THE COIN

THE COIN

TINK, CLINK, CLINKETY – CLINK.

The coin had flipped end over end, showing dull glints on its tarnished sides as it spun in the dusty air. Eyes had watched the spinning coin, eyes wide in the near dark space and a sibilance of indrawn breaths was the only sound to be heard as it spun. Then slowly, the spinning dwindled and the coin had made its inextricable way down, down to the surface of the table below waiting to catch it.

Now, spinning on the table, the coin clinked and chinked on the metalic surface, sounding like a tiny bell that was slightly bent or dented so that it didnt jingle jautily any more. A sad little bell, one of the girls there thought to herself as she listened and watched the spinning coin.

A final CLACK, and the coin landed, falling flat onto the table top. It's landing was greeted with an audible sigh, swiftly followed by a mixture of soft feminine whispers and a raucous bellow of male laughter.

"My choice!" yelled a gruff voice that sent shivers rippling through the bodies of the two girls huddled together on the floor. They clutched each other, eyes wide and staring, as footsteps stumped towards them. Who would be chosen this time?

The two girls were all that were left now of a group of six who had been brought here by the gathered men. One by one, each of the others had been 'chosen' by one of the men and taken away, not to be seen again. Where they went, and to what fate, these last two could only imagine! And their imaginations were vivid in their suppositions.

"You - the dark one - with me NOW!" commanded the gruff voice, and a hand reached down to grasp the hair of the chosen girl yanking her to her feet as she squealed her protest, only to be slapped and told to hush and behave as she was dragged off, out of the room, out of sight, to whatever fate awaited her.

Alone now, the last girl curled up into herself, as she tried to become invisible to the eyes of the one male who remained.

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There had been six of them to begin with. Six girls, or rather young women, all strangers to each other and of various stature and colouring, but all good looking in their own ways. They had huddled together, cowering from the six men gathered to look them over with lascivious stares and coarse comments.

Then one girl had stood up.

"I don't belong here. My father is Lord Meld and he will pay for my safe return. Take me to whom i can speak to to get this arranged"

She spoke imperiously and tossed her long red hair, still pretty for all its dishevelment, and looked around to see how her statement had been taken.

One of the men stepped forward, his cap in hand, and bowed to her.

"My lady. My Master will be pleased to receive you. He'll treat you as you so clearly deserve." He turned to the other men and winked.

The reaction of the others was instant. In the silence that ensued, a tension tingled through the air like a fizz of electricity. The huddled girls shivered as they watched the scene unfold, not daring to utter a single word or sound as they all wondered what would happen next. They did not have long to wait.

"Oh yes, my Master is going to enjoy meeting you princess, but he will be expecting ... a little more decorum me thinks." He laughed as he spoke, and grasped Princess' hair, bending her forwards so that the round cushions of her posterior were now pressed against the thin fabric of her flimsy dress.

Gasps hissed from the five cowering girls and a howl of indignation erupted from the one bent over. These sounds, however, were all pretty well occluded by the gruff callous remarks from the laughing men.

"Teach 'er a lesson!"

"Show 'er whose boss!"

The comments and suggestions came thick and fast, all accompanied by coarse laughter and other lewd remarks

In the furthest corner of the huddled girls, one girl alone observed that one man stood a little aloof from the others and watched, yet he offered no comment of his own. A minute tilt of his head and she realised that he had noted her look and she hurriedly bent her head seeking to hide herself, but her curiosity had been strangely aroused by this briefest of contacts.

The moment passed.

The man holding princess raised his hand and with an experienced flick of his wrist rapped a resounding slap on the barely covered bottom. Princess howled and a buzz of approval ran through the men watching. The girls all sighed an exhaled breath they had been holding, as princess was now gathered up and bundled over his shoulder.

“A fine gift for my Master you will make my girl, a fine gift," was the last thing that was heard as he disappeared with his prize.

So now there were five girls. A pair of dice seemed to appear out of no where and were tossed on the table, used in some fashion to decide which man had the next choice of girl. The quiet man stood in the centre and each time the dice picked the 'winner' Mr. Quiet seemed to glance, almost stare, at a girl. Observing it all, little miss watchful was suddenly intrigued. Was it her imagination? But it seemed to her that it was this girl he stared at each time who was chosen. The chosen one was lead off, crying or dragged stubbornly silent, by the man who had won her, until just two girls remained.

"Just us now mate" said a gruff voice to the man who had been so quiet up to now. "Shall we spin a coin?"

And so the coin had been spun.

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The man dragged off the dark haired girl, leaving the last girl alone with the only man who had been less verbal all along. There was silence. Even her breath seemed strangely stilled, and there were now no other sounds to be heard.

What was going to happen to her? A hundred questions flooded her brain, whirling with a hundred possible scenarios and a hundred more that were just nebulous hints in her mind of what she could only barely imagine.

"So - you and me now", said a male voice. "What's your name? We might as well start there"

The voice in the dimly lit room was so unexpected she gasped, startled by it's quiet timbre and deep tone. It was far less uncouth than any of the other voices had been. She uncurled - just a little - and turned her head, looking up towards the voice.

