[JimmyDimples]

Almost a year ago submitted this picture: the "Adventureer." He said he wanted a story to go with it. I'd gotten on it, and given a framework for the plot… but let it fall on the wayside.

Then I saw Mikazuki's drawing here… and learned that Rafe had gotten rolling on his own plot.

That was the kick to the pants I needed to get it done.

And now, here it is.  ;D My first foray into swords and sorcery writing. Hopefully not the last. Hope y'all enjoy!

ALYSIA AND THE TRIAL OF STRENGTH

"Long ago
Before the ocean drank Atlantis,
There was an Age Undreamed of,
Where the hand of the Amazons' Empire stretched from the Caucasus to the Himalayas.

A Girl — nay, a Woman
Punished for the false crimes of her mother,
was to push a giant millstone in the Royal granary for the rest of her life…

…never knowing that one Day
her hand will rule the Empire,
and take back what her Family had lost.

ALYSIA was her name.
This Is Her Story."

***

Alysia pushed away at the wooden bar to which she was shackled.  The fatigue and tedium worked away at her brain as she trudged forward in her wide, wearying circle.  It was like every grain of wheat between the millstones was shoving back against her out of spite.  The brutal heat of the not-yet-noon day didn't help at all either.  And the sweat trickled from below her brown hair, down her forehead, over her brow, and into her eyes, stinging them.  She slowed down, kneeling toward the bar so one hand could wipe them more easily…

WHACK!  A flat, rubber-coated iron paddle smashed across Alysia's lean back, dropping her onto her shins.  The taskmistress brandishing it knelt down to her.  "Did we tell you to stop?!" she growled.

Without a word Alysia tried to stagger up to push again.  "DID WE?!" her boss thundered into her ear.  Somehow Alysia was able to turn her shudder into a negative head shake.

Just over her head some water sloshed.  Looking up, she saw the water carrier, a slightly plump black-haired girl dangling a dripping ladle in front of her nose.  Instinctively, Alysia leaned forward for a swallow, but the girl's hand jerked it back tauntingly.

"Get up and push, ya half-priced sow," she jeered.

"Nissa."  The overseer pointed to the bar.  "You get down there and push, too."

Nissa blanched. "I've got to water the others."

The boss lady glowered as she pointed her club at Nissa's face.  "Grab the bar.  If you can put her down, you can pick it up.  Turnkey!"

And a guard came, took away Nissa's bucket and ladle, pushed Nissa down, unlocked Alysia's cuffs from the bar, and put one on Nissa's wrist.

"Push," the overseer said simply.  And as they did, Alysia's new help scowled at her as if it had been her fault.

The hours dragged.  The sun hit its height.  So did Alysia's fatigue.  She would've sworn that she'd have gotten used to it in the three years she'd been chained here in the Imperial Granary.  But she still ached all through her lean, wiry body despite all the callouses from her labor.  No muscle to speak of:  her meager diet of one bowl of gruel per meal twice a day saw to that.  They'd even searched her mouth at every day's end just to make sure she didn't sneak out any dry meal in it.  At that, her tongue felt dry, yearning for her childhood bread and milk from her mother.  She shuddered.  If SHE, or her father, could had seen where Alysia was today…

NO.  Couldn't dwell on that.  Alysia would have totally broken down if she went there.  Don't remember.  Don't think.

Just do.

The wheel slowed down, and not from her lack of effort.  Across on the millstone's other side, a lackey coughed and staggered, weakening.  And in the heat, she didn't need that.

"Water, please," she croaked.

The overseer glared at her.  "Nuh?"

"Water," Alysia repeated.

The overseer raised the full ladle from the bucket.  "What, this?" And she took an extra big gulp from it.

"Yeah," said Alysia.

The taskmistress carried it seemingly grudgingly over.  And she lowered it in front of Alysia's lips.  But before the slave girl could drink the first drop, her boss dumped it all on the ground and smacked Alysia on the forehead with the ladle.  She snorted with a chortle.  "Lick it off the ground on the next turn!" she guffawed.  And she stepped back to the bucket.

"Hgrrklgh!" The wheel stopped turning.  Alysia looked up toward the earlier coughing slave.  He'd fallen to his knees and started throwing up.

The overseer started over to him.  "Get up!" she said.  "Not all over the floor!"

The slave retched some more.  Then another behind Alysia and Nissa groaned loudly.  Then "Hrmmglkeh!" He vomited violently as well.  And at that, Alysia's new helper, Nissa, started moaning and clutching her belly, looking flushed in the face.

The taskmistress huffed in disgust.  "Turnkey!" she growled.  "Get the weaklings out of here!  All right, you maggots, the next one that can't keep it in their belly will get it removed for them!  With an axe!"

"Reeaaglgph!" went Nissa, face falling downward.

"Right, that's it, Nissa.  Turnkey!"

And the guard marched over with the keys.  But just then, the headmistress stopped.  She grunted.  She wiped her brow.  Then her skin began to pale all over her body as she put a hand to her mouth.  Then all over the millstone area, slaves and guards began to join the retching chorus, popping all over like embers in a fire.  The turnkey put a hand over her nose in response to the smell.

And just then… BAP!  Nissa's fist slammed against the back of the guard's head.

"Don't just sit there, you oaf!" she shouted to Alysia.  "Move!"

And she sprang forward, dragged her cuffmate with her, and snagged the keys from the doubled-over guard's hand.  And she pulled Alysia toward the granary door.

"Wait!" Alysia called.  "What about the others?"

"Too sick to be any use!" Nissa said, fumbling through the key ring.  "We're the only ones that didn't drink the water I dunked the dead rat in!"

Finally, she found the right one, unlocked the door, swung it open, and went out into the fresh air.

Just then, across the sand, she heard heavy racing footsteps.  Then wssssh!  An arrow glanced off Nissa's hand, wounding it, and knocking the key ring out of it into a thick grassy field.  Alysia looked and pointed.  Three Amazon guards pointed at them.  Two bow-women nocked their arrows and let them fly.

