This is part of a series that I once thought about writing, about an adventuring party trying to defeat an evil Baron. I don't know if I will ever write more chapters, but I thought this was good enough to be a stand-alone story.
Marcus took the map out from the stack of papers in front of him, and he wondered where they should head next. He and Julia had been looking for a way to defeat the Baron for months, but they still didn't have a clear goal in mind – how exactly were they going to defeat a man that could combine dark sorcery with one of the deadliest sword arms in the country? Marcus had his sword at his side, and Julia could accomplish great things with her mage's staff in her hands, but even together, they were no match for him – not to mention having to get past the men under his command.
They were sitting in a tavern, enjoying a drink at a table as they made their plans. Marcus had learned long ago that if you wanted to make secret plans, you never sat in a dark corner – dark dealings in dark corners were noteworthy, and every man in the house would be watching them out of the corner of their eye. Instead, they'd picked a room near the window, where they sat as if they were filling out some form, never raising their voices or whispering. Marcus and Julia had long ago mastered the art of appearing boring, not worth anyone's attention – and they never received any, either.
Marcus was just wondering whether they should seek help with the Monks in the Valley, when he became aware of a loud racket on the other side of the room. He stared open-mouthed as he watched Gwen, the third member of their little group, dancing on a table with a tankard in her hand. Gwen was a young bard who had decided to travel with them, and they greatly benefited from her local knowledge – she could find secret paths through thick forests, and she knew the location of every alehouse in the country. But she didn't share their talent for subtlety, and as he watched her swing her hips to the lute music, he knew that any hope of avoiding attention was lost. In addition, she'd fallen into a lake the day before, and had to borrow one of Julia's robes, and it was clear that she didn't know how to move in it – the men watching her performance were getting glimpses of things normally kept under wraps.
“Take the papers,” he told Julia as he got up. “Go to our rooms and wait there.” Once Julia had left, Marcus went over to Gwen. By putting his foot out and gently nudging the table, he pushed Gwen out of balance, and she stumbled to the side, leaning onto him as he held her to keep her from falling to the floor. “You've had a bit too much to drink, Gwen,” he told her gently. “I think it's time you went to bed.”
“N-nonsense,” she slurred as she tried to step away from him. “I'm going to dance."
He couldn't allow this to drag out, so with one swift motion, he lifted her up in his arms and carried her out of the room, trying his best not to draw attention. Of course, since most of the men in the room were staring at them, disappointed that the show was over, and since Gwen had started singing loudly, he wasn't very successful.
“Why are you ruining my fun?” she said accusingly as he carried her into the room that Julia and Gwen were sharing. Julia was sitting on a stool, watching them with a grin on her face. Marcus couldn't quite see the funny side of the situation.
He set Gwen down on her feet and glared at her. “We were supposed to get some rest here and NOT DRAW ATTENTION to ourselves. Do you remember that? Or did it get lost in your tankard, like the rest of your brain?”
She pouted. “I was only dancing a little,” she said, crossing her arms in front of her chest.
“You were dancing on a table, in a wizard's robe that is starting to come loose. Let me put it this way: if you'd been wearing panties, you'd be flashing them right now. I don't think there was a man in the house who wasn't enjoying the view.”
With an embarrassed blush, she tightened the robe, before trying to push past him. “I'm going to get another drink.”
He stopped her. “You're going to do no such thing. You're going to spend the rest of the evening in this room. Do a bit of reading, get some sleep, do what you want, but you're not leaving this room until you've sobered up.” She tried to push past him again, but again, he held her back. “If you don't stop this nonsense and sit down, I'm going to pull you across my knee and spank your bottom.”
Julia gasped loudly, the smile on her face growing wider, while Gwen blushed and almost seemed to lose her nerve. If he'd delivered this threat to Julia, she would have listened – she'd been over his knee enough times to know she didn't want a repeat performance. But Gwen didn't have her experience, and after a pause, she glared at him, trying her best to appear intimidating. “I don't remember asking you to pretend to be my father. Get out of my way.”
As she tried to push him aside, he grabbed her arm, stepping over to the bed as he dragged her behind him. She tried to resist, but as he sat down, he easily pulled her forward and tipped her over his lap. With one hand at her back, holding her down, he pulled the robe up, revealing her pale, white cheeks.
“You can't do this!” she yelled. “Let me up at once.”
Instead of answering her, Marcus just lifted his hand and started spanking her bottom. His hand moved from cheek to cheek, delivering firm, hard smacks that soon had her squirming over his lap.
“Are you going to pay attention now?” he said after a while, not pausing the spanking as he interrogated her. Her backside was beginning to turn pink under his palm, and Julia was giggling – she obviously found spankings hilarious when she wasn't the one getting them.
“Ouch! I'll be good, I promise. I'll just have a quiet pint in the corner, no one will notice me! Honest!” she said, trying to squirm out of his grip. It was futile.
“You're going to stay right here, in this room, young lady,” he said, delivering a particularly firm set of spanks to her sit spots. “And if I hear any more lip from you, you're going to find yourself back over my knee, and I'll take a wooden spoon to your bare bottom. Is that clear?”
“Ow! Yes, sir!”
“Her manners are improving. Maybe you should do this more often?” Julia suggested with a smile.
“Maybe you should worry more about your own tail before you find yourself facing the carpet again,” he told her. She just smiled, her eyes shining as she watched Gwen kick her legs from the pain.
“Let's try this one more time: are you going to be a good girl and stay in this room for the rest of the evening?”
“Owiee! Yes, sir, I promise!”
He smiled. “And what is going to happen if you don't?”
“Ow! You'll spank me, again, sir!”
“Good,” he said, and after a final volley of hard slaps on her quivering posterior, he helped her up. She cried into his shoulder as he rubbed her back, and she soon fell asleep in his arms. He put her to bed, and walked over to Julia. “Are the papers in the backpack?”
She nodded. “I think you're right, we should head to the Monks. Even if they can't give us anything but information, that information could be valuable.”
“Then, that's settled.” He nodded to the bard who was moving in her sleep, resting on her stomach. “If she tries to leave, stop her, and fetch me.”
“Will do.”
“By the way, if I learn you've been teasing her for this, I'm going to give you a thrashing that will make what you just saw, seem like love taps. Got that?”
“The thought never crossed my mind,” she said, with her best impression of an innocent woman.
“Of course not,” he told her. “I'm going to bed.”
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