It was not a long sleep before the group was awakened by the morning light, and despite Eranor’s protestations to the contrary Aldyn and Rosewood had quickly packed up the camp and were ready to move on.

Eranor was patiently waiting by one of the scale beasts for Rosewood to put her into the strait jacket she always wore while they traveled. As it was now Rosewood only held Eranor’s leash and it dangled loosely.

“Ok let’s change your diaper before we go,” Rosewood sang happily, giving Eranor’s diaper a squish. “Oh you really need one too,” Rosewood continued as she led Eranor over to the last bit of camp remaining, Eranor’s diaper changing mat complete with a new diaper waiting. Eranor laid down confused. Usually she was put into the strait jacket as soon as possible, but they seemed to be delaying today. She didn’t know why. Surely a strait jacket would keep her from moving during a diaper change not that she would anyway.

“You’re not going to put me into the jacket?” Eranor cautiously spoke up, hoping they hadn’t just forgotten to and she didn’t just ruin her new freedom.

“Not unless you want me to,” Rosewood shrugged as she removed the wet diaper Eranor was in and started wiping her down. “No judgement from me if you do. Some find that sort of thing comfy.”

“No no I’m fine. I just,” Eranor shook her head quickly causing Rosewood to giggle.

“Well you had your chance to run away, but you came back and saved us.” Rosewood said sliding the new diaper under Eranor. “So we don’t think you really need that jacket any more. Your leash is enough to keep you in check.” Eranor taped the new diaper up with a smile. “And you get to ride up with me instead of in that little seat.” Rosewood held out her hand to help Eranor up. Eranor blushed at the sign of respect, or as close to respect as a she could get in her new position.

“Wait though,” Eranor spoke up as a though crept into her head. “If I don’t have to wear the jacket then why do I need to stay in diapers?”

“Don’t press your luck,” Rosewood smiled booping Eranor’s nose. “Come come,” Rosewood gently tugged on Eranor's leash and led her over to the ready scale beasts. Aldyn was busy checking the hasty repairs he had made to the cart containing the magic armor. “Is it ready general?”

“As it’ll ever be,” Aldyn sighed stopping his toiling. “I’m just glad we’re close to the border, or at least we should be.”

“And I doubt anyone else is following us anyway,” Eranor added in.

“Quite,” Aldyn nodded.

“Verbose as ever,” Rosewood sighed. “Come Eranor let’s get saddled up.”

With some difficulty Eranor managed to clamber up onto the back of the scale beast, with Rosewood quickly joining her, sitting in front and grabbing onto Eranor’s leash loosely. Eranor blushed, at how close she suddenly was to Rosewood.

“Better get over that,” Rosewood said acknowledging the embarrassment. “We may be close, but we still got a bit of a ride before we’re into Vas Naga.” Eranor grumbled but settled more comfortably into Rosewood. “Now while we’re traveling I want to go over some things with you, since you seem to be in an agreeable mood.” Aldyn started moving his scale beast and Rosewood followed.

“What things?” Eranor asked suspicious.

“Some simple commands you need to memorize,” Rosewood said sternly, not looking back at Eranor as she was steering her scale beat.

“Oh good,” Eranor sighed annoyed.

“Loose that attitude, this stuff is important.”

“I fail to see how demeaning tricks are important.”

“Eranor!” Rosewood scolded.

“Sorry master,” Eranor apologized looking at the ground.

“Good. Now we obviously don’t have the room to perform these, but it’s worth it to go over them first and then we can work on performing them.”

The next several hours of the ride were Rosewood explaining various poses Eranor would be expected to perform on command. All of them fairly demeaning. Begging, sitting pretty, prostrating, and presenting her leash were just some of the poses. Rosewood was quizzing Eranor about describing them for a while as they went. It was only a few hours before Eranor got well and truly sick of the quizzes, but the constant repetition had actually cemented what all of the commands were in her head pretty well. She wasn’t looking forward to later that day, when apparently she would be expected to actually perform them.

“What is prostrating,” Rosewood quizzed.

“Face down ass up,” Eranor answered tiredly.

“You are expected to have some decorum too,” Rosewood said warningly.

“Decorum? While I’m offering my ass up to the master in the room?”

“Just because you’re not in your strait jacket any more doesn’t mean you’re immune to punishment Eranor. Perhaps a quick beating on that ass you’re offering up will remind you of how you should speak. Yes Master,” Rosewood demanded.

“Yes Master,” Eranor sighed not unlike a teenager.

“Without the attitude. Positive inflection and a smile. It’s your duty and your pleasure to serve.”

“It’s not really.”

“Well then you’ll do it or get hit,” Rosewood snapped back. “I was trying to give you the positive spin, but you insist on being negative. Regardless, try again and do it right.”

“Yes Master,” Eranor forced a happy inflection.

“Close enough,” Rosewood sighed. “Perhaps I have been drilling you a little too hard today.”

“Yes Master,” this time the happiness from Eranor was genuine. Rosewood couldn’t help a sly smile.

