Author's disclaimer
This is a work of fan-fiction based in the Gor universe. All rights to
the characters and situations of the Gor universe belong to John
Norman, and no financial or other gain is being made or intended by the
author of this work. This work must not be reposted on other sites.
Warning: If you don't know anything about Gor, you should be aware that
this story is likely to contain descriptions of strong violence,
including sexual violence.
The story so far:
Agent of the alien godlike Priest Kings of Gor, Kurtz of Ar, has gone
rogue.
All attempts to send human spies from the Priest King's Nest to Kurtz'
fortified compound in the Schendi jungles of Gor have failed. Male
agents were identified and tortured, and female agents succumbed to
Kurtz' masculine charisma and turned loyal to him, betraying the Nest.
The Priest Kings attempted one final desperate plan - to turn one of
their male agents into a beautiful woman and send that woman to slavery
in Kurtz' compound. They hoped his male brain would make her immune to
the power of Kurtz' will.
Earth-man Aurius of London was chosen for that mission, and surviving
the transformation process became the breath-taking redhead female,
Aurore of the Sardar.
Only when Aurore had spent some time as pleasure slave to Kurtz did she
discover it was his plan, and not that of the Priest Kings, that had
led to her transformation.
Kurtz had been suffering something akin to mental breakdown, driven by
the alien Kurii, (enemies of the Priest Kings), to question the
acceptance of rape and slavery in Gorean society. Aurore was his living
experiment, to test whether the true nature of woman was to find
happiness in the place as slave to a master, or as a free independent
being.
However Kurtz' feelings for Aurore grew and prevented her living a true
slave's life, producing an ambiguous result, and when the external
threats to the compound became too great he ordered her to abandon him
and return to the safety of the Nest.
Unfortunately Aurore was abducted before she even began the journey.
But where is she now?
The Second Interlude - A nightmare in silk - part 2
Deep under the warm waters of Lake Ushindi, I blink into the gloom. The
pressure this far below makes my blood pound in my ears with each
heartbeat, as if I am in a womb rather than alone in a vast empty
expanse of water. But apart from the sounds of my own living body, it
is utterly silent in the depths.
Down here there is little to illuminate the inky blackness, but when I
stare far up above me I see that moonlight is still glimmering on the
gently rippling surface of the lake.
I feel no panic - quite the opposite. I don't seem to need to breathe,
so I'm suffused with a dreamy calm. All the same, I elect to move
upwards in easy swimming strokes, reaching out with my thin arms to
pull myself towards the light.
I become aware that something is dragging between my legs, slowing me
down. Perhaps they are my heavy masculine genitals.
But no - they are woman's arms I see propelling me upwards. That's
right - I'm a woman now. I'm not the soldier that I once was - a
battle-hardened veteran who witnessed many horrors, including my best
friend Lieutenant Dodds blown to pieces in Helmand Province. How could
I have forgotten my transition? I'm a woman, and the clothing I can
feel is my slave silk. Degrading slave silk is fastened at my waste and
dragging between my thighs.
The fabric moves against my pudenda as intimately as a lover's touch,
stirred by the currents, and an awakening deep in my belly warns me
that the caress of silk is stimulating my female body into a state of
arousal.
The growing warmth irritates me. This is not the time to satisfy my
desires, so I do my best to ignore the sensation, even though it is
pleasurable.
Instead I strike harder for the moonlit air above.
I break the surface of the water, but during my time in the silent
depths the familiar compound has been transformed to a scene of horror.
Everything is in flames, and silhouettes of warriors move in front of
the blaze, projecting vast shadows. Real Kurii stride among the
phantoms, but not Kurii like I've ever seen before. These are Godzilla
sized creatures - hundreds of feet high. Their eyes glitter with insane
bloodlust, and froth drips from their fangs.
"No!" I plead. How are such monsters to be fought? Everyone will be
killed.
"She's waking up," a woman's voice echoes urgently from far beyond the
universe. "Give her some more of the drink. Keep her under until we're
further away."
"That's dangerous," the voice of Udumi disagrees, also from somewhere
beyond the horrific scene of slaughter I am watching. "We don't know
how the brandius flower will work in combination with the drug you used
to knock her out."
"What are you - a physician?" the first woman's voice counters. "Give
it to her, or I'll take that potion from your corpse and do it myself.
We can't take the risk of her betraying our position. Do it now!"
Meanwhile one of the giant Kurii is tearing a man in the red tunic of
the warriors in half, just as Dodds was dismembered in Afghanistan. It
is Petrucus, he who was once master to Nessa. I try to scream but no
sound comes.
"You'll answer to them if she dies," Udumi says calmly from an infinite
distance, but then her words are suddenly right next to me, even though
I can't see her.
"Open your mouth Aurore," Udumi's voice says soothingly. "You're unwell
and I'm going to give you something that will make you more
comfortable."
I don't understand what is happening to me, but if Udumi is here,
everything must be okay. It's all some kind of fever induced by
sickness. Kurtz never dismissed me - I imagined that too, and I'm being
comforted right now in the pens.
I am safe.
She is lifting my head. Obediently I open my mouth, expecting a
spoonful of medicine, but a wad of cloth is shoved between my teeth
instead. It's soaked with some kind of liquid, something as cold and
bitter as my hopes.
Why can't she just let me sip from a cup? I can't be that ill. I shake
my head, trying to expel the cloth with my tongue and explain how
unnecessary it is, but something is already being wrapped around my
cheeks like a tie, and the mouthful is held in place.
Liquid drips and splashes against the back of my throat and I
reflexively swallow. I'm scared of choking - vomiting against the ball
of wet fabric in my mouth, but as soon as the fluid reaches my stomach
it fills me with the same calm I felt deep under the lake.
"So this is the famous brandius flower?" a different female voice is
asking Udumi. This one's tone is growing less tense with each word,
settling with my own sense of peace.
"An infusion of the plant," Udumi corrects. "It will make her continue
to hallucinate, but the aphrodisiac properties of drug are much more
powerful than the narcotic. One of you should arouse her with your
touch and her visions will turn to pleasurable images, keeping her
relaxed."
There is a cynical chuckle.
"I'm not touching another girl," the other voice counters with open
hostility. "You arouse her - slave!"
There is a taunting emphasis on the final "slave", but their voices are
leaving me. The Kurii have also gone and I am falling back to the lake,
spiralling like a feather.
I become aware of a sound in the background, like a chord sung by a
vast choir, never stopping but building steadily in volume.
The music resonates through me, pooling at my nipples and my sex, but
as well as the caress from the sound there is also a real physical
touch. My lover and my master, Kurtz, is probing intimately against me,
looming as I lay supplicant underneath him, ready to take me as his,
and I moan with pleasure, begging him to use me as his slave.
