Disclaimer: If you actually think these are mine I've got a bridge to sell
you.
Chapter 6: History Past
The sunlight was softly filtering through the curtains in a small room in a cottage in the woods. There were birds and other assorted wildlife scampering around somewhere outside the window. A soft breeze was slowly blowing the curtains making them move back and forth like vertical waves on an ocean.
A six year old Ranma slowly woke up in a soft bed. His skin was pale and waxy. His normally cobalt blue eyes lacked their normal luster. In fact if one looked closely they would see a bit of green starting to poke through. His black hair looked as if somebody had poured bleach on it and missed some spots in the process.
He tried sitting up but immediately thought better of it as his head started swimming. He closed his eyes and eventually he regained his equilibrium. His eyes were still closed when he heard the door to his room open then close. It There was dead silence until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a soothing voice.
He opened his eyes and looked at the woman that was by the bed. To his young eyes she looked to be well over three hundred years old. Her skin was wrinkly and looked like tanned leather. Her hands were bony and withered. She only stood maybe four feet tall but still she was taller than he was. Her blond hair had bits of grey in it making it look like silver and gold silk mixed together with black coal dots. It was her eyes however that really scarred scared him. They were green which wasn't too unusual but the fact that they were much older than anybody's had a right to be.
"Don't try to sit up just yet. You've had a nasty fever for the last few days and your body is going to be extremely weak." She held out a glass with some red fluid in it. "Drink this, it should help somewhat."
"What is it?" Ranma asked, his voice sounding like the frog had died and its ghost was now inhabiting his vocal cords.
"It's a magic potion." She winked at him.
"Magic?" He croaked.
"Yes. This will make you feel better." She said as she helped him to a sitting position and then held the glass as he drank.
Gain 4 HP.
When he had finished the entire glass he was amazed that he did feel better. His skin had gotten its colour back and no longer looked waxy. His hair still looked like it had been badly bleached but now it didn't look so lifeless. His eyes were still a mix of green and blue but now it was more pronounced. The most noticeable thing though, to him at least, was that he didn't feel dizzy anymore.
"Thanks grandma I feel better now."
"That's good. You've been sick for a month now and I had almost lost hope that you would wake up at all." She looked down at his little face. "Now I'm not really your grandmother I just found you wandering in the woods and brought you home. Can you tell me your name little one so that we can go find your parents, I'm sure that they must be worried about you." Of course she already knew his answer before he even spoke. She had to suppress all of his memories from before or else he would go insane. The only things that he would remember are the basics of language and being potty trained (she hoped he was potty trained or else this could get messy).
He thought long and hard, his little mind racing to find a scrap of an answer. Eventually he turned his eyes to the old woman. There were crystal tears threatening to spill down his angelic cheeks.
"I can't remember. I don't remember anything." Crystal waterfalls. "Who am I? Where did I come from? I want my mommy!" He started crying.
She was by his side in a second. She pulled him into a hug and started whispering comforting words in his ear while rubbing his back. Eventually he calmed down enough to look at her. She knew she had to give him something or else he was going to fall into a pit of despair.
"Well you were wearing clothing when I found you." She paused to make sure he was listening. "Your underwear had a name written on it. I'm not sure if it's your name or not." He was listening with rapt attention now. "It was Ranma."
"Ranma." He parroted back.
"Yes does that ring any bells?" She knew it wouldn't. Her spells were too good to allow any of his memories through.
"No." He said back in a small voice.
"Well until you get your memories back my name is Natalie Shinkara but you'll just have to call me grandmother." She smiled down at him. He would be such a good student.
It was a lucky thing that he had undergone the change already when he was unconscious. She would have hated to try and explain why his hair and eyes suddenly changed colour. Now came the hard part of trying to teach him how to control the change without losing control and trying to kill everything in sitesight.
"You should rest now." She said while pushing him back down. "I'll bring you something to eat and we'll talk more then. I have a lot I need to teach you."
