BDSM Library - The Island

The Island

Wild Rose

Part I: Awakening

A deep rooted instinct she couldn't explain, prompted her to listen to her surroundings before letting who ever know that she was awake, but at first all she could hear was the beating of her heart and her own blood rushing through her veins.

She consciously relaxed and extended her senses. When she was reasonably sure that she was alone wherever she was, she concentrated once again. A light breeze was moving some sort of curtain to her right, of a very light material, she presumed. The smell of fresh cut grass drifted to her nostrils and she could feel the sunlight caressing her skin, all of her skin.

All pretence gone, she abruptly opened her eyes, sat up, and instead of scanning the room she looked at her body. She was as naked as the day she was born and instinctively looked for something to cover herself with. The room, however, was empty except for a comfortable looking chair standing by the window and the bed she was sitting on. Short of ripping the sheet off the bed or tearing down the curtains, there was nothing she could use.

When tested, the door on the other side turned out to be locked, three times over, and the open window showed a wide view of green pastures and rolling hills on the horizon – and it was about 25 feet above the ground.

She leaned out as far as she dared to search for a way to climb down the façade and escape. Her hands instinctively gripped the window sill to keep her balance. That's when she became aware of the dark red leather bands around her wrists. They each had a metal ring fixed on the outside. She tried to tuck them off but the leather was as if fused to her skin and didn't move even a tenth of an inch. There was no buckle and no lock, no indication on how to take them off, not even a seam. She then turned her attention to the cuffs around her ankles but came up equally empty.

What by the Goddess was she doing here? Where was here? Why was she a prisoner? Was she really a prisoner?

Her right hand automatically went up to brush through her hair but it felt strange under her fingertips. She didn't know why but it definitively did not feel as it should. Before she was able to pinpoint the sensation; her fingers reached the base of her skull, and brushed over a metal band around her neck. She checked it out with both hands. It felt cool to the touch. It was round, about a half to three quarters of an inch thick and apparently solid. Once again she found no hint on how to take it off or how it had been put on in the first place. At least it had a lot more give than the wrist and ankle cuffs – a fact she didn't find comforting at all.

There was nothing she could do – and she hated waiting. So, she turned back to the window, wishing she was out there in the forested hills.

A key turned in the first lock and she secreted herself behind the curtain; the second lock was opened and she held her breath, mentally going over her chances to startle and jump who ever would soon come through the door. A third time a key was turned; and she waited for the door to be opened, preparing for action. The door swung open, and before she was able to start forwards, she found herself unable to move. Her mind was more than ready but her body refused to move even a quarter of an inch. She had lost her first chance of escape.

A tall woman with long ebony hair held in a ponytail walked in, closed the door and once again locked it. She was wearing form fitting leather pants and a loose white silk blouse. When she sat down in the chair and crossed her legs, she saw that her visitor too was wearing cuffs; hers were of a light brown and without the metal rings. When her eyes found the woman's throat, she recognized the ring. It was indeed three quarters of an inch thick and appeared to be of gleaming silver.

The woman's eyes were dark blue and she studied her with the intensity of an amateur before a master painting. She began to feel really uncomfortable, standing there in her birthday suit, unable to cover herself, unable to move or speak. The raven head just sat there in silence and all of a sudden she felt more like a little mouse sitting in front of a big snake about to be swallowed whole and be digested alive.

Then the woman began to speak and she was terrified by what she said and simultaneously mesmerized by the sound of her voice. It was deep, almost purring, and seemed to fill the whole room.

“The collar around your neck at this moment is blocking your nerve endings. That's why you're not able to speak or move. It's the easiest way to keep you from trying to run away. Even if you were able to get past me and out of the door,” she said with a smile that indicated how ridiculous the pure thought of this ever happing would be, “the other inhabitants of this island would know that you're new and bring you back to me, simply by the colour of your wrist and ankle cuffs.

“I know you have a lot of questions and I will tell you all I can at this point but I want you to answer my questions first. I will now unblock your vocal cords but I advise you not to talk without permission.”

She knew she should be offended by the tone of the other woman's voice but she wasn't. She knew she should protest, give voice to her indignation. She knew she should resist the lure of the power emanating from the seated woman but she was unable to. So, she only closed and quickly reopened her eyes in a gesture of consent.

“What is your name?”

“Chris.”

“Chris, it is then.” She continued, never letting her blond charge out of her eyes, who with her 5'10'' was almost as tall as she was. Like with every newcomer, the blonde hair was cut short. It would be allowed to grow longer with time. The naked woman had a muscular but not overly muscled body, with enough female curves and firm breasts to make her a dream come true. “What is your last name?”

Confusion swept over the blue orbs facing her. “I don't know.” She finally answered.

“How old are you?”

“Twenty-eight.”

“What do you do for a living?”

“I don't know, I don't remember.”

“Where do you live?”

“I don't know.”

“Who was Marquis de Sade?”

“Donatien Alphonse Francois Marquis de Sade, French writer of the 18 th and early 19 th Century. He wrote his books while in prison and in a mental institution and is regarded as the inventor of sadism. Though that's not entirely true: he advertised that everyone should live and enjoy life just the way one wants, without inhibitions and without paying heed to the needs of others, especially if one's desires were of a kind called perversions or crimes by those too weak to follow their own heart's desire.” The blonde had a hard time to hide that she was surprised by her own knowledge.

“Do you have a brother or sister?”

“I don't know. Why are…”

The still seated woman put one of her index fingers to her lips. “Remember, you only talk when given permission to do so. – What's 27,12 multiplied with 42,04?”

“1140,1248.” There was not even a heartbeat between question and answer.

“Good. – The collar you wear can also send electrical charges through your body, varying between a small shock equivalent to the prick of a needle and a strong one agonising every cell in your body for hours on end. In a few minutes I will un-block the rest of your nerve endings and answer your questions but there are few things you have to know first.

“We are on an island somewhere in the Mediterranean . Only a handful of the inhabitants know where exactly, I don't. You, like everyone else on this island, were sent here because you were found guilty of crimes against humanity and were deemed too dangerous to serve your time in a regular prison.

“To keep your destructive potential in check, your memories have been erased, or to be more accurate the neural pathways we need to access our memories have been surgically disabled.

“We don't have any wardens or fences or bars in front of the windows, but we have a lot of rules everyone has to follow. The island is a self-sufficient, basically rural but technologically very advanced community with a hierarchically structured society. It's not the time to go into details but there are seven levels: The Rehabilitated are on top. They are the only ones who have contact with the outside world. The Repentant are next. They are the servants of the Rehabilitated. On level three are the Supervisors, on four the Workers, on five the Farmers, on six the Servants, and on seven the Initiates. Except for the Initiates and the Rehabilitated all levels have subdivisions, also hierarchical. Our total population is close to ten thousand, with about two thirds living as Workers and Farmers.

“As you probably already have guessed, you are an Initiate and will have to treat everyone you come in contact with, with the utmost respect. During the first phase of the initiation you will learn how to behave in the presence of others. I will teach you the basic rules of conduct but there are quite a few that you will have to find out about on your own. Discipline is very important to us; and the answer to almost every misdeed or mistake is corporal punishment.

“One other thing before I give back your freedom of movement. I can see that you are uncomfortable with being naked but I'm afraid you will have to get used to it. Wearing clothes is a privilege you will have to earn during initiation. – I will now free you and want you to kneel down in front of me; then I will answer your questions.”

The blonde's eyes darted from the woman's face to her wrist where by all appearances the controls for her collar were located in an elegant watch-like device. She knew she had to get her hands on this thing and she had to do it quickly. There was no doubt in her mind that she would be able to take the taller woman by surprise.

So, when she felt feeling being returned to her arms and legs, she made a show of stretching her limbs; determined to take advantage of the appreciation evident in the other woman's eyes the whole time she had been looking at her. Chris took a tentative step forward and without preamble suddenly lunged towards her goal – and found herself with her back on the carpeted ground being straddled by her jailer.

“Didn't I warn you not to try something like this, Chris?” The deep voice sounded almost sad, and she couldn't do anything but slowly nod. “Why do you girls always have to learn the hard way?”

She stood up, pulling the blonde with her and threw her on the bed as if she were nothing but a rag doll. “Grab the bars of the headrest, you will need the support.” She then gently guided one hand after the other over Chris' head to hold onto the smooth wooden bars. “My name is Kathryn and I am your instructor. From now on, you will address me as ‘Mistress'. You are my responsibility. I will teach you, I will commend you and award you, I will protect you and I will punish you. – And that's what I have to do now. I usually don't rely on the collar to do this; I prefer a more personnel approach but you didn't leave me another choice. There are ten settings I can use to punish. What you will feel now is level six, with ten being the worst. Take a deep breath, and exhale slowly.”

The raven-head touched the wrist device and a wave of white pain swept through Chris' body, swallowing her whole. It only lasted about ten or fifteen seconds but to her it felt like hours and hours of agony. When she came to, tears were streaming down her face, and she found herself in the comforting arms of the other woman. The thought crossed her mind that she should try to keep a modicum of dignity intact but being held and gently rocked felt so good, so right. It almost made her forget her nerve ends still tingling with the electrical shock. She slowly began to understand the words whispered in her ear.

“It's all right, Chris. I know it still hurts. Try to relax. I'll hold you. Don't try to breathe too deeply. Keep it shallow and low; it will make the tingling go away faster. There's no need to be ashamed; tears are nothing to feel shame for. Give yourself a chance and everything will be all right in time.” Then she began to hum and the younger woman slowly drifted to sleep.

When she awoke, Kathryn was staring out of the window but the blonde woman also knew that she was far from oblivious of the things happening around her. She probably already had picked up on her changed breathing rhythm and was waiting for her to decide on how to play the cards she had been given. For a split second she thought of once again trying to overpower her opponent but almost as quickly dismissed the notion. A part of her still marvelled at the predator like swiftness and accuracy the older woman had employed to subdue her earlier. She had moved with a speed and grace Chris was sure was uncommon in a human being. She also thought on what Kathryn had told her about this place, some sort of prison for murderers and worse – and she should be one of them.

Chris slowly rose from the bed and without even thinking about it, knelt in front of the dark haired beauty. Her breasts gently stretched the silk of her blouse and her skin, she remembered, felt as soft and smooth as the material covering it. She surprised herself with the thought of wanting to feel it again, skin against skin. The deep voice broke her out of her reverie.

“I don't know why you were sent here. No one does until the day when their time is up. Then you will be told and given back your memories. You are allowed to ask your questions now, Chris.”

“How long will I have to stay on the island?”

“I don't know, Chris. I heard about people being sent back after only five or ten years but twenty or twenty-five are more common. The head of the Rehabilitated will send for you. – And please remember to address me properly.”

The blonde nodded. “The bands around your wrists, what social level do they indicate? Mistress.”

“Better. I'm one of the Supervisors, Chris. The Servants wear a very light red, almost pink; the Farmers a very dark brown, the Workers a dark blue. The Repentants wear black and the Rehabilitated are free of the cuffs and the collars. The Supervisors are responsible for the Initiates but they also are in charge of other groups of farmers and workers. We are a cross between the police forces and the administration, at least to a certain degree. It's the Rehabilitated and the Repentants who make all the final decisions. It will be easier to understand once you see it with your own eyes, when we come to my domain in a few days.”

“Your domain, Mistress?”

“We now are at the main settlement of the island. I'm in charge of a farming facility, a science lab, and a clinic about fifty miles north of here. We will go there after you have received your welcome-whipping.” The tall woman let her words sink in. “When all your questions have been answered, I'll lead you to one of the isolation rooms until tomorrow morning. You then will be bound to a whipping post where you will wait for one hour, you then will receive twenty strokes with a single tail whip on your back. Another hour later you will be led back to your cell. The next day you will receive twenty lashes on your buttocks and thighs and the third day twenty strokes on your front. I then will care for your lash marks, we will leave the city and go home.”

“Who will… I'm sorry, Mistress, I shouldn't have asked.”

“I will. As long as you are an Initiate, every punishment you receive and every maintenance spanking you'll get will be by my hand. You are my responsibility, Chris.”

“Maintenance spankings, Mistress?”

“A certain number of strokes with a paddle, a cane, or the bare hand, to be given every morning and every evening. You'll get used to it and it will help you to focus on what is important in our community.”

The blonde studied the other woman's face. The tone of her voice evidently tried to make light of her words but her eyes gave another message. She didn't have any reason to trust this woman; since she first came through the door Kathryn had immobilised her, thrown her to the ground, shocked her and told her that she was a prisoner and that there was no way out. She shouldn't trust her, and yet, she did – not her words but the expression in her eyes.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part II: Getting To Know Her

She thought that she would quickly become accustomed to being spread eagled and displayed but on this third day it still felt as degrading and humiliating as during the days before. She almost felt their eyes on her, though she didn't have the slightest idea who ‘they' could be. She just knew they were there, and that they were watching. That's why every cry Kathryn's whip forced from her felt like a declaration of defeat and she couldn't help but resent the woman that wielded the whip with such skill.

She still could feel every single stroke that had been applied to her back and thighs even though a passing glance in the mirror had shown her there was barely a mark marring her skin. Kathryn had used the whip with dispassionate accuracy. And she was under no illusion that this day would be any different. In a way it would be harder because this time she would have to see her nemesis. The hours in silent darkness before and after each whipping had faded her memory of the tenderness and compassion the raven-head had shown her after her first punishment.

Fifty-nine minutes… And there she was, wearing her leather pants, the coiled whip hanging down from her waist. As was her custom she stepped right in front of her and placed a gentle kiss on her forehead. This time she also asked,

“Do you want a blindfold, Chris?”

The blonde vigorously shock her head in a mixture of astonishment at even being asked and an outburst of pride. Kathryn stepped back and uncoiled the whip. There was no doubt that every stroke would land exactly were she wanted it to.

The first four strokes targeted Chris' breasts, just above and below her nipples. The fifth stroke made her cry out in surprise and in pain. It started with her nipple and quickly spread through her whole left breast. Before she had a chance to calm down the sixth stroke found her right nipple. When she looked down nothing indicated that she just had been struck and yet it still hurt a great deal.

Kathryn once again took aim and the next three stinging blows followed quickly one after the other, leaving parallel marks on her stomach; the pain of the first one having not yet registered when the last one fell. It felt like her skin was on fire, a searing pain that left her breathless; tears ran down her face, her mouth opened in a silent scream. In quick succession her inner thighs were marked with four lash marks each. With the second blow the blonde could no longer keep herself from crying out. She had also lost count of the number of strokes she already had received.

The tall woman changed hands and soon a fourth horizontal line was adorning her stomach while the marks on her thighs, though still hurting, were on their way to disappearing. With a flick of the wrist, Chris' world exploded. The last two strokes were aimed between her legs and found her clit dead centre. If she hadn't been tightly bound she would have jumped out of her skin and danced all over the courtyard where she was staked out.

Chris expected that her torturer would now come back to her, give her another kiss and leave her for an hour. Instead, a woman wearing the wrist cuffs of the Servant class brought a comfortable looking chair. Kathryn calmly re-coiled the whip and took her seat, never taking her eyes from the bound woman. She just looked at her, never moving, never looking bored. She just sat there and looked at her. Rather than feeling scrutinised or criticised by the probing eyes, the blonde felt strangely comforted and tenderly held by Kathryn's blue gaze and tried to return it with her green orbs.

Finally the hour was up. Kathryn rose from her seat and walked towards her prisoner. She gently kissed her on the forehead and whispered,

“You did well, I'm proud of you, Chris.”

She then bent down and unhooked her from the chains that had held her legs apart. Then she freed her hands, and made sure that she was able to stand safely on her own.

Without being told, the blonde crossed her wrists in front of her, thus allowing the taller woman to fasten them together with the rings. She knew by now that during the first part of her initiation she would not be allowed to go anywhere without being properly restrained. A part of her wanted to fight the bindings, especially the hobble that was put on her feet but experience had taught her that she simply wasn't strong enough.

Kathryn gently covered the connected rings of her wrist cuffs with her left hand. The first step almost made Chris loose her balance and only then did she understand that the older woman was doing more than just leading her, and in fact had done so the last two days. She supported Chris with her own strength while giving the impression of going for a stroll through a park. Instead of being led back to her dark cell, they ended up in a big bathroom where a steaming tub awaited her.

The taller woman undid her restraints and assisted her into the hot water.

“There are a few herbs in the water that will reduce the pain. Close your eyes and let your body relax. You will feel the whipping for the next three or four days but the pain will not handicap you in any way. – I have a few things to tend to, so I will give you some privacy.”

Chris surprised herself with her reaction.

“Please, don't go. – Mistress. I'd rather not be alone, now.”

The raven-head had almost reached the door when she turned on her heels. Her face gave nothing away when she asked.

“Are you sure, Chris?”

“Yes, Mistress, please stay. Tell me something about your ‘domain' … about life on the island, about this initiation thing, anything, please Mistress.”

The blonde hated how needy her voice sounded but she had been alone with her unsettling thoughts for too long. Waiting out in the dark, endless hours between each of her whippings.

Kathryn perched on the rim of the bathtub and leaned her back against the side wall, locking her eyes with Chris'.

“The domain… It's like a small village, in a way. The clinic has ten doctors and about thirty nurses, aside from caring for the other inhabitants they do research on herbs and other homeopathic medicines. They came up with the combination of herbs you're using now.

“About half of my people are Farmers. Planting and harvesting is mostly done by machines but the cattle and the horses require a lot of manpower to be adequately cared for. A machine can muck out a stall but it never will be able to tell if an animal is well just by touch alone.

“The Farmers also are in charge of another research facility. Occasionally they work closely with the doctors. The science labs are occupied with things as diversified as power management, metallurgy, solar and geothermal energy, and computer science.

“I have another supervisor helping me with the paperwork and other administrative issues. There also are twenty-five Servants who run the main house and the kitchens. Sometimes I think that without them everything would just fall to pieces. You will be the only initiate.”

“You're talking of doctors and scientists, Mistress, but how is that possible? Without any memories of our past lives, how …. I don't know… how can one be sure that he or she is suited for what they are assigned to do? And who decides?”

Kathryn smiled, having expected this question sooner or later.

“First of all, there is no ‘he'. The island is female only, though I have been told that there's a similar institution for male convicts. – The Initiation period not only will teach you how to obey; it will also serve to identify your strengths and weaknesses. Your first posting will be decided by your instructor … in your case, by me. If it doesn't work out, everyone may petition their superiors for another posting, but with no guarantee that their wish will be granted.

“Regardless of what you will end up doing, for as long as you and I are on the Island , I will always have a say in your life. I will always be your Mistress and you will always be my responsibility. That's the way it is; that's the way it always will be. Regardless of how high you rise in the hierarchy of the Island , as long as there are cuffs around your wrists and ankles there will always be at least one person you will have to answer to.

“Now, let me help you out of the tub. The water is getting cold and it's not good to be exposed to this special combination of herbs too long. It tends to dull more than just the nerve endings of the skin but it still is the most efficient remedy for the kind of pain I inflicted on you.”

The blonde quickly stood next to the tub and tried to reach for a towel.

“No, I'll do it. You probably would rub yourself dry and I don't want you irritating your skin be doing so.”

Chris felt the other woman's care and tenderness as she was gently patted dry with a big fluffy towel. She still could map out every single one of the sixty lashes she had received over the last three days. They hurt but they no longer burned in her heart, and so, she was able to tuck the pain away in a hidden compartment of her mind.

It just didn't make any sense: first the woman made her suffer all this pain and humiliation, and then she did everything she could to make it easier to bear. Why? Was this all part of an underhanded plan to get her to lower her guard, to get her to trust her jailer? To make her believe that there really was no chance of escape, to make her believe that she really had done something so atrocious that she had to be removed from the ‘real' world?

~*~

About thirty minutes later, Chris was standing alone in front of a large building with heavy double doors reminding her of a bank. Her wrists once again were crossed and immobilised in front of her and she was hobbled. Kathryn had left her with clear instructions: stay out of the way, speak only when you are spoken to first and always to be respectful. The sidewalk and street were busy with passer-bys. Every one of them seemed occupied with their own problems and paid her no attention. Her mind was left to wander.

How technologically advanced could a society be, Chris asked herself, when the only means of transport she saw were carts, carriages, and horses?

Kathryn had been gone for sixteen minutes now; she should be back soon; she had said it wouldn't take long. She had no watch and there was no clock in sight, so, how did she know so exactly? She was sure that it was sixteen minutes, just as she had been sure each time when her hour of waiting had been up these past three days. But how could she know, Chris asked herself while nervously pacing in front of the entrance.

She suddenly found herself flying to the ground, instinctively she rolled sideways and protected her head from connecting with the pavement as best as she could. An older woman in her late fifties who was also naked was lying next to her, looking stunned and disoriented. Chris sat up and asked the woman if she was all right.

“You stupid bitch, what the hell were you doing in front of the entrance? Not even the most inexperienced of Supervisors would leave a newbie where she is in the way.” The woman shouted.

“Oh, calm down. It's not a big deal. No one was hurt, so, take it easy, wrinkle butt.” The last two words slipped out before she could stop them.

“First you trip me; then you insult me. I want justice satisfied.”

With more strength than the young woman would have thought possible the other one pulled them both to their feet, grabbed her bound wrists and dragged her through the massive doors.

While crossing the hall to get to the wide staircase they passed a few other women, dressed women with wrist bands like Kathryn wore. They all stopped and respectfully bowed to the woman. That's when it began to sink in that she probably had made a serious mistake.

The woman had black wrist cuffs with metal rings on either side of them. Black, that meant she was a Repentant, and thus, despite her attire of lack of such, was of the second highest level of authority in this society – and Chris had just grossly insulted her. What by the Goddess had she been thinking?

She was hurried up the stairs and swiftly walked to another set of large wooden double doors at the end of a corridor; Chris, in her hobbles, had a hard time keeping up with the enraged woman's pace.

The older woman knocked and entered without waiting for an answer. There was an enormous, elegantly carved desk in the centre of the room that seemed somehow familiar to her. She didn't have the chance to search what was left of her memories for an answer before the woman turned her to the right where she found Kathryn and an impressive looking woman seated before a panoramic window. Kathryn quickly rose from her seat and respectfully bowed to the Repentant, without even acknowledging Chris' presence.

The woman let go of the blonde's wrists and knelt in front of the other lady, seated in a comfortable armchair next to big couch.

“Mistress, I demand that justice be satisfied. This newbie has tripped me and called me names. She also neglected to properly address me. I want her instructor called here immediately and I want her punished.”

In the blink of an eye Kathryn was standing next to Chris.

“Venerable elder, the Initiate Chris is in my charge. I accept full responsibility for her actions. Her instruction has not yet started, and I made an error of judgement by leaving her unattended on the street, Madam.”

The seated woman whose silver hair spilled freely over her shoulders studied the young woman half hidden behind her instructor. There was a long moment of silence before she turned her attention back to Chris' accuser.

“Ani, come closer. Calm down and tell me what happened.”

The Repentant moved forward only to kneel again to the left of the chair with her knees opened wide and her hands resting palm up on her knees.

“I was on my way to run the errand you gave me, Mistress. I hurriedly left the building and before I knew it the newbie was in my way. We both fell down and she called me ‘wrinkle butt'.” The woman said with indignation in her voice.

“Well, young woman, that's not very nice. I happen to like her ‘butt' and her other attributes. What do you have to say in your defence?”

“I'm sorry that I was in the way, venerable elder. I was lost in thought and was not paying attention to my surroundings. I'm sorry I insulted her but she started it. She called me a ‘stupid bitch'. I just gave as good as I got.” There was a hint of defiance detectable in Chris' words.

