<b><a href= 'https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?340395-War%92s-End-The-Soldier-and-the-Farmhand-Part-1(F-M)'> Part 1 </a>
Part of the War’s End universe. For more War’s End stories please look at:
<a href= 'https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?321987-War%92s-End-The-Princess-and-the-Rebel-Part-One-(F-M)'> The Princess and the Rebel (F/M) </a>
<a href='https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?323561-War%92s-End-The-General-and-the-Traitor-(F-M-crowd-M)'> The General and the Traitor (F/M, crowd/M)</a>
<a href='https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?326106-War%92s-End-The-King-of-Traitors-Part-1-(F-M)'> The King of Traitors (F/M) </a>
</b>
Casper stood on the house porch, looking toward the old barn. It had been standing there since before he was born. Probably since before Pa was born. The paint was peeling, its floorboards were hopelessly warped, and he couldn’t count how many times he’d cleaned up the mess the family cow had left inside. He’d never once felt scared of it, though, even with its spiders. But now the cow and farm cats weren’t the only ones calling it home.
“Cas.” The porch creaked as Pa stepped up behind him. “Y’haven’t been acting yourself this morning.”
“It’s nothin’. Just had a few strange dreams last night.”
“Really? I went through the laundry. Seems like y’liked them.”
Casper reddened. “I was gonna take care of that! You didn’t need to—”
“It’s my house. I’ll take care of anything I wanna.” He shrugged. “So who’s the lucky girl?”
“There isn’t a girl.”
“Really?” The man’s face wrinkled even more as he smiled. “Y’know the neighbor’s girl, Fiera? She’s been fixin’ to talk to you.”
“Fiera?” Casper looked up. In nineteen years Fiera had never given him the time of day. Now she wanted to talk? “What about?”
“Well, her father wants to buy up our land—”
“He what?”
Pa sighed. “Look, Cas. I’m not getting any younger. When I’m gone, everything you can see right now will be yours.”
“But that’s not a problem yet. We can do better. There’s gotta be a way we can grow the profit off the crops.”
“And you’ll find it. I know you will. But right now, we don’ have the money for experiments.” He clenched his fists around the porch railing. “The thing is, son, Fiera’s family is fixin’ to buy our land. If they do, they could kick you off it because we’re not related by blood. I wouldn’t put it past her father.” Pa shook his head. “But if you and Fiera—”
“You’re trying to set me up with Fiera.”
“You don’t have to marry her, she just has to like you.”
“Marry? I’m not gonna marry her because— because of something stupid like this! She doesn’t like me right now because I don’t gotta mom and dad! How is one talk gonna change that?” He shoved open the porch door and stalked into the yard. “We don’t need money that bad. I can get money. You don’t get to marry me off like some nobleman!”
“I wanted to talk to you about that.” Pa arched an eyebrow. “The food last night was the best I’ve had in awhile. Where’d you get the money for it?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Casper slammed the door and stalked into the fields. “Just leave me alone!”
He hiccupped and dried his eyes, and when he looked up found himself at the barn. His aimless, angry wandering had brought him here, of all places? How? Why? He hadn’t even seen the soldier girl since the day before. He didn’t know if she was still there.
He wrung his calloused hands, then nudged the barn door. It swung open, the neglected hinges screaming their disapproval.
For some reason, he’d thought it would be brighter, like the farmhouse. But dust spilled from the wooden roof and danced in the thin sunbeams seeping through its cracks.
She’d left. He should’ve known. Or she’d never existed to begin with. Seemed about right.
He stepped closer to where Annie, the cow, dozed, but kicked something with a clatter.
The food he’d left last night.
The bowl of stew had been scraped clean, and not a drop of beer was left behind in the mug. Annie couldn’t have done that.
He looked up. “Sir? Are you still here?”
A shadowy figure in the hayloft got to their feet. Casper jumped back with a yelp as a throwing knife thunked into the floorboards square between his boots.
“Why are you here?” The soldier leapt from her perch and landed in front of him.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, enraptured. She stood at his shoulder, but still leered as if she towered him. Obviously she’d spent a good chunk of her life in the army, fighting people twice her size. Casper swallowed. “I-I needed to—”
“To what?” She caught the front of his shirt and slammed him into a nearby wooden pillar.
He whimpered as he banged his head, then looked up with teary eyes. “I wanted to know if you were still here.”
“So you can call those damned rebels to come kill me.” She threw him to the floorboards. Casper whined and covered his face, but she paced around, her armor clanking as she moved. He risked a peek, but she grabbed both of his wrists in one hand and dragged him back to the pillar. He struggled, and one of his punches caught her across the face. Both of them froze, then she rolled her jaw, yanked his arms over his head, and bound his wrists behind the pillar.
Casper pulled at the binds, but they held just as well as they had the day before. Not only that, but with him preoccupied with the wrist ties, the soldier girl had looped another bind around his hips. Casper cursed, but the tie around his waist wasn’t rope. It was one of the soft leather belts he’d left for her the night before. He fumbled; his wrists were bound with leather, too.