“We can take a break for now, but do try to remember them for later.”

“Ugh I don’t really have to do this do I?”

“You do,” Rosewood was unapologetic.

“It’s just so humiliating,” Eranor complained. “I mean doing that in front of Aldyn, and in front of you.”

“You need to realign you’re thinking,” Rosewood said with a breathe. “You’re someone’s treasure. When they are asking you to do these things they are showing you off. Showing off how beautiful you are, and how you would only do these things for your master. You should be happy that someone treasures you like that, and proud of your own beauty. At least that’s how I think of it.” There was a quick silence.

“I don’t know if that’s always true,” Eranor struggled to find a way to speak her mind.

“It’s not always true,” Rosewood answered honestly. “Believe me I know. There are some masters who do only do this to humiliate you. They gain happiness from your suffering and will seek to use you to that end at every opportunity, but Tialla is not one of those masters.”

“So she thinks I’m a treasure?” Eranor questioned. “We’ve never even met. How can I be a treasure to her?”

“In your own way you are, and that will become clear soon enough. Though that’s beside the point. She’s going to be that way because she’s a decent person. I raised her to be that way.” Eranor was quiet for a moment. “She’ll like you,” Rosewood interrupted the silence.

“I hope so,” Eranor sighed with worry.

“Rose!” Aldyn called out from his scale beast ahead of them. “I think we’re across the border now.”

“Right!” Rosewood called back, before quickly conjuring a spell in her clothed hand. After a moment she threw a glowing ball of fire into the air, and it circled around the group cycling between different colors in a very obvious fashion. A signal for someone to pick up on.

“Let’s wait up for em then,” Aldyn said circling his scale beast back around.

It was only a few moments before some soldiers emerged, following the signal Rosewood was emitting no doubt.

“General Aldyn!” One of the soldiers spoke quickly and saluted with his arm across his chest.

“We have a convoy waiting for you nearby to escort you to the train,” another soldier shouted.

“Be sure this gets to our research team,” Aldyn said hitting the side of the covered cart. “You don’t wanna know what we did to get it.”

“Yes sir!” the soldiers shouted in unison. Aldyn hopped off of his own scale beast and walked next to Rosewood’s, which was now being led by one of the soldiers.

True enough it was a quick jaunt over to a waiting group of mounted scale beasts, and the group started moving together with military precision. Eranor found herself scooting closer to Rosewood nervously. Moving with the group offered less conversation, but the distance was also fortunately far less than they had been moving.

The convoy arrived in a non-descript clearing, but what was waiting for them was a two car train resting on some tracks that seemed to go nowhere. The train itself was two cars long, one for the engineer and one for passengers: Eranor, Rosewood, and Aldyn in this case. Trains moved along their rails with the aid of metal magic, this one was, no doubt, no exception. The bottom of the train was littered with connected magical crystals, meaning the driver in his cabin could easily channel magic throughout the length of the train easily and adjust the trains speed and direction across the metal rails.

This seemingly random set of rails that the train was currently rested on was probably part of an attempt to connect the Naga rail system with the Miqo’s, which was already connected between the various Miqo countries, but this project was stopped with looming tensions. Now those looming tensions had come to fruition, which is why Eranor even found herself here to begin with. Despite the circumstances that led to its existence, this rail close to the border they had crossed was certainly convenient for them.

Rosewood confidently hopped off of her scale best and walked toward the train, Eranor being forced to follow behind.

“We have some restraints in the car,” a soldier following next to Rosewood began but he was quickly cut off.

“I don’t need those,” Rosewood cut the soldier off, still walking to the car. “I’ve got our new slave completely under control, isn’t that right dear?” Rosewood tugged on Eranor’s leash.

“Yes master,” Eranor answered with a blush. She didn’t really like the idea of being tied up for the whole train ride anyway. The soldier bowed and stepped away.

“Besides we need to practice your commands on the ride over, now that we have the room,” Rosewood added to Eranor. The two stepped aside allowing Aldyn to board the train car and then followed after them.

The train car itself was a fairly spacious car. About the size of a small parlor with cushioned seats along the two walls. Eranor noted that one of the seats had several hard points on it. Likely where she would be sitting restrained if Rosewood had not spoken up for her. The whole thing had a very regal decor to it as well. It was clear this was a car meant for one person, or a select few people. It was probably Tialla’s royal train car.

Eranor didn’t have a lot of time to process all of this as she felt a light sting on the back of her leg.

“Ow! What? Ow!” her question was hit with another sting. Rosewood was standing behind her gently swatting her with a cane. It wasn’t particularly painful, but it was annoying enough to be motivating.

“Come on Eranor,” Rosewood rested the thin cane in her hand. “Show me sit pretty.”

AUTHORS NOTE: Here's the next chapter everyone. I think this officially wraps up the first act of our story, and we're getting close to meeting queen Tialla. In fact you can read the chapter the officially introduces Tiallia right now by becoming a patron on my patreon at patreon.com/bigred0603. Hope you all enjoy and stay tuned for more.