Mantua - A Man's World Ch. 05

The names, characters, places and events in this story are products of the writer's imagination or have been used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. All characters are over the age of 18. Any similarities to real persons, living or dead, actual events, locales or organizations is purely coincidental and not intended by the author.

Thank for reading and I hope you liked this tale. Please do leave a comment as I read all of them and take them all onboard.

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It was late when Skyann woke the following morning. Her bottom was still red and stung but not as badly as last night. As usual, breakfast was laid out in the Inn's courtyard and several men and their harems were eating. Some of the girls avoided Skyann as if she carried some contagious disease but others gave her a little hug in sympathy. She noticed Colfax speaking with the manager and he beckoned her over.

"Kneel," he commanded and to her surprise, Skyann found herself obediently kneeling on the stone flags, looking up at the two men.

"I told you that you would be punished. Well, I have arranged with the manager that you will be on latrine duty all this week. You will keep the latrine trench spotless and you will also be cleaning out the indricotheres' stables. If it is not done to his satisfaction, I will spank you hard until it is," Colfax told her.

"What -- no way," Skyann protested.

"Fine. Bend over and touch your toes."

Skyann looked up and saw that he meant it.

"I'm sorry -- mentor," she said at last. How had things come to this? How had she gone from a Half-Captain on the Convolvulus expecting possible promotions in the near future to some half-naked slattern?

So, after she had eaten, the manager handed Skyann a bucket and brush and led her over to the foul-smelling latrine trench.

"Take off the clothes your mentor has provided, you don't want to be getting them dirty," the man said with a smirk. Slowly she stripped off, aware of his gaze upon her body then she hung them on a nail and then stepped down into the filthy, fecal stained trench with its trickle of foul brown water flowing along the bottom and started sweeping the solids and stale urine along the channel. She almost vomited at the thought of what her bare feet were squelching through. Despite her best efforts, her arms and legs were soon stained with shit.

How could this be happening to her, she wondered. Not so long ago, she was an officer in the Terran Scout Service, a respected Half-Captain on the Survey Ship Convolvulus; now she was just some naked sloven sweeping up other people's stinking wastes beneath a hot sun. Tears of self-pity filled her eyes yet a part of her realized that Colfax had little choice other than to punish her for that outburst. And a deeper part of her was grateful that a strong man had been forced to discipline her so publicly. Thinking these thoughts, once she had swept all the shit along the channel, she had to fetch a pail of water and sluice it clean. She drew in a deep breath and almost retched at the stench as she did so.

Shortly after she had finished, the manager came and led her over to the stables. The draft indricotheres were massive beasts, standing about seven feet at the shoulders with wide bodies, long legs, short, bony tails and rhinoceros shaped heads but without any horns. They were mostly dusty gray in color. They ate a lot of tough, fibrous plants and in consequence produced an incredible amount of dung. Even as she watched, one beast pulled another tree-fern leaf from its manger, chewed contentedly and then lifted its tail to dump another mountain of droppings onto the stable floor. A second beast then pissed a gallon onto the floor by her feet.

"Get the stables mucked out and put the dung onto the manure pile out back. When you've finished go and give the human latrine another clean," the manager ordered. He swatted her still sore rear and left her to it.

It was like cleaning the Augean stables, Skyann thought. No sooner had she shoveled up one mound of steaming shit and taken it to the manure heap where she had to mix the feces with straw before adding it to the pile then another indricothere dumped a fresh load. It was like they were doing it deliberately. She was now mostly covered with wastes from head to toe and some was even smeared on her face from where she had rubbed herself. She wanted to cry but wasn't going to let this get on top of her.

By late morning, the indricotheres were all out at work pulling wagons so she was able to get the stables better cleaned and she laid fresh straw over the flags. Once she had finished then it was back to the latrine trench. Once again, it was dirty but nowhere near as bad as before so she was able to pause and give herself a quick wash before carrying on. After all that exercise in shoveling shit, her muscles felt like they had been given a workout so she felt quite hungry.

A shadow fell over the trench. Looking up she saw it was Jianna, one of the girls who didn't like her at all. Jianna gave an evil grin, squatted down over the now cleaned trench, lifted up her skirts and farted. A little flare of anger swept through Skyann as she'd just cleansed that part and now she'd have to do it all over again.