She got off the bed and went over to the door. Ranma was just looking at her from underneath the covers. There was no way he was going to go to sleep now that he had so much energy. He wanted to get out of bed and go outside and try to figure out who he was. This strange woman was trying to keep him from his parents. He had to find them! It was then that an important fact hit him. He didn't know what his parents looked like. He didn't know their names. Hell, he didn't know his own name or, how was he going to find his parents if he didn't have a clue where to start looking. A good alternative was to sit in the bed and cry for a while. That sounded like a good plan.
He was still crying when Natalie came in carrying a tray with some food on it. She took one look at him and immediately rushed to his side. She put the tray down on the floor and immediately enveloped him in a hug. He cried for a good long while before he eventually ran out of tears. Her dress was soaked through but she forced herself to focus on Ranma for now.
"When I found you..." She started unsure of whether she should tell him this or not. "You were beaten severely and had cuts all over your body." She paused to look him in they eye. "I wasn't sure if you'd make it or not. All of my potions and spells didn't seem to have any effect."
"But I'm all right now!" He protested then in a weaker voice he said. "I just can't remember anything."
"You can make new memories but if you had died that would have been it no more you." Well that wasn't exactly true she still knew a couple of high level clerics in the world that could cast true resurrection, however it would be bloody expensive.
"I guess." He looked up at her. "Grandma, I'm hungry." He said.
Natalie just started chuckling as she reached down and picked up the tray. The Saotome stomach strikes again.
The tray only had a pile of half cooked meat slices and some reddish liquid in a glass. Since he didn't have any of his higher memories he didn't know what a normal meal consisted of so he just started shoveling it in pausing only to chew a bit so he didn't choke on it. Even though it was barely cooked it tasted good. The liquid in the glass tasted like that 'potion' from before.
When he was finished he felt a lot better.
6 HP
"I feel great grandma." He said while jumping out of the bed.
Of course he was still naked, but for little kids naked is just fine.
"Ok, ok, we need to get you some clothes." She said as she moved over to the closet. "The clothes you were wearing when I found you were pretty much destroyed. I got you some new clothes. I'll admit it isn't much but we can get some more together later." She said while pulling out an outfit.
There was a plain red t-shirt, some black corduroy pants, a pair of white tube socks and some underwear. She walked over to where he was standing.
"Now watch carefully I'm going to show you how to dress yourself." She said as she bent over. "Ok, raise your right leg."
He did so and she put his leg through the right hole in the underwear. She repeated her instructions for his left leg and then had him pull it up. His socks were next, then the pants and finally the t-shirt. When he was done she told him to make sure that the tag always went to the back. The pants and shirt were too big on him. Natalie just chuckled and said that he'd grow into them.
The next few weeks were spent with Ranma getting used to living as a person again. Natalie taught him how to use the outhouse, the water pump, and most importantly the rules that people lived by.... like wearing clothes when you went outside.
It was during the third week that Natalie started getting nervous. She would start talking about something that he couldn't understand then peter off. This was really starting to annoy him.
One day she led him out to a stone structure deep in the woods. Being a young boy he was fascinated by the runes on the walls and the claw marks on the floor that looked like several wild animals had been held here.
"I've been putting this off for quite some time now." She looked at the sky and saw that the sun had already set for the day. She didn't have much time left.
"For the longest of times the world was populated with many different kinds of intelligent beings. Dwarves, elves, humans, dragons, and lycanthropes. All of these inhabited the earth at one point." She looked down as if remembering something painful. "Over time through wars and disease etc the other races died off." She paused for quite some time. "Some of the races survived however. I am part of one of those races." She said as she shifted to her hybrid form.
She didn't get any bigger than she was normally, it's just that her ears shifted to the top of her head like cats ears. Her fingers elongated and her fingernails became like claws. Yellow fur sprouted all along her back and white fur along her front. Her face was a combination of yellow fur with black slashes horizontally above and below her eyes. Finally Ranma noticed the tail that was peaking peeking out from under her dress.
