Disclaimer: I don't own Ranma ½ or Escaflowne
Chapter 1
It did not feel as if she were falling. There was no wind, no air resistance, not even the slightest hint of inertia. And yet, the clouds she had passed through only moments before were growing ever smaller above her. Giant cotton balls stuck to an endless blue canvas. It was as if she were fixed in position, and it was the world that was rushing past her.
How long until she met the ground?
A growing hollowness took hold in her belly and bitter bile rose to her mouth. Despite her best efforts she could not turn her head or manoeuvre her body to see the ground below her. It was like riding a roller coaster backwards, climbing higher and higher on the very first ramp not knowing when the apex would be reached and the roller coaster would plummet down the other side. She could not prepare herself for the impact that she knew was inevitable, and at the rate she seemed to be falling the chances of her surviving said impact were non-existent.
Flashes of green. A canopy of leaves, outstretched branches clawing at her skin and tattered clothing as she hurtled past.
Her eyes shut tight, her entire body turning rigid and the nails of her fingers digging deep into the insides of her palms.
Seconds ticked away and, apart from the stinging of her hands, there was no pain. There was no growing white light at the end of a tunnel, no absolute darkness.
There was no impact.
She opened her eyes and blinked, the sharp rays of sunlight cutting through the canopy forcing her to squint. She could not feel anything beneath her. Where was the ground?
As if to answer her question her descent began once more but this time she could feel it, like waking from a dream to the sensation of falling. But the fall was short lived, and when she hit the ground it managed only to knock the air out of her lungs.
Doubled over and breathing hard, she silently thanked Kami-sama that once again she was still alive and in one piece.
"Goddamn aliens" she grumbled, as the feelings of relief washed away the adrenaline rush and replaced it with tiredness. She absently fingered the black metallic collar around her neck. A touch of sadness on her face "Goddamn P-Chan"
She sucked in a lungful of the air through her nose and let herself fall flat on her back. It was so fresh. She hadn't breathed such clean air for a while. And the ground was so soft. She looked around and noted that the entirety of her surroundings, even the long twisting trunks of the trees that stretched high above her, were green. Everything seemed to be covered in a thick spongy moss, pea-green in colour. She sighed. The place was breathtaking to behold but the chi that permeated the life around her wasn't familiar. Another place, another world but it wasn't home. It wasn't Earth.
A deep rumbling roar echoed through the area, reverberating through her body and bringing the study of her landing site to an abrupt end. She shot up into a sitting position and turned her head as her ears tracked the noise. It was coming from her left and it wasn't very far away.
She scrambled to her feet and was relieved to find her legs were still in perfect working order. Right now she didn't particularly feel like a one on one with some strange alien creature that would probably like her to take up residence in its belly. As if on queue, her stomach rumbled loudly and the muscles of her abdomen spasmed in pain, reminding her that her own belly was in dire need of filling.
She started to move out of the area, only managing a brisk jog but that would have to suffice for now.
The roar came again, but this time her ears picked up something else.
It was a human voice and it was shouting.
Without a second thought she swivelled around mid stride and ran back the way she came, her calves burning from the expenditure of energy that wasn't there.
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Van grunted as he swung his sword in a horizontal arc towards the creature's remaining eye. The creature tilted its head away and the steel blade clanged uselessly against the thick hide of its maw.
Gaping jaws lined with razor sharp teeth snapped forward, trying to snag him. He ducked and rolled out of the way.
A forepaw swung out at him as he came out of the roll. Curved yellowed claws, longer than his legs, looking to rip him apart. He jumped, landing on top of the offending limb, and used it as a platform to leap onto the creature's head.
He raised his sword to plunge into a dark pinkish eye, but the creature swung its head wildly, sending him hurtling through the air.
His body slammed into a nearby tree, ending his flight. Dazed and winded, with pain flaring in his back, he tumbled to the ground.
Getting to his feet unsteadily, he watched as the creature filled its fire lungs, protruding from its chest like two transparent pink bags. They inflated and stretched to the point where it looked as though they would burst, glowing brightly from the inside.
Its head shot forward, its long neck extending. A torrent of roaring red flame came shooting towards him.
His forearm came up reflexively and his metallic bracer expanded into a circular black shield, blocking the flames. The incredible heat made his body drip with perspiration.
"Above you!" a voice cried out from behind him.
His head moved automatically at the command, his eyes looking up in time to see the spear like tip of the creature's tail descending on his position.
He threw himself backwards. His leather chest armour fell away from his body, sliced open at the front. The tip of the creature's tail embedded itself deep in the ground where he had stood only moments before.
This was his chance.