Ani nodded to confirm the younger woman's words and her eyes dropped to the ground.

“Supervisor Kathryn, I think you have your work cut out for you with this one. I really don't know why you wanted to take her in addition to your other duties. Do you still insist on being responsible for her behaviour?”

“Yes, I do; now, more than ever, venerable elder. It is true that she obviously didn't follow my orders, and she will be punished for her disobedience. But it is also true that I left her alone without first giving her the information she needed to stay out of trouble. She didn't know how to address the honourable elder Ani properly and she didn't know about the banishment of curse words and derogatory remarks. I take complete responsibility for this.”

“Then you leave me no choice but to punish you in her stead.”

“Yes, venerable elder, I accept every punishment you deem appropriate.” Kathryn answered while at the same time immobilising and muting her charge.

“Very well. What instrument of discipline does your Mistress prefer, Kathryn?”

“The single tail leather whip, Madam.”

“Oh yes, I forgot. No, we won't do that. You have suffered enough from that whip to last two life times.”

The silver haired woman had risen from her seat. She was at least a head smaller than Chris and yet exuded an undeniable authrity.

“I shouldn't have tried to escape. I deserved to be punished, venerable elder.”

“Hindsight, what a wonderful thing, isn't it? Tell me, at the time, were you convinced that you were doing the right thing?”

“You know the answer, Madam. Yes, I'm sure it was the right thing to do, and even now, knowing the consequences I'm not sure that I would have done anything differently.”

“And yet, you never tried again.” Ani observed, from her still kneeling position. “The head of Supervisors is convinced it is due to the draconian punishment you received. She thinks that your quick rise through the ranks is part of a plan to gain enough influence to somehow find a way to escape.”

“My Mistress is wrong, honourable elder. I accepted the punishment and life on the Island because your Mistress, the venerable elder Ika, made me understand that it was the right thing to do. She told me about her past and why she had been sent here. A talk with her accomplished what months of initiation could not. Instead of only feeling the loss of my true identity and growing bitter with it, I realised that the loss of my memories had also given me a chance to become someone else, someone hopefully not as prone to the flaws and crimes that probably brought me here. I never had the chance to thank you for giving me this chance, venerable elder.”

“You are welcome, Kathryn. You have come a long way from the angry young woman you once were, and I'm sure one day you will be an asset, and an enrichment to the Council of Elders. – Now, let's get back to business. For neglecting your duty you will receive two times twenty strokes with the cane on your bare buttocks. Your sense of duty will be rewarded with a special dispensation allowing you to wear clothes in public while you wait for your Mistress to completely clear you of your guilt.”

“Thank you, venerable elder.” The tall woman answered with a smile.

She then unbuttoned her blouse, slipped out of her boots and leather pants. When all of her clothes were in a neat pile, she went to a solid wooden closet in the corner of the room, opened it, and retrieved an almost three foot long bamboo cane with an ivory handle.

Kathryn then knelt in front of the other naked woman and asked,

“Please, honourable elder, punish me for my short comings and give me the chance to mend my ways.”

Ani quietly took it.

“Take your position, please.”

The supervisor stood, positioned her feet two times the width of her shoulders apart, bent forward, and grabbed her ankles. Her waist long, raven hair fell to the ground and gave Chris an unimpeded view of her back. Had she been able to, she would have gasped.

Her back was a mess of white lines, thin and thicker, long and short, criss-crossing each other, forming intricate patterns that partly looked like very complicated braids. In a few areas the scar tissue was very thick, raising the skin in welts.

She was sure that this had been done by a single tail whip, and she was also sure that it had taken a long time to do this much damage. She stared at the scarred flesh as if it would be able to give her an answer to the enigma that was her mistress.

One moment the woman said that she would be punished and the next she was willing to take the punishment that should have befallen her. None of this would have happened had she only stayed where she had been told to stay. Chris didn't understand her mistress' reasoning and this of all things she now wanted to understand.

The voice of her tall mistress brought her back to reality.

“Nine.”

Her mistress, it was strange how she no longer felt anger at thinking of Kathryn as her ‘Mistress'. She began to believe that it really was like she had said that first day. “I will teach you, I will commend you and award you, I will protect you and I will punish you.”

Chris once again lost herself in her contemplation of the scars. She understood suddenly that what Kathryn had told the silver haired woman, the Rehabilitated, had also been addressed to her. She had been given a key but at the moment she didn't know how many doors it would open in the end.

“Twenty-one.”

The movement of the cane through the air sounded like the hissing of a venomous snake.

“Twenty-two.”

Kathryn's voice was still deep and calm, as if she were counting something as mundane as bales of hay in a barn.

Chris was standing slightly to the side and could not see the impact of the cane. This she only could hear and she somehow detested the sound more than the one the single tail whip had made when hitting her own skin.

However, she had a clear view of the play of muscles in the bent-over woman's back, arms, and thighs. Just before contact they visibly relaxed only to tighten again shortly after to maintain her balance. Her breathing rhythm matched that of the strokes, and she imagined that this also helped to stand the pain.

“Forty.”

“Justice is satisfied, Kathryn.”

The silver haired woman resumed her seat. Kathryn stretched to her full height at the words and in the same smooth, elegant motion dropped to her knees in front of Ani.

“Thank you for disciplining me, honourable elder.” She said and then kissed the hands that still held the cane. “May I remove the instrument of discipline, Madam?”

“No, Kathryn. Give it to me.” Elder Ika, the Rehabilitated interposed. “I will be in need of it shortly.

“Ani also has to be punished for her inappropriate choice of words. Regardless of what happened, she should have known better.

History has taught us that not one single woman sent here is stupid and on this Island bitches always have four legs and tend to communicate by wagging their tail and barking.”

The last words had been exclusively addressed to the Repentant who had resumed her place next to her Mistress.

Kathryn stood, bowed to the Repentant, and then quickly knelt again in front of the seated woman, presenting the cane on her outstretched hands.

“Thank you, Supervisor Kathryn. You will have a report on today's incident, complete with video documentation on your desk as soon as you get home. But before you go, there's something I always wanted to know… Why do you keep the scars? You could have had them removed years ago.”

“It's a reminder of what I did and what I am capable of doing if don't keep myself in check, elder Ika. And I was also told that it would only be cosmetic, that my skin and back would still be more sensitive than normal.” The kneeling woman answered with sadness in her voice.

“The head of the Supervisors is on her bi-annual tour. She probably will take her time before she comes to take care of you but I want you to send me an update on project ‘Genesis' when she stays longer than twenty-four hours. I don't like the way she treats her subordinates, and I certainly don't like the way she treats you.”

“I'm her responsibility and she follows the letter of the law, venerable elder.”

“That she does. Have a good return trip, Kathryn.”

The silver haired woman gave her a parting kiss on the forehead. Kathryn quickly slipped back in her clothing and restored Chris' ability to move. With a deep bow they left the room together.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part III: Coming Home

After they had left the building Kathryn removed the hobble at the younger woman's legs, but Chris still didn't have her voice back. There were so many questions she wanted to ask; so many things she wanted to say. Her inner voice, however, told her that loosing her voice was the least she should suffer because, ultimately, it all had been her fault.

They left the centre of the city on foot and after more than an hour of brisk walking they reached a tall building, six stories high with a very broad base. Of the consecutive levels each one was considerably smaller than the next. It looked like a sikkurat. How did she know what a Babylonian pyramid looked like? Chris nearly tripped over her own feet while puzzling over this mystery.

They followed a long, well-lit corridor, they came to an elevator and rode to the fourth level. The doors to the cabin opened and she saw that the impressive building was nothing more than a multi-storey car park but for vehicles Chris rather would have associated with boats than cars. They were obviously powered by solar energy, judging from the cell like panels mounted on the roofs or trunk lids.

Kathryn led them to a pitch black convertible with the elegantly curved front part much longer than the back and without solar panels. A Jaguar E. What by the Goddess was a Jaguar E? And why did this name make her think of freedom and speed and beauty? There should have been wheels, the wheels defiantly were missing.

The raven-head opened the door to the passenger side and made her sit. Before she knew it, her bound hands were secured by a chain anchored to the floor. The rings of her ankle cuffs were connected to other rings embedded down there, keeping her legs wide open.

Kathryn's right hand touched a glass-like field just to the right of the steering wheel. There was an almost imperceptible humming noise and the strange vehicle rose from the ground. They quickly left the outskirts of the city behind and travelled north for about five minutes – no, five minutes and twenty-seven seconds.

She stopped the Jaguar E at a rest stop, turned towards Chris, and touched the device at her wrist. Thinking that she would be shocked as punishment for her disobedience, the young woman closed her eyes in resignation.

“Look at me, Chris. I will never shock you without warning you first. Tell me, why did you disregard my orders? What had you so preoccupied?”

“I…, I… You wouldn't understand, Mistress.”

“Try me!”

“It was stupid, really.”

Kathryn smiled encouragingly, and the blonde thought that she would do much to see this smile again.

“I was studying all the people hurrying along and I was puzzled because no one paid any attention to me. And then it occurred to me that you already had been gone for sixteen minutes.

“I knew without the shadow of a doubt that it was sixteen minutes. Not fifteen or seventeen, but exactly sixteen. There was no clock in sight, and yet I knew. I think I started to pace because I had no idea how I knew. I'm sorry, Mistress.”

“Everything we do has consequences, Chris. You are not the only one to blame.” Kathryn answered. Her right hand rested reassuringly on the blonde's naked thigh.

“As to your time-sense; it probably is a skill left from your old life. Loosing your memories didn't make you loose your skills or your knowledge, you just don't know yet what they are. Give yourself some time and whenever something intrigues you, come and talk to me. Now, enjoy the scenery while I drive.”

“May I ask you a question, Mistress?”

“Yes, Chris.”

“Why did you take my punishment, Mistress?”

“I didn't. I'm being punished for neglecting my duty. I shouldn't have left you alone this early in your training. Well, water under the bridge. I'll teach you the basics when we're home. But to make sure that you don't get into trouble with the head of Supervisors you will be restrained and gagged from tomorrow morning until she is gone. This will be your punishment for disobedience, and it hopefully will also teach you to be more careful in the choice of your words.”

“You're in trouble with your superior because of me, aren't you? – Mistress?”

“I'm in trouble because of me; it was my mistake. The head of Supervisors is to me what I am to you. It has nothing to do with her rank. For the elders justice has been satisfied but it will only be over when my Instructor, my Mistress also decides that my debt has been paid. She probably will arrive around midday tomorrow. During her stay you will stay close to me and observe. It will teach you more about our way of life than long lectures can.”

Kathryn once again touched the glass panel and guided the vehicle back to the street. The blonde still had a lot of questions about the scars on her mistress' back and the strange things she had talked about with the Rehabilitated, but it was evident that the tall woman didn't want to be asked any more questions.

Chris turned her attention to the passing landscape but instead of enjoying the view she quickly fell asleep and began to dream.

~*~

She found herself in the Jaguar E, her Mistress was driving and looking straight ahead, not paying any attention to her. Her legs were held wide open with her feet bound to the rings embedded in the floor and additional leather bands holding her knees apart. Her hands were at her side, encased in stiff mittens and fastened to some sort of belt snugly encircling her waist.

She felt exposed and vulnerable and at the same time she was comfortable and secure in the knowledge that her Mistress would protect her, take care of her.

Suddenly there was a hand on her thigh, soft fingers first caressing the outside of her leg and then resting on her left knee, just above the strip of leather holding her.

“Please, Mistress, don't stop.” She whispered.

The hand left her knee and a finger was put in front of her lips. She tried to kiss it but was not fast enough. Her eyes followed the hand that now was shifting gears and rested on the lever, gently holding the wooden knob, almost stroking it.

She stifled a frustrated sigh and stared at the strong fingers, willing them back to her skin. She could already smell the arousal the simple gesture had elicited. Minutes passed like hours. Once again there was a change in gears.

The hand returned to the steering wheel, and green eyes widened in protest but there was nothing she could do, nothing. Her Mistress obviously didn't want her to talk or make any other noise. She had to keep still.

Finally she closed her eyes in resignation, and only two heartbeats later the hand returned, stroking the outside of her thigh with the back of its fingers, starting high at the hip and travelling slowly towards the knee. She didn't dare to open her eyes, fearing the hand would leave again.

A lone fingertip circled her kneecap and ventured to the inside of her thigh. It slowly inched upwards, only a short distance, less than the finger's length. Then she felt a short fingernail on her eager skin being dragged back to the knee. Her instinct told her to open her legs wider, to invite the hand in but she knew better. She didn't want the hand to go away.

The movement was repeated, time and again, touching more skin with each passage. A second finger was added and then a third and a fourth. She wanted to feel more of her Mistress, wanted her to press her fingers in the soft skin, leaving marks, marking her as her own but the touch stayed as light as a feather.

“Open your eyes and look, little one.”

She didn't need a second invitation to drink in the sight of these strong fingers playing with her. She was getting wetter by the minute and her heart began to beat faster. The curled fingers stopped in mid-movement during a downward stroke. The next moment cool skin was lying on her warm flesh. Her Mistress always had cold hands while driving. The hand gently squeezed her, still not having gone higher than mid-thigh.

She knew it was only a question of time but it was so hard to stay still, so hard not to urge the hand on, so hard not to demand, not to order more. But it also was deliciously right, a sweet torture she didn't deserve after her appalling behaviour the night before.

She hadn't shown patience then, had become bossy; and her still throbbing backside and the parallel marks on the inside of her thighs, starting only a couple of inches from where the hand now was resting, were the price she'd had to pay.

For a short moment she feared that this too was part of her punishment, that her Mistress was teasing her – but her Mistress wasn't this cruel, her Mistress was just and generous. Her Mistress wouldn't do this to her, right?

The hand resumed its journey and this time it touched the red welts; the cane had marked her well. The outside of the thumb retraced every single one of the five lines tenderly, reminding her of the pain and at the same time conveying that she still was loved, that she was forgiven.

Her Mistress' hand was still cold as it touched the burning skin, just resting there, barely touching, as if afraid that its full weight would hurt her. She could feel her juices dripping on the seat, and she was sure her Mistress knew too.

Then the hand moved again, for a moment the contact was lost and suddenly two fingers were thrust into her, the palm of the hand pressing against her and encasing her clit. It pulsed against the cool skin of her Mistress. The fingers began to move, not pumping in and out but wriggling inside of her, touching a special spot only her Mistress knew how to find. Every heartbeat brought her closer to an orgasm. Her vaginal muscles became painfully tight from holding herself back.

She had to wait. She knew she deserved to be left hanging, to be denied, and in the end she would thank her Mistress for making her learn this hard lesson – but it was so hard. She had been denied the night before, rightfully so. She almost had convinced herself that the hand was not an instrument of pleasure but of discipline when she heard her Mistress' voice.

“I was very proud of you, little one, of how well you took your punishment yesterday. I know it was hard and it will hurt for a few more days but I think you nonetheless deserve a treat. I want you to wait twenty-two seconds and then you will come for me. Let me hear your pleasure.”

Twenty-two seconds can be very long, especially for someone almost bursting with need. Chris had to admire her Mistress' sense of irony. She had slighted her authority with twenty-two words; and so had received the same number of strokes first with a paddle and then with a belt in retaliation. She reminded herself she had been lucky that she only to have been punished for every word and not for every letter; otherwise she wouldn't be able to sit for weeks to come. The cane marks on her thigh had been for breaking position during her punishment, not once but twice.

The fingers were still moving inside of her, having built up a rhythm. She finally gave in and felt her muscles clenching.

“Oh, Mistress, please command me to come, please, let me be yours in my pleasure.”

“Come for me, Chris, now!”

“Kathryn!” She shouted at the top of her lungs, her body convulsing with the violence of her release.

Only when she had calmed down, her Mistress removed her fingers. She brought them to her nose and gently licked one of them clean. The other one was offered to her.

“Taste yourself, baby, you're especially sweet today.”

She eagerly sucked on the finger and didn't stop at one. She thoroughly cleaned the whole hand with her lips and tongue, loosing herself in her task with the feeling of having come home after a long walk through the desert.

~*~

There was a hand on her naked shoulder, gently nudging her awake.

“That must have been some dream.”

The blonde blushed from head to toe, only too aware of the strange direction her dream had taken. She knew she was attracted to the older woman and had been almost from the beginning. She never would have judged herself as a submissive – but how could she know?

“Did I say something, Mistress?”

“You mumbled and had very relaxed smile on your face, Chris. I hated to wake you but home is just around the next corner. I thought you wanted to see where you're going to live.”

“Yes, thank you, Mistress.”

True to Kathryn's word, just around the bend a cluster of houses came in view. They were of different heights and styles, some of them visibly old, one or two others still in the process of being built. Gently rolling hills in the distance, idyllic pastures and fields made it all appear to have been taken out of a 19 th Century romantic novel.

‘Where by the Goddess did this thought come from? Was it another residue of her former life?'

Kathryn's voice brought her out of her musings.

“For the administration, this is Domain One. We call it ‘Safe Heaven'. The main stables are a couple of miles to the east; the laboratories are situated in the copse of trees just to the north.

“The hospital is at the centre of the settlement, the white stone building just coming into view. The big four storey building to your right holds the administration, the servant's quarters, the communal kitchen, and my … our quarters. From the bedroom window you can see a small part of the pastures and a few of our fields.

“I will make an announcement to our council and tell them what happened in town and what to expect as soon as we have put the car away.”

“The car, this vehicle; what does it use for fuel and why does it work so quietly? In the car park, the other ‘cars' all were equipped with solar panels, so, I think I understand how they work but yours is different.”

What Chris really wanted to ask was about what would happen when the head of Supervisors arrived and how she could be so sure that the woman would be there so quickly, and what she, Chris, could do to make it up to her for getting her into trouble.

No matter how her mistress phrased it, it had been her fault, the blonde thought. Had she simply obeyed her, nothing would have happened, and she wouldn't now have a knot in her stomach the size of a big fist.

“It's a prototype of a new line of hover cars. We have about 300 days of sunshine a year but the energy storage capacity of the solar cars is not what it should be. During the rare periods of bad weather they tend to stop working after a couple of days. This one works with energy created by a hydrogen reactor.”

“But hydrogen gas is highly unstable. We could as well be sitting on a bomb.”

Kathryn smiled and the blonde insecurely smiled back, only now remembering that she once again had forgotten to address her properly.

“Mistress.” She quickly added.

Kathryn smile broadened. “Our scientists found a way to stabilise it. They gladly will explain it to you in a few days when everything has returned to normal.”

“Can't you explain it to me, Mistress?”

She knew she was flirting, in an awkward kind of way but she just loved to hear the older woman's voice.

“I could,” the raven-head answered while stopping the car in a roomy garage where about a dozen other vehicles were parked, “but we don't have the time now. There's a lot to do to prepare for her visit; a lot of paperwork to attend to. Let's go, Chris.”

~*~

A few hours later, Chris looked up from the notepad her mistress had given to her with orders to use it as a diary of sorts. She had told the blonde that she wanted her to write in it for at least half an hour every evening, longer if she found she had more to say.

“I want you to be able to check on how far you have come some time down the road. You will have an account of the re-discovery of your skills, of your actions, and foremost your feelings.

“It will make it possible for you to evaluate your life here on an on-going basis, and it can be an outlet for your dreams or your fears. This diary – or whatever you want to call it – will be private, for your eyes only. I will not read it without your consent or shall anyone else.”

These were the first words she had written down.

She had proceeded to give an account of what had happened to her since she first had regained consciousness four days ago. Re-reading the entry she found it amiss. Yes, it was what had happened but, the way things were now, it didn't mean anything.

That's when she looked up and glanced at Kathryn who was staring into the blazing flames of the fire place, obviously lost in her own thoughts. She took the chance to study the tall woman, taking in a lot of details she hadn't had the chance to register earlier this day.

Chris knew she herself was almost 5' 11'' but, when standing, the other woman topped her by at least three to three and a half inches. Her black hair almost glowed in the flickering flames of the fire place. There was not an ounce of fat on her body. When she moved the play of muscles was visible under her skin.

At the moment she was sitting in a comfortable leather armchair, her long legs, with ankles crossed, were stretched out in front of her and her ankles crossed. Even motionless, the strength she had shown when easily overpowering Chris and later helping her walk after the whippings was still evident.

Her mistress was the picture of relaxed confidence but something in her demeanour told Chris otherwise. She was sure she discerned some kind of tension, a tension not emanating from the fact that she was as naked as herself.

The blonde now knew that until Kathryn was not pardoned by her own mistress, she would have to remain naked; and it was only due to the special dispensation by the elder that she had been allowed to carry her clothes on her body and not in her hands when leaving the headquarters. But now, in the privacy of her rooms, the dispensation didn't apply. it was not there were no more excuses – and Chris really did enjoy the view.

Earlier, Kathryn had made her declaration to the so-called council, a group of twelve women in varying ages. Her announcement had been met with a few groans, some rolling of the eyes, and a lot of sighs.

Afterwards, they had retired to her mistress' study. The tall black haired woman had rummaged in the drawers of her desk and then come up with a rather small book. She had told her to read it carefully, and that it was something she had found in the attic of the house a few years ago.

According to Kathryn, it was the best way to learn everything necessary about her new way of life – but she didn't tell her that this document also contained a lot of detailed information an Initiate shouldn't have been privy to, at least not during the first few weeks of her stay on the Island. The tall woman was taking a risk by giving her charge the book, but from the first moment on, the young blonde had struck an almost forgotten cord in her heart.

While her mistress…, while Kathryn was tending to her paperwork, Chris sat in the far left corner of the office and read. It was a hand-written script, not really a book but rather a thick leaflet. It consisted of a somewhat boring sequence of rules and punishments, rules and punishments, mixed in were personal statements and reflections by the anonymous writer. As she turned page after page, slowly she began to understand.

This was not a question of crime and punishment. It was not a question of irrational rules and equally irrational retaliations. It was more than that, far more.

Under the surface of obedience and domination lay, as incongruous as it might sound, the potential for real freedom, inner freedom. The hierarchical society, the strange mix of adherence to traditions and the pursuit of innovative technologies, the power a Mistress had over her charges. That all began to make sense.

So much of what was possible depended on the Instructor, the mistress. Yes, she had to follow the rules herself but to her authority there was no limit, short of killing or maiming those in her care. Only the council of elders, consisting of the Rehabilitated and the Repentant, could interfere with a mistress and her charge, and they rarely did.

It should have been a very frightening thought but looking at the beautiful woman in front of her, she suddenly understood that she had been very lucky. Mistress Kathryn would teach her and she would punish her if need be but above all she would protect her. She would help her find her place in this strange new world, and she was ready to bet that Kathryn never would abuse her power.

~*~

At the same time, back in town, elder Ika was entering her living room and found Ani kneeling on the hard ground and waiting for her.

“Are you ready for the rest of your punishment, my dear?”

“Yes, Mistress… I know that I don't have the right to ask for any favours but please don't use the cat, please.”

“No, Ani, I won't.”

Ika answered and patted her on the head while making her way to the couch at the other side of the room, her mind flashing back to the solid caning she had administered only a few hours ago.

As a Rehabilitated it was her duty to keep her charge in line. Ani was not only her right hand in public; she also was her lover of over thirty years. She had been a newly minted Supervisor and Ani her first Initiate. For her it had been love at first sight.

When their time had been up, eight years ago, Ani had opted to stay on as a Repentant because she was convinced that her debt to society was not yet repaid. Ika didn't want to leave her and she wanted to give something back to this community that had given her a chance at a new, happier life. So she had joined the Rehabilitated.

They often had spoken about the nature of their relationship, and so she knew that from time to time her beloved needed a lesson in humility but that she also needed to physically feel the consequences of her behaviour.

