The Dark Elf Fisherman.
Continuing the theme of "normal people lives" of the various factions, I felt that it was high time that the elves of Naggaroth got a look. Just a completely unimportant dark elf during peace time.
Chapter 1(DEF)
Kaebros of house Chergohne guided the rudder of his small fishing ship as it sailed out into the chilly sea of malice. It was late winter, almost spring, and the air was bitterly cold as it filled the small sails.
The cheap wooden fishing ship was a small and rude thing, barely ten yards long from front to back, with wide sides to navigate through the shallows. It had a single mast, a single removable large hatch down to the meagre shallow hold, (currently closed to keep out the spray of the sea), and a tiny canvas canopy at the rear of the ship to provide some protection from both the sun and the rain.
The ship didn't have a name, at least, not that Kaebros knew of, it had already been second hand many times over before he spent his 100 years worth of meagre savings to buy the decrepit thing. It was only due to constant crude maintenance that the ship was even still seaworthy.
"Reduce the sail by 2 yards," Kaebros ordered his human slaves in the common tongue of Naggaroth, the wind was getting up too fast and the ship was fragile.
"Yes Master Kaebros," the slaves replied happily in the same language and reduced the sail as ordered.
"Hey Master Kaebros, did you hear the one about the Ogre minstrel and the dwarf maiden?" Joked Mickey the slave. The other slaves laughed.
Kaebros ignored the cheeky over familiarity of his slaves, he was far too poor to afford to risk injuring these slaves, so he was forced to spare the lash as much as possible. If these slaves died or got too injured to work then it would seriously affect Kaebros's livelihood.
Kaebros had 5 adult human slaves, 2 men and 3 women, plus a gradually increasing number of children who mostly died in infancy from diseases. He had originally had an additional man and 2 additional women, but they had died of disease and childbirth respectively, costing Kaebros a fortune.
The men, Mickey and Alfred, were both in their early 20's, and did the majority of the work on the ship. The women, Rosy, Bonnie, and Molly, were of similar ages, and mostly just gave birth to new slaves for Kaebros, helping work the ships only in a support role to their menfolk. Mickey and Alfred had been all too happy to get Rosy, Bonnie, and Molly pregnant as much as possible, and the ship was currently swarming with extremely noisy human children.
Getting these slaves had not been easy for an elf as poor as Kaebros was. Adult slaves were terribly expensive to buy, and Kaebros had had to buy them as children when they were cheap and feed them for years before they were old enough to work at maximum profit.
The now adult slaves were not related to each other as far as Kaebros could tell, they were all from different slave merchants, purchased individually a few months apart. The slaves had been breeding like vermin with each other ever since they were teenagers, and the next generation were almost old enough to start breeding now too.
Hand rearing these humans from childhood had been extremely difficult, they were truculent and unhygienic creatures, little better than beasts, but he was now glad that he had. Just as even the fiercest monster can be tamed if hand reared from infancy, these hand reared humans were likewise tame and utterly loyal to Kaebros. They had been raised by Kaebros to speak the dark elf tongue, and they seemed to regard Kaebros as a father figure, were loyal to him.
Kaebros steered the ship more to the east, using the position of the sun to navigate. They needed to find the hidden patches of nutrient rich water right in the middle of the sea of malice just to make a living from these overfished waters.
The sea of malice was one of the most heavily overfished waters in the entire world, as fishing was one of the only ways that low born elves like Kaebros could earn more money. The coastal waters were all so over fished already that it was a waste of time lowering the nets in such places. Only in the hidden nutrient patches far in the middle of the sea of malice could decent sized schools of fish be found.
It took days of sailing the open sea to find such places, discouraging many fishermen from sailing so far to fish these spots, and this fact alone had ensured that poorer fishermen like Kaebros could continue to make a living.
Kaebros pretty much lived his life at sea on his boat. He had spent the entire winter on his boat down south in Clar Karond on the Redvenom river, going as far south as possible to keep his precious slaves from freezing to death in the winter cold. They had spent the time doing repairs on the ship and gathering fresh supplies from the port, sleeping on the ship every night lest it be stolen from them.
