Bitch 449 felt the crop slash across his buttock as he struggled forward. "Move! Faster!" commanded Mistress Fiona behind him.
"Yes, Mistress," gasped Bitch 449, staggering up the hill against the rain as fast as he could while carrying a very heavy and large armchair in front of him. Several men near him were also being given orders by women as they struggled uphill with the furniture for Princess Georgina's new palace, being built in the centre of the female-ruled settlement.
"Lazy bitches!" shouted another woman, and Bitch 449 saw a whip come down on the bare back of the man in front of him, carrying two dining chairs. The man wobbled but managed to keep holding them.
Bitch 449 was determined to go faster and to reach the palace, and the correct room, without dropping or damaging the armchair. It was wrapped in plastic to protect it from the rain and dirt, but he did not want to find out what punishment he would receive if even the plastic made contact with the mud on the ground.
Not that it was fear of punishment that motivated him. Bitch 449 wanted to serve the women around him. Like all the men here, he had pledged to serve the Superior Gender, and Princess Georgina in particular.
He was dizzy with delight as he thought about the very real possibility that Princess Georgina might at some point sit on the very chair that he was now carrying. He pushed himself forward, the rain getting heavier. Dressed, like the other males, only in shorts and boots, the cold and rain would have made him shiver if he were not so hot from the hard physical labour. His body was already a lot more athletic after several weeks working on the Princess' palace.
"Keep going, bitch!" called out Mistress Fiona behind him. Perhaps the lack of the crop this time meant she was pleased he was going faster. Bitch 449 wanted to please Mistress Fiona. She was a petite mistress, shorter than most of the others even with the heels she habitually wore. With a long dark ponytail and smouldering brown eyes, she had a calm authority and spoke with a quiet firmness than did nothing to reduce the strictness with which she imposed her orders.
A man stood next to Mistress Fiona, holding an umbrella over her to shelter her from the rain. Unlike the men carrying furniture, he was not moving fast enough to keep warm, and he shivered in his shorts and boots as the rain streaked down his hair, face and body. Fiona did not bother to look at him, even when giving him orders.
Bitch 449 reached the door to the Footwear Room and thankfully passed the chair over to the man waiting there to take it inside. He was still excited about being allocated to work on the room that would one day house all Princess Georgina's shoes and boots. He had never seen Princess Georgina in person, and knew that if he did so it was likely to be from a distance.
Bitch 449 could hear one of the women shouting at him to walk back down the hill and fetch the next armchair. He quickly turned round and began to walk rapidly back down before he heard Mistress Fiona call out to him to wait.
"I want to inspect the room," she said. Bitch 449 felt his stomach turn. Would Mistress Fiona find something wrong with his work. She was in charge of the work on the Footwear Room, and had swiftly punished other men for their errors.