Orange Papers
The Inn
Claudia sat in the common room of the inn and picked at her food, in her minds-eye the vision of Georgina being pulled behind the horse kept playing through her memory. Even though Claudia knew there was no way she could have helped Georgina without endangering herself,she still felt guilty that she hadn’t tried to do something, anything to save her friend.
Claudia looked up as a glass of wine was placed on her table by a young serving girl, “Thank you,” she said.
The common room was almost empty with most of those staying at the inn having already eaten and retired to bed to get some sleep before the first coach arrived at six of the clock in the morning. The inn sat on a junction of five roads and was both a place to eat, drink and rest and an office to buy tickets for the coach routes setup between the cities and towns of what had been Grent, and the rest of the enormous country of Elstrand. The Elstrandians were nothing if not efficient Claudia had thought despairingly as she bought her ticket and had her visa checked again.
The early morning coach was already full, so Claudia would journey to Beston via the town of Trennis on the noon coach, at least she would get a rest after the ten-mile walk to the inn from the border gate.
Claudia continued to pick at her food, as she sipped her wine her attention was drawn to a figure on the other side of the common room. It was a woman with short cut, iron-grey hair, her face was hard and had an unforgiving and haughty look on it while her arms and shoulders were heavily muscled. Dressed in red leather pants, flat-soled boots and a red woollen jerkin the women had her crossed legs stretched across the low table in front of her as she read a book.
A glass of chilled white wine sat on the table next to a bowl of fruit from which the woman picked large black grapes, she was engrossed in her book and didn’t seem to notice Claudia’s glance at her.
The serving girl came back to Claudia’s table and looked down at the half-eaten meal, “Are you finished miss?”
“Yes thanks, it was nice but I’m not really very hungry,” she said, the young woman shrugged and began to pick up the plate.
“Excuse me, but that woman over there, who is she?” asked Claudia quietly.
“That’s Colonel von Halkenberg, she always stays here on her way to and from leave, she’s on her way home tomorrow on the midday coach to Hansten, down in the Southlands beyond High Esltrand.”
The serving girls voice changed to a whisper, “She’s Blood Guard she is, one of the Queens personal protectors, a very powerful and dangerous lady believe you me,” she said as picking up Claudia’s plate she scurried off.
Claudia glanced at the woman again, she’d heard off the Blood Guard, in fact almost everyone had heard of the Blood Guard. They were the Witch-Queens personal guard, women chosen for their fierceness, skill and utter loyalty to their monarch. This woman would rather die than allow any harm to come to the Witch-Queen and she would kill without question or conscience.
As Claudia looked at her, the Colonel took a long thin knife from the top of her boot and picking up an apple cut it into pieces. Continuing to read her book the Colonel picked up one of the pieces of apple and held it to the side of her chair that was in shadow. An amazed Claudia watched as a tightly gloved hand appeared out of the shadows and taking the piece of apple disappeared again.
A few minutes later it happened again but this time Claudia was certain that in the shadows beside the Colonel’s chair she could just make out a reclining figure. Trying her best not to stare Claudia noticed something else, there was a small hook screwed into arm of the chair the colonel was sitting in, and hanging loosely from the hook was the looped handle of a leash exactly like you would use on a pet animal. The leash was red leather and hung onto the floor and then disappeared into the same shadow that the gloved hand had appeared from.
Her eyes must be playing tricks with her, after all she was tired, there couldn’t possibly be anyone there, but then door to the common room opened and Claudia forgot it all as Rachel walked in. They had all discussed what to do when this happened, as it surely must, and the decision was that as with the border crossing, they would simply pretend they didn’t know each other and act as strangers. She desperately wanted to tell Rachel what had happened to Georgina, but it was impossible, the terrible news would have to wait.
Rachel looked around the common room and then chose a table near the bar and sat down with her back to the Colonel and side on to Claudia. Minutes later the serving girl appeared and asked Rachel what she would like to eat and drink, as she left Rachel looked briefly round the room her eyes scanning over Claudia but not stopping then she opened a book and began to read.
