Richard stepped forward with a bit of hesitance. What did Galea expect him to do, make some kind of harem? Go around oggling girls up and picking them at random? Were they even okay with it? He shook his head to clear his thoughts. If Sophia was an indicator these girls were probably far more willing than he was, so he didn’t have to worry about that, but walking amongst them and picking whoever he fancied, like shopping at a market, struck him as objectifying to an extreme degree.

He sighed for what felt like the hundredth time. This was choice, agency, he had to do as Galea said… but at least she gave him some small degree of freedom in how he did as she wished. With that thought in his head, he moved forward a bit more confidently.

Soon he was walking amidst everyone else. They parted ahead of him to give him space and abide by Galea’s command to not interfere with his search, but now that he was close enough he could finally hear the content of their hushed whispers

“Wow, he’s tall.”

“He has such a flat chest…”

“Is that what I think it is? That little wobbly thing?”

Their comments made him feel more naked than before, even if he had already been fully nude since being captured. Galea’s gaze often felt more like a god looking down at him, and other humans he’d been in contact with hadn’t regarded his nude form as a curiosity, but these women hadn’t ever been this close to a man before, so their curious eyes swept him from foot to forehead, whipsering all the while.

A series of ladders connected each of the floors, and he decided to start from the bottom up. He descended three ladders only to arrive at floors filled with occupants. As he went down his fourth ladder he reached the bathrooms, if one could call them that. They were essentially a series of open holes in the ground. There was a bit of flowing water in a large but shallow tub in the corner, for washing most likely, but otherwise it was a cramped, and while not filthy, it was certainly less pristine than the rest of the enclosure.

He quickly ascended the ladder back up to the second floor and got to work. There were four floors and he had to get at least twenty girls, so he began in earnest.

He walked through the floor, he was being given a wide berth, but now that he had been with them for more than a few minutes most of them were getting used to his prescense. Some were even starting to speak with him.

“Hello.”

“Do you want through his way? Here we can move over a bit.”

“Hey! Why is your hair blue?”

Richard almost smiled at that one, some things never changed.

He locked eyes with a girl, black hair, a little shorter than him, a little thinner than Sophia.

“Hello.” He stated.

“Umm, hello.” She replied meekly.

He looked her over, he didn’t want to appraise her like some piece of meat, but if he was going to do this… he might as well pick girls that he was actually interested in.

“Could you come with me? Galea asked me to pick some, uh, mates and I was wondering if you wanted to be one.”

She didn’t say anything, merely nodding her head.

“Okay, thank you, just follow me for a bit, while I pick some more.”

These rest of his time in the cage passed in a similar fashion, he would approach a girl that he liked the look of, ask if she was okay with coming along, and she would accept. Not a single one refused, he made sure to avoid the lusty eyed ones like a plague, he didn’t want to risk it, there would still be more of them in his cage than he could reasonably stop should they get any ideas.

Sometime later he had finished. The group of young women he had picked waited behind the rope with him, he chose twenty-three, he didn’t want to select the absolute minimum Galea told him to, lest he anger her in some way.

They waited like that for a short while, the whispering having evolved to full blown conversation in the cage, but most of those behind the rope whispered if they spoke at all. For them this was likely a nerve wracking experience, an unknown man comes through what is your home and picks you to go rail you repeatedly until you’re pregnant? If it was him he’d be terrified, but if any of them felt anything beyond nerves they didn’t show it.

Galea finally returned, placed something onto her table beside them and peered down at them.

“Now let’s see… that’s…. twenty-three females you picked? This all you want?”

“Yes, this many is fine.”

“Alright, if you want, I can let you pick some more if you get bored of this couple dozen in a few weeks… Say, why are they all shorter than you? Feeling a bit insecure are we?”

Richard looked over the girls he had picked, women in general weren’t usually taller than him, but he noticed that he hadn’t actually picked a single girl that was taller than him.

Richard shrugged and looked up at Galea. “You’re tall enough for the lot of us.”

