A scraping noise sounded. It was Artena's chair moving across the stone
floor. A rustling of cloth was the woman's standing, then came the
sharp clicking of heels to rock as Artena exited the dining room, went
out into the hallway. The footsteps faded away and Chloe's food swam in
a hot salty sea.
Chloe's sweaty hands were on her legs, clenching the material of the
pants within each fist, soaking it through. She held her eyes shut
because it was better than seeing everything blurry. Thin snot trickled
into her mouth over the overhang of her upper lip. The little food
Chloe had eaten was on the verge of successful rebellion.
After a few minutes of silence interrupted occasionally by a wet
sniffle, she knew Artena wasn't going to be coming right back. Which
made things even worse, though she fought to make it not so. She wiped
her face with the sleeves of her shirt, and they turned wet and heavy
and sticky, but she recovered herself enough to realize her food had
gone cold, and so had Artena's.
She might not be good enough for Noir, but she could at least clean the
dishes, so she set about doing so. Chloe carried the dishes into the
kitchen, scraping the plates and other implements clean, and then
scrubbed them in the sink. After each item was clean she dried her
hands with one towel and then carefully did the same for the dish with a
second. It was slow, doing both tasks by herself. Adjusting her weight
was painful as she leaned to one side to pick something up off the
counter for washing, or leaned to the other to pick one of the towels
up. Plus she had to walk over to the appropriate cupboard for each
dish, since there wasn't a clean counter to stack the things on. But
Chloe wanted to get the job done before Artena returned to see her in
the middle of another unhand led mess, so she kept at it. Each bit of
inflicted pain her knee could throw against her was met with a
surpassing desperate need to not fail in this, as well.
She finished the dishes, then wiped the counter and table down
carefully. The wolf chewing on her leg went along obligingly, and then
there was no more to clean. Chloe wondered if Ranma's kick had done
more than sprain, if something had torn or broken. It felt like it.
Chloe hobbled to the room with the laundry supplies, and Artena was
there, her back turned to the doorway Chloe stood in. She was kneeling
on the floor with a wooden bucket before her, a metal rubbing board
angled into the water. Artena scrubbed the cloak back and forth across
the board, the sudsy water sloshing around in the wide pail. Chloe
remained where she was, not wanting to get closer. Artena didn't
respond to her presence at all.
Her leg hurt, though she was leaning on the opposite limb and the
doorframe. Should she ask Artena to look at it? Chloe had mentioned
her injury when telling of her fight with Ranma, so the older woman
already knew. Artena had also seen that she was having trouble walking.
Maybe she didn't think it was that bad? Maybe she didn't care.
"Artena-sama," Chloe said quietly. No response, the scrubbing
continued. "I'm going to bed, Artena-sama."
She waited a moment and then turned on her good knee and headed off to
her room. When she got there she pushed herself into bed, pulling her
leg around awkwardly, and raised the covers to her chin. She would wait
until Artena came to tuck her in.
Soon her knee started hurting, the position uncomfortable. Lying on her
back made it stretched out, the natural tendency for the knee to be
slightly bent foiled by the flat surface of the mattress and the weight
of her leg. So she turned to her side, to let the knee lie flat against
the bed. That left her other knee on top, a ball of pressure bearing
down painfully.
Chloe shoved her pillow down between her legs to ease the pressure.
That helped immediately, the cool fluff soothing her injury. Soon she
caught herself starting to drift off. She hadn't slept in two days, but
she wanted Artena to come and say goodnight. She would wait.
So she kept pinching herself as needed, opening her eyes to the maximum,
employing little tricks to keep herself from falling asleep. She didn't
know how long it was but eventually her legs started getting warm as her
body heat was absorbed into the pillow. Her lower body started to
sweat, the previously comfortable room temperature rising to the seek-
shade zone. The sheets, too, got hotter, and the bed was a slow-cooking
roaster that was just getting started.
Flapping her sheets to get some fresh air between them didn't help but
momentarily. Folding the sheets back and leaving herself exposed to the
air quickly left her feeling cold except where the pillow was. She
didn't want to remove that because then her knee would start hurting
again. Instead, she pulled the sheets back over her body. They were
cool for a little while and Chloe wondered how long she had been waiting
for Artena.
Before too long she had to move the sheets away again. A few times she
could have fallen asleep but held out long enough to become
uncomfortable again, which left her fidgety and restless and wide awake.
Artena would be along any time now.
The candle that had been burning on the nightstand beside her bed went
out. The sudden blackness was only broken by little wisps of white
smoke that streamed up from the burnt string that hid under a puddle of
wax. Chloe stared wide-eyed and concentrating until the wick cooled.
Tendrils of white spread across the room as her eyes adjusted to the
lack of light. They made odd shapes, like clouds, and Chloe wondered if
it was cloudy out, and if it would rain, cold water falling upon Ranma
in a flood of tiny bullets. She hoped so. She hoped he went running
for shelter and slipped on a wet rock or in the mud and then hit his
head and died.
Chloe noticed that the smoke was gone and wondered how long it had been.
How long had she been waiting? Was Artena still scrubbing at the cloak,
whoever it belonged to, or had she finished and decided not to tuck
Chloe in? Was it because she thought Chloe was already asleep? No, if
she cared she would have come to check anyway. So Artena was either
still trying to work out those bloodstains or she was in bed and
sleeping without any concern and perhaps with a bit of resentment
towards the undeserving. Chloe wasn't fit to live with Artena; that
girl was, but not Chloe.
