Master

Chapter 36

This time only a few people look at me before they look away. When I'd called Lincoln 'Master' for the first time in front of everyone they'd all stopped what they were doing and stared at me and then at Master.

I'd stopped too, thinking something bad was happening before I realised that I was the bad.

But I wasn't really, they thought that something was wrong because slaves had to call their evil owners Masters, so they thought something bad was going on. They all started shifting into a different stance that didn't look so nice and the lady who was in charge was asking Master 'why he had a slave' in an aggressive voice.

Master had tried to explain, but I knew that they wouldn't believe anything he said so I stepped in front of him to face them instead. Master always looked after me, but in this, I wanted to look after him. 

'I'm not a slave,' I said as I tried to keep my hands from shaking too much, "my name is Kalem. My favourite colour is y-yellow and my favourite flower is a sunflower. I-I like bows and I like waking my Master up with a kiss. I have my own room full of all the things I like and I can do whatever I want with it. A-And I have a bed, my own bed. Slaves don't get to have those things and they can't have names, but I do. I'm Kalem, I am not a slave.'

Everyone had just stared at me like I'd split into two Kalems so I didn't think they understood what I was trying to say. 

It took a few tries before they seemed to get it. It helped even more when I told them about how Lincoln saved me, I made them all understand that I was not a slave, just a Kalem with my own Master that nobody else could have.

I didn't like it when people were mean, but I would be very, very mean if anyone ever tried to separate me and my Lincoln.

Master looks over my plate with a little sigh before he nods his head reluctantly. I smile widely as I push my chair back and stand up, I lean down to give him a kiss on his cheek before I head off. We were eating at the head table with the oldest clan members and Aias and his Malcolm, but I wanted to eat with the other people since the big ones spoke with words I didn't understand.

Master said I could leave once I finished eating my food, so I'd finished it all even faster than usual.

All the friends I'd ever made I'd done slowly. Like Aias was my first friend, and we became best friends because he tried so hard to speak to me even when I was too scared to reply.
Aias' Malcolm was my friend too, I knew so because he called me K sometimes and only really close people got nicknames. And even Mr.W was becoming my friend, in a way that Master said was naughty but I liked him more and more.

So I did have friends, but I'd never had to make friends all on my own like this.

I was only a little nervous about meeting new people, but I'd already said hi to them all and no one had seemed to not like me or my eyes, so that made it easier. 

Stepping down from the platform, I look around at the busy room before I make my way through one of the aisles, searching for a free seat somewhere.

It seemed like the further from the head table I went, the louder those there seemed to e. They were laughing and pushing each other with an ease that seemed to come from being friends for a long time.

I was too scared to go by the ones that were too loud, so I turned to another aisle and tried another row. Glancing over my shoulder, I find Master's eyes on me even as he replied to something someone said to him. I smile at him, grateful that he was still looking after me even from here. 

"Hey," A pretty boy with deep brown eyes says as he waves over to me with a smile, "looking for somewhere to sit?"

I turn around to make sure he was speaking to me. When I see nobody else behind me, I nod my head and go over to him. Everyone around him turned to look at me before they shifted over to make a bit of room for me. I felt my cheeks heat as I thank them and slip into the space with a nervous smile.