An hour had passed since Alice had entered the homestead of her minotaur host, and the reindeer had been escorted to a gigantic room, sat down at the end of what had to be explained to her was the dining table, as said table was so long it was fit for a banquet. As food was delivered, and the Antlertean slaves came in for meal time, Alice came to learn that the table’s size was necessary, due to the amount of creatures who would be sitting at it and the quantity of food it had to hold.

One by one those coming to eat had to be told of who their guest was, and likewise had to be instructed by their minotaur master to refrain from barraging this new doe with questions. Thankfully the deer saw this instruction as absolute, but Alice still had to endure the boring gazes of roughly three dozen slave deer that had joined the table. It was no mystery why she was the center of attention, being their master’s guest, a new face at the table, and a deer of not only a different species from themselves, but the first and only free deer they had ever encountered. It must have fascinated them to no end to see a doe from the world beyond this isolated island continent.

Despite their unanimous excitement, Alice could only feel unease and a bit nervous from all their attention. This gathering was not what the reindeer had expected, having imagines some stereotypical scene where the slaves would have to eat gruel from bowls off the floor, while one took a place between the minotaur’s thighs to pleasure him, and he ate all the food that had any desirable flavor to it. If not for the semi-nude attire of the Antlerteans, each doe and stag in only their parkas and collars, then there would be little difference in this mealtime gathering from any she took part in back at the Far North.

As convincing as this illusion of normality was, Alice did not forget that underneath it all belied the fact that everyone present was an enslaved creature owned by the bovine sitting at the other end of the table. From where she was sitting, she could count at least three does in various stages of pregnancy, serving as a redundant reminder to the reindeer that Babi, like the rest of his kind, had no issue with using his slaves as breeders, even if these particular ones might have seen no issue with that. It was uncomfortable to see all these victims of enslavement, rape, and generational indoctrination smiling at her despite the nightmarish conditions of their lives.

With everyone present, bull and deer alike, and the meal set out before them, it was now time to take up plates and eat. There was more than enough for everyone, even with the large minotaur being factored in, as the table top had been filled with a selection of food large enough to support a small feast. A variety of fruits, vegetables, dairy products, and grain baked goods were set out for anyone to take, and yet so far every plate was bare.

“Is there something wrong with what we have served?” the minotaur asked, towering over everyone even while seated like the master of this tiny domain that he was. From this elevated position, it was impossible for him to not take note that Alice had not so much as reached for a single morsel to put on her empty plate.

“N-no,” Alice replied, seeing that as the guest it was expected of her to craft the first plate, “Everything looks delicious. I don’t even know where to start.”

The food did look tasty, if a bit plain, and the aroma of it beckoned Alice to partake in all that was offered, but it still felt wrong to eat food that had been gained through the slave labor of those seated around her.

“Oh, master,” said Amy, as she placed a final basket of rolls on the table, taking Alice’s plate from in front of the reindeer the moment her hands were free, “You can’t expect this foreign doe to hold the same customs as us. She probably thinks it’s rude to take a plate before the master of the house.” The Antlertean doe gathered up a plentiful sampling of various foods, and then returned to Alice, setting the plate before her. “There you go, deerie.”

“Thanks…” Alice said meekly, having to accept the offering.

With a plate before the guest, all others at the table moved to fill their own, asking one another to pass about anything that was out of their reach. The more the Antlerteans went about casually getting whatever they wanted, the more this gathering had the appearance of the kind of feast one would see at a harvest celebration, and if not for her arrival a mere hour ago, Alice would have believed this was set up to make the conditions of the farm seem nicer than they really were. WIth the time given though, it would have been impossible to prepare a meal of this caliber, and the enslaved deer were fluidly for this to not be how they normally interacted.

As Alice took the first bites of her dinner roll, which admittedly tasted really good, she watched curiously at how each of the Antlerteans were able to modestly fill their plates, getting so much that she couldn’t make the accusation that any were being starved. Of course, she hadn’t believed they would have been, as it would be counter productive to have slaves that were too malnourished to do manual labor. She only assumed the food given would have been something awful that none would eat if not the only thing they had access to. This access to large amounts of quality food still felt off for Alice to see though, her horrific expectations being trampled under hoof.

