[The Princes XXII] [Captive] The sun was two hours from rising and the island was still and quiet. Waves crashed against the sandy beach, and Fox stood on a large rock, watching and waiting. The Ava Bachen remained in the same place they had landed two weeks earlier. The pirate crew lived inside the ship and the children slept in emergency crash tents a short distance away. The arrangement suited everyone, the pirates got some peace from the ever loud children and the children got independence from the adults. The tents were lined up in two perfect rows of ten; two children shared each tent. Fox pressed a command into his wrist implant and the Ava Bachen's external air-horn blasted out and split the silence of the morning. The children scrambled from their tents, grabbing shorts, shoes, socks, and shirts. Ryota ran up and down between the row of tents organizing the children into two lines of twenty each. Once Ryota was satisfied everyone had their shoes tied and were ready he took his place at the front of the two columns and shouted out a command. “At double-time, march!” shouted Ryota. The children jumped into a run and followed a path that was quickly being etched into the sand down to the rock Fox stood on and waited. As the children neared, Fox jumped down from the rock and turned towards the beach at a slow run; Ryota brought the children in behind Fox and followed down the winding path to the beach. Fox led his new wards out onto the wet hard-pack sand and picked up the pace. The surf lapped up around the children's feet as they ran and sand crabs scattered in front of them. Ryota liked this and wondered what House the man leading the run came from. Ryota’s House never did this and he tried to imagine his own father getting up two hours before the sun to train the House children. They passed the big rocks at the end of the beach and followed the beach around the island. None of them had been able to make it all the way around the island the first time, and it was still difficult and many of them would have to stop and walk, but it was getting easier. The other side of the island was more wooded with tall palm trees and the beach turned from sand to loose pebbles, this was the part that got them, the pebbles were hard to run in. An hour after the run began they rounded the southern part of the island with all the winding lagoons and came out on the flat hard wet sand where the surf met the beach. Fox held his hand up and the group slowed to a walk. The stragglers caught up and got back in line while Ryota shouted praise for a good run, but the day was just starting. Fox veered off and Ryota marched the two columns to stop and stand in front of forty wooden swords sticking up in the sand. The next three hours was hard practice as Fox led the children through the basics of swordsmanship. “Step… step… cross… step… step… retreat… retreat… cross… step…” Fox shouted out the basic movements and the children diligently tried to follow, they all understood what was happening; they were being raised up from servants to warriors. There had been a very brief argument on the first day when the boys protested girls being taught the sword, it just wasn’t done on Kitsune. Fox reminded them that they were no longer on Kitsune and would live as Carinians, and some of the finest Black Guard were female. One boy continued to argue and Fox pointed at the ocean and told him he was free to leave if he couldn’t accept that the girls would be trained as warriors equally with the boys. The boy tried arguing one more time and Fox picked him up and threw him in the ocean and told him not to come back. The boy stood waist deep in the surf until midnight, pleading anyone that walked past to ask Master Fox to let him come back. Fox sent Leta, the female Cormon warrior, down to the beach to fetch the boy and send him to bed - without dinner. There was no further discipline problems. The morning practice session ended and Fox released the children for breakfast with instructions to return to the beach in two hours for swimming lessons. Ryota fell in step beside Fox and walked silently next to the man, trying hard to match the tall man’s stride. The two walked to the Ava Bachen where Falon and Goa had a breakfast of fish waiting. The fish was a courtesy of Squish, whom had turned out to have an amazing talent for fishing. Squish spent nearly all his time at the beach happily catching fish after fish and carrying them up to the Daraians to gut, skin, fillet, and cook over an open fire. “We’re going to need more than fish to eat,” said Ryota. “I saw Carinians swimming around off-shore checking us out,” replied Fox. “I expect we will get visitors soon, then we can negotiate for supplies and maybe hire a cook.” “Are we going to build houses?” asked Ryota. Fox stopped and looked down at the boy, he needed more responsibilities. The boy was intelligent and didn’t seem to be holding a grudge about the fate of his father, but then he may never have had a relationship with the man. It was common among Kitsune Houses to ignore or even send all but the first and second son away; perhaps the boy saw this as an opportunity to be more than just a minor officer in a samurai legion. “You swim well,” stated Fox having seen the boy swim during the swim lessons. “We had a lake on our estate, I swam a lot to stay out of the way,” replied the boy. “Eat light,” ordered Fox. “After breakfast you are to swim out from the beach and tell the Carinians watching us that Master Fox wishes to hire workers.” “Really, you trust me with a mission?” Fox nodded and left the boy to his breakfast and wandered off to walk the island again. They would need houses, and docks, and a fishing fleet, and shops, and an airfield, and