The Princess & the Slave

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This story is one of six new stories in the compilation, Talons of the Hawk by Emma Finn, a book of transformation stories available on Amazon.

THE PRINCESS AND THE SLAVE
by
EMMA FINN

1

Once upon a time, a long, long time ago, in an exotic land very far from here, there lived a princess who was very spoiled.

She was the most beautiful woman in the land with dark skin, long black hair and bright eyes, but she was also the meanest. She and her parents, the king and queen, were served by a thousand slaves but the princess was nasty to every one of them that crossed her path. She didn’t care about their feelings. All she cared about was getting her own way.

And Princess Saffie always got her own way. From morning to night she did whatever she liked and slaves by the dozen were there to see to her every whim.

The king and queen had not always been so wealthy. Theirs was a new kingdom, founded with magic. It was said that the king had started life as the humble servant of a great explorer. They travelled far and wide, exploring the world until one day, in a distant rain-drenched land; he found a precious statuette made of stone that granted the holder anything he desired.

It wasn’t long before the servant became a king and took himself a queen, and when they had a daughter, the king said that she would never want for anything. She would have the childhood he wished he had himself.

He didn’t realise how spoiled and self-important this would make her, but spoiled and self-important Princess Saffie became.

The princess always wondered how it was that her father, the king, amassed his power and on her eighteenth birthday he told her the tale and he showed her the statuette, taking it from the locked stone box in his bed chamber.

It was the image of a hawk with folded wings and a proud stance and within the dark grooves and crevices that marked its body the rock glistened. It had two glistening jewels for eyes that drew the attention hypnotically. Saffie looked on the hawk with wonder when the king told her of its powers and she lusted for it herself. All one had to do, he said, was to hold the hawk tightly and state what was wanted. The magic would make it come true.

She was jealous of the king’s power and thought him selfish to keep it to himself, but when she asked to have it, the king told her no.

Upon his death it would be hers when she was queen but until then she must respect his wishes and never touch it. He said the power to achieve any desire was very dangerous.

Left alone, the princess was furious. How dare the king keep this treasure to himself? She wanted it and she decided she had every right to have it.

From that day on, the princess grew restless and angry, taking pleasure from nothing. She might have power over a thousand slaves but that was as nothing compared to the power of the stone hawk.

After a week had passed she resolved to take it. She didn’t want to risk the wrath of the king but she was prepared to do anything to hold the statuette in her hands.

That night, well after her mother and father had fallen asleep, Princess Saffie crept into their bed chamber and stole the key to the big stone box. Using the key, she opened the box and took the hawk out, holding it up with excitement.

But at that moment, the king woke up and drowsily said, “Saffie, is that you?”

The princess closed her eyes, gripped the hawk tightly and said, “Would that my father would fall asleep and forget that he saw me.”

The king looked shocked and angry for a second, then right away, he lay back down and closed his eyes in slumber.

The princess was so excited to find that it worked but she was still afraid he would punish her. So gripping it tightly again, she said, “I would have it that the king forgets he ever owned this hawk and forgets what powers it holds.”

She crept from the bed chamber and hid the hawk in her room.

When morning came she sought out her father and asked him what he kept in his locked stone box. Sure enough he told her the box was empty and always had been.

Princess Saffie grinned with delight because now she knew the power of the hawk was hers and hers alone.

2

Over the next few weeks, Princess Saffie experimented with the powers of the stone hawk and found it to be a wonderful toy.

Its powers weren’t limitless but it was still a potent artefact. It couldn’t create something from nothing but it could work its sorcery on living things as much as she desired, altering them in body or mind. While the hawk was in her hand, she could change the shape of man or beast and then make them think they had always been that way.

She delighted in using her new powers on the slaves. She made one an old man; one a child. One man she turned into a big fat woman and his wife into a reedy moustached man then she altered their ways so that the new woman was bombastic and bossy; the new man fawning and snivelling.

She turned one lazy slave girl and her entire family into swine to teach her a lesson! That was hilarious! And more hilarious still; she’d planned to return them to human form but they became mingled with the common herd until she couldn’t tell one from another. Oh, how she laughed at that! But what did it matter? They were only slaves.

