Two: The Imprisoned

Volkan was overhearing the order and the new rule that was being announced to the parliament and to the servants of the harem by the emperor. The scimitar-horned oryx was standing in the wings where the stained-glass windows meant that the eunuchs were not visible to the world but they could hear everything. Being the tallest and the most muscular of the eunuchs, Volkan was the one they all trusted for his opinion on the matter, alongside Hilal's personal eunuch Rasim. They were both looking uncomfortable as they listened to the announcement and finally one of the other eunuchs gave a grunt first.

"So... he's legalised imperial incest in order to produce more heirs... has there ever been such a thing done before, Rasim?" Shahin the caracal had been donated into the service as a cub, his father had been a prized general and had two sons, so as was tradition for the predators in this kingdom, he had to have his second son made a eunuch and given to the harem to decide his fate. The caracal was shaking his head in irritation at the thought of it all, before the others grit their teeth and Rasim lifted his wand with its tapered fabric end and firmly gave him a clout around the backside the make the caracal jolt with a gasp. "Alright... I deserved that..."

"Oh come now master, isn't that unkind to Shahin? He was just voicing what we were all thinking and he did ask a valid question." Tutku, the completely emasculated and indeed 'altered' Eurasian lynx was not like the other eunuchs. He'd been totally de-gendered so that the princes could learn the arts of copulation through his body... he'd been cut in his youth, lucky to have survived as he had been a cub taken and imprisoned during a raid and he knew nothing different. All he knew was how to be sweet, cute and the one being he made sure to snuggle was Shahin, his protector amongst the predatory eunuchs that might try to use him too and now he grasped his feline companion in a hug as Rasim's nostrils flared at he gave a grunt.

"I was raised in the harem same as most of you here, but sadly... though I have extensive recollection, knowledge and access to the archives here, there has been no record of the goats ever delving into incest to save a dynasty." Rasim stated, puffing himself up and trying to look both proud and big around them all. But Volkan turned to him, clearing his throat loudly and he was not the only one to encourage the fallow stag with his antlers chopped down to blunted stumps like a yearling to speak more. Rasim was rather startled when his oryx ally Irfan gave a sneer and jabbed him with an elbow as the other youngsters gave grunts, desperate to learn the history of this place. "Alright... there was one dynasty that performed such... the leopards."

There was a sudden deep intake of breath amongst the thirty gathered eunuchs who were going to have to take this information back down to the harem and inform the females and the kids. It made them very uncomfortable and Rasim grimaced himself, he did not really want to discuss anything of the days when the predators were in control and yet the two lynx staring at him expectantly and the fallow stag's ears flopped down as he grimaced.

"You're all of the generation where speaking of that dynasty is banned outside of the court and the archives, so I understand why some of you would be intrigued. I'm only going to tell you about it once but, about a seventy years ago, the empire was not that of the Wild Goats but it was the Empire of the Leopards and it stretched across the country towards the Inland Sea and the Great Plains, down to the edge one ocean and up along the Great Desert to the western ocean. They were hideous, they ate their servants because they were predators, they ruled madly with some sects falling into the cult of incest quicker than others... but each one began to fade from power as the lions to the Great Desert and the Goats began to fight back. They kept hold of this kingdom and the access to the northern regions meant they thought they had allies, but it all turned badly when the last empires decided that they must reclaim their empire through incest..."

"What happened?" One of the younger eunuchs questioned, their expression priceless for how ignorant it was as Rasim gave a soft scoff. He rolled his eyes and swatted his hand about, utterly confused by how the fool could work here and be so dumb. But they were looking at the stag expectantly as he gave a groan of frustration, rubbing his temples near his stumps and then groaning.

"The emperor made his sons breed with their sisters and daughters and so on and so forth... the fellow was mad anyway... but in the first few generations it didn't look so bad at first, they all were born beautiful and similar... then the fifth generation started to show deformities. They were horrible, mouths that couldn't close of eat properly extra digits, blind, parasitic limbs, missing tail, strange colours and other things that screamed out that the bloodline was corrupt. The sight of them shocked, but worse still the emperor deemed all those not born to his specifications should be thrown alive on a bonfire... it was hideous and yet though the mothers wished not have more young, he forced it and it happened again and again until he blamed the mothers, the fathers... burning them and eradicating his own bloodline in his madness!"

The group looked shocked, there was no way they could comprehend the story that was being told to them and they looked to each other with shock. Then all eyes turned back towards the image below and the understanding of what their master wanted. Perhaps, because it was only him who would commit this sin, it might not be so bad but... it sickened them all. Rasim was glad they comprehended the severity of the situation now, but then he heaved a heavy sigh as the meeting was wrapping up and opened the door to send them out. Everyone left obediently heads down and expressions anxious before Rasim shot his hoof out to stop Volkan.

