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Ch 3: Getting used to things.

Ishon's POV

I actually managed to sleep, but I woke up stiff and cold. I felt that Master was punishing me a little too strongly for what I did, but I realize what I think is not important anymore.

Honestly though, I have considered running away once we are in town, if I even can. I'm still not entirely ready to accept that I have to grovel at the feet of some crazed half-Daemon simply because my Village had owed a debt. Well, not just that, but the damned bastard had kidnapped me too. Then again, if he hadn't, I could have ended up sold to worse.

Gah! Its so confusing! I wish I could go back to my life before, helping my dad with our farm, and all. After a moment a strange thought occurred to me. My life wasn't much different now, except I had bindings, and some stupid rules, not that dad didn't have stupid rules.

Then again, I have to obey Master fully, while dad was not a have to, but would be best to if I wanted to be able to eat.

Speaking of eating, I was starving. And being locked up like I am, I had no choice but to wait for Master to feed me.

Maybe he would eventually let me roam freely, then I would get meals whenever I feel like it. At least once I learned how to cook with his crazy technology. I'd given up on escaping while I was here, so why not learn to do things?

I was smiling to myself as Master stumbled in through the door and started pissing in the toilet.

Unlike when that Vampyre Slaver was in here, I could see Master's privates due to how I was laying, so I closed my eyes and flipped over.

After he flushes the toilet, I hear him grumble as he stumbles out the door.

I sit up and open the shower door I had closed when I went to sleep, and start to climb out to make sure he hadn't made a mess. Right as I get my left foot out of the tub, Master stumbles back in carrying a pair of shorts and some kind of underwear. Both look like they were made from animal skins.

He lays them on the sink and pulls a knife out from the back of his own shorts and moves towards me.

"Keep still pet, my coordination is off when I first wake up and I would rather you not get hurt." he says as he moves closer and grabs me by my collar.

"Yes sir." I say, shaking some as I let him move the knife closer to me.

After a moment of hesitation, he cuts my shirt off, and strips me down to my underwear. "Now clean yourself, and when you finish, put those clothes on the sink on. Then call for me." he says as he leaves.

I ditch my underwear into the trash bin and start cleaning myself. It felt so so good to be able to bathe, even if my collar and tether got in my way when cleaning.

After I dry myself off, I get out and grab the clothes and put them on, finding they fit pretty good, and felt good too. I hated the fact I didn't have a shirt.

"I'm all clean and dressed, Master!" I say as loud as I can.

He pops in just a moment later with a key in hand.

"You look so cute, Ishon." Master says as he unlocks my tether from the wall.

"Thank you, Sir." I say, feeling myself blush a little for some reason.

As soon as Master had me in the living room, he grabbed something from a nearby table and slid it onto the end of my leash. As he worked it closer, I saw it was a shirt, so I raised my arms so he could put them through the sleeves.

"I was gonna wait until we got back to put these on you, but I decided to make you look nice since so many people will see you." Master says as soon as he gets my arms in their sleeves.

"Thank you, Master." I say as I let my arms fall back down by my side.

"Well pet, time to get you ready to go." Master says as he leads me over to the crafting table that he made my collar at.

He quickly has cuffs on my legs, locking them together with a chain that was thankfully loose enough for me to walk. Then he puts a heavy metal belt around my waist, locking it tight, and attaching cuffs to my wrists and running short chains between each hand and a mount on the waist of the belt. I find I can only lift my hands up enough to bring them level with my waist, but cannot lift them any higher.

"Open your mouth, pet." Master says as he moves a large red sphere on a strap towards me.

I open it and he shoves the sphere in my muzzle and straps it shut. It hurts a little since its stretching out my mouth slightly.

I guess I wouldn't be able to do more than make sounds. Which I had already been warned about doing that without permission by that Vampyre.

"Good boy, just one more item and you'll be ready." Master says as he walks over and grabs a strange looking bit of cloth.

Before I have time to react, I find it slipped on over my eyes, blocking all vision. I hated it, plus it was not comfortable to wear.

"Stay there pet. I am gonna get something to eat, then we will head out on our trip. I'll remove your blindfold when we reach the outskirts of town." Master says as he evidently heads to the kitchen.

I hear him cooking and making stuff and I can't help but whine some. Especially since it smelled so good.

