Gone
Kris Me
Title: Gone
By: Kris Me
Introduction
Boyd blinked and looked over the sea of faces.
The poke in his back and the tinge of low current from the prod made him stand taller. His face flushed crimson as his cock stood to be admired.
He had never contemplated what it would feel like to be on display, to be the meat at a meat market. To be sold to the highest bidder at eighty-three years of age and on a planet, he knew nothing about.
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Copyright:
Copyright © 2021 Kris Me - All rights are reserved
This story is the work of Kris Me. You must contact me before you copy more than one page or ten percent of the content, as per the Copyright Act 1968, Australia.
Last updated: 24/10/2021.
The book cover was designed in Microsoft Paint 3D using art that is my own, copyright-free or covered by creative commons license for commercial use from https://pixabay.com/. Picture thanks to Foundry Co.
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Declaration:
~~ Adult Themes ~~
This an erotica science fiction book based in the fictitious Keltrian Universe. It is NOT recommended for people under the legal age to access such stories, depending on the reader's country of origin.
This book may contain vulgar language, references to religious icons, violence, coercion, murder, rape scenes or descriptions of coitus between humanoids of the same or different genders.
This book DOES NOT contain descriptions of bestiality nor coitus between Earth-born humanoids closely related by blood.
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Editing:
Since this is fiction, you may find my assumptions fabricated, and that I have taken liberties with reality, as you know it. The humanoids in this story are not based on anyone I know or have read about.
Australian based dictionaries were used for reference, and Grammarly was used as part of the editing suite. The story was written in Microsoft Word.
If you find grammatical or spelling errors, they are not the fault of my editor or proofreaders who did try to fix my work. However, I do tend to fiddle around after the fact, so all errors are my own.
If my Australian colloquialisms or terms need clarification, or you just wish to correspond, I'm more than happy to answer your emails. You can send them to: kris.me2@inorbit.com
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The Wiki:
https://keltria.fandom.com/wiki/
The Wiki contains information about the Keltrian people, wizards, magical items, colloquialisms and adapted words that have been created for this universe. Maps, character lists and other information that may relate to this book could be found.
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Acknowledgements:
Special thanks to J. Konietzko, who did try to decipher my dyslexic scribbles.
Cheers to all of the readers who have pointed out I do make mistakes and have helped me fix them. And extra thanks goes to Lazeez for his support.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Kris Me
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Chapter 1
"It has happened again!" the excited news reporter blurted over the radio waves.
"In the latest incident, Dr Mary Butane contacted the police at 6:43am this morning to inform them that the Roper Aged Care Facility in Cairns was missing half its residents."
"Fifty-four residents and five of the oldest members of staff are missing and believed to have been abducted. Dr Butane stated that she, the patients and the staff left behind were all unharmed."
"This is the twentieth nursing home in Queensland to report missing patients in the last nine days. At present, one thousand, one hundred and eighty-nine residents and fifty-one staff members that vary in age between fifty-five and ninety-five are missing in Queensland alone."
"It is interesting to note that no males over the age of seventy-five and under ninety-five were left behind. None of the women over ninety were taken."
"We have received reports that an equivalent number of care centres in each of the other four states have also lost patients. The Northern Territory and Tasmania have also reported the abduction of patients and staff from five facilities each. Oddly, the ACT (Australian Capital Territory) had not made any such reports."
"It is estimated that five thousand people have now disappeared. The police are baffled by how these kidnappings have been conducted and where the people could have been taken. One officer said that it is as if the older staff and occupants had simply gotten up and walked out."
"In many cases, of course, this would have been impossible as the residents were bedridden or wheelchair-bound. Still, no one has claimed responsibility for the removal of the patients and staff."
"It has been reported that the security cameras in each facility were functioning, and they simply showed that the people had disappeared, all at the same time. The patients and staff that were left behind had lain down wherever they were and gone to sleep."
In a more humorous voice, the male reporter said, "It has been bandied about that the residents were abducted by aliens."
"Some people are saying it was an act of God but can't explain why the younger members of staff and patients and the very old patients were left behind. The families of those left behind are thanking God for leaving their loved ones."
"In other news…."
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Boyd shivered, even though the air temperature was a comfortable 24oC.
His bemused brain was still trying to figure out how he had come to be standing on a wooden platform with an erection and in front of a bevy of women. Most appeared to be between their mid-twenties and mid-thirties in age.
They were dressed in different coloured, tunic styled dresses of various lengths. Some of the tunics were more blousy and others much tighter. Some of the more wealthy people wore a toga (the bit that wraps around and over a tunic), but many didn't. They wore a variety of sandals or thongs.
The women were all fit-looking, and some of them had an odd bluish or greenish tone to their otherwise pale-cream coloured skin. They did have different coloured hair in several styles, from long to short, and light-coloured streaks of blue, green, red, pink or brown in their hair.
Boyd also felt that something about the women was off but couldn't determine what.
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Boyd tried to shake the fuzziness out of his head.
He looked down to see, lightly furred and firm pecs, a stomach with muscle definition and a cock he hadn't seen in such a state in fifteen years. He couldn't remember it being as big as it appeared, nestled in a patch of coppery-red, curly hair.
Not that it was porn star huge, but he was sure that it was more than enough to please most women. Not that he'd had that problem when he had been capable of getting it up in the past.
Boyd looked back up and then around. The platform he was standing on was roughly 20m long and 10m wide. It stood a half-metre off the ground. To his rear was a Barn-like, wooden building. He guessed it was about 50m wide and 12m high with a low-pitched gabled roof.
Two plain, normal-looking doors, 10m apart, were on either side of the centre of the building. They gave access to the platform. The doors were both open and laid back against the wall. A set of steps, 2m wide, on each side of the stage, nestled against the side of the building.
At 2m intervals around the stage to the railings on the stairs were fence poles. They were about 2m high and bent at the top back over the platform for about 40cm. The top section was strung with three rows of barbed wire.
The straight length of the poles supported a tightly strung, chain mesh fence. The diamond-shaped holes were at least 15cm across. A gate at the top of each set of stairs was closed and guarded by a woman.
Boyd had to chuckle at the tall, blonde, female guards. They were dressed in some sort of white, mid-thigh length tunic. Over the top was bronze-looking chainmail armour. The padded armour covered the shoulders and dropped to just below the crotch. A thin, gold, cloth trim edged the chain mail and the tunic.
The guards wore steel, open-faced helms with fancy, gold scrollwork on them and a row of short spikes down the centre to their neck. Laced, leather, mid-calf boots protected their feet. A wide belt with brass studded baltea (dangling straps) covering their groins and a sheathed dagger on one hip completed their ensembles.
They looked pretty sexy to Boyd. However, the 2m long poles they were hanging onto were not so sexy. Instead of a spearhead, they supported two short, spiked prongs. He knew that if they touched him, they delivered a charge like a taser. He was quite sure the voltage could be increased to deliver a disabling blow.
Standing beside Boyd were nine other men. Three on his left and six on the right. The men all looked in peak physical fitness, and he guessed that they were between eighteen to thirty years of age. The line increased in height from 170cm to 195cm. Boyd was the fourth tallest at 186cm.
To the left of them stood ten women. They were similarly lined up. The shortest was 152cm and the tallest 185cm. They were of similar ages to the men and all in peak fitness.
The skin tones, body shapes and facial features of the men and women were as varied as their parent nationalities. They were all naked, wore padded, iron shackles with chains of about 40cm long, between their ankles and a set on their wrists like himself.