"Couldn't you have gone before?" she snapped at Jianna.

In response, the girl unleashed a cataract of piss followed by several loose splats of diarrhea all over the open sewer.

"That's better -- I'm on the rag," Jianna said as she loosely scattered the soiled leaves she'd used to wipe herself with afterwards. "Make sure you clean it all up before somebody comes, slut."

Skyann glared at the woman's retreating back. "At least I haven't got saggy old tits!" she shouted.

"And I'm not a bitch-face shoveling shit," Jianna called back.

With that, Skyann finally burst into tears.

The next few days were very unpleasant for Skyann. She hated the latrine trench however she grew quite attached to the huge indricotheres and brought them fruit as a treat. All the same, they still deposited heaps of dung on the floor for her to sweep out.

The fifth day dawned. Colfax stopped her before she left their room for her day of shit shoveling. He smiled.

"I changed my mind; you've done enough and your punishment's over. But try to keep your opinions to yourself while we're here. We're not supposed to be changing society, just gathering information."

Skyann squealed with pleasure and threw her arms around his neck, hugging him tightly, her firm breasts pressed hard against his chest. She looked up and was about to kiss him with gratitude but pulled back at the last moment. What was up with her? She was the senior officer here, after all. But when she looked up into his own rugged, smiling face; something loosened inside her. Her heart beat just a little faster and her nips perked up. Did she need a man? Yes... No... She looked down and shuffled her feet.

"Thanks -- I guess," she said.

"Look, take yourself off for the day. Buy yourself something nice and be careful out there." With that, Colfax handed over several coins. As she left the room he was so tempted to pat her bum but restrained himself. Despite his reservations about things, he had enjoyed the feel of having her kicking and squirming over his lap while he have her a spanking.

Men, Skyann thought as she hurried out. Think they can treat women like dirt, then give us a little gift and make it alright again. All the same, she was looking forward to her day out. She used the latrine, glad that it was no longer her job to clean the odiferous pit, and then fed the indricotheres. Her footsteps took her down to the market where she bought a bottle of perfume to take her mind off the smell of shit but she found her friend, the potter, was not there. One of the other women told her that she was at her workshop down by the docks so Skyann asked directions and went down.

However, in the crowded bustle of both the market and dockside warehouses and workshops, Skyann did not notice that she was being followed by a thin, long-nosed man wearing a worn, patched gray robe. The man followed her from the Inn, always hanging back but always keeping her in sight. He blended in with the crowds, pausing to look at an item when she did so, always trying to keep a few shoppers between them or lurking in shadowed doorways. In this way he followed her down to the docks. When he saw her enter the workshop and chatting over a bowl of tea, he slipped away and made his report, for which he was well paid, before resuming his post.

Skyann enjoyed talking with her friend and even had a go at making a few clay pots. She found out a lot about the women of this world and how they managed both with and without men. She enjoyed herself and it was later than she thought when she left. In this equatorial sub-continent, there was only a short twilight and the sun was already sinking over the horizon. She waved goodbye and set off along the quayside to make it home.

As she turned up a shortcut between two rundown warehouses, Skyann realized that she was alone and half-dressed at best in this skimpy outfit. Looking over her shoulder, she saw the last glimmer of light over the sea and that the shadows were thick along this alley so despite the warm air, she shivered and quickened her pace. As she passed a large pile of abandoned boxes, she saw a flicker of movement out the corner of her eye. She turned round suddenly. The movement was too large for a rubble runner; she saw a black-clad figure behind her. Before she could scream or run, the man clamped a wet rag over her nose and mouth. She breathed in deeply to scream or bite and instantly sweet, soporific fumes hit her nostrils. She struggled but that only quickened the vapor's effects. Her vision grayed out, her legs felt numb and weak and she struggled to think clearly. Weakly, tiredly, she batted at his arm but the man kept the rag secure over her face until he was sure that she had lost consciousness, then he hefted her limp body up and over his shoulder like a sack of grain and carried her down to a sinister catamaran with a black sail.

