Wheel Of Time is owned by the excellent Robert Jordan, Ranma ½ is owned by the artist Rumiko Takahashi (sp?) and is not licensed by any Australian company. I make no money from this. I own Tammi Baley (yay).
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Amazing, this is how they made gateways?" the woman mused, she was an Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah, and had been for almost thirty years. Her raven hair was loose and spread over her brown shawl, her pale blue dress had dust on it on several points and she was looking at an old manuscript. All in all, she was the very picture of a Brown.
The manuscript she was looking at was a way to create gateways, well, it was a description of the way anyway. What the Aes Sedai would not discover in time, was that the way was for men, and not women.
The Brown Aes Sedai looked around the library nervously, she shouldn't really take any of the unread documents that had only just come to the tower from that excavation over in Andor, but, this was important, at least to her. She tucked it in between the pages of another book, and loaned it out to herself. Soon she was walking briskly along splendor which is the halls of the White Tower.
The white clad halls turned to other stones as she entered the dungeon, checking to make sure she was not followed she moved down into the second underground level, searching for the room that she had cleaned out only a few months ago, she had done it to experiment in, she smiled as she located it and walked inside. Inside the room she looked at the manuscript and giggled softly at the adrenaline of finding something undiscovered. Little did she know that just four rooms down from the one she had claimed for herself, several Aes Sedai were meeting in private.
She grasped Saidar and looked at the instructions once more, murmuring the words to make sure she did not forget. "To create a gateway spirit is used in a cross weave formation, with strands at each section of the weave. This bores a hole through the pattern to another place." The Aes Sedai smiled through the emotion blunting saidar and started to weave, within a minute she was sweating and five minutes later she had finished, the weave just waiting to be finished. She completed the weave.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma was having a good day, well, reasonable, well….. Okay, okay, his day sucked, but it didn't suck as bad as it could have ok? Yeah good. He hadn't been chased by the majority of town, although, it was before school ended yet, so there was plenty of time for that later. It would probably happen during lunch when Ukyou and Xian pu got mad at him because he was angry with them for ruining the wedding. He was angry at Akane too, she had the gall to be angry at him for ruining her wedding, and those were her words too. "How dare you ruin my wedding." She had said, and then slapped him. That had hurt, almost as much as Mr. Tendo hiding the barrel of Nanniichuan.
"Ranma-honey, how about some of my okiyakinami?" Ukyou said cheerfully, as if she hadn't crashed the wedding a few days ago. 'Oh, It's lunch time already' Ranma thought idly, he turned his head away from Ukyou and ignored her. Akane strode over, an ugly smirk on her face. "Come on Ranma! I cooked lunch for you today." Akane said with a triumphant smile, she glanced at up past Ranma's head and sneered. Ranma frowned got up and walked away. "I have my own."
"RANMA HOW DARE YOU NOT STAY HERE AND EAT MY FOOD!" Akane yelled, just as Ukyou got to the boiling point and bellowed "HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME YOU JACKASS!" they both hit him at the same time, sending Ranma out the window and into the sky.
Ranma groaned in pain and opened his eyes, he twisted around and gathered he was around halfway to wherever he was going and that he had already moved half a kilometer or so. Looking to where he was going Ranma spotted something appear, it seemed to be facing at a right angle to him for a moment but turned to face him, the rectangle was bright silver, almost too much to bare, and there was silvery tendrils reaching out in every direction for almost fifty meters, a tree nearby had been grasped by a tendril was being pulled up slowly. Ranma shot towards it desperately trying to change his path to no avail, he sighed in relief as he noticed he would miss the silver glowing rectangle, however a tendril was in the way and he impacted it softly and passed through it. Ranma's eyes bulged as he slowed down mid air and fell through the thing and into darkness.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bang, a large explosion was filling his ears, all Ranma could here was an echo of an explosion. Looking around in the dim room Ranma saw a body lying down near the far wall. He crawled over to it, every movement causing pain as cut and burnt flesh moved in unwanted ways. Looking at the woman he saw no pulse but checked anyway, just in case the burns and abrasions that covered her body and her tattered dress covered it, he was right. "Shit" Ranma swore "Shit Shit Shit!" Suddenly someone opened the door to the room, bright light shone in on his eyes and blinded the martial artist momentarily.
"Light, It's a Gholam!" one of the four woman shrieked after a moment. Ranma looked at the woman, she appeared young, well, he couldn't tell her age, or any of their ages, which was odd, as he was a martial artist after all. Most of the normal telltale signs were not apparent on the green shawl wearing woman. Ranma stood unsteadily, the wounds were all minor but they were painful and disorientating. He staggered towards them and they all fled in different directions, one of them dashed into the far side of the room, she turned and scowled at him, suddenly a large block of stone from the nearby wall careered into him, sending him to the ground, Ranma stood up, his face showing the shock that rampaged through him.
"Geez, just what I need, psycho women who can throw things around with their mind." Ranma cursed his irritating foot in mouth syndrome as yet another occasion of thoughtless speech arose. The woman's scowl grew deeper and she tugged on her red shawl as Ranma gulped. He blinked and dodged the next stone block to come his way. He then danced out of the room and dashed for a set of nearby stairs. Running up the stairs he heard cursing as the women congregated and began to chase him.
Ranma scowled as he released his aura and allowed a blue glow to light his passage through this second level of what appeared to be a dungeon, the aura's release also had the added benefit of healing him slowly. Suddenly the ground below him exploded in a method quite similar to the Breaking Point, Ranma jumped up and caught many of the small fragments of rock as he landed he looked back to see two of the women with stern expressions on their faces. Ranma tossed a few small rocks softly at the women to distract them and dashed around the corner on sore cut legs, seeing a set of stairs going up he took them immediately.
"Shit, they can do the breaking point at a distance!" he swore to himself, Ranma paled, as he realized that they were not warriors either, "How the hell did they do it then?" he demanded to the walls as he exited the stairwell. Running along he soon caught site of a large area filled with people looking as if they were in a western medieval fair. Ranma backpedaled as half a dozen men charged in the room from one side, they were wearing cloaks that changed color and faded in and out with the background. Ranma gaped, they stalked forward in a way that suggested they knew what they were doing. Ranma laughed out loud suddenly as they drew their swords and betrayed their level of skill, they were like goldfish wearing fake shark teeth to make them selves look good. Ranma smirked at the suddenly unsure men and dashed forward
Glancing backwards the odd women who had been chasing him appeared and stopped near the entrance, indecision on their faces. Ranma engaged the first cloaked man and ducked under his sword as he launched a palm strike to the guy's chest sending him flying across the room, over the heads of the other people. The man stopped flying and Ranma did a credibly imitation of a fish as the man floated in the air for a second then started to come back. Suddenly remembering the battle, Ranma launched himself over a sword strike that would have cut him in half and kicked the man's head lightly as he sent a hard punch onto the side of the sword. The cloaked swordsman unexpectedly collapsed in a heap. Ranma almost paused but noticed he was still breathing so continued to fight.
The next two were taken out easily, the men were not even as good as Kunou, only the fact they had steel swords put them above the kendoist in danger levels. Both of the remaining men attacked simultaneously from different directions, a high and a low strike, Ranma smirked as he flipped between the strikes, one passing above him and one below his horizontal body. Both men gaped as he pulled off the move with ease and spin kicked them into the ground. Ranma immediately started dashing toward a large door that was sure to lead to the outside, suddenly the door started closing, Ranma wasn't sure that the door would be easily broken as he had tried to break one of the swords and it had not broken when he had hit it. Ranma backpedaled, his feet slipping out from under him, he scrambled up and back to a door near the women, passing through he noticed another set of stairs and headed up when the floor near him exploded.
The pigtailed boy continued to move up as he was hounded by exploding floors and flying objects, arriving at a window he leant out and looked up and down, he was at least six stories up and there were many windows higher, Ranma frowned and turned back to see a blue shawl wearing woman with a smug expression on her face. He didn't realize why until he looked for an escape and found nowhere to go. Looking out the window he jumped into free fall, and completely missed the startled expression on the woman's face. Letting his ki aura run at full Ranma landed softly on the ground, grimacing at the strain on his cut legs, jumping away he cursed the explosions which had embedded small rocks into his lower legs and completely missed the stares from a dozen young girls in white.
