Being beautiful was extremely hard. Snove (Sno-Va) had been forced to learn that at a very young age. By the time he met his first five years, it had been decided that he would grow up to work in the pleasure district of his village, he had no choice in the matter. The village of the Alce-Cervinus, high up in the snowy mountain tops was desperate. Their people were starving, some dying off from disease. Their supplies were little, but water wasn't scarce. Food was the problem. They often had to send males out to other villages to buy supplies, but in order to do so, they needed money.

That was where the pleasure district came in. The people of the Alce-Cervinus had no interest in buying a lover for the night, but passer biers did. There were enough visitors to the village that they were able to eat enough to keep them alive, but supplies were still tight. Horribly so. Their brothels became many, and as soon as word got out of the village's beauties, so did their guests. Alce-Cervinus was no longer known for being the only village of elk and deer on the mountain top, but for their beautiful courtesans. Male or female, if they appeared to have a blessed future in looks, they were brought up, taught, to perfect their prospective purposes.

With long white hair and big, doey blue eyes, along with plump pink lips, Snove had been selected for that purpose. He didn't mind though. Most children born of he last two generations had little to no emotions. The village leaders went to many lengths to make that possible. At one point, when a female was made pregnant, she would be taken to the village's sorceress, who would perform a ritual on the mother. And once her child was born, they would take it immediately, and it would be raised in a nursery along with the other children of the village. During their stay there, they were given no affection. They were fed and tended to, but that was it. There were no hugs or cuddles. No bedtime stories, no love. Once they reached the age of three, they were returned to their parents. Having been apart for so long, during the nesting period, the bond between parent and child was practically non-existent.

Snove remembered disliking it when he was returned to his parents. He hadn't understood why he was being inconvenienced like that. He had been comfortable back in the nursery where he had been raised. Now he had to adjust to a new environment. He didn't like it.

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By the time Snove was old enough to be admitted into the district, at age sixteen, costumers had flocked into the village. There was no modest part left in the village, all the young does and many of the young bucks had become entangled into servicing the men and women that came seeking the young bodies. Living and reproducing made little sense to anyone those days; especially to Snove. The children were brought into the world, born solely to spend long nights with strangers to that they might eat the next day. It was a pointless existence. The elderly cried a lot, something about the lack of life in the village, while the the young just stared through blank, desensitized eyes.

The years leading up to his coming of age ceremony had been monotonous. There was nothing to do but focus on staying beautiful and learning how to use their bodies to make money. Boredom was the one emotion he often felt. Excitement was occasional, but boredom was the reigning mood. It wasn't until the moment he was presented to the male that bought his innocence that he felt anything. His heart sped up and his bored stare softened. The man was attractive; tall and muscular. His face and exterior seemed hard, but he had the oddest eyes. He didn't recognize the emotion in them, but he enjoyed the look the man gave him.

Alcinder - he'd leaned was the male's name - had been so… kind? to him while they became one. Not a single lewd word passed the man's lips. As he held Snove, he only murmured words of the elk's beauty and warmth. The words made his insides feel odd. Not sexual pleasure, something else. Something deeper than that. He felt… dare he say it, loved. If that was how love felt, he wanted to keep it. His heart ached when the man finished inside him and got up. He tenderly kissed the boy as he said his goodbyes, but to Snove's merriment, the man wasn't gone long.

The next morning, he was woken and his mother was stroking his cheek. "Snove, that man from last night, he wants you to go with him. He promised a years worth of earnings, all upfront, if you'll leave with him," The woman whispered. There was a weird look in the female's eyes - pain? But Snove was happy move on with his lover. He was dressed and handed a small bundle of his belongings, then placed atop the man's horse.

A week of passion filled nights went by before they arrived in Alcinder's village. The male's of this village were different. They held an even higher status than those in the Alce-Cervinus clan. Male's would take more than one female at a time, and keep harems. They had to earn each of their females by competition with other males and heavy courting, but once they won the female, that female seemed to lose their rights to life completely. They were not allowed to do anything without their male's permission, and often held grudges against the other submissive in the harem. Jealousy was common amongst the harems, and jealous submissive could be terrifying if they were angry enough. They would never harm their male, but the other female's were different. They'd kill whichever submissive was getting more attention than they other.

Snove would soon come to realize that.

He had no qualms with the reality of being part of a harem. In fact, it was quite nice. His first impression of it was like a family. Several brothers and sisters that made love to the same man. He didn't mind it. He was never forced to give his body to another male. Alcinder made great use of him too. The entirety of his first six months in the new village, Alcinder paid attention only to Snove. The other submissive were ignored; made to feel unimportant. Snove had no idea that it was merely a game to Alcinder. He found such fun in pitting his submissives against each other… The honey moon period was over almost instantly once the first six months of love making had ended.

Somehow Snove hadn't been made pregnant - by a miracle he supposed - which proved to be in his favor when the other submissive's turn on him. They waited for Alcinder to leave on a hunting trip with the other males before knocking the elk out and dragging Snove from the tent and - … he didn't know where he was when he came to. He felt fear when the stared up to find himself stripped nearly naked and surrounded by the other submissives.

