A Long Way From Home, Part One (Continued)
Nov. 4th, 2007 08:45 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
shankieContinued from Part One
- The Dream -
That night, Li’stra let them out again, one at a time, with the same extra attention and cooing for Sata. One would think she regretted whipping him, though she’d seemed to take much satisfaction in the act while committing it.
Again they were shut in together, the rose pink blanket thrown over their cage, plunging them into a pink-shaded darkness. Sata felt about the cage door and spent a great deal of time seeking an escape, but eventually gave up and crawled back under Tama’s arm and fell into a light sleep.
Tama took somewhat longer, but did eventually join him.
He dreamed first of being shut in darkness, a nightmare that melted away, and he was surrounded by hazy shadows in bright, primary colors. He kept reaching, trying to get to them, but never could. Even flying somehow, soaring through the air, they were out of reach to him.
When he gave up, he turned around and Sata was standing there on a ledge, all robed in black, leathery wings draped down his back and his face darkly obscured. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Tama,” he replied, because he had no other name to give.
The dark figure shook his head and laughed grimly. “No, you aren’t.”
“Who am I?” he demanded, but Sata leapt down, gliding on his wings, growing hazy until he was gone, and Tama remembered no more of the dream.
He woke, half expecting to find himself someplace else, but was still in the cage. It was maddening that he couldn’t remember what it was he’d expected. His sudden motion woke Sata, who twisted to look up at him a moment, and once satisfied, tucked down again and fell back to sleep.
Tama stayed up much more, but eventually sought rest again, comfortable enough in the pillows.
It seemed terribly wrong that they both could think and speak to each other, yet were treated this way.
- Sata’s Brief Escape -
In the morning, Tama woke with a pressing need to relieve himself as soon as Li’stra threw back the blanket. They’d both had a great deal to drink before going to sleep, after all.
Sata was already awake, laying quietly on his stomach. His wounds looked to be healing quickly, but still had to be uncomfortable. She said Sata’s name a few times when she opened the door, until he reluctantly crawled out. Tama was for the moment ignored as she cared for him first, a genuine sort of fondness in her voice. Sata received it with mutterings of foul language.
He described horrid ways he’d invented to kill her as she laughed and patted his head.
In fact, her affection was such that she didn’t even tie Sata up when she finally let Tama out to the bathroom.
When they went back to the bedroom, Sata had vanished.
Quietly thrilled he might make it away, Tama didn’t much care about the consequences to himself.
Li’stra forced him against the wall lock his hands together, clipped on a leash, and again tied him to the bedpost. This time, he wasn’t left alone to consider chasing after his fellow. She merely was looking for something, which turned out to be a gag.
She put her hand over his face, squeezed his nose until he opened his mouth and she forced in a soft, rubbery ball attached to a wide strip she locked behind his head. Her admonishing was in an almost playful tone, like she was happy for an excuse to mistreat him.
This only grew worse by the moment.
He was tugged along behind her, as she went out of her rooms and addressed guards and such, causing a flurry of activity. All the while, she had an apparent destination, and only paused along her way.
They went outside, out into elaborate gardens, twisting with stone paths and small structures with benches and privacy. They walked past this, into a small walled area that had an ominous look.
He was led straight to a stone pillar with a metal ring attached to it, and his bonds where undone carefully, her hands painfully tight on his arms as she locked his wrists to the ring, forced up ever so slightly on the balls of his feet, the rough stone scraping the gag and his bare chest.
She walked away and left him there in the morning sun, to imagine what she planned to do in retaliation for their unwillingness to submit to her. Perhaps that’s why they were here, to be broken in like wild animals to be domesticated.
The challenge, once clearly set in his mind, he set himself to overcome.
It wasn’t a very long time before she returned, with a dark purple man in green that was now towing Sata behind him, looking sheepish.
“I didn’t get far,” Sata said, which was rebuked with a smack.
Sata was forced down on the ground, in front of where the man sat, just in Tama’s line of sight, talking to Li’stra and preparing to watch. Li’stra was behind Tama, somewhere he couldn’t see.
This changed, quickly, when Li’stra twisted him in his bonds, now on his toes, holding onto the ring as she set him down, back against the stone.
“I’m sorry.”
Li’stra was holding what looked to be red whip, which she was playing with, watching her victim as she spoke with the man. He guessed that he was her brother.
Then the whip was drawn back, Tama took a deep breath, and his punishment began with a line of fire across his chest. The gag kept him from screaming, but he might have.
The pain was unbearable, and was already making muffled pleas for mercy that were just indistinct sounds in his throat, and she didn’t even pause. He’d thought to bear this like a man, like Sata had of his own, but it was too much. It hurt far worse than he could have ever imagined it would.
He twisted but couldn’t bring himself in any other position but facing her and openly exposed, which she took advantage of wickedly, occasionally landing a blow over his groin, making him lurch away from the rock and back again.
She seemed to be enjoying herself.
He would have begged to die before she finally stopped, tossing her whip on the ground. All he could see of his body was lined with criss-crossing lines and trails of blood. His chest and legs were a mess, and he felt it couldn’t have been worse if he’d been set on fire.
Tama fought to breathe and wished he were no longer awake to feel. What could they have done to deserve this fate?
Li’stra took him down and had to carry him, for he couldn’t walk on his own.
With all the same concern she’d given Sata, he was set on a table and rubbed with cool salve once she’d cleaned his wounds, the pain somewhat lessened by it, though her touch was enough to make him wince and moan.
From the cage, Sata watched this, waiting when Li’stra urged Tama to limp over and crawl inside. Sata helped him get comfortable as she locked them in, throwing the blanket over them and going about her own business. It was a small mercy that they weren’t bound in the cage, could try as they could to ease their own sufferings.
Pain seemed so terribly unfamiliar, and this pain was unrelenting. His balls were swollen from where the whip had touched them, and throbbed with a dull ache. It was difficult to bear, and Tama often twisted and moaned in discomfort, finding no rest as Sata lay quietly beside him.
“Quite a system she’s worked out,” Sata dryly remarked.
“What happened?”
“I got to the outer wall before I couldn’t move. Passed out and a guard found me. It was idiotic, I don’t know why I did it.”
“We’ll get out somehow.”
“I know.”
- Dinnertime -
It became clear, over the next few days, that Sata was clearly right; the two of them were treated like an amusing novelty. Perhaps trainable somewhat, but never given any sort of civilized consideration. There was no indication they would ever be given anything to wear, though they covered themselves when they could, hoping Li’stra might get the idea. Further, they weren’t given any work to do, not even let to wash themselves.
After two days of rest, sitting about their cage, Sata was taken out on his own. Li’stra clearly was more fond of him, seeming to be excited that he was nearly healed, only thin red marks left.
She locked his wrists behind his back and gagged him, more gently than with Tama, patiently urging him to let her put it on. The gag he saw had a big silver ring against the thick black strip over Sata’s face, and it was to this Li’stra attached the leash. Every tug would be right to his head, extra rough encouragement to follow as she took him out of the room with her and left.
They were gone for most of the day, all the while Tama left to wonder what Sata was doing. There was an unmistakable bond between them now, and all of his remembered life began so close to meeting him, it was hard to imagine not being together.
Every indignity they suffered they suffered together as a pair, except for this day, and it was very strange to be apart.
They returned just after dinner was delivered to her own dining room across the way, just barely visible through the doorway. Servants in uniforms bustled in and out, and then Li’stra brought Sata back.
Tama was let out and brought into the dining room, where Sata was already chained in front of his dinner. Another thing that fit them perfectly, short chains on the floor that locked to their collars while she ate. Moving was still stiff and uncomfortable for his healing wounds, but he didn’t make a fuss.
Sata was convinced that she’d ordered the two of them beforehand, with all that she had that was designed for two of their size and species, and would occasionally remark on it as they’d lain in the cage together.
Li’stra sat at the table, soon joined by her foppish brother, who was already a touch drunk and continued to drink deeply as they talked.
“What a buffoon,” Sata muttered, quietly. They could talk as long as it didn’t annoy their present owners, and it was a luxury they would apparently not always have.
“What did you do all day?” Tama asked, between bites of mealy vegetables from his fingers.
“Stood there and let aliens fondle me,” he grumbled. “I can’t take this anymore.”
“We have to get the restraints off.”
“Which requires tools that we don’t have.”
“We need to recover our memories.”
“If we even have any to recover.” Sata said it so calmly that Tama was sure to have misheard him; but he hadn’t.
“We do, we must. Where did you get those scars if you have no past?”
“They may be permanently erased.”
“We don’t know that. I have... dreams.” Tama ate some more, glancing at Sata, who seemed to be considering that.
“Of what?” he finally asked.
Tama told him about the bright figures and the leather wings Sata wore between bites, sure to add how he was always flying. Nodding occasionally, Sata listened, his elegant face almost serene, for it all. He could have been well-dressed and sitting beside their owner at the table, Tama thought. “Do you dream of anything?” he asked, once finished.
“No,” Sata said shortly, only to nod a moment later. “Yes. I dream of your death,” he admitted somberly. “You have wings, too. Feathered. Broken, and I can’t do anything but watch you fall out of the sky.”
They were quiet, then. Finished their bowls and sat back with their cups of water, watching the other two eat and laugh at the table.
“It’s strange, I can’t remember ever wearing anything, but I wish I could,” Tama remarked.
“At least it’s warm.”
They laughed quietly together, because they needed something to laugh at a moment. Li’stra gave them a fond look, and they stopped.
- A Matched Pair of Exotic Pets -
Li’stra now took Sata out with her every day, an event he remarked little on, other than to say she worked in an office most of the time and that he’d stayed on his best behavior. He didn’t say it was for Tama’s benefit, but he was grateful, anyway, as he was still mending.
Then, one morning Tama was found fit enough to be taken out as well. They stood side by side after breakfast, restrained and fitted with gags. Sata was used to this by now, and begrudgingly accepted it, so Tama did the same.
The leashes were attached to the rings on their gags, the handles looped into the crook of her elbow as they left. Being led so was more jarring, and they were quick to keep up with her longer stride.
Through the dressing room, Tama couldn’t help but look at himself in all the mirrors. They looked very much alike in their matching bonds, himself only a bit taller and more defined than Sata, lingered red marks on his slightly darker skin. Both were bent forward into the lead, just a bit, and had every appearance of being a matched pair of pets behind their owner, with steel rings instead of voices.
They were, for the most part, ignored by those who greeted Li’stra. Occasionally a girl met along the way would stroke their black hair. That of their own race seemed to be coarse, making their own soft and fine in comparison; and it was never near so dark a color. Sata especially despised the attention, quicker to pull away and try to avoid them, but they would just laugh and grab hold of the ring and keep him still to pat his head.
They would both close their eyes or look on the floor while being petted, and Sata surely felt the same awful feeling Tama did. One stroked the curly nest on his groin and Tama watched the large blue hand and could only think of how delicate they were compared to these people.
