Chapter 1:

The O'Daullen's Place

Day 21 -

Farmer Saul O'Daullen's Place/Barony of Fairbanks/Dragon Empire of Aradanos

(50 Miles north of the Independant City State of Amroth-Lyellus

250 Miles north of the Independant City State Metropolis of Amroth-Volenska)

Kaine's mind drifted back to the present and his current situation. It had taken three weeks to travel the hundred or more miles from his father's farm to his present location. He had stopped every ten miles and stayed two days at either a village, inn, or working as a farm laborer on one of the local farms.

He had been at Farmer O'Daullen's place for only a day and was supposed to sleep in the barn over night. But he was getting restless. It was taking too long to travel and working so far for little pay had simply been enough to get him from one day to the next. While he carried with him a small but sizable fortune that could speed him to the city if spent thoughtfully.

Kaine lifted the axe above his head for the next strike. He looked up momentarily when he heard footsteps and was suddenly distracted by the sight of the farmer's daughter, Meredina. He had spoken to her only briefly. Just enough time for him to get the impression that she thought him beneath her.

Farmer O'Daullen had made it clear to Kaine that his three daughters were off limits to a common pauper such as Kaine. The man was a very wealthy landowner with a vast spread of land to his name and counted the local baron as one of his closest associates.

"Mother said to tell you that dinners ready. You can eat with the servants if you're hungry." Meredina said haughtily. This young woman obviously had a high opinion of herself from her tone of voice and the emphasis on the word servants.

"Thank you, Meredina, isn't it?." Kaine said with a hint of mischief.

"Father said not to get familiar with the hired help. So you may address me as Miss O'Daullen or my lady." She said sticking her nose in the air with a sense of superiority over her lessers.

"Seriously, you expect me to call you my lady. Your just a kid. What are you, fourteen, fifteen maybe." Kaine replied with a knowing smirk.

"Why you unpleasant little man. I will be nineteen in two weeks, and three days time.

Father's arranged for me to marry Lord Jespers eldest son, Wilhelm. I am to live in the city in a large magnificent estate while you will still be chopping wood and cleaning out pig sties if the look of you is anything to go by." She said scathingly while trying not to stare too hard at the muscular bare chested young man. Sweating in the mid day heat.

"Why you arrogant little rich bitch. I've got a good mind to drag you into the barn and show you how to behave on your wedding night." Kaine spat venomously and went to stand directly in front of her where she could get a better look and within touching distance.

Meredina stamped her feet in frustration. She wanted to reply with something that would scare and put this young thug in his place. But she was lost for words. Nobody had ever dared speak to her like he had just done. She would wipe that dirty smirk off his face and then get her father to whip him until he bled. Meredina walked into the barn and grabbed the nearest horse whip. She took aim and sent it expertly forward towards her target.

"What do you say to that, peasant?" She uttered the words triumphantly as the whip struck Kaine across the face. Her victory was short lived however when he tore the whip from her hands and threw it on the floor.

Meredina tried desperately to shout for help but the barn was five hundred meters away from the main house. All the servants were readying themselves for dinner. She was alone with this savage brute and feeling something she never thought she would feel, fear. But also excitement. Her blood was racing.

It was just like a scene from her beloved books that her grandmother had secretly given her. He had grabbed her arm. And was roughly pulling her to him. She lashed out and managed to hit him in the eye with her clenched fist. Suddenly she found her legs swept from under her and was flailing about in the hay.

She tried desperately to straighten her dress but he was on top of her before she could think.

"Get off me you little bastard. My father will have you hung for this." Meredina shouted into his face but was soon smothered as his mouth found hers.

She tried to turn away from him but he was determined to force himself on her. She cried out as his tongue forced it's way between her lips. She was too scared to bite him and continued to try and push him off but he was big for his age. Bigger even than her father and well muscled. She wondered desperately why that had come into her head. She wasn't nearly as terrified as she should have been and somehow the thrill of it was quite exciting. And scary/ But really quite thrilling.

Kaine was quick to come to his senses he pulled away so suddenly, anyone would have thought he was kissing an old swamp hag by the expression on his face. Very quickly he felt ashamed at what he was doing, and realized the predicament he was in.

"I'm sorry, my lady. I don't know what happened. I just ..." Kaine spluttered his words trying desperately to apologies and realizing he could face the hang man's noose for assaulting the daughter of a titled land owner.

Meredina looked at him and suddenly wrestled her arm free and struck him twice more in the left eye in quick succession. Kaine barely felt it but knew he deserved it. To his surprise she grabbed for him between his legs and felt her hand tighten around his growing erection.

