Time and a Half

by Merendel

A Ranma and Wheel of time cross over

2. Sattered Memories

In honor of Knife Dreams, Book 11 of the Wheel of time coming out today I'm posting chapter 1 now despite the fact that my pre reader hasn't gotten around to finishing with it yet. I think I found and fixed most of the errors, if not I'll just repost later. Of course this new reading material will delay any more writing for at least a week but things were already stalled as I reread TGH and DR in preparation for the next several chapters. Chaps 2-5 should follow shortly if I can get my prereader off her butt.

Quick note on what various text types mean:

Italics are direct thoughts or dreams.

Thoughts in dreams 'look like this'.

>This is someone speaking a language that not all present understand.> (stupid site strips out the open bracket so I have to use two close ones.)

Disclaimer: Characters not mine, situations not mine, yada yada yada. Go read the prologue's disclaimer it still applys.

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Time and a Half. Chapter 1, Shattered Memories.

Ranma glanced around nervously as if expecting to be attacked at any moment. Oh man Akane is going to kill me; not only having dreams about another girl but now I'm alone with that girl. Not seeing any sign of Akane or a mallet he relaxed slightly although he still expected her to wander out from behind a tree at any moment.

Since there was nothing he could do for the girl but wait for her to wake up Ranma decided to try and find out where he was. Locating a tall tree he leaped into it, several bounds carried him to the top. From his perch at the top of the tree he took in his surroundings. There was a river some miles to the north and a mountain range to the west off in the distance. The terrain was mostly rolling hills with patches of forest here and there.

For as far as the eye could see there was no sign of civilization. There were also no landmarks that Ranma could recognize. Where did we end up he wondered as he dropped back to the ground. Just as he returned to the ground the girl ground and sat up slowly holding her head. "Are you alright?" he asked.

Ug what hit me? My head feels like someone tried to use it for an anvil. As she attempted to clear her head she heard someone speak. She looked up but her eyes were having trouble focusing. "What?" she asked in a half daze to the figure she was pretty sure was a man. The figure said something she could not understand again. "I cant unders- Arg!" suddenly her forehead felt like it was on fire and she felt like someone was driving a stake through her temples.

As Meren doubled over clutching her head Ranma grew even more concerned. "What's wrong? Are you alright?"

The pain faded as quickly as it had begun, "I'm alright I think, for a moment my head- Wait'a'minute you speak Hylian?"

"No I speak Japanese and I've picked up a little bit of Chinese and English, you're speaking Japanese right now." Ranma never having heard of Hylian wondered how this girl had mistaken Japanese for it.

"No I'm no-" Meren paused as she realized that she was speaking a language she had never heard before. What the? Shaking her head and resolving to figure out here new language skills once more pressing matters were resolved she continued. "Never mind, I want to know who you are and where you've taken me." She demanded as her eyes finally managed to focus enough to take in her surroundings.

"Me? You're the one who brought me here" he replied indignantly.

"I doubt that. Somehow I think I would remember bringing someone like you somewhere. Besides why would I drag you out somewhere that I didn't even know about?"

"I don't know why you did it but you defiantly ran into me and dragged me here. It's not my fault if you have memory problems." Ranma thought about that for a moment, she did hit me headfirst I guess she could have am- amne- memory loss.

Meren was not happy at all with Ranma. I've got better things to do than waist time with this jerk even if I have been dreaming about him. I need to get rid of him and get back to… she drew a blank on where she needed to get back to. Let's see the last thing I remember was… a fight? Then there was a blast I think but what happened after that? Racking her brain she couldn't for the life of her remember where she had been or who she had been fighting. Growing more concerned she tried to recall anything about her life before today, all she could come up with were scattered and disjointed images.

Fighting off panic she tried to calm herself ok Meren calm down. You can't remember anything, don't think about the problem think of a solution. Unfortunately the best she could come up with was waiting and hope her memory returned on its own. With my memory shredded like this that guy could be right.

Ranma had watched the girl's expression range from enraged to confused, panicked and finally resigned. Finally determining that this was a bad sign he tried the first thing that came to mind. "Um… I didn't mean- erm I mean to say I'm sure you have a great memory and all…"

Meren chuckled at that highly articulate statement. "No your right something is wrong with my memory. I can only remember a few scattered images and feelings that make no sense. If what you say is true I'm sorry for getting you into this. I'd send you home if I could but I don't even know how I'm going to get home… in fact I don't even know where home is."

"There's gota be a way home. I mean we got here didn't we? Just do whatever you did in reverse and we should be home before dinner." Ranma was quite pleased with his brilliant plan although his stomach grumbled at the mention of dinner.

Meren shook her head, "I wish it was that simple but I don't even know what I did to bring us here or even if it was something I did myself. Besides doing whatever happened backwards could make maters worse."

Drat it looked like he wouldn't be home in time for dinner and Ranma didn't like the idea of missing a meal. "Ok if that wont work do you have a better plan?"

Meren didn't like his tone but ignored it with a sigh. I guess he has every right to be upset if I somehow dragged him here away from his home. "The way I see it we have two options. First we could wait and see if my memory returns. Maybe I'll remember something useful for getting both of us home. The other option is to look for a town or city and see if we can track down a sage or local Wiseman that might have knowledge of magic or know someone that does. Hopefully we can find someone that can help us get home."

Ranma didn't like the idea of waiting around but the second option sounded like a training journey to him. He and the old panda had often sought out forgotten knowledge while on their journeys. "The second option sounds like it's the best to me."

Meren nodded "I agree, there's also the chance that my memory will return on the way so maybe that plan will pan out while we search for a way home."

Ranma wanted to kick himself for not thinking of that. "Of course that's why I picked that one," he lied.

Meren just stared at him, not only full of himself but a horrible liar. "Well the sun will be going down soon so I'd suggest we start tomorrow. Besides I still have this headache I want to sleep off. My names Meren Hotan by the way."

"I'm Ranma Saotome." He pointed his thumb at himself. "Of the Saotome school of Anything Goes martial arts" The effect would have been quite impressive if his stomach hadn't chosen that moment to rumble loudly.

"Nice to meet you Ranma, It sounds like your hungry," she giggled. She reached into the bag at her hip and pulled out a pot, a large water skin, some salted meat and a container of beans. Both youths started as they realized that the meat was the only item removed from the bag that should have been able to fit in there.

"How'd you do that?" Ranma asked trying to figure out if it was something like Mouse's hidden weapons technique.

"Not a clue but I don't feel like trying to figure it out right now. I hope you like field rations and can cook them for yourself, I'm not hungry and I think I'll turn in now." She really hoped the throbbing in her head would be gone by morning.

Ranma being used to cooking on training journeys started to prepare to cook up the meat and beans grateful to have some edible food available. As he prepared a fire he noticed Meren lying down. "What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing?" she asked as she wrapped herself in her cloak, "I'm getting some sleep."

"Here?"

Meren lifted her head to look at him, "Do you see anywhere better around here?" She gestured with her hand as if asking for him to point out the convenient inn she had missed in the forest.

"No. I mean aren't you worried, me being here and all?" He was confused because the Akane had made him sleep well away from her the few times they had been camping.

"What? You aren't planning to try something funny while I'm asleep are you?" She really didn't think he was that type but she figured she might be able to rib him a bit.

Ranma jumped back making warding gestures with his hands. "N-no of course not. I'm not a pervert you know!"

Meren chuckled at his discomfort, "then I guess I don't have anything to worry about then do I?" She lay back down but decided it was better safe than sorry. "Either way don't try anything. I'll make sure you live to regret it if you do." With that threat hanging in the air she dozed off.

Ranma shuddered. Even cursed to turn into one he didn't think he would ever understand girls. His stomach rumbled again reminding him of the task at hand and he continued preparing his meal.

Several hours later Meren woke up to find the fire had died and it was quite cold out that night. A quick look around revealed a shivering Ranma lying across the clearing. I got him into this I can't have him freezing to death. With a sigh she got up and walked over to where Ranma was trying to sleep. She threw her cloak over both of them as she lay down next to him.