"Run, you dope!" Alysia shouted.

And the two escapees dashed off towards the trees, ducking the rocketing arrows and spears after them.

***
CLANK! CLANK! CLANK!

Alysia peered hard at the link she'd been bashing.  But the chain was still in one piece.  In the cave's dim light, she glared at her bruised, still-cuffed wrist.

"Of course," she grumbled, "they WOULD cuff my right hand."  She put down the rock in her left.

Nissa glowered at her cuffmate.  "You know, I could've found those keys in three seconds."

Alysia sighed.  "And an arrow or spear would've found us in two."

"Oh, and on freeing us from Club Lady?  You're welcome."

Alysia narrowed her eyes at her.  "Spare me.  You offered ME the water, too.  If it weren't for her locking you with me, I'd be puking my guts out back there."

Nissa put her free hand on her hip.  "Well, if you think you'd be better off back there in the Granary…" And she thumbed to the cave's entrance.

Alysa lifted up her chained arm.  "After you."

Huffing in disgust, Nissa sat down on the cave floor.  "Chained to an ingrate slowing me down.  The Amazon Guard after us.  And no dinner.  Things couldn't be worse."

"Yes, they could," Alysia muttered.  "We could have been born MEN in this empire."

"Shut up."

"Well," croaked a male voice, "that depends… on which man you are."

Gasping, both girls snapped their heads toward the cave's inside.  Nissa grabbed the rock Alysia dropped, and readied it to club or throw at the unwelcome guest.  Or host.  "Who's that!" she hissed.

Someone stirred slowly.  It was an older man in a long hooded robe like a monk's.  In the dim dusk light filtering into the cave, the two girls could barely make out his beard.  Alysia guessed he was not quite 40 years old yet.

"Me?"  he said. "The Empire has called me Dog. Pig. Oppressor. Slaver. Monster. Rapist.  Abomination." He chuckled grimly.  "And all sorts of things that I will not repeat because my vocabulary simply isn't foul enough."

He reached up for the hood and pushed it back, showing his curly receding hair.

"But," he nodded, "I'd gladly settle for… Jyreh."

Slowly, unsurely, Nissa lowered the rock.  Alysia blinked.  "What are you doing here?" she said carefully.

"And more importantly," Nissa threw in, "do you have a key, lockpick, or axe with you?"

"Keys and metal tools, I have none," Jyreh said.  "But I'll gladly share with you what I've got."

And he stepped to the right.  And right behind where he was crackled a bright fire, with two sticks holding up three fish on a skewer.

He spread a hand to a nearby rock.  "Sit down," he offered.  "Have a trout.  And tell me your story."

***
"So finally, that sergeant of the Guard finally caught up with me and tackled me," Nissa said, mouth full of bread.  "How was I to know that pie was for her?" She grunted.  "Besides, if they didn't want it eaten, they shouldn't have put it on the window sill to cool in the first place!  It's not my fault they made it smell so tasty!" She looked around.  "So, any more fish?"

Jyreh shook his head.  "Just what you see here right now, I'm afraid."

"Well, anyway," she said, "that's how I got in prison. Been pulling water and scullery duty ever since. Until today."

Alysia munched on her bread and fish much more slowly.  She was famishing for every bite, but she was trying to savor each bit instead of greedily wolf it down like Nissa.  She had no clue when she'd have something this good again, so she wanted to make the flavor last.

Still, she decided to prompt the others to talk so she could eat quietly.  "What's your story, Jyreh?"

He poured some wineskin into a wooden cup.  "The farming lands around this cave used to be mine.  I used to be on very good terms with the Amazonian Guard, though I didn't agree with the Crown."  He sipped.  "But, finally they turned against me, and they confiscated it all."

"What about your family?"  Alysia asked.  "Are they all right?"

Jyreh winced, as if he'd been hit with a flying arrow.

"Do you… have a…?" Alysia pressed reluctantly.

"Once," he said quietly.  And he lowered his eyes, and Alysia was sure he was ready to cry. But he straightened himself and sat upright.  "But those are my troubles," he said quickly, "not yours, and I would rather not burden your souls or spoil dinner by talking further on them just now." 

Nissa nodded as she held up her cup for Jyreh to fill.  "Fair enough," she said.  "I'm a bit glad to be shut of my own, honestly.  Not much difference between living with them and the dungeon."

Jyreh then turned to Alysia.  "What about you?"

"No, no wine for me, sir, thanks," she answered.  "Do you have fresh water?"

"I fear this is all I have to offer," he said, offering it again.  "And I meant, what about your family?"

Alysia let him fill her cup, and she sipped.  She'd never had wine before, and it tickled her nose, and made her cough a little.  "I lost my mother and father three years ago," she said.  "We lived on a small farm, worked hard every day.  Not enough to feed many more than ourselves, but we were joyful for the most part.  The Amazons stayed away; Daddy said it was because we and our farm were too puny, insignificant and far away to bother with.

"Thing is, Mama always had a habit of looking after newborn children for a while and caring for them.  Every once in a while she would leave the farm for a few days, and bring one in.  After looking after him… it was always a boy… she'd then leave for a while and come back alone.  I asked her why she did this, and she simply said that many babies in town were orphans, and she found families out in the countryside that could care for them.  That was good enough for me.  Daddy usually grumped that we had enough mouths to feed as was, but he didn't stop her."

She stared into her cup, sighed, and stayed quiet for a very long moment.  "Three years ago, though," she continued, "while I was pulling weeds from the strawberry patch, a wagon rolled up in front of our house.  It was a cluster of Amazon soldiers, about eight or ten of them! As they fanned out and marched around the farm, their leader saw me, marched right up, and demanded if I were family on this farm.  I said I was… and then she leaned at me and demanded where my mother was.  Daddy dashed toward me, thinking I was in trouble, and talked to the leader.  She said that she had a warrant for the arrest of Mama for kidnapping and murdering the baby daughter of Lady Molya."

