<div class="floatright">(http://i.imgur.com/GuvduLI.jpg)<br/><sup><em>Hillcrest Watch</em></sup><br/>(http://i.imgur.com/P5FWPfs.jpg)<br/><sup><em>Robert Wallas</em></sup><br/></div><br/>Pelor be praised!  The village of Hillcrest Watch came into view as the bouncing wagon rounded a bend and the forest thinned out.  Lady Lucille von Edefelt, blessed paladin of Pelor, third spoke in the Order of the Radiant Sword, and second daughter to the minor but noble house Edefelt let an audible sigh of relief escape her lips.  Though the last rays of Pelor’s glorious radiance were now setting in the mountains to the west of Hillcrest, Lucille knew that her goal was in sight, she wouldn’t have to spend another night on the road with these two merchants.<br/><br/>Lucille closed her eyes and thought back to how she’d gotten here.  Her family hadn’t been very rich, but she’d grown up in a comfortable manner, that of a pampered low ranking noble.  Though being the fourth child, and second daughter, her options were rather limited.  Marrying upwards wasn’t very likely as her family would likely save the greater share of dowry for her older sister.  But marrying for wealth was always an option.  Some rich fat merchant with dreams of marrying into nobility might even pay for her hand.  Of course there was always the nunnery, but for some reason even at her youngest, she’d known that was not the life for her.<br/><br/>So she trained, raised on stories of noble knights, epic heroes, might wizards, she trained her mind and her body.  Attending morning mass and singing the praises to Pelor, she joined the church as an acolyte as early as the law allowed, and strove to become a knight in the Order of the Radiant Sword.  She might not have been the best of the recruits, but she was good, and she was driven.  After all, her family could say little about her life and her choices when they were so noble as to become a paladin!<br/><br/>So she trained and became a member of the glorious Order of the Radiant Sword, Pelor be praised.  She made sure she said all the right things, acted the right way, and in fact it did seem that the holy sun father did bless her.  She felt divine power flowing through her, holy strength in her arms, the touch of light in her veins.  Yet, there always remained something else.  Lady Lucille von Edefelt had a secret.  Lady Lucille constantly strove to repress a very base emotion that seemed to simmer just below the surface all the time.  Not anger, no, that would be understood and many in her order would understand.  Not fear, because the order taught that fear was natural and good, and that courage only came when fear was faced and overcome.  Not sadness, for everyone felt sad from time to time, and such emotion was too common for anyone to hide, and would be silly for Lucille to worry about.  No, Lucille seemed to constantly struggle with the ever present lust that seemed to always boil beneath her carefully groomed exterior.  She wondered if others felt the same way she did.  Did the other paladins constantly mask the desire, the lustful thoughts, the lewd acts taken when they were alone the same way she did?<br/><br/>Of course there was nothing inherently sinful about lustful thoughts.  Worshipers of Pelor had sex of course, most priests and paladins of the sun father didn’t even take a vow of chastity.  However it was widely accepted that sex was for two individuals that were destined to be together forever in the holy bonds of matrimony.  Those few faithful who did engage outside of marriage or at least betrothal were often spoken of in hushed whispers, no matter how noble or righteous they were.  Yet lustful thoughts engaged Lucille constantly.  She had them when she watched fellow paladins practicing in the sunlight wearing nothing but light shifts.  She had them when she bathed and any others were about.  She had them in the dark of night when her fingers found places on her body meant for a lovers touch.  No amount of prayer seemed to purge the lustful desires or thoughts from her head.  So she continued to pretend they didn’t exist, and apparently, that was good enough.<br/><br/>She was still only a junior member in the order, having just recently attained the rank of third spoke when the letter arrived for her.  Her mother, requesting that she return home, that a matchmaker had found her a suitable husband.  She knew the man, Robert Wallas, a fish monger of some small wealth.  His father had started out as a fishing captain and built his business to own a small fleet of nine fishing ships.  Young Robert had taken the trade upon his father's failing health and from all accounts been successful at continuing the business.  She had to admit, she even considered it for a moment, despite knowing that he was rather young, though charming and moderately handsome.  But he was meek and a bit shy and always reeked of fish.  Not because she desired to be married to such a man, but because of her desires.  Maybe she would learn to love him, learn to love when he lay atop her with his thing in her?  But then the way her mother had ended the letter had crushed that idea.  She had written that it was time for Lucille to “..stop playing pretend swordswoman and come home and do her real duty.”<br/><br/>Lucille had crumpled the note in anger.  How could being a brood sow to a meek merchant who reeked of fish be her duty?  Was she not blessed by Pelor himself?  