That's why she had ordered her to lean over the back of the couch and count. She hadn't told her how many strokes she would receive, and before she started with the cane, she had placed a dozen solid licks with her bare hand on the firm buttocks in front of her.

‘Wrinkle butt', that young thing really hadn't had a clue. Her love was so beautiful with her arse raised high and her long, still mostly brown hair spilling onto the seat of the couch, exposing the crescent shaped scar at the back of her skull that was so extremely sensitive to the touch.

Ika had started out slowly, not leaving a single mark with the first ten strokes, thus prolonging the warm-up. Ani had relaxed into the beating; the silver haired woman could see the evidence of her arousal. The next set of ten had been given with much more force and in a quick cadence, leaving her barely enough time to count them. She gently stroked the reddened globes with her fingers before giving her five more. In contrast to the others these would mark her for at least a couple of days.

Oh, yes, Ani had been so beautiful during her punishment, especially when she had knelt in front of her, thanking her with tears glittering in the corner of her eyes, kissing the cane and Ika's hands with abandon.

Yes, she had needed it that time but she also had deserved a treat, so instead of the traditional kiss on the forehead she had kissed the tears away and allowed herself and her servant a rare hour of indulgence.

No, it was not the time to dwell on that particular memory. After all she still had the rest of her lover's punishment to mete out.

She sat down and smiled at the kneeling woman who hadn't yet moved a muscle.

“Turn around, baby. Your transgression wasn't this severe. I know you hate the cat with the same passion as Kathryn does the single tail whip. This time it will not involve any more beatings but I'm sure you won't like it. You called this newbie a bitch, and I think it is time for you to find out how it feels to be treated as such. Two days should be enough to teach you your lesson.”

“But Mistress, how…”

“Dogs don't speak, Ani, they bark but I don't want you to bark. I want you to be a good, obedient dog. You will sit at my feet during the day and walk on your hands and knees right at my heel. You will bring me the leash before we leave the house and you will hold your head high because you are a proud little dog. Do you understand?”

Instead of answering with words, the kneeling woman got on her hand and knees and crawled over to her Mistress, rubbing her head against the seated woman's thigh and tentatively licking her hands.

~*~

The big grandfather clock in the far corner of Kathryn's living room signalled half past eleven . The two deep, resounding chimes brought the tall woman out of her musings. It was time to call it a night and go to bed – but first there was Chris' maintenance spanking to take care of.

The blonde was still writing in her journal. Earlier Kathryn had felt the green eyes on her but then their attention had been returned to the pieces of paper in front of her.

She knew she wanted to give the blonde a very personal over her knees spanking but she also knew that instead she would adhere to the rules, remembering the words of her teacher when she had been trained to become a Supervisor and Instructor.

‘Maintain a certain distance to the Initiate during the first week. Establish a routine she can rely on. Let her know that she is safe with you.'

The blonde looked up from re-reading her last entry and smiled at her mistress.

“Chris, I want you to go and fetch the chair over there. Bring it in front of the fire place, please.”

She did as she had been told and carefully positioned the sturdy chair in the empty space between the mantle and Kathryn's armchair. Without being told to, she bent over the back, at this moment very acutely aware of her nakedness and the sting of the lash marks from this morning. Kathryn didn't comment on her initiative but she thought she caught the glimpse of a smile when the other woman stood and went to the closet to retrieve a paddle.

Her mistress had shown her the wooden closet's contents earlier this evening. There were canes and paddles, some made of wood, some with an additional leather cover. She had shown her a cat-of-nine-tails, another whip with five thongs, and the single-tail-whip. They hung next to an assortment of straps in varying width and thickness. One of the drawers revealed ball gags and ring gags and phallus-like inflatable gags; another held butt plugs, dildos, and some things Kathryn had called Ben-Wa balls; the third and biggest drawer was filled with chains, thin leather straps, manacles and other things used to hold someone in bondage restraints. She had also told her that its contents and set-up was identical in every home of a Supervisor or Elder on the Island .

Chris' eyes followed the raven-heads movements. The thickness and shear mass of her hair completely hid the scars on her back but they were not long enough to also conceal the welts the cane had raised on her skin. If one looked really closely, one could count the forty marks evenly spaced between the small of her back and mid-thigh. Sitting and even walking must hurt a lot, if she compared it to the whipping she herself had received but the taller woman didn't show any pain or discomfort.

This, however, didn't keep the blonde from fantasizing on how it would feel to caress the reddened skin and kiss every single one of the forty marks and make the woman moan in delight and anticipation of more to come soon.

Her day-dreaming was cut short by a hand landing hard on her right arse cheek. She knew she would receive twenty strokes with the bare hand and ten with a leather paddle, at least at the beginning of her initiation to slowly get used to it; later on the implements of discipline and the number of strokes would be subject to considerable change.

Kathryn had also told her that she wasn't, yet, expected to count the strokes but should instead focus on keeping her legs from kicking and learn how to stay absolutely still during the spanking.

It felt right to feel the woman's hand on her backside, to hear the slap when skin met skin. Chris began to relax and wriggled a little bit to present a more enticing target.

The spanking had stopped but this couldn't have been twenty swats.

Without warning, leather, stretched over a core of hardwood, hit her with force and she suddenly had a hard time not to break her position.

The paddle had hit dead centre, just on the fleshiest part of her buttocks but the pain quickly spread, enveloping her whole ass. She was better prepared for the next blow, aimed for the same spot. Number three followed quickly, and four and five also were right on target.

The next one hit her right cheek with enough force to feel it right to the bone, with another one right on its heels. She had hooked her feet behind the legs of the chair she was leaning over to keep from kicking out. It was so hard to stay still and take her spanking without being bound; so hard, and yet, it felt so right.

Her mistress had asked her earlier, when she had given her a tour of the house and her quarters and they had ended up at the wooden closet in the corner that looked just like the one in the elder's room. Her mistress had asked her then if she would need to be restrained during the maintenance spanking or if she wanted to try and take it freely.

So, she put a little more effort in staying as immobile as possible. The following two strokes targeted her left buttock, and the last one, she was sure once again would be right on her sit-spot. She mentally prepared herself for a stinging blow but what came was nothing more but a gentle tap on her right cheek.

Kathryn's hand furtively brushed over her thigh and the spanking was resumed after a short respite her mistress had used to put the paddle away. This time the tall woman didn't play but placed hard, even slaps on her charge's then well reddened behind. These hard rhythmic swats surprisingly allowed her to relax.

So, she was surprised when her mistress stepped away from her and ordered her to rise.

“And now, Chris, I want you to kneel down, starting with your right knee. Today, I put the paddle away but tomorrow or any other day when we end with the paddle you will first kiss the instrument of your discipline and then the hands that wielded it. Then you'll ask to be allowed to put it away, return to me, thank me and kiss my hands for a second time.”

The blonde did as she had been told, lingering a bit longer than probably was appropriate over the soft skin and strong digits. Her mistress bent down and kissed her on the forehead, thus finishing the little ceremony.

They then retired to the bedroom as the clock announced midnight . There was an air mattress at the foot of the bed with a couple of blankets on top. That's were Chris would be sleeping the first seven nights, only then would she have her own bed. She knew it was to teach her the proper sense of hierarchy; and she was quietly thankful for the chance to observe her mistress in sleep.

The tall woman slipped between her sheets and turned out the light.

“I'm proud of you, Chris. You held yourself very well … like a pro. Good night, Chris.”

“Thank you, Mistress. Sleep well, Mistress Kathryn.”

The last word was barely above a whisper because the blonde knew by now very well that she was not supposed to use her mistress given name; it was a punishable offence. The tall woman in the bed pretended not to have heard it.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part IV: Questions and Revelations

A few hours later, Chris was brought out of a very irritating and very arousing dream by the sound of her mistress crying and whimpering in her sleep. Her blankets were on the ground and she was curled in a foetal position at the upper right quadrant of the bed.

For a couple of minutes she debated wether she should just wait for the other woman to snap out of this apparent nightmare on her own or try and wake her.

When the whimpers changed to half whispered and half choked out words – “No, please don't, please, I'll be good.” – Chris' decision was made.

She couldn't let her suffer like this. She had to do something.

So, she started to talk, and talk, and talk. She voiced the things she had read in the small book, the things she had written in her notebook. She spoke of her confusing thoughts during the time spent in darkness and how her mistress' actions had changed her view.

The form on the bed had slightly relaxed but not enough to get out of the nightmare's grip. She needed to do more than just talk. So, she sat down on the edge of the mattress. Mindful of the woman's sudden reflexes, the blonde was very careful when she touched her but instead of attacking her mistress shrank from the touch, almost like a frightened child, and scooted a bit more towards the middle of the bed.

All the progress made by the sound of her voice was undone in this one instant; but Chris was not ready to simply give up. She closed her eyes to clear her head, and then she began to sing.

The song was about a calf brought to market to be slaughtered because it had not learned to fly like a swallow. It made no sense at all but had a soothing melody that seemed to get through. She could clearly see its effect on the older woman. She was still curled in a ball but the whimpering and crying had stopped.

Encouraged, the blonde sang it again and then a third time. Kathryn's breathing calmed, and with her hands tugged under her chin and her legs stretched out she looked innocent and very young.

Chris covered her with one of her discarded blankets but instead of going back to her mattress she went and stared out of the half-opened window, loosing herself in the idyllic picture of a half moon illuminating gently rolling fields and the dark silhouettes of horses or cattle out on the pasture.

Something told her that she should feel uncomfortable with all this wholesome nature around her. Instead she felt at peace. It felt so strange, being at peace.

The moon was far beyond its zenith when the sound of quiet breathing coming from the bed once again changed. Kathryn was fighting with her covers but this time she was wildly thrashing around. Her mouth was moving as if shouting orders, but there was no sound. Her eyes were open, the comforting blue changed to a cold silver. Though obviously still sleeping she exuded power and authority in an almost alarming degree.

This time, Chris instinctively knew, words or music wouldn't do it. The raven-head was faster, taller, and more muscular than she was, but she didn't have a choice. She had to calm her down before she harmed herself. At first she planned on trying to get her from behind and to simply hold on.

It wasn't a rational decision when she instead darted forwards as soon as the other woman slightly turned to the side. She scooted under her flaying arms and embraced her as best as she could. Kathryn landed a couple of blows in the area of her kidneys; the blonde's breath was cut short but she did all she could not to loose her grip. They wrestled, only for two or three minutes, but to Chris it seemed like an eternity.

Irrationally, she tried to make eye contact with the sleeping woman – and to her surprise the colour of her eyes once again had changed. They now were of a pale blue, no, more of a white tinted with light blue. Her grip intensified, and Chris began to hum. Suddenly, she was twirled around and found her back side pressed against the other woman's front. Her head was resting on Kathryn's right upper arm whose hand was aggressively squeezing her breast. One of her knees was between her thighs and the left hand was stroking her just above her mound.

This, for sure, was not how she wanted their first time to be, despite her vivid dreams. No, she wanted Kathryn to remember what they did, and she wanted her to know that she also wanted it. She could feel long, strong fingers creeping closer to her centre; and yes, there was a voice that urged her to let the woman continue. But it wouldn't be fair, to either of them.

She could have tried calming her down by singing or talking; instead she decided to be honest, though this, to another part of her brain, sounded much like pleading.

“Please, Mistress Kathryn, slow down. Don't do this to me; don't do this to us. I want you to be aware of our first time. Please, Kathryn, don't.” She begged, and the hand stilled its progress. “Your touch makes me want to forget my own will, please, don't let me. Give us a chance. This is just a dream, and I want us to have reality, nothing more, nothing less. Everything‘s all right. Please, my love, my beloved Mistress….”

This continued for quite some time – and in the end, Chris' words were close to nonsensical murmurs, but she achieved what she had set out to do: Kathryn finally fell into a normal sleep.

The blonde wanted to join the older woman in slumber but was wide awake. One of Kathryn's hands was still resting on her right breast, and her left index finger was embedded in her bellybutton. Chris was convinced that sleep now would be totally impossible but before she even knew it, she was back in her dream.

~*~

Chris was bent over the high backed wooden chair. Her whole body hurt but she knew that she only had received strokes on her buttocks. She heard a swishing sound and fiery, hot pain enveloped her. Then there was something touching her thigh just above the hollow of her knee, something very pleasant and reassuring. She knew she shouldn't react to it, but her Mistress fingers were just too much to bear and she relaxed her muscles.

This wasn't the first time that her Mistress had interrupted her punishment to caress her. She was grateful for the respite and relished the gentle touch. It made her wet, and the arousal mixed with the pain from the caning made for a very intense torment.

She knew she deserved it. She had embarrassed her Mistress, her superior in public. At the time, she thought that she'd had a very good reason. However, regardless of how viable her arguments had been, she should have waited until they had more privacy.

To top it off, her words had lacked even a modicum of respect. Her Mistress had never spoken to her without showing respect for her personality, not even when she had been angry or disappointed.

Then the touch was gone. She opened her legs as far as possible, as far as the chain between her ankles allowed. The gloved hand once again touched her thigh and slowly moved up to the junction of her legs. A second hand touched her above the left knee and moved upwards. Soon, two hands were kneading her arse cheeks, mixing pain with pleasure.

She could feel the proximity of another body close by. Then there was the rough texture of her Mistress' work pants touching her thighs and rubbing against her abused buttocks; two hands cupped her breasts, fingers massaging and rolling her nipples. She could feel her wetness slowly running down the inside of her thighs.

Oh, how she longed to be allowed to come.

There was a voice not far from her ears.

“You did well, baby. Just fifteen more; and it will be done. You know how I hate having to punish you.” Her Mistress said.

The hands left her breasts and returned to her arse cheeks. They separated them and brushed over her sphincter, not even trying to enter.

“I love you, little one.”

She relaxed even more and suddenly found herself abandoned; aching for whatever her Mistress wanted to give to her, be it pain or pleasure.

“I know it's hard, my love. You were right with your suggestions. It will make this whole project work more smoothly. This is not about what you said but about the way you said it. You know the rules. This is a punishment; you are not allowed to come without permission.”

Something hard snaked between her legs, not to arouse her further but to emphasise that her body was not hers to command.

Her Mistress definitively knew how to play her body and her mind.

The cane met her buttocks, and she kicked out with her left leg. The next stroke almost took her breath away but this time she was able to hold her position, barely. Her juices were flowing.

“Eight strokes to go.”

She tried to keep her breathing low and regular.

“Seven.”

This one hit straight in the centre – with the next one directly behind.

“Brace yourself, baby.”

Mistress Kathryn said while caressing her buttocks tenderly, not without gently probing her swollen clit from time to time. Two more followed quickly one after the other, adding diagonal marks to the horizontal ones and making her almost jump out of her skin – but miraculously she held her position.

“I want to make the last four really count but your beautiful behind has pretty much gotten all it can take. I don't want to break your skin.”

“May I suggest something, Mistress?” The blonde timidly asked.

“Speak up.”

“Please, may I have the last four on my clit and nether lips? I said horrible things to you today, so horrible that two strokes per word don't seem nearly enough. Please, hit my clit as hard and as often as you like. I don't deserve any better.”

“The cane is not suited for this kind of punishment. What would you prefer, the flogger or the cat?”

The blonde swallowed hard; she had gotten herself into this, so, she had to see it through.

“The cat-of-nine-tails, Mistress.” Her voice was trembling. Though she only had felt it twice, she feared the cat like nothing else.

“Stand up, little one. I will not hurt you beyond reason. Step around the chair,” her Mistress said while sitting down where moments before her head had been, “and come over my knees. The cane might break your skin but my hand will not.”

Chris readily complied; she loved being allowed over her Mistress knees, even when she was wearing these coarse trousers. She knew that nothing bad could happen to her then. The seated woman let her right hand gently rest on the small of her back while the left caressed her welted behind.

“I want you to count the total number, Chris.”

Before she had a chance to confirm, the leather clad hand hit her right in the middle on her sit-spot. Her Mistress always wore riding gloves when wielding the cane.

“Sixty-five. Thank you Mistress.”

Slap!

“Sixty-six. Thank you Mistress.”

She had been trained very well and didn't kick out when the pain from her over-sensitised nerve-endings spread through her whole body. Slap!

“Sixty-seven. Thank you Mistress.”

Slap! This time she couldn't suppress a groan.

“Sixty-eight. Thank you Mistress.”

She felt more than heard how her Mistress removed her gloves and threw them to the ground, next to the cane. The blonde didn't want to stand up and face the world again, so she begged.

“Please, Mistress, continue my punishment. I can take more, I'm sure I can.”

“Justice is satisfied, Chris, and your debt has been paid in full. Relax; let go of your guilt. You lost your temper. It happens to the best of us. You are forgiven.”

The blonde began to cry, the tears she had been holding back during the whole ordeal of her punishment were now running freely.

“Yes, that's it, my love, cry. Get it out of your system. Let it go.”

Her Mistress caressed her shoulder-length hair; the gentle, comforting touch made her cry even harder.

“Let the tears purify you, baby. Everything is all right…”

Her Mistress continued to whisper soothing words until there were no more tears left to cry.

“Spread your legs for me, Chris.”

The hand that just had let her feel burning pain now was between her legs. Two fingers spread her labia, the thumb rested on her sphincter, and the middle finger was circling her clit.

The arousal that had abated during her crying fit was back in full force but she knew her Mistress was only teasing her. Because of her angry words she deserved to go without release for at least a week; she deserved to be brought to the edge of release over and over again and be denied.

The thumb now was rhythmically pressing down on her anal opening without trying to enter and the finger on her clit had stopped its motion. She could feel her blood pulsing against the fingertip as if desperately trying to find a way out.

Chris began to moan and incoherently beg. “Oh, Goddess… You're so good to me, Mistress… Please, don't stop…. You feel so good… Arrghh, please…”

She wriggled her ass, trying to get as much out of the contact as she possibly could. The thought of ultimately being denied her release heightened her arousal. She was dripping by now.

Suddenly two fingers quickly entered her and started to forcefully pump in and out in a steady, but slow rhythm. A third was added and the tempo increased. She longed to take even more but the chain between her ankles limited her freedom of movement.

Chris more than anything else wanted to please her Mistress; she wanted to obey her but she was so close to orgasm, so close. Her body went rigid with the strain to control herself but she didn't deserve the release.

“Come for me, little one. Now!”

Never was an order obeyed with more abandon and gratefulness. The orgasm rolled over her like a tidal wave and she cried her Mistress' name like she always did in the throws of passion.

~*~

Chris bolted awake, acutely aware that her arousal was not a dream. She had done it again, had dreamed about herself in a submissive role with Kathryn as her Mistress, and had dreamed about enjoying pain and punishment, about being grateful for it. Something defiantly was not right with her.

Her sudden movement also woke the raven-head spooned behind her.

“How did you end up in my bed, Chris?”

She sounded more surprised than annoyed but the younger woman immediately jumped up and started to babble.

“Calm down, would you? Take a deep breath and calm down. – Yes, that's it.”

Chris closed her eyes. ‘Dear Goddess,' she thought, ‘Kathryn's voice was so sexy, a bit rough with sleep.' She was getting weak in the knees and missed the other woman's question.

“Chris, listen, I asked you something. Did I have a nightmare?” That finally brought her back.

“Yes Mistress. You were thrashing around and I tried to calm you down. I must have fallen asleep, I'm sorry, Mistress, I know it's not allowed.”

She let her head hang, clearly expecting to be punished.

“I will not punish you for being compassionate, Chris. I should have warned you about the nightmares. I'm afraid it won't be the last time. They come and go rather irregularly. Now, go and take a shower while I see that we get something to eat. It's time to start this day.”

When Kathryn returned with a tray of cereals and coffee, the blonde was just putting the chair in front of the fire place.

“Let's eat first, Chris. The maintenance spanking can wait a few minutes. But I'm proud that I hadn't to remind you.”

‘Oh boy,' Chris silently answered, ‘with my dreams, how could I have forgotten?' Out loud she answered. “Yes, Mistress, thank you.”

They ate in silence, both of them occupied with their own thoughts.

“Go and fetch the paddle, please.”

The blonde turned to the closet, opened the door, and looked at a variety of paddles. “Take the third one from the right, Chris.”

The blonde returned and knelt down, with the right knee first.

“Please, take this instrument of discipline and help me to learn my place, Mistress.” She said, repeating a phrase she had read in the small book.

The other woman kissed her forehead and took the paddle out of her hands.

“Please bend over the back of the chair, now, Chris, and concentrate on holding your position.”

Kathryn started with the paddle. Five hard strokes later, all of them aimed for the centre of her buttocks, the tall woman switched to her hands. She alternately slapped first the right and then the left cheek with equal force, never changing speed or angle. Chris wasn't surprised when the paddle once again hit her dead centre.

She mentally counted. ‘Four, three, two, one.'

“Stand up, Chris, you know what to do.”

Chris knelt in front of the older woman and wordlessly kissed the leather paddle and then the back of her Mistress' hands. She even remembered asking to be allowed to put it back where it belonged, returned and once again kissed the hands.

Kathryn placed the customary kiss on her forehead and told her to stand up.

“It's time to put you in your restraints, Chris. Come.”

They returned to the closet and the tall woman opened the drawer with the restraints and pulled out a soft leather strip.

“Put your hands behind your back, please, and hold them together.”

A small click told her that the rings of her wrist cuffs had been fastened together. A loop forced her thumbs together, putting her hands back to back. The leather then was twice threaded through her fingers, effectively immobilising them. The bondage pulled back her shoulders and Chris felt horribly exposed but at the same time she surprised herself with the thought that she more than deserved her punishment.

“That's it, Chris. You have to be careful when you descend any stairs or such. With the hands held on the back the balance tends to be slightly off. Before I put the ball-gag in place I want you to promise me that you will just observe, quietly and unobtrusively. Regardless of what will happen, later this day and in the days to come, you will not try to interfere. Don't disappoint me by failing this part of your punishment.”

“I promise, Mistress, I will stay as calm as possible.”

“That's not good enough, Chris. I want your word that you will not interfere, under any circumstances.”

The blonde turned pleading green eyes towards her mistress but finally relented.

“You have my word, Mistress. May I ask a question?” The other woman nodded. “Why don't you use the collar to keep me silent?”

“I told you, I prefer a more hands-on approach to things. Besides, with the collar, one tends to forget that talking is not possible. With the gag, there will be no chance that it may slip your mind. You will stay with me the whole time, except for meal times and during the night. My second-in-command will take care of you then.”

“But I'm supposed to spend my nights at the foot of your bed, Mistress.” The blonde protested.

“The head of Supervisors will use my bed, Chris, and your mattress will become mine for a while. Cassandra will take good care of you. Believe me: it's better this way. And now, open your mouth, wide.”

It was a bright red rubber ball with elastic straps that closed behind the head. It had a hole in the middle, making it easier to breathe.

~*~

Kathryn had just finished her shower and was buttoning her blouse when there was a knock on the door. She replied and a woman with short brown hair entered. “Kathryn, we just got word that she will be here in about two hours.”

“Is everything ready for her arrival?” Chris thought she detected a hint of apprehension in her mistress' words.

“As far as one can possibly be ready for her, yes, Kathryn.”

Cassandra answered with a small smile that did nothing to calm the bound and gagged blonde.

“Linda left at dawn. She took food for three days. Cookie volunteered as her contact. Project G has been taken care of; the labs and offices are ready for inspection. I just wish that there was more I could do for you, Kat.”

“You're doing enough, my friend. Just take care of Chris and keep her safe – and see that our guest doesn't throw a wrench in our routine. Let her believe she does but keep her from doing it. The last time she got bored with me rather quickly. I don't think this visit will be different.”