"I am a were cheetah and until I found you I thought I was the last of my kind."
It was about this time that Ranma was calming down. Watching the old woman change into something else was scary. Then her words hit him.
"What do you mean until you found me?"
"Didn't you ever wonder why our hair is the same colour with the dark spots in it?"
"No."
Natalie shook her head. That was one of the things that she noted to herself that she'd have to teach him. Curiosity didn't always kill the cat.
"The reason is that you are also a were cheetah. I was so very happy when I found you as I was no longer the last of my kind."
"Wait. I'm a cat?" Ranma said scrunching his face up in confusion.
Natalie laughed at this.
"Sort of you are both a cat and a human yet neither at the same time."
"How can I be both?" Ranma was really confused now.
"You'll understand in a few minutes." Natalie said as she looked at the rising moon.
"For three days every lunar cycle our kind reverts to our beast form, it is part of our renewal and it helps us live much longer than normal humans however this renewal has a price on it." She looked at him. "Normally we would be reduced to nothing more than mindless animals, killing machines, with no other purpose than killing everything in sight." She paused gauging his reaction. He seemed scared enough. "However we can learn how to control these bestial urges so that you will never kill anything unless you really want to."
She swept her hand around indicating the structure that they were in.
"Long ago this was our clan's safe zone. Here we trained our young to control their shape without losing control. I will not lie to you it is a difficult process and may take some time before you learn but I will be here to help you." She said.
"I'm not scared of anything! I'll have this down in a week, tops." Ranma said puffing out his chest
Natalie looked up at the rising moon.
"I'm afraid that it might take a little longer than that." She said as she pulled a hidden lever in the wall.
The doors to the building slammed shut plunging the room into darkness for a few seconds. Natalie mumbled a few words and the stones started glowing a faint orange.
"What... what's happening?" Ranma was not scared just edgy.
"It's a minor cube of force. It's so you don't damage the walls too much. This first time you are going to be wild. Don't worry just let yourself go. I'll catch you when you fall."
Ranma was tempted to ask her what she meant by that when he saw the full moon rising above the wall. He was so transfixed by that wonderful blue grey orb in the sky that he never noticed the blood rushing to his ears, his heart hammering away in his chest or his lungs gulping in large quantities of air.
The change happened quite quickly. One moment he was a little boy the next he was a cheetah cub. When asked by his grandmother at a later time he never could quite remember when his humanity left him. All he could remember was staring at the moon and then nothing till he woke up in his bed three days later.
She told him that now that he'd experienced the change he'd be able to control it. For the next three weeks every day they went into the chamber and she would get him to practice changing back and forth trying to keep from losing himself. It took him two months before he could control the change perfectly and another two before he could keep his mind during the full moon.
After he'd gotten the hang of transforming between his three forms Natalie got down to the task of teaching him magic. It was fairly slow going as he seemed to just not get it. There were times when she was tempted to pull her hair out at the frustration. Depending on what form she was in at the time that was a lot of hair.
She finally managed to teach him about four zero circle spells and three first circle. One of the ones that she made sure he knew pat was a basic healing spell. Even though healing was normally a domain of clerics over time arcane spell casters came up with a basic spell that would heal the body. It was necessary as the number of clerics that could cast spells dwindled and healing either had to be done naturally or in severe cases you died. Unfortunately there were great limitations on arcane healing and nobody could ever come up with any arcane versions of the greater healing spells that clerics could wield.
By the time Ranma was seven and a half he was wanting to learn something other than wizardry. He made the argument that he just wanted to broaden his skills. Natalie just guessed that he just wanted to get out of his lessons. Before she agreed to take him to meet the other masters that she knew she made him promise that he would spend his free time learning at least another three spells from first circle and two from second. As she thought it was a tough battle but one she prevailed in.
One teleport later and they were deep inside an old dwarven mine. Time had ravaged the place to the point where it looked like a natural cave except for where they were now.
"Grandma what's that?" Asked little Ranma.
