Completed To tame a Dancer

[Taylani]

A hard little laugh, just a harsh abrupt sound coming from her throat is given when he speaks. Her arms tighten around her legs, drawing her knees to her chest, and allowing her to rest her chin on the tops of her knees. This allowed her to be able to continue to watch him cautiously, while she knew if he tried anything she could not stop him fully but she did intend on making him pay in flesh should he try. It also allowed her to feel a little more protected from him, even though she understood it was merely an illusion. Sometimes a little bit of illusion is needed for peace of mind. She allows her red strands of hair to fall forward, partially obscuring her face, giving her a time to access his question and remarks. Until now she has been reacting, simply on instinct and emotion, but now his question did give her pause. "Do you think that if you force me to bear children, that I would choose life as some kind of brood mare over release of death?" Even though the weather was not cold, Taylani shivered. "Did they call you Fallan? Is that what you are called? Well Fallan, I do not know why you keep talking to me. It is obvious that you think of me as little more then a slave, a walking womb. Perhaps it is to try and wear me out, to drain me." She shrugs, finally tossing her head in a fashion that seems habitual, to toss her hair back out of her face. Raw emotion now reigning in her face, her eyes, she no longer attempts to hide the pain and sorrow behind bitter rage.

[Fallan Windchaser]

Now it seemed that she was listening to him and he was pleased with that. Before she was arrogant, innocently perhaps, but arrogant all the same, assuming that she had rights to choose what she did and how she did it. Now she stared into the depths and saw truth for the first time.

"Yes, my name Fallan," he answered, "if you please me I allow you to use it."

"You throw death around as though it a threat, as though I care if you die or not." He smiled coldly. "You saw how much I paid. No one else there wished to pay more. That the value of your life now."

It was time he judged to alter his approach a little. "You not Drykas. You not a mother. No one knows what skills you have. You eat our food and give nothing."

His words continued to be deliberately harsh for he had no wish to create a false impression. "We not harsh, this land harsh. No room for those who only take."

He cocked his head, liking the way that her red hair shifted in the air and the way that her eyes burned from behind it.

"I talk because I think slave not stupid. I think slave not always want to be slave." And now the question he had wondered about. "What is slaves name?"

[Taylani]

Taylani was never what one would call a privileged child, her parents were hard working people who provided what they could. She was never spoiled or pampered but she was loved. Her parents loved her and made sure she knew she was loved. She never thought of herself as being above any station but neither did she ever expect to be told so blatantly how little she was worth. Each word was a pinprick into her psyche, none making huge wounds, but each making enough so that as a whole they added to the injury. Her words were thick with emotion that she tried terribly to hide, "I know that you value me but little. The threat was not intended as a threat but simply to let you know that forcing me ...forcing..." She stops, unable to continue exactly in the line of thought, picking up just a little later in the thought, leaving the missing bits to the imagination, "That it would be a waste of your time. I will not be forced to breed like a tamed dog." She had almost said prized instead of tamed because he has made it very clear that she was not prized, or valued in any way. "I am not..." She stops with a sigh, her shoulders finally hunching in almost defeat. "I am called Taylani, you yourself told me just a few days ago that I would not leave the grasslands except in chains." Lifting her chin once more, taking a steadying breath she speaks in the same emotion choked voice, but a little more of her fire was peppering her tones. "I ...an not a taker. I was taken. I was stolen and forced into this camp. It is not as if I came and asked to live here." Her blue eyes finally lifted to meet his darker gaze, staring at him intently as she speaks, "I am ...happy to earn my keep. If your people do not wish people to come in and just eat their food and take, then perhaps they should not force them into the camps to begin with."

[Fallan Windchaser]

His smile grew fonder as he learned of her name.

"Taylani," he savoured the name and looked forward to whispering it into her ear.

"Taylani brave but not wise." He shook his head. "Fallan value Taylani high. Drykas value Taylani high. But Taylani want to choose death, and so Taylani not value Taylani high."

He waved at the tents. "Many Drykas not born Drykas. You not Drykas. Not now." He shook his head amused by her comment regarding the food and pleased that she was now recovering her spirit.

"Past," he waved his hand back over his shoulder. "Past. Gone. Taylani here now. Can only change future not past." It was difficult to explain what he meant in his faltering Common so he kept it simple, not teasing her now.

"Many Drykas die. Need new Drykas. Why you here now. But not just you, choose you because need children. With child you have status here. This not choice for you. I hear you not want," He shrugged. "Some things cannot change. You harm child, we put you in chains, you have many lovers, many children."

He shook his head and waggled his finger at her in a gesture he was sure she would understand because he could almost feel the warmth from the fire in her eyes.

"No. This not your future. You have child, you care for child. No chains, no slave. Taylani prove worth to Drykas, Taylani go free, Taylini become family, Taylani marry, Taylani become Drykas. All possible." He became sterner. "If Taylani stupid, Taylani stay slave and life not good."

[Taylani]

Taylani stayed tightly coiled, her arms wrapped around her legs, knees pressed against her chest finding a measure of comfort in the solidity of this posture. She listens carefully to his words, the halting cadence made it difficult to discern his thoughts and feelings about the words he speaks, but Taylani had no trouble with the thoughts and feelings the words brought forth in herself. She wondered if he even realized how confusing he was being toward her. One moment speaking of how little he paid and how no one else had wanted her, and then the next speaking of value. She did not believe for a second that he valued her anything more then simply a living incubator. Yet his next words intrigued her only for the hope that lay within them. She cared nothing about marriage or becoming Drykas. She already seen the people, and she wanted nothing to do with this...this culture that seemed to think it was all right to kidnap women and force child birth upon them. However, when he speaks of a free Taylani her ears perked and she found herself with a problem. "Go free?" She asks, one brow raising and her body at once seemed to straighten. "If...if I ...if I agreed to give you ..what you want." Taylani stops, and perhaps for the first time begins to think a little more shrewdly, and knew she would have to spell it out no matter how horrifying it would be for her to speak so candidly. "If I let you ..let you father a child upon me..If I did that..." She looks up at his face, her blue eyes searching his own eyes, "if I gave you a child would you ..would you take me home? Letting me go is one thing, but..but would you help me get back to my real family?"

