Slave Girl 2: Chapter 27 (Patreon)

Rested, clean, shaven, dressed, and content I face the day feeling as grand as the Emperor himself.

The first thing I do, as Rosa is getting perfumed and coiffed, is practice my positions.  My Lady may be slumbering now but last night told me that she wasn’t as far away as I once thought.  The discipline and control of perfecting my seven known positions helped to sharpen my mind and awaken my muscles.  And it kept me ready.  I was still new to this lifestyle and I knew that my newfound skills would quickly erode if I let them.  They also made me feel handsome and strong.  I could remember well how happy my Lady looked when I did them just right.  Finally, and most importantly, I wanted to be truly worthy of my Lady’s collar again once the time was right.  Once Rosa is looking radiant, and after a bit of cleaning up of our love nest, we set about our day.

With a little help from me Rosa is able to make some quick bread which we have with some oil, hard cheese, and figs for breakfast.  After our meal we begin to organize what supplies we were able to buy and those we’d brought with us originally.  For each item we put away Rosa ensures that she knows where it is and makes a mental note of what was close to what and how many steps away they were from some of her guiding points around the villa that she was beginning to use regularly.  In the cool storage room we find a couple of loose magical tesserae that had come away from the interior of the cold box and my clever slave takes these to place in a few key spots to give her even further guidance when moving independently through the house.

I leave Rosa to her repetitions of memorizing our home and head out to the front porch.  Hauling out the heavy metal tool heads that I’d lugged here all the way from the farm I get ready to whittle the good hardwood handles I’d bought yesterday into shape.  When I open the sack my eyes are instantly drawn to my father’s pugio sitting there among them, the military dagger clearly not belonging among these common implements.  With the same respect that I always treated it with I remove the weapon and hold it in both hands.  I draw the blade and admire the gleaming steel.  It might gleam now but in my mind’s eyes I could still see it dripping with dark, oily harpy’s blood.  Something had told me not to bring it with me to town yesterday.  Thank the gods I hadn’t or it would surely be gracing the belt of that corrupt town guard right now.  I slap the blade back into its sheath and kiss the pommel.  “Love you Dad.”  I then take my work knife, container of pitch glue, and a few small metal wedges and set to work on the various handles.

Before long I had a proper axe, hammer, sledge, shovel, hoe and pick.  Holding out the axe I study it with satisfaction.  With proper tools I finally could do some proper work.  The plowshare I leave in the sack by itself.  With no mule, oxen, or flat expanses of land to use it the plow would be little more than a memento from home.  I then set to filing the axe’s blade to a keen edge.

“I still can’t believe you carried those tools all this way.”  Rosa says as she comes out and leans against the door frame.

“How did you…?”  I look at the axe and back to her.  “Are you sure you can’t see?”

She wiggles her pointed ears and giggles.  Walking out into the open she tilts her head up and listens to the breeze sigh through the forest.  “It’s cloudy today.”

“Yeah.”

She takes a deep breath through her nose.  “It smells nice.”

“Yeah.”

“I think I’d like to go pray now.”

“Okay.”  I nod and set down my file.  “Let’s see if we can find a shrine to Silvanus out back.”

She shakes her head.  “It’s okay Master.  I just need the woods.”

“Oh.”

“There was no shrine in the glade.  There was no shrine under his old cypress.  I just need to be…amongst him.”

“Fair enough.”  I say.  “If you need anything…”

Just then our attention is grabbed by the rustle of branches coming down our path.  Instinctively I tuck my father’s dagger into my belt behind my back and rise up with the axe held at the ready.  I am quickly set to ease again as I see a familiar figure approach.

“Gods almighty.”  Cassie gripes as she swats the tips of tree limbs from her face.  “This place is in dire need of a good set of shears!”  The buxom farm woman, dressed in a common but fetching white dress, walks into the clearing leading a donkey behind her laden with a wooden box.  The moment she sees Rosa her gait pauses a moment, but only for a moment.  “A good morning to you both.”

“And good morning to you Miss Cassie.”  Rosa smiles with the deferential bow of a slave gave to a free citizen.

Cassie’s brows raise at my obviously blind slave recognizing her just by her voice.  She, of course, had no idea that Rosa had listened in on our initial meeting.  I could already tell that Rosa’s demonic appearance had Cassie on edge, as it would anybody of her upbringing, and this greeting only added to the mystery.  But to her credit she did not seem intimidated.

“Hello Cassie.”  I greet her warmly.  “Rosa, this is Cassie.  Cassie, this is Rosa.”

“A pleasure.”  Rosa nods toward the sound of her voice.

“And to you.”  Cassie says.  “Um…Master Quin didn’t tell me how…lovely you were.”

Rosa laughs.  “Master Quin tells me that you are quite lovely yourself.”

This sets both Cassie and I’s cheeks to blushing.  “Ahem.”  I cough.  “So, uh, where are the other two Cassias?”

“Working.”  She answers.  “Harvest begins in a few days.”

I nod a knowing nod.  “Long hours to come then.  From what I saw Ceres was bountiful this year.”

“Oh yes.”  She says.  “Dad’s expecting a bumper yield, if he can get it all in.”  Bringing the donkey up beside her she pats its neck then sets about untying the box on its back.  “Actually, that’s partly why I’m here.  But first, a welcoming gift.”

