Sunday, 17 August 2025

Black Beauty Chapter One

 

( I am very pleased to present Chapter One of Black Beauty by Peony D. Beckside. - Tracker)


Black Beauty[1]
Peony D. Beckside

With appreciation and thanks to John Norman for creating the wonderful world or Gor, in which this story is set.  Also to ‘Emma of Gor’, the fanfic blogger, for the use of some of her characters and concepts.

 

Chapter One: Recruitment

 

I’m beginning to worry a little.  There’s these creepy men I keep seeing.  They don’t come onto the student campus of the college where I study, but I often see them as I go to college or home to my dingy little apartment, even when I visit nearby shops.  It doesn’t seem to matter which routes that I use.  It’s as if  they seem to just know where I am at any time.  They also seem to hang around on the street outside my apartment.

I’ve never suffered paranoia, or at least no more than any other woman, but I am beginning to wonder about these men.  Women are often ogled surreptitiously, and we are usually aware of such.  I get my share of such attention; no, perhaps more.   Certainly it seems quite a lot of such looks, but I ignore them.  Every woman has her vanity.  She wants to be thought desirable, but not too much.  I think that I must be beautiful to some degree, but I don’t have it in me to manipulatively use that to my advantage,  At least not to any serious degree.  When boyfriends have offered me drinks, I’ve accepted those, but not so many as to not be in control of the situation.

No, the childhood conditioning that we get seems designed to make us feel ashamed of our bodies; our hair is the wrong colour, our hips too wide, our breasts too big or small.  As for sexuality, any form seems to be considered as ‘dirty’.  It’s sufficiently subtle that we are not really aware of how ‘brainwashed’ we are, or why this should be considered necessary.

These thoughts though are in retrospect.  I am commanded to write this story, and find it easier to write it in the first person and the ‘now’, as it happening, when in fact it happened some time ago and in a very different place to my present location.  I shall continue writing as if it is currently happening.

So, these creepy men…  I’ve counted five different ones so far.  It’s difficult to describe them.  They seem to be big men, bulky men, but not fat.  Well muscled, I’d say.  It’s more than that though.  They seem somehow to be ill-at-ease in their clothes, as if what they are wearing doesn’t fit, or is not what they are used to wearing.  That doesn’t mean that they are lacking in confidence, the very opposite in fact.  It’s almost as if they don’t care that I know they are looking at me; ogling me, almost appraising me.  They do not look away in embarrassment as most men do when I turn and catch them ‘eyeing me up’.  It’s quite disconcerting.  This ability to shame men who ogle one, is one of our most potent weapons.  These men are impervious to it.  It’s almost frightening that they are.  It makes me feel quite vulnerable, as if my ‘emotional armour’ were made of tissue-paper.

I’m not really watching where I’m going, watching one of these ‘brutes’ out of the corner of my eye.  I bump into something, something soft(ish), a person.  I bring my attention back to what I’m doing and where I’m going.  I stammer;

“I... I’m sorry…”

Oh no!  It’s another of the ‘creepy men’!  Figuratively, I’m ‘on the back foot’, in an emotionally vulnerable situation.

The man does not acknowledge my apology, as is culturally expected.

“Alvita Vassell?”

Yes, that’s me.  A common enough name combination for an Afro-Caribbean woman.  Yes, the surname ‘Vassell’ is slightly embarrassing; being a corruption of the word ‘vassal’, implying slavery.  Given that my ancestors were brought to North America as slaves, it is both appropriate, yet totally inappropriate in another way.

I am shocked to be so confronted, by this man who dominates my ‘personal space’.  Frightening, in a way.  I gather my wits about me.

“Yes, that’s me…  What’s it to you?  Why are you following me?”

He does not answer my questions, at least not directly.  His response is cryptic.

“Curiosity is not becoming in a kajira…”

Why does that reply tickle something in my consciousness.  I don’t know what a ‘kajira’ is, but I sense that I have heard the word, and even the phrase before.  To the point where I subliminally feel that the comment is incomplete, that there’s more to it.

The man, he’s a white man, that alone begins to raise my hackles a little.  No, not pure white, as in Anglo-Saxon white; not one of the arch oppressors of coloured folk.  Caucasian perhaps, or Eastern European.  If Caucasian, then in the true sense of the word, Azerbaijani, Georgian, Armenian, perhaps.  A horrible fear grips me.  Russian Mafia?  What have I done?  What do they want with me?  Where can I run to?  Can I outrun this man?  What about the other one on the opposite side of the road?

These questions flit through my head in an instant,  They are not consciously, reasoningly, thought.

“You have just completed your college degree?  Got good grades, I understand?  ‘Structural Engineering?”

The last item is said with a strange twist, as if he feels it is inappropriate for me to be studying such a subject.  A black woman is doubly prejudiced against.  Is it my ‘race’ or ‘sex’ that he finds is unfitting for me to be studying this subject?  Which?  Or both?

“You will be looking for a job, soon?”

It’s a rhetorical question, he does not give me time to answer it.  He proffers a card, a business card; almost forcing it into my hand.  I take it.

“These people have a position for you.”

The man turns and strides away. I am left stood on the sidewalk[2] in shock.  Is this approach, and even the apparent surveillance by the ‘creepy men’ just a rather brutal form of corporate ‘head-hunting’.  Most such entices a person, not threatens them.  I’m not sure that I want to work for a company that is associated with such creepy brutes as it seems have been watching me.

