Captured By Amazons

THUD THUD THUD

The massive army moved as one across the dirt packed road. The ground itself trembled as forty thousands sets of feet struck down on it in perfect cadence. Drummers situated in every squad harmonized together giving the large army the beat it needed to march to. The overhead sun beat on them reflecting off of the shiny leather and bronze helmet each soldier wore. Their armor was cleaned and polished breastplates off a dull red and bronze that molded to their physique.

They continued their march up the mountain side navigating the rapidly narrowing cliff sides and thatchet of trees. The large army, the might of the proatan empire was starting to be a hinderance as they moved up the army.

"COMPANY HALT!" A loud voice bellowed echoing form the front of the army. The message was relayed via the chain of command rippling down the large army like a wave.

In the middle a older commander turned on his heel. His intense stone gray eyes swept over his men before he bellowed out a stop. His men reacted instantly stomping to a halt and standing before him proudly.

His hands large and calloused reached up and undid the chin not keeping his helmet in place. He pulled it off with a soft grunt tucking it into his armpit and revealing short graying black hair plastered to his forehead with sweat.

"Looks like we're taking a break men" He said surveying them "I'm not sure if we are making camp here but be ready for anything"

"Of course commander Maximus!" His men said in perfect unison. He nodded at them and with a short chopping motion of his large hand he dismissed them.

Maximus watched as his men stretched and took care of their bodily needs. After a few minutes he turned moving to their sister company and its commander Praxius.

"Long live the emperor!" Praxius said raising his hand in greeting. Maximus mimicked the motion.

"Long live the emperor" Maximus echoed coming to a halt in front of him.

"Whats the situation?" Maximus asked "Has there been any word from our general?"

"Not yet" Praxius said shaking his head "Word from above is that the trail has become to narrow for us to continue without breaking up"

"What does the emperor even need this far out?" Maximus asked bringing his hand up to scratch at a gnat trying to drink the sweat from his neck.

"Gods only know" Praxius said rolling his eyes "Knowing the emperor someone probably stifled him in some way"

Maximus laughed and nodded his head.

"Maybe they will send us all home" Maximus said hopefully.

"Maybe" Praxius said "There more likely to-"

Praxius next words would never leave his lips. An arrow from the left buried itself into his face with enough force to sever his jaw. Maximus stumbled back and reached for his shield fumbling to pull out long oval shaped shield as arrows rained from all sides.

"Shield bearers!" He shouted Dropping low as a volley of arrows slammed into his shield "Phalanx position!"

All around him the soldiers screamed in pain and confusion. Through the rain of arrows Maximus watched as the largest army in human history fell. The attack was implemented entirely by surprise and the arrows continued to fall without any break.

"We need to do something!" Maximus shouted to a few men lucky enough to get under their shields "When I say go we head for the trees and root out these bastards!"

"Aye commander!" The men shouted back. They fixed a steely resolve onto their face and once he gave the signal charged forward.

Maximus ran keeping his shield up as he pushed toward the trees. A new rhythm filled his ears the beat of arrows thunking into his shield as he was target. The vibrations deadened his arm and it was all he had just to keep the shield up as he finally broke into the thick thatchet of trees.

"Come on you bastards!" Maximus shouted unsheathing his sickle sword "Face me like men!"

An arrow answered him and he bellowed. His sickle sword flashed in the air as he cut the arrows off of his shield and pushed on. He trampled through the forest running on pure adrenalin and anger as he tried to find the men releasing the arrows.

He found none

He finally found himself next to a waterfall. The sound of the battle and his men were gone. There was nothing but the sounds of the forest and his own labored breathing. stumbled towards the waterfall dropping down to his knees and letting his weapons fall from his numb arms. With great effort he dipped his hands into the water and splashed it against his face. He did this several times and finally on the last time ducked his head down and took a long healthy sip.

He was about to take another sip when he saw a figure moving behind him. The reflection in the water was vague but the weapon in the persons hand couldn't be ignored. Maximus wheeled around reaching for his sword at the same time that the stranger behind him attacked. A heavy club cracked against his head sending him reeling as white burst in front of his eyes.

