Lyon exited the portal and after a few seconds in the air, slammed
into pavement. The people walking by ignored him, they were used to
martial artist falling out of the sky. They assumed that he was a
martial artist because in their experience only martial artist could
survive such falls. Lyon looked around after he got up from the ground.
The people around him were all Japanese or nearly all, and the signs on
the buildings were all Japanese. It looked like Tokyo in the year 2000
in his world.
Lyon thought about what happened to bring him here as he walked
the streets. He and the Sabers were discussing the boomer rampage that
Genom had staged to try to trap them when Sailor Pluto had shown up,
said she was sorry and knocked him through a portal. He wondered how
the Saber were dealing with one of the Senshi. Priss probably tried to
shoot her, thought Lyon. Sailor Pluto would just have vanished right
after she sent him through the portal. What was Sailor Pluto doing in
the Bubble Gum Crisis universe? That was one thing the puzzled Lyon.
He didn't doubt that Pluto could probably go to different dimension,
after all he himself traveled to another dimension through a temporal
gate. Pluto had the Gates of Time, that would be better than the
temporal gates TDC was using. But why would Pluto interfere in another
dimension's time line?
Lyon was so deep into his thoughts that he didn't see a red haired
girl with a pigtail jump down from a roof top and landed a few feet in
front of him. The girl was looking to the roof where she came from so
she didn't see Lyon until it was too late.
Lyon came out of his thoughts as he ran into something soft
tumbled to the ground with his arms around a girl. He finally got his
attention back to his surroundings. He was on the ground with a very
beautiful girl under him. Even after spending time with the four very
beautiful Knight Sabers, he was still awestruck. She had big blue eyes,
flame red hair in a pigtail and a very feminine build. She was wearing
loose fitting black kung-fu pants and a red chinese silk shirt. He had
a feeling that he should know who she was.
"Uh, sorry." Lyon got up and extended his hand to help her up,
which she ignored. "I didn't watch where I was going."
She scowled at him then she looked up behind her then turned back
to him. "Don't worry about it. I have to go, see ya."
"Um, can you tell me your name?" asked Lyon as she moved to walk
pass him. "Or better yet can you tell me where I am? I'm kind of
lost."
"Saotome Ranma, and you're in Nerima. Now I really have to go."
Ranma-chan brushed by him walking fast.
Lyon stood there for a second, taking in what he was just told.
Then with a shake of his head ran to catch up to Ranma-chan.
******** ^_-
Temporal Corps Production
Proudly Presents
A Wandering Lyon ~ Part 2 ~
by: Leobert
Home Page: http://members.tripod.com/stilesilverthorn/index.html
Email: naldoza@intergate.ca
Date Started: May 25, 2000
Last Updated: June 07, 2000
Disclaimers:
Ranma 1/2 and Sailor Moon belongs to whoever
owns them. The Wheel of Time is Robert Jordan's.
I suggest reading his books first before this.
And I certainly don't own them, I'm just
borrowing them for a while.
********
Sailor Pluto sensed someone passing through the Gates of Time.
She could tell that he didn't come from that far into the future not
even half a century. She watched him in the Gates of Time and saw many
possibilities circling around him. She watched as he exited the Time
Stream in Nerima, she would have gone there and sought to send him back
or made sure that he couldn't jeopardize all she had worked for in some
other way if he didn't go back. She didn't because she sensed that she
herself had sent him there. Her future self that is. That meant that
he was probably part of her work. But she didn't know anything about
him and it made her very curios. As far as she could tell he didn't
have any connection to the Silver Millennium or the Royal Family in any
way. And her scans of him showed that he didn't have any magical
abilities at all, he looked like a ordinary person.
"No, he isn't normal." Sailor Pluto turned around to see who had
spoken. Behind her stood her future self. "He'll become a great ally
for the Senshi, but that is not why I brought him here." The future
Pluto watched as Lyon met Ranma-chan. "His name is Lyon. He is here because
Kami-sama wants him here. He doesn't know and he didn't have a choice.
That's all I can tell you about him."
Sailor Pluto watched as her future self stepped into a portal,
then turned her attention back to Lyon. Kami-sama wanted him here, why?
As the Guardian of the Gates of Time she lived a very long life and
throughout her life she met some of the gods. Some of them are even
close friends, it was easier making friends with a god or goddess
because she didn't have to watch them grow old and die. She had learned
throughout the years that when a god was interested in someone it was
because he/she was special in some way. But for Kami-sama to be
interested in someone is something else.
