Chapter 2: Wrath of the Dragon Princess

Herb sighed as she continued to walk, it was taking her a long time to reach the fire, it had only been a few minutes but time seemed to drag for a long time when you were trying not to draw attention to yourself in a forest. Seeing the flickering light from the campfire only a few feet in front of her she continued on, breaking through the cover of the forest one step at a time, no thought to the danger that could be ahead. Although this would be foolish for most people, when one is a dragon prince of an obscure but powerful tribe there is very little that can threaten you directly.

When she entered the clearing Herb stood there in shock, the person in front of her was ugly, the type of ugly that would send your own mother running for the nearest bathroom, maybe that is a bit much but he was quite... fugly. The man in front of her had a pot marked face, dingy black hair (unless it was only that colour from not being washed in god knows how long) and quite the ugly beard to complement the face. The clothing was also odd, some sort of leather armour not seen for at least a couple of centuries in Europe, shaking her head in slight disbelief, Herb had to hold back the bile in her thought as she caught the 'musk' of the man standing before her.

Deciding that even if the man in front of her, was... well of the lowest sort Herb decided to continue into the camp. This thought was brought to an abrupt halt as the man stood and began to walk toward her, his eye's showing the same twinkle as the two buffoons that traveled with her when they wanted to touch her breasts, but somehow seemed far less innocent, sending shivers of disgust down her spine.

Eye's hardening Herb started to glare dagger's at the man in front of her, deciding to be polite for the moment she spoke to him. "Could you tell me where the nearest settlement is?" she said in a cold tone.

The only reply that the man offered was a slightly lecherous grin and ugly looking smile. The man continued to approach obviously lost in some sort of fantasy where she was a willing participant. Deciding to wait until he actually tried to violate her personal space before she dealt with him.

She didn't have to wait long; he made a grab for her when he was less than five feet away, and using an overly large amount of force she broke his arm in two places, and kneed him in the groin. Deciding that he was not worth the trouble of keeping around Herb tossed the ugly bastard into the forest.

Dusting off her hands Herb looked around the area, deciding on what she was going to do now.

The guy that attacked her would not be up for a few hours so Herb decided to look over his things; hopefully there would be something of use within them. First going over to the fire she looked at the piece of charred meat that was on the burnt stick, getting nothing from that avenue, she continued her search.

Next she checked his traveling pack, which surprisingly did not smell nearly as bad as he did. Inside she found several useful things but nothing that she would need to take. Fishing around in the pack some more revealed several dozen gold and silver coins, each had to be worth a good chunk of change, deciding that payment was required for his earlier acts she relieved him of his ill gotten gains. Pocketing a good chunk of the gold Herb took one last look at the area for anything of use, finding nothing she continued on, hopefully to find some sign of civilization.

Several hours passed by as Herb wandered through the forest, finally breaking the cover of the woods could her a river off in the distance, just within sight range. Shrugging her shoulder she decided to follow the river hopefully it would lead to some sort of settlement, the only question was what direction to take? Thinking it over for a few minutes she decided that right was the more prudent course and proceeded to walk in that direction.

It was dusk by the time she found even a semblance of shelter, a fisherman's hut abandoned recently by the looks of it, sighing she decided that for at least tonight this would have too do. Now if only their was a place to heat up some hot water...

0000

Ranma sighed for the umpteenth time this hour it had taken her longer to reach the next mountain than it had ever before, there was even more of those damn creature, the things seemed to be all over the mountains, in this area. Hoping that they would lessen was not an option, and taking them all on was not either. Even at her level she did not even have close to the endurance that would be needed to take them all out.

Currently she was resting on a cliff face above a fifty-foot drop, catching her breath for the next leg of her search. She knew that there was no way that she was going to reach any type of town in time for the sun to set, so currently she was searching for either a cabin or a small crevice to spend the night in. So far her entire search had seemed fruitless, finding no places suitable for the night. She just hoped that she would find one by sunset.

When Dawn finally broke over the horizon two figures awoke for the day, one in a small cold mountain crevice, and the other in a small fisherman's shack.

Seeing the light peeking in from the entrance to her small shelter Ranma cursed all that was holy, and unholy about her current predicament. The rest that she had gotten during the night was abysmal to say the least, the crevice stopped the wind from getting in sure but it did not stop the mountain air from being cold. So to keep herself warm during the night Ranma had to concentrate on keeping her Ki running through her body, which in effect only left her half rested as if she had only gotten a couple hours of sleep.

Cursing who or whatever got her into her current predicament Ranma readied herself for the day. Shifting out side of the rocky crevice she first looked around the area, finding no more of the men she encountered last night she went to a platue that she had found earlier, hopefully still clear of the damn bastards.

Finding the area clear, she began her morning stretches, and then a basic set of kata to loosen up her limbs for the travel today. The whole while thinking on her current predicament. Starting with a slow dance like set, she slowly built up her speed all the while thinking on what happened recently. 'There's gotta be some other way to unlock my curse' she thought as she increased the speed of her punches. 'I can't stay this way forever, and even if I could there is no way in hell I'm marrying that bastard' an image of Soun crying waterfalls came to mind making her falter in her work out. 'I rather be ronin than marry HIM' the speed of her kicks increased, her entire form seemingly radiating anger.

Stopping to catch her breath Ranma then continued to think,' now what am I going to do? I have no clue where I am and there is no landmarks 'round here' startin up a slower basic form of the Matsubeto Kakuto Saotome Ryu (Saotome Anything goes Martial Arts). Thoughts drifting to her earlier battle with Herb 'the bastard's good I'll give 'em that' again beginning the graceful pattern of dodge, attack and parry. 'He has far too much power, the next fight I have with him I'm going to have to use that against him more fully' somersaulting backwards and landing in a guard position she continued to think. 'Next time I face him I gotta win, I may have lost the first three times but there is nothin that will stop me from beating him the fourth.'

