Chloe yelped in surprise, covered Archimedes by bending forward,
holding her arms in the space between her legs and chest. Ranma was a
few feet in front of her, to the left side enough that he had
approached from behind the bird. Chloe hadn't been paying attention
at all.
"You are NOT going to eat Archimedes!" It was Artena's bird, her
bird. If he tried to eat it she'd shove one of her knives down his
throat and see how sharp his mindless appetite was. She could feel
Archimedes trembling against her, but the bird didn't struggle to get
free, which only would have hurt it.
Ranma stood still, a knife in each hand, glaring at her. "Why not?
I'm hungry! And I hate that bird! It won't leave me alone!"
"I don't care! She's my bird, you jerk, and if you touch her I'll
kill you!" Her neck hurt from looking up at him with her body facing
the ground, but she stayed there, still, holding Archimedes
protectively.
Ranma relaxed slightly, his hands dropping most of the way to his
sides. "Well, feed me, then," he said. "You're costing me my dinner,
right? So you have to make up for it."
"I do not! Archimedes isn't your dinner!"
The knives came back up, and he smirked. "Wanna fight for it?" One
of them pointed at her knee. He'd probably miss in a throw even from
this distance, clumsy imbecile that he was, but if he tried to stab
her, he'd have no problems.
Chloe flung one of her hands towards Ranma and he flinched, suddenly
awkward, probably because he wasn't sure what to do with the two
knives in his hands while being attacked. But she hadn't thrown
anything, and she took his hesitation as an opportunity to sit back
up, freeing Archimedes, and cup the bird in her hands. Chloe yanked
her arms skywards, propelling Archimedes into the air, the bird
narrowly missing several of the tree branches above. Archimedes
recovered quickly and flew up, went through the branches, and then
took off towards the Manor.
Chloe grabbed the pillow from behind her back and whipped it at Ranma,
hitting him in the face before he could throw a knife at Archimedes.
She looked to see if the distraction worked and saw her bird escape,
flying into the Manor's open door and probably going straight to
Artena. Maybe Artena would come out and kill the boy.
Her pillow smacked into the side of her head, knocking it into the
tree behind her. The pillow fell back into her lap and she put a hand
to the back of her head to feel for injury, rubbing where it hurt.
"You jerk," she said, looking at Ranma again.
He just grinned at her and held up his hands. The knives were gone
and she could see the hilts of a number of the things sticking out of
his pockets. Replacing them was her book, closed, the page she'd been
reading lost. "What's this?" he asked.
"It's a book." Her own hand dropped back to her side, and Chloe
wished she hadn't decided to leave her knives in her room. "Give it
back."
"What's it about?"
"It's about a little boy who got shoved into a sack full of useless
kittens and tossed in the river. Now give it back."
Ranma gave her an odd look, stared at the cover, which just held the
title, then opened to a random page. He frowned. "I can't read it."
"It's in French." Moron.
He grunted, snapped the book shut, then tossed it to her. "Why don't
you read it in Japanese?"
Chloe caught it by the spine and started looking for where she'd been.
Since she'd just read it a few days earlier it was hard to remember
her place. "Because it's not my book, and the person who owns it only
reads French. Now go away." She looked back towards the Manor and
saw that Artena was standing in the doorway, watching.
Ranma noticed the gesture and looked, too, saw Artena, then turned
back to Chloe. "You owe me dinner," he said.
"No, I don't. If you want Artena-sama to make you some food, go ask
her."
Ranma crouched down, facing her. "No way. She just wants to make me
do the dishes."
If Artena had a gun, she could shoot him from where she was standing.
Ranma would never even know what hit him, his head would just snap
slightly, a wet pinging noise would sound as the bullet ripped through
his brain and bounced off the inside of his skull, and then he would
fall over, legs still bent like a frog's, dead before he hit the
ground. Artena did have a gun, Chloe was sure, but she never took the
shot and Ranma remained alive.
Chloe was glad, because if Artena killed him it would be because
Artena had decided she was unable to do it herself, that she was a
failure as Noir.
"If you told Artena-sama you were incapable of doing the dishes, she
might feed you anyway." Chloe smirked slightly at Ranma's hungry
look. "Try saying you are mentally handicap."
"Hey!"
"You can stand and both sets of fingers are usable. That's all you
need for drying dishes. Mental handicap is all you could claim."
"I ain't mentally handicapped!" he lied, outraged.
"You're limiting yourself to eating stolen grapes because you don't
want to rub some dishes down with a towel. You're a moron," Chloe
told him.
"I am not! I just hate doing dishes!" Ranma was standing now,
glaring down at her. "Now you take that back!"
"Or what?" Chloe lifted her injured knee slightly. "Will you kick me
again? Stab me with one of my own knives, which you stole?"
His fists were tight and shook slightly, his face red with anger. He
stepped forward and her knee tensed. This would hurt.
Ranma stopped, turned, and stalked away, towards the grape fields, and
Chloe breathed out slowly. He would have smashed his heel into her
knee, had been just about to do it, but he'd stopped. She wondered
why.
