Taka and Laurel. An inconvenient love.
Moderators: Shir'le E. Illios, Bhaern Quel
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
Taka and Laurel. An inconvenient love.
This is a warning that this story does have sexual content, abusive content, and even sexually abusive content. This is a story about an unexpected and wholly inconvenient love that takes place between a Drow male and a Human female. It is based on a continent that I created myself called the Broken Moon Lands, a huge continent that is vaguelly shaped like a moon. My first few posts will give some back ground on the continent, and the drow that exist on my continent because it is not wholly D&D based.
Thank you for reading and enoy
Lauren
Thank you for reading and enoy
Lauren
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
Some basics on the broken moon lands.
The Lands of the Broken Moon, as it is called by its inhabitants, is a jumble of variously sized continents and islands. It resembles the shape of a crescent moon, and that is why it is named such. It is made up of two main continents, a few smaller continents, and several large islands. The bottom of the two main lands (one significantly smaller than the other) sits upon the equator and is very tropical. The top of the larger mainland, often called “the spine of the moon” is so far north that parts of it are completely uninhabitable; at least for the average humanoid. It is far too cold up there for the average humanoid.
However, one should also be on his guard in the tropics of the main land, especially close to the Monkey Mountains for the monkey kings rule there and they do not play fair. It has been said that the monkey shamans often wear the fingers of human victims around there necks as some sort of magical items.
The Ocean of Scattered Stars are the smaller continents and islands that exist on the inside of the moon’s crescent form. The main lands curl around them like a cat curling around a ball of yarn to sleep. These islands curve inward from the point of the mainland’s moon shaped tip, and these islands curl inward to form a spiral shape. It is unknown how these islands came to form themselves into a spiral. Some say that the gods of the elements, who live near the middle of the spiral, created them, and formed them that way. For this reason, the spiral is a sacred symbol. Others believe that it was a simple coincidence that the islands formed themselves that way, and they believe that the gods live there simply because they find the spiral shape aesthetically pleasing. Either way, the spiral is a symbol that represents the gods of the elements and is therefore held sacred to all of the inhabitants of The Broken Moon Lands.
It is said, that at the very center of the spiral, where the wind is treacherous, and the waves would break any gallant ship into pieces, that there is an island which is made completely out of pearl. This island is said to be sacred and the only way that one could visit the island would be to convince The Gods of the Elements that you are worthy to be let in. only then will the wind stop, and the waves part, that you may be allowed to tread upon the sacred pearl island.
The Lands of the Broken Moon is a place where all levels of technology exist in some form or another. Though no one has seen a plane that was able to fly into the Ocean of Scattered Stars, nor has anyone devised a way to leave the planet all together. So in many cases, the inhabitants of the Broken Moon Lands are forced to function on a much lower level of technology. Very high levels of technology are few and far between on these lands but they do exist. Everything seems to exist here, from cyborgs, to elves to dragons. Even the common human peasant lives in the Lands of the Broken Moon.
However, one should also be on his guard in the tropics of the main land, especially close to the Monkey Mountains for the monkey kings rule there and they do not play fair. It has been said that the monkey shamans often wear the fingers of human victims around there necks as some sort of magical items.
The Ocean of Scattered Stars are the smaller continents and islands that exist on the inside of the moon’s crescent form. The main lands curl around them like a cat curling around a ball of yarn to sleep. These islands curve inward from the point of the mainland’s moon shaped tip, and these islands curl inward to form a spiral shape. It is unknown how these islands came to form themselves into a spiral. Some say that the gods of the elements, who live near the middle of the spiral, created them, and formed them that way. For this reason, the spiral is a sacred symbol. Others believe that it was a simple coincidence that the islands formed themselves that way, and they believe that the gods live there simply because they find the spiral shape aesthetically pleasing. Either way, the spiral is a symbol that represents the gods of the elements and is therefore held sacred to all of the inhabitants of The Broken Moon Lands.
It is said, that at the very center of the spiral, where the wind is treacherous, and the waves would break any gallant ship into pieces, that there is an island which is made completely out of pearl. This island is said to be sacred and the only way that one could visit the island would be to convince The Gods of the Elements that you are worthy to be let in. only then will the wind stop, and the waves part, that you may be allowed to tread upon the sacred pearl island.
The Lands of the Broken Moon is a place where all levels of technology exist in some form or another. Though no one has seen a plane that was able to fly into the Ocean of Scattered Stars, nor has anyone devised a way to leave the planet all together. So in many cases, the inhabitants of the Broken Moon Lands are forced to function on a much lower level of technology. Very high levels of technology are few and far between on these lands but they do exist. Everything seems to exist here, from cyborgs, to elves to dragons. Even the common human peasant lives in the Lands of the Broken Moon.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
The Hungry dessert
The Hungry Dessert.
In the middle of the larger main land, the mountains which are called “The Spine of the moon” split into two parts the west mountains are called “The West Jaw of the Dessert” and the east mountains are called “The East Jaw of the Dessert”. If you have not gathered quite yet, between these two mountain ranges is a vast dessert. It is about seven-hundred miles wide from the East Jaw to the West Jaw. The dessert inside the jaws is known as “The Hungary Dessert.”
The Hungary dessert is treacherous. Water is scarce and in the desserts flowing dunes, one could easily get lost. It is known as the Hungary dessert because those who enter it, are often swallowed by it and never seen again.
In the middle of the larger main land, the mountains which are called “The Spine of the moon” split into two parts the west mountains are called “The West Jaw of the Dessert” and the east mountains are called “The East Jaw of the Dessert”. If you have not gathered quite yet, between these two mountain ranges is a vast dessert. It is about seven-hundred miles wide from the East Jaw to the West Jaw. The dessert inside the jaws is known as “The Hungary Dessert.”
The Hungary dessert is treacherous. Water is scarce and in the desserts flowing dunes, one could easily get lost. It is known as the Hungary dessert because those who enter it, are often swallowed by it and never seen again.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
The origin of the Drow
The Origin of the Drow.
The origin of the Drow is something that is told in song and tale but is not remembered first hand by anyone on the Broken Moon Lands.
The story goes that there are a group of elves that live in the sky. They are called “Cloud Elves” by the inhabitants of the Broken Moon Lands. The Cloud Elves are extremely fair in their physical features. There is the whitest of white, like wisps of clouds upon an elf’s head. And their skin is like snow that glows in the sunlight. Their eyes are as light and shining as a pair of eyes could ever be.
But, every once in a while, a child is born with some dark feature. A dark speck in their bright eyes, a single dark strand of hair, a hue of skin which is not altogether glowing. Though these children are no less pure of heart than any child with completely fair features, they are considered cursed and demonic by the Cloud Elves. The Cloud Elves, not wanting a demon tormenting the lives of their own beautifully fair children, take action by holding a cleansing ceremony. This cleansing ceremony is to cleanse the people of the clouds, not the child with dark features. In this ceremony, the child is thrown off the clouds, and the Cloud Elves have a celebration for the cleansing of the clouds.
To speak again of the children that are thrown off of the clouds, many die because they fall onto the jagged tips of mountains, or are impaled by trees. Elves being elves, though, especially those of such light weight as Cloud Elves, will survive if they land on a softer substance such as a grassy hill or water. Therefore, there are elves that survive the fall from the clouds. These elves become the Drow. Their skin turns blue black with rage at being thrown off of the clouds, and their hair turns white and gray with anger and stress. The effect of being thrown off the clouds is so profound, in fact that these physical traits are then also passed on to their children; passing on, also, the anger that goes with it
They often build their settlings in the small corners of the earth or under ground where they plot their revenge on the Cloud Elves. The Drow Elves that exist today are the offspring of those original Drow that were thrown from the clouds. Therefore, the Drow of today do not rightly know what actually happened except for the songs that lament its happening. They plot against the people of the clouds even though they do not rightly know who they are. A deep racism burns inside them for the people of the clouds and also for all fair peoples because that is how they were raised by the original Drow. The Drow have become their own community. But the anger of the original Drow runs deep in their blood.
Because the Drow cannot take their anger out on the Cloud Elves, which are for the most part unreachable, on the innocent by stander and random passer by. They often torture people to relieve their frustrations.
There is, like in any community, always the exception; but such individuals are not something that I will discuss now.
There is a particular Drow city called “Untathur” which lies just on the outside edge of the east jaw of the dessert, deep underneath the mountains. Untathur is named after it’s founders Mataunta and Patathur. The Drow of Untathur have many songs and stories about the founders and their city and the troubles they went through after being thrown out of the clouds.
The origin of the Drow is something that is told in song and tale but is not remembered first hand by anyone on the Broken Moon Lands.
The story goes that there are a group of elves that live in the sky. They are called “Cloud Elves” by the inhabitants of the Broken Moon Lands. The Cloud Elves are extremely fair in their physical features. There is the whitest of white, like wisps of clouds upon an elf’s head. And their skin is like snow that glows in the sunlight. Their eyes are as light and shining as a pair of eyes could ever be.
But, every once in a while, a child is born with some dark feature. A dark speck in their bright eyes, a single dark strand of hair, a hue of skin which is not altogether glowing. Though these children are no less pure of heart than any child with completely fair features, they are considered cursed and demonic by the Cloud Elves. The Cloud Elves, not wanting a demon tormenting the lives of their own beautifully fair children, take action by holding a cleansing ceremony. This cleansing ceremony is to cleanse the people of the clouds, not the child with dark features. In this ceremony, the child is thrown off the clouds, and the Cloud Elves have a celebration for the cleansing of the clouds.
To speak again of the children that are thrown off of the clouds, many die because they fall onto the jagged tips of mountains, or are impaled by trees. Elves being elves, though, especially those of such light weight as Cloud Elves, will survive if they land on a softer substance such as a grassy hill or water. Therefore, there are elves that survive the fall from the clouds. These elves become the Drow. Their skin turns blue black with rage at being thrown off of the clouds, and their hair turns white and gray with anger and stress. The effect of being thrown off the clouds is so profound, in fact that these physical traits are then also passed on to their children; passing on, also, the anger that goes with it
They often build their settlings in the small corners of the earth or under ground where they plot their revenge on the Cloud Elves. The Drow Elves that exist today are the offspring of those original Drow that were thrown from the clouds. Therefore, the Drow of today do not rightly know what actually happened except for the songs that lament its happening. They plot against the people of the clouds even though they do not rightly know who they are. A deep racism burns inside them for the people of the clouds and also for all fair peoples because that is how they were raised by the original Drow. The Drow have become their own community. But the anger of the original Drow runs deep in their blood.
Because the Drow cannot take their anger out on the Cloud Elves, which are for the most part unreachable, on the innocent by stander and random passer by. They often torture people to relieve their frustrations.
There is, like in any community, always the exception; but such individuals are not something that I will discuss now.
There is a particular Drow city called “Untathur” which lies just on the outside edge of the east jaw of the dessert, deep underneath the mountains. Untathur is named after it’s founders Mataunta and Patathur. The Drow of Untathur have many songs and stories about the founders and their city and the troubles they went through after being thrown out of the clouds.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
The origin of Taka's home town.
Untathurian story of Mataunta and Patathur.
Mataunta and Patathur were from different Cloud Elf communities but faced the same fate.
Patathur had lived for the first ten years of his life in a hiding place that his parents kept him in. upon his birth, his mother had shrieked in horror of his dark ocean blue eyes. They were not light silver like those of the fair Cloud Elves. But she had fallen in love with her baby, like all mothers should, and she decided to hide his existence from the rest of the community, telling them that her child had been born dead.
Patathur lived in hiding until one day, one of his siblings got angry that Patathur was mothers favorite and that he was so spoiled by his mother. Patathur’s sibling went and found one of the community nobles and told the noble that his brother was a demon with dark eyes. The noble was terrified and asked the boy where this demon was. The boy told him of Patathur’s whereabouts and told him that his mother had been hiding him there.
When the mother returned home that evening, she saw that her dark eyed son had been kidnapped. Frantic, she ran to the nobles to ask where her son had been taken, but she was simply tied up and taken to a room where Patathur was crying.
The next morning, Patathur and his mother were taken outside for the ceremony. Patathur’s brother, who had thought that Patathur would be the only one thrown off of the cloud, screamed when both Patathur and his mother were pushed off of the clouds.
“Patathur is a demon, and has been disposed of,” said the noble man to his people. “So was his mother because she was foolish enough to hide such evil amongst our pure people.” The noble lifted Patathur’s weeping brother over his head and said, “This boy unveiled the truth. You are lucky, young one, that you were not infected by Patathur’s evil.”
Patathur and his mother fell, and continued to fall until Patathur hit a lake of water. When he reached the surface and struggled his way to shore, he saw that his mother had landed on the Jagged rocks that were right next to the lake. Shivering, Patathur wept over his mothers mangled body. His hair lost it’s glorious white sheen, and became a dull white. His face became dark from his anger and sadness as he howled his torture into the air. The clouds above him grew heavy and began to rain upon him. It was like, even now, the clouds were cursing his existence. He climbed up the rocks into a cave where he could get out of the rain. He wept, and cursed the people of the clouds. Hate filled his soul.
Hearing his weeping, Mataunta materialized out of the shadows. She was older than Patathur, and had obviously been there longer because she was wearing animal skins while Patathur was still wearing the white, cloud silks of his people. Mataunta told Patathur that she had also been thrown out due to a single streak of black hair, which had now faded into gray. She told him that he would never stop feeling the pain of such a profound rejection, and that she shared his anger.
Mataunta taught Patathur how to hunt, and how to take care of himself. They found that the magic which was part of their blood had turned dark, just like the rest of them. They found that they could use this dark magic to force the nearby, underground gnomes to be their slaves, and to set aflame anything that they desired to burn. Patathur grew up and he and Mataunta had children, which they raised with emphasis on their hatred towards all things fair. The cave which Patathur had taken shelter in was dug into further and it became an underground city which was inhabited by the offspring of Mataunta and Patathur. These offspring became known as the Untathurians, and they are, today, the Drow of the Untathur.
Mataunta and Patathur were from different Cloud Elf communities but faced the same fate.
Patathur had lived for the first ten years of his life in a hiding place that his parents kept him in. upon his birth, his mother had shrieked in horror of his dark ocean blue eyes. They were not light silver like those of the fair Cloud Elves. But she had fallen in love with her baby, like all mothers should, and she decided to hide his existence from the rest of the community, telling them that her child had been born dead.
Patathur lived in hiding until one day, one of his siblings got angry that Patathur was mothers favorite and that he was so spoiled by his mother. Patathur’s sibling went and found one of the community nobles and told the noble that his brother was a demon with dark eyes. The noble was terrified and asked the boy where this demon was. The boy told him of Patathur’s whereabouts and told him that his mother had been hiding him there.
When the mother returned home that evening, she saw that her dark eyed son had been kidnapped. Frantic, she ran to the nobles to ask where her son had been taken, but she was simply tied up and taken to a room where Patathur was crying.
The next morning, Patathur and his mother were taken outside for the ceremony. Patathur’s brother, who had thought that Patathur would be the only one thrown off of the cloud, screamed when both Patathur and his mother were pushed off of the clouds.
“Patathur is a demon, and has been disposed of,” said the noble man to his people. “So was his mother because she was foolish enough to hide such evil amongst our pure people.” The noble lifted Patathur’s weeping brother over his head and said, “This boy unveiled the truth. You are lucky, young one, that you were not infected by Patathur’s evil.”
Patathur and his mother fell, and continued to fall until Patathur hit a lake of water. When he reached the surface and struggled his way to shore, he saw that his mother had landed on the Jagged rocks that were right next to the lake. Shivering, Patathur wept over his mothers mangled body. His hair lost it’s glorious white sheen, and became a dull white. His face became dark from his anger and sadness as he howled his torture into the air. The clouds above him grew heavy and began to rain upon him. It was like, even now, the clouds were cursing his existence. He climbed up the rocks into a cave where he could get out of the rain. He wept, and cursed the people of the clouds. Hate filled his soul.
Hearing his weeping, Mataunta materialized out of the shadows. She was older than Patathur, and had obviously been there longer because she was wearing animal skins while Patathur was still wearing the white, cloud silks of his people. Mataunta told Patathur that she had also been thrown out due to a single streak of black hair, which had now faded into gray. She told him that he would never stop feeling the pain of such a profound rejection, and that she shared his anger.
Mataunta taught Patathur how to hunt, and how to take care of himself. They found that the magic which was part of their blood had turned dark, just like the rest of them. They found that they could use this dark magic to force the nearby, underground gnomes to be their slaves, and to set aflame anything that they desired to burn. Patathur grew up and he and Mataunta had children, which they raised with emphasis on their hatred towards all things fair. The cave which Patathur had taken shelter in was dug into further and it became an underground city which was inhabited by the offspring of Mataunta and Patathur. These offspring became known as the Untathurians, and they are, today, the Drow of the Untathur.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
And now the story begins.
Day one:
Taka:
I was exhausted. I had been walking, ever so slowly through the Hungary Dessert, trying desperately to find a way over the mountains. I thought that I must be getting so close to the East Jaw. I collapsed. The strain of the heat had simply taken over. When I woke, it was cold. The night had washed over the dessert. I woke to the gentle touch of someone checking for a pulse in my neck. I thought, ‘I’m safe now, someone has found me and will for sure help me escape this horrible dessert.’ I looked to see who this savior could be, and found myself staring into the silvery blue eyes of a Drow. He wore a hood, and I could only barely see his face, but his eyes shown through the darkness of his skin like ice. When my eyes met his, a coldness went into my soul and I began to panic. I struggled to get up to run but I was too exhausted and he did not have to strain himself to gag me. He had a calmness in his actions. His did not appear to enjoy his actions, but he looked as though it was a simple necessity. He would look me in the eyes again and I would be mesmerized. I had not heard of such a property among Drow. Along with the coldness of his piercing eyes came a coolness of relaxation. I almost felt comforted by his eyes. Never the less, I struggled against his strong dark arms to get away. He quickly and effortlessly tied my hands behind my back and started feeling my pockets to see if I had anything. I tried to swing my exhausted legs at him in an effort to push him away but I was too week and was already working up a sweat, where as he had not even seemed to use his muscles. He tied my ankles together and his face held no expression. He pulled my hidden knife out of my knee high boot and pocketed it. He managed to locate the coins that I had hidden in my blouse and he pocketed them also.
He looked me in the eyes and the coolness of them washed through me. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked him. A slight and emotionless, but not unkind, smile took to the edges of his lips, and was whisked away soon after. He puts one arm under my shoulders and another under my knees and he picked me up. He was not harsh but he was not caring. He began walking, carrying me in his arms. Terrified, I knew that I was in a hopeless position. Even if I did have the strength to get away from him, I would soon die of dehydration out in the dessert. I decided to take a chance, thinking that they would kill me, torture me, or use me for some sort of slave labor. Or all of the above. But there would be the small chance that I could get up my strength and escape on the other side of the East Jaw of the Dessert. I had no options. Exhaustion reasserted itself on my body, mind and soul, and I felt myself falling into sleep as my captor carried me. I relaxed my head against his shoulder and his white wispy hair brushed against my cheek like spider silk.
Drow sweat is much different than human sweat. His smell as I drifted off to sleep was strange. It was dank, and his sweat was cold. His smell reminded me of the smell of cold stones that have been sitting in still water for a long time. The settling of dust and scum having covered the stones. It was not an unpleasant smell, only strange. And that smell, along with his spider silk hair, accompanied me as I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke, we were no longer in the dessert, we had entered the deep caverns of the mountains. ‘So I really did travel all the way to the East Jaw of the Dessert before I passed out.’ I thought. There were large houses built into the sides of the cavern. The cave ceiling was so high and so dark that I could not see it. We had entered an underground city. This, I assumed, was Untathur. This was the Drow city, built deep inside the East Jaw. It was dark, but somehow, it was not pitch black. It was almost as though the stones themselves had a faint glow that kept the city from plunging into total darkness.
My captor veered off to the right, and carefully and without dropping me, managed to open the huge front door to one of these magnificent houses. If marble could be black, that was the inside of his house. Huge pillars held the ceiling in place, and the polished stone floor covered a huge entrance room. The walls were lined with many doors and there was a stair case on each side of the room that connected to a sort of bridge that stretched between them. Doors were lined all across the top of the walls as well, and a walk way that one could access with the stairs allowed people to reach those rooms.
The mansion seemed to be sleeping, as did the city outside. I did not understand why everyone in such a huge city would be asleep. My captor again, veered to the right side of this huge room and ascended a staircase. At the top of the stairs, he passed the bridge that crossed to the other side of the room and passed two of the doors on his right, before entering one. The room we entered was obviously his bedroom. It was a large room, but not huge. Directly on the opposite side of the room was his bed. And he walked several paces to the left of that where there was a small pillar. He set me to stand next to the pillar and he tied my hands to it.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked my question from hours before. He looked at me with those eyes, the coolness of them, like a deep underground pool, chilly but fresh. “You will be my slave.” He said calmly. These were the first words he had said since he found me in the dessert. And with that we were silent. He removed his hood and the sleeveless tunic he had been wearing. His leather pants were a tan color, and his blue toned dark skin caught my eye. I had never seen a Drow before. His white hair came down to his shoulders. His hair was not full, but it was not thin. It was certainly fine. When he moved, his spider silk hair would almost flow with his movements, and then rest again against his dark shoulders. I found myself mesmerized by his form, even though I was afraid of what he might do to me. He was quiet, and mysterious, and I found myself curious about him.
He noticed me watching him and gave a short smile. Those eyes of his caressing my face yet again. He walked over to my post and untied one of my hands. “I saw you watching me.” He said. “Have you ever touched Drow skin?” my muscles tensed as he ran my fingers down his chest, across his stomach, over his shoulders and across his face. His skin felt thick. Thicker than human skin. I felt my heart shaking as I tried to back away from him only to meet the pillar that I was tied to. I felt the adrenalin rush over me and I gave a short whimper. He tied my hand back with my other, and walked back to the other side of the room. He put on a short cloak, and tied his bangs back into a short pony tail. He walked to the door, and looked at me before he opened it. His cool eyes seemed almost sad. I had never heard of a captor or slave driver, or a Drow, looking into the eyes of his captive the way that man looked into mine. I wondered what secrets he was keeping inside those mesmerizing eyes.
