Natasha left the stable and
moved away quickly, but not quickly enough to avoid hearing additional shrieks from
Michelle. She realized there was obviously some history between Michelle and Jason,
which she assumed stemmed from a time when Michelle had been free. Jason had not
spoken of Michelle, nor of his history with her, in bed last night and it was doubtful
he ever would because he just didn’t seem like a master who would really talk to
his slave. But then, even if he did really talk to her, aside from anything relating
to Michelle, he didn’t have the answers she wanted. She mentally shrugged, pushing
the thought aside, knowing that she would have more than a week’s worth of questions
to ask the other slaves here if she ever settled down to begin asking them. Those
were the answers she really wanted. At that, questions to Michelle about her history
with Jason would be merely a small segment of that time.
With no particular
destination in mind, and for the moment simply enjoying the bright sunshine
and clean air, she wandered back toward the carriage house. When she got closer
to it she heard a muffled thunk, a few seconds
of silence, then two more of the same thunk sounds.
The latter two were closely spaced, one right after the other. Now drawn by curiosity
she increased her pace slightly. Driven by having as goal she headed in the direction
the sound was coming from. She next heard soft grunting coming from a woman. It
wasn’t a sound of pain. Then it came again, and ‘Tasha recognized it for what it
was. A woman was working at hard labor. Obviously one of the slaves was grunting
at the effort required by her chore. She didn’t know anyone here well enough to
be able to identify who it was by the sound of her voice, so she hurried forward
to see. The thunking was a bit puzzling, and all
‘Tasha could think of was an axe hitting wood. But it didn’t sound exactly like
that either.
When she rounded the corner
of the building she was greeted by a sight and she didn’t know quite what to make
of it. There were six or seven slaves in a group close to the side of the house.
She scanned their faces, wracking her brain to come up with the appropriate names,
and succeeded in matching names to three of the faces. The others she just wasn’t
sure about. She chided herself for not having paid better attention to the introductions
at breakfast. The slaves in the group were doing stretching and limbering-up exercises,
but none were doing anything strenuous enough to warrant grunting. Then, set off
by herself, she saw a lone slave. As soon as she saw the lone slave, her vision
was transfixed, and she stood in mild awe watching the slave she knew to be Jodi.
Jodi was doing some moves that
were both weird and elegant at the same time. She was in a strange pose that ‘Tasha
recognized as being vaguely oriental, associating it with some martial arts movies
she had seen. Jodi began a motion making ‘Tasha realize that she was wearing high
heeled thigh-high boots. The fact that she was doing what she was doing in heels
made ‘Tasha catch her breath and unconsciously hold it in concern for Jodi’s safety.
Jodi moved in ultra-slow motion with one leg raised and her arms cocked at funny
angles, as though she was going to strike something. Her hands were rigidly flat
in the classic karate chop fashion. She pivoted on her leg, somehow moving her body
without having seemed to flex a muscle anywhere. Then, in a flash of motion that
‘Tasha was unable to follow with her eyes, Jodi’s hands wove through the air in
a complicated pattern that seemingly destroyed an invisible opponent standing in
front of her. Then, in another blur of speed, her raised leg shot forward, then
swept sideways at a blinding speed. Her leg seemingly pulled Jodi’s body with it,
then her foot smashed onto the ground, her hands went to the tops of the thigh boots
she was wearing, then she heard the grunting, saw a flash of silver leave her hand,
followed by a second from her other hand, then heard the mysterious thunk twice, as the silver flashes buried themselves
in a wood post set into the ground about twenty feet away.
For the first time, ‘Tasha focused
on the wood post and realized that it was filled with silver throwing stars. Throwing
stars? She has throwing stars? Craig allows her to have them? Those things are lethal!
Not only lethal, but she sure as hell knows how to use them. This house of slaves
is too fucking weird to believe. Slaves are given lethal stuff to play with? She
could easily kill him and run away. The incongruity of that thought stopped
‘Tasha’s flood of questions as she realized one crucial point. He’s not worried
that she will kill him. Why isn’t he? Her thoughts hung on that question for
a few seconds, then her mind veered off in a totally different direction. With crystal
clear clarity and unyielding certainty she came to a realization.
