Death of a Master

Chapter 5

The Grim Reaper Strikes

The slave was in pain now. Her arms, having been shackled above her head for several hours, ached with a burning pain that was rivaled only by the spasming cramps attacking her legs. The central heating was on now, raising the temperature significantly. Sweat covered her body, mixing with, surprisingly, the juices leaking from her pussy. Her fingers caressed the quick release on her cuffs, only to pull away for the…she'd lost track of how many times she'd thought of releasing herself. She was determined not to, however, in spite of the pressure her bladder was now feeling. She was His slave, and would suffer whatever He willed her to endure. The slave was sure He'd never before left her in strict bondage for so long. "Please hurry home, Master," she whispered; saliva dripping down her chin to drop unceremoniously onto her breast.

*****

Twelve hours earlier…

It was the bee's fault. Martin didn't even know he was allergic to bee stings. Like anyone else with an allergy, he would first learn of it by having a reaction. If only he hadn't been driving at the time. Martin was, in many ways, the stereotypical trucker. He was large, almost six and a half feet tall, with the seemingly mandatory tattoos on his arms. The weather was nice, leading him to open the windows of his cab rather than run the AC. BOB FM, famous for their, "80s, 90s, whatever," mix of music was playing loudly on his radio. He hadn't heard the buzz of the honey bee as it flew in the passenger window to land on the top of his Mountain Dew™ and crawl inside; trying to get to the sweet liquid. Finding itself suddenly in another creature's mouth, it lashed out, plunging its stinger into Martin's throat tissues.

The effect was immediate. Martin had barely registered the sharp pain of the sting when his throat swelled, closing his air passages. His immune system overreacted, flooding his body with chemicals designed to repel the foreign substance recently introduced. His blocked throat was soon forgotten as his vision blurred and his chest pounded with a heart beat that had tripled in a matter of seconds. His foot slammed down on the accelerator as his muscles spasmed and the 20 tons of freight he was hauling picked up more speed than was safe on this busy street. Martin wasn't even aware of the red light he blew by, nor the BMW he hit and flattened to less than a quarter of it's original size, killing the sole occupant, Calvin Freshin.

*****

"Mary, is Calvin going to be much longer? We're supposed to be meeting with him right now," Valerie asked into the phone. She was supposed to be meeting with the editor of

The Pony's Paddock, The Sensible Sub, Bondage Monthly,

and

Mastering Magazine

to brainstorm some ideas for her meeting with the design team at Sylvia's Switch on Wednesday.

"I'm sorry, Ms. Burbon. Mr. Freshin hasn't come in yet. I've tried his home and cell, but there's been no answer."

"That's weird. Calvin's never late. You say Susan's not answering the phone either?"

"That's right. Do you think anything's wrong?"

"I doubt it. I suspect he's just held up in traffic and Susan's on some kind of restriction. When he gets in, try to schedule another meeting with me. June knows when I'm free."

"Will do, Ms. Burbon."

Hanging up the phone, Valerie turned towards the other occupants of the room. Valerie addressed the editors of;

Mastering

, Harold Jusitcar,

The Sensible Submissive

, Marge Gaston, and

Bondage Monthly

, Gus Batshom. Together with Calvin, they represented the magazines that Sylvia's Switch advertised in. "I'm sorry about that. This isn't like Calvin. We should start without him." Handing out some information sheets, she started talking about the reason for the meeting. "I'm sure you're all familiar with Sylvia's line of toys. They took the term

bunny flogger

and ran with it years ago and have become very successful at providing for the

slap and tickle

crowd in the lifestyle. Unfortunately, they're seeing a potential loss of their prime market as those same people, looking for something…more, look for more intense toys elsewhere. They want to keep those potentially lost sources of income, but face a marketing disaster waiting in the wings."

"I should say so," Harold Justicar commented. "Their entire image is that of the toys you'd give your mom and not be embarrassed."

"I'm not sure I'd give my mom anything remotely resembling a whip or a flogger," Marge Gaston quipped. "One of us would probably die from embarrassment. Still, I see their problem. If they introduce a line of harsher tools, they'll lose their established base even faster than they're losing it now. They'll be no different from any other company, and have no reputation built for the new lines. It's a lose/lose scenario."