"Are you going to be able to do it this way?" Artena asked from beside
her.
Chloe looked at the woman, wondering when she had come over. "Yes,
Artena-sama. It's just... difficult. But yes."
Artena nodded acquiescence. "Be careful. Ranma was very angry. He
views fighting as a game, and a fun one, so attacking him is fine, but
you can get him mad in other ways."
"I know, Artena-sama."
"Good." Smile. "If you need it, he can eat with us sometimes. Only
if it is necessary, though."
"Thank you, Artena-sama. That will help." If she could feed Ranma,
this would be a lot easier, Chloe was sure.
"Archimedes is inside. It will probably be a few days before I have
to send her out again, so you can check on her later, if you want.
She got a bit of a fright, it seems, but she's fine."
"Ranma wanted to eat her."
Artena's smile froze, dropped completely. "Make sure he doesn't do
that. It's very important."
"Okay, Artena-sama. I will." Chloe knew that if Ranma ate
Archimedes, Artena would probably kill him herself.
"Make sure," Artena repeated, then, "I'm going back inside. Call me
if you want to come in or need something."
Chloe watched as Artena walked back to the Manor and went inside. Had
she already been on the way over when Ranma was about to hit her?
Ranma hadn't been facing in the right direction, but could he have
sensed Artena coming?
Chloe hadn't, and never could unless the woman let herself be
detected.
She sighed and tried to find her page again. It was going to be a
long wait for her knee to heal.
Ranma stomped carefully through the grape fields. It was difficult,
being barefoot, so he was watching his step. He purposefully made as
much noise as he could, smacking his hands against posts as he walked
by, kicking one every once in a while, the wood rough and loud and
smacking against the soles of his feet. No rabbits had been scared
out yet, though.
Chloe was annoying. He'd just been playing around with her about the
bird, he wasn't gonna kill her pet no matter how maddening the two of
them were. But she coulda given him some food as compensation anyway.
It'd only be fair. Instead she'd gotten all nasty and pissed him off
when he was trying to be nice because of her messed up knee, which was
her fault for starting the fight anyway. Stupid girl.
*SMACK*
A fluffy head poked itself out from nowhere and stared at him. They
both froze, then the bunny took off and Ranma ran in pursuit. It
switched to the next lane over but continued in the same direction, so
Ranma followed it.
They hit the end of the field, the separator gigantic compared to the
rows they'd just left, and the rabbit turned away from him, ran down
the length of the pathway. Big mistake.
Ranma's knives were in his hands now, the injured one slick and
stinging with sweat and a bit of blood. He threw, the bunny didn't
change direction and just stayed straight ahead. Both blades missed,
the quarry turned back into the fields, and he continued, not far
behind. Fifteen feet into the row the rabbit threw itself between
posts, the vines running between stopping him from doing the same, and
kept going. It was gone.
"Dammit!" There went supper.
He went back to pick up the knives he'd tossed, then reentered the
field. It was in there somewhere and it wasn't like he had anything
better to do than search for supper.
Chloe was helped into her chair, then Artena scooted it forward
gently. "Thank you," she said, and Artena went to sit herself. They
began to eat.
Between bites, Artena asked, "Has Ranma come back yet?"
"No, Artena-sama. Not since he left earlier." Where was he? She
hadn't seen him walked towards the coliseum. Maybe she'd missed it,
reading her book, but she didn't think she had. He couldn't have been
eating grapes the whole time. Chloe was pretty sure he couldn't have.
"The other girl will get here on the last day. She'll be staying for
a little while, a few weeks, this time."
Chloe grinned happily. "She's coming to visit? I'll kill Ranma
before she gets here. I will!" It'd been a while since she had seen
the girl, the other Noir. Months, she wasn't sure how many, had
passed. Much too long.
"Good." Artena's pleased smile made the news even better. Ranma was
going to die, and then the other girl was coming to visit! It would
be perfect!
She spent the rest of the meal plotting the boy's demise and thinking
about how nice the following weeks would be.
Hide and seek was a horrible game, when you were it. He walked up and
down the rows, looking for some cute little critter to pop up and make
itself edible, but found nothing. The grapes passed on each side and
his stomach grew increasingly demanding, but he ignored both. Ranma
was going to eat something else this time. He was!
Step. Step. Step.
Ranma's eyes narrowed.
Step. Step. Step.
The grapes were getting closer. He wasn't sure how, but the rows were
becoming more narrow, the posts and vines and bunches getting bigger,
pressing in. The dull purple became brighter, more alive, more
menacing. They were watching him, hundreds and thousands and millions
of eyes staring, filled with malice.
Step. Step. Step.
A grape reached out and touched his arm, and that was it. He ripped
into the enemy. They ran away shrieking, but they weren't fast enough
and their numbers dwindled quickly from his attack. The stragglers
were picked off first, then the main body took a hit to its center and
collapsed. It was over.
Afterwards he lied on his back, a belly full of juicy grape flesh,
surrounded by seeds. Even if he caught a rabbit or bird or something
else now, he was too full to eat it.
"This sucks."
