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Here is the next installment of A Slave to the Servants.

With the holidays and all I expect your next chapter to be posted about Jan 4, 2012.

Someone asked how I pronounce Kein and Ciara. To me Kein sounds like "keen" and Ciara is pronounced like the Spanish word for sky.

Many thanks to Steve150177 for his work proofreading.

Happy Holidays to everyone out there!

Comments are welcome and votes are appreciated.

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Days passed and I wondered internally how long it would take for us to know I was carrying. I didn't ask, because part of me didn't want to know. Preemptively, I was fed bits of the root everyday. Damien informed me that no mistakes would be made this time.

The Healers came and their inspections were perfunctory. Damien explained the nausea, or morning sickness, to them and they were surprised. Listening to them talk they seemed to know less about actual

pregnancy

and more about the cycle that made it possible. Whether they figured it out or not, I would know eventually. I guessed it would be obvious.

As I sat on the beach one afternoon looking out over the warm water, I suddenly felt hot and dusty. Silly really, I thought looking down at myself. A few specks of sand clung to me, but it was hardly a bad thing. Walking into waist deep water I dunked my head and surfaced.

I stood in the sea and looked down at my skin, now glistening wet. Nope, it still felt hot and dusty. My thoughts were fluid as I stood in the sea. This day was annoying and so was this job. I hated this part of our land. No water in sight and the wind whipped up the dirt so it got in my eyes. No one else found it nearly as irritating as I did.

Such a thought was grossly illogical since I was standing in waist deep water.

Dunking myself a second time I scrubbed at myself under the water. I surfaced and still felt dry and sandy, which made no sense at all. I rubbed my arms briskly with water, but the sensation stayed.

"So your owners don't even bother to bathe you?" a voice said from just ahead of me. "You must be sad that you have to do it yourself."

"Vesa," I sighed looking at the lovely girl sneering at me.

She and her friends stepped gracefully into the water and came toward me. This could not be a good thing.

I watched the girls sliding toward me and wished I wasn't standing in water. Vesa was human and she was jealous. She longed for status in this world and she believed I had it. That sole belief had made us into mortal enemies. Vesa would do anything to take my place.

My usual tack with this girl was to try to explain that this was not a choice we could change. I would usually end up spending what felt like a good

hour

every other day reminding her that slaves did what we were told. She didn't believe me no matter what I said.

The horrible girl believed I'd found a way to get pregnant and now I gained favors by being a breeding slave. My men served me, she foolishly thought. Her owners had unfortunately told her about me feeding Evan. She believed she could wrap the world around her finger if she could do what I did.

She did little annoying things to convince me to talk to her. Her friends would stick their legs out to trip me or they'd sit and stare at me for

hours

on end. Thanks to her influence only Rose and Fuji still dared to talk to me. This new Keepers' was quite a desolate place for the three of us.

"Tell me how you managed to

conceive

," she demanded now.

I didn't back away and held my ground as the four girls circled me. Not for the first time I was glad I had not told these girls what the health drink really was. As they closed in I steeled my resolve not to let the secret slip in this company.

"I got pregnant when the women wanted me to," I told her simply.

A thought niggled at my mind. Two girls were slipping behind me. This was a set up, something bad was about to happen.

"Liar," Vesa sneered, "my owners were in trouble because you carried a child. All the Administrators were punished. You did it yourself...somehow."

I sighed and silently spread my feet for more solid footing in the loose sand beneath me. The waves were making that a losing battle.

"Vesa, I was owned by men who liked to study things, perhaps they did something to me," I offered.

"The Keepers can be distracted, stupid, as many times as I need them to be," she said coming closer.

"Don't be foolish," I warned the girls, "hurting me will only end up getting us all punished. This is not a point of discussion."

"Let's see if a little time in the sea changes your mind," Vesa growled. "You'll learn I can hurt you without leaving a mark."

Before I could scream I was jumped and my legs were tugged from beneath me. My head plunged beneath the surface and I struggled with the girls. It was a mighty fight beneath the placid surface.