Changing the thoughts of men was her favourite pastime and she became quite good at it. She made one slave fall desperately in love with her and another consumed by jealousy. One murdered the other and was beheaded for his troubles.

It was all so delightful to play with these people as though they were dolls. It was much more diverting than the straw dolls she’d had as a child. And she could make them forget what had happened afterwards so easily!

The one slave she never touched with the magic was Raul. He never left her side when they were outside the palace and functioned as a bodyguard as well as a servant. She had a gaggle of servant girls always on hand to take care of her every whim but she often preferred Raul to do such duties. He was a mountain of a man with a bald head and darkly gleaming skin and he was doggedly loyal. That was why Princess Saffie never changed him. He was perfect already – just as subservient as she would have liked and nice to look at too if she were bored.

Raul knew about the statuette of course but he knew better than to judge her exploits. He watched impassively as she altered the age, hair colour, race, creed and desires of the people all around her, eyes dull and face impassive.

Saffie gained comfort from his stolid unwavering presence and trusted him implicitly.

One day, the palace was visited by a prince and his family from across the sea. The prince was near to Saffie’s age and was very handsome, but though their parents had hoped a match might be made to join the two kingdoms, the prince took an instant dislike to Saffie’s petulance and self-centred demands for attention.

The princess had never met a man who showed such dislike for her (openly) but seeing that made her want him all the more. She resolved immediately to use the power of the hawk to make him love her desperately. Then she would decide if she would have him. In all likelihood she would refuse him and leave him to pine for her for the rest of his days. The audacity of the man to reject her advances!

But try as she might, she couldn’t persuade Prince Kalide to meet with her alone so she could affect the change. He spent every waking moment talking politics and reform with the two kings – wasting precious time he could have used to court her!

Well, she’d deprive him of any interest in politics soon enough. When she was finished with him he would show interest in nothing but her. She would drain his will and make of him a simpering idiot obsessed with love.

But still she didn’t get her chance and didn’t want to risk exposing her power in front of the two sets of parents for fear they might snatch the statuette before she could make them all forget.

Before she knew it, the prince and his family were leaving and the chance was gone. They took to their ship and set sail across the sea to their home port.

But Princes Saffie was not so easily deterred. One month later she announced her intent to visit the kingdom of Prince Kalide.

Her father and mother were not optimistic about the match. Though they doted on their daughter, they understood how difficult she could be. Nevertheless, they did not refuse her and the princess gathered together fifty of her favourite slaves to tend to her needs on the journey. She took with her countless beautiful dresses and fantastic jewellery and set sail across the sea.

3

As the journey began, Princess Saffie amused herself as she always had done, enjoying the excesses of her rank and toying, if she would, with the servant girls attending her.

But the longer the ship spent at sea, the more the princess was overcome with sickness. She had never travelled far by boat before and such an enduring trip took a heavy toll on her equilibrium. She felt awful and no matter what remedies her slaves fetched for her, she didn’t feel any better.

Most irritating of all was her slave Raul, who showed no signs of sea sickness and seemed almost to think himself better than her because of it. He showed no overt signs of that of course, but she sensed it nevertheless.

She had a good mind to turn him into an animal. There was a pen on the ship with gifts for the prince’s family. Another goat or cow in there wouldn’t be noticed and it would serve him right. Though long favoured, the princess was rapidly tiring of the towering slave and there were always more where he came from.

But then another idea occurred to her that would both make her feel better and teach him a lesson.

The deck of the boat where she languished was already screened off by silk curtains and shaded by a great silk canopy. She ordered the other servants to leave them alone and declared that she did not want to be disturbed under any circumstances until she called for it.

Once she was sure they were alone, Princess Saffie took up the hawk statuette and gripping it tightly, said, “Would that I had the body of Raul and he had the body I wear.

Raul had witnessed the power of the hawk a hundred times but never directed at himself and he was terrified as he began to shrink and change, glowing with a dark and golden light. But Saffie thought it was hilarious and laughed long and loudly as her form swelled and became muscular until her laugh was a great booming man’s laugh.

Their clothes altered to match their new forms and Saffie looked down at himself in astoundment, loving his broad chest and thick arms. It felt funny to have a smooth bald head and such a deep voice but it was also very amusing.

