The Distant Queen

by Terry Volkirch

This story is mainly about a romance between two young women who are from two different worlds. It's a fantasy story with some adventure but there are no mythical creatures and there isn't a lot of magic. It's really a sweet and tender romantic comedy with a mostly happy ending.

In chapter 8 (of 11), the two women are off to a rocky start. Gabrielle runs into serious trouble and Marie tries to deal with a serious issue that she's had to put off for far too long.

Chapter 8

It took a good hour to reach the edge of the city, and another three hours to make it past a patchwork of farms and ranches before they could begin to enjoy the scenes that nature had to offer in the southern hills. The two women stopped for a short rest at the top of a couple different hills to look at the view, though for Marie, it was a more serious activity. As trees became less and less common, she looked ahead for rock formations where they could sleep in safety.

The day was fairly hot and the women took advantage of every small stream they came across. They drank from their containers and refilled them in the streams. Marie even threw caution to the wind at one point and splashed Gabi. The small woman pretended it was accidental but her giggling gave it away. It was a good thing she had a relatively light load and could escape her tall friend's halfhearted attempts at revenge.

The language lessons continued. There wasn't much else to do anyway. They reviewed the various features and objects in the city to reinforce the words. Then Marie tested Gabi's memory of her wilderness vocabulary. Satisfied with the results, they finally moved on to casual conversation.

They resumed their talk about magic and their current destination. Earlier, before they reached the city, Gabi had managed to convey that it was magic that brought her to this world over a vast distance so she was sure only magic could get her home. Marie kept that in mind when she searched through the books at the book shop, and everything she'd heard so far only confirmed that she'd selected the right book.

The book mentioned a device called a portal that could send people across the vastness of space and included maps to locate the portal. The small woman was relatively ignorant when it came to astronomy but intelligent enough to see that the book held potential. The only problem concerned the disturbing matter of security at the magic site.

She didn't understand much of what was written about the security measures. All she could go on were the few diagrams, some of which displayed a great magic warrior who literally crushed every attempt to use the portal. The giant warrior only allowed authorized personnel access to the site, and if the warrior still lived, it would be difficult if not impossible to get past it. Being magical, Marie believed the warrior would still be alive and she chewed her lower lip with worry.

Gabi wasn't too concerned until she looked at the pictures in the book. The giant warrior was drawn to be as tall as a small tree, and it was shown to have the power to hurl large boulders across a wide river. It would be suicidal to fight something that large and strong. She couldn't tell the gender of the warrior from the drawings but even if it was male, her magic would be useless against it. The large female version would likely be just as overpowering.

"We plan when we see the place," the queen suggested, still struggling with the foreign language. "Our fears are worthless if huge warrior is gone."

Marie understood and nodded agreement. "I am still concerned," she said, carefully using a word her friend had only recently learned.

"I am concerned also," Gabi said. "I don't want to kill or be dead."

* * *

The first night of their journey, they camped on a rocky outcropping high on the side of a hill where Marie found a horizontal crevice. The crevice opened into a small cave that was large enough for the pair to sleep in. The short brunette assured her nervous friend that they'd be safe from mogrons and other large predators.

They collected dry sticks and made a campfire farther down the hill on level ground to cook dinner. Since fish were hard to come by in the dry southern hills, Marie resorted to another method to catch a meal. She called for one.

As Targ, she loved exploring far from the city when she was off duty, and several years ago, she met a nice old man who shared a secret. The old man had carved a small hollow wooden object that would make an odd noise when blown into, and the noise would call a certain type of burrowing animal -- a very stupid animal called a niggler.

It wasn't clear why the noise attracted the animal, but it worked very well. All Marie needed to do was find a burrow just after sunset, when the animal would most likely be inside, and call it. The niggler call would work just before dawn too but Marie wasn't an early riser. She rarely got up early enough to use it in the morning.

The first burrow they came across appeared to be empty but shortly after trying a second burrow, a fat waddling animal with a small head, gray fur and a long bushy tail poked its head out. Marie promptly clubbed it and dinner was served. It was that easy. The resourceful native also dug up some plentiful root nuts to go with the meat, which was ironic because root nuts were the favorite food of the niggler.

After finishing their meal, Gabi got a chance to use her brush and comb. It took nearly an hour to work out all the tangles in her long hair but when she'd finished, Marie was awestruck. The tall woman's wavy hair shimmered a golden brown in the firelight. The small brunette had never seen such a beautiful sight, especially in the dim light of a campfire.

That night, Marie dreamed of Gabi, and Gabi ... well, her astral form went back to her queendom of course.

* * *

"Welcome back, my Queen," Muriel said from Gabrielle's favorite chair.

"Welcome back!" Heloise and Beth chimed in.

Gabrielle concentrated and once more tried to speak. She worked on it a little before arriving and managed to croak out a couple words, so she tried again.

"Thanks," she said. It was barely a whisper but it was audible.

The handmaidens squeaked in surprise but Muriel simply nodded. The old mystic had patiently waited for the new development.

