Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior)

Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior)
By Kevin Beckett

Chapter VIII - Omnia Vincit Amor, et Nos Cedamus Amori

(Love Conquers All, And Let us Yield to it)

Right beside you I feel
Right beside you I am
Right beside you I kneel
Right beside you I stand
Right beside you I see
Right beside you I stay
Right beside you I'll be
Right beside you always

Driving into town with the top down
Sun sinking low into the water I can feel your speed
One hand on the wheel one hand on my knee
I can tell you what I want you can do what you need
Darling nights are getting cooler in the city so close
There's a place we can do it somewhere right along the coast
We'll arrive on time just a little bit late
It's not a matter of style just a lesson in taste

Right Beside You

Sophie B. Hawkins, Whaler

he young blond woman jumped to her feet and looked around the clearing she was in. There were bodies, both human and demon, scattered about like matchsticks. Thinking to herself, “damn, that was exciting,” she looked over to where she had last seen Willow. She panicked, momentarily, when she could not see her, and sent out a <Red, where are you?>

Buffy turned around and saw Willow, some twenty meters from where she had been standing, <you ok love?>

<Yeah, but do I ever have a doozy of a headache.>

Willow stood up and continued aloud, “down and out.” She had noticed Daithi and his guardsmen moving quickly between the comatose demons and cutting their throats.

Buffy, looking over her shoulder at the activity of the guardsmen added, “messy, but necessary.”

Within minutes, all of the demons had been killed and the strike force had collected their mounts ready to head back through the forest to the road.

“Let’s move,” Daithi said, “I would prefer being out of these woods, well before dark.”

“You’re not the only one,” replied Amana, “as it is, we’ll only get back to the inn well after dark.”

Grael turned to Willow and asked, “are you up to the disposal of the bodies, or would you like to use a more conventional method?”

Willow sighed softly, looked deep within her reserves, and decided that she did have the energy required and answered, “I can cope.” With that, she once again gathered energy, concentrated, and then reached out with her power to reduce the demon bodies to their component elements.

Buffy came up beside her lover and asked, “love, how do you do that?”

“I evaporate the water in the bodies and return it to the atmosphere,” replied Willow, the exhaustion evident on her face, “I got the idea from my musings on what happens to the vamps when you stake them.”

“Way cool,” replied the Slayer.

The strike force remounted then began to walk slowly towards the edge of the forest, crossing its boundary with less than an hour to dusk. Willow, paused for a moment and turned in the saddle to face the others before calling out, “let’s ride, and ride hard. We want to be a lot closer to town before dark.”

The group completed their ride back to town without any interruptions, arriving in the stable yard of the inn, on exhausted and lathered horses, well after dark. They roused the stable boys, and had them take the horses off for a good rubdown and feeding.

“Food, or bath,” Willow asked the group in general.

“Bath,” they all unanimously responded. Willow led them to the baths at the side of the inn, calling into the common room as they passed by, “we survived, we stink, we’ll bath before eating.”

The innkeeper met the group and replied, “yes, lord. Your rooms are ready, and we have saved dinner for your return.”

“Excellent,” said Buffy as she followed the group to the baths, amazed once again at the change in people, once you save their lives. Just as she was leaving the room, she turned back to the innkeeper and said, “would you please see that our travel bags are brought up to our rooms?”

“Of course,” he replied and turned to summon servants to perform the various tasks.

The baths were located in a series of buildings at the side of the main structure of the inn. There was a room for changing and a series of baths in the old Roman tradition, hot, cold and tepid. In addition, there was a steam room and a massage room. Society in this reality had long ago ritualised and formalized the bathing routine so that it not only cleaned the body, but also relaxed both it and the mind.

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Later that evening, after a long relaxing bath followed by a simple, but hearty supper, Buffy and Willow were snuggled together in bed. The room that they had been shown to after eating was best described as ‘rustic’. It was small, no more than four metres by three, and was dominated by the king-sized bed which occupied the wall under the single window. Above them on the pillows was, as usual, Shadow-cat who was pretending to ignore the two women by grooming herself.

“How you doing Red,” Buffy asked as she burrowed deeper into her lover’s arms, the two women were spooned together with Willow curled up against Buffy’s back.

“Warm fuzzies,” replied the other young woman, “clean, fed, and holding the one I love.”

“You sound like Shadow-cat, all you have to do is start to groom yourself.”

“Mmmm, grooming,” Willow replied as she turned Buffy around to face her, and trailed her fingers through the streak of white hair in the middle of her lover’s head. She then began to softly caress the other’s shoulders and neck; then trailed her fingers over the tattoo on Buffy’s chest and softly caressed her tightening abdomen, “I like the sounds of that.”

“Easy love,” Buffy whispered, her breath beginning to catch in her throat. “I want to talk some things through with you first.”

“So talk,” Willow said, as she continued to caress and gently kiss the other woman’s stomach.

“If you keep that up,” the Slayer commented huskily, “it’ll be a long time before I’ll be able to speak, let alone think clearly.”

“Think, you want to think,” Willow replied, as she began to softly blow on Buffy’s soft blond pubic hair. She slowly manoeuvred between Buffy’s thighs and inhaled sharply through her nose. “Mmm, you smell wonderful, and very excited. Sure you want me to stop?”

“Yes, No, I mean Yes-No,” Buffy babbled, as Willow began to blow softly on her engorged clitoris. <Stop that you witch! Oh my…> Buffy’s thoughts trailed off into incoherent fragments as Willow began to suck and nibble on her clitoris.

Willow then increased her attentions on the slayer by creating mental extensions and using them as additional hands to softly caress Buffy’s breasts and nipples, while her conventional hands remained busy stimulating her vaginal opening and tracing intricate patterns through the slayer’s pubic hair.

Buffy quickly reached her climax. Shouting out as she did, “yes, love, yes!” After a few minutes she reached down and pulled the arch-mage up into a tight embrace, saying softly into her ear, “Goddess I needed that, thank-you love.”

“You’re welcome,” she replied, with a canary-eating grin on her face.

“Now you really look like Shadow-cat, with that look on your face,” commented Buffy as she softly kissed Willow. Staring deeply into her lover’s eyes she added, “have I told you today that I love you?”

“You have, but I never tire of you saying it.” Willow stroked the fine hairs on the Buffy’s cheek, and continued, “I would be lost without you.”

“Now, as I was trying to say, before I was so deliciously interrupted,” Buffy said as she snuggled deeper into Willow’s arms,

“Yes?”

“It’s just that I’ve been thinking about what’s been going on over the last few weeks.”

“And?”

“I think that I understand, at least a little bit, why we are both expecting.”

“I think that you are thinking too much,” Willow commented as she stifled a yawn. “Go to sleep, we have to get up in a few hours and head back to the capital, if we can.”

