As promised, here we go. Again, any comments, criticisms, flames, rants, or anything else that you might have to say about this or the previous chapter would be greatly appreciated. Please, please, _please_ tell me what you think...
~Eimii
"-so wait; the former high chief had his celestial mansion built in the
fifth heaven after all, but the weevil still took the two Golden Bulls
as payment?" Myaan nodded, and Ryouga paused to mull over this for a
moment, before favoring the cat-spirit walking beside him with an
incredulous glance. "That doesn't make any sense at all! Weren't the
twelve adders responsible for divining that location from the waters of
the murky well?"
"Yeah, but the twelve adders already took their payment by killing the
third Golden Bull of Heaven; I think..." Myaan suddenly stopped
walking, apparently lost in thought. "Or was it the fourth Golden Bull?
I can't remember..."
Stopping as well, Ryouga crossed his arms, his brow furrowed in
concentration. "... No, I think the fourth bull was judged as too
willful, and sent back to the virtuous woodsman for breaking."
"That's right!" Perking up, Myaan held up her left hand, counting on
her fingers. "So the fourth Golden Bull was sent back an' the third
bull was eaten by the adders as payment for their blessing an' the
fifth bull was... was..."
"Appointed magistrate of the 23 southern tributary state?" Ryouga
supplied, helpfully.
"That's it!" Myaan waved a finger at Ryouga, hopping from one foot to
the other excitedly. "An' so the first n'second bulls were given to the
weevil for helping the old chief pick the luckiest spot for his new
mansion."
Sighing, Ryouga began to pace back and forth. "But that still doesn't
explain it; the old chief didn't even follow the silly weevil's advice
to build his mansion at the foot of the sacred Mt. Qaf. There's no
reason why the chief should have given him anything, after the weevil
tricked his son into renouncing his position as chief advisor to the
Prince of Storms."
"But without the weevil tricking the termite army into eating out the
foundation of his old mansion, Judge Lu would never have allowed the
chief to build a new one, so he had to give the weevil _something_."
Myaan pointed out.
"Couldn't he have just given the weevil one Golden Bull, and kept the
other one so that he could have paid the Pearl Dragon's toll?"
Myaan plopped by the side of the road and rested her chin in her palm,
her tail twitching back and forth indecisively. "Well... maaybe, but
maybe the chief still thought that the weevil was going to give the
bull to his son, so he gave him an extra one, or something..."
"Hmmm... Yeah, I suppose that might make sense..." Ryouga agreed,
leaning against a nearby tree. He took a few moments to try and figure
out some other possible reason for the strange incongruity, his ears
turned down in thought. After a minute or so, a deeply confused
expression crossed his face. "Wait a minute; that doesn't make any
sense at all! What does this story have to do with why we can see the
Earth in the sky at night?!"
"Well, um...,"Looking up from the caterpillar that she was toying with,
Myaan favored Ryouga with an uncomprehending look. "Well, there was the
happy beggar with the wooden spoon, an' the really heavy loaf of bread,
an'... an'..." Waving her hands around vaguely, Myaan looked as though
she were trying to physically arrange her thoughts. "And, uh... but the
Golden Bulls _were_ a gift from the princess in the moon, so- wait, no,
that's not right..." Scratching her head, Myaan looked back down at the
ground, a puzzled frown marring her normally cheery countenance. "Uh...
I dunno. I guess it doesn't have anything to do with that, now that I
think about it..."
"So why did you tell me that story?" Ryouga prodded, spreading his
hands questioningly. "I asked you why we could see the Earth in the sky
at night."
"Well...," Peering up at him innocently, Myaan tilted her head to the
side in thought. "Um... it made sense at the time, but now... now I
guess it doesn't make any sense at all, ne?" Myaan pressed her
forefingers together, her head bowed and her ears swept down, an
embarrassed, apologetic look on her face. "I mean, I thought it might
help, since y'know you can't always see it in the sky at night; some
places, you never see it at all, and then other places you'cn see in
the day too, or in the day, but not at night, so it's sorta like the
heavy loaf of bread and the sparrows, except not, and so I thought that
maybe it might be related, but I guess I was wrong an'-"
"That's okay, never mind." Sighing, Ryouga rubbed a hand across his
eyes in hopes of forcing down the pounding headache that he had just
recently acquired. "I can ask someone in town if they know. How much
farther is it?"
"Well, it's the fourth day after the north star appeared again in the
west, an' it's a Tuesday, an' we passed that tree you're leaning
against just two hours ago, so..."
"Nevermind..."
Fairy Tails...
Chapter, the Seconde...
In which the Hero takes a road less traveled, admires the view, and
decides that getting there most definitely not half the fun...
Finding the road into town took most of the morning, and despite
Myaan's reassurances that they were going the right way, Ryouga
couldn't help but feel that they spent most of their time walking in
circles; it was a rather disturbing sensation, considering that Ryouga
was much more accustomed to having absolutely no idea what direction he
was going. He didn't have too much chance to worry about it, however,
as Ryouga passed most of the trip trying not to drown in the babbling
torrent of questions that was unleashed shortly after Myaan awoke, and
had continued nearly unabated even as they leapt through the branches
and crept along various animal trails that wound whimsically through
the trees.
Most of the questions started, ostensibly, with a request of
clarification on some point of the rather abbreviated life story that
he had given Myaan last night, thought the cat-girl's ability to go off
on random tangents was utterly mind-boggling; after a while, Ryouga
simply stopped asking himself why he was discussing the finer points of
goat herding, or perhaps trying to explain the intricate physics of
curling, or whatever else Myaan seemed to have latched onto most
recently.
When he managed to get in a word edgewise, Ryouga tried to find out a
little more about the strange situation that he found himself in.
Unfortunately, though Myaan was almost jarringly enthusiastic about
helping, she didn't seem to know much useful information about his
plight, and the vague bits that she did remember tended to get lost
somewhere in the telling. By the time they stumbled upon the road,
about all Ryouga could say for sure about Arcadia was that there were
lots of trees, not many people, and precious little sense between them,
if Myaan was any indication.
Still, it did all sound terribly exciting, if even a tenth of what his
feline companion said was true. Dragons and faeries and devious spirits
seemed to abound, always something new at every turn; not at all like
Ryouga's vague mental picture of the afterlife. For instance, Ryouga
never figured that after he died he might find himself reading the age
of wagon tracks and hoof prints to determine which the direction the
nearest town was. "Myaan, are you _sure_ you know which way town is?"
Ryouga prodded testily, looking up from the trodden-on pile of dung
that he was kneeling next to.
"Well, I kinda sorta maybe know where town is... usually." The cat girl
replied, rocking back and forth on her heels, not meeting his gaze.
Seeing that Ryouga wasn't quite buying it, she elaborated. "S'not
always in the same place, y'know. Sometimes it's farther away, an'
sometimes it's in a different direction, or something. Usually, it's
just easier to find the road an' walk a bit, 'til you meet someone who
knows."
For several tense moments, Ryouga just stared from his crouch at the
cat-girl, his left eye twitching every couple seconds. "You just walk-
and then- but... but if the town isn't always in the same place, then
how can anybody who's not actually _in_ the town ever know where it
is?" pausing, to see if Myaan was following him, and noting that she
wasn't, the lost boy slumped into a sigh. "... just, nevermind."
Standing up and dusting off his shins, Ryouga looked off to his right,
his ears and tails betraying the annoyance that he tried to keep from
his face.
"Anyway, luckily, it seems that most of the horses are shod around
here. This spoor isn't very old, probably only a little bit earlier
this morning, and there's already another set of tracks going over it;
both sets are going that way," he continued, pointing to his left, "and
they're pretty deep, so the horses were probably pulling a full load.
Farmers?"
