Kajirus of Gor Chapter Thirty Five

 

In much the same way that one does not simply walk into Mordor, one does not simply just become a wyld wyman.

 

“Put to the test?” said Kelly, with a trace of apprehension to her voice.

 

“You will need to prove to us that you have what is required to keep us strong. You have to prove you are not weak.” Anthea gazed at the pretty lace panties that Kelly wore. She gazed at the perfectly manicured French nails, and at her similarly manicured toenails. She observed Kelly’s perfect salon tan, and her expensive haircut. 

 

“I have what it takes,” she said. She had to say that, of course, for the alternative seemed to be slavery, toiling in the farm fields like the four collared girls who were watched by a wyld wyman, carrying a whip.

 

Anthea had a couple of the girls help Felicity to her feet. She was sobbing still, partly from the vicious whipping, but also from the realisation that she had enslaved herself in front of women who understood what that meant. “Please don’t do this,” she begged. “I have money.”

 

“Don’t do what?” asked Anthea.

 

“Don’t make me a slave.”

 

“That would be impossible,” she said. “I can’t make you a slave, for you have already made yourself a slave.”

 

“The words don’t mean anything!” she cried as she struggled, weakly.

 

“You and I both know they do. They do, as far as men are concerned.”

 

“I’m rich. I can buy my freedom,” she said.

 

“You are not rich. You have no money. A slave owns nothing. Besides, I don’t really think you would pay us anything if we set you free. How would we collect?”

 

“Please!” Two girls held her by her wrists. They had to support her legs for she was close to collapsing.

 

“In any respect, you have a trust fund, yes? That is presumably worth a lot, but you can only draw a set amount from it, yes? What you refer to as your trust fund is in reality your dowry, to be paid in its entirety to your husband upon your eventual marriage. It is what you are worth,” she gestured with her hand at Felicity’s lovely body, “aside from the obvious value of your flesh, of course. But such a value can only be calculated once you are enslaved.”

 

Felicity wept. “I would have the full trust fund once I proved myself to my father.”

 

“And now what happens to the dowry?” Anthea asked. “Now that you are a slave? The North American families have traditions should that happen, yes?”

 

“They do,” wept Felicity. “They pass to a brother, but as I do not have a brother, to a male cousin.”

 

“So you see, you are in fact penniless now. Slaves own nothing. Your family recognises that. You have shamed yourself by submitting to slavery. A daughter of the North American families must never do that.”

 

“Thirty strokes of the whip would have killed me!”

 

“Possibly. You seem weak. Yes, it probably would have killed you. But you would have died a Free Woman.”

 

“I don’t want to die,” she sobbed.

 

“Then you are a slave.” Anthea shrugged., “Only a true slave would submit, if the alternative was an honourable death.”

 

Felicity was dragged to the outside cage, her limp feet trailing in the dust. The door was opened and she was placed inside. The door was then secured with a padlock.

 

“What are you going to do with her?” I asked. I was still chained to the display post.

 

“There is a shipment going to Gor tomorrow night from Priest’s Hill. It will be a mixed coffle of girls owned by several families. The Fricks organise the landing and take-off of the silver ship. They have the responsibility as the current leading family on the Steel World council. Many slaves are herded to the corrals at the Frick ranch. They will be sorted, branded, processed, and readied for shipment. Felicity’s wish was to travel to Gor. That wish will be fulfilled.”

 

“And me?”

 

“You will go to Gor, too. We may as well make some money on you. I think you will do well as a silk slave, sold to a rich woman.”

 

I struggled in my bonds. “This is insane. There is no alien planet, no space ships transporting women to the other side of the sun.”

 

“See if you still believe that when you stand or kneel on that alien world. Then you may sing a very different tune.” Anthea was about to turn away.

 

“I know Chelsea Frick,” I said. “Does she have anything to do with this?’

 

“No,” said Anthea. “Like Felicity, she is a trust fund daughter, waiting obediently for marriage. She is not involved with the shipments from the Frick ranch.”

 

I was relieved to hear that, for I didn’t want to think that Chelsea shared the same delusions as everyone else. “If she knew this was happening, she would put a stop to it.”

 

Anthea laughed. “She might pout, stamp her foot, and she could run to her uncle, but I don’t think it would do her any good.”

 

“Chelsea was one of the Heathers, yes?”

 

“Apparently so.”

 

“So Hadley hates her, too?”

 

“I imagine so. But Hadley is not allowed to annoy the Fricks. They are simply too powerful. We signed accords.”

