Ranma 1/2 Fan Fiction ❯ An Unusual Father ❯ New Lives ( Chapter 2 )

[ P - Pre-Teen ]

An Unusual Father

A Ranma 1/2 Fanfiction by Ryo Oki
ryo_oki@pacbell.net

Disclaimer: All characters and places not created by me
are probably owned by someone else.

Author's Note: This story will be a little different from my last
story, 'Little Angel Lost' in that it has no set ending. I will simply
be adding chapters as ideas come to me. This story will be primarily a comedy
with some romance thrown in. It will be primarily a crossover with the
Baldur's Gate 2 pc game universe and the forgotten realms universe in general
with one other crossover that will be apparent a little later.
For those familiar with AD&D mechanics the setting will use a mixture of
first and second edition rules with a home made spell point system instead
of the usual magic system used in AD&D.

******************


Chapter 2: New Lives


Genma Saotome had just arrived at his best friend's house in the
hopes of talking with the man in regards to how they might explain how
he had 'lost' his son Ranma in a way that would not cause Genma's wife
to want to kill the lazy old martial artist. Things though, did not
exactly go as planned.

Genma's wife Nodoka had stepped out into the front yard, when she had
heard a familiar voice.

Genma was at a loss at what to say, at first, so he just stood there
with his mouth hanging open. He did notice that his wife looked a little
different from last he saw her. It hadn't been that long, but he was sure
that his wife did not usually wear modern clothing, especially tight
jeans. He also did not see any evidence of that damnable sword that she
always carried with her. Of course it could be inside the house.

Nodoka came up to Genma, hugged the surprised man, then asked
where her son was again.

"No-chan.....we should go sit down inside.....This will take
some time to explain.", Genma said hesitantly as he his wife now
had a concerned look on her face.

On his way to Soun's Genma had toyed with the idea of finding
someone to replace Ranma or simply saying that the boy was left
training at some distant temple in order to become the best martial
artist that there is. These ideas were discarded though, because
Genma knew one thing about his wife, she would only accept Ranma being
gone for so long and she could sense the boy when he was near by, even
if she couldn't see him at the moment.

Once everyone was inside Genma decided to tell the truth....
well sort of. The best lies were mixed with some truth after all.

"No-chan this is hard for me to say, but I am afraid our son
is no longer with us.", Genma said as sadly as he could.

"What...how?", Nodoka replied as Genma saw tears began to form
in her eyes. He had to be strong though, regardless of how much
a woman's tears affected him.

"Ranma and I came upon what we thought was an old abandoned
estate outside of Tokyo. We thought it the perfect place to train.
As we looked around though, we found out that it was already occupied
by several Yakuza. We came upon them just as they were dividing up
several large stacks of Yen. They had guns with them. I grabbed Ranma
and started to run, but he was shot as we tried to escape. He fell
from my arms and rolled off of a steep cliff. I could not grab him
in time.", Genma said as tears started to flow.

Nodoka looked at her husband and decided that he was telling
the truth. After all her manly husband would not lie about such a
thing would he?

Soun started to cry about the injustice of it all and had just
started to mention about the houses not being joined when he was
silenced by a look from Genma that seemed to say that now was not a
very good time to talk about such things.

For the first time in a very long time Genma felt a little
guilty. Not much admittedly, but a little. He was sad that his son was
gone, but he was relieved that his wife did not show any signs as of yet
at wanting to kill him. He was confused at why was seemed to be dressing
like a teenager, but he felt it best not to say anything. After all he
maybe dense, but even he wasn't that stupid. Besides, he would probably
find out about that later on.

As Nodoka's crying seemed to lessen, Soun began to tell Genma about
his own recent tale of woe and why his home was in that state that it
was.

Soun told Genma of the death of his dear wife, Kimiko and how hard it
has been trying to raise the girls by himself. Soun's explanation seemed to
earn him glares from his daughters, with the younger one snorting, then
mumbling something about her father doing nothing but crying and ignoring
them.

As Genma looked at the other two children, he noticed the eldest, who
he met briefly earlier, seemed to be barely awake and the middle one seemed
to be trying to hold in all her emotions, which seemed to be the opposite
of what Soun was doing.

"Yes, you have been trying so hard to keep your family
together.", Nodoka said in a sarcastic tone of voice.

"I'm sure father has been trying.", Kasumi said in a half
hearted fashion.

"It's a good thing I came around when I did. Imagine the husband
of one of by closest friends all but abandoning his children, forcing
them to run the home by themselves.", Nodoka said as Genma looked
on in confusion.

As Nodoka continued to berate Soun, Genma found out that since
Soun's wife had past away a few months ago, he had all but abandoned
his children. For the first week after her death, he had barely come
out of his room, and when he did, he never even tried to speak to his
daughters.

Nodoka had come to the dojo a week earlier, looking for her old
friend and was shocked at seeing an 11 year old girl trying to run the
house by herself, while the other two seemed unsure of what they should
do next. Nodoka had forced the girls to continue to go to school, and
she had been helping out around the house, as Soun did nothing. With
the news though that Ranma was gone Genma really didn't think that
Nodoka would have the energy or desire to help out.



************


Meanwhile in Rashemen it had been a week since Ranma had arrived
and everyone had finally convinced Ranma that not only was he no
longer in Japan, he was no longer on his own world. Siervella had
almost told the boy the truth of what happened on two occasions,
because of how distraught the boy seemed to be. She knew that it was
for the best, but seeing any child upset, and crying, which Ranma
always denied, hurt her deeply.

