Capture Dance

Then, to the festive music of flutes and drums,
the girl kneels. The young man approaches her,
bearing a slave collar,
its engraving proclaiming his name and city.
The music grows more intense,
mounting to an overpowering barbaric crescendo,
which stops suddenly, abruptly.
The room is silent,
absolutely silent,
except for the decisive click of the collar lock.
It is a sound the girl will never forget.
As soon as the lock closes,
there is a great shout,
congratulating, saluting the young man.
He returns to his place among the tables
that line the low-ceilinged chamber,
hung with glowing brass lamps.
He sits in the midst of his family,
his closest well-wishers,
his sword comrades,
cross-legged on the floor in the Gorean fashion
behind the long, low wooden table,
laden with food,
which stands at the head of the room.
Now all eyes are on the girl.
The restraining slave bracelets are removed.
She rises.
Her feet are
on the thick, ornately wrought rug
that carpets the chamber.
There is a slight sound from the bells
strapped to her ankles.
She is angry, defiant.
Though she is clad
only in the almost transparent
scarlet dancing silks of Gor,
her back straight,
her head high.
She is determined not to be tamed,
not to submit,
and her proud carriage bespeaks this fact.
The spectators seem amused.
She glares at them.
Angrily she looks from face to face.
There is no one she knows,
or could know,
because she has been taken from a hostile city,
she is a woman of the enemy.
Fists clenched,
she stands in the center of the room,
alone,
all eyes upon her,
beautiful in the light of the hanging lamps.
She faces the young man,
wearing his collar.
"You will never tame me!" she cries
Her outburst provokes laughter,
skeptical observations,
some good-natured hooting.
"I will tame you at my pleasure,"
replies the young man
and signals to the musicians.
The music begins again.
Perhaps the girl hesitates.
There is a slave whip on the wall.
Then, to the barbaric intoxicating music
of the flute and drums,
she dances for her captor,
the bells on her ankles
marking each of her movements,
the movements of a girl stolen from her home,
who must now live to please the bold stranger
whose binding fiber she had felt,
whose collar she wore.
At the end of her dance,
she is given a cup of wine,
but she may not drink.
She approaches the young man
and kneels before him,
her knees in the dictated position
of the Pleasure slaves,
and, head down she proffers the wine to him.
He drinks.
There is another general shout of commendation
and well wishing,
and the feasts begin,
for none before the young man
may touch food on such occasions.
From that moment on,
the young man's sisters never again serve him,
for that is the girl's task.
She is his slave.
(Outlaw of Gor, pgs. 52-53 )