"Shit, what now?!!?" Ranma cursed as he dashed through some lightly forested park. Coming out of the tree's he skidded to a stop as he looked around, he was in the middle of a dirt covered yard, there were training dummies over to one side and around sixty people using both practice swords and real swords, at one end there was a high stone wall and at the other was…the same green shawl wearing woman who attacked him first, she was surrounded by five of those men in cloaks and she bellowed at them to kill him. Ranma scowled at her and unleashed his aura again as almost the entire practice yards occupants leapt towards him. Ranma yelped as he was attacked from almost all sides, he leapt up into the air and landed on someone's head, he ran forward, each step on someone's head or shoulders as he traveled towards the wall and hopefully freedom.
"Shit!" he swore as a lucky strike cut through Ranma's black pants and left a small wound on his lower leg. Ranma dived down into the people below him cried out "Kachu Tenchin AMIGAURIKEN!" and knocked out everyone standing around him. The people who saw what happened stared with open mouths as Ranma dashed forward and knocked out everyone in his way. Reaching the wall he turned back to see some smart person draw a bow tight and loose an arrow at him. Ranma smirked and caught the arrow as it passed him. Turning back he snapped it with a smile and leapt over the stone wall, leaving two pieces of arrow to drift down and softly impact with the dirt.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Are you okay?" Ranma turned to face the girl, she was around his age, and cute too in her white dress with a multi colored hem. "I said are you okay?" she repeated in a concerned voice. "I'm the best at healing but I can help you…" she trailed off and Ranma nodded, curious as to what the girl was going to do. "My name is Tammi by the way she said conversationally as they moved to the side of the street, "sit down, you won't be able to stand for a moment after I heal you." She said cheerfully.
"My name is Ranma..." Ranma finally said, she smiled and pulled the bottom of his pants up, Ranma yelped and she giggled.
"Look, Ranma, I need to see what to heal, or I can't do it at all. Ranma nodded and rolled up the pants to his thighs, "Ouch, we need to pull out the stones first." Tammi declared after staring at his damaged legs for a few minutes. Ranma looked surprised as he realized exactly how many shards of rock had pushed them selves into his legs, those women's explosions were much more powerful than the breaking point.
"I can take them out myself." Ranma said with a frown, his hands blurred and the shards started coming out quickly. After a moment almost all of them were out and Ranma was almost whimpering from abused nerves.
"Okay, here we go." The raven haired girl declared after a moment of awe at his speed. Ranma's back arched as he gasped in an odd mix of pleasure/pain/nothing as something happened to him, looking down at his suddenly shaking legs he saw there was nothing left of the small stone wounds except small red spots from the worst of them, and the sword cut had almost healed over. Ranma's jaw dropped in surprise, it wasn't as good as saffron's healing, but it beat his own pesky six hours it would have taken.
"That's awesome, damn, I wish I could do that!" Ranma said gleefully. Tammi blanched and sighed softly. "You okay?" Ranma asked. She looked up at him, "I'm fine…Light! I better get back to the tower, it's almost after dark." And with that she stood and almost ran away. "Well, that was odd." Ranma said finally before going off to find somewhere to sleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was cold, really cold, Mirabella was shivering from the cold night air. However seeing that Gholam earlier had been a fright and a half, She had tried to use saidar on it when she had seen it over the brown's body, and it had seemingly almost worked, but then after she shrieked, her next attempt dissolved completely, it had almost been as if the saidar had been sucked into the creature.
"Mirabella Sedai? I think we have found it." One of the Gaidin was speaking to her, at first the words didn't ring a bell, but then Mirabella sat up straight and jumped to her feet. She and a dozen other Aes Sedai were sitting in a room near the bottom floor. They all stood up and marched out, outside on the tower grounds nearly fifty Gaidin and another twenty Aes Sedai waited. The party moved out quietly, the gaidin's swords were all drawn as they scouted the area nervously, Mirabella almost snorted, the Gaidin were still walking like they were supremely deadly fighters. As if the Gholam hadn't beaten almost a quarter of them into the ground.
"It's in the alley just around here Mirabella Sedai." The lead Gaidin whispered, he was also issuing orders for the gaidin to surround the place, the other entrances, the roof and so on. Soon they were ready the warders and Aes Sedai moved in from both ends of the alley, in the middle they met and surrounded a doorway, looking at the sleeping Gholam it appeared to be quite the looker. Mirabella blinked, it was sleeping? And those features, Gholam were meant to be bland, average looking people, not super muscled boys… but it was the same one she had seen earlier for sure. Mirabella nodded and three gaidin stepped forward, they all made to stab the Gholam as one and were taken as one off guard as he rolled over in his sleep? Fake sleep? They tripped on him and fell backwards, earning several sniggers from surrounding warders. Mirabella used her already grasped saidar and moved to prepare an explosion under the ground if he was faking sleep.
She blinked. "I can touch him with Saidar." The gaidin paused as she did so, lifting him up Mirabella frowned, this shouldn't be possible… but, had any Aes Sedai ever caught or even seen a sleeping Gholam? "We're taking it back to the tower dungeons, there is a place there we can use." The warders stared at her. Mirabella frowned and snapped out "Do It!" she froze and looked at the Gholam, who merely turned in its sleep, it was almost comedic watching it move on a bed of air. They moved back to the tower, and after fifteen minutes and three Aes Sedai taking turns to carry the boy, they arrived in the third level. There was a room there with nothing but a hole in the ceiling, and that, had a solid clear glass plug made in the Age of Legends, it had a handle on the top to grasp with strands of air and the hole had been crafted for it to fit in perfectly. Mirabella personally deposited the boy into the cell, she then moved a stone block over the plug to make sure he could not escape.
"I want thirty gaidin here at all times, I want five Aes Sedai here with them at all times and I want some food for it in the morning, liquid stuff." Mirabella declared, "I'm going to bed, also, make that forty gaidin, and have ten of them within sight of each other in a line going as far up the tower as possible, if they see anything odd scream for help. Got it?" the head warder nodded carefully and Mirabella retreated, leaving five Aes Sedai behind.
"Sleep, I need sleep." Mirabella groaned as she and five warders walked back to her room, sometimes she really liked being a green Aes Sedai, and a Sitter of the hall to boot. No one would say a thing about her taking five warders into her room. Though most would mumble about greens and their sex drive. Climbing into bed her two bonded warders looked worriedly at her, the rest were out in the main room of her apartment. "I'll be fine. You did notice that the Gholam killed no one today? I'll be fine." She repeated herself to make sure they understood, although, the worry she was feeling surely transmitted itself over the bond. Chris, the second warder she bonded, nodded and sat on the foot of her bed. Andrew, the first bonded frowned and sat opposite the door. They both had their swords out ready and waiting. Mirabella grumbled and pulled Chris up closer the head of the bed, she curled up around his comforting warmth as she fell asleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma woke up, he was in a different area, and there was light filtering down from above, a light cover or something. Looking around Ranma spotted only blank stone walls, he stood up and walked along them, tapping and finding they were relatively thin, and easy to break through. Ranma however refrained. It wasn't long however until he became hungry and his stomach started growling. He looked around again and bellowed out. "YOU GOT TEN MINUTES BEFORE I BREAK OUT TO GET SOME FOOD DAMMIT!" his voice echoed in the small room, and Ranma suddenly heard footsteps move quickly above him, looking up at the light source he discovered it was actually a sort of glass plug. He jumped up and clung to the ceiling, looking through the plug Ranma spotted three women staring at him and a dozen or more men in green cloaks cloistered around the plug, he frowned and dropped back to the floor. "Geez" Ranma said loudly, "What type a perverts are these, watching me like this." He heard a muffled snicker up above him. "Um, how about that food? I promise I won't escape or hurt no one, except in self defense of course…..Ranma looked up hopefully, the glass should be easy enough to break, it was a bit over a meter in diameter, although, they wouldn't be stupid enough to use easily breakable stuff like glass…. Would they?