While Ranma did miss his father, for reasons which escaped
Viconia and Siervella completely, his loneliness for the man was offset by
the amount of time that he was spending with Cassandra, Marlena, and
Corinne. The four of them seemed to get along quite well with each other.
All of them were quite physical when it came to playing. They all seemed to
enjoy running, jumping, climbing up trees.

Suzanna though was a little different. Ranma had tried to see if the
girl, who he thought was a little 'stuck up' would like to join he and the
others in their games, but she also said that she had no time to play with
'children', even if in reality she was only two year older than both
Corinne and Marlena.

The three girls wanted to ignore Suzanna completely but Ranma viewed
getting Suzanna to be with them as a challenge. Truth be told the boy had
always been a little insecure and wanted everyone to like him. He tried for
a week to get her to at least be a little nicer to him, Ranma's methods though
needed a little work. His troubles started the day after he arrived in the
village.


Ranma watched Suzanna standing in the middle of a small fenced off
ring roughly 20 feet in diameter. In the ring with her, was her mother and
several small birds which Ranma thought were some sort of chickens. Every
few minutes Suzanna would wave her arms in the air and mumble something.
A second after that a blue flash of light would strike the birds and they
would stop dead in their tracks as if they were statues.

It looked like some sort of martial arts technique to Ranma, but
it seemed to be very inefficient. If you had to stand still and chant for
the 'technique' to take affect your opponent would knock you into the
ground before you could finish chanting. Maybe this was only the first
part of the technique. Perhaps she needed someone to work with her in order
to perfect it.

Ranma decided that he would help, maybe this would help Suzanna to
learn this technique, and Ranma as well. It also might allow him to see if
the girl would be more friendly towards him.

As Suzanna began to chant again, Ranma started to run, then leapt
over the small fence surrounding the practice area. A small leap from
there caused him to land behind the girl where he used a technique that his
father often used in order to distract Ranma......He tickled Suzanna.

Suzanna shrieked, and the glare of spell flashed again, but this
time it centered only on Suzanna. Ranma walked around the girl, who now
seemed to be frozen in place with a stunned expression on her face.

Siervella, who was trying to stop herself from laughing finally
asked Ranma what he was doing. When the boy explained the reasons why
he tickled Suzanna, Siervella had to explain to the boy that learning
magic was a little different from learning various fighting skills.
Although mages did train on how to ignore certain distractions during
battle they need to learn the basics first and that took time.

Ranma didn't see the point at first, and later when he told
Viconia about what he had done she agreed that one always had to be
aware of ones surrounding in whatever one did. Ranma's tickling
of the girl reminded Viconia of certain drow training except that
instead of tickling the trainers would lash their tentacle whips at
the young acolytes in order to distract them as they learned to cast
their first spells.

With Viconia agreeing with him, well sort of, Ranma decided that
he would continue to 'train' Suzanna. She would thank him after all when
he was done. For the next two days Ranma would surprise her at random
times during her training and on the last day of practicing the
'daze' spell she managed to pull it off even with Ranma bothering her.
Ranma was quite pleased with himself until Suzanna turned to yell at him
and told him that it was his fault that she was taking so long to learn
such a simple spell.

Ranma refused to give up. He remembered saying the same thing
to his father as the man tried to train him, Suzanna just didn't
appreciate what he was doing for her yet, but she would later on, and
then she would agree to play with him and the others.

Two days later Ranma struck again while Suzanna was practicing
another spell. This time Boo was with Ranma sitting on his shoulder,
trying to get the boy to curtail his actions, with little success.

As Ranma seemed to leap in from no where there was a brief chill in
the air which centered itself around Suzanna. The young pre-teen
soon found herself with a light coating of frost from a miscast cantrip.

The slightly frozen girl lunged at Ranma, who leapt aside with
Boo suggesting that perhaps it was time for them to leave. Ranma was not
helping the girl in Boo's opinion.

"Curse you, you little brat. I will get you and your little hamster
too.", Suzanna ranted as Ranma ran off. The poor girl sounded a little
unbalanced to Boo and Siervella, who decided that perhaps it would be best
if Ranma was no longer allowed to 'help' her daughter for a while.


"Perhaps it would be best if you were to leave the young lady alone
for a while. Your training appears to do nothing but annoy her.", Boo
squeaked out.

"It's supposed to. Pop always said that being mad at your teacher
helps you to learn faster.", Ranma said.

"This is the same father that tried to throw you into a pit of
cats?", Boo asked.

"Well, yeah.", Ranma replied.

"I'm will to bet that the pits of cats wasn't the only foolish
idea that your father came up with.", Boo said.

"He made me do a couple other things that were hard.", Ranma said
as he told Boo about the time he made Ranma run through a swamp while
being chased by wolves with a couch on his back which Genma sat on.

There was also he time when Genma had thrown large cement
blocks at his son in order to test the boy's reflexes. Ranma had only
received a mild concussion during that escapade.

"So let me see if I understand this. Your father made you perform
insanely dangerous stunts just to increase your endurance and reflexes.
You do know that their are safer ways to do this.", Boo squeaked in
an annoyed tone of voice..

"He tried his best.....I guess. I mean it's not like I had a choice.
If I didn't do it, I would usually get hit or he would call me a weak or
stupid girl.", Ranma said.