Ranma jumped up with a start as he felt her next to him. "I didn't do anything honest." He didn't know how he ended up next to her but he expected to be hit at any moment.

"I know that silly, it's a cold night and you'll freeze to death in those cloths. I came over to share this with you." She said holding up the edge of her cloak.

"But … but… we… I mean…" he stammered.

"Look just lie down and keep your hands to yourself and you'll be fine." Seeing his obvious reluctance she decided to explain. "Look first I feel sorry for getting you into this so I can't let you die. Second I think my chances of finding a way home for either of us are better if I keep you alive. This means nothing beyond that and it's not like were going to do anything."

"I still don't think-"

"Good" she interrupted "keep it that way and it should be easier for both of us to survive this night. Now are you going to lie down and get some sleep or do I have to knock you out first for your own good?"

Ranma reluctantly lay down and tried to control his flee response as Meren edged closer so the cloak could cover them both. He did admit it was warmer under the cloak sharing body heat. He just wished he couldn't feel Meren pressed up against his side.

Meren on the other hand had gone right back to sleep long being used to campaigning and having to share body heat with another soldier to survive a cold night. Ranma despite his difficulties dropped off to sleep soon afterwards.

---

Ranma looked around in confusion as images passed before his eyes. He stopped looking around with a shudder when what he saw did not change as he moved his head. It was if someone had taped a photo in front of his eyes. Reaching up to see if someone had actually taped a photo to his head Ranma made another disturbing discovery. He had no hands, in fact he had no body as far as he could tell, he just was.

He shuddered again even as he wondered how someone without a body could shudder the scene changed. He could see rolling grassy hills as far as the eye could see stretching out before him. A few trees doted the countryside and a road lead off into the distance. Again his view shifted and he now was looking into a deep forest. "Where am I?" he asked himself.

"Hello? Is anybody out there?" a girls voice drifted to his disembodied ears but he could not see where it came from. He tried to call out in reply bout could not speak.

He found himself looking at a castle of gray stone as his view shifted once more. A figure appeared in front of the castle. Despite the clarity of the rest of the image this figure was strangely out of focus. "Where Am I?" the girls voice came once again, this time from the blurred figure before him. "I should know this place, Why cant I remember?"

Ranma could hear the depression in the girls voice bout could not say anything. As Ranma's sight faded to blackness he heard the voice call out one last time, "Why am I all alone? So alone…"

---

What a weird dream, Ranma thought as he woke just before sunrise, and where am I? Slowly becoming more aware of his surroundings he realized he was sleeping on the ground in the forest. Must be a training trip, I wonder why pops hasn't attacked me yet. Ranma froze as his sleep fogged mind realized that there was a third arm draped over him from behind and there were two soft mounds pressing into his back.

Oh no is Akane here? Did I crawl into her blankets in the night? He carefully slipped out from under the arm hoping to get away before Akane woke up. The instant the arm was no longer touching him he was 20 feet away breathing heavily but glad he got away without waking Akane. She'd really think I was a pervert if she woke up and saw me.

Glancing back at the sleeping figure he spotted a lock of blond hair. Wait that's not Akane… oh no. A few seconds of frantic searching revealed that Akane was no where in sight and could not have seen him sleeping next to another girl. Bad enough when Shampoo does that, it took him several more moments to remember what had happened the day before. Oh ya Meren was sharing her cloak with me to keep me from freezing last night.

Relieved that he wasn't likely to be hit by either Akane or Meren for waking up next to Meren he began working through a kata to loosen up. Its not that I'm ungrateful for the blanket but she didn't have to snuggle so close. Distracted by his thoughts he didn't notice Meren wake up as he moved into a more complicated kata.

Meren was a bit grumpy as she returned to consciousness; she didn't like the fact that the nice warm something she had been curled up against was gone. Slowly stretching she remembered where she was and who she was with. I hope Ranma didn't freak out waking up next to me, a smile spread across her face as she recalled how nervous he had been the night before. She didn't understand his trouble, she thought he had some survival training and he should have been used to the fact that it was necessary sometimes to share body heat on a cold night in the wilderness.

Looking around she spotted Ranma practicing a short distance away. Wow he's good; she thought and decided to just observe him for a while. Ranma moved fluidly through his forms with grace that made it look more like a dance. A skilled fighter and not bad to look at either she mused finally noticing just how handsome Ranma really was. A bit rough around the edges on the personality but he'd still be an excellent catch.

Meren blushed and shook her head when she realized just what she was thinking. It would never work out between them anyway. They were from different worlds and she didn't think either of them could give up on going home to be with the other. He'd probably think I'm too weird anyway. As she watched Ranma suddenly leapt twenty feet into the air and hung there longer than should be possible punching and kicking the air all the while.

Meren nearly had to pick her jaw up off the floor. I didn't think anybody else could do something like that. She latched onto that thought hoping to find some clue to her past in her memory but she found nothing. I know I'm a fighter and I guess I'm a good judge of ability; she got up wishing she could remember more and walked over to Ranma.

Ranma was just wishing Ryoga would show up to spar with him when his thoughts were interrupted. "You're pretty good." Leaping high into the air he spun looking for who had snuck up on him. He spotted Meren slowly stretching out some kinks in her muscles not far from where he had been standing. She's good to have snuck up on me like that. Another thought crossed his mind as he watched her continue to stretch dang she's flexible. Some of the stretches Meren was doing were not only amazing feats of flexibility but showed off her curves very nicely.

Ranma shook that thought off I'm not a pervert. "Ya I'm the best!" he announced, the confidence in his voice was betrayed by him scratching the back of his head nervously.

Meren raised her eyebrows "Modest too I see. Ok Mr. Best you up for proving your boast? I could use a good spar."

"Umm…" he replied uncertainly. He did want to spar but she was a girl.

"Come on. It'll be fun." Meren prompted as she removed her cloak and un-strapped her scabbard. "I'm better with the sword but I'm no slouch unarmed either."

Ranma finally noticed a line of throwing daggers strapped to the back of the scabbard. Why does she have those strapped there? Even as flexible as she is there is no way to reach most of those in a fight. Figuring she wouldn't accept 'I don't fight girls' as an answer he resolved himself to just dodge her until she wore herself out. "Ok I guess…"

Meren readied herself and attacked first when she saw he was prepared. Her first several punches were evaded causally but the counter attack she expected never came. Ok let's step this up a bit she thought. Her punches started raining in faster and she began attempting to kick him as well. He still evaded most of what she threw at him but was now forced to block some as well.

Ranma was concerned about how good Meren was. She's fast he thought as he was forced to block several more punches and barely avoided a leg sweep that would have dropped him on his ass. Still he couldn't fight a girl, she'd just get hurt.

Meren was impressed by Ranma's dodging abilities but was annoyed that he wouldn't fight back. He's better than this, I'm sure of it, but if I ramp things up too much more I could hurt him badly if he doesn't take me seriously. "You know normally when two people spar they both attack." She hoped just a little encouragement would get him to fight back.

"But you could get hurt" Ranma pleaded. Didn't she understand that guy's aren't supposed to fight girls?

Meren laughed as she launched another assault trying to throw him off balance. "Don't worry about hurting me, I'm tougher than I look and heal fast."

"But still…"

"Come on you can't prove you're the best if you won't fight back."

"Hey I am the- ooff." Meren managed to snake a blow past his defenses to strike his abdomen. "I am the best I just don't fight girls." He flinched slightly as Meren's face darkened.

"And why the hell not? Not all girls are weak and defenseless." She was not pleased at all. She vaguely new she had faced this problem far too often in the past and that she had never let anyone get away with it before. She wasn't about to start now.

"A martial artist is supposed to protect those weaker than themselves. Girls are supposed to be protected not hurt." He punctuated this remark by leaping over her using a finger on her head as a pivot.

A grin flashed across Meren's face as he flew over, got ya.

As Ranma traveled through the air he saw the yellow rope around Meren's waist suddenly unravel. What the- the rope suddenly lashed out grabbing his ankle tightly. Meren pitched forward dropping to all fours as she used her tail to snap him back forward. Ranma crashed face first into the ground in front of her before she released him.