Soon he started feeling drowsy, his digestive system declaring war on
the malicious little buggers. Ranma wondered who would win, and fell
asleep.
The early bird gets the worm, but Ranma wanted something a little bit
bigger and not quite so slimy. The sun was only partially risen, and
he was gonna catch him a rabbit. They all seemed to still be in their
little rabbit holes, with better sense than to be up this early,
though. He'd get one eventually.
Instead of checking the grape fields, today he was checking the area
around the Manor.
Ranma tripped, his foot falling an opening in the ground that he
hadn't noticed. He yanked his leg out quickly, happy that he'd not
twisted it, and inspected the hole. He put his face up against it,
the thing was almost as big around as his head, and looked inside.
Nothing. If there were critters home, they were deep. There had to
be rabbits in there somewhere, right?
Or it could be a snake as big around as his head, about to come out
for a morning snack of its own.
Ranma pulled back quickly, looking suspiciously at the hole. Maybe
there weren't any rabbits in there.
He stood, stepped carefully around the hole, and then continued his
search for breakfast.
A few grapes can taste great, but Ranma was beginning to suspect that
there was some kinda aftereffect to eating the things. A few, no
problem. A lot, they start to get old. Eat hundreds of the things
for days on end, though, and you about die. It felt like that one
time he'd eaten two pounds of butter, yuck. He'd never touched the
stuff again, and never would, either.
He'd eaten a lot more grapes than two pounds worth, though.
Ranma wobbled over to Chloe, who was reading under the tree again, and
collapsed to the ground. He lay on his side, facing her, in case she
tried anything even with her bum knee. She didn't even look up, and
Archimedes glared at him from her place on Chloe's shoulder.
He breathed out slowly, then back in through his nose, and smelt grape
air. Gah.
"Isn't Archimedes a boy's name?" he asked.
She frowned, but continued to read.
"It is, isn't it? I saw this movie with this kid who pulled a sword
out of this stone, Exterminator, and this old guy in it had a bird
named Archimedes, and it was a guy. So how come you named it
Archimedes?"
He stared at her, then looked around lazily for a rock to toss at the
girl.
"It's not that easy to tell the difference," she said, finally, right
after he found a nice round one.
"Uh, yeah it is. See, you just--"
"Not when you're three years old."
"Oh." That would make it a bit harder. "Still, that was pretty
stupid."
The bird chirped angrily, and Ranma wondered if he should throw the
rock at it, instead. Wait, he'd probably hit Chloe in the face if he
tried. Not that that was a bad thing. Getting her mad wouldn't be
boring, at least. Plus that'd happen even if he did hit the bird. He
took aim, then tossed, and the rock flew past the tree without hitting
anything. Figures.
How boring. Too bad Pop wasn't here, he'd have somebody to spar.
Kata was dull and all the ones he knew were easy anyway. Chloe was
busted as far as fun went, and he didn't think Artena would be any fun
to play with. She wasn't even his age, and she couldn't be as good as
his pop was, so why bother?
"You still reading that book about the boy and the bagful of cats?" he
asked.
Both Chloe and the bird looked at him funny.
"What?"
"Well, yes," she said. "It's a long book."
"So read it to me."
Chloe seemed annoyed, but flipped back to the start. "'There once was
a boy who was shoved into a sack full of useless kittens and tossed in
the river,'" she began.
Creepy.
"'Luckily the kittens were able to claw their way out of the bag
before they drowned, leaving the boy to fend for himself. Since he
couldn't swim he fell to the bottom, where he was found by a merman,
who poked the kid with his trident. The boy tried to run away but was
too slow. The merman captured him and took him to see the king.'"
Chloe flipped to the next page, then resumed. "'The king...'"
She reached the end of the third make-believe chapter and glanced up
to see that Ranma had his eyes closed. His mouth was hanging
partially open and a some kind of bug was in front of it, eyeing the
opening with consideration. Imbecile.
"Archimedes," she said hopefully, but quietly, to her bird, who was
still on her shoulder, "go get one of my knives."
A blank look was her only response. Now would be the time. She'd
deliberately left her knives inside, to keep herself from trying to
take a chance that her knee would prevent her from succeeding in
anyway. And now she could have slit Ranma's throat with the most
minimal effort. It wasn't fair.
She didn't have anything she could use to attack Ranma with on her.
The boy was stronger and would wake in time to overpower her if she
tried to strangle him. Nothing else she could have done right now
would have worked, either. Yelling for Artena would just wake Ranma
up, which wasn't help at all, and she was supposed to kill him herself
anyway.
Chloe sighed, disappointed, and turned back to where she had left off
reading the real story. She still had plenty of time.
Ranma woke, slightly. Artena was in front of him, picking Chloe up.
One of the woman's arms was under Chloe's knees with one of the
pillows padding the contact, and the other was under Chloe's arms,
holding her up by the armpits. Chloe was asleep.
He briefly considered running inside while they were busy and grabbing
some food. He wasn't hungry again yet, though, and he had an odd
taste in his mouth anyway. Probably from all those grapes, disgusting
things. Plus he wasn't done napping.