Was she not carrying out actions in his name, for the greater good of humanity?  Gone were thoughts of consenting to her mother's wishes just so that she could feel a man filling her.  For a brief time her lusts were sublimated by her anger.<br/><br/>That very night she requested an assignment as far away from the city of Arcadia where she’d been born and raised as possible.  Her knight superior ascented and gave her a simple task, but one that would take her far away and take a while of travel.  The far off and small village of Hillcrest Watch had sent a missive asking for martial support with a small problem of orcish raiders.  The missive had come in a few days earlier, but since it didn’t sound urgent and no senior members of the order wished to travel that far, it had gone unfilled as of yet.  Lucille had taken the task, and set out the next day with a pair of merchants.  She of course had no idea how tasking the merchants would be.<br/><br/>Yanzi and Feela Tinkleboots were a married couple in their later years, or so Lucille had assumed.  It was always a little tricky guessing the age of gnomes after all.  But they certainly argued like an old married couple.  But what was worse was their open and cavilere attitude towards sex.  Yanzi was always making comments about inviting Lucille to join him when he bedded down with his wife, or ‘accidentally’ strolling down to the creek just as Lucille was bathing or washing clothing.  But if he was an old lech, his wife Feela was twice as bad!  She was constantly comparing Lucille’s breasts, high and tight with youth, and full as well, to various melons, the size of her head, or damn near anything else.  Feela was also asking Lucille highly inappropriate questions, questions that started about five minutes after they had passed out of the gates of Arcadia and hadn’t stopped the entire trip.  But the worst was when Feela tried to give, in a manner that was one half mothering one half tawdry girl talk, advice about how to please a man, please a woman, please herself, and everything in between.  Why the gnomish woman even had theories, and she did say they were only theories, on how a woman could make love to a dragon if such a thing were ever to come to pass.<br/><br/>At first Lucille managed to act offended, as if her holy order was above such base acts.  But after a few days on the road, she realized this only goaded the gnomes to greater and lewder attempts.  Then she tried the silent treatment, which worked for a day or two, then the gnomish couple began leaving their tent flap open at night.  Now not only did Lucille hear them in their marital acts, but she could see it, and it wasn’t pretty.  Though that lustful part of her mind, that unquenchable desire, couldn’t help but find her eyes constantly drawing to it.  Finally one night, when she thought the gnomes were asleep, Feela caught her with her hand down her breeches.  Mortified she tried to make up a story about what she was doing.  But Feela just nodded and gave her a smooth wooden phallus, about five inches long and curved.  Average sized for a human maybe, but likely quite a monster for a gnomish woman.  After that exchange things seemed to calm down a bit.  Feela was a little more considerate with her comments, though they did not vanish.  Likewise Yanzi seemed to curtail his lecherous ways, a little bit.  Still every night she could hear the older gnomes going at it, sometimes for upwards of an hour before Yanzi’s snoring replaced the moans and groans.<br/><br/>So now the village of Hillcrest Watch was in sight.  That was a good thing, because even if the gnomish merchants wanted to stop and camp outside it’s walls for the night, she knew she could always make it on foot, with the glowing lights in the distance as her guide.  But thankfully they decided they would press on even after nightfall, in order to make the village, and as Yanzi put it, ‘roll around in a large feather bed for the night.’<br/><br/>Hillcrest Watch had once been a military outpost back when the kingdom’s borders ended near here.  When the mountains to the west were agreed upon as the western edge of Licuma, the kingdom she belonged to.  But some time ago they had expanded westward and merged with the kingdom to the west.  Since then Hillcrest Watch had become little more than a hillside farming community and trading hub, a place to re-provision before heading through the mountain passes westward.<br/><br/>Still, Lucille knew little about Hillcrest, and wasn’t sure what her first step would be.  Obviously by the time she arrived in town all the priests and priestesses of Pelor would be long asleep.  Traditionally services were held at sun rise, noon, and sunset.  But the holy men and women often took to bed after the night service, so as to rise and be ready for the morning service the next day.  She could go to find the temple of Pelor anyways, hoping to rouse someone from sleep.  Or she could get a room for the night at the inn and set to her task come the morning.  Of course she could also gain information on her own, as everyone knew that local taverns were great sources of gossip.  Then again, that deep hidden lust she often buried, did suggest that Yanzi had invited her to share the ‘large feather bed’ with he and Feela.  She sighed again, another hour or two at most and they’d be passing the walls into the village.  It couldn’t come soon enough, the bumpy road had done nothing to reduce the warm tingling in her loins after all.