Differing Powers

Chapter 2

A Ranma 1/2 - Wheel Of Time Crossover
By Louis-Philippe Giroux dragon@anime.sobhrach.com

Let me know what you think of this! C&C welcome!!!

The Wheel Of Time is a series created by Robert Jordan. Read it at any
cost (or you won't understand a lot of this)! Ranma 1/2 belongs to
Rumiko Takahashi. Suing me would be pointless, as I have no money
whatsoever. I do this for fun, not profit!

The Wheel Of Time - 8 books so far and still going! (Published by Tor
Books)

1 - The Eye of the World
2 - The Great Hunt
3 - The Dragon Reborn
4 - The Shadow Rising
5 - The Fires Of Heaven
6 - The Lord Of Chaos
7 - A Crown Of Swords
8 - The Path Of Daggers
9 - [Winter's Heart] Summer/Fall 2000

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

  What has happened so far:

  Ranma, Ryouga, Ukyou and Akane have been accidentally transported to
Randland through the misuse of a Fox Gate. They end up in Emond's
Field the evening before the attack (where they manage to attract a
lot of attention, especially from Moiraine) and they end up protecting
the village when the Trollocs attack during Bel Tine. However, Ranma
and Ryouga are forced to kill the Trollocs, revealing their unusual
abilities.

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

  As they were walking back to where they had left Akane and Ukyou
before going on their little rampage, Ranma and Ryouga barely noticed
the wide berth and the scared looks some of the Emond's Fielders were
giving them.

  Moving through the village, they saw that several houses had been
burned down, some of their owners staring resignedly at the remains.
Some were crying, most were not. There were even some who were
already clearing the rubble, determination in their eyes, hardly
showing any sign that the village had been invaded less than an hour
ago.

  Suddenly, Ranma spoke up. "Ryouga?"

  A grunt was his answer.

  Ranma stopped and looked at Ryouga in the eye. "Let's make a deal."

  Ryouga stopped, blinking. "A deal?" he said, frowning. "What kind of
deal?"

  "To protect Akane and Ucchan," replied Ranma calmly. "We're in a
weird world where they have seven-foot tall killer mutant goats
roaming around. If we keep fighting like we usually do, one of those
things might get 'em one day when we aren't watching out for them.  We
can't afford to beat up on each other as often as we do back in
Nerima." He watched Ryouga frown thoughtfully and and waited a few
moments. "Well?"

  "All right," said Ryouga slowly. "A deal to protect Akane-san for -
long as we're not back home..." he left the rest hanging.

  Ranma frowned. "What about Ucchan?"

  It was Ryouga's turn to frown. "Fine," he grumbled. "Ukyou, too."

  "What's with you?"

  Ryouga shrugged uncomfortably. "She's good enough to take care of
herself," he mumbled.

  Ranma looked at him silently for a few moments, the shook his head.
"Both of them, then." He spread his hands. "Once we're back in
Nerima, we can go back to challenging each other." He held his hand
out. "That sound okay for you?"

  Ryouga looked at Ranma's hand uncomfortably. The rivalry he had with
Ranma might not be as intense as it was before, but the multiple times
Ranma had played him for a fool resulted in that he almost
automatically resented almost anything Ranma said or did. But
still... they _were_ talking about Akane. He sighed and reluctantly
shook it. "Deal." He paused. "I'll still beat you up if you do
something *really* stupid, though."

  It was Ranma's turn to sigh.

  * * *

  They located Akane and Ukyou talking to a few adults, mostly women,
and children.

  "Akane! Ukyou!" shouted Ranma as they got close enough. He saw both
of them turn around in recognition.

  "What happened to you, Ranchan?" asked Ukyou, breaking off
conversation and looking over Ranma's now sooty clothes.

  Ranma shrugged. "Had to get some kids out of a burning house."  He
paused and looked at both girls. "Are you two okay?" he asked, worry
creasing his features when he saw the dented state of Ukyou's spatula.
None save Ranma noticed the wary, even frightened looks that the
children's parents were giving both of them. He frowned internally.
What was wrong with these people?

  "Yeah, we're fine. Tired, a bit bruised, but fine," answered Ukyou.
"We were just discussing all sorts of things with these children's
parents," she said, indicating the group of women near them.

  "That Moiraine woman said she healed the kid that got slashed.  Is it
true?" asked Ranma.

  Twin nods came from the smiling faces of Akane and Ukyou.

  Ranma blinked. "Um, well... where _is_ the kid, anyway?" he asked,
looking around.

  "With her parents," said Ukyou. "They picked her up a while ago."

  Ranma glanced at Ryouga. "Well, at least she didn't lie, then," he
said.

  "What do you mean, Ranchan?"

  Ryouga shrugged. "After Ranma saved the two kids, that Moiraine woman
came up and started acting as if she owned the place. She practically
ordered us to go help her dispose of the Trolloc bodies." He frowned.
"Her attitude's even worse than Ranma's."

  "Hey!" came the indignant reply.

  "It's true," Ryouga countered. "You may be an ass, but even you
wouldn't speak so lightly of a little girl's life."

  Ranma seriously considered punching Ryouga for the ass comment, but
managed to refrain himself. It just wouldn't do to smack him just
now, especially when he'd just made a deal and also because Akane was
looking at him. Not right away. Besides, there were plenty of other
ways he could needle Ryouga later.

  "Are you coming with us?" finally asked Ranma.

  The two girls looked more than a bit nauseated at the request.

  "What kind of question is that?" came the angry tones of one of the
women Akane and Ukyou had been talking with. "Have you no wits about
you to ask a question like that?"

  Ranma unwittingly took a step back in surprise. "What? What'd I say?"

  The woman put her hands on her hips and glared at him, which made
Ranma feel more than slightly nervous. "Disposing of... of Trolloc
bodies is a man's job, not a woman's!" she replied, making it sound
like Ranma was an idiot for not knowing the answer.

  "All right, all right!" he said to the woman. "No need to bite my
head off," he muttered to the side, lowering his head slightly.
"We'll help _Moiraine_ clear the bodies, then," he emphasized.  "We'll
be back in a little while."

  The two girls nodded, ignoring Ranma's jibe.

  * * *

  As the two young men left, Akane and Ukyou turned back to the knot of
women around them, only to be met by panicked or angry gazes.

  "What?" asked Akane, curious about the women's reactions.

  "Have you two girls lost all your wits?" hissed one of the
angry-looking women.

  Akane frowned in confusion. "What are you talking about?"

  "We saw what those two did during the battle!"

  "They did lots of things," said Ukyou, also frowning now.  What was it
with these people? "What's got you so ticked off? They didn't do
anything bad!" She looked around. Maybe they were angry about the
damage. "Okay, maybe they wrecked a few things, but the Trollocs did
most of it."

  "They channeled!" retorted another woman. "They're _male_
channelers!"

  "And they're in the village!" added another woman with a frown.

  "What's with all this channeling business, anyway?" groused Akane.
"You people seem obsessed by it."

  "You saw what Moiraine Sedai did, didn't you?"

  Akane blinked. "You mean the lightning bolts, the fireballs and the
healing?"

  "Yes!" said yet another woman. "That's channeling, and your friends
can do it also. We _saw_ them throwing fireballs around during the
battle!" Several other adults nodded assent.

  "Those weren't fireballs!" protested Akane. "Those were Ki-blasts!"

  "Ki-blasts?" came the uncertain reply.

  "Yeah," said Ukyou, joining the fray. "Ranma and Ryouga can control
their Ki." She paused. "You might be able to feel this," she added,
her facial features straining. The air around Ukyou suddenly began to
shimmer as it might on hot summer day.

  The adults and the children all backed away a few steps, eyes wide.

  Ukyou relaxed and the shimmer stopped. She had forgotten just how
difficult it was to make a powerful aura appear on command - Ranma and
Ryouga made it look like the easiest thing in the world. "What?" she
asked, curious about the women's reaction. "I wasn't going to hurt
you with it."

  "But... that was channeling!" protested one woman.

  "I told you so!" shouted another woman triumphantly.

  Ukyou frowned. "That was _not_ channeling, just Ki. I'm pretty sure
it wasn't the same thing as what Moiraine did," replied the
okonomiyaki chef.

  "How can you be so sure it's different?"

  Ukyou shrugged. "I just am. I primarily use my Ki in my combat
cooking techniques." There were several odd looks that passed between
the villager women at that comment. Ukyou continued on. "I don't
have enough skill to create Ki strikes, though. One thing I can't do
is heal someone with it and I've never seen anyone make real lightning
bolts with their Ki."

  "Look," interrupted Akane, "why does it matter anyway if it's
channeling or not? What's that got to do with Ryouga and Ranma?"

  The crowd gave her incredulous looks. Then, after an uncomfortable
silence, one of the women shook her head. "Marin was right.  You
really do know nothing of the One Power."

  "Why don't you explain it to us, then?"

  The woman looked uncomfortable and fidgeted slightly before settling
down. She took a deep breath and began: "The One Power is what
drives the Wheel of Time..."

  Akane and Ukyou listened intently.

  * * *

  As Ranma left, he began noticing more and more of the odd and
sometimes scared looks people were giving him and Ryouga. "Yo,
Ryouga," he began, speaking in a low voice.

  "What?"

  "Do you see the looks people are giving us?"

  Ryouga blinked and surreptitiously looked around him. "They look like
they're scared of us," he realized incredulously. "Why? We helped
them, didn't we?"

  "Something ain't right," muttered Ranma, "and I wanna know what."

  The two martial artists finally reached the spot where Ryouga had
impaled a Trolloc with the Spring Pole. Two men were obviously trying
to move the fir trunk so that they could cart the Trolloc away, but
they did not seem to be very successful.

  Ryouga tapped one of the two men on the shoulder. "Excuse me?"

  The man turned around and blinked. "Oh, you're one of the young
outlanders, yes?" he asked, not seeming very intimidated by either of
them. Ranma and Ryouga noticed and were silently grateful for it. He
looked closely at Ranma. "You look like you got singed all right.
You okay?"

  "Sure," said Ranma nonchalantly.

  "Are you trying to get the Trolloc out?" asked Ryouga.

  "What do you think?" said the man, rolling his eyes. "I don't know
what happened here. Bloody messy, though. I wonder why the Aes Sedai
didn't just... burn it like the others instead of sticking the Pole
through it."

  The other man agreed. "Yeah. We didn't think the pole would be
_buried_, though. We're going to have to cut the through the trunk to
move it."

  Ranma and Ryouga shared an unreadable look. "We'll take care of it,"
said Ryouga. The two men blinked, but didn't move. Ryouga sighed and
pushed his way past them and put one foot on the Trolloc's back.
Straining slightly, he began pulling the Pole out the Trolloc's body,
vainly trying to ignore the disgusting slurping sounds and the stench
emanating from the corpse.

  The two men just stared at the show of strength. "Blood and ashes,"
the first one muttered. "How strong is he?"

  "Jeez, stinks like hell," commented Ranma, waving a hand in front of
his face. "No wonder Moiraine wants to get rid of 'em."

  Ryouga suddenly cleared the trunk out of the body and let it fall to
the side with a loud thump. He looked at the fatal wound and turned a
bit green. "I don't want to be disgusting, but I don't think we
should drag that one all over the ground unless everyone wants to see
and smell Trolloc guts all over the place."

  Ranma frowned. "You're the one who impaled it, you get rid of it."

  Ryouga scowled at Ranma and looked around, missing the slack-jawed
expressions of the farmers' faces. There was no way in hell he was
going to lug that thing on his shoulders, especially not with it
dripping its guts all over like that. Looking around, he brightened
slightly when he saw a cart hauling the carcasses of two other
Trollocs pass near them. He walked over to the man who was leading it
away.

  "Excuse me, do you have any place for another Trolloc on that cart?"
he asked.

  The man blinked. "Lots of place, yes, but old Bonnie here," he said,
patting the draft horse's neck, "won't be able to pull the cart then.
You'll just have to wait until I come back or until another cart comes
by."

  Ryouga glanced at the cart. It look very solidly built and had a
thick layer of straw at the bottom to help absorb the blood.  It could
undoubtedly handle more than two Trollocs. "Not a problem," he said
finally. He began untying the horse's harness.

  "What are you doing, boy?" demanded the first man, moving towards
Ryouga.

  The Lost Boy sighed, not pausing in his work. "Sparing your horse
some trouble is what I'm doing." When the horse was finally loose
from its harness, Ryouga began pulling the cart by himself towards the
gutted Trolloc, ignoring the farmer's astonished expression.  He
brought the cart around and looked at Ranma. "C'mon, help me load it
in."

  Ranma hesitated for a fraction of a second, then nodded. They both
took an extremity and swung the corpse in the cart, atop the two other
bodies and promptly began moving the cart towards the edge of the
forest, past the bridges, pausing to pick up yet another Trolloc along
the way.

  The three gawking farmers were left behind, one of them holding
Bonnie's reins. They looked at each other and began moving to catch
up to the two boys when they heard someone call them from behind.

  "Darl Coplin," the first farmer muttered slowly. "What does he want
now?"

  "Bloody fool didn't even realize the village was burning when he came
in," snorted the second.

  "Where did you think you two were going?" Darl hissed, coming closer
to the three men.

  "What are you talking about, Darl?" asked the first one in a weary
tone.

  "You were about to follow them!" he accused, pointing at the departing
forms of Ranma and Ryouga.

  "What about it? We want to know how they can do that! I mean, the
kid with the yellow headband seems to be stronger than Haral!" the
first one protested.

  "Didn't you hear?" asked Darl disbelievingly. "Half the village saw
them channel along with the Moiraine woman during the fight!  They're
_channelers_! All of them!"

  The farmers' eyes widened.

  * * *

  On the other side of the bridge, Moiraine and Lan were staring at a
pile of burning Trolloc bodies, ignoring the sharp stench that
resulted from their combustion.

  "What will you do about the outlanders?" asked Lan quietly.

  Moiraine heard the question, but did not answer right away.  What to
do indeed? The two young men seemed to possess a power that was akin
to saidar, yet was not. Could it be an effect of the taint on saidin?
Unlikely, since the two boys looked too young to be able to channel,
even if they had the spark within them. Even the girls' reactions
discredited that theory. They had not seemed the least bit ruffled
about the boys' displays. That meant they were used to it, and they
had previously stated that they had no knowledge of the Power,
something she found hard to believe, considering the Ukyou girl's
condition. So it implied something else. All she had to do was
figure out exactly what.

  She was tempted to sigh. A mere week ago, she would never have
imagined anything like those outlanders. The three boys she had found
in Emond's Field, that was to be expected. Among those three was the
one she had dedicated most of her life to finding. But those
outlander children confused her. If this was the will of the Pattern,
then she had a hard road ahead of her.

  Moiraine felt Lan tense and turned around, only to meet Ranma, pulling
a cart packed with four dead Trollocs by himself. Moiraine raised an
eyebrow in surprise. *How strong _are_ these children?* she wondered.

  "We've got a few more for ya," said Ranma, pointing at the cart.
"Where do you want'em?"

  Moiraine blinked. "We?" she asked curiously. She assumed that Ranma
was referring to the other boy, Ryouga, but she could not see him
anywhere nearby.

  It was Ranma's turn to blink. He twisted around and looked behind the
cart. "Awww man!... Of all the times it had to happen!" he
complained loudly.

  The Aes Sedai was curious about the reaction. "Is there something
wrong?"

  Ranma turned to her with a disgusted look on his face. "It's Ryouga.
The stupid moron got himself lost again. I _knew_ I should've put him
in front of me..." he muttered.

  "Lost? Perhaps he just stayed in the village," commented Moiraine.
Ranma just looked at her as if she had just said something mildly
stupid. It wasn't a look she was used to see directed at her.

  "You don't know him," said the pigtailed martial artist while shaking
his head. "Ryouga can get lost _anywhere_. Ask me about the fight we
had set up in the empty lot behind his house sometime."

  Moiraine was almost amused at Ranma's dejected tone. Almost.  "What
about that fight? I think you are exaggerating a bit much."

  Ranma gave her a flat look. "It took him four days day to get to that
lot. It was _behind his house_." He ignored Moiraine's frown and
sighed. "Well, the only thing to do now is wait. Even here, he'll
probably follow his usual pattern."

  Moiraine assumed Ranma was exaggerating about Ryouga's sense of
direction. No one could possibly be that bad. "What usual...
pattern?" she inquired. *A pattern? I wonder... could the boy be
ta'varen? No, he is not the one, I know that much.*

  Ranma shrugged. " Get lost, wander for a while, then show up
screaming 'Ranma Saotome! Because of you, I've seen hell! Prepare to
die!'," he finished with a not-quite credible imitation of Ryouga's
voice.

  Moiraine blinked. *I'm not hearing this,* she thought.

  Lan narrowed his eyes.

  "Don't worry about it," Ranma said. "He's calmed down a lot since
then and we made a deal to try and be civil to each other while we're
trapped on this world."

  *This world?* thought Moiraine absently. She had to mask her
surprise, though, when Ranma turned around and simply began tossing
the Trolloc bodies that were on the cart on top of the fires that were
already crackling in the cool night air.

  Once the last Trolloc was out of the cart, Ranma turned towards
Moiraine. "So what did you _really_ wanna talk about?" he asked
bluntly.

  Moiraine gathered herself and began readying weaves of Spirit.  It
would be fairly easy to determine if he was channeling or not.  "I
wanted to ask you about the way you fought in the battle tonight.
More specifically, those... fireballs you threw. What were they made
of?" She tried to slide the shields in place while he was distracted
and was unpleasantly surprised to realize that there was nothing to
shield. Usually, even if the channeler, whether male or female, was
not touching the True Source, you could still shield him or her and
feel the shield slide in place. With him, though, the shields rolled
off the exact same way they did as if she had tried to shield a
non-channeler. This both comforted and alarmed her.

  Ranma looked around himself, frowning. *Weird,* he thought.  *I feel
like someone's gonna attack me...* He then heard Moiraine's question
and blinked. "Fireballs? No... not really. What Ryouga and I use
are called Ki-blasts. They weren't _real_ fireballs like yours."

  "Ki-blasts?" asked Moiraine, puzzled.

  "Blasts, strikes, whatever you wanna call them, they're basically all
the same thing: a projection of our Ki."