I want to stay here. I want to know what in hell is going on here. This place
is nothing like any of the television shows I’ve seen. The slaves actually seem to be happy here. I have
to influence Jason to decide to stay here. I don’t know how I can do that but I have to try. I want to know what makes this place
tick. And if I’m right and the slaves are happy here; I want that too. I want to
be happy despite being a slave.
With that settled in her mind,
she let the breath she was holding out, then realized something else. The entire
routine had happened while she had been holding her breath. She couldn’t believe
that all that she had seen had occurred in such a short period of time.
By this time Jodi was on both
feet, facing the post. She put her hands together in a praying pose, then bowed
to the post. She turned to survey the group, then noticed ‘Tasha behind them. Upon
seeing ‘Tasha she smiled brightly and called to her. “’Tasha, how nice of you to
join us. I’ll be right with you.” She walked toward the group of slaves, looked
them over then addressed Monica, telling her to take over for a few minutes and
to lead the group in some basic exercises while she spoke with ‘Tasha. Monica nodded,
and all the others arrayed themselves in front of Monica, forming up as a class
before the teacher. Monica took her position in front, then without pausing she
commanded, “Pushups. Twenty five.” She dropped to the ground,
as did all the others and as a single group, they began doing pushups as Monica
called out the cadence.
Jodi continued walking toward
‘Tasha. For the first time ‘Tasha really looked at Jodi. She marveled, feeling a
spike of envy, at the other woman’s feline gracefulness. She turned simply walking
into a sensuous act. And those boots didn’t hurt either. ‘Tasha lusted for the boots
Jodi was wearing. They were spike-heeled, white with silver tooling up the sides.
They were gorgeous, and they, along with her ass-covering length hair wafting gently
behind her, made Jodi look like a goddess who had come to earth. When she got close
to ‘Tasha, Jodi opened the conversation with an apology. She repeated her statement
that she was delighted that ‘Tasha had joined them, then added the apology that
she had erred by not making a point of telling ‘Tasha about the exercise class and
inviting her to join them. ‘Tasha waved the apology aside with the thought that
none of them could have known that she or her master would have still been here.
But she thanked Jodi for her concern, adding that if by some chance she and her
master remained in Eastlake as Craig’s guests, she would love to join the exercise
class.
Jodi could not help noticing
that ‘Tasha’s eyes flicked downward a few times while they were speaking, then she
realized that the other slave was looking at the top of her boots. Or more specifically,
probably at the few throwing stars that remained stored there. She casually extracted
one then offered it to ‘Tasha while warning her to be careful because they were
very sharp. She took it gingerly, assessing its weight and looking it over closely.
After a minute ‘Tasha asked if she could throw it. Jodi hesitated answering, then
parried the question by asking her own.
“Have you ever thrown them before?
Have you been trained in their use?”
‘Tasha continued to scrutinize
the weapon in her hand, then without looking up she shook her head ‘no’, and quietly,
almost wistfully, said the word.
Jodi heard the response and
the longing in it, then somewhat apologetically added, “You would need training
to be able to safely handle these…” as Jodi spoke, ‘Tasha quickly looked at her
with a hopeful expression. When Jodi saw the look on her face, she concluded by
saying, “… but I’d need your master’s permission before I could begin teaching you
any karate, especially something like this.”
‘Tasha’s face fell, then she
smiled, forgiving Jodi. “I understand. If it looks like we’re going to stay here
for any length of time, I’ll ask if he’ll allow it. I doubt he’ll say yes, but I’ll
ask.” She stopped speaking, then a thought occurred to her. “Maybe I can use whatever
argument you used to convince your master to let you have them. How did you convince
him to agree to you having them?”
Monica called out, “Sit-ups.
Fifty.” Another cadence began, this time punctuated by a few grunts and groans.
“He didn’t exactly let me have
them. He gave them to me.”
‘Tasha’s face filled with puzzlement,
but before she could ask anything, Jodi added fuel to the fire by saying, “In fact,
he had them made for me.”
