A Wild Horse and His Cabbit

No Herb Here


The four travelers were making their way through the mountainous rainforest between the Amazon village and the Musk lands when they approached an ancient tower when LinOhki began to look around frantically. She hopped from one hind foot to another, standing with her forelegs crossed in front of her tiny chest. When Ranma was filled with cabbit mind noise she looked down at the hyperactive cabbit. "Lin, what is it?" The small creature looked up with huge eyes that kept darting in a particular direction. Ranma's stomach growled in response to what the little cabbit was trying ro say with its miyahs. "Elder Cologne, I believe that we need ta follow Lin-chan."

"What is it after?" Asked Cologne.

"I don't know, but its makin me hungry as hell with what is comin inta my head from her. Lin-chan, lead us but don't get too far away, okay? Uhhh? Cologne, words keep poppin inta my head from Lin-chan, like natrium, or was it neutronium, germanium, dilithium, some kinda rare earths, and other things I can't pronounce. Does any of em' mean anything to ya?"

"Not beyond that some describe elements, materials, that are possibly unusual."

"This one thinks that LinOhki shouldn't need gold, silver or gemstones." sighed Shampoo, thinking of the cabbit's gluttony in the treasure room, now they would merely be wealthy outside the village.

"Well, they are makin her hungry and me too, through our connection. Watch out for another feedin frenzy." They followed LinOhki up and down barely discernable, ancient trails until they found a cave entrance hidden by riotous growth. The cabbit merely dove through the shrubbery as the rest followed the best they could.

"Ranma, this seems to be an ancient mine, probably for gold or silver. If any of those things you named are in here, I doubt the miners were concerned."

The three followed the now floating cabbit down a perfectly square shaft that wound a bit up, down and side to side for about half a kilometer. Creating a glowing ki sphere, KhoLun became nervous at the degree of skill that had been required to create the shaft, especially when she saw seams of gold in the side that were not touched. She would remember this place, her wealth did need replenishment.

Finally they all came to a stop at a blank rock face. The face had a cross section of material that looked unlike anything they had ever seen. It was a milky pearlescent substance that had a small vertical line a few inches long in the center. The cabbit was sitting with a look of rapture, eyes glistening with specular lights. She jumped at the wall and ate a foot into the material across the entire face while not touching the more mundane rock. With her front paws she made a small pile and looked at Ranma. "Miyah mwrr."

"Ya want me ta eat some? Of that?"

"Miyaaah."

Shampoo spoke, "I wonder why she wants you to eat dirt?"

"Dunno, she says it's okay for me, but poison for ya and Cologne, though."

Ranma scooped up some of the piled mineral and put it in her mouth and swallowed the dry mixture, "Sure could use somethin ta wash it down." she choked out. Xian Pu handed her a waterskin and Ranma drank several cups worth. "Wow, tastes bettern' it looks." and proceeded to force down the rest of what the cabbit provided. The cabbit scraped another pile, which Ranma greedily choked down, along with the rest of the water.

That done, the cabbit began to ingest the entire seam faster than any mining equipment ever could. A hundred yards down a now irregular tunnel, LinOhki finally appeared to have enough. She let out a happy "miyahh" and flopped to her back, asleep. Xian Pu carefully picked the cabbit up with a nod from Ranma and cradled the small cabbit in the crook of her left arm.

She said, with reverence, "This one does not understand how anything can eat a mountain, literally, and be no larger."

KhoLun spoke, a little awe seeping into her own voice, "More than likely, it is the same space we hide our weapons, but without any limits. How about you, Ranma?"

"I think that I do the same thing with some things, now. Before she fell asleep, LinOhki said that she never would worry about running out of power, ever. I think that she got enough food for a hundred cabbits to use for a thousand years, if that means anything. Let's get going. We're done here." Ranma turned to leave with a happy spring in her step. The other two women followed, looking at each other as Ranma actually began to float a few inches above the floor of the tunnel for half the way back, apparently without realizing it.

Inside the walls of the shaft, sensors relayed data to computers that had been collecting information for millennia. LinOhki detected them detecting her, noted it and went back to sleep.


The four companions were finally inside the walls of the Musk citadel. LinOhki was seated on Ranma's shoulder and Cologne was masking the group's ki and showing a little strain. She was in human form again, thanks to a cup of warm water earlier.

