The Scars We Leave — Chapter Two

A half-elf falls into the rough hands of a band of mercenaries, but she isn’t willing to let it stand without consequences.

Erotic short story, dark fantasy. 4.6K words.

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Chapter Two: The Fire in Her Eyes

After being enslaved along with her brother, Luka is separated from him and sold to a band of mercenaries. Treated like the company whore, she struggles against her chains to show them she’s much more.

You can find a directory of chapters in The Scars We Leave here.

Cis F/Group Cis M, 4640 words. Luka’s body is described with the words “breasts,” “tits,” “pussy,” “cunt,” “hole,” “womb”

CWs and Tags:

• Non-Consensual Sex
• Slavery
• Gangbang
• Choking
• Degradation
• Size Difference
• Bondage
• Collar

When the slavers attacked the town, Luka knew they weren’t going to get away. Even as her brother pulled her out the door, clutching a dagger in his trembling fingers, she knew. For weeks, she’d been sick; feeling weak, struggling to breathe, tiring too quickly. The air rattled in her lungs like it had nowhere to go, and sometimes the cough that wracked her thinning frame ended with blood in her mouth. Was she dying? She wasn’t sure, but it didn’t matter much now.

Aeryn collapsed with a yelp of pain as a raider’s whip came down, and Luka broke off to run in front of him. She raised both her hands in silent surrender, knowing there was no point in either of them being beaten for a futile cause. Even still, the slavers were hardly gentle with them. Both siblings were stripped down, tied up, and dragged off in different directions. Her poor younger brother shouted for her as they were separated, but Luka simply shook her head at him to be quiet.

The girl was left alone in an empty house, waiting for the sounds of resistance outside to fade. Maybe some of the villagers had gotten away. Probably not, but it was a nice fantasy to hold on to. Finally, a few minutes after everything had gone quiet, the door creaked open.

Luka was surprised to see a woman step inside. No one Luka knew; she must have been part of the raiding party. Reprehensible.

The dark-haired woman saw the intensely hostile gaze Luka shot her with and smiled apologetically. “It’s okay. I’m not here to hurt you. What’s your name?”

“You first,” she spat in response.

“Ravenna.”

“Luka.”

“I had a few questions for you.” Ravenna knelt next to Luka’s bound form.

“I’m sure. You’re the bitch, aren’t you? The big scary men need to hire a woman to tell them what the ‘merchandise’ is worth.” Luka laughed bitterly. “You can forget about marking me up. My lungs are rotting. Nobody with the fear of the gods will buy a girl who could pass the contagion to them.” She coughed, hawked, and spat up a glob of blood to prove her point.

Luka knew that, under better circumstances, she was attractive. Her half-elvish blood gave her a graceful and willowy shape, orange eyes, and ears that swept up to a slight point. Her thick, deep red hair (now grown out longer and wilder than she cared it to be) framed her freckle-spattered, cream-colored skin. Her tits were modest, maybe a little smaller from the weight the disease had lost her, and her ass (in Luka’s own professional opinion) was great. When she’d lived in Ranbell, she’d had her pick of swingers eager for the chance to fuck a half-elf. But all that didn’t really matter to someone afraid for their life. If these people wanted to whore her out, they’d have a hard time of it.

Ravenna frowned at Luka’s insult, her brow flattening. “…That’s my job, yes, if you want to put it crudely. Just tell me what I need to know, and you won’t have to suffer my presence much longer, little girl.”

“And whose presence will I suffer instead? You going to throw me to the wolves?”

The woman ignored her. “How old are you?”

Luka laughed. “Guess. My mom–one of them, anyway–was an elf, so you’re looking at a ballpark of twenty years to a hundred.” The actual answer was twenty-two.

“Judging by the dire state of your manners, I’ll put you down on the lower end of that scale, then,” Ravenna answered caustically. “Are you a virgin?”

The half-elf twisted her wrist in the ropes and pointed a finger. “Are you?”