“I’m not an idiot.” The girl knelt. “You like this.”
“Of course I don’t! Y’keep saying you’re gonna kill me—”
“I haven’t heard anyone speak like you since I enlisted.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “Farm boy, born and raised, no?”
The ‘born’ part was questionable, but he nodded his head regardless.
“I grew up in Adeign.” She knelt between his legs and pushed her cropped blonde hair out of her eyes. “Destined to be married out to whoever owned land my parents wanted.” She sighed. “I ran. I ran as fast as I could. Turns out I could be something more than a homemaker.” She tapped her sword.
Casper lowered his head. “I wish I was as brave as you.”
The girl raised her eyebrows. “Hmm?”
“I don’ wanna be married off!” His voice broke. “I wanna— I wanna figure myself out, before I end up being a farmer for the rest of my life.”
She cocked her head. “Is something happening?”
“Nothing that wasn’t planned.” Not by him, at least.
“But you came back to the barn.”
“I told ya I would—”
“Bring the entire Cerces militia,” she finished. “But I don’t see any rebels… other than you.”
“I am not a rebel!”
“You say you live in Cerces, but this is a borough of Astal. That makes you a rebel.” She stood. “Do you know what the punishment for treason is?”
Casper gripped the wooden post behind him, trying to steady his shaking hands. “Death.”
“As a battalion leader, I have the right to try you for your crime. I find you… guilty.”
His jaw fell open as she stepped back. “But… but if you wanted to kill me, you would’ve done that yesterday.”
“There are different kinds of death, kid.” She smiled at him. “You deserve the figurative kind.”
“What?” He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll figure out what you’re hiding with these boots.” She gently kicked his ankles, and his knees stretched straight on the dusty wooden floorboards in front of him.
“Wait.” Casper paled. “No—”
The soldier girl turned. “Cowards beg. If you can’t do that much, you better run back to that bumpkin bitch you’re about to be married off to.”
Casper clamped his mouth shut, digging his nails into the post she’d bound him to. The wood was old, but thick, and though she’d left plenty of slack, he couldn’t free himself. Tied as he was, his torso was completely defenseless.
The girl had moved deeper into the barn’s shadows during his struggles. She stepped around Annie, who only flicked her tail in protest. Casper bristled, cursing the uselessness of the cow, then froze as the soldier returned with an armful of old cloth.
She snickered. “Thanks for waiting.”
Casper tried to force a scowl and kicked at the girl as she sat in front of him. She batted him away, instead getting to work folding the ratty blankets and setting them under his feet. She propped up his boots before she ran a dense old pipe under everything. He realized with a pang that she was wrapping his ankles with the blankets, then binding both to the pipe with the rope she’d used the day before. The blankets saved him from the burn he still felt on his wrists, but he could hardly move. The pipe was thin but too heavy to lift. He cursed under his breath again, and the soldier raised her eyebrows.
“What? Afraid you’ll offend me?”
“Fuck you!” he snapped, then cringed as her expression darkened. “I-I—”
“Don’t even try to take that back.” She pulled off his boot and tossed it over her shoulder. It hit Annie, who let out a startled moo, but the cow went right back to chewing on her hay. His other boot followed, but the cow didn’t even give him the courtesy of reacting. Casper, unnerved, wiggled his calloused, sweaty toes as the soldier leaned over him.
The girl paused once more. “They shouldn’t be moving like that, huh?”
Casper went paper-white as she pulled the thread out of the shirt cuff holding together her tattered right sleeve. Her sleeve fell open to her elbow, but in return offered a leather string a couple of feet long. She readied it, then captured his big toes, bound them together, and tied them back to the pipe so his soles were stretched taut. “There we go.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“What do you think?” She pouted, dramatically rubbing her chin. “You insulted me, assaulted me, and threatened me. Attacking a guard, treason…” Her grin grew predatory. “I sentence you to death.”
Casper couldn’t help but glance at the sword on her hip.
“You wish, farm boy. Death by laughter!” She lunged for his feet, raking her nails from under his toes to the base of his heels.
<i>”NOOOOOOO!”</i> Casper shrieked. <i>“NOT THERE NOT THERE NOT THERE NONO NOOOOOO!</i>”
“Ooh, a soft spot?” she cooed, flopping onto her belly to investigate. “Now where, exactly?”
<i>“STAHAP,”</i> Casper begged. <i>“PLEhehehehese stahahap…”</i>
“Wow, your feet are a mess. Guess you’ve never bothered taking care of them, huh, farm boy?” She sat up, smiling. “I dunno how you can feel anything through some of these callouses. But your arch is so soft…”
“Don’t, please don’t.” Tears leaked from Casper’s eyes.
“Hmm?” The girl perked up again. “Oh, already sniveling? I’ve hardly touched you!”
“I’m fine,” he snapped, wiping his face clean with his upper arm. “Leave me alone, you bitch!”