Now looking every bit a little woman, Raul quailed in fear and begged to be restored to her normal form.

“Silence!” declared Saffie with his new resounding voice. “You will do as I command or face life as an animal!”

The new woman became instantly cowed and the male Saffie reclined on his cushions, demanding that Raul take up the ostrich feather fan she was using before.

Saffie no longer felt queasy in the least but Raul clearly did. The new woman took up the fan and laboured to keep her master cool, despite her terrible sickness, all the while sweating profusely.

Greatly enjoying the turnabout, Saffie set the hawk down and reclined back, sipping wine from a goblet.

And so it went for a good long hour as Raul struggled to serve her tyrannical master in her tiny feminine body while he lauded it over her with delight.

Soon, Saffie was dropping off, it was so warm and he was so happy. As Raul went on fanning him, he let himself drift into sleep with happy dreams of the terrors he would inflict on Prince Kalide for his impudence.

4

Princess Saffie woke up unpleasantly to harsh words and a forceful prodding in his shoulder. He couldn’t believe the effrontery of a servant to do that to him.

However when he opened his eyes he remembered what he looked like now and saw that the slave master, Asim, was standing over where he lay.

“Get up Raul,” snapped Asim. “How dare you fall asleep in her highness’s presence!”

Both Saffie and the real Raul, who looked on from near the railing, became frozen in surprise at this turn of events. Princess Saffie was angry that this man had ignored his orders to stay away and decided to teach him a lesson, but before he could reach for the hawk, Asim upended the cushions, tipping him away from it onto the floor.

“Get up you dog!” he cried. “I won’t have you disrespecting the princess!” He stepped between Saffie and the hawk. “Get down below with the other slaves. I will deal with you later.”

“I will do no such thing,” declared Saffie. “Now hand me that hawk and be off with you.”

Asim batted away Saffie’s hand and unravelled the whip from his belt. “With your permission you highness,” he said, “I will teach this slave a lesson for his impertinence.”

Saffie looked with alarm at Raul, still wearing her own beautiful face and his blood ran cold in his veins when the apparent princess said, “Yes. Punish him severely then put him with the rest of the slaves.”

Saffie gaped in horror at these words but before he could say anything else, the slave master cracked his whip, driving him onto the main part of the deck and toward the hold.

“Hyah!” he cried, “Hyah!” just as if he were driving an animal. Still a feint-hearted girl inside and unused to such treatment, Saffie was terrified and went where he was driven, wincing at the lick of the whip against his bare skin. This was horrible. It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. He was meant to be the one in control!

But he wasn’t in control now. He was forced into the hold and there his hands were tied to a roof beam and he was flogged. Again and again the whip bit into his back and he cried out in horror and pain.

Finally, when he thought he could take no more pain, the former princess was cut down from the rope and driven into a great caged holding pen for the slaves.

There were dozens of slaves in there kept only for her former enjoyment but the conditions were awful. They only had that single space for living, eating, sleeping and defecating. The stench was unbearable and the closeness to others was something he couldn’t bear.

The worst thing of all was the anonymity. Locked away in here, no one would have been able to tell him apart from the others. He was just one of fifty slaves, as ordinary as the rest of them.

And the others were mean to him. Because Raul was favoured by “the princess,” the other slaves resented him. They whispered nasty things and jabbed him with sharp objects.

The former princess put his bald head in his big rough hands and wept... until he was bullied and scorned because of it. Then he just sat, staring into the darkness, furious over what had happened and vowing to take a terrible revenge when he got his hands on the hawk again.

The irony that he was no longer seasick in the least was not lost on him.

5

By morning, the former Princess Saffie was no longer furious. That anger had burned itself out in the small hours of the morning when the cold, discomfort and misery had overcome him.

The Saffie that opened his eyes on the dank dingy environs of the slave cage was nowhere near as imperious or as self-righteous. He had been exposed to some of the worst treatment a slave could face and understood fully how low he had fallen and how unfairly he had treated his servants when he’d still been royalty.

