Pantherboy

I waited until I was sure my Mistress had gone before cautiously raising my head from the ground to look about me. As I knelt upright, I winced. My left buttock ached sharply where she had sunk her teeth. The afternoon was starting to turn towards night. The air was cooler on my bare skin. I shivered and stood.

Entering my Mistress's hut, I had first to wait for my eyes to adjust to its gloom. When I could see, what I saw was all simple and plain. There were no ornaments on the walls, merely a dressing table and stool and the large low bed strewn with animal furs. Towards the back of the hut was a fireplace, unlit at present, from which smoke must rise through the hole in the roof above.

I had no way of knowing how long my Mistress might be gone at her meeting. Fearing that she should come back and find me still at my duties, I set to work at once. I began by gathering items from the reed-mat-covered floor. I picked up a couple of golden bracelets and set them down on the dressing table beside a shallow wooden bowl with water for washing. Beside this I noticed a small mirror. I picked it up. By twisting around and tilting the mirror, I was just able to make out the mark of my Mistress Adena's teeth in my skin. The mark was purple and it showed clearly the shape of each tooth. I stared at my new brand in fascination and horror, gently tracing its outline with my fingers.

Returning to my duties, the next thing I found was a small bundle of animal skin. It was, I realised, one of my Mistress's discarded undergarments. I spread it out on the bed and stroked the soft fur with my fingers, wondering how long it was since she had worn it. A sudden desire came over me then; I struggled with myself but I could not resist. Glancing towards the courtyard to check that I was unobserved, I dropped to my knees and raised the panther skin to my face. I breathed deeply, craving her scent. And it was there, I was sure, a pungent scent of warm skin and sweat and the forest floor.

To my shame, as I inhaled, I felt my manhood rise painfully against its restraints. I despised myself then and yet for some time I could not bring myself to put the garment away. There was no Mistress here now, nobody holding a whip to command me, and yet here I was on my knees, behaving as the lowliest slave. Before I knew what I was doing, I had gathered the skins of her bed and was breathing deeply of her scent, imagining her body stretched naked there. Was it only the day before that I had entered the forests a proud free man of Gor? What would my city companions say if they could see me now?

I heard a noise and started in fear, but it was only a bird of the forest. In a panic I hurried to tidy the rest of the room, setting everything in place as best I could and arranging the skins smoothly on the bed. I then found a broom and with it began to sweep the courtyard. As I swept, I noticed for the first time a small hole, no wider than two of my fingers, which had been drilled into the hard earth. Further investigation revealed three others. The four holes were set out in a rough square, but as to their purpose, I could make no guess.

When I was done sweeping, I resumed my position, kneeling nadu, to await my Mistress's return. It was dark now and cold. My bare skin was chilled and I shivered often. There were as well the many sounds of the forest, the birds and the occasional roars of wild animals. These too chilled my blood. I wondered what beasts they were and whether my Mistress hunted them. And I felt a long, long way from my city home. Then for several moments I felt the need to fall to the earth and weep in self-pity. But I held my position, back straight, head up, knees spread wide.

It was late before she returned. I was frozen and hungry and miserable. She came into the courtyard and strode straight past me. I was ignored as she moved around the hut, lighting a fire in the hearth. After some time she came out into the courtyard and stood before me.

'You have done your maid's duties well, slave,' she told me.

'Thank you, Mistress.'

Although my eyes were downcast, I could feel that her gaze was still on me. I reddened. Could she somehow have guessed how shamefully I had performed in her chamber, raising her discarded skins to drink in her smell? If she did, she did not say so, perhaps it amused her even.

She withdrew into the hut and I heard sizzling. Soon my hunger was tormented by the smells of cooking meat. My dry mouth began to water as I heard my Mistress eating. Am I to be starved then? I wanted to call out in my bitterness, but I held my tongue.

Finally she came and once more stood before me. 'Open!' she commanded and I opened my mouth wide. She then proceeded, with her hand, to feed me half a dozen chunks of meat. I chewed each quickly and swallowed, eager for the next. But I was still hungry when she stopped my feeding. 'I do not want my slave to grow flabby,' she said, presenting me with her fingers that I might lick them clean. My stomach grumbled as I did so and she laughed.

The next moment, however, she seized hold of my chin and made me meet her wild grey eyes. When she spoke her face was troubled and her voice grave. 'A warning, my slave. Beware Vespa, and Morgan in particular, the two panthers who escorted you to my hut today. Morgan is a great warrior but she is wild and dangerous. Marlena is gravely ill, struck by the poisoned arrow of one of your party.' She tightened her grip on my chin and I could see that she was angry herself. 'Morgan is not the only one who argued tonight for your throat to be cut. Lucky for you that I am chief here—I intend to get the best price for you. Should Marlena die, however, I am not sure even I will be able to protect you. Do you understand?'