“There he is.” The soldier’s grin widened. “Maybe you’re not a coward after all.”
“Of course I’m not! I’m—”
The girl cut him off. “Now I can’t have anyone else knowing about me.” She raised a balled up cloth the size of her fist. “Now you have to be quiet, or your pa will come running in here and find you tied up like this. So open wide…”
“What? No! I—”
The girl rammed the cloth ball into Casper’s mouth. It was sizable, and a few flaps of the rag hung from his lips and down his chin. He tried to spit it out, shaking his head wildly, but his tongue was trapped under the cloth. Instead he glared at her.
“There y’are, farm boy. And I don’t have to worry about getting found.” She straddled his hips with a clang of armor, setting her crotch on his and leering over his torso. “No squirming or screaming this time. Maybe you’ll cry again, because you wish you were dead.”
“Mmph! <i>Mmmph!”</i> Casper tried, but the girl leaned in and dug her fingers into his armpits. His threadbare shirt didn’t offer much in the way of protection, and he squealed, twisting as violently as he could. It only rocked the soldier girl a bit and hurt the bit of his back in contact with the pillar.
“A fighter? Why aren’t you like that all the time?” She counted his ribs until she reached his tanned belly. “Ooh, you actually have some muscle under all this pudginess.”
“MMMPH!” he objected, straining against the leather ropes pinning him down. “MMM-MMMPH!”
“So you can afford food after all, is that it? Or are you still such a kid that you can’t lose it?”
Casper knitted his eyebrows and shook his head, then howled as the girl pinched his hipbones.
“Something’s poking me down here.” She smiled and slid down his thighs. “Maybe you are a man, huh?” She squeezed his thighs, rubbing the spot where his legs met his crotch. Casper lurched, screaming, and she took advantage, yanking his waistband down his thighs. His erection flopped free, so hard it bounced with his heartbeat. The soldier raised her eyebrows. “Yep, you’re a man. Haven’t seen a dick this big in ages.” She smiled at him. “I think guys are afraid of me because of my rank. What do you think?”
Casper’s eyes went wide as he tried to logic out the correct answer to her question. He nodded.
“Aha.” The soldier rolled off of him into the hay beside them. A few shreds mixed into her short blonde hair, joining more shreds of the dry plant. “I wonder if General Cilen has the same problem, then. Everyone’s terrified. Thank gods an adorable farm boy dropped right into my lap.”
Casper worked his jaw, finally got his tongue behind the cloth filling his mouth, and spat it out after a few tries. “I’m not adorable.”
“You’re absolutely adorable.” She reached for his cock, waited for him to nod, then closed her hand around its length. Casper lurched, sighing, and let his head droop against his tied arms. She chuckled. “Case and point.”
“I’m not.” His voice rose and broke, and he flushed.
“Now that’s adorable.” She spat into her hand and clasped his cock again, her warm spit mixing with the precum drooling down his shaft. He whimpered and tried to thrust in time with her firm strokes, but the ties held him well.
The girl smiled. “I think that means you should let me do the work.”
She was right, but Casper was wary even with the pleasure exploding in his mind. She was cruel. It was a fantastic handjob, but it had to have strings attached.
He grunted, still humping helplessly against the rope around his hips as the soldier pumped him faster and faster. He whined, his toes curled up against the toe binds, and his eyes rolled back.
Then the soldier let go.
Casper straightened, looking between her hand, his cock, and the smirk splitting her face in two. “W-wha? Please!”
“More food tonight?”
“Yeah, course, anything!”
Her smirk somehow widened and she grabbed him again. His orgasm had retreated, but as she toyed with the underside of his head he was driven right to the edge once more.
She let go again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Okay…” She pumped again, then stopped. “Absolutely sure?”
“Fuhuuuuuck…” he whined, banging his fists against the pillar they were tied behind. “Plehease!”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Promise?”
“Promise,” he panted. “I promise…”
The girl closed her fist around him and pumped. He strained against her, then arched his back and came in a long white line across the hay between his bound legs. He hung his head, his heart pounding, and then glanced up, teary-eyed, when she didn’t let go of his sensitive cock. “Please don’t.”
“Are you dead yet?”
“What?” He frowned. “No, of course <i>nohohoho! Stahahahap!”</i>
She massaged the spot on the underside of his cock, tracing his slit and harshly rubbing his smooth head. “Now are you dead?”
<i>“YES! YEHEHEHES!”</i>
“I don’t believe you.” She let go and instead drilled her fingers into Casper’s armpits. He howled, his eyes rolling back, and he felt her shift in the hay beside him and crawl to his feet. Casper’s heart dropped into his gut, but she only began to squeeze and massage his feet, running her fingertips across the calluses on his toes and insteps. He couldn’t help but titter as she explored his untouched arches. She glanced up, then scratched the soft skin there. He squealed and fell limp again. The soldier girl stopped and sat up, cautious. “Casper?”
He worked his mouth, but no sound came out.