It was remarkable how well he felt he’d learned his lesson. Thoroughly cowed now, all he wanted was to sheepishly go back and say how sorry he was. He wanted to go back to his body then do his best to make amends. He wouldn’t even punish Raul for this treatment. He understood too well now what life was like for a slave.

He felt sure the newly minted princess would call for him first thing in the morning; but she didn’t. The hulking man who had once been a beautiful lady spent the rest of that day waiting and all of the following night, each hour that went by making him feel more and more wretched.

Finally, on the third day near noon he was called for, and he came very forlornly from the hold when the slave master called. All he wanted was to go back to his old life and forget that the hawk ever existed. He understood now why the king had said it was dangerous. Who knew better than he now just how dangerous it was?

The former Raul, now a beautiful pampered princess, reclined on her cushions under the silk awning on deck. She sneered with her pretty lips at Saffie as she was led into view then clicked her fingers. “Leave us,” she said to Asim, and he bowed and withdrew.

Saffie shuffled, noticing the hawk was nowhere to be seen and feeling painfully uncomfortable in the shape of a slave. He wanted to demand his body back but he was terrified the new princess would refuse and then call for her guards. Without the hawk in view to snatch he couldn’t risk it. If she chose to, she could have him killed for insubordination. The hawk could be anywhere. Until it was in view he didn’t dare try to force anything. He might never get close to her again if she wished it.

She was obviously angry for her mistreatment over the years. He understood that. His only option was to apologise so as not to make things worse.

“Well,” said the new princess imperiously. “What have you got to say for yourself? How have you been enjoying life as a slave?”

“It’s horrible,” replied Saffie, hating the sound of his deep man’s voice. “I’m sorry I treated you so badly for all those years. It was wrong of me. Turn me back and I will treat you well. I will make you a rich man.”

The princess laughed in his face. “Why should I change you back so soon? I don’t think you’ve been punished for your behaviour anywhere near enough.”

Despite his better judgment and resolve, Saffie saw red. “You dare to speak to me like that?” he cried. I am your princess! You will do as I command and change me back immediately!”

“My, my!” said the former slave. “Such words to address your princess. We can’t have you using such a tone when addressing royalty now can we?”

She moved a cushion out of the way to reveal the hawk statuette and Saffie blanched. “No please,” he said. “I’m sorry. You can punish me more before you change me back but please don’t use the hawk on me.”

The new princess smirked and, gripping the hawk tightly, said, “Would that this slave only spoke to me with the proper deference befitting a princess.”

Saffie’s eyes widened with fear as the magic washed over him then he froze, afraid to open his mouth.

“Well?” said the princess. “Speak!”

“A thousand apologies your highness,” said Saffie. “It was wrong of me to address you in that way. I beg your forgiveness.” He shook his head to hear the words emerge. He wanted nothing but to condemn these actions from his former slave but instead he went on to say, “Please accept my humble apologies your highness.”

She smiled to hear his obsequious tone. “I do accept such a heartfelt and grovelling apology. Now tell me, what is your name?”

Saffie was furious at this game the former Raul was playing with him but he couldn’t show it. “Begging your pardon your highness but you know very well that my name is Princess Saffie.”

“Well that won’t do at all. We can’t have a slave walking round with a name like that, can we?”

Saffie shook his head desperately, hating the fawning way he had to speak to her now. “Please your highness. I beg of your kindness. Please do not do this to me.”

The beautiful woman before him gripped tightly on the statuette and said, “It is my will that this man accept that his name is Raul.” She smiled cruelly. “And that he accepts that he is my slave.”

The moment Saffie heard those words he became stricken with panic and realised this was his last opportunity to escape this awful situation. He darted forward to snatch the hawk but before he was even half way there the magic flowed around him and he grew still, after all, the princess was his mistress. It would be wrong to challenge her in any way.

The princess glared at him in triumph and he averted his gaze as was right.

“You, man!” She cried. “Tell me your name now.”

The tall muscular man’s eyes quivered with horror then he lowered his head and replied, “As it pleases your highness. My name is Raul.” And as he said it he knew that it was true. He knew he used to be Princess Saffie but there was no doubt in his mind that now he had become Raul.

“What is your purpose here?”

“Only to serve you as your humble slave my lady,” replied Raul.

