This story takes place in a faraway land, during a bygone era, a time of legend one may say, although times of legend rarely feel as such for the people living through them.
It is a story about a prince and his journey to through, a story about the many people whom he met and made his journey either possible or harder. But maybe most importantly, it is a story about how much said prince learned from being in bondage.
The birth of prince Lothair was an event that eased the hearts of the kingdom of Drael. Only months after a bloody war which had taken the life of the king and many of his subjects the birth of a new heir to the throne was quick to appease the tired and anxious masses.
The prince’s mother was perhaps his most influential figure of his early life before the tragic events that befell his as he aged took place. Her name was Eliza, she was a noblewoman who had married the king long ago and who had conceived his heir during her last meeting with her husband.
She was a really pretty woman, and at the age of thirty when she had Lothair she was probably at the peak of her looks, although it took really long for her youthful beauty to fade away.
Her hair was long and blonde, falling down her back as a cascade of gold. Her eyes of deep blue color and her skin pale. Her body a sculpture, with features that could entice any men and a good number of women.
But beauty was far from the queen’s only asset, although it was undeniably that being pleasing to the eyes helped her reach the heart of the king, Lothair’s deceased father was not the type of man to be enticed by just beauty.
Truth is, Eliza was a really capable woman for being a queen. The king never shied away from admitting that without her, his rule would have probably been much worse, and when he had to leave to lead the armies in the war, it was only thanks to her that the kingdom managed to stick together through those dark times.
But one thing that many reproach the queen with the advantage of hindsight is her apparent lack of motherly love. Although many would like to disagree with this, the truth is that Eliza always thought of her son as an heir to the throne first and a son later.
The queen had her reasons though. As one can imagine, a woman of her stature raising her child alone was controversial among the high spheres which surrounded the politics of the kingdom. Eliza feared people would think she was spoiling her son in a way his father wouldn’t have done. So even though it’s hard to justify, perhaps we should understand the reasons for Eliza’s actions.
As Lothair grew up many began to speculate that his appearance and behavior were due to his mother’s influence over him, because no matter how strict Eliza was with her son, some still refused to believe that she was not spoiling him.
The prince grew up to be pretty, some may say handsome, but I believe that would be wrong. Handsome is usually meant to describe good looking men, and although nobody would deny the good looks of prince Lothair’s beauty was far from what is considered masculine and far more akin to what tradition deems as feminine.
His body was always slender and delicate, something that his physical training only seemed to enhance rather than reduce. His hair was very much like his mother’s, and although he kept it slightly shorter, having it at shoulder height was a thing that many considered feminine.
His face was, much like his body, soft and delicate. While his father had grown a full set of beard at the age of fifteen, long past that age the prince’s skin remained hairless and soft. And while his face was rather chiseled, he very much lacked the broad and prominent jaw and aquiline nose of his father which were very much absent in his face, with her mother’s features being far more prominent.
The only way in which his father could be seen through him was in the prince’s eyes, two green irises in which many of the people who had met the king saw his eyes and gaze still living through his son.
Five years after the prince was born another one of the prominent women in his life showed herself. From far away, a land that in Drael was known through legend and myth deep in the south, came the sorceress Tanis.
She was a tall woman of brown skin and short raven black hair, but while those features where slightly uncommon in Drael during that time that wasn’t what surprised the people of the kingdom, after all they knew of different skin colors, they were surprised by her eyes.
While people from the region she allegedly came from usually had dark brown or golden eyes, Tanis’ eyes were of a deep purple color, which immediately caught people’s attention.
And needless to say, the sorceress also attracted many looks with her exotic beauty, her shapely feminine figure perfectly highlighted by the tight black robes she brought from her land, her soft skin which seemed to shine under the sun... And let’s just say that before people took notice of her eyes they were looking at a different part of her body.
With her sorcery Tanis became news across the kingdom quickly, her magic was something akin to nothing that the kingdom had seen before. She could turn bulls into frogs, burn whole trees and freeze whole lakes, call lightning from the tips of her fingers and become invisible to the eye by just standing still.
News like those first reached the high mages who wanted to study the mysterious woman’s magic, and said mages soon took the news to the capital of Lionstrand, where they reached the ears of the queen.
When the queen invited Tanis as entertainment for a dinner in the castle she never imaged the consequences her simple invitation would have. Although one could argue that Tanis would have done what she did regardless of the queen’s invitation, it is hard to deny that with it the queen set in motion the events that encompass this whole story.
Impressed by Tanis’ sorcery at first and knowledge later, Tanis was invited to stay for periods of time which kept growing longer until she was finally hired as an advisor for the queen. From that position Tanis rose up the ranks of the court until a few years after her arrival to the kingdom she stood as Eliza’s closest and most trusted advisor.