"Yup! Farm wagons are usually heavier going in than coming out, ne?" If
she noticed Ryouga's less than jovial mood, Myaan hid it well. "Sooo...
I guess we should go that way! You're good at this Ryouga; I'll bet you
hardly ever get lost in the woods!" Skipping down the road like a child
expecting the ice cream truck to be just around the next corner, Myaan
didn't notice that Ryouga wasn't following her until a few moments
later. "Ara, is there something wrong? Is it the other way instead?"
She queried, turning to look back a the stationary lost-boy.
Trying to put Myaan's last statement out of mind as quickly as
possible, Ryouga just shook his head and sighed again. "It's nothing;
lead on." He replied, falling into step beside her, walking along the
middle of the narrow, beaten-earth road.
"N'kay; so anyway, why did the creepy little troll midget woman help
Ranma, when the evil little troll midget man stole his strength? I
mean, okay, I get that she wanted him to get his strength back and then
marry her not a creepy little troll midget great-granddaughter that
turned into a cat, but couldn't she have just beaten them both up and
taken the cure and Ranma back to China?"
"I'm not quite sure. I never could understand why she did anything; she
always had her own reasons, I'm sure, but she never told anyone what
those reasons were..."
"Maybe she really just wanted to see if Ranma could learn that whirly-
dragon-thingy."
"Well, that _might_ be it-"
"Or maybe she secretly wanted the creepy old troll guy to respect her
teachings 'cuz deep down she still loves him and wants him back, so she
used Ranma to demonstrate her neat technique!"
"Uh, I'm not sure where you get that-"
"Or maybe..."
Listening absently as Myaan chattered on, Ryouga turned to survey his
surroundings. The road itself seemed permanent enough; it looked well
used, and Ryouga didn't get the impression that is was going to get up
and wander off any time soon, which didn't fit well at all with Myaan's
explanations thus far. The foliage along the sides of the road tended
to vary esoterically, however, as though somebody had taken a giant
forest jigsaw puzzle and just mashed the pieces together in whatever
configuration they saw fit. Different types of trees standing next to
each other wasn't too odd, but usually one expected _some_ regularity;
the apple didn't fall too far, and so forth. Here though, Ryouga could
almost see how one might think that the forest was rearranging itself
around you; for instance, that grove of ancient, weathered trees over
there looked almost like...
"-but really, I think Ranma and Akane should just admit that-"
"Myaan...?" Ryouga interrupted, freezing in his tracks and staring off
to the left side of the road.
"Eh? What?" The cat-girl stopped walking as well, looking back at her
new friend with a curious expression on her face.
"... Your house... it wasn't next to the road _before_, was it?" The
lost boy continued, pointing over at a rather familiar looking tree
just a bit off the beaten path.
Myaan paused for a moment, a thoughtful look on her face. "Um... nope.
No, I don't think it was, why d'ya-,"the cat-girl turned to look where
Ryouga indicated. "Ah! we're back already? That's never happened
before... Ara, Ryouga? I don't think that's good for the tree..."
Turning back to Ryouga, Myaan looked on in bewilderment as the lost
boy proceeded to bang his head repeatedly against a handy redwood at
the side of the road.
Pausing in his attempt to verify whether or not he was dreaming, Ryouga
finally decided that he'd rather not know. Walking back to Myaan's
side, the be-fanged martial artist wore a tired, exasperated
expression. "So, you say you weren't expecting this to happen?" At the
cat-girl's confirmation, Ryouga released a weary sigh. "Maybe you
should do all the leading from now on..."
"Eh? Why d'ya say that" Myaan regarded him with a puzzled expression.
Ryouga considered trying to tell Myaan about his directional
difficulties; he had, though a certain amount of... artistic omission,
managed to avoid mentioning it up to this point, even when he told
Myaan about how he ended up following Ranma. It was just such a
difficult thing to admit to anyone, even himself. "I- just- I think it
would be better... you're from around here after all..." Mentally,
Ryouga cursed himself for his weakness. "So... should we just keep
following the road then, or what?"
"Weeeell...." Assuming a contemplative stance, Myaan leaned back to
look up at her house again. "We c'n decide after lunch, I guess. I'm
kinda hungry, anyway. How'zat sound?"
"I suppose that sounds alright..." Ryouga agreed, following Myaan into
the thin foliage along the side of the road, back towards her arboreal
abode. *It's not like the road'll be too hard to find now; I mean, you
could probably see it right out of her window...*
*****
"WHERE THE HELL IS THE ROAD?!" Clambering hastily out the window and
onto the roof, the disbelieving lost-boy made a quick check in every
direction, but much to his dismay, the road was nowhere to be seen.
"It- it doesn't make any sense! We just saw it not five minutes ago! It
ran right by the house!" Ryouga had been fetching a glass of water to
go with his dry bread and cheese when he first noticed that the road
had apparently vanished; this, in spite of the fact that he had clearly
been able to see the window he had leaned out of when they were still
standing on the road, a few minutes earlier.
"Wow... It went away real quick this time, ne?" commented a similarly
bewildered cat-spirit, as she scanned the horizon from her perch atop
the water barrel. "That's sorta odd; usually is stays where it is for a
little while, at least..."
Sitting down heavily atop the gentle slant of the roof, Ryouga rested
his chin in his right hand, a disgruntled frown on his face. "Well this
is just great. Around here the landscape really _does_ rearrange itself
the minute I take my eyes off of it." Spreading his wings a little,
Ryouga leaned back to recline against the sun-warmed tiles, sighing
heavily. "Why does the world hate me...?"
"Why d'ya think that?" Myaan wondered aloud, as she climbed up to sit
beside him on the roof, pulling her knees up to her chest. "I don't
think the world hates you; after hearing about all'a the interesting
stuff that you've seen an' done, I think that the world really likes
you!" The small, red-haired cat-girl smiled down at him encouragingly.
Try though he might, Ryouga couldn't discern a single hint of deceit in
his companion's words; all of her body language, from ears to tail,
said
that she was genuinely happy for him. Despite himself, Ryouga felt his
irritation quickly begin to melt away in the face of such unrelenting
good cheer. "Well, I suppose it's never boring, anyway."
"Yeah! I wish I could go to all of those places that you told me
about!"
Switching fluidly from 'encouraging mode' to 'relaxing mode', Myaan lay
down next to Ryouga, slightly lower on the roof, resting her head on
his
left wing. "Earth sounds like a really fun place..."
*Hmmm... I wonder if I broadcast my feelings like that...* The
wandering martial artist contemplated, watching in idle amusement as
Myaan stared up at the sky, noting how the position and motion of her
ears and tail changed depending upon her mood. *Probably.* If he did,
he'd have to figure out how to control it; telegraphing your mood like
that was a definite disadvantage in a fight... not that he'd ever
mastered hiding his emotions in the first place. Ranma always did use
that against him...
"Ne, Ryouga, I'll betcha you could probably see the town from here, if
you flew high enough." Sitting up suddenly, Myaan turned to poke at the
wing she had been lying on, an excited look on her face. "I can't fly,
so I didn't think of it before, but you can! It'd pro'lly be a lot
easier to find town that way!"
"Fly?" Sitting up as well, Ryouga favored his companion with a
questioning look.
Nodding emphatically, Myaan continued. "Yeah; the even if it moves, the
town's never _too_ far away."
Crossing his legs, Ryouga put on a slightly worried expression. "But I
haven't been a Bii'bi for very long; I don't know _how_ to fly."