There was no response to Ranma's most generous offer, Ranma sighed and sat down, "1000, 999, 998 997," Ranma stopped counting. "When I get to zero, I'm breaking outa here unless I got food!" he called up to the ceiling. "996, 995" he continued on with the accompaniment of a stomach growl.
The plug suddenly rasped as it was lifted slightly. A voice called down, it sounded like the voice of woman who he had seen at the grounds. "If I come down, will you attack me?"
Ranma snorted and looked up, "I don't like hittin girls, I won't do nothing less you do." The martial artist declared. The plug moved over more and Ranma raised his eyebrows as the same woman who attacked him first floated down, se was wearing a different green shawl this time though, but the dress looked the same as the last one, she looked pretty tired too. "That's a neat trick, never seen someone fly without letting out their ki before, well, there was this one group, but they had feathery wings so they don't count."
The woman looked surprised for a moment, "I am Mirabella Sedai." She declared finally, she put the food down in front of him and moved backwards pretty fast when he reached for it.
"Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes martial arts." Ranma declared proudly as he picked up the soup. He looked confused for a moment, there was soup, lots of soup true, but it was only soup, "err, why is there only soup? Not that I'm complaining or nothing but it seems a little odd to feed a prisoner soup… usually its bread and water...except if you're a girl of course, they always get fed fancy stuff by the guys who kidnap 'em, well, that's what my fiancées' say anyway ."
Mirabella was surprised at that statement 'A Gholam with fiancées?' she mused silently. "Well, as far as we know, you cannot eat solid food…" 'Although, I think he may have bones…. Impossible though it seems'
Ranma gaped, him? A Saotome? Not able to eat solid foods? "You gotta be kiddin me!" He declared between mouthfuls. The soup wasn't too bad. "Never been a Saotome that couldn't eat what he could see!"
The plug rasped again, they both looked up, there was a hard eyed woman in a dark red dress and a red shawl standing above the entrance. She scowled down and almost snarled out. "Mirabella, The hall has convened; we have to kill it now." Ranma raised both eyebrows, Mirabella scowled.
"Well, if that's your plan I'm outa here, see ya round Mirabella-san." Ranma said as he stood, he reached out to the wall and hit it solidly, a large crack appeared and Mirabella dropped her jaw in shock. A second punch broke the wall and Ranma walked through calmly, ignoring the surprised sounds from behind him
Looking around Ranma spotted few places to hide, and not many places to go, after a few minutes searching Ranma settled for clinging to the ceiling in the old 'cling to the ceiling and hope they don't look up' style. Surprisingly enough, he had heard several parties pass his clinging spot and none of them detected him.
Before much time had passed Ranma dropped to the floor and started his escape in earnest. The pigtailed martial artist soon found himself in front of the broken wall again, peering in carefully he looked around but saw no one. "Easy as eating pie." He murmured as he jumped up to the vacant hole at the top, Ranma looked around and pulled the rest of his body up after satisfying that there was no one there.
"Let's see, go through here… and we can avoid that front entrance…" Ranma was whispering to himself, he didn't want to end up at the front again, too many people. Sneaking up another set of stairs he bowed slightly to a woman who was rushing past him and moved out of the way for her, she nodded back and continued to run, holding her cream dress up with two hands. Ranma wiped his forehead as he pressed on, that had been close. "THAT WAS THE GHOLAM!!!" a sudden shriek from down the stairs echoed around him and Ranma started running, fast.
Reaching a door without encountering anyone Ranma leaned out and saw the early morning sun rising over what appeared to be a forest glade. Smiling the pigtailed boy dashed out, closing the door behind him and took to the tree's leaping along for almost a minute before coming to a large clear area, looking from side to side he could spot nowhere that had tree's closer to the outer wall. Frowning Ranma dropped the ten feet or so down to the ground and started when he noticed a girl standing nearby, it was the same one who had healed him yesterday. She was dressed in pants and a long sleeved shirt with a vest over the top and carrying a heavily laden backpack. Tammi was also gaping at him. "Uh…hi again?" Ranma blurted out. She continued to gape, Ranma grew annoyed quickly and spoke again. "Come on, surely you've seen a guy jump off a tree branch before?!?"
Tammi shook her head slowly and Ranma sighed. "What are you? Ranma wasn't it?" Tammi asked, finally regaining some medium of speech.
Ranma sweat dropped, "yeah, Ranma, and I'm a martial artist, the best in the world."
Tammi blinked, Ranma raised and eyebrow, Tammi blinked again. "What's a martial artist?" Ranma face planted. "Are you okay?" she asked innocently.
"I'm fine, umm a martial artist's a warrior, the best warriors I suppose, we can do things that seem impossible and do em with ease, like I can jump really high, move fast and stuff, Ryoga can touch things and make them explode, Mousse has an entire armory hidden in his sleeves, enough stuff to arm fifty people or more!" Tammi didn't look like she believed it so Ranma continued speaking. "I can jump that wall over there and not even touch it… that sort stuff."
Tammi's eyes lit up, he might be able to help her escape, but first… "Your not a dark friend are you? "
The pigtailed boy blinked twice, and then scratched the back of his head, "What's a darkfriend? They aint like evil people are they? Cause I aint evil…"
Tammi smiled gleefully, "Alright, are you planning on leaving here?"
Ranma nodded enthusiastically, and then suddenly looked around everywhere, as if he had only just remembered where he was. "uhh yeah, I'm kinda lost, I don't know where we are…"
"Great, can you take me with you?" Ranma blanched at that, Tammi frowned and Ranma almost cringed.
"Can you do anything else apart from heal?" He asked finally. Tammi nodded enthusiastically and he spoke again. "Yeah, spose, ya probably gonna slow me down or something though." He finished unenthusiastically.
"I'll try not to, but your probably right…" Tammi sighed; suddenly they heard a woman yelling.
"FIND THAT LIGHT CURSED GHOLAM IMMEDIATELY!!!" Ranma and Tammi both crouched, Ranma looked her stance over and concluded she had no idea of how to fight, but she had the instincts for it already. "Right, time to go, coming?" he said to her, she nodded and almost shrieked in surprise as he lifted her up, backpack and all.
"Here we go." Ranma said to her, Tammi clung to him as he literally bounced across the clear space and over the wall; each leap had been over twenty feet long and around ten feet in the air. "We were spotted." He said calmly when he put her on the ground.
Tammi nodded at that, there hadn't been much chance of being able to get away completely unspotted. "That's okay, we need to get to the gates fast but." She spoke calmly and started walking briskly.
"Umm how about I carry you over the rooftops? No one looks up and there aint much chance of being seen…it's faster than walking or you running even." Ranma said finally.
Tammi thought on that, 'faster, less chance of being seen and followed, I get to be carried against his chest...' she blushed and Ranma looked at her askance. "Sure, let's go Ranma."
'Why the heck is she blushing so much?' Ranma thought as he landed on another roof, 'she isn't doing anything, probably thinking it though.' Ranma launched himself forward again; too late he noticed that he was going straight towards a flat roof that was mostly covered in water. "Shit!" he swore, Tammi looked up at him curiously and then down at the roof they were going for, "crap." Was her summary of the situation, Ranma landed hard and splashed his legs pretty well, enough to turn him into her at least. Tammi was staring at him. "What in the light?" she whispered Ranma blushed and carried her over to a dry spot on the roof.
"I'm cursed, I turn into a girl when splashed with cold water," Ranma started as he placed her down, "I turn back to a guy with hot water."
Tammi blinked. "I guess that, cause it's harder to turn into a guy, your probably born a guy right?" Ranma nodded in relief, she looked excited and was almost bouncing on the spot. "This makes it so much easier." She declared. "I have some clean clothes in my backpack, there made for guys, I was gonna wear them but I don't think you have any other clothes do you?" Ranma shook his head, she was kind of in shock at how well she was taking this, perhaps it was common here? "Alright, here they are." Tammi had been digging through her backpack and tossed some clothes at Ranma. "Get changed, I'll turn my back."