When not wintering in ports and rivers, the fishing boat was forever at sea, returning to land only to sell the latest catch and take on fresh water and supplies. It was a hard life, but the savings were really starting to grow after so many years of fishing, and with the new generation of slaves nearing breeding age, Kaebros would finally have enough surplus slaves to sell a few and make some real money for a change.
"Fish!" Shouted Alfred, pointing to the sea ahead of the boat.
Kaebros was immediately roused from his thoughts and steered the ship towards where Alfred was pointing. The sea ahead had sea birds flying around overhead, a sure fire sign that fish were schooling below.
Kaebros snarled as he noticed that the water ahead was already being fished by rival fishing boats. The slave children noticed his reaction and eagerly gathered up slings and stones to fire at the rival boats if Kaebros gave them permission.
"Wait, don't sling any rocks yet slaves, get the nets ready," Kaebros commanded the human children.
"Yes Master Kaebros," the children replied disappointedly in their young voices, naturally obedient as though Kaebros was their grandfather.
Kaebros brought the ship around a safe distance from the nearest other boat, and Mickey and Alfred let out the nets behind the ship to gather fish.
Small splashes appeared in the water as the rival boats slung rocks at Kaebros's fishing ship. The children on Kaebros's boat used their own slings to return fire, but both boats were out of range of each other, and just wasting rocks.
These sort of sling battles were common among the slave children of impoverished fishing boats, mostly the children were just blowing off steam playing a game, but only mostly. Occasionally these battles could get lethal if the boats were in range.
The dark elf masters of these slave children usually tolerated these sling fights. Stones were completely free after all, and the masters didn't mind seeing their competitors being maimed by rocks.
The ships stayed far out of range of each other as the children pelted rocks, and Kaebros watched as Mickey and Alfred pulled in a net full of fish. The women and children quickly got to work salting the fish and storing them in boxes and barrels in the cargo hold, as the two men let out the net again for another catch.
Kaebros was a dark elf, so doing any actual manual labor was beneath him, but he did watch the humans work and occasionally changed the heading of the ship. The humans had been raised from childhood to believe that dark elves should never have to do work if possible, and they did not question the division of labor.
For the rest of the day the humans worked very very hard as Kaebros watched and directed, they stored as much fish as they possibly could in salt, but the sun went down before they could completely fill the hold. Kaebros did not let this stop the harvest, using his sharp elf eyesight to direct the humans even in the dark, with only starlight to see by.
Just before the first light of dawn the next morning, Kaebros judged the hold to be completely filled to capacity, and let the slaves sleep for a few hours as he got a head start sailing north to Har Ganeth, the nearest port, to sell the catch.
When it was mid morning Kaebros was too tired to go on and he woke up half the slaves to pilot the boat while he slept. Elves needed sleep much more than human animals did after all.
***...
Mickey the slave was mighty tired as he and Bonnie operated the ship as the others slept. Last night had been very very hard work.
Good old Master Kaebros was fast asleep in his sleeping bag under the canopy, the old elf had raised Mickey like a son and Mickey was very fond of the grumpy old man.
The rest of the family was sleeping all over the deck under patched sleeping cloaks of old sail canvas, keeping warm under the morning sun, heads and faces covered under the cloaks to prevent sunburn. If it rained then Master Kaebros would let them all sleep under the canopy at the back of the ship, but whenever the weather was fine enough the elf expected them to sleep out in the open to save space under the canopy.
The canopy was Master Kaebros's personal space, the rest of the deck was for the humans, that was the way it was and had always been.
Mickey smiled at Bonnie naughtily, and gestured for her to join him at the rudder under the canopy. Bonnie smiled back and looked around carefully before joining him, such moments of privacy were rare and precious, and had to be taken advantage of. Everyone else was asleep, even the kids, it was the perfect time to enjoy some quality time with each other.
