The Gathering Ch 01

This is just the beginning of the tale so not too much action yet, just setting the scene! Hope you enjoy my very first submission. LittleOneWishes x

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Amie's heart began beating faster as the last of the light slipped away. It was a late summers evening and the hum of insects, usually so comforting, only seemed to emphasise the passing of time - like nature's clock ticking away her freedom. She could sense, rather than see, the sympathetic stares from behind the regulation shutters on all the houses on her street as she stood on the gathering stone. All the houses that is, except her own. Her parents and younger brother would be dining with the Shahnark tonight, to celebrate their commitment to the King. If a family was chosen to surrender a son or daughter to the program, they always received an invite for the night of the gathering. A sign of gratitude for their sacrifice, but she also suspected it was to keep them away whilst the collection was made.

As Amie waited on the stone, she was glad her mother was not here to see this. A quiet soul, she had always tried to protect her daughter. This may have been too much to bare and Amie was sure any attempts to help her would have been construed by her hot headed father as bringing shame on their family's honour. Something that he would have been quick to punish his wife for, behind the closed doors of the family home.

The breeze blew Amie's long, dark curls into her face. She automatically tried to push these back behind her ears, as she had done a thousand times before, but the chains newly cuffed around her slender wrists did not allow it. So she waited, unsure what was to follow. Only knowing that no girl gathered in their 18th year like her had ever returned to the residential compound that was her home. The look her mother gave her earlier that day as she slipped the cuffs on, under her father's watchful eye, sent a jolt of fear through her like nothing before.

She thought back about what she knew of the gathering. Girls and boys were both gathered, both from 18 onwards. Usually it was the boys who returned to the compound as men, sometimes decades after having been gathered. These returned men tended to hold positions of power on their return and arrived with a wives and young families in tow, having been retired from their service to the King. They never spoke of their time away, that was the unsaid rule. Only children whispered about what happen to the gathered, hushed tales of mysterious adventures and romantic encounters - much like the stories of knights, castles and battles of old. Very occasionally, girls did also return as wives into the compound, but these tended to be the older woman, gathered in their mid-twenties and they returned several years later as strange, subdued versions of their younger selves. What happened to the rest, nobody knew, only that they were taken to serve the King and his Shahnark and never returned.

Like all young girls, Amie had imagined what it would be like to stand on the gathering stone. Dressed in a simple, flowing lavender gather dress with hands cuffed to the two chains secured to the base. However, the romantic tales she had whispered about with her childhood friends seemed far away, now she faced leaving her family and everything familiar behind. As the dusk gave way to darkness, the sound of the gathering coach approaching could be heard and Amie closed her eyes and began to pray to Lahdan, goddess of virgins, to protect her.

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Bentek was on gathering duty, again. Having graduated into the Narkam last month, he had thought nights of gathering were behind him. However with the war on the Eastern front not going well, gatherings had increased in frequency and some of the less qualified gatherers had even been drafted into the army, which is how he found himself back in the coach, trawling the gather stones for offerings to be collected, classified and finally trained up to serve the King.

It was the final pick up of the day, from the deprived northern boundary of the 11th residential compound. The light had fully gone as Bentek pulled the coach up to the stone, allowing his partner, Kristof to jump off the rear platform to collect the girl. She was known as Amie and had been listed as a potential member of the King's harem.

That would mean a lot of hours over many months of training on his part, as the King had demanding standards. However, Bentek was excited to finally get his shot at training such a girl. He was also greatly relived that none of his collection were already classified as for the rape pits - preparing girls for the pits was mentally draining. As much as Bentek had learned to do his job and do it well, taking part in the mandatory rape training for pit girls was no longer his style. He was clever enough not to show this to the Shahnark though, otherwise he would never have got so far following his own gathering, almost 12 years ago.

"Come on girl, move on in, we haven't got all night" Kristof's young, hard voice rang out in the darkness as he pulled on the gathering chains.

Amie whimpered softly and jumped across onto the coach. Her last thought as she felt a jab on her neck and drifted into darkness was one of shock, as she saw three half naked teenage girls, their lavender dresses pushed up above their waists, unconscious on the floor - her companions in this gathering.

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She was surprisingly warm and comfortable as she began to wake. Amie stretched her petite 5ft frame and wondered if she could spend another few minutes in this dreamlike place before facing the day, and her duties around the compound as an assistant needlework mistress, not to mention the household chores she fitted in around that main task.

As she drifted in this half awake state, her hand moved down to her sex. Forbidden as this was, she did enjoy pushing her small, slender fingers through her secret curls, searching out her centre.

"Get up 85232" a strong, male voice barked. Startled at hearing a male voice in her bedchamber, Amie's eyes flew open and the realisation of her situation hit her. The gathering, of course. Flushing, she realised how close she had come to taking her pleasure in this new home, in the presence of a man no less!

She scrambled up, her eyes taking in her new surroundings. A simple white room, with a bed in the corner and a single door. And in that door, a man whose athletic frame fairly filled the opening. His scowl showing that he was not used to waiting around for young girls to get out of bed.

"Come, we need to start your classification."

With that, he turned and strode out of the room, his implication clear, that Amie follow him.