Ranma started blushing and protested "But, but…"
Tammi scowled at him and poked Ranma's shoulder, "You're in a girl's body right now, even if I did look, its nothing I haven't seen and touched before!" she started blushing though.
Ranma shrunk back and Tammi nodded in satisfaction before turning away. Ranma sighed as she dropped her pants and put on the brown pair over the top of her boxers. Before removing her shirt she looked around carefully, their were almost no buildings taller anywhere nearby so it was okay, she removed her shirt quickly and put the white one on. "There, I'm changed, happy now?"
"Yes. This will make our escape much easier." Tammi smirked. "Lets go, they won't be looking for a redheaded girl in white shirt and brown pants, accompanied by a black haired girl with white shirt and grey pants carrying a backpack." She reached out her arms to be picked up. Ranma nodded and picked her up easily, a few more uneventful rooftops later she spotted the gate and stopped, Tammi looked up at him "Why did we stop?" she asked.
Ranma looked around and spotted an alley, walking over there peered down into it and saw no inhabitants. "I saw the gate, if we go too much further, we'll be seen by any guards there." Tammi nodded and started to struggle slightly against his arms, trying to get herself put down. "Not yet Tammi." she launched himself off the edge of the building and Tammi breathed in to shriek. she landed halfway down the two stories building on a window sill, it cracked and Ranma pushed off and landed in the middle of the alley. "Nothing to worry about." Ranma declared smugly as she placed Tammi on the ground. She stood up and placed both hands on her hips. "Warn me next time!" she hissed angrily at him. "I thought we were about to DIE!" she punctuated the last word with a poke at the chest; she suddenly started blushing as Ranma rubbed the offended area. "Don't do that!" she hissed again while blushing furiously.
Ranma looked at her curiously, "why not? It's sore because you poked it."
Tammi started blushing more. "I forgot you were a girl! Okay?!"
Ranma's eyes brightened, she had forgotten he was a girl at the time. "Okay okay, let's go then." Tammi nodded and the two girls walked out of the alley, looked around carefully and headed towards the gate.
"Anything to declare girls?" he gate guard gave them a quick run over and Ranma brought her fist back, Tammi grabbed her arm and spoke carefully. "Nothing at all, we're just going to the village just a half days walk that way." Tammi pointed out the direction for extra emphasis and the gate guard nodded cheerfully and waved them through.
"Why did you stop me? He was looking at us like a pervert!" Ranma growled once they got a few meters along the bridge out of the city.
"It's his job; he was checking us over for hidden stuff and whatever." Tammi growled back.
Ranma blinked. "Oh." looking back at the man with less anger Ranma spotted a whole bunch of those guys in the weird cloaks approach the gate and seemed to take command of the area. They stopped everyone passing out and started checking them very thoroughly. "Looks like we made it out just in time Tammi.."
Tammi nodded but didn't turn her head around, instead just whispering. "Don't look back they'll get suspicious." Ranma nodded and they walked away steadily. as soon as they passed the bridge Ranma and Tammi started along a different path from the village that Tammi had spoken of.
"Ranma, you said you were a Martial Artist and stuff, so you know how to fight then don't you?" Tammi asked after around ten minutes of walking.
Ranma nodded, "Yeah., I'm the best, I usually win the first fight, only when I get tricked I lose, and then I always win the rematch."
Tammi smiled. "Can you teach me to fight?" Ranma tripped suddenly and his face hit the ground hard, she gasped and knelt down to pick him up, he got up before she could however and was slightly uneasy. "Well, uhh… It'd be really hard… like you probably wouldn't like me anymore after a bit of training, my school always does off the wall stuff, I won't put you through the hard things like throwing you down mountains to toughen you up or let you get chased by wolves to improve speed and stamina… but it'd still be really really hard."
Tammi gaped. 'Thrown down mountains???? Chased by wolves!?!?!' she thought as her mouth opened and closed in a fish imitation. "I want to try it Ranma. I promise I won't dislike you for it. But there are times I won't be able to channel to escape from a situation, so I need to learn to defend myself without it."
Ranma sighed heavily as they got back to their feet. "You're not going to like it. Not one bit." Ranma looked at Tammi and then grabbed her upper arm and squeezed lightly, "You're not that out of shape, so we can start now." Ranma looked around for some rocks, but spotted none in the well tended farmland. "First, cause I haven't got any rocks for you to carry, pull off your backpack and carry that in your arms. And start running."
Tammi blinked. "Now?"
"Now."
And they did.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"How could this happen!" Siuan Sanche, Amyrlin of the White Tower bellowed angrily. The hall almost as one cringed.
"We had no idea that the Gholam was physically strong enough to break through a stone wall." Elaida tried to placate the Amyrlin or at least shift blame from her.
Mirabella snorted in derision and almost everyone stared at her. "First, I don't think he was a Gholam at all. He had by his own admission, Fiancées that had been kidnapped on multiple occasions…" Mirabella took a breath, this would be the hard part "He also was surprised when we thought he could not eat anything but soup, and he showed no preference between the soups's supplied. "
"That doesn't prove anything!" Elaida snapped angrily.
Mirabella smirked, time for the big fish. "And finally, while he was sleeping and until he felt threatened I could use saidar on him," the hall started speaking; Mirabella continued just raising her voice. "Indeed, someone else had already healed all his injuries gained from the evening before."
Siuan frowned deeply as everyone gazed around silently, he had been healed… "Is there anything else you want to say Mirabella?"
"Yes, he spoke of people flying with feathered wings, and that others could fly but he could always see something he called Ki when they did it." Mirabella sighed, "He also said he was a martial artist… what type of person is an artist of war? I think what he meant by that is exactly how it sounds; he fought like every opponent was something to show off with."
Siuan frowned, Leanne was frowning too. "So, let me get this straight, the hall convened without me… and then, based on very little information at all, declared this, Boy, a Gholam and sentenced him to death. Perhaps the hall needs to be reminded that the White Tower has a ter'angreal which can stop someone from being touched with the one power? Or perhaps, that there may be other ter'angreal that preform similar functions?" Siuan's voice was scathing, and Mirabella had an inkling of an idea of what would be coming next, she was thankful she had been talking to the… boy, instead of at the hall that very morning. "Everyone who voted for the boy to be declared Gholam and executed is to do one week worth of penance. The person who convened the hall can do two." Elaida's face flushed in fury. She had been the one to convene the hall and they all knew it.
"This mornings decisions are now all void. " Siuan continued. "The boy if he is ever met again, should be asked politely to come to the tower, and is to be apologized to for his previous treatment." A momentary flash of irritation on Siuan's face belied that she didn't particularly want to do that, but didn't see much of a choice if she wanted him to return willingly. "As the boy also did not do anything but minor damage on both his escapes, there will be nothing done to him about that. " Mirabella smirked and wondered if any of the Aes Sedai who was forced to do penance would willingly choose to repair that damage. "I have had a report that he left in the presence of Tammi Baley, the accepted who refused to become Aes Sedai when shown the oath rod." Siuan was frowning deeply, and so were several of the other Aes Sedai. "She has had a history of fighting in the tower and was seen startling the boy and then they engaged in conversation for almost a minute. After that he picked her up and took her with him as he jumped the wall, again."
Mirabella sighed, she didn't really want to say this, but it was important. "Tammi came to me and we spoke about why she refused to take the oaths. She mentioned that she was a fighter, and that's what kept her going…"
Several members of the hall sighed, this wasn't the first time someone had balked at taking the oaths for that reason or similar, and likely it would not be the last either.
Siuan sighed, "Then, I call to stand on the question of sending out search parties for the duo." The hall almost stood as one, only Elaida sitting still. "Dismissed." Mirabella frowned, Siuan may be angry with the majority of the hall… but they still were not novices to be 'dismissed' "Mirabella, I wish to talk with you." Siaun said calmly as everyone left. She moved over and sat next to the green sitter and began to discuss plans.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prologue End.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Amazing, this is how they made gateways?" the woman mused, she was an Aes Sedai of the Brown Ajah, and had been for almost thirty years. Her raven hair was loose and spread over her brown shawl, her pale blue dress had dust on it on several points and she was looking at an old manuscript. All in all, she was the very picture of a Brown.