Alysia spat on the ground.  "Mama?!  Murder a BABY?! The very idea is absurd!  Mama would NEVER do that!  But then I heard someone cry out on the other side of the house.  Two soldiers had grabbed her, one by the hair, and they were dragging her to the wagon!  I screamed out for her, and was going to run to her, but then their leader grabbed me by the arm. Hard!  It hurt!

"Right after that, my father punched my captor across the jaw and knocked her back, making her let go.  He shouted, 'Run, Alysia!  Run!'  And I did… but not before I saw him throw a rock at the guards' heads.  He missed, but Mama wriggled free as they ducked down to dodge it."
She cringed.  "And that's when the wagon's leader ran her sword through him."

Alysia lowered her head, and stared into the fire.  Nissa simply looked on, not showing any emotion.  Jyreh waited a while, and then quietly asked, "What about your mother?"

Alysia didn't look up from the fire.  "She ran one way, I ran the other.  I don't think she saw Daddy die, or she would've turned on them in a trice, outnumbered or not.  I dashed through the woods, but I couldn't outrun them.  They knocked me down, got a hold around my neck, and dragged me to the wagon.  There, their leader told me that my mother had killed herself like the cowardly criminal she wasn't, and that someone would have to answer for her crimes.  And they threw me into the wagon, and took me away to town."

Alysia buried her face in her hands.  And she cried for a long while.  And finally, when she'd run out of tears, she looked up at Jyreh.  "Just one thing, though.  I saw her body before they locked me in." She clenched her fist and hardened her tear-stained face as her sorrow soaked up a low rage.  "And what I want to know," she hissed softly, "is how did my 'cowardly' mother pull a spear away from almost a dozen sows in armour and stab herself repeatedly in the back with it?"

She let out a breath, continuing.  "In the town constabulary, they hit me with questions about my mother, where she'd gone, who had she talked with in town, where she took the babies.  They hit me with questions about my father, and what he did with her.  They hit me with questions about how I aided her with stealing them. And they hit me with just their fists and their clubs.  But I couldn't answer them because I knew nothing.

"Finally, when they finally decided that I was telling the truth, they said that I was still an accomplice by knowing about it.  And they said I'd pay for that by pushing a granary wheel for the rest of my days."

Alysia stared into the fire numbly.  "And I have for three years nonstop.  Until today."

Nissa glanced at her fellow captive, unimpressed, then turned to Jyreh.  "Any more wine?"

"I need to save some just in case," he said.  "Purifying water."  He glanced at each of the two.  "So… all three of us have suffered under the Crown and her minions, then."

Nissa shot him a look, as if asking, what do YOU think, old dummy?  Alysia simply groaned quietly.

"Well," he continued, "they may have taken my lands around here… but they have not taken everything from me.  And they will NEVER take my mind and heart."  He looked very intently at his two dinner guests.  "I plan to set things right somehow.  It won't happen the first thing tomorrow, of course.  But one day, before all my hair on top is completely gone, I want to right all the wrongs this Empire has doled out across this land.

"I am looking for one person — ONE person, mind you — to help me to do this.  Bear in mind, this is something this person will have to invest her heart and life into.  I need someone who is truly worthy and committed to be trusted with this responsibility.

"So, to find this out, I plan to have a trial of strength." He poked a stick into the fire, tending the embers.  "But this will have to wait until dawn tomorrow."

Nissa put her free hand on her hip.  "Just a minute, there, Jyreh," she said.  "Who said we volunteered for this?  If you haven't looked around lately, the Imperials are too big, too strong, and too many.  It's not that I love them, I don't!  But if you're so fired up to take them on, why haven't YOU done more in fighting them?  I never even heard of you!"

Alysia glared at Nissa.  Then she offered more politely, "Forgive us, but… well, she does have a point.  We're not heroines or warriors.  I don't even know how to fight with a sword or bow and arrow."

Jyreh folded his hands quietly for a while and stared at them.  Then he said quietly, "At least give it a night's sleep before you give the final yes or no.  Would you do that for me?"

Nissa and Alysia stared at each other.  Then they turned to their host.

"After dinner, I'd say that's more than fair enough," Alysia said.

"Fine," said Nissa.  "I don't have anywhere else to go right now."

Jyreh nodded.  "Best to try to sleep now, since this is not exactly an inn"

"I've slept in worse," Alysia said.

"So have I," Nissa added.

Jyreh nodded.  "I'm sure.  I'll keep watch for the Guard."

Alysia and Nissa lay down, as comfortably as the chain and cuffs would let them.  Alysia had to admit, simply lying down in the cool of the cave felt much better than pushing a granary beam right now.  She worried a little, though, about being able to wake herself up at the right time.  She thought she could sleep forever, if not prompted to wake.  Already, Nissa had curled up, settled in, and nodded off.

Before Alysia faded out herself, she stared at the cave's ceiling.  She couldn't help but notice that there wasn't any smoke congregating from the fire.  She thought that they'd been smoked out by now.  And how did it appear out of nothing when Jyreh step out of its way?  She didn't even remember hearing it crackle when she first talked to him.  And where did the wood come from?  Where did the food?

Despite all those niggling mysteries, she didn't stay up all night pondering them.

***

"Nissa.  Alysia.  It's time."

Alysia stirred stiffly in the dark.  That cave floor WAS hard.  It was much cooler than her cell, that was for sure.  Then she saw the fire was out.  The only light was from the night outside, and there wasn't much of that.

"Today, we have a race and a test of strength. Are you in?"

Alysia began to slowly stagger up.  "All right, Jyreh.  I'm in."

"Mmngh."  Nissa jerked the chain back down, and Alysia with it.  She didn't stir.

"Nissa, it's time."