"That my dear is a permanent gate to the plains." She said as she started tracing out the runes that would activate the gate to a certain plain.
"Remember my story about the other races and how they mostly died out?" Seeing him nod she continued. "Well not all of the races were stupid enough to stick around and just die off. The remaining races banded together to create this gate so that they could escape to a different world. I have some friends on the other side that I haven't seen in a while. A couple of them even owe me some favors and I'd like to collect before they expire."
Ranma just stood there listening to her speak. He couldn't understand everything she was saying but it meant new training so he was happy. Once Natalie finished tracing the appropriate runes she spoke something in a strange flitting language and the gate glowed to life. Little Ranma was astounded by the colour swirl that appeared between the stones.
They each grabbed their bags and stepped through the portal. Once they were on the other side Ranma was amazed at the city that spread out before him.
Most of the buildings looked to be made of white marble in what looked like a cross between greco roman style and renaissance Europe. Of course he didn't know this. A few of the buildings looked like they were made out of living trees that somehow were made to grow together to form a shelter. Looking around some more he saw parks with fountains and lots of greenery. Flowing water seemed to be a theme as there were streams everywhere.
Then there were the people. Well they weren't exactly people as in humans. Everybody had long pointy ears and high cheekbones. They looked like this guy that he'd seen on TV once.
To make a long long story short (b/c this is just a flashback episode) they met up with Soveliss, Mylanee, Niandra, and Bob; Natalies friends. Soveliss was a high level monk who taught Ranma martial arts and weapons. Niandra was a ranger who taught him about how to survive in the wild, tracking, and the bow. Bob was a bard who taught him how to perform and how to play the guitar.
Mylanee was a high level wizardess who was... well she was different. Ranma could actually count the number of insanities that she had but he had to use all of his fingers and toes and one extra appendage. She had died and been resurrected so many times in her long life that she had acquired a frequent diers card. He guessed being eaten by a giant snake then crapped out and then being brought back would give anybody a fear of snakes. Mylanee took that normal fear to a new level. No garter snake or greater would get away from her. That brought up another one of her quirks.
Mylanee was a pyro.
Unlike his grandmother who preferred to teach him useful spells like alarm and comprehend magic Mylanee preferred to use force when dealing with a problem. Once when they were out on a field trip they came upon a nest of giant vipers.
Meteor swarm is such a cool spell for a young and impressionable youth.
Sufficed to say Ranma managed to learn four new first level spells (magic missile, burning hands, mend, and magic weapon) three second level spells (melf's acid arrow, flaming sphere, and greater repairing) and one third level spell (fireball... umm duh.)
By the time they left the elves six years had passed. As they were saying goodbye Natalie lingered a little longer than Ranma thought was necessary but he had learned enough manners to let her have her time. Besides a couple of the young elven maidens had come to see him off personally. Once he'd hit puberty a lot of things happened like girls being not so icky anymore. When it came to hot looking girls beauty thy name is elven.
Eventually they had to leave. Once they were back Natalie teleported them back to their house. The spells she had set up to keep it clean and repaired were still in good shape so everything was still in the same condition as when they left.
They stayed in the cottage for about six months before Natalie decided to take him around to the strange spots and show him what little magic was left in the world. They also stopped by several masters so that he could learn some more martial arts. Along the way he managed to learn a couple more first, second, third and a fourth level spell. He also gleaned a smattering more of alchemy.
When he was about fifteen Natalie suddenly said that they had to go home right away. He of course protested because he was in the middle of studying Martial arts construction but she was adamant. The master of course let him go with the promise that he could return at any time to complete his study.
Six months later Natalie died of complications due to old age.
Authors notes:
Umm I guess sorry isn't going to cut it. Don't worry I always finish writing what I start. (except when I lose the idea I had. damn dragons bane)
I guess next up will be Fast Tracks or I may start a new story of something else. (too many ideas not enough time to write them all.)
