Abigail

Acceptance

It was a simple, spartan, ward that welcomed him….

I have to figure out how to get the hell out of here…. He thought about looking at two rows of modest cots, nine pieces at every side of the ward, as he was ushered to the farthest cot in the ward, the one that was damp, rickety, and creaky….

He sighed at the sight of an uncovered pillow that was covered with mold, strong with the odor of sweat and saliva, and the same that he could say for the blanket that was tossed sloppily on top of it….

He winches a little as he sits down on the cot with mixed feelings still raging in his heart and mind…. He still cannot believe the sight of Ameena, who once was a shy girl, becoming one of the sluts, hungry for satisfaction….

****

The sound of laughter and clamoring filled the ward, as sounds of footsteps filled the ward…

“Ha…. We are blessed with the presence of a twig…."

Laughter erupts, yet Aaron keeps on looking at the floor, ignoring three figures that stand in front of him…

“A twig, a deaf, a mute….” Said another one, pushing his shin with his foot before the three of them turned their backs….

Aaron jumped at them just to find he was holding an empty air….

Another laughter erupts as the fighter saw the angry young man, disbelief that his opponent easily dodges his ambush…. And his anger doubled with his embarrassment as the fighter tipped his foot, making him crash to the floor….

“Be careful, twig, you might snap…” Mock the fighter as he looked at Aaron, who rose back up, facing him, and ready with his fighting stance…

The fighter sniggers and mocks Aaron, mimicking his stance playfully, taunting the young man, who, in a rage, attacked the fighter…

“Uggghhh….” Shouts Aaron, feeling like his jaw was struck with a concrete…..

He doesn’t even see the punch delivered by his opponent, he feels his legs turned to jelly, and he slumps to the floor….

The fighter frowns, as he watches Aaron, in disbelief, trying to get back on his feet….

He could be dangerous… He thought, ignoring the surrounding laughter. The corner of his eyes caught his comrade and frowned, surprised even at the fact, despite his wobbly body, Aaron managed to stand up and ready his stance once again….

But then….

Laughter erupts as Aaron's body suddenly fell on his back, unconscious….

“Why did you pull your punch…?” asked his comrade in a low voice as they went to the common bathroom, leaving the unconscious body lying on the floor….

The fighter just grunted, ignoring the question, and went straight to the shower….

No one ever survived my uppercut, he thought, ignoring the tap on his shoulder from the other fighter….

He can be dangerous…

****

“Wake up, little twig!” shouted a voice that made Aaron gasp, as a bucket of cold water was poured onto his face….

Another laughter fills the ward, as he splutters, coughing the water that enters his nostrils and lungs…

He sits up abruptly and sees that he was lying unconscious on the floor for a whole day…

He saw a man in a leather cuirass standing next to him and barking an order….

“Time to practice, Twigg….”

Aaron was still dizzy and fuzzy when a hand raised him…. He looked to his side and was stunned.

“Have a good dream…?” Asked Dorian, topless, only donning a loincloth and leather sandals on his feet, his body still carried the sign of lashes and the fight they had in the well…

“Just entering a nightmare…” He said, and to be responded by a grin on Dorian’s face….

****

“Move! You lazy bastards!” Shouts the drill master in his leather curiass, lashing the back of Dorian with the thin rattan stick that made the sixteen-year-old boy yelp, and dropping the heavy sacks of sand he was carrying….

Aaron moves to help him, but the drill master lashed him too….

“Keep moving, Twigg….!” he shouts.

Dorian gave a shake with his head, saying that he didn’t need help, that he could move on, and he did so by picking up the sack and carrying it back and forth to the training field, before they were ordered to change their sacks with tire pulling where they had to crawl, so they could drag the tire back and forth….

It was grueling, tiresome outdoor training that for hours and hours they both had to endure, which included mobility and agility training, weight training, bare-hand fighting, weapons….

And they had to endure the excruciating training until the sun had gone down….

Aaron was quite surprised to see Dorian go to the ward himself….

