Chapter 7: Nayru's Fallen Star~
Ranma stood awkwardly, watching Dr. Tofu bind up the wounds, and mythical burns on the elven boy's arms and legs.
" Look how well he's sustained all this damage! He really is healthy!" Dr. Tofu cried with a smile, and then blushed when he saw Kasumi standing at the foot of Link's bed, watching the doctor perform his healing arts on the strange boy.
"Healthy? Him? Talk about stupid! He swallowed a shadow-spirit, turned into a wolf, then we dropped trees and stuff on him, and now he's a roasty toasty marshmallow boy!" Ranma growled, annoyed.
"Ranma, that is rude!" Kasumi scolded.
Something in the sound of her voice, turned the boy's face her way. His eyes began to flutter.
Then with a flash of lightning glancing off the walls of a spare room in Dojo Tendo, Link's supernaturally blue eyes flashed open.
For a long moment he stared at no one but Kasumi. And she stared back, and there was a strange look on her face, as if she had just remembered something she had forgotten a long time ago.
"Oh!" cried Tendo Soun, who was leaning in the doorway, suddenly teary eyed, "She remembers!"
"Remembers..what? What's wrong with her?" asked Akane, mouth falling open, suddenly scared.
Link sat up, looking like a mummy with all the bandages wound around his chest and arms.
"Ah!" the elven boy gasped, and swallowed, "Forgive me, I haven't any memory of how I came into the house of Nayru's Falling Star, the Lady of Grace and Eternal Beauty!"
Dr. Tofu blushed, agreeing with every word Link was saying. He wasn't jealous because Link wasn't flirting. The young man, probably about 17, was very reverent in everything he was saying.
"How...how did you know? Only my father and mother knew that?" Kasumi asked, blushing slightly.
Suddenly Zelda materialized in the room, to Link's delight. "We are Nayru's servants, and she was our friend before the great wars. We would definitely remember the light of her star, even if we don't recognize the face of the maiden child it was born into."
"What the heck is going on?" Ranma gasped. And all eyes turned to look his way.
"On the night that Kasumi was born, a strange light began to glow out of her, blue as heaven in a cloudless day. We thought it was just the baby's precious grace. Then a beautiful spirit came to us and told us that it was a special blessing she had put in the pure and gentle heart of Tendo Kasumi, to be the bearer of Nayru's Fallen Star, a light she was trying to protect from evil mercenary witches who wanted it. They roam the earth ,disguised as men...sometimes making deals with fools to get it. It is simple, they stake their claim for a prize as a right to the hand in marriage of Tendo Soun's eldest daughter, staked against untold riches in a game of chance or cards. But on the day of the wedding, they will transform again into their true forms, and sacrifice Tendo Kasumi on a great pyre , to kill the light of Nayru's falling star." Soun explained, his face going white.
Akane shrank against Ranma, who waved a dismissive hand in the air, "Like that's ever gonna happen!"
"Not while I live!...errr." Link gasped, throwing back his sheets.
"I swear to you on the Golden Power within me, Tendo Kasumi, to be your guardian in this life and the next, and I will never allow the rod nor the staff of witchcraft to harm you!" Link cried.
He kissed her hand elegantly.
Ranma couldn't help it. He really liked this little freak.
"Me and P-chan can take care of them! " Ranma laughed, shaking his head, like this was nothing but stupidity. Ryoga stood thoughtful, and seeming to gather a black mood, and Dr. Tofu began to wonder if he knew something the other's didn't.
Ranma looked out of the corner of his eye, just in time to see Genma lingering by the doorway, chewing his nails like he might have done something for which he needed to be guilty.
" Uh oh...what did he screw up now?" Ranma thought.