Goddesses and Gremlins - Part 4
By: Beaten Man   Replies to humbled@abeatenman.com 
Part 4  -  The Odyssey of the Chameleones


Chapter 23

Nathanial Ward was a lifelong bachelor. His time had been far to occupied with
the accumulation of wealth and property to ever even think of taking a wife.
Emotionally he preferred solitude and lacked the ability to bond with any
member of the opposite sex. To Nathanial women, white or black, were breeding
stock not companions and certainly not partners.

His family had been tilling the Carolina soil for a hundred years. At the age
of twenty, upon his fathers death, he had inherited the families three hundred
acre farm. That acreage was now the very farthest end of the Ward land
holdings nearest to the city of Charlotte. Over the years through acquisition
or intimidation he had acquired as much of the land surrounding the original
parcel as possible. Eventually his contiguous land holdings stretched all the
way to within forty miles of Charleston. The Pines sat on that eastermost
portion of the property. The area was lush and fertile with green rolling
hills and towering forests all around. Nature was good and his fields
flourished.

Early on in his career he branched out into other realms of commerce. Some
such as timber or mortgage banking, were related to the land. Others were
related to the import and export of goods through the burgeoning port of
Charleston. Nathanial had been an early promoter of the local slave trade and
was instrumental in the importation of thousands of them into the port. He
recognized the economy to be gained by producing this crop locally and kept
the best specimens for himself to be used as breeding stock.

Eventually he became renowned for the quality of the stock that he raised.
Ward produced slaves were in great demand in the last decades of the
eighteenth century and the first of the nineteenth. Slave traders throughout
the world competed to bring Nathanial the best breeding stock they could
purchase. The master of the Windlass had diverted his entire cargo to
Charleston just so that he might sell Shatiluaan to Ward. It was why he had
purchased her in Africa. It was the reason she was given extra rations to
insure that she would survive the brutal crossing. It was why Martins
suppression of competitive bidding had caused a financial disaster for him. It
was even the reason that Lucas's father had sought Ward out twenty six years
earlier. To sell him his large, healthy two year son and its fertile mother.

The young Nathanial may have been cold and dispassionate but he was a man, and
in his twenties and thirties and forties had needs just as any other man. He
would not couple with prostitutes. He would not use his hard earned currency
for the satisfaction of animal needs. He grew his own food and he grew his own
sex partners. He was not particularly lustful but would, from time to time,
take a slave woman to satisfy his needs. He had other needs as well that he
could satisfy through his breeding stock. The ever more prosporous Nathanial
Ward needed an heir.

He chose carefully from his stock. He picked the lightest skinned female slave
in his collection and brought her into his home to mother his son. His first
attempt resulted in a black daughter who was sent into the general slave
population to be raised as a breeder. She later became a favorite of the
overseers when they wished a diversion. The second attempt resulted in the
darkly handsome and dark skinned, but still caucasian, Martin.

He kept the female called Flo in his home until Martin was ten. She was a
house maid and served as Martins nurse. Martins origins were suppressed as
best Ward could. Other slaves that might have been aware of the circumstances
of his birth were either sold, or if not valuable enough for sale, killed.
Employees near to him at the time were dismissed and forced from the area. By
the time Martin was ten, other than Ward himself, the only person aware of
Martins true geneology was Flo. Martin was never told. As far as he was
concerned his mother was Nathanial's ficticious widow who had died in child
birth. Flo never even hinted to him that she was his mother as she cared for
him growing up. She knew that she would lose her relatively comfortable
existence if she did. She would either be sent to the fields to be worked to
death or simply killed.

As Martin grew older and no longer required matronly nurturing Ward seperated
the two. He was not completely heartless and did not wish to slay the mother
of his child. He even had developed a slight fondness for Flo. He moved her
from the house into a small utility shed and used her in the kitchens that
prepared the food for the slaves and workers. To insure her continued silence
he had her tongue mutilated so that she could not speak. She remained living
in the shed until her death some twenty two years ago. The shed remains Flo's
shed to the Ward empire to the present day. Over the years it became the
preferred spot that the slave overseers would use when they wished to take one
of the female slaves. It was the only structure on the property they had
access to other than their own quarters.

