My dark lover, a bizarre magician and stone killer

As it turned out the dark eyed girl was not entirely correct, but mostly she was. They were not bound directly for the slave markets but rather to a sort of massive jail complex where they were to be held until a decision was made as to where, when, and for how much they would be auctioned off. This dreadful destination was called Minnow Flower, a lovely name for a horrible place. There the least offense brought a blow, but not one so hard as to kill, maim, or damage the merchandise. Still, occasionally a chilling example was made of some poor unfortunate who would wind up dead. Grimly Rita realized that she had become...property, and was no longer considered a person. It was not a good feeling, but she did not cry again...fuck it.

They were pushed and prodded everywhere they went by armed brutes that sneered at, threatened, and cursed the women. It was rumored that some of these monsters took their pay by way of taking advantage of the helpless females. Thankfully Rita had as yet not experienced this firsthand. During the day most of the girls were herded out to work the fields that provided good rations for the slavers and meager rations for the ones who did the work. Despite being out in the open, running away was not an option. Always their legs were manacled so closely together that mere walking was difficult. Rita's ankles stung and ached from the chaffing effects of her bindings. The work outside was hot and constant. It ended at dusk when they were hustled back inside the dreary prison fortress and confined in tiny dungeon cells along with several other girls. After a few weeks or months of this mistreatment the women were grateful when the day came that their names were called to re-board the wagons and off they should go to their new masters. Rita knew it would take her a very long time indeed before she could easily accept such a future.

At first Rita had shared a cell with four other girls. One suddenly took sick and died a horribly slow death without hope of medical assistance. Her pitiful moans nearly drove Rita mad before death finally came. Shortly afterwards two of the other girls were taken to market. Finally Rita shared her dank imprisonment with only one other...a pretty but peculiar girl name Dupagi.

Dupagi talked incessantly, about nothing, and usually to herself. She talked about clothes she had once had, lovers she had liked or abhorred. She talked about food that she wanted without any chance of obtaining. She talked of childhood friends. Dupagi talked of a great many things but somehow it was virtually never anything that Rita had the slightest wisp of interest in. Still, the constant chatter was a sort of background noise that helped keep the demons of loneliness and despair at bay. For that reason alone the two girls got along fairly well. Not that they had much choice where companionship was concerned.

One dreary evening, after an especially hard day in the fields, the two women were returned to their cells where Rita collapsed exhausted onto the little pile of straw that served as a makeshift bed. They had been given a few mouthfuls of tasteless mush just minutes before but her stomach growled angrily. There was nothing to be done about that however and the her option was simply to sleep the time away until dawn when the work started all over again. The best that could be hope for would be a nice dream, or at the very least, a deep slumber.

"Rita! Are you already asleep?"

"Yes, Dupagi...and I am dreaming of sex with a handsome young farmer. A farmer with lots and lots of splendid ripe melons for me to eat...and a fat pig that he has roasted beforehand....and an ocean of wine made from the finest grapes, and...."

"A nice ripe delicious apple?" Dupagi asked.

"Yes, and lots of nice ripe delicious apples...an entire bushel."

"Perhaps only one would be very nice though...don't you think?"

"Yes of course Dupagi you silly fool, one nice ripe delicious apple would be heavenly...just heavenly." Rita licked her lips as the image of an apple fixated itself on her conscious. She was about to tell Dupagi to shut up because such images only made her stomach protest more loudly. Suddenly she felt something smooth and cool being placed into her hand.

Curious, Rita opened one tired eye and found...an apple! A ripe delicious looking apple. She sat up at once and pressed the fruit to her mouth. The taste was divine as the hungry girl's teeth tore at the tasty morsel.

Dupagi was doing the same thing. She had somehow gotten her hands on two apples...but how?

Between munches Rita asked the obvious. "Where in fucking hell did you get your eyes on these Dupagi...did you blow one of the guards? Did you blow ALL of the fucking guards?!

Dupagi giggled but for once said nothing. She was enjoying her little game almost as well as her apple. Rita glared at her until she finally spoke..."I've never sucked a man's dick in my life...not even my husband's...that's nasty Rita..yuck!"

"Whatever, now dammit girl where did you get these..they're fantastic."

Dupagi rolled her eyes, "oh well, curiosity killed the cat you know...but if I must tell?"

"You must...or die."

Dupagi giggled, "all this excitement over a couple of silly apples, my former master had an orchard with a hundred trees and I never ate even one...of course circumstances were a little different then."

"Your former master, are you saying you were a slave before?"

"Yes, and one night I got bored and stabbed the old fart while she slept...then I ran away, and with a big fat bag of coin too."

"What happened then?" Rita asked, suddenly surprised that Dupagi seemingly had a number of interesting things to talk about.

"Well, if you must know, I had me a good time...make no mistake about that. Eventually I wound up broke and working in a whorehouse. The owner of the whorehouse was nice to me but he didn't pay his taxes so good Baron Manslynne's trained apes came and burned the place down...along with its owner. Me and the rest of the girls were sold to slavers and here I am again. Go figure."