Boyd frowned. He was trying to work out why he, as an eighty-three-year-old man, was standing on display with these young, good-looking men and women. The sun was rather bright and shone in his eyes, making him squint. He suspected it was early morning rather than late afternoon. He glanced down again and blinked in shock.
Focusing on his body, he decided that it was the hair more than any other reason that made him look harder at his body. His genital and chest hair had been grey for thirty years. All of his hair had been pale grey or silver-white the last time he looked in the mirror.
His forearms were now furred in the same fine, softly curled, copper-red hair of his youth. The age spots, wrinkles, dry patches and even the scars from the removal of numerous skin cancers were no more. The skin beneath the pelt was now smooth and unblemished.
He glanced at the man to his right. Frowning, he whispered, "Pete? Is that you, Pete?"
The man flicked his eyes at Boyd. Boyd could read the uncertainty, confusion and barely contained panic of the slightly shorter man.
"I'm Boyd, Boyd Flynn, from room 1-30."
"Arrh…." screamed Boyd as his body jerked, spasmed, and his knees gave way and dropped him to the deck.
He managed to put his forearms out to catch his upper body and save his face from planting into the dirty platform.
"Shut up and stand up. It will be your turn soon enough," a female voice growled behind him.
Boyd's body shivered again as his nerves were still upset at being stimulated in such a manner. His left arse cheek smarted as he pushed himself back to his knees. As he went to pull his right leg forward to push to his feet, the ankle chain pulled tight, and he knew he wasn't going to be able to stand up that way.
He rocked forward and put down his hands. Lifting his arse into the air, he walked his hands back and straightened his legs. Once his legs were straight, he lifted his torso back into the upright position.
Boyd had to grin at himself. He'd not been that flexible for more than forty years since he got out of the Army. He voluntarily joined the Royal Australian Engineers back in 1958 when he was eighteen years old.
He did his time in wars in the Philippines, Cambodia and Vietnam. He got shipped around between different squadrons. He had visited many other countries in those twenty-two years and even managed to finish his Civil and Mechanical Engineering Degrees.
Boyd finally got out of the Army after doing twenty-two years, and he moved back to Queensland to set up his own construction business. He was exceptionally good at it, and he made a lot of money.
A car accident when Boyd was seventy-two reduced his mobility. He was hit by a red-light runner, and his legs were smashed. Hence, he was forced to retire, and it took him over a year to get back onto his pins with the help of a walker and then a cane.
So, he moved up to Cairns to be near his daughter, Becky, and the two grandkids. Two years later, he had a mild stroke. He had tripped over a hose in his daughter's backyard and hit his head on the concrete patio.
He found himself waking up in a nursing home a week later. He wasn't really impressed that once his daughter and her husband had him in the nursing home, they liquidated his assets and buggared off to leave him to rot.
He'd not heard of or seen them since. So much for giving her power of attorney and making her a trustee of his trust. At least in the home, he'd not had to care for much. He could read in peace, watch his footy and stay in his PJ's all damn day if he wanted to.
Mind you, he'd not had that much to do with Becky since she was about fifteen. He guessed at forty-five, she still held a little resentment from when he divorced that creature Becky called a mother. The worst mistake he ever made was marrying that money-grabbing bitch.
He should have stayed in the Army.
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Chapter 2
"People of the Kay Islands," the woman called out in a strong voice.
The large crowd quietened and looked at the flamboyant looking, blonde-haired woman in the short, silver tunic with a snow-white toga over it. The sleeves, hem, and deep and wide square neckline of the tunic were edged in a band of royal purple silk, as was the wide sash she wore as a belt and one, long edge of the toga.
Gold, flowery embroidery traced down over her left breast to the hem of the tunic. She had bloused the top part of the tunic to allow room for her large, unfettered breasts.
Her long, wavy hair had thin, pale-blue streaks in it, and her pale pinkish skin had a bluish tinge to hit. She was roughly 155cm tall, and despite her slimness, she had an athletic build, like a gymnast.
The flashing gems on the jewellery on her fingers, wrists, ears and neck and the 50cm long crop stick that she held also demanded attention. The pieces were all set in silver and had been created by an artist who liked scrolling designs.
Boyd could only determine that the costumes these people wore had been influenced by the Greeks and Romans. At the time, he was unaware that these people had fled Earth to their new planet.
He would also learn that the city he was in was called Bolii. It was on the west coast of Tye Island and on a planet called Dara. The locals called it Gaia, but that was a local thing, not the official Keltrian name.
The ancestors of the locals', who had been trapped on Earth after the exodus from their homeworld on the other side of the galaxy, had taken that name of their town to fit in with the neighbouring Gaul tribes in the area now known as Switzerland, who had fled Earth with them.
"First of all, for those who don't know me, I am Mage Flavia Lucius," she said as she waved the crop stick that she held to her side and bowed to the women and then to the humans.
Ignoring the sniggers from the crowd as most of them knew who she was, she stood up. She turned to the side to pace along the platform and in front of the women on the ground.
Flavia then stated, "The Senate had given me leave to quell some of the rumours and conduct the first auction here in Bolii. As you all know by now, our plan to revitalise our dwindling population has so far been successful."
She had to stop as the audience cheered and clapped. Once they were quiet, she continued.
"High Wizard Catia and the High Senate have been able to extract some five thousand people from the world of humans."
"We now know that some twenty of their centuries have passed since we came here from that world, they now call Earth. Hence, it is not as we remember it. The Roman Republic is no more."
She had to stop again and then wave her hands down to get the gossips and cheerers to shut up. She even swiped the air with her crop stick. She did have a tough time wiping the smile from her own face.
Regaining her poise, she said, "What magic existed in that world is not as it was. The populations of that world have become immense, and they have polluted it to the extent that we couldn't survive there."
"So, as some of you have heard, the Senate finally agreed to bring some of those people here instead. Their biggest problem was, who to bring?"
Flavia paced as she said, "The mages who scried that world, were able to do so when they found a working transporter on an island that was on the East Coast of a small continent, they call Australia."
"This continent is in the southern hemisphere of Earth. It is separated by vast seas from the northern continents, and it is the least populous and polluted of them. So, we were able to use our magic in that place."
"Wizard Catia and her people were able to observe the population for over two years and learn their language and some of their customs. Even with the use of magic, it was not an easy language to learn or translate."
"During that time, a pestilence had come to plague the earthlings. It has hit the older population of the world the hardest. Over five million of Earth's people have died from this plague in the previous three of their years. We do not even have that many people on our islands."
Flavia drew in a breath to quell her sadness. Her audience was now noticeably quiet as they listened to her story. Even the earthlings were enthralled. They hadn't quite realised yet that they could understand her language.
Mind you, they were still dazed by the massive changes in their bodies.
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Flavia engaged her audience again.
"For the last two years, the Senate has debated on who to take from this world that we had found, and cause the least sadness to those left behind. We wanted healthy people to breed with but to take the young from their parents is a grievous undertaking."
"High Wizard Catia, the High Senate and the Guild of Bolii Province were able to devise a variation of a heath spell to restore the health of the aged people from Earth. To us, most of them are barely half our age, but most of them looked as if they were knocking on the door to the Void."
"As you can see, they resemble a mixture of the old Earth races and our prehistoric people, the Keltrians, that we also know of as the Burgis, the Grandteli, the Genteli and our mother race the Pix."
"We know from our histories that all of the Keltrian races got to Earth, and to some extent, they were able to breed with the existing races. It is only our unique genealogy that doesn't change when we crossbreed."