The new room they entered was similar to the one that they had left down the hallway, in that it was still all white. However, this room held a large padded table, at its centre, which had various straps and levers attached and was wide enough for two to lie comfortably upon it. With a nod of his head, Bentek indicated that Amie mount the table.

Confused and scared, Amie approached the centre of the room, struggling to speak due to the lump in her throat.

"Dress off first 85232"

Her light green eyes watered as she tilted her heart shaped face towards him in confusion. As she did so, a memory of his younger sister's best friend came unbidden into his mind - Elssa. He felt his heart rate increase and his hands clenched at his sides. Then the fleeting memory was gone and he schooled his face into the mask from his training. He was one of the Narkam now, he didn't have a family other than them.

He took a step towards her and grasped her arm, pulling her to him. Her head only came to his mid-chest and he caught a familiar smell of late summer grasses and wildflowers prevalent across the 10th-13th residential compounds as she struggled to twist out of his hold, a cry escaping her lips. Pushing her chin up to make eye contact, he changed tack, "shhh Amie, calm down". She froze as he spoke her name. "Come on, dress off. We both know that I can take it off you in the end, so let's avoid any unpleasantness that will follow if you're not cooperative."

Amie's mind was racing. She was remembering the girls from last night, dresses pushed up above their waists, legs splayed and the young man's leering look as he pulled her across to the coach from the stone where she had been tethered. And now the demand to undress before this stranger. It seemed that her life following the gathering was not to be that of a princess, like the stories of her childhood, but something altogether darker. Her mother's last whispered words as she meekly cuffed her only daughter to the stone, rang in her ears.

"Cooperate for salvation my love..."

Amie found herself mechanically untying the bow on her gather dress and allowing it to slip to the ground.

The man's eyes narrowed as he appraised her up and down, and he nodded in approval, his eyes dilating at the promise of curves already showing on her young body. Her dusky pink nipples, just peaking out from behind the ringlets of her dark hair, were begging to be devoured.

He pointedly nodded towards the table once more. Amie looked straight at him, jutting out her dainty chin and, without breaking eye contact, gracefully pushed herself up onto the contraption.

Without knowing it, Amie had passed the first classification test. Any girl not able to show some rudimentary control of her fear, or at least some ability to reason at this stage, would come one step closer to the rape pits. Even those earmarked as suitable for the King's harem could end up going down this path. Though with their particular looks, they would more likely be given as a reward to an officer who was that way inclined, rather than going to the pits for general use.

Another option for Bentek would be to send the girl with an officer who was being posted far from the homeland and required celebration girls for his men to use. Many of the soldiers seemed to prefer a girl either frozen in terror or fighting tooth and nail for her freedom beneath them, so celebration girls of this nature were always in demand. It was Bentek's job, as one of the Narkam, to classify the gathered correctly and send them to the place of most benefit to the King, after suitable training.

Bentek looked down on people who wanted these girls with no control or reason. Yes, like everyone, he wanted a certain level of fear in his ideal girl, but he also wanted her to desire him absolutely, to be wet for him even when he was punishing her. It was this finesse that had singled him out in his own classification many years before and sent him on the path to the Narkam, rather than following the majority of boys into the army.

Turning his attention back to the girl, to be known as 85232 until she earned a name, Bentek focused. She was still looking at him, stubbornly refusing to break her gaze. His lip curled into a smile as he moved towards her again, noting her nervous swallowing even as she held her ground. He tilted her head up towards his and pressed a kiss to her tightly closed lips, running a hand down her neck and onto her small breasts.

Cupping one breast easily in his large hand he squeezed it as he used his weight to push her backwards onto the table, continuing to press kisses upon her. In a well practiced move, he pulled her arms above her head and buckled them into restraints, straightening up whilst keeping her legs pinned to the side of the table with his lower body. Those green eyes were now dilated in a delicious fear of true understanding as 85232 realised her predicament.

Amie started to struggle, as the cuffs holding her arms immediately started to tighten, pulling her up the table. She was in shock, the man had pushed up against her and pressed his lips to hers, giving her her first real kiss. Sending a spark from her lips down to her nipples, one of which had puckered unbidden beneath his large hand. And whilst she was still processing this, her arms had been bound securely, without so much as a struggle. She was not going to allow the same to be done to her legs.

She kicked out at him as he reached for some buckles to secure her legs, but this did not seem to phase him as she was soon secured by her ankles as snuggly as at her wrists. His task complete, he simply turned his back to her and walked out of the door without a second glance, leaving her restrained, as the cuffs continued inextricably to pull her up the table.

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A tear ran down Amie's face. The contraption had finally stopped pulling her limbs over an hour ago - her final position spread both her arms and legs wide, showing her secret curls to anyone who walked through the doorway the hateful man had left by. She had screamed as he left her, oscillating between begging for her freedom and cursing him with words she had heard the farmhands use whilst they thought they were alone. But exhaustion had taken its toll and now only the single tear gave any indication that Amie was still awake.

