Scattered Crystal
Chapter 1: Meetings

Copyright© 2015 by Radley Black

Fantasy Sex Story: Chapter 1: Meetings - In a harsh land not on this Earth where daylight is deadly, and singing holds the power the unleash crystal magic, a warrior hires himself out as a caravan guard. He keeps a dangerous secret that could be his undoing. He meets a strangely familiar slave who has been punished for the same secret that he keeps. Who is she?

Caution: This Fantasy Sex Story contains strong sexual content, including Ma/Fa   Consensual   Romantic   Heterosexual   High Fantasy   Science Fiction   Nudism  

Location Bloody Claw, Red Blade Territory
Time Pre-Dusk 5900 hours (6 hours before dusk)

Kin waited nervously as the guild master read the coloured flashes in the message crystal.

“Your village priest says that you are one of the village’s best hunters,” commented the Master.

“Yes, Guild master. I am good with the bow, the spear and the sword. I am also a decent tracker.”

“It takes more than that to become a caravan guard, you know.”

“I also have my own shard mount,” Kin said.

“Why does a promising young lad like yourself want to consort with filthy outlanders anyway?”

“My parents have debts they cannot pay. Caravan guards are paid good money. I should be able to repay the debts in no time,” he lied. The truth was his parents were one of the more prosperous tube farming families in his village. There was no debt. He was desperate to see the lands beyond his village, beyond the lands of the Red Blade tribe. He wanted to see the lands of the White Wands, of the Blue Waves, the Green Spores, and the Black Spire tribes. And he wanted to meet the people of those lands despite, the fact that this was not the proper attitude for a Red Blade warrior. Of course if he had explained all of this, there was no way the Guild master would have given him a job.

“Humph! Well it just so happens that Caravan Master Pophur lost a guard to a bandit attack during his last journey. Trading guild law states that the caravans must have at least two guards, although almost all have four or more. Pophur is rather miserly and has a habit of trying to get away with just two. Well it has cost him this time. He has been stuck here for a five-day. The warriors there are far too pious to risk contamination by association with foreigners. I wish I could avoid it myself, but the traditions of my family have laid the responsibility for maintaining trade upon my shoulders.”

The Guild master removed a message crystal from a shelf and used his flute to record a message. He passed both the new crystal and the one given to him by his village priest back to Kin. “Take that to Pophur. I doubt he will refuse you a job even if you have no experience. He will doubtless leave as soon after dusk as possible.”

“I thought Caravans did not travel during the Short Nights. It was my intention to arrive at this village well before the Caravan Season.” He had gained his 20th hundred-day (the minimum age for a Caravan guard) during this cycle’s Short Nights. He had left his home village, the embarrassingly named Village of the Blushing Flower, as soon as the nights were long enough to get to the next village. He had skimped on night sleep pushing hard during the night to make the next village before the deadly dawn. He caught up on sleep as best he could during both dusk and dawn sleep. He had made his way to Bloody Claw because it was the main trading village between the Red and the White territories.

“It is well into the Lengthening now. Villages are so close together in these parts that Caravan Season starts a couple of five-days early. I would not worry about it. Despite your misinformation, things have turned out well for you.”

“How do I find this Master Pophur?” Kin asked.

“Turn right as you exit the guild hall. Follow the white arrows. They will take you to the foreign quarter. Once there ask for him by name. I must warn you that he is a White Wand; so stingy that not a skerrick of colour escapes his skin. You will have to hold your nose with that one. Oh, the heavy burden of familial responsibility.”

“Many thanks Guild Master Jud. May fortune favor you.” Kin bowed and left.

Like the day nest of his own Village of the Blushing Flower (how he and his friends complained about the name of his village when they were young) the day nest of the Village of the Bloody Claw was an Eldarholme, created by the same long dead people who had created the crystals and the Artificia. Smooth corridors and rooms were tunneled deep into the rock. They had to be deep to escape the heat of the burning sun. Not to mention the predation of the poisonous day life. Like most of the crystals in the Tribe of the Red Blade territory, the crystals embedded in the Eldarholme walls were tinted red. Arrows painted on the wall in different colours were a later addition made by the human upstarts.

It turned out that it was not that hard to find Pophur. He was a fat White Wand in his 60’s with unkempt yellow hair. His pale skin glistened with sweat in the heat as the foreign quarter was far too near the surface for comfort. His gut hung over his white breech-clout and he smelled.

In direct contrast to the ugliness of Pophur was the lovely figure standing next to him. Her hair was the purest white he had ever seen. The white skin that seemed so unhealthy on Pophur looked strikingly beautiful on her. Her hair hung over her face. He could barely glimpse her eyes though the curtain of her hair. She was not wearing a breech-clout or a flute. She was naked as a child or a slave. Yet she was too full figured to be a child, Kin guessed that she was 2 or 3 hundred-days older than Kin himself. If she were a slave then she should have a seal of bondage (usually a disc or rectangle of metal fastened to her arm or leg). There were contraptions of vertical metal bars strapped to the outside of her thighs, by the process of elimination they had to be seals of bondage. When he saw the scar on her throat he felt sympathetic pain in his own throat as he realised her voice had been removed for the crime of singing.

“Master Pophur, Master Jud sent me to you with this recommendation,” Kin said, handing over the message crystal.

Pophur took his white flute from his belt and played a quick activation command at the crystal and read the results. “A caravan guard, ha. A bit young, but I guess that beggars can’t be choosers. You’re hired. We leave an hour after dusk,” he stated.