"It can't be that hard; I've seen really really young foxes do it, tho
they sorta float instead of flying like birds so maybe it's not quite
the same thing, but you could probably do that too, then." The cat-girl
suggested. Standing up, she began to pace around the circumference of
the roof. "'Course, the young ones never float very high, but I dunno
if that's 'cuz they can't, or 'cuz their parents tell them not to;
momma always told me not to climb the house 'cuz it was too high an' I
might fall off an' hurt myself an' then they'd have to carry me into
town t'see the doctor an' it would hurt alot an' maybe I wouldn't be
able to climb for a little while, so maybe it's the same way for foxes,
but it might not be the same way for Bii'bi 'cuz I've never seen a
Bii'bi before so I don't know if they fly like foxes or if they fly
like birds or if their parents tell them not to."
"Uh...," Standing up, Ryouga attempted to absorb all of what he had
just been told. "Well, I suppose I could give it a try, I guess..." He
wasn't really worried about falling; he was familiar with falling, and
he was confident that his training and his natural toughness would
allow him to stave off any serious injury. The worst that could happen
was that he wouldn't even get off the ground, and if that was the case,
then they'd just have to try to find it on foot again.
As he thought about that alternative, gazing across the wooded expanse
of forest before him, another, truly disturbing possibility occurred to
him. *No, the worst that could happen would be if I actually managed to
get off the ground, but ended up losing track of the house.* Despite
the fact that he was used to traveling alone, and he hadn't encountered
anything even remotely threatening yet, Ryouga didn't relish losing the
company and the help that Myaan provided, especially since he wasn't
certain what sort of place Arcadia was yet. *But how would I keep track
of the house if the forest is just gonna rearrange itself when I'm not
looking?*
Suddenly, Ryouga remembered one method that was almost certain to work,
if he could find what he needed. Facing his companion, who was by now
focused upon a colorful butterfly that had landed upon one of the
branches sticking out of the roof, Ryouga waved to get her attention.
"Hey, Myaan, do you have any rope?"
"Ara, rope?" Looking away from the butterfly, which had fluttered away
at the sound of Ryouga's voice anyway, Myaan assumed a contemplative
stance. "Um... I think so. Lemmie check." With that, she scampered down
off the roof and back into the house through the window they had used
earlier.
As she did, Ryouga began to look around for a sturdy looking branch.
When he had first found Ranma again, he had used one of his bandannas
to tie them together at the wrist, so that he wouldn't lose him during
the fight; it had worked well enough then, until Ranma ripped the
bandanna, so should work here as well, as long as he could find enough
rope.
Ryouga was settling on a likely candidate for his anchor when Myaan
returned, carrying a small coil of thin, tightly braided fibers. "Here,
is this enough?" She queried, offering him the rope.
Accepting it, Ryouga examined the rope. It wasn't quite like anything
he had seen before. The fibers were extremely fine and pinkish-white in
color, and the rope was thinner than the diameter of the last digit of
his little finger and woven in a circular fashion that he didn't
recognize; if he squinted, it almost looked like incredibly tiny chains
woven together. It felt more like hair, or perhaps some sort of
synthetic fiber, than anything plant-based, and the coil was nearly
weightless, despite the fact that it looked like there was at least a
hundred feet there. "Is this stuff strong?" He queried, pulling a small
section taut between his hands and nodding in satisfaction.
"Well, my momma gave it to me when I left an' it's never broken since
then; I tried to cut it with a knife once, but it wouldn't work. Momma
said that she helped make the rope so they gave her some after they
used the rest." The cat girl explained, as Ryouga began to tie the end
inside the coil to the branch that he had selected. "I've used it a
buncha times, an' it still looks like it did when she gave it to me."
"Well, it looks like there's enough here..." Ryouga replied absently,
as he tied the other end to his left foot. "If I manage to fly, I'll
use this to keep track of the house." He explained, in response to
Myaan's questioning glance.
"Oh, okay. I guess that might make sense." She admitted, looking up at
the sky.
Ryouga looked up at the sky as well, contemplating the perfect blue sea
of air all around him; the featureless, landmark-less world that he was
about to attempt to enter. He took a deep breath to suppress a sudden
chill that ran down his spine. "Okay... here goes..." Dropping his arms
to his sides, Ryouga spread his wings out to their fullest extension-
and nearly knocked Myaan off the roof in the process. "Um... sorry.
Maybe you should wait on the barrel."
After Myaan had complied, Ryouga turned to look at his wings; blacker
than pitch, they extended outward almost twice his height on either
side, like some giant raven perched upon his back. Flexing them
experimentally, he noted that they weren't hinged quite like a bird's
wings would be; too many joints there, though it was hard to tell how
many through the feathers. Still, given his body weight, they shouldn't
be able to let him more than glide; not unless he was supposed to beat
them like a hummingbird.
*Well, only one way to find out...* Thinking back to all of the times
that he had seen birds take off, trying to remember how they moved,
Ryouga began to flap his wings; slowly at first, but increasing in
speed and cadence rapidly. As he did, the leaves on the top of the
trees around him began to flatten from the downdraft, but Ryouga didn't
quite rise; he couldn't get a full downward extension while he was
standing on the roof. Remembering how his wings had opened reflexively
when he had landed earlier, Ryouga stopped flapping his wings and
folded them against his back, dropping into a crouch.
"Here goes nothing." With a grunt of effort, Ryouga jumped straight up
with as much force as he could muster. The wind rushed by his ears as
the rope played out beneath him, and as he neared the apex of his jump
he began to beat his wings as fast as he could. For a gut-wrenching
moment, is seemed like he was going to fall, but then a strong,
continuous gust of wind seemed to fill his outstretched wings, and he
rapidly began to rise even higher above the tree line. Faster than he
would have though possible, Ryouga was at the end of his rope, riding
the winds like a kite.
This was something he was actually familiar with; he had mastered a
technique to glide on the air caught underneath his umbrella, and this
wasn't _too_ much different. Control was a bit awkward as he wasn't yet
familiar with having wings, but he could actually alter the position of
his wings to change direction, which was a definite improvement over
the umbrella, where he had to just lean, and hope that the winds were
blowing the right way. *Hmm... the wind _is_ unusually strong up here
though.* A strange, but not totally unexpected sensation told him that
his tails were splayed out behind him, almost floating on the warm gale
that he had caught.
Looking down, he could just _barely_ make out the form of Myaan far,
far beneath him; _much_ farther than a hundred feet. For a moment,
Ryouga panicked, worried that the rope had come undone. The constant
tug on his left foot reassured him somewhat, but he still had to catch
himself before he drifted out of the wind. "That's way more rope than I
thought..."
When he had collected himself, and after doing a bit of experimenting,
Ryouga remembered what he had come up here for. Turning slowly in the
wind, Ryouga scanned the local geography. He noted that there were some
mountains off in the distance in one direction, and a lake in another,
but didn't really try to keep track of which directions they were in,
as the sun was directly above now, so he couldn't really orient
himself. *And anyway, who knows where they'll be when I turn my
back...*
Then, as he lowered his gaze to take in the more local scenery, Ryouga
spied the flat, oblong, yellowish pattern of fields, and beyond that,
far in the distance, the irregular rise and fall of buildings; a town.
"Alright! Now if I can just get back down without turning..." As he
contemplated this, an uncomfortable thought occurred to Ryouga.
"Waitaminit- if I go down, then I'll lose sight of the town, and if I
lose sight of it, it'll probably move somewhere else, just to spite me.
Dammit; why the hell did I even come up here then?" Glaring balefully
at the buildings off in the distance, Ryouga crossed his arms in
thought. "If I could fly there, then I wouldn't need to take my eyes
off of it, but then I'd have to go back down and get Myaan..."
As he thought of this, the wind suddenly picked up again, this time
almost violently. "What the-?" As the rope was already taut, Ryouga
soon found himself descending, pulled down by the rope as the wind
began to carry him inexorably towards the fields on the horizon. All
the while, the trees below rushed up to meet him. "Oh crap!"
