Chapter 9

Taven didn’t even try to protest as Nikal came into his room and waved him to come along. Nikal looked a bit stern and Taven didn’t doubt Roth’s words, this time he was going to get beaten all right. And what did it matter? He had been beaten so many times before for all sorts of reasons and for no reasons too for that matter. He supposed Nikal really had a reason, Roth had, of course, told him all about what had happened at the mall, the telltale bastard. It wasn’t like a thrashing really scared him even though he didn’t exactly look forward to it but he still felt kind of… hurt. He followed Nikal head hanging and had no idea where he was taking him but as Nikal flung a door wide open and motioned him inside with a hand on his shoulder he did look up and his eyes widened. Nikal must have seen how wary he looked. "This is only an ordinary gym, you know, not a torture chamber," he said, grinning. Taven didn’t know what to think, and Roth was in there too, what was this all about? He stepped into the room with some caution and strolled about looking at the training equipment with a suspicious frown, sure looked like it could be used for torture. He ignored Roth lifting weights in a corner and tried not to stare at his muscle heavy arms. He wished those guards at the mall had been a bit late, Roth must be ever as strong as Swift was. "Come here and take a look!" Nikal interrupted his thoughts and waved him up to a strange object hanging from the ceiling. "What’s that?" Taven muttered eyeing the bulky form. "It’s a sandbag." Nikal answered, "try and hit it!" Taven didn’t move a muscle. "Why?" "Because that’s what you are suppose to do with it. Try it, make a fist and give it a good hit. Come on, there’s nothing to it." "It sounds really stupid!" he said. "For once try to just do what I tell you without questioning every little thing," Nikal said and looked a bit annoyed. So he did, he made a fist and drove his knuckles into the bag. Taven grimacing in pain and shaking his hand after that blow made Nikal smile widely. Taven cursed long and hard. "Fuck, that’s not sand in that, it’s gotta be bricks." Nikal laughed. "It’s not bricks but sand is harder than you think plus you are doing it all wrong, let me show you how to do it right and then we’ll wrap your hands up and you can hit this thing all day long…" Taven tried a few more hits but his master said he did it wrong every time. He had soon got enough of the whole stupid thing and turned to leave but Nikal went after him and took him back and told him with a very stern look to try again. He reluctantly did and after a while Nikal commended him and said he was getting the hang of it and then the whole thing turned a bit funnier all of a sudden. "See? I told you. You’re going to learn this well if you only try a little harder. Now kick it instead." "Uh…?" "Kick it, use your leg, kick it as hard as you can." Taven gave it a halfhearted try and Nikal frowned. "You’ll never get anywhere if you won’t even try Taven. Try it like this…" Nikal stepped back a bit and launched his legs out with reptile speed, his foot higher up than his head and kicked the heavy sandbag, making it sway. Taven stared. "I can never do that," he said watching the bag sway, he had hardly managed to move it at all no matter how hard he thought he had hit it. "No not right away," Nikal admitted, "but in time, maybe you could, if you practiced enough. It’s nothing that you can do naturally Taven, you must work for it." "No I can’t… I’m too fucking skinny and weak… don’t say I can do it when I can’t." "It doesn’t have to do only with muscles Taven, it’s mostly technique and I didn’t say you can be good at it but we will never find out if you won’t even try, won’t we? And besides, you practiced long enough you would get stronger, wouldn’t you?" Taven had to admit inside that he liked the sound of that, being stronger, he was sick and tired, he told himself, of looking like a damn twelve year-old. He gave the sandbag another kick and cursed in disappointment when nothing happened other than that it hurt his foot. Nikal grinned. "Well, at least now you are trying. Stand like this and you will get more power behind the kick…" >>> * <<< Roth had the free use of Nikal’s small but very nicely equipped gym and spent quite a lot of time in it. It was his favorite moments of the week and a chance for him not only to work out but to think as well. Sometimes he and Nikal used it at the same time but they mostly worked out in silence, having a non outspoken agreement on letting the other one keep to his own thoughts. Roth was quite annoyed at Nikal bringing the redheaded blabbermouth in here and what was the purpose of it anyway. He had to stop what he was doing several times to watch Nikal instruct the boy. It had been going on for at least an hour, Nikal using a mix of patient persuasion and slight provocation to make the boy try his best while Taven cursed and ranted and went on. Finally he got the boy into some sort of rhythm. And it seemed the slave