“Shit,” she cursed, “not again.” She undid his bonds with practiced moves, then pulled him off the pillar and laid him flat on the hay under her.
“Soft. Not used to it. Civilian,” she repeated over and over as she examined him. She lifted his shirt and rested a hand over his heart, checking his pulse, then shifted so she could feel his rough breathing. She cursed again, yanked his shirt back down, pulled his pants back up, and paused, staring. “Adorable civilian.”
Casper didn’t bother trying to argue. She lifted him off the ground with ease despite her stature and stepped into the grass outside the barn. She found a decent sized hay bale, kicked it until it somewhat resembled a bed, and laid him down on it. He groaned, but cracked open one eye as she fumbled with her armor.
She drew up her breastplate, revealing a belt covered in hooks and loops. Her sword hilt hung from one, and she carried a heavy pouch right next to it. She pulled apart the string holding it closed and let its contents— gold and silver pieces— slide into her palm. She picked out two gold pieces, placed them in his hand, and closed his sweaty fingers around them like the day before. She slid the rest of the money back into the pouch, and as she tied it closed again, Casper saw the rest of its contents: even more gold.
The soldier girl gave him one last glance, almost apologetic, then slipped back into the barn. Casper stared up at the blue afternoon sky and squeezed his fist around the money.
With two heavy thunks, his boots landed in the hay beside him.
***
“Casper? Cas! Get up, boy!”
Casper jumped awake. He reached up to rub his face, but two lumps fell from his hand into the hay around him. He gasped, their importance striking him, and he dug through the hay after them.
“Casper!” Pa limped up the hill, relying heavily on his cane. “Where have you been? I’ve spent all day lookin’ for you!” The old man examined the ruined hay bale. “Come on, you’re going to have to fix that. Have you just been out here all day?”
“Yeah.” He sat up. “Sorry, Pa.”
Pa sighed. “Yeah. It’s okay, son. I didn’t particularly like the way I met your ma, either, but it worked out.”
Ma, his wife, who died before Casper was even born. “Okay.” He hid the gold coins in his pocket. “It’s… it’s to keep the farm, right?”
“It is.”
“What if… what if I bought it?”
“I’m sorry, son, but with what money?” Pa raised his eyebrows. “I’ve let you live here, fed you, dressed you, and you’ve done good work in return. But you’re not making any extra money.”
“Fifty gold.”
“What?”
“Fifty gold pieces. Is that enough to buy the farm? I’ll just take your place, and you can stay here as long as you like.”
“Of course fifty gold is enough. But where are you going to get it from?”
“Thank you!” Casper drew out the two gold and slapped it into Pa’s hand. “Consider that my first payment. I’ve gotta go.” He scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the hill toward the farmhouse, barging through the porch door and into the kitchen. He collected some of the leftover stew and left it over the range to heat up, then went to the cellar to overfill a mug with their homemade lager. He filled a bowl with the steaming stew and set them both on a platter with a spoon.
Casper paused as he stepped off the porch. He set the food down and pulled out a tiny jar hidden under the wooden boards, where he’d chased off a raccoon a few years prior. It was half filled with bronze pieces, with a handful of silver mixed in. At the very top was one of the gold pieces the soldier had given him the day before. All of that good food only cost one; she came from a different city and likely didn’t know how far a gold piece could go in Usstor. Five bronze to a silver, three silvers to a gold; most of what he had gathered was pocket change. Maybe ten gold in the whole jar.
How much gold did that soldier have on her belt?
Casper put away the jar, picked up the food, and cut through the field back to the barn. He passed his Pa on the way.
“Cas? Where are you goin’?”
“I forgot to feed Annie!”
“Son, that cow lives in a barn full of hay. I’m sure she can figure somethin’ out!”
Casper ignored him and continued to the barn. He pushed into the space, teetering forward with the platter. “Commander? Sir?”
The girl leaped down from the hayloft and landed a few feet ahead of him. Casper jumped, then set the tray on the ground and backed up. “Y-your food.” He scrambled to collect the other bowl she’d left behind.
“Thank you,” the soldier said, so quiet he almost missed it. Casper turned. She was standing over the food, fixated on the stew. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s… okay.” Casper forced a laugh. “I get it. Everything’s fine. I’ll keep bringing you food. You don’t have to torture me every time.”
“Okay,” she murmured.
Casper eyed the pouch on her belt as he gathered the dirty dishes. Surely there was forty gold in there.
There was also her saber hooked right beside it.
How could he steal it without her killing him?
He ducked his head, pushing open the barn door while juggling a dirty tray.
“Casper?”
He paused, turning to the soldier. “Yes?”
She cradled the mug of beer, staring at him with wide eyes. “My name… it’s Tammi. Call me Tammi, please.”
“Okay.” His voice broke. “See you tomorrow, Tammi.”
She smiled.
He left the barn, heart in his throat.