“I a second love, I want to get this out while I’m thinking about it.”

“Ok, give.”

“When you nearly died,” Buffy started, “I lost it, or nearly did anyway.”

“Meaning?”

“I realized that you were the most important part of my life,” Buffy continued, “more important than slaying.”

“And,” prompted Willow.

“And, I think that subconsciously, at least, my body realized that and decided to create a permanent expression of my need and love for you.”

“If I understand where you are going,” Willow said, “your subconscious mind, using your powers and abilities, made real your desire to be a part of me, and that somehow that translated into the formation of our babies?”

“I think so,” Buffy paused for a moment to collect her scattered thoughts, “its just that no matter how good we get with our control of magic and the energies around us, I think that there is still a lot left to learn.”

“I agree with your thought that we have a lot to learn,” Willow replied, “after all just look at this afternoon. I totally miscalculated the effect of closing the hell-mouth. I don’t know how much more of that my body will be able to take.”

“It was rather dramatic,” agreed the slayer. At that moment her slayer senses, kicked into overdrive, not to mention a slight burning sensation coming from her new tattoo, <Hey witch girl. Look out, we’ve got company coming.>

<Where?>

<I think that we will be looking for a new innkeeper, come morning,> quipped Willow.

<I’m not being funny. I’m terrified.>

<No need for terror, Super Slayer is here. I’ll take care of it,> said Buffy as she quietly got out of bed and began to search through her luggage. <Where is it?>

<Where’s what?>

<Mr. Pointy.>

<Last I saw it you were using it to dispose of a vampire,> replied Willow as she sat up in bed, watching her lover.

<It’s ok,> responded Buffy as she triumphantly held up the object of her search, <found it.>

Buffy began to move silently towards the door of the room when there was a sudden knocking on the door.

<Go, ahead,> stated Willow, in response to Buffy’s unvoiced thoughts, <answer it, but be careful.>

Buffy paused for a moment then answered, in her best sleepy voice, “who is it?”

The vampire on the other side of the door reacted in confusion. He was a short stocky man with long greasy hair and was wearing dirty and patched clothing. He knew now that he had tried and failed that he could not cross the threshold of this door without permission. He had received permission to enter the inn earlier that night was confused to find out that he needed additional permission to enter this room to hunt his prey. The answer that he received to his knock was not what he had expected. He was hoping, that as had happened previously that evening, he would have received a summons to enter the room. He waited for a moment, trying to think of a plan, then replied rather cleverly he thought, “um, it’s the night servant. I just was just checking to see if you needed anything.”

<Don’t you just love dumb vampires,> Buffy asked as she turned to Willow with an incredulous look on her face.

<That it does,> replied Buffy as she briefly thought over her options. She could take the vampire in the hall, though a fight in the hall would be in very cramped conditions, or she could invite him in and stake him in the room, although the space in the room was not much better. Or, she thought, “maybe I could use a new approach to this one.”

<I do,> replied the Arch-Mage. <Besides, I’m not Yoda. For one thing, I’m not green, and I think I’m a lot better looking. But that’s just me babbling. If I were you, I’d stake it in here.>

<Why’s that?> asked Buffy, <It will get dust over everything.>

<Well, for one thing, you’re naked.>

<Good point, pardon the pun,> turning back towards the door Buffy called out, “ah, thanks. I think we could use some clean towels. Could you come in and get these old ones?”

The vampire couldn’t believe his luck; his little impromptu plan had worked. He hadn’t been a nightwalker very long, having been turned only a month previously, and was still very inexperienced in the stalk and the slay. In his previous life he had been a day labourer, and had been ignorant of the dangers of vampires and other demons. His sire had taken him as a lark, and had decided to turn him, more from amusement than need for additional servants.

He had just finished feeding heavily for the first time since he had risen, on the unfortunate innkeeper and his wife, and had decided to retreat to his lair after draining the two mortals who had just been foolish enough to invite him into their room. He was thinking that he might just take them back home, to feed on the next day, instead of draining them now. “Save me from hunting tomorrow,” he thought to himself.

He slowly began to open the door, expecting to see a darkened room with two mortals on the bed. That was not what he saw upon opening the door. Just as soon as he realized that the room was well lit and that only one person was in, or rather on, the bed, he was pulled roughly into the room and then picked up and flung across it, impacting on the far wall. The vampire slowly fell to the floor, stunned by his violent reception.

“Surprise, bloodsucker,” yelled Buffy as she slammed the door to the room closed.

The vampire looked up from the floor to see a vision out of an erotic nightmare. In front of him, barring the door was a naked young woman with blond hair who had her face twisted in anger. In addition, she was holding a very large, very sharp, stake in her left hand. To his left was another naked young woman, who had jumped off the bed, and was standing at the side of it. She too had an expression of pure hatred on her face. He leapt to his feet yelling, “I’m going to get you for that you bitch.”

“I sincerely doubt that,” replied Buffy as she made a warding gesture and called out “greimmey jouyil!”

With that spell, the vampire was bound to the floor, unable to move. He also began to realize that in this totally unfamiliar situation he was potentially in a world of trouble.

“Smooth move lover,” commented Willow leaving the side of the bed and joining Buffy in front of the immobilized vampire, “when did you learn that little trick?”

“Oh, its just something that Amana and I worked on during the ride today to and from the hell mouth,” replied the Slayer, “I wanted to have a method of holding on to these slimy little devils, if I needed to ask a few questions before the dusting. Not to mention that since you arranged to make me a warrior-mage, I thought that I should really add some mage to my warrior.” Buffy paused for a moment then continued, “we haven’t really finished working out the details, and I don’t think that it would work in a pitched battle, or against multiple opponents. However, against a real dummy like this one, it worked out just fine.”

<Yes, I do, and what gives with the Yoda impressions and with the whole timid Willow routine? Where’s my super mage, ready to take on all comers?>

<Shock, terror, fear, and the usual little things we deal with on a daily basis; and, my utterly failing attempts to control the babble factor. In addition, I think that I’m having a pregnancy induced hormonal attack.>

<????>

“Ok then,” Buffy stated, leaving her questions as to her lover’s hormones until later, much later. She walked up to the vampire and stood face to face with him, “I have a few questions, and you have the answers.”

“Free me bitch so I can kill you,” replied the vampire, not realizing that his powers of persuasion were ineffective against a Slayer.

Turing to her lover Buffy commented, “one track minds, that’s all they have.” She balled up her hand into a fist and slammed it into the vampire’s sternum, cracking several ribs in the process and causing it to bend over in pain. “Now listen stupid, and listen good. Your little tricks won’t work on me and I will cause you unbelievable amounts of pain if you don’t answer my questions.”