Again many thanks go out to my prereaders: Axekeeper, Lord Raa, and Chi Vayne
Chapter 6: History Past
The sunlight was softly filtering through the curtains in a small room in a cottage in the woods. There were birds and other assorted wildlife scampering around somewhere outside the window. A soft breeze was slowly blowing the curtains making them move back and forth like vertical waves on an ocean.
A six year old Ranma slowly woke up in a soft bed. His skin was pale and waxy. His normally cobalt blue eyes lacked their normal luster. In fact if one looked closely they would see a bit of green starting to poke through. His black hair looked as if somebody had poured bleach on it and missed some spots in the process.
He tried sitting up but immediately thought better of it as his head started swimming. He closed his eyes and eventually he regained his equilibrium. His eyes were still closed when he heard the door to his room open then close. It There was dead silence until he felt a hand on his shoulder and a soothing voice.
He opened his eyes and looked at the woman that was by the bed. To his young eyes she looked to be well over three hundred years old. Her skin was wrinkly and looked like tanned leather. Her hands were bony and withered. She only stood maybe four feet tall but still she was taller than he was. Her blond hair had bits of grey in it making it look like silver and gold silk mixed together with black coal dots. It was her eyes however that really scarred scared him. They were green which wasn't too unusual but the fact that they were much older than anybody's had a right to be.
"Don't try to sit up just yet. You've had a nasty fever for the last few days and your body is going to be extremely weak." She held out a glass with some red fluid in it. "Drink this, it should help somewhat."
"What is it?" Ranma asked, his voice sounding like the frog had died and its ghost was now inhabiting his vocal cords.
"It's a magic potion." She winked at him.
"Magic?" He croaked.
"Yes. This will make you feel better." She said as she helped him to a sitting position and then held the glass as he drank.
Gain 4 HP.
When he had finished the entire glass he was amazed that he did feel better. His skin had gotten its colour back and no longer looked waxy. His hair still looked like it had been badly bleached but now it didn't look so lifeless. His eyes were still a mix of green and blue but now it was more pronounced. The most noticeable thing though, to him at least, was that he didn't feel dizzy anymore.
"Thanks grandma I feel better now."
"That's good. You've been sick for a month now and I had almost lost hope that you would wake up at all." She looked down at his little face. "Now I'm not really your grandmother I just found you wandering in the woods and brought you home. Can you tell me your name little one so that we can go find your parents, I'm sure that they must be worried about you." Of course she already knew his answer before he even spoke. She had to suppress all of his memories from before or else he would go insane. The only things that he would remember are the basics of language and being potty trained (she hoped he was potty trained or else this could get messy).
He thought long and hard, his little mind racing to find a scrap of an answer. Eventually he turned his eyes to the old woman. There were crystal tears threatening to spill down his angelic cheeks.
"I can't remember. I don't remember anything." Crystal waterfalls. "Who am I? Where did I come from? I want my mommy!" He started crying.
She was by his side in a second. She pulled him into a hug and started whispering comforting words in his ear while rubbing his back. Eventually he calmed down enough to look at her. She knew she had to give him something or else he was going to fall into a pit of despair.
"Well you were wearing clothing when I found you." She paused to make sure he was listening. "Your underwear had a name written on it. I'm not sure if it's your name or not." He was listening with rapt attention now. "It was Ranma."
"Ranma." He parroted back.
"Yes does that ring any bells?" She knew it wouldn't. Her spells were too good to allow any of his memories through.
"No." He said back in a small voice.
"Well until you get your memories back my name is Natalie Shinkara but you'll just have to call me grandmother." She smiled down at him. He would be such a good student.
It was a lucky thing that he had undergone the change already when he was unconscious. She would have hated to try and explain why his hair and eyes suddenly changed colour. Now came the hard part of trying to teach him how to control the change without losing control and trying to kill everything in sitesight.
"You should rest now." She said while pushing him back down. "I'll bring you something to eat and we'll talk more then. I have a lot I need to teach you."
