Young Paladin Chapter 1

The party was hiring, very reluctantly but it was hiring. A small group of adventurers who thought that they could raid the dungeons on their own, using skill and guile instead of brute force. Unfortunately for them, when they got deeper into the dungeons they found that while skill and guile got them past the traps and some of the guardian monsters, when it failed they didn't have the muscle to fill in the gaps of their party.

Originally the party was formed by three friends, driven together by various circumstances. Three females, two elves and a human formed the party to show the world that yes the girls could make it on their own. The first was a priestess of Seris, not one of the warrior gods or goddesses, but the mother and fertility goddess. The elfess was tall, lithe but still fairly well built, a life of adventuring does that to one's body. It was a good thing she decided not to wear her formal robes for this morning's chores, instead she wore chaste, generic robes in white. Her green hair was brough back into a single braid down her back, hidden by the robes for the most part.

The second elf could almost be called the sister of the first. She was also fairly tall, and with the same figure as the first. But instead of robes of white, this one wore mage's robes of blue. Her hair was a startling shade of red. Not the orange of most red heads, but the red of flame. Her skin was also not the fair skin of normal red heads, but a deeper, almost golden tan appearance. Her robes rain from neck to toe, bound at the waist by her spell component pouce.

The most out going member of the party was the human female. About 24 summers old, but her eyes had the look of someone at least a decade older. She was a bit shorter then the elves, her build also seemed to be lighter, much more of an acrobatic build, slight and flexible. Also unlike the elven females, she had brown hair, and a pretty face, but for the most part it was unrememberable. Her body was trim like the other two, but if she wasn't dressed out in her tight leather armour like she was now, she'd get lost in the crowd.

The three girls had hoped to attract another girl to their adventuring group but the warrior women didn't want to be associated with them. Not only was the group new, they didn't have a contract outside of the occasional dungeon diving, and they couldn't command the prices that the warrior women were going for today. So the group opened up their search to more. But so far all the warriors who came to their table were interested more in the three ladies as bed mates, then as adventurer compainions.

It was nearing the end of the hiring fair and so far they had rejected 50 different candidates. The rejects were so viament that they scared off even more potential warriors from approaching them. Only one was left. The man approached wearing his standard adventuring armor. A mail shirt that hung loosely at the back, down to his wrists where the mail covered the back of his hands, held by a string around his two middle fingers. A pair of gauntlets tucked into his belt. The mail shirt continued down to his knees, split up the front and back to his waist.

A pair of pants made of more mail covered his legs, the ends tucked into a pair of rough leather riding boots. The armour made of rings definetely had this warrior protected. But adding to that protection was a mail coif that gathered around his neck presently, kept out of the way by the hood of the padded under garnments that was also pulled off his head. Ontop of the mail shirt the warrior wore a brest plate that buckled over his shoulders to a matching plate along his back. This plate armor wasn't a full plate like more expensive suits but instead segmented plates that were bound together by leather thong, over lapping, but still flexible.

A long sword was sheathed to his belt, a chain hanging from the end of the scabbard to his belt to keep it properly in line so that it wouldn't cause him any hinderance. A large steel shield, not quite a tower shield was strapped to his left arm, bearing a simple coat of arms, one that no noble would wear. The coat of arms was a painting of the sun, with a pair of swords crossing underneath. The warror also wore a tabbard over his armor that came down to his knees, made of white linen, so white it either had to be new, or well cleaned, that bore the same coat of arms.

The man was not so impressive as his armour. He looked to be about 20 years old, younger then the three women by a good amount, but he had that handsom look of an almost naive knight. The innocence he displayed matched his age. But despite the youth ful appearance, the man carried himself like he knew his weapons, standing several inches over six feet all, a good half head over the men in the area, and a fair bit more then the three adventurers.

The first to talk was the rouge, Tarra, “What do you want?” She asked, her frustrations showing in her manner as the warrior stood there before the table the three had.

Slightly taken a back by the rude start of the conversation, the man fumbled a bit with his words, trying to find a graceful way of saying, “Greetings.” His voice started, almost a tremble in it as he tried to get his footing again, “I heard that the fair here, was a good place to sign up to an adventuring group.” He started, swallowing a bit, to get moisture back into his mouth. “And I see that you are looking for someone who can swing a sword.”