Chris was standing to the side, frustrated almost out of her mind after only a few minutes of being robbed of her freedom of movement and speech. The next few days would be pure torture, she was certain.

“Last time, it took you almost three weeks to recover from the three days she was here, Kat.”

“Yes, but she's still in the middle of her inspection tour. There are a lot of things she can delegate to her minions but others are impossible to postpone. This time she also will not stay more than three days, even if she suddenly should find me more interesting than I expect. Consider yourself in command as soon as her transport enters the village, Cassy. And now, I have some paperwork to tend to.”

~*~

Another knock on the door; Kathryn looked up from the sheaves of paper in front of her.

“Come in.”

‘That's curious,' Chris thought, ‘yesterday her desk had been almost bare.' Kathryn had cleaned it up every time she had tackled a new project. ‘Why did she deliberately want to create the impression that she was messy and disorganised?'

“She has been spotted, Kathryn. Ten more minutes to go.”

“Thank you, Stevie. Make sure that everyone continues with their work. We don't want her to believe that we have been waiting for her. I want her focused on me, and on nothing else. Chris, stand up please. Go to the other side of the room and face the wall, face the corner.”

Kathryn returned to her paperwork as if all of this was every day's business but all of Chris' instincts told her that it wasn't.

While peeking over her mistress' shoulders this morning, she had read the crew manifest of Domain 1. Linda was the highest ranking doctor here, the third in command; sending her out when an inspection was due seemed highly inappropriate.

Everyone that had come into Kathryn's office this morning had seemed on edge somehow, and still they kept up their formal demeanour; she just couldn't make head or tail of it.

She hated being relegated to the corner. She hated that there was nothing she could do. She hated that this was all her fault – but somehow she managed to stay still and wait for the next command of her mistress.

She also waited for another knock on the sturdy wooden door but instead the door was impatiently and forcefully pushed open about fifteen minutes later – at least that's what it sounded like. A chair was pushed back and fell, hitting something hard with its full momentum only a few heartbeats later.

“Mistress, Supervisor Jolene, we didn't expect you this early. Welcome to Domain 1.”

To Chris her mistress voice didn't sound sincere, Hades, it didn't even sound familiar. There was nothing of the seductive pull she had become accustomed to feel.

“Cut the crap, Kathy. I'm not interested in what you expected. You have five minutes to delegate your duties and join me in your living room to discuss your transgressions. Don't make me wait; you know how I hate waiting.”

‘Was it possible to hate someone from the sound of their voice alone?' Chris asked herself. It was high-pitched but without any intonation. It grated on her nerves – and there was nothing she could do in her present condition.

Kathryn pressed a few buttons on her desk and then ordered her to follow. Chris already knew that she wouldn't like what she probably was about to see. She also knew that she had brought it upon herself, and that she just would have to take it.

When her mistress knocked politely on the door to her own apartment, the blonde became alarmed.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part V: A Mistress In Any Other Name

Kathryn entered her apartment, motioned her also in, and closed the door. She started to undress but the unsympathetic voice from before ordered.

“No, my pet. For now, I want you dressed. Order our toy to the far corner.”

“She's mine to command, Mistress, and she was ordered to always stay in my line of sight. I'm afraid; you will have to work around her.”

“You're as impertinent as always, Kathy. Unfortunately, the law is on your side. Lie down; I don't want to prolong this any further.”

The woman was more than a head shorter than her Mistress and instead of muscles her body was covered with fat. Her mousy brown hair was streaked with grey and had a somewhat un-kept look.

The tall woman did as she had been told and soon she was stretched out on the hardwood floor with her arms at a 45° ankle from her body and her legs almost one and a half feet apart. Then the other woman touched the device at her wrist.

Her mis… Kathryn screamed; her muscled contracted from the stomach outwards but it didn't stop after a couple of seconds, like it had with her. She it was not so, but Kathryn's body almost seemed to come off the ground.

Twenty-one seconds.

‘Dear Goddess, let her lose consciousness. Make it stop.' Chris silently pleaded.

Kathryn's body convulsed, sweat quickly covered her skin, and she lost control of her bladder.

Chris wanted to run and help her; she wanted to scream for help and attack this horrible woman who still held the button of the wrist device pressed down.

Forty-three seconds.

She finally stopped but Kathryn's body continued to thrash about for another three minutes and twenty-seven seconds. ‘Damn this time-sense.'

The woman, Supervisor Jolene, had a contented smile on her face.

“Judging from the shocked expression on your newbie's face you didn't yet introduce her to the joys of the higher settings of the collar.”

She sauntered over to where Chris was standing with her back to the door.

“You see,” she said while waving the infernal thing in front of her face, “at the highest setting not only the culprit gets a fairly high charge of electricity, she also has the bonus of staying conscious through it all. One really has to appreciate the ingenuity.”

Chris' eyes burned with hatred and at the same time she felt profound shame. This was all her fault; her Mistress was suffering because of her. With an effort she made her eyes and face expressionless. She wouldn't give this monster bitch from hell the satisfaction to read her feelings from her face.

Her mistress meanwhile had struggled to a seated position.

“Who allowed you to get up, you stupid cunt?”

The Supervisor reactivated the collar, Kathryn's body shock as if in an epileptic seizure but this time she didn't cry out.

‘Fourteen seconds, fourteen endless seconds'.

Chris' heart clenched at having to watch this but she deserved nothing better. This was all her fault.

Kathryn slowly calmed down and the blonde remembered what she had told her, this first day when she had punished her with the collar. ‘A strong charge agonising every cell in your body for hours on end.'

“Get up, and clean up the mess you made on the floor. Don't forget to also clean yourself. You have three minutes.” The Supervisor said with a triumphant glint in her eyes.

Kathryn stood and moved to her bedroom, none of her movements betraying the pain she still must feel. She filled a bucket with water, added some cleaner and a cloth, and returned to scrub the floor. The woman seemingly paid no attention to her. One minute thirty-eight seconds. She returned everything to the bathroom, put her soiled clothes in the hamper, and took a quick shower. Three minutes ten seconds. She dried herself and put her hair in a ponytail. Three minutes forty-six, and they were back in the living room.

The woman studied one of the book shelves. “Mistress, I'm at your command.”

“Of course you are, my pet, but you also are late, one hundred seconds late, one hundred. And you know how I hate to be kept waiting. What do you have to say for yourself?”

“Nothing Mistress. We both know that it wouldn't have changed anything, even if I had made it in time, Mistress. You always honour me with one hundred strokes whenever we have been apart, Mistress.”

“Sarcasm doesn't suit you, slut, and it certainly won't get you out of this maintenance spanking. Go and get the wooden paddle with the five holes.” The Supervisor ordered.

Chris was taken aback at the woman's constant use of bad language; she obviously didn't care about the language code.

Kathryn took the paddle out of the closet and then knelt in front of the shorter woman, offering it to her.

“Please, take this instrument of discipline and help me to learn my place, Mistress.”

“That's more like it, Kathy. Take your position, no, two steps to the right. This way, your Initiate will better be able to see everything.”

The tall woman spread her legs, bent over, and grabbed her ankles.

“The venerable elder has been lenient to you, spreading the forty strokes over ass and thighs, very lenient but we'll see about this later. Now, count and thank me after every five strokes.”

Chris shifted her weight, preparing to step in and shield Kathryn's body with her own but a warning glare and a shake of the head from her mistress stopped her in mid-motion.

“One.”

The paddle made a strange sound when swung through the air, it almost whistled, not like the swishing sound the one used on her made.

“Two.”

Pfft, twack.

“Three.”

The blonde longed to look away; she longed to be anywhere but here. Even the pitch darkness of her solitary cell would have been better. But she forced herself to watch. She should be the one beaten by this horrible woman.

“Ten. Thank you, Mistress.”

There was a certain rhythm to it. One stroke on the left cheek, one on the right, one on the left, one on the right, and the next hit both. The woman took her sweet time, before this fifth stroke she rested the paddle for a moment on the skin as if taking aim and then delivered the blow.

“Twenty-six.”

The red welts from the caning were still visible but slowly another kind of red was beginning to cover them.

“Thirty-five. Thank you, Mistress.”

The whistling sound of the paddle was enervating; Chris tried to shut it out of her conscious mind but it didn't work.

“Forty-two.”

Being gagged and bound was not her true punishment, Chris now began to understand. Her punishment was that she had to watch the consequences of her actions, to watch how someone else suffered because she had been absent-minded and disobedient. She could have kicked herself.

“Fifty-seven.”

Supervisor Jolene stopped in mid-swing and let her arm drop to her side. She walked over to the armchair and said.

“Get on your hands and knees, culprit, and crawl over here. I'm tired of standing.”

The raven-head did as she was told and Chris marvelled at the natural grace the woman displayed even in this degrading position. She moved smoothly like a predator stalking its prey.

“Fifty-eight.”

The angle of the strokes now was slightly different; the impact seemed harder now, as if she wanted to drive her forwards with every hit.

“Sixty-One.”

Her Mistress was so graceful, so beautiful. She was proud to belong to her. ‘Where by the Goddess was this thought coming from? Were her vivid dreams spilling over into reality?'

Chris was confused – even more so when it occurred to her that she didn't like to see her Mistress on her hands and knees. This should be her place. But she was so beautiful, she was perfection.

“Seventy-five. Thank you, Mistress.”

Kathryn's voice betrayed nothing of the pain she must feel. She had been wrong, the blonde mused. The Supervisor had muscles under the layers of fat. Her strokes did not get weaker, her rhythm never changed, like clockwork: left cheek, right cheek, left cheek, right cheek, taking aim, descending dead centre.

“Eighty-five. Thank you, Mistress.” She counted as if she were checking an inventory or something. “Eighty-eight.”

Only twelve more to go, and then it would be over.

Chris knew that she was only kidding herself. This was just the beginning, and she would have a front row seat for everything the bitch would come up with.

“Ninety-three.”

Kathryn's arse cheeks were red and swollen; the marks of her earlier caning had long been covered. The blonde longed to put some soothing balm on the tortured skin but she knew that would not be possible. The bitch from hell would never allow it.

“One hundred. Thank you, Mistress.”

Kathryn changed her position and kissed the paddle, followed by the woman's hands.

“May I return the instrument of discipline to its place, Mistress?”

“Yes, you may, my pet, but you will do it on your hands and knees. Go!” The woman answered with a smirk.

Without missing a beat, the tall woman turned around and crawled over to the closet. She had to stretch to put the paddle back on its hook and then returned to the seated woman. She kissed her hands a second time but instead of receiving a kiss on the forehead like it should have been, the woman slapped her hard across the face. Kathryn didn't even flinch.

“And now let's talk about why I had to get up before dawn to come here, Kathy. You always were my problem child, and even now that you have achieved more than most others you still are. Tell me, why did you petition the Council of Elders to be assigned this Initiate? You're at a level that you no longer have to waste your time with these newbies.”

“Please, Mistress, stop playing harmless. You know as well as I do why I did it, Mistress.” Kathryn's voice was calm and neutral. “I did it, so you wouldn't get your hands on her.”

“Don't forget your place, slut.” The woman said angrily. “You are at my mercy here. I'm the one who decides when your debt is paid and just now you have definitively added to it. Besides, Supervisor Sara was initially assigned to her case.”

“I apologise if my words have offended you, Mistress. It's a punishable offence to lie to one's Mistress, and you know that I never will object to your authority over my body, Mistress. Sara doesn't even breathe without your permission; you have broken her spirit and made her a mindless slave. She would have been the Instructor only in name; you would have called the shots, Mistress.”

“What you insinuate would be a serious crime. You're getting on thin ice here.” The woman was clearly loosing her calm and her smirk had long disappeared.

“A crime you have been found guilty of once, when you tried to break Linda though she was supposed to be the responsibility of another one of your playthings, Mistress.”

“Ah, sweet Linda, by the way, where is she?”

Chris understood less and less of what these two were talking about, and she really hoped that she would get an explanation as soon as the horrible woman was once again on her way.

“Besides, that's old news. I took my punishment and was reinstated. It's bad form to talk about past transgressions.”

“Yes, you did, Mistress, I apologise. And to answer your question: Linda is not here. I sent her away; I didn't want her having to meet you, Mistress.”

“You really do nothing to endear you to me.”

“Would you really want me to, Mistress?”

Before the woman could answer the grandfather clock struck twelve and the door opened. A portly woman, followed by two servants, entered and began to set the dinner table in the corner for two.

“Supervisors, lunch is served. Kathryn, could you take the girl's gag off. I'll bring her to the kitchen to get fed.”

“Of course, Cookie, thanks for reminding me. I'll block her vocal cords, so she won't ask you a thousand questions. And could you please see that a bottle of wine is brought for our guest.”

Kathryn undid the straps of the gag and Chris almost spit it out. Her whole mouth tasted like rubber. She wanted to protest, to be allowed to stay but her mistress had already activated the collar.

“The restraints stay like they are. Cassandra will be by to feed her. Chris, go with Cookie, and don't make any trouble for my people. After the meal they will bring you back.”

She kissed her on the forehead and sent her away.

~*~

The kitchen was very big and it smelled deliciously. To one side was a very long wooden table where most of the people Chris had seen coming to her mistress' office these past two days were sitting together, eating quietly. The blonde was sure that midday meals usually were livelier here and that the current mood had a lot to do with the woman in Kathryn's living room. When this was over, Chris promised herself, she never would willingly disobey an order.

Cassandra joined them a couple of minutes later and the blonde tried not to be too embarrassed because she had to be fed. Soon after one of the Servants appeared and smashed her fist against the surface of the table.

“Oh, how I wish I could gut the horrible bitch. She de…”

“That's enough, Hannah. You'll only get yourself into trouble. You know Kat's very strict about language violations.”

“But Cass, you should have seen what this…, this… what she does to Kathryn. She has to kneel on the ground; she wants her to beg for her food, and she enjoys every minute of it. I just want her to taste her own medicine.”

“Then we only can hope that she won't stay too long,” Cookie said. “You should know our fearless leader by now. She never begs, so she will go without food for a while. Kathryn knows how to deal with Supervisor Jolene. I know you all worry about her but the best we can do now is to keep things as normal as possible. Kathryn is strong, she has lived through it before, and she will now. I trust in her, you all should too. And Hannah, come and find me after your shift, then we'll address your violation of the language code.”

“Yes, madam, thank you, madam.”

Everyone seemed lost in their thoughts for the rest of the meal; and Chris was convinced that most of them were focused on what was happening upstairs.

When Cookie escorted her back to Kathryn's quarters about twenty minutes after they had left, she saw that the woman wasn't wearing any cuffs. She was close to ask her about it when she remembered that her voice had been cut off.

The portly woman opened the door without knocking. Kathryn really was kneeling to the right of the table. Her legs were spread wide and her hands clasped behind her back – ‘kneeling attention' the book had called it.

But Chris believed she picked up on a subtle change of atmosphere in the room; she couldn't pinpoint it but her mistress seemed calmer, more centred. Cassandra entered after them and bowed to the comfortably seated woman, sipping her glass of wine.

“Supervisor Jolene, Domain 1 is awaiting your inspection.”

“And it will continue to wait, young woman. I'll let you know when I'm good and ready. If you want to do something useful, go and see to it that the remnants of the meal are removed. Leave us.”

Kathryn used the woman's distraction to get up. She deactivated the collar and Chris willingly opened her mouth to once again accept the ball gag. The loyalty to her mistress that she just had felt in the kitchen had made her regret her actions, her disobedience even more.

This punishment, being forced to watch without being able to stop what to her was random injustice and cruelty, was somehow changing her. It let her see things in a different light and some of the things in the book now made much more sense.

As soon as the others were gone Supervisor Jolene took her glass and the bottle and seated herself in the big armchair. She refilled the glass and ordered Kathryn to crawl over and reassume her earlier position.

“And now Kathy; back to business. I'm getting bored with your stubbornness. Elder Ika sent me a video with the incident and your punishment. You stated yesterday that you take full responsibility for your charge's behaviour. Do you still think that way?”

“Yes Mistress.”

“Then I'm sure you will not object to take the punishment your Initiate should have received, right?”

“No, I don't object, Mistress.”

“So, refresh my memory, what's the punishment for breaking the language code, disobedience, and disrespect?”

This time, Chris remarked, her mistress didn't provoke the woman by reminding her that she knew the rules and regulation as good as anyone. Her tone remained neutral.

“Justice has to be satisfied in the eyes of the offended, and the rest is up to the discretion of the mistress concerned, Mistress.”

“Yes, Kathy, it's up to me.” She gulped down the rest of the liquid in her glass and refilled it. “I hope you remember that whenever one of my girls speaks out of turn she has to pay for every single word and every single letter she irresponsibly spoke.”

“Yes, Mistress, I remember.”

“And do you have the faintest idea how many words and letters your precious Initiate used?”

“No, Mistress, I don't.”

“Why am I not surprised?” The woman said with sarcasm in her voice.

Chris searched her mistress face, and though her expression was as neutral as her voice, she was convinced that she could have given her the requested numbers.

“It were,” the woman continued, “eighteen words and fifty-nine letters. That makes a total of seventy-seven. I hope your ass is up to it because I won't show any mercy.”

“And I will not ask for mercy, Mistress.”

“Get the chair ready and bring me a cane. I'll add to your tally if I'm not content with your choice.”

Kathryn did as ordered and then knelt in front of the woman who had just emptied another glass of wine and offered her very long cane.

“Good choice, my pet, even if only applied with moderate force it will mark you nicely. Take your place, and don't break position.”

While the chair was the perfect height for the blonde, for the taller Kathryn it definitively was too low to be really an effective support.

The woman poured herself another glass, stood, and stepped behind the chair. Chris still had a sickeningly good view of the proceedings from where she stood to the left of the mantle.

The cane hit her mid-thigh and immediately a bright red mark flared up. Chris was sure that she wouldn't have been able to hold her position had she been in Kathryn's place.

“One, thank you Mistress.”

“No, don't count, don't thank me. I'm tired of your voice.”

Instead, Chris counted. The second stroke hit the same spot, same height, same force, as did the third. Number four was aimed a quarter of an inch higher. If she continued this way, the thighs and not the already abused buttocks would take the brunt of the punishment, the blonde calculated.

Number twenty-seven hit the thigh, the woman stopped; the cane already high in the air for the next stroke. She walked back to the armchair and sat down. Chris expected her to gloat, to admire her handiwork, to lecture Kathryn but instead she buried her nose in the glass of wine. The next one emptied the bottle and she downed it as if it were water. Then, she got back to work, this time concentrating her strokes on the arse cheeks alone.

The bound and gagged blonde had a hard time to keep her mind on what was happening. Images from her dream began to pop up in her mind's eye.

The instrument of discipline was almost the same, Kathryn had used a different cane on her, one that didn't make this horrible wheezing sound and the proceedings had been different as if from another world. She continued to count.

‘Forty-nine.'

In her dream she had earned her punishment and her Mistress more than once had stopped the caning to soothe and caress her. This woman only wanted to inflict pain. She didn't want to teach a lesson, she didn't do it to fulfil her duty. She did it because she was a sadist. She wanted others to suffer but her Mistress didn't give her what she wanted. She held her position, she didn't cry out, she didn't beg.

‘Sixty-one.'

Chris hoped that one day she would be as strong as Kathryn, as her Mistress.

‘Sixty-three.'

This one broke the skin and the woman paused to admire the trickle of blood running down.

“Finally,” she said, “now, we're getting somewhere.”

She hit the same spot once again, with even more force, and Chris thought to detect an almost inaudible gasp from her mistress. But the woman apparently hadn't heard.

‘Sixty-six.'

Every stroke now was breaking Kathryn's skin but the tall woman still didn't budge. She held as still as a statue.

‘Seventy.' Chris breathed a little easier now, only seven left.

Kathryn was bleeding freely by now and the woman didn't show any sign of letting up with the force of her blows even the slightest bit.

‘Seventy-three.'

The Supervisor had worked herself in a frenzy by now; speeding up the cadence of her blows.

‘Seventy-seven, seventy-eight.'

Chris wanted to shout, she wanted to choke the woman, to break the cane in two over her head but instead she just stood there as if rooted to the spot. The bitch didn't stop. She continued to frantically beat the other woman for two more minutes and thirteen seconds bringing the tally up to one hundred and six. Then she dropped the cane and let herself slump into the chair. Kathryn remained bent over the chair.

The blonde cursed her accurate sense of time. Her mistress was suffering and all she was able to do is count seconds.

Kathryn was so quiet she didn't know if she was even still conscious and her tormenter seemed totally out of it. She was staring straight ahead, with unfocused eyes, clutching her empty glass.

Five minutes and counting. Finally, she heard Kathryn's voice.

“Mistress, may I be allowed to move and thank you as it is my duty?” She in vain searched for any kind of emotion in the raven-head's tone.

The woman looked up; her eyes zoomed in on the blood still dripping on the hardwood floor. She slowly stood and squatted down to find Kathryn's eyes.

“I don't know how you do it, Kathy. There still are tears running down your face, and yet, you never made a sound. Where do you get the discipline? – No, don't answer. I know the answer; you have told me many times.”

Then she stood, walked over to some sort of phone and called for a doctor.

When a physician and two nurses entered a couple of minutes later, she had herself back under control.

“You have half an hour to patch her up and clean up this mess. I'm eager to begin my inspection.”

The women helped Kathryn up and where about lead her to her bedroom when she stopped them. She turned around and knelt in front of the woman.

“Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress.”

“It was my pleasure,” the woman answered with a smirk. “But don't forget, this was the punishment you should have given your Initiate. You on the other hand are not forgiven yet.”

“I never would have thought so, Mistress. May I now remove the instrument of discipline, Mistress? It needs to be cleaned.”

“Let the others do it. I won't need it for a while. You have twenty-six minutes left. I want you to wear a skirt and a wide blouse, no shoes, no underwear. You'll regret it if you make me wait.”

This time Kathryn didn't object to being led to the bedroom. The doctor wanted her to stretch out on the bed but she refused.

“Just stop the bleeding and let me take a shower,” she almost growled.

“But, Kat, you need to be treated and you should rest for a few hours.”

“Eileen, please stop it. I appreciate your concern but now's not the time or the place. I have to do this my way. Just do what is necessary and then leave me alone. And don't try and talk to Supervisor Jolene. It wouldn't do any good.”

“I will comply, Kat. I don't like it but you are probably right.”

The doctor began to efficiently care for her wounds and was gone a mere eight minutes later.

Her mistress told her to wait and disappeared into the bathroom. Chris stood next to the door and was once again counting seconds. All the time trying to school herself not to think in seconds any longer but it didn't work.

Eleven minutes and eighteen seconds later Kathryn reappeared and dressed quickly. Soon she was standing with one hand on the door-knob to return to the living-room, her other hand gently touched Chris right cheek and she said.

“This has nothing to do with you, Chris. I was wrong to make you watch but it's too late to change anything now. I'm sorry, Chris.”

Kathryn took a deep breath and stepped over the threshold to face the other woman once more.

TO BE CONTINUED IN PART VI

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part VI: Between Dream and Reality

She wriggled her ass, trying to get as much out of the contact as she possibly could. The thought of ultimately being denied her release heightened her arousal. She was dripping by now.

Suddenly two fingers quickly entered her and started to forcefully pump in and out in a steady, but slow rhythm. A third was added and the tempo increased. She longed to take even more but due to the chain between her ankles her freedom of movement was rather limited.

Chris wanted to please her Mistress; she wanted to obey her but she was so close to orgasm, so close. Her body went rigid with the strain to control herself. She didn't deserve the release.

“Come for me, little one. Now!”

Never was an order obeyed with more abandon and gratefulness. The orgasm rolled over her like a tidal wave and she cried her Mistress name like she always did in the throws of passion.