"Exactly," Val replied. "We need to help them find a way out of their predicament. It's the equivalent of Tonka™ trying to get into the real truck industry without losing its toy market share. How can they pull it off?"

"Well," Marge started, "The simplest way would to use another company altogether. I'm thinking similar to how Disney spun off Dreamworks for its new line of less kid orientated (non-animated) films. I mean, it's an open secret that the two companies are essentially the same, but the Disney™ name remains associated with the family friendly fare that made them famous, while allowing the overall company to compete in the larger film market."

"Yes, I can see that. It'll be more complex than simply opening a new line of whips and such, but it would attack the image problem head on," Valerie said, nodding her head. "can they, though, design a line and marketing approach that allows them to sell a new line of toys directly?"

"Valerie, what's their current company slogan?" Gus Batshom, editor of

Bondage Monthly

asked.

"It's 'Discriminating toys for the sexually playful.' You can see their problem; they've built up the image of playfulness in BDSM. People who

live

the lifestyle don't partake of many of the products Sylvia's Switch offers. I've heard their products referred to as

vanilla BDSM

toys."

"You know, they could use that image in a positive way," Harold offered. "If they can move the slogan from their company to their current product line, they could introduce the new stuff with something like, 'For when playtime becomes a lifetime,' or some such thing. Slogans aren't my thing; that's your area of expertise, Valerie."

The discussion continued for nearly an hour, generating several potential approaches to Sylvia's Switch's upcoming problem. When the meeting broke up, Valerie was feeling confident that her meeting with the company's designers and executives would be productive. Calvin's absence had faded from her mind as she dove into more work. It wasn't brought back to her mind until later that afternoon when June poked her head in the door.

"Ms. Burbon, do you have a moment for Mr. Fester?" she asked, referring to the president of the publishing house.

"Of course," Valerie replied, closing her browser, having been checking some of the ads featured on their online competition.

Brandon Fester, in his usual three piece suit with tie, entered, a worried look on his face. "Valerie," he started. "Can you take one of Calvin's appointments? He seems to be AWOL." A retired army man, Brandon frequently lapsed into the familiar jargon.

"Of course, sir. Has he been gone all day?"

"Yes, and that's not like him. His reliability is why we tolerate his bringing that slave of his to the office every once in a while."

"I assume Mary's tried the house several times."

"Yes, and there's no answer. I'm worried he may be suffering from some kind of delayed complication to the appendicitis from a few weeks back."

"I hope not. Who will I be seeing?"

"Mary has the specifics; in fact, I think she's talking with June as we speak. She's supposed to be some kind of pony girl trainer; I don't know the specifics. I'll get out of your hair and see if I can track Calvin down. I hope it's nothing serious. Of course, if it isn't, there'll be hell to pay," he added as he left, a scowl on his face.

Valerie waited for June, who entered with a pad a few minutes later. "So, what's the scoop on the meeting I need to have, June?"

As June answered, Valerie made notes of her own. "Mr. Freshin was supposed to see a Julia Spears about a possible advice column to appear regularly in

The Pony's Paddock

; one to replace

In the Harness

. Kevin Probert wrote the previous column which was primarily advice to ponies themselves on any number of subjects. Mrs. Spears' potential column was to take questions from ponies, trainers and aficionados on just about any subject they wanted. According to Mary, Mr. Freshin's primary concern was whether Mrs. Spears would be knowledgeable enough to field such a wide variety of topics."

Valerie pursed her lips. "I'd think Mary would be better qualified to fill in for Calvin than I am. Why not her?"

"Mrs. Spears is a Domme and it seems pretty clear that she won't talk with a

mere

secretary." Valerie smiled at June's control. Her disdain for the woman wouldn't be apparent to anyone who didn't know June very well.

Valerie spoke what June was no doubt thinking. "She's not a Domme; she's an ass. A Domme wouldn't disrespect someone like that; she'd understand that everyone has value."