Just as Sata said, they walked some ways to another part of the vast building, a quieter, more formal one of offices. She went to what appeared to be her own, wide and well-lit, with open windows over a small, groomed field outside, lined with blue-green trees, a darker shade than the other plant life.
Li’stra tied the leashes to the handle of her chair and they sat on the floor as she began working on her computer, light music playing in the background.
It seemed unfair that they couldn’t even speak to each other, but they were both ignored to their affronted silence. Perhaps she didn’t even consider their words a language at all; it was difficult to tell for sure.
Sata shifted a bit behind her chair and gestured at the open windows with his shoulder, then shrugged. It was something of a drop to the ground, especially with tied arms, and there was still no answer to the problem of being remotely paralyzed.
He was tugged back into Li’stra’s reach, right where her hand could casually pet him. Sata glowered and bore it, sometimes making an effort to move away, but she was fond of grabbing the ring on the gag, pulling his face up, and rapping him sharply on the nose when he did.
Eventually Sata glumly stayed put, while Tama looked at the red sky and chewed on the piece in his mouth. It was large enough a rubbery thing to grow somewhat uncomfortable, having his jaw held open that long, locked tight enough to ensure it’d be difficult and painful to pry off over his head. He had to keep sucking on it to stop from drooling down his chin, and it was on the whole irritating him terribly.
She took a break at midday, and Tama hoped they’d be ungagged to eat, but to his disappointment they were only given water in the briefest of respite, and it was even more uncomfortable when it was immediately put back on.
But all his best efforts were token resistance. She had her way, slapped his ass, and tugged them along after her.
After that, she took them to a larger dining room full of purple and blue people, and once again they were tied to her chair, closer now, pressed close to each other in reach to be petted from time to time. Too far below the table-edge to see much of the gathering, just hear the floating conversation that couldn’t be understood.
They could only but fume and silently remember the consequences of attempting to free themselves.
No desperate attempts could resurrect any memory of where they would run, even should they try. The entire race seemed to consider them as hers, and they wore tags that undoubtedly said as much on their collars. Even with them off... they were aliens. How could they ever get off the planet?
Tama considered the possibilities of stealing spacecraft, fantasies of escape to pass the time. Could he even accomplish such a thing? Could either of them fly, or even operate a computer screen? As it stood, only trying it would tell, but Sata particularly had flashes of insight on the way the world operated.
If Sata had once been some sort of warrior, it seemed reasonable he might be able to. Most of the solider types they saw here had images of spacecraft with their other, less makable badges on their uniforms. Of course, there was no telling how different a world their own might be, but if he knew a word for it, his people must have them.
Presently this was all moot speculation, as he was reminded when Li’stra yanked his head up by the lead on the gag, to show him to the man seated next to her. He closed his eyes and bore their unclear voices over him stiffly.
Had he once been free? He must have been, to long so desperately.
Tama did look up after a time, into the other man’s eyes, and found himself pleading with his own for help.
The man petted him and smiled gently, apparently trying to calm him down. Tama growled in his throat and tried to yank himself free, but found his nose jolted by sharp pain that made his eyes prick with water. Li’stra had rapped it with her knuckles and was waving her finger at him admonishingly.
This treatment only made him angrier, twisting and yanking with all his strength. At first he didn’t even hear Sata beside him, making as much noise as he could and pressing up against his side.
Tama stopped and sagged in her grip, but not quickly enough for her to decide against punishing them both for it.
The leashes were tied up tight, so their faces were both pulled upwards, not able to see much more than the ceiling and her arm, their chins pressed together and necks strained back.
They didn’t struggle to look at each other, but they were close enough that they were already touching, knees locked together, Sata’s fingertips on Tama’s knee. He would occasionally brush his fingers, a gentle sort of reminder of his presence.
After the meal was finished, Li’stra filed out with the others, quite a few all apparently going to the same place. They followed behind a bit apprehensively, a bit stiff from the uncomfortable position, rolling their heads about some as they walked.
They were back to the square decoration-cage, with it’s places for seats and onlookers, and everything became dismally clear.
Sata and Tama were led inside, their bonds replaced with a short chain from their right wrist to the bars by the door. They moved their mouths and licked their lips, and Tama moved his jaw about with his other hand.
“I don’t want another dose of that,” Sata murmured, sounding... no, it wouldn’t be like him to speak fearfully.
“I still don’t understand the point of it.”
“Dogfighting without all the blood.”
Dogfighting. Dogs fighting... they hadn’t seen anything like that here. He was only a little sure he was exactly sure what a dog was. Some kind of pet. “Do you remember something?” Tama asked, half hopefully.
Sata closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate very hard, only to shake his head. “No.”
Most of the seats were full, but there seemed no formality to this, just an impromptu sort of show.
“I don’t want her to beat you again,” Sata said, watching this all carefully. “It’s harder for you to take.”
Affronted, despite the apparent truth in this, Tama frowned. “I don’t think there’s much you can do about taking it all yourself.”
“I’m going to do everything she wants in here,” Sata continued, quietly firm. “I don’t want to see it again, so I’m going to do what I can to make her happy. I can’t make that decision for you, I don’t really care about what she does to me.”
A man came up to the bars, a woman on his arm that seemed afraid of them and hung back. He seemed to want to prove how brave he was by putting his hand close.
Sata snapped at his fingers and laughed when he screamed like a girl and jumped back.
“I think if I’m going to be doing that sort of thing again... well, I’d rather it be you than any of them,” Tama replied, trying not to sound defeated by the prospect.
They shifted a little closer together.
“Kiss me,” Sata said.
“What?” They looked into each other’s eyes closely.
“We should get... comfortable.”
“Alright.”
Tama was suddenly nervous. Had he ever kissed anyone before? At this moment, it didn’t feel that way.
They pressed their lips together uncertainly, and melted into each other once it felt good.
Oh yes. Kissing Sata felt wonderful, and clearly, Sata felt the same way. As natural as breathing. What was meant to be something quick became slow wandering tongues and their hands being clasped tightly together.
Li’stra was clapping in delight as they pulled apart, but they kept their left hands laced together, resting against Tama’s thigh.
She took Sata’s arm first, and to Tama’s surprise, his hand began trembling in his own.
Sata was really scared. His face never let on.
Li’stra roughly took Tama’s arm next, pulling it some way out between the bars to hold him still as he felt a pricking, sharp jab from her little device.
At first, they just shakily stood there and didn’t seem to feel much, but Sata began to change first. His eyelids were heavy and he began leaning against Tama for support.
Then Tama began to sweat and the first waves of astonishing arousal began to hit. At his springing erection, they were released.
Li’stra took their chains off and let them back away from the bars. Tama took a better hold of Sata in his arms. “Are you alright?”
Sata nodded against his neck.
Tama breathed heavily, laid Sata down on the pillows as he sighed softly.
Sata was so lovely. His face never looked so elegant, his skin so soft, his body so perfectly carved. It became impossible not to touch him, to press against him and feel his body move. Sata could only moan softly, but Tama couldn’t stop.
Desire only got stronger, taking over his ability to control himself. The situation might have been terrible, if Sata hadn’t already agreed, so Tama tried to take his cock in his hand, but it was trembling with his surging need, weak with it. He bucked against Sata’s thigh and groaned in frustration, his mind cloudy and slow.
He turned Sata over, with some difficulty and little help from him, and lifted his ass up on the pillows, thrusting against the inside of his thigh as he tried to spit on his hands.
Tama tried to push his cock into Sata, but would just make him twist and softly cry in pain, and it wouldn’t go in without terrible force, so he didn’t let himself thrust in, but humped Sata’s thigh and screamed in the growing discomfort of his arousal.
At some point, Li’stra noticed what the problem was.
“Tama, Tama!” he heard, and looked over sideways. She pushed a bowl across the floor of the cage and shut the door again.
It was slippery, whitish stuff that smelled nice, but he didn’t question it much more than that and lathered himself up thickly.
Tama roared and pushed into Sata, heard him meekly mewing. Once he was sure he wasn’t hurting him, Tama let go and began fucking him like the wild animal he was being fashioned into, and came for the first time, yelling “Sata! Sata!”
But he could hardly stop, even then.
Moving Sata’s pliant body, Tama didn’t have much choice than to continue fucking him until it seemed he’d always been inside him, feeling his sweat, stroking his fine muscles. He had to fight to remember he had to make sure Sata was alright, but he always seemed to be, his eyelids fluttering as his face lay on his hands.
There was no release from it, not until, what had to be hours later, it began to wear off on it’s own. Tama could keep going, orgasms far between, and Sata could keep taking it with only soft sounds.
And then, he could stop, like a miracle he got soft and his blood cooled.
He fell back against the pillows, all the energy drained right out of him.
Sata was laying beside him, and managed to come closer, to throw his arm over Tama’s chest, rest his head there.
Li’stra took advantage of their worn-out timidity, came in with a wet cloth to clean them off, standing them up and showing them off, one at a time, to their audience. Talking about them, he imagined, sometimes squeezing them or showing someone their teeth. These people didn’t seem to have teeth so much as a solid bone inside their mouths where teeth would be, with their strange sort of flat jaws. They’d gasp when she put her fingers in his mouth, as if he’d snap them off and eat them.
So that was why they wore gags. It wasn’t about conversation at all. It was so they wouldn’t bite.
It was humiliating, but he was hardly able to stand on his own, and did little more than look up at her balefully. His groin felt sore and heavy, hurting whenever he moved.
She seemed well satisfied with her pets, and the audience was rather impressed as well, but it meant little to him.
They were gagged again, and this time linked the gags together so they lay looking into each other’s eyes, inches apart and unable to speak on their bed of pillows. The onlookers were invited inside the cage, coming over to fondle them or pet them, some speaking to them like one would to a domesticated creature.
They never looked at their molesters, just at each other, still and ignoring the rest of their mutual existence with their fingers laced together.
In that moment, Tama remembered what love felt like. He would surely not have survived this so well without strong, noble Sata, and could no longer imagine a life without him at his side.
- Sata Learns to Speak -
After that, things were different. Without discussion on the matter, Sata and Tama gave themselves to overt affection for each other, and enough time had went by that the lizard-men and their dungeon felt like it was in a distant past.
Perhaps they became just a little bit used to their place in the order of things, as it was all they had ever known and difficult to deny.
When Sata was bound up close to Li’stra’s chair, and they both were condemned to silence as she worked, Tama would go up close to him, nuzzle his face gently in a wish for the kiss made impossible by their bound lips. Such a simple thing as that could take some of the trapped discontent in Sata’s eyes.
They would sleep soundly in each other’s arms and laugh softly when they spoke to each other, and love seemed to make their life more bearable.
Li’stra was wildly pleased with this development, which seemed to be her intention all the while. They would still be put in the big cage, usually for a small audience of her and perhaps a few of her kin or friends or whoever they were, but without drugging either of them.