"Wow, he's really up there! Neat!" Having moved back up onto the roof
after Ryouga lifted off, Myaan watched from below as the lost boy
glided along above her. He looked like he was doing okay; he was
already flying in circles and going higher and lower. Watching him made
Myaan wish that she could fly too; maybe he could give her a ride,
after he got back.
Then, without warning, Ryouga stopped gliding around above her and
darted off into the distance. He also seemed to be getting lower. "I
hope he's alright..." As she walked over to the edge of the roof that
faced the direction that Ryouga departed in, the cat-girl noticed an
ominous cracking noise. Turning, she followed the taut, vibrating rope
back to the branch that Ryouga had secured it on. The main branch,
which Ryouga had tied the rope around, also faced in the direction that
he had left, and his knot was holding up well. Unfortunately, the rope
was slowly tearing off all of the smaller limbs branching out from the
anchor, as it worked it's way towards the end. "Uh-oh..."
Unsure of what to do, Myaan grabbed the rope near the knot and tried to
pull back, but her efforts were in vain; Ryouga was nearing tree-level
now, and falling fast. At about this point, the last of the smaller
branches gave way, and the rope came loose. "Aaah! Stop!" Still
grasping the rope tightly, the small cat-girl was pulled off of her
feet; fumbling for any sort of purchase, her hands caught the loop at
the end of the rope. Then, before Myaan realized what was happening,
she was dragged completely off the roof, and into the trees. "Waaaaaah-
!"
"God Dammit!" Ryouga bent over double, clawing desperately at the knot
at the end of his tether. It was to no avail, however; the rope was
apparently far stronger than it looked, and he had tied this particular
knot with the express intents that it wouldn't come undone without
diligent, careful attention, which Ryouga had scant time for at the
moment, as he was too busy plunging head first towards the ground.
Additionally, his wings were still somehow managing to catch the fierce
winds that buffeted him, despite the fact that he was by now flipped
nearly upside down and backwards.
Then, without warning, the line started to give, releasing the
desperate martial artist's centripetal force and setting him back on a
beeline towards the town, tails first, with his head nearly scraping
the treetops. Still rather disoriented, Ryouga simply watched for a few
seconds as the trees blurred past, the line dragging along through the
forest behind him. "Well, this is a fineOW! -what theACK!" After
breaking off the tops of a few more of the taller trees, Ryouga decided
that maybe it might be a good idea to try and right himself, and
perhaps get some altitude while he was at it.
With that thought in mind, Ryouga had to wonder how it was that he was
still flying in the first place; backwards and upside down was just
about the most un-aerodynamic position that he could think of. Flexing
his wings experimentally, the lost boy noted in surprise that the
anomalous joining of said appendages allowed him to completely reverse
the flight surfaces of his wings, which went a small way towards
explaining why he still had lift. *Still doesn't explain this freaky
wind, though...* Arcing his back and uncoiling as though he were trying
to do a kippup, Ryouga managed to reverse his position so that he was
face-forward again. *That _shouldn't_ have worked, but oh well; now
then...*
Scanning the landscape before him, the fox-tailed boy noted with some
confusion that he was, somehow, still heading directly for the town,
which was by now much more than just a speck on the horizon. *Wow, it's
still there; I'd better keep track of it though...* Focusing his gaze
firmly upon the buildings in the distance, Ryouga angled his wings so
that the wind began to carry him upward again, slightly breaking his
forward momentum.
"...aaaaAAH-OOF!" Tumbling head over heels towards another tree, Myaan
quickly steadied herself and 'landed' on her feet, pushing off again in
roughly the direction that the rope was tugging her. Hopping lightly
across the radiating branches, the cat-girl tried to get as much slack
as she could, so that maybe she might be able to loosen the noose
around her wrists that was dragging her along. They were getting really
sore, and she had collected a few other bumps and bruises in the
process. "RYOUGAAA! Slow down!" Scrambling up and over another tree
trunk, Myaan began to wish that she had taken her shoes off when she
got to the house; it was hard to get purchase on bark with sneakers.
However, after another moment it ceased to matter, as the rope suddenly
began to angle up, pulling her above the tree line once again.
The town was once again a barely visible speck in the endless sea of
green, though this time it was more due to altitude than overland
distance; wispy clouds now obscured small parts of the forest, as
Ryouga continued to rise ever higher above the trees. It still wouldn't
be too hard to find, however, as the scattered fields that dotted the
landscape below appeared to become more concentrated around it. *Yeah,
I should be able to find that again, even if it moves. Now, all I have
to do is go back and get Myaan...*
This proved to be a bit more difficult, though. After a bit of trying,
Ryouga found that he couldn't really stop moving; the unnatural wind
that he had caught seemed to be following him around, pushing him along
quickly no matter what direction he went. *What the hell is going on
here?* It could be some sort of spirit playing tricks on him; from
Myaan's stories, they seemed to be rather partial to that. Or, it could
be a malicious person with a giant fan running along on the ground
behind him, or an invisible dragon breathing down his back, or any
number of other odd things that the cat-girl had described to him.
*Stupid wind...*
Additionally, the lost boy, true to form, had absolutely no idea which
direction Myaan's tree house was, and he was probably too far up to
spot it from above. *Nothing for it then.* Grumbling to himself, Ryouga
reluctantly began to descend, though facing the ground with his wings
wide open and the wind at his back it was more like a power-dive than a
landing. As he fell, something large and noisy shot past him, a few
meters away, but it was gone before he had a chance to get a good look
at it. *Strange birds around here...*
Turning her head, Myaan blinked away some tears as the biting wind
buffeted her face. The huge, black blur that had just shot past was
probably Ryouga, but if he was going down again so fast, then... "Uh-
oh." Tightening her grip on the line around her hands, the small cat-
girl swung her legs up with all her strength and tried to twist the
line around her knees and ankles as well. Looking up again, she could
now see a sharp turn in the line approaching her fast. "Waaaaaaaaaah!"
Pulling up suddenly with a good hundred feet to spare, Ryouga's now-
keen hearing registered a sharp cracking noise somewhere above him,
accompanied by an equally sharp tug on his ankle. "Dammit, I forgot
about the rope. I'd better find a place to try and land." Pulling into
wide circular flight path, as the rope continued to trail behind him,
Ryouga began to scan for trees that looked like they could support his
weight. At the same time, he started to gain altitude slowly, so that
the rope wouldn't start to drag in the trees again; it was pure luck
that it hadn't gotten snagged earlier, and he didn't feel like a repeat
of his unfortunate departure.
"...ryoouugaaaa..."
"Myaan?" Whipping around suddenly, Ryouga began to descend once again,
searching the treetops for the source of the voice. Another crack of
the rope echoed behind him, but he took no notice. "MYAAN! WHERE ARE
YOU?!"
"... aaaaaah! ryougaaaa..."
*Behind me?* Turning sharply again, Ryouga descended a low as he dared,
the trees blurring past beneath his feet. "MYAAAN!"
"AAARGH! WHERE THE HELL IS SHE NOW?!" Spinning for the tenth time in
the last minute, Ryouga ground is teeth and glared balefully at the
trees surrounding him. Every time he heard Myaan's cry, she sounded
more plaintive, but no matter what direction he went, he never seemed
to get any closer to her. "Curse this infernal forest! Why won't it
just stay put?!"
Then, out of the corner of his eye, he spotted something; something
smooth and solid, something red. "Huh?" Turning again, the lost boy
gained a bit of altitude and looked down. There, hidden among the
trees, was the reddish-brown slant of Myaan's earthen-tiled roof. "YES!
HANG ON MYAAN, I'M COMING DOWN!"