I examine the card in my hand.  ‘Steel World Inc.’  There’s an address somewhere in the ‘financial district’, and a telephone number.  I consider throwing the card away, but instead drop it into one of the compartments of my purse[3].

 

I spend the next month writing many letters, enclosing résumé’s[4], to many builders, developers, engineering companies, indeed anyone that I think might be willing to employ me.  I do not limit myself to my present locality or even state.  I write to companies all over the country.

I await the arrival of the mail-carrier every morning, with hopeful trepidation.  When applying for jobs one expects that a large portion of one’s letters will go unanswered or even unacknowledged.  Such is the case for me.  Perhaps ten percent of those written to responded.  Most respondents reject politely, but one or two phrase their rejection slightly oddly.  It’s nothing that I ‘can put my finger on’, but I wonder if somehow they’ve been ‘warned off’ me.  That’s ridiculous of course!  Perhaps I am getting paranoid.

When my parents and my brother died in an automobile accident some four years ago, I was utterly devastated.  To find myself absolutely alone in the world was terrifying.  However I picked myself up and learned how to ‘shift for myself’.  Fortunately they left me enough money for my college tuition and a little bit over.  I had to take part-time jobs to support myself while studying, but did manage to hold on to sufficient funds to live on for a short while until I find a job.  Socially, I made some friends while at college, but none that I’d call lifelong friends.  Acquaintances, more than friends, perhaps.  I dated a few times.  I am not a virgin any more, but neither am I slut.  My funds though are dwindling fast.  Very soon I’m going to be going into debt.  I’m quietly beginning to panic.  I badly need a job.

The letter arrives the following morning.  I stare at it as if I’ve seen a ghost.  The letterhead reads Steel World Inc.  I am transported back in my mind, to the days when the ‘creepy men’ seemed to be watching me, and more-so to the face to face meeting on the sidewalk with one of them.  I reach into my purse.  Yes, the card is still there, and yes, it’s definitely the same company.

The letter invites me to attend an ‘Interview’ in three days time.  It doesn’t specify the title, function, or job-description of the position that’s available.  The letter phrases the request more as an instruction than a suggestion. ‘You are to’, rather than ‘It would be appreciated if you would’.  I’m in two minds as to whether I should ignore the ‘order’.  I consider my circumstances and decide that I can’t really afford not to attend the interview.

Later that day a delivery driver rings my doorbell.  He has a package, it’s a garment bag.  I sign his sheet, and take the unsolicited gift through to my bedroom.

Unzipping the bag, I pull out, what appears from the cut, to be a ladies business suit;jacket and skirt.  The strange thing is that the suit is yellow.  Not an ochre or beige, but a full-on lemon yellow.  Another oddness, is that while the skirt is a common knee length, It has much more of a flare than is usual.  The fabric is of a fine but opaque silk.  I’ll definitely stand out, like a shipping beacon, in this!

There is a note pinned to the lapel. ‘For your interview’.  I squelch a moment of rebellion.  I can’t really afford to hack-off this company by a refusal of their gift.

I consider, my own wardrobe, and decide that I’ve a suitable white blouse that’ll work with the suit.

Opening up the jacket, inside, I find another garment.  It’s a rather short chemise in the most diaphanous of yellow silks.  It’ll barely cover the ‘essentials’.  It too has a note pinned to it. ‘This is the only underwear you will need’.  The word ‘only’ being specifically highlighted.

This is getting far too personal!  They can ‘get-stuffed’.  If I go at all, I’m wearing a bra and panties as well!

Again, there’s something about this gift.  The colouring, and particularly the cut and material of the chemise, that I feel is somehow familiar.  Bells may not be ringing, but the clapper is swaying gently.

 

The morning of the Interview, the mail brings a bank statement.  I’m totally ‘maxxed-out’, down to rock-bottom.  I really do need this job that Steel World Inc. seem to think I’m suitable for.  If they offer it, I’ll really have to ask for a salary advance.

I’m sufficiently desperate that I choose to only wear the chemise under my blouse and skirt; no bra or panties.  It’s summer, so I don’t need pantihose[5].

The door of Steel World House slides open as I approach.  Beyond it is a reception desk.  The woman behind it is young and stunningly beautiful.  What she is wearing is not a lot different to the chemise that I’m wearing underneath.  Hers however, is in blue and is just about opaque.  She also sports a narrow bright steel band around her throat.  As jewellery it seems rather overstated.  Again I get a feeling of familiarity at the appearance of this woman.  The first tinkle of a bell sounds in my mind, but yet again, I can’t bring forward the reason for my unease.  I should know what this portends, but it eludes me.

The woman lowers her head submissively, as if afraid to look me in the eyes.

“How may I be of service, Domina?”

Odd phraseology.  ‘How may I help you, Madam’ is what I would have expected.  And the word or title ‘Domina’.  I’m sufficiently worldly wise to know that the word ‘Domina’ is a shortened form of the word Dominatrix, and in the sexual world of BDSM[6] relationships could equate to ‘Mistress’, ‘Madam’, ‘Goddess’, or any one of several highfalutin titles of respect to a Dominant woman.

“I have an appointment with a Miss Udumi Ayeola.  My name is Alvita Vassell.”

“Indeed, Domina.  You are expected.  Let me show you to the elevator[7].  You need floor 18.  You will be met at that floor.”

