To Lunambra Pt. 03: To Freedom

She stood up as quickly as she could, making her way to the horses. Nicolas came up behind her, offering his hands as a step. She kept facing away from him as she mounted the animal. Her dress rode up in front of her, and she pulled it close to cover up the colossal bulge. The guards mounted up again and took their places around her, and they rode on.

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Chapter Eight - The Other Side

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Sabina smiled to herself as she watched Queen Jenara arch her back, hike up her dress, and send a spurt of pee through the air with the force of a crossbow bolt. She was equally amused by the two guards who were watering the grass, and she felt herself dampen as she watched them. She pressed her hand between her legs and thumbed herself through her thin cotton pants, biting her lip to stay quiet. The show ended too soon with them lacing up their greaves and returning to their watch. Sabina wished that she could relieve herself as well, but she needed to stay full. She had to be awake to follow them when they departed, and if she was comfortable, she would be at risk of falling asleep. And so she decided to use the pressure in her belly as a method to keep herself awake.

As she was, her bladder was solid and pressing against her belt. She unbuckled the length of leather, and grinned as she saw her belly expand with its newfound freedom. She wasn't bursting yet, but she knew that was going to change soon as her mouth was dry and thirsty. She silently made her way to the river, drinking as much as she could without vomiting. She returned to her spot and sat down, curling her knees in front of her and wrapping her arms around them. She shivered, not from cold, but from the unnatural silence and darkness of the night. All she could see was the Queen and her guards, lit by a fire pit that illuminated a radius of about six meters in every direction, casting looming shadows over the grass. Sabina was on the other side of the river, so close to them all, yet perfectly hidden in the pure darkness.

She let her mind wander for some time, watching the Queen's constant but slight squirming. She must be really desperate, Sabina thought. She was nearly wetting herself when she came into my house this morning, and she's been under guard the whole time since then. She has to have had some water since then as well. I wonder how much she's got in there... Sabina poked at her hard belly, feeling twangs of pressure with each jab. It feels so nice. I can't believe I only learned of these sensations so recently. She kept prodding her bladder, harder each time, and clenched her fist as she felt a small trickle leak out of her and soak into her pants.

Ohh, I can't let it all out or I'll fall asleep, but I'm definitely going to leak... She grasped the waistband of the cotton pants, sliding them down her thighs and bunching them by her feet. She sat like this with her privates in the open air, waiting for over an hour. She dribbled a little every few minutes, despite trying as hard as she cold to hold it all in. I know I don't have to hold it all, just enough to keep me awake. I'm just doing it for fun, but it keeps leaking out no matter how hard I try to hold on. How is the Queen staying dry with so much inside of her? Is she that much stronger than me?

Sabina leaned back and squeezed her legs together, placing her right hand between her thighs and pressing her middle finger along her slit, pushing on her pee hole. I'm not going to let any more out. I have to learn to hold it better. I'm already better than most people, but I'm nowhere near the level of Jenara or even Marina. At least I outlasted those guards... Her willful thoughts didn't do much in practice, as just thirty minutes later she was covered in sweat and her whole body was shaking in desperation. She gasped as a spurt forced its way past her finger. She twisted her legs together and curled up on the grass with both hands shoved between them. Despite her desperation, she was very horny. She managed to slide one finger into her hole and she stroked along the warm, slick inside of her body as she bit down on her shirt.

As she went on, more and more pee found its way out of her body. She tried hard to keep it in, but there was just too much water in her. She bit down hard as she nearly reached the peak of her pleasure. She was just about to come when she was interrupted by a male voice. She froze and turned her head across the river, where the two sleeping guards had gotten to their feet. Their voices were clear in the silent night, and she forced herself to remain completely still as they stretched and groaned. Without being able to move, she could no longer hold on. She started peeing hard into the grass, and the sudden relief forced her to orgasm with no warning. She yelped, completely against her will, and her eyes went wide in fear as the two guards turned straight to her. She shut off her flow, the pressure building back up to the bursting point in mere seconds. She grasped around her feet, catching the cotton of her pants and pulling them back up over her still-bulging belly.

"Who's-" one of the guards started, but the other grabbed him round the mouth.

