A few hours later, Galea waited patiently in the now significantly more tidy front storage room. May had cleaned the room while Galea drilled Blue about manners and proper etiquette when dealing with nobles and their pets. Before today, she worried that Blue wouldn’t take to the quick instructions, she was worried that he would act out like how he had on that first day, but much to her surprise he seemed… oddly cooperative. He paid attention and did everything he was told without backtalk or resistance. She wasn’t sure what caused his adjustment in attitude, but she certainly wasn’t going to complain about it.

Maybe it was the time he spent with the females? She would have to test that with uncooperative wild caughts in the future… just drop them in with some mates and let them vent their stresses for a few weeks….

Galea shook her head to refocus, Lady Vanoux would be here any minute, and she had to make sure everything was good enough if this was going to be a successful day.

First, she checked the room itself. May had done an incredible job of tidying it up, but it was still very obviously a storage room. Normally, such an environment would be wildly inappropriate for hosting a noble, even one of relatively low stature such as Lady Vanoux; but, normally Lady Vanoux wouldn’t be coming to the sessions, content to simply send a maid and her pet instead. She was only coming this first time to make sure Blue was up to snuff.

Speaking of Blue, he stood, clothed in a bright golden garb, on top of a white tablecloth placed atop the table that sat in the middle of the room. He had seemed surprised when presented with clothes, but happily accepted them anyway. The nobility loved to dress their humans up into outfits, so Galea was just playing along to help make Blue seem a bit more prim and proper.

Galea sighed in relief and straightened her back, it wasn’t perfect, it was still a somewhat murky storage room and Blue was certainly no prim and proper pet, but it was good enough for a simple studding session. Now all they had to do was wait.

Blue shifted on his feet some, but otherwise stayed where he was. Galea simply watched the clock on the wall tick toward the meeting time Lady Vanoux had agreed to.

Two minutes before the appointment time, the front door opened and Lady Vanoux strode through the entryway. Her long silver hair was drawn up into a bun, and she wore a simple purple dress. Her features were hawkish and tempered with age. Behind her came a much younger lass, but one that shared her features, a daughter, Galea realized. Lady Vanoux was probably on the upper end of child bearing years, in her 4th or 5th century, perhaps. But the young girl coming in behind her couldn’t be a day over sixty.

“Lady Vanoux! Welcome to my store!” Galea began, standing quickly and bowing deeply.

Normally, a merchant such as Galea wouldn’t need to prostrate herself to a minor noble so extremely, but Galea saw no harm in starting off the relationship with respect.

Galea raised her head, and saw Lady Vanoux’s face just as hawkish as before, but softened ever so slightly.

“Galea, thank you for your welcoming words.” Lady Vanoux’s speech was like silk laced steel. Galea did everything she could to conceal her grimace, nobles always made her a little bit nervous, but she spoke with a calm tone regardless.

“Please, please take a seat! I will have to get another chair for…” Galea looked toward the younger girl.

“Zella, my daughter.” Lady Vanoux replied, picking up on Galea’s implied question. “Do not trouble yourself with finding another chair.” Lady Vanoux declared as she sat and pulled her daughter onto her lap before continuing.

“Zella has been wanting to breed our pet human for years now, I tasked her with finding a suitable stud… and she found your letter to us.

“It was in the junk mail! So I- ow!” Zella piped up happily before Lady Vanoux pinched her arm.

“We mustn’t speak out of turn, Zella.”

“Yes mother…”

Lady Vanoux turned back to Galea, clearing her throat before continuing, “So there you have it, shall we get to it then? I see you have him already prepared…” Her eyes fell upon Blue for the first time. “I must admit, I didn’t think humans could have such… colorful features, but Zella was absolutely infatuated with the idea of a bright haired pet.”

Zella brought her face down to the table close to Blue, his own miniscule stature barely coming up to her lower lip. He gave a deep bow, as Galea had taught him a few hours ago.

“Mother look! It’s really blue!”

“Yes, I can see that darling… how old are you, boy?”