"No, s'not," she mumbled.  "It's not dawn yet."

"The race starts at dawn, dear," he said patiently.  "I need an answer.  But if you want to give your friend there a big head start…"

"She's not getting anything," was the peevish answer. "We're chained together, r'member?"

At last, Jyreh released an impatient sigh.  "If you don't get up now, Nissa, Alysia wins by default.  And no breakfast."

On that, grumbling and cursing, Nissa finally rolled over, and slowly, belaboredly worked her way to standing. "Fine.  Let's get this over with."

Jyreh produced an apple each.  This time, Alysia crunched away and gobbled it eagerly.  She couldn't remember the last time she had any fruit.

After passing a water skin for a fresh drink for the girls, Jyreh said, "Follow me to the glen."

***

The sky gradually lightened to a dull grey as they walked nearer to a clearing.  The sky turned red in the east, showing the hills and mountains on the horizon more easily.  Jyreh held up a hand, and they stopped exactly where the trees ended and the grass began.

"We will have a race," he said softly.  He pointed.  "Do you see that big mountain north of us?"

Alysia squinted.  "That one with the domed rock on the peak?"

"Yes.  Around behind it is a flat, pure white granite cliff outcropping right at the dome's base.  Your goal is to run there… you MUST reach it before sundown today.  That is your first thing.  There will also be a trial of strength."

He pulled his robe open just a hair, and showed a locket tied around his neck.  A rich blue thing with what looked like a crude white angular/arrowhead/fishbone/tree symbol on it.  It then glowed softly.  And right out of the center surfaced what looked like a glowing amber walnut-sized 8-sided gem.  It looked like two pyramids stuck together: one upright, the other upside down.  It spun as it floated in the air in front of the girls.

Then a second spinning floating gem rose from Jyreh's pendant.  And a third.  And a fourth and fifth.

As they spun, the first gem floated toward Nissa, and the second toward Alysia.  Then at the same time, they flew right at their hearts.  But instead of hitting them, they seemed to stick and splat like a snowball… only there wasn't any mess on their chests except their dirty, ragged tunics.

Then a glow washed over them.  And creepingly, steadily, a rich warmth grew in their chests, flowed into their stomachs, and soon seeped into their limbs.  Steadily they spread their arms out… and they looked down.

It was just a little, but they were slowly growing taller.  She looked down at her body, and she could tell it wasn't quite as bony anymore.  In fact, there was a muscle in each of her upper arms about as big as her two fists put together.  Her thin legs also grew a bit meatier, and her thighs looked as big as a bologna sausage she'd seen once at a wealthy man's meat market.

She stole a glance at Nissa.  She was also growing taller and broader as well, just like her.  The only thing is, her pudginess earlier complimented the new strength that went with it.  She had curves like a woman.  Still, from what Alysia could tell, they were both each as big as a full-grown man.  Not quite the elite or even the typical veteran Amazon Guard, but it was a definite improvement.

Whish! Whish! Whish! The other three gems then rocketed northward through the air like birds that heard a rock clatter.  They flew away toward the dome peak.

"And now you have a reason to finish first.  Catch them if you want more power for the trial.  Ready…"

The sun popped up at last along the eastern hills.  He pointed a finger at each of their cuffs.  Then he twirled them in a small circle.  Chink! Chink! The cuffs unlocked and opened by themselves, and they fell to the ground with a thud.  "Go."

***

Alysia dashed across the grass.  She'd been so amazed with the shackles unlocking by themselves that she nearly forgot to get going.  So did Nissa, but they both remembered at the same time.  Alysia's new, stronger body carried her faster than she expected.  A good clip faster than when they were first on the run.  And the energy she felt!  It was like her legs wanted to dash ahead of her.  But Nissa stayed alongside her, eyes locked toward the mountain's knob.  Zeroing in on it herself, Alysia pushed herself to go faster.

And just as she did, she slowly inched ahead of her opponent.  It was a very small lead, but she could see it.  And Alysia could just barely make out the faint trail of light the first gegaw gave as it streaked toward their goal.  That gave her an extra burst inside.  And with that, she was juuust barely gaining on it….

"Somebody!  Please help me!"

Off to her right Alysia saw her.  Trapped under a big fallen oak tree was small girl, not more than seven years old.  The two racers had nearly passed her by.  Alysia slowed down to a stop.

The child reached out to her pleadingly.  "Please… it hurts…"

Alysia didn't stop to think about it.  She turned to the girl, stooped, and hooked her hands under the trunk.  And she pushed with her legs.  And she grunted.  Breathing through her nose, she strained, clenched her jaw, and searched for any sign that she'd given the child any more crawl space. "Can you crawl out?"

The girl whimpered.  "Still… crushing me."

She gave another grunt and a groan, and kept pushing hard.  But about three stone throws away, Alysia heard another groan.  Still pushing, she looked up.

Further down the path Nissa had wrapped her right hand around something and squeezed it into a fist.  Streaks of light shone out from between her clenched fingers.  Then they started to fade… and as they did, the veins in Nissa's wrist popped up.  They streamed up her arm, around her shoulder and neck down her chest, finally down to her legs and to the other arm.  And Nissa's groans showed more signs of pleasure.  Her limbs get rounder and larger like someone filled a water skin from half full to completely full.  And she grew a hand taller.  Her body broadened, too, like a medium-sized tree. And her belly doesn't seem quite so rotund; in fact, it was flat if still smooth.

Alysia cursed.  Nissa had gotten the first gem!

"Hey!" she shouted to her.  "Help this girl out!"

As the growth ended, Nissa snapped out of her euphoria.  And she stared at her competitor.

"You got the strength, now, all right?!" Alysia snapped.  "Round one to you!  Please help me… this thing's heavy!"

Without a word, Nissa sneered.  Then she deliberately turned away, and dashed off after the other two gems, and the goal at the mountain's knob.