The manuscript she was looking at was a way to create gateways, well, it was a description of the way anyway. What the Aes Sedai would not discover in time, was that the way was for men, and not women.
The Brown Aes Sedai looked around the library nervously, she shouldn't really take any of the unread documents that had only just come to the tower from that excavation over in Andor, but, this was important, at least to her. She tucked it in between the pages of another book, and loaned it out to herself. Soon she was walking briskly along splendor which is the halls of the White Tower.
The white clad halls turned to other stones as she entered the dungeon, checking to make sure she was not followed she moved down into the second underground level, searching for the room that she had cleaned out only a few months ago, she had done it to experiment in, she smiled as she located it and walked inside. Inside the room she looked at the manuscript and giggled softly at the adrenaline of finding something undiscovered. Little did she know that just four rooms down from the one she had claimed for herself, several Aes Sedai were meeting in private.
She grasped Saidar and looked at the instructions once more, murmuring the words to make sure she did not forget. "To create a gateway spirit is used in a cross weave formation, with strands at each section of the weave. This bores a hole through the pattern to another place." The Aes Sedai smiled through the emotion blunting saidar and started to weave, within a minute she was sweating and five minutes later she had finished, the weave just waiting to be finished. She completed the weave.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma was having a good day, well, reasonable, well….. Okay, okay, his day sucked, but it didn't suck as bad as it could have ok? Yeah good. He hadn't been chased by the majority of town, although, it was before school ended yet, so there was plenty of time for that later. It would probably happen during lunch when Ukyou and Xian pu got mad at him because he was angry with them for ruining the wedding. He was angry at Akane too, she had the gall to be angry at him for ruining her wedding, and those were her words too. "How dare you ruin my wedding." She had said, and then slapped him. That had hurt, almost as much as Mr. Tendo hiding the barrel of Nanniichuan.
"Ranma-honey, how about some of my okiyakinami?" Ukyou said cheerfully, as if she hadn't crashed the wedding a few days ago. 'Oh, It's lunch time already' Ranma thought idly, he turned his head away from Ukyou and ignored her. Akane strode over, an ugly smirk on her face. "Come on Ranma! I cooked lunch for you today." Akane said with a triumphant smile, she glanced at up past Ranma's head and sneered. Ranma frowned got up and walked away. "I have my own."
"RANMA HOW DARE YOU NOT STAY HERE AND EAT MY FOOD!" Akane yelled, just as Ukyou got to the boiling point and bellowed "HOW DARE YOU IGNORE ME YOU JACKASS!" they both hit him at the same time, sending Ranma out the window and into the sky.
Ranma groaned in pain and opened his eyes, he twisted around and gathered he was around halfway to wherever he was going and that he had already moved half a kilometer or so. Looking to where he was going Ranma spotted something appear, it seemed to be facing at a right angle to him for a moment but turned to face him, the rectangle was bright silver, almost too much to bare, and there was silvery tendrils reaching out in every direction for almost fifty meters, a tree nearby had been grasped by a tendril was being pulled up slowly. Ranma shot towards it desperately trying to change his path to no avail, he sighed in relief as he noticed he would miss the silver glowing rectangle, however a tendril was in the way and he impacted it softly and passed through it. Ranma's eyes bulged as he slowed down mid air and fell through the thing and into darkness.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Bang, a large explosion was filling his ears, all Ranma could here was an echo of an explosion. Looking around in the dim room Ranma saw a body lying down near the far wall. He crawled over to it, every movement causing pain as cut and burnt flesh moved in unwanted ways. Looking at the woman he saw no pulse but checked anyway, just in case the burns and abrasions that covered her body and her tattered dress covered it, he was right. "Shit" Ranma swore "Shit Shit Shit!" Suddenly someone opened the door to the room, bright light shone in on his eyes and blinded the martial artist momentarily.
"Light, It's a Gholam!" one of the four woman shrieked after a moment. Ranma looked at the woman, she appeared young, well, he couldn't tell her age, or any of their ages, which was odd, as he was a martial artist after all. Most of the normal telltale signs were not apparent on the green shawl wearing woman. Ranma stood unsteadily, the wounds were all minor but they were painful and disorientating. He staggered towards them and they all fled in different directions, one of them dashed into the far side of the room, she turned and scowled at him, suddenly a large block of stone from the nearby wall careered into him, sending him to the ground, Ranma stood up, his face showing the shock that rampaged through him.
"Geez, just what I need, psycho women who can throw things around with their mind." Ranma cursed his irritating foot in mouth syndrome as yet another occasion of thoughtless speech arose. The woman's scowl grew deeper and she tugged on her red shawl as Ranma gulped. He blinked and dodged the next stone block to come his way. He then danced out of the room and dashed for a set of nearby stairs. Running up the stairs he heard cursing as the women congregated and began to chase him.
Ranma scowled as he released his aura and allowed a blue glow to light his passage through this second level of what appeared to be a dungeon, the aura's release also had the added benefit of healing him slowly. Suddenly the ground below him exploded in a method quite similar to the Breaking Point, Ranma jumped up and caught many of the small fragments of rock as he landed he looked back to see two of the women with stern expressions on their faces. Ranma tossed a few small rocks softly at the women to distract them and dashed around the corner on sore cut legs, seeing a set of stairs going up he took them immediately.
"Shit, they can do the breaking point at a distance!" he swore to himself, Ranma paled, as he realized that they were not warriors either, "How the hell did they do it then?" he demanded to the walls as he exited the stairwell. Running along he soon caught site of a large area filled with people looking as if they were in a western medieval fair. Ranma backpedaled as half a dozen men charged in the room from one side, they were wearing cloaks that changed color and faded in and out with the background. Ranma gaped, they stalked forward in a way that suggested they knew what they were doing. Ranma laughed out loud suddenly as they drew their swords and betrayed their level of skill, they were like goldfish wearing fake shark teeth to make them selves look good. Ranma smirked at the suddenly unsure men and dashed forward
Glancing backwards the odd women who had been chasing him appeared and stopped near the entrance, indecision on their faces. Ranma engaged the first cloaked man and ducked under his sword as he launched a palm strike to the guy's chest sending him flying across the room, over the heads of the other people. The man stopped flying and Ranma did a credibly imitation of a fish as the man floated in the air for a second then started to come back. Suddenly remembering the battle, Ranma launched himself over a sword strike that would have cut him in half and kicked the man's head lightly as he sent a hard punch onto the side of the sword. The cloaked swordsman unexpectedly collapsed in a heap. Ranma almost paused but noticed he was still breathing so continued to fight.
The next two were taken out easily, the men were not even as good as Kunou, only the fact they had steel swords put them above the kendoist in danger levels. Both of the remaining men attacked simultaneously from different directions, a high and a low strike, Ranma smirked as he flipped between the strikes, one passing above him and one below his horizontal body. Both men gaped as he pulled off the move with ease and spin kicked them into the ground. Ranma immediately started dashing toward a large door that was sure to lead to the outside, suddenly the door started closing, Ranma wasn't sure that the door would be easily broken as he had tried to break one of the swords and it had not broken when he had hit it. Ranma backpedaled, his feet slipping out from under him, he scrambled up and back to a door near the women, passing through he noticed another set of stairs and headed up when the floor near him exploded.
The pigtailed boy continued to move up as he was hounded by exploding floors and flying objects, arriving at a window he leant out and looked up and down, he was at least six stories up and there were many windows higher, Ranma frowned and turned back to see a blue shawl wearing woman with a smug expression on her face. He didn't realize why until he looked for an escape and found nowhere to go. Looking out the window he jumped into free fall, and completely missed the startled expression on the woman's face. Letting his ki aura run at full Ranma landed softly on the ground, grimacing at the strain on his cut legs, jumping away he cursed the explosions which had embedded small rocks into his lower legs and completely missed the stares from a dozen young girls in white.
