Editor's note: this work contains scenes of rough, reluctant, dubiously consensual, consensually non-consensual (CNC), or non-consensual sex or scenarios.
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Screams and arrows filled the air as an army of raiders descended on the sleeping village, the inhabitants waking to a cacophony of war and violence. The farmers and shepherds hastily formed into ragtag militias and fought against the invaders while their wives and daughters fled to the nearby mountains. The militias had no chance of defeating the veteran warriors sacking their home, but they might buy enough time for their families to escape.
The women abandoned their burning homes and fields, tears streamed down their faces but they pressed on, determined to reach the safety of the rugged peaks and ensure their husbands' and brothers' sacrifice was not in vain. The raiders were content to pillage the town's meager wealth and livestock and failed to pursue the band of women that faded away in the night.
Wives and daughters pressed on for weeks until they had reached the mountains, soaring cliffs and rugged peaks giving them a sense of protection that they desperately clung to. They found a flat plateau hidden away in the heights and began to build a rudimentary settlement, simple stick and grass huts giving them just enough shelter to survive sleeping through the night.
Months passed as the women established themselves, collecting hardy wild grains and mountain sheep to domesticate. Most of them started to recover from the shock of being driven from their previous homes and began to embrace their new lives in the high hills. Already there were debates about how the new town would survive long-term, some women eager to find men to come and start new families with while others still vehemently opposed the idea of any interaction with the outside world.
Some of the women remained wary and on edge. They had escaped the harsh clutches of war but something still unnerved them, even in their new secure mountain sanctuary. They whispered and gossiped, sharing their new fears and anxieties. One woman had been bringing in the sheep at night and swore she felt someone or something watching her. Another claimed to have seen strange tracks near the precarious game trails that the sheep wandered. All of them had felt occasional surges of dread, their hair standing on end and goosebumps forming on their flesh as if their instincts sensed some unknown danger.
These women were the minority however and the rest of the female tribe insisted they were still coping with the loss and trauma of their homes and family, their minds making their own ghosts and shadows to jump at in the night.
Watching and waiting, something powerful and predatory lurked in the gloom and darkness. It had slept in the mountains for centuries, chased and then trapped there by ancient kings with their huge armies and pet witches. The sweet scent of fresh fear and despair had awoken it from its hibernation and led it to the band of refugees that had so foolishly wandered into its lair and built pathetic little hovels to cower in.