Claudia noticed that she wasn’t the only one paying attention to Rachel, Colonel von Halkenberg was also looking at Rachel as Claudia’s friend read her book. Rachel’s hair was honey blond and reached down to the small of her back, in the light from the fire and the candles around the room it glinted and shone. For several seconds the Colonel’s attention was fixed on Rachel then with a hint of a smile on her face she also returned to her book and began reading again.
Claudia sat quietly, trying to look uninteresting and inconspicuous as she sipped her wine and looked at the shapes formed by the flames in the fire. She watched as a drink and a meal were brought for Rachel then she went back to staring at the fire. Claudia yawned, perhaps it was time she went to bed but then out of the corner of her eye she saw movement and turned to see what it was.
On a day of shocks and dismay this was one of the biggest shocks of all, crawling on its hands and knees, a figure appeared from the shadows next to the Colonels chair. As it came level with the table the Colonel’s legs were resting on, the figure climbed to its feet and stretched luxuriously. Claudia’s mouth was open in amazement a she starred at the sight before her.
That the figure was a woman was indisputable, but it was a woman the likes of which Claudia had never seen before. From the neck down the woman was dressed in a figure-hugging cat suit that showed off and accentuated every curve of the woman’s body. Long boots that reached to high on the woman’s thighs were worn over the suit and Claudia could see they had the thinnest, highest heels she had ever seen, while the woman’s hands and arms were gloved in tight opera length leather gloves. Shockingly, the one part of the woman’s body not covered by the cat suit were her pubes which were not only hairless but also pierced, a gold ring through her clitoris and three rings through each of the outer lips of her labia.
Two last items adorned the woman, over her face, held tightly in place by straps buckled at the back of her blond-haired head was a mask that fitted her face as perfectly as the suit fitted her body and left only her eyes and mouth uncovered. Finally, around the woman’s neck and covering the top edge of the suit was a collar that looked to be about three-inches wide. Buckled snugly closed by two buckles at the back of the woman’s neck the collar had a ring stitched into the front of it and clipped to the ring was the end of the long leash that hung from the hook on the Colonel’s chair. Claudia was shocked to see that every item of tightly fitting clothing the woman wore, including the mask that covered her face, was made from red leather.
Claudia realised that what she was seeing was rumour come to life, she was looking at an Elstrandian sex-slave. At one time the leather-covered slave had been a free woman, probably from Grent and perhaps some mans’ wife, fiancé or girlfriend then her mind had been wiped of all she had been and her body had been magically transformed to suite the tastes of her owner, Colonel von Halkenberg. The idea appalled Claudia, what she was looking at was nothing more or less than a human pet, its sole purpose was to provide sexual pleasure to the woman who owned it.
As Claudia looked the slave turned its leather covered face toward her, the slave’s blue eyes looking Claudia up and down as its tongue came out and it slowly and sensuously licked its blood red lips. As with its pubes the slave’s tongue was pierced, this time with two gold studs while a thin gold ring pierced the centre of its lower lip, the slave looked away from Claudia and turned its attention to Rachel.
The slave sighed with obvious pleasure as the Colonel reached up and stroked its rounded, leather covered buttocks. Then, with its eyes still looking at Rachel, the slave walked forward, her body swaying erotically as she approached Rachel from behind. Unaware of what was happening Rachel continued to eat her meal as the sex-slave walked slowly towards her. For a moment the slave paused then it laid its gloved hands on Rachel’s shoulders and leaning forward licked Rachel’s left ear with its pierced tongue.
Rachel froze for a moment and then she dropped her fork full of food, leapt to her feet and spun around, the slave stood looking at Rachel with a grin, then it licked its lips.
“I must apologise, my pet sometimes forgets its manners and gets carried away. I blame it on the fact it was a legal advocate before I claimed it,” said the Colonel.
