By slaveobjectx
Cattle
But there was still more to come, even worse and more humiliating were such a thing possible. At first, they apparently wanted to continue the fettering procedure. Already the blacksmith was searching for some chains to interconnect my fetters. But one of the guards intervened. ‘No. Leave it. We’re better to ring him and mark him first and do that afterwards. That’s easier.’
I didn’t understand what he meant by that, but I soon would, and I assure you, I was happier not knowing. Still lying on the ground with my new heavy collar and cuffs, I now was ordered to get up. It took a few seconds before I managed to stand up. Then both warders roughly took an arm of mine and marched me across the room, in the direction of the oven where the blacksmith already waited for me.
Not knowing what was going to come, I didn’t resist for the time being, so I was hauled before him again with little difficulty. There the blacksmith stood next to a strange chair and a small table, on which were lying a lot of round iron rings, all of the same size and form, half an inch thick and with a total diameter of some two-and-a-half inches. As I could see in the dim light all rings were not wholly circular, and so not wholly complete; just a very small fragment was missing, so the rings were, so to say, ‘open.’