****
Ranma-chan briskly walked towards the train station, she didn't
want to give anyone time to track her down. She wanted to make sure
that this time no one from Nerima would find her, because this time she
wasn't just going on a training trip, she was leaving Nerima for good.
Ranma-chan turned a corner as she thought of what led to her
decision to leave Nerima. Some people might call it running away, but
she didn't care what people thought anymore. All she cares about now is
that her life was slowly getting more and more out of her control. She
was tired of being what her father wanted her to be. Pop wanted her to
be a man amongst men and the best martial artist. Pop's idea of a man
amongst men is to act like him and she tried her best to act like her
father as much as she could tolerate. But she couldn't stand being a
jerk anymore. She was even tired of all the fights she gets into. She
didn't mind fights that were in good spirits but the fights that she
gets into were becoming more and more mean spirited and they were
against people he considered friends at one time.
As for the engagements, as far as she was concerned Ranma Saotome
was dead and the engagements were null and void. At first she tolerated
the engagements because she didn't want to hurt anyone's feelings,
because she considered all of them her friends. Shampoo might only want
to marry her because of some law but, she was also a good ally when
things got rough. Ukyo will always be her childhood friend Ucchan. And
Akane, she picked fights with Akane because they both didn't want the
engagement and if they got along they would find themselves married
fast. Thinking about it she found that she did love Akane once but, the
fights and insults simply eroded that love away.
Another factor that led to her decision is that her problems are
getting worse and she couldn't see a way to stop or solve them. So she
decided to get away from her problems and make sure that they didn't
follow her.
"Hey! wait up."
She snapped out of her thoughts and turned around automatically
going into a fighting stance. She relaxed a little when she saw that it
was the guy that bumped into her, but she didn't relax all the way. She
could tell that he was a martial artist by the way he moved and by his
aura she could tell that he was a very good martial artist.
"Are you Saotome Ranma of the Saotome School of Anything Goes
Martial Arts?" Lyon studied Ranma-chan.
"Yes. What's it to ya?" she asked. Not another challenger,
Ranma-chan thought.
"I'm Lyon, nice to meet you." Lyon held out his hand.
Ranma-chan shook it, might be a polite challenger for once, she
thought. "Yeah, nice to meet you too. But I really have to go." She
turned away and started walking towards the train station again.
Lyon fell into step beside Ranma-chan. "Are you going on a
training trip?" He looked at the pack that she was carrying.
Ranma-chan looked at his face and something in it made her decide
to tell him the truth. Maybe it was the way that he was being friendly
to her, right now she needed all the friendship she could get.
"No, I've had it with Nerima, I'm going away."
"So, you've finally had enough, huh? From what I know of your
life here I don't blame you one bit."
"What do you know of my life here anyway?" asked Ranma-chan. She
didn't know him, so what could he possibly know of her life?
"Let's see, I know that you're not a girl, Ranma Saotome is a guy
cursed to turn into a red haired girl when splashed with cold water.
Jusenkyo. You have four girls after you, if you include Akane who
always blames you for anything that goes wrong. Ukyo is a childhood
friend and Shampoo you consider somewhat of a friend. All of them,
except for Kodachi, who is crazy, has a claim to you because of your
stupid panda of a father." Lyon looked at her to make sure that he was
getting it right. "You have someone you consider a friend trying to
kill you, Ryoga. He's cursed to turn into a pig because he followed you
to china when he missed your fight. Then there's Nabiki, Kuno, Moose,
Cologne and Happosai. I could tell you about them but you get the
idea."
"Yeah."
****
It was almost night time when they decided to set up camp in a
clearing in a forest outside of Tokyo. Ranma-chan had decided to let
Lyon go with her when Lyon asked her if he could join her.
Ranma-chan hoped that by jumping on top of the train then jumping
off at a forest anyone looking for him would have trouble finding him.
She and Lyon have gone deeper into the forest, they used the trees to
travel so that fewer people would be able to track them. Ranma-chan
knew that Nabiki would be relentless in trying to find her when she
finds out that she ran away. Hopefully, none should find out that she
was missing until tomorrow. That would give her and Lyon a head start
and they could disappear in the forest.
Lyon woke up at dawn and crawled out of the tent and found Ranma
performing a kata. He watched for a while, judging the kata's
difficulty and memorized as much as he could. Then he started his own
kata, one that he did every morning to loosen up. It wasn't as complex
as the one Ranma was doing but it wasn't meant to be complex. As he
finished he saw that Ranma had stopped and was watching him.