Switching to an offensive position she began a new attack pattern, 'the only question is how...' Ranma stopped mid punch as an odd thought hit her, 'wait a second... I don't recognize these mountains, how the hell am I gonna find Herb if I don't know where I am.' Her arms went slack at her side as another thought hit her, 'those... those men, I don't think they were human... they didn't look right, and giants I don't think I'm in Japan anymore, maybe not even earth?' As those thoughts hit her Ranma began to glow a sickly green colour 'If I'm no longer on earth... were the hell am I now?'

0000

In a hospital bed on anther plane a black haired boy wearing a yellow and black bandanna sneezed, unconsciously thinking that someone stole his lines.

0000

Standing on the flat of the mountain Ranma's thoughts again started to become more depressed 'I'm stuck as a girl' the sickly green aura encompassing her body grew slightly bigger, 'I've lost three consecutive fights in a row against some arrogant prince from china.' Her aura continued to grow, making her look like she was burning in green flames. 'To top it off if I return home without unlocking my curse I have to marry some old man that has no emotional control' the dust and rocks around her began to move away as her aura continued to grow larger and darker. 'Even if I do unlock my curse and get home I'll still be engaged to three girls, one that obviously doesn't like me, one that wants me to run some stupid restaurant all my life and one that wants me for breeding stalk!'

The aura that surrounded Ranma now an extremely dark green almost black, the light in the area appeared to be absorbed within it "MY LIFE SUCKS!" Ranma yelled unnoticed tears streaming down her face. "PERFECT SHI SHI HOKODAN!" The nearly pitch black ball of Ki soared into the air, coming crashing down around the uncaring unseeing eyes of Ranma, the ground around her fussed into glass pieces of the mountain rained down for quite a few miles all around all of this unnoticed by Ranma as she fell to the ground asleep from exhaustion, drained of Ki silent sobs racked her sleeping frame.

0000

Zelgrac one tooth and his patrol had been sent out to find the 'flame haired demo-ness' that had taken out one of there patrols the day before, obviously Gracnor the slob that he was would make something up fantastic for sleeping on the job, there was no way in the nine hells that one unarmed person could take down a group of armed orc's. So they send Zelgrac and his elite band to track her down, he snorted at this. The only reason they were considered 'elite' was because they used there heads in battle, where his brethren would charge blindly forward him and his boys would sneak around.

He had collected all the intelligent orc's around him into his small elite unit, well intelligent for orc's anyway, not a single one was of high intellect but for orc's average intelligence was being able to speak badly so each of his band was almost a genius by orc standards. But this also led them to be used most often for this type of mission, finding the drunken fantasies of his stupid kin. It sucked being one of the weaker orc's.

Finding a small red headed human with slight elfin features was quite a surprise, seeing her do some sort of dance was even more surprising. Signaling his band to be quite they approached her, when they were about fifty feet away and hadn't looked behind her a smile grew on his face, they could have some fun with this one. Signaling for the smallest of their band to sneak up and capture the human he smiled lecherously.

When the small orc was almost within striking distance a green fire seemed to spread across the girl's entire body. Staring for a couple of seconds he was about to give the order to retreat from the demon (the bastard had to be right she obviously wasn't a wizard) he felt his hand grow heavy and a lump of some strange emotion grow in his stomach, that's when he noticed to his horror that he seemed transfixed to watching the green fire grow darker and expand around the girls petite frame. When the fire started pushing him and his companions back away from the girl is when he really started to worry. He heard a cry from the girl in some strange tongue as the greenish black fire shot into the sky.

Finally breaking from whatever spell they were under the entire group began to retreat, taking one last look at the enchantress that had held them fast he began to run, all was for not however because he barley had taken two steps when the greenish black ball of fire landed he felt a sharp pain then knew nothing more.

0000

All around the mountain range people playing important parts in the current events looked to the huge emission of power. One orc enhanced with the power of a god was distracted from his planned invasion of mithral hall, a couple of elves one male one female, drow and moon respectively stopped there morning conversation and stared at the new black star in the mountains before it fell. A beautiful frost giantess at the same meeting as the empowered orc seemed to go into a trance. Many of the orc's around the area seemed had a small shiver go down their collective spines, as if something had already planned their deaths. Finally under a small-unnamed mountain ancient and evil stirred, sensing a great power near by.

0000

In a small fishing shack on an unknown river near the mountains prince Herb of the musk awoke, seeing the sun beginning to rise in the sky she exited the shack, deciding to continue as she had yesterday Herb continued to follow the river, that is until she felt a familiar Ki signature, one of her rival and hopefully future spouse. Stopping in her tracks she began to head in its direction, hopping to get some hot water on the way.

0000

Herb was not in a good mood, it had taken him far longer to reach the location of the blast than he would of thought possible, oh sure it was some fifty miles away but that should have only taken him two maybe three hours to reach, but he had wanted hot water on the way which he had taken from some brutes. Originally he had planned on asking the ugly creature's if he could use some of the water they were heating, but they had attack him. He shattered there poorly made spears as if they were glass and killed each one in his own unique way.

Frustrated but male again he had hoped to make good time, but the creature's he had run into had friends with some sort of large breed wolf, dealing with them and their pets had taken far longer than anticipated. So after the third skirmish he had finally scaled the mountain and was on his way to where Ranma had preformed that Ki attack. It had taken him two hours to reach the area, and he was extremely winded his head down to catch his breathe. When he looked up his eyes widened at what he saw.

To be Continued...