Following the Mayor's suggestion, Mike and Erica decided to spend the night in Kevin's house. According to the law as pronounced by the Mayor, it was their property. There wasn't much in the house; just a bed, a table, two chairs, a chest, and some cooking equipment. The shed outside had the tools for running a small farm. The real value of the farm was in the livestock.
After looking around the little shack, Erica opened the chest and looked at the contents. There was some cloth, a bundle of leather, and a change of clothes. There was a little box buried down at the bottom. She pulled the box out and opened it. Surprised, she said, "Look at all of the money and jewels in this box."
Mike came over to her and looked in the box. There were a lot of shells and quads inside the box as well as a few conch. Shaking his head, he said, "It looks like Kevin wasn't just a farmer."
"There's a lot of money in here," Erica said.
"I've got a feeling that Kevin is going to be trouble," Mike said looking around the little house. He knew that although Kevin had the slave mark on his forehead that he would try to escape. Kevin was the kind of man who would rather live as a bandit in the middle of nowhere than to submit to a life as an indentured servant. His escape would probably be an act of desperation. More than likely, someone would get seriously hurt while Kevin made his bid for freedom. He said, "I'll warn Donaldson in the morning. These folks have had enough problems. They don't need more."
"Yeah," Erica said somewhat quietly. She looked over at Mike and said, "I haven't really thanked you for rescuing me."
"Sure you have," Mike said with a dismissive wave of a hand.
Erica carried the box over to the small table and sat down on one of the two chairs in the room. She looked over at Mike and said, "I guess I didn't expect the rescue to happen this way."
"Why?" Mike asked. Not having any experience as a Hero, he didn't have a clue what the Damsels expected in the rescue.
"Well, I guess I expected us to flee into the woods chased by the three men who held me. At some point in time, you would have had to fight them to make good our escape," Erica answered. Although she much preferred the more tranquil outcome, she felt that she had been cheated a little by the lack of excitement. It wouldn't make a good story back on Cassandra.
Mike opened his backpack and started removing the food from it. He smiled and asked, "What would you think if I had raised a band of dedicated followers and used them to deal with the bad guys?"
"That would have been impressive," Erica said nodding her head. She could imagine telling other women about how he had led an army to rescue her.
"Well, that's exactly what I did," Mike said absently looking over at the fireplace. He was going to have to start a fire before cooking the meal for the night.
"What?" Erica asked rather surprised by Mike's comment.
Recognizing the source of her surprise, Mike said, "I recruited a very large army that consisted of the whole village. I used the fact that you had been turned into a slave to convince them to help me in taking care of the bad men. What you saw taking place inside that inn was combat. It may not have been obvious that a fight was taking place, but don't think otherwise for a single minute. Lives were at stake. If the town had chosen to believe them, we'd have been in very serious trouble."
"Oh," Erica said. She hadn't thought that the entire population of the town was an army that Mike had used in taking down her three villains. She realized that he was right and said, "I'm impressed."
"Thank you," Mike said going over to the fireplace. He knelt down and went about the business of starting a fire.
Erica watched Mike at work while thinking about what he had said. In less than one full day, he had mobilized an entire town and taken down the bad guys. In hindsight, it was a significant accomplishment. A stranger comes into town and convinces a tight-knit community that one of their own is performing acts of horror. He had made it look effortless. She smiled and said, "My Hero."
Mike blew on the fragile flame providing the needed oxygen to feed it. The flame caught and the small pile of twigs started burning. Mike piled on more twigs and slightly larger material to burn. As he tended the fire, he asked, "How is your jaw?"
"It hurts a lot. I'm pretty sure that he fractured it," Erica answered putting a hand to the side of her face. It was swollen and throbbed in time with her heartbeat. It felt like a few of her teeth were loose as well.
Mike said, "I'll see what I can do about finding something to take care of the pain."
"Thank you," Erica said.
Looking over his stock of food, Mike said, "I'll make soup tonight. Eating it shouldn't stress your jaw too much."
"I appreciate it," Erica said thinking that he had an easy manner about him. He didn't overwhelm with attention. It was soft and quiet, but always present. She looked at him with fresh eyes taking in his solid build and easy strength. Her eyes drifted to his crotch deciding that he had quite a nice package hidden within his pants. She smiled while thinking about the pleasure she would get in his arms.