"You're not bad." Ranma walked to the center of the clearing.
"So, do you wanna spar?"
"I was hoping that you'd ask." Lyon walked to stand in front of
Ranma. "Ready?" he asked going into a stance. He noticed that Ranma
was using the same stance that he used with Akane at the beginning of
the series. He smiled to himself and decided to make Ranma take their
sparing more seriously right at the beginning.
Seeing that Ranma was waiting for him to attack, Lyon dashed
forward, he faked a head on attack and spun to the side. He attacked
with a round house that Ranma blocked, Ranma dodged and blocked the
sweep kick then the upper cut. Lyon dodged Ranma's counter attacks and
leaped backwards.
"What do you say to loser cooks breakfast?" Lyon saw that Ranma
was now in a fighting stance and smiled to himself.
Ranma watched him careful, looking for any indication of when he
would attack. "Can you cook?" At Lyon's nod Ranma decided to attack.
He increased his speed and complexity of his attack, he was still
testing how good Lyon was. He'd seen from the way Lyon walked and the
kata that he did earlier that he was at least better than Shampoo. So
far his estimate of Lyon's skill was proving to be lower than it
actually was. He was almost using his top speed without the amaguriken
and he still couldn't get through Lyon's defenses. He also couldn't
dodge most of Lyon's attacks, he had to block them.
"KATCHU TENSHIN ARMAGURIKEN!"
Lyon was hard pressed to block Ranma's punches as Ranma's arm
blurred. He pushed himself to block most of the punches coming at him.
He stopped most of the punches from hitting him but the few that got
through made him fall back. He was faster than Ranma but not fast
enough to counter the amaguriken.
Ranma was shocked to see Lyon block most of the amaguriken without
using a special technique like it. It seems that Lyon was way better
than he thought he was. Ranma jumped into the air, deciding to see how
good Lyon was in aerial combat.
Lyon followed Ranma into the air. They exchanged punches and
kicks, broke apart and jump to meet in the air again. Ranma and Lyon
both showed that they were adept at fighting in the air. They bounced
off the ground and the surrounding trees, each of them seeking an
advantage over the other. Lyon soon found out that Ranma was better
than him in the air. The next time he bounced of a tree, he headed for
the ground and waited for Ranma.
Ranma bounced off a tree and headed straight for Lyon, his foot
extended for a kick. Lyon moved out of the way, just like Ranma
expected and he twisted himself in mid air to land behind Lyon. He
attacked but Lyon was fast enough to turn and block then counter with a
punch.
"KNUCKLE BOMBER!"
Lyon released the ki energy that he had gathered in his fist while
waiting for Ranma.
Ranma blocked the punch but he wasn't expecting the ki that burst
from Lyon's glowing fist as he blocked it. He was knocked backwards and
fell groggily on the ground.
"Well it looks like you're cooking breakfast." Lyon smiled and
helped Ranma up on his feet.
"What?! No way! We're not finished yet."
"Come on, we have to get moving rememberer? We can spar for who
cooks breakfast again tomorrow or maybe for dinner tonight."
"Alright, but I'll win next time. You just surprised me with that
technique this time."
"Believe me Ranma, I know that. I wouldn't have gotten you if you
knew to expect my attack."
"Yeah, I noticed that you're faster and probably a bit stronger
than me but I know more moves than you do."
"Yeah, I can hold you off with speed alone for a while, but you'll
eventually get through my defenses with skill. That's why I want to
train with you, I help you become faster and you teach me some Anything
Goes. I'll also teach you my special techniques if you help me develop
some of them."
****
Ranma and Lyon traveled through the forest for days. Everyday
they sparred for who will cook breakfast and dinner. Their sparring was
a close match, but Lyon didn't win anymore of them. Ranma had adjusted
to fighting a faster opponent after their first match. And as he'd
said, Lyon only surprised Ranma with the knuckle bomber. As the days
went by Ranma learned more about Lyon's fighting style, but Lyon
compensated by copying some of Ranma's move and making them his own.
Their sparring matches were almost equal but Ranma always won.
One morning found them in a camp. This time was different from
the previous mornings, Lyon and Ranma had already had their sparring for
breakfast but they were not packing up their camping gear. Ranma has
decided that they were deep enough into the forest that no one would be
able to find them.
