Owned And Owner (23 page)

‘A pet woman.’

‘Really?
Where did you get that?’

‘I bought her from a friend. Well, part-time. What do you think?’

‘Um, fine,’
Yegra
muttered,
his voice flat.
‘Strange looking animal, though.’
She looked too close to human but not
close
enough, which made him uncomfortable. ‘Some kind of primate, isn’t she? What do you feed her?’

‘People food.
She eats anything, really.’ Therin smiled, thinking back to that morning, when he fed her the sour
orrta
he knew she disliked, but would not have dared to refuse.

‘Well, she’s odd-looking, but I haven’t heard anything out of her, I’m glad to say.
Unlike that dog of
Pratchet’s
.
Barked half the night last night.’

Therin tried to look sympathetic, but he hadn’t noticed.
Yegra
was one of the reasons he couldn’t enjoy
Vizay’s
screams in their pure state. He patted his pet’s dark head, and she rubbed against him like a cat.
Yegra
took a last, sidelong look and went back to trimming gem rose bushes.

‘
Reghia’s
got the wood in,’ he called over his shoulder.

‘Thanks.’ Therin kept working for a few minutes, but he was getting restless. A stroll to the depot would be just the thing. ‘C’mon, girl,’ he said to
Vizay
, and tugged on the leash. ‘Let’s go for a walk.’ She trotted by his side, the leash neither too taut nor too loose, her head up, wearing nothing but her wide metal collar and bands upon her wrists and ankles.

In five minutes they were among the village’s few stores, shaded by huge trees and the deep eaves of the houses, and then they were in the depot examining the wood shipment.
Reghia
watched bemused as Therin stood
Vizay
up against the large blocks and arranged lights just so. Finally he picked out several big slabs for delivery.

When he came out the sun was overhead, and he was hungry. The grocery store was right in front of him. Most people just transmitted their orders, but Therin liked to pick out the fresh stuff himself. He fastened
Vizay’s
leash around a post in the shade of the awning of the grocery store;
Urbeis
didn’t allow pets inside. She settled down to wait for him, sitting on her heels as she was told. The leash fastened to itself using the same technology as the bands on her wrists and ankles. The material didn’t so much link as completely
fuse
on the molecular level, with the press of the correct thumb. The same thumb could undo it. Therin couldn’t have afforded this level of technology, but
Vizay
had been wearing them when he picked her up from
Miseko’s
the day before. He’d been in such a hurry to get home and fuck her that he hadn’t noticed the new hardware. Luckily
Miseko
remembered when he was on the way out, and had added his friend’s thumbprint to the program.

Therin finished with the impulse fresh food buys and started on staples. When he glanced out the shop window two people were petting
Vizay
, neighbors from a couple of streets over. One leaned down and began chucking her under the breasts, making them bounce; both men laughed. They patted her head again and moved on.

‘Everyone’s taken with that creature of yours,’ said
Urbeis
. ‘She’s such a peaceful little thing. You never know with these exotic animals, some of them are nasty. Can’t imagine why anyone would have
vraags
for pets, for instance.’

‘Nice plumage,’ Therin said abstractedly. He was trying to remember what was in his pantry.

‘Buy the plumage then! And that stupid monkey of
Paodine’s
! It almost took my store apart that time it snuck in. I swore I’d never have pets in here again. I heard that
Paodine
had to practically rebuild his place when he got rid of the wretched animal – let me tell you…’ Therin had heard
Urbeis
tell this story many times before. The tale was twenty years old, and Therin knew it well enough to nod and exclaim in all the right places with his mind elsewhere. He kept an eye on
Vizay
as
Urbeis
prepared the bill for thumbing. Several more people had greeted her as they passed with a, ‘Hello, girl!’ and a friendly pat. She was looking relaxed, though she kept her eye on the door through which he would emerge, as any good pet in her position would. When Therin came out of the store, a chill box of groceries under his arm, an elderly man was holding
Vizay’s
hand in both of his and exclaiming over how tiny and how like a human’s hand it was.

‘Ah, Therin, what a sweet little creature this is! And so smart! She almost looks like she could speak.’
Vizay
was forbidden to speak in public and knew this very well. She gazed at the men standing above her, raising her brows and craning her neck to look up so far, looking innocent and a little wistful. The old man instantly began rummaging in his bag and brought out a biscuit, which he fed her. Therin saw her tongue dart out in a tiny little lick of the man’s fingers when they were down to crumbs. When the man began rummaging again, Therin stopped him.

‘That’s enough for now, thanks so much,
Ozid
.’ He chuckled at
Vizay’s
wide-eyed, plaintive look. ‘You’re too kind.’ He unfastened the leash from the post, and bid the old man goodbye. He was about to turn for home, but his stomach rumbled and despite the groceries, he didn’t feel like cooking. Now that he had lots of time alone with her, he loved being out and about with
Vizay
. The woman trotted next to him down the street to
Teig’s
Café
. The weather had been very hot for the last few days, but today the temperature was down to a pleasant level, and everyone was outdoors taking advantage of it. Therin joined a small group that called out to him. One of them told him that
Reghia
had got the wood in.
Vizay
knelt beside his chair, and he looped her leash over his wrist while he looked at the menu.
Teig
liked to surprise his customers with some rather odd innovations. The results ranged from disastrous to splendid, depending on the level of alcohol in his system. Therin took a chance on the clear honey-dipped
vega
, and fed
Vizay
a bread roll. She was tiny enough that he hardly noticed the loss when she ate from his plate.

