Chapter 2: Shipping and Lessons Learned

Story by ProudWolfess on SoFurry

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#2 of Tales of the Thief King Sidestory: Learning One's Place: Aelon DaelaHarris

Aelon is shipped to Braggshire, the Town residing just outside of the Castle Town of Fort Bragg, in the Kingdom of Selan. There he learns of his purpose, and he meets the Trainer as well as a few other noteworthy slaves.

This is a Sidestory of course.


Aelon's POV

I was awakened too early for my liking by that damned Vampyre. To be exact, he slapped me in the face with one of his wings, catching me just below the eye with a claw.

"Up slave, I want you on your hands and knees, like a good little doggy." Seirkaru says as he squats down.

"Fuck. Can't you let me rest and heal up first?" I say, not really paying attention to where I was and who I was talking to. In my groggy as hell state I thought I was back in my cabin and the Mayor was telling me to go on a Hunt.

"Bad answer slave." I hear Seirkaru say before I find myself jerked up by the collar on my neck.

"Gah! I'., oh wait, this slave is sorry Master! It forgot where it was!" I get out as quick as I can.

"I know. Thank you for apologizing and remembering your manners, but you still need to be punished. If I let it slide simply because you apologized, you might keep doing it." Seirkaru says in a tone that makes me just want to hide.

With a snarl he says, "I let you keep your clothes long enough. Time for you to be dressed the way a slave deserves, wearing only your collar and restraints!"

I want to smart off to him, but I find myself scared enough of him that I keep quiet, even as he roughly tore the cloth off of me.

I quickly find every scrap of clothing that had been clinging to me ripped off and Seirkaru tossed it into a nearby fire. I tear up and try to reach for them, the last remaining things my mother made for me, only to find my hand grabbed roughly and twisted away.

"So slave, still resistant? Still forgetting your place? Well, I have got plans for that! Sevia, Asder, come here. Bring the Thrasher and the Rack!" Seirkaru says as he jerks me all the way to my feet.

Within minutes, two HUGE bears had brought over a thing best described as a crane and a whip that looked very painful, with steel bearings on the ends of the strands.

The crane had an adjustable cable on a winch and a horizontal bar with cuffs on it attached to the cable.

Before I can react, I find my chain undone and myself attached to this infernal machine.

My arms were held up near my head with the bar keeping my arms up, and my forearms bent down and in, resting beside my head.

As soon as they made sure I was secure, they began raising the bar until I was standing on my tiptoes, and even then, just barely being able to touch the ground.

"Slave Aelon. For forgetting your place twice in one day, within mere seconds of being corrected, you are to get 120 lashes with a whip I have nicknamed the Thrasher. I want you to thank me for each and every hit by repeating this mantra, "This worthless slave thanks its Master for correcting it. May it have another?" Any, and I mean any, failure to repeat it exactly, or in time will result in 5 more licks with the whip." Seirkaru says as I can feel him brush my shoulders lightly with the hand holding the whip.

I gulp and start shaking but say, "Yes Master. Slave Aelon will do as its told."

"Good. 1!" Seirkaru says as he hits me with the whip.

I force myself to say the line, knowing it would be worse if I didn't.

We repeated this for all the lashes plus 10 more when my crying prevented me from saying the line in time.

When it was done, all I wanted to do was make myself as small and harmless looking as possible and do what I could to keep Seirkaru happy so he wouldn't do it again.

"So slave, do you know your place?" Seirkaru says after he finishes whipping me.

"Yes Master. This slave knows its place. Its place is to serve its Master and its Betters no matter how it itself feels about its task, duties, or even if it itself is hurt." I say, hoping that would placate him.

"Good slave. Well, I am tired, but its time to start loading you up for your ride to your new Owner tomorrow." Seirkaru says after a slight chuckle before he quickly walks off.

A few minutes later, he returns, followed by two large Tigers.

