Talendar Field
It is late afternoon. We maintained camp here for a day and I am sitting just on
the other side of the wagons in a field where talendar grows in riotous
profusion. I did girl things today after chores were done ... arranging my hair
and tucking flowers in among the curls. The morning made me feel intensely
feminine.
I woke from a dream where he held me nearly immobile in his lap, using me as the
heated slave I am increasingly becoming the longer he owns me. Heavy lidded eyes
opened to find dream and reality blending. As he predicted last night, kettle
girls watched and, for the brief moment I was aware of their gaze, I knew it
excited them and they burned with both lust and envy.
The girls on the slaver's chain talk in low, intense tones. They have heard
rumors of girls being sold or exchanged in Thentis. They strut and preen, each
trying to prove herself more desirable than any other girl in the camp. I found
myself imitating their mannerisms this morning, perhaps even exaggerating them.
It almost amused me. I felt competitive and did not want my Master looking at
them or even consider using one of those girls.
Two of the girls, Rashida and Koura, laughed at me. They are insolent and secure
in their beauty. "Little barbarian girl." One of the men heard them and laughed,
though his words were directed to them. "I heard her value has doubled. Perhaps
she knows little barbarian tricks you girls cannot even imagine." They tossed
their heads and glared at me with narrowed eyes before gliding away to join
their chain sisters.
Last night, his lips next to my ear, he said, "You are mine. Make no mistake."
Today while I prepared his meal, I heard a girl crying and begging. She chased
after Master Habib, flinging herself at his feet and clutching his ankles. He
ordered her to stop, saying she was marking her skin and would bring a lesser
price. His manner toward her was distant. She thought she would not be sold,
that she was a preferred girl since she had been treated with indulgence. I
think she became complacent.
It made me think how tenuous indulgence can be ... how easily a slave can be
sold. I thought long and hard about that girl ... and about myself. I determined
to be even more pleasing to my Master, ever more attuned to his mood and
desires. This is not an easy life.