Chapter 6

Malcolm climbed out of the healing chamber ready for an afternoon with Alice and then Lilly. He knew that he’d experience the women in the opposite order. A very naked Alice grabbed him by the hand and said, “I think you’ll only want to take a shower.”

“Oh?” asked Malcolm wondering why she wasn’t suggesting a bath.

“You’ve been watching that delectable body for a month. If you aren’t horny enough right now to have your way with a knothole in the nearest tree, then you aren’t the Hero I think you are,” teased Alice. She knew that she didn’t need to excite him since that was already obvious.

“I don’t need a tree,” Malcolm said leering at her. Raising his hands up in the air like the claws of a monster, he advanced on Alice roaring like some kind of animal. After his first roar, he said, “I have you.”

Giggling, she ran to the bathing room followed by a growling Malcolm. She loved it when he felt playful like this. Whenever he came close enough to catch her, he stopped and roared. She screamed, “Help me! I’m being chased by the horny beast!”

Roaring again, he resumed the chase. She skipped ahead to the shower and beckoned him to join her. He followed her into the water still holding his hands out like a monster. When the spray hit his body, he screamed and pretended to melt like the wicked witch of Oz fame.

She attacked him with a bar of soap and a washcloth, shouting, “I, Alice, am triumphant again. The horny beast is stopped with water!”

Malcolm burst out laughing and hugged her to him. He didn’t know how she did it, but she always managed to bring out the playful side of him. It was commonly thought that he was overly serious, but that wasn’t the case. He liked to play. It was just that it took a special person to bring it out in him.

She squirmed out of his arms and, in a mock serious voice, said, “I must get my Hero ready to claim the Damsel.”

The shower lasted only long enough to get him clean, although she did concentrate a bit more than necessary on the naughty bits. Once he was clean, she pushed him out of the shower. The tiny woman couldn’t really push him, but he went where her pushes directed.

Standing outside the shower, he raised his arms and said, “The horny monster revives!”

She giggled and left the shower. After drying him off, Alice grabbed him and as she led him to the bedroom, said, “There’s a Damsel just begging to be ravished. Make her pay for having teased you for a whole month on the road!”

The door opened to show Lilly spread out on the bed. She was lying on her stomach with her legs spread. He could see her face and observed that her eyes were closed. Her ass rose and fell in an obscene manner as she rubbed a hand between her legs. He watched for a few seconds appreciating the sight of her body covered by her long hair before he approached the bed.

Climbing into the bed, he grasped her hips causing her to gasp in surprise.

Although the month on the trail had prepared Lilly for this, she was incredulous that a man could last so long and be so active in bed. To her way of thinking, she was acting in a masculine manner as far as the standards of Cassandra were concerned. She liked it - she liked it a lot. By the time Malcolm finished, she’d had more pleasure from him than she had ever experienced over her entire life before then.

Malcolm woke to Alice handing him a restorative. He drank it down and threw the glass into the air. It disappeared before it hit the ground.

As the energy surged through his body, he said, “Thanks. I needed that.”

Delighted that he’d rendered Lilly unconscious and insensible, she said, “Help me wake Lilly and then do her again.”

Chuckling, he said, “Do you want me to kill her after I worked so hard to rescue her from certain death?”

“Death by sex! Oh, I like that idea,” she giggled.

“You would,” Malcolm said shaking his head.

Looking down at Lilly, she knew the woman would return to Cassandra singing the praises of her Hero. A Caretaker could ask for nothing better. Women all over the world would be envious of her.

She gently shook Lilly awake and said, “Here, drink this. It’ll give you enough energy for round two.”

The woman’s eyes grew large at the idea that Malcolm was ready to go once again. In an awed voice, she echoed, “Round two?”

Feeling frisky, Malcolm winked at Alice and said, “After round two will be round three.”

“Oh my God.”

Smiling to herself, Alice whispered, “Show her the gates of heaven, my Hero.”

“Now that’s a tasty idea,” Malcolm murmured.

Several days later, Malcolm, Lilly, and Alice were seated around the dinner table after finishing lunch. Malcolm asked, “So why was Lilly the only Damsel in Distress that I was allowed to rescue? There had to be other Damsels in Distress.”

“There are four other Damsels in Distress,” replied Alice knowing that she was going to have a lot of explaining to do.

“So why did you say that hers was the only mission available for me?”

“The four Damsels are all in the same kind of distress. It’s going to require at least four Heroes to rescue them. By the time you are ready for the adventure, there may be even more Damsels in Distress. The Bureau has discussed this issue and has decided that four Heroes shall have to pursue this together,” answered Alice.

Malcolm had spent hours reading the rulebook for Heroes and thought he understood them well enough. What she was suggesting seemed in direct violation of one of the rules. There was no way he would be allowed through the portal if it were with the intent of violating a rule. “I thought that according to the rules, Heroes couldn’t go on adventures together.”

“This case is different.”

“I don’t get it,” replied Malcolm. He had sufficient resources to raise a small army and would be able to rescue all four Damsels if necessary.

“They were captured by slavers and sold into slavery. They work all day in the fields and rest on little shelves in horrid little buildings at night. There is an entire infrastructure in place to keep them as slaves.”

“Organized slavery!” Malcolm shouted in dismay. The idea that organized slavery had started in Chaos was staggering. He’d thought that the multitude of independent cities, citadels, and holdings would keep organized slavery from raising its ugly head. He knew that slavery existed, but it was usually at a local level and took the form of indentured servitude.

“Yes and the practice has spread across an area of a several thousand square miles. You aren’t going against a villain, but an evil society united by slavers. This isn’t a rescue, but a war,” explained Alice. The taking of slaves had started years ago, but none of the Damsels had ever been taken. Then, in the space of two weeks, slavers had taken four Damsels from areas well away from where slavery was practiced.

“A war?”

“Yes. You and the other Heroes will have to raise armies. In accordance with the rules, you’ll need to work independently. That doesn’t mean that you can’t work towards the same goal. In order for it to work, all of you will need to enter Chaos at the same time.”

Malcolm was quiet as he thought about what would be involved. A large army would be tens of thousands of men, but he didn’t think that four Heroes would be able to gather that many men together. He figured that at best he could raise a hundred men. Shaking his head, he decided that he’d have lots of time to think about it before returning for his next adventure.

Lilly had listened to the exchange with wide eyes. The idea that Heroes wouldn’t be able to rescue Damsels in the tried and true fashion was scary. Her ordeal had been spent locked up in a room waiting for someone to pay a ransom. Having to work in a field doing manual labor had to be a thousand times worse. She felt sorry for the Damsels who had been struggling while she had traveled in relative comfort.

“What do I need to do?” asked Malcolm.

“You’ll need to get in touch with some of the other Heroes on Earth and arrange for all of them to leave for Crossroads at the same time,” answered Alice. The enormity of what they were planning to do was mind boggling.

“According to the rules, we aren’t allowed to work together.”

“We debated that and got some clarification. You can’t go on the adventure together, but the rules do not prevent you from meeting or coordinating your efforts if you pursue your adventures independently of each other.”

“So how will we coordinate our efforts and still be independent in our actions?” asked Malcolm still trying to figure out how it would all fit together.

“You’ll meet at the closest holding to the territory of the slavers. That would be the Jones Citadel,” answered Alice.

“The Jones Citadel? The one started by Gerald Jones?”

“That’s the one. Sid’s caretaker will give him the necessary credentials to take over the holding on his next visit to Crossroads. He’ll host all of the Heroes while you are planning your actions.”

Looking thoughtful, Malcolm wondered what would happen having several Heroes gathered together in one place. He asked, “How many Heroes?”

“We need at least four, maybe more,” answered Alice.

“You still haven’t answered my original question. How do we coordinate our actions and yet act independently of each other?”

“You’ll meet and share whatever resources are necessary to raise four armies. Each of you will lead an army on your own front. That way, you won’t be fighting with each other. You’ll each be on your own.”

Almost a month and many discussions about the upcoming war later, Malcolm was relaxing in bed playing with Alice’s body when Lilly came into the room with an excited expression on her face.