Claudia could see the expression of undisguised shock on Rachel’s face as she looked at the sex-slave then, without uttering a word, she ran from the room.
The sex-slave watched Rachel run out then turned and walked back to its owner, kneeling on the floor next to the Colonel the slave rubbed its masked face against the Colonel’s legs, “Oh dear,” said the Colonel looking at Claudia, “I think my pet upset her.”
With a grin on her face the Colonel picked up her book and began to read, Claudia picked up her wine with a shaking hand and finished it then with a last glance at the Colonel and her slave she walked quickly from the room.
A noise woke Claudia, voices from the room next to hers perhaps calls of protest, a sound of a disturbance perchance, and for a moment it seemed like someone was crying out, but then there was silence. Claudia settled down to sleep again but just when she was about to drop off there was another sound. Not voices and protests this time, no it was the steady rhythm of sex, the sound of a bed head knocking a wall.
Wonderful thought Claudia as she pulled her pillow over her head to try and quell the noise, it’s just like being back in my college room. The measured tempo of sexual intercourse seemed to go on for ages but finally it stopped, Claudia heard a door open and close and then silence, at last she thought and slowly went back to sleep.
The next morning Claudia woke later than she had intended and, after using the communal bathroom to bathe and relieve herself, packed the few things she’d needed overnight back into her back pack and picked up her small valise and left her room. As she passed the open door of the room she’d heard the noises from during the night she glanced inside.
Other than a middle-aged woman in a brown leather smock changing the sheets of the bed the room was empty. Whoever had slept there during the night and made the noises she’d heard had already gone. The women cleaning the room ignored Claudia so she went down to the common room and had luncheon then she paid her bill for the night’s stay and made her way outside to catch the coach.
A coach was waiting outside, six horses harnessed in front of it and something unusual to Claudia at least, although none of the other people also waiting seemed to take ay notice of it. Behind it, hitched to the rear of the coach, was what looked for all the world like a cage for transporting animals.
The cage was carried on a four-wheeled wagon and had a wooden roof and a heavy wooden base with bars deeply embedded into it on two sides. The floor of the cage looked to be covered with thickly padded leather and in the wooden front and rear walls were metal rings screwed deeply into the wood at waist height. The door of the cage faced Claudia and stood open with a set of steps placed on the ground and leading up to the entrance. The bars of the cage, its roof and base and the wooden ends were all painted red, the padded leather that covered the floor was also red, a vague uneasiness crept through Claudia as she looked at the cage.
Claudia felt an urge to be well away from the red cage, seeing the coach driver standing near the horses she walked over to her, “Excuse me is the coach for Beston?”
The driver shook her head, “No ma’am, that’ll be along in about a quarter of the hour, this coach is heading to High Elstrand,” was the reply. Claudia thanked the driver then spotting a bench near the door to the inn she went and sat down with her back to the wall.
Trying her best to look inconspicuous Claudia watched as bags and trunks were loaded onto the top and back of the coach. Half a dozen women, some of whom she recognised from the previous day at the gate, gave the driver their tickets and climbed into the coach. The driver looked at the inn door, it was obvious she was waiting for something or someone then the door to the inn opened and Colonel von Halkenberg walked out.
Today she was dressed in soft leather pants and knee-high boots with low wedge shaped heels, a quilted and padded leather jacket reached to the top of her suede pants and on her hands were fingerless leather gloves, as before everything she wore was blood red. But then Claudia received a surprise, following the Colonel were not one but two identically dressed sex-slaves, their bodies moving erotically as they strode behind their Mistress at the end of their leashes.
The two slaves were dressed almost the same as the single slave had been last night but with one significant, and as far as Claudia was concerned, unpleasant difference. Instead of a leather mask covering their faces both slave’s entire heads were encased in red leather hoods that left only their eyes free. The only other part of the slaves that was uncovered was their braided blond hair that exited the leather hood from a hole at the rear of their heads to fall to the middle of their backs. Every other inch of their bodies was sheathed in from fitting red leather and Claudia also noticed that today the slave’s sexes were covered, their suits zipped closed to hide their pierced and shaved pubes from view.
