Sharon and I waved down to the ship below, the bright sun shimmering off the peaceful rippling waters of the cove. My right arm just above the wrist still stinging a bit where Janis Jord, the Princess of Dularn, had burned into it the mark of the Warrioress. Doctor Lorraine Marie Duval was now officially a Dularnian warrior woman serving her royal Princess. The day before, the day when we had watched Sarnian Lady sail so close by, nearly discovering us, Janis and I had spoken of much. The Princess confiding in me many things, private things that I will keep to myself, for they have no bearing on this story as such and were very personal parts of her life that I am sure neither she or her mother would care to have told even now after her tragic death, her mother following her in death some six months later...
Clad in the remains of my once beautiful clinging black silk dress and a brown leather kilt, wearing the late captain's ornate sword and a keen fighting dagger with a blade nearly a foot long, I looked much the part of a "Warrioress". A bow and a quiver of arrows were slung over my shoulder should I come across "game", although I feared that my hunting skills with such weapons might leave a bit to be desired, considering that I had never actually hunted with such weapons back in the 20th Century, preferring a rifle which I felt made a more humane kill than what arrows did!
Sharon was wearing the mini-skirt and halter outfit that she had made from the remains of her own clothing. The skirt showed a bit more of her thighs than what I felt really proper, although no one else seemed to think there was anything else wrong with her attire. It being the current "style" for girls Sharon's age to wear their skirts quite short, much like the '60's of my own era. The thought going through my mind as I regarded her that she was no longer the demure little girl that she had once been before all this had happened to us. A long slim dagger at her hip spoke of things I preferred not to think about. This was not a "safe" age! On the other hand you weren't very likely to come up against some doped up creep ready to blow out your brains at the slightest chance. In many respects the 26th Century is "safer" for young girls than was the 20th even with the reinstitution of slavery. Usually at least here they don't rape and then kill!
Seeing an answering wave from the woman on watch below, we set out on our journey of exploration. A feeling of excitement going over me as my boots trod the rocky trail leading up from the little cove in which the Ronda was hidden. Then we emerged out onto the top of the rise, and before us I saw the woods. A faint trail running through it marking the remains of what once must have been a concrete highway, now almost completely overgrown. It was then I fully realized the centuries that had passed, the years one after another that had passed us by. There was little trace of what Man had once achieved. Sharon silent at my side, her hand on her dagger. Moving close to me as if to be protected from something unseen, unsensed that lurked in the dark woods before us. A forest so dense that the light from the sun hardly reached the ground, only dancing spots of light telling of the bright sun now overhead in the azure vault of the sky above!
"Lorraine, maybe we'd better go `back' to the ship," Sharon said to me as we stood there looking into the forest. A sense of foreboding going through me as my eyes sough to penetrate its hidden mysteries. Then I recalled the Codes of my Caste, and with a mental effort, threw off the terrors that had preyed at me, my hand seeking the hilt of my sword. Its solid hardness a comfort just then as my vivid imagination populated the darkness of the forest with mutated horrors waiting to spring out at us...
"I'm sure there's nothing to be afraid of," I answered. Slipping my arm around her slender bare waist, her azure eyes meeting mine, thankful still for my weapons. Janis having told me much of what the animal life was now like thanks to The War. The "Dire Wolf" being a good example, the animal almost as large as a small pony, and in packs, perhaps one of the most dangerous forms of life that ever lived! Capable of even pulling down the "Garth", a strange reptile like mutation that appeared to be somewhat like a not quite so miniature copy of the great meat- eating dinosaurs of millions of years ago! The thing standing a good ten feet tall! Then there was the "Tigon", a saber-tooth tiger like those that prowled the Earth thousands of years ago!
Taking Sharon's hand in mine, we entered the woods, my stepdaughter looking nervously about in the shadows as we passed into the shadowed glades. Perhaps thinking of all the tales that the Princess had told her about the strange beasts of this era and the even more frightening half-mythical humanoid mutants that were said to still prowl the deserted and abandoned parts of the world! Janis having spoken of that which was "hu" and that which was "mu", the second form of life being as "alien" as the Lorr!
We followed the remains of the highway, the tall trees towering up around us, the leaves rustling gently in the breeze. I thought it peaceful and quiet, there seeming something very familiar about the area, as if I had been here before! Centuries ago! I wondered if there would be anything still left of their home! Or was it now only inhabited by strange horrid monsters?