Infuriated, Alysia stared at the tree trunk.  Then she imagined it was Nissa next to the fence of a dirty pig sty.

"NnnnyyRRRGH!"  With a shove fueled by her rage, Alysia finally pushed the thing up, over, and forward.  It landed with a thud, completely clear of the small girl's badly bruised legs.  She stooped down to her.  "Can you get up at all, dear one?"

Slowly, the child pushed herself up with her arms.  Alysia took her hand and gently, slowly helped her stand.  The girl fell to her knees, but caught herself, and staggered back up to standing.

"Can you still walk?" Alysia pressed.

"I think I can…."

And the young girl staggered and limped off down the path she came.

With no time to collect thanks… Alysia dashed the other way.  "Got to catch up and make up for lost time and strength," she huffed to herself as she hurried for the other two gems, and the mountaintop.

***

Alysia dashed to regain lost time and distance.  But that extra burst of speed from the gem's muscle kept Nissa ahead.  It was a losing fight to not lose more ground to her, let alone catch up.  Realizing she'd pass out if she burned all her energy on speed there and then, Alysia just kept running for the knob and hoped that Nissa would slip or stumble.

The path grew hilly and steeper.  The woods started to thin a bit and Alysia heard Nissa's footsteps scamper to a stop.  And when she saw what lay ahead, she quickly slowed down to a stop herself.

A great big canyon.  And the only way across that gaping maw was a rope bridge with wooden planks to walk on.  And right in front of that were two Amazon guards hassling a peasant youth.  As she stooped down to keep herself hidden, Alysia figured he didn't have one copper coin to rub against the other.

"Not enough to cross," one guard grumped.  "Go back and get more."

"But that's all I have!" the lad wailed.  "That's all I can get!"

The other guard then marched up to him and flashed very nasty small smile.  "All you got?  Let's see."

She pounced upon the boy's ankles, grabbed them, and and flipped him upside down.  Then she shook him up and down roughly, like a milk maid at a churn trying to make butter in one minute.  Her victim's cries turned into yodels in an earthquake. Nothing else fell from his pockets; how his head and arms stayed on was a mystery to Alysia.

The first guard held up a hand and said, "Enough, Kella." Then she stooped down to the boy's inverted face and narrowed her eyes.  "You don't have anything sewn into yer rags, do ya, boy?" She ignored his vigorous head shake for no.  "You know the penalty for trying to dodge the toll?"  She waved Kella over to the crevasse.  "Make sure he gets a good view."  And Kella dragged him to the edge, and held him over the chasm to his terror.  His mouth's corners plummeted down in a painfully frightened twist of dread and wordless stammering.

"This is the fabled Dawn To Dusk Drop," the first guard said, pointing.  "So called because if someone fell into it at dawn, the unlucky soul wouldn't hit the bottom until dusk."

Alysia then spotted the first guard's other finger take a quick discreet poke down.  Kella saw the signal, smirked, and then let go.  The helpless lad dropped for a fraction of a second, and in that blink, Kella siezed one of his ankles before he disappeared forever.  The child's voice screamed like a banshee for the longest minute.  Then he got his breath back, he screamed again, so loud it hurt Alysia's ears as badly as her sickened heart.

And before she realized what she was doing, she'd grabbed a rock the size of her fist, cocked it back, and pitched it right at the first guard's head.
 
So many things happened that moment.  Alysia would later marvel at how she recalled Kella nastily guffawing, spinning and flinging the youth back onto solid ground. Big Nissa with a crude long branch, running, planting it, and vaulting over the gap so she sailed across to the other side, caught the ledge tightly, hefted herself up, and kept running into the woods toward the mountain peak.  The first guard's gaping at Nissa's flight with a wide-mouthed stare.

And then, the stone's smack against the thug maiden's noggin.

Kella pointed and shouted.  The first guard got her bearings as she rubbed her temple.  Alysia figured, in for a penny, in for the whole treasure chest.  "HEY, SOWFACES!" she bellowed.  "YEAH, YOU TWO!  LET'S SEE YOU TAKE SOMEONE WHO CAN FIGHT BACK!"  With that, the two hulking hags then unsheathed their swords, just as Alysia hurled another stone at a ducking Kella.  Then they charged at her, who then dashed back into the woods the way she came.  She barely got a glimpse of the lad scrambling across the bridge while he was ignored.

Fleeing, Alysia's morning then turned to midday. She figured they knew the woods better than she, but she kept on running, weaving side to side, trying to work her way back to the bridge.  They stayed in dogged, determined pursuit.  Alysia went in a wide circle.  They didn't seem to be getting any nearer.  She figured her relatively smaller frame cut through the brush more easily than the two bullies.  She looked up at the sky, and then realized it was early afternoon.  With that, she gave up evasion, and made a break for the bridge.

There it lay, wide open.  The then slowed down to a trot, not too fast for her foot to miss a plank and slip through, but not at a stroll, either.  A proper mix of speed and caution.

Just when she got midway, the bridge began to sway.  Then lower. Then fall away from her.  She quickly scrambled up then leaped and grabbed the ropes alongside her and swung all the way down to the other side's cliff wall.  SLAM!  She hit it… or it hit her, it more felt like.  Somehow she willed herself not to look down.  Instead she looked up.

The top didn't seem much nearer than the bottom.

Then she heard the two guards cackling from behind her.  KRAK!  A rock hit the cliff to her left.  Looking back, she saw where the two nasty shrews had untied the bridge, and were now throwing stones at her.

"Sowface yerself!" jeered Kella.

"Here, ya mangy dog!" brayed the first guard as she picked up another.  "Have a rock against YOUR head and see how ya like it!"

Face to the cliffside, Alysia concentrated on going had over hand, foot over foot on the slats of the bridge, and gripping tightly.  More stones clacked around and against her. They pelted her in the calf and the back.  Cringing against the pain, she steadily made her way up, and finally lifted herself over the ledge, the last stone spiking her in the bottom.  That was the kick to the seat she needed to get going again.

