Page 282 of Dirty Discipline, Vol. 1

He went back to watching the leather. “You won’t freeze and I’m not shaving all of you. Just your backside.”

“My…why in the universe would you want to shave my rump? That has no purpose.” She was completely confused. As infants and toddlers their rumps were bare of fur. It made it easier to take care of a child until they were trained to use the toilet, but by their fifth year their pelt was complete and covered most of their body.

“It’s a common punishment out here. Well, it’s part of the punishment. Shaving your fur to bare your skin is meant to be a humiliation, but it’s also useful for the second part.”

Throughout the conversation he’d continued to draw the knife back and forth at an angle and her glance was pulled to it as though she were being hypnotized. She didn’t want to know what the second part was; she really didn’t, but she heard herself asking anyway.

“I think I’ll let that be a surprise.”

She didn’t press, instead she burrowed back under the covers and tried to ignore the steady scraping sound until he finally stopped. She thought he might come for her then, but he didn’t. Instead he began to prepare a thick grain gruel for breakfast. She supposed that meant her punishment would come later. She shivered. Part of her was terribly curious, but the rest was happy for the reprieve.

She was careful not to annoy him further and make things worse. She ate when he passed her the roughly carved wooden bowl, even though she’d lost her appetite. The porridge was hot and filling, with small chunks of spicy nuts and some dried fruits to give it flavor, so it was no hardship to finish.

He left soon after for his morning trip to check the traps, and while he was gone, she took care of the few small chores that he’d deemed suitable for her in her weakened state. By the time he returned, she was curled back up in her bed resting. He gave her an approving look as he passed.

But once he’d taken care of the game and cleaned up afterwards, he turned to her with a look of determination. She knew it was time for the punishment he’d promised. She resisted the urge to hide under the covers, knowing it wouldn’t do her any good.

He crooked a finger at her. “Come here,” he said. It was simply stated with no hint of a threat, but she knew she’d regret it if she disobeyed him.

She got up slowly and dragged herself over to his side. “Jahk, I don’t want to be shaved. Please don’t,” she said, as if the request might make him change his mind.

“You won’t like what I do after, either,” he assured her. “Strip.”

She was getting used to being ordered out of her clothes and she automatically began to undress even as she continued to plead with him. “It will grow back patchy and look weird. Can’t you think of some other way to punish me that won’t be disfiguring?” It was a huge exaggeration of course, and she knew she was overreacting, but thinking of herself with her backside hanging out bare and naked was so humiliating.

He gave her an amused look and shook his head. “It won’t grow back patchy and it definitely isn’t going to disfigure you, Mara. It’s just fur. Within a month or so you’ll never know it was gone, but until then it will be a reminder for you to behave yourself.”

“I don’t need a reminder, I promise. I’ll remember without this.” She could hear the catching in her voice that indicated tears were on their way. It felt like he was reducing her to a child. First making her rest all the time, and now taking away her fur so she’d look like a toddler.

The clothes they wore were basically utilitarian. There to keep them warm and dry, to protect them from rough surfaces, or even to provide them with pockets to carry things. It was still embarrassing to be ordered to strip, and it did feel more vulnerable, but it was bearable. To lose her fur was a whole deeper level of humiliation.

When he reached for her, she couldn’t help trying to push him away. “No, no, don’t!” She twisted in his arms and tried to run, but he seemed to be expecting that.

He scooped her up in his arms and carried her across the cave and when he set her down, she saw that he’d prepared everything for the event. There was a bucket of water on the floor and on top of the rudimentary table next to it, lay the knife he’d been sharpening so diligently, with a pile of shaven lather root.

As a botanist she was totally familiar with the useful plant. It was one of the specifically planned growths they’d seeded the planet with before she was born. Now, it grew wild along streams and rivers. It was extremely useful because when ground or crumbled it produced a simple form of soap with a good strong lather. In the colony they used it to make something a little more sophisticated, but the wild version worked just fine in a pinch.

But even if there had been some doubt about what the plant was, she would have recognized it, because he’d set her to shaving a large basket full that morning as one of her chores. She wondered now if there was some significance to that. It made her feel like she was contributing to her own punishment and she scowled at the shavings she had worked so hard on.

He pulled her attention back to him with a sharp tug on her arm. “Listen to me, Mara. You’re going to be good while I shave you, and you’re not going to fight me. The knife is sharp, and I don’t want you to get hurt because you won’t stay still. So, if you fight me, I will show you another use for the ropes and believe me, you won’t like it at all,” he warned her.

She glared at him. “If you don’t want me to get hurt, then maybe you shouldn’t do this at all.”

“When I make a threat I always follow through, girl. You’ll learn that about me. For now, I want you on your hands and knees in front of me. That’s the easiest way to do this.”

“I don’t want—”

He cut her off with a sharp gesture. “Now.”

She could have fought, could have argued longer, but they both knew eventually he’d win. She dropped to her hands and knees facing away from him and tried to ignore what was happening. It didn’t hurt. There was never any physical pain, but it all felt strange.

She didn’t want to look back to see what he was doing because she knew she wouldn’t be able to stay in place if she did, but she could hear as he dunked his hands in the water. She smelled the fresh scent of the root shavings as he wet and lathered them in his hands. And the cool sensation as he soaked her bottom fur and then began to massage in the froth made her shiver.

But she wasn’t expecting to enjoy the feeling of his hands kneading her rump as he worked the lather into her fur. She blamed it on her coming heat. Maybe everything felt sexual because of that, but she liked the firm touch of his fingers as they worked through the short coat that covered her backside.

Her body began to ache and throb for more and she found herself pressing back hoping he’d explore a little further down, and he did, but only to be thorough with the soap. Once her cheeks and the upper part of her thighs were wet and matted with lather, he picked up the knife and began to shave. She could hear small clumps of soapy wet fur splatting to the stone floor as he stripped her dignity from her one stroke at a time.

He paused at times to make more lather, or to tap the back of the knife against the side of the bucket to clear the blade. At one point she thought he was finished, but then he started over again to make sure he’d bared her all the way down. She’d never felt so naked in her life and the air blowing across her wet bare skin felt very odd.

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