The human adults of the family were all romantically involved with all members of the opposite gender, Kaebros had raised them from childhood with the understanding that it was their duty to breed with each other as much as possible. The 5 humans didn't want to disappoint their "father", so had formed a polyarmorous relationship with each other.
Rosy, Bonnie, and Molly, oh how Mickey loved them. He loved all three at the same time, and they all loved both Mickey and Alfred at the same time too. The three lovely ladies were forever getting pregnant, though whether Mickey or Alfred was the father was anyone's guess. Both men had sex with the women quite regularly, so paternity was largely a mystery.
Mickey and Alfred simply assumed that half of the kids had been fathered by each of them, and treated all the kids as though they were their own. All just one big happy family.
Bonnie was smiling ear to ear as Mickey started kissing her under the canopy. They had to be quiet to avoid waking anyone up. Kaebros in particular would be very grumpy if they woke him up, especially if they weren't steering the ship or weren't watching where they steered.
Mickey didn't want to let his father down, so did not stop steering and watching. He instead got Bonnie to sit in his lap facing him, both of them minus a few strategic articles of clothing, and got her to bounce up and down in a delightful way.
A lot of fun bouncing later, and Bonnie was very possibly now pregnant with her next child. The pair quickly put all their clothes back on and Bonnie returned to the main deck to tend to the sails.
Mickey stifled a yawn as he sailed the boat north towards Har Ganeth. It would be many days of sailing to reach the city of executioners, especially with the wind blowing the wrong way right now.
Mickey and the other adults had spent the first few years with Master Kaebros living in Har Ganeth, down in the slums around the docks. Kaebros had been a common soldier in the city guard, earning a pittance patrolling the city walls with a repeater crossbow. Mickey and the other original humans had lived much of those years locked away in the slum room Master Kaebros rented, waiting for him to come home from work to feed them and teach them.
Har Ganeth was a nasty place, it stank terribly all the time, and had severed heads on spikes all over the city, adding to the terrible smell. Mickey had only seen the slums and docks of Har Ganeth, but those places had been more than enough to put him off the city for good.
Mickey was not even sure why anyone had chosen the location to put such a large city. The surrounding lands were too cold, soil too barren and summers too short to farm the surrounding lands profitably. It had a little bit of mining, but nothing like enough to take over the role of the far more mineral rich Hag Graef as a mining hub. As far as Mickey could tell, the only thing it was well placed to be was a fishing market for all the fishing ships to sell their catches, it had literally no other strategic use as a city.
The fish market of Har Ganeth was one of the busiest in Naggaroth in terms of fresh catches being sold, it was just the only city in easy reach of the majority of the sea of malice, letting fishermen sell their catches and return to sea much faster than if they went to another one of the ports. At least that was when there wasn't a passing black ark that was conveniently close by.
Mickey fought to keep awake as he steered the boat ever northwards, he was terribly tired after last night. For long hours he sailed through the sunny waters, the wind bitingly cold despite the merry sunshine. His eyes stung from squinting over the sunny sea.
Mickey was forced to switch with Bonnie for a while steering the boat, and had a much needed rest as he waited for the next watch to take over. He was just so tired.
***...
The next few days were boring and non-eventful as they simply sailed through open sea towards Har Ganeth. The sea was completely uniform and unbroken, with only the sun and the stars to tell them where they were at a given moment.
Most of their lives at sea consisted of sailing to and from Har Ganeth like this. The viable fishing spots were just so far away from the ports that these gruellingly long transits were unavoidable.
The humans passed the time playing with children, and doing a lot of the stuff that creates yet more children, while Kaebros brooded stoically.
Kaebros was forced to interact with the humans almost constantly, and he yearned for the company of more than just animals for a change. He was desperate to get back to port, if only to talk to another of his kind. He wouldn't mind visiting a brothel if he could afford it, an elf maiden would be heavenly right about now.