  Moiraine looked thoughtful. "A projection? Is Ki what we felt coming
from Ryouga and yourself?"

  Ranma nodded. "Yes. I'm not really surprised you both felt the power
of my aura, even though _that_ was more of a side-effect. Ki is...
it's your life force, the power of your life, of your soul."

  Moiraine frowned, not clearly understanding. "You mean to tell me
that the power you used earlier this evening is... life? That is not
possible."

  "Really?" Ranma said blandly, raising an eyebrow. "And why would that
be? Just because you ain't never seen something done a certain way,
it doesn't mean it _can't_ be done that way."

  Moiraine stood silent for a moment. The child was _very_ arrogant.
"All right, I will grant you that. I do not claim to know everything,
but if this power truly exists as you say it does, then why has no one
ever heard of it before?"

  Ranma shrugged. "Every living thing has Ki, but very few have the
skill, knowledge or the determination to manipulate it."

  Moiraine's left eye twitched. Visions of an entire people who could
channel like the boy fleeted in the back of her mind. "And how _do_
you manipulate it?"

  Ranma shrugged slightly. "You have to train your body in a way that
would make most people quit after a few weeks. Only if you persevere,
sometimes for years, can you ever hope to be able to gain conscious
control over your Ki. Some people train for decades before being able
to control it. Others like me and Ryouga are exceptionally strong and
I started training before I was even five years old."

  Moiraine blinked. *Before he was five?* she thought incredulously.
"And it is the same for women and men?"

  "Yes and no" Ranma hedged. "Yes - both guys and girls can do it
because everyone has Ki. No - it's not exactly the same for each
person because the Ki of every living thing is different. It's like a
fingerprint, no two people, not even twins, have the same Ki.  It's
unique to everyone. For two people to have the same Ki, they'd have
to share the same life energy, the same soul and experiences, and that
just ain't possible."

  Moiraine thought about the last sentence, but decided to stay silent
on that subject for now. She glanced at her fingers. *Fingerprints?*
She gave herself a mental shake. "Is this why yours and Ryouga's...
Ki-blasts were different colors?"

  Ranma nodded. "Partly. The colors are sometimes related to an
emotion you use to channel your Ki. Mine was bright blue because I
use confidence for the Mouko Takabisha and Ryouga's Shishi Houkou Dan
is dark green because he uses depression to fuel his Ki. The colors
don't always mean something, though."

  Lan watched silently as Moiraine began questioning the boy about his
power. He knew she was nervous and so was he in a small way, but he
did not let any trace of it leak out. He noticed that his Aes Sedai's
nervousness was dwarfed, however by the puzzle the boy represented.
He shrugged mentally and resumed guard. If the boy truly _was_ a
channeler, which he was beginning to doubt, they would have a lot more
work ahead of them.

  "How exactly do you draw this power?" Moiraine queried, becoming
interested.

  Ranma sighed. This might just be harder to explain than he thought.
"Well, like I said, you have to train for it, first. The more in tune
you become with your body, the more the Ki develops - kinda like a
muscle. Eventually, a stronger Ki helps develop all your senses,
especially the sixth. Now if you..."

  "Sixth?" Moiraine asked curiously. "How do you classify them?"

  Ranma looked mildly annoyed at being interrupted. "There are five
basic senses," he explained. "Sight, hearing, touch, smell and taste.
The sixth one has no real name because it can manifest differently in
people. Some develop an excellent sense of intuition while others,
like me, develop a danger sense. The sixth sense is..." the martial
artist trailed off, scratching his hair in thought. "It's an
awareness to things that can't be felt with your other senses," he
concluded. Looking at the Aes Sedai's expression, Ranma saw
Moiraine's next question coming. "What _my_ sixth sense does is warn
me if someone is gonna attack me, unless the other guy is extremely
good at hiding his intention."

  "I still don't quite understand _how_ this... danger sense works,"
continued Moiraine. The Aes Sedai was slowly getting more and more
interested in the subject.

  Ranma shrugged. "Usually, I can tell if I'm going to be attacked
because my danger sense reacts to the enemy's own Ki."

  "So you can sense intent?" Moiraine continued relentlessly.

  Ranma made so-so gestures. "Under certain specific circumstances,
yes," he allowed. "I can't read people's minds or anything like
that..." He sighed. "Anyway, like I was saying before you got me
off-track, someone who trains extensively usually reaches a plateau at
some point. What Ki does is help you overcome that plateau, so your
skills can keep increasing. That's why Ryouga and I can do what we
do. Once you get past that limit, you can do lots of things with your
Ki," Ranma finished. *Whew!* he mentally sighed. *I hope I didn't
mess that up too much.*

  "This... plateau," the Aes Sedai said after a while, "How do you get
past it?"

  Ranma shrugged. "_That_ depends on each individual person.  You have
to complete the harmony between your mind and your body. Once you
really manage to tap your Ki that way, it gets easier over time."
Inside, Ranma was beginning to think that the Aes Sedai would never
stop with the questions.

  The Aes Sedai nodded thoughtfully. It _would_ explain why her shield
had been insufficient - the power apparently came from inside the
body, not outside. She would have to be careful if he truly _was_
that aware of things around him. "So what exactly _can_ you do with
it aside from being more aware of things?"

  "Well, the most basic uses are enhanced endurance, speed, strength and
then Ki-blasts," Ranma said. "The more you work in manipulating your
Ki, practicing with it, the better your control over it becomes, and
ultimately, you can do more things with it. Right now, Ryoga and I
know only a few special techniques. You saw a couple of them in the
fight. I fought a guy named Herb who could do _really_ fancy moves
with his Ki. And then, there's Cologne and Happosai, two old geezers
that have plenty of tricks of their own. There are lots of legends
about what might be possible to do with the stuff, but I haven't been
able to try them so far."

  Moiraine looked at Ranma for a few seconds while staying silent.  It
was odd how his behavior, even his vocabulary could change at a
moment's notice, depending on what he was talking about. "Can you
heal with it?" she then added.

  Ranma blinked. "Well, I've been tapping my Ki for so long that I
naturally heal faster than normal people do, but I can't do anything
instantaneous."

  Moiraine tilted her head slightly. "But can you heal others with it?"

  Ranma frowned in thought. "I suppose you can share your Ki with
someone else, but _I've_ never done it. There's a doc... I mean
healer back home, his name is Tofu, he probably knows how to do it,
along with that shiatsu of his."

  "Shiatsu?" Moiraine asked, intrigued. "What is that?"

  "Pressure point techniques," Ranma explained. "Some healers use 'em
to make their patients feel better for the most part, but there are
some other ones that can be used for combat too. Very useful, but I
don't know too many of 'em."

  The Aes Sedai nodded thoughtfully. *So, this... Ki also appears to be
less flexible than the Power in its external uses. It also seems to
center more on the user than on a target.* She thought a bit more
about it and looked Ranma in the eye. "Can you draw Ki again?  I
would like to look at something."

  Ranma looked at her for a moment, expressionless, then shrugged.  The
air around him suddenly shimmered and broiled as tends to do on a hot
summer day. Moiraine suddenly steeled herself against the sense of
power rolling off Ranma. Her normal senses were sharp enough, but the
fact that she was holding the Source was making things worse, like a
sharp smell that just wouldn't go away. The light from the fires was
just enough for Moiraine to also see a faint bluish tinge around
Ranma. The final effect was like faint blue smoke, surrounding him,
curling up at his sides and twisting around his body.

  Moiraine observed Ranma intently. He was not flinching, nor was he
showing any sign of discomfort. Odd. The odd aura effect was almost
mesmerizing, actually. She gave herself a slight mental shake.

  Upon feeling the weak buzz she had experienced earlier, Moiraine tried
to shield him again, but the attempt met with the same lack of results
as the previous one, save for Ranma looking over his shoulder at
something. Trying again, she noticed that the flows were... slipping,
for lack of a better word. It was like trying to do needlework with
greasy hands: the flows simply did not focus correctly and she could
clearly tell that the effect was confined to the aura's range.  This
both puzzled and worried her greatly. Moiraine decided to go about it
another way. Instead of using a shield, she began weaving probes of
Spirit. She used them to gently brush the air around Ranma.

  She was not ready for the feelings she felt. Arrogance enough for a
dozen men. Utter confidence in one's skills. She quickly cut the
flows and stared at Ranma before she caught herself and schooled her
features once more. She had not expected this to happen when she had
used Spirit. Emotions indeed. The boy was _reeking_ arrogance.
Ranma had said that he used confidence to fuel his Ki and Ryouga used
its opposite - depression. Moiraine suddenly realized that if Ranma's
confidence, or rather, arrogance, was this strong, she wasn't sure she
wanted to feel Ryouga's depression.

  She suddenly became aware that Lan was holding back from attacking,
but not by much. This meant that there was one other thing she had to
confirm, something that had slipped her mind until now.

  "Lan?" she asked mildly. "What do you see?"

  The Warder replied in a flat voice, not a single trace of the
uneasiness he felt making it through. "I see a faint blue shimmer
around the boy. I _feel_ it more than I see it, though."

  *So,* the Aes Sedai thought, *Lan can feel and see it as well.*  That
was a small point in the boy's favor, as Lan was incapable of seeing
someone touch the Source, whether male or female, although it was
inconclusive. It could have been a visual effect, after all.  The
failed shield meant it was not saidar or saidin. But what about that
echo she felt, then? It certainly wasn't the tingling she got when
another woman channeled saidar, but it was _something_. Lan said he
felt something, too. One more mystery.

  Ranma snorted, breaking her concentration. "Why wouldn't he feel it?
Nearly anyone would be able to at least _sense_ an aura like this."
He paused, his aura fading out. "And the name's Ranma."

  Moiraine gave an imperceptible sigh of relief when the sense of power
faded. She cocked her head slightly, ignoring the last remark.
"Anyone? You do not need any training whatsoever to see it?"

  The pig-tailed martial artist shook his head. "Not when you flare it
as much as I just did. You only need your eyes. A really good
martial artist would be able to tell my Ki level without my needing to
raise my aura. I wouldn't even need to flare it. A variant on the
danger sense if you will." He indicated Lan with a shake of his head.
"I can tell he's got more Ki than a normal person, for example."  He
looked at Moiraine, cocking his head. "So do you, actually."  He
blinked in confusion. "Just how old _are_ you, anyway?"

  Moiraine glared at him and he flinched back slightly. "What'd I say?"

  Moiraine shook her head. *Tactless boy,* thought the Aes Sedai.  She
grimaced. This 'Ki' power was quickly becoming more irritating than
fascinating.

  "Any living thing has Ki," Ranma continued. "People, trees, bugs...
Heck, the planet itself has a Ki field. Everyone and a lot of things
have it, but you need a strong will and a lot of skill to consciously
use it." He stopped and remembered something. "What's so bad about
being able to tap your Ki, anyway? You sound worried about it and
most of the villagers wouldn't look at us in the eye after we began
using it."

  Moiraine almost frowned. Her Aes Sedai mask must have slipped further
than she thought if the boy had realized she had been worried.  She
thought about what to answer the boy. "The villagers fear you for a
simple reason. They think you and Ryouga are channelers."

  "You mentioned that word before. What _is_ a channeler?"

  Moiraine was forcibly reminded that none of these children seemed to
know anything about the One Power. Another strange fact. "A
channeler is an individual who can touch the True Source and channel
the One Power, as I can."

  "You mean those fireballs and the lightning, that was the... One
Power?" said Ranma curiously.

  Moiraine nodded. "And the Healing as well."

  If anything, that seemed to puzzle Ranma even more. "So why are they
scared of _us_? I mean, you did worse stuff than we did, so why?"

  "You truly know nothing, do you?" the Aes Sedai murmured, looking at
him intently.

  Ranma was a bit disturbed by the gaze. "I already told you, we ain't
from around here!"

  "I can see that now," she said dryly. She continued before Ranma
could interrupt again. "I will try to make this brief, so listen
carefully. The One Power is what drives the Wheel of Time. It is
divided in two different parts: saidar, which can only be used by
women, and saidin, which can only be used by men. In the Age of
Legends, which ended over 3,000 years ago, men and women could use
their respective sides of the Power without any problems and perform
great wonders with it. But then came the War of Power when men
accidentally released the Dark One from where he had been bound by the
Creator. In short, the war ended when Lews Therin Telamon led a
hundred male channelers on an assault on Shayol Ghul, in an effort to
reseal the Dark One."

  Ranma listened intently. "What's that got to do with people being
afraid of us?"

  "I am not finished," Moiraine calmly replied. "Lews Therin, then
called the Dragon, and the Hundred Companions succeeded, but at a
cost. Before being resealed, the Dark One's counterstroke tainted
saidin, forever dooming any man who could channel to go mad with no
hope of a cure." She paused. "That is why they fear you. They are
persuaded you will go mad as every man has since the Breaking of the
World."

  "But that's stupid," protested Ranma. *Breaking of the World?* he
thought briefly. *I wonder if that's what Master al'Dai was talking
about.* Aloud, he said: "No one I know has ever gone _mad_ from using
Ki, it'd be like going mad because you drink water!" He tried to
ignore the sudden image of Happosai on a panty raid that surfaced in
his mind. No sense giving the Aes Sedai ammunition, however flawed,
for her theory, he reasoned.

  "Perhaps it is so," the Aes Sedai said, "but you are going to have a
hard time to convince _them_ of it." She paused for a moment, looking
at the pile of burning Trollocs. "Come, we must return to the
village." As the group walked back, Moiraine turned her head slightly
towards Ranma. "I have another question. When we met for the first
time, you talked about curses. What did you mean?"

  Ranma's mouth curved in a grimace. "They're exactly that.  Curses.
I'm not going to say more about it, so you can forget asking me."

  "Don't talk to her that way, boy!" Lan growled.

  Ranma looked at the Warder and frowned. "Who asked you?" he said
belligerently.

  The Warder's frown deepened and he began fingering his sword.

  "Lan," Moiraine said mildly. "Do not bother. He did not insult me."
That was true. Ranma had not _insulted_ her, but it _was_ annoying to
realize that the boy showed absolutely no fear whatsoever of Aes
Sedai. He did not seem to know much about respect either.

  Ranma looked at Moiraine oddly, then mentally shrugged. "So what
_can_ you do with this One Power everyone is so scared of? And just
what _is_ it?"

  Moiraine almost sighed. The tables had turned, it seemed.  This could
take a while.

  * * *

  A bit earlier in the evening in a completely different part of the
woods, Rand al'Thor had been carrying his feverish father on a litter
when he heard someone shouting at the top of his lungs: "WHERE ON
EARTH AM I NOW?!?"

  At the moment he head the great cry, Rand's heart almost stopped
completely. *What is that bloody fool doing?! There might still be
Trollocs around!* he thought frantically. He peered in the darkness
in an effort to find the source of the noise and quickly found it. A
young man, wearing outlandish clothes and a some kind of club in his
left hand was wandering aimlessly towards the Westwood. Rand stared
in confusion for a few moments before he realized that the outlander
was about to shout again.

  "Be quiet!!!" he hissed as loud as he could without shouting.  He
sighed with relief when the outlander blinked and looked around him.
"Over here!" he hissed again, blinking internally at the same time.
*Why am I doing this?" he thought in confusion. *I should be getting
away from him, not attracting his attention!* Another part of his
mind idly wondered what yet _another_ outlander was doing this close
to Westwood at this time of night.

  Ryouga wandered over to where a tall youth was crouching in the
bushes, obviously trying to conceal himself. He approached him,
walking unconcernedly through the dry bushes. After his bellow, a few
broken twigs would not make much of a difference in the noise level.
As he got closer, he noticed that the youth was wearing a sword.
*Strange,* Ryouga thought. *He doesn't look like a swordsman.*

  Rand did not share that particular feeling at the moment.  As soon as
Ryouga got near enough, Rand got up and glared at him, the expression
visible even in the moonlight. "Look, I don't know who you are, but
there are Trollocs not far from here! Do you mean to bring them all
on our heads?" As soon as he said the words left his mouth, he wished
he could get them back. He could not expect an outlander to believe
in Trollocs so easily.

  "Here too?" Ryouga wondered out loud. "Damn. Those things are
everywhere."

  Rand stared at Ryouga. "What do you mean, 'here too'?" He frowned.
"And just who _are_ you? You're definitely not from Emond's Field."
And he was also obviously younger and shorter than him, Rand realized
with surprise. The early morning darkness hid much of the details,
but he could make that much out.

  Ryouga paused only a moment before answering. "My name is Ryouga
Hibiki and I said that because several dozen of those creatures just
attacked the village near here."

  "They attacked Emond's Field, too?" said Rand, horrified.  "Is
everyone all right?" he asked quickly, thinking of Egwene.

  Ryouga nodded. "I think so. We... killed most of the Trollocs.  I
was helping to dispose of them when I got lost..."

..."  Rand shook his head. He had many questions for the outlander, but too
little time. Tam was running a very severe fever, but he was still
alive and he would have to be brought to the village as fast as
possible if he was going to stay that way. "You can follow me.  I
have to get my father back to Emond's Field before the fever kills
him."

  Ryouga blinked and looked over Rand's shoulder to see a litter with a
man laying on it. "Is he wounded?" he asked.

  Rand looked miserable. "A Trolloc wounded him. It isn't very
serious, but the fever seems to be burning him up anyway."

  Ryouga leaned over Tam, putting a hand on his forehead. "Was the
weapon poisoned?" he asked after a moment.

  That was not something Rand wished to contemplate. "I don't know. I
guess it just means I have to move even more quickly," he said in a
determined voice.

  Ryouga looked Rand over for a moment. The youth was obviously getting
tired, although he tried not to show it. "I'll carry your father.
You just lead the way so I don't lose sight of you."

  Rand blinked. "What? But you won't be able to..." he trailed off
when he saw Ryouga lifting the litter in his arms with no more seeming
effort than he would if he was carrying a log. He stared for a moment
before he looked around and pointed in a specific direction.  "This
way," he said, and promptly began walking at a quick pace in that
direction, occasionally glancing behind him to make sure Ryouga was
keeping up. A part of him wondered how someone that much smaller than
him could possibly be so strong, while another told him not to
question his good fortune and make the most of it.