But perhaps I am wrong and he is not in my most intimate place, because
my mouth is also filled with his sex. I move my tongue against the
bulky bitter-tasting mass, attempting to please him.
No, that image is gone too. I am still a man, back in the Priest King's
home of The Nest, before my transformation. It is I who am on top,
claiming the naked body of the slave girl Tala.
Poor Tala. She was sent to my furs with no choice whether to please me
or not, but all the same she writhes underneath me in ecstatic
pleasure, too aroused to keep still.
My breasts crave a caress, just like Tala wants me to touch her, so I
arch my back and groan, pulling my nipples away from me.
If I have breasts I must be Aurore and not Aurius. Yes, I'm Aurore and
I'm in the water cage with Kwesi.
I was foolish to fear him, so this time I let him fill me as deep as my
abdomen with his tremendous organ. I wrap my legs around his body, and
he supports me in the water, holding one of my buttocks with each giant
hand.
The cage is filled with lake water and some of it splashes on the back
of my throat. I swallow and find it strangely bitter, like the fruit
they gave us in the slave pens.
As soon as I think of the prison that was my home I am no longer in the
cage, but I find myself back in that room with so many other nude
women.
Lying head to toe with Udumi we move towards each other's cores, lips
kissing intimately and fingers probing.
But no, that can't be right, Udumi does not lay with other females. I
look up questioningly to see is the beautiful Taluna, Ailsa, who
pleasures me.
She touches me again, throwing fuel on my already blazing passion, and
I cry out my pleasure. I am lost in the moment of Ailsa, Udumi, Kwesi,
Tala and Kurtz.
I melt, becoming as liquid as the lake, and dissolve into its waters.
35 - I have new owners. Others enjoy a change in social status.
There is sunlight and my head rests on a pillow of dead leaves. This
place where I'm lying is warm with the tropical climate, but unlike the
grassy swampland around the compound, it is shaded here.
Above me is the canopy of jungle trees, vast trees that are hundreds of
years old. I am in the main rainforest.
It is quiet in this new place, except for the exotic calls of tropical
birds, the buzzing of insects and the faint rustling of the breeze
through the foliage.
I blink, not certain that what I see is reality, or the beginning of
another series of hallucinations.
Abruptly I try to sit upright, but realise that I can't move as I wish.
A pain in my head stops me, so severe that a warrior's sword must be
piercing my skull.
My gorge rises as if I have the world's worst hangover, and I
understand there is a rag held in my mouth. I panic. If I vomit, I
could choke to death.
Looking around frantically for aid I barely register that I don't know
this place. It looks like a nomadic campsite, claiming just enough
space from the rainforest for a few tents around a fire.
The bundle of cloth must be removed immediately, but I can't do it,
because my hands are pinned together behind my back. My fingers probe
urgently, and brush against some kind of coarse rope. I discover that
my arms are tied together at the wrists, and further attempts to
struggle tell me there is also a set of ropes above my elbows. They
restrict me uncomfortably, straining muscles and cutting into my flesh.
I have been restrained enough times to know that these bindings are
inescapable, and I grow more desperate.
"She's awake," a woman's voice says from close by.
I demonstrate this my jerking my bare legs enough to lift my torso into
a sitting position, discovering in the process that a third set of
ropes lash my ankles together.
There is another intense flare from the headache, and my stomach gives
another threatening roll, but this time I manage to get into a sitting
position. Upright, I use my tied arms as a prop so I can look around,
and with the nausea under control my panic starts to subside.
I am in a ring of Taluna, the Amazon-like panther women of Gor. Some of
the Taluna are standing, some are crouching, and some are sitting on
logs strategically locating around this forest clearing, but I am the
only one bound.
Several of the girls, despite being clad in animal skins that identify
them as free panthers, have rusted slave collars about their necks and
brands at their thighs. Runaways. A couple of these former kajirae are
exceptional beauties - their masters were foolish to let girls such as
they escape.
I do not recognise this tribe - they are not the group of Ailsa.
When I attempt to speak to these women, I emit a muffled and incoherent
sound, reminding me I am gagged.
Probing with my tongue I find the rag is still wet, but from my saliva
rather than the drug. The bitter taste of the brandius has almost
faded.
"You can free her mouth," one of the panthers says. I look to the voice
and see a stocky girl with frizzy brown hair. Udumi, following orders
by instinct, steps in and fumbles at the back of my head.
So Udumi really is here. That part wasn't a dream.
When the cloth is pulled from my mouth my stomach immediately heaves,
as if my body has been waiting for the first safe moment to purge
itself, and I vomit a thick fluid like slave broth.
Once my stomach is back under control I look again at my captors, who
seem willing to watch silently and let me take the initiative.
I will do that by trying to gather intelligence on my situation.
I select the one I consider most beautiful, considering that she is
most likely to be the leader. Across both worlds, people are drawn to
follow beauty.
This girl is a willowy creature, almost gangly and exceptionally tall,
with big green eyes and hair the colour of straw. She holds a long
spear like a javelin, with a large serrated blade at the tip. She does
not wear a collar and her skin is unmarked.
"What's going on?" I ask her.
"Curiosity is not becoming in a kajira," she replies in a sultry voice.
"You could be beaten for it."
I shrug, which is a mistake with such a severe headache, and I groan.
"Let's agree I'm not a very good kajira, and then you can answer my
question."
The panther laughs at this, amused.
"The fortified compound that has been home is about to be attacked,"
she says. "The raiders wish you removed into safe custody before that
event. They do not wish for you to be killed by accident. They employed
my band to complete the extraction."
I look around the circle again. There is only panther girls, and Udumi.
"Who are you your employers?" I ask.
The leader might be tolerant to my questions, but others are not.
"She said you could be beaten for asking questions, slave!" a familiar
voice commands. Just as familiar is the strike she delivers to my head,
hard enough to make my ears ring and trigger a second wave of vomiting.
Udumi's presence must be my answer. I look miserably towards her, my
eyes blurring with the pain in my skull.
"The man in the grey cloak," I say to Udumi in Aurore's high voice.
"You sold me to the man in the grey cloak."
"It was not difficult to obtain a lock of your hair while you were
sleeping, the token that the grey one required as a sign," Udumi
agrees. "But I took a risk leaving it as at the slave posts. I had to
accompany it with a note, that the grey man not approach Chiron by
accident. Had my master discovered it, he would have known it was me,
as the only other witness to the offered deal. For once in my life,
luck was on my side."
"You're not lucky, you're a fool," I tell her contemptuously. "I was
about to leave with you. Kurtz had given me the means to return home,
and others with me. Now you've made yourself as much of a prisoner here
as I am."
"You were escaping dressed like that?" Udumi says, disbelieving. "Yeah,
like you'd really flee dressed as a pleasure slave."
"She looks like a tavern slut," the frizzy haired girl agrees,
confirming this opinion.