"Well what are you waiting for, peasant. I didn't tell you to stop." Meredina questioned accusingly.

"But, I ..." Kaine tried to speak but the words didn't come out. He felt himself flush a bright shade of red as she handled him none too gently and wrestled him onto his back. If this carried on there was no turning back and to hell with the consequences, he thought.

"Shut the hell up, peasant. I'm in charge now and you'll do as I say unless you want father to hang you." She replied as her hand found it's way inside his pants and began massaging him into a full erection. She bundled up her many skirts and dropped her lace underwear beside her and sat on top of him slowly working him into her.

It was then that it struck Kaine. She knew exactly what she was doing and he would bet everything he owned that this wasn't the first time she had done this. When she picked up her pace and began riding him hard she grabbed a horse whip and proceeded to whip his body with complete loss of control. He endured it because he knew he was in a delicate situation.

By the time she had done he was red raw with angry red welts all across his torso where she had struck him. Gently she rubbed her hands across his chest and his swollen eye, and within seconds he was healed of all his wounds. It was then that he noticed the golden pendant of Mystra, the Goddess of Healing. She must have been a novice at the local temple to the goddess, a priestess.

"You planned this all along, didn't you, Meredina?"

"Perhaps I did. Maybe you should have just asked or waited for me to make the first move. It's not my first time you know. More like my twenty first. I get so bored up at the estate. I long for a bit of passion. But you couldn't help yourself.

Nevermind, no harm done. And with any luck I'll be pregnant this time around. Then I won't have to have that fumbling fop Wilhelm anywhere near me after the first night and my part of the marriage will be complete. To provide the ugly bastard with a heir. Only it won't be his but yours. A common farmers boy. Lord Jesper would have a fit if he knew. But I won't tell. And I don't think you will."

"What now?" Kaine asked surprised at the turn of events.

"Now we pretend nothing has happened and you go back to calling me, My lady. Clean yourself up and go and get some food with the other servants, peasant." She laughed at the expression on his face.

After brushing herself down and dressing once again. Meredina went back to the estate. Kaine was left wondering how he managed to get himself into these messes.

Kaine dressed himself and cleaned himself up for dinner. It was the best meal he'd had since leaving home. But this wasn't where he wanted to be. He had to get to the city. Two hundred and fifty miles away. If he stopped at the nearest city along the main highway. He could board the dwarven steam train and be at his destination in a matter of days. He'd had his fill of manual labor. Alhough the benefits were pleasant if somewhat unexpected.

Kaine settled in for the night. It was a hot summer night. He had stripped to his underwear and still the sweat dripped off him. He dreamed of home and family. He awoke startled by a sudden noise in the barn. He grabbed his dagger and a hooded lantern and stood up to challenge whoever was there.

He was more than a little surprised to see Lady Loressa O'Daullen stood in the doorway with a loaded double barrell dwarven hunting shotgun. Dressed in nothing but a flimsy nightgown.

"I know what you did to my daughter, Kaine. I should fire both barrels and watch you beg for your life if there's anything left of you. You realize what you've done don't you. It can't be undone. You have interfered with the lives of your betters and it will have long reaching effects on both our families while you are free to go and sow your seeds elsewhere." Loressa stated accusingly.

Kaine could see the obvious resemblance. For a woman of her forty six years she was strikingly attractive and Kaine flushed at the thoughts going through his head.

Loressa picked up on it immediately. Obviously no stranger to the wants and desires of young lustful men. Lady O'Daullen smiled wickedly.

"I won't shoot you. I know my daughter's charms and she is nothing if not persistent at getting what she wants. But what should I do about you, Kaine Rivera? what would be suitable recompense for seducing my daughter. What do you have. Not a lot I'm guessing or you wouldn't be here. The only thing I can possibly think of is something that will serve both of us." She dropped the shotgun on a hay pile and walked over to the young man. She walked around him several times and ran her fingers across his chest. He tensed at the feel of her hands on him.

Kaine was at a loss what to do. The daughter was one thing but this was something he could never have expected. When she stood in front of him and untied the ties at her neck the nightgown fell to the floor revealing a very naked Lady Loressa. Immediately his eyes went to her ample breasts and he didn't hesitate when she took his hands and placed over them. He felt her nipples between his fingers and instinctly bent his head to take each nipple in turn between his lips. He lowered his left hand and she guided him between her legs.

Loressa tugged at his waistband and let his night shorts fall to the floor. She went down on her knees and took him in her hand and slowly worked him into a frenzy of anticipation. She took him in her mouth and he cried out the touch of her lips and tongue on his erection. Minutes later she had mounted him much like her daughter had earlier that day. For the next hour she practiced everything she knew on the young man and he was more than appreciative and to her delight very giving.

They finished like a pair of hounds with her on all fours and him rutting away like his life depended on it. By this time she was making enough noise to wake the dead and screaming her undying love for him. Although they both knew it was only temporary and things would go back to Lady and servant after their amorous encounter was over.

She lay in his arms for what seemed like hours and over the course of the next six hours they made love continuously with the occasional break to regain their strength. When the early morning light began to show. They said their goodbyes reluctantly as she explained she must return to the estate before her husband arrived home. When she gave him a ten gold crowns and a hundred silver shillings for the work he had done that day. He felt like an exceptionally lucky and extremely overpriced pampered whore being paid for services rendered. But he couldn't afford to refuse the coins which were enough for weeks of work.

Kaine was away before the rest of the estate arose that morning. He had washed, dressed and eaten a small meal washed down with fresh well water. Kaine packed everything into the large backpack and was on the road before five o'clock that morning.

The heat was stifling by the time Kaine had been on the road for four hours. He stopped at a small village called Brambleton Way. The local tavern was busy for this time of morning. It was called the Wyverns Roost and it's specialty was a local spirit called The Wyvern's Venom. A massive dragonlike head adorned the mantelpiece above the fire.

The inn keeper. A man by the name of Nosy Ned would tell the story of his great, great grandfather and the wyvern that made it's home in these parts over one hundred years ago before the village was founded.

The great warrior slew the beast after a titanic battle in which twenty of his fellow warriors perished. Kaine didn't know if it was a complete load of bullshit but it was mildly entertaining. After drinking six of the Venom spirit drinks. Kaine was ready to drop. He paid for a private single bed room that cost twenty copper penny coins and staggered to bed for the rest of the day.

Kaine awoke that evening with a terrible hangover. After cleaning himself up he was on the road again and getting closer to Amroth Lyellus. The nearest large city. It was about a tenth the size of Amroth Volenska in size with a free citizen population of eighty thousand and two hundred thousand slaves. But it was still a major hub of commerce and trade. And a major travel destination for hundreds of thousands of travelers.

Day 22 –

Kravensford Town/County of Pembridgeshire/Dragon Empire of Aradanos

(Approx. 40 Miles north of the Independant City State of Amroth-Lyellus

240 Miles north of the Independant City State of Amroth-Volenska)

Within the hour he had reached the town of Kravensford. A small town of some ten thousand free citizens. It was a welcome sight after twenty two days of small villages and tiny hamlets. Small outposts and lone farm houses.

.The first thing he did was go to the local bank. He deposited everything he owned. All but ten silver shillings and two hundred copper pennies along with many of the items that his uncle and grandfather had given him or which he had taken from his home.

He paid extra for fast delivery of his property to the Duke's Imperial Bank in Amroth Volenska. To be kept with his other possessions securely locked away in the banks vaults until such time as he arrived in the city to claim it. He kept only what he would need.

But sent forward his weapons and armor. And some of his clothes. He kept only a whale bone handled twenty four inch long steel bladed hunting knife which his uncle had given him as a boy.

By the time he had finished he was a considerably lighter load than before and traveling would undoubtedly be easier.

It meant he would have to work his way there as most of his coin and gold bars was now safely stored in the banks secured deep vaults along with all his precious paperwork with the exception of his Certificate of Freeborn Citizenship. And the Imperial Bank Account Lockbox Key and details which he would need for his travels.

All of his secured wealth and property would leave for the city within the week on the next airship to travel to the grand metropolis.

He wondered if he had left himself enough to live on. But knew it was more than he would need unless he planned on taking months to get there. Although he felt rather naked without his sword and armor. He looked more like a simple traveler now than a mercenary for hire. Which suited him.

There would be time enough for swordplay once he reached the city and signed on with either the military or a mercenary guild. It was unlikely he would need weapons this close to civilization. The roads were well patrolled and criminals dealt with harshly.

He thought about his close encounters with the O'Daullens and wondered what he would do if Lord Saul O'Daullen ever found out. He smiled to himself. Knowing what he had done and how close to death he had been.

But this was just the start of his adventures. If this was how things really worked away from his small farm, then he would adapt quickly to his new way of life.

Who was he to argue if ladies took a liking to him. The thought of siring some lord's brat bothered him a little. But what were the chances? Could he really be that unlucky?