Martins entire life was planned and controlled by Nathanial. Before Martin was
a teenager Ward had already arranged his eventual marriage to Lucille. She was
an extremely fair child and was from a prosperous Virginia family. She was
chosen so that Martin would eventually produce an heir of his own that would
be a suitable master of the Ward empire. She was blonde haired and blue eyed.
Her skin was the color of milk. Nathanial was convinced she would bear Martin
a light skinned child. And she was of wealthy origins. She would come with a
generous dowery.

Ward spoiled Martin in all respects save one. As he entered puberty and became
curious about females his father refused to allow him the pleasure of a slaves
company. He was afraid that Martin might chose the now grown and beautiful
female breeder that was his sister.

The possibility of incest troubled Nathanial. He thought of it as sinful.
Martins entrance to the slaves quarters was forbidden and the hands and
overseers were instructed that he be kept out.

But Martin was a willful and determined young man. He would eventually find a
way to thwart his fathers, to him, unreasonable orders. He knew of a female
slave that was not kept with the general population.

One who slept isolated from all the others. One who could not complain. The
still attractive thirty five year old Flo. For his sixteenth birthday Martin
would treat himself to the loss of his innocence.

He stole into her shed in the late evening hours after everyone was asleep. He
awoke her as he tore her bed shirt from her and began exploring her body.
Seeing him and knowing her sons intentions she struggled desperately to
prevent the rape. She did not have the strength to stop him, only to anger
him. He beat her as he raped her.

She would die two days later as the result of the rape and beating.

Nathanial was horrified that his son had commited incest even though he was
not aware that he was doing so. The thought was so repugnant that he never
again looked upon Martin with any real affection or love. He eventually
transferred those feelings to Gabriel.

As for the slaves death, He was more or less relieved. Her silence was now
eternally assured and he wasn't complicit in its occurence.

Ward's principal overseer was however incensed by the death Martin had caused.
He was dismissed for his conscience and eventually replaced by Foote, a man
who had none.

No one else cared.

Chapter 24

Shatiluaan was happy. She was, even for her, more grateful to Rasha than she
believed possible.

The hut she had provided was large and had three entire sections. Shatiluaan
had not only sleeping quarters but an altar area for the shrine of Nai Oben
Sha where the Natuli could gather as they had for over fiifty eight hundred
years.

And Rasha had sent three luaans in the early hours of the day to remove the
tethers from her hands. The pale one even addressed the wounds upon her head
and face. The bounty they had offered had included fruit which now sat upon
the new shrine.

The Mothers generousity humbled her in the face of her failure to create life.
The time of the Nai Oben Sha is but ten years. During her time the taking of
the seed stalk must resut in life. Failure to produce issue is Mortal sin for
the bearer, as well as taboo for the first Luaan.

It is so important that it is the only mortal sin other than the taking of
life from one's mother.

It is how the Natuli have survived as the chosen race for so long. It is how,
in her wisdom, Rasha Shaluaan has chosen her children to flourish for
eternity. Shatiluaan must not fail again.

As is with all Natulie luaans, the luaans are prized and the first two babies
born will alway be luaans. This is how the Mother provides that there is alway
a first daughter. Should the first luaan suffer early destiny, an early
balacing of her ledger, the next luaan is the First Luaan and the Natulie
continue towards eternity.

So great is her wisdom that it is so.for all Natuli Luaans. They have been in
the wandering for over five thousand years. In the almost two thousand years
of migration towards the land of the great tombs, after the expulsion from the
fertile valley, they lived in many lands and with many peoples. Yet they were
as one with all those lands and peoples..

Even in the time of bondage they were as one with with all those others who
lived as captives. They were as one with those that supplied the labor to
erect the great tombs.

In the three thousand years since the servitude of ten centuries in that land
of great tombs, as they continued their migration towards the promised green
hills, they have lived in even more lands and amongst even more different
peoples. And always, within a generation, they are assimilated and as one with
those peoples. As one with those lands.

They cannot be otherwise. The issue of all Natuli Luaans is Natuli regardless
of the seed bearer But Natuli seed bearers cannot have Natuli issue unless
that issue is born of Natuli luaan.

No matter who sires the Natuli luaan she is Natuli and so too are her luaans.
There are always Natuli luaans. There is always Nai Oben Sha, always the first
daughter and they are always as one with all others and all lands. There is
always the Natuli. There is always the Chosen.