I’d not thought to before, but as the elevator ascends, I think on this interlocutor , Udumi Ayeola.  That’s a very African name.  Will she be of African descent, as I am?  Is that why she has been chosen to Interview me?

The elevator doors open.  I step out.  Kneeling next to the doors is another woman, one who, but for hair colour and facial feature, could be the twin of the one in the lobby.  She kneels, back on her heels, back straight, head bowed, knees tightly together.  She too wears what appears to be a short shift-dress that’s barely long enough to hide her panties.  I assume she’s wearing such, but can’t take it for granted, given the instructions given me, regarding my own undergarment.  Like the woman in the lobby, this one too has thin steel band round her throat.  There are some strange designs incised into the metal.

“Welcome Domina.  May I rise and conduct you to Domina Ayeola?”

Why she is kneeling, and why she would ask my permission, I don’t understand.  Surely it would be her job to show me to where the Interview is to take place.

“Do, please, Miss”

The woman rises gracefully.  As she does, she informs:

“If it please, Domina,  the word ‘please’ is not necessary to one such as I.  Similarly, I am not entitled to an honorific, such as ‘Miss’,  Please follow me”.

I am led to an office with a frosted glass door.  The woman, presumably some kind of secretary, proceeding me knocks.

“Enter!”

The secretary opens the door, enters and kneels again, as she had been at the lift.

“Lo Domina Vassell, Domina,”

I don’t know what language is being spoken, but the meaning is clear, ‘Lo’, clearly being ‘The’.

“Welcome Alvita, Come in, please sit.”

Miss Ayeola indicates a chair.

“Kimi, leave us.”

The secretary almost flows to her feet and departs, shutting the door.

Udumi Ayeola is indeed black-skinned.  As dark hued as I, perhaps more.  She exudes a magnetism, a steely quality that I’ve rarely come across in either man or woman.  She has that dangerousness that one would find in a tigress about to pounce.  She makes me feel vastly inferior to her.  I sense that I need to be on my guard as to what I say and how I say it.

“Alvita, have you ever heard of the Caste of Builders?”

“No.  Is it something like the ‘Freemasons’?”

“Not really, though they do guard their trade secrets, as do all the castes.  I suppose that the nearest analogy would be the Medieval Guilds of Europe.  You wear their colour.  Yellow is the colour of the Builders, as red is of the warriors, green of the physicians, etc.  The style that you wear though is suitable for here and now, is appropriate for this culture.  You are after all, a free-woman, at least for the present.”

She pauses.  I am puzzled by her reference to me being a free-woman.  What other kind is there?  All women are free, in this country at least, and nominally in virtually every other one.  Why also does ‘for the present’ cause me a pang of disquiet?

“You are to be sent to a different land, where you are to be infiltrated into the household of a prominent member of the Caste of Builders: One ‘Castartius of Argentum’.”

I can’t believe what I’m hearing.

“What?  Like a spy!?”

“Precisely.”

I’m not a spy!  I’m an Engineer!  I’ve no training as a spy!

“It’s hoped that your engineering background as well as your beauty, will attract the man that…

I cut her off.

“No!  I’m out of here, now!”

“You can’t leave, you will complete the assignment.”

The steel in her, pours out of her eyes.  I too feel the fire of rebellion run through me.

“Watch me!”

She’s fast!  Faster than I can believe.  There’s a sharp pain in the side of my neck.  I fall to the floor like a sack of spuds.  I am aware of everything going on, but my muscles won’t respond to the commands of my brain.

“Too late, Alvita.”

She presses a button on the desk telephone.

“Kimi, bring scissors and a sirik.”

Sirik?  Yet another word that seems familiar.  I still can’t recall the context that links the many familiarities I have experienced since being confronted by the brute of a man, on the street.

“Yes, Mistress.”

Udumi nods her head in my direction.  Kimi clearly understands.  I feel the scissors sheer the jacket of my business suit, down the length of the back, then down the sleeves.  She pulls away the strips of cloth  before doing the same to my blouse and skirt.  This underling is about to attack my chemise.

“Enough for now, Kimi.  Is she wearing any underwear beneath her tunic?”

Tunic?

I still can’t move, though I begin to feel life seeping back into my muscles.  I feel embarrassed when Kimi looks down my cleavage and raises the hem of the chemise.

“No, Domina.”

Udumi smiles

“I wondered if you’d be slut enough, Alvita to wear your slave tunic alone under your clothes as instructed, or whether you had it in you to rebel and disobey.  Luckily for you, I won’t need to whip you for disobedience.  Not that I need an excuse.  Yes, you clearly are just another slut.”

‘Slave’(?) tunic? Slut!? Whip!!!?  I try to talk, to protest.

“Quick now, Kimi.  She’ll be recovering movement of her limbs soon.”

A loose metal ring is passed round my neck.  There’s a click, as of a lock.  The ring has a chain depending from it.  I feel this drop down my back.  This ‘secretary’ pulls my arms behind my back and fastens my wrists in something akin to handcuffs.  My legs are brought back behind me, and I feel my ankles circled in metal.  Kimi tries to lift me to a kneeling position.  Udumi leans forward and assists.  I’m still a bit floppy, but I am beginning to regain some control of my body.  Kimi makes an alteration to the chain from wrists to ankles, shortening it, I think.  I struggle to rise from my knees, but am unable to do so.

My mouth is beginning to function again, though what comes out is distorted.

“Hey!  What’s the game!”

“No game, kajira.”