  Eventually, Rand found the silence oppressive and began making
conversation with Ryouga. "So when did you get to Emond's Field?  I
don't recall seeing you before. Did you come for Bel Tine?"

  "We came to your village because we were lost," answered Ryouga
truthfully. He did not elaborate further, not wanting to repeat
everything about their arrival once again.

  Rand found the answer to be missing... something, but did not inquire
further. "You said Trollocs attacked Emond's Field. What happened
exactly?"

  "I'm not too sure," said Ryouga, frowning. "Everyone was talking and
having a good time when the Moiraine woman and her bodyguard burst
into the village, yelling about Trollocs. Next thing I know, it was
complete chaos in the village. We managed to kill most of them and
drive the rest out after a while."

  "You took part in the fighting?" Rand asked incredulously.  "How old
_are_ you, anyway?"

  Ryouga's reply sounded offended. "Of course I fought! I'm a martial
artist!" The was a short pause. "And I've just turned seventeen
years old."

  *Two years younger than me?* Even more questions began piling up in
Rand's mind. "What's a martial artist?"

  Ryouga shrugged, though Rand did not see it because of his position.
"Don't you people know anything? A martial artist is a warrior, above
all. We helped your village because it was our duty. That's what we
do."

  Rand looked at Ryouga over his shoulder, unsure of how to react to the
statement. A warrior? This Hibiki fellow seemed awfully young to be
a warrior or soldier, or even a merchant's guard. His musings ended
when he saw that they were now at the outskirts of the village.  His
eyes widened in surprise when he realized that he had been running the
last of the distance and that Ryouga had kept up with him, not showing
much in the way of exhaustion, even though he had been carrying
someone who was obviously heavier than him. He gave himself a mental
shake. That didn't matter right now. "Come on, we have to see the
Wisdom," he said in a rush.

  "Lead the way," was all Ryouga said.

  * * *

  On the other side of the village, Ranma, Moiraine and Lan were coming
back into the village, most of the villagers making way for them.
Ranma, now understanding a part of why they were scared of him, tried
to look as harmless as possible, or at least until he, Ryouga and the
girls could leave the village without provoking a riot. *If Ryouga
can be found,* a part of his mind amended.

  He quickly made his way towards Ukyou and Akane, who were apparently
still talking with a few women in front of the inn, amidst a knot of
people. As he approached, Moiraine still following behind him, he
noticed that the women who were talking with the girls were looking at
him oddly and others were fingering their braids and scowling at him,
but most of them did not look quite as fearful as before. Some of the
men on the other hand were staring at him _and_ the Aes Sedai, and he
could read a myriad of feelings on their faces. Incredulity,
fascination, fear, hate and more. *Nothing I can do about that yet,*
Ranma thought glumly.

  Akane saw him approach first. "Ranma!" she said, moving towards him,
closely followed by Ukyou. "We've got some things to tell you..."
she suddenly trailed off. "Where's Ryouga-kun? I thought he was with
you."

  Ranma affected an annoyed look, which wasn't very hard when Ryouga was
the subject of discussion. "The baka got lost again. One minute he
was behind me, the next one he was lost."

  Ukyou frowned. "The idiot. How could he get lost at a time like
this!"

  Akane scowled at Ukyou. "It's not Ryouga-kun's fault he has a few
problems with directions!"

  "A few?" said Ranma disbelievingly. "The guy gets lost in a straight
corridor!"

  "I DO NOT!!!" thundered a voice behind them.

  The crowd around the inn suddenly parted to reveal a flustered Rand
and a somewhat angry Ryouga making their way towards the inn.  Ryouga
was carrying someone in a litter, the other Nerimans noticed.

  "Where the hell were you, Ryouga?" asked Ranma. "This ain't the time
to explore the countryside!"

  Ryouga steamed. "I. Was. Not. Exploring. The. Countryside," he
said, biting off each word. "I'd just stopped to redo my laces and
when I got back up, you were gone!"

  Rand decided to intervene before things could escalate. The
outlanders could kill each other if they wanted to, but he wanted the
Wisdom to see to Tam before things got worse. "Excuse me, has anyone
seen the Wisdom?"

  Ukyou pointed at the inn with a finger. "I saw her go in a minute or
two ago."

  Rand blinked at Ukyou's attire, then shook his head. No time for that
right now - he could goggle later. "Thank you," he said. He then
motioned Ryouga to follow him.

  The other Nerimians, having nothing better to do, followed Rand and
Ryouga towards the inn.

  "So what did she want to talk about?" asked Ukyou.

  Ranma shrugged. "Basically, she wanted to make sure that Ryouga and I
weren't channeling that One Power thing. She asked me a lot of
questions, that's for sure."

  "Yes, about that..." began Akane.

  Ranma raised his hand. "I managed to get some explanations out of her
on the way back. I know about the Taint and all that. She did some
tests and she said she was satisfied on the way back. Back in the
woods, I ended up giving her the mother of all lectures on Ki.  I
think I managed to convince her that we aren't an immediate threat."
He frowned. "Apparently, it's the villagers we have to convince,
now."

  They followed the others as they entered the inn. The main room of
the establishment was packed with people. The innkeeper and his
family, the Wisdom and the gleeman were among those present in the
room. The others were mostly coming and going. Ranma leaned on a
wall, masking his presence as much as he could as to be unobtrusive.
He saw, more than he heard over the din, the Wisdom and Rand talking.
The Wisdom stood over Tam, checked his fever, Ranma guessed, then
sadly shook her head.

  Ranma sighed sadly when he heard Rand blabber excuses about how he had
tried his best to get to the village as fast as possible. He had seen
the look on Rand's face elsewhere before when he had wandered the
world with his father. A refusal to accept fate.

  When the Wisdom signaled the innkeeper's daughter and made their way
towards the exit, Rand tried to go after them, but Ryouga grabbed his
shoulder and shook his head when Rand told him to let go. Ranma
thought about something and silently moved towards the pair.  Out of
the corner of his eye, he saw Mistress al'Vere hustling Akane and
Ukyou upstairs, talking about something. Since the two were obviously
not fighting it, Ranma chose to ignore it for the moment.

  "What happened to him?" asked Ranma when he got close enough to Rand
and Ryouga.

  Rand gave a start and whirled around. "Where did you?..."  he
stammered. "I didn't even see you!" Rand took a second to look at
Ranma's rather disheveled and sooty figure.

  "A trick," Ranma answered. "Can't the Wisdom do anything?" he asked,
nodding towards Tam.

  Rand's expression turned from puzzlement to anguish. "I got here as
fast as I could!" he whispered, obviously trying to convince himself.
"I got here even faster with his help," he said in a stronger voice,
pointing at Ryouga.

  Ranma blinked and looked at Ryouga, who glared back at him.

  "I told you I hadn't been wandering around," Ryouga grumbled.

  Ranma looked at the man who was still laid out on the litter.  "What
about the Aes Sedai?" he said out loud. "She was able to heal pretty
serious injuries tonight."

  "Aes Sedai?" asked Rand, his eyes wide. "There's an Aes Sedai in the
village?!"

  Master al'Vere, who had been watching both Ryouga and Ranma warily
until now, shook his head in surprise. "Of course!" he said loudly.
He turned to the gleeman, who had been observing the whole thing until
then. "Why didn't you say anything, gleeman? The stories are full of
them!"

  The gleeman shrugged, lighting his pipe. "I am an outsider.  Such a
suggestion might have sounded suspicious coming from me, as most
reasonable people know the cost of an Aes Sedai's help."

  "Would you have left him there to die then?" asked Ranma, slightly
annoyed. He ignored Rand's quick discussion with Master al'Vere.
"Master al'Dai told us that an Aes Sedai's gift always has a hook in
it, but what do you think is best? A hook, or slow death?"

  The gleeman looked at him cynically. "When Aes Sedai are concerned,
some people would consider that as being much the same, boy."

  Ranma stared at the gleeman for a moment. "Don't you think it should
be _their_ choice to make and not yours?"

  Thom rolled his eyes. "May I remind you, then, that I am under no
order to supply any information if I do not wish to? I have no great
love for Aes Sedai, boy. If I choose not to mention them, it is my
choice and mine alone."

  Ranma stared at the gleeman for a while longer, then shook his head,
chuckling.

  The gleeman raised a white, bushy eyebrow in surprise. "Did I say
something amusing, boy?"

  It was Ranma's turn to look at the gleeman with a cynical expression.
"Nothing. I just realized that you're one of the few people aside
from the Aes Sedai and brick-face who hasn't shown any fear about
talking to me or Ryouga without looking as if I was going to kill
them, ne Ryouga?" he said, turning towards the other martial artist.

  Who wasn't there.

  Ranma cursed under his breath. "If the baka's gotten lost again,
we're leavin' without him!"

  Master al'Vere looked at Ranma uneasily. "If you're looking for the
other lad, he helped Rand get Tam upstairs. The Aes Sedai is upstairs
as well."

  Ranma nodded, then looked inquisitively at the innkeeper who seemed to
be, unlike the gleeman, fairly nervous. "Do you think I channel,
Master al'Vere?" asked Ranma, honestly curious.

  "I'm... I'm not sure," the stout man shook his head. "You probably
saved my life and my daughter's but I also saw what you did
afterwards, and..." he trailed off, unsure of what to say.

  "For what it's worth, Master innkeeper," said the gleeman suddenly, "I
also saw what he did and I am not inclined to believe that what he did
was true channeling."

  Ranma looked back at the gleeman in surprise. "Not that I mind the
opinion, but what makes you think that?"

  The gleeman smiled tightly. "I watched, boy. I watched.  You
protected people you could have left to die. That at least shows you
have some character and that aren't mad yet, but you also left with
the Aes Sedai and her Warder at the end of the battle. A while later,
you come back none the worse for wear. If you _were_ a channeler, I
don't think that Moiraine Sedai would have left you wandering around
freely, no matter what her motives might be."

  Ranma blinked. "If I had been a channeler, what would have changed?
Moiraine told me about the taint that affects male channelers, but
what does that have to do with... " he trailed off. "You mean she
would have tried to attack me?" he said incredulously.

  Thom nodded. "Or shield you, at the very least."

  "She did try to shield me," Ranma said, shaking his head.  "She said
it didn't work, that I had no channeling ability at all that she could
tell."

  Thom's eyes widened in surprise. "She _told_ you? Were those her
exact words?"

  Ranma nodded.

  The gleeman looked at his pipe pensively, then looked at Ranma once
more. "Does that mean that you are a normal person?" he asked, one
eyebrow raised.

  Ranma barked a laugh. "Normal? I suppose that depends on your
definition of the word. The power I use is called Ki and the only way
she could stop me from using it would be to kill me." He sobered and
grinned nastily. "And I would be _very_ hard to kill."

  "Ki?" Thom said inquisitively.

  Ranma nodded and briefly flared his aura, the shimmering effect more
visible in a well-lit room. As he was looking at Thom, he didn't see
the innkeeper back away slightly. He did notice the tightening of the
gleeman's features, though. He relaxed the aura and smiled at the
gleeman. "Yup, Ki," Ranma confirmed. "It comes from inside me, not
from an outside source. That's why her shields didn't work."  He was
about to say more when he heard someone come down the staircase.  He
turned around, expecting Ryouga, and his eyes widened.

  When he saw Akane and Ukyou come down. The reason for their absence
was now obvious in that Mistress al'Vere had lent them a change of
clothes. Akane was now wearing a dark gray wool skirt with a white
blouse, a colored scarf wrapped around her neck. Instead of
downplaying her looks, though, her outfit seemed to emphasize her
natural beauty. Ukyou was wearing the same, except that her skirt was
dark green. Her combat spatula was now a marked contrast to her mode
of dress, which Ranma found a bit disturbing. Ukyou in a dress was
not something he was used to seeing. Ryouga and Mistress al'Vere
followed them down the stairs.

  Ranma blinked a couple of times. He didn't know why, but seeing Akane
dressed like that... *Kawaii* the thought flitted in the back of his
mind.

  "Ranma?" a slightly blushing Akane said, waving her hand in front of
the pig-tailed martial artist's vacant face. She had seen Ranma look
at her from the moment she had come down the stairs. Mistress al'Vere
had been quite adamant about getting her and Ukyou out of their torn
and slightly bloody clothes and into what she termed "proper wear for
young girls." Ukyou had protested far more than she had, but it had
all been in vain in the end. The okonomiyaki chef had, however, drawn
the line at leaving her "giant shovel" (as Marin had called the
object) behind.

  Ranma suddenly came back to life. "Oh... Err... Hi, Akane... You
look... um..." he fumbled for the correct words, his own face
slightly reddening.

  Akane blushed a bit more. *Is he going to say it?* she wondered
excitedly.

  "I knew they were attracted to each other," Marin's satisfied voice
said from behind them.

  Ranma and Akane's red faces both snapped towards the innkeeper's wife.
While Akane was trying to get something out of her mouth, Ranma was
quicker. "I'm not attracted to that clumsy tomboy!" he said
instinctively, only to regret it as the common room suddenly became
quiet. *Ooops.*

  The silence was broken by the sound of strong blow from Ukyou's combat
spatula impacting Ranma's head.

  Ukyou, who had been frowning at the whole thing, blinked when she saw
her spatula in Akane's hands. She reached behind her and realized
that her weapon had been snitched. "Give that back!" she snapped,
grabbing the giant cooking utensil back. She quickly kneeled down to
Ranma's level, who was just now picking himself off the floor.
"Ranchan!? Are you all right?"

  "Yeah," Ranma groaned, rubbing his head. "I'm used to it.  Tomboy
hits like a sledgehammer." As he was about to get up, Scratch, the
Winespring Inn's resident feline, chose that time to examine the
floor's newest addition.

  Ranma froze, making small, whimpering noises.

  Scratch took this as a sign to lick his face.

  Ryouga was about to try and choke Ranma as an object lesson when the
target of his anger suddenly screamed as if all the hordes of Hell
were after him.

  Ranma did the only thing he could: he backflipped to his feet, sending
Ukyou tumbling back, and ran for the door, only to fall into
oblivion's sudden embrace.

  Everyone in the inn was staring at Ryouga, who had clotheslined Ranma,
almost reflexively, before he could flee the inn. Well, all except
Akane who had realized the source of Ranma's scream and quickly
grabbed Scratch, only to unceremoniously toss him out of the inn
through one of the windows, ignoring the cat's irritated yowls.

  She sighed in relief once the feline was outside. *Kami-sama protect
us,* she thought. *I don't know what would have happened if that
stupid cat had activated the Neko-ken.* As she turned back towards
the crowd, she noticed that Mistress al'Vere was scowling at her.  The
others in the room were just looking at her oddly. Between Ranma's
scream and her behavior, she guessed they had a right to.

  No one took notice of Mat and Perrin bursting in through the inn's
door, both looking fairly frazzled.

  "What happened?" Mat said breathlessly, "We heard a scream and Perrin
got Scratch thrown at him!"

  Perrin merely scowled. His nerves had been shot to hell for the
evening. First the Trolloc attacks on the forge, then all that talk
about outsider channelers (he had put that off as Coplin talk,
though), and then, just as he and Mat were coming alongside the
Winespring Inn, that horrible scream. They had only had time to stare
at the inn in shock when the blacksmith apprentice had received a face
full of angry cat thrown at him from one of the windows. Scratch had
taken the time to properly express his displeasure on his face before
leaving. Perrin now bore several bright red scratches on his cheeks
and forehead.

  Both young men, however, stopped when they realized no one was paying
any attention to them.

  "Akane!" the older woman said in a clipped tone. "Please explain why
you just threw our cat out the window like a bucket of wash water?"

  Perrin frowned. _She_ was the one who had thrown Scratch?

  Akane was about to answer when they heard people stampeding down the
stairs. Everyone turned in time to see Lan jump the last few steps,
Rand closely behind him and both with their swords drawn. The effect
was much dramatic on Lan, of course.

  Lan immediately scanned the common room and frowned, the only thing he
could find amiss being Ranma laid out on the ground at the Hibiki
boy's feet. "Who screamed and what just happened?" he snapped.

  Everyone turned to look at Akane, who felt just a tiny little bit
intimidated by all the attention directed towards her. "Um..  It's a
long story..." she hedged.

  "Tell it anyway!" snapped Ukyou, who was being helped to her feet by
Bran. "Since when does Ranchan freak out like that?"

  Akane sighed. "Ah... well... Let's just say Ranma had a training
accident involving cats when he was young. All you need to know is
that leaving Ranma and a cat alone together is... dangerous *and
embarrassing for me,* she added silently. "Ask Ranma if you really
want more details."

  The room was silent for a moment.

  Until Ukyou spoke. She knew Akane well enough to know that she was
hiding a lot of details and that only served to make her angrier.
"I'll find out what this is about, Akane, make no mistake about that."

  Akane shrugged, uncomfortable. "Like I said, ask Ranma, not me."

  Ryouga, on the other hand, was quite satisfied at having knocked out
Ranma. A cheap victory, perhaps, but considering the way Ranma
sometimes won _his_ matches, he wasn't going to be picky.

  Mat looked uncertainly at Ranma. "Leaving him alone with a _cat_ is
dangerous? How?"

  "You don't really want to find out," Akane hedged. This caused a few
eyebrows to raise, but no one said anything more, seeing as how Akane
didn't seem to want to explain further.

  Perrin fingered the scratches on his face. *Tossing a cat through a
window is already dangerous enough,* he thought grumpily.

  The Warder grunted and resheathed his sword. He frowned at Ranma,
eyes narrowed and went back upstairs.

  "Certainly an unusual reaction to cats, considering how the lad can
easily dispatch a Trolloc," said Thom after a while.

  "Hey! He's only that good because he trained for it," Ukyou huffed.
"The same goes for his Ki abilities, which have _nothing_ to do with
that One Power you people fear so much!"

  "I am no Aes Sedai, child," answered Thom calmly, "but I do know
enough of the One Power to agree with you on that."

  "I came to the very same conclusion, Master Merrilin, but I am curious
and would like to hear how _you_ came to it," came a tired voice from
the stairs.

  Rand whipped around and saw Moiraine slowly coming down the steps.
Lan was already going to her. "Moiraine Sedai! My father... Is
he...?"

