Sword and Sorcery Chapter 5 by D.Fire phongb9@idt.net Ranma snapped out of his deep trance as his memories reached the point that his past self dove through the pulsating vortex. What disturbed him from his vision was the complete blackness and intense cold he found at that point. "Have you been listening in, Azure?" he asked the panther sitting at his feet. He could feel his familiar's presence deep within his own mind. came the reply. Ranma laughingly said, "That was a lobster, Azure. They aren't bugs. They live in the sea, and humans in my world catch them to eat, although they're normally only about yea big. It's a delicacy." Ranma indicated a width of about two feet. Azure said grimacing. The chill from Ranma's memories slowly settled in his body, so he reluctantly said, "I don't know if I want to see what came next. I now know how I left my world. How did I get to this one?" Ranma shivered. More quietly, he continued, "That felt like death." Shrugging off the chill that entered his bones, he got to his feet. "Umm, no I'm just feeling ---," he protested, when suddenly, his stomach suddenly interrupted, growling. " ... hungry! Yeah, that's it, I'm starving! C'mon, Azure, let's eat." Moving over to the 'kitchen' area -- actually more like a table set against the back wall -- Ranma reached down to his side, pulling a small pouch open. Reaching in and concentrating, he pulled out an incongruously giant slab of meat. Slicing off a double-sized human portion, he placed the rest on a clean spot on the floor. Azure, ravenous, immediately attacked his meal without further prompting. Shaking his head in amusement, Ranma said, "Man, I thought I ate like an animal. You put me to shame." Turning back, he placed his own portion on a metal plate. Waving his hand slightly over it, he muttered, "Orun Kialis", starting a small but intense magical flame underneath the plate. Leaving the steak to cook, Ranma pulled out the rest of planned meal. 'I feel like a salad today,' he thought, pulling out some clean lettuce and some tomatoes. Using a handy dagger, he sliced up his salad. Drawing out a decanter of mixed vinegar and oil, he liberally poured some on the salad. By this time, the steak had finished cooking, so with a wave of his hand, he banished the magical fire and sat down to eat. "At least I now know that I'm not alone in this world, or at least I hope not. My friends ... Hey! That old parchment Master Hariule was always studying. He kept telling me that I was a child of prophecy. Maybe the prophecy can tell me if the others are here!" Walking over the bookshelves lining one entire wall of the room. "Hey Azure, do you know where Master Hariule put the prophecy? I know he kept several copies around. I just need one." the familiar replied. Pulling out the indicated volume, Ranma leafed through the blue-bound book. "Translation of the Orippa Prophecy, as penned by Gernit Hariule, Year of the Clam," he read. "Hmm, I didn't know that Poppa's first name was Gernit." There, in Master Hariule's neat script, lay the Orippa Prophecy with the original script to the left, the translation in the middle, and annotations in Master Hariule's personal handwriting to the right. Bringing the book over to 'kitchen', Ranma sat down on a stool and began flipping through the pages as he ate. "Hey, Azure. Listen to this!" "And lo, seven shall come unto the world, One of light and power, One of darkness and destruction, One of illusion and wit, One of stealth and shadows, One of death and daggers, One of earth and life, One of air and grace." "Seven, huh? That adds up. Seven of us were sucked into that hole. Let's see. There was me, Akane, Nabiki, Ukyou, Ryouga, Shampoo, and Mousse," said Ranma as he ticked off the names on his fingers. "That's seven all right." Examining the passage again, he then said, "Well, I'm the one of light and power." Azure sarcastically thought. Wincing, Ranma replied, "That's not it! That's what Master Hariule called me when he cast the spell that returned my memory. I wonder who the others are, though." In silence, Ranma slowly picked his way through the rest of the book, pausing every once in awhile to re-read certain passages. Suddenly, he grew very still. He read a different passage aloud. "On the day of Remembrance, One key to the light Shall fall into the shadows." "He knew," Ranma whispered as a tear formed unbidden in his eye. "Master Hariule knew that his doom was coming for him." *** As Ranma settled down to sleep that night, his mind still reeled from the revelations he found in the prophecy. Soon, his turbulent thoughts calmed, and he drifted off into