WARNING: SMUT. Also, note that the main character is an OC. This is NOT Jade's story.
Story inspired by Season 1 of AMC's "Into the Badlands".
THE RED BARON: CHAPTER 1
A drop of sweat tumbled from my lashes, landing on the poppy bud in my hand. I reached up to quickly rub the sting from my eyes before moving on to the next plant and winced as my knife hand slipped and sliced the other.
"Agh! Dammit..." I cursed under my breath, hoping that the nearby Clipper wouldn't hear. I didn't need to bring any more attention from them than I already did. If he thought he could help the "damsel in distress", I wouldn't be able to escape having to lay with him. I was just a Cog anyway, so I didn't matter anymore than the Dolls in town did. The only difference was that I was free for them, since their Baron owned me. I ripped another strip from my skirt hem and wrapped my palm tightly so that I could keep working. I'd have time to clean it up later. I had a quota to make and if I was to keep it, I couldn't stop cutting poppy bulb after poppy bulb. The harvest had been slow this year, what with the Widow taking more Cogs and ambushing oil transports. I couldn't afford to fall short on quota and was already running behind. The Clippers were keeping me from the fields, so I had to work double time to make up for the last couple of days. The other girls were jealous of the attention I received from the Baron's Clippers, and I couldn't bring myself to tell them the torture those beasts put me through day in and day out. Sunny seemed to be the only one with any mercy for me. He'd tell the other men to send me back to the field whenever he caught them, but he'd been out hunting Nomads the past week, so there was no one to rescue me.
I had gotten to the last plant in the row by the road when the Clippers all rushed to attention and the Fort doors heavily creaked open. The 30 foot tall floodgates rarely opened this time of day, spare for when Sunny's motorcycle came roaring through on a mission for the Baron, so we all looked up to see who the occasion was for. To our shock, the Baron himself came sauntering out on his thoroughbred without an escort. With the Widow's attacks, this was an unheard of event, so we all quickly dropped our heads to the poppies and harvested faster than ever before. I cursed under my breath as I noticed blood seeping through my makeshift bandage on my hand. I needed to take care of that, but if I didn't have time before, I certainly didn't now.
The Baron slowly rode through the fields along the only road in and out of the Fort, surveying his crops and Cogs. Even in the sweltering South Louisiana afternoon, he wore his signature crimson wool military coat and his white linen shirt buttoned all the way to the collar. His hair was carefully combed up and his bearded was immaculately groomed; the image of a perfect Southern gentleman. He lazily gazed down at row after row of poppies and dirty Cogs, not stopping on either for more than a second or two.
I had started on the next row of buds heading away from the road when I realized that his horse had stopped. I chanced a glance up and my breathe caught in my throat when I saw he was staring down at me, sun gleaming behind him.
"You there. Let me see ya hand."
I swallowed hard, frozen as I tried to figure out if he was talking to me. Had the most powerful Baron in the South just spoken to a Cog?
"Come on now. Nobody's gonna hurt ya. Let me see that hand." His accent drawled with the sophistication of over two centuries of Southern plantation owners. Something about it was comforting and frightening at the same time. It commanded respect and action, so I obediently set down my basket, stood up and presented him with my now crimson soaked bandaged palm.
"Now that just won't do," he frowned. "Clippah! Take this dream to the house and have Veil take a look at that hand." He turned back to me, "Can't have a Cog with useless hands." He smiled in a way that left me uncertain as to his sincerity, but before I could decide his intentions, he had already turned his attentions to the other side of the road and was moving further from the Fort.
"Oh, and one more thing," he called back, "Make sure she gets a bath and some new clothes. It seems a shame to have somethin' so lovely lookin' that way." That smile. But, again, before I could figure it out, he was gone the other way and I was being led into the Fort through those looming doors, into a world I'd never known.