  The Aes Sedai gave a tired smile. "He will live without any problems.
I removed the taint from his body. It was a close thing, though.
It's a good thing your father is such a strong man. He will need rest
for the next week," she said, looking at Marin when she said so.  The
woman nodded, almost eagerly. Moiraine turned back towards Thom
Merrilin, darting a quick glance at Mat and Perrin. She took a slow,
deep breath. "I await your answer, Master Merrilin."

  The gleeman shrugged, his multicolored patched cloak sliding over his
shoulders as he did so. "I was outside when the fighting happened.  I
saw the two boys use this 'Ki' they call it, before they saved these
two girls," he said, pointing his pipe at Akane and Ukyou. "I will
admit that my eyes are not what they used to be, but young Ranma made
a small demonstration of his Ki just a moment ago and I will swear
that I saw _something_ around the boy, like clear smoke. Others did,
too." He gave a wary glance to Moiraine. "As I said, I make no
pretense to know as much about the Power as you do, Moiraine Sedai,
but I do seem to recall for a fact that if the two boys truly _had_
been channeling the Power, or at least saidin, neither I, nor anyone
else, would have seen anything, save perhaps for some effects."  He
paused, then smiled thinly. "That and the fact that he says you tried
to shield him and failed. That would be proof for any but the Red
Ajah, I suppose."

  Moiraine looked at him for a moment, then smiled faintly.  "Mostly
correct. If it had been saidin, only another male channeler could
have sensed, or seen it. And since most of us here we all saw or felt
it at some degree... Well, I repeatedly tried to shield the boy
without success and while I am no Red, I can perform a shield as well
as any of them and all my tests indicate that he cannot draw saidin
anymore than Lan could. Besides, the boy is too young to channel,
even if he _did_ have the spark inside him. I believe his
explanations, even though I am not particularly happy to know about
this 'Ki' power. I do believe that it is a separate entity from the
One Power, however."

  Mat and Perrin suddenly became nervous, watching Ryouga warily.

  "It's not _that_ mysterious," groused Ryouga. "Just because you
people haven't learned how to fully tap your Ki doesn't make it
evil..." he trailed off when he heard Ranma groaning. Everyone else
also paused as they watched the young man rise.

  "Oww..." he said, rubbing his head. "What the hell happened?"  He
looked up to see that there were a whole lot of people watching him,
some warily, some with curiousity?

  "Ranchan, what's the last thing you remember?" asked Ukyou, helping
him to his feet.

  "Akane belting me, and then..." he bowed his head upon remembrance.
"The c-c... the thing," He sighed disgustedly. "Damn Neko-Ken."

  Ukyou frowned momentarily. *Neko-Ken?* She would get to the bottom
of this, one way or another.

  "We won't hold it against you," Mat said carefully. *Neko-Ken?  What
does _that_ mean?* A safer part of Mat's mind was telling him that if
Ranma _was_ capable of doing things similar to channeling (he still
didn't completely trust Moiraine's declarations), laughing at him
would probably not be a _good_ thing to do. He wanted to live.

  A somewhat embarrassed silence pervaded the room for a while.

  "I think you all need to get some sleep if you four are going to leave
for Tar Valon tomorrow," suddenly announced Marin, changing the
subject.

  Rand started as if he had just been reminded of something and quietly
went upstairs. Mat and Perrin both took that as their cue to leave
the inn, which they did, but not without casting worried looks at the
Nerimians.

  The Nerimians all looked at one another and shrugged.

  "I'll show you the rooms where you can stay for the night," said Bran,
already walking upstairs.

  "Master al'Vere," called out Ranma. "Not that I mind the hospitality,
but why are you doing all this? I was under the impression that most
people in the village would want us gone as soon as possible."

  Bran stopped in the stairs and looked at Ranma. "Whoever you may be
and whatever you may be able to do, you did save several lives
tonight, mine and my daughter Egwene's among them. It would be
downright insulting of me to toss you out after all that."

  "What will you do if the villagers become restless during the day?"
asked Ryouga, who had been oddly silent until now.

  Bran's features hardened. "I'm the mayor, boy. If they get upset,
I'll... _talk_ some sense into them." He paused, as if considering
something. "Of course, a man can only hope that the Women's Circle
will stay out of this whole affair," he murmured.

  As everyone shuffled upstairs, Moiraine looked at Lan through tired
eyes. "Come, my old friend. We have new plans to make."

  * * *

  Ranma was rudely awakened by Lan later that evening.

  "Get moving, boy!" the Warder said gruffly. He moved away from the
young martial artist and immediately began waking the other Nerimians
up.

  "What's wrong?" Ranma asked, quickly coming to his senses.

  "The villagers are getting restless," Lan said. "Moiraine managed to
stall most of the troublemakers during the day with the help of the
villagers who are on your side, but it's all becoming undone.  Best we
leave as soon as possible."

  As everyone was getting ready, Ranma noticed a pile of clothes which
had been left near his pack. "What are those?" he asked the Warder.

  "Your new clothes," Lan said gruffly. "Your clothes, or what's left
of them, attract too much attention and that's precisely what we want
to avoid."

  Ranma frowned. True, his favorite red silk shirt looked like an
enthusiastic five-year-old had taken a pair of scissors to it, not to
mention the soot and blood stains, but still... He gave a mental
shrug. *Oh well, I still have a spare in my pack.* Years on the road
had taught him to appreciate gifts when they were given freely.

  Soon, he was dressed in dark brown breeches and pale shirt, complete
with dark cloak. He had almost passed over the boots, but realized
that his slippers would not be adequate if he was going to be walking
for the next few days or even weeks and while he was used to walking
barefoot, it would probably draw too much attention.

  Akane and Ukyou were waiting for him in the common room. Their eyes
widened at his new, rugged look.

  "Wow, Ranchan, you look..." Ukyou began, but was interrupted when the
blacksmith, Haral Luhhan, burst inside the inn, looking slightly
anxious.

  "Bran," he said, "You'd better get yourself outside quickly.  There
are a bunch of Coplins stirring up trouble in your yard."

  Indeed, those present inside the inn could hear rallying cries that
were steadily picking up strength.

  "Get those channelers out of here!"

  "No Aes Sedai in Emond's Fields!"

  "It's their fault the Trollocs attacked!"

  Bran forgot all about the crowd inside the inn as he remembered what
he had been about to do before Ranma woke up. "I'll go settle this
nonsense," he grumbled, heading outside, pausing along the way to pick
up a wooden maul leaning against a wall.

  Moiraine looked at Rand, who was just now coming down the stairs, at
Mat and Perrin and frowned slightly. They would have to move fast.
She motioned Lan to instruct the boys into making last minute
preparations. When the Warder moved away, she looked at the
Nerimians. "We will have to leave tonight. Gather your things and
meet us at the stable behind this inn. Lan will find horses for you."
And almost immediately afterwards, she moved towards the door through
which Bran had left.

  The four Nerimians just looked at one another.

  "Damn she's bossy," commented Ranma, shaking his head.

  "Yeah," said Ryouga, nodding.

  "Oh well, maybe we can ditch her once we're well on our way to Tar
Valon," Ranma said with more hope than he really felt. He turned to
the two girls. "You didn't happen to bring anything valuable when we
went through that portal, did you?"

  They both shook their heads. "No," they chorused.

  "Then go ask Mistress al'Vere if she could spare some food for the
road. Ryouga and I will go get our packs."

  As they moved towards the kitchen, Ukyou began mumbling about
okonomiyaki ingredients. The Nerimians then heard a commotion
outside.

  "Is that Moiraine shouting?" asked Akane uncertainly.

  Ranma blinked. "If it is, I wanna know why. She doesn't seem to be
the type to lose her cool." The four moved towards the inn yard
entrance where Moiraine caught their attention with her story of
Manetheren. They stood bespelled, just like the other villagers who
were present. All four found themselves rather impressed by ancient
kingdom's history. Later, when the story ended, the villagers were
about to leave when a Coplin saw Ranma near the door.

  "Hey! No matter what we were before, it doesn't matter if there are
male channelers like _him_ and the other one in the village!" he
cried, pointing at Ranma.

  "Get rid of 'em!" another cry came up.

  "False Dragons!" another cry was heard.

  Instead of going back inside, Ranma came outside and stood on the
porch, looking at the mob with a curious expression. He looked
straight at the person who had started all this. "First of all," he
said in a perfectly level tone, "I don't even look remotely like a
dragon." This received a couple of confused stares, but no more than
that as he plowed on. "Second, what I do, what we all do, isn't
channeling, it's Ki." This received an even greater of confused
stares, but the crowd still didn't seem any more swayed than when he
had begun. Ranma threw up his arms in frustration, "Ah, screw it."
He turned to Moraine, lowering his voice. "They look like they
believe things when you say them. Why don't you tell'em I ain't no
channeler, and neither is Ryouga."

  "Don't lie to us!" came a shout from the crowd, before Moiraine could
reply. "We all saw you throw fire around the village during the
battle! You were probably helping the Trollocs!"

  Before Ranma could respond to the accusation, another voice piped up
from behind the mob. "Don't be any more stupid than you already are,
Hari!"

  The villagers in front looked at each other curiously and parted to
reveal Teven al'Dai, his wife and his children, all scowling at Hari.

  "What are you talking about, Teven?" demanded Hari. "He's a channeler
- a... a Darkfriend! If he stays, he'll destroy us all!"

  Teven snorted. "You're a bloody fool, Hari. Like I told almost
everyone during the day, _I_ don't care if he channels or not, because
if it hadn't been for his help, my two children would be dead!  He
went inside my house while it was burning and found my Nel and Daysa.
Does that sound like something a Darkfriend would do?" Teven accused
the other man. "Well does it?"

  Hari was momentarily quiet, but Teven did not stop there.

  "Besides, from what I heard, both of them only fought to protect
others or kill Trollocs. They didn't hurt anyone from the village!
Even the Aes Sedai flatly said that what they did wasn't channeling.
She can't twist _that_ around, no matter how good she is."

  Hari spluttered for a moment. "But Teven, you know as well as anyone
that all male channelers go mad! They broke the world!" he insisted.

  "But that's just it," Ranma interrupted in a slightly irritated tone
of voice. He was grateful for Teven's intervention, but things were
back to him now. "What we did isn't related to your fancy One Power
at all!"

  Cenn Buie, who was standing at the edge of the crowd, waved a fist.
"I still think you channel the Power! Some of us even saw a sort of
glow around you!" he crowed triumphantly.

  "Really?" interrupted Moiraine loudly. "Do you really believe he
channels the Power?" she asked, staring straight at Cenn.

  Cenn, now under the spotlight, could only manage a feeble nod.

  The Aes Sedai put on a thoughtful expression. "Were you aware that no
channeler from one gender can tell with their eyes when one from the
other gender is channeling? A woman can tell if another woman is
channeling, but only a man can tell if another man is channeling."

  The crowd was now mostly silent.

  "That," the Aes Sedai continued, "would imply that all of you who saw
or even felt anything are channelers as well."

  _That_ produced a reaction. Indeed, several people were now leaving
the crowd, while Cenn was futilely trying to pull back inside the mass
of people.

  "If you can't tell they use the Power, how do you shield False
Dragons, then?" someone shouted.

  Moiarine raised an eyebrow. "Just because we cannot tell if men can
channel does _not_ mean that we do not know how to shield them when
they _do_," she coolly replied. After a pause, she continued:  "What
Ranma says is accurate. Neither of the two boys uses the One Power.
I tried several tests and they all failed. Shields do not work and
they are both too young to channel even if they _had_ the spark.  They
wield _a_ power but it is not _the_ Power." She paused to let that
sink in. "And any of you who think I would let just any male channeler
run loose are fools indeed," she said icily.

  There were some angry mutters, but Cenn directed one last question at
Ranma, who was looking fairly annoyed by now. "All right boy," he
said, "let's suppose what you say is true. I have one last question.
Why did you come to Emond's Field? There are only four of you and you
all look too young to be traveling alone, not to mention that despite
everything, your arrival still coincides with that of the Trollocs."

  Ranma sounded tired. "We... misused an artifact back where we come
from and next thing we knew, we'd woken up in the forest about an hour
away from here. If we could have gotten back the same way we came, we
never would have bothered you. That's why we're going to Tar Valon.
We're hoping they'll know how to send us back home. As for the
Trollocs..." he shrugged. "_That_ was complete coincidence, no
matter what you may think. Hell, they don't even exist where we come
from. We helped your village because that's what we martial artists
do: we protect those who cannot protect themselves." He paused then
glared at Cenn. "Even if they're old, cranky bakas like you!"

  Bran decided it was a good time to stop before any more questions
could arise, not that he knew what a 'baka' was, anyway. Most
probably an insult. "Well, that's good enough an explanation for me,"
he said, looking sternly at Cenn. He then turned to Ranma. "Besides,
you helped save me and my daughter, so I owe you for that at the
least."

  Ranma nodded and went back inside the inn to get his pack, Ryouga
behind him. Apparently, the Lost Boy had already retrieved his own
huge pack. When they got inside, the Aes Sedai followed them almost
immediately.

  Moiraine looked at Ranma for a moment, then at the three Emond's
Fielders who were being herded into the stable by Lan. *Coincidence?*
she thought speculatively. She was beginning to have doubts.  She had
repeatedly told villagers the same thing as often as she could when
she had not been sleeping, but they had only pulled back after Ranma
himself had made an appearance. *Fools,* she thought. *They know
what a male channeler can do and they were aggravating someone whom
they believed was one. No sense at all.*

  Further musings were interrupted when Master al'Dai entered the inn.
Walking to Ranma and Ryouga, he smiled slightly. "I'm sorry about
Cenn and the others outside. There are a lot of us in the village who
believe you aren't channelers, considering all the help you gave when
the Trollocs attacked. Of course, the fact that if Moiraine Sedai is
willing to back you like this helps, too," he said, knuckling his
forehead at Moiraine in passing. He looked at his hands, flexed them
and chuckled. "A power that isn't the Power, eh? The land you come
from must be strange indeed."

  Ranma smiled. "Stranger than you might think, sometimes."

  Teven smiled. "I can imagine." He paused, as if choosing his words,
then looked at Ranma in the eye. "How will you make your way to Tar
Valon? You do not have any horses."

  Ranma shook his head. "We haven't covered that yet."

  The farmer took a deep breath. "Maybe I can help. I thought about it
during the day and I have two horses I'm willing to give for
repayment..."

  "Whoa... Wait!" protested Ranma, a bit embarrassed. "Are you really
sure you wanna do that?"

  "You and your friend saved my children's lives," answered Master
al'Dai simply.

  "Don't you need those horses for something? I don't know..."

  "In that case," the Aes Sedai's smooth voice interrupted them, "I have
the perfect solution."

  Ranma and Teven just looked at Moiraine curiously.

  The Aes Sedai turned to the farmer. "Are they good, fast horses?"

  Teven nodded. "Of course, they're among the best stock in the
village. I use them to go to Watch Hill sometimes and they never even
tire from that."

  Moiraine nodded. She took a pouch from her belt and removed a gold
coin and a silver one. "Will this be sufficient?" she asked, holding
the two coins in her hand.

  Teven goggled. "More than enough! This is too much..."

  Moiraine shrugged. "Then use the rest to help you rebuild your house.
Or if you need another reason, consider the rest a payment for helping
to convince the crowd."

  Teven blinked and numbly took the coins. He looked at Ranma, who gave
a helpless shrug.

  "They're _your_ horses," the martial artist replied.

  Moiraine left no more time for further discussion. "Come, Ranma, we
have other things to do," she said, dragging Ranma towards the
stables.

  "The Light shine on you!" Teven called out.

  "On you too!" Ranma called back after a moment.

  * * *

  Moiraine and Ranma made their way to the stable where they met up with
the rest of the group. The other Nerimians, Ranma understood, but he
didn't know why there were all these others present as well.

  "What are _they_ doing here?" he asked Ryouga, pointing at the others.

  Mat and Perrin were saddling horses and all looked ready to leave
while the innkeeper's daughter was alternating between arguing with
Rand about her right to come as well and talking animatedly with Akane
and Ukyou. The gleeman was looking at the two in amusement and the
Warder looked pretty irritated with the whole lot of them. Moiraine
walked over to him and quietly spoke to him. He nodded sharply and
left the stable at a run.

  "Apparently," Ryouga said, "they're all coming." They watched the Aes
Sedai give the Warder a few orders which ended with him leaving the
stable in a hurry. "Apparently, Moiraine insists on the three guys
coming along for some reason and the girl, Egwene, I think her name
is, wants to come along. The gleeman decided to tag along because his
job here is over and he doesn't want to travel alone."

  Ranma shrugged. "Their problem, I guess." He walked over to Akane
and Ukyou. "Did you get packs or provisions?"

  Akane nodded, pointing at two traveling packs sitting against the barn
door. "The only thing we don't have are horses, though," she said.she said.

  Ranma shook his head. "Won't be a problem."

  Ukyou blinked. "What do you mean, Ranchan?"

  The barn doors suddenly swung open to reveal Lan with two fine-looking
horses in tow, saddled and all. He approached the Nerimians and
handed Ranma and Ryouga the reins to one each. "Here. These are your
horses now. Take care of them." He frowned slightly and looked at
Moiraine. "If they have to ride two on each horse, that will slow us
down considerably."

  "Not a problem," interrupted Ranma. "Ryouga and I won't need them -
we can keep up with the horses on foot." Ryouga frowned at the
statement, but did not reply. Akane and Ukyou looked a bit worried.

  Perrin turned his horse around, looking at them. "You really think
you can outrun a horse on foot?" he asked incredulously.

  "Outrun? Maybe. Run down? Hell yes!" Ranma laughed. "You wouldn't
believe how easy that can be when you're in proper shape. Horses
don't have as much stamina as a _really_ fit person. Besides, Ryouga
wanders on foot all the time and I'm sure a little run is nothing to
him, ne, Ryouga?" he said jovially, elbowing the other martial artist.

  Ryouga merely frowned at Ranma. "I can keep up with horses, I've done
it before," he said slowly. He suddenly smirked. "Ranma's a lot
weaker than me, though. He'll probably get tired after the first mile
or so."

  Ranma frowned. "I swam the whole way between Japan and China, piggy.
Don't underestimate me." He grinned. "Besides, I'm the wild horse in
this group, remember?"

  Akane and Ukyou giggled at that.