He charged forwards, sword held up high behind him. Jumping atop the immobilized tail, he ran up the arch it formed over the creature. He lowered his blade as he ran, cutting through the unarmoured flesh of the creature's exposed underside. Reaching the top, he spun around and grabbed the hilt with both hands, driving the blade deep into the creature's flesh. Using his bodyweight he dragged the sword down the other side, splitting open the underbelly. There was an ear-splitting shriek as the creature seemed to deflate like a balloon, entrails and gore spilling out from the long and gaping wound.
Taking no chances, he made his way to the front and drove his sword deep into its chest. Foul smelling green liquid spurted from the wound like a fountain, soaking his body. He withdrew his sword and backed away as the creature moved in a series of death spasms before finally ceasing its movements.
He exhaled and wiped the liquid from his brow with the back of a gloved hand. It was done. He had actually managed to kill the cursed thing.
Moving forward, he made an incision with his blade right between the fire lungs. He reached inside the opening unflinchingly, as warm green liquid gushed over his arm. After a few moments of searching his hands closed around something round and hard that fit snugly into his palm. There was a loud squelching sound as he withdrew his arm again, pulling out with it a spherical red gem with a grooved surface. It pulsed brightly in his hand for a few moments longer before the glow faded away.
As the gem ceased to glow, the viscous green liquid he had been splattered with evaporated with a hiss and the formation of thick white steam. Within seconds it was as if the liquid had never touched his body or his clothing. Likewise, the massive corpse of the creature shrivelled up and dried until it was only a collection of greyish bones and ash.
He frowned, his eyes searching the tree-line around him. Searching for the person to whom the voice that had warned him belonged. His grip on the hilt of his sword tightened, his knuckles turning white beneath the material of his glove. He had nearly died today. And what made it all the worse was that he had needed some woman to interfere on his behalf, for him to slay the dragon that he should have been able to kill on his own.
He turned around again. He could see no one but he could feel the eyes watching him.
"Come out" he commanded, his voice loud enough to be heard over the crackling of burning trees.
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She lay belly down on an outstretched tree limb and looked down at the raven-haired young man below her. She was impressed. The guy hadn't used any special abilities or even any ki strengthening, and yet had managed to defeat an opponent that vastly surpassed him in size, power and downright deadliness. He had done it through sheer skill, guts and a truckload of luck. She smirked. Not that she couldn't have done better herself.
Her face sobered. What would have happened if she hadn't made it in time to warn him? She shuddered, not liking the image her mind conjured up of his body being cleaved clean in two by that thing's tail.
"Come out." he called from below.
She was hesitant to comply.
Her right hand rose to her face, her slender fingers running slowly across the contours of its surface. Drawing the hand away from her face, she hard stared hard into its surface. There was no crimson liquid smeared over her hand, only layers of dirt. Could she really trust what she saw? An insistent voice in her head told her she couldn't. It told her the blood would always be there, whether she could see it or not.
"There is no blood" she whispered to herself angrily. She had left the blood behind.
The guy down there was waiting for her to show her face. If she didn't go down there now she would be giving into her fear. She would be acting like a coward and if there was one thing she wasn't, it was a coward.
She rolled off the tree limb and fell gracefully to the ground beneath her, a few meters behind the young man. As she landed, she rolled forward on her shoulder to absorb the momentum of the fall and came to stop in a crouching position. She hoped this sword-wielding stranger would be nothing like the Kuno she remembered.
The young man spun around to face her, his sword raised once more and one foot placed in front of another in a position of readiness.
She got up from her crouch and stood in an as unthreatening a manner as she could manage, her feet next to each other and her hands open in front of her. She didn't want to get off to a bad start. They usually wound up having bad endings.
Her heart sank as a pair of forest green eyes widened and the young man before her took a step back, his sword arm falling limply to his side.
"What are you?" he asked slowly, his voice hushed.
The question felt almost like a physical blow. A list of possible answers forced their way into her head. Pervert. Freak. Jerk. Monster.
She turned her head in shame, her matted red hair coming down over her face to hide it from view. Her hands moved to her sides and clenched into tight balls. The familiar coppery taste appeared on her tongue as she bit down on her lower lip.
She should have known better.
Her feet began to move. The trees were moving past her. She was running. Her legs screamed at her in protest, but she wouldn't listen to their complaints. She needed to get as far away as possible.
Unfortunately for her, she was hungry, tired, and more than a little unfocused. She didn't get very far before tripping over a well-concealed root and falling face first into an unforgiving tree trunk. The back of her collar bit into the skin at the back of her neck as it arched backwards from the impact and her eyes watered as pain flared around her bloodied nose.
Her vision blurry, she grabbed at the soft ground around her and crawled forward.