"Unfortunately, because of those very genes, we need the diversity of the other races to refresh our own. Since we have bred out those few who came with us from the Roman Republic and Gaul tribes that lived near our retreat, we have become stagnant during the last hundred years."
"The last recorded birth was over twenty-seven years ago, and he is sterile. Even the health spells we used on the humans did not repair him as it couldn't remove the curse that was placed on our male-born," Flavia said sadly.
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Flavia turned and faced the ten men and ten women on the platform with her.
The crop stick she held had barbed ends like the guards' poles. She banged it against her thigh to gain the attention of the new people so she could address them.
"While we need you for the purpose of breeding, at this point in time, we can't trust you. Your world and you as a people are as violent as the Romans, the Gauls, and the other races of your Earth were."
"Our people just wanted to live in peace on our own lands, but they all tried to subjugate us. They taught us what slaves were for good for. They taught us how to treat them and keep them in line."
"When our predecessors were able to open a portal to this world, we took those we had captured with us as slaves. Unfortunately, due to our fear of them, we didn't let them breed together very often, and it has recently come back to bite us."
"Even with the magic we can access, we can't overcome what was done to us by our creators. Using science and magic, the Pix made us so that we must crossbreed every couple of generations to refresh our ability to breed."
"As long-lived as we are, we cannot reproduce with those people who are closely related to us. Our genetics will not allow this to happen. Fresh blood is needed for us to survive."
She smiled as many of the slaves cringed at her words.
"We are what your myths call shapeshifters or changelings. We call ourselves the Therians. We are dominantly born as females, but once we are about two to three years of age, we can change our form to male or to one of our animal forms."
"If a child is male-born, more often than not, he will be sterile. Those males that we bear haven't been able to shift to female or to any of the animal forms that they should have inherited from their parents."
"If by a small chance the male can sire children, he only breeds more males that are like him. We have not had a male-born shifter born since we moved to this planet over two thousand years ago."
"So, for our people to survive, we decided that we would rescue as many people as possible from those disgusting places you call Nursing Homes or Aged Care Facilities. It is a terrible thing your people do, locking your old up because your families have abandoned you and don't wish to care for you."
Flavia wasn't surprised that most of the new slaves nodded in agreement with her.
"Unfortunately, we only had a limited time to carry out the removal of your people, and we had a restriction on the number of places to store you once we got you here."
"Wizard Catia says it may be another twenty-five years before we can go back and get more people from your world. That will also depend on the toll that the plague takes upon your people."
"The spells we used on you restored your bodies to what you would have looked like when you were a third of your current age on Earth. It also refreshed your skin, organs, bones, muscles, nervous and circulatory systems to optimum for your body shape and new age."
"Catia says that you should be able to live for at least another fifty years in good health before you start to age again. We are hoping that you men can breed with many of us so we can bear children. You women will also be bred by us."
Flavia could see that the women were not impressed by her last announcement. Many of them were still trying to cover their private parts. The men were more nonplussed at what being used as stud bulls would mean to them.
This didn't surprise Flavia at all.
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It was time for the carrot.
"In our history from when our people lived on Earth, slaves could earn their freedom. You women must produce at least five children to us and one to a human male for us to raise. You should find that the upgrade we gave you should make this task less onerous."
"After that, you will be free to choose how you live the rest of your life. Please remember that it will be at least fifty years before you start aging again. Hence, six to ten years of servitude for the benefit of a longer life in good health is a small payment."
"For you men, the deal is a little different. Since the women will be slaves for at least six to ten years, you men will also have to be slaves for at least five years. Unfortunately, you will have to service many of us in that time, as only forty percent of the people we took are men."
"To pay your bill, you are expected to father a minimum of six children per year or until you reach fifty children and do at least five years of service. No more than one child is to be to the same mother unless they have multiple births."
"You also have to service at least one human female once they have had at least four children. Once your contract is complete, you will also be free to choose how you live the rest of your life and with whom."
"If any of you misbehave badly and fail to conform to our society's rules, you will be shifted to the penal settlement we have built for your exile on Hay Island. However, any human children you breed will be removed and raised by us. You will not be able to hide them from us."
"If you earn your freedom and then break our laws, you will be sent to the penal settlement. The unjustified killing of another human being is such an offence. Please be aware that we are also humans as far as the definition goes."
"Please nod if you understand the rules so far?"
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Chapter 3
Boyd stood there as shocked as his fellow earthlings.
He could see that not all of the local people had been aware of the restrictions that would be put upon the new slaves. Others were smiling and nodding. Still others were assessing the stock to see who they wanted first. One or two seem displeased with the announcement.
Boyd shivered at the hungry looks he was receiving. He was the only male with copper coloured hair and a mid-beige complexion up on the platform. He could see that quite a few of the women were fascinated by him.
When Flavia was listing the number of times that he would have to produce a child, he did some mental arithmetic. If he were on Earth, he would have to sire a kid at least every six to seven weeks. If he got more women pregnant faster, he wondered if he would get free faster.
But he didn't know how his access to the women would be controlled or what freedom here would mean. He wasn't sure that he liked the idea that he wasn't expected to contribute to raising the kids or that he had no rights regarding them. To his knowledge, Becky was the only child he had ever sired, and she was a fluke.
He could only think that he had caught Mandy, the woman he married, at the start of her cycle. It had been a hot and heavy long weekend back home in '69, and she had been insatiable. He lost count of how many times he came over that weekend.
He had to smile, as the shifter-chick said he was back to a third of his age when they took him. That meant he was physically about twenty-seven. He'd still been a bit of a playboy about that age. Being in the Army and moving around so much in his earlier life, he took what he could get when he could find it.
Ever since his last stint in Vietnam in '71, he'd not been so virile. He was damn sure it was all that Agent Orange crap he breathed in that did it. While he could perform when he was stimulated enough, sex was no longer high on his agenda.
Even after divorcing Mandy, he rarely even masturbated between relationships. He could go many months before he even thought about going out and looking for some fun.
Boyd knew his lack of interest in sex was what killed his marriage. It was easy to pass off while he was still in the Army but not so much once he was back home. He'd used the excuses of his business.
Mind you, he got so darn busy that Mandy had to practically rape him to get him in the mood. The fact that he didn't find Mandy an interesting person once he started spending more time with her and after he got out of the Army didn't help either. He spent more time with his daughter than his wife.
Boyd suspected that Mandy had been sleeping around on him for most of their marriage but couldn't be bothered to divorce her while he was still in the Army. Once he found out for sure, about three years after he got home for good, he just stopped sleeping with her and moved into his own room. He also took more contracting jobs out of town.
It had taken her four months to bail him up about not having slept with her in months. She had not been a happy camper when he told her that he didn't want to catch an STD from her, and her drunken snoring was keeping him awake.
It didn't make for a cheerful home for some time, and he spent even more time at work. At least he had been smart enough to put most of the profits he earned into a family trust with his Mum, thanks to her being a smart accountant.
Fortunately, Mandy left him before his mother died. He had been between large building contracts at the time and had dumped most of the profits into the trust while he was looking at his next project.
He'd also decided to take some time off and do some work on the house. It had desperately needed a new roof and a paint job. Most of his crew were farmed out to other jobs for other people while he took a break.
The building he kept most of his equipment in was leased, and the only real equity in the business was his name. He sub-contracted his workers, so he didn't buy them trucks and paid them extra when they worked for him to cover the cost of them using their own vehicles.
His idea of doing business was to use other people's money. It was rare that he purchased the materials with his own money and demanded a bond and percentage payments as he met each goal in the construction. No payment - no work.