 

“Accords?”

 

Anthea seemed pre-disposed to talking. She also seemed to enjoy looking at me. “The Accords. Men could easily wipe us out, if they were of a mind to do so. They are too strong.” Anthea approached me and lay a hand on my thigh. “Hadley doesn’t understand that. She’s not a realist, as I am. We remain here, we remain free, so long as we do not antagonise the Fricks, and we give them no reason to expend the considerable effort and expense it would take to hunt us down. There would be deaths on both sides. But ultimately they would win. So we signed accords with them, many years ago. You may have noticed we carry spears and bows.”

 

“Yes.”

 

“But no guns.”

 

I had wondered about that. Frankly, America is gun crazy.

 

“We are not permitted to arm ourselves with guns. Men would consider that a provocation.” Anthea tossed her head. “Another thing Hadley finds hard to accept. Oh, we have guns, of course. Hidden away. But we are not permitted to carry them, to display them openly. We are only permitted knives, spears and bows. Those are the weapons women are permitted to use. Anything else is a provocation in the eyes of the Fricks.”

 

“Hadley was vicious to Felicity.”

 

“She was. I was surprised. But Hadley did not enjoy her High School years.”

 

“Tough fucking luck. Boo hoo. I’m all in tears for her rough childhood. So she didn’t get invited to the cool kids’ parties. She should fucking get over it.”

 

Anthea smiled. “I am sure she will. Maybe this will be closure for her.”

 

“Or maybe she wants Chelsea Frick on her knees next. And then Paige Bannon?”

 

“They are both untouchable. I have told her that. Untouchable. The Emery daughter was a different matter.”

 

“Why? Why different?”

 

“This is Frick territory. The Fricks and the Emerys have had a complicated relationship over the years.”

 

“Chelsea and Felicity are friends.”

 

Anthea laughed. 

 

“They are friends.” I strained again at my bonds. 

 

“Whatever. Enjoy the sunshine and the fresh air. You will witness the testing of Kelly Milford this afternoon.”

 

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Kelly looked troubled as the wyld wymen placed a number of items on a table for her to see, later in the afternoon. There was a hunting knife; a box of camping matches; a blanket; a drawstring pouch containing a bow string, some metal arrow heads, and a small tool to carve and cut wood; a compass; a waterproof map; a clear transparent water proof poncho with a hood; a pair of sandals; a small bag containing enough food for a day; and, most incongruously, a tube of bright red lipstick.   

 

“Examine these things,” said Anthea. “Ascertain, to your satisfaction, their quality.”

 

Kelly made a token effort to pick up and examine the various items. She seemed most puzzled by the tube of lipstick. It seemed out of place with the other items. The tube had a small hole drilled in it, through which an elastic band was threaded.

 

“Fasten it about your wrist,” said Anthea.

 

“Why?” asked Kelly.

 

“Do not ask questions.”

 

Kelly fastened the tube about her left wrist.

 

“Remove your t-shirt.”

 

“What? No!”

 

“Do not make me repeat a command.”

 

Kelly looked furious as she pulled the tight t-shirt over her head and threw it to the ground. She wore now nothing but the skimpy lace panties.

 

“Good. Now regard the woodlands over there.” Anthea pointed in the direction where the first of the trees could be seen. It looked like dense woodland that possibly stretched some way across the prairie land. “The rules are simple. You will live in those woods for five days and five nights. You will try to survive. You may select two of the remaining items on this table to take with you. Only two. Choose well. For the first twenty four hours you will be left alone. After that, you will be hunted by Brielle.”

 

“What?!” Kelly looked alarmed.

 

“You will have had twenty four hours to scout your terrain and make yourself a hidden lair. Use those hours wisely. Think to conceal your tracks as you move about to find food and water. Brielle will seek to capture, not kill you, but Brielle is permitted to fight to kill, if you choose to attack her. The choice is yours. I would advise you not to fight Brielle. The odds would not be good for you. Running and hiding are your best tactics.”

 

“Anthea, please, this isn’t what I agreed to!”

 

“After five days and five nights, a horn will be sounded. When you hear that, you may emerge from your lair and return to us. You will be anointed and welcomed as a wyld wyman, and every girl here will be your sister, and will swear an oath to love and protect you.”

 

“I want to go home,” said Kelly. “This is a mistake.”