While he had been flying about searching for Myaan, Ryouga had been
thinking about how to get this strange wind to let go of him, hopefully
without just folding op his wings and dropping like a stone, and he
thought that he had come up with a viable plan. Dropping down to just
above tree-level, he made a beeline for Myaan's tree; at his present
speed, he'd be on top of it in just a couple seconds. More immediately,
however, another tall tree, this one a pine, was approaching fast from
the front. It was just a short distance from Myaan's place; he could
probably jump the intervening space, or move from tree to tree. *I sure
hope this works.*
He approached the spire-like pine without slowing, waiting until he was
only a half-dozen yards from it. Then, beating his wings down sharply
once, to get a short burst of upward lift, Ryouga folded his wings
tight to his back and curled into a ball, flipping end over end towards
the top of the tree. The winds still propelled him, however, and he
nearly missed his mark as the tip of the tree passed mere inches in
front of his face; reaching out, Ryouga caught the tallest branch with
both hands and held tight. His ascent again halted by an anchor, the
lost boy uncurled into the descending arc and planted his feet firmly
on a thicker section of trunk below, bending the top of the tree like a
bow. For a few moments afterward, the violent wind continued to tear at
him, but Ryouga held fast, and it soon subsided.
"Whew... stopped, finally," breathing a sigh of relief, Ryouga adjusted
his hold on the tree, releasing one hand and leaning out to look
around. Myaan's house was still only a few trees away, and after taking
a moment to catch his breath, the wandering martial artist started to
make his way over, fully intent on getting his feet back on terra firma
as soon as possible.
"Myaan?" Landing lightly on the roof, Ryouga began to walk around its
circumference, calling for his companion. "Myaan, are you here?"
Absently, he began to reel in the rope.
After what had seemed like an eternity of being dragged recklessly
through the treetops, across the blue skies, and everywhere in between,
all the while being battered and scraped by the dense foliage around
her, the ride had finally stopped, and Myaan wanted very much to get
off. "Owieowieowieowie...ah, he's stopped?" slumped painfully in the
crotch of a rather small tree, the bruised cat-girl noted absently that
the ground was a mere dozen or so feet below; as soon as she could free
her hands from the noose that Ryouga's slip-knot had become, she would
have to figure out some way to get down there without landing on any of
the sore parts of her body. Unfortunately, shifting uncomfortably on
the branch that she straddled, Myaan couldn't find any parts that
weren't sore.
Groaning softly as she leaned back, the much-abraded cat-girl began to
tug on the rope that held her hands, only to have it tug back.
"Wha...?" A few more quick tugs later, and the slack she had gathered
to keep her arms from being pulled off was almost completely gone,
forcing Myaan to lean forward again, but the rope kept pulling.
Panicking, Myaan wrapped her legs around the branch under her, trying
to hold on; releasing a little bit more of the rope, she brought the
knot up to her mouth and tried to work it free with her teeth. She
nearly lost one of her pointy canines with the next tug, but finally,
just as the last of the slack disappeared, she managed to work her
wrists free.
"Whew!" Falling back against the branch, Myaan tried to catch her
breath, rubbing her wrists as the rope disappeared into the trees.
"Where _is_ she?" Sitting on the edge of the roof, his legs swinging
back and forth as slowly reeled in the rope, Ryouga pondered his newest
conundrum. "She must've gone out looking for me. Maybe I should just
wait here." It seemed like a sensible plan, so the lost boy occupied
himself with reeling in the rope, picking up the pace a bit.
When he was done, however, and the cat-girl still hadn't returned, the
lost boy started to get restless. Pacing back and forth on the rooftop,
he contemplated his next move. *I was pretty far out when I first heard
her, and I haven't heard anything in a while, so she might be really
far away. Plus, who knows what this damn stupid forest might have done
since then...* Fingering the coil of rope now slung across his chest,
and idea began to form. *If I can get close enough to hear her again, I
may be able to speed things up.*
Staring out through the thick foliage, however, Ryouga came to the
grudging realization that he would just end up going circles, or even
the completely wrong way, unless he could pick a point within his line
of sight and go straight to it. That, of course, meant flying, the idea
of which was seeming less attractive to Ryouga by the moment. His first
flight hadn't exactly gone well, and he wasn't quite ready to give it
another go.
*Still... if I can find Myaan again, it'd be worth it. If only I could
find a gentler breeze to ride...* Then, thinking back to what Myaan had
said about how "normal" foxes flew, the martial-artist come fox spirit
arrived at a stunning realization. "It's gotta be magic; there's no way
any normal sort of wind would blow like that!" Now granted, Ryouga was
no meteorologist, but whenever something went wrong in _his_ life, it
more often than not had something to do with either Saotome Ranma, or
magic, and Ranma wasn't there at the moment, so magic seemed to be the
most reasonable conclusion. *Hmm... it lifted me a bit, even after I
folded my wings; I wonder if could fly without opening them at all.*
Again, Ryouga took one end of the rope, this time going inside and
tying it around the trunk of the tree, leading it out though the window
to the roof, where he stood, a much more conservative length of rope
pooled at his feet with the rest still looped in his hands, his arms
crossed in thought. It was all fine and well to realize that you could
probably fly by using magic, but figuring out _how_ was another thing
entirely. *Okay... the wind picked up just as I was about to start
falling. And Myaan said that they just sort float, right? So how the
hell do I do that?* Ryouga had never voluntarily done any magic before
that didn't involve some sort of magical item or charm, and he
certainly didn't consider activating the curse with regular water as
counting, so how did he do it before? *Hmm... I didn't do anything
special at all... all I did was _want_ it, and it happened...*
*Maybe it would work if I thought about it like a martial arts
technique.* While, unlike Ranma, Ryouga didn't consider every challenge
in terms of martial arts- he had never found a technique that he could
relate back to finding his way easier, for instance- when he wanted to
lift a heavy object, it really only came down to focusing, and
_willing_ his body to do so. So, if the magic that let him fly was part
of him, and all that he did before was _want_ to fly, then maybe all he
needed to do was _will_ the magic to comply.
"C'mon, fly dammit!" Putting the idea into practice, however, was
harder than it sounded. Ryouga had to suppress the instinct to open his
wings, as the first wisps of wind began to pick up. It didn't make any
sense to call up the wind if he wasn't going to have anything to ride
it with, so he stopped concentrating on the wind, and started just
concentrating on the idea of rising above the treetops. It was a mental
stretch for the lost boy, but he had an idea; his most advanced
technique, the Shi-Shi-Houkoudan, involved gathering up his negative
emotions, making his ki "heavy." He already knew how that felt, so
instead, he tried to picture what the opposite would be like; if he
could make his ki "light."
So absorbed was he in his concentration, that Ryouga almost didn't
realize it when he began to rise from his perch atop the roof. A faint
tug on the rope in his hands brought him back to his senses, however,
and the lost boy almost fell straight back down again when he realized
that he was _actually_ doing it; he was actually _flying_! There was
still a slight breeze swirling around him, but it was overwhelmed by
the feeling that a stronger, steadier wind was lifting his spirit;
Ryouga was utterly awestruck, even more so than when he had flown with
his wings. "Wow... I wonder if this is what Herb feels like when he
rides his ki..."
Unfortunately, he would have to find some other time to revel in the
sensation of flight, for now, Ryouga was on a mission. Progress was
clumsy and awkward at first; directing your own little internal zephyr
made a lot less logical sense than riding the wind on wings, and it was
a bit more tiring as well. After he stopped thinking about it so much,
however, it started to feel more natural, and soon he was cruising
along just above the tree line at a pretty decent speed, calling out
Myaan's name periodically, his lifeline trailing behind him.
"MYAAN...!"