The vampire’s resistance collapsed, due in no small measure to the intense amount of pain he was in. When he was able to form a coherent sentence he replied, “what do you want to know?”

“There, isn’t that better,” answered the Slayer, “first, who in the inn did you kill?”

“Two,” he replied, “the innkeeper and his wife.”

“Ok, then,” continued Buffy, “now, did you turn them, or just drain them.”

“I just killed them, like I’m going to kill you two bitches.”

“Why didn’t you turn them,” asked Willow, totally unconcerned at the vampire’s taunts and threats.

“Don’t know how,” replied the vampire.

<Ah,> commented Buffy, <freshly risen.>

“When did you die,” she asked the now confused vampire. The two young women in the room were not acting the way that prey should act.

Until this point in his new life, he had been surviving on primal instinct. He had died, then risen just the week previously. Somehow, he had known that he had changed and that his diet would forever be liquid blood. He had spent the first few days after rising feeding on small animals in the forest where his body had been tossed by his sire. He had quickly realized that part of his new abilities was the capability of causing his prey to become motionless, and remain in that state while he drained them of their blood. After gaining confidence on the forest creatures, he had only this evening felt bold enough to venture back into town. He had selected the inn for his deprivations, due in part to the indifferent treatment he had received there at the hands of the innkeeper, when he’d still been mortal.

“Don’t know,” he replied, “maybe a month ago or so.”

“Who’s your sire,” asked Buffy, “and where is it?”

“Don’t know. Never seen him again since that night.”

“Ok,” said Buffy. “Let’s review. One, we have a very new, and very dumb vampire.”

“Two,” added Willow, “we have a deviant sire running around who makes new vampires for the kick.”

“And finally,” continued the Slayer, as she paced in the small space available ending with her back to the trapped vampire, “we have some disposal work to do, starting right here.”

With that, she spun around quickly and flung Mr. Pointy at the vampire, missing him by mere centimetres.

“I missed,” exclaimed a startled Slayer, “I never miss.”

“You missed,” agreed her equally startled lover.

“So, you missed,” sneered the vampire, “after-all you’re only a woman and probably couldn’t hit the side of a barn.”

“She’s not ‘just a woman’ you stupid vampire,” yelled Willow, “she’s the Slayer!”

“So,” mocked the vampire, “she’s a Slayer, so what?”

“This is what asshole,” Buffy said quietly as she calmly grabbed the vampire by his head and twisted it off. This had the result she was looking for, as he immediately disintegrated into his component dust.

“Dust buster time,” quipped Willow, “now what?”

“We might as well concede that the night is done and stay up to take care of the innkeeper and his wife,” replied Buffy, “and make sure that this dummy was telling the truth.”

Unbeknownst to the three, now two, occupants of the room the preceding events had been observed by an entity through the room’s window. The creature was an imp standing about one meter tall. He had been sent by the demons Hugh and Junulak as an advance scout to find the troublesome human mage. He had been give very specific instructions to observe, stay out of sight and report back. It had taken him the better part of the day and night to fly to this little out of the way village, and from the various conversations that he had overheard upon arrival had realized that he had lucked out, and the humans he was searching for were in fact staying in the village inn. “Nothing like a little excitement in the morning to get the yokels talking,” he had thought to himself after hearing about the attempted robbery of the inn.

He had been spending the last hour or so going from window to window of the inn trying to get a handle on the number of humans in the group, and an idea on their abilities. He had watched with amusement, then horror, as the vampire had come up to the inn; as he cajoled his way into the inn, then as he killed the innkeeper and his wife. He had then managed to be present to witness the proceedings in this particular guest room. Unlike the recently departed vampire, he was old enough, and knowledgeable enough, to know about slayers. He was also aware that this was an entirely new set of problems that Hugh and Junulak needed to know about.

“Good Gods of Chaos,” he mumbled to himself, “a Slayer. We are in a deep world of trouble if we don’t find a way of eliminating her, but quickly. Not to mention, what did she mean by being a warrior-mage.” With that, the demon flew off, hastily, heading in a south-westerly direction.

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Later that morning Buffy, Aiofe, Bridie and Willow took up the threads of the conversation that Buffy had started the night before. They were seated in the common room of the inn, eating breakfast, while around them the staff moved slowly, almost zombie like. They had been stunned when woken by Buffy and Willow in the wee hours before dawn to learn that their employer, and his wife, had been violently slain in the night. They were so shocked at the news that none of them protested when Buffy insisted that everyone, including Willow’s strike force, stand in the stable-yard until well after sunrise to insure that all of the persons present were in fact mortal. After the test for mortality, Amana and Grael had arranged for the bodies to be blessed, consecrated and burned. Daithi meanwhile had gone to find the innkeeper’s brother who lived in the next village, so that he could be told of the events, and so that he could come back to arrange for the disposition of the estate. They were due back later that afternoon.

“Ok,” commented Bridie “lets see if I’ve got this straight.” Bridie paused for a moment to take a sip of her mead and then continued,

“Buffy, you think that the reason the two of you became pregnant was due to your anguish when Willow nearly died?”

“That’s right,” replied the Slayer, “and the events of last night only make it more clear in my mind.”

<Well at least you have a clear idea,> commented her lover, as she yawned into her bowl of porridge.

“Meaning,” asked Aiofe.

“Meaning I have a high-risk lifestyle. I’m a Slayer, and while I had an idiot of a vampire last night to deal with, it hasn’t always been that easy. There hasn’t been a Slayer who’s lived to a ripe old age, and I don’t think any have ever had children.” <Have to check with Giles on that one.>

“So?” asked Bridie.

“So,” replied Willow, as she took and held Buffy’s hand, “I think what my confused lover is trying to say is that she was terrified of leaving me alone, and to make matters worse I think what she is really trying to say is she is now even more frightened of leaving me, and our children alone.”

“Not exactly my thought process,” injected Buffy, “but I think that deep down you may be right.”

“Not to worry love,” replied the Arch-Mage embracing the other woman and giving her a gentle kiss, “you and I will live to see our grandchildren, and I promise you that.”

“I’m going to hold you to that,” said Buffy softly into Willow’s ear. She then said aloud, “if I die before you do, I’m coming back to haunt you. There’s also one other little matter that’s bothering me though.”

“And that would be,” asked Aiofe.

“The miss.”

“Ah,” exclaimed Willow, “the miss.”

“What miss,” asked a confused Bridie, “what miss did I miss?”

“Buffy was going to stake the vampire last night,” replied Willow, “and she missed.”

“And I want to know why,” added the Slayer, “after all…”

“You never miss,” replied the other three women in chorus.

“Well, I don’t,” Buffy concluded with a slight pout.

