Free The Return by Sean M. Campbell

on her hand. Then Beth looked at us. “Her name is Beeko.”
    “Welcome to my world”, I said, as I mounted Reaper.
    As Beth turned to walk towards her horse, Beeko flew around her head twice, and then settled on her shoulder. Her tail wrapped up over her ear. Then she snuggled down against her neck and started cooing contentedly.
    We rode for several more days, each night stopping to camp. Some nights Likka would join me in my tent, other nights Taina would join me. They told me I got too worked up when they both joined me, and they wanted to survive the nights! Laina and Beth both giggled when they said that to me.
    Two nights before we were to arrive at Feck, Laina came to me as we made camp. “Can you be gentle with someone who is inexperienced?”
    “Laina, I can be as gentle as a lamb, but you will still feel pain. The pain will be temporary, though, and soon will be replaced by pleasure.”
    “How much pain would I feel?”
    “It is different for every woman. Some feel a lot of pain, some very little. What you offer is also a precious gift you can only give once. I would be honored for you to give me this gift. I do want you to be sure I am the one you want to give it to, though.”
    “I don’t know what to do!”
    “Do what is right for you, and no one else. Do what your heart tells you to do.”
    She wandered away from me, and went to talk to her mother quietly for a bit. I gathered my bow and went to hunt for some dinner. An hour later, I returned with a one hundred pound haunch from a large lizard like cow, which Likka called a drog. She told me they are quite tasty and the meat brings a high price in the inner kingdoms.
    I came into the camp to see all of the tents set up and the fire already going. I set about filleting the haunch out into thin slices of meat, and placing it on spits over the fire. Taina had dug up some tubers and gathered some fruit and berries from the surrounding area. We made a meal that was the best we had had in days.
    “Rhys?”
    “Yes, Taina?”
    “She wants to come to you tonight, but she is afraid. She has become convinced that our screams in the night are from pain as well as from pleasure. I don’t know what to tell her to convince her otherwise.”
    “How do you feel about this?”
    “Rhys, you are the greatest man I have ever met. I know your power and I know your strength. But I also know your love and passion. I know you will be gentle with her, and a mother could not want more than that for her daughter’s first time. I am not scared for her, but I want her to be sure she is ready.”
    “Ask her to come to me to talk for a bit.”
    Taina walked away to find her daughter. As I waited, Beth came to me. “Would you really take that little girl to your bed?”
    “That is an interesting question. If she were back where you come from, she would be a little girl barely of age. Here, however, she is a woman five years past her marrying age. In this place, she would normally have three or four children of her own by now.”
    “But she is so young.”
    “Yes, she is by your standards. Here, though, people seldom live to see fifty summers. Most never see forty. These people live shorter lives, and have to grow up quickly. She is a woman, and has more than proven herself as such to me on this trip. If she chooses me, how could I dishonor her by refusing?”
    “How do you do that?”
    “Do what?”
    “Make it seem so natural that a little girl might want you to have sex with her, and you make it into a loving expression?”
    “I don’t know -- maybe it is because I care, sometimes too much.”
    It was the flash of anger from Likka that had me moving. My swords were in hand before I even knew I had reacted. When I reached the north side of the camp I saw four men in red leather armor astride four roan horses. Two of the men had bows drawn and pointed at Likka.
    “Likka, get back!”, I shouted, as I came to a stop in front of the men. As Likka stepped back, the two