Novel Square
10
I followed Master Damien’s heels until I almost ran into his chest; he had turned around. I looked up and we were standing in a round alcove at the edge of the courtyard. My owners literally surrounded me.
“What are you so scared of Ciara?” Master Evan asked harshly pulling me to face him. “You are radiating fear. Our slave should be proud and defiant, not nearly falling over itself in the middle of the courtyard.”
“I’m afraid you’ll whip me or sell me, because I looked at that other man. He looked terrible. Please don’t sell me, Master Evan,” I begged him.
“You fear that we would sell you Ciara?” Master Damien asked. “Do you believe we would make such a mistake as to buy the wrong slave?”
“There is no right answer to that, Master Damien,” I answered him honestly still trembling.
He appraised me silently for several long moments with an unfaltering stare. I started when I felt Master Kein and Master Bane inspecting the small wounds I had made with my nails. When I looked up again Damien was softer.
“You have harmed yourself due to your… upset. That is inappropriate. We would discipline you for this infraction, but I feel it would not have the intended effect,” he said thoughtfully. “Instead I will tell you this, we will not sell you. My brothers and I choose you and we will keep you. We will only discipline you physically when it is clear you need more guidance than mere words provide.”
The other men murmured agreement.
They softly admonished me not to cause myself harm with my nails. If I insisted on doing that they would wrap my hands. I would only get one warning, so I best not do it again.
I apologized like I felt a good slave should. The men petted my hair and shoulders in response. They weren’t unreasonable, I soothed myself. I just had to learn the rules before they reached their limit.
I breathed easier and followed them to the main gate feeling more relaxed.
They dressed me to go to market. Why they couldn’t have done this upstairs, I could not discern. I would not have fussed at all if they put me in this to walk downstairs.
The brown outfit they put me in was handed to them by a man at the large stone entrance. He placed their mark in the outfit, because it was theirs now. They would put it on me whenever I left the Warrior’s compound, they told me.
Getting into the outfit was complicated. The first thing they did was strap my kneeling pad around my waist with a tie. Next, soft dark brown covers were laced up each leg to my knees. Master Evan slipped soft fingerless mittens on my hands that reached my elbows. A bulky dark brown tunic was pulled over my head. Lastly, a hood with a long veil was fitted over my face.
The outfit I was in went down to my feet and the sleeves covered my hands. Oddly the fabric was cool inside, I didn’t feel overheated. From inside the veil I could see very well. It was like having on sunglasses, which I didn’t mind because it was bright in the sunlight. I imagined I must look like a brown lump from the outside.
“Ciara,” Master Damien said facing me, “outside these walls are others who will not appreciate you. Having a slave is a privilege, most cannot afford it. Speak to no one, including us. You will be punished severely if you speak in the village. Can you do this?”
“Yes, Master Damien,” I said.
We walked out a thick door nestled low in the wall. The men allowed me to follow Master Damien out and then took up positions. The men were on either side and behind me; I was surrounded.
The way they moved and the tight grouping they held told me two things. First, I couldn’t run from them out here. It wasn’t like I had anywhere to go anyway. The second thing was that no one else on this street was going to touch me. Since running was out of the question and I felt safe, I was able to just look around.
The area was alive. There were men everywhere standing outside the large buildings that lined the narrow streets. Everything looked like it had been made out of putty colored sand. Strange paintings adorned the outsides of the buildings. I wondered if that wasn’t their language.
I had shopped a lot at flea markets and it felt like that. The street itself was crowded with tent vendors outside the main buildings. No one said a word to our entourage. I made good use of my ‘peripherals’ and noticed almost all the vendors held something out toward my owners. It was a silent request to look. They never got in our way or spoke to us.
One man up ahead with a stand had what looked like earrings and they got my attention. Despite my circumstances, I still noticed the beautiful jewelry. Shiny things always grabbed my eyes. My mom had teased me about that.
I tried not to turn my head as we passed the earring vendor’s cart and sort of succeeded. One pair had a silver loop with a blue stone floating in the middle. I liked those.
From behind me Master Bane made a sound and Master Damien stopped. He came to a stop in front of the vendor’s cart and my owners rearranged themselves around me.
