Snap.
The arrow flew from her crossbow with ease, slicing a clean line through the air to pin the exact middle dot of the target board with a resounding click into place. The women clapped delightedly as Arrigo slung an arm around her shoulders. "Excellent, Gamlen! Most impressive." He gave a good squeeze before releasing her shoulders. Hawke mentally noted to bathe after the hunt. "Now ladies," Arrigo turned to the lot of them. "If you will, back to the castle. The hunt is about to begin."
The women giggled for the most part, returning to their rightful place behind closed doors. It was sickening. Hawke was tempted to cut them all, the bloody royals. Bloody royals, hmm. The thought was comforting, soothing her anger with a clear, crystalline picture of the lot of them lying in blood about the royal long table, with a serving of toasted nug on the end for her. Ooh, I like that. Hawke took another mental note; sign up for the next royalty bloodbath. Mmm.
"Gentlemen," Arrigo addressed, "Our hunt begins. Remember, stick to the group in formation. No one's held accountable for your actions or injury but yourself. There are many heartless dangers in Val Forest. Stay to the group. Any blithering idiot who wanders off is at his own risk. The one to end the killing blow to the stag remains the victor and will be celebrated at my hosted ball."
Cowards, this blighted fool really didn't deserve the space he occupied in the world. Too pussy to split from a five-manned hunting band? She scowled inwardly. It was a shame she hadn't the time to locate his ring yet; an accidental hunting slaughter would have worked quite nicely, bodies spattered and torn every which way… Later, perhaps.
Hawke followed them on out to the woods, which proved to be a very boring excursion. They were amateurs, nubile at the sport in every way and loud as an ass-aching dwarf on estrogen. The only doe they came across fled on miles ahead of them before anyone could even string the arrow. Hawke's lovely imaginary bubble of watching them all be mauled by bears as a possible 'accident' popped with a depressing snap. She sighed, counting down the minutes it'd take this group to trek back without getting lost.
They went on like that, blundering through the forest for over an hour before the men tired of their pointless wandering and sexist jokes. It was a wonder, really. Not even Zevran or Tallison got that bad, even in their worst of moments. Hawke wanted nothing more than to pitch herself in the tub and bathe. Arrigo was the worst of all of them. His poor wife. Hawke pitied the woman; if her options had been so bleak, she would've killed herself long before squirming under his hold.
Twenty minutes later, they started back empty-handed and grumbling excuses about bad luck and soggy weather hiding the woodland creatures. Hawke twitched with every foul word from their lips.
"So the woman, sick in bed with a measly fever goes: no. No sex. We'll do it later. As is she ought to be the one to decide when my thirst must be quenched!"
Culos gawked. "Who does she think she is, the prophet? I hope you licked her good for that!"
Arrigo shook his head, "You know I don't beat her, Culos. You'd think she'd be more grateful for that, a roof over her head, food in the belly, and a loving husband; at least enough to present herself graciously and sate my need when she's decent enough to be desirable. The wench; I should have left her on the streets of Rivain, she's so troublesome."
Agnese patted his other shoulder, longbow strung and swung across his back carelessly. "You're a good man to take her in, Arrigo."
"It's just a shame," Arrigo shook his head, "She ought to behave more for what I've given her. Like your wife, Gamlen!" Arrigo stretched to include him in the filthy conversation. "How did you train her so well? She was such a lady at my gathering just today."
"Did you purchase her as well?" Dantes inquired from Culos' left. From what she could tell, he was the only one of the group that wasn't a complete and utter bigot as the rest. As the youngest, Dantes spoke with more hesitation. Hawke pegged him for faking the whole bigotry, but the man obviously wasn't a bard or assassin. Clumsy, and not in a way that was forced, he held the bow incorrectly tucked at his armpit instead of the shoulder when the bow was strung, and he held it off kilter so his aim wouldn't be steady. Probably the most nubile of the bunch; Hawke wondered why the young man was included with the group at all.
"I did," Hawke confirmed again, "Off an Antivan slaver in Seleny. The loveliest of the bunch. I purchased her as a servant, but, well," Hawke straightened her armor. It was amateur and bawdy, but as expected, the men ate it up like hungry Mabaris.
