The South American Expedition 2

(story continues from The South American Expedition)

Part Two

It had been months since Dr. Rachel Stone had been bitten and nearly killed in South America. She was back at the university and for the most part physically over her ordeal, but she had a new outlook on life and felt a debt to the guides and their village for saving her life. Without them, she would certainly be dead, and all the thanks in the world just weren't enough for her. She had corresponded with two of the guides several times and asked if there was anything they needed for their village, and each time the answer was "no". The last time she wrote she tried to explain she felt the need to do something for them in repayment for their saving her life. The guide explained that they had a mostly simple life, and that they liked it that way, and technology was not exactly embraced by the chief.

Dr. Stone thought it odd that they were hooked on low tech, but still apparently sent the village sons to school to be able to communicate in English with people like her. They had access to modern medical care, and the eppy pen that one of them used on her was proof of that. The guide said generations ago the tradition was if you owed somebody a life, you offered them yours! He said that few do that anymore, and especially being from another culture, it was not expected from her...

The Dr. asked many questions of the guide, and did some cultural research on her own before she formed her plan. She knew the university had paid for their guides in the local currency, and that was probably used for the hospital, and the few things that they couldn't make easily, like the paper she was reading off of. She didn't want to repay them in that manner though, and she knew she had to make this next offer to the chief directly, only IF she could maintain her courage long enough.

Rachel arranged her personal affairs and took a leave of absence from her position at the university to do what she called "field research." She had planned on being gone a full year, and told the Dean that she was doing research for a book she wanted to write. She made up some place she intended to go, so nobody from her past would even know where to look for her, if they even wanted to.

Dr. Stone arrived in country and met her two pen pals, and they escorted her on the long trip down river to their remote village. Few outsiders had ever even seen the place, and with every mile that she put between herself and the outside world, the magnitude of her commitment grew. She didn't know if the chief would accept her gift, or reject it, as by custom either was possible.

They finally arrived at the outskirts of the village and the Doctor was to be "presented" to the chief in the traditional way, naked and bound. She knew all about this from her research, and the thought excited her back home! Here, with the men watching her intently as she stripped, she was mortified. They had obviously seen the Dr. naked before, but she didn't remember that. The last time she saw the guides they had been wearing more traditional loin cloths, this time it was blue jeans and polo shirts, and that made her feel even more exposed as she stood naked before them.

They put traditional five inch wide leather straps on her wrists and ankles, and laced them closed with leather thongs attached to each. Her wrists were tied together behind her back with the tail ends of the thongs while she offered no resistance of any kind. She was deliciously humiliated by what she perceived to be primitive people, and advised to keep her head lowered, and kneel in the chief's presence. When she entered the chief's day hut and knelt, the guides used the loose tails to tie her ankles together, and her wrists to her ankles, ensuring a completely submissive posture. She had practiced her speech over and over again in her head for the man who might not even understand it.

When she thought it was silent long enough she told the chief, whom she had not even made eye contact with yet, that she wanted to thank him for saving her life, it was his men who had after all. And she told him she had a small gift for him and his village, humbly offered, to use however they wished, if he would accept it! She bowed her head even lower in dramatic fashion, indicating to the chief that SHE was the gift she was referring to.

He told his men to leave, in perfect English she was surprised to hear, and walked around the bound and helpless Doctor who had still not even looked up at him yet. By the way his men talked, she expected him to be very old, but his voice sounded not much older than her's, and with a distinctively British accent! The chief asked her if she freely came to him, or if she were under some kind of duress. She answered honestly that she felt compelled to come, but that it was her own choice.

"Very well", he told her, "your humble gift is freely accepted, and welcome to our village".

The chief told her she would have one year to prove her worth to the community, and during that time she would be community property. All will share her equally, and any infraction of the rules will be punished in a manner decided by the family leaders. He told her those could be unpleasant, and he advised her to avoid them at all costs. He told her as a reminder of her status, she would remain naked at all times, and either wear her bindings or have them on her person if she were bathing, always ready for use. He reminded her that "no" was not a word he expected to hear from her, and would be punished by ten lashes in the public square given by whomever she uttered it to!

She had to look up at him after that, and maybe even risk her first public punishment. When she made eye contact she found him to be quite handsome, and apparently just a few years younger than she was, and obviously not a local. He was dressed in kharkies and a loose shirt, and he said he had read the two books she had written. He held one of them in his hand to prove he was telling the truth, although he only read it recently. He then untied her ankles and helped her to her feet, and formally introduced himself as Dr. James Pool, Cambridge class of 03.

Dr. Stone would have extended her hand and shook his like this was some kind of normal introduction at a seminar, but that was obviously not possible with her wrists bound as they were. Dr. Stone said she knew some people from Cambridge, momentarily forgetting she was bound and naked, and suggested they may have some mutual friends. He said that was unlikely as all his friends from there are dead now. At Dr. Stone's puzzled look he explained he was from the class of 1903...

He told her that the combination of the spider bite that they all had in common, and the diet they all ate, allowed for a very slow rate of ageing, if you could survive the initial bite. However, it also left the women sterile, and she would soon notice that there are no children in the village.

...The chief told the Doctor that for the next year she would get no special consideration from any of them, and at the end of that year she would either join their extended family as he himself had, or become the main course at their cookout!

 

14.07.11

story continues in The South American Expedition 3

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