"Many are the slaves who do not yet wear their collars," said Boots, meditatively, and then suddenly, turned about and, to the amusement of the men in the audience, to sudden bursts of laughter, started directly at the outspoken, troublesome, arrogant free woman standing in the front row, below the stage. He could not resist turning the line in this fashion, it seemed.
"Sleen! Sleen! she cried.
There was much laughter.
"is it true that you are as yet merely an uncollared slave?" asked a man of the free woman.
"He is a sleen, a sleen! cried the free woman.
"I must soon be on my way, " said Boots to the Brigella, chuckling, trying to return to the play. He was well pleased with himself.
"Go!" she said, grandly, with a gesture.
"If you wish," he said, "you may kneel and beg my collar. I might consider granting it to you. I would have to think about it."
"Never!" she said.
"What are you going to do?" he asked.
"I shall return to the village and take my chances," she said.
"Very well," he said, "but watch out for those two fellows approaching. I fear they may be slavers."
"They appear to be peddlers, merchant, to me," she said.
"They do seem so," admitted Boots. "But that may be merely their disguise, to take unwary girls unaware."
"nonsense," she said. "I know a peddler when I see one."
"At any rate," he said, "let us hope that they are no worse than slavers."
"What do you mean?" she asked.
"I heard there were two feed hunters in the vicinity," he said.
"What is a feed hunter?" she asked.
"One who hunts for feed, of course," said Boots.
"Feed?" she asked.
"Usually for their sleen," he said, "They are pesky, careless, greedy fellows, little better than scavengers, in my opinion. They will settle for almost anything. They are particularly pleased when they can get their ropes on a juicy girl."
"Surely there are better things to do with a girl than feed her to sleen," she said.
"It probably depends on the girl," said Boots.
"No!" she cried.
"I am inclined to agree with you, though," said Boots, "all things considered, but then, of course, I am not a feed hunter."
"You are trying to frighten me," she said.
"Have it your own way," said Boots.
"You have fooled me already today, perhaps many times," she said. "Do not seek to do it again!"
"Have it your own way," said Boots.
"I wish that my clothes had not blown away," she said.
"Yes," said Boots. "That was too bad."
"I am on my way," she announced.
"Good luck!" he called.
She then, in accordance with a common Gorean theatrical convention, trekked about the stage in a circle, while Boots withdrew to one side. In a moment, of course, she had come into the vicinity of the two aforementioned fellows, they entering from the other side of the stage. So simply was the scene changed. These two fellows, of course, were Boots's Chino and Lecchio, now largely garbed in tatters of yellow and white, the colors of the merchants.
"Greetings, noble merchants," said the girl.
"Hah!" snarled the Chino to his fellow, Lecchio. "Our disguises are perfect! She takes us for merchants!"
"Would you please step aside, good sirs," she said. "I desire to pass."
"It is warm today," said Chino.
"True," she said.
"But even so," he said, "it seems you are somewhat lightly clad."
"My clothes, I fear, blew away," she said.
"That is what they all say," said Chino.
"That is not really what they all say," said Lecchio, scratching his head, through the hood. "Some say other things. One said her clothes were dissolved by magic in the bushes. That must have been frightening for her, to have had her clothes dissolved by magic in the bushes."
"No," protested the girl.
"Doubtless they were torn from your body in a recent hurricane," said Chino.
"No!" she cried.
"Removed from your body by an ardent suitor, then, who neglected to replace them?" asked Chino.
"No!" she cried.
"Eaten in a moment by ravenous insects?"
"No!"
"You were attacked by cloth workers with scissors, who desired to replenish their stores?"
"No!"
"Magic?" asked Lecchio.
"No, no!" she cried. "It is as I told you. They just blew away!"
"Do not lie to us, Girl," said Chino, sternly.
"Girl?" she asked.
"This morning," said Chino, "you were simply sent forth stripped."
"Sent forth?" she asked.
"Yes," said Chino, folding his arms.
"I think that you are under a grave misapprehension, sirs," she said, righteously. "Simply because I might be somewhat lightly clad this evening, do not mistake me for a slave."
"Do I understand you correctly?" asked Chino. "Have we the honor of being in the presence of a free woman?"
"Yes," she said.
"You mean that no one owns you, that you are totally unclaimed?"
"Yes," she said, proudly.
"Excellent!" said Chino.
"Wonderful!" said Lecchio.
"Sirs," she asked, "why is it that you are drawing forth coils of stout ropes from beneath your robes?"
"Why to bind your pretty arms to your sides, and to put a good rope on your neck, my dear," said Chino.
"I do not understand!" she said.
"She will make a juicy morsel for our sleen, will she not, Lecchio, my friend?" inquired Chino.
"That she will," agreed Lecchio.
"You are feed hunters!" cried the girl in horror.
"What is a feed hunter?" asked Lecchio of Chino.
"That is exactly right, my dear," Chino confirmed her darkest suspicions.
"But you cannot feed me to sleen!" she cried.
"You are free to be taken," Chino informed her. "It is all perfectly legal. You are neither claimed nor owned."
"But I am a slave in my heart!" she cried.
"That is not good enough," said Chino. "All free women are merely uncollared slaves."
AT this line more than one man in the audience turned to look at the veiled free woman in the audience, she of the scribes. She, however, of course, her back stiff, pretended not to notice that she was the object of this rather obvious attention.
"Oh, misery, misery!" cried the Brigella.
"You do not have a legal master," said Chino. "Thus you are eminently qualified for sleen feed. Come now. Do not be difficult. Let us get these ropes on you."
"No, no!" she cried, and, turning, sped away. AS she again retraced the circle on the stage, this time hastily, suggesting her journey, Chino and Lecchio watched her depart. "We must soon begin our fierce pursuit," Chino informed the audience.
In a moment or two the Brigella had again reached the vicinity of Boots Tarsk-Bit who turned about, congenially enough, effecting some surprise at the sight of her. "Greetings," he said.
"I kneel before you as a naked slave," cried the girl. "I beg your collar! I beg your collar!"
"Your head is rather high," said Boots.
Immediately the girl put her head to the ground.
"I wonder how you would look on your belly," said Boots.
Immediately she lay on her belly before him.
"My sandals are rather dusty, from the road," said Boots.
Immediately the girl began to lick his feet and sandals, cleaning them.
"You may kiss them, as well," Boots informed her.
Immediately the girl began to add fervent kisses to her ministrations.
"Did you wish to speak to me?" inquired Boots.
"I beg your collar!" she said hoarsely. "I beg your collar!"
"You may kneel before me, with your knees spread," said Boots.
The men in the audience cried out with pleasure. The Brigella was so beautiful! Too, a woman is so marvelously vulnerable and attractive in this position. It is no wonder that it is a portion of a common position of a Gorean pleasure slave.