"Shit, what now?!!?" Ranma cursed as he dashed through some lightly forested park. Coming out of the tree's he skidded to a stop as he looked around, he was in the middle of a dirt covered yard, there were training dummies over to one side and around sixty people using both practice swords and real swords, at one end there was a high stone wall and at the other was…the same green shawl wearing woman who attacked him first, she was surrounded by five of those men in cloaks and she bellowed at them to kill him. Ranma scowled at her and unleashed his aura again as almost the entire practice yards occupants leapt towards him. Ranma yelped as he was attacked from almost all sides, he leapt up into the air and landed on someone's head, he ran forward, each step on someone's head or shoulders as he traveled towards the wall and hopefully freedom.
"Shit!" he swore as a lucky strike cut through Ranma's black pants and left a small wound on his lower leg. Ranma dived down into the people below him cried out "Kachu Tenchin AMIGAURIKEN!" and knocked out everyone standing around him. The people who saw what happened stared with open mouths as Ranma dashed forward and knocked out everyone in his way. Reaching the wall he turned back to see some smart person draw a bow tight and loose an arrow at him. Ranma smirked and caught the arrow as it passed him. Turning back he snapped it with a smile and leapt over the stone wall, leaving two pieces of arrow to drift down and softly impact with the dirt.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"Are you okay?" Ranma turned to face the girl, she was around his age, and cute too in her white dress with a multi colored hem. "I said are you okay?" she repeated in a concerned voice. "I'm the best at healing but I can help you…" she trailed off and Ranma nodded, curious as to what the girl was going to do. "My name is Tammi by the way she said conversationally as they moved to the side of the street, "sit down, you won't be able to stand for a moment after I heal you." She said cheerfully.
"My name is Ranma..." Ranma finally said, she smiled and pulled the bottom of his pants up, Ranma yelped and she giggled.
"Look, Ranma, I need to see what to heal, or I can't do it at all. Ranma nodded and rolled up the pants to his thighs, "Ouch, we need to pull out the stones first." Tammi declared after staring at his damaged legs for a few minutes. Ranma looked surprised as he realized exactly how many shards of rock had pushed them selves into his legs, those women's explosions were much more powerful than the breaking point.
"I can take them out myself." Ranma said with a frown, his hands blurred and the shards started coming out quickly. After a moment almost all of them were out and Ranma was almost whimpering from abused nerves.
"Okay, here we go." The raven haired girl declared after a moment of awe at his speed. Ranma's back arched as he gasped in an odd mix of pleasure/pain/nothing as something happened to him, looking down at his suddenly shaking legs he saw there was nothing left of the small stone wounds except small red spots from the worst of them, and the sword cut had almost healed over. Ranma's jaw dropped in surprise, it wasn't as good as saffron's healing, but it beat his own pesky six hours it would have taken.
"That's awesome, damn, I wish I could do that!" Ranma said gleefully. Tammi blanched and sighed softly. "You okay?" Ranma asked. She looked up at him, "I'm fine…Light! I better get back to the tower, it's almost after dark." And with that she stood and almost ran away. "Well, that was odd." Ranma said finally before going off to find somewhere to sleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
It was cold, really cold, Mirabella was shivering from the cold night air. However seeing that Gholam earlier had been a fright and a half, She had tried to use saidar on it when she had seen it over the brown's body, and it had seemingly almost worked, but then after she shrieked, her next attempt dissolved completely, it had almost been as if the saidar had been sucked into the creature.
"Mirabella Sedai? I think we have found it." One of the Gaidin was speaking to her, at first the words didn't ring a bell, but then Mirabella sat up straight and jumped to her feet. She and a dozen other Aes Sedai were sitting in a room near the bottom floor. They all stood up and marched out, outside on the tower grounds nearly fifty Gaidin and another twenty Aes Sedai waited. The party moved out quietly, the gaidin's swords were all drawn as they scouted the area nervously, Mirabella almost snorted, the Gaidin were still walking like they were supremely deadly fighters. As if the Gholam hadn't beaten almost a quarter of them into the ground.
"It's in the alley just around here Mirabella Sedai." The lead Gaidin whispered, he was also issuing orders for the gaidin to surround the place, the other entrances, the roof and so on. Soon they were ready the warders and Aes Sedai moved in from both ends of the alley, in the middle they met and surrounded a doorway, looking at the sleeping Gholam it appeared to be quite the looker. Mirabella blinked, it was sleeping? And those features, Gholam were meant to be bland, average looking people, not super muscled boys… but it was the same one she had seen earlier for sure. Mirabella nodded and three gaidin stepped forward, they all made to stab the Gholam as one and were taken as one off guard as he rolled over in his sleep? Fake sleep? They tripped on him and fell backwards, earning several sniggers from surrounding warders. Mirabella used her already grasped saidar and moved to prepare an explosion under the ground if he was faking sleep.
She blinked. "I can touch him with Saidar." The gaidin paused as she did so, lifting him up Mirabella frowned, this shouldn't be possible… but, had any Aes Sedai ever caught or even seen a sleeping Gholam? "We're taking it back to the tower dungeons, there is a place there we can use." The warders stared at her. Mirabella frowned and snapped out "Do It!" she froze and looked at the Gholam, who merely turned in its sleep, it was almost comedic watching it move on a bed of air. They moved back to the tower, and after fifteen minutes and three Aes Sedai taking turns to carry the boy, they arrived in the third level. There was a room there with nothing but a hole in the ceiling, and that, had a solid clear glass plug made in the Age of Legends, it had a handle on the top to grasp with strands of air and the hole had been crafted for it to fit in perfectly. Mirabella personally deposited the boy into the cell, she then moved a stone block over the plug to make sure he could not escape.
"I want thirty gaidin here at all times, I want five Aes Sedai here with them at all times and I want some food for it in the morning, liquid stuff." Mirabella declared, "I'm going to bed, also, make that forty gaidin, and have ten of them within sight of each other in a line going as far up the tower as possible, if they see anything odd scream for help. Got it?" the head warder nodded carefully and Mirabella retreated, leaving five Aes Sedai behind.
"Sleep, I need sleep." Mirabella groaned as she and five warders walked back to her room, sometimes she really liked being a green Aes Sedai, and a Sitter of the hall to boot. No one would say a thing about her taking five warders into her room. Though most would mumble about greens and their sex drive. Climbing into bed her two bonded warders looked worriedly at her, the rest were out in the main room of her apartment. "I'll be fine. You did notice that the Gholam killed no one today? I'll be fine." She repeated herself to make sure they understood, although, the worry she was feeling surely transmitted itself over the bond. Chris, the second warder she bonded, nodded and sat on the foot of her bed. Andrew, the first bonded frowned and sat opposite the door. They both had their swords out ready and waiting. Mirabella grumbled and pulled Chris up closer the head of the bed, she curled up around his comforting warmth as she fell asleep.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Ranma woke up, he was in a different area, and there was light filtering down from above, a light cover or something. Looking around Ranma spotted only blank stone walls, he stood up and walked along them, tapping and finding they were relatively thin, and easy to break through. Ranma however refrained. It wasn't long however until he became hungry and his stomach started growling. He looked around again and bellowed out. "YOU GOT TEN MINUTES BEFORE I BREAK OUT TO GET SOME FOOD DAMMIT!" his voice echoed in the small room, and Ranma suddenly heard footsteps move quickly above him, looking up at the light source he discovered it was actually a sort of glass plug. He jumped up and clung to the ceiling, looking through the plug Ranma spotted three women staring at him and a dozen or more men in green cloaks cloistered around the plug, he frowned and dropped back to the floor. "Geez" Ranma said loudly, "What type a perverts are these, watching me like this." He heard a muffled snicker up above him. "Um, how about that food? I promise I won't escape or hurt no one, except in self defense of course…..Ranma looked up hopefully, the glass should be easy enough to break, it was a bit over a meter in diameter, although, they wouldn't be stupid enough to use easily breakable stuff like glass…. Would they?
