Vaida's Harem

Karla


Vaida licked her thumb and carefully turned the page. She was reading a book on magic. She never had any particular interest in magic, but she felt she should probably start knowing at least something about it. Especially since Priscilla was sitting within arm's reach playing a game of chess against Isadora. In theory this meant that it was very quiet in the tent, save the occasional rustle of a page or the tap of a piece hitting the board if it wasn't for Farina. She was watching the game between Isadora and Priscilla with interest, hanging loosely on Priscilla's shoulder. She also gave lots of advice, although Vaida wasn't quite sure who she was trying to help.

"Look, you can easily grab her queen with your knight," said Farina.

"True," Priscilla said calmly. "But if I did that, she could start to seriously threaten my king with her rook."

"Oh, right," said Farina. "I hadn't seen that."

"I have," said Priscilla. She calmly moved a pawn.

Isadora frowned. "Mmm. Interesting."

"It is?" said Farina.

Isadora nodded.

"Well, I'm not much good at this game anyway."

Vaida smiled quietly to herself.

There was a brief rush of air when the tent flap opened and Karla stepped inside.

"Hello Vaida," she said. She turned to the other occupants of the tent and looked momentarily puzzled. "Hello Farina. And hello to... you as well."

"You don't actually know their names, do you?" Vaida said.

"I expect I shall," said Karla. "Do you have time for our contest now?"

"Con-?"

Vaida closed her eyes and growled quietly. The contest. Yes. Of course. In hindsight it had been rather foolish of her to get so worked up about the Sword Princess. Karla did have a reputation in colosseums across the continent and it had been very annoying to find that she didn't know anything about the might of Biran's generals and, more importantly, about her, Vaida's, might. It was only later that she discovered that Karla was oblivious to her strength simply because she was oblivious to everything. But by then they had more or less agreed to test each other's prowess once everything was over.

And now, more or less, everything was over.

"Very well," said Vaida, closing her book and gathering up her sword. "Let's get this over with."

"You don't sound very excited," said Karla.

"Trust me, I'm good at hiding my feelings before a fight."

"Are you? I hadn't noticed," Karla said.

Vaida glared at her, but Karla just smiled innocently. She probably wasn't being sarcastic and she probably had no understanding of sarcasm anyway. It was very hard to deal with a person like that.

Vaida followed Karla out of the tent and through the camp. Here and there, campfires were lit and people were cooking. A few stars were already visible in the sky, even though the sun was still setting.

"Where are we going to have our contest?" Vaida asked.

"There's a little field nearby," said Karla. "It's very isolated."

Vaida nodded. Her eyes narrowed when the thought occured to her that Karla might have some... ulterior motives. She rejected it immediately, though. Karla didn't have guile and, in any case, just because she'd gathered three women around her in a pretty short time didn't mean every woman who talked to her had such an interest in her.

"Here we are," said Karla.

Vaida looked around. It was a wide open field, surrounding by trees on one side and a few hills on the other. The camp couldn't be seen from here, though possibly those on guard duty looked this way now and again.

Karla stepped away from Vaida and stretched herself. Vaida had to admit Karla moved with a warrior's grace. Though her mind had all the brutality of a little duckling, her body moved like a panther. Vaida turned around, putting all thoughts of Karla's body out of her mind, and began stretching as well.

She was going to lose. There could be almost no doubt about that. Karla was a swordmistress, after all. One-on-one swordfights were her speciality. Vaida, on the other hand, prefered the lance and most of her experience was from the back of a wyvern. She probably didn't stand a chance in a fair fight. Vaida wasn't going to mention any of this to Karla, though. The woman might just charitably decide to give herself a handicap in order to even things out.

"Are you ready?"

Vaida turned around and faced Karla. She nodded.

"Good," said Karla.

Both women drew their swords. Vaida raised hers in front of her face in salute. Karla gave a complicated bow.

Karla attacked first. It was an obvious attack, easily fended off. Mostly she just wanted to see how Vaida would react. More attacks came, fluidly stringed together, one after the other. Vaida managed to block or dodge them all and she watched Karla closely. She wasn't so much a fighter as a dancer, relying always on not being where her opponent would reasonably expect her to be. She was quick too and her blade wasn't designed to slash someone in two in one mighty stroke, but more to suddenly glide through their defenses and hit them where they were especially weak.

Vaida went on the attack. She wasn't nearly as elegant as Karla, but she was more direct and put much more power behind her strokes. Karla dodged easily, but her blocking technique wasn't as refined as it could be. Perhaps, if Vaida got lucky, she could disarm the woman with one well-placed blow.