"Do I look weak to you?" to drive her point home she grabbed him by the ankle again with her right hand this time lifting him into the air.

Ranma was trying to get a handle on the situation. Not only did this girl have a tail but she was lifting him into the air one handed. His side also ached where she had struck him before, she hits almost as hard as Ryoga with that right arm of hers. "No… but… I can't…" he stammered

Meren sighed and dropped him on his head. "You may be good but with a weakness like not being able to fight a girl there is no way you could be called the best."

Ranma rolled over and sat up. "But what am I supposed to do? I can't hit a girl"

"If a girl comes at you fight back! You can use the minimum force necessary to stop the attack if you want. If the girl gets hurt in the process, well she knew the risks when she attacked." Meren was irate; she hated it when men had this sort of attitude.

Ranma didn't know what to say, Meren actually wanted him to hit back? Maybe it was some sort of trick; Akane sometimes told him to fight her but would then threaten that she would hate him if he hit her. What she said did make some sense but he didn't like it. "But still…"

"Look!" she interrupted "if you ever get over this notion that you can't fight me because I'm a girl we can try this again. Until then you're too weak to be worth my time." She turned on her heal and went over to retrieve her gear.

Weak? She thinks I'm weak? Ranma was torn between his desire to prove her wrong and the conditioning his father had driven into him to never fight girls. I don't want her to think I'm weak, he thought, another small voice asked him why he cared but he ignored it. On the other hand she will think of me as weak unless I fight her which I can't do. Ranma sat there in that mental loop until the smells of cooking interrupted him.

Meren, after leaving Ranma to his thoughts had retrieved the cooking tools she had lent him the night before. Good grief he eats a lot she thought as she held the empty bag of beans. The bag had contained enough for several meals when she handed it to him. Reaching back into her pouch she retrieved another sack with some more baked beans in it and another package of salted pork.

Lighting a small fire she quickly set the pork and beans simmering over it in the pot. She added in several herbs and spices she found in the pouch as well to add some flavor to the meal and then began examining the apparently bottomless pouch.

From the outside it appeared to be nothing more than a plain leather pouch a bit larger than her splayed hand. Looking inside however she saw a great deal of gear apparently neatly organized inside. She reached in and pulled out a long wooden practice sword from the pouch. At best the hilt of the sword could have been covered by the pouch yet the whole thing vanished inside when she tried to put it back. Looking again she saw it was back in its place and miniaturized despite the fact that she hadn't tried to put it in there.

"Hrmm… Trimirida" she muttered to herself. Her eyes glowed briefly as her irises morphed from green disks to a trio of golden triangles forming a larger one with her pupils filling the gap in the middle. To Meren the world was suddenly awash in different colors and patterns as various forms of energy became visible to her. Focusing on the pouch she could see a magical field overlaying it.

Interesting it looks like its warping or bending reality at the mouth of the pouch and what's inside. There was also another field over the pouch that she suspected had something to do with retrieving items from the pouch. She decided to just accept the fact that it worked and not worry about how for the time being. Her eyes returned to normal as she released her magic and she began sorting through the contents of the pouch.

In side she found a couple sets of practice weapons, a bow with a quiver of arrows, several changes of clothing as well as an extra cloak. Good I can have Ranma use that tonight. She pushed aside a small feeling of regret and continued her inventory. She found a good supply of food that she estimated was several weeks worth well maybe a week at the rate he eats she amended ruefully. Inside she also found some camping gear including a small two person tent. She also found…

What the heck is this doing in there? She pulled out a long formal gown made of pale blue silk. The cut of the gown would bare most of her shoulders and reveal a modest but enticing amount of cleavage. Why do I have something like this in there? It looks like something a princess might wear not a soldier. She had no doubt that she was a soldier, the gear she had indicated it and it just felt right to her whereas the dress and the thought of wearing it felt foreign.

With a shrug she returned the dress to the pouch. Who knows maybe it will come in handy if I have to attend a formal ball at a palace or something? She wondered where that thought had come from but she noticed the food was almost ready. Pushing thoughts of balls out of her mind she grabbed a tin of hard biscuits from the pouch as well as a couple bowls.

A loud rumble announced the presence of Ranma and his bottomless stomach. "Hungry?" she asked, "Someone as weak as you should eat well to build up strength." That earned a glair from Ranma but he accepted the bowl she offered anyway. Meren wasn't sure if taunting him was a good idea but she intended to break him of the idea that she was a delicate flower to be protected.

Ranma accepted the bowl with a glare, he knew he wasn't weak but it galled to hear her say it anyway. Unfortunately he still hadn't thought of a way to prove he was strong without hitting her. He dug into the food without thinking and was shocked when he realized it was quite good. "This is pretty good, even better than what I made up last night." He commented truthfully

Meren smiled at the compliment, "Glad you like it, here these biscuits go well with it" she tossed him a couple biscuits which he caught with his free hand. "They are a bit hard so you'll have to soak them unle-" she stood agape as he bit right through one and swallowed it. "Unless you have an iron jaw and stomach." She concluded with a shake of the head.

Ranma was devouring his food with abandon. He could eat ALMOST anything but he was grateful it wasn't toxic like Akane's cooking usually was. Some of the meals Ukyo and shampoo had made for him were better but this defiantly beat what he normally cooked for himself. "Whrf ooh ghit alf dif foog?" he asked

"Excuse me?"

Ranma swallowed hard and tried again, "Err I said where'd you get all this food?"

"Oh that." Meren held up the pouch, "This thing seems to have an enchantment on it that makes it bigger inside than outside. I found quite a bit of stuff in there including a good supply of food. It should last for a while but well have to start hunting if we can't find a town soon. What I have wont last long with how much you eat."

"Sarwe" Ranma said around another mouthful of food. Meren just shook her head; most foot-soldiers had better table manners than Ranma did. "So why don't you tell me a bit about yourself and where you come from?" she asked trying to start a conversation.

Ranma had just finished shoving two of the biscuits into his mouth and they were sticking a bit. "Wlph iph phrm ah plaph kahled nrmiph"

Meren chuckled and picked up a water skin with her tail. "Here try swallowing first." She suggested as she tossed the water skin at him. Instead of catching it he seemed to freeze up as the water skin hit him spraying water all over him.

The first odd thing Meren noticed was that Ranma seemed to shrink, and then she noticed that Ranma's hair had changed from black to flaming red. The final thing she noticed was that Ranma now had a rather impressive rack. As she stared at the now soaking wet buxom redhead all she could manage was a rather stupefied sounding "Whaa?" with her mouth hanging open.

Why does it always have to be water Ranma thought dejectedly. She hadn't wanted to tell Meren about the curse but should have known it would come out sooner or later. "Stupid curse" she muttered under her breath. Suddenly she gasped as a finger prodded her right breast

Meren having overcome her initial shock was now trying to figure out what happened. "There real? How'd you do that? I know for sure you were a man a moment ago." Meren peered at the redhead expectantly.

"Yes there real and would you please stop poking me" Meren blushed a bit and nodded apologetically. "And I am a guy this stupid curse changes me into a girl when I get splashed with cold water."

"So it's a curse? Probably magical in origin…" she trailed off a bit looking thoughtful, and then her face brightened as an idea hit her. "Trimirida" she said as her eyes once again transformed and she began examining the curse around her companion.

Ranma backed up startled. "What's going on?"

"Huh?" Meren asked in confusion before remembering the visual change in her eyes. "Oh this? Don't worry about it; this just lets me see various forms of energy among other things. I'm using it too look at your curse." As she looked at the energy surrounding Ranma she marveled at how intricate the spell was. She wasn't sure the curse could be broken short of layering a similar but inverted one over top of it. As to how it worked beyond the obvious she hadn't a clue.

"Well that's the strangest spell I've ever seen, that I can remember anyway, I'm not even sure how it does what it does. I take it there is some way to change you back?"

"Ya hot water changes me back to normal…"

"Well that's simple enough." Meren pulled a kettle out of her pouch and filled it with water before setting it on the fire. "What's wrong?" she asked noticing the dejected look on Ranma's face.

"Go ahead and laugh I know you think I'm a freak!" she burst out figuring it was best to get this over with.

