//------------------------------// // Arc 4 Chapter 3: Captured (Part 1/3 “Bound”) // Story: Ring eyed Shinobi // by Seeker Of Knowledge //------------------------------// (Depths of a Rainforest) (3 Weeks later) A group of a dozen mares all with brown fur and various hair colors along with one unicorn with azure fur were carrying Zeko, who was tied to a spit without Samehada to his displeasure. The mares were strange in the sense that they were almost three feet larger than the average earth pony and were scantily clad in fur clothing. “How do I get myself into these situations?” Zeko thought as they trekked him further and further into this forest === (Flashback) (Hours Prior) There have been multiple instances of disappearances along the edge of this forest and those who enter do not return. Most who go missing are stallions but some mares have disappeared as well, we request that you find some clue as to what happened or find those who have gone missing Zeko held a look of confusion as he read the missive, he’d been with the Golden Blade for a few weeks now and between that and caring for Mist he was somewhat stressed. “So this is a missing pers-... Pony-persons report? Either way they sent me for something dangerous... not even eighteen yet and I have to go into a forest with who knows what in it. This better be fun.” With that Zeko trudged into the forest, not even knowing what he’d be facing. He walked for almost thirty minutes and found no clues about those who were missing, going as far to use parasprites to help him in his search “I still can’t believe these things got to the thousands just by me feeding them. I could’ve destroyed the whole forest if Zecora didn’t figure out that potion, these parasprites would have eaten everything.” Zeko remembered how feeding his one insect soon turned to feeding three and the forest was nearly overrun until he realized his Cragadile was a predator and quickly culled the issue, mixed with Zecora’s knowledge the issue was resolved in barely two days. After an hour of searching with no clues Zeko was tired and his clothes were soggy, luckily he wears open shoes otherwise his very feet would be rotting as well. “Damn it! Now my outfit’s ruined.” Zeko examined his clothes which were muddy and torn by thorns. “I’m gonna take a nap and then I’m going home to change.” Zeko leaned against a tree and slid to the ground with closed eyes and he rested there until five shadows closed in on his form === (Present Time) The group continued to carry Zeko deeper into the forest and aside from the occasional glare he wasn’t receiving much attention. “Can I know where we’re going, or at least how long it’ll take?” “QUIET! Disgusting colt.” The unicorn spat to the subdued shinobi who just decided to listen and wait but a few minutes later when they came to a stop at a pair of trees about twenty feet apart, Zeko was confused until the unicorn’s horn began to glow yellow and the space between the trees began to shine yellow as well until a pathway opened. “Some kind of genjutsu... it’s there but hidden.” Zeko thought as they went into the passage revealing... a hidden village of Amazonian mares wearing little clothing for the most part forcing Zeko to avert his eyes whenever one came into his line of sight but this became nearly impossible once a crowd began to form around the group which some had splintered of off leaving five mares including the unicorn “Look mommy! A male!” A child, obviously female said while pointing at the bound teenager and getting her mother’s attention “I see him but you shouldn’t look at him, he’s inferior to you.” Zeko heard the mother reply while moving her child away. The rest of the children had gathered rocks and began to pelt Zeko with them but rather than harming him it was more of an annoyance. The children themselves seemed to enjoy what they were doing and weren’t being stopped. “I’m guessing men aren’t well liked here, explains why I haven’t seen any around...ok this is annoying.” With his thought came sand from his gourd and catching the oncoming stones to the surprise of the onlookers. The sand caught the stones and dropped them before returning to the gourd leaving those carrying Zeko with a sense of urgency “We must get him to the chief now!” The Unicorn told the mares carrying Zeko as they ran to a large building of wood and leaves that resembled a long house. They went through a curtain doorway and were greeted by two mares wearing leather armor and holding spears that were trained on Zeko but lowered them when the unicorn raised a hand, and continued walking with the rest not far behind. “Karmiah.” A voice called making the Unicorn and the mares carrying Zeko kneel down before an elaborate throne set high in the room. “Why have you brought a colt into my presence?” Zeko saw that the voice came from an earth mare with an ornate gold trimmed robe, in contrast to the barely dressed females he’d seen. The unicorn stood up and offered her counter to what seemed to be her leader “Lady Mjoll, we found this one while scouting our further borders, but I noticed something very strange about him.” “Weird names but let’s see where this goes.” Zeko thought as Karmiah looked back to him “He is no pony but I can sense a substantial power from him, as if he has access to magic greater than mine.” Mjoll stood up and began to walk down the stairs to meet Karmiah who tensed up with every step and was ready to be struck but was taken back when Mjoll crouched to examine Zeko and look over his features “I know I’m good looking but you don’t need to be so close.” The eyes of every mare went wide and Mjoll stood up with an eyebrow raised “A typical male, you think I’d be determining if you were worthy of being my seed giver? You’re a child and not even a stallion.” Mjoll crossed her arms and looked as if she’d