Part of the War’s End universe. For more War’s End stories please look at:
<a href= 'https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?321987-War%92s-End-The-Princess-and-the-Rebel-Part-One-(F-M)'> The Princess and the Rebel (F/M) </a>
<a href='https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?323561-War%92s-End-The-General-and-the-Traitor-(F-M-crowd-M)'> The General and the Traitor (F/M, crowd/M)</a>
<a href='https://www.ticklingforum.com/showthread.php?326106-War%92s-End-The-King-of-Traitors-Part-1-(F-M)'> The King of Traitors (F/M) </a>
</b>
Casper stood on the house porch, looking toward the old barn. It had been standing there since before he was born. Probably since before Pa was born. The paint was peeling, its floorboards were hopelessly warped, and he couldn’t count how many times he’d cleaned up the mess the family cow had left inside. He’d never once felt scared of it, though, even with its spiders. But now the cow and farm cats weren’t the only ones calling it home.
“Cas.” The porch creaked as Pa stepped up behind him. “Y’haven’t been acting yourself this morning.”
“It’s nothin’. Just had a few strange dreams last night.”
“Really? I went through the laundry. Seems like y’liked them.”
Casper reddened. “I was gonna take care of that! You didn’t need to—”
“It’s my house. I’ll take care of anything I wanna.” He shrugged. “So who’s the lucky girl?”
“There isn’t a girl.”
“Really?” The man’s face wrinkled even more as he smiled. “Y’know the neighbor’s girl, Fiera? She’s been fixin’ to talk to you.”
“Fiera?” Casper looked up. In nineteen years Fiera had never given him the time of day. Now she wanted to talk? “What about?”
“Well, her father wants to buy up our land—”
“He what?”
Pa sighed. “Look, Cas. I’m not getting any younger. When I’m gone, everything you can see right now will be yours.”
“But that’s not a problem yet. We can do better. There’s gotta be a way we can grow the profit off the crops.”
“And you’ll find it. I know you will. But right now, we don’ have the money for experiments.” He clenched his fists around the porch railing. “The thing is, son, Fiera’s family is fixin’ to buy our land. If they do, they could kick you off it because we’re not related by blood. I wouldn’t put it past her father.” Pa shook his head. “But if you and Fiera—”
“You’re trying to set me up with Fiera.”
“You don’t have to marry her, she just has to like you.”
“Marry? I’m not gonna marry her because— because of something stupid like this! She doesn’t like me right now because I don’t gotta mom and dad! How is one talk gonna change that?” He shoved open the porch door and stalked into the yard. “We don’t need money that bad. I can get money. You don’t get to marry me off like some nobleman!”
“I wanted to talk to you about that.” Pa arched an eyebrow. “The food last night was the best I’ve had in awhile. Where’d you get the money for it?”
“It doesn’t matter!” Casper slammed the door and stalked into the fields. “Just leave me alone!”
He hiccupped and dried his eyes, and when he looked up found himself at the barn. His aimless, angry wandering had brought him here, of all places? How? Why? He hadn’t even seen the soldier girl since the day before. He didn’t know if she was still there.
He wrung his calloused hands, then nudged the barn door. It swung open, the neglected hinges screaming their disapproval.
For some reason, he’d thought it would be brighter, like the farmhouse. But dust spilled from the wooden roof and danced in the thin sunbeams seeping through its cracks.
She’d left. He should’ve known. Or she’d never existed to begin with. Seemed about right.
He stepped closer to where Annie, the cow, dozed, but kicked something with a clatter.
The food he’d left last night.
The bowl of stew had been scraped clean, and not a drop of beer was left behind in the mug. Annie couldn’t have done that.
He looked up. “Sir? Are you still here?”
A shadowy figure in the hayloft got to their feet. Casper jumped back with a yelp as a throwing knife thunked into the floorboards square between his boots.
“Why are you here?” The soldier leapt from her perch and landed in front of him.
“I don’t know,” he replied honestly, enraptured. She stood at his shoulder, but still leered as if she towered him. Obviously she’d spent a good chunk of her life in the army, fighting people twice her size. Casper swallowed. “I-I needed to—”
“To what?” She caught the front of his shirt and slammed him into a nearby wooden pillar.
He whimpered as he banged his head, then looked up with teary eyes. “I wanted to know if you were still here.”
“So you can call those damned rebels to come kill me.” She threw him to the floorboards. Casper whined and covered his face, but she paced around, her armor clanking as she moved. He risked a peek, but she grabbed both of his wrists in one hand and dragged him back to the pillar. He struggled, and one of his punches caught her across the face. Both of them froze, then she rolled her jaw, yanked his arms over his head, and bound his wrists behind the pillar.
Casper pulled at the binds, but they held just as well as they had the day before. Not only that, but with him preoccupied with the wrist ties, the soldier girl had looped another bind around his hips. Casper cursed, but the tie around his waist wasn’t rope. It was one of the soft leather belts he’d left for her the night before. He fumbled; his wrists were bound with leather, too.
“I’m not an idiot.” The girl knelt. “You like this.”