So great is Her wisdom and Shatiluaan would not fail it again. She had been
surprised by the coming of her time. She had not even recognised the coming of
the heat until it was upon her. Now she would recognize it as it approached
and would prepare for the seed bearer sent by The Mother.

Shatiluaan was truly happy and truly grateful. She would be the first First
Daughter chosen to be the Nai Oben Sha in the promised land of the prophesies.
She would be the first of the chosen to climb the Natuli's long dreamt of
Green Hills.

She was Natuli. She was Nai Oben Sha She would not fail the Mother. Not here
in the land of the green hills. Not here in the Promised Place.

Chapter 25

Life on the great southern plantations of the late eighteenth and early
nineteenth centuries was much the same as it was for those who had lived in
the feudal kingdoms of Europes dark middle centuries. There were slaves
instead of serfs. There were hired hands and tenants instead of vassels. The
terms were different but the concept the same. One lived in an isolated
environment where the word of the Manor's Lord was unquestioned and absolute.
This was the environment Lucille Ward had found herself in two months after
her seventeenth birthday.

Her one month courtship in Virginia that proceeded her arranged marriage to
Martin had gone well. She was actually quite taken by the dark good looks of
her twenty year old intended. They were wed in her families church at the end
of the brief courtship and she settled in her new home at The Pines the
following week. She has been there ever since.

She was an attractive girl,, a bit to thin and frail, but none the less
pleasing to look at. She was a religious woman, deeply steeped in her families
Catholic beliefs. They were at first relatively happy. Martin was aloof and
easily angered but otherwise treated her well. The arrival of their first
child, Gabriel, was a celebrated event at the Pines two years after her
arrival there. Her father in law, who had all but ignored her since her
wedding, was ecstatic and treated her afterwards as a daughter. He doted on
the infant and spent a great deal of time with her and her child.

Everything changed two years later with the birth of her second child. The
infant girl was still born and she was Negro. Nathanial and Martin both
accused her of sleeping with a slave. Martin beat her and refused to sleep in
the same room as her.

She was despondent and confused. She could not understand how the child had
come to be black. She pleaded her fidelity to Martin who simply continued to
rage and hurl accusations. She begged Nathanial for the intervention of a
Priest as she swore of her loyality to Martin. The elder Ward refused to
entertain her protestations of innocence and insisted that she had either
slept with a slave or had been visited by a dark and evil spirit in punishment
for some previous sin she had commited.

Lucille became isolated in her environment. Martin ignored her when he wasn't
being abusive. She was ostracized and shunned by the Ward families white
employees. Nathanial spoke to her only when it was absolutely necessary and
assumed the upbringing of Gabriel. The only people that showed her any
kindness or communicated with her were the few slaves that worked in hers and
Martins home.

In spite of the unfair turn her life had taken she remained a kind and gentle
soul. She did not regard slaves as property, the concept of owning a human
being was loathsome to her. She treated the slaves that worked in her home
well and was rewarded with their loyalty and friendship. She treated
Shatiluaan well when she was brought into her home. Lucille treated her as a
guest not a captive.

She treated her bruises and saw to it that she was fed decent food. She
removed her bindings and gave her free run of the entire basement instead of
tethering her to a bed as Nathanial had ordered.

The slave was receptive to her kindness and showed no fear of her or the three
black women that were assisting Lucille. Lucille felt a certain kinship with
her. She saw Shatiluaan as another female unfairly and cruelly treated by the
Ward family, just as she had been.

Lucille taught her some simple words so that they might communicate. She
taught her yes and no and that her name was pronounced lu-cee. Shatiluaan was
intelligent and a quick learner. She was able to teach her tutor that her name
was Shatiluaan. Lucille took it to be Shati Luann and called her Luann, a name
that seemed to please the new arrival.

Shatiluaan was indeed pleased and indeed grateful to The Mother for sending
her these luaans to attend her. They were not Natuli but they too were
daughters. And they were grown women of child bearing age, what the Natuli
refered to as virgins. She had her altar and she had her court. All had been
restored to the Nai Oben Sha. The Mother had provided.

Chapter 26

If Shatiluaan was pleased at the time, Niles Foote was ecstatic. The fool
Martin was about to earn his fathers eternal wrath in a huge way. He was about
to commit the cardinal sin no one ever did at The Pines. He was going to defy
Nathanial Ward. He was going back to his own home and he was going to have
that black slave. As Martin put it, she would be tamed and begging him for
more by morning, and the old fool could screw himself.