"Pay attention slave! These two here are your transport Handlers. You WILL obey them! Now behave and follow them to your transport." Seirkaru says as he undoes the tether.

For some reason that I can't fathom anymore, I hit him with my free hand and immediately wish I hadn't as horrible pain shoots through my arm.

"Hah, that looked painful slave. If you were a free person, I'd say that in itself would be enough of a lesson, but you are a slave, so that means that I need to remind you of your place, yet again. I had thought for sure your lesson not but five minutes ago would have taught you that, but I guess not. " Seirkaru says as he picks up a whip that had metal talons on the ends of the strands. The Tigers continue to hold me instead of that device I had been on.

"Never strike at your betters. Never even raise a paw in anger to them. Never speak without permission, and most importantly, NEVER FORGET YOUR PLACE!" Seirkaru roars as he pummels my back with the whip.

I just collapsed from the pain and the tigers hold me up for him to finish whipping me. By the time it is done, I can feel the blood oozing down my back, and my back feels like it was set ablaze.

I couldn't even bring myself to argue I was in so much pain. Once he finished, he stuffed my gag back in my mouth, stuffed my hurt hand into the mitt again, and the Tigers dragged me to a small cage sat on the back of a wagon while the bears wheeled off the crane.

"You can't be serious. There's no way I can fit in there." I say through the thankfully loose gag as they press my face into the door of the cage.

"You'll fit, slave. With plenty of extra room, well, plenty of extra room for a slave that is." the Tiger on my right says as he and the other one stuff me into the cage after tightening the gag to where I couldn't talk.

I was curled up into a ball, and could only move my hands, my tail was pressed under me, and it was stuffy and hot due to the cage being surrounded on all but the entrance by various bits of tradegoods.

I could hear them talking and I started trying to kick the cage's door to try to open it so I can run.

After a few kicks, I feel something hit the bottoms of my feet and feel little pinpricks from it.

It hurt pretty badly enough that I pulled my feet away from the cage and keep them still, hearing whoever held it saying "Keep quiet and stop moving about, slave. Or do you need a smaller cage?"

I gave in and cried as lightly as I could. I eventually fell asleep in the crowded space, only to be woken when I felt the wagon start to move. A couple of hours later, we stop and I hear a new voice say "Alright, while I know you are here on behalf of Head Slaver Seirkaru's orders, we still have to inspect your cargo per order of the Thief King. Hand me your cargo Manifest."

I hear a lot of movement and sound as they inspect everything and as I heard someone get to the end of the cage, I try to say "Help! They kidnapped me!" but it just comes out as a big muffled sound.

"Pull your slave out of its cage. I need to be sure its attired according to the laws agreed upon in Braggshire by his Lordship and his Council." the Inspector says as I feel the Tigers getting off of the wagon.

"Alright, but be a bit careful, its a fierce one, took down six of our elite warriors before we could subdue it." one of the Tigers says as I hear the cage door open.

As I am pulled out, I can see we are in a very small gated in area, even if I could escape from their grasps, I would be trapped in here. I let my head drop to hide the tears that had welled up quickly.

"Well your slave is almost properly attired. If it is going to be completely nude, you need to place a modesty cage upon its privates." the inspector, a Wolf, says as he looks me up and down as if I was a piece of property. Which I guess I sorta am now...

"Yes sir. Does your outpost have any in stock? We didn;t have any" the Tiger on the left says as the one on the right takes over holding both of my arms.

"Yeah, just bring the measurements you need and whether spiked or not." the Inspector says as he proceeds to look over the rest of the cargo.

Before I could react, I had the Tiger measuring my sheath and balls.

"Hmm." he says as he gets up and heads out of my sight. I can't hear what he talks about due to the noise of the guardpost, but considering what he just measured, I don't like it.

Within a few minutes, the Tiger walked back over to me, carrying what looked like a jockstrap.

Before I could even try to do anything, I found my sheathed cock grabbed and shoved into a tight, cramped sleeve in the cup and my balls placed in similar.