He left the room, and I slumped down onto the floor. How was I going to get out of this place? Behind my pillar, I was not far from the wall. In front of me and to the right was the door that led out to the hall way. In front of me and to the left was my captor’s extravagant bed. Complete with black silk bed curtains. Directly across from me, on the opposite wall, was a closet, where I assumed he kept his clothes and other items. There were no ornaments on his walls except for a rack that had a sword on it. The black marble walls seemed to glow slightly with that same strange luminescence.
Several minutes later I heard two voices coming towards the bedroom door. They were speaking in a language that I could not understand. I assumed that it was the Drow language. The door opened, and I saw the back of my captor’s cloak enter the room. He was standing in the door way talking with someone. It sounded like a man’s voice. They seemed to be in some sort of argument. Their voices began to rise until my captor seemed to punch whoever he was talking to. The voices returned to a respectful tone, and the conversation was ended. My captor entered the room, and closed the door. He heaved an indignant sigh, and removed his cloak. He sighed again and looked at me. His eyes effectively reflected his annoyance at whomever he had just been arguing with.
He walked over to me, and sat on his knees on the floor in front of me. He handed me a cup of water and I drank it greedily. When I was finished I set the cup down and looked up at him. His face was very serious and I was again struck by his eyes. He seemed to be used to such reactions to his eyes. He began to undo the straps on one of my boots. “What are you doing?” I asked. He looked at me, but rendered no answer. He removed that boot, and then began to work on the other one. After he had removed that, he tried to reach in and unbuckle my pants. My knees instantly went up to my chest. I had recognized sexual slavery as a possibility, but this was something that I did not want to give up easily. He sat up straight and looked at me with an obvious warning in his eyes. They seemed to say, “or else”. He said, “I will beat you. We can make this easy, or we can make this difficult. Do not think that I am the sort to give empty threats.” I started to weep as terror took over, and I did not fight him as he undid my belt, and took off my pants. If this was the sort of thing that might be happening to me every day, compliance would do me less harm, and I might find a way to escape. The serious expression on my captors face made me question why he was doing this. Having already untied my ankles, he untied my wrists and stood me up. “Arms up.” He said, and I did so without question. He removed my tunic and there I stood, naked. Tears rolled down my face and I quivered in my cowering state.
He held, firmly, onto my shoulders and looked into my eyes. That deep, and serious expression made me wonder what parts of my soul he could see when he looked at me like that. I wondered what sliver of caring was there. “You have two options.” He said. “You can do this willingly. You can provide me with what I ask, and I will not beat you.” He paused and the seriousness of his eyes seemed to deepen. “Or, I can tie you to the bed and I will force you. Take your pick.”
I cried and whimpered. If I did not comply, he would beat me, and I would be in pretty bad shape. But if I did comply, it would be like giving up my individuality, my freedom to be myself. “If you do not choose then I will pick the latter option.” He said, his face becoming slightly impatient. “Wouldn’t you want that anyway?” I asked through sobs. “No.” he replied, “I wouldn’t.” I was somewhat stunned by his reply and my tears were suspended for a moment. Timidly I nodded. “I’ll comply.”
“Okay.” He said softly, and he kissed my lips. I did not expect my rapist to kiss me. When he pulled away from this kiss, his eyes had gone soft, and they seemed to have floated away into another land. I wondered what imaginations he had running through his head that would make him float away like that. He took my hands, and then took several steps backwards until he could sit on the edge of his bed. He sat down, and then laid down flat on his back against his silk sheets. I do not know why he thought it a good idea to put him self into such a vulnerable position in front of me, but having no weapon, I did not take advantage of his belly-up position. He tugged on my hand and had me sit on the bed next to him. He looked at me and his eyes expressed a desperation and sadness.
He had me undo his belt buckle, and undo the strings of his leather pants. When I had removed his pants, he put his hand behind my neck and pushed me towards his dark skinned genitals. The skin of his penis was just as sensitive as any human male, as were the noises he made when he pushed it into my mouth. I decided that this would not be a good time to take advantage of my situation. Not only would I be surrounded by his kin, just outside these walls, but I did not know the way out of the mountain. I would have to do more snooping before I could escape.
The Drow moaned with pleasure and then pulled my face up to his so that he could kiss me. I wondered weather he had ever raped anyone before. Surely he had at least witnessed it. He pulled me further onto the bed and then rolled over on top of me. He bit my neck rather hard while fondling and groping my body. I cringed at the feeling of his teeth breaking through my skin. He licked and kissed the wound and ran his fingers over my clitoris. I did not move. I whimpered with some discomfort, and waited for the intercourse to commence. That did not happen right away. He fondled my body, groping my breasts and touching my clitoris. He even did so with his tongue. I wondered just who he was trying to please. He entered me, and noisily expressed his pleasure. His hair brushed against me as he was thrusting, and its soft wisps tickled my face. He started whispering things into my ear that I could not understand. I could tell that he was in a different world. Maybe he was imagining making love to someone that he loved. His eyes were closed.
“You be on top.” He said, startlingly, and he rolled over and pulled me on top of him. As I did the thrusting, his eyes shifted quite often between focusing intensely on my face, and floating off into another world. He moaned, he ran his fingers through my hair and pulled me down to kiss his lips. “You are beautiful.” He said, and I was not quite sure weather he was talking to me or someone in his imagination. Quite suddenly, he rolled over again and began thrusting rather hard. His orgasm was amazing. His voice reached a high tone that I have never heard any human man attain. His spasms were almost painful as he moved against my body.
He relaxed on top of me, and made quiet coos of satisfaction. His hair rested on my face. His heavy breathing slowed with every breath. He slowly moved off of me and spooned up against my back, wrapping his muscular arms around me and nuzzling into my hair. His breathing became very slow. We lay like that for several minutes before I realized that he had fallen asleep.
I watched him as he slept. Maybe sleep is the only place where Drow can find refuge from their anger and torment. His breathing became even and I knew that he was in a deep slumber. His arms had relaxed and I was able to remove myself from his hold without waking him. Even if I would not successfully escape from this place tonight, maybe I could find more information on how to escape. I put on my clothing as quietly as possible, and strapped my boots on. I had no idea where he had stashed my dagger. I decided not to rummage for it for fear that he would wake up and catch me.
I snuck to the door and opened it. The door did not even creak. I quietly closed the door behind me and I stood on the black marble platform not far from the bridge and the stairs. I walked quietly down the stairs towards the front door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” said a strange voice from behind me. I turned to see another Drow standing next to the stair case. I had missed him when I came down. This one looked younger than my captor, probably the equivalent of sixteen. His hair was fuller and he had it held back with a very elegant clip. His hair had a slight wave to it where as my captor’s hair is very straight. This boy also had the most mischievous of grins on his face. “I wouldn’t go out there if I were you. You might get caught, and it probably wouldn’t be by someone nice. The women in this city are much crueler than I am.”
I tried to back slowly towards the front door. This boy had been leaning against the under part of the stair case and he now straightened himself. “Why is it that my brother thinks that he can have all the fun? Huh? I think he should share his loot.” He took several quick steps towards me and I made a lunge for the front door. “That’s really not the way you want to go little lady,” said the boy and grabbed my hair before I could get a handle on the door. He threw me back towards the interior of the house and stood in front of the door. “I’d be quiet if I were you. You wouldn’t want to wake up the women.” His grin took up his whole face and his pearly white teeth glimmered in the stonework’s luminescent light.
I suddenly remembered when my captor had been arguing with someone in the hallway. I realized that this was probably the person he was talking to. He had punched his brother. I realized that even if I was beaten, the safest place for me to go would be back to the bedroom. I made a run for the stairs. “No you don’t!” yelled the brother and began to chase after me. I made it to the top of the stairs before he caught me and forced me to the floor. Why were these men all so strong? I struggled with him and he seemed to snarl. Then suddenly he stopped struggling with me. I looked up from the floor to see the older brother’s feet. He was wearing his leather pants but nothing else.
He started saying something that sounded to be like rather harsh words, they were in Drow though, so I could not understand. The younger brother whimpered something in his defense but was ultimately punched again. “Fine, keep her.” said the little brother, before walking down the stairs. My captor picked me up, put me on my feet and rather forcefully led me back to the bedroom. After closing the door behind him he slapped me across the face. I felt the heat as blood started to rush to that area. His eyes were angry as he looked at me and it almost burned to look at him. He grabbed me by the shoulder and I did not try to fight him. He walked me over to the pillar in his room and once again tied me to it. He grabbed my chin so that I would have to look him in the eye. “Do not try that again.” He growled. And with that, the night ended. I was left to sleep at my post, and he returned to his silk bed.
Taka:
I was exhausted. I had been walking, ever so slowly through the Hungary Dessert, trying desperately to find a way over the mountains. I thought that I must be getting so close to the East Jaw. I collapsed. The strain of the heat had simply taken over. When I woke, it was cold. The night had washed over the dessert. I woke to the gentle touch of someone checking for a pulse in my neck. I thought, ‘I’m safe now, someone has found me and will for sure help me escape this horrible dessert.’ I looked to see who this savior could be, and found myself staring into the silvery blue eyes of a Drow. He wore a hood, and I could only barely see his face, but his eyes shown through the darkness of his skin like ice. When my eyes met his, a coldness went into my soul and I began to panic. I struggled to get up to run but I was too exhausted and he did not have to strain himself to gag me. He had a calmness in his actions. His did not appear to enjoy his actions, but he looked as though it was a simple necessity. He would look me in the eyes again and I would be mesmerized. I had not heard of such a property among Drow. Along with the coldness of his piercing eyes came a coolness of relaxation. I almost felt comforted by his eyes. Never the less, I struggled against his strong dark arms to get away. He quickly and effortlessly tied my hands behind my back and started feeling my pockets to see if I had anything. I tried to swing my exhausted legs at him in an effort to push him away but I was too week and was already working up a sweat, where as he had not even seemed to use his muscles. He tied my ankles together and his face held no expression. He pulled my hidden knife out of my knee high boot and pocketed it. He managed to locate the coins that I had hidden in my blouse and he pocketed them also.
He looked me in the eyes and the coolness of them washed through me. “What are you going to do to me?” I asked him. A slight and emotionless, but not unkind, smile took to the edges of his lips, and was whisked away soon after. He puts one arm under my shoulders and another under my knees and he picked me up. He was not harsh but he was not caring. He began walking, carrying me in his arms. Terrified, I knew that I was in a hopeless position. Even if I did have the strength to get away from him, I would soon die of dehydration out in the dessert. I decided to take a chance, thinking that they would kill me, torture me, or use me for some sort of slave labor. Or all of the above. But there would be the small chance that I could get up my strength and escape on the other side of the East Jaw of the Dessert. I had no options. Exhaustion reasserted itself on my body, mind and soul, and I felt myself falling into sleep as my captor carried me. I relaxed my head against his shoulder and his white wispy hair brushed against my cheek like spider silk.
Drow sweat is much different than human sweat. His smell as I drifted off to sleep was strange. It was dank, and his sweat was cold. His smell reminded me of the smell of cold stones that have been sitting in still water for a long time. The settling of dust and scum having covered the stones. It was not an unpleasant smell, only strange. And that smell, along with his spider silk hair, accompanied me as I drifted off to sleep.
When I woke, we were no longer in the dessert, we had entered the deep caverns of the mountains. ‘So I really did travel all the way to the East Jaw of the Dessert before I passed out.’ I thought. There were large houses built into the sides of the cavern. The cave ceiling was so high and so dark that I could not see it. We had entered an underground city. This, I assumed, was Untathur. This was the Drow city, built deep inside the East Jaw. It was dark, but somehow, it was not pitch black. It was almost as though the stones themselves had a faint glow that kept the city from plunging into total darkness.
My captor veered off to the right, and carefully and without dropping me, managed to open the huge front door to one of these magnificent houses. If marble could be black, that was the inside of his house. Huge pillars held the ceiling in place, and the polished stone floor covered a huge entrance room. The walls were lined with many doors and there was a stair case on each side of the room that connected to a sort of bridge that stretched between them. Doors were lined all across the top of the walls as well, and a walk way that one could access with the stairs allowed people to reach those rooms.
The mansion seemed to be sleeping, as did the city outside. I did not understand why everyone in such a huge city would be asleep. My captor again, veered to the right side of this huge room and ascended a staircase. At the top of the stairs, he passed the bridge that crossed to the other side of the room and passed two of the doors on his right, before entering one. The room we entered was obviously his bedroom. It was a large room, but not huge. Directly on the opposite side of the room was his bed. And he walked several paces to the left of that where there was a small pillar. He set me to stand next to the pillar and he tied my hands to it.
“What are you going to do to me?” I asked my question from hours before. He looked at me with those eyes, the coolness of them, like a deep underground pool, chilly but fresh. “You will be my slave.” He said calmly. These were the first words he had said since he found me in the dessert. And with that we were silent. He removed his hood and the sleeveless tunic he had been wearing. His leather pants were a tan color, and his blue toned dark skin caught my eye. I had never seen a Drow before. His white hair came down to his shoulders. His hair was not full, but it was not thin. It was certainly fine. When he moved, his spider silk hair would almost flow with his movements, and then rest again against his dark shoulders. I found myself mesmerized by his form, even though I was afraid of what he might do to me. He was quiet, and mysterious, and I found myself curious about him.
He noticed me watching him and gave a short smile. Those eyes of his caressing my face yet again. He walked over to my post and untied one of my hands. “I saw you watching me.” He said. “Have you ever touched Drow skin?” my muscles tensed as he ran my fingers down his chest, across his stomach, over his shoulders and across his face. His skin felt thick. Thicker than human skin. I felt my heart shaking as I tried to back away from him only to meet the pillar that I was tied to. I felt the adrenalin rush over me and I gave a short whimper. He tied my hand back with my other, and walked back to the other side of the room. He put on a short cloak, and tied his bangs back into a short pony tail. He walked to the door, and looked at me before he opened it. His cool eyes seemed almost sad. I had never heard of a captor or slave driver, or a Drow, looking into the eyes of his captive the way that man looked into mine. I wondered what secrets he was keeping inside those mesmerizing eyes.
He left the room, and I slumped down onto the floor. How was I going to get out of this place? Behind my pillar, I was not far from the wall. In front of me and to the right was the door that led out to the hall way. In front of me and to the left was my captor’s extravagant bed. Complete with black silk bed curtains. Directly across from me, on the opposite wall, was a closet, where I assumed he kept his clothes and other items. There were no ornaments on his walls except for a rack that had a sword on it. The black marble walls seemed to glow slightly with that same strange luminescence.
Several minutes later I heard two voices coming towards the bedroom door. They were speaking in a language that I could not understand. I assumed that it was the Drow language. The door opened, and I saw the back of my captor’s cloak enter the room. He was standing in the door way talking with someone. It sounded like a man’s voice. They seemed to be in some sort of argument. Their voices began to rise until my captor seemed to punch whoever he was talking to. The voices returned to a respectful tone, and the conversation was ended. My captor entered the room, and closed the door. He heaved an indignant sigh, and removed his cloak. He sighed again and looked at me. His eyes effectively reflected his annoyance at whomever he had just been arguing with.
He walked over to me, and sat on his knees on the floor in front of me. He handed me a cup of water and I drank it greedily. When I was finished I set the cup down and looked up at him. His face was very serious and I was again struck by his eyes. He seemed to be used to such reactions to his eyes. He began to undo the straps on one of my boots. “What are you doing?” I asked. He looked at me, but rendered no answer. He removed that boot, and then began to work on the other one. After he had removed that, he tried to reach in and unbuckle my pants. My knees instantly went up to my chest. I had recognized sexual slavery as a possibility, but this was something that I did not want to give up easily. He sat up straight and looked at me with an obvious warning in his eyes. They seemed to say, “or else”. He said, “I will beat you. We can make this easy, or we can make this difficult. Do not think that I am the sort to give empty threats.” I started to weep as terror took over, and I did not fight him as he undid my belt, and took off my pants. If this was the sort of thing that might be happening to me every day, compliance would do me less harm, and I might find a way to escape. The serious expression on my captors face made me question why he was doing this. Having already untied my ankles, he untied my wrists and stood me up. “Arms up.” He said, and I did so without question. He removed my tunic and there I stood, naked. Tears rolled down my face and I quivered in my cowering state.
He held, firmly, onto my shoulders and looked into my eyes. That deep, and serious expression made me wonder what parts of my soul he could see when he looked at me like that. I wondered what sliver of caring was there. “You have two options.” He said. “You can do this willingly. You can provide me with what I ask, and I will not beat you.” He paused and the seriousness of his eyes seemed to deepen. “Or, I can tie you to the bed and I will force you. Take your pick.”
I cried and whimpered. If I did not comply, he would beat me, and I would be in pretty bad shape. But if I did comply, it would be like giving up my individuality, my freedom to be myself. “If you do not choose then I will pick the latter option.” He said, his face becoming slightly impatient. “Wouldn’t you want that anyway?” I asked through sobs. “No.” he replied, “I wouldn’t.” I was somewhat stunned by his reply and my tears were suspended for a moment. Timidly I nodded. “I’ll comply.”
“Okay.” He said softly, and he kissed my lips. I did not expect my rapist to kiss me. When he pulled away from this kiss, his eyes had gone soft, and they seemed to have floated away into another land. I wondered what imaginations he had running through his head that would make him float away like that. He took my hands, and then took several steps backwards until he could sit on the edge of his bed. He sat down, and then laid down flat on his back against his silk sheets. I do not know why he thought it a good idea to put him self into such a vulnerable position in front of me, but having no weapon, I did not take advantage of his belly-up position. He tugged on my hand and had me sit on the bed next to him. He looked at me and his eyes expressed a desperation and sadness.
He had me undo his belt buckle, and undo the strings of his leather pants. When I had removed his pants, he put his hand behind my neck and pushed me towards his dark skinned genitals. The skin of his penis was just as sensitive as any human male, as were the noises he made when he pushed it into my mouth. I decided that this would not be a good time to take advantage of my situation. Not only would I be surrounded by his kin, just outside these walls, but I did not know the way out of the mountain. I would have to do more snooping before I could escape.
The Drow moaned with pleasure and then pulled my face up to his so that he could kiss me. I wondered weather he had ever raped anyone before. Surely he had at least witnessed it. He pulled me further onto the bed and then rolled over on top of me. He bit my neck rather hard while fondling and groping my body. I cringed at the feeling of his teeth breaking through my skin. He licked and kissed the wound and ran his fingers over my clitoris. I did not move. I whimpered with some discomfort, and waited for the intercourse to commence. That did not happen right away. He fondled my body, groping my breasts and touching my clitoris. He even did so with his tongue. I wondered just who he was trying to please. He entered me, and noisily expressed his pleasure. His hair brushed against me as he was thrusting, and its soft wisps tickled my face. He started whispering things into my ear that I could not understand. I could tell that he was in a different world. Maybe he was imagining making love to someone that he loved. His eyes were closed.
“You be on top.” He said, startlingly, and he rolled over and pulled me on top of him. As I did the thrusting, his eyes shifted quite often between focusing intensely on my face, and floating off into another world. He moaned, he ran his fingers through my hair and pulled me down to kiss his lips. “You are beautiful.” He said, and I was not quite sure weather he was talking to me or someone in his imagination. Quite suddenly, he rolled over again and began thrusting rather hard. His orgasm was amazing. His voice reached a high tone that I have never heard any human man attain. His spasms were almost painful as he moved against my body.
He relaxed on top of me, and made quiet coos of satisfaction. His hair rested on my face. His heavy breathing slowed with every breath. He slowly moved off of me and spooned up against my back, wrapping his muscular arms around me and nuzzling into my hair. His breathing became very slow. We lay like that for several minutes before I realized that he had fallen asleep.
I watched him as he slept. Maybe sleep is the only place where Drow can find refuge from their anger and torment. His breathing became even and I knew that he was in a deep slumber. His arms had relaxed and I was able to remove myself from his hold without waking him. Even if I would not successfully escape from this place tonight, maybe I could find more information on how to escape. I put on my clothing as quietly as possible, and strapped my boots on. I had no idea where he had stashed my dagger. I decided not to rummage for it for fear that he would wake up and catch me.
I snuck to the door and opened it. The door did not even creak. I quietly closed the door behind me and I stood on the black marble platform not far from the bridge and the stairs. I walked quietly down the stairs towards the front door.
“Where do you think you’re going?” said a strange voice from behind me. I turned to see another Drow standing next to the stair case. I had missed him when I came down. This one looked younger than my captor, probably the equivalent of sixteen. His hair was fuller and he had it held back with a very elegant clip. His hair had a slight wave to it where as my captor’s hair is very straight. This boy also had the most mischievous of grins on his face. “I wouldn’t go out there if I were you. You might get caught, and it probably wouldn’t be by someone nice. The women in this city are much crueler than I am.”
I tried to back slowly towards the front door. This boy had been leaning against the under part of the stair case and he now straightened himself. “Why is it that my brother thinks that he can have all the fun? Huh? I think he should share his loot.” He took several quick steps towards me and I made a lunge for the front door. “That’s really not the way you want to go little lady,” said the boy and grabbed my hair before I could get a handle on the door. He threw me back towards the interior of the house and stood in front of the door. “I’d be quiet if I were you. You wouldn’t want to wake up the women.” His grin took up his whole face and his pearly white teeth glimmered in the stonework’s luminescent light.
I suddenly remembered when my captor had been arguing with someone in the hallway. I realized that this was probably the person he was talking to. He had punched his brother. I realized that even if I was beaten, the safest place for me to go would be back to the bedroom. I made a run for the stairs. “No you don’t!” yelled the brother and began to chase after me. I made it to the top of the stairs before he caught me and forced me to the floor. Why were these men all so strong? I struggled with him and he seemed to snarl. Then suddenly he stopped struggling with me. I looked up from the floor to see the older brother’s feet. He was wearing his leather pants but nothing else.
