“Where the hell have you gone to now?” The handler, Mayvax, demanded as he entered the room in which some of us potential pets under his care resided. The few of us that were currently in the cushion filled room looked up at him from wherever we lay amongst all the pretty silk pillows and fluffy blankets we shared. He surveyed the room, clearly looking for one of us, but not seeming to spot which one of us he was looking for. His obsidian eyes eventually fell on me and looking less irritated than when he had barged in, righting himself and pushing his straight silvery hair back behind his shoulders. “Ivorix, you are to be prepared for presentation after lunch. Be ready then.” He instructed, then looked around the room again, as if searching each of their faces to ensure Janik was in fact not in the room. “As for the rest of you, if you spot Jenik, tell me or one of your guards.” Then he left us to continue lying about or talking to each other.

“Janik is going to get herself killed someday.” One of the other young women, Salif, sighed and earned a solemn nod from the rest of us in the room listening to her.

One of the several young men, Tephin, piping up after her, “She may as well be a goner, Master Mayvax looked quite cross with her running habits today. Much more than usual at least.”

“She was supposed to be prepared for presentation early this morning, wasn’t she? I wonder if she caught a glimpse of who was interested in her and got frightened.” Another of the young men, Nalik, wondered aloud, then looked over at me, his pale green eyes slightly covered by his short kinky black hair. “You and her are the first of our group to be presented, Ivorix. So, it must be someone very important. Master Mayvax did tell us we were given to him to be presented to nobles and royals once we were of age. But he always wished to save you two for someone of most importance.”

I looked down at the brush I held in my hand, then at myself in the intricate vanity mirror we all share, staring into my bright blue eyes, studying the rich darkness of my skin and the red curls of hair that fall well past my bare shoulders and covers my bare chest. Mayvax always said my complexion was unique and would certainly be one that someone of nobility would want in a pet. It wasn’t something I liked to think about all that much since title of pet has always seemed to be nothing more than another way to call us slaves meant to pleasure their masters, but it was a difficult topic to avoid due to Mayvax clearly favoring me and saving me for someone extremely important.

I sometimes wished I was less unique looking.

If it weren’t for my looks, I wouldn’t be feeling this knot of fear and anxiety in my belly. If Janik was so fearful to run and hide, then of course I would feel such fear. It didn’t help that I would likely end up being gifted to a noble that may not care for how I’d feel, Mayvax himself barely cares about how I feel, and he’s meant to care for us a little.

I tried to stop thinking about my inevitable presentation, but it was made very difficult by everyone in the room asking me if I was excited to finally be presented to someone of nobility. Or if I were nervous to finally feel the pleasures that most of them had felt already from being played with by our guards – something that most of them could get away with due to not being seen as all that important compared to me and Janik and a few others in our group. It hadn’t even occurred to me that I’d be expected to play with my possible new master until they had mentioned it, and it had only made the knot in my belly grow tighter. But I had to pretend I was flustered by the idea because it would have been odd to them if I showed any sort of fear at the idea.

The Varyxan people were large beings, especially compared to myself and most other beings similar to the average human stature, and they were all terrifyingly muscular due to the immense training that they all participated in as youths. And the longer they stayed in military positions or anything similar, the larger they tended to be. Like our guards, who reached at least 7 and a half feet tall and both sets of their fore-arms held together side by side were twice as wide as my torso. It of course made me wonder how larger their cocks were, while also making me fear the possible size of said cocks. And if they were so tall and muscular, I couldn’t imagine how large someone of nobility would be. I had heard and seen in pictures that those in nobility being even more terrifyingly large due to them being in the military for almost all their lives more often than not and simply being genetically superior to the rest of the Varyxan race.

I tried my hardest to take a nap to make the time go by faster, but my nerves made it extremely difficult to do so. My attempt to nap did quiet the rest of the group, at least enough to leave me out of their speculating and wonderings of who I might be presented to at noon.

