In a Hurry

   When Osdornor defeated the forces of Midraal several free women from the vanquished State City left their homes. The ladies left their slaves locked inside their cages, to avoid the unfair competition. They walked the streets, looking for any military commander from Osdonor to offer their necks. 

    That's a common occurrence, to be expected every time a civilized city is invaded by some civilized foe. The smarter ladies know they must hurry, they have only a few ours to find their way to a collar. 

    The female citizens left behind after the commanders finish their inspection will be in the hands of soldiers. The luckier one will be captured by a civilized warrior or sigrax. Mercenaries are usually among the enemy forces, some of them lawless men from nowhere, they are feared for the defenseless ladies. Even more feared than the lawless are the wild men, also part of most mercenary armies: one on each five warriors fighting for Osdornor was a wild mercenary, a man from a nomadic tribe, a barbaric savage. 

   There is masters even worse than barbaric and savage humans. Not all wars involve such soldiers, but they are far from rare. Intelligent non humans, such as the lizard people and the gaars, who have no sexual interest for human slaves. Instead, they value humans_ both male and female_ as meat. Even the nutritive value being too small for the trouble such wild non humans insist on take the part of the slave spoils they have earned: humans are the most powerful specie on the planet Sharitarn (despite the fact that individually most humans prove to be far weaker than the regular member of many other species) and to many non human cultures that's enough to make humans a important traditional meal. 

  Only a  few dozen lizard men had been fighting for Osdornor as mercenaries, but know about their existence was enough to make even the proudest High Caste lady on Midraal consider the humiliation to be beg for a soldier's slave collar less distasteful.