The journey by ship from Fail to Alcatia was no picnic. I figured out the first day that I was no sailor and while I didn't spend the entire journey emptying my stomach, I surely vomited more than any of the men on the ship thought possible over the first few days. While my people made their lives off the sea, I'd never spent more than a few hours in a boat myself and the Northern seas were rough on a ship made for calmer waters.
The company was a mixed bag. The sailors started out, and mostly remained, dumbfounded by me, and at first the soldiers were standoffish and a little leary of me as well, which made sense when I got to know their commander, Lord Admiral Kriven. He was a thin little man, wiry looking and in good shape for his age, with a sharp nose and piercing eyes. He'd been quite the diplomat back in the village, but once I was on the ship, his demeanor changed and I soon sensed he was less than thrilled with women and northerners. The men feared him, but they worked around his tongue and after I was summoned and dismissed with less than a dozen words, a cute but nervous little lieutenant showed me to my quarters, a corner of a barracks which slept a dozen men with a curtain they had put up for my privacy, making a big deal about how worried he was about the sleeping arrangements.
I pulled the curtain back on the first night and announced to everyone that I wouldn't take kindly to any more attempts to get me alone for fun, adding that I'd put any man who tried to take liberties with asking over my knee in front of everyone. My speech got some laughs and over the next few weeks, my bunkmates gave me fewer problems as a result, at least in my opinion.
The fact was, while these little Southerners looked and spoke differently from the Northern boys I'd known growing up, they weren't all that different. Even at that age, I felt like I understood men better than women. Their fascination with sex was sometimes annoying to be sure, but I was used to that, and before too long, some of them were joking with me rather than at me.
The wine they had helped a lot, since it gave us a common vice and eased everyone's inhibitions. I'd consumed and served ale since I was a child and even at a young age, could drink most men under the table while still keeping my wits about me. But this was the first time I'd actually tasted fermented grape juice and I liked it, which made the voyage and even my seasickness pass much easier. Alcohol, for me, is always a great social lubricator.
By the time our journey ended, I thought of some of these men as friends. I'm generally a fairly quiet type and while I certainly have a temper and can be intimidating, I'm not entirely without a warm friendly side and my youth and feminine features, despite their scale, seemed to eventually inspire something in some of my shipmates. I don't generally fear men, but I certainly have other fears and traveling for the first time to a strange land at a young age with an uncertain future made me desperate to hear about all sorts of things they could tell me. I soaked up their stories like a sponge.
Of course, my biggest questions were about my own future and none of these men knew much about that. They were common soldiers and knew little about the affairs of the King, or what use he might have for one such as me.
Alcatia, which I’d grown up believing as the most powerful country in the world, was in fact, threatened, not just from the occasional raids like what had befallen my own village, but from more persistent attacks from a group of dark skinned people called Kargellians who lived beyond the Middle Sea. The prospect of war with Kargel was on most of these men’s minds and while a few were in favor of it, most were just terrified of what it would mean to themselves, their families and their homes.
Alcatia had very little in the way of an army, but its navy had nearly tripled in size to combat the Kargellian threat, and the Alcatian Guard, which really seemed like more of a police force, had swollen as well, thanks, in part to recruiting mercenaries from all over the world. The King, apparently, had a plan for the defense of his realm, which included, not just training his own people, but seeking out foreign fighters and even beasts and technology. There were wild rumors of wizards of course, but I heard first hand accounts of bands of archers who fought from horseback, tigers and elephants, enormous beasts that could trample through stone walls.
From the first night, my bunkmates' best guess for why the king wanted me was to be a part of his plans to thwart the Kargellian threat. Over the drunken nights that followed, other ideas were floated about, some of which were quite obscene and improbable, but I'm not ashamed to say that I laughed along with my new friends at some of them. As I said, I like my cups. I'm really not all that sensitive to begin with, mind you, but after a flagon or six, I'm a lot more tolerant of all parts of men, from their tongues to their hands.
Sure, it was awkward at times. I was the only female on a ship full of men, but while I might seem in some ways a virgin ripe for deflowering, that sort of talk was mostly in jest. And I don't begrudge men their fun, even though I don't always enjoy it.
I've been called a harlot and a slut many times, because of that and because I've mostly given up on maintaining modesty where my clothing is concerned, but I don't see it that way.
Mind you, I don't much enjoy being ogled, much less fondled, but if I broke the hand of every man who did it, I could never earn a living. Plus, I don't think I'd like myself if I got out of sorts about stuff like that all the time. I'm a warrior and even then I was a killer, but I'm not a bully. Finally, since I promised you I'd be honest here, its not always unpleasant to have a man lay his head on my chest As a rule, I sleep alone lest I roll over on someone, but sometimes, with friends and comrades, it's easier to just let sleeping dogs lie.
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