He started saying something that sounded to be like rather harsh words, they were in Drow though, so I could not understand. The younger brother whimpered something in his defense but was ultimately punched again. “Fine, keep her.” said the little brother, before walking down the stairs. My captor picked me up, put me on my feet and rather forcefully led me back to the bedroom. After closing the door behind him he slapped me across the face. I felt the heat as blood started to rush to that area. His eyes were angry as he looked at me and it almost burned to look at him. He grabbed me by the shoulder and I did not try to fight him. He walked me over to the pillar in his room and once again tied me to it. He grabbed my chin so that I would have to look him in the eye. “Do not try that again.” He growled. And with that, the night ended. I was left to sleep at my post, and he returned to his silk bed.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
day two
Day two:
I woke the next morning to the sound of someone entering the room. I looked over at the bed to see that my captor was gone. The thing entering the room was a gnome. The small man’s wrinkled face seemed tired and distressed. He was wearing a smock that tied behind his back. He was carrying a small tray. “For you.” He said and put the tray down in front of me. He then proceeded to untie my hands. “I warn you that if you try to escape when I untie your hands that I am to paralyze you.”
“How can you do that?” I asked, unsure of the abilities of gnomes.
“I can paralyze you until your master arrives. Today you must attend a legal ceremony, so you must eat up.” After the gnome untied my hands, I took a look at the tray. There was a small bowl filled with some mush of an indistinct color. Also on the tray was a glass of water.
“Thank you.” I said to the gnome. His eyes started to water as he sat down next to me to watch me eat.
“No one ever says thank you to me.” The gnome suddenly started to cry and I was at a loss on how to comfort him. I ate the mush, which was some sort of flavorless porridge, and drank the water.
“I have to tie you back up now.” Said the gnome, and proceeded to tie my wrists back to the post. He then picked up the tray and left the room.
Moments later, my captor entered the room wearing his leather pants and a worn tunic. He went to his closet, removed both the pants and the tunic, and began to dress in other clothes. He put on some black silk pants and a dark blue silk tunic with very ornate designs on it. He wrapped his belt around his waist, and took his sword from the wall and fastened it to his belt. He then dug around through his closet and found my knife, and fastened it also to his belt.
He walked over to me and untied my hands. “Take your clothes off and put on this.” He said, and handed me a smock similar to that the gnome had been wearing. Bigger obviously. I took my clothes off and put on the smock. The Drow looked at me. “No undergarments.” He said. I looked at him rather stunned, but his eyes were quite serious. I removed my undergarments.
The Drow began putting some rather spectacular jewelry on his person. He put on a very large medallion with a picture of what I assume to be his family crest on it. The crest was of a snake and a spider. What they were doing on the medallion I am not sure, but I think they were mating. He then also put on a black choker, many different colored metal bracelets, and several rings. He also put some small hoop ear rings in his ears.
He dug through his closet yet again and brought out what looked like shackles. “Wrists.” He said, walking over to me.
“I promise not to step out of line if you don’t put those on me.” I replied. His eyes looked rather insistent. I put out my wrists and he fastened the shackles. Attached to the shackles by a chain was a sort of metal collar, which he fastened around my neck. He then fastened another chain to the wrist shackles to act as a leash. He then dropped the chain to the floor and pulled his bangs back into a small ponytail. I felt humiliated. But not as humiliated as I would feel.
He picked up the chain and led me out of the room. He seemed anxious, like he was preparing himself for a speech. Like he had to make some big entrance and he did not feel prepared. His face, as anxious as he seemed, was completely expressionless. Almost like this was simply an errand he was performing. He led me down the stairs into the main entrance hall. He then led me across the room and into another door. We entered immediately into an exceptionally dark room. I could hardly see my hands in front of me. We began descending a spiral staircase. I could smell blood, and bodies. I could also hear the quiet murmur of people’s whispers. When we reached the bottom of the staircase, we stepped into a circle of light that revealed the fact that we had entered the family dungeons. I could barely see the glint of chains, and sharp implements hanging from the ceiling. All around us I could see the glint of eyes. There were people watching, though I could not tell who. After walking into what seemed like the center of the room, he stopped.
“Mata.” He said, and nodded in the direction of one pair of eyes, which nodded back. Then the entire group except my captor said, “Taka.” And my captor nodded. Then he began to speak very fluently in that same language that I could not understand. Then he nodded to “Mata” and gestured towards me. Out of the shadows walked a tall woman. She was slender, and she wore a head dress made of both dark and light colored feathers. She wore a very form fitting dress, which had a slit that came up to her hip. Before walking to me, she stopped in front of my captor and smiled at him like she was proud. It occurred to me that this woman was his mother. My captor’s eyes connected with mine very intensely as this woman walked up to me, and he did not break the gaze. As his gaze held, this woman looked me up and down. She turned my face from side to side and opened my mouth to look at my teeth. She then inspected the muscles in my arms and then, to my great distress, she suddenly put her long nailed finger into my vagina. I gasped in startlment and backed away from her quite suddenly. My captor then proceeded to sharply yank on my chain, still maintaining his eye lock. He broke his gaze when his mother looked at him and said something. He replied and nodded to her. She then left in the opposite direction from which she had come.
It was only then that I realized where the light source that made any of this visible to me was. There was a stone brazier with red hot coals in the top of it. Two, long metal rods were protruding from the hot coals. This brazier was close to my captor.
The next person to inspect was a younger woman that I assumed was one of my captor’s younger sisters. She nodded to her brother as she passed him, and he watched as she inspected me. She grabbed my chin and turned my face from side to side. She looked me up and down and then said something to her brother. He responded by removing my knife from its sheath on his belt, and walking behind me. “What are you doing?” I asked. He ignored my question and began cutting the back of my smock. He then cut the shoulders so that it could be easily removed without removing my shackles. Naked I stood before strangers and this strange woman was inspecting my body. She turned me around more than once and then looked at her brother and nodded. She left the light.
The next person to inspect me was a very familiar little brother. He smirked at my captor and waltzed over to inspect me. He looked me up and down and then said something to my captor, his grin still upon his face. My captor shot him a threatening glance. The little brother said something else. And then my captor said in the common tongue, “No, this is my property, and I can own property since I have come of age, unlike you, little brother.” The younger one scowled at his brother, and turned to leave.
I was inspected by many people. I found out that my captor has quite a large family. First his immediate family inspected me, then his grandparents inspected me, then his aunts, uncles, and cousins inspected me, there were even small children inspecting me. Always my captor looked at me while I was being inspected. It was almost like he felt protective. Maybe he did not want any damage to come to his property.
After the inspections were over, the mass of eyes standing in the shadows watched me. They said, “Lao” in unison. I did not know what that meant. My captor nodded to the eyes and proceeded to attach my shackles to the low ceiling by a hook that hung down. Then he tied my feet to the floor by a hook on the floor. He let go of the chain now that he did not need to hold on to it. I did not know what was going on. He announced something to the eyes. It was a relatively long announcement. I wondered what kind of legal ceremony this was exactly. My captor then walked over to the hot coals, and removed one of the metal rods. It was a branding iron.
Immediately I began to panic. “What are you going to do with that? No, please don’t brand me. No! Please!” His eyes met mine yet again and his gaze seemed so strong. He had no expression on his face, but his eyes expressed a flurry of emotions that I cannot describe. No other eyes I had ever seen could possibly be so intimate in a single gaze. Why did it seem like he could see my soul. I began to cry, anticipating the horror of the hot branding iron. He walked over to me. His eyes expressed a sense of almost apology, and absolute necessity. He pushed the brand against the inside of my right hip bone, just above the pubic line. I screamed. Sweat perspired all over my body. I wept. I pulled my gaze away from my captor and resolved to close my eyes. The hot iron was finally removed from my body. I opened my eyes. The crowd in the shadows applauded darkly. I watched my captor put the hot iron back into the red coals, and then remove the other. Not another one. My sobs and sweat were making my hair damp. I pleaded between sobs for him to stop. I looked at him, and he was not looking at me. In fact, he seemed to be refusing to gaze at me. The second brand pushed itself against the opposite hip. I screamed again. The room was too small to echo my cries. He pressed it hard against my skin to make sure the scar would not fade. After he removed the brand a small drop of blood oozed from the wound.
My captor returned the branding iron to the hot coals and turned to the audience, who applauded again. He then made another short announcement, and bowed to the audience. I heard the audience shuffle up the stairs and out the door. All the while my captor was watching them go. Motionless he stood. Emotionless he stood. I wept. After everyone had left, several moments went by before he moved from his stationary position. He walked over to me and began undoing the ties on my ankles. When he stood up to bring my arms down from the ceiling, I spat in his face. He stopped, and stared at me for a moment. Then he wiped the spit from his face.
“I’ll just leave you here then.” He said and walked past me towards the spiral staircase. I realized my mistake and said, “Wait! Taka!” I heard his footsteps stop behind me, and he turned around and walked back in front of me. “Do not call me by my real name.” he said, “I am your master. You will refer to me as master.” His eyes were hot, and he stared at me expectantly. “Yes,” I paused. “Yes master.”
He nodded and began removing my shackles from the ceiling. Silently, he walked my naked and branded form back up the spiral stair case, through the entrance hall, and back up to his bedroom. After he closed the door behind us, he removed the chains and shackles. He did not look at my face. “Sit down on the bed.” He said.
To him I replied, “So first you kidnap me, then you rape me, then you brand me, and now you are going to rape me again!?” his eyes were hard when they looked at me, and they were hot and angry. He grabbed me by the throat and carried me with one hand over to the silk covered bed. Then he pushed me onto the bed. He slapped my face with the back of his hand, grabbed my hair and forced me onto my back. He did not get on top of me.
“Stay there.” He said forcefully. He then removed himself from the room. I did not move from my spot. I only wept. A few minutes later he returned carrying a bowl. He pulled up a wooden chair next to the bed and he set the bowl on his lap. “This will hurt.” He said, and he began to ring the fluid in the bowl out of a cloth. I lay motionless, watching him. He put the sodden cloth into my right brand. I cringed and screeched. It did sting.
“What is that?” I asked. He looked up at my face and his eyes were no longer angry.
“You will do no good as a slave if you have infections on your hips.” He wiped the blood from my left brand. “You are now legally my property. If you run away, and anybody finds you, they will know who you belong to by these brands.”
I cringed again at the stinging fluid, and I looked at his face. He was focused on my wounds. There was a knock at the door. “Yes?” said the Drow. “Dinner for the slave.” came the gnome’s voice from the door. “Enter” replied the Drow. The gnome entered and without taking his attention away from my wounds, Taka cocked his head towards my post and said, “Put it over there.” “Yes sir” replied the gnome. The gnome put the tray on the floor next to my post, and as he left, he gave me a week smile.
After the gnome closed the door, I silently gazed at Taka. What was he doing? Why was he cleaning my wounds? What is that look that he gives me with those eyes? Why did he have an air of caring about him? As a Drow he should not only treat me like dirt, he should enjoy treating me like dirt. I could see that there was more to this guy than just a typical Drow.
“Taka?” I said. He looked up at me with slight annoyance.
“Do not call me that,” he said, “or I will have to beat you.” Ignoring his comment, I asked, “Why did you pick me up from the dessert?” he shook his head. “You do not need to know that.” “But I’m curious” I replied.
“Get rid of that curiosity,” he was watching my wounds again, “it will only get you hurt around here.”
“Why do you care if I get hurt?” he looked me in the eyes again. Those bright blue, intense eyes.
“You’re of little use to me if you are hurt.” He stopped dabbing my brands and simply gazed at me. The cool, icy and silvery blue of his eyes was in drastic contrast to the dark blue tone of his skin. They stood out against his face.
“Why do you look at me like that?” I asked, and it was several moments before he removed his gaze and continued cleaning my brands. He shook his head in response to my question. “Don’t talk” he said. And I didn’t. I laid there in silence, watching him tend to my wounds.
After he finished tending my wounds, he left to attend the family meal. I ate my tasteless mush, and with no one there to tie me to a post, I crawled into the comfortable silk sheets, and drifted to sleep.
I woke the next morning to the sound of someone entering the room. I looked over at the bed to see that my captor was gone. The thing entering the room was a gnome. The small man’s wrinkled face seemed tired and distressed. He was wearing a smock that tied behind his back. He was carrying a small tray. “For you.” He said and put the tray down in front of me. He then proceeded to untie my hands. “I warn you that if you try to escape when I untie your hands that I am to paralyze you.”
“How can you do that?” I asked, unsure of the abilities of gnomes.
“I can paralyze you until your master arrives. Today you must attend a legal ceremony, so you must eat up.” After the gnome untied my hands, I took a look at the tray. There was a small bowl filled with some mush of an indistinct color. Also on the tray was a glass of water.
“Thank you.” I said to the gnome. His eyes started to water as he sat down next to me to watch me eat.
“No one ever says thank you to me.” The gnome suddenly started to cry and I was at a loss on how to comfort him. I ate the mush, which was some sort of flavorless porridge, and drank the water.
“I have to tie you back up now.” Said the gnome, and proceeded to tie my wrists back to the post. He then picked up the tray and left the room.
Moments later, my captor entered the room wearing his leather pants and a worn tunic. He went to his closet, removed both the pants and the tunic, and began to dress in other clothes. He put on some black silk pants and a dark blue silk tunic with very ornate designs on it. He wrapped his belt around his waist, and took his sword from the wall and fastened it to his belt. He then dug around through his closet and found my knife, and fastened it also to his belt.
He walked over to me and untied my hands. “Take your clothes off and put on this.” He said, and handed me a smock similar to that the gnome had been wearing. Bigger obviously. I took my clothes off and put on the smock. The Drow looked at me. “No undergarments.” He said. I looked at him rather stunned, but his eyes were quite serious. I removed my undergarments.
The Drow began putting some rather spectacular jewelry on his person. He put on a very large medallion with a picture of what I assume to be his family crest on it. The crest was of a snake and a spider. What they were doing on the medallion I am not sure, but I think they were mating. He then also put on a black choker, many different colored metal bracelets, and several rings. He also put some small hoop ear rings in his ears.
He dug through his closet yet again and brought out what looked like shackles. “Wrists.” He said, walking over to me.
“I promise not to step out of line if you don’t put those on me.” I replied. His eyes looked rather insistent. I put out my wrists and he fastened the shackles. Attached to the shackles by a chain was a sort of metal collar, which he fastened around my neck. He then fastened another chain to the wrist shackles to act as a leash. He then dropped the chain to the floor and pulled his bangs back into a small ponytail. I felt humiliated. But not as humiliated as I would feel.
He picked up the chain and led me out of the room. He seemed anxious, like he was preparing himself for a speech. Like he had to make some big entrance and he did not feel prepared. His face, as anxious as he seemed, was completely expressionless. Almost like this was simply an errand he was performing. He led me down the stairs into the main entrance hall. He then led me across the room and into another door. We entered immediately into an exceptionally dark room. I could hardly see my hands in front of me. We began descending a spiral staircase. I could smell blood, and bodies. I could also hear the quiet murmur of people’s whispers. When we reached the bottom of the staircase, we stepped into a circle of light that revealed the fact that we had entered the family dungeons. I could barely see the glint of chains, and sharp implements hanging from the ceiling. All around us I could see the glint of eyes. There were people watching, though I could not tell who. After walking into what seemed like the center of the room, he stopped.
“Mata.” He said, and nodded in the direction of one pair of eyes, which nodded back. Then the entire group except my captor said, “Taka.” And my captor nodded. Then he began to speak very fluently in that same language that I could not understand. Then he nodded to “Mata” and gestured towards me. Out of the shadows walked a tall woman. She was slender, and she wore a head dress made of both dark and light colored feathers. She wore a very form fitting dress, which had a slit that came up to her hip. Before walking to me, she stopped in front of my captor and smiled at him like she was proud. It occurred to me that this woman was his mother. My captor’s eyes connected with mine very intensely as this woman walked up to me, and he did not break the gaze. As his gaze held, this woman looked me up and down. She turned my face from side to side and opened my mouth to look at my teeth. She then inspected the muscles in my arms and then, to my great distress, she suddenly put her long nailed finger into my vagina. I gasped in startlment and backed away from her quite suddenly. My captor then proceeded to sharply yank on my chain, still maintaining his eye lock. He broke his gaze when his mother looked at him and said something. He replied and nodded to her. She then left in the opposite direction from which she had come.
It was only then that I realized where the light source that made any of this visible to me was. There was a stone brazier with red hot coals in the top of it. Two, long metal rods were protruding from the hot coals. This brazier was close to my captor.
The next person to inspect was a younger woman that I assumed was one of my captor’s younger sisters. She nodded to her brother as she passed him, and he watched as she inspected me. She grabbed my chin and turned my face from side to side. She looked me up and down and then said something to her brother. He responded by removing my knife from its sheath on his belt, and walking behind me. “What are you doing?” I asked. He ignored my question and began cutting the back of my smock. He then cut the shoulders so that it could be easily removed without removing my shackles. Naked I stood before strangers and this strange woman was inspecting my body. She turned me around more than once and then looked at her brother and nodded. She left the light.
The next person to inspect me was a very familiar little brother. He smirked at my captor and waltzed over to inspect me. He looked me up and down and then said something to my captor, his grin still upon his face. My captor shot him a threatening glance. The little brother said something else. And then my captor said in the common tongue, “No, this is my property, and I can own property since I have come of age, unlike you, little brother.” The younger one scowled at his brother, and turned to leave.
I was inspected by many people. I found out that my captor has quite a large family. First his immediate family inspected me, then his grandparents inspected me, then his aunts, uncles, and cousins inspected me, there were even small children inspecting me. Always my captor looked at me while I was being inspected. It was almost like he felt protective. Maybe he did not want any damage to come to his property.
After the inspections were over, the mass of eyes standing in the shadows watched me. They said, “Lao” in unison. I did not know what that meant. My captor nodded to the eyes and proceeded to attach my shackles to the low ceiling by a hook that hung down. Then he tied my feet to the floor by a hook on the floor. He let go of the chain now that he did not need to hold on to it. I did not know what was going on. He announced something to the eyes. It was a relatively long announcement. I wondered what kind of legal ceremony this was exactly. My captor then walked over to the hot coals, and removed one of the metal rods. It was a branding iron.
Immediately I began to panic. “What are you going to do with that? No, please don’t brand me. No! Please!” His eyes met mine yet again and his gaze seemed so strong. He had no expression on his face, but his eyes expressed a flurry of emotions that I cannot describe. No other eyes I had ever seen could possibly be so intimate in a single gaze. Why did it seem like he could see my soul. I began to cry, anticipating the horror of the hot branding iron. He walked over to me. His eyes expressed a sense of almost apology, and absolute necessity. He pushed the brand against the inside of my right hip bone, just above the pubic line. I screamed. Sweat perspired all over my body. I wept. I pulled my gaze away from my captor and resolved to close my eyes. The hot iron was finally removed from my body. I opened my eyes. The crowd in the shadows applauded darkly. I watched my captor put the hot iron back into the red coals, and then remove the other. Not another one. My sobs and sweat were making my hair damp. I pleaded between sobs for him to stop. I looked at him, and he was not looking at me. In fact, he seemed to be refusing to gaze at me. The second brand pushed itself against the opposite hip. I screamed again. The room was too small to echo my cries. He pressed it hard against my skin to make sure the scar would not fade. After he removed the brand a small drop of blood oozed from the wound.
My captor returned the branding iron to the hot coals and turned to the audience, who applauded again. He then made another short announcement, and bowed to the audience. I heard the audience shuffle up the stairs and out the door. All the while my captor was watching them go. Motionless he stood. Emotionless he stood. I wept. After everyone had left, several moments went by before he moved from his stationary position. He walked over to me and began undoing the ties on my ankles. When he stood up to bring my arms down from the ceiling, I spat in his face. He stopped, and stared at me for a moment. Then he wiped the spit from his face.
“I’ll just leave you here then.” He said and walked past me towards the spiral staircase. I realized my mistake and said, “Wait! Taka!” I heard his footsteps stop behind me, and he turned around and walked back in front of me. “Do not call me by my real name.” he said, “I am your master. You will refer to me as master.” His eyes were hot, and he stared at me expectantly. “Yes,” I paused. “Yes master.”
He nodded and began removing my shackles from the ceiling. Silently, he walked my naked and branded form back up the spiral stair case, through the entrance hall, and back up to his bedroom. After he closed the door behind us, he removed the chains and shackles. He did not look at my face. “Sit down on the bed.” He said.
To him I replied, “So first you kidnap me, then you rape me, then you brand me, and now you are going to rape me again!?” his eyes were hard when they looked at me, and they were hot and angry. He grabbed me by the throat and carried me with one hand over to the silk covered bed. Then he pushed me onto the bed. He slapped my face with the back of his hand, grabbed my hair and forced me onto my back. He did not get on top of me.
“Stay there.” He said forcefully. He then removed himself from the room. I did not move from my spot. I only wept. A few minutes later he returned carrying a bowl. He pulled up a wooden chair next to the bed and he set the bowl on his lap. “This will hurt.” He said, and he began to ring the fluid in the bowl out of a cloth. I lay motionless, watching him. He put the sodden cloth into my right brand. I cringed and screeched. It did sting.
“What is that?” I asked. He looked up at my face and his eyes were no longer angry.
“You will do no good as a slave if you have infections on your hips.” He wiped the blood from my left brand. “You are now legally my property. If you run away, and anybody finds you, they will know who you belong to by these brands.”
I cringed again at the stinging fluid, and I looked at his face. He was focused on my wounds. There was a knock at the door. “Yes?” said the Drow. “Dinner for the slave.” came the gnome’s voice from the door. “Enter” replied the Drow. The gnome entered and without taking his attention away from my wounds, Taka cocked his head towards my post and said, “Put it over there.” “Yes sir” replied the gnome. The gnome put the tray on the floor next to my post, and as he left, he gave me a week smile.