"What are you thinking about?" Mike asked seeing the smile spread across her face.
"I'm just thinking about what pleasure I'm going to feel," Erica answered with a smile.
"I don't promise that the soup will be that good," Mike said not understanding what she was talking about.
"That's not what I was thinking about," she said with a laugh.
"Oh, what were you thinking about?" Mike asked puzzled.
"I was thinking about when you get me to Cassandra and I finally get to reward you. It looks to me like you've got a nice package there in your pants," Erica said. She licked her lips.
"Oh," Mike said turning red. Cat had warned him that Erica would flirt with him all of the way back to the bank. He had thought she was teasing him.
Erica ran her hands over her breasts and said, "I can't wait to feel your hands on me."
Feeling a sudden tightness in his pants, Mike piled some more wood on the fire and stood up. Trying to think of something to change the subject, he said, "I'm going outside to see if there's something that I can use to make a staff."
"You don't need to make a staff for me. I can see that you have one developing quite nicely in your pants," Erica said leaning forward to check out his crotch.
"I'll be right back," Mike said rushing out of the shack feeling like he had just developed a fever.
Mike and Erica waited in the inn while the three houses were going up for auction. Donaldson had warned them that it was highly unlikely that the houses themselves would sell, but the farm tools and livestock would fetch some good money. Mike was thinking about how much money he had collected on this adventure. It was far more than he had expected. He had almost ten conch. That would allow him to buy weapons and a horse.
Putting aside the pole that he was trying to turn into a staff, Mike looked over at Erica. She was sucking on a small wooden stick that reminded him of the stick in a Popsicle. One of the women in the village had said that it would help her pain. He asked, "Is that helping?"
"A little," Erica answered, "My tongue is definitely numb."
"Well, she said that it was best for toothaches," Mike said. The old woman had told him that she soaked the wood in medicinal teas. He didn't know if it would really help, but it was hard to say that it would hurt.
"I'm not complaining," Erica said. It seemed to her that he was more bothered by her injury than she was.
Mike shook his head and said, "I should have thought about buying medical supplies back when I was in town. I had the money for it."
"I'm not sure how medicines act on our bodies here," Erica said taking the stick out of her mouth. Her tongue was really feeling numb. She decided that some of the pain in her jaw had lessened. Setting the stick aside, she said, "This does seem to be working."
"I'm glad," Mike said with a sigh. Every reminder of her pain was like a twist of a knife in his gut. It didn't assuage his guilt that he had promised Cat that he would wait until the men had left the cave. It didn't matter that he had known at the time that there was almost no chance of defeating the two men.
"You're quiet today," Erica said looking over at him.
"Just thinking," Mike said. He realized that if he had a bow and some arrows that he could have taken care of the two men before they reached the cave. He shook his head in disgust. There were probably a dozen things he could have done to save her before the two men had entered the cave. The problem was that he still hadn't come up with one thing that he could have done better.
Not understanding, Erica shrugged her shoulders. She said, "How much longer will we have to stay here?"
"I don't know. If they aren't done by noon, then we'll have to leave tomorrow morning," Mike answered.
"I want to go home," Erica said looking over at him with a sad expression on her face. She wanted to get away from the dangers of Chaos. She wanted to get him back to Crossroads where she could reward him. It wasn't just the pain of her injury driving her. It had been torture the previous night sleeping in the shack knowing that he was just five feet away and that she couldn't enjoy the pleasures that Heroes were said to give Damsels.
Mike looked at her and thought about what she was saying. There was the healer on Crossroads that would fix her jaw. He could imagine that she really wanted to get away from the pain. He said, "Half of the money we're receiving is yours."
"I know," Erica said, "I don't have any use for the money beyond what I already have. In fact, I can't even use the money that I do have. Can't I just leave it here to thank everyone for their help?"
"You could," Mike said shrugging his shoulders. He didn't quite know how that would affect the division of money. He wasn't quite sure what the rules dictated should be done when the Damsel had acquired a significant amount of money during her time on Chaos.
"Let's do that, then," Erica said.
"Alright," Mike said rising from his chair. He went over to the barman and said, "When Donaldson and the Mayor come back with the money tell them that we want them to use it for a party. Tell them to butcher an animal and cook it on a spit, drink some watered wine, and sing songs until everyone has a smile on their face."