After nearly an hour of searching, the lost boy finally gave up, and
decided to wait it out. "Dammit, why am I so stupid?" It was
aggravating, having to stay within the range of the rope's length, when
Myaan could be somewhere out there, maybe just a little bit farther
away, but there was nothing that he could do. *I could always untie the
rope and go farther, and hope that I could find this place again from
above...* But no; Myaan's house was much less of a noticeable landmark
than, say, the town, from above, and Ryouga didn't feel like pushing
his luck. "Dammit..." Not watching precisely where he was going, the
lost boy touched down lightly on the rooftop, nearly tripping over
something green and brown and leafy, laying sprawled across the slanted
surface. "Ah! Wha-?"
"owie..."
"M- Myaan?"
"I'm sorry, I'm sorry, I'm _so_ sorry, I..."
"`S okay, Ryouga, really." Putting up a placating hand, Myaan lifted
her head from the feather pillow on her bed, as Ryouga continued to
fuss over her, apologizing all the while. "Ryouga, I'm fine. It was an
accident, an' I'm fine..."
"But it's all my fault!" As he settled down enough to stand at the foot
of her bed, a crushed look on his face; the agitated twitching of
Ryouga's tails nearly derailed Myaan's train of thought. "I should've
been more careful!"
"Huh? Ahh, `s no big deal, Ryouga! I hurt myself worse when I first got
here an' I fell off the roof." Actually, that was a small lie; she had
only gotten a bump on the head that time, while this time she ached all
over, but Ryouga just looked so horribly upset, standing there,
fidgeting and turning away, like he had done something wrong. "I'll be
fine. Why don't we see if we can find the town again?" So saying, the
red-headed cat-girl swung her legs out over the edge of the bed and sat
up.
This proved to be a mistake; Myaan barely suppressed a gasp as a twinge
ran from the base of her neck to her back, and then all the way down to
her toes. With all that snapping around that Ryouga had done up there,
she'd probably be sore for days, but she didn't want her new friend to
worry himself about it; it was just a silly accident, after all. Un-
clenching her teeth, Myaan made a show of straightening her back and
pushing herself up off the bed. "I- if we hurry, we'cn still make it
before sunset, ne?"
Ryouga, however, wasn't buying it. "You shouldn't be up; you should get
some rest." Ryouga peered at her worriedly, as Myaan wobbled slightly,
grabbing a branch to steady herself. "See, you can barely stand."
"`S not that bad, Ryouga." Smiling at the lost boy reassuringly Myaan
made her way around him and over to the window, her movements just
slightly halting. "I'm just a little sore, `s all."
Climbing out the window and onto the water barrel, the cat-girl felt
Ryouga's steadying hands on her sides, helping her up onto the roof.
Once there, she took a moment to catch her breath; it had been a long
walk back to the tree, especially after that ride earlier. When she
looked up again, she saw Ryouga looking down at her concernedly. "I
still think you should rest."
"Naah, that's okay. We need to get going, so we'cn find out about all
of that stuff that you wanted to know." She replied, waving him off
with a smile. "I guess you should go up an' see where the town is now,
ne?"
For a moment, Ryouga just slumped at the shoulders and sighed, his ears
drooping. Then, he looked up again, a funny gleam in his eye, and a
slight curl to his lip, revealing half of a small, fang-toothed grin.
"Naah, I think I know a better way."
"Eh?" Myaan wasn't quite sure what he was thinking of, but she was glad
that her friend was finally starting to feel a bit better. "Okay,
what'cha wanna do?"
"Well first, how about we get you down off of this roof?" The lost boy
replied easily, turning around and offering the cat-girl his back.
After a moment's hesitation, Myaan decided that it would be okay if
Ryouga helped her a little bit. "N'kay, hold on...," she replied,
climbing onto his back and wrapping her arms around his neck. "Ready."
"Remember you said that..."
"Kyaaa!"
"Aaah, Myaan! Move your hands, I can't see!"
"Wai! This is really fun Ryouga! Can ya go faster?"
"Yeah, but I don't think that- Aaargh! Where the hell did it go
_now_?!"
"Ara?"
"Ne, Ryouga? You'cn put me down now. I'cn walk too."
Glancing over his shoulder at his protesting passenger, Ryouga couldn't
help but crack a wry grin. Myaan's hair was a wild mess, a few
especially ardent leaves still sticking out here and there from
earlier; she had somehow climbed her way up from her piggyback
position, and was leaning over his wings and peering at him with a
questioning look on her face. "Don't worry about it; you still need to
get some rest, and we're not too far from town now." Flexing his wings
slightly, he forced her to slide back down again, adjusting his grip on
her legs as he returned his attention to the road ahead.
He had decided to stop and land on the road about a kilometer outside
of the town; that way, he could still see it, but he didn't have to
worry about any of the townsfolk getting mad at him for buzzing them on
the way in. The farms out here looked to be well tended; fields of
golden wheat stood tall and proud, swaying in the slight breeze, and
here and there horses could be seen grazing within fenced-off corrals.
He hadn't seen any people yet, but the daylight was fading fast, so he
expected that most of them were probably already inside, settling down
to supper.
At the thought of supper, a low, protesting rumble escaped from his
stomach. Grimacing slightly, he started to walk a bit faster; Myaan
hadn't had anything especially substantial to eat up at her place, and
after all of the flying around that he had done today, Ryouga was
positively starving. "You said that this town had an inn?"
"Yup; I stayed there for a little while when I first got here." Pushing
herself up on his shoulders again, Myaan leaned forward to point at the
steadily approaching buildings in front of them. "`S the only one
that's got two floors, see?"
Looking in the direction that she pointed, Ryouga easily picked out the
structure that she was referring to. Most of the buildings that he
could see seemed to be made of either stone, or wood, or a combination
of the two; there was a structure off to the right of the town, along
the outskirts, which appeared to be carved out the side of a hill, but
he couldn't tell whether it was supposed to be a home, or a shop, or
maybe a mine. The inn was a tall, square-sided wooden building, with
some sort of plaster or clay coating the outside walls. Notably, none
of the buildings looked to have the same type of earthenware shingles
that Myaan's house had; most were either thatched, or had wooden
shingles.
As they got close, Ryouga finally noticed something that he had been
wondering about since they had started out that morning; people. Here
and there, a peculiar variety of forms bustled about, ducking in and
out of buildings or chatting on a street corner in the fading light.
Myaan had been really keen on finding out about humans, and a lot of
her stories were simply too absurd to be believed, so Ryouga wasn't
quite sure what to expect.
For the most part, the reality was relievingly mundane; he hadn't seen
anything with too many legs or heads yet, though here and there the odd
tail could be picked out, peeking over the top of a pair of earth-toned
trousers or out from underneath a loomed-cotton skirt. The features he
could make out varied widely from person to person, but nothing too
extreme had arisen yet. In fact, the only thing that really struck him
as confusing was something that, had he been anywhere else, he would
have immediately taken for granted. "Hey, Myaan? I thought you said
that you'd never met a human before."
"Yup, they don't usually come here. I've only ever heard stories about
'em." The cat-girl on his back confirmed, nodding.
"But there's humans all over the place around here. Look, how about
that guy over there." Stopping in the middle of the street, Ryouga
nodded over at a tall man who was standing outside of a low, thatch-
roofed building, sweeping the step. He wore a rough, white cotton shirt
with string ties up the front, brown trousers, and leather boots. His
hair was somewhat long and unkempt, but not so long as to obscure his
completely mundane face and features. "See, that's a human, as far as I
can tell."
"Really?" Sounding somewhat confused, Myaan leaned back and peered off
to the side to stare at the man. "Gee, momma always just called those
folks 'Men.'"
"Well, yeah, he's a man, but he's a _human_ man, as opposed to... well,
me; I guess I'm a Bii'bi man, now." Ryouga explained patiently.