"Stop" a voice came from behind her, a hand grabbing onto her shoulder. "You're hurting yourself"
She shrugged off the hand and continued forward, but she wasn't allowed to get far. A weight pressed down on her back, pinning her to the ground and halting her movement. A pair of gloved hands grabbed her bare arms and held them down at her side. She struggled against the hold but no matter how much she writhed or wriggled she couldn't break free.
"Stop this, you silly woman" his breath brushed against her neck.
"Let go of me!" she yelled
"No. Not until you swear to stop this"
"I swear. Now let me go!"
"Forgive me for not believing"
"Just let me go." her voice rose in pitch. The close physical proximity. The feeling of being trapped against the ground. It was all too familiar. She could feel herself succumbing to the tidal wave of anxiety building inside her.
Corpses.
Their putrid stench, their hollow gazes burning into her back. Their unbearable closeness, as they were piled on top of her like sardines in a can, juices running. She couldn't move, their cold dead flesh pressing in on her from all sides, pinning her down under their collective weight. Bodily fluid collected and congealed at the bottom, threatening to drown her if she didn't keep her nose up. How many of these corpses had been of her own making?
"Hey, what's wrong? I didn't mean to..." a voice broke through the nightmarish memory. She felt herself being turned over.
Her back arched forward. She began to dry heave, overcome with revulsion and nausea, but there was nothing to throw up. The face of her captor looked down at her with a panicked expression. She wanted to stop the painful motions but she was helpless to their effects. Her sides were burning.
'Kami-sama' she wheezed, her eyes watering, before falling into another series of dry heaves.
Finally, Kami-sama saw fit to show mercy on her. A cool breeze came washing over her face carrying with it the earthy smells of the forest. It drove away the smells of death and reduced the nausea to a level where she was no longer compelled to throw up
She fell flat onto her back, breathing hard, her eyes closed in relief.
"I'm not a monster" the raspy words came from her mouth but she had difficulty identifying them as her own. She opened her eyes and stared with determination into the eyes of the stranger.
"I'm not a monster" she repeated, this time with as much conviction as she could muster.
Ranma waited for him to refute her words, for him to mock her foolish denial of the truth or simply look back in disgust.
A ghost of a smile flickered across his face. "No you're not."
She looked at him in surprise.
"I'm not?" she asked dumbly.
"No you're not." he repeated.
She felt lighter, like a great boulder had been rolled off her chest. Three little words. That's all they were, but they meant so much to her.
"You're bleeding." he observed quietly, his hand hovering uncertainly over her face before drawing back to rest on his lap "Is it broken?"
"Nah." she replied as she traced a finger down the bridge of her nose. She looked up at him hopefully "You wouldn't happen to have any food, would you?"
He shook his head.
Disappointed, Ranma shifted onto her side and clutched her stomach. She probably wouldn't be able to hold anything down now anyway, but the abdominal pains were becoming more persistent. "What do you want from me?"
Ranma felt a little uncomfortable with the way he stared at her so long before answering, but she gave no outward sign of her discomfort.
"I didn't need your help." he said with a scowl.
She understood how he felt. Back on earth she would probably have been a little ticked off if someone interfered on her behalf in one of her battles, but this had been no harmless duel between rivals. This had been a matter of life and death. Part of her wanted to ask this guy if he would have preferred if she hadn't warned him and he had gotten killed himself, but she wasn't seeking confrontation.
"But if you want a reward, come to my castle and you shall receive one"
"It's ok. I don't want anything".
He looked surprised for a second before he looking away indignantly "Fine"
Silence descended upon them and Ranma wondered what was supposed to happen next. She waited for the guy to leave now that she had declined his offer of a reward, but he made no move to stand.
"What's your name?" he asked out of nowhere.
"Ranma"
"I am Van"
Ranma offered him a wan smile "Nice to meet'cha, Van"
"What are you doing here?"
"Just a little lost"
Another drawn out silence. Ranma felt her eyelids grow heavy, but she struggled against their attempts to close her eyes. She wouldn't go to sleep until he was gone. Why was he still here if he wasn't going to say anything?
Finally he spoke again "You shouldn't be out here like this"
"Feh" She waved a hand dismissively. Ranma Saotome was a survivor; she had been through worse. All she needed now was a nice long nap and then she would hunt for something to eat. "I'll be fine."
"You don't look fine to me" He quipped, apparently having other ideas. She felt herself being lifted off the ground. "I'm getting you out of here"
She didn't bother with resistance; she just didn't have it in her at the moment. Instead she let exhaustion claim her body and guide her mind to the realm of the unconscious, hoping vaguely as lucidity left her that there would be food when she woke up.
