Author's note:

The following chapter is a commissioned work. Details for commissions are on my profile. Discounts available to both first-time customers and anyone who commissions me during the Christmas season. Get it while it's hot!

And now, for some responses

to Guest (Nov 29): As I am not the one in control of the overall story structure, I am not at liberty to take any story suggestions to heart, no matter their merit or lack thereof. My commissioner is the only one who can call those shots. I've put their FanFiction username in the story's synopsis; if you or anyone else want to pitch story, character, or lore suggestions, you're better off talking to them about it.

to Thunder Dragon: If we're talking plot structure, I anticipate the fanfic will run parallel to much of the plot from the Queen's Blade anime. If we're talking characters, though? I estimate the first lemon will occur within the next 5 chapters. Rowin's presence on Zanan (the name we gave the continent) is already shifting the hearts and minds of the characters he encounters. So, more character than story divergence for the foreseeable future, especially once the harem starts coming together.

"This warrior friend of yours, where is he from?" Alleyne asked Leina. Her red beret lay on the counter she'd been leaning on.

"I'm not sure," Leina admitted, stroking Rowin's strange beard. "He's not from the continent, but he was vague about it. It seemed like something he didn't want to talk about, so I didn't pry." She glanced at his swords. "I've never seen anyone like him, though. He has swords that don't belong to him, but he says he didn't steal them; he plays music that I've never heard, but he says it was taught to him; he-"

Rowin jolted awake. "LET ME REST, WOMAN!"

Leina nearly jumped out of her skin. Nowa and Alleyne flinched but didn't react as visibly.

"I'm… sorry," Leina said haltingly.

"Huh?" Rowin sat up and stretched. "No, not you, a different woman. My old, uh… Girlfriend."

By the way he'd been smiling when he'd shouted, Leina wondered what kind of dream he'd been having of her. She was tempted to ask about this old girlfriend.

Instead, she asked, "How do you feel, Rowin?"

He sucked in a deep breath, then exhaled. "Better. Got my lungs back, at least." He turned and slid off the bed, his feet hitting the dirt. "Where'd my boots go?"

"Right over there," Nowa said, even as her pink monkey dragged one over to Rowin. "That was nice of you, Ruu! He likes you."

"Sure is better than the alternative," Rowin remarked as he thunked his heel into place. His other boot followed, and soon he was standing straight like nothing had happened.

"How do your feet feel?" Leina asked.

Rowin rolled his ankles around a little. "Pretty good, actually. Why? Something wrong with them?"

"Your friend was rubbing your feet while you were resting," Alleyne told him. This caused Rowin to give Leina a bit of a funny look, but Leina seemed oblivious.

"The servants of Vance would do the same for me, whenever my father and I returned from an excursion," Leina stated. She beamed at him. "Since you saved me from Menace, the least I could do is ease your soreness!"

Rowin nodded. "I appreciate that."

"It should serve you well," Alleyne said, approaching him. "I have a request, human."

"Yeah?"

She redonned her beret. "I challenge you to a duel."

"Captain?!" Nowa squalled.

"But why?!" Leina exclaimed.

"Your terms?" Rowin asked.

Leina rounded on him. "Rowin, you just woke up and we shouldn't be fighting amongst ourselves!"

Now Alleyne rounded on her. "What is this 'ourselves', human? Don't count yourself as one of us simply because we shared a common foe."

Leina hung her head and sighed. "Fine…"

"As I said," Rowin said, "what're your terms? I don't imagine we'd fight to the death."

"Second blood, or surrender," Alleyne said, her red cloak billowing as she pivoted on her heel. "I'll be waiting at the sparring ground. Nowa will show you the way."

Rowin slowly gave a nod and looked around for his sword belt and pouches.

"Rowin," Leina said, laying a hand on his shoulder, "you don't have to do this."

"No, I don't have to do this," he replied, cinching the leather through the loop. "But then, never seen an elf like her before. Is she fast?"

"The fastest," Nowa replied.

"What do you mean, 'like her'?" Leina asked, giving him a suspicious look.

"The elves I'm used to seeing are more, uh, lean." He patted his chest. "Especially around here."

Leina looked over at Nowa, who cocked her head. "What?"

"Your captain," Rowin said. "She going to be wearing armor?"