Checking myself I blush with shame. I had forgotten my attire.
The lower section of pleasure silks rely on the assistance of gravity
in covering the intimate areas of the body, hanging down from ties at
the waist to cover the genitals and the backside.
When horizontal they're more difficult to keep in place, and looking
down past Aurore's heaving breasts I see my silks have fallen aside,
exposing the apex of my legs.
I am only displayed before other women, but it is humiliating
nonetheless. I draw up my knees to hide myself as best as I can,
tucking my bound ankles beneath me.
Meanwhile the remaining masculine soldier's part of my intellect
continues its tactical assessment of my situation.
First, I must dismiss the possibility that the panthers will help me.
Panthers hate slave girls as much as they hate men, viewing them as
traitors to the female sex.
My best chance of an ally had been Udumi, but she won't help me if
she's betrayed me into captivity a second time.
"They will never return you to Urth," I tell her spitefully, risking
naming the other world.
"Be silent, both slaves."
It is not Udumi addressing me, but the willowy panther commanding us.
"I am not a slave," Udumi quickly asserts to her, although her hand
strays to the steel collar which is as secure as ever around her neck.
"I am free, at the orders of the grey one."
She tries to pull her camisk in enough to cover her exposed sides. It
is of course unsuccessful. Men take great care in selecting the fit of
their slave's clothing.
"Do you not have some animal skins I can wear?" Udumi asks with whining
annoyance. "I do not wish to be mistaken for a slave about the
encampment."
"Only women in my band are given pelts," the willow-girl replies with a
smile. "If the grey one wishes you to be recognised as free, the grey
one must provide suitable clothing."
"Let me temporarily join your tribe then," Udumi says.
There is a rumble of amusement through the group at that.
"If you wish to join our sisterhood, even for a short time, you must
defeat one of my girls in combat," the willowy girl says. "Why not
choose one, if you wish to fight?"
Udumi looks uncertainly around the ring of aggressive faces, sizing up
opponents.
In scrolls describing this situation, the weak kajira usually folds
quickly at the threat of violence. The Taluna seem to think the same
will happen here.
"Fight me!" says the girl with the frizzy brown hair stepping boldly
forward.
It is a mistake.
Before she's even finished issuing her challenge Udumi has punched the
frizzy haired girl in the face with all her might. The poor panther is
entirely unprepared for this commencement of hostilities, and the blow
strikes her square between the eyes with an audible crunch.
The frizzy girl tumbles back to the leaves where she lies on her back,
groaning.
"Will that do?" Udumi says calmly, turning back to the blonde leader.
"Fudding bitth, I tthink you bwoke my fudding nothe" the frizzy girl is
saying, pushing herself up and clutching that part of her face while
she scowls at Udumi. Blood streams freely down her chin.
No one ever said Gor was fair, and it turns out Udumi's demonstration
is perfectly acceptable. Five ehn later she is clad in her reward - the
striped animal skins of a Taluna.
I hide a smile as I watch the frizzy-haired girl use the discarded
camisk to staunch the flow of blood.
Udumi still has the collar of a slave around her neck but the change of
clothing has transformed her. Suddenly here stands a free woman of Gor,
proud and beautiful. The skins expose even more of her athletic form
than the camisk did, and yet her dignity is restored. I feel very
inferior bound at her feet, my pleasure silks in shameful disarray.
"I don't suppose I can fight someone to join as well?" I ask the
leader, pulling at the ropes at my wrists.
She smiles.
"You are too valuable to set free, pretty one. And some women truly are
only good for slavery. I have watched you for some time and concluded
you are created for men's pleasure. Your reaction to the brandius
flower was quite something to behold."
I recall the erotic visions I saw under the influence of the drug, and
wonder how much of the hallucinations I've betrayed.
"Beware of this one though," Udumi says, stepping close so she towers
over me. "She is tougher than she looks. She defeated the chief of
another Taluna band in combat, a woman known as Ailsa, with very little
effort."
"Ailsa of the Jerags Sa'ng Vana'shii?" willow says with great interest,
"We are not the best of friends with those of her tribe."
"Then you will be pleased to learn that Ailsa lives in the slave pens
back at the compound," Udumi says. "She is collared and branded and
serves the desires of men, as do the rest of her girls. All thanks to
the fighting prowess of Aurore."
"I am in your debt then, redhead," willow says to me with unexpected
respect, "but it is one I cannot entirely repay. I must still deliver
you over to our employer. And if Udumi speaks the truth and you can
fight, then I must keep you secured at all times. But all else that is
possible will be done to ease your stay with us."
I look at her in surprise. This leader is nothing like Ailsa. She is
more thoughtful and more compassionate a commander than Ailsa was, and
I can see how she could inspire trust and loyalty. But however great a
leader she might be, it will be no help to me.
I must remain her prisoner and her slave. I look gloomily about me. The
jungle looks dense in all directions, and I don't know where I am. It
would be foolhardy to attempt an escape.
"Mistress has not honoured me with her name," I say despondently to my
new if temporary owner, admitting defeat.
"I am called Giani," she says. "My girls named me Giani. That was not
the title I was born to. They make jest of my excessive height, by
naming me after the smallest species of the panthers."
I don't dare pronounce "Giani" back - a slave does not repeat the name
of a free person to their face, but I commit it to memory.
"Do you question your place as slave to us?" Giani asks. "I do not wish
to force you into obedience through punishment, but it can be done if
you intend to disrupt the order of this tribe."
Again I glance hopelessly at the dense jungle, and pull at my roped
wrists.
"No Mistress," I say. "I do not question my place. I am a slave."
My training as a kajira has made me less ashamed by displays of
humility, and I shrewdly calculate that a show of debasement on my part
will lower the Taluna's guard.
With my ankles bound I summon my courage and shuffle towards Giani on
my knees, then I lean forward and almost overbalance.
Humbly I touch my lips to each of Giani's grubby but shapely feminine
feet. Aurore's long beautiful hair falls about my face, dragging into
the dirt of the forest floor.
I feel like my curvaceous rump is sticking out behind me. It is not the
most graceful of positions.
There are a few titters of contempt from the group, but the scorn of
panthers is not going to hurt me.
"If I'm the only slave in the camp, I could better carry out all the
chores with my wrists and ankles released, Mistress," I wheedle as I
straighten up, keeping my tone subservient. "I promise not to run
away."
Giani grins wryly.
"Do not worry, little one," she says. "We have some old steel shackles
that will permit you sufficient movement to serve, but will make
resistance or escape difficult. And you will soon learn you are wrong
in thinking yourself the only slave in our camp, you are merely the
only kajira."
36 - I make the acquaintance of Kailiauk, who is slave to women.
My new home would be like a piece of paradise, were it not for my
miserable situation, serving free women as their slave while I wait my
inevitable trade to agents of the Kurii.
