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Aidan awoke reluctantly. Sleep had been free from pain and fear. Waking was likely to be filled with both. The first dose of fear came when he found he was once again in a bed, though this time the covers were tucked over him. Puzzlement followed immediately after, however, for it was a bed scaled to a felitan, not a human.

His eyes scanned the room. It was small and simple, wallpapered in a light golden cream, but with the single window covered in wrought iron bars that though decorative looked also quite functional. A prison perhaps. And yet not what he had expected. The bed was luxuriously soft. The floor was deeply carpeted. Lanterns burned on the walls, the oil lightly scented with some exotic spice. Everything here spoke of wealth and comfort. How could this be a room meant for a slave?

The door opened and the tall albino stepped through it. He had to duck just a bit, for the doorway too was scaled to a felitan's height. He came over to the bed, and Aidan found himself cowering back as the man approached. "Good morning," he said, speaking in the felitan tongue. "Welcome to my home. My name is Ophirus. As you may have guessed I am now your owner. However I bought you as a present. So I believe you should meet your true owner."

Another man came into the room. He was tall too, and slender, much like Ophirus was. But where Ophirus was washed out, pale on pale on pale, this man was vivid and bright. His hair was a rich red, a long, curling mane that flowed down around his shoulders. His skin was an olive tan, contrasting sharply with his hair, and his eyes were vivid green, a bright color that Aidan had never seen in a human before. His face was quite possibly the most handsome face Aidan had ever seen.

"This is Martius. He is your master now. I'll leave you to get to know each other."

Martius knelt next to the bed. Aidan pulled his head under the blanket and curled himself up into a ball, trembling with fear at the human's nearness. He had been bought as a present for this man, so he knew very well what was likely to happen next. He was only surprised that he hadn't been restrained while he slept.

But Martius made no move to touch Aidan. Instead he simply spoke in a gentle, reassuring tone. "Hello there. My name is Martius. I'm afraid I don't know yours, they couldn't tell us. I suppose it's hardly surprising that slavers wouldn't bother to get the names of their slaves. But although I know I can hardly claim moral superiority over them, since I'm a slave owner now myself, I still do at least admit that felitan are sentient beings. But I digress. Would you be willing to tell me your name?"

Aidan remained silent. He felt a certain thread of curiosity, but mostly all he felt was fear. He wasn't sure he could speak if he wanted to.

"Poor lad. I'm sure you've been traumatized quite a lot by the last few weeks. And last night in particular, no doubt. Well, let me reassure you that I have no desire to rape you. I find no pleasure in that at all. And no challenge either." He chuckled softly as he said that, and when Aidan dared to lift his head and look at him, Martius was smiling gently. "You may belong to me, but I take good care of my things. I promise you that I will not hurt you or force you in any way. This room is yours. On the other side of that door is the room I share with Ophirus. If you leave the door shut, we will stay outside. It is your choice. And if you emerge from this room, you are free to go wherever you wish in the house, you are not bound to come to my bed. Not until you choose to come there."

Aidan heard the words, even through the blanket, but couldn't believe them. It couldn't possibly be true. What kind of madman bought a sex slave and then didn't demand sexual service?

"And speaking of challenges, let me see your aura..." He gently pulled the blanket back. Aidan cringed, trying to squirm down further beneath the covers. "Here now, you need not fear me," said Martius. "I will do you no harm." He reached for Aidan slowly, and Aidan cringed away from him, squirming back across the bed until he was pressed against the wall and had nowhere else to go.

"Shh, don't fear," said Martius, his voice still gentle. Aidan shuddered and curled up again. He felt the human's hand on his head and could take no more. He twisted, grabbing at the man's hand, and bit it. Once again he tasted blood, and Martius yelped in pain, pulling back. "Damn!"

Aidan let go, flinching away, expecting further curses and probably beatings as well, but none came. When he dared to look up he saw Martius, holding one hand with the other, and looking ruefully at the bloody tooth marks Aidan had left. "Well. I suppose I should have believed Ophirus when he said you bite. And I should know better than to corner someone like that. Forgive me. I'll have a look at your aura some other time. For now I will let you be. Remember, so long as the door is shut no one will disturb you. But if you need anything at all you have only to open it and ask."