They would make love without her encouragement, tender and slow, and that seemed to be satisfying. It certainly was for her pets, who were more than happy to be with each other, and to avoid the awful, endless frenzy when it was forced into them.
Onlookers never seemed to consider watching them as erotic to themselves; it seemed to be merely interesting to observe. Entertainment. It was difficult to imagine life on the other side of the bars, where there was not so great a weight to these things.
It had not been theirs to decide, but Sata did accept Tama as his mate, and happily, though Sata never lost the stoic way about him.
What was Sata if not his mate? Tama was sure their people had to hold a high regard for this sort of bond, because he found himself taking it quite seriously. A responsibility to ensure Sata was well and happy as could be managed.
A few times while they were laying in the cage, Tama asked Sata if he thought their race had women, and he was always sure they did. “We’re both male,” Sata would say, “and it’s the only logical conclusion we would have females.” It was the closest they could ever speak on the subject of their people, on wondering who they might be, where.
And then, one evening at dinner, Sata sat up, meal untouched, and looked straight at Li’stra. Much to Tama’s surprise, he began to speak their captor’s language in a crude, but impressive mimic of their voices.
Tama had come to understand a few words, but had never tried to speak it.
Li’stra was also surprised, listening raptly as Sata said his piece, then waited for a reply. She laughed and came over, ruffled Sata’s hair and scratched his chin.
Sata now bore such treatment without moving, but still grimaced.
Once she was done, she went back to the table, and began chattering to her brother as she continued eating dinner. As if the incident had never occurred.
“What did you say?” Tama asked.
“I told her how we got here, that we must have been stolen from our homes,” Sata glumly replied. “That we want to be free.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she already knew all that. And now she’s bragging to him about how intelligent I am, and how clever she was for having the idea of purchasing adults from the Gordanians.”
“Oh.”
“Our memories were erased to help us accept our new lives.”
They looked at each other somberly. “I always thought if she knew we could talk...” Tama sighed. “I was sure she’d at least consider letting us go.”
Sata kissed his cheek, cradling his face gently. “There has to be a way,” he said, and Tama was comforted by it. He was still listening to Li’stra, suddenly perking up his head. “Huh.”
“What?”
“She just said what species we are. Hua-mans...” he kept listening, but after a while sat back. “That’s all she said. I think we should let her forget I can hear them.”
“I don’t think it’s going to help if we remind her.”
- A Walk Outside -
In the afternoons, Li’stra would usually take Sata and Tama out into the gardens or the field, take off their bonds, and relax with a drink as she watched them exercise. Often a friend would join her in this, but the two of them were just happy to be loose and able to stretch their legs and keep fit.
They learned to ignore being watched, for their own peace of mind. Sata especially could instinctively perform amazingly sleek routines that made Tama wonder just what sort of warrior he’d been.
This had been the extent of their leaving the great building that had become home, of a sort. It seemed rather endless, containing an astonishing number of people and spaces.
Then Sata murmured to Tama, as they were being bathed, that they were going into town.
That today was going to be different became quickly apparent. Instead of just gags, they were fitted with more strict headgear that would be entirely impossible to get out of without unlocking, straps under their chins and up either side of their noses, a strap over the top of their head tightly fixed at the base the skull, right where the wide one covering their mouths was locked. Li’stra smoothed out their hair a great deal around this, so they would still be pleasant for her to pet.
To their surprise, she dressed them as well. Simple black tunics with shoulder straps and open sides that tied together at the hips. Their wrists were not only bound behind them, but their ankles put on chains that kept their strides even shorter than before.
The head-harnesses had the same ring over their mouth, and the same rubbery pieces to chew on. They were tied to the bedpost as Li’stra got herself ready to go out, taking a considerably longer time to do so. He could only guess that it would be some sort of indecency to have their genitals hanging out in public, but the inside of this building seemed rather public, too. That theirs was on the outside seemed to be another point of fascination from strangers, and one he was all too happy to hide.
Li’stra wore an extravagant white dress all shimmering with tassels, which she covered with a light brown wrap before taking their leashes in her elbow, her purse in her hand, and setting out, the two of them struggling to keep up.
Two men joined her in the courtyard, and two guards followed them once they left the outer gate and were in the street.
A couple times, curious passers-by would ask to see Li’stra’s strange pets, stroke their hair, and read their names to them off the tags on the collars. Tama had never wanted to remember his real name with such strength as when these moments, these sharp reminders.
Li’stra seemed to enjoy showing them off, and indeed must have spent a great deal of money on them.
There were other species, here and there amongst the tall purple ones, but all were even bulkier and flatter of features. None had any closer resemblance to the two of them, not even other creatures being led around as pets here and there; those all walked on four legs, on the ground, mindlessly following their owners.
Tama wanted to scream in frustration. He stopped in the street, tugged back on the leash and made as much noise as he could. Li’stra snapped the lead and Sata gave him a beseeching look.
“Come!” Li’stra barked, in her own language, one of the few words he understood clearly.
He couldn’t bear this anymore, but for Sata, who began nuzzling his cheek, begging him to just keep walking. That it was alright if he did, that he had no choice.
So he did, with heavy feet, not looking up. Tama hung his head and felt deeply ashamed. Were they truly not deserving of anything better?
No hands seemed to touch him, and even Sata couldn’t comfort him. He was quiet and sullenly obedient, as she had her fancy meal and they were surrounded by a lavish life they were set beneath.
Numbly obsessed, Tama thought only how they might escape. If only he could fly, like he did in his dreams.
That evening, they were finally ungagged to have water and food. Although Sata made a few remarks about the dry, pulpy supper, Tama never answered him.
They were locked in their cage while Li’stra again dressed with care, this time leaving them behind in her shadowy, empty room.
After a while, Sata curled onto Tama’s lap and looked in his eyes. “If we ever want an opportunity, we need to be perfectly obedient. Make her trust us.”
“I don’t like that idea.”
“Neither do I. But the harder we fight, the tighter she’ll hold on. We can do this.”
“For as long as it takes?”
“As long as it takes.”
- Perfect Obedience -
So the became like puppies at her side, accepting being handled and petted and lead around at every moment.
Most afternoons, in fair weather, were spent outside, running and tumbling for a while. This was the high part of the day, and they would entirely forget themselves to the simple pleasure of being outside and unchained. Even Sata would smile widely.
He was beautiful when he smiled, and Tama grew only to love him more as each day passed. They became used to coupling publicly, and as they were set to a purpose, every action was taken with ease. There was an end to it, ultimately.
They were not content, but they had a measure of happiness, which was reflected in their evenings spent lounging in their cage, left to speak to each other freely as they wished. Their small freedoms didn’t grow, but they seemed to. Simply being left to themselves seemed such a luxury now.
All the while, they never stopped looking for their chance to get away.
“I think there’s a space port nearby,” Sata said, stroking Tama’s arm. “The ships in the sky are always coming and going from the same place.”
Tama nodded. “I still don’t know where any tools might be.”
“Perhaps the device requires a proximity.”
“They might have tracking devices.”
“I’m sure they do.”
They looked up as someone walked into the suite, still unseen. They remained laying tangled in one another comfortably as Li’stra and a man she visited now and then stumbled into the room, laughing and pulling each other’s clothes off.
Remaining quiet, they watched this with curiosity; the only visitor to the bedroom had been a maid they rarely saw.
Their tall purple bodies had lines down their spines and down the center of their front, widening at the navel. They’d seen this in Li’stra often enough, but in the man it was wider and swelling fast. They didn’t have nipples on their chests or the same shapes of muscles, with longer torsos and far more flexible joints.
On the bed, they moaned and yelled and touched each other like they hated each other a little, too, drunk and a little careless. Li’stra’s gray hair spilled free over the pillows, a short, thick erection, or what they guessed was the same idea, came from the man, her body opening like a blooming flower.
Their limber bodies locked together and they started howling orgasmically. They fucked for hours, long after it became interesting and turned into a loud, annoying activity that kept Tama and Sata from getting any sleep.
“Well, at least he’s not going near us with that thing,” Sata dryly remarked. Tama hid a laugh by biting his hand against Sata’s shoulder.
Lumpy and a bit bigger than Tama’s fist, it was wholly unattractive. At least, he considered, to them.
It went away when they were apparently done, laying in bed and talking quietly. Even quiet conversation, however, did a good job of keeping them awake.
And then, to their surprise, the cage door unlocked, from across the room. “Sata! Tama!” she called, waving them toward her.
“I hope you didn’t speak too soon,” Tama said, and crawled out first, waiting for Sata before they went to the edge of the bed.
They’d never been on the bed before, and sat on their heels beside it, waiting for direction. Li’stra seemed to think this was perfectly adorable, squeezing their noses before she patted an empty space beside her.
Sata shrugged, and they both got up at the same time, and knelt side by side at her hip, still anxiously waiting to see what she wanted them to do.
But it seemed she didn’t want them to do anything at all, finally urging them to curl up beside her, within reach to pet as she talked with her visitor warmly. Sata and Tama had their legs laced together, holding hands almost guardedly against the unfamiliar situation.
Still, they didn’t sleep that night, unable to rest without the isolating security of their cage. At least, this was how Tama felt, and Sata would often look at him in the dark, proving he also lay still and awake until the sun came up.
- Sata Lashes Out -
With increasing regularity, they were taken out beyond the gates and into the town, usually to visit one of Li’stra’s friends.
This day was no different, but it was exceptionally hot, the sun baking down unmercifully. It didn’t seem to bother Li’stra much, but being unable even to pant with exhaustion, Sata and Tama were running with sweat and breathing desperately through their noses.
When they finally went inside and she sat on a couch, they fell on their knees and slumped, trying to catch their breath. Li’stra clucked over this, drying their faces with the hem of her skirt, and did the unusual thing of apparently asking her friend if it was alright to take out their gags.
This much Sata explained once the attention was off them, sitting under a table and sipping water out of a bowl.
“That woman thinks we’re dirty and disgusting,” he muttered. “She’s not so much better, herself.”
She didn’t want anything to do with them, so they didn’t want anything to do with her, and stayed out of the way.
At least for a while.
The plump woman would glare at them when she passed by, a few times got out of her seat to point at them in an accusatory fashion, as if they’d just soiled her carpet.
Then she finally grabbed Sata’s hair and dragged him out from under the table, smacked him sharply on the stomach, and lifted up one of his legs, holding him in a painfully obscene position that was entirely undeserved. With his hands still bound behind his back, there was little Sata could do about this.
Tama shuffled closer, frowning, increasingly pressed to somehow help; but she wasn’t harming him so much as pointing out her apparent problems with their alien bodies.
Sata bore this with a hateful glare that grew into a twisted, dark expression that was hard to look at.
She was molesting his face when he’d finally had enough, and bit down on her hand.
