After the seemingly endless stretch across the desert, and half-remember memories of staggering alone through it before being captured, what happened next seemed like a furious blur to Sharon. Suddenly one afternoon they were at the adobe brick walls of a city, and were entering through the gates (after some bargaining between the caravan leader with the guards, again in a language Sharon could not understand), and then they were clustered around a courtyard well.
And then the bars to her cage were being open, and before she could even think to kick back or struggle against her captors, strong leathery brown hands were grabbing her and hauling her out bodily and standing her upright if a bit wobbly upon her feet, almost bare naked save the last remnants of her dress, now barely covering more than a loincloth.
"Eyes forward!" barked a voice, and Sharon started when she realized that she understood it. Blinking, she half-turned to see a line of similarly bedraggled women (plus one man) in similar states of undress standing next to her in the flagstone-lined courtyard. Exits from the enclosed space were blocked by the caged wagons they had just been dragged out of and a few slavers on horseback, and at the stone steps to the villa in front of them stood a swarthy, mustachioed man dressed in a black toga and flanked by two armed and robed caravaneers.
Suddenly there was a crack on Sharon's thigh and she gasped as a nearby slaver growled something at her, gestured forward meaningfuly. She nodded frantically, locking her gaze ahead of her and restraining her curiousity to keep from looking about her.
After a bit the swarthy head slaver stepped down and proceeded to look each one of them over carefully, lifting arms and squeezing flesh and forcing open jaws to eye teeth with a fiercely skeptical gaze. Sharon was subjected to similar treatment when he reached her -- she winced as his rough hands forced open her legs, gripped the back of her leg muscles at the thigh and roamed over her bare skin. The head slaver broke out into a leering grin, leaning forward and ..
Wed Jan 15 13:43:17 2003