Some people hadn't liked it, but he was buggared if he was going to carry the debts of others, nor would he condone shoddy work by his people. He paid his taxes on time and always made sure Mandy had her housekeeping money every fortnight in her account.
Mandy was pretty pissed when she went to sue him in the divorce for half his business, the house and the cars and child support. She had no idea the cars were leased under the business, and it was all in Boyd's mum's name.
The trust owned the house, and Boyd paid rent to the trust. Mandy couldn't access the trust as she wasn't a trustee and had never been listed as a recipient of the profits either, as it all went to his mum.
She put most of whatever she was paid back into the trust, or the money was reinvested in Boyd's next project. To really kick Mandy, she was shocked when she realised that he had no superannuation either. It wasn't compulsory back in the '80s.
At the time of the divorce, Boyd was on welfare benefits. He was also registered as an Aboriginal, thanks to his Mum and Dad. They both had a good mix of Celtic and Aboriginal blood from a whole host of local tribes and Western European countries.
The only good thing for Mandy was that she could make claims for benefits for Becky. Boyd did give her more money for Becky when his next contact paid him very well. He also set up a fund to pay for University for Becky. That didn't help Mandy much, but by then, she had already married again.
He also made sure Becky was in his will, so it no longer mattered what she stole from him as it was hers now anyway.
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Boyd looked around at the women standing ten or more deep outside the area of the platform he stood on.
He refocused on Flavia when she explained what would happen next to his fellow slaves and the bidders. Boyd soon learnt that while he was expected to breed with the women, he was also slave labour.
The winner of him after today's auction was effectively his owner for one year. She was responsible for ensuring he met his quota of at least six children, fathered by him during that year. What she did with him the rest of the time was her business as long as she didn't kill him, make him sterile or be unable to perform sexually.
Boyd was rather surprised when Flavia made a box appear in her hands. Another woman, who was standing closer to the female staves, also produced a box. He noted it looked like a plain, bronze-looking metal box about 30cm long, 20cm wide and 10cm deep.
"While you are slaves, we don't wish to lose our investment in you. For your protection, we will be issuing you each a special medallion. It will provide a type of protective shield should anyone try to hit or stab you."
"Be warned, however, that you might still be susceptible to poisons. If your nose or tongue doesn't recognise the poison and it gets into your system, you will be more inclined to vomit it back up. We also can't protect you from stupidity, falling objects of great weight, or you falling from a great height."
"The medallion also has other spells on it to ensure you stay healthy. So, you can't go on hunger strikes, for example. Also, it has a truth spell on it. If, for personal reasons, you do not wish to answer a question, the medallion cannot force you to do so."
"The exception is if a question is being asked by a Shield as part of an investigation. A Shield is our form of a Police Officer. Even if you wear one of these medallions, they can still cuff you and arrest you if you break or are suspected of breaking our laws. Please nod if you understand me," she finished.
Boyd nodded with the other men. He liked the idea that the medallion would provide him with some protection, at least. He watched and waited as the mage and her helper started removing the medallions from the box. They put them over the head of the recipient.
He noticed the silver medallions were oval in shape and had a square green-yellow gem in the middle. The links of the chain were about 5mm long and 3mm at the widest. They twisted slightly near the ends so that the links sat flat.
When Flavia approached him, Boyd bent forward so she could drop the chain over his head. He was rather surprised when the medallion touched his chest as he gotta tingling sensation from it that caused him to shiver.
He then felt an odd sensation in his head, and a feeling of happiness and contentment washed over him. He glanced at the others, but none of them seemed to react to the medallion like he did.
While Flavia missed his reaction, one of the women in the crowd, who was focused on Boyd, didn't.
Once Flavia was finished, she made the box disappear and then tapped the crop on her leg to gain the attention of the slaves.
"We will start from this end and work our way down. This fine specimen is called David…." she said and pointed to the tallest man.
At 195cm (6'5") tall, the lanky, young-looking twenty-some-year-old man looked totally confused by the proceedings. Boyd guessed that the lad (as he thought of him) must not have been more than sixty when they were taken.
The lad's pale complexion and mousy brown hair didn't add much to his rather plain, unassuming face. He wasn't bad looking as such, but he certainly wouldn't be classed a movie-star handsome either. His best feature hung between his legs, and Boyd had a feeling the people that took them didn't have much to do with its length or girth.
He did wonder how the locals would take to the lad.
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Chapter 4
The first bids were fast and furious.
While the slaves didn't know the local monetary system, they all got the idea that quite a few of the buyers were willing to part with small fortunes to obtain a male slave.
Boyd had to chuckle as David also realised that the women were bidding on him. David blushed beet red down to his chest. He was even more embarrassed when he also got a partial erection. The bidding got even more furious.
Boyd caught David's eye and clenched his fist to show the definition of his arm and chest muscles, and then nodded at David to ape him. David blanched and then got a resolute look and did a few poses as best he could with having his hands and feet chained.
The crowd cheered, and the bids went up until one woman called out a sum that caused Flavia to pause, and the other bidders looked at the woman in shock.
Flavia recovered first and yelled out, "Sold."
The woman did a happy dance and then headed over to another woman, who was more than happy to take her money. The other woman with Flavia on the stage took David by the arm and escorted him to the back of the stage so his new mistress could claim him.
Flavia then turned to the next man and introduced him as Michael. He was 3cm shorter than David but far more muscular and thicker in the chest with well-developed thighs. He had black hair and a darker, more coffee-brown complexion than Boyd's milky-mocha.
Boyd decided that the new candidate had some Māori blood in him, going by his features and large, solid build. He wasn't a bad looking lad with his soft curly hair, and he now appeared to be in his early twenties.
Michael kept a very stoic expression on his face, and his hands were firmly held over his groin. He wasn't a happy camper. His soulful brown eyes were aimed at the horizon. He didn't even seem aware that tears were dripping down his face.
Going by the bidding, Boyd suspected Michael's sadness was appealing to the soft-hearted as different women were bidding on him to those who bid for David. Even so, Boyd got the impression the winner didn't get him much cheaper than the woman who got David.
He hoped they were gentle with Michael.
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Pete was up next.
Pete was fair-skinned, blue-eyed and blonde. He stood about 188cm (6'2") tall. His build was not quite as solid as Michael's, but he wasn't skinny either. He had a runner's build.
Boyd also guessed he was a grower rather than a shower. Interestingly he didn't seem as worried about being on display as Michael had been. Pete wasn't happy, but he wasn't stressing about the situation he now found himself in.
Boyd knew Pete had no family back home, and he had been riddled with cancer before they came here. He'd had one foot in the grave. He noticed Pete flexing his shoulders and sucking in his guts.
Boyd could only guess the ramifications of his newfound health hadn't really impacted Pete yet. He smiled as Pete turned and wiggled his arse at the ladies. Boyd could only surmise that Pete considered his tight buns were one of his best assets.
Apparently, the women agreed, and he went for a higher value than David did.
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Boyd soon found that he was next.
Like the others, he wasn't too happy with the hand he had been dealt, but he was a pragmatist. Having his body clock wound back to twenty-seven years old, and his health restored wasn't something to sneeze at.
He wasn't sure he was a good candidate for stud duties, but he knew he'd give it his best shot. He did wonder what his other duties would be when he wasn't ploughing fertile fields. While he could take orders, he was more used to leading than following.
He was intrigued by what these people were and wanted to know more about their history other than the brief overview Flavia had given them. The fact they could change to male did worry him. He had never been inclined that way and didn't think he would react well to being buggered.