was drawn into it against his will because as Nikal left Taven to go over and talk to Roth he hit and kicked the sandbag in dogged determination and seemed to have forgot the world around him. "Well What do you say about that Roth?" Nikal asked smiling. "I say you are turning nuttier every day. You’re teaching the kid martial arts? Why don’t you give him a gun too?" Nikal laughed at his friend’s exaggerations. "That’s not martial arts Roth, it’s just a few blows and kicks, it can’t hurt. It struck me you know when you told me how he kind of lost it with hate and anger again in the mall that maybe he needs some sort of an outlet. It’s not enough only to not abuse him, the things that happened to him has still happened and I suppose he needs to deal with them in some way. So instead of punishing him for trying to use you for his revenge I thought that maybe he could beat out that anger and frustration a bit in here. Makes sense, doesn’t it?" "I guess… only I don’t think that will act as a compensation for what Swift did to him." "No, of course not, but it can’t make it worse. Besides, it will give him some stability on the whole. I mean look at him! He’s about as balanced as a newborn calf, all gangly and wobbly. There’s no efficiency, no economy in his movements, only skinny arms and legs flailing about," Nikal sighed and shook his head with an expression of amused tenderness, "There’s no connection between soul and body, no harmony. One has got to start somewhere Roth, you give his body some stability, some self esteem, the soul is more likely to follow." Roth moaned. "Please don’t get philosophical on me again Nikal, you know I don’t get a thing about that ‘body-soul-connection’ stuff." Nikal laughed again. "You I have given up on a long time ago Roth. No but seriously, I will not teach him anything that he can use to hurt other people with, that’s not my intentions. I just want to show him a way in how to be in more control of himself and make him a bit healthier on the whole. Nothing wrong with that, is it?" "Talking about health," Roth said, "you ever checked the kid’s teeth out?" Nikal looked a bit surprised at the sudden change of topic. "No, not exactly, but now as you mention it, Cordoux did say something about a few teeth being loosened but it has totally slipped my mind. Why?" "I think he has got one hell of a nasty toothache." >>> * <<< Taking Taven to the dentist proved to be a whole little adventure in itself. Unfortunately the dentist turned out to be a rather bulky man looking big and strong and Nikal could see Taven tense up at once at the sight of the man and eyeing him sulkily and suspiciously. He obediently sat down in the dentist’s chair when Nikal told him to but when the dentist lowered the chair and leaned over him he panicked. He scrambled out of the chair kicking a table of instruments over in the process and pressed himself into a corner as Nikal cut him off and stopped him from escaping out the door. Nikal well recognized the look in his face. It reminded of a trapped animal and even though he threatened them loudly and with fire Nikal knew he was really scared. The dentist was not as patient as Dr. Cordoux was. He cursed and muttered under his breath as he picked his instruments up telling Nikal that as far as he was concerned he wouldn’t mind if Nikal came back another day when he had that nut case a bit more under control. It took Nikal a while to calm Taven down and to appease the angered dentist and he was sweating from his forehead as he finally got both of them to cooperate and work out a compromise. Taven eventually agreed to open up his mouth and be still if he could sit up and don’t have to be in that horrible chair. And Nikal had to promise to stay right behind him and don’t leave. The doctor muttered angrily that he had never examined anyone who was sitting up before but finally he agreed to it. Taven endured the examination stoically then Nikal hands on his shoulders a comfort as well as a warning. The dentist shook his head when he was finished and told them Taven’s mouth was one big mess. He had at least ten cavities, two teeth were indeed almost loose and his gum was infected and started to bleed at the slightest touch. The dentist scowled at Taven. How could he mistreat his teeth in such a way? What on earth had he been feeding on? Did he even know what a toothbrush looked like? He must have a constant toothache, how could he stand it? But then he scowled at Nikal instead. How could he let the kid’s teeth go like that? Nikal just looked totally taken aback and Taven could have cried. What was not wrong with him? There was apparently no end to how he rotten he was, inside and out. The dentist asked him a lot of questions about a lot of things. Taven couldn’t see what any of it had to do with his teeth but he answered as best as he could and there was no one present but himself who thought his bad teeth strange after that explanation. Taven told them that his last master had almost never cooked and had always gone out to