After the gnome closed the door, I silently gazed at Taka. What was he doing? Why was he cleaning my wounds? What is that look that he gives me with those eyes? Why did he have an air of caring about him? As a Drow he should not only treat me like dirt, he should enjoy treating me like dirt. I could see that there was more to this guy than just a typical Drow.
“Taka?” I said. He looked up at me with slight annoyance.
“Do not call me that,” he said, “or I will have to beat you.” Ignoring his comment, I asked, “Why did you pick me up from the dessert?” he shook his head. “You do not need to know that.” “But I’m curious” I replied.
“Get rid of that curiosity,” he was watching my wounds again, “it will only get you hurt around here.”
“Why do you care if I get hurt?” he looked me in the eyes again. Those bright blue, intense eyes.
“You’re of little use to me if you are hurt.” He stopped dabbing my brands and simply gazed at me. The cool, icy and silvery blue of his eyes was in drastic contrast to the dark blue tone of his skin. They stood out against his face.
“Why do you look at me like that?” I asked, and it was several moments before he removed his gaze and continued cleaning my brands. He shook his head in response to my question. “Don’t talk” he said. And I didn’t. I laid there in silence, watching him tend to my wounds.
After he finished tending my wounds, he left to attend the family meal. I ate my tasteless mush, and with no one there to tie me to a post, I crawled into the comfortable silk sheets, and drifted to sleep.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
Day three
Day three:
When I woke, I woke to the sound of Taka rising from the bed. He had not moved me from my chosen sleeping place. I opened my eyes and saw him sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He blinked and looked at me with a silent and solemn greeting of morning. As morning a morning that the dark underground could have. He swung his legs off of the bed and stood up. I stayed on my pillow and watched his dark muscular form. He dressed in some of his nice clothing, did his hair, and put on his jewelry. He looked as though he were getting ready for some sort of occasion.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I do not need to tell you that.” He replied while putting in an ear ring. “I do not have anything for you to do today, so I will tie you back to the post while I am gone.” I nodded and groaned. He looked at me with a warning look in his eye. He was probably warning me about the groaning. “Get up.” He said. I got up and he handed me another ragged smock to wrap around myself.
“Where are my other clothes?” I asked in dismay.
“I took them. You will wear that from now on.” Disgusted by this fact, I wrapped the dirty smock around me. Taka gestured for me to go over to the post and I did. He tied my hands to the post. He then nodded a goodbye to me and kissed the scabs on my neck. He gave me a short smirk, and left.
I sat down on the floor, wondering how I would occupy myself. Lifting the smock with my teeth, I managed to inspect my brands. The brand on my right hip was a similar symbol on Taka’s family emblem. The only difference was that there was a definite ring encasing the snake and spider, probably resembling bondage. The brand on my left hip had a picture of an eye with that same ring around it. I wondered if “Taka” meant eyes. If it did, then that would be appropriate. I suddenly remembered seeing a brand on Taka’s chest when we were engaged in intercourse. He had the same snake and spider brand on his chest except that there was no ring around it.
I heard the door unlatch and in walked the gnome. “Breakfast” he said. I smiled at the gnome as he walked in. The gnome only looked depressed. He set down the tray in front of me. “Warning,” he said, “if you try to escape while I am untying your hands, then I am to paralyze you.”
“Haven’t you already told me that?” I asked as he started untying my hands.
“It’s one of my daily duties to say it” said the gnome. He finished untying my hands and then sat down to watch me eat. I began eating the food. “What’s your name?” I asked. The gnome looked up at me as though he had not heard me correctly.
“My name?”
“Ya” I wondered why this question was so confusing.
“My name is kwamaki.” Said the gnome. I looked at the gnome in bewilderment. What a name. “But I like it when people call me Ama. It’s from the middle of my name.”
“Oh,” I replied, “my name is Laurel” the gnome looked at me, bewildered as though he thought my name was strange.
After I had finished eating my breakfast, the gnome tied my hands back to the post and picked up my tray. “Wait,” I said, and the gnome stopped and looked at me questioningly. “Do you know where Taka went?” the gnome gasped. He seemed stunned by my question.
“You should not use his real name my girl, it will get you into trouble. And it is none of my business where he has gone, so I do not know. I will be back later with your supper, goodbye.” and he hurried out of the room. About twenty minutes later the gnome returned with nothing in his hands. He walked into the room, closed the door and walked over to me. He whispered in a very low tone, “I heard the people saying that your master has been called to provide services to one of the high matron mothers.”
“The who?” I asked.
“Keep it down,” the gnome whispered, “the matron mothers are like the queens of this place, he has no choice but to comply.”
“What sort of services?” I asked.
The gnome shook his head, “I am sorry, I have told you too much already. I will probably be punished for this.” The gnome bowed humbly. “I am sorry young lady, I must go.” And with that, he turned around and left.
Time passed during which I did nothing. I only thought about what Taka could possibly be doing. I thanked the heavens that me being in here alone was apparently not a seen opportunity for one of Taka’s family members to come in and harass me. I began to feel the brands on my hips drying out uncomfortably. I feared that they would crack and bleed. Hours went by and I sat, uncomfortably tied to my post. I dozed off several times and woke to an empty room. I wondered what sort of slave jobs I would be given, or if I was meant to do nothing but provide sexual pleasure.
I heard the door unlatch and in walked the gnome. “Supper” he said. I nodded at him sluggishly. “Warning,” he repeated, “if you try to escape when I untie you, I am to paralyze you.” He set down the tray of the same mush and untied my wrists.
“I won’t forget.” I said to him. He gave me a half grin and sat down on the floor to watch me eat. Tired and bored, I ate in silence. The mush continued to be tasteless but I was happy to have it. It was better than starving in the dessert. I drank the water. It was not the best water, but hydrating none the less.
Before I had entirely finished my meal, the door unlatched, and slowly opened. Taka walked in. He was walking as straight and tall as I had ever seen him. The gnome and I watched him. Taka closed the door behind him and then practically collapsed against it. He was clutching his arms and breathing slowly. He did not look at me. He stared blankly at the floor in front of him. He seemed disheveled, his hair was no longer neat and tidy, and his clothes were disorganized. He was quivering. His whole body was quivering. His eyes were quivering.
He slid slowly to the floor and the quivering of his lips suggested that he might cry. I had never heard of a Drow crying before. I stood up to walk over to Taka and the gnome shook his head at me frantically. But I ignored Ama and I took several slow steps in the Drow’s direction. I crouched down directly in front of Taka. I saw a long and bleeding cut on the side of his face. He whimpered quietly.
“Taka?” I said slowly, and I instantly regretted opening my mouth. Taka yelled and his fist met my face and threw me on my back on the ground. I felt my brands crack painfully and I felt the blood begin to ooze from them. I heard the gnome cringe audibly from behind me.
“I told you not to call me by my name!” he hollered and hovered over me while sitting on his knees next to me. He put his hands on either side of my throat and I thought he was going to strangle me. But instead he buried his face into my neck. He began sobbing. I could feel his lips quivering against my skin. I could feel his tears running down the side of my neck. I did not know that Drow could cry. His hair had fallen into my face. I lifted my hand and ran my fingers through that spider silk hair. Some of his hair had been singed and was significantly shorter than the rest. What had this queen done to him?
I ran my fingers down the back of his head to his neck. There I found gaping wounds and open sores. I gave a short gasp at finding this. Just what sort of services could he do for someone that would lead to him being so wounded? His arms tightened around my shoulders as he latched hard to my body. I laid there quietly holding his sobbing head. I heard the gnome rise and walk quietly past us to the door. He opened the door and left as fast as he could.
Taka’s sobs began to subside into quiet whimpers. I ran my fingers through his singed hair. Through his quivering lips he spoke, “Do you remember (sniffle) that bowl of stuff (sniffle) that I cleaned your brands with?”
“Yes” I replied.
“Good,” he said, “it’s called ‘guaia’. Go downstairs, and (sniffle) go all the way to the back of the entrance hall,” he gave several short and painful sobs before he could continue. “The door on the right (sniffle) is the drug room. Bring a bowl of that to me with (sniffle) a cloth.” He had not lifted his face from my neck and I nodded in reply. We laid there for several more moments and he whimpered quietly into my neck. His hair smelled greasy with sweat and dry from the singeing. He slowly got off of me and curled up into the fetal position on the floor at the foot of his bed. What could possibly drive a Drow to the break down point? Drow have a particularly high pain tolerance. She must have humiliated him.
I stood up and for but a moment, watched the broken Drow. I then turned and walked to the door. I left the room and walked down the stairs into the entrance hall. My eyes seemed to be handling the darkness better than before. Maybe my eyes were getting used to it. On the walls of the entrance hall were huge portraits. There were portraits of men, and portraits of women. All were wearing their most extravagant clothing. I recognized a picture of Taka’s mother. ‘These portraits must be of all the family members’ I thought. I saw a picture of Taka just before I came to my destination on the other side of the entrance hall. They did not capture his eyes. In fact, he looked cruel and angry in this picture, just like the rest of the pictures. He had a smirk on his face like his brother’s. I hardly recognized him as Taka. I entered what Taka had called the ‘drug room’. The room had the same luminescent glow that the other ones did. So far, the only one that didn’t was the dungeon. I quivered at the thought of the dungeon.
Inside this room were several large stone shelves, this seemed to be some sort of storage room. The shelves all had very large glass containers on them. Some were obviously sealed, and some were left wide open. In examining the labels on these containers I realized that I cannot read Drow. This would make my search much more difficult.
“What are you looking for?” said a woman’s voice from the corner of the room. In locating the voice, I recognized the woman as Taka’s sister.
“I’m looking for guaia.” I replied.
“What for?” she said, taking a small step forward.
“I was ordered to bring a bowl of it back to my master.” The women smirked.
“What? He can’t handle a few scratches? That woman was nice to him compared to what she’s done to others.” The grin on this woman’s face made the hairs on my neck stand on end, and I continued to feel blood slowly seeping from my brands.
“I’m just following orders.” I said to her. She seemed to take my words as an argument against her point and her face suddenly became stern.
“I am warning you,” she said, rapidly closing the gap between her and I and wrapping her long, sharp nails around my chin, “if you step out of line, I will be the one to teach you a lesson.” She pushed my face to the side and pointed quickly to one of the containers. “That is guaia,” she said harshly, “I would learn to read quickly if I were you.” She threw me a cruel glance and quickly stormed out of the room.
It was like I had just seen my life flash before my eyes. I suddenly realized that I was exceptionally lucky that she had left me unscathed. I quickly retrieved what appeared to be the same bowl that Taka had used. It still had the cloth in it and I quickly poured guaia into the bowl, and hurried back to Taka’s room.
When I returned, Taka had moved to the bed. He was still curled up in the fetal position, and he was still completely clothed. I walked over and set the bowl on his bedside table. Then I sat on the bed next to him. His back was to me and I put my hand on his shoulder. He flinched as though startled. Maybe he had not heard me enter.
“I cannot read your language,” I said, “but your sister told me that this is guaia.” He did not move. His eyes opened a little and he took a deep breath. “Were you sleeping?” I asked. He shook his head slightly. He slowly opened up from his fetal position and turned to face me. He looked into my eyes with those eyes again. Those eyes that seem to go on forever. I was again mesmerized by them and I floated in his gaze for several minutes. His eyes looked sad, and hurt. He looked at me as though he were trying to communicate something but did not want to say it. He almost looked worried. His eyes were so wide and his lips were parted slightly. His gaze held and I felt myself leaning towards him. I hardly noticed that I was moving towards him.
I came close to his face, that red cut outlining his cheek bone. His gaze continued to hold, like he was just as lost as I was. I hovered before his lips for a fraction of a second which seemed to stretch forever. Then I lightly and gently kissed his lips and he did not flinch when I kissed him. The kiss was short, and yet it seemed to linger on my lips. His gaze continued after I left his lips and I felt my face flushing red with some embarrassment. He reached out and brushed my cheek lightly, then broke the gaze to sit up on the edge of the bed.
My heart was thumping. Why did I just kiss him? He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me again. What was that sadness in his eyes? He stood up and cleared his throat. I swallowed and stood up as well. “Undress me.” He said, and he did not look at me. I began by undoing the buttons at the top of his collar. It was then that I noticed all the places where his wardrobe had been torn. His tunic was frayed at the bottom and one shoulder of his tunic was missing. The tunic was blue but there were parts it that were splotched with red. How much had he been bleeding? I unbuttoned his tunic completely and found long and horrible, red and bloody scratch marks on his chest. I was appalled to find that the family crest that had been branded to his chest was gone. A horrible bloody scab was left in its place. Taka still did not look at me. He seemed to be staring off into a corner. I assumed that he did not want to think about this. I pushed the tunic off of his shoulders and he cringed as the salt of my hand found a gouge in his shoulder. His arms were scraped and there were parts of him that had large scabs due to large pieces of his skin being completely removed.
I could not help but ask, “What happened to you?” he continued to stare off into a corner and he shook his head slowly.
“I’m glad that this is the only thing that happened to my face.” He said, putting his hand up to the cut. “I am rather fond of my face.” He still did not look at me but I stared at him, trying to find some answer to what had happened. He glanced at me momentarily and motioned for me to continue undressing him. I unbuckled the strap on his silk and sodden pants and lowered them so that he could step out of them. He had puncture wounds all over his legs, and it amazed me that he was able to walk home. He also had more than one of these puncture wounds on his penis as well as some obvious scratch marks. He shook slightly as if he were cold.
“She tore the brand off my chest.” said Taka. He seemed to say it more to himself than to me. He looked me in the eyes for a moment and then turned to lie back on the bed. With his back to me, I saw the lashes that crossed from one side of his back to the other. There were at least a hundred of them. His back was almost completely raw. His dark, blue toned skin had turned red with cuts, scrapes, and lashes, and there were more than a few burn marks on him. It was awful to see. I cringed just from watching him.
He leaned over and smelled the bowl of liquid. He then nodded and laid chest down on the bed. I pulled up the wooden chair, and sat down next to him.
“This is going to hurt.” He mumbled to the air. I rung the guaia out of the cloth and set it on his back. He cringed but did not make a noise. Instead, he began silently to weep.
“You probably aren’t going to be able to move very much for the next few days.” I said to him, trying to start some sort of conversation. He said nothing. His hair was covering his face but the glint of his eyes showed through. He was staring blankly over at the wall.
I washed the rawness of his back, and he slowly turned over to expose his front to the air, his family crest, missing from his body. His chest had horrible claw marks on it. Like that woman had gouged him with her nails. The scratches began to bleed as I began to clean them. The place where his crest had been did not look like the rest of his scratched up chest. No, it looked like the brand had been deliberately removed with some sort of cutting tool. Then the wound had been burned shut. I put the guaia sodden cloth on top of this wound and Taka put his hand on top of mine, holding it there. He still did not look at me. He only gazed across the room. His weeping had stopped.
He then looked at me, and the tears had not completely vacated his eyes. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his voice only creaked slightly. His lips quivered and he said, “d-don’t talk to anyone about me.” I was a little stunned by his statement and I blinked at him. He continued, “I might do things, or I might say things, and I don’t want you to talk to anyone about them.” I nodded at him and his eyes gazed at me in that way that they do sometimes. He reached up, and put his hand behind my head. He gently pulled me close to him and kissed me. He took his other hand from his chest and tucked it under my ear. He began kissing me passionately. He licked my lips a little and his gaze became very soft. I brushed his wounded cheek softly with the back of my fingers.
“What happened?” I asked and his eyes glided away from my face. He seemed to be remembering something.
“I was obliged to provide sexual favors to one of the matron mothers.” He said. This was the first time that he had ever given me a real answer to one of my questions. He swallowed. “It’s supposed to be honorable to be asked to accompany the matron mothers.” I watched his face, and the way his expression could change so subtly and so profoundly. His eyes would show a subtle cringing, then a soft sadness, then an almost reminiscing expression. He looked at my eyes and gave a quick and uncomfortable smile. “I guess she gets off on this. I was expecting that, but I wasn’t expecting it enough I guess.”
I sat up straight and looked again at his defiled body. I soaked the cloth again with the guaia and continued to wash his wounds. He gazed at me while I did this. He grunted, almost startled by the discomfort when I applied the cloth to his groin. His beautiful dark skin had been tarnished.
When I had finished cleaning his wounds I stood up to walk to my post and sleep on the floor. But as I walked away I felt his fingers grab my hand. I turned and looked at him. His eyes seemed wide and almost desperate as he looked up at me. “Sleep here.” He said, and gestured to the space next to him. I crawled into the black clad bed next to him.
I stared up at the ceiling for several minutes, and then I turned to look at Taka. He was already looking at me. What was that gaze? What did it mean? So deep and so mesmerizing. He lay there gazing at me with those icy blue eyes, with his right hand resting on his chest and his left hand resting by his side. I decided to simply gaze back. I do not know how long we were there gazing at each other, for time seemed to be suspended. His face was lax and expressionless but yet those eyes seemed to be endless. A strange feeling began welling in my chest. A sort of ache. Was I falling in love with this man? This man who had kidnapped me and made me his slave? How could I love this man? His eyes seemed entirely unconcerned with weather or not I loved him. They seemed content just to gaze.
“I have never heard of a Drow gazing at anyone like that.” I said to him, and his eyelashes fluttered for a moment in surprise at my statement. “What do you see when you gaze at me like that?” his eyes stopped for a moment as he seemed to contemplate the question. His mouth opened but his breath suspended, and his eyes looked at me like he had no answer to give. Perhaps he had never contemplated why he looked at me like that. Perhaps it had never occurred to him. Perhaps he did not even know he did it. I smiled at him. “Never mind.” I said, and his breathing began again. “What are we doing tomorrow?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I have some work I need to do outside the city, and I want you to help me.” Finally, I would have a job to do. Not that I enjoyed being a slave worker, but staring at this room while tied to a post was getting rather boring. I nodded in response to him. His gaze began again. I wondered if he ever noticed when he did that. As he gazed his eyelids got closer and closer together, until his eyes softly closed and he fell asleep. I watched his sleeping form. He was so vulnerable when he slept. Why did he trust me enough to allow me to be untied? I knew where his sword was. Truly though, I did not want to kill him. For some reason, the compelling need to escape this city had left me. I did not particularly want to stay here, but until an absolutely certain opportunity arose, I was content to be here with this Drow. His family was another question, but I was curious about my developing feelings towards Taka. I cuddled close to Taka and he stirred slightly. He then wrapped his wounded arms around me and fell quickly to sleep. My slumber was not far behind.
When I woke, I woke to the sound of Taka rising from the bed. He had not moved me from my chosen sleeping place. I opened my eyes and saw him sitting up and rubbing his eyes. He blinked and looked at me with a silent and solemn greeting of morning. As morning a morning that the dark underground could have. He swung his legs off of the bed and stood up. I stayed on my pillow and watched his dark muscular form. He dressed in some of his nice clothing, did his hair, and put on his jewelry. He looked as though he were getting ready for some sort of occasion.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I do not need to tell you that.” He replied while putting in an ear ring. “I do not have anything for you to do today, so I will tie you back to the post while I am gone.” I nodded and groaned. He looked at me with a warning look in his eye. He was probably warning me about the groaning. “Get up.” He said. I got up and he handed me another ragged smock to wrap around myself.
“Where are my other clothes?” I asked in dismay.
“I took them. You will wear that from now on.” Disgusted by this fact, I wrapped the dirty smock around me. Taka gestured for me to go over to the post and I did. He tied my hands to the post. He then nodded a goodbye to me and kissed the scabs on my neck. He gave me a short smirk, and left.
I sat down on the floor, wondering how I would occupy myself. Lifting the smock with my teeth, I managed to inspect my brands. The brand on my right hip was a similar symbol on Taka’s family emblem. The only difference was that there was a definite ring encasing the snake and spider, probably resembling bondage. The brand on my left hip had a picture of an eye with that same ring around it. I wondered if “Taka” meant eyes. If it did, then that would be appropriate. I suddenly remembered seeing a brand on Taka’s chest when we were engaged in intercourse. He had the same snake and spider brand on his chest except that there was no ring around it.
I heard the door unlatch and in walked the gnome. “Breakfast” he said. I smiled at the gnome as he walked in. The gnome only looked depressed. He set down the tray in front of me. “Warning,” he said, “if you try to escape while I am untying your hands, then I am to paralyze you.”
“Haven’t you already told me that?” I asked as he started untying my hands.
“It’s one of my daily duties to say it” said the gnome. He finished untying my hands and then sat down to watch me eat. I began eating the food. “What’s your name?” I asked. The gnome looked up at me as though he had not heard me correctly.
“My name?”
“Ya” I wondered why this question was so confusing.
“My name is kwamaki.” Said the gnome. I looked at the gnome in bewilderment. What a name. “But I like it when people call me Ama. It’s from the middle of my name.”
“Oh,” I replied, “my name is Laurel” the gnome looked at me, bewildered as though he thought my name was strange.
After I had finished eating my breakfast, the gnome tied my hands back to the post and picked up my tray. “Wait,” I said, and the gnome stopped and looked at me questioningly. “Do you know where Taka went?” the gnome gasped. He seemed stunned by my question.
“You should not use his real name my girl, it will get you into trouble. And it is none of my business where he has gone, so I do not know. I will be back later with your supper, goodbye.” and he hurried out of the room. About twenty minutes later the gnome returned with nothing in his hands. He walked into the room, closed the door and walked over to me. He whispered in a very low tone, “I heard the people saying that your master has been called to provide services to one of the high matron mothers.”
“The who?” I asked.
“Keep it down,” the gnome whispered, “the matron mothers are like the queens of this place, he has no choice but to comply.”
“What sort of services?” I asked.
The gnome shook his head, “I am sorry, I have told you too much already. I will probably be punished for this.” The gnome bowed humbly. “I am sorry young lady, I must go.” And with that, he turned around and left.