The day before, the day of "Sarnian Lady" and Empress Darlanis as I still thought of it, Janis and I had spoken much of my future in this, the 26th Century. Or the "Sixth Century After The War" as she thought of it. Time now being measured from The War of 2047. She had also discussed with me the requirements for becoming a member of the Warrioress Caste, explaining to me the Caste Codes. The Codes remind me much of that by which I have always tried to live. "Standards" which have made me what I am. Standards by which I have attempted to raise Sharon, perhaps with some success. I am in any case very proud of the young woman she has become. She is no longer "mine", but yet in my heart there will never be another just like her even if someday I have children of my own as Jon and I hope once things get "settled" down and Darlanis stops dreaming of what "was" and never again can be.
Being a Warrioress is not merely a matter of knowing weapons, for that is but a "muscle skill" that anyone, given good co-ordination and time, can develop, but more a matter of moral attitudes, viewpoints, and understandings that in most cases require years of study to develop and bring into use. Values that bring out the finest in a woman and make her more than just a female of the human race. I am proud to be of the Warrioresses.
I am reminded here of a correspondence I once carried on with a famous 20th Century author of fantasy stories who steadfastly maintained that no woman, no matter how skillful, would be the match of a good swordsman in battle. It was his belief that superior strength would always win out in the end despite the woman's skill. I tried to explain to him without much success that swordsmanship is more a matter of agility than sheer muscle power. Granted, the Warrioress who goes up against some fur-clad 6'3" "Northman" swinging a heavy longsword with a blade a yard long is going to have to be quick on her feet if she's going to survive, but I know a number who've done it and are still here to tell of it! Muscle isn't the determining factor when it comes to swordsmanship. Skill still plays a very large role in it. I know of what I speak, having been in such situations several times where I faced men stronger than me, but much less skillful.
We had walked perhaps half a mile through the woods when Sharon glanced back behind us, perhaps hearing or sensing something. Jumping nervously and jerking at my arm as she saw a shadowed something move into the brush a hundred feet behind us. "Lorraine!" she cried, clinging to me in terror. But by the time I looked, it was gone, Sharon telling me that it had looked like a gigantic wolf! I felt a cold chill go down my back as I recalled what Janis had said about the animal life here in the 26th Century, The War and its attendant strange radioactivity having mutated many forms of life into nightmarish monsters never before seen by the eye of any modern man except in some fantasy films!
"I wish you had your rifle instead of that bow," Sharon said as I slipped the bow off my shoulder and notched an arrow on the string. My skill at archery being considerably inferior to my skill with a sword. I would have much preferred my 300 Weatherby Magnum, but I thought the bow would do if needed. It was a good weapon drawing about fifty five pounds. Made of yew and osage orange laminated on an ash stock, and perhaps about five and a half feet in length. I thought it at least equal to my .380 pistol so far as effectiveness was concerned. Most Warrioresses could not have used such a bow with any degree of effectiveness, but I am not like most women. My physical strength, as I have mentioned, being quite unusual for a woman of any era. I can draw bows up to sixty five pounds, but my accuracy suffers badly at anything much over fifty five using the simple bows of this era. Darlanis' 75# compound, while difficult for me, is "usable".
"Perhaps we'd better go back to the ship," Sharon suggested, the concern showing in her voice. Her description matching that of a "dire wolf", a mutated wolf standing nearly four feet at the shoulder and weighing over four hundred pounds. I had no desire to face such a creature, but on the other hand, I had no wish to be chased back to the ship by something only glimpsed in the shadows by an overly imaginative teenage girl! Cowardice is not permitted a Warrioress. It is in the "Codes" that she lives by.
"You need a more effective weapon than that dagger," I answered, regarding her with a smile that I admit now was a bit forced. Prepared myself to face whatever laid in wait for us. Knowing that she who wears the black of the Warrioress may know fear, but must never allow herself to submit to it. Using my sword, I swiftly cut her a spear about five and a half feet long. Letting her sharpen it with her dagger. Forcing from my mind the vision of facing such a creature as Janis had described to me. Knowing in my heart that facing such a monster armed as we were would not be a simple matter, but yet Stone Age men with inferior weapons to ours had faced and overcome such monsters, or otherwise we would not have existed had Man not been victorious over such creatures and lived to transmit his genes down to us now!
Yet, I had little doubt that Sharon and I could deal with the "dire wolf" if such showed itself, having considerable confidence in my own fighting skills, confidence being a good part of being a successful fighter, for the coward is defeated before he even starts to fight. I knew that Sharon's courage would be adequate from our past battle there on the Ronda when we had fought for our lives and the right to live as free women, and her crude spear would be an effective weapon against such a beast. Especially when backed up by my sword and the skill of my hand. I had hunted "big game" before, but never with such primitive weapons as these. It would be an interesting challenge, I mused with a smile to myself, my heart now beating with a Warrioress' excitement as I thought of what such a battle might be like!
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