"Why would I think you're a freak?" Meren asked in concern. What has he…er she… er dang this is confusing. What has Ranma been through to get so worked up about this?

Ranma stared at her as if she had asked why the sky was blue. "Whatcha mean why? What else would you call a guy that turns into a girl?"

"I'd call it different but why should that bother me? I've got a tail, would you consider that normal?" when Ranma shook her head she continued. "So we're both different that doesn't make us freaks."

Ranma pondered what Meren said for a while until the water got hot enough for her to change back into a he. Some of the people back home had accepted his curse but most of them had similar curses or were just plain weird themselves. Most of those while accepting the curse still found it disconcerting at times. Meren was the first person he had met that had accepted his curse from the moment she found out about it and didn't seem bothered at all.

"Why doesn't this bother you?" he asked.

"Why should it? Look I can't claim to understand what you've been through entirely. Our situations are different but I do know what its like to be shunned for being different. I learned long ago that there is no point in being bothered by someone being different. It just hurts both sides in the end."

Ranma guessed that made sense although he had never had time to think about it before. His life had been pretty chaotic since he fell in that cursed spring and nobody had attempted to spell this out for him.

"Why don't you tell me a bit about what you've been through maybe it will help."

"I don't know some of what I've been through is pretty weird." He replied uncertainly. He didn't want to scare her off with some of what he had been through.

"You don't have to tell me if you're uncomfortable about it but I do think it will help. I promise not to laugh or judge you because of what's happened in your past." She honestly wanted to know and help him and not just because it was her fault he was here. It was obvious he had some issues that he needed to work out before something bad happened. Besides how weird could it be?

"Ok but don't say I didn't warn you." Ranma proceeded to tell her the short version of his life, which took about an hour. Within five minutes Meren realized just how weird weird could be.

"Ok let me see if I have this strait. First your father has been teaching you martial arts since you could walk. At five he took you from your mother pledging you'd both commit suicide if he didn't return after making you a "Man among Men" whatever that means. He then proceeds to drag you all over the world subjecting you to strange and sometimes dangerous training techniques until he finally dumped you into a cursed spring that changes you into a girl every time you get wet.

Not only that but along the way he arranged marriages for you to nearly every person he met that had something he wanted. Eventually you end up in Nerima, a town full of crazed martial artists, two fiancés that had the strongest claims out of the uncounted arranged marriages, one crazed Amazon that thinks you are her husband and a crazed brother and sister that both want to marry you in one form and kill you in the other. To make maters worse you have a mother running around with a sword that would probably make you kill yourself if she ever discovered your curse." No wonder he's so messed up she thought as she concluded her summery.

"Ya that about sums it up. Still don't feel like laughing?"

"No at the moment I'm more inclined to kick myself for wondering how weird your story could be. How did you survive all that and remain sane?" Ranma only gave a halfhearted shrug for a response. That father of his should be killed slow and painfully, she thought.

"Well with my memory the way it is I cant say for sure but I doubt I can top what you've been through. To be honest I can't understand for the life of me why you'd want to go back but I'll do what I can to get you home if that's what you want."

Ranma nodded again but her words made him wonder if going home was really what he wanted. Did he want to go back to a fiancé that hit him more often than not over nothing and a whole pack of crazies that wanted to marry, kill, drug, and carry off, seduce, or take advantage of him, usually several of those at once. "I need some time to think about this. What should we do now?"

"Well we should get moving, we won't find a way home just sitting here. First however…" she stood up and extended her hand to Ranma. "Hi I'm Meren Hotan. I'm a girl with a tail that loves to fight and has strange powers as well as a memory with more holes than a sieve. You wana be friends?"

Ranma looked at the hand like it might bite him. Akane had offered to be friends as well before she had discovered his curse. After that she had always called him a pervert and hit him. But Meren already knows about the curse and wants to be friends anyway. After a few moments he took the offered hand as he stood up giving it a firm shake.

"Hi I'm Ranma Saotome. I'm a martial artist, have more weirdness in my past than should be legal and am cursed to turn into a girl when hit with cold water. I'd love to be your friend."

Both of them laughed at their shared weirdness as they shook hands. "Well Ranma, why don't we see about finding a way to get home?"

"OK." He replied as he looked around. "Uh which way should we go?"

"Well were in the middle of nowhere I guess any direction is good. How bout that way?" she suggested pointing off to the west.

"Sounds good to me although I think there's a river to the north."

Meren thought about that for a moment. A river could be a good idea, towns tended to spring up along rivers and they might spot a passing boat. Still she wasn't that fond of water and she guessed Ranma might not be too thrilled with the idea either. She also had a small voice urging her to go west.

"Let's head west for now if we don't find a road, village or some other sign of civilization in a few days well try hitting the river and see if that leads us anywhere."

"Sounds good," Ranma replied as he helped her pack up the cooking gear. Soon they were traveling west at an easy pace occasionally talking, mostly about martial arts techniques. They stopped in a hollow with a stream passing through it around nightfall. The stream formed a small pool not far from their campsite. Meren handed Ranma some more food and the cooking supplies while she setup the tent she had found earlier.

"Where'd you find a tent?" Ranma asked curiously.

"I noticed it in my pouch this morning while I was rummaging through it. Oh I almost forgot, catch." She pulled the spare cloak out of her pouch and tossed it to Ranma. "Neither of us is dressed for the weather here but the cloak helps a lot."

"Thanks" he replied as he caught the cloak and put it on. Glancing at the small tent he asked, "I don't suppose you have another one of those in there?"

"No but this one is big enough to share. Its either that or you can try sleeping on the ground wrapped in that cloak. Considering your girl problems back home I'll understand if you're uncomfortable sharing a tent with me although I'd suggest the tent."

Ranma eyed the tent uncertainly. It was big enough for two if you didn't mind sleeping shoulder to shoulder with the other occupant. "Why are you so casual about this? I'm a guy and you're a…"

"A girl?" she offered. Ranma nodded and Meren shrugged. "I can't say for sure but I'm fairly confident I was in the military in one form or another back home. I suppose I'm used to not having a lot of privacy and being around men."

Ranma nodded, he didn't understand her but he also didn't want to alienate his new friend either. "I guess but are you sure… I mean… well…"

Meren laughed as he tried and failed miserably to say something meaningful. "Look like I said last night don't try anything funny and you'll be fine." Seeing he was still uncomfortable with the concept she changed the subject. "You might want to stir that or it will burn." She commented dryly indicating the cook pot in front of Ranma.

Ranma blushed slightly as he resumed stirring their meal. "You're not like any girl I've ever met you know." He cringed as he realized his mouth had spoken before he thought about the consequences again. He knew that anything even remotely insulting a girl's womanhood was a good way to get hit. Making warding gestures with both hands he tried to explain. "Wait I didn't mean… it's just…" he stammered off as he looked at Meren.

She slowly wiped the food off her face that had been flung from the spoon in Ranma's hands. She stared at him with an unreadable expression on her face for a few moments. Eventually the look of pure horror on Ranma's face did her in as she fell to the ground with side splitting laughter. Ranma just stared dumbly at the fact that she hadn't tried to hit him yet.

"If you snicker really wanted… me to test the food giggle you could have snort just asked…" anything else she wanted to say was lost as her laughter redoubled as Ranma finally got caught up in the situation and joined her. It was several minutes before either could manage to speak.

"Seriously though I don't mind being different from other girls. I am who I am and I won't conform just to be labeled 'Normal'. Who's to say what normal should be anyway." She was just barely maintaining some calm as she suppressed her giggle fit.

Ranma thought about that for a moment without being able to come up with a good answer. "I'm just glad you didn't hit me." He said with a shrug.

"Why would I hit you?"

Ranma couldn't think of a good way to say this so he just spoke his mind and hoped he didn't swallow his foot too badly. "Well its just most girls I know would have hit me for what I said and defiantly would have for throwing food at them." He resigned himself to the fact that most likely she would now come to her senses and pull a giant mallet out of that pouch and smack him.