He hit the ground and lost himself in a sea of black.....

IC:Mara

Mara knelt behind the bushes on the cliffs overlooking the intruders. These were Men and a clear danger to her people. It had been centuries since any man had dared these mountain passes. They had stopped but were too close to the entrance of the valley-the threat they posed to her people decided their fates here today.

Mara was the newly anointed Queen of the Amazons taking sanctuary in the secluded valley paradise away from the abusive world of mankind. Her people long ago had been slaves in a harsh and cruel king's harem until one received a vision from the Moon Goddess, Sarenda. The women of the harem revolted, assassinating their sadistic master and fleeing deep into the mountains led by her ancestor where they found their new home promised and protected by Sarenda herself.

Her Amazon warriors knew well how to hide in the smallest folds in the land, behind the slimmest of trees or the lowest bush or rock. The land surrounding the dirt road the men were climbing up were teeming with them hidden unbeknownst.

Her heart-sister, Janna, bow and arrow in hand beside her nodded to her. She knocked an arrow and drew her bow, aiming for the one who looked like the enemy commander. He seemed to be speaking with another officer, judging by the decoration on the two men's armors.

She aimed for his bared face and with a nod towards Janna to begin their ambush, let the arrow fly. It struck the man square in the jaw spraying the man he spoke with in his blood. Janna had aimed for the other officer but that one had the reflexes of wildcat ducking the arrow meant for him that found a home in the neck of the soldier behind him.

Arrows rained down upon the men from all sides inexorably finding homes in their panicking targets ignoring their armor instead sinking into unprotecting thighs necks or faces.

The officer that had survived had started to desperately rally his men. If he was successful it would turn a clear rout into a costly battle for her warriors. Janna swore beside her as her arrow was blocked by the man's raised shield. He seemed to be a difficult one to kill-or have the very favor of the gods themselves.

Mara watched he and a few of the other men charge forward behind raised shields as more of her sisters' arrows struck home again and again into the precarious protection of steel their shields gave them. Inevitably one by one their arrows snuck through sinking into face or churning thigh. One by one the officer lost men and still he kept coming.

Despite the fact that he was nothing more than a savage untamed man Mara found she could at least admire the man's courage in the face of certain defeat. He kept pushing forward. He never wavered.

Soon he had reached the trees her warriors were hiding behind. Mara with Janna close behind her pursued after him leaving her warriors to finish off the last of these men to the last one alive. The sword said to be taken from the corpse of the king that had oppressed and abused her ancestor drawn in hand. She wanted this one. She wanted to cross swords with this man. She wanted to test his mettle steel against steel, heart against heart, and she wanted to best him completely and utterly.

Running full speed she wove through the trees, leaping over logs and rocks. Even Janna, the finest warrior of her people was hard-pressed to keep up with her as she raced to intercept this man. She found at the shore of the waterfall as the icy melt water of the glaciers on the high peaks cascaded down into the deep valleys as this one was. He looked to be drinking from pristine water there.

He moved like lightning then spinning around hand shooting for his own sword. It was then Janna burst in the club in her hand striking hard across the man's temple. He fell back a large dent from where the club had hit him in his helmet. Probably it was the only reason he lived and unconscious rather than dead with a split open head.

Janna raised the club to finish him off and that was when Mara was struck with a vision of Sarenda descending from the full moon followed by flashes of her and the man together...as mistress and her breeding-stock.

"Janna," She commanded, "Hold!"

Janna's club stopped short of the man's head again. "What...why?"

"Do not kill him," She replied.

Janna shook her head in disbelief, "He is a man...he led men close-too close-to our home..."

"I claim him as breeding-stock," She told her.

"You have never desired to breed a daughter before," She protested.

That was true. Janna had warmed her bed on many nights and she had been fully content with the sweet pleasures offered by her heart-sister on those nights. "I do not understand it either," She explained to her, "But the goddess has willed it so, and I will obey and honor her with obedience. I ask you to honor me by allowing me to do this."

Janna growled her frustration but lowered the club in her hands. Sneering down at the man she spat upon his face before turning away.

