4. Sudden happenings

Okay, so this is the part where he leaves me alone to run off and play hero. I thought as I watched Kato talking to the soldier. I stared out over the hedge that separated the garden from the village behind it. The countryside was dark and peaceful. How much longer would that last? What were the people that lived here like during the day? What were they like to strangers? How would they greet a new chiefess? This would be so much easier to think about if I wasn't going to be finding out the answers all by myself.

His arms wrapped around me from behind. His strong embrace already felt so familiar to me. How had that happened in such a short span of time?

"Sorry for the interruption, but it forces me to ask you a question before I would like to.

Here it comes. I took a deep breath and prepared myself to hide my disappointment.

"Would you like a black or white stallion?"

"I und-"

What did he just say? I turned around in his arms. His gorgeous face greeted mine with a smile.

"I'm sorry. What did you just ask me?"

"I asked what color horse you preferred. White stallions look majestic and let everyone know you are to be respected. The black ones, though, they demand fear as well as respect and they run so fast, the world around turns into nothing but a blur."

His enthusiasm made him smile. At that moment, I learned that his smile turned me on. I attacked him, taking his bottom lip between my teeth. He growled and kissed me back. What the hell was happening to me? I couldn't keep my hands off of him. He gripped my chin and turned my head to the left. When he started nibbling on my neck, I moaned in his ear. I wanted to push him down and climb on top of him.

"Please sir, we have to hurry."

The rude soldier reminded us that he was still here. God, he was lucky I didn't have a weapon on me. Talk about being a cockblock!

"You're right. I need to focus."

Kato pulled away from me and adjusted his pants. I raised an eyebrow at him. 

"To be continued? Now would you like a black or white horse? Unless you're afraid and wanna hide out here." 

He raised his palms up as he said that last part. The fucker was challenging me! Yeah, he was also inviting me to come along. But the important part was that he was calling me out. 

"I want a horse as dark as the one you have."

I shoved him in the chest. He smiled and nodded. I felt my nipples harden. He really had to stop with all the smiling or we were going to have an enormous family.

"When you look at me like that, I wanna do things to you that would make the goddess of sex blush."

"Don't threaten me with a good time."

I stepped closer to him as he pulled off his breastplate. He wore chain-mail underneath it. Was that the reason he felt like a wall of power? He was wearing enough armor to take on death itself. 

"How does this feel?"

He slowly lowered the armor over my shoulders and fastened it at my sides. It was a little snug around my breasts and it weighed about a million pounds. But I could definitely wear it.

"It's a little tight and heavy, but it fits."

"Sorry about the tightness. We can get you one that fits better when we come back."

He ran his hands over the part of the armor that covered my breasts and I could swear I felt his hands on my bare skin. If he had kissed that same spot, I might've orgasmed. I shook my head to clear the thoughts of us writhing in ecstasy. This was serious. We were about to ride into battle, and I wasn't a soldier. 

Within minutes, I was outfitted in a full suit of heavy iron armor that matched Katos. He was given a replacement breastplate and a longsword. The sword they handed me was shorter and lighter. I liked the way it felt in my hand before I slid it back into the sheath on my hip.

"Mine's bigger."

Kato stuck his tongue out at me as he mounted his horse. The beast was barely visible in the darkness.

"Oh, it definitely better be."

I winked at him as a soldier assisted me onto my horse. It was the largest animal I had ever sat on. The moment I was on its back, I felt how powerful the animal was. Kato was right. If this beautiful creature wanted to, it could probably outrun death itself.

"Are you nervous?"

He looked over at me as our party of sixty heavily armed soldiers and I walked along the dark road. Only handheld torches lit our way. Kato and I took up the rear.

"A little. I'm not exactly a trained warrior."

"We can fix that. I would love to give you some hands-on training."

He smiled again, and I looked away. The last thing this horse beneath me needed was a soaked back.

"I really am glad to have you here, though."

Was he talking about here, as in, on this trip, or in his life? Was I already that special to him? Why did that matter to me so much? Probably shouldn't be asking myself these kinds of questions just before a battle. Oh yeah, we were riding into a battle. Why wasn't I more worried about that? I glanced around me at the armor clad soldiers. It did feel a lot different from standing at Simeon's side surrounded by bandits. This group looked impressive enough to handle anything. I wish they could've been there before Simeon had to sacrifice himself for me. I still needed to thank him for that. He had to pull through.

We entered the small village as the sun began to rise. I watched in awe as the sky turned from midnight blue to a lovely blend of red, orange, and yellow.

"Wow, that's almost as beautiful as you."

I cut my head sideways at him. He was looking straight up at the sky. The surrounding village was silent and still. 

"This place is creepy," a female soldier said.

The red skull emblem on her chest gleamed in the light of the newly risen sun. We all began looking around at the vacant area. If someone had told me that no one had ever lived here, I would easily believe them. Nothing stirred, not even animals. It was surreal.

"Yeah, it's like an open air cryp-"

The soldier that was speaking was interrupted when something hit him in the neck. He pulled a tiny wooden dart out of his skin. He held it up and studied it before falling sideways off his horse. 

"It's an ambush, shields up!"

Kato leapt from his horse and tackled me off mine after two darts bounced off my armored chest. He somehow caught me before I slammed into the ground. His smile was even more sexy in the early morning sun. 

"I personally plan to split the goblin that shot you straight down the middle."

"Not if I do it first."

I don't know where the confidence came from. I had never seen a goblin, let alone killed one. There was just something about Kato that made me overly competitive. He helped me to my feet, and we took shelter behind the wall of shields his men had raised.

"I need to see how Steven is doing."

Kato's playful demeanor was gone. It was replaced by the steeled calm of a seasoned warrior. There was a fire in his eyes. A determination to get out of this situation alive. 

"How old are you?"

I had to know. His clenched jaw made him look older and wiser.

"I'll be twenty-two in a few days. I was hoping to unwrap you with my other gifts."

"Well, get us out of here in one piece and we can even celebrate early."

His smile came back for a second.

"With you by my side, victory is almost a certainty."

What had to be hundreds of goblins came flooding out of the woods that surrounded the village. They were all around 3 feet tall and a bluish black color. They all wore leather armor, and they were all armed. Some of them carried tubes for the darts they shot at us. Some of them had tiny swords and a handful of them carried axes. They ran at us from all sides at once.

"This isn't the same group we cleared out of here. What are the chances that another, larger, more intelligent pack would attack the same village a few days apart?"