eat. He had not bought much food on the whole and Taven was left to try and survive on what there might be in the fridge and in the cupboards. It was usually things like cocoa pops, coke, cookies and chocolate bars and he had better not eat too much of that either in case his master got a sudden urge for something sweet. And as for toothbrushes Taven told them he did to know what they looked like but that his master had never given him any and what was he supposed to do? Go out and buy one? Like he had had any money, like he wouldn’t have been beaten half to death if he had left the place without permission. Taven watched Nikal and the dentist exchange sad looks and shake their heads. No wonder the kid was malnourished. No wonder his teeth were about to fall out of his mouth they said. Taven really did have a terrible toothache most of the times. And it did sound sort of promising when the dentist explained that his teeth were far from a lost case and that he could do a lot of things to save them and help him be rid of the ache. But when he understood exactly what that entailed and as the dentist neared him with the biggest damn syringe he had seen in his life… There was a new scene and this time not even Nikal could make him agree to be touched again. He screamed at them that they would have to beat the shit out of him and tie him down before he let anyone stick a needle down his throat and drill holes in his teeth. Weren’t there cavities enough? How could that help? He would fight them with all he’d got, he promised them, if they as much as neared him with any of those torture devices. But then he realized that they would probably just seize him, hold him down and strap him to the chair and that "all he’d got" when it came to fighting wouldn’t be much when Nikal was around. He would certainly be no match between the two of them. Imagining this his behavior started to verge on hysteria. There was only one thing to do really and it took a while to get Taven to agree to it without alternate outbursts of panic and anger. They put him under for the treatment and he held Nikal’s hand when they neared the mask to his face in such a tight grip one might think he thought they would gas him to death. Nikal looked at his face as he slowly went under. A long strand of hair had escaped the braid and he stroke it out of Taven’s face and tucked it behind his ear. Now as he was being anaesthetized, Nikal thought it was the first time he had ever seen Taven looking really relaxed. >>> * <<< Taven was pretty pissed with all and everybody when he woke up and cursed, slurring, at Nikal for talking him into going through that treatment. Sure he had ached before, for a long time really, but that was nothing compared to the pain he felt after he woke up. It was nothing short of being severely beaten up and he would have told all involved a thing or two only he was too tired and in too much pain to be able to keep it up. Nikal had put him to bed coming home and he was eternally grateful to be left alone for a few days and lick his wounds in peace. About two weeks later Taven had to admit to himself that he felt better than ever. He was still a bit tender but the toothache was really gone and he couldn’t wiggle those loose teeth with his tongue anymore. It got a hell of a lot easier to eat that was for sure. So he was in a better mood than ever when Nikal came down to him one night and wanted to talk to him. "So… how do you feel? Do you still hurt much?" Nikal asked carefully. Taven smiled and shook his head. "No Master it’s great. I… ah I could almost thank you for it, you know?" Nikal laughed. "An almost thank you is fine," he grinned but then he turned serious all of a sudden, "look Taven I must tell you something." Taven stiffened, wary and suspicious at the strange tone of his master’s voice. What was wrong now? "I… well I…" Taven thought Nikal almost looked embarrassed or even guilty. That was very unlike his master, it worried him a whole lot and he squirmed where he sat on top the cover of his bed watching Nikal doing a bit of squirming of his own at his bedside. "I sort of tricked you a bit Taven. When you were put under, I sort of had something done to you and I know I should have told you beforehand but you were hysterical enough and would never have let them proceed if I had so…" Taven got cold all over. They had done something to him while he was out cold? He felt strangely hurt and betrayed even before he knew what it was. How could Nikal have done that to him? He would not have been the least surprised at anyone else doing something like that, but Nikal? "What… what did you do?" he asked feeble voiced a lump in his throat. "Nothing to hurt you Taven, nothing like that at all. I did it to sort of help you though I admit it’s a bit drastic…" "For fuck’s sake just tell me what it is!" Taven blurted out unable to control himself any longer and Nikal frowned at him. "See? That sort of thing is why I had to do it. What have I been telling you about interrupting me? What have