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Disclaimer: unfortunately they're not mine, though I suppose it's better for them *insane cackle*
Notes: Yet another version of the bonding of a sentinel and guide *bg*
***
Running. Lungs burning, chest aching. Dry dust crunching under his boots. Couldn't last for long, but there were no places to hide. There was only one option open: running, running away. Even if it was nothing but a gesture, they had caught him now. He knew it, but he had to try, one more time.
Running, moving one leg in front of the other along the mid-morning streets. No one was willing to help him, to hide him. The guidehood was sacred, not to be denied. They were even higher in status than the senators. No one would dare to stand against them, and for most loyal citizens the mere idea was unthinkable. Escape had been the only option for a sentinel who did not want to be bonded against his will. No one asked a sentinel whom he'd want to be bonded with. Such decisions were made by the guides or parents and sentinels had no say in the matter.
Running. Ducking behind yet another stone and brick building. Breathing was a task. His light jacket was wet with his sweat and his soft shirt was glued to his back. He had been on the run for weeks, longer than he had dared to hope for. The guidehood had some of the best hunters and mercenaries on its payroll. They were a military organisation that had grown to power bit by bit as centuries rolled by and held on to its power and prestige with teeth and claw. The technology had advanced and the sentinels were not needed so much on the field, but it was still required for a guide to have a sentinel and only a guide could have a sentinel, which made sentinels priced possessions. They could bring in a hundred times the price of a normal able-bodied slave.
Running. Dodging irritated shoppers and loud-mouthed youngsters. Muscles were aching and his legs were trembling. He had avoided the slave trader on his tail, but this time it was an official hunter after him. He did not know how he had been made out, after all he had been so careful to alter his ID and cover up the sentinel tattoo on his neck. The guidehood had their ways, it was whispered.
A sting on his left shoulder. Lethargy spreading quickly. He did not even have the energy to rage against his fate as he fell unconscious in a dirty alleyway on some backwater planet.
***
He could feel the vibrations of hyper drive motors, sense the meagre light against his closed eyelids, and hear the soft sounds of a living being nearby.
"I know you're awake, Jim," a voice of a human male said quietly, with amusement.
He opened his eyes. He was lying on a bed in a bare utilitarian cabin. A human male approaching his 30s was sitting on a simple chair by the doorway. The man had short dark brown slightly curly hair and surprisingly warm eyes. He was wearing the dark coverall of a hunter, with full gear. Jim sniffed. It had been some time since either of them had taken a shower.
"Are you well?" the hunter asked.
Jim nodded his head as he gingerly sat up. He was still feeling somewhat nauseous and dizzy, but the effects of the narcotic were already wearing off. He was still wearing the dirty trousers and a worn jacket, but no boots. He felt the left pocket of his jacket. The hunter had emptied his pockets and taken the hidden knife too. Jim had expected nothing less, but it never hurt to check.
"Where are we off to?" he asked.
"You'll see," the hunter simply said. He rose to leave. "I'll feed you, don't worry," the hunter announced as he exited through the door that opened for him.
"Wait, what's your name?" Jim asked, but the door had already closed. The hunter obviously did not care for chitchat or did not believe in revealing more then absolutely necessary.
Jim rose off the bed and stretched. The cabin was soon searched, revealing nothing, but he could not just give up. There had to be a way out of this mess.
***
The hunter was too experienced and smart to fall for any tricks Jim could come up with, but he tried anyway. It clearly amused his captor who took it for granted that his prey would try to escape. The amusement irritated Jim, but he kept his temper under control. The cabin walls suffered some abuse, though.
***
There was little to do but wait, wait and worry. He knew his father would have given the guidehood the full rights to him, the old man had never much cared about him. He had started to ask around for a suitable guide as soon as Jim came of age. No public choosing for his son, at least the patriarch had too much family pride to allow his son to be chosen by any guide novitiate that took a liking to him. But Jim could have had a say in it that way. He could have stayed in the centre for a few weeks, see the novitiates (even if it would be in passing and sometimes secretly) and see which one he would prefer and then encourage that one. The centre on Elisia was one of the more liberal ones and such deals were not unheard of. Instead, he would have been traded off to some well off and wellborn brat. Someone he had never even seen. So he had run off. After a few weeks of hitched rides and odd jobs he had ended up getting caught by a hunter.
Jim sighed. Maybe he should try a few more meditation exercises or some of that tai ji he had been taught. Anything was better than wondering for which centre the hunter was working for.
***
After three days of travel the ship reached its destination.
***
*What happened?* He was feeling groggy, disoriented. *Purple drapes??*
His head was clearing rapidly. He remembered listening to the motors as they wound down, then there was this funny smell... The hunter had drugged him, but why?
The sentinel sat up on the soft bed. There were several drapes of different shades of red hanging down from the ceiling, creating an enclosed space around the large bed. Jim rose from the bed and went to the barred window he could see on the right side of the bed. There did not seem to be anything else in the room but the bed and the drapes.
Jim gasped. Twin suns were glaring down on a sprawling complex built of rock; he could see flags waving in the dry wind, flags with the wolf on them. This was Cascadia.