Arrigo wore a wicked grin. "She couldn't resist the charms of her master, could she?"
"Nor could I the charm of my servant," Hawke added, "I was so pleased with her, I began to dote upon her with gifts."
Arrigo's brow furrowed. "Gifts?"
"Yes, gifts. I spoiled the sovereigns out of that girl. Purchased whatever she willed and attended her every whim personally."
Arrigo's brow scrunched tighter. "You were lovesick over her?"
"I was," Hawke confirmed, "Asked her to marry me that very year."
"Asked?"
"And she's been devout ever since," Hawke finished. "Serving my every whim and desire, presenting herself as I wish when I require her to, and overwhelmingly pleased to sate my desires."
"Really?" Arrigo seemed tremendously confused. "That's… one way to go about it, I suppose."
"Your every desire, you said?" Agnese inquired anxiously.
"Every one." Hawke confirmed.
"Huh."Culos remained equally baffled.
Arrigo's features twisted as he tried to contemplate it. "You know of the trouble I have with my woman, Gamlen. Her spirited nature and stubbornness. You would recommend that I purchase her something?"
"I could not know to recommend unless I've met her, good Arrigo. Every woman is different, of course. Requiring something of their own before they push to that happiness in serving."
"Perhaps you should meet her," Arrigo mused, fingering his scruff undecidedly. "I would like greatly for that level of obedience."
Something rustled in the branches ahead, too heavy to be the breeze. "Wait," Hawke called out, stopping herself as the group paused to look back at her.
Arrigo glanced around, not seeing anything. "Gamlen?" Hawke didn't respond, only listened. "Gamlen, what is it? What're you- "
The silent woodland around them screeched suddenly, freezing the men to scramble for their weapons while Hawke looked upward with just enough time to unconsciously register jolting back. A huge, six foot tall Giant Gorilla stretched to full proportion upon missing squashing her flat and beat upon his breast in rage.
The string of Hawke's longbow released with a snap, whistling through the air only momentarily to slice into his throat.
Screams went up around Hawke, who kicked aside the Giant Gorilla to find a swarm of smaller monkeys attacking her companions. Again, she cursed the misfortune of it all. This would've made the perfect excuse. Grumbling quietly, Hawke strung back another arrow and loosed it at a flying monkey that'd jumped on Arrigo's head. Arrigo fell, scrambling back in horror as the monkey dropped from him. He stared at Hawke, momentarily shocked as she took another aim at one of the two monkeys that'd gone after Dantes. The monkey screeched as the arrow pierced through his back. He wrestled with the second.
"Help me! Help me!" Culos screamed, appearing to have dropped his bow as he fended off three with an arrow. Not liking his odds, Culos turned on his heel and ran. Idiot. Hawke rolled her eyes as they took chase.
Something sharp pierced her wrist and Hawke glanced down in annoyance to see one of the smaller guys gnawing her wrist with sharp incisors. Corrupted monkey teeth were sharp enough to pierce bone. Hawke pulled a small throwing dagger from her side and held up her wrist to impale the creature through the stomach, who's eyes and mouth went wide in a screech she ended by snapping the creature's neck. Ahh, Hawke relaxed into the mood of slaughter. Much better.
"Gamlen!" Arrigo's foul mouth spewed her given name hurridly. He slammed the blade of a dagger into the sternum of one of the three-foot miniatures and panted, two others closing in on him. Hawke dropped her bow to grab another throwing knife, which ended its flying travels in a sickening squelch to the back of one's skull.
A scream rose up in the distance. Dantes lost his concentration at it and earned a vicious bite to his collar for it. He shoved the beast off. "Gamlen! My father!" Hawke blinked in confusion as the monkey rounded back for Dantes. "Culos!" Dantes got out, catching the beast around the middle. "Please!" Dantes begged, stretching to look a certain direction and earning a raking of claws across his chest for it.
Hawke took off in the indicated direction.
She was actually surprised how far Culos has gotten before they'd caught up with him. With a vicious monkey wrapped around his back and another biting into his leg, Culos lost his footing— or perhaps the monkey had already reached bone in his bite—and fell forward. The third monkey who'd followed lay dead with an arrow through his chest.