There’s that word again…

“Have you ever heard of Gor?  The planet Gor?”

A pit opens in my stomach.  All the oddnesses, the familiarities gel into a horrific understanding.  But this is insane!  Gor is only fiction!  When clearing out my brother’s room after his death, I’d found four books supposedly set on such a world.  Out of curiosity, I’d read them.  They were clearly trashy ‘sword & sandal’ adventures set on a different planet.  Despite in my opinion having little or no literary merit, and being horrified at their misogyny, I found them difficult to put down.  Perhaps the most unbelievable aspect of them was the assertion that the women, the enslaved ones, came to love their collars, their slave status.

“You’re insane!”

Udumi laughs.

“Am I?”

“Gor doesn’t exist!  It’s the creation, a figment of the imagination of a writer of pulp fiction books!”

“No, it is your cynical incredulity that assumes reality is only fiction.  It was a stroke of genius on somebody’s part to hide the existence of Gor, in plain sight; to tell it like it really is, but in such a way that no-one will believe it’s real.  Gor decidedly does exist, kajira.”

I struggle in my chains.  I have to get away from this lunatic asylum.  I cannot free myself or rise to my feet.

“You clearly know something of the place; presumably you’ve read some of this ’pulp fiction’ you dismiss so readily.  If so, you know what the word ‘kajira’ signifies.”

I cut her off.  Being of Afro-Caribbean descent.  The concept of slavery is anathema!  ‘Never again!’ is the watch-word.  We will never be slaves again!  I personally will not submit to such, under any circumstances!

She cuts my reverie short, as if reading my mind.

“I understand the historical prejudices that you have against such,  Whether however, you wish to accept it or not, you have now been captured.  In Barbarian lands, that’s the only formality I need.  You are now a sla…”

I’m not understanding her reference to Barbarian lands.  We are not in Barbarian lands, this is a civilised country.  I have however more immediate considerations, and must immediately refute her assertion.  To fail to do so is tantamount to an acceptance of it, and the effect of it.

“I’m not anyone’s slave, Lady!  I refuse, understand!  No Way!  Ever!”

“Are you done?  If you interrupt me again, I will have you whipped.”

Surely she can’t really mean that!

“For your information, though you should know it already.  As a slave, when in the presence of a free-woman… That would be me, if you are in any doubt, you refer to her, and acknowledge with the word ‘Mistress’, or in the language of Gor as ‘Domina’”.

“Never!, you deranged bitch!”

I hear Kimi hiss in horror, perhaps, at my temerity.  Udumi laughs again.

“I’ll let you get away with that one.  Shock and disbelief can cause new kajira’s to say stupid things.”

Kimi sighs in relief at the reduction in the tension in the room.

“Kimi, You will note every gaffe, every forgetfulness to acknowledge correctly.  From now on, kajira Alvita; yes, that name will suffice for now; such are punishable.  Do you understand?”

I remain silent.  To respond to the description ‘Kajira Alvita’, would be an acknowledgement of accepting that status.

“As will dumb-insolence, kajira.”

Let her whip me.  How terrible can it be?  I shall grit my teeth.  I’ll not give her the satisfaction of hearing me cry out!

“Now, to your mission…”

I kneel there wondering what she has in mind for me.  I cannot do otherwise, chained as I am.

“You will be taken to Gor.  You will be trained as a pleasure slave.  Things have moved on, since the Gor books were firstpublished.  During the journey, you will be subliminally taught the basics of the Gorean language.  You additionally will be indoctrinated with the image of a man, a Builder.  When you see this man in real life, you will feel an overwhelming desire to be owned by this man.  You will do and say whatever is necessary for him to buy you.  You will, at some point during your ownership, betray this man.  At a certain point, an opportunity will be presented to you.  Into your mind will come the method by which you are to make that betrayal, and the compulsion to do so.  Of course any parts of this conversation that pertain to this mission will be erased from your brain.  You will not remember that this is an operation.  To you the desire to be owned by this man and the betrayal will be automatic and natural.  Also, once you have committed the betrayal, you will forget all about it.  Only the effects of the betrayal will exist.  You will be able to deny any involvement, because to you there never was a betrayal.  No matter how much they torture you, the knowledge won’t be there for them to find.”

I look at her in horror.

“Torture!?”

“If necessary.  The testimony of slaves is always under torture.  It’s automatically assumed that they will lie.”

I don’t want to do this!  I’m not naturally a nasty person, one who would deceive.  It’s simply not in my nature.

“And if I were to refuse to undertake this mission?”

“Don’t refuse…”

I try to take in the full ramifications of what’s being demanded of me, as well as other options.  Are there any other options?

Udumi appears to change tack.  She suddenly barks.

“Kimi!  Would you like to be taken to the punishment room?”

Faster than I can conceive, Kimi dives from her position behind me, to the feet of Udumi and begins kissing and licking the shoes of this dangerous lunatic, Udumi.

“Please no, Mistress!  What have I done to displease you?  How can I correct my error?  How can I make amends?”

This is so sudden and heartfelt that it seems impossible for it to be an act.  Kimi seems genuinely terrified of this threat being carried out.  Her begging is piteous.

“Get up, Kimi.  Return to your position.”

Gratefully, and with profuse thanks for Udumi’s mercy, Kimi resumes kneeling at my side.  As she does so, I see that her visage is ‘white as a sheet’.

“Tell kajira Alvita about the punishment room. Kimi.”