The catch in the hold would maybe buy him a few nights with a nice elf whore, but it was a waste of money that could be better spent on his wife fund. The slavers frequently sold captured elf maidens from Ulthuan, such beautiful maidens, gentle and passive in a way that no Dark Elf maiden ever was. It was Kaebros's greatest ambition in life to save up enough to buy one of these gentle damsels to be his wife.
He could imagine her right now, with golden blonde hair, a gentle feminine face. She would never try to murder him like a dark elf woman might, she would be perfectly gentle and docile, and be so thankful and relieved by his kind treatment of her that she would be utterly loyal to him.
Kaebros imagined her by his side on his boat, so devoted to him that she would stay with him on his boat, never trying to escape. She would bare him lots of children, and with them he could grow the family business into a mighty fishing fleet. It all seemed so perfect in his head, it would be wonderful.
Kaebros decided that he wouldn't visit a brothel after all, far better to save the money to afford his new wife all the sooner, then he would never need brothels again!
***...
Mickey and Alfred held their fishing knives at the ready as they accompanied Master Kaebros to the dockside fish market with the first of many wagonloads of salted fish. This city was a dangerous place, and the two men were on the lookout for any threat to Master Kaebros.
The fish market was just across the street from the waterfront docks, and was bustling with fishermen and merchants, all haggling over fish. It was also full of people who would stab you as soon as look at you.
The fish market was supposed to be a dark elf place of trade, but if anything it looked like a human endeavour with just one elf for every ten humans. The human slaves of innumerable dark elf masters clamoured to buy seafood for their owner's kitchens, and the dark elf merchants themselves considered haggling with slaves to be beneath them, so got human slaves to do all of the actual work of selling.
With the exception of patrols of the city guards, the only elves that Mickey could see were impoverished fishermen like Master Kaebros and the very occasional merchant who sat back and kept an eye on things as their slaves did all the hard work of buying and selling.
The entire dark elf nation was like this, with slaves of various races, especially humans, vastly outnumbering the elf population. For every one dark elf, there were about nine slaves, both newly captured from distant lands and those that were born here in Naggaroth to existing slaves. Some of the slaves could trace back 20 generations of ancestors born into slavery here in Naggaroth, and every year the slave population grew slightly larger. The elves themselves could not breed fast enough to keep up, and were now a minority group in their own homelands.
The humans in the fish market singled out Master Kaebros instantly as being a dark elf and therefore someone likely to carry decent coin, and hundreds of would be pickpockets swarmed around him. Mickey and Alfred held their knives threateningly, forcing the pickpockets back with warning slashes of their fishing knives.
Master Kaebros held his purse protectively as Mickey and Alfred drove the thieves back, slashing wildly until the pickpockets scattered at the approach of a city guard patrol.
"Ah Kaebros, long time no see." The patrol leader said greedily.
"Hello old friends, how goes the city watch in my absence?" Master Kaebros asked slightly nervously.
"It does not go well. You see, we are just DESPERATELY underpaid these days..." The patrol leader said suggestively.
"Oh, that is not good. Ah, here, a private donation from your old fellow city guardsman," Master Kaebros said quickly and bribed the patrol with a handful of small copper coins.
The patrol brightened up considerably after receiving this bribe, and actually escorted the wagon to the best merchant they could find, moving the crowd aside at sword point. Mickey smiled, having a Master who had worked in the city guard for 100 years had it's advantages, the city guard always corruptly favoured their own, especially if given regular bribes.
"Old Kaebros here was a city guardsman for a long time, protecting your sorry hides from enemy invaders. I trust that you will do your patriotic duty and give this old soldier a fair price," the patrol leader told the merchant suggestively, nonchalantly slicing a cut into the wood of the merchant's countertop with the tip of his razor sharp sword as he spoke.
The dark elf merchant who ran the shop gulped nervously at this clear threat of getting his throat cut, and nodded enthusiastically that he really was feeling especially patriotic indeed today. The merchant shooed away his slaves and personally conducted the haggling, looking to the patrol leader to guide him in how generous a price he should offer.
