Chapter 3

Conflicting Sides

Ranma led the way into the village, quietly dismounting Streak and tying her up, he also left the Flame of Marfa behind. Pirotess was about to ask him why was he leaving his sword behind when he vanished from her sight. She looked around frantically looking for him more out of utter shock, then actual concern. Not sure what to do at the moment, the Dark Elf quietly stood by the horses, dagger and sword drawn encase some of her former allies decided to make an appearance.

In the meantime Pirotess unclipped the sword her new companion had forged, and in a fireplace of all things using his strange mage powers. She unsheathed the blade and looked at the sword closely. The blade was finely crafted, better than some of the swords her brethren could turn out. Pirotess put the sword back in its scabbard and placed it back on the horse's saddle. She closed her eyes and felt faintly the emotions of her companion, which were getting very distracting. In a flash she felt Ranma's mine give way to annoyance.

The pig tailed martial artist reappeared looking soaked, a head shorter, red hair, and his face losing it's rugged male good looks, for the face of a beauty. "Damn it, even in this place I still can't avoid water," he muttered in a higher pitch voice. Pirotess raised an eyebrow, "You sound different, Ranma."

Ranma didn't say anything at first then groaned, "I got a curse that changes me into a girl when I get hit with cold water," stated lifting up his armor to show her what she meant. "As you can see I'm now all girl."

Pirotess chuckled softly. "What a strange young man you are Ranma, how did you pick up such a strange magical curse?" she asked. Pirotess knew some of it for some reason, remembering the images in her mind while he was saving her life with his strange energy.

Ranma pulled a metal container out of nowhere, and dipped it into the horse's water troth. Then he concentrated on the container and a few seconds later, he dumps the contents over his head instantly changing back to his male form. "Long story," he said simply taking his sword off the horse's saddle and strapping it to his back. "Did some scouting, seems the guy in charge of the dog men is holed up in a big house in the middle of the square."

Pirotess smirked at the information, "How did you do that disappearing trick?" she inquired.

"One of my pop's actual techniques, that is really useful," Ranma said softly walking down the middle of the street ways, before ducking into the shadows. Pirotess watched him vanish from sight again, and decided to take a more direct approach. Walking down the middle of the street reaching the mayor's house now occupied and was let in by the Cobalts. She was brought before Seth by the Orcs.

"Mistress Pirotess we received word you perished at the hands of Shooting Star," Seth stated standing and giving her a deep bow of respect. The latter Dark Elf was short, long white hair traditional among Dark Elves, he however was portly and grossly out of shape. He was clearly one of her father's more cowardly subordinates and preferred hiding behind the lines rather than fighting and dying gloriously in the front.

Pirotess allowed a fake smile to appear, "I was saved by a foolish human," she felt a twinge of betrayal in her heart. She glanced around the room, the only reason she would even feel something like this if Ranma had heard her. ' Ranma Must of followed me in.' Pirotess thought, and took a deep breath, "I suspect he's here, some of the villagers asked him to save them," she added crossing her arms feeling even more twinges of betrayal flowing over her emotional link with the pig tailed martial artist. She kept her face neutral.

Seth snorted, "Let him try, this place is crawling with Orcs and Cobalts I dou..." Seth stopped in mid rant feeling something cold and sharp against his throat. He looked up and saw a young pig tailed man standing in strange red armor holding and even stranger red bladed sword.

"I don't like killing much... I already had to kill two of those dog things outside. I suggest you go back where ya came from," the young man stated. Seth nodded concealing his smirk as he watched Pirotess get closer, "Think you got me boy, the young woman you saved isn't a saint."

Ranma looked up and watched as Pirotess closed in on them drawing her sword. He stepped back, and put his sword back in its scabbard. Ranma hadn't even begun to look at his mother's scrolls so he was better off fighting hand to sword until he could look through them. But that wasn't the worse part of this, he couldn't understand why someone he befriended was turning her back on him, this was far worse than Ryoga ever had been. Ranma slowly slipped into his loose fighting stance as Pirotess got closer.

Seth sighed heavily in relief the boy had been young and naive, he was going to pay for it. The dark elf smiled briefly as the boy backed away, having actually sheathed his sword and adopting a strange stance.

Pirotess stood between the boy and the fat oaf elf, gauging Ranma's fighting stance. The fat oaf no doubt had no idea what kind of stance it was. But seeing into his mind while he saved her life she knew the stance was the center for a very fast and potent fighting art. She was still conflicted with what to do, if she struck down Ranma to rejoin her old life she felt it would be a drastic error. If she turned on her people she would be an outcast forever, and considering Elves live eternal lives it would indeed be forever.

Deep in the Northern Mountains Brona stood in front of the eye of Falaris, watching as more warriors stood moaning hungrily. Karla watched from her imprisoned body she/he couldn't believe his/her own foolishness at miscalculating this evil wizard's ambition. "Hmm taking longer than I suspected, how I wished for the Cauldron of Amara, rumors had it, that he could dump countless warriors into that pot and turn out an entire army the likes which none could ever be seen. Pity it was only a story."

