Victory

 Only a total fool would willingly stand in the path of a furious Minotaur charging right at you, Venus knew that and so she did the unexpected, she ran forward and just outside of her enemies reach she dropped to her left hip in a graceless slide; the ground was slick with mud and the unexpected slide carried the huntress past the charging Minotaur, climbing to her feet Venus whipped around and lunged forward, her outstretched blade sinking deep into the side of the turning Minotaur.  A low groan of pain came from the bull man as it slowly sagged to its knees, after cutting its neck in a single economical slice Venus coldly turned away from the dying beast man.

    When she had turned around she saw that the street behind her was now full of villagers, the mostly female crowd were wide eyed with awe and astonishment at seeing such a beautiful young woman kill a trio of Minotaur warriors with such speed and obvious skill, at least most of the villagers were looking at her like that, every male face in the crowd and a few of the women’s had a smoldering lust painted across it.  

    Venus was quite confused at the crowd’s reaction until she looked down at herself; that slide through the muck had left most of her body coated in a thin layer of slick mud, the way the mud had plastered the dress to her body made it clear that the curvaceous young woman was wearing nothing at all beneath it.  Her face scarlet with embarrassment Venus spun away from the villagers and marched into the darkness, sword at the ready and trying hard to ignore the way the mud caked dress clung to her shapely bottom.    

   Although she made a thorough sweep of the small town, the young huntress did not find more of the Minotaur raiders; the rest of the party must have left while she was battling the three in the village, indeed at the road leading north from town she came across the tracks of a large party, the hoof prints of a dozen Minotaur warriors were mixed freely with a number of humanoid footprints.  Venus judged the number of human prisoners at around 20 and by the size of the footprints most if not all of the prisoners were women, her heart was heavy as she studied them, and her mind kept returning to the young woman she had found being taken by the raiders right there in the street.

   Though she longed to go after the prisoners immediately, Venus knew that a wise huntress learned as much of her prey as she could, returning to the center of the village, Venus approached one of the women with her questions.  The middle-aged woman told her that the Minotaur’s came every few years, not just to this village but to every village within two dozen leagues.  The woman claimed the beasts made their lair somewhere in the mountains to the north of town though no one who had ever tried to free those taken by them had ever returned.   Inquiries about lodgings were met with bitter laughter; gesturing at the smoldering wreckage behind her she said “An inn? This town only had the one and you can see it’s gone, girl” a smile flickers across her face “but for what you’ve done here you can stay with me tonight”

   Once the pair were back at her cottage the older woman, who called herself Mary, shoved an armful of men’s clothing into Venus’s arms, “these clothes belonged to my younger brother once, his wife was taken once and he never came back from trying to save her” a smirk crossed her face as she gestured at the mud caked dress clinging to the huntress’s curves “You certainly can’t hunt dressed like that, not unless you are hunting for a night with a man!” snorting at her own joke she started ladling out bowls of what looked and smelled like stew, from the cauldron dangling over the fireplace.

   Not noticing the way Mary’s eyes lingered on her as she did so, Venus quickly stripped off the mud-stained dress and pulled on her new clothes; the village woman’s brother must have been quite a small man as the pants were nearly skin tight on the huntress and she was not able to do up the last three buttons on the shirt, leaving a considerable expanse of her cleavage visible.  Settling into one of the wooden chairs Venus hungrily devoured the tasty bowl of stew, it had been a long day of travelling and she was famished.

   Once finished her stew Venus leaned back in her chair, stretching her long legs out towards the fire, she was enjoying the feeling of a warm fire and full belly, a huntress often went without one or both as their work took them to strange locales in their pursuit of even stranger creatures.  Mary settled into the chair beside the younger woman, as the firelight flickered over her face Venus noticed again just how pretty the other woman was, she was surprised the other woman lived alone.  

   “Are you not married Mary?” Venus noticed the way an odd look flickered across the other woman’s face and the slight hesitation before she spoke “No, No I am not married.  I am barren you see, and since I never wanted to marry any man, I mean any one in the village...” for a moment her eyes met those of the huntress and then that odd look flickered across her face again and she looked away, her voice trailing off abruptly.  

   Not wishing to embarrass her host, the huntress quickly switched topics and began asking only about inconsequential things, the conversation quickly smooth’s out and she chatted over tea with Mary for some time.  Finally draining the last of her tea Venus stood and crossed the cabin to the wide bed Mary had prepared for her earlier. Stripping off her clothes, Venus slid between the cool sheets and pinched out the candle beside her.  From across the room came Mary’s voice, quivering slightly. 

“Venus, are you sure you will be warm enough tonight?”