That girl did everything better. Everything but the knives, and so
Chloe practiced with those every day, even though the girl would still
win their fights, Chloe was the more skilled in that respect. So she
practiced to keep it so.
The high, small window set in one wall of her room let in a bit of light
and soon Chloe could see her cupboard and the door and the stones built
up around and above and below her. They were all in varying shades of
black and dark blue shadow but it was enough for her to watch the door
in its motionlessness, waiting. Artena would come to tuck her in, just
like she always did except for the night of Ranma's arrival. She would.
So Chloe stared at the door, eyes wide-open in alertness, silent,
expectant, and ignoring how the sheet below her head became damp where
it touched her down-turned cheek.
Ranma woke, looked up sleepily, and got whacked in the eyeball by a
raindrop. Then he scowled and pulled his shirt collar up over his head
for a bit of protection for the light barrage of chilled suicide
bombers. Problem fixed, he went back to unconsciousness.
Ranma's arm was sore the next day all around where Chloe had stabbed
him. Moving his arm wasn't too painful, but it was reminiscent of over-
enthusiastic training sessions that had been punctuated by deep bruises
that went all the way to the bone. That was what his wound felt like.
The scab over the cut itself looked healthy enough and he guessed that
his arm would be fully repaired within just a few days.
His hand was bothering him far more, however. Every time he clenched
his fist, opened it up, or tried to hold something he would get a
burning sensation like from a disturbed paper cut. With the sharpness
of Chloe's knife and the fact that the blade had barely done more than
open a flap of skin on his hand and cause a lot of blood to spill out, a
paper cut was just a less affected version of what he had.
Everything he did that raised a sweat dropped his hand into a vat of
salty acid. He hoped that cut went away quickly.
For now, though, he snacked on some more grapes. Yum. Grapes for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner of every day. He loved it. If Chloe came
out he might just skin and eat her for the meat. Not that he knew how
to do the skinning, his father always did that, but still, he was going
to have to find something else to fill his belly with. Maybe sneak into
the Manor and steal some food? It couldn't be that hard.
After finishing breakfast he looked over at the Manor to make sure Chloe
wasn't around, then headed back to the coliseum. Time to get some more
practice in. He knew what he was doing wrong now.
A bird mocked him, its voice shrill and unreasonable, proclaiming that
it could throw knives better than he could. Ranma wondered if it was
right. He'd spent a few more hours trying to improve, to no avail.
Maybe he was some kind of knife cripple. Did handicaps get that
specific?
Ranma finished collecting his knives and returned to his throwing point.
No matter which method he used, right handed throwing, left handed
throwing, or throwing with both hands, his performance was abysmal. He
quit using his injured hand after only a few tries--his accuracy went
down even more, and the flapping skin started to leak blood from
underneath. The other hand didn't do too much better, but he'd keep on
trying it. He refused to give up, though the bird's voice grew louder
and more insistent.
Some of his knives sought out avian intelligence on the situation but
were turned down without being received. That damn bird.
Soon enough he was hungry again. The bird became more than a simple
annoyance. It was mocking him, saying, 'Eat me. Eat me, if you can!'
while chuckling in its insane way. Ranma didn't know what kind of bird
it was but the thing looked like it tasted non-grapelike and had a meaty
texture. That was a big plus.
The sun bore down and his arm sweated and ached and whined like crazy as
he worked it for hours without a break. His rebellious limb tried to
toss itself to freedom with every abusive exercise of it, but he refused
to let it go. It was his arm. He owned it, no matte what it might
think of the matter.
He threw knife after knife at the wooden post, the only difference
coming when the bird would settle down for a minute, on the grass or on
a stack of bricks or even on top of the post. Then he'd throw a few
knives at it, which never hit but scared the feathered fellow into
taking a walk, its obscenities banished temporarily. Next open season
was again declared on the target and he went to town, unsuccessfully.
This simple practice just wasn't getting him anywhere. He knew his
father would have been able to figure out the problem, but the old man
wasn't around. Which way to Japan? South? East? West? He didn't
think it was north, mountains in their white-bearded and cranky dotage
could be seen up that way.
Ranma picked up his knives and went to go get lunch. The bird followed
him like some demonic imp sent to make his life a nagging hell, poking,
prodding at him with its incessant presence.
He kept an eye out as he walked towards the Manor but Chloe was nowhere
around. Was she still upset about losing to him? He hadn't beaten her
that badly--his kick to her knee shouldn't have hurt the girl that much,
and she'd gotten him twice with her knife. She'd been the one unable to
fight at the end of their match, but she hadn't done too badly. Better
than anybody but his father and some of the dojo masters he had fought
while traveling. So where was she?
Ranma ate from the outside edge of the grape field closest to the Manor,
watching the building entrance in between chomps on fleshy victims.
Maybe Chloe had gone to the village, or to somewhere else nearby, and
since he hadn't seen her leave...
He frowned. Chloe leaving when he wasn't paying attention was no good.
He'd never find out which way to the village or Japan or anything, like
that. So had she left, or was she just inside the Manor? Maybe she was
outside and somewhere he couldn't see her?
Ranma finished another grape and stood, then turned around to look at
the hills surrounding him. He didn't see Chloe, but she could have just
passed out of sight on the backside of a hill, or gotten far enough away
that she was a small, slow-moving dot that was just unnoticeable.
Well, there was one place he could check...and it'd have food, too.
He studied the Manor intently. He knew that there were windows on all
sides, plus the front doorway. Big building, to have only one entrance.