She got off the bed and went over to the door. Ranma was just looking at her from underneath the covers. There was no way he was going to go to sleep now that he had so much energy. He wanted to get out of bed and go outside and try to figure out who he was. This strange woman was trying to keep him from his parents. He had to find them! It was then that an important fact hit him. He didn't know what his parents looked like. He didn't know their names. Hell, he didn't know his own name or, how was he going to find his parents if he didn't have a clue where to start looking. A good alternative was to sit in the bed and cry for a while. That sounded like a good plan.
He was still crying when Natalie came in carrying a tray with some food on it. She took one look at him and immediately rushed to his side. She put the tray down on the floor and immediately enveloped him in a hug. He cried for a good long while before he eventually ran out of tears. Her dress was soaked through but she forced herself to focus on Ranma for now.
"When I found you..." She started unsure of whether she should tell him this or not. "You were beaten severely and had cuts all over your body." She paused to look him in they eye. "I wasn't sure if you'd make it or not. All of my potions and spells didn't seem to have any effect."
"But I'm all right now!" He protested then in a weaker voice he said. "I just can't remember anything."
"You can make new memories but if you had died that would have been it no more you." Well that wasn't exactly true she still knew a couple of high level clerics in the world that could cast true resurrection, however it would be bloody expensive.
"I guess." He looked up at her. "Grandma, I'm hungry." He said.
Natalie just started chuckling as she reached down and picked up the tray. The Saotome stomach strikes again.
The tray only had a pile of half cooked meat slices and some reddish liquid in a glass. Since he didn't have any of his higher memories he didn't know what a normal meal consisted of so he just started shoveling it in pausing only to chew a bit so he didn't choke on it. Even though it was barely cooked it tasted good. The liquid in the glass tasted like that 'potion' from before.
When he was finished he felt a lot better.
6 HP
"I feel great grandma." He said while jumping out of the bed.
Of course he was still naked, but for little kids naked is just fine.
"Ok, ok, we need to get you some clothes." She said as she moved over to the closet. "The clothes you were wearing when I found you were pretty much destroyed. I got you some new clothes. I'll admit it isn't much but we can get some more together later." She said while pulling out an outfit.
There was a plain red t-shirt, some black corduroy pants, a pair of white tube socks and some underwear. She walked over to where he was standing.
"Now watch carefully I'm going to show you how to dress yourself." She said as she bent over. "Ok, raise your right leg."
He did so and she put his leg through the right hole in the underwear. She repeated her instructions for his left leg and then had him pull it up. His socks were next, then the pants and finally the t-shirt. When he was done she told him to make sure that the tag always went to the back. The pants and shirt were too big on him. Natalie just chuckled and said that he'd grow into them.
The next few weeks were spent with Ranma getting used to living as a person again. Natalie taught him how to use the outhouse, the water pump, and most importantly the rules that people lived by.... like wearing clothes when you went outside.
It was during the third week that Natalie started getting nervous. She would start talking about something that he couldn't understand then peter off. This was really starting to annoy him.
One day she led him out to a stone structure deep in the woods. Being a young boy he was fascinated by the runes on the walls and the claw marks on the floor that looked like several wild animals had been held here.
"I've been putting this off for quite some time now." She looked at the sky and saw that the sun had already set for the day. She didn't have much time left.
"For the longest of times the world was populated with many different kinds of intelligent beings. Dwarves, elves, humans, dragons, and lycanthropes. All of these inhabited the earth at one point." She looked down as if remembering something painful. "Over time through wars and disease etc the other races died off." She paused for quite some time. "Some of the races survived however. I am part of one of those races." She said as she shifted to her hybrid form.
She didn't get any bigger than she was normally, it's just that her ears shifted to the top of her head like cats ears. Her fingers elongated and her fingernails became like claws. Yellow fur sprouted all along her back and white fur along her front. Her face was a combination of yellow fur with black slashes horizontally above and below her eyes. Finally Ranma noticed the tail that was peaking peeking out from under her dress.
