Chapter Two

by pr_squared

- do not use without the author's permission.

Dai hoped that they would be home before the first frost. His Catrin was holding up very well so far on her first drive. The clever mounts would likely huddle together for warmth tonight. Dai looked quickly to Aled and Ceri, who were getting ready to sleep and wished he had Efa here to share his blankets. His sweet Efa, he mused, believes that we should not treat the Mannish as domestic animals. Would she invite Catrin and Tesni in for tea? He tried to imagine the naked girls squeezing their large sweating bodies into Efa’s elegant furniture, her pretty lace napkins on their naked laps. He looked to his friend Cadfael, who was also settling down. Cadfael likely missed his Aderyn too, though it was hard to imagine Aderyn belonging to anyone but herself.

Men and Elves had lived in equilibrium for generations, he knew, if not in harmony. Armed conflict was rare. No Elven warrior could stand one-to-one against a Mannish creature twice his height and three to four times his weight. The typical Elf stands no taller than 3-4 feet. However, conflict was almost unknown. The Mannish Elders’ draconian defense of their hegemony fully negated any advantage promised by greater Mannish greater size and birthrate.

The equilibrium was actively maintained. Vast track of land were set aside for Mannish settlement. For their part, the Elves spread their raiding widely, careful to drive no single Mannish town to ruin. In any event, Mannish numbers always rebounded quickly.

The Mannish Elders actually depended on the Elves in turn. Fear of the Elves helped them maintain their power. The Elders chose not to guard their females too closely when they are sent beyond the enclosures to gather foodstuffs, seemingly unwilling to risk any of their curiously small number of fighters or worse, teach their more numerous females to defend themselves. Their reticence to offend the Elves went so far as to return any escaped captive who carries an Elven mark.

Tired from the day’s travels, Dai slept well, sadly alone in his blankets.

Dai roused Catrin in the half-light before dawn and freed her from her hobble. He led her to the area designated as the latrine. She squatted and defecated, more pleased by his presence than embarrassed by his witness. He had captured her two years two years before and much had changed. Dai gave her water and fed her two cups of the nutritious pellets that Mr. Greenjeans and Bella had carried. Cadfael had scout ahead on his swift mount. Dai offered Catrin a handful of sweet berries that Cadfael had gathered on his scouting mission then replaced her saddle, bit and bridle

Soon they were back on the road and again making good time again.

Catrin once again lost herself in the rhythm of her ground-devouring stride. However, the berries triggered her memories of the day so long ago when she had been captured picking these same berries two years before. She ran but increasingly became aware of her surroundings. Everything looked so familiar. Could she be returning to her home settlement? Why?

Confusion must have slowed her because Dai’s spurs jabbed her sharply to dispel her reverie and bring her quickly back to pace. She ran but now she was certain that she neared her home from two years ago. She wondered how she might feel if someone from her previous life saw her now – merely a naked beast of burden, bearing the Elves’ indelible mark on her right shoulder and attending to her bladder and bowels in public. She wondered how she might feel if she saw someone from her previous life – a fearsome Elder or even worse, a long-lost friend.

She saw where she and her friends had been set upon by the Elven raiders. The young Elder charged to protect them had fled back to the settlement. Catrin, then known as Petie, and her friends, Abbie, Maddie, and Hollie also fled. A lasso, seemingly from nowhere, had looped over her head and she was yanked roughly from her feet. Her captor spurred his Mannish mount and dragged her slowly along the ground to keep her from regaining her feet. Dai leaped from his mount to secure her feet while she struggled to free herself from the lasso. Her feet secured, he signaled his well-trained mount and she backed away, stretching Petie between the two mounts. Dai looped a tie around her wrist but she was too strong for him to secure her wrists behind her back. He waited and she fought the bindings wildly, losing her urine. He simply waited and she tired. On the third or fourth try, he succeeded in securing her wrists behind her back. With his knife, he cut the soiled clothing from her body. Naked and humiliated, she stopped finally fighting. Dai freed her feet and helped her stand. Crying piteously, she stood and kicked him. He mostly evaded her clumsy effort, laughing and shaking his head. He slashed her with his whip, leaving a red streak on her bare flank. Hollie and Abbie had also been captured. Only Maddie had escaped. Hollie and Abbie had been broken and trained with no more difficulty than she. They had been sold off after about 6 months.

They passed through the berry patch were Dai had captured her and continued but veered away from the main gate. Catrin knew that the girls’ village lay to the left but they circled to the right.

