Leo was being dragged painfully, towards the only tent in the camp. A fire was burning nearby, lighting up the campsite. Leo watched as the woman whom, he guessed was the commander disappeared into the folds of the tent.

Another man whom he guessed was Carl, was making his way towards some horses that had been tied, on the other side of the camp from the tent. Leo watched as the man rummaged through the saddlebags, which sat on a fallen log, the horses had been tied to for the night. Eventually, Carl found the handle of something, which made Leo’s eyes go wide. “An imperial knout, fuck” cursed Leo.

[A knout is a whip made from rawhide with multiple thongs.]

As Leo was focused on Carl who was making his way towards him, he saw a cruel smile form on the man’s face, the smile shook Leo.

“Hey Eric, before you start breaking the girls, how about a show? It’ll really set the mood.” Carl chuckled, clearly enjoying the look of fear in Leo’s eyes.

“Fuck off Carl, I have two beautiful women to enjoy after months stuck with you disgusting fucks. Why would I want to ruin my good mood by watching you flog a man when I can help this pretty little redhead forget about the man she was crying over.” Eric laughed and said, “I’m a fucking healer, and I’ll start by filling her up.”

Fear and despair were the only things Leo could see when he looked at Ashley. Eric reached his arm around Ashley and started to fondle her chest, he tightly grabbed her left tit and laughed “not bad I can hardly fit her tits in my hand, we’ll have fun with her.”

Ashley screamed “fuck you, don’t touch me you monster” as she struggled to try and getaway. Eric just gave a creepy smile and started to tear at her clothes, when Leo heard the rustle of tent flaps. A commanding female voice came from the entryway of the tent “Eric, enough, you can have your fun with her after I finish my interrogation. I don’t want her screaming to distract me, and I really don’t want to see you fucking her.” The knight had removed her armor, now dressed in a dark blue shirt and dark pants.

(Leo pov)

I turned to look at the woman emerging from her tent, as I felt a kick from behind that knocked me to my knees while cutting the rope from my wrists. From the corner of my eyes, I could see carl with a wicked grin standing a little behind me to the right. As I once again focus on the woman, I can see her blonde hair and cold face, unlike Carl who seemed to get some kind of sick joy from what he was doing, her face was expressionless.

She looked at me and said, “you will refer to me as captain Kaitlyn, is that understood?”

“Yes,” I answered.

“You’re not very smart? Are you? Whip him” she commanded.

Before I was even able to react, Carl brought the whip across my back, and I screamed out in pain. Fuck I have never wished to have my armor on as much as I did at this moment. I could feel a hot burning sensation on my back as a warm liquid seeped into the shirt I left on for bed. All I could feel now was anger and pain.

“The correct answer to my question was, Yes, captain Kaitlyn. When I tell you how to do something, you will do it and when I ask something, you will answer truthfully, understood?”

I suppressed my anger, if I wanted to get out of this alive, I needed my body in as close to one piece as possible. “Yes, captain Kaitlyn” I answered her.

“Good, now tell me your name, but keep in mind that if I think you’re lying, Carl will leave another scar on your back”

“My name is Leo, and I have no last name, captain Kaitlyn”

The moment the last word left my mouth, another burning pain lashed into my back. What the fuck, I told the truth, what kind of sick game are they playing with me? I panicked as I quickly shouted “My name is Leo; I didn’t lie, you can ask Vara or Ashley. My name is really Leo, captain Kaitlyn.”

For the first time, I saw a smile appear on Kaitlyn’s face, and she said, “good if you had answered me in any other way, I would have ordered five lashes, but it appears you’re being honest with me. However, for every lie I think you tell it will be five lashes, I find cruelty to be the best way to deal with rogues like yourself. Now, what are you and your party doing here, so close to the border?”

“We took a job to eliminate a small group of goblins, that have been ambushing the road just outside this forest. They were reported to have a cave somewhere along a cliff a little deeper into the woods here, I’m sure you and your men saw it during the day captain Kaitlyn.”

“hmm, so you’re just a party of low-level adventurers, how large was this group of goblins you were hired to destroy?”

“The exact number is unknown, but the report estimated their numbers to be between 10 and 15. Just in the range of what our party was capable of handling, captain Kaitlyn.”

At this information, the smile on Kaitlyn’s face seemed to grow wider.

“You’re doing well, where were you dispatched from, and where are the nearest villages?”

“We are from the guild in the town of Tarvok, a small town to the southeast. Including today it took us nearly 4 full days of traveling on a horse carriage to get here, so likely around 50km away give or take. As for villages nearby, the last one we passed was 2 days ago, you’ll find it if you just follow the road, you ambushed us near, they were east of here. There were also 4 small farming hamlets, each with just a few families calling them home. We passed the closest one to us, today around noon.”