“I’m trying to help you, girl.” Ravenna threw her hands up. “The better appraisal I give you, the more likely you’ll end up on some noble’s cushy bed in a fine dress instead of scrubbing dishes and bending over for a peasant.”

Opening her mouth to respond, Luka’s breath scraped her throat and she burst into a violent coughing fit. When she could look up again, she gave a smile that was all ice. “Do you think that matters to me at this point?”

Ravenna shook her head angrily and swept out of the room.

Luka was fitted with the same leather collar and clattering chains as the other captured townspeople, put at the back of the line in case the blight in her lungs was contagious. However, marched overland in her condition, she didn’t last long, staggering on her weak legs and finally collapsing from a coughing fit. When one of the men came to pick her up, she laughed and spat blood on him. Only the intervention of Ravenna prevented the slaver from laying her out and flogging her.

In the end, she was detached from the line and placed behind Ravenna on the other woman’s horse, her shackles attached to the saddle instead of another slave. Still, in Luka’s opinion, riding on horseback naked was hardly an improvement. Unfortunately, before she could loudly voice too many of her complaints, Ravenna primly locked the half-elf in a ball gag.

By the third day out, Luka was significantly more sullen than defiant. Sometimes, she would watch the trees pass by, or scan the crowd of captives for her brother, but mostly she just her eyes and tried to minimize the discomfort. The meager rations the slavers gave her weren’t helping her condition, and she felt more tired and ill as each day passed.

Their arrival at the small frontier city that was the closest other settlement to the village was a relief to her. Whatever happened, or however little time they spent there, it was time Luka could spend with her sore ass out of the saddle. There was some discussion between Ravenna and one of the other slavers, Gareth, on if they should take her to an apothecary, but the conclusion was that the coin they got for her wouldn’t be worth the fee.

After her captors had made up their minds, Luka was half-led, half-dragged off to what the slavers derogatorily called the “dross pen,” a crowded corral where the slaves deemed too cheap for auction would be sold off. It was a sad sight, mostly the elderly and the disabled of the village, those that wouldn’t catch any eyes up on a podium. Luka was one of the only young women there. Not really loving the idea of being ogled, she leaned against the wooden fence and closed her eyes.

“What’s the ginger chick doing down here?” A gruff voice reached her ears.

“She’s sick,” one of the slavers responded plainly. “Nobody wants a diseased fucktoy, so all she’s good for is desk labor.”

“What’s she got?” This voice was quieter, smoother.

“Somethin’ in her lungs.”

Luka opened her eyes as she heard the footsteps coming near her. The pair sizing her up were night and day next to each other; a hulking, six foot and a half man with a long, wild black braid and a pale northern complexion, and a shorter, wiry man, closer to her age, who had olive skin and neatly kept, curly brown hair. They wore tunics and leather trousers, swords strapped to their belts. Mercenaries, probably. Or bandits.

“Don’t come too close, or you’ll catch the plague,” she mocked them.

“If you had the plague, they would have already burned your dead body,” the shorter man responded.

“Fuckin’ shame you’re sick, lass. The boys back at the camp would love you.” His companion grinned evilly at her.

“You think so,” the other said drolly. “I’m curious. What are your symptoms?”

“The fuck do you care?”

He flashed a silver coin. “Your freedom doesn’t look expensive. I could buy it, so humor me.”

“…My muscles barely hold me up, it hurts to breathe, my chest aches, and I cough up blood.”

“For how long?”

“A few weeks, now.”

“You said blood? No phlegm?”

“…Yeah?” She gave him a strange look.

The wiry man nodded, then he raised a hand to beckon over the slaver. “How much for the half-elf?”

“You gone daft, Julian?” the bigger man asked incredulously. “Ya so taken with her you’ll risk whatever lungrot bullshit she’s got?”

Julian ignored him as the slaver walked over to answer.

“Six silver marks.” Luka knew she wasn’t exactly a prize in her state, but she was still insulted by how low that was.

“We’ll take her.” He counted out the coins. A moment later, a key changed hands, and Luka was being led out of the pen and handed over to the two men.