 

“When you enter the woods you will undoubtedly discover our Home Stone. It is a heavy slab of rock painted with symbols. It rests in a clearing. A steel spike has been hammered into the stone, and from it hangs an ankle chain with a single clasp. Beside it, on a hook, is another horn. Should you concede, should you decide you cannot survive on your own for five days and five nights, you can go to that stone and mark your left thigh with a bright scarlet letter ‘k’ with the lipstick. You will then lock the ankle chain to your left ankle. You will then blow the horn once. That is a signal to us that you submit. We will come and fetch you.”

 

“What happens to me then?” 

 

I think Kelly knew that answer to that question, but still she asked it.

 

“You will be a slave, Kelly Anne Milford. You will be collared, branded, and ultimately sold.”

 

“Anthea, please, dear God, don’t do this!”

 

“You may mark your thigh now, with the lipstick, and submit, if you wish?”

 

“No!”

 

“Then choose two items from the table. Choose carefully.”

 

There was an agonised look to Kelly’s face as she considered what lay before her. “Only two?”

 

“Only two,” said Anthea. 

 

Kelly chose the transparent, waterproof poncho with the hood, and a day’s food. Anthea smiled at her choices. “I suggest you go now, before the sun goes down. You have until this time tomorrow, and then Brielle will begin to hunt you.”

 

Kelly ran, looking scared, towards the grim tree line of the woods. In her right hand she held the transparent poncho, while from her left hand hung the small pouch of food. 

 

“Kelly wouldn’t have come here had she known,” I said.

 

Anthea shrugged. It didn’t seem to concern her. “We either gain a new sister, or another slave. We do not lose, regardless.” 

 

“She won’t last five days,” I said.

 

Anthea smiled again and touched my thigh, tracing her fingers along my skin, cupping my balls with her fingers. “Is that your assessment, male?”

 

“It is.” I gasped as I felt what she was doing now with her fingers. 

 

“You grow stiff and hard, male, to my touch. It is so easy to arouse a man when he is chained or bound. Men secretly desire to be dominated by women. Earth men, anyway.”

 

My breathing grew ragged as she began to manipulate me with her fingers. Did she want to make me come? She was certainly heading that way. 

 

“Brielle will not truly be hunting Kelly tomorrow, but Kelly will think she is Brielle’s prey. Brielle will make herself seen occasionally. She will stomp around in the woods, apparently unable to locate Kelly, unless she does something incredibly stupid. But even then, Brielle will allow her to run away and hide again. Brielle will probably find Kelly’s hiding place easily enough, but that is not the purpose of the test.”

“What is?” I said through gritted teeth. I didn’t want to be aroused and stimulated while I was bound like this, but it seems I had no choice. 

 

“It should be obvious to you that we would have very few wyld wymen here if new joiners had to outlast one of our seasoned hunters in the woods. No, those skills will be taught to a new sister in time. We simply want to see that Kelly has the inner strength to endure hardship, and that she does not give up easily, that is all.”

 

“But she doesn’t know that?”

 

“No. She thinks she will be hunted. It will be cold at night. She will be frightened. It may be tempting to run to our Home Stone, mark her own thigh, chain her lovely ankle and submit, to be taken to a warm kennel and fed. Such a girl has no place with us, except in a collar.”

 

“If you keep doing what you’re doing I’m going to…”

 

“Come? You had better not, male. I will whip you if you do.”

 

“What? But you’re…”

 

“I am. But you will not come. If you do, I will whip you. You will have to learn self-control when you are a submissive silk slave to a Lady on Gor. You will be there to satisfy their pleasure. They are not there to satisfy yours.”

 

“I can’t stop myself from coming if you keep doing this!”

 

“Too bad, male. Then you will be whipped.”

 

“Fucking bitch!”

 

Anthea grinned and kissed me softly across my chest, adding to my pleasure and worsening my self-control. I shook in my wrist restraints and tried to control what I was now feeling, but it was impossible. I came, swiftly, droplets of semen splattering the dry ground. 

 

Instantly, Anthea stepped away, picked up a whip and ordered me to turn and face the pole. She then lashed me eight times. It was horribly painful, but unlike Felicity, I had the strength remaining to still stand when she finished. 

 

“Bad slave,” she said. “But you will learn in time. Any pleasure you indulge in will lead to exceptional pain afterwards. Ask yourself if it is truly worth it for a moment of release?”

 

I slumped now against the pole, breathing hard. The pain doesn’t cease when the whip stops. The burning carries on. God, does it carry on. I knew I didn’t want to be whipped again.   

