The feeling of another’s warm flesh pressing against my left arm caused me to jerk instantly awake. Confused and bewildered, I glanced frantically left and right, staring at both the naked young beauties that were pressed up so tightly beside me, as the rain continued to pound relentlessly outside the cave which we’d stumbled across and taken refuge in late last night.

Never since I’d lost my wife to my first death, had I felt the soft warmth of a woman against m;, and never in either life had I felt the warmth of a woman on both sides of me before. Unable to resist the lure of my youthful morning vigor, I slowly turned to my right and draped my left arm around the girl there. The sleeping beauty in all the jewelry didn’t seem to notice as I gently caressed her soft stomach and played with the crisscrossed chains at her belly button.

Moving my hand upward ever so slightly, I gently caressed her stomach without disturbing her sleep. Reaching gently to feel the chain that hung so tantalizingly between her breasts…

“YAAAAAHHHHH!!” Arching her back, the jeweled girl gave a sudden squeal like the mewling of a newborn kitten, and her whole body suddenly tightened up, trembled violently several times, and then went limp.

“Sor.. Sorry!” Jerking my hand back as if it’d caught on fire, I had no idea what the hell I’d just did.

“It’s… It’s okay,” the girl panted breathlessly, as her body still trembled slightly. “Do.. Do whatever you want to… to me. That’s wha… what we agreed after all.” She was still panting and trembling from top to bottom.

“I think you have something all wrong,” I told her gently, as I slowly stroked a few pieces of dirty hair back away from her face. “I’m not going to do anything to you,” I gently tried to reassure her. “I’m just happy that I was able to set both of you free.”

“Free?” Jewel girl stared at me with wide eyes and the made a sound half between laugher and crying. “I’ll never be truly free again,” she whispered barely audibly. “I’ve already pledged myself to you, on mine and my family’s honor.”

“Oh…” Realization struck me like a thunderbolt. “You mean that stuff you were saying last night,” I reasoned? “I’m not an idiot,” I explained carefully. “I realize that was just the situation talking. I don’t expect you to actually be mine, or anything.” Waving my hands flippantly left and right, I did my best to show I considered it to be a non-issue. Even though a reward might be nice – particularly a piece or two of that jewelry – I certainly didn’t expect anybody to serve me for the rest of their days, just for saving them.

“It’s too late now,” jewel girl whispered softly. “I’ve already sworn to be yours. To undo it now would destroy what little remnants remain of my tattered honor. You may as well end me first; I’d prefer that fate over being an honorless nameless.” Hugging her knees up tightly to her chest, she slowly sat up and rocked back and forth as tears leaked down the side of her face.

“End you?” My mind couldn’t follow such a leap of logic, and my heart was wrenched by the forlorn expression of deep sadness that filled her eyes and face. “As in kill you?” I asked again, to make certain I understood.

Still rocking back and forth, jeweled girl just sadly nodded her head up and down, saying nothing.

“Never going to happen,” I told her firmly, staring directly into her saddened eyes. “In fact,” I coughed slightly to hide my embarrassment, then puffed my chest out as authoritatively as I could, “since it seems you’re going to be mine now, I’ve got a few ground rules for you.”

“First,” I pointed a finger directly at her, while adopting my most unwavering gaze, “there won’t be any more talk of ending any of us. There won’t be any attempts at it either,” I demanded. “No killing yourself. No hurting yourself. No drinking yourself stupid or doing drugs to forget about yourself.” I held up a single finger to emphasize each point as I ticked them off.

“And, just as importantly,” I suddenly added, thinking about it, “you won’t do – or even try to do – any of those things to me either.” Waiting a moment for my words to sink in, I finally asked, softly, “Understand?”

Without saying anything, she just nodded her head slightly and kept rocking slowly back and forth.

“Good.” Leaning my back up against the small cave wall – there really wasn’t enough room in this area to stand up – I held open my arms widely. “Then I guess your second order is to get over here and get used to snuggling in my arms, if you’re mine. It’s damn chilly in here – especially with the rain pouring down outside.”

Without saying anything, the jeweled girl – I honestly couldn’t remember what she’d named herself last night, and I didn’t want to ask right now and seem stupid – crawled on her hands and knees across the cavern, until she could sit herself directly in my lap. Wrapping my arms around her, she trembled violently several times.

“You must be freezing,” I sympathized, feeling the chill myself through my damp clothes. “Let’s get you warmed up,” I encouraged lightly, starting to rub my hands briskly across her body to get some warmth back into her.

In response, she only trembled harder while making a pitiful little mewling sound lightly.

