The Emma of Gor Trilogy: An Introduction

The 'Emma of Gor' trilogy is a series of fan-fiction books set on John Norman's Counter Earth world of Gor. Chronologically speaking, they occur in the following order:

Gods of Gor Chapter Nine

 

Gods of Gor: Pillow Talk

 

The jungle pressed in on us like a living, breathing beast, its emerald heart throbbing with heat and hidden life. Vines thicker than a man's thigh draped from the canopy in lazy, sinuous loops, heavy with clusters of blood-red orchids that wept nectar in slow, glistening drops, each one catching a fractured spear of moonlight. The air itself was a warm, wet soup, saturated with the sweet rot of fallen fruit, the sharp green bite of crushed ferns, the faint metallic copper of river mud, and the ever-present musk of unseen animals: jaguar piss sharp as vinegar, the heavy animal sweetness of black larl fur, the sour tang of fermenting sap where a tree had been scored by tusk or claw.

 

Every breath tasted different. In the darkness the air cooled slightly, carrying the clean mineral chill of moss-covered stone and the faint iron scent of hidden springs. Step into a sun-dappled clearing during the day and the heat slammed down like a physical weight - humid, suffocating, making sweat spring instantly along the spine, behind the knees, under my breasts. Insects filled the gaps: the high, metallic whine of mosquitoes orbiting like tiny silver knives, the low, throbbing drone of cicadas that rose and fell in waves, the sudden dry rattle of a stick insect unfolding wings the colour of dead leaves. But at night the air was cooler, more bearable.

 

The sounds never stopped, of course. Somewhere a howler monkey screamed - a raw, ascending wail that ripped through the green like a blade, answered by the softer, questioning hoots of smaller primates. Birds flashed overhead - scarlet macaws with wings like torn flame, tospore birds trailing iridescent plumes that shimmered violet and emerald as they darted between shafts of moonlight. Beneath it all ran the constant rustle: leaves shivering as something large moved just out of sight, the soft plop of fruit dropping into dark pools, the slow creak of branches bending under the weight of unseen bodies.

Gods of Gor Chapter Eight

 

Chapter Eight: A Question of Honour

 

Kwame rose slowly, his grin vanishing, replaced by a thunderous scowl, muscles tensing like coiled vines. "You placed the flowers around her shoulders. You took Meralisha under them. You bound yourself before the spirits!"

 

“A simple misunderstanding,” said Brinn, as he regarded Kwame with a soppy smile. 

 

Here’s the thing – people sometimes misunderstand Brinn’s expression. When he’s trying to be diplomatic (and believe me, it doesn’t come easy to him) he ends up with this dopey expression on his face, and people either assume he’s intimidated (he really isn’t), he’s mentally deficient (okay, so the jury is sometimes out on that one) or he’s being patronising (Brinn is the least patronising person I’ve ever met. He always means exactly what he says). And I could see that right now he had that expression on his face, and Kwame was reading it as Brinn mocking his family.

 

“You bedded my sister!” snarled Kwame.

 

And here’s the other thing – arguments aren’t helped by delays, where Mina has to translate back and forth. Brinn would say something, Kwame wouldn’t understand him, and then both men would have to stare at each other and wait for Mina to find the words in the corresponding language. And God knows what important subtleties were lost in translation. And all the while a dark mood was boiling amongst the tribal men and women, and that in turn was making Brinn more defensive. Right now he would be thinking they weren’t listening to him, and they weren’t appreciating just how ‘nice’ he was being about the situation.

 

This was going to be a bloodbath.

 

We were all going to die.

Gods of Gor Chapter Seven

 

Chapter Seven: Blood Brothers

 

“I wear scarlet,” said Brinn, thumping his tightly muscled chest with the clenched fist of his right hand. “I am of the warriors – a High Caste on Gor. I do not… sneak around… like some common thief in Port Kar. Do not speak of this again, Emma.”

 

This was going to be difficult. 

 

I sighed, fearing the worst now. “They will try and kill you, Master. There will be spears raised and…”

 

“It is a misunderstanding – nothing more. But were I to slink away in the dead of night, then what would men say of my honour?”

 

“They might say you’re still alive?” suggested Tijani as he gazed out of the hut towards the river.

 

“Thank you, Master!” I said, grateful at least that Tijani was taking my side. 

 

“I am sometimes concerned you may not fully appreciate the concept of honour,” said Brinn, frowning now, to Tijani. “It is a complex principle, of course, but even so…”

 

“I’m a pirate,” said Tijani with a grin. “I reave, I pillage, and I wench. Not necessarily in that order.”

