Note: This is all based on cursory research I did on an actual empire based in Southern India. It’s not super in depth but I did my best to actually learn some really cool culture. If you want a sense of the look I was going for, look up the Meenakshi Temple. It was restored initially by the empire I’m referring to and it’s stunningly beautiful. I’d recommend just checking out the images of it. It’s just fantastic.

The huge, beautiful temple loomed above her and she was absolutely awestruck by it. Swati always loved to feast her eyes upon the magnificence of her country’s medieval past. Learning about them and documenting them was one thing, an enjoyable thing, for her. But it was entirely another to see the ancient history of India right there, in front of her, with her own eyes; to be able to touch it with her own two hands.

This temple had yet to be restored but that, perhaps, made it all the more awe-inspiring. Though faded, the intricate and vibrant colours remained all over the temple’s four towers, the gopurams that house the shrines of the Hindu gods.

The temple was a testament to the wealth and power of the old Vijayanagara Empire with its opulent treasures and the gold that covered so much of the temple’s construction. Swati knew this was a Vijayanagara temple from the distinct combination of architectural styles the Empire incorporated from Central and Southern India. Of course, the temple’s proximity to the old capital and the Deccan Plateau were also dead giveaways.

Much like some of the other temples, this one had been historically plundered in the past while the Empire was still active. It lasted some three hundred years but it had lost most of its power and influence in its dying years so such temples were subjected to this treatment around that time.

The gold around the shrines and gopurams were still remarkably intact, however, and Swati was relieved to know that. She had arrived to document this particular temple as part of her archaeology studies but she seemed to enjoy it on a level just beyond mere study. She felt... protective of these ancient places.

While quietly revering the place and studying the amazing pillars and intricate carvings, she heard hushed voices speaking back and forth nearby. Ducking behind a pillar, Swati listened closely and realized it sounded like someone was... carrying something. Something heavy, by the sounds of it.

“Go on! Put your back into it!” a woman’s voice bellowed. “We don’t have all day! Get this gold out of here!”

Wait... gold? Are they... Swati peeked around the corner and saw two more women; quite big and muscular women at that, carrying a large, golden chunk from the top of one the gopurams. They were definitely stealing part of the temple!

Even worse, several more pairs of people were lugging more and more of the gold toward the main gate and several waiting vans and trucks. The vehicles were unmarked and the people there didn’t seem to be wearing any cohesive uniform. So perhaps they weren’t with a corporation this time. But they were still smugglers and Swati wasn’t going to let them get away with this!

Of course, in her current form, she would just get caught immediately. But she had more than just her own two hands to defend this temple. Invoking the power within herself, Swati transformed from a regular young archaeology student into a mysterious, veiled figure, wielding a staff, and carrying the powers granted to her by a mystic she had saved from a gang of smugglers not unlike the ones she faced now.

A green cloth covered her head and a tight, gold veil concealed her mouth and nose, leaving just her soft, brown eyes open to the world. She wore a sort of long tunic, also green, with a rather deep neckline and short sleeves. The bottom half of the tunic covered her legs like a skirt that rested about six inches above her knees. A split up one side showed off her well toned and strong legs.

With a green scarf tied on tightly around her neck, it flapped in the wind as she continued to summon her power. Her wrists were adorned with ornate, gold bracers and she wore knee high, lace up boots with heels matching the rest of her outfit. She wore a gold sash around her waist to match the rest of the outfit.

When she was finished, Swati no longer stood there. Instead, with a short golden staff in hand, there stood Rakshak, dedicated to preserving the sacred history of India from evil corporations, politicians and, of course, smugglers.

Invoking ancient spirits and quietly speaking to herself, Rakshak felt a sudden wave of incredible strength wash over her. Despite being a normal sized woman compared to some of the hulks among the smugglers, she knew now that they would be in for a surprise when she approached them.

Stepping out from behind the pillar, the smugglers spotted her immediately.

“Hey! You’re not allowed here!” the leader, a tall woman in a business suit yelled at her.

Rakshak continued on, wordless, flexing her left hand and tightening the grip on the staff in her right. The two large women carrying the chunk of gold put it down and stepped forward to meet her.

Two more of the smugglers joined them and quickly surrounded her. Rakshak put both hands to her staff and tightened her grip. She planted herself in a wide stance and quickly glanced at each smuggler, mentally noting their position.