"Good," Mara said bending over the man who was slowly coming to. "Now help me remove his armor and weapons before he can resist us."

Maximus filtered in and out of conscious receiving only brief images of his fate.

He was being dragged from the lake

He felt himself being stripped

He heard the chanting of what sounded like female voice as he was dragged across stone

A pretty face floating out of the darkness

Was it an angel? He never believed in such things existed. He was born into a dark world and when he left said dark world there would be nothing pretty to greet him. Angels and heaven were nothing more than fairy tales created by lesser people who needed hope. Maximus was born a slave.

He needed no such thing

The drip drip of water nearby roused him out of his sleep. He came to but didnt dare open his eyes right away. Instead he listened hearing around him and trying to make sense of his senses. There was nothing however, nothing besides the drip of the water.

So he opened his eyes and took stock of where he was. His cage was small consisting of nothing more than wooden stakes driven into the ground to form a make shift pen. The source of the dripping was a few low hanging branches laying over the pen to form something of a roof. There wasn't a hint of metal he could see.

He tried to bring his hands forward but realized they were bound behind him with thick rope. He only needed to test them once to ascertain they were unbreakable. He then tried the stakes running at them and trying to shoulder them out of the ground. They were stuck firm and all the act gave him was a slightly bruised shoulder.

Maximus sighed and moved over to the dripping leaves. He let the water splash over his face and run down his naked chest. He looked down watching as the water ran down his abs and followed the trail to his simple lion cloth.

IC: Mara

They had set camp at the temperate zone of the pass between the peaks they called the watchtowers that guarded the entrance to the Amazon's valley. From this point on the road would get steeper and covered in deeper and deeper snowfall. The wind from the watchtowers would kick up snow in its gusts that would threaten them to get lost in a whiteout as they tried to climb the passes to their sanctuary valley.

Here at this altitude they were in the middle of a temperate rainforest. It wasn't raining now but it had only just stopped and water was still dripping down from the leaves of the treetop canopy above them. Despite the waterlogged logs and branches on the forest floor her warriors managed to build a campfire and set to eating a light supper laughing and telling stories of their triumphant victory over the men set to invade their home.

She ate with Janna. She seemed a little upset about Mara's decision to spare the man, and when Janna was upset over something she was like a bear with a sore tooth with it. Janna was an adherent of a fundamentalist sect of Amazon society that viewed men as the source of all evil in the world. They swore never to mate with a man. They also swore to kill any man they came across.

Mara's attitude towards men was by necessity more moderate. As a member of the royal lineage it would have been her duty to go on the occasional raids of the outside world and capture a man to mate with as her mother and grandmother had before her in order to produce a daughter to carry on the dynasty. Though she suspected that Janna had hoped that their relationship as heart-sisters would sway her queen to her fundamentalist perspective on the Amazon society's relationship towards the man's world outside their valley.

She would much rather have Janna taking her hand as many of her warriors were doing with their own heart-sisters for cuddling together or other more robust means of keeping eachother warm during the night. Alas Janna was not in the mood. Sulkily eating her food in silence as she watched Mara take a plate of the roasted hare for her captive.

When Mara turned to take the food to where they had penned up the unconscious man she was surprised when Janna raised up her club to follow her.

"For when the treacherous snake turns on you," She growled glaring past her to the pen.

Mara said nothing but headed towards the pen where she stopped in her tracks. She could see him. He had awakened and she saw him standing up inside the pen. His head was tilted up as water from the branches above fell down onto him. She watched as a single drop of water roll down his shoulder and broad chest. Then over the rolling hills of his abdominal muscles.

She was enthralled by the sight of him. Surprising, since she was not the type to swoon over a beautiful man or woman for that matter, but there she was gaping at the perfect beauty of this man before her.

She shook herself reminding herself what she needed him for and what she must do for her sisters...lead.

She came up to him and offered the haunch of rabbit meat for him. "Hungry?"

"If you want to eat this you must obey peacefully," She continued pointing to the ground in the pen before her, "Kneel before me."