"Don't yell, you'll wake the Queen. We'll go check it out quietly."

Sabina scrambled backwards, taking cover behind a tree. Her body screamed at her, as though it were thinking: "How dare she pee for just five seconds, doesn't she know how full she is?"

She shook the distracting thought out of her head, peeking out at the guards. They had removed their boots and were already halfway across the river; it must have been a very shallow crossing. She watched in terror as they got near her side, when the taller one stopped and held the other back.

"Listen, Kevin. I'm honestly about to piss my armor. If someone's out there, I can't fight like this."

"Oh, what in- Ah, forget it, just do it here. I'm ready to burst too."

Sabina kept staring as they both undid their drawstrings and let the contents of their bladders join the flow of the river. "Please, just forget about me," she whispered to herself.

"Oy Drake, Kevin, what are you two doing?" came a third voice. One of the other guards had walked to the river's edge. "If you need a piss, do it in the grass while you watch the road. Me and Jason need to sleep."

"That's not why we're in here," the Guard Kevin said indignantly. "We heard something from the other side of the river. It almost sounded like a voice. Either a woman or a child."

"Well, do you plan to capture the person behind the voice in the pitch darkness? Come into the firelight and guard the road as you are supposed to. A woman or a child is no threat to us or the Queen. Now, that's an order."

"We're the same rank," Drake complained.

"When we're with Gaston, yes," Jason said. "But when he's away, I have seniority. You know how it works."

"Ah, fine. Just let me finish my piss."

"You know," Jason said softly, "If there is a woman lurking in the darkness over there, she's got full view of you two sods standing there with your cocks out, and she's probably not impressed."

"There's no woman," Kevin moaned. "I'm sure it was just some animal." Still, he cut off his pee while it was still going strong and shoved himself back inside his pants. Drake did the same, and they returned to the firelight.

Sabina watched as the guards switched places, Kevin and Drake taking the side of the road as Jason and the one unnamed one settled down in the grass behind the Queen, who was apparently a startlingly deep sleeper, despite the absurd fullness of her bladder. Sabina could see the shape of it from here, ten meters away.

The thought of it brought her crashing back to reality, and she realized all at once that she was soaking herself completely. Her entire bottom was surrounded by a large puddle, warm against her skin. Her cotton pants clung to her body from the wetness, and she could feel it still flowing strongly out of her. She sighed and leaned back against the tree, giving up entirely as she emptied herself through her pants. It felt so good, and if she wasn't still in the middle of an adrenaline rush from nearly getting caught, she likely would have begun pleasuring herself again. She remembered the first time she had wet herself in fear, when she was kidnapped in place of Queen Jenara.

She was simply traveling along the road, on her way from Lunambra to Jarkan, when ten men appeared from the snowbanks wearing white furs. Three of them grabbed her, and she soaked her pants right then and there. She wasn't even desperate, it was just pure fear. It felt much the same now, complete unawareness that she had lost control until the shock subsided. Except this time, the liquid within her was enough to saturate her pants and snake all the way down to the river. Thirty seconds later it tapered off to a trickle, then finally stopped. She felt herself over the pants, smiling at how tightly the wet cotton hugged her womanhood. She could feel every bit of it through the thin fabric, and despite the recent threat from the guards, she couldn't help but slide her hand into her pants and start all over again.

Pleasure kept her awake for the rest of the night, and she could barely feel her hands, or privates, when the sun finally made itself known. While it was still dark enough to stay hidden, she stumbled to her feet and hobbled through the trees, ready to continue her pursuit.

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Chapter Nine - Great Oak

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"Here we are, Marina. Welcome to Great Oak. Welcome...to the ocean." Baeden waved his hand across the air, gesturing at the colossal body of water that spanned out ahead of them, shining and endless. Numerous people swam and splashed along the shore, the size of ants to them from their vantage point. They stood on a hill overlooking the small village, taking in the salty air and the fresh scent of the ocean. Marina was in tears from the pure beauty of it, her hands folded over her chest.

"It's real," she whispered. "I've never imagined...I never could have. How can something like that exist in our world?"