  "What's so funny?" Mat asked curiously. He was still very wary of the
two, even if he had heard some of the explanations and Moiraine's
statement about none of them being channelers. He didn't really
believe either of the two could run down a horse, though.

  "It's just that in our language, 'Ranma' more or less translates as
'wild horse'," Ukyou explained.

  Mat nodded uncertainly. "Ah, I see..." He didn't, of course, but Mat
had a certain talent for faking things like that.

  "Do the girls have any previous riding experience?" Lan asked quickly.
He was sitting on top of his own horse, a large, black stallion.

  Akane and Ukyou both shifted uncomfortably while Ranma and Ryouga tied
the girls' packs to their horses' saddles.

  "I rode a horse a couple of times when I was younger," Akane offered.
Actually, most of those times had been pony rides, but she didn't want
to lose face in front of Ranma or Ukyou.

  Ukyou winced. "I rode twice before." She didn't add that she had
been thrown off one of those times and that she wasn't all that happy
at the prospect of riding another horse.

  The Aes Sedai spoke swiftly: "Then you will have learn again quickly."
She turned to Ranma and Ryouga. "Can you really keep up? We will be
moving at a gallop at times." Behind her, Akane and Ukyou winced.

  Ranma smirked. "We'll see, won't we?"

  Moiraine nodded. "We shall."

  Surprisingly, both Akane and Ukyou managed to get on their horses
without falling or otherwise attract undue attention to them, though
Ukyou had to attach the spatula on her horse's side harness, since it
would not fit right on her back. A few minutes later, the whole group
was well on its way out of Emond's Field and into the waiting
darkness.

  * * *

  The ride out of the village was at full gallop, pressing Ranma and
Ryouga hard. After making sure that Ukyou and Akane were all right
and could ride without falling, the two martial artists sped up and
were soon running at full speed in order to keep up with the lead
horses. Ranma was hanging just behind Ryouga to make sure that the
Lost Boy did not live up to his name.

  Moiraine in particular was impressed. Ranma and Ryouga were both
wearing packs, and yet were able to keep up with horses at full
gallop. At this distance, she could still feel that annoying
echo-like buzz which accompanied their increase in Ki levels.  A
thought suddenly came to her. "Ranma!" she called out.

  "Yeah?" asked Ranma, adjusting his speed so that he would be running
at the same speed as Aldieb.

  "You must remember to be very discreet in your use of Ki.  Most people
will not be nearly as understanding as those villagers were and we
cannot afford for you or your friends to attract too much attention,"
she said warningly.

  Ranma almost shrugged. *She calls what happened back there
'understanding?* he wondered. "If you say so..."

  "Another thing," the Aes Sedai said, almost as an afterthought.  "Why
are you afraid of cats?"

  Ranma started. "What? How did you... Nevermind. I don't wanna talk
about it."

  "I'm afraid I must insist," Moiraine said, her voice becoming harder.
"Such a weakness is not normal at all in a fighter like you.  Why must
you not be left alone with a cat?"

  "Who told you that, anyway?" Ranma demanded.

  "It was all Akane would tell us after Ryouga rendered you unconscious.
To not leave you alone with a cat. She did not elaborate. You
yourself said something about a 'Neko-Ken' when you woke up, whatever
that means."

  *She won't give up!* Ranma thought grumpily. *At this rate, I
wouldn't put it past her to try and cover me with _them_ just to see
what happens.* He tried to choose his words. "The closest
translation of 'Neko-Ken' is 'Cat-Fist'. It's a very dangerous
fighting technique. At least it's supposed to be. Cats freak me out
because my father botched the training."

  "Cat-Fist?" Moiraine asked, frowning. "There is more to this, I
believe. Why did you learn this technique in the first place if it's
too dangerous? And in what way is the technique 'botched'?"

  Ranma grimaced. "I never _asked_ to learn it. It was forced on me
when I was ten. Since then, it's caused me almost nothing but grief.
If I have anything to do about it, you'll never see the technique.
I'd give almost _anything_ to be rid of it." Ranma looked at Moiraine
and saw that she was about to ask another question. "Look, the
technique itself could be _very_ deadly under certain circumstances
and I have no almost no control over it. The only way I can access it
is if I'm in contact with a c-cat for too long."

  Moiraine frowned, but stayed silent. *He's dancing around the
subject. Hiding things. Why? Is the technique that dangerous or is
it something else?* she wondered. *If the technique is indeed so
dangerous, why teach it to a child?* Oh well, she would get the
details from the boy eventually. At least, the boy didn't seem to
relish using this technique, which was probably a good thing.

  "If you don't mind, _I've_ got a couple of questions," Ranma suddenly
said.

  Moiraine looked at him. "Which are?"

  "Why are we running off like this? And why did you bring those other
villagers with us? I thought they just wanted to come, but the way
they're all grumbling, I don't think they wanted to come in the first
place."

  Moiraine looked at him for a moment. *He will find out from the other
boys anyway,* she thought. "We are running away because I do not want
to give the Shadowspawn that are probably following us a chance to
catch us," she said carefully. "And I brought the boys because _they_
were the true targets of the Trolloc attacks. I am bringing them to
Tar Valon for their own safety."

  Ranma frowned. "As much as I hate killing, if there are more
Trollocs, why don't we just stop and take care of them? Between me,
Ryouga, you and your Warder, we could probably take care of the whole
lot."

  "It is not that simple," Moiraine countered. "There are types of
Shadowspawn other than Trollocs, each far more dangerous than Trollocs
in its own way."

  "And those are...?" asked Ranma.

  "There are at least one Myrddraal and one Draghkar following us, along
with more Trollocs."

  "Okaayyy, but what do they look like?" Ranma insisted. "If they're
that dangerous, I wanna know what I might end up fighting."

  "I'm not sure even _you_ would be able to take on a Myrddraal or a
Draghkar barehanded," said Lan suddenly from his saddle. "They are
powerful opponents."

  Ranma sped up until he was running alongside Mandarb. "Whaddya mean?
What's so special about them?" He remembered Thom's comments about
'Halfman' meaning the same thing as Myrddraal. What? Did those
things change sex or something?

  "Even though Halfmen have no eyes, they see better than most men and
their eyeless gaze can strike fear in the bravest man's heart if you
look at them. If you're not prepared, a Myrddraal can take your life
in an instant - they are quick as a viper and a hundred times more
dangerous. Their swords can cause death from a single scratch if the
wound is not healed quickly enough."

  Ranma blinked and shook his head. "You got damn weird monsters around
here. Thanks for the warning, though. What about the Draghkar?
What's it do?"

  Lan frowned. "Draghkars are flying creatures, but unlike Myrddraal,
they won't attack you directly. At least, not the way Trollocs or
Myrddraal would."

  "What do they do, then?" asked Ranma, puzzled.

  "They croon," answered the Warder. "They put you into a trance and
then devour your soul."

  Ranma stared at Lan, nearly tripping over his own two feet.  "They
_what?_"

  "You heard me, boy. Draghkars drink the souls of their victims before
they kill them. Even if the attack is only partially successful, the
victim is never the same afterwards, so watch out and stay as far away
from them as you can."

  "Why doesn't Moiraine simply fry them with a fireball from a
distance?"

  "Because," came the voice from the Aes Sedai behind them, "I cannot
channel precisely enough while sitting on a galloping horse.
Especially not that far away."

  "I could go into the trees and Ki-blast it from a distance," offered
Ranma.

  Moiraine shook her head. "It would not work. You told me your Ki
strikes are like great fists of solid air, did you not?"

  "Well, most of them are. Why?"

  *_Most_ of them?* wondered Moiraine. "The Draghkar would have to be
killed instantly. If not, you will lose your life. Draghkar do not
give second chances."

  Ranma's expression darkened. "I like this place better and better all
the time," he said sarcastically. "The Hiryuu Shouten Ha probably
doesn't even work on 'em either," he mused.

  Moiraine glanced at him curiously. "The what?" she asked.

  "Another one of my techniques," Ranma said. Before the Aes Sedai
could ask anymore questions, Ranma slowed down just a bit until he was
level with Akane and Ukyou's horses. The only ones behind them were
the gleeman and Rand.

  "Are you two okay?" he asked them.

  "Sure," said Akane, muttering through clenched teeth. She would not
admit that she barely had any control over the horse. This was
definitely different than with a pony. The only thing that did not
make her annoyed was that the horse was very well-behaved, a fact she
was tremendously happy about.

  Ukyou was not really having an easier time, but she seemed to be
learning quite fast. Aside from a tendency to hug the reins a bit too
much, that is.

  The group crested the top of a hill and suddenly found themselves near
another village. Lan motioned for everyone to stop, something for
which Ranma and Ryouga were silently grateful for.

  "Are we stopping here?" asked Ranma, suddenly noticing the cold around
them.

  "No," answered Moiraine. "We will be leaving again in a few moments."

  "But what about the horses, Moiraine Sedai?" protested Rand.  "We'll
run them to death if we keep going like this!"

  "What about us?" muttered Ryouga from behind Perrin.

  "I will do something about that," answered Moiraine, moving from horse
to horse.

  While Moiraine was tending to the horses, Ranma turned to Mat,
smirking. "Told you we could keep up."

  Mat looked uncomfortable. "Well, you did, but..." he trailed off.

  "But you still think I channel, don't you?" said Ranma, shaking his
head. He tried to ignore the sweat that was freezing on his skin.  He
suddenly stiffened. Sweat? Cold air? *Oh, man! I hope it doesn't
trigger the curse!* he thought frantically. The tingle that
accompanied the curse did not make its presence known, so Ranma calmed
down.

  All of a sudden, Moiraine was besides him, putting her hands on his
shoulders. "Hey! What are you doing!" he protested.

  "Be quiet," the Aes Sedai said softly.

  Ranma felt all his tiredness and aches drain out of him like water out
of faucet. His eyes widened. "What... did you just do?" he asked
uncertainly, flexing his hands. It was as if he'd just woken up, all
rested and fine.

  "I took what little weariness you had away, just as I took the
horses'. We still have hard riding ahead," she said, sounding a bit
tired herself. *Both of the boys have amazing endurance,* she
thought. *They very nearly did not need my touch.* Moiraine then
looked at Akane, who seemed to be in a bit of daze and muttered to
herself softly. Ranma only heard a small bit: "...not right at
all..."

  Ranma was about to ask something else when his danger sense flared.
"Something's approaching!" he hissed loudly.

  His warning was too late as a scream that could have frozen molten
lava ripped the silent night apart. All the horses, save Lan's and
Moiraine's, buckled and tried to throw their riders. Ranma took a
step back as a bat-winged _something_ flew down to their level, coming
far too close for comfort. A soon as 'it' had passed overhead, Ranma
and Ryouga cursed in unison, spun around, each with a rock in his
hand. They threw it in the darkness and were rewarded by a pained
shriek.

  Lan raised an eyebrow.

  "What the HELL was that?!" snarled Ranma.

  "_That_ was the Draghkar," said Moiraine, her composure a bit less
sure. "It has probably already reported our position to the
Myrddraal. We must reach the Taren quickly now! We must go!"

  After making sure that both Akane and Ukyou were all right, Ranma went
to see Ryouga.

  "Hey, man, you okay?" Ranma asked his fellow martial artist.

  Ryouga' eyes were tight. "Akane-san is all right, yes?"

  Ranma nodded affirmatively. "They both managed to hold onto their
horses. She and Ucchan were a bit scared and rattled, but then again,
everyone was... except maybe Moiraine and Lan. And me, of course," he
finished with a smirk.

  Ryouga didn't smile. "Next time I see the thing, I'm taking it
apart," he growled.

  Ranma sighed. "You might wanna know some details about it first..."

  * * *

  A few moments later, everyone was once again riding towards Taren
Ferry. They finally reached it without encountering the Draghkar
again. Ranma hoped it had given up after being injured, but did not
want to bet any money on that. When they reached the ferry itself,
Ranma noticed that Lan was signing the other ones to show their
weapons, but not to be too obvious about it.

  Ranma smirked. Intimidation? When he saw Master Hightower's shifty
attitude, Ranma decided that the Warder had judged the man's attitude
accurately - he didn't trust the man either. Ranma then decided to
try something. He used the cloak to cover his entire body, leaving
only the head uncovered. When Hightower looked at him, he merely
smirked and tried to radiate as much confidence as he could without
showing an aura. He smirked mentally when he saw Hightower hesitate
when he looked at him. When Hightower had left to rouse his helpers,
Ranma turned to Ryouga.

  "We'll have to try and put ourselves in the middle of the ferry," he
whispered to Ryouga. "I don't think you're any more eager than I am
to show your curse, eh?"

  Ryouga only scowled at him.

  Ranma shook his head.

  * * *

  A while later, the gang was on the other side of the river, staring at
the spot where the Aes Sedai had unofficially admitted to sinking the
ferry. The rope that was used to guide the ferry across was still
intact, however. As a surprise twist of fate, both Jusenkyou victims
had made it across without getting wet.

  Looking one last time at the river, Ranma shook his head.  *Geez...
Moiraine must be damn worried if she's willing to go that far.*  He
looked in the direction Hightower and his men had fled and shook his
head again. Suddenly, just as they were about to resume their ride,
the Draghkar and its agonizing cry made their presence known.

  "We must leave before the Draghkar finds us!" Moiraine urged.

  Ranma only scowled. "Not happening," he said curtly.

  "Ranma!"

  "Ranchan!"

  Moiraine looked at him coolly. "Are you so eager to see how deadly a
Draghkar really is?"

  "Why don't we just get rid of it instead of lettin' it follow us
around like this? I'm surprised you haven't tried to kill it yourself
yet."

  "Eager to kill again, boy?" asked Lan dryly.

  Ranma shot him a venomous look. "Shut up! That thing definitely
_ain't_ human and it's already tried to kill us. I'm willing to make
a deal with my conscience this time," he finished sarcastically.
*Especially if it means protecting Akane and Ucchan!*

  "Disposing of a Draghkar is considerably more dangerous than you
believe. I will not confront it directly if I can help it," Moiraine
replied evenly. "Besides," she added, "the fog I created over the
river will fool it long enough for us to leave it behind. It will
think we have escaped downriver"

  The Draghkar's cry was heard again, almost as if to contradict the Aes
Sedai.

  Moiraine's eyes widened in surprise. "It's coming back this way?
Why?"

  *Probably coming after for me for revenge, just like everyone else in
my life,* thought Ranma morosely.

  "We must leave, now!" the Warder said warningly.

  As the others began to line up their horses, Ranma frowned, thinking
about what Moiraine had told him about the Draghkar. *What if...?* he
wondered, then it hit him. "I'm staying here to get rid of it," he
announced. "It's going to follow us to hell and back and I think I
know why, now."

  Moiraine looked at him angrily. "Your Ki projectiles are not
sufficient and killing it on this side of the river will only serve to
lead the Myrddraal to us!"

  Ranma looked at the rope which hung over the river. "Then we get rid
of it _over_ the river," he said flatly. "The current'll take care of
the body."

  "Ah, Ranma, the ferry's... gone," said Rand, worry in his voice.  "We
can't go back across the river."

  Ranma raised an eyebrow. "Who said anything about needing the ferry?"
He then picked up a few large rocks, and despite the protests, headed
towards the river.

  "Ranma!" Akane protested. "You'll get killed!"

  "Ranchan!" Ukyou pleaded. "Don't do anything stupid! Let's just go!"

  Ranma turned to both girls. "Don't you get it? I'm doing this to
protect _you_!"

  Both girls blushed a little, each thinking that the comment had been
meant for her alone.

  Ranma used the time to jump on the the ferry's rope. He ignored the
gasps of surprise that came from the small group when he began running
until he was in the middle of the river. *Have to be careful!* he
thought. *Stupid rope's so damp it's getting slippery and these damn
boots I'm wearing aren't helping either.* The last thing he wanted to
do was take a swim in the river right now...

  He looked at the sky, trying to find the Draghkar and couldn't.  But
if his theory was right, however... He let his Ki flare brightly, the
aura pushing the fog around him. The Draghkar's shrill cry pierced
the night almost immediately. Ranma smiled. *I was right!* he
thought triumphantly, trying not to make the rope he was standing on
wiggle so much. Soon, Ranma could hear the sound of wings flapping in
the dark. Ranma steadied himself and took one of the rocks he was
carrying. He wasn't about to try and wrestle the thing into
submission. If its cry was that bad at a distance, he had _no_
intention to try and hear it at point-blank range. A wandering part
of his mind wondered why the Warder called that inhuman shriek
'crooning'...

  As soon as he felt that the Draghkar was under a hundred paces away,
Ranma threw one of the rocks at it as fast as he could. Nothing.
*Must've missed,* he mused. He was about to throw a second rock when
the Draghkar shrieked again. Ranma nearly lost his balance from the
shock. That had frozen the blood in his veins. He shook it off and
snarled in defiance, throwing a second rock in the direction of the
shriek at full strength. This time, there was a faint popping sound
and the faint moonlight was enough for him to see the Draghkar's body
jerk and fall into the river like... a rock.

  Ranma grimaced as he let his aura dissipate. *Well, that's over, at
least.* he thought. He was walking back to the edge of the river when
he heard a splintering sound coming from the other side of the river
and felt the rope under him slacken. He shot a quick look behind him
and confirmed the origin of the sound. For some reason, the wooden
post that held the rope on the other side was splintering apart.
Ranma's reaction was almost instantaneous. He looked up and saw some
branches overlooking the river and jumped for them, barely making it
before the rope fell in the river. Looking at the raging waters
below, he sighed in relief. *Almost took a dip,* he thought.  He took
a breath and swung himself back up on the branch, which began
cracking. Ranma's eyes widened in shock and he barely managed to jump
back to the shore before the branch fell in the river.

  Ranma stared at the river. *I don't get it,* he wondered, puzzled.
*In Nerima, I would have fallen in the river... Hell, I would have
been splashed a dozen times by now, but I haven't gotten wet a single
time since we got here.* He smiled to himself. *Might as well enjoy
this while it lasts. I don't wanna have to explain the curse to these
people.*

  * * *

  A few minutes before that, everyone except the Nerimans on the river
bank had watched in slack-jawed surprise as Ranma simply jumped on the
rope and nearly ran until he was halfway across the river, his cloak
flapping behind him.