"Right," Muriel said as she stood up to address the group. "There won't be any speeches any time soon but we can spread word that our queen is nearly recovered." Then she moved closer to Gabrielle and spoke so that only the tall woman could hear. "It's about time," and she followed more loudly with, "I knew you could do it."

The queen improved her speech slowly but steadily. She first tried one word at a time until her voice was loud and clear enough to be easily heard across the hall. Short sentences came easily soon after and, with constant practice, it wasn't long before she could speak normally.

"So how has our royal healer, the good Bartholomew, fared?" Gabrielle asked. It was her longest sentence up to that point and Heloise had to suppress the urge to clap.

"He woke up with a headache and a foul disposition not too long ago," Muriel chuckled. "We've kept him informed but he's shown no desire to examine you again."

"His mood should improve after he hears me speak," the queen said. "Beth?"

"Yes, my Queen?"

"Please summon him. I'd like to thank him for working so hard on my cure."

"Yes, my Queen," Beth said, turning to go before Gabrielle had finished speaking. The brunette handmaiden had an annoying habit of not waiting for someone to finish speaking before she acted. It was hard to be angry with her enthusiasm though.

Muriel muttered something about catering to the ego of the small-minded man but she changed her mind when the queen shot her a disapproving glance.

"Always the diplomat," the old woman said.

"Always," the queen said with a graceful nod.

With Bartholomew's ego back in perfect health, there wasn't much else for Gabrielle to do for the moment. Her loyal little group scurried away to work on plans to help her get back to running the queendom, leaving her alone for a little rest.

The solid astral queen plopped down in her favorite chair, squirmed a little and sighed. It was good to be home, even for the limited time that her body slept back on Agrin.

* * *

The next morning, the odd pair finished off the remaining niggler meat and root nuts from the night before and got an early start. Gabi was anxious to make progress.

The portal appeared close to the city on the large scale map, but after comparing the landmarks that appeared along the way to the landmarks on the map and gauging their progress, the pair ascertained a more accurate distance. At the rate they traveled, it would likely take at least two weeks to reach their destination.

Gabi wasn't pleased about that. Marie took it all in stride though. The small brunette wasn't anxious to leave her world and yet she realized that her only reasonable option was to stay with her friend. That meant she'd welcome a long journey. It would give her a chance to enjoy her world that much longer before she left.

* * *

The next several days were much the same. Gabi ran her queendom by night and marched ever closer to the place of magic by day. Marie continued the language lessons and the conversation flowed like the large stream they suddenly came upon early one morning.

The long line of trees should've alerted the small brunette to the possibility of the stream but she was too busy talking to her friend to notice. She should've paid more attention.

Marie knew that it was usually early in the morning when mogrons had a last drink of water before they retired to their dens for the day. So it was on that day. The two women interrupted a mogron having a drink.

The large animal didn't notice them until they were almost upon it. It couldn't hear them over the sound of the burbling water and its own slurping. It only heard them when Marie shrieked and practically flew up a nearby tree.

Gabi was amazed by her friend's quick thinking and fast climb up the tree. She'd seen Marie climb trees before but it was only fear of the mogron that inspired such a fast climb. Unfortunately, the distraction gave the mogron more than enough time to act.

The large cranky animal lunged at Gabi, surprising her and knocking her on her back. Then it crawled on top of the tall woman, pawing at her and moving up to head level for the kill.

The strong woman managed to push back on the mogron's neck to keep it from biting her face, and her magic leathers kept the pawing from doing little more than cause some slight bruising, but she couldn't keep the animal at bay forever. She couldn't pull her sword since she was lying on it, and there was no way she could spare a hand to grab her knife. She was in some serious trouble.

"Marie!" Gabi cried. "Do something!"

"What?!"

"Anything!"

The tall woman was nearly spent and soon found screaming too difficult. She gasped for breath and conserved what little energy she had left, waiting for help.

Marie clung to a thick branch directly above her friend, but she couldn't think, and her friend's cries only served to rattle her all the more.

"Hey! Up here!" the small, desperate woman shouted, trying to distract the mogron. "Up here you stupid beast!"

The mogron ignored her and Marie started getting angry. It wouldn't ignore her if she threw things at it or dropped something heavy on it. Then she thought, why not me?

As the small warrior woman remembered her training, she positioned herself better for dropping on the savage animal and finally remembered one more important fact. She had a very long dagger in her belt.

With a fancy but quick flourish, she pulled her dagger out and screamed as she left the security of the tree and dropped on the mogron. The dagger embedded up to the hilt just to the left side of the spine, where she knew the animal's heart was located, and the blade was just long enough to do the job. The mogron slumped and died, leaving a strange sandwich of bodies.

"Get ... off," Gabi croaked, reminding her friend the task wasn't quite finished yet.

Marie rolled off the pile and helped her friend crawl out from under the heavy mogron. It was over, or at least she thought it was over, but with the adrenaline rush fading, the small woman started trembling and sat down hard on the ground. Then she found herself desperately trying to keep from crying. She had a very strong urge to cry. Why? Why was she so upset? She'd killed several mogrons before and didn't react like this. What was so different this time?

Everything was different. Her gender was wrong. Climbing up the tree in fear was wrong. Taking so long to save Gabi was so very wrong. Gabi could've died!

