Through the windows in the room, Richard could see that the sun was beginning to light the sky, but it had not yet crested the horizon. He had woken up hours ago, the girl he had passed out in front of lay about half the cage away, sleeping blissfully. For the first time in a long time, he was in a place of silence. No insects and animals sending out calls in the night, no bumping and bouncing in the back of a wagon, and no titanic elf looking down on him from up high. Alone with his thoughts, he was able to think about the events of the past few weeks, and his thoughts kept coming back to the elven… philosophy when it came to dealing with humans.

It was common knowledge that elves believed themselves to be superior to humans, but Richard never thought they would take it this far. Unless he was mistaken, human and elven intelligence were comparable, so that just left their greater proclivity for the arcane arts and through those arts, their size. Was that really all it took for elves to believe themselves not only to be superior to humans, but some kind of higher form of life? That was a stretch… even for someone as open-minded as him to believe.

But everything he had seen thus far told him that was indeed how elves perceived humans. If he was hundreds of times more massive than an elf, and had a lifespan measured in millennia rather than decades, how would he feel?

This was the topic that Richard had been pondering over the past few hours as he leaned against the miniscule bars of his enclosure; he was unable to move past it despite the length of time he had mulled it over in his mind, because no matter how hard he tried he kept coming to same conclusion. He didn’t know elves, but he knew humans, and if the roles were reversed, humans would act the exact same way.

That thought terrified him. The future of mankind under elven domination looked grim. Humanity being reduced to pets at best and slaughtered wholesale at worse made him, understandably, sick to his stomach.

His life, though? He didn’t know what to feel about his own predicament. Should he be happy that he wasn’t going to be casually cooked or butchered for some meal? Should he do exactly what Galea wants and try to appease her entirely, or try to retain some measure of control over his life?

His eyes flicked over to the young woman imprisoned with him. Her middle rose and fell as she slept. There was no doubt in his mind that “doing what Galea wanted” would involve a lot more women in his life than there had been before. A more lustful man might have salivated at the very thought of it, but Richard had never been a lecher. He had a healthy, if someone reserved, amount of sexual desire and that had been just fine when his primary concern dealt with books and not with members of the opposite sex. He wasn’t sure if he would be able to keep up with his new elven master’s demands.

His thoughts were finally interrupted by the sound of the door in the front room opening and closing, followed quickly by the muffled sounds of movement and commotion coming from the other part of the building. The noise continued for a while, and before long the door to the room he was in opened.

Galea strode through with a cup of some steaming liquid clenched in her grip, her body moved as if on autopilot, fatigue etching creases into her otherwise smooth visage. She strode through the rows of cages, taking a brief glance into each. Richard occasionally heard a few of the others speaking up to her in greeting. Galea didn’t respond, though he did notice that she would sometimes smile at a cage when the reception was particularly warm. He heard no cries or shouts of anger coming from any cages as she did her quick walk through. The girl who had previously been sleeping in his cage began to rouse, yawning and stretching, the ruckus must have woken her up.

Before long, Galea arrived at his cage, a quick glance was all she spared the duo inside as she swept by. Richard didn’t even get a chance to start speaking before she continued down the rows just as rapidly as before. The human girl walked over to him, and he addressed her.

“Does she always do this?”

“I…” the girl began, “I don’t know. This is my first time here.”

Right, Richard remembered, she was taken from the new cage that was picked up while he was on the wagon.

The girl he was speaking to shifted on her feet, staring down nervously and taking deep breaths slowly and with intent. Richard took note. Though, he wasn’t sure what to say, or even if he should say anything. They stood like that for a time, her eyes never leaving the floor, before he finally decided to say something.

“What’s your name, anyway?”

“Oh.” She replied quietly. “Sophia, yours?”

“Richard.”

“It’s not ‘blue’?” She said, finally looking up at him. “Mistress Galea kept calling you that.”

“No, with how frantic yesterday was, I didn’t really think to correct her… Speaking of yesterday, sorry about that, by the way.”

She tiled her head, seeming to relax a bit, “sorry about what?”

“The uhh,” he stammered, “the whole sex thing.”

“Sorry?” Her eyebrows shot up as her tone of voice rose a few notches. “Did you do it wrong? Did I do it wrong?”

“What? No! You did… we did it fine. I’m just sorry for… you know… having to do it to you.”

Her eyes closed as his words processed in her mind, and she sighed in relief. “Don’t scare me like that! I thought I’d messed it up right in front of Mistress Galea!”

“Sorry, sorry, I didn’t mean to scare you. I just wanted to apologize.”

“Apologize? Mistress Galea is a breeder, I should be thanking you for helping me prove I’m a worthy investment.”

Richard masked his feelings of… astonishment, did she just refer to herself as an investment?

“By the way…” she began, “wanna do it again?”

This girl was all the way gone, he thought.

“I’m flattered, but I don’t really want to…”

“Really?” It was her turn to feel astonishment, “that’s sorta weird.”

“Weird?” he queried.

“Yeah, aren’t men supposed to be, like, sex-crazed? Especially wild caughts.”

“What? No! I mean… some might be crazy about sex, but…” he paused for a moment before continuing. “Where did you even hear that from anyway?”