As she lay there, unaware of Bentek's constant scrutiny through the mirrored wall to one side, she simply felt ashamed. Ashamed that all the years of covering all but her face, hands and feet had come to nothing - Lahdan, goddess of virgins would never save her now, not when she had willingly undressed before the man. But she was also ashamed that perhaps her downfall was certain even before she moved to undo that lavender bow. All those times at home when, in the early hours of the day before her family woke, she sort out her pleasure to the comforting sounds of the dawn filtered through her mind. Had Lahdan forsaken her at that point, leading to her being selected for gather just one week following her 18th birthday? This thought burned through her mind as the door opened and Bentek stepped back into the room.

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Bentek had watched countless girls go through this process, yet the adrenaline this initial surrender caused pumped through his body with no less urgency than that first time, two years following his own gather. The voice of his mentor, Fikel, explaining how to wait out the girl rang through his head.

"It'll let the little missy think through scenarios in her pretty, little head. Then break her in more gently than her imagination and she'll feel some gratitude to you for sparing her. That little missy's gratitude is your currency, to use as you mould her into the perfect little miss."

"Never forget that son, never forget" he'd continued with a chuckle, "other's may prefer to break their girls quick. Works to a point I suppose, but they'll never get a shot at training for the King's harem."

Almost to himself at the time, Fikel had continued, "prepare enough perfect missy's for the King and maybe I'll find a royal reprieve. And a girly to call my own..."

Sure enough, a few years since that first day, Fikel had indeed been assigned a wife by the Shahnark and left the Narkam compound and Bentek for good - an overseeing post had opened up in one of the better residential compounds.

Over the years, Bentek had started to dream about that life for himself too. A girl moulded to his own desires, rather than those of the King or the Shahnark - someone who only screamed by his hand. One he could keep safe for good, unlike Elssa.

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Moving swiftly, Bentek crossed the room to 85232, pushing a couple of damp curls from her face which was wet with tears from the past few hours. Her eyes started open as he brushed the side of her face and he touched a gentle hand to her lips, gesturing she remain silent.

Eyes wide, she nodded her acceptance, though he could see her breathing pick up causing her tiny ribcage to move erratically as her body prepared for flight. Ironic really, as she was fully restrained on his training table.

As she appeared to be hanging onto control well, he left her again, retrieving a warm, moist cloth from the side. He started to rub Amie down with long, soothing strokes, designed to relax - whispering reassuring words of praise to her as her breathing started to normalise.

Bentek was purposefully avoiding her breasts and pussy in his massage, building up his currency early on as he'd been taught. Simply concentrating on removing the stickiness from her day on the gather stone and journey to the compound yesterday. However, as he moved his attention down to her legs, he struggled to hide his smile, he could smell the start of her arousal and feel the involuntary movements of her hips as unbeknownst to her, her core sought its release from him.

Determining it was time to check her reaction to the next classification test, Bentek moved back up the table to Amie's head and pressed a chaste, feather light kiss to her forehead. Slowly working his way round to her lips with kisses, he pushed a little harder as he reached his destination. Whimpering softly, she parted her mouth, allowing him access. Bentek saw her cuffed hand clench above her head as he nibbled on her lower lip.

Emboldened by this response, Bentek moved a hand back onto Amie's pert breasts, circling each nipple in turn, both puckering beautifully on command as he scraped a nail over the rosy pink nub. Below him, Amie whimpered more loudly and pushed her tongue out to lick Bentek's lips, starting to match him kiss for kiss. Considering this enough of a success for a first session, Bentek stepped away from Amie watching her expressive face as it flittered from bewilderment to sadness that his kisses had stopped and finally back to the original shame she had felt before he entered the room.

Recognising this, Bentek left the room with a cursory, "good evening 85232, I will see you in the morning", leaving Amie bound and silently crying over his expert manipulations. In time, she would be grateful things had stopped there, whilst still aware that he was unaffected by her, so held all the power.

As he left the room though, he let down his guard, breathing out heavily and readjusting his crotch which had hardened on seeing her watery, light green eyes dilated with a mixture of fear and arousal looking up at him. His new assistant Kristof came out of the observation area and gave him a withering look. Bentek glared at this insubordination and Kristof quickly schooled his expression back to a trainer's best weapon - his neutral mask.

"What you leave the whore for? She was begging for it, you could have fucked her right there, or at least got her to suck you off."

"Timing Kristof. You need to learn patience. 85232 is going to be my first to make it to the King's harem, you just wait and see. If we scare her so early on, it'll hold her back - she'll make it to the Shahnark's harem maybe, but no further. The King wants his girls to be terrified of him when he's in the moment, but he also needs them to desire him unconditionally."

Kristof sneered as he considered this. He was of the opinion that all the whores they trained needed a healthy dose of fear. It was that fear that made him hard in anticipation as he got up each morning to start the day.

A regular visitor to the rape pits since he was classified as a trainer looking to enter the Narkam and given the freedom of the compound following his gathering just over three years ago, Bentek was well aware of Kristof's reputation as a vicious trainer who had influence in high places. His father was in the Shahnark's ruling council and had reaffirmed their relationship following gather. Unusual though family loyalties between fathers and sons were in the compound, when re-formed, they did tend to be strong, lending nuances to the already complex politics.