Katryn, Madi, Lyra and Cynda were roused just as it was becoming light by two male and two female elves they had never seen before, but who were four of the many handlers employed by Randor. In a heavy morning mist, the four girls were lead from their stalls and taken outside of the stable somewhat away from all of the buildings to a shallow stone lined trench about ten feet wide and a foot deep at the center. They were led to the center of the trench and the elves stepped back and waited. Unsure of just what to do, the four looked around themselves and saw a large number of other girls, each also led by an elf, all quietly relieving themselves and emptying their bowels. The girls had become somewhat familiar with this morning ritual during their two weeks on the trail so did as the others were doing.
Suddenly, two striking blonde girls with riders on their backs appeared. Each girl was saddled and bridled with matching tack and was immaculately groomed. The girl’s riders, both female elves, rode them right to the center of the trench, reined them to a stop and allowed them to relieve both bladders and bowels without dismounting. The two mounts simply stood with their feet apart and dropped into a medium crouch to take care of matters. As soon as they had both finished, their riders turned the girls slowly about so as not to step where they had just been and rode them from the shallow trench.
Once back on the ground next to the stone lined trench, the two female elves turned their mounts again in order to look at the four new girls. Katryn and her friends, by this time, had all come out of the trench to stand next to their handlers. “Are those the four that Randor just brought back from the last raid?” One of the mounted elves asked. “Yes, Miss Lani,” one of the handlers replied. “At least we think so. They were the only ones in the new girl stable this morning when Mr. Randor sent us to bring them here.”
“I thought they probably were since I’ve never seen any of them before, and I don’t think we’ve acquired any other new ones this week,” the elf named Lani replied.
“That must be the little strawberry that Randor kept talking about last night over dinner,” Lani said to the female elf holding Katryn’s lead. “Has she given you any trouble this morning?” Lani asked.
“Not so far, Miss Lani, but they were all sound asleep when we got to the stable this morning, and they are really just waking up now,” the handler replied.
“Well, except for being short, she is put together well just like he said, and except for her lighter color, she does look a lot like a compact version of Vixin,” Lani said.
Turning to look at Cynda, Lani said, “That big chestnut is a beauty. She should bring a really great price if she trains out well. She has as good a “saddle seat” as I’ve seen on any of our girls lately.” In talking to the male elf holding Cynda’s lead, Lani was referring to Cynda’s narrow waist and broad well rounded hips or “hindquarters” as elves called that part of a girl’s anatomy. Cynda also had a beautiful sway to her lower back as do most girls, only hers was more pronounced. A girl with a figure like Cynda’s was to be preferred for riding as compared with a slender hipped girl. Cynda, of course, was not yet aware of the fact, but a saddle would rest most comfortably on her broad hips without needing to be tightly cinched. On her, a well fitted saddle would keep its weight and that of a rider supported by her pelvic bones which provided for greater comfort for her and less fatigue on long or hard rides. It would also allow Cynda to be ridden bareback with great comfort for both her and her rider.
“Those two blacks are really exquisite,” Lani commented looking now at Madi and Lyra. “They must be sisters they look so much alike. After saddle breaking them, we really should train them as a matched buggy or light carriage team and sell them as such. We almost always make more selling a well trained team than we do selling the same two girls separately,” Lani said to the handlers in general. “All in all, it seems that the last raid was certainly worthwhile,” she concluded.
“Miss Lani,” the male elf holding Madi’s lead called. “Would you and Miss Rena mind putting on a bit of a show as you leave so these wild girls can see what will be expected of them once they have been trained?” he asked.
“Good idea,” answered Lani. “These two are going up for sale next week, and both of them have gotten to the point that they love showing off. As a matter of fact, we are just leaving to ride them around the village all morning to give folks a good look at them. After lunch, we’ll take them out for a good long run around the village track and let them work up a really good sweat. When fillies are as good looking as both of these are, people tend to think that they are more for show, but this pair can really run, and I want folks to see that.”
At that Lani and Rena, two of Randor’s top trainers, wheeled the two blondes, or light buckskins in elf terminology, that they were riding, and while pulling back gently on the reins gave each, two quick prods with their spurs and a simultaneous light tap on the rump with the flat bladed riding crop that each trainer carried in her right hand. This put both girls into an arched neck, high stepping, prancing gait just like Katryn and the others had seen the young male doing the day before while he was drawing the buggy of the well dressed female elf. The most noticeable difference between the gaits of these two girls and that of the male was the way the girls’ firm high breasts bounced beautifully with each step. Of course the portion of the male’s anatomy, which had so interested Katryn and the others, had bounced as well when he pranced for his mistress and driver. At this quickened pace the pair were soon out of sight as they passed behind the closest building.
Although Katryn and the others were still anything but comfortable performing their bodily functions with an audience, they were beginning to notice that no one had really paid them any attention. While their handlers had been talking to the two mounted trainers, all of the other girls had also completed their morning ritual, and were being led away by their handlers. After Lani and Rena had ridden away on the two prancing buckskins, Katryn, Madi, Lyra and Cynda were led back toward their stable. Looking back, Katryn noticed an elf raising a sort of sluice gate at one end of the trench allowing a strong flow of water to wash the stones clean. The other end of the stone lined trench flowed into some sort of barred grate and from there underground and out of sight. In a matter of minutes, the shallow trench was as clean as it had been before any of the girls had arrived.