a deep slumber. As sleep weakened Ranma's control, the memories of what happened after the fall into the hole engulfed his dreams. *** Deep, searing cold and pitch-black darkness. The only two sensations she could feel in this place, wherever this place was. For an indeterminate time, she floated through the void, existing but not being. Then she heard laughter. Curious. This was the first sensation other than the cold and the darkness that penetrated her senses. A child's laughter tantalized her, a siren's call in this void of nothingness. It drew her like a moth to a flame. She could feel herself moving through the inky blackness, drawing ever nearer to the source of that sound. How she moved, she had no idea, but the sensation of movement was unmistakable. Closer and closer she came to the sound, while the single giggling voice soon became many. Vision slowly returned to her as she approached the laughter. As the void faded away, she could finally see around her. 'This is not what I hoped Heaven would be, and it definitely ain't Hell,' she thought as she took in her surroundings. It looked like she was in a children's playground. An elaborate jungle gym stood to her far right. To her left sat a sandbox with ... "Akane!" she shouted. The little girl sitting in the sandbox looked up as she heard her name called. Seeing Ranma, she jumped up and ran over. The girl was without a doubt Akane, with her short hair-cut and a cute yellow dress. But she was -- shorter. In fact, she looked exactly like she did in a photo Ranma once saw in an old Tendou family album. "Akane, what happened to you?" Ranma exclaimed as the girl ran up. Then she noticed something. Her voice had gone up several octaves, and come to think of it, Akane didn't look any smaller from her current perspective. Fearing the worst, she slowly looked down at herself. "Augh!! What happened to me?" she yelled as she realized that she too had a child's body. In panic, she ran around in little circles clutching her head. "This can't be happening. This isn't happening to me. No way am I a little kid." Closing her eyes, Ranma sank slowly to her knees and silently prayed, 'This has got to be a dream. When I open my eyes, everything will be all right. I will be normal. Akane will be normal. Everything will be normal.' She opened her eyes. Nothing had changed. She sat there dumbfounded as Chibi-Akane looked on in curiosity. Sighing in resignation, she got to her feet. At her movement, Akane finally approached her. Extending a hand and with a serious expression on her face, Akane said, "Hi there. You're new, aren't you? I'm Akane." Ranma stared in shock, open-mouthed. "You don't know who I am? I'm Ranma." Suspiciously, she asked, "Shampoo didn't do anything to you did she?" Taken aback, Akane answered, "Umm, no. Shampoo didn't do anything. Why should she? Do I know you?" Then, turning around, she yelled out while waving her arm, "Minna, come over here. We have a new friend." Appearing, as by magic, five other children showed up to greet Ranma. "Everyone, this is Ranma," said Akane as she introduced him to the group. "And this is Ryouga, Ukyou, Nabiki, Shampoo, and Mousse." As she stated each name, she pointed out the appropriate person. The others, to Ranma's eyes, appeared to be normal as he remembered them, aside from suffering from the same condition as Akane. They all seemed to be around five or six years old and were very much chibi-ized. Almost as one, they chorused, "Hi Ranma." Slapping her forehead in disbelief, Ranma could only shake her head and groan. Muttering under her breath, "You uncute tomboy, I knew who they were." Unfortunately for Ranma, Akane heard her. Tears formed in her eyes as her lower lip quivered, and then she broke into tears wailing, "What's wrong? Don't you like me?" Ryouga gave Ranma a dark look and came over and comforted Akane. Waving her hands in negation, Ranma frantically denied, "No! No! I like you." As an afterthought, she added, "I like all of you. Heh, heh." She put her arm behind her head in embarrassment. "Don't cry, I didn't mean it!" The tears slowly came to a stop as Akane looked up, still sniffing. In a small voice, she asked, "Really? You mean it?" Then she jumped over to Ranma and gave her a great hug. Ranma could only pat Akane's shoulder to reassure her. "C'mon, Ranma." Tears completely forgotten, Akane pulled Ranma to the sandbox, "Let's play." The other children, seeing that all was once more right with the world, dispersed to their own activities, separating to form a group of two and a group of three. For a while, Ranma let the child before her lead