“I don’t think it’s a major issue,” commented Aiofe, “it was probably due to a combination of factors.”

“Such as?”

“Well,” the dark-haired young woman continued, “the massive changes in your body due to the little visit we received the other night; and the reality that you haven’t been able to train properly for the last few days combined with how your pregnancy is starting to change your centre of balance.”

“But,” interjected Buffy, “I’m not even a month along. How can that be affecting my timing and balance?”

“You’ll probably have to talk to Amana about it, but I think that it has to due with the fact that you are, in essence, an incredibly well trained demon killing machine. Any little change in your body is going to have an effect on it. In addition, although you haven’t begun to ‘show’ yet, the fact is your body is going through massive internal changes in order to facilitate the pregnancy.”

“So what does she do,” asked a very concerned arch-mage.

“Make every effort to train consistently,” replied Buffy, “and concentrate on always working on the skills that require the most of my balance and timing.” Buffy proceeded to re-fill her plate with fresh fruit and cheeses and commented, “enough of this work talk, lets eat and gossip about our elders.”

The four young women then proceeded to complete their breakfast discussing lighter topics, leaving weightier matters to later.

As they finished their meal, Willow turned to the others and commented, “Since it looks like we will be here for at least one more day Aiofe, why don’t you and Bridie make arrangements for our rooms and stuff. Since I doubt that the staff have thought much about anything today.”

“Will do,” replied Bridie.

“Now lover,” Willow continued turning her attention to Buffy, “I suggest that you go find the other guardsmen and workout, perfecting your stake throwing techniques, to compensate for the changes in your body.”

“Sounds good Will,” replied Buffy, “what are your day plans?”

“I think that I’m going to spend some ‘skull time’ with Frankel, Amana and Grael to try to get a better understanding of the hell-mouths.

I goofed on the first one, and I’ve been thinking that if I have to travel to each one it will take months, if not years, to get to them all.”

“Ouch,” observed Buffy, “We’re certain to run out of luck long before then.”

“Not to mention a little issue like having a baby in nine months or so,” added Aiofe.

“Don’t remind me,” replied Willow, “I’ve been craving chocolate all day.”

“That’s got nothing to do with your being knocked-up,” Buffy said smiling, “but with your life long chocolate addiction. At least the advice Amana gave us has stopped the morning sickness.”

“That’s one blessing,” replied Willow. The four young women then went off to start their day.

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Willow gathered the three senior mages in the office of the former innkeeper to discuss the primary, magical, topic on her mind. The office was small, windowless and no more than two by two meters. It was located in an interior space just off the kitchen and therefore had no windows. It was packed with a desk, four chairs and two bookshelves; not to mention four bodies.

Grael locked and barred the sturdy door and with a questioning glance to Amana, who had already had a brief discussion with Willow that morning, yelled out a quick “cur ny host shamyr!” which had the effect of creating a sound proof barrier around them so that their discussions would not become knowledge to any prying ears.

“Ok, Willow,” said Amana, kicking off the conversation, “now that you have us all in here, what’s up?”

“I wanted to brief you all on what I saw, and did, yesterday at the hell-mouth, and to pick your brains on how to proceed.”

“Well,” replied Grael, “why don’t you start by telling us what you saw and did yesterday.”

“Ok,” replied Willow, “this is how it all went down.” Willow then proceeded to spend the next half-hour or so briefing the other mages on what she did and saw while she was in the magic realm. She concentrated on her perceptions of the hell-mouths and how she felt that they were not only transport portals from universe to universe, but that somehow the demons were draining energy from this world to feed another one.

Frankel was stunned by the information that Willow had given them and after a few minutes to collect himself commented, “in all of my investigations into the hell-mouths and the nature of the multiple worlds, I never experienced or conceived of something like this being possible.”

“Perhaps,” added Amana, “it was because none of us ever fully entered the magic realm to investigate the transfer portals.”

“Why not,” asked Willow.

“None of us had either the power, or frankly the desire, to do so,” replied Grael.

“That answers that particular question,” said Willow softly, “however, what I really want to talk about is how to proceed from here. I don’t think that going from hell-mouth to hell-mouth closing them one at a time is very viable. For one thing it’s going to take a long time, and the demon hierarchy is sure to resist heavily, given that we now know of the double importance that the hell-mouths have for them.”

“And,” asked Amana, “what else?”

“And,” replied the Arch-Mage, “in a few months both Buffy and I will be very pregnant, then it will be pregnant, both of which will make travel more difficult, and then we will be mothers.”

“I understand the problems,” said Grael, “but how else can we proceed?”

“That’s what I want to brainstorm about with the three of you,” replied Willow. “Maybe between us we can think of some way to stop these demons and close all of the hell-mouths simultaneously.”

The four mages then began to discuss several options, ranging from whole-scale attacks on the demons, to infiltration of the demon hierarchy. All were proposed, discussed and rejected for one reason or another and as the day wore on, they began to despair of finding a solution.

“We’ve been at this for hours,” complained Willow, “we’ve looked at least twenty options, dissected them and ultimately discarded them. Now what?”

“Now we get out of this stuffy room,” replied Frankel, “and get some food and news from the others. Tomorrow morning we’ll leave for the capital at first light and then we will have access to the research and the libraries in the castle.”

“Sounds good,” said Amana as she and the others stood up and left the little office.

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Meanwhile, not to far from the little village where Willow’s party was staying, three demons stood in a small clearing next to a creek. They were standing away from the bulk of the force that had been tasked with destroying the two world travellers and their party.

“Are you certain Talor?” asked the demon Junulak.

“Positive,” replied the small imp who had watched the proceeding at the inn on the previous night.

“How can you be so positive,” continued Junulak, throwing a worried glance at the other demon present.

The third member of their little party, the quasi-human Hugh, was listing to the conversation with growing confusion, not comprehending any of the finer details being discussed.

“Because her companion, the one that you were all so initially worried about, called her a Slayer,” replied the imp, “and I watched her toss a vampire across a room like a rag doll and then proceed to rip his head off like it was made of tissue paper.”

“This complicates things,” Junulak added after a moment’s reflection.

“How can one young woman, a ‘slayer’, complicate things any more than that witch girl is already doing,” questioned Hugh.

“That’s right,” replied Talor, “you wouldn’t know.”

“Know what?”

“About Slayers,” replied Junulak, as he began to pace back and forth across the small clearing, “the last one on this world was eradicated decades ago. Well before your time here.”

“So,” continued the humanoid, “I ask again, what’s the complication?”

Junulak stopped his pacing and looked over to where the imp Talor was standing by the creek, with a look that asked “you or me?”

“You enlighten him,” replied the imp, who then proceeded to turn his back on the other two and stare out over the creek to where the rest of their force was billeted, wondering if over five hundred demons was going to be enough.

