The Slave

I belong to no man

description: slavery has been outlawed in Araluen; however, there are still those few that own them, and of course there are illegal slave traders. what happens when King Duncan and his group come upon a young slave that has them all falling in love with him, even the emotionless Halt? a young slave has somehow found himself to be the company of the king and some of his men, what will happen to him? and just exactly who it this slave?

warning: punishment of slave, mentions of inappropriate touching, blood, memories, beatings, and so on. ALMOST RAPE!

disclaimer: all known characters belong to author, John Flanagan! not me!

Ok, so I've decided to go ahead and do the compromise version;because A, it will please almost everyone: B, it's my fav: C, it will make the story longer: and D, my niece read this and wanted that version. have any of you every tried to say no to a six year old girl when she's giving you those big cow eyes and that damn pout? it's not easy.

Halt's POV:

"will you shut up?" I asked tautly.

Horace shrugged in apology. "I'm sorry" he said, "I sneezed. A person can't help it when they sneeze."

"Perhaps not. but you could try to make it sound a little less like an elephant trumpeting in agony"*1

"lighten up a little halt, the visit was a success, we got the treaty and we haven't even been attacked this trip." Gilan said with a smile, and I quickly turned my glare to him.

"Gilan, how many times have I told you not to say something like that, I won't be surprised if we are attacked before the day is over." I snapped at him, making sure my face is emotionless.

my name is Halt, I'm an Araluen Ranger. I am originally from Clonmel, but I came to Araluen when I was a young teen, running after I faked my death. I'm traveling with Araluens King, Duncan, who had to travel to a neighboring country to create a treaty before a war broke out. the trip has so far gone off without a hitch, we got there with no trouble, the treaty was signed, and now we are on our way back to Castle Araluen. our party consists of Me and my fellow rangers Gilan, my former apprentice, and Crowley, the Rangers Commandant. Horace, a battle school student who has shown himself to be able to already protect the king, and sir Rodney, the battle-master of Redmont. King Duncan, and about fifteen of his best knights.

"Halt, is we are attacked or we find trouble before the day is out, I'll cook dinner for the whole camp tonight." Gilan said, then he began to laugh not thinking it would actually happen. "come on Halt, loosen up a li..."

he didn't get to finish as Crowley put his hand over his mouth and make a shushing motion towards every one. he looked at me and pointed towards the meadow to our right. and as he did I smelt blood. Crowley, Gilan, and I shared a look before turning towards our company.

"be quiet, be ready. we don't know what is ahead of us, but we need to be prepared." Crowley said, he looked at King Duncan. "My Lord, it might be best if you were to stay here with guards as we check it out."

"I'm perfectly capable of taking care of myself in a fight." he told Crowley, "but some one might need our help and us standing here arguing isn't going to help 'um."

as he finished I had to fight to hide my grin (A/N, Halt is a bit OC ish). anyone that knew Duncan knew that he wouldn't stay back and let others fight when someone was in need, especially when it was in his own kingdom.

"Crowley" that's all I needed to say for him to see that he wasn't going to win, so he nodded. I turned slightly towards Gilan "looks like you'll be making dinner tonight."