Julian grabbed the chain connecting her wrists as they walked away, his expression unreadable. Luka watched him carefully, wondering what he was thinking. When they were clear of the market, she could try to run, but, with her legs how they were…

“Seriously, man, what are you thinking?” The northerner nagged.

“She’s not contagious,” Julian answered simply. “She has racket-lung. I recognize the signs. Dry cough, fatigue, blood but no sign of infection. Might still kill her, but…” He shrugged. “Not gonna hurt anyone else.”

The big man grinned. “So we get ‘er for cheap ’cause they don’t know that.”

Julian shrugged. “You said the camp would like her. If not, it’d be easy to make a profit re-selling her. You don’t see many elves on the block, half-human or no.”

Luka listened grimly, for once not having much to say for herself. She knew what was in her future now, and wasn’t exactly looking forward to it. Goddammit, if it weren’t this stupid disease…

She comforted herself with the morbid knowledge that Aeryn, pretty as he was, would probably get a more comfortable set of chains than her.

The camp was out of town, a few minutes into the woods. Either these people preferred roughing it or didn’t want to pay for rooms. The sun was starting to set as they made their way there, and a vibrant campfire served as beacon.

“Yo!” One of the men stood up as he saw them approaching. “Welcome back, boss Hadley. Julian.”

Luka counted eleven of them, plus Hadley and Julian. They were scattered across a loose circle of tents surrounding the campfire, eating dinner, playing dice, napping, or just looking bored. Some kind of weapon was close at hand for all of them, and she could see chainmail and armor plates stuck into or draped over the party’s packs. A slightly ragtag banner was tied to a tree branch, depicting a bird of prey holding a sword in its beak. Although a little worse for wear, it looked professionally made. Definitely mercenaries. Luka thought. Bandits don’t carry a coat of arms.

“You bring a warm body for us, boss-man?” Another merc said, scanning her nudity with obvious appreciation. “How the hell we afford a girl like this?”

Hadley grinned. “Julian pulled one over on the slavers. They thought she had the fucking consumption or something, but she’s harmless. Only put us down six silver marks.”

Julian shrugged. “Knowing more about medicine than common raiders isn’t hard. Anyway, I’m going to get a bite. Have fun.” He walked off towards one of the tents, and all eyes turned back to Luka.

“She’s a piece of ass, too! Those elf ears?”

“’Ey, my old girl was an elf. They’re little animals in bed.”

Luka flushed a furious red, hearing herself discussed like a piece of meat at the butcher’s. ”You get near me, I’ll bite your fucking tongue out.”

The merc leader turned to her and yanked her up by the hair, actually lifting her about an inch off the ground. Luka gasped in pain and scratched at his hand, but with her wrists tied there was very little she could do to a man twice her size.

Hadley tossed her onto the ground with a flick. The half-elf curled up and clutched her scalp, coughing and shaking. “You learn to watch your tongue here, slut, or I’ll whip the skin off your back.”

Laughter burst from the ranks of the party. “Yeah, we got better uses for that mouth, girl.” Someone jeered.

“Why don’t we get a good look at the little elf bitch?” Someone else shouted.

Hadley belly laughed. “Roll out some blankets, boys, let’s welcome ‘er to the Flying Swords!”

Luka found herself kicked, pushed, and dragged over by the campfire, where a set of sheets and bedrolls was quickly arranged. Hands were touching her body everywhere, at least a half dozen of the mercs crowding around her. They squeezed her tits, scratched little lines in her side, fondled and spread her ass. “Get off of me!” She screamed, weakly kicking at them and cringing away from the many groping hands.

One of the men wrenched her legs open, and she struggled, trying to crawl away, but there were too many people holding her down. Luka hissed out a ragged breath as one of the mercs jammed three fingers in her pussy, wasting no time in loosening her up. Another grabbed her hair and stuck a finger in her mouth, only for the girl to immediately bite him.

“Ow! Bitch!” The man yanked back and slapped her across the face. “I’ll teach you a lesson, slut!” He reached under her slave collar and pressed in, choking her hard. Luka sputtered and kicked off the ground, her legs still held apart with fingers pistoning her hole. Someone else painfully twisted her nipple, and she felt the thick slap and slight wetness of someone finally pulling his dick out on her.