"Are you sure?" the barman asked looking at Mike like he was crazy. He added, "You'll probably get close to half a conch."
Mike glanced over at Erica and saw her nod her head. He answered, "We're sure."
"All right, I'll let them know that," the barman said.
Mike went over to the table and picked up his pack. Sliding it on his back, he said, "Let's go."
"Great," Erica said rising from her chair.
Mike grabbed his staff and escorted Erica to the door. Outside, Mike looked each way and decided to leave from the town by which he had arrived on Chaos. It was the closest town with a bank. Now that he didn't need to run from the bad guys, he could go that way. He pointed down the road and said, "We'll go that way. It will take us a day and a half to get where we are going."
"Great," Erica said.
The trip had taken them two full days since Mike gave Erica plenty of opportunities to rest along the way. She didn't complain, but he could tell that she was feeling weak. He assumed that her weakness was a consequence of her time as a captive. Feeling weak and tired didn't keep her from sexually teasing him almost the entire trip.
Mike could smell the tannery long before they entered town. Seeing the look of disgust on her face, he said, "The wind is in the wrong direction today."
"Tannery?" Erica asked trying to identify the smell.
"Yes," Mike answered.
"I heard they stank, but I've never smelled one," Erica said wrinkling her nose. The odor was pretty intense.
"Well, it is still a couple miles away," Mike said.
Erica smiled at him and said, "I bet with a little effort in bed from you that you could make me forget about that smell."
"Are you suggesting that I'll stink in bed?" Mike asked with a grin.
"No," Erica replied thinking that she had insulted him and then realizing that he was joking. She laughed and tapped the staff that he had made. She said, "I know better than that. I've seen you practicing with that nice long hard staff of yours."
Mike knew better than to continue that conversation. It wouldn't be long before he would lose his ability to walk naturally. He said, "We're almost there. I'm pretty sure the bank will still be open."
"I can't wait to get back to Crossroads with you," Erica said. The past few nights had been torture for her. Her Hero had stayed so close to her that she could reach out and touch him anytime she wanted, but all she could do was look. His attention to her needs was a constant reminder of his presence.
Mike looked over at her jaw feeling guilty. It was still swollen and bruised. He said, "I'm sure that you can't wait to get in the healer."
"I've told you a dozen times, it doesn't hurt that bad," Erica said. She didn't understand why he acted so guilty about her injury. He had told her about having waited outside for the bad guys to leave. She understood that. Most of the adventures she read about had the hero waiting until the coast was clear to come in and rescue the Damsel. That was all part of how things worked.
"It is my fault that I didn't rescue you before you got injured," Mike said.
Erica said, "You had to wait."
"I don't know," Mike said. He had flashes of his step-father beating his mother when he was just a kid. It had almost been too late by the time he had been big enough to stop the man. He said, "I just can't stand the idea of someone hurting a lady."
"That is what makes you a Hero," Erica said. She rested a hand on his arm and said, "Caution is what keeps you alive long enough to be a hero."
"Well, my caution got you hurt," Mike said.
"Your caution is what rescued me," Erica said. She shivered and said, "Having seen how those three men were punished, I'm pretty sure that they would have killed me once they had gotten tired of me."
"You're probably right," Mike said.
As they approached the bank, Carl greeted them, "Hello, Mike. I heard that you stirred up a little excitement by catching a couple of fellows who owned a slave."
"How did you hear that?" Mike asked surprised that Carl knew what had happened.
"Freighters came through yesterday talking about it," Carl answered. News like that tended to spread like wildfire. With so many of the people in the area having been kept as slaves, the topic tended to stir up a lot of passions. He turned to Erica and said, "You must be the young woman Mike rescued."
"Yes," Erica answered.
"I'm glad to see that you're okay," Carl said. He knew Donaldson rather well. The two of them had been wounded in the same battle while serving in King Sid's army. He shook his head and said, "I hate nothing more than slavery."
"I agree with you on that one," Mike said. He turned to Erica and said, "Let me introduce you to Carl. He's the King's Representative in these parts. Carl, this is Erica."
