Possessing Bella Ch. 08

"You will come to him next as part of this agreement you have with the Masters. He measures your worth and, I expect, trying not to let his camaraderie with Mel cloud his judgement. He does not approve of your position above men in Mel's company but I believe he values your intelligence which sounds hypocritical in some ways but in his world women are viewed in a different way. They are there for the benefit of men not for their own gain." She paused and saw Bella thinking about what she was saying carefully.

"The tenets of Gor are much maligned because of the large online movement which has distorted the original ideas put forth in the books by John Norman. I will send you the five books that those who follow the practises of the 'Three Pillars' hold most high, though there are thirty-three in total," she smiled softly. "Do not worry so, he measures you to know who he will invite to meet you as a slave in our home."

"I know very little about Gor except how beautifully you move when you serve your Master. I am looking forward to knowing those things and more. I will read the books and try and understand more before I come to stay with you," she returned Nyx's smile and joined in the conversation of those around them before boarding the boat for their instruction on the rules of the hunt.

"The object of the hunt is simple, don't get caught as you make your way back to the lodge," Leighton chuckled as he addressed the women. "There will be eight hunters, and each will be trying to tag you with their colour through the use of this," he held up a modified paint ball gun. "They are modified so that the range available to the hunters is shorter and so they cannot sit like a sniper and shoot you from a distance."

"I don't think I like this game," Sera said petulantly, "No one is supposed to shoot you when you play hide and seek."

"It will be a great source of pride to your Master's for you to have played so well that you received no tags at all before making it back to the lodge. I imagine any girl who could manage that would get special treats," Charles addressed all of them but each knew he was talking mainly to Sera.

"Well said Sir Charles," Leighton nodded in his direction. "While we have been leisurely enjoying our morning you can be sure that the men have been laying traps and to guide you toward certain paths, beware of it seems too easy, because it probably is a trap of some sort. The time you take to make the journey back across the island will determine the winner but for every tag you receive, a penalty will be awarded against your time. I will give you all ten minutes to study our map of the island before we begin."

Flora stepped forward and unrolled a scroll upon the small table in the centre of the room as the men went down into the cabin to the bar. As soon as the men were out of sight Flora stepped forward. "This is where we will land, and you will go ashore," she pointed to the map. "There are three clear well marked trails but there are a lot of smaller tracks you can use." She kept her voice low as if secrecy was of the utmost importance.

Flora pointed out her own favourite routes and hiding spots while answering questions from the girls. It barely seemed like five minutes let alone ten when they heard the engine cutout and the cruiser glide toward the beach. Keyon and Charles helped the girls ashore and then left without another word of advice.

The two women who working in the lodge immediately ran into the trees without looking back and disappeared, leaving the six friend staring after them.

"Good luck everyone," Dusty said in her quiet low voice and loped off down the beach seemingly eager to put as much distance as she could between herself and the rest of the group.

"I'll take the opposite way," Tali grinned excitedly and scampered off up the beach a short way before cutting into the trees.

"Come on Sera," Nyx said quietly, "I'll help you find one of those tracks and one of those good hiding spots that Flora told us about."

"Really?" She grinned.

"Sure, if we get caught you will make a great shield," Nyx laughed lightly but took Sera's hand and led her into the trees telling her that she was only joking.

"I'm a city girl," Dianne said with a crooked smile watching the line of trees. "If it's all the same to you, I am going to swim around and come in from the other side. I'd rather face jellyfish than creepy crawly bugs," she grinned. "Good luck, little one," she hugged Bella and walked back into the water.

Over the last week, Bella had gotten to know the island well and took her time to orientate herself to exactly where she was. She walked a little further in the direction that Dusty had taken before walking into the cooling shade of the tree line.

Picking her way through the undergrowth while trying not to make too much noise amongst the rustling leaves and dead branches, Bella made her way slowly through the undergrowth to one of the tracks she knew was there. She hadn't gone very far when to her right she heard a loud crack and a cry followed by the heavy footfalls of the hunters running toward the sound. Knowing that whoever had cried out would be looked after she took advantage of the momentary chaos the run some ways along the track to one of the many hiding spots in the rainforest.

