Chapter 4

The Dark things brewing

Karla watched on quietly, as over 200 dead warriors were standing around, with their weapons held loosely in rotting hands. She/He saw the late Emperor Beld at the head of the pack, eyes vacant, blood and ash covering his cruel face. Armor fused together by the magical lightning she/he used to kill the former ruthless leader of Marmo. In his right hand was a vicious looking sword, it wasn't the Soul Crusher mind you, but it was just as evil looking.

More warriors rose up from the pile of bodies and she/he had seen each numbly taking a weapon, and they dimly stand in ranks of ten. "Very soon my first wave of undead warriors will begin to file out of the cavern, in which they are kept. Then they will march toward the Mountain Refuge of one of Marmo's noblest allies the Dark Elves. Not the main tribe, but they will fall soon enough. With the death of their Princess, their head Chieftain has fallen into a state of depression, and so many of his strongholds will be easy prey for attacks," Brona said softly sitting down in his high backed chair. "Of course it won't take long for the Knights of Valis to realize that borders will be in danger but it is of little consequence... In the end they will all die."

Karla struggled against, his/her invisible bonds unable to move or in some way dislodge herself from her chosen host. Nothing worked whatever spell she/he was under it was a damn good one, movement enough to breathe but do little else. "You realize Falaris will not grant immortality, he is death not life."

Brona glanced up from his crystal ball and shrugged, "Life and death are the same to me, I know I will die upon his hands. But I also know that he will grant eternal life to those he sees as loyal. Not like these creatures you see before you in my ball. But a life everlasting, not having to suffer any more, to be undead and expand my powers that is my goal trinket."

"Then you are indeed a mad man," Karla said softly.

Brona started laughing softly and the laugh started growing louder until it had reached a near screeching sound.

In another part of the land riding closely with Pirotess, Ranma stops, feeling something kick his danger sense into overdrive. He shudders softly at whatever set it off. Pirotess watched him for a moment, her theory of the link having been really close to its mark.

Two weeks have passed since there run in with Seth. The link hadn't gotten any more potent than the exchange of emotions and some vivid images while they slept. Still it distracted her seeing some of the nightmares he had. Most of them involved the four legged furry creatures... Cats' humans had called them. "Tell me sir Ranma, are any of these nightmares we share have any ring of truth to them? Or are they childish?"

Ranma shuddered, he had the dream of the Nekoken training recently and though he no longer had the fear of cats and had mastered the Nekoken, his experience would always haunt him. "All of them are true, kind of blown out of portion on some of them but all true."

Priotess eyes widen a bit, she had seen cruelty in humans before Ashram was a master of it. But to throw a child no more than nine years of age into a pit of starving cats wrapped in the animal's favorite foods, it brought cruelty to a whole new level. "How were you able to keep sane under such conditions?" she asked.

Ranma chuckled dryly, "I didn't... For a long time I had this huge fear of cats that was so acute seeing one sent me into a blind panic, if they landed on me and I couldn't get away fast enough, I became the very thing I was afraid of, kind of went into a berserker like state."

Pirotess slowed her horse a bit, "You are cursed by Furie?"

Ranma blinked not sure what she meant, "Don't know who this Furie thing is, but I don't think so. See after this fight I had with this Phoenix God Saffron, I'm able to control it now and I don't have my fear anymore."

Pirotess urged her horse to trot alongside Streak. "Furie is the god of anger, it grants people near invincibility, but at a high cost, they have no control over themselves when they enter their Berserker state."

Ranma looked surprised, "Whoa never thought of it like that," he said looked trouble. The thought of being an uncontrollable berserker had always been in the back of his mind since he accidentally revealed it to the school and at the same time kissed Akane. It's what drove him so much to find a way to control it and at the same time cure him of his curse. "Don't suppose there's a God or Goddess for curses?" he asked.

Pirotess shook her head trying to refrain from smiling. His comment about her looking cute when she smiled was very unsettling. She also blushed for the first time in ever with his statement. It took her a few days to realize that she had indeed done just that. But her emotions were totally out of whack, ever since the link between her and Ranma had formed, she found herself thinking about things the High Elf no doubt thought of. "I doubt there is sir Ranma."

Ranma sighed looking at the forest they were passing. "Man that stinks, I thought if there was I could somehow you appease it in some way. Maybe that help me get control of the curse, the girl half I don't mind so much anymore just getting hit with water is such a pain."

The two continued to gently skirt around the edge of the forest when something lumbered out in front them. The creature was huge. Its body had rolls of fat, grayish skin, a long bloated nose, it wore huge leather pants, and boots, and a leather vest that seemed to tight for his body. Its hair was long, black, and stringy. The eyes were coal black and had a dumb look to them. "What is that thing, looks like 50 miles of bad road," Ranma stated looking in utter disgust.

Pirotess reigned her horse up drawing her sword, "It's a Forest Troll, usually they live deep in the forests far to the North," she looked puzzled as Ranma jumped off of Streak. He kept his sword on his horse once again, then looking up at the huge troll and judging its maneuverability. "Sir Ranma, what are you doing?"