"Well I thought the food was funny particularly with the expression on your face when you realized what you had done." She had to suppress another fit of laughter at the memory of that before continuing. "As to your comment before that, first I don't mind. You were just saying what's on your mind and while it did lack tact a friend shouldn't hit a friend just for a poor choice of words."

Ranma nodded dully as he tried to process everything she had said. Meren was turning all his notions of how people treated him on their ears and he wasn't sure how to respond.

Meren noticing how lost in thought Ranma was took the spoon from him and finished up the meal preparations. The poor kid is more like a beaten puppy than a guy. What the heck have those loonies been doing to him? She left him alone until she handed him a bowl of the pork and bean stew that they had been eating since they arrived. Food was enough to jolt him back to the present.

"So… Since I'm not like any girl you've ever known does that mean you'll actually fight back if I spar with you tomorrow?"

Ranma nearly sprayed her with food again as he choked on his mouthful. "I don't know. I've always been told that a guy isn't supposed to fight a girl. I don't know if I can change that." He was beginning to feel more comfortable around Meren but he still worried that this would upset her.

He was right it did upset her but she could see his resolve weakening and thought she might break through if she was careful. "Who told you this? Your father?" she asked carefully.

Ranma nodded, "Yes mostly."

"I see so your father and maybe a few others. Now tell me was your father and these others always right?"

Headshake.

"Ok how about the way they treated you. Did you like what they would do to you?"

Another headshake.

"How about how I treat you? I know we got off to a somewhat rocky start but overall do you like how I've treated you today? Particularly after I found out about your curse?"

Ranma nodded dully still unsure where she was taking this. "I guess-"

"Ok" she interrupted not giving him the opportunity to derail the train of reasoning she was following. "Now let's assume that you like how I treat you better is because I treat you the way a friend should treat you and what your father and other "friends" showed you is the wrong way. Is it not possible that some of what they have taught you is wrong?"

Ranma nodded

"Well then is it possible that I may be right when I tell you it's alright to fight a girl if the situation warrants it? I'm not saying you should go out and beat up girls, you shouldn't even do that to guys but if one comes looking for a fight you shouldn't be afraid to fight back."

Once again Ranma found himself nodding as he could find no way to argue with what she was telling him. He knew pops wasn't always right, in fact the old panda was often stupidly wrong, but he had beaten the not fighting girls into Ranma so thoroughly he had never thought to question the concept. "I still don't know about this…" he sighed "I'll try though."

It wasn't perfect but it was a good start. "That's all that I ask. I'm serious about not minding being hit in a sparing match. If I'm hit in a spar and it hurts you can bet I will try to find a way to avoid being hit in the future. In the end a bit of pain in training can save me from a lot of pain in a real fight."

"That does make sense in a way. I can't promise to go all out against you; I just don't think I can bring myself to do that. But I'll try to at least put up a fight." That last was barely a whisper but Meren heard him well enough.

"I understand, if it takes time then it takes time. You're already doing better than you did this morning. I'm sorry for calling you weak but I can't stand it when a man refuses to respect my fighting ability in that manner."

"I can understand that," Ranma said with a chuckle, "I don't like it when someone disrespects my fighting abilities either."

Meren stretched and yawned loudly. "Well now that that is resolved I'm going to get some sleep." She ducked into the tent but her head reappeared a moment later. "As I said before, the tent or the ground, it's your choice and I don't care either way. You will probably find it more comfortable in the tent though." With that she ducked back inside and went to sleep.

Ranma spent a good ten minutes sitting there trying to decide. Everything he knew from his past said this was a bad idea but Meren said it was alright. Finally deciding that Meren often made more sense than what he knew from the past he decided to accept Meren's judgment on the matter.

Ducking inside the tent he saw Meren already asleep wrapped in her cloak to one side of the tent. Apparently she expected him to make this choice as she left plenty of room for him to lie down without disturbing her. Wrapping himself in his own barrowed cloak he laid down and was soon asleep.

---

Ranma was standing at the edge of a small field. A number of young children were running around the field playing various games. The only odd thing about this scene was that there was no color. 'What the heck? Am I dreaming again?' Ranma thought as he looked around.

Unlike his last dream which had been more like still photographs, this looked more like an old home movie in black and white. Looking down at himself he noted that he at least had a body this time although he was misty and transparent. He just shook his head, all sorts of weird things could happen in a dream.

"no don't go talk to her! She's a freak." One small child was holding another back.

Ranma followed their line of sight and spotted a young girl off all alone. She looked to be about ten or eleven and had light colored hair. She appeared to be working on a kata involving two long knives. As she turned Ranma noted that she had a tail yet none of the other children did.

"ya she's got that creepy tail…."

"and look at her ears…"

"Ya who ever heard of having ears that short…"

"she always plays with those knives of hers too…"

Ranma took a closer look at the kids who were talking about the girl behind her back. Their ears were long and pointed sort of like a fairy's while the girl with the tail's looked more normal. A blurry figure moved into Ranma's field of view. Unlike everything else this figure had color although Ranma still could not make out who or what it was.

"There are few things in life that are crueler than the way children can treat one another." The voice from before said.

Ranma looked carefully at the blurry figure. He thought it could be a girl but there was no way to tell for sure except for the voice. "What do you mean?" he asked but the figure moved closer to the lone girl without responding. One large boy followed by several others had moved over to confront the girl.

"You don't look so tough." The bully said.

The girl continued her kata and did not even look at the boy.

"Heh you must be deaf too with those small ears of yours." He laughed and his followers laughed with him.

"Ok you proved you're big and tough. You can talk big and call a lone girl names. Now leave." The girl said flatly still not even bothering to acknowledge the boy's presence.

This seemed to enrage the bully. "Oh so the freak can talk." He said accompanied by jeers from his goons.

The girl sighed and sheathed her blades before turning to the boy. "Yes I can talk, I just don't like to talk to people that couldn't catch a clue if it hit them." Ranma flinched at the sound of her voice. If there was any emotion at all it was pure ice.

The boy looked puzzled for a moment and apparently decided he didn't fall in that category because she was speaking to him. "Well I'm telling ya that your not wanted around here."

The girl crossed her arms "if you are trying to pick a fight just get on with it. Your not worth my time."

"Why you little… hmph I don't hurt girls even if they are freaks."

"fight or leave just make up your mind. I'm tired of listening to that noise coming from that ugly face of yours."

The bullies face darkened. "Get her!" he yelled as he charged. The ensuing fight was swift and decisive.

The girl held the boy up by his shirt as the rest of his goons limped away as fast as they could. "do you feel big and tough now?" she asked flatly. "did this satisfy your need to pick on others? Do you think the others will respect you now? You picked on one girl with five other guys and lost." Her impassionate gaze met the boy's look of pure terror. She dropped him to the ground. "Get out of my sight, coward."

The bully scurried away as the other children in the field murmured and looked at the girl. She turned away from them all and resumed her kata.

"The wounds people inflict on each other can run deep, deeper than you can see." The blurry form of a girl said as she moved around in front of the practicing girl.

Ranma followed and looked at the young girls face. Her expression was as hard and emotionless as ever but tears could be seen making their way down her face. "But the boys never landed a hit on her." He said. The figure appeared to not hear him as the world started to fade.

The girl's voice floated out from the darkness. "Wounds of the heart can cause more pain than wounds of the flesh."

---

The next morning Meren woke up first. She groggily snuggled a bit closer to the warmth next to her. Suddenly her eyes snapped open as her mind returned fully to the waking world. She quickly scooted away from Ranma as she realized she had unconsciously shifted closer to him for warmth in the night. A quick glance reassured her that both were fully clothed.

What am I doing she thought. For a few moments she took careful stock of how she was feeling before giving a mental sigh of relief. Good it isn't that time yet. We really need to find another tent or this could get awkward. Shaking off several thoughts she didn't want to contemplate she decided to take advantage of the nearby pool to clean up.

Some time later Ranma woke up. What a weird dream, he thought as he stretched. Could that have been Meren as a little girl? Ranma shook his head, the idea of him seeing Meren's past in his dreams was silly. Probably was just brought on by what she said last night,this explanation reassured him a little bit although he still didn't understand why the girl had been crying.