He decided that if the person who tried complained at his response, he'd cite why they were brought here was to get females pregnant, not be bum-buddies. Even slaves had some rights. He hoped.
Boyd started paying more attention to the bidding. It seemed he was down to three serious contenders. All three were well-dressed women that he suspected were well off. The blonde with big tits and pale-green stripes in her hair would hang back a bit, and she would only add a bid just above the last bid when the other two stalled.
Boyd wasn't sure if she was serious or just egging the other two on. Brown stripes finally bowed out, and it was between the redhead and the green-blonde. He wasn't unhappy about that as the brown lady had a mean mouth and scowled at being outpriced.
Boyd was sure the price that Pete had got was already passed. If he treated the values as dollars, he was now up over three-quarters of a million. If it was cents, then he hoped a cent here brought a lot more than it did back home.
Boyd looked more closely at the redhead. He liked her hair colour as it was more like his own, but it had blonde streaks in it. She was also the taller of the two women bidding. He guessed she was about 178cm (5'10") tall, whereas the other woman would be lucky if she got over 150cm (4'11") tall.
Red wasn't as big on top, but she wasn't deprived either, at least a 'C-cup' for her height, he reckoned. He also liked her cupid-bow lips, and while she wasn't as broad in the hips, she had more than enough to hang onto.
Red made one more bid, and Boyd glanced at Green. He noticed her looking at Flavia as if for instructions. He then realised that she was bidding for the mage, not herself.
Boyd had to smile at Flavia's scowl and short shake of her head. Flavia called again for any more bids. She even started extolling his virtues, but after a full minute of silence, she got no more answers and had to sell him to Red.
Boyd bowed his head at Red and let the other guard take his arm and shuffle him down the back to one of the gates. He had to wait there for his new mistress to come and collect him.
When Red turned up some minutes later, the guard opened the gate and pushed Boyd forward. He would have fallen arse overhead as the chains didn't let him step down onto the next step.
However, he was quick-witted enough to push off the edge of the platform. He tucked his head under and went into a forward aerial somersault to clear the four steps. He did a complete rotation and landed with his feet together.
He then let his body take the momentum and completed the fall with a shoulder roll, and lay on the ground on his back to get his breath back. He was as surprised as those around him that he could still do such a manoeuvre. He decided he needed to practice as the old moves were a bit rusty.
As he lay there, Red went off her nut, "Janus, you're such as bitch. Wait until Wizard Catia hears how you treat the slaves. I'll have your job, and I don't care who you are related to. I just paid a lot of money for that man, and you have damaged my property. I will expect compensation."
Red then bent down and offered Boyd a hand to help him up. Boyd took it and was surprised by how strong she was as she easily pulled him to his feet. He was amused when she started brushing off his back and arse.
Red spied his amusement and, realising where her hand was, she snapped it back to her side. She stepped back and snapped her fingers to get her maid to hurry forward with the cloak she had over her arm.
"I'm sorry for your treatment, Boyd, and the degrading way they decided to do the auction. I can assure you it was not my idea, but I was outvoted. I'll explain what is happening when I get you home."
"However, that won't be for a bit as I also have to purchase one of the females if I can. Hopefully, there won't be as much competition for them as we retrieved more females than the Senate expected us to."
"So, who bought me?" Boyd asked as he happily pulled the cloak around his body.
"Oh, sorry. I'm Senator Julia Marcus. While I'm responsible for you for the next year, it was our clan that purchased you."
"Clan?" Boyd asked as they moved back towards the crowd in front of the action.
He did have to pull behind Julia as his arse was being pinched and patter a lot. Some of the women even pulled on the cloak to reveal his assets even though he had already been on display. He had to pull it closed tightly.
"Yes, we are a rather large family or, more specifically, a clan who all go by the same surname. But like many families, we haven't been able to produce offspring for many years. With your help, we hope to rectify that situation. I'm so glad Cassia Decimus managed to purchase the man before you."
"We have close ties to that family, but your children and his should be able to produce children, and that will strengthen our bond to them. We are both tall families, so we wanted tall men to mate with. There are plenty of other families that the other men will be better suited to."
"We also want a female as some of our members prefer to live as males. Plus, it gives us more opportunities to mate and strengthen our family. I'd like you to help select the female as you may have to mate with her too."
Boyd blinked at this information. Oddly, he understood what she said. Some of the words were unfamiliar, but his brain translated them into words he understood. He felt an odd tickle in his brain as if someone was in there giggling at him.
He shook it off as his imagination or the fact that he was senile even if he looked as young as twenty-five. The whole situation was rather surreal, so he wasn't really sure what to think.
"Shit!" Boyd said when Julia started moving through the crowd in front of the auction.
She was dragging him along and causing him to stumble when she changed strides. She stopped suddenly and looked at him in consternation. Boyd flicked the cloak aside so she could see his ankles.
"Oh! Sorry. Do you promise not to run off? I know the medallion has a spell on it, so I guess you won't get far if you tried," she told him.
She flicked her fingers at his feet, and the restraints clicked and dropped onto his feet. Boyd stepped out of them but made no move to pick them up. He was just glad to have use of his legs back. He also didn't wish to get his butt pinched again.
Julia smiled at him and then proceeded to drag him off again.
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Chapter 5
Emily Harper was very frightened.
She had no idea how she went from being a seventy-eight-year-old wheelchair-bound old woman to being in her mid-twenties and more voluptuous than she ever remembered being.
She was 175cm (5'9") tall and had long, black, dead straight hair that went halfway down her back. Her eyes were almond-shaped and light brown. Her complexion was olive, and she had the lush lips and a long slender nose of her middle eastern heritage. It gave her an exotic look that was very pleasing to Boyd.
Her slender arms were unwittingly pressing her more than modest breasts together as her hands tried to hide her groin. Her hips and butt were probably wider than she would like, but Boyd could not find anything at fault with what she had on display. He loved her long legs and dainty feet for her height.
Boyd pointed her out and then whispered to Julia, "Don't bid on her until I tell you to and only add a few of your dollars to the bid."
Julia looked at him and went to argue but stilled her tongue. She could feel the heat of his large body behind her, and he made her feel strange. She wasn't used to having someone so much taller than herself being that close to her.
She was a dominant person, but he made her feel as though he was protecting her. She was not used to being protected by a male. Even when her sisters were in the male form, they didn't give off the maleness that Boyd did, and it was disconcerting.
Julia nodded, and they waited until Emily came up to be bid on. Unlike the men, Flavia had started with the shorter women and was finishing with the tallest. Emily was the second tallest.
Boyd then whispered, "Julia, is your friend Cassia bidding on a woman too?"
"Yes."
Boyd looked around and, spying Cassia, he motioned her to join them. She wiggled through the crowd towing Pete behind her. Once she joined them, she stood beside Julia and had Pete stand behind her as Boyd was doing with Julia.
"Cassia, do you like the tall blonde female on the end?" Boyd leant over and whispered into her ear.
Cassia looked at the woman. Chloe was very pale of skin with honey-blonde hair. She stood about 179cm (5'10"). She had large sky-blue eyes and Scandinavian features. While not a classic beauty, she wasn't ugly either.
Her body was a little heavy for Boyd's taste, but he doubted that she'd have trouble carrying a few kids. She certainly had the tits for the job. She seemed to be in shock and just stood like Michael had and stared off into space.
Boyd glanced at Pete, and he seemed to like what he was looking at. The maid, Maria, who was on Julia's other side, looked at the men and shook her head at them.