He heard someone ask him if he was hungry and glanced down. His eyes took her in giving no hint at her beauty having affected him. He found her pretty he wouldn’t lie to himself about that but he also knew exactly what was happening.

That he was a prisoner

She offered him food but it came at a price. The game was beginning the attempt to break him down mentally for either intelligence or just for fun. He noted already that the group was entirely composed of women and that there were no males to be seen. A matriarchal society? Strange but there was much in the world Maximus had yet to see.

“I only kneel to my Emperor” He said shaking his head at the food “I refuse I am not hungry”

He knew eventually he would break. All men did no matter how strong. When a person had unlimited access to another person and the desire to break them it was always a time game. How long could he hold out? His own dedication fighting with his will for the pain to go away.

Maximus wasn’t stupid. He knew his loyalty to the emperor wouldn’t matter here but he was honor bound to at least try. That and he wasn’t the type to just give in not when he could make it as hard for the person as it was going to be for his.

So he didn’t even glance at the food she offered. Instead he starred her down before reaching up with one long muscular arm. He grasped the tree and brought it down taking another slow sip of the liquid accumulating on the tip before releasing it. He moved to the back of the cage and sat down continuing to look at her as he tried to get as comfortable as possible.

IC: Mara

"If you want to eat this you must obey peacefully," She continued pointing to the ground in the pen before her, "Kneel before me."

“I only kneel to my Emperor” He said shaking his head at the food “I refuse I am not hungry”

He stared her in the eye and Mara saw the resolve in his eyes. He reached up and pulled down the branch hanging above him to sip at the drop of water at the tip of the leaf above him. He turned his back on her and sat at the far end of the pen.

He had somehow slipped free of the rope binding his hands behind his back, but Mara did not allow the shock of that to show in her face as she regarded this man.

"Is that right," She asked him placing the plate of food in front of the cage and sitting cross-legged to stare back at the man with equal resolve. "So this will be a battle of wills then?"

She pointed to the rabbit before her. "I already know how strong you are, and I could guess that you are a stubborn one, but I had hoped you'd at least see reason when it comes before you."

Her piercing blue never wavered from his. In this battle the first of them to blink would be the loser. "Now come, kneel before me here, and I shall feed you your supper before it gets cold. The longer you postpone this the likelier you will not get anything to eat at all."

Janna crossed her arms scowling at the man with utter hatred in her eyes. The sad fact was that she was bound to obey Mara's decisions as her Queen-it did not mean she had to agree with or even like them however.

"Reason?" Maximus echoed raising an eyebrow and cocking his head to study her.

"What reason do I have to submit to you?" He asked her "Beside comforts such as food? Will submiting to you release me from being your captive? Will it allow you to release me? I am a prisoner either way and if I am prisoner than I would rather be dead"

He didn't mean that and anyone who was skilled enough in reading a person would see the slight waver to his eyes at the bold claim. He covered that by blinking and rising to his feet.

"With respect I will decline again" He told her clearing his throat and moving over to her. He noticed the other woman's hand dropping to her weapon and raised his own hands to show he wasn't going to try anything.

He reached the princess and sat down mere inches from her. He locked eyes with her once more before speaking.

"I will never bow to you or kneel" He told her drawing spit in his mouth and spitting it directly on her chest "THAT is a promise"

IC: Mara

She pointed to the rabbit before her. "I already know how strong you are, and I could guess that you are a stubborn one, but I had hoped you'd at least see reason when it comes before you."

"Reason," He snorted with a cocked head to look her over, "What reason do I have to submit to you?"

Her piercing blue never wavered from his. In this battle the first of them to blink would be the loser. "Now come, kneel before me here, and I shall feed you your supper before it gets cold. The longer you postpone this the likelier you will not get anything to eat at all."

Janna crossed her arms scowling at the man with utter hatred in her eyes. The sad fact was that she was bound to obey Mara's decisions as her Queen-it did not mean she had to agree with or even like them however.

"Beside comforts such as food," He asked her, "Will submiting to you release me from being your captive?"

"No," She answered without hesitation.