She stayed in her position for some time and was surprised to find that she didn't know exactly how long. The soothing caress of her Mistress' hand on her burning flesh was too good to give up just yet.

“We have to go back to work, Chris.”

With a groan the blonde let herself slide from Kathryn's knees. She knelt in front of her Mistress and kissed both of her hands. Between kisses she murmured,

“Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress. Please let me give you pleasure now.”

“We have to work, Chris.”

She looked up to her Mistress with pleading green eyes. “Please, Kathryn. Let me pleasure you. Show me that I'm truly forgiven, please, Kathryn.”

“You don't play fair, baby.” The taller woman answered with a twinkle in her blue eyes. “But you took your punishment so bravely and the play of your muscles was so beautiful when you tried not to come. It made me wet just to look at you; and this will surely keep me from concentrating.

“So, I'll grant your wish but to make it more interesting there are three conditions. You have to undress me first, you will not use your hands, and you are not allowed to come, not until we are alone and in our bedroom tonight.” Kathryn stood and pushed the chair a few inches back. “Think you can do this?”

A challenge, Chris loved a challenge. She clasped her hands behind her back and leaned in, her nipples rubbing against the rough fabric of the work pants. They instantly got hard but she ignored this and began to unfasten the wide belt around her Mistress', her lover's slim waist. She took the end of the leather strap between her teeth to push it through the belt loop.

As a rule, Kathryn was not served this way; she was almost fiercely independent. So, this was a rare treat for her and she intended to make the best of it.

Chris soon had the end worked free, pulling from one side and pushing from the other. She could feel her lover's amused eyes on her. A quick pull let the buckle pin pop out of the second to last puncture in the leather strip. Her tongue pushed the pin back as far as it would go and then she threaded the leather out of the buckle.

She kissed the buckle as she had done many times after this very belt had blistered her behind or welted the inside of her thighs. It was her Mistress favourite instrument for an impromptu punishment session.

She licked the cold metal and then closed her teeth around it and pulled. At first it resisted but then slid out of the loops and came free. She felt every single of the sixty-four cane strokes she had received when she bent down to deposit the belt on the ground. With her hands still behind her back she slowly came up again and for a heartbeat made eye contact with her raven haired lover.

Chris turned her attention back to the task at hand, silently thanking her good fortune that this particular pair of work pants had a Velcro strip and a zipper instead of buttons. Opening buttons with her mouth only really would have been hard. As it was, the wide trousers quickly dropped to the ground, revealing the plain silk of Kathryn's underwear. She didn't like to wear things with lace and stuff but she liked seeing it on her blonde lover.

Kathryn stepped out of the trousers but made no move to help any further. Chris wanted to rip her Mistress' panties off but restrained herself; she had to do this the right way even though the scent of arousal wafting to her made her wet, no, wetter. She took a deep calming breath and tried to focus.

She tugged at the right side of the panties and pulled them down about an inch. She did the same to the other side; then returned to the right. Each time first kissing the skin just above the waistband, she had the offending garment down only a couple of minutes later.

Chris avoided looking at Kathryn's now exposed sex. With her eyes to the ground she said,

“Please sit down, Mistress. It will be more comfortable for you and it will give me better access.”

Kathryn complied without a word; she even spread her legs to make it easier for her lover. The blonde began by tentatively licking the kneecap to her right, deliberately keeping away from the area around the hollow of the knee, one of her Mistress' few ticklish spots. She didn't want to break the mood now, sensing the rising sexual tension in the other's body.

She let the tip of her tongue circle, barely touching the skin and worked her way to the upper part of the thigh. For a moment, she thought about stopping and doing the same to the other leg but she could see her mistress wetness glittering at the apex of her legs and had to taste her, now.

However, that didn't mean that she wouldn't take her sweet time. She combined almost non-existent touches of her lips with blowing cold air on the nether region. Kathryn's hips involuntarily rocked forwards and she moaned. Encouraged she replaced her lips by the touch of her tongue, causing the other woman to nearly slip from the seat in her need to get closer. Chris looked up and found her eyes changed from their usual dark blue to white tinted with a light blue, a dead give-away of her arousal.

Chris now completely concentrated on the outer labia, peppering them with tiny kisses, never once touching the clit or parting her folds. The anticipation alone made her mistress' drip and Chris wanted her to ask for more, to beg her. She didn't have to wait for long.

“Please, sweetheart, go inside. I need you inside of me.”

Quick as lightning, her tongue darted out and began to swirl around the inner labia, pushing the tension up another notch. She knew she wouldn't be able to reach Kathryn's G-spot without the help of her long fingers, so she didn't even try. But she delved deeper, sucking the inner lips in her mouth and scraping them gently with her teeth.

It wasn't planned but her nose touched the already unhooded clit and her breathing made the little knob quiver and pulse with need. Kathryn moaned and whimpered, offering no resistance to her teasing.

It was always a thrill to the blonde when this strong, self-reliant woman gave herself over to her care.

“Please, Chris, please.”

As always Chris was enthralled when Kathryn trusted her enough to beg, to show weakness. This time was made even more special because it hadn't been planned.

Chris stopped her ministrations to the nether lips and closed her mouth over the clit, suckling it as she would a nipple. She knew she now could have taken her hard and fast without the other woman objecting but she wanted this to be a treat for her lover.

The blonde was well aware that soon Kathryn would begin to blame herself for having been forced to punish Chris. It happened every time she had to be punished harshly because her temper got the better of her. She didn't blame her Mistress for fulfilling her duty, but the tall woman did and usually had to be patiently coaxed out of her unnecessary guilt trip.

Perhaps this time they could avoid that completely. Taking her now, making her come, with as much gentleness and love as she was capable of giving, hopefully would have an effect on the stubborn woman. She loved her too much to let her hurt herself this way.

She lavished all her attention on the pulsing bud, disregarding the insistent throbbing between her own legs. It would not be much longer now. Chris continued her gentle movements, every now and then interrupting to lap up some of her Mistress' sweet nectar – and just before she grazed the clit with her upper front teeth, she whispered,

“I'm close, my dear. I know you're close.

~*~

Chris woke with a jerk; something had broken her out of her very pleasant, very arousing dream but the room was quiet except for the sound of Cassandra's deep and regular breathing only a few feet away. The redhead had taken a sleeping aid just before going to bed and was blissfully undisturbed by whatever had jolted herself out of sleep.

‘What a dream! And it kept getting better and better.' She mused with a grin while trying to decide if she should wait for her arousal to abate on its own or better should take things into her own hands. It was strange how deep and intense her feelings for the tall raven-head were in her dreams. Her trust in her was complete and she was nervous and almost unsettled whenever they were apart.

The blonde tried to compare her dream feelings with what she was feeling now, in reality. All day long, standing bound and gagged close to her, having to witness how the head of Supervisors tried to humiliate her, having to witness how she was tortured by the evil woman; all day long she had silently suffered with and for Kathryn. It was more than pity or compassion or even guilt – because, after all, this was all her fault. It was something deeper but she didn't have a word for it.

It was a feeling that made her want to jump and kill Supervisor Jolene for what she was doing to her mistress.

‘Surprising how easy it now is to think of her that way,' Chris thought. ‘I wonder when I will stop to question it.'

And at the same time she had been awestruck by the tall woman's beauty and grace and dignity – not the least during the long hours of a tedious inspection tour during which the woman had tried to slight Kathryn's work and those of her people but they all had risen to the occasion and had refused to take her bait.

She knew Kathryn was proud of the others, and this afternoon when returning from the stables she had vowed to somehow give her mistress reason to be proud of her too.

The woman had been riding in a buckboard driven by Cassandra, Kathryn's second-in-command, and the tall woman had been ordered to keep up by foot. The redhead kept a steady pace, fast enough to satisfy the evil bitch but slow enough to allow her mistress to jog at the side without having to break in a full-out run.

Chris had been seated at the rear of the buckboard and had thus a very good view of the play of muscles in her thighs. The long skirt she was wearing had been scooped up and her long, powerful strides made it look like she was doing this every day – not a small feat if one thought of what she had been put through earlier this day: electrocuted, paddled, and then the horrible ordeal with the cane, breaking the skin. And then…

~*~

Back in the living room, they found Supervisor Jolene sitting at the dinner table and writing in a dog-eared notebook, very similar to the one her mistress had given to her. She looked up when she heard the bedroom door.

“Oh, there you are, and right on time, I'm impressed.” She said with a cold voice. “Go to the closet, open the doors, and kneel to its right. Unbutton the blouse and put your hands behind your neck, elbows to the side.”

Two minutes, thirty-five seconds later the woman closed the notebook and slowly came over to them.

“While you were in there with your pets, I had some time to think, Kathy. I still think the elders made a big mistake by appointing you to this domain. Last time I didn't find any evidence of neglect but this time you didn't have enough time to sufficiently prepare for my arrival. So, I will make sure to check every nook and cranny of it and write a very thorough report for the Council. You took the Initiate from my dear Sara; it would be a just recompense for her to take over your job here, don't you think, my pet?”

Kathryn's answer obviously didn't come fast enough because a hand slapped her hard across the face, inversed its course and backhanded her other cheek.

“Answer, damn you!”

“I trust that your report to the Council of Elders will, as always, give a fair and thorough account of the proceedings on Domain 1, Mistress. I also am confident that your report in no regard will differ from the monthly reports the Council receives from Cookie and I.”

“Damn meddling cunt.” The woman grunted.

“Mistress, you may call me every name you want but I demand that you treat my people with the respect they deserve, especially Cookie.”

This earned her another two slaps.

“Don't forget your place, ‘Supervisor Kathryn'. In fact I will make fucking sure that you don't forget who you belong to during my inspection.”

She opened one of the drawers and soon came up with a set of vicious looking nipple clamps. She fastened them on the kneeling woman's firm orbs and screwed tight, without even trying to first get them hard. The gleeful expression on her face was telling Chris how much she thought they would hurt but Kathryn didn't move a muscle. Satisfied with her handiwork, she closed the blouse and ordered her to stand up. Everyone with eyes would be able to see them through the thin fabric.

“Bend over, we're not finished yet. Bare your ass.”

The woman once again rummaged in one of the drawers. She turned around and before Chris could have a good look she rammed a big butt plug in Kathryn's anus, unlubricated and with full force, causing the tall woman to almost topple over and to grunt in discomfort.

“Yes, that's better. You are mine, Kathy, always were and always will be.”

“The law gives you rights over my body and some of my actions. I never will object to that, Mistress.”

Chris remembered that her mistress had said something similar earlier this day and she knew that she had established a thin line by her choice of words, then and now, but she didn't yet understand all the implications.

~*~

There it was again, the sick feeling in her stomach that earlier had interrupted her dream. She slowly rose from the mattress and went to the window. The view was only slightly different than from Kathryn's bedroom window but the peace she had felt the night before was sadly missing.

She briefly considered waking Supervisor Cassandra but what good would it do? What could she tell her? That she had a bad feeling? Not likely – and then there was the fact that her mistress had once again blocked her voice.

She began to pace the room but that didn't do any good and her feeling of dread slowly got stronger. So, she followed her instincts and left Cassandra's apartment.

Kathryn's quarters were just the next door down. She would only go in, put her ear to the bedroom door, and make sure that everything was all right with her mistress. She just wanted to listen, nothing else. It was in the middle of the night; they probably both were asleep by now.

Chris silently crossed the living room. She knew she was deliberately disobeying an order but she couldn't care less about the consequences. Before she even reached the door she could hear the sound of a whip or a strap hitting flesh.

The door handle was already in her hands when she remembered what Kathryn had said to her this morning. ‘I want you to promise me that you will just observe, quietly and unobtrusively. You will not try to interfere. Don't disappoint me by failing this part of your punishment.'

If there was one thing she didn't want to do it was to disappoint the black haired beauty, once again. So, she took a few calming breaths, in, out, in, out. Her right ear pressed to the wooden door. Then she heard it, the sadistic bitch was shouting.

“You will come, cunt, you will come and scream my name in pain and in pleasure. I don't care if I have to rip you apart or beat you to a pulp. You are mine. You will not defy me.”

Underneath this angry rambling there was a faint sound of a half suppressed scream. That was all the incentive, the blonde needed to completely disregard her orders. She opened the door and what she saw made her spring into action, literally.

The bed's headboard was against the same wall the door was in, facing the windows. Kathryn was spread-eagled on the bed, her hands and feet bound to the bedposts with steel manacles. The woman was thrusting into her centre with an enormous phallus whose circumference approximated one and a half times those of her own wrists, not to speak of the length of the infernal thing. Chris was reasonably sure that it wasn't part of the standard content of the closet outside.

With her right hand the woman was wielding a thin strap with its end split in four, aiming her blows on the bound woman's breasts. Kathryn had her eyes squeezed shut and was biting her lip but when the next half-scream was heard, Chris attacked and tackled the woman. They landed on the ground; the older woman hit her head and was out cold. She wasn't her concern.

Her mistress was staring at her, with eyes the colour of a full moon – a colour she began to associate with anger, with extreme fury. She squared her shoulders and grabbed a set of keys resting on the nightstand, only too aware of the fact that Kathryn's anger could very well be directed towards her.

Setting her free warred with the need to care for her bleeding breasts but finally the order reached her brain and she reacted without thinking.

“Open the manacles, Chris, I have to make sure that she is okay.”

She then knelt next to the bed; taking the position she had seen her mistress in earlier, at ‘kneeling attention'. Kathryn rose from the mattress, the only indication of the pain she must be in her slightly less graceful movements. When she crouched next to the unconscious woman, Chris saw that her buttocks had once again started to bleed, probably due to more punishment.

“Help me, Chris. We have to get her on the bed, now. I'll have to check her out.”

There was an undercurrent of worry in Kathryn's voice; enough to also worry the blonde. It slowly dawned on her that what she just had done could have dire consequences for her mistress. She just had attacked the head of Supervisors, her mistress' mistress – and the woman certainly wouldn't hesitate even a split second to take advantage of it.

“She seems unhurt. We might just get lucky. We'll have to wait ‘til morning to find out what she remembers of this night.” The tall woman pushed a button on the wrist device waiting on the nightstand. “And now, I want you to tell me, why you once again disobeyed my orders.”

“Mistress, please punish me as you see fit. I don't have any excuses.”

“We'll discuss your punishment when she is gone, Chris. And I didn't ask for excuses, I want an explanation.”

“I woke from a dream and had a bad feeling in the pit of my stomach. I tried to shrug it off but it didn't work. I was getting restless. And I knew that sleep would be impossible for me if I didn't make sure that you were okay. I knew it was preposterous of me, Mistress.”

“So, you wanted to check up on me, Chris?”

The blonde blushed.

“Why? I have given you no reason to care for me.”

Chris' blush deepened. She couldn't possibly tell her about her dreams or the feeling of safety she had with her mistress around; so, she stuttered.

“I don't know, Mistress. It just… I only wanted to listen at the bedroom door, that's all. I knew you didn't want me to interfere, Mistress, and I wouldn't have but then I heard what she was saying. I opened the door and … She raped you. I couldn't stand it. I'm sorry, Mistress.”

“It wasn't the first time and probably won't be the last, Chris. It's her right to do to my body whatever she wants as long as she doesn't kill or maim me; that's the letter of the law. She is in her right.”

“But, Mistress, it is all my fault. I couldn't let her do it. I don't care about the law. It wasn't right. It should have been me.”

“You don't know what you're talking about, Chris.” The taller woman answered, her eyes returning to their usual colour.

“You're right, Mistress, I don't know what it's like and if I ever did, I don't remember it. But it's what I deserve – especially now that I probably have made it more difficult for you. I'm sorry I disappointed you, Mistress. I… I needed to protect you.” The blonde's eyes dropped to the ground.

Kathryn crouched next to her, took her chin gently in her hand and forced her to look into her mistress eyes.

“It could have been consensual, Chris.”

“It wasn't, Mistress. I could feel it, even before I opened the door. I heard what she said and I know you are …, you were not aroused. I don't know how I know but I know. It was almost as if it were my breasts hit by the strap, as if it… I know it didn't do any good but I would do it again, even if I had taken the time to think before acting.

“I know you now will send me back from where I came to be executed. I openly attacked a superior and interfered in the relationship between a mistress and her charge – that's what the book said.”

“So, now we know that you have good memory, Chris, but no one will send you back. The book I gave you is rather old and over the years the Council of Elders has amended quite a few of the rules you read. If they hadn't neither Supervisor Jolene nor I would still be among the living. Murder and rape are the only crimes punishable with the death penalty.”

“But she raped you, Mistress….”

“Whatever may happen between a Mistress and her charge is private. It will never be considered rape. As long as the other party is not permanently harmed a Mistress is free to do what she wants.”

“But what about your back, Mistress? In my eyes this constitutes permanent harm.” Chris answered with a certain degree of defiance in her voice.

Her mistress smiled, and the blonde felt a bit of her heart melt at the sight. Chris slowly began to accept that she had fallen in love with the taller woman.

“It was part of a punishment, Chris, and though she might have enjoyed beating me a bit too much, I don't resent her for doing it.” Seeing the question marks in the green eyes in front of her, she continued. “One day I will tell you about it, Chris. For know the only thing you'll have to know is that I will never force you this way.”

Kathryn's hand was now comfortingly resting on her right cheek.

“That does not mean that I won't be an exacting mistress. I have very high expectations of my Initiates. Supervisor Jolene follows the letter of the law. I try to follow its spirit. That's why I gave the book to you, to make you understand that there is a difference. – Now, I want you to go back to Cassandra's bedroom and try to get some more sleep. I will keep watch over her.”

“Let me care for your wounds, please.”

“No, Chris. We would need her permission, besides you stopped her before too much damage was done. Don't worry!”

“Please, at least, let me stay, just a few more minutes, Mistress.”

The raven-head looked at her for what seemed like a long time though it only was 98 seconds. “All right, let's get more comfortable, Chris. You may stay but as soon as she begins to stir you will go, without whining.”

“Thank you, Mistress.”

They moved over to the mattress, sitting next to each other with their backs against the footrest. Chris still could feel the slight sting to her backside from her evening spanking and asked herself how her mistress was able to take it. Her buttocks were bleeding, how could she even think of sitting on them?

“Mistress, why don't you lie down? You must be hurting.”

“That's not necessary, Chris. I'm able to shut the pain off, at least as long as it doesn't exceed a certain degree. I'll be all right. Why don't you lean on my shoulder and try to sleep? You can barely keep your eyes open, morning will come soon enough.”

The blonde didn't need a second invitation and immediately snuggled closer, careful not to press into Kathryn's tortured breasts. A strong arm sneaked around her shoulders and pulled her closer, eliciting a content sigh. She closed her eyes and before drifting in a deep sleep, thought back to the short hour she had had her mistress to herself this evening.

~*~

After the inspection Supervisor Jolene had retired to Kathryn's office, allegedly to write her report for the Council of Elders but Chris had heard Cassandra muttering that she only wanted to snoop around in the drawers and files and that she wouldn't find anything.

Her Mistress had led her back to her living room and turned her around. She slowly undid the bindings around her wrists and hands. The leather thong had left marks on her fingers. They were a bit stiff and after these long hours of immobility it felt strange to have her freedom of movement back.

Kathryn had ordered her to sit down on the arm rests of the big chair in front of the fireplace and had massaged her from the tip of her fingers up almost to her elbows. There was a slight tingling in her little finger but otherwise the tight bondage hadn't impeded her circulation in any way. The raven haired woman took her sweet time with her ministrations, making absolutely sure that she would be all right. It was such a safe, peaceful feeling, her mistress' strong fingers massaging her own.

“Go and get the paddle, Chris. You'll get your maintenance spanking a bit earlier today.”

The blonde obeyed and shortly after knelt in front of her Mistress, presenting the wooden paddle with the five holes on her outstretched hands.

“No, Chris, the leather paddle.”

She didn't move, she just looked at her Mistress with pleading eyes.

“Chris, please do as you were told.”

She finally obeyed and then took her place over the high-backed wooden chair. Her Mistress started with five hard swats on both arse cheeks. The paddle was set aside and a warm hand gently stroked the reddened flesh.

The next set was the twenty bare-handed slaps, equally distributed between the left and the right side. Once again she was gently stroked, a bit longer this time, eighteen seconds longer. Then the paddle once again made contact and when the last stroke hit her she was almost disappointed that it had been over this fast – almost, because the caressing hand returned and the warmth spreading through her body had its origin definitively not in her backside.

When the hand was gone she needed a few heartbeats to get herself back under control. She struggled to her feet and started to kiss the paddle, only too aware that the ball gag would reduce it to nothing more but a token gesture.

“You may remove the instrument of discipline, Chris.”

The blonde rose to her feet, replaced the paddle in the closet, and returned. Her Mistress didn't allow her to kneel for a second time but instead touched the wrist device and removed the gag. So, her voice still was gone but now, at least, she could kiss her Mistress hands.

She received the customary kiss on the forehead and then was led to Cassandra's apartment. Kathryn ordered her to wait for the redhead and told her that they would see each other the next morning. She then gave her another kiss on the forehead and hugged her briefly – and during this brief contact she felt as safe as a child in her mother's womb. This was where she belonged.

~*~

The next morning her eyes fluttered open at the sound of soft voices drifting over her head.

“… but Kat, you could get into serious trouble for what she did. Are you sure that she is worth all of this, all the pain this sadistic cow will put you through?”

Chris tried to keep her breathing as regular as possible, eager not to miss a single word of the exchange.

“Cassandra, I expect you to report yourself for this breach of the language code.” Kathryn said in a stern voice. “And after tonight, I'm more than sure that she's worth it, Cass; consequences be damned.”

“I can understand that you wanted to save her from Supervisor Jolene, and I admit that she's very beautiful but you never risked so much for someone you barely know. You always kept your distance from your charges even if they did their best to get into your pants.”

“I was surprised myself, my friend,” her mistress' deep voice answered. “It's hard to explain because it has nothing to do with rational thought. From the first moment, when I entered the room and saw her standing half hidden behind the curtain, from the first look into her deep green eyes it was as if I had known her my whole life. I don't understand it but we belong together. And it has little to with her beauty or the fact that she seems to find me attractive. It runs deeper but only time will tell what will come of it, if there will be something coming from it.”

The blonde could have jumped up and danced at Kathryn's words but she didn't want to embarrass her. Rationally, she knew it was too early for them to share this level of trust and vulnerability but one day she would tell her that she had overheard them.

“I really hope you know what you're doing, Kat.”

“As do I, Cass, as do I. – It's time to start the day. I'll wake her up. See that she has a shower and some breakfast. Bring her back for her maintenance spanking.”

“It will be done, Kat. I'll wait outside, just send her out.”

“You can stop pretending, Chris. I know you're awake.”

Chris opened her eyes and found her suspicions confirmed: she really was cuddled in Kathryn's lap. She didn't want to move, so she asked.

“Then why did you tell her all these things. An instructor is not supposed to have feelings for her initiate.”

“There we are again: the difference between the letter of the law and its spirit. The paragraph you refer to only serves to make sure that one's personal feelings don't interfere with one's duty. There's no law against a sexual relationship between a mistress and her charge, Chris.”

Kathryn smiled at the dreamy expression on the blonde's face; she patted her behind.

“I told Cassandra because she is my friend and I trust her and I wanted you to hear it because there is no rational explanation for my feelings and because I value honesty. Come on, time to get up. We can discuss all of this when you are more at home here and we had a chance to get to know each other better.”

Chris slowly sat up. “What will be my punishment, Mistress?”

“I don't know yet. I'd like to keep it out of your official report but that will depend on what Supervisor Jolene remembers from last night. And now scoot, Cassandra's waiting.”