Ranma looked to where Lyon was cooking breakfast and was glad that
he decided to let him come. Not that he couldn't cook, he wasn't like
Akane after all. It was the companionship that he was glad for. Their
sparring was great, it wasn't like sparring with his father who tries to
dominate him or fighting with Ryoga or Mousse who tries to kill him, his
sparring with Lyon was friendly. He already considers Lyon a friend
just from a few days of knowing him. He didn't have a lot of friends
and now that he's left Nerima he'll have less so making a new one felt
very good.
Ranma looked around the spot that they had decided to stay to
train on. They were camped near small pond with a waterfall filling it
with crystal clear fresh water. The trees surrounding their camp were
huge and the area was filled with sounds of forest animals. It was a
beautiful place, he had always liked nature when camping because of the
sights. Camping on a spot like this was a bonus. They would be staying
here for a while, to train, and to give him a chance to decide where he
was going next.
After breakfast Ranma and Lyon started their training. Ranma
worked on duplicating Lyon's knuckle bomber from Lyon's explanation on
how he created it. Lyon performed a kata that Ranma had thought him.
At their before-dinner sparring match, Lyon showed an improvement on his
style and Ranma used the knuckle bomber on Lyon. They spent the next
few days training in their camp. Ranma thought Lyon anything goes and
Lyon gave Ranma some ideas for new techniques that Lyon could make by
himself. One technique was a cold ki-blast that freezes water
instantly. Lyon got the idea from Ranma's Hiryu shoten ha's soul of ice
technique. Once Ranma was able to perform the technique he thought Lyon
how he did it. That was how they made new techniques, Lyon told Ranma
of his ideas for new techniques and Ranma tried to make Lyon's ideas
real. Another technique that Lyon gave Ranma an idea how to do was how
to fly using ki. Ranma had encountered Herb who could fly using ki, but
at the time he didn't have enough time to see how it was done. Lyon
told him that it might be done by spreading his aura and pushing off the
ground and air molecules.
Both Ranma and Lyon were now floating above the pond. They had
moved their sparring matches there to provide more incentive not to lose
and to practice aerial combat.
Ranma watched Lyon from where he was floating, Lyon was surrounded
by mist coming from the waterfall. He charged forward, preparing a ki-
blast. At the last moment he swerved to side and threw his hands
forward.
"MOUKO TAKABISHA!"
Ranma shot a ki-blast to Lyon's side, but Lyon wasn't there
anymore. Lyon saw Ranma's glowing hands while he was charging and had
enough time to evade and plan his own attack.
"FREEZE BLAST!"
Lyon threw the freezing ball of ki from above Ranma. It froze
water molecules as it traveled through the air, making it look like a
comet with ice as a tail.
Ranma was ready for Lyon's attack and dodged by going as high as
Lyon did. The icy ki-blast hit the pond and froze its surface. Now
there was a lot more reason not to fall into the pond, the water would
be freezing.
"FLAME WAVE!"
With a sweep Ranma's arm a wave of fire sped towards Lyon. It was
another of the techniques that they've worked on. It worked by
absorbing the heat of the surrounding area using ki into Ranma's body
then releasing all that heat at once.
Lyon ducked under the coming wave of fire and pulled back his
hands in preparation for a ki-blast. His ki-blast might not have been
good enough for use against boomers but it should be good enough to
knock Ranma into the pond at least. That is if it hits.
"BLAZING BULLET!"
Ranma dodged the bullet shaped ki-blast from Lyon and decided to
switch to close combat since ranged attacks weren't getting anywhere.
They both knew each other's attack to well by now to get hit by them
except by surprise.
Lyon saw Ranma charging towards him again and decided to meet him
half way. Thanks to the Ranma teaching him some anything goes, he was
now winning some of their matches. Ranma still won most of them, but it
didn't matter, Ranma was improving too. They met above the center of
the pond in a flurry of punches, kicks and blocks. They broke apart
only to meet again at another point above the pond.
This went on for a few minutes, Ranma and Lyon meeting in mid air
and exchanging punches and kicks. Finally Lyon saw an opening and
decided to go for it even though it would leave him open to attack.
Lyon felt Ranma connect as his attack struck Ranma. Both Lyon and Ranma
flew to opposite sides of the pond and landed hard on the bank.
Ranma groaned and looked to where Lyon was standing up. "Let's
call this one a draw."
