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Years before Robert became Thomar's pet, he served a gentle, young Cournicova noble. This is a little glimpse of that time.
***
The night was alive with sounds, sights and smells.
Laughter mixed with cheerfully raised voices to be heard over the music. The beat of the drums forming a steady foundation for the ring of steel meeting steel, shouted encouragements and taunts.
The red of the setting sun matched the flames licking towards the sky from several bonfires, the festive, colourful attire of the people gathered around the fires. Swords and eyes gleamed.
The comforting scent of freshly cut hay mixed with meat roasting and the heady aroma of wine spilled in exuberance.
The Harvest Festival had always been Alain's favourite holiday. A day when he was allowed out of his mother's mansion with next to no supervision. A day when he could mingle with commoners and peers alike and chat freely. He knew his place and didn't resent it most of the time, but there were days when all the stuffy traditions of House Cournicova threatened to choke him.
It didn't help that he was an only child, the prized, beautiful, perfect son his mother doted on. When he had been younger, he had enjoyed all that undivided attention. But now that his mother's focus shifted more and more to the daunting task of finding the perfect wife for him, a strong woman who would inherit her lands, it wasn't so much fun anymore.
He had been raised knowing that one day, he'd be married to one of House Cournicova's great warrior princesses and take up the duties of a pretty trophy husband, giving her strong children. But that had always been a thing in the distant future. Now, it was slowly becoming more and more real as possible suitors came to visit and present themselves to his mother.
This year, the Harvest Festival was a mixed blessing. Several ladies of House Cournicova were present and wooing him, trying to win favour with his mother by showing off their martial skills in the time-honoured art of the sword dance. Duelling one on one, sword against sword, steel ringing on steel in rhythm with the beating of the drums. And Alain was expected to watch and smile and look properly impressed when in reality, he was bored out of his mind.
However, for the very first time, he was not attending the festival alone but had a companion by his side. Someone he could openly talk with, not fearing to see every word weighed and judged for flaws in proper behaviour.
Alain looked at the slave standing next to him, holding a glass of wine and observing all the activities around him from below an unruly mop of dark curls. He was a few years older than Alain, but slighter than the tall, wide-shouldered Cournicova noble. Where Alain himself was by many called manly and handsome even at his nineteen years, Robert could only be described as pretty. And the best thing about him was that he belonged entirely to Alain.
He smiled when Robert shifted closer to him as some villagers passed by them, laughing and waving to their young lord.
The slave was very shy. No wonder, considering his recent history. Alain's mother’s guards had discovered Robert and several other expensive pets being held in a remote country estate when they had arrested a ring of illegal slave traders. Apparently, the pets had all been stolen from their respective masters all over the Empire and stashed at the estate to sell and ship them off once no one looked for them anymore.
All those pets were of good breeding and very valuable. Of course, his mother had meticulously returned all of them to their proper owners, earning quite a bit of favour. Only, it had turned out that Robert's former master had been killed in a duel in the meantime and there was no apparent heir who he could have been sent to.
So his mother had decided to instead give the highly trained pet to her own son. It was customary for young Cournicova men to get a male pet as a companion, so they would be able to gather sexual experience without losing their virtue and learn how to care for someone else to prepare them for their later duties as good husbands. Often, such a companion pet would stay as a personal servant to his Cournicova master even after marriage. If the wife permitted it, obviously.
Alain sincerely hoped he would be allowed to keep Robert. The slave had only been with him for a little more than a week now, but already Alain had no idea how he had ever gotten through his days alone. Life was so much less boring when you had someone to share it with and he genuinely enjoyed caring for Robert, helping him overcome the trauma of being stolen and stashed away.
Not that Alain was able to truly understand what a horror that must have been, but it seemed that providing a strong shoulder to cry on or hide behind and open arms to cuddle into whenever Robert woke from nightmares were good starters and distracting Robert with happier activities helped as well. Alain had hoped that the Harvest Festival would prove to be such a happier activity and, even if Robert flinched away from strangers, at least he seemed to emerge a bit from his shell and get curious about his surroundings.
“What do you think, would Lady Sigrid's fiery mane match well with my blonde?” Alain asked him, directing his new companion's attention back to the duel they were supposed to pay attention to.
Robert looked from smiling Alain to the Lady who was currently locked in close combat, blade against blade, her nose only a centimetre from another visiting Cournicova lady. Both of them were breathing hard, bosoms heaving, and muscles bulging as they vied for the upper hand only to suddenly break apart and once more resume circling each other, searching for an opening. Moments later, steel clashed on steel again.
They both were very strong and noble, to be sure. That was as much opinion as Alain was supposed to have about them. He certainly wasn't supposed to think that Lady Sigrid bore a certain resemblance to a draft horse while the other Lady, whose name had escaped him, had a beaked nose which would have made any hawk proud.
