Eloise's Journey

"Oh." Eloise said, feeling as though the thrust inside of her had knocked the wind from her. She felt herself squeeze around him involuntarily as he began feeding her long, steady strokes of his cock. Slow enough so as not to pain her but hard enough to give her more of that delicious, unbearable friction. She didn't know if she could take the pleasure it was so intense.

"Please...please..." She choked out. She'd planned to tell him to stop, go slower, but as she felt his rhythm increase and the heat inside her build again, any such notions were knocked from her and a different request came to her lips "More...harder."

Olaf complied, surprised at the request. His pace increased as he felt his passage ease a little on every thrust, he fucked her harder now. Still with long, even strokes and still stopping just short of her limits. Eloise began moaning uncontrollably, her hands wrapped around Olaf's neck. She had no words, could not have described the sensation, and so she simply gasped and moaned and occasionally entreated him to go harder. She could feel that same heat building but from inside now and spreading outward. She was getting to where she'd been before, she just prayed to all the gods she knew he wouldn't stop this time.

She needn't have worried. He kept thrusting as that something finally came. Her mind going white and her mouth going dry as she screamed so loud that the day's hunting would be ruined by the animals it would scare away. She was lost in the delirious, spasming pleasure. Unsteady waves emanating in every direction from inside her, curling her toes and causing her to dig her fingers into the skin of the man who was doing this to her. The soft, blonde princess riding her first orgasm to it's conclusion with little active thought, simply animal instinct. She quivered and shook and moaned and kept begging for even more. Again he delivered, another earth shattering climax ripped from her body, wringing it of every ounce of composure she had. His thrusting never varying even as she tightened considerably around him. Olaf's expression was one of his own pleasure. Both due to his own friction and the fact that the Princess was a delicious sight when enraptured. As Eloise's second climax still shook her, Olaf's began. His cock discharging inside her with a few days of accumulated wait. A considerable volume of his hot seed filled her and she climaxed again, a smaller, sharper explosion that made her whimper such a soft whimper it sounded as though it was the last sound she had left inside her. As Olaf's climax finished he finally lay her back down onto the scratchy blanket. Eloise was barely conscious and yet had never felt so alive. As though there had been some great other aspect to life going on behind curtains all her life that she was now privy to. Like she had a new sense. She lay on the blanket as he rolled off her, withdrawing his cock one last and complete time, and looked up at the wide blue sky.

"Now, that was a little more soft and tender than you'd get from most Nilfenmen." Olaf said after a few seconds of his own recovery. Eloise, whose brain was returning to her in bits and pieces, could not wrap her head around the concept. That had been hard and intense and almost brutal in it's savagery by her feeling.

"How so?" She asked, her words intended to be cautious and disbelieving but simply coming out as if she'd just been woken.

"Well, ordinarily an experienced woman wouldn't have simply taken it. There's more of a give and take, back and forth. He'll be on you, giving you what he can and, if one of our women wants it harder or faster, she doesn't ask. She either chides him into giving it to her or wrestles back, pinning him and making the act faster and harder." Olaf's voice sounded just the same as it had when he'd explained to her how to fish or cook and gave no indication that what he'd just done had been any more pleasurable or exhausting than those things had been.

"Next time." Eloise managed to get out.

"Would you like to go again now?" Olaf asked, a little surprised but seemingly up for the task. Eloise would have shouted her answer if she could but she didn't have it in her.

"No." She simply sighed. She was done for the day. She felt sleep coming on.

"Well, know that you have much to learn on that subject."

Eloise just nodded. They'd train every day. She'd insist on it.

(RCH: Sure to be one of the more talked about chapters of this work, Eloise's deflowering at the hands of the War Chief, though embarrassing to some members of the nobility, is not in any serious dispute. Confirmation of the lovemaking techniques of the Nilfenmen is another matter and was another subject I discussed with the Nilfen Village Elder on my trip. I enquired about the claims concerning the size, skill and relative virility of their men and he confirmed the account relayed here to me explicitly, leaving no doubt in my mind as to the veracity of the account presented . When asked about the Nilfenmen's reluctance to engage their women in cunnilingus his response was "Up to everyone I suppose. Not really spoken of. Now roll over, small one, I think you'll enjoy it even more when I confirm our virility from behind this time.")

