Well, break out the candles and cake! It's my birthday! (For real!) And it's not just an ordinary birthday either, no siry! Today, I am 18! Many perks come with this age, like getting a driver's license with no restrictions, being able to watch R rated movies and knowing it's allowed, opening accounts at movie rental stores, ordering stuff online or over the phone, vote for president, I could even go to war! Yep, 18 is an important age. And how am I going to spend it? Well, in the morning I'm going drive all the way to the Science Olympiad to take pictures for the yearbook (this includes tracking down the people from our high school because the event is so unorganized) and have lunch with my parents and sister while I'm at it. Then we're going to get back in time to be at a practice session for Youth Sunday at my church (I'm doing the benediction). Then maybe dinner with friends and come home and start writing the next chapter of this story. The weird thing is that this actually sounds like a pretty fun day.
SPRING OF DROWNED SOMETHING
"Jusenkyo Springs!" Makoto gasped. They had both heard plenty about the cursed springs, having grown up with Ranma and Ryoga. But Makoto never thought she would see them.
"We should leave." Iikiba said as he started to back away. "We don't want to risk-"
"There you are!" Mascara jumped out of the trees with her swords at the ready.
Makoto jumped back just in time to dodge Mascara's attack. The sword got stuck in the ground for a second but she managed to pull it up. "No more running! I have you now!" Mascara pointed one of her swords at Makoto.
"Bring it on! I'm not scared of you!" Makoto yelled.
Mascara charged forward and Makoto dodged to the side. Mascara jumped after her and that was when she realized that there was no place for her to land. "What the-! AAAHHHHH!" She screamed as she fell towards the valley below.
"Mascara!" Iikiba yelled as she watched her fall.
"Oh geez." Makoto said nervously.
Below in the valley the Jusenkyo Springs tour guide was making his rounds around the perimeter with a check list.
"Let's see…eel, wildebeest, roach, cat, lark, fish…how does fish drown anyway?" He pondered. That was when he heard a girl screaming and he looked up just in time to see Mascara fall into a nearby spring.
"Oh dear! She fall into accursed, Qingwaniichuan! Spring of drowned frog! Tragic tale of a frog that slipped off its lily pad and drowned in spring 1,500 years ago!" The guide ran towards the spring where Mascara was struggling to stay above the surface. But she got pulled under and a moment later she jumped out of the water…as a frog.
"Ribbit!" Mascara croaked.
"Very sorry Miss! You fall into very unfortunate spring." The guide picked her up. Mascara seemed to be in a state of shock.
BACK ON THE CLIFF
"What's going on? I can't see anything!" Iikiba said. He couldn't see what Mascara was with that old fat guy blocking the way.
"She's a frog." Makoto said in a strangely calm voice. Then she started giggling. "Heh heh…she's a frog." She couldn't help smiling.
"This isn't funny!" Iikiba said, annoyed.
"I know, I know…sorry." Makoto tried to stop giggling, she didn't have much success.
Just then the ground lurched forward slightly. Iikiba and Makoto snapped their heads around and saw a crack in the ground where Mascara's sword had been stuck. The fissure got larger and they lurched forward even more.
"Oh no!" Makoto shouted. With a crack their piece of the cliff broke from the rest.
Iikiba grabbed Makoto and jumped off the rock back to the cliff, only just making it. They watched the rock they had just been on fall to the valley below.
"That…was…close." Iikiba gasped for air. That had been way too close.
"Uh huh." Makoto said, very shaken.
"Let's get out of here." Iikiba started to walk away.
"Wait! Don't!" Makoto yelled. But it was too late. "AAAHHHH!" She screamed as they fell.
"Ack! What happened?" Iikiba yelled. The ground was rushing towards him.
Makoto pushed him away from her in the air. "You walked right off the cliff you idiot! I can't believe you lost your sense of direction right then!"
"I…I was shaken! I didn't know what I was doing!" Iikiba shouted. "This wouldn't have happened if you had just stayed at home!"
"Are you kidding me?" Makoto yelled. "THIS IS ALL YOUR FAULT!"
SPLASH! SPLASH! They fell into two springs next to each other.
"What? More customers?" The guide ran to where they had fallen into the springs with Mascara in his hands. "Oh no! They fell in Gouniichuan and Houzinichuan! Is tragic tale of a dog and monkey who were fighting and pushed each other into springs where they drown 2,000 years ago! Very tragic!"
The water in one of the springs bubbled and what looked like a drowned rat surfaced, gasping for air. It swam to the edge of the pool and climbed out. It was a little black dog with a red bandana tied around its neck. Iikiba looked down at himself, not quiet believing it. He was a chihuahua.
"Come here poochie." The guide whistled.
"Barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark!" Iikiba angrily yipped at the guide.
Meanwhile a monkey was climbing out of the other spring. Makoto pulled herself onto dry land and looked down at her elongated fingers and black and white fur. And her tail.
Makoto meant to scream but it came out. "OOOOAHHHH!"
Her cry seemed to knock Mascara back to reality. So she tried to jump from the guide's hands.
"Ribbit! Ribbit!"
"Barkbarkbarkbarkbarkbark!"
"OHH OHH AAAAHHH!"
"Everyone please stay calm!" The guide yelled over the noise. "Don't panic customers! It's going to be okay!"
Somehow his reassurances didn't calm them down. So he bent down and picked up Makoto the monkey. "I take you back to my home, yes?"
"Ohh Ohh!" Makoto struggled to get away and Mascara kept trying to jump away.
"Ggrrrrrr." Iikiba growled at the guide and lunged forward and bit his ankle.
"OUCH! Bad dog! Bad!" The guide tried to shake him off but Iikiba wasn't letting go. So he turned and started limping towards his house with a monkey and frog in his hands and a dog attached to his leg. "I'm getting too old for this."
20 MINUTES LATER AT THE GUIDE'S HOUSE
"You be back to normal in no time." The guide said as he ran some warm water into a bucket. Mascara and Makoto were sitting on the table waiting for the water and glaring at each other. A young woman, the guide's daughter Plum, had gotten some clothes together for the new customers to wear.
"These are some of my old clothes. But they are still quite nice." Plum said as she showed the clothing to the girls.
"Is ready!" The guide walked over and poured the water on them and Makoto and Mascara turned human again.
"Quick-dress technique!" Plum shouted. With lightening speed she put the clothes on them.
"That's…useful." Makoto said, still a little shaken. She was wearing a blue Chinese style sleeveless dress with a flower print on it. Mascara was wearing a similar pink dress.
"I still feel slimy!" Mascara whined.
"You change back too." The guide lifted his leg which Iikiba was still hanging from and poured the remainder of the water on him.
"Ack!" Iikiba let go of the guide's leg.
"Quick-dress technique!" Plum did the same for Iikiba and he came out wearing black pants and a red jacket with a carp design on it.
"I thought it would match your bandana." Plum said happily.
"Yeah, that's really what I'm concerned with right now." Iikiba said sarcastically.
"Well now that you all back to normal…how about a tour?" The guide asked.
Iikiba hit him on top of the head. "We don't want a stupid tour right now!"
"Yes we do!" Makoto got up and went over the tour guide. "You can take us to the spring of drowned girl and man, right?"
"That is right!" Mascara jumped up. "I do not want to be a frog!"
"Yeah! Tell us you old fart!" Iikiba yelled at the guide.
"Uh…well…the thing about that is…" The guide looked at them nervously.
"You better just tell them." Plum said.
"What? Tell us what?" Makoto asked.
"Well, um, we don't know where the Nannichuan and Nyannichuan are." The guide said.
"WHAT DO YOU MEAN, YOU DON'T KNOW?" Iikiba bellowed and he shook the guide by his collar.
"How can you not know?" Makoto yelled.
"AHH! I do not want to be a frog!" Mascara cried.
"I tell you!" The guide said and Iikiba released him. The guide sighed and straightened his hat.
"It all happened twenty four year ago. There was a large battle between the Phoenix People and a group of powerful martial artists. The battle flooded the entire valley and the springs all mixed together. When the waters reseeded…we discovered that the springs had all been mixed up."
"No spring seemed to be where it had been before." Plum said. "It has been a terrible hassle."
"Well you've had twenty four years to figure out where they all are haven't you?" Makoto asked, annoyed.
"It not so easy." The guide said. "There are thousands upon thousands of cursed springs in this valley. We know most of the springs in this region, but still very many that are uncharted."
"So…you're saying you having no idea where the spring of drowned man and woman are?" Iikiba asked.
"Um…yes."
"AAAHHHH!" Mascara screamed. "No! No! I do not want to be an ugly slimy stupid frog!"
"We're not exactly happy about this either!" Makoto yelled. "I can't spend the rest of my life turning into a baboon when I'm splashed with cold water! Isn't there something you guys can do?"
"Technically you're a capuchin monkey." The guide pointed out.
"Dad. Watch it." Plum said in warning, as the three teenagers glared at him.
"Uh…well maybe there is something I can do. But I don't know if it will do any good." The guide walked over to a bookcase and started pulling out books and looking through them, then throwing them aside. "I know I left it here somewhere."
"What? What is it?" Iikiba looked over his shoulder.
"Ah! Here it is!" The guide pulling out an old looking piece of paper that was closed inside one of the books.