His humble approach, took the rogue back, but the priestess picked up the conversation. She leaned forward, reading the coat of arms and the youthful look, “And let me guess, you're here to get hired on.” She says, “Don't Naluk's knights have something better to do with their apprentices then send them here?”

The other two gasped and looked at Veaquila, the priestess with a bit of surprise. The man looked a little embarassed as he stood there, the elfess's green eyes boring into his brown ones, he didn't seem to want to make eye contact with her. “Well... um... you see...” He starts out, “The priest have not received a quest vision when I fufilled the rights. I was told to come to the hiring fair to hire on, and hopefully after a year I would be worthy.”

The magic user sat back and looked at the other two members of the adventuring party. “Vaeq, what are you two talking about.” She said testily, being a magic user, she liked to know what was going on, and didn't like it when there was something she didn't know about.

Veaq leaned back against one of the chairs she had appropriated, a smile gracing her lips, “Jaqui there are some things your arcane studies just having covered have they.” She said with a curl of her lips, “This young fellow here is a paladin of Naluk. Or will be when he completes his quest, isn't that right Sir...?” She asked the young man.

“Ivan. I don't rate a sir yet milady.” He said simply.

“Alright then – Ivan.” She said, her smile still on her lips, turning towards the other two on her side of the table. “Going from the coat of arms he wears, he's fairly skilled, earning two swords before his apprenticeship is over is a feat rarely done. All have earned one sword to become a paladin, and most earn a second sword after they've been knighted for at least five years. Isn't that right young Ivan.”

The young man flushed, there wasn't anything he could do about that. “That's correct.” He said, “But I don't know...” He said with a bit of a pause, “My size might have had something to do with it.”

“Maybe you're right.” The priestess continued. “But I have never heard of the weapons masters letting that determine the rankings of swords. And you seem to have a doubly hard quest infront of you, if I remember my heritical religion studies, the unquested paladin's have to earn their next sword to become full paladins.”

The young man nodded for a moment, and then his face clouded, “Hey!” He said as he finally figured out what she said, “We are not a heritical religion. Who do you worship?” He demanded as he looked as if to take a step forward.

“Why Seris of course.” She said with an innocent smile.

“In what aspect?” Ivan asked, feeling a bit more unsure of himself.

“That's none of your business.” Veaq replied coolly to the knight before her.

The knight kept his quiet and stood there looking the three over. “Are you hiring, or not?” He asked.

“That depends Ivan.” The thief spoke up, “Just how good are you, and why do you want to join our group. Surely there are other groups you could join.”

Ivan couldn't help but to flush again, feeling a bit heated. “Well that's true, but none of them wanted to run with a two sword apprentice, they're afraid that I'll get myself killed trying to earn my third sword.” He explained.

The three had a look at him, “Well we would be worred about that as well.” The priestess said, “But I have a feeling that you wouldn't do that.” She continued, and then looked at her partners, “I'll tell you what, why don't you let us discuss this and we'll decide.”

Ivan only nodded his head at that, “As you wish milady.” He took the opportunity to turn around and walk back to a place near the entrance of the hiring fair.

When he was out of earshot, the magic user turned to look at the priestess, “Are you serious?” She asked her fellow elf, “He could be just like the rest of them, and you didn't even ask him about what his feelings were about working with a bunch of women, that's where we normally find out if they're just perverts trying to get into our pants.”

Vaeq could only laugh at her sister elf's remarks. “Really Jacqui you should have studied some religious texts while you were deep into the books. Ivan there has his eyes pointed straight towards the heavens. He probably doesn't even know the touch of a woman yet.”

The magic user only gave Vaeq a shocked look, “Really?” She asked, “That could cause some problems, especially when we get into our battle gear. And especially if he's going to be protecting me.”

“Don't worry about it. He's been trained to do what he's told, though to be honest he's probably going to need some loosening up, we don't need him getting all moral on us. Though we may need to break him in slowly.”

“Do we have time for that?” The thief said, finally putting in some words in the conversation. “Besides with him being as big as he is, he's surely had some thoughts in those directions. I'm not sure we can trust him.”

The priestess just laughed again, “Oh I think we can.”

“You're just saying that because you nt more of your religious types around.” Jacqui accused.

