My Enemy Taught Me to Shoot and to Desire Her

The midday light shimmered over the wet grass and the birdsong mingled with the whisper of the wind through the trees. It would have been a beautiful day if I hadn’t been naked, bound at the wrists and ankles, with my breasts flattened against the rough wood of a table.

The laughter of the huntresses surrounded me. They were jeers, not joy. The yellow pennants of the Empire of Veldoria fluttered above the tents, and I, a prisoner of the Kingdom of Cáseren, was the finest trophy they had captured in weeks.

—Poor stupid girl —said a voice above me—. This will teach you not to stick your nose where it doesn’t belong.

The slap turned my face against the wood. When I managed to focus, I saw the woman who commanded that camp. Brunilda. I knew it without anyone telling me: she had the bearing of someone used to being obeyed. A leather hat, a red tunic that matched the cold blue of her eyes, and a long musket slung over her shoulder as if it were part of her body.

Veldoria and Cáseren had hated each other for generations. Not even their own people could stand one another, and Brunilda seemed to enjoy every second of my humiliation. She crouched beside me, let the weapon rest on her shoulder, and yanked the gag from my mouth.

—Very well, Cáseren bitch. I don’t care what your name is, but I’ll make you an offer. See this? —she tapped the musket barrel with a finger—. Plenty still use bows and crossbows. We modernize. Tomorrow there’ll be a shooting contest. If you enter and fail, we’ll tie you up in the middle of camp and have our fun with you all night.

It wasn’t an offer. It was another way to humiliate me, only more elegant. But she wasn’t expecting my answer.

—My name is Irene, filth —I spat—. And I’d gladly accept if it means wiping that smile off your face. Too bad I have no idea how to shoot.

Brunilda laughed. She stood, walked over to one of the women set apart from the rest, and pointed at her. That huntress didn’t fit in with the others. While the rest wore brown shirts and cloth hats, she had on a black leather coat and a hat of the same color, as if spring never touched her. She had brown hair, filthy from the road, and a gaze that seemed tired of everything.

—Listen up! —Brunilda shouted, jumping up onto the table and planting one foot on my head—. Five gold doubloons for the best shot. Three shots each. And to keep the spirit alive, our guest from Cáseren will compete too. —There was silence, then laughter—. Nadia, do me the favor of giving this thing some private lessons.

The woman in black leather, Nadia, pressed her lips together. She didn’t like the idea. But an order from Brunilda was an order.

***

When Brunilda finally left, Nadia lifted me into her arms as if I weighed less than her musket and carried me across the camp. We passed tables loaded with jugs, fires where whole animals were roasting, drunk huntresses whistling as I went by. I didn’t look up.

Her tent was at the back. Inside, it was pleasantly warm, almost cozy, until she dropped me onto a sleeping sack and my body bounced against the floor. I lay stunned, still tied up.

Nadia knelt in front of me.

—Look, I’m not an idiot and neither are you. You’re in a huge mess. But I can help you, if you help me.

I stared at her for a long time without answering, measuring the tent, the exits, her hands.

—And if you take this off first? —I said at last.

—Fair enough. But don’t try anything stupid or you’ll regret it.

She pulled out a knife and the blade passed so close to my wrists that I held my breath. The ropes gave way. Then those at my ankles. As soon as I felt free, I stood up and my way of thanking her was a punch straight to her face.

—You think I’d help a Veldorian rat? —I growled.

Her nose was bleeding, but she didn’t even flinch. She slammed into me with humiliating ease and, before I could react, I was already beneath her, my tits jostling in the struggle, her knees pinning my hips.

—Easy —she said, without anger—. I don’t want to hurt you. I really do want to help you.

—If that’s true, why do you have me like this?

She rolled her eyes and let me go.

—Because you just hit me. Relax and I’ll give you some clothes.

I thought about it. The offer was all I had. She handed me a green tunic and brown trousers, dirty but dry. I dressed with my back to her, feeling all the while the weight of her gaze fixed on my naked ass and on the wetness still glistening between my thighs from the mere friction of the struggle.

—What now? —I asked.