Time passed during which I did nothing. I only thought about what Taka could possibly be doing. I thanked the heavens that me being in here alone was apparently not a seen opportunity for one of Taka’s family members to come in and harass me. I began to feel the brands on my hips drying out uncomfortably. I feared that they would crack and bleed. Hours went by and I sat, uncomfortably tied to my post. I dozed off several times and woke to an empty room. I wondered what sort of slave jobs I would be given, or if I was meant to do nothing but provide sexual pleasure.
I heard the door unlatch and in walked the gnome. “Supper” he said. I nodded at him sluggishly. “Warning,” he repeated, “if you try to escape when I untie you, I am to paralyze you.” He set down the tray of the same mush and untied my wrists.
“I won’t forget.” I said to him. He gave me a half grin and sat down on the floor to watch me eat. Tired and bored, I ate in silence. The mush continued to be tasteless but I was happy to have it. It was better than starving in the dessert. I drank the water. It was not the best water, but hydrating none the less.
Before I had entirely finished my meal, the door unlatched, and slowly opened. Taka walked in. He was walking as straight and tall as I had ever seen him. The gnome and I watched him. Taka closed the door behind him and then practically collapsed against it. He was clutching his arms and breathing slowly. He did not look at me. He stared blankly at the floor in front of him. He seemed disheveled, his hair was no longer neat and tidy, and his clothes were disorganized. He was quivering. His whole body was quivering. His eyes were quivering.
He slid slowly to the floor and the quivering of his lips suggested that he might cry. I had never heard of a Drow crying before. I stood up to walk over to Taka and the gnome shook his head at me frantically. But I ignored Ama and I took several slow steps in the Drow’s direction. I crouched down directly in front of Taka. I saw a long and bleeding cut on the side of his face. He whimpered quietly.
“Taka?” I said slowly, and I instantly regretted opening my mouth. Taka yelled and his fist met my face and threw me on my back on the ground. I felt my brands crack painfully and I felt the blood begin to ooze from them. I heard the gnome cringe audibly from behind me.
“I told you not to call me by my name!” he hollered and hovered over me while sitting on his knees next to me. He put his hands on either side of my throat and I thought he was going to strangle me. But instead he buried his face into my neck. He began sobbing. I could feel his lips quivering against my skin. I could feel his tears running down the side of my neck. I did not know that Drow could cry. His hair had fallen into my face. I lifted my hand and ran my fingers through that spider silk hair. Some of his hair had been singed and was significantly shorter than the rest. What had this queen done to him?
I ran my fingers down the back of his head to his neck. There I found gaping wounds and open sores. I gave a short gasp at finding this. Just what sort of services could he do for someone that would lead to him being so wounded? His arms tightened around my shoulders as he latched hard to my body. I laid there quietly holding his sobbing head. I heard the gnome rise and walk quietly past us to the door. He opened the door and left as fast as he could.
Taka’s sobs began to subside into quiet whimpers. I ran my fingers through his singed hair. Through his quivering lips he spoke, “Do you remember (sniffle) that bowl of stuff (sniffle) that I cleaned your brands with?”
“Yes” I replied.
“Good,” he said, “it’s called ‘guaia’. Go downstairs, and (sniffle) go all the way to the back of the entrance hall,” he gave several short and painful sobs before he could continue. “The door on the right (sniffle) is the drug room. Bring a bowl of that to me with (sniffle) a cloth.” He had not lifted his face from my neck and I nodded in reply. We laid there for several more moments and he whimpered quietly into my neck. His hair smelled greasy with sweat and dry from the singeing. He slowly got off of me and curled up into the fetal position on the floor at the foot of his bed. What could possibly drive a Drow to the break down point? Drow have a particularly high pain tolerance. She must have humiliated him.
I stood up and for but a moment, watched the broken Drow. I then turned and walked to the door. I left the room and walked down the stairs into the entrance hall. My eyes seemed to be handling the darkness better than before. Maybe my eyes were getting used to it. On the walls of the entrance hall were huge portraits. There were portraits of men, and portraits of women. All were wearing their most extravagant clothing. I recognized a picture of Taka’s mother. ‘These portraits must be of all the family members’ I thought. I saw a picture of Taka just before I came to my destination on the other side of the entrance hall. They did not capture his eyes. In fact, he looked cruel and angry in this picture, just like the rest of the pictures. He had a smirk on his face like his brother’s. I hardly recognized him as Taka. I entered what Taka had called the ‘drug room’. The room had the same luminescent glow that the other ones did. So far, the only one that didn’t was the dungeon. I quivered at the thought of the dungeon.
Inside this room were several large stone shelves, this seemed to be some sort of storage room. The shelves all had very large glass containers on them. Some were obviously sealed, and some were left wide open. In examining the labels on these containers I realized that I cannot read Drow. This would make my search much more difficult.
“What are you looking for?” said a woman’s voice from the corner of the room. In locating the voice, I recognized the woman as Taka’s sister.
“I’m looking for guaia.” I replied.
“What for?” she said, taking a small step forward.
“I was ordered to bring a bowl of it back to my master.” The women smirked.
“What? He can’t handle a few scratches? That woman was nice to him compared to what she’s done to others.” The grin on this woman’s face made the hairs on my neck stand on end, and I continued to feel blood slowly seeping from my brands.
“I’m just following orders.” I said to her. She seemed to take my words as an argument against her point and her face suddenly became stern.
“I am warning you,” she said, rapidly closing the gap between her and I and wrapping her long, sharp nails around my chin, “if you step out of line, I will be the one to teach you a lesson.” She pushed my face to the side and pointed quickly to one of the containers. “That is guaia,” she said harshly, “I would learn to read quickly if I were you.” She threw me a cruel glance and quickly stormed out of the room.
It was like I had just seen my life flash before my eyes. I suddenly realized that I was exceptionally lucky that she had left me unscathed. I quickly retrieved what appeared to be the same bowl that Taka had used. It still had the cloth in it and I quickly poured guaia into the bowl, and hurried back to Taka’s room.
When I returned, Taka had moved to the bed. He was still curled up in the fetal position, and he was still completely clothed. I walked over and set the bowl on his bedside table. Then I sat on the bed next to him. His back was to me and I put my hand on his shoulder. He flinched as though startled. Maybe he had not heard me enter.
“I cannot read your language,” I said, “but your sister told me that this is guaia.” He did not move. His eyes opened a little and he took a deep breath. “Were you sleeping?” I asked. He shook his head slightly. He slowly opened up from his fetal position and turned to face me. He looked into my eyes with those eyes again. Those eyes that seem to go on forever. I was again mesmerized by them and I floated in his gaze for several minutes. His eyes looked sad, and hurt. He looked at me as though he were trying to communicate something but did not want to say it. He almost looked worried. His eyes were so wide and his lips were parted slightly. His gaze held and I felt myself leaning towards him. I hardly noticed that I was moving towards him.
I came close to his face, that red cut outlining his cheek bone. His gaze continued to hold, like he was just as lost as I was. I hovered before his lips for a fraction of a second which seemed to stretch forever. Then I lightly and gently kissed his lips and he did not flinch when I kissed him. The kiss was short, and yet it seemed to linger on my lips. His gaze continued after I left his lips and I felt my face flushing red with some embarrassment. He reached out and brushed my cheek lightly, then broke the gaze to sit up on the edge of the bed.
My heart was thumping. Why did I just kiss him? He sat on the edge of the bed and looked at me again. What was that sadness in his eyes? He stood up and cleared his throat. I swallowed and stood up as well. “Undress me.” He said, and he did not look at me. I began by undoing the buttons at the top of his collar. It was then that I noticed all the places where his wardrobe had been torn. His tunic was frayed at the bottom and one shoulder of his tunic was missing. The tunic was blue but there were parts it that were splotched with red. How much had he been bleeding? I unbuttoned his tunic completely and found long and horrible, red and bloody scratch marks on his chest. I was appalled to find that the family crest that had been branded to his chest was gone. A horrible bloody scab was left in its place. Taka still did not look at me. He seemed to be staring off into a corner. I assumed that he did not want to think about this. I pushed the tunic off of his shoulders and he cringed as the salt of my hand found a gouge in his shoulder. His arms were scraped and there were parts of him that had large scabs due to large pieces of his skin being completely removed.
I could not help but ask, “What happened to you?” he continued to stare off into a corner and he shook his head slowly.
“I’m glad that this is the only thing that happened to my face.” He said, putting his hand up to the cut. “I am rather fond of my face.” He still did not look at me but I stared at him, trying to find some answer to what had happened. He glanced at me momentarily and motioned for me to continue undressing him. I unbuckled the strap on his silk and sodden pants and lowered them so that he could step out of them. He had puncture wounds all over his legs, and it amazed me that he was able to walk home. He also had more than one of these puncture wounds on his penis as well as some obvious scratch marks. He shook slightly as if he were cold.
“She tore the brand off my chest.” said Taka. He seemed to say it more to himself than to me. He looked me in the eyes for a moment and then turned to lie back on the bed. With his back to me, I saw the lashes that crossed from one side of his back to the other. There were at least a hundred of them. His back was almost completely raw. His dark, blue toned skin had turned red with cuts, scrapes, and lashes, and there were more than a few burn marks on him. It was awful to see. I cringed just from watching him.
He leaned over and smelled the bowl of liquid. He then nodded and laid chest down on the bed. I pulled up the wooden chair, and sat down next to him.
“This is going to hurt.” He mumbled to the air. I rung the guaia out of the cloth and set it on his back. He cringed but did not make a noise. Instead, he began silently to weep.
“You probably aren’t going to be able to move very much for the next few days.” I said to him, trying to start some sort of conversation. He said nothing. His hair was covering his face but the glint of his eyes showed through. He was staring blankly over at the wall.
I washed the rawness of his back, and he slowly turned over to expose his front to the air, his family crest, missing from his body. His chest had horrible claw marks on it. Like that woman had gouged him with her nails. The scratches began to bleed as I began to clean them. The place where his crest had been did not look like the rest of his scratched up chest. No, it looked like the brand had been deliberately removed with some sort of cutting tool. Then the wound had been burned shut. I put the guaia sodden cloth on top of this wound and Taka put his hand on top of mine, holding it there. He still did not look at me. He only gazed across the room. His weeping had stopped.
He then looked at me, and the tears had not completely vacated his eyes. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but his voice only creaked slightly. His lips quivered and he said, “d-don’t talk to anyone about me.” I was a little stunned by his statement and I blinked at him. He continued, “I might do things, or I might say things, and I don’t want you to talk to anyone about them.” I nodded at him and his eyes gazed at me in that way that they do sometimes. He reached up, and put his hand behind my head. He gently pulled me close to him and kissed me. He took his other hand from his chest and tucked it under my ear. He began kissing me passionately. He licked my lips a little and his gaze became very soft. I brushed his wounded cheek softly with the back of my fingers.
“What happened?” I asked and his eyes glided away from my face. He seemed to be remembering something.
“I was obliged to provide sexual favors to one of the matron mothers.” He said. This was the first time that he had ever given me a real answer to one of my questions. He swallowed. “It’s supposed to be honorable to be asked to accompany the matron mothers.” I watched his face, and the way his expression could change so subtly and so profoundly. His eyes would show a subtle cringing, then a soft sadness, then an almost reminiscing expression. He looked at my eyes and gave a quick and uncomfortable smile. “I guess she gets off on this. I was expecting that, but I wasn’t expecting it enough I guess.”
I sat up straight and looked again at his defiled body. I soaked the cloth again with the guaia and continued to wash his wounds. He gazed at me while I did this. He grunted, almost startled by the discomfort when I applied the cloth to his groin. His beautiful dark skin had been tarnished.
When I had finished cleaning his wounds I stood up to walk to my post and sleep on the floor. But as I walked away I felt his fingers grab my hand. I turned and looked at him. His eyes seemed wide and almost desperate as he looked up at me. “Sleep here.” He said, and gestured to the space next to him. I crawled into the black clad bed next to him.
I stared up at the ceiling for several minutes, and then I turned to look at Taka. He was already looking at me. What was that gaze? What did it mean? So deep and so mesmerizing. He lay there gazing at me with those icy blue eyes, with his right hand resting on his chest and his left hand resting by his side. I decided to simply gaze back. I do not know how long we were there gazing at each other, for time seemed to be suspended. His face was lax and expressionless but yet those eyes seemed to be endless. A strange feeling began welling in my chest. A sort of ache. Was I falling in love with this man? This man who had kidnapped me and made me his slave? How could I love this man? His eyes seemed entirely unconcerned with weather or not I loved him. They seemed content just to gaze.
“I have never heard of a Drow gazing at anyone like that.” I said to him, and his eyelashes fluttered for a moment in surprise at my statement. “What do you see when you gaze at me like that?” his eyes stopped for a moment as he seemed to contemplate the question. His mouth opened but his breath suspended, and his eyes looked at me like he had no answer to give. Perhaps he had never contemplated why he looked at me like that. Perhaps it had never occurred to him. Perhaps he did not even know he did it. I smiled at him. “Never mind.” I said, and his breathing began again. “What are we doing tomorrow?” I asked, changing the subject.
“I have some work I need to do outside the city, and I want you to help me.” Finally, I would have a job to do. Not that I enjoyed being a slave worker, but staring at this room while tied to a post was getting rather boring. I nodded in response to him. His gaze began again. I wondered if he ever noticed when he did that. As he gazed his eyelids got closer and closer together, until his eyes softly closed and he fell asleep. I watched his sleeping form. He was so vulnerable when he slept. Why did he trust me enough to allow me to be untied? I knew where his sword was. Truly though, I did not want to kill him. For some reason, the compelling need to escape this city had left me. I did not particularly want to stay here, but until an absolutely certain opportunity arose, I was content to be here with this Drow. His family was another question, but I was curious about my developing feelings towards Taka. I cuddled close to Taka and he stirred slightly. He then wrapped his wounded arms around me and fell quickly to sleep. My slumber was not far behind.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
day four
Day four:
I woke to the gentle stirring of Taka in his sheets, and then suddenly there was a nock at the door, and I felt Taka freeze. “Who is it?” he said, and I decided not to move, and to keep my eyes closed. I would pretend that I was still asleep.
“Breakfast for the slave” called a familiar gnome’s voice.
“Enter.” The door opened, and I heard the pit pat of the gnome walking across the floor and setting a tray down by the post. Then there was something of a long pause and I heard the gnome say, “Did I do something displeasing young master?”
“No” I heard Taka reply. “Are you friends with this slave?” the gnome paused at the question and then said,
“I am not sure if ‘friend’ is the right word, but we have talked together.”
“What’s her name?” Taka asked. I was startled to hear his question. He wanted to know my name? Why would my name be important to him?
“Her name is Laurel” the gnome replied, and there was another long pause. Then the gnome continued, “If it is not out of my place to say young master, I would like to let you know that your intimacy with your slave has not gone un-noticed by your family members.”
“She is my slave, and I can do what I want with her.” Taka said, his voice rising slightly.
“Pleases excuse me young master, I did not mean to suggest otherwise. I simply felt that I should warn you.” And with that, the pit pat of the gnome’s feet found the door, and he quickly exited.
A few moments went by and Taka settled slightly in his bed. “Laurel.” He said, holding the first L an extra beat. I could tell that he was rolling the word around in his mouth. He repeated my name in a quieter tone. “Laurel” he said, and he shifted. I was laying on my stomach and my back was to him, my face was away from him, and I heard him feeling my name on his tongue as he spoke it a few more times. Then he stopped repeating my name to himself, and I felt him untie the straps that held the smock to my body. He began caressing my back with his finger tips, ever so lightly. “Laurel,” he repeated again, “do you care about me Laurel?” he seemed to be questioning the air rather than me. “No one has ever really cared about me. Accept one, and she’s dead now.” He ran his fingers down my spine, and allowed them to arch over my buttocks. Then the fingers stopped, and he ran them back up my spine. “Be careful with that caring Laurel. Some might think that it is funny. They might toy with your caring. They might toy with your heart for fun.” He moved my brunette hair from over my neck, and he caressed my neck with his dark fingers, and his white finger nails. “The people in this city are heartless, and they like to toy with those that have feelings such as love and caring. So be careful with those Laurel, those are dangerous. Don’t care for me Laurel, because my family may not forgive that.” I felt him settle himself back onto his pillow and continue caressing my back and shoulders lightly. “Promise me Laurel, that we will not care for each other. If you do not care for me, and I do not care for you, it will be a lot safer that way.” He stopped touching me and I heard him role over on to his back and heave a deep sigh.
I waited for a few moments, listening to his even breathing, to see if he would do anything; but he just lay there quietly as though his mind were somewhere else.
“Taka” I said, and his breath stopped as though maybe he were afraid that I had heard what he’d been saying to me.
“What did I tell you about using my name?”
Ignoring his question, I replied, “I was wondering how you were going to walk around outside the city given your current condition.” Taka swiftly turned towards me, grabbed my face and turned my face towards his. I was met by those eyes again. I was stunned, mesmerized, speechless.
“Listen! To my family, I am Taka. To my friends, I am Taka. I am not Taka to you. To you I am your master. You are not my brother, you are not my pal, you are my slave. I am your master. Do not use my name. Do you understand?” I gazed up at those eyes. I did not understand. I knew that I was his slave, and to call him ‘master’ was to respect his authority over me. But those eyes screamed ‘Taka’ to my soul, and it was difficult for me to think of him by any other name.
I nodded once that I understood, still caught by the gleam of his eyes.
“Good” he said, and let go of my chin. “Go eat your breakfast.” He then slumped back down onto his pillow, crossed his arms, and glared up at the ceiling. I sat up and watched him for a moment before standing. I had forgotten that my smock was undone and its wraps dangled at my sides when I stood.
“Did I role around so much last night that my smock came undone?” I asked as I re-tied the wraps behind my back. I of course knew what had happened, but I wanted him to feel a little more secure that I had not heard what he’d said to me when he thought I was asleep.
“I guess” he said, glancing over to watch me tie the smock back to my body. I walked over to my post and sat down to eat my delicious mush.
“Master” I addressed him with some difficulty. “How is it that you will be able to travel outside the city in your current condition?”
“That’s what I’m bringing you for,” he replied with a grin, “you’re going to carry my stuff.” Good. I had been transformed from a sex toy into a pack animal. I finished my mush, and drank my water. “Stay here” he said to me and stood up from his bed. He quickly sat back down and took a deep breath.
“You okay? Do you need some help?” I was concerned for him, but quickly tried to wipe the evidence from my face.
“I’m fine.” He heaved himself from the bed again and leaned up against the bed post. He seemed to be contemplating something rather intensely. He groaned and walked over to his leather pants. He painfully pulled them on and squeaked when he pulled them over his groin. ‘This,’ I thought, ‘would be a good time for him to start wearing undergarments.’ “I’ll be back.” He said, and he left the room wearing only his leather pants. Though tarnished by cuts and lashes, I found his dark form to still be quite beautiful and appealing to look at.
He returned several minutes later carrying a bundle of clothing and what I recognized to be the container of guaia.
“Here, put them on.” He handed the clothing to me and I recognized them as my own. “I can’t have the weather burning you up, or the thorns making it so that you can’t keep up with me, so put those on.” I removed the smock and eagerly put on my own clothing. As always, they fit me perfectly, they were beyond comfortable, and they were worn but sturdy. I smiled happily at Taka but he was not looking at me. He was washing himself with guaia and bandaging the parts of himself that he was most worried about the wounds opening up.
I walked over to him and took the guaia sodden cloth from his hand. I washed his back, and his neck and his sides. I kissed his pointed ear and noticed that his ears, at least, had not been traumatized. His shoulders seemed to relax when I kissed him and I continued to wash his wounds. I then laid my head gently against his shoulder and we just sat like that for a few moments. Without moving my head, he reached behind him and took the guaia cloth from me and began washing his front. I stayed with my head against his shoulder.
The guaia on his shoulder smelled sour, as was the guaia’s normal smell. The way the smell of the guaia mixed with the smell of his body, and the blood that it was cleaning, was somewhat pleasing to the senses. It smelled almost like a rich perfume. I was trying not to touch him with my hands for fear that the salt would hurt him, but it could not hurt him more than the guaia was. But he did not flinch as he applied the fluid to his wounds.
I helped bandage him up, and I helped him dress. He dressed in his leather pants, and a worn sleeveless tunic. Then he put on a hood. It was that same hood that he had worn when he found me lying in the dessert in the cold night; a cowl that came down to his mid shoulders. He pushed the hood back to expose his white hair. He wrapped his boots up to his knees, and fastened his belt around his waist. To his belt he attached his sword, and my dagger. I watched his belt eagerly as he tied my knife to it. He saw me noticing and he winked at me. I raised my eyebrows. Had a Drow just winked at me?
From his closet he pulled out a pack and began putting things into it.
“Go get the gnome and tell him to get enough rations for two people for one week.” He said as he continued putting things into his pack. A week? What sort of work did this man do?
“Where could I find him?” I asked.
“Eh, just go out and call his name, he’ll show up.” Wondering just how big this house was, that I could simply call the slave and he would appear, I wandered out of the room, and stood at the top of the stairs looking at the floor below me.
“Ama!” I called. But Ama’s voice did not reply, instead, a familiar young boy’s voice said,
“Oh, hello my dear.” I turned around and there he was, having just come out of one of the rooms. Had he really been sleeping so close to us and I hadn’t known? “I’m sorry,” he continued with that horrible grin smeared across his face, “I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Kanci.” He extended his excessively clean hand towards me and I backed up against the railing. “What? Are you scared of me? I’m just trying to be sociable. Lolth knows that my brother sure isn’t.” he put his hand down and slowly took a step closer to me. I knew from my previous encounters with this boy that his strength far surpassed mine. It was almost like he had been trained in strength. Come to think of it, Taka must have had the same training.
“Is Taka your eldest sibling?” I asked.