"You're a marked woman, wench!" the first guard shouted after her through the trees.  "When we find you again, your life is forfeit!  We'll cut off your limbs, and make sure you live so you can scream all the way down after we throw you in the Drop!"

***

The woods thickened again, and Alysia rapidly kept putting foot before foot toward the domed peak.  She felt that the trial of strength was already lost if Nissa had grabbed another gem.  Then far through the trees, she heard guttural moans.  Then a sharp, short, high pitched grunt.  Nissa.  Heart faster than mind, Alysia quickened her pace, figuring her opponent had hurt hurself or stopped and eaten some poisonous berries.

"Mmnnoogh… uurrngh… yes…"  A low, sinister giggle. "More… more… bigger… bigger…."

No!  Not another gem!  Alysia figured she probably should stop now and simply find a place to hide from the Guard.

No.  A life of cowardly hiding was nothing to go back to.  Her urge to slow down and avoid Nissa canceled out her urge to speed up and pass her competition.  She simply kept running, and hoped that in the trial she'd be able to dodge her opponent long enough to find a way to win.  Such things did happen, although rarely.  She didn't even think about catching the third gem now.  She just wanted to make it to the finish before sunset.

The trees were now taller, and stouter in the trunks.  Her feet padded through more stones, roots, and sand, and less brush, bushes, and smaller plants.  She didn't see as much as a rabbit anywhere.  Less light came through.  Or was that the darkening of the day?

Then what felt like another hour, the forest stopped abruptly and Alysia saw the mountain itself.  The trees and the sparse shrub spotted the stony incline instead of covering it.  And way, way up high was the domed peak, and the narrow, twisting, unguarded path leading up to it.  A fall wouldn't have been as bad as at the bridge, but still deadly enough.  Up high, she saw the rocky trail start to turn from cold gray to white.  "That must be near the goal," she thought out loud as she began her treacherous ascent. 

Rounding a bend in the path, Alysia stopped at a doorknob-high tree stump to catch her breath.  Further up on a straighter stretch of the path was a man and two donkeys slowly guiding a heavy cart.  She squinted at its load:  baskets of burgandy-colored berries, the kind prized for dying cloth for nobles' robes.  As she watched her own steps, she wondered:  how many shrubs did he have to pick to get so many?  And over how many days… or weeks?

Just then some pebbles dropped from overhead.  Then some small stones clattered down.  Alysia quickly looked up.

Then with a thud and a crunch, a boulder the side of a horse crashed down the mountainside.  She quickly backpedaled, and barely dodged getting bashed back down over the ravine.  Just as she tried to get her breath back and her heartbeat down… thud, thud, CRASH!  Another huge rock rolled down, between her and the farmer's cart.  The donkeys brayed in fear as their keeper squatted down.

Alysia stared up toward the peak.  "NISSA?!" she called out.

A beat.  "So, haven't gotten wise and given up, huh?!" was the sneering answer.  "Did I just hit that donkey?  You two are hard to tell apart from this far!"  And following right after her nasty laughter plummeted two more rocks the size of wagon wheels.

Alysia dropped to her stomach to dodge.  "Hey!" she shouted up.  "Stop that!  I'd rather lose the trial than win it that way!"

"Ha! Just how I feel!  I'd rather YOU lose, too!"

Then there was a crack and a rolling rumble.  But it wasn't another stone.

"My cart!" yelled the man.  "Look out, girl!"

Turning over, she saw that wagon wheeling down toward her like an Amazon's chariot across the plains.  Alysia's first impulse was to roll out of the way and hope there was room enough to let it fly by….

But instead, she sprang to her feet, locked her legs and thrust her hands forward.  THUKK!  The cart and its speed pushed right back.  Thanks to her own gem's magic and years of hard pushing at the Granary, she wasn't knocked down, but the soles of her feet scorched as they skidded over the rough trail.

"NO!" screamed the farmer.  "Just let it go! Or you'll fall with it!"

Then she remembered!  The bend in the road!  And the expanse of nothing after it!  She didn't want to simply save her own skin and let the farmer lose what was his whole livelihood for the whole season… but…

Wait!  The stump!

In a flash and a painful twist, she shoved the load sharply to the right, and fell to the left against the mountain, knocking the wind out of herself.  Then she heard wood smash against wood.  With a shudder, she flopped over and looked back.  The wagon was stopped against the tree stump.  A basket had fallen off, and spilled its berries all over the dirt, but that was the worst of it.

She resumed her run back up the mountain trail, meeting the farmer and his donkeys midway up.  He had an angry scowl.  "You silly, foolish nit!" he snapped.  "You could've gotten yourself killed!"

"You're welcome," Alysia muttered under her breath as she kept dashing up to the knob.

Concluded In Next Post…

[JimmyDimples]

***

Heavy thundering breath.  Sweat burning her eyes.  Arms and legs like lead.  A stitch in her side that wouldn't go away.  And she hadn't had any food or water since this morning.  And the white granite didn't look any nearer.  Alysia looked to the west… and saw the sun was orange, large, and dangerously low.

"No!" she gasped. "Too close to sunset!"

She feared that it may have happened already down in the lowlands, and she was too late.  All this racing for nothing.

No.  She ran this far.  If she had lost, then Jyreh himself would have to tell her.

Pumping her legs, her desperate determination pushed her on.  She willed herself not to look at first, but on one curve, she couldn't avoid looking at the lowering sun.  And she wasn't sure, but it looked like the horizon was getting lower for her, buying her extra time.  With that, she sped her pace, as if that'd help shove the land down even more.

Then from up high, she heard a low, menacing, almost manlike chuckle.  And it added a snarl to itself.

"Come here…" it growled with a wolflike grin.  "Come… here…"

It was Nissa, her competitor.

No.  Alysia narrowed her eyes.  Nissa wasn't a competitor.  She was an enemy.

