The Paga Diaries (20) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Banishment’

 

I really did not want to be around Mirus and Tereus.  I was disgusted with the beating of Lina by Mirus.  Her little laugh when my string broke was harmless.  It probably did look funny to her and I was not offended at all. I have never owned a woman but it seemed to me that Mirus had a very heavy hand when it came to disciplining Lina.  I wanted to take her away and make her my own.  I was hoping that Mirus would change his mind about selling her to me.  I did not feel like spending the afternoon with them but I was thankful for his work on my gemstone appraisal, and everything else that he had done for me.  I did not want to offend him.  

 

It was very easy to say yes to going to the Dautium Square Market with its luxury taverns and the exceptional variety of beautiful slave girls who worked in them.  We went into the Shackle and Chain again and were looking for a low table close to the sand pit where the slaves dance.  To me the dance was a show, a mesmerizing display of sensuous skill, passion and beauty.  I got distracted by the moves of a short brunette in the pit and didn’t notice a man waving at us to join him at his low table.  

 

The man was Atticus, the hulk of a man who was an officer of the city guard and whom I had met last time I was here.  The three of us joined him at his table and ordered paga, except for Mirus, who ordered ka-la-na. 

 

“Tal Atticus, has the Shackle and Chain become a new guard station for our city?” Mirus joked. 

 

“Tal. I am exploring guard station locations that increase the surveillance opportunities of criminals,” Atticus said. 

The Paga Diaries (19) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Little Bird’

 

This morning was bright and sunny as I was walking to Mirus’s house for my next stabilization injection.  My mind was on last night and some of the things Trem and I had talked about after we left the Feasting Tarn.  Trem had asked if I had noticed that the tavern had a different feel to it, did it seem quieter than normal or was there anything odd.  I was honest with him and said that I did not notice anything odd.  He told me that news had come to the city about the war with Corcyrus and it wasn’t good.  Argentum forces had been beaten and the front line had been compromised. 

 

He went on to say that the Argentum government was downplaying this loss as a minimal setback.  The front lines had been restored and progress was being made towards Corcyrus.  But the curious thing was that they have now forbidden any talk of defeat or the possibility of not winning the war.  He said that last night, the war was the main topic of conversations everywhere in the tavern and that many people spoke with hushed tones or even in whispers.  The government ban on this topic only magnifies curiosity and talk amongst the citizens of this large city.  Trem warned me not to talk about the war with anyone.  He said that as a barbarian, people might treat me with more suspicion than normal, and that I should be careful.

 

I was now more determined than ever to become fluent in Gorean.  Should I leave this city and go somewhere peaceful, with no war?  Where would that be and how would I get there?  As I walked, I decided I would stay and hope that the war would be over soon, and not touch this city. 

The Paga Diaries (18) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Tea with Free Women and Comfort in Kaissa’

 

My mind was numb as I walked toward Mirus’s house to get my second stabilization injection.  When I arrived, I knocked on the front door of his mansion.  Fen, his assistant answered the door and invited me in.  He told me that he would be handling today’s injection as the Physician was occupied at the moment.  I wondered if Mirus was occupied with the appraisal of the gemstones I had left with him. 

 

We went into the windowless green patient room.  Fen was quick with the injection and the pain became nothing.  I left the house after saying that I would return tomorrow for the next shot. 

 

I did not know what to do next.  I really wanted to go to the tarncot and see Trem and Jesop and learn more about tarns.  I also had a powerful need for a strong drink.  But drinking and tarns don’t mix.  I started to walk to the tarncot.

 

As I walked, I kept replaying the events of the morning with Penny.  I knew her name was really Five, but she was Penny to me.   I kept thinking about what I should have done different with Lenious, her master, in my attempt to purchase her.  What had gone wrong?  Why wouldn’t he sell her to me, especially for the high price I offered? 

 

After a pasang or so, I walked past a building that had a unique smell of something freshly baked, with spices.  I wasn’t hungry yet but the smell was unique enough to draw my attention into seeing what it was.  The building had an open door and I walked in.  There were several low tables placed about the room with large spaces between them.  Only two of the tables had anyone at them, both of them with groups of women, wearing veils and robes of concealment.  The women were laughing and did not pay any attention to me.  I noticed another door that opened out into a beautiful back courtyard area. 

The Paga Diaries (17) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘The Offer’

 

I was happy to see Penny standing at our meeting spot at the sixth ahn.  She dropped to her knees and knelt in nadu as I got close to her.  The bell on her neck rang as she knelt.  “Tal, Master,” she said with happy blue eyes and a smile on her face.  She was clean today, as was her shabby camisk.  I was happy to see that. 