many other things. Fox followed the hill up towards the low cliffs that looked down on the north beach. So much to do, and all he really wanted to do was sleep on a beach and not worry about anything. He never really thought about what he would do with the pirate crew, and the children wasn’t part of his plan either, but they were here and needed trained. Fox looked out over the ocean, this would be a good place to build a castle or a manor house. The buildings would have to be submersible, islands on Carina often found themselves underwater during the winter, but then, this was a large island and that might not happen here. Fox looked forward to a winter under the waves with no responsibilities, no expectations, just peace and his experiments. Ryota finished a light breakfast of fish and fruit and headed down to the beach. The ocean was calm and swimming out a short way would be easy, he sat down on the sand and watched the water for a Carinian to show up. It didn’t take long, Ryota saw several heads pop up off-shore and stood up and waved. He hadn’t met a Carinian yet, but was excited at the prospect. Ryota waded out into the water and swam towards the Carinians. The Carinians were gone when Ryota got to the spot he had seen them. He swam around a bit then tread water and waited a bit to see if they would come back. Ryota felt something grab his ankle and pull him down. He took a deep breath and willed himself not to panic. The water was clear enough to see a few feet, but he wished he had a face mask and snorkel. The Carinian that pulled him down let go of his ankle and another swam up to Ryota and put his hands firmly on Ryota’s shoulders. The Carinian was humanoid in appearance, but different. The amphibian holding him didn’t seem to have any ears and his eyes were just a little bit larger than his own. Ryota’s lungs started to burn and he tried to kick up for the surface but the Carinian held him in place. Ryota started to panic now. Were they going to drown him? Ryota pointed at his mouth and then the surface and tried again to kick away; the Carinian held him. Now he really started to panic and kicked wildly but another Carinian grabbed him from behind and held him tight. Ryota thrashed and tried to escape, his lungs ached from lack of oxygen and his vision started to blacken. At the last moment before he was about to involuntarily suck a breath for air that wasn’t there, the Carinian shoved some kind of a bag or hood over his head. Ryota's burning lungs forced him to gasp for air - they were going to drown him - but… air… he was breathing… instead of water filling his lungs, Ryota gulped down air and panted heavily. He felt the Carinians pulling him further down under the surface; what did they want? How was he breathing? Then a new horror began, the Carinians took his shorts. Ryota tried to fight but they held his arms and legs. He would have turned red from embarrassment if he hadn’t been underwater. The Carinian pressed a hand against his mouth and started to pull the hood off; Ryota took a deep breath and the hood was gone. He looked up at the surface, too far away to ever get there before he drowned. He tried to reach for the hood but the amphibian pulled it away. Ryota held his hands up in front of him in the universal position of pleading for his life, the Carinian made a face that Ryota could have sworn was laughing. The Carinian behind him pushed him and they forced him to swim along the bottom. His lungs started burning again and he tried to make a dash for the surface but they caught him easily and pulled the hood over his head again; he breathed quick shallow breathes. Why were they doing this to him? He was pulled along by the Carinians as they alternately took the hood away and gave it back. Ryota was nearly exhausted and finally just couldn’t swim any further. He went limp and they dragged him the rest of the way to a building on the ocean floor. The building was covered with coral and plants and if Ryota had to describe the building, he would have to say the structure looked dilapidated. He was dragged into the dark interior of the building and through several rooms with other amphibians, ‘standing around.’ The Carinian pulled him through a hatch and took the hood away and shut the hatch door behind him. Ryota was really scared now, they sealed him into a chamber with no air and no breathing hood. He was going to drown in this dark place. Ryota was too tired to keep fighting, it was time to just surrender and inhale the water. He closed his eyes and said his last prayer to the ancestors - and then the water level went down and there was a pocket of air. Ryota gasped for the air. A dim light came on and he watched the last of the water pulled out of the room. The room was small but had what might have been intended as a bed against a wall. He wasted no time and collapsed on the stone bed and fell asleep. He didn’t know how long he slept, but woke coughing as water rose over his head, they were filling the chamber back up with water. Ryota stood on the stone bed and stretched his body up to keep his head above the water as long as possible. The water level stopped rising several inches below the ceiling, leaving only his face above the water. The hatch opened and a Carinian swam in and pushed a bag into his hands and left. The water was pulled back out of the room and he sat shivering on the stone bed and looked into the bag. Food. Not the best food, it was a wet slimy weed, but it gave him some strength back. There was also a bottle of fresh water and he drank that and laid back down on the stone bed and fell back to sleep. The routine continued and he tried to count the amount of times they brought him food. He couldn’t tell