She didn’t have much time to take them down as she was still perfecting her powers and the super strength would only last around ten minutes. Worse still, she would be exhausted after sustaining the power and wouldn’t have the strength to summon it again. So, if they didn’t back down she would have to move fast. Luckily, she could.

“I’m giving you one chance to stop desecrating this historical site and leave it intact,” Rakshak said. “Leave now or I will force you.”

One of the large women smirked. “Force us, then,” she said.

The leader folded her arms and leaned against a pillar, watching the scene unfold. Another woman joined her, with a tranquilizer gun in hand. The leader held up a hand to stop her.

“Just wait. I want to see where this goes.”

The woman nodded and she, too, stood back and watched.

Without another word, Rakshak gritted her teeth, picked her target, moved like a blur. A tall, thin man was her first target. He had been slow but his silent anger showed her that he might be more aggressive than the others. And he didn’t expect the swift martial artist and super heroine to be on him so fast. Not only was she fast, but she had him pinned to the dirt in no time, tripping him up with her staff and shoving him hard with the strength of a bull.

The swiftness of her movements caught the rest off guard and she launched herself at one of the large women, catching her in the side of the head with her staff. The woman struck back, throwing a punch, but Rakshak deflected that aside with her staff, flipping toward her and landing a kick to the woman’s face, sending her sprawling to the ground.

By this time the first man had recovered, though a bit dazed, and attacked her with his partner. With another flip, Rakshak was between them, spinning in place and cracking each of them in the head with her staff. In the end she wound up in a crouched position, the staff in her right hand, and she twirled it once, stood up straight again, and found herself facing down the last woman.

With three of them on the ground, in a daze and hurting, it was down to one on one. The woman was ready for her this time, however, and proved to be much more difficult to knock down. Rakshak came at her with the staff but she stopped it in mid-air, grabbing it and pulling Rakshak closer.

Wrenching the staff from the woman’s hands, Rakshak rolled away from her and got back to her feet, gripping the staff again. She was starting to feel tired, however, and she knew then the power was wearing off.

Have to go faster... she thought to herself.

But before either woman could react, Rakshak felt a sharp pain in her lower back and stopped dead, reaching around and pulling a small dart from her back. In moments, her head swam and she could no longer see straight.

“Good. That’s enough of that,” the leader said as she watched Rakshak waver, stumble, and then finally collapse into the dirt, dropping her staff. She rolled her eyes.

“Four of you couldn’t handle that? I mean, come on. You!” she said, pointing to the woman left standing. “Tie her up and stash her somewhere. Make sure she doesn’t follow us. You understand?”

“That’s it? Just... tie her up?”

“You heard me. We don’t need to do anything more than that. Just get her out of the way.”

The woman sighed, grumbling to herself as she bent down and picked up the unconscious Rakshak and carried her in both arms toward one of their vans.

...

Her head was still woozy when she woke up. Rakshak tried to reach up and rub her head, or at least try to rub her eyes and clear her vision, but her arms wouldn’t respond. It didn’t take her long to figure out what had happened.

Her wrists were crossed behind her back, tied with strong rope, and pinned to her back by another rope around her waist. A heavy coil of rope pinned her arms to her sides just above her elbows and wrapping them up to just below the shoulders. More rope bound her legs together at the ankles and above and below the knees.

“Mmmph...” she groaned, though her voice was oddly muffled.

She still wore her tight veil but her captors had stuffed her mouth full with something soft. She chewed it a bit... cloth, most likely she thought to herself. Beneath the tight veil, she felt one cloth pulled tight between her teeth to hold the mouth stuffing in place. Yet another cloth was then tied on over her mouth and her gold and green veil was replaced and tied on tighter, covering her mouth and nose.

“Mmmph!” she said, finally waking up and starting to fight her bonds. The exhaustion of using her power hit her then and she knew then that she was in trouble. There was no way to escape these tight ropes as she felt around the ropes with her fingers and couldn’t find any knots anywhere near.

“Mmmph!” she called, shrugging her arms and shaking her legs but the ropes held firm. Realizing she was trapped, Rakshak took a moment to survey her surroundings and saw the cold, steel interior of the back of a van.

