When they broke for lunch, I was taken to a construction site where I delivered water to the workers through two of their ten-hour shifts. If the construction workers wanted to fuck my throat and they were ahead enough on their quota, they could. I had to go to my knees and open my mouth for anyone who told me to — freeperson or slave.
I was given a one-minute break at the top of every hour, and I was given a bottle of water to drink. Unfortunately for me, the construction workers found it entertaining to try to get me to puke the water back up. Not all of them could, but the ones with really long cocks had no trouble gagging me until I puked.
I was moved between the onion fields and two constructions sites for three days. Looking back, I’m pretty sure the guards and the construction workers had likely been given the promise of a large bonus if they could rile my temper, because it seemed they were all trying pretty fucking hard to piss me off.
But common sense told me I didn’t want to know what the next step in consequences would be if I lost my temper again.
Later, I’d find out I was in Faerie nineteen days total. The three days of hell after my verbal diarrhea hadn’t counted. My week started again when I was returned to the stable, and when it was finished, someone decided they needed another four days on the end, just to be sure I was in control of my temper.
Honestly, I think adding days onto the end when I thought I was about to be released was another attempt to piss me off enough to lose it. I was taken into the stable master’s office and stripped of everything. Even my collar, chastity belt, and number-tag.
“The Dragon King and Dark Queen want my assurance your temper is under control, but I don’t feel comfortable putting my reputation on the line for a pathetic little stupid swan.”
By then, they’d tried so many times to get me to lose my temper again, and I’d had to bite my tongue so many times, I managed to look at his feet and keep from reacting. Ponies don’t speak.
Which is why, in retrospect, I think they needed four more days. I was assigned to a restaurant, where I waited tables. I was required to call everyone sir and ma’am, and I had to be polite no matter what they said to me. Being silent and holding your temper is a whole lot easier than having to speak and be nice and hold your temper. I worked a restaurant during the day and was moved to a bar near the ocean to work at night. I got three hours sleep a night, from three until six, and I worked the other twenty-one. I was given a few short breaks to eat, but I wasn’t fed enough.
My ‘uniform’ at both places was a mesh miniskirt over the chastity belt, and I was topless. The patrons were free to pull me down over their lap and spank me with their hand. They were free to grab, pinch, and twist my nipples. I wasn’t allowed to stop them or block them.
The house rules were that they couldn’t hold me up longer than twenty seconds at a time, but many of them held me up twice that, sometimes a full minute or two. We were told one of the bouncers would intervene if a patron was out of line, but some of the bouncers seemed to enjoy watching the patrons abuse us.
We were never to stop a customer from touching us. Since I was the only waitress in a chastity belt, I became a favorite to harass. The other wait staff could be fingered and fondled anywhere, and I was the anomaly. It made me more of a target, and it meant I was spanked a lot more.
And I had to hold my temper.
When I woke on the nineteenth day, I thanked the slave manager for my stale bread and water. It only took a few moments to down both, and I went to work serving breakfast. I was supposed to have my freedom on this day. I’d expected to awaken and be released, but I’d learned enough to know better than to demand it. Towards the end of lunch, Aaron came in with some other men, and he sat in my station.
“What can I get you, Sirs?”
One of the men with him grabbed and twisted my nipple. I looked at the table a second, and then smiled at him. “We have a wide assortment of beer and whiskey, kind Sirs. The special of the day is roast mutton. It smells wonderful in the kitchen.”
Aaron made a motion with his hand, and the man let go of my nipple.
“What have you learned?” Aaron asked me.
“I’m not that special, my King. Dragons are smarter than most everyone around us, but that doesn’t make us better than them. It also doesn’t mean I can just spout off at the mouth when someone angers me. I must hold my tongue and think of strategy before I speak.”
He leaned back, and the teleporting castle guard appeared before me.
“He’s going to take you to a mountain,” Aaron told me. “Shift to dragon when you get there. Don’t return to human until you see me or the guard in two or three days. Enjoy your time as a dragon. Fly. Relax in the sun. Swim in the river and lake. Eat whatever you want, and as much as you want, but eat what you kill. Value the life you consume. Also, stay in that valley until given instructions otherwise. It’s well delineated.”
“I will, Your Majesty. Thank you.” We aren’t supposed to obligate ourselves to others in Faerie. I felt the land record the debt, but I didn’t care. It had to be said.
He gave me a sad smile. “Why are you thanking me?”
“I deserved to be punished for what I did to Dementor. Probably not as much as I got, but that’s okay, because I understand it was necessary for me to learn the lesson. If you hadn’t made sure the lesson stuck, I would’ve probably hurt someone else. Or maybe D again, and if I haven’t lost him already, I know doing it again will push him away.”
“You’re welcome. Sophia doesn’t know the specific details of your consequences and I’d appreciate it if she doesn’t find out. She’ll know you harvested onions, you spent some time in the stables, and waitressed tables.”
“What will D know?”
“What do you want him to know?”
“Everything. No secrets. Can you tell him?”
He sighed. “I can arrange for him to see your two weeks in fast motion. Queen Mab recorded it so I could watch bits and pieces at my convenience.”
“You are kind to offer, my King.” That was as close as I could get to thanking him without saying it.
He nodded to the castle guard, I breathed in and held it, and then I was on a lush, green mountaintop, near the edge of a cliff, looking down on the greenest valley imaginable. Paradise.
And then my power returned to me all at once, and I burst into my dragon form.
Chapter Thirty-Five
Dementor
I assumed I’d see Ember when I went to Faerie with Aaron, but he took me to The Dark Queen’s castle, to a room with a medieval conference table holding a large crystal bowl of water.
He waved his arm over the bowl and told me, “It will start when I leave. You’ll see her entire nineteen days in a little over four hours. She’s currently in dragon form, thinking and meditating. She’s grateful for the lessons learned. She went through hell for nearly three weeks, but better that than hell for three centuries while she pushed everyone away with her temper. Or worse, accidently killed someone she loves.”
He left without saying goodbye, and I focused on what the bowl could show me.
I experienced every negative emotion possible while I watched. I wanted to cry, at times, but I didn’t dare let my eyes get watery. The most important parts, I saw in probably double time, while much of it was likely a hundred times the speed of life. Some likely a lot faster — the monotony of slave life showed up even when viewed in fast forward.