Two prospective buyers

"Mistress Hilda?!" A mousey voice cried out. Hilda whirled around to see a familiar brown hairbun and thick pair of glasses. Though the figure who used to be Hilda's assistant otherwise looked a lot different from their last meeting. Her wardrobe had been upgraded from her conservative, practical clothing to fine dress befitting a lesser noble. She wore a long emerald coat over a dark suit and skirt, brown heeled boots, and a hairband colored the same green as her coat. Her glasses also had a chain connecting the ends behind Sally's head.

Hilda blushed an even deeper red. The last person she'd expected to see in her despoiled state was her former handmaiden, who seemed to have come into some small fortune herself. The bespectacled woman leaned down with a look of pity in her eyes and said, "Whatever happened to you, mistress?! I haven't heard from you since that treacherous vixen sent all of the keep's staff packing, and now I find you like this? What did she do to you?!"

Hilda sniffled, tears starting to well in her eyes. She'd grown used to humiliation in the past several days, but for Sally to see her like this was heartbreaking in a whole new way. "I'm sniff not your mi-sniff-stress anym-sniff-ore. Don't spare a th-sniff-ought for such disgusting sniff lowly sniff livestock as sniff me." She almost wept at her admittances, but held herself together. She did, however, start to wet herself, which for both their sakes Sally chose to ignore.

"Oh, dear me," Sally removed her coat and draped it over the shivering couple. It wasn't quite big enough to hide their shame, but it was suitable as a blanket. Silvia grasped the edge of it and futiley tried to wrap it over her front. Hilda looked up at Sally with pleading, pitiful eyes, much like a toddler or a puppy would look to someone with a piece of candy. Sally sighed and said, "When I find that fox lady, I'll give her a piece of my mind. For now, let me just take you home."

"Excuse me!" Another voice called from the crowd, and all three turned to see a fourth woman approaching them. This woman had striking red hair and despite them being so far from places of nobility, was decked out in ostentatious finery from head to toe. Her red dress was decorated with sequins, and gold jewelery adorned her fingers, wrists, neck, head, and ankles. She was completely out of place in a town like Pilla, and even more so approaching two naked slave girls rolling around in the mud. "If you'd listen to me before departing, I'd appreciate it!"

Hilda looked quizzically at the newcomer, but felt too intimidated by her obvious display of wealth to speak up. She knew from experience that it was wrong for someone of her current station to speak back to someone so far above her. Sally, however, had no such inclination. "And who would you be?" she asked accusingly.

"Allow me to introduce myself," the well-dressed woman replied. "My name is Jorella, one of the greatest merchants in the kingdom. I've come to this, uh... quaint little village to prepare my latest venture. And I have a proposition for you ladies that is sure to bring you to bigger and better places."

Silvia's ears perked up, and despite herself she asked, "Really? You'd ask something of us?"

Jorella nodded. "I intend to sell a new type of pristine, one-of-a-kind fabric to the nobles and royalty at the royal capital, and while I'm sure my product can speak for itself, I had the idea to bring one some helpers as, well, insurance, so to speak."

Insurance. Hilda had heard that word before. Sally had always urged her to invest in something like that for the keep, but it had seemed boring and complicated, so she'd always put off looking into it. But this woman seemed to understand it, so she must be very smart. "W-w-would we really be able to do that for you, mis- er, ma'am?"

Jorella gestured behind herself and said, "You brought this big a crowd here without even trying. You two are natural performers, and it's exactly what my business could use." She knelt down to look Hilda and Silvia in the eyes. "Here's what I say. You two come with me back to the capital, do your thing for crowds up north, and I use the attention to sell my fabric to all the interested parties. And we all make a boatload of gold! It's perfect!"

Hilda was hesitant at this idea. She wasn't sure if it would be right for her to just accept such generous help like this to get back on her feet. Not when she clearly hadn't earned her way back up the totem pole just yet. It would be only proper for her to remain a dirty slave for a bit longer; not because she found it very sexy to be tied up like an animal and left to fornicate in the mud, definitely not.

Silvia seemed more openly eager, and leaned to Jorella as much as her leash would allow. "Oh, please, yes! We'd love to!" Evidently, the greed and ambition she'd had just a day prior had returned at the prospect of boatloads of gold. The drow turned to Hilda with a pleading look. "Can we, please?" Even now, she still saw her fellow slave as an authority to point to.

Hilda couldn't respond, however, before Sally chimed in and angrily yelled, "Absolutely not! Lady Hilda, it's beneath you to parade around in the nude like this. I can't in good conscience allow you to become a brothel dancer or some such filth!" She grabbed Hilda's hand and held it tight. "Come on, I have a moderately sized place a ways down the road. You two can stay with me."

"Don't turn away so quickly!" Jorella replied, grabbing Silvia's hand in turn. "This is an opportunity of a lifetime. I can get you a lot more fame and money than some peasant girl can. You'll be beloved the kingdom over when I've had my way with you!"

"Never! No one's having her way with my lady except- well, nevermind that, let's just go, Mistress Hilda!"

"You can't do that! I'll buy these women fair and square! You can't say no to good money, can you?"

The two incensed women argued on and on, and the crowd began to disperse as they realized the fun was likely over for now. While they all would have loved to join a bidding war for the lovely ladies, none of them had much capital to bargain for two slave girls, especially ones as pretty as those two. So the crowd parted, leaving the four women debating which way to go. Until eventually, a more important party entered the stables themselves.