"If that is the case then you should just ignore whatever he told you
and listen to others. I will try to help and so will Viconia and Siervella.
Minsc will try his best as well, although I wouldn't listen to him if he
tries to teach you anything about girls. Their is a reason he didn't kiss
until he was 21 after all.", Boo said while sounding ashamed.

"Kiss a girl!?! That's icky. Who would want to do that anyway?",
Ranma stated.

The rest of the week Ranma spent exploring the area with
Cassandra by his side and her two friends looking on and giggling as
the little Halfling girl seemed to drag the younger, but taller boy around.

Ranma seemed to be able to speak to just about any animal that he
came across and even surprised a dryad by speaking to her in her own
language. The gentle spirit suggested that perhaps the boy should train
to be a Druid when he became older.

"I don't know Emerald, aren't druids kind of quiet and serious a
lot of the time?, Cassandra asked the dryad as they watched the young
boy bounce around from branch to branch on several trees, like an
oversized spider monkey.

"He is still quite young. Human boys his age have a lot of energy,
and with his gift even if he chooses another role in life it could still
help him and your tribe to better understand the ways of the many
creatures of the forest and beyond.", Emerald said to Cassandra.

"I'm a little jealous of Ranma's ability. Imagine the things you
could do and how famous you would be.", Corinne said.

"You could probably make a lot of gold pieces too.", Marlena
replied.

"I bet we could use the animals to spy on people that way we
would know if those Red Wizards or icky old trolls in the swamp are up
to anything.", Corinne replied.

"Hey, Ranma is not a toy for you to use and I don't think it is
right to make any animal spy for you, they could get hurt.", Cassandra
said to her two friends.

"Hmmmmm, very interesting.", Marlena said as she looked at
Cassandra.

"Isn't it though., Corinne also said while looking at the little
halfling girl.

"What do you mean?, Cassandra said, while wondering why the two
older girls were looking at her 'funny'.

"She's only known him for two days, and she already sounds like a
protective girlfriend.", Marlena replied.

"What!?!, he is not my boyfriend. He's just nice that's all.",
Cassandra said as she began to turn a light shade of red.

"You're only a year older than him and we have all seen what the
older boys and girls do when they are together, maybe the two of you
could do that when you are older.", Marlena said as Cassandra now had a
silly expression on her face.

It should be noted that Cassandra was only nine years old and her
idea of doing 'things' consisted of holding a boy's hand or maybe kissing
him on the cheek. It would be a few years before she felt the urge to do
anything else, like some of teenage boys and girls of the village did.

Emerald looked at the young girls as they talked about Cassandra's
'future romance' with Ranma, with amusement. Humans and demihumans seemed to
put so much energy into a simple process. If the little halfling wanted to have
offspring with the young boy when they were older, why go through so much
emotion. It wasn't a difficult thing after all. Emerald had seen at least ten
generations of the nearby villagers have children. You would think that they
would consider it to be routine, almost boring even. Perhaps she was just
missing something.

The young humans that she had talked to over the years often mentioned
falling in love with someone. Nature spirits, such as dryads, nymphs, and
others do not feel this emotion when they feel the need to reproduce. Perhaps
this is the source of the many conflicts that seemed to center around boys and
girls when they reach a certain age, Emerald pondered briefly.

A little while after the girl's plans for Ranma, he returned
to the group with several pixies and faeries flying around him in
an excited manner.

"Such excitement, for so late in the day. You are not bothering
this boy are you.", Emerald asked the excited little creatures.

"No, no, no mistress, we no cause trouble, we just excited,
that all.", one the pixies said.

"Yes, young boy see us do magic, then he copy. He do
'dancing light' spell without any practice. We think he maybe
sorcerer. Perhaps you help train him and maybe get nice witches in
village to help.", another pixie said.

"If he can do first rank spell at such a young age, imagine
what he do when he older.", one of the faeries said.

This news seemed to greatly excite Cassandra. Why imagine what
would happen if she were to 'accidentally' let Suzanna overhear her
talking with one of her friends about how easily Ranma cast a first
rank spell, when she could barely cast a cantrip.

"So how did you manage this spell, little one.", Emerald said as
she bent down and looked at Ranma, who seemed to blush at the attention
that the nature spirit was giving him.

"I just saw them playing and somehow I know what I had to do so that
I could make those lights as well.", Ranma said while pointing at the
pixies.

"Let's see if you can do it again.", Emerald said as she picked up to
small sticks off of the ground and handed one to Ranma.

Ranma watched Emerald as she seemed to concentrate briefly and he
could feel her begin to draw energy from somewhere. It wasn't ki, which his
father taught him to draw upon, it was something different. Maybe it came
from the ground or the air.

Less then a second later the end of the stick that Emerald was holding
began to glow with a soft yellow light.

"Now I want you to try the same thing. It should be easier for you
since this spell is simply a cantrip.", Emerald said.

"Oh yeah, I saw Suzy-chan try that earlier. She didn't do very good
though.", Ranma said in his usual rough grammar.

"Suzy-chan?", Emerald asked Ranma.

"That's what I call Suzanna, but she doesn't seem to like my name
for her though.", Ranma pouted slightly.

"I can't imagine why.", Marlena said with an innocent expression
on her face.

"We can talk about 'her' later, I want to see Ranma cast that
light spell.", Cassandra said.

As Ranma held the small stick out in front of him, he tried
to remember how he had created the lights earlier. He knew that he
didn't use any ki, he just though how neat it would be to creates those
lights and it happened.

