Echoes - Chapter One

[flighty_dreams]

Note: Reorganizing this post to label this part of the story correctly.

TITLE: Echoes
AUTHOR: flighty_dreams 
WARNINGS: NC-17 (eventually). slavefic. F/m. fantasy setting.
WORD COUNT:  1,144
SUMMARY:  A slave in a foreign land finds himself dragged back into a world he never wanted to return to.
NOTES:  The index to this story available here. Written for the Women in Power challenge over on slavefics . (Everything but this short chapter, shh.)
FEEDBACK: Always welcome, even if it's just to say you read it. ;-)

Chapter One

  

Change came with the wagon’s appearance.

Hearing its approach, Kurth looked up. The dirt-filled shovel in his hands continued its arc; he knew better than to falter in his task. The overseer’s eyes were sharp, and his cane eager.

The other field slaves showed no interest in the disruption to their routine. Only two, new to the farm, paused to stare at the cart as it made its progress along the rutted road. However, when the overseer stepped towards them with a growl, they swiftly lost all care for it.

The sun was low on the horizon, and the long day had tired them all. The sweat sliding from Kurth’s tattooed forehead down his cheek was all too familiar, as was the grime that clung to his bare, sweaty back. His whole body ached, and he felt twice his age.

He shifted position, so he could satisfy his curiosity without interrupting his work. The cart’s only occupant pulled it to a halt outside the farmhouse. From the cut of his clothes and the pointed hat he wore, Kurth guessed he was a Zidaran merchant. The house was some distance away, and more than that he could not discern. A minute later, the merchant disappeared inside.

After five years working these fields, each day the same as the prior one, he welcomed any break in the seam of routine. He’d long ago learned the pattern of market days and when supplies were delivered to the farm. This merchant’s visit did not fit.

As he continued digging the irrigation trench at the side of the field, Kurth’s bored mind wondered at the visitor’s purpose. It was too late for a delivery or retrieval, and the merchant did not appear to be here to sell any products to the master. His wagon was empty, as were his hands as he’d approached the house. What reason had he for coming?

Kurth knew his speculation was pointless. Unless his master did business with the merchant later and he somehow witnessed it, he’d never know why the man had come. But he was grateful for anything that distracted him from his physical misery. Anything other than painful memories, at least.

A little while later, the merchant and his master left the house. Surprisingly, it was the fields they came to, and Kurth stole a better look at the visitor while they spoke to the overseer.

His attire was clean but worn, and his features not particularly distinguished. Not a man one would find memorable. He had the Zidaran fair hair and eyes that surrounded Kurth in this country. But out here the Zidarans, slave and free man alike, had tanned skin, the hours spent in the sun taking their toll. This merchant’s light skin betrayed that he was not from the area, and Kurth’s interest rose.

However, the call for all the slaves to stop their work and line up at the end of the field still surprised him. But the workers obeyed the order despite their bewilderment. They were a dozen in all, this farm not being particularly large.

The merchant began at one end and gradually made his way down the line. As he watched him from the edge of his vision, Kurth suddenly had a much better idea what the man was about.

When the merchant reached him, Kurth kept his eyes lowered but his neck straight. He could feel the man studying him, missing little. His gaze fastened on Kurth’s scars, and then he heard the man give an order he’d given a couple of the slaves before him.

“Turn around.”

Stifling a grimace, Kurth obeyed, presenting his scarred back. The marks were old and faded now, his days of rebellion long over. If there’d been any home left to go to, he would’ve escaped years ago – or died in the attempt. He’d welcome death, but suicide was for cowards desperate enough to give up the Lord and Lady’s Embrace.

The man continued on, examining the rest of the slaves before speaking to the master again. They spoke too softly to overhear, and Kurth received no warning.

Striding back over, accompanied by his master, the merchant pointed at him.

Kurth was not the only one surprised. “The Rorkan?” his master exclaimed. Despite giving it to him, the man never bothered to use his name.

“Yes.”

They haggled over price, now that his master knew which slave the merchant desired. But by the time the sun was setting, he was stepping into the wagon after his new master. The man grabbed his arms, chaining his hands to the cart with restraints he’d left in the vehicle. He said not a word to him, and Kurth knew better than to speak without invitation.

As the merchant turned the cart around, heading away from the farm, Kurth looked back at it uncomfortably. After years of longing to escape its tediousness, the prospect of the unknown made him anxious.

Once they’d been traveling for several minutes, the man looked back at him. “What’s your name?”

“Kurth, sir.”

The merchant made an impatient sound. “I don’t mean your Zidaran name. Tell me your Rorkan name.”

Kurth hesitated, unwilling to say it. He was a Zidaran slave now; that man was long dead.

His reluctance drew the merchant’s anger. “I will beat you every day until you tell me.”