Surrounding our rainforest clearing is a fertile Garden of Eden, with
dark green plants that proliferate below the tree canopy producing huge
white blooming flowers emitting a pungent aroma.
I notice after several ahn in the camp that I have not been bitten by
the mosquitos since my arrival here, and conjecture that the scent
those flowers must keep the insects away.
A waterfall just outside the camp plunges to a refreshing looking
shaded pool. I see from the presence of a nude panther girl washing
herself in the flow that this waterfall serves as the camp shower.
All around me are the sounds of wildlife, the rasping calls of jungle
insects and the exotic cries of tropical birds and mammals. I suspect
that hunting is easy here, but also that the creatures of the forest
represent danger for the unarmed.
All the needs of the tribe are catered for in this one location. It is
a good strategic choice, and my respect for Giani's leadership and
forest-craft increases.
The Taluna of this tribe live in simple tents, similar in design to the
tipis of Native Americans on the Great Plains. There are fewer of these
tents than there are women, but when I observe the despatch of half a
dozen girls of the tribe I conclude that more are unnecessary as some
of the band are usually absent on scouting patrol.
Panthers are nervous creatures, knowing their inferiority to men, and I
had been assuming the only people permitted in camp would be the tribe
and their chattels. I am therefore surprised to see the grey man emerge
from one of the tents.
I'm certain this is the same person I watched in the quarters of
Chiron. He still wears that long grey cowl, but surrounded here by
women he keeps the hood pushed back on his shoulders to expose his
head. No two men on Gor would have that same deformed face and patchy
white hair sprouting from his misshaped skull.
The grey man stretches and drinks from a gourd, looking as if he feels
as rough as I do. Giani walks over to confer with him and he looks
directly up at me, piercing me with his sharp blue eyes.
My stomach rolls as our eyes meet. My fate, my life, is entirely in the
hands of this stranger.
Then he nods to her in confirmation. I recall the woman's voice at the
moment of my abduction. "This is the one we want," she said, and the
grey man's gesture seems to confirm that.
I'm expecting him to address me, but his face assumes a strange
expression, almost as if he's overcome with emotion, and he abruptly
turns his back and walks into his tent. Even Giani looks a little
bemused by this reaction, but she shrugs.
"Kailiauk!" she shouts then.
Instead of one of the slow lumbering bovine forest mammals of Gor who
bear that name answering the summons, a human man emerges from one of
the tents.
His status in the camp is immediately obvious. This hapless fellow is
the first example I have seen of a male slave indentured to women.
It would be difficult to demonstrate a captive's status by dressing him
in even less clothing than the panthers wear, but they have managed
with this man.
A small rectangle of silk-like fabric, about the size of the page in a
book and secured only with ties at the waist, covers his manhood, and
that's all he is permitted to wear. When he turns to fall to his knees
before Giani, about six feet from my position, I see that there is not
even a covering for his buttocks.
A stripe of the man's neat hair has been shaved to further indicate his
status - the band running from the crown to the nape of the neck,
making the whole like the inverse of a Mohawk.
It is common for panthers to shame captive males in this way, but he is
the first example I have seen in life.
The man is well built, and would be stronger than any of the women in a
one-on-one combat, and yet I immediately note the Taluna are fearless
around him. Giani touches him affectionately in greeting, the way one
would pet a puppy rather than handling a dangerous sexual enemy.
"Kailiauk, this is Aurore," says Giani. "She will be staying
temporarily with us, as slave to the grey one."
"Yes, Huntress," Kailiauk replies, flashing me a quick glance of
acknowledgement over his shoulder.
He does not address the panther as "Mistress". It is a distinction in
title to show that these Taluna do not see themselves as the same as
other free women on Gor.
"See that Aurore is locked in steel shackles, both wrist and ankle,"
Giani commands, "those ropes she wears now are not practical for long
periods. Then make sure Aurore does not learn the location of the key."
He looks at me again, and then nods.
"After that you may see that she is fed and watered."
"Yes, Huntress," Kailiauk responds, and Giani dismisses us both.
He is diligent in carrying out his mistress' instruction. In one of the
tents allocated to storage shackles replace my ropes, and I am bid to
remain kneeling and face forward while Kailiauk goes somewhere outside
to hide my only means of release.
I do not attempt cheat and discover its location. At this point I would
not know where to escape, even if I were unrestrained. My best chance
of survival is to remain here, despite the threat of the Kurii over me.
My shackles are heavier than the ropes, but I have much more freedom of
movement - there being about eighteen inches of chain between my
wrists, and twelve between my ankles. It is similar to the sirik I wore
before my master, except my current shackles miss the vertical chain
linking ankles to collar.
"Come with me, Aurore," Kailiauk requests. "I will show you where to
find food."
Unsteadily I get to my feet, having not walked for some hours, and I
shuffle after him with the abrasive sound of my ropes replaced with the
clink of steel.
He walks away from me and observe him with interest, and not only
because he appears naked from the back view and I find his muscular
body attractive. I study him carefully because as the only other slave
in this camp, he is my best chance at an ally or friend.
I attempt to engage him in conversation as follows:
"You are slave to women," I begin rather unnecessarily.
"That is true," he confirms.
"Why do you not attempt to escape?" I ask. "You are not kept restrained
and could quickly hide in the trees."
Kailiauk stops and studies me for a moment, and immediately I regret
the impudent familiarity of my opening gambit.
"It is not in my interest to escape," he says eventually, turning back
to his tasks, and changes the subject before I can ask any more.
"This tent, is where we store our provisions," he says. "You can
identify it wherever we camp, for there is a red ribbon tied to the
canvas."
It is starting to rain, so we take cover inside the same provision
tent. "You move camp frequently?" I ask, trying a less controversial
topic.
"Sometimes we remain in a location for many days," he answers.
"Sometimes it is only for one night."
His tone is still brusque. I am not forgiven for discussing escape with
him.
The food he gives me is underwhelming, comprising only some berries and
dried fruit. I would actually have felt fuller at the end of a bowl of
slave gruel.
"We can only eat meat when meat has been caught," Kailiauk says,
observing my disappointment. "Today, meat has not been caught."
As we fall into uncomfortable silence I realise I am actually missing
the compound.
I wonder what Kurtz is doing right now, but it is a mistake to think of
him for my spirits sink. He will believe I have left as ordered, unless
he happens to find the canoe still present and hidden in the reeds. He
will be unaware of the attack closing in on him.
I must not allow myself to succumb to self-pity, but the unwanted
memory of him saying he loved me returns, and my despair grows. He
seemed in physical pain as he pushed me from his hut. He claimed that
his feelings had interfered with his experiment in the rights and
wrongs of Gorean morality.
Could someone really feel that way about me? My body is desirable but
that's lust, not love. Under the skin I'm just - me. Aurius of London
is hardly loveable.