He closed his eyes and drifted back off.
The sun had moved and the tree no longer shaded him. Everything
behind his closed eyelids was a bright orange and that wasn't
something he could sleep through. Ranma yawned and sat up, blinking
about and seeing that it was a little after noon. He was hungry
again. Time to take another shot at hunting.
He stood and began making his way slowly back over to the grape
fields. Stupid critters probably loved the things. This time he
wasn't going to give up until he had something new to eat.
Ranma collapsed to the ground, panting, completely out of breath and
energy. Run here, run there, no matter what he did he couldn't catch
any rabbits. It was like they had some kind of early warning system
to let them know he was coming. He was sneaking about completely
silent, yet they still knew when he was approaching and took off
instantly. And they were fast, too, bouncing all over the place in
seemingly random directions that he could never guess right ahead of
time. None of his knives got very close to even tagging one. Well,
not close enough.
There had to be some kinda trick to doing this, but he didn't have a
clue what it was. He was already getting hungry enough that the
grapes were looking appetizing again, dammit. That shouldn't be
happening!
He exhaled slowly, completely, and then stood again. No more grapes.
Nope! Some grape-eating critter it would be, instead!
Chloe was back under the tree again, reading her book and taking tiny,
neat bites out of sandwich. Oh, how he hated her. "Gimme that."
"No." Another bite. "Go ask Artena-sama to make you one."
"I don't wanna do the dishes!"
Bite, chew, swallow. "Well, making a sandwich isn't something that
would make more dishes dirty. All she has to do is cut stuff up. So
she might make you one if you ask nicely and she hasn't already washed
the dishes."
"...you think she would?"
"No."
Ranma eyed what was left of her lunch. "Wanna make a bet?"
Chloe held on to her sandwich with both hands, looking at him
suspiciously now. "What?"
"I bet... that... um... a bunch of grapes would fill you up better
than half a sandwich would!" That was so lame.
"Okay," she said. "So go get me some grapes and we'll see."
No way. "You'll eat what's left while I'm gone, won't you?"
She smiled. "I won't."
Ranma stared at her. "You better not."
"You better hurry. I don't know how long I can wait." Chloe glanced
down at the sandwich. "It looks really good, doesn't it? I sure
liked the first half."
He took off running.
Chloe stared as Ranma kicked up a small dust cloud in his wake. If he
wanted to run the quarter mile there and back just to earn a sandwich,
that was fine with her. Seemed stupid of him, though. What was wrong
with grapes? She ate them all the time. His mother must have taken a
few bad falls when carrying him, because Ranma had problems.
She set the sandwich down between her legs, on the pillow beneath.
Ranma would be back for it quick enough. He was already halfway
there. Must be the motivation.
Chloe picked her book back up and resumed reading.
Ranma came to a stop in front of the sandwich-holding girl, a huge
lump of grapes almost as big as he was cradled to his chest. They
were large and heavy things and he doubted even he could eat the whole
bunch without getting full. Chloe had a smaller appetite.
"Here ya go," he said, and dropped the grapes in her lap, the sandwich
snatched from her hand sometime later in that same second.
Ranma took a big bite out of it as he sat down and suddenly a third of
the thing was already gone. Must take smaller bites. "Ow." A huge
shock jolted through the lower back corners of his mouth. He hated
that. Another sign that he'd been living on grapes for too long, if a
simple sandwich could give his taste buds a heart attack.
Chloe started on the grapes. She ate one, he took a bite, she ate
another, he took another bite. After a few repetitions of this his
sandwich was gone. Ranma licked at his fingers, and Chloe ate another
grape. There were over a hundred of the left. It wasn't fair.
"Are you gonna eat all those?" He didn't really want to, but he had
to have something else. That sandwich half was so tiny!
"Yes."
"You're going to eat every one of those grapes?" he asked,
incredulous.
"Yes. Go get your own, if you want some." She was annoyed! At him!
"Fine." He'd watch, and she'd have to eat EVERY ONE!
Chloe ignored him and resumed reading her book, popping grapes into
her mouth regularly. He noticed that she turned the book pages with a
hand other than the one she tossed the messy seeds away from herself
with.
"Read more of that story," Ranma said to her. "I fell asleep,
earlier."
She looked up, sighed, and then turned back to near the beginning of
the book. "When did you fall asleep?"
He tried to remember. "Um, the boy was sent by the mermaid king to
fetch a pearl that an evil diver stole from a great big octopus."
"It was an oyster, not an octopus." Chloe flipped a few pages.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Okay," she said. "'The mermaid king took the boy back to land, with
a warning that if he didn't return he would never see his beloved
snake friend again. He would be unable to pee. The boy's bladder
would just fill and fill until the boy exploded and died.'"
Ranma winced. That evil mermaid king!
"'The boy swore that he would return before it was too late, and set
off to find the evil diver. He knew it would be a long, dangerous
trip, but the alternative was too horrible to bear. The boy would
succeed!'"
