äšŧä·Ĥäŕäłď·ŘŤŁ

This story is one that isn’t unique; it’s something that happens quite a bit in Gor. This story isn’t a sad one though. It’s a story about a beginning, a new beginning and what happens when a woman in Gor wasn’t as safe as her parents first thought. This is just another story of what happens when people get in over their head and have nothing left to lose.

Jacqueline was the oldest female in her family, aside from her mother. They had always lived on the island of Tabor, and it was a comfortable life. She didn’t always have everything she wanted, and her mother worked just as hard as her father… and they always had to tend to their own farming, but it was a gratifying life. She was taught from a young age to never be afraid to work the dirt with her hands.

She was educated by her parents, taught to read while she was young enough to not be a help with the crops. She never could read well, but it was enough for her to be able to understand things around her and to get the job done when reading became necessary. It wasn’t because she couldn’t; it was because she was a daydreamer. Her mind would drift off from time to time, and she often envisioned herself lying in between the rows of crops, staring up at the sky.

The one thing that she always had in her favor was the fact that her family had a number of children. She had brothers and sisters that kept her level and grounded. Whenever she found herself lost in her thoughts, there was always someone there to pull her back and remind her that she needed to focus on the task at hand. And since her brothers and sisters weren’t terribly younger than her, they always got along fairly well. She often found herself admiring her mother for the fact that she could tend to six children and never even bat an eyelash at the stress that it had to cause.

Childhood was kind to her, but it wasn’t too long before childhood changed and she found herself becoming an adult. The island around her was changing. Her sisters and youngest brother took their turns at tending the field and her father would take her and her other brother to the shoreline to fish. They even had a moderate skiff that they would take out just off of the coastline. She learned how to man the nets and spears and had just gotten the hang of things when everything changed and turned her quiet life upside down. She had no idea how drastically her life was going to change.

There wasn’t anything special about the evening that things turned upside down. Her and her father were coming in on the skiff, dragging the net toward the shoreline steadily. The call of “incoming ship” was enough to get her attention though. They just couldn’t get to the shoreline in time. It was only a matter of moments before the skiff was completely overwhelmed by the larger vessel.

Time seemed to slow, and no matter how fast she tried to help her father pull the skiff onto the shore, the slower it seemed to move. The vessel bore down on them and within moments, the crew was on the shore and her simple life was over. Her father and brother were separated from her and she found herself lifted by her waist and tossed over a man’s shoulder.

She was dumped off in the middle of the sand, forced to sit and watch her father and brother be held at knife point. They just happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time, and they were learning it the hard way. She had been set to her knees and her hands were already held behind her. But all of the noise seemed to be drowned by silence as her captors parted and made way for two men walking through the fray.

The men kept her in front of them and she was told that if she moved, her father and brother would be killed. She was made to just sit and listen, and what was said to her was the hardest thing for her to choose. It also seemed to be the easiest answer when the question was asked. The two men seemed to just hold their conversation despite their audience.

“Do we kill them all, or give them a choice?”

“We aren’t killers… let’s give them a choice.”

“Fair enough… you there, woman. What is your name?”

She stumbled for her words. The fear that wrapped itself around her body had halted her tongue. She had to find her name… it was around there somewhere. She didn’t want to risk not speaking and forfeiting her father or brother’s lives.

“Jacqueline… m-my name is Jacqueline. P-please… let us go. We haven’t done anything wrong.”

The men looked to each other, though she wasn’t capable of seeing it. They whispered back and forth and finally, one spoke again.

“We’ll let two of you go… but one leaves with us. Choose wisely and say your goodbyes now.”

She instantly looked to her father and shook her head as he opened his mouth. There was no way that she could live, knowing that her father had sacrificed himself to let her leave. Her family needed him more than her and she knew what she had to do.

Before he could even respond, she slowly turned herself around to the man directly behind her. Her back was incredibly straight and her head lowered. She raised her arms, crossing her wrists. She spoke, despite her position, hoping to plead the release of her family.

“Please, take me as yours and leave my family be. I will not struggle and I willingly submit to you. I just beg for mercy for my father and brother and pray that you let them return to our home safe and unharmed.”

The large man that she knelt in front of just listened to her speak, then looked back to the man he stood next to. They spoke quietly for a few moments, then nodded and drummed his fingers on his spear. He stepped around her, looked to her family a moment and shrugged, then dug the butt of his spear into the sand. Carefully and methodically, he drew a circle in the sand. He looked back to her and motioned for her to stand.

Her eyes widened, she had heard about this before. It was a distant rumor from a time long about. It had to have been years before, when she was barely out of her childhood. One of her friends, a plump girl with a robust personality had told of a time when a friend of her older sister… or someone of similar relation, had been forced into the circle. She knew that meant that he intended to make her a bondmaid. It was a thought that actually sent a chill through her body. It had only been a distant rumor until now, and she was faced with the reality of her words.

“Into the circle with you, and when you step out, you will be a bondmaid now and forever.”

His words broke her thoughts up and she looked to her father and brother. She couldn’t allow them to be put to the oars on a raiders’ ship. The family needed them more than her and she did what any woman in her position would do. She calmly stood, lifted her chin to be level with her feet and looked to the chest of the man with the spear. She took a deep breath and, hands behind her back and crossed, she stepped into the circle.

She took one last look to her father and brother and stepped out of the circle and to the side of the large man with the spear. She knelt down before him once more, back straight and arms above her as she prepared for whatever the man may do to her.

The man reached down into a pouch on his hip and pulled out a solid silver cup. It had two chip marks on the rim and it looked as if it had seen better days, but it was definitely worth its metal. He looked to the men at knife point as he broke off the handle of the cup. He looked back to her and nodded, then tossed the chunk of silver to the men.

She heard the drop of the metal on the sand and she exhaled slowly. She knew what she had done and if it gave her family a chance, then she wasn’t going to regret anything. Things would change from here, and they could only get better, as this was the worst thing she’d ever been through.