The tall woman embraced her and kissed her gently on the forehead before she opened the door to the living room.

TO BE CONTINUED

Converted from "The Island by W7.txt" on 22-Nov-2005 by AscToHTM 5.0

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part VII: A Mistress In Any Other Name, pt. II

When Kathryn's second-in-command and Chris entered the kitchen, they were greeted by a barrage of questions. Cookie took a big ladle and banged it against a big bulbous copper pot to give Cassandra a chance to speak.

"Supervisor Jolene is still asleep and probably will for some time. Ka…"

"No surprise there. We removed two empty bottles when we cleaned the room this morning." Hannah piped up, but a stern look from Cookie let her add. "I'm sorry, Cass. I should not have interrupted."

The young woman was naked this morning with her buttocks a nice shade of red. Chris now knew that she would have to go without clothes until who ever was her mistress showed up and forgave her transgressions.

"It's all right, Hannah. This situation has us all on edge. Kathryn will stay with her. She wants us to keep things as normal as possible, except for Project G."

"Project Genesis," Chris burst out. "I should have thought of it earlier."

"What do you know of Project Genesis, Chris?" Cassandra's voice had a menacing undertone.

"Nothing but the name. That Rehabilitated mentioned it."

"Elder Ika?"

"Yes. She told my Mistress to send a report on Project Genesis should the head of Supervisors stay longer than 24 hours. And she arrived here 21 hours and 58 minutes ago."

"Cassandra, why don't you go and file a report, eyes only to the Council of Elders. I have some breakfast brought over."

"But, Cookie, Kat wouldn't want us to call the cavalry." Cassandra cautioned.

"Sometimes Kathryn is too proud and stubborn for her own good. It isn't defamatory to accept help freely offered. Go now!"

"Yes, Madam."

Chris stayed behind and was stirring her cereals without eating them.

"Eat, Chris. You'll need your strength."

The blonde looked up in Cookie's gentle brown eyes and forced herself to answer. "I'm not hungry, Madam."

"Kathy will be all right."

"She doesn't like to be called Kathy," the green-eyed woman whispered.

"No, she doesn't – but how do you know?"

"It's what `she' calls her. The colour of her eyes changes whenever she hears it."

"You're very perceptive, Chris. And now eat, that's an order. Your Mistress knows how to deal with our guest."

"You're an elder, a Rehabilitated, right? So, why don't you live with the others in town?"

"Perceptive and curious. Let's make a deal. I'll tell you while you eat." The young woman nodded and put a spoonful in her mouth. "I was sent here more than forty years ago and spent the better part of my time here as a Supervisor. When my time was up, they told me that I had killed a lot of men in the outside world. It's not important why I did it but I saw no reason to return to a world that made me do it. In my time here I learned that I'm not a naturally violent person; I would not have acted this way without being convinced that I had a very good reason. No, Chris, I don't want to excuse what I did, killing is wrong and I'm glad that I had the chance to pay for my crimes.

"As I said, I had a hard time to cope with the discipline and obedience part of life here – and sometimes I still do. I can see its wisdom and all in all, the concept has done more good than harm but I also see its abuse. Anyway, I decided not to return to the outside world; I no longer had anything in common with it. I could have become like the other Rehabilitated but I also was tired of my responsibilities and what I had learned about my past had me shell shocked. I was tired of making decisions the whole time, so, I retired. I lived with a few others in a coastal village, sitting around, bathing bait, and generally being bored out of my mind. About two years ago, Kathryn found me and asked me to help her with Safe Heaven. That's how I ended up here."

Chris had finished her bowl of cereal and Cookie escorted her back to Kathryn's quarters.

~*~

"Mistress, may I please remove the instrument of discipline?" The blonde asked after her maintenance spanking.

"Yes, Chris."

The young woman rose to her feet and put the paddle back in the closet. She then took a cane from its hook, returned to her mistress, and presented it to her.

"Please, Mistress, punish me for speaking without permission. I spoke ninety-one words while I was in the kitchen, with …."

"Slow down, Chris. What did you have to say that needed ninety words?"

"I told Cassandra and Cookie what the Rehabilitated had said about the head of Supervisors and Project Gemini and then I talked with elder Cookie, Mistress." She answered with her eyes cast to the ground.

"And now you will probably tell me that you couldn't help yourself and needed to protect me, right?"

"No, Mistress, when I mentioned it, I knew what I was doing; l knew I would disappoint you, Mistress. Please punish me. I won't be able to take it all at once: ninety-one words, and if I counted right more than 400 letters."

"You can talk with Cookie any time you like, so, you will not get punished for what you said to her. She is not only a good cook but also a very good listener; and I only punish for single letters when one of my charges chooses to curse. You didn't curse, right, Chris?"

"No, Mistress."

"Then how many words are left when you only count what you said to Cassandra?"

The blonde cocked her head, closed her eyes, and silently replayed her conversation with Kathryn's second-in-command.

"Forty-nine, Mistress." She finally answered, once again offering the cane to the taller woman. "Please punish me for my short comings and give me the chance to mend my ways, Mistress."

"You really don't make it easy for me, Chris. – Put the cane back and fetch the paddle with the holes. Part of the initiation period is to build up some stamina, that's why the maintenance spankings get harder over the weeks; and believe me, it takes some getting used to, to take this many strokes with a cane. At the end of the initiation you certainly will be able to take it but now, even this paddle will be hard on you. I would have chosen another one hadn't you been warmed up by the maintenance spanking."

For the fraction of a heartbeat she considered protesting but then she remembered the taller woman's ordeal at the hand of Supervisor Jolene and simply said. "Yes, Mistress, thank you, Mistress."

When the blonde once again bent over the chair's back she only minutes ago had vacated, she saw that the head of Supervisors was still deeply asleep, as her loud snoring also proved.

"I don't want you to count, just focus on holding your position and try to keep your breathing even. Are you ready, Chris?"

"Yes, Mistress, please don't be lenient with me."

"Leniency is recommended during the first couple of weeks of initiation, Chris. Prepare for the first stroke. It will not be as hard as it could be but it will be enough to make you think hard before trying something like this again."

Twack. The blonde suddenly was grateful for her mistress' leniency and the support the chair offered. This particular paddle felt almost as bad as the single tail whip and she needed all her willpower to hold her position.

With the second stroke she cried out, not loud but enough to make Kathryn close the door to her bedroom. She didn't want the Supervisor to wake up and ruin everything with her probably scathing remarks.

This was Chris' first serious punishment. From experience the dark haired beauty knew that it was an immensely important part of the relationship of a mistress with her charge. It would be too much to say that it determined the kind of relationship they would eventually develop but the coming minutes would at least set the direction of where they'd be going. It would decide if Chris would continue to trust her or be weary of her authority; it would teach her the difference between discipline and abuse, and it would teach Kathryn how her charge really reacted to pain.

The blonde felt her mistress' hand at the small of her back and then she heard her voice, deep and soothing.

"Calm down, Chris. Try to breathe through the pain. I know you can do it, you can take it. Breathe for me, in, out, slowly, out, in, out. Yes, that's it. In, out. Keep it up. Out, in, out. That's good, you're doing fine."

The paddle hit her right cheek in sync with her breath leaving her lungs and when the pain spread she greedily sucked in the much needed air. Surprisingly she was able to keep the breathing rhythm even.

In – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack– in – out – in – out – twack– in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in.

Chris who had been determined to at least mentally count the strokes already had completely lost track. It hurt so much and she wanted nothing more than to just run away. The rhythm of the strokes, however, held her mesmerised. It was a part of her, and yet, it didn't come from within.

Fleetingly she asked herself: `Was the beating following the rhythm of her breathing or was it rather the rhythm of the strokes allowing her to breathe? Was it important?'

Twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack – in – out – in – out – twack– in – out.

Kathryn saw and felt the change in her blonde charge, the moment she gave herself over to the punishment instead of trying to fight it, instead of trying to hold her own as she herself did every time, trying to control the pain. She had seen and experienced enough to know that such a degree of acceptation, that such an abandon was something very, very rare.

It was a character trait that given the chance she would cherish and possibly deepen in her charge. Seeing her before her, so open and vulnerable, she was doubly happy that she had interfered on her behalf and taken her from Supervisor Jolene.

Her reaction told Kathryn so much about the trust the blonde already harboured for her. She shivered at the thought of what that cruel woman would have undoubtedly done to the young woman; she would have tried to break her or killed her while trying.

Sara, Chris' initially chosen instructor, was a decent enough person but due to her traumatic experiences with her own mistress and immediate superior, the head of Supervisors, she was completely unable to defy the older woman in any shape or form. She had been broken long ago. Whatever Supervisor Jolene wanted she would get – and by now, Sara even had herself convinced that she wanted and needed what her mistress made her do and suffer.

No, Kathryn thought, it was better this way and worth every bit of pain the other woman was likely to put her through before she once again tired of her.

While all these thoughts flashed through her mind, Kathryn's arm remained steady, keeping the rhythm, her strokes never varying in speed or strength. She had learned from the best disciplinarian the Island had, even though the woman too often indulged her own sadistic cravings instead of looking out for the best of her charges.

The colour of Chris' buttocks had changed from the light red after the maintenance spanking to a dark red, to dark wine red, to a deep crimson. Forty-three, forty-four. The skin was still so sensitive that the younger woman wouldn't be able to take much more before needing medical attention. There was no danger to break the skin but there would be a lot of bruising.

Forty-eight, forty-nine. It was done.

Kathryn put the paddle back but the blonde didn't move an inch. It had not yet reached her awareness that the spanking had stopped. She gave her another two minutes to compose herself and then gently put her hand back on the small of Chris' back, waiting for her touch to be registered.

"Mistress?" Chris' voice was soft, barely audible as if coming from far away.

"It's over, Chris. Try to stand up, please."

The blonde slowly pressed herself to a standing position and with tears freely trailing down her cheeks came to her knees in front of her Mistress. Her whole body was trembling but she searched and found her Mistress' blue gaze and knew that she had been forgiven.

So, when she heard the ritual words – "justice has been satisfied and your debt is paid in full" – she instinctively snuggled closer to the other woman, pressing her blond head against a flat, muscled stomach, just beneath two very firm breasts. Kathryn instinctively pulled her even closer.

"You are forgiven, Chris. I'm proud of you. You were very brave." She whispered.

"What a heart-warming, disgustingly sappy picture, and what an enticing shade of red."

The voice of Supervisor Jolene made Chris almost jump but her mistress held her close, ignoring the other woman's leery gaze.

"Stand up, Chris. It's time to put your restraints back on."

The blonde looked up, without losing contact with the warm skin in front of her and said quietly,

"Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress."

"You're welcome, Chris, just make it so that I don't have to do it regularly, all right?"

"I'll try, Mistress." She was rewarded with a short but tender kiss first on the top of her head and then on her forehead.

Chris came to her feet and docilely followed her Mistress to the closet. She put her hands behind her back and they quickly were bound as they had been the day before; the circulation was ensured and yet there was no way to even move one muscle of her hands. The red ball gag was inserted in her mouth and secured, and only then did Kathryn acknowledge her own mistress.

"I'm at your command, Mistress."

"Go and fetch me some breakfast. Coffee and toast, and a big glass of tomato juice with a kick – and hurry, my head is killing me."

"Would you also like some painkillers, Mistress? I can have them brought up with your breakfast tray."

"No painkillers. Who knows what else you would put in those pills, no. And I don't want you to order breakfast, I want you to go and fetch it from the kitchen. Be back when I finish my shower."

~*~

A short knock on the double door let Elder Ika look up from her paperwork. The right door opened, pushed by one of the lower ranking supervisors, and Ani crawled in with a sheaf of paper held in her mouth. It had taken her lover much longer than anticipated to get the report she had sent her to fetch, and the feeling of uneasiness that she felt since the day before once again intensified.

"Come to my side of the desk, Ani." The woman looked up, surprised at being called by her name. These last thirty-six hours her Mistress had called her `pet' and `pup' and `doggy' but never her name.

She circled around the big desk and put the plastic covered bundle of papers right in front of her mistress' feet. "Thank you, Ani. At kneeling attention, please!"

Looking even more surprised, the woman knelt, put her hands behind her back, and spread her legs, her eyes straight ahead.

"Look at me, Ani. I know this punishment is hard on you, harder than I anticipated it would be. It was necessary but I should have kept it in the privacy of our quarters." The silver haired woman said. "There was no need to humiliate you to this extent; that's why we will stop it now. I think you learned you lesson. Please, stand up and return to your normal duties."

The other one didn't move a muscle; then she swallowed hard and begged,

"Please, Mistress, let me see it through. You know that I always was comfortable with not wearing any clothes but yesterday and today, I never before felt this naked, this exposed. Everyone here is trying to act like it was something totally normal but I never felt so humiliated in my life. I will never again call someone a bitch, of that I am sure."

"As I said, you learned you lesson. That's enough."

"Yes, I did but I wouldn't have, hadn't it been for the public dimension of the punishment. Having to crawl on all fours in front of people who usually treat me with respect was very hard. If it had been only you I still would have found solace in the knowledge of your love for me. Yes, it's hard, very hard, but it was the right punishment." Finding the unflinching eyes of her mistress she continued. "If I can't convince you to let me see it through, please at least punish me for my transgressions, for the three times I didn't stay in character."

"Refresh my memory, would you?"

The kneeling woman was well aware that her lover knew exactly what she was talking about but it was also a part of their usual punishment ritual to make her confess her transgressions and let her propose a suitable punishment.

"I wanted to share the bed with my Mistress but dogs are not allowed to sleep in the bedroom. I used my hand to open the door when we left the apartment yesterday and I at first refused to relieve myself in the garden. Ten strokes with the cane for each transgression should make up for my thoughtlessness, Mistress."

"I think five are enough; and five more for arguing with me in the first place. Go and fetch the cane with the ivory handle."

Before Ani could return to the desk, the smaller woman had found her way to the couch, patiently waiting at the side. When she wanted to kneel down, Ika said,

"No, baby, let's get this over with. Bend over the back. I want you to count; thank me after every stroke with a three or divisible by three, thank me and ask for more; two extra strokes for every time you forget."

"Yes, Mistress."

Elder Ika began at mid-thigh and worked her way upwards. "Five." The next one landed on the tender area where the thighs meet the torso. "Six, thank you, Mistress. May I please have another one?" The tall woman said after a moan of pain.

Her buttocks still were a bit tender from the caning two days ago. Her last beating had been months ago, so this second punishment was very hard to take. She tried to centre herself by taking deep even breaths but that also was very hard because the strokes didn't follow a discernible rhythm.

"Twelve, thank you, Mistress. May I please have another one?"

The next one hit exactly the same spot and deepened the vertical line just under her tailbone.

"Thirteen, thank you, Mistress. May I please have another one?"

Decades of training let her hold her position, though all her instincts screamed at her to try and protect herself from the hard strokes.

"Nineteen, twenty."

Tender lips kissed her burning arse cheeks. "Come and lie down beside me, baby, you deserve a break."

"Please wait, Mistress." Ani stood and then knelt in front of the silver haired woman. "Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress."

"You are welcome, my love. Justice is satisfied and your debt is paid in full. Now come, stretch out on the couch, and put your head in my lap." The tall woman did as she was told. "Yes, that's it. I'm sorry I had to hurt you, my love."

"I didn't give you a choice, Ika-baby. I acted like a spoiled brat with this newbie. I had to be punished; I broke the language code. Sometimes, I take myself much too serious. Could you please put me in my place more often, Mistress?"

She said and tried to get closer to the other woman who was gently stroking her back and burning behind. Ani knew that tonight her mistress would put some soothing salve on the twenty clearly visible welts and then they would make love and she could finally show Ika how much she loved her.

"What exactly do you have in mind, Ani?"

"When we… when I started this Repentant thing you whipped me once a month."

"Yes, at your own request. I didn't like doing it and I certainly won't start it again."

"Yes, at my own request but it kept me in line for almost two years. Please think about it, Mistress."

"The whip is totally out of question, Ani. Don't mention it again." The voice of her mistress now had lost its earlier tenderness; that definitively had been an order.

"Yes, Mistress. I will obey."

"We will not go back to harsh discipline or maintenance spankings but from now on I will keep your behaviour under closer examination. I let you get away with too many small things before you went and outright insulted Kathryn's newbie. I think you know what I'm talking about."

"Yes, Mistress Ika, I do. I was arrogant and uppity, more than once, and I used your workload to get away with it. I'm sorry, my love. I shouldn't have made your life more exacting as it already is."

"You are forgiven, baby. There's only one other thing: From now on, I want you to wear clothes while we are at work."

"But why? Is my butt really so wrinkled that I have to hide it?"

A clear, youthful laugh wafted over Ani's head. "No, I love your body just like it is. These last two days have also been hard for me, baby. Over the years I got used to everyone seeing your assets but I never liked it. You are mine; your body is mine, only mine. I don't want anyone else to see it. Today and yesterday, it bothered me that everyone was staring at you without admitting to it."

"Why didn't you ever tell me, my love?" The taller woman had changed position and now cradled her white haired lover gently in her arms.

"I… I didn't want you to know how insecure your Mistress sometimes can be." She answered almost in a whisper.

"I love you, Mistress. I did from the first moment on and I always will. You don't always have to be tough and sure of yourself to be what you are. You never will stop to be my Mistress, not because of the laws but because of what you are to me. In my heart and my soul you are my Mistress. If you ever should doubt yourself, don't doubt my heart."

They sat together for long minutes, holding each other, and kissing away the tears that were flowing freely on both sides. The emotional atmosphere was interrupted by a sound similar to a door chime, announcing an urgent message to the Council of Elders, eyes only.

~*~

One hour twenty-six minutes, and the woman still was eating. She had ordered her Mistress to take up position to her right, at standing attention, with her legs spread a bit wider than her shoulders and her hands clasped behind her head. Nipple clamps had been screwed tight, and every once in a while Supervisor Jolene tucked at the long chain connecting them. And there was nothing Chris could do but to stand close by and watch.

The blonde felt her backside throb with every breath she took and radiating heat – and in way she was thankful for the distraction. The silence in the room was getting to her. The head of Supervisors had yet to speak a single word; instead she was sitting there, swallowing slice after slice of toast and alternately guzzling down coffee and tomato juice with vodka.

For the nth time Chris tried to get a grip on what had happened to her during her earlier punishment. It was hard enough to accept her dreams, her highly arousing dreams during which she willingly serviced her dark haired Mistress and was aroused from being beaten, from being punished.

Yesterday she had rationalised them as her way to cope with her new life and this whole initiation thing. She just didn't see herself as submissive. She even had speculated that something had been done to her when they had blocked her memories, something that made her accept another person's dominance willingly. However, witnessing the interaction between her Mistress and the head of Supervisor's let her reject such an assumption. Kathryn wasn't submissive; she radiated energy and authority even when being beaten.

Her dreams were one thing but she couldn't deny the facts, the facts her punishment had brought home without the shadow of a doubt. By synchronising the paddle strokes with her breathing and ordering her not to count, her Mistress had freed her to concentrate on the pain, on her punishment. The room around her had disappeared. All her attention had been focused on the pain slowly spreading through her. Though her Mistress never had varied the force of her blows, the pain had been building gradually.

In her dreams, the blonde now thought, she would have been aroused but that's not what she had been feeling earlier. She felt relief and gratefulness. She was sure that she could feel her Mistress' concern and care with every stroke of the paddle. Kathryn had been considerate enough not to use the cane on her. She now knew that she never would have been able to take it.

Thinking back on her feelings she now learned that the moment her Mistress had taken the time to teach her how to breathe through the pain, had also been the moment when to her the punishment had stopped being about guilt and forgiveness. She still found it hard to understand rationally but the beating with the paddle in her heart was a gift from her Mistress. That was when her silent tears had started to fall and she had lost herself in the pain. She had been so grateful to her tall Mistress.

She remembered kneeling before her and looking into her deep blue eyes. The ritual words of forgiveness had barely reached her ears, when she instinctively searched for more contact; her audacity instantly rewarded by her Mistress' comforting hand on her head.

But did that make her a real submissive, someone who let herself be commanded by others?

She replayed the punishment on her mind's eye and tried to envision Supervisor Jolene in the place of her Mistress. It didn't work. She knew she would have fought the woman with every fibre of her being. She was wary of the woman's cruelty and the coldness of her eyes didn't inspire any trust.

So, was her submissiveness limited to Kat…, to her Mistress only?

~*~

She was jostled out of her musings by the scraping of a chair on the hardwood floor. The woman had pushed her chair back and turned it sideways to face Kathryn.

"On your knees, my pet. It's time to answer some questions. First of all, I want you to explain to me why you defied my orders and how the hell you go out of your restraints. You still should be bound to your bedposts, spread-eagled and well-fucked. And don't even think of lying to me. I'll know, I always know." She ordered with a cruel smile.

"Chris used the key you left on the nightstand to open the manacles, Mistress. I called for help after you slipped, banged your head, and lost consciousness. I'm sorry I had to act on my own accord but I had to make sure that you were not seriously hurt. I apologise, Mistress."

Chris held her breath. Her Mistress was taking an awfully high risk by offering this edited version of events without first finding out what the head of Supervisors remembered of the night.

"I made sure that you would be all right after a good night's sleep and we put you on the bed. Then I took the liberty to take off the harness and phallus you had been using on me, Mistress. Please punish me for disobeying your orders, Mistress."

"Oh, I certainly will, my pet. It's too bad that I overbalanced when swinging the strap. The split end would have hit your left nipple right on. This time I would have succeeded. I would have made you come."

"I don't think so, Mistress." Kathryn answered.

"Quiet!"

The woman shouted while harshly pulling the chain, hard enough to yank off one of the alligator clamps and draw blood.

"I didn't ask for your opinion, slut."

She accentuated her words by slapping the kneeling woman on her left cheek and backhanding her on her right.

"I saw you; you kept yourself from coming. I saw how you closed your eyes in concentration and turned your head away. So, Kathy, what do you have to say for yourself?"

"I reacted to the pain, Mistress. I didn't want to cry out and alert the whole household."

"Don't tell me you acted out of concern for me. No one would have interfered, not even that sentimental elder you have as a cook. They all don't have any spine."

Kathryn's eyes were of a shining silver and she captured the gaze of the older woman.

"I didn't want them to see me like that. Once was enough but when you collapsed I didn't have a choice, Mistress."

A cold shiver was running down Chris' neck at the words of her Mistress. Her voice was so cold; the blonde fervently hoped that this tone of voice never would be directed her way. And then there was the fact that she just had willingly admitted to a weakness, a vulnerability the cruel Supervisor would surely try to exploit while at the same time reminding her of her own shortcomings.

Both women kept staring at each other for what seemed like an eternity, an eternity of thirty-seven seconds. Then Kathryn broke the contact and looked to the ground, her whole body as taut as a bowstring ready to release an arrow.

Chris searched Supervisor Jolene's face for a sign of triumph or glee but didn't find any. She once again looked at the motionless, tension filled form of her Mistress and finally she understood what she really had meant when she had said. `The law gives you rights over my body and some of my actions. I never will object to that, Mistress.'

`Power over Kathryn's body' – strictly according to the letter of the law. That's all she ever would have. The head of Supervisors wanted more. She craved Kathryn's soul, her complete surrender, and she tried to get it by force but, Chris thought with pride, her Mistress was the stronger of the two.

Kathryn's strength and confidence came from within. She didn't need to prove it to herself or others by torturing or humiliating people. That's why everyone here at Safe Heaven was so loyal to her, and that's why it was so easy for Chris to submit to her Mistress, why it felt so natural.

Once again Supervisor Jolene interrupted her thoughts.