~Chapter Seven, in which the last of the guards are dealt with~

As Princess Eloise had planned, such sexual congress became a daily part of her and Olaf's trip. While her other lessons would continue as well, every night they stopped was punctuated by another bout of passionate sex. Each time seemingly more intense and pleasurable than before. Olaf had done it to her from behind, while she was lifted aloft in his arms as he stood, while she was bent over the back of the carriage and in various other positions. Eloise insisted on learning them all. She was becoming quite proficient at it. She was too small to wrestle Olaf but when she did find herself on top of him she had no trouble directing the speed and intensity of their coupling. A time or two she even managed to wrest his climax from him before she found her own, a change of pace that while it was momentarily frustrating she saw as a great victory over him. He'd exerted such a power over her before, now she felt as though she had a part of that as well. Her frustration may have been greater, however, if their coupling had not always started again a few minutes later with different results.

While on the road Eloise tried to keep her mind off of her new discovery but she couldn't help dwelling on it at times. When she'd sit up front with Olaf she'd invariably look to him and think of some fresh bout they'd had and would ask him if they couldn't stop for a few minutes and go into the back of the carriage. Olaf would invariably agree. He'd even suggested it a time or two himself. Their journey was becoming delayed, however, and their frequent stops for lessons and such had added nearly a week onto their travel time. So it was that they had been pushing on for some time now and he'd resisted her recent advances. To a point. He'd informed her that there was something she could do while he was driving the carriage and explained in detail. She'd resisted only for a moment, it having been something Marietta had also described to her and she could still remember promising herself she'd never engage in no matter how her husband might beg. But she relented quickly. Which is how they came to be on this particular stretch of road, driving along slowly, with Olaf's thick cock wedged halfway down Eloise's throat.

She'd taken to it rather quickly, once she'd managed to get her mouth wide enough to take the thing and found the taste was not as repellent as she might imagine. She was bobbing on it quickly, wetly, her fist working the part too wide and much for her to get into her mouth as her other hand caressed and lightly squeezed the large heavy balls that were below it.

"Unngh, I don't believe you. You've done this before." Olaf moaned, expertly navigating even as Eloise sucked him like a skilled courtesan. She didn't stop to answer. It wasn't true, she hadn't. But she took to this like she'd taken to everything he taught her. Olaf saw that a hard turn was coming. He knew it well. A final turn North before the Ascibian border town of Kirkley and then only two days until they'd be across the border. He guided the cart on the proper turn, feeling very ready to burst into the Princesses mouth, and cursed loudly. Up ahead in the distance was another block in the road and two guards.

"Off me, off me." Olaf tapped her shoulder. Eloise complied, stopping her ministrations and removing the meaty prick from her mouth with a small popping noise. She sat upright as she saw the same thing Olaf did and attempted to straighten her now Black hair. Olaf shoved his cock back into his breeches as he continued to curse.

"Blast." He said "And I was so close to being there."

"Gods, you poor thing. I wonder what that must be like." She said dismissively, referencing their first time. "Frustrating I bet."

"Pipe down." Olaf chided as they approached. There were two guards on either side of the road but, unlike all the others they'd seen, these looked nothing like professional soldiers. One seemed far too skinny to be a soldier and held his weapon as if it might come to life and bite him. The other was heavier, with a paunch at his midsection and spectacles. The skinnier of the two was the one who approached them, nervously and doing his best to appear imposing.

"Halt in the name of the Ascibian empire, mightiest nation in the land and under the rule of the powerful Atonides the...."

"Again with that. You can just say halt, you know" the heavier one said as he shook his head in annoyance

"The Ascibian Army's guidelines strictly say that when stopping a passenger before inspection that the entire warning must be made for any such searches to be considered just and true." the skinny one countered, clearly having entrusted the rule to memory. The heavier one just looked at him contemptuously.

"The day I actually agree to be in the Ascibian Empire's Army is the day that I use that guidebook for anything other than wiping my bottom clean."

"Agree nothing." the skinny one said before again sounding as if he were reciting "When war causes the Emperor's Regulars to be deployed to the valiant effort, citizens may be conscripted to serve in reserve units, filling such non-essential...."