Martius rose and left the room. Aidan was left to lie on the bed alone feeling shocked and confused.

He lay there for most of that first day. When the initial shock began to fade, memory filtered back, and he found himself crushed beneath the weight of all that had happened. He wept several times, and once screamed and beat at the mattress. It was stuffed with feathers, so all that accomplished was to send down flying into the air. He wanted to get up, run around the room, punch at the walls and the door, but was afraid that if he did he would only be proving the slaver who had said he was almost human right. He did not want to be human. He remembered the taste of blood when he had bitten Martius, and Ophirus before, and once again began to weep. Finally, as the sun set outside his barred window, he cried himself to sleep.

---

The next day he woke to find early morning sunlight filtering in through the windows. He was alone in the room. At first he simply curled back up in the bed, wishing he could slip back into the peaceful oblivion of sleep and not have to face another day. But gradually he became aware that he was ragingly thirsty, and hungry as well. There was a water basin, on a stand above a chamber pot that he had already used once, in one corner. He rose and drank, but that did nothing for his hunger. He paced around the room for some time, while his thoughts skittered around in fear. If he ventured out, there would be humans out there. They might do anything to him. A flash of remembered pain and anguish went through his head, and he pushed it aside. He couldn't think about it. He wouldn't think about it. To distract himself he began to investigate the other furnishings of the room. There was a couch against one wall, and a wardrobe stood next to the bed. The wardrobe proved to hold several outfits, all around Aidan's size. Some were human-style clothing, trousers and shirts with sleeves, but some were felitan-style kilts and vests. He donned a pair in plain linen like that he'd often woven himself and felt a little bit better.

But with that accomplished there was nothing else to do but think, and the dark memories of what had been done to him kept coming back to him. The only distraction was the growling of his stomach. He paced the room, trying to find something, anything, to occupy his mind, but no matter what path he set his thoughts on they always returned to that single, horrible hour.

Finally he could take no more. He had been left alone, as Martius had promised. Perhaps the rest of the promise was true as well. But whatever happened, staying in physical and mental misery wasn't doing him any good. So, doubting that anything good would happen, but clinging to a tiny thread of hope that perhaps it might, he went to the door and slowly swung it open.

The room beyond was another bedroom, this one built on a human scale. It was much larger and even more luxuriously furnished. It was also completely empty. One wall was lined with large windows, covered with decorative iron grills as were the ones in Aidan's room. The other two walls each bore a door, also to human scale. He cautiously padded into the empty room, feeling his bare feet sink into the deep carpet. He opened one of the other doors, and found it led into a huge, tiled bathing room. He swung that one shut and investigated the other, which let out on a carpeted hallway.

There he saw the first sign of life. A human woman was walking down the hallway. Aidan immediately cringed back into the doorway, his ears flat, his tail curled between his legs as fear flashed through him. She glanced in as she passed and saw Aidan there, but all she did was smile at him as she continued on her way. Aidan hovered in the doorway after she'd gone, hesitant to step out into the hall. He had finally gathered the courage to do so when another human appeared at the far end, where there was apparently a stairway going down. It was Martius. Aidan froze, trembling.

Martius approached slowly. Aidan took a step backwards, towards the doorway. Martius immediately stopped. Then he dropped down to his knees, which put his head lower than Aidan's. He was still a few yards away. Softly, as if speaking to a frightened animal, he said, "Hello there. It's good to see you out of your room. Are you hungry? Can I get you anything?"

Aidan's stomach gurgled again, and he slowly nodded.

Martius smiled. "Why don't you wait here, then, while I go get you some food? Or you can wait in your room, if you like. Just leave the door open so I know it's okay to bring it in to you, all right?"