Unable to move, a panicked desperation overcame her and she thrashed around, bucking and squirming every which way to try in vain to loosen her restraints. “Mmmpphh!! Hllmmpp!” she called, her voice utterly silenced by the layered cloth gag on her mouth.

She rolled around on the floor of the van for a while, kicking the walls and screaming both rage and fear into her gag. Eventually, she shuffled her way over to the doors and kicked at them with her boots but they didn’t budge.

Rakshak shuffled around again, getting her back to the doors, and struggled to her feet, wobbling a bit. She tried everything she could to reach the handles and get the doors open but, of course, the smugglers had locked them.

Slumping back down to the floor, Rakshak resumed her fruitless struggles, hoping something would come loose. Or, maybe, that someone might come along and untie her. So she made as much noise as she could, kicking the walls, screaming into her gag, and struggling as hard as she could.

Eventually, drenched in sweat, Rakshak had to give in to exhaustion and collapsed onto the floor of the van, breathing hard. Her voice had gone hoarse from the screaming and her muscles ached but she was still completely helpless. There was no escape from the tight ropes.

After laying there for a while, Rakshak sat back up and grumbled into her gag, now more annoyed than anything else.

“Mmmph!” she said, stamping her feet in frustration. Right now, those smugglers were making off with the sacred history of India and she was trussed up in the back of a van.

Her attention shifted then from her thoughts as the doors opened and the large woman who had tied her up climbed in.

“Ah, you’re awake,” she said.

“Mmmrrrghh!’ Rakshak growled. “Mmmph! Mmmtmm mmm! Lmmt mm gmmm!”

“Shut up,” her captor said. “And make room for the loot.”

The woman cradled Rakshak in both arms then, carrying her toward a pillar and sitting her up against it. Rakshak struggled and kicked all the way but she was too tired to stop the woman from pulling out another length of rope and wrapping it around her arms, tying her to the pillar.

“Boss says you’re staying. Lucky you. This temple means so much to you? Well, you’ll get to know it real well.”

“MMMPPHH!” Rakshak screamed, thrashing in her bonds.

“Oh, relax. You’ll be fine.”

The woman left and helped load more golden pieces of the temple into the van Rakshak had just been trapped inside of.

She watched them, struggling against her bonds the whole time, desperate to stop them from making off with the priceless pieces of Indian history. But she was still exhausted, tightly bound and gagged, and totally helpless. Eventually, they had everything loaded up and were getting into the trucks and vans, starting the engines.

Just before stepping into the last van in line, the leader, the woman in the business suit, stopped and knelt down into Rakshak’s face.

“Mmmph! Ymm wmmt gmmt mmmwmm wmmph thmmph!”

“Enough,” the woman said. “You stay away from us, you hear me? I see you again and you’ll be in worse trouble than this, understand?”

“Mmmph! Mmmtmm mm!”

“Understand?” she repeated, an edge to her voice.

Rakshak stopped struggling, instead just glaring into the woman’s eyes. She didn’t make a sound this time.

“I’ll take that as a yes. Now, I’ll leave you to get yourself out of this mess. Just remember that this is your fault.”

The woman walked away and Rakshak resumed her struggles. “Nmm! Stmmmp! Ymm wmmt...” Rakshak was at a loss for words. “MMMMPPHHH! MMMP MMM MMRPH MMMPH MM MMMPH!”

Left to just screaming incomprehensible nonsense, she was once again helpless to stop the smugglers from driving off, getting away with their loot, and leaving Rakshak bound and gagged and all alone.

Struggling hard, Rakshak still couldn’t free herself but, if she rested for awhile, then she might be able to summon her power again. With her super strength power she would be able to break these ropes. But that would take a long time and she didn’t want to let those smugglers get far.

“Mmmph! Hhllmmp mmm! Mmm tmmd mmp mmphr hmmr. Hllmmp! MMMPPHH!!”

But there was no one around to help her. She was on her own. For the time being, she chose to rest in her bonds, remain bound and gagged, and regain her energy. But as soon as she did and she broke out of these tough ropes she would be right on the smugglers’ trail.

Though they may have beaten her this time, Rakshak wasn’t so easily deterred. After all, she had chosen the duty to protect and preserve India’s history. Getting tied up wasn’t going to stop her. In fact, it only made her more determined. Those smugglers would learn to fear the name of Rakshak.