"Judith," he said calmly, smiling with all the gentleness of a long-term comrade, "something wretched has been bothering you, I know. You aren't you're usual self. Remember that day when you went to get Mab from the dungeons after she so accidentally misbehaved with my game? I thought you went rather easy on her, didn't you?"

"Nothing is wrong, Edward, I assure you." But there was. She didn't have the heart to tell him that it was her love for Mab that was weakening her, day after day.

"Well, regardless, something most assuredly is wrong. I went to her the other day. Something odd occured: she was not a virgin." Edward's tone had dropped just enough into that awful, terrible key that was the only thing Judith truly feared. Her eyes turned up to his, eyebrows turning so that her expression was of dread, and no amount of false love or soft words would change that voice. "I was quite specific in my directions, was I not? You weren't to touch her with that glorious septer so granted to you by whatever god may exist. And you told me she was a virgin and was taken from the convent. Judith," he set the teacup down and the clang it made was deafening, causing the shemale to jump, "how am I to establish certain reign here when you continuously interfere?" But there was nothing Judith could say so she remained silent. Edward sighed and leaned back in his chair.

"Do you remember where you were when I first met you? I took you in, Judith. You were on the street. Why don't you tell me your little story," then, adding almost affectionately, "Love."

"I hate it, though, you know it is what I loathe most, Edward..."

"Exactly. This is the first portion of your little punishment for the humiliation you caused me regarding Mab who was to be mine exclusively. Go on, relate it to me, you know how forgetful I can be, how damned absent-minded I can be." He knew her so well, knew how to always get to her...

And so she began...

It was all a big accident, truly. My parents were well-respected, well-known, but also well-spoken about; my mother couldn't have children due to two ruptured ovaries. But they were wealthy, and my mother had a twin sister who graciously gave up one of her ovaries, and soon she became with child. A little girl, the doctors told them, a beautiful little girl. And my parents were very pleased because it was what they both wanted, had always dreamed about.

But when that baby was born - rather, when I was born - the two were disappointed as they were blessed, not with a baby girl, but with a baby boy. As not to be embarassed further by their failure, however, precautions were taken, estrogen pills were distributed, and the boy was raised as a girl; a shemale, as my parents decided that I may change this decision later. How thoughtful...

Things weren't so bad in the beginning. I took my medicine without question; when routine is involved, children don't know the difference between abnormalties and the natural. I thought it was perfectly fine; my parents did think I was beautiful after all. It wasn't until I began school that things began to take a terrible turn for the worst.

Do understand: my parents would take me to my doctor whenever the school needed different physicals and whatnot, as my secret was to be their secret as well. I was a delightful and brilliant little girl, not an oddling, and certainly not a shemale! I continued taking my medicine, continued adoring my parents, continued my freak's life, completely unaware that it was abnormal for a girl to possess a penis.

Puberty for me, like most children, was a very special time. Erections were peculiar, but it was the talks in my health class that began to confuse me. I was, after all, blossoming into a pretty girl: tall, thin, with my breasts just starting to fill out. I wore the low-cut shirts, but each of my pants were all the same: loose and baggy, for I was packing something large even for a regular boy.

I suppose it was when I brought home a girl I had begun to like; I didn't know if homosexuality was as "banned" from me as my parents had once said to each other. They didn't approve of it, but for me...? And then they gave me a talk, a horrible and terrible talk to Judith of forteen years.

"We gave you a choice, Judith," my mother said to me, smiling as if she were the "good-bringer" of my life. "If you want to be a man, we can do that, and if you want to be a woman, you can be that too."

"I wasn't born this way?"

"Of course not," was my father's weary interjection. After that, I held a sort of resentment towards my parents, not knowing, and not really wanting to choose any sort of sexual orientation.

I was seventeen, sitting on a curb. It was past midnight, and I was crying after rude words and a harsh end to my previously endearing relationship to a young man I had fallen into love with. He couldn't take me "with the goods", was the term he had used and I was a wreck. There were no intentions that I had of returning home; I hadn't packed a bag, had none of my belongings, but it didn't seem to matter to me. I suppose just sitting out there in the cool night of the loud city was enough for me.

He came to me in darkness; a tall, handsome man wearing a suit of the most expensive of tastes, but his voice was soft. "You're alone out here?" He asked, and I all but fell for him there, uncaring that he might be untrustworthy. I poured everything out to him and he only held me, stroking my long hair, cradling me against him. "Ah, one of the beloved few who are perfect." I didn't understand his words so he continued. "I have exotic tastes, and your physique, in this fashion, is a temple of perfection." And then he told me his name, the two most beautiful syllables I would ever here: Edward. He told me of his Home and the wonderful things he had planned for it.

I became the man's most devoted pet, and it was there that I was happy.

I was happy.

When she was finished speaking, tears of hurt running down her face, Edward stood up to stand before her, and Judith instantly fell to his feet in the most submissive motion she had ever known. Smiling down at her, he pulled her up, wiping at her eyes lovingly. "My beloved, doe," his words were soft, "do you see how wondrous it is to be tender for your master? How good it is for you to understand what I need from you?"

"You are awful and you are beautiful at the same time," she whispered, not even able to look at his face.

"And it is why I love you. Now come, my lovely, I have it all situated, and all you must do is obey me."

The two began to walk, and Judith hadn't the slightest clue what to expect for the second half of her terrible punishment.