Aidan nodded again. Martius rose slowly and turned away. Aidan turned too and scurried back to his little room. He crouched on the edge of the bed, his tail twitching, and tried to remain calm while he waited. The thought of food was very good after so long without, but with the food would come Martius, whose presence made Aidan very nervous. He didn't understand what the man wanted, or why he was acting so kindly towards his slave.

A soft throat-clearing jerked his attention to the doorway, where Martius stood bearing a tray. He ducked through and knelt next to Aidan. Aidan shivered, wanting to cringe away but also desperately hungry. He licked his lips as he looked at the tray, which held a bowl of some form of hot cereal, steaming faintly, several fruits sliced and arranged neatly, and what seemed to be cold sausage of some kind, also sliced and arranged. It was not the kind of meal he'd grown accustomed to among the felitan, but the scents wafting from it made his mouth water all the same.

Martius set the tray in his lap. "Eat slowly, you don't want to make yourself sick," he said. It was all Aidan could do to not simply bury his muzzle in the bowl and wolf it down like an animal. But Martius was right, that would probably make him sick, so he controlled himself and ate one bite at a time.

When he was done he looked over at Martius, who was still kneeling next to him. Martius smiled. "Feeling better now?"

Aidan nodded again, then softly said, "Thank you."

"You speak!" Martius grinned at Aidan and Aidan, feeling perhaps that this wasn't all some strange trap, that perhaps Martius had really meant his promises, ventured a small smile in return. "Would you tell me your name?" asked Martius.

"Aidan."

"Just Aidan?"

Aidan's ears went flat and the small smile vanished. He was no longer Aidan Rihalon. That had been taken from him. "Just Aidan," he said, wanting to curl up again and retreat somehow from the memory.

"It's an unusual name. Not one I've heard before. Usually Felitan names mean something." Martius was still smiling gently, kneeling next to the bed. "What does yours mean?"

Aidan shook his head. "Nothing." He was nothing. Just a slave now, and worth nothing.

Marcus seemed to sense Aidan's sorrow. He lifted one hand as if to reach out, then glanced down to where a small, white bandage marked where Aidan had bitten him and reconsidered. "Is there anything else I can do for you?" he asked.

Aidan shook his head again.

"You are free to explore the house, there is a kitchen downstairs if you want any more food, any of the servants can direct you to it. There is a garden out back as well that you can make free use of, and a conservatory, a library, a music room... it is quite a nice place, by any standards. My Ophirus is a wealthy man." He smiled. "Consider this place your home."

That made Aidan's despair flash to anger. "I had a home. This isn't it," he said, almost snarling.

"Forgive me," said Martius softly, looking away from Aidan. "I know I am in some ways a hypocrite and an evil man. But I wish you to be happy here. I am sure you would be happier on the islands, but your freedom is the one thing I will not give you. All else that I can do for you I will, you have only to ask."

Aidan turned away from him and curled up on the bed again. "There's nothing I want from you. Go away."

"Very well." Martius rose and Aidan could hear him walking away, his booted feet soft but not inaudible on the carpeted floor. Then Aidan heard the door close and he was alone once again.

---

For more than an hour Aidan simply lay there, curled up in misery, mourning all that had been taken from him. He remembered his decision, that his first time would be with Master Weaver, and wished that he had acted on it. Now instead of sharing something precious with one who respected and cared for him he had had it violently stolen by a stranger.

But eventually he stopped wallowing in misery and tried once more to push such thoughts from his mind. He uncurled and looked around the room, seeking some distraction. There was nothing there but the wash stand, the wardrobe, the couch, and the bed itself. None of these offered much in the way of distractions. He rose, deciding he might as well explore the extent of his new prison.

Re-visiting the still empty bedroom and hallway was easy enough, but once more he hovered in the doorway. He saw no one else for some time, and eventually he gathered enough courage to set out, padding slowly down the hall. There were other doors leading off of it, but for now he left them alone. Instead he went to the end of the hall where a staircase descended in a sweeping curve to the floor below. Here there was another hall, that ran below the one above, but it was a grander thing, the walls hung with tapestries and mirrors, the floor of polished marble with a plush red carpet runner down the center, and tables along it bearing statues, vases, and other artworks.

