Gods of Gor Chapter Two

 

Chapter Two: The Emerald Forest

 

Fuck. Our collar chain got caught on a branch again. “Mina! Hang on just a moment.” She felt the tug on the chain at the same time I spoke. Mina stood still in the rain forest canopy as I carefully freed the links of the chain from where it had hooked against some vegetation. The chain was only ten feet in length and connected the ring on Mina's collar to the ring on mine. This was because Chloe still considered Mina to be a flight risk and wasn't going to let her loose in the jungle perimeter without securing her to another girl she could trust not to run away. It did make things awkward for us though as we strolled between the canopy of trees.  

 

I could hardly move without a plant touching my skin, so dense was the foliage this close to the river bank. There's probably more life here per square metre than anywhere else on the planet and the noise alone is incredible: so many insects, birds and mammals chirping and chittering away like some natural history symphony. The rain falls thickly in drops as large as ramberries, yet it's so warm the wet isn't as big of a problem as it is in the Sardar when it falls in sheets from the mountain air. But as we tread through the bracken I'm so alert for the deadly bugs and snakes I can't relax at all.

   

“You walk too slowly, Emma,” said Mina.

 

“No, you're walking too quickly. We need to watch out for snakes.” I was petrified that I might step barefoot on a venomous snake as we pushed through the low vegetation. Snakes were everywhere! I knew they were! They were sniggering in hiding as they saw me coming. I knew that just like I knew we should never venture near a riverbank for fear of a river tharlarion lying in wait under the water to rise up and snap us in two between its powerful jaws.

 

“The snakes will hear you coming, kajira,” said Mina with a mocking laugh. “You blunder around like an armoured gatch. Snakes will get out of your way. For some reason I can’t explain, they’re scared of you.”

 

“You don't know that for sure, Mina!” I said as I looked to my left and right before putting another foot down in the sodden long grass. Everything in the rain forest canopy seemed wet and humid.

 

I felt a squelch under my foot.

 

“Actually, I do.” Mina paused, bent down, and I felt a tug on my neck chain as she leaned forward beyond a tree trunk to pluck some leaves from a patch of ground. “Carmana leaves,” she said with delight, placing them in her wicker basket. “A potent pain killer when ground and made into a drink.”       

 

I heard a melodic whistling sound and gazed up into the tree line to see the sound came from a small flock of colourful birds above. They sounded a bit like humans.

 

“Are these berries edible?” I asked as I pointed at some green berries on a nearby bush.

 

“An hour after eating them you’ll be sick and throwing up,” said Mina as she found another plant and carefully harvested it. “This is String Lakma – fights infections of the blood.” She added that to her basket.

 

“What about these orange berries?” I pointed to another bush as I kept the linking chain from getting tangled in another tree.

 

“Eat more than a handful and you’ll go blind,” said Mina. “The white ones over there are edible though. They taste of citrus.” She indicted another bush with white berries that resembled fat gooseberries in size and texture. I say white, but they were sort of off white. Mina allowed me enough length of the chain to start picking the berries and filling the bottom of my basket. I popped one into my mouth as I did so and was rewarded by a lemon–like taste that was soft and not too bitter. A bit like fresh lemonade.

 

“We could work faster if I wasn’t chained to you,” said Mina as she touched the steel links.

 

“Chloe thinks you might try to run. Is she right?” I glanced up as I knelt and saw Mina smile.

 

“Perhaps, kajira.” She glanced around the wet rain forest. “I’m at home here. I know how to survive in this terrain. I could be free.”

 

“Well then, that’s why you’re chained to me.”

 

“You could run with me?” she said with a smile. “The two of us together, free in the jungle? Kissing sisters, free together?”

 

“With collars and a chain? That doesn’t sound promising. Besides, I want to find my sister, Bea, and I want to return home to see my children. That’s a better life than living on berries in a rain forest.”

 

“Does freedom mean nothing to you, Emma?”

 

“There is no freedom on Gor for women, just different forms of bondage.” It was true enough. Even so called free women suffered extreme restrictions on their day to day lives. “Life on the estate isn’t bad. It can be very good. I’ll see you don’t suffer.”

 

“I belong to Tijani. He hasn’t said he’s going to live on your estate. We may never see each other again after we find your sister.”