“And who am I?” she said.

The new Raul looked up at her. There had been no magical proclamation here. He could speak freely, as long as it was with proper deference as befitted his mistress, but he also understood how little power he had.

“You are the magnificent and beautiful Princess Saffie,” he said, “daughter of the king.”

The new Princess Saffie smiled again and nodded. “Well done. It seems you finally understand the way things are now.”

6

For the rest of the day, Princess Saffie ordered Raul to fetch and carry for her. She ordered him to fan her with the ostrich feather fan. Everything she commanded, he obeyed, for he had no other choice and after all, he was only her slave. He had to do her bidding.

The new princess found his willingness to follow orders delightful and took great pleasure in giving him endless belittling tasks. The big lumbering slave grew wet with sweat as he toiled in the sun, wishing he had never even seen the hawk statuette.

“Would you like to hear something amusing slave?” asked the princess.

“Yes your highness; if it pleases you,” replied Raul.

“Have you noticed that I don’t feel sick anymore?”

He looked at her, perplexed.

“I simply told the statue I did not wish to feel that way anymore.” She laughed. “Do you see? You need never have swapped places with me in the first place!”

The princess laughed and laughed and laughed and Raul’s face coloured purple in frustration and trapped rage. He saw the truth of it and cursed his own foolishness. It was that one rash command that had doomed him to this life.

“I see your anger Raul,” said the princess, quieting. “Don’t think that I don’t.” She folded her arms. “But it isn’t becoming of a slave.” She picked up the hawk once again. “Would that this slave man Raul loves his life and loves to be a slave. Would that he wants nothing more but to serve me, his princess.”

And as she said this, Raul felt his anger dissipate to be replaced by the almost urgent need to please this beautiful lady. It mattered not that she had stolen his life. He was much happier as a slave than he had ever been as a princess. All he wanted to do was serve her as best he could until the end of his days.

And the one-time princess did just that. He did her bidding to the letter, bowing submissively at each command, toadying up to her in the hope of some sign of kindness or gratitude but willing to follow her commands nonetheless.

For the rest of that day he worked ceaselessly and overnight he was locked back up in the slave cage below decks amid the filth. This time he didn’t resent this captivity. He expected and accepted it. It was only his due as a slave. He was lucky to be able to pass this close to royalty. Sleeping in the filth surrounded by other slaves as low as he was the best he could hope for from now on.

The next day he slaved again for the new Princess Saffie. The following day he slaved for her, answering her every whim. The next day he slaved again. But finally toward the end of yet another day, Princess Saffie called to the huge bald slave man and summoned him before her.

“It gives me great pleasure,” she said, “to see the once mighty princess reduced to being a pathetic slave man.”

“Whatever pleases you pleases me your highness,” replied Raul clumsily.

“And that is really the problem,” she said. “Because you take altogether too much pleasure from being a slave now when you should be suffering as you made others suffer.”

Raul hung his head in shame, hating to have displeased his mistress.

“What of the people whose lives you have ruined?” went on the princess. “What of the girl and her family, turned to swine and then lost amongst the real pigs? Why should you live a life you love while those others’ lives are despoiled?”

“If it pleases your highness,” said Raul. “I will happily be punished in any way you see fit.”

The princess smirked. “In any way I see fit?”

Raul nodded hesitantly, feeling sudden fear.

“Very well,” said the princess, taking up the hawk once more. “First of all, I would have it that you speak your mind again at last. It would please me for your true feelings about being a slave to return.”

The magic did its work and those true emotions crashed back into Raul’s heart with a physical agony. No longer did he love his life as a slave. He hated it! He was meant to be the princess himself and she had made him slave dawn until dusk day after day, bowing in servility.

“How could you do this to me?” he spat.

“I do as I will,” she replied, “for you still know that you are my slave do you not?”

“Yes,” he said through gritted teeth. “I am your slave.”

“And what is your name slave?”

“My name is Raul.”

Even now he was trapped in that identity he had so foolishly taken.

“Well I would have it now that you had no name,” said the princess, and instantly all sense of identity went from the big man’s mind. He knew he was a slave and he knew he used to be the princess but he no longer had any knowledge of being named.