He noted that Meren was gone as he stretched some more. Unfortunately raising his arms over his head revealed an unpleasant odder. Two days with no bath and no change of cloths can do that to a person. He got up resolving to go down to the stream to clean up and forget all about these wacky dreams he was having. He lit a fire and set a kettle warming so he could change back afterwards before heading down to the stream.

Unfortunately Ranma missed the significance of the neatly folded clothing sitting on a rock by some bushes that hid the pool from view. Quickly striping down he stepped around the bushes and froze on the bank of the pool. There to greet him was an equally unclothed Meren just standing up out of the water.

Both stared at each other a moment before Meren glanced down at herself and dropped back into the water with an "Eeep!" "What do you think your doing?" she asked with an icy chill in her voice. Ranma started backing up trying to stammer out an apology. Suddenly Meren brought her hands together and squirted a stream of water at the stammering youth, instant redhead.

"Hey what'd you do that for?" spluttered the now dripping Ranma.

Meren stood back up and strode deliberately past Ranma. "Well since were both girls now I guess it doesn't matter if you walked in on me bathing." Despite her words her tone made it obvious she was somewhat irked anyway.

Meren disappeared around the bushes leaving a stunned Ranma in her wake. I'll never understand girls Ranma thought shaking her head. Deciding it was too late to change what happened she went and took her bath.

Meanwhile back at camp Meren was preparing breakfast and trying to calm herself after the unfortunate encounter. Good grief how could he miss the fact that I was bathing, do I have to put up a sign? Well can't change the past, he better have liked what he saw though. Of course Meren wouldn't admit even to herself that she hadn't minded the eyeful she got either.

She quickly took that thought tied it up and beat it with a stick for a while before throwing it into a dark corner of her brain. That man is having a bad effect on me. She thought ruefully as she continued preparing the food. Meren's thoughts turned to the transformation she had witnessed for the second time in as many days. How can hair that red be natural? And why don't those hurt his back? Chalking the second question up to the fact that Ranma probably spent as little time as possible in his female form she tried to forget the whole subject.

Around that time Ranma returned wringing out the shirt she had also cleaned in the stream. Meren shook her head at Ranma's total lack of modesty but decided with just the two of them there it didn't really mater.

"I um… I'm sorry… I didn't mean to peep on you." Ranma finally managed to say.

"What's done is done," Meren commented with a sigh. "I know it was an accident, I figure you're not the type to peep on purpose anyway." A wry grin crossed her face at that last.

"Hey what makes you say that?" Ranma asked indignantly. She wasn't sure but that sounded like a jab at her manhood.

Meren laughed seeing that Ranma had misinterpreted her remark. "Well it's just the fact that why would you need to? All you need to do is splash yourself and stand in front of a mirror to get all the show you want." She waved a hand at the assets Ranma was proudly bearing to the world. "And its obvious you have no modesty," she held up the kettle, "change back before your hurt yourself with those.

Ranma accepted the kettle and changed back to normal before putting his shirt back on. "I really didn't mean to you know" he said once again apologizing. He really didn't want to get his new friend mad at him but this kind of unfortunate situation was all too common in his life.

Meren's heart softened a bit seeing her friend's obvious sorrow. "Look I'm really not that upset by it. At first, maybe a little, but when I think about it I don't have anything you haven't seen before anyway right? Besides you gave me a pretty good show too." She commented slyly before realizing what she said and proceeded to beat those thoughts all over again.

Ranma stared at her like she had just grown a tail, well another one anyway. Why isn't she mad at me? He knew from experience any man caught peeping on a naked girl earned a firm beating from that girl and any others in the area weather or not he meant to peep.

"Tell you what if you're still bothered by what happened you can make it up to me by giving me a good workout with our sparing session after breakfast." She offered trying to cheer him up. His tendency to mope and get all introspective was getting on her nerves. She much preferred the confident Ranma over this one. Guess it is kind of my fault though; I've given him a lot to think about.

Sure enough the mention of a sparing match cheered him up, or maybe it was the mention of breakfast. Either way he was soon devouring his food and shortly thereafter they packed up and found a space to square off against each other.

"Now remember you promised to at least try to fight back," reminded Meren.

"Ya I know." Was the muttered response, he still wasn't happy about this but he had promised.

Once again Meren attacked first coming in much faster than she had the day before. She had no intention of letting him just dodge. She was only giving him the option of block, counterattack or get hurt.

Ranma deflected most of her blows with ease only allowing a few glancing ones to land as he reluctantly struck back although not very hard.

"Come on is that the best you can do? You hit like a… er stuffed pig!" she recovered quickly deciding that saying he hit like a girl might be a bad idea. She was dumbfounded when Ranma gaped at her a moment before nearly splitting his side open with laughter. "Um what did I say? That wasn't supposed to be funny."

"Inside joke snicker..." Ranma took a few more moments to control himself. "You remember how I told you about Ryoga? He's the one back home that constantly gave me a good fight, well he is really strong, it hurts when one of his punches land. Anyway he ahh…" Ranma caught himself before revealing Ryoga's curse "err sorta has a thing for pigs."

Meren still didn't think it was funny. "I guess its one of those 'had to be there' things huh?" If anything the relieved look on Ranma's face confused her even more. "Well if your done laughing can we get back to… what the?"

At that moment about fifty large creatures came into view from around a nearby hill. They were all larger than a man and looked like an experiment gone horribly wrong in splicing men and several animals together. They didn't even all look the same as if whatever had made them hadn't been too particular on what they were combining. They were lead by a man on horseback dressed all in black who had a pale face. There was something disconcerting about the man that neither of the youths could place.

"What are those?" Ranma asked as he examined the new arrivals. To his trained eye the monsters looked strong but relatively unskilled and probably relied on numbers to overwhelm opponents.

"Not a clue, but they don't look friendly." At that moment the man drew a jet black sword pointed it towards the pair. The monsters charged. "Playtimes over." Meren remarked as she retrieved and strapped her sword sheath back on and drew her weapons.

Ranma stepped between her and the advancing monsters. "Stay behind me I can handle this." He hoped he could protect Meren from this many.

"Not on your life!" she replied with a dry laugh. "There's plenty for both of us and I want my half."

Dang she's serious. I'll just have to beat them quick before they can hurt her. Ranma suddenly charged strait for the advancing force.

"Hey!" The fool is going to get hurt running off half cocked like that. Meren had intended to let the monsters come to her but Ranma wanted to meet them halfway. With a sigh she followed angling to engage the horde slightly to the side of where Ranma was headed.

Both fighters plowed into the monsters full force. Normally two humans would have been overwhelmed by just one or two of these creatures but this situation was anything but normal. Ranma knocked out three of them in the first couple of seconds as he weaved in and out not allowing a blow to come close to him. He was shocked when a quick glance revealed Meren close by scathing through the monsters.

He started to shout a warning as one of the monsters swept a large club at her head from behind. He started to move to intercept but he knew he would be too late. Meren dodged the blow by suddenly dropping down onto all fours as her tail lashed out grabbing hold of the monster behind her. With a grunt she hefted it into the air and swung it about like a flail into the creatures around her.

Ranma froze for a moment as he took in what she was doing. Suddenly Meren flung the captured beast man strait at Ranma. He barely dodged to the side as the large projectile smashed into another beast man that had been about to give him a shoulder level haircut. "Eyes Front!" he heard Meren shout as she once again started slashing anything that came near her, a look at her eyes revealed a golden glow. Heeding her advice he resumed knocking out the monsters that were after him.

Even though these things were obviously trying to kill them Ranma took care not to kill them. He didn't want to kill and was slightly disturbed at how casually Meren was killing those she faced.

Meren had already killed almost half of the monsters before she noticed the man on horseback advancing on her. She wasn't sure why Ranma was sparing those after him but he seemed to be holding his own and she had other things to worry about. Ducking a blow she pivoted around one hawk beaked monster, hamstringing it with her dagger then spinning to decapitate it with her sword as it fell. She finished her spin to block the man's black blade with her own.