  "Light!" exclaimed Perrin. "How can he possibly _run_ on that rope?"

  "Burn me!" whispered Mat.

  Rand and Egwene just stared.

  Thom was thinking that with an acrobat like that boy, he wouldn't have
to work nearly so hard to make his way... then promptly berated
himself for thinking so.

  Moiraine sniffed in vexation. The boy was going to give them all to
the Draghkar. She thought about just burning the rope, let the boy
fall into the river and allow him to drown (she did not believe he
could swim back with this current), but she remembered how the two
boys and the girls had fought in the village. They might resent her
actions and prove to be dangerous.

  When Ranma raised his aura, Moiraine felt the faint "echo" of saidar
return. "What is he doing?!" she nearly hissed. "He will lead the
Draghkar right to us!"

  "I think I know _why_ he's doing it, but I'm not absolutely sure,"
said Ryouga from where he was standing. He wanted a piece of that
thing, but there was no way he was going to try and fight on a
tightrope over a river in the dark. Let Ranma take the risks for that
one.

  Moiraine turned to him. "What do you mean?" she demanded, missing
Ranma's first throw. Besides her, the Two Rivers boys were discussing
the sight with rare intensity.

  Ryouga was about to reply when the Draghkar shrieked again, this time
very close.

  Moiraine's eyes snapped back to Ranma instantly. She saw him wobble
on the rope, almost losing his footing, only to get it back and throw
a rock at the approaching shape. *Does he think he can slay a
Draghkar that way? Fool boy!*

  She hid her surprise when she saw the Draghkar's broken body fall into
the river. And the boy hadn't used his Ki for projectiles, either.
He had only raised his aura. *So that is what he meant by increased
strength. It would appear that the boy is more resourceful than I
thought. I underestimated him,* she thought self-recriminatingly.  *I
must not make the mistake again.* She was not too surprised when she
saw the boy grab the branch with a jump that should be impossible for
most people and then jump back to shore. "Now that we are finished
here," she announced calmly, "let us see what Lan has for us."

  * * *

  Soon, the group was riding again, but at a much milder pace this time,
Ranma easily keeping up with Moiraine's mare, with Ryouga on the other
side. Ranma tried to read Moiraine's intentions, but discovered that
the Aes Sedai had one of the best poker faces he had ever seen.  He
could, however, sense the stares of all the others behind him.  Oddly
enough, it was only a few short minutes before Lan made a stopping
gesture.

  They were now at the base of group of tall trees, some of them
collapsed, which made for an excellent natural shelter for the night.
Moiraine waited until Lan checked if everything was safe, then
motioned Ranma and Ryouga to enter the shelter. There was already a
small fire burning inside. As Moiraine settled herself, Ranma heard
the voices outside pick up strength, only for the Warder to tell them
to settle the horses and go inside the shelter. Egwene was the first
to enter, followed by Akane and Ukyou, who made sure that everyone
knew they were so sore that they would never ride a horse again if
their lives depended on it. Lan almost cracked a smile when he told
them it would get easier after a month or so, to which Akane and Ukyou
groaned defeatedly. Once everyone was inside the shelter, they found
Ranma having a staring match with the Aes Sedai while Ryouga was
warming himself to the fire. When everyone settled down inside, Ranma
broke the silence.

  "You're good," he said, smirking.

  The Aes Sedai raised an eyebrow. "If you are willing to make jokes,
then perhaps you would not mind explaining why you felt the need to
confront the Draghkar the way you did?"

  Ranma grimaced. "I got rid of it because it would have followed us no
matter what you did."

  "Oh? And how do you know that?" the Aes Sedai asked coolly.

  Ranma shrugged. "Simple. You and Lan gave me the answer."

  Moiraine's eyes tightened slightly. "What do you mean?"

  "You said Draghkars eat people's souls, right?" asked Ranma.  When he
received a nod from the Aes Sedai, he continued: "So what if they can,
I dunno, 'smell' souls? Remember what I said about Ki? It's an
extension of the soul. I'd bet almost anything that the Draghkar was
homing on either me or Ryouga, because our Ki is so much greater than
any of the others'. When I flared my aura at the river, the Draghkar
homed in on me almost instantly."

  "Why did you choose to use rocks instead of using your Ki?" inquired
the Aes Sedai.

  "You said there were more of them pursuing us, right? If I miss with
a rock, it doesn't attract quite as much attention as a missed
Ki-blast can."

  There was an uncomfortable silence for a while, after which Lan began
making tea. After a few more quiet moments, Moiraine shook her head.
"Just don't do it again."

  Ranma looked a bit annoyed, but Moiraine forestalled any further
protests by turning towards Akane, Egwene and Ukyou. "You three come
with me. We have some things to discuss."

  "Like what?" asked Ukyou, frowning a bit as they moved to the side of
the shelter.

  Moiraine looked at her silently for a moment. "You said there are no
channelers where you come from, did you not?"

  Ukyou shrugged uncomfortably. "If there are, we've never seen or
heard of them. What's that got to do with anything?"

  "Do you know of people who who have lived very long?" asked the Aes
Sedai.

  Ukyou glanced at Akane, who gave a slight shrug. "Well, I suppose
there's Cologne and Happosai who are pretty old."

  "Assuming she didn't lie to Ranma, Cologne would probably be over a
hundred years old at the very least," supplied Akane. "And she's
still a better fighter than Ranma."

  "She is a physical fighter?" asked Moiraine curiously.

  Akane nodded. "She's the matriarch of the Joketsuzoku, a tribe of
warriors."

  "So what's this all have to do with channeling?" asked Ukyou
impatiently.

  Moiraine looked at the three girls, then focused on Ukyou.  "Both you
and Egwene have the spark inside you." Ukyou blinked in confusion and
Egwene's eyes widened in surprise.

  "What spark?" asked the okonomiyaki chef.

  "The channeling spark. You are one of the few people will eventually
channel whether you want to or not. I will not let you take the risk
of..."

  "Whoa! Hold it!" Ukyou interrupted. "How can I channel? The One Power
doesn't exist back home!"

  Moiraine smiled condescendingly. "Just because you do not see it in
action does not mean it is not there," she chided. "Though I am
beginning to understand why you think so. You see, some people can
learn to channel the One Power while others have the spark inside
them. They eventually channel whether they want to or not. The
problem is that only one out of four women who have the spark can can
achieve some sort of control without killing herself. This is
probably what happens on... your world. Since there is no one to
teach the younger ones, the mortality rate among young channelers must
be very high."

  Ukyou's eyes were fairly wide at that point. She opened her mouth to
speak, but nothing came out.

  "But what about those who survive?" asked Akane. "Why haven't we
heard of them?"

  Moiraine shrugged. "Wilders often do not realize what they're doing,"
she said. "They probably do not know that they are using the Power."

  "So what's that have to do with me?" asked Akane, taking advantage of
the pause in the conversation. "Can I channel too?"

  Moiraine looked at Akane and shook her head. "You do not have the
spark, but there is something... strange about you."

  Akane blinked while Ukyou and Egwene looked at her oddly.  "What's
that supposed to mean?" she asked defensively.

  Moiraine kept looking at her, unruffled by her outburst. "Strange
things sometimes happen when I touch you with the Power. The worst
time was when I rid you of your fatigue a while ago. As soon as my
weaves touched you, they grew much stronger, almost like when I use
my angreal," she said, indicating the pouch where the little statue
rested at her waist. "There were other times when nothing at all
happened as well. I want you here because listening to the
explanation might help in some way."

  Akane frowned. "Is that why I felt almost drunk for a few minutes
that time with the horses?"

  Moiraine nodded. "Probably."

  "So why did that happen?" asked Ukyou.

  The Aes Sedai shook her head. "I do not know. That is why I am wary
of your condition: I have never heard of anything like this happening
before."

  Akane suddenly became nervous. "Am I sick or something?"

  Moiraine shook her head. "Not as far as I can tell, though a Yellow
sister would have to examine you to be sure, as my Talent in healing
is somewhat limited."

  "A Yellow sister?" the three girls chorused questioningly.

  Had she not been Aes Sedai, Moiraine would have sighed. This was
going to take a while.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, on the other side of the shelter, Ranma was about to try
and pump Lan more information about the land in general when Perrin
asked the martial artist a question that had been on the blacksmith
apprentice's mind from some time now.

  "You said that anyone can use this 'Ki', right?" the stocky youth
asked.

  Ranma nodded, bored.

  "So why doesn't everyone do it?" Perrin asked simply.

  Ranma thought about it. *How can I explain that?...* He thought a
bit more and nodded to himself. He pointed to the Warder. "Take him,
for example. He doesn't throw Ki around because he doesn't know
_how_," Ranma explained. "Physical exercise ain't enough. It's part
of it, but not all. There's a balance that has to be reached.  The
body and the mind must be in complete harmony to be able to truly tap
your Ki. That's a _lot_ harder to do than you might think. Lan's
probably about as near as you can get without specially training for
it. He's got more Ki than most people here, but it's mostly sittin'
there, so to speak. All he needs is the final push and he'd be able
to enhance his current techniques with Ki. Ki-blasts, though, are on
a whole other level, so that'd take even _more_ time." Ranma paused
for a second. "Unfortunately, everyone has to find their _own_
trigger for that final push. Anyone can do it if they work at it hard
enough." He paused to think a bit and shook his head.

  "That's why it's stupid to think Ryouga and I are gonna go mad from
usin' our Ki. Think of Ki as the physical manifestation of your soul,
of your life-force. When you use Ki, you use your life. You can't go
mad from that - it'd be like going mad because you breathe air or
drink water. Ki is a part of you: the only way to not use it at all
would be to kill yourself." When he saw he had the group's attention,
he added: "In a way, the problem here is that knowledge of Ki
techniques doesn't exist, so people don't realize it's possible.
There might even be some people who accidentally became able of doing
what Ryouga and I can do and were run off or killed because others
thought it was channeling. Which it ain't."

  Perrin and Rand found themselves nodding, but Mat frowned.  "Wouldn't
you... err... run out of life after a while?" Mat asked confusedly.

  Ranma sighed. *This is gonna be a loooong night.* He thought a bit
about it. "Ki's a lot like a muscle: the more you exercise it, the
bigger it becomes. If you happen to drain too much of your Ki, it's
like a muscle strain. It hurts for a while, but the muscle eventually
recovers. With Ki, you'll usually faint if you drain it too much, but
you'll recover."

  Mat nodded slowly.

  Seeing that he had answered the question satisfactorily, Ranma turned
back to Lan, but the Warder asked his question first.

  "So you're telling me that you could teach anyone how to use their
Ki?" Lan asked curiously.

  Ranma half-nodded. "Almost anyone. You _do_ need to be in decently
good shape after all..."

  The Warder nodded imperceptibly.

  Ranma looked at Lan curiously. "Actually, I'm a bit surprised you
don't show a battle aura when you fight. You certainly have the
discipline and enough Ki for it."

  Lan seemed unfazed by Ranma's statement. "A battle aura is the
shimmering effect I saw around you?"

  Ranma nodded. "Yeah. I wonder why..." he trailed off, creasing his
eyebrows. The way the Warder moved indicated that Lan obviously knew
his body well and discipline did not seem to be something he lacked.
That left emotions. A thought came to him. "Do you have a certain
mental discipline when you fight?"

  Lan cocked his head slightly, raising an eyebrow. "Mental
discipline?" he said blandly. Ranma winced. "What I mean is do you
use your emotions in battle, or do you shut them out?"

  Lan paused for a few seconds before telling him about the Void and how
he used it to concentrate in battle.

  Ranma smiled when the Warder finished his explanation. "So,
basically, you're emotionless when you fight, right?"

  Lan nodded. "Yes. I feed all my emotions into a flame and surround
myself in a core of emptiness."

  Ranma nodded slowly. *Sounds like the Soul of Ice,* he thought.
"Interesting technique... Is it very widespread?"

  Lan thought about it. "Most of the better swordsmen I know use this
technique," he said after a while.

  Ranma nodded again. "That technique is probably also why you've never
shown an aura."

  "What do you mean?" the Warder asked curiously.

  "That Void technique sounds a lot like a technique I use sometimes,
the Soul of Ice. I use it in a few of my moves, but most of my style
is done _without_ the Soul of Ice. Heh, now I think I know what the
problem is, here. Techniques like the Void work at _hiding_ Ki, not
on enhancing it."

  "Hiding it?"

  Ranma nodded. "Sure," he said. Seeing the Warder's doubting
expression, he tried another track. "Look, are you any good at
sneaking on people?"

  The Warder smiled thinly, but said nothing.

  Ranma rolled his eyes. "Okay, I'll take that as a yes. Didn't you
ever wonder how you can sometimes sneak around without being noticed
even though you're so big and anyone with half a brain who takes a
good look at you can tell you're damn dangerous?"

  Lan looked intrigued, and motioned for Ranma to continue.

  "You're hiding your Ki," Ranma explained. "When you try to sneak
around, you unconsciously try to hide your Ki. That Void technique
helps you reach that state."

  Lan nodded slowly. "You said Ki is a measure of your... life-force.
If you hide it, you hide your presence, yes?" he asked.

  Ranma nodded happily. "Exactly! You understand!"

  Lan indicated his color-shifting cloak. "What about this, then?"

  Ranma dismissed the fancloth cloak with a wave. "It's a crutch.  A
useful one, yes, but still a crutch. If you were a _true_ master at
hiding your Ki, you could hide in plain sight, literally. You could
stand in front of someone and they wouldn't notice you."

  The last statement caused Lan to frown. *That sounds a lot like a
Gray Man's method of attack.* He thought more about it, then realized
that with Ranma's earlier explanations, an idea behind a Gray Man's
abilities suddenly became that much clearer. *They must hide their
Ki,* the Warder thought. *That must be why we can't notice them - no
soul, no will. They may not even _have_ to work at hiding it...  Hide
your Ki and no one notices your presence...* He paused. Maybe he
_would_ get something useful out if the boy after all. "Tell me then,
how _do_ you notice someone who is a master at that technique?" he
asked curiously.

  "Train so that you're better than he is. The more you use your Ki,
the more you'll be aware of it and the easier it'll be for you to
sense people trying to hide their Ki."

  Lan nodded. So, there was at least one reason why he could try to
train his Ki awareness, no to mention that the increased combat skills
_would_ be a very welcome bonus, too. "So how does one train to...
enhance their Ki?"

  "There are a couple of meditation exercises I could show you and some
other things, but ideally, I'd have to spar with you first. I'd need
to know just how far along you are right now," said Ranma.

  Lan nodded. If the boy knew what he was doing, well he wouldn't mind
playing student for a while. He gestured with a hand around him.
"Not here, not tonight, though."

  Ranma shrugged. "I don't mind. It's too cramped in here for sparring
anyway. If you _do_ want to spar, tell me when you're ready."  He
paused. "So what else should I be aware of around here?" Ranma asked.

  Lan almost sighed. He didn't, of course, but the look he gave Ranma
said it all. This was going to take a while.

  * * *

  Meanwhile, the other group, composed of Thom, Rand, Mat and Perrin,
had seemingly gotten over their reluctance to be near the other boys
and were now asking Ryouga for tales of the Nerimian's homeland, in
exchange for the same favour, courtesy of Thom's vast repertoire of
stories.

  "Are you telling the truth?" Rand asked dubiously when Ryouga tried to
describe the vastness and the technological level of Tokyo.

  Ryouga looked offended. "Of course I am! Why wouldn't I be?"

  "You know," the gleeman said after a while, "if what you say is true,
then your homeland sounds a lot like what the Age of Legends was
supposed to be."

  Ryouga blinked. *Age of Legends?*

  "Well," Perrin said slowly, "Do you have anything with you that you
could show us?"

  Ryouga thought about it, then began digging in his backpack.  Thom's
eyes widened when he saw Ryouga remove a long tube with a fuse from
his pack and put it besides him.

  "What is this?" Thom asked with narrowed eyes, picking up the object.
He already had a sneaking suspicion, but better be safe than sorry.

  Ryouga blinked, pausing in his search. He looked at what Thom was
holding. "That's just a firework."

  This time, Mat, Rand Perrin _and_ Thom all blinked in surprise.

  "A firework? Let me see!" Mat said excitedly, reaching for the
object.

  Thom pulled it out of Mat's immediate range. "And let a mudfooted
farmer like you kill us all because you manhandled it? I think not."
Thom began inspecting the firework more closely, ignoring Mat's sullen
expression. "Where did you get it?" he asked Ryouga, eying the
colorful tube warily. "It doesn't look like a firework the
Illuminators make."

  Ryouga paused in his search. "What's an Illuminator?"

  Thom frowned. "They're the guild that makes fireworks. They are
supposedly the only ones to have the secret and it is a secret they
guard _very_ well." He glanced at the firework. "Though I've never
seen a firework quite like this one."

  Ryouga looked at him blankly. "I wouldn't know about that," he
finally said. "Back home, I bought that one and a couple of others in
a bargain sale."

  Thom looked shocked. "Can just about anyone buy fireworks where you
come from? Aren't they expensive?"

  Ryouga shrugged. "That one didn't cost much. You can buy fireworks
almost anywhere back home."

  Thom looked again at the firework and sighed. *He has no idea how
much this is worth, here. Sad, that.* An idea came to him. "If they
are that easy to come by, would you let me have this one?" he asked.

  Ryouga frowned and took the firework back. "No," he said.  "It may've
been cheap, but I don't have that much money."

  Thom sighed. *Oh well, at least I tried.*

  Rand lifted a strange object that was also lying besides Ryouga.
"What's this?"

  Ryouga's eyes widened slightly when he saw Rand playing with his
portable stove. "That's not important," he said, snatching the
device. *No way in hell I'm gonna try and explain that thing to
them!* he thought quickly.

  Before the natives could do anything else, Ryouga found what he was
looking for. He took out a couple a postcards, and began thumbing
through them. "Here," he said, giving one to Perrin, who took it
slowly. It was one of his older and less fancy postcards of Kyoto he
had never gotten around to send to anyone. At least Ryouga _thought_
it was Kyoto. Cities all looked alike to him. The postcard showed a
part of the city, namely a small park surrounded by skyscrapers.

  Perrin ignored the others crowding over his shoulder. *What kind of
paper is this?* he wondered, fingering the postcard. He turned it
around and there were suddenly a chorus of gasps.