There was a pause before the woman let out a startled shriek, dropping Sata, who landed neatly on his feet went back to Tama, calmly sitting back down under the table to watch the screaming.
“That was a stupid thing to do,” Tama pointed out.
“Serves her right.”
The situation was worse than they’d anticipated. Li’stra put them back in their headgear and held them close on leashes as she got into a heated argument with her friend.
Sata’s teeth had drawn blood; not much, but enough that she demanded retribution.
The argument went on until uniformed men arrived at the door and joined the conversation, their presence lulling the frantic woman somewhat. She got a pleased look on her face and Tama was relieved, thinking the matter settled.
Li’stra handed Sata’s leash over to one of the officers, who yanked him away.
Tama screamed behind his gag, but Li’stra anticipated his distress and held onto him. It took two officers to get Sata out the door, as he thrashed and fought and struggled to no avail.
Li’stra, however, got tired of Tama’s protests and took her device out of her pocket, setting it with a pricking sensation against his struggling arm.
They went outside, and Tama’s body felt loose and strange as he watched Sata being herded into a cage in some sort of vehicle that took him and all the uniformed men away.
It left Tama in a state of shock, bewildered and drugged as he was half-dragged back home.
Li’stra kept him drugged all that day, cooing to him softly, but she could never comfort him. He was lost without Sata, unable to understand his captors.
If she was telling him what had happened to his mate, he couldn’t understand it.
In despair, he cried, like he’d never cry if Sata was there to see him, and eventually Li’stra just locked him in the cage and left him in darkness.
- Alone -
Without Sata, Tama was put through the daily routine of Li’stra’s life by himself, and never felt more like a dumb animal.
But he didn’t run around in the garden, when turned loose that afternoon. He just went behind a tree and cried for his loneliness.
What awful thing was being done to his mate?
Li’stra continued being extra-ordinarily kind to him, but there was no indication of when Sata would be returned, if ever.
A day passed, and another, and Tama began to wring his hands in the terrible fear that Sata had been killed for what he’d done. He imagined his noble beloved in some stark, terrible place, being lashed down and drugged never to wake again.
It was many days of bleak worry before Tama’s headgear was put on and he was dressed not only in his tunic, but a drape of fabric over his shoulders, covering his bound arms in black cloth.
They went out into the streets, Tama unthinkingly allowing himself to be led, looking ahead for any signs of where they may be going.
It seemed a considerable distance on what was a thankfully cool day, and they arrived at an official-looking building amongst many official-looking buildings, where Li’stra had to present papers at a desk.
They went deeper inside, following an elderly, drooping man that took Li’stra into a vast room lined with cages.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes were behind the bars, some looking cuddly and mindlessly curious, some with baleful, intelligent eyes, and Tama wondered if they were thinking beings as well.
“Tama! Tama!”
At the sound of Sata’s voice, Tama’s heart leapt and he lurched his lead out of Li’stra’s hand, running as fast as he could with tied arms to the far cage familiar arms reached out of.
Sata kissed Tama’s face through the bars, hugged him and told him everything was going to be alright. Even when Li’stra and her guide came over, they didn’t separate them; they thought it was cute.
They talked, and as Sata listened, his embrace became stiff.
Tama gave him a worried look, wishing he could speak.
“I’m not going to die,” Sata just said. “He’s telling her I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon.”
That couldn’t be all of it, but Sata refused to tell him more, just kissed him until Li’stra took up Tama’s leash and urged him away firmly.
“Don’t worry,” Sata said after him, but he was terrified.
The walk home felt like the longest he’d ever taken, helpless to do anything but leave him behind in a strange place. How terrible to be so low. Simply handed off for the crime of defending himself, neatly without any right to speak in their own defense at all.
Near the front gate, Li’stra stopped, took Tama’s face in her hands, and wiped the tears off his cheeks. “Good Tama, dear Tama,” she said, and more beyond him to translate.
She kissed his forehead, a gesture that had always been reserved for Sata, and somehow it made him feel well enough not to cry as they finished their journey.
- Escape -
That night, Tama got no sleep.
He lay in a sweaty, worried heap in the cage, smelling Sata on the pillows and terrified of how he may return.
Would they pry out all his teeth? Destroy his mind? Have him castrated?
Li’stra was deep asleep when Tama heard a soft noise, perked up in his cage and tried to see under the edges of the blanket.
He knew better than to call out when he saw it was Sata, all wrapped up in black clothing, who ducked under the blanket soon enough and began working on the lock.
It was jarringly strange to see him wearing clothes.
Tama moved over to kiss him, but didn’t otherwise speak or interrupt.
Somewhere, Sata had gained metal tools, that did an excellent job of opening the door with only the softest of sounds betraying any activity.
He snuck out quietly and they closed the door again, put the blanket back as if nothing were amiss, and climbed out an open dining room window, jumping down to the grassy lawn below.
In the dark, they were perfectly still where they’d landed, in the shadow of the building.
Here, Sata stopped and pulled out another small tool, this one burning as it cut off the restraints. Gritting and bearing the pain, he could hardly believe the feeling of night air on his neck. All the while, Tama hardly dared to breathe until Sata nodded and lead a quick pace toward the wall.
Into a tree, over the wall, and down to the street and they finally dared to stop; Sata kissed Tama quickly, giving him an undoubtedly stolen set of clothing that smelled like purple hair, but seemed nice enough.
Certainly nice enough. More than enough.
They were no longer pets, but two aliens on the run in a hostile world, and it was a soaring leap in the world.
“I told you we’d escape,” Sata laughed. “There weren’t as many obstacles in the veterinarian's office.”
What they’d planned to do to him there Tama never knew, because that’s all Sata was willing to say.
"How did you..?"
"I don't know. I just did." Sata had this wild kind of joy in his eyes, a new kind of light even darkness didn't hide.
They ran under the cover of night, toward Sata’s space port and it's traffic of glowing ships in the sky, and it were as if the universe may finally be on their side. This was where they'd started out, familiar ground.
It felt strange and wonderful to be clothed and free, and he could only dare to hope she’d never find them again.
All they needed now was to get out of this wretched place. The rest would have to wait.
- The Dream -
That night, Li’stra let them out again, one at a time, with the same extra attention and cooing for Sata. One would think she regretted whipping him, though she’d seemed to take much satisfaction in the act while committing it.
Again they were shut in together, the rose pink blanket thrown over their cage, plunging them into a pink-shaded darkness. Sata felt about the cage door and spent a great deal of time seeking an escape, but eventually gave up and crawled back under Tama’s arm and fell into a light sleep.
Tama took somewhat longer, but did eventually join him.
He dreamed first of being shut in darkness, a nightmare that melted away, and he was surrounded by hazy shadows in bright, primary colors. He kept reaching, trying to get to them, but never could. Even flying somehow, soaring through the air, they were out of reach to him.
When he gave up, he turned around and Sata was standing there on a ledge, all robed in black, leathery wings draped down his back and his face darkly obscured. “Who are you?” he asked.
“Tama,” he replied, because he had no other name to give.
The dark figure shook his head and laughed grimly. “No, you aren’t.”
“Who am I?” he demanded, but Sata leapt down, gliding on his wings, growing hazy until he was gone, and Tama remembered no more of the dream.
He woke, half expecting to find himself someplace else, but was still in the cage. It was maddening that he couldn’t remember what it was he’d expected. His sudden motion woke Sata, who twisted to look up at him a moment, and once satisfied, tucked down again and fell back to sleep.
Tama stayed up much more, but eventually sought rest again, comfortable enough in the pillows.
It seemed terribly wrong that they both could think and speak to each other, yet were treated this way.
- Sata’s Brief Escape -
In the morning, Tama woke with a pressing need to relieve himself as soon as Li’stra threw back the blanket. They’d both had a great deal to drink before going to sleep, after all.
Sata was already awake, laying quietly on his stomach. His wounds looked to be healing quickly, but still had to be uncomfortable. She said Sata’s name a few times when she opened the door, until he reluctantly crawled out. Tama was for the moment ignored as she cared for him first, a genuine sort of fondness in her voice. Sata received it with mutterings of foul language.
He described horrid ways he’d invented to kill her as she laughed and patted his head.
In fact, her affection was such that she didn’t even tie Sata up when she finally let Tama out to the bathroom.
When they went back to the bedroom, Sata had vanished.
Quietly thrilled he might make it away, Tama didn’t much care about the consequences to himself.
Li’stra forced him against the wall lock his hands together, clipped on a leash, and again tied him to the bedpost. This time, he wasn’t left alone to consider chasing after his fellow. She merely was looking for something, which turned out to be a gag.
She put her hand over his face, squeezed his nose until he opened his mouth and she forced in a soft, rubbery ball attached to a wide strip she locked behind his head. Her admonishing was in an almost playful tone, like she was happy for an excuse to mistreat him.
This only grew worse by the moment.
He was tugged along behind her, as she went out of her rooms and addressed guards and such, causing a flurry of activity. All the while, she had an apparent destination, and only paused along her way.
They went outside, out into elaborate gardens, twisting with stone paths and small structures with benches and privacy. They walked past this, into a small walled area that had an ominous look.
He was led straight to a stone pillar with a metal ring attached to it, and his bonds where undone carefully, her hands painfully tight on his arms as she locked his wrists to the ring, forced up ever so slightly on the balls of his feet, the rough stone scraping the gag and his bare chest.
She walked away and left him there in the morning sun, to imagine what she planned to do in retaliation for their unwillingness to submit to her. Perhaps that’s why they were here, to be broken in like wild animals to be domesticated.
The challenge, once clearly set in his mind, he set himself to overcome.
It wasn’t a very long time before she returned, with a dark purple man in green that was now towing Sata behind him, looking sheepish.
“I didn’t get far,” Sata said, which was rebuked with a smack.
Sata was forced down on the ground, in front of where the man sat, just in Tama’s line of sight, talking to Li’stra and preparing to watch. Li’stra was behind Tama, somewhere he couldn’t see.
This changed, quickly, when Li’stra twisted him in his bonds, now on his toes, holding onto the ring as she set him down, back against the stone.
“I’m sorry.”
Li’stra was holding what looked to be red whip, which she was playing with, watching her victim as she spoke with the man. He guessed that he was her brother.
Then the whip was drawn back, Tama took a deep breath, and his punishment began with a line of fire across his chest. The gag kept him from screaming, but he might have.
The pain was unbearable, and was already making muffled pleas for mercy that were just indistinct sounds in his throat, and she didn’t even pause. He’d thought to bear this like a man, like Sata had of his own, but it was too much. It hurt far worse than he could have ever imagined it would.
He twisted but couldn’t bring himself in any other position but facing her and openly exposed, which she took advantage of wickedly, occasionally landing a blow over his groin, making him lurch away from the rock and back again.
She seemed to be enjoying herself.
He would have begged to die before she finally stopped, tossing her whip on the ground. All he could see of his body was lined with criss-crossing lines and trails of blood. His chest and legs were a mess, and he felt it couldn’t have been worse if he’d been set on fire.