 

“Brinn will offer him a place of command. It will be a good offer.”

 

We moved further into the canopy, thirty metres or so from the riverbank where the men and the other kajirae were setting up camp. Mina seemed oblivious of the chain getting caught in the bushes and so it was left to me to keep moving it up and under various branches as she spotted interesting looking flora. After a while Mina spotted something growing by the base of some trees and instead of plucking the leaves she began digging in the earth with her fingers. The earth was damp from the humidity and before long she had unearthed a small fibrous root about the size of my little finger.

 

“Amontora,” she said with a wicked smile on her face. “Now this is hard to find, Emma.”

 

“What does it do?” I asked. The chain had got snagged again and I had pulled it free from some low lying branches. Now I crouched next to Mina to see what had excited her so much.

 

“This is our secret.” She brushed some earth from the root and kissed it clean. “It is a secret amongst women and we do not tell the men.”

 

“What?”

 

“That is how it has always been amongst the tribes I know. Only the women know of this root. It is made clear to young girls upon attaining their maidenhead that they are never to speak the secret to our menfolk. We would slash the face of any girl who did.”

 

“What’s so special about that root?”

 

“It is our power to keep our men. This root placed in a man's food will make it difficult for him to maintain a pleasurable erection during sex. It will last a few hours.”

 

“Why would I want that? I like men to be hard when they’re inside me.”

 

“But do you want them to be hard inside another slave?” Mina smiled as she tapped the small root with her finger. “Saffron for example? She would love to work her way into your Master’s furs at night. Would you like her to give your Master considerable pleasure?”

 

“No.” I bristled at the thought. 

 

“So… this root, powdered, in your master’s food on a night when you know he will use her instead of you, and the act will be frustrating for him. He will not find pleasure with Saffron. Not like he does with you. And then later that night you will crawl to him when you know the root has worn off, and he will have such pleasure between your thighs. Soon he will come to understand that you bring him pleasure in ways that no other slave in his coffle can.”

 

“I want that root!” I said quickly as I reached for it but Mina quickly drew her arm back keeping it from me.

 

“Of course you do, kajira,” she said. “It is very hard to find. We are lucky. There may not be another root for many pasangs. I could give you half.”

 

“You want the other half? Oh… you're thinking of Tijani…”

 

Mina nodded quickly.

 

“You like him?”

 

I watched as Mina blushed a little, still uncomfortable in talking about her newly awakened slave needs. “I want to be his preferred slave. I should be his preferred slave. Saffron should be second girl in his chain and subject to discipline from me. I want my master to desire me above her. That is natural enough.”

 

It was indeed natural enough in a slave. And Mina was a slave. We compete with each other like you wouldn’t believe. “I understand. I feel the same about Brinn. Chloe isn’t a threat though.”

 

“Oh? Are you sure about that, Emma? As first girl she will share your master's furs on many nights. I have seen the way he looks at her. It’s not a question of whether she wants to steal him from you – the master may simply grow to prefer her squirming body in his arms as time goes by. Even if she does nothing to win him from you. Anyway, the choice is yours to use it or not. But this is our secret. Do not tell Chloe or Saffron.”

 

“I don’t have any secrets from Chloe.”

 

“You have one now. I like you, Emma. We should look out for one another. We cannot trust men to be faithful to us now that we wear collars.”

 

She was speaking to my innermost paranoia, that nagging frightened voice that would tell me in the quiet hours when I wasn’t with Brinn that one day Brinn would tire of me and other girls would take my place. It was a bowel churning, gut wrenching fear that came and went, for I saw how often he took other girls for his pleasure and on those nights when I was banished to the kitchen to lie on rugs chained to a slave ring, I would imagine how the slut in his bed would be trying her best to worm her way into his permanent affections. It is in the nature of men to grow bored and seek other girls. Time was not on my side.

 

“It’s our secret,” I said, nodding. And then suddenly before I could react in any way, Mina leaned forward and kissed me on my mouth. I was taken aback as she pressed her open mouth to mine and I felt her hands on my body.

 

“Mina, no,” I said with a jingle of chain as I pulled away from her. “I told you that we can’t do that anymore!”