"Yeah, but I've never heard them called 'humans' before." Squirming a
bit, Myaan hopped out of Ryouga's grasp and landed on the ground behind
him. "Whenever someone's told me about 'humans,' they were always
talkin' about the people from Earth. These folks are just called 'Men;'
they're all over the place in Arcadia, though there are more of 'em out
here in the countryside."
Scratching his head, Ryouga turned to regard Myaan with a puzzled
expression. "Well then, if someone is talking about a group of 'men,'
how do you know if they're talking about 'Men,' or just, well, 'men?'"
"Ara...," Blinking, the cat-girl crossed her arms and looked down at
the ground, thinking. "Um..., I dunno. Sorta confusing, ne? `S funny, I
never really though about before now." Myaan admitted, shrugging.
"Maybe it's got something to do with how I can speak your language; in
Japanese, we have different words for 'human' and 'man,' or 'Man' and
'man,' I guess it would be, here." The fox-tailed boy explained,
unconsciously tracing the separate kanji out on the palm of his hand.
"I'm probably just confusing the issue too much. Anyway, as far as I
can tell, there doesn't seem to be any difference between 'Humans' and
'Men,' other than where they come from."
"That's kinda funny." Myaan stuck her hands in her pockets and started
to walk slowly in the direction of the inn once again. "Still, none'a
the Men that I've met have ever been to Earth; maybe they're not the
same thing, after all."
"Maybe," Ryouga conceded, as he walked beside her, scanning the faces
of passerbys as he went. "There seem to be an awful lot of people with
pointy ears around here; what are they?" He queried, indicating a tall,
thin woman wearing a green dress, who happened to be walking along in
the opposite direction. Her complexion was fair, almost pale, and her
features were sharp and graceful. She was quite beautiful, with waist-
length straight blond hair cascading down her back; her most prominent
features, however, were the long, pointed ears that swept up and back
from the sides of her head, giving her a distinctly exotic look.
"That's an Elf. There are lotsa them around too; more than most other
folks, I think." Myaan supplied, as the woman in question paused to
look back in their direction, before continuing on her way.
This seemed to be the manner in which most people reacted to their
passing; a moment of interest, then business as usual. "How common are
people like us? Animal spirits, I mean." The lost boy clarified,
suddenly feeling unreasonably self-conscious.
"Depends," pivoting on a heel, Myaan continued to walk backwards as she
spoke. "Mostly, I don't think there are too many of us. I've never seen
a town that was all spirits, but there are lotsa Elven towns and
stuff." Holding up one hand, Myaan began to count off on her fingers.
"Cats an' Foxes an' Bears an' Birds seem to be the most common; there
are some others too that you see a few of sometimes, but I can't
remember what they're called. Bii'bi are really uncommon tho; before I
met you, I'd never seen one before, an' I don't think I know anyone who
has, either."
"Eheh, that's interesting..." Glancing around again, Ryouga tried to
tuck his wings a bit tighter to his back, though it probably wouldn't
do him any good, seeing as how even folded, they still rose a foot or
two above his head. "So, what other sorts of people are there around
here?"
"All kinds!" The cat-girl replied happily, regaining some of her
hyperactive cheer, despite her obvious weariness. "Every time I go
traveling, I see something that I've never seen before; `s really
neat."
"Is that so?" Looking down the street to the inn, which was now
scarcely a block away, Ryouga favored his companion with a whimsical
smile. "Arcadia certainly sounds like an interesting place."
"Uh-huh!" Myaan agreed, an easy grin crossing her lips as she turned to
face forward again and fell in beside him.
The sign to the inn was lettered in strange, angular characters that
Ryouga had never seen before, but Myaan supplied him with a name; "The
Laughing Boar." Apparently, the young cat-spirit couldn't read the sign
either, but the name seemed to fit with the depiction of the husky,
long-tusked creature rolling about in apparent hilarity, featured
prominently above the script. A small grimace of distaste had crossed
Ryouga's face when he first heard the name, but he let it pass; it was
just a name, after all.
Inside, the wide building was warmly lit, lanterns positioned
strategically about the room providing more than ample illumination for
their sensitive eyes. The floors were finished in polished amber wood,
and a long, tavern-style bar crossed one side of the room. The rest of
the front-room was dotted with a scattering of tables and chairs, with
a staircase leading up to the next floor through the back wall. On
either side of the stairs, Ryouga noted two other doors, one of them
behind the bar, both leading further back into the building. The inn
seemed to be respectably busy tonight, with several small groups of
people relaxing either at the bar or around the tables.
Pulling up short, just inside the door, Ryouga stopped to regard his
companion with a look of confusion. "Say, Myaan? How exactly do you pay
for stuff around here?"
"Pay? Work or barter, usually." Reaching her hands into her pockets,
and finding them empty, the cat-girl shrugged. "Usually, I'cn trade for
something that I picked up along the way, but I don't have anything
today."
Reaching into his own pockets, Ryouga found himself similarly bereft.
*Guess it's woodcutting for my supper, again.* Sighing, he scratched
the back of his head and looked around the room. "So who do we talk to
about getting some food?"
Looking around the room herself, Myaan's face lit up as she found
someone she recognized. "I think we should ask mister Tine over there;
he owns the inn." She pointed over at the tall, drawn-faced Elf who was
tending the bar.
Following her, Ryouga gave the innkeeper a once over; elves apparently
tended towards the tall and thin side, and this Tine was no exception.
His handsome face was slightly lined in places with what Ryouga could
recognize as scars, and he kept his light brown hair cut reasonably
short. His skin was also a much darker shade than the other elves that
he had seen of yet, a rich olive, matching his sharp-looking leather
vest and cloth breeches. A slightly open-necked indigo shirt completed
the effect of a man, or rather, an Elf that had seen the world a few
times over, and the smile that crossed his almost ageless face as Myaan
approached said that it still managed to amuse him, sometimes.
"Back so soon, child? I'd have expected that you would spend a bit more
time wandering the countryside and sleeping in the fields under the
stars before showing up on my doorstep again..." Setting aside a rag
that he had been polishing a glass with, Tine bent down to look into
Myaan's eyes, crossing his arms in front of him and leaning against the
bar.
"Hi mister Tine!" Hopping up onto a bar stool, Myaan threw her arms
around the tall Elf's neck and gave him a quick hug, which he accepted
gracefully, amusement lighting his features. "I was gonna stay around,
really, but then yesterday I was wandering around in the hills and I
saw something fall from the sky so I went to see what it was, since it
might have been something interesting, or it might have been a bird or
something and I was sort of hungry cuz-"
"And did you find something interesting?" Tine prodded gently, turning
his head slightly to regard Ryouga out of the corner of his eye.
"Yeah! I found Ryouga! C'mere, Ryouga; this is mister Tine. Mister
Tine, this is Ryouga. I found him out in the hills an' he was asleep so
I tried to wake him up, but nothing worked until finally he just sort
of woke up on his own an' he's a Bii'bi. Or, at least I think he is;
I've never seen a Bii'bi before, but I've heard people describe them
an' I think he looks a lot like what they described since he has the
wings an' the tails an'-"
"And he is indeed a Bii'bi," The dark-skinned Elf replied,
straightening again and turning to give Ryouga some closer scrutiny.
"It's been quite some time since I've laid eyes on a living legend such
as yourself, good sir, but you are definitely a Bii'bi. And if you are
anything like the last Bii'bi I had words with, I'm sure that it will
be quite an... experience, to know you." His smile striking a more
enigmatic vein, Tine sketched a short bow to the lost boy. "I am known
as Tine of the East Wind, and I welcome you to my inn."
"I'm Hibiki Ryouga, pleased to meet you." Returning a rather lower bow,
Ryouga pulled up the stool next to Myaan. "So, you've-"
"You never told me that you met a Bii'bi before, mister Tine!" Almost
bouncing in her seat, Myaan adopted a slightly pleading tone.
