Flora - scene 5

It had been a couple of days now since the attack on her family by the soldiers. They had taken her and murdered her family though why they had spared her she did not know. At first, she had assumed the worst. After all, she was a pretty and young girl captured by a bunch of ruff necked mercenary soldiers. Though the soldiers hadn't treated her kindly in any way, they hadn't hurt her either. She wondered where they were taking her.

Their group had turned onto a well traveled road that morning and had been traveling hard all day. From the pace the mecenaries were keeping to, Flora guessed they must be getting close to their destination. It was getting crowded on the road. More people than she was accustumed to were arround her and she started to feel uncomfortable. A mere twenty minutes later they rounded a hill and she saw it.

The noise had made her curious when she still couldn’t see it, but now she witnissed the thronging crowd that milled across the fields. From what she could see it much resembled a market of which her father had told her once. Something wasn’t quite right though. Then it struck her, no food or goods of any kind were on sale! All she could see was a dense crowd of people.

She was roughly shoved forward by her captors and guided through the mass of people. The leader of the mercenary group was talking to a fat man with a very unpleasant odor. The sweet smell of some sort of perfume could barely mask the strong, rancid stench of sweat that was exuding from the man. He looked at her briefly and glanced all over her. The way he stood there looking at her made her shiver. The fat man said something to her captor and he handed over a small bag. She had been sold to this vile smelling creature!

Shoved, pushed, kicked and dragging by the chain around her neck she was moved by the fat man once he had taken posession of her. He guided her to a large space with many other men, women and even children. Most of them had a look of fear in their eyes, but some also looked defiant or angry and some looked hollow. Like their bodies were still here but their souls had left a long time ago, leaving their eyes staring blankely ahead.

She was stopped before a big man with cuts along his arms. He looked her straight in the eyes and it was as if he could look into the very depths of her soul. Almost before she could notice, the fat trader clasped her chains onto those of the huge, brooding slave before her.

Half an hour later, the auction was well under way. Many people shouted out prices and slaves were being taken home by their new owners. Once an entire family had been put on the auction block, but they were ripped apart because none of them were sold to the same owners. The children's mother had been crying and begging the trader to be sold together with her children but he had been unmoved. Now Flora was dragged onto the platform, still chained to the big man.

The trader looked the pair over and started describing them both. He intended to sell both of them separately and loudly spoke of her companion in chains while he pointed out things with a stick.

“See this big man gentlemen? He is an excellent worker for the fields! Big! Strong! Built like a horse so he can do hard labor for you. Think of the many possibilities for this specimen! See these muscles? Hard as granite.”

As he spoke, Flora noticed several men in the audience eying her over. They were evaluating her body and looked at her greedily. She soon felt sick to her stomach, her head pounding and her pulse racing.

How she longed to return to the forest of her home! Yet now she was to be sold off to some sickening pervert that would most likely try to rape her as soon as he had her.

Once more she looked at the crowds and now she saw a man dressed in plain but serviceable clothes looking at her with more than pure lust in her eyes. Yet she barely noticed this because the sounds and most especially the smells of all those people were attacking her senses. Slowly the words of the slave trader sank into her as she realized he was now describing her.

“Look at this girl! Perfect as a house pet. She is a bit on the wild side and not used to city life, but her form is good! Gentlemen, she has a supple body and gentle curves which will surely please you all in many ways.” The trader came walking over to her.

“Just look at that cute face of hers! Gentlemen, I will start the bidding for these two specimens with this one. Just look at these!” With those words he grabbed her breasts and firmly squeezed in them. Her entire body went rigid as she was unable to do anything about it. Her pulse raced and her shame welled up from deep within her.

Just at that moment the big slave next to her flexed and tensed with a short movement towards the trader. The slave trader appeared to notice this and quickly let go of her. He backed away in a way that did not reveal to his potential customers he had responded to anything the slaves did. He turned towards the crowd and called out.

“I start the bidding for the female at 2 gold!”

A mumble rippled through the crowd, but soon the bids were shouted through the air. Two, four, eight, ten, twenty! Flora couldn’t believe what she heard! Then a man shouted loudly but clearly through the crowd.

“Two hundred gold for the both of them!” The trader looked shocked for an instant but quickly recovered.

“Sold! Will the gentlemen please come forward?”

Within the space of two hours, Flora had been sold yet again.