Sword and Sorcery (tentative)
Chapter 2

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	Sighing in relief, the sorceror Hariule, gestured to Azure,
his familiar, "Azure, get me that pillow from over there."

	Azure hopped off his stool and jumped onto the oversized
couch, snagging a pillow.  Then he half-carried, half-dragged the
pillow over to his friend and master.

	Taking the pillow from Azure, Hariule gently placed the pillow
under Raeni's head.

	Raeni, by this time, had already closed her eyes and had gone
back to sleep.

	"That's it, Raeni," Hariule gently whispered to her sleeping
form.  "Sleep heals all.  There will be time enough when you wake.  It
is best you sleep protected down here."

	Leaving Raeni within the chalk circle, the old sorceror
stepped to the outside of the chalk.  Bending down low, he placed his
hand on the floor within the circle and spoke, "ORIN PLACATUS".
Without a further word, he gathered Azure into his arms and teleported
away.

	***

	The sorceror reappeared in his room on the second floor of the
house.  Dropping heavily into his bed, he released Azure.

	Azure in turn, bounded off the bed into his own bed.

	For a moment, Hariule laid there saying nothing.  Then he
spoke, "That was certainly exhausting, wasn't it Azure?  I think I'll
just lay here for awhile."  Receiving no answer, he closed his eyes.
He immediately opened them again when he heard a crash from
downstairs.

	Rising slowly from the bed, he made it to the door and peered
into the hallway down the stairwell.  An odd play of shadows greeted
him from the stairs.

	Azure, having risen at the same time, shouted out, <Let me
check it out, master!>  Before Hariule could stop him, he bounded down
the stairs.

	Hariule heard something slam into the ground and then an
agonizing wail unmistakedly from a creature feline in nature.  He
shouted out, "Azure!  Azure, answer me!  What happened to you?"

	At Hariule's shout, the crashing from below stopped, and a
sinister chuckling began.  "Aww, cat got your tongue?" taunted a voice
from below.  "Why don't you answer your master, little familiar?"  The
voice was baritone in nature, almost low enough to fall into the bass
range.  "Come outside, Hariule, if you want to see your little pet."
After that statement, only silence followed.

	<Azure!  Answer me, Azure,> the sorceror thought at his old
friend.  No reply was forthcoming.

	'Damn.  I hoped I would have more time to explain to Raeni,'
he thought.  'It looks like I have no choice.'  His shoulders drooped,
and teleporting once more, he disappeared from the room.

	***

	"Owww," muttered Raeni as she slowly rose from her sprawled
position.  "Five more minutes, Pop."  Shaking her head clear of the
cobwebs that fogged her mind, she said, "Hey, this ain't the dojo."
Suddenly, it all came back to her.  Her life with Hariule came back in
a flash and came to the fore.  "Wait, I'm Ranma.  I'm a guy.  I can't
have lived like a girl for the past ten years!"

	Stumbling to a mirror.  Her visage as Raeni-chan greeted her.
"Augh!  I'm in a dress!  And ... and ... my hair is fluffy!"
Panicking, Ranma-chan started running in circles around the room.
'Gotta find Hariule.  Gotta find Hariule.  Gotta find HARIULE!' she
thought.  Rushing to the great door, she threw it open.

	Upon seeing the stairwell once more darkened, she threw out a
palm, yelling "ORU!"  The torches, rather than simply lighting,
exploded in a shower of flame and wood, showering sparks all over her.
"Augh!  My dress is on fire!"  Indeed, her dress had caught aflame.
Quickly stamping out the dress.  Throwing out her palm once again,
this time she yelled, "LAIRU!"  Suddenly, hurricane force winds sped
up the stairwell and burst through the top.  Incidently, the winds
also exterminated the minor fires raging in the stairwell.

	For a moment, all was still.  Then Ranma noticed something
amiss.  Outside light showed through the hole at the top of the
stairwell.  "Uh, oh!  Don't tell me I punched through the entire
house!  Hariule's gonna kill me!"  Rushing to the top of the stairs,
Ranma could only stop as shock seeped in.

	A sight of devastation greeted Ranma's eyes.  As far as the
eye could see, a burnt plain was all that remained.  Where the house
once stood, only a broken husk of wood remained.  The lake behind the
house once contained myriad fish and amphibians.  The only trace of
the once beautiful lake was an empty crater.

	'I couldn't have done THIS!  That was just a simple wind
spell,' she thought to herself.  'Hariule!  What happened to Poppa?'
With this thought, she continued to panic as she zoomed from one clump
of shapeless wood to the next, shifting the wreckage indiscriminately.

	After five minutes or so of fruitless searching, Ranma calmed
down enough to think.  'This ain't getting me anywhere.  If he's here,
I gotta use magic to find him.'  After locating the entrance to the
basement, she retrieved a crystal from the room below.  Clutching the
crystal to her heart, she closed her eyes and thought, 'Please, help
me find my Poppa.'

	"Track the lost and light the way, MIRUS."