"Yeah, we both fell and no one got wet, so it's a draw."
"Very impressive!"
Ranma and Lyon looked up and saw a guy floating on top of the
waterfall. He was wearing a white cloak, white pants, and white shirt,
he even had a white beard and hair. Despite the white hair, the guy
didn't look old, only somewhere around 30 years old. They went into
their fighting stances, they could feel that the guy was powerful.
"Relax. I'm not here to fight." The guy floated down to the
surface of the pond between Ranma and Lyon. Seeing that they were still
in their fighting stances he waved a hand each at Ranma and Lyon. Both
of them stepped back as something materialized in front of them.
Hovering at chest level in front of Lyon and Ranma were sheathed
katanas. They both had black hilts and black scabbards, there was some
sort of bird engraved to the hilt and the scabbard of the sword. "These
are for you. On their blades there should be an engraved lion or horse
on one side and a heron on the other. The one with the horse is for
Ranma of course."
Lyon stepped forward and grabbed the sword hovering in front of
him. Finding out that the bird was a heron made him interested for some
reason. He drew the sword just enough to see the rampant lion engraved
on one side and the heron on the other, then pushed the blade back into
its sheath.
On the other side of the pond, Ranma relaxed from his stance, but
he left the sword where it was. "Who are you?" He looked to Lyon who
was carrying the sword, floating across the pond towards him. He turned
back to the man hovering in the middle of the pond. "What do you want
from us?"
"I'm Scott White, and what do I want with you? well that's
complicated." He turned to face both of them as Lyon reached Ranma's
side.
Lyon took the sword for Ranma out of the air and placed it on the
ground before turning back to Scott. "How complicated? And why the
swords?" He held up his sword to Scott. He already considered the
sword his, he was willing to do anything Scott asks, within reason of
course, if he could have the sword. He could feel that the sword
belonged to him.
Scott floated to their side before answering. "I was told that
you were the ones suited to track down and capture or kill a demon. The
swords are blessed, it should cause a lot of pain to the demon."
"What's complicated about that? I mean track down the demon and
kill him, it's not that complicated." Ranma thought that if a demon was
loose there's no point in just capturing it.
"His name is Ashram and he's very hard to kill. That's not the
complicated part. Ashram is currently on a different world, we think he
plans to take over it by killing anyone who opposes him. Also there are
no magic users in the world he is on, they have something else, so if
someone like me, who relies mostly on magic, goes after him he'll be
able to tell where I am anywhere in that world. So we need to send
somebody who doesn't use magic and that somebody has to be powerful
enough to stand up against a demon."
"Okay, so ya have to send someone after a demon, how did you know
about us?" asked Ranma.
"I'm an avatar of Kami-sama, he told me where to find you."
Ranma didn't know whether to believe the guy or not. An avatar
for Kami-sama, he just couldn't believe it even after all he's been
through.
"Kami-sama? Um... so, how are Urd, Belldandy and Skuld?" Lyon
meant for it to be a joke, but he stared when Scott answered him.
"They're fine, the last time I saw them they were living with a
guy named Keiichi. Wait a minute, you know them?"
"Um... sort of. Well let's hear some more details of the
mission." Lyon started to treat their meeting as a TDC mission briefing
to cover for his shock of not only being in Ranma's world but the Oh My
Goddess world to.
Scott started to explain the mission with a grin. "Your mission
should you choose to accept it, is to protect the Rand Al'Thor, the
Dragon reborn. We think that Ashram will go try to kill him, if he
succeeds that world is doomed. You are to protect him until he can
protect himself from attacks. Then you are to locate Ashram and either
capture or kill him." He waved his hand, mist formed at Lyon's feet and
what looked to be a collar appeared. "As I told you Ashram is very hard
to kill, but you can contain him with this. Put this on him, on his
arm, leg or neck, it doesn't matter, and he'll loose most if not all his
powers. You should have no trouble bringing him back with you once
you've accomplished this. Then he'll be someone else's problem."
Lyon who had listened in shock to the rest of the explanation,
finally snapped out of it. "Excuse me, but did you just say that we
have to protect Rand Al'Thor the Dragon Reborn?" Lyon continued after
Scott's puzzled nod. "You're sending us to the world of Wheel of Time,
a world of Aes Sedai, of trollocs, myrddraals and the Dark One. A world
where people use the One Power instead of magic, saidar for women and
saidin for men, but men go mad from using it. You're sending us into
that world to hunt a demon." Lyon saw both Ranma and Scott looking at
him oddly, Ranma with a puzzled expression and Scott puzzled but
pleased. "I'm sorry, but am I right?"