“That might be. But he's not of my faith, he worships a battle god.”

“Well lets give him a trial period.” The ever progmatic thief said.

They called Ivan over again and started to explain the group to him. “Now then Ivan, you will have to realize that we aren't your standard adventuring group. We haven't needed a warrior before, because we've always sneaked or seduced our way past any dangers to get to the treasure. But we find that we need a warrior now and then, to stand guard and to block any guardian monsters while Jaqui and I can work our magic.” Veaq started by saying. Ivan just nodded his head.

“Now to introduce ourselves. I'm Veaquila, and junior priestess of Seris.” She started saying, “My sister is Jaqueannua a bondage witch. You know what that is don't you?”

Ivan shook his head, “I'm not familiar with that Lady Veaquila.” His tongue stumbling over the elf's name.

“I'm a magic user. I focus my thoughts by restricting my gestures.” Jaqui said simply, giving the apprentice knight a simple smile, that if he knew her would know she was hiding something.

The human female at the table shook her head, knowing that smile, but was not going to reck the surprise, “I'm Tarra, simple name for this group. I'm the party rogue, I get us past all the traps, and I open all the locks for the group.” She said simply. She gave her partners a look, for her to lay out the conditions, it was obvious that she had a few ideas, and saw Ivan as an easy mark.

“Now Ivan, we are a group that sneaks. So we only need muscle at certain times, we'll be doing most of the work.” She gave the young man a penitrating stare, “So we'll pay you a flat rate to stand guard, and to keep the guardian monsters away from us, alright?”

The naive young man, nodded his head after a moment, “That's fair.” He said, never having gotten into negotiations before, “I just need enough for food & lodgings, and maintenance of my equipment.”

The two elves looked at each other. Tarra was usually honest with the party, but she had been a little upset when she was forced to agree that they needed a trained warrior in the group. The two were surprised that the knight was going along with the negotiations, and had agreed to what could be a pitance for his services.

* * *

The next day, the group was on the road out of town. Ivan, surprisingly, had his own horse, one that seemed to be as pure white as he was naive. The horse carried him, and his gear without complaint, even though the man must have weighed over twenty stones in his armor. The road was fairly well maintained, but still rutted here and there, causing the wagon the other three rode to move slowly.

It was just past noon when Veaq called for a stop. “Over there,” she pointed to a clearing in the woods to the side of the road. “We can change over there.” She continued, driving the wagon towards an opening in the trees big enough to accept the wagon.

“Change?” Ivan asked, “What do you mean?”

“Change into our adventuring gear of course.” Jaqui said, a mischievious smile on her lips, “You can help me with mine.”

“What sort of battle gear does a magic user need?” The warrior asked, slipping off his horse and taking the moment to tie the reins to the back of the wagon.

“You'll see. But for now why don't you put up a sheet on a line between those two trees, for us to change behind.” The elf finished, getting off the wagon and opening up one of the chests the girls had at the back of the wagon. “And since you're with the group now you can help me with my magic if need be.”

The other two looked at the magic user. They've never known her to demand any modesty, or had requested the other two to help, “Is this your way of breaking him in slowly?” Tarra asked as Ivan set about his tasks.

“In a manner of speaking.” Jacqui replied with a bit of an mischievous cast to her voice. The three gathered up their gear and went to change behind the sheet that the tall apprentice knight put up. Veaq was the first to emerge, she was no longer wearing the white robes that covered her from head to toe.

Instead the vestments she wore looked more like a white dress. Made of some heavy material that seemed to cry out that it could take abuse, and forming a sort of dress that offered hints of her body while partially concealing it. The top of the vestments was tied around behind her neck, and draped down over her breasts in two panels. The elf's nipples were concealed, but the inner and outer curves of her breasts were exposed, revealling to all that the vestments was all she wore over her upper body. The two panels grew larger as they fell over her body, to a belt that hung low on her hips. From there two other panels of the white fabric fell down to the ground, each about four inches wide at the belt and fell down to mid calf. The first at the front and the second at the back, attached to the belt, covering the elf's buttocks.

Though the material of the priestess's vestments was strong and thick it seemed to follow her curves like silk. The copper chain belt around her hips, was the only thing that covered the soft skin of the sides of her body, leaving them bare from knee to shoulder. The only other things that the priestess of Seris wore was a set of leather boots that covered her legs to just below her knees, and matching fingerless gloves on her arms.