Ranma imagined the stick beginning to glow, then creating a light
like Emerald's did, and 3 seconds later, the stick did just that, much
to Ranma's glee.

"Hey I did it. I can do this magic stuff too.", Ranma said.

"Remember Ranma, magic is not a toy. You can hurt or even kill
someone with it. If you want to learn to expand and control your new
abilities find someone to teach you. I can help you a little, but you
should find a wizard or sorcerer to train you.", Emerald said.

"Who should I ask......Oh I know, I can ask Suzy-chan's
grandma, she's supposed to be powerful witch, I bet she can help me.",
Ranma replied with a smile on his face.

"We want to help too!", several pixies exclaimed.

"Perhaps after Ranma receives some training first.", Emerald
said, while considering how her smaller brethren often let their
enthusiasm overcome their common sense.

As the day began to turn to night, Ranma led the way back to
the village while holding his glowing stick out in front of him. The light
from it faded just before they four children reached the village, much
to Ranma's disappointment. Maybe he could make it glow again when he
saw Minsc and Viconia.

When Ranma returned to his temporary, or so he thought, new
home he saw, that not only was Minsc and Viconia home, but that
'Trollface' was over as well as her mother and grandmother.

"Oh you are back, good I was wondering where you went off to.",
Minsc said to Ranma.

"Cassandra and her friends took me to see that nice woman who
lives in the tree.", Ranma said.

"Lives in the tree? Oh, you mean the Dryad, Emerald.",
Viconia replied to Ranma.

"Yeah, she and the pixies let me play around the trees and I
even learned some magic.", Ranma said proudly.

"Right, (snort), and I suppose that is your magic wand?",
Suzanna asked while noticing the stick that Ranma was still holding
in his hand.

"Don't be stupid, this is just a stick I picked up, but the
pixies and Emerald taught me to make it glow.", Ranma said.

"I would like to see this.", Navidene said in an interested tone
of voice.

Ranma concentrated on the stick as he did before and a couple
seconds later it burst into light, much to Navidene's interest and
Suzanna's horror.

"No, no, no! How can a stupid little boy like you be able to cast
spells.", Suzanna almost wailed.

"Have you been able to do magic before?", Siervella asked.

"No, I just saw the pixies making these little light balls and I
copied them.", Ranma said.

"Light balls?", Viconia asked.

"I think Emerald called them, 'Dancing Lights'.", Ranma said as
Suzanna now began to look ill.

"You cast a first rank spell without any practice or training
before. I believe that you just might be a sorcerer my dear child.",
Navidene said.

"The pixies said something like that and that I should ask someone
to teach me so that I don't hurt someone on accident.", Ranma said.

"Did you have anyone in mind?", Viconia asked while hoping somewhat
that Ranma might chose her.

"I heard that she was the best at doing magic and I wanted to
asked her to help me.", Ranma said while pointing at Navidene.

"Interesting, I haven't trained anyone in a while. Are you sure
that you do not want Viconia or my daughter to help you. You could
train next to Suzanna if Siervella teaches you.", Navidene replied.

"Ugh....., train next to 'HER', I don't want to.", Ranma said while
making a face at Suzanna.

"I don't want some stupid boy getting in my way either.", Suzanna
said in disgust.

"Viconia dear, you are still learning your wizardry abilities are
you not? Perhaps you and Ranma could practice together.", Navidene said as
Viconia resisted the urge to grin.

"I suppose that might work. It would be more efficient to train more than
one student at a time.", Viconia replied calmly, but with a 'twinkle' still
in her eyes.


************


Ranma spent the next week practicing with Viconia and Navidene. While
Viconia had been studying traditional wizard magic and was capable and using
several midlevel spells, when she bothered to memorize them, Ranma seemed to
acquire spells by instinct.

He had been allowed to look over a few low power spell books, but was
unable to cast any of the spells by memorizing the spells. When someone
described a certain spell or demonstrated it the results were quite
different. Ranma had managed to acquire four separate cantrips and two
first rank spells by the end of the first week. This marked him as an
apprentice sorcerer, something that normally required at least a month of
practice when the beginning sorcerer first discovered his abilities.

Ranma's speed at learning his new abilities were due in part to
natural talent, but they were also due to his rather obsessive nature when
it came to learning something new, a trait he picked up from learning
martial arts under his father. When practicing a new cantrip Ranma tended
to 'shut out' the world, focusing on only one thing to the extent of
everything else.

Since he was learning a new skill that didn't even exist in his
home world, or so he told them, Viconia and Navidene did not complain
too much, but they had plans to get the boy to focus on other things as
well if he spent too much time with his new magic in the future.

It was obvious that Ranma was quite lacking in basic math and writing
skills. His native language was much different from the languages of Toril,
but when asked to write down some basic words or sentences in Japanese which
would be translated by a few spells from the village teacher, Ranma was
unable to do so. He also had a poor knowledge of his world's history.

Ranma did speak about several strange devices, that many in the
village thought were created only by the boy's imagination, but Ranma
was unable to say who created these devices or how long they have been
in use in his world. Suzanna, in particular thought Ranma was lying. After
all to actually believe that some sort of large 'iron' machine could carry
hundreds of people through the air faster than a person could see almost
was ridiculous. Of course, she had never stowed away in the luggage
compartment of the Concorde, like Ranma and Genma did.