The Tiger locked the device to me with a bunch of tiny locks, and then they both let me go, except for holding onto the rope tying my arms together.

"That's better. You are now cleared to go as soon as you secure the slave." the Inspector says as I find myself shoved back into the cage.

The so called "modesty cage" was so tight it hurt, and the road had gotten pretty bumpy as we were on cobblestone pavement now.

Before too long, we had arrived in town. And again I found myself dragged out of the cage, but unlike before, I was put on a leash.

I did try to run, but the Tiger had a great grip on the leash, and I ended up having to follow to keep from being choked.

I found myself lead to a huge mansion, well to the yard of it. It seems the Slavers already had instructions.

I was tethered to a post with a locking chain, and all my other things except the modesty cage and the collar were removed. The post was right in front of a feral dog's house.

"You be good now. You don't want to have to visit the Trainer. Trust me, I used to be his assistant." one of the Tigers say.

"Come on, why are you guys doing this? Just let me go, please." I say as I look at the one that had spoke.

"We do it because we have to. And we can't let you go. Sorry." the Tiger says as both of them leave.

Just a few minutes later, an elderly Fox walks over to me.

"Ah, so you must be my new slave. Comfortable? I hope so. It must be more comfortable than the slave kennels at least." the old Fox says as he approaches me.

"Please, let me go! I'm not supposed to be here! I was supposed to be on my way to the Alaum Academy for Knights! At least, I was until those stupid Slavers raided my village..." I say, hoping that since he seems to be the guy they sold me to that I could make him pity me until I could escape.

"Nope. You are supposed to be here. I bought you, you have your Mark, and here you are in your little kennel. Also, when speaking to me, you need to call me Master." the old man says as he slaps my face with his cane.

I grab it with my good hand and twist it free from his grasp and toss it away.

"Don't strike me old geezer." I say as I stand up to full height, despite the chain pulling badly at my neck.

"Bad slave. Lay down." the old man says as he pulls out a whip and lashes out with it.

Forgetting for a moment about the sore on my right hand, I reach out to stop the whip with it, only to be rewarded with a strong enough pain shooting through my arm from my hand to make me drop to the ground in tears.

"The Slavers weren't kidding when they said you were a fighter. That's good. But also bad. It means you are less likely to listen to a Master you consider weak and feeble. Hmm, I'll be back soon, slave. I need to check my mail." the old Fox says as he walks off, chuckling lightly after he grabbed his cane.

I try my best to uproot the pole that the chain is on, but I just can't get it to budge. It must have been driven in deep.

"Alright, slave, here, I'm gonna take that collar off of you. You are welcome to try to leave, however please do wait until I have went back inside, okay?" the old Fox says upon his return.

"Yes sir. Thank you." I say as I feel him unlock the collar and feel it fall off.

I wait until I am sure he is in his house and run off, happy to be free. Not happy to be nude, well almost nude, I run over to a bank to see if they could loan me some money. As soon as I approached the counter, the teller said "Where's your collar and your Owner, little slave? Or were you sent here as a payment for someone's account?" the teller says as I approach her.

"Neither. Look, no collar. I am free. My former Master set me free. Anyways, I have an account with a branch of this bank, can I please get some money out of my account so I can buy some clothes and find someone to remove this stupid thing they had forced on me? The name's Aelon Daelaharris, Hunter and Knight in Training for Jadespire, Alaum." I say as I try my best to keep calm.

"Such a rude slave you are. I can see why your Owner wanted rid of you. If you aren't here as payment, I have to alert the Guards. So leave, or get punished." the teller says as soon as I finish speaking.

"For the last time I am not here as some sort of payment! I'm trying to get my money from MY account so I can get my life back on track." I say, getting annoyed as the Teller did some sort of weird hand gesture.

Before I can react, I feel my arms seized by arms much stronger than mine.