her. Not knowing what else to do, she played the day away with Akane in the sandbox. It must have been several hours later that Ranma noticed something. The sun in the sky had not moved even a little bit from its original position since she first came to the playground. Akane, noting her distraction, asked, "Something wrong, Ranma?" Pulling her thoughts together, Ranma replied with a question of her own. "Akane, we've been here playing for a while, haven't we?" "Yes," was the reply. "Well, the sun hasn't moved any since we started playing." "So?" "Well, don't you think that's unusual?" At this, Akane laughed, "Silly. The sun doesn't move. It never has." "Never?" "Of course not. Why would it?" Ranma spluttered a reply, "But, but that's the way people tell time." Akane mulled over the answer. "Ranma, what's this 'time' you're talking about?" Flabbergasted, Ranma replied, "Time. You don't know what time is?" Shaking her head in response, "Uh uh. Nani?" "Uhh. Umm. I can't really explain it." Shrugging her shoulders, Akane said, "Oh well." Dismissing the thought, she returned to her play. After playing with Akane for a little longer, Ranma finally got up and dusted off her pants, saying "I'm gonna go look around. Okay, Akane?" Brightly, Akane replied, "Okay!" "I'll be back in a little bit," said Ranma as she left the sandbox. As she left, Akane paused to sadly look at her retreating back but then returned to her play. *** As Ranma left the clearing with the sandbox, she entered a slightly wooded area. Here, three children were playing hide-and-seek. Well, actually, two of them were playing hide-and-seek. The third was lost. "Ryouga! Ryouga!" Nabiki yelled. "Where are you, Ryouga? The game's over, come out." Turning to Ukyou, she said, "I think he's lost again, Ukyou." Noticing Ranma at the edge of the area, Ukyou pointed and said, "Hey, Ran-chan. Come over and play with us. We need a third." Surprised that Ucchan would remember the affectionate nickname, Ranma came over approached the two. In a nonchalant tone of voice, she ingeniously asked Ucchan, "Why did you call me Ran-chan? My name's Ranma." Taken aback, Ukyou replied, "I-I don't know. It just seemed right. Is it wrong?" "No, no. You can call me Ran-chan if you like," Ranma reassured her. Nabiki, dismissing the entire exchange, said, "Well never mind that, RANMA. Let's play. We're playing hide-and-seek. Wanna play?" Having no immediate problems to deal with, Ranma agreed. "Well, then. Let's do Jan-Ken-Pon to see who's it," declared Nabiki. Conditions agreed to, the children began their play. Ten full games of hide-and-seek later, Ryouga finally showed up. Now with the girls' original playmate back, Ranma said, "Well, Ryouga's back so I wanna see what the others are doing." She made her partings and left the area. *** Ranma returned to the clearing with the jungle gym and the sandbox. Having not found Mousse nor Shampoo, she headed toward the jungle gym. She was not disappointed. The two in question were definitely having fun. Mousse and Shampoo scampered up and down, left and right, all over the play set. The ladders, crossbars, and slides were being put to good use as they romped all over, sometimes chasing each other, sometimes not. Ranma got dizzy just watching them play. Not wishing to interfere, Ranma turned away and headed off in a random direction. Entering an unexplored area, she found a new piece of playground equipment. What she saw was a giant spherical frame made out of metal. What surprised her was the boy sitting atop it. This boy was older than her chibi-ized friends, maybe by four or five years, and had an elfin cast to his features. He sat on top of the sphere as it slowly spun around at a lazy pace. Round and round it went. The disturbing thing was that even though nobody was pushing it, the sphere continued to turn. She cautiously approached the boy, hiding behind one tree after another as she crept toward him. When she reached the tree at the border of the clearing the boy startled her by speaking. "Please come out of hiding, Ranma. I know you're there." Stepping out from behind the tree, she glared at the stranger, "What have you done to my friends?" Looking down at herself, she asked, "What did you do to me?" "My, how demanding you are, Ranma-chan," the stranger benevolent smiled down at her. "But pardon my rudeness, let me introduce myself. My name is Devon." Then came a moment of silence as Ranma glared with hostility. Devon blithely ignored the glare. Finally, he broke the silence saying, "Please join me on the frame. It's getting annoying losing sight of you on every revolution." Still