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She opened her eyes to the sight of wood-grain and hay. It seemed she was lying on a wooden surface padded with hay, and she had a thick blanket wrapped around her. Short wooden boards surround the wooden surface on all sides making a small open top compartment. There was a slight swaying movement that gave her the impression that something was moving beneath the wood. Up at the front, sitting outside the compartment itself was a figure with its back to her. She assumed it was the driver of whatever they were riding. She groaned as she dragged herself into a sitting position. Her body ached.
"I see you're awake." came a familiar voice.
Clutching her blanket tightly under her chin, she turned her head towards the voice. Van was sitting beside her, leaning against the back with his arms resting over the top of side board.
Taking a closer look at the guy she noticed how young he looked now the dirt and grime had been removed from his face. He looked around her age, with a lightly muscled athletic frame similar to the one that had once belonged to her.
"Here" he said, holding out a long stick of something that smelled suspiciously like food.
Ranma let go of the blanket with her right hand and reached out to take it. Once he let go, she brought it to her mouth and took a cautious nibble from the end. It was dried salted meat, very chewy and with a slight tang to it. Deciding it was definitely edible; she tore into it ravenously and finished it within seconds.
Her stomach rumbled loudly, the sleeping beast having been awoken. The food had done little to sate her appetite, only making her aware again of how hungry she was. She regretted eating the stick of meat so fast.
"Want more?"
Ranma looked over at Van who was holding a small bundle that contained a dozen or so of the dried meat sticks.
"Yes please" she replied eagerly.
He tossed the bundle over to her. She caught it with both hands as it landed in her lap. Pulling out a single stick she began to chew on it slowly, wanting to make it last.
She looked over the side as she chewed. She wanted to see what they were riding but could only see a mass of shaggy fur from her vantage point. They must have been more than four metres off the ground though. Whatever animal they were riding atop must have been pretty damn big.
When she shifted her gaze upwards Ranma's jaw dropped. Hanging within the cloudless blue sky was the Earth and its moon. It seemed utterly implausible, but she knew somehow that what she was staring at wasn't an illusion. It was...
"..Home" she said in awe.
"What?" Van asked.
Ranma pointed up at the sky.
"That's where I come from." she spoke longingly. "I'm trying to get back"
"You come from the mystic moon?" he asked incredulously.
Ranma's face scrunched up in confusion "Mystic... moon?
"The blue moon that hangs in our sky." The driver turned around to face them, and surprised Ranma by the fact he wasn't human. He was a wolf like humanoid, though his snout was flatter and not as elongated as that of a normal wolf. In the places not hidden beneath his blue dogi he was covered by dark brown fur, apart from his face, which was covered in a very light brown fur. She had seen stranger things.
"Yea" she replied.
"Ain't that something" said the wolfman with a grin, revealing rows of sharp triangular teeth that gleamed pearly white, before he turned back around.
"No wonder you look so..." Van's voice trailed off.
She turned to look at Van with a frown. "Look so what?"
"Strange" he replied quickly.
The wolfman chuckled at the front.
Well, in Ranma's book, strange wasn't too bad. There was plenty worse than strange.
"Where are we going?" she asked, a little curious.
"Home. My home that is" Van replied.
She pursed her lips. When she had let him take her, it had seemed like a good decision. Well she didn't really have a choice in the matter anyway, but now that she was wide awake and thinking straight, she wondered if the whole thing was such a good idea. Accepting lifts from strangers whilst in a state of weakness wasn't in keeping with the basic rules of surviving in strange places. How could she be sure that this guy had good intentions?
"What are you gonna do with me?" she asked, the hint of worry creeping into her voice despite best attempt to hide it.
"What kind of question is that?" he practically yelled, his eyes flashing with anger.
Ranma drew in on herself as he raised his voice at her, drawing her blanket down over her head to cover her face.
"Sorry" she mumbled through the material.
"Look, you don't need apologize" he grumbled "I owe you a debt, and I intend to repay it as best I can. Where we are going, you will have food and shelter. And I will try my hardest to get you back home"
Biting down on her thumb, she stared wide eyed into the material that covered her eyes. He had just offered to help her out, and for free. Food, someplace to sleep, and she might even get to go home again.
Slowly she pulled the blanket down away from her head and turned to face Van.
"You promise?" she asked hesitantly, wanting to bind him to his words before he could back out of them.
"Yea, sure. I promise"
She wanted believe him, but it was one of those things that sounded too good to be true. There had to be a catch, a falseness. She searched his eyes, worrying the corner of her lower lip. Van just stared back unwaveringly. She looked long and hard for any hint of deception but in the end she found none.
"Thank you" She spoke finally, an embarrassing amount of emotion behind her words.
"Dammit woman, don't sound so grateful!" He looked away indignantly, his face reddening. "It is I that is repaying you. Don't you forget that."
The wolfman howled with laughter up at the front and Ranma couldn't stop the smile as it spread across her face. Her luck had finally taken a turn for the better.