 

“I’m afraid to sleep alone now, Emma,” said Mina. “Now that I no longer feel the Goddess inside of me. I'm scared. I feel weak and uncertain about my future. Tijani might sell me one day. I may never reach the estate in the Sardar that you speak of. But what I do know is that I feel safer when I’m close to you. Please. We don’t need to do anything. Just, can we lie together and you hold me? Just for half an ahn? The men will not know. We already have many herbs gathered. Please. There is a bed of moss here.” She touched my thigh and there was such a pained look in her face as she did so. “Just hold me Emma? Make the nightmares go away for half an ahn?”

 

And so I held her and we settled own onto the bed of moss and lay there doing nothing more than pressing our bodies together and stroking one another’s hair. I think Mina was aroused, but I can’t say I was.

 

“Mina, will you promise me something? Will you promise me that you won’t try and escape?” I felt her place her head against my breasts in reply.

 

“I can’t promise you that, Emma, but I will not have the opportunity. The first girl watches me closely at all times and ensures I am chained. I will not have the opportunity to run. Even at night I wear a chain on my ankle and it is fixed to a tree trunk.”

 

“The penalties for a slave trying to escape are severe, Mina. You don’t understand what they will do to you. And they would catch you. You wouldn’t get away. Please don’t do anything stupid. You have no idea what men can do to us if we anger them.” I thought of the horrors I had endured in my time on Gor. And added to the horrors inflicted by men was the whipping and crucifixion imposed on me by Cassandra. Compared to all of that, Mina had only felt Chloe’s whip hand.

 

I wasn’t aroused lying next to Mina, but I did feel snug and comfortable. There is something about the sensation of another body spooning next to yours. I think we lost track of time a bit for we were then interrupted by the distant sound of men clearing a way through the thickets and calling out our names.

 

“The masters,” I said as I raised my drowsy head from Mina’s left breast. “We’ve been here too long.”

 

“Not long enough,” said Mina as she pressed a kiss to my lips before I could stop her. I felt her hand touch me between my legs and I squirmed, uncomfortably. 

 

“Mina, please, we need to get up.” I pulled myself free with a jingle of chain and sat up as I called out to the approaching figures.

 

“We’re over here, masters. We’re picking herbs!” 

 

Mina lifted herself from the bed of moss and shrugged as she saw me kneel in nadu.

 

“Slave,” she sneered.

 

“Yes, slave. Like you,” I hissed. “Don’t get us into trouble.”

 

Mina shrugged again and then stood up, waving through the canopy of trees to where she could see Tijani cutting a route through with his panga blade. She snapped the thin root in half and pressed one piece into my open hand. “In case you ever need it, kajira,” she said. “Half of what you have will offer your master a less than satisfactory night. All of what I gave you will make for an embarrassing night. Four hours later you can crawl to him and show him what he really needs.”

 

“Thank you.” I concealed the small piece of root in the tucked section of my skirt. It was power. Power to keep my master for myself.

 

“You’ve been gone for nearly two ahn, kajirae,” said Tijani as he held the centre of our coffle chain in his left hand. “You were only supposed to be foraging for herbs and fruit.”

 

“I’m sorry, Master, we lost track of time under the canopy of the trees. We had no idea we’d been gone so long.”

 

“But we have found some useful herbs,” said Mina as she indicated the abundance of green leaves in her wicker basket. “Many of them will fight infection and speed healing.”

 

Tijani said nothing but he reached over with his right hand and brushed moss, grass and bits of leaves from our sides and backs. We had obviously been lying on the ground for some time. “I don’t mind you resting on the grass, but don’t ever lie to me again. Or at least if you do don’t be so stupid as to leave evidence on your bodies.” He indicated the patch of moss on which there were signs of the plants crushed from the weight of our bodies.

 

“We were tired from the rowing…” I said quietly as I gazed at the ground.

 

“Shall I tell Chloe?” suggested Tijani.

 

Mina looked uneasy at that thought. “No, don’t tell Chloe, Master,” she said reluctantly.

 

Tijani regarded us for a while. “Perhaps if you tell her yourself, voluntarily, then she’ll let you off with a warning. How does that sound?”