"Shut it, pet. If you had just stayed a good boy and not planned on leaving your Master alone yet again in this world, you would get to eat." Master says as it sounds like he has a mouthful of food.

I nod and just wait around, my bonds already making me uncomfortable.

After quite a few minutes, I hear Master get up and grab my tether. After another couple of seconds, I find myself once again tossed over his shoulder and moving fast.

Not sure how much time passes, but we land with a hard thud, close to horses cause I hear their startled whinnies just a few feet to my right.

I quickly find myself tossed down on something hard and hear my tether be drug and locked again.

"Stay put until I fetch you, pet." Master says.

I nod my head and do my best to get comfortable on whatever Master had put me on. Which honestly was not easy as stuff was near enough I kept bumping into it.

Eventually, I hear Master yell a command to the horses and the thing I am on starts moving.

Seems I got tossed in the back of a wagon.

It was a long and bumpy ride. Around an hour into it, Master told the horses to stop and started talking to someone.

"Hello there fair Maiden, would it be too much for a stranger such as myself to give you and your child a lift to the nearest town?" Master says, projecting his voice enough to where I am sure the woman he was talking to was a little ways away from the wagon.

"Thank you kindly sir, I shall take you up on your offer as it would be too much for me to refuse help from such a kind stranger." I hear the lady talk, again projecting her voice too.

"Then come. There's room for plenty more, just don't mess with anything in the back." Master says cheerfully.

As the mother and child get in the cart, I hear the child, a little girl, ask "Mommy, who's that? And why's he tied up?" Obviously talking about me.

"That's a slave, my little Petunia. It's tied up because those are the laws for the nearest town, Fort Braag, which is where this kind stranger seems to be heading." the woman says as I can hear her child struggling to get back to me.

"He looks so sad! Why's he a sa-lave?" the little girl says as she sounds out the word.

"Because it was a bad child. That's what happens when you misbehave too much." the woman says as she sighs.

"Lies! Ishon was a good child. It was unfortunate circumstances that turned it into the slave you see before you. Mostly the village it lived in being Marked. Ishon did not do anything to deserve it. I saved it from the Slavers that were gonna do things to it that should never happen to a child, free or not." Master says, his tone showing some anger.

"Oh. Sorry kind sir. I didn't mean to offend you. And not to offend again, but why not just free your slave then, as you seem to think it doesn't deserve its current life." The woman says, obviously getting scared.

"Because of several reasons, Madame. The first and foremost being that both me and my slave are now under conscription of the Thief King, the second being I know who had their eyes on MY Ishon, and I will not allow them to get it, and the third being that Ishon was Marked along with the village of Jadespire, meaning Ishon will never be free. I release Ishon, Ishon goes back to the Slavers' Guild to await resale." Master says, some sorrow showing in his voice.

"Oh. I'm sorry sir, please don't be angry with me and my daughter." the woman says as I can hear her breathing grow a little shaky in fear.

"I am not angry now that I see it was stupidity on your part that made you say what you did. Now let me and my pet ride in peace." Master says with a huff in his voice.

Some time later, I hear the sounds of us stopping as something large ratchets open and someone says "Hello there Hunter. You and your slave are cleared for entry. Your guests are not. Please have them disembark now. If they get permission to enter, they may rejoin you in the city proper."

I hear the sounds of the woman and child getting out, with a chuckle from my Master.

A short while later, the wagon stops again and I hear Master jump down.

With a laugh Master says "I was gonna tell you to stay put, slave, but I guess I don't have to worry about that."

I'm not sure how much time passed, but I could feel my face and exposed bits of body beginning to get hot from the sun when I felt something touch my foot. It felt like a finger.

"Hey, isn't this that slave your dad got killed trying to capture?" a voice, evidently belonging to whoever was touching my foot, says as I feel the finger start to press in on the bottom of my foot.

"Yeah, you're right! Let's get it!" I hear another voice, seething with rage say, just to the right of the first one.

Before I knew what happened, I was being beaten with something very hard, and it hurt! What made it worse was I couldn't defend myself at all due to my bindings!

I was crying into my gag as the blows kept coming. Finally, after what seemed like forever I heard a somewhat familiar voice.