After hours of silently suffering to myself, a guard was in our room telling me to strip out of my colorfully embroidered hip cloth and put on my short, slightly fluffy, slightly scratchy robe, and informing me that she was to escort me to the baths where we will meet Mayvax.

We were silent as she led me through the halls of our palace-like dwelling, though it seemed she had noticed the tension in my shoulders. “Do not be nervous, you will be fine.” Her monotone attempt to comfort me was sweet, though could have been seen as her looking down on me for being clearly anxious, but I could read the attempt to assure me. Most of the guards didn’t know how to convey tones properly so I never held it against them when they sounded rude or monotone while attempting to comfort us.

After a few turns down the familiar hallways painted in dark blues and blacks with gold accents, we stood in front of the beautiful and intricately designed double doors that lead into the baths. They were a mesmerizing midnight blue speckled with shining silvery spots that made me think of the stars in the night sky, along with colorful celestial clouds around the corners. The framing being a pale gold that made it seem like it a portal to another world. It made me sad to think I may never get to admire them while bathing again after today.

I furrowed my brows in confusion at the sound of multiple voices past the beautiful doors. “I thought we were only meeting Master Mayvax in the baths?” I looked up and caught sight of a similarly confused expression on her face, telling me she was just as unsure of this situation as I was.

“Stand behind me, it doesn’t sound like a fight, but we never know.” Her tone was deadly serious, so I did as I was told, stepping back just enough to be behind her amour clad body. One set of her arms immediately going to her weapons at her waist, while the left arm from her other set went to keep me protected behind her with the right one opening the doors. Her arms dropped the second we got a full view inside the bathing room, dropping down on one knee, her upper set of hands linking behind her back while the other set balled into fists with her knuckles to the tile, head bowed in respect. “My prince, I had not realized we would be graced with your presence so soon.”

I couldn’t help but gawk at the man next to Mayvax, he was at least a head taller than the handler, his pitch-black eyes sharper, his pair of horns that curved towards the back of his head like a wave of deep blue near black water, and his pitch-black hair shaven at the sides and braided in one long braid down to the middle of his back. He was wearing nothing more than a pair of black skintight leggings I’ve seen the guards wear under their armor, his feet and scar riddled abdomen bare while one pair of his thick, muscular arms were crossed over his broad and muscular chest, the other pair either moving as he spoke or resting at his side. Though he had stopped speaking and was now watching me from his spot next to Mayvax. This was one of the sons of the Varyxan emperor, one of the most vicious commanders of the Varyxan armies. ‘Is he who I am to be presented to? Who Mayvax has been saving me for? He looks like he could snap me in half by just touching me.’

I was so lost in thought and the sharp obsidian eyes watching me, that I hadn’t realized Mayvax had come up to me until I felt one of his ring clad hands back handing me, forcing a yelp from my throat, and another of his hands grabbing me by the back of the neck to shove me down to my knees to bow, shocking me out of my trance completely. “You bow to your prince.” He growled at me as he shoved my face close to the floor when I put a hand over my now throbbing cheek.

“Get your damn hands off what is mine!” The enraged voice that came out of the prince was so deep and booming that it shook me to my very core and seemed to shake Mayvax as well, his rough hold disappeared from the back of my neck so quickly that it felt like it was still there after a few moments of it being gone.

I glanced off to the side to see Mayvax kneeling completely with his palms to the floor and his forehead nearly touching the tile in apology, his three short and pointed horns touching the floor for a moment before he lifted his head again to meet the prince’s piercing glare. “I apologize, my prince, but his lack of respect for your status was unforgivable.”

With a glance over to the prince, Mayvax’s excuse for touching me only seemed to make his glare sharper and angrier. “That does not give you the right to touch what is mine. If I had wished for him to be punished for not bowing, I would do so myself. Feel lucky that I don’t cut your hands off for touching him.” With the slightest turn of his head, the prince was meeting my gaze and gestured with one of his hands for me to stand. “Come, you were to bathe here, yes? Then you shall do so. Everyone else will leave us to our privacy.” It was silent for a few moments while I took slow strides towards the large pool of pleasantly warm water, light wisps of steam coming up from the crystal blue water. “I said out!” The prince suddenly roared, causing me to jump and turn to see Mayvax being pulled up from the floor by the guard that had escorted me here, watching as she drags him out of the bathing room harshly by the arm, the doors slamming shut behind them.