I hurry forward to help.  Taking the heavy wooden chest by both ends I lift from the grateful donkey and set it on the ground.  “This is for us?”

“Granny went around to the nearby neighbors and took up a collection.”  Cassie smiles.  “If harvest wasn’t so close we would have done a proper gathering to welcome you, but that will have to wait.”

“A gift?  No.”  I say.  “You already gave too much with the river’s feast.”

“It was delicious by the way.”  Rosa says.  “And greatly appreciated.”

“We can’t take this.”  I shake my head.

“It’s already given.”  Cassie says.  “You aren’t turning it away I hope.”

“No, of course not.”  I say as I kneel down in front of the chest.  “I didn’t even know that many people knew we were here.”

“Are you kidding?  Everybody’s heard about the young Hercules and his happy demon already.  You two are quite the talk right now.”  She says.  “You’d be hard pressed to find someone who didn’t know you were here.”

“Hear that Master?  We’re famous.”  Rosa titters.  “Happy demon?  I like that.”

“You shouldn’t have.  You really shouldn’t have.”  I unlatch the box and open it.  Within is a cornucopia of smaller gifts.  Everything from honey, wax and cured meats to soaps, a woolen shawl, small clay cups and decorations in a local style and even some incense to use as offering to our household god.

“What is it?”  Smiles Rosa.

“It’s…so much!”  I answer.  “Granny gathered all of this?”

“If there’s something going on around here you can be sure my grandmother’s somewhere right at the heart of it.”  Cassie chuckles.  “It’s from everybody in the area.  They send along their prayers and good wishes as well.”

“Cassie…I…I…”  I stumble over my tongue.

Rosa comes up from behind to hug me down around my chest.  “What he means to say is, thank you.”

“It’s the least we could do.”

How wrong she was.  The least they could have done was to ignore us, to alienate these two strangers to their land, or worse yet try to drive us away.  I’d seen such ‘greetings’ with my own eyes.  I knew damn well that behind this there would have been debates, the age old fears and distrust pitted against these people’s natural rural warmth.  It gave me heart to see in this gift which side won out.  The simple treasure contained within this rough wooden chest touched me in a way that gold, silver, and mysterious Atlantean codex’s never could.  This was the physical embodiment of hospitality and kindness.  For good and for bad, these were my people.

“I don’t know what to say.”

“Your slave’s already said it.”  She says.  “And you are welcome.”

I rise up and shake Cassie’s hand.  “Thank you, you and your family and…everybody!”

“Speaking of family.”  She says.  “That’s the other reason I’m here.  My father wishes to talk to you?”

“Your father?”

“He heard about you being here without any family or friends.”

“He did?”

“We told him about meeting you the other day.”  Cassie grins.  “And he’s heard that you might need some help getting started out here.”  She crosses her arms just under her voluptuous bosom.  “And it so happens you arrived just as he could use some help himself.  If you’re feeling up to some work we’re going to have more than we can handle pretty soon.”

“Your Dad…he wants me to help bring in the harvest?”  I try to play it calm but I could not hide the excitement in my voice.

“You won’t get rich but he pays a good wage for a good day’s work.  Especially for supervisors.”  She says.  “You’ve got experience?”

“Yeah!  I’ve been farming all my life.  It’s all I’ve ever known.”

“You can drive plow animals?”

“Of course.”

“Could you oversee a small group of slaves and freemen?  Some of them are pretty green.”

“Y-yeah, no sweat.  Easy.”

Rosa sidles up beside and takes my arm, a huge smile on her face.  “I think Ceres is calling you Master.”

“When does he want me?”  I ask, pulling Rosa close to my side.  Cassie takes quiet note of our closeness.

“You can go see him now if you want.  Talk over the details.”  She says.  “He’s not one for contracts so you’ll have be comfortable with a handshake deal.  But he’s never stiffed anybody yet, you can ask anyone.”

The harvest?  Honest field work?  A handshake deal man to man?  YES PLEASE!

“You tell your father that I will be by to see him.  Today.  This morning.”

Rosa chuckles.  “I suspect my Master could go right now.”

“Yeah I could.”  I laugh.  “Oh…but you wanted to pray Rosa.”

“It’s okay.”  Rosa says.  “I don’t want to slow you down.  Go ahead.  I’ll be here.”

“I can’t leave you here alone.”

“I can lock the door.”  Rosa says.  With her fear of monsters she hardly wanted to be left alone but she also knew how excited I was for this opportunity.  “I’ll be okay Master.”

“If you need somebody to keep an eye out I could stick around until Quin gets back.”  Cassie offers.  “I don’t mind.”

“I don’t think…”

“That is a wonderful idea Cassie!”  Rosa says brightly.  “If it is no trouble.”

“No trouble at all.”  Cassie grins.  She waves toward the road.  “We’re your neighbors to the North, the next field over.  His name is Horatius.  Mom’s half expecting you if you want an introduction.”

‘Um, yeah.  Yeah!”  I kiss Rosa’s head.  “I won’t be long.”

She laughs and pats my back.  “Take your time Master.”

“And don’t hurry on my account.”  Cassie adds.  “It’s been far too long since I met a new friend.”

“Ha ha!”  Not even bothering to put away our gift I set out on the spot.  I start out at a walk but quickly into a jog the moment I was out of sight.

Chapter 28