With the help of the city guard the ship's entire cargo was quickly sold at an unusually high price. Master Kaebros then prudently passed on a generous share of these profits to the patrol with yet more bribes, but he had still made a fortune even with all the bribes he paid.
Mickey and Alfred did not leave Master Kaebros's side for even an instant. They were his loyal bodyguards in this dangerous place, ready to cut a throat of a threat to him at a moment's notice.
The city guard led Master Kaebros to their barracks like an old friend. They had after all served beside him in the guard for a century, and Master Kaebros had always been careful to be on very good terms with his comrades in the city guard. Mickey and Alfred followed him like a shadow, eyes peeled for threats, and the city guard tolerated their presence as loyal bodyguards to Master Kaebros.
The barracks itself was just one of many in the city of Har Ganeth, this one built into the structure of the outermost city wall that encircled much of the harbour from land invaders. It was a high ceilinged room, built out of the hard granite that was mined in the quarries of the nearby Spiteful Peaks mountain range, with elegant arrow slits for windows and roaring fires of pine logs in the many small fire places that kept the barracks warm for the city guardsmen.
Basic but well made pine furniture was arranged neatly throughout the room, with lots of open floor space to let the city guard move quickly in an emergency. Immaculately made beds sat in rows along one wall of the long room, the perfect folding of the sheets speaking volumes about the perfect discipline of dark elf troops, with iron banded wooden chests with multiple robust padlocks on each chest sitting at the foot of each bed to protect the meagre life savings and belongings of each member of the city guard.
The beds were widely spaced 2 yards apart, presumably to enable faster movement. A 4 yard wide corridor of furniture free space separated the wall with the beds from the opposite wall which contained the fire places and tables and chairs. The wall with the fireplaces had a fireplace roughly every ten yards or so, all modestly sized to reduce wasting firewood, and in between the fireplaces were piled neat stacks of pine firewood and the occasional barrel of water or alcoholic beverage.
To someone like Mickey who lived his life in the open chilly air on a small fishing ship, this dark elf barracks was like a heavenly paradise. These elves got free room and board, comfortable surroundings, and got paid on top of that! Mickey had never been paid a coin in his entire life, almost froze his manhood off each night, and sometimes had to go a few days without food when the rations ran low out at sea.
Mickey and the other original human slaves of Master Kaebros had never been allowed to live in the barracks back when Master Kaebros served in the city guard. Master Kaebros had instead rented out the cheapest hovel he could possibly find to keep them in and had lived in the hovel with them to raise them to be loyal to him. Mickey was grateful and all, but it didn't really make sense to him, why leave this paradise to live on a rickety old boat catching fish?
The city guard patrol led Master Kaebros to a table near a fireplace, and poured him a drink of strong ale from a barrel. Master Kaebros sat down with the men at the table, and the group of elves promptly got themselves blind drunk.
One of the guards then clapped his hands and a naked elf woman emerged from a doorway to the cheering of the city guard. Mickey and Alfred immediately collected Master Kaebros's purse and valuables off him before he could burn through his pay by drunkenly tipping this prostitute. This was a long established arrangement Master Kaebros had made with them, they were under strict orders to take his money off him whenever he was drunk in the presence of an elf woman, otherwise he would just blow through his pay.
The two human slave stood dutifully a polite distance from Master Kaebros, keeping themselves completely sober and keeping an eye on their inebriated master. Master Kaebros was joining the rest of the city guard patrol in drunkenly gang banging the dark elf prostitute.
It was a long LONG night, and the two humans minded the clothes and belongings of the now naked Master Kaebros as he continued in the group sex. Mickey and Alfred would be all over their 3 women the next time they saw them, that was for damn sure. Being able to watch a beautiful elf maiden being gang banged for hours but not being allowed to join in was an extremely aggravating experience!
Finally after hours of terrible blue balls, the two men helped Master Kaebros get dressed and helped him stagger drunkenly back to the boat. He was utterly drunk as a skunk, and loudly singing out of tune songs about women and wine.