"It doesn't exist in our world, we exist in its world. The ocean is the most powerful force there is. All life on Earth exists because of that great span of blue out there. And if we cross it, if we go far enough, we end up in France.

Marina grasped Baeden's hand and squeezed it tightly. "I trust you, my Prince. If you say there's a new home for us out there, it must be the truth." She winced as she felt her stomach growl loudly. "Oh, I'm so hungry."

"Ha, me too," Baeden agreed. "We'll have a fantastic meal in the tavern. It'll be the first time we eat together outside of my chambers, won't it? They're probably preparing lunch as we speak. Do you need to pee before we enter the town?"

"Only a little," Marina said. "I don't want to though. The next time I do it, I want it to be in that ocean. I can only imagine how good it would feel to let go underwater. I know we have to eat first, but no matter how badly I need to go, I'll hold it in until I'm in the ocean."

"That sounds wonderful," Baeden said.

"Wait though, it might not work out," Marina said sadly. "Gaston is still following us. We have to cross the water as soon as we can, before he catches up. We shouldn't even eat until we're on a ship, and we can't waste time playing in the water. I might have to do this when we're already on the mainland...

"No." Marina looked up, furrowing her brow as Baeden suddenly grew serious. "I've been thinking about it, and the mainland is no escape. It will delay him throughout the coming autumn and winter, but he will use the time to prepare armies. He is insane enough to lead an invasion of Europe to get me back. At that point, it will be to take me prisoner as a traitor, not to return me to my place as Prince."

"So where are we going to go?" Marina asked worriedly. She compulsively looked over her shoulder. The road was empty for as far as she could see.

"Nowhere," Baeden said. "No matter where we go, he will never stop hunting me. I will stand and fight. I have no choice but to end his life. Without him, my mother would never risk war with the European empires, not even for me."

"Baeden, no" Marina whispered. "I know you are afraid of him, even if you would never admit it. There must be reason for that. You know you cannot fight him as an equal."

Baeden stayed silent, gazing out over the water. A minute later, he took Marina's hand. "Let us enter the town. We must purchase clothing, first thing. The robe hides it, but the back of your dress is stained yellow. At least my pants hide it..."

She nudged him, but smiled slightly as she followed him towards the gates of Great Oak. There's no use in arguing with him. If he's decided to fight, he will fight. I have to trust him like I always do. They made their way down the hill and finally stepped through the town gates, and she stared around in wonder at the unique architechture and the eccentric shops. A blacksmith that sold all sorts of strange swords and bludgeons, curved and hooked and spiked. Spice merchants selling a rainbow of powders and leaves, and clothiers with gowns, dresses, and shirts unlike any she had ever seen.

"This is a port town," Baeden said. "Goods come in from countries around the world, and they are all sold and traded here. There's goods from France, Scandenavia, Germany, even some from very far-off lands like Africa and Asia. As I told you, we live in a massive world."

An hour later, and the two of them stumbled into the inn, their arms full of their purchases. Baeden managed to slam two copper coins on the counter, and they followed the innkeeper down the stairs and into their small room. "I'm bloody starving," Baeden complained. "Lets get changed and get back up there."

Had they been any less hungry, their mutual nudity may have led to something fun, but they had no time for it. They simply looked away from each other as they separated their purchases, picking out what to wear. Minutes later, they looked each other over, both smiling stupidly. Marina looked vivacious in her long, dark red half-dress. In Lunambra, a garment this revealing would have a woman arrested. Here in Great Oak, nobody seemed to care much for their shame. In the streets, many men wore nothing but small cloths over their privates as they went about their business, and women walked around in underskirts alone with leather braziers as tops. She had even seen two young girls with their breasts out and their skirts pulled up where they just barely covered their womanly parts, laying on a patch of grass under the bright sun.

When she questioned Baeden about their lack of modesty, all he gave her as explanation was "French," along with a shrug. She smiled at the thought that the coastal towns of other towns in Europe might be the same. She really liked it. She liked it so much that she had chosen to forgo her underdress completely, so that at just the right angle, you could see the red hair between her legs glistening in the candlelight through the slit of the dress.