As the Antlerteans took whatever they pleased, the only one who held back was Babi, sitting patiently until every deer had staked their claim on this meal. Only when the last deer started eating did the bull take up his much larger plate, and started taking large portions of what remained. “Amy, bring the butter, peas, rolls, and cranberry sauce from across the table.” he commanded the only doe who had yet to take a seat, who appeared to remain standing for this task.

Amy delivered the requested food two plates at a time, and received a “Thank you” for her work, which she gleefully accepted before taking the last remaining empty seat at the table. Surprisingly, none had considered waiting for the minotaur to start eating before digging in themselves, which meant that Babi and the doe who had served him were the last ones to take a bite.

“So…” Alice said, working her way through some mashed potatoes, “Is this like a holiday or something?” The reindeer was trying to reason why this meal seemed particularly plentiful, though by the time the minotaur had gotten around to his portions what leftovers that remained might have filled only a few more deer sized plates.

“No,” Babi answered, reaching over to a pitcher of milk to pour himself a tall glass, which might have been considered a medium sized glass to him, “This is a typical meal. Some of the does really enjoy cooking, and this farm gets a good amount of money. We are also partially funded by the king of Minopolis, as well as parties within the senate. While we don’t grow anything on the table, we have enough of a budget to never go without.”

Alice had been wondering where all this food came from, as she had only seen the purple peach fruit being grown thus far. Her first assumption was that all the other things were grown in a portion of the farm that she hadn’t ventured to yet, but Babi just explained that wasn’t the case, and everything here had been imported from other farms.

“So those fruits I saw are all you grow, you never eat any yourself?” Alice asked, inquiring further.

“Correct.” Babi said, giving a simple reply between bites.

“I guess it’s like a luxury food?” Alice pressed on.

“You could say that.” Babi answered, “Passion fruits are a commodity that holds high demand in Minopolis.”

No wonder I don’t see any here, Alice said, noticing that nary a slice was present on the table.

It was a cash crop, and eating it didn’t hold nearly as much value to Babi as selling it. Those passion fruits must’ve had a unique flavor to them if those in the minotaur’s capital city needed a steady supply, and Alice had to assume that Babi wasn’t the only one who grew it.

Alice returned to her meal, having taken far fewer bites from her plate than anyone else had theirs. She was hungry, the long trek across the ocean’s air streams taking a lot out of her, but the reindeer couldn’t overcome this feeling of taboo while eating what the minotaur offered her. Yet, only she seemed to care in the slightest, as everyone else was happily turning the feast into little more than crumbs.

A majority of the Antlerteans even had a visible glow about them as they are, coming from the symbols that were a part of their bodies. Alice remembered seeing the gray doe she encountered during her mental trip to the future doing the same to power one of her devices, but here it just looked to be a display of emotion, something akin to what happened when a unicorn got too excited.

It was all just so confusing, how everything had the feel of a normal family dinner, while each creature here aside from the minotaur and herself were slaves. Happiness in these conditions should have been paradoxical, yet here was evidence that there were those who could at the very least enjoy the results of their bondage, if not the bondage itself.

“This is so strange,” Alice said, unable to hold her tongue, “Why are you all like this?”

“Like what?” Nezzar said, the buck being the first to respond from his seat at the table.

“Happy.” Alice said bluntly, “You act like Babi doesn’t own you and makes you do things against your will. You do a majority of the work on this farm of his, and then just eat at his table with smiles on your faces. If I didn’t know he was a slaver, I would think he was some sort of father figure to you all.”

The Antlerteans looked among one another, at a loss of how to respond to Alice’s words. They were confused, not of the reindeers’ words, but the negative connotation they held. However, here the deer found themselves incapable of responding, their master was more than capable of explaining.

“They treat me as a ‘father figure’, as you put it, because that is what I am to them.” Babi said, unfettered from continuing his meal as he spoke, “To a minotaur, when one takes upon the burden of a slave, they are inviting that being into their family. I doubt I will be able to explain in a manner that fits your worldview, but I can try to make connections. I’ve heard talk from other minotaur of the custom of ‘marriage’ in the lands beyond this island, and I assume it is akin to making a claim to a female for the purposes of breeding.”

Alice had to look away from the minotaur when he said that, internally scoffing at the notion the two things were in any way similar.