“Your father really is a monster….” He said, thinking of the punishment that the son has to endure, and that too gave him a pang of guilt because he realizes that, too, happened because of his action….

Dorian just smirked and went to his cot and took a rest as Aaron sat on his, looking at Dorian who fell to sleep instantly, before lying on his cot, trying as hard as possible to ignore the sound and the smell of the fighter using the toilet where his cot was adjacent to….

****

The clamoring excitement fills the training field as the group of fighters returns from their bouts….

Aaron didn’t even bother to see the winning fighters. His eyes were set towards Jacob, who stood on the balcony overseeing the field….

Again, Aaron sees the sisters, standing about two steps behind the man, looking beautiful in her open-sleeved-long tunic, but then he realizes, at her side, the older sister, too, was present, she was looking at her sister….

Aaron could see the sadness, pity, and yet a hint of resignation on her face, as if she was trying to accept the fact that her younger sister seemed to enjoy her life to be the concubine of the man he forced to called Master….

All the fighters looked at the man, feeling pride at the sight of their Master….

“Fighters! We are here today, celebrating yet another glorious victory for our house!”

“Hurrah!”

“Here he is…. Our Champion….!” The man said, as the fighter who had the bout with him in the ward took a stand next to the master, pride on his face….

The fighter chants the name of the champion, while Aaron, and to his surprise, Dorian, didn’t even bother to say his name….

“Watch him….” Dorian said as he leaned on him, “Try your best to study his style of fighting…..”

Aaron looked at the young man with curiosity, but before he managed to ask more, they were ordered to finish their training, shower, and went to the hall….

“Brace yourself…. You are not going to like what you see”, Dorian said in a low voice that made Aaron both curious and wonder about what he meant by his statement….

****

It was a feast held by the Manor to honor the victory of their fighters….

Aaron munched as much food as he could…. His palate seems to be cleansed by the meal set before his eyes… He doesn’t even care for the smirks at Dorian’s face….

As he gorges the food, he sees the house accountant come and meet the fighters who joined the game, as they called it, and calls about to give them the prize money when he asks

“Money or pleasure…..?”

And Aaron saw beautiful women following the man, smiling, some shyly, some seductively, towards the house champion, who then ended up handing out quite a sum of his price-money, and taking two of the most beautiful of the lot, and pulling them out from the hall….

And then, the music fills the room, and his heart skips the beat….

His eyes widened as he saw women dressed to that of a belly dancer, but with their breasts covered with transparent lace, or even only wearing n****e cover, shaking their body, as their transparent fabric that supposed to cover their lower body, were hiding nothing at all…

Aaron swallowed hard as he saw the erotic dance performed before his eyes, how the women groped on top of the table, trying to stand still as the hungry fighters groped them from below….

Aaron’s eyes widened as he saw it there… at the table, seductively, giggling, taunting the hungry fighter with her erotic dance….. Was Ameena….

She was looking sluttier. She sat on the table, her knees-up, close together, swinging left and right, her eyes were filled with lust, then she opened her legs apart before tauntingly crossing her legs left and right, making the fighters around the table. That couldn’t hold their lust any longer. One of them dragged Ameena to the edge of the table, spreading her legs apart, and with one hard thrust entered the girl's labia and pounded the girl, who gasped, moaned and looked hungry and licked her lips, as she looked at another fighter who impatiently pushed their erect pole toward her face, where another fighter jumped to the table, making the girl looking happy as she strokes and sucked both pole back and forth…

Her body trembled to the gropes of the fighter as they fondled, grasp, her breast, and her body arched as they suckled, grabbed and pulled her erect n*****s, before another fighter jumped over her body, pressed her breast together, and stroked his pole between the firm breast…

Aaron was about to barge in when a firm grip on his shoulder stopped him….

“Channel your anger towards a better purpose, Aaron…. Remember your final test…. Forget her…. She has been lost to you already…” Said Dorian who, despite his younger age, has the strong grip that feels quite painful on his shoulder….

Angry and frustrated at the sight, Aaron abruptly left the hall, went to the training ground and trained like crazy until he collapsed from exhaustion….

****