“Of course I don’t! Y’keep saying you’re gonna kill me—”
“I haven’t heard anyone speak like you since I enlisted.” She pressed a finger to his lips. “Farm boy, born and raised, no?”
The ‘born’ part was questionable, but he nodded his head regardless.
“I grew up in Adeign.” She knelt between his legs and pushed her cropped blonde hair out of her eyes. “Destined to be married out to whoever owned land my parents wanted.” She sighed. “I ran. I ran as fast as I could. Turns out I could be something more than a homemaker.” She tapped her sword.
Casper lowered his head. “I wish I was as brave as you.”
The girl raised her eyebrows. “Hmm?”
“I don’ wanna be married off!” His voice broke. “I wanna— I wanna figure myself out, before I end up being a farmer for the rest of my life.”
She cocked her head. “Is something happening?”
“Nothing that wasn’t planned.” Not by him, at least.
“But you came back to the barn.”
“I told ya I would—”
“Bring the entire Cerces militia,” she finished. “But I don’t see any rebels… other than you.”
“I am not a rebel!”
“You say you live in Cerces, but this is a borough of Astal. That makes you a rebel.” She stood. “Do you know what the punishment for treason is?”
Casper gripped the wooden post behind him, trying to steady his shaking hands. “Death.”
“As a battalion leader, I have the right to try you for your crime. I find you… guilty.”
His jaw fell open as she stepped back. “But… but if you wanted to kill me, you would’ve done that yesterday.”
“There are different kinds of death, kid.” She smiled at him. “You deserve the figurative kind.”
“What?” He frowned. “What does that mean?”
“It means I’ll figure out what you’re hiding with these boots.” She gently kicked his ankles, and his knees stretched straight on the dusty wooden floorboards in front of him.
“Wait.” Casper paled. “No—”
The soldier girl turned. “Cowards beg. If you can’t do that much, you better run back to that bumpkin bitch you’re about to be married off to.”
Casper clamped his mouth shut, digging his nails into the post she’d bound him to. The wood was old, but thick, and though she’d left plenty of slack, he couldn’t free himself. Tied as he was, his torso was completely defenseless.
The girl had moved deeper into the barn’s shadows during his struggles. She stepped around Annie, who only flicked her tail in protest. Casper bristled, cursing the uselessness of the cow, then froze as the soldier returned with an armful of old cloth.
She snickered. “Thanks for waiting.”
Casper tried to force a scowl and kicked at the girl as she sat in front of him. She batted him away, instead getting to work folding the ratty blankets and setting them under his feet. She propped up his boots before she ran a dense old pipe under everything. He realized with a pang that she was wrapping his ankles with the blankets, then binding both to the pipe with the rope she’d used the day before. The blankets saved him from the burn he still felt on his wrists, but he could hardly move. The pipe was thin but too heavy to lift. He cursed under his breath again, and the soldier raised her eyebrows.
“What? Afraid you’ll offend me?”
“Fuck you!” he snapped, then cringed as her expression darkened. “I-I—”
“Don’t even try to take that back.” She pulled off his boot and tossed it over her shoulder. It hit Annie, who let out a startled moo, but the cow went right back to chewing on her hay. His other boot followed, but the cow didn’t even give him the courtesy of reacting. Casper, unnerved, wiggled his calloused, sweaty toes as the soldier leaned over him.
The girl paused once more. “They shouldn’t be moving like that, huh?”
Casper went paper-white as she pulled the thread out of the shirt cuff holding together her tattered right sleeve. Her sleeve fell open to her elbow, but in return offered a leather string a couple of feet long. She readied it, then captured his big toes, bound them together, and tied them back to the pipe so his soles were stretched taut. “There we go.”
“What are you going to do to me?”
“What do you think?” She pouted, dramatically rubbing her chin. “You insulted me, assaulted me, and threatened me. Attacking a guard, treason…” Her grin grew predatory. “I sentence you to death.”
Casper couldn’t help but glance at the sword on her hip.
“You wish, farm boy. Death by laughter!” She lunged for his feet, raking her nails from under his toes to the base of his heels.
<i>”NOOOOOOO!”</i> Casper shrieked. <i>“NOT THERE NOT THERE NOT THERE NONO NOOOOOO!</i>”
“Ooh, a soft spot?” she cooed, flopping onto her belly to investigate. “Now where, exactly?”
<i>“STAHAP,”</i> Casper begged. <i>“PLEhehehehese stahahap…”</i>
“Wow, your feet are a mess. Guess you’ve never bothered taking care of them, huh, farm boy?” She sat up, smiling. “I dunno how you can feel anything through some of these callouses. But your arch is so soft…”
“Don’t, please don’t.” Tears leaked from Casper’s eyes.
“Hmm?” The girl perked up again. “Oh, already sniveling? I’ve hardly touched you!”
“I’m fine,” he snapped, wiping his face clean with his upper arm. “Leave me alone, you bitch!”