He would not always be chained, and the Rorkan was taller, faster and stronger than the Zidaran, but it mattered not. The slave tattoo, etching the emblem of Zidara across his temples, ensured he would never escape ‘justice.’ No, overpowering the man would accomplish nothing.

Shoulders slumping, Kurth decided it mattered not anyway. The name meant nothing to him now.

“Katic.”

He’d looked away, but he could feel the man’s eyes on him, intent as a hawk. “Full name?”

“Saldrev Katic.” So long had passed since he’d said them, the words felt odd on his tongue.

His gaze met the other man’s instinctively as he said them, and he caught the flash of recognition. His tired muscles tensed; he’d not thought anyone would remember that name anymore.

The Zidaran grinned. “Good.”

The man turned back to the road, leaving Kurth to stare at his back. The word slipped from him before he could control it. “What?”

The Zidaran ignored him, and he realized he’d be granted no answers. Frustration churned within him; he’d always despised information being kept from him. Years of slavery had forced him to accept it, albeit reluctantly. As a child though, Jevin had loved to play games with him, feeding him only the information he deemed necessary and goading him to figure out the rest.

He shoved those memories away along with his frustration. They had no place here. Instead he embraced the patience that slavery had finally taught him.

Eventually, he would learn the purpose in this.

Chapter Two

Comments

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Hey! There's approximately 1349255 M/m slavefics out there, and 2357250285825802852034823 m/m slash fics. In contrast, there's about 10 femdom slavefics out there (and that's probably including my 2). Not that I don't love me some boys, but I feel the need to make up for that a bit. :P

[1more-sickpuppy.livejournal.com]

Is it really that bad? I thought maybe it just seemed that way because I hang out in slashy places... but it's true about comms like and orig_slavefic and slavefics comms - at 9 out of 10 are m/m. Anyways, I'd take F/m over M/f these days, and if you write the story I might have to check it out, try to re-widen my horizons, lol. Good luck!

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I personally can't read M/f... it squicks me. Feels misogynistic or something, not sure how to explain it exactly. And when they use Daddy as the pet name it makes me shudder even more. I just can't take it.

But F/m... I think I just totally dig men submitting, no matter which gender they're submitting to. *evil grin* Too much fun for me.

Thanks, I shall try my best! :) Up to you whether you want to check out anymore, though I appreciate the effort. =)

I just had this really specific image in mind when I came up with this story, and it all flowed from there.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

Saw this and had to respond ;)

Femdom is incredibly rare. Oh, you can find it fairly easily on BDSM sites where it's all porn and no plot (although even on those sites there tends to be many many times more M/f) but in the world of good slavefic and BDSM fic, with proper plots, there's hardly any. Numerous people on slavefics and elsewhere have said they love reading it, but few of them actually write it.

I can't stand M/f but F/m is what I always crave. Since there isn't much of it, I generally have to settle for M/m.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

I absolutely agree with everything you said here. I remember seeing that too, that a lot of ppl on slavefics mentioned that they loved reading femdom... but somehow no one seems to enjoy writing it, sigh.

And I've found some of the all porn/no plot ones you mentioned on places like bdsmlibrary, but honestly most of them are so negative. They usually involve total emasculation of the man and cuckoldry, etc. It's really sad. How about some romantic F/m people?

I love my boy on boy action too, but variety is the spice of life after all. Let's give the F/m some love too.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

I wonder if it's because there's a community for M/m powerfic, so people feel more comfortable writing it? I'm not saying that everyone chooses what they write by how many readers they'll get, but net fiction (especially here on LJ) is so much about community, and there hasn't been enough femdom around to form a community like that. I don't think there's even a LJ comm on the subject.

Yeah, femdom on bdsmlibrary etc tends to be either "wife enslaves her husband then cuckolds him" or "group of women abduct man and sexually torture him". I don't really see the attraction of either. Especially as both the women and the men tend to be very dislikable characters. But then, that's generally the same for F/m and M/m on those websites too.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Hmm, I see your point. Maybe it's about having the support of a community (although of course knowing people will actually read your writing helps encourage you to write it/more too). Communities like slavefics and orig_slavefic aren't gender specific (which you would think would encourage people to submit femdom if they want to), but it doesn't happen much unfortunately. Which makes me think creating a femdom community would be a total waste of time lol.

And I totally agree on the bdsmlibrary stories. You've totally nailed their 2 types of F/m, sigh. If decently written (which most are not), they are good for maybe a hot scene (as far as what they use on the sub, etc.) but not for anything else really. You can't like any of the characters and there's not much story to speak of. And those are problems that plague their M/f and M/m stories too, yes. Ugh.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, slavefics etc aren't gender specific but when everyone else is posting M/m, I suppose people just don't think of writing other types. Kind of like how when I first started slavefics, the vast majority of the fics posted were fanfics; once people realised that there actually was a community there for original fiction (in both senses of the word!) there was suddenly masses of it.