"Will it allow you to release me," He continued, "I am a prisoner either way and if I am prisoner than I would rather be dead"

"I will not permit that," She explained to him matter-of-factly, "Your life is mine, my property. I value it, and will not allow any, even you, to threaten it. I will decide how long it will be and when it shall end. You in turn will submit to me."

"With respect I will decline again" He told her clearing his throat and moving over to her. He noticed the other woman's hand dropping to her weapon and raised his own hands to show he wasn't going to try anything.

He reached the princess and sat down mere inches from her. He locked eyes with her once more before speaking. "I will never bow to you or kneel" He told her drawing spit in his mouth and spitting it directly on her chest "THAT is a promise"

She lifted a hand and wiped the spittle from her bosom. Her eyes never left the wrestling match with his. "I was hoping to reason with you."

She wiped the saliva from her fingers onto his plate of roasted hare. "Among my sisters there are many who say men are beyond such things as reason. They are ruled by their passions and primal often brutish instincts, like nothing more than animals and are to be treated as such.

She broke eye contact taking his food in hand saying, "Janna, fetch some rope to bind him, and a strap to discipline this beast."

Janna smirked satisfied that her opinions towards men in general were reaffirmed and sneered and that Mara seemed to agree to her views now. She sneered at him one last time before turning to complete her Queen's orders.

Mara placed the plate of his supper far away from him, "Now what shall we talk about before you are punished. Perhaps that quaver I heard in your voice earlier, or perhaps you will show some degree of civility and offer me your name?"

“You wish to talk about quavers?” Maximus said chuckling in amusement.

If he was scared about getting the switch or even what was to come he gave nothing away. He simply watched her continuing their wrestling match for dominance.

“I won’t deny your attractive” Maximus said a small smile playing on his lips “I notice the way that other one stares at you. I am sure she would gladly tell you how attractive you are and go to bed with you if she isn’t already. Surely you don’t need a beast of a man to reaffirm that you’re a goddess?”

He chuckled softly at the thought before continuing.

“My name is Maximus. I was born a slave before being sold to the army as a warrior in bulk” He told her “I earned my name and my command post. If you think a simple whip is going to scare me then I am sad to say it won’t. I was whipped all my life and have the scars to prove it.”

He let that hang in the air between them for a long pregnant pause. When he finally spoke his voice was light and level as if they were discussing something mundane and not his life of servitude.

“I thank you” He told her “For telling me exactly what my life is now. I shall pay you the same respect. Like I have said before I know I will eventually break that much is obvious given you have the rest of my life to do what you wish to me. Because of that and because I have no want to make this easy for you. I will fight you every step of the way. I will make you earn breaking me. It wont be today tomorrow or even this year and it will take every ounce of your own will power and skills to make it happen. When it does you will rejoice but I plan on making you earn it”

With that Maximus rose breaking eye contact with her finally. He moved to the center of his cell and sat down for a second before shifting and laying on the middle of the floor. He spread his arms out closing his eyes and breathing in as he waited for his punishment to begin. Now that he didn’t have to match confidence with her Maximus allowed himself a moment to run through what she said. He would be lying if he said the idea of being tortured in any sense appealed to him. He thought his slaves day were behind him and was dreading the idea of submitting him to that again.

But… just lying there and submitting didn’t appeal to him either not when he worked so hard in the fighting pits to become a free man. This wasn’t the path he wanted.

But it was the only one available to him.

IC: Mara

Mara placed the plate of his supper far away from him, "Now what shall we talk about before you are punished. Perhaps that quaver I heard in your voice earlier, or perhaps you will show some degree of civility and offer me your name?"

“You wish to talk about quavers," He chuckled at that.

He was attempting to ridicule her. Force her onto the defensive. That wasn't going to work. "Shall we start with what motivated the quaver in your response or shall we continue this rather pointless matching of wills?"

They stared at eachother for several minutes their wrestling match continued. Mara gave no ground. If she did for even a second, if she gave an inch she'd lose a mile with this man.