"Come on little noisy slave, let's take you to a holding pen so we can find your Master." one of them says as they drag me out of the bank.

I start screaming at them for dragging me out just for trying to get a loan to get some shorts.

They tell me, "Tough. You are a slave. You don't get any money for any reason. Much less approach your betters without being asked to. For that matter, where's your collar?"

"I don't have one. That old dude freed me." I say as I keep trying to struggle.

They laugh and turn into a building that said "Sheriff."

"You can't do this! I'm Free! The old geezer that bought me freed me!" I yelled as I saw I was being dragged towards a cage, a very small cage at that.

"No you are not. You are a Marked. You will never be free. Now behave like a good little slave until we find either the Master you ran away from, or a new Owner for you." the Sheriff says as he leads the Guard and me to a cell that was less than half the height of the others and stuff me into it.

"Considering the only elderly person my Guild has sold a slave to from that batch is Lord Reginald Fisbaum III, I suggest you contact him." a Wolf in a hooded robe that obscured his face says with an evil smile crossing his muzzle, though his voice sounded like that Slaver's.

"No need my Liege, I am here. Now my slave, do you understand it yet? Do you understand your place?" the old Fox says as he walks in the door and looks at me.

"What the fuck am I supposed to understand!?!? I fought the Slavers, lost and was captured, then bought, then I was freed, and now for some reason I am locked in the smallest cell in the jail!" I scream at the old bastard.

"Here, before I lose my temper. Read this, aloud." the old man says as he hands me a letter.

I take it, and then just because I want to prove him wrong, read it aloud, "Dear Lord Reginald Fisbaum III, it has recently come to our attention that one of your slaves somehow managed to con its way into our school. It has named itself Aelon Daelaharris. It is highly suggested you take the most effective way of disciplining such a slave that forgets its place. Show it it's place and then take it to the Trainer to reinforce that. Thank you from the Headmaster of The School of the Order of Alaum."

"That's bullshit! I applied at the school before those goddamned Slavers raided my village!" I say as a feeling of fear and sorrow builds up, before I scream, "You fucking just made this up to fuck with me!"

"No slave, I didn't. Read this one now. Then get ready for your punishment for daring to speak in such a way with me. Especially without permission." the old bastard Fox says as he hands me an envelope that clearly had my name on it.

It was obvious that it had not been opened at all, and I had to resort to using a claw to break the seal before taking the letter and reading aloud, "Dear slave, we have informed your Master of your misbehavior and also must inform you that the application you somehow got approved is no longer valid. DO NOT contact us ever again. If you do, we will be forced to discipline you ourselves. Now be a good slave and ask your Master to punish you as he no doubt is ready to do so. If you behave, see if your Master will send you to our sister school to train you to be a nice little guard dog."

I let the letter drop as the sorrow and anger, and fear and everything just became too much. I end up staring at the mark on my hand, wishing I could just tear it right out of my skin.

"I'm a nothing now? I can't ever be a Knight? Can't ever test my skills in battle? I-I-I'm expected to just, just, roll over for you? Because you are somehow automatically better than me?" I say in complete disbelief.

"Looks like it's setting in, slave. Yes, you ARE expected to roll over for me, and anyone else who is not a slave. Come now, we are going to get you a nice, new, collar and then take you for your punishment. As I am much too old to do it myself, I think I shall take you to the Trainer's and let him work you over for the next, Oh I dunno, month." the Fox says as he gingerly strolls over to the cage and unlocks it.

I just stay put, at least until the guard had enough and jerked me out literally by my ears.

I try to hit the guard with my good hand, but get swiftly hit in the gut. As I am coughing, the Fox walks over and says "Make that two months, slave. When you are back in your pen on my estate, I will see about training you to be a guard dog for my grandchildren. You'll get to go to a nice school after all."

He then slips the Guard some money and the guard drags me off by the scruff of my neck, and all I can muster up for a reaction is letting tears fall. I couldn't even find the strength to move.

