The young woman watched the wagon train pull out of the meadow. She was being left as tribute to whoever controlled this area of the mountains. She should have accepted one of the marriage offers she had received yesterday while they were still in town. But, no, she had been so determined to make it to the coast; nothing was going to deter her from her goal. Nothing but a bunch of superstitious men who were afraid of someone they had never even seen.
The leaders of the wagon train had been warned in town by the town leaders. Not wanting to frighten the women, they had deliberately not mentioned the existence of someone controlling the mountain pass they would have to pass through. The town leaders could only tell them that if a post was found in the middle of the meadow, a woman was to be left as payment for crossing. Failure to pay the passing fee would result in the deaths of every man in the wagon train. The town had originally been settled by women and children of a wagon train which had refused to pay.
The day wore by slowly for her. Her arms ached from being held over her head for so many hours. She had stopped crying hours ago after watching her wagon and possessions roll away with out her. She had been the perfect choice for everyone. Handsome at best, she was still unmarried and young with no other family; no one would suffer from the loss of her. Indeed, some members had even voiced the concern that she might be to homely.
It was almost dark when she sensed someone coming. She was not afraid at all, which surprised even her. Logically, she assumed it would be someone from the town who used the legend to acquire women without having to marry them. Besides, she was curious as to how he was going to open the cuffs holding her. There hadn’t appeared to be any way to unlock them when they had been snapped shut on her wrists. She only hoped she wouldn’t have to lose her hands to be removed from them. She doubted it though; who would want a woman who couldn’t work with her hands.
Suddenly the cuffs snapped open and she was falling to ground. Lying on the ground, she became aware of a pair of dark boots just inches from her face. Gasping in pain from the sudden return of feeling in her arms and shoulders, she looked upward for the face of the man who had freed her. The visage her eyes eventually came to was not what she was expecting at all. In fact, the pale blue pools of fire where his eyes should have been was the last straw for her. Darkness overtook her as she finally succumbed to the stress of the day and passed out.
The man looked down at the woman who lay at his feet with both disgust and admiration. She had done better than the last woman left for him, but he would have preferred for her to have been even stronger willed. The stronger the will, the better the slave they ultimately made. A strong willed woman worked harder to be everything for her master once she was thoroughly conquered. He smiled to himself as he remembered some of the more memorable woman he had had over his long life. The pleasures they had provided him with were always high points of his life. While there was very little his own abilities couldn’t provide him, he had refused to give up the simple pleasures of sex with a woman.
The luminescence of his eyes seemed to intensify as he rolled her over onto her back without physically touching her. Her clothing unraveled before his gaze as he stripped her down to her bare skin. He licked his lips as he gazed upon her lush form. The fools in the wagon train had had no idea of the body she had been hiding under her bulky clothes. Her face didn’t concern him in the least; beauty was skin deep at best and it would become more beautiful as she progressed in her new life. For now he was very happy with her large breasts and shapely hips.
His gaze paused upon its arrival at the juncture between her pale thighs. The hair covering her sex was as thick as the hair on her head, which was not acceptable. Small wisps of smoke seemed to spiral upward from her body as he stripped the hair from her. His mind caressed her intimately to remove every strand from where he didn’t want it to be. She would never grow hair again from where he had removed it.