Nadia took up her musket and displayed it with a kind of pride. The silver details shone against the dark wood.

—Now I teach you how to shoot. Though I suspect we’re going to have to cheat.

***

We spent the afternoon in the forest and it was a disaster. Nadia explained how to pour the powder, seat the ball, prime the pan, and I was lost before the second step. I fired at a tree ten meters away and didn’t even graze it.

—Impossible. You’re awful at this —she sighed.

—Sure, sorry I’m not learning to shoot like a professional in one afternoon.

She put a hand on my shoulder and gave me almost affectionate little pats.

—Forget it. We’ll move on to plan B. Go rest. Tonight we’ll head out without anyone seeing us.

I slept in fits and starts. When the sky was already black, Nadia woke me with a gentle tap to the leg.

—Up. Only with audacity does grace get reached —she said, with a strange energy, almost feverish—. Come on, quickly.

I followed her, still drowsy, deep into the forest.

—Why the rush? We could get lost.

—That’s exactly what you want, isn’t it? To get lost for a while away from camp.

It wasn’t a question. We reached a clearing, lit only by the moon, and there I stopped. Nadia loaded the weapon with a bullet unlike the others: gold, bright, as if the light came from inside it.

—Here. Try this.

I aimed at the sky, nervous, and fired. The crack shattered the silence and, a moment later, an eagle fell from the air wrapped in its own feathers.

—What a shot. We’re winning tomorrow for sure.

—How is that possible? —I panted—. I didn’t aim at anything. How did you do that?

Nadia set the musket aside and sat on a stone table that, I don’t know how, was already arranged in the middle of the clearing, set with a jug and two cups.

—I’ll gladly tell you. But first you have to do something for me. —She filled a cup with a thick red liquid—. Drink.

—What is it?

—Just wine. Drink.

She said it so firmly that I obeyed. I drank it all in one swallow, and at once warmth spread through my belly and legs, a sweet dizziness that loosened my knees. And something else: a hot throbbing between my legs, a stab of desire that kept me from thinking of anything else. I felt my nipples hardening beneath the tunic without anyone touching them, felt my cunt starting to wet without permission, as if my body had decided to come before my head.

—What did you give me? —I murmured.

Nadia came closer. Her hands began to roam over my body, unfastening the tunic she herself had lent me.

—Just enjoy it —she whispered in my ear—. And thank Vexel.

***

I didn’t stop her. I don’t know whether it was the wine, the exhaustion, or something in her voice, but by the time the tunic fell to the ground I already had my hands on her coat, tugging it until her skin pressed against mine. Nadia tore it off without taking her eyes off me, and underneath she wore nothing. Her breasts were smaller than mine, firm, with dark nipples already stiff from the night air. She pressed against me and I felt those nipples dig into mine, tip to tip, hot in the freezing air, and our mouths met with an urgency I hadn’t planned on feeling. Her tongue pushed into my lips all at once, without asking, while one of her hands grabbed a breast and pinched the nipple between two fingers until I moaned into the kiss.

We fell to the clearing floor, onto the crumpled clothes. Nadia ended up on top, holding my wrists above my head with one hand alone. This time I didn’t resist.

—Not so rebellious anymore —she murmured, amused.

Her tongue traced down my neck, over my collarbone, to my tits. She closed her lips over one nipple and sucked slowly, licking it hungrily, circling it with her tongue, then just barely bit down enough to wrench a moan from me that I couldn’t swallow. She moved to the other breast and repeated it, harder, until both my nipples were red and shining with saliva. There was no one who could hear me. I was completely at her mercy, and I discovered I liked it.

—Open up —she ordered against the nipple, biting me again.

I spread my legs without thinking. Her thigh slid between them and began rubbing my cunt, gently at first, measuring each of my reactions, and then more insistently as I arched against her. I was soaked and she knew it. I could feel my wetness dampening her skin, my cunt opening against her thigh as if it had a mind of its own.

—Look at you —she said—. Spitting at me all morning and now opening up for me like a bitch in heat.