“At Mistress Cassandra’s, where I’m from, we had teachers who used to be breeders. They said men, especially wild caughts, were completely obsessed with sex, wild caughts especially would sometimes get violent if girls resisted…” She continued on. “Actually… when you first woke up I was a little nervous that you might get a bit rough with me, so I was trying to psych myself up a bit…”

Richard stood aghast, horrified, the reason she was nervous earlier was because she thought he was going to rape her? And upon learning that he wasn’t, she relaxed, only to proposition him for sex a minute later?

It was his turn to shift on his feet now. He walked toward the back of the cage, away from the hordes of other cages in the room. He had hoped that the other people trapped her would be a way to help keep himself sane, but if this Sophia was any indication… he wouldn’t be able to rely on any of the elven bred humans.

Sophia leaned over into his vision. Her hair draping down around her shoulders.

“Are you sure you don’t want to?” She reached over and placed one of her arms around his waist.

“Yeah, yeah I’m sure.” He gently removed her arm from him. “Maybe later, but for now I just-”

His voice cut abruptly as a shadow loomed over the two of them. Sophia turned around rather quickly, but Galea spoke before he turned.

“Come on now, Blue! You should be more responsive to the needs and wants of your mates.”

Galea’s voice boomed down at him, he turned to see her grinning, ear to ear, just like the previous day.

“Or,” she continued, “maybe she’s not to your liking? You seemed to like her yesterday, though…”

Sophia glanced nervously at him while Galea gazed down at him, evidently expecting a response. He obliged her.

“She’s… perfectly fine as a partner, I’m just a little tired I suppose.”

“Well, that just won’t do! We’ve got so much to do today after all! I know just what you need.”

Galea turned on her heels and went back to the table at the head of the room. Her enthusiasm stood in abject contrast to how she looked when she walked in a few moments before, and when she returned with a medicine dropper full of liquid, he realized why.

“Coffee.” He said simply, as she dropped some black liquid into the food and water tray on the edge of the cage.

“Yes indeed my little human, now drink up, you’ll need your energy for today.”

“What for?” Richard asked.

“What for?” She echoed back. “Well, today I’m going to give you your first perk for your cooperation from yesterday, are you ready?”

Her voice was sickeningly sweet, she spoke to him like an obedient pet, and it still bothered him despite how much rationalization of elven behavior he’d done earlier.

“Blue? It’s rude to keep a lady waiting.” She insisted.

“Sorry,” he quickly stammered, having forgotten to respond. “Yes, I’m ready.”

“Perfect! Drink up then.”

Sophia stayed where she was while he obediently walked over to the feeder, he leaned over to scoop some coffee into his hands and drank it down. Bitter and lukewarm, it was a welcome change from the water he had been drinking exclusively for over a month now.

“Now up we go.” She said as she quickly popped open the top of his cage and reached in. Richard didn’t resist, allowing her to gently pinch him around his hips and lift him up and out of the cage. The air rushed around him as he hung precariously from her fingers, he noticed that her other hand hovered below him, prepared to catch him should he fall; Within moments, he was hovering over the multi-storied cage from yesterday, the one Sophia had come from, the one absolutely filled with girls.

Galea popped the top open and deposited him inside near a corner on the top floor, shooing away a few women who had been there moments before. Suddenly he was surrounded by whispering and mumbling individuals. Galea wasn’t lying yesterday, all of these girls looked young, healthy, and while beauty was certainly subjective, he found most of them pleasant to look at. They all, almost reflexively, backed away from him and left him standing alone in a space devoid of others, about forty feet in diameter.

The cage was pretty packed before, and it was even more tight now that a void had opened up around him. It didn’t look like any one woman could fully extend her arms without touching or bumping into someone else, but the density didn’t seem to bother them, because all eyes were on him. Some had a similar demeanor as Sophia this morning, looking somewhat anxious, some had a tinge of fear in their eyes at having a male stranger placed in their midst, but others looked at him with eyes full of… desire.

Now he felt the same anxiety as Sophia had this morning. He slowly backed into the corner, his eyes flashing up toward Galea, but her focus was elsewhere; she was threading some kind of string through the bars at waist height. Quickly tieing both ends and creating a sort of demarcating line between him and the rest of the people in the cage.

“Okay!” Galea said triumphantly. “All of you, listen up. Blue here is gonna go through the cage, don’t move across floors and don’t harass him, absolutely no touching and no breeding, and do not cross the line unless told to. Got it? Those of you on the bottom floor finish up and come up.”

“Bottom floor?” He asked.

“Bottom floor is where the latrines are, there’s a waste disposal underneath the cage. Sanitation is important, but don’t worry yourself with that.” She continued, “so here’s your first reward for cooperating! Instead of me picking your mates or just dropping you in here for a few months and letting them mate with you on rotation, I’m going to let you pick! Isn’t that fun? Now go ahead and pick as many as you want, but make sure you get at least twenty or so.”

Richard balked up at her.

“What? You want me to pick for you? I don’t want to leave you in this cage, one male can’t keep up with this many females, it would be bad for your health.”

His words finally returned to him.

“No. I’ll pick, I just… don’t know what to say.”

“How about, ‘thank you Mistress’?” She suggested.

“Umm… well, thank you I suppose?”

“Missing a little bit there, Blue.”

“Thank you Mistress.” He sighed out, what tiny bit of his pride that remained taking yet another beating.

“You’re very welcome! Now be a good boy and pick, I’ll give you an hour or so.”

With that, she stood and left into the other room, leaving him to do as instructed.

He swallowed hard, ducked under the tiny string that was an enormously thick rope from his perspective, and approached the others.