Sophie, who is searching for an owner

Authors Note: This is my first chapter on this site, my first story written in English and my first written story in a decade. I'd be grateful for constructive criticism and advice.

Also, make sure to remember that this is a fantasy. It is not representative of any of my opinions on the real world, and I most certainly don't want it to be run like described here.

If you need explicit sex scenes to be happy, this might not be the branch for you. It'll take at least a few chapters to get to them.

The locomotive was clouded in a plume of steam, as the train came to a stop with a sudden jerk, its brakes squeaking loudly. Station personnel rushed to refill the tank of the mechanical marble, ensuring it had enough water for the rest of its long journey. Most passengers were disembarking, some of them having to fight their way through the crowd waiting to board.

Among those who exited was Sophie. It was the day after her 21st name day, and thus she had finally reached maturity. After holding a farewell party with her family in the previous evening, which involved her brother asserting his right of first use, she had boarded the train first thing that morning.

Sophie stepped out into the April air. Instinctively, she pulled her shawl tighter, the thin, coarse fabric offering only minimal warmth and no dignity. Her upper body, including her fully formed breasts, was exposed to the biting cold of the environment. She had a small leather bag affixed to the right side of her belt. It contained her few belongings, a notebook filled with sketches of trains (she always had found them fascinating), and a worn silver locket with a photograph of her family, to remind her of them. Hooks on the lower end of her belt held up a simple skirt, the design allowing her to be quickly undressed, without needing to remove the belt or bag. Her boots rose to the middle of her lower leg, at least protecting her from the dangers of the ground, like rusty nails or puddles of water.

This was about as much clothing as she could get away with. It was an unspoken rule, not exactly law, but lived tradition. Unowned women, like herself, had only one purpose, besides finding themselves an owner. They were to serve the whims of their betters, most importantly men, but also normal women. To that end, Sophie had spent the first half of her journey bouncing on a farmer. When he left the train an older, owned women had made use of her breasts as hand warmers.

The station was filled with activity, as Sophie walked towards the main exit. Men in long coats and goggles hurried past her, carrying several tools she had never seen before. A lady wearing a long dress, which covered neither breasts nor butt, strutted past her, exuding about as much authority as a woman could hope to. She heard a few passersby make lewd comments in whispered tones, calling her things like „fresh meat“ and „pretty little whore“. She didn't flinch, as she'd heard it all before. She understood that comments like that simply were the soundtrack of her life, for the time being.

As she left the building she finally saw the city for the first time. And what a sight it was. The houses where at least three - no four - times bigger than the large church of her farmers village. Strong steel beams decorated the facades of most of them, and they clearly needed them to maintain their imposing height. As she walked down the stairs she came to a road with three lanes of horse-drawn carriages, going both directions. Sophie had never seen that many horses, or carriages, or people. In the middle there was a small train, steaming away from her much faster than any carriage could ever hope to go.

Across the road, Sophie could see a large street, that seemed to be mostly for pedestrians. She joined a group of people waiting on her side, hoping they'd know how to get to the other side without being run over. After a couple minutes the carriages suddenly stopped, which perplexed Sophie. How did all the drivers know that it now is time for us to cross, she thought to herself. Then she hurried after the crowd, which had already started to cross the street.

Once she arrived on the other side, Sophie noticed that she didn't really know where to go from here. She had to make the only important decision of her life: who her first owner would be. Everything up to now had been determined by her father, everything that followed would be up to her owner, his heirs or whoever she was sold to. Like most of the unowned women of the Danube empire, she'd wanted to go to the capital of Vienna, to give herself the best options. Unlike most of her lowly equals, however, her father had actually given her the train ticket to do so.

And now that she stood here, she had no idea how to proceed.