Grunt then drew in the grass, with the heel of his boot, a circle, some ten feetor so in width.
He then looked to the Dust Legs. One of the men stood up and pointed to Ulla.
Grunt then ordered her to stand in the circle, orders conveyed by Ginger, which,frightened, half crouched over, she did.
I saw that the red youth now had the red-haired girl on her back in the grass.
"Resist, to the best of your ability," said Grunt to Ulla. She nodded her head,frightened, hearing the translation from Ginger.
The Dust Leg then, with a rawhide thong, stepped into the ring in the grass.
Ulla tried to resist him, as best she could, but, in a moment, bruised andvomiting, he not having been gentle with her, she was on her belly in the grass,her hands being jerked behind her and tied. He then put her on her back on thegrass, pulling her up so that she rested on her elbows. He kicked her legsapart.
"Eca! Eca!" said the other men.
"Eca!" agreed Grunt, heartily.
"You, Lenna, my dear, now," said Grunt. "Into the circle! Fight! Fight!"
Ginger translated this, but I think Lenna needed little in the way oftranslation.
Clearly Lenna did not wish to be abused, as had been Ulla. On the other hand sheknew she must obey, and to the best of her ability.
Another red warrior leaped into the circle, a bit of rawhide thong loosely inhis mouth. Lenna struck wildly out at him and he seized her wrist turning herabout and thrusting her wrist high and painfully behind her back. She screamed.
I feared be would break her arm. Then he kicked her feet out from under her andshe was on her belly. He then seized her by the hair with both hands and yankedher up on her knees and bent her backwards, until her head was at the grass,exhibiting the bow of her captured beauty for his fellows. Then he threw herforward, again, on her belly, and, in a moment, kneeling across her body, hadlashed her wrists tightly behind her body. He then, like his fellow, turned herto her back, pulled her up, so that she rested on her elbows, and, standing up,over her, kicked her legs apart, too. Ulla and Lenna, together, then, lay in thecircle, up on their elbows, their legs kicked apart. The second fellow hadhandled Lenna even more rapidly, I thought, than had the first fellow handledUlla. Both girls had been speedily vanquished, and both now, helpless, laytrussed, their legs symbolically spread, at the feet of their conquerors.
"Eca!" said the men. "Eca!" commended Grunt. "Eca!"
"Remember," said Grunt to the helpless Ulla and Lenna, "you are to be totallypleasing to masters. You are never, unless commanded to do so, to resist oroppose them in any way. Your hands could be cut off or you could be tortured andkilled."
"Yes, Master," said the girls, fearfully, in Gorean, following Ginger'stranslation.
Ulla looked at the man who had vanquished and bound her. Lenna regarded the manwho had served her similarly, and with such dispatch. Neither of them, I think,had expected to be made so helpless so quickly, and with such strength. Lennaand Ulla exchanged glances and then looked away from one another, reddening,shamed. They had been well bound, as women, and as slaves. Doubtless they werewondering what it would be like to be owned by such men.
Grunt then sat down and began to talk with the other men, not the two stillstanding, as though nothing had happened, as though it had been only a bit ofsport with two imbonded sluts, only an amusement for the entertainment of hisguests.
One of the standing men pointed to Ulla, and said something. The other pointedto Lenna, and, too, said something.
"Oh?" asked Grunt, innocently.
I smiled to myself. It is hard for a man to subdue and bind a naked womanwithout wanting her. I thought Grunt would get an excellent price for the twobeauties.
The red-haired girl, whimpering, was still lying beneath the red youth, clutchedin his arms. She looked at me, frightened. He was again, eagerly, at her body.
She had well succeeded, it seemed, as her master had desired, in arousing hisinterest. He had turned her about, roughly, curiously, this way and that, fromtime to time, caressing her and examining her, and making her please him. Therewas some blood at her mouth, where, once or twice, he had cuffed her. I saw herhands, half wanting to grasp him, half wanting to thrust him back. He wasspeaking to her in Dust Leg, slowly and clearly. "Yes, Master," she whimpered,in Gorean. "Yes, Master." It amused me that the youth, like so many individualsto whom only one language is familiar, so familiar that it seems that all humansmust, in one way or another, be conversant with it, seemed to think that thegirl must surely understand him if only he would speak slowly enough and withsufficient distinctness. Grunt, of course, might have helped her, but he wasengaged in business. I, myself, though I had acquired a few words of Dust Leg,had little more idea, specifically, of what the youth was saying than the girldid. His tone of voice suggested that he was not commending her on her beauty, apastime on which the masters are inclined to waste little time with their whiteslaves, but ordering her to do something. "Relax," I told the girl. "Let looseof yourself. Feel. Yield."
She looked at me, frightened.
"You are a slave," I told her. "Yield, and yield fully-and as a slave."
She then, gratefully, clutched the youth, and put her head back, rapturouslysobbing and shuddering.
I then saw that my presence, interestingly, had had an inhibiting influence onher. She bad been on the brink of yielding, a nerve's width away, but had beenfighting her feelings and herself, apparently shamed to yield as a slave toanother man in my presence.
She cried out with pleasure, clutching the red youth.
"Winyela," said the Dust-Leg woman, scornfully.
Slave girls must yield, and fully, to any man. Their entire mental set, so tospeak, in the furs, is oriented toward providing the master with marvelouspleasures, and, in their own case, to feel as richly and deeply as possible,and, in the end, in an uncompromised and delicious capitulation, submittingfully to their master, to obtain the surrender spasms of one who is merely avanquished woman, naught but an owned and degraded slave. This is quitedifferent from the mental set taken by the free woman to the furs, of course,with attendant deleterious consequences for the free woman, in so far as anywoman could be called free who is not surrendered and owned. The free woman isexpected to pervert her nature in the furs, behaving as a cultural identicalrather than as what she is by nature, the servant and slave of her master. It islittle wonder that the free woman, concerned with her putative identically, herstatus, her image, her dignity and pride, is often inhibited and sexually inertin the furs. The Goreans say that if one has never had a slave one has never hada woman. Similarly there is a secret saying, among Gorean men, that no female isa woman, who has not been made a slave. The free woman, often, fears to feel.
The slave, on the other hand, fears not to feel, for she may then, in alllikelihood, be punished. The same frigidity which may be accounted a virtueamong free women, figuring in their vanity competitions, how well they canresist men, is commonly among slaves an occasion for the imposition of severediscipline; it can even constitute a capital offense. The degraded slave haslittle choice but to yield, and yield well. An interesting question arises as towhether a woman, permitted her own will in the matter, as a slave is not, can beforced to yield. There are two answers to this question, and the divisionbetween the answers is primarily a function of the time involved. Within a givenamount of time, say, half of an Ahn, some women can resist some men. On theother hand, there will be some men whom they cannot resist and to whom, despitetheir will in the matter, they will find themselves uncontrollably yielding.