I will never have the opportunity to find out about Kurtz' feelings
now. They have removed me from the compound before the attack. As the
Kurii have so much interest in me, they must know I am an agent of the
Sardar. From here I expect to be delivered to a place of interrogation,
and once I've been broken I'll be sold or even executed.
My future does not look rosy.
I refocus on my surroundings and see Kailiauk's eyes are on me. Men's
eyes are always on me, but usually it is sexual desire, not love.
Kailiauk looks at my body appreciatively, but without the raw hunger
that is typical of most Gorean males.
All the same, I feel self-conscious, and press my hand between my bare
legs to check that the very meagre swathe of cloth covering my sex is
in place.
"You are very beautiful," he says, but in a tone of observation rather
than passion.
Interesting - his preference seems to lie somewhere else. If my reading
of him is correct this could mean he's less likely to rape me, but it
makes the task more difficult of charming him onto my side.
The rest of the day passes miserably. Back at the compound there was
always chores or training to keep slaves occupied, but here in the camp
the Taluna are a self-sufficient lot.
Left with nothing to do, I spend the best part of an ahn sitting in my
chains by the waterfall and resting back against a tree, until I
discover some giant Gorean insect like a cockroach has perched on my
bare shoulder and I shriek with fright.
I am no longer used to having my own leisure time. It is almost with
relief therefore that Kailiauk comes to find me, and tells me, "Come,
the grey one has summoned you."
Docilely I follow his naked back view, steeling myself to learn my
fate.
37 - I serve the grey man
Both the parallels and the differences between the nights when I knelt
before my former master, Kurtz, and my current situation, are not lost
on me.
The dwelling we are in is humble and lit by a small oil lamp. That is
very similar.
I am dressed in a camisk, just as I was the second time I knelt to give
service to Kurtz. Only tonight my garment is the cast-off from Udumi,
who as a free woman no longer needs it, rather than it being one
carefully personalised for me in the slave pens.
This new garment does not fit me well.
Udumi and I were of similar height, both of us being long legged women
and tall like catwalk models, so the length of her camisk is
acceptable. But my body, being created for the sole purpose of pleasing
men, has more of the hourglass shape that males find so desirable. Thus
wearing clothing fitted for a girl with a straighter figure, my fuller
breasts bulge humiliatingly at the sides of my new garment, and more of
my wider feminine hips are exposed.
Since I was given this hand-me-down rag I have frequently pinched
handfuls of the cloth under my arms, trying in vain to close the broad
stripe of my pale skin bared from underarm to thigh.
My new camisk is also blood-stained with the remains of the panther's
nosebleed, however it is an improvement on my pleasure silks, which
were quickly disintegrating under the rigour of forest life, and the
variation in attire between tonight and my earlier camisk is not the
most significant change.
The most notable difference between now and my earlier service is of
course that rather than being on my knees in Kurtz' crude hut I kneel
in one of the panthers' tents.
The sounds I can hear outside are not the voices of warriors and slave
girls, but the chatter of women gathering around a fire.
I am a trained pleasure slave however, and I focus only on satisfying
my current host. Serving in precisely the same way I keep my head down
and hold out the bowl above me, offering "water Master?"
The grey man takes it as silently as Kurtz might have done, and sips. I
interpret this as permission to rest back, my heels pressing into the
perfect curves of my buttocks.
My knees are apart, as is expected of a red-silk kajira such as me. He
will be able to view my sex. I try to remember the last time I wore
underwear, and didn't feel perpetually open.
"Quite magnificent," he finally says, and I am unsure if this is a
reference to the water or myself.
"Thank you, Master," I say neutrally.
The grey man's eyes are on me, so I attempt to hold myself as
beautifully as is possible. The light from a single small oil lamp
flickers on my exposed skin.
You perhaps consider me sluttish in this behaviour, but my actions are
more pragmatic.
I am a woman on Gor, I am chained and unarmed, and I am in the camp of
my enemy. Beauty is my best survival chance at this moment.
"You are not frightened by my appearance," the grey man observes.
In the privacy of his tent his hood is drawn back, and again I can see
those bulging, deformed features and the irregular tufts of white hair
that show his age.
Taking his tone as permission to speak I reply, "Life has shown me that
looks are not important, Master."
He chuckles.
"Yes you in particular would understand that. Here you kneel, the
Priest King's bold experiment. I have been much interested to see in
reality the outcome of a female body and Kurtz' slave training when
imposed on one who was once a man."
I think back to when I hid inside Chiron's hut and overheard the
conversation I learned I was part of the Kurii demands. This must be
the reason why. The technology that transformed me could be a powerful
weapon in the hands of the enemy.
In the compound, only Kurtz knew of my origins though. So it is not
someone there, but a traitor within The Nest that has betrayed the
secret. I resolve to ask questions and try to induce the grey man into
revealing the identity of the mole.
"Master seems to know much about me."
"I know more than you might expect," he agrees, "both about you and
those around you. For instance, how was our bald-headed friend when you
last saw him? Frozen into noble inertia by the troubles of Gor only he
has the vision to solve, I suppose?"
I don't intend to give away any intelligence, so instead I risk
glancing up and smiling maliciously.
"If Master knows Kurtz so well, Master will know how relentless the
Ubar can be when he has a challenge. He is probably in pursuit of me
already, and nothing will stop him achieving victory. Kurtz is likely
to be vexed with you, Master."
The grey man laughs.
"No doubt," he says. "But I do not think he will find us in time. He
will soon be occupied with his own problems. I suggest you abandon
dreams of rescue for now, and focus on ingratiating yourself with your
new owners."
It is in my interests to co-operate, but I silently vow not to please
these people by revealing anything that might damage Kurtz or the
Priest Kings, even if he tortures me.
The grey man picks up a gourd at his side and takes a sip from it. It
is the same gourd I noticed him using when I first arrived at the camp.
"So Aurore, I already understand the purpose of your mission here in
the jungle, and I understand that this mission was planted at the
instigation of Kurtz," he begins.
That wrong-foots me. How has he found out that it was Kurtz, and not
the Priest Kings, who came up with the concept of my mission, and I was
in fact the lab rat in some cruel experiment? How can he hold secrets
from both locations? The mole has told him even more than the Priest
Kings knew.
"I am aware that you responded superbly to slave training and charmed
your way successfully into the Ubar's furs. Through training in the
behaviour pleasing in a woman you increased greatly in desirability,
and they tell me you deserve your place as the First Girl."
First Girl - this also gives me pause. I was never addressed directly
so in the compound but I suppose it is true. Goreans give the title to
the highest status slave - typically the most beautiful among the
females, and the favoured girl of the leader.
"Whether your response to training answered Kurtz' little ethical
dilemma does not interest me. He can tie himself up in moral knots as
long as he wants, as it keeps him from causing trouble elsewhere."