Tanis was certainly useful to have, not only because of her magic but mostly because of her knowledge and intelligence. She had advice for seemingly every situation which she seemed to be able to back with examples from eras and places the queen barely knew existed.
But the queen was not the only one impressed by Tanis, Lothair took quick notice of her too.
Impressed by the sorceress’ magic, Lothair quickly became close to Tanis, whom she lovingly called aunt for a few years. Tanis always seemed to have a story for Lothair, and in case the prince got bored, she could always recapture his attention with a spell.
And even though the queen was slightly skeptical of letting her son be with Tanis, who could be a rather dark woman from time to time as some of her advice showed, she was unwilling to overstep on her son’s free time, which was already sparse from a young age as Eliza strictly pushed for the prince to have the best formation possible for his future role as the king.
But Tanis was very different from the kindly surrogate aunt Lothair seemed to think she was.
Tanis’ goals were dark; some may say unequivocally evil. She had arrived to the kingdom long before she had announced her arrival with fanciful spells, and she was far older than forty something years people seemed to think she was.
At first, she wanted to use the queen to advance her goals, which at first seemed possible since the queen kept giving her more and more power, but it eventually became clear that it was impossible. Eliza paid no attention to Tanis’ crueler advice, and every time Tanis wanted to advance her goals through her the queen quickly shut her off.
And so Tanis’ eyes turned towards the prince. When she met him he was still young, malleable, but in a time which could be seen as short for someone like Tanis he would be king and have all of the power in the kingdom, and if she could get to him early she had no doubts that she would one day become able to control such power.
At age ten was when the prince got his first taste of Tanis’ true nature, when under the guise of showing him something special, Tanis convinced him to delve deep into the castle’s dungeons, a large set of dark stone corridors left abandoned as the castle grew in size and new iterations of the building were built over the old dilapidated ones.
Tanis held the young prince’s hands as she lead him through the dungeons under the sole light of a small green flame which she conjured in the tip of her index finger and a candle Lothair had been told to bring.
Eventually they reached the place Tanis had designated to be the one to start her years long plan to take over the prince’s body and mind. A large cylindrical room where many hallways crossed, dimly illuminated by a barred skylight far above them.
“Here, sit down and I’ll tell you a story” Tanis ordered the prince as she let go of his hand.
“Why here?” Lothair asked fearfully as he gazed at the seemingly endless darkness that surrounded them “I don’t like this place”
The following moments lived on in Lothair’s memory for his whole life. The sound of a heavy steps and a slow deep breathing went from something Lothair could pretend to ignore to an undeniable reality as it got closer, next a pungent odor filled the room.
“I think we have to leave auntie; I don’t like this place” Lothair said as he turned to look at Tanis.
But dread filled the kid’s body when he saw that Tanis was no longer there.
He fearfully looked back at the dark hallway, and his body began to tremble as he saw a bestial figure emerge from the darkness. The reptilian head of a lindwurm emerged from the darkness, next the beast revealed its only limbs, two strong front legs which ended in sharp claws.
The prince remained frozen in fear as the beast approached him, but his instincts kicked in when it let out a high pitched roar, nearly deafening the prince as it showed its sharp teeth and snake tongue, splashing its slimy saliva all over him.
The prince ran away as fast as he could while he did his best to protect the tiny flame of his candle, he ran through twists and turns that hadn’t been walked through in centuries, descending deeper and deeper into the forgotten hallways of the castle.
Once the beast took off chasing the prince Tanis became visible again as her spell of incivility was broken with movement. She had to go through a lot of trouble to get that egg from which the lindwurm hatchling emerged, so she was going to let the beast have its fun before she disposed of it.
But she underestimated the prince, whom she expected to soon be caught but instead hid so well that the best could not find him. But he didn’t have the hindsight to know that he would make it, so the hour he spent hidden in that secret passage became the most agonizing one he ever lived, at least until then.
When Tanis found him he was on the verge of tears as he did not want his cries to alert the beast, and his candle had been blown off by his run, so he was in pitch darkness when he saw the green light of Tanis’ flame get closer.
Immediately when he saw Tanis Lothair ran at her, hugging her with a tightness with which he had never held on to something. This came off as great news for Tanis, who realized that part of the job was already done.
“Don’t worry my prince, I already took care of the beast” Tanis said as she stroked the prince’s hair “I’m sorry for getting distracted, I promise it won’t happen again”
“Thanks for saving me” Lothair said as his hug became even tighter.
“I’m glad you’re okay” Tanis said as she returned the hug “But just like I promised not to do this again, I want you to promise something”
“What is it?” Lothair asked as he looked up at Tanis and let his hug become slightly less tight.