Ranma listened intently. This was much better than the stories his
father told about growing up to run a boring dojo!
holding her arms in the space between her legs and chest. Ranma was a
few feet in front of her, to the left side enough that he had
approached from behind the bird. Chloe hadn't been paying attention
at all.
"You are NOT going to eat Archimedes!" It was Artena's bird, her
bird. If he tried to eat it she'd shove one of her knives down his
throat and see how sharp his mindless appetite was. She could feel
Archimedes trembling against her, but the bird didn't struggle to get
free, which only would have hurt it.
Ranma stood still, a knife in each hand, glaring at her. "Why not?
I'm hungry! And I hate that bird! It won't leave me alone!"
"I don't care! She's my bird, you jerk, and if you touch her I'll
kill you!" Her neck hurt from looking up at him with her body facing
the ground, but she stayed there, still, holding Archimedes
protectively.
Ranma relaxed slightly, his hands dropping most of the way to his
sides. "Well, feed me, then," he said. "You're costing me my dinner,
right? So you have to make up for it."
"I do not! Archimedes isn't your dinner!"
The knives came back up, and he smirked. "Wanna fight for it?" One
of them pointed at her knee. He'd probably miss in a throw even from
this distance, clumsy imbecile that he was, but if he tried to stab
her, he'd have no problems.
Chloe flung one of her hands towards Ranma and he flinched, suddenly
awkward, probably because he wasn't sure what to do with the two
knives in his hands while being attacked. But she hadn't thrown
anything, and she took his hesitation as an opportunity to sit back
up, freeing Archimedes, and cup the bird in her hands. Chloe yanked
her arms skywards, propelling Archimedes into the air, the bird
narrowly missing several of the tree branches above. Archimedes
recovered quickly and flew up, went through the branches, and then
took off towards the Manor.
Chloe grabbed the pillow from behind her back and whipped it at Ranma,
hitting him in the face before he could throw a knife at Archimedes.
She looked to see if the distraction worked and saw her bird escape,
flying into the Manor's open door and probably going straight to
Artena. Maybe Artena would come out and kill the boy.
Her pillow smacked into the side of her head, knocking it into the
tree behind her. The pillow fell back into her lap and she put a hand
to the back of her head to feel for injury, rubbing where it hurt.
"You jerk," she said, looking at Ranma again.
He just grinned at her and held up his hands. The knives were gone
and she could see the hilts of a number of the things sticking out of
his pockets. Replacing them was her book, closed, the page she'd been
reading lost. "What's this?" he asked.
"It's a book." Her own hand dropped back to her side, and Chloe
wished she hadn't decided to leave her knives in her room. "Give it
back."
"What's it about?"
"It's about a little boy who got shoved into a sack full of useless
kittens and tossed in the river. Now give it back."
Ranma gave her an odd look, stared at the cover, which just held the
title, then opened to a random page. He frowned. "I can't read it."
"It's in French." Moron.
He grunted, snapped the book shut, then tossed it to her. "Why don't
you read it in Japanese?"
Chloe caught it by the spine and started looking for where she'd been.
Since she'd just read it a few days earlier it was hard to remember
her place. "Because it's not my book, and the person who owns it only
reads French. Now go away." She looked back towards the Manor and
saw that Artena was standing in the doorway, watching.
Ranma noticed the gesture and looked, too, saw Artena, then turned
back to Chloe. "You owe me dinner," he said.
"No, I don't. If you want Artena-sama to make you some food, go ask
her."
Ranma crouched down, facing her. "No way. She just wants to make me
do the dishes."
If Artena had a gun, she could shoot him from where she was standing.
Ranma would never even know what hit him, his head would just snap
slightly, a wet pinging noise would sound as the bullet ripped through
his brain and bounced off the inside of his skull, and then he would
fall over, legs still bent like a frog's, dead before he hit the
ground. Artena did have a gun, Chloe was sure, but she never took the
shot and Ranma remained alive.
Chloe was glad, because if Artena killed him it would be because
Artena had decided she was unable to do it herself, that she was a
failure as Noir.
"If you told Artena-sama you were incapable of doing the dishes, she
might feed you anyway." Chloe smirked slightly at Ranma's hungry
look. "Try saying you are mentally handicap."
"Hey!"
"You can stand and both sets of fingers are usable. That's all you
need for drying dishes. Mental handicap is all you could claim."
"I ain't mentally handicapped!" he lied, outraged.
"You're limiting yourself to eating stolen grapes because you don't
want to rub some dishes down with a towel. You're a moron," Chloe
told him.
"I am not! I just hate doing dishes!" Ranma was standing now,
glaring down at her. "Now you take that back!"
"Or what?" Chloe lifted her injured knee slightly. "Will you kick me
again? Stab me with one of my own knives, which you stole?"
His fists were tight and shook slightly, his face red with anger. He
stepped forward and her knee tensed. This would hurt.
Ranma stopped, turned, and stalked away, towards the grape fields, and
Chloe breathed out slowly. He would have smashed his heel into her
knee, had been just about to do it, but he'd stopped. She wondered
why.
"Are you going to be able to do it this way?" Artena asked from beside
her.