"Non-essential is right. I didn't even know the Empire stretched this far North." The heavy one said as he rubbed his hands together in the cool air. "I was a student in the capital, you know. Not one of the king's empty-headed volunteers"

"And it's exactly that kind of disrespect for the selfless men who fight to protect..."

"Oh stow it. What's valiant about warring on the Hildok tribes to the south? How did attempting to conquer the Northerners protect us?"

"The Nilfen were beasts! Men who ate their enemies raw and savage their own daughters. Their people deserved to learn our ways and..."

"You're just flat out quoting the bulletins the Town Criers read! You know they're written by the part of the government that's actually called the Department of Propaganda, don't you? The Nilfen, differing culture though they may have, were wildly slandered and grossly underestimated. Fighting them left us with massive debts, a weakened army and nothing to show for the effort"

"Oh and I'm sure that your school books are..."

Olaf and Eloise simply looked at the two, puzzled. They'd been stopped and then largely ignored as they bickered.

"We'd like to be on our way, please." Olaf said, tiredly

The two guards finally turned to the carriage, seeing that the occupants appeared to be of the Nilfen. The skinny one almost visibly choked back a gulp.

"N-not so fast. We've been instructed to search any carriages passing through and interrogate their passengers. Thoroughly." he said, nervously

"Oh, for the love of." the heavy one interrupted "I'm Private Filgrove and this is PFC Milgan."

"Why are you still introducing yourself to the detainees?" Milgan asked angrily. Filgrove turned from Olaf to his compatriot briefly

"Because my mother taught me to do so when meeting new people." Filgrove explained wearily before turning back to Olaf "You look like Northerners, you Northerners?"

"We are." Olaf nodded, looking oddly at the two guards still.

"Where you coming from?"

"Calandria."

"A-ha! They admitted it!" Milgan exclaimed excitedly, tightening his grip on his sword.

"Admitted what?" Filgrove rolled his eyes "We have carriages coming through here every day from Calandria. That's why this road exists."

"But look, it's a girl. It could be...her" The skinny guard said as he pointed his sword in the direction of Eloise. "We have to ascertain beyond a reasonable doubt that it's not...her as per our orders."

"You're right!" Filgrove said, mimicking Milgan's excitement and drawing his own sword and pointing it at Eloise as well. "Are you the escaped Princess Eloise of Calandria?"

Eloise felt her heart quicken. Not so much because of the guards or their swords but because it meant news had gotten out of her flight from her homeland. If these two knew, any soldier on the continent knew. She remained passive as she began to recite her story.

"No, my name is So...."

"You're not?" Filgrove said in mock surprise, sheathing his sword. "You're just a Northern girl on the road with her father?"

Eloise nodded at their cover simply being assumed.

"I believe my doubts have all been reasoned away," Filgrove continued "You, Mil?"

"You weren't supposed to tell them that the Princess is who we're looking for!" Milgan chided, without taking his eyes off of that very same girl. Filgrove ignored him.

"Anything in your carriage that violates the peace accord between the Empire and your people?" He asked "Or hiding anyone?"

"No," Olaf shook his head

"Mind if that one takes a look to confirm?" Filgrove motioned to his partner.

"Help yourself." Olaf shrugged

Milgan scurried back behind them and began inspecting the carriage. Filgrove looked apologetically at Eloise and then Olaf.

"I'm sorry about this, really. You can't imagine how little I want to be here," he said ruefully "Trust me, if I could choose a different king, I would. Although his sons aren't much better, I'm afraid."

"Those things about Prince Francis are rumours!" Milgan's voice came from the carriage. Filgrove ignored it.

"With any luck this Princess escaping business will bring some sense around here." Filgrove said hopefully

"Kirkley is just nearby, right?" Olaf said, changing the subject "They have an inn and tavern, right?"

"A couple." Filgrove nodded "There's the Derbyshire arms, the Hood and Fox...."

"Any of them serve food? Good, hot food? And have anything decent to drink?"

"That'd be the Hood and Fox, little west of the Barracks," he said almost eagerly "Think they're doing mutton tonight. They do it nice, all rubbed with herbs and roasted. Seen a few of you Northern types there too so they'll probably have something to hold you over drink wise."

Olaf nodded. The plan had been to stop for the night and then make the final push. The food and drink definitely made him want to stop. Filgrove simply shook his head and looked skeptically at Olaf, then Eloise.