Aidan padded silently down this hall, gazing around him as he went. At the end of it was a huge room, with a vast, high ceiling and more stairs that swooped upwards. It also had a huge double door flanked by stained glass windows that showed a color-tinted glimpse of a shrubbery-dotted lawn and drive. A human stood by the door, dressed in dark livery. Aidan froze when he saw the man. But though the man looked in his direction, all he did was smile and give Aidan a nod, he made no move to approach. Aidan looked around the room again and this time his eye was caught by a large doorway leading into another room. The arch-topped door stood open. Beyond it he could see shelves covered in what looked like books. He remembered Martius mentioning a library, and he felt a tingle of interest that was almost excitement.

Before all this he had been an avid reader. But as far as he could tell the Felitan had no written language. Reading was one of the few things about his old life that he'd missed. He had sometimes missed his family, but nothing else about the world on which he'd been born had been that much better than life with the felitan. Except for books.

He stepped into the library and approached a shelf, scanning the spines. Many of them were blank, but some bore embossed titles, a few even painted or decorated with gold leaf. As he looked, however, his heart fell. None of them were in English, of course, he hadn't expected that. But apparently the spell that let him understand languages didn't work for written words. The characters were all completely alien, the words utterly incomprehensible.

Aidan heaved a sigh of deep regret.

"Something bothering you, kitten?"

Aidan jumped, spinning around to find the albino Ophirus seated in a lushly upholstered chair with a book in his hand. "It's all right, I don't bite," he said with a small smile. "Or at least not unless you want me to." His smiled widened a little bit, showing a pair of small, sharp fangs. Aidan gaped at him. He was used to the fangs of felitan, but Ophirus seemed to be human.

"I... uh..."

"Sadly no one writes anything in Felitan, so all my books are in Colmeric," said Ophirus. "In fact I'm not aware of there even being a Felitan alphabet."

"I don't think there is," said Aidan with another regretful sigh.

"You want to read?"

Aidan nodded.

"You'd have to learn our language first you know."

Aidan shook his head. "I understand it. I just can't read it."

Ophirus blinked at him. "Really?" He suddenly switched languages. "You speak Colmeric? How?"

Aidan's brow creased as he concentrated on switching languages. He hadn't done this since first coming to this world. "I... It is hard to explain." He smiled a little as the words came out in the right tongue.

"Well, that makes learning to read a little bit easier. And I am sure that Martius would be happy to help you if you asked him. He is a patient teacher." He turned back to his book, and after a moment's hesitation Aidan turned and scurried out of the room.

He wandered through the huge house the rest of that day, including visiting the kitchens for lunch and going out into the gardens behind the house as well. He briefly considered an attempt to escape over the garden wall, but where would he go? He could hardly swim all the way back to the island, and even if he did, Master Weaver and many of his other friends there would be gone. Once again he found himself with no way to return to the life he had known. All he could do was go forward and try to make the best of the life he had now.

As he wandered he encountered several other humans. All were dressed in servant's livery save for Ophirus and Martius. None of them approached him, and he wondered if they'd been told not to. The only one of them he spoke to was the man running the kitchen, who responded quickly and cheerfully to his hesitant request for lunch, but left him alone to eat it. There were a few other felitan working in the kitchen, the rings in their ears marking them as slaves too, but they were all busy, and Aidan didn't dare interrupt their work to speak with them. They were all strangers, in any case.

Finally, as the afternoon lengthened towards evening, he returned to his room. Or tried to, but he found the larger bedroom occupied. He swung the closed door open without thinking, then halted, his ears flushing brightly, as he realized that Martius and Ophirus were both in the large bed, entwined together, kissing passionately. He immediately went to shut the door again, but Martius noticed him and broke off what he was doing. "Aidan! Please, don't fear you'll bother us. Did you want to go to your room and nap for a while?"