"Volkan... our master has already decided whom he will try with first and it is no whom he has been grooming." Rasim was not happy saying any of it, but amongst the older eunuchs there was more knowledge of what corruption the emperor had already started. But Volkan looked at the stag cautiously for a moment before Rasim then looked even more depressed over the situation, shaking his head before then giving a grimace. "He wants Sanem."

"So, her fears that he was only keeping her alive for some ulterior motive was correct. Do you think he was planning to bring up this whole concept for several years?" Volkan was furious, Sanem was the half-sister of the emperor, her mother and herself were Goitre Gazelle, they were not the wild goats as the emperor was and Volkan was Sanem's most trusted companion. He was often working as her guard, keeping her safe because she was always deemed as having the potential to turn the servants against her brother, but she was a good doe, very kind-hearted and yet she'd been trapped as a princess in the highest tower, only allowed out at night under Sanem's watch. "Is there nothing I can do to help her?"

"It is unpleasant, I would wish to offer you a poison to give her, but Sanem alone has any potential to improve the bloodline." Rasim stated, though he was obedient and always seen as the emperor's most faithful, the emperor's sister was a point of contention because she alone had ever been kind to the eunuchs. She had trained as a nurse, hoping to enter the religious life but her brother had stopped her and only let her practice her medicine upon the eunuchs when they were sick. She was the only one the eunuchs truly loved of the entire royal harem and that was why Volkan... the broken eunuch whose body had healed from a shoddy castration and maintained a lone, working testicle, was her guard. Volkan shook his head in dismay and Rasim gave a grunt. "Prepare her, it's the only thing we can do, even if it means offering her a drug."

"I will see what I can do for her." Volkan bowed his head low, but he felt very uncomfortable with his duty. Even Rasim was feeling unhappy about what he had asked of his companion, especially because it was so clear that their dear friend might even ask to commit suicide. Volkan stepped out with a firm snort through his gentle nostrils and slowly he paced down the hallway with his head lowered as he passed the predator guards that were keeping an eye on everything. He marched past the area where the kidnapped princes were in their teaching and towards the hidden gateway to the tower that passed by various other royal rooms.

As he reached the curtain, he spotted Viorel shuffling near it and he cleared his throat loudly so the wolf spun around and stared at him in horror. Volkan stepped over to his side, the wolf's ears drooping as he looked to muscular oryx in anxiety before Volkan held his hoof out, waiting for the letter to be passed over to him. Volkan had talked to Izem, the lion prince who had admitted to him and him alone what they had seen and that Viorel had done something to try and help. Volkan was appreciative of the boy's actions and apparently, Viorel was writing notes for the girl, so when the wolf past him the folded paper, Volkan nodded his head in silence.

"Thank you." Viorel had been quivering in fear that he was going to be castrated like this figure, but Volkan just took it and gave a nod to insist he would pass it on. The wolf then hurried back to the teaching room where they were supposed to be writing letters to send home and reassure them that nothing was happening to them. Volkan stared out after him in sorrow, once he'd been a young prince of a conquered territory and where his elder brother had been trained and made a general, one of the emperor's own advisors had taken a liking to him young and he'd endured terrible things until he'd uncovered that advisor's treachery. His reward though was castration and servitude, but it had not been done properly, an amateur had done it, so unlike the others Volkan had grown big, muscular and though his horns were constantly trimmed down, the grew back long and dangerous.

Sometimes... he wished he could let them grow and use them to challenge the right of the emperor in the ancient combat of the horned ungulates!

Pacing down the hidden passageway, Volkan had calmly steered himself around to Hira's cell and pushed the letter through the grate. She'd practically launched onto the ground, looking down in excitement until she'd spotted him, only for Volkan to bow his head gently and make her smile. He was glad Hira had a friend; he'd watched her grow up pampered by her grandfather but also his slow grooming tactics that all of the eunuchs had tried to prevent. However, everyone viewed him as a silent sentinel, someone to trust and not be afraid of and it had been something the Dowager Empress had pulled him into the protection of her husband's remaining daughter for. Because she had chosen him to work here, the emperor was cautious around him and so far, it had kept Sanem safe from things.

When he reached the locked passage to the tower, he took the keys from their hidden spot and unlocked the door, climbing carefully up the tower he did every morning, noon and night to check on the princess. Sanem was on fasting currently, observing the mourning of her suitor who long ago had died to save her brother's life in battle before he'd married her. For Sanem, that being's death had meant she would choose to be a nun, but her brother had seen it as an opportunity to look her up as potential danger. When Volkan opened the door, he sighed heavily to see that Sanem was thin as always and yet she turned to see him and her face lit up in a pleasant smile as he bowed down to her.