Tama fought to breathe and wished he were no longer awake to feel. What could they have done to deserve this fate?
Li’stra took him down and had to carry him, for he couldn’t walk on his own.
With all the same concern she’d given Sata, he was set on a table and rubbed with cool salve once she’d cleaned his wounds, the pain somewhat lessened by it, though her touch was enough to make him wince and moan.
From the cage, Sata watched this, waiting when Li’stra urged Tama to limp over and crawl inside. Sata helped him get comfortable as she locked them in, throwing the blanket over them and going about her own business. It was a small mercy that they weren’t bound in the cage, could try as they could to ease their own sufferings.
Pain seemed so terribly unfamiliar, and this pain was unrelenting. His balls were swollen from where the whip had touched them, and throbbed with a dull ache. It was difficult to bear, and Tama often twisted and moaned in discomfort, finding no rest as Sata lay quietly beside him.
“Quite a system she’s worked out,” Sata dryly remarked.
“What happened?”
“I got to the outer wall before I couldn’t move. Passed out and a guard found me. It was idiotic, I don’t know why I did it.”
“We’ll get out somehow.”
“I know.”
- Dinnertime -
It became clear, over the next few days, that Sata was clearly right; the two of them were treated like an amusing novelty. Perhaps trainable somewhat, but never given any sort of civilized consideration. There was no indication they would ever be given anything to wear, though they covered themselves when they could, hoping Li’stra might get the idea. Further, they weren’t given any work to do, not even let to wash themselves.
After two days of rest, sitting about their cage, Sata was taken out on his own. Li’stra clearly was more fond of him, seeming to be excited that he was nearly healed, only thin red marks left.
She locked his wrists behind his back and gagged him, more gently than with Tama, patiently urging him to let her put it on. The gag he saw had a big silver ring against the thick black strip over Sata’s face, and it was to this Li’stra attached the leash. Every tug would be right to his head, extra rough encouragement to follow as she took him out of the room with her and left.
They were gone for most of the day, all the while Tama left to wonder what Sata was doing. There was an unmistakable bond between them now, and all of his remembered life began so close to meeting him, it was hard to imagine not being together.
Every indignity they suffered they suffered together as a pair, except for this day, and it was very strange to be apart.
They returned just after dinner was delivered to her own dining room across the way, just barely visible through the doorway. Servants in uniforms bustled in and out, and then Li’stra brought Sata back.
Tama was let out and brought into the dining room, where Sata was already chained in front of his dinner. Another thing that fit them perfectly, short chains on the floor that locked to their collars while she ate. Moving was still stiff and uncomfortable for his healing wounds, but he didn’t make a fuss.
Sata was convinced that she’d ordered the two of them beforehand, with all that she had that was designed for two of their size and species, and would occasionally remark on it as they’d lain in the cage together.
Li’stra sat at the table, soon joined by her foppish brother, who was already a touch drunk and continued to drink deeply as they talked.
“What a buffoon,” Sata muttered, quietly. They could talk as long as it didn’t annoy their present owners, and it was a luxury they would apparently not always have.
“What did you do all day?” Tama asked, between bites of mealy vegetables from his fingers.
“Stood there and let aliens fondle me,” he grumbled. “I can’t take this anymore.”
“We have to get the restraints off.”
“Which requires tools that we don’t have.”
“We need to recover our memories.”
“If we even have any to recover.” Sata said it so calmly that Tama was sure to have misheard him; but he hadn’t.
“We do, we must. Where did you get those scars if you have no past?”
“They may be permanently erased.”
“We don’t know that. I have... dreams.” Tama ate some more, glancing at Sata, who seemed to be considering that.
“Of what?” he finally asked.
Tama told him about the bright figures and the leather wings Sata wore between bites, sure to add how he was always flying. Nodding occasionally, Sata listened, his elegant face almost serene, for it all. He could have been well-dressed and sitting beside their owner at the table, Tama thought. “Do you dream of anything?” he asked, once finished.
“No,” Sata said shortly, only to nod a moment later. “Yes. I dream of your death,” he admitted somberly. “You have wings, too. Feathered. Broken, and I can’t do anything but watch you fall out of the sky.”
They were quiet, then. Finished their bowls and sat back with their cups of water, watching the other two eat and laugh at the table.
“It’s strange, I can’t remember ever wearing anything, but I wish I could,” Tama remarked.
“At least it’s warm.”
They laughed quietly together, because they needed something to laugh at a moment. Li’stra gave them a fond look, and they stopped.
- A Matched Pair of Exotic Pets -
Li’stra now took Sata out with her every day, an event he remarked little on, other than to say she worked in an office most of the time and that he’d stayed on his best behavior. He didn’t say it was for Tama’s benefit, but he was grateful, anyway, as he was still mending.
Then, one morning Tama was found fit enough to be taken out as well. They stood side by side after breakfast, restrained and fitted with gags. Sata was used to this by now, and begrudgingly accepted it, so Tama did the same.
The leashes were attached to the rings on their gags, the handles looped into the crook of her elbow as they left. Being led so was more jarring, and they were quick to keep up with her longer stride.
Through the dressing room, Tama couldn’t help but look at himself in all the mirrors. They looked very much alike in their matching bonds, himself only a bit taller and more defined than Sata, lingered red marks on his slightly darker skin. Both were bent forward into the lead, just a bit, and had every appearance of being a matched pair of pets behind their owner, with steel rings instead of voices.
They were, for the most part, ignored by those who greeted Li’stra. Occasionally a girl met along the way would stroke their black hair. That of their own race seemed to be coarse, making their own soft and fine in comparison; and it was never near so dark a color. Sata especially despised the attention, quicker to pull away and try to avoid them, but they would just laugh and grab hold of the ring and keep him still to pat his head.
They would both close their eyes or look on the floor while being petted, and Sata surely felt the same awful feeling Tama did. One stroked the curly nest on his groin and Tama watched the large blue hand and could only think of how delicate they were compared to these people.
Just as Sata said, they walked some ways to another part of the vast building, a quieter, more formal one of offices. She went to what appeared to be her own, wide and well-lit, with open windows over a small, groomed field outside, lined with blue-green trees, a darker shade than the other plant life.
Li’stra tied the leashes to the handle of her chair and they sat on the floor as she began working on her computer, light music playing in the background.
It seemed unfair that they couldn’t even speak to each other, but they were both ignored to their affronted silence. Perhaps she didn’t even consider their words a language at all; it was difficult to tell for sure.
Sata shifted a bit behind her chair and gestured at the open windows with his shoulder, then shrugged. It was something of a drop to the ground, especially with tied arms, and there was still no answer to the problem of being remotely paralyzed.
He was tugged back into Li’stra’s reach, right where her hand could casually pet him. Sata glowered and bore it, sometimes making an effort to move away, but she was fond of grabbing the ring on the gag, pulling his face up, and rapping him sharply on the nose when he did.
Eventually Sata glumly stayed put, while Tama looked at the red sky and chewed on the piece in his mouth. It was large enough a rubbery thing to grow somewhat uncomfortable, having his jaw held open that long, locked tight enough to ensure it’d be difficult and painful to pry off over his head. He had to keep sucking on it to stop from drooling down his chin, and it was on the whole irritating him terribly.
She took a break at midday, and Tama hoped they’d be ungagged to eat, but to his disappointment they were only given water in the briefest of respite, and it was even more uncomfortable when it was immediately put back on.
But all his best efforts were token resistance. She had her way, slapped his ass, and tugged them along after her.
After that, she took them to a larger dining room full of purple and blue people, and once again they were tied to her chair, closer now, pressed close to each other in reach to be petted from time to time. Too far below the table-edge to see much of the gathering, just hear the floating conversation that couldn’t be understood.
They could only but fume and silently remember the consequences of attempting to free themselves.
No desperate attempts could resurrect any memory of where they would run, even should they try. The entire race seemed to consider them as hers, and they wore tags that undoubtedly said as much on their collars. Even with them off... they were aliens. How could they ever get off the planet?
Tama considered the possibilities of stealing spacecraft, fantasies of escape to pass the time. Could he even accomplish such a thing? Could either of them fly, or even operate a computer screen? As it stood, only trying it would tell, but Sata particularly had flashes of insight on the way the world operated.
If Sata had once been some sort of warrior, it seemed reasonable he might be able to. Most of the solider types they saw here had images of spacecraft with their other, less makable badges on their uniforms. Of course, there was no telling how different a world their own might be, but if he knew a word for it, his people must have them.
Presently this was all moot speculation, as he was reminded when Li’stra yanked his head up by the lead on the gag, to show him to the man seated next to her. He closed his eyes and bore their unclear voices over him stiffly.
Had he once been free? He must have been, to long so desperately.
Tama did look up after a time, into the other man’s eyes, and found himself pleading with his own for help.
The man petted him and smiled gently, apparently trying to calm him down. Tama growled in his throat and tried to yank himself free, but found his nose jolted by sharp pain that made his eyes prick with water. Li’stra had rapped it with her knuckles and was waving her finger at him admonishingly.
This treatment only made him angrier, twisting and yanking with all his strength. At first he didn’t even hear Sata beside him, making as much noise as he could and pressing up against his side.
Tama stopped and sagged in her grip, but not quickly enough for her to decide against punishing them both for it.
The leashes were tied up tight, so their faces were both pulled upwards, not able to see much more than the ceiling and her arm, their chins pressed together and necks strained back.
They didn’t struggle to look at each other, but they were close enough that they were already touching, knees locked together, Sata’s fingertips on Tama’s knee. He would occasionally brush his fingers, a gentle sort of reminder of his presence.
After the meal was finished, Li’stra filed out with the others, quite a few all apparently going to the same place. They followed behind a bit apprehensively, a bit stiff from the uncomfortable position, rolling their heads about some as they walked.
They were back to the square decoration-cage, with it’s places for seats and onlookers, and everything became dismally clear.
Sata and Tama were led inside, their bonds replaced with a short chain from their right wrist to the bars by the door. They moved their mouths and licked their lips, and Tama moved his jaw about with his other hand.
“I don’t want another dose of that,” Sata murmured, sounding... no, it wouldn’t be like him to speak fearfully.
“I still don’t understand the point of it.”
“Dogfighting without all the blood.”
Dogfighting. Dogs fighting... they hadn’t seen anything like that here. He was only a little sure he was exactly sure what a dog was. Some kind of pet. “Do you remember something?” Tama asked, half hopefully.
Sata closed his eyes and seemed to concentrate very hard, only to shake his head. “No.”
Most of the seats were full, but there seemed no formality to this, just an impromptu sort of show.
“I don’t want her to beat you again,” Sata said, watching this all carefully. “It’s harder for you to take.”
Affronted, despite the apparent truth in this, Tama frowned. “I don’t think there’s much you can do about taking it all yourself.”