"I am a were cheetah and until I found you I thought I was the last of my kind."
It was about this time that Ranma was calming down. Watching the old woman change into something else was scary. Then her words hit him.
"What do you mean until you found me?"
"Didn't you ever wonder why our hair is the same colour with the dark spots in it?"
"No."
Natalie shook her head. That was one of the things that she noted to herself that she'd have to teach him. Curiosity didn't always kill the cat.
"The reason is that you are also a were cheetah. I was so very happy when I found you as I was no longer the last of my kind."
"Wait. I'm a cat?" Ranma said scrunching his face up in confusion.
Natalie laughed at this.
"Sort of you are both a cat and a human yet neither at the same time."
"How can I be both?" Ranma was really confused now.
"You'll understand in a few minutes." Natalie said as she looked at the rising moon.
"For three days every lunar cycle our kind reverts to our beast form, it is part of our renewal and it helps us live much longer than normal humans however this renewal has a price on it." She looked at him. "Normally we would be reduced to nothing more than mindless animals, killing machines, with no other purpose than killing everything in sight." She paused gauging his reaction. He seemed scared enough. "However we can learn how to control these bestial urges so that you will never kill anything unless you really want to."
She swept her hand around indicating the structure that they were in.
"Long ago this was our clan's safe zone. Here we trained our young to control their shape without losing control. I will not lie to you it is a difficult process and may take some time before you learn but I will be here to help you." She said.
"I'm not scared of anything! I'll have this down in a week, tops." Ranma said puffing out his chest
Natalie looked up at the rising moon.
"I'm afraid that it might take a little longer than that." She said as she pulled a hidden lever in the wall.
The doors to the building slammed shut plunging the room into darkness for a few seconds. Natalie mumbled a few words and the stones started glowing a faint orange.
"What... what's happening?" Ranma was not scared just edgy.
"It's a minor cube of force. It's so you don't damage the walls too much. This first time you are going to be wild. Don't worry just let yourself go. I'll catch you when you fall."
Ranma was tempted to ask her what she meant by that when he saw the full moon rising above the wall. He was so transfixed by that wonderful blue grey orb in the sky that he never noticed the blood rushing to his ears, his heart hammering away in his chest or his lungs gulping in large quantities of air.
The change happened quite quickly. One moment he was a little boy the next he was a cheetah cub. When asked by his grandmother at a later time he never could quite remember when his humanity left him. All he could remember was staring at the moon and then nothing till he woke up in his bed three days later.
She told him that now that he'd experienced the change he'd be able to control it. For the next three weeks every day they went into the chamber and she would get him to practice changing back and forth trying to keep from losing himself. It took him two months before he could control the change perfectly and another two before he could keep his mind during the full moon.
After he'd gotten the hang of transforming between his three forms Natalie got down to the task of teaching him magic. It was fairly slow going as he seemed to just not get it. There were times when she was tempted to pull her hair out at the frustration. Depending on what form she was in at the time that was a lot of hair.
She finally managed to teach him about four zero circle spells and three first circle. One of the ones that she made sure he knew pat was a basic healing spell. Even though healing was normally a domain of clerics over time arcane spell casters came up with a basic spell that would heal the body. It was necessary as the number of clerics that could cast spells dwindled and healing either had to be done naturally or in severe cases you died. Unfortunately there were great limitations on arcane healing and nobody could ever come up with any arcane versions of the greater healing spells that clerics could wield.
By the time Ranma was seven and a half he was wanting to learn something other than wizardry. He made the argument that he just wanted to broaden his skills. Natalie just guessed that he just wanted to get out of his lessons. Before she agreed to take him to meet the other masters that she knew she made him promise that he would spend his free time learning at least another three spells from first circle and two from second. As she thought it was a tough battle but one she prevailed in.
One teleport later and they were deep inside an old dwarven mine. Time had ravaged the place to the point where it looked like a natural cave except for where they were now.
"Grandma what's that?" Asked little Ranma.
