Ranma ½ Fanfiction

Desperation

Part two: Then there was the Challenge

Chapter Three: Still Silenced

The Amazon village was busy at this time of the year. Crops were being harvested, and there was not a soul in the village that didn't have a job to do. Even the little children were carrying baskets, or sitting on the shoulders of their fathers, to pick the ripest berries off of the tallest stalks of the trees.

Mais Su and Shan Pu had just been let back into the village a few days before the harvest began. They were not hard to distinguish in the throngs of people hard at work. Their hair was still not long like all of the other women in the tribe. They also wore black dresses, the color of new life. They were also very reserved, and didn't talk to anyone unless they were talked too. They didn't talk at all to men. They didn't even acknowledge that men existed. It was part ofpurification.

*****

Mais Su looked over at Shan. She had a grimace on her face. She could tell that Shan wished that they were still training. The three months that she had spent with the purpled haired girl had been exhausting to say the least. She had learned so much. Some she was sure that she had known somehow from before. But, some things she had learned, and she had loved to learn. Shan, was surprised, at least that is what she had said. She had told her, that she was a natural, and that Mais Su had great potential.

They had talked those months. They were very close. Shan had taught her Chinese. Shan had told her about the laws, the customs, everything. All of the things that she had absorbed, it actually scared her. But Shan had been there when she couldn't take it, Shan had been there when she needed to cry, and Shan had comforted her, and reassured her that it would all be all right.

Although Mais Su didn't have her memory, of the past, she and Shan could still talk about Shan's past secrets. Shan even revealed, that once she had a secret crush. They had talked long hours into the night about the tribe, about Shan, about Shan's secrets.

Now three months she had spent with this girl, and they were soul mates. Although Mais Su still hadn't told Shan about her dreams, that was something she wasn't sure that she had wanted anyone to know. Her dreams, her memories, or whatever they were, was something that she held dearly. Never did she want them taken. Those memories, gave her comfort when even Shan had tried to quell her tears. They kept her from feeling like a bottomless abyss.

She and Shan were living with her mother now. Her mother had a baby, it was very young, she hadn't noticed it before she had left. But now she and Shan took turns babysitting it. It was a beautiful baby, she noticed that it had chocolate brown eyes just like her. Today was her turn to watch the baby, which was called Aka.

As soon as they had come back from solitude, they had been assigned certain tasks, and new rules. The rules were harsh, but were balanced in their own way. She was glad that she was at least allowed to talk with her mother, and was able to watch her baby sister.

She and Shan now did regular work around the village, if rarely anyone even tried to talk with them, it was just to ask a question, or something of irrelevance. Never, did a man even look at them for more than a second. Mais Su wasn't sure about the whole thing, but she followed Shan in every way she could, and in doing so didn't think about complaining.

Mia was pulled out of her thoughts when Shan tapped her on the forehead.

"Earth to Mia-chan, your sister is wailing, and you haven't given her the time of day. Is something on your mind?"

She smiled weakly, and pulled her sister out of the sling that was holding her to her chest. The baby didn't stop there, it wasn't until she had a bottle in her mouth that she stopped.

"No. I was just thinking." Mia, as if with no effort at all, hefted the baby, with one hand, into a more comfortable position, and held the bottle more firmly, so that she wouldn't swallow any air.

"Shan, she is too hot, lets go out of this sun, her poor face is red as a radish."

"Ok. I'll go tell Great-Grand-mother, that we are going into the hut to server lunch for her and your mother."

Shan ran off, and Mia started toward the hut. Upon arriving, she went to the back where there was a basket covered with blankets, and secured with some string. She untied the string, and pulled the blankets off the baskets top. Inside were three jugs. All the jugs were full of warm milk, each jug wrapped in a towel to keep it at room temperature. They would be bad in a day if they were not drunk, and on the side of each was a label. She pulled out the freshest one, and poured a fourth of the jug into a new bottle. She then secured the lid again. Her sister was starting to awaken from the sleep that had come over her as soon as she had ingested the milk. She looked into her sisters beautiful eyes as they fluttered open, announcing with a squeak that she was awake. As Mia stared into their depths, something flashed . . . It was to fast, for her to remember anything, but she felt something, something that she couldn't explain. It was a form of grief, it went right to her gut, and her soul, it hurt when she tried to remember. It was all so blank, but, for that second, she had seen something, it was there. She wondered.

End Chapter Three

Author Notes Short I know. Sorry about that. I have been working so hard on this though. I have been trying to move it along. The shorter chapters are helpful. Sorry that this one has no thoughts. Well maybe some but they are not thoughts that are 'marked'. Maybe there will be more in the future. But you get a little more info about Akane and her kid and her new life as an Amazon.