Galea bit her lip with a half smirk. “Actually, I’m pretty short for an elf.”

“Oh? And you spend all day around humans a hundredth your size? So who’s the insecure one?” He asked, interacting somewhat playfully with her for the first time.

“Watch your tongue there, Blue!” She replied back, the slightest tone of mirth in her voice. “I’ve known some ladies to smoosh their pet humans for less!”

She was obviously not actually offended, but he was certain that some elves had indeed killed people for saying less. His own feelings of mirth deadend slightly at the thought.

Galea didn’t take note of his change in demenor and happily declared, “Well, let’s get you all moved then!” Her hand descended into the cage and everyone began climbing aboard; even flat against the ground, her hand was about as tall as they were. Richard had to help a few of the girls up onto Galea’s palm. Touching and pushing against them, he tried not to think about how much more physical they were going to get soon, he didn’t want to pop a stiffy in front of Galea if he could help it.

Everyone aboard, Galea quickly moved them all back to his original cage. As her hand touched down inside his cage he felt a tinge of relief at no longer being packed tight like sardines. Most of the women seemed less nervous now that Galea was instructing them to do things instead of having to follow around some man they’d never met before. Galea cleared her throat and every one of them looked up at her, reverentely.

“Alright girls, Blue here is special, the weird hair color and all, so you’re all going to help introduce the trait into the population! Sounds fun, right? He’s freshly wild-caught, but unlike a lot of other wild caughts he is actually apprehensive to breed instead of overly eager, so coax him into it. Do a good job, this is your first responsibility at my farm and I expect you’ll all do as I say.

A chorus of voices replied “Yes, Mistress” back to her, but Richard just looked up at her incredulously.

“I’m right here you know!”

Galea smiled down at him, “Oh I know, and now you know what I expect of you too. I’ll even do you another favor! I won’t stand here and watching you breed all day! You can get some of that privacy you wanted! I’ll check at the end of each day to make sure you’re outputting, but otherwise you’ll have your own private cage. Aren’t I nice?”

“Galea…” he began.

“Mistress Galea, to you.”

“Mistress Galea,” he began again “it’s not exactly private if there are more than twenty strangers watching…”

She snorted. “Trust me, you won’t be strangers for long, but I do have something that could help. Wait just a moment!”

Galea turned on her heels and into the front room of the building, she quickly returned with what looked like a small box, it was so small she held it between two of her fingers, she reached in and placed it in the corner of the cage.

It was a tiny… house. It had a rudimentary hole for an entrayway, and a piece of cloth draped over it. It was maybe ten feet on each side, with no roof.

“Ta-dah! What do you think?” Her smile larger than the house itself.

Richard looked up at Galea, “I thought you said no privacy?”

“No privacy from me,” she corrected, “you’ll notice there isn’t a roof; I can still see you fine, but if this will make you more comfortable… then picking it up from the pet store will be worth it.”

“I… um, thank you.”

She gave him a brief smile, and then she left without another word, walking back over to her desk to do… whatever it was she did as a human breeder, some papers came out and she started to read.

And so he was alone with his new… roommates. Most of them were taking stock of their new home. Floor made of some kind of soft material, a food and water feeder in the corner, and a few streams of water entering from the top of the cage and exiting from the bottom for sanitation. It was rudimentary, but enough to do what Galea wanted them to do.

“Umm, Blue, right?” One of the girls piped up. “Shall we get started?”

He turned toward the girl who spoke up, a brunette on the more voluptuous side, she was flanked by the shorter black haired girl, the first one he had picked.

“Richard, actually, she just likes to call me Blue.”

“Well, Richard then,” the brunette continued, “I don’t think any of us want to keep the mistress waiting, so shall we start?”

He sighed, having spent what felt like hours surrounded by naked women he was certainly in the mood, but…

“Food first,” he said as his stomach growled to prove his point.

The brunette shrugged, and turned on her heels toward the food bowls. The black haired girl smiled at him, rosy cheeked, before turning to follow.