How long we sat there together, I’m not exactly certain. After what I’d guess to be about fifteen minutes or so, Jewel quit whimpering and slumped limply in my arms. I guess getting some warmth back into her allowed her to succumb to her exhaustion. Not to let her get cold again, (and if I’m being honest, since I was really enjoying myself,) I kept gently massaging warmth into her ever trembling body. I’m going to have to get this jewelry off her soon. I couldn’t help but think the metal was probably conducting the cold and freezing her to death.

After a while, the other girl stretched and began to look around. Seeing the jeweled girl and myself together, she crawled over and pressed her body tightly against us. Wrapping her arms tight around both our torsos, she huddled up shamelessly, seeming not to care that I could feel her bare flesh against my arm. I guess when you’re cold enough, stuff like that doesn’t matter anymore.

“Sorry,” I apologized. “I’m afraid I didn’t pack any spare clothes or blankets. I really wasn’t expecting to be caught out in this weather and forced to hide in a damp crawlspace on a hillside.” Somehow, I couldn’t help but half laugh at how ridiculous the whole situation was. Nobody could’ve predicted a simple walk to town could end up like this!

Shrugging her shoulders slightly, Red didn’t say anything; only pressing her body tighter against both me and Jewel.

“Are you hungry? Can you talk? Are you hurt?” The questions came out of me one after the other. I simply was having a hard time dealing with having two women pressed so close at the same time.

Holding up one finger, the girl – I’d nicknamed her Red in my head, for now – nodded her head up and down slightly. Raising a second finger, she shook her head left to right and then pointed at Jewel and made a “Shhhhhh” sound before moving her finger to point back at herself. Then, after pausing a moment, she held up a third finger and slowly shook her head left and right again.

“If you’ll slide my pack over this way,” I pointed off to the side where I’d dropped it last night, “I’ve got food in it I can share.”

Nodding slightly, Red unwrapped her arms from around me and Jewel, and crawled on her hands and knees across the cramped crevice we were taking refuge in. Even though it shames me to admit it, I was unable to pull my gaze away from the silhouette of her body as the damp light from the entrance highlighted her passage across the chamber and back. Luckily, by her actions, it seemed like she either didn’t notice my gaze, or she didn’t care, as she passed the pack into my arms and then snuggled back up tightly afterwards.

“Shit. Shit, shit, shit!” Disappointment instantly filled me as I pulled the pack open and looked inside. “The bread’s completely ruined,” I bitched, pulling out a soggy mass of waterlogged brown mush.

Shrugging her shoulders, Red leaned forward and unhesitatingly wrapped her mouth around both my fingers. Completely ignoring the shock in my eyes, she pressed tightly up against my side, leaned so she could see into my pack, and scooped a whole handful of soggy bread out. Tilting her head back, she scarfed as much of it into her mouth as fast as she could – almost drinking the soggy mess instead of actually eating it – before reaching into the pack to repeat the process several more times.

Blinking repeatedly, I could hardly believe my eyes! Just how starved were these girls, anyway?? “You.. You don’t have to eat that,” I assured her, comfortingly. “I’ve still got sausage and cheese, with some other stuff safely in cans.”

If she heard me, she gave no indication as she continued to scoop out handfuls of soggy mush one after another and crammed them into her mouth for the next several minutes. Honestly, I thought the whole spectacle was utterly disgusting, but I didn’t have the heart to actually try and stop her. Never in both my lives had I ever felt the pains of hunger so badly that I could do as she was doing now.

Once she’d finally finished, Red slowly squirmed back a bit and then wiggled her body close again, getting comfortable and snuggling her head down into my neck and shoulder.

I rubbed my fingers comfortingly through her hair several times, working a few tight tangles out, without her moving or objecting in any way, before slowly letting go and digging into the pack for a sausage link for my own breakfast. Popping a huge chunk into my mouth, I gently reached over to stroke Red’s hair a little more, trying to comfort her as best I knew how.

“You don’t have to be afraid of me,” I reassured her gently. “I’m not going to hurt you. I’m not one of those bandit bastards,” I promised, hoping she could hear the sincerity in my voice, as I prodded, “Talk to me…”

“About damn time!” Sitting straight up, Red instantly interrupted me while half laughing. Seeing the shocked look on my face, her cheeks reddened and she hung her head slightly as she apologized. “Sorry, Mi’Lord. The Lady commanded me to silence and I couldn’t speak until released. Thank you for allowing me use of my voice again,” she said, respectfully.

“Umm… You’re welcome?” I really didn’t know what else to say.

For the next several hours, Red and I sat and spoke quietly together while Jewel slept fitfully in my arms as Red pressed herself tight against me to share our body heat. As unbelievable as the girls’ story was, I finally got to hear the whole thing for myself.