Junulak then proceeded to tell Hugh about Slayers and their preternatural strengths and abilities. That their fanatical mission in life was to slay the non-human creatures considered humans prey. The fact that they were often able to defeat numerous foes at once, and that they were able to detect the presence of their enemies long before they were seen. He also indicated that Slayers were able to gather to themselves a group of helpers, and that when the group was able to bond together it was then able to defeat enemies many times their size. How the first mission that the demon leadership undertook on a new world was to isolate the Slayers and defeat them, even though they realized that it would cost them hundreds of lives to do so.

Both Hugh and Junulak fell silent at the end of the short lesson on slayers. Finally, Hugh turned to the other two and asked, “ok, I now understand why this may, and I repeat, may, complicate things. What do we do about it?”

“Talor,” Junulak called out, “I want you to fly back immediately to our master to inform him of this development, don’t forget to mention this thing about her being a ‘warrior-mage’, maybe he has some idea about what that means.”

“At your command,” replied the imp as he immediately leapt into the air.

“That solves the delivery of the bad news,” commented Hugh, “what do we do?”

“We, my dear friend, will immediately break camp and head to that village,” replied Junulak, “with any luck we will be able to strike tomorrow at dawn and catch them all before they know we are there.”

“Sounds good,” replied Hugh as the two demons crossed the creek to give the news of the forced march to their lieutenants, and to begin the process of breaking camp.

-----------------------------------------------

Daithi arrived back in the village, with the former innkeeper’s brother, with less than an hour to dusk. They were exhausted and riding equally exhausted horses. In addition, both men looked as if they had been dragged though the mud. Riding up into the stable yard, they met with the rest of Willow’s strike force, who had become more than a little worried about the delay.

“Daithi,” called out Willow, “what kept you? We were expecting you hours ago.”

Daithi stared blankly for a moment, as if unable to comprehend the question, then replied in a drawn voice, “demons.”

“Where? How many? When?” Asked various members of the group surrounding Daithi in a confusing babble.

“Quiet,” yelled Buffy, “let him off his horse, and let him get cleaned up. We’ll have time to question him over dinner.”

The group then helped the two men to dismount from their horses and then led them to the baths. They also took the opportunity to introduce himself or herself to the brother of the innkeeper, and to offer their condolences for his loss. Later, as Daithi was finishing his dinner, Willow walked over to his table to ask the questions that were on everyone’s mind. In the hour or so since he had ridden into the village, he had regained a lot of his energy and composure. He had bathed and was now in the process of finishing off the consumption of a large amount of food and drink.

“I’m sorry to break into your dinner Daithi,” she said, as she sat down at the table across from him, “but I need some information in order to figure out what we are going to do next.”

“That’s ok,” replied the guard captain, “I understand fully.”

“Why don’t you then tell us what happened,” continued Willow, “take your time, but let us know what is going on outside of this village.”

“Ok,” answered Daithi, “this is how my day went from bad in the morning to unbelievably worse by the afternoon.”

He then began to relate to the group the events of his day. He had risen with the others to the knowledge of the vampire attack the previous night, and after watching the sunrise with everyone else, he had obtained information from the staff that the former innkeeper’s brother lived in the next village, named South Bend, which was located to the south-west, about two and a half hours away on horseback. He had cleared his trip with Willow and after gathering some supplies and two horses had ridden out of the village about two hours after dawn, expecting to be back shortly after lunch. The morning had passed without incident; he had, however, noticed that the road was devoid of all life, both human and animal. Once he had reached the village, he sought out the brother, who happened to be the blacksmith for the village, and broke the tragic news to him about the innkeeper and his sister-in-law. The man, named Hubert, had taken the news calmly, after all death was a common enough occurrence in rural life. However, it had taken until well after lunch for the two men to leave to make the journey back. The delay was caused by Hubert having to find someone to watch over his forge for the three days or so he estimated he would be gone. As they left South Bend, they could see that ahead on the side of the road were signs of demon activity, burning fields and murdered farmers. Believing that the road was blocked they decided to leave it and travel cross-country to the village of Peters Forge where Willow and the rest of the team was waiting. That had been a mistake since as soon as they had entered a small thicket they had stumbled on a band of twenty or so demons, presumably the ones who had been doing the ransacking of the farmsteads.

“What happened then?” asked Aiofe, who like the others had taken up places at or around the table during Daithi’s narrative.

“We ran,” replied the guardsman simply, “with only a civilian to help, and facing twenty opponents we took off as fast as we could.”

“How did you get away?” asked Grael.

“By riding as hard and as fast as we could away from them.”

Daithi then continued the account of their adventures. How they had had to ride hard away from both towns in order to find somewhere in the woods to shake off the demons who had immediately begun to chase them. How they had finally lost their pursuers only after they had ridden down a small river for nearly two kilometres. By that time, it was well into the afternoon and after pausing for a moment to rest the horses they had ridden hard for the village knowing that the demons were sure to report their presence and be waiting for them tomorrow.

“That decides it,” said Willow, as Daithi finished his report, “We’ll get up three hours before dawn and head directly for the capital. I know that it took us two days, and a little demon problem, to get here, but I hope that by leaving early and by riding hard we can do it faster. With luck any demons we meet will be either sleeping or just getting ready to attack us.”

With that pronouncement, everyone began to head up to their various rooms to try to get as much sleep as possible in the remaining hours before they would head back to the capital.

Just as people were starting to head up the stairs Willow called out, “hold on a second. I have another idea.”

<What’s that love?>

As everyone paused at the foot of the stairs Willow continued, “I think for safety sake we should be in as few rooms as possible tonight. So, Grael, Amana and Frankel, you take one room. Daithi, you and the other guardsmen take another, while Bridie, Aiofe, Buffy and I will take a third. Finally, Daithi I’m going to ask that you and the other guardsmen, along with Buffy, patrol tonight. We defiantly do not want any repeat surprises tonight.”

-----------------------------------------------

Three young women, and a cat, lay sleeping intertwined. Buffy stood in the doorway to the bedroom and looked in at her lover, and the two other women who had become almost as important to her. Upon retiring for the evening, and before Buffy had to leave on patrol, the four women had stayed up talking and sharing their lives together, discussing not only the tremendous events of the last few days but also their childhoods and families. Both Buffy and Willow had been fascinated by the way that the other two had been raised, in the absence of all the comforts that they had had. Aiofe and Bridie had been equally absorbed by details of shopping malls, airplanes and other items that until very recently both Buffy and Willow had taken for granted. The woman had made this time to talk and interact, since recent events had left little opportunity for them to share their thoughts and feelings in order to learn more about each other.