“I’m going to do everything she wants in here,” Sata continued, quietly firm. “I don’t want to see it again, so I’m going to do what I can to make her happy. I can’t make that decision for you, I don’t really care about what she does to me.”
A man came up to the bars, a woman on his arm that seemed afraid of them and hung back. He seemed to want to prove how brave he was by putting his hand close.
Sata snapped at his fingers and laughed when he screamed like a girl and jumped back.
“I think if I’m going to be doing that sort of thing again... well, I’d rather it be you than any of them,” Tama replied, trying not to sound defeated by the prospect.
They shifted a little closer together.
“Kiss me,” Sata said.
“What?” They looked into each other’s eyes closely.
“We should get... comfortable.”
“Alright.”
Tama was suddenly nervous. Had he ever kissed anyone before? At this moment, it didn’t feel that way.
They pressed their lips together uncertainly, and melted into each other once it felt good.
Oh yes. Kissing Sata felt wonderful, and clearly, Sata felt the same way. As natural as breathing. What was meant to be something quick became slow wandering tongues and their hands being clasped tightly together.
Li’stra was clapping in delight as they pulled apart, but they kept their left hands laced together, resting against Tama’s thigh.
She took Sata’s arm first, and to Tama’s surprise, his hand began trembling in his own.
Sata was really scared. His face never let on.
Li’stra roughly took Tama’s arm next, pulling it some way out between the bars to hold him still as he felt a pricking, sharp jab from her little device.
At first, they just shakily stood there and didn’t seem to feel much, but Sata began to change first. His eyelids were heavy and he began leaning against Tama for support.
Then Tama began to sweat and the first waves of astonishing arousal began to hit. At his springing erection, they were released.
Li’stra took their chains off and let them back away from the bars. Tama took a better hold of Sata in his arms. “Are you alright?”
Sata nodded against his neck.
Tama breathed heavily, laid Sata down on the pillows as he sighed softly.
Sata was so lovely. His face never looked so elegant, his skin so soft, his body so perfectly carved. It became impossible not to touch him, to press against him and feel his body move. Sata could only moan softly, but Tama couldn’t stop.
Desire only got stronger, taking over his ability to control himself. The situation might have been terrible, if Sata hadn’t already agreed, so Tama tried to take his cock in his hand, but it was trembling with his surging need, weak with it. He bucked against Sata’s thigh and groaned in frustration, his mind cloudy and slow.
He turned Sata over, with some difficulty and little help from him, and lifted his ass up on the pillows, thrusting against the inside of his thigh as he tried to spit on his hands.
Tama tried to push his cock into Sata, but would just make him twist and softly cry in pain, and it wouldn’t go in without terrible force, so he didn’t let himself thrust in, but humped Sata’s thigh and screamed in the growing discomfort of his arousal.
At some point, Li’stra noticed what the problem was.
“Tama, Tama!” he heard, and looked over sideways. She pushed a bowl across the floor of the cage and shut the door again.
It was slippery, whitish stuff that smelled nice, but he didn’t question it much more than that and lathered himself up thickly.
Tama roared and pushed into Sata, heard him meekly mewing. Once he was sure he wasn’t hurting him, Tama let go and began fucking him like the wild animal he was being fashioned into, and came for the first time, yelling “Sata! Sata!”
But he could hardly stop, even then.
Moving Sata’s pliant body, Tama didn’t have much choice than to continue fucking him until it seemed he’d always been inside him, feeling his sweat, stroking his fine muscles. He had to fight to remember he had to make sure Sata was alright, but he always seemed to be, his eyelids fluttering as his face lay on his hands.
There was no release from it, not until, what had to be hours later, it began to wear off on it’s own. Tama could keep going, orgasms far between, and Sata could keep taking it with only soft sounds.
And then, he could stop, like a miracle he got soft and his blood cooled.
He fell back against the pillows, all the energy drained right out of him.
Sata was laying beside him, and managed to come closer, to throw his arm over Tama’s chest, rest his head there.
Li’stra took advantage of their worn-out timidity, came in with a wet cloth to clean them off, standing them up and showing them off, one at a time, to their audience. Talking about them, he imagined, sometimes squeezing them or showing someone their teeth. These people didn’t seem to have teeth so much as a solid bone inside their mouths where teeth would be, with their strange sort of flat jaws. They’d gasp when she put her fingers in his mouth, as if he’d snap them off and eat them.
So that was why they wore gags. It wasn’t about conversation at all. It was so they wouldn’t bite.
It was humiliating, but he was hardly able to stand on his own, and did little more than look up at her balefully. His groin felt sore and heavy, hurting whenever he moved.
She seemed well satisfied with her pets, and the audience was rather impressed as well, but it meant little to him.
They were gagged again, and this time linked the gags together so they lay looking into each other’s eyes, inches apart and unable to speak on their bed of pillows. The onlookers were invited inside the cage, coming over to fondle them or pet them, some speaking to them like one would to a domesticated creature.
They never looked at their molesters, just at each other, still and ignoring the rest of their mutual existence with their fingers laced together.
In that moment, Tama remembered what love felt like. He would surely not have survived this so well without strong, noble Sata, and could no longer imagine a life without him at his side.
- Sata Learns to Speak -
After that, things were different. Without discussion on the matter, Sata and Tama gave themselves to overt affection for each other, and enough time had went by that the lizard-men and their dungeon felt like it was in a distant past.
Perhaps they became just a little bit used to their place in the order of things, as it was all they had ever known and difficult to deny.
When Sata was bound up close to Li’stra’s chair, and they both were condemned to silence as she worked, Tama would go up close to him, nuzzle his face gently in a wish for the kiss made impossible by their bound lips. Such a simple thing as that could take some of the trapped discontent in Sata’s eyes.
They would sleep soundly in each other’s arms and laugh softly when they spoke to each other, and love seemed to make their life more bearable.
Li’stra was wildly pleased with this development, which seemed to be her intention all the while. They would still be put in the big cage, usually for a small audience of her and perhaps a few of her kin or friends or whoever they were, but without drugging either of them.
They would make love without her encouragement, tender and slow, and that seemed to be satisfying. It certainly was for her pets, who were more than happy to be with each other, and to avoid the awful, endless frenzy when it was forced into them.
Onlookers never seemed to consider watching them as erotic to themselves; it seemed to be merely interesting to observe. Entertainment. It was difficult to imagine life on the other side of the bars, where there was not so great a weight to these things.
It had not been theirs to decide, but Sata did accept Tama as his mate, and happily, though Sata never lost the stoic way about him.
What was Sata if not his mate? Tama was sure their people had to hold a high regard for this sort of bond, because he found himself taking it quite seriously. A responsibility to ensure Sata was well and happy as could be managed.
A few times while they were laying in the cage, Tama asked Sata if he thought their race had women, and he was always sure they did. “We’re both male,” Sata would say, “and it’s the only logical conclusion we would have females.” It was the closest they could ever speak on the subject of their people, on wondering who they might be, where.
And then, one evening at dinner, Sata sat up, meal untouched, and looked straight at Li’stra. Much to Tama’s surprise, he began to speak their captor’s language in a crude, but impressive mimic of their voices.
Tama had come to understand a few words, but had never tried to speak it.
Li’stra was also surprised, listening raptly as Sata said his piece, then waited for a reply. She laughed and came over, ruffled Sata’s hair and scratched his chin.
Sata now bore such treatment without moving, but still grimaced.
Once she was done, she went back to the table, and began chattering to her brother as she continued eating dinner. As if the incident had never occurred.
“What did you say?” Tama asked.
“I told her how we got here, that we must have been stolen from our homes,” Sata glumly replied. “That we want to be free.”
“What did she say?”
“She said she already knew all that. And now she’s bragging to him about how intelligent I am, and how clever she was for having the idea of purchasing adults from the Gordanians.”
“Oh.”
“Our memories were erased to help us accept our new lives.”
They looked at each other somberly. “I always thought if she knew we could talk...” Tama sighed. “I was sure she’d at least consider letting us go.”
Sata kissed his cheek, cradling his face gently. “There has to be a way,” he said, and Tama was comforted by it. He was still listening to Li’stra, suddenly perking up his head. “Huh.”
“What?”
“She just said what species we are. Hua-mans...” he kept listening, but after a while sat back. “That’s all she said. I think we should let her forget I can hear them.”
“I don’t think it’s going to help if we remind her.”
- A Walk Outside -
In the afternoons, Li’stra would usually take Sata and Tama out into the gardens or the field, take off their bonds, and relax with a drink as she watched them exercise. Often a friend would join her in this, but the two of them were just happy to be loose and able to stretch their legs and keep fit.
They learned to ignore being watched, for their own peace of mind. Sata especially could instinctively perform amazingly sleek routines that made Tama wonder just what sort of warrior he’d been.
This had been the extent of their leaving the great building that had become home, of a sort. It seemed rather endless, containing an astonishing number of people and spaces.
Then Sata murmured to Tama, as they were being bathed, that they were going into town.
That today was going to be different became quickly apparent. Instead of just gags, they were fitted with more strict headgear that would be entirely impossible to get out of without unlocking, straps under their chins and up either side of their noses, a strap over the top of their head tightly fixed at the base the skull, right where the wide one covering their mouths was locked. Li’stra smoothed out their hair a great deal around this, so they would still be pleasant for her to pet.
To their surprise, she dressed them as well. Simple black tunics with shoulder straps and open sides that tied together at the hips. Their wrists were not only bound behind them, but their ankles put on chains that kept their strides even shorter than before.
The head-harnesses had the same ring over their mouth, and the same rubbery pieces to chew on. They were tied to the bedpost as Li’stra got herself ready to go out, taking a considerably longer time to do so. He could only guess that it would be some sort of indecency to have their genitals hanging out in public, but the inside of this building seemed rather public, too. That theirs was on the outside seemed to be another point of fascination from strangers, and one he was all too happy to hide.
Li’stra wore an extravagant white dress all shimmering with tassels, which she covered with a light brown wrap before taking their leashes in her elbow, her purse in her hand, and setting out, the two of them struggling to keep up.
Two men joined her in the courtyard, and two guards followed them once they left the outer gate and were in the street.
A couple times, curious passers-by would ask to see Li’stra’s strange pets, stroke their hair, and read their names to them off the tags on the collars. Tama had never wanted to remember his real name with such strength as when these moments, these sharp reminders.
Li’stra seemed to enjoy showing them off, and indeed must have spent a great deal of money on them.
There were other species, here and there amongst the tall purple ones, but all were even bulkier and flatter of features. None had any closer resemblance to the two of them, not even other creatures being led around as pets here and there; those all walked on four legs, on the ground, mindlessly following their owners.
Tama wanted to scream in frustration. He stopped in the street, tugged back on the leash and made as much noise as he could. Li’stra snapped the lead and Sata gave him a beseeching look.
“Come!” Li’stra barked, in her own language, one of the few words he understood clearly.