"Hmmm, what would happen if they found out you killed your last master."

"I don't know and don't want to know. Probably nothing if they can sell me again, what do they care?"

"I'm sure the family of your dead master might pay a bit extra for you."

Dupagi looked apprehensive and fidgeted about. "They won't find out, will they Rita?"

"Stop worrying," Rita said. "You are my only friend Dupagi, the only friend I have in this shitty world. Now tell me, where did the apples come from, can you get us some more?"

Dupagi shrugged, "I don't know, it was the weirdest thing. One of the guards just gave them to me, slipped them in my ragged old coat pocket while we were working in the field. I had taken it off because of the heat and dropped it beside the field. It was only by chance I looked up and saw him do it. I'm not sure he even knew who it was he was helping, just trying to be nice to whomever as crazy as it sounds."

"Wow," Rita replied, truly intrigued. "Which one was he, they all seem like world class assholes from what I've seen?"

Dupagi's expression became thoughtful as she pondered the question put to her. "I think he must be new, I have seen him before but only recently I believe."

"It was just some random act of kindness, maybe he has some disease and he thinks doing a few good deeds might earn him some measure of forgiveness for all horrible stuff hes done in the past."

"Probably so, probably so," Dupagi nodded. "Oh well, at least we got some nice apples thanks to his guilt trip."

"Yeah," Rita replied before falling into a fitful slumber.

Dupagi sat for awhile, with her knees pulled up under her chin. "Weird," she whispered to herself.

The next day was even more grueling than the day before. The filthy holding cells were only slightly cooler than outside. "No apples today for us Dupagi?" Rita asked when they returned.

"No, not for us, but I did see the same guard slip something to one of the other women. I couldn't see what it was but I'm betting it was another apple. Boy, did she look surprised."

"No doubt," Rita moaned. Her back and feet were killing her. Dupagi was talkative as always. Her mouth never lacked energy Rita marveled to herself.

"I think we'll be leaving soon, I overhead some other girls whispering about it...the rumor is a big order is coming down in a couple of days. This one girl said she heard the guards grumbling about it...they might have to get their sorry asses out to work the fields cause we'll all be gone to market."

"Great," Rita said. I can hardly wait to become the sex slave of some perverted old fiend who will probably demand I fuck his dog or something even worse."

"Hope for the best, that's all you can do," Dupagi advised. "Maybe your master will be a young stud and you will fall in love." Rita responded, "sure, I will love him just as much as his other fifty sex slaves. Let's try and get some sleep its going to be a hot one tomorrow." Rita turned over and shut her eyes. If Dupagi could get away from her first master, maybe she could too. Still, with her luck she would likely wind up in a heavily guarded harem with no hope for escape. Hope was a hard thing to come by at Minnow Flower.

The next day started out about as bad as it could. Rita was assigned to stone duty. A new field had been plowed up and she along with a few other unlucky girls had the unhappy task of carrying or dragging all the big rocks out to the side and pile them up. This was backbreaking work beneath a merciless sun. Rita was feeling faint, praying that she could make it to the next water break which happened every three or four hours depending on which assholes had drawn guard duty. There was one especially large stone that all the girls had been ignoring, hoping some other dumbass would have a go at it. Rita saw what was happening and got disgusted. Despite her slight frame she made the decision to move that fucking rock or die trying. It was a stupid idea but the way she figured it, that was what Ritarra always had...stupid fucking ideas.

Immediately Rita knew she had fucked herself big time. The stone was to big to lift. Sweating and cursing the other girls under her breath, she pushed and strained to roll the heavy object to the edge of the field. She had only about thirty feet to go and after a good half hour of steady work one more good turn would get it done at last. She straightened her aching back and steeled herself for the effort. She wiped the heavy sweat from her brow before beginning. This was a very bad mistake. She was to tired to notice how slick the sweat had made her hands. When she placed them on the massive object and knotted her back to push, her right palm slipped of the rock and she came crashing down face first on the dirt covered rock.

Rita was stunned, her face was numb and her eyes gazed through a blurry haze. She knew better than to call for help or even lay still. There was nothing to do but get up...at least she hadn't been knocked unconscious...not quite. The struggling girl's knees felt weak, very weak. She gasped for breath and wiped blood from her nose and lips. A sick swoon began to sweep over Rita. "Oh shit," she mumbled. "Please just let me keep moving."

Unexpectedly she felt a strong hand on her bicep. The hand lifted and Rita suddenly found herself erect once again. Something was pressed into her hand...a cup, a cup filled with beautiful cold water. Rita took a deep drink and saved some to splash over her throbbing face. It felt damned good, it must have just come from a cold spring. She wiped some of the water, dirt, and blood away with her ragged sleeve. After a few seconds her vision began to clear. All the while the steadying hand was on her arm. It was strong but gentle.

Rita was still a bit stunned but she turned to see who her unlikely benefactor might be. This was highly unusual to say the least.

The hapless woman's grime caked eyelids flew open wide.

"Pissin!??"