“I want you to promise not to tell this to your mother” Tanis said “I know you want to, but if you do she won’t let us be together again, maybe she would get rid of me, you wouldn’t want that would you?”
Lothair shook his head as he feared a world in which Tanis was not by his side to entertain him with her magic and her stories.
“Do you promise to keep quiet then?” Tanis asked.
“Yes I promise”
“Good boy” Tanis said as she hugged the prince.
As the sorceress looked down on the prince a grin drew itself on her lips, she began to think that getting the prince under her control would be easier than she expected.
But the prince’s first experience with bondage didn’t came by the hand of the sorceress who enjoyed toying with him, it came from a far less expected place.
---
It came from Jean. She was a girl which Lothair met through his fencing instructor Hartgard Beaumont, she was his daughter and she was very much like her father.
Although it would be a lie to call Jean masculine as she was quite feminine, it is true that she engaged in quite a lot of activities which are traditionally considered to be of men. She was a prolific athlete, something her muscle-hardened body showed, had an interest in the history of war and was really good with the sword, something she had learned from her father and an activity through which she meat Lothair.
At first Jean regarded the prince as an awkward entitled boy who probably thought too highly of himself. But as she slowly got to meet him through her fencing practices, she began to grow fond of him. With his awkwardness soon becoming cute to her eyes and his already developing body becoming enticing as she watched him give his all during training.
Jean was bigger than Lothair in almost all sense of the word, two years older, much physically stronger and quite a few inches taller, and Lothair quickly took notice for her more developed features as soon as he began to eye girls with different eyes.
But both knew their relationship was impossible, or at least they were both lead to believe that it was that way. Lothair was convinced that an older girl like Jean would see nothing in someone younger, weaker and less experienced at her, while Jean thought that the sole title prince placed Lothair above her reach.
But that didn’t stop them from being good friends, and while their parents were always skeptical when they saw them hang out as such, neither Eliza nor Hartgard wanted to overstep their authority as parents, and allowed their kids’ friendship to flourish.
They remained as just that, mere but very good friends, for a good while, but from time to time they showed each other slim glimpses of their true feeling that both refused to confess to each other. But without a doubt the most notable among these occasions was that night in the castle grounds…
Lothair and Jean were camping in the castle grounds, by this time Lothair was already fifteen which made Eliza more willing to let him be on his own as long as he fulfilled his obligations as prince, and the same thing could be said for Jean’s parents. Although both parents made sure to let their kids know that anything past a kiss on the cheek to greet each other was past the limits they would allow.
The reason why they were there and not somewhere more fit for a prince was because they both knew very well that neither the queen nor Jean’s parents would allow them to sleep together anywhere near the castle, but the place they had chosen was discrete and safe enough for their parents to allow them there.
Lothair was taking care of the food being cooked on the fireplace when Jean spoke the words which, unbeknownst to him at the moment, would unravel so much within him later in his life.
“I want to play a game” Jean said.
Lothair looked away from the food and towards his friend, at the time he was already seeing her with different eyes than before, he was, after all, entering puberty and looking at pretty much everyone with a different gaze.
“What game?” Lothair asked.
“I can’t tell you exactly” Jean said as she began to rummage the bag where she had brought her equipment “But I’ll have to tie you up, do you want to play?”
Even though Lothair was convinced that he would have answered yes to whatever Jean asked him to do, that detail about tying him up made him stutter a bit, but he was still as determined to accept as when Jean first proposed the game.
“Sure...” Lothair answered shyly “What do I have to do?”
Jean took coils of rope from her bag, she had been trying to get a chance to do this for a long time so she had come prepared.
“For now just stay still” She said as she approached Lothair.
The prince was kneeling over his bedroll and when he felt Jean grab him from behind he visible shook. Jean could see how the hairs on his nape were bristling and it was easy for her to tell that he was nervous.
“Relax, you have nothing to fear” Jean said as she laid her hands over the prince’s shoulders.
“Sorry, its just that I have never been tied up before” He answered as he tried to get a hold of himself.
“Well there is a first time for everything isn’t it?” Jean replied “Now calm down and put your hands behind your back.
Just slightly calmer than before Lothair did as Jean instructed him and crossed his wrists behind his back. The slight calm he had acquired banished the moment he felt the ropes on his skin, twisting around his wrists and binding them together and a rope cinched between them for good measure.
Convinced that his friend was done Lothair began to twist his wrists, hoping to find that the knots weren’t as secure as they seemed.
“Stop that, I’m not done yet” Jean said to him.
Before Lothair could ask he was pushed onto the bedroll by Jean, who sat atop his legs and grabbed his ankles, facing away from him. He was shaking, even though Jean had been close to him it was never this close, and never in this situation.