Kimi’s voice tremors with fear and trepidation.

“Kajira Alvita, the punishment room is nothing less than a torture chamber.”

Udumi cuts her off.

“Well equipped?”

“Yes, Domina!, for any and all punishments…”

“How long do you think that it would be before Alvita here, begs abjectly to be allowed to undertake this mission?”

It is a playlet, at least as far as Udumi is concerned.  Not Kimi, though.  For Kimi this discussion is real enough.

“Five minutes, Domina, less perhaps.  No more than ten!”

Such response is, I sense truly sincere.  I’m utterly petrified now.  This Udumi, truly is mad!  Sadistically insane!

“Would you care to bet on that, Kimi?”

Kimi moans.

I’m not so petrified as to fail to understand Kimi’s dilemma.  If she loses, she loses.  If she wins, it’ll infuriate this lunatic, so she loses again.  Kimi assays a question.

“Mistress is teasing me…?”

The smile on Udumi’s face would do justice to a shark.

“Yes, Kimi.  I’m teasing you, at least about the bet.”

In my present predicament, the only way that I can see that I will survive, is to go along and propitiate this nutcase.

“It seems that I don’t have any choice, Mistress.”

The word Mistress chokes in my throat, but there’s nothing else for it.  I posit a question, though I’ve a horrible feeling that I know the answer.

“And after the mission is over, I’ll be returned here, Mistress?”

She laughs.

“Now you are being naive, kajira!  When the mission is over, you will be no more or less than any other slave on Gor.  Your comfort and well-being will be very much dependent upon your own commitment and efforts.”

Right!  Take the gig, and when on Gor, simply get myself bought by someone else, and ignore the mission.

She must be reading my mind.

“If you think that you can avoid completing the mission, think again.  Firstly, you will not be able to shake off the conditioning that you receive.  You may be owned by someone else, on Gor, but we will engineer matters so that you can complete your mission.  You are owned, over and above, any Gorean ownership, by us.  Secondly, fail to complete the mission, while on Gor, and I will see to it that you are fed slowly, piece-by-piece, to a sleen[8], alive and conscious.”

I know what a sleen is, from the books I read.  I go cold with fear.  This witch is quite capable of carrying out her threat, and enjoy watching it happen!

“Yes, Mistress, I understand!”

Udumi leans back and presses a button on her telephone.

“Kronstedt and Ivanus, come to my office, please.”

This gorgon picks up some papers and glances at them for a minute or two.

There’s the sound of a swish.  What appears to be an ordinary wall opens to reveal a hidden elevator system.  Two beefy men step from the car, into the office.  I recognise them.  They were part of the team that was clearly watching me.

“Kimi, denude kajira Alvita of the slave tunic she’s wearing, and give the key of her sirik to Kronstedt.”

I hear and feel the snip-snip of the scissors again.  The garment gave little enough warmth to my body.  Now I’m naked, I feel colder.  Perhaps such is psychological.  I feel embarrassed that the two men can see me naked, but can do nothing about it.  Kimi shuffles around past me.  She kneels before one of the men and, head bowed between her forearms, she offers forward in her fingers a small key.  Kronstedt takes it without comment or thanks.  I must suppose that as a slave, a courtesy such as thanks to her, are not warranted.  I begin to understand just how low, on the social scale, a slave is.

“Kimi, how many indications of disrespect has kajira Alvita committed since being apprised of the necessity to do so?”

“Five, Mistress!”

“Men, please kennel this new slave, Alvita.  Ivanus, please give her five strokes of the lash, before kennelling her.  She can go out with the next batch of sluts.”

I am horrified. Kennelling?  A kennel is for dogs, not for people!.  I’m to be whipped, too!  I understand now, Kimi’s begging before Udumi.  I want to beg so, too, but held as I am I can’t.  I verbally remonstrate.

“Mistress, please…!”

“Shut it, Alvita.  You were informed of what was necessary.  Men, take her.”

The two men come forward.  The sirik is removed.  I am forcibly frog-marched to the elevator.  The men are so strong.  I cannot break free from them.

The elevator descends to what I take to be a basement level.  I am conducted to a space between two pillars.  My right arm is lifted, and a shackle & chain attached to the pillar is fastened to my wrist.  My other wrist is similarly secured to the other pillar.

I howl as the first lash gouges fire across my back.  So much for not giving Udumi the satisfaction!  This is unbearable!  I must however bear it.  I cannot stop it.  After the second lash, my cry is a full scream, and after the third, I’m begging, entreating the men to stop, that I’ve learned my lesson.  On the fourth lash, embarrassingly, I lose control of my bowels.  A stream of wee squirts onto the floor.  After the fifth blow, I’m barely conscious.  I struggle to see properly through the tears flooding from my eyes.  My wrists are released and I am dragged backwards.  I am thrust backwards into a low cement box.  A barred door is shut in my face.  I sob loudly for some five minutes before I hear an acerbic comment from across the corridor that houses these kennels.

“For crying out loud, girl.  Will you shut it, so we can all get some sleep?!”

I rub the tears from my eyes and see that most of the other kennels in the room are occupied.  I hear another voice.

“Give her a break, Julia.  She’s just been whipped.  If you don’t know what that’s like, it’s no joke, I can tell you!”

The chatter stops as Ivanus calls:

“Silence, sluts!”



[1]     Not the same story as Anna Sewel’s horse story of the same name, or of any films based upon that.