"She would do, but why did you pick her?" Cassia asked Boyd.
"Well, Julia said you and her clans wanted your kids to be tall. With those hips, she should have no trouble giving you the kids you want."
"So why did you tell me to bid on the darker girl?" Julia asked.
"You want diversity. Her bloodline is very different to yours. She is tall and is more to my taste," Boyd replied with a big grin.
Cassia chuckled, and Julia just shook her head.
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As Boyd suspected, the bidding for the last two women was slower than for the previous eight.
He had noticed that most of the women in the crowd were less than 170cm tall. Julia and Cassia were notably the exceptions. The bids on Emily were slow, and when it got down to two bidders, he nudged Julia to add a bid.
Julia did as he said and only raised the bid by a small amount as if she was only mildly interested. One of the women dropped out, and the other raised the bid by a few more coins. So, Julia did the same. Julia was surprised that the other woman nodded at her and let her have the prize.
Cassia did the same when she bid for Chloe and purchased her for even less than Julia paid for Emily. Neither women were unhappy with this outcome since they had paid quite handsomely for the two males they had acquired.
They went to claim their prizes while the next twenty slaves were brought out to be auctioned off.
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Boyd wasn't surprised that Cassia lived close to Julia.
That being, if you wanted to call the 5km distance between their properties as being close. The families or clans they were part of owned large tracts of land some 12km outside the city limits.
They did have townhouses, but both clans preferred that the new slaves were located on their properties. It wasn't just so they could monitor them better, but it also reduced the chance of them being stolen.
Both properties had detection and protection spells on them. The heavy silver bracelets that they put on the slaves after removing the manacles would also warn them if the slave moved more than a klick from the main house.
Boyd and Emily found themselves being introduced to twenty new people. To the Earthlings, they all looked to be between twenty-five and forty years of age.
They were all taller than 170cm (5'5"), fit and healthy. The red hair with blond streaks was dominant, but they also had a good mix of pink-streaked blondes in the group and the odd one with light brown streaks.
Five of the people were in male form. Interestingly, there was little difference in the dress other than those who preferred male form were inclined to wear shorter hair. They also wore fewer decorations on their tunics.
The men's tunics were inclined to be longer and stop about a hand's width above their knees. The females' tunics were more likely to end about a hand width below the bottom curve of their arse cheeks. None wore a toga over the top of the tunic in the house.
The women also preferred cloth-like belts rather than the leather belts that the males wore. The trim on all of the clothes was maroon. Boyd guessed it was a house colour.
As you could expect, most of the males took more interest in Emily than in Boyd. Not that they dismissed him as they were, after all, Therians and tended to be bisexual. Four of these five were, however, bent more towards preferring female companions rather than males.
Boyd was to learn that Julius was a true bisexual in that he liked sex with both genders while he was in either gender. Boyd hoped he wouldn't have a problem with the Shifter, as he didn't intend to bend over for anyone.
The two new slaves were both shown to rooms that they were told were theirs. The decoration was plain, with white walls and redwood floors. However, the rooms were large, and they shared a bathroom that separated their two rooms.
The rooms were located towards the back of the huge house on one of its wings, and they were on the second floor. They could see two long barns and grassed paddocks from the large windows.
They each had a queen-sized bed with a backboard. A side table was set on each side, with a lamp on each. A six-draw duchess (dresser) with a tall and wide mirror was against one wall, and a long, three-door clothes cupboard took up another wall.
A small round table and two modest chairs were against the wall that had the doors to the room and to the bathroom in it. The furniture was all painted white, but the beds had a thin patchwork quilt to lend some colour to the room.
The curtains were a dark cream and full length over the windows. The cushions on the chairs and bed were of solid colours that matched the colours in the quilt. Boyd's were mostly emerald and white, and Emily's were mostly maroon and white.
Julia showed them the bathroom and then the clothes in Boyd's cupboards, and while Boyd got dressed, Julia took Emily to her new room. The humans were both relieved to pull on one of the tunics and dispense with the capes.
Boyd was just about to look for underwear when Julia brought Emily back into his room. Julia sat them down in Boyd's room to explain a few things to them.
To start with, they were both informed that no one was to enter their bedroom without their express permission unless they were sick. If they were being asked to service someone, they could go to that person's room and then leave whenever they wished.
They had the freedom of the property but were asked not to leave the main house area without an escort. If they attempted to run, then things would change, and they wouldn't like the changes.
"Boyd and Emily, we do realise this has been a big shock for both of you. However, if you work with us, we will work with you. We planned to give you both a week's grace before any of us will ask you for sexual favours."
"Emily, because you were purchased by our clan and not just me, we have agreed to pay the same price we purchased you for each year you stay with us. This was so that you can stay with us for the years you have to serve as a slave."
"We have enough members of this clan to provide mates to produce the children you will have to have for us. It also means you will be able to stay with your children and us for as long as you wish after you are freed. However, the children can't leave with you if you decide to leave us."
"If Boyd is still with us or can come back to us when the time comes, he has also agreed to father one of your children. We know this is not how you did things back on your planet, but unfortunately, it is what we must do here for our race to survive."
"Regrettably, we were not able to secure Boyd's services for more than the year. We will have to bid on him again next year. Fortunately, or unfortunate depending on how you wish to look on it, Earth males are more in demand than Earth women."
"We were not able to collect as many males, and of course, since all of our children to them will be shifters like us, many of them will be able to mate with other Therians from other clans and also their children to your people."
"But I don't understand," Emily moaned. "Why can't you mate with the other clans?"
Julia frowned and then said, "When our ancestors went to Earth from the Keltrian star system, the portal they used was damaged, and they became stuck there. It wasn't so bad at the time because the human races were not so prevalent, and we found that we could mate with them."
"However, you humans breed at a younger age and often, so it wasn't long before we were outnumbered. You, humans, are also far more aggressive than the races that came from Keltria. Some of your races also took a dislike to mine."
"There was a lot of debate in the Senate as to how we were to control your people if the plan to retrieve some of you went ahead. They argued for many years. But as each year came and went, and no more children were born here, we ran out of choices. We were a dying race."
"Some thirty-five years ago, my grandmother, Catia Marcus, was able to open a box of ancient books when she was accepted by the Opal Wizard's magical box. We think it opened for her because of our plight. She has always been a strong healer and has since been an asset to our community."
"From the books that she was able to access, she learnt more about our race. We now know that the Pix people were the parent race as we had always believed. However, it also turned out that they… um… genetically and magically engineered us."
"Does that make sense to you?" Julia asked, looking at each of them for confirmation.
Emily nodded and said, "Yes, our cells contain our genetic make-up or genes. Our genes are made of a chemical called DNA or deoxyribonucleic acid and organised into chromosomes. This DNA is tightly coiled to form a double helix that divides and duplicates itself when a cell divides."
"Humans normally have 23 pairs of chromosomes. They are made up of this DNA and thus lots of different genes. One special pair is called the sex chromosomes. It comprises two 'X' chromosomes for females or an 'X' and 'Y' pair for males."
Julia nodded, "Yes, my grandmother tried to explain that to me. She also told me that our, what you call DNA, is different because we have what she called a triple helix and more chromosomes."
"This is why we can also absorb the genes from other animals and change our cell structure. The magic they used to create us, and this ability is why we can shapeshift into other animals or change our gender."
"Some of us can do it faster than others, and some of us can form many animals while some can only change to one or two. Most of us have a predator and a prey form that we can change to."
"However, Grandmother believes that our creators also included a gene that will not let us impregnate someone that is closely related to us, like a full sister or a parent that shares a parent with us."