“Her hair rivals the brightness of the bonfires,” Robert commented politely.
Alain laughed and gently poked Robert in the side. “And what do you have to say about her face?”
The slave threw him a harried look, but when he noticed Alain's huge grin, he smiled back shyly, his face suddenly losing the haunted shadows. He was so pretty, it took Alain's breath away. He had always been too curious for his own good. Now that he finally had a companion, he was so much looking forward to exploring all the secrets of sex which had been forbidden so far. Of course, he didn't want to push Robert, but it was hard.
“Her noble features show off her good breeding,” Robert answered his question with a cheeky smile.
It took Alain a moment to catch the reference to the gift Lady Sigrid had brought for his mother – a racing horse of finest breeding. So he was seeing the resemblance as well.
With another laugh, Alain wondered if maybe he would be lucky enough to have a future wife who would be as good looking and funny as his adorable companion. Probably not. The Ladies of House Cournicova were renowned for their prowess in battle, for their honour and fierce protectiveness of their lands and families – not so much for being pleasant company.
A cheer rose from the crowd as Lady Sigrid's sword flew from her hand as the Lady she had been duelling won their match. With impeccable grace, Lady Sigrid bowed while the other Lady turned to Alain who granted her a polite nod. A smile might have been interpreted as him being too forward. The Lady slapped Lady Sigrid on the back companionably and they headed off to find beer and food together while the musicians took up a new beat for the next Ladies stepping into the duelling ring.
By dawn, the hands of the drummers would be sore and their pockets full as each of the Ladies would thank them with handsome tips for their services, Alain mused. He was feeling hot from standing close to the bonfires so long and light-headed from too much wine.
“Shall we go for a little stroll?” he asked Robert.
Robert looked around worriedly. “Are we allowed to?”
Alain had learned from Robert talking about his previous masters that they had pretty much kept him locked up. Being outside and moving around freely was alien to him and he constantly worried that he would make some mistake and be punished for it. Which of course would never happen. Whatever mischief they might get into, Alain would happily take all blame.
He would have liked to answer something flippant, but reassuring Robert was what he did. “Of course. It's perfectly safe. We just have to sneak a little so the Ladies don't notice.”
Alain waited patiently to see if Robert would object again, deciding that he valued his companion's comfort more highly than his own.
But after briefly considering, the slave smiled at him trustingly. “Okay,” he simply said, slipping his hand into Alain's, making the young noble's heart beat hard with happiness.
They waited for another especially tense moment in the new duel when all eyes were on the combatants to quietly slip away from the bright light of the bonfires.
Away from the crowd, the night air was cool. The freshly cut hay was stacked high and provided ample opportunity to walk without being observed. From the occasional suppressed, happy giggle or rustling, Alain guessed it was also used as impromptu bedding and he glanced at Robert to gauge his reaction.
He was delighted to find his companion looking back at him with a certain sparkle in his eyes. Maybe it was time to push a little after all.
Now far enough away from the fires so the music had dimmed to nothing more than a distant beat more felt in the feet than heard, Alain stopped. The stars were the only source of light now and he gazed up at them, marvelling at the clear sky. Maybe not as pretty as his companion, but beautiful nonetheless. He was trying to remember a line from a poem he had learned that likened the eyes of a lover to the stars when Robert spoke softly.
“My lord?”
Alain looked at him questioningly.
The smile that now curved Robert's lips had a decidedly indecent quality and quickened Alain's heartbeat.
“You can see the stars much better when you lie down, my lord,” his companion said next, making Alain blink at him in delighted surprise at all the naughty connotations.
Then again, maybe no pushing was needed at all.
“Well, by all means, we should lie down, shouldn't we?”
A pleasant shiver ran down Alain's spine as Robert licked his lips, his tongue darting out, just nervous enough to let Alain not feel entirely outmatched.
Together, they settled on some hay which had escaped its stack, studiously ignoring the stars to hungrily look at each other instead.
Surely there were a great many clever things a skilled lover would have had to say now but Alain was at a loss. So he did the thing which always seemed to work perfectly well in plays on stage. He closed his eyes and leaned forward. He was relieved when his lips met their like.
He had read plenty of poetry about kissing, but he quickly decided none of it did justice to the real thing. The mingling of breath, the delicate exploration slowly turning into hungry devouring. He loved every moment of it and felt deprived when they had to break apart for air.
Opening his eyes, he found Robert looking at him with such plain happiness he had no choice but to wrap his companion in a tight hug.
“I have never done this before,” he admitted in a whisper meant for no one but Robert, “Will you teach me?”
“I would be most honoured, my lord,” Robert replied, but there was nothing formal about his tone of voice. It held only warmth and trust, and desire.
Together, they sank back into the hay, resuming their kiss as an opening to much more extensive explorations.