The terrain surrounding it was bare enough that anybody paying attention
would be likely to see his approach. Which meant getting there as fast
as possible was the best way to cut down on visibility.
Ranma ran quickly towards the front door, thinking sneaky thoughts,
quiet thoughts, thoughts about nobody being around but a few bunnies and
an annoying bird. A hundred feet, seventy-five, fifty, twenty-five,
fifteen, ten, five. He stopped abruptly when the doorway filled before
he got there and Artena stood blocking his passage. She didn't look
quite as friendly as he remembered.
"Uh...hi," he said, slightly out of breath. Grin. Happy thoughts,
happy thoughts, starving-little-angel thoughts. Feed me!
"Why are you here?" Artena asked. The annoying bird flapped its way
over his head and settled on her shoulder. It stared at him and Artena
paid it no mind. Weird.
"Ummm..." Ranma took a cautious sniff, tried not to give himself away.
No food, dammit. "Which way is Japan?"
"Any direction will get you closer to Japan," was her response.
For some reason he hadn't expected her to tell him. "Right. Say, where
is Chloe? I haven't seen her."
"Why do you want to know?"
"She invited me for lunch..."
The bird laughed at him and he wondered if he could shove one of his
knives down its throat. Artena's mouth just twitched slightly. "We
already ate lunch," she said. "If you do the dishes you can join us for
dinner."
"Oh, well, maybe later. When is Chloe going to be out?" He could
probably get Chloe mad enough to tell him where Japan was, just to make
him go away, but he was sure it wouldn't work with Artena. It wasn't
working with Chloe so far, either, though. The Saotome School of
Anything-Goes Being Annoying was usually more successful than this.
Maybe it didn't work as well on girls? Or maybe Chloe knew all the
tricks? It sure seemed like it.
"Not for a few days. She sprained one of her knees and has to stay off
of it for a while." She looked sad. So did the bird, oddly enough.
Why was it on Artena's shoulder? It abandoned the sad look and mocked
him in some strange birdish manner. He wasn't sure how that worked, but
something about the way it was looking at him was definitely scornful.
"Do you want to tell her you're sorry?" Artena asked, distracting him
from the avian.
"What? No." It was Chloe's fault anyway, attacking him like that.
Plus she'd ripped his shirt. Twice, actually. Well, it had been her
shirt first, but it was his now so that didn't matter. "I didn't even
kick her that hard."
The bird laughed and launched itself into the air, flew off. Artena
paid it no attention, and Ranma considered trying to hit it with one of
his knives. Soon it was a tiny black dot in a clean Etch-A-Sketch sky.
Ranma turned back to Artena and notice how precisely in the center of
the doorway she stood. He hadn't seen her fight any, but knew he
wouldn't make it past her if he tried, so he didn't. "Okay. Well, I'm
going, then. Tell Chloe I said 'hi'."
"I will," was her response, the slight smile on her face again.
Ranma headed off after the bird, keeping an eye out for slower moving
critters. Maybe he could tag a bunny or something. Anything would be
better than more grapes.
Chloe looked up from her book as Artena entered the room. "Artena-
sama?" she asked. A pillow was propped under her knee for support, and
Artena had brought her another one earlier to put her back against so
she could sit up properly.
"Ranma came by," the woman said. "He told me to tell you that he said
'hello'."
"Um, okay. Did his arm look infected?" A brief prayer.
"No, it looked fine. It will be well-healed soon. Probably before your
knee is."
Chloe nodded. It would be. Ranma was the better fighter, so he'd
recover faster. That girl did, definitely. "Did he say anything else,
Artena-sama?"
"He wanted to know where Japan was."
Yeah, so he could walk there. "Did you tell him?" Chloe had to kill
him. If he left, that'd be harder. Could she get a rocket launcher and
kill him with that? It'd stop his grape filching, but Artena didn't
seem to care much about that. Probably not.
"No, I didn't. He'll stay here."
"Thank you, Artena-sama."
"How are you going to kill him, Chloe?"
"I don't know, Artena-sama." Unless she could find him sleeping, Ranma
held the advantage. Her knee testified to that.
"Well, keep thinking on it, then. I'm sure you'll come up with
something," Artena said encouragingly. "I have to go clean the dishes
now, so call if you need anything." She smiled at Chloe and then
stepped out of the room without waiting for a response.
Chloe looked back down at her book. She was rereading Alice in
Wonderland, since she hadn't gone back to the village to get a
replacement yet. The book had been in one of the other rooms, Chloe
forgot where she had left it, but Artena had brought it to her that
morning, along with another pillow. She'd been cheerful and as kind as
ever, checking Chloe's knee carefully so as to not cause any pain.
She hadn't stayed awake long enough for Artena to tuck her in, and had
been woken to breakfast in bed. Artena had carried in a chair to keep
her company during the meal, handing Chloe her glass of milk when she
wanted it. There wasn't a place on the bed to set the cup down, so
Chloe was glad about that. Lunch had been delivered the same way and
they had talked normally during both.
Artena had said nothing about the cloak and whether she had fixed it.
Chloe hadn't asked, though she wanted to. Artena hadn't given it back,
so she would assume it to be trashed. Better that than simply
unreturned from lack of faith. She was pretty sure which it was,
though.
Chloe sighed, put her book down, and wondered how she was going to kill
Ranma. Catching him when he was asleep or going to the bathroom was all
she could come up with. Both of those would require either great luck
or an ability to follow Ranma completely undetected until he engaged in
one of those activities, or something else gave her a similar
opportunity.