"So, incest is out?" Boyd grinned.
Julia laughed, and Emily slapped Boyd's arm.
Julia then answered, "Well, not as far as sex goes, but for procreation, then yes, incest is out."
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Chapter 6
On a more sober note, Julia continued her story.
"My grandmother told me that we also have the problem that another of these genes will not let us breed with another Therian if we are both the children of and the grandchildren of just Therians even if they are not closely related."
"Thus, every few generations, some of us need to mate with non-shifters so we can continue as a race. Also, all females who have a Therian parent, be they the carrier or the donor, will become a shapeshifter."
"We think our creators added these genes so that we couldn't breed them out of existence. Unfortunately, this knowledge got lost because of the time that has passed since our ancestors left the homeworlds of Keltria. Hence we ended up in the predicament that we find ourselves in."
"But why old people? And if you could restore us to our youth, why can't you fix these genes in your own people?" Emily asked.
Julia shrugged, "My grandmother has been trying for thirty years to do this but to no avail. Knowledge of the science and the magical spells that were used to make us didn't come here with us, so we don't know how to reverse the spells or even what spells were used."
"Her magical books also mentioned that the spells were performed by an Empress Wizard. We don't have anyone here that can reach that level of magic. It has taken two thousand years for us to produce a mage strong enough to become a wizard, let alone one who could become a Lord Wizard or a Queen Wizard, or may the Gods and Goddesses allow an Empress Wizard."
"As to why old people. Like Flavia said, our people would not agree to take children or young people that still had a future and family on your world. So, it was agreed to take those people who were old and infirm that we could cure."
"My Grandmother was able to learn a powerful rejuvenation spell that would reduce your age and health to a third of what it was and remove any diseased cells from your body. You might have noticed that none of the people on the stage looked younger than eighteen of your years."
"In your country, this is considered the age of an adult, and your women are most productive between that age and thirty-five of your years. That is why we didn't take anyone who was younger than fifty-five, and even then, we tried to make sure they didn't have family left behind."
"It wasn't easy for us to make this decision, but we hoped that by offering you a new, even longer life with good health until you are very old, your people would accept our conditions. To put it bluntly, it is that or you are sent to the penal colony. We can't return you to Earth. The portal is closed."
"Why didn't you ask our government for volunteers? I'm sure you would have had a lot of people coming here willingly," Boyd asked.
"And tell your people that a portal existed to another world, and we could regress your aging. How well do you think that would have gone? The Senate would have never approved of approaching a government on your world. They are all corrupt and self-serving."
"We also only had a small window of time when we could take people. As it is, it will be another twenty-five years before we can open that portal again if it hasn't failed in the meantime. We have put a lot of strain on it as it is."
"We couldn't wait that long. We may live to around a hundred and fifty of your years, but it has already been nearly thirty years since a child has been born. Also, very few children were born in the twenty years before that."
"As it is, we don't mature as fast as your people. You humans can start having children as young as fourteen. For us, we don't start ovulating until we are in our twenties. Pregnancy for many of us can also be difficult. Traditionally, Therians don't have more than three or four children in their lifetimes."
"So, you people are also taking a chance on us. We are strong-minded, and our cultures and beliefs are sure to clash with yours," Boyd pointed out.
"Yes, that point was also heavily debated in the Senate, but realistically we didn't have much choice and now neither do you. We have to adapt or die," Julia stated bluntly.
Emily said timidly, "Julia, I don't know if I can adjust to having a new lover each year and producing so many children. I've only had one child in my life, and I lost her at a very young age, so I never attempted to have more."
"I'm sorry, Emily, but I didn't make the rules. You shouldn't have any trouble having more children. We know giving them up would be a real strain on you people. That is why the women are going to clans and not to a single person to share out."
"Single people were not even allowed to vote for you women. If they did vote for a man, they still have to make sure he can meet his quota. I guess they will share him with friends or hire out his services, as distasteful as that is."
"As I said, this way, you can at least be close to your children. After you produce the children that we have asked for, your life will be your own. We will not kick you out. You may even pick one or two of us to be your partners' long term."
"That is why I want you two to spend most of this week just getting to know us. We will even let you pick who you wish to try and get pregnant or pregnant from if you like. Emily, if you don't wish to have sex with them after you are, then you have that right."
Emily still wasn't happy with this getting pregnant gig. Still, she was starting to get the idea that, as nice as Julia seemed, she would be forced to have sex with some of these people whether she wanted to or not.
Boyd was a realist, and he knew he would have to have sex with most if not all of the people here if he was to meet his quota and secure his freedom as quickly as possible.
"Julia, just how often do you women ovulate?" he asked.
Julia smiled before answering, "Most of us can control when we are fertile. We also have a potion that can help those of us that are sluggish in achieving that state. We believe the potion will also work for human women."
"Most if not all of the females from Earth will come into season by the end of their first or second week here. A week for us is six days. We have five weeks to our month and twelve months to a year. Our days are divided like yours into twenty-four hours and sixty minutes. I believe it's very close to Earth time."
"We will provide lessons so you can learn more about our world. One thing you may have already noticed is that you may feel lighter here than you did on Earth, even though this planet is about the same size," Julia informed them.
Boyd had noticed, but he didn't think their gravity was more than ten percent different, so he didn't think it would bother him much. It might make it easier for the women carrying kids, though.
While he had a feeling that the women would find it harder to adjust to this new world, he felt that the men would adapt faster. If given the choice of being young again and screwing a few women to get his health and freedom back, he knew how he would vote.
He wondered if Julia wanted to wait a week or if she wouldn't mind a few practice sessions.
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The new slaves met the other family members again at dinner.
Boyd had to smile when he realised that at least half of the locals were now in male form. He guessed they were vying to attract Emily's attention. She seemed a little reticent at being the centre of attention.
Boyd could only surmise that she hadn't been the girl at school who attracted all the boys. He didn't think she had fully realised that here she was an exotic creature that the others would flock around.
While most of the chatter at the table was about local events, the newbies weren't totally left to their own devices. The locals wanted to know what they did back on Earth before they were brought here.
Boyd learnt that Emily had, in fact, been a paediatrician. At eighteen, she had been married to the man her father chose for her, but he had been killed in the same accident that took her daughter.
Hasim had been taking Farah to a doctor's appointment to get new glasses. Her little girl had Down Syndrome and was vision impaired. Boyd now understood why she was worried about having more children.
Being a widow at twenty-two, she took her life into her own hands and used the money she got after her husband died to put herself through medical school. She never married again and had no more children.
It was then Boyd's turn, so he told them he'd had a daughter and an ex-wife and that he was a builder. He didn't elaborate much and only gave them the bare bones. He wasn't looking for sympathy as he felt he had, for the most part, lived a good life in the past.
Julius joined the conversation when he heard what Boyd had done on Earth. "Boyd, you are in luck. Our family runs a company that specialises in building, and we have several building projects going on at present. I think we can sort out your day job for you with little trouble."
Julia added, "Emily, while we don't have children for you to treat, would you be happy to work part-time as our company doctor until you have your first child?"
Not having anything better to do, Emily agreed that this would help her keep her sanity until she adjusted to her new life.
With their day jobs decided, they got back to the business of serious eating. The family each contributed a bit more about themselves to make their new members feel more at home.
Julia was pleased that for now, her family had accepted the presence of the two Earthlings.
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Chapter 7
Boyd was surprised by just how well he slept that night.