"What interests me personally is one of my few missing pieces of my
information. I wish to understand why you stayed with him, Lady Aurore,
when you had the opportunity to leave him some time ago. My explanation
is unsatisfactory. Udumi tells me you were offered your freedom and
could have been back in the Sardar by now, with your mission
completed."
It is strange being addressed as Lady Aurore - the era before the fire
on the barge seems a lifetime ago. But that does not matter. He seems
to know everything that's happened in the compound, except the intimate
details between Kurtz and myself.
Udumi must have told him everything she witnessed, but she wasn't able
to read my mind.
"You are not the only one to raise that point, Master," I answer, "I've
asked myself that same question, especially since I found myself in
this reversal of fortune."
"And what did you conclude, Aurore?"
"A lot of reasons, Master. There was still time to influence Kurtz'
path, and if I'd left to return he might have been forever lost. My
orders, as you seem to know, were to return him or terminate him.
Ending Kurtz' life did not seem an attractive option once I knew more
of his motivation."
"Furthermore he made me question my own allegiance to the Sardar, and
it would have been hypocritical to return. And finally and perhaps most
importantly, I wasn't thinking very clearly at the time."
The grey man's head nods in acceptance.
"The force of his personality can be somewhat mesmerising," he agrees
with a smile, "or perhaps your wish to influence his path towards life
stemmed from feelings that were more intimate?"
I feel a blush rising. This question I do not wish to answer. I'm not
going to admit that I loved him, or he loved me. That is between us.
When pressed I always reply by counterattack.
"I presume that we can dispense with ambiguity, and Master can confirm
his interest in these answers is on behalf of his employers, the
species known as the Kurii, or the Others?"
He laughs at me then.
"You might look entirely like a woman, but you remain as closed from
discussing your feelings as a man, Aurore, or perhaps I should call you
Aurius?" he says.
If that's meant to sting my pride it works. My blush deepens, and he
laughs at my discomfort, saying, "Very well, Lady. At this moment I am
acting on behalf of the Others, although I have a more personal
interest in a creation so unique on Gor."
This good-humoured banter puts me even more on the defensive. My
stomach gives the familiar lurch of fear. I hope that "personal
interest" wasn't an allusion to him wishing to sleep with me.
"But why have the Kurii gone to so much effort to capture me?" I ask,
trying to turn back the initiative yet again. "I am no scientist, so I
cannot betray the secret of the transformation process through
interrogation. As a hostage, the life of a kajira would be sacrificed
for the cause of The Nest. The process that transformed me is valuable,
my personal worth is only the coins needed to buy a slave girl."
"Your importance in proceedings will become clear when we return to the
compound."
I am so surprised I forget myself.
"We're going back?"
I have switched in a heartbeat from defeat to being filled with hope. I
have a better chance of escape back there where I know the
surroundings. If we return to the fort I might see him, I mean see
everyone in the compound again.
But then my spirits start to deflate as quickly as a punctured
football. The only way the grey man might return me is once the
compound was under the control of the Others.
"You still intend to attack the compound, even though you have me?" I
ask.
"The aims I disclosed in discussion with Chiron, which I have been
informed you overheard, were all truthful. The compound was in a useful
strategic location for our operations, and it will be so once more. It
is remote enough to land ships without drawing attention, but the
waterways provide reasonable links for dispersing agents or
merchandise."
I am opening my mouth to ask another question, but he silences me.
"But enough questions for now, slave. It is time for us to rest."
Then all thought of strategy and the great war being waged for Gor is
banished when he continues, "You are to spend your nights while in camp
here, sleeping with me."
Oh no, I think. My heart doubles in speed, and I feel sweat break out
on my skin. I had at least thought I might escape rape in the camp of
the Taluna, but it turns out I will end up in the furs of a man after
all.
Since arriving I have been aware of the grey one's sleeping roll
unfurled on the floor of the tent, as it fills much of the cramped
space. His bed is barely large enough for one person, so we will be
intimately close unless I spend the night on the bare floor.
"Come," he orders, indicating a place on the bedroll.
"Have mercy Master," I plead, drawing back.
But before I can argue further he snatches the chain between my wrists,
closing his giant hand over the steel and pulling me towards him. With
his superior strength I am dragged out of my kneeling position and onto
my belly.
The grey man has immense broad shoulders and I am expecting him to
overpower me easily, but he grunts with exertion as I'm forced to the
floor. My heart is pounding with fear, and my skin crawls with a cold
sweat.
With his free hand the grey man reaches out and picks up two steel
stakes, hooked at one end like a tent peg, but with their shafts much
longer so they're more difficult to remove from the soil.
These he hammers into the ground with a wooden mallet, threading the
spike through one of the links in my shackles so it pins the chains to
the floor at the top and bottom of his bedroll.
One spike secures my wrist chain and the other my ankles, so I finish
lying helpless on my side, stretched out along the length of the
mattress.
Rape is commonplace on Gor, but I have not truly contemplated becoming
its victim since I knelt on the dockside in the compound, expecting to
be given to Chiron's use. By the time Kurtz took Aurore's virginity I
was more-or-less consensual in the matter. But here in a remote tent in
the jungle I am finally at the mercy of a male, and my refusal will
make no difference.
I close my eyes, feeling sick with anticipation, and expecting his
hands on me any moment now, but the touch does not come.
The grey man does no more than lie down on his bed, and reaching out to
the oil lamp to blow out the flame.
With the tree canopy blocking any moon or starlight from reaching the
campsite, we are plunged immediately into total blackness.
"I would advise you not to attempt to escape," the grey man's voice
calls in the dark. "The jungle is not a safe place for you to go
alone."
I lie there feeling grateful bemusement at this turn of events. Why
didn't he force himself on me? I am truly thankful, but I still wonder
is he the first man to not find Aurore's body desirable, or am I being
preserved for some other purpose?
The grey man has certainly not forgotten the right of owner to enjoy
slave, because as we try to sleep a loud reminder of this power becomes
audible through the thin walls of the tents.
Such is the volume of noise that any chance of rest is prevented by the
loud and rhythmic animal grunts of a male and a female joined in
copulation. As there is only one other man in the camp, the sound I can
hear must be Kailiauk satisfying the pleasure of one of the women. It
does not sound as if the experience of forced service is too much of an
ordeal for him.
Chained to the floor I feel very sorry for myself. The cries of joy
bring vivid memories of the last time I took pleasure as a man, lying
with the beautiful slave girl Tala. Even more intense are those
recollections of becoming one with Kurtz when I was the woman.
Now both such chances of happiness are forever gone. I am a forgotten
female left on a barbarian world, and one who is never likely to fall
asleep on such an uncomfortable surface.
To the sound of Kailiauk reaching climax I miserably close my eyes.
38 - All is not peaceful in the Garden of Eden
I am being shaken roughly awake.
