Waking up the next morning, I found myself laying on my side, snuggling against someone, while Milly and Tilly were laying in front of me, cuddling. They were whispering with each other, giggling from time to time.

Confused I spun around seeing a girl in front of me under my cover!

``Huh?'' I blushed.

Then I remembered the events of the night. Milly and Tilly giggled.

``She's actually sleeping!'' Milly whispered.

Caroline was her name. She laid on the side, turning her back towards me. Her arms were tied behind her back, her forearms pulled parallel across her back. Leather straps were tied around her wrists, continuing forward to her chest. She wore a much too large nightgown, made for a person least three times her girth. There was a leather strap at the back of her head as well.

A ``Mmmmft!'' came from the girl in front of me and she struggled for a brief moment. She woke up. Well. Time to untie her, laying in that way all night was probably very uncomfortable.

``Keep still!'' I ordered while studying the knot at the back of her head. While I untied the knot, she gave of a few muffled yelps, as her hair got tangled up in my operation.

``Sorry! Your hair is tangled up in the knot!'' I apologized.

``It hurt! Thank you for removing the gag nonetheless!'' Caroline answered after her mouth was free.

With a gasp she spun on her back. I saw tears in her emerald eyes while she was looking at me.

Tilly and Milly were still whispering behind me, still giggling.

I got on my knees sitting down on my haunches. The knot for her hands was right just below her breast. Blushing I reached to towards the knot. I saw her blush to as she realized how close the knot was to her mounds.

``May I?'' I asked.

``Y-Yes!'' she replied.

After a while the knot was untied. As Caroline started to unravel the straps at her wrist, I untied a well known knot at her knees. The straps at her ankles posed no problem.

She got herself on her hands and knees, carefully stretching her arms.

``I'm Caroline.'' she introduced herself.

``I'm Lilly.'' I introduced myself. ``And those giggling morons over there are Milly and Tilly.''

``Hey! You're mean!'' they protested.

They came crawling over, kneeling beside me.

``You three look just the same!'' she wondered. ``How am I supposed to tell you apart?'' she continued.

``That's simple.'' Milly announced. ``The sassy one is Lilly!''

``And when you're teased, its Milly'' I retorted.

``You sound like foreigners learning our language, and I haven't heard this accent before!'' she declared.

``We come from far away, and yes we just started learning this language.'' I replied.

``Let's get dressed!'' Milly interjected. ``We can talk later!'' she offered.

We dressed up for the day. Caroline seemed to have issues with part of the extra maid outfit that was laying on the table. Milly helped her as she was finished first, as usual.

Actually I got a bit of routine with the outfit in the last weeks and got more and more used to it. That's not a bad thing since I expected to wear them at least for a few years.

Caroline's butt looked nasty and was really sensitive. There was no blood, but a clearly showing discoloration.

She didn't have underwear, too. Not a slave thing then? Asking right away still felt awkward.

We went down for breakfast. We briefed Caroline setting the table. While she was grown up here, didn't have experience with upper class customs at all.

``Normally I avoided the attention of nobles as much as I could.'' she said. ``For me they were trouble most of the time.'' she added.

While having breakfast Miss Tessa insisted on proper posture while sitting. Caroline looked not only a bit strained and of course Miss Tessa wouldn't tolerate mops and mows. Caroline was relieved as we started to clear the table, eagerly getting up first.

After we packed the remaining baggage to the carriage the three of us climbed back on the roof of the carriage and settled in our nest. Caroline was directed to use one of the servant's seats. Poor girl.

Slowly the carriage left the yard and we left the City of Soltan. We passed green pastures and fields in the beginning. Later the road started to get steeper and started winding up the range. Fir trees started to dominate the terrain. Occasionally we heard a yelp from the back.

At noon we arrived at a tavern. We stopped for lunch. Caroline was ordered to open the carriage door for Erlaucht. We had a simple lunch. We met three wagons at the place. They were on their way down.

After about an hour we left and drove further up the mountain range. After a while Caroline appeared at the back of the carriage. She came over to us and opted to lay herself face down on one of the cases beside us.

``Aaaah'' Caroline groaned. ``My butt is killing me! I felt every single pothole!'' she complained.

Today I leaned into Milly, while Tilly sat beside her. Caroline had laid herself down on the case to our left, her head propped on her elbows.

``Usually it gets better after a while!'' I tried to console her.

``Lilly!'' Milly exclaimed. ``Stop being rude!'' she requested and clasped her hands over my mouth

``Mmmmm'' I objected, without even trying to say anything.

``Don't take them serious!'' Tilly advised. ``They banter all the time!''

``You three are too cute!'' Caroline proclaimed looking at us.

We blushed. Caroline giggled.

``You are color coded!'' she noticed after a while. ``The bows are different!''

We nodded.

``So who is who?'' she mused. ``You are Lilly! You have the yellow bows.'' she declared.

``I'm Milly.'' Tilly said.

``That's not true!'' Milly protested.

``I will get you sooner or later!'' she exclaimed. ``I just have to listen to Miss Tessa.'' she explained.

We giggled. At least one we can try to confuse for a while.

After that Milly let go of my mouth.

``You're scary for such a sweet little girl, Lilly!'' Caroline declared.

``Scary? I'm young and innocent!'' I protested blushing.

They all laughed.

``And as long as you're nice I won't hit you.'' I promised her.

``Does it still hurt?'' I asked pointing at her chest.

``Aehm! Nothing compared to my butt. No, my tits are good.'' she replied groaning.

We asked Caroline about the names of everything we could see.

A while after the suns vanished behind the mountains, we reached an inn by the road. The building itself was made of timber. We had dinner on a porch by the house with a good view at the valley below. Miss Tessa told us we would reach the highest point of the pass tomorrow evening.

