Like Lambs To The Slaughter 

Ghost
******

It was there again. Right at the edge of her dream. 

So close. 

Ghost woke with a start and sat up in the bed she shared with her mate.
Drenched in sweat, her lungs working hard at drawing in enough air to fight
her fear.

"It's the dream again love," Mc'key asked, as he moved to take her in his arms. 

Ghost nodded, and snuggled into the strong arms holding her. "I was so close
this time. I was sure of it... but then just like before when I got to the
cave to look inside... the blackness came and the pain in my head right
after it."

"You're trying to hard love," Key soothed her, stroking her hair, his voice
a smooth caress as he tried his best to calm her down from the dream. 

They were coming with more frequency now then when they started right after
the Queen egg was stolen, and neither of them had any clue why she was
having the same the recurring dream. At first she just blew it off and
didn't say anything about them to him. But then one night she woke him up
with a scream as the pain hit her and she woke from the dream.

"Maybe you should go in and talk to Kelly. See if she might be able to help
you figure out what the dreams mean," he told her. 

"Maybe I will. Because I can't go on this way. I need to find out why I'm
having this dream and find out what's stopping me from finding out what's in
that dark cave," she muttered and let him draw her back down onto the bed.
His hand guiding her head to rest on his wide chest.

"Tell me about the dream love," he asked slowly, his hand continuing to
stoke her hair. "Maybe if you talk about it and tell me what you're feeling
while you in the dream... it'll help."

She laid there letting his touch ease the worst of her fears. As long as she
could feel him there beside her she knew the dream couldn't hurt her.

"It always starts out the same way," she began and he knew she was back in
the dream. But this time she was awake. 

Mc'key laid there and listen, letting her get it all out.

"I'm out on the green with Kiki... we're at a training class and I'm
learning how to oil her.... she's enjoying what I'm doing to her... I can
almost hear her purring as I rub the oil into her warm hide... Funny.. I can
feel how warm her skin is... I can sense others around me and see myself
laughing at something the girl next to me has said... Then things start to
change...."

Her body started to shake, her breath labored as she fought to go on.

"How do they start to change love," Key asked, pulling her closer to his
side to remind her he was there and she was safe.

"I'm drawn to a cave... Somehow I know I've been here before but I don't
remember when... nor where it is... something is calling for me to move
forward... towards the mouth of the cave... I'm scared... I don't want to go
but this thing calling me won't let me leave... it keeps calling out to
me... and I keep moving closer and closer to the entrance... then I'm there
... standing just out side. Part of me wants to turn and run away but the
other part wants to move forward and find this thing calling me..."

She stopped then, snuggled closer to him, one hand absentmindedly moving to
caress the soft hairs on his chest. 

"That's as far as I'm able to go... I move to enter the cave but I can't see
anything... everything goes black and the more I try to push it... that's
when the pain comes... It's like... like... something is in there doesn't
want me to find out what it is... But I have to Key... I have to! It's the
only way the dreams will end."

Ghost was so caught up in the telling that she failed to notice the look of
almost panic that came over her lovers face. 

She may not know what was in that cave but he did.

And wished he didn't. 

Kelly had said to give her time. To let her mind decide when she was ready
to learn the truth... 

Lady Dellanie
***************

"I'm a little concerned about Ghost and don't know what to do," Dellanie
heard the young man saying as he sat next to her on the sofa in the family
room of the manor.

"Is something wrong with my daughter Key?" the woman asked, suddenly
concerned for the girl. 

"She's starting to remember..." he commented and wrung his hands together.
"She's been having dreams about what happen and they all end up in the cave
where ... where Saz was buried."

"She doesn't know what happened then?" the girl's mother asked. "Doesn't
remember the wilder?"

"No.. But I think I convinced her to go in and see Kelly. Maybe she can
figure out what to do."

Dellanie leaned over and took his hand, squeezing it until he looked up at her. 

"I don't think we really have that much to worry about with her now Key...
No let me explain. I know I wasn't there when it happened... but back then
Bashie was a totally different person then she is today. She's grown so much
since the truth of her birth became public knowledge and she became mates
with you."

"There's been less stress in her life because she doesn't have to
continually watch what she says and has stopped looking over her back....
maybe that's why she's having the dreams now. Maybe it's her bodies way of
finally thinking she's ready to know the truth."

"Maybe.. " he said doubt laced his words. "But I will tell you that it
relieves me to no end that she joined with Kikeane. The bond between them is
strong and I think that bond will be the only thing that keeps her from
falling apart when she learns the truth of Saz's death that day."

Saz... the wider who'd for some reason known only to herself, had taken a
liking to the young waif Ghost had been pretending to be back then. The
dragon had protected the girl and the two of them had become close. 

That closeness hadn't ended when Ghost had joined with the small pink
hatchling Kikeane...it ended when the cave the wilder had taken for her own,
collapse, trapping the dragon inside... and at the same minute Ghost,
training with the hatchling, collapsed on the green.. and when she finally
came to sometime later, all memory of the Wilder had been erased from her
memory. 

At the time everyone had thought it kinder to let her forget.

Now Dellanie was wondering how smart that had been.

"You'll let me know what happens and keep me informed in anything should
change? I'll be ready to go back to Geode if you think she'll need me. "

"I will."