how much time passed, but based on three meals a day, which he doubted he was getting, he was always hungry. But, maybe a week or two went by in this manner. He tried to tell them he was cold and asked if he could at least have his shorts back. They ignored him and the routine continued. He was always cold now and he would feel sick, then better, then sick again. It finally occurred to him that any other species would be dead from exposure to the cold water by now, his Kitsune body was keeping him alive. He would survive for months in this nightmare until his body finally gave out. Ryota made up games in his mind to keep from falling into despair. He counted time between meals and guessed three hours, he made up math problems and solved them, he even made up stories in his head. Time passed and despite his efforts, he fell into a depression and lay weeping on his stone bed. Why had they done this to him? Not once had they tried talking to him, or tell him what they wanted. They only fed him and left him to his captivity in this underwater prison. Ryota lay on his back sobbing in misery when the water started to rise again, but he didn’t care anymore and didn’t even try to stay above the water, he just let himself float and this time he would breathe in the water and let himself be taken to the land of the ancestors. He floated limply and waited for his lungs to force him to inhale. Someone grabbed him and turned him around and pressed a mask to his face. This was something new, with the mask he could see more than just blurs. The Carinian holding him was much larger than the ones that had captured him, and this amphibian wore a deep blue uniform. Behind him was another uniformed amphibian, and that one held some kind of spear with three points at the tip. The Carinian holding him pulled something blue from a pouch at his side, it looked like a piece of cloth. The uniformed amphibian grabbed Ryota’s leg and shoved it into the blue cloth, then his other leg, and then his arms. He was being dressed in some type of body suit. Ryota cooperated and managed to pull the blue body suit up and the amphibian did something down his side and the body suit sealed water tight and Ryota felt warm again for the first time in… he didn’t know how long. The uniformed amphibian then took the mask away and pulled a hood attached to the body suit up over Ryota’s head, but this hood he could see through, everything was crystal clear. The uniformed amphibian took a small tube from the side of Ryota’s hood and gently pushed it into Ryota’s mouth and pointed at his own mouth, showing Ryota how to use it. The Carinian made some gestures to Ryota with his hands and then pulled him along and out of the cursed prison chamber. Ryota swam past the bodies of the ones he recognized as his captures, there was little doubt they were dead. More of the uniformed Carinians were outside the building and they all swam for the surface. The swim up took longer than he imagined it would, they kept stopping and waiting. Ryota could see the light of the sun and tried to bolt for the surface. The Carinian grabbed him and shook his head and tapped on Ryota’s chest and made a gesture that looked like he was saying explosion. After what seemed like an eternity Ryota broke the surface and spit the tube out of his mouth and gulped the clean fresh air. A small ship was waiting and they lifted him aboard. Ryota collapsed on the deck and stared up at the blue sky. “You’ll be okay now, just rest,” said the Carinian that had put him in the blue body suit. Ryota tried to speak but his first efforts were a bare whispered croak. The Carinian gave him some water and he gulped greedily. “Slow down,” said the Carinian. “You’ll make yourself sick.” “Who are you?” whispered Ryota. “I’m Captain Kerin’Sar of the Black Guard,” said the amphibian. “I’m a friend of Master Fox.” “Why… Why did they do that to me?” Ryota started shaking violently and cried. “Master Fox didn’t know, he lived here on a protected island when he was six and seven. He had no idea there were bad sections on this world just like any world.” “He didn’t come for me,” cried Ryota. “Yes he did. When you went missing he swam out to look for you and was attacked, big mistake for the attackers. Fox has waged a war against the local gangs for a month and has lined the beaches of his island with the heads of gang members on pikes.” “He did?” “The Carinian authorities wouldn’t interfere, but they wouldn’t help an off-worlder. I was living on another planet when I got his message for help. I came as fast as I could. Fox barely left the ocean during the entire month searching for you.” “Where is he?” asked Ryota. “We have twelve ships out searching, he’s on a different one. I just got lucky and found you first. Master Fox will meet us at the island.” The ship raced for the island where medical personnel were waiting to treat the malnourished boy that had suffered a month of captivity. A dock had been built while Ryota was a prisoner and the ship now pulled up alongside the dock. Another ship was also coming at full speed for the island and pulled along side while the medical personnel was assessing Ryota’s condition. Ryota saw Master Fox jump out of the ship and run across the dock to where he was now laying on a stretcher. The medical people stepped aside and Fox scooped Ryota up and hugged him tight. “I’m sorry… I’m sorry…” sobbed Fox. “I shouldn’t have sent you out there.” “You never left me,” cried Ryota. “You never gave up.” Ryota put his arms around Fox and hugged tight. “Father?” whispered Ryota. “Son,” said Fox looking into the boy’s eyes, and the bond was made. Fox picked his son up and carried him to the transport ship waiting to take Ryota to a hospital.