Despite this freedom, Baeden was fully dressed, and Marina could only compare his appearance to depictions of the Archangel Michael. Starting from the bottom, he stood in armored steel boots that were perfectly fitted to his feet and ankles. Above that, he wore leather greaves with shining steel plates attached to his shins and thighs. A white and gold quilted doublet was his shirt, and on the outside of that, a paled leather scale cuirass that covered his whole torso. Deeply curved pauldrons sat on his shoulders, and more leather scales ran down both of his arms and folded into steel gauntlets.

To top off the look, a four foot long straight sword unlike any Marina had seen was strapped across his back. The blade was narrow but long, with a blood channel running its whole length and meeting at a deadly-looking point. The handguard was ornate, with shining lines carved into the steel. The protrusions expanded six inches on either side of the hilt, ending in flat edges that caught even the dim light of the inn room. Two steel bars were attached from the handguard to the blade itself, though Marina's limited knowledge of swords told her that it was likely stylistic rather than actual support for the blade. The hilt was thin at both the handguard and pommel connections, but widened in the center to give a reliable grip. The pommel itself was silver and bulbus, but looked proper on the entirely unusual weapon.

"Spada da Due Mani," Baeden said. "It's an Italian weapon, one I've admired for most of my life. I was never allowed to purchase one in Lunambra, as Gaston thought wielding a weapon of another country a shameful act. It was a great cause of argument between us over the years, and it seems entirely fitting that it be the last thing he ever sees."

"There's no talking you out of this, is there?" Marina asked, looking down at her feet.

"There isn't," Baeden answered truthfully. "Gaston is a detriment to Lunambra, but my mother will never be able to get rid of him. This is my final duty to my Kingdom." He silently made his way out of the room and up the stairs. The tavern's main room was large and lively, and heads turned as the well-equipped man ascended the steps. They quickly lost interest, returning to their own food and drink. Baeden and Marina took a seat in the corner, and Baeden ordered a baked chicken and two tankards of ale.

Their order thankfully came sooner than they expected, and they ate and drank into the afternoon. The chicken was spicy, spicier than anything either of them had ever eaten, so they had to continue drinking to keep comfortable. Baeden, preparing for the coming fight, only had the one tankard of ale, and water only after that. Marina downed two tankards, followed by three tankards of water. Nearly everyone in the town was crammed into the tavern now, singing and drinking and otherwise making merry. Baeden was considering ordering them a pair of baked potatoes when the roar was heard, piercing even the din of the tavern.

"PRINCE BAEDEN OF LUNAMBRA, CEASE YOUR COWARDACE! BY ORDER OF QUEEN JENARA, I AM HERE TO DRAG YOU HOME, EITHER WITHOUT YOUR HONOR OR WITHOUT YOUR LIFE!"

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Chapter Ten - Duel

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"Who is that?" whispered a patron of the tavern. "Prince Baeden? Here?"

"Of course not," drawled the barmaid. "We've gotten no warning, no time to prepare."

"His words are true," Baeden spoke up from his place in the corner. Everyone turned to him as he stood up, straightening to his full height. "I am Prince Baeden, and the man you just heard shouting is General Gaston, commander of Lunambra's armies. He is here to bring me home, for I have abandoned my Kingdom. I have abandoned it, not for fear, not for wealth, but for this woman that you see next to me. She is a servant, I am a Prince, and we are in love. This town is a sanctuary for men and women who, under whatever circumstance, decided to leave their homes behind. I am no different from any of you. Now, there is one last thing I must do before I leave this land forever. I ask that everyone here remain indoors, for your own safety. Thank you for your hospitality."

Baeden shouldered his way through the crowd of onlookers, each of them staring at him with a blend of fascination and curiosity. Marina watched him fearfully as he stepped through the wooden door, clicking it shut behind him. The second he was outside, everyone in the tavern clambered over one another to get to the windows. Marina already had a perfect view from where she sat, and she frowned as the barmaid's large frame squeezed her against the window glass. She watched as Baeden made his way to Great Oak's center courtyard. The massive symbol of the town, the Great Oak itself, covered the sky over him. No matter how far she turned her head, Marina could see nothing besides Baeden standing there calmly. Minutes passed, and the murmurs of the crowd increased, when their hunter finally stepped into view.