Chloe looked at the woman, wondering when she had come over. "Yes,
Artena-sama. It's just... difficult. But yes."
Artena nodded acquiescence. "Be careful. Ranma was very angry. He
views fighting as a game, and a fun one, so attacking him is fine, but
you can get him mad in other ways."
"I know, Artena-sama."
"Good." Smile. "If you need it, he can eat with us sometimes. Only
if it is necessary, though."
"Thank you, Artena-sama. That will help." If she could feed Ranma,
this would be a lot easier, Chloe was sure.
"Archimedes is inside. It will probably be a few days before I have
to send her out again, so you can check on her later, if you want.
She got a bit of a fright, it seems, but she's fine."
"Ranma wanted to eat her."
Artena's smile froze, dropped completely. "Make sure he doesn't do
that. It's very important."
"Okay, Artena-sama. I will." Chloe knew that if Ranma ate
Archimedes, Artena would probably kill him herself.
"Make sure," Artena repeated, then, "I'm going back inside. Call me
if you want to come in or need something."
Chloe watched as Artena walked back to the Manor and went inside. Had
she already been on the way over when Ranma was about to hit her?
Ranma hadn't been facing in the right direction, but could he have
sensed Artena coming?
Chloe hadn't, and never could unless the woman let herself be
detected.
She sighed and tried to find her page again. It was going to be a
long wait for her knee to heal.
Ranma stomped carefully through the grape fields. It was difficult,
being barefoot, so he was watching his step. He purposefully made as
much noise as he could, smacking his hands against posts as he walked
by, kicking one every once in a while, the wood rough and loud and
smacking against the soles of his feet. No rabbits had been scared
out yet, though.
Chloe was annoying. He'd just been playing around with her about the
bird, he wasn't gonna kill her pet no matter how maddening the two of
them were. But she coulda given him some food as compensation anyway.
It'd only be fair. Instead she'd gotten all nasty and pissed him off
when he was trying to be nice because of her messed up knee, which was
her fault for starting the fight anyway. Stupid girl.
*SMACK*
A fluffy head poked itself out from nowhere and stared at him. They
both froze, then the bunny took off and Ranma ran in pursuit. It
switched to the next lane over but continued in the same direction, so
Ranma followed it.
They hit the end of the field, the separator gigantic compared to the
rows they'd just left, and the rabbit turned away from him, ran down
the length of the pathway. Big mistake.
Ranma's knives were in his hands now, the injured one slick and
stinging with sweat and a bit of blood. He threw, the bunny didn't
change direction and just stayed straight ahead. Both blades missed,
the quarry turned back into the fields, and he continued, not far
behind. Fifteen feet into the row the rabbit threw itself between
posts, the vines running between stopping him from doing the same, and
kept going. It was gone.
"Dammit!" There went supper.
He went back to pick up the knives he'd tossed, then reentered the
field. It was in there somewhere and it wasn't like he had anything
better to do than search for supper.
Chloe was helped into her chair, then Artena scooted it forward
gently. "Thank you," she said, and Artena went to sit herself. They
began to eat.
Between bites, Artena asked, "Has Ranma come back yet?"
"No, Artena-sama. Not since he left earlier." Where was he? She
hadn't seen him walked towards the coliseum. Maybe she'd missed it,
reading her book, but she didn't think she had. He couldn't have been
eating grapes the whole time. Chloe was pretty sure he couldn't have.
"The other girl will get here on the last day. She'll be staying for
a little while, a few weeks, this time."
Chloe grinned happily. "She's coming to visit? I'll kill Ranma
before she gets here. I will!" It'd been a while since she had seen
the girl, the other Noir. Months, she wasn't sure how many, had
passed. Much too long.
"Good." Artena's pleased smile made the news even better. Ranma was
going to die, and then the other girl was coming to visit! It would
be perfect!
She spent the rest of the meal plotting the boy's demise and thinking
about how nice the following weeks would be.
Hide and seek was a horrible game, when you were it. He walked up and
down the rows, looking for some cute little critter to pop up and make
itself edible, but found nothing. The grapes passed on each side and
his stomach grew increasingly demanding, but he ignored both. Ranma
was going to eat something else this time. He was!
Step. Step. Step.
Ranma's eyes narrowed.
Step. Step. Step.
The grapes were getting closer. He wasn't sure how, but the rows were
becoming more narrow, the posts and vines and bunches getting bigger,
pressing in. The dull purple became brighter, more alive, more
menacing. They were watching him, hundreds and thousands and millions
of eyes staring, filled with malice.
Step. Step. Step.
A grape reached out and touched his arm, and that was it. He ripped
into the enemy. They ran away shrieking, but they weren't fast enough
and their numbers dwindled quickly from his attack. The stragglers
were picked off first, then the main body took a hit to its center and
collapsed. It was over.
Afterwards he lied on his back, a belly full of juicy grape flesh,
surrounded by seeds. Even if he caught a rabbit or bird or something
else now, he was too full to eat it.
"This sucks."