They had to negotiate three more animal lovers in the course of the meal. Therin was sure he had never gotten so much attention in a month in the village as
Vizay
was getting in one hour. She’d be the village’s pet before long. He smiled, thinking how indignant the population would be if they knew what he did with her behind closed doors. Fortunately he had never neglected to use skin masker to conceal the marks before he took her out. He had visions of what would happen if he forgot. The villagers coming in the night with torches to storm his little house and rescue the maiden from the Evil Overlord… He imagined himself skulking on the roof in a black cape, and had to turn his snicker into a cough.

Therin now reveled in playing with
Vizay
at his own house and
Miseko’s
, both enjoyable for different reasons. There was plenty of domestic charm in time spent alone with
Vizay
; it was simpler and more intimate. But
Miseko’s
space and equipment
were
a powerful draw, and even more powerful was
Miseko
himself, and the electricity that the triangle gave them. So they had fallen into a pattern of having equal time alone with
Vizay
, but weekends together. The racing forays were almost always done
together,
and Therin was learning to drive.

One day they were both harnessing her up, preparatory to a good hard run.
Miseko
pulled the crotch strap deep into her cleft and buckled it tightly, while Therin clipped on the first bell.
Vizay
was breathing hard, though the workout was yet to come.
Miseko
lifted the sulky shafts and settled them into place on the slave’s hips.

‘I trimmed her hair a bit; do you like it?’ asked Therin.

‘Hair or fur?’

‘Both, actually.’
Therin had trimmed
Vizay’s
thick pubic thatch to a narrow triangle. ‘I oiled her skin a little also, and I’ve taken care of her nails.’

‘Thanks. Yes, the trim’s very cute.’
Miseko
rubbed his hand over the short, dense fur, bisected so tightly by the strap that it bulged out a little on either side. He flicked the bell that the other man had just attached.

Therin still gripped the other nipple tightly in his fingers. He drew it out, and examined the harnessed creature
who
stood motionless between the shafts. ‘What would you say to
getting
her pierced?’ he asked
Miseko
. ‘
Garid’s
slave is very compelling, don’t you think?’

Miseko
stood back a minute and considered the female. ‘I don’t know.
Maybe.
Not the nose ring, I don’t think. Nipples might be fun…’ He examined
Vizay
for another minute in silence, and then squatted in front of her and parted her cunt, prying back the dark strap that bisected it. ‘I’ve been thinking more about rings here, actually.
A few in her labia.
Maybe even one in her clit.’

Vizay’s
lack of movement took on a frozen quality. Her eyes showed the whites all around. A tiny, panicky sound, just audible, came from the back of her throat; Therin doubted he would have heard it at all if her mouth had not been open around her bit.

‘How about both?’ asked
Therin.
He glanced at
Vizay
and helped her kneel down; she looked rather white. ‘We can hang the bells from the nipple rings once she’s healed. And that’s apparently only a week or so with the healing accelerator.’

‘We could hang a bell from the clit ring, too,’
Miseko
said, and cocked an eye at the woman. The
whimpery
breathing became more audible.
‘Unfortunately, not when she’s running.’
Vizay’s
look of panic faded, but she had broken out into a sweat. ‘Well, let’s get her mind off her troubles. Up!’ he said, and pulled
Vizay
up by the bridle. He held her steady while Therin took the reins.
‘Wait, where’s her other bell?’
Therin still had it in his hand.
Miseko
clipped it on tight, and stood to one side while Therin whipped
Vizay
onto the track. She took some time to warm up; Therin had to give her an unusual number of hard strokes before she got into her stride. By the end of an hour she was in her old form, fleet and almost seeming to float over the ground.

The next weekend they took her to the same vet Garid had used. Since her head wasn’t strapped down like the rest of her,
Vizay
got to watch as the needles went through her flesh and the rings were inserted. They had gagged her, but in fact the vet used a sound absorption field, to avoid scaring the waiting room.
Vizay
tensed and her eyes filled with tears as her nipples were pierced, and leaked even more tears at each successive needle through her labia; three on each side and two more through the inner lips. Therin dried her eyes and stroked her belly while her clit was examined.

‘This is the area you want, here?’ the vet asked, and gently pressed away the surrounding flesh. ‘Oh, I see.’ He pushed at the exposed nodule, and
Vizay
yelped. ‘Hmm, it’s very pain-sensitive. And there’s really not enough of it to pierce.’ Both owners looked disappointed; he glanced at them and continued with his examination, pinching up bits of slippery flesh here and there.

The three heads hovered and consulted over the bound woman’s genitals, and fingers pointed and manipulated the flesh.
Vizay
squirmed against her bonds at the painful pinches, her big eyes watching anxiously. Therin was pretty sure that her
Henthen
wasn’t good enough to follow the technicalities.

The vet was speaking. ‘I could try to put a ring deep through the tissue behind it, but it seems to me I could hit important nerves; I don’t recommend it. Or we could pierce the tissue above it – kind of like a foreskin, really, isn’t it? I suppose it corresponds. I’d do it vertically rather than horizontally; then the ring will be up against the – what’s it called, clitoris? –
but
not through it. If stimulation’s what you’re looking for, that might work, though I don’t know what level of pain it will cause.’

They agreed. The vet disinfected the area, and with some difficulty clamped it.
Vizay
whimpered loudly and her trembling
increased,
her inner thighs rigid with tension. She pulled hard against the tight straps that fastened her to the table, and a sound of protest made its way past the gag as the vet raised the needle, and her scream turned into a confused sounding yelp when it went through.

Therin laughed. ‘Not what she was expecting.’

‘No,’
Miseko
agreed. ‘She thought it was going to be her clit. You got off easy, didn’t you, little one?’ he crooned, turning to
Vizay
and stroking her. She closed her eyes, dislodging tears that ran down her cheeks, and dissolved limply into the table.