"My brother's stopped preaching then... tell me Volkan, you wouldn't have come to give me a report... is it time for me to drink hemlock?" Sanem was a delicate looking doe, her limbs long and thing just like the rest of her, she just kept herself alive not necessarily healthy. She looked miserable down a narrowing muzzle towards Volkan and the oryx lowered his head and then explained very shortly just what her brother had planned. He had expected her to cackle or sob, but Sanem's expression just remained as dead as she felt on the inside.

"Lady Sanem?" Volkan queried, her silence was unnerving, especially when it was his role to listen and observe when she wished to explain her dreams and her thoughts to him. Lately, she'd been teaching him to write, she was teaching the maid who came to help dress her how to read. Part of Volkan was aware that Sanem would be a wonderful mother with everything she had in her capable hooves, but at the same time he understood why she would be so stunned s she snorted in irritation.

"Volkan... give me the drug to take when he comes for me... but I need you to do me a favour first." Senam stated with a grimace of frustration. She knew that of all the things her brother wanted the most, it was to take from her what she did not wish to give to anyone but the lover she'd lost. She was aware too that she would have no choice but to accept him... he would not be kind enough to have her flogged or beaten to death and she grimaced as she looked to her thin body and how much pain she would be in as she looked to the oryx.

"Whatever you wish of me." He stated, bowing low to her as Sanem gave a grimace and then held his shoulder gently, urging him to look her in the eyes.

"Break it for me... I do not ask you to perform his task but merely to... to take that pain so he can take no pleasure in it." Sanem stated, grasping his hoof and bringing it down towards her groin. Volkan grimaced, but he knew what she was asking for and he nodded his head obediently, what else could he do for her? Sanem then gently stood up and peeled her clothes away, before she gathered the scrap cloth offered or when she experienced that feminine issue. She then lay it upon her bed and crawled upon it, only for Volkan to sit behind her.

"I will be as gentle as I can." Volkan stated, sitting comfortably behind her and then lifting her legs. She gave a grimace of pan as she stretched her legs out, forcing her to spread herself and then lean against his back, heels together to encourage her to open out. As she obeyed with a grimace of frustration, he blew warm breath to his digits and rubbed them together to warm them. He knew she needed him to break that band that her brother would seek to destroy with as much violence as possible and steadily, he brought his digits to her groin.

His digits stroked and rubbed around her mons, making her quiver as he rubbed and stroked, warming his hoof and warming her body. She quivered visibly, sucking in air as she remained uncomfortable with anticipation; Volkan brought his digits down to her clitoris, stroking over it and rubbing down. The clit swelled and she took in a deep breath of pleasure before she groaned as his digits slid down to the sides around the opening, rubbing the sensitive flesh that began to dampen and twitch in desperation. Volkan stroked at her cautiously, feeling her body getting sticky about his digits before then bringing them to the hole itself.

"Breathe gently and don't tense up." He stated firmly, slowly stroking the harsh nail of his hoof over the opening, dipping it in slightly as she sucked in deeply, shivering and moaning in desperation as he tapped into the hole. He was not sure he could quite bring himself to hurt her the way he needed to, but he would try his best all the same. Gently, he pushed in one lone digit, feeling the wet form grip about him like sucking lips as she groaned at the burning sensation of something going in. Her body squeezed and pinched around him, the hardness uncomfortable and she whimpered as he seemed to press at an area that was resistant and harsh. It would feel like fire when he pushed in, but he had to do it and he nuzzled at her shoulder to ease her.

Gently, he pushed the digit in deep, feeling the snagging sensation and hearing her teeth grind in agony before he forced himself in. He did it against the body, against the sensations he could feel screaming for caution and gentility. She gave a sharp gasp and then a pitiful sob of pain, a hot tear falling from her muzzle and onto his wrist. He had done it, gently he pumped the digit back and forth slightly, making sure it would not be ripped anymore then she whimpered and grimaced at the intense sensation of the stinging tear. Calmly, he pulled his digit out and it was dotted in crimson as he wiped it upon the cloth, only for Senam to shiver against him.

"Does it... does it always feel so violent? Does it always feel like someone's doing it just to make you scream?" Senam sobbed softly, but Volkan shrugged his shoulders and lowered his head. She was to uncomfortable to sit back against him, but if she had, she might have realised how to him, this had been a first experience too and Volkan was ashamed of this feeling....