Fighting futilely to tear the man’s grip off, Luka’s vision danced with spots. She twisted her hips, unable to pull away from the digits fucking her, and choked for breath.

“Don’t fucking kill her, dude, sheesh.” Someone pushed his hand off her throat, and she gasped desperately for breath, coughing and pulling her arms in in a pathetic attempt to defend herself.

“See if she bites now.” The one merc sneered. “Lemme use those pretty lips, whore.”

“Stop–!” He jerked her head to the side. The man was kneeling next to her, his trousers open, a bead of precum glistening on the end of his shaft. He slid his cock into her mouth roughly, pulling her face by her hair onto its length.

Luka gagged and rolled her eyes at the taste, wincing. Her throat strained the collar as he shoved it in, his balls dangling at her chin and his fingers wrapped in her ginger locks. As he slid her back and forth over the shaft, the man fingering her sped up. Hands clutched her tits and her ass.

She fought back against the mounting pressure, repeating violent threats in her mind, but with so much stimulation everywhere, there was nothing she could do. Luka convulsed in orgasm, bucking her hips off the ground and sucking in the fingers in her cunt, her vision swimming. The man fucking her mouth pulled out to her lips and came, spraying her face in milky fluid. Another stream of ejaculate spattered her breasts, as well. The fingers inside her pulled out and wiped her own juices off on her thighs. For a brief moment, reeling in afterglow, they let her rest.

“Alright, who gets to go first? We gonna draw straws?”

“Idiot,” Hadley huffed. “I do, I’m the boss. Lift ‘er up.”

Luka groaned as they picked her up off the ground, cum dripping down her face and chest in little rivulets. She looked up with a slight tremble at the huge man standing in front of her. His cock seemed as fat as her wrist. “Fucking try me.” She snarled. “I’ll strangle you with my fucking cuffs.”

The merc leader gripped her ass with both hands and squeezed, pulling her in closer. One of the men holding her draped her bound arms over Hadley’s neck, and try as she might, she didn’t have the strength to actually hurt him.

The half-elf screamed when the gigantic cock pushed inside her, throbbing against her walls as it separated her cunt. Pained tears ran down from her eyes to mix with the thick smears on her painted face. Luka panted as she sunk down onto its length, Hadley’s fingers digging into her ass.

“Good girl,” he rumbled. “Take it all in, there.”

The other men jeered and heckled. She moaned as it hilted her, his cock head pressing against her womb.

“Oh, she’s a real good whore when somebody shoves a dick in her!” Someone laughed. “You all bravado and no edge, elf girl?”

Luka gritted her teeth and struggled, kicking her legs at the air and trying to push herself off of Hadley’s chest. He responded by gripping her tighter and thrusting roughly up into her. Luka’s eyes rolled at the sensation and her helpless body quivered. “Mother…fucker…!” She gasped out.

Hadley started to bounce her on his cock, rocking her hips up and down and forcing himself as deep as her cunt could handle. She looked down and saw her stomach slightly bulging with the size, painful heat swimming up her frame. “Haah…AH!” Luka yelped as he pulled back and rammed her especially hard.

As his oversized shaft worked through her, it got a little easier, each thrust spiking with a little less agony and a little more sticky euphoria. Luka fought to keep her mind focused, refusing to lose herself under the pressure, but every time he jolted back into her to the hilt her eyes glazed a little more.

“A’ight boss, we don’t wanna wait while you take your time makin’ sweet love,” one of the mercs put in. “She’s got another hole, let’s fuckin’ use it.”

Luka panicked a little as she felt someone step up behind her, something grinding against her ass. Wet fingers pushed between her cheeks and slathered something over her other hole.

“Don’t break her, now!” Hadley laughed. “I think we all plan to get a lot of use out of this little slut.”