They had hidden on the roof of the palace, eavesdropping on the king and his retainers through late evening to early morning. What they heard showed that the object of their quest had been taken by the prince, for some reason and he was a few days late on returning from a bridal search.

With this knowledge, the searchers were quietly going over the wall of the citadel into the streets of the small town below. They were hidden behind a bale of cotton, waiting for some soldiers to pass on their way to their barracks. A figure in white glomped the last soldier in the line, shouting, "My darling Xian Pu! I returned from training this past year to find you gone on this fool's mission. Let's return, my love, to the village where I can worship you properly!" The Musk warrior was making tiny choking noises and finally passed out as the other warriors were turning around to see what the ruckus was.

Xian Pu was in a rage. The idiot just HAD to return to the village and just HAD to follow them and ruin everything. "Stupid &$() !()& Mu Tzu, put on your glasses and go home, idiot!"

KhoLun bopped Xian Pu over the head. "Foolish granddaughter, now you've blown our cover. Let us escape. That fool will keep them occupied, while we get out of here.

Back in the street, the robed idiot had been surrounded by musk warriors and the sounds of bloodshed and rattling chains could be heard for some time as the four females made good their escape. They hid their trail by tree hopping, moving toward Jusenkyo to find the wayward prince.

Mu Tzu settled his glasses on his nose and looked around. Not seeing Xian Pu, he violently retracted his chains and gathered up his, and his enemies, loose weapons. He then ran off hollering, "Wait for me darling Xian Pu!"

LinOhki was disappointed. She had sensed lots of yummy metal in that place.

KhoLun was disappointed. Thanks to that lovesick fool, the flying rabbit hadn't pillaged the Musk of their valuables. 'If Mr. Part Time survives, I'll feed all of his hidden weapons to LinOhki.'


Two days had passed since the travelers had left the Musk lands and KhoLun 'Rat on a Stick' was pogoing ahead of the others down the forested slope toward Jusenkyo. She intended to question the guide regarding the whereabouts of the missing prince and the chisuiton.

What they found at the hut was an injured guide. His daughter, Plum said, "Honored elder, a man came and took the registry of the spring's visitors. He beat my father when he protested. I told him that he had been foolish to do so, because I had copied down everything in a Works 1.08 database on a computer that a young man named Gates left behind on a visit. He fell into an unnamed spring, but was revived. Father acted disgusted and had the spring covered and fenced in. The name of it is now Nerdnichuan. Sorry, I wandered off in my storytelling."

"The one you seek fell into the Nyannichuan, spring of drowned girl, when he had problems trying to throw a monkey into the spring. The monkey-girl splashed the prince with the locking ladle and ran off. I helped the prince get over her initial shock and tried to explain her curse like we do with all customers. When she did not recover her form with hot water…I swear that I have never heard such language. She realized what had happened and explained it to me. I then gave her a cloak that would hide her form and she left with her two retainers who showed up later. She said that she was heading to Japan for her cure to the lock."

KhoLun asked for and received two thermoses and filled them with boiling water as well as a Tupperware pitcher filled with warm water. She promptly made the water disappear into stuff space. The ancient Splinter look-alike would be very thankful for her foresight and her great granddaughter.

While KhoLun was in the hut ministering to the injured guide, Plum was showing Xian Pu and Ranma the spring where Prince Herb met misfortune. They were searching the ground around the pool for clues when Mu Tzu leaped from the nearby bushes and glomped Xian Pu. "Oh my darling Xian Pu! I'm so happy to find you safe!"

His momentum was imparted to her and the two fell into the spring next to the Nyannichuan with a splash. Ranma and LinOhki went as near as they dared, but backed up quickly as they heard Plum declare, "Oh no! They fell into Maonichuan, the spring of drowned cat!"

A few moments later, a bedraggled black and white cat with glasses crawled out of the spring and puffed a mushroom shaped breath of exhaustion. Ranma was already in a tree, watching the demon on the spring bank. Xian Pu crawled out beside the soaking cat and hissed in rage. She attacked the boy turned cat and the two rolled flinging water and fur right into the Nyannichuan, fighting their way across the pool until they came out the other side. The fight ended when Xian Pu knocked Mu Tzu out and stood, staring at herself and her unwanted suitor.

They were both catgirls.

Two foot tall catgirls at that.

Xian Pu looked at Plum, "What happened to us? Shouldn't the spring have restored me and make Mu Tzu a girl?"

