FIC: REPOST: Militat omnis amans (Every lover is a warrior) Part 7b/?

["Beckett, Kevin" <kevin.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx>]

Militat omnis amans (Every lover is a warrior) Part 7b/?
K. Beckett (c) 2000 

Disclaimers:
Buffy, Willow and all of the other characters and places from the show
belong to Joss Whedon, WB and Mutant Enemy etal. Everyone and everything
else is mine. None of my characters are meant to resemble anyone living,
dead or un-dead, if you see yourself you are looking way too hard.

This story contains sexual acts between consenting adult women, and was
written in a jurisdiction where it was legal to do so. If this offends you,
don't read.

Rating: 
R

Other: 
The Latin and Gaelic are mine; I take the responsibility for any
translations of them. In addition, the descriptions of the rituals, spells
and other craft work come from my traditions, so please don't take offence
if something described here does not match your traditions or what you think
it should.

Archiving etc.: 
Ask and I will say yes.

Spoilers and other ramblings:
Everything up to the middle of season four - I diverge then.

Please note that things perceived by characters other than by the five
acknowledge senses have been enclosed in < >.

mailto:kevin.beckett@xxxxxxxxxxxxx

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<Willow, do you see this?>
<Yes, but I don't believe it,> the arch-mage replied, <she did say help
would be yours when you needed it.>
<We will have to talk about this,> Buffy commented as she raised the sword
overhead.

As soon as she lifted the sword over her head it bust into flame and she was
consumed by an overpowering out of control rage. Buffy leapt over the
improvised barrier of logs that they had been using, directly into the midst
of the demons. Demon ichor and gore flew everywhere as she cut a swath
through the middle of the enemy ranks. The demons were bewildered and
confused, no attacks seemed to touch or affect this berserk woman in their
lines. Buffy was seemingly able to anticipate every blow against her and
turn it aside with her sword. Where her sword struck demon flesh, it burned
as if the sun had touched it. Her arm was tireless as she thrust, slashed
and parried ceaselessly. The sword was feather light in her hands, almost
as if it was weightless. 

The mages took advantage of the disruption Buffy was making to let fly with
various bolts of energy, flame and lightning, to further decimate the enemy
ranks. Within minutes, the moral of the attacking demons had broken and
they began to break ranks, the remaining two dozen or so, mostly wounded,
fleeing back up the hill. Buffy, still in her berserker rage, started after
them when suddenly the sword disappeared. Buffy collapsed; exhausted from
the psychic and physical effort she had been under.

Willow, seeing her soul-mate's collapse, immediately ran to her yelling,
"Amana, Grael, keep harassing them while Frankel and I collect Buffy."

The two of them quickly reached Buffy's side, and Willow sent a brief <Buff,
what happened, you ok?>
<Where am I, and did anyone get the number of the truck that hit me?> Buffy
replied as she slowly stood up. "What happened?"
"You went berserk," commented Willow, stating the obvious, as she and
Frankel helped to support either side of Buffy. Once she was upright and
mobile the three of them started to walk back to their improvised campsite.


Buffy was a mess. Her hair and armour were matted with demon blood and
gore. She was also a mass of bruises, which even as they walked back to the
camp were in the process of healing.

"Ugh," Willow commented, "you stink of blood and goo. We will have to get
you cleaned up before we move on."
Buffy sniffed herself and said, "no kidding witch-girl, I am rank. What was
I doing?"
"Butchering demons," replied Aiofe, "come on, lets get you into the river
and get that junk off of you."

Buffy looked around the battlefield stunned by the carnage. There were bits
and pieces of demons everywhere, in addition to demons that had been
dispatched by various spells. Those that had been killed by the mages had
been burnt, strangled, webbed and electrocuted. 

"My Goddess," exclaimed the slayer, "we certainly did a number on them,
didn't we?"
"That we, or rather you, did," replied Bridie as she was getting various
items out of the travel bags, "lets bathe and get some food into you."

Shortly the four women were in the river, three of them trying to get Buffy
clean.
"This water is cold," complained Buffy as she was doused with another bucket
of water, "hurry up, I'm beginning to freeze."
"We'll get you warm again," commented Willow, "don't worry about that,
besides, none of us got covered in demon goo, did we?"
"None of you have a Goddess who decides to drive you berserk either,"
retorted Buffy.
"That's true," replied Willow contritely, <forgive me?>
<Always, now get me out of here before I turn blue.>
<A blue Buff, now that would be a sight.>
<WILLOW!>
"Ok, Ok," Willow said as she finished rinsing off Buffy's hair, "let's get
her out of here."