"Come, we need to move," one of the Taluna is saying in a stern
whisper, standing over me in the early morning light of the grey man's
tent.
I am quite unable to move, but I am quickly released from the pegs
securing me to the floor, and emerge into the dawn to discover the camp
is silently being dismantled.
Kailiauk is busily strapping the rolled-up tents across his back like a
Sherpa.
"What's happening?" I whisper to him, he being the closest thing to an
ally.
"One of our scout patrols has not returned," he answers. "It probably
means that hunters have seized them, and they now approach the camp."
I look up hopefully, but I can see nothing in the impenetrable green.
"Kurtz' men?" I ask.
Kailiauk shakes his head. I have kept my voice quiet during the
conversation, but even that low volume has attracted attention.
"Gag the slave girl," Giani orders.
A wad of muddy cloth is forced into my mouth by one of the panthers,
and held in place via a leather strap secured at the back of my head,
in similar manner to the gag soaked in brandius fluid when I was
kidnapped.
"We cannot risk you betraying us," I am told.
Their concern for my silence even includes swapping my chains for
tightly knotted ropes, so I cannot use the jingle of metal to give away
our location.
Despite this greater security I could probably still lean forward and
reach to unfasten the gag strap, but I do not attempt to do so. Rather,
I look indignantly around me.
"We have to relocate frequently," Kailiauk tells me in a whisper. "Many
would like to take the huntress Giani as slave."
His face clouds with fierce emotion while he tells me this, as if he
himself might wish to take on all these men in battle as a means to
protect her. I study his features, recalling that this man as the
source of the noises last night.
Perhaps I have discovered which of the Taluna he served.
While I ponder the mystery, the disassembly of our corner of jungle
paradise is completed with tense urgency. There is almost no trace that
we were present save for the fire circle, which they cover with some
strategically arranged leaves.
As soon as we are able we silently pad into the woods, a blonde Taluna
who reminds me a little of Ailsa picking a route into what at first
appears to be impenetrable jungle.
It turns out we have not reached safety, even away from the site of our
encampment. At one point the scout in front signals wildly and we
crouch down, deep in the cover of some vegetation.
Gradually I hear the voices of men growing louder, and the crashing
sound of unskilled movement through the jungle. Each one of us inches
as far into the undergrowth as they can, trying to be swallowed
entirely by the forest.
Silently, in the green gloom of the leaves, we wait. These men are
going to pass terribly close - what will happen if they walk right
across us?
Then, through a tiny gap in the foliage, I see movement. They are
indeed hunters. Men, and what's more they are men that I do not
recognise.
One after another these brutes enter my field of view, the third and
fourth hunters carrying a long pole of bamboo between them, its weight
supported on their shoulders.
Between this is suspended a girl, tied to the pole to hang by her
wrists and ankles.
It is the frizzy haired girl, she of the broken nose. She is not having
a lucky week, getting punched by Udumi and then captured by hunters.
They have stripped her, but they left her brief furs dangling from her
neck to show all who see her that she was once Taluna.
The frizzy haired girl passes from my view and I see a second captive
also hanging from a pole, a small pixie-like Taluna with short dark
hair that I recognise as one of Giani's number.
She too is naked, with her furs hanging from her neck. This girl is one
of the runaways, with a rusted iron collar and the scar from a brand
inflicted long ago on her thigh.
Her treatment will not be pleasant if she is returned to her former
owners. Knowing this, the pixie girl writhes desperately as she fights
her bonds.
The hunting group pass near enough to our hiding place for me to hear
their words.
"We're close behind them, I'm sure," a man says in a relaxed, laconic
voice, unaware how accurate his words are. "The campfire was still
warm, and now I can smell woman."
There is a coarse laugh.
"The Taluna Giani will please us from on her knees before nightfall,"
his companion boasts confidently.
I look across to Giani, who is crouching down with a look of such quiet
determination on her face that I wager that these men will not be
enjoying her tonight.
The hunting group perhaps totals forty males. They are too numerous for
any direct rescue attempt on the captives, and as they gradually draw
away from us I assess that Giani will not be foolhardy enough to try a
recovery by stealth.
It is common on Gor to use captives as live bait to lure their comrades
to the same doom. But the wisest decision of abandoning these two will
mean the girls are lost to us, and will begin a new career as slaves. I
do not envy them.
Giani makes us wait for nearly two ahn hiding in the undergrowth before
she gives the signal to continue. We chose a direction tangential to
the path of the hunters. Perhaps they would expect us to flee in the
opposite direction, and thus our chosen route is safer.
There is an atmosphere of defeat permeating the tribeswomen, but on
this new path we have our first sign of improving luck, disturbing a
boar like tarsk from the undergrowth which one of the Taluna has shot
before even knowing the nature of the creature.
Thus when we finally make camp around a clearing created by a fallen
tree, we have some meat to roast over a spit.
Unlike in the compound of Kurtz I am not involved in the cooking.
Once returned from my ropes to my chains I am left idle in the company
of the grey one. Perhaps it is because I am perceived by the group as
being his slave, rather than communal property.
The mood of the Taluna band gradually lifts during the evening,
although I notice the panthers sitting in a ring around the fire
subconsciously leave spaces between them, as if they expect the missing
to return at any moment and claim their places in the group.
Conversation and singing occasionally falls into sudden silence as
these women think of the ordeal their recent companions might be
enduring even now. The captives are probably being what Goreans
euphemistically call "taught their slavery".
When we go to our furs, with me once again chained to the ground in the
tent of the grey man, this night there are no sounds of Kailiauk
providing pleasure.
39 - I experience more of the life of a Taluna
Like many of those familiar with Gor I had developed a romantic image
of life as a Taluna, picturing a slow paced life of sisterly love with
its innocence only coloured with the undercurrent of lesbian eroticism.
From my experience with the tribe of Giani I see that the reality is a
rather miserable existence, constantly in fear and on the run, with few
comforts and subsisting on the edge of starvation.
This perpetual sense of threat is the truth of a woman's life on Gor
without the protection of men.
At night in the blackness of the jungle I am not the only one lying
awake and fearing that hunters might be a few feet away, about to
surprise us. Each time I think of such a fate I shudder, shuffling with
a rattle of chains instinctively closer to the protection of the grey
man.
During my five days with the Talunas of Giani, we have to relocate our
camp two more times. I grow in respect for the skill of our guides on
each occasion I experience these treks, for they manage to pick their
way to new and suitable sites unerringly when I am completely
disorientated in the woods.
I also grow in admiration of the qualities of Giani, who might lack the
fire of Ailsa in her steady leadership, but commands and manages her
girls with strategic and tactical surefootedness that helps soothe
their terrors of the unknowns lurking in the jungle.
But even with the best of leaders I still pity these women. Their base
fear of a fate at the hands of men makes them prisoners to this life.