I told you about using such language? I know you try your best Taven and me personally I don’t care so much but other people do and… OK I will explain it to you. Come here!" Nikal scooted back over the bed, leaned against the wall and had Taven come sit near him so he could put an arm around his shoulders. Taven was squirming a bit but mostly for show and settled down as close as possible to his master. "Have you felt something strange in your mouth Taven?" he asked and Taven looked up in surprise. As a matter of fact, he had. Not at first because he had been so swollen and tender and propped full of painkillers but later on, yes. There were like two knobs at the back of his mouth. Two metal chunks set right behind the teeth farthest back at his jaw. He had felt them with his tongue at first and then studied the strange phenomena in the bathroom mirror. He couldn’t understand what it was. It looked nothing like the substance that filled up his cavities. And they had told him they had screwed his loosened teeth to his jawbone so that they would never fall out and he had thought it had had something to do with that. But now he wasn’t so sure. "There’s like... some screw heads or something…" he said, didn’t know how to describe it. Nikal nodded a sad smile on his lips. "You could call it that, yes. It’s made of the same material that they used to fasten those loose teeth of yours but these were not put in for that reason. They’re implanted much the same way though so please don’t try to pull them out Taven. It is quite impossible. It would take a large chunk of your jawbone with it, do you understand that?" Taven nodded wide eyed and quite intimidated now at what had been done to him and by Nikal’s serious face and by the simple fact that he still didn’t understand a thing. "They can’t hurt you though. They’re all smooth, you can feel them but they can’t tear at anything in your mouth and you’ll get used to them soon enough, You won’t even notice them eventually I’m sure." "But… I’m sorry I don’t mean to interrupt, but what are they?" Nikal sighed and took something wrapped in plastic out of his pocket. He unwrapped it and put the object in Taven’s hand. Taven turned it over a few times without getting any wiser. It was something made of metal, shiny and smooth and cold in his hand. Small enough to fit in his palm still quite heavy. It was shaped somewhat like an A only the legs of the A had some sort of hoops and the dividing bar was v shaped pointing downwards and not straight. "What is it?" he asked. Nikal squeezed his shoulders. "It’s a sort of bit Taven. These hoops fit in the ‘screw heads’ in your mouth and once clicked into place you can’t take it out. The ‘A’ will keep your tongue pressed down. I gather it takes a bit of getting used to but it really isn’t suppose to affect you much… other than that you won’t be able to speak." Nikal had expected an outburst of some sort either in anger or in tears but Taven just stared at the metal device in his hand and kind of shrunk in his embrace. Nikal felt really bad at the utter resigned and hurt sob emanating from the young slave. "You… you will not let me talk? Not ever… ever again?" The smallest voice like he couldn’t believe what he had just heard. Nikal felt his chest ache. "No Taven for goodness sake, I wouldn’t be that cruel to you, you must know that?" "But you said… you said it can’t be taken out again? Please don’t do it… please… I know I’ve been foulmouthed… but… but I will try harder I…" Nikal hugged him harder. "I know you are trying and I didn’t say it‘s impossible to take out. I said that you can’t take it out. It can be taken out with a special instrument, sort of like a key. Of course I don’t intend to silence you for the rest of your life. Hey, I would miss that foul mouth of yours." He ventured a smile at the boy but he didn’t return it. "But why?" he said turning those big gray pleadingly at Nikal, "Is it because of what I said to that clan lord? I said I was sorry… I am really, really sorry for that." Nikal had to look away. "It’s not a punishment Taven. I’m doing it to help you. As I said I don’t care about how you talk and how you blurt things out and curse and things like that, though I really hate it when you interrupt me Taven. I don’t care because I know that you try and I know that you don’t mean it as bad as it comes out and I do understand that it is not so easy having been brought up the way you have. But most people that you will meet when being with me Taven are not as understanding and you got away easy with Jan because he’s a good guy really but next time they may demand that I really punish you Taven… hard, and I don’t want to do that. In the end I might even have to keep you away from people all together and I really think that would be a shame." "I will try harder." Taven pressed out all choked up. "It won’t help and you know it. Can you honestly promise me that what happened at the party or in the mall, will never happen again? Sooner or later you will blurt something out. It’s