A sigh escaped his lips as an arm went up near the front of the crowd. From where he stood on the platform, he could easily see that it was a young, blonde woman who had betted on him.
‘Good’, he thought to himself. His plan was to hopefully be bought by someone who he figured he could manipulate and escape easily from. The blonde was the perfect person he was looking for to complete those goals.
The idea of completing those goals however were shattered when another arm, this time in the back, went up. Unfortunately for him, the new arm was too far away for him to clearly see the owner of the arm, but he could tell that the arm was of a male.
For a few short minutes the betting went back and forth between the blonde up front and the mysterious man in the back. Finally the blonde gave up in frustration and the young man was led off the platform and towards a large desk where his paper work was being sorted out for his new owner.
Eventually a short, well-dressed man made his way through the busy crowds to the desk and the young Lamb knew that this was his new owner. Briefly, the Lamb’s thoughts drifted back five years to when his best friend had been taken away from their small village and put up for auction. He knew his friend had gone through the same thing that he was now going through and he hoped that his friend had ended up somewhere good.
“Everything is all set Mr. Kirkpatrick,” announced the man behind the desk, handing over the papers to the short Shepherd. “You can take you’re new Lamb now.”
“Good,” nodded the Shepherd as he grabbed the leash attached to the collar around the Lamb’s neck and he began leading the Lamb away from the auction grounds and towards his white vehicle.
“What’s your name?” asked the Shepherd as he sat down in the back of the vehicle across from the Lamb.
“Justin,” he replied softly, forcing himself not to cry in front of the Shepherd.
“I’m Chris Kirkpatrick,” smiled the Shepherd gently trying to calm the young Lamb. “You’re new owner. You’re lucky you’re with me instead of Britney.”
“Was she the blonde?” asked Justin, not able to contain his curiosity.
“Yeah,” nodded Chris. “And Brit’s the way I use to be regarding Lambs. Not caring how well they’re treated and such since it’s easy to buy a new Lamb whenever possible. I’m not like that anymore so you don’t have to worry.”
“And I should trust you because . . .?”
“Because life on Cielville is very dangerous place for Lambs,” warned Chris sadly. “You’ll understand soon enough.”
Twenty minutes later, they arrived at Chris’ place and the Shepherd began showing his new Lamb around.
Justin followed with great interest, never seeing the wonders of the lifestyle of the Shepherds before. It was completely different from what he was use to on Terra.
“What exactly are my duties?” asked Justin following Chris through the large home. Suddenly, from an adjoining room a small robotic object rolled out of it scaring Justin with it’s glowing red eyes and it’s small little arms. “What’s that!?!”
“That’s Geek,” laughed Chris. “He’s a robot. I’m babysitting him for some friends. They’re on vacation on Cielterra right now so I’m looking after him.” Cielterra was a small island on Terra that was established two years ago so the wealthy could spend a vacation on the surface without interference from Lambs. It was the favorite place for Shepherds to get away from their busy lives.
“A robot?” asked Justin confused looking at Geek with interest.
“You’ll understand soon enough,” chuckled Chris.
*~*~*
“You okay?” asked as soft, kind voice and Justin looked up to find a middle-aged woman standing above him. It was hours later and Justin was sitting at a counter in the kitchen just staring down at the counter-top. The woman had been introduced earlier to him as Wendy, one of Chris’ many Lambs and cook of the household. “I know how it is when you first get here but trust me when I say that Master Chris is nice to us Lambs. At least now he is. Before five years ago, this was probably one of the worst places for a Lamb to end up.”
“What happened so that he changed?” asked Justin confused.
“He met Master Joshua,” explained Wendy. “Master Joshua was given to Master Bass as a eighteenth birthday present five years ago by Master Chris and Master Fatone. Master Joshua and Master Bass fell in love and Master Joshua ended up becoming friends with Master Chris. It was then that Master Chris decided to change his ways.”
“So I guess I should thank this ‘Master Joshua’ if I ever meet him then,” mumbled Justin.
“You’ll meet him alright,” smiled Wendy. “Master Bass and Master Joshua own Geek. Geek is their only ‘servant’ and he’s not a very good cook despite all the money that the Bass’ have spent on cooking programs. Whenever the Bass’ drop by, Master Joshua makes a point on visiting me in here to see what goodies I’ve cooked up for him.”
“If Master Chris is such a great owner why doesn’t he let us go?” grumbled Justin.
“He can’t,” sighed Wendy. “The only way to be free is to marry a Shepherd and that doesn’t happen very often.”
“But it happened to this Master Joshua right?”
“That was a very special case,” sighed Wendy. “Be good and you’ll live a long peaceful life with no worries under this roof.”
“You’re right,” sighed Justin. “I was just hoping that somehow I would be able to find JC up here and escape back to Terra.”
“JC?” asked Wendy curiously.
“JC was my best friend,” explained Justin. “He was taken about five years ago, when he was the age I currently am. He’d be twenty-five by now. I’ve always wondered what happened to him.”
*~*~*
Meanwhile miles away down on the surface of Terra on the remote island of Cielterra a different conversation was taking place.
“I wonder how Geek is?”
“Quit worrying about Geek,” chuckled a deep voice as strong arms wrapped around the other body. “This is our five year anniversary, Josh, enjoy yourself.”
“I know Lance,” sighed Josh happily as he leaned back into the embrace. The pair were sitting on one of the many beaches on Cielterra watching the sun set. “I worry about him though. Chris is probably programming him with all kinds of jokes and stuff right now.”
“Stop worrying,” whispered Lance into Josh’s ear before kissing it. “We only have three more days left down here so let’s enjoy them while we can.”
“Okay,” murmured Josh as Lance laid down on the sand dragging Josh down on top of him.
“You know I’ve been thinking,” whispered Lance staring up at the love of his life.
“That’s never a good thing,” chuckled Josh playfully.
“Shut up,” replied Lance while smiling before continuing on. “I know we’ve talked about children before and we’ve both agreed it’s something we eventually want. Anyways, I was talking to my sister before we came down here and she did say she would carry the baby for us . . . so do you want to? Start having children, I mean?”
“Yes!” cried Josh happily, hugging his lover. “As long as Stacy is cool with it.”
“Yeah, she’s cool,” smiled Lance. Unlike his relationship with his parents, Lance and his older sister Stacy had always been close. While his parents all but disowned Lance when they discovered he had married a Lamb, Stacy had been nothing but supported, happy that her brother had finally found love.
“We’re going to have a baby,” smiled Josh. “We’re going to be parents.”
“I like the sound of that,” smiled Lance before kissing Josh.