“The term ‘wife’ or ‘wives’ is occasionally used among my kind to refer to particularly valued breeders. I don’t personally use it since I believe it causes division, resentment, and ego among females when favor is displayed in the manner, but can see how a title of such prestige can be a source of motivation.”

“Creatures aren’t usually forced into a family though.” Alice replied.

“Are they not?” Babi said, his voice in a tone of legitimate question, “Those of both free and enslaved species here are often not given an actual choice in who will take them in. It might be obvious why that is for ones such as the deer seated around you, but in my case it was only due to the interest of my mentor that I was taken under his wing. What opportunities would I have gained from rejecting him, and not seeing him as the closest thing to a ‘father’ I would ever have?”

“Well, maybe…” Alice said, faltering on her stance slightly, “But where I come from-”

“Creatures are born into their families, beholden to a group of familial relations that could be just as nasty as any teacher, or any master? I see little difference from what one such as yourself would call a family, and what I have here. I care for the wellbeing of every creature beholden to me, provide for them, and hold some degree of affection toward them.”

Alice couldn’t help but notice the glow on some of the deer slightly increase as Babi stated he held affection for them, responding positively to what she saw as manipulative words.

“They are the ‘family’ I chose, when life had granted me few others who could fill that role.” the bull finished, before finishing his glass of milk.

“Sorry, this is all just so strange to me,” Alice said, accepting that any words she said that opposed the concept of family the minotaur presented would not be understood by those around her, “I came here with a goal of convincing you minotaur to stop being slavers, and only to find the ones you’re oppressing don’t see themselves as oppressed.”

“I assume we’d feel the same going to your country,” Amy said, speaking up now that her master was finished, “You make it sound as like everyone from your lands are only beholden to themselves, and thus responsible for their own destiny.”

“How is that a bad thing?” Alice asked, not seeing the doe’s point.

“No one is saying it is,” Amy answered, “It’s just not the way that we do things here. We were brought up to look at our lives on a more communal level. We are responsible for those around us as much as they are responsible for us. In this case, our master has a duty to feed, house, and give purpose to our lives, while we have a duty to ensure he is capable of providing us these things. The notion that we would live lives fending for ourselves, when we have grown up in an environment where everything has been taken care of for us… Well it’s a level of independence that few of our kind would wish for.”

“It’s not like those where I’m from live in isolation,” Alice said, “We all have our communities, from deer, to ponies, to yaks and…” Alice had to stop herself, as she didn’t know if it was wise to speak of all the species the minotaur could potentially come to Equestria to enslave. “What I mean is that you wouldn’t be alone, and you’d still have a reason to live together.”

“Then what’s the difference?” a random doe from the table asked.

Alice had trouble following that up, as she truly couldn’t think of a way to present the concept of freedom to those who seemed content without it. If this was a normal conversation about two different cultures sharing the differences they had, then that would be ok, but the reindeer had to be convincing if she wanted to change the future to one where she wasn’t in league with the indoctrinated deer. Failing to win in these discussions opened her up to being contaminated by their ideals, a possibility that Alice was well aware could happen if given the chance.

Her silence was telling though, and while Babi could have easily called out her lack of reply, he was not from a position of needing victory. Instead he decided to answer his doe’s question in Alice’s stead.

“There is a certain satisfaction in being your own creature. While I can’t attest to every aspect of how this foreign land operates, I can see it as the difference in my time as an apprentice and then running my own farm. While working for Lon, I always had my own ideas of how I’d like to run things, which my mentor would often refuse to let me try them, for the simple fact that he was the one with authority. When I finally took charge of my own farm, it was liberating to finally do all these ideas I always wanted to, finding out through personal experience what worked and what didn’t.”

The deer nodded, hanging on their master’s words. Alice was surprised to hear the bull make arguments in her favor, doing what she failed to do herself.

“But independence does not come without hardship,” he added, “It makes me appreciate the burden my mentor took on when he chose to be my teacher. As a student, my failures were not my own. I was chained by the yoke of my mentor’s ways, but I did not suffer the consequences when I slipped my lead. It was only when I had proved myself capable of functioning on my own, to be able to take responsibility for myself but for others, that I gained the privilege to be my own creature.”

“So you saw your apprenticeship like being a slave?” Alice said, curious how he could compare the two positions.

