The chains rattled with every swing of the punching bag as Nami dodged and struck it. Her body moved slower than usual, and it didn’t take long for the bag of sand to catch her in her moments of deep thought and knock her over.

Damn it. She thought, picking herself up. I wasn’t fast enough. She took the towel on her bench and wrapped it around her neck. Her body was spotted with beads of sweat, running down her toned curves and legs. She wiped some of the sweat off her brow and took a swig from her water bottle.

“On the mat, right now.” Aldred demanded, not giving Nami a moment to process his request as he started wrapping his fists with gauze.

Putting her water down, Nami opened her mouth to protest, but was cut of when he threw her gloves.“10 minutes, you know the drill.” Nami sighed and just put her gloves on. Something was up, as Aldred never demanded a sparring match like that. Usually, he’d schedule it in advance.

Nami stole a brief look at her right hand, the sensation the mark gave her still buzzing through her skin, just not as intensely as it did yesterday. She wore her gloves before she could linger on the thought for too long.

Did I make a mistake? She wondered to herself as she stepped on to the mat.

He’s my friend, he’d never… Her thoughts trailed off as a memory of an unwanted smile, a treacherous smile, invaded her thoughts.

“Are you ready?” Her uncle asked, assuming his stance, the very same stance Nami used. There were only 5 water God Masters on the planet, the two of them just happened to be related. Somewhat that is.

Aldred was a giant by even the standard of Demi-Humans, standing at a massive 7’3 with a body well-toned for battle. Silver hair that could make the elves jealous and crystal-like eyes that he hid behind shades most of the time. His beard was never fully shaved, purposely leaving stubble there which should have made him look dirty, but somehow elevated his looks.

“I’m ready.” Nami answered after a moments hesitation and in that same moment Aldred had already closed the distance between them, firing a sweeping kick that could easily break the average human in two. Luckily Nami was able to Jump over it and fire her own kick to his face and before it could land, she had her face grabbed by his gigantic hands.

He readied himself to slam her on the floor, before Nami twisted her body mid-fall and swung his gigantic figure over her. But there was no thud when his back made contact with the floor as he timed his role perfectly, getting back on his feet within moments after the move. Nami barely had time to recover before he was firing the next move.

She was able to counter despite that with a loose stance and tried jumping back for time to center herself, but Aldred was giving her no such luxury. Nami struggled to keep up, weaving and countering his palm strikes that moved like sledgehammers. Just as she thought she got her flow back, Aldred swapped stances mid-attack and fired a heavy straight punch that Nami had no time to dodge.

She was sent flying back from the power of that straight punch, she was able to block it, but her arms nearly flew of from the impact. She flipped herself mid-air before her back could make contact with the wooden wall behind her, landing on it with her feet and jumping back to the floor. Aldred, yet again, had already closed the distance between them at this point. But his stance had changed, and it was a stance Nami could handle. She rolled to the side and changed to her Wind-God stance. But just as she was about to counterattack, a searing pain ran through her right knee which froze her on the spot. She closed her eyes, expecting a finishing blow from Aldred, but nothing came.

When she opened her eyes, she saw Aldred sitting crossed legged with her water bottle pushed in front of her. Nami sighed as she sat in front of him, with her legs crossed too. She took her bottle and drank a swig of it.

“I thought I banned you from using Wind-God style.” He said sternly looking at her.

“It’s the perfect counter to your Earth-God style, I couldn’t stick with Water-God.” She defended. Was this the reason for the sudden match? She wondered.

“You’ve been a Master for only a year Nami, so I wouldn’t expect you to know that there are no such things as Perfect counters for a master. A Fire-God can beat a Water-God, and an Earth-God can beat a Wind-God. Learn that and you will keep your spot as Master.” Nami groaned at her uncle’s lecture. And here I am, thinking he was worried about something serious.

“The slave mark, who put it on you?” Nami choked on her water, surprised by her uncle’s question. How the hell does he know?

Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

“Any Mage worth their salt could easily see it.” He answered despite the question being in her thoughts.

“I told you to stop mind reading me!” She scolded. Half hoping that it would change the subject.

“It has barely been a month Nami, and you’re already involving yourself with Mages.” He said, his head hung in disappointment.

“I…” Nami started but couldn’t find the words. “It was a mistake, I didn’t think that he’d go so far.” Aldred’s brow rose.

“So, it’s a he? Mind telling me---”“No.” Nami cut him off with a determined look in her eyes.

“He is my friend; I won’t forgive you if you so much as touch him wrong.” Aldred brought down his shades to look at her with his crystal blue eyes. He slid them back on and began walking out.