She was pretty sure she wasn't skilled enough at sneaking to avoid
Ranma's notice, and a week and a half wasn't enough time to improve the
necessary amount--especially when some of that time would be spent
waiting for her knee to heal. She really only had about a week that she
would be able to use in order to kill Ranma. That wasn't enough time to
get better. Which meant that she was going to have to get lucky,
instead, or trick the pigtailed boy into making himself vulnerable.
She had already pulled the weepy female routine once and it had worked,
but she didn't know if even someone as dumb as Ranma would fall for it
twice from the same person. But there were other ways of getting to
him, to be sure. Pretending to be hurt was only the most obvious one.
Some of the others would require Artena's assistance, however, and Chloe
wasn't sure if that would be allowed. She was supposed to kill Ranma
herself, not with somebody else's help. Artena could easily execute
Ranma at any time; that she hadn't done so indicated it was supposed to
be a test of Chloe's abilities.
So, no help from Artena. She wanted to kill Ranma on her own anyway.
But how?
Ranma chased the rabbit. It hopped to the left, to the right, more to
the right, darted between the grape posts and took off down the row on
the other side. When Ranma got to the end of the row he was in he
turned to where the bunny had escaped. It was gone. Damn rabbit.
The grapes laughed at him. Well, they'd get theirs. He'd see to that.
The bird had taken off, he'd not seen the thing since it left him and
Artena standing at the entrance to the Manor. Then that damn rabbit had
shown up and taken up the mocking game. What was it with the wildlife
here? Were they trained in psychological warfare? Some variant of the
Saotome School of Anything-Goes Being Annoying? No, his pop was back in
Japan, wherever that was, and wouldn't have taught anybody but Ranma
anyway.
Any direction gets him closer to Japan than staying here. Heh. That
was true, but it really didn't help him any. The world was a big place.
He didn't know how far he was from Japan or what direction he had to go
in to get back home, but he was sure that picking a direction randomly
would probably make it take a long, long time.
Which meant that he was going to stay here, wandering around in the
valley with no clue where to go. The grapes would do him in before too
long, Ranma was sure. Practicing with those knives had gotten old and
annoying. He wasn't getting any better, he didn't know why; he
carefully copied Chloe's movements and the accurate throws that she made
almost every try were wildly varying misses for him. So that was no
good. Plus, Chloe was going to be inside the Manor for the next few
days, too, which meant that along with not wanting to practice he would
have nobody to play with. Boring.
Ranma started walking through the grape field again, looking for more
rabbits. Even a simple opponent was better than none at all. And if he
did catch one, he could finally eat something different for a change,
break up the routine of grape after grape for days on end. How he'd
ever enjoyed the things he had no idea.
Chloe sat on the ground out in front of the Manor, her back up against a
tree and a pillow set underneath her knees. Artena had put a second
case on the pillow to make sure it didn't get dirty. Her book was on
her lap, angled nicely because her legs were raised somewhat.
Where was Ranma? She had expected him to show up shortly after she came
outside, but she was already a good ways through the book and it'd been
a couple of hours since he had come by shortly after lunch. If he'd
decided to try leaving again, well, that'd make things difficult.
Tracking him down when he left in a random direction and had a lead of
half a week after her leg healed would be almost impossible. The only
way she'd be able to find him is if he turned back towards the valley or
if he lucked out in his bearing and ended up coming across the village.
They wouldn't do anything to a linguistically inarticulate young boy,
not without instructions, but if she showed up asking about him they
would give her whatever assistance they needed. But that was only if he
went by there, and the odds on that were rather small when he would be
taking a blind guess.
Archimedes touched down a few feet in front of her, head cocked to the
side so it could look upon her directly. The bird hopped forward a few
times until it was beside Chloe's legs.
Chloe smiled at her. Artena hadn't thought the name fit. The bird
wasn't that smart, she had said, but Chloe thought the opposite.
Archimedes was the most intelligent bird she'd ever met. Archimedes
wasn't a female name, though, so Artena had been right about that.
"Hello," she said. "Artena doesn't have anything for you to do?"
The bird's head shook back and forth, a quick, jerky set of motions.
Smart though it was, its communication abilities were still rather
limited. It seemed to understand her well enough, though.
"Have you seen Ranma? The boy that's been here lately?"
Archimedes stared at her, and Chloe wondered if it didn't understand,
then it turned itself to face out towards the grape fields, a bit west
of southwest. Ranma must be out by the far edge of the fruit, probably
gorging himself on the things again.
Chloe nodded to the bird when it turned back to look at her, to indicate
that she understood. Its response was to hop closer to her again and
look directly at her lap, where Alice in Wonderland lie. Chloe grinned,
delighted, and put her book on the ground, then her hands to her sides
to show that the coast was clear. Archimedes jumped up on to her lap,
facing sideways so that it could continue to look at her. The impacts
as it landed on her were light, barely noticeable. The book had been
hardbound and heavier.
Slowly, Chloe brought one of her hands up. Archimedes tensed slightly.
Chloe could crush the bird in that hand, if she were of a mind to, and
she was sure that Archimedes knew that. But it remained still as she
brushed her extended index finger down the back of the smooth, egg-
fragile head. Its beak pulled upwards and her finger dug in slightly to
the crook between skull and back. She scratched, and Archimedes
crooned, a soft vibration passing into her fingertip and legs.