Soon he started feeling drowsy, his digestive system declaring war on
the malicious little buggers. Ranma wondered who would win, and fell
asleep.
The early bird gets the worm, but Ranma wanted something a little bit
bigger and not quite so slimy. The sun was only partially risen, and
he was gonna catch him a rabbit. They all seemed to still be in their
little rabbit holes, with better sense than to be up this early,
though. He'd get one eventually.
Instead of checking the grape fields, today he was checking the area
around the Manor.
Ranma tripped, his foot falling an opening in the ground that he
hadn't noticed. He yanked his leg out quickly, happy that he'd not
twisted it, and inspected the hole. He put his face up against it,
the thing was almost as big around as his head, and looked inside.
Nothing. If there were critters home, they were deep. There had to
be rabbits in there somewhere, right?
Or it could be a snake as big around as his head, about to come out
for a morning snack of its own.
Ranma pulled back quickly, looking suspiciously at the hole. Maybe
there weren't any rabbits in there.
He stood, stepped carefully around the hole, and then continued his
search for breakfast.
A few grapes can taste great, but Ranma was beginning to suspect that
there was some kinda aftereffect to eating the things. A few, no
problem. A lot, they start to get old. Eat hundreds of the things
for days on end, though, and you about die. It felt like that one
time he'd eaten two pounds of butter, yuck. He'd never touched the
stuff again, and never would, either.
He'd eaten a lot more grapes than two pounds worth, though.
Ranma wobbled over to Chloe, who was reading under the tree again, and
collapsed to the ground. He lay on his side, facing her, in case she
tried anything even with her bum knee. She didn't even look up, and
Archimedes glared at him from her place on Chloe's shoulder.
He breathed out slowly, then back in through his nose, and smelt grape
air. Gah.
"Isn't Archimedes a boy's name?" he asked.
She frowned, but continued to read.
"It is, isn't it? I saw this movie with this kid who pulled a sword
out of this stone, Exterminator, and this old guy in it had a bird
named Archimedes, and it was a guy. So how come you named it
Archimedes?"
He stared at her, then looked around lazily for a rock to toss at the
girl.
"It's not that easy to tell the difference," she said, finally, right
after he found a nice round one.
"Uh, yeah it is. See, you just--"
"Not when you're three years old."
"Oh." That would make it a bit harder. "Still, that was pretty
stupid."
The bird chirped angrily, and Ranma wondered if he should throw the
rock at it, instead. Wait, he'd probably hit Chloe in the face if he
tried. Not that that was a bad thing. Getting her mad wouldn't be
boring, at least. Plus that'd happen even if he did hit the bird. He
took aim, then tossed, and the rock flew past the tree without hitting
anything. Figures.
How boring. Too bad Pop wasn't here, he'd have somebody to spar.
Kata was dull and all the ones he knew were easy anyway. Chloe was
busted as far as fun went, and he didn't think Artena would be any fun
to play with. She wasn't even his age, and she couldn't be as good as
his pop was, so why bother?
"You still reading that book about the boy and the bagful of cats?" he
asked.
Both Chloe and the bird looked at him funny.
"What?"
"Well, yes," she said. "It's a long book."
"So read it to me."
Chloe seemed annoyed, but flipped back to the start. "'There once was
a boy who was shoved into a sack full of useless kittens and tossed in
the river,'" she began.
Creepy.
"'Luckily the kittens were able to claw their way out of the bag
before they drowned, leaving the boy to fend for himself. Since he
couldn't swim he fell to the bottom, where he was found by a merman,
who poked the kid with his trident. The boy tried to run away but was
too slow. The merman captured him and took him to see the king.'"
Chloe flipped to the next page, then resumed. "'The king...'"
She reached the end of the third make-believe chapter and glanced up
to see that Ranma had his eyes closed. His mouth was hanging
partially open and a some kind of bug was in front of it, eyeing the
opening with consideration. Imbecile.
"Archimedes," she said hopefully, but quietly, to her bird, who was
still on her shoulder, "go get one of my knives."
A blank look was her only response. Now would be the time. She'd
deliberately left her knives inside, to keep herself from trying to
take a chance that her knee would prevent her from succeeding in
anyway. And now she could have slit Ranma's throat with the most
minimal effort. It wasn't fair.
She didn't have anything she could use to attack Ranma with on her.
The boy was stronger and would wake in time to overpower her if she
tried to strangle him. Nothing else she could have done right now
would have worked, either. Yelling for Artena would just wake Ranma
up, which wasn't help at all, and she was supposed to kill him herself
anyway.
Chloe sighed, disappointed, and turned back to where she had left off
reading the real story. She still had plenty of time.
Ranma woke, slightly. Artena was in front of him, picking Chloe up.
One of the woman's arms was under Chloe's knees with one of the
pillows padding the contact, and the other was under Chloe's arms,
holding her up by the armpits. Chloe was asleep.
He briefly considered running inside while they were busy and grabbing
some food. He wasn't hungry again yet, though, and he had an odd
taste in his mouth anyway. Probably from all those grapes, disgusting
things. Plus he wasn't done napping.