The only child of the prestigious Moonweaver family, Jewel was born into wealth, magic, and power. At the exact same time when Jewel was born -- and I was advised by Red to keep calling her Jewel and not by her actual name Marilyn, for some odd and unknown reason – Red was surgically cut from her mother’s womb. The blood of both births was collected, and an ancient blood ritual was used to tie them together forever as Mistress and Servant.

From the very first breath that Red drew in this world, she was destined to forever be Jewel’s. Raised as a combination lady, sister, protector, and slave, all wrapped in one, duty, honor, respect, and selfless servitude was relentlessly drilled into every mote of Red’s being.

And, since Jewel had pledged herself to being mine, that meant that Red was now all of those things for me as well. After all, Jewel commanded Red’s honor, and I commanded Jewel’s. All I need to do is command Jewel to give an order to Red, and she’d be honor bound to obey it.

“And, since I’m not so stupid as to be unable to understand that,” she told me matter of factly, “that means you’re MY Lord as well.” Planting her hands firmly on both sides of her hips, she unabashedly gave me a full view of her body as she stared directly into my eyes to make certain I could see how serious she was. “After all,” she chided me while deliberately swaying her waist teasingly, “why else do you think I’m even talking to you now? I certainly wouldn’t break my Lady’s order of silence for anyone else, now would I??” As she snorted her total derision at such and idea, I pulled her tightly back into my arms, and slowly rubbed up and down her back gently once again.

After that, we talked about what had happened to the two of them. They’d been walking on their way back to one of the academies in Burkshire as their school break was ending, when they’d gotten ambushed by what had seemed like an endless swarm of bandits. Overpowered and with their guards slaughtered before their eyes, both Red and Jewel were stripped and dragged off to the shack where I’d later found and rescued them.

Apparently they’d both been tortured by the bandits – Jewel much worse than her, Red assured me, though she refused to go into any details about it for now. “There’s nothing any of us can do to change anything right now, Mi’Lord,” she told me adamantly, “and I’m not going to increase your burdens needlessly, even if you order me too.”

Apparently, Red seems to have an awful lot of leeway to decide when she’s a slave and has to obey an order precisely, or when she’s a Lady and able to tell me to simply piss off!

Mewling pitifully, Jewel trembled like a leaf being blown by the wind, as she stretched and slowly opened her eyes while lying in my arms.

“Are you awake now?” I could see that she was, but I wanted to be nice and give her a chance to hide the fact, if she wasn’t ready to join in the conversation with me and Red.

“I am,” she whispered softly, while stretching and arching her body like a cat just waking up. To be honest, I was a little surprised. If I was in her position, I would’ve “played dead” for as long as possible to try and get a sense of the people around me, but she didn’t do that. Instead, she immediately admitted to being alert and even snuggled her body back against mine a little tighter.

“I’ve been speaking to Red while you were sleeping,” I informed her honestly, “and she’s filled me in with the details of what happened to the both of you. I’m truly sorry for your losses,” I told her, trying to offer as much sympathy and comfort with my voice as I possibly could, “but I’m truly not one of those bandits.”

“I’m just a plain hunter,” I truthfully explained, praying that she might eventually learn to believe me. After giving herself into what seemed to me, at least, to be a form of endless slavery, I really couldn’t blame her if she never actually came to trust me in her heart.

“I was on my way to Burkshire when I came across the remnant of the battle your guards had with the bandits,” I continued on in a rush, afraid that she might interrupt me and tell me I was full of shit or something. How could she believe I just happened to stumble upon them, sneak myself amongst a whole swarm of bandits, and then just happen to stand there like an idiot while she pledged herself to me, without setting her free until afterwards? Getting flustered by my own self-doubts, my voice faltered and I forgot what else I’d had planned to say.

Not raising her voice above the lowest creak, Jewel informed me, “It’s okay. It really doesn’t matter now.” Not knowing how to respond, I said nothing and we all sat in silence for several long minutes as neither Jewel nor Red seemed to have anything to say.

“Then… umm…” I coughed a few times to try and clear the awkward atmosphere, as well as to give strength back to my voice. “Since we’re not going to talk about the past anymore right now,” I said hopefully, “then let’s take a few moments to talk about the present and the future.”

“First, I wanted to walk about our current situation.” Ticking up a finger, I tried my best to sound like I was going to take care of the situation somehow. “For starters,” I informed both the girls, “we don’t have a lot of food and supplies on hand.”

“I’m sorry I don’t have any spare clothes for either of you,” I told them, honestly. After all, I’ll be the first to admit that I normally like to look at naked women, but I honestly couldn’t say lust was the greatest emotion evoked in me while staring at them – it was actually pity.