After talking and sharing for nearly three hours, Buffy had left on patrol. The others were far too tired to do anything but collapse into a deep sleep, each of them praying to the Goddess that they would be able to get back home safely.

She had decided to look in on her lover and their friends, not from any sense of duty or worry, but to satisfy herself that everything was ok. She knew that the link that she and Willow shared would have instantly alerted her of any problems, but, greedily decided that looking wasn’t going to do any harm.

She thought back to the day, not too long ago, just before Christmas, when she had realized that Willow was the most important person in her life. She had just returned from a particularly uneventful patrol to find Willow still awake and working on her computer. Thinking that she was studying for a test, she had looked at what Willow had on her screen to find that her friend was in fact researching demons.

She had then asked, “what you doing red?”

“Oh, hi Buffy,” replied Willow, “how was your patrol? Any baddies? Just checking out some stuff in case you need it someday.”

“Fine. None. Thank you, I’m off to the showers” replied the Slayer. As she got ready for her shower she thought, “she’s always been with me, always willing to help, to sacrifice for me. I can depend on her for anything.”

Buffy had been disturbed by her thoughts and continued thinking, “Why? Why does she stay with me? I’ve practically ignored her recently and yet I find that even when she’s not with me I think of her constantly.”

Buffy had continued her musings during her shower, and began to realize that if was stranded on a deserted island with only one person it would without a doubt be Willow. She was confused by these feelings, and the not so subtle effect they were beginning to have on her body. “My body has never reacted this way before,” she thought as she began to unconsciously masturbate herself to an orgasm.

“Am I gay?” Suddenly Buffy realized that labels meant nothing; gay, straight, whatever. It was the person who mattered, and that if she ever lost Willow it would be as if a part of her soul had been ripped out.

Buffy went on to remember how she had come back from her shower confused, frightened and self-assured. Confused from what her mind and body was now telling her, frightened that the one person who mattered the most to her wouldn’t understand, after all she had just lost Oz, and was still healing her wounds from that relationship. But, most of all she was self assured, realizing that what she had experienced in the shower was a revelation, and regardless of the reaction she had to discuss her feelings with Willow.

Still it had been with some trepidation as she finished drying off, wrapped her hair into a towel, changed into her nightshirt and walked over to where Willow was lying on her bed.

“Will?”

“Yes Buffy?”

“I’ve been thinking,” started Buffy. She then proceeded to pour out her heart to her friend, hoping for understanding, praying for acceptance. Buffy needn’t have worried, for the discovery that she had come to in the shower, had also happened recently to Willow. The two young women then spent the next several hours pouring out their hearts to each other. They spent the time discussing their hopes, fears and ambitions, not only for themselves but also for each other. Just as their long night was ending with the first hints of light in the pre-dawn, Willow leaned forward and softly kissed Buffy. That first, tentative, kiss had led to more passionate ones and shortly both women were helping each other remove what little clothing they had on. They paused in their lovemaking to examine each other’s bodies. They had, over the years, seen each other naked. But they had been the furtive, ‘not supposed to be looking’ viewings, while changing for gym or on sleepovers. This time they starred at each other, each drinking in the other’s body.

Willow noticed all of the scars from Buffy’s various combats, for while Slayers heal quickly, wounds still leave scars. She proceeded to softly kiss each of Buffy’s wounds, which resulted in her exploration of other, more tender areas. She softly caressed Buffy’s pubic mound with her lips then kissed it before moving her head between the other woman’s thighs. Buffy arched her back, more from surprise at that point; however, when Willow had begun to nibble and suck on her clitoris she had gasped and stiffened in pleasure. After bringing her life long friend to climax Willow climbed to lie beside her, at which point Buffy began her exploration. She followed the curve of Willow’s neck to the hollow beneath her neck. She had cupped each breast in turn while alternately sucking and manually stimulating them. She then brought one hand between Willow’s legs and began to rub and stimulate her clit, while she was rubbing her own on Willow’s leg. Within moments, Willow, followed shortly by Buffy, had an orgasm. Both women had not been sated and had spent the next hour exploring, stimulating and loving each other.

As dawn broke in the eastern sky Willow had turned to her best friend, and now lover and said sleepily, “I don’t think we’re going to class today.”

Buffy remembered how the two of them over the two weeks till Christmas had spent very little time in classes and quite a bit of time together in bed learning how to love and pleasure each other.

Just then an owl hooted outside of inn, bringing Buffy back from her reminiscences. She looked over at her friends, and noticed that Willow was deep in REM sleep. She also realized that she was able to follow along with her lover and see what she was dreaming.

“This is beyond weird,” she thought to herself, “Willow will be so psyched to find out about this little wrinkle in our abilities.”

As she followed along in the dream Buffy realized that Willow was thinking about the other two women, and how they had become essential to her. They had taken the place of the support group that they had had back home, and the more that Buffy thought about it, the more she realized that she too was becoming more than dependant on the other two women. She also realized that it was becoming very apparent that the dependence was two-way, and the other two were becoming equally dependent on Willow and her.

“If we ever get to leave this world, it will be very hard to leave them,” she though, “maybe Willow or Amana will be able to think of something before then.”

Buffy softly closed the door and went back to patrolling the inn and the various outbuildings, however, no one or nothing disturbed the tenants that evening and the group was able to sleep without any interruptions.

Buffy and Padrick waked Willow’s strike force in the wee hours well before dawn. Rubbing the sleep from their eyes they dressed quickly and assembled in the common room of the inn. Willow turned to the group and said quietly while trying unsuccessfully to stifle a yawn, “ok folks, time to make tracks for home. We will want to be as quiet and as quick as we can, so make for the kitchen, grab something to eat and then get out to the stable.”

Within minutes, all of Willow’s force was in the stable-yard, waiting for the tired grooms to bring out their horses. They mounted and slowly walked towards the edge of the village, not wanting to disturb anyone, or anything, else that morning. They were just about to reach the edge of the village when they saw a blood-red glow over the horizon to the south.

“That’s not the dawn,” commented Aiofe, “I mean, my geography may be bad, and I think that I’m actually still asleep, but I do know the sun rises in the east.”

As they watched the sky get redder, they noticed that steady streams of people, outlined against the sky, were fleeing towards them. It appeared that all of humanity from the surrounding area was heading in their general direction.

“This doesn’t look good,” commented Buffy quietly. “I don’t think it takes rocket science to figure out that something is driving these people this way.”

“I don’t think you’d get any bets on that something,” added Aiofe.

“You’re probably right on that one,” replied the Slayer, “now what?”

“I don’t know,” replied the arch-mage, “Daithi, ideas?”

“Let’s wait a little while,” replied the guardsman, “and see if we can get some local help.”

