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Enjoy!
[Ranma] [fanfic] ranma.in-my-dreams
Disclaimer: All Ranma-1/2 characters and plot elements used here
are in fact the property of Rumiko Takahashi and her assigns,
and are used without their knowledge or permission. This is
fan-fiction: an open fan letter in prose. Thanks go to Joni
Mitchell for the formant theme of this story.
---------------------------------------------------------------
In My Dreams
The FFML Refugee List
--siaru 05apr01/22apr01
He has never realized. And, of course, it's for the best... for
all of us. All of us.
My Lord Saffron knew that He had received mercy. In His infant
state, with such a frail flame, it would have taken but one more
killing blow, the work of a few moments for such as Saotome, to
extinguish His fire forever, to send Him to the spirit world to
await rebirth as a mere mortal. None other could have withstood
his fury in that hour: we were beaten and our King was
once-killed and helpless. We were beaten by teamwork, to be
sure, by his small army, but Saotome's power and fury had grown
during the course of that battle until it was only by his choice
that the war ended and we lived.
If the woman had not survived, if Saotome's spirit-cry had not
called her back to her body and urged her to resume breathing...
we of the Phoenix would be extinct now.
Once the Jusendou waters were flowing again, my Lord, who, even
in His infant form, retained His memories and far more awareness
than He allowed to show, bade me seek audience with the
Joketsuzoku and the Musk. We needed to know whatever there was
to know about this young man that we had so badly
underestimated, this Saotome Ranma, this
shrew-among-dancing-rice-maidens. There was much to know. We
learned his anecdotal history, we pondered, and we worried.
This mere youth already carried another soul, a cat soul, within
him, since early childhood, yet his strength of will was such
that its animal nature had not and would not claim him. Boy and
girl both and more besides, he still thought of himself as
human, but we already knew from experience how illusory that
limitation would be if there came to be any threat to any whom
he considered it his duty to protect. As an outcome of his
battle to overcome a Cat-Tongue Strike, he already held Phoenix
energies at his core, now quickened by the forces used in his
battle with us. He returned to the land of his birth unaware
that he in time could supplant our Lord Saffron if he so chose;
that, even as an unborn Phoenix, he could set himself up now to
rule our lands. Instead, he held to his code of honor, and
sought only what he considered to be fair treatment, in
ignorance that fair treatment is normally something which a
warrior will never have.
So we watched him live his life as if our lives depended upon
it, because ultimately they did.
There was a failed wedding. It was none of our doing; we wanted
him married and happily settled on his islands. We had stationed
a small eyrie of our warriors on his island, with which we now
began to silently remove any threat to his peace which might
cause him in some way to threaten ours.
He sensed our watchful eyes, I'm sure. While our patrols watched
over him, he watched over her... but he could not protect her
from her own choices, not when he had committed to trust her,
and after the wedding her choices changed.
Months later, his woman, the one he killed a god to save, left
him, to travel the breadth of China with the pig-man. When we
caught them at Jusenkyo, we could see why: she was bearing the
man's child. She had been pleasuring herself with her pet pig,
making mockery of trust, while Saotome slept with cold honor,
waiting for a wedding that would never come.
The Joketsuzoku were frantic. They had known of this pairing,
knew of the rivalry between these two men, and knew that Saotome
would follow; the portents were as clear as they were bleak.
With nothing to keep him in Japan, he would be a new presence in
our midst, basing his operations at Jusenkyo, for years. There
would be war, and we would be drawn into it, all of us and then
China itself, and it would be our ruin. Something had to be done
to appease this man, to give him reason to go home peacefully.
So it came to be that the pig-man never found the Nannichuan,
never rid himself of his pig shape. Instead, two pigs were given
permanent shelter by the Joketsuzoku: one black boar with the
tattered remains of a bandanna for a collar, and one off-white
sow with black markings. They lived out their animal lives in
peace, producing many litters, and none were the wiser.
Saotome came, as expected, and found his woman, victim of an
accident in the cliffs, being carefully tended by the healers of
the Joketsuzoku. He took her home to his islands and tended her
injuries, helping her to remember those things which her head
injuries had caused her to forget. He helped her to learn the
airborne skills of his Ryu. They married, they raised their
children and taught their students and their society, and it was
good.
They. No, it was we; in the quiet of my own nighttime thoughts,
watching him or her sleeping at my side, I can be honest with
myself.
I have learned to love this man. I have borne his children, I
have been his true partner now for forty years and more, and I
do not regret it. I have served two Lords with two natures; He
of the Mountain, who knows the ways of both mortals and gods, and
he of the island, who knows the ways of both man and woman...
and what began as a mission has become a passion; I am well
rewarded for my work. The man loves like no other, deeply and
fiercely and completely. The sow, the first wearer of this face,
was never worthy enough to recognize it.
One small thing I miss: the sky... I had to give up my wings for
this mission. When the two pigs received their baptism with the
ladle, so did I; there must be no fatal disclosure, no feathers
left in the furo, no bird-eyed young. I who had once been His
captain, I who was the only one to receive that pool's change
during its brief existence, I had to leave the rivers of air
behind and learn to swim the rivers of people.
Longing for the air even as I finished my second childhood, I
took eagerly to Saotome's leaping school of the Art, surprising
and delighting him with my dedication to its deadly grace... and
in my dreams I still fly.
---------------------------------------------------------------
C&C welcome: siaru@stormbringer.org
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