Karla danced away from Vaida and smiled. "Interesting."

"I'm not one for witty banter in the middle of a fight," said Vaida.

"That's a shame. I would like to talk."

Karla lunged suddenly, but Vaida managed to knock the woman's sword away. When she went in for the counterstroke, she found Karla suddenly wasn't there any more and only her quick reflexes allowed her to block the sudden stroke coming in from the other side.

"You're very good," Karla said.

"I was one of the finest generals of the finest military in the world," said Vaida. "Of course I'm good."

Karla laughed. "I've seen many good fighters all over the continent. But none of them were as interesting as you are."

"What?"

Their blades locked and suddenly Karla's face was just inches away from Vaida's.

"How do you draw them to you?" Karla asked.

Vaida pushed the woman away. "We are fighting," she snarled. "This isn't the time."

"People say you can learn a lot about a person from the way they fight," Karla continued. "I don't believe that."

"I had a feeling you wouldn't."

Vaida attacked Karla brutally. It was a stupid thing to do, she knew, but she wanted this conversation to stop. She wasn't at all surprised when Karla dogded her easily and counterattacked rapidly. Vaida blocked her attacks, quietly satisfied that Karla was concentrating on the fight again.

"I don't think you know how you do it," Karla said suddenly. "Your lance rests in their hearts and you did it without thinking, just by being you."

"My... what?" said Vaida. "Look, when I said that, that wasn't a metaphor, that was a threat."

"You must be a very good person, to be able to do that."

"You still don't listen to a word I say, do you?" said Vaida.

Karla lowered her sword.

"What is the meaning of this?" Vaida demanded.

"I was right, you are stronger than I am," said Karla.

"How do you know, we haven't finished our fight."

"Heath told me how you got your scars. You have beliefs and ideals and you'll always do what you think is right, without guilt or doubt."

"Some people would call that boneheaded," said Vaida.

"I am content to let others write my story," said Karla. "I would be... happy... if you were the one to write it from now on."

"You would let your life be dictated by me?" Vaida said.

"Yes," Karla said simply.

Vaida looked at the woman for a while. Then she smirked. "I must admit, such a decision baffles me. But if you truly desire to be subject to my whims you can be so. On one condition."

"Of course," said Karla.

"Raise your sword and fight me," said Vaida. "And do not hold back this time."

Karla blinked. For the first time since Vaida had known her, the woman looked genuinely surprised. "You could tell?"

"Of course I could. I am a trained fighter. Maybe not trained in this type of combat, but a fighter all the same. Now come at me."

Karla came at her. Six minutes later, Vaida's sword landed heavily in the grass.

"Was that satisfactory?" Karla asked, sheathing her sword.

"Quite," said Vaida as she gathered hers. "Take off your clothes."

Karla didn't even hesitate. She immediately put down her sword and undid her belt. When she was about to take off her shirt, Vaida spoke up again.

"You're just going to strip naked? Just like that?"

"No," said Karla, who didn't pause. "Because you told me to."

Karla's shirt landed on the grass, exposing the whole of her upper body. Then she sat down and started undoing her boots.

"You are perhaps the most submissive woman I have ever met," said Vaida. "Have you no pride?"

"I have pride. But I take pride in very different things."

Karla casually tossed aside the last of her garments and stood up. Vaida leaned her head to one side and, perhaps for the first time, really looked at the woman. She was a mongrel, possibly from the Western Isles, possibly from Sacae. But she lacked the savagery usually associated with those places. There was a calmness about her, a willingness to take the world as it came and accept it without question.

Then again, the faint glistening between her legs meant that she was not as calm right now as she appeared.

"Lie down."

Karla lay down. Vaida walked up to her and crouched down beside her.

"So obedient," she muttered. She looked at Karla's face, then let her gaze travel down the woman's body until it came to rest between her legs. "I wonder how far that obedience goes."

The former general reached out and touched Karla between her legs. The woman moaned softly, her back arching slightly in response. Vaida grinned.

"You are aware that I share my tent with three others already," Vaida said. She moved a single finger and let it circle the swordmistress's clit. "Would you mind subjecting yourself to their whims as well."

Karla moaned, her eyes closed. It took a while before she managed to breathe a response.

"... yes..."

Vaida withdrew her hand. Karla shuddered slightly and breathed out slowly, her flowing juices trickling into the grass. She turned to look at the scarred woman, but there wasn't a hint of pleading in her eyes. Her eyes, indeed her whole body, was tense with lust, but she didn't appeal to Vaida for relief in any way.