 

“Better than you telling her, Master,” I said with a smile. I was more concerned for Mina than myself. Chloe could tell that Mina wasn’t yet broken to the collar and she was concerned that lax discipline might eventually lead to an escape attempt that would have severe repercussions for the girl. “It’s my fault, my responsibility, Master. I take full responsibility. Chloe asked me to watch over Mina.”

 

“I see. Then tell the first girl.”

 

“I will, Master,” I said as he released our chain. We followed him silently back towards the river bank. The men had managed to light a camp fire by the time we returned but it was in danger of going out because of the wet fuel. A couple of fish were cooking on spits and there were root vegetables simmering away in a broad iron pot. Chloe regarded our return with a raised eyebrow directed at me. I led Mina over to her and we both knelt in nadu.

 

“The masters were getting concerned,” said Chloe. She was peeling suls for the pot while sheltering under a palm tree.

 

“We felt tired and we lay down on some moss for a while, Mistress,” I said. “It’s my fault. I gave Mina permission to rest and we lost track of the time. I take full responsibility. Mina is not at fault in any way.”

 

Chloe nodded. “Thank you, Emma. Don’t do it again.” She reached over and kissed me softly on the left cheek. “Now go and help Saffron building us some rain shelters.”

 

“That’s it?” said Mina, incredulous as we walked away. “Don’t do it again? That's all?”

 

I shrugged my shoulders. “Chloe and me go way back. She trusts me.”

 

“She would probably have whipped me with her crop.”

 

“Probably, but then she doesn’t trust you.”

 

We found Saffron struggling with a series of poles that she was tying together with twine to make a wooden frame away from the river. I could see that Brinn and Tijani had already dragged the canoe out of the water and beached it, unloading the boxes and bags containing our supplies. It was always a dilemma as to whether to leave a laden canoe in the water, tethered to the bank, or beach and unload it. Keeping it in the water allowed for a quick escape if we were suddenly attacked, but it also meant the canoe could be stolen while we slept. This close to Schendi the men had obviously decided that stealthy theft was more of a threat than a full blown bandit raid. With rain water still coming down we needed a shelter for the night and Brinn had hammered a number of support poles for our frame into the sodden ground. He had shown Saffron how to then construct the rest of the frame around those poles. She had been sent to cut palm fronds and lay them like a roof, intertwining them to form the basis of our shelter over which a tarpaulin would then be stretched. Mina and I began to help her, going backwards and forwards to the tree line together with knives to cut more fronds and pass them back to Saffron. Again, it was frustrating being chained to Mina, making the work slower and clumsy, but we couldn't risk her suddenly running into the rain forest if she was free.

 

Once the roof was complete we stretched the canvas tarpaulin over it at an angle that would allow the rain water to run away to the ground. We then set to digging a low trench around the shelter to act as a moat for rain water. The trench was then dug to drain away on the slope of the ground leading towards the river. Meanwhile the men struggled with keeping the camp fire alight under the shelter of some palm fronds. Most of the wood we were able to forage was wet but they had brought some kindling with them that was dry. The fish they had caught earlier continued to cook nicely and I could smell it from where we worked.      

 

Saffron's long hair was a mess. It was soaked and hanging about her in heavy layers. As Brinn had stated back in Schendi, long hair on women is a burden in a hot humid rainforest. My cut on the other hand felt light and manageable as I worked, while Saffron had to keep sweeping heavy strands of her damp hair from her face.

 

“Ask Tijani to cut your hair,” I suggested.

 

“No!” Saffron was as proud of her long hair as I had been, but there was no denying she was suffering with the weight and heat of it in this equatorial climate. Slaves are generally not permitted to tie their hair up, for that is a thing that free women do and we must not be seen to be imitating free women in any way whatsoever.

 

“It's too long,” I said again.

 

“Shut up, Emma!” she snapped “You're just jealous because my long hair means I'm more valuable than you are! You've seen the way your master has been looking at me and you don't like it.”

 

“You'll keep your slutty hands away from my Master, if you know what's good for you,” I hissed quietly in warning. I must have looked a bit scary because Saffron backed away a step or two as I said that.    

 

Our shelter was beginning to look dry and snug as the angled canvas was secured in place between the trees. Mina and I laid dry palms and reeds down on the floor, layer after layer to insulate against the damp grass. Over this we laid sackcloth and then rolls of fur pelts. As the rain pitter pattered against the tarpaulin we jumped onto the furs and rolled around, feeling dry for the first time in a couple of ahn. The chain jingled between us as we luxuriated in the softness of the thick fur bedding.