I quickly found myself in a strange shop, and strapped into a chair near a big machine.

Within minutes, there was a permanent collar on my neck, only a cutting machine would ever get it off of me. Though I have to admit I liked how it was decorated.

Not too long after that, I was lead to a building in the middle of town and tied to a post in the front yard of it.

I was lead past a Lion Guard standing by a half-starved Wolf, who was curled up in a large amount of pain as his restraints glowed and buzzed and a cat who had the angriest looking Liger I had ever seen standing over him, snarling.

After I was tethered to the post, the old Man said, "Now remember slave, you brought this on yourself with refusing to accept your new role. Forget about that foolish Knight stuff. Learn to be a good slave for me. If you aren't too much trouble to your Trainer, I'll even think about shipping you off to that guard dog school that the letters mentioned."

I felt sorrow rise again in my stomach, but bowed my head, knowing I had little choice in the manner now.

Upon hearing a whip crack, I turned towards the sound. I saw the poor little cat slave, across the yard, trying in vain to get his collar off and run as who I guess was his Master hit him with the scariest looking whip I have ever seen.

Tearing bits of fur and flesh out with each hit.

I could hear the slave crying and his Master saying "Worthless! You are Worthless! I don't see why my wife treated you so softly when it ended up costing her her life! You pathetic weakling! Couldn't even stop her from being raped and murdered!"

The slave manages to cry out "Master, she had me locked up in my cage, how could I do anything?"

"Lies! Fucking LIES! I TOLD her to have you OUT when I am not HOME! YOU ran and HID and when you KNEW I was on the way home, YOU locked YOURSELF in in your cage." the guy screamed as he whipped his slave harder.

"Please Master. Stop. I'll be good." the slave says as he drops to the ground and cries as his Master keeps whipping him.

"Shut the fuck up, Worthless Cunt! Yes you will, after you spend the next six YEARS here. IF I feel like you DESEREVE to even sleep in MY yard, then I will pick you back up. Otherwise I guess you get to find out what happens when slaves are abandoned here." the guy says as he slams the bottom of the whip's handle into the slave's shoulder, making an audible break be heard and the slave breaking into incomprehensible sobs.

I want to cry out to him to stop it, but the old man shows me his own whip, a different one that had spiked triangular ends, so I bow down and try to ignore it. Feeling horrible that I was letting an innocent slave get beat up by such a crazed idiot simply because I was afraid of it happening to myself.

After a few more minutes of the various bits of drama, a HUGE Bull walks out the door of the Facility, a large whip in one hand, and a dangerous looking spiked paddle in the other.

"So just Three then? You there, quit beating your slave. It's time to turn it over to me." The Bull says as he looks around at us, before resting his eyes on the guy who had been so badly abusing his slave.

"Who are you to tell me what to do?" the guy says as he turns his whip towards the Bull.

"I am the Head Trainer of the Facility. I am also the second in command of the Slaver's Guild, so if you want to keep it, you will listen to me. The fact you brought it here instead of taking it to the Pens shows you want to keep it, so listen to me." the Bull says as he stomps towards the Liger

The Liger stops being cocky and simply keeps glaring at both the bull and his slave.

"Alright, I have seen all I need to see. Give me the names your slaves answer to, and if you desire, the names you wish to have them retrained to respond to." The Bull says as he pulls out a piece of paper and a pen from his pouch.

Seems I am first, and the old geezer wants me to answer to Ferrith. The second one is the Liger's slave. Pallas, and, well, Literally his Master wants him to answer to Worthless Cunt. And the last is that slave with the horrible restraints, Ross, who it seems is to be trained to answer to Amber. What was wrong with our actual names?

"Alright, until I get the pens cleaned up, and in the case of Amber here, the magics aligned, you slaves will sleep out here. If I see anyone try to take the shard that will be sat on top of Amber's pole, including Amber, you all will be severely punished." The bull says as he pats the Wolf on the head.