Ivan took one look at her and blushed deeply, turning his head and body away from her, trying to keep his eyes to himself. The priestess couldn't help but smile at the reaction and decided to tease the handsome young man, walking over to stand infront of him, where the taller youth had a good view down the front of her vestments.

“Is something wrong, Ivan?” She asked with a sweet, innocent tone to her voice. Standing there, placing her hands behind her back, casually thrusting he barely concealed breasts forward.

Ivan only looked for a few seconds at the expanses of soft flesh before he snapped his eyes closed, “No, nothing lady Veaquilla.”

A smile graced the elf's lips and she looked up at the knight's face, “You can call me Veaq.” She said, “Your eyes are closed Ivan. Is there something wrong?”

“No.” He said shortly, his face still flaming.

“Am I ugly to you, Sir Ivan?”

He shook his head violently back and forth, “No, definetely not.”

“Then why aren't you looking at me?”

“Its not polite.”

“In my order its not polite not to look at something you find pretty.”

Emotions warred on Ivan's face as he tried to think of the best way out of his delema. He was trained to be a gentle man, and a gentleman is always polite. But to stare at the priestess would cause him some issues. Fortunately he was saved by the rogue.

“Jaqui wants your help with her gear.” She said with a taunting tone to her voice, throwing some pieces of black leather. Her battle gear was more modest then the priestess's but still gave Ivan some problems.

Tarra was dressed in black leather armour, though like the priestess's vestments it didn't cover everything. The top covered her from neck down just past her small breasts. The leather sleeves ended at her wrists where the rogue wore a pair of soft leather gloves. Her tight belly was left exposed down past her naval to the belt of her armoured skirt. The skirt covered her hips, buttocks and front, but that's about it, doing almost nothing to cover her legs. The skirt was made of hard leather straps, studded with metal. The straps themselves over lapping but not connected to each other in any way, appart from at the belt. This exposed some of her tanned skin all around whenever she moved, giving teasing glimpses of her skin. Completing the outfit as a set of leather boots that rose at the heel by at least two inches, giving the short theif some needed height, but didn't add anywhere near enough to match the two elves. The outfit left her thighs bare from knees to the lower portion of the skirt she wore, the skirt barely concealing her tanned skin.

Ivan opened his eyes again and looked between the two, his eyes settling on Tarra, as being the safer. He wasn't expecting to catch the pieces of leather, so they fell to the ground, a rattle of chain ended their fall. He bent over to grab the leather and was surprised to see several straps of leather around a cone of leather. At the top of the cone was a metal ring, at least two inches wide, to which a chain was attached, about two feet long. At the end of that chain was another O-ring, and another two chains of similar length, “What kind of gear is this?” He asked.

“You'll see, now go help her.” Tarra said. Her eyes alight as well.

Ivan just took that as the misterious ways of women, he walked towards the sheet he had hung up, “Milady Jaqueannua.” He called out, his tongue still stumbling over the words, “Lady Tarra said that you needed my help.”

“Yes Ivan, I'll need some help with my top.” She said, “come and help me.”

“Are you decent, milady?”

“Of course, nothing to worry about.”

Ivan walked around the sheet and froze. His eyes immediately went to the golden flesh of the red headed elf. Not only was she not decent, all she wore that provided any covering was a pair of thigh high boots. Her back was to Ivan, revealing her round naked buttocks. The only other things that the elf wore were bands of leather around her wrists and just above her elbows. Each band seemed to be one solid piece of leather with four D-rings attached a quarter of the way around the circle from each other.

Ivan's eyes immediately dropped to the ground, doing his best to focus just on her boots. Like Tarra's these boots had high heels on them, at least three inches tall. The around the ankles of each boot were four more D-rings. Matching rings were on the boots just above the knees, and right at top, the boots coming to an end leaving only about 3 inches of thigh visible above the top of them. Though he couldn't see it from this ankle, but the knees were well padded.

Ivan's gasp brought a smirk to Jaqui's lips. “Don't just stand there, come help me with that.” She said.

“But milady, your...” Ivan just said with a noisy swallow.