And despite even Giani's skill I know the tribe will not be lucky every
time, and one day they all will fall into the captivity they dread.
I am the only woman who feels any hope when there's a warning of
hunters in the woods. My mind clings to fantasies of Kurtz coming to
save me, but it turns out every time that the groups we dodge are never
from the compound, but are groups of men from the cities, flying in on
tarns and hunting women for sport.
Being taken by these strangers would not be pleasant, but sexual
slavery to the hunters is likely to be better than my fortunes once I'm
delivered to the Kurii.
I think of my former master often. Perhaps Kurtz is preoccupied with
other matters, or he's failed to realise that I was kidnapped, rather
than leaving of my own volition.
I do not know.
They grey man said that we would be returning to the compound, and
despite the threat to myself implicit when that occurs, I look forward
to it. At least with the Kurii this hungry, mud-soaked time will come
to an end.
The only positive of my experience of panther life is that for the
closet bisexual, I am indeed given pleasingly erotic sights to watch.
One morning when we again camp close to a pool I am treated with the
view of several entirely nude panther girls washing themselves,
splashing and laughing with chaste vivacity, and I marvel at what
beautiful creatures women can be.
From my first arriving in the pens I have frequently witnessed nude
women cleaning themselves, but these girls are different to those
slaves because of their liveliness. This spirit is because they are
free, and proud. These free women are confidently exposing themselves
both before Kailiauk and the grey man without shame.
This behaviour before Kailiauk is no surprise - a male slave is
nothing, a beast, an object, and nudity before such as he is no
different to changing clothes before one's pet dog. But it is strange
they reveal themselves without inhibition to the grey man, and he
apparently takes as little interest in their bodies as he has in mine.
As I have already noticed, Gorean men are not usually trusted in the
camps of panther girls, and yet the grey man seems to be as tolerated
by Giani's tribe as if he too were female.
Perhaps here stands the only homosexual man on the planet. The puzzle
intrigues me, and I know there is a secret there somewhere.
Kailiauk is the only one likely to give me a clue to this and other
concerns, so I continue to engage him in conversation when I have
opportunity.
At first I was a little nervous of him. As a slavegirl, I do not have
the right to choose my sexual partners, and it could easily have been
that I would be mated with Kailiauk as a reward.
But it soon becomes clear that while he might find my female body
physically attractive, Kailiauk's emotional cravings are for the
delights of free women rather than kajirae.
Provided with only a loose square of silk to cover his manhood, this
truth is regularly demonstrated in an entirely literal sense. He is
unable to disguise when he grows aroused in response to his many
mistresses, and I fail to raise this reaction.
The Taluna take great delight in provoking his blood to warm, and
Kailiauk accepts their treatment with good natured endurance. He seems
to be shared amongst all the women, but I can soon see that one
particular flames his passion.
"You like her, don't you?" I ask him, when I see him paused in a task,
lost in watching Giani conferring with the scouts.
He looks at me with the sad expression of the lovelorn.
"My feelings do not matter. I am a slave," he states to me with simple
dignity.
"That's why you stay here, isn't it?" I say. "You don't want to leave
her."
"Not every man on Gor is destined, or wishes to be a warrior," he
replies candidly. "It is my rightful place to serve women."
"Does she use you?" I ask, rather nosily, wondering who the source of
the cries of pleasure was the other night.
"Never," he says, shaking his head. "All the others have taken me to
their bedrolls except her, and Lori, she with the red hair who was
recently taken by hunters."
Thus I learn that like so many men before him, Kailiauk desires most
the one he cannot have. This confirms finally that I need not fear him.
A lowly kajira such as myself is not of interest. He will not want such
an easy conquest. Kailiauk seeks to prove himself by winning the
affections of a woman he considers superior in status, like all men
seek challenges.
As he says, not every man on Gor wishes to be a warrior. People on Gor
and on Earth can be aroused by the idea of service to strong and
beautiful women, and there is nothing I find contemptible in him.
"What's the story with my master, the grey one?" I ask, deeming that
safe to discuss. "How came he to our camp?"
"The grey one has been with us nearly a Gorean month," Kailiauk
answers.
"The Huntress Giani and the Huntress Fieri," and here he indicates a
leggy brunette looking fetching in one of the briefest sets of skins in
the tribe, "returned from a foraging trip in the jungle with the grey
one in their company."
"Rumour is that the grey one had defeated both women, and he spared
them to prove himself true to his word. I do not know if this is the
truth, but since his arrival he has been trusted completely by the
tribe."
Could the grey man really have had the opportunity to take his pleasure
from both of the women, as he did from me, and still he declined? What
is it with him?
"Tal slaves," Udumi says, striding athletically across and then
standing before us with one hip raised coquettishly. "I bring you
tidings. Tomorrow we are to leave, so this night I will enjoy the use
of the male."
The last part of this sentence is directed at Kailiauk, and as she
speaks she boldly reaches under the square of his silk to touch him
intimately.
"As you command, Huntress," he says, voice trembling as he tries to
speak while she tests him.
"It has been some time since a man has tried to please me, so prepare
yourself for a busy night."
She releases him from her caress, but by this time his manhood is at
attention. Then Udumi slaps his bare buttock, the way a farmer might
slap a beast to test the quality of the beef.
So, finally we are leaving. I prickle with nerves. I can both fear and
hope for what I'll find back at the fortified compound.
When darkness falls and the nocturnal noises of the jungle are again
disturbed by the sounds of human pleasure, this time I am certain of
the identity of both male and female voices. Udumi makes love with the
passion that she applies to the rest of her life.
The ecstasy of Kailiauk fills my thoughts as I lie unable to sleep. If
a man can take such pleasure from sexual servitude, might it not be
possible for woman also to enjoy providing pleasure in a submissive
role without shame?
Tala certainly seemed to find great joy in her slavery, and I have met
other kajirae who are quite clearly happy. Perhaps I should accept
there is some merit in this culture.
But no, what makes Gor barbaric and inhuman, different from any other
BDSM relationship, is the denial of consent by the weaker party. If
those people who certainly wanted slavery were the only ones to be
collared, it might be a better place.
I reach up in the dark to finger my own slave collar, as I have done so
many times. I am still wearing the collar of Kurtz - the Taluna not
being equipped with the tools to remove it, but it will no doubt soon
be replaced with the badge of the Kurii.
Next day I rise bleary eyed in the early morning light to accompany the
grey man and Udumi as we begin to pick our way into the jungle.
After stripping and washing in the pool I don my camisk, tightening it
to give what little covering I can to Aurore's lush curves. Oh why did
the Priest Kings have to make me so beautiful? I will never escape the
consequences of this body, until old age finally quenches my
desirability.
When our party assembles I see the Taluna are not to accompany us for
this journey. Unlike Ailsa, Giani is not planning to lead a group of
sexy underdressed w