“Twenty-three, mistress.” Blue said, keeping his head down in his bow. His voice giving away no hints of apprehension or nervousness.

“Polite too, for such a recent wild caught, your letter said he was caught two months ago?”

“Yes, mistress.” Galea replied.

“Then he hasn’t sired any offspring yet, how do you know the coloration is a genetic trait?”

Galea tensed, the all or nothing question. “I don’t, Lady Vanoux, which is why I offered such a rare specimen’s services at such a low price.”

“I would not call one hundred gold pieces a ‘low price’ for something as simple as a studding service.” Lady Vanoux countered.

“Lady Vanoux, this human is a unique creature, you said yourself that you had never seen one like it before, and if it is genetic then your investment will be well worth it. She paused a moment before continuing. “And… even if the coloration is not genetic, this is still a virile and healthy young male, any litter he helps sire will be well happy and healthy.

The noblewoman paused for a moment, a look of silent contemplation on her face.

“I’ll pay you fifty gold coins up front and then fifty once the offspring has been proven to have the same appearance. An untested service shouldn’t demand such a price, no matter how rare.”

Galea was silent for a moment, it didn’t look like Lady Vanoux would budge, but could Galea really get away with charging only fifty gold pieces up front? This single studding wasn’t what she was too worried about, more the precedent that it set. Word always gets around, and if other noblewomen were to find out that Lady Vanoux only paid fifty gold…

But, Galea thought some more, she would still get the second half of her payment at the end once Lady Vanoux’s pet had her litter. The upfront gold would help give her studding service some legitimacy as well….

Galea made up her mind.

“I accept your suggestion, fifty gold up front, with the rest paid when the offspring is delivered.”

“If the offspring has the same coloration.” Lady Vanoux quickly corrected.

“If the offspring has the same coloration, of course.” Galea echoed back to her hastily.

“Excellent.” Lady Vanoux declared as she carefully reached into her shawl and retrieved a miniscule cage, designed more to keep its occupant safe than to prevent escape, and placed it directly in front of Blue. Inside was a young woman, flaxen haired, wrapped in the silky, pompous clothes that nobility often dressed their pets up in.

“I have other business to attend to in the commercial district, as Marisa is Zella’s pet, let her handle the studding. I’ll be back in an hour to collect them, human matings don’t take longer than that, do they?”

“No, we should actually be able to get a multiple in during that time, no problem.” Galea stated, she was the expert after all.

“Excellent, be good, dear.” Lady Vanoux commanded to her daughter before depositing a small bag of gold onto the countertop, and left the store, leaving her daughter and her pet with Galea and hers.

“Sooo, Zella right? Shall we get started?”

“Okay!” The young girl gave a toothy grin, “Marisa! Come out!”

Her voice boomed, the child either had never learned that it was best to speak quietly around humans to not frighten them, or simply didn’t care.

Her pet, Marisa, seemed to be used to it though, so she didn’t flinch or hesitate as she quickly exited the cage and stood in front of it, eyeing Blue warily from a distance.

“So what do we do now?” Zella queried.

“Well… we don’t really do anything, we just let them do what they need to do, have you had the lesson on the birds and the bees in school, Marisa?” Galea cautiously prodded.

“Oh, yeah! It’s how animals make more animals, right?”

“That’s right! Humans are just a kind of special, talking animal, so they do the same thing.” Galea responded, matching Zella’s excitement and enthusiasm with her own, though she tried to keep her voice down a bit. “Why don’t we go make some tea and let them started on their own?” She kindly suggested.

“Hmmm… okay.”

Galea smiled at her before turning to address Blue.

“Well, you heard Lady Vanoux, you’ve got an hour so try to shoot for two or three matings before she gets back.”

“Yes, mistress.” Blue replied dutifully.

------------------------------------------------------------

A brief minute later, Richard watched Galea and the elven child chattering about as they prepared tea in the corner of the room. His diminished size made them seem to be much further away than just across the room; previously, such an observation would fill him with unease, but he was beginning to get used to the scale of his new life.