As the black man swung his sword again she sidestepped and slashed low with her sword cleaving through the horses front legs spilling the man to the ground. He flowed to his feet in an instant and Meren shivered as she got her first good look at the man's face. It was pale as a ghost and the man had no eyes. Apparently his lack of eyes did not affect his ability to see as his sword blows were well aimed.

This thing attacks like a snake she thought as she rapidly parried blows with both blades. Going on the offensive she became a whirlwind of flashing steel as she slashed with both blades in seeming wild abandon. The thing she was facing was good. It had managed to turn aside the sword blows but black blood oozed from numerous gashes from her knife.

Finally seeing an opening she tried the same trick she had used on the last monster. Hamstringing the black man she reversed and cleanly removed his head as he fell to his knees. She nearly lost her own as the things sword arm blindly flailed at her. "What is this thing!" she hollered as she removed the arm with another aimed stroke. The thing continued to try and strike her with its remaining limbs as she continued to slash at it. It didn't stop moving until she had completely dismembered it.

Finally taking a look around she saw that all of the remaining monsters and some of the ones Ranma had merely beaten unconscious were thrashing convulsively. "What happened?" she asked Ranma

"Don't know when you removed that guys head they all started doing this." He said waving an open hand at the dieing monsters.

"Herm" she said rubbing her chin. "The must have been linked to the guy in black somehow, I was wondering what that energy field was for. Maybe that's how he controlled them although it's a risky move since you can take out the whole force by killing him."

"About that, how could you kill them like that? I know they were monsters and all but we could have just knocked them out and left them."

"And wait for them to wake up and come after us again? In our sleep next time perhaps?" she responded tartly.

The conviction in her voice startled Ranma. Her words made sense but he still thought it was wrong to kill. "Still didn't hafta..." he muttered

"Look I'm not too keen on killing either and I don't when I have a choice. I wont however leave an enemy alive if its going to come back to kill me again later. This isn't a game, you can't expect all your enemies to merely beat you unconscious and then leave you to recover and come back for more."

That struck home for Ranma. He thought back to all the wild and crazy fights he had over the last few months. Invariably both combatants left alive although badly beaten. It hadn't just been Ranma sparing his opponents either. Several times he had been beaten badly and while he did recover and win in a rematch his opponents could have killed him the first time if they chose too. Have I been treating fights as one big game all this time?

Resolving himself to think long and hard about this he started to reply "I-"

"Shhh!" Meren hissed holding up her hand as she stared off to the southwest. "Listen."

Ranma strained to hear and picked up the sounds of horns in the distance. "What is it? More of these things?"

Meren nodded grimly as she scanned back and forth across the country side. "A lot of them."

"How can you see them? Do those eyes give you X-ray vision?" he asked. He had heard about that sort of thing in a few comic books.

Meren turned to peer at him quizzically. "Give me what?"

"X-ray vision, you know the ability to see through solid objects."

"Oh" she replied turning back to the southwest. "No I can't see through things, not really anyway. The energy aura that all living begins put out is visible to some extent though, that's what I'm looking at."

"So you can see auras from a long way off eh? How far away?"

"Depends on what is putting it off." She explained absently. "You for example have an extremely strong aura, from all your training most likely; I could probably spot you from twenty miles even through this terrain. The hills mute the auras a bit although even with that I could spot a normal person at about five miles or so."

Wow that must be useful Ranma thought to himself. "So what do you see?"

"There are about four hundred of those things spread out in a line about five miles west southwest from here. They are heading east and there are prongs of around two hundred apiece forming the walls of a box to the north and south. There's another two to three hundred directly south of us. I also see a small group of 8 or so in the middle. It looks like those monsters are attempting to drive and trap the group in the middle."

As if on cue horns sounded to the south, they were very close. "How close are the two sides closest to us and the group in the middle?"

"The east wall is about a mile south of us the northern one about two southwest." Meren frowned "the group in the middle just turned north there about a mile from the wall in front of them."

"We've got to help them. There's no way eight people could take on that many of those monsters." Ranma said with determination.

Meren laughed, "why not the two of us just took on fifty or so."

"How can you say that? Are you saying we should abandon them?" Ranma couldn't believe what he was hearing. Meren seemed so nice but that sounded as cold hearted as Nabiki.

"No I'm just pointing out that the odds in front of them aren't any worse than what we faced. Come on I think we can get there just before they do if we move now." Meren dashed off to the southwest.

A flabbergasted Ranma followed, I'll never understand her.

---

Ten minutes later the two were crouched low in some shrubs toping a hill. To the south was a long line of those monsters and two of the black clothed swordsmen. The small party should be appearing over the next hill any moment now. Meren glanced at the dripping redhead next to her "How can it rain out of a cloudless sky for a few seconds drenching you and not even getting me wet at all?"

"Welcome to my life" Ranma muttered grumpily "This curse tends to make me a water magnet. Could you call me Ranko in front of others when I'm in this form? I'd rather not have to explain my curse to others."

"If that's what you want although I don't think it's really necessary for you to hide your curse. You are who you are there's no reason to hide it." She replied

"Oh so that's why you wear your tail around your waist most of the time?"

"Touché, mostly its cause people freak out when they see it. Here they come." Sure enough five men and three women toped the rise and paused for a moment as they spotted the creatures before them. Three of the men and two of the women looked to be around the same age or slightly older than Meren and Ranma. One man was fairly old but held himself like a much younger man. The last woman Meren couldn't put an age too at all. The last man was a slightly graying mountain of a man who instantly drew a sword and charged his warhorse down the hill.

"Oh boy that big man is the only one who knows how to fight decently." Meren said with a bit of dismay, it was going to be tough to protect that many inexperienced fighters. "Lets move!" both she and Ranma bounded down the hill coming up on the monsters from behind. Seeing the large man headed towards one of the eyeless men Meren headed for the second. "Cover the others as best you can I'll take the other black one."

Both fighters plowed into the rear of the line creating a great deal of confusion among the creatures. Meren tried to decapitate her target immediately but the commotion caught its attention and it managed to parry her strike. Meanwhile Ranma made a beeline for the girls picking off several of the monsters that got too close. She had to duck as the ageless woman swung her staff at a monster that promptly burst into flames. Deciding to stay out of reach of that woman just in case she circled the girls knocking out monsters as she went.

Meren was engaged in a pitched battle with the eyeless man in front of her. A space opened around the two combatants as the other monsters tried to avoid them. She noted that a similar opening had formed around the other two men in their duel. This is taking too long she thought as she looked for an opening to finish this fight.

Ranma noticed almost too late that the monsters were attempting to dismount the boys a short distance from her. "Moko Takabisha!" she yelled firing a large blue-white ball of energy from her hands that bowled over a number of monsters in its path. She quickly fired a second shot on the other side of the boys clearing the monsters on that side and giving them some breathing space.

There! Meren thought as she leapt over a blow and kicked off her opponents head forcing him to regain his balance or fall out of his seat. Meren landed just out of reach and seeing a clear line of fire sheathed her knife and charged her sword. The blade of the sword glowed with a golden light as she held it behind her preparing her attack. "Hotan Striker Barrage!" she yelled as she unleashed a flurry of strikes at her opponent. Each slash was marked by a glowing energy trail that extended well beyond the end of her swords reach. Her opponent was good, he actually managed to block two blows, unfortunately there were eight total. The black clothed man, his horse and several of the monsters in a line behind him fell apart in neat chunks.

Glancing around her saw the monsters falling down screaming all over. A few seconds later the other man succeeded in relieving some weight from the other black cloaked fellow's shoulders and the remaining monsters also began to drop. The large man took one long look at her as if deciding if she where a threat before riding over to the other girls. He shouted something Meren couldn't understand before racing off northward. One of the young girls shouted at him but he ignored her.

A tall young man with reddish hair rode over and attempted to pull her up behind him in the saddle. She brushed him off, the horse would be slower with two and she could keep up on foot. She saw Ranma give a broad shouldered young man with blond hair the same treatment. Both girls took off running after the others as the startled men galloped to catch up.

"Ranko can you understand what they are saying?" Meren asked on the run.

"No it sounds like English but I never really paid attention in those classes." She replied mournfully before perking up. "Hey can you do that glowy forehead thingy again?"