The consternation in ‘Tasha
was too much. After bottling up dozens of questions that she wanted to ask, then
to be hit with that statement, she couldn’t contain herself any longer. She blurted
out, “What’s going here? Are you really all slaves? You all seem like you’re actually
happy… giving piano concerts… sitting around drinking coffee in the morning… this
place isn’t like anything I’ve every heard about.” She
sputtered to a halt to catch her breath, then before Jodi could attempt an answer,
she continued. “My god, one of you… I’m sorry; I don’t remember all the names… is
drawing plans and researching trees and shrubs to landscape this place such that
you would think it was Windsor Castle. Another of you is attending classes at the
local college in fashion design; Sasha has been to a local cooking school, and both
are looking into going to out of town schools that specialize in those fields. Out
of town for months! And they’re confident that they will be allowed to go! KD has
the knowledge, skills, and enough tools to build a prison, let alone break
out of one. You teach karate to slaves, you play with killing devices,
and then you tell me that he actually had them made
for you, then gave them to you? Why would he do that?” She half threw
her hands up in the air in exasperation, unable to offer any kind of rational explanation
for any of that. She drew a breath to continue, but stopped when she looked at Jodi,
who had an amused look on her face and was not attempting to do anything to calm
‘Tasha’s outburst.
Her animation faded quickly
as Jodi continued to look at her calmly with that hint of amusement on her face
while remaining silent. ‘Tasha dropped her arms and gave Jodi an almost forlorn
look of defeat. That made Jodi chuckle softly. “You’re gonna
love this.” She took a star from the top of her boot and fastened it in place on
a nipple. It stayed where she put it when she removed her hands, then she flicked
it with her fingernail to show that it would stay in place even then. She grinned
almost evilly. “He had them made disguised as nipple shields
so I could wear them this way if I didn’t have these boots on. He likes me in heels
and stockings too, so I don’t always wear the boots, but he wanted me to be armed.”
The look of surprise on ‘Tasha’s face was priceless. Jodi smiled more softly, placed
hr hand on ‘Tasha’s arm and continued. “Yeah, I suppose
we are something of an odd bunch. But you’re right about something. We’re really pretty happy here. I am anyway, and most of the others
are too, putting aside the question of whether they want to be slaves at all. But
considering they are slaves and there’s nothing to be done about that… yeah, pretty happy. And you should probably know that I voluntarily
enslaved myself to him. This time, anyway. I love him.”
Startled down to her toes, ‘Tasha’s
mouth dropped open to fire off more questions, while her mind raced to decide which
one to ask first. You voluntarily enslaved to him? Why would you do that? THIS
TIME? What the fuck…? You love him? Is that why you enslaved yourself to him?
Before ‘Tasha could begin to
ask her questions, Jodi continued speaking, unaware that ‘Tasha had been about to
interrupt. “As for the rest of your questions…especially about these things, I suppose.”
As she was speaking, she fingered the star that she was removing from her nipple,
then replaced it in the boot, making it plainly obvious that the boot had been designed
to house the things. She concluded the conversation for the moment. “Answering the
rest of your questions will take a while because I guarantee the answers will lead
to many more questions. It won’t be a short conversation. It will take far longer
than I can afford to give you right now. I have an exercise class to run, and some
karate to teach. Again, you’re welcome to join the exercise portion and observe
the karate if you wish to. Since it looks like you’ll probably be here for dinner,
lets plan on continuing this conversation later. My lord won’t be back until close
to dinner time, but your master may want you for something, so lets play the timing by ear until we
see what develops.” She gently flicked ‘Tasha’s nipple with her forefinger and winked
as she did so. Jodi was clearly hinting that her master might want to use her. ‘Tasha
understood the hint, but considering what were obviously his plans for Michelle,
she doubted that he was going to use anybody else today. If he did anything other
than fuck Michelle repeatedly, probably with whippings in between, she would be
greatly surprised.
Jodi went back to the group,
stood by Monica and watched the slaves finish their sit-up segment of the warm-ups.
She noted who was moving smoothly and easily, and who was struggling. The ones that
were struggling would get different exercises to help improve their core strength.