“I won’t deny you're attractive," With something of a suggestive smile turning his lips, “I notice the way that other one stares at you. I am sure she would gladly tell you how attractive you are and go to bed with you if she isn’t already. Surely you don’t need a beast of a man to reaffirm that you’re a goddess?”

"Your appreciation pleases me," She said smoothly, "Janna and I are heart-sisters. Yes that means we have pleasured eachother in our beds, but your assumption is incorrect. The reason I have made you mine now is not to pander to any vanity I may suffer from, slave."

“My name is Maximus," He informed her, "I was born a slave before being sold to the army as a warrior in bulk. I earned my name and my command post.

He glared at her, "If you think a simple whip is going to scare me then I am sad to say it won’t. I was whipped all my life and have the scars to prove it.”

They continued staring at eachother, wrestling eye to eye, his will against hers.

"You will provide me a fine daughter," She asserted finally.

"I thank you," He replied, “For telling me exactly what my life is now."

"You can thank me with obedience," She told him, "Obedience brings rewards. Rewards brings respect."

"I shall pay you the same respect," He said raising up and forfeiting their wrestling match of wills, "Like I have said before I know I will eventually break that much is obvious given you have the rest of my life to do what you wish to me. Because of that and because I have no want to make this easy for you. I will fight you every step of the way. I will make you earn breaking me. It wont be today tomorrow or even this year and it will take every ounce of your own will power and skills to make it happen. When it does you will rejoice but I plan on making you earn it."

Mara watched as he lay down in his cell awaiting his whipping. Janna came carrying the ropes and a giant smirk for what she was about to do.

"Hold," She commanded her. She stepped around the pen to face him and lowered to her knees. "On your knees, Maximus, and face me."

She looked into his eyes and reached out through the stakes of his pen. "Give me your hands."

When he did she guided them up to her throat. "You have been whipped many many times. One look at the scars on your body can tell me that. Fine, I will not get what I desire from you by pain and fear I shall get it by appealing to your sense of mercy. "

Her hands were on his wrists keeping them on her neck as she stared into her eyes, their battle of wills renewed. "You want to resist me. You want to rail against me. You want to kill me. You now have two options. You can exact some version of petty vengeance upon me by throttling my windpipe. Of course if you do Janna will certainly kill you for it. Or in the second option you can stay still with your hands on my neck without impeding my breathing and submit to your punishment now."

"Mara," Janna exclaimed in shock, "What are you doing?"

Her eyes never left his matching her will to his. "Make your choice now." She commanded Maximus.

Maximus never expected his new queen to say such a thing.

He was laying down on the ground and waiting for his punishment when she mentioned a daughter. The casual revelation that she wanted to have a daughter with him was enough to break his calm facade and jar him enough to glance up at her.

"A daughter?" He questioned his bushy eyebrows flying up as he looked up to study her "Is that what you want with me? To be a breeding stock?"

She didn't answer instead telling her whatever to hold. He watched her as she knelled once more and commanded him to do the same. After a few minutes he did so getting up and moving over to her before kneeling down. When she commanded him to offer her his hands he did so without a moments hesitation.

"I don't know what you're planning" He said as she mentioned his fortitude for whipping "But whatever it is its not going to work"

He was surprised but didn't show it when she guided his hands to her throat. The explosion of shock around the party camp made him chuckle. He matched eyes with her again taking an educated guess as to what she was trying to do.

"Why would I kill you?" He said to her raising an eyebrow "I would be killed in a matter of seconds probably before I could even finish taking your life. You've also not done anything to me besides capturing me that is"

He removed his hand turning to look at all of them. He stepped back in the cage moving to the center and bringing his hands up.

"You're move now my Queen" He said locking eyes with her. He smiled at her not triumphant per say but clearly enjoying himself a bit.

"If what you want is a daughter" He said noting how Mara winced "Why don't you just come and get what you need from me for it? Is it really that important to break me first? Have you ever had a proper fucking from a man who is a bit wild? I mean I am sure any man you have captured does his best to please you but I think the act of rutting is much more appealing when the two people doing the rutting are only concerned about the desire in each others bones"

IC: Mara

"Mara," Janna exclaimed in shock, "What are you doing?"