As one week turned into three, it was Cassandra who seemed to be
growing the most annoyed with Ranma, not because of the skills that he
was learning, but because of how little time he seemed to spend with her.
They saw each other in school, which Ranma was now 'persuaded' to attend,
but outside of that they hardly saw each other.

This was not to be tolerated. A boy and his 'girlfriend' should
spend more time together, even if Ranma didn't know that he was her
boyfriend, or even what 'couples' did together. That was besides the
point in Cassandra's mind.

Marlena and Corinne tried to distract their obsessive short friend,
who could not see that she was acting the same way towards Ranma, that he
was acting towards learning magic. In Corrine's, opinion they both needed
to be smacked upside the head a few times in order to make them see how
they were acting.

By the end of the third week, Cassandra could no longer hold herself
back and stomped into Ranma's room in Minsc's and Viconia's home, determined
to get her friend to spent more time with her one way or the other.

'SLAM', went the door to Ranma's room, surprising the boy and causing
him to roll off of his bed and onto the floor.

"Ranma, we need to talk.", Cassandra said while folding her arms in
front of her chest while trying to sound imposing.

"Huh?", Ranma replied coherently.

"I said we need to talk. We need to do a lot of things also.",
Cassandra replied, while beginning to raise her voice.

"What do 'ya' mean?", Ranma asked.

"I mean, you have been ignoring me and everyone else just to study
your stupid magic. You are becoming even worse than Suzanna.", Cassandra
said as Ranma looked annoyed by that description of him.

"I'm just trying to learn this stuff. It's not as if I can learn any
more martial arts from pop, so I have to do something.", Ranma said.

"Ranma, there are a lot of people learning magic, and they find time
to do other things. Look here I found a map to this old shack out in the
forest near here. There is supposed to be some rooms under the shack that
have treasure in them. Let's go find out. I even made some food for us to
eat on the way.", Cassandra said as she tried to pull Ranma up onto
his feet.

Ranma did not seem to enthused to say the least and didn't even
bother to look at the map that Cassandra had.

"Not right now, maybe later alright?", Ranma said.

"But what about the food I made?", Cassandra asked.

"I'm not really hungry now ok.", Ranma replied as a light snow
fall began to fall in Niflheim and a certain black 'cat' fell into a
well just off as Asgard in shock , causing major changes to several
dozen Ranma timelines.

"Fine! I guess I will just keep all the food and treasure for
myself then.", Cassandra said as she stormed out of the house and
across the village mumbling to herself as a few villagers wondered
what was wrong with the 'weird' Halfling girl.

Cassandra marched up to her house, went into her bedroom to
retrieve an old backpack, a leather helm, that was a little too large
for her, and a small dagger, before making her way to the small shack
that was well hidden in a hilly glen a few miles north of the village.

As night began to fall, Ranma finally left his room and made his
way to the kitchen, grabbed some hard cheddar, some bread and some apples
that had been laid out earlier for him.

Sitting down in front of the fire, Ranma was briefly startled when
the front door to the home slammed open and Viconia rushed in, picked the
boy up and seemed to look him over as if expecting that he would be injured
for some reason.

"You are alright.", Viconia sighed in relief.

"Yeah, while wouldn't I be.", Ranma said.

"A hobgoblin was seen to the east of the village and now your
friend Cassandra is missing.", Minsc said as he stepped up behind
Viconia.

"She hasn't come back yet?", Ranma mumbled while starting to feel
a little sick.

"Do you know where she is?", Viconia asked Ranma.

"Not really. She said that she found some old map that showed where
some treasure was and wanted me to go with her. I told her I didn't
want to, so she left all mad and stuff, and saying that she would go
get the treasure herself.", Ranma said.

"Did you see the map?", Viconia asked.

"No I was busy and didn't care about some treasure.", Ranma
said.

"Don't worry, she's probably fine. She's very smart little girl,
not as smart as Boo, but still smart.", Minsc said.

Ranma asked what a hobgoblin was and was told that it was pig like
humanoid, and no it wasn't edible, when Ranma asked as an after thought.

Now while one hobgoblin was hardly a threat to the village, such
creatures seldom traveled alone. The strange thing was the village
scouts had only spotted the one creature, with no trace being found
of the others. So either the creature was a rogue or cast off from its
tribe or the others were very well hidden. In either case everyone
would feel better once the creature was found and killed along with
finding out what had happened to Cassandra.

All of the children in the village were ordered to stay close by,
even Ranma who wanted to go out in search of the 'annoying' little
girl. It was the job of a martial artist, or whatever, to help those
in need. The fact that he felt a little guilty about how he had
treated Cassandra had nothing too do with it of course.

After a day of searching no one had found any sign of the
creature of Cassandra. Most of the searching was being conducted in the
plains, several miles from the village, which is the terrain that
hobgoblins tended to favor.

Ranma decided that maybe Cassandra's two friends might know
where this shack was. Maybe she tried to ask them to go with her
as well. As far as he knew no else had talked to them and they hadn't
said anything to anyone. Perhaps Cassandra never spoke to them or maybe
they somehow forgot. Both were a little dense in his opinion, especially
Corinne, who reminded Ranma of a girl he once saw in a manga, before his
father took it away. What was that girl's name, Minato?, Minako?, well
something like that. In either case Ranma took off towards Marlena's
home first. Maybe the older of the two girls would know something.