They tried to hold me under and failed miserably. I fought like my family had trained me to. Quite quickly I adapted to the underwater battle. I breached the surface and sucked in air. Before they could attack again I swung, striking Vesa in the jaw. She stumbled back and now it was only three against one.

Vesa's friend clawed at my neck from behind trying to drag me under. My elbow swung back and I heard the crunch of bone as I broke her nose. The other girl threw a vicious jab into the back of my ribs. The wind rushed out of me and I stumbled for a moment. The girl in front grabbed my hair and tried to pull me under.

I'd drowned once and that was enough. Using my remaining energy I pushed the girl in front forward until we were in shallower water. The girl still behind me tried to dig her nails into my sides to hold me, but it did not work. Without the water to limit me, I was a vicious bitch.

Swinging with intent I knocked out the girl that was trying to pull out my hair. When I turned to take on the girl pummeling my back, the Keepers finally saw us.

The Keepers rushed to separate us. They got soaked pulling us out of the water and away from one another. I forced myself to calm down and not fight the man holding me, that would have been pointless. He just carried me as his Brothers carried the other girls from the beach into their building.

Slaves aren't allowed to hurt each other, the Keepers reminded us as they fixed our wounds. I was scratched and bruised, but the other girls were in much worse shape. Healers were summoned for Vesa's jaw and her friend's nose; I had broken both.

Standing in the all too familiar punishment room I wondered at my circumstances. Being stuck to the wall wasn't uncomfortable, but my back still throbbed. That worried me less than the future, though. I was certain fighting with the head Administrator's slave would be grounds for serious punishment. Hopefully Damien and his Brothers would protect me.

They would, I suddenly knew. The men were livid that I had been attacked. They would watch the slaves die that had done this. Vesa and her friends would be corpses by nightfall. Their right to live was forfeit.

Oh hell, I felt the bond now. It was getting stronger. The men knew it all, they had witnessed everything.

"No!" I screamed fighting the air shackling me to the wall. "Please don't kill them! They just made a stupid mistake!"

I screamed and struggled feeling absolutely helpless. While I did not like Vesa at all, I had no desire to be the reason for her demise. If she was killed the guilt would overwhelm me.

The Keepers dropped the divider in front of my face and looked curiously at me. I was shaking and crying. Over and over again I begged Damien and his Brothers not to kill the other slaves.

"Slave, your owners are not here," one of the Keepers said with his head cocked.

They were coming, though. Damien and his Brothers were on their way. They'd been in the Great Barren Stretch tracking the bandits, but they were coming back at top speed.

"Go back," I begged the voices in my head, "go track and find the bandits, don't do this."

Their feelings were getting stronger by the moment. My pleas fell on

deaf

ears. The closer they were the harder it was to hold a differing opinion, but I was stubborn.

I sought out Christof's mind. He felt just like his Brothers did, there was no latitude. Attacking me was bad enough, doing so in an unequal grouping had been the height of dishonorable. These creatures had no right to live.

"Take them to their owners," I begged the Keepers. "Take them somewhere else, please. My owners can't find them."

The Keepers did not understand and called the Healers, who understood less. I was acting like I had lost my mind. It made no sense to talk to men that were not present. All ten of them stared at me like I was the strangest thing they'd ever seen.

A whipping would be fine, I reasoned, it could be made to hurt like nothing I'd ever experienced. Vesa would learn, she could be taught. This girl did not need to die for her stupidity.

The disconnect with the men was causing a headache. The pain was mighty and throbbing. It felt as though I would pass out. Soon nothing else seemed to matter except that pulsing pain. It felt as though I was tearing into pieces.

"

Fine

," the voices in my head finally relented, "

we will...discuss our decision

."

I breathed with relief. We would not kill Vesa and her friends, although we really wanted to. Ciara was stubborn and against it.

I shook my head and tried to clear it. Nothing like thinking about myself as a different person to fully confuse me.

Sweating and out of breath, I hung on the wall and panted. The pain I had caused us had been monumental. The relief was overwhelming and I almost felt sleepy. The anger was still there, but it was controlled and in the background.

