When I woke up the next morning, my captor was already awake. When he saw I was up, he came over and beckoned me to stand up. He adjusted the rope that he had tied me to the tree with so that my arms were raised above my head again. He then pulled out his jar of jelly and proceeded to feed me. I knew he could have left my arms slack so that I could simply feed myself, but I assume he had intended to humiliate me by making me feel helpless. He succeeded. I opened my mouth to allow him to shove the spoonful of jelly in. As delicious as it was, I felt deep shame.
That shame came from recognising that I was a coward. I could have said I was simply hungry, but in truth I was terrified of getting spanked again for disobedience. The pain in my butt from the spanking yesterday had faded away, but the memory was seared into my mind. I had given up control to my captor. I had acted like a weak, emotional little creature and been treated like one. I had thrown a temper tantrum and still submitted to my captor, thanking him for each painful blow to my ass.
When he finished feeding me, he looked at me expectantly. I said nothing.
"What do you say when someone feeds you?"
"Thank you," I said quietly.
He smiled earnestly. "What do you say when I feed you?"
I was confused, then it hit me. "Thank you, sir."
He nodded, then started applying the protective cream to me. I would say what he wanted me to say, even if I didn't mean it. I would get through this with as little pain as possible. I allowed him to massage the cream into my breasts and back and legs and genitals and arms, picturing what I would do when I was free again.
He then untied my rope from the tree. He untied the rope from my wrists, then tied my wrists together. He guided my hands up over my head and behind my neck, looping the rope around my chest under my breasts and tying a knot I couldn't see behind me.
"Try and lift your hands over your head."
I struggled. "I can't."
"Excellent." He walked back around and tied another rope to the rope around my belly, then tied that to his horse. "We begin marching again. We'll be in town soon."
My eyes widened. He clicked his tongue and his horse trotted forward, pulling me along. It had been bad enough being naked in front of my captor and unbearably shameful being naked in front of that stranger yesterday. The thought of a whole town of villagers seeing my nude body was too much. I looked up at the back of his head and calculated. What could I do to keep my body from being seen? I could get behind his horse, of course, but that had lasted exactly as long as it took for him to get off his horse, and it was part of the chain of events that lead to getting... that I wanted to avoid. Especially so publicly.
This was when dread began to set in. I started pulling on my binds to no avail. I was in a hopeless situation! We came out of the forest onto a road, and I saw the town ahead of us. My feet felt like lead and my legs felt like jelly, and yet I kept soldiering on. My captor and his horse were moving endlessly forward, pulling me along with them. He was an implacable creature gently but forcefully leading me to my ultimate humiliation.
"Lara," said my captor, "You may look the villagers in the eye if you want to. You can also choose to look away so you don't have to take in the shame. It's up to you."