“Not the same,” Babi replied, “I could have quit at any time, unlike you all, though I feel it would not have been a wise choice. Still, when one is in service to another it can feel as there is no difference than being enslaved, especially when the actual slaves were given more trust in doing things right than you.”

Alice couldn’t help but find the bull’s words interesting, “Do all minotaur go through this?”

“The apprenticeship? All spend some time being taught by an elder who has experience in how things are done,” Babi answered. “But few have the privilege of being personally trained. Those who go to work under another minotaur don’t need to know how the business of their employer operates fully.”

“So only those who spent an extended time in the service of an experienced minotaur end up being successful slave masters like yourself?” This was where certain pieces of the puzzle were starting to fit together for Alice.

Babi knew what it was like to be under another creature’s hooves, and that was why he treated them nicely. A minotaur like her future master, the king of Minopolis, would not have had that same experience, nor would any of his close allies, or those who ended up doing grunt work. Finally something made sense to her about the relationship between Babi and his deer.

“I would not treat that as a general truth,” Babi said, “Success is not based on the amount of possessions one has. A minotaur could work under another minotaur all his life, never entering into mentorship, have a single female, and see themselves more successful than the king. It’s all a matter of perspective.”

“Sure…” Alice said, thinking that she and the minotaur were working on two different measures of success, “But have you every seen a minotaur who has never entered this higher level of education end up running their own business such as you do?”

“It’s not unheard of,” Babi replied, right after finishing his plate, “One of my associates in Minopolis runs a general store he inherited on the merit that he had played errand boy to the previous owner for years. Said previous owner never took to mentoring any others, so at one point he just slipped the name of this minotaur into his will as his successor, assumedly because he was grateful to have a helping hand whenever he needed it.”

“What other reason could it be?” Alice asked, now doing her best to finish her meal, as she noticed that the only ones who still had unemptied plates were those who went for seconds.

“It could have been something as simple as not wanting his assets seized by the senate after his death.” Babi explained, “One’s life work is meant to be passed on to the next generation. Not claimed and hoarded by a collection of aging bulls who already have more coin than then could spend in a lifetime.”

Alice could only “Hmmm” in response to this. Pushing the last bit of mashed potatoes into her mouth to excuse herself from making another comment. This was the second time she had heard negative talk about the senate, first time coming from the slaves and now from their master. Was this just a shared opinion here on this farm, or did these feelings extend to the citizens of Minopolis?

The meal ended shortly after, with each deer excusing themselves from the table to return to what they were doing before coming to dinner, since none of them save for Nezzar had the aid of reindeer hands to help them complete their tasks early. As the last deer left, Babi went to attend to his own affairs, while Amy attended to cleanup, being aided by Nezzar since he had nothing else better to do.

“That was certainly an interesting meal,” Amy said, stacking some plates, “It is rare we get to hear the master talk about matters outside of chore changes.”

“Yeah, usually we just eat in silence,” Nezzar added, “But we don’t often have guests over like this.”

“Is your master unliked?” Alice asked, having not left her seat. She wouldn’t have known where to go if she had, as she wasn’t sure if her welcome on the farm had been worn out or not.

“No,” Amy replied, “He is just too far out in the country to expect frequent visits, and they usually don’t stay for a meal.”

“Even if they did, it would likely be just as quiet,” Nezzar added, “Master doesn’t associate with the more rowdy minotaur.”

Amy came over to Alice, and placed her dirtied tray upon the stack, “So what are you going to do now?”

“Not sure,” Alice said, “I meant to spend a day or two here, then return home. I’ve got a tent and a sleeping bag in my pack, so maybe Babi could allow me a place to set up for the night?”

“Oh, nonsense,” Amy said, “If you’re going to stay you might as well take up one of the beds in the deer cabin.”

“I don’t know… Are you sure your master would even allow that?” Alice asked, trying to place the burden of approval on a party that wasn’t present, while her actual concern was sleeping in what was essentially a slaves’ quarters for the night.

“So long as you aren’t causing problems, it should be fine,” Nezzar answered, making his way out of the room with his hands full of silverware, “And you’ll be much more comfortable in a warm bed than sleeping out in the cold. I’ll even give you a tour of the house.”

“Really, you’ve all done so much to help me already, the food and information you’ve given me.” said Alice, making another attempt to not receive anything more from these overly hospitable deer.