They had to stop several times to let Master Kaebros vomit in the gutters, and nearly had to carry him the last few hundred yards to reach the boat where it was moored out in the crazy tangle of jetties in this busy harbour at 3 in the morning.
People on other boats cursed them loudly as Master Kaebros's drunken singing woke them up at this early hour, and it was a miracle that no one tried to stab them before they finally reached the boat!
The women and children were waiting for them onboard, woken up in advance by the loud singing of Master Kaebros, and they helped the drunken elf onboard without him falling over and breaking his neck in the dark. Kaebros puked over the side of the boat, no doubt feeding the local fish in the process, and the humans got him cleaned up with difficulty and laid him down to sleep.
He was soon snoring loudly and fast asleep. Mickey and Alfred then vented their considerable blue balls on the reluctant but grudgingly consenting Molly and Rosy, (Bonnie wasn't in the mood), and after satisfying their urges, the two men drifted off gratefully to sleep.
***...
Kaebros had a terrible hangover the next morning as his slaves purchased fresh supplies and took on fresh water before departure. He had vague memories of a naked girl and far too much to drink.
His loyal slave men had immediately taken away his money as soon as the girl appeared, just as he had trained them too, and he had all his money still intact as a result. He was profoundly grateful to have his hand reared slaves, they had just paid for themselves by saving him more money than he had originally bought them for!
Kaebros and girls were always a disaster whenever alcohol was involved. So many times in his centuries of life he had ruined his careful savings with his drunken generosity to a pretty face. In the city guard he had only managed to keep saving up for 100 years by giving the only keys to some of his multiple chest padlocks to trusted comrades in the city guard who were under strict instructions not to unlock the last few locks for him unless he was sober.
Kaebros had a love-hate relationship with elf girls. He was extremely fond of them but he had been robbed and swindled by so many dark elf whores and girlfriends over the long centuries that he no longer trusted his own countrywomen. He did not consider himself to be an unkind elf, he had a lot to offer a wife he felt, but women worthy of his trust were just impossible to find.
Kaebros would just have to keep saving up to afford his high elf slave wife. High elf maidens at least knew how to be loyal to their husbands. He would find some terrified young lovely, beside herself with terror in the slave markets imagining the terrible fate that awaits most high elf slave women. He would take this crying and terrified young maiden, buy her from the slavers, and then he would wipe away her tears and treat her very kindly. She would then be so thankful that she would fall in love with him and they would live happily ever after.
It then wouldn't matter how drunk he got, he would just be giving the money to his own wife when the drink made him generous. It would solve all his problems!
Kaebros fought down his hangover induced nausea as the slaves sailed the ship out of the port and out into the choppy sea. The slaves even steered the ship for him, letting him rest his hungover mind. His loyal human pets sure made life easier for him.
At first his slaves had just been slaves to his mind, just livestock commodities to be traded when convenient, but after hand rearing them from childhood they had grown on him, the way that livestock do tend to become treasured pets if you spend too much time raising them.
They were definitely still work slaves, just as a sheep dog is a work animal, but just like the sheep dog can, these humans had become his pets. Kaebros just guessed that he was a sentimental fool.
Fool or no, Kaebros had a certain amount of affection for his livestock. They were loyal and intelligent animals, they protected him from harm and needed no chains to stay by his side. They had never tried to escape or betray him, they needed no lash to make them work, and they were enthusiastically breeding a new generation of equally loyal and obedient offspring to serve him after their parent's short lifespans reached it's end.
Kaebros would be sad when this first generation of slaves died, they were such short lived creatures, but he consoled himself with the knowledge that he would just keep breeding their descendants for the next thousand years, maybe add some fresh blood to the breeding pool occasionally to keep the blood from getting too inbred. Maybe he would breed his own domesticated pedigree over the next thousand years? It was at least something to think about.
Kaebros felt a sense of sadness, his loyal pets were such short lived creatures. Maybe he would be able to breed a pedigree that lived a decent length of time? Surely it wouldn't be too hard to breed a human that lives for a few little centuries?
Why did pets have to die?
***...
To be continued.