"Let me see!" Iikiba snatched away the paper and looked at it.
"Be careful! That is an antique!" The guide yelled.
"What the heck is this?" Iikiba asked. "It just looks like gibberish."
"That would be a map." Makoto said, looking over his shoulder.
"Oh…yeah." Iikiba said after taking a second look at the paper.
"It is a map of all of Jusenkyo." Plum said. "It has been passed down through generations of our family."
"Now we have a digital version on computer." The guide added.
"Of course those are the locations of the springs before they were mixed up." Plum continued. "So it probably-"
"It shows where spring of drowned girl is?" Mascara grabbed the map away from Iikiba.
"Was."
"But at least it is something! We have to at least try!" Mascara yelled. "I can not stand being…being half frog!" She cried.
"Would you please stop whining?" Makoto snapped. "We're all cursed now you know! We want to find a cure just as much as you!"
"But…but you got off easy!" Mascara hissed. "There is hardly a difference between you and your cursed form."
"Why don't you come over here and say that again?" Makoto yelled as she clinched her fists.
"Would you two cool it!" Iikiba yelled and he took the map back from Mascara. "This isn't helping!"
"Look, the best thing we can do is give you this map." Plum said. "You can find where the old springs where…it's a long shot but maybe they didn't change."
"Veeerrryy long shot." The guide added.
"We will have to try!" Mascara said. "Come on Iikiba!" She grabbed his arm and pulled him out the front door.
"Hey! Don't think you're leaving me behind!" Makoto ran after them.
Plum and the guide walked outside and waved them farewell. "So long customers! I hope your search if fruitful!"
"Do you think that maybe those springs didn't change after all?" Plum asked her father.
"Nope."
"Nope what?"
The guide looked at him daughter. "What do you mean, nope what?"
"Well you said 'nope' and I was wondering whether you meant 'nope it did change' or 'nope it didn't change'."
"Look, they are going to be cursed forever."
"Oh. Well that's clearer."
FUTHER AHEAD WITH THE KIDS
"Alright, let's see." Iikiba took a look at the map; Mascara and Makoto were walked behind him. "It looks like we're heading north."
"You're holding the map sideways." Makoto sighed.
"I mean east."
"Its west! Just give me the map!"
"Don't start with me!" Iikiba snapped. "I can do it!"
"When pigs fly maybe!" Makoto grabbed the map away. "I'm having a really bad day and I'm kind of mad at you right now! So stop being so stubborn cause I'm not in the mood!"
"Oh yeah? Well…well…fine then!"
"Hmph." Mascara made a sound of discontent. But Makoto had no patience to deal with her either.
"Alright then. We're going west." Makoto led the way and they started walking, winding their way between the cursed pools.
"You know," Mascara started. "It does not seem like you have any faith in Iikiba." She said in an offhand kind of way.
"Mascara, if you want him to lead the way then that just shows how little you know him." Makoto said.
"Alright then." She said while shaking her head, as if Makoto didn't know anything. Then she grabbed Iikiba and pulled him next to her. "Better stay close together. We would not want to fall into another spring."
"Um, okay." Iikiba said.
Makoto growled but decided to continue walking. Deal with one thing at a time.
After walking for a while it didn't looking like they were making fast progress. Everywhere looked the same in the valley, how does the guide keep track of it? Plus Makoto's level of irritation was slowly growing with Mascara's continued hints that she didn't trust Iikiba.
"I have trouble with…um…directions." Iikiba explained to Mascara.
"Maybe you just need some positive reinforcement. Not everyone will try to keep you down." Mascara answered. She tilted her head towards Makoto when she said everyone.
"Yeah, maybe if I had some positive reinforcement." Iikiba hissed in Makoto's direction.
"Are we even getting close?" Mascara asked. "If feels like we have been walking forever. I just know I am going to trip and fall into another spring, this ground is so uneven."
"No one is going to fall into another spring. I'll make sure we're okay." Iikiba said.
"Oh I am so glad! I know you will keep me safe! Because I trust you!"
"THAT'S IT!" Makoto stopped and turned back to Iikiba and Mascara. "I've had it up to here with you! I trust Iikiba MUCH more than you do!"
"Really? Because that is not what I am seeing." Mascara answered.
Makoto growled and looked like she was about to hit Mascara, but instead she shoved the map towards Iikiba. "Go on. Take it!"
Iikiba looked taken aback. "Uh…Makoto are you sure that's a good-?"
"Just take it!" She pushed it into his hands. "There! I do trust him!" Makoto snapped at Mascara.
"We will see." Mascara said.
"Well…okay." Iikiba said unsurely as he looked at the map. "North, right?"
MAN, I'm a dork! I should at least order something online! Like…like a t-shirt!