She sat down for a moment under the cover of a large hollow trunk and closed her eyes to listen carefully to her surroundings. She could hear the waterfall fed stream to her right, and the laughter of men against what she now knew was Sera's wail to her right. She tried to envisage the route she needed to take and where the hidden spots were along the way.

Deciding she was safe while she could hear the noise of the commotion, she rested only a few minutes before starting her careful picking through the undergrowth again. Moving from tree to tree, she was thankful that her body suit camouflaged her slightly in the mottled light of the forest. She'd been walking for some time when she heard a branch snap and dove under the heavy foliage of a tree fern to look around.

Nothing moved in the forest, and Bella relaxed slightly, staying low she knew a dead tree lay head that had been so strangled by lantana that it acted as a curtain of sorts that would conceal her better than the undergrowth in which she now hid. She had almost made it when a pair of boots dropped to the ground from the tree that she was heading toward, and the deep familiar rumble said her name.

"Well done getting this far, Bella," Stephen rumbled but his tone was pleased. "You're almost there, having caught most of the girls at least once, most of the men have fallen back to the forest near the lodge it will be hard for you to make your way past them all." He smiled as she slowly stood and stared at him like a startled rabbit as if looking for an escape.

"Most?" Bella asked softly.

"Yes, until now both you and Dianne had evaded us entirely," Stephen smirked. "Now, if you can be brave and not make a sound I may be inclined to help you make it back to the lodge without further incident." He levelled his paintball gun at her, and she braced herself for the impact. Clenching her teeth she let out a small whimper has he shot her in the chest, a large splatter of white paint clinging to the fabric of her suit. "You always look your best in white," he continued to smirk.

"Come," he held out his hand to her. "I will help you as promised." Bella's brows knitted, but she moved towards him taking his hand and walking with him beyond the huge dead tree and its concealing curtain of lantana. "Veer away from the stream a little more and loop back around to the side of the lodge and you should make it." He let go of her hand, and then and walked determinedly in the other direction. She watched him for a moment only and then began to jog in the direction he suggested.

Stephen looked over his shoulder and smiled. He knew each of the men was helping their own girl avoid the rest why shouldn't he help Bella? She was his responsibility after all. He picked up his walkie-talkie and spoke, "Bella sighted heading parallel to the stream towards the waterfall." He hadn't lied; that was exactly when he had spotted her, it just so happened that she was no longer heading that direction.

Bella exited the tree line at the side of the lodge and made a run for safety sometime later. She had almost made it to the front stars when she felt the impact of a second paintball hit her firmly in the back making her tumble forward and lay on the grass her hand stretched out touching the bottom step of the lodge hoping that was enough to save her from any more assaults.

"That was a cheap shot," Leon grumbled at Hunter, "She had made it, and you shot her in the back when you should have been admiring her, you bastard." He had rushed over and helped her to her feet with a worried look. "I saw you go down hard, are you all right?"

"Yes thank you, Master Leon," Bella smiled. "It seems like you are always there to rescue me."

"Always just that moment too late though," a cloud had come over his features, and he couldn't look her in the eye. He let her go abruptly, scowled at Hunter and walked into the lodge.

"Did Dianne make it back okay?" Bella asked Hunter who had come to where she stood and watched Leon move back into the lodge.

"No sign of her yet, why do you ask?" His eyes narrowed as he noticed her tense up.

"I thought she would have been back ages ago, I mean, she umm," Bella looked down toward the beach.

"Shit, she tried to swim back rather than be caught on the beach after being warned about the rips?" Hunter asked incredulously and shouted for Leighton and Keyon as he sprinted down towards the beach.

Bella burst into tears of both exhaustion and worry and let her legs fold under her to sit on the grass. She knew Dianne would be fine; they would find her. She wasn't a brainless woman she would know what to do in a rip. Bella told herself over and over. It was Leon who found her and picked her up holding her close and commanding her to tell him why she was so distressed.

Through sobbing gulps, she told him that she was worried that something might have happened to Dianne. He placed her on the step and used the walkie-talkie to tell Rob to get back and look after Bella and that he was going out on a Jet Ski. Bella sat in a daze of confused exhaustion as Rob arrived followed by several others. Charles, who had heard the commotion and seen the men running toward the beach had also made his way back out to the lodge front deck with Sera.

"I am just very tired," Bella said finally looking up at Rob, who hadn't questioned her but had just sat beside her and pulled her into his arms. "I have just over-reacted I am so sorry, I don't know why I am crying like a lunatic."