 

“Tal, chain sister,” I said to Mina as I pressed my nose briefly against hers.

 

Wet and miserable looking, Saffron hurried inside as soon as she saw we had finished the flooring.

 

“Oh no!” I said quickly as I saw how soaked she looked. I blocked her from climbing onto the bedding. “Dry yourself off before you clamber onto these furs!” I threw Saffron some spare sack cloth and watched as she rubbed herself dry. Outside the rain was getting louder, drumming its staccato beat against the broad leaves of the jungle canopy that spread all around us. I lay in the furs with Mina snuggled close to me and I felt happy. Yes, I actually felt happy. The evening was warm and the sound of the rain outside was soothing now that I was dry and comfortable. Soon there would be food – fresh fish with root vegetables and my stomach was rumbling in appreciation of the feast to come. This felt like a camping expedition with my school friends when I was very young. The excitement of being away from home with people you liked.

 

The furs were from animals native to the rain forest and their pelts had a natural water resistance, meaning the top most layer of the furs shed water rather than absorbed it, and then quickly dried out in sunshine. Bearing in mind the relative levels of humidity and frequent rain falls in this region, these furs were essential camping supplies for traveling east of Schendi.

 

Mina and I watched as Saffron was forced to towel herself dry because neither of us would relent and let her on the bedding until she did.

 

“Well?” she demanded as she finished.

 

“I suspect she's still slut wet between the legs,” said Mina, laughing.

 

“Probably,” I said as I joined Mina in stretching out our combined limbs to cover pretty much all of the furs we'd laid out so far. “Apparently she oils if a man just looks at her!” We laughed as Saffron stood there with the sack cloth in her hands fuming.

 

“Join us,” said Mina as she could see Saffron was about to explode. “We're only joking. The furs are really soft and it's better than lurking around the campfire in all that rain.”

 

Saffron jumped onto the thick furs and lay down beside us. I watched as she examined the palms of her hands and winced at the sight of the blisters from the day's rowing.

 

“I can mix some ointment for that,” said  Mina as she took the palm of Saffron's left hand and traced a finger lightly over the blisters. “But you're all going to end up with hard callouses within the week.” She waved her own hand, the palm of which wasn't soft as ours was. There wasn't a single blister in sight. It was easy to forget the life she had lived fighting with a spear shaft in her right hand.     

 

Saffron was no longer white silk, and had lost her virginity on the second night in Schendi. She had known it was coming of course but had held on to some ridiculous notion that Tijani might have left her inviolate. She had seen Tijani use Mina on the first night in our shared lodging and had heard the cries of pleasure coming from the former Ubara as she was brought to a satisfying slave orgasm. Perhaps she had hoped that Tijani would be infatuated sufficiently with Mina that he might not touch her?

 

Men rarely behave like that in my experience. If they are wealthy enough to own two kajirae, both kajirae will be used in the furs.

 

On the second night Saffron watched with mounting horror as Mina was chained to a ring set into the far wall. This meant she would not be used that night. It was the wall space to which Saffron had been chained the previous night. I had watched this from the comfort of Brinn's couch where I was chained by my collar to the slave ring at the head of the bed. My chain was long and mostly decorative in function as I could easily reach most parts of the room without being pulled up short. Brinn nearly always chains me to his couch when I share it with him, and on the odd occasions he is too drunk to remember to do so I often remind him. I like being chained to his couch. It makes me feel secure and owned. I am a slave girl after all.

 

I have grown into my bondage over the years and sometimes kiss the chain before I go to sleep. It acts a bit like a comfort blanket I suppose. But it wasn't always like that. In my early days of slavery I fought very hard against the feelings in my body.

 

And so I watched, saying nothing, as Saffron was taken to Tijani's couch and was chained by her left ankle to the ring at the base of the bed. She was lucky actually that she would lose her virginity in a bed. Most slaves do not earn that honour for a long time and have to serve a master's desires on the floor. She had made herself seem very small on the couch, curling her legs up against her belly, and her arms crossed over her breasts. Her long waist length hair spread about her like a halo. She looked terrified. Tijani simply drew her arms away and pulled her legs apart, telling her not to do that again. He looked at her and I could see how aroused he felt by the sight of her naked body and the presence of the ankle chain. Men are turned on by the sight of bondage on a girl. It works instinctively for both our sexes.