And with an anger-fueled, spitefully determined, fear-stomping huff, Alysia shoved herself into a breakneck sprint.  Barely dodging most rocks, and banging her shins against the heavier ones, she shut out of mind how much time was left, or how much chance she had in the trial of strength, or how much hope of a reward.  She just wanted to be up there now.

And finally rounding the dome, she arrived.  A wide ledge of pure white granite, with enough space for a proper swordfight or boxing match.  She had to make herself stop so she didn't catapult herself off the cliff.  Grateful for that reason, she halted, hunched over and caught her breath, and looked one last time toward the west.  She had caught the orange sun, now dipping, perfectly half hidden by the land below.

Then she heard the slow, solitary, sarcastic clapping of two huge hands.  Right there, casually standing as if she'd spent the whole day resting at an inn and just had finished dinner, waited a huge, sneering, cocky Nissa.  She towered head and shoulders above the top of the tallest Amazon warrior either had ever seen.  The towering ogress folded her arms coolly  showing off block-like biceps and shoulders almost twice as wide as Alysia.

"You are a fool," her tormentor said. "All the way up the mountain just to lose." She drew closer within a foot of Alysia. "I got all three of those little gems, and ye gods, they felt great."  Clenching a fist, she flexed, and held a bicep the size of a pumpkin under Alysia's nose.  "Look at that.  Just look at that.  Even if you were to get a warrior's rations and the Granary's work every day for the rest of your life… you'll never be a woman like me."

Alysia stayed hunched over, panting.  "Thank the gods."

Nissa snorted.  "And you… how are you going to win the trial now?  Go back down ask those other nobodies for help?"

The sun finally set, with no more light than the red twilight west.  And another light came, with the crunch of sandaled feet on the stone.  The two women glanced that way.  And there coming, in his same robe and carrying a torch… was Jyreh.

"How'd you get up here so quick?!" Nissa marveled.

Alysia didn't ask.  Well, she wanted to know, but she remembered the wonders in the cave last night, and in the morning.

"You both made it," he said simply as he put the torch in a crack in the dome rock.  "After a long ordeal of a race, you're both here.  Impressive."

"Thanks," Alysia rasped.

Nissa nodded smugly and casually brushed a tree-trunk thigh.  "But of course. Now how about the trial?"

"Ah, yes, that," Jyreh said.  And he walked up to them, turned to Alysia, reached forward and clasped her shoulders.

"Alysia, dear heart," he smiled, "congratulations.  You've won."

Alysia stared at him befuddledly.  "What?"

"WHAT?!" screeched Nissa.

He turned to her.  "I said, she has won."

Confusion and anger stitched across the waterbearer's face.  "Won what?!  We haven't done anything!  We did the race, and the gems!  What about the trial of strength?!"

Jyreh's eyebrows arched up a hair, and he sighed with pity.  "Nissa, is your body so strong now, and yet your understanding so weak?"

He pulled the robe up over his head, veiling his own face.  Then the robed figure started to shrink.  It slowly seeped down, like a lit candle melting with the fabric flowing to the ground like wax, until he had shrunk down to between Alysia's knee and hip.  And then the hood fell back to show the face.

It was the girl trapped under the fallen tree.

"The trial," the child said simply, "you've both already had it."

Then she shrank away more, and the robe finally melted into a flat puddle of cloth.  It oozed across the stone to another spot a bit closer to Nissa, then began to raise again like water in a fountain up to just below her chest.  Another face emerged from the robe's hood:  the lad at the bridge.

"Nissa," he said with quiet authority, "you had gotten all three gems, and even the one you were given freely."  He shook his head sadly.  "And yet… you didn't use one pebble of its power in any of the three tests."  He reached into his currently loose, baggy robe, and pulled out the blue amulet from before and held it up.  "Very sadly… you failed the trial miserably."

Furious, Nissa swung her huge arms forward, ready to grab Jyreh by the neck and choke him.  But her hands only got halfway there.  In a flash, the pendant gleamed brighter than the torch, and magic energy crackled all around Nissa's huge body.  But then, one, two, three, four glowing gems rose out of her chest like turtles coming to the pond's surface.  And as the magic stones returned to orbit around the pendant, Nissa's body got smaller, and shorter, and thinner, and lesser as each muscle deflated like a wine skin at a soldier's night in town.  When the light and shine faded from Nissa, she saw to her horror that she was no larger or stronger than when she had woke up that morning.

Jyreh then turned to face Alysia, and the two women saw his face was now that of the farmer.  "Alysia," he said.  "You had no more than the power and might you were granted at the race's start.  And yet… despite the threat of losing the race… despite giving up a greater power you could have used… despite the trouble you got and the thanks you didn't get… you used what you had… and used it very rightly."

Alysia then felt a glow, and a tingle over her own heart.  She saw her own glowing gem rise partway to the surface of her skin like a sunrise.  Then the other four gems whipped away from Jyreh's pendant and smacked into Alysia's own, which absorbed each of them and grew bigger like a lump of clay.  Then just as that bigger lone gem sank back into her chest, she felt the warmth, which then flowed to her stomach, then her shoulders, through her arms, down to her fingertips, up to her head, and down her legs to her toes.  She closed her eyes…

"Alysia," Jyreh said in his own voice, "very, very well done."

Then she arched back with a sharp grunt.  Her inner being, her soul, pumped like a heartbeat.  And she felt a mild ache in her bones like they were being stretched, and like every bit of her body was overstuffed like her stomach after a grand feast.  She tightened her hands into fists… and they felt larger.

Then she heard a creak, stretches, and felt her ragged clothing shift.  And she stood straighter.  Taller. And taller.  Her arms bulkened, and her legs did too.  Heavier, but not burdensome.  And she finally felt how cold the mountain air was.  Of course, her clothes felt like they'd shrunk… no!  They weren't smaller!  She was bigger!

