Three weeks passed. It was a repetitious cycle First Rynk would wake up. This began the reminder that she was once again in captivity, and that she had a day to find new kinks in the Domain. Most of her attention was focused on the collar around her neck, and the wires inside her body. The feline was able to saw the collar partially with her claws, but unfortunately this activated a failsafe, and she passed out again. She later tried it at a range of the collar-controller. The same result followed, though it did take longer on this second attempt to affect her. The Domain probably had satellite-dishes around to bounce the signal to her. If she were to take it off it would have to be either out of the city, or if the power went off.

Next she would go to schooling. This is where Rynk filled out most of the puzzle pieces about this place. As the stories go, Emit claimed to be one of those who lived before the apocalypse, or the “Fall” as it was usually called. He supposedly travelled unharmed, realizing later after the Fall that he “could not die”. This became a revelation to him, a message telling him to go and “help” others. He would venture around the planet, searching for people who would join him. Many refused his “graciousness” so he took them, and brought them to his original domain, an oasis. He made them work until it was in good condition, and once it was finished, he allowed them to live there, and that was the origin of Emit’s Domain.

Rynk of course did not believe this, but everything pointed to this Domain being recently built; maybe a few years old. When she brought this up with the teacher, she was given the reply “Well, yes, this was made recently; ten years ago in fact. But Emit’s Domain is not a physical place. It lives in everyone. There are other Domains throughout the planet. When Emit calls to us, we know where to place the next.”

“Where are these other ‘Domains’?” The lynx would ask stubbornly.

“In all countries.”

“In what cities?”

Whenever the questions became too complex for the teacher to answer, they would say “If you want a list you can get one later.” And of course that never happened. No matter how “wonderful” everything was described, Rynk just saw it as sick Stockholm-syndrome. They would not be convincing her of these stories any time soon.

Schooling did have some benefits though. Rynk learned the Nekain language, called “Russia” apparently. She did not understand the name, but the more she thought about it, “Singskrit” didn’t sound much like “Supreta” either. She was not a master of “Russia” but she could form some sentences at this point. This was for her benefit as now she could understand what everyone said about her, and plan revenge for later.

Rynk always took great pleasure in terrifying the other students, one way or another. Usually she would tell them about how she almost killed their beloved leader. They would gasp and gape most of the time. Some would insult her, which she replied back with an insult as well. This would escalate until the lynx was dragged out of schooling, grinning all the way.

After school, Rynk would be scolded by Parl and/or Tella, be it for being pulled out early, not reciting their pledge of allegiance, or both. Using the hypnosis tactic to make Rynk apologize, or whatever strange task, became a mediocre solution. Rynk was not phased… when they could see her. In her own time, when no one saw her, the tears came, but she never let them know. Thankfully the hypnosis ended for the time-being, and she was simply given more work as punishment.

Normally she would run about the city getting or delivering things for Parl and Tella. She highly doubted this was needed, but they had nothing they needed her to do. She was their only slave at the time, but they seemed capable of doing things themselves. They were the kind of people that preferred doing their own work, something Rynk shared as a trait.

Following her “duties” was free-time. Rynk always spent her hours in the dojo, exercising and training with her combat. This way she was able to run, kick, and exhaust herself naturally. The doors were always locked of course but at the very least, she wouldn’t be forced to pass out.

It had been four months now since Rynk had any formal training, though she felt far from rusty. It did feel good to work on her combat skills, and even better knowing that she was so far unmatched by anyone in the Domain. She just assumed they were all too “peaceful” to be interested enough in honing combat skills. She developed a few new attacks of her own, but it was rare the lynx was given a combat partner.

Parl mentioned at one point that she could pay for someone to be her combat partner with point, but of course Rynk had very little point. Point was the currency of Emit’s Domain and was based on the amount of gratitude or respect someone had for another’s actions. The young lynx was incredibly agile and quick when it came to her delivery work, gaining her large amounts of point, but then there was her actions in schooling, and even when it came to the deliveries she wasn’t always obedient.

Tella however decided she wanted to break Rynk, and paid to have the best physical combat member of the Domain “train” the young lynx. Unfortunately the member was otherwise occupied, and the second-best was brought in.

He was a large lizard with legs and arms nearing a balloon-like shape with their muscles. He had green scales and a large snout. His hair was brown and scraggily, and his eyes were yellow. He wore a tight grey tang-top and black jeans. Originally gloves and boots were involved but Tella made him take them off.

Rynk looked up and down at the lizard wide-eyed; her, him, standing in the dojo, with Tella standing a ways in front of them. The equipment was moved away for the fight. Originally Tella had planned to have it in private but when the people started to find out about it, the dojo was soon filled with a good twenty or so people.

“So… I’m getting a trainer?” Rynk asked obliviously, looking back from Tella to the lizard. “What’s your name?”

