Chapter Text
They abducted him in the early hours of the morning when everyone was still sleeping peacefully and the fires of the evening rose to the sky in thin wisps of smoke. They mercilessly slaughtered every single villager they couldn't use. Then they burned down his entire village so that there was nothing left to indicate that a prosperous tribe once existed here.
As much as he tried to fight back, their numbers were simply too great. In the end, a well-aimed blow to the temple with the sword hilt was enough to knock him down. At least that way he didn't have to witness them raping his body for the first time. After they were done with him for the time being, they tied him up and put him in a horse-drawn cage on wheels.
Within an hour, Roman's world turned upside down. And nothing was like it used to be.
They were on the road for days. The cage had become his new home. From every village they passed, they abducted another man or two, all in the prime of life. And every night the screams and dull moans grew more numerous.
The sun burned incessantly on their skin and made them tired. The constant fear of punishment or pain had broken most of them. The bottomless immutability of their existence ate into their souls.
Until they were loaded onto a ship and set sail in a direction Roman only knew from books.
But Roman was not intimidated. Couldn't be broken. He endured everything they did to him and he endured anyone who feasted on his body. And he resisted the games they tried to force upon him, and also tried to ignore the memories trying to play tricks on his mind.
Hatred kept him alive. Anger and the irrepressible urge to take revenge on those who wiped out his village and destroyed his family gave him purpose and kept him going.
He waited. And waited. And waited. One day there would be an opportunity. And if he got killed? All the better. Then he was reunited with his loved ones.
He and the others were brought ashore after weeks at sea and offered for sale at a market at noon. They were all displayed individually so that the interested parties could stare at them in detail. In a cage again, of course, and the smell of rusting metal was already familiar.
When it was Roman's turn, the guard offered him up like a piece of cattle, like everyone else before him. Roman didn't care. He kept waiting.
The potential buyers lusted after him. They pulled at his long raven hair. Groped his flesh on his torso. Hit his arms and legs with their canes. Reached between his legs, felt his length and tested the weight of his testicles. They examined his fingernails and skin, gaped at his tribal, and didn't understand the meaning behind it. Dirty fingers dug into his mouth, testing the fit of his teeth and pinching his tongue. His ears were also checked as well as his nose. They inquired what language he spoke. If he could read and write.
There were many interested parties. But Roman didn't even look at them or deign to respond to their attacks. Because his eyes had fallen on a very specific man. And it seems his wait was worth it.
This man stood a little apart from the others. He had his arms crossed over his chest and was wearing a red tunic. The man looked over at Roman and did nothing else. He didn't get distracted by the hustle and bustle of people in the marketplace. And wasn't bothered by the shouts of the other people and the bleating of the farm animals. He seemed to be listening carefully to what people around him were saying and did nothing else. Just stared at him.
Roman stared back between the metal bars of his cage. And then, on a whim, Roman raised his chin aggressively and almost seemed to invite the other man to come closer. That seemed to have finally elicited a reaction from the other man. For his eyes seemed to have caught fire. He gave up his posture and, conspicuously inconspicuously, approached Roman's cage.
Then the bidding began. Since Roman seemed to meet all the required criteria, people boldly outbid each other. The guard had to disperse them to prevent a riot.
The one man Roman was still keeping an eye on didn't seem impressed. And then something happened that hadn't happened in a long time. Roman smiled. No, he was actually grinning. And the man in the red tunic mirrored his smile.
Then the man spoke. Just one word. He named a sum. Such an incredibly high sum that the other bids were overshadowed. And all other mouths were silent. Nobody dared to bid over this exorbitant sum. Probably nobody here had that much money with them or even owned such a fortune in his whole life.
Roman would have liked to have watched the man in the red tunic longer but the guard jabbed him in the kidneys with his club and forced him out of the cage. He was taken to a pier where a bucket of water was poured over his head. Roman jerked his head back to keep his ebony curls from falling in his face. Again the guard went to hit him with the club, but a hand grabbed the guard's arm before he could swing it fully.
"He's mine now," a voice growled like dark honey. "If you lay hands on him again, I'll slit you open like a fish!" he then hissed into the guard's ear, who had turned pale.
The man who bought him flung the guard's arm aside like if it were an annoying insect. He pulled out a leather pouch in which the coins jingled and threw it at the guard's feet. The man's blue eyes, as Roman could now see the color clearly in the sunshine at this close range, followed the guard, who kept bowing, facing him, slowly backing away. When he seemed to be a safe distance away, he turned and ran away.
Roman neither lowered his gaze nor changed his fearless stance as the man in the red tunic now turned towards him. He was as tall as Roman himself. His skin was fair. His hair was close-cropped and auburn, his beard shimmering red in the sun. He was of strong build, but his hips seemed narrow from what Roman could tell under his clothing. His hands looked as if they had been used to a lifetime of hard work, which was very unusual for a man of his status.
Suddenly two young women arrived. They stripped off Roman's dirty loincloth, pulled a dark blue robe over his head and tied sandals around his feet. Roman let it happen and continued to stare into the eyes of the man who had paid this outrageous sum for him. Then the women scurried away again.
Next came a man even taller and broader than Roman, his dark complexion also dotted with tribal tattoos, but their pattern was completely unknown to Roman. He handed the man in the red tunic a box, then stood behind him. The rich man opened the box and took out a wide leather collar.
He took it in both hands and approached Roman. "Are you going to bite me? Or do something else stupid?"
Roman cleared his throat. "Why should I do that?"
The man smiled but it didn't reach his eyes. "I don't know? Because you look like someone who might bite."
"Do you want me to bite you?"
The man tilted his head. "Interesting question. No, not now."
Roman stared at him in surprise and thought he had misheard. The man held his gaze as he put the collar on him. His collar. The sign that he was his now. It was tight, yet snuggled comfortably around Roman's neck, moving slightly as he swallowed.
Roman wanted to make one thing clear upfront. "No one has owned me before. Nobody has broken me yet. Why do you think you are different?"
The man laughed, but it wasn't mean. "We'll see. I know methods. I have ways to get what I want."
The man in the red tunic turned to face the giant behind him. "Take him to the ship. Then we set sail and cast off."
With that, the man who had bought him walked briskly down the pier.
Roman watched him walk away. "What's your name?" He called after him.
The man turned around again and grinned. "For you? Master!"
Roman was disappointed, he had hoped for a name for the face. "And don't you want to know my name?" he asked before he could think about it.
"I already know it, slave!" The man laughed again, turned and walked away.
The giant stretched his arm out to the side and gestured with his enormous wingspan toward an impressive three-master at the end of the pier. Roman sighed deeply and then took the first step into his new life.
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