"Pleased to meet you," Erica said looking over at the bank feeling a little frustrated. Crossroads was just a few minutes away and they were stuck talking to Carl. The fact of the matter was that she was horny, despite feeling tired, hurt, and weak.
"Pleasure to meet you," Carl said. He said, "If you are staying the night, I'd like to offer the services of our town's indentured servants for the evening. We've got four of them here. They'll take care of you and your gear."
"I'd take you up on the offer, but we're going to the bank and then leaving town," Mike said. He knew that the indentured servants would wash, mend, and fix any of his gear.
"Oh," Carl said with a frown.
Mike pointed to Erica and said, "I'm returning her to her home. There are people waiting for her to return."
"I can understand that," Carl said looking away for a moment. If he had a home to return to after being freed, he would have gone straight there. It never failed to hurt when he heard someone talk about having someone waiting for him at home. Despite being free, he was single and no one waited for him at his home.
"I'm sure you do," Mike said noticing how Carl's expression changed for a moment.
"Let's go," Erica said staring intently at the bank.
It took some time for Mike to complete the business at the bank. He had to open an account and lease a storage box. For Erica, the delay only exaggerated the pain of her jaw. Somehow, knowing that her ordeal was about to come to an end made it harder for her to ignore the discomfort of her injuries. Above all of that was the promise of sex with an Earth hero.
The time required for Mike to store all of his goods passed relatively quickly. All he possessed was a staff, a couple of knives, and his trail gear. Erica danced anxiously from foot to foot waiting for her adventure to end and the rewarding to begin. Looking at each other, Mike inserted his finger into the hole that would make the storage box disappear and send them back to Crossroads.
The pair stepped out of the portal. Cat was waiting for them wearing an outfit that was reminiscent of a short Greek toga. She took one look at Erica and knew that things had been pretty rough for the woman. The one side of her face was swollen and discolored. Even worse, her general skin color didn't look very good.
As soon as he saw Cat, Mike said, "She's been injured and needs treatment right away. We need to get her into the healer."
Cat immediately led Erica over to the healer and put her in it. She frowned as she watched the readings of the healer update as it assessed the young woman's condition. The jaw was definitely fractured. In addition, there was a slow acting poison that was just barely registering. It wasn't deadly at that level, but it had kept her from healing. Cat looked over at Mike and said, "She was poisoned."
"That might be the medicine that she was taking for the pain," Mike said with a frown.
"Possibly," Cat said studying the readings. She sighed and realized that he was right. She said, "We're going to have to go over the local medicine. We can't have you or one of the Damsels dying because the medicine killed you rather than cured you."
"I didn't even think about that possibility," Mike said.
"Not all of the dangers of Chaos are in the form of armed men," Cat said. There were poisonous plants and animals that represented just as great a threat. There was even a kind of fish that if eaten could kill a man from Earth while women from Cassandra were immune.
"This whole mission was a disaster," Mike said feeling horrible.
Cat could see that Mike was really bothered about something. Trying to alleviate his concerns, she said, "You didn't know."
"I was waiting for the bad guys to leave when they hurt her jaw. I should have stopped them," Mike said.
"You rescued her. That's the important thing," Cat said.
"She suffered because I was up in a tree while she was getting beaten," Mike said staring down at the floor. He hadn't noticed that the floor in this part of the suite had tile rather than carpet.
"Did you follow my directions?" Cat asked.
"Yes," Mike answered.
"Then you did the right thing," Cat said. She led him over to the other healer and said, "In you go."
"Yes, Cat," Mike said lying down in the healer. The last thing he saw was Cat smiling down at him while she closed the door of the healer.
Cat let Mike out of the healer. Taking him by the hand, she led him towards the bathroom for him to take a shower. While she walked, she said, "Erica is your first Damsel."
"Yes," Mike said feeling a little uncomfortable. He had a slight idea what he was supposed to do now that he had rescued Erica, but the specifics had never been laid out. He couldn't imagine that she'd just drop her clothes and ask him to have his way with her. He said, "I'm a little unsure of what comes next. Am I supposed to set up some kind of romantic evening or something?"
"You're supposed to go to her and make love to her until she can't stand," Cat said reaching down to stroke his cock.
Despite the distraction below the waist, Mike asked, "How am I supposed to do that? I doubt after all of that pain that she's in the mood to do much of anything except sleep."