"Uhm..." Aidan hesitated, his ears flicking, trying to calm himself. After so much time among the felitan he should be used to seeing people engaging in such activities, but he'd never quite been able to keep from being flustered by them. "Yes..."

"Come in then. We won't be too loud, don't worry."

Aidan blushed even more, but slipped into the room, closing the door behind him, and crossed it to the smaller door that lead into his own room. Even before he'd stepped inside Martius and Ophirus were one more locked together in a passionate embrace. Aidan quickly shut the door, and was thankful that it was thick enough to mostly muffle the sounds.

He found, as he lay in bed, that he had a new image burned into his mind. The two humans, twined together, Ophirus's pale whiteness showing starkly against Martius's tanned skin and vivid hair, each perfectly complimenting the other. They were both so handsome, and for a moment he wondered what it would be like to be held between them. He shuddered as that thought led inexorably back to the feeling of being helpless beneath the weight of the human who'd raped him, and he whimpered softly. He shoved that image aside once more. A faint, muffled moan from the next room put the picture of the two lovers back into his head. He curled up, trembling as he bounced between horror and desire. He could not think of sex without thinking of what had been done to him. Yet he could not help but wish that someday, somehow, he could experience it as it was meant to be, free from fear and pain.

Some hours later, as the sun sank low in the sky, tinting the light that filtered in through the windows reddish gold, Aidan woke from his nap. He pricked his ears towards the door, but heard nothing. When he opened it he found the bed empty, but Martius was sitting in a couch against one wall, reading. He looked up and smiled. "Ah, Aidan. I hope you slept well?"

Aidan nodded silently, feeling nervous all over again. This man owned him. He held Aidan's fate in his hands in every possible way. He was being so apparently friendly, but how could Aidan trust him? Still, what else could he do? He slowly walked a bit closer to Martius.

"Ophirus said you were interested in learning how to read?"

Aidan nodded immediately. "Yes."

"Well, dinner will be served in just under an hour, which is time enough for us to get a start, if you'd like."

Aidan nodded again. Martius smiled at him. "Come down to the library with me then, I can start teaching you the letters."

Aidan merely nodded once more, unable to think of anything to say. He trailed behind Martius as the human led him to the library. The room glowed with light, gas lamps shedding a warm glow and filling the room with a faint hissing sound. There was a writing table there, scaled for humans so Aidan's feet dangled when he sat on the padded stool at it at, but not so tall that he couldn't reach the table's surface, at least. Martius retrieved what proved to be a small slate and a stick of chalk from one shelf that held an assortment of writing tools, and set them in front of Aidan. A second slate and chalk was soon placed next to him and Martius pulled up another stool to sit beside Aidan, close enough for Aidan to feel a little bit nervous once again.

He chalked a letter on the slate, giving its name and the sound it made, and Aidan copied it. He had no trouble duplicating the unfamiliar symbol. It was not much like any of the letters he knew, but he'd written enough that his hands were used to the task, even now in this changed form. Martius praised him for it, and Aidan found himself flushing a bit with pleasure at the praise. He remembered how Master Weaver had praised him for how swiftly he'd learned to use the loom.

Suddenly tears were gathering in his eyes. He missed Master Weaver. And he missed books and movies and everything from his old world. He missed school. He missed his family. He missed his felitan friends. He missed the carefree nature of life on the islands. He tried to fight back the tears, but he was suddenly aware of how much he'd lost. Two entire lives, both taken from him suddenly, with no way for him to get either one back.

"Here now, what's wrong?" Martius reached out and brushed his cheek with a gentle hand. Aidan was too lost in sorrow to flinch back from it. "What troubles you? Tell me," he said softly, coaxingly.

Aidan closed his eyes tightly, tears flowing in earnest now. "I miss home." He didn't even know which home he meant. "I miss everything."

Martius moved from his own stool to kneel beside Aidan and put his arms around him, cradling him. He said nothing more, but Aidan buried his head against Martius's chest and wept, shaking with sobs as the human held him softly and stroked his hair.