"Children, stop that this instant! That slave is owned by one of my Hunters and is under MY protection. Now apologize to it and go turn yourself in at the jail. Or would you like to join it? I will be more than happy to give my hunter three new slaves without forcing him to pay for you. Think it over, a short stay in Jail for damaging property, or becoming property yourselves? Which suits you better?" The voice says as I hear some fiddling with my chain.

"Jail!" all three boys say at once as they trip over me to get away, muttering in a panic about "The Thief King!"

"Hello there, little Ishon. I'm leaving your Master a note, but for now, come with me." the voice says as I feel myself pulled off the cart onto my feet.

I nod my head and start to follow, but get stopped as my blindfold is removed.

"There, that's better. Now follow me." the voice says again, this time belonging to a large man in a robe that obscured most of his face, except for his nose and part of his muzzle.

I follow, realizing I had no choice at all. Especially if he was the Thief King. He leads me right over to a building where I could see the word "Sheriff" on the top of the porch.

"Hello Sheriff Alanore, I trust those ruffians turned themselves in?" the "Thief King" says as he sits down and pulls me closer.

"Yes my Liege. I haven't locked them in the cell or booked them for nothing cause I didn't have no proof, but they insisted that I at least put them in the cell. Is that the slave they damaged?" the Sheriff says as he looks at me.

"Yes it is. Normally I wouldn't care, but this slave belongs to my newest Hunter and I plan to have him train it to aid him in his mission. It does no good to train it if it is hurt." the Thief King says as he

places a hand on my head.

I try my best to relax, and accept the hand, but right as he does that, a guard bursts in carrying a screaming Wolf boy I recognized from my village.

I let my head drop as I remember him, Aelon, aged 18, had just received word the day before the attack that he was due to attend the most prestigious kingdom academy for training Knights.

"You can't do this! I'm Free! The old geezer that bought me freed me!" he was yelling.

I heard the Thief King chuckle and I just lowered my head.

"No you are not. You are a Marked. You will never be free. Now behave like a good little slave until we find either the Master you ran away from, or a new Owner for you." the Sheriff says as he leads the Guard and Aelon to a cell that was less than half the height of the others.

"Considering the only elderly person my Guild has sold a slave to from that batch is Lord Reginald Fisbaum III, I suggest you contact him." the Thief King says with an evil smile crossing that muzzle.

"No need my Liege, I am here. Now my slave, do you understand it yet? Do you understand your place?" an elderly fox says as he walks in through the door and looks at Aelon, who was stuck in that little cell.

"What the fuck am I supposed to understand!?!? I fought the Slavers, lost and was captured, then bought, then I was freed, and now for some reason I am locked in the smallest cell in the jail!" Aelon screams at his owner.

"Here, before I lose my temper. Read this, aloud." Lord Reginald says as he hands Aelon a letter.

Aelon takes it before reading aloud, "Dear Lord Reginald Fisbaum III, it has recently come to our attention that one of your slaves somehow managed to con its way into our school. It has named itself Aelon Daelaharris. It is highly suggested you take the most effective way of disciplining such a slave that forgets its place. Show it it's place and then take it to the Trainer to reinforce that. Thank you from the Headmaster of The School of the Order of Alaum."

"That's bullshit! I applied at the school before those goddamned Slavers raided my village!" Aelon says, tears welling in his eyes, before he screams, "You fucking just made this up to fuck with me!"

"No slave, I didn't. Read this one now. Then get ready for your punishment for daring to speak in such a way with me. Especially without permission." Lord Reginald says as he hands Aelon an envelope that clearly had Aelon's name on it.

It was obvious that it had not been opened at all, and Aelon had to resort to using his claw to break the seal before taking the letter and reading aloud, "Dear slave, we have informed your Master of your misbehavior and also must inform you that the application you somehow got approved is no longer valid. DO NOT contact us ever again. If you do, we will be forced to discipline you ourselves. Now be a good slave and ask your Master to punish you as he no doubt is ready to do so. If you behave, see if your Master will send you to our sister school to train you to be a nice little guard dog."

Aelon just let the letter fall from his hands, crying as the reality hit him. Staring hard at something on his hand, as if he wanted to rip it off. I noticed for the first time that his hand had some kind of permanent patch of missing fur. It was some kind of emblem. Must be how they Mark those that are unfortunate enough to be Marked. I gulped when I realized something similar had to eventually happen to me.