The Colonel stopped and looked around as Claudia’s eyes were fixed on the two slaves in a horrified examination of their leather-covered bodies. There were small differences, one slave had larger breasts and buttocks than the other and the one with the smaller breast was slightly the taller than its fellow slave. But both had the same coloured blond hair and as they stared raptly at the Colonel Claudia could see that both the slave’s eyes, visible through the finely tooled holes of their hoods, were blue.
Claudia wondered why only one of the pair had been present in the common room the previous evening? Perhaps it had been some sort of punishment not to be allowed to accompany the Colonel.
“Fair morning to you,” said the Colonel to Claudia and the slaves leather covered faces turned to look at her, “Are you travelling to High Elstrand?” asked the Colonel in a friendly tone.
Claudia swallowed nervously feeling uncomfortable at the way the blue eyes of the two sex-slaves seemed to rove over her body as she sat on the bench, “Fair morning to you also, no I’m going to Beston, I’m just early for the coach,” she said politely as the Colonel and her slaves looked at her.
“In that case journey well,” said the Colonel in a friendly and polite tone and with a slight tug on her slave’s leashes walked off to talk to the coach driver. An involuntary shudder of disgust went through Claudia as she watched the two leather covered slaves walk obediently behind their owner, their high stiletto heels clicking on the cobbles. It was like watching some sort of disaster unfold before you thought Claudia, although you didn’t want to look you couldn’t help yourself.
For a few seconds the Colonel and the driver spoke then the driver and the Colonel walked to the cage behind the coach, walking up the steps she led her two slaves inside the cage and then tied their leashes to one of the rings. The slaves sank to the thickly padded leather floor and knelt looking up at their Mistress, the Colonel smiled indulgently down at them, “Remember what I told you, no playing with each other or I’ll be very upset, understand?” she said.
Unable to reply, the two slaves nodded their leather encased heads then a shudder of pleasure ran through their bodies as the Colonel bent down and kissed each of them on the top of their hooded heads and then stroked their leather sheathed breasts, “Good pets,” she said.
The Colonel made her way from the cage then waited as the door was locked with two keys, the coach driver gave the Colonel one of the keys and kept the other then Colonel von Halkenberg climbed into the coach and shut the door behind her. Now Claudia knew what the cage was for, in Elstrand slaves were obviously not allowed to travel with free women.
Claudia was still staring at the red cage and the slaves it held as the driver climbed onto the box of the coach and using whip and reins urged the horses forward. The coach moved off and the last Claudia saw of the coach, the cage and its contents was as they disappeared around a bend in the road.
Claudia looked down at her hands, held in her lap she had not realised just how tightly they were gripping each other, making herself relax Claudia unclasped her hands. She had found the whole event intensely disturbing, the idea of women being kept as nothing more than human pets revolted her. Claudia was beginning to hate this country even more than she already had. The sound of horses and wheels made her look up, a coach was approaching but happily Claudia could see that it did not have a red cage hitched behind it.
The coach stopped outside the inn and the driver climbed down, looked around then approached Claudia, “Trennis and Beston,” she called out, Claudia rose to her feet and handed the driver her ticket.
“Thank you, we’ll be leaving shortly, get on board when you’re ready” said the driver and then disappeared into the inn. Ten minutes later, just as she’d said, the driver drove the coach away from the inn.
Claudia was one of only three occupants inside the coach as it moved off, one of the others was the older woman she’d spoken to in the queue at the gate the last was a soldier in blue leather armour but the one person she wasn’t sure she wanted to see was not on board. Rachel was not a passenger in this coach.
There was a sense of relief, it would have been extremely awkward to say the least to have her friend in the same coach for the three-day journey to Trennis and then onwards to Beston. Rachel must have been able to catch the early morning coach, thought Claudia with a sense of relief, sitting back in her seat she watched the countryside go by.