Aithne was woken by a touch on her shoulder. She blinked and looked up to see her master standing over her. A warm feeling ran through her body and she smiled at him, the first genuine smile she could remember. He looked momentarily startled – or she might have imagined it – but then his visage shifted to his usual gruff stoicism and he motioned and she pushed herself to wobbly feet.

He watched with an expression that told her that he carried the same concern she was feeling. She willed her legs to hold her weight, begged them to have the strength to walk. And, to the relief of both of them, they did. He nodded and started walking and she smiled and followed, proud of her legs, happy that she had not proven to be weak. She had not failed him this time.

The fog of sleep slipped away as they walked and she began to notice details, such as his armor, which he had donned once again along with the giant sword. She other thing she noticed was Soril, still bound and gagged, still alive, but now stripped naked and being dragged by her hair by her master as he walked. Tears stood in the Soril’s eyes and she cried out at every step as her hair was yanked and her skin was dragged over broken glass and jagged wood. Aithne winced as a particularly long splinter caught in the woman’s leg, snapping off only after four inches had been inserted under the skin of her thigh. She screamed and her body jerked, but her master just gave her a growl and a shake and Aithne looked away and continued to walk.

They went out a back door, the woman’s body thumping painfully down the steps, and into the thick stand of trees that draped the lower bounds of the mountain that reared overhead, then continued on for the rest of the daylight period, stopping only as the sun began to once again cast the land in shadow.

The place her master had chosen to camp was in a shallow concave wall of the mountain, similar to but not as deep as the one they had lived in…before. Proud as she had been of her legs before, Aithne had spent the last hour fighting to keep up. It was all she could to not to crumple to the ground where she stood. But her master appeared to recognize her plight and waved off her attempts to gather wood.

“Rest. You are too valuable – I cannot afford to lose you for something as menial as this. Once I am certain your body will recover, you will return to your normal duties. If it turns out that it will not recover enough, I’ll have to sell you for whatever I can get and start again.”

He did not look pleased at the prospect and Aithne felt a rush of fear at the words. She had had a taste of what it would be like to be owned by someone else. She was determined not to let that happen – her master must remain her master, even if she had to…she didn’t know but she would do whatever it took not to let her body be weak. She sat on the ground but, though it took every bit of her last strength, she did so slowly, as if she was just sitting after a regular day, not just dropping to the grass as her body begged her to.

Her master turned to the Soril. “Now we can finally talk. And this time, there will be no lies.” He bent over and untied the gag, then pulled another wadded up cloth from the woman’s mouth. “So, then. What shall I do with you?”

“Please!” The woman gasped, for breath and for words, as tears trickled down her cheeks. “Just…just let me go! It…it wasn’t my idea! I didn’t…”

Her master leaned forward and slapped her. Not a hard slap, as Aithne well knew, but it still caused Soril to yelp as her head snapped to the side. Aithne found herself sneering just a little as she leaned her back against the cave wall. The woman was weak.

“It doesn’t matter whose idea it was. I didn’t hear you objecting last night as you kept pouring me drink after drink with all of your sweet talk. You humans think you’re smarter than everyone else. It’s pitiful, really. Just see us orcs as animals, don’t you? Didn’t think I’d be smart enough to know Didiastic when I smelled it, eh?” He laughed. “Well, I suppose what comes next will only confirm your suspicious of us. Not that it will matter – you won’t live long enough to learn different.”

The woman began to wail and thrash against her bonds. Both her master and Aithne looked at her with scorn.

“What did you think?” her master asked as he slapped her again. “That I would drag you up here and then just let you go so you could tell the guards about me? Even though your people are the ones who robbed me and tried to drug me, I’m pretty sure the guards wouldn’t listen to my side of the story. You would be dead already but, unfortunately, your friends put my slave out of commission for a while. You’re just here to fill in while she recovers.”

The woman’s wails became screams as her master began stripping off the armor, and Aithne rolled her eyes. He hadn’t even touched her yet, and she was already screaming. Wait until she felt that giant cock shove into her for the first time. She had no idea.

A wave of…something that smelled a little like jealousy wafted past, causing Aithne to frown. She watched as her master finished stripping, his erection already growing as he stepped toward the bound woman. With a quick flip of a knife, he cut the ropes that bound her, and she immediately began to beat at him with her fists even as he wrapped a giant hand around her throat and shoved her to the ground.

“Ah, I forgot how much fun it is when they try to fight. I wish I had more time to train you properly. Two slaves would be worth even more. Unfortunately,” he shifted, pulling the woman’s legs apart with such apparent ease it almost seemed like she had spread them for him, “I don’t have the time and, even if I did, too many people know who you are. So we’ll just have to make this a temporary arrangement.” With that, he shoved into her, laughing as her screams redoubled, echoing off the rock wall above.

Aithne felt a pang lust at every one of her master’s thrusts. She yearned to be the one under him, to have him shove his way into her. She even wanted the sharp pain when he pushed past the point where she could handle him. Though she knew that pain brought with it no pleasure, yet somehow she found herself longing for it. As his grunts increased along with the woman’s screams, Aithne turned away, pushing away from the cave wall and curling into a ball on the ground. The soothing sound of her master grunting to climax lulled her to sleep, and this time she truly did dream – a dream of her master, the orc who brought safety, and for whom she would gladly give anything.

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