As part of the ritual, all of the selected women were readied for their departure from the mortal world.

Gianna was ushered by some attending guards into the reserved showers, where she joined her contemporaries under the luxurious hot water and soapy bubbles.
“Oh, hi Gianna. I didn’t realise you were being retired too?” said a perky long green-haired girl.
“Naomi, you too? Guess you didn’t get pregnant this year either.” Gianna smiled as she washed her hair with the smooth Eel Tallow shampoo, and let the refreshing warm water wash down her back.
“Oh is that the girl from Frederick’s harem down the corridor… you know the one… the cute little brown squealer.”
“Oh gods, it IS her” Naomi put her hands over her mouth in surprise. “Frederick only just added her the other year… I thought she’d have more time before she got retired. I still can’t remember her name”
“Hmmm, me neither.”

It felt so good to shower in free hot water. Even in the comfort of her breeding house, they only boiled up enough water for a single short shower… Here in the Village Elders private showers, the glorious warmth seemed to go on forever.

Then Gianna sat for an etching to be taken of her, so that her children and husband will have something to remember how she looked in life. She tried to sit as still for the artist, as she scratched at a piece of parchment, but the chair she was on was hard, and dug into her butt uncomfortably. The picture came out alright in the end, certainly more dignified than Gianna had been in reality. It was the perfect effigy to be remembered by her family, She held the paper representation of her for a while, before handing it back off to her husband, Ricky.

Finally, all the girls were led out into the yard to cleanse their insides too. One of the most important reasons that a girl most desired to be retired peacefully, above all others is that it offers her the opportunity to ensure that she doesn’t dishonour her ancestors by pissing and shitting herself like a coward in her moment of death.

Gianna squeezed out the last long turd of her life, as she pissed in a line with the rest of the lucky girls. She made sure to get it all out. She didn’t want to be that one girl that still shat herself onstage. Each one of them had lived a full life, and raised families of their own. Usually a girl’s bathroom habits were supposed to be a private affair, but with the amount of barren ladies that the village mercy killed every month, it had been deemed more efficient to just have them shit on the lawn, and clean it up later.

Gianna took a leaf from an usher and used it to wipe her ass. She wasn’t sure whether she was ready for this.

She’d wanted to die like this since she was a little girl, but now that the time was rapidly approaching, she could feel butterflies in her stomach.