“Thank you, for your cooperation, it has been very helpful. Unfortunately, I can still see the defiance in your eyes, and rogues aren’t very valuable as slaves, too prone to escape. What to do, what to do? Luckily for you, your information has saved you, since I have something, I want you to do. But since I don’t want to wake up to a dagger being plunged into my neck, and the fact that you won’t need your hands for what I have in mind. I think I’ll have Carl burn them.”

“What”

“Carl, I need you to burn this barbarian’s hands until he is incapable of holding a dagger. We’re lucky to have found these barbarian adventurers.” Kaitlyn smiled as she continued “Leo the information you’ve given us has been very useful.”  

Carl grabbed my arm, and started to pull me towards the fire, while he shouted, “Hey, you assholes stop gawking and come help me, I don’t want to get brunt trying to keep him under control.” I struggled as much as I could, but my back was still on fire. While I was struggling, I saw two men that had been waiting close to the terrified Vara, start making their way towards the fire.

As I got dragged closer and closer to the fire, one of the men kicked my legs out from under me. I hit the ground hard, and before I could react my legs had been pinned, my neck grabbed and pulled up. The pain from my back made my struggle nearly pointless, as Carl and another man each grabbed one of my arms at the elbow and then forced my hands into the coals.

I screamed as pain shot through my hands and up my arms. All I could feel was an unbearable burning pain that seemed to halt time until all feeling vanished from my hands. I still felt pain, but it just came from my arms.

“Alright, pull him out,” shouted Carl. His face seemed to be filled with ecstasy, as he dragged my limp body back to kneel in front of Kaitlyn.

My vision was now foggy, but I could see Kaitlyn standing there looking at me, as I tried to focus on anything but the pain currently racking my body. I looked at her face and focused on it, she was pretty with a perfectly symmetrical face, a small straight nose, and blue eyes as cold as ice, the smile was gone just that cold gaze was left. As I looked at her all I could think about, was how badly I wanted to see that cold look twisted with the same fear and pain she has forced me through, how she cries and pleads for mercy as I deny her.

“If you cooperate and do as I ask of you tomorrow, I can have your hands healed, I can keep you from spending the rest of your life as a cripple. Slaves that can’t use their hands won’t last long, not much good for labour. Unless you do as I ask, you’ll likely end up as a toy for some mage or wizard to practice their magic on. So, what will you do? Will you follow my command?”

I could save my hands? My only hope for revenge was to regain my ability to wield my daggers, I could escape any labour camp, I just need my hands.

Struggling to speak I quietly ask, “what do you need me to do?”

“Tsk tsk, you forgot to call me captain Kaitlyn. But I’ll forgive you, just this once, I don’t want you to die on me now. It’s really very simple, all I need you to do is scout the goblin cave for me. Unfortunately, none of my men have a stealth class, all warriors, and I need the goblins alive, or they won’t be very useful. Your job will be to survey the cave, the exact number of goblins, the layout, where they could ambush us, and any other information you think will be relevant to help us capture the goblins alive. Can you do that?”

“Yes, captain Kaitlyn”

She smiled and said “good, Carl tie him up by the horses. I doubt he can escape, but don’t take any chances. I’m going to bed, Eric you can play with the slave girls now, but don’t overdo it. I’ll be sending you, and two others to escort them back to base camp in the morning. It took us a month to travel here, if you damage them too much, they won’t survive the march. That’s all, we move at dawn.”

I watched as Kaitlyn disappeared back into her tent. Carl grabbed my arm and lifted me to my feet. We slowly made our way towards the opposite side of the camp, I struggled with every step.

I Soon found myself laying on the ground, my feet and arms bound and unable to move. I could see Vara and Ashley maybe 5 meters away, the men had already stripped them of their clothes, their arms still bound together behind their backs. They had been forced to their knees and bent over to face my direction.  Eric was behind Ashley fucking her, I strangely felt no pity, only a desire to see all these men dead.

I watched quietly unable to sleep as 8 men were taking turns fucking the girls, Ashley had screamed when Eric forced himself inside her, and another man quickly gagged her to stop her from making any more noise. Vara had never had her gag removed; they were still scared of her casting a spell.

Both girls had tears rolling down their faces, and this is how I spent my night suffering in pain while watching my party being raped before my eyes.

Dawn did finally come, after a night that felt endless. Soon after I saw Kaitlyn dressed in her knightly armor emerge from her tent once again. As soon as she was out, she shouted “get a move on, we have a pack of goblins to capture. Eric get your ass in gear, you two” she pointed at two soldiers close to Eric “you will be escorting the two women back to the main company”

I watched as Eric and the two men saddled up their horses and prepared to leave. Soon they were mounted, Eric had Ashley tied up on his horse sitting in front of him and Vara on another. I watched as they started to fade from view, this will likely be the last time I ever see them. I do truly hope you can escape somehow and kill a few of these bastards for me.

“Alright, time to move out” shouted Kaitlyn “We have some scapegoats to capture”