The first tiny problem

Riolta moved her head to take in the dreary, nearly lifeless landscape as she sat on the coach box of the wagon which the duchess had supplied the party with. Sitting next to her was Raya, who held the reins, and behind her under the protective cover of the mounted canvas were their possessions. Apart from the wagon and two horses, the duchess had also supplied the group with a large collection of potions and concoctions and a female member of her guard, who was riding ahead of the wagon and acting as their guide.

The guardswoman, who answered to the name of Aysha, looked to be a native of the area, with her richly tanned skin and shimmering black hair, and was built much to Riolta’s liking; a statuesque and discretely muscled frame with generous curves and an equally generous chest topped by a face which was dominated by her sultry lips and clear, radiant blue eyes. The group’s third brunette was clad in a tight top made from thin white cloth which was wrapped around her chest, leaving her stomach and shoulders exposed to the sun and her huge breasts straining against the almost-sheer top, a pair of riding boots which went up to her thighs and which served to protect her long, toned legs, and a tiny thong which matched her top.

Sitting in the saddle of her steed, Aysha made an impressive figure to Riolta’s mind, particularly thanks to the pair of curved swords which were strapped to her back, their handles pointing upwards for her to draw them with ease if the situation required it.

Unlike Riolta, who wore a turban to protect her from the sun, and Raya, who was equipped with a turban and a light veil to cover her face, Aysha was quite used to being out in the scorching sun and thus had nothing on her head, leaving her dark hair free to gleam in the intense light of the cloudless, windless day.

“I don’t like this,” Riolta told Raya, being clad in an outfit similar to Aysha’s.

“Oh, what could possibly go wrong?” Raya responded, just as a handful of riders appeared beyond the bend up ahead.

Mounted on horses, the riders were all male and all clad in scruffy, loose garbs and were armed either with swords and shields or with spears.

And they weren’t alone either, with others suddenly materializing from amongst the craggy hills not far from the road, with even more showing up on the road behind the wagon to cut off the three women’s only route of retreat.

“Great, here we go…” Riolta muttered as she lifted up her bow and placed an arrow against its string, waiting as the riders charged towards them from all sides, apparently counting on their numbers and implied ferocity to serve as a message to the amply outnumbered women that resistance was futile.

Her lips forming into a thin smile, Riolta showed no sign of recognizing just how outnumbered her little band was as she aimed her weapon carefully and then released the arrow to go flying towards her chosen target.

The man whom she had chosen as a target would forever consider himself a very lucky man on account of what happened next, not knowing that Riolta had intended from the get go to pierce through the top of his turban with the arrow, rather than his throat.

“Riolta, cease your resistance at once!” Raya suddenly called out, and Riolta played her part by casting a scorching glare at the multitude of rough men which came charging in to surround the wagon, galloping around it and waving their weapons in the air while she lowered her bow.

“Good,” the apparent leader of the men remarked as he steered his mount closer to the wagon, “a woman who knows that **** is a man’s business.”

This remark resulted in a symphony of laughter from the other bandits, and Riolta felt the sudden urge to pick up her bow again and show them how wrong their leader was.

The bandits, which numbered roughly a dozen, although Riolta wouldn’t discount the possibility that more of them laid hidden amongst the hills surrounding the road, were as has been previously noted, armed with curved swords or spears and dressed for comfort rather than style.

As for the leader, Riolta thought at first that his face had a lupine quality about it, but quickly changed her opinion, no doubt influenced by her scorn for the man, to that of viewing him as resembling a hyena. Clad in weathered clothes and bearded just like his, this bandit-leader was armed with a very fine blade, a curved sword which seemed much too well-made for a simple highwayman to have gotten hold of, even if he was in the business of robbing travellers of one of the busiest roads in the area, one which connected Qir to all the cities and lands which laid to the east of it.

“This is dangerous country, much too dangerous for three women to travel through alone,” the leader went on as Aysha threw her swords to the ground, where they were quickly picked up by one of the bandits, “but we will escort you the rest of the way.”

“How kind of you…” Raya responded, her voice reflecting her scepticism.

“Yes, very…” the leader replied, appearing to ignore her sarcasm before looking first at Riolta and then at Aysha, making no attempt to hide the lust with which he looked at them, “but perhaps you can repay us for it by letting us see if you are as pretty as your two friends?”

Sporting a confident smile, Raya stood up on the coachbox and began to strip out of her clothes, with all of the bandits eyeing her, waiting for her to get out of her pale, thin robes so that they would be able to see if she was as voluptuously shaped as her two friends.

The bandits were impressed as Raya dropped her veil, each and every one of them gawking at her face, the fact that she had had it hidden away under the thin piece of fabric making her more interesting than her two friends, but they were downright flabbergasted when she undid the straps at the front of her robes and allowed the garment to fall down and reveal the fact that she was wearing nothing beneath it.

Sitting next to Raya as she stood on the coachbox and stripped out of her clothes, Riolta had to admit that the sorceress did have a keen sense for the dramatic, and it was very evident to her upon looking at the bandits that they were rather smitten by the sight of Raya’s nude body, with several of them being near the point of drooling as they ogled the size and shape of her huge, round tits and the way in which her toned stomach led down to her slit, which was gleaming in the sunlight as a testament to how much she enjoyed taking her clothes off in front of an audience.

If any of the bandits had any questions about what the busty threesome was doing out there on their own, they were too taken by Raya to mention them.

“Right, time we got a move on.” Ojo said, as he pushed the spyglass together. He, Ojo and Tanya had been positioned on one of the cliffs overlooking the area where their three comrades had allowed themselves to be captured, with the sun in their backs to avoid any reflections off the spyglass. It had been Tanya that had pegged the spot below as the one where the bandits would strike, reasoning that it was the most ideal location for an ambush.

Like Tanya, Ojo and Vaino were clad in loose-fitting clothes which were coloured to reflect the arid environment, allowing them to be almost invisible as long as they remained still.

“You’re sure that you can track them?” Vaino asked Tanya as they watched the bandits disappear in amongst the hills on the other side of the road, taking the women and the wagon with them.

Tanya nodded her head, and the three of them got up on their feet and headed down to their horses.