Skyann came to with a head banging like a drum and a nauseous feeling in her stomach. She felt so groggy and unable to move so she lay there with her eyes closed and without moving as she tried to get her head together. She was soon aware of forward movement which made her stomach clench nauseatingly. Her ears picked up the sound of water rushing by nearby. She lay quietly, trying to recover herself until she felt capable of sitting up and opening an eye. She found that she was sitting in what looked and felt like the hold of a ship. The only light came from a grating in the ceiling. She saw that about ten other women were crouching in the hold, all of them completely naked except for a rope binding their wrists together. The women were looking over at her as she struggled upright. The motion upset her stomach even more and she crawled over to a couple of filthy pails in a corner and violently threw up. She vomited until there was nothing left and strings of bile hung from her mouth which she wiped away with her wrists. Once she'd recovered from the vomiting, she did feel a little better so she returned to her place.

"What's happening?" she asked the girl next to her, a pretty, plump girl of about twenty-two.

"I don't know, we've been kidnapped, and my mentor will be so worried," she said before bursting into tears.

"Where are we being taken?" she asked.

"I don't know but I think it may be the market at Obsidian Quays," another girl said which caused several girls to cry out with fear.

"What's that?" Skyann said.

"Most mentors are good to their harem and look after their women. But a few men are cruel and like to torture women or even kill us and they go to this island and buy women to use. Or there are alchemists who use our bodies for experiments. They should put a stop to it," she said.

"Why haven't they?"

"I don't know," the woman said before lapsing into silence.

As her eyes adjusted to the gloom, Skyann saw that three of the women were sitting separately from the others. Like the others they were naked with bound wrists but these were a little taller than the other women and their skin tone was more subdued than the usual apricot-tan with straight brown hair, in a lighter shade. Despite being confined in a filthy ship's hold, the one in the middle sat proudly and looked at the others as a hawk would look at prey.

"Untie my hands," Skyann asked holding up her wrists to the others.

They backed away. "No, they will beat us if we do," one of the others said.

A creak from above drew their eyes as a man with an eye patch raised the grating. He peered in with his one good eye and leered down at them.

"Good morning, girls, eat up, got to keep you looking beautiful," he said at them before throwing down fruits and stale rolls where several girls scrambled for them.

"Please, can we have some water?" pleaded the girl next to Skyann.

"Wait 'til it rains. You'll get enough then," he laughed before slamming the grate down and bolting it shut.

The girl passed Skyann a fruit but her stomach still ached so she put it to one side. Above the grating she watched as clouds rolled in changing the sky from blue to dark gray. Then it rained, a few fat drops at first before it poured down. In the hold, there was no shelter from the rain. At first, the women all cupped their hands and drank gratefully, slaking their thirst, but it carried on raining and the girls all huddled together for warmth and protection, except for the more distant trio who kept to themselves. Worse, the hold soon became waterlogged in the downpour and the girls were sitting in an inch or more of rainwater, soaked, chilled and shivering. Eventually, one of the pirates on deck remembered the women and dragged a tarpaulin over the grating, blotting out the light but stopping most of the rain.

In the gloom, Skyann huddled close to a fuller figured girl with large breasts, wider, child-bearing hips and held the woman in the circle of her bound arms both for warmth and support. In the cold, damp hold, she enjoyed the body heat from the woman and the comfort of her soft flesh. Skyann would rather be in the arms of a strong, virile man; even if that man was Jason Colfax, and she desperately hoped he was on his way to rescue her. But in the meantime, this young native woman was much better than nothing. Skyann preferred men as partners but she had enjoyed a couple of lesbian encounters while she was a trainee at the space academy. In the near darkness of the hold she was aware that most of the other women were cuddling up to each other.

"My name's Rhiana," the girl murmured into Skyann's ear, breaking into her thoughts.

"Skyann," she replied.

"I'm so scared. What's going to happen to us?" Rhiana said and Skyann heard the catch in the other girl's voice.

"I don't know but I'm sure we'll be alright," Skyann replied trying to show a confidence she didn't feel. They spoke in low voices so as not to disturb the other women.

"I'm so cold; hold me tight," Rhiana begged.