“Why do you do this to me?” he asked. “Why take my name from me?”

“Well it’s obvious isn’t it?” she said coyly. “Whoever heard of a pig with a name?”

“No,” whispered the slave. “No, please. You can’t. I’m begging you.”

“Like the servant girl begged when you transformed her and her family?”

All blood was gone from his face. He desperately wished to rush at her and take the hawk; stop her from doing this; but he had no right to act in such a way to his mistress. He was only her slave. If she chose to do this to him then it was her right.

“Please your highness,” he stammered. “Let me serve you in any way you wish but do not do this to me.”

“It’s done,” she said and grasped the hawk in both hands. “It is my wish that this servant man become a common bloated sow in form and in deed.”

7

The former princess heard those words and knew immediately that all the humiliation she had felt over the past days had been as nothing compared to what was to come.

“No,” he whispered. “No your highness,” please I’m begging wheeeee!”

His eyes popped in surprise to hear the animal squeal that came from his mouth.

“Please mistress,” he gasped. “Please don’t turn me into a wheeeeee! A wheeeee!” He coughed, grasping his throat. “I don’t wheeeeeee! I don’t want to be a wheeeeee! Wheeeeee!” The pig-like squealing overcame him as he panicked, then it was replaced by snuffling and snorting, the base oinking of a pig.

It was too late. It was happening and he gaped in terror as the princess pointed at his face, her head rocking back with laughter.

He felt for where she pointed and was horrified to find a protuberant snout where his nose had been. He grunted frantically, trying to form human words but unable to, then a tickling on his head made him reach up to grasp the flaps of the wide pig ears extending from the upper sides of his head.

His torso was thickening, his belly and chest expanding to form a huge tubular girth, then he looked down at his hands and saw trotters instead of fingers.

“Wheeeee!” he cried desperately. “Wheeeeee!” and still the princess laughed, even as his clothes fell off him and his legs bowed. No more did he have human feet. Both arms and legs ended in trotters and as soon as he realised this he fell upon them on all fours oinking in alarm.

And still the princess laughed.

His head extended forward until it was pointing front and the shape of it changed, the snout taking on the true size and shape of a pig’s snout. He got fatter and fatter as this occurred, running back and forth on all fours, squealing in dread realisation until the transformation was complete and he was a she, a bloated fattened sow; an animal and nothing more, oinking and snorting like any pig in the field.

The bulbous sow knew that it had once been human but it snuffled round for food exactly as a normal pig would. It was a normal pig in every way.

But still it had hope, for surely the princess could change her mind. Surely this punishment was enough and it would at least be allowed to become a slave again.

But the princess called for another slave to come and the pig heard these words, struggling now to understand them with its animal brain. Already the subtlety of the human tongue was lost on it and in moments it might even lose what vague understanding it had. But understand it did when the princess gave her next command to the harried slave that appeared to her call.

“This filthy animal has got free from the pen. Have it locked away with the others of its kind immediately.”

No, thought the pig with its last vestige of human thought. If I’m put with the other pigs you won’t know which one is me! You’ll never be able to change me back!

“Hurry!” said the princess. “This disgusting animal smells awful! It revolts me! Get it out of my sight and put it with the others.”

And the pig was herded away from the princess to the pen and it never once looked on her again. It was locked in the pen with the other swine, just one of the many pigs now, and there it remained.

It was nothing but a pig with a pig’s desires and disgusting actions; with the brain and thoughts of a base animal. It would snuffle and snort and root in the dirt for food. It would wallow in mud and cover its bloated form in filth.

And one day, when it had lived out its years as nothing but an animal, it would be dragged squealing to the abattoir to be slaughtered under the axe and would be nothing but bacon and ham; food on the table of Prince Kalide.

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In the end

neither of the main characters is this story turn out to be nice, I did have some hopes for Raul but he turned out to no better than his former mistress....Saffie certainly got what she deserved, And we can only but hope that Raul was a better and more kind princess once she was back in her fathers kingdom ...

Kirri

Lovely

The princess was perfectly suited to be a pig.

It would have been nice to think princess Raul would treat the servants better than before now the pig of a princess was gone.
Bacon sandwiches all round.
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