"Come on girl, speak!! Tell me your name - now!" he spoke a little more firmly.

"Janni," she whispered, but it sounded to her as if she shouted.

"Well hello Janni. I'm Scor. Come over here girl. Come on," he encouraged.

Janni swallowed. The last thing she wanted was to go 'over there', nearer to this man, Scor, and whatever it was he had in mind for her. But...being asked to come was certainly far better than having her hair grabbed and being dragged, so slowly she uncurled and rose, keeping her back pressed against the brick wall behind her, almost sliding up it, until she was at last upright.

Her legs felt wobbly after being curled up for so long. How long? An hour? More? She swallowed again, feeling his eyes watching her, although how they could see clearly in this gloom she wasn't at all sure, but she DID know that they were watching!

"That's right, good girl. Now over here. Let me see you close up." came the voice.

It was almost softly spoken now, but with a demanding edge that broached no doubt in her mind that disobedience would not be at all well tolerated.

She took a tentative step forward, one hand braced on the wall for both the comfort of it's solidity and for it's strong anchor point. Another step and she would break this contact... and be alone in a void between the security of that wall and the unknown before her.

Step Step. Step.

A hand reached out and grasped her wrist, not harshly, but firm and powerful in it's grip, and pulled her the last step to... him...to Scor. Her eyes flew up to his face, and she found herself looking up into the bluest pair of eyes she had ever seen! They were blue like the deep blue of a summers day, deep and commanding. She gasped, sucking air into her lungs that suddenly felt empty, as her own eyes were... captured.

Janni froze in place, her wrist grasped and her eyes captured, and as she gazed into those icy depths she felt a flush colour her cheeks and a wash of tingles suffuse her body so that she trembled.

The faintest of smiles curled the corners of the stern mouth of the man watching her... holding her, and Janni felt her heart skip a beat. She blinked, breaking the spell of the stare and bowed her head seeking to hide her blushing. But to no avail of course.

A calloused finger under her chin tipped her head up and seemed to also drag her eyes back up to once again meet those icy blue ones.

"I said my name was Scor - it is - but what will YOU call me?" he asked.

"Me.. call you..? I.. I " Janni stuttered and mumbled caught off guard by this question, knowing instinctively that it was some sort of test. Her mind spun trying to think of what might be expected. For some reason she did not want to be wrong in what she said ..... in fact, she suddenly realised she wanted to PLEASE this man here! She swallowed and took a long deep breath.

"I... I will call you sir it that pleases you... sir," she whispered.

"Sir is it? Well I suppose that will do. Good girl." he replied in his deep voice that seemed to almost rumble through her body.

And "good girl"? Oh wow - what an effect THAT had on her! She felt the words strike a chord deep inside that she had never felt before... a chord that twanged and sparked, shivering glowing embers along her veins that seemed to set everything inside her on fire..

"Now! Kneel!" His voice was a command that she heard and could not fail to recognise, and she obeyed even while a voice in her head screamed at her 'what are you doing?' She ignored the internal voice.. and slid to her knees before him.

"Yes sir," she whispered.

Head bowed now, she saw the toes of his boots inch closer and sensed his body close to hers as he bent over her. Once more he tilted her head up to look at him and she saw he had a silvery circlet in his other hand... a torc she recognised, and gulped in her recognition. He smiled at her reaction.

"So! You know what this is then. Good - I dont need to explain," and he slipped the torc around her neck and fastened it with a click, swiftly pocketing the locking key.

"This makes you mine - my property - my woman - to do with as i choose and as i see fit. Do you understand?"

She looked up at him, realising her fate was sealed, that it was hers to accept, or to suffer the consequences if she chose otherwise.

"Yyes Sir, yes i understand Sir," she whispered.

"Louder girl, I can't hear you and this is important!! Do you understand?"

Blinking, she straightened her shoulders and looked at him.. this Scor who was now her owner - who now had control of her future life and existence - and she took a deep breath.

"Yes Sir.... I understand. I am now your woman, and my fate - my life - is yours to order as you see fit. And my place now is to obey you, Sir."

Looking down at her it seemed his face softened a little, relaxed a certain stiffness.. or was that just her imagination - wishful thinking maybe.

"Good girl" was all that he said. as he clipped a silvery chain of fine, strong links to the torc around her neck. A leash, she recognised, and swallowed again, pushing aside the doubts that arose, choosing to accept, for now.

A tug on the leash jerked her back and she realised Sir had moved and was expecting her to follow. The jerk had been a reminder, and she thought another reminder might well not be as gentle, so she stood ready to follow as he lead her from that place.

She felt lucky. She had been chosen by the one man she might have chosen from that gang of six – the one man who had shown the slightest sense of respect for the girls. She turned her head to look back at this place of choosing and her eyes were caught by the soft glint of something on the table.

It was the coin, still lying on the table where it had fallen - so long ago it seemed. She smiled to see it, looking from the coin to this enigma of a man who owned her. He smiled back, noticing her glance, and he picked up the coin. Taking her hand in his own he curled her fingers around the coin as he placed it in her palm.

"Your coin," was all he said.

"Thank you sir. Thank you," she smiled. "My lucky coin."