"Yes. Now I understand why Kami-sama choose you two, not only can
you take on Ashram, you also already know about the world Ashram is on.
I don't see how you could though. Well anyway you already know the
mission, but there's more you have to know before you decide." He
looked at the sword in Lyon's hands and the one at the ground besides
Ranma. "The swords will be important to your mission, without it you
have a very slim chance of succeeding. Ashram can heal himself very
fast using magic, he could repair a hole in his chest in seconds. Not
only that but it's very hard to wound him using conventional weapons.
That's where the swords come in. They were blessed by the gods to
oppose evil and they will. Anything evil that comes in contact with the
sword will feel incredible pain and it won't be able to quickly heal
wounds that it receives from those swords. I know that you have
techniques that do a lot of harm even to a demon but using them will
attract a lot of attention and it would drain you a lot more than if you
just used the swords."
"You've got a point there, we don't want the people of that world
to see us using ki blast or anything like it. They'll think that we
were male channelers. But I don't understand why you had the swords be
heron marked."
"Well you are blademasters compared to the ones in that world."
Scott saw that Ranma was completely lost. "You two have until tonight
to decide if you want to accept the mission. Lyon why don't you spend
some time telling Ranma about the world you're going to if you accept.
Oh, yeah, the swords are yours whether you accept or not." With a swirl
of light he was gone.
At Scott's departure Ranma and Lyon turned to each other. Lyon
was holding Ranma's sword to him, he spoke when Ranma only glanced at
it. "Come on Ranma, I know that you can use a sword. Look you'll need
it in that world. There are things in there that cannot be killed
without cutting its head off, we have to blend in so we can't use our ki
techniques, that leaves using a sword to do it."
Ranma sighed and took the sword from Lyon. The moment he touched
it he felt a connection, like the sword was made for him and him alone.
He drew the blade for a moment and looked at the stallion engraved on
the blade. "Does this mean we're going?" he asked, putting the sword
back in its sheath.
"I want to, but what do you think?"
"It's a martial artist's duty to help those in need. The guy said
that the whole world will be doomed if this Rand Al'Thor dies, so yes, I
guess I'm going. So are ya gonna tell me where we're going or not?"
****
The sky was getting dark by the time Lyon finished telling Ranma
everything he knew about the Wheel of Time world. Lyon focused mainly
on trollocs, myrddraals, half men, draghkars and everything that they
might have to fight. Lyon also told Ranma everything that he knew of
the one power, they both had to be prepared to go against it if
necessary. He also told Ranma what he could remember of the history of
Wheel of Time world.
The sound of wood hitting wood echoed in their camp as the night
approached. They had both decided to go on the mission, and already had
their gear packed. Now they were testing each other's skill with the
sword. Ranma had produced two bokens out of thin air using the hidden
weapons technique. Ranma and Lyon performed a deadly dance of slashes
and strikes in the middle of their camp. Their swords moving so fast
that it was a blur. There was a break in the rhythm of wood against
wood as they added in punches and kicks to the dance. They have trained
together for almost a month, and through out that time their skills and
abilities had evened out to where they were almost equal.
Scott watched the two martial artist from the top of the waterfall
a few minutes before going down to them. They were truly incredible, no
wonder Kami-sama choose them. When the problem with Ashram came up and
no one could think of a plan on how to stop him from taking over another
world, all the gods were surprised when Kami-sama himself suggested one.
They all knew that Kami-sama probably knew how to solve the problem but
it wasn't often that he told his children what he knew. And just a
little while ago Scott found out why Kami-sama acted, one of them will
be offered the chance to become an avatar after the mission.
"Have you decided?"
Ranma and Lyon had been aware of his presence for a while now so
they both stopped when Scott finally decided to approach them. Lyon
tucked his boken into subspace using the hidden weapons technique, Ranma
had thought him the technique as an exchange for the techniques that
he'd learned from Lyon.
"Yes, we both decided to go." Lyon looked to Ranma to see him
nod.
"Good," Scott nodded and waved his hand. "Here are some stuff
that you'll need where you're going." Mist formed and when an unfelt
breeze blew the mist away it left behind two horses. They were both
saddled and had a saddle bags on each side of them. "You'll have to
change before I can send you there." He pointed at the clothes on the
saddles. "The black one is Lyon's and the reddish one is Ranma's,"
Scott said referring to horses. "Can you two ride?"