Skyann held the woman in her arms, her bound wrists around Rhiana's back. Rhiana snuggled lower in Skyann's arms, seeking safety and reassurance, and Skyann's eyes opened wide in both shock and surprise as Rhiana's lips closed around her left nipple drawing it into her mouth. Skyann was about to say something but she realized that Rhiana needed the security of her breast. She didn't protest but instead held the young woman even closer. A moment later she felt Rhiana's lips move as she started suckling at her teat. She felt her nipple elongating and she felt little tingles reach from her breast up to her brain. It felt so nice, relaxing despite their terrible situation, and she was glad she was able to provide some succor to the scared young woman within her arms. Even above the water hissing past the hull and the murmurs and moans from the other women, she heard Rhiana's suckling at her breast. What was it with this world and the strange hormones in its atmosphere? Why was she so horny despite their desperate plight?

Rhiana's bound hands slid down over Skyann's stomach as she sought a more comfortable position. Her hands slid lower and lower until they brushed over Skyann's smooth sex. Skyann startled with surprise and Rhiana paused for an instant but then her hands slipped between Skyann's legs. Almost unconsciously, Skyann shifted position on the waterlogged floor opening her legs giving the young woman's hands better access. Rhiana took her mouth off Skyann's nipple and Skyann missed the woman's tongue against her skin.

"You don't mind? In my old harem, my mentor was a busy man and didn't always have time to give some of us women the attention we needed so we learned to take care of our own needs," Rhiana said. "What about you?"

"Oh," said Skyann thinking quickly. "My mentor only had me in his harem. I was enough for him, he said." Skyann wondered what it would be like living in a harem and relying on a man. But what if the man was somebody like Colfax? A chauvinist but also a man who was capable of looking after her and her needs? She felt herself growing unexpectedly warm at the thought.

"You were lucky having a man's undivided attention," Rhiana said thoughtfully.

Rhiana's tied hands pushed against Skyann's upper thighs and she felt the young woman's fingers push in between her vaginal lips, spreading her labia wide. Skyann felt the woman's cool fingers inside her pussy, exploring her folds. Her back arched with pleasure and anticipation. Rhiana's fingertips slid forward until they reached her clit hood. Skyann hissed slightly at the other woman's touch. Still suckling at her breast, Rhiana glanced up into Skyann's eyes and smiled. Then her fingertip gently brushed against Skyann's super-sensitive pink bud making Skyann gasp as sensations flooded her system. Rhiana drew her fingertip back and started circling Skyann's clitoris; slowly at first and then quicker and quicker. Skyann moaned with sheer pleasure as the positive stimulus from the woman's expert finger overflowed her mind. She knew she wasn't long off her climax but then Rhiana took her fingertip away from Skyann's swollen, throbbing clitoris, slid it down her wet cleft, over her little urethra until she reached her vagina and then plunged her finger deep into Skyann's silky vagina. Skyann cried out with surprise and delight. Rhiana curled her finger, searching out her G-spot. Skyann wriggled with pleasure and hugged Rhiana closely. Rhiana looked up from her position still suckling at Skyann's breast and smiled at the pleasure she was evidently giving her. Skyann glanced around the dimly lit hold as the seawater rushed past with a hissing sound against the hull wall. She saw most of the women were pointedly looking away from the couple but several others were also engaged in sexual activity partly for warmth and partly for the comfort they found in each others bodies and to drive out the fear from their minds.

Skyann turned to the woman in her arms and hugged her again, savoring her closeness and warmth. Rhiana's fingers slipped out of Skyann's scalding hot pussy, lifted them to her nostrils, took her mouth off Skyann's engorged nipple and smelled Skyann's love juices. She smiled up at Skyann and licked the juice off her fingers, savoring the flavor of the woman's ready sex. Rhiana grinned mischievously and dropped her hand back to Skyann's vulva. She pushed her hand in between Skyann's slippery folds and gently circled and circled her clitoris, going faster in response to Skyann's gasps and moans of expectation and desire but occasionally slowing down to heighten Skyann's feelings of anticipation. In the end there was no holding back and the lovely sensations broke through the dam of her reserve, flooding her body and mind with sheer exaltation and ecstasy. Hot love juices gushed from her vagina, covering Rhiana's gentle hand. Her back and neck arched and her tendons stood out like ropes as she cried out with the scale of her passion. She gave loud outcry to her needs, her passion and the temporary release of tension.