'Yes, Mistress,' I said quietly.

'Above all, you must not provoke Morgan. I cannot be with you at all times. If she gives you a command, she or any of the panthers, you must obey, but do nothing to provoke her. Given the slightest cause, she will gladly kill you.'

I shivered, both because I was cold and also at the thought of the panther Morgan. I had seen the looks she gave me; I knew there was no mercy in her cruel heart.

'Now, however, I must rest,' said Adena. 'You will sleep here, as befits a slave.'

I continued to kneel as she returned to the hut. After some moments she came out again and I heard the sound of stone striking wood. Glancing up, I understood the purpose of the holes that had been bored into the earth of the courtyard. My Mistress was busy driving wooden stakes into them. I was to be staked out under the sky. She worked quickly and efficiently and I wondered how many slave males she had staked in this way. 'Here, boy,' she commanded at last, 'on your back.'

I rose and, not meeting her eye, went swiftly to lie on my back between the four stakes that she had set. Each was fitted with a stout leather thong. She took hold of my right wrist first and bound it tightly to the stake, taking care over the knot. My left wrist was next and then my ankles. The stakes were set so that I was stretched uncomfortably wide, my arms and legs spread far apart in the shape of an X.

When she was done, she went around, checking each knot, and then stood between my spread legs, surveying her work. 'Sleep well, boy,' she said with a cruel smile. 'Your training commences in earnest at dawn.'

She stepped around me and went into the hut. I could hear her taking off her bracelets and washing her face in the wooden bowl. Next I heard her drinking from what sounded like a wineskin. Naked beneath the stars, stretched between four stakes like an animal, I was utterly wretched. My meagre meal had left me hungry but worse than that was the cold. I was used to sleeping indoors, with a fire to heat the room, and blankets for my body. A warm kajira too, if such was my pleasure. Here, naked under the forest sky, I feared that I would not survive the night.

For some time I struggled against my pride but in the end it was no use. 'Please, Mistress,' I called, 'I am cold.'

She came swiftly from inside the hut and I feared she would beat me. Instead, by the light from the stars, I could see that she was amused. 'And you wish your Mistress to warm you, is that it, slave?'

I swallowed and said nothing, fearful of the method she might choose to warm me.

She had brought the wineskin with her and she took another mouthful, tipping back her head while my eyes took in the gorgeous curve of her throat. 'Here,' she said, 'drink, my slave. It will help to warm your blood.' Stooping over me, she held the wineskin a little above my face and poured. I swallowed as best I could as the wine splashed my face. She laughed at my discomfort. I could see that her eyes were bright with the wine she had drunk.

The next moment, squatting down on the earth by my side, she took up my manhood with her long fingers. It was in a poor state, shrivelled with the cool of the evening. She examined it at some length and then looked back at me with mocking eyes. Then she began to caress me, fingers working quickly and well. In a moment my manhood began to rise against its restraint. I tried to move away, pulling against the leather thongs that held my ankles and wrists, but a look from her made me still. She continued to play with me, as a young girl plays with a new toy, at the same time detached and intent.

'Please, Mistress,' I begged her, 'don't.'

Swiftly, she leant across me and with her open hand slapped my face. 'I will do what I please with what is mine,' she told me harshly. 'I wish to regard the extent of my merchandise, to see what it is I have to sell.'

I did not speak but turned my head to one side. 'Look at me,' she commanded and I was obliged to do so.

She continued then to caress me, occasionally squeezing or tugging at my balls, until my manhood was painfully swollen with desire. She lifted it between her fingers. 'It is still on the small side,' she said, 'but perhaps it will suffice. Then again, perhaps you will not be called upon to use it often. Of course'—here she removed her long sleen knife from the sheath she wore always at her side—'I shall have to make a few modifications.' She held the knife lightly to the tip of my manhood and I froze. Already I knew the sharpness of its blade.

'But then of course,' she said, 'a Mistress may choose to alter her slave in whatever way she chooses.' She took hold of the knife and ran it over the skin of my thigh, moving it slowly from my left knee up towards the V of my groin, shaving the fine hair. 'She might, if she so chose, decide to have her slave shaved completely of his body hair.'

I fought a desire to cry out as the knife came closer to my manhood. At the last moment, she turned it in her hand and lightly pricked the sack of skin that held my balls. I gasped and felt a thin trickle of blood.