kick Zeko but was brought from her rising temper by Karmiah “He may be better, he managed to move sand freely using his magic. It was almost like it was living!” “Controlling earth in a manner like that? It could be interesting if we add diversity to our breeding field. But he’s still a child so he’ll need a pen until he’s fifteen.” Mjoll said to Karmiah’s displeasure “I’m seventeen and what the hell do you mean breeding field?” Zeko said while wriggling his wrists. “Hm... Karmiah luck is on your side, take him to the breeding fields then. We can send a warrior to break him in an hour.” Mjoll went back up to her throne as the group left. “I have so many tests to conduct and you’ll be my subject”. Karmiah said as she followed closely behind while they went through a wide path that lead to a wide field that had naked stallions firmly connected to the ground, some were starved to the point where bones were protruding. The mares chained Zeko’s legs to a large rock and the unicorn came to talk to him. “Oh and I’ll have to take everything you have so you can’t try to escape.” She went for Zeko’s gourd but sand got in the way. “You can have my shirt, hell maybe my shoes and pants but this stays with me. It won’t do you any good.” She smirked and went to slap the shinobi across the face but wound up with a bleeding hand, once screaming was heard a slightly larger mare came to help. “Sharp crystals mixed in the sand. It’s a nasty cut if I want it to be.” Karmiah was taken by a separate mare leaving Zeko with the larger one “You have a strong spirit but you don’t deserve it, you’re dirt compared to us.” “Why? I fell asleep and got taken by those girls and here I am. How exactly do I not deserve my strength.” Zeko said, sand whipping around him in a display that wasn’t threatening as much as it was for attention “You’re a male: you lie, cheat, and want to make us weak then take over the world for your own evil.” Zeko covered his mouth to snicker “Is something funny?” She pulled out a whip while Zeko tried to stop his laughter but wasn’t making a huge effort “It’s just... you really think all males are like that?” She nodded. “Let me guess, you were raised in this village and taught that men were evil and could only be used for breeding?” “That’s correct. But don’t think your words can trick me child, I know that they tried their hardest to trick me and it didn’t work.” She gestured to the others being held down by chains or being tied to poles, Zeko could swear he saw... an action that should at least be somewhere more private. His blush let his tormenter know what he saw. “The breeding its disgusting to me but some do it but they can crush a pelvis if they aren’t careful. That’s your future and you deserve it.” “If you think I’m just gonna let that happen you’re wrong, my sand can keep you back and I can fight up close.” The sand moved more aggressively around Zeko at his words “Lady Mjoll may need to know this... a gladiator child? Never thought I’d see a stallion who can fight.” “I never got a name from you and yeah I know ‘I don’t need to give my name, you’re an inferior male’ and that.” Zeko tried to imitate the masculine-feminine voices the Amazonian mares has but failed. “You’re clearly gonna have to come back often, so we could at least know each other, my name’s Zeko.” He extended a hand but she scoffed and walked off. “This is a weird situation.” ============================== After a few hours it was dusk and the adult mares met up in a dining hall and were enjoying food and cups of apple cider, some who’d been in contact with Zeko were being hounded by others. “I told you I don’t know anything about him.” “But Aeris you helped carry him, and you had to beat him to bring him here. You have to know something.” A normal Pegasus asked “Cloudburst I didn’t fight him, we found him when he was asleep and Aela used a sleeping potion on him. That sand stuff he had would’ve made him a problem.” Aeris recalled what happened to Karmiah’s hand and winced when she realized that her group could’ve been seriously hurt “Well if he has magic like that then our tribe can be even stronger than the Unum tribe.” Cloudburst shook in disgust at the mention of their enemy tribe. “To think that they live together with stallions.” Her words were heard by the others at the table who cheered while Aeris maintained a thousand yard stare “That kid might be a threat to us all.” ============================== (Nighttime) “These berries aren’t half bad, could be a little sweeter but a beggar can’t be a chooser.” Zeko commented on the fruits he’d gotten parasprites to gather as to deny becoming frail like his bound peers. “It might be too late for you guys though...” He looked around at the mentally broken stallions around him but noticed that something was approaching him so he stood ready but didn’t expect a mare that looked slightly older than him to come by. She looked at him and the fruits with curiosity “Where’d you get those? They don’t feed you that much, especially if you’re new.” She questioned while Zeko continued to snack on the berries “Came from some bushes in the forest. The hard part was figuring out what I could eat. But let me ask you, are you supposed to be the nice interrogator?” “I’m just curious... I’ve never seen a colt like you before and that thing with the sand was amazing.” Zeko rolled his eyes and continued to eat “I know that you’re a male and I’m supposed to be better than you but you don’t seem all that bad, I’d say you’re almost nice.” “I could kill you if I wanted to you know. Not even with the sand. Fire, water, earth, wind, lightning. Hell I could do something with wood if I wanted.” Zeko looked back to her to see she was stoic and was surprised at her response “Why don’t you? If you’re supposed to be so bad and you say you can do that stuff then why