The wolf lets a little growl out in annoyance and the bull digs his fingers into his head and says "Amber, be a good slave and purr if you get petted. Any other sound will result in punishment. Understand me, slave"

"Yes Sir." the wolf says as the bull keeps digging.

"So?" the Bull says as he increases his grip.

Surprisingly the wolf manages to do a half decent purr, and the Bull stopped.

"Alright Slaveowners, you may leave, and you too Guardsman. I'll be sure your slaves are trained to your specifications. As a lucky treat for them, these three get to be trained by none other than me." the Bull says as he continues to "pet" the wolf's head, meaning he had to force himself to make that noise.

Before the Lion Guard can leave, the Bull says "And please tell Magus Darkscorn that I will have his little bedslave here ready and able to take ANY realistically sized object in either of its holes, and will even have it trained to take objects in its pisshole. Maybe I can get it trained well enough in these four months to take a large toy into there."

"Uhm, can do Lord Ernaz." the Lion says as he walks off, looking nervous for some reason.

Wait. Did the bull say what I think he did? Any sized object in that poor wolf's various holes? And in his pisshole? Sick! Considering I am straight, I really hope that I don't get trained for something like that.

Despite the pain he must be in, the wolf tries to get away when the bull temporarily unhooks his tether. He fails miserably as the bull had such a good grip on his head, he just ended up flopping about.

"Trying to leave, slave? Well here, let's show you how a fuckhole like you gets punished for disobedience." the bull says as he easily throws the wolf across his lap and pulls out something that looked like a plant. The Bull took out a knife and shaved the bark off and then quickly shoved it into his ass.

The wolf screamed as the branch was pushed further and further into him. As soon as it was as far as it could go, the bull then flipped him onto his back, motioned for someone nearby to come over to him.

It was a clearly broken slave, a dog. A Labrador I think.

He grabbed the wolves hands, and with surprising strength, held his arms down and him in place as the bull undid his chastity device and grabbed another piece of ginger and slid it into his pisshole.

Again, the wolf is crying and I am hissing alongside him.

He struggles, trying to get free, but then another slave walks over, carrying some strange looking bag. Before he knew what had happened, he found himself on his stomach, arms locked in the bag, behind him. No way to get them out, and no way to get the sticks out. Just left in pain.

"There. I'll leave those in you for about an hour. Then you should be used to it. Considering your role, normal punishment might not really get through to your head. But hurting the parts you are gonna be relying most on to do anything for your Master, as well as your only possible source of pleasure, that usually sends a message to fuckslaves like you. Especially once they've stopped really thinking about more than sex." the Bull says as he shoves a nasty old gag into the poor slave's mouth.

"If you behave, after your punishment is over, You can have the Crystal Shard tonight to give you rest from the shocking, otherwise, well, it only gets worse from here, slave Amber." The Bull says as he stands up and walks towards me.

"Now as for you, slave Ferrith, well first thing is first. Stand up, fight me." the bull says as he moves way into range of my tether.

I look around for something to strike him with, but can only find my chain so I decide to do it unfarily and I do my best to attack him in the most sensitive spot males have, so I can get him down to where I can claw his eyes out, but he laughs off every blow and slash.

"Well that was fun, now to show you how a real man fights." the bull says as he slams his fist into my stomach and then beat me to the point I am just left in a ball, crying.

I was in too much pain to pay much attention to anything, but it seemed the bull went easy on Pallas.

Meanwhile all my mind could focus on was how pathetic I was. I had had a chance to help an innocent, and I ignored it out of fear. I had had a chance to prove myself, and got stomped.

As a Knight, I was a complete failure. I suppose it was good I would never be a Knight now. No, there's got to be a way to get out of this. There just has to be. The Gods surely wouldn't let an evil like this run untamed, would they?

Once the bull finished his second session with that poor wolf, he said goodnight to us all and went inside.

I fell asleep easier than I would like to admit, long before sunset.