Cat burst out laughing at the idea of a woman from Cassandra ever wanting sleep over sex. She said, "She's in the bedroom with her legs spread waiting for you. She can't wait."
"You're kidding," Mike said.
Cat paused and pulled Mike to her. She placed one of his hands on her breast. The nipple immediately stiffened. She said, "She's a woman of Cassandra. If there is one thing that we don't kid about, it is sex. She wants you to get in there and fuck her."
"Oh," Mike said biting his lower lip. He felt a little strange about going with another woman while he was having a relationship with Cat. He leaned down and kissed Cat. In a soft voice, he said, "I couldn't do that to you."
"Do what to me?" Cat asked puzzled.
Mike said, "Go to another woman while I'm in love with you."
"I need you to do this. I want you to blow her mind. She's got to go back to Cassandra and brag about what a great lover you are. I want every woman on Cassandra to know that I've got a Hero from Earth who really knows how to take care of a woman," Cat said pulling him towards the bathroom. She knew that some Heroes had problems with the arrangements on Crossroads. Most of them got upset about having children that they would never see. A few felt like they were cheating on their caretaker.
Mike followed her while thinking about what she had said. In a lot of ways, Mike was a rather conventional man. He had always thought of himself as a one woman kind of guy. This idea of bedding other women with her full knowledge was just a little hard to accept. He said, "I only want you."
Cat stopped and looked at him. In a very soft voice, she said, "Mike, I realize this is hard for you to accept, but it has to be this way. Think about this from Erica's perspective. She was beaten and raped while on Chaos. She risked her life just for the chance to have a baby. She doesn't want just any baby; she wants your baby. Don't make the risks she took meaningless by forsaking the reward she wants to bestow upon you."
"What about you? What about your feelings?" Mike asked.
"I'm a Caretaker of Cassandra. My job is to take care of my Hero so that you can rescue Damsels in Distress. I'm so proud to be a Caretaker. For every woman who is selected to be a Caretaker, there are a thousand who want to be one. I've worked my whole life to learn enough to get this job."
Feeling a little hurt by her answer, Mike asked, "Am I just a job to you?"
"No, you aren't. You are my Hero and I am your Caretaker. There isn't a better relationship than that in the entire universe," Cat answered. She was finding it difficult to stand there without running her hands over his body. Just looking at him was enough to take her breath away.
Mike still didn't understand just what a Hero meant to a woman of Cassandra. He shook his head and said, "I'm not much of a hero. I sat by while Erica was brutally beaten. Her jaw was injured and then my attempts to deal with her pain nearly poisoned her."
"You rescued her and saved her life," Cat said.
"I let her get hurt," Mike said.
Cat stared at Mike for a moment and then said, "You are a Hero from Earth. Maybe you don't know what that means to women of Cassandra, but it means a lot to us. Heroes from Earth succeed in their mission or die trying. They don't let rash concepts of heroism prevent them from succeeding.
"Heroes from Earth succeed and they do it with honor. They treat the Damsels with respect. They treat everyone with respect, but they don't take one risk more than necessary to accomplish their mission. More than anything, they have to be realists about their skills and the abilities of the enemy. At times they have to be hard and cold-blooded because leaving an enemy at their back is a good way to fail the mission.
"If you think about it, it has to be that way. The women of Cassandra would not risk their lives that way if they felt that the chances of success were too low. Erica suffered a broken jaw. That's a shame, but if you had charged in unprepared for the enemy she would have died. Your mission would have been a failure."
"You're probably right," Mike said.
"I am right. We've watched a lot of men from Earth fail in their first few missions while they've tried to learn that lesson. I told you to take your time in reaching her. In fact, I made you promise to work a full week at the stables just so that you would have a chance to learn how things worked on Chaos. It wasn't an arbitrary promise that I forced upon you," Cat said.
"I didn't think about it that way," Mike said thinking about how he had used his knowledge about the King's Representatives to take care of the three villains.
"Good. Now let me get you cleaned up so that you can fuck Erica senseless," Cat said pulling him into the bathroom.
After a long shower that was accompanied by lots of teasing, Cat led Mike to the door of the bedroom. He looked in and saw that there were no doubts about Erica being ready.