"Get up and go to your bed, lie on your front. I don't want to see your face. I will now punish you for your disobedience and for neglecting your duty towards your initiate. But first let me see to these lovely clamps. We can't risk one of them getting loose again, can't we?"

The needle like teeth of the Alligator clamps pierced Kathryn's tender skin and once again drew blood.

"Oh, and don't forget to put two pillows under your hips."

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

For disclaimers see part I

Part VIII: Of Pride and Passion

Ani and Ika had just reached the car park after a relatively short but remarkable council session. They closed the doors to the solar hover car and put their seat belts on. The taller woman fussed with the unfamiliar material covering her legs, it had been years since she had last worn any clothes. The safety belt pressed her linen shirt close to her skin – all this cloth surrounding her made her feel confined. In time, she would get over it. Her Mistress wanted her body covered, so that’s what she would do. She would do anything to make her Mistress happy.

“I never would have thought that the others would unanimously approve of your proposal, Ika.”

She said this more out of a need to pass the two and a half hours they at least would need to reach their destination than to get more information, after all she had been present during the session.

“If not for the numerous complaints filed against Supervisor Jolene our proposal wouldn’t have stood a chance. We challenged one of the oldest rules of our society, and there is no guarantee that it will work out.”

“I know, my love, but considering Jolene’s rather consistent behavioural patterns, we shouldn’t have any problems, and then we will get the chance to make things easier for a lot of people in the Island. Jolene isn’t the only bad apple.”

“Yes, I know, Ani, but we also base a lot on the difficult relationship between Kathryn and Jolene.”

“I’m sure that everything will work out, my Mistress.”

~*~

Kathryn had remade the bed with fresh sheets and put the pillows in the centre of the bed; she lay with her legs and arms held in a spread-eagled position ready to be bound. Shortly after, the Supervisor entered the room, her arms full of equipment from the closet. She dropped it all at the foot of the bed between Kathryn’s legs.

Chris recognised the big butt plug from the day before, a three-inch broad leather strap, three very long, smooth leather thongs, one of the inflatable phallus gags, and the key to the manacles.

Supervisor Jolene first closed the steel cuffs around Kathryn’s ankles, shortening the chains fixing them to the bedpost to keep her Mistress’ legs more effectively apart. She did the same to the ones holding the dark haired woman’s arms. She then inserted and fastened the gag.

“I will now punish your disobedience, my pet. One hundred and fifty strokes with the razor strap should do it.”

The woman with the mousy brown hair said in a voice that she probably intended should sound ominous or perhaps even seductive. To Chris is just sounded like deliberate, senseless torture.

From where she was standing she had a brilliant view of her Mistress’ body and her face. Though her features were distorted by the inflated gag, in her eyes the tall woman was still the most beautiful person she could imagine.

Supervisor Jolene picked up the broad leather strap and began to systematically beat Kathryn’s buttocks. Chris’ range of view narrowed to the square foot of her Mistress’ behind. The strap worked its way up from the upper part of the thighs to the lower back. Twenty strokes in three minutes forty-three seconds. The head of Supervisors then worked downwards and before she had reached her starting point, the first drops of blood were trailing down her Mistress’ hips.

The beating continued without regard to the blood now flowing freely and covering almost the whole length of the strap. This time she was slightly faster, three minutes thirty-six seconds. Without pause the strap made its way up and down again. A few strokes later, the woman stopped.

“I think you need a break, my pet. And I need something to drink.”

She left the room, chuckling darkly.

Chris looked at her Mistress’ eyes, something she had avoided until then. Her eyes were glowing silver with suppressed fury and the blonde did what came natural to her: The tall woman may have been bound and bleeding but she still was her Mistress and she always would be. She took two steps closer to the head of the bed, knelt down and searched eye contact with her. This was the only way she could think of to convey her respect.

When Supervisor Jolene returned, Chris didn’t bother to acknowledge her arrival, not even with the turn of her head. She kept her eyes trained on Kathryn’s. She felt her Mistress’ strength. The blonde knew that the remaining almost seventy strokes still would be hard to take. They were likely to cause grave injury if not permanent damage but her Mistress would never beg for mercy. She was determined to give her as much support as she could without disappointing her Mistress once again by interfering.

“Kathy, Kathy, your ass really isn’t looking too good. But it can’t be helped, my pet. Justice has to be satisfied.”

Kathryn returned Chris’ encouraging gaze and though the sound of the strap hitting raw flesh faded to the background but the blonde kept counting. Surprisingly, Supervisor Jolene really stopped after the one hundred and fiftieth stroke. She heard the strap hitting the floor and then the woman’s voice,

“Take a few deep breaths, my pet. I will fill you up,” Kathryn’s body jerked and Chris knew that this could only have been the butt plug, “to keep your mind off the pain. Enjoy, while I prepare the next part of your punishment.”

Chris still didn’t take her eyes off her Mistress’ blue orbs but she could hear the head of Supervisors fussing with something at the foot of the bed. She presumed it were the three leather straps but didn’t have the faintest idea of what she could be doing. Five minutes later, yes, exactly five minutes, she felt someone at her side and a braided leather strap was dangled in her line of sight.

“You know, Kathy, if I didn’t know how much this stupid, liberal Elder is gone on her pet Ani, I’d think that she has her eyes on you. She convinced the others to give Domain 1 to you in the first place, and she keeps on protecting you. With the video tapes she also sent an amendment to your personal file, prohibiting the use of a single tail whip for discipline or other purposes. So, you sure can understand that I had to improvise. This should do as a substitute, don’t you think?”

The three leather straps had been skilfully woven in a smooth braid, four feet long and less than half an inch in circumference. The woman flicked her wrist and the tip of the improvised whip hit the upper part of Chris’ right breast. The pain was incredible, three times as much as the welcome whipping. She instinctively shrank back but brought herself under control before she lost her balance. Kathryn was screaming through her gag and pulling wildly at the chains holding her.

“Oh, calm down, my pet, it was just an accident.” Supervisor Jolene patted Chris’ head with a false smile and bent down to inspect her handiwork. “No harm done here. The mark will be gone in no longer than three days. But I really have to congratulate myself. This little thing really has all the qualities of a single tail whip. – And now, my misguided pet, another one hundred and fifty strokes on your back for neglecting your duty as an Instructor.”

Chris had re-established eye-contact with her Mistress and for the fraction of a heartbeat thought to see something close to fear flickering in her still silver glowing eyes. Every once in a while the blonde couldn’t resist the temptation to look at the prone woman’s back.

She had started at the lower back and worked her way upwards, only hitting the left side of the broad back. The tip of the whip hit the spine and its length wrapped itself halfway round the side. From the first set of twenty-five strokes, Chris could see that keeping still put a lot more strain on her Mistress than the previous punishment had and the hatred the blonde harboured for the mousy haired woman grew. Supervisor Jolene walked around the bed to the other side and this time started from the top. Every line was at the same height than its partner on the other side, only overlapping in the middle of the back, on the spine. That’s where Kathryn’s skin broke the first time, on the small of her back.

The woman stopped and got herself another drink, the fifth if Chris had not miscounted. She half drained it and started again. The next set crossed the first lash marks at a 60° angle, drawing blood with every stroke. She looked more relaxed the more the blood flowed and Chris wanted nothing but to spring to her feet and throttle the woman and throw her out the third floor window. She hoped she might be stomped on by stampeding farm animals and then being drawn and quartered, with her remains being eaten alive by red ants. ‘Where were all these violent images coming from?’

Suddenly the bedroom door swung open and the voice of Elder Ika ordered. “Stop it, Jolene, immediately!”

But the woman didn’t stop, she continued with her systematic beating as if nothing had happened. Chris turned her head and saw the silver haired woman nod towards the one she knew was Elder Ani, though she had some difficulties to recognise her with clothes on.

Ani stepped behind the supervisor, grabbed her right, whip wielding arm, and turned it on her back as if it were the easiest thing in the world. Only then did the smaller woman look up, she seemed confused at all the people suddenly standing in the room or the doorway.

“I’m dealing with my pet. She is mine and you are not allowed to interfere. Get out.”

“Supervisor Cassandra, would you please get a set of hand cuffs from the other room. – Supervisor Jolene, by order of the Council of Elders you are under arrest for abuse of office, embezzlement, unwarranted cruelty, and as far as I see at least two counts of disobedience.”

By now, the woman obviously had enough of her sense of reality back to understand the seriousness of the charges brought against her and she stopped fighting the other elder and didn’t resist when the hand cuffs closed around her wrists but she still had some fire left in her.

“Venerable elder, I protest. It is my right to discipline my charge as I see fit,” the impression of sanity didn’t hold or it might have been the alcohol speaking because she continued, “or did you, old flossy, change the laws just to have a better chance at my Kathy as your new plaything?”

Ani kicked her in the hollow of her knees and she landed hard on the floor. “I think we can add disrespect and a breech of the language code to the charges, Mistress.”

“Yes, Ani, I think we should. Cassandra, Kathryn is in need of medical attention.”

“Already taken care of, Madam. They should be here any minute. May I please undo her restraints, venerable elder?” The redhead asked and moved to the bed.

Ika stopped her with a raised hand. “Jolene, this is your chance to make amends. Release Kathryn from her guilt and I will forget what you just said to me.”

The kneeling woman bit her lower lip but finally she looked the elder in the eyes and said. “Kathryn, your debt is paid in full.”

“You may now release her, Cassandra.”

“Thank you, Madam.”

~*~

Two hours and almost fourteen minutes later the doctors and nurses finally had finished tending to Kathryn. She had only been allowed to speak with the elders after she had promised that she would return to her bed immediately after their departure with the head of Supervisors, or more accurately the former head of Supervisors and that she would stay there for at least thirty-six hours, take her painkillers, and rest. They also had said that it wouldn’t be enough to help her heal but they obviously knew her stubborn and proud Mistress good enough to know that this was all they would get.

Ani, Ika, and Cookie were sitting at the dining table drinking tea when Kathryn and Chris entered.

“Take a seat if you like, Kathryn.”

“If you don’t mind I would prefer to stand.” The black haired woman answered with an embarrassed smile that touched Chris’ heart.

“Yes, of course. Cassandra and Charlene already filled us in on the progress of Project Genesis. We also had a look at Jolene’s preliminary report. Your safety precautions worked, she didn’t even suspect a thing.

“Jolene has been secured to the car and will stand trial in front of the Council of Elders the day after tomorrow. There have been serious charges filed against her for abuse of power and favouritism.

“Officially, we came here to question her about the accusations. There is not much we can do to make her pay for the excess of violence she unleashed on you but by beating your back she openly disobeyed two council orders: The first against the use of a single tail whip and the second against the beating of your back. Our senior consultant made it abundantly clear that there’s a great risk of a spine injury. And your doctor just let me know that you probably will have some new scars showing for your recent ordeal. Do you want to press charges against your former Mistress?”

“No, Madam, not on my behalf, but when she was showing me her new toy, this short whip she used on my back, she hit my Initiate resulting in the mark on Chris’ right breast. She claims that it was an accident but she is far too good at what she’s doing for this to be true. I already had Eileen, the doctor take some photos as evidence that the same instrument was used.

“It probably won’t be enough to also charge her with abusing the charge of another Mistress but at least, it should help further your case, venerable elder, along with the punishment log you will find among her personal things. It contains a complete list of the punishments and other beatings her other charges and I received over the years and you can be sure that it greatly differs from the official logs.”

“Why didn’t you tell us before?” Ani asked.

“Supervisor Jolene never crossed the line to maiming. She skirted it a few times but she never crossed it in my presence, so, there was nothing I could do. But what made the council change its mind about the non-interference law?”

“They didn’t, not really. The rumours about Jolene and her inhuman treatment of those she should care about began to reach even the most conservative of our Council companions. She was getting more and more out of hand and they agreed to an investigation. At least they also gave us carte blanche should we find her in a compromising situation. What she did to you, Kathryn, lent more credibility to the charges already made and the two cases of disobedience have sealed her fate.”

“What will happen to her, Madam?”

“Do you still feel loyal to her, Kathryn?”

“I never was loyal to her as a person. I never trusted her but I respect the Supervisor and the Mistress.”

“You respect what she was, not who she is. That’s a wise distinction, Kathryn. As to what will happen to her: I don’t know. It’s hard to tell and a lot will depend on the psychologist assigned to evaluate her. It will be up to her to decide if Jolene can be punished or should be treated. Personally, I think she is seriously cracked. One day, she may once again be a productive member of our society but in any case we will make sure that she never again will hold a position of power. We will now return to headquarters, and you, Kathryn, should go back to bed and take some painkillers.”

“Yes, Madam; and thank you for coming this quickly.”

“You are welcome, Kathryn.”

~*~

The tall woman kept her promise. She returned to her bed after freeing Chris from her restraints and the ball gag and stayed there until the next evening. She answered some of the blonde’s questions about what had just happened and probably would happen to the former head of Supervisors, about Project Genesis and other things concerning life on the Island and in Safe Heaven. But most of the time the tall woman was asleep or sleepy due to the sedative Eileen snuck into her painkillers. She even told her about the scars on her back and the rest of her history with the former head of Supervisors.

After exactly thirty-six hours, she left the bed and told Chris that it now was time for her to be punished for disobedience and for acting impulsively. The blonde expected to find herself bend over the high-backed chair but instead was led to the bathroom.

“I will now bathe you and clean you, inside and out. Then you will spend some time in an isolation cell, immobilised.”

“Mistress, please, could you not just whip me or something?” Chris begged.

A hard slap landed on her buttocks and made her skin burn, reviving the pain from her punishment the morning before. Because of her Mistress confinement she hadn’t had any maintenance spankings, and most of the time she didn’t feel it. Her skin should have regenerated by now but obviously it had not.

“Still think so, Chris?” The blonde just shock her head in defeat.

“Let’s start, shall we? Bent over and support yourself against the rim of the tub. I’ll give you an enema.” Chris instinctively clenched her arse cheeks. “Don’t worry, we’ll go slowly. I will not hurt you.”

Chris tried to relax while the other woman filled the enema bag with warm soapy water, coated the nozzle with lubricant, and put some of the gel on the younger woman’s sphincter.

“Open your legs a bit more; that will make it easier, much easier. Yes, relax.”

Only the first quarter inch of the nozzle entered easily. Kathryn began to gently massage the slightly hurting buttocks of her charge, and soon had the desired effect. It slowly went in and she opened the valve. Chris’ reactions made it easy to discern when the first drop reached its goal.

“It’s all right, Chris. Hold your position. The bag wasn’t full. I know you can take it.”

Kathryn continued the gentle massage and the younger woman once again relaxed. About fifteen minutes later she pulled the nozzle out and told Chris to sit on the toilet and let it go.

“Resume position, Chris.”

The blonde obeyed and Kathryn repeated the procedure, this time with clear water. Chris now knew that she had nothing to fear but the other woman still kept her soothing words and actions up. The next quarter hour passed faster than Chris would have thought.

Her Mistress then ordered her to climb into the big round Jacuzzi like tub and wait. Kathryn stripped, climbed in behind her and took a thin hose from its holder at the wall. Kneeling, the blonde sat between her legs and she ordered her to lean against her upper body.

“What are you doing now, Mistress?”

“It’s called a vaginal douche, Chris. Just lean against me and spread your legs as far as possible. Put your hands on the edge of the tub. Yes, that’s it. Now they won’t be in the way.” She put her arms around the younger woman’s torso and pushed a button on the hose. A thin jet of warm water hit the younger woman’s lower legs. She held it there for a couple of minutes and then aimed higher. “Do you like the temperature, Chris?”

“Yes Mistress. It feels good.”

Kathryn stopped the water flow and began to gently stroke the other woman’s stomach between her navel and her curly blonde bush.

“Relax, Chris.”

She slowly inserted the tip of the hose between Chris’ nether lips and once again let the water come, with a bit more force than last time. She rotated the hose and massaged the blonde’s inner walls, eliciting low moans from her.

This was torture but Chris also felt cared for and loved and somehow cherished. Her head was resting between her Mistress’ breasts. She closed her eyes and envisioned kissing and suckling the still marked flesh but she also instinctively knew that she wouldn’t be allowed to do it. It was too early in their relationship. ‘Did they even have a relationship?’

Chris knew what she wanted, and she knew that her Mistress felt equally attracted to her; she even seemed to share her sense of belonging. But when all was said and done, it wouldn’t be up to her to do the next step, and this was just how it should be. Was it?

Twenty minutes and eighteen seconds later, her Mistress pushed the button to stop the water and instead activated the overhead shower. The water had the same temperature as before and cascaded over them. They didn’t move and her Mistress kept the gentle rubbing up. She slowly changed their position until they were standing and her body was washed and then tenderly dried with a big fluffy towel.

“Follow me; we have to go to the basement.”

“Is there really no other way, Mistress?”

“I rarely change my mind when I have decided on a punishment. No one likes to be left alone in the dark, believe me I know but I also know that you’re very brave. You can take it. I know you can.”

“I’ll try, Mistress.”

The basement was everything Chris had it not expected to be. It was clean and bright with a broad corridor and about a dozen doors. The concrete floor was cold to her feet but she tried to ignore it. She couldn’t help being afraid of what was awaiting her.

Kathryn led her to a square room that was different. The walls were solid, smooth, and pitch black. There was a low table right in the middle of the room, the size of a double bed with countless leather cuffs and straps embedded in the surface. At her Mistress demand she lay down in the centre. Kathryn first pushed her a few inches up with an ease that still surprised the younger woman. She fastened one strap around her neck and then another over her forehead.

Cuff by cuff and step by step Chris was immobilised until she couldn’t move a muscle. But her Mistress was far from being finished with her.

“The next step is a bit uncomfortable. You will have to stay like this for at least forty-eight hours. I now will insert a catheter, so you will not have to worry about having to go to the toilet. Tell me what was on your mind while we were in the bathroom just now.”

The blonde blushed and then felt a sharp pain, like a prick with a needle.

“That’s it, Chris. Now we will have to make sure that you don’t get dehydrated. The IV-line will give you all the fluids you need, along with a few nutritional supplements, just to be on the safe side. You can rant and shout and cry as much as you want to. The room is 100% soundproof. There are surveillance cameras in every corner to make sure that you are all right. Be brave, my Chris.”

Kathryn kissed her on the strap on her forehead, on both eyes, and turned the key in the door after shutting off the lights.

She was alone. Her legs were spread wide; cool air was hitting her nether lips. She soon needed to pee and found that there was very little she could do to stop the trickle of urine down to the bag attached to the catheter. It was embarrassing but she still couldn’t find it in her heart to feel degraded or humiliated. Her Mistress had told her that she was strong enough to take this punishment and she was determined not to disappoint her.

~*~

“Kat, why don’t you go to bed and try to get some sleep.”

“If I were able to sleep, Linda, I wouldn’t be here, staring at this monitor.” The dark haired woman answered with irritation audible in her voice.

“Kat! I’m not your enemy.” The visibly pregnant woman answered. “You shouldn’t have sent me away this time, my friend. I thought you trusted me.”

“I didn’t want to send you away. I trust you. You should know….”

The tall woman peeled her eyes off the surveillance screen and looked at the brown orbs and tanned face of her favourite doctor.

“You’re good, Lindy, really good. You almost got me. I knew you were itching to show to her that she no longer has any hold on you but how was I supposed to explain your cute little tummy without telling her about Project Genesis?”

“It certainly would have been a tough sell, that’s for sure. The Island never had to cope with the possibility of offspring before, and there are quiet a few people who certainly would feel threatened by crying babies and toddlers and pre-school kids running around on the Island any time soon.”

Linda answered but without giving the seriousness of her statement a chance to sink in. Kathryn and the Council of Elders knew better than anyone else what was at stake with this top secret program.

“You know I only wanted to goad you but at least it worked. You finally took your eyes off that damned monitor.”

“I’m a pain, right?”

“Kat, you were a pain from the first moment I met you but, hey, you have a way of growing on people. And to answer your question: yes, you can be single-minded and obsessive. So, what is so special about her? What made you choose the isolation test as a punishment? It’s supposed to be the last step before the final Initiation.”

“It’s a punishment, nothing more, Linda.”

The brunette shrugged her shoulders and was about to turn around and leave the room when Kathryn said. “All right, I give in.”

“Took you long enough, my friend.”

“After she tackled Supervisor Jolene she expected to be punished, she even expected to be sent back and executed. But how can I punish her for stopping what in her eyes was a brutal rape? She really has a knack for putting me between a rock and a hard place concerning her punishments.

“Since we came here all she has done has been out of concern for me but I still have to uphold our laws. The skin of her backside was still too tender from her last punishment to stand much… I just thought it was the best solution.”

“And now the truth, oh Mistress of evasiveness.” Linda said with a smile, her warm hazel eyes laughing at the taller woman.

“You don’t let me get away with much, do you?”

“It’s a tough job but someone has to do it. Kat, the way you just looked at the screen told me enough. I don’t need more explanations; I just thought you might want to talk about it.”

“How can you fall in love with someone you don’t know, someone who even doesn’t know herself? I never felt this way about anyone and it’s against everything I believe in, Linda, but she completes me.”

~*~

At least forty-eight hours, two whole days.

Chris had tried to keep track of time but her usually accurate sense had left her shortly after the fourth hour of being left in the dark. She was surrounded by blackness, all she could hear was the sound of her heart and her blood rushing through her veins. All she could smell was her own sweat and fear and lingering arousal and a faint hint of the soap her Mistress had used to bathe her.

Her mind was a mess of conflicting emotions.

She wanted to resent her M… Kathryn for what she made her go through. She wanted to get down on her knees and beg her to give her more proof that she was hers. She wanted to slap her. She wanted to wake up at her side, wake up with her, every day for the rest of her life. She wanted to hear Kathryn beg for mercy at her command. She wanted to spend her evenings kissing the dark beauty. She wanted to spend her time worshipping her Mistress and lover.

She wanted her to be both; but could she really do it?

She replayed the events since her first encounter with Kathryn over and over again. She had seen her Mistress bristling with confidence and she had seen her fighting not to be conquered by pain. She had seen her administering the welcome whipping in an almost business like manner and the memory of the almost negligent flick on her breast with Supervisor Jolene’s improvised whip had taught her how lucky she had been. With one stroke the tall woman could have drawn blood and marked her for weeks.

She was thankful to her Mistress but it also was more than that. It was all so confusing.

~*~

A square of light signalled that the door had been opened. She in vain had tried to close her eyes in time. The door closed and the light slowly changed from pitch black to light grey. She felt a familiar presence. The straps holding her down were opened one after the other and soon only those around her neck, wrists, and ankles were left.

The IV-line was removed. One hand was stroking her lower body. The catheter was yanked out without as much as a ‘plop’. Chris had her eyes closed, still not sure if she should condemn or thank her Mistress for this experience. One by one the rest of her restraints were removed but Chris didn’t move until she heard her Mistress’ order.

“Chris, try to sit up.”

She struggled to do as she had been ordered and quickly a very familiar hand was supporting her. She tried to get on her feet but only succeeded in getting her feet on the ground. She collapsed and would have hit the ground if not for Kathryn’s strong arms.

“It’s all right. I’ve got you. It’s over. Justice is satisfied and your debt has been paid in full. You were very brave.” She kissed the blonde on her forehead and on both eyes.

Chris didn’t want to move, she felt safe in her Mistress’ arms but her body acted almost on its own accord. She dropped to her knees and wrapped both arms around her, pressing her tear stained face against the taller woman’s stomach.

“I missed you so much, Mistress. Please, don’t leave me, don’t send me away. I want to be yours in every sense. I love you, Mistress.”