Ghost
******

"I tell you it's getting harder and harder to sneak away from the Warren
before Key knows I'm gone," Ghost was telling Karine later after the two had
meet before their second patrol of the day. 

"I swear he wants to know where I'm going and when I'll be back. And I'm not
sure if it's because he's worried about the dreams I'm having or.. if he
suspects we started going out on our own again."

"Maybe we should put a hold on anymore patrols for a while until he gets
over it," her friend commented. 

"We might as well since we haven't been able to find anything worth
reporting back," she said, hating to give up so soon or easy, but the trips
they had been taking lately had proven to be a giant waste if time. 

Nothing was moving out there. At least nothing they could see. Why not take
a few days off... she could really use the rest. 

"We might as well go one home now," Karine told her, understanding how her
friend felt. 

"Yea.. "  Ghost agreed. Taking one last look around the area. "Let's go home."

Lorna
*******

She cringed back against the wall of her tiny room when she heard a key
being inserted in the lock and watched in horror as the door was pushed
open, then quickly lower her eyes as she'd been taught to do before they saw
her looking at them.

Two men stepped inside and she knew it was time for another lesson...
Gods... When would it ever end.

Knowing it would only cause her more pain if she defied them, the girl got
up when the first man motion for her too, and came to stand before them. 

She stood there near tears as the leather collar was placed around her neck
and the lead chain was snapped into place. Then followed after them as they
led her out of the room and into the hall where the two other females  were
waiting with their *teachers*. 

Lorna didn't dare to look at them. She knew better and had the half healed
scars on her back as a reminder. 

She really didn't need to look at them, because she already knew what she
would have seen.

Like her, the other two were dressed in the white worship dresses they'd
been forced into wearing since they were brought here that first night and
striped of all their own personal belongings. 

The dresses... two long pieces of fabric, tied at the shoulders and held
together by a belt at their waist, was the only thing they had been allowed
to keep.

It was all they were worthy enough to posses, they had been told by their
teachers time and time again as their lessons had begun. Lesson's they soon
learned quickly or faced punishment of the worst kind.

The first lesson they had learned was that being born female... they were
nothing. Animal's there only to serve their Lord and Master.  The Chosen
one. His word was law and they were to obey it without question.. or face
punishment. 

Lorna... always an outspoken girl.. soon learned just how painful and
humiliating the male form of punishment of a woman could be. 

For days after her first show of defiance, she was beaten and raped
repeatedly until she considered thoughts of taking her own life just to end
the pain. 

But even this simple act had been denied her. For when she was alone, she
had been bond hand and foot, to the corners of her small cot. Knots tied by
a man who knew how to tie them. 

She soon learned that things went a little easier for her if she just
submitted and did what she was told to do. 

All three of them had gone though the same lessons. Kriya had been the first
to give in... and now stood there in a new clean dress. Lorna's was a week
old and getting tread-barren. 

"Move!" her teacher ordered and pulled hard on her collar when she didn't
move quick enough for him. She was choking and trying hard to drawl in air
as she scrambled to her feet. 

"This one won't be ready in time," the first teacher complained as they led
the three females down the hall and into a room they had never been in before. 

"She'd better be," the second teacher told him. "Or it'll be our asses in a
bind."

"It'll be her ass feeling the pain if the bitch doesn't show her respect and
submit herself to the Chosen one,"
he gave the girl's collar another hard yank to be sure she had understood them. 

Then the collar was removed and she stood there helplessly as the white
covering was torn for her body and she was pushed before them and into yet
another room. 

In the middle of the room was a large tub. Steam drifted up from the warmth
of the water filling it. Soapy bubbles cascaded over the side, and it was
there the three of them were ordered to go.

"Into the water and clean yourselves up."

Without thinking, Lorna took the steps that led her to the tub and slowly
climbed in and had to fight back the tears forming in her eyes as the heated
water stung the strap cuts on her back. 

But to be clean ... really clean for the first time in over a month (she was
guessing at the time) was worth the pain. 

Even the humiliation of being watched by the males in the room, was beyond
her now. They had left her with little in the way of humility. Striping away
layer after layer until there was nothing left but a shell of her former self. 

What was left was owned by the Chosen one. She was now his to do with what
he wanted. If she served him well she would live to fill what ever roll he
had chosen for her. 

If not... 

"Rinse off and get out now," one of the teachers ordered, and as one the
three females moved to follow his order. 

When they had complied, new clean white dresses were given to them to put
on. No belt was allowed this time. It would ruin the effect of the ceremony. 

"Today you will have the honor of meeting the Chosen one at a very special
event. The prophets have bespoken of coming of this day, and now it's upon
us. You have been given a great honor by being chosen to attend and bare
witness to the Chosen ones greatness. Obey him and you will survive to
witness the coming of a new way of life. Defy him and your life may end this
very day."

One by one they were led from the room and down one hall after another until
finally they were shown into a large cavern ....

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

Figured we should have the story from one of the three poor little lambs
side... Hope I didn't screw it up.... 

Have no idea yet what's going to happen in that cave with the egg.. so over
to you Allen... 

****Submitted by: ********

Ghost & Kikeane
Lorna ( the poor little lamb )
Lady Dellanie of Lago Vista

aka 
Barbara