Author's note: As always, in any of my stories any character that engages in any kind of sexual activity is over 18 years of age. I'm enjoying writing this sort of anti-Gorean story, and thank everyone for their comments and votes!
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The first week in the forest were the best days Sally had spent on Gor. She found some safe hiding spots, it was pretty easy to find food and water, and there were even a couple small caves she could safely light a small fire and cook the small animals she killed.
Fruits and berries were plentiful and easy to pick, and one kind of tree had slim, strong vines that were ideal for making snares. She had gained back some of the weight she had lost during her escape, and no longer looked hollow-cheeked and emaciated.
She was still far from happy. She was often bored, desperately lonely, and spent most of her time thinking about all the things from Earth she missed. There were so many little things she had taken for granted that she wished she had now.
She missed Chinese takeout. She missed ice cream. God, she missed soft toilet paper. Wiping herself with leaves, and then having to dig a hole and bury her waste every time she took a dump, had gotten old in a hurry.
She missed having a razor. Out of habit, she used her dagger to scrape away some of the hair under her arms, but didn't dare use it on her legs.
'Thank heavens I'm blond,' she thought, 'or I'd look like a Persian cat!'
She was surprised how much she missed watching TV. Back on Earth, she really hadn't watched that much. She made a point never to just have the TV on as background, the way so many people did. Even so, not having the option made her want to cry.
'Right now I'd blow all the guards back at that damn kennel for an hour of C-SPAN.'
She missed shopping, beer, silly supermarket check-out magazines filled with the latest celebrity gossip, and listening to Max tell her about his day at work-even when she didn't understand half of what he was talking about.
'For you, my love,' she whispered. 'You told me to be strong after you were gone.'
She looked around at the trees in every direction and smiled bitterly. 'I didn't expect to have to put up with THIS shit though!'
She tried to stay busy, to keep herself from thinking too much. She spent a lot of time practicing with her sling and pole. She was confident that if any imaginary enemies attacked, they'd get their pretend butts kicked.
She also spent a lot of time climbing trees, and learning how to move from place to place without ever touching the ground. It was fun, as long as she didn't think about what would happen if she fell and got hurt.
Small animals were plentiful, but she saw very few birds and nothing large and dangerous-although she sometimes hear noises that could have been something big plowing through the forest nearby. Whenever those sounds reached her, she tried to hide and be very quiet.
She experimented with making simple spears by sharpening branches, but they didn't fly very true. Her sling and stones remained her best option for a long distance weapon, as she had no idea how to make a bow.
There were very few paths, and most of them were old and overgrown. She still avoided them on principle. Even though she was lonely, solitude seemed preferable to meeting any more Goreans. In a week, she hand't seen a single building, old campfire, or any other sign that any people had ever been there.
Which is why it came as such an enormous shock when four armed women suddenly appeared in her small clearing.
Sally had been scraping the edge of her dagger along a flat stone, seeing if she was sharpening it or just making noise, when from all four sides the women materialized. She leaped to her feet, only two feel razor sharp spear points press against her stomach and the small of her back.
The other two stayed back a bit, holding bows already drawn and notched, pointed straight at her. One of them spoke.
"Drop the knife girl," she commanded.
Sally stiffened and snarled, but girl behind her pressed a little harder. She realized how useless her little dagger would be, and with an angry sigh she cast it down.
The woman in front of her lifted her spear until the tip was touching Sally's throat. She was dressed in dark animal skins, a necklace of claws softly clattering around her neck. Much taller than Sally, she looked down at the helpless Earth girl, her expression pitiless.
"Hands behind your back," she rumbled, and emphasized the words by pressing until a tiny trickle of blood rolled down Sally's throat. Sally glared at her, her lips trembling with rage, but reluctantly put her hands behind her, where they were quickly lashed together.
Once her wrists were secured, the woman lowered her spear. "Runaway slaves are not welcome here. Who is your Master, girl?"
Sally's eyes blazed with fury. "I am no one's slave." she snarled.
The women all laughed. The woman behind her used her spear to lift Sally's shirt. Sally yelped and started to jerk away, but the girl in front drove her spear into the ground and grabbed her, one hand tangling in her short hair, the other gripping her throat.
"She's branded, all right," one of them said as the small letter 'K' burned into her left thigh came into view. The woman jerked her closer, staring into her blue eyes.
"You are collared and branded. You are kajira," she said simply, but Sally shook her head as well as she could in the woman's powerful grip.
"Just because some assholes wrapped a piece of steel around my neck and burned me doesn't make me a slave!" she almost screamed.
There was more laughter, and the woman shifted her grip, clutching the back of Sally's slim neck.
"We'll let Shan decide what to do with you," she declared, pushing the smaller girl ahead of her firmly.
"March!"
As soon as they started moving, the two archers slipped deeper into the trees and vanished. Sally couldn't see or hear them, but twice one appeared ahead of them and gave a hand signal, apparently meaning the way was clear and safe. She realized how feeble her stealth skills were compared to these women.
Three times, her captors warned her to be wary of traps and carefully steered her way. Twice they had to lift and pull her over large rock formations. Sally could see how anyone coming this way who didn't know exactly where they were going would get either injured or lost.
At last, they came to an enormous, imposing wall of thorny bushes. The growth was twice as high as the girls heads, and stretched for hundreds of yards in either direction. It seemed like a dead end, but the woman in front of her wrapped her hands around a small tree directly in front of the hedge, and lifted.
It was a fake, concealing a tunnel through the obstacle.
"That's clever," Sally mumbled, and the girl behind her laughed.
"Ally came up with that idea. She's of the Builder caste and very intelligent."
The tunnel stretched some thirty or forty feet. It was only wide enough to proceed single file, and the taller Gorean woman had to crouch slightly to avoid tangling their hair in the thorns.
Actually, to call the protuberances 'thorns' was to belittle them. They were massive, sharp curved hooks, some nearly a foot long, the points sharp as razors. Any animal or person attempting to push their way through this barrier would be torn to pieces.
They emerged from the tunnel in the camp of the Panther girls.
There were smiles and calls of greeting from the others, and they cast curious looks Sally's way. The two archers that had helped capture her were already there, and the four women slapped each other on the back in celebration.
"Rendill has gone to fetch Shan," one of them said.
Sally stood still and quiet, looking straight ahead, keeping a firm leash on her anger as a few of the Panthers came up to her, looking at her short, ragged hair and cut-up gown with expressions of puzzlement.
A voice rang out, thick with merriment. "Denera, what have you dragged home this time?"
The woman with the necklace of claws laughed. She dug her fingers into Sally's short hair and yanked her head up.