[2]     UK English:Pavement.

[3]     UK English: Handbag.

[4]     UK English: CV or Curriculum Vitae

[5]     UK English: Tights

[6]     Bondage, Domination, Sadism, Masochism

[7]     UK English: Lift

[8]     Large fearsome six legged rodent, famed for its tracking ability.

Saturday, 16 August 2025

After the Bighorn Chapter 20

 After the Bighorn, Chapter 20



The Bighorn River rises in Wyoming as the Wind River and flows north from the meeting of the waters flowing past the confluence with the Little Bighorn until it reaches the Yellowstone. The combined waters flow northwest until they join the rolling Missouri river. The rolling Missouri flows southeast until just south of St Louis it joins the Father of Waters himself, the ol’ man river, the Mississippi, not as long as the Missouri, but mightier. Combined again, the waters flow south, sometimes lazily, sometimes with stormy power until it reaches its delta, and in the delta, that Port Kar of Earthcities, the City of New Orleans. Ancient, brooding, filled with all the evils that have rolled with the waters, it sits. Full of old tales of missing sailors rolled in its bars and brothels, and farm boys come to no good in the same, it has been the ruin of many a poor soul. It is the same with all delta cities at the end of rivers and their joinings with the sea. An eternal story, from Alexandria, to Shanghai and Hong Kong, to Sydney and San Francisco. A place to make fortunes or to come to grief; a place to find a destiny.

Thursday, 31 July 2025

No Update this Friday. - Update Delayed

 Sorry, no update this Friday. I have been ill. I will try to post the new chapter this weekend

- Tracker.

Friday, 25 July 2025

Scipio Metellus at the Fair of En'Kara IV

 Scipio Metellus at the Fair of En'Kara IV



She's a good girl,

 loves her mama


Loves Jesus

 and America too

The Purple Gang had reformed and was again stalking travelers on the roads to the Sardar!

The rumour had sprung up suddenly at the Sardar Fair of En’Kara. The dangerous group of brigands known as the Purple Gang for the strips of purple silk they tied around their left arms when on a raid had terrorized travelers on the roads leading to the Sardar for years, until twenty years ago, Marlenus, Ubar of Ar had enjoyed great sport in hunting down and extirpating the lot of them.

The praetor of the Fair, responsible to the Merchant Guild for the proper running of all aspects of the Fair not under the control of the Initiates was consulting with his under-praeter.

“It is nonsense of course. There have been no reports of extra brigandage on the roads to the Fair, we would have heard. Someone is deliberately spreading the story for reasons of their own. They mean to profit somehow. If the rumor gains too much currency, it could cut into trade and thus into our fees and profits.”

The Under-Praetor was and active and ambitious young man.

“I have made some investigations. The original spreaders of this rumor were people we know are sometimes associated with Scipio Metellus. I suspect that wily old scoundrel has been spreading the story as a way to profit himself.”

The Praetor shook his head. “He and his friends deal muchly at our Fair, there is no way we would profit from this. We must acquit the, what is it you called him?, the old scoundrel this time. It is someone else. He would not spread such rumors just to amuse himself, It is someone else.”

“But then who?” asked the Under-Praetor.

“That is what we must determine.”

*****************

Scipio Metellus was humming a piece of music he had learned long ago from a kajira when he was young. The large slaver felt very pleased with himself. The sun was shining, the day was fine. There was a desirable woman kneeling at his feet; his money chest was bulging with the proceeds from the sale off the finest women from the fall of the city of Aetna. He was trying to decide whether to accept the challenge of his friend Atticus of Ar and try and acquire for himself all the prizes in the coming game of Girl Catch between Tarn Hill City and Tarn Hill Port.

The two mutually dependent cities were trying to set the shipping fees for timber for the coming five years. In the mountains, the men of Tarn Hill City felled and worked fine timbers; on the river, Tarn Hill Port, graded, sold and shipped the timber. Mutually dependent, thus united in mutual contempt, the two towns could not risk war. So ten youths from each city would try to capture and place in their girl pit ten maidens from the other side. The city which first succeeded would be the gain the advantage in the shipping fees. Atticus of Ar had challenged Scipio Metellus of Ko-ro-ba to capture the maidens of the winning and losing cities before they could return to Tarn Hill, where the losing maidens would be enslaved by the victors.

“Of course I know the thing is impossible,” said Atticus. “The day following the contest, the girls will be part of a large caravan for the days trip from the Sardar Fair to the Inn at the Ford, where they will spend the night in the Women’s Keep of the Inn. No one has ever succeeded in stealing one woman, let alone twenty from the Women’s Keep. No one could blame you if you declined the challenge.”

“Plenty of women have been stolen from Inns” rejoined the Ko-ro-ban slaver. “You have done it, I have done it, half the Warriors of Gor have done it. What makes this Inn so special?”

Scipio knew all about the Woman’s Keep at the Inn at the Ford, but he was playing for time before committing to a decision.

“The Women’s Keep at the Inn is an old stone watch tower. It was abandoned a century ago an the Inn was built around the tower. It is four levels and a cellar. The walls are eight feet thick at the bottom and three at the top. The cellar has a separate entrance and does not communicate with the rest of the Tower. There is only one way in and one stairway between levels. There are no secret ways or stairs; people have been searching for at least one hundred years. Are you following so far?”

Scipio nodded as the Slaver of Ar continued.