She let go of my wrists and moved down my body with kisses, biting my belly, my hip, the inner part of my thighs. When her breath struck my cunt I jolted. She laughed and blew on me slowly, cruelly, before pressing her mouth against me.

Her tongue opened my lips with one long lick, from bottom to top, and stopped at my clit with a suction that made my hips lift off the ground. I screamed. She didn’t let up. She sucked me with everything she had, lips sealed around the bud, tongue working over it, and at the same time she slid two fingers into my cunt. I felt them enter all the way to the bottom without resistance, slipping in my own wetness.

—You’re dripping broken —she panted against my cunt—. You’re going to come in my mouth, Irene.

—Nadia, please…

—Please what. Say it.

—Keep sucking me —I begged, not recognizing my own voice—. Don’t stop, eat my cunt, please.

She plunged her face back between my legs. Her fingers began to fuck me in time with her tongue, in and out, curling against a spot deep inside I hadn’t even known existed. I writhed over the clothes, gripping her hair with both hands, pushing her face into my cunt because I wanted more, more tongue, more fingers, more of everything.

I came in a spasm that shook me from waist to feet. I felt my cunt clenching around her fingers, a hot gush escaping and wetting her chin, my legs trembling uncontrollably while she kept licking, drawing my orgasm out until she had to beg me with her hips to stop.

She climbed back over me, her mouth shining with my wetness, and kissed me. She made me taste myself on her tongue.

—Now you —she said, straddling my face.

She lowered her cunt over my mouth without giving me time to think. It was hot, swollen, and had a strong scent that made me dizzy. I stuck out my tongue and ran it up and down, clumsily, not knowing what I was doing. She guided me with her hips.

—Suck my clit. There. Harder, don’t be shy.

I closed my lips around the bud and sucked the way she had done with me. Nadia moaned above me, grabbed my hair, and began to move against my mouth, riding my face. Her wetness streamed down my chin, down my neck. I shoved my tongue into her cunt as far as I could, and she started fucking my mouth with her hips, faster and faster, until I felt her trembling. She came over my tongue with a muffled cry, biting her lip so she wouldn’t scream, squeezing my face between both thighs until I could almost suffocate.

She collapsed beside me, panting, my chest rising and falling next to hers.

—Looks like you couldn’t take it anymore, huh? —she said, brushing the hair off my forehead—. Don’t worry. You’ll finish paying me later.

—What did you really give me? My head’s still spinning.

—An aphrodisiac. Nothing serious. It’ll pass.

I didn’t like the answer, but it was too late to be outraged.

***

—It’s midnight —she said, standing and dressing halfheartedly—. Time.

She lit a small fire in the center of the clearing and placed a lead skillet over it. I watched her without understanding.

—Girl from Veldoria… I mean, from Cáseren —she corrected herself, smiling—. It’s well known that at this hour magic flows freely. You wanted to know how you hit the shot? It was an enchanted bullet. And now I’m going to make more.

I sat by the fire, speechless. Nadia stretched her arms toward the moon and closed her eyes like someone beginning a prayer.

—Before the night turns gray… Vexel. Vexel! Appear, by the old sorcerer’s skull.

The fire roared. The red turned into a deep green, so intense it lit up the trees around us. She dropped seven bullets into the skillet.

—Vexel, bless these bullets seven times. Guide them, Vexel.

In seconds the flames scattered and I fell backward, my heart hammering against my chest.

—What was that? What did I just see?

—That was them being ready now.

She gathered the bullets with a cloth. They were icy cold, as if they had come out of the bottom of a river in winter. The air had grown heavy, the night colder.

—Time to go back. And not a word to anyone, Irene. Understood?

I could only nod.

***

That night it took me longer to sleep than any other. Not because I was afraid, but because of everything my body still remembered. Nadia noticed. She made me climb into her narrow bed and wrapped an arm around me.

—You’re restless. You don’t have to say anything. Let me help you.

This time it was different. There was no aphrodisiac, no struggle, no mockery. Her caresses came slowly, almost shyly, and the kisses came on their own. Her mouth lingered on mine, sucking my lower lip, easing her tongue in with calm, as if we had all night. Her hands lifted my nightdress to my armpits and lingered a while just on my tits, grabbing them whole, squeezing them, sucking my nipples one after the other until they turned rock hard.