In Mannish settlements, infants are segregated by gender five years after birth. Boys and girls, each a mystery to the other, are raised apart by the older women. Catrin remembered the nannies’ warnings that the Elves would get her if she were disobedient,too loud, or just asked too many questions. At 16, girls returned to the main settlement where they serve the Elder’s physical needs and sexual wants and care for their infants for 16 years before being assigned to either the boys’ or girls’ village.

Catrin had never seen the boys’ village and knew little except that it existed. Each year some dozens of 16 year old females and two or three 18 year old males graduated into the main village. Among the little toddlers however, she saw males and females in equal numbers.

Somehow, the number of new females always far exceeded the number of new Elders. Males also comprised no more than ten percent of the Elven livestock.

Emyr called a halt and unsheathed his crossbow. The others did the same.

Catrin felt a frisson of fear. Fear had been a frequent companion in her old life in the settlement but once she had overcome her initial terror, she had grown used to its absence in her two years with the Elves. She had learned to read Dai’s moods as well the proper responses to his hand signals. Though today, Dai seemed calm and unperturbed in her saddle and she drew strength from his steadfastness.

Now they proceeded at a walk. Mounted, the Elves might easily outrun any Mannish ambush. Catrin now saw six Elders standing in front of an enclosure. Emyr motioned for the others to halt and went forward to parley with them.

Catrin studied the Elders one by one. They ranged in age from ancient to about her age. The oldest one was extremely fat. Just as she remembered, the older they were, the fatter they were. She thought that she might she remember two – yes. The others seemed to be from surrounding settlements. Her memories were vivid and distinctly unpleasant. She wondered if any might recognize her but all seemed focused solely on Emyr.

No words were spoken. The ritual was well established. Emyr threw a sack of trade good to the ground. The youngest Elder hesitated but then ran to retrieve it after a hard slap from the oldest. The oldest emptied its contents in his pudgy hand and smiled to see nails, fishhooks, and shiny buttons. He waved approval and led his companions away from the enclosure. They walked a few dozen yards and then they fled, abandoning any pretense of dignity.

“Now our work really begins,” Dai sighed to no one in particular. The Elves sheathed their crossbows. Braith dumped several bags of trade goods from Bella and Mr. Greenjeans.

Catrin looked up. The 30 yard square enclosure held something like a hundred Mannish males, all about her age. All were naked. Catrin had glimpsed mature males naked in the settlement only when one of the Elders chose to satisfy his lust upon her body and rarely even then

Awed by the sophistication of their civilization, few Elven know much and fewer care at all about the details of Mannish life in the wild. Other animals, more attractive or more exotic garner more interest. Elven ethnographers know that Men live in ‘towns,’ ruled by cliques of older males, called Elders.

To maintain their power and access to multiple females, 9 in 10 younger males are expelled. Before contact, Mannish lands were plagued by small bands of desperate exiles, struggling to survive. Elven explorers suffered from their attacks and were quick to establish mutually beneficial relationships with the Mannish towns. Yearly throughout Mannish lands, excess males were systematically exchanged for trade goods.

Catrin watched as Emyr spurred Tesni forward. She leaped the four foot fence with ease.

“Over you go, girl,” Dai said and let Catrin feel his spurs. Eagerly, she leaped over the fence to join Tesni. Never had she seen so many young males in any one place. Rather than broadcast the arrogance of the Elders, they appeared quite cowed. They had a particular odor – masculine musk or animal fear? They aroused in her none of her dread of the Elders but rather a hint her feelings for the male mounts who shared her captivity.

Ceri dismounted and opened the gait of the enclosure.

“Yaa! Yaa!” Emyr shouted. He seconded his high-pitched child-like voice with his snapping whip. Dai joined him, directing Catrin this way and that to drive the stubbornly passive mob from the enclosure. Ultimately, their whips tore bare skin and the disorderly mob began to move, out the gate and up the path.

Cadfael, Gwilim and Aled kept them together and moving. Ceri re-mounted and dashed after one boy who had broken away. He ran and she chased him and whipped him back to the others, who were held together by their fears and the comfort they found in their comrades’ nearness as much as by the Elven whips. Dai and Emyr pushed the stragglers along. Cadfael struggled a bit on his long-legged Disgleiro, who had been bred for speed and not maneuverability. Teamwork and the mounts’ endurance kept the gang together and moving. The obvious notion that a hundred boys might simply overpower the twelve diminutive Elves and their mounts never arose. The Elders’ harsh, oppressive rule had well prepared them to obey without question.