“The main floor is a common room which is entered from the lobby of the Inn; the paga room is across the lobby in a separate wing. The common room of the Tower at the Inn is only for guards and male companions of Ladies staying at the Inn. A single stairway leads to the second level. This is a common sleeping room for Women who cannot afford better but is still very safe. From the second level a stairway leads to the third level. At the top of the stairs is an iron door. It is barred from the inside by the ladies staying on the third level. The bars are heavy beams of wood that it takes three to four women to lift into place. No one can enter easily, and one or two traitors inside cannot compromise the safety of the others. There is a small eating room and separate sleeping rooms on this level. There is one window, it has an iron shutter that is secured by bolts on the inside and in any case it overlooks rapids.

The fourth floor is more of the same, except more exclusive and expensive. On the night they are there, only the ten Free Maidens from the winning city will be on that floor; along with the ten captives, not yet enslaved, from the losing city. If they had been enslaved they would not be permitted on the fourth level. Indeed, only Free Women may ascend above the first level. There is no way to insinuate any spy or agent into the tower, no way of forcing the doors before rescue arrives.

The tower has a peaked roof, so a Tarn cannot be landed upon it; the fourth level’s window overlooks a courtyard which will be full of Warriors. There is no way to get the twenty women you see in front of you out of the Tower at the Inn at the Ford.”

“An interesting problem,” mused Scipio Metellus of Ko-ro-ba. “I doubt I would be interested anyway.”

“Just as well,” said Atticus of Ar. “The warriors of Tarn Hill would pursue relentlessly anyone who succeeded in carrying off the prizes of the Girl Catch.”

“But not anyone who subsequently purchased the enslaved females after,” pointed out Metellus.

The two men, with the red-haired slave at their feet resumed watching the ten maidens of Tarn Hill City displayed as prizes. At the far end of the field, the ten maidens of Tarn Hill Port were similarly displayed.

Scipio watched as the unveiled beauties took turns advancing to the front of the platform. A girl he had not noticed before was to the fore when he went into a reverie of youth.

She had the same snub nose as a slave he had owned as a young man. The curve of her jaw, and the lines of her figure, as far as he could tell were similar as well.

Her name had been Irene; she pronounced it in the Greek way from the Slave World: I-ree-nee. It had been her name as woman on Earth which she wore as a slave name on Gor. One of her masters had loved the musicality of it, and subsequent masters had not changed it.

Scipio Metellus was a young man travelling about Gor. He was a noticing man, and he learned interesting things wherever he went. That summer he was working on the wharfs of the island Ubarate of Cos, loading and unloading ships. He was a big man and he found the work easy. Because he was good at leading and organizing, he was soon the leader of a group of stevedores who were in demand for the speed and care with which they handled cargo. Scipio insisted on honesty in his group which increased the esteem in which they were held.

At a game of kaissa in paga tavern, Scipio had won Irene from the tavern owner and the long Cosian summer had become an idyll for the pair. Man and woman, master and slave, the big stevedore and the tall curvy girl had known true contentment. She was his love slave; he her love master. He sang her the songs of Gor, she sang him the songs of Earth. They harmonized, his bass and her alto together. They could not have been happier.

But Scipio was young and restless. He felt he had learned and experienced all Cos had to offer and it was time to move on. When he was bargaining with a ship owner for passage to Victoria, a man disembarking had seen Irene and offered Scipio a carved ivory belt buckle, like a cowboy buckle in trade for Irene.

Scipio like to travel light and the buckle was worth many times what Irene was. So he made the trade. As the ship sailed away, Scipio was resplendent in his new belt and buckle and Irene cried on the docks. Her new owner cuffed her and dragged her away.

On that voyage, Scipio made the acquaintance of merchant of Cos, who was impressed by his belt buckle. They fell into conversation, and it was the beginning of Scipio’s successful career as an adventuring merchant of slaves. He had learned in his travels the types that were most in demand in various cities. He knew what affected supply, and what affected prices. His audacity allowed him to carry off many incredible coups. He was famous as a judge of girl-flesh and unparallel, except perhaps by Trakker of Ar, the famous slave theoretician as a trainer. One who could spot and take unpromising looking material and turn her into a most coveted property.

But still sometimes, he hummed or sang the songs of Earth.

He looked at the girl from Tarn Hill City, the one who resembled Irene, and said to Atticus, “When I capture all of them, all the prizes from the contest, will you sell them for me in Ar?”

Atticus nodded. “I know it is impossible for you to acquire them; and I look forward very much to finding out how you will make it happen.”

The two men clasped forearms, and walked off, followed by the red-haired slim young slave.

She’s a good girl

Loves her llama

Loves cheezits

 And asparagus too.

The red-haired slave was having the time of her life. She had come into Scipio’s possession at the fall of the city of Aetna. There she had known only a few narrow streets in the quarter of the craftsmen. Her father was a potter, she had not even known the wider streets and plazas of her own city.

But here at the fair, there were so many sights, and sounds and smells. The gorgeous smells from the food boots, so different from the roast vulo and lentils that was the daily diet of the poor of Aetna. And when her master stopped by the kitchens and eating tent of Andre the Baker, she almost swooned. While her master was deep in talk with Andre himself, she was allowed to eat almost a half of a sausage roll, the well spiced meat encased in the flakiest of pastry she was in extasy.

They stopped to listen to a group who was singing the songs of the Tahari. They had followed a group of devout pilgrims led in chants to the Priest-Kings led by Initiates. Beaker, the red-haired slave, was as bored then as she had been when she was dragged to services as a free girl.