 

“Tal, Penny,” I said. “We do something different today.”

 

“Yes Master, what are we doing?”

 

“I take you to apartment. Want you to know where I live. Make new meet place. So, when you can’t meet, you come next day,” I said.

 

“I don’t understand, Master.”

 

“On day when you can’t meet, you come morning that you can. You come to me, where I live,” I tried to explain. 

 

“Yes, Master.  There are days when I can’t meet you.  On days that I can meet you, I will come to where you live, and this will become our new meeting place.” 

 

“Yes, morning at the sixth ahn.  Now we get breakfast and go to apartment,” I said.

 

We ate our pastries on the way to my apartment or insula, which wasn’t very far from our meeting place.  The building was two stories of stone masonry that was built in a “U” shape, with a small courtyard in the centre. The building was two stories with twelve apartments on each floor, each apartment having its own exterior entrance door.  I unlocked the door and we entered my small single room apartment.

 

“Strip Penny,” I said.  She gracefully removed her camisk, revealing her thin tan figure, perky breasts, and long slender legs.  I enjoyed looking at her and wanted her to remain naked while she was in my apartment.  I had Penny kneel and I took a towel and used it to wrap and muffle the triangular bell that was chained around her neck along with the metal coin box.  The bell was very distracting and irritating.  I started to point at things in the room so that she could teach me the Gorean words for them.  I learned the words for simple household things like the cabinet, countertop, fireplace with hanging pot, the chamber pot and everything else that was in the room. 

The Paga Diaries (16) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Dautium Market Square’

 

Tereus was a large muscular man, over six foot tall and always serious.  He proceeded Mirus and I as we followed him through the busy streets on our way to the Dautium market square.  Before we left Mirus’s mansion, he saw me inside the home wearing my sword.  When he had entered the office, leading the leashed Lina, I noticed him look at my sword when he first saw me, sitting on a floor cushion at the low table. It was at an awkward angle, for it can be uncomfortable wearing a sword on your belt when sitting on a floor cushion.  It has to be positioned just right to lie without pulling on the belt when sitting. If being armed with a sword in Mirus’s house bothered him, he didn’t say anything to me.

 

When we left the area where Mirus lived, the homes in the neighbourhoods that we passed through became smaller, but were still very nice and well kept.  I would be really comfortable living in a neighbourhood like these.  I really needed to move out of the slums and I wondered if I could afford anything in this area.

 

As we walked towards Dautium, we passed two massive cylindrical towers built very close together.  They were amazing.  A suspended walkway connected the two towers very high up, at least two-thirds up the height of the building.  I could see many other towers not far away and a concentration of them in what was the city centre.  There easily over a hundred of these massive towers in this city. 

The Paga Diaries (15) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Stabilization’

 

Penny was waiting for me, having arrived at our meeting spot early, before the sixth ahn.  I was very happy to see her.  I woke up this morning, intent on coming here, in hopes that she would show up, despite the lack of a prior arrangement.  She looked good this morning, with a clean camisk, and her usual smile and bright blue eyes.  She knelt in nadu on the side of the street as I approached and her neck bell rang.  She said, “Tal Master. You have been cured even more! There is no sign of withering on you.”

 

“Yes Penny, thank you.  We find breakfast,” I said.

 

“Yes Master!”

 

We didn’t have to walk far before we found a street vendor that was making fresh pastries.  I bought  one with meat and melting cheese and Penny chose a sweet one with berries.   We ate them steamy hot, before starting our walk.

 

“You did not come, when we arranged,” I said.

 

“No Master, I am sorry.  I could not come then.”

 

“Army camps?” I asked.

 

“Yes Master,” she said, her smile fading.

The Paga Diaries (14) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Second Treatment’

I woke up on the couch in the guest bedroom, very early in the morning, many ahn before sunrise.  The room was dark, with very faint twilight coming through the window.  I had an unbearable urge to urinate and my body was sore.  I swung my feet over the side of the couch to the floor as I sat up.  My left foot landed on a small cold metal chain.  I shifted my foot to the side.  I felt lightheaded and unsteady.  My stomach growled in hunger.  I heard rain outside.  

 

As I sat there hoping the dizziness would fade, my eyes adjusted to the twilight.  I looked at the chain on the floor and followed it from a ring at the bottom corner of the couch, to only a few feet  before  it went under a blanket covering someone laying on the floor.  The shape was hard to make out but it was resting on the ground lying parallel to the couch.  I heard a very faint snore coming from the blanket, so faint that it could only be a woman’s snore.  

