The Gift

She was not like the others, we all knew it the moment we saw her. The color of her name tag, required to enter the gathering, proclaimed her submissive but she moved as if she owned the place. She was short and slightly rounded as if she had never really escaped childhood. Her hair was a wild tangle of red gold waves restrained a little unsuccessfully by a couple of pinned braids. She was quiet and respectful and I marveled at her training.

She stepped aside when approached by a Dominant and gently shook her head when one of her sister subs offered to serve her. I watched in amusement as more then one Dominant stepped out of HER way or offered to fetch HER something. Unlike most submissives in her position she did not seem to view the offers as weakness, rather as courtesy. She dropped her head as a Queen might, in acceptance to what was being offered to her. I admired her but the club was newly mine and I had worked hard to create a certain atmosphere; an atmosphere which she was ruining. It would not do to have some of the weaker Dominants bowing to a strong slave. I hadn't seen her before so my guess was that she, like many of the others, had come for the auction. I made it a mental note to say something to her if it became out of hand.

"She is a slave dance teacher." A familiar voice said from beside me. I reached absently to stroke the head of Nate, my most favored pet. I liked Nate because he listened well and because I could count on him not to be jealous. He was beautiful, well muscles and dark complected. He had come to me to learn the ropes of dominance. A journey which, to my dismay, he had almost come to the end of.

"Who?" I asked just to throw him.

"The red head in the corner." He answered, his confidence wavering a bit.

"A slave dance teacher." I let the thoughts roll through my mind with no small amount of pleasure. "What is her name?"

"She wouldn't say?"

I frowned down at him. "She refused to tell you?"

He shrugged with a shy smile that let me know that he was interested in her too. It was Nate's dream to be a Dominant and I wondered a moment if his searching of information on the girl wasn't more for him then for me.

"She said she had no Master and there for had no name."

I smiled in satisfaction, "She answers to what her Master calls her."

"What is everyone else supposed to call her in the meantime?" He asked knowing the answer.

"GIRL!" I called out letting my voice boom through the club. She had been having a conversation with another girl, both relaxed and leaning against a wall. The sound of my voice brought her to instant attention and I watched as she scanned the crowd to make sure it was she who was being called. The crowd turned to look at me and I kept my eyes on her leaving her no doubt to whom I was speaking. She walked to me quickly, her palms turned away from her body in an age old symbol of acceptance.

When she was about three paces from me she dropped to her knees to crawl ending her journey at my feet, kneeling, her legs together, her palms still open. She surprised me by looking at me directly, though she kept her face turned down. It made her eyes seem bigger and her position less servantile. Her movements were direct and supple and again I marveled at the one who had trained her.

"Do you have need of this girl, Sir?" She asked.

"Who are you here with?"

"A girl has been sent by One who trained her." She answered.

"And the verbal restriction?" I asked referring to her use of the third person. It was a very hard language to master fluently and yet she spoke it as if she were born to it. Most slaves I had seen had to form the phrases in their minds and then speak but she just spoke.

"Is to last until One who trained her decides that she knows her place."

I tilted her chin up to have a better look at her. Her eyes were a strange color brown that matched the darker shades of her hair.

"It looks to me as if you know it pretty well."

Her lips quirked in private amusement, "You would be surprised Sir."

I felt Nate shift beside me...moving subtly closer to me to better view her. I had allowed him to walk at my left rather then to crawl behind me. It was the first time in a while he had even slightly pushed his boundaries and I was caught between shock and jealousy. I moved to the side allowing them to see each other, "My pet tells me that you are a teacher of slave dance." I felt more then saw Nate blush...it was a subtle reminder of his place in the food chain. He took the correction well, nodding in understanding and dropping his dark eyes to the floor. I was going to miss him when he was gone. That more then anything was the reason I had not released him .

"A girl can dance." She said neither confirming nor denying my statement.