That didn't make sense though. She'd lost friends before, and she'd lost family. She even lost her father several years ago, but she never cried. She was a man, damn it. Men didn't cry!

Gabi watched the play of emotions across her friend's face and knew what to do. She squatted on the ground near where her friend sat in the dirt and hugged the distraught woman. That's all it took.

Marie cried for several minutes, stopping only briefly to chastise herself for crying before starting again. She couldn't stop herself until she got it out of her system.

When she finally did stop, her anger returned with a vengeance. She unfastened her belt and wrapped it around her chest to bind her breasts. Next, she grabbed a sock from her pack and stuffed it down the front of her pants. She even rubbed dirt on her face, all to look more manly.

Her little act fooled no one, not even herself, but she kept at it. She kicked at the dirt, and she kicked the mogron several times, screaming obscenities at it, blaming it for her current state of mind. Then she did a shocking thing. She walked over to where Gabi quietly sat and she tried to kiss her friend, roughly as she thought a man should.

Gabi pushed her away.

"No," the tall, strong woman told her confused friend. "Not like this." But that last part only served to confuse herself. Why did she say that? What did she mean by it? She couldn't accept Marie's love -- not when she was so close to getting home. She had to get home, and nothing would get in the way of that goal.

The small woman's eyes got teary again. She was about to lose it one more time. The gender confusion, the rejection, the pain of her bound breasts, her whole life conspired against her, making her weak in spirit as well as body. She couldn't trust herself anymore. She didn't even know who she was!

Gabi saw it coming and got up on her knees, grabbing the woman in a strong hug. She figured it would be better in that position. Her friend would be less embarrassed if Gabi couldn't see the tears rolling down dirty cheeks to leave little streaks of mud.

When there were finally no more tears to squeeze out, it was Marie's turn to push away. She quickly returned her belt and extra sock to their proper places and went down to the stream to clean her face. She'd be okay now, she told herself. She had to be okay because her friend needed her.

Marie came back to sit and watch the tall woman, cutting and wrapping lean sections of mogron meat to take with them. She could do the job herself but she enjoyed sharing the chores, and she was fascinated by slight differences in technique. It was a welcome distraction too.

"Here," Gabi said, pulling the dagger from the beast's back and holding it out to Marie. "Take your dagger."

The distracted small woman took it and started to slip it in her sheath when her friend spoke up again.

"Clean dagger first?"

"Right," the embarrassed brunette muttered. "I knew that."

When the meat was packed, Gabi cleaned her knife and then her hands and face before turning to her small friend.

"Ready to go?"

Marie gave her friend a faint smile and they resumed their journey.

* * *

With an estimated five days left to reach the portal, Gabi thought it was time to bring up a subject that she'd postponed after the mogron incident. She needed to get her friend in fighting shape.

Marie had proven herself with her first show of battle skill since becoming a woman, but that was only a very brief test. The warrior queen needed to know she could count on the small woman to defend herself in a prolonged battle.

"You killed the mogron well," Gabi started. "Can you fight with a dagger?"

The small woman shrugged and looked at the ground. The memories of her meltdown still left a bad taste in her mouth. She didn't care to relive the pain.

"Please," the warrior woman persisted. "Battle skill is important."

Marie looked up to stare into Gabi's eyes and the evident pain was almost too much for the queen to bear.

The small brunette mercifully looked down again suddenly. "I know how to fight," she muttered.

"Show me," the tall warrior challenged.

Marie shrugged again but she got up and pulled her dagger from its sheath. She looked at the steel blade, briefly admiring its simplicity and deadly functionality before dropping into a fighting stance. It was time to spar.

Gabi tried to keep the fight fair by using her knife, but with her greater reach and superior strength, the chance of dominating the sparring match was still greatly in her favor.

They started with simple slashes and parries. That worked well enough so they moved to double combinations and slowly advanced to nonstop action. Both women held their weapons such that the blade pointed back towards their elbow and both used the same fighting style. Unfortunately, the style favored a stronger combatant.

Gabi tested Marie by leaving her midsection open to a punch or kick and Marie took the bait. The smaller woman parried a slashing attack and punched her partner as hard as she could.

The strong, tall woman stopped and looked down with disgust, first at her stomach and then at her opponent.

"Was that supposed to hurt me?"

Marie didn't respond. She knew it didn't faze Gabi but the punch was like an automatic reflex. It was the way she was trained to fight.

"You fight like a man," Gabi spat.

"I fight well," the small brunette retorted.

"You are not strong enough to fight like a man."

"What do you suggest? What do you want? I don't know what you want."

"I want you to defend yourself ... if you are attacked ... and I can't help you." Gabi tried to make herself clear but the different language still slowed her down.

Marie understood what her friend was trying to tell her, but she didn't know what to do about it. As a man, she'd been trained to use her great strength to enhance her battle skill, and now, without her strength, her technique was no longer effective.

The warrior queen had trained enough weaker women in her queendom to know what to do. She just needed a willing pupil, something Marie wasn't quite ready to be just yet. The fight training would have to come another day, but it would come. The seed had been planted.