Ranma made his way across the village, sticking to the center of the
village so that no one would see it fit to remind him to stay away from
the outskirts. It was rather a strange feeling to walk in plain sight of
everyone, but still not have them paying any attention to you, as if you
were not there. Of course, everyone already had a lot on their minds, so
it wasn't as if Ranma was actually invisible.

Ranma had heard Genma speak about martial artists who could become
invisible, by using some of ki ability. Perhaps he could do something
similar in the future by using magic.

Ranma spoke with Marlena, but she couldn't think of anyplace that
this 'hidden' shack, that Cassandra spoke of, might be. Marlena did know
that Cassandra spent most of her time talking about such things with
Corinne.

Both Cassandra and Corinne often had a simplistic view on life
regarding adventure and romance, and both often spoke of such things with
fervor. Most people thought that, because of the two girl's constant
daydreaming, they had their head in the clouds, or perhaps somewhere
else, so to speak.

In either case, Corinne was still the best person to ask where the
shack was, that Cassandra had spoken to Ranma about. With that decided
both Marlena and Ranma made their way to Corinne's house.

When they arrived they found Corinne, with her nose buried in a
book that talked about the Goddess Sune and her followers. This appealed
to the young romantic since Sune was the Goddess of Love, and her
followers were responsible for spreading love where ever they went.

After clearing her throat for the fourth time, Corinne finally
noticed that Ranma and Marlena were standing only a couple of feet
from her.

"Heh, sorry I guess I didn't see you there.", Corinne said with
a silly grin on her face.

"You seem awfully happy, doesn't Cassandra being gone, bother you?",
Marlena said.

"You know that she has disappeared before. She probably found some new
plant or animal to look over. It's not as if something bad has happened to her.",
Corinne replied.

"When she disappeared before, there wasn't any hobgoblins to worry
about.", Marlena said.

"Hobgoblins, I didn't hear anything about that.", Corinne stated.

"That's because you spend to much time reading those silly
books.", Marlena said.

"They are not silly!", Corinne exclaimed.

"Can't you talk about that junk later. We need to find out where that
shack is, remember?", Ranma said to Marlena.

"Shack?", Corinne said.

"Cassandra said she found some old shack out in the forest that
was supposed to have a lot of treasure.", Ranma said.

"Hmmmm......Oh I remember, me and Cassandra found this old shack in
the woods a few miles north of here about two years ago, but there was
never any treasure. It was dangerous just to go in. I mean pieces of the roof
sometimes fell in and the dust and dirt did horrible things to my hair.",
Corinne proclaimed.

"There was no treasure? Why did she want me to go with her then.",
Ranma asked.

"Maybe she wanted to get you out there for another reason.",
Corinne said with a grin.

"What reason?", Ranma asked.

"Well, it's pretty quiet out there. Maybe wanted to hold your
hand or even kiss you.", Corinne said as Ranma had a disgusted look
form on his face. After all he wasn't interested in such things, but
people kept teasing him. First it was Boo, and now Corinne.

"Can you show us where this shack is?", Marlena asked Corinne.

"I guess so, but don't expect me to go back into that dirty place.",
Corinne replied.

"Now all we need to do is find a way to leave the village without
being seen.", Marlena said.

"We could leave at night, then nobody would see is.", Ranma said.

"Go into the forest at night, that's not safe. What if we run into
a bear or some sort of big cat, that would want to eat us.", Corinne
replied, while sounding nervous.

"You don't need to worry about such stuff, I already know all of the
bears and wolfs, around here.", Ranma said.

"You spoke with them, didn't you?", Marlena said to Ranma.

"Yeah, they are pretty nice. They won't hurt you unless you try
and hurt them.", Ranma said.

"So we will be safe at night then?", Corinne asked.

"Should be, unless some monster shows up.", Ranma said as
Corinne began to panic again.

After calming Corinne down and managing to convince her to lead
them to the shack, Ranma and Marlena went back to their homes, to wait
until nightfall, where they would all try to sneak out of the village.

As night fell, Ranma made his way out the window of his bedroom
and set off across the village to find Corinne and Marlena. He stuck to
the shadows as best as he could and he hoped that the two girls were
trying their best not to be seen. They wouldn't get very far if they
were spotted or if Corinne started to whine like she did earlier in
the day.

After a few minutes Ranma saw the two girls. They were moving a
little 'strangely'. As he moved closer to them Ranma saw that Marlena had
one of her hands over Corinne's mouth and was almost dragging the
shorter girl along.

"What are you doing?", Ranma whispered to Marlena.

"As soon as we left her home, she started to complain again. We are
lucky that her parents didn't hear us.

"I guess she just cares more about 'stupid' stuff like her hair then
she cares about Cassandra.", Ranma said while using a trick that Genma
used to use on him.

The glare that he was now receiving told him that Corinne enjoyed
hearing that about as much as he used to.

Reaching the edge of the village, Marlena released Corinne who
surprisingly, didn't say anything to her two friends. The pout on her face
though made her feelings clear.

As they started to enter the forest the three children thought that
they were alone, but they failed to notice that someone was following them.

"Now what are those little brats us to.", A very familiar voice seemed
to say from out of no where.

When they were about a mile north of town, the three friends froze in
place when they heard someone say, "You should not have left the village
without permission."

"Who's there?", the three friends seem to say at once.

"Only me?", Suzanna said as she pulled off a ring that she was wearing,
causing her to fade back into sight right in front of everyone.

"What the.....how did you?", Ranma tried to say while somewhat surprised
at seeing "That Girl", appear right on front of him.

