Dreamscape -Ranma
"Rrranma?" Ranma was trying to get some sleep. It was kinda of hard however. "You had betterrr wake up." First off, the ground was hard. Not that hard ground really bugged him, he had slept on worse. "You don't want to miss this." Second, he had a headache. It was the kind he usually got after getting pounded by pop. That was always annoying. "Sigh" Third; there was that irritating voice that kept rolling its r's. "WAKE UP!" Ranma was suddenly standing in a defensive position, fists up, analyzing his surroundings.
Standing up? Check. Something woke me up and it wasn't pop. Let's see, sleeping area currently occupied by … big claws. Big claws attached to … big furry paw. Makes sense. Big paw attached to big furry leg. Makes sense too, I guess. Big furry leg attached to big furry shoulder. Um… big furry shoulder attached to big furry body. I don't think I like where this is going. Big furry body attached to big furry neck. This wont end well. Big furry neck attached to…
"C-C-C-CAAAAAAATTTTTTTTTTTT!" Ranma screamed and started to run in the direction directly away from the big furry cat, leaving after-images.
As Ranma disappeared in the distance, the big cat took one of its paws and started to massage one of its temples. "We rrreally don't have time for this." It said, then faded out of view.
Ranma was currently running. He was running very far. He was running very fast. He was running very far and very fast. He could feel the monster behind him. Bloody fangs glistening inches from his neck, vicious claws reaching for him, and eyes holding nothing but the promise of pain. He knew it was right there. Right behind him. He couldn't hear it, but he knew it was there. The monster had come to finish the job all the other ones had started. Ranma continued to run.
After what seemed like hours of sprint level running, Ranma started to slow down. Risking a glance behind him he saw that there was in fact no huge monstrous c-c-c-c-feline hounding him. Ranma slowed down even further, knowing the dangers stopping a hard run to fast. The fear had mostly left him by this point, and he cursed himself for being such a coward. Stopping, Ranma put his hands on his knees and hung his head, trying to catch his breath.
"Well now, that was quite an invigorating little jog therrre, don't you think kitten?" A deep voice said directly in front of him. Ranma froze. He knew for a fact that there wasn't anything in front of him a second ago. And we was sure he had run to fast for anything to keep up with him. "Now that we've gotten our exerrrcise for the day out of the way, maybe we can calm down and have a little chat." The voice continued. Ranma stayed frozen. It was probably some sort of hallucination, that made sense. A hallucination, yea, from the endorphins, a runners high. That's all it was. If he ignored it, it would go away. It was a very convincing hallucination. One that he could hear breathing. He could even hear the hallucination saunter up to him. He could feel the hallucination breathe on him. "Arrre you all rrright, Rrranma? You look a bit pale."
The big cat was standing right next to Ranma. He could see him visibly shake. The cat was surprised he wasn't bouncing around like a jack-hammer with how hard Ranma was vibrating. Listening, the cat could hear Ranma chanting "Only a hallucination. Only a hallucination." Over and over under his breath. Hallucination my furry ass.
"Rrranma, you need to calm down." Ranma stopped chanting when the cat had said that. Well, not so much stopped chanting as biting his tongue, but the effect was much the same. Ranma lost his train of thought. Or rather, his train of thought hit the switchyard going a good 90mph. Ranma promptly forgot all about the hallucination idea.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!"
Ranma didn't make it very far this time, however. A few paces into his run, his overworked legs, weak from exhaustion, protested the harsh abuse. Normally Ranma could continue to run for days, but the stress of running at full speed, the fear's physical effects, and the fact that the adrenalin had long-ago run out all cumulated in Ranma's legs giving way and dumping him on the floor. Ranma tried to stand again, but his legs in rebellion refused to support his weight. Ranma just curled up into a little ball and whimpered.
"Oh, for the love of… you're as bad as a newborrn. You're in to shape to even hear what I have to say. I'm not even trying to scare you. What am I going to do with you? "
The Real World
"Ohh, this is very bad honored customer. Very bad. Young honored customer fall in unknown spring. Break Right through wood covering. Come, come, must get honored young customer inside." The Guide said. Ranma was lying half in a pool, blurry and indistinct.
"Growf?" Genma panda asked
"Honored customer not worry, hot water change you back." The Guide replied. "Usually." He added as an afterthought. When he turned to look at Genma, however, all he saw was a dust trail leading to his hut.
"How odd, Honored customer not want to help with son." The Jusenkyo Guide said, grabbing Ranma's limp arm (At least he hoped it was an arm. Customers tended to get annoyed when you pulled on their new tails and such) and dragging his body the rest of the way out of the spring he had been soaking in. Strong magic still flowed through that particular spring, so who knew what affect it had on the poor boy.
Young honored customer was fuzzy; he really couldn't make any details out at all. He could only tell that he was holding a limb. He had seen a lot in his tenure as the Jusenkyo Guide but this had by far taken the cake. He had read about things like this however. It wasn't quite the same as when someone took the waters of two springs, mixed them (then usually accidentally geting themselves wet) although it was similar. The effects of falling in one spring, and then while still wet, falling in another were visually similar, but underneath the changes were far more reaching. He also remembered that weird things happened when you drank Jusenkyo water, sometimes as mundane as getting stuck in your cursed form for a few hours afterwards, or as unusual as having your curse change every time you got wet; the guide had only read about that last one in an old guides journal. He hoped that the young customer hadn't ingested any of the water. Interestingly enough, he found one, short entry, in that book that particularly stuck in his mind, roughly translated it read –'Don't bleed in the springs. Bad juju.' It didn't look like the young customer had lost any blood in the springs, but with martial artist you could never really tell.
He sighed. The honored customers never usually seemed to see him or hear his warnings until after they got cursed. He had thought long on why, and the nearest he could come was the magic of Jusenkyo kept them from hearing or seeing him until they were cursed. Having been there for most of their fight, he had paid close attention to what springs young honored customer had interacted with and how. He saw honored young customer at least one spring before impacting the wood covered one near the center.
Dragging the boy towards his hut he saw he was still blurry and indistinct, and the guide still couldn't see any details. He couldn't see any major attributes either, for that matter. He had read about this situation in the "So you're a Jusenkyo Guide now" instructional pamphlet. It meant that the magic was still trying to sort itself out. He hoped that the unknown spring in the center was some sort of magical creature, those forms tended to over-ride other Jusenkyo-forms. It was never good when forms mixed.
At least he hadn't fallen in the spring of Fifty Drown Lemmings. He still had nightmares about that one.