The Antlertean doe wasn’t going to take no for an answer though. “How about this? You’re trying to get a good look at Minopolis, right? Figure out how things work around here so you can work towards that goal of yours”

“Yeah.” Alice replied, though not enthusiastic about that particular objective of hers.

“Well tomorrow we have a few deliveries scheduled for the city, and master is taking these ones in personally. I’m sure we could convince him to have you tag along with him so you could see the sites and talk to some of the creatures there.”

As dangerous as that sounded, Alice knew from her future sight that she would end up back home in two days time. She couldn’t see a situation in which she would be captured, corrupted, and allowed to leave in that short of time. There couldn’t be any harm in doing a little exploration of the city when she was guaranteed to make it back home, right?

“I suppose that would be fine.” Alice said, “If Babi is ok with it.”

“Then we’ll ask him later.” Amy said, with a hint of excitement in her voice, “Until then I can give you a tour of the house. Right after I’m done getting these dishes to the kitchen.”

Alice gave a few nervous chuckles to the Antlerteans declaration, the doe being much more assertive than she would assume one who lived a life of servitude should be. “Just go along with it.” Alice said to herself, happy to let the path of fate guide her for now.

A few minutes later the two does were walking through the house, room by room, Amy wanting to show Alice everything. From the looks of it, a minotaur farm house didn’t look too different from what she would expect from one owned by any other creature. There were no chains bolted to the walls, or bondage rooms made for training and disciplining the slaves. It was pretty normal for someone’s home, save for one thing.

Seeing as this was a home fit for a minotaur, the dimension of each room was upscaled to suit him. Thus, the space each room held looked like it was double or more of one she would be used too. Much of the furniture was suited for the minotaur as well, with a few accommodations made for the sake of the deer living there. It was something that had gone unnoticed by Alice when going straight to the dining area, but now that she became aware of this disparity in her size compared to most other things around her, it gave her this odd sense of vertigo she could not overcome. It made her feel small, in ways that she hadn’t felt since she was a child half the size she was now.

This perspective brought on another revelation to the reindeer, one that probably should have been more obvious, but only just hit her. “Hey Amy, where are all the children?”

It was something that evaded her until now, but in all her time observing the minotaur’s nation, through her visions and this first hand account, there wasn’t a single child in sight. There weren't even signs of toys in this farmstead, or anything else that would indicate that a child was present. This was incredibly strange, seeing that breeding was a main part of the reason the minotaur had captured creatures to be their slaves.

“Well of course no,” Amy replied, “Children are sent to a nursery upon birth.”

“A nursery?” Alice questioned, this being the first time she heard of such a place in this kingdom. “Like a daycare?”

The gears in Amy’s head, working hard to turn Alice’s words into something that made sense to her. Failing at that, she instead decided to describe what she was talking about. “Nurseries are where children are taken when born, and raised until adulthood. There are a few that exist all across the kingdom, with each one catering to a different species. One for minotaur. One for deer. One for thestrals. I think they started setting up one for ponies too, now that we’ve had a few of the more common pony species among us for a while.”

“So all of your children live in some sort of giant orphanage?” Alice asked, thinking that is what Amy had described to her.

“I don’t know what an orphanage is,” Amy said.

“It’s a place where children who have no parents live, making their wellbeing and upbringing the responsibility of the kingdom,” Alice informed the Antlertean, astonished that this word was not part of the doe’s vocabulary, since it was a common institution in the lands she was from.

“Then that sounds very much like a nursery,” Amy replied, “Except for us it’s just a common part of a child’s development. It’s where we are taken care of, grow up, and are taught things until adulthood.”

Alice couldn’t believe what she was hearing. The idea that all children of a kingdom would be raised in an environment without their parents, basically abandoned at birth to be trained to eventually be thrust into a life of slavery, sounded like a nightmare to her.

However, this seemed to apply to minotaur children as well, and that struck the reindeer as odd. Why subject your children, the whole motivation behind your tyrannical conquest, to the same fate as those destined to be placed in bonds. The topic of “Why?” was so unavoidable that Alice uttered the word, without any other context to what she was confused by.

The Antlertean was able to discern the issue though, as her race had not been enslaved for so long a period that the concept of raising one’s own children would be alien to her own kind. Thus she explained the reasoning behind the minotaur’s actions.