"Just wondering if this ugly thing is going to hurt us or not?" Ranma said with a shrug. Pirotess looked at him incredulously, she knew he was naive but not this much. The troll looked down at Ranma dumbly snorting softly. "Hey there big guy, what ya doing so far from home...? Are you on vacation or somethin?" The troll suddenly swung the club in his left hand trying to swat Ranma like a fly. Ranma nimbly jumped out of the way, crossing his arms looking only mildly annoyed. "Hey I just asked a question, no need to get sore about it."

Pirotess sweatdropped watching the exchange, if you could call it that. "Ranma, trolls don't like humans."

Ranma dodged another attack from huge troll easily, this time standing on the club as the troll brought it up to his shoulder. "I didn't do anything to him, why doesn't he like humans?" Ranma inquired.

"Mostly because they've been treated badly by humans and are often forced to live in mountains or deep in forests," Pirotess stated. "Much like my kind have been forced to live in caves or secluded mountain villages like the trolls."

Ranma's eyes furrowed a bit, "Man people around here certainly hate freaks don't they, imagine if they saw my curse," he said softly leaping clear as the troll tried to fling Ranma off his club. Pirotess looked thoughtful, after all Ranma made a good point. "Aw, come on I won't hurt ya, I promise. Let's be friends, come on what ya say?" he stated to the troll who swung again and again missing him every time. The huge troll was now getting frustrated. This human had managed to avoid getting squashed several times all the while extending its hand in friendship. No human had ever offered it friendship before and it didn't need any. Turning to the Dark Elf it had a new target and one that didn't look as nimble. "Hey don't you go after her, I was offering to be friends, can't you be a nice ugly thing and agree." Pirotess quickly scurried off her horse and led the troll away from them. She could barely hear Ranma's pleas over the huge creature lumbering towards her.

Pirotess got ready to fight, when something red fell in between her and the troll, then she heard. "KACHU TENSHIN AMAGURIKEN!" Immediately the troll looked like it was bombarded with over a hundred blows from something nearly invisible. Pirotess jumped clear away from them, as Ranma held up the troll with his right hand. The troll was clutching its stomach trying hard not to throw up. "I told ya not to go after her... Now I had to hurt ya. Why do dumb people always got to things the hard way?" Pirotess looked at Ranma utterly floored by his proclamation.

"Sir Ranma what did you do to this troll?" she asked.

Ranma simply shrugged looking sheepish, "Um, used my Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken technique and punched him about 549 times in the gut. Don't hurt me I was only trying to stop him from hurtin' you," he stated but tensed up expecting some kind of blow to fall on him.

Pirotess blinked seeing images of a girl with short hair slamming a huge mallet on top of Ranma's head each time he rescued her. Questions about that for another time, "I'm grateful for your aide Sir Ranma," she stated assuredly. "But how is it possible for you to defeat something as big as this troll with just your fists?"

"Oh that, it was nothing he's strong but I knew this guy who I would spar with that could stand in the middle of a busy street and get hit by a train. He wouldn't feel it, compared to him this guy was cake," Ranma puffed up in pride, as the troll came round after his pain induced stupor. "You okay I didn't want to hurt ya, but I didn't want ya hurting my friend. No hard feelings I hope," he stated looking hopeful.

The forest troll had an astonished look on his face. This boy had just knocked him out, and only because he went after the dark elf female. He was more astonished if his human speech was correct that the human considered the elf his friend and was still offering his friendship. The boy was something special, he could sense it, the troll stood to it's full height and bowed slightly to Ranma, "I thank you and graciously except your offer," his human speech was slow and clumsy he hoped that was able to protract his sentiments correctly.

Pirotess could be easily knocked over with a small gust of wind at that point... Very few humans in her lifetime had earned a trolls friendship. She could easily count the number, only two have 'EVER' befriended trolls before. When a troll befriended a human it wasn't just the troll itself but its entire tribe. Ranma didn't know it but he had gained a very powerful group of allies. 'Maybe if I take him before my father,' she thought watching as Ranma started asking questions.

"So what's your name and why are ya so far from home?" Ranma asked.

The troll sat down against a tree lazily holding his club against his shoulder, "My name is Granite and the reason I am so far from home, is that our tribe is moving out of the mountains. A bad smell is beginning to emanate from the Valley of the Big War."

"You mean where the first war of Lodoss happened," Pirotess frowned. A Dark Elf outpost wasn't far from that desolate plot of land. Matter of fact, her people often trade with the trolls in the region for supplies.

The huge trolls head bounced once on his broad rolling shoulders. "Many of the forest animals have left that area because of the bad smell, they fear it. I was sent to scout the surrounding forest regions for a suitable home for my tribe. So far the forests are too thin to hide my people."

Ranma had his hands behind his head looking bored for a moment until the voices stopped. "Wonder what's up with that, animals don't run unless there are bigger animals trying to hurt them."

Pirotess nodded, "Perhaps it would be good idea to talk to member's of Granite's tribe and find out more?"

With a shrug Ranma nodded, "Sure, it's not like we got anything else to do," he turned to Granite. "Lead the way and we'll follow."