There was no response to Ranma's most generous offer, Ranma sighed and sat down, "1000, 999, 998 997," Ranma stopped counting. "When I get to zero, I'm breaking outa here unless I got food!" he called up to the ceiling. "996, 995" he continued on with the accompaniment of a stomach growl.
The plug suddenly rasped as it was lifted slightly. A voice called down, it sounded like the voice of woman who he had seen at the grounds. "If I come down, will you attack me?"
Ranma snorted and looked up, "I don't like hittin girls, I won't do nothing less you do." The martial artist declared. The plug moved over more and Ranma raised his eyebrows as the same woman who attacked him first floated down, se was wearing a different green shawl this time though, but the dress looked the same as the last one, she looked pretty tired too. "That's a neat trick, never seen someone fly without letting out their ki before, well, there was this one group, but they had feathery wings so they don't count."
The woman looked surprised for a moment, "I am Mirabella Sedai." She declared finally, she put the food down in front of him and moved backwards pretty fast when he reached for it.
"Ranma Saotome of the Anything Goes martial arts." Ranma declared proudly as he picked up the soup. He looked confused for a moment, there was soup, lots of soup true, but it was only soup, "err, why is there only soup? Not that I'm complaining or nothing but it seems a little odd to feed a prisoner soup… usually its bread and water...except if you're a girl of course, they always get fed fancy stuff by the guys who kidnap 'em, well, that's what my fiancées' say anyway ."
Mirabella was surprised at that statement 'A Gholam with fiancées?' she mused silently. "Well, as far as we know, you cannot eat solid food…" 'Although, I think he may have bones…. Impossible though it seems'
Ranma gaped, him? A Saotome? Not able to eat solid foods? "You gotta be kiddin me!" He declared between mouthfuls. The soup wasn't too bad. "Never been a Saotome that couldn't eat what he could see!"
The plug rasped again, they both looked up, there was a hard eyed woman in a dark red dress and a red shawl standing above the entrance. She scowled down and almost snarled out. "Mirabella, The hall has convened; we have to kill it now." Ranma raised both eyebrows, Mirabella scowled.
"Well, if that's your plan I'm outa here, see ya round Mirabella-san." Ranma said as he stood, he reached out to the wall and hit it solidly, a large crack appeared and Mirabella dropped her jaw in shock. A second punch broke the wall and Ranma walked through calmly, ignoring the surprised sounds from behind him
Looking around Ranma spotted few places to hide, and not many places to go, after a few minutes searching Ranma settled for clinging to the ceiling in the old 'cling to the ceiling and hope they don't look up' style. Surprisingly enough, he had heard several parties pass his clinging spot and none of them detected him.
Before much time had passed Ranma dropped to the floor and started his escape in earnest. The pigtailed martial artist soon found himself in front of the broken wall again, peering in carefully he looked around but saw no one. "Easy as eating pie." He murmured as he jumped up to the vacant hole at the top, Ranma looked around and pulled the rest of his body up after satisfying that there was no one there.
"Let's see, go through here… and we can avoid that front entrance…" Ranma was whispering to himself, he didn't want to end up at the front again, too many people. Sneaking up another set of stairs he bowed slightly to a woman who was rushing past him and moved out of the way for her, she nodded back and continued to run, holding her cream dress up with two hands. Ranma wiped his forehead as he pressed on, that had been close. "THAT WAS THE GHOLAM!!!" a sudden shriek from down the stairs echoed around him and Ranma started running, fast.
Reaching a door without encountering anyone Ranma leaned out and saw the early morning sun rising over what appeared to be a forest glade. Smiling the pigtailed boy dashed out, closing the door behind him and took to the tree's leaping along for almost a minute before coming to a large clear area, looking from side to side he could spot nowhere that had tree's closer to the outer wall. Frowning Ranma dropped the ten feet or so down to the ground and started when he noticed a girl standing nearby, it was the same one who had healed him yesterday. She was dressed in pants and a long sleeved shirt with a vest over the top and carrying a heavily laden backpack. Tammi was also gaping at him. "Uh…hi again?" Ranma blurted out. She continued to gape, Ranma grew annoyed quickly and spoke again. "Come on, surely you've seen a guy jump off a tree branch before?!?"
Tammi shook her head slowly and Ranma sighed. "What are you? Ranma wasn't it?" Tammi asked, finally regaining some medium of speech.
Ranma sweat dropped, "yeah, Ranma, and I'm a martial artist, the best in the world."
Tammi blinked, Ranma raised and eyebrow, Tammi blinked again. "What's a martial artist?" Ranma face planted. "Are you okay?" she asked innocently.
"I'm fine, umm a martial artist's a warrior, the best warriors I suppose, we can do things that seem impossible and do em with ease, like I can jump really high, move fast and stuff, Ryoga can touch things and make them explode, Mousse has an entire armory hidden in his sleeves, enough stuff to arm fifty people or more!" Tammi didn't look like she believed it so Ranma continued speaking. "I can jump that wall over there and not even touch it… that sort stuff."
Tammi's eyes lit up, he might be able to help her escape, but first… "Your not a dark friend are you? "
The pigtailed boy blinked twice, and then scratched the back of his head, "What's a darkfriend? They aint like evil people are they? Cause I aint evil…"
Tammi smiled gleefully, "Alright, are you planning on leaving here?"
Ranma nodded enthusiastically, and then suddenly looked around everywhere, as if he had only just remembered where he was. "uhh yeah, I'm kinda lost, I don't know where we are…"
"Great, can you take me with you?" Ranma blanched at that, Tammi frowned and Ranma almost cringed.
"Can you do anything else apart from heal?" He asked finally. Tammi nodded enthusiastically and he spoke again. "Yeah, spose, ya probably gonna slow me down or something though." He finished unenthusiastically.
"I'll try not to, but your probably right…" Tammi sighed; suddenly they heard a woman yelling.
"FIND THAT LIGHT CURSED GHOLAM IMMEDIATELY!!!" Ranma and Tammi both crouched, Ranma looked her stance over and concluded she had no idea of how to fight, but she had the instincts for it already. "Right, time to go, coming?" he said to her, she nodded and almost shrieked in surprise as he lifted her up, backpack and all.
"Here we go." Ranma said to her, Tammi clung to him as he literally bounced across the clear space and over the wall; each leap had been over twenty feet long and around ten feet in the air. "We were spotted." He said calmly when he put her on the ground.
Tammi nodded at that, there hadn't been much chance of being able to get away completely unspotted. "That's okay, we need to get to the gates fast but." She spoke calmly and started walking briskly.
"Umm how about I carry you over the rooftops? No one looks up and there aint much chance of being seen…it's faster than walking or you running even." Ranma said finally.
Tammi thought on that, 'faster, less chance of being seen and followed, I get to be carried against his chest...' she blushed and Ranma looked at her askance. "Sure, let's go Ranma."
'Why the heck is she blushing so much?' Ranma thought as he landed on another roof, 'she isn't doing anything, probably thinking it though.' Ranma launched himself forward again; too late he noticed that he was going straight towards a flat roof that was mostly covered in water. "Shit!" he swore, Tammi looked up at him curiously and then down at the roof they were going for, "crap." Was her summary of the situation, Ranma landed hard and splashed his legs pretty well, enough to turn him into her at least. Tammi was staring at him. "What in the light?" she whispered Ranma blushed and carried her over to a dry spot on the roof.
"I'm cursed, I turn into a girl when splashed with cold water," Ranma started as he placed her down, "I turn back to a guy with hot water."
Tammi blinked. "I guess that, cause it's harder to turn into a guy, your probably born a guy right?" Ranma nodded in relief, she looked excited and was almost bouncing on the spot. "This makes it so much easier." She declared. "I have some clean clothes in my backpack, there made for guys, I was gonna wear them but I don't think you have any other clothes do you?" Ranma shook his head, she was kind of in shock at how well she was taking this, perhaps it was common here? "Alright, here they are." Tammi had been digging through her backpack and tossed some clothes at Ranma. "Get changed, I'll turn my back."
