Among us was a legend of how our kind, the smooth skins, had been captured in wars long ago. From birth, as far as any of us know, we have always been ridden by the "Howlers", the ones with hair skin. When standing we are above the Howlers, the length of our legs is what makes us useful. They are far more powerful than the Smooth and little can be done to harm their thick skin. Part of the legend is that some of our kind were resistant to the Howler rule but those were culled. We are taught speak but not their speak. What we are taught is used among Smooth and by many of the Howler to command the Smooth but many of us learn what they say to each other.

We know there are two kind of Howler, the big ones that make us ritual and the small ones that dont have that part the big ones use for ritual. None of us knew why there was only one kind of Smooth. Both kind of Howler ride us. Some of our feed comes from ritual. It's a fluid that the big Howler squirt out of their body during ritual. The small Howler won't feed on it and usually only participate in ritual when other creatures are not expected to be near. We are expected to submit to the ritual anywhere, anytime and have to work hard to be sure the ritual reaches it's end and that we not waste the feed. Most of us don't like the way the ritual hurts us inside, Howler ritual is rough, but to attempt refusal ends up in much harder. I have seen those fastened in open view where passing Howler will bite their skin and make us sick. I have bites on me but they are only the one that come from lesson. They want us to know the hurt of the poison.

Howlers sometimes buy Smooth to be their private stock. I'm told I was bought very young and have been lucky to have the attention of the group who own me. I see other Smooth who do not have the metal in their skin. I don't have the things which in our talk are called "arm". All have the band around their neck and the tag of number.

We are kept where we have coves to be fastened for rest. I have seen many cove while being ridden or waiting, most Smooth stay in their stall by the chain that is part of their metal neck band, very few have the shiny metal sticking from the cove side like mine. The metal in my cove is made to fit me. My cove is not as deep as some and it has metal known as "hook" on the sides, the space between them is enough for me to pass through standing. A big hook hangs near the back of my cove, that one fits inside my rear opening is lifted by pulling over the branch above me. When the big hook is in me I am commanded to turn, the hook on the side of my cove are for the circle of metal in the end of each skin mound on my front. The Howler use a claw to pull the ring as high as my skin allows then drop over the hook to each side. I feel the stretch of my skin as the hooks hold me. My group has me stored on the metal when not in use.

I understand that my smaller cove takes less trade to own and has less keeping because the lower hook stops my dirt from falling inside the cove. The place we rest has hard rock worn by years of use so liquids that spill are easily washed. I know the others think bad of me when I have spasms and shout during ritual and sometimes while a Howler will touch me as I stand secure on the metal in my cove and cause me to make noises the other Smooth say are bad. I have not admitted to the others how those spasms make me feel good. I am told it has always been a shame to have those feelings. I have tried to explain that it is something I cannot stop.

I'm lucky to stand in my cove like that because my neck doesn't get the redness like the others and it makes my back and legs strong for my duties. My group have said my being narrow in my middle and wide lower make me easy to ride. Howler have said they want Smooth like me who have big skin mounds on their front for grasping if the head chain is not worn. I can carry a big Howler at good speed and have been rewarded for doing so.

My rewards can be time alone or allowed to play in the water of the river but sometimes I have been rewarded by "Free Ritual". If the other Smooth found out,they might harm me because I think we are supposed to resist it but my Howler group know I like ritual. My biggest secret is that I was ridden to a place to ritual with one other Smooth by three groups of Howler at one event. There were more individual males there than I have stubs at the end of both my feet. I was placed so that the feed which was squirted into the other Smooth was fed to me and that squirted into me was fed to her. I think the other Smooth liked it too. I began to have thought that maybe there were more Smooth who took free ritual than any of us knew. I was ridden back from that happily filled with feed, far more than my share... proud too that each male had ended ritual and fed us.

Howler talk between themselves about our skin. They do not want us to have hairs anywhere that it can't be used to grasp. The hair comes out of our skin and is removed from those spots by rubbing hot stick on it to make smoke. It does cause the young ones to make loud sounds but in a few years we become more used to it and I barely even close my eyes anymore.

Days ago I was taken to a place where several Howler held me and did something like ritual but the fluid they put in me was not the same as the feed they give us, it was not as thick and not as sticky but they made sure it went deep inside me by pouring it in the end of a hollow stick and forcing it deep inside me. I made the loud sounds but it didn't stop them. Other Smooth have told me that I am going to be making a small soon. It will grow inside me until it is ready, then come out and they will take it. I have seen this done. The long time after the small comes out they have female howler use mouth to take juice from the skin mounds of the older one in their mouth then spit it into the mouth of that small to feed it. I have also seen Howler be angry at some small the second it comes out and use hard touch on the Smooth over and over. Those small are never seen again.

I heard my Howler group talk about taking me from the cove, this makes me feel bad inside like when I have too much feed or if a Howler touch me hard in my middle. That has happened a few times and I once spit up all my feed from it. I don't want to be away from my cove and my group...