Vaida slowly licked her finger clean.

"How are you feeling?"

"Aroused," Karla whispered.

Vaida let her gaze wander up and down the young woman's naked body. She couldn't help it. Karla had a strange, hybrid kind of beauty that she had never seen before.

"How fortunate it is, then, that feelings of arousal are so relatively easy to deal with on one's own, aren't they?"

Karla seemed to get the hint. Her right hand slowly moved up her side onto her stomach and then down inbetween her legs. She hissed softly when her fingers reached her wetness. She moved her hand up and down her slit with no sense of urgency, but rather a lazy enjoyment and anticipation of things to come. Her lips parted and something between a lustful moan and a pleased sigh escaped from her mouth.

Vaida expected Karla to close her eyes again when she started filling her body with pleasure, but she didn't. She kept her eyes on Vaida. They were a bit hazy and unfocussed, but nevertheless fixed on the woman. Vaida wondered if Karla wanted to let her know that she knew she was pleasing herself in front of her or if Vaida's presence somehow enhanced her experience. Regardless, Karla kept watching Vaida as she moaned and sighed, her chest heaving as her fingers did their work, her eyes becoming more and more veiled with lust.

Karla panted, her mouth falling open. The hand that wasn't working between her legs moved up to her breasts and squeezing and caressing them. The way she fondled her breasts was graceless and inefficient. Lust had burned away the control the swordmistress usually had over her own body. Vaida noticed that Karla was loosing control over her other hand as well. She rubbed her wet slit hard and fast, seemingly without trying to touch and tease those places she knew were most pleasurable. The way she moved and writhed suggested that she was trying to go for quantity instead of quality.

Vaida took a small amount of pity on the young woman. She groped at her breasts as though they were mere lumps of flesh that gave her more pleasure the more they were squashed and moved about. And the way she rubbed herself and ground her pussy against her hand at the same time was, perhaps, impressive, but it would likely only leave her raw and unsatisfied.

Vaida reached out, her hand gliding into Karla's hair, lifting her face. She kissed her and could feel the swordmistress's body tremble as their lips met. The way Karla kissed her was strangely calm and gentle, so unlike the state her body was in. Vaida had expected Karla to frantically lap at her lips and tongue, but she merely seemed to enjoy the feeling of Vaida's lips on her own.

The calmness of their kiss seemed to spread throughout Karla's body. Her movements became less mindless and slightly more calculated. She carefully held her clit between her index and middle fingers and rubbed it in a way that was almost delicate.

Karla's body trembled again and her lips parted from Vaida. She moaned deeply, her eyes closing for the first time. She kept rubbing herself between her legs throughout her entire orgasm. An orgasm that was probably made longer and more intense because she kept stimulating herself.

Eventually, Karla's hand stopped moving and the young woman came to rest, the tension easing out of her body as she lay in the grass, breathing calmly. Vaida watched the peaceful swordmistress for a while before standing up.

"Come on," she said, not unkindly.

Karla opened her eyes and stood up. She seemed to think for a moment, and then gathered her clothes. Gathered them, but didn't put them on.

"You're not going to dress yourself?" Vaida asked.

"Do you want me to?" Karla asked in return.

Vaida put a hand on her hip and smirked. "I'm sorry, but you do understand we're returning to camp, yes?"

"Yes, I do."

"But you're not going to put your clothes back on."

Karla looked at her for a moment. "Would you prefer it if I went through life naked or clothed?"

Vaida had to think about that for a while. Not about what she would prefer, because that was more than obvious to her, but whether or not being honest was the right thing to do right at this very moment.

"Naked, then," she said.

Karla nodded. "Then I will not put my clothes. Unless you tell me to."

Vaida nodded, turned and headed back to the camp. She could feel rather than hear Karla following her close behind.

It wasn't long before the two walked between the tents again and it wasn't very long before people noticed them. Or, more precisely, Karla. Every time the two came near a campfire all sound seemed to stop and every time they stepped out of the fire's glow whispers would start behind them.

Vaida rather liked the feeling, strangely enough. It was oddly enjoyable to casually parade a naked woman around the camp. It wasn't so enjoyable that she took a large detour before returning to her tent, but still.

As for Karla herself, it was difficult to tell. Vaida looked back at her out of the corners of her eyes every time they walked past someone or a group of someones. Karla clearly didn't mind everybody staring at her naked body, but...

Yes, Vaida concluded. Yes, the Sword Princess really was getting aroused all over again.

Interesting.

Vaida smirked.

Really, really strange, of course.

But interesting.