  "What kind of picture _is_ this?" Rand blurted out loud, ignoring the
'ooohs' and 'aaahs' coming from around him. It was unlike anything he
had ever seen before - the details were astounding!

  "It's a postcard," said Ryouga slowly, having not quite expected such
an... enthusiastic reaction. "Look at the picture specifically."

  Mat spoke up. "What are those grey things in the background?

  "They're office buildings."

  Thom frowned. "What are those?" he said, pointing on the card.

  Ryouga looked. "Those are people," he said, confused.

  Thom was the first to react. "That can't be right!" the gleeman
protested. "If I'm interpreting the scale correctly, then those...
buildings would be at _least_ several hundred feet tall!"

  Ryouga shrugged. "I told you so. You're the ones who didn't believe
me."

  Perrin rubbed a finger against the glossy finish of the postcard.
"How could they draw this so precisely? This... paper doesn't even
feel like you can write on it."

  Ryouga was about to try and explain when Rand managed to get his hands
on one of his travel guides.

  "Look at this book!" the tall youth said. "The pages are so thina and
you don't even see the binding! And..." he fell silent when he
noticed that there were lots of picture in the travel guide.  He
frowned when he noticed something. "Is this a prank? This is full of
chicken scratchings!"

  Mat, Perrin and Thom promptly forgot about the postcard and clustered
around Rand.

  "What do you mean, 'chicken scratchings'?" asked the gleeman.  Rand
showed him a few pages of Japanese text. Thom blinked. "I can't make
heads or toes of this, but I doubt they're chicken scratchings.  No
one would waste this fine paper like this. He turned to Ryouga, a
curious expression on his face. "Can you explain this, boy?"

  Ryouga sighed. This was going to take a while.

  * * *

  Eventually, it was Moiraine who broke the groups and told everyone to
go to sleep. Rand, Mat and Perrin protested, but the Aes Sedai
countered by raising an eyebrow, which quickly reduced the number of
protests to zero, by way of splutters.

  Ukyou and Akane joined Ryouga and Ranma, who were spreading their thin
bedrolls on the ground.

  "So what did you guys talk about?" asked Akane.

  "This and that," Ranma said, shrugging. "Found out a lot of useful
things about this place. It'll be handy if we want to leave these
guys and go to Tar Valon on our own."

  "About that, Ranchan..." Ukyou smiled uneasily. "You know that power
Moiraine has? Channeling?"

  "Yeah, what about it?"

  Ukyou took a deep breath. "Apparently, I can do it too."

  Ranma blinked. "What?" he asked dumbly.

  "She says I've got the spark for it," Ukyou explained quickly.  "She
also said that... um..." she halted uneasily, "that I've... got three
out of four chances of dying if I'm not properly trained."

  Ranma gaped. "What?" he hissed.

  Seeing that Ukyou was still a bit flustered, Akane took over.
"Moiraine says that it's for Ukyou's own safety. She said that women
who have the spark often die if they're not trained properly.  Some
sort of incurable wasting sickness that happens when the spark begins
to manifest," she explained.

  "But that's impossible!" Ranma protested. "The True Source doesn't
exist back home!"

  "Moiraine is fairly sure it does," said Ukyou. "She says that the
problem is that we're simply not aware of it since there's no
equivalent of the White Tower to train young channelers." She paused.
"Egwene managed to tap into it tonight, but I couldn't." She sounded
disappointed. "Stupid concentration exercises. All they do is help
me tap my Ki, not the One Power..."

  Ranma stared at her. After a few moments, he shook his head and
turned to Akane. "What about you? Can you do that too?"

  Annoyance flittered through Akane's features. "Apparently, Moiraine
thinks I'm some sort of mutant, as far as the One Power is concerned."

  "Whaddya mean, 'mutant'? Tomboy, I understand, but... Ow!" he
stopped when Akane's fist met with his face.

  "Baka," Akane huffed, slightly annoyed. "She says that I react
strangely to the One Power, and I believe her. Either I disrupt the
weaves or I amplify them. Last time that happened was at the ferry
when she washed the fatigue away..."

  "Are you okay?" suddenly chorused Ranma and Ryouga in concern.

  Akane blinked, then colored slightly. "Yeah, I am, really!"

  "I just wish Moiraine would have let me cook okonomiyaki tonight,"
Ukyou grumbled, trying to divert Ranma's attention. "I did manage to
get the most important ingredients from Mistress al'Vere's kitchen,
after all." Ranma was about to say something, but Lan passed by them
and told them to be quiet so everyone could get some sleep.

  "We'll talk tomorrow," Ranma said quickly.

  While most of them quickly fell asleep, Ukyou quickly found herself
lost in a myriad of thoughts. The Aes Sedai had said the she could
learn to channel. The thought of being able to throw lightning bolts
and fireballs at will appealed to her. This time, she would have a
definite advantage over the other fiancees, even over Akane.  When
Ranchan realized what she could do, he'd come to his senses and marry
his cute fiancee.

  Her last conscious thoughts were about okonomiyaki made entirely with
the One Power.

  * * *

  The following morning, everyone talked to each other. Ukyou and Akane
explained things further to Ranma and Ryouga, who then angrily spoke
to Moiraine, who coolly deflected them. Moiraine then talked to Lan,
who told the Emond's Fielders to get the horses ready. Rand and
Egwene had a shouting match, which Mat and Perrin wisely stayed out
of.

  Once on the road Mat, Perrin, Rand and Thom kept badgering Ryouga
about details of his homeland while Ranma kept company with Akane and
Ukyou, much to Ryouga's annoyance. When Ranma switched his attentions
to Lan and Moiraine (or was it them who ordered him to run besides
them?), Ukyou and Akane began talking to Egwene, to Ryouga's further
annoyance. In short, everyone spent the day finding out what the
others knew. The consequences of all this made themselves known later
that day when the group stopped for the evening: the Emond's Fielders
were even less intimidated by the Nerimians anymore, which pleased
Moiraine somewhat, while Ranma and Ryouga now knew almost everything
that Akane and Ukyou knew about the One Power, to Moiraine's slight
annoyance.

  The fun began when Lan tested the Emond's Fielders' skills.  Ranma and
Ryouga, having nothing better to do, watched Mat, Perrin and Rand put
arrows in a tree. After Rand finished putting his arrows in the tree,
the two martial artists stepped up to them.

  "Not bad at all," said Ranma approvingly.

  Rand was mildly irritated by the younger man's words. "Not bad?" he
said, annoyed. "I'd like to see you try to do better."

  Ranma smirked. "Since you ask so nicely," he drawled, "I will."  He
took an arrow in his hands, flipped it around like the world's most
disproportionate throwing dart, and, to the Emond's Fielders'
surprise, threw it at the tree.

  Lan raised an eyebrow when Ranma's arrow thunked right in the middle
of Rand's tight grouping. Mat, Rand and Perrin just stared.

  Mat was the first to react: "How could you...?" He stopped,
frowning. "You cheated! You were using your... your Ki! You guided
the arrow there!"

  Ranma gave him a disgusted look. "What? I couldn't guide that arrow
there with my Ki if I wanted to! It doesn't work like that!  *Not
_yet_ anyway...* It makes me stronger and faster, but the rest is
pure skill."

  Mat was still frowning when Ryouga stepped up. "I guess it's my turn,
now," he said smugly.

  Ranma instantly became suspicious. Ryouga never spoke like that
unless...

  Ryouga smirked triumphantly, and threw his arrow the same way Ranma
had thrown his.

  This time, Lan's eyes widened, along with the others'. "A shaft shot.
With your bare hands," he said, keeping his voice flat despite the
surprise his eyes displayed.

  Ranma frowned at Ryouga's arrow, which had imbedded itself in the very
middle of his, splitting it apart. "When the hell did you get so
good, P-chan?"

  "You seem to forget that I'm very good at throwing things," Ryouga
said, fingering his bandanna. "Too bad, isn't it... little girl," he
added, his smirk intensifying.

  Ranma's frown deepened. *If bacon-butt wants a fight...* "I suddenly
feel the need to... ah... stretch out, P-chan. Care for a sparring
match?"

  Ryouga slowly cracked his knuckles. "I thought you'd never ask," he
said, smiling widely.

  Lan warily watched the two boys as they made their way about a dozen
feet away and took ready stances, Ranma barehanded and Ryouga wielding
that... umbrella of his.

  "No Ki techniques, okay? Don't want to attract any blackspawn or
anything..." said Ranma.

  Ryouga nodded. "Agreed."

  Then the fun began...

  * * *

  Moiraine was sitting behind a rock, teaching theories about the One
Power to the girls when she began hearing sounds of people fighting.
She ignored the sounds at first, but gave up when she began hearing
some of the others cheering.

  "_What_ are they doing?" she asked in a peeved tone. Akane and Ukyou
sighed in unison. Egwene just looked worried. Moiraine frowned and
rose up, circling the boulder.

  Egwene used the opportunity to lean towards the other two girls.
"I've been watching both of you stare at Ranma when you thought no one
was looking." Akane blushed a bit, but Ukyou smiled unabashedly.
"Don't you think both of you could do better than Ranma? He's a lout
who doesn't seem to show respect to anyone, not even to Moiraine Sedai
and he seems to think that beating problems with his fists is the only
way to solve things."

  Akane and Ukyou stared at one another.

  <Do you want to try and explain the engagements to her? 'Cause I
certainly don't if she's uptight about that...> asked Ukyou in
Japanese.

  Akane shook her head quickly.

  Ukyou smirked. She turned back towards Egwene, who seemed confused at
Ukyou's use of the Nerimians' native language. "He's got other
qualities, you know," said the okonomiyaki chef.

  "Like what?" Egwene asked incredulously. "And why does he wear a
braid, at that? Half the women in the village kept staring at him
because of that." She shook her head. "He shouldn't be off his
mother's apron strings."

  Akane looked puzzled. "Wait, what about his braid? What does his
hairstyle have anything to do with anything?"

  Egwene looked at them oddly for a moment. "Of course!" she realized.
"It's probably not the custom where you come from."

  It was Ukyou's turn to look uncertain. "Custom?"

  "In the Two Rivers," Egwene explained, "when the Women's Council
decides that a girl is old enough to become a woman, they let her
braid her hair. Only women braid their hair."

  Ukyou thought about Ranma's curse and couldn't help giggling a bit at
that.

  Akane pointed at Egwene's unbound hair. "Why did you undo _your_
braid yesterday, then?"

  Egwene blushed. "I'm going to become Aes Sedai and Aes Sedai don't
braid their hair if they don't want to."

  The other two girls raised an eyebrow each.

  "So you're dropping an ancestral custom just because you're training
to become an Aes Sedai? What gives? Are you ashamed of your
village's customs?" asked Ukyou, frowning a bit.

  Egwene blinked. "I'm not ashamed of the custom, but... I'm going to
become an Aes Sedai!" she said, as though it explained everyhting.

  "So what?" asked Akane. "Do they have rules concerning how to wear
their hair or something? Just because you're becomeing Aes Sedai is
no reason to forget your past."

  "Well no, but I wanted to point out that I'm making a new beginning
for myself," protested Egewene. She turned to Ukyou. "Aren't you
proud that you'll be becoming an Aes Sedai as well?"

  Ukyou looked at Egwene blankly, then shook her head. "I don't give a
burned okonomiyaki about becoming an _Aes Sedai_. All I want to learn
is how not to get killed for wielding the Power. A few tricks with
the Power would be nice, too."

  "And what about Ranma? You should give up any claim on him.  You'll
have much better things to do at the Tower than moon around for some
lout like him..." Egwene got no further as Ukyou suddenly blurred,
her face appearing scant millimeters from Egwene's own.

  "I will _not_ give up Ranchan for anything! Not for the Powre,
however tempting it may be, and certainly not for becoming Aes Sedai,"
Ukyou snapped in a moment of anger. "Ten years I looked for him,
Egwene. Ten years!" She slowly sat back at her place. When she saw
Egwene's shocked look, Ukyou shook her head. "Sorry about getting in
your face like that, but it's a sore point with me."

  "That's all right," Egwene said faintly.

  Neither noticed the sullen glare Akane was directing at Ukyou.

* * *

  While this discussion was taking place, Moiraine had been treated to
an odd sight: Ranma and Ryouga were fighting... but it didn't look
like any fighting she had ever seen before. Since there were no
Trollocs around this time, she was able to appreciate what was going
on. Ranma had told her that his fighting was an art, but she had not
truly understood until now.

  It was like watching the elements fight. Ranma was moving, twisting
around like water, or maybe wind, while Ryouga was a mountain: slower
(relatively speaking, of course), but far more enduring. Ranma... was
dancing, she decided. He was dancing around Ryouga, who was no slouch
himself. Kicks, punches, blocks and feints followed each other in a
flurry of acrobatic flips and twists she would not have believed
possible in one so young. She stood, watching, until Ryouga scored a
solid blow that sent Ranma reeling on the forest floor. She was about
to step in to intervene when Ranma sprang back to his feet, none the
worse for wear.

  * * *

  Ranma grinned as he got back in a ready stance. "Good shot, Ryouga.
Nice to see you're not completely incompetent."

  Ryouga snorted. "Who just decked who, Ranma?" The Lost Boy tensed
when he saw Ranma lean a bit forward. Anytime now, he would be
launching an Amaguriken-speed flurry of punches. When Ranma dashed
forward, Ryouga put his arms up to stop the incoming punches, but got
a nasty surprise when he felt the impacts on his shins and legs, and
not in the face or arms.

  Ranma watched with satisfaction as Ryouga slowly sunk to the ground,
his legs giving way. "Didn't expect that, did you?" he said,
laughing. Ryouga had obviously expected an Amaguriken, so Ranma had
decided to retry the Ryuuseiu Geri instead. The flurry of kicks had
done their job, bringing Ryouga to his knees. But still, it _had_
been a good sparring match. He felt a lot better now.

  Ryouga slowly got up again, his features slightly strained.  "Okay,
you win that one," he said slowly. "But on the day I become fast
enough to match your speed, you'd better watch out..."

  Ranma smirked. "That means I've got 'till the next Ice Age, then?"

  Ryouga snorted.

  Moiraine came over to them. "Impressive, but what were you two
fighting about?" she asked, disapproval radiating from her voice.

  Ranma and Ryouga looked blankly at her.

  "That was a sparring match," explained Ranma, "Not a real fight."

  The Aes Sedai raised an eyebrow. "A sparring match? Forgive me, but
you both looked a bit _too_ enthusiastic for a mere sparring match."

  Ryouga shrugged. "So what if we _do_ get into it? If it was a real
match, we would have torn the entire landscape apart with our
techniques by now."

  Ranma nodded. "Ryouga's right. Besides, we always fight like this.
Ryouga's the only one I know who's strong enough to give me a decent
workout."

  "Too bad I can't say the same about you," added a smirking Ryouga.

  Ranma gave him a red eye.

  Moiraine shook her head and went back to teaching the girls.

  When she was far enough, Lan approached the Nerimians, accompanied by
the Emond's Fielders and the gleeman.

  "Impressive fighting style," commented Lan, sounding as if he was
discussing the weather. "Who trained you?"

  Ranma shrugged. "My father. He has his flaws, but he's an excellent
teacher, if nothing _else_," he finished in a slightly sarcastic tone.

  The Warder noticed the tone at the end of the sentence. "You don't
like your father all that much?" he asked curiously.

  Ranma frowned slightly. "Sometimes I wonder. I mean, yeah, he's my
father and I guess he likes me, even if he's got weird ways of showing
it, namely his training methods, but..." he sighed, "He's done pretty
stupid things at times, the Neko-Ken being one of them. He's also
engaged me to two girls and gave me a bloody curse to remember it all
by. He _means_ well, but he tends not to think past his next meal."

  Perrin blinked.

  "Engaged to _two_ girls?" said Mat wonderingly.

  "Just drop it, okay?" Ranma said warningly.

  Mat made warding gestures and retreated slightly.

  "Why did you stay with him all that time, then? Surely you would have
had an opportunity to leave your father if he kept making mistakes,"
commented Rand.

  Ranma shrugged. "Because he's my father. I respect him even if he
makes mistakes once in a while. He taught me honor, though he's not
often quite capable of living up to the same advice he taught me,"
finished Ranma. The look in the martial artist's eyes prevented Rand
from asking further questions.

  Lan turned to Ryouga. "What about you? Who taught you?"

  Ryouga shrugged. "I trained myself, mostly. I started getting lost
when I was six or seven, so I needed to learn to take care of myself.
There were some people who taught me a few things on the road.  I
learned the Shishi Houkou Dan from a miner, for example."

  The Warder nodded thoughtfully.

  "Why'd you ask?" queried Ranma. "You wanna learn a few moves after
all?"

  The Warder nodded. "I might. Your fighting style seems very
efficient, even if it's an unarmed style. I prefer the sword,
myself," he said, patting the blade at his side.

  Ranma shrugged. "Your choice. To me, a sword is only something that
the enemy can take away from me. I prefer to rely on my hands and
feet."

  "There are some other advantages to wearing a sword," Lan added.
"Intimidation, for one. Village bullies are less likely to pick a
fight with someone who has a sword and knows how to use it."

  Ranma smirked. "I haven't needed to worry about village bullies since
I was nine years old. If someone tries to mug me, they'll have a lot
of bruises to remember me by."

  Lan looked at Ranma thoughtfully for a moment. "I don't doubt that
you could, boy, but remember this: we don't want to attract attention
and beating someone up with your kind of fighting style definitely
will, and I'm not going to guess the riots you could start if you
begin using those Ki bursts of yours."

  An annoyed look flashed through Ranma's features. "I know, I know...
Ryouga and I already agreed that we wouldn't use Ki maneuvers inside
any village or city unless our lives depended on it."

  Lan nodded. "Good. Now, the problem is to stop people from trying to
rob you or something equally witless. The other boys have weapons,
and while anyone with half a mind would not fight you when they see
how you walk, village bullies usually don't _have_ that many wits.  It
would be better if you and Ryouga wore a sword or some other weapon,
even if you do not know how to use it..."

  "I do know how to use a sword," Ranma clarified. "I just choose not
to use one."

  Lan raised an eyebrow. "How good are you?"