"Hold it still so I can chop off its head," Ranma said quietly. "I'm
gonna eat that bird."
floor. A rustling of cloth was the woman's standing, then came the
sharp clicking of heels to rock as Artena exited the dining room, went
out into the hallway. The footsteps faded away and Chloe's food swam in
a hot salty sea.
Chloe's sweaty hands were on her legs, clenching the material of the
pants within each fist, soaking it through. She held her eyes shut
because it was better than seeing everything blurry. Thin snot trickled
into her mouth over the overhang of her upper lip. The little food
Chloe had eaten was on the verge of successful rebellion.
After a few minutes of silence interrupted occasionally by a wet
sniffle, she knew Artena wasn't going to be coming right back. Which
made things even worse, though she fought to make it not so. She wiped
her face with the sleeves of her shirt, and they turned wet and heavy
and sticky, but she recovered herself enough to realize her food had
gone cold, and so had Artena's.
She might not be good enough for Noir, but she could at least clean the
dishes, so she set about doing so. Chloe carried the dishes into the
kitchen, scraping the plates and other implements clean, and then
scrubbed them in the sink. After each item was clean she dried her
hands with one towel and then carefully did the same for the dish with a
second. It was slow, doing both tasks by herself. Adjusting her weight
was painful as she leaned to one side to pick something up off the
counter for washing, or leaned to the other to pick one of the towels
up. Plus she had to walk over to the appropriate cupboard for each
dish, since there wasn't a clean counter to stack the things on. But
Chloe wanted to get the job done before Artena returned to see her in
the middle of another unhand led mess, so she kept at it. Each bit of
inflicted pain her knee could throw against her was met with a
surpassing desperate need to not fail in this, as well.
She finished the dishes, then wiped the counter and table down
carefully. The wolf chewing on her leg went along obligingly, and then
there was no more to clean. Chloe wondered if Ranma's kick had done
more than sprain, if something had torn or broken. It felt like it.
Chloe hobbled to the room with the laundry supplies, and Artena was
there, her back turned to the doorway Chloe stood in. She was kneeling
on the floor with a wooden bucket before her, a metal rubbing board
angled into the water. Artena scrubbed the cloak back and forth across
the board, the sudsy water sloshing around in the wide pail. Chloe
remained where she was, not wanting to get closer. Artena didn't
respond to her presence at all.
Her leg hurt, though she was leaning on the opposite limb and the
doorframe. Should she ask Artena to look at it? Chloe had mentioned
her injury when telling of her fight with Ranma, so the older woman
already knew. Artena had also seen that she was having trouble walking.
Maybe she didn't think it was that bad? Maybe she didn't care.
"Artena-sama," Chloe said quietly. No response, the scrubbing
continued. "I'm going to bed, Artena-sama."
She waited a moment and then turned on her good knee and headed off to
her room. When she got there she pushed herself into bed, pulling her
leg around awkwardly, and raised the covers to her chin. She would wait
until Artena came to tuck her in.
Soon her knee started hurting, the position uncomfortable. Lying on her
back made it stretched out, the natural tendency for the knee to be
slightly bent foiled by the flat surface of the mattress and the weight
of her leg. So she turned to her side, to let the knee lie flat against
the bed. That left her other knee on top, a ball of pressure bearing
down painfully.
Chloe shoved her pillow down between her legs to ease the pressure.
That helped immediately, the cool fluff soothing her injury. Soon she
caught herself starting to drift off. She hadn't slept in two days, but
she wanted Artena to come and say goodnight. She would wait.
So she kept pinching herself as needed, opening her eyes to the maximum,
employing little tricks to keep herself from falling asleep. She didn't
know how long it was but eventually her legs started getting warm as her
body heat was absorbed into the pillow. Her lower body started to
sweat, the previously comfortable room temperature rising to the seek-
shade zone. The sheets, too, got hotter, and the bed was a slow-cooking
roaster that was just getting started.
Flapping her sheets to get some fresh air between them didn't help but
momentarily. Folding the sheets back and leaving herself exposed to the
air quickly left her feeling cold except where the pillow was. She
didn't want to remove that because then her knee would start hurting
again. Instead, she pulled the sheets back over her body. They were
cool for a little while and Chloe wondered how long she had been waiting
for Artena.
Before too long she had to move the sheets away again. A few times she
could have fallen asleep but held out long enough to become
uncomfortable again, which left her fidgety and restless and wide awake.
Artena would be along any time now.
The candle that had been burning on the nightstand beside her bed went
out. The sudden blackness was only broken by little wisps of white
smoke that streamed up from the burnt string that hid under a puddle of
wax. Chloe stared wide-eyed and concentrating until the wick cooled.
Tendrils of white spread across the room as her eyes adjusted to the
lack of light. They made odd shapes, like clouds, and Chloe wondered if
it was cloudy out, and if it would rain, cold water falling upon Ranma
in a flood of tiny bullets. She hoped so. She hoped he went running
for shelter and slipped on a wet rock or in the mud and then hit his
head and died.
Chloe noticed that the smoke was gone and wondered how long it had been.
How long had she been waiting? Was Artena still scrubbing at the cloak,
whoever it belonged to, or had she finished and decided not to tuck
Chloe in? Was it because she thought Chloe was already asleep? No, if
she cared she would have come to check anyway. So Artena was either
still trying to work out those bloodstains or she was in bed and
sleeping without any concern and perhaps with a bit of resentment
towards the undeserving. Chloe wasn't fit to live with Artena; that
girl was, but not Chloe.