"I'm so very sorry, Xian Pu. There is no cure for the springs. If you jump from one into another spring while still wet from the first, the curses mix in unpredictable ways. At least you are not mute and have opposable thumbs in this form. Being a cat would have been very limiting."

Xian Pu looked at the tree containing Ranma and shouted, "Ranma please don't fear me, I'm not a cat. See." As she performed a pirouette to try and calm the girl.

Ranma dropped from the tree, the transformation was enough to break the association. "Not a c-cat. Not a c-cat. Its just Xian-chan." This was repeated as a mantra as she approached her shield sister and the unconscious Mu Tzu. LinOhki floated alongside Ranma, giving soft miyahs of encouragement.

Xian Pu was shivering from realization of what had happened and almost happened. And, yes, a little fear that she might induce the nekoken and not be able to calm Ranma, risking her life in these few moments.

Ranma took some calming breaths and firmed her resolve. She picked up Xian Pu as LinOhki settled on her shoulder, using empathic communication to ease Ranma's fear. "Well, Xian-chan, you make an incredibly cute c-c-c feline person." The little catgirl wrapped her tail around the other girl's arm and hugged her while making sure her claws were retracted. "Uhh. I just realized…you're both naked." 'and well endowed for your height'.

Plum picked up Mu Tzu and they headed back to the guide's hut, not sure what to expect when they got there.

KhoLun looked up in shock at the lavender and white furred Xian Pu and the black and white spotted Mu Tzu in the other girls arms. She fell off her cane, leaving a rat shaped impression in the hard-packed earth floor.

Getting up from the floor with an audible 'pop', she observed, "I take it that you fell into a combination of the Maonichuan and Nyannichuan. How did this happen? I presume that it wasn't like mine where rat and girl water were deliberately mixed." 'Damn, I had planned on using that on Ban de Soleil to put the biddy in her place, too.'

The explanation resulted in glares at the unconscious Mu Tzu from everyone present.

The guide's daughter got some of her childhood clothes out and restored Xian Pu's modesty. Ranma knew that Mu Tzu would flip at the girly clothes that she had put on her, 'She deserves it for cursing Xian-chan like that and threatening our success.'

"Plum, child, can you spare us a few bars of the waterproof soap? We can all bathe, except for mister Part Time here and leave in our normal forms to find the runaway princess." Mu Tzu started to groan and went back to slumber land as KhoLun applied a shiatsu sleep point to the tiny catgirl. "We can leave in the morning. There's an airport four days walk to the north east. Hopefully we can get to Japan and be waiting for the princess. Ranma, please do an old woman a favor and fetch mister Part Time's robe and Xian Pu's clothes from the spring. Don't worry, you won't pick up any more curses. Thank you."

End chapter 2

10-01-05


This chapter has been revised to combine the too short chapter 2 and 3. The real chapter 3 is imminent.

A/N Wow! I didn't expect the number of responses to this that I have gotten, too many for me to answer individually. Sorry about the shortness of this chapter. Likely none will be very long in the future.

Some general questions to be addressed:

Ranma is not to be locked permanently. Cologne used some locking water that she had had on a shelf for a long time. Also, they are setting out to find the kaisufu. OBTW, sfrgds, your anonymous flame lends no honor to yourself. Read fully and read well to see hints that being girled is not going to be permanent, particularly the title which itself is a play on a C.S. Lewis novel title.

There are several male and female springs in my version of the aniverse, bishujo bride and virtuous man for example, so he fell into the spring of drowned YOUNG girl, not drowned girl.

As for Ranma being less harsh toward the Amazons, several months of total immersion into that culture would affect anyone's attitude, memory restoration notwithstanding. Plus, Cologne is picking up a hint of the correct Golden Rule as opposed to "Do unto others because you can."

LinOhki has the same curse as Ranma, but is a juvenile female cabbit due to the shorter relative contact just through the eggshell. Ranma's girl side was affected considerably by the egg's stay in the pool. How much waits to be seen.

The Amazons had carrots. Don't know about the Phoenix. The Musk should have vegetarians, like the one that Neko Ranma ate. Ranma doesn't know that his cat side likes ox flavored humanoids.

Cologne does 'not' want cold water and Neko Ranma around.

Many thanks for the reviews and I'll try to keep them in mind as I spend evenings writing more chapters.