  Ranma shrugged. "Good enough to scare any bully off, I suppose.  I've
learned the basics of a lot of styles."

  Lan looked pensive for a moment. "Then how about that sparring
session we talked about yesterday?"

  Ranma smiled. "Sure! It's been a while since I used a sword,
anyway."

  Lan nodded, then turned to Rand, who was talking with Ryouga along
with the others. "Sheepherder, can I borrow your sword for a moment?"

  Rand blinked. "My sword? Why?" he asked, unintentionally putting a
protective hand on its hilt.

  "I want to see how well Ranma can handle a sword," replied the Warder.

  Rand looked hesitatingly to Ranma, then reluctantly pulled his sword
out of its scabbard. "You'd better not break it or something!" he
warned.

  The Warder looked amused at that comment. "Don't worry, sheepherder,
I doubt even Ranma could break your sword."

  Rand frowned at the humor in the always-serious Warder's voice.  What
was _that_ supposed to mean? He reluctantly passed the sword to
Ranma, who took it.

  "Strange," mused Ranma, looking at the sword. "I'd never seen katanas
with western hilts before we came here." He shook his head.  "I'd
like the scabbard and swordbelt too, if possible," he added.

  Rand blinked. "Why? You don't need the scabbard to fight with a
sword."

  Ranma shrugged. "The scabbard is an important part of the style I
want to use. Humor me. I promise I won't wreck it."

  Rand looked at Lan, who nodded. He slowly undid the swordbelt and
gave it to Ranma, who fastened it around his own waist. He put the
sword back in the scabbard, leaving a hand on the hilt. After backing
a few steps, he settled into a stance Lan had never seen before:
Ranma's right leg was extended in front, knee slightly flexed, while
the left leg was folded with the knee bent slightly towards the
ground. The whole effect was that Ranma looked as if he was on the
verge of unsheathing the sword.

  "Well?" said martial artist.

  Lan unsheated his sword and took a position in front of Ranma.  "Odd
stance," he commented.

  Ranma grinned. "To you, maybe. It's part of one of the styles I know
a bit of. It's called battoujutsu."

  By now, the Emond's Fielders were all watching Ranma, while Ryouga had
a somewhat bored look.

  Lan gave no warning before he dashed towards Ranma, his sword coming
up in a sweeping blow, only to meet the other sword sword halfway
through, the sound of steel against steel ringing in the night.  Lan
wasted no time and began a complicated series of forms which left
Ranma very impressed at the Warder's skills.

  *He _does_ use the Soul of Ice in battle,* Ranma thought, excited.
This might prove to be more interesting than he had first thought.
Lan was executing perfect sword forms while partially hiding his Ki at
the same time. Ranma had to be careful not to let his eyes off the
Warder and even then, had to exert some attention to keep all of the
Warder's movements accounted for. Kunou could swing his bokken a lot
faster, but never bothered to try and learn stealth and that made him
pathetically easy to track. What the Warder lacked in speed, he made
up in style. The two might just have been sparring, but Ranma was
definitely surprised at the skill being displayed. *It'd be great to
see what he could do if I could get him past his block,* thought
Ranma, as he flipped his way out of another strike.

  Seeing the Warder come at him again, he flipped over him, resheathing
his sword and returning to the starting stance he had used. Lan was
already rushing him again. He then decided to go on the offense.  He
allowed himself to be backed a step, then jumped over Lan, only to use
the tree behind the Warder as a springboard.

  Lan almost didn't block the unorthodox attack in time. His respect
for Ranma had gone up another notch. The boy didn't seem to practice
standard sword forms. Instead, his style seemed to emphasize speed
and flexibility. A fusion of sword forms and his barehanded style.
He soon found himself on the defensive, parrying Ranma's
lightning-quick slashes.

  It was then that Ranma noticed that Moiraine was again watching him
and sending annoyed looks his way. A silent communication passed
between the martial artist and the Warder, and both stopped attacking
at the same time. Lan concluded that while it was obvious that the
boy hadn't been trying to kill him, he had still pressed him hard.

  The Warder nodded. "Good match. Very unusual style, though," he
said, then blinked when Ranma bowed.

  Ranma grinned when he stood back upright. "You're pretty good
yourself. All you need is more speed and maybe a few unarmed moves
and you'd be all set. I have a couple of exercises in mind for that,
if you want."

  "What about you, Ranma?" asked Ryouga from the side. "Are you going
to take up kendo?" The Lost Boy grinned smugly. "Maybe we ought to
call you The Red Crossdresser of Furinkan High?" he gloated,
snickering.

  Ranma frowned. "Since when did you become a comedian, P-Chan?  At
least I'd still be human. They'd have to call _you_ the Lost Pig of
Nerima!" he said, pointing the sword at Ryouga, who stopped snickering
and glared at Ranma.

  Mat, who had listened to the exchanged, leaned towards Rand and
Perrin. "Did that make any sense to either of you?" he whispered.

  The other two shook their heads. "Not a thing," they both answered.

  Lan raised an eyebrow at the exchange, but said nothing as Ranma tuned
around and gave Rand his sword back.

  Rand stared at the sword, as if suddenly reminded of something.  He
looked back up at Ranma. "How can you possibly be that good?" he
blurted out. "I never thought _anyone_ could move like that!  I
mean... bouncing off a _tree_?"

  "Training," Ranma replied with a smirk. "Lots and lots of training."

  "But what kind of training?" insisted Mat.

  Ranma looked at him. "I can show you. I could even teach you a few
moves that would help if you ever lose your weapons."

  The three Emond's Fielders looked at one another. "What kind of
moves?" cautiously asked Perrin.

  Ranma smiled. "Basic blocks and punches. Maybe a throw or two.
They're useful against opponents who rush at you. It wouldn't be
_too_ hard because you're all in pretty good shape. Better than I
would have expected for village boys."

  The Emond's Fielders still looked uncertain.

  "Look," explained Ranma. "I'm not forcing you. I won't teach someone
who doesn't want to learn, so take your time and think about it."

  They nodded.

  Ranma turned to Moiraine. "So what's _your_ problem? Lan and I were
just having some fun. If we'd been fighting for real, things would
have gotten real ugly, real fast."

  Moiraine just looked at him. "I pray you can restrain your exuberance
when we get to Baerlon," she said ominously. "We do not need to
attract so much attention."

  Ranma was tempted to give her the tongue, but something in the Aes
Sedai's gaze told him she wouldn't appreciate the gesture.

  Soon, they were all asleep once more.

  * * *

  Over the following days, the pattern repeated itself. Someone would
speak to someone else, and in return he or she would speak to yet
another person.

  There were some changes, like when Ryouga took over Perrin's
'training'. Ranma had claimed that because of his broad frame, Perrin
would have better luck learning elements of Ryouga's style, because
his own relied too much on speed, which the blacksmith apprentice
sorely lacked.

  Ranma ended up teaching Mat and Rand. Surprisingly enough, after both
learned to fall correctly (which took a while), Mat seemed to learn
faster than Rand. Ranma said it was because Mat was more flexible and
more limber than Rand, to which Rand had replied that Mat was faster
because he was used to having people run after him because of his
pranks. Mat had not appreciated the comment and an impromptu sparring
session had followed, much to Ranma's approval and Moiraine and
Egwene's stern disapproval.

  Lan, of course, kept teaching weapons to the young men, while trying
out some meditation exercises Ranma had come up with. He still
doubted he could do as much as Ranma did with his Ki, but he did not
mind learning new techniques.

  Moiraine's discussions with Egwene, Ukyou and Akane continued during
that time, but it was only on the fourth day that Ukyou managed to
touch the Source instead of tapping her Ki. She had then amazed
Moiraine by being able of duplicating almost every exercise Egwene had
done so far. Ukyou had replied that it hadn't been a big deal since
she remembered all the theory behind the exercises. All she had to do
was put them into practice.

  Akane was still pretty much a mystery to Moiraine. The Aes Sedai kept
testing Akane, but the youngest Tendo daughter seemed to have little
control so far over her mysterious ability. Any weave that touched
Akane would either be amplified as with an angreal, or disrupted into
basic elements. Since the results of undoing weaves that way could
have serious repercussions, Moiraine's experiments had to be kept on
the small scale, lest accidents occur. She did, however, keep
instructing Akane in the ways of the Power, hoping that the lectures
might spark some understanding that would later turn to control of the
ability.

  * * *

  It was on the fifth day that the first inevitability occurred.

  "I can't find him anywhere," said Lan, coming back towards the group.
"He must have hidden his tracks well."

  Moiraine frowned.

  "But he said he'd be back in a moment!" protested Mat "You don't get
lost from going twenty paces away from a group!"

  Ranma rolled his eyes. "It ain't your fault. He didn't hide his
tracks - he simply got lost. He couldn't have sneaked off, because
he's about as subtle as a rampaging boar."

  "Ranma!" said Akane, annoyed. "You could try to be a bit more
concerned about Ryouga-kun!"

  "Why should I, Akane? Ryouga getting lost is almost as natural as the
sun rising in the morning. He'll find his way back - he always does.
I'll bet you that in less than a month, no matter _where_ we are,
Ryouga will bump into us." Inside his head, he couldn't help adding:
*Or more precisely into me.*

  Moiraine still looked doubtful, but eventually had to concede the
point, as she could not afford the time for Ryouga to come back.  The
Emond's Fielders were a bit harder to convince. Apparently, none of
them believed Ryouga could have such a bad sense of direction, but
Ranma and Ukyou eventually managed to convince them. Akane merely
sniffed at their obvious exaggerations, a habit she had borrowed from
Egwene.

  * * *

  The following day, they arrived at Baerlon. The Emond's Fielders
reaction to the "vastness" of Baerlon provided the Nerimians with a
good laugh. Mat began accusing Ranma of lying when the martial artist
tried to explain the sheer size of Tokyo, which prompted said martial
artist to threaten Mat with extra sparring sessions, which shut the
older boy quickly enough.

  As they were nearing the city, Moiraine gave them all directives about
what to do and not to do, especially concerning their names.  A bit
later, while Moiraine was talking with the gate guard, Akane looked at
Ranma, who did not look all that well. In fact, he looked pretty
tired.

  "Are you okay, Ranma?" asked Akane with concern.

  Ranma waved his hand. "Yeah, I'm all right. Just haven't gotten much
sleep these last few days, stupid dreams and all and... well, I'm used
to eating more when I run all day long, y'know..."

  Akane looked a bit uncomfortable from atop her horse. She had just
been reminded that Ranma (and Ryouga for that matter), had been
running almost non-stop for six days now. She frowned a bit.
"Wait... What do you mean, 'stupid dreams'?"

  Ranma shrugged. "I keep having dreams that don't make sense."

  Akane became curious. "Like what?"

  Ranma frowned. "There's one guy that comes up in almost every one.
_Very_ tall, black hair, beardless, looks like a gaijin. Anyway,
there was one where I was standing in the middle of a battlefield.
There was only that guy left and he was covered in blood and he's
holding a really weird weapon, looks like a gold boomerang. There's
another one where the guy is teaching sword forms to a bunch of people
who're wearing fancy coats that all have the yin-yang sign. I got
other dreams, but I don't remember'em all that well."

  Akane blinked. "You're right. They _do_ sound weird."

  Ranma shrugged again, before cracking a yawn. "The worst is that when
I wake up from those, it's as if I hadn't slept at all."

  "Well, you'll probably be able to get a decent meal here at least."

  Ranma brightened considerably. "I hope so. I'm starvin' here."

  Akane shifted on her horse, grimacing. "Oh, well... I don't know if I
really _am_ hungry or if it's just my subconscious telling me to get
off this horse. I didn't know riding was so painful. I'm going to be
sore for the next week."

  The group soon began moving again and Ranma found himself walking
between Rand and Mat's horses. They were passing a house when water
suddenly flew out of the window, striking Rand. Ranma gave a sudden
start.

  "Hey!" protested the now-wet redheaded farmer. "What was _that_ for?"
he demanded, only to get the window panes from the window closed on
him. He turned around when he heard Perrin and Mat laughing at his
misfortune.

  Besides him, Ranma was trying to get his heartbeat under control.  *If
it hadn't been for Rand,* the martial artist thought, *I would have
gotten splashed for sure!* Considering the low tolerance for the
unusual the general populace of this land had, Ranma was not eager to
demonstrate his curse in the middle of a busy street. He still didn't
understand why he hadn't gotten splashed once during the last week,
but he wasn't going to argue. He was about to relax when it was Mat's
turn to get drenched, this time from a window on _his_ side of the
street.

  While Rand was ribbing Mat, Ranma's eyes bugged out. *What is this, a
conspiracy?* he wondered. Two attempted splashings in less than a
minute, and yet... he didn't have single drop of water on him because
of the other two guys. He _was_ getting considerably nervous, though.

  <Akane! Ucchan!> he called out in Japanese. He saw the two girls,
who were ahead of him, turn back. <I think my curse wants to make up
for lost time!> he said nervously, indicating Rand and Mat's wet
figures.

  The girls' eyes widened. Before they could say anything, Moiraine
turned around and looked at Ranma in irritation. "What are you
talking... about...?" she trailed off when she saw Rand and Mat's
soggy frames. She frowned. "What happened to you two?" Rand and Mat
told her, and she shook her head, while Egwene sniffed at their
'childish antics'. Before anything else could occur, they reached an
inn called the Stag and Lion.

  After a brief introduction with the innkeeper, the stablehand led the
party's horses away and the group went inside the inn, where Ranma
sighed in relief. He knew he could very well be splashed inside, but
the possibilities were lower, now.

  First order of business were baths. Ranma was trudging after the
group when he glanced back and saw Moiraine at the bottom of the
stairs with a young, effeminate-looking man with with curly hair.
Moiraine gestured towards Ranma and the young man's eyes widened when
he looked at him. A chill passed through Ranma, who chose to hurry up
the stairs. Once at the top, he shook his head and followed the
others in a room where a dozen copper tubs were sitting. A man, Ara,
was pouring hot water into the awaiting basins.

  After making sure the water was sufficiently hot, Ranma allowed
himself to relax. Running for six days had put knots everywhere in
him and he thoroughly enjoyed the soak. <Kami-sama this feels
_good_!> he groaned in Japanese.

  Rand, who was in the tub besides him, blinked. "What was that?"

  Ranma sighed contendedly. "Are you deaf or something? I said this
feels great. _You_ haven't been running for six days, you know..."

  On the other side of the room, Ara blinked and stared at Ranma.

  Mat blinked. "How _can_ you do that, anyway? You ran me ragged in
the evenings with your... training, but I certainly wouldn't be able
to run all day long like you did _and_ do all that training in the
evening."

  "Training," Ranma replied, eyes closed. "I've had to do it since I
could walk."

  Mat shook his head. "I bet you could probably beat an Aiel..."  he
trailed off when Lan entered the room and dismissed Ara.

  Ranma opened his eyes when he felt the Warder approach him after a
minute. "What?"

  Lan put a small leather purse on the stool near Ranma's tub.  "Here
are some coins. After you finish your bath, go out and buy a weapon.
It will help you look less like a country boy to those who can't tell
from the way you move." Lan paused. "I'll see to it that you get a
horse, too. You raised a few eyebrows when you entered without one
when all of us did."

  "That ain't _my_ fault," shot back Ranma.

  Lan ignored his retort and began filling his own tub.

  * * *

  One by one, everyone left the baths until only Rand and Ranma
remained. When the two of them finally stepped out of the bathing
room, they ran into the young, curly-haired man Ranma had seen
Moiraine talk to.

  "So..." the 'young man' said with a girl's voice mused out loud. "A
shepherd with a heron-mark sword and a scruffy boy with a pigtail.
You must be Rand and Ranma, then. My name is Min."

  "You're a girl?" blurted Ranma in surprise.

  Rand stared at Ranma, speechless. *And I though _I_ was awkward
around girls!*

  Min's eyes narrowed. "Of course I'm a girl, you witless woolhead,"
she snapped. *What is he? Blind?* she thought, annoyed.

  "I ain't no woolhead!" shot back Ranma angrily. "You just dress too
much like a boy!"

  Min snorted and and turned to look at Rand, ignoring Ranma for the
moment: "Moiraine told me you were from the Two Rivers. Stubborn
people there, or so I've heard. They say you look meek on the
outside, but you're as tough as old oak roots inside." While Rand's
eyes widened at the mention of 'Lady Alys'' real name, Min turned to
Ranma before the shepherd could stammer an explanation. "And you..."
She frowned as she looked just over his head. "Just _what_ are you?"

  Ranma became offended. "What's _that_ supposed to mean!?"

  "_You_ don't make any sense at all! The images make no sense!" Min
shot back, annoyed.

  Both Ranma and Rand frowned. "What images?" they chorused.

  "I see things when I look at people," Min explained. "Images, all
sorts of things. 'Mistress Alys'" she emphasized, looking at Rand and
rolling her eyes, "says I see pieces of the Pattern, but that sounds a
bit too grand for me." She pointed a finger at Rand's chest.  "You,
for example. I see a sword that isn't a sword, a golden crown of
laurel's leaves, a beggar's staff, you pouring water on sand, a bloody
hand with a red-hot iron, three women standing over a funeral bier
with you on it, black rock wet with blood..."

  "Stop it!" protested Rand, now more than slightly uneasy now.  "I
don't know what you're babbling about!"

  "It's not babbling!" Min retorted. "Everything _will_ happen.  It
always does! I can't always tell what the images mean, but they all
mean _something_..." she trailed off when she saw Ranma trying to
edge his way out downstairs. "Oh no you don't, you witless hay-hair!"
she said, rounding on the martial artist. "The shepherd may have a
lot images, but you..." she said, in equal parts of confusion and
anger. "What I see is impossible - no one can be two people at once!"

  Ranma blinked. "Two people... at once? What are you talking about?"

  Min's anger faded, only to be replaced by puzzlement. "It's what I
see: there's you, and there's a girl who looks like you, but with
bright red hair... and they're both you!"

  Rand stared at Ranma. Again.

  Ranma's eyes were bugging out. *The curse?! She can see the
curse?!?* Sweating, he tried to push past Min. "I don't know what
you're talking about. I don't think you..."

  Min quickly placed herself back in Ranma's path. "You don't know what
I'm talking about, do you? Well what about these images, then: a
small spring with a pole in it, a blindfