Underestimate Me

She took another step. Forced another, and after that managed one more. Meredith wasn’t the only one getting weary of this hike. Her sisters guided the donkey; they began to lean more on the animal while they endured the travel. Their prisoner didn’t look well either. His face flushed and his eyes glazed. She could almost see the demons he fought drifting next to him. The road was curling up a hill hidden by the dense forest. It was a climb that hid its ascent in the sky slyly, the eye did not detect it, but the muscles felt the mount.

The only person seemingly unaffected by the strenuous hike was Josselyn. Her fierce legs pushed away the soil and even though her muscles worked hard on the ascent; her movements were gracious. Watching her moving hips that swayed from side to side, Meredith wondered. Josselyn was always packed with weapons, ready for every circumstance; though she did not know she carried the greatest weapon of them all. It was one she did not knowingly use, one she did not wield like her swords, but it had caught Meredith’s attention more than once; her beauty.

The way her long dark hair was pierced by the sun, leaving a red gleam, a vision appeared before Meredith’s eyes. One she did not like to see. Josselyn in a state she would never be again. A state Meredith would prevent. As she had lain there, in the main room of Gregory’s abode, pulled upon the great table. It was like she had stolen the color of the sun and its flames were coiling around her face. The scars upon her face were risen and crimson. Sweat dripping past them, as she shifted in her fever. The room was dark and she was radiating heat. Meredith had known this woman was her destined love. She had known it pulling her pale body from the water. She had known it from the moment she had ascended from heaven and into her arms. Though that moment…that moment Josselyn stood at the edge of death after crossing hell. That was the moment she felt it too. The possibility of losing this celestial being to fever, had torn her apart. She had paced up and down the little room. It had taken her only a few steps before she paced down to dizziness. Rest had not fallen upon her until it had grabbed ahold of Josselyn too. Gregory assured her the worst was over. The cries she just let out would be the last, and her demons had passed. She trusted him.

“If you’d asked, I would have given that to you,” the voice startled her. One of her hands was around some herbs; her knife was in her other hand, cutting the herbs loose from the soil. She swirled around and faced a middle aged man. Quickly her eyes searched his body; no weapons. The grip around her own knife tightened as she raised it defensively.

“If I trusted men, I would not be alive.” She said defiantly. Her eyes were bouncing over his body, searching for a sign of attack. The man had broad shoulders and a salty colored beard. From his neck hung a chain of little bones and twigs. She knew it was dangerous to pluck herbs from what seemed a vegetable garden. She knew this could happen, though she still went for it. She needed the herbs. She needed their healing powers and had not encountered them in the forest.

The man turned. He actually turned his back to her, while she was standing there in a half crouch with her knife in the air. She was ready for a fight but the man seemed not to want one. What sick trick was this? Her body stayed tense as he spoke.

“Put away the knife, Kid.” He was walking up to his door now. “I made soup, looks like you could use some feeding.” His total disregard for her threat. His total negligence of her knife and her pose left her baffled. She encountered many men. She killed more. Though none had been like this middle aged wiccan. Some underestimated her. Thinking she was an easy target. Some wanted more than an easy kill, wanted what was beneath her throat and between her legs. This man did not want any of it. He did not want to see her dead, he did not seem to like her shape. He was a mystery as he disappeared through the door of his little cabin.

“Not hungry?” was the last thing he said before Meredith decided. She decided to once more, only this once, follow a man.

“Where is your head?” The whispers of her sister found her ears and a warm feeling filled her insides.

“Still on my shoulders, I hope.” Meredith replied to her leader, but the tone was a reply to her lover. Josselyn halted. She moved to walk beside Meredith, and softly grabbed her hand. The connection of skin made her skin tingle, and she looked her sister in the eye. The piercing blueish eyes were draped with some green now that the sky above them was made of leaves. Though the travel was strident, her sister managed a smile that lit up her face.

“We will keep your head where it belongs, but where did your mind travel to?”

“It was with Gregory,” Meredith whispered and before she could explain anything else, a shriek filled the air. Alarmed she looked up to the sky only to discover that Falcon had once again found them. He was descending through the leaves to land on Josselyn’s shoulder.

“Where was he when we needed a scout,” Meredith mumbled inaudibly for Josselyn to hear. She could still not force herself to process the last day. She could not let herself think of the possible ending of her paramour if that pathetic excuse of a prisoner had not stepped in. The urge to slit his throat became stronger every day. Every time she saw Josselyn’s scars, every time she heard him yell in his sleep or mumble his feverish words. The urge to put a stop to this madness, was immense. She wanted to leave him to the gods and have them judge him in another life, for what she could do to him would never be retribution enough. Only Maa could wield the cruelty that he deserved.

“My little man,” she heard Josselyn address the bird. Its talons were on her shoulder, but he had wisely descended on the one that was not pierced by his own claws. Meredith would have swatted him from her leader if he had been bestial enough to do so. She would have made sure he would never hurt her sister like that.

Her mind drifted again. It drifted to the little holes in Josselyn’s shoulder. The ones she had cleaned that night before this trip. She could still feel the velvet soft skin beneath her fingers, the warmth that radiated from her paramour. She could still feel that drop of sweat that had traveled between their bodies as they collided and became one. Joss’ lips on her neck, her hands, on her hips. She could still feel it all, and she wanted to keep feeling it over and over again. That night should never have ended.

“No! Stay away from me!” Rowen’s voice filled the air and Falcon let out a disapproving squawk. It was the only thing Meredith and the little creature agreed on; Rowen did not belong among them.

He was sitting on the ass, slouched and slanted to one side. Meredith could see Evelyn’s hand on his upper leg, preventing him from completely sliding off. His shirt was drenched in his own sweat and at the corners of his mouth a glob of white foam had formed. As Josselyn watched the headman of her past, Meredith watched the love of her life.

Worry was in her glance and Meredith only hoped it was worry for her sisters. For somehow the faith of this terrible man hung in the balance with the future of their sisterhood. Meredith hoped Josselyn looked at him with troubles about the consequences of his death, not doubt about his life.

“Are we nearly there?” Josselyn asked Meredith. The last time she had struggled along this path she blacked out from time to time. She could not remember much from before waking up at Gregory’s. She could not remember how Meredith had slept close to her body, preventing hypothermia from setting in. All she knew were flashes of memories that had presented themselves to her. Her memories were shattered and irregular.

Meredith’s were not.

She remembered every second and every moment. She remembered the clean smoke that she now spotted through the trees. It was swirling upward and dissolving in the air. It was like a welcome sign that Meredith longed to see so much. Even though the reason for their travel was a burden, her heart lifted as she gazed upon the patch of vegetables she once stole from.

As they neared the cabin that was puffing white smoke, Meredith’s feet filled with impatient anticipation. She was homebound. She was with family. The door swung open when they entered his field, the wood creaking from the impact. Behind her she noticed Emma jumping up a bit. A little smile graced the woman’s mouth as she heard the roar of an old friend.

“You scandalous savages! Let me take a look at you!”