He couldn’t bear this anymore, but for Sata, who began nuzzling his cheek, begging him to just keep walking. That it was alright if he did, that he had no choice.
So he did, with heavy feet, not looking up. Tama hung his head and felt deeply ashamed. Were they truly not deserving of anything better?
No hands seemed to touch him, and even Sata couldn’t comfort him. He was quiet and sullenly obedient, as she had her fancy meal and they were surrounded by a lavish life they were set beneath.
Numbly obsessed, Tama thought only how they might escape. If only he could fly, like he did in his dreams.
That evening, they were finally ungagged to have water and food. Although Sata made a few remarks about the dry, pulpy supper, Tama never answered him.
They were locked in their cage while Li’stra again dressed with care, this time leaving them behind in her shadowy, empty room.
After a while, Sata curled onto Tama’s lap and looked in his eyes. “If we ever want an opportunity, we need to be perfectly obedient. Make her trust us.”
“I don’t like that idea.”
“Neither do I. But the harder we fight, the tighter she’ll hold on. We can do this.”
“For as long as it takes?”
“As long as it takes.”
- Perfect Obedience -
So the became like puppies at her side, accepting being handled and petted and lead around at every moment.
Most afternoons, in fair weather, were spent outside, running and tumbling for a while. This was the high part of the day, and they would entirely forget themselves to the simple pleasure of being outside and unchained. Even Sata would smile widely.
He was beautiful when he smiled, and Tama grew only to love him more as each day passed. They became used to coupling publicly, and as they were set to a purpose, every action was taken with ease. There was an end to it, ultimately.
They were not content, but they had a measure of happiness, which was reflected in their evenings spent lounging in their cage, left to speak to each other freely as they wished. Their small freedoms didn’t grow, but they seemed to. Simply being left to themselves seemed such a luxury now.
All the while, they never stopped looking for their chance to get away.
“I think there’s a space port nearby,” Sata said, stroking Tama’s arm. “The ships in the sky are always coming and going from the same place.”
Tama nodded. “I still don’t know where any tools might be.”
“Perhaps the device requires a proximity.”
“They might have tracking devices.”
“I’m sure they do.”
They looked up as someone walked into the suite, still unseen. They remained laying tangled in one another comfortably as Li’stra and a man she visited now and then stumbled into the room, laughing and pulling each other’s clothes off.
Remaining quiet, they watched this with curiosity; the only visitor to the bedroom had been a maid they rarely saw.
Their tall purple bodies had lines down their spines and down the center of their front, widening at the navel. They’d seen this in Li’stra often enough, but in the man it was wider and swelling fast. They didn’t have nipples on their chests or the same shapes of muscles, with longer torsos and far more flexible joints.
On the bed, they moaned and yelled and touched each other like they hated each other a little, too, drunk and a little careless. Li’stra’s gray hair spilled free over the pillows, a short, thick erection, or what they guessed was the same idea, came from the man, her body opening like a blooming flower.
Their limber bodies locked together and they started howling orgasmically. They fucked for hours, long after it became interesting and turned into a loud, annoying activity that kept Tama and Sata from getting any sleep.
“Well, at least he’s not going near us with that thing,” Sata dryly remarked. Tama hid a laugh by biting his hand against Sata’s shoulder.
Lumpy and a bit bigger than Tama’s fist, it was wholly unattractive. At least, he considered, to them.
It went away when they were apparently done, laying in bed and talking quietly. Even quiet conversation, however, did a good job of keeping them awake.
And then, to their surprise, the cage door unlocked, from across the room. “Sata! Tama!” she called, waving them toward her.
“I hope you didn’t speak too soon,” Tama said, and crawled out first, waiting for Sata before they went to the edge of the bed.
They’d never been on the bed before, and sat on their heels beside it, waiting for direction. Li’stra seemed to think this was perfectly adorable, squeezing their noses before she patted an empty space beside her.
Sata shrugged, and they both got up at the same time, and knelt side by side at her hip, still anxiously waiting to see what she wanted them to do.
But it seemed she didn’t want them to do anything at all, finally urging them to curl up beside her, within reach to pet as she talked with her visitor warmly. Sata and Tama had their legs laced together, holding hands almost guardedly against the unfamiliar situation.
Still, they didn’t sleep that night, unable to rest without the isolating security of their cage. At least, this was how Tama felt, and Sata would often look at him in the dark, proving he also lay still and awake until the sun came up.
- Sata Lashes Out -
With increasing regularity, they were taken out beyond the gates and into the town, usually to visit one of Li’stra’s friends.
This day was no different, but it was exceptionally hot, the sun baking down unmercifully. It didn’t seem to bother Li’stra much, but being unable even to pant with exhaustion, Sata and Tama were running with sweat and breathing desperately through their noses.
When they finally went inside and she sat on a couch, they fell on their knees and slumped, trying to catch their breath. Li’stra clucked over this, drying their faces with the hem of her skirt, and did the unusual thing of apparently asking her friend if it was alright to take out their gags.
This much Sata explained once the attention was off them, sitting under a table and sipping water out of a bowl.
“That woman thinks we’re dirty and disgusting,” he muttered. “She’s not so much better, herself.”
She didn’t want anything to do with them, so they didn’t want anything to do with her, and stayed out of the way.
At least for a while.
The plump woman would glare at them when she passed by, a few times got out of her seat to point at them in an accusatory fashion, as if they’d just soiled her carpet.
Then she finally grabbed Sata’s hair and dragged him out from under the table, smacked him sharply on the stomach, and lifted up one of his legs, holding him in a painfully obscene position that was entirely undeserved. With his hands still bound behind his back, there was little Sata could do about this.
Tama shuffled closer, frowning, increasingly pressed to somehow help; but she wasn’t harming him so much as pointing out her apparent problems with their alien bodies.
Sata bore this with a hateful glare that grew into a twisted, dark expression that was hard to look at.
She was molesting his face when he’d finally had enough, and bit down on her hand.
There was a pause before the woman let out a startled shriek, dropping Sata, who landed neatly on his feet went back to Tama, calmly sitting back down under the table to watch the screaming.
“That was a stupid thing to do,” Tama pointed out.
“Serves her right.”
The situation was worse than they’d anticipated. Li’stra put them back in their headgear and held them close on leashes as she got into a heated argument with her friend.
Sata’s teeth had drawn blood; not much, but enough that she demanded retribution.
The argument went on until uniformed men arrived at the door and joined the conversation, their presence lulling the frantic woman somewhat. She got a pleased look on her face and Tama was relieved, thinking the matter settled.
Li’stra handed Sata’s leash over to one of the officers, who yanked him away.
Tama screamed behind his gag, but Li’stra anticipated his distress and held onto him. It took two officers to get Sata out the door, as he thrashed and fought and struggled to no avail.
Li’stra, however, got tired of Tama’s protests and took her device out of her pocket, setting it with a pricking sensation against his struggling arm.
They went outside, and Tama’s body felt loose and strange as he watched Sata being herded into a cage in some sort of vehicle that took him and all the uniformed men away.
It left Tama in a state of shock, bewildered and drugged as he was half-dragged back home.
Li’stra kept him drugged all that day, cooing to him softly, but she could never comfort him. He was lost without Sata, unable to understand his captors.
If she was telling him what had happened to his mate, he couldn’t understand it.
In despair, he cried, like he’d never cry if Sata was there to see him, and eventually Li’stra just locked him in the cage and left him in darkness.
- Alone -
Without Sata, Tama was put through the daily routine of Li’stra’s life by himself, and never felt more like a dumb animal.
But he didn’t run around in the garden, when turned loose that afternoon. He just went behind a tree and cried for his loneliness.
What awful thing was being done to his mate?
Li’stra continued being extra-ordinarily kind to him, but there was no indication of when Sata would be returned, if ever.
A day passed, and another, and Tama began to wring his hands in the terrible fear that Sata had been killed for what he’d done. He imagined his noble beloved in some stark, terrible place, being lashed down and drugged never to wake again.
It was many days of bleak worry before Tama’s headgear was put on and he was dressed not only in his tunic, but a drape of fabric over his shoulders, covering his bound arms in black cloth.
They went out into the streets, Tama unthinkingly allowing himself to be led, looking ahead for any signs of where they may be going.
It seemed a considerable distance on what was a thankfully cool day, and they arrived at an official-looking building amongst many official-looking buildings, where Li’stra had to present papers at a desk.
They went deeper inside, following an elderly, drooping man that took Li’stra into a vast room lined with cages.
Creatures of all shapes and sizes were behind the bars, some looking cuddly and mindlessly curious, some with baleful, intelligent eyes, and Tama wondered if they were thinking beings as well.
“Tama! Tama!”
At the sound of Sata’s voice, Tama’s heart leapt and he lurched his lead out of Li’stra’s hand, running as fast as he could with tied arms to the far cage familiar arms reached out of.
Sata kissed Tama’s face through the bars, hugged him and told him everything was going to be alright. Even when Li’stra and her guide came over, they didn’t separate them; they thought it was cute.
They talked, and as Sata listened, his embrace became stiff.
Tama gave him a worried look, wishing he could speak.
“I’m not going to die,” Sata just said. “He’s telling her I’ll be home tomorrow afternoon.”
That couldn’t be all of it, but Sata refused to tell him more, just kissed him until Li’stra took up Tama’s leash and urged him away firmly.
“Don’t worry,” Sata said after him, but he was terrified.
The walk home felt like the longest he’d ever taken, helpless to do anything but leave him behind in a strange place. How terrible to be so low. Simply handed off for the crime of defending himself, neatly without any right to speak in their own defense at all.
Near the front gate, Li’stra stopped, took Tama’s face in her hands, and wiped the tears off his cheeks. “Good Tama, dear Tama,” she said, and more beyond him to translate.
She kissed his forehead, a gesture that had always been reserved for Sata, and somehow it made him feel well enough not to cry as they finished their journey.
- Escape -
That night, Tama got no sleep.
He lay in a sweaty, worried heap in the cage, smelling Sata on the pillows and terrified of how he may return.
Would they pry out all his teeth? Destroy his mind? Have him castrated?
Li’stra was deep asleep when Tama heard a soft noise, perked up in his cage and tried to see under the edges of the blanket.
He knew better than to call out when he saw it was Sata, all wrapped up in black clothing, who ducked under the blanket soon enough and began working on the lock.
It was jarringly strange to see him wearing clothes.
Tama moved over to kiss him, but didn’t otherwise speak or interrupt.
Somewhere, Sata had gained metal tools, that did an excellent job of opening the door with only the softest of sounds betraying any activity.
He snuck out quietly and they closed the door again, put the blanket back as if nothing were amiss, and climbed out an open dining room window, jumping down to the grassy lawn below.
In the dark, they were perfectly still where they’d landed, in the shadow of the building.