“I'm what, Ivan?” She said with a bit of steel in her voice.

“Naked.” He blurted out.

“Oh don't be such a silly goose.” She said with a bit of scorn in her voice, “come over here and help me.” That steel back in her words. The steel in her voice went right to Ivan's training and he stepped forward instinctively. “Good.” She said bringing her arms behind her back.

“First I need you to take one steel ring on each of my wrist bands and touch them together.”

Ivan put down the leather and chain he was given and stood behind the elf, he grabbed one of the D-rings on each of the magic user's cuffs and brought them together behind her back, he let go when he saw them glow and join together, taking a step back.

Jaqui almost purred when she felt the two cuffs lock together, “Oh that's good. I was worried you wouldn't have the magic in you to do that.” She tried to pull the cuffs appart and was satisfied that they wouldn't come undone.

“Now Ivan, do the same for the bands by my elbows.”

“But-” He started to say.

“Now Ivan!” She ordered the young warrior.

Ivan's hands came up to her elbows and hooked a D-ring on each cuff, before he realized what he was doing, he paused.

“Ivan!” The witch growled, “Pull those cuffs together!”

Ivan brought the cuff together firmly, the D-rings merging together to bind the witches elbows there. Causing her to gasp out loud.

“I didn't hurt you?”

“Oh no...” The bondage witch breathed out, “Very good, Tarra and Veaq don't have the strength to do that.” She couldn't help but let out a soft moan.

“That good, Ivan. Now then pick up that tube of leather and slip it over my arms. That's my top.” She told him. This gave Ivan a moment to take his eyes off the woman he was binding up, feelings coursing through his body he wasn't use to.

He picked up the tube of leather and slipped it up over her arms, till it settled below her shoulders. “Now Ivan, there's four straps of leather, two go over my shoulders and two under my arms, and connect between my breasts, do that.” The young man went reached for the straps and fumbled around with them, trying to get them fastened in place. From the back, he couldn't see what he was doing, and his hands moved over the large breasts of the bondage witch. The witch herself couldn't help but to let out a soft moan of pleasure at that, and let the knight fumble for a few moments.

“It will be easier to do that from the front Ivan.” She turned around before he could do anything, and he got a good view of the bondage witches naked torso. Her golden tanned, elven skin was almost flawless. Her breasts showed no signs of tan lines and her body was well tanned. Before Ivan was able to close his eyes again, he got a good look to see that there were no tan lines along her hairless sex.

“Open your eyes Ivan, and stop stalling. I'm not ugly.” She said. Ivan quickly did as he was told and put the straps in place. He was looking down at her, since he was taller, and as he fastened the shoulder straps in place he got a glimpse of something glistening along her sex.

Jaqui turned her back again, the chains attached at the end of the arm binder swinging around as she spun. “The two chains at the end of top should be touched to the rings along the inside of my boots.” She said simply, but firmly to Ivan.

The young man got down to his knees and fumbled with the chains, the witch wasn't making it too eash, she had spread her legs a little bit more then shoulder width apart and this made Ivan have to pull firmly on the chains to get them in place. Like the D-rings on the cuffs before, the chains merged with the D-rings on the ankles. Ivan hardly saw that, as his view was of Jaqui's ass, which was spread to show off her sex and tight anus.

“Good Ivan, we're almost done. Now you'll see a strap at the bottom of the leather that goes around my wrists. Pull that tight. Then a similar one about halfway up, and finally a third one at the top. Pull those as tight as you can.”

Ivan just knelt there transfixed by what he saw, “Ivan! Did you hear what I just said.” Jaqui said firmly. The young night jumped back into action again, he stood up.

“Sorry Milady.” He apologized as he stood there, pulling on the straps before fastening them into place. Each one causing the witch to gasp, “That's better.” She waited for the last strap to be fastened into place, before turning around to look at Ivan. “So what do you think?”

Ivan couldn't do anything but stare, his blush getting deeper and deeper as he looked over the bound and beautiful elf. Her skin exposed except for the strapping of the arm binder around her body, and the collar around her neck. He swallowed a few times.

Hiding a smile at the reaction, Jaqui pretended annoyance, “Men!” She said with an exasperated tone, turning around with a swish of her freely hanging hair and sauntered back towards the other two women.