"Armor?" Nowa repeated. "She was wearing it."

Rowin looked down at his golden chainmail. Leina, too, thought back to the green leather bracers and greaves Alleyne had worn, and her leather bikini top.

"Hmm, well…" Rowin mused. "Wouldn't be fair to use this in a fight to draw blood… But I do love to win, so…"

"It won't matter," Nowa assured her. "No one's ever beaten the Captain in a fight, and only one fight ever ended in a draw!"

Rowin cocked an eyebrow. "That so?" He gestured to the door. "Lead on, then."

Leina shook her head. "I still don't like this…"

The trio spent about five minutes walking through the elven village, earning wary looks and scoffs from many of the elves they passed. Each member got an equal amount of passive-aggressive scorn, which surprised Leina. Why would Nowa's half-human blood make her such a pariah? Why would that erase her abilities and dedication to her role as the Forest Keeper?

The sparring ground was surrounded by a mix of male and female elves, all similarly armored as Alleyne herself was. They stood in a circle atop a marked pitch, with Alleyne herself at the center. The Captain, or "combat master" as Nowa had explained, had her double-weighted spear-staff slung across her shoulders. She was stretching with it as she waited. As Rowin entered the circle, the other elves all backed away and took position behind shacks, trees, wooden barricades, anything with a good amount of mass to it.

"You took too long. You should have used the approach as a chance to warm up your muscles and blood flow," Alleyne said.

"Now now, take it easy," Rowin said, thumbing his belt. "Had to strap on my stuff. Now, are you ready?"

"Yes," Alleyne said, unslinging her staff and grasping it in her right hand. Now that she had a good look at it, what Leina had thought was rough metal turned out to be carved stone.

"Are you set?"

"...Yes." Alleyne crouched slightly.

"Do you need a count?"

Alleyne's eyes narrowed and her lip wrinkled, ever so slightly, in annoyance. "No."

Thwip!

Fast as the wind, Rowin's dagger sailed from its sheath. Alleyne leaned into her staff's weight and stepped aside, only to feel the wind on her shoulder as the dagger sliced her cloak, her platinum blonde hair, and her skin.

First blood to Rowin.

"That's cheating!" Leina called angrily.

Rowin grinned. "Can't cheat with no rules."

Alleyne's staff came at him. Rowin turned and let it glance off his golden chain mail; he only now drew his swords. Alleyne swung the front up and let the shaft slide, the weighted back swinging forward.

She's strong! Leina thought. Those stone barbs were as big as her forearm, yet Alleyne was as fast as Rowin. Rowin closed the gap but Alleyne backed away, exploiting her weapon's reach to avoid Rowin's flashing blades. Sparks flew as their weapons clashed in a blur of steel, wood, and stone.

Nowa excitedly turned to Leina. "See? It doesn't matter if he cheats or wears armor. The Captain's a master of the elven style. She's too fast to lose."

Leina touched her breastplate. "Is it possible to learn this style?"

"Sure. The training's only 10 years."

"10 years?!" Leina looked Nowa up and down, from her youthful face to her underdeveloped body. How old is she?

One sword strike was blocked by the staff's shaft, and the blocky base of the stone used to hook the blade. It dipped, and Alleyne struck at Rowin's shoulder, only to cut through his cloak and be blunted by his chainmail. A web of steel drove her back, and her next swipe was aimed at his face, only for Rowin to tilt his head back and blunt it with… the beard.

"What?!" Alleyne exclaimed. Rowin slashed at her waist but Alleyne lashed out with her long leg and kicked his sword hand back. Without rechambering her leg, Alleyne planted her staff, leapt off of her remaining foot, and straddled Rowin at the chest, pressing him to the ground with her weight. Her staff's weight came down to thud to the earth next to Rowin's neck; her face was too close to his for his swords to reach. So, Rowin dropped his longsword and cupped Alleyne's neck with his hand, his other hand pressing to her leg and creating a lever to throw her off. Nevertheless, her stone barb clipped the side of his neck, exactly as she'd wanted.

Alleyne rolled on the flat of Rowin's cutlass, to one knee, and struck yet again, but Rowin didn't block. He took the edge on the back of his glove, the leather opening up and leaving a small bead of ruby to swell.

Alleyne stood, releasing Rowin's sword. "It's done."

Rowin grinned and pointed to the guard of his cutlass; only now did everyone notice he'd reversed his grip when he'd made his lever. The guard didn't fully reach the pommel, so there was a small gap with a tip. On that tip, was a tiny amount of red.

The flat of Rowin's cutlass tapped the side of Alleyne's exposed thigh, coming away with a small smear of red.

"It sure is," he said.

"Forgive me if I don't adhere to the human custom of kissing you."

Rowin blinked, twice. "...Wouldn't expect you to?"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Mistress," Airi said,

At the heart of the swamp, in a temple within a volcano, Airi abased herself before the flaming visage who'd summoned her. The visage flared, and Airi shuddered. Behind her, Menace and the bunny-eared slime girl Melona reacted similarly.

"She's in ter-rouble," Melona snickered.

"I was interrupted," Airi confessed. "The Forest Keeper had allies who intervened. I used the magic you lent me, but that man, Rowin, his magic was…"

"My property?" Menace asked, stepping forward. Her dark aura flared around her. "You didn't damage him, did you?"

Airi stood and faced her, matching her glare. "Not for lack of trying; he was already 'damaged'."

"Hmph," Menace said with a wicked smile. "I am right to want him, if he was strong enough to match you."

The visage of the Swamp Witch flared and the two undead women doubled over, clutching their chests in pain. Melona simply rolled her eyes and chuckled.

At the edge of the volcano, Sekmeti and Setra watched from behind a rock.

"Does that mean we might see him again?" Sekmeti asked, licking her lips like a mountain lion.

"I hope so," Setra replied, his grin widening. "That guy's a babe-magnet!"

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"That's it?" Leina protested as she walked, the trees growing thinner around her. "You're just going to do what you're told and not question it?"

Nowa hung her head, carrying all her meager possessions in one travel sack.

"It's not my place to defy the elders," she said sullenly.

"Why fight in the Queen's Blade just because you were ordered to?" Leina said. "Hey!"

Ruu had hopped on Leina's back and undid the straps of her breastplate. She caught it before it could slide free, but she'd come dangerously close to flashing the others.

"Ruu, stop that!" Nowa scolded.

Rowin averted his gaze. "I didn't see anything!"

Leina blushed and turned her back to him. "It's fine. Could you retighten my straps?"

Alleyne glanced at Leina, then at Rowin. "I must confess, I didn't expect my husband to already be spoken for."

Rowin and Leina nearly tripped and fell on their faces, if Leina hadn't accidentally done a perfect front-flip that saw her flailing hand pull Rowin's chain mail forward into steadying herself, thereby letting her land on her feet without dropping her breastplate and Rowin to land on his knees, practically kissing her smooth, bare thigh.

"Husband?" Rowin said. "Since when?"

"Since you bested me," Alleyne replied. "According to the ancient ways, you are the man to protect me while I bear your children."

Leina recoiled in bafflement. "No one said anything about that!"

"I didn't expect him to win," Alleyne said, "nor do I expect any obligations from it. I won't press it upon him if he doesn't desire it."

Rowin looked her up and down while he finished with Leina's straps. "Appreciate that. Pretty as you are, I don't know you."

Both blondes gave him a look, but said nothing.

Nowa giggled. "Maybe the Queen's Blade won't be so bad after all."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Rowiiiiiin!"

Like a shooting star, Rowin was blasted off his feet by the winged girl and smothered by her modest but hefty bust.

"I thought I'd never see you again!" Laila sobbed happily. Her hat fell on the ground as she hugged Rowin's head. "You're the best human I ever met!"

"Uh, hi, Laila," Leina said awkwardly.

Laila leapt off of Rowin, the minstrel gasping, and hugged Leina in a similar manner. "And you're second-best, Leina! It's been so boring and lonely without you two!"

"Mph!" Leina managed to shimmy Laila down to where she was no longer being smothered. "It was only a few days ago, but I'm happy to see you, too."

Laila took a deep breath and exhaled. "Sorry. I was worried about you two. I, um, don't have any mortal friends."

"Who is this?" Nowa asked.

"An angel from Heaven," Alleyne said. "No, a half-angel. Her metal wing denotes mixed blood."

Laila turned and puffed out her cheeks. "You said that like it's a bad thing, Combat Master Alleyne."

The veteran elf blinked. "You're the angel managing the Queen's Blade."

Laila sighed. "Not for long." She retrieved her hat. "I've been recalled to Heaven because I keep missing qualifying matches. They might take the Holy Milk Thrower away."

Rowin chortled at that, then coughed. "Say, that holy milk… Does it fix curses?"

Laila tilted her head, squinted at him, then gasped. "Oh no! When did that happen?"

"Yesterday." He coughed. "Nearly bit it if these three hadn't dragged me to a healer."

"Don't worry! I'll fix it!" She pointed her Thrower at him, which only now seemed to resemble a giant arbalest.

"Wait," Rowin began, "is that-"

BWOOSH!

Yes, actually, it was.

Rowin fell down as a huge blast of white liquid smashed him in the face. He tried to swallow it but too much hit his nostrils and uvula; he practically hacked up a lung.

Rolling to his hands and knees, holy milk dripping from his hair and nose, Rowin put a hand to his chest and willed himself to breathe normally. When his body finally obeyed, he took a steady breath and tested how it felt inside. To his surprise, he felt more go in than had all day.

"I think it worked," Rowin said, getting to his feet. "Thanks."

"You're welcome," Laila said, "and of course it did. It's the power of Heaven, after all."

She started floating away. "I wish I could stay longer, but I don't want to make the Head Angel more upset. I hope I'll see you again soon!"

She waved goodbye as the clouds above her seemed to part and sunlight shone down. Leina and Rowin waved back until Laila shrunk from sight.

Leina smiled after her. She liked Laila. When she wasn't suffering from too much isolation, the angel was a pleasant presence. That was more than she could say for others…

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Had enough of sniffing bark, eh?" said the owner of The Gnarled Hollow. His tavern was an underground dugout attached to a small stable, and his none-too-subtle disdain was directed at Alleyne and Nowa.

"We are here to acclimate to human food," Alleyne said, reaching into a belt pouch and placing two gold coins on the table. "No meat, please."

The owner wrinkled his lip but took them. "Moss-sniffing nymphs…" he grumbled, then froze when he felt a point of metal on his shoulder.

"You weren't talking about my wife just then, were you?" Rowin said, grinning as he pressed on the flat of his knife.

The owner scoffed. "You ain't no bandit, and not the kind to kill a man over words."

Rowin's eyes went wide enough to eat dinner off of, his grin frozen in place. "You'd be surprised what you could live through." He flicked his knife and nipped a lock of the owner's unkempt wavy grey hair. The owner turned to glare at him but Rowin was already innocent, his hands behind his head and his knife back in its sheath. The owner then turned and walked towards the mudbrick bar, shaking his head.

"That wasn't necessary," Alleyne said.

"Neither was marrying me, so I might as well have fun with it."

Gwoomp!

Speaking of fun things…

"When did you get married?!" Shizuka demanded; her weight to Rowin's back failed to take him off his feet. "We just saw you!"

"A lot can happen since this morning," he replied, glancing at Leina. The heir to County Vance was none too pleased about Shizuka's renewed antics.

"Like getting caught with your pants down," Shizuka chided as she hopped off. "Come on. I got us a table."

"Did you pay for the table?" Leina asked suspiciously.

"Details, details," Shizuka scoffed, accidentally swatting her bang. "Come on."

The two elves glanced at Leina, both of them frozen in place while reaching for their backs. Leina shook her head and followed Rowin.

"Not a virgin for much longer," chuckled a voice.

Alleyne stopped and turned, but the speaker was gone already. Echidna was never one to linger around the Combat Master.

"Forgive me, but how long have you two known each other?" Tomoe asked, gesturing to Alleyne as she sat down.

"Since I woke up a few hours ago," Rowin replied.

The Hinamoto women looked less surprised than Rowin and Leina had been.

"I see," said Tomoe, before bowing her head to Alleyne. "I hope you find happiness, even if it was arranged."

"No, it wasn't arranged," Nowa said, Ruu climbing off her back and scampering up the stairs to the tavern's entrance. Both of these things made the foreigners raise an eyebrow.