"Do what?"

"You know that thing you did when we first met. There was a glow from your forehead, I think I saw a symbol there, when it happened you doubled over in pain and then you could understand me. Can you do that again with them?" she explained.

Meren thought about that for a moment before shaking her head. "I almost forgot about that happening. I have no idea what I did or how to repeat it. Well just have to hope it happens again I guess."

Both girls kept pace with the mounted party easily. This feat earned odd and alarmed glances from most of the riders. Meren glanced over her shoulder "Rashnik" she swore, "There's a bunch of those things gaining on us." A few moments later as the party toped a hill a black mass swarmed over the top of the hill behind them.

"Why are we stopping?" Ranma asked as everybody halted and the ageless woman dismounted and retrieved an item from her pouch.

"Shhh" Meren shushed her friend as she watched the other woman in fascination. To her eyes a flare of energy surrounded the woman and lines of power flowed out and began weaving themselves together like a rug. "She's a mage of some sort." She whispered in fascination as the woman stabbed the ground with her staff and the earth trembled and rung like a gong.

For a few moments the earth quaked violently knocking the monsters down but the black men with them pressed on. The woman spread her hands suddenly and a wall of fire sprang up in front of the men and stretching out to the horizon. The woman visibly sagged as she completed her spell; it had taking a lot out of her.

Everybody watched for a moment as the black riders tried to force their way through the wall. Most were stopped but several got through badly singed but still alive and deadly. A look of grim determination appeared on the woman's face as she prepared to try something else. With how much that took out of her another spell might kill her Meren thought as she stepped in front of the woman.

She spread her arms out from her sides with her hands splayed. On her forehead and the back of each hand a symbol flared to life, three golden triangles forming a larger one. Light flared from the matching symbols in her eyes as her power gathered. "Mimic!" she hollered as she reared back then pouched the ground with her right fist. Again the ground rang and quaked this time in a much more focused manner concentrating on the lone riders. With a sweeping motion of her arms a ring of fire circled the riders who had made it through, not as wide as the first wall but much thicker and baring the riders from advancing or retreating.

Meren sagged to one knee as the power left her. No wonder that mage looked tired, that took a lot out of me. Ranma silently moved over to help her to her feet as the large man helped steady the mage.

Moiraine was shocked at what the blond haired girl had done. Moiraine had seen the weaves and they were virtually identical to the ones she had just preformed but they felt subtlety different in a way she couldn't place. She also couldn't feel the girl channeling when she did it. She would get to the bottom of this later when there was time. She noted that the blonde screamed in pain clutching her head for a moment as Lan told the others to get moving. A moment later she touched her forehead to the other girls who also grimaced for a moment before both moved to follow.

"That hurt you know" the irate redhead commented as she helped her friend keep up.

"Sorry Ranko it just happened and I reacted. I should have warned you but I didn't know that would happen. At least we can understand them now." Sure enough they both heard the mage say something about not being strongest when working with earth and fire. The two followed in silence for a time as the party made its way through the hills. Meren was grateful for the slowed pace as she wasn't sure if she could maintain one much faster without resting for a bit.

"What was that you did back there anyway?" Ranma asked after a while.

"The quake and the fire?" Ranma nodded "well I pretty much copied what that mage did, I just tweaked it a bit to adjust the area it affected."

Ranma looked at her in askance, "That was obvious I meant how?"

Meren smirked a bit and taped a finger next to her eyes. "Remember how I said the Trimirida allowed me to see energy among other things? Well one of those other things involves copying things I see. This includes spells although my own powers fuel the spell instead of whatever the original caster used. It only works once though, I have to see it again to copy it a second time."

"So those marks that appear, do they have something to do with your powers?"

"Yes they become visible when I draw on my power…" she trailed off as she tried to piece together her fragmented memories. There should be more there she was sure of it, other powers she could use but the memories were dust in the wind. "… I don't remember much else unfortunately."

Ranma patted her friend on the shoulder. "Don't worry I'm sure you'll remember eventually."

Meren was grateful for the support and the comforting words and nodded her appreciation. "We may be in luck though, that woman seems to be a mage of this world. Her kind often has knowledge of the type well need to get home. If nothing else she may be able to point us in the right direction."

Ranma perked up a bit at that "Let's go ask her" she said moving off but Meren held her back.

"Not yet I can tell she is as tired as I am. Shell be looking for a place to rest soon, we can talk then. Besides those monsters will be after us again soon we need a safe place to hide."

Seeing the logic in that Ranma nodded and the followed in silence once more as the hills slowly leveled out. Eventually the man in the lead called a halt and moved off to one side with the mage. The two were engaged in a somewhat heated discussion. The rest of the party moved towards the two girls.

"Are you alright?" asked the tall man from before.

"I'm fine just a bit tired." Meren replied

"What are you two doing out here and where did you learn to fight like that?" This was from the older man.

"We ahh…" Ranma scratched the back of her head. "Were sort of lost actually we saw you were in trouble and decided to help out." It was true enough, they were lost on a different planet but she wasn't sure how much to reveal yet.

"Are you two Aes Sedai?" this was from the younger of the two girls

Ranma and Meren looked at each other before replying in unison "What?"

"Aes Sedai like Moiraine Sedai" she elaborated gesturing towards the mage.

Ranma was still confused but Meren caught on. "Is that what you call magic users here? If so I guess you could describe me like that although I've never heard of Aes Sedai before."

"I'd be careful girl," warned the old man "Aes Sedai does not take lightly to anybody claiming to be one of them that isn't."

"Then don't call me that, I don't care one way or another. As I said I've never heard of them before."

"How could you not have heard of the Aes Sedai?"

Meren shrugged. "I intend to discuss that with… Moiraine you said? Anyway I intend to discuss that with her later. For now it is enough that we are not from around here and I don't feel like explaining this twice. I really am quite tired right now so if you don't mind holding your questions until later…" it was obvious they weren't satisfied but they did stop asking her questions. "Oh I'm Meren Hotan and my friend here is Ranko Saotome.

Introductions were made all around, the old man was Thom, the tall one was Rand, broad shouldered was named Perrin while the remaining boy was Mat. The girls were introduced as Egwene and Nynaeve and the large man with Moiraine they were told was Lan. "Nice to meet you all" both girls said.

As Lan and Moiraine returned to the rest of the party horns could be heard to the south. Meren's eyes shifted again for a moment earning startled comments that she ignored. "The fires have died down; those beast men are coming again."

"They're called Trollocs" commented Lan before turning to Moiraine "You are not strong enough for what you intend without rest and neither Trolloc nor Myrddraal will enter that place."

Moiraine looked to Meren, "Could you do what you did before again?"

Meren shook her head "No the pattern is gone I would have to see it again and I think I'm too tired to repeat that anyway."

Moiraine sighed "Very well gather round everybody. Closer." As the party gathered in close she swung her staff over all their heads several times before pointing it off to the west kicking up a light breeze. "There, to the trollocs our trail will seem to follow that."

"Your staff is very powerful" commented Egwene.

"I told you child things do not have power. The one power comes from the True Source and only a living mind can wield it, this is merely an aid to concentration. Lan?" with a gesture Lan took the lead.

"Follow and stay quiet, the deception will do no good if the Trollocs hear us." The party followed Lan for some time before a crumbling city came into view. Moiraine explained a bit about the city but Meren was too tired to listen and Ranma simply wasn't paying attention.

"What Name" they heard Mat ask.

"It is called Shadar Logoth." Moiraine replied as they entered the city.

Meren wasn't sure what it was but this city filled her with a sense of foreboding. Something bad was going to happen and this city was a part of it.

to be continued...

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I'd love to know what people think about this so far. If you want to contact me directly you can send mail to my hotmail box under the name Merendel. Put the word Hotan in the subject line somewhere to ensure it gets past my junk mail filter.

More chapters will follow shortly and I intend to take this all the way through the WOT series.

If you like this story please review. If you don't like this story and want to give constructive feed back please review. If you don't like this story and want to flame me "Roni nar rashnik shnee tassha!" I leave it to your imagination to figure that one out.