“There he is.” The soldier’s grin widened. “Maybe you’re not a coward after all.”
“Of course I’m not! I’m—”
The girl cut him off. “Now I can’t have anyone else knowing about me.” She raised a balled up cloth the size of her fist. “Now you have to be quiet, or your pa will come running in here and find you tied up like this. So open wide…”
“What? No! I—”
The girl rammed the cloth ball into Casper’s mouth. It was sizable, and a few flaps of the rag hung from his lips and down his chin. He tried to spit it out, shaking his head wildly, but his tongue was trapped under the cloth. Instead he glared at her.
“There y’are, farm boy. And I don’t have to worry about getting found.” She straddled his hips with a clang of armor, setting her crotch on his and leering over his torso. “No squirming or screaming this time. Maybe you’ll cry again, because you wish you were dead.”
“Mmph! <i>Mmmph!”</i> Casper tried, but the girl leaned in and dug her fingers into his armpits. His threadbare shirt didn’t offer much in the way of protection, and he squealed, twisting as violently as he could. It only rocked the soldier girl a bit and hurt the bit of his back in contact with the pillar.
“A fighter? Why aren’t you like that all the time?” She counted his ribs until she reached his tanned belly. “Ooh, you actually have some muscle under all this pudginess.”
“MMMPH!” he objected, straining against the leather ropes pinning him down. “MMM-MMMPH!”
“So you can afford food after all, is that it? Or are you still such a kid that you can’t lose it?”
Casper knitted his eyebrows and shook his head, then howled as the girl pinched his hipbones.
“Something’s poking me down here.” She smiled and slid down his thighs. “Maybe you are a man, huh?” She squeezed his thighs, rubbing the spot where his legs met his crotch. Casper lurched, screaming, and she took advantage, yanking his waistband down his thighs. His erection flopped free, so hard it bounced with his heartbeat. The soldier raised her eyebrows. “Yep, you’re a man. Haven’t seen a dick this big in ages.” She smiled at him. “I think guys are afraid of me because of my rank. What do you think?”
Casper’s eyes went wide as he tried to logic out the correct answer to her question. He nodded.
“Aha.” The soldier rolled off of him into the hay beside them. A few shreds mixed into her short blonde hair, joining more shreds of the dry plant. “I wonder if General Cilen has the same problem, then. Everyone’s terrified. Thank gods an adorable farm boy dropped right into my lap.”
Casper worked his jaw, finally got his tongue behind the cloth filling his mouth, and spat it out after a few tries. “I’m not adorable.”
“You’re absolutely adorable.” She reached for his cock, waited for him to nod, then closed her hand around its length. Casper lurched, sighing, and let his head droop against his tied arms. She chuckled. “Case and point.”
“I’m not.” His voice rose and broke, and he flushed.
“Now that’s adorable.” She spat into her hand and clasped his cock again, her warm spit mixing with the precum drooling down his shaft. He whimpered and tried to thrust in time with her firm strokes, but the ties held him well.
The girl smiled. “I think that means you should let me do the work.”
She was right, but Casper was wary even with the pleasure exploding in his mind. She was cruel. It was a fantastic handjob, but it had to have strings attached.
He grunted, still humping helplessly against the rope around his hips as the soldier pumped him faster and faster. He whined, his toes curled up against the toe binds, and his eyes rolled back.
Then the soldier let go.
Casper straightened, looking between her hand, his cock, and the smirk splitting her face in two. “W-wha? Please!”
“More food tonight?”
“Yeah, course, anything!”
Her smirk somehow widened and she grabbed him again. His orgasm had retreated, but as she toyed with the underside of his head he was driven right to the edge once more.
She let go again. “Are you sure?”
“Yes!”
“Okay…” She pumped again, then stopped. “Absolutely sure?”
“Fuhuuuuuck…” he whined, banging his fists against the pillar they were tied behind. “Plehease!”
She rolled her eyes. “Fine. Promise?”
“Promise,” he panted. “I promise…”
The girl closed her fist around him and pumped. He strained against her, then arched his back and came in a long white line across the hay between his bound legs. He hung his head, his heart pounding, and then glanced up, teary-eyed, when she didn’t let go of his sensitive cock. “Please don’t.”
“Are you dead yet?”
“What?” He frowned. “No, of course <i>nohohoho! Stahahahap!”</i>
She massaged the spot on the underside of his cock, tracing his slit and harshly rubbing his smooth head. “Now are you dead?”
<i>“YES! YEHEHEHES!”</i>
“I don’t believe you.” She let go and instead drilled her fingers into Casper’s armpits. He howled, his eyes rolling back, and he felt her shift in the hay beside him and crawl to his feet. Casper’s heart dropped into his gut, but she only began to squeeze and massage his feet, running her fingertips across the calluses on his toes and insteps. He couldn’t help but titter as she explored his untouched arches. She glanced up, then scratched the soft skin there. He squealed and fell limp again. The soldier girl stopped and sat up, cautious. “Casper?”