"That my dear is a permanent gate to the plains." She said as she started tracing out the runes that would activate the gate to a certain plain.
"Remember my story about the other races and how they mostly died out?" Seeing him nod she continued. "Well not all of the races were stupid enough to stick around and just die off. The remaining races banded together to create this gate so that they could escape to a different world. I have some friends on the other side that I haven't seen in a while. A couple of them even owe me some favors and I'd like to collect before they expire."
Ranma just stood there listening to her speak. He couldn't understand everything she was saying but it meant new training so he was happy. Once Natalie finished tracing the appropriate runes she spoke something in a strange flitting language and the gate glowed to life. Little Ranma was astounded by the colour swirl that appeared between the stones.
They each grabbed their bags and stepped through the portal. Once they were on the other side Ranma was amazed at the city that spread out before him.
Most of the buildings looked to be made of white marble in what looked like a cross between greco roman style and renaissance Europe. Of course he didn't know this. A few of the buildings looked like they were made out of living trees that somehow were made to grow together to form a shelter. Looking around some more he saw parks with fountains and lots of greenery. Flowing water seemed to be a theme as there were streams everywhere.
Then there were the people. Well they weren't exactly people as in humans. Everybody had long pointy ears and high cheekbones. They looked like this guy that he'd seen on TV once.
To make a long long story short (b/c this is just a flashback episode) they met up with Soveliss, Mylanee, Niandra, and Bob; Natalies friends. Soveliss was a high level monk who taught Ranma martial arts and weapons. Niandra was a ranger who taught him about how to survive in the wild, tracking, and the bow. Bob was a bard who taught him how to perform and how to play the guitar.
Mylanee was a high level wizardess who was... well she was different. Ranma could actually count the number of insanities that she had but he had to use all of his fingers and toes and one extra appendage. She had died and been resurrected so many times in her long life that she had acquired a frequent diers card. He guessed being eaten by a giant snake then crapped out and then being brought back would give anybody a fear of snakes. Mylanee took that normal fear to a new level. No garter snake or greater would get away from her. That brought up another one of her quirks.
Mylanee was a pyro.
Unlike his grandmother who preferred to teach him useful spells like alarm and comprehend magic Mylanee preferred to use force when dealing with a problem. Once when they were out on a field trip they came upon a nest of giant vipers.
Meteor swarm is such a cool spell for a young and impressionable youth.
Sufficed to say Ranma managed to learn four new first level spells (magic missile, burning hands, mend, and magic weapon) three second level spells (melf's acid arrow, flaming sphere, and greater repairing) and one third level spell (fireball... umm duh.)
By the time they left the elves six years had passed. As they were saying goodbye Natalie lingered a little longer than Ranma thought was necessary but he had learned enough manners to let her have her time. Besides a couple of the young elven maidens had come to see him off personally. Once he'd hit puberty a lot of things happened like girls being not so icky anymore. When it came to hot looking girls beauty thy name is elven.
Eventually they had to leave. Once they were back Natalie teleported them back to their house. The spells she had set up to keep it clean and repaired were still in good shape so everything was still in the same condition as when they left.
They stayed in the cottage for about six months before Natalie decided to take him around to the strange spots and show him what little magic was left in the world. They also stopped by several masters so that he could learn some more martial arts. Along the way he managed to learn a couple more first, second, third and a fourth level spell. He also gleaned a smattering more of alchemy.
When he was about fifteen Natalie suddenly said that they had to go home right away. He of course protested because he was in the middle of studying Martial arts construction but she was adamant. The master of course let him go with the promise that he could return at any time to complete his study.
Six months later Natalie died of complications due to old age.
Authors notes:
Umm I guess sorry isn't going to cut it. Don't worry I always finish writing what I start. (except when I lose the idea I had. damn dragons bane)
I guess next up will be Fast Tracks or I may start a new story of something else. (too many ideas not enough time to write them all.)
Again many thanks go out to my prereaders: Axekeeper, Lord Raa, and Chi Vayne