“No,” said Kanci, “our other siblings have moved out of the house to begin their expanses of our glorious race.” He stared at me for a moment. His eyes were unlike Taka’s, they were a reddish color, and they were hard and fiery. “Taka, you call him. Does he know that you call him by his name? Did you know that addressing him by any title other than master is punishable by torture?” he paused and his angry grin widened. “You know,” he took a step closer; “you are quite a beauty. I think that your beauty is wasted on Taka’s bed frame. I’d let your crime pass if you would waste your beauty on my bed frame for a night or two.” He reached his hand out to me again and his face seemed to be burning with eagerness.
I slapped his hand away from me and yelled, “Ama!” Kanci slapped me with the back of his hand and I was knocked to the floor. I reached for my knife and suddenly remembered that it was still hanging on Taka’s belt. I finally heard the pit pat of Ama’s feet coming towards me from some unknown direction.
Kanci sat down on top of my chest and gripped at my throat. My wind pipe was closing and I could not remove my eyes from the angry scowl raining down from the boy’s face. He had stopped smiling and now his teeth were clamped together and his lips were peeling back in his wrath.
I suddenly reached up and grabbed some of Kanci’s beautiful white, wavy locks of hair and yanked on it. He growled through his teeth at the seeming annoyance of getting his hair yanked on and I gasped as he squeezed his fists further around my neck. I yanked his hair harder. I had gotten my strength back since my time of exhaustion in the dessert and I was able to knock his pearly white head into stair railing. He let go of my throat and I gasped as air rushed into my lungs.
I saw Ama stop just before he reached the top of the stairs when he saw what was going on. His eyes got big and he did not move from that spot.
Finally, Taka’s door flew open, “What in the name of Lolth…?” he stopped when he saw what was happening and he grabbed a handful of his brother’s hair and pulled him off of me with what strength he could muster. Kanci instantly changed into a squeeling cry baby and started whining to Taka in Drow. Taka tossed his brother down the stairs. Kanci caught himself halfway down the stone steps and looked up at me with hate filled eyes as I lifted myself from the floor with what help a gnome could give me.
Taka had stormed back into his room and was soon followed by Ama and I.
“If you do not mind my asking, young master,” the gnome started, directing his question to Taka, “what was I called here for?”
“I am going to be gone for a week,” Taka seemed frustrated by the last moment’s events, “I need you to bring me enough rations for two people.”
“Yes sir.” The gnome bowed to Taka and removed himself from the room. Taka directed his eyes away from the wall and towards me. His eyes were definitely angry.
“What did you think you were doing?” he coughed at me.
“I? He was the one that started it.” I felt like a child arguing with a parent over whose fault it was. Taka glared at me.
“You can’t go slapping the hands of any Drow who threatens you.”
“And why not?” my own face began to flush with anger. I knew that Taka knew who had started the fight.
“Because it will mean trouble for both you and me!” he yelled. “Who do you think will get blamed for you stepping out of line? Me. whose reputation do you think will be compromised by your actions? Mine. And who will have to be the one to torture you for your actions to make you into a compliant slave?” he stopped yelling and stood there for a moment. His shoulders rested and his eyes stopped being angry, but retained their stark seriousness. “Me.” He said and his gaze held my eyes. The ice in his eyes became sharp and I could tell just how serious he was.
“There is a consequence for everything that you do here,” he continued, “and those consequences are sure to be cruel. I will have to teach you a lesson, and what is more, I will have to teach you a lesson while under the supervision of Kanci and probably my mother. I will have to live up to their expectations of a good teacher of consequences. I will have to show that I still have control over my assets, that’s you, darling. If I do not have the power to control what power is given to me, then it will be taken away. And that will probably include either sending me into exile, or sentencing me to death.”
My eyes grew wide as I stared at Taka’s face. I could tell that he was not exaggerating these consequences. Witnessing my terrified expression, Taka heaved a deep sigh and allowed his eyes to soften on me.
“I have work to do, and I need your help to do it. I’m going to ask that your punishment be postponed until we return. But that will give them an extra week to come up with a punishment. It’s also possible that Kanci will request that he be the one to punish you for his abuse, or he may request that someone else do it. Depending on the crime committed, I may be obliged to grant his request.” Taka paused for a moment and there was a knock at the door. “Stop causing me so much trouble Laurel or I will have to dispose of you as a slave. Come in!”
Ama entered and a very large bundle levitated in behind him. Paralyzing, levitating, what kind of magic did this gnome have? “Your rations of both food and water, young master. Is there any other way that I can be of service at this time?” the gnome looked at me, and I could tell that he was slightly worried about what would happen to me, but then again, he had probably seen it before.
“No,” replied Taka, “Go now.” And the gnome nodded to me, and bowed to Taka, and then left the room. “Pack the rations into the bag.” Taka ordered, and I picked up the very large bundle and heaved it over to Taka’s pack. Taka leaned up against the bed post and watched me.
“So,” I said timidly, “am I just supposed to let Kanci bully me around?”
“Yes” Taka replied. “As a slave, you cannot defend yourself against anyone, especially not a Drow. I am the only one who has the power to take your safety into consideration, and that is only because you belong to me.” I shivered at the thought of being jumped by Kanci every time I walked out the door. Taka shrugged. “I have the right to beat up on my little brother for defiling my property, but you do not. Kanci said that you spoke my name to him. That is punishable by torture. I have been merciful up until now, but because my brother heard it, I now have to follow through with that law.” He stopped talking for a moment and stared at me while I packed his bag. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” He left the room.
While he was gone, I took the time to look at the rations. There was some sort of dried fungi and also some meat jerky. It didn’t look particularly appetizing but it did look better than the porridge that I had been eating. I wrapped the ration back up and packed it into the bag.
Taka returned. “Kanci wanted to accompany us and punish you while we’re on the road, but I told him that if he did that, then he would be the one who had to carry my pack because you wouldn’t be able to. My mother said that he would also be distracting to my work. She said that your punishment could be allowed to wait until we return. She also said that while you using my name does not warrant the right for Kanci to request to torture you, slamming his head into the stair railing does.”
I felt as though I could sink into the floor. The thought of Kanci torturing me was a horrifying thought. I whimpered. Taka walked over and buckled up his pack and made sure that it was completely secure. He then nodded to me. I stood, and heaved the heavy pack onto my shoulders. No wonder Taka was so strong. He dug the shackles out of his closet and said, “wrists” and I held out my wrists. He shackled them and hooked the collar around my neck. He tugged at the chain to make sure it was secure, and then led me out the door.
We walked down the stone steps and I peered down the entrance hall. Leaning against the stair case that was parallel to the one we just descended was Kanci and his sister. Kanci had an angry scowl that was pointing directly at me. He was just angry that I was able to knock his head against the railing. His sister, on the other hand, had quite a mischievous grin on her face, and her expression was directed at Taka. Taka, however, made it a point to ignore their expressions, and we slipped out the front door.
I stepped out of the door behind Taka, and found myself in that magnificent city called Untathur. All those huge mansions built into the sides of the cavern were amazing, and now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness as much as human eyes could, I could get a better view of this magnificent and horrible city.
This time, the city was not sleeping, Drow were walking around everywhere, some were leading slaves, just like Taka, and others were walking with large, bulky Drow guards. Or as large and bulky as a Drow could be, which is not very large and bulky by human standards, but considering the strength that Taka had, I assumed that a Drow did not need to have all that much bulk to take down a human. Those with the guards seemed to strut, elegantly through the city while wearing long and intricate, silks and cloaks, often clad in gold or purple. Their guards either wore some sort of chain mail and helmets, or they wore nothing but a brightly colored silk loin cloth. Probably to show that they were tough enough to take it without armor.
Looking up, I still could not see the top of the cavern, and some of the houses seemed to reach as high as the cavern did. They were built like castles into the side of this cavern, and it was difficult to tell where the houses ended and the walls of the cavern started, if they did.
Taka tugged on my chain to get me to walk faster. I hurried a little, and took my place just a few paces behind him, which is what I saw the other slaves doing, and not wanting to get into any more trouble, I followed suit.
Most of the slaves, I noticed, were gnomes. The vast majority were gnomes. Most were wearing a very similar looking smock to that that Ama and I wore. None were wearing clothing like me, but then again, they were probably not being taken out of the city.
The scenery changed. We were no longer walking down through the rows of huge, castle like houses; we were walking through the store and shop part of the city now. The stone still had that strange, luminescent glow. We had walked through a high arch that marked our entrance into the marketplace.
The first store buildings were almost as huge as the houses we had just left behind. I had thought that there were lots of people in the other part of the cavern, but this part was crowded from wall to wall. The hustle and bustle was utter chaos. My chain got yanked several times simply due to difficulty moving through the crowds. At one point in time, a Drow who looked to be about ten years of age actually tried to run in between me and Taka and he instantaneously tripped over the chain and fell flat on his face. At that point, Taka turned to him and began yelling in the boy’s face.
“Watch where you’re going you little punk! You had better not have been trying to pick my pockets! Don’t get in my way, I have valuable merchandise here and you could have damaged it! Do you have any idea what I would have done to you then?! I would have beaten your little face off!” the boy cowered before Taka and started repeating apologies over and over again.
“I’m sorry sir. I am very sorry sir. It won’t happen again sir. Please don’t hit me sir, I promise it won’t happen again sir.” This went on for at least a minute before Taka finally let the youngster go.
“Wow” I said to Taka. He instantly hushed me and yanked on my chain to keep up with him. His attitude in public was much different than it was when we were in private. I suppose that he was just trying to watch his back. It’s a Drow’s job to yell at any little kid that gets in your way I guess.
As we walked, the huge stone shops started to get smaller and smaller. Taka veered off to the left and led me into one of the more middle sized shops. When we walked in, I saw that it was a weapons shop. All along the right wall of the shop there were swords of all kinds. Long swords, broad swords, short swords, rapiers, and scimitars were there as well as many others. In a glass case on that side were many ornate knives and daggers. They were all beautiful, and I felt my eyes glittering as I looked at them.
On the left wall of the building there were bows. Long bows, short bows, cross bows, bows of all kinds were on that wall. There was even a bow with multiple strings. I did not know what that could be for. The case there was filled with different kinds of arrows, as well as some sort of bow-spare-part-equipment. We walked over to the back of the shop where a man stood behind the counter.
“Ah, Taka, ya come to collect ya goods did ya?” said the man behind the counter. I gasped when I saw him. He was a human, but his face was beyond scarred. He had a patch over one eye and his head was completely bald and burn marks decorated his scalp. His teeth held firmly onto a small, black, wooden pipe, and he had a gold ring through his lower lip. “It’s all fixed up fer ya, nice’n pretty.”
Taka began rummaging through his money pouch which he kept on his belt. “Hey,” said the shop keeper while waiting for Taka to pull out the money, “now that’s a pretty thing, how much ya sellin that for?”
“Not selling,” replied Taka with a smile as he pulled out the correct number of coins, “I found her in the dessert and claimed her as my own. She is a very pretty thing isn’t she?”
“Well, that’s quite the lucky find,” the shop keeper took the gold and began rummaging for something under the counter. “How’d ya get that ther scar on ya cheek?” from below, the shopkeeper pulled out a crossbow and set it on the counter for Taka to inspect.
“That’d be my doing.” said a voice from behind me. I turned to see a woman, wearing very gaudy clothing and decorated with many forms of jewelry. Her guards stood, in loin cloths just inside either side of the door to the shop. Her dark face was contrasted by her silvery white hair, which was held up by some sort of fan like collar that rose from the neck of her gaudy dress. “Excuse me shopkeeper, but could I see this?”
The shopkeeper left Taka to inspect his cross bow, and moved over to the knife case. Taka, though, instead of inspecting, watched the gaudy Drow women and held my chain at very short length.
“Oh Taka, my dear,” the woman started, “I was thinking of buying this, what do you think?” she held up a very ornate dagger with rubies and sapphires in the hilt. The blade was wavy.
Taka’s face was that of an expressionless, calm, coolness. Only his eyes showed the depth of his soul, and the anger and hurt that he felt at that moment. But even that was so subtle that most would not have even noticed it. “It’s lovely my lady.” he sad, very nonchalantly.
“Oh good, I knew you would think so.” She walked over to Taka and stood in front of him, holding up that ornate dagger. “This would be the perfect thing too to give you a matching scar on your other cheek, I always prefer my men to match, you see. We had great fun yesterday didn’t we? We should do it again sometime, don’t you think?”
“Of course my lady.” Taka gave a very short and courteous bow.
“What is this thing?” asked the matron mother. Using the flat of the curved blade, she turned my face from side to side. I was lucky that I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.
“She is my slave,” replied Taka, “I found her in the dessert.”
“Oh did you? A little dessert treat. You should bring her with you next time.” Taka nodded, and I gripped tightly to my own chain. The woman pulled several coins from her bosom and handed them to the shopkeeper. “I would also like the sheath.” The shopkeeper handed her the sheath. “I will see you later Taka, and remember to bring your little love bird with you.” And with that, she turned, and she and her loin clothed guards left the shop.
I could feel Taka’s pulse vibrate through the chain as he clenched it. A particular vein was thumping through his jaw. He cleared his throat and turned back to his crossbow. “It looks fine” he said.
“Thanks Taka,” said the shopkeeper, “and hey, watch ya self.” Taka nodded to him, and led me back out into the hustling, bustling crowd.
We began walking again, through the crowd, and the weight on my back was starting to slow me down, but every time I slowed down in the slightest, I would get a sharp yank to my chain. The buildings around us became smaller, and they stopped being so extravagantly well built, or carved, as the case may be. The crowd began to dwindle, except for wandering Drow that seemed to slither threw the caverns in rags. The smell became exceedingly distasteful, and I could smell the smell of rotting Drow, somewhere, hidden deep within the caverns. The houses, that had become badly crafted stone buildings, turned into badly crafted wooden shacks, and after that they became simple animal hide tents, inside were sleeping men.
There was only one woman that I saw, out of all of these crippled Drow, and I was not sure that she was any less powerful than any matron mother. She sat on a rock, next to a crackling fire, which echoed across the stone cavern. She was leaning forward on her knees and she was wearing huge bundles of cloth over her shoulders. Her cloth covered head turned to watch us as we passed. She looked old, if a Drow could look old. One of her eyes was completely white, and a long scar ran right through it. The crackling fire illuminated her face and her white eye seemed to almost glow.
“Don’t look at her” Taka whispered, and it was all I could do to wrench my gaze from her, and focus on Taka’s back.
Soon the cavern turned into a small tunnel, tall enough for us to walk through, and not much taller. The tunnel broke off into several different directions and if Taka had not been leading me, I would have been totally lost. Strange and ghoulish cries could be heard from some of the tunnels but Taka ignored them, and continued forward.
Several hours went by, and the scenery was the same, the tunnels, the cries; and the darkness came when we got far enough away from the city. The stones stopped glowing with that strange luminescent glow, and all I could see was blackness. I could not even see Taka’s white hair in front of me, I could only hear his foot steps, and his quiet breathing, for the noise of the city had left us long ago.
Up ahead, light began to illuminate the path before us. It slowly got brighter, and Taka lifted his hood over his hair. It was a cool light, a moonlit tunnel before us. The air became lighter, and I suddenly noticed what a lack of fresh air I had been getting in the caverns. I inhaled that cool, fresh air, and felt its coolness in my throat, and in my sinuses. And then we exited the cavern, and met the night air, and the night sky. The stars, oh the stars were brilliant, and the quarter moon shone down on us. Taka squinted his eyes slightly, but my eyes were wide as I witnessed the brightness of the sky above me. The stars shone down upon meadow after meadow. A large lake stretched out right in front of the mountain. There were hills in the distance and the grass and the earth were beneath our feet. We had exited the other side of the East Jaw of the Dessert.
“You know,” Taka said, “legend has it that the founders of my city fell from the sky and landed in that lake.”
“Wow,” I replied, “wouldn’t that be kind of like hitting a stone floor?” Taka gave a short smirk and a giggle.
“Ya well, it’s just a legend.” We stood there for a few minutes, just gazing out over the ‘The Lake of The Fallen’. Then Taka began to move. “This way” he said, and began to trek up the side of the mountain. “I won’t take your shackles off until I’m sure that you won’t run away from me.”
“Taka, I think I’m falling in love with you.” He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me. His eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He did not seem to have even noticed that I said his name. He stared at me, and that mesmerizing gaze once again took hold over my body. He looked almost worried, he seemed to be contemplating weather or not to tell me everything that he had told me when he thought that I was asleep. And then, all of a sudden, and out of nowhere, he lunged at me and smacked me across the face. The force of the blow knocked me into the mountainside, and I fell unconscious.
I woke to the gentle stirring of Taka in his sheets, and then suddenly there was a nock at the door, and I felt Taka freeze. “Who is it?” he said, and I decided not to move, and to keep my eyes closed. I would pretend that I was still asleep.
“Breakfast for the slave” called a familiar gnome’s voice.
“Enter.” The door opened, and I heard the pit pat of the gnome walking across the floor and setting a tray down by the post. Then there was something of a long pause and I heard the gnome say, “Did I do something displeasing young master?”
“No” I heard Taka reply. “Are you friends with this slave?” the gnome paused at the question and then said,
“I am not sure if ‘friend’ is the right word, but we have talked together.”
“What’s her name?” Taka asked. I was startled to hear his question. He wanted to know my name? Why would my name be important to him?
“Her name is Laurel” the gnome replied, and there was another long pause. Then the gnome continued, “If it is not out of my place to say young master, I would like to let you know that your intimacy with your slave has not gone un-noticed by your family members.”
“She is my slave, and I can do what I want with her.” Taka said, his voice rising slightly.
“Pleases excuse me young master, I did not mean to suggest otherwise. I simply felt that I should warn you.” And with that, the pit pat of the gnome’s feet found the door, and he quickly exited.
A few moments went by and Taka settled slightly in his bed. “Laurel.” He said, holding the first L an extra beat. I could tell that he was rolling the word around in his mouth. He repeated my name in a quieter tone. “Laurel” he said, and he shifted. I was laying on my stomach and my back was to him, my face was away from him, and I heard him feeling my name on his tongue as he spoke it a few more times. Then he stopped repeating my name to himself, and I felt him untie the straps that held the smock to my body. He began caressing my back with his finger tips, ever so lightly. “Laurel,” he repeated again, “do you care about me Laurel?” he seemed to be questioning the air rather than me. “No one has ever really cared about me. Accept one, and she’s dead now.” He ran his fingers down my spine, and allowed them to arch over my buttocks. Then the fingers stopped, and he ran them back up my spine. “Be careful with that caring Laurel. Some might think that it is funny. They might toy with your caring. They might toy with your heart for fun.” He moved my brunette hair from over my neck, and he caressed my neck with his dark fingers, and his white finger nails. “The people in this city are heartless, and they like to toy with those that have feelings such as love and caring. So be careful with those Laurel, those are dangerous. Don’t care for me Laurel, because my family may not forgive that.” I felt him settle himself back onto his pillow and continue caressing my back and shoulders lightly. “Promise me Laurel, that we will not care for each other. If you do not care for me, and I do not care for you, it will be a lot safer that way.” He stopped touching me and I heard him role over on to his back and heave a deep sigh.
I waited for a few moments, listening to his even breathing, to see if he would do anything; but he just lay there quietly as though his mind were somewhere else.
“Taka” I said, and his breath stopped as though maybe he were afraid that I had heard what he’d been saying to me.
“What did I tell you about using my name?”
Ignoring his question, I replied, “I was wondering how you were going to walk around outside the city given your current condition.” Taka swiftly turned towards me, grabbed my face and turned my face towards his. I was met by those eyes again. I was stunned, mesmerized, speechless.
“Listen! To my family, I am Taka. To my friends, I am Taka. I am not Taka to you. To you I am your master. You are not my brother, you are not my pal, you are my slave. I am your master. Do not use my name. Do you understand?” I gazed up at those eyes. I did not understand. I knew that I was his slave, and to call him ‘master’ was to respect his authority over me. But those eyes screamed ‘Taka’ to my soul, and it was difficult for me to think of him by any other name.
I nodded once that I understood, still caught by the gleam of his eyes.
“Good” he said, and let go of my chin. “Go eat your breakfast.” He then slumped back down onto his pillow, crossed his arms, and glared up at the ceiling. I sat up and watched him for a moment before standing. I had forgotten that my smock was undone and its wraps dangled at my sides when I stood.
“Did I role around so much last night that my smock came undone?” I asked as I re-tied the wraps behind my back. I of course knew what had happened, but I wanted him to feel a little more secure that I had not heard what he’d said to me when he thought I was asleep.
“I guess” he said, glancing over to watch me tie the smock back to my body. I walked over to my post and sat down to eat my delicious mush.
“Master” I addressed him with some difficulty. “How is it that you will be able to travel outside the city in your current condition?”
“That’s what I’m bringing you for,” he replied with a grin, “you’re going to carry my stuff.” Good. I had been transformed from a sex toy into a pack animal. I finished my mush, and drank my water. “Stay here” he said to me and stood up from his bed. He quickly sat back down and took a deep breath.
“You okay? Do you need some help?” I was concerned for him, but quickly tried to wipe the evidence from my face.
“I’m fine.” He heaved himself from the bed again and leaned up against the bed post. He seemed to be contemplating something rather intensely. He groaned and walked over to his leather pants. He painfully pulled them on and squeaked when he pulled them over his groin. ‘This,’ I thought, ‘would be a good time for him to start wearing undergarments.’ “I’ll be back.” He said, and he left the room wearing only his leather pants. Though tarnished by cuts and lashes, I found his dark form to still be quite beautiful and appealing to look at.
He returned several minutes later carrying a bundle of clothing and what I recognized to be the container of guaia.
“Here, put them on.” He handed the clothing to me and I recognized them as my own. “I can’t have the weather burning you up, or the thorns making it so that you can’t keep up with me, so put those on.” I removed the smock and eagerly put on my own clothing. As always, they fit me perfectly, they were beyond comfortable, and they were worn but sturdy. I smiled happily at Taka but he was not looking at me. He was washing himself with guaia and bandaging the parts of himself that he was most worried about the wounds opening up.