 

The afternoon wore on, and I watched helplessly as the four collared women, their breasts exposed to my view, toiled with garden tools, digging and planting vegetables in the acres of farm land that fed the settlement. Occasionally a girl was lashed if she wasn’t seen to be working hard enough. Felicity, in the meantime, lay on her side in the cage, her body curled in on itself, as she tried to cope with her own burning pain from her own whipping. Dexter looked petrified. His body had been shaking earlier on with fear. I don’t think he had yet come to terms with what was happening to him. 

 

By late afternoon there was further activity. I saw the flatbed truck brought round, and I watched as poor Felicity was taken from the cage and brought to the central locking bar where her left ankle was placed in one of the restraints. Dexter was then freed from his post and, under the watchful eye of several armed women, was also secured in the flatbed truck. Then it was my turn. 

 

“Where are we going?” I asked.

 

“Be quiet, male.” Anthea cuffed me across the face. 

 

With the remaining hours of daylight, we drove out of the settlement and set off across the prairie. Again, Anthea and Rowan rode in the front, while Hadley, Brielle, Summer and Aubree rode in the back with us. Felicity seemed terrified of Hadley. She sat back as far as she could from the wyld wyman, not daring to look at her. Her body was still wracked with pain from the whipping, and she knew she was now a slave. 

 

Felicity understood the reality of what we now were. I still didn’t. I still didn’t believe there was an alien planet circling the sun. I didn’t believe that slave ships departed from Earth, bound for Gor, carrying coffle chains of carefully selected beauties ripe for the collar and brand. It seemed preposterous. And yet I couldn’t escape the realisation that many, many, people seemed to believe in this mass delusion. 

 

We drove for an hour or so towards the Bighorn. From time to time I gazed over at Felicity, but she didn’t or couldn’t meet my gaze. She would know this was all her fault. She would know she had arranged for all of us to be captured. But still, despite her betrayal – and it was a betrayal, no matter how much she might claim I would remain a free man – I still felt pity for her. 

 

I’m a hopeless case, I realise that now. When I fall for a woman, I really fall for a woman. 

 

We drove down a gentle incline that led to the shores of the Bighorn. I saw a permanent wooden platform structure down by the river, with a number of cross beams and a couple of sturdy wooden shacks close by. A couple of small boats were dry berthed on the shore, and parked beside one of the shacks was a larger truck than the one I sat in. Three men waited for us.

 

I recognised one of them, immediately. It was Hawkins. Hawkins, from the Frick ranch. Hawkins, who had no particular liking for me. 

 

“Tal,” said Hawkins as our own flatbed drove into the parking space and came to a halt. Hawkins had a rifle slung over his shoulder. The other two men carried similar rifles in their open hands. The wyld wymen carried their spears and short bows.

 

Women, I was reminded, were not permitted to bear firearms. Men would consider it a provocation.

 

“Tal, Hawkins,” said Anthea as she jumped down from the cab. Rowan swiftly joined her holding her bow at the ready. 

 

“You won’t need that, miss,” said Hawkins, with a smile. 

 

“I’m sure I won’t,” said Rowan, “but being a weak, helpless female, I have grown to love the touch of something stiff and hard between my fingers.”

 

The men laughed at that. Hawkins nodded. “Very good, miss.” He then watched as Hadley climbed down from the back of the flatbed. She was swiftly joined by the other three girls: Summer, Brielle and Aubree. 

 

“Miss Hadley,” said Hawkins with something like warmth in his voice.

 

I watched Hadley cross the open ground, a swagger to her hips, a soft sneer to her mouth. She stood then before Hawkins. They were a similar height. And then they kissed. It was a savage, ferocious kiss. The kiss of two well matched hunters. Or so it seemed. I observed Anthea’s reaction. She was not surprised to see this, but I could tell she was wary of the growing intimacy between Hadley and a man who served the Fricks, faithfully. 

 

“You’re one hot bitch,” said Hawkins as he slapped Hadley’s ass with a resounding crack. Suddenly there was a knife blade in Hadley’s hand, an inch away from the man’s throat. They gazed at one another for a moment, and then they both burst out laughing. Hadley sheathed her knife.

 

“Tal Anthea,” said Hawkins at last, acknowledging Anthea’s leadership with a casual nod, before turning his attention back to Hadley. They kissed again before separating. Hadley then re-joined the other wymen. 

 

“So,” said Hawkins. It was perhaps an hour before sunset. He gazed at Anthea. “You have it?”