Kathryn was stunned into speechlessness by the surprising confession. Usually this time in solitary darkness put some distance between a mistress and her charge. She had expected to find Chris full of resentment and anger.

“You don’t have to share my feelings. I know someone as beautiful and kind as you can have whomever she wants. I belong to you, Mistress. I want to be your slave.”

Chris continued with conviction and let her arms drop in defeat when she felt her Mistress’ body stiffen.

Kathryn took a step back and got down on one knee. “Chris look at me.” The blond head only hung lower at the command and she took it in both hands to make Chris meet her eyes. “You will never be my slave, Chris, and you also never will be my pet. You are a strong, capable woman who will find her own place in our society.”

The dark haired woman knew that she was not saying what Chris wanted to hear and she was not saying what she really wanted to say. She longed to answer. ‘And I love you, Chris, my beloved.’ But she didn’t. She tried to keep her distance like every good mistress should in the first weeks but the loss and mourning in Chris’ green eyes tore her defences down.

“You will be your own woman, Chris, and have your own life. It will be up to you to decide if you want to share this life with me. I demand a lot of the people in my charge but I demand even more of those I love. You will belong to me, Chris, you will be mine but you never will be my slave. Do you understand the difference?”

“You love me too? You want me?” The blonde asked with a slightly trembling voice.

“Yes. One month from now I will ask you if you still want me to be more to you than just your instructor. So, yes, baby, I want you and I’m in love with you.”

Chris literally fell in her arms and sobbed. Kathryn held her and gently stroked her short blonde hair. They stayed like this until there were no more tears left and then the taller woman cradled the exhausted blonde in her arms and carried her all the way back to her bedroom. She put her down, stripped her own clothes off and slipped in behind her. Her breast still hurt from the harsh whipping but she nonetheless relished the feeling of the younger woman’s body tightly pressed against hers.

“I’m sorry, Mistress.”

“Sorry, why? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“For being such a cry-baby.”

“There’s no shame in tears, Chris. Sometimes we need to let go of our feelings and tears are one way to do this. I may make you cry out of pain or anger or frustration but I always will be there to kiss the tears away. And now, sleep. You’ll need your strength. We have a lot of catching up to do. Between this punishment and me being stuck in bed you missed seven maintenance spankings; so you will get three until we’re once again up to par. I think an additional session around noon should do it.”

“Yes Mistress. Mistress, I’d like to try and take it without the chair, bent over and grabbing my ankles, please.”

“We’ll give it a try in the morning, Chris, and now sleep.”

“Thank you, Mistress. Good night, my Kathryn.”

The blonde snuggled closer. She was too tall to be a perfect fit in the classical sense of the word but it still felt like the perfect fit for her.

TO BE CONTINUED

The Island by Wild Rose

(revised version)

Chapter Nine: Living Her Dreams

Four months had passed since the former head of Supervisors had been sentenced to two years confinement and therapy sessions with a psychologist. Chris had learned a lot about her skills and the things she was better staying clear off. In the second week she had been sent to Cookie but soon found out by almost burning down the house while stirring a stew that she didn’t have a single domestic bone in her body. She had been thinking about a technical problem Kathryn had told her about during breakfast and simply forgotten about her assigned task. It had been the first time Chris had felt the cane on her backside and though it only had been twenty strokes she’d been unable to sit for more than three days.

Chris long ago had stopped probing what was left of her memory to find out why she had been sent here. She was happy with her new life and her lover. Though the maintenance spankings had stopped two weeks ago, it was just this morning that the deep red wrist and ankle cuffs of the Initiates had been removed. She now was a real member of their community and proudly wearing the dark blue bands of the Workers. They quickly found out that she had a knack for numbers and all things technical. She would work at the laboratories and study how to use the Island’s geothermic energy more efficiently.

To celebrate the blonde’s ‘promotion’ her Mistress and lover had decreed they would both take a day off. They dismounted their horses when they reached their chosen picnic spot. It was a hillock half an hour’s ride from the stables with a view of the little village that had become Chris’ home. She could see their house and a bit further away, half hidden in a grove, the laboratories. The surrounding pastures and fields were idyllic and peaceful.

After freeing the horses, Gora and Silver, from their saddles, they unpacked the saddlebags and made themselves comfortable. Kathryn was leaning against a big boulder and Chris had snuggled down between her legs.

“Do you remember the first time I brought you here, Chris?”

“How could I forget, my Kathryn? Not that I didn’t deserve it but the punishment stayed on my mind for a long time, well not only on my mind. And it also was the first day I had been allowed to wear clothes.”

Chris’ mind recalled their first visit to the spot vividly, about two months ago.

“Wow, what a nice view, Mistress.”

“That’s why I brought you here. It’s one of my favourites. Sit down, I’ll unsaddle the horses and let them roam free.”

“Let me help, Mistress.” They were removing the saddles and saddle-blankets when Silver had shied.

“Oh, fuck. I’m sorry, Silver,” the blonde said to her mare, “I’m sorry.”

Kathryn pushed her aside and studied the abrasions the rough saddle-band had produced. Chris looked guiltily at her Mistress.

“Strip and kneel next to the boulder, Chris. You will face away from the village and the horses.”

Chris did as ordered and quickly stepped out of the boots, trousers, shirt, and underwear her Mistress only this morning had presented her with. She knew she was in deep trouble and certainly in for an exemplary punishment.

Kathryn had taught her how to properly saddle a horse. She had spent hours teaching her how to care for the mounts and the equipment. She had been proud to see how well the animals responded to the blonde; and now, Chris thought, she had ruined everything. Her Mistress never again would take her for a ride, and what was worse, her sloppiness had harmed an innocent animal. She deserved to be punished and punished hard.

She heard the other woman rummaging in her saddlebag where she always had a first aid kit and she heard the whinny of her light grey mare. Silver was so gentle and trusting, and she had made her suffer. She didn’t deserve to wear clothes, or to ride, or to spent time with her Mistress. Now, her Mistress would no longer want to become her lover. Berating herself, Chris didn’t hear the raven-head’s approach.

“Look at me, Chris.”

“Silver, will she be okay, Mistress?”

“In a few days, yes. You were lucky that our ride wasn’t any longer. The saddle-band is frayed at the edge. You should have used another one and you obviously didn’t take the time to cinch it properly. It must have been twisted to cause that kind of damage. I thought I could trust you with Silver’s care.”

“I’m sorry, Mistress. I was careless and stupid, please punish me.”

Kathryn opened the buckle of her broad leather belt and slowly pulled it out of the belt loops of her black jeans. Chris swallowed in reflex. The older woman then put her right foot on the boulder. Knee and hip now were the same height, setting her thigh parallel to the ground.

“Stand up and bend over my thigh, Chris.”

The blonde did as ordered, Kathryn adjusted her position until her toes barely touched the ground and Chris had to brace herself on her arms to keep her balance.

“Four strokes for swearing.”

Chris dutifully counted them while trying not to cry out with pain. The doubled belt bit into her flesh and tears formed in her eyes.

“Thank you, Mistress.”

She felt Kathryn’s right hand on the small of her back.

“You will not be punished because Silver got hurt. You will be punished because it could have been avoided. You carelessly used faulty equipment. In the tack room there are enough saddle-straps in perfect condition and it would not have taken you more than two minutes to use one of them instead.

“You will be punished because you didn’t ask me to wait. You hurried through the routine instead of taking care of the details. You didn’t respect yourself enough to do your job as you have been taught and you didn’t respect the animal that willingly obeys your commands.

“I will now give you thirty lashes with the belt and then we will return to the stables. You will stay there and do everything stable master Miriam tells you to do for as long as Silver needs to heal. You also will spend the nights there. I’ll come by every day around noon and you will get fifteen more lashes.”

Despite her head hanging low, the blonde’s face lost all colour. Her Mistress didn’t want her near any longer but she didn’t deserve any better, so she asked with defeat in her voice.

“Please, Mistress, may I count the strokes?”

“Even then I hated having to punish you.” Kathryn’s voice brought Chris back from the memory.

“I had been playing with the health of an innocent being, Mistress, out of egoism. I deserved it, and you can be sure that lesson will never be forgotten. When you left me at the stables I was convinced that you no longer wanted to have anything to do with me. I was so miserable when I laid on my cot in the tack room with that frayed out saddle-strap always in my line of sight.”

“It was hard to leave you there but aside from the obvious you also had to learn that my feelings for you will never change despite what I feel I must to do as your Mistress. You had to learn and feel that before you made your decision concerning our future.”

“I never felt as overwhelmed as when you came back for me the evening of the third day and asked me if I still wanted us to become lovers. I almost had myself convinced that I wasn’t worth being anything more than a stable hand and the next day the punishment with the belt didn’t hurt as much as it had before. And then you took me home and made love to me for the first time.

“I love you so much, Kathryn, but part of that love demands that I respect what and who you are. You know that I would never expect you to neglect your duties just because of me, Kathryn. You’re who you are exactly because your sense of honour never would allow something like that. I love all of you, the gentle lover, the demanding lover and the exacting Mistress. Would you spank me, my Kathryn? In the same position you did that day but with your hand, please?”

“Why would you want to feel pain, little one? Do you miss the maintenance spankings?”

“Yes, sometimes I think I do. It’s hard to explain, Mistress. I don’t miss the pain and I know that I belong to you but I miss the ritual and the feeling of absolute safety I have when bent over or pressing my naked flesh against your clothed thigh to receive a spanking.”

“Well, Chris, the good thing about our relationship is that it’s me who’s calling the shots and at the moment I don’t feel like spanking you. On the other hand I think that you are overdressed. Strip for me and then bring me the thin leather thong from the saddlebag.”

Chris slowly unbuttoned her blue and white shirt and revealed a form fitting white tank top underneath. She carefully folded the garment and put in on the blanket. She had learned the hard way that not caring for your clothing was an act of disrespect for the Servants having washed and ironed them. One not only ended up with a burning and bright red backside but also had to go without clothes for a week to once again learn to appreciate the privilege of wearing them in the first place.

The tank top followed. Her nipples already were hard in anticipation of what her lover intended to do with the length of leather. She slipped out of her boots and socks and turned around to give her Mistress an unimpeded view of her backside while she pushed her trousers down and stepped out of them. They also went to the pile of clothing, as well as her silk and lace string. Chris crossed the hilltop to where they had put the saddles and saddlebags and quickly found the requested item.

Kathryn waited for her sitting on the boulder and she gracefully knelt down to present her lover with the piece of leather. The tall raven-head bound Chris’ hands without relying on the D-rings on her wrist cuffs and instead of immobilising them with a knot she pushed the ends into her hands and ordered her not to let go. Over the last few months they had played enough of these games for Chris to know that it was to be an exercise in self-control for her. She also knew that the final reward usually was worth every effort. They never had done something like this in broad day light or anywhere other than the privacy of their bedroom; this alone heightened her arousal considerably.

Her Mistress ordered her to stretch out on the blanket and put her hands over her head. She told her not to move and not to make a sound and began to kiss her, starting with the little toe on her left foot and working her way up, touching every square quarter inch of her skin. Kathryn took her time. She wanted her blonde lover bursting with desire and need before she allowed her to cum. But after the first powerful orgasm she still was far from being finished. She brought Chris to the edge two more times and then gently eased her down again before letting her cum once again. Their food was forgotten while Kathryn played the body of her younger lover like a harp, eventually allowing her to give voice to her outbursts.

When the blonde was totally exhausted she cradled her in her arms and let her sleep. Once again marvelling at the change these last four months had brought. When in the arms of Morpheus, Chris always looked like an innocent child, when she was focused on her work her expression often changed from intense concentration to wide-eyed wonder. It was downright contagious to hear her speak about some project or the other she just was working on or thinking about.

However, what Kathryn relished most were the changes their sexual relationship had brought on in the young woman. The first time she had been shy, almost afraid to show her lover how much she enjoyed what they were doing but this had faded as their bond grew.

The still clothed woman looked regretfully at the sun. It was already hanging low. She would have to wake Chris to be back in time for the surprise party the other inhabitants of Safe Haven had planned for the blonde.

You want to read more about Kathryn and Chris? No problem!

An augmented and revised version has been published as an e-book under the title:

WOMEN’S PENAL COLONY by Rose Wilder

Available at http://lulu.com/content/890419

“Did you enjoy your party, baby?” The tall raven-head asked when they entered their quarters and Chris stripped off her clothing as had become her habit whenever they were alone.

“It was so great, Kat. I never would have expected them to do something like this. I felt at home. Thank you for making me welcome, Mistress.”

“I had nothing to do with it. It was their idea. I just had to keep you occupied to give them the opportunity to make the preparations, and over the time you will learn that we use every opportunity we can to have ourselves a celebration. They like you and that was their way to show it to you. But they are not the only ones very proud of you, Chris. That’s why I have another gift to celebrate your promotion.”

“A gift, Mistress?” The blonde asked while snuggling next to her lover on the couch.

“Yes, my love. It’s nothing you can put around your neck or carry around. I know that sometimes you have very vivid dreams…erotic dreams…but you never talk about them. Choose one of your fantasies and I will try to make it come true.”

Chris blushed but not for long.

“Make love to me, Kathryn. Take me from behind. I want to belong to you completely. Please, Mistress, teach me how to enjoy a good ass fucking. Let my little hole belong to you like the rest of my body belongs to you.”

“Stop it, Chris. I know you had a few glasses of wine but you should know better. I taught you better. Get off my lap and at kneeling attention, now.”

The blonde reluctantly took her arms from around her Mistress’ neck and without standing up slipped down to the hardwood floor. Her eyes were on the ground, her legs spread wide enough for Kathryn to see her arousal, her hands clasped behind her back. She knew it wouldn’t do any good to apologise now; she first would have to listen to her Mistress’ lecture.

“I know I’m more lenient with the others, little one, but I hold you to higher standards. I love you, every part of you. You’re so beautiful, it takes my breath away every time you enter our quarters and take off your clothes to prove to me that you’re mine. As long as you love me, you will be mine and mine alone. Tell me, Chris, do you still love me?”

“Yes, Mistress, I love you. Please punish me for not treating my body with the respect it deserves by using bad language and crude words. I’m sorry, Mistress.”

Kathryn smiled at her kneeling lover who just had effectively cut short what would have become a lengthy tongue lashing. The blonde looked up without raising her head and continued.

“Please Mistress, let me go and get the cane, so you can purge me of the degrading language I used, letter by letter.”

“Go and get the cane of your choice and my riding gloves.”

Chris was back in the blink of an eye and presented the items to her beloved Mistress.

“Tell me, Chris, what would you regard as an appropriate punishment for your transgressions?”

“One stroke for every letter I said,” the blonde answered without hesitation, “another one to make sure that I never use them again that way, and a third to cure me of my thoughtlessness.”

“Fifty-seven, that would be hard to take, Chris. Do you really think that you deserve such a harsh punishment?”

“Yes, Mistress, I spoiled our evening and sullied your generous offer. I deserve to suffer for it.”

If there was one thing about her blonde lover she cherished above all else it was that she was always honest with her. She really was convinced that she should be punished so hard.

“Stand up and get over my knees, Chris.” Kathryn ordered while donning the gloves.

“A warm-up spanking, Mistress?” Chris asked hopefully.

“No, Chris, this is supposed to be a punishment after all. I just want to try a new position.”

As soon as the blonde was settled over her lap the dark haired woman stretched her legs and rotated her lover’s body until her head and arms were resting on the cushions of the couch. That brought the lower part of her body almost parallel to Kathryn’s legs.

“Count for me, Chris.”

If the younger woman had hoped that the unfamiliar position she found herself in would make the caning less effective she was badly mistaken. The first stroke hit her right in the middle of her buttocks. The welt it immediately produced was deepened by the second stroke hitting the same spot. It was hard to count and hold her position. Numbers three and four came down a fraction of an inch lower, producing another distinct line that would be visible for days.

With number twelve the tears that had been stinging in her eyes finally spilled over. Sixteen had her openly sobbing after it hit the sensitive area at the apex of her thighs following the stroke before.

Her Mistress’ right hand had been resting on her back, more to make her feel safe than to hold her in place. It now began to gently caress the still unmarked upper part of her bottom cheeks and slowly her Mistress’ whispered words reached her ears.

“…doing well. There’s no shame in crying. Take your time, Chris. Yes, that’s my girl, take a deep breath.”

“Sixteen, thank you, Mistress.”

The intervals between each stroke became considerably longer because Kathryn patiently waited for the younger woman to count them, thus effectively keeping her from loosing herself in her punishment. She didn’t want that this early in the game. The twenty-seventh and twenty-eighth stroke hit as high as the dark haired woman was willing to go.

“You’re very brave, Chris, and deserve a treat. Stop counting!”

“Thank you Mistress.” The blonde answered and closed her eyes. Her clenched fists also relaxed.

The next stroke found the place of the first one, and thirty six was placed on top of fifteen and sixteen. Thirty-seven and -eight followed closely behind. Kathryn stopped and put the cane aside. It took Chris a few minutes to come back from her pain induced high. It wasn’t so much a question of sexual arousal as more a question of trust and openness.

“Let’s take a break, Chris.”

The tall woman stood and pulled the other one with her. Chris was trembling and tears were running down her face. Kathryn let her to the far corner of the room and turned her face to the wall.

“You’re doing well, baby, but I want you to calm down before you take the remaining nineteen strokes you think you deserve. Remember, you’re very brave.”

Kathryn returned the cane to the wooden closet. She had no intention to give her beloved any more pain tonight but she also didn’t want Chris to know that just yet. She stripped and for a few minutes just stood and studied the blonde’s backside. The trembling had almost stopped. Thirty-eight strokes and only fourteen welts to show for it; the tall woman was rather pleased with her handiwork. Later she would give Chris something to ease the pain but for now she had something else in mind.

The taller woman stepped closer until her breasts touched the blonde’s back, pressing her mound against the burning behind in front of her. Her hands found the other’s breasts with already rock-hard nipples and even if her nose had not told her, she still would have known that her lover was very aroused, simply from being relegated to the corner and feeling her eyes on her. She pressed even closer and whispered in Chris’ ear.

“Justice has been satisfied and your debt has been paid in full, baby.”

The blonde didn’t move but she whispered back. “Thank you for disciplining me, Mistress, and for showing leniency when none was warranted. I’m really sorry for disappointing you. It won’t happen again.”

“You didn’t disappoint me, my love. It was just a temporary lapse in judgement, and we both know that it will happen again. Not any time soon but it will, little one, and like today I will be there for you to call you up on it because I love you and I want you to be the best you can be.”

“I love you too, my Kathryn. Please, let me kiss you.”

The tall woman turned her lover around and kissed her soundly. Both tongues engaged in a silent dance while Kathryn put both hands on Chris’ hips to pull her closer. Her left knee parted the other’s legs and her hands cupped the tortured arse cheeks, encouraging the blonde to ride her thigh. The green eyes widened, Kathryn felt her lover’s juices coating her leg. From experience she knew that she had to slow things down a bit if she wanted to stay in control. When they finally came up for air, she asked.

“Tell me what you want, Chris.”

“Please let me cum. I’m so close. Just touch my clit and I will cum for you. Squeeze my butt cheeks harder, make me feel the marks of your discipline and your care. Please make me cum, my Mistress.”

“I will, baby, but all in good time.”

Chris whimpered with need and in slight frustration. The dark haired woman’s tongue was back exploring the familiar confines of her lover’s mouth while her right hand sneaked between her legs from behind and found the blonde’s drenched opening. Carefully avoiding touching the probably unhooded and very ready clit, Kathryn used her long fingers to gather some of the moisture and spread it over her sphincter.

Kathryn could feel her lover quiver in anticipation and gently massaged all around the ring of muscle. She searched Chris’ eyes and found them pleading with her to go further. She put the tip of her index finger against the opening and slowly pressed down. It entered with only slight resistance and Chris gasped. Her other arm firmly encircled the blonde’s slim waist to keep her from impaling herself on the finger.

Kathryn knew that she had to go slowly. She wanted her lover to enjoy the experience. She pushed on until she was in just over the first knuckle. She rotated her hand to loosen the tight muscle and gathered more of the lubricating juices.

“Oh Mistress, please, more.” Chris pleaded and moaned while she tried to press her clit closer to Kathryn’s muscular leg and take advantage of the friction.

“Yes, baby, rub yourself against me. Let me feel how much you need to cum but hold back until I give you permission.”

The blonde whimpered in protest but Kathryn knew that she would do her best to obey the order. She slid her finger out to the tip and once again wetted the whole area. This time she easily sunk in to the second knuckle.

“Oh, yes, my Kathryn.” Chris said releasing a breath she hadn’t know she had been holding.

“That’s it, little one, give yourself to me.”

Kathryn felt the arms around her neck relax but still hold on. She wanted her as relaxed as possible for the next step. She began to slowly pump in and out, now going as deep as her long finger allowed. Kathryn felt her lover adapting to the rhythm she was building and was dripping wet herself but the day, the moment, was for her beloved.

She stopped with her finger deep inside of her lover and began to caress her anal walls by curling and uncurling the long digit while gently turning it as far as she could.

“Kat, oh Kat, please make me cum!”

“Hush my love, be patient.”

“It feels so good, Mistress.”

“Enjoy, my love.”

Chris’ breath was getting shorter; her heart was frantically beating against Kathryn’s chest. She restarted the pumping motion but moved much faster than before. She was so proud of her blonde lover, how bravely she was fighting to hold back.

“Touch me, baby, I want us to cum together.”

The blonde didn’t need a second invitation. She stroked her Mistress’ neck and let her other hand glide down the taller woman’s torso. She quickly found her target and moaned at the wetness coating her hand.

“Do you feel what you do to me, my love, how wet I am for you?”

“Oh yes, my love, my Mistress, so wet.”

“Tell me what you want, Chrissy.”

Kathryn found the deep green eyes of her lover and saw how hard she was fighting to control herself. She was so incredibly beautiful when she finally begged,

“Please, Mistress, please let me cum. I’m so close, so ready for you. Please, Kathryn, please.”

The tall raven-head could have cum from the pleading words alone. The feeling of power and control Chris freely offered was so intoxicating, it had her totally addicted.

“Do it, cum for me, little one.” Kathryn gently ordered.

She could feel her finger gripped by strong muscle of Chris’ arsehole but she kept it moving. The blonde bucked against her thigh and was pinching her clit, short fingernails scraping the tender bundle of nerves. Chris knew exactly what Kathryn needed right now, and the raven-head reciprocated by quickly adding a second finger with a vigorous thrust. Chris cried her name as she tumbled over the edge but despite her own roiling orgasm Kathryn didn’t stop.

She wriggled her fingers deep inside, against the tight walls and massaged the younger woman’s clit with her other hand. It brought them both off two more times before Kathryn felt too weak to continue and stay standing. With the last bit of her strength she guided them to the adjoining room and onto the bed where they collapsed in each other’s arms.

More than half an hour passed before Chris felt strong enough to speak.

“Thank you, Kathryn. That was the most incredible experience. I felt so full with your fingers inside of me; I could have melted to a puddle. It was so wonderful. I felt so loved. Thank you, Mistress.” She whispered against Kathryn’s shoulder.

“It was my pleasure, my love. I will always love you and give you what you crave as best as I can. And now let me get up. You need a painkiller.”

“Please stay. I want to feel the welts. I’m proud that you are strong enough to do what has to be done. Let me wear them with pride, please.”

“I love you, Chris.”

THE END

You want to read more about Kathryn and Chris? No problem!

An augmented and revised version has been published as an e-book under the title:

WOMEN’S PENAL COLONY by Rose Wilder

Available at http://lulu.com/content/890419

The Island

The Island by Wild Rose

(revised version)

Chapter Nine: Living Her Dreams

THE END

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