"You stole your mother's ring again didn't you?", Marlena said, while
remembering the punishment that Siervella gave her daughter last time she
'borrowed' the ring without asking.

"I had no choice. For some reason mother and grandmother think that he
is important for some reason.", Suzanna said Marlena.

"Why didn't you just tell them that we were sneaking off?", Corinne.

"Because I was listening to you earlier when you were at her house.",
Suzanna said as she motioned towards Corinne.

"So you don't think that anything bad happened to Cassandra?",
Ranma asked Suzanna.

"I doubt it, she is probably just off pouting. But, if something is
wrong then you will need me to protect you.", Suzanna said.

"Protect us? How do you plan to do that? Ranma's magic is better
than yours.", Marlena smirked.

"(Snort) He does not have this though.", Suzanna said as she pulled
a thin wand with gold swirls out of her belt.

"Oh.......I know what that is. It's a lightning bolt wand.",
Corinne said.

"Are you crazy, that's dangerous. Where did you take it from.",
Marlena said.

"It's harmless unless I say the word that activates it. Besides I
know how to use it just fine.", Suzanna boasted.

"Word that activates it?", Ranma accidentally wondered allowed.

"Of course you grungy little boy the wand won't do anything
unless I point it like this and say 'Execute'....oh $^#&$"

(ZAP)

"AIIIEEEEEEE", went Ranma, Corinne, and Marlena as the lightning
bolt missed them by less than a foot, shattering a small tree that
was behind them.

"Oops.... Oh well you're fine. No harm done.", Suzanna tried to
say as the three friends, with their hair now sticking straight up,
dog piled on top of the older girl and began to beat the snot out of her.

After a few minutes of punishment, Ranma had noticed that Suzanna had
'somehow' ended up indented into the ground with her eyes swirling in
opposite directions. There were also the occasional groans and moans
emanating from the girl.

"I wonder if we over did it?", Corinne said.

"No, she's fine. No harm done.", Marlena said in a sarcastic tone
of voice.

As the three friends waited for Suzanna to wake up from her little
nap, they failed to notice at first, a small figure emerge from the brush
by the side of the road, a few yards away.

"Eek!!!! Its a monster.", Corinne exclaimed.

"Kind of a puny monster if you ask me.", Marlena said as she looked
at the small somewhat reptilian creature.

"Monster...(Snort).... Grovel is no monster, no, no, no. Grovel
is goblin, yes he is.", the little creature said.

"What's a goblin?", Ranma asked while looking at the puny little
creature, who was no even as tall as he was.

"Why human boy ask silly question, when he speak goblin.",
Grovel asked Ranma.

"So you are not going to eat us?", Corinne asked.

"Of course not, besides humans too high in fat and cholesterol,
yes they is. Besides Grovel is vegetarian now anyway, yes he is.", the
little goblin said is 'somewhat' broken common.

"So why are you here?", Marlena said, not trusting the little
creature. After all her father always said that humanoids were dirty
little creatures, that couldn't be trusted.

"Grovel is adventurer who wander where he want to ever since
Grovel leave Waterdeep.", the little goblin said while sounding quite
proud of himself.

"Waterdeep? Isn't that a large city to the west? What were you
doing there?", Corinne asked.

"Grovel first live under city, brought there by crazy old
wizard Halaster, but Grovel go free when crazy wizard get taken away
by nasty Drow priestess. Then nice human woman find Grovel and get
Grovel good job cleaning up inn. Grovel even get silver pieces for
doing good work.", Grovel said.

"Sounds like he's lying, goblins always do that.", Marlena
said.

"I don't think so. I heard a couple of the witches in the village
talk about this a little while ago. Some demon or devil got loose in
Waterdeep and a female monk was responsible for killing the creature.",
Corinne.

Yes, yes, that very true. Nice lady adventurer kill big bad devil
and nasty Drow priestess. After they dead Grovel live in town for while,
but only couple people like Grovel, everyone else think Grovel is bad
because he is goblin. They no want to get to know Grovel so he leave city.
It very sad at first, but Grovel get over it. Grovel know that if he do
good then people begin to like Grovel.", the little goblin said.

"I do think I believe him.", Marlena said.

"I do. If there's one thing I learned from being with pop, was
being able to tell when someone was lying.", Ranma said, finally
getting into the conversation.

"So now you know why Grovel here, why are little human in forest.
It very dangerous around her now. Very mean Kobolds live in and under
shack.", Grovel said.

"What are Kobold's?", Ranma asked. After all its not his fault he was
unfamiliar with all the small races of the realms.

"They is small dog like creatures. Very nasty in groups. Always
fight with goblins.", Grovel said.

"They can't be that tough.", Ranma said.

"They not, but they have very big Hobgoblin, that Grovel saw as
their boss. He order them to capture little halfling girl that they find
near old shack.", Grovel said.

"That's our friend.", Ranma shouted, causing everyone to wince and
Suzanna to finally wake up and begin to search for her wand upon seeing
Grovel. Fortunately it had been taken from her.

"He's harmless, besides he knows where Cassandra is.", Ranma said
to Suzanna.

"If she friend, you should go get big humans to rescue little
halfling girl. You too small to help. Nasty Kobold shaman want to summon
demon to make tribe powerful. He want to sacrifice little halfling girl
to get demon to behave.", Grovel said.

"I don't think we could make it back to the village and get anyone
to help in time.", Ranma said.