He roused early, just like he always did. It was a sheer pleasure to bounce out of bed and feel no pain. He even found himself going through an old stretching routine that he had learnt while in the Army. It was wonderful to have full mobility of his legs again.
Next, he checked his cupboards for some underwear. He had always slept naked, so he hadn't bothered looking for any when he got back to his room after the meet and greet the night before.
He was delighted to find some rather short-legged linen shorts with a drawstring in the waist. He chuckled when he tied them up as they reminded him of the old short-legged Stubbies he used to wear back in the seventies. They just didn't have the pockets.
At least his privates were covered, and the chance of chafing was reduced. He pulled the plain white tunic on over his head. He was grateful that they had planned to find a tall male as they had made his tunic longer than the one Emily had worn the night before.
He chose to wear the thongs rather than the sandals with the long straps that he had no idea how to do up. He wondered if these people had decent boots to wear if he was going to be working on construction sites. He would also prefer to be wearing trousers and a long-sleeved shirt if he was working out in the sun.
He headed downstairs and found the house was still fairly quiet, so he let himself out through the front door to look around. He set off around the house on the path provided and decided to go look in the barns and fenced areas. Two long and wide barn-like structures were on either side of the house.
He found a large vegetable garden out the back and could see a large orchard up on the hill. He noticed they had a rather large pool between the two rear wings of the house that was fenced off from the outer areas.
A gate from the path he was on led into the garden-like area around the pool. His room was in what he determined was the east wing. It was a huge house, and he could only guess how many rooms it had.
He peeked in each barn as he came to it and determined that they milked their own cows or whatever they had that passed for cows. On the front of that barn was storage for hay and feed.
It was easily accessible by the wide road that ran between the path he had used, the vegetable garden and each of the barns. He guessed the paved road went around the house and back to the road leading to the property.
The barn beside the milking shed was obviously set up for the horses and could house at least thirty of them. A room for the tack and saddles for the horses took up half of one end, and a small forge for shoeing the horses was in the other half.
The third barn was on the other side of the house. It held the carriage he arrived in the afternoon before as well as two others. The second third of that shed was set up as some sort of workshop and storage area that he guessed they used to fix the carriages and other machinery. All of the tools looked old fashioned to Boyd.
The final shed was split into three sections. One section held cut and uncut lumber on racks on one side. A timber saw and bed was on the other side of the room, and the large floor area between them was clean and empty.
The next section held a grinding mill. Bags and barrels that held seeds, cracked grain, or flour, were stored in the two side rooms. The last set of rooms in the third section stored all sorts of merchandise. He even noticed one set of shelves with trays filled with a wide variety of nuts, bolts, nails and screws.
Boyd wandered back to the mill and inspected it. He soon determined that some sort of electric motor and a gearbox were used to turn the grindstone. He had no idea what voltage they used here as there was no nameplate on the huge motor to help him.
He also realised that the lights in the house were also electric, but he hadn't paid attention to this fact the night before. He could only guess that familiarity breeds contempt.
These people were an odd mix of old and new as far as he could determine. He then realised that he hadn't noticed any small appliances in the house. He did wonder if they had at least developed washing machines since they mostly wore white.
He wasn't going to go find out at this point.
------
As he walked out of the mill room, he was met by Mathus.
Mathus was some 10cm shorter than Boyd and one of the pink-streaked blondes. He was slim and well-proportioned but not skinny. Boyd had noticed that obesity did seem to be a problem here. While some of the people he had seen the day before were built more for comfort than speed, none were excessively overweight.
"Do you run in the mornings?" Boyd asked.
Mathus frowned for a moment and then replied, "You mean for exercise?"
"Yes. The last time I looked this good, I did regular exercise every day to keep my body looking this good."
Mathus nodded in understanding. "I guess then that you wish to do this exercise every morning?"
Boyd grinned, "Well, most mornings, I do like to sleep in on Sundays."
"Ah, yes, your world uses a seven-day week. When we came here, we determined that this world wasn't Earth. One of our kind was a High Mage and was able to open the portal. We believed she had the potential to become a wizard, and that was why it let her."
"Unfortunately, we also learnt that this world had some creatures that found us tasty, and she died while trying to fend off a pack of what we called Hyenas. While we have since learnt that the animals were more reptilian than mammalian, they are still ugly and ferocious."
"We have since decimated their numbers on the main islands. Be that as it may, once we were more established and started monitoring how this world worked, we decided that a six-day week like our ancestors, the Keltrians, used was more appropriate."
"The Romans who influenced our society before we were able to escape Earth had named the days after the seven celestial bodies they saw in the sky. Those names were not appropriate for here."
"To start with, we have determined that we have two suns that orbit each other, and each has its own set of planets. Our astronomers have found three gas giants in our system and a small rocky planet that orbits inside our orbit. They think that two more small ice planets orbit much farther out."
"Some even argue that there is another planet that orbits our sun on the same orbit as ours. While we have never seen it, they can see its effect on the other planets. Or so they say, as astronomy isn't my thing."
"As to how we name our days of the week our people, looked to the ancients for inspiration. However, we found that they simply named the days of their week by numbers. We liked the names for their numbers, but most were not happy with this development. So, we had to come up with something else."
Boyd was amused with this history lesson and decided that he kinda liked Mathus. They had been happily strolling around the house and had even moved over to one of the rails to look at the horses in the paddock.
"So, what did they come up with?" Boyd asked after a short silence.
Mathus chuckled, "Well, we decided that since the Keltrians had six Gods and Goddesses, we would use them. The Matriarch is the mother of the people and their ruler, so she got the first day of our week, making it Mitera with the word day added to it."
"Their next God was Justice. Since the Greek and Roman Goddess of Justice is Themis, and we are Therians from the Roman era on your planet, we decided that Themis was appropriate."
Next was Genesis, the protector of the land and the animals and controller of the weather. That day starts with Genes. The Goddess of Unity looks after the family and love, so that day starts with Agapes."
"Faith was the Goddess of hope, courage, luck or help, so Pistis starts that day. And last but not least is Charity. She is the Goddess of compassion, health and goodwill to others. They decided on Caritas from the old Latin language."
So, all of the days of our week are, Miteraday, Themisday, Genesday, Agapesday, Pistisday and Caritasday. However, you will find, when you hear those words, they will most likely translate to Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday and Sunday.
Boyd had to think about what he was told. While he did hear Mathus's words, he also found himself automatically translating them to English in his head. He then grasped that he understood Mathis with little trouble.
He also realised he was asking questions with his language without really thinking about the fact that he was speaking a different language. He decided not to worry about it for now.
He could be pragmatic about things like that.
------
"So, about that run?" Boyd asked.
Mathus chuckled and pointed down the driveway, "It is one kilometre long from the fence at the back of the house to the gatehouse."
Boyd nodded and realised that would give him a good idea of how long they thought a kilometre was since they used Keltrian measurements. He also knew that Mathus was gently pointing out how far he could go in that direction without the spell on his bracelet causing someone to worry.
He still wasn't sold on this magic stuff and suspected that it was just technology the people here didn't really understand. He knew damn well if he took twenty-first-century technology back a thousand years, it would seem like magic to them.
"Good," Boyd answered. "Now, all I need is some decent shoes or boots to run in."
Mathus looked down at Boyd's feet and noted he was wearing the thongs that they wore around the house.
"Yes, you should change to the sandals that are like mine, as they will stay on your feet."
"No, I want closed-in footwear to protect my toes and feet. Do you know where I can get some shoes made? Someone who works in leather would be good."
Mathus frowned, "Octavia makes our saddles and other leather goods. She may be best to talk to."