.

"I just picture her as the ring destroyer. That's it."

"Ouch! But I'm not! Ouch! Mercy! Ouch!"

"Don't you think that's enough?" pleaded Peonie.

"No, although my hand is getting sore. Let's move on." The elf stopped her assault. "Toshi, what did you find?"

"Let's see... Some floating sponges and enchanted ropes. Oh! A self-cleaning flask. I'm buying this one for myself."

"Not an ideal selection, but we'll make do with what we have. Bring on the ropes and sponges!"

"All right. If I'm reading the instructions right, these things thoroughly clean any dirt in their vicinity. Hmm. Where would we get that?"

Roana noticed that Liana was trying to coil herself away from the window. The mage was being displayed like a cheap ware, and seemed to hate every second of it. "…I have an idea."

Roana tossed Liana into the road outside. The mage rolled down in the street, her skin getting caked in the dirt and mud of ground. She stopped moving and looked up, mocking faces surrounded her.

"N-nothing to see here folks!" Liana tried to crawl back into her store. She would have made it, if not for the squad of sponges flying straight at her. The sponges began scrubbing Liana. They rubbed her sides, feet, back, and everything they could reach that had spots of dirt or mud.

The naked mage was very ticklish. Her laughter echoed over the commotion of the crowd. Her limbs twitched all around to try and push the tools away. That didn't work, it made her situation worse. Moving her arms away from her intimates gave everyone a better look at them.

Peonie watched in horror. Intervening was just going to get her caught, especially now that the rest of the elven search party had arrived to join their captain. Still, she couldn't let this happen unabated. If she couldn't do anything, she should find someone who could. The brunette ran away from the market.

Liana could see, between her laughing fits, how more and more people were arriving, including additional elves. Uh-no. The entire market was there. She had to get out! Find cover! Do anything but laugh in the middle of the road!

The mage stood on trembling knees and tried to escape. She didn't get very far. It's hard to see where you are going when your eyes are half-closed and you are laughing your lungs out.

The naked woman crashed against a fruit stand. She was back on the ground once more, now covered in the sweet juice of some ripe oranges. The sponges scrubbed harder, moving around her body to clean as needed.

It was then that she saw Peonie running away in the distance. That little traitor! Liana was well on her way to become the city's laughing stock to save her sorry ass, and how did her supposed "friend" pay her back? By straight up abandoning her to the mob. Not only that, but she didn't pay for the headdress! If she had been capable of forming coherent sentences, the mage would have begun cursing like a sailor.

"Captain, this is fun at all, but we have to move on. There are more places to search. "

"Quite. But we can't leave her punishment incomplete. If this place doesn´t have a pillory to display their criminals, we´ll make one ourselves. Fetch me that magic rope." Roana pulled Liana to her feet. The flustered mage took the moment of respite to catch her breath.

"This isn't over thief, but it could be. I might feel merciful if you happen to have some information on the woman we are looking for. Brunette, green eyes, looked a lot like your boss. Seen anyone like that?"

"I-I …I haven't." Liana wanted nothing more than to watch Peonie suffer like she had, but as a former outlaw, she wasn't about to break the code and snitch. She would settle the score on her own.

"Figures," the captain grabbed the rope. There was a wooden beam with Liana's store sign hanging atop the group. Roana cut the sign off and placed Liana in its place. The magic rope reshaped itself to tie the mage around the plank.

The nude woman was suspended horizontally with her breasts hanging in the air. Her bound arms were in no place to stop the crowd from leering at her. Rolls of her sweat fell upon the street like rain. To add insult to injury, Roana hung the store's sign around her neck, like a collar.

"Attention, good citizens. This woman is a thief. I ask that you continue my work and keep punishing her. Please grab any leftover fruit you can find and throw it at her."

A good chunk of the crowd cheered. Liana gulped. This was like the pillory all over again. Worse than the pillory, even. She closed her eyes and began trembling.

"Yeah, that's what I'm talking about."

"I love mob justice."

"Are we going to take orders from an elf?" asked a grumpy old man. Apparently yes. A good chunk of the mob was already holding vegetables and lining up their shots.

"STOP." The city watch appeared and parted the crowd. They were led by a rugged man with more than his fair share of battle scars. He stepped in front of Roana and spat on the ground. "Can I ask what in the bloody hell do you think you are doing, elf?"

"Your job." Roana scowled.

"Oh really? Cause I recall only giving you permission to enter my city to look for just one bandit. What did you do with my generosity? You start harassing my citizens! Riling up a mob!"

"This woman is a criminal. I'm delivering justice!"

"Aye, I heard. A thief by ONE account and with no stolen goods. I can just as well accuse you of assault and banditry with that much evidence."

