High above the glorious city of Ar with its brightly colored banners and flags that blow in the breeze, a lone tarnsman swirls high above in the clouds in search of a beauty to snatch up and add to his chain of slave girls. Pulling on the five strap of the war bird’s bridle, he sends the huge tarn spiraling downward into a passage between two cylinders to get a closer look at a girl that has begun her long trek across one of the high bridges below.
The girl known as Nalani stepped forth into the bright light of the Gorean day, clad in whispering silk and adorned with golden armlets and bracelets that catch the sun’s rays in a dazzling dance of light. Blinking from the brightness of the morning even as auburn curls are set afire in the bright day, her beautiful features reflexively lift to its warmth. Long lashes flutter closed, unaware of the lurking danger overhead as her bared feet carry the girl over the path of the bridge which she has trod hundreds of times. Unknown to her, the tarnsman overhead begins to drop lower and lower upon the huge war tarn as the girl travels towards the cylinder that hold her Master’s chambers. If she could have detected the silent descent of the bird or caught his wild grin as he expertly dodged tarn wires and guardsmen that surely paroled the gates, she would have run for her life.
The tarnsman secretly smirks as his mind turns to the girl that is nearly his as he kicks the bird to approach her closer at a faster rate, keeping an eye on the red-haired beauty that is the target of his approach. The sun glinting off her jewelry makes her an easy target for his grasp as he loosens the safety sash on the bird. Smiling triumphantly, he hangs a bit off on the right side and reaches down to grab her up in his strong hand.
Inhaling deeply, the girl’s stormy blue eyes open as her bared feet hit that well-known halfway mark across the high archway engraved upon her owned soul. Mink brown eyebrows furrow at the blur in the sky and it is as if she knows what it is yet hesitates in her surprise that a tarnsman has made it this close within the walls of Ar. Suddenly her eyes widen as a reflexive scream surges through her collar throat, her racing heart erupting through the flurry of beautiful tiny feet that race into action. Wild blue eyes look for a retreat but in horror she sees that the doorway is still so far away and tucks as much as she can as she begins to race for her life.