The Paga Diaries (13) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Jesop’

 

I woke up early in Trem’s apartment.  He had encouraged me to stay the night at his place after a long evening of eating and drinking at the Feasting Tavern.  It was dark when we left and he reiterated that my neighbourhood was not safe at night.  My place was also a good walk from here. 

 

I heard Trem getting ready for work and he was making something for breakfast. It didn’t smell or look good.  It was some sort of porridge, or oatmeal, or, well, I didn’t really know.  But I was hungry too and got up, thinking I would get something on the way to meet Penny.  I bid Trem farewell as he left for work and the long walk up the stairs to the tarncot.  

 

On the street I sniffed out a bakery.  I walked out with two little vulo egg and cheese pies.  Very delicious, they reminded me of quiche, and was just what I needed.  As I walked, noticing many Goreans walking briskly to work or other morning errands, I thought about yesterday.  My solo tarn flight was amazing and I was eager to fly again and again.  I had asked Trem if I could volunteer to work for him in the tarncot, so that I could learn everything about tarns.  He said yes, and I would have gone with him this morning, except I had made an appointment to see Penny.

The Paga Diaries (12) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Solo Tarn Ride’

 

After my morning with Penny, I wandered a bit, further out, in a part of the city that was new to me.  I had lunch in a new tavern.  I saw another passage of army units pass through the streets, apparently heading for a city wall gate and one of the camps outside.  The banners, shields, spears, helmets and uniforms all looked brand new to me.  My impression was that these units were freshly mobilized and being sent to the front.  The front was further and further out, approaching Corcyrus closer every day.  The war was a popular topic in the taverns and even though I could still only understand bits and pieces of an eavesdropped conversation, it was expected that the conflict would be over very soon.  Many men in the tavern seemed to get excited about maybe being able to afford purchasing a Free Woman of Corcyrus, sent to Argentum as a cheap captive slave.  

 

I had no idea how much slaves cost and I certainly hadn’t been looking at slave markets to see if prices were actually getting cheaper.  I knew that if I lingered too long at a market, I wouldn’t be able to resist the temptation of buying my own kajira.  Someone like Lina or Penny.  I was still enjoying the use of paga sluts.  Someday I would be ready to take on the responsibility of caring for, and keeping a woman secure in my bonds.  I was still too new on Gor to think that I could manage that type of relationship.  The master/slave relationship requires a lot of time, if done right.  There are many considerations.  Feeding, clothing (maybe not clothing), bathing, sheltering, training and discipline all require time and I looked forward to those things, but they would be a distraction for me now. 

The Paga Diaries (11) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Use of Penny’

 

Trem and I went down the wide stepped central staircase of the Feasting Tarn.  I had a few questions in my mind about what had happened with the altercation we had just left on the rooftop lounge.  As we walked he muttered something about going somewhere to talk.  When we got to the first floor of the tavern, he led us off the staircase and into the busy tavern area.  There was a lot of hustle and bustle of tavern activities that we walked through before he found us a small unoccupied table, that we sat at. 

 

“Rykart, it looks like your treatment has gone well,” Trem finally said.  I felt like he was trying to talk about something other than what had just happened. 

 

“Thank you Trem, one treatment then stabilize,” I said.  “Neris is who? Man I hit is who?”

 

 “Yes, yes” He said. “Neris and Otho, I owe money and they are sent to collect it.”

 

“I have money, l pay for you. You pay me later?”  I said.

 

“No, Rykart, I owe them more than you have and some of I what I owe them is not money. You would not understand.”

The Paga Diaries (10) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Lenta, Kaissa and an Altercation’

 

I had left Mirus’s home in early afternoon - I think maybe during the twelfth ahn - and I was walking back to my apartment.  But I didn’t want to go to my apartment.  There was nothing there and being there bored me.  I have been blessed in my life to not really suffer from boredom.  I have always been able to entertain or content myself with my surroundings.  Luckily, I have lived most of my life near mountains and they draw my attention.  I can’t imagine living in some featureless flat place like Nebraska.  I am never bored during my wanderings.  Quite the opposite, wanderings usually offered something new to look at or people to interact with.  Maybe I needed a better apartment.

 

I was hungry again and stopped at a street vendor selling fresh baked meat pies.  I was curious about how they were baked in a small brick oven mounted on a cart.  I had smelled the pies for at least five ehn before finding them.

 

While I walked, eating my delicious steaming bosk and cheese pie, with a golden crispy crust, I thought about my extraordinary time at Mirus’s.  After the exhausting swim with Mirus and Lina, I had a large hearty breakfast and went back to my room.  