He worked his mouth, but no sound came out.
“Shit,” she cursed, “not again.” She undid his bonds with practiced moves, then pulled him off the pillar and laid him flat on the hay under her.
“Soft. Not used to it. Civilian,” she repeated over and over as she examined him. She lifted his shirt and rested a hand over his heart, checking his pulse, then shifted so she could feel his rough breathing. She cursed again, yanked his shirt back down, pulled his pants back up, and paused, staring. “Adorable civilian.”
Casper didn’t bother trying to argue. She lifted him off the ground with ease despite her stature and stepped into the grass outside the barn. She found a decent sized hay bale, kicked it until it somewhat resembled a bed, and laid him down on it. He groaned, but cracked open one eye as she fumbled with her armor.
She drew up her breastplate, revealing a belt covered in hooks and loops. Her sword hilt hung from one, and she carried a heavy pouch right next to it. She pulled apart the string holding it closed and let its contents— gold and silver pieces— slide into her palm. She picked out two gold pieces, placed them in his hand, and closed his sweaty fingers around them like the day before. She slid the rest of the money back into the pouch, and as she tied it closed again, Casper saw the rest of its contents: even more gold.
The soldier girl gave him one last glance, almost apologetic, then slipped back into the barn. Casper stared up at the blue afternoon sky and squeezed his fist around the money.
With two heavy thunks, his boots landed in the hay beside him.
***
“Casper? Cas! Get up, boy!”
Casper jumped awake. He reached up to rub his face, but two lumps fell from his hand into the hay around him. He gasped, their importance striking him, and he dug through the hay after them.
“Casper!” Pa limped up the hill, relying heavily on his cane. “Where have you been? I’ve spent all day lookin’ for you!” The old man examined the ruined hay bale. “Come on, you’re going to have to fix that. Have you just been out here all day?”
“Yeah.” He sat up. “Sorry, Pa.”
Pa sighed. “Yeah. It’s okay, son. I didn’t particularly like the way I met your ma, either, but it worked out.”
Ma, his wife, who died before Casper was even born. “Okay.” He hid the gold coins in his pocket. “It’s… it’s to keep the farm, right?”
“It is.”
“What if… what if I bought it?”
“I’m sorry, son, but with what money?” Pa raised his eyebrows. “I’ve let you live here, fed you, dressed you, and you’ve done good work in return. But you’re not making any extra money.”
“Fifty gold.”
“What?”
“Fifty gold pieces. Is that enough to buy the farm? I’ll just take your place, and you can stay here as long as you like.”
“Of course fifty gold is enough. But where are you going to get it from?”
“Thank you!” Casper drew out the two gold and slapped it into Pa’s hand. “Consider that my first payment. I’ve gotta go.” He scrambled to his feet and sprinted down the hill toward the farmhouse, barging through the porch door and into the kitchen. He collected some of the leftover stew and left it over the range to heat up, then went to the cellar to overfill a mug with their homemade lager. He filled a bowl with the steaming stew and set them both on a platter with a spoon.
Casper paused as he stepped off the porch. He set the food down and pulled out a tiny jar hidden under the wooden boards, where he’d chased off a raccoon a few years prior. It was half filled with bronze pieces, with a handful of silver mixed in. At the very top was one of the gold pieces the soldier had given him the day before. All of that good food only cost one; she came from a different city and likely didn’t know how far a gold piece could go in Usstor. Five bronze to a silver, three silvers to a gold; most of what he had gathered was pocket change. Maybe ten gold in the whole jar.
How much gold did that soldier have on her belt?
Casper put away the jar, picked up the food, and cut through the field back to the barn. He passed his Pa on the way.
“Cas? Where are you goin’?”
“I forgot to feed Annie!”
“Son, that cow lives in a barn full of hay. I’m sure she can figure somethin’ out!”
Casper ignored him and continued to the barn. He pushed into the space, teetering forward with the platter. “Commander? Sir?”
The girl leaped down from the hayloft and landed a few feet ahead of him. Casper jumped, then set the tray on the ground and backed up. “Y-your food.” He scrambled to collect the other bowl she’d left behind.
“Thank you,” the soldier said, so quiet he almost missed it. Casper turned. She was standing over the food, fixated on the stew. “I’m sorry.”
“It’s… okay.” Casper forced a laugh. “I get it. Everything’s fine. I’ll keep bringing you food. You don’t have to torture me every time.”
“Okay,” she murmured.
Casper eyed the pouch on her belt as he gathered the dirty dishes. Surely there was forty gold in there.
There was also her saber hooked right beside it.
How could he steal it without her killing him?
He ducked his head, pushing open the barn door while juggling a dirty tray.
“Casper?”
He paused, turning to the soldier. “Yes?”
She cradled the mug of beer, staring at him with wide eyes. “My name… it’s Tammi. Call me Tammi, please.”
“Okay.” His voice broke. “See you tomorrow, Tammi.”
She smiled.
He left the barn, heart in his throat.