When their handlers got the four back to their stable rather than returning them to their stalls, they tied the girls to individual hitching posts. Each was then given a wooden bowl of feed and a bucket of water. The girls had learned the night before that they could reach their mouths with their fingers as their new harnesses permitted them that degree of freedom of arm movement. As such, they were quite able to feed themselves with their hands rather than being forced to lower their faces into their feed bowls. This was actually more of a convenience to the elves than to the girls, as it eliminated the need to clean up their faces after every feeding. The water buckets, though, required that the girls submerge their faces somewhat and draw the water into their mouths. This was, of course, training them to be able to drink from a stream or pond when on the road.
The girls finished eating all of their feed which, by now, was beginning to taste quite good to them, and drank their fill of cold clear water. As each girl finished drinking she tossed her head back and forth to shake the excess water from her face. Now for the first time in two weeks, Katryn, Madi, Lyra and Cynda were well rested, well fed, clean and comfortable. They looked at each other and began to talk quietly about what had happened to them and what they thought to be in store. This was the first opportunity that they had to be alone together and able to talk since their capture. When they were moving on the trail the elves had discouraged them from talking with light stripes from their whips, and at night they were always too tired as they had been last night in the stable.
Big Cynda, with her lack of self confidence was the first to whisper to the others, “What do you think is going to happen to us next? Do you think that they are going to hurt us?” She asked of no one in particular. “I really don’t think that I can take this,” she added. “However, that young elf really did seem to like me last night. He was so nice and gentle the way he washed me all over and combed all of the dirt and tangles out of my hair, just look at how it shines,” she rambled on. “Maybe if I can keep him liking me, he won’t let the others hurt me. I just can’t stand it when they use their whips on me. I’ve just got to keep them happy with me,” she concluded.
Lyra, the older of the two sisters was the next to speak in a quiet, somewhat husky voice. “I don’t think the elves really want to hurt us as long as we do what they want. I’ve lost track of the days spent coming here, but I think it must have been around two weeks. In that time they did whip us a little to hurry us along on occasion, but I noticed that they very rarely used their whips on the girls or women they were riding. They did use their spurs on them, but never hard enough to hurt or leave much of a mark,” she said. “Those girls all seemed to know what their riders wanted of them, and just did it. I only remember one time that that young elf used his whip on that beautiful blonde he was riding, and that was when she didn’t want to enter the water when we were fording that stream the second day after we were captured,” she added.
“That’s right,” said the younger sister Madi. “She seemed scared to death of the water and he had to force her to carry him into it. Of course the water turned out to be just over knee deep on her at the deepest part, once he got her moving. I couldn’t believe the look on her face when he gave her those three stripes on her rump after the third time she balked at entering the water,” she went on. “I think that she cried all the way across, and didn’t stop until he patted her and rubbed her sore rear when we all stopped on the other side of the stream. She sure learned her lesson, though. Did you see how she kept trying to nuzzle him every time he dismounted for the rest of the day and the next? She seemed to be trying to beg him to forgive her for not obeying him. After that there was certainly no question which one was in charge with that pair.”
“Remember, though, how they took the shoes off of all of us including the girls they were riding and those two big girls that were carrying those big heavy packs, before we crossed the stream?” Madi asked. “Then they dried everyone’s feet before putting all those shoes back on after the crossing. They certainly took a lot of care to see that everyone’s feet stayed in good condition, including ours’,” she observed. “Of course they did seem to be in a hurry, and I guess any of us or especially any of the girls they were riding coming up lame would have slowed everyone down,” she concluded.
“That’s just what I mean, everything they do seems have a distinct purpose,” Lyra observed. “They quite obviously have plans for us as they went a great distance and to a good bit of trouble to capture us and bring us here. Also, it certainly doesn’t look like we’re the only girls they’ve done this to,” she continued. “I think that I counted over thirty others like us in the compound when they brought us in, yesterday. I believe that it is pretty obvious what they do with girls here. They train them for riding and pulling things for them,” she said.
At this point Katryn interjected, “You mean that they are going to train us for riding and pulling things. I think that Lyra is right though, they don’t seem to want to harm us. I think that they are in the business of taming and selling girls, and we are their business. They don’t seem to want to damage their merchandise. They only use pain to make us do what they want, and I know that I can take pain. I don’t plan to be tamed and turned into something for them to ride without a fight,” she said.
“I don’t think that you can stop them,” said Cynda. “Didn’t you look closely at that incredible woman that their leader rides? I never saw such pure strength in any woman, and I don’t mean just physical strength. It was pretty clear that all the rest of the elves’ girls deferred to her, even those two grey haired women. If they tamed her, they can sure tame all of us.”
“Katryn”, asked Lyra, “didn’t you notice how much you look like her? I mean the woman the leader rode. If you were a foot taller and your hair was a bit darker, you could be her younger sister or something.” “I don’t know,” replied Katryn. “I do know that I saw her staring at me whenever we stopped at night while on the trail.”
“What I want to know, though” Katryn went on, “is what is happening to our bodies? Since about a week after they captured us, I have felt stronger and stronger every day. Also, I noticed that you three all seemed to do the same even though they kept making us to go faster and farther every day. Also, I have begun to have feelings that I hadn’t felt since before I was being taken to live with the elders. At first, I thought nothing about it, but yesterday, when I saw that young male, well you all know what I mean. I saw all three of you stareing just like me. I can also tell you there’s no question but that the woman the leader was riding noticed him too. After seeing him, she couldn’t even stand still.”
With that, the girls all suddenly stopped talking as they saw the four elves from the previous evening entering the stable. The girls had been left waiting, tied to the posts, for over an hour as they were being taught that it was the elves’ convenience, not theirs, that was important. They were learning to get used to staying where they were left and waiting until the elves were ready for them.