	When she opened her eyes, off to her right a brilliance
flared.  To her left, a smaller fire of light shown.  Heading toward
the larger of the occurrences, she quickly dug into the blocking
debris.  Soon enough, she managed to uncover a hand, and soon after,
the rest of Hariule.  As she clutched Hariule's hand, she felt the
clamminess of his skin.  After uncovering the rest of him, she found
horrific wounds on his body, as though an animal had ravaged him.

	Master Hariule was, alas, beyond the mortal coil of this
world.  The stiffness of his body and the coldness of his form
betrayed the fact that he had been dead for quite some time.  Ranma
could do nothing except clutch the body to her bosom and weep over her
loss.

	Tears cascaded down her face, dripping onto the lifeless face
of the old sorceror as images of their shared past bombarded Ranma.

	In one memory, little Ranma-chan was taught her first spell,
one to light dry timber.  Little Ranma-chan laughed as the sorceror
swept her laughingly onto his shoulders.  "Now you have fire, my
little fire-spirit, to match your personality."  Soon after, she was
taught how to summon water as she repeatedly burned herself with the
fire spell.

	In another memory, she found herself in the arms of Hariule,
as a lightning storm raged outside.  "See little one, lightning cannot
hurt you while you are in here, and thunder is only sound."  She only
shivered in reply as she cuddled against Azure.

	'Azure,' Ranma suddenly thought.  'Where's Azure?  He must be
the other light.'  Gently laying the old man down, she left and
returned to other magical fire.  Digging through the rubble soon
revealed the form of Azure.  Then, she remembered something.
"C-c-cat!" she yelled as she quickly backed away from Azure.  From a
safe distance away, she gazed fearfully at Azure, recent memories
warring with long buried but recently recovered ones.

	<That's right, I'm a cat.  What of it?> came Azure's voice
waspishly in her head.

	Relief flooded her system, as she rushed to Azure, fear
momentarily forgotten.  "You're alive!" she cried as she cradled his
body to her bosom.  "I thought I lost you too."

	The little familiar only shivered in response and coughed,
<I'm found, but not for long, I'm afraid.>

	"What do you mean, Azure?" she demanded in almost panicky
voice.

	<I'm dying,> came the blunt replying.  <I was Master Hariule's
familiar.>  He closed his eyes in regret and continued, <And Master
Hariule is dead.  I will soon follow.>

	"I can't lose you too."  Ranma paused in thought.  'What can I
do?' she wondered.  "Can you be my familiar?"

	Azure's eyes snapped open in shock at the question.
Incredulous, he asked, <Are you sure you want me to?  This is a
serious commitment.  Once you choose this, we will be bound until one
of our deaths.  You know, we have not always seen eye-to-eye.>

	'Am I sure I want to?'  She contemplated her newfound fear of
felines.  'But this is Azure.  He's been my best friend for as long as
I can remember.  But he's a cat!  But he's Azure.'  This internal
argument continued for quite some time as Azure kept quiet.
Eventually, years of loyalty and friendship won over a decade-old
memory of horror.

	"Yes, Azure, I want you to be my familiar."  She received no
reply from Azure.  Seeing his closed eyes, she shook him roughly.
"Azure! Azure, don't die on me!"

	<Youch!  Not so hard, Raeni,> finally replied the sleepy
familiar.

	"Tell me what to do, Azure.  Poppa never showed me this."

	<It's simple, since I am already here.  Hold out your hand.>

	Ranma did so.  Before she could retract her hand, Azure
clamped down on it with his teeth and bit, hard.  He quickly lapped up
some blood as her hand bled a little.

	Dumping Azure on the ground unceremoniously, Ranma cradled her
hand.  "Owww.  Did you have to really bite that hard?"

	A feline grin answered her question without words, but Azure
said anyway, <Not really, but I always wanted to do that.>  Then he
began to convulse.

	"What's wrong, Azure?" Ranma quickly asked as she tried to
hold him still.

	<No... every... thing... fine...  New... master... new...
form.  Fine... little... bit.>  Bones cracked and popped as Azure's
shape began to dissolve.

	"Really?  I wonder what you'll be?  Can you be a monkey?  I
always wanted a monkey."

	<Ha... ha...  Very... funny> came the reply.

	Ranma watched in silence as Azure's shape finally coalesced.
'Oh, great.  It's another cat.  And this time, it's bigger.'

	<I heard that.  Damn, that was painful.  I'm tired.  Too weak.
Carry me?> Azure plaintiffly asked.

	Chastened by the reply, Ranma laughed, "Oh you big baby.  I'm
gonna put you somewhere safe while I deal with this mess," indicating
the environs and more seriously, Master Hariule's body.

	Hefting the panther's mass with ease, Ranma carried him down
into basement and placed him inside the chalk circle.  "Master
Hariule's warming spell is still going so you'll be warm in here."
Nuzzling her face against his, she said, "I'm glad you're still here.
Though I can't rightly call you Azure anymore.  You're more purple
than blue."  In truth, the feline's coloring almost bordered on black.
"How about Fred, for a new name?" she jokingly asked.

	With wounded dignity, Azure answered, <I think not!>