"It's a pretty tough schedule you have set yourself. Maybe take next week to slow things down a little. Hang out and have some fun with the people who care about you," Rob smiled. "This weekend was a good start." He held her close, wrapping his arms protectively around her making her feel safe and loved. Being in Rob's arms was always where she felt most at peace since Mel's passing, as if some part of him had transferred to his best friend in those early days. She closed her eyes and let the warmth of him seep through her.

The rest of the party had emerged from the forest and were lounging around drinking and chatting lightly, when the speed boat reappeared at the dock. Bella had not said a word about why she was so worried but gathered that they all knew by the quiet of the chatter and the pacing of Kurt as he stood out on the pier with Stephen.

With relief Bella saw Dianne alight from the cruiser, and she saw Kurt embrace her tightly before kissing her for long minutes. Again Bella looked up at Rob who she loved and felt so safe with and knew it was very different from what she was witnessing on the dock. She and Rob would never have the intimacy of lovers; he had put that boundary on their relationship, and she understood why for the most part. A relationship forged from grief would always be bound to it.

With the words of Hunter from the week she had spent with him still clearly audible in her head, she once again watched Kurt and Dianne. She knew that while there would never be another Mel, but she did want to experience the intense heat of passion that belonging wholly and solely to someone had brought her again. Perhaps not yet, but one-day and she looked around at her friends with affection. She knew these people loved her and she viewed them as a family of sorts, but now she needed to find her passion again. She wanted to experience that feeling of need and desire to please that was so strong it filled her world, as much as loving Mel had.

She knew that neither, Sire or Hunter elicited those deep feelings of passion in her, and she turned her head to study the stern Mike Millar, who she would train with next. She wondered if within the beauty and movement of Gor, she would find that deep passion and a Master to devote herself to.

Smiling as the party came up from the pier, Bella ran toward Dianne and hugged her fiercely. "I am so sorry I told, I just got so worried when I made it back here before you," she whispered.

"Oh honey, after fighting that dreadful rip back to shore I didn't have the energy to walk back I was waiting for someone to come rescue me silly," Dianne returned her embrace. "Lucky Leon did a sweep of the beaches first. Always there to rescue the damsels in distress," She looked over her shoulder and grinned at him.

"Don't I know it," Bella too grinned, "He's a full-fledged hero in my books."

Leon scowled at the girls his inner turmoil over Mel's death still eating away at his insides as it always did when he saw Bella. He felt he had let Mel and then Bella down by not being quick enough to piece the identity of Lucifer together. Had he just been a day earlier he could have saved two lives and the impact that their loss had on this group of friends. He would make it right somehow, some day. He just didn't know how yet. Until then, he would continue to watch over them all especially Bella, who had been traumatised the most by his mistake.

*****

The rest of the weekend had been spent in relaxed fun as if they were all at a resort together. Bella found time to spend with each of her friends and they, in turn, with each other. She enjoyed getting to know Mark and Mike Millar whom, of the group, she knew the least and spent more time with Nyx asking about the lifestyle she and her Master followed. Mike was impressed by her insights and quick intelligence though he did not express it to her himself and the more Bella knew of Nyx, the more she respected her life decisions.

Most of her friends left on Sunday afternoon, except Charles and Sera, who had decided to defer their journey until the Monday when Hunter himself would take Flora to her new life. Sera had become very protective of Flora and having the same child-like way of viewing the world wanted to help her on her new adventure away from the island home she knew. Charles was more than happy to indulge his little girl, and Hunter was grateful that Flora would have a friend to confide in on the mainland, he hoped that Bella too would visit Flora from time to time.

They had retired to Hunter's domain early and as soon as the door had closed behind them, he let her know that the easy, relaxed mood of the last two days had changed.

"Fours," he barked at her in a tone that she could not refuse and she immediately sank to her hands and knees. "Heel," he barked and began to walk towards his mini dungeon hidden behind a wall panel. Bella followed quickly, feeling a shiver of anticipation and dread running up and down her spine as he continued. "It hasn't been pleasant having you so close and not being able to indulge my desires this weekend, you, my little piglet will now pay the price for the fun I allowed you and your friends." The panel swung open before her, and Bella crawled in slowly.