Luke’s HAARP Time Warp: Part 6

Marion continues growing but must suffer a loss.

Based on a post by somethin fishy,
in 15 parts. Listen to the Podcast at Explicit Novels.

<figure class="tmblr-full"></figure>

Chapter 25.

When Luke and Marion woke up the next morning, it was storming out. Nothing
really serious, just one of those late summer storms with a decent amount of
rain, some wind and usually some lighting. Being that it was a warm rain, Luke
went out into it without putting clothes on. It was about the perfect
temperature. With some persuasion, Marion came out too. Soon both of them were
playing like children with them jumping in mud puddles and just having a good
time. Marion, before too long, was working on getting everyone else to strip
down and join them. The women were quick to strip down and Bard followed suit
not too long after.

Robin though, was raised to be very modest and in believing that the devil
would soon visit; so, he wouldn’t strip down with everyone else. Marion, for
her part, respected his views and didn’t try forcing his which he appreciated.
Basically, as long as he respected her view, she respected his. The rain
continued for almost an hour. During this time the miserable feeling of the day
before were forgotten for the time being. The group was having too much fun.
Not only was playing in the rain fun, but they were all busy teasing Marion
about her limping and careful walking. Everyone had heard her the night before
and this actually helped the group start to recover from Stella’s death.

All too soon though, the rain stopped and it was back to business. Marion
had left it to Pollyanna, Stella’s closest friend, on where to bury her.
Pollyanna picked a small church, in the village, from where Stella was
originally from. So, the group made to four hour track to the village church.
Once there though, the group realized that the whole village had been
abandoned. From the looks of things, it had been abandoned not that long ago.
Gabriel found an empty space in the cemetery and Alice had even found a coffin
for Stella. Luke and Bard took care of digging the grave, making sure to go
down six feet. Once the grave had been dug, everyone but Matt grabbed a line
and lowered Stella’s body into the ground. Once done, Marion spoke a few words.
After she had finished, but before everyone started to bury her, Pollyanna
started speaking:

“For my best friend, the woman who taught me to be a woman and who
encouraged me to fight like a man; I cannot thank you enough. I swear this now
that I shall ever stop working toward freeing the people of this tormented land
so that no others have to make the choices that you did, Stella. For nobody
should be forced into the position of selling their bodies just so that their
children can have something to eat, or having to watch as those children are
ripped away by soldiers because the family couldn’t pay the record high taxes
levied on them because some lazy noble wanted to host a bigger party then their
neighbor. Go in peace know Stella and know that I will always love you for all
that you have done for me.”

“Amen” everyone said while trying to hold back their tears.

When she finished, everyone in the group started to openly weep; Pollyanna
had just said out loud what everyone had been feeling in their hearts.
Eventually, they started burying their friend, and Pollyanna finished things by
pushing a cross which Gabriel had made into the ground. The cross had actually
been Stella’s sword at one time, but Gabriel had broken it in half after Stella
had been killed and had etched Stella’s name and date of death on it.

After they finished, Luke put his arms around Marion’s shoulder. This always
made her feel better and it did this time as well. Looking around, Marion
started getting curious about this village. It looking like a nice enough place
to stay, so the group split up to search the village. Luke found a fully intact
blacksmithing shop that still had its tools in it and plenty of raw materials
laying around. Marion found a small tavern but all the alcohol was gone. Robin
and Bard checked out the church while Gabriel went up to check out the steeple
for this looked like the prefect place from which she could pick off intruders.
Alice went though the houses and found one that was significantly cleaner than
the rest. To make it better, it had a large supply of herbs in it that Alice
recognized as having medicinal value. Not only that, it still had to tools to
process the herbs. Pollyanna meanwhile stayed with Matt and they talked
quietly. They both realized that they were quickly falling in love and only
hoped that nobody would object. Luke of course already knew about them and had
told them as much. He also told them that as long as they continued to do their
duties that he had no objections. In fact, he had wished them the best of luck
and they looked like they belonged together, and they made a cute couple.

Within an hour the group met back up at the church. Marion made the decision
to move their base of operations here as soon as they could get all their gear
and they had scouted the area. Everyone agreed with her; this was far nicer
living then in the forest plus there was so much here that they could use that
it would be foolish not to move. An added bonus was that they were now further
away from York and therefore safer for the time being. The last thing that
justified them moving was that they had been recently discovered and didn’t
know how long it would be before Cecilia would try again. She figured that it
would probably take them about a week or so to move.

Matt and Alice would stay behind, in the village, while the group moved.
Moving around was extremely painful for Matt and Alice would have to take care
of him. Pollyanna made the announcement that her and Matt were now an item in
the most obvious way possible. She wrapped her arms around his neck and planted
a giant, wet kiss on his lips. That simple kiss began to turn into something
more when Matt started pushing his tongue into Pollyanna’s mouth. Only Marion
loudly clearing her throat made them stop. When Pollyanna looked up, she looked
like the kid how got caught with their hand in the cookie jar. This made the
rest of the group fall over laughing and Pollyanna’s reddening face didn’t help
any.

Eventually everyone in the group were able to compose themselves. Marion
told Pollyanna to stay behind to not only help protect Matt but also to scout
the area. Marion told her that the rest of them would be back the next day with
some of the gear and to hear what all Pollyanna had found while scouting.
Marion and Luke couldn’t for the life of them understand why everyone in the
village was gone. In fact, it looked like everyone had just stopped whatever it
was that they had been doing and left.

This was actually not far from the truth. This village was one of those that
refused to follow Cecilia so she had come in and forced all the residence of
the area to move to York. Of course, the young men were forced into her army
while the young woman were force to become army whores. Thing is though that
the village itself hadn’t been destroyed and now it was going to be Marion’s
new base of operations.

The trip back was much faster than the trip to the village, in the first
place. On the way back, the group was able to ambush a small patrol. One of the
members was only badly wounded so Marion was able to pump him for information;
although she didn’t have to pump very hard for the man was one of Cecilia’s
forced recruits.

“Cecilia’s hold is slipping as most soldiers refuse to leave their quarters
anymore. For the most part she is having to rely on mercenary soldiers who have
never heard of you ma’am. Also, I feel that I should warn you that she is
planning another major offensive aimed at forcing you out of the forest so that
she can finally eliminate you. This time she will be using her mercenary troops
and their commanders are extremely tough men. They make everyone in Cecilia’s
regular army seem like little girls instead of fighting men.”

With this the man died. Marion ordered that the man be at least given a
burial instead of just dragging him off into the woods to be eaten like they
usually did. This patrol had only six men in it and didn’t yield very much
loot. The most valuable thing they got were the extra horses. Marion was now
determined to move camp even faster than before. The rest of the way back was
uneventful.

Once they were back in camp, Marion had the group immediately start
preparing the first load of gear for in the morning. Looking everything over,
Marion decided that it should only take three round trips to move everything;
two less then she had initially thought. After getting tomorrow morning’s gear
ready, Luke took the first watch while everyone else bedded down. Marion was
taking no chances now, and she relieved Luke four hours later.

As soon as started to get light the next morning, Marion woke everyone up.
She was anxious to get moving, and within forty minutes the first load was on
its way. The trip to the village was fast and uneventful. When they were about
fifteen minutes form the village, they were intercepted by Alice. She was
standing watch while Pollyanna got some rest.

“She found two nearby villages, Marion