Then she moved down my belly with kisses until she found me, and her fingers entered me with a softness I hadn’t expected from someone so hard. First one, turning slowly inside my cunt, searching. Then two, opening me carefully. Her fingers went in and out of me, making a wet sound that seemed enormous in the tent’s silence.

—You can tell you love this —she whispered, her mouth at my ear—. You’re wet again already. You can feel it running, can’t you?

I said nothing. I just touched her, tracing her back and hips with the clumsiness of someone doing something like this for the first time with a woman who, the morning before, had been her enemy. I slid my hand between our bodies until I found her cunt, still swollen from the clearing. I ran my fingers over her wet lips and she moaned against my neck. I slipped one finger into her, then two, imitating what she was doing to me. We stayed like that, the two of us fucking each other with our hands at the same time, mouth to mouth, tongues tangled together.

Before, we wanted each other dead. Now we were tangled under the same blanket, my fingers inside her cunt and hers inside mine, moving at the same slow rhythm until we both started trembling.

—Please, don’t stop —was the only thing I managed to say, my voice broken.

She pressed her thumb to my clit and began rubbing it in circles while she kept sliding her fingers in and out of me. I dug my nails into her shoulder. I felt another orgasm coming, deeper than the ones in the clearing, rising from my belly. I came silently into her hand, biting the pillow so I wouldn’t wake the whole camp, while I felt her come too over my fingers, tightening around them inside with hot spasms.

Her mouth fused with mine in a long kiss, her tongue seeking mine, sinking all the way in. When she pulled away, a thread of saliva linked us for an instant.

—Better? —she asked, stroking my hair with the same hand she’d just pulled from my cunt, leaving the scent of my own wetness on my forehead.

At last we managed to sleep, both of us, my head on her chest.

***

The sun woke us with the sound of the huntresses arming themselves and laughing outside.

—Time —said Nadia, already on her feet, taking the musket and the pouch of cold bullets—. I hope you’re ready.

We went out together. In the center of camp, Brunilda was shouting to the heavens.

—Friends, the time has come for the shooting contest! And here they are… the stars of the show! —She pointed at us with a sneer—. Why don’t you dazzle us with a shot, huh?

Nadia showed me a deer far off among the trees. I loaded the weapon with trembling hands. The others laughed at my clumsiness. I aimed for a few seconds, fired, and the blast covered everything. The deer collapsed. The laughter cut off at once.

—Lucky beginner —Brunilda said, frowning—. Now that eagle.

I reloaded, shaking, unable to steady the barrel, and still the eagle fell from the sky. Before Brunilda finished speaking, four more bullets flew out, one after another, toward a boar, a duck, a dove, a hare. Each one hit its mark.

Brunilda looked at me and I knew she had understood. Her blue eyes narrowed.

—To win, shoot that black crow.

The bullet flew. It hit the mark, yes, but not the crow. It hit Nadia, who was standing beside me. I saw her stagger and fall.

—Magic bullets, huh? —I whispered, kneeling beside her, pressing both hands to the wound in her side.

The seventh bullet had found the only person in that camp who truly mattered to me. The others closed the circle, ready to lynch me, but Nadia rose with brutal effort, one hand over the wound.

—I saw it —she panted, loud enough for everyone—. She hit every shot. She complied. She won. Pay her and let her go.

Brunilda clenched her jaw. Reluctantly, she threw the coins at my feet. But I didn’t pick them up. I ran to Nadia and pressed her side again.

—Sweetheart, that’s enough. You can go —she murmured.

—I don’t want to go without you.

There was an uncomfortable silence. Some of the huntresses lowered their gazes, moved despite themselves. But neither of us belonged there anymore.

As evening fell, with Nadia’s wound bandaged and the five coins tucked away, we left the yellow pennants behind. I didn’t go back to Cáseren. She didn’t stay in Veldoria. We walked together toward the horizon, toward a dawn that belonged to no empire, only to the two of us.