Ranma started blushing and protested "But, but…"
Tammi scowled at him and poked Ranma's shoulder, "You're in a girl's body right now, even if I did look, its nothing I haven't seen and touched before!" she started blushing though.
Ranma shrunk back and Tammi nodded in satisfaction before turning away. Ranma sighed as she dropped her pants and put on the brown pair over the top of her boxers. Before removing her shirt she looked around carefully, their were almost no buildings taller anywhere nearby so it was okay, she removed her shirt quickly and put the white one on. "There, I'm changed, happy now?"
"Yes. This will make our escape much easier." Tammi smirked. "Lets go, they won't be looking for a redheaded girl in white shirt and brown pants, accompanied by a black haired girl with white shirt and grey pants carrying a backpack." She reached out her arms to be picked up. Ranma nodded and picked her up easily, a few more uneventful rooftops later she spotted the gate and stopped, Tammi looked up at him "Why did we stop?" she asked.
Ranma looked around and spotted an alley, walking over there peered down into it and saw no inhabitants. "I saw the gate, if we go too much further, we'll be seen by any guards there." Tammi nodded and started to struggle slightly against his arms, trying to get herself put down. "Not yet Tammi." she launched himself off the edge of the building and Tammi breathed in to shriek. she landed halfway down the two stories building on a window sill, it cracked and Ranma pushed off and landed in the middle of the alley. "Nothing to worry about." Ranma declared smugly as she placed Tammi on the ground. She stood up and placed both hands on her hips. "Warn me next time!" she hissed angrily at him. "I thought we were about to DIE!" she punctuated the last word with a poke at the chest; she suddenly started blushing as Ranma rubbed the offended area. "Don't do that!" she hissed again while blushing furiously.
Ranma looked at her curiously, "why not? It's sore because you poked it."
Tammi started blushing more. "I forgot you were a girl! Okay?!"
Ranma's eyes brightened, she had forgotten he was a girl at the time. "Okay okay, let's go then." Tammi nodded and the two girls walked out of the alley, looked around carefully and headed towards the gate.
"Anything to declare girls?" he gate guard gave them a quick run over and Ranma brought her fist back, Tammi grabbed her arm and spoke carefully. "Nothing at all, we're just going to the village just a half days walk that way." Tammi pointed out the direction for extra emphasis and the gate guard nodded cheerfully and waved them through.
"Why did you stop me? He was looking at us like a pervert!" Ranma growled once they got a few meters along the bridge out of the city.
"It's his job; he was checking us over for hidden stuff and whatever." Tammi growled back.
Ranma blinked. "Oh." looking back at the man with less anger Ranma spotted a whole bunch of those guys in the weird cloaks approach the gate and seemed to take command of the area. They stopped everyone passing out and started checking them very thoroughly. "Looks like we made it out just in time Tammi.."
Tammi nodded but didn't turn her head around, instead just whispering. "Don't look back they'll get suspicious." Ranma nodded and they walked away steadily. as soon as they passed the bridge Ranma and Tammi started along a different path from the village that Tammi had spoken of.
"Ranma, you said you were a Martial Artist and stuff, so you know how to fight then don't you?" Tammi asked after around ten minutes of walking.
Ranma nodded, "Yeah., I'm the best, I usually win the first fight, only when I get tricked I lose, and then I always win the rematch."
Tammi smiled. "Can you teach me to fight?" Ranma tripped suddenly and his face hit the ground hard, she gasped and knelt down to pick him up, he got up before she could however and was slightly uneasy. "Well, uhh… It'd be really hard… like you probably wouldn't like me anymore after a bit of training, my school always does off the wall stuff, I won't put you through the hard things like throwing you down mountains to toughen you up or let you get chased by wolves to improve speed and stamina… but it'd still be really really hard."
Tammi gaped. 'Thrown down mountains???? Chased by wolves!?!?!' she thought as her mouth opened and closed in a fish imitation. "I want to try it Ranma. I promise I won't dislike you for it. But there are times I won't be able to channel to escape from a situation, so I need to learn to defend myself without it."
Ranma sighed heavily as they got back to their feet. "You're not going to like it. Not one bit." Ranma looked at Tammi and then grabbed her upper arm and squeezed lightly, "You're not that out of shape, so we can start now." Ranma looked around for some rocks, but spotted none in the well tended farmland. "First, cause I haven't got any rocks for you to carry, pull off your backpack and carry that in your arms. And start running."
Tammi blinked. "Now?"
"Now."
And they did.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
"How could this happen!" Siuan Sanche, Amyrlin of the White Tower bellowed angrily. The hall almost as one cringed.
"We had no idea that the Gholam was physically strong enough to break through a stone wall." Elaida tried to placate the Amyrlin or at least shift blame from her.
Mirabella snorted in derision and almost everyone stared at her. "First, I don't think he was a Gholam at all. He had by his own admission, Fiancées that had been kidnapped on multiple occasions…" Mirabella took a breath, this would be the hard part "He also was surprised when we thought he could not eat anything but soup, and he showed no preference between the soups's supplied. "
"That doesn't prove anything!" Elaida snapped angrily.
Mirabella smirked, time for the big fish. "And finally, while he was sleeping and until he felt threatened I could use saidar on him," the hall started speaking; Mirabella continued just raising her voice. "Indeed, someone else had already healed all his injuries gained from the evening before."
Siuan frowned deeply as everyone gazed around silently, he had been healed… "Is there anything else you want to say Mirabella?"
"Yes, he spoke of people flying with feathered wings, and that others could fly but he could always see something he called Ki when they did it." Mirabella sighed, "He also said he was a martial artist… what type of person is an artist of war? I think what he meant by that is exactly how it sounds; he fought like every opponent was something to show off with."
Siuan frowned, Leanne was frowning too. "So, let me get this straight, the hall convened without me… and then, based on very little information at all, declared this, Boy, a Gholam and sentenced him to death. Perhaps the hall needs to be reminded that the White Tower has a ter'angreal which can stop someone from being touched with the one power? Or perhaps, that there may be other ter'angreal that preform similar functions?" Siuan's voice was scathing, and Mirabella had an inkling of an idea of what would be coming next, she was thankful she had been talking to the… boy, instead of at the hall that very morning. "Everyone who voted for the boy to be declared Gholam and executed is to do one week worth of penance. The person who convened the hall can do two." Elaida's face flushed in fury. She had been the one to convene the hall and they all knew it.
"This mornings decisions are now all void. " Siuan continued. "The boy if he is ever met again, should be asked politely to come to the tower, and is to be apologized to for his previous treatment." A momentary flash of irritation on Siuan's face belied that she didn't particularly want to do that, but didn't see much of a choice if she wanted him to return willingly. "As the boy also did not do anything but minor damage on both his escapes, there will be nothing done to him about that. " Mirabella smirked and wondered if any of the Aes Sedai who was forced to do penance would willingly choose to repair that damage. "I have had a report that he left in the presence of Tammi Baley, the accepted who refused to become Aes Sedai when shown the oath rod." Siuan was frowning deeply, and so were several of the other Aes Sedai. "She has had a history of fighting in the tower and was seen startling the boy and then they engaged in conversation for almost a minute. After that he picked her up and took her with him as he jumped the wall, again."
Mirabella sighed, she didn't really want to say this, but it was important. "Tammi came to me and we spoke about why she refused to take the oaths. She mentioned that she was a fighter, and that's what kept her going…"
Several members of the hall sighed, this wasn't the first time someone had balked at taking the oaths for that reason or similar, and likely it would not be the last either.
Siuan sighed, "Then, I call to stand on the question of sending out search parties for the duo." The hall almost stood as one, only Elaida sitting still. "Dismissed." Mirabella frowned, Siuan may be angry with the majority of the hall… but they still were not novices to be 'dismissed' "Mirabella, I wish to talk with you." Siaun said calmly as everyone left. She moved over and sat next to the green sitter and began to discuss plans.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Prologue End.