I walked over to him and took the guaia sodden cloth from his hand. I washed his back, and his neck and his sides. I kissed his pointed ear and noticed that his ears, at least, had not been traumatized. His shoulders seemed to relax when I kissed him and I continued to wash his wounds. I then laid my head gently against his shoulder and we just sat like that for a few moments. Without moving my head, he reached behind him and took the guaia cloth from me and began washing his front. I stayed with my head against his shoulder.
The guaia on his shoulder smelled sour, as was the guaia’s normal smell. The way the smell of the guaia mixed with the smell of his body, and the blood that it was cleaning, was somewhat pleasing to the senses. It smelled almost like a rich perfume. I was trying not to touch him with my hands for fear that the salt would hurt him, but it could not hurt him more than the guaia was. But he did not flinch as he applied the fluid to his wounds.
I helped bandage him up, and I helped him dress. He dressed in his leather pants, and a worn sleeveless tunic. Then he put on a hood. It was that same hood that he had worn when he found me lying in the dessert in the cold night; a cowl that came down to his mid shoulders. He pushed the hood back to expose his white hair. He wrapped his boots up to his knees, and fastened his belt around his waist. To his belt he attached his sword, and my dagger. I watched his belt eagerly as he tied my knife to it. He saw me noticing and he winked at me. I raised my eyebrows. Had a Drow just winked at me?
From his closet he pulled out a pack and began putting things into it.
“Go get the gnome and tell him to get enough rations for two people for one week.” He said as he continued putting things into his pack. A week? What sort of work did this man do?
“Where could I find him?” I asked.
“Eh, just go out and call his name, he’ll show up.” Wondering just how big this house was, that I could simply call the slave and he would appear, I wandered out of the room, and stood at the top of the stairs looking at the floor below me.
“Ama!” I called. But Ama’s voice did not reply, instead, a familiar young boy’s voice said,
“Oh, hello my dear.” I turned around and there he was, having just come out of one of the rooms. Had he really been sleeping so close to us and I hadn’t known? “I’m sorry,” he continued with that horrible grin smeared across his face, “I forgot to introduce myself earlier. I’m Kanci.” He extended his excessively clean hand towards me and I backed up against the railing. “What? Are you scared of me? I’m just trying to be sociable. Lolth knows that my brother sure isn’t.” he put his hand down and slowly took a step closer to me. I knew from my previous encounters with this boy that his strength far surpassed mine. It was almost like he had been trained in strength. Come to think of it, Taka must have had the same training.
“Is Taka your eldest sibling?” I asked.
“No,” said Kanci, “our other siblings have moved out of the house to begin their expanses of our glorious race.” He stared at me for a moment. His eyes were unlike Taka’s, they were a reddish color, and they were hard and fiery. “Taka, you call him. Does he know that you call him by his name? Did you know that addressing him by any title other than master is punishable by torture?” he paused and his angry grin widened. “You know,” he took a step closer; “you are quite a beauty. I think that your beauty is wasted on Taka’s bed frame. I’d let your crime pass if you would waste your beauty on my bed frame for a night or two.” He reached his hand out to me again and his face seemed to be burning with eagerness.
I slapped his hand away from me and yelled, “Ama!” Kanci slapped me with the back of his hand and I was knocked to the floor. I reached for my knife and suddenly remembered that it was still hanging on Taka’s belt. I finally heard the pit pat of Ama’s feet coming towards me from some unknown direction.
Kanci sat down on top of my chest and gripped at my throat. My wind pipe was closing and I could not remove my eyes from the angry scowl raining down from the boy’s face. He had stopped smiling and now his teeth were clamped together and his lips were peeling back in his wrath.
I suddenly reached up and grabbed some of Kanci’s beautiful white, wavy locks of hair and yanked on it. He growled through his teeth at the seeming annoyance of getting his hair yanked on and I gasped as he squeezed his fists further around my neck. I yanked his hair harder. I had gotten my strength back since my time of exhaustion in the dessert and I was able to knock his pearly white head into stair railing. He let go of my throat and I gasped as air rushed into my lungs.
I saw Ama stop just before he reached the top of the stairs when he saw what was going on. His eyes got big and he did not move from that spot.
Finally, Taka’s door flew open, “What in the name of Lolth…?” he stopped when he saw what was happening and he grabbed a handful of his brother’s hair and pulled him off of me with what strength he could muster. Kanci instantly changed into a squeeling cry baby and started whining to Taka in Drow. Taka tossed his brother down the stairs. Kanci caught himself halfway down the stone steps and looked up at me with hate filled eyes as I lifted myself from the floor with what help a gnome could give me.
Taka had stormed back into his room and was soon followed by Ama and I.
“If you do not mind my asking, young master,” the gnome started, directing his question to Taka, “what was I called here for?”
“I am going to be gone for a week,” Taka seemed frustrated by the last moment’s events, “I need you to bring me enough rations for two people.”
“Yes sir.” The gnome bowed to Taka and removed himself from the room. Taka directed his eyes away from the wall and towards me. His eyes were definitely angry.
“What did you think you were doing?” he coughed at me.
“I? He was the one that started it.” I felt like a child arguing with a parent over whose fault it was. Taka glared at me.
“You can’t go slapping the hands of any Drow who threatens you.”
“And why not?” my own face began to flush with anger. I knew that Taka knew who had started the fight.
“Because it will mean trouble for both you and me!” he yelled. “Who do you think will get blamed for you stepping out of line? Me. whose reputation do you think will be compromised by your actions? Mine. And who will have to be the one to torture you for your actions to make you into a compliant slave?” he stopped yelling and stood there for a moment. His shoulders rested and his eyes stopped being angry, but retained their stark seriousness. “Me.” He said and his gaze held my eyes. The ice in his eyes became sharp and I could tell just how serious he was.
“There is a consequence for everything that you do here,” he continued, “and those consequences are sure to be cruel. I will have to teach you a lesson, and what is more, I will have to teach you a lesson while under the supervision of Kanci and probably my mother. I will have to live up to their expectations of a good teacher of consequences. I will have to show that I still have control over my assets, that’s you, darling. If I do not have the power to control what power is given to me, then it will be taken away. And that will probably include either sending me into exile, or sentencing me to death.”
My eyes grew wide as I stared at Taka’s face. I could tell that he was not exaggerating these consequences. Witnessing my terrified expression, Taka heaved a deep sigh and allowed his eyes to soften on me.
“I have work to do, and I need your help to do it. I’m going to ask that your punishment be postponed until we return. But that will give them an extra week to come up with a punishment. It’s also possible that Kanci will request that he be the one to punish you for his abuse, or he may request that someone else do it. Depending on the crime committed, I may be obliged to grant his request.” Taka paused for a moment and there was a knock at the door. “Stop causing me so much trouble Laurel or I will have to dispose of you as a slave. Come in!”
Ama entered and a very large bundle levitated in behind him. Paralyzing, levitating, what kind of magic did this gnome have? “Your rations of both food and water, young master. Is there any other way that I can be of service at this time?” the gnome looked at me, and I could tell that he was slightly worried about what would happen to me, but then again, he had probably seen it before.
“No,” replied Taka, “Go now.” And the gnome nodded to me, and bowed to Taka, and then left the room. “Pack the rations into the bag.” Taka ordered, and I picked up the very large bundle and heaved it over to Taka’s pack. Taka leaned up against the bed post and watched me.
“So,” I said timidly, “am I just supposed to let Kanci bully me around?”
“Yes” Taka replied. “As a slave, you cannot defend yourself against anyone, especially not a Drow. I am the only one who has the power to take your safety into consideration, and that is only because you belong to me.” I shivered at the thought of being jumped by Kanci every time I walked out the door. Taka shrugged. “I have the right to beat up on my little brother for defiling my property, but you do not. Kanci said that you spoke my name to him. That is punishable by torture. I have been merciful up until now, but because my brother heard it, I now have to follow through with that law.” He stopped talking for a moment and stared at me while I packed his bag. “Stay here, I’ll be right back.” He left the room.
While he was gone, I took the time to look at the rations. There was some sort of dried fungi and also some meat jerky. It didn’t look particularly appetizing but it did look better than the porridge that I had been eating. I wrapped the ration back up and packed it into the bag.
Taka returned. “Kanci wanted to accompany us and punish you while we’re on the road, but I told him that if he did that, then he would be the one who had to carry my pack because you wouldn’t be able to. My mother said that he would also be distracting to my work. She said that your punishment could be allowed to wait until we return. She also said that while you using my name does not warrant the right for Kanci to request to torture you, slamming his head into the stair railing does.”
I felt as though I could sink into the floor. The thought of Kanci torturing me was a horrifying thought. I whimpered. Taka walked over and buckled up his pack and made sure that it was completely secure. He then nodded to me. I stood, and heaved the heavy pack onto my shoulders. No wonder Taka was so strong. He dug the shackles out of his closet and said, “wrists” and I held out my wrists. He shackled them and hooked the collar around my neck. He tugged at the chain to make sure it was secure, and then led me out the door.
We walked down the stone steps and I peered down the entrance hall. Leaning against the stair case that was parallel to the one we just descended was Kanci and his sister. Kanci had an angry scowl that was pointing directly at me. He was just angry that I was able to knock his head against the railing. His sister, on the other hand, had quite a mischievous grin on her face, and her expression was directed at Taka. Taka, however, made it a point to ignore their expressions, and we slipped out the front door.
I stepped out of the door behind Taka, and found myself in that magnificent city called Untathur. All those huge mansions built into the sides of the cavern were amazing, and now that my eyes had adjusted to the darkness as much as human eyes could, I could get a better view of this magnificent and horrible city.
This time, the city was not sleeping, Drow were walking around everywhere, some were leading slaves, just like Taka, and others were walking with large, bulky Drow guards. Or as large and bulky as a Drow could be, which is not very large and bulky by human standards, but considering the strength that Taka had, I assumed that a Drow did not need to have all that much bulk to take down a human. Those with the guards seemed to strut, elegantly through the city while wearing long and intricate, silks and cloaks, often clad in gold or purple. Their guards either wore some sort of chain mail and helmets, or they wore nothing but a brightly colored silk loin cloth. Probably to show that they were tough enough to take it without armor.
Looking up, I still could not see the top of the cavern, and some of the houses seemed to reach as high as the cavern did. They were built like castles into the side of this cavern, and it was difficult to tell where the houses ended and the walls of the cavern started, if they did.
Taka tugged on my chain to get me to walk faster. I hurried a little, and took my place just a few paces behind him, which is what I saw the other slaves doing, and not wanting to get into any more trouble, I followed suit.
Most of the slaves, I noticed, were gnomes. The vast majority were gnomes. Most were wearing a very similar looking smock to that that Ama and I wore. None were wearing clothing like me, but then again, they were probably not being taken out of the city.
The scenery changed. We were no longer walking down through the rows of huge, castle like houses; we were walking through the store and shop part of the city now. The stone still had that strange, luminescent glow. We had walked through a high arch that marked our entrance into the marketplace.
The first store buildings were almost as huge as the houses we had just left behind. I had thought that there were lots of people in the other part of the cavern, but this part was crowded from wall to wall. The hustle and bustle was utter chaos. My chain got yanked several times simply due to difficulty moving through the crowds. At one point in time, a Drow who looked to be about ten years of age actually tried to run in between me and Taka and he instantaneously tripped over the chain and fell flat on his face. At that point, Taka turned to him and began yelling in the boy’s face.
“Watch where you’re going you little punk! You had better not have been trying to pick my pockets! Don’t get in my way, I have valuable merchandise here and you could have damaged it! Do you have any idea what I would have done to you then?! I would have beaten your little face off!” the boy cowered before Taka and started repeating apologies over and over again.
“I’m sorry sir. I am very sorry sir. It won’t happen again sir. Please don’t hit me sir, I promise it won’t happen again sir.” This went on for at least a minute before Taka finally let the youngster go.
“Wow” I said to Taka. He instantly hushed me and yanked on my chain to keep up with him. His attitude in public was much different than it was when we were in private. I suppose that he was just trying to watch his back. It’s a Drow’s job to yell at any little kid that gets in your way I guess.
As we walked, the huge stone shops started to get smaller and smaller. Taka veered off to the left and led me into one of the more middle sized shops. When we walked in, I saw that it was a weapons shop. All along the right wall of the shop there were swords of all kinds. Long swords, broad swords, short swords, rapiers, and scimitars were there as well as many others. In a glass case on that side were many ornate knives and daggers. They were all beautiful, and I felt my eyes glittering as I looked at them.
On the left wall of the building there were bows. Long bows, short bows, cross bows, bows of all kinds were on that wall. There was even a bow with multiple strings. I did not know what that could be for. The case there was filled with different kinds of arrows, as well as some sort of bow-spare-part-equipment. We walked over to the back of the shop where a man stood behind the counter.
“Ah, Taka, ya come to collect ya goods did ya?” said the man behind the counter. I gasped when I saw him. He was a human, but his face was beyond scarred. He had a patch over one eye and his head was completely bald and burn marks decorated his scalp. His teeth held firmly onto a small, black, wooden pipe, and he had a gold ring through his lower lip. “It’s all fixed up fer ya, nice’n pretty.”
Taka began rummaging through his money pouch which he kept on his belt. “Hey,” said the shop keeper while waiting for Taka to pull out the money, “now that’s a pretty thing, how much ya sellin that for?”
“Not selling,” replied Taka with a smile as he pulled out the correct number of coins, “I found her in the dessert and claimed her as my own. She is a very pretty thing isn’t she?”
“Well, that’s quite the lucky find,” the shop keeper took the gold and began rummaging for something under the counter. “How’d ya get that ther scar on ya cheek?” from below, the shopkeeper pulled out a crossbow and set it on the counter for Taka to inspect.
“That’d be my doing.” said a voice from behind me. I turned to see a woman, wearing very gaudy clothing and decorated with many forms of jewelry. Her guards stood, in loin cloths just inside either side of the door to the shop. Her dark face was contrasted by her silvery white hair, which was held up by some sort of fan like collar that rose from the neck of her gaudy dress. “Excuse me shopkeeper, but could I see this?”
The shopkeeper left Taka to inspect his cross bow, and moved over to the knife case. Taka, though, instead of inspecting, watched the gaudy Drow women and held my chain at very short length.
“Oh Taka, my dear,” the woman started, “I was thinking of buying this, what do you think?” she held up a very ornate dagger with rubies and sapphires in the hilt. The blade was wavy.
Taka’s face was that of an expressionless, calm, coolness. Only his eyes showed the depth of his soul, and the anger and hurt that he felt at that moment. But even that was so subtle that most would not have even noticed it. “It’s lovely my lady.” he sad, very nonchalantly.
“Oh good, I knew you would think so.” She walked over to Taka and stood in front of him, holding up that ornate dagger. “This would be the perfect thing too to give you a matching scar on your other cheek, I always prefer my men to match, you see. We had great fun yesterday didn’t we? We should do it again sometime, don’t you think?”
“Of course my lady.” Taka gave a very short and courteous bow.
“What is this thing?” asked the matron mother. Using the flat of the curved blade, she turned my face from side to side. I was lucky that I knew enough to keep my mouth shut.
“She is my slave,” replied Taka, “I found her in the dessert.”
“Oh did you? A little dessert treat. You should bring her with you next time.” Taka nodded, and I gripped tightly to my own chain. The woman pulled several coins from her bosom and handed them to the shopkeeper. “I would also like the sheath.” The shopkeeper handed her the sheath. “I will see you later Taka, and remember to bring your little love bird with you.” And with that, she turned, and she and her loin clothed guards left the shop.
I could feel Taka’s pulse vibrate through the chain as he clenched it. A particular vein was thumping through his jaw. He cleared his throat and turned back to his crossbow. “It looks fine” he said.
“Thanks Taka,” said the shopkeeper, “and hey, watch ya self.” Taka nodded to him, and led me back out into the hustling, bustling crowd.
We began walking again, through the crowd, and the weight on my back was starting to slow me down, but every time I slowed down in the slightest, I would get a sharp yank to my chain. The buildings around us became smaller, and they stopped being so extravagantly well built, or carved, as the case may be. The crowd began to dwindle, except for wandering Drow that seemed to slither threw the caverns in rags. The smell became exceedingly distasteful, and I could smell the smell of rotting Drow, somewhere, hidden deep within the caverns. The houses, that had become badly crafted stone buildings, turned into badly crafted wooden shacks, and after that they became simple animal hide tents, inside were sleeping men.
There was only one woman that I saw, out of all of these crippled Drow, and I was not sure that she was any less powerful than any matron mother. She sat on a rock, next to a crackling fire, which echoed across the stone cavern. She was leaning forward on her knees and she was wearing huge bundles of cloth over her shoulders. Her cloth covered head turned to watch us as we passed. She looked old, if a Drow could look old. One of her eyes was completely white, and a long scar ran right through it. The crackling fire illuminated her face and her white eye seemed to almost glow.
“Don’t look at her” Taka whispered, and it was all I could do to wrench my gaze from her, and focus on Taka’s back.
Soon the cavern turned into a small tunnel, tall enough for us to walk through, and not much taller. The tunnel broke off into several different directions and if Taka had not been leading me, I would have been totally lost. Strange and ghoulish cries could be heard from some of the tunnels but Taka ignored them, and continued forward.
Several hours went by, and the scenery was the same, the tunnels, the cries; and the darkness came when we got far enough away from the city. The stones stopped glowing with that strange luminescent glow, and all I could see was blackness. I could not even see Taka’s white hair in front of me, I could only hear his foot steps, and his quiet breathing, for the noise of the city had left us long ago.
Up ahead, light began to illuminate the path before us. It slowly got brighter, and Taka lifted his hood over his hair. It was a cool light, a moonlit tunnel before us. The air became lighter, and I suddenly noticed what a lack of fresh air I had been getting in the caverns. I inhaled that cool, fresh air, and felt its coolness in my throat, and in my sinuses. And then we exited the cavern, and met the night air, and the night sky. The stars, oh the stars were brilliant, and the quarter moon shone down on us. Taka squinted his eyes slightly, but my eyes were wide as I witnessed the brightness of the sky above me. The stars shone down upon meadow after meadow. A large lake stretched out right in front of the mountain. There were hills in the distance and the grass and the earth were beneath our feet. We had exited the other side of the East Jaw of the Dessert.
“You know,” Taka said, “legend has it that the founders of my city fell from the sky and landed in that lake.”
“Wow,” I replied, “wouldn’t that be kind of like hitting a stone floor?” Taka gave a short smirk and a giggle.
“Ya well, it’s just a legend.” We stood there for a few minutes, just gazing out over the ‘The Lake of The Fallen’. Then Taka began to move. “This way” he said, and began to trek up the side of the mountain. “I won’t take your shackles off until I’m sure that you won’t run away from me.”
“Taka, I think I’m falling in love with you.” He stopped in his tracks and turned to look at me. His eyes gleamed in the moonlight. He did not seem to have even noticed that I said his name. He stared at me, and that mesmerizing gaze once again took hold over my body. He looked almost worried, he seemed to be contemplating weather or not to tell me everything that he had told me when he thought that I was asleep. And then, all of a sudden, and out of nowhere, he lunged at me and smacked me across the face. The force of the blow knocked me into the mountainside, and I fell unconscious.
-
- Maid
- Posts: 15
- Joined: Mon Oct 05, 2009 1:05 am
the rest of day four
Um... The rest of day four:
When I woke, the stars were still shining. It took me a moment to get my bearings and I realized that I was lying on Taka’s flattened out bed role, a blanket had been laid over me. I heard the crackling of a fire down by my feet and I looked around. Taka was sitting on a log next to me. He was smoking a short pipe and I looked up at him just as the smoke came pluming from his pursed lips. I had never seen him smoke, but then again, maybe he didn’t like smoking in his own bed room.
“I didn’t mean to knock you out.” He said, not looking at me and then drawing in again from his pipe.
“Is that a tone of apology I hear in your voice?” I asked, and then suddenly took notice of my horrible headache. He looked over at me, and a smile crossed over his silvery blue eyes even though it did not cross his lips. He had pushed his hood back, and the moon reflected off of his hair like snow.
“Even in the moonlight it’s almost too bright out here. I’ll sleep during the day, and work during the night. It’s almost too bright at night but I’m practically blind during the day.” He inhaled again on his pipe and this time let the smoke seep from his nostrils.
“What work do you do?”
“I’m a ranger; a tracker. My job is to scout this place out. See whose here, see who isn’t. Find out if there’s anyone who could possibly be a threat to the city. Loot what I can, if I can. If there is anything to loot. We aren’t far away enough from the caverns though for me to do any good yet. No one would be this close to the city without someone noticing. My job is to find the more un-noticed ones.
“And my job is to carry your pack?”
“And you’re also a pair of eyes. You can help keep a look out during the night, and you can keep a look out during the day. I’m almost useless during the day you know.” We sat in silence for a while, and he puffed on his pipe. He handed it to me and I sat up and took a drag. This was not tobacco, I then realized. I wondered why I hadn’t known that by the smell. I handed the pipe back to him, and exhaled the smoke slowly. It relaxed my nerves.
“I’m sorry if I caught you off guard back there.” I said to him, and I gazed off the side of the mountain. We were sitting on a small hill, not that much further up the mountain than we had started. Taka had probably carried me up there. He shook his head and blew a smoke ring.
“I’ve been in love before.” He said, having finished his smoke ring. I looked over at his hazy, smoky figure, his eyes continued to gleam in the moon light. The moon made them shine brighter than they did normally. “I wouldn’t suggest it.” He stood up and dropped a broken branch onto the fire. Then he stood with his back to me, and gazed down at the scenery past the fire. “Why would you fall in love with a Drow?” he asked in a relatively frustrated tone, removing his pipe quickly from his lips.
“I asked myself that,” I replied, “I have no idea.” Taka turned from the scenery and sat back down on the log and puffed on his pipe some more. Then he handed the pipe to me and I took another drag and blew the smoke softly from my lips. I handed the pipe back to him. He sat there quietly contemplating to himself. I gazed at him and his contemplative face, his snowy hair, and his silver glowing eyes. “Maybe I should just make you leave.” He seemed to say it more to himself than to me, but I responded to him anyway.
