I was still sobbing and my buttocks were still stinging when Gretel took me by the hand and led me away to teach me my duties now that I lived in Mistress Jarvinia's home.
The first duty Gretel impressed upon me was fetching water from the well. Water was needed for bathing, for scrubbing floors, for cooking, for drinking, for mixing potions and for a few other tasks which I now forget. Mistress Jarvinia's home needed so much water that Gretel and I had to make scores of trips to the well every day in order to suffice.
When filled with water, the buckets were very heavy and Gretel and I carried one heavy bucket each as we walked from the well back to the cottage. It was physically demanding work, however when we were out at the well, there was no one to ogle at my nudity or smack my already sore buttocks.
Eventually I stopped sobbing and the pain diminished to a painful but tolerable stinging ache. It was at that point that I dared to question Gretel about Mistress Jarvinia's odd transformation from an old crone to a beautiful young maiden.
Gretel looked around furtively before answering and only spoke in hushed tones that, even though I was standing right next to her, I could just barely hear.
"Mistress Jarvinia is a witch," Gretel explained. "She is devoted to the old gods and she has old wisdom. She has placed a spell upon this place. It keeps her young as long as she remains here."
What Gretel told me was almost too incredible to believe, however I had seen Mistress Jarvinia transform from an old, white-haired, wrinkled woman to a young, dark-haired, smooth-skinned maiden.
When we brought the water into Mistress Jarvinia's house Gretel remained silent, however when we were once again outside, Gretel imparted more information to me.
"A year ago, Mistress Jarvinia was at the slave auctions. She was bidding on a slave girl, but a man named Ivan outbid her. Furious, Mistress Jarvinia placed a curse upon the man. Ivan's penis shriveled up to half its normal size and his lust died within him. He was incapable of having sex with a woman. He had purchased one of the most attractive, naked slaves at the auction, but because of the curse, Ivan could no longer enjoy such things. And what was even crueler, Mistress Jarvinia made it publicly known that Ivan was no longer capable of functioning as a man. He was utterly humiliated."
As I brought up a bucket, heavy with water from the well, I asked her, "Does he suffer from this curse still?"
When the bucket reached the top I accidentally spilled freezing cold water from the bucket, down the front of my naked body. I gasped at the shock of the cold liquid on my sensitive naked skin. My already aching nipples became ever more swollen and more erect.
Gretchen shook her head in negation and replied, "He eventually broke down and offered to sell the slave girl to Mistress Jarvinia if she would remove the curse. He even offered to sell the slave girl for half the price her originally paid."
The cold water on my naked breasts and thighs raised goose bumps on my thighs and breasts. Some of the frigid water even dripped down to my sensitive public lips. I wished desperately for a towel to dry off, but naked slaves are not allowed such luxuries.
"Sadly, Mistress Jarvinia was too angry to allow Ivan to settle the matter so easily," explained Gretel. "She demanded that Ivan give up his only daughter to serve as a slave for three weeks. Ivan loved his daughter very much, and at first would not allow her to be Mistress Jarvinia's slave, but when he initially refused, Mistress Jarvinia made Ivan's curse even worse."
"She had already taken his manhood," I said, horrified even at that, "how much worse could she do to him?"
"Nobody is quite certain," Gretel replied, whispering through gritted teeth, "however Ivan brought his daughter to Mistress Jarvinia the very next day. The poor girl was stripped naked and shaved and roughly used and spanked and humiliated much as you and I have been roughly used and spanked and humiliated. Mistress Jarvinia even whipped the poor girl's breasts, and belly, leaving welts that were still visible on the day she returned to her home."
Suddenly it dawned upon me why the bidding at the auction stopped immediately after Mistress Jarvinia called out and placed a bid on me. After what happened to Ivan and his daughter, the people in the village must be terrified at the prospect of Mistress Jarvinia's wrath.
Fetching heavy buckets of water is demanding, physically exhausting labor and by the time Gretel and I finished bringing the water in from the well, my muscles were sore and I was covered in sweat.
However Mistress Jarvinia had no sympathy for my exhaustion or sore muscles and we were next led into a room where she kept jars of roots and herbs and powders and jars of oils and ointments. We were made to get down on our hands and knees and ordered to scrub the floor vigorously until there was not a trace of dirt or dust or footprints to be found.
My arms and hands and shoulders were already sore from my previous labors, but I dared not disobey.
Of course Gretel and I were ordered to keep our legs far apart while we toiled. My sex was still throbbing and I desperately wanted to rub my thighs together in an attempt to calm the wild hunger in my sex, but I dared not anger Mistress Jarvinia. I dreaded the sort of fate she might have in store for me if I should ever disappoint her.
Once while I was scrubbing the floor I saw her in the doorway, silently watching me. She didn't say a single word; she just regarded my naked hindquarters in an eerie silence.
According to Gretel, Mistress Jarvinia is a lover of women. Her lingering examination of my naked thighs and buttocks and vulnerable pubic lips was probably just a lustful indulgence, however I carried the memory of her brutal assault on my buttocks and I flinched. My poor buttocks were still sore from the previous spanking she had given me and I lived in fear and trepidation that she might see fit to inflict another stinging punishment on my already sore bottom.
I tried not to look back at her and slid my knees ever further apart and scrubbed the floor even harder in the hopes that this would please her. Eventually Mistress Jarvinia vacated the doorway and I let out a breath that I hadn't even been aware I was holding.
After that incident I had managed to delude myself into believing that I had adapted to living under Mistress Jarvinia's authority and that she now accepted me as a properly submissive and obedient slave.
It was a delusion that was soon destroyed.
After the labors of the day were finished, and all the slaves had been fed, and Mistress Jarvinia had bathed, the slaves gathered around the wooden tub for their baths.