They say I get shackled on Saturday for the Sunday auction. Oh no, sweetheart, not this Saturday. :D

Try… about eight years ago.

See how my ankle and neck just fit the cuffs now? My body learned them the way some learn dancing or prayer. I honestly don’t even remember what it feels like to lie naked and unchained in a cage anymore.

Last year, a boy fell in love with me. Really. Sweet, foolish thing. He tried everything to get the fixed iron off me - tools, favors, promises. And then I begged him not to. Not because I didn’t want freedom… but because I realized I wouldn’t know what to do with limbs that move wherever they want. I’d feel like I was falling apart.
Better to stay chained. Safer for both of us.

As for the auction? Honestly, it doesn’t bother me. Here I’m not hitched to a wagon like a mare, and no one is milking me in a cattle shed either.

Here… they just look. They admire. And for a moment - I get to be the center of their world. I’ll take that.