"I forgot that people used horses to travel there, well I didn't
really forget, I just didn't think about it until now. It's been a long
time since I've ridden." And he'd only ridden a horse three or four
times in his life. "It should come back to me."
"Hey! I'm not called wild horse for nothing." Ranma wasn't about
to let the fact that he hasn't ridden a horse before stop him from
going.
"Good, now you have until tomorrow morning to go over what's in
the saddle bags, get to know your horses, they're just ordinary horses,
they're from my ranch actually, and I need to tell you two more about
your mission."
"Why don't you tell us while we're going through the saddle bags?"
Lyon went to his horse and began taking the saddle bags off it.
"Okay, where to start? Hmmm... Right, I have to at least try to
prepare you to what Ashram will do." He thought about it for a moment
before starting. "In a world where no one uses magic there will be a
lot of magical energy for Ashram to use because he'll be the only one
using it. That's not always true, some worlds doesn't have any magic at
all, but Kami-sama told us that this world does, in fact it has a lot.
Ashram will be able to use all that magical energy to make powerful
creatures, magical constructs like golems. And it would make most of
the strongest attack magic available to him. The swords you have should
help you though, they're blessed against evil and everything that Ashram
has a hand in will have some evil in it." Scott went into some more
detail on what else they would be facing. He studied at the two as he
finished, looking to see if they were discourage by his description of
how powerful Ashram would be.
"So we really need to use swords?" Ranma looked doubtfully at the
weapon at his side. "I bet I could still take them on without it."
"We've been through this before, Ranma, and you agreed with my
reasons why we have to use them." Lyon pointed out looking up from
sorting through the items in one bag.
"And besides, you two won't be able to get home without those
swords."
"What?!"
"Well, how do you think you're going to get back? You two don't
know how to travel between dimensions do you?" Ranma and Lyon shook
their heads. "The swords will act beacon, you can activate them once
you're ready to go back and I'll send a portal to you. You have to
cross them then pump as much ki as you can into the blades."
"Hmmm... I never thought of how we were going to get home. I
guess we'll need our swords for more than blending in with the other
fighters in that world. Um... speaking of blending in, what about
Ranma's curse, it's bound to attract attention."
"Yeah, what about my curse?"
"Oh! I'm going to remove it of course."
"What?! Yes! You're not kidding are you? You can really get rid
of it?" Ranma was practically jumping up and down in joy. "You know
I've almost given up trying to find a cure for my curse. I'm kinda
getting used to changing from male to female."
"That's good, because that's not the curse of Jusenkyo. The only
curse you get by falling into a spring at Jusenkyo is a water magnet
curse."
"What do you mean by that?! I thought that anyone who falls into
a spring at Jusenkyo gets transformed into what ever drowned last in the
spring?"
"No, the springs at Jusenkyo was a special training ground of
warriors who can change their shape at will. That was more than 4000
years ago. The water curse is an incentive for young warriors to learn
how to control the change, it wasn't removed until the young warrior
could change his/her form voluntarily."
"So Jusenkyo really is a training ground, huh. At least the old
panda got that right. Then what did you by when you said that you were
going to remove my curse."
"I'm going to remove the water magnet curse." Scott pointed at
one of Ranma's saddle bags. "And we can't have you changing gender when
you get wet, so open that bag over there. There's a pair of bracers in
it, they'll prevent you from changing while wearing them. You don't
have time to learn how to control the change."
****
Fog surrounded them. Mat had just blown the Horn of Valere.
After, the fog rose up coming from nowhere, it hid everything in rolling
waves. The fog roiled up all around them.
Hurin gasped. "Lord Rand!"
Mat saw shapes coming down, as if it were a side of a mountain,
from the fog. Shapes of riders of riders on horses, as they got closer
he saw men and women, some armored, some not. They were men and women
from legends. Mat saw a woman with a silver bow and a quiver bristling
with silver arrows, Birgitte. And a man with two swords on his back,
Gaidal Cain. They were men and women from tales told by gleemen.
Mat gaped at them as they reined in before him and the others.
"Is this...? Is this all of you?" They were little more than a
hundred, he thought that with both the Whitecloaks and Seanchan coming
towards them that they'll need more.
"It takes more than bravery to bind a man to the Horn," said a
tall hook-nosed, with dark, deep-set eyes, a great sword at his side.
