Welcome to Chapter 2, and again the disclaimer, I do not own these characters.
2
He walked until he was in a forest, far from Nerima, and looked for a spot to make camp. Once he located the ideal spot, he easily set things up, from his years of experience camping with his father. "Now, how do I come up with a decision?" he asked his sleeping bag. Unfortunately, it provided no answer. He wandered around his campsite, and as the sun began to set, he found himself no closer to a solution than when he arrived. Ranma's stomach growled, and he made a fire to boil water for his instant noodles. As the kettle sat in the fire a tantalizing aroma drifted toward him. Following his nose, he wandered into another campsite.
"Aiya! What Airen doing here?" Shampoo called out as she glomped onto his arm.
"Shampoo! What are you doing out here?" He quickly fought for possession of his arm back.
"Shampoo training with great-grandmother. Is Ranma training too?"
"Something like that. Where is the old ghoul?"
An empty bowl flew through the air and hit Ranma in the back of his head.
"Ow! Whadja do that for?" He rubbed the back of his head tenderly, as he turned to face the elder amazon.
"So is that oaf of a father out here with you?" Cologne asked.
"No, I'm by myself."
"And what is it that you are trying to accomplish out here by yourself?"
"It's complicated, or at least it is for me." he mumbled the last part to himself.
Cologne peered at him, as if she could read his thoughts. "In that case you must be hungry. Shampoo, why don't you serve up our guest?"
Shampoo immediately jumped into action, giving Ranma a hefty portion of rice and beef stew before serving her grandmother and herself. She scooted up beside Ranma, ready to enjoy the meal.
Cologne took her bowl and disappeared.
"Where did she go?" Ranma looked around but there was no sign of the woman.
"Dunno, maybe great-grandmother leave so not disturb." Shampoo snuggled closer to Ranma.
Ranma made a loud gulping noise. "Actually, Shampoo since you're here, can you answer a question for me?" This gave her enough pause that Ranma was able to pull away.
"What Airen want to ask?"
"Yesterday, were you going to let the time run out and have that red sting bind us permanently?"
Shampoo looked away from him, and played with a rock on the floor with the toe of her shoe.
"Were you?"
"No." Her response was so low, he almost couldn't hear it.
"You weren't?" He needed to be sure of her answer.
"No." She replied louder. "Shampoo was going to cut, but Akane cut first. Shampoo want Ranma to want Shampoo."
Nabiki was right about that. "Then why did you-" Ranma's question was left unasked as they both heard the sound of something large approaching them quickly. They stood on guard, waiting as the sounds grew nearer. They were ready for a number of different scenarios: a lost pig-boy, a blind duck, a conniving panda, an underwear thief, crazy siblings, but what they were not ready for was a giant gorilla to run into the opening, grab Shampoo and continue running.
"Airen!" Shampoo cried as she was carried through the trees.
"Shampoo!" Ranma called back and chased after the gorilla. What is going on now?
The gorilla moved quickly, and Ranma fought to keep sight of it, but it was moving quicker than he was. He lost track of it, almost as if it just disappeared. "Where did that-" Ranma took a wrong step and the ground crumbled beneath his foot and he tumbled down the hill and landed inside a body of water. He immediately surfaced and sighed in relief when he realized it was a hot spring. I didn't know there was a hot spring out here.
"Shampoo!" he called, hoping that she would cry out and he could find the direction she was taken.