The Paga Diaries (9) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘First Treatment’

 

I returned as instructed to Mirus’s house on the morning of the fourth day after spending the night in his home.  I knocked on the door and was greeted by young Fen, Mirus’s assistant.  He invited me into the formal foyer and said that Mirus would be with me shortly.  I came unarmed this time, not bringing my short sword with me as it had created some apprehension the last time I was here.  I sat on the cushioned bench.  

 

Fen returned after about ten minutes and told me to follow him.  I followed him into a hallway, then we turned right into another hallway that I recognized.  I had spent the night in a guest quarter three doors down this hallway.  We went past that room and near the end of the hallway entered a room that was bigger than the room I had stayed in before.  The room looked like it was set up for guests too.  It had a low table with cushions around it on the floor.  There was a couch with furs on it and metal rings attached in places.  This room had a window with a view of a large pool outside.  I did not think that the pool was visible from outside the home on the street. 

 

Mirus walked into the room followed by his lovely slave Lina.  “Tal, Rykart,” he said.  “Tal, Mirus,” I replied.  “Sit,” he said and motioned with his hand.  We sat on the floor cushions around the low table.  Lina knelt next to her master, with her eyes lowered.  She had not looked at me.  “Lina will translate,” he said.

The Paga Diaries (8) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘The Tarn’

 

I spent the day exploring new parts of the city, further and further out from the neighbourhood of my apartment.  I found another small open air market area with stalls, tables and tents similar to the one I found a couple days ago.  I discovered a clothing store that had all manner of tunics with varying materials, some of them very fine quality.  I purchased another tunic, and arranged for the seamstress, a robed and veiled Free Woman to sew in some internal concealed pockets.  She was very confused as to what I wanted and became frustrated with my efforts to explain what I wanted.  I didn’t know the Gorean word for “pocket” and I had to use my hand and some cloth to help her visualize what I wanted.  I don’t think she ever understood why her perfectly made tunic needed additional work done. 

 

How should I carry my money?  A lot of Goreans keep their money in small bags and tie them to belts.  That just seemed too exposed for me, too easy for a thief to snatch and grab.  Other Goreans carry  their money in their mouth.  What an inconvenience, not to mention the metallic taste all day long!  And when they need the money, or want to eat or drink paga, they just spit out the coins!  Not me.  I was happy with the two pockets she made for me.  Wearing clothes with pockets all my life, I just couldn’t get used to not having them.  

The Paga Diaries (7) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Penny’s Tutoring’

 

“Your name?” I asked the tan, blond, dirty slave, kneeling between my legs as I sat, slouching on stairway steps.  She had just expertly pleasured me with her mouth after I had put a copper tarsk bit into the slot of the coin box chained to her neck.

 

“Master may call me whatever he likes,” she said.

 

“Your Master calls you?”  I struggled to ask in Gorean. 

 

“Five,” she said.

 

“Five?” I asked, making sure I heard and understood her correctly.

 

“Yes Master, he calls me Five, I am girl five,” she said as she looked down. 

The Paga Diaries (6) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Coin Girl’

 

Trem and I talked, or attempted to, during the long walk back to my apartment.  He seemed hung over or in pain from his head injury from last night.  We stopped to get some paga, which he drank freely while we walked.  I had some too, but mostly to be polite, because he offered it.  I felt great this morning.  Nothing quite like waking up with a beautiful slave girl in my bed followed by a hearty breakfast!

 

I tried to ask Trem about what had happened last night.  Did he know the two men who he had run from and then been attacked by?   He said he owed money to them or someone they worked for and they were attempting to collect money.  He said he shouldn’t have ran, but that he never thought they would beat him so severely.  He seemed very confident that they would not have killed him.  

 

He thanked me for intervening but inferred that things were complicated now.  He said he owed me, for what I had done, but wasn’t sure how to repay that sort of debt to me.  And what sort of debt was it?  Did he owe me his life?  He thinks he does, but that Mirus said it wasn’t as simple as that.  Since the men were trying to get owed money from Trem, it was likely they were not going to murder him.  So, Trem’s life probably wasn’t in danger, but I had potentially risked my life to save his.  Mirus had said that as I am a barbarian, I probably had no idea about honour, life debts and such manners.  So how could I be owed and paid?  I admit I was confused, partly from the struggle of trying to understand what he was telling me without interpretation.  I also did not know how to express that I didn’t feel like Trem owed me anything and that I didn’t need to be repaid.  I wanted to express it, but how to do in manner without translations and avoiding any type of insult?  

The Paga Diaries (5) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Lina’

I followed Lina as she walked with a lamp and led me down a hallway, made a right turn into another hallway, and, after passing two doors, we entered a door into what was a small room.  The room had a couch with furs on it and metal rings attached in several places.  Lina was naked as her tunic was still on the floor in the other room.  She knelt in the centre of the room in nadu, with her eyes forward, not looking at me.  I sat on the couch and looked at her from the side.