"I'm a nothing now? I can't ever be a Knight? Can't ever test my skills in battle? I-I-I'm expected to just, just, roll over for you? Because you are somehow automatically better than me?" Aelon says as he looks at his Master with complete disbelief on his face.

"Looks like its setting in, slave. Yes you are expected to roll over for me, and anyone else who is not a slave. Come now, we are gonna get you a nice new collar and then take you for your punishment. As I am much too old to do it myself, I think I shall take you to the Trainer's and let him work you over for the next, Oh I dunno, month." Lord Reginald says as he gingerly strolls over to the cage and unlocks it.

Aelon just stays put, at least until the guard had enough and jerked him out by his ears.

Aelon tries to hit the guard, but gets swiftly hit in the gut. As he is coughing, Lord Reginald walks over and says "Make that two months, slave. When you are back in your pen on my estate, I will see about training you to be a guard dog for my grandchildren. You'll get to go to a nice school after all."

Reginald then slips the Guard some money and the guard drags Aelon off by the scruff of his neck, and all Aelon can muster up for a reaction is letting tears fall. He couldn't even make himself move it seems.

I just let my head and ears drop as I fight back some tears. I had known Aelon somewhat. Not quite one of my friends, he was still a good guy. I think he would have made a great Knight.

Well, I suppose he'd make a great "guard dog" too.

"See that Ishon? That was an example of a badly behaved slave. You, on the other hand, while still in need of training and your Mark, are a good slave. I'd hate to see you go to the Trainer, so please behave for your Master." the Thief King says as he starts petting my head again.

I nod and let him pet me. After just a minute, my Master calmly walks in the door while the Sheriff is locking the cell the kids were in.

"Hello King, are you finished with my pet?" my Master says in an almost annoyed manner.

"Yeah yeah, go get its Mark applied. I don't care if its a brand or a permanent tattoo or dye, just get it done." the Thief King says as he hands my leash back to my Master.

"Yes sir." My Master says with a noticeable look of irritation on his face, before turning to me and saying "Come pet. Let's go get you Marked. It's the only reason I actually brought you to town today. Though I wasn't kidding when I said I would need your help carrying things."

I nod my head and he leads me out into town and down the street to a store that seemed to specialize in equipment for housing, training, and otherwise doing stuff to slaves.

Inside is a rather eccentric Fox, wearing a simple set of clothes and a strange bit of jewelry that resembled a slave's collar, but was clearly easily removable.

"Hiya, welcome to Messier's Workshop. My name is Rithlin, how may I be of service to you and your slave today?" the fox says as he looks over at me and my Master.

"I need a Marking performed, Rithlin, so get your father, tell him his friend, Dragare is here." my Master says with a slight bit of annoyance in his voice.

"Uh, yes sir." the fox says as he darts into the back, his decorative collar jingling with each step.

Within just a few moments, Rithlin returns with a large, but very old lion, who was using a cane to help steady his feet.

"Hello Dragare. Damn, you ain't aged a day in the last decade. I think Rithlin here remembered who you were as soon as you said your name though. He immediately reverted back to calling me Master, something he hasn't been forced to do in nearly twelve years." the old man says with a laugh.

"Yeah yeah, I get it, I age slow. I think I get that from my mother. I still think you should have kept Rithlin as your slave instead of using him to replace Derrik. Though I do agree with you that they act a lot alike. Too bad Derrik wouldn't listen to me about messing with your furnace." my Master says in a sort of somber tone.

"Yeah. Too bad. I hope he's happy in Heaven. With plenty of women and slaves to wait on him." the old man says, pausing with a slight look of sadness on his face before saying, "Anyways, Rithlin said you need your little pet there Marked? I take it that it was a resident of Jadespire?"

"Yep. Except instead of making it to auction, I beat up a Slaver and took Ishon for myself. Though in order to pay for it, I now have to serve the Thief King and the Head Slaver until Ishon is 18. Then I get my final mission from the Thief King." Master says with some annoyance in his voice.

"Sure am glad I live here in Braggshire and that Fort Bragg is so close, the Thief King has no reason to raze the town that keeps people away from his castle. Anyways, go ahead and hand its leash to my son.

He knows what to do as far as getting it ready. I need you to come with me to choose which Mark, and which method you want to use to Mark it." the lion says as he walks over to the counter.

"Alright Messier, but only because you are a good friend of mine." my Master says in a teasing tone as he hands my tether to the waiting Rithlin.