“From what I was told growing up, the minotaur have an aversion towards raising children.” said Amy, “In the past they were nomads, and never stuck around long enough for their mates to give birth. Since they no longer wander the lands, having claimed this continent as their home, this cultural quirk of theirs had to be catered to by a new system.”

“Who even came up with this?” Alice asked, more as a reaction than a legitimate question. She was pretty sure it had to be something the minotaur devised.

“From what I was told, we Antlerteans did.” Amy replied, giving the reindeer an unexpected answer, “Once we adapted to being the property of the minotaur, we found it better to aid the minotaur in their reproductive goals in order to make the process more comfortable for both them and ourselves.”

“You’re kidding,” Alice replied upon hearing that the deer had given up their freedom for mere comfort.

“It was that or needlessly suffer for pointless rebellion.” Amy said back, by now getting the other doe’s point of contention, “Regardless of the feelings of our birth parents, or their own birth parents in most cases, we had been conquered and integrated into the minotaur’s culture. The only path we had was to adapt. An existence of cooperation is far more agreeable to one where we must be forced to obey.”

This did explain to some degree why the Antlerteans were so keen to just be slaves. Their entire culture at this point revolved around finding happiness and comfort through servitude.

“Back to the topic of nurseries,” Amy continued, “We are taught that the concept of them was a deer proposal, one that was approved by the senate almost immediately. They really didn’t want to be burdened by the presence of children, so much so that they diverted a lot of funding to their creation, and the training of qualified does to keep watch over all the children.”

“So they were willing to dump a ton of resources into not having to deal with the consequences of their actions?” Amy asked, finding it really strange that the minotaur wanted to be so distant from the very purpose of their conquest.

“I suppose that’s what happens when long term goals clash with short term wants,” Amy said, smirking as though this was some in joke among her kind, that they were likewise aware of the near paradoxical nature of it all, “The nursery program had full support of the senate though, as well as the king, and have since been maintained through a tax minotaur pay annually.”

“And the does in charge of these places, they aren’t watched round the clock by minotaur?” Alice asked.

“There is some oversight,” Amy answered, “A minotaur representative comes to inspect things about once a month, and then we get the occasional visitor who is looking to invest in a more direct manner.”

Alice could hazard a guess as to what this means, as there were probably a few minotaur who would want to call ‘dibs’ on a fawn they felt would make a fine addition to their collection.

“Otherwise it’s just the children and the den mothers most of the time. There were about three dozen does watching the fawns at any given time when I was growing up.”

“That sounds barbaric,” Alice said, “So you’re expected to give birth, but can’t even keep your children? Have you been… bred before? Were you upset when you had to give them up?”

“I have been, and yes, it was sad for a while.” Amy said, “My master was there to comfort me though, and I had been prepared far in advance for the separation. It’s part of our training when being raised, to know our duties, expectations, and to carry on the talents of our species in order to serve the needs of the minotaur.”

“So you all just accept this?” Alice said, displeased with what she was hearing.

“Don’t get me wrong. Despite what I have said, this is far from ideal for us, but it’s the compromise we decided on. Our complacency grants us many privileges we would otherwise not have, and we are taught, by our own kind, to find comfort in our bonds. We may be slaves, but have come to see our lives of servitude as duty, not burden. Besides, the nurseries do have some advantages, as it allows our children to mature in an environment where they don’t have to be around the crueler aspects of our society.”

“While being taught to one day be a part of that society.” Alice rebutted, but then relented seeing that her complaints were only her own. Besides, she had other questions she wanted answered, “So what are these nurseries like?”

“They are lovely places to grow up in.” Amy said, thinking back to her time there, “It is a single, large home, filled with children of your own kind. The den mothers would make time to give each of us affection, and would watch over us as we played. We would have days of learning, days of chores, and days of play. We were often allowed to go outside in groups, where there was a large open field, save for patches of wooded areas near the wall that separated us from what awaited us outside.”

When the exterior was described to Alice, she realized she had seen a few nurseries on her arrival. Those places she thought might have belonged to some rich minotaur as a private home outside of Minopolis had been some sort of child prison all along.