The Keepers and the Healers just stood and watched me like I was some animal in a

zoo

. They couldn't decide what I had been screaming about. It had sounded like I was having a conversation, but I was alone in this room. It took them a while to come terms with the strangeness of it.

Since I wasn't acting as uncontrolled anymore the Healers eventually took me off the wall and checked me again on a floating table. Perhaps I had suffered some damage they had not seen the first time. It was conceivable that is what had me so bothered.

I had been hurt, but the bruise was only just appearing. The Healers realized that the girl had hit me on my back hard enough to break a rib. They pulled out a funny looking instrument and pressed it to my bruised flesh.

"If you touch our...slave," Damien said in an even voice while entering the room, "we will destroy you."

The Healers were shocked and backed away from the angry Warriors approaching.

"Sir, we are trained with the human slaves," one Healer said in a shaking voice. "We would not have caused it harm."

The anger in my men was undeniable. Now that they were so close, I felt it and it was making them irrational. They wanted to hurt something in retaliation for what had happened. With them so close I felt the anger starting to pool in my own self. I fought the unnecessary emotion.

"You are not trained for this slave," Bane said calming down slightly in reaction to me. "The lead Healers deal with this slave. She has special needs."

The Healers told Damien that was fine, but I had a broken rib. I needed treatment fast or I would be in great pain. This damage would cause difficulty with my breathing for two moons if they let it sit unhealed.

"Thank you," Damien said politely as Evan picked me up.

I hissed and struggled when pressure was applied to my right chest. Evan quickly adjusted his arms so he did not hurt me. I focused on Christof's unbroken body and felt the pain seep from me. Of course, now I felt the anger.

The lead Healers were called to our quarters and they met us at the door. They examined me quickly and came to the same conclusion their cousins had. The men pulled out a similar device and pressed it against the tender flesh.

Damien and his Brothers had seen this before. The healers used it to accelerate the healing of broken bones. Something similar had been used on Bane and Christof as children. We had no idea how it worked.

I suddenly moved away from the device in horror.

"Will this harm the child inside?" Damien asked placing a hand over the instrument.

It wasn't Damien's worry; it was mine. I knew that

pregnant

women couldn't do certain things because it could cause birth defects. Not surprisingly Damien and his Brothers had never heard of that before, but now the knowledge concerned them.

My family refused to let the Healers continue because they didn't know if this was safe in

pregnancy

or not. In fact, the Healers had never considered that idea. Damien scoffed openly at their ignorance and demanded they find out.

"We will contract our Mistress," they told Damien, "she has access to the great knowledge base. We will know soon. Keep the slave breathing deeply."

That was right, at least in my experience. Back on Earth Uncle Eddy had been quite a terror when he was

drunk

. When my mom got started it would be an all out battle between them. The fights would be verbal until one of them completely lost it and then it would be physical.

Eddy had broken several of mom's ribs one time.

Tape

wasn't good for the lungs the doctor had said. I remembered how the doctor had fussed at them and told them the best treatment was deep breaths and pain control. I was scared to use the foul smelling goop though, so I concentrated on deep breathing.

"A little might not hurt," Kein said watching my eyes.

I thought of every deformed human I'd ever seen. The men were horrified. Nothing would touch me until the truth was found out. They hated to see my pain, but understood the possible dire consequence.

I was salty and sandy from the beach, so the men took me into the shower and washed me gently. Christof breathed slowly and deeply, encouraging me to do the same. As long as I kept my conscious mind away from my own body that was easy to do.

The only problem with concentrating on the men was I kept being subjected to their anger. When I fully opened to them, I felt them forcibly probing my memories. It was uncomfortable to be bonded like this again. My men interrogated me at my deepest, most private level.

There were things I had not shared with them, like all Vesa's prior insults. I had never said my friends and I were isolated at the Keepers. I would not have brought such trivial information to their attention. Now they were livid to find out after the fact.

"You are not honest with us," Bane said sounding calm. "We thought we had taught you not to hold back from us. This girl has made you unhappy for many day cycles."

Now they all sounded calm, but the rage was building fiercely in every direction. This would be dealt with, it had just been allowed to go on much too long. They were upset with me, but happy to take it out on these other girls. My family would teach them and every lesson would be in blood.