“I agree,” commented Grael, “this running has got to stop, but not here and not now. We do have to find somewhere that we can make secure so that we can rest up and plan any future moves. But I don’t think that we will have time to organize any local help, after all it looks like most of them are heading for the hills, not to mention the fact that we are exhausted and lack the proper resources.”

“We can’t afford to stay here,” replied Willow, “but where can we hole up? I mean this is your world, albeit very similar to ours. What about the mountains to the east?”

“I grew up around here,” replied Padrick, “and there are some small hamlets in the mountains, rough living though.”

“Not as rough as dieing is,” answered Amana, “how do we get there?”

“There’s an old trail to the east of us,” replied the young guard, “it will lead to an old logging road which will get us to where we are going.”

“Lead on then Padrick,” said Daithi, “the mages in the middle with the other guards and I in the rear to keep any demons off our tail.”

“What about the people fleeing the demons and the people in town,” asked Buffy, “can’t we stay and defend this village?”

“I wish we could,” replied Grael, “but I’m afraid that this time we are going to have to just stay out of the way.”

“But why,” asked Bridie, “we defeated over one hundred demons the other day, what’s the difference now.”

“Two things,” replied Daithi, “first, when we fought the other day the terrain was on our side, here its way too open to control the fight like we did there.”

“And second,” continued Willow, “last time there were no civilians involved and therefore both Buffy and the mages had free reign. This time we would be severely limited in what we can do, in order to limit casualties among the non-combatants.”

“I understand, intellectually,” replied Buffy, “but it still sucks.”

<Isn’t it harm by inaction to allow them to be butchered by demons?>

<Fine line, but I promise that they will pay for everything they have done to this world, and to ours.”

“Wars have always been hardest on the civilians,” responded Frankel, “but if we are to defeat the demons, we can’t afford to be trapped and killed here and now.”

“I understand,” replied the Slayer, “but don’t ever ask me to like it.”

“No-one likes the idea,” commented Amana, “but, if Willow and you don’t figure out a way to defeat the demons totally, all of humanity on this world and ultimately on yours will be lost.”

“Ok,” interjected Willow, “lets work our way slowly to the other side of town, without disturbing too many people.”

The small group walked their horses around the edge of the village, trying to insure that they made as little noise as possible. After twenty minutes of careful travel they reached the small trail that Padrick had mentioned and brought their horses from a walk to a trot, in preparation for a hard days travel.

“Let’s ride as hard as we can,” said Willow, “for as long as we can. Once we hit the foot-hills of the mountains we won’t be able to push the horses much beyond a trot.”

-----------------------------------------------

Just south of the town, Junulak, Hugh and the imp Talor, who had arrived back from briefing the demon leadership just as the army was moving out that morning, were driving their force of five hundred demons as fast as they could. The major problem that they were dealing with was the hoard of human refugees. They were causing serious delays in the ability of the army to travel, already that morning they were at least an hour behind schedule.

“Damn these humans to the seven hells,” said Junulak in total frustration, “they are keeping us from reaching that village before dawn as we had planned.”

“One good thing though,” replied Hugh, “they are also keeping the slayer and the witch from heading back to the capital, not that that would have done them any good with the siege fully in place now.”

“It’s also going to warn them about our army,” replied Talor. “Oh, well, I never thought we were going to achieve surprise anyway.”

“You certain that you informed the leadership of our problem,” asked Junulak, “I don’t want to be unfavourably surprised later.”

“Yes,” replied the imp, “for the tenth time, yes I told them. He was, as expected, stunned by the news and have authorized you to deal with the problem.” The imp thought for a moment then continued, “I think though that this is only one of our master’s problems.”

“How’s that?” asked Hugh.

“It’s just that he seemed very preoccupied when I gave him the information,” replied Talor, “almost as if he was expecting the news somehow. When I mentioned the part of the Slayer also being something called a ‘warrior-mage’ all he did was mumble, ‘looks like the Gods have decide to play dice with this little game’, whatever that means.”

At that point one of the demons who had been in the advance of the army rode up to the three leaders and reported, “lords, I have news.”

“Yes lieutenant,” replied Junulak.

“Good news. We have broken through the last of the human refugees and now have a clear path to the village.”

“Excellent,” replied Hugh, “maybe we have a chance to catch them asleep yet.”

“I’m afraid not lord,” continued the demon, “we have spotted a small group of humans on horseback riding away from the village to the north-east.”

“Curse those humans,” replied Hugh, almost spitting out each word as he said it, “they knew we were coming somehow and have escaped.”

“Not yet they haven’t,” continued Junulak, as he turned to address the lieutenant, “lieutenant, take fifty of your fastest men and give chase. I don’t care what it takes but make sure that you kill them all. I don’t want any alive, for any reason.”

“At your command,” replied the demon, as he turned his mount and rode off to the north at the gallop.

“Hugh,” continued Junulak, “you and Talor turn the focus of the army to the north-east, bypassing the village. If the force I’ve just sent after that escaping party of pesky humans fails to eliminate them, we will have to go into the mountains and dig them out, even if it means turning over every rock on the mountain one at a time.”

“We have no other choice,” agreed Hugh, “failure is not an option.”

-----------------------------------------------

Willow and her team had ridden hard all morning and had decided to break for lunch just as they were entering the foothills of the mountains. They had chosen for a picnic spot a small glade, next to a stream, so that they could also water and feed their horses.

“My butt will never be the same,” complained Willow as she walked around the clearing trying to workout the stiffness in her muscles.

“Not to mention your thighs,” added Aiofe helpfully, “if you keep riding you will eventually develop riders thighs.”

“What, in the Goddesses name are those,” asked Buffy. Buffy, in contrast to her lover, was feeling no effects of the hard morning ride.

The ‘tune-up’ that the Goddess had given her body had obviously given her the muscle conditioning of an expert rider.

“Oh,” replied Bridie, “not much. Mainly heavy duty muscles in your thighs, combined with really ugly calluses.”

“Joy! Bliss! Happiness,” replied Willow with more than a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

The four young women then joined the rest of the party eating their lunch. As they were finishing, Willow turned to Daithi and asked,

“Daithi, before we head out could you send out two of your men, maybe all three, to scout out the area and see if we have any problems?”

“Do we have the time for that,” Daithi asked. He was fully aware of the correct answer and was wondering if the pleasure he was having in seeing the development of this young woman into an intelligent and thoughtful leader was warranted, hence the posing of another little test.

“Better to spend a half-hour looking around to avoid trouble,” replied Willow, “than spending hours dealing with it later.”

“I agree,” said Daithi, pleased to have had his assumptions about Willow proven out once again. He then walked over to where his guardsmen were sitting, finishing off their lunch. Within moments the three men were heading out; one to check ahead along the trail they were planning to take, another to check the way they had come to see if they were being pursued, and the last to check the flanks to see if there was any force attempting to outflank them, in order to ambush them latter.