She sucked in a painful breath and thrashed as another cock pushed up into her asshole, squeezing her insides against the huge length in her cunt. They began to slide through her body in tandem, overwhelming her thoughts in the rough sensations, and Luka finally lost the fight to keep her cool.

She moaned and cried as the two big men double penetrated her, rocking her shaking body between them. She finally came, her abused holes throbbing, her hips clenching. The man behind her reached around and clutched her tits, pulling at her nipples, smearing the cum still seeping down her front. Her head lolled thoughtlessly onto Hadley’s shoulder.

Time stretched on as they fucked her, her body slowly adjusting to the treatment. Luka came again, giving up and hanging between them like a broken doll. She tuned out the shouts and laughs, but couldn’t ignore their cocks taking up her holes.

Finally, with a groan, the merc fucking her asshole came, pushing himself up into her and shooting out a heavy string of cum inside. The boss let himself go a second later, gripping her thighs and locking her cunt down on his dick as he filled up her womb. Luka whimpered, her tired body begging for relief.

She wouldn’t get it.

After they finally disentangled her and dropped her back onto the dirty blankets, the other members of the gang were on her. It was only a moment before her pussy was throbbing over someone’s cock again, her dripping asshole taken up with another shaft. They rolled her limply onto her hands and knees and spitroasted her, a third person forcing himself into her mouth.

Luka didn’t really know how long it lasted. She melted into the abuse, coughing and crying and moaning. She hated, most of all, losing her dignity and composure. That was the one thing she’d thought she could still hold on to, amidst everything.

Finally, when all her holes were properly stuffed with thick, sopping fluid, and her skin was smeared in cum too for good measure, they dropped her. Everyone who had wanted a turn–had she counted eight?–had fucked her. They left her laying there in the makeshift fuck-nest, quivering and leaking, her hands still bound by the chains. Overwhelmed, Luka gradually drifted into a faint, dreamless sleep.

When she woke up, it was the deep part of the night. The campfire, half the size it had been earlier, crackled quietly in chorus with the crickets. Luka looked around. Most of the mercenaries had bedded down in their various tents, but she saw two still awake. They were standing guard on the perimeter of the camp. Judging by the curly-haired silhouette, one of them was Julian, the man from earlier.

Her whole body was wet and sore. Luka simultaneously wanted to sleep for a day and to take a two-hour long shower. Her breath rasped in her throat, and she buried a brief spat of coughing in a blanket to keep the noise down. Tasting blood, she weakly rolled over and scanned the area, holding her chains to keep them from clinking.

Two guards, standing at the edge of the fire’s light. Both facing away from her. Eleven other men, probably all sleeping. If she was going to run, there probably wouldn’t be a better time. But she was hardly fit to sprint, and not likely to get clear before the guards heard her or noticed her absence. She’d need something else.

Luka remembered the keys the slaver had handed over to Hadley, when they’d bought her. There were weapons all over the camp, so if she could unlock her cuffs…

The biggest tent was likely Hadley’s. She carefully pushed herself up and crawled towards it, fighting the itch in her throat urging her to cough. Even sore and abused, her legs squelching a little when she moved, Luka was a half-elf. Grace and stealth were in her blood, her willowy body perfectly suited to pad quietly through the trees.

The thunderous snoring coming from the tent covered any sound of her approach. She kept low to the ground to avoid any passing glances from the watch, and slipped through the tent flap. The big merc boss was sprawled out on a sleeping bag inside, splayed like a ragdoll. She ignored the flash of fury in her chest when she saw him and turned to look for the key.

There. The pouch he’d been carrying in town, laying on the ground where it’d been casually tossed. Luka rifled through it until her hands found the tiny metal key. She slipped it one after the other into the locks on her cuffs, and with a clink she was free of her chains.

Now then…

Hadley’s blade sat next to him, sheathed. It was a hand-a-half sword by the looks of it. Luka had never been trained in swordplay, but she’d used an axe enough times to know how to line up an edge. And you didn’t need much to strength to cut if your target was bare, vulnerable flesh. She drew the sword from its scabbard and knelt over the snoring merc boss.