suspicious, Ranma walked up slowly, and after timing the spin, she hopped onto the sphere, standing on one of crossbars. To her surprise, the spinning didn't even slow with her added weight. Climbing up toward Devon, she settled on a spot just out of reach but facing him. "So. Explain," Ranma demanded. "About what? Your current stature? This place? Please be more specific." "Okay. Why are we all six years old?" she asked. "What happened to us?" "That's a little complicated. Let me start with a question of my own. Do you know where you are?" Devon evaded. "Who knows. Heaven. Or more likely Hell, considering that a demon sent me here." Devon smiled, "Not quite. You are in a place called the Void. The demon meant to send you to Hell, but -- other powers -- intervened." "Where is this void?" "Not a void, The Void. Call it Purgatory if you will, but that's not quite correct either. Some have called it Limbo. Getting back to your original question -- why you're all so young -- that's a property of this place. It bends reality to suit the inhabitants." The boy laughed as he continued, "It seems that being six years old is the only way all of you can co-exist in this realm. So voila! You're all children again. Before you ask, this playground is here for the same reason, a neutral setting." Ranma fumed at the implication and heatedly demanded, "Oh yeah, Devil Boy? Why are you older then?" Looking deeply offended, Devon replied, "You mistake me, sir. I am not a devil. As to why I am older, well, because I choose to be." Slightly abashed, Ranma continued, "Well then, why are you here?" "I am here to watch over you. To make sure you don't hurt yourself or the others." "You're our jailer then?" "Not ... jailer. Consider me your guardian." "Uh huh, " Ranma said, disbelief apparent in his voice. "Why have the others lost their memories?" At this question, Devon paused. He regretfully continued, "I am sorry. I may not disclose that information to you." "Why are we here then?" "This is just ... a stepping ground, as you might call it. All will eventually move on. You are here for a reason." Ranma suddenly realized something. "The others can't see you, can they?" Devon had been missing when Akane called in the rest of the crew, and none of the others remarked on his absence. With a wry smile, Devon answered, "No, they can't." With that final answer, Devon slowly faded from sight. His disembodied voice continued, saying, "Ranma, I'm not your enemy. Please trust me." Now spooked, Ranma froze there for a time. Coming out of her shock, she slowly climbed down from the sphere. Throwing furtive glances back at the metal globe as she left the clearing, she headed back toward Akane. Behind her, the sphere continued to spin, unheedful and unstopping. *** As Ranma approached Akane, Akane saw her and a beautiful smile blossomed on Akane's face. Happily, Akane came over and once again dragged Ranma over the sandbox, saying, "I'm glad you came back, Ranma." Smiling in return, Ranma just let herself go, playing with Akane with abandon. 'This is fun,' Ranma thought. 'I wish Akane was always this friendly.' This reminded her of their general predicament, sobering her demeanor. Akane noticed the change, and misinterpreting it, asked, "Are you hungry, Ranma? I am." Curious as to what would pass for food in this place, Ranma nodded her head. "Sure, Akane. Where do we get food?" Pulling Ranma over to a new area, Akane gestured to en empty table. "What do you want, Ranma?" She imperiously demanded of the table, "Give me chocolate ice cream!" A bowl of ice cream slowly appeared along with a tiny spoon. With a great Cheshire grin, Akane scooped up the bowl and spoon and began eating. Surprised, Ranma paused as her mind tried to think of something she wanted. She lamely asked of the table, "Give me a cup of water." Akane looked up from her bowl of ice cream with face a mess and said, "Silly Ranma. You can't get water at a food table. You get water from a water fountain. We use that fountain over there." She pointed to a beautiful fountain off to the side of the table. Numbly, with reflexes on automatic, Ranma walked over to the fountain. A plaque under the fountain read, "Fountain of Lethe." 'Lethe, Lethe, where have I heard that before?' Ranma wondered to herself. Shrugging, she bent down low and took a deep draught. The water was cool and soothing going down her throat. Ranma looked up as Devon's ghostly apparition faded into view beside her. Giving her a wry smile and a two-fingered salute, he said, "Goodbye, Ranma ... and Raeni. You will find me again." Falling to her knees, she blacked out.