Kin winced. An hour after dusk the ground would still be as hot as a furnace from the heat of the day. “Is that a seal?” he asked pointing at the metal bars on the girls thighs.

“What else would it be? Do you think that free adult White Wand women prance around nude?” asked Pophur.

“No, sir. What is her name?”

“I call her Slave. For some reason the Greens call her Sister. You would do better to put her out of your mind. A more ill-fated creature you have never met. I curse the day I bought her. I am sure she will be the death of me. You had better find Zav as he is the senior caravan guard and you will report to him. He is a Red Blade with a scar above his eye. You cannot miss him.”

“May fortune favor you Master Pophur, Sister.” Kin bowed twice and left.

He wandered around the caravan compound. The cargo handlers and drivers all seemed to be Green Spores. The transport Artificia used by the caravan were huge shard crabs, their crystal carapace was currently free of the wagon tray that would be mounted on their backs when they were hauling goods. He finally spotted a shard mount and guessed correctly it belonged to Zav.

On the other side of the shard mount, a Red Blade in his 40’s who had to be Zav was playing a dice game with two Greens. Zav’s skin was covered with the sharply angular red geometric shapes that were common to all Red Blades. Zav’s hair was a darker red than Kin’s bright orange hair and bound in warrior’s braids. He was clean shaven with prominent jaw and an ugly scar above his right eye. He wore a red breech-clout and a red flute hung from his belt.

“Captain Zav, I am Kin the new guard. I was told to report to you,” he said.

“Captain it be? I not been called that in many a hundred-day!” Zav exclaimed in a thick accent that marked him as belonging to a village in the southern mountains. He was a long way from home.

“I thought the senior guard in a caravan was called Captain.”

“That may be. But it be rather a grand title for someone with only the one other guard under him.”

“What shall I call you then?” Kin asked.

“Zav or Sir, if you be feeling officious. That assuming I accept you. Do they be sending me children now?”

“I have reached my 20th hundred-day”

“Do you be having your own shard mount?” Zac asked.

“Yes, she is stabled at an inn in the guest quarter.”

“Well you be fetching her. I will watch you riding her around the compound and if you handle her right, you be hired.”

“I thought Master Pophur already hired me,” Kin objected.

“Pophur only be the Master. As you yourself pointed out I be the Captain.”

“Very well then I will return within the hour.”

Kin rushed down a few levels to the guest quarter. He paid his bill at the inn and carted his gear to the stables. Ka was there waiting for him patiently. He started singing to her softly before stopping and glancing around fearfully, his hand unconsciously going to his throat. Ka loved it when he sang and always responded more effectively when he sang instead of using the flute. However if someone caught him singing he would meet the same fate as that poor slave girl up in the foreign quarter, his voice would be burn out and he would be bonded, sealed and sold as a slave. Only priests and special helpers were allowed to sing. In the Red’s, weapon smiths were the Gods’ helpers, in the Blues it was healers and in the Greens it was the hunt masters, but Kin was neither priest nor helper so singing was forbidden to him.

Most people said that Artificia like Ka were only objects enchanted to move by the magic of the long dead old ones, but Kin always thought of Ka as a person. He threw the saddle over Ka’s thorax and secured the cinch belt. She clicked her mandibles and her crystal eyes swirled with impatience. He loaded the rest of the gear and then piped her to the foreign quarter. Once there it did not take long to convince Zav of his ability to ride.

Zav showed Kin where to stable Ka, then Kin removed the saddle from the shard mount and stowed his gear. Zav then introduced him to the two Greens he had been gaming with before.

“This be Vaskia, the head driver.” Zav explained. Vaskia had sharply angular features and black hair. Her skin like all Green Spores was mottled green. Her breasts were small but perky and the ever present breech-clout and flute were, of course green.

“This be Tomon, the head loader and Vaskia’s husband.” Said Zav. Tomon was large and muscular, his hair and beard were a light green. His skin was typical for a Green and he wore the standard flute and breech-clout for his race.

“The other drivers and loader be Vaskia’s and Tomon’s cousins. Although you will often be hearing them be calling each other something else.” Said Zav.

“It does not matter whether we are called loader or driver. We all load and we all drive.” Explained Vaskia.

“Have you met the others?” asked Zav.

“Only Master Pophur and Sister,” replied Kin. Zav twitched and the Greens stiffened.

“That word be meaning more than you know. I suggest you not be calling her that,” said Zav.

“I refuse to call her Slave as if she is no longer a person. Even a slave deserves a name.”

“You could be calling her Whitey.”

“That isn’t any better,” complained Kin.

“In hand talk she be calling herself ‘the unsilenced one’.”

“You can understand hand talk?”

“Most of the caravan can,” replied Zav.

“Then teach me how to say ‘the unsilenced one’ in hand talk,” requested Kin. Zav showed him then Kin repeated it until Zav indicated that he had signed the gestures correctly.

“You had better be getting some rest. This time of the cycle the day is 50 hours long and the nights run to about 30 hours. This does mean the caravan can only afford about 4 hours night sleep if we want to reach shelter before dawn. You will be only getting two hours night sleep because you will be on watch for half the sleep period. With cool down, rest stops and night sleep we won’t be getting much more than 20 hours of travel time. You had better be getting as much dusk sleep as you can get. You can hang your hammock in that alcove,” recommended Zav.

Kin decided to take Zav’s advice and was soon fast asleep in his hammock.

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