"Are you buying or selling tonight girl?" I asked watching the absolute stillness in which she sat. It was a gift I had never had when I was a submissive, one I had been punished for more then once.

"Gifting." She said her gaze coming to capture mine. "This one is here to gift you with a dance."

"Me or any Dominant here."

"You." She replied with almost disconcerting confidence. "She was sent for you."

"Find us somewhere to be alone." I said over my left shoulder not daring to take my eyes off the girl. My mind raced with a thousand questions. Who had sent me such a gift? Why would her trainer, who had obviously spent so much time with her, trust her to a stranger. I could have shook the man's teeth out for not protecting her properly were I not preoccupied with the gift.

In less then 5 minutes Nate had us seated in the back of the club. The small dark room had been built specifically for recovery time after a scene. The music was as soft and low as the furniture; designed to soothe and to comfort. Usually you could find at least one recovering couple in it but because the evenings events had not really started yet it was deserted. She had followed three paces behind Me as Nate led us to the space. He spoke a low word to one of the people close to the door and the stage was set.

I noticed for the first time that the long skirt that she wore was cut up to her hips on both sides to allow her easy movement. She was dressed in dark green, a shade that suited her golden red coloring. Something her ways stuck a familiar chord in me and I tried to figure out if I had seen her before.

She removed a small purse from around her torso and pulled from it a collar of plain black leather, a leash about three feet in length, and a CD. I thought that she would bring the collar to me but instead she sat it at Nate's feet and turned to kneel, her back to him, holding up a wealth of red-gold hair. It would have been a breach of ettiquette had she belonged to me but I remembered just beofore I said something that she did not.

He put the collar on her with marked solemnity and I wondered again about his interest in her. He left the leash to dangle and then offered her his hand to help her up. I opened my mouth to remind Nate to tuck the lead into her clothing but something stopped me. They looked at each other for a moment in such a sad sort of way that I felt a lump rise in the back of my throat.

The moment was finished almost before it had began and the girl walked to the CD player in the room and put the CD in. The music came in slow haunting beats, a middle eastern rhythm that she caught perfectly with her hips. She placed the handle of the leash in her mouth and began to move. The song was a ballad of sorts and she told its story of with her movements. It was a story of sadness and searching. She moved seductively toward an empty chair eyeing it as if its inhabitant were her hearts desire. She twirled and danced and dropped in submission in front of the chair throwing her leash into the emptiness. There she stayed a moment while the song ebbed and the woman's voice keened, she peeked up in confusion and then, almost as if she were embarrassed, picked the leash up with her mouth and began again.

She repeated the movement to two other seats, each time looking more dejected then the last. I was impressed with the preciseness of her offering and could almost feel myself resent the empty chairs for not accepting her. It was at that moment that I realized why she seemed so familiar to me and why she and Nate had looked at each other in such a way. She was Nate's pet.

He would be leaving tonight, I knew it with the certainty I had always prided myself on, but he was leaving me with a gift. She had his precision and his dignity but unlike him she sought no higher then what she was. If she offered the leash to me I would have to make a choice. Accept her and release him or send her away, possibly send them both away.

Her eyes caught mine and in them there was such hope. She writhed and twirled, smiled and teased, coming close and then backing away. Her very body seemed to say, "Please...please don't send me away."

She made a final twirl in the crescendo of the music and fell to my feet in supplication. She knelt, her left cheek pressed to the floor, her wrists crossed and extended over her bowed red gold head with her leash offered up in her pale palms. Her breathing came in soft pants that seemed exaggerated in the stillness of the moment. I looked at Nate. His shoulders were straight and proud and his dark eyes were shinning with tears of pride.

I had no doubt that he had worked long and hard on her. He had poured all that was submissive about him into her until only the Dominant remained. I leaned forward and picked up the end of the leash pulling the girl to me. She looked up a moment stunned and then came to me without hesitation. I would miss him terribly but I would grant him his wish, I would accept his gift.