"You never asked, child."
"Oh...," Pausing for a moment to think this over, Myaan finally seemed
to arrive at the conclusion that it was as good an answer as any.
"Okay; Ryouga's not a normal Bii'bi anyway. He's really from-"
"Earth?" Raising an eyebrow, Tine tapped his fingers on the bar a few
times, taking in Myaan and Ryouga's slightly stunned expressions.
Ryouga, surprisingly, snapped out of it first. "How did you-?"
"How did I know?" At Ryouga's nod, he continued. "I didn't, but your
name struck me as quite peculiar; it resonates, you know." At Ryouga
and Myaan's blank looks, he feigned a somewhat melodramatic sigh and
proceeded to explain. "Your name is from a language not commonly spoken
in Arcadia, and it has a meaning; things that have a meaning resonate
their meaning, even if you don't think about it. Why else do you
suppose everyone can usually understand each other out here in the
mists? In your case, it really does resonate, quite literally; that's
what 'Hibiki' means, does it not?"
"That's right," Nodding, Ryouga eyed the Elf with a newfound respect.
"So you guessed that I was from Earth because I have foreign name that
has a meaning?"
"Indeed. It seemed a reasonable enough guess; quite a few of the fox
spirits that I've met have adopted names from that same language, which
I've been told originates on Earth." Spreading his hands slightly, Tine
cast an expectant glance at Ryouga.
Catching on, the fox-tailed boy elaborated. "It's Japanese; there are a
lot of legends in Japan and China about fox spirits. But what is this
language that we're speaking now? I can think about the sounds that I'm
making, so it can't be just the meaning resonating."
"Can't it? Tell me, what do meanings sound like?"
"Um...," Lowering his head, Ryouga concentrated for a moment before
answering. "Well, they don't really 'sound' like anything, I guess..."
"But if they were to sound like something, who's to say that they
wouldn't sound like the words that are coming out of our mouths right
now?" Seeing that Ryouga was at a loss, he continued, "At any rate,
when we must speak of it, it's usually referred to as 'Common' or
'Low,' as un-descriptive as those may be."
Nodding as he finally received something that he could wrap his mind
around, Ryouga decided that it was safe to move on to the next thing
that had been bugging him. "You seem to be very knowledgeable about how
things work around here."
Still smiling that same, enigmatic smile, Tine shrugged dismissively.
"I have been many places and I have seen and heard many things."
"Have you ever heard about Humans turning into Spirits?"
"Hmm? How do you mean?" His attention piqued, the Elf leaned in to
favor the lost boy with his full attention.
His expression falling a bit, Ryouga ran a hand through his hair and
looked off to the side. "I was born, on Earth, a Human. Later, upon
my... death, I awoke here, as you see me now. Have you ever heard of
anything like this happening?"
"Is that so?" For several moments, Tine regarded the martial-artist
turned fox-spirit silently. Finally, however, he shook his head, the
smile slipping from his face. "No, I cannot say that I have; If what
you say is true, then... you have me intrigued. What do you intend to
do about this, if I may ask?"
"We're goin' to the City!" Myaan interjected, apparently having gotten
tired of being left out of the conversation. "Ryouga is goin' to the
City to find out why he's a Bii'bi an' I'm gonna go with him!"
"The City?" Turning to stare into the shiny, mirror-like surface of the
counter, Tine's expression was unreadable. "Well, if you know not what
you search for, then the City would indeed be a suitable place to start
looking. You do have quite a journey ahead of you, however; I'd advise
that you pay the general store a visit before you leave."
"Hehe, mister Tine knows all about traveling!" Myaan favored them both
with a cheerful grin. "Whenever I wanna go somewhere, I come here to
ask mister Tine about it; he's been all over Arcadia!"
"Oh, I wouldn't say that I've seen _all_ of Arcadia," Tine protested
modestly, his pleasant expression returning. "I've simply seen enough
of it to make people like Myaan here feel like they're missing
something wonderful; which is of course absolutely true. Don't you
agree?" This last comment he directed at the lost boy. Behind his
pleasant smile, something harder glinted in Tine's eye; the look of a
man that had walked to the end of every road that he had ever set foot
upon, and then walked back again.
Ryouga gave the Elf a hard look back, a secretive smirk chiseling
itself on his stony countenance. "Yes, I suppose I do." Then, Ryouga's
stomach vocally aired it grievances once again, and the moment passed.
"But right now, I think I'd much rather explore a bowl of stew, or
whatever else you might have to eat around here."
"Well then, good traveler, what have you got to offer in return?"
Crossing his arms, Tine favored Ryouga with a wry glance.
Scratching the back of his head, Ryouga looked over at Myaan, who
shrugged, and the looked back at the innkeeper. "Um, do you have any
work that you need done?"
Tine shook his head regretfully. "Not at the moment, I'm afraid."
"Okay, how about-"
"A story!"
Both Tine and Ryouga turned to look at Myaan, so the cat-girl
continued. "Sometimes innkeepers let me pay for a place to sleep by
telling them stories about places I've been, or stories that I heard
along the way."
Nodding, the Elf rubbed his chin in contemplation. "Yes, I do suppose
that would be acceptable. I'll concede that a night's entertainment
would be well worth a meal or two, and perhaps a space in the common
room, depending upon how interesting your story is." He cast a critical
eye towards Myaan, "Unless you've learned some new ones, however, I
think that you've likely already told me most of your stories, child."
"That's okay; Ryouga knows all sort of neat stories about Earth! Ne,
you should tell him the one that you told me last night, Ryouga!"
Smiling giddily, Myaan urged Ryouga to start.
"Um, well..."
"Ah, ah... are not stories to be shared?" Grinning mischievously at
Ryouga's slightly uncomfortable expression, Tine walked around the bar
and began making the rounds of the various small groups of people that
were scattered around the main room.
When he returned, he was trailed but about half a dozen children; most
of them were elves, though there was one human, as well as a husky
young fellow of a race that Ryouga didn't recognize. They all looked to
be somewhere around the early to mid-teens, though since he wasn't
dealing with humans for the most part, Ryouga suspected that his
estimate might be a bit off. From their clothing, the lost boy guessed
that they were the sons and daughters of farmers or shop owners.
"You know about Earth, sir?" This came from the stout boy, the bristly
top of his red hair coming barely mid-chest to the youngest-looking of
the taller Elven children.
When Ryouga didn't answer immediately, Tine, who was just returning
from the back room, looked down to the boy and nodded. "Indeed he does,
having just come from there recently." Setting large, steaming bowls of
thick brown stew in front of Ryouga and Myaan, he continued. "So why
don't you tell us a tale or two?" Retrieving a loaf of bread from
underneath the counter, the innkeeper broke it in half and offered one
piece to each of the weary travelers at the bar.
Ryouga cast one final, pleading glance at Myaan, but the cat spirit
just smiled at him encouragingly and dove into her food. Taking a deep
breath, the fox-tailed boy grabbed his bowl in one hand and his bread
in the other, and turned on his stool to face the children, who either
pulled up stools of their own or sat on the floor. "Okay; the story
that I am about to tell you is no simple fairy tale. This story
actually happened; part of this story is my story, so I can tell you
about it because I was there to see it, but before we get to my story,
I need to tell you a story about someone else. This story begins on
Earth, in a place called Japan, in the house of a Man by the name of
Saotome..."
Author's notes: I'd just like to thank James Nutley, T.H. Tiger, Beth J., Matthew Campbell, and everyone else that helped me write this, everyone that read this fic the first time i posted it and encouraged me to continued it, as well as everyone that put up with my meaningless meandering long enough to actually notice this note. Thank you! Hopefully, it won't take me _too_ long to get the next part done...
~Eimii