Disclaimer: Buffy belongs to Joss Whedon and 20th Century Fox. Conan and the World of the Hyborian Age was developed by Robert E. Howard (and butchered by Lin Carter and L. Sprague de Camp), they now belong to Conan Properties International. Everything new is MINE!

The Slavers

"Wake up!" a harsh voice reached Buffy's ears and woke her up. She opened her eyes and looked into the face of a dark man. A heavy black beard covered half of his face and a turban covered most of his black hair. His dark eyes seemed to appraise her as if she was only some kind of goods to be sold. And something like that he must have planned, because her hands were bound in front of her. She tried to say something but all she managed to get out was a weak croak. Her mouth was dry.

"Drink this!" her captor said as he handed her a water skin. And she swallowed the precious moisture greedily.

"What's the meaning of this?" Buffy managed to ask gesturing with her bound hands after she drank the whole water skin dry. "Do you capture every simple traveller lost in the desert?"

"I did not capture you. I found you and saved your life." He smiled. "And to repay me I will sell you at the slave market in Zamboula, where I will sell the rest of my goods"

Buffy looked around and saw that she was surrounded by a caravan. There were camels laden with goods and provisions. There were men dressed in loose robes and turbans and they were armed with scimitars and swords those blades were formed like a sickle. These are called khopesh, if Giles' knowledge of ancient weapons was correct. Some of those guards, they had to be guards, were armed with spears and rest of the caravan was composed of nearly three dozen black skinned men and women. All of them had the haggard, blank look of those who do not have any hope left. Those were slaves. And that made her captors slavers.

"I'm not a slave!" She cried.

But all her captor did was laughing. "You are now. Until I sell you, you belong to me, Nagib ibn Nabih."

"I will fight you for my freedom." Buffy replied with defiance burning in her eyes.

Nagib shrank back from her but then composed himself again and laughed out loud. "You may try, but if you kill me, my guards will kill you. And if you run were will to run to. The next oasis is a two days march away. With out water you would not survive. And even if you do, there is no guarantee that you will not enslaved there."

Hearing that the defiant look in Buffy's eyes vanished and was replaced by a look of defeat. He was right, the only way to survive was staying with him. But silently she swore that she will find a way to escape and to survive.

As Nagib notice that she had seemingly given up he stood up and turned away. "Askel!" he called one of his men. "Take her to the others, but keep her apart from them. There is a fire inside her that could start a revolt. And do not have fun with her."

The man that approached them was much taller than Nagib. He had a tanned skin and long yellow hair. His beard was plaited in several braids. A large double-bladed axe was slung across his shoulder. "You spoil all the fun," he pouted. "It has been weeks since I felt a girl beneath me."

"No." The slaver answered with firm voice. "She is more valuable if she stays a virgin."

Buffy could barely suppress a laugh. She had not been a virgin for years. Nagib did not notice the cough that escaped her mouth, but Askel did.

"That girl is no virgin," he countered.

"If you are so in need to relief yourself, you could have done the same thing as most of us and used one of the other girls." One of the other guards nearby remarked.

"Pah! I don't want to have my best piece eaten by one of the Dafari bitches with her filed teeth because they have not eaten a man's flesh in weeks. And I will never sleep with one of those Kushites." the pseudo-Viking replied.

"You could have come to me," another guard said with a certain twinkle in his eyes. "I can pleasure you in ways even the Stygian temptresses can not match."

"Pah! Before that will happen I will either take a Kushite from behind or risk my manhood with a Dafari." He reached to a dagger tugged into his belt. It was the dagger she found on that battlefield. "But first, I, Askel of the Æsir, will relieve you of yours."

"That's enough." Nagib ended the teasing before it turned into a real fight. "Askel, take her to the others. Don't allow her to speak with them. And keep yourself out of her."

Askel grabbed her on her upper arm and forced her on her feet. Then he dragged her to a lone camel and fastened a long rope to her bound wrists.

On a signal the caravan began to march. As Buffy was forced to walk behind the camel she swore again that she will find a way to escape Nagib and his slavers.