Foote couldn't believe that he had been so easily convinced. He began by
kidding him that he was lucky that it was Benjamin that got to her and not
Martin. If he had it would be Martin laying dead with the bitches finger marks
around his neck. Then he teased him about being exiled from his own home by
his "daddy". And finally he had bragged of how it would be him that would be
fucking the slave. And doing it in the comfort and privacy of Martins home.

Martin had exploded in rage and embarassment. He thundered that no one would
have her until he did and that no man could keep him from his home. He bragged
of how he would see her docile and on her knees. He would screw her blind and
she would thank him.

Foote responded to his outburst by accusing him of talking through his hat. He
told Martin that he would believe that he'd defy his father when he saw it.
Until then it was idle talk from a scared child.

He'd had to accept a hard punch in the jaw from Martin as soon as he was done
talking. But he had laid on the ground laughing as Martin stormed out swearing
that Foote would see how wrong he was by morning. He felt the sore jaw was a
small price to pay for his efforts guiding Martin on the path to his fathers
damnation.

Things would be changing soon and he'd get his revenge then. As soon as the
old man replaced Martin with Gabriel as his heir, and it couldn't be long in
coming, Foote would be in the drivers seat. While Lucas twisted his neck and
slobbered over his dying body Foote would be sure to remind Martin of the
punch in the face. That is if the black bitch didn't kill Martin for him
first.

Foote was indeed happy. He couldn't lose either way.

Chapter 27

Martin Ward laughed to himself under the darkened moonless sky as he quietly
walked the mile long path leading from his fathers Plantation to his home.
Foote would be made to see what an ass he was and Martin would have the
satisfaction of not only screwing the lush amazon but of defying his father as
well, The old fart would never even know he'd been there

The stupid old man had placed her in an underground vault with a big house
sitting on top of it. In through the fruit cellar and out the same way. His
wife and the slave women upstairs would be soundly sleeping as he screwed the
bitch silly. Foote could sniff his cock if he needed proof he had been there.

Who was going to tell Nathanial he thought as began prying the storm door
open. Not the slave woman. When he was through with her she would cower in
fear, and besides she couldn't ask for water if she was on fire yet alone
explain a rape to his father. Not his wife and not the slaves, they wouldn't
even know that anybody had been there.

He was just thinking about whether Foote might not say something or if the
bitches bruises might not give him away as the wooden peg holding the cellar
door.latched came loose

He decided to trust in fate that they wouldn't as he lowered himself into the
cellar.

Chapter 28

Shatiluaan was praying at the alter of the Nai Oben Sha when she smelled the
seed in the next room. The heat was not upon her and she could not imagine why
Rasha Shaluaan would send a seed bearer to her when it was not.

It is my time and the heat will come, Rasha is all wise she thought as she
shed her clothing and made ready to greet The Mother of all Daughter's
offering.

Mother has sent you in her wisdom she chanted over and over again as she spied
the startled Martin.

Chapter 29

Martin was surprised to find the naked Amazon standing in the doorway of his
basement store room and not tethered to the bed where she was supposed to be.
Can't anyone follow instructions he thought.

She spread her arms as she chanted and Martin appraised her body. He noted the
full swell of her firm chocolate breasts and the large brown areoles that
circled the erect nipples. He marveled at the roundnes of her seductive hips
and the full curve of her lush ass. He was inspired by the perfect musculature
of her arms and legs and the flat hard stomach just above the moist pussy he
imagined awaited him. He felt the arousal in his own crotch and moved towards
her.

He was momentarily stopped in his lustful advance when, as he stepped into the
lanterns light, the negress suddenly dropped to her knees and thrust her arms
skyward. He watched in stunned silence as she began yet another chant in her
incomprenensible babble.

You are all wise Great Mother, I am your humble daughter. The Nai Oben Sha is
your humbled servant. May the ledgers be balanced as your mercy requires.
Shatiluaan would repeat this verse three times as she had been taught.

She was Shatiluaan, the first daughter. She was Nai Oben Sha. Mortal Sin is
the Province of the Nai Oben Sha.

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...

To be Continued in Part 5

The Wages of Sin