That girl did everything better. Everything but the knives, and so
Chloe practiced with those every day, even though the girl would still
win their fights, Chloe was the more skilled in that respect. So she
practiced to keep it so.
The high, small window set in one wall of her room let in a bit of light
and soon Chloe could see her cupboard and the door and the stones built
up around and above and below her. They were all in varying shades of
black and dark blue shadow but it was enough for her to watch the door
in its motionlessness, waiting. Artena would come to tuck her in, just
like she always did except for the night of Ranma's arrival. She would.
So Chloe stared at the door, eyes wide-open in alertness, silent,
expectant, and ignoring how the sheet below her head became damp where
it touched her down-turned cheek.
Ranma woke, looked up sleepily, and got whacked in the eyeball by a
raindrop. Then he scowled and pulled his shirt collar up over his head
for a bit of protection for the light barrage of chilled suicide
bombers. Problem fixed, he went back to unconsciousness.
Ranma's arm was sore the next day all around where Chloe had stabbed
him. Moving his arm wasn't too painful, but it was reminiscent of over-
enthusiastic training sessions that had been punctuated by deep bruises
that went all the way to the bone. That was what his wound felt like.
The scab over the cut itself looked healthy enough and he guessed that
his arm would be fully repaired within just a few days.
His hand was bothering him far more, however. Every time he clenched
his fist, opened it up, or tried to hold something he would get a
burning sensation like from a disturbed paper cut. With the sharpness
of Chloe's knife and the fact that the blade had barely done more than
open a flap of skin on his hand and cause a lot of blood to spill out, a
paper cut was just a less affected version of what he had.
Everything he did that raised a sweat dropped his hand into a vat of
salty acid. He hoped that cut went away quickly.
For now, though, he snacked on some more grapes. Yum. Grapes for
breakfast, lunch, and dinner of every day. He loved it. If Chloe came
out he might just skin and eat her for the meat. Not that he knew how
to do the skinning, his father always did that, but still, he was going
to have to find something else to fill his belly with. Maybe sneak into
the Manor and steal some food? It couldn't be that hard.
After finishing breakfast he looked over at the Manor to make sure Chloe
wasn't around, then headed back to the coliseum. Time to get some more
practice in. He knew what he was doing wrong now.
A bird mocked him, its voice shrill and unreasonable, proclaiming that
it could throw knives better than he could. Ranma wondered if it was
right. He'd spent a few more hours trying to improve, to no avail.
Maybe he was some kind of knife cripple. Did handicaps get that
specific?
Ranma finished collecting his knives and returned to his throwing point.
No matter which method he used, right handed throwing, left handed
throwing, or throwing with both hands, his performance was abysmal. He
quit using his injured hand after only a few tries--his accuracy went
down even more, and the flapping skin started to leak blood from
underneath. The other hand didn't do too much better, but he'd keep on
trying it. He refused to give up, though the bird's voice grew louder
and more insistent.
Some of his knives sought out avian intelligence on the situation but
were turned down without being received. That damn bird.
Soon enough he was hungry again. The bird became more than a simple
annoyance. It was mocking him, saying, 'Eat me. Eat me, if you can!'
while chuckling in its insane way. Ranma didn't know what kind of bird
it was but the thing looked like it tasted non-grapelike and had a meaty
texture. That was a big plus.
The sun bore down and his arm sweated and ached and whined like crazy as
he worked it for hours without a break. His rebellious limb tried to
toss itself to freedom with every abusive exercise of it, but he refused
to let it go. It was his arm. He owned it, no matte what it might
think of the matter.
He threw knife after knife at the wooden post, the only difference
coming when the bird would settle down for a minute, on the grass or on
a stack of bricks or even on top of the post. Then he'd throw a few
knives at it, which never hit but scared the feathered fellow into
taking a walk, its obscenities banished temporarily. Next open season
was again declared on the target and he went to town, unsuccessfully.
This simple practice just wasn't getting him anywhere. He knew his
father would have been able to figure out the problem, but the old man
wasn't around. Which way to Japan? South? East? West? He didn't
think it was north, mountains in their white-bearded and cranky dotage
could be seen up that way.
Ranma picked up his knives and went to go get lunch. The bird followed
him like some demonic imp sent to make his life a nagging hell, poking,
prodding at him with its incessant presence.
He kept an eye out as he walked towards the Manor but Chloe was nowhere
around. Was she still upset about losing to him? He hadn't beaten her
that badly--his kick to her knee shouldn't have hurt the girl that much,
and she'd gotten him twice with her knife. She'd been the one unable to
fight at the end of their match, but she hadn't done too badly. Better
than anybody but his father and some of the dojo masters he had fought
while traveling. So where was she?
Ranma ate from the outside edge of the grape field closest to the Manor,
watching the building entrance in between chomps on fleshy victims.
Maybe Chloe had gone to the village, or to somewhere else nearby, and
since he hadn't seen her leave...
He frowned. Chloe leaving when he wasn't paying attention was no good.
He'd never find out which way to the village or Japan or anything, like
that. So had she left, or was she just inside the Manor? Maybe she was
outside and somewhere he couldn't see her?
Ranma finished another grape and stood, then turned around to look at
the hills surrounding him. He didn't see Chloe, but she could have just
passed out of sight on the backside of a hill, or gotten far enough away
that she was a small, slow-moving dot that was just unnoticeable.
Well, there was one place he could check...and it'd have food, too.
He studied the Manor intently. He knew that there were windows on all
sides, plus the front doorway. Big building, to have only one entrance.