Hawke approached at a walk. Culos screamed as the monkey claws ripped through his flesh and tore clean away a vast chunk of his leg. He flipped onto his back in the struggle, flailing in a losing fight and crying. Hawke stepped forward into his direct view. "Gamlen," Culos sobbed. Hawke's nose wrinkled at the stench of urine in the air. Too weak to even move, Culos bled out as the monkeys gorged on him. "Help," Culos whimpered, barely able to speak for his agony.
"Help?" Hawke's lip curled. Stepping right up next to the feral, feeding monkeys, the hard heel of Hawke's boot pressured down upon the upper half of his injured leg where the beast still feasted greedily below. "Tell me again, Culos. How many times did your first wife beg you to stop the first time you raped her with the hilt of a hammer to 'break in that stubborn bitch?' Culos groaned, panting, dizzy with agony as his blood pooled under him, flecking her boots. "When she cried, did you help her?" Hawke's other heel lifted, hovering as she balanced all her weight to that injured leg. "Or did you shut that bitch up?" With all her force, Hawke slammed down the heel of her second boot to his crotch. She thought she heard something crunch, even, but his scream cut off all else, so piercing, even the monkeys stopped to cover their ears.
Hawke had him by the shirt and half-lifted before his voice had even died from the scream. She snarled at him, glower so vehement, even her stare burned him. "May your curdled blood rot with you in the Void." Thrusting him down, Hawke stepped off the worthless shit with a glare so dangerous, the trees shuddered. His whimpers, a soothing melody to her mind, Hawke turned her back and walked away.
XXX
She arrived back in time to see the first Giant Gorilla she'd stabbed towering over a cowering Arrigo while Dantes frantically searched for a knife nearby. Agnese lay unconscious or dead only a few feet off.
Without pause, Hawke sped towards it, pulling one of her long daggers from her back to ram it through the Gorilla's heart. She yanked out her blade and turned, rubbing the weapon clean on her legging. "Culos is dead."
"What?" Dantes looked up in fright, immediately climbing to his feet. Hawke sheathed her blade and caught him with an arm before he could run over.
"It's not something you need to see."
Dantes looked at her long and hard, at first pleading, but then stilled. He sagged, supported by her arm.
"Y-You saved me!" Arrigo sputtered, still on the ground.
Hawke wondered if this might yet prove the opportunity she required. "There may be more. Is Agnese..."
Arrigo looked to his friend's splayed form, then back, trying to breathe evenly. "Unconscious."
"Grab him and go," Hawke nodded. "Let's move."
XXX
"And if it weren't for your great bravery and skill shown today," Arrigo continued, "None of us would've survived. Gamlen, we owe you our lives." Arrigo lifted his glass to the middle, where Agnese, his wife Relita, Stella, and herself clinked glasses as custom and sipped their small swigs. Hawke downed hers in a gulp; it'd be a long night if there was to be more petty party chatting again.
"Ahh," Arrigo set down his glass on the server's waiting tray as well. "Now, servants." Arrigo clapped twice, summoning his servant lady and half a dozen others who immediately plucked up the table from their midst.
"What's this?" Hawke questioned, watching as all furniture of the room was pulled out, replaced with cushioned pillows framing a four-man pathway down the center of the room, circling around the fountain. Three men with hand-beating drums settled onto three plush pillows near the far end behind the fountain.
"I've prepared something for you," Arrigo informed, "A thanks, if you will." Arrigo signaled their drink man over to replace the slender glasses with new ones. Once more, Arrigo lifted his hands to the side, clapping lightly twice.
The beat of the drums hit the air in rhythmic session. Hawke's first warning came at the extension of a long, dark, slender leg, which appeared out from behind the fountain.
The chimes started in tune between the beats. The bounce of a shapely ass jounced at the beat of a drum, where one muscled leg became two on the ring of the chimes.