I vaguely wonder if a femdom challenge or "week"/day/month or something would inspire some people, as a way to try and create a "community". I couldn't start something like that without confidence that at least a small number of people would take part though.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, very interesting how that all happened. :)

That's a good question. It might be worth a shot to see what people come up with, but you're right, it would be nice to know that at least a few people are going to do it though. Maybe a preliminary post or poll asking if people would be interested in contributing? Make it broad, fanfic or original, as long as it's femdom. ;)

It seems worth a try.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

Posted :)

Now to sit back and see what people's responses are...

[1more-sickpuppy.livejournal.com]

So what about F/f - equally rare?
I read het, like, max once a year now, and then it's fanfic. In the old days I could read Buffy/Spike where Spike was dom and Buffy sub for example, when it wasn't so much about gender. Both dom and sub could have been either sex, it'd be more a personality/mental power struggle. As long as the woman is portrayed as equal I guess I don't mind the M/f per se. But then, Buffy is usually physically equal to Spike as well. And if I were to read F/m I'd like it to be the same way - both characters equally "strong" as persons.

Hmm, in the end I'm kinda glad I love my m/m... easier that way.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

Yeah, F/f is pretty rare too, especially in powerfic. There's probably more consensual D/s in femslash than femdom, especially fanfiction (Buffy and HP fandoms for instance) but extremely little F/f slavefic.

I always prefer my powerfics where the sub/slave is "strong". I think that's one of the reasons why I dislike M/f, because it plays into the stereotype of women as inferior. I'm absolutely fine with F/m, F/f and M/m.

If you want to experiment with F/m, try Lit Gal's "Thoughts Colored Ugly" (Firefly BDSM/slavefic). You definitely can't describe either Jayne or River as "weak" and it's one of the best written F/m fics out there.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Mmm, yeah I remember reading a Buffy/Angelus story that was pretty damn hot to me, even though Angelus was holding her hostage and dominating her. (This was Angelus, not puppy soul Angel at all lol. He was evil, but still totally infatuated with her.) So I guess in some rare cases M/f can be okay with me, depending heavily on the characters involved though. Like you said, it wasn't so much about gender.

Actually, as far as both characters being equally "strong" as persons... I find M/m fic to be really guilty of breaking this preference sometimes. Of course I love pretty boys, but sometimes the sub is so broken and weak it bothers me. I like both the guys to be men. I don't like the sub all weepy and afraid of his own shadow. Some stories I can let it go when you have a character that has really gone through a lot of abuse and is struggling to get better, but it's really present far too often for me.

[1more-sickpuppy.livejournal.com]

Oh yes, very common problem with slash in general and not just the M/m, the girl-ification of one character. And I hate that the 'weak' and emotional partner gets called girly - girls aren't typically all weepy and subby. We need a different word for it.

A well written story can pull off a weaker partner without stripping them of integrity, especially in h/c you can find good stuff, but it often falls trough at some point. It's become something that I'm almost used to having to overlook in a lot of fic.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

And I hate that the 'weak' and emotional partner gets called girly

This, yes. I hate it when male subs are described as girly etc, as if being submissive is a female trait.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

Yeah, me too. I think it's also why we don't like M/f, heh. Too much of that association. If the girl needs a master to take care of her, it smacks too much of the man being controlling or the girl being too weak-willed. Sigh.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

I try to avoid any BtVS fics about Buffy (she's not my favourite character on the show, but she's even worse in many fanfics so I don't even try) but I have to say that the one female-slave fic I absolutely love is a Cordelia/Angelus one. Cordy may not have superpowers but she's a fighter and fights it with all her might... which kind of makes the difference in my mind, between that fic and all the many female slave fics where the girl just cries and accepts what happens to her.

[flighty-dreams.livejournal.com]

I haven't read excessive amounts of Buffy fanfic, but there's a fic I remember reading about 10 years ago that was a Buffy/Angel AU. It sticks out because it was the first femdom fic I ever read, and one of the first slavefics. ;) (Domestication by Indiefic) I also really enjoyed another of her Buffy slavefic AUs that was M/f, When the Sun Never Rises. Hmm, I don't know if these are recced in slavefics somewhere; I'll have to look.

I feel like I may have come across the Cordy/Angelus fic you mentioned, but didn't read all of it. Hmm. I don't remember where I saw it.

And yeah, the girl crying and just accepting what happens to her... (I'm looking at you, Gor novels) is just so distasteful. >.

[lothy.livejournal.com]

Those fics don't sound familiar. Feel free to rec them!

The C/A fic is "False Claims" and I recced it on slavefics a while back. It's not finished but it's already epic, I think there's 90+ chapters.

Re: Gor - apparently there's a community somewhere of people who've decided to live according to the Gor universe... which I have decided issues with. Women interested in BDSM voluntarily becoming submissives are fine, but when they're choosing to become involved in something where women are always the submissives, there's a problem IMO.