A.N. I know it's been far too long for both of my fans to wait, but here we have chapter two of the Taming series.

Ch 2:
Pin the nose on the Doctor

After lunch was over, and the rest of the crew busied themselves on their self appointed tasks, Kaicen submitted himself to Chopper for the first of his soon to be daily torture sessions. Opening the door to the galley once Sanji had cleared out, his spirits fell to a new record low. He was not looking forward to this, but he supposed that it had to be done.

"Do we really have to do this?" Kaicen asked, fighting a losing battle against the urge to flee from this place, and the certain torture that it promised. "I mean, my hands feel fine, great in fact!"

That was a lie. His hands itched and burned terribly from the sweat that he had built up on his skin during his martial arts training. But anything would be better than having that torture device digging its spiky barbs into his flesh.

"Sorry Kaicen, but we have to…" Chopper apologized to his patient as he unwrapped the bandages. The truth was that he didn't want to do this either, for hadn't Doctorine made him swear the Hippocratic Oath, to do no harm? As nice as such an oath was, Chopper knew that it was completely at odds with how the world actually worked. Healing meant pain, that's all there was to it. "We need to clear out any dead skin cells, and make sure that the area isn't infected."

"Alright…" Kaicen sighed, holding out his hands. Turning his head so he wouldn't have to see the disgusting remains of his once perfect hands, he jumped in surprise and pain as Chopper jabbed a needle into the bicep of his left arm. "OW! What'd you do that for?"

Holding up an empty syringe for Kaicen to see as he whipped his head around to look at the Reindeer in shock, Chopper explained. "It's morphine. You didn't think I'd do this without any anesthetics, did you?"

Chagrined, Kaicen smiled self-consciously, actually, he had been thinking exactly that. "No, of course not Chopper… you just surprised me."

As Chopper went about his business, Kaicen settled down. It really wasn't as bad as he thought it would be. The bristles seemed softer, and the pain wasn't as intense as he thought it would have been. "Hey… would you like to hear a story while you work?"

"Ok!" Beamed Chopper, ever eager to hear a new tale. "What kind of story?"

"It's a legend from a tribe in the south blue." Kaicen said, a lazy grin on his face. Man, this morphine was good stuff. "It's called; How the Reindeer lost his nose."

"Lost his nose!" Chopper cried, slapping his hooves, wire brush and all over his bright blue nose. "That's a terrible story!"

"Nah… 's not so bad." Kaicen said as a lazy grin spread across his face. "They didn't loose their noses, just the color."

"Their color?"

"Yeah, the legend says that in the time before shadows, when the world was young, and every beginning was at its beginning /all/ reindeers had bright blue noses, much like yours." He said, tapping Chopper's nose with one fingernail.

"Really?" Chopper exclaimed, stars in his eyes, all brushing forgotten. "Sugoi!"

"Really… now, don't you want to get working before this wonderful drug wears off?" The bard was chuckling as Chopper grew flustered, and hurriedly continued the cleaning of the charred flesh as Kaicen attempted to recall the rest of the legend. "On the Island of Kheridol in the South Blue there lived the first herd ofreindeer. As a whole, they were happy there, with one exception. This exception was a poor little deer who's nose was a black as coal. Because his nose was a different color he was hated by his entire herd, and spent most of his time alone."

"I know how that feels…" Chopper sighed, as memories of his own unhappy past began to resurface.

Luckily Kaicen's next words drove all such sad thoughts from the Doctor's mind. "Well, one day when the little deer was exploring the far side of the island he came upon a pirate ship."

"Pirates? Cool!" Copper exclaimed happily. "Did they let him join their crew?"

"No Chopper, and it's a good thing too… For you see they weren't good pirates like the Mugiwaras, they were vicious and mean pirates, pirates who wanted to steal the blue noses so they could sell them, and eat the reindeer." Kaicen explained, his voice growing a bit more serious to convey the threat of these legendary pirates.

"That's horrible!"

"That's exactly what the little heroic deer thought when he found out. So, to stop them he made a plan."

"What did he do?" Chopper asked in excitement, raptly listening to the story as he finished his task with the wire brush, and grabbed a new set of bandages. "Come on! Tell me, tell me!"

"Well, her knew he had to do something. Because if he didn't, his entire family would be killed and eaten, and that's a gruesome thought for anyone. So, he made a plan, he would go back and warn them all about the pirates."

"Did they listen to him?"

"Unfortunately they didn't, and the little deer was getting desperate." Kaicen said, shaking his head. "So, he did something that before that moment was unthinkable. He forever traded his ability to swim for the power to protect his family."

"He ate a devil fruit!"

"One of the first ones ever found. He thought he would be able to use his new ability to attack the pirates and drive them off, but he couldn't."

"So… the mean pirates won?" asked Chopper, his eyes almost filled to the brim with tears. "Is that why I'm the only reindeer with a blue nose?"

"Of course not." Kaicen grinned. "It's just that the fruit that our little hero ate was the Kuro Kuro no Mi."

"The Black Fruit?" Repeated Chopper, his mind buzzing with wonder. "What use would that have?"

"Well, it's a color changing fruit. With it he could turn anything black, so that's what he did. On the night of the pirate's attack they rounded up all the Reindeer and locked them in a cage, but our little hero came and turned his entire herd black."

"Then what happened?"

"Well," Kaicen ginned, getting into the story himself. "When the pirates came to check on their captives they couldn't see them. All they saw were lumpy black things, and we all know that reindeer aren't black. I mean, the very idea is preposterous. As they opened the cage the reindeer bolted, running them over. There was a tremendous battle that night, and when dawn came upon the island the pirates had been driven back forever."

"Wow…" Chopper breathed.

"The now all black deer rejoiced in their regained freedom, and even more when the first rains came. As the water fell upon their coats all the black washed off onto the ground. Returning all the reindeer to their normal brown color."

"But, what about their noses?"

"Well, two things happened. The first thing was that the black color didn't come off of their noses. They liked that, because it reminded them of their little black-nosed hero. And the black on the ground, even though it wasn't on their bodies anymore still retained the shape of their bodes, and clung to their hooves. And that's how the Reindeer lost their noses, and why we have shadows today, because the black on the ground stuck to the feet of all those that passed by the reindeer, and so on and thus forth until everyone had at least a bit." With a smile the story ended, and much to both their surprise Chopper was done with the cleaning. "Thank you Chopper, for the drugs and the treatment. Now I know why you have a blue nose, you're a very special reindeer, and the best doctor I've ever met."

"Baka!" Chopper yelled as he danced in a squirming fashion, a great big grin plastered on his face. "Just because you say I'm special doesn't mean you made me happy, you Bastard!"

"Whatever you say." Kaicen grinned, amused with the deer's antics. "I'll tell you what; Tomorrow, if you bring more morphine, I'll tell you another legend, this time about why the sea kings are so huge!"

"Ok!" chirped Chopper as he began to tidy up the bloody mess. after a few seconds, he paused, "Oh, and Kaicen…"

"Yes?"

"Thanks for the story."

"My pleasure, Chopper."

A.N. Yea! Nakama till death! Kaicen had his first taste of Morphine, and Chopper got a great story out of the deal.

But there's one thing I still wanna know: What the hell is the plural for Reindeer?

Read and review, otherwise I'll sick my viscious purple attack monkeys on you.