 

“Those things can be done honourably,” suggested Brinn.

 

“But not for long,” added Tijani. “Men like you always spoil things by demanding – say – one on one combat... to the death.”

What Remains of Rebecca Palmer Chapter Seven

 

London 2014:

 

I was twelve years old when I bled for the first time. 

 

“You have your moon blood, Rebecca,” said my mother, proudly, as if I had just graduated to using the toilet on my own. “Oh, my dear baby, how the years have sped by.” She reached out and hugged me with a fierce joy that left me wondering whether now was perhaps a good time to ask her for a pony? 

 

I so wanted a pony. I had been begging my mother for over a year, but she had remained steadfast in her resolve. “Where would we put it, darling? We don’t have a stable.”

 

“Mother?” I had stained the bed sheets last night and my initial reaction was one of fright. Had I injured myself? The blood was clearly coming from between my legs. But when the house maid had secretly smiled at me that morning, and nodded her head in tacit understanding, I knew I wasn’t going to be told off. 

 

Father had been lost for words. He had looked clearly uncomfortable with the idea that he might speak to me about whatever had happened.

 

“Your mother will explain things, Rebecca.” And then he headed to the safety of his study before anyone might include him in the conversation. I heard the door lock with a degree of finality which meant he wasn’t to be disturbed. When my mother did talk to me, it was with a formality I hadn’t expected. I had been told to wait for her in my bedroom.

What Remains of Rebecca Palmer Chapter Six

 

They didn’t tell me about Chastity Reach when I was arrested.

 

Or when they shot my dog.

 

They didn’t tell me about Chastity Reach when they took my parents away down a different corridor; my mother - with a leather hood over her head, buckled tightly around her throat - turning back once, already learning not to reach for me. They didn’t tell me during intake, or the first nights, or the days that blurred together in a way that made time feel like another thing they had confiscated.

 

They waited until the worst of it was over.

 

That was how I knew it mattered. By then, my body had learned the rules. How to sit. How to stand. How to answer without tone. The pain had receded into something dull and instructional. I had stopped expecting explanations. I knew how to ‘play the game’. I knew what made the difference between punishment and approval.

 

So when they moved me to a smaller room - cleaner, quieter - I felt something close to relief. There was a chair. A table. A cup of water already waiting for me.

The woman who came in wore a soft institutional grey instead of black. No insignia. Her hair was neatly arranged, her hands folded as if this were a conversation between equals.

 

“Rebecca,” she said.

 

It startled me that she used my first name.

Gods of Gor Chapter Six

 

Chapter Six: Rite of the River Whisper

 

There’s a scene in an early episode of HBO’s TV series, Rome, where an entire Roman legion is standing around in a long column, not going anywhere, and then the camera tracks over to the side of a tree where General Mark Antony (played by the always brilliant James Purefoy) is fucking a peasant girl up against the trunk, and the entire Roman army has to wait for him to finish before they can continue marching. 

 

Well, I know what’s that like now, because this was day three of us sitting around in the village while Brinn fucked around with one of their Free Women.

 

“I thought you, as a rule, never had sex with Free Women, Master?” I said to him on the third day. 

 

“I never said that,” said Brinn as he sat on a cot bed beside a beautiful, sleeping, black skinned woman. I had seen her walking around the village, and she was as graceful as a gazelle, with long legs and a seductive smile. I knelt, lacing up his sandals as he yawned and stretched his arms. “When did I ever say that? Is it too early for paga?”

 

“Yes it is too early for paga.” I had already hidden his bottle. “Master, this is all lovely, I’m sure, but even Tijani is getting impatient. You have four slaves. You don’t need to…” I stopped talking as I saw the Free Woman stir in her sleep. A few seconds passed by and then when I felt sure she wasn’t waking up, I continued to speak in a quiet whisper. “And the village men here think you have companioned her.”

 

Brinn laughed at that. “You have quite the imagination, Emma. Companioned her – as if I would do that.”

 

“No, Master, listen to me – I’ve been picking up some of the language, and Mina filled in some of the details last night while you were…”

 

“Wasn’t there a paga bottle by my bed?” mused Brinn as he scratched his enormous hairy balls. The shaft of his penis looked impressive even while it lay flaccid. It resembled a short hosepipe. 

 

“I think you must have drunk it all, Master. But, please, listen to me…