After dinner we went to our room. The three of us had a room for ourselves. Caroline was sleeping in Miss Tessa's room. Soon we got ready for the night.

``What to you think of Caroline?'' Milly asked.

``She's nice when she is not breaking in our room!'' I pointed out.

Tilly nodded.

``It feels weird to have her around after catching her last night in our bedroom.'' Milly judged.

``Let's wait and see. She was in a tough spot, as far as she told us.'' I mused.

``As you said.'' Milly agreed. ``I'm tired! Good night?'' she asked.

``Good night!'' we answered.

Next morning we had an early breakfast. Caroline felt better and had less problems sitting. As the weather was fine we settled down on the roof again.

In the afternoon dark clouds appeared. We helped James to put a canvas cover in place on top of the baggage.

We were allowed to stay under the cover at our usual places. It rained cats and dogs for over an hour. After that the suns came out again and the rest of the day stayed sunny.

In the evening we reached the highest point of the pass. There was an inn here, too. Over the next two hours a few wagons arrived as well.

The next morning we could see the sea at a distance. The next two days we descended down the mountain range towards the sea.

The next six days we followed a coastal highway to the west. The mountain range stayed on our left side, while the sea was on the right. There was actual traffic on this road and we passed a few coastal towns, staying our nights at an inn. We chattered a lot with Caroline and got more comfortable speaking Imperial. We learned some swearing as well.

On the sixth day I climbed to the carriage box at the front.

``Mind if I sit her for a while?'' I asked James.

``No. Take a seat.'' he replied.

We sat a few minutes silently on the carriage box.

``Never been traveling by carriage?'' he asked.

``No. Not one pulled by horses.'' I answered.

``A carriage without horses?'' James ``Ah! An oxen cart!'' he pointed out.

I wasn't sure how much James knew. I decided not to explain cars to him.

``Well, its a nice quite unhurried way of travel.'' I declared.

``Horses are fast!'' James exclaimed. ``At the moment we are at a nice traveling speed. I can't let them run all day when we travel long distance.'' he added.

``Sure.'' I admitted. ``Still. Going fast is something different.'' I added.

James looked a bit miffed.

``The road is open and free.'' he mused.

Then he knocked at a flap beside him, at the back of his seat. Then he opened the flap.

``Erlaucht! I would like to let the horses run a bit. Would you mind, Erlaucht?'' he spoke in the open flap.

I didn't understand the answer.

``Hold on everybody! We're going a bit faster for a while!'' he cried.

He drove the horses to a gallop, while cracking his whip. A few moments later the carriage got a lot faster. The headwind started playing with my hair. James seemed to enjoy the dash. He shot me short glances once in a while. Well they weren't nearly as fast as a car, thus I was unfazed. The narrow road and sitting outside made it definitely more intense, as well as the gravel road. But without any sharp turns I perfectly enjoyed myself.

After a few minutes we slowed down to the usual traveling speed. I think it was a trot.

``You definitely have experience with fast carriages.'' James finally declared.

I just smiled and returned to the others after a while.

On the seventh day we left the coastal road after a few hours to drive on smaller roads for a while. Later we had to pass two customs-posts. The first one took about half an hour talking with the customs officers. At the next one we were simply waved through after Erlaucht exchanged a few words with the officer.

We had entered Eskoran, the county where we were headed to. We drove on side roads now, leaving the sea. The terrain got more and more rugged over the day.

We stopped at a clearing in the forest in the evening and put up a larger tent for Miss Tessa, Caroline and us. The two men slept in the carriage. We fell asleep soon since chattering with Miss Tessa nearby seemed to be a bad idea.

The next two days were similar. Probably they want to reach our destination unnoticed.

At the end of the next day we arrived at a large wooden lodge.

The lodge had two floors and there was a barn beside it, where James and three other men parked the carriage. There was a large stable as well.

A few minutes later Miss Tessa and an older woman approached.

``This is Miss Jheenna. She is in charge of the lodge's domestic affairs.'' Miss Tessa announced. ``For our stay she is in charge of you!'' she added.

``Very well, Miss Tessa!'' we replied.

``Follow me!'' Miss Jheenna ordered.

``Very well, Miss Jheenna!'' we replied and followed her as she entered the lodge.

She led us to the kitchen to help preparing dinner. There was one of Miss Jheenna's daughters in the kitchen as well.

``Hello, my name is Loraline.'' she introduced herself.

``I'm Milly.'' Milly replied. ``This is Tilly, this is Lily and this is Caroline.'' she introduced us.

``Good, let's get all ready for dinner. Later I will show you your room.'' she smiled.

For the next two hours we were busy cutting vegetables, root and mushrooms. Miss Jheenna was busy roasting venison and making various sauces.

After we cleared the tables with Loraline, she showed us to our room. There were no windows in the room, and bunk beds for six persons.

``This is a room for the servants of the guests for a hunt.'' Loraline explained. ``Make yourself comfortable.''

``The rooms in the inns were larger.'' I observed.

``Rooms in the inn are usually not for servants.'' Loraline stated. ``Normally they sleep either in the common room or in the same room as their master.''

``I didn't know.'' I admitted.

``For sleeping it's okay.'' Milly added.

``It's well enough.'' Caroline remarked. ``I've been sleeping in worse places most of my live.''

``At least you have company.'' Loraline smiled.

``How often do you have guests?'' Milly wanted to know.

``Once in a while.'' Loraline answered her ``In the last months it was rather quiet, since Erlaucht was on a longer journey.'' she added.

``We spent quite a lot days in the carriage.'' I sighted.

``Normal people usually don't travel far.'' Loraline stated.

``I'm tired!'' Caroline interrupted.

We nodded.

``Good night then.'' Loraline said.

She waved and left the room. We got ready for the night and I eventually I fell asleep.