Rather than walk, the dark-skinned goddess floated out from behind the fountain, bloodred silk flowing down around perfect, shoeless ankles. Balanced on her toes rather than the heel, the woman gained three invisible inches as her bare feet glided across the floor as if it were a sheet of ice. Hawke had never had a particular fascination with feet before, but the way in which she skated across the floor without seeming to purposefully moved riveted her. A flash of red lifted Hawke's eyes, dragging them up those smooth, unblemished legs as the skirt of her silk fluttered at the back, shivering with every quiver of the tambourine. They were sculpted legs that ran up for miles, seemingly elongated by the flowing silk and imaginary inches the woman created for herself.
Up, up, up, and— Hawke's eyes froze happily at the hips, which sashayed this way, that way, back and left to every beat upon the drum. When the drums paused, the bells shivered in fury, causing that flawless abdomen to pulse inbetween quivers, muscles flexing to spur vibrations through a perfectly fit stomach that flexed before flowing, rippling from the top of the stomach downward like a ceaseless wave. The drums started back up again and that fashioned ass bounced with every beat, abdomen like water for the sinuous undulations it underwent.
Hawke unconsciously salivated, eyes so caught on those hips and stomach, they fixated a good two minutes on the spot until Stella whispered to her from the side under the music. "I think I've developed a boner."
"Me too," Hawke assured, unable to take her eyes off for a second. Stella's words did prod her eyes to rise, however, where they bulged and kept for another minute, untiring of the breast jounce with every beat. Fitted snugly in a small, matching bra, their revealed girth took her breath away. Hawke had seen many breasts in her life, bare and covered alike. None could match to the beasts on this beauty. How did this happen? Or when she did that small bouncing lift that shook those beauties all the way to tomorrow-! Big. Bouncing. Breasts.
When Hawke finally summoned the willpower to lift her eyes further, it was to travel the length of a long, jewelry enhanced neck, cloaked behind her with lengthened, flowing locks that streamed out from above to capture the slender features of one so fit as to possess high cheekbones in an attractive-set face with lips that read to be kissed and a labret begging to be suckled just below that tantalizing mouth. Eyes of amber brown stared back at her, piercing Hawke with the exact knowledge of one who knew she was being watched and admired. Hawke stared back into those eyes, fixated with every part of her. Their eyes held like seduction grappling its hold, but not a glided step was missed, nor a falter to the rhythmic ripple of her body as that seductress drew ever nearer.
Hawke had never been so riveted in her life.
Those eyes could seduce a statue, Hawke was sure. The spark of life there, so genuinely delighted. They cast a thrall, those eyes. Hawke wondered if she might be yet more than Arrigo let on, this woman who was the perfect temptation. Hawke would have to be careful around her.
She wanted to fuck.
The body before her trembled in sync in every beat, every tinkle of the tambourine. When the music sped, her body followed suit, flowing into jutted hip spikes at every corner while that toned stomach rolled and undulated, filling Hawke's senses to the point of implosion. A warm ball of heat roiled in her gut at the mere sight of this graceful, nimble creature of divinity.
The floating nymph drew nearer with every bounce of her hips. The music was speeding too, sending that pristine body into overdrive. Now that she was closer, Hawke could make out the small beads of sweat running through her hair. Her smile still fixed in place, but just a hinge too tight. Her eyes never left Hawke. She'd been dancing now for at least ten minutes, retaining her balance on the balls of her feet while she moved the whole time now. Still, the music quickened, driving her to keep with the speed as her pace quickened. Hawke wanted to look Arrigo's way, to see if he was purposefully pushing her, but she couldn't lift her eyes from the girl.
Faster and faster, her stomach flexed and rolled to the increased tempo, taking all the beats in stride as she twirled, practically hovering on her lifted forefoot as the drums reached a deafening roar, her eyes ablaze with the fire of the beat, steadied exactly upon Hawke- then silenced, freezing the girl to the spot with the music's ending cut where she stayed perfectly still, miniscule twitch in her tired feet passing undetected by any untrained assassin of such subtleties. Hawke tried to catch her eye under her suddenly hooded lids, but the girl remained faithfully still
Arrigo's delighted clapping broke the stillness, joined by Agnese and Stella, who knew their place to play along. Hawke didn't clap. Arrigo stood and crossed to the woman, arm wrapping snugly around those heavenly curves. Only then did the girl relax from her invisible heels, but Hawke noted, though not outwardly stiff to the man, neither did she relax her body towards him in any indication of warmth or relief, even with the obvious exertion of keeping her body moving in such incredible manners. There was no expectation of comfort or coddling. "Gamlen, Nyssa," Arrigo's slimy voice slithered through the air. "I'd like you to meet my wife, Isabela."