June stifled a smile, maintaining her professional mien. "Mary sent these questions over; she said they were the ones she and Mr. Freshin had put together." She handed the list to Valerie as she continued. "From the looks of them, they wanted to make sure she could answer questions from every potential inquirer."

Valerie looked over the questions. She smiled as she recognized the same thoroughness she experienced when she applied for her job over two years ago. "I see what you mean. If her refusal to meet with Mary is any indication, I expect she'll do poorly on some of these. I'll look these over. Let Mary know I'll be having the meeting in Calvin's office, with her sitting in. I have no intention of not availing myself of her hard won expertise, or allowing Mrs. Spears to continuing snubbing someone as valuable as Mary."

"Yes, Ms. Burbon. She has come quite a ways since she lost out to me for this job," June replied, referring to Mary and June both interviewing for Valerie's secretary position on the same day. Valerie hired June, but was able to point Mary towards Calvin, who was also looking for a new secretary.

An hour later, Valerie was in Calvin's office as Mary showed the woman in. "Good afternoon, Mrs. Spears. Mr. Freshin couldn't be here today and I'm filling in for him. Won't you have a seat?"

As she sat, Valerie studied the woman's appearance. It was clear she had confidence in herself from the way she carried and presented herself. Valerie noted, on the plus side, that Julia was dressed professionally, also making it clear she was someone used to being in charge of things. Some women were unable to make a knee length skirt look anything other than casual, but this lady managed to do so. Her demeanor also managed to be suggestive of her dominant nature (and perhaps to strongly, to the point of creating an aura of haughtiness) at the same time. Her shoes had just enough heel to stay in a lifestyle appearance without detracting from visual professionalism.

On the minus side, that haughtiness that no doubt served her well in training submissive ponies didn't do much to endear a potential employer towards her. The aura about her made Valerie feel like

she

was being interviewed and not Mrs. Spears. It certainly didn't help that as she was replying, "Thank you, Ms. Burbon," to Valerie's greeting, the Domme looked over at Mary, sitting with pen poised above a pad, apparently ready to take notes on the interview. Valerie could see that she was holding her tongue. Valerie wondered if Mrs. Spears had been in control so much that she couldn't relax it enough to make a great first impression.

"Let's get started, shall we. Why do you want to write an advice column in

Pony's Paddock

?"

"I've had years of experience training pony girls and boys, and I wanted to be able to bring my expertise to more subs than I can reach with personal training," Julia answered with the calm voice of someone with a prepared answer to an expected question.

"What can you offer to ponies that aren't actual submissives; the ones that feel that they are ponies trapped in the body of a human?"

"Actually," Mrs. Spears replied, her posture changing to one any student would recognize, that of someone teaching a subject they were passionate about. "every pony is a submissive at heart. They may not know it, but the animalization that goes with pony play is, in it's essence, a submissive act. Additionally, horses and ponies are, by their nature, submissive animals, at least the ones that interact with humans. We've trained them to be so, and we likewise train pony girls and boys to be submissive to their human handlers and trainers."

Valerie nodded her head while making notes on her laptop, seeing Mary making some as well. "How well do you work with deadlines? It's likely you'd be expected to provide a suitably lengthy column with good questions and answers in a timely manner."

"Meeting a deadline is mostly a matter of being able to select and answer from the available questions quickly. Coming up with responses quickly is a trait any trainer has to have. When a pony struggles with something, or balks, I have to be able to respond, appropriately, quickly. My ability to do that will translate directly to answering questions; those questions will be about the training for the most part. I see no difficulties meeting deadlines."

Valerie nodded again, liking the answer for having explained why as well as affirming that she could. "Your resume says that you were the author of an online advice forum,

Ponies in Peril

, I believe you called it. We couldn't find any trace of that forum when we looked for it. What happened to it?"

"I was afraid of that. The forum was part of a web magazine; more of a fanzine really. The owner of the zine and I had…editorial differences. We decided that my writing the column wasn't working. Apparently, he removed all the past issues, or at least my contributions, from his archives." She reached into her purse to pull out a thumb drive. "I took the precaution of bringing my personal backups in case you needed them."