He closed his eyes and drifted back off.
The sun had moved and the tree no longer shaded him. Everything
behind his closed eyelids was a bright orange and that wasn't
something he could sleep through. Ranma yawned and sat up, blinking
about and seeing that it was a little after noon. He was hungry
again. Time to take another shot at hunting.
He stood and began making his way slowly back over to the grape
fields. Stupid critters probably loved the things. This time he
wasn't going to give up until he had something new to eat.
Ranma collapsed to the ground, panting, completely out of breath and
energy. Run here, run there, no matter what he did he couldn't catch
any rabbits. It was like they had some kind of early warning system
to let them know he was coming. He was sneaking about completely
silent, yet they still knew when he was approaching and took off
instantly. And they were fast, too, bouncing all over the place in
seemingly random directions that he could never guess right ahead of
time. None of his knives got very close to even tagging one. Well,
not close enough.
There had to be some kinda trick to doing this, but he didn't have a
clue what it was. He was already getting hungry enough that the
grapes were looking appetizing again, dammit. That shouldn't be
happening!
He exhaled slowly, completely, and then stood again. No more grapes.
Nope! Some grape-eating critter it would be, instead!
Chloe was back under the tree again, reading her book and taking tiny,
neat bites out of sandwich. Oh, how he hated her. "Gimme that."
"No." Another bite. "Go ask Artena-sama to make you one."
"I don't wanna do the dishes!"
Bite, chew, swallow. "Well, making a sandwich isn't something that
would make more dishes dirty. All she has to do is cut stuff up. So
she might make you one if you ask nicely and she hasn't already washed
the dishes."
"...you think she would?"
"No."
Ranma eyed what was left of her lunch. "Wanna make a bet?"
Chloe held on to her sandwich with both hands, looking at him
suspiciously now. "What?"
"I bet... that... um... a bunch of grapes would fill you up better
than half a sandwich would!" That was so lame.
"Okay," she said. "So go get me some grapes and we'll see."
No way. "You'll eat what's left while I'm gone, won't you?"
She smiled. "I won't."
Ranma stared at her. "You better not."
"You better hurry. I don't know how long I can wait." Chloe glanced
down at the sandwich. "It looks really good, doesn't it? I sure
liked the first half."
He took off running.
Chloe stared as Ranma kicked up a small dust cloud in his wake. If he
wanted to run the quarter mile there and back just to earn a sandwich,
that was fine with her. Seemed stupid of him, though. What was wrong
with grapes? She ate them all the time. His mother must have taken a
few bad falls when carrying him, because Ranma had problems.
She set the sandwich down between her legs, on the pillow beneath.
Ranma would be back for it quick enough. He was already halfway
there. Must be the motivation.
Chloe picked her book back up and resumed reading.
Ranma came to a stop in front of the sandwich-holding girl, a huge
lump of grapes almost as big as he was cradled to his chest. They
were large and heavy things and he doubted even he could eat the whole
bunch without getting full. Chloe had a smaller appetite.
"Here ya go," he said, and dropped the grapes in her lap, the sandwich
snatched from her hand sometime later in that same second.
Ranma took a big bite out of it as he sat down and suddenly a third of
the thing was already gone. Must take smaller bites. "Ow." A huge
shock jolted through the lower back corners of his mouth. He hated
that. Another sign that he'd been living on grapes for too long, if a
simple sandwich could give his taste buds a heart attack.
Chloe started on the grapes. She ate one, he took a bite, she ate
another, he took another bite. After a few repetitions of this his
sandwich was gone. Ranma licked at his fingers, and Chloe ate another
grape. There were over a hundred of the left. It wasn't fair.
"Are you gonna eat all those?" He didn't really want to, but he had
to have something else. That sandwich half was so tiny!
"Yes."
"You're going to eat every one of those grapes?" he asked,
incredulous.
"Yes. Go get your own, if you want some." She was annoyed! At him!
"Fine." He'd watch, and she'd have to eat EVERY ONE!
Chloe ignored him and resumed reading her book, popping grapes into
her mouth regularly. He noticed that she turned the book pages with a
hand other than the one she tossed the messy seeds away from herself
with.
"Read more of that story," Ranma said to her. "I fell asleep,
earlier."
She looked up, sighed, and then turned back to near the beginning of
the book. "When did you fall asleep?"
He tried to remember. "Um, the boy was sent by the mermaid king to
fetch a pearl that an evil diver stole from a great big octopus."
"It was an oyster, not an octopus." Chloe flipped a few pages.
"Yeah, something like that."
"Okay," she said. "'The mermaid king took the boy back to land, with
a warning that if he didn't return he would never see his beloved
snake friend again. He would be unable to pee. The boy's bladder
would just fill and fill until the boy exploded and died.'"
Ranma winced. That evil mermaid king!
"'The boy swore that he would return before it was too late, and set
off to find the evil diver. He knew it would be a long, dangerous
trip, but the alternative was too horrible to bear. The boy would
succeed!'"
Ranma listened intently. This was much better than the stories his
father told about growing up to run a boring dojo!