Naked, both were continually shivering from the damp darkness of the cave and the chill mist which blew in as the wind still whipped the rain in upon us, and both were covered in scratches and small scabs from cuts made as we rushed blindly in the dark away from the camp last night. It was honestly a divine miracle, in my opinion, that Red stumbled and tripped into the cave entrance here, as she had last night. If not for that, I don’t know when we would’ve stopped running, nor where we would’ve ended up taking refuge and hiding ourselves. Shaking my head slightly, all I could do is shrug apologetically at our current state of helplessness.

“I’m afraid if we try and make a fire of some sort, the smoke will give us away to an observer somehow,” I continued on, listing just another of my worried failures. They needed fire for warmth, and it was just my own fear that kept me from trying to get one started somehow. I’m not much of a man, in my own opinion.

“And, without a fire, we can’t see enough to move in any deeper into this cave to avoid the wind and rain better. Which,” I half laughed at the hopeless feeling that was trying to well up inside me, “leaves us with the problem of what the hell would actually happen if the bandits do happen to stumble upon us.” The torrential rain and storm had certainly destroyed any possible path of our passing, and tall weeds and shrubs helped make the entrance to the cavern here hard to see, but it wasn’t impossible to think that someone might notice. After all, we’d managed to stumble upon the place even in the dead of night.

“If they find us, we fight,” Red assured me, with a fire of determination in her eyes. “We fight until they die, or we die. It’s that simple.”

“They have armor, weapons, and sheer numbers,” I pointed out, a little fatalistically. “I really don’t want to die, and I don’t want either of you to die either. Let’s all pray to the Gods to keep us hidden for another few days, and we can get out of here in one piece when the storm ends.”

“Do you really think they’ll give up on us so easily as that,” Jewel whispered very softly. “Especially since we have so much of their wealth here with us?” Raising one hand, she shook it lightly, making the bangles on her wrist tinkle together mutely.

“I’m hoping so,” I told them both, while praying fervently that my assumptions were right. “After all, they’re a large group of bandits. They have to have a large bounty on their heads, if they’re brave enough to attack a group with knights and multiple guards.”

“And,” I pointed out, “they’ve got to know that we’re no more than a day or two’s walk from the city. If they can’t find the two of you shortly, they’ll have to be worried that you somehow made it to get help and that the guards will be sending a force out to investigate and purse them shortly.”

“We’re playing hide and seek with them,” I laughed ruefully, “while at the same time, they’ve got to play hide and seek with the guards. At this point, what we’re both facing is a contest of luck, perseverance, and courage. If we’re lucky and can persevere here until their courage gives out, then we’ll be safe. If they’re luckier than us however…” Gulping slightly, I left the rest of that thought unsaid.

Coughing a few times to clear the mood, I made a point to try and point out the bright side of things. “In some ways, we’re already lucky as hell,” I assured both the girls. “We’ve got enough food that we can stretch it to last for another day at least – even with all three of us sharing it – and that’s as long as it’d take somebody in a rush to make it to town.

“Second,” I ticked up a finger to illustrate my point, “the storm is still raging like crazy. It’s hid any trail of ours, and it’s bound to be sapping their morale as they wander around out there and look for us.

“And third,” I ticked up another finger again, “we’re fairly well concealed right where we’re at, so they’re going to have a hard time finding us. When you look at things in the proper light,” I laughed slightly, trying to sound optimistic, “we’re probably in the best position that we possibly hope for, for the moment.”

“So we basically just sit and wait it out,” Red asked, frowning her face up as if she didn’t like the idea very much.

“That’s about the best we can do for the moment,” I tried to reassure her. “Though I think we do need to get all this damn metal off Jewel so it’ll quit freezing her any worse than she already is.”

“Je.. Jewel?” Lifting her head, Jewel turned and stared quizzically into my eyes.

“Yeah,” I said, trying to pouch my chest out as manly as I possibly could. “Since you’re mine now, it’s only proper that I give you a new name. You’re going to be my Jewel, and,” pointing a finger to my left side, “she’s going to be my Red Ruby.”

“Jewel… Jewel… Jewel…” Jewel repeated the name several times, as if to test how it felt on the tip of her tongue, and then she nodded her head slightly. “Then I’ll be your Jewel,” she agreed, nodding her head slightly, before asking, “but can I ask one thing at least? What’s your name, Mi’Lord?”

“Uhhh…” I can’t believe that I hadn’t even introduced myself to either of the girls yet, at this point! Blushing lightly, I bowed my head slightly to hide my face. “Tomas. Tomas Freeman, at your service,” I finally introduced myself.