The terrain surrounding it was bare enough that anybody paying attention
would be likely to see his approach. Which meant getting there as fast
as possible was the best way to cut down on visibility.
Ranma ran quickly towards the front door, thinking sneaky thoughts,
quiet thoughts, thoughts about nobody being around but a few bunnies and
an annoying bird. A hundred feet, seventy-five, fifty, twenty-five,
fifteen, ten, five. He stopped abruptly when the doorway filled before
he got there and Artena stood blocking his passage. She didn't look
quite as friendly as he remembered.
"Uh...hi," he said, slightly out of breath. Grin. Happy thoughts,
happy thoughts, starving-little-angel thoughts. Feed me!
"Why are you here?" Artena asked. The annoying bird flapped its way
over his head and settled on her shoulder. It stared at him and Artena
paid it no mind. Weird.
"Ummm..." Ranma took a cautious sniff, tried not to give himself away.
No food, dammit. "Which way is Japan?"
"Any direction will get you closer to Japan," was her response.
For some reason he hadn't expected her to tell him. "Right. Say, where
is Chloe? I haven't seen her."
"Why do you want to know?"
"She invited me for lunch..."
The bird laughed at him and he wondered if he could shove one of his
knives down its throat. Artena's mouth just twitched slightly. "We
already ate lunch," she said. "If you do the dishes you can join us for
dinner."
"Oh, well, maybe later. When is Chloe going to be out?" He could
probably get Chloe mad enough to tell him where Japan was, just to make
him go away, but he was sure it wouldn't work with Artena. It wasn't
working with Chloe so far, either, though. The Saotome School of
Anything-Goes Being Annoying was usually more successful than this.
Maybe it didn't work as well on girls? Or maybe Chloe knew all the
tricks? It sure seemed like it.
"Not for a few days. She sprained one of her knees and has to stay off
of it for a while." She looked sad. So did the bird, oddly enough.
Why was it on Artena's shoulder? It abandoned the sad look and mocked
him in some strange birdish manner. He wasn't sure how that worked, but
something about the way it was looking at him was definitely scornful.
"Do you want to tell her you're sorry?" Artena asked, distracting him
from the avian.
"What? No." It was Chloe's fault anyway, attacking him like that.
Plus she'd ripped his shirt. Twice, actually. Well, it had been her
shirt first, but it was his now so that didn't matter. "I didn't even
kick her that hard."
The bird laughed and launched itself into the air, flew off. Artena
paid it no attention, and Ranma considered trying to hit it with one of
his knives. Soon it was a tiny black dot in a clean Etch-A-Sketch sky.
Ranma turned back to Artena and notice how precisely in the center of
the doorway she stood. He hadn't seen her fight any, but knew he
wouldn't make it past her if he tried, so he didn't. "Okay. Well, I'm
going, then. Tell Chloe I said 'hi'."
"I will," was her response, the slight smile on her face again.
Ranma headed off after the bird, keeping an eye out for slower moving
critters. Maybe he could tag a bunny or something. Anything would be
better than more grapes.
Chloe looked up from her book as Artena entered the room. "Artena-
sama?" she asked. A pillow was propped under her knee for support, and
Artena had brought her another one earlier to put her back against so
she could sit up properly.
"Ranma came by," the woman said. "He told me to tell you that he said
'hello'."
"Um, okay. Did his arm look infected?" A brief prayer.
"No, it looked fine. It will be well-healed soon. Probably before your
knee is."
Chloe nodded. It would be. Ranma was the better fighter, so he'd
recover faster. That girl did, definitely. "Did he say anything else,
Artena-sama?"
"He wanted to know where Japan was."
Yeah, so he could walk there. "Did you tell him?" Chloe had to kill
him. If he left, that'd be harder. Could she get a rocket launcher and
kill him with that? It'd stop his grape filching, but Artena didn't
seem to care much about that. Probably not.
"No, I didn't. He'll stay here."
"Thank you, Artena-sama."
"How are you going to kill him, Chloe?"
"I don't know, Artena-sama." Unless she could find him sleeping, Ranma
held the advantage. Her knee testified to that.
"Well, keep thinking on it, then. I'm sure you'll come up with
something," Artena said encouragingly. "I have to go clean the dishes
now, so call if you need anything." She smiled at Chloe and then
stepped out of the room without waiting for a response.
Chloe looked back down at her book. She was rereading Alice in
Wonderland, since she hadn't gone back to the village to get a
replacement yet. The book had been in one of the other rooms, Chloe
forgot where she had left it, but Artena had brought it to her that
morning, along with another pillow. She'd been cheerful and as kind as
ever, checking Chloe's knee carefully so as to not cause any pain.
She hadn't stayed awake long enough for Artena to tuck her in, and had
been woken to breakfast in bed. Artena had carried in a chair to keep
her company during the meal, handing Chloe her glass of milk when she
wanted it. There wasn't a place on the bed to set the cup down, so
Chloe was glad about that. Lunch had been delivered the same way and
they had talked normally during both.
Artena had said nothing about the cloak and whether she had fixed it.
Chloe hadn't asked, though she wanted to. Artena hadn't given it back,
so she would assume it to be trashed. Better that than simply
unreturned from lack of faith. She was pretty sure which it was,
though.
Chloe sighed, put her book down, and wondered how she was going to kill
Ranma. Catching him when he was asleep or going to the bathroom was all
she could come up with. Both of those would require either great luck
or an ability to follow Ranma completely undetected until he engaged in
one of those activities, or something else gave her a similar
opportunity.