Karla blinked, "What are you talking about?"

Brona laughed softly, "That's right you don't look into the distant future, only far enough to serve you, and to gather pawns," he cleared his throat. "Allow me to indulge you in the tales, I've read from a distant future since most likely they'll never come to be."

Pirotess looked at Ranma who was shortening his stance getting ready to defend himself from whatever attack. She could gauge that he could easily defeat her and about every creature in the building without breaking to much a sweat. Ranma was waiting for her to make the first move as the pregnant pause was drawing out longer than Pirotess thought. The High Elf never made her sweat this much, nor did her dashing knight companion. But that was the difference... both the High Elf and her knight were primarily first attackers, go in hard. While one had experience, she often was prone to rushing in without thinking. As for the High elf's companion he was bullheaded and inexperienced.

Ranma on the other hand had grown up learning how to fight and he wasn't as prone to attacking first, unless he knew he had the upper hand or thought he had the upper hand. Another thing she couldn't fathom was the utter feeling of loss and betrayal from his eyes to the feelings she was getting from him through some link they had. She first thought the link would fade with time. Instead it seemed to get stronger than before. She wouldn't be surprised if she would be able to talk to him with her mind in a few days.

Such thoughts were scaring her, yet it intrigued her at the same time. Coming to a decision she stepped towards Ranma sword beginning to rise. With a quick spin the sword sliced through air in a long arc until she came back to original standing position, and she slowly put the sword in its sheath.

Ranma blinked and moved his head away from the arc as it passed him. The move was rather slow to him almost as if it wasn't designed for him. Another thing... Was that he felt a slight sense of sadness in her as she sheathed her sword. It wasn't until a fountain of blood had erupted to his right that he realized what had just happened. Ranma turned his head to see the headless corpse of the fat dark elf fall limply from his chair. "We better go and finish this up while they're disoriented," Pirotess stated softly walking from the raised throne.

He didn't detect any hint of regret but regardless of what people may say of Ranma he wasn't stupid, he could tell that act had been painful. The two of them fought through the endless hordes of Cobalts, Orcs, and Goblins until only a few were left running for the hills.

The townspeople were grateful for freeing their village, until they saw Pirotess standing behind him. "Hey you missed one," a really ugly looking man stated glaring at the dark elf coldly. Ranma didn't bother to look, "She ain't with them, she's with me."

The townspeople started whispering most of the words Ranma caught were not nice. "Can't believe he has one of Marmo's elves with him," he heard one say. "Probably sticking it to her," a really lecherous man replied. Ranma wasn't sure what that meant, he heard Hiroshi and Daisuke ask if he stuck it to Akane on more than one occasion, and he still hadn't figured it out. Most of the words ranged from unpleasant, to rude, to downright mean.

After a few minutes he snarled his battle aura glowing brightly, "Listen up you ingrates! You should know that she killed one of her own people in there and helped me fight each of those dog things, ugly bald headed things, and those gritty black things to save ya. If this is how ya all show appreciation next time those things come into town take care of them yourself." Ranma finished strapping the Flame of Marfa to his saddle and led Streak to the outskirts of the village before climbing onto the horse. He looked over at Pirotess who seemed lost in thought. The two left the village leaving many villagers in a daze at what had just transpired.

Pirotess listened to the usual banters humans gave her kind, though she was used to most of them, it still made her angry. The most vicious ones came from those who thought she was Ranma's private whore. She almost killed a few for those comments, but that wasn't until she saw Ranma's face. He looked utterly confused at the sexual innuendos being spoken. It was still a slight on her but the sting was taken out of it because of his charmingly naiveté. As the comments increased she felt something in Ranma's emotions that hadn't been there before.

She felt raw, powerful anger, she looked up and saw him glow which caused a lot of people to jump back in fear. "Listen up you ingrates! You should know she killed one of her own people in there and help me fight each of those dog things, ugly bald headed things, and those gritty black things to save ya. If this is how ya all show appreciation, next time those things come into town, take care of them yourself."

Pirotess stood there stunned at what he said. No one, save Ashram had ever defended her before. While Ashram defended her through violence, Ranma defended her by showing contempt for those they had saved. The two of them quietly walked out of the village and finally rode off. The moment she killed Seth in the great hall, she would be put into exile. Pirotess wondered if she did the right thing. Looking at the back of Ranma Saotome as they rode away from a liberated village hearing the echo of his words, she knew she made the right one and it made her smile.

"Wow an actual smile didn't know if you could do that," Ranma stated.

Pirotess glanced up from her musings and noticed Ranma had been watching her. "I don't have many reasons to smile, Sir Ranma."

Ranma smiled back, "Well looks good on ya."

She blinked looking real confused, "What do you mean, Sir Ranma?"

Ranma shrugged his shoulders, "I mean you're cute when you smile," he stated.

Pirotess watched Ranma for a few moments not knowing why, but her face grew warm the moment he looked away. She silently wondered what was in store for her and this strange young man that she followed as they continued to trek though the continent.