She stretched and shrugged her shoulders… and realized her bust had expanded a bit.  She raised her eyebrows on that.  She now had a bust?

Finally Alysia opened her eyes.  The top of Jyreh's head barely made it to her chin.  And off in a corner, Nissa, in a badly stretched, loose-hanging tunic, didn't even come up to her own broad shoulders now.  The defeated, dark-haired girl looked as if she was going to cry.  And Alysia, ignoring the boulders thrown at her before, actually felt a bit sorry for her.

"And now, Alysia," Jyreh said, now back to his true form and face, "welcome to my joy… and my haven."

The whole granite ledge then shone brightly.  Light without heat glared everywhere.  And just when everything around was just solid white… it faded.

And Nissa was all alone.

"Alysia?" she called out.  "Jyreh?"  She turned around.  "Alysia!  Jyreh!"  Nothing but the crackle of the torch in the mountainside.  Nissa grew desperate.  "ALYSIA! JYREH!"  Nothing.

Nissa curled her fist.  And she shook it in the air.  "YOU CHEAT!" she screamed.  "YOU DECEIVER!  YOU WARLOCK!  I SWEAR, I'LL PAY YOU BACK FOR THIS IF IT'S THE LAST THING I EVER DO!  I DON'T CARE IF IT TAKES ME A DAY OR A THOUSAND YEARS!  I SWEAR I'LL HAVE THAT COW SLAVE GIRL'S LIMBS HACKED OFF SO I CAN FORCE THEM DOWN YOUR GULLET AND RIP THEM OUT THE OTHER SIDE!  YOU TWO HEAR ME?!"

She heard no answer, not even the wind.  And trembling with an undying rage, she wrenched the torch out of the crack, and began her walk down.

***

Alysia couldn't see anything clearly.  Her world was a wash of cascading light and warm water, like she'd appeared in the bottom of a heated waterfall.  It coursed all over her bigger body, and she felt the old, torn, haggard clothes strip away and disappear in the torrent.  Then when that had stopped, she felt an equally warm, pleasant wind, drying her skin and her hair, which flapped in the air like a pennant.  Just as the last drop of water dried away, she felt a thick, silk-soft, yet strong garment drape around her body and pelvis.  And then her hair tightened and twisted into two thick ropes, which draped over her shoulders, and rested so the ends met her breasts.  She looked down.  Her new tunic was a rich green, somewhere between sea green and forest green.  And a clean white border around her neck.

"Alysia," called Jyreh's voice.

She looked around and saw she was in a stone chamber with a pool of clean water in the floor, and a spout on the wall over her head.  And a stout wood door in front of her.

Opening it and passing through, she saw she was in a round hall with shelves of books and parchments, and brass instruments she didn't recognize.  And a big table with plates of food on it.  And Jyreh in his purple robe.

"Where are we?" she asked.

"This is near the top of my tower," he said, "invisible to the eyes that aren't meant to see it.  My refuge from the Empire."  He pointed to a window.  Alysia looked out, and she saw it was perched on top of the dome rock of the mountain.  She saw the lesser mountains, hills, forests, woods, and the lay of the Empire.  And way, way down, she saw a tiny torchlight slowly moving.

"Is that Nissa?" she asked.

"Yes.  Don't feel sorry for her," he said.  "She has chosen her path.  Let us hope it will not bring her more sorrow, and that she finds her way away from it."  He beckoned to her.  "But for you…"

She approached.  And he had some golden articles in his hands.  And the blue pendant he carried.  "For passing the trial.  And for using that strength for the lesser.  Always."  He stood on tiptoe, draped the cord over her neck, and threaded her pigtails out from under it.

Then he showed four gold ringlets, each with two broken chain links embossed on them.  "For the bondages that were broken, and for those you have freed." And he tenderly threaded two on each of her braids.

He then held up a golden girdle, embossed with a chain of five large unbroken links.  "For those that are still under the Empire's yoke of slavery, that we do not forget to help and serve them.  May this chain be broken soon."  And he reached around her relatively narrow waist, slipped the girdle around, and clasped it to her solid flat stomach.

And he spread a hand over to the table.  With some roast mutton.  Potatoes.  Freshly baked bread with honey and butter.  Some cheese, grapes, and big cups of fresh water and wine.  "And," he said with a grand, mirthful smile.  "for a whole day of nothing to eat but an apple and water since morning."

Alysia stared at the spread on the table.  Then she stared at Jyreh.  "One more thing."

"What's that?"

Her eyes brimmed with tears.  "This."  And she reached forward with her new mighty arms, wrapped them around his back and waist, hefted him up, and squeezed him to her chest with a tight yet tender hug.  "For everything," she squeaked.

Reaching up, Jyreh brushed away a tear from her soft, round cheek before it trickled down to her smile.  "Again, dear heart," he said warmly, "very well done."

The Beginning

[Lupus14]

That was such a lovely story! I really enjoyed it. Like an old saga, a tale of "once upon a time". "Very well done!".

[GTSKate]

See, just like I was saying earlier!  The BEST amazons are the ones that prove how much strength they have on the inside first.  🙂

Thank you for sharing such a satisfying story!

-Kate

[stmercy2020]

This was really well done- kind of an FMG fairy story/morality story.  Very unusual for the genre, and welcome.

[David C. Matthews]

Nice job, Jimmy!  You're proving to be a versatile writer.

[Cowprobe]

Great work JD!

Wonderful story that's both complete and perfectly suited to its visual inspiration.  ;D

You keep writing and I'll keep reading man.

PS- Tired but more feedback in a day or two.

[fm07]

JD – This to me is the best work you've done and definetly one of the best stories I've read here. I really liked the morality/fairy tale theme. Excellent!

Could have squeezed in some more gratuitous muscle flexing in there /grin. (kidding, your work is great!).

[foureyes]

Very well written, JD! this was one of the best pieces of fiction I've ever read online.
Thanks!

[Author]

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