"It's the old ways," Alleyne explained calmly. "When the elves ventured out into the world, we often came into conflict with the other races. We were warriors. Thus, it became practice for a male to best a female in a duel to prove he could protect her while she was incapacitated with child. By this, it would also ensure the growing strength of the elven race."

"So why'd you stop?" Shizuka asked, then grinned. "Wish we'd known that before we lost our shot at him, right Lady Tomoe?"

Tomoe wrinkled her lip and blushed, as did Leina.

"We struck out at Amara," said Alleyne. "In our hubris, we sought to conquer the desert kingdom that separated our forests. In response, the Amarans unleashed a terrible plague on our warriors, one that withered them from within and turned them to dust."

Shizuka and Tomoe gave Rowin a worried look. He waved them off. "I got better."

"In the end, a ceasefire was declared and we retreated into our forests, to fend off the vengeful races looking to exploit our weakened state," Alleyne concluded. "As I was the best warrior of the forest, the trainer of all new initiates, and undefeated, I vowed never to take a mate until one had bested me, as per the old ways."

"You must be quite formidable," Tomoe said. "What brought you out of your forest?"

Nowa looked down. "That was me. The elders ordered me to compete in the Queen's Blade, and the Captain didn't want me to travel alone."

"I, too, fight in the Queen's Blade," Tomoe said. She softly smiled at Nowa.

"I hope you two fight early, so Lady Tomoe can send you home early," Shizuka said cheerily.

Tomoe rounded on her friend. "Shizuka, don't be conceited!"

"It's not conceited to tell the truth! Hey, where's Rowin?"

The minstrel had slipped away to go outside the tavern, as had Leina. Leina got a front-row seat to both his music and the trickle of gold that was tossed at his feet by passersby.

She recoiled when she heard the hiss of a snake, and saw that one of the coins came from…

"Echidna," she said flatly.

"Nice to see you two again," said the mercenary, a sultry smile on her lips. "Tell me: will you be staying long? I have a room at a nicer place than that dingy little badger hole."

She sauntered over to Rowin and leaned on his shoulder, parking her bust atop his head while she toyed with a lock of his hair. "We can all share."

"No thank you," Leina said sourly.

Echidna chuckled and stood straight. "Then maybe I should join you outside, in the cool, nighttime air."

"Who's sleeping outside?" Rowin gave her a lopsided smirk. "That's what the coin's for."

Echidna returned the smirk and walked on. "You're welcome, then."

XXXXXXXXXXXX

"Is it this comfortable in the scabbard?" Rowin asked the sword on his bedside.

'How should I know? I'm made of metal now.'

"Fair point." Rowin pulled the covers of his bed around himself, wondering if Leina was keeping warm in the next room over. "I just thought, being wrapped up in leather, nice and snug, heated by a warm body-"

The jangle of a door latch shut him up. Rowin instinctively reached for Finnean's hilt, but lowered his hand once the door opened and the air blew in. "Everything alright, Leina?"

Leina, lacking pajamas, had wrapped a sheet around herself like a toga. Staring at the floor as she shuffled in, she closed the door with her foot.

"I… May I spend the night with you? Just this once."

Rowin shrugged. "You brought your own blanket, so why not? Come on."

He scooted aside to get closer to Finnean while Leina sat on the bed and swung her legs up. She wrapped the comforter around herself and rested her head on Rowin's arm.

"I can't sleep," Leina told him. "I'm not tired enough. Last night I was too exhausted from fighting and putting up with…" She sighed.

"Shizuka?"

"She seems nice, but she's too much," Leina confessed.

'Too much competition, maybe,' Finnean snickered.

Rowin resisted the urge to glare at him. No one needed to know.

"Well, no one said the road to Elysium would be smooth," Rowin said, patting her bare shoulder.

Leina curled into his side, her head now resting on his shoulder.

"It's strange," Leina murmured. "The nightmares about Amara… About Menace… They're already…" She yawned. Her last words were incoherent.

Rowin smiled and sank into the bed. "And thank you for being there for me," he whispered. "Don't know how I would've managed without a friend or… four…"

He yawned, drifted off…

…into the sound of shouting and weapons clashing outside, and snarling and growling coming from the other side of his door.

"In there, Wolf?" a woman's voice asked.

Author's hype-building:

In the immortal words of Michael Buffer, "LLLLLLet's get ready to rum-baaaaaall!"