“Point to what you are looking at,” Master Evan said gruffly under his breath.
I had tried to be sly, but I must have been obvious. I quickly gestured with my mittened hand to the set I had seen, but retracted it quickly. The salesman had looked curiously at it; like he wanted to touch me.
Master Damien bartered with the man and handed him several pieces of stone from inside his belt. He retrieved the earrings from the salesman and passed them to the back of our group. Master Christof placed them in a small pouch at his waist.
As we walked away Master Evan quietly asked Master Damien, “Do you know what we just bought, brother?”
“No, but it does and the things are in our colors,” he answered and kept his brisk pace through the vendors.
We came to a large wall and Master Damien didn’t even have to knock, it just opened to us. I followed him past the guard at the gate. We were in a courtyard with what seemed like little shops all around.
I saw other groups of armed men present with little brown bundled creatures in their midst. It was quieter here and only Warriors with slaves seemed to be present. These shops must cater to them, I thought.
The guard relaxed a little around me as we walked toward a large storefront. Light colored fabrics blew in the breeze outside. Now I was sure those symbols were a language. They looked different on every building.
We entered the store with all the fabrics and Master Damien was warmly greeted by an older man inside.
“So you finally gave in old friends. I wondered when you would,” he laughed grabbing Master Damien’s arm.
The room was full of fabrics and shiny metals. It looked to me like a woman’s shopping paradise.
“So this is better than the life of a Warrior, Fredrik?” Master Evan asked curiously looking around.
“Ah, there is peace here for my brothers and I. No more raids, no more fighting, and we spend all day with our Mia. It is a blessed life, cousins,” the man said.All text © NôvelD(r)a'ma.Org.
As the man talked to my owners a brown bundle approached me with an outstretched appendage. I wasn’t sure what to do, but Master Evan encouraged me to go with the other slave.
We went into a little room in the back. It was opulent. There seemed to be a sitting area around a little stage. The little brown bundle took off her robe quickly and revealed a very humanoid looking creature.
She had huge oval eyes in a dark face. Right away I noticed she was bald. The woman wore a collar like mine, as well as, wrist and ankle cuffs. She smiled broadly at me, but I was too stunned to speak as I took her in.
Her clothing was all yellow gauzy fabric. Two strips passed over her shoulders and covered her breasts. On her waist hung an ornate golden chain, it held up a panel that covered the apex of her thighs and her buttocks. The same yellow gauze started at her waist and cascaded down her legs in strips that gathered at the ankles. Each time she took a step a beautiful dark leg came between the fabric.
“Do you speak, cousin?” she asked politely, starting to remove my covering.
“Yes, who are you?” I asked her.
“I am, Mia, the slave of these shopkeepers. They serve the Warriors and the Administrators. I have never seen your Warriors before, so you must be new. I will help your Warriors pick out ornamentation for you,” she explained as she rapidly removed my gloves and boots.
“Thank you,” I said as she pulled my body covering over my head.
The last thing to go was my kneeling place which she threw beside one of the chairs in the room.
I went from feeling totally dressed to totally nude. When I heard the men come in the room, I moved behind Mia instinctively to shield myself. I had the feeling it was a blunder. I just couldn’t stop myself from doing it. Mia cooly covered it up by turning and leading me to the stage.
“Don’t be so shy human, I’m sure they have seen all of you already. My Masters have seen every slave in the compound,” she whispered. “They will probably buy ornamentation to partially shield the places you would want covered. If you have pleased them, they will try to keep you happy.”
I knew she was correct but the fitting was still horrible. I stood on a little lighted platform as Mia wrapped me in different blue, silver, and white fabrics. It felt like I was back at the auction as I modeled the filmy fabrics Mia wrapped me in.
The shopkeepers were five friendly men that rushed in and out of the room bringing in samples. They offered articles of translucent fabric and shiny jewelry to my owners. If the object was approved then Mia would take it and dress me in it. The shopkeepers never touched me, but I didn’t like them looking.
Nothing was ignored. Ornate pins and combs were used to decorate my hair. Mia demonstrated how it could be pulled and designed. For a creature with no hair of her own, she knew what to do with it.