Rithlin leads me to the back saying, "If it's alright with your Master, Ishon, I am gonna give you a little toy I have been working on. Should provide some entertainment if your Master lets you have some fun."

I nod my head, wondering what he had in mind as he leads me to a chair and straps my legs and arms down, after undoing the chain holding my arms to my waist, but leaving my legs shackled to each other.

"You're gonna love the toy Ishon. I really hope your Master lets you have it. To be honest, he scares me badly enough, so I am sure you need some kind of comfort. I remember back when I was a slave, my owner at the time, Derrik, Messier's late son, would mess with the furnace and he would scream at him and toss him away from it. Too bad Master never listened to your Master. Anyways, after Derrik died, Messier gained possession of me, then after seeing how much me and his son were alike, freed and adopted me. I'm still not used to it, but I am happy enough. I hope to find a mate soon, but most people are put off by my decorative collar and, well, I still have a lot of habits from my time as a slave." Rithlin says as he brings a rolling table full of instruments over to beside me.

I nod my head while eying the instruments and looking out the corner of my eye at the door we came in.

Master and Messier walk in, still talking. I hope whatever method Master chose, it wasn't too painful. I don't like pain.

Master walked right over to me after saying something just out of my hearing range to Messier. Master placed a hand on my shoulder and leaned in, whispering in my ear "I'm sorry pet, but this is going to hurt, badly. For at least a week. I don't have a lot of money so I needed to choose the most permanent method. Since Messier is a old friend, I get to pay the same for any method. So, well. I'm sorry Ishon, but you are going to get branded."

I whimper at this and Rithlin looks shocked. "Sir Hunter, if it is permissible, if your slave behaves during the procedure, can I give it a toy?" Rithlin says quickly.

"Show me the toy when you are ready to present it and I will decide, Rithlin." Master says as he tenderly strokes my ear.

"Yes sir. Now that I know a branding is in order, I need to move your slave to a different restraint, depending on just where you desire the brand to be." Rithlin says as he moves closer to me, moving his hands up to the restraints on my arms.

"I suppose the best place will be on Ishon's ass." Master says after a moment of contemplation.

"Alright." Rithlin says as he skillfully undoes my restraints and, moving me before I can react, to a stand just in front of me, putting me on my hands and knees locking me in position. I quickly feel both my shorts and my underwear jerked down quickly, but gently.

"I'm sorry little slave, but this is gonna hurt bad. If I could, I'd make it feel good instead, but I can't. Brace yourself." I hear Rithlin say as I can hear him walk over to near my Master and Messier.

"Go ahead Rithlin, you know I can't hold the branding iron steady enough anymore." I hear Messier say after a second.

"Yes Sir." I hear Rithlin say before hearing a clank and a few footsteps before feeling like my ass was on fire.

I screamed into my gag, tears streaming down my face. I kept trying to get away, but the way I was strapped in prevented me from moving. It took a full four minutes for the pain to dull enough that I wasn't screaming my lungs out. However, I couldn't stop crying. It still hurt badly.

I quickly felt a cool sensation on my new Mark, I assume Rithlin was treating the burn, but the pressure makes it hurt worse.

After a moment, I feel and hear something crinkly get applied to that spot and my clothes pulled back up.

I'm still too much in pain to pay much attention, but as I am pulled out of the restraints, Rithlin shoves a small, expertly made, stuffed bunny into my hands while saying "Here, your Master insisted I give it to you as soon as I freed you from your restraints."

I try to show my thanks, but can't figure out how to, especially with Rithlin immediately restraining my arms back to my side again.

I clutch the bunny tightly, happy to have something to call mine again, though I realized it was mine only as long as Master let me have it. That thought made me sad, and made me clutch it even tighter.

I kind of zoned out the rest of the day, but eventually Master strapped me back into the wagon, with the blindfold on. He did take my bunny, but with the promise I'd get it back when we get home.

The trip back was just as boring, but was nearly unbearable due to the pain I was in.

When we finally arrived back to wherever Master got the wagon, he gathered me up and carried me back to the house, and, for once, locked me to the living room tether and laid me on my tummy on the couch, after undoing all my binds. He gave me my bunny and told me to rest, before he went out and gathered the stuff he had bought.

I ended up dozing off with the bunny resting just under my mouth.