"Wife?" Few things took Hawke off-guard, but the thought that this beautiful woman was this decrepit man's wife found her immensely disturbed. Bastard, Hawke thought, watching the miniscule droplets of sweat disappear back into her hair from the exertion.
"She is my shining gem; aren't you, Sweetheart?"
Hawke was sickened. Not four hours ago, she'd listened to this pompous bigot criticize and ridicule this foreign treasure for the most common desires, and now pedestaled her for pleasing him before company in a near-torturous lasting dance.
Hawke's hatred for him grew.
Arrigo prodded her arm when she didn't immediately respond. "Yes," Isabela finally confirmed, half-concealed edge biting her tone. "Your golden gem."
"You've pleased us with your performance, Gem." Arrigo bent to kiss the side of her head. Hawke wanted to wince for her. "I appreciate it."
"Of course," Isabela's dark eyes roved over both Stella and Hawke, lingering on the latter. Her eyes narrowed in indecision. "Anything I can do to please the guests."
Hawke wondered if Arrigo knew she was mocking him; both him and the prospect of serving faithfully, likely. She couldn't be sure how the woman felt about her yet. There'd been seduction in those eyes, yes, but Hawke could equally appear to be just another close friend of Arrigos, which Isabela didn't seem to like.
"Serah Isabela," Isabela's brow tightened at the address, perhaps wondering at the polite greeting she couldn't have received most of the time from her husband's friends. Hawke bowed slightly, utterly respectful. "It is a pleasure to make your acquaintance. If you'll allow me, I'll openly confess to knowing none so fluidic, to the great grace you've bestowed in allowing us to glimpse such divinity."
Stella curtsied politely. "You're supremely talented, Serah."
Isabela blinked, brow furrowed in a manner that she knew not such compliments. She looked to Arrigo questioningly, probably weighing the possibility of being mocked. "There, Gem, you see?" Arrigo rubbed a hand up her arm, to which the fine hairs of her arm raised. "We are most pleased with you."
Isabela glanced back Hawke's way, eyes roving over her face for signs of discrepancy. "…Thank you."
"As I said," Hawke gave a rare smile, both edges of her mouth lifting in an unusually warm manner. "It was my pleasure, M'lady."
"Gamlen is new in town, from Kirkwall," Arrigo explained, "Rebuilding his fortune; it is to him that I owe my spared life today."
Isabela's brow furrowed once more slightly. "Oh?"
"Yes," Arrigo told her eagerly, quite ready to relay the tale for the tenth time. "He was a machine, Gem, I'll tell you. Could've taken the whole slew of them down himself if he wanted, I'd wager. Poor Culos; if only he'd stayed to the group as directed, you may've been able to save him in time as well, Gamlen."
"Yes," Hawke agreed solemnly. "A great shame."
Isabela's eyebrow quirked, watching Hawke closely. "What exactly happened?"
"Gem," Arrigo reprimanded. "Don't be morbid with the company. It is not right to speak of such things in detail in a lady's presence. I'm sure Nyssa doesn't want to hear of it."
"Oh, I don't mind." Stella waved off.
Hawke would've grinned outright if she wasn't so trained.
Still with the pretense of respect to Arrigo, Hawke looked to him questioningly.
"Ahh," Arrigo squeezed Isabela's shoulder. "My flower is a tad more delicate, Gamlen. Perhaps another occasion, or you and I can converse of it later."
Hawke inclined her head only slightly, but her eyes remained locked with Isabela's. "As you say, Arrigo." Isabela's quirked brow lifted further. "Another time, perhaps?" Isabela's expression turned again, interest peaking, especially in those eyes. "We should love very much to discuss this ball instead."
The very corner of Isabela's mouth twitched.
Hawke was pleased.