not because you don’t try. It’s because that’s the way you are. And I don’t want to destroy what you are really, but I have to, to some extent, if I want to keep you around and I do want you to stay with me Taven. I really, really want you to stay here, you know? Do you want to stay with me too?" Taven nodded, big tears rolling down his cheeks now. "Then will you let me use the bit on you without making trouble?" The faintest of nods. Nikal gave up a relieved smile. "Good. Don’t worry about it. I won’t use it often. Really, I won’t. It will only be when it is really important that you behave just right Taven and only for a few hours at the time, a whole evening at the most. And I will never use it as a punishment Taven. It’s important that you see the difference, do you?" Taven nodded again. "I think so. I… I guess it’s true. I just can’t shut up even when I try. I don’t know why. I’m just so fucking worthless. I can’t… I can’t help it…" "You’re not worthless Taven, and I’m actually glad that you are that way, you know? For all that they did to you; you still have spunk. They did mess you up pretty good Taven but they didn’t break you, did they? Now try not to see this as humiliating Taven. I tried to fix it so that you wouldn’t be humiliated. See? When it’s put in it won’t even show. Try to see it as help. You can’t help yourself you say? Then I will help you Taven, this thing will do it for you." Taven squeezed the shiny metal A in his hand and looked down. "I guess if you put it that way… it makes sense." Nikal nodded and held him closer. "I thought we would try it on then. Just for a short time so that you know what it’s like and get a chance to get a bit used to it. What do you say? You think you can handle that? Don’t worry, it is rather uncomfortable before you get used to it I think but it doesn’t hurt, feel how smooth it is?" "How long?" "Only for an hour the first time, OK?" "OK I can… I can do that. N…nothing to it… but you will stay here won’t you? Will you?" Nikal smiled. "Of course I will, I will stay the whole time. Can I have it back?" Taven gave his master the metal A and obediently opened his mouth wide at Nikal’s order to do so. But he backed away when Nikal reached for him. "It does come out, doesn’t it? You… you’re not tricking me, are you?" Nikal put a hand to his cheek and caressed it. "I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you before the implants were put in. It was wrong, but I won’t trick you like that again and I would never ever subject you to a trick that cruel Taven," Nikal took something else out of his pocket, a small key-like thing, "see? This is the key, you can borrow it for now and I’ll let you lock it up yourself later just this once. I know it’s hard for you to trust people Taven but you can honestly not believe that I would do something so despicably cruel to you, can you? It’s only for an hour, I promise." Taven slowly opened his mouth again and Nikal put the cold metal in his mouth and Taven winced at the hard pulling of the screw heads and then his eyes widened as a clicking sound was heard and the metal pressed his tongue deep down. Much deeper down than he had understood it would. He doubled over in panic gagging and retching. Nikal had called it uncomfortable; that did not cover it. Every fiber of his body screamed to get rid of the hard, heavy and cold metal. It tore at the base of his tongue and the slick and wet muscle struggled in spasms to get free but it was securely clamped down and all good it did him was to cause him to gag even more. He wanted to scream at his master to take it out but he couldn’t get a single word out. The horrible thing did not only stop him from speaking it prevented him from swallowing properly and spit ran over his chin uncontrollably. He clawed at Nikal’s shirt breast and tried to make him understand that the damn thing was hurting him, gagging him, would make him throw up, would make him go nuts… His master may have understood that but it seemed he wasn’t going to release him from it. Nikal tore his hands from his shirt and rose from the bed. Taven looked at him in panic, he had promised he wouldn’t leave him. Tears flowed freely now and he tore at the bedcover in frustration over that he couldn’t even yell at his master that he had fucking promised to stay. >>> * <<< Nikal didn’t intend to leave him, he just turned to close the door properly and returning to the bed he made Taven stop trying to rip the thing out with his fingers and held his arms securely to his sides as he laid them both down. He was spooning him and embracing him, caressing him over the head, whispering in his ear, all he could think of to make the boy relax. It would be better in a little while if he only calmed down. It seemed it did get easier to endure it after a while. Taven calmed down and lay still at his side. And Nikal listened to his sobs and gagging sounds decrease and truly had never felt like a bigger bastard in all his life before.

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