The young sentinel collapsed on the brightly tiled floor. He could feel panic seeping in.
This was one of the worst places for a sentinel to end up in. Cascadia was a conservative planet that did not care much about sentinels except as symbols of power. As a Cascadian sentinel he would have no rights whatsoever. The guide could kill him and no one would care, or even notice.
The door at the other side of the room opened and three senior guides in the green ceremonial robes entered the room.
"Time to prepare for the bonding, sentinel," the oldest said in a voice that stood no arguments.
Jim argued nonetheless, and fought. To no avail. He was taken to the baths where he was disrobed and bathed. The baths were a large area with several pools in a cavern like hall. Jim could see mosaics and bright ornamental tiles on almost every surface. The pillars of steam from the hottest pools were weaving patterns in the air. To the young sentinel, it was an eerie place.
After a bath and a thorough scrubbing and oiling, the sentinel was dressed in a white robe before being brought back to the same room. It was one of the bonding chambers in the large centre. Because it housed the sentinels as well as the main computer with a complete genealogy of all the sentinels and guides, it was situated by a large mountain wall and had its own defence system.
The Guide Centre on Cascadia may not have been the largest in the known universe, but it was one of the more prestigious with its long history and extensive library as well as some of the best teachers in the art of war. It also prided on preserving the old traditions, such as the claiming night.
***
Jim was sitting on the floor by the window. His cheeks were wet from tears of frustration and fear. He had gone through the chamber several times. There was nothing that could be used as a weapon; even the drapes were of some untearable material. The bed had just the thick blankets and comforters. The bed itself was of strong wood and well built. It was old and despite careful scrubbing and cleaning you could still see some stains on the sides of it. Jim had recoiled in horror as he realised what the stains were of.
The young sentinel was hugging his knees and shaking. He had heard of the claiming night from his teacher in old traditions. Sentinels were taught to be sentinels since the age of four. All he had wanted was to be able to have a say in the choosing of his guide, but such was not allowed. He had run away foolishly hoping to find his guide on his own, but instead a Cascadian hunter had found him. Now he would be bonded to some Cascadian guide who would legally own him, body and soul. He would have no say whatsoever regarding his own life.
He stared at the gauzy dark purple cloth hanging from the ceiling. The guidehood would have contacted every senior guide novitiate currently in the centre and informed them of an unbonded sentinel. They would be preparing for the claiming right now.
Jim swallowed, trying to bring some moisture into his mouth. Every Cascadian sentinel went through this once they became of age. The sentinels went from their guardian to their guide, with not a day in between. It was deemed best for the sentinel to bond as soon as possible.
*I wonder if that young brat would have been that bad?* Then again, if the bonding had failed, his father could have just sold him to some trader. *Would not put it past the old man.*
The door to the chamber opened. A lone man in the dark red robes of a guide novitiate entered. Jim's shaking increased.
***
He was lying on his back on the unmade bed, his throat was sore from his cries and tears were streaming down his cheeks. He had bruises everywhere and come mixed with blood was leaking down from his anus, staining the bedclothes.
A senior guide in full robes was standing by the bed, shaking his head.
"The bond did not settle," the older man announced to a tall redheaded man sitting between Jim's spread legs.
The guide novitiate nodded disappointed and withdrew from the sentinel, settling his long outer robe to cover his manhood. He left the chamber with the older guide. Neither of them looked back.
Jim stared up at the ceiling. There had been four guide novitiates so far. The claiming night lasted until a match was found, no matter how long it took.
He felt dirty, used up. After the second one he had not even bothered to look at the novitiates as they came in. He just wanted this nightmare of a night to end. There were other ways of bonding, but they took longer and it was not as easy to determine when and if the bond settled. Sexual intercourse provided the best alternative, for the guides. No one cared about the sentinel's opinion of it. After all it was just one night, and they would have to do everything the guide told them to do anyway. Including prostituting themselves if the guide so ordered.
The door opened again. Jim turned his head away and closed his eyes.
He felt the bed dip. Smelled a familiar smell. The novitiate sounded familiar too.
Jim opened his eyes and saw the young hunter who had caught him.
"You?!?" Jim rose and tried to withdraw from the figure but his lower body had grown numb and achy some time ago and moving was not really an option.
"Yep." The hunter grinned as he sat down between Jim's legs and raised the hem of his outer robe. "Put my name on the list as soon as I had caught you. Couldn't elbow past the older novitiates, but luckily for me they didn't bond with you."
Jim just stared at the hunter as he raised Jim's hips and thrusted in. Jim's breath caught in his throat and he collapsed on the bed, grabbing the blankets. It hurt. He was sore and aching and the rough fucking *hurt*. He concentrated on breathing evenly and riding out the pain.
At the moment of the guide's climax the bond settled. Jim could feel it at the back of his mind. It was like a whisper, a lazy wind blowing from the guide's mind. It stayed even after the guide had withdrawn from him.
Jim opened his eyes to see the hunter sitting between his legs with a huge grin on his face.
"By the way, I'm called Blair."
***
End