The lizard seemed a tad confused, and looked to Tella for what to do. The sheep-woman seemed displeased with his attitude. “Just fight it.” She made sure to skim her eyes over to see Rynk’s reaction. The lynx clearly noticed and tensed. The sheep thought.

The lizard sighed and took a step towards the young lynx. She didn’t seem to move. She just tensed up more. The scaly muscle jabbed his right fist full-throttle at her. Tella felt everything as if it were slow. The murmuring behind her was drowned by the rippling of the lizard’s arm parting the air.

The sheep expected the lynx to move, punch, do something, but she instead took the hit, and when her head hit the floor, the crack of wood snapping upward echoed for a good thirty seconds. The lizard clutched his fist, rubbing his own sore from the impact, and waited for the next thing to come.

Rynk’s forehead was bleeding blue and crimson but she got up. She was noticeably dizzy but resumed her standing position. This time though she put a foot behind, acting as a brace. The lizard looked to Tella once again and she gave him the same angry stare. He turned back and rammed his fist at Rynk a second time.

Rynk headbutted the lizard’s fist, and broke his knuckles with her metallic skull. While still in contact she took the opportunity and dug her fangs into his knuckles to keep her rocked insides stable until her own brain stopped shaking. Her legs worked just fine though, and she made use of them. She kicked up, dug both feet into his bicep, and pushed, dragging her claws through his arm until she reached his armpit.

The lynx had to bash her hands against the lizard’s to free her teeth, which mixed with the flailing of the now screaming adult, sent her flying across the floor. The top of her head was even more bruised with rolling blisters from the weak skin and fur.

The lizard was bleeding out and going into shock on the ground. Rynk jumped up from her second fall and started walking towards Tella. “Got that controller on you?” She asked mockingly.

Tella did and made use of the device. Rynk collapsed on the ground with a chuckle. “Good.” She said weakly. “I’m pretty…sure…he’ll be more mad… at you…”

Emit called for Rynk the next day. When she arrived her right eye was patched. Her head was wrapped. She sat down casually, acting very pleased with herself. With legs crossed and hands practicing the Supretan greeting motion, the lynx asked bluntly “So Mr. Manipulator, miss the show?”

Emit looked genuinely shocked by Rynk’s current appearance. He didn’t seem to pay attention to her greeting and instead asked “Tella did that?”

Now it was Rynk who looked shocked, followed by a disbelief rise of an eyebrow. “Her flanky did most of the work, but if you’re talking about the eye, that was all her, yeah.”

“What exactly did she do?”

Rynk shrugged. “I wasn’t really conscious for most of it. Felt like gunshots. I think she was trying to kill me. I can show you the dent in my eye if you want.” She started to lift the patch but as expected, Emit waved her away frantically.

“I…” He paused, troubled. “I, was going to scold you after what happened with to the lizard.”

“He has a name, doesn’t he?”

“Not that I know of. He doesn’t like being called ‘the lizard’ but he won’t gi- th-that’s not,” The echidna stopped himself, and looked down. He was thinking.

The short lynx did not break the silence, and did her best to not feel any regret towards this man. Concern or no concern, she was a prisoner. “What exactly all happened?” Emit asked finally.

“Tella wanted to make an example of me maybe. There were people watching, I got hit in the face, I hurt the lizard a lot, then Tella tried to kill me.”

“She said that you tried to kill her… the bullet must have ricocheted off of… you, and hit her in the shoulder.”

“… Why do you believe me?”

“I’m a good judge of character.”

“You’re a slaver!” Rynk hissed, her anger triggering. “How does that make you a good judge of character?!”

“Those are two completely different things… now, I openly admit my foolishness.”

“What do you mean?”

Emit did not respond to the question. Instead he asked her, “Who are you? What have you gone through in your life?”

Rynk was hesitant to answer. She did not plan to give him her life story. She certainly did not want his pity. “I’ve gone through a lot, let’s go with that.” She said in a softer tone. “That’s all you get from me unless you feel like letting me out of this place.”

Emit cupped his hands. “If you were completely free to do whatever you wanted. If… you hadn’t met me on bad terms, would you have liked to stay in this place?”

“What are you getting at?” The lynx asked impatiently.

“When I brought you here I thought you were just a rebellious child. I thought you needed to be disciplined. The man who sold you off-“

“Wait the-… Idolza!” She tensed, clenching teeth and fist. She did not notice that waves of nausea and dizziness had not contrasted with her stress.

“He told me that you killed your family, worked for terrorists, and tried to destroy a school in Supreta.”

Rynk just became more and more confused. “What about this makes you think I didn’t? Did I say something?”

“Was Idolza telling the truth about you?”

This presented an impasse. Rynk felt an urge to explain, but she wanted so hard to not at the same time. Why should she trust this man with her story? Was he trying to win her over? Was this a means to trick her? Perhaps if there were different circumstances she could trust this man’s words, but she had not forgotten… she had not forgotten the hypnosis..

