Go after the raiders

A dozen large, heavy minotaurs and almost twice as many prisoners don’t make for a small or subtle trail and it was easy enough for Venus to find their trail and just as easy to follow the raiders footprints northward, away from the battered village and higher up into the mountains. Soon enough the trail of footprints the huntress was following joined a well worn footpath winding its way ever deeper into the mountains.

The valley was long and narrow, and it had both risen steeply and grown ever narrower with every step Venus took as she had headed steadily northwards, following the path of the kidnapped villagers. The huntress had taken shelter in the hollow beneath one of the boulders shaken loose from the cliffs in a rock slide long ago; she was staring at the far end of the valley, thinking furiously.

The path there was narrow, barely two dozen feet across and high stone cliffs rose up on either side; just to the left of the ravine mouth was a stone watchtower. Constructed of battered, dark grey stone and standing nearly thirty feet tall it lent a commanding view of the valley below to anyone inside. Leaning on the parapets high above the valley floor were a pair of Minotaur’s; the huntress could vaguely make out the dark mouthed entrance to some kind of cave or perhaps the entry to a mine of some kind, perhaps a hundred paces past the stone watch tower.

Venus’s eyes narrowed thoughtfully as she stared up at the tower, from her position she was hidden from their view and while she had been watching for nearly an hour and she was certain now that the two minotaurs atop the parapets were either the only ones awake or perhaps even the only ones there. The problem was that she had not been able to devise a route that would get her past the watchtower without the Minotaur’s in the tower seeing her long before she got close enough to use her sword.

Maybe the solution is to let them see me, instead of trying to hide

A smile quickly began to grow on the huntress’s lips as the rudiments of an idea took shape in her head, it was risky and had a good chance for failure but she could not think of another plan that offered even this slim chance. The Minotaur’s had built their watchtower at the perfect spot and it gave those within a near perfect view of the valley; it had been nothing more than luck that the fallen boulder offered even this much protection from their eyes.

Keeping her eyes on the tower for as long as she could Venus slowly slid backwards out from under the massive boulder and climbed to her feet. She brushed as much of the dull grey dust from her clothes as she could and undid the topmost button of her too small shirt, revealing most of her breasts and slid the leather pants Mary had given her a little lower on her hips, leaving a narrow strip of creamy flesh visible between the white shirt and the tight, black pants.

She pinched each of her cheeks roughly between her fingers, bringing a rosy glow to them and held her sword out at arm’s length, in a manner that was much more like that of a housewife disposing of a dead rat than the sure, confident grip of an experienced Shadow Hunter. After slipping a dagger into the small of her back and licking her lips nervously Venus stepped from behind her boulder and scurried for a piece of cover she had already dismissed, knowing that the much smaller stone slab offered insufficient cover and would let the minotaurs in the tower spy her without any trouble. Let’s hope this works she thought as she ran.

Watchtower duty was boring, his first hour had been enough to convince Rorge of this and he had been given a week of this horrible job as part of his punishment. He was staring moodily down into the valley, idly daydreaming about his last raid when he spied a glimpse of movement, head snapping downwards he spotted the movement again, this time however he was able to identify its source. Even as he watched, far below, a long haired human was approaching the tower; darting from one rock to another in what they must have thought was quite a stealthy approach.

“Kaz” he rumbled softly, catching the attention of the second Minotaur atop the tower “Kaz, look at this fool human approaching”. The human had drawn close enough for Rorge to make out more details, A woman he noted, his eyes widening appreciatively as he spied her long, slender legs, showcased so well by the tight leather pants she wore and the way her large breasts, barely hidden by the half buttoned white shirt she wore bounced as she darted from one piece of ineffectual cover to another.

“She has a sword” Kaz muttered cautiously from beside him.

Rorge snorted dismissively as he heard the cowardice in the other Minotaur’s words; he had already noticed the human’s blade and dismissed it; it was clear enough from her lack of stealth she was no assassin and the awkward way the woman was holding the blade was enough to convince him that she knew nothing of battle or the way of the sword.