"She was foolish," I pleaded. "Her friends were foolish. It is normal for a human to want to better themselves..."

I refused to agree and be dragged into a senseless bloodbath. We were all slaves, none better than the other. There was nothing to gain in harming these humans.

"The girl who hit you," Bane said concentrating on the large purple bruise, "was not human. She is from a world not far from yours. Her bone is as hard as the metal in our blades. Those creatures are bought from slave auctions their own planet puts on. She is a born slave and knows no other life."

I felt the my ribs now and started to breath fast, short breaths. The throbbing ache was intense. Evan pushed Bane hard into the wall and Christof's unbroken ribs replaced the sensation of my own.

Damien spoke sharply to Bane. He ordered him not to cause me pain just because he was upset. Nu-reeh would be angry enough as it was.

"Give her comfort now, Brother," Damien threatened squaring off with Bane.

The lesson had to be enforced and Damien would do what had to be done. Hurting his Brothers caused him pain, but they had to learn. This was not a lesson we could forget.

We were in turmoil and it was uncomfortable. The men wanted to kill something and I did not. I was in pain and they were not. None of them were used to the discordant feelings and it was frustrating. Frankly, I felt a little schizophrenic, much like the last time this pregnancy thing had happened. I couldn't concentrate and couldn't think straight.

"Eh, so we are becoming an Earth family, then?" Kein said trying to lighten the mood, "Fighting amongst ourselves and disagreeing with one another is normal on Earth, correct, Ciara?"

I nodded and smiled remembering my crazy upbringing. Eddy had once thrown a kitchen knife at Mom and the

police

had been called. The house had been a

three ring circus

. I didn't think I could stand that mess again.

Bane reached past Damien and

hugged

me lightly in the shower.

"We leave punishment to the Administrators," he said

kissing

my damp head. "It is how you wish."

It drained out of them. The rage was gone and they were decided. It was better for the family not to hold onto it, so we didn't. The girls that had hurt me would be dealt with by their owners, not us.

I was uncomfortable, but more at ease with the situation. The men had totally relented and were no longer blood hungry. I felt relaxed for the first time since I'd seen Vesa approaching me.

Lifting my arm hurt, so they didn't put my linen cover on me after our bath. Instead, Christof laid me in the bed under a blanket to rest while we sorted everything out. I concentrated on the men and soon drifted into a restless sleep.

The General came and Damien explained to him what had happened. I saw the entire transaction through my dreams. The men told the General they wanted no part of the punishment and they wanted to have no knowledge of it. This strange request was acceptable to the General; he didn't even question it.

"Nu-reeh will be incensed her breeder was harmed," the General said watching me sleep. "I will be glad when you and your Brothers leave for the mountains. It is more than I can deal with to have it here."

Damien laughed internally. Even knowing that I carried a little life inside of me, he still insisted on calling me an 'it'. The man had no imagination. Christof wholeheartedly agreed and reminded Damien he'd thought that the entire time.

Dinner arrived and my sore, tired body was pulled to the table. I was surprised when a pot of steaming drink was produced.

"It is a girl," Damien explained pouring me a serving and smiling. "We sent the message to Nu-reeh as soon as you connected to us. The whole compound is getting a treat tonight, although the others do not know why."

We ate in comfortable silence. My rib still throbbed, but there was no more inner discord. The dissension of opinion had been harder to tolerate than the physical pain.

The men knew that would have been the case. Pain through disagreement in the bond was always the worst thing imaginable. The cruelest thing to do to any man would be to seek to disrupt long held opinions in just one Brother.

That surprised me. We had not always agreed. I'd believed I should not be a slave long before they'd come to that conclusion. We had never felt like we did earlier today.

"You allowed us to guide you, little Sister," Bane said filling my plate back up. "You did not fight us. Damien, Evan, Kein and I were not confronted with your feelings on the matter. It also helped that our sneaky Brother with his Earth heritage agreed with you. Both of you," he grinned at Christof, "held those opinions away from us and shared only with each other. We did not truly experience your disagreement."