The singers from the Tahari were better. Their songs soared and dipped, the music matching the lyrics. They sang of the terrors of thirst and the joys of finding water, “water sweeter than Kalana wine, more satisfying than Paga, more beautiful than women.”

Her master sung along quietly, so as not to disturb the other listeners. Beaker was amazed at how well his voice sounded.

And there were slave girls everywhere! Beaker had seen few slaves in the streets of her poor quarter of Aetna. There were few in that quarter to begin with, and her mother had shielded her as best she could. Beaker had not been allowed to go past the corner where the local Paga tavern stood. The girls were sometimes displayed outside, barely clad or even naked. They were much more volumptous than Beaker, as her girlfriends had teased her. She was likely safe from enslavement they had told her.

Well all the women of Aetna had fallen slave, and it was she of all of them who walked at the heels of the fabulous Scipio Metellus.

After the singing, Scipio had placed a silver tarsk in the bag of the pretty slave who went among the crowd collecting for the singers. A whole silver tarsk! That was more than her father had made for some of his best and most artistic pots!  And just for singers! Her master was truly a great man. He had made the pretty slave doing the collecting squeal too, when he had pinched her bum. Half-naked girls pinched in public, on the lanes of the Fair. Being a slave at the Fair was certainly different than being a free girl in a poor quarter of Aetna.

A whole silver tarsk! That was probably more than she was worth. And her master gave it away just for the pleasure of listening to some music. She was certainly in a new world.

Next she knelt next to master while he watched the sale of some girls from a low platform. Some were branded and displayed themselves well, Beaker was amazed at how brazen they were! She was sure she could never move like that!

The girls, mostly sold for small sums, Beaker was amazed at how cheap even a beautiful woman could be.

“When you are trained, you will sell for more than those slaves did,” her master said to her.

“I will make sure of that. But don’t get puffed up and proud, you are nothing but a slave slut. It is my training that will give you value.”

A slave slut. That is what her mother had called those few slaves seen in their quarter. Sluts, worthless, immeasurably below a free woman. A slave slut, that is what she was now; and mother too, she supposed, the last she had seen of her mother was her mother being dragged off by soldiers of Vesuvium who had conquered her city.

Scipio Metellus straighten the chain that hung from her collar, between her breasts, and ended in the handle of the leash in her master’s hand.

“Always be conscious of your appearance, always be looking attractive for the men.”

“Yes, Master.” Beaker looked at the chain between her breasts. Each link was curved, so the chain lay flot on her body. She knew from talking to her friend who was a blacksmith’s daughter that such chains were more difficult to make and were more expensive. She realized with a shock that the chain holding her was likely more expensive than she was. She stuck out her chest and swayed her hips, to make herself appear more expensive. She was learning her slavery, and the looks she drew excited her. She made sure that the piece of silk tied around her hips did not totally cover her red crotch. She was a slave; she desired to please; it was her duty to be completely pleasing.

Master seemed to be going places at random. He stopped at a shop that sold spices and purchased a little bag of powder after a quiet conversation with the owner. He talked to a captain of warriors and a seller of silks. He watched a troupe of acrobats and conversed quietly with them. He seemed to know everyone, and everyone was happy to see him. Beaker noticed how popular he was; wherever Scipio Metellus went, even Initiates seemed to follow him. There was one watching whenever he stopped.

The crowning event of Beaker’s day was when Master took her to the theatre. Such entertainments had always been beyond the means of a potter and his family. They sat in a box close to the stage with a merchant and three Free Ladies he was escorting. They all seemed to know Master.

One of the Free Ladies looked right at her and sniffed.

“You are heeled by a new slave today, I see. Another naked slut. How you dare.”

“There are different standards at the Fair,” Scipio replied. Many women are sold naked at the Fair, in leass than this slave is wearing.”

“Sluts, unfit to be around Free Women.”

“Many were Free Women before they were collared. I have made many women exchange her robes of concealment for a collar and a wisp of silk.”

The Free Woman stepped back, “No one may be enslaved at the Fair. It is the Law of the Priest-Kings.”

Then the play began and they watched the first act of the “The Ubara’s Dilemma”.  Beaker was enthralled.

At the first interval, Scipio Metellus engaged the two older Free women in conversation as the merchant escorted the one who had commented on Beaker for some ice. The Free Women seemed to be rejecting some proposal of her Master’s. Maybe he was negotiating to buy the Third Woman once the Fair was over? Master could be very persuasive.

The second act began. Beaker knelt, her chin on the rail of the box as the action unfolded. At one point, Master slowly ran one finger gently down her spine from her neck down to the base of her butt. She stiffened, then almost melted. The younger Free Woman sniffed. Beaker wondered if they would one day be chain sisters. She loved her chain sister, Gold Key, but did not think that she would like this one.

At the second interval, The Free Ladies conversed in low tones with Scipio while the merchant again tried to gain the favor of the younger one. Beaker could not hear her Master’s conversation, but now he seemed to have the upper hand as the two Free Ladies bargained with him. They seemed to reach an agreement just as the merchant and the third woman returned.

Beaker wondered what was agreed and what the price was.

Blog Schedule and Contributions

 (edited September 21st, 2026) . Stories tie back to Stories on EmmaOfGor.Blogspot.com in particular Steel Worlds Inc by Emma of Gor and ...