They beat him hard. So hard he couldn't breath or feel his snow, numbed body. He could hardly see, vision blurred with blackness dotting his site. They had been out to kill him, but had only broken several of his bones and knocked him unconscious. When he woke again, he found a cloak one of the others had left behind and wrapped himself in it. A fire was started and he tried with all his might to stay lucid. Alcinder would come for him. He'd find him, take him home, then murder all the other submissives for laying a hand on him,

But Alcinder never came. The pain was horrible. He could barely move his body; there was no chance of him finding his way back to the village, especially since he'd never ventured off into the woods. Alcinder had kept him close at nearly all times. And now he was lost and all alone. He was able to melt the snow for water, but food was a little harder to come by. If his body hadn't been made to withstand the cold temperatures of his old mountain top village, he surely would have died.

Had it been four days? Somewhere near that when the soldiers passed him. The swelling on his face had gone done considerably and the bruising wasn't so bad, so the male's actually stopped for him. His feeling of relief went away when he was shackled and thrown into the back of a carriage with many other people. It was warmer inside though… "Where are they taking us?" He breathed, eyes looking over the other prisoners. Everyone there was rather good looking. A boy on the other side of the carriage spoke up. "We're being made into slaves. Can't say for sure what kingdom they're taking us to, though." The boy mumbled.

The trip was the longest he'd ever taken. It had taken almost three weeks to get to the kingdom, and Snove was so relieved to get outside the carriage when they stopped. Even though they were shackled and dirge along. He couldn't focus on one thing alone. This land was like none that he'd seen before. It was warm, the sun was out, birds were singing… It was like heaven. Could being made into a slave here be all that bad? It couldn't have been any worse than being brought up to be a whore, or being beaten near death.

The handful of slaves were brought to the gathering hall immediately. Thankfully by now - with the help of a certain solider - Snove had healed fully and was back to his beautiful self. It was times like these that he was glad he was pleasing to the eyes, it may just help his cause. They were told to bow, and Snove knelt. He'd never been before royalty before. And unlike many of the other slaves, he had no pent up anger over the issue. He'd heard that if he played his cards right, he could end up as a personal slave, rather than a working slave - or better yet, rather than a dead slave.

Before the king came out, Snove reverted back to his lessons. He had no access to aloe and charcoal or berries, so he pricked his finger against the talons of one of the other slaves and gently rubbed the blood onto his cheeks. He ran his fingers along his eye lashes as well, bending them up to a curl, and soothed his nerves. The inside of his cheek was bit in order to make his eyes water, making his big blue eyes shine. He looked healthier than the other slaves - somehow - and had more experience than probably any of them with dominate males.

And once Loki came out, he completely calmed himself and worked on looking up at the male, through long lashes and longing eyes. He was unsuited for hard labor, and wasn't quite ready for death. The only suitable position for him was as a personal slave.

Malcsi knew he was in trouble before he even stepped in the front door. He was very late. On a day where he hadn't mentioned he would be out late to his boyfriend, or who he would be with. Whenever he wanted to try and hang on to the few friendships he had left since he'd moved in with his boyfriend, he had to ask. Shiva told him he didn't have to ask, but Malcsi knew better. He knew he had to ask, or he risked his boyfriend's wrath when he got home. Sometimes it was nothing, only a passive-aggressive attitude, sometimes it was physical. Somehow the passive-aggressive attitude was scarier than when Shiva laid his hands on him. Maybe it was the anticipation and fear of what was going to happen when the man couldn't keep it in anymore.

When he'd met Shiva, he knew the man would be the one. Whether or not he wanted to be with someone that he was scared of didn't matter. Even if Shiva hit him, he still loved him. And it wasn't always bad. Just when he pushed his boyfriend too much. And it wasn't like Shiva had broken any of his bones or put him in the hospital. A little outburst here and there was barely anything. Shiva wasn't a wife beater. The man could be so loving...

The neko let himself in quietly, wincing when the door clicked loudly as it shut. It was his job to make dinner and have it on the table by the time Shiva got home and sat down to eat. Malcsi hadn't even started cooking. He hadn't even finished the dishes from last night's dinner. They'd dined together last night, then made love and fell asleep. Malcsi had putzed around the house when he woke up, gone to yoga, and went to the store for the dinner groceries. Only, today he'd run into a friend that he'd sort of lost touch with since he'd been with Shiva - a male friend. They'd gone out for coffee and talked and Malcsi had really enjoyed it. Before he knew it, it was seven o'clock, and he was very, very late.

"Sorry I'm so late. I ran into an old friend at the grocery store. We got coffee and I completely lost track of time." He said, hurrying to the kitchen with the shopping bag when he saw his boyfriend. "I can make something real fast - or - or if you don't want to wait that long, we could order out." His ears flicked back as he fidgeted with the groceries. Today had been such a nice day. He hoped Shiva would just be patient or agree to order out. He didn't want to fight.