Hadley woke to the feeling of cold steel pressing down roughly on his neck. “Yah!” He shouted and started to push himself up, but the blade immediately bit into his skin and drew blood, convincing him to settle.

The redheaded half-elf they had bought at the slave market that day stared back down at him, her dirty face alight with hate.

“H-How the fuck did you get free!?” He heard stirring outside the tent as his yelling was noticed.

“Because you’re all idiots.” She hissed. “Get up. You struggle, I’ll slaughter you like a hen.”

On their feet, she was almost hidden behind his bulky frame. The half-elf prodded him out the tent. Bobby, one of the men he’d left on guard, saw them and cursed. “Oh shit. Boss-man, you okay??”

Before he could answer, the girl spoke for him. “He will be if you don’t do anything stupid.”

“B-Boss?”

“Goddammit, listen to her!” Hadley blustered. “A slave girl’s not worth my fucking neck!”

The other mercenaries started to wake up in the commotion, tired eyes opening to sudden shock, and hands reaching for weapons.

“Well,” Julian said in a dry voice, stepping up to the edge of the firelight and leaning nonchalantly against a tree. “That’s sloppy of you, Hadley.”

“You damn fool! If you’d caught her we wouldn’t be in this situation!”

“But we are,” the half-elf said threateningly. “I’m going to walk out of here, and this big boy’s going to stay with me until I’m at a safe distance from you fucking cretins. Leave me alone, and I’ll send him back when I’m clear.”

“Boss…!”

“You goddamn bitch!”

Julian stepped closer, crossing his arms. “Brave plan, but are you sure about that? Somebody here might get a hunger for revenge, you know. And what’s going to happen to you back at town? I mean…” He gestured at her.

“I’ll take my chances.” She growled.

“You don’t have to. I’ve got a better offer for you.”

“Julian, what the flying fuck are you doing?” Hadley said.

“Negotiating,” he responded mildly.

The girl looked at him warily. “You try anything…”

“Oh, I know.” He leaned forward. “Like I said, your chances aren’t great if you just walk away from here. So why not stay?”

“Do you think I’m an idiot?”

“I don’t mean as the camp whore. You’ve proven you’re more than that. Earned your right by blood, as far as I’m concerned. Stay, and I’ll teach you how to fight.”

Hadley interrupted loudly. “Julian, you bastard, what are you doing!? I’m the boss, and I say–“

“Not anymore,” he said coolly. “You fucked up. Somebody who gets held hostage by their own slave is no one fit to command mercs.” He looked back at the girl. “So?”

“You want me to join your little band?” She laughed.

“I do. We’ll hand you a blade, and you can earn back those six silver marks like any soldier of fortune. I’ll make sure the others don’t bother you.”

“And what makes you think I’m even capable? You know I’m sick. My lungs are kind of fucked.”

“It’s treatable. I’ll pay for it myself. I think you’re worth the investment. So?”

Everyone was silent for a long moment as the two stared each other down.

“…I accept. On one condition…”

Hadley went stiff as the edge of the sword pricked his throat. He tried to shout, but before he could, the edge slid across his skin with sudden, lethal force.

Choking on his own blood, he stumbled away from the half-elf. The big man teetered for a moment, then collapsed.

The camp immediately jumped to arms, people shouting and cursing. Bobby ran towards the girl with a yell, his sword rattling out of his sheath. She raised Hadley’s bloodstained weapon in response, her face grim.

Julian drew his blade and flicked it in one smooth motion. Bobby yelled in pain, dropping his own sword and clutching the bleeding gash that had just opened on the back of his hand.

“Julian, what the fuck? She killed the boss.”

“He deserved it.” The icy mercenary stepped between the girl and the rest of the group. “I’ll run things around here, from now on. Anyone have an issue with that?”

No one spoke. They all knew he was a faster hand than any one of them.

“Good.” Julian sheathed his sword and turned back to the half-elf. “Looks like you got away with it. You can thank me with your name.”

“Luka,” she told him. “Now get me some goddamn clothes.”

Next Chapter: The Binding Chain