“We should sound the horn” Kaz said from beside him, meaning the large rams horn in the corner of the tower, meant to alert the rest of the Minotaur’s of the approach of enemy forces.

“Don’t be a fool, the horn is for real threats” he snorted, holding up his hand to dismiss the black furred Minotaur’s words “We will just go down and capture her when she nears the tower. It will be easy, we are Minotaur’s while she is only a human and a female at that” with that Rorge turned away from the smaller Minotaur and headed down the wide, spiral staircase to the bottom of the watch tower, he could hear Kaz a few steps behind him. Reaching the bottom, he stood impatiently in the shadows as the female approached, his eyes glittered cruelly as he took in the look of barely suppressed fear on her beautiful face and the awkward way she held the sword, this will be over soon enough he thought with an inward smirk.

Although Venus’s face showed only a mask of nerves and barely hidden anxiousness, on the inside she grinned fiercely as she spied the silhouettes of the two Minotaur’s vanish from their places atop the tower. She eyed the narrow mouth of the ravine and the entryway of the nearby tower and suspected that was where the duo would launch their ambush on the huntress. Venus slowed to a quick walk and tried to keep the false look of barely hidden fear pasted on her face as she approached the tower.

Sure enough, as soon as she was within a dozen steps of the doorway a pair of hulking Minotaur warriors burst out from inside of the tower. One was a mottled, pale tan-brown colour and clutched a battered steel shield in one hand and a massive axe in the other; the second warrior was a little smaller than the first but was much darker in colour and was carrying a wicked looking, curved two handed sword in its massive hands.

The larger one leered as he took a few steps towards her and spoke in a deep, rumbling baritone “Drop the sword girlie, drop it now and we won’t hurt you...as much.” Venus barely kept herself from spoiling everything with a contemptuous eye roll when she heard the Minotaur’s melodramatic words. “Don’t come near me you monster” she spat, waving the sword wildly “You took my sister!” Venus snapped; her voice shaking now and she thrashed the blade about as she took a step forward; smiling inwardly at the way the two bull men smirked at one another.

As the bigger one took another step forwards, Venus wildly waved the sword about again with her right hand and with her left seized and threw the dagger she had hidden at the small of her back earlier. The blade glimmered in the sunlight as it spun through the air, lodging in the thick neck of the black furred Minotaur; a heartbeat after she threw the blade Venus darted forward and to the side, spinning around the bull man’s heavy shield and sinking her blade deep into the brown furred Minotaur’s chest.

Rorge could not believe how fast the situation had changed; he had been about to capture a silly human female and relieve some of the boredom of guard duty before turning her over to the **** masters. One moment she had been waving the sword about wildly and the very next moment the damn woman was a blur of motion, running forward and stabbing him in the stomach before he could even react to the change. He instinctively struck at the human woman with his heavy shield, but the angle was poor and his arms were strangely weak and the blow did little more than stagger her

“Kaz” he gasped, feeling blood spraying from his mouth as he spoke “Kaz, help me” but from the other minotaur there was only a ragged burbling noise, looking over Rorge saw the hilt of a dagger protruding from Kaz’s thick neck as the black furred Minotaur slowly sagged to his knees and fell forward to the rocky ground.

“Bitch” he gasped weakly, meeting the cold eyes of the buxom human female for a moment before everything went dark.

Venus panted for breath as the second Minotaur fell to the ground, the plan had been risky but her gamble had paid off; the two Minotaur’s had believed her to be nothing more than a foolish village girl and had not summoned reinforcements or alerted anyone to her presence. Venus didn’t bother taking either of the Minotaur’s weapons, the blades were sized for their owners and were far too heavy; she took a quick moment to wipe her two blades clean and sheathed them before proceeding deeper into the narrow ravine, heading for the shadowy cave mouth at its end.