 

She really was something to look at!  Even in the low light of a single lamp she was beautiful.  Looking at her and having her kneeling in front of me, waiting on me, erased all the anxiety built up on this strange night.  

 

“How long have you been on Gor?” I asked her.  

 

“I have been instructed not to answer any questions from you about my Master or myself or anyone else.  And I am only to speak to you in Gorean,”  she said perfectly in her accented English.

The Paga Diaries (4) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘The Physician’

 

Trem and I walked along dark streets for a while, perhaps two and a half miles or so, or three and half pasangs.  I have always been good with figuring distances and my time as a soldier in the army gave me experience with conversions of metric distances.  One kilometre is .6 miles and one pasang is .7 miles, so they are almost the same.

 

Trem stopped at a tavern to get more paga to go and I tried to leave him, but he noticed and made a point of me going with him, helping him to the place he knew of where he could get medical attention.  He really wanted to talk to me and had a lot of questions.  But I didn’t understand much of it.  He made an effort to simplify things and slow down with his speech.  After a while I just listened to him talk.  I got the impression that he knew where we were going and that he wanted me to meet someone.  My gut feeling wasn’t helping either way, probably due to paga.  He also wanted me to drink with him, but I wanted to sober up a bit to focus on our surroundings and what might occur at our destination.

The Paga Diaries (3) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘More Paga’

 

I walked back towards the general direction of my apartment.  Before long I entered an area that had stone paved streets and started to see an improvement in the quality of buildings.  I found a tavern and entered it.  The paga attendant barely looked at me as I found a small vacant table along a side wall.  I looked around the open room and saw some games with wheels that looked to be used for gambling.  There was no one playing at this time of the afternoon. There were two tables set up with a board game that had chess type pieces.  This must be kaissa.  I love chess and other games and am also fond of gambling.  There were two men playing kaissa and they looked very serious.  I wondered how I would learn to play the game.  It would be difficult without being fluent in Gorean.  Maybe they wouldn’t mind if I watched.

 

I saw a tavern slave dressed modestly in a tight-fitting slave tunic approach my table.  She knelt on the floor next to the table.  She had brown hair and brown eyes.  She was short and very curvaceous, slightly chubby around the middle.  She had nicely shaped breasts that pushed against the tunic.  She wore a collar.

 

“Paga Master?” she asked. 

 

“Yes” I said.  

 

“Yes Master,” she then rose to her feet and went to fetch my drink.  I looked at her ample backside as she walked away.  I would rather have a woman who has extra curves, versus one that is too skinny.  But, if this paga slave were mine, I would put her on a diet until she had perfectly proportioned curves.   I was attracted to her and my need for a woman was high after the encounter with the coin girl in the street.

The Paga Diaries (2) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘Morning Stroll’

 

I awoke in my simple bed in my rented room, with the memory of the tavern very fresh in my mind.  I was anxious to start my second day on Gor.  I was a free man on an exotic world and I had been planning for this new life for years.  I was anxious to explore, and pursue opportunity.

 

Getting to Gor had consumed my thoughts for years.  Traveling here was near impossible and had taken extensive planning, but now here, what to do upon arrival, had also taken up endless hours of thought.  I had drifted to sleep countless times thinking about what I would do once I got here.  What would I do once on Gor?  How would I spend my time, what kind of occupation would I pursue?  What skills would I be able to adapt?  Where would I wander?

 

I cannot go into many details of the passage arrangements that brought me from Earth.  I had put a lot of thought into what I would bring with me.  My first thought was to bring gold.  Gold seemed to be worth a lot more on Gor than on Earth.  I could buy a highly trained pleasure slave here for one gold coin, worth perhaps $2,000 on Earth, but $40,000 on Gor.  That would be a very expensive purchase on Gor, but to me, it seemed cheap, based on the Earth value, and I dreamt of making such purchases.  Anticipating my passage, I had been converting my meagre earthly possessions into gold, about $42,000. 

The Paga Diaries (1) by Arizona Wanderer: ‘First Paga’

 

Emma’s Preface: And, yes, I’ve inspired another of our lovely masters to put pen to parchment and try their hand at some Gorean writing! Arizona Wanderer has sent me three chapters (so far) of his experiences on that savage but beautiful world, as the barbarian traveller, Rykart of Gor, and I’ll be serialising them here on my Blog, alongside master Tracker’s current serial. Thank you so much, Master, and please keep writing. Hopefully soon I can semi-retire and just sit with the audience eating bak-la-va… 😊

 

-       Emma