“Can’t have you running away can I?” Jean said jokingly as she began to tie Lothair’s ankles together.
By the time she was Done all movements Lothair could make were pathetic squirms, much more akin to the movements of a maggot than those of a man. He rolled over to lay on his back but found out that it was quite uncomfortable to lay over his bound arms, so with more effort than usual he sat down.
“How does it feel?” Jean asked.
“I don’t know...” Lothair replied as he began to settle on his restraints “Weird I guess”
Jean kept watching Lothair’s struggles for a while, by this point she expected him to have realized that she didn’t wanted to play any game, she just wanted an excuse to tie him up. And he seemed content with providing her the entertainment she wanted, Jean was entranced by the squirming and struggles of the prince.
“This really is weird...” Lothair chuckled awkwardly.
“What is so funny?” Jean asked as she approached the prince again.
“I’m just... laughing at how weird this is....” Lothair cowered.
“Well, I think that I should be the one laughing” Jean said before pushing Lothair onto the bedroll again “After all, I have the prince of Drael tied up at my mercy, all to myself”
Fear and nervousness grew within Lothair as he heard those words, even though he really liked Jean he was easily scared by her, and those words she spoke not only were the truth but also showed that she was a lot more content with doing this than he had expected.
“I just thought that this was kinda weird, that’s all” Lothair awkwardly tried to explain himself “You know, in stories it is mostly damsels like you who get tied up, and princes like me who have to rescue them”
Upon hearing those words Jean made a quick move to sit atop Lothair, straddling him below his chest, her legs and overall weight pinning him down on top of the ropes that already made it difficult for him to move.
Lothair felt like his heart was about to explode, he could almost see his chest move as his heart rapidly palpitated. If he was scared before now he was terrified, never before had Jean done this to him. But aside from fear and overwhelming nerves there was another feeling in Lothair’s heart, one which he couldn’t identify, or better said, he was trying not to identify.
But he knew what it was, and that was why his conscious mind refused to linger on it. He was enjoying this, he was enjoying being tied up, he was enjoying seeing and feeling Jean sit on top him, he was enjoying being at her mercy.
“Don’t be silly” Jean said as she rested her hands on her hips, snapping Lothair out of his trance “I think princes can need rescuing too”
Lothair was too overwhelmed by the situation to respond, his lips moved but no sound came out of them, he could barely breath, there was no hope for him speaking.
“Just look at yourself now” Jean said as she leaned forward and laid her hands over Lothair’s chest “Tied up, in the middle of the forest, with me sitting on top of you”
With a swift movement Jean grabbed Lothair’s head with one hand while with the other she tightly covered his mouth.
“If I do this nobody would even hear you” Jean said as she leaned even closer towards Lothair’s face.
Lothair could barely control himself anymore, somehow, when Jean clasped her hand over his lips so tightly that it prevented him from speaking he felt even more aroused than he was feeling before, and by this point he was sure that it was showing, which made him extremely nervous.
“What do you think?” Jean asked as she moved her hands and laid them on the bedroll beside Lothair’s face.
Again he couldn’t speak, it was like if Jean had never removed her hand from his mouth in the first place, fear and arousal had combined within him to a point which he couldn’t describe and which also left him completely stunned.
Jean was about to kiss him at that very moment, and she desperately wanted to, the mix of fear and arousal and fear (Which she very much knew she was causing) in Lothair’s eyes, his delicate slender body laying bound beneath her, his face red beyond belief and his warm breath, everything made his lips so inviting.
But against her instincts prevailed her reason, and she moved away from Lothair to sit beside him. Years after she couldn’t find a reason to why she had done that, but at the moment it seemed very clear, she knew very well that the prince’s lips had never been kissed before, and to her it felt wrong to steal his first kiss while he was tied up at her mercy.
“I was just joking, calm down” Jean said, trying to get a hold of her emotions as much as Lothair “I’ll untie you now, the food must be ready”
Lothair’s mind lingered on that experience during dinner and manifested itself in the shape of dreams during the night. For weeks he was permanently distracted, with his mind apparently locked in that moment which he kept secret from everyone else, trying hard to decipher what it was that he felt and how could he come to feel like that again.
Lothair and Jean kept getting closer and closer in the following years, but never close enough for either of them to be satisfied. Lothair was always too scared to make a move and take the step needed to get what he wanted with Jean. And Jean herself was always too worried about overstepping Lothair’s boundaries and doing something which could ruin what they already had.
This frustrating yet, in my opinion, cute state of affairs between the prince and Jean remained like this for a good time, until they both began to regret their decisions during the events which would reshape their lives forever.