"Thank you, that should be very helpful," Val responded as she took the drive. "Mary can return it to you a few minutes after we've finished. Suppose you receive this question from a reader. 'I was surfing the web and found some pictures of my girlfriend all decked out like she was a horse or something. When I confronted her and asked why she would degrade and demean herself like that, she got mad and demanded to know where I got off insulting her like that. What gives? Why would she belittle herself like that?' Would you select this letter for the column and how would you answer it?"

Julia's face cringed at the harshness of the fictional letter and Valerie could see the pain that could only come from having experienced such venom, either personally or by seeing it visited upon another. "I'd most definitely take that letter, though I'd have to wait a day or two to calm down enough to answer it." Val smiled at the honest admission. "First, I'd point out that he did, in fact, insult his girlfriend with the way he asked her why. After that was said, I'd try to explain that his girlfriend most likely didn't find pony play degrading, demeaning or belittling. Most ponies are proud of what they do and who they are. The reason your girl friend does pony play? That's hard for me to say, since I don't know her. You could just ask her, provided she's open to being asked now. Her reasons could be anything from feeling there's a pony or horse trapped in her and she's letting it out to be true to her nature, to simply having found something she enjoys and is good at and wanting to go for it. Here's the good news for you; she may very well find pony play erotic. That means, if you can overcome your initial boneheadedness and get back on her good side, helping her embrace her pony may well lead to more and better sex."

Valerie made a note about her blunt style before asking the next question. While Valerie herself didn't like that type of advice columnist, she knew they were popular in the mainstream press and that may well be true with the kinky community. "Your resume indicates that you've had significant experience as a pony trainer, as well as a Domme. In spite of the title,

The Pony's Paddock

strives to be a magazine for the entire human animal community. What in your past experience prepares you to meet the needs of the human fauna lifestyle in general?"

"While I've never had direct experience with the other types of animal play, I've seen them at conventions and fairs. I've also done some study of the more common types, kitten boys and puppy girls, online and am confident that I understand the basics of how they're similar to, and different from, pony girls and boys. It might take me a bit longer to answer specific questions involving them, but I expect no trouble in that regard."

While Julia looked nervous at what was essentially an admission that she had no experience, Valerie nodded at her willingness to be honest about the subject and her stated intention of educating herself; it reminded Val of her own responses years ago when she interviewed for her job. "Let's try another hypothetical question," Valerie suggested, knowing that the next question wasn't hypothetical at all, but was in fact an actual letter that Kevin had crafted a response to, but had left before the answer could be published. "I was recently able to attend a pony convention. I live in a small town that doesn't have much of a pony community (I'm the only one I know of). Traveling like this is a big deal and it took me years to save up enough money to make the trip. Once I was there, I felt humiliated. Everyone seemed to have such elaborate costumes and really looked like ponies, while I was just wearing a dog harness I modified myself. I've seen all the fancy gear, but it's just too expensive for me. What's the point if I can't ever be a true pony girl?"

By the time Valerie had finished reading the letter, Julia was openly shaking her head with an expression of concern on her face. "I actually had this come up once with one of my own ponies. I'll tell this girl the same thing I told my girl at the time. 'Girl, it's not the trappings that make a pony girl; it's the heart. From the sound of things, you've been doing your pony by yourself for years; without even a trainer to help you along. You didn't keep at it all this time because this was something you were dabbling at. This is who you are, deep inside where it counts. My dad was an army Ranger; the best of the best. You know what he told me once? Rangers aren't kick ass because they have the best training and equipment. They're the best because they believe they're the best. With ponies, it's even more. You're a pony girl because you don't just believe you're a pony, but because you

need

to be a pony. Don't you ever let anyone make you feel like you're not a true pony; you're what each pony aspires to be; someone who's a pony so deeply that not being one breaks them. Step high with pride."

Julia's passion came through in spades. She was almost off the edge of her seat and her hands had animated through the response. The affection she felt for ponies was clearly visible in her face; the eyes alive with excitement and a touch of sadness. Valerie glanced over and saw Mary giving a covert thumbs up, indicating that Julia had nearly duplicated Kevin's intended response.