It was a relief when she sheathed the knife and continued, fingers working smoothly to arouse me, thumb tracing the stripe where my pubic hair had been roughly shaved. But the relief did not last long. Before long her firm caresses were driving me mad with desire. I could not hold still, my body writhing, hips lifting from the earth towards her. 'Please,' I begged again, the word slipping between my clenched teeth.

'Please what?' demanded my Mistress, taunting now.

Please release me, I wanted to say to her. Please release the restraint on my manhood and take me in your gorgeous mouth. Please release me from these shackles and take me to your bed and let us lie with each other like animals, like man and woman. All of that I wanted to ask, but as I looked in her steely eyes I did not dare. 'Please,' I said again, 'please. . . use me.'

She smiled then and her fingers released my manhood. Light as a cat, she moved from squatting to sit astride me, her weight pressing on my stomach, knees pinning my arms, pinning me still harder to the dirt floor. She reached forward and took my nipple between two fingers, pinching until I cried aloud. 'Oh, I will use you, slave,' she promised, her voice a throaty whisper.

Sitting upright once more, she removed in one graceful movement the panther skins that concealed her breasts. I gasped at her beauty, each breast a perfect apple of desire. She stretched luxuriantly, arms above her head, and the next moment brought the skins down to my face, pressing them to my nostrils, forcing me to smell her breasts, to feel her warmth. When she removed the skins, tossing them aside, they were replaced at once by her breast. I went to work without bidding, straining to lift my head from the earth the better to tongue and suck the roundness, to play with my lips and teeth at the nipple. 'Good, slave,' she said, replacing her right breast with the left. 'Now the other.'

Lost in my delightful work, I was yet aware of the sounds of her arousal. After some time, she lifted her breasts and again sat astride me. Then, in another quick, cat-like movement, she stripped off the tight skins that concealed her sex. I could smell her then, almost I could taste her arousal. She shifted so that she was squatting directly over my face, her knees now pinning my shoulders to the ground. Her bright eyes looked down at me, down her firm, exquisite body into my captive eyes. She taunted me with her beauty and my own helplessness while I fought against the leather at my hands and feet, and reared up trying to reach her naked flesh.

She let me fight and rear, looking down at me in amusement, until I was exhausted and finally lay back. Then, touching herself gently, she parted the lips of her sex, slipping her long fingers inside. I watched transfixed with longing. She held her fingers there for some moments before removing them, dripping, and thrusting them between my lips, just as she had done earlier after feeding me. 'Suck!' she commanded and I did so greedily. Several times she repeated this until my mouth was full of her juices.

'Do you like to taste your Mistress, slave?' she taunted me.

Her gaze did not permit me to lie. 'Yes Mistress,' I said in a whisper.

'Say thank you, Mistress.'

'Thank you, Mistress.'

'And now, pretty slave,' she commanded, 'let me see how you please your Mistress.' With that, she lowered herself slowly onto my face, reaching behind her as she did so to pinch my nipples once again.

Never in my life had I fallen so low as to pleasure a woman like this. Not even a kajira, not even in play. The very idea would have revolted me. Now, however, I worked desperately, my lips, my whole mouth working to please she who commanded me. My tongue searching her moist fur to find where it might most please her. She guided me with sharp words of command and by tugs of my hair. If at times I slackened in my work, exhausted and gasping for air, she pinched and scratched at my nipples, driving me on. Her knees pressing on my head, I lost track of time, remembering only her three wild, joyous, triumphant cries.

She rode me long and hard. When at last she was done she raised herself wearily from me and sat once more astride my stomach. We were both breathing hard and drenched in a fine sweat. My face was plastered with her juices, my mouth bruised, tongue dry and swollen.

Abruptly she stood and walked into the hut. I thought she had left me and gone to her bed, but after a moment she returned. She draped a thin skin across my body and still swollen manhood.

'Thank you, Mistress,' I said quickly.

'You did well, boy, for one untrained. With training you will learn to please a woman better still. You will learn to please the most demanding Mistress. I shall enjoy your training.'

'Yes, Mistress.'

'It is as I thought when I captured you this morning: you are a natural slave. You did not know it perhaps, but you came to these forests in search of a woman's collar. And now, for a time, you wear mine.'

My mind was full of bitter thoughts. I was wretched and ashamed. I wanted to call out, to call her a liar, but I said nothing.

'Good night, pretty slave, sweet dreams.' She turned to walk away.

'Please, Mistress,' I called, 'my name is Jork.'

'No, slave,' she corrected me over her shoulder, 'your name is whatever your Mistress chooses. And since it is clearly your nature to be a woman's slave, I shall call you just that: slave.'