"Grovel overhear two kobolds talk about hidden way into their
home. If small humans go that way maybe they no be seen, but Grovel
still think it too dangerous.", the little goblin said.

"It's kind of my fault she ran off hear by herself. She wanted
to play together, but I had other things to do.", Ranma said.

"Grovel not know anything about that, but if you won't get large
humans help, then grovel lead you to secret door and grovel give you
this.", Grovel said as he pulled four eight sided gray rocks out of
a sack that he was carrying.

"What are they?", Ranma asked.

"They is thunderstones. Grovel find hundreds when he in
undermountain. You throw at someone and they make loud noise and bright
light, to distract enemy so you can run away and not be hurt.",
Grovel said as he handed the 'rocks' over to Ranma.

"Thank you.", Ranma said sincerely.

"If you want to thank Grovel then don't die. Grovel see too
many of own tribe die because they think that they can do anything. If
something too hard, get help.", Grovel said.

"We will be fine now that I am protecting them.", Suzanna said as
everyone looked at her funny.

"Grovel think that you should keep an eye on silly girl. Grovel
think that she have no sense.", Grovel whispered to Ranma.

"You have no idea.", Ranma whispered back.

With that, Grovel set out leading the four overconfident
children, err I mean, intrepid adventurers towards the Kobold lair.

Everyone stayed on the road for only 10 yards before Grovel led them
off into the brush besides the road. Although the sun still showed quite
brightly through the foliage, Corinne still felt like she was confined in
in some sort of prison cell. Every little noise seemed to cause her to look
around in all direction. This wasn't bad in and of itself, but the fact that
she kept stopping when she heard an unfamiliar noise was beginning to
irritate a few people.

"Keep moving. Kobolds not aware of this path, but it best not to stop
in case something else sees us.", Grovel said in 'broken' common.

"Something else?", Corinne said.

"Yes, like bear or maybe big cat. Sometimes owl bears be seen here
to, Grovel has heard.", the little goblin said.

"EEK!", Corinne replied.

"If you are too much of a coward to come with us, then go back to
the village and stop whining.", Suzanna replied in an annoyed tone.

"It's alright, nothing will harm you while we are hill.", Ranma said
while trying to calm the girl down.

Truth be told Ranma was also starting to get a little frustrated
by Corinne's behavior, but from what he could tell, she probably had never
been out of the village. Ranma remembered talking to a couple of people
back in Japan, when he and his father had gone to the city so Genma
could 'borrow' something that he wanted. These people seemed to have a few
strange ideas about how 'dangerous' the forest could be.

As the group drew nearer to the back entrance to the kobold lair
they had to stop twice when the heard the sounds of something talking in
another language, which only Grovel and Ranma seemed to understand.

"Pheh, kobolds. Little kids stay quite 'til they go away.", Grovel
said quietly, as Marlena held her hand over Corinne's mouth, just in case
the girl did something stupid, like cry out.

As they neared the lair the forest was becoming darker, with the
light of the sun barely reaching them as Grovel led them into a small
gully, that doubled as a creek bed during the rainy season.

Ranma was presently holding on to Suzanna's wand after she dropped
it when the other children were 'expressing their disfavor with her' when
she fired off a bolt of lightning from the wand.

A little while later everyone stopped at an old iron door, that had
been set into the bottom of a large grassy knoll. The door looked as if it
had not been used in years as seemed to be almost completely covered in
rust. Ranma wasn't sure that the door would even open. Well, either that
or it would just fall right off its hinges and onto anyone who tried to
open it.

"This is as far as Grovel goes. Inside door is back way to kobold
lair. Grovel wish you luck but he still think that you make mistake. Before
you go in Grovel want to tell you to be very quiet and not make any light.
Kobolds see very well in dark and would see any light from torches or magic
before little humans can see kobolds.", Grovel said to everyone.

"Thank you leading us here, I am sure that we will be alright.", Marlena
said with a slight quivering of her voice.

"Alright then, Grovel go now.", the goblin said as disappeared back into
the brush from which they had just traveled through.

"Well here we go.", Ranma said as he reached for the iron door, which
swung open quite easily and silently.

As he went past the door, Suzanna was right behind him, followed by
Marlena. Corinne was still outside looking in, when Ranma put his foot down
on a colored stone inside the tunnel that was covered by layers of dirt.
The stone sunk slightly into the floor and a grinding noise was heard as the
iron door suddenly slammed shut and two large iron posts descended from the
ceiling, blocking off access to the door.

Outside, Corinne stumbled back in shock then froze as she heard voices
approaching her. She quickly overcame her fright, luckily for just as she
managed to run back into the brush a patrol of 4 kobolds had come around the
knoll from the opposite side to see what had caused all that noise.

"I had better get help, Corinne thought as she continued to run as
fast as she could back towards the village.



Author's note:


Well it has been a while since I posted the first chapter of this story.
I have been 'delayed' in writing this second chapter, due to the amount of
new anime that I picked up over the holiday season. I have also been playing
a lot of NeverWinter Nights modules. The game is somewhat addicting.

For the next story that I will be working on, it will be a side story
for Little Angel Lost that I have been meaning to get to for quite some
time. After that is done, I may come back to this story, or possibly
work on something new. I never really know what it will be until I
start writing the first sentence.

If you have any comments or questions on this story or my others
you can reach me at ryo_oki@pacbell.net


Ryo Oki