Luka called out to his boyfriend Mika to help him with the naked little stableboy that he had just assumed responsibility for. The mage took a hard look at the formerly powerful female warrior, now trembling and sobbing in his helpless new body. Reaching into his pack, he produced a ragged loincloth and handed it over. “Why don’t you start by covering yourself up?” he said to Marge.
As the boy gratefully pulled the fabric between his legs and around his waist, Mika quietly stepped behind him and swiftly slipped a collar around his neck. Panicked, Marge immediately tried to wrench it off. “Stop that now.” Mika ordered sharply. “You cannot remove that collar.” The boy immediately froze, and discovered that no matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t get his hands to touch the humiliating leather band.
“Now go over to Luka and stay with him.” Mika directed, and Marge found his legs moving involuntarily towards the wide-eyed barbarian, who was now staring at his boyfriend with shock. “What is the meaning of this?” Luka demanded.
“As Lyra pointed out, he’s already tried several times to escape and steal the transformation rock. This should keep him obedient and docile.”
“That doesn’t give you the right to enslave him! I mean, he’s just a little kid!”
Marge struggled as the memories her prior experience with obedience collars came flooding back. Born a boy and orphaned at a young age, he had been kidnapped and sold to a succession of mean-spirited masters as a slave, who has used the collars to control him. After falling on hard times, his last master had made him to drink a potion that transformed him into a shapely girl, and sold him at a high price to a brothel to pay off his debts.
But then she got lucky – her first client turned out to be a kindly old barbarian who was sympathetic to her plight and agreed to bail her out from the brothel. In return for her company, he had trained Marge as his apprentice for several years, to the point where she was skilled enough to carry out mercenary work on her own. Then, he had gone away on a dangerous mission and never returned, and she had been left to fend for herself.
“Don’t you have ANY experience at all with kids?” Luka roared at Mika as he tore off the collar and flung it at the hapless mage. He turned back to Marge, bent down and gave the boy a bear hug. “What’s your name?” he asked gently.
“Mau…Maurice.” the boy stammered, dredging the name up from the depth of his memories. It had been decades since anyone had called him that.
Luka smiled, ruffled the boy’s hair and looked him in the eye. “Look here, Maurice. I’m not going to let anyone hurt or enslave you, but in return, you’ve got to promise to stay with me and do as I say. Agreed?”
“Yes.” the boy replied, nodding his head meekly.
“Great!” Luka grinned broadly. “Now then, would you like to spar with me?” He watched as Maurice’s eyes lighted up.
As Mika looked on with exasperation at Luka horsing around with Maurice, he noticed out of the corner of his eye a fluffy white bunny rabbit jump off the transformation tree onto the ground. One of the berserkers had spotted it too, and anticipating a tasty meal, sprang forward and seized it by the ears. But the moment he touched the rabbit, there was a POP! sound like a cork shooting out of a bottle, and there was now a surprised looking tan rabbit where the berserker had been. The pair of rabbits then hopped over to where the other berserkers were milling around, and there came a rapid fire of POP! POP! POP! Soon, there were no berserkers left, just a herd of rabbits of various colors and sizes hopping leisurely towards the acolytes’ position.