 

Saffron had been a free companion for three years and during that time had never had sex. I think she had desired intercourse with her companion, the Admiral of Cos, but his inability to copulate with her had added to her conflicted emotions and heightened sense of anguish. Tijani was going to be gentle with her this first time it seemed. He could see the terror in her eyes as he stroked her body and firmly laid her down onto her back. She was breathing heavily as Tijani parted her thighs.

 

“Please spare me,” she cried.

 

“You're far too desirable to be spared and left as white silk,” said Tijani as he continued to stroke and caress her.

 

“Return me to Telnus, I beg of you!”

 

“Your family would turn you away in shame,” said Tijani. “You have a slave brand on your thigh.”

 

It was almost certainly true. The family would not want her back now that she was branded. It makes a considerable difference in Gorean culture. At best they would keep her as a slave within the household, performing chores alongside the other slaves. And deep down Saffron knew and understood that. Whether it was fair or not, that was the way Gorean society viewed women once they were enslaved. There was no coming back from the brand.  

 

Tijani took his time with Saffron, warming her body, arousing it, kissing and fondling her breasts which were very sensitive to his touch. Gradually her tearful protests changed to soft gasps and moans as her erogenous zones came alive to his experienced stimulation. Tijani obviously wanted Saffron to receive some pleasure from his use of her, and that I think is always the best way for a woman to learn her slavery. Brinn began warming me for use at the same time, and like me he was partly distracted by the soft cries coming from the former Cosian Lady on the couch opposite. I don't need much foreplay but I enjoy it and encourage men to explore my body with their hands. I know what I like and what turns me on and I make it quite clear with slave-like noises when a man is doing all the right things to me. I think Saffron could hear my own gasps of pleasure and this allowed her to lose some of her inhibitions, some of her frigid defences. She wasn't the only girl being aroused on a couch and if anything I was the louder of the two of us. When Brinn moved to penetrate me and I let out a cry of pleasure as I felt his stiff cock sliding inside me, Saffron began to mewl in need herself. Very soon Tijani obliged by entering her the way Brinn had entered me.

 

I drifted in and out of awareness of Saffron's cries of exquisite pleasure as I was brought close to my first orgasm of the night. No doubt it had hurt at first when Saffron's virginity had been ruptured, but now she was rocking in time to Tijani's thrusts and clawing and scratching at the upholstery of the couch as Tijani rode her with increased rhythm. Her cries became more shrill as she was close to coming and Tijani allowed her to tip over the edge in her own time. She screamed as she hit that moment of ecstasy and Tijani laughed as he saw how wildly she shook under him. Then I think he let her subside and enjoy the glow of the orgasm for a while before he began to caress her again, for he was still hard inside her. I knew little more after that as Brinn began to push me to my own deep depths and I lost myself wrapped around that luscious thick cock of his.

 

Later that night I lay with my head pressed to Brinn's chest as I heard Saffron talking to Tijani softly in the darkness. I couldn't make out what they were saying exactly, only that they were engaging in long bouts of pillow talk. I felt snug, warm and satisfied. I felt owned and sexual because of it. In the darkness, I heard a slither of chain that no doubt belonged to Mina over on the far side of the room. She would still be awake having had to lie there listening to us both. I wondered how she felt, lying alone with no man touching her? I heard the chain slither on the floor again and I guessed she must be feeling very restless indeed.                  

 

Saffron and Tijani must have spoken in whispers together for some time for eventually I fell asleep before they stopped.

 

Next morning I saw a sullen Mina lying by herself on the floor, and a flushed and radiant looking Saffron who lay in Tijani's arms laughing softly and squealing as he touched her under the furs.

 

“Good morning red silk girl,” I said to Saffron as I lay beside a still drowsy Brinn.    

 

“Good morning Emma,” said Saffron, sounding a little bashful now. “I am red silk...'

 

“Congratulations.” I stirred in my bed. “Now you know what you've been missing all your life.”