The remainder of the group spent their waiting time grooming their horses, and packing up the remains of their impromptu picnic. After twenty minutes they heard the thunder of hoof beats as one of the guardsmen returned. It was Seamus, who had been tasked with checking out to see if they had been followed.

As he brought his tired horse to a walk he shouted out, “we’ve got company!”

“How many, and how soon,” asked Daithi.

“Fifty or so now, and they’ll be here in the next ten minutes or so,” replied the exhausted guard, “but a lot more soon.”

“How many more, and when will they get here,” asked a suddenly very concerned Willow.

“About five-hundred,” replied Colin to a stunned group, “and they will probably get here some time tomorrow.”

“We have two options,” said the arch-mage, “stay and fight or get out of Dodge.”

“As much as it pains me to say this,” replied Buffy, “I say we get out of here.” Buffy then continued with her explanation, “this place sucks defensively, and we are all way too tired to fight properly.”

“I agree with Buffy,” continued Grael, “we need to find somewhere to hole up, to preserve our strength and to work towards a permanent solution. Its now obvious that our original plan of moving un-noticed from hell-mouth to hell-mouth isn’t going to work, and that we a going to need to think up an alternative plan.”

“That settles it then,” added Willow after a moment’s reflection, “Padrick, do you know somewhere we can lose our tail?”

“Yes lord. About half an hour from here, there is a narrow bridge over a gorge. If we can cross it, then drop it, it will give us at least a day’s lead, since the only other way across is at least a eight hour detour in each direction for a small group, for an army it would probably take days.”

“Let’s go,” said Willow as she turned to mount her horse, “we will collect the other guards as we go. Buffy, you stay back, just in case they get close.”

<Don’t worry love,> replied Buffy, <we will find a place for R&R soon.>

<I’ll always worry, it’s in my nature to worry. Besides, if you can’t worry about the one you love, whom can you worry about?>

The group quickly remounted and headed up the trail towards their destination.

Within the half-hour Frankel and Willow exited the woods they were travelling through and entered a small clearing which was in front of the small bridge heading over the gorge. They were leading the majority of the group by some five minutes or so and paused at the edge of the bridge listening for the remainder of their band coming up the trail; in the distance they could hear the sounds of battle from back along the trail.

“Sounds like they are getting close,” commented Frankel.

“That it does, and it looks like they have company with them,” replied Willow who then turned to look at the bridge. It was a meter wide bridge spanning the ten-meter wide gorge. It had narrow wooden planks, set close together, but with gaps visible between them. There were only rope railings and spindles. The entire also structure dipped ominously in the middle. “This bridge only looks sturdy enough for one person at a time, and then not on horseback, so why don’t you head across and set up on the other side.”

“No problem,” replied the senior sage, “see you on the other side.”

Over the next few minutes, Willow watched as more of her strike force came up to the bridgehead and crossed over to the far side. First Amana and Aiofe, followed by Bridie and the guard Seamus. Finally, Grael, Daithi, Padrick and David approached the bridgehead, casting worried glances behind them.

“Where’s Buffy?” she asked worriedly, “what has happened to her?”

“She’s ok Willow,” replied Grael, “her ‘gift’ kicked into action about five minutes ago and she is holding the remaining demons back while we cross.”

“Alright,” continued Willow, still very worried about her lover, “the rest of you get across, I’ll wait for Buffy.”

“I can’t allow that,” replied Grael, “you are too important to us, I’ll stay.”

Reluctantly Willow agreed with Grael and proceeded to follow the rest of the party across the river. When she arrived on the far side she turned to Daithi and said, “Daithi, get ready to drop the bridge as soon as the others cross I don’t think we’ll have all that much time.”

<Lover, how are you doing?>

<Point. How much longer?>

After her brief, mental, conversation with Buffy Willow looked over the gorge and yelled, “Grael, wait for Buffy’s horse, then get across pronto.”

Just as she was saying this Buffy’s horse appeared at the edge of the small clearing before the bridge, heading directly for Grael.

“No problem,” replied Grael, “her horse is here, and I’m coming across now.”

Just as Grael reached the end of the bridge Buffy burst from the edge of the woods. She was covered in blood and gore and was breathing heavily from the effort of running for space, then turning to fight, then running again. As she approached the bridge four demons came out of the woods heading right for her.

Buffy turned to protect the bridge and called out to Willow, <drop the bridge, now.>

<Are you NUTS???> replied the Arch-Mage, <How will you get across?>

<Don’t worry. I’ll get across as soon as I deal with these four. The problem is that there are thirty more of them coming, and soon.>

Just then, Buffy turned and slashed violently at the lead demon, who just barely jumped back. Although he had avoided the killing slash, Buffy had still managed to inflict a deep gouge across his chest, which immediately began to bleed profusely. Ignoring that demon for the moment, she leapt to the right and delivered a roundhouse two-handed swing to her second foe, which resulted in the demon trying to stand on one blue leg while the other twitched on the ground. “two down,” she thought to herself, and spun to meet the remaining two demons.

The other demons, both of whom were in excess of two meters and each weighing over three hundred kilos, having seen what had happened to their comrades, decided that staying and fighting was not a survivable option. Since the Slayer was by that point blocking their retreat to the path, and the remainder of their force, they made a break for the bridge. The bridge had not been built to handle that much weight running across it at one time and as the demons reached the middle of the span, it collapsed spilling the demons into the river, two hundred meters bellow.

“That just does it,” yelled Willow as she watched the bridge collapse, trapping her lover on the other side. Meanwhile, she noticed that at the edge of the clearing the remaining demons were just leaving the woods, heading for Buffy.

<Buffy, the rest of them are here. What are you going to do?>

<Watch,> replied the Slayer as she quickly surveyed the edge of the gorge and then placed her sword against her chest, which resulted in its being reabsorbed into her skin.

She took about ten steps back, and with a brief “Goddess aid me now,” ran to the edge of the cliff and jumped.

I took a walk in the rain one day on the wrong side of the tracks

I stood on the rails till I saw that train

Just to see how my heart would react

Now some people say that you shouldn’t tempt fate

And for them I would not disagree

But I never learned nothing from playing it safe

I say fate should not tempt me

I take my chances, I don’t mind working without a net

I take my chances, I take my chances every chance I get

I Take My Chances

Mary-Chapin Carpenter, Come On Come On

Continued in Chapter IX

Return to Buffy’s Stories

Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior) By Kevin Beckett

Chapter VIII - Omnia Vincit Amor, et Nos Cedamus Amori

Militat Omnis Amans (Every Lover is a Warrior)
By Kevin Beckett