“All in all, I would say those days were peaceful,” Amy continued, “But also sad whenever one of us got too old, and got bought. As we got older, our purpose would be revealed to us bit by bit. It would start out with our first introduction to the minotaur, being told that they were the ones who supported our lives in the nursery. Then when the time came we would be told how we would one day be brought into their world to help make it a better place. It was… Is a little deceptive, I’ll admit, but I assume that was our den mothers faults, as they shielded us from the knowledge of what was to come for as long as possible. Had a minotaur been in charge, they would have probably been much more direct.”

“And what about the part of the does becoming breeders?” Alice asked, since that was the main purpose of any female enslaved by the minotaur.

“We learn about that some time after reaching puberty,” Amy answered, “But it doesn’t become a focus of our training until we get closer to adulthood. Until then, we are directed to live a more chaste lifestyle, permitted nothing more than personal exploration of our bodies, and in some cases separated from the bucks among us.”

“All in order to save you for your future master, I take it.” said Alice, who received a nod in return, “I guess they put a lot of effort into making sure you does only ever feel a minotaur’s… uh… bullhood.”

“They do have us breed with those of our own kind from time to time,” Amy corrected, “If we didn’t, there would be no bucks, at least not younger ones like Nezzar. The minotaur don’t seem to be trying to eliminate our males, though they easily could since most does of my generation are minotaur born, and we’d still be able to give birth to does without a single stag. I have to think there are some altruistic reasons for that.”

“Or perhaps we just enjoy a bit of variety,” Babi said, suddenly joining the conversation as he came from around the corner, “We do keep adding new creatures to our breeding pool, even though you does would have been enough. I have no doubt that some of my kind would rather keep other males around just because they enjoy them more than females.”

“Ah, you’re probably right, master.” Amy said, immediately agreeing with Babi’s opinion, “But you can’t blame your humble servants for trying to attribute good will towards your acts.”

Babi gave a huff, and then looked to Alice, “I assume you wish to stay the night then?”

Alice tried to reply, but she hardly got out a word before Amy started speaking for her, “Our guest was curious about Minopolis, and was hoping that she might be able to accompany you during your visit tomorrow. Of course that would mean she would have to be here for your departure, and there would be no better way for her to do that than to have her stay the night.”

Babi thought it over, appraising the reindeer’s earlier work with the value of the meal, shelter, and trip to Minopolis he would be providing. In the end, he found it to be an adequate exchange in services, but just barely.

“So long as she causes no issues, and helps with my delivery, I can escort her through the city.” Babi said, “But after that I am considering all transactions even.”

“Oh, thank you master.” Amy said joyously, acting giddy for no reason. It wasn’t like Amy was getting anything out of this, except for…

Oh no, Alice thought, realizing why the doe was so happy, right before being taken by the hand.

“I’ll show you where you’ll be sleeping tonight, and later tonight you can tell us all about what it’s like where you come from. I can’t wait to hear what it’s like in your reindeer cities. We’ve only had stories from ancient times to work off of till now, and certainly your people have changed since those ancient times. This is so exciting!”

“Yeah… Exciting,” Alice said unenthused as she was being pulled away, taking one last look at Babi who seemed to share her sentiments.

Nonetheless, Alice did desire to see how the minotaur’s maze city was like in the current day and age, and hopefully find someone who could help her change the minotaur’s ways, and escape her fate as ‘The Promised Gift’. If a night of entertaining the deer at this farm was what it would cost her to accomplish that, then so be it. Besides, once the Antlerteans on this farm heard in detail what it was like to live in a place where slavery didn’t exist, it might finally get them to understand that they would prefer that more than a life under their… admittedly well intentioned bovine master.

Seeing how adamantly these deer defend their enslavement, Alice didn’t need her future sight to see that it would be an exhausting effort to get the Antlerteans to budge even slightly from their current position on the matter. Relenting to the pull of the doe grasping her arm, she followed along to her immediate fate, and the frustration it would surely bestow upon her.

Author's Note

Hello everyone. December has come again, and thus it's time for more chapters following our favorite Gift Giver deer, Alice. Sorry if this chapter is a bit wordy, but I wanted to have a proper set up for what's to come.

For those wondering, I'm gonna try to get out five more chapters (All the way up to January) before returning to my other projects. Hopefully that will allow us a good deal of progress, and put us in a good position for... well perhaps the moment you've all been waiting for. We'll just have to see, but I have a lot of time to focus on writing at the moment, so if I don't make it blame my own laziness. Hope you all enjoyed this chapter, and have a lovely December.