“You said the same about Shinji.” Aldred turned as he heard the pitter patter of feet and before he could turn his head halfway, he was met with a devastating spin kick that shattered his shades. Other than his shades his face barely bruised, despite Nami putting her all behind that kick.

Her eyes narrowed with tears threatening to escape.

“Keep his name out your mouth!” She seethed. A long silence fell between them, Aldred’s expression becoming softer as he looked at Nami’s furious gaze.

“Go take a shower. We leave in an hour.” He left her in that dojo, still seething in rage. Eventually she calmed down and went for her shower. In it she tried her best to distract herself from he who shall not be named.

She, instead, thought of the conversation she had with Moe last night. Their chat dragged on for hours and if she hadn’t dropped the call to sleep it would’ve dragged on until sunrise. The conversation had initially started with Moe telling her about his past with his dad, a topic that still angered her when she thought about it. The man was detestable in every sense of the word. Other than that, they had a wonderful chat. Of course, Moe did pry her for information about her past, but she made sure to keep those sections short. No one, not even he, needed to know about her past.

She got dressed after her shower, wearing her usual grey pants, white shirt and blue blazer. A boys uniform yes, but Nami made it clear to her uncle that she’d never be caught dead wearing a skirt. She joined him at the dinner table for breakfast, an air of quiet hanging heavily on them. They never spoke for breakfast, but those silences were comfortable. She understood Aldred’s worry, but it was his fault for mentioning Mr. Unmentionable. They both stubbornly ate their breakfast in silence.

After their meal they both packed the dishes in the sink and made their way to Aldred’s garage, picking the car for the day they both hopped in his white Aston Martin Valhalla and drove off. The car, just like the others, was adjusted for his height. Meaning Nami couldn’t reach the pedals for all his cars despite her interest in driving super cars.

The drive was a quiet one, giving her time to stare at the spot her mark was. It was only a day ago, but it didn’t take away the sensation she had all over her body. Although nothing was there, she felt as if chains and cuffs held all her limbs and even her thoughts captive and Moe was the only one with the key.

She tried to distract herself, but something pulled her gaze on the spot her mark was supposed to be, the mark of a horse’s head. She didn’t know what the mark meant, but she did know what the mark was.

A slave mark. A type of curse mark that bound her soul to the will of the master. With it she could not harm Mohammed in any way and was physically obligated to protect him with her life. The mark was permanent, so long as its Master was still alive, but she had heard of some cases where the master’s will would be carried out even long after his passing. Aldred would flip if he saw Moe. Killing him wouldn’t be something he’d shy away from, if it freed her from the mark then he wouldn’t hesitate.

Despite her own grievances about the mark, she found a positive behind it. Which was what she was going to discuss with Mohammed. Once Aldred dropped her off, she turned to close the door, only to notice the look in his eyes behind his new set of shades.

“Don’t get hurt again.” He said, his voice almost hesitating as he said it. Nami felt her heart warm up and couldn’t resist the smile coming on her lips.

“I won’t.” The second she said that Aldred sped off without another word. She sighed at her uncle’s antics, but smiled nonetheless.

Unlike her father, ‘I love you’ didn’t exist in her uncle’s vocabulary.

She waited for Mohammed at the school gate. She didn’t wait long for him to arrive, only coming minutes later. She didn’t miss the drained demeanor he walked with almost as If half dead.

“Are you okay?” She asked when he got close enough to hear her.

“I couldn’t sleep after our call, so I’m still a little tired.” He stretched his arms in the air, letting out a wide mouthed yawn. And before Nami could comment he wrapped his arms around her, resting his head on her shoulder.

Nami was taken aback for a bit, and before she could return the hug, she noticed a lot of people had stopped to watch them.

“Uhh, Moe, buddy. Can you do this when, I don’t know, there aren’t a bunch of people around.” Nami scolded. Her cheeks getting flustered. Moe inhaled a huge load of her scent before pushing himself off her, letting out a satisfied sigh.

“I’m all charged. Now let’s head to class before we’re late.” He spoke as if he wasn’t a zombie 2 seconds ago.

“You should ask me before you do something so stupid.” Her voice squeaked as she scolded him. He closed the distance between their faces and arrogantly said,

“I don’t remember me needing permission, Namibia.” After hearing her full government, Nami lined the tip of her middle finger on his stomach before firing a 1-inch punch that folded him in half. Now that his head was lowered, she grabbed a fist full of his hair and began pulling him toward the school gates.