Here, Sata stopped and pulled out another small tool, this one burning as it cut off the restraints. Gritting and bearing the pain, he could hardly believe the feeling of night air on his neck. All the while, Tama hardly dared to breathe until Sata nodded and lead a quick pace toward the wall.
Into a tree, over the wall, and down to the street and they finally dared to stop; Sata kissed Tama quickly, giving him an undoubtedly stolen set of clothing that smelled like purple hair, but seemed nice enough.
Certainly nice enough. More than enough.
They were no longer pets, but two aliens on the run in a hostile world, and it was a soaring leap in the world.
“I told you we’d escape,” Sata laughed. “There weren’t as many obstacles in the veterinarian's office.”
What they’d planned to do to him there Tama never knew, because that’s all Sata was willing to say.
"How did you..?"
"I don't know. I just did." Sata had this wild kind of joy in his eyes, a new kind of light even darkness didn't hide.
They ran under the cover of night, toward Sata’s space port and it's traffic of glowing ships in the sky, and it were as if the universe may finally be on their side. This was where they'd started out, familiar ground.
It felt strange and wonderful to be clothed and free, and he could only dare to hope she’d never find them again.
All they needed now was to get out of this wretched place. The rest would have to wait.
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on 2007-11-05 02:41 am (UTC)no subject
on 2007-11-05 06:24 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-11-05 03:06 am (UTC)I'm certainly all hooked into this story. It's really amazing how your imagination works, Shae. You are rocking this story like a wild rocking thing. Bravo!
Hope to see more soon...I think. LOL
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on 2007-11-05 06:34 pm (UTC)Thank you1 The hugeness of the DCU really leaves pretty much everything open to exploration... I just, uh, threw one out there in left field is all. XD
You think? haha, things will be better for them from now on, I promise. At least eventually. You know.
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on 2007-11-06 01:32 am (UTC)no subject
on 2007-11-06 02:53 am (UTC)I'm glad you like it so far. It's not often those to talk to me, so it's a good time to write. :)
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on 2007-11-06 11:01 pm (UTC)*hugs them*
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on 2007-11-06 11:36 pm (UTC)The next part's more fun already, yes. XD
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on 2007-11-06 11:39 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-11-07 01:24 am (UTC)Their luck will be turning for the better, don't worry. :)
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on 2007-11-07 02:54 am (UTC)So awesome Bruce could help Clark escape and they're together!
I can't wait til you update! The story has completely sucked me in and I have find out what happens.
Please update soon!
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on 2007-11-07 03:32 am (UTC)It's still going, so, yeah. I think part two is going to end up being pretty darn long, too, so. Longer to finish, but, I hope it'll be worth it. :D
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on 2007-11-07 03:34 am (UTC)I can't wait but as long as it works and you're happy with the results, I don't mind waiting.
My updates sometimes take glacial ages so who am I to judge anyway?
*grins*
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on 2007-11-07 01:32 pm (UTC)You have started a beautiful, intelligent, and interesting story, here, and I'm very much looking forward to the second and third parts.
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on 2007-11-07 05:38 pm (UTC)There was this one issue of Justice League Adventures (http://community.livejournal.com/scans_daily/2056795.html) where the League all experience a vision of what life would be like as lab rats. I kept imagining what they would do in that situation and eventually this hit me after the what-ifs went nuts.
Thank you, I'm very glad you're enjoying it so much. I hope the rest does it for you, too. :)
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on 2007-11-07 10:10 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-11-08 04:49 am (UTC)Thank you! :)
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on 2007-11-08 04:37 pm (UTC)Your descriptions were breathtaking and I cannot wait to see the next part.
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on 2007-11-08 06:16 pm (UTC)Also, I love Bats and Ivy in your icon. :D
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on 2007-11-09 02:19 pm (UTC)I think that's Yaz's work right there.
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on 2007-11-09 12:05 am (UTC)I was expecting Clark to be the first one to understand the alien language, since that's one of his abilities, but I'm glad at least one of them could understand their captors and use it to their advantage.
Poor Clark was devastated when they took Bruce away! I loved that Bruce could escape and came to rescue Clark. I hope they make it and regain their memories, eventually!
I'm looking forward to more!
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on 2007-11-09 12:41 am (UTC)When I took all Clark's powers away I assumed all that super-clarity in his mind would go away, too. ::shrug:: So I actually wasn't thinking about that at all. Now that I think about it more, I actually wonder... but, I'll go with it. XD
Bruce definitely wasn't enjoying himself without Clark, either, poor things. ::pats their heads:: XD
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on 2007-11-12 12:50 am (UTC)I can't wait for more.
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on 2007-11-12 02:37 am (UTC)The second part is, oh, a third done, mebbe? So it's coming along. :)
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on 2007-11-12 07:30 pm (UTC)Like Wachey said, you have to finish this! I will never forgive you if you don't!
Worst part is, I can't decide if I want them to escape or be caught again. Of course they have to escape eventually, and it's going to be so awesome when they remember who they are (and Bruce smiles! Bruce never smiles! He's going to be so embarassed) but they're so hot as pets! *sob*
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on 2007-11-12 08:09 pm (UTC)I also can't really decide if I want them back behind bars (heh) but luckily, it gets going without me. But I have to admit not looking forward to the identity reveal. Ah, well. XD
Thank you so much! I'll try my best. :)
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on 2007-12-03 08:03 pm (UTC)I hope you can update soon!
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on 2007-12-03 09:03 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-12-04 03:28 am (UTC)*grins*
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on 2007-12-22 12:54 am (UTC)It's a little strange to see Bruce being so... non-angsty and affectionate. I mean, yes, there is angst galore in their whole situation, what being made a slave/pet and losing all their memories, but the darkness that came from his past traumas was missing here, and he's just being a normal pissed-off proud person being forced into unbearable situation. And I'm surprised to find myself liking Sata just as much as Bruce.
And poor, poor Tama, captivity really does not suit him well . Hope he got his wings back soon, he belongs to the sky.
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on 2007-12-22 06:26 am (UTC)I really like Sata, too. Being able to pull out different parts of Bruce's personality was great, but sure walking a fine line. I'm glad I could pull it off; letting him be able to express his feelings is gratifying. :D
Poor Tama indeed. :(
I think he really would have completely lost his mind if he'd been by himself.
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on 2007-12-23 08:27 pm (UTC)no subject
on 2007-12-24 03:52 am (UTC)no subject
on 2007-12-24 06:43 am (UTC)This line sums it up for me:
They were not content, but they had a measure of happiness, which was reflected in their evenings spent lounging in their cage, left to speak to each other freely as they wished. Their small freedoms didn’t grow, but they seemed to. Simply being left to themselves seemed such a luxury now.
All the while, they never stopped looking for their chance to get away.
That they are better because they are together, but that even that is not enough, because they aren't free and living to their full potential!! mrow! yesssss.
I love all of this. From their frantic sex, and the way they settle into their loving bond, to how much better they are together, and the escape! and Bruce biting that woman! go Bruce! even if something terrible might have happened to him -I'm kind of intrigued as to what they were going to do to him in the veterinary...- at least they got their opening.. for now. I really want to see more of this! it's awesomeee!! thank you so much for sharing, Shae! *glomps*
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on 2007-12-25 10:21 am (UTC)Having kept lives really dosen't suit either of them very well at all; even if they (Bruce especially) adapt to behaving a little like wild animals. I debated a little if it would be more likely that Bruce would try to talk to the awful woman... but he's just so angry and accustomed to not speaking to them... yeah. Teeth. :D
What they did and planned to do to him are things that, eventually, he'll be able to open up a little more about. I can only imagine that being locked in a kennel with a bunch of animals and being able to understand what's about to be done to him would be a little traumatic. ::huggles Bruce::
Thank you! More is definitely on the way. :)
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on 2007-12-24 11:40 am (UTC)“No,” Sata said shortly, only to nod a moment later. “Yes. I dream of your death,” he admitted somberly. “You have wings, too. Feathered. Broken, and I can’t do anything but watch you fall out of the sky.”
*wibbles*
Sata was laying beside him, and managed to come closer, to throw his arm over Tama’s chest, rest his head there.
I love this tiny detail and how it speaks volumes of Sata's (I want to call him Bruce, and yet it feels odd here right now) trust and love for Tama, that he understands and cherishes him so much.
In despair, he cried, like he’d never cry if Sata was there to see him, and eventually Li’stra just locked him in the cage and left him in darkness.
Augh, it's the detail of how he knows he'd never cry like that with Sata there that breaks me.
"I don't know. I just did." Sata had this wild kind of joy in his eyes, a new kind of light even darkness didn't hide.
Their escape, and the joy they take in it, is wonderful and exhilarating. It's a thrill to see Sata use his skills to get them out and how deeply meaningful it is to him that he's able to.
I'm really looking forward to seeing more of this!
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on 2007-12-25 10:45 am (UTC)Being strong for each other, and yet unable to free themselves... oh man. I felt crazy joy and relief and being able to free them. Letting their potential come out, bit by bit... now that's a good time. :D
You'll certainly be able to see that continue, hopefully not in too long a time. Having to make up alien people and environments as I go along is really hanging me up, but, I'm getting that hang of it. :D
Thank you! :)
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on 2008-07-17 04:30 pm (UTC)Are you planning to add another/final installment any time soon?
Cuz this is just great.
Also, I read the Clark/Jimmy supply closet story a minute ago and forgot to comment, but that was awesomely hot, and Clark was just described beyond deliciously :)
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on 2008-07-17 10:42 pm (UTC)Oh yes. I got to over-doing the revision process to the point where it got plain absurd and I had to take a step back. But I sure think it's been enough time now... hmm. I should revisit. :)
hehehehe, thanks. Muscley shy virgin Clark is adorable to me. XD
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on 2008-09-08 08:57 pm (UTC)*does happy dance*
I really hope you do! I want to know what happens next...
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on 2008-09-12 06:06 pm (UTC)Someday, someday... possibly soon.
Captive
on 2009-02-09 05:32 pm (UTC)Cleo
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on 2008-09-25 06:45 pm (UTC)You know, some people think it is wrong not to kill a dog who has bitten a human.
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on 2008-09-25 07:32 pm (UTC)Also, in this context, the aliens know they're intelligent, even if they don't appreciate just how much. I think better example of how Li'stra's people sees them is how monkeys or dolphins are seen by their handlers. It's not quite the same.
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on 2009-03-09 04:03 am (UTC)Thank goodness for Google!! /chuckle.
I was wondering if you were going to continue with this project? I've really enjoyed the ride and have been looking forward to more chapters.
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on 2009-03-09 04:23 am (UTC)I actually have had the bulk of the second part done for some time; I pick at it and have been trying to make it... developed enough. So, yes, definitely. It's on the top of the "Just finish it already, you bum!" list. XD
re: A Long Way From Home
on 2010-10-03 06:47 pm (UTC)I really, really, really would love to be able to have some type of conclusion for this because it is just wonderful!!