He turned and looked toward the elven girl’s pet, he didn’t have time to dally, so he took a few steps toward her and started an introduction.

“Hello, I’m Richard, you’re Marisa, right?”

“Yes…” she took a step back as he took a step toward her.

Richard frowned, he took another step toward her, and she took another step back. He stopped for a moment, before taking another step toward her, only for her to back away again.

“Are you alright?” He asked cautiously.

She didn’t respond, instead opting to look everywhere in the room but at him. He frowned and examined her more closely. She was a small thing, not quite as young as the farm raised women back in his cage, but not old or anything, she was probably around his age. Her gaze met his for the briefest of moments before she averted her eyes again. Her body was tense, and her arms were wrapped around herself, as if trying to hide beneath the silk of her clothing.

She was terrified, he realized.

“You’ve never done this before, have you?” He queried.

She looked down toward her feet, choosing to not respond to his question.

“Hey… it’s pretty easy, I won’t hurt you or anything, but we need to get started or we’re both going to be in trouble…”

She didn’t reply, and he watched her gaze flick over toward the two giantesses with their backs turned to them.

“Mistress Zella wants me to have children.” The girl stated plainly.

“Well… yes that’s why I’m here, why don’t you let me help you do that?” Richard replied, carefully trying to coax her into opening up a bit more.

“I don’t want children…” The girl murmered out as she shook her head, casting her gaze onto the tabletop again. Just in time for the two giantesses to turn and walk toward them, a cup of tea and saucer clasped in each of their hands. Galea massive hips stopped at the end of the table as she frowned at him from up on high.

“What’s the holdup?” She didn’t sound angry, at least not yet.

“Mistress… I don’t think she wants to do this.” He demonstrated his point by taking a few steps toward the other human, only for her to once again take the same number of steps away from him.

Galea was silent for a moment, but before she could speak her attention was drawn toward the young elf piping up.

“Umm, is something wrong?” Zella asked innocently.

“A tiny bit, sweetie, it looks like your pet doesn’t want to be mated with. I have a fix though, if we have your permission.”

“Umm, can I talk to her first? In private, she’ll listen to me.”

“Of course.” Galea quietly reached down and placed her open palm in front of Richard for him to get on. Even pressed flat against the table, the top of her hand came up over half his height. As soon as he finished climbing into her palm, he felt the air rush around him as Galea carried him to the breeding room's doorway before she paused to turn and address Zella one more time.

“Just let me know when you’re ready, okay sweetie?”

“Yes ma’am!”

In the breeding room, Galea sat down at her work table and let Richard jump off her hand before leaning back in her chair and letting loose a tensed breath.

“Mistress?” Richard probed tentatively.

“Hmm?” She rumbled in reply.

“What was the fix you were talking about?”

“Oh, there are magics that exist that can induce coitus, but as you’re a trained male, forced copulation is actually what I had in mind. It’s pretty common in human breeding.” She stated matter-of-factly, as Richard felt the blood leave his face. “You’ve only mated with farm bred females, but it’s actually standard practice to have some trained males break in any unwilling females. Zella’s pet is no different, I’ll just let her know how these things work and get her approval.”

An eerie silence was all he gave as a reply. At this point, he didn’t even feel surprised how Galea just nonchalantly mentioned mass rape as a common practice, but it did serve to remind him that this new world he found himself in wasn’t just some sexcapade adventure. If he ever stopped being useful… he would be thrown away just as quickly as those women were thrown to the metaphorical wolves.

Up until now, all he had to do to stay useful was have sex with women of his choosing, which was dehumanizing, demeaning, and humiliating, but not… entirely unpleasant. This, though? Being the aggressive partner in ‘forced copulation’… Richard was no rapist, but what choice did he have?

He looked up at Galea as she had begun idly tinkering with a small cage between her fingers, hoping behind hope that in the other room the young elven girl was having luck convincing that girl to go along with all this.