not?” “I’m interested in this place and maybe getting some eyes opened and minds changed. What’s your name anyway?” “Celona. Whats yours?” “Zeko...” He offered his last berry to her and she took it with a smile. “So why are you so nice? Haven’t you been told all of my evils?” He added sarcasm to his last word “I have but I’ve seen that most of you aren’t all that bad. And most of them tell me go away so they don’t get in trouble but you didn’t care.” The two continued talking about the village and it’s customs for a while, marriage being the most interesting since two females would be together and if they wanted a child... needless to say that Zeko wasn’t familiar with this but they had to stop once Zeko noticed the nameless mare from before was returning “See you around Celona.” Zeko said as his new friend snuck away in the nick of time as the unnamed mare just came up to him with a knife and whip in her hands. “What are you planning?” “Break you, so you can be bred at some point.” “Good luck, you can’t get close to me. So how can you hurt me.” Zeko taunted “This whip nullifies magic, all I need to do is wrap it around you.” She tied the whip around him but the sand surrounded his body, not letting the whip touch him “I can feel it slowly draining my chakra from the sand. If I stay like this all night then there’s a problem but I should be fine.” Zeko thought while his tormenter smiled “You can feel it draining your magic can’t you? Not much longer now and then you’ll be weak as you should be.” She wasn’t aware of how little she was truly affecting the shinobi but his bored expression managed to give her a hint. “Is it working? I’ve used this before and it was fine then.” “Might be that my chakra reserves are huge, might be my chakra being different than mana so the whip can’t siphon it like should.” Zeko said with a shrug of his shoulders. “You might as well give up.” “It doesn’t matter! You’ll just begin to starve and we can do whatever then. I’ll just tell everymare not to feed you.” She took the whip off of him but no sooner than she did he put a hand to the ground and summoned dozens of parasprites “I have these little things to get food for me. I don’t even have to stay here I could leave if I felt like it but I wanna see how things work here.” The mare’s shoulders were slumped and she looked like a child who’d been told a toy they liked broke, she was mumbling to herself and turned to walk away in silence while Zeko dispelled his swarm “H-How d-did? I need a good nights sleep and to tell Lady Mjoll in the morning.” Zeko was standing with his hands on his hips since he mentally broke the one who was to break him. Unknown to him Celona watched the entire altercation from afar and pulled out a small book to write in. “It’s that feeling again...” =================================== (Mjoll’s throne room) (The next morning) “Is it true boy? You can leave anytime you desire?” Mjoll asked Zeko who only nodded, his hands were bound but he still carried a dangerous aura that Mjoll was experienced enough to notice. “Leaving wouldn’t be too tough. I’d just have to break free then leave.” Mjoll started to laugh once Zeko said this and her guards seemed to find it funny too “You think you could just walk out of this place of warriors without having to fight? I was told you claim to be able to fight so how about you go against one of my guards hmm? I’ll be sure she doesn’t break too many of your naive bones.” “Why not? Hell let’s go right outside and do this.” Zeko walked out to the shock of the guards excluding the largest one who was angered at his disrespect to Mjoll who simply pointed outside prompting the guard to follow Zeko. “So you want to do this child? How did you?” The guard looked at Zeko and saw his chains were on the ground and mothers nearby were shielding their daughters as if they’d be attacked if they were seen “What’s your name?” Zeko asked “I’m telling a cocky male like y-“ “Ok I’m sick of hearing that I’m a dirty male, I haven’t done any wrong to any of you so shut up.” The guard was angered and rushed Zeko and tried to jab his chest with her spear but paused when she saw him grab and snap the tip off in one motion. She tried to follow up with a punch to his chest but a low sweep kick from Zeko made her acquainted with the ground “How can’t I hit him? I trained my whole life and he’s just some filthy...?!” She thought as she sprang up and managed to kick Zeko and knock him back, now a crowd was standing around and watching, including Celona “I felt that one, you’re pretty strong for a girl.” This made her go berserk and throw a flurry of hits at Zeko who managed to activate his Rinnegan and saw the attacks potential landing points, allowing him to dodge until his opponent became tired “You *pant* You think you can run and wi-“ She was cut off when Zeko raised a hand and made her levitate into the air and he quickly slammed her back down shocking the crowd. The guard was left in a divot on the ground and was clearly unconscious “HEY LADY! Your guard lost!” Zeko said as he went back into the building. He looked at his escorts who were nervous after seeing the “fight” but didn’t show it. “That was... interesting.” Mjoll barely managed to hide her anger towards Zeko “So... who’s taking me back to the breeding fields?” They all looked at Zeko with confused expressions until he walked out with one of his escorts who decided to go with him, Karmiah had come to Mjoll’s side with her hand in bandages “We can’t let him stay, he’s a menace and he might cause an uprising. Those stallions might be weak but with him they can ruin everything like they do.” She said frantically “You’re right but after that display I feel that he’ll leave on his own... and maybe we can ‘convince’ him to breed with a willing warrior so we have one of our own like him...” =======