When the set was finished, she called out individual names and began assigning individual
exercises for the more strenuous portion of the class. She glanced over to see ‘Tasha
watching, then paid no further attention to the guest.
When everyone was exercising and she had the next few minutes of exercise routines
planned for them, Jodi bent her mind to her own karate routine. She quickly decided
what she wanted to do, then began the first of the series of katas she intended
to perform. The first kata was a slow, almost elegant dance, intended to focus the
performer’s mind as she worked through very precise, careful movements. Speed was
not required here. Not yet. A quarter of an inch difference in the hand’s ending
position was more meaningful than if it arrived a half-second sooner. After she
regained her former level of achievement, then she would worry about adding speed
to this kata. Besides, the next four katas she had in mind for the next few minutes
would each demand successively higher speeds from her.
Despite her fierce concentration
on performing the kata correctly, an errant thought slipped through her mind. She
knew there was only so much she could do on her own. And at that, her progress would
be slow, if at all, without a master guiding her. She knew that she needed someone
better than herself to observe and correct her errors. She needed to get back to
the dojo and the training regimen she had been in before she got shot. She also
hoped they had gotten a better instructor… a higher-ranked master… but she was doubtful
they had. Fighting two or more of the lesser instructors simultaneously was challenging,
but it wasn’t what she truly wanted. She wondered if her lord would spring for a
better arrangement for her. Something like private lessons from an eighth or higher level master. But with Manny dead and gone, would he see
a need for her to continue training? And more than just training, but to advance
still further? She already held a national ranking and he knew about it. Would he
be sympathetic to her desire to continue to advance? Annoyed with herself for her
lack of concentration, she banished all thought of what he might or might not agree
to from her mind and focused on her kata.
‘Tasha watched Jodi, mesmerized
by the elegance of her movements. As she watched she recalled her ballet lessons,
quickly seeing similarities in the two art forms. While they were obviously very
different, with different objectives, she felt certain that if her master allowed
he to receive the karate training… assuming, of course,
that they stayed here… that she would find those earlier lessons helpful. She had
never thought that training in karate was something she would ever want to consider
doing, but now, seeing Jodi, she felt a strong desire to begin studying it. And
that desire brought the matter of staying here back to the forefront of her mind.
While previously, despite the hundreds of questions that she wanted answered, she
had had no real preference to staying or not, and hence, she felt no need to approach
her master on the question, and no reason to attempt to influence the decision.
Events this morning had changed all that. She wanted to stay. Then a conundrum arose
in her mind. She wondered whether if she was successful in shaping the decision
and they stayed, then he refused her permission to study with Jodi, would she feel
regret for not having gone to California, and away from the disappointment caused
by the refusal? After puzzling over that for a second, she dismissed the thought
from further consideration, because she realized she could then feel equal disappointment
for not pursuing this desire, because he might grant permission.
With her mind again settled
on knowing she wanted to stay and that she would seek to bring that about, she only
needed to come up with some way of doing that. The only idea that popped into her
mind was to put him in a good frame of mind by spending a lot of time on her knees
drinking a lot of his cum, then suggesting that this was a good town to open his
business. She almost laughed out loud at the lunacy of that idea. She decided instead
to speak to the other slaves here and ask if they had ever faced a similar problem,
and how they went about trying to sway their master. Happy for the moment with that
plan she went back to watching Jodi, idly visualizing herself doing the same movements.
Jason agitatedly twirled the
riding crop in his fingers while he stared at Michelle. He could see the nervous
sweat on her, but he could also see the defiant glint in her eye as she held his
eyes with hers. Her look didn’t waver despite her obvious nervousness. He didn’t
feel like he’d been outmaneuvered, exactly, it was more like she had seen an escape
he had overlooked. He had wanted to humiliate her by making her beg to be fucked.
He wasn’t so much interested in actually fucking her, although
he knew he would enjoy that immensely if she asked for it. But no, what he really
wanted was to hear her grovel. Having complied with his order to speak sincerely
he didn’t feel right about whipping her for the fun of it…