The four women left the river, quickly grabbed towels, and just as quickly
began to dry off. Willow finished and turned to Buffy, who was standing
still, lost in thought, and asked, "need any help love?"
"That would be nice. I'm exhausted, even though the cold water helped I
feel like I could sleep for days."
Willow began to vigorously rub Buffy's hair, trying to get all of the water
out of it. She also began to caress her shoulders and neck.
<Mmm,> commented Buffy, <that's nice.>
<I promise a good backrub tonight love,> returned Willow.
<I'm going to hold you to that.>

Within minutes, all four women were redressed and the entire group
remounted, Buffy taking the opportunity to bolt down some food while sitting
in the saddle. 

Willow turned to Daithi and asked, "how are you and your guardsmen doing?"
"Just some minor scrapes and bruises," he replied, "nothing a good nights
sleep wouldn't cure."
"I'm open to suggestions on how we proceed," Willow continued, "I don't
think that we drove them off all that far, not that we left all that many to
drive off."
"I agree," the guard captain commented with a slightly pensive look in his
face, "we, or rather Buffy, did kill over three-quarters of them. That
alone will probably keep them demoralized enough to allow us to continue
relatively unmolested."
"But," asked Willow questioningly.
"But, I'll send two of the guardsmen to the flanks as sweepers," he added,
"and Padrick and I will ride slightly ahead of the rest of you. With luck
we will not see anything, but the four of us will give the rest of you
enough warning to set up a defence if we do."
"Sounds good," Willow said, "alright everyone, lets ride. We have three
hours to sunset and that's just enough time to make it to our destination if
we don't have any more distractions."

"Before we head out," said Frankel, "we should do something about the
bodies."
"You're right," Willow commented, "let me." Willow once again reached deep
into the surrounding energy and used a variation of her fireball spell to
return the demon corpses to their component elements.
"There, that should do it," she commented as the last of the corpses turned
to dust, and was scattered by the winds.
"Remind me to never, ever, get you mad at me," said Buffy with a stunned
look on her face, "you just vaporized them!"
"I think I can only do that with dead flesh," responded Willow. Turning to
everyone she said, "that's it, lets get going before any more demons show up
to ruin our day."

The four guardsmen immediately set out at the gallop to take up their
positions ahead and on the flanks. The remaining members of the party broke
out into a hard travel ride; alternating the pace of the horses from canter
to walk to trot and then back to canter. It was a pace that the horses
could maintain for an extended period of time without becoming overtly
tired.

"My but is going to ache tonight," complained Willow about an hour into
their forced ride. Like Buffy, she was not yet that comfortable with
riding, and she was beginning to feel aches and pains in muscles she didn't
know she had.
"That's ok, sweetly," commented Buffy, "I'm sure that Aiofe and Bridie will
be happy to massage our various aches later."
"You bet," commented Bridie.
"Looking forward to it," added Aiofe.

They were able to complete their day's travel without any further incidents.
Daithi, just before they reached the town of Peters Forge, rode back to talk
with Willow.

"We're being watched," he said as he drew near and fell in beside her. "I
think that a small group of eight or so are keeping pace on our right flank,
well out of range, but staying in contact."
"Meaning," asked the arch-mage.
"Meaning that they will definitely know where we are headed," he replied,
"and maybe what you are trying to do. In addition, I'm certain that they
have sent word back to their commanders about what happened."
"We are going to have to worry about that tomorrow," Willow said, "do you
think they will try anything tonight?"
"Not in the town, I don't think," answered Daithi, "and if they were strong
enough they would have hit us by now."
"This is how we'll do it then," said Willow, "pull in your outriders, and we
will rest for ten minutes. Then we will ride hard, directly to the inn."
"Sounds good," commented Frankel, "when we've reached the inn, we can set up
some wards and with luck get some sleep."
"Wards," asked Buffy.
"Shields," answered Aiofe, "similar to the ones that you do, which will warn
of anything approaching the inn."
"Cool," commented the slayer, "I'm exhausted and could do with a good nights
sleep."
"Is that all you could do with," asked Willow, an impish smile on her face.
<You know better than that.>
<Just checking.>