"No evidence?! I know you humans are dense, but you must be blind as well to not see the crimes that this woman was committing!"

"That's it. I've had it with you. Out of my city, NOW!"

Roana growled and unsheathed her sword. The other elven knights and the city watch did as well, forming two lines of people ready for combat. Toshi was the only one who didn't.

"Captain. None of our sisters report seeing the woman. She is probably not here. Let's get out of here before this boils into a diplomatic incident."

"Fine. We have more towns to search. Knights! Let's go!" Roana sheated her sword and marched out of the market with her head held high. Her entourage of knights followed her along.

"So sorry about that. Our captain can be overzealous at times." Toshi grabbed the man's hand and smiled. When she let go, he noticed that he was ten gold coins richer. "I'm buying a self-cleaning flask from the store. Give that to the store owner next time you see her." With that parting gift, all the elves departed from the city.

Peonie emerged from the crowd and ran towards her friend. "Liana, thank goodness you are ok…" The tied up mage glared at Peonie below. "...ish."

"Where in the blazes have you been?! Why didn't you help me?"

"I did! I brought the guard!"

The rugged man stepped between the two women. "Yes, and I would like to know what the hell happened here. You promised you wouldn't bring any problems to my city, mage."

"I'm afraid this is my fault," Peonie confessed and then told her the whole story to the man.

"Bwahaha! You are all right in my book, girl. Matter of fact, I don't think I'll allow any more search parties to wander nearby. About time someone taught those elves some humility. I wish I could have been there to see the face of that queen when she got her royal buttocks whipped."

"Sir, these knots are too tight. I can't untie them." A guard was doing its best to free Liana. It wasn't enough.

"Of course you can't. This is a premium magical rope. If you could, it would not be very useful, now would it?"

"Cut the damn thing, private."

The guard unsheathed his sword. "Wait! Are you going to pay for that?" questioned Liana.

"For what?"

"For the rope! It's a very expensive enchanted item. If you break it, you buy it!"

"You rather remain there?"

"I rather get paid."

"Leave her then. If she doesn't want to get free, that's her problem. We have other places to be. If you'll excuse us." With a polite nod towards Peonie, the man and his soldiers turned around and marched out of the market.

"Jokes on you. I can get free by myself! All I have to do is wait for the rope's mana to run out …ieventually." Liana looked at the market's crowd and quivered as much as the rope allowed her to. At least they weren't going to throw fruit at her anymore.

"Liana, I'm so sorry. Things got out of control. I don't know what would have happened if those knights had captured me. I'm indebted to you. If there's anything you need, just ask."

Liana raised an eyebrow. "Is that so?"

-------

"Come to Liana's Magic Emporium. Our goods are crazy, but not as much as our prices!" Peonie shook the bell in her hand. She was back to her usual brunette self, as she had traded the headdress, along with the rest of her outfit, for a jester's cap. The adventurer was wearing no other clothes save for the hat and some strategically placed ribbons on her erstwhile intimate areas.

Her legs were crossed. A sheepish smile struggled to remain on her mouth. Her free hand was balled into a fist and hovered over her hairless crotch. Her hair likewise brushed over to cascade around her breasts and give them just a little more cover. Peonie really didn´t trust those ribbons with her modesty, especially considering who tied them in place. 

The usually quiet street had become much livelier that day. People from all the corners of the market came to see Peonie, oh, and the store too. It was quite the crowd congregating out of the store. There was even a small line to get in. 

Peonie decided that time to go back in, she entered the store. It was very crowded inside. There was barely any space to move around. The naked girl had to push people aside to walk towards the counter.

Any hopes she had of hiding in the crowd disappear the more she walked. Those bells in her hat made it hard to be inconspicuous. Peonie was acutely aware of all the curious eyes leering from so close. Of her naked skin brushing against the customers that she passed by.

After a fair share of awkward collisions, she finally parted the sea of people and reached the counter, where Liana was counting her gold. "H-hi Liana. I was wondering …How much longer do I have to keep doing this?"

"Until you are no longer indebted to me, of course!"

"And that will be …when?"

"Dunno, when I feel like you are no longer indebted."

"Great." Peonie groaned. "My father is a duke, you know? He could pay you whatever you want."

"And take some poor peasant's taxes for myself? I'm afraid I can't accept that. Oh, look! New customers! Go greet them."

Peonie sighed in defeat. "…ok."

The naked adventurer shuddered, but ultimately nodded in compliance. Liana watched Peonie squirm her way to the front entrance. It seemed like most people had forgotten about the mage's naked incident thanks to her poor, honorable friend. She smiled. At least she wasn't going to become the talk of the town this time.