He had ridden at the head of the group. Mat had no doubt that the man
was Artur Hawkwing, his voice was deep and carrying, a voice used to
giving commands.
Mat looked at the others, barely aware of what the people around
him were saying. He wanted to see how many of them he could recognize
from the tales he'd been told by his father when he was a child and from
the tales that he'd heard from gleemen. He watched them unsheathe
swords, unlimber bows and hefting spears and axes. He snapped his gaze
back to Rand as murmurs rose among the ranks of the heroes.
"Burn me," Mat breathed, "It's true. Burn me." He stared at the
Dragon's banner, then at Rand, then at Artur Hawkwing. He hadn't
believed that Rand was the Dragon until now. Seeing the banner and
hearing Artur Hawkwing call Rand Lews Therin and Dragon finally
convinced him.
Mat saw Perrin get of his horse and stride into the mist. There
came a chopping sound, and Perrin returned carrying a straight length of
sapling shorn of its branches. But Mat still heard a sound coming from
the mist, it wasn't the sound of chopping but of horses galloping
towards them. Perrin was mounted, holding the pole with the banner on
it when everyone began to notice two shape of riders coming from the
mist.
The riders looked to be two young men, the same age or only one or
two years older than Mat was. They both had black hair, one had short
hair while the other had a pigtail. They wore loose fitting clothes,
the one with the pigtail wore a red shirt and black pants, the other
wore all black, and they both had swords at their side. As the two
stopped next to Rand and Artur Hawkwing he saw that both their swords
had herons on the hilt like the sword Rand got from his father.
"Who are you?" Artur Hawkwing asked as he pointed his sword at the
two new arrivals. "You two are not bound to the Horn, how did you get
through the fog?"
"I'm Lyon and my companion is Ranma," said the on with short hair.
"We got through the fog because we came into this world when Mat blew
the Horn of Valere. And you're right we're not bound to the Horn."
"What do you mean came into this world?" Mat asked.
Lyon was about to answer his question then suddenly turned to
Rand. "No time to explain. You have something that you have to do,
right? We're here to help, that's all you have to know for now." He
wave to the sword at his side. "As you can see, were both blademasters,
we can take care of ourselves in a battle."
Rand hesitated only for a moment before nodding. He turned to the
sniffer and told him to stay out of the battle. Hurin insisted on going
with them. Artur Hawkwing, who had been studying the two strangers,
turned and gave his approval of Hurin's decision to come with them.
Mat sounded the Horn again as they advanced towards the battle.
The mists rang with the sound of the Horn of Valere as Rand drew his
heron marked sword and rode between Mat and Perrin who was carrying the
banner.
Suddenly Rand was swallowed up by the mist as his horse leapt
ahead of them, Mat and Perrin kept on riding forward trying to catch up.
Mat kept on sounding the Horn as he rode, looking around and behind him.
Hurin crouched low in his saddle, wide-eyed, urging his horse on.
Perrin, the Dragon banner in one hand, the serpentine Dragon appearing
to be alive as the banner danced and fluttered in the air. And his axe
on his other hand. Artur Hawkwing and the band of heroes riding beside
and behind them. And last were the two strangers, the riding directly
behind Mat with their swords still in their sheathes while the others
had their weapons ready.
They reached the battle. Artur Hawkwing and the other heroes
meeting the Seanchan in the dense fog. Hurin down from his saddle,
fighting with short sword and sword-breaker on foot. Perrin, with the
banner, swinging his axe to fend off those who tried to reach him. The
two strangers, swords out, protected both Mat and Perrin from most of
the Seanchan warriors. It seemed as if the Seanchan numbers would
overwhelm them in one rush, yet it was the dark armored Seanchan who
fell back.
Suddenly the sky was filled by two figures, one was a figure with
flame for mouth and eyes, and the other Mat recognized as Rand. They
faced each other in the clouds with the Dragon banner rippling behind
them. They fought each other, Rand with a sword while his opponent used
a staff made of charred wood. The battle in the clouds reflected the
one on the ground. When Rand attacked the heroes pushed the Seanchan
back, when he was forced to give ground the Seanchan rose up against
them.
The battle in the clouds and the one on the ground ended when Rand
left himself open to attack to strike a finishing blow on his opponent.
The two figures in the sky disappeared as Rand fell with his opponent
and the band off heroes broke the ranks of the Seanchan making them
retreat from Flame.
****