I stood in shock of the situation for a few moments. He had just gotten angry with me for disrespecting the prince, yet he stood there and disrespected him by not listening to his orders. I shook my head a little and stripped myself of my robe, letting it fall into a small pile onto cool tile floor just before I step into warm crystal blue pool. Wading my way through until I was chest deep into the relaxing warm water, my curly red hair trailing behind me, floating at the surface of the water like a train. I close my eyes and let myself sink down further into the water, tilting my head back to quickly submerge my hair and face, raising my hands to push my hair back just before feeling a large pair of hands do so for me. They were surprisingly gentle as they wring the water out of my now weighed down curls. I hadn’t even realized the prince had followed me into the pool. Wiping the water from my face, I peak my eyes open and glance over my shoulder to see what he’s doing, but all he seemed to be doing was inspecting my hair.

“I’ve never seen a human with your skin tone have such red hair or such blue eyes.” His voice was just as surprisingly gentle as his hands, especially after how he spoke to Mayvax just moments ago. “I can see why that handler had refused to offer you to anyone else. You are certainly far too beautiful to be handed over to anyone less than royalty.” I couldn’t tell exactly what was going on in his mind as he made these observations, but I didn’t sense any possible danger. “What is your name?” He finally asks, his eyes flicking up to meet mine.

“It’s Ivorix, master.” I responded in the way I was taught, confused by the slightest glimpse of a grimace on his face, but was gone so quickly that I couldn’t be sure if it actually happened. I wanted to ask why he seemed to grimace, but I wasn’t sure if that would go well for me.

He watches me for a few long moments before deciding to speak again. “I would prefer you refer to me as sir or by my name. Being your master implies that you are a slave, but that’s not what you are.” He explained it to me as if I weren’t being treated the same as a slave, but that didn’t make much sense to me. While slaves weren’t decorated the same way we are, nor were they preserved and offered up like we are, we were still punished harshly when we disobeyed – though for us it sometimes felt worse because Mayvax made sure that those he tended to punish would be hurt for days, but make sure there were never outward marks left. And we were used and trained to be nothing more than a source of pleasure for our master’s pleasure. And thinking about it only made me worry for my future serving this terrifyingly large man standing in front of me. “Why are you making such a distraught expression?”

I shook my head a little to clear the worried thoughts racing through my mind and turn away from him in hopes to hide any lingering distress that I hadn’t even realized I was showing on my face, but one of his hands had grabbed hold of my chin just hard enough to cause me to flinch as he forced me to look up at him. “I-I’m sorry, sir. It’s nothing, I-I’m sorry.” I couldn’t help the fearful tremble in my voice, closing my eyes so that if he decided to strike me like Mayvax had I wouldn’t have to see it coming. But his hand disappears from my chin just as quickly as it had grabbed it and nothing else happens, hesitantly peaking my eyes open just in time to catch his retreating back and nude body exiting the pool. “Mas- uh…sir?”

“You finish bathing, I’ll send my other… pet. They will assist you in drying off and with clothing you.” He tells me as he dries off and quickly redresses himself in his very regal sliver accented deep blue armor, leaving without another word to me. But I did as I was told and continued with my bathing process, glancing back at the doors every few seconds to see if he would come back, or if Mayvax would come back. But neither did.

I was left alone. For the first time in my life, I was left completely alone. It was an odd feeling to not be surrounded by the others in my group, since we would usually bathe together. According to Mayvax it was to keep us used to being constantly surrounded by other pets and that we would only bathe separately when it was time for us being presented to a potential master, though I’ve started to suspect he only does so because he makes his own personal pets bathe all together. But this quiet privacy was nice and certainly something I’d like to experience more if I can. Not that actually I expect to be given this quiet privacy again.