“No.” She finally answered darkly through her teeth, eyes dead on the ground, with her stripes beginning to gleam faintly. “You, and I, we aren’t friends. You aren’t my provider, you aren’t my father, you’re not my god. I hate you, and I want to kill you and you deserve it for what you did.”

“That’s… a bit-“

Rynk slammed her hands on the desk between them, watering eyes piercing at his. “DO YOU KNOW WHAT IT FEEL-… what…” She recoiled to her previous standing position, head limply positioned at the ground. “I want to leave. If you have any bit of actual good in that head of yours, let, me, go.”

“You can’t tell me one thing about what happened to you?”

Rynk had no idea what she was going to do with those words so she did nothing. It was if he were wanting to get her more upset.

“I’m going to need time to make arrangements.” He finally answered. Rynk started to nod in a reply but stopped halfway with a growl, and began walking out. Before she left however, the lynx girl called back “Where is the lizard?”

“больница.” He replied.

Later on…

Rynk walked over to the bed of the lizard. His arm was in a metallic cast with glowing pads on the bicep area; the spot Rynk tore out. He was conscious but did not notice her at the moment. “You… oh… right.” She cleared her throat. “Вы… сделал не хотите драться со мной, сделал тебя…” (You ... did not want to fight me , did you)

The lizard looked over to her slowly, but no less startled. It took a moment for him to acknowledge what she had said, but eventually he shook his head.

“Она сделала вы это делаете…” (She made you do it…)

“I… не до-…не д-… I shouldn’t have taken that out on you. Are you going to be okay?” The lizard gave a partially confused stare to the lynx. She realized from this that Singskrit was not understood by this Nekain lizard. She repeated in Russia “Собираетесь ли вы быть в порядке ?”

The lizard looked from her, to his arm, then down. He did not nod. Rynk felt light-headed and forced herself to sit down while bracing her forehead. She had to find out from one of the citizens how to say the word in Russia and could barely pronounce it in her emotional state. “Мне очень жаль.”

The lizard did not look to her apology. He simply closed his eyes and began falling asleep. Rynk walked out of the hospital soon after. She had planned to bring him a flower maybe, or something, but she was not going to give him something from Emit’s Domain. It seemed she was going to be leaving soon though, so perhaps she could get him something, but for now, she had mutton on the mind.

Finding Tella’s house was easy considering she was Rynk’s owner. When the lynx got to the house however, she found Parl alone, sobbing. It was not hard to come up with why. “Relocated or killed?” She asked.

Parl whipped around to Rynk, his sorrow turning into a fury. He grabbed the controller from his pocket and cranked the knob to its fullest. Rynk sighed at the aggressive attempt, and pointed at her un-collared neck.

He looked defeated as the rectangle fell from his hands. Rynk felt some sympathy for him, some pity, but not much. She did not have much of a reason to feel anything but pathetic towards him. True he was not abusive to her as Tella tried to be, but they weren’t friends. He was no pawn. There was nothing to do here.

It became puzzling to the lynx, as she walked through the Domain, why Emit would execute Tella, or do whatever he did with her, after something like that. Rynk was not half as injured at her opponent, even if she had a constant itch from her metallic eye-lid digging into her eye. Did Emit really feel regretful? He did agree to let her go, at some point in another, and even then that was if she could trust him… but killing one of his closest servants? That was strange to her.

The rest of the day was spent looking for a way out of the Domain. Rynk had no desire to stick around and wait to be let out. If she could leave now, all the better. Unfortunately she found no exit and the only place she could not look was Emit’s personal house. Even if she were able to take on whoever was guarding it, no doubt they would have some form of way to sedate her.

The lynx finally decided to sleep on the ground in the outdoors. There were rarely insects in Emit’s Domain and just about everyone else was in bed. She did not look up at the stars. They were not real as she found out her first nights at this place. Her stripes did not glow in the moonlight; it was all holographic most-likely.

When Rynk awoke the next morning, one of Emit’s other personal assistants walked up to her and lead her to Emit’s house. Rynk informed the man that she knew perfectly well how to find Emit’s office, but he insisted on staying with her.

Emit looked serious, but not as shaken as the day before. “I’ve made arrangements for new caretakers to watch over you.” He informed without a greeting.

Rynk almost answered “Thanks, can I go now” but midway she realized… “Wait a minute… I’m… y-you’re…”

“They are a dancing group and they actually are allowed to venture out of the Domain very often.”

“You aren’t letting… you…”

“They already have a child member. You two will get along nicely.”

“I’m g- you’re goin-“

“I’ve made sure also that they don’t-“ No matter how much Emit tried to extinguish the tension, Rynk got more and more furious. She was not able to reach him with her claws, as the assistant, as well as two guards near the room, were currently restraining her. The collar went back on, and a new day of imprisonment began.