“Why?” I asked, and he was silent for a moment.
“Because you are my slave. Love is a dangerous thing to have for a Drow, especially if you’re his slave.” I watched his eyes as he was contemplating the weed in his pipe which ceased to burn.
“When you were talking to me this morning, and you thought that I was asleep, I wasn’t sleeping. I heard what you said.”
His muscles tensed suddenly, “Then you know why you shouldn’t love me.”
“I know that you care about me enough to dissuade me from loving you.” Taka turned his eyes to me and stopped contemplating his pipe and started contemplating my face. Our gazes met and we sat there, gazing at each other.
“Drow are not supposed to care. We aren’t supposed to love.” he said.
“But you do. You did.” He rested his pipe on his lower lip as he continued to contemplate my face.
“Yeah,” he said, “I did. And it led me no where good.” He tapped his pipe on a nearby rock and then put it into the pack that he had sitting next to him. “Here,” he said, and handed me a ration, “eat.” I began to gnaw on the jerky. “The guaia’s really helping.” He said, apparently changing the subject. “How are your brand wounds?”
“They’re getting better” I said, but Taka had already walked over to me and was crouched next to me.
“Let me see.” He said, and reached for my belt buckle. I did not stop him. After he saw my brands he stood and retrieved the container of guaia from his pack. The brands had cracked and bled again. The blood was now dry though. Taka sat down on his knees next to me and had me lay back.
“You brought that container with us?” I asked him. He nodded in response and wetted a rag with the stinging fluid. I hissed slightly when he pressed the rag to my wound. He looked at my eyes as I watched him. If he wanted so much not to care about me, why did he make it so obvious that he did?
The fire burned out, and when Taka was done cleaning my brands he said, “Come on, I want to get further away from the city before the sun comes up.” And with that he stood, and put the guaia and cloth back into the pack. I pulled up my pants, stood, and rolled up the bed roll. Taka did what he could to make it look as though we had not been there. For what reason, I did not know.
After the bag was packed, I heaved it onto my shoulders, and with every step that we hiked up that mountain, my headache seemed to get worse.
“We need like walking sticks or something.” I said to Taka, but he did not reply. He simply continued to walk up the mountain. I heard my shackles chingle slightly in the pack. I was glad that I was not wearing them. I guess my proclamation of love to Taka made him decide that he could trust me enough to take them off. What I really wanted, though, was that dagger hanging off of his belt. I felt somewhat naked without it and defenseless. I watched my dagger tap lightly against his thigh as he walked and I sighed with longing.
Up the mountain we climbed and I wondered just how many days it could possibly take to get to the top. Were we going to the top? I assumed not since Taka did not bring any cold weather clothes. Looking up the side of the mountain I could see that its peak did, indeed have snow on it. These mountains were tall, and strong, which is why they made up the very jaw of the Spine of the Moon.
We walked for a few hours, taking short breaks for water here and there, but no sooner did the end of those few hours reach us than did the end of the starry sky. A light blue began to wash out the stars, but the sun had not yet broken the horizon.
“We’d better stop now.” Said Taka, and he began looking for a suitable place to camp. He finally settled underneath a very large rock that was jutting out of the mountainside. He was hidden behind him by the rock, and he was hidden in front of him by a cluster of pine trees. I took off his pack and set it under the rock. He began loosening the pack to remove his bed role.
“Do you like living in the Drow city?” I asked him as he flattened the bed role out on the ground.
“Sure,” he replied, “it’s my home.” He looked at me as though I had asked him a very strange question. Then his eyes squinted suddenly and he turned his eyes to face the rock.
Looking down the mountain, through the trees, I could see the sun breaking the horizon. I walked out of the trees. It had been so long since I had seen a sunrise. There was not a cloud in the sky as the sun rose, but still it managed to streak colors of gold and pink through the sky as it rose from its depths. How could anybody live underground in that darkness, and miss a beauty like this rising every morning. I had taken the sun for granted before I was taken into those caverns, and now its spectacle made me realize just how much I had missed it.
I walked back over to Taka and found him on the bed role, hiding from the sun with the blanket over his head.
“It’ll take me a few days to get used to the Sun.” he said to me, somehow knowing that I was there. Elfish ears could hear anything from miles away. Or that was what I had been told by the people in my own city.
“Why did you pick me up from the dessert?” Taka shifted at my question and I sat down on the ground next to him. He paused before answering my question.
“I thought that you were beautiful,” he said, “and I wanted you for my own.” I stared at the lump of blanket that was Taka. That was it? That was the reason that I had been made his slave? He lifted his blanket from his face and squinted at me. I could tell that he could not really see me very well.
“Why do you ask?”
I shrugged at his question. “I was just curious.”
“Oh,” he said, dropping the blanket back over his face and rolling over. “We need to get some sleep.” I watched him for a while before lying down on the ground next to him. I stared up at the stone jutting out above us, then rolled over towards him and wrapped my arm around his blanketed waist. He moved one of his hands out from under his blanket and laced his fingers with mine. He was soon asleep and I marveled at how fast he could fall into slumber. Because the sun was up, I automatically wanted to be awake. The habit of the twenty years of my life made it so that the breaking of morning was the mark of the time to rise from our slumbers. In the caverns of Untathur, I had not known when the sun was rising. Those caverns looked the same no matter what time of day it was. And so the time of sleeping had not been a concern. But now that we were out in the air, and the Sun was rising, I would have significantly more trouble following Taka’s sleep cycle.
I lay there, holding Taka’s sleeping body, and even though my head was aching, even though I had been walking for hours, even though I was exhausted, I could not sleep. So I let my mind wander. I sat up and I looked out at my surroundings. I looked at the trees, and I could smell the pine. I could smell the dirt. The grass was still growing green on this part of the mountain. We had not climbed higher than the grass.
I un-strapped my boots, and I stood in my bare feet. I let the soft dirt soil my skin. I could hear the birds singing above my head, and I watched them as they swooped down to the ground beneath them and snatched up pine needles, or twigs for their nests, or worms for their babies. A soft breeze massaged my feet, and the grass lightly tickled my skin. I gazed up at the tree tops. I watched one of the nests as the mother bird flew to her babies and regurgitated their food for them. I watched the baby birds eat their meal like it was manna from heaven.
As I was gazing up at the birds, I suddenly felt very sick. I moved quickly away from Taka’s sleeping form, and I threw up on the other side of the mountain’s jutting rock. The combination of the flavor of jerky and bile, along with the consistency of the porridge I had eaten the morning before was one of the more horrible experienced of my life. The shear disgust at what had just vacated my body caused me to throw up again.
I put some space between me and the vomit and sat down in utter disgust. I wiped my mouth off on my sleeve and moaned my displeasure. Bad jerky maybe? Or maybe it was homesickness.
I could remember my home with acute vividness. It had been almost a year since I had been there, and I could not imagine missing it more than I did at that moment. I had never been further from home. But the thing that made me miss home so much was that my home was built in a place that was not unlike the area where we were resting on this clear morning. I gazed out across the grassy hills and the meadows, and I could remember gazing over a very similar sort of world from my bedroom window. The only difference was that I could also see the ocean from my bedroom window, and there were no Drow living nearby. There were no Drow hiding from the sunlight under rocks. There was no reason the worry about Drow raiding our city, or slaughtering our children. At most, the Drow were a scary story that mothers told to their children to get them to behave. Yes, I was definitely homesick.
I walked back over to Taka’s sleeping, Drow form. How had I come to this? I sat down next to him and started pulling slivers out of my feet. Then I put my boots back on and I rinsed my bile filled mouth out with water.
The top of Taka’s white head was sticking out from under the blanket and I pet the top of his head on impulse.
“What is it?” he mumbled, stirring from his sleep.
“Nothing,” I said, “I just can’t sleep. Thinking about home.”
“Oh, well if you don’t mind, I would like to sleep.”
“Sorry.” His faced had not moved from its place under his blanket.
“s’okay” he mumbled, and was gone from the conscious world. I sat there next to him and I felt like I might throw up again, but I didn’t. My parents had been travelers in their younger days and indeed met while they were traveling. They had been born in different cities. My father was a tall, burly ice man from the north and my mother was from a port town near the Ivory Tusk Mountains. For some reason, both my parents felt that it was within their ambition to travel all the way to the Guild of Dragons, right at the split of the Jaws of the Dessert, and request entry. Neither of my parents was accepted into the guild, but they found each other there.
When I came of age, I felt the same need that they did to travel. To go out and find my place in this huge world. Maybe I could be accepted into the Guild of Dragons. And so, me and my brothers left our home city, and began our own journeys. At first, all three of us went together, and then Karl found a job as an apprentice to a Traveling bard. So it was just Andrew and I. We ended up hooking up with a group of dessert folk, who offered to lead us across the Hungary Dessert. But while we were traveling across the dessert, we were attacked by giant lizards. Not dragons, but land lizards. They may not have had any breath weapons, but they did have sharp teeth. My brother was killed by saving me from the jaws of one of these monsters. Everyone was killed by these monsters.
I was able to run away from them, but I got myself lost in the great maze that is the dunes of the dessert. I traveled for days, exhausted and without water, just trying to find a way out of the dessert. That’s when I collapsed, and Taka found me.
I gazed over at Taka’s sleeping form. Why had he taken me in from the dessert? Was it really only because he thought I was pretty?
By the time the sun had reached the top of the sky, I was finally able to fall asleep with my face nuzzled into Taka’s shoulder. My dreams were crowded by visions of the rising sun, the Lake of the Fallen and birds regurgitating into their babies mouths. The dream was eerie and disjointed. Any inkling of a story was unrecognizable.
When I woke, the stars were still shining. It took me a moment to get my bearings and I realized that I was lying on Taka’s flattened out bed role, a blanket had been laid over me. I heard the crackling of a fire down by my feet and I looked around. Taka was sitting on a log next to me. He was smoking a short pipe and I looked up at him just as the smoke came pluming from his pursed lips. I had never seen him smoke, but then again, maybe he didn’t like smoking in his own bed room.
“I didn’t mean to knock you out.” He said, not looking at me and then drawing in again from his pipe.
“Is that a tone of apology I hear in your voice?” I asked, and then suddenly took notice of my horrible headache. He looked over at me, and a smile crossed over his silvery blue eyes even though it did not cross his lips. He had pushed his hood back, and the moon reflected off of his hair like snow.
“Even in the moonlight it’s almost too bright out here. I’ll sleep during the day, and work during the night. It’s almost too bright at night but I’m practically blind during the day.” He inhaled again on his pipe and this time let the smoke seep from his nostrils.
“What work do you do?”
“I’m a ranger; a tracker. My job is to scout this place out. See whose here, see who isn’t. Find out if there’s anyone who could possibly be a threat to the city. Loot what I can, if I can. If there is anything to loot. We aren’t far away enough from the caverns though for me to do any good yet. No one would be this close to the city without someone noticing. My job is to find the more un-noticed ones.
“And my job is to carry your pack?”
“And you’re also a pair of eyes. You can help keep a look out during the night, and you can keep a look out during the day. I’m almost useless during the day you know.” We sat in silence for a while, and he puffed on his pipe. He handed it to me and I sat up and took a drag. This was not tobacco, I then realized. I wondered why I hadn’t known that by the smell. I handed the pipe back to him, and exhaled the smoke slowly. It relaxed my nerves.
“I’m sorry if I caught you off guard back there.” I said to him, and I gazed off the side of the mountain. We were sitting on a small hill, not that much further up the mountain than we had started. Taka had probably carried me up there. He shook his head and blew a smoke ring.
“I’ve been in love before.” He said, having finished his smoke ring. I looked over at his hazy, smoky figure, his eyes continued to gleam in the moon light. The moon made them shine brighter than they did normally. “I wouldn’t suggest it.” He stood up and dropped a broken branch onto the fire. Then he stood with his back to me, and gazed down at the scenery past the fire. “Why would you fall in love with a Drow?” he asked in a relatively frustrated tone, removing his pipe quickly from his lips.
“I asked myself that,” I replied, “I have no idea.” Taka turned from the scenery and sat back down on the log and puffed on his pipe some more. Then he handed the pipe to me and I took another drag and blew the smoke softly from my lips. I handed the pipe back to him. He sat there quietly contemplating to himself. I gazed at him and his contemplative face, his snowy hair, and his silver glowing eyes. “Maybe I should just make you leave.” He seemed to say it more to himself than to me, but I responded to him anyway.
“Why?” I asked, and he was silent for a moment.
“Because you are my slave. Love is a dangerous thing to have for a Drow, especially if you’re his slave.” I watched his eyes as he was contemplating the weed in his pipe which ceased to burn.
“When you were talking to me this morning, and you thought that I was asleep, I wasn’t sleeping. I heard what you said.”
His muscles tensed suddenly, “Then you know why you shouldn’t love me.”
“I know that you care about me enough to dissuade me from loving you.” Taka turned his eyes to me and stopped contemplating his pipe and started contemplating my face. Our gazes met and we sat there, gazing at each other.
“Drow are not supposed to care. We aren’t supposed to love.” he said.
“But you do. You did.” He rested his pipe on his lower lip as he continued to contemplate my face.
“Yeah,” he said, “I did. And it led me no where good.” He tapped his pipe on a nearby rock and then put it into the pack that he had sitting next to him. “Here,” he said, and handed me a ration, “eat.” I began to gnaw on the jerky. “The guaia’s really helping.” He said, apparently changing the subject. “How are your brand wounds?”
“They’re getting better” I said, but Taka had already walked over to me and was crouched next to me.
“Let me see.” He said, and reached for my belt buckle. I did not stop him. After he saw my brands he stood and retrieved the container of guaia from his pack. The brands had cracked and bled again. The blood was now dry though. Taka sat down on his knees next to me and had me lay back.
“You brought that container with us?” I asked him. He nodded in response and wetted a rag with the stinging fluid. I hissed slightly when he pressed the rag to my wound. He looked at my eyes as I watched him. If he wanted so much not to care about me, why did he make it so obvious that he did?
The fire burned out, and when Taka was done cleaning my brands he said, “Come on, I want to get further away from the city before the sun comes up.” And with that he stood, and put the guaia and cloth back into the pack. I pulled up my pants, stood, and rolled up the bed roll. Taka did what he could to make it look as though we had not been there. For what reason, I did not know.
After the bag was packed, I heaved it onto my shoulders, and with every step that we hiked up that mountain, my headache seemed to get worse.
“We need like walking sticks or something.” I said to Taka, but he did not reply. He simply continued to walk up the mountain. I heard my shackles chingle slightly in the pack. I was glad that I was not wearing them. I guess my proclamation of love to Taka made him decide that he could trust me enough to take them off. What I really wanted, though, was that dagger hanging off of his belt. I felt somewhat naked without it and defenseless. I watched my dagger tap lightly against his thigh as he walked and I sighed with longing.
Up the mountain we climbed and I wondered just how many days it could possibly take to get to the top. Were we going to the top? I assumed not since Taka did not bring any cold weather clothes. Looking up the side of the mountain I could see that its peak did, indeed have snow on it. These mountains were tall, and strong, which is why they made up the very jaw of the Spine of the Moon.
We walked for a few hours, taking short breaks for water here and there, but no sooner did the end of those few hours reach us than did the end of the starry sky. A light blue began to wash out the stars, but the sun had not yet broken the horizon.
“We’d better stop now.” Said Taka, and he began looking for a suitable place to camp. He finally settled underneath a very large rock that was jutting out of the mountainside. He was hidden behind him by the rock, and he was hidden in front of him by a cluster of pine trees. I took off his pack and set it under the rock. He began loosening the pack to remove his bed role.
“Do you like living in the Drow city?” I asked him as he flattened the bed role out on the ground.
“Sure,” he replied, “it’s my home.” He looked at me as though I had asked him a very strange question. Then his eyes squinted suddenly and he turned his eyes to face the rock.
Looking down the mountain, through the trees, I could see the sun breaking the horizon. I walked out of the trees. It had been so long since I had seen a sunrise. There was not a cloud in the sky as the sun rose, but still it managed to streak colors of gold and pink through the sky as it rose from its depths. How could anybody live underground in that darkness, and miss a beauty like this rising every morning. I had taken the sun for granted before I was taken into those caverns, and now its spectacle made me realize just how much I had missed it.
I walked back over to Taka and found him on the bed role, hiding from the sun with the blanket over his head.
“It’ll take me a few days to get used to the Sun.” he said to me, somehow knowing that I was there. Elfish ears could hear anything from miles away. Or that was what I had been told by the people in my own city.
“Why did you pick me up from the dessert?” Taka shifted at my question and I sat down on the ground next to him. He paused before answering my question.
“I thought that you were beautiful,” he said, “and I wanted you for my own.” I stared at the lump of blanket that was Taka. That was it? That was the reason that I had been made his slave? He lifted his blanket from his face and squinted at me. I could tell that he could not really see me very well.
“Why do you ask?”
I shrugged at his question. “I was just curious.”
“Oh,” he said, dropping the blanket back over his face and rolling over. “We need to get some sleep.” I watched him for a while before lying down on the ground next to him. I stared up at the stone jutting out above us, then rolled over towards him and wrapped my arm around his blanketed waist. He moved one of his hands out from under his blanket and laced his fingers with mine. He was soon asleep and I marveled at how fast he could fall into slumber. Because the sun was up, I automatically wanted to be awake. The habit of the twenty years of my life made it so that the breaking of morning was the mark of the time to rise from our slumbers. In the caverns of Untathur, I had not known when the sun was rising. Those caverns looked the same no matter what time of day it was. And so the time of sleeping had not been a concern. But now that we were out in the air, and the Sun was rising, I would have significantly more trouble following Taka’s sleep cycle.
I lay there, holding Taka’s sleeping body, and even though my head was aching, even though I had been walking for hours, even though I was exhausted, I could not sleep. So I let my mind wander. I sat up and I looked out at my surroundings. I looked at the trees, and I could smell the pine. I could smell the dirt. The grass was still growing green on this part of the mountain. We had not climbed higher than the grass.
I un-strapped my boots, and I stood in my bare feet. I let the soft dirt soil my skin. I could hear the birds singing above my head, and I watched them as they swooped down to the ground beneath them and snatched up pine needles, or twigs for their nests, or worms for their babies. A soft breeze massaged my feet, and the grass lightly tickled my skin. I gazed up at the tree tops. I watched one of the nests as the mother bird flew to her babies and regurgitated their food for them. I watched the baby birds eat their meal like it was manna from heaven.
As I was gazing up at the birds, I suddenly felt very sick. I moved quickly away from Taka’s sleeping form, and I threw up on the other side of the mountain’s jutting rock. The combination of the flavor of jerky and bile, along with the consistency of the porridge I had eaten the morning before was one of the more horrible experienced of my life. The shear disgust at what had just vacated my body caused me to throw up again.
I put some space between me and the vomit and sat down in utter disgust. I wiped my mouth off on my sleeve and moaned my displeasure. Bad jerky maybe? Or maybe it was homesickness.
I could remember my home with acute vividness. It had been almost a year since I had been there, and I could not imagine missing it more than I did at that moment. I had never been further from home. But the thing that made me miss home so much was that my home was built in a place that was not unlike the area where we were resting on this clear morning. I gazed out across the grassy hills and the meadows, and I could remember gazing over a very similar sort of world from my bedroom window. The only difference was that I could also see the ocean from my bedroom window, and there were no Drow living nearby. There were no Drow hiding from the sunlight under rocks. There was no reason the worry about Drow raiding our city, or slaughtering our children. At most, the Drow were a scary story that mothers told to their children to get them to behave. Yes, I was definitely homesick.
I walked back over to Taka’s sleeping, Drow form. How had I come to this? I sat down next to him and started pulling slivers out of my feet. Then I put my boots back on and I rinsed my bile filled mouth out with water.
The top of Taka’s white head was sticking out from under the blanket and I pet the top of his head on impulse.
“What is it?” he mumbled, stirring from his sleep.
“Nothing,” I said, “I just can’t sleep. Thinking about home.”
“Oh, well if you don’t mind, I would like to sleep.”
“Sorry.” His faced had not moved from its place under his blanket.
“s’okay” he mumbled, and was gone from the conscious world. I sat there next to him and I felt like I might throw up again, but I didn’t. My parents had been travelers in their younger days and indeed met while they were traveling. They had been born in different cities. My father was a tall, burly ice man from the north and my mother was from a port town near the Ivory Tusk Mountains. For some reason, both my parents felt that it was within their ambition to travel all the way to the Guild of Dragons, right at the split of the Jaws of the Dessert, and request entry. Neither of my parents was accepted into the guild, but they found each other there.
When I came of age, I felt the same need that they did to travel. To go out and find my place in this huge world. Maybe I could be accepted into the Guild of Dragons. And so, me and my brothers left our home city, and began our own journeys. At first, all three of us went together, and then Karl found a job as an apprentice to a Traveling bard. So it was just Andrew and I. We ended up hooking up with a group of dessert folk, who offered to lead us across the Hungary Dessert. But while we were traveling across the dessert, we were attacked by giant lizards. Not dragons, but land lizards. They may not have had any breath weapons, but they did have sharp teeth. My brother was killed by saving me from the jaws of one of these monsters. Everyone was killed by these monsters.
I was able to run away from them, but I got myself lost in the great maze that is the dunes of the dessert. I traveled for days, exhausted and without water, just trying to find a way out of the dessert. That’s when I collapsed, and Taka found me.
I gazed over at Taka’s sleeping form. Why had he taken me in from the dessert? Was it really only because he thought I was pretty?
By the time the sun had reached the top of the sky, I was finally able to fall asleep with my face nuzzled into Taka’s shoulder. My dreams were crowded by visions of the rising sun, the Lake of the Fallen and birds regurgitating into their babies mouths. The dream was eerie and disjointed. Any inkling of a story was unrecognizable.