Subject: [FFML] [Ranma-Flame of Recca] [Revised] Heaven and Earth Prologue
From: arun prabhu
Date: 9/10/2005, 11:28 AM
To: ffml@anifics.com


Many thanks to Campbell-san. Hope this is better...

Heaven and Earth
Prologue
[Ranma-Flame of Recca Crossover]

The Shape of Things to Come
===========================

The star-studded sky was bright and the forest
vibrant. The air was fresh and the gentle breeze
soothing to the soul. The grass was wet with dew and
the trees full of life.

He stood, his feet bare and legs set wide apart in the
middle of the forest. His black pants flapped in the
wind. It contrasted against the paleness of his naked
torso. His eyes gazed intently at the stars in the
moonless sky. He wiggled his toes in the cool, wet
grass and reveled in the perfection of the moment.

Presently, he heard her whisper. He strained his ears
and summoned the mind of no mind. He closed the door
on the world at large and focused on her voice. She
sounded weary and full of pain. Her cries struck a
chord in his soul.

He took the first hesitant step against the wind. The
breeze became a howling tempest. He strained against
the storm. He battled the furious winds to reach her.
Like a seething serpent raring to strike, his aura
exploded around him as the struggle reached the
crucial point. Wind and serpent fought for supremacy,
and serpent won. The storm died, not that the victory
registered in his mind. He was unmindful of all but
her voice.

He strode, his strides eating untold leagues.
Throughout his trek, he remained oblivious of the
writhing serpent that guarded him. Night turned to day
and day to night and he walked. Forest turned to
desert and desert to mountains, canyons, valleys and
forests, and still he walked. Summer turned to autumn
and autumn to winter, spring and summer again, and
yet, he walked. Always toward her voice, he walked.

Then, just like that, her voice was no longer a
whisper. It was a heart-wrenching, pain-filled cry for
help. Her whimpers broke his stupor. He looked around
and found himself at the edge of a forest of dead
trees. The land was barren as far as his eye could see
and the air was filled with a deathly silence but for
her cries. A sense of foreboding filled his heart, but
the pain in her voice could not be denied. He stepped
into the dead forest.

Navigating through thick growths of dead thorn, he
strode deeper into the forbidding wood. The trunks
grew thicker and dirt turned to lifeless bleached
sand. The air turned lifeless and drier than dry. His
parched throat ached for water, and his lips cracked
and bled. A weight settled on his soul, and his steps
grew heavy and wearied.

When he broke into the clearing, the transition was so
abrupt he faltered. He caught sight of her, crucified
on the biggest dead tree he had yet seen in the middle
of that clearing. The blood from her wounds was fire
and it scorched the ground where it fell. Her hair was
crimson red and she was naked as the day she was born.

He stepped toward her. She looked up. Their eyes met.
A smile lit her face.

"Mine," she said, throatily as she burst into flames
so hot he felt the heat in his bones. He felt his skin
peel and his flesh burn, and he woke up screaming.

"A nightmare," Ranma gasped, his bedding drenched in
sweat, "it was a freaking nightmare."

He wiped his face and rose out of bed. He needed a
glass of water badly. He made his way downstairs,
where he fetched water from the tap and drank his
fill. By then, his nerves had calmed and his heartbeat
more or less normal. He tried to recollect the
nightmare, but the patches he could recall struck
terror in his mind.

"Kami, Saotome, pull yourself together. It was just a
freaking nightmare. The most realistic and frightening
nightmare you've ever had, but still, just a
nightmare... God, the look in her eyes..." he
muttered, trailing off as he slid into bed. Nightmare
or not, nothing ever came between a Saotome and his
sleep and Ranma fell asleep as soon as his head hit
the pillow. Little did he know that the nightmare was
the shape of things to come and that nothing would
ever be the same again.

Author's notes:
Many thanks to John Campbell for his help. I know I
didn't make all the changes you'd suggested and I'm
not sure whether I used the same voice throughout but
I cannot help the latter seeing as how I slept through
most of my grammar classes and know zilch about
grammar. ^_^;;
Comments to arun2110@sancharnet.in


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