She was pretty sure she wasn't skilled enough at sneaking to avoid
Ranma's notice, and a week and a half wasn't enough time to improve the
necessary amount--especially when some of that time would be spent
waiting for her knee to heal. She really only had about a week that she
would be able to use in order to kill Ranma. That wasn't enough time to
get better. Which meant that she was going to have to get lucky,
instead, or trick the pigtailed boy into making himself vulnerable.
She had already pulled the weepy female routine once and it had worked,
but she didn't know if even someone as dumb as Ranma would fall for it
twice from the same person. But there were other ways of getting to
him, to be sure. Pretending to be hurt was only the most obvious one.
Some of the others would require Artena's assistance, however, and Chloe
wasn't sure if that would be allowed. She was supposed to kill Ranma
herself, not with somebody else's help. Artena could easily execute
Ranma at any time; that she hadn't done so indicated it was supposed to
be a test of Chloe's abilities.
So, no help from Artena. She wanted to kill Ranma on her own anyway.
But how?
Ranma chased the rabbit. It hopped to the left, to the right, more to
the right, darted between the grape posts and took off down the row on
the other side. When Ranma got to the end of the row he was in he
turned to where the bunny had escaped. It was gone. Damn rabbit.
The grapes laughed at him. Well, they'd get theirs. He'd see to that.
The bird had taken off, he'd not seen the thing since it left him and
Artena standing at the entrance to the Manor. Then that damn rabbit had
shown up and taken up the mocking game. What was it with the wildlife
here? Were they trained in psychological warfare? Some variant of the
Saotome School of Anything-Goes Being Annoying? No, his pop was back in
Japan, wherever that was, and wouldn't have taught anybody but Ranma
anyway.
Any direction gets him closer to Japan than staying here. Heh. That
was true, but it really didn't help him any. The world was a big place.
He didn't know how far he was from Japan or what direction he had to go
in to get back home, but he was sure that picking a direction randomly
would probably make it take a long, long time.
Which meant that he was going to stay here, wandering around in the
valley with no clue where to go. The grapes would do him in before too
long, Ranma was sure. Practicing with those knives had gotten old and
annoying. He wasn't getting any better, he didn't know why; he
carefully copied Chloe's movements and the accurate throws that she made
almost every try were wildly varying misses for him. So that was no
good. Plus, Chloe was going to be inside the Manor for the next few
days, too, which meant that along with not wanting to practice he would
have nobody to play with. Boring.
Ranma started walking through the grape field again, looking for more
rabbits. Even a simple opponent was better than none at all. And if he
did catch one, he could finally eat something different for a change,
break up the routine of grape after grape for days on end. How he'd
ever enjoyed the things he had no idea.
Chloe sat on the ground out in front of the Manor, her back up against a
tree and a pillow set underneath her knees. Artena had put a second
case on the pillow to make sure it didn't get dirty. Her book was on
her lap, angled nicely because her legs were raised somewhat.
Where was Ranma? She had expected him to show up shortly after she came
outside, but she was already a good ways through the book and it'd been
a couple of hours since he had come by shortly after lunch. If he'd
decided to try leaving again, well, that'd make things difficult.
Tracking him down when he left in a random direction and had a lead of
half a week after her leg healed would be almost impossible. The only
way she'd be able to find him is if he turned back towards the valley or
if he lucked out in his bearing and ended up coming across the village.
They wouldn't do anything to a linguistically inarticulate young boy,
not without instructions, but if she showed up asking about him they
would give her whatever assistance they needed. But that was only if he
went by there, and the odds on that were rather small when he would be
taking a blind guess.
Archimedes touched down a few feet in front of her, head cocked to the
side so it could look upon her directly. The bird hopped forward a few
times until it was beside Chloe's legs.
Chloe smiled at her. Artena hadn't thought the name fit. The bird
wasn't that smart, she had said, but Chloe thought the opposite.
Archimedes was the most intelligent bird she'd ever met. Archimedes
wasn't a female name, though, so Artena had been right about that.
"Hello," she said. "Artena doesn't have anything for you to do?"
The bird's head shook back and forth, a quick, jerky set of motions.
Smart though it was, its communication abilities were still rather
limited. It seemed to understand her well enough, though.
"Have you seen Ranma? The boy that's been here lately?"
Archimedes stared at her, and Chloe wondered if it didn't understand,
then it turned itself to face out towards the grape fields, a bit west
of southwest. Ranma must be out by the far edge of the fruit, probably
gorging himself on the things again.
Chloe nodded to the bird when it turned back to look at her, to indicate
that she understood. Its response was to hop closer to her again and
look directly at her lap, where Alice in Wonderland lie. Chloe grinned,
delighted, and put her book on the ground, then her hands to her sides
to show that the coast was clear. Archimedes jumped up on to her lap,
facing sideways so that it could continue to look at her. The impacts
as it landed on her were light, barely noticeable. The book had been
hardbound and heavier.
Slowly, Chloe brought one of her hands up. Archimedes tensed slightly.
Chloe could crush the bird in that hand, if she were of a mind to, and
she was sure that Archimedes knew that. But it remained still as she
brushed her extended index finger down the back of the smooth, egg-
fragile head. Its beak pulled upwards and her finger dug in slightly to
the crook between skull and back. She scratched, and Archimedes
crooned, a soft vibration passing into her fingertip and legs.
"Hold it still so I can chop off its head," Ranma said quietly. "I'm
gonna eat that bird."