[Fallan Windchaser]

He had thought to cast his net wide, to see what might be started from the long grass and he saw that he was not mistaken. He was a little disappointed in what appealed to her, but he conceded in his mind that it was understandable and to be expected. The others were things that were important to him, but they were things about which she knew nothing.

Still though he was not about to concede quite so easily.

"You give gift, I give gift." Of course, it was merely one of many trades that would take place though she would not find him as soft as the men of the cities. He would expect full value in return for his protection and guidance, and spreading her legs eagerly, or perhaps she would learn to do so apparently reluctantly, would be the least of it.

"Life hard here. Children die. Two children weaned from your breasts and healthy. I take you home."

Of course he hoped by then that she would have changed her mind and would stay, but only the gods would know that.

[Taylani]

"Two?" She repeated incredulously, having a hard time imagining getting through one let alone two Taylani looks out over the sea of grass, away from the camp toward apparent freedom. Freedom laced with certain death. The first glimmer of hope within her spirit, the thought of simply laying her head against her own mothers breasts for comfort once more was tainted by what she knew would be expected. It really wasn't the child birth that bothered her, but of necessity what comes before. Was she strong enough, to give a part of herself lovelessly to a man who would think of her as a slave? Was she strong enough to submit her body to him, without breaking? These were questions she did not know, only that she had very little choice. Either fight the idea of being a brood mare for him, fighting him every step of the way and losing either way. Or ...submitting and hope that she can hold her spirit to her, hold herself away from what was happening to her and survive with the hope to see her parents once more. She was still struggling with the decision when a heaviness on her hand reminded her. Looking down, her blue eyes catching the very simple carved bone ring that her mother had given her upon her eighteenth birthday. Another tear fell from her eyes, splashing against the ring before she raises her head once more. "Yes...I ..I will provide two healthy weaned babies. Then you will take me home."

[Fallan Windchaser]

"May Zulrav guide my hand in this," he spoke in Pavi, his hand gestures muted as he made dialogue with the God who guided his clan. A difficult path lay ahead of him and now there was a set time to accomplish it. If the gods were perverse then she would have twins in short order, if they were kind then he would have many, many seasons before the detail of his word would be tested.

It was not impossible that he would leave the grasslands before that time was up and Taylani would come with him by preference if the trip were a trading one. Here he was secure from the risk of her running, especially once she was bound by the web. But it was a trap to be avoided in the future and not now.

"Good. You have much to learn. Soon we go to my tent. Now, you tell me of your skills Taylani, my slave who give me children."

[Taylani]

The red head slowly uncurls her legs, shifting so that blood can return to the lower appendages that had started to fall asleep thanks to her confined stance. She shifts, her legs moving beneath her skirts to adjust, now sitting demurely with her hands in her lap, her fingers twisting the ring on her finger. She didn't know what he was saying at first, the strange tongue of these people sounding foreign and something she associates dark feelings with. A pained look flashes across her face, and a hot glare is given as he speaks common once more calling her a slave. Yet for now she does not protest, too tired and strung out from the emotionally taxing day to do any more fighting. His use of the word simply solidifies in her mind why she could never settle here. In her mind she calculated quickly just how long, best plausible case scenario she was looking at most likely four years, sixteen seasons. That is only if she gets pregnant back to back, and giving another year after the second for weaning. She didn't think the gods favored her enough for twins, at least they haven't favored her thus far. She wouldn't let herself think about what her life would be during those long seasons, other then praying to whatever god would listen to get with child quickly. She refused to look at him, instead looking somewhere to his right, her own petulant way of getting back at him for once more referring to her as a slave. It wasn't much, but for now it gave her a little semblance of control once more. "I was training as a performer." Without her being aware a slight wistful tone colored her words, a sad resignation, "I was to be a Dancer, and a Singer...Before." She stopped before she could go on, swallowing and then taking a deep steadying breath. "If I am to live here for any amount of time I need to, I need to learn what you do. How you live." The last is said with a grudging air, her hands twisting in her lap as her nerves continue to grow.

[Fallan Windchaser]

It amused him to tease her, but he appreciated that she did not know him, did not know where the boundaries lay. She would learn, but for now he was happy to keep her relaxed. In truth there was no hurry for the siring of children, and now there was even reason to delay, though he would not admit that to her.

He nodded as she spoke and described her previous life, even if it was far briefer than he might have wished. Too, it amused him that she continued to challenge him. A dancer and singer? Those were useful skills and he wished to see her dance, but not ones which gave an immediate value here. He would need to give some thought as to how they might be able to use those skills in some way.

"Singing, dancing. These good skills to have." He was getting tired of trying to find the right words in Common and learning a new language would give her something to think about, but he knew that it would be a long time before either of them would be fluent in the others tongue. Both could learn though and that was something that had not occurred to him before.

"Fallan of Amethyst Clan." He smiled and nodded, for the purple colour was subtle in his clothing and likely she would not recognise it, "you too now." Even a slave had that much status. "Amethyst clan breed horses, best horses of Drykas. We travel Grass most too."

"Zulrav favour Amethyst clan. Fallan work leather, trade as well." His leatherwork wasn't good, but it was enough for running repairs to tack, and it was something that he was looking to improve.

"Taylani need speak Pavi." A new thought occurred to him. "Taylani ride horse?"