"You lot don't really sleep with your daughters, do you?" he asked cautiously

"We don't," Olaf said definitively. "But reputations start."

Filgrove nodded, relieved,

"You know what we Ascibians used to be known for? Before we started all this madness? The arts. We were painters and sculptors and playwrights." He said to nobody in particular. "That's where I should be. In the capital. Starting a theatre company. Writing plays."

Milgan came back from the carriage just in time to hear this

"What would you write a play about? Some bawdy comedy? Or one of those neat ones where they use all the cow's blood in the battle scenes?" Milgan asked, genuinely interested. Filgrove shook his head.

"I was thinking something smaller. Just two people. Something about us." Filgrove said with some consideration

"About us? Being guards? And fighting bandits?" Milgan said, sounding interested

"No, about this. About being here, against our will. And waiting for a carriage, with a princess inside, that might never come."

"Sounds boring." Milgan said, disappointed

"But it's a metaphor, right?" Filgrove shook his head to argue "About how all of us are used. How we soldiers allow ourselves to have our lives interrupted or even ended to suit the whims of Nobles we'll never meet for causes they never really explain. I mean, I don't know this Princess. Her escape means nothing to me. But I get conscripted because they need more guards on these roads because she's gone. Does she have a good reason for escaping? Maybe. Is it bad for the Empire? Maybe. But the empire doesn't give a damn about me, so what do I care? So the two soldiers would represent every soldier. One, the naive patriot and the other the cynical and artistic one. So, in a larger sense, it would also represent the struggle for our national identity."

"May we leave?" Olaf said, somewhat annoyed now at their bickering. Filgrove nodded and stood off the side. Milgan did the same on the other end of the road. Olaf gave the horse a push and they started off slowly.

"I don't know," Milgan said, scratching his chin as the carriage drove off "What would happen when they found the princess?"

"They wouldn't. She'd never come. Maybe she'd never actually escaped." Filgrove kept arguing for his idea "It would be about the futility of it all."

"So then where's the action?"

Filgrove's response to this was not heard by Eloise as, by then, the carriage was well out of hearing distance. She did, however, think about what he'd said about her actions. How she hadn't considered what her actions would do to people she'd never met. Also, she thought that the play Filgrove was describing did sound boring and somewhat pretentious.

(RCH: As one might suspect, the Private Filgrove described here is, in fact, noted Ascibian actor and playwright Fenmore Filgrove. This story was included at my ministry's request, after it had been confirmed, with the belief that the common folk love hearing about the early lives of celebrities. Theatre enthusiasts may even see the early seeds of Filgrove's most celebrated work in this chapter. Standing on the Side of the Road with an Idiot: A Bawdy Comedy, continues to be a popular and beloved production both in Ascibia, Calandria and in many other lands.)

~Chapter Eight, in which insults are traded~

Olaf and Eloise made their way to the Fox and Hood inn with great haste. They both had agreed that the sound of food that did not need to be killed beforehand and a warm room for the night sounded like a welcome and refreshing change of pace. Olaf had been concerned to one degree or another about extending their trip in a town with a garrison but, if the two guards they just passed were any indication, that would be of little concern. Olaf wanted a drink, Eloise wanted a bath. They both wanted to eat.

The Fox and Hound was a large, reasonably well appointed place. Catering to travelling merchants and local soldiers mainly. Olaf had booked a room and Eloise had taken a hot bath as soon as they got there. The hot water had felt divine when she'd sank inside the tub. It was like her dip in the lake had been only multiplied by a thousand. She felt clean. She felt rested. She felt safe. The end of her journey seemed nearby. More than that, she felt like a different person.

She was stronger now. Both in body and in constitution. She'd learned so much in barely 40 days away from home. She could hardly imagine herself as the sheltered girl she'd been. She felt womanly. And not in the weak and subservient manner that women in her home now seemed. She thought of herself as capable and confident. Not based on her birthright but on what she could do. Over the weeks their scratchy blankets had been replaced by a soft stitching of furs she'd made from the animals they'd caught, something that was as empowering as it was as a symbol of her growth as it was a welcome change of pace for her backside and knees when she and Olaf would couple. That change was brought on by her. Her skill. Her craft.