Her eyes never left his matching her will to his. "Make your choice now." She commanded Maximus.

"Why would I kill you?" He said to her raising an eyebrow "I would be killed in a matter of seconds probably before I could even finish taking your life. You've also not done anything to me besides capturing me that is."

"If Jana had not knocked you out I would have fought you, probably injuring you in our fight," She told him with confidence, "So don't be so certain of that."

His hands let her go and he stepped back to the center of the pen. She watched as he raised his hands never looking away from her. Their wills still waged their silent war.

"Your move my Queen," He told her in a 'Do your worst' tone of voice.

Janna came up beside her smugly handing her the ropes and the cane to punish Maximus with.

"Not the ropes," She told him taking the cane in hand. Smiling at him she opened the pen and stepped inside. "Place your hands above your head. The only thing binding you, Maximus, will be your pride."

She stepped around behind him leaving the door to the pen wide open. If he wanted to escape there'd be nothing to stop him now save for the fact that he'd be admitting fear that she would break him.

She stood looking at his broad back in the firelight and reached out tracing the lines of scars crisscrossing his backside.

"You've been flogged so many times," She murmured with sympathy layered in her words, "I don't doubt your confidence towards suffering through this one."

Her hand drifted away from his skin, "I swear I will not disrespect you by making this too easy for you, Maximus."

The cane raised steady in her hand. "Your disobedience has earned you five strikes from this cane."

It raised back ready to be swung at full force across his backside. "Are you ready to receive your punishment now?"

He brought his hands up his body tightening as he readied himself. He would be lying if he said he was looking forward to being whipped once more. He hadn't been whipped in ten years not since he earned his command in the fighting pits of the empire. Would he still be able to handle the pain? Or would he break from the first taste of the whips.....

He gulped and his eyes narrowed with steel. He could do this he could take it.

"I am ready" He said swallowing hard and fixing her with a steel eyed look "Do your worst"

He didn't close his eyes nor move. Instead he relaxed his body and focused all of his considerable will on blocking out the pain. He imagined himself as nothing more than a leaf in the wind tumbling and going with the current of the world. To anyone else it looked like he was starring off into space.

IC: Mara

The cane raised steady in her hand. "Your disobedience has earned you five strikes from this cane."

It raised back ready to be swung at full force across his backside. "Are you ready to receive your punishment now?"

Mara watched his muscles tighten as hands closed to fists above him.

"I am ready" He said swallowing hard and fixing her with a steel eyed look "Do your worst"

Once that was said she saw the tension drain from his body. Without even knowing it he'd taken the correct steps to accept the caning. Tensing up would have made it far far worse.

"Keep Count, Maximus," She told him, "One to five. If you do not or lose count I shall start over at one."

Then she swung the cane to hit him. The first blow came horizontally over the meatiest part of his muscular buttocks. The force of it caused an impression that rippled outward for a second in his flesh.

She pulled the cane back waiting for his more primal reaction from the sudden jolt of pain and to hear him obey her announcing aloud, "One."

That was what this was about primarily. The punishment was secondary to Mara. She wanted his obedience, his trust in her enough to comply with her commands. She needed it, desired it more than anything else.

So she waited as a second slowly passed between them hanging by a thread listening hoping to hear the one word from him she wanted, needed, to hear.

"I know how this works" He told her not so much sarcastically but simply... accepting. He was far off now in a distant part of his mind where there was no pain or sense of self. Having to count the strikes would keep him more present than he would have liked.

But again he was used to this from his past.

He felt the first strike crash down on his ass seconds later. The young slave turned warrior turned slave again literally felt his flesh rippling out as she brought the cane down on his ass. His body threatened to tense to react to the pain. It took all his will not to do so to calm his body and retreat further in his mind.

"One" Was all he said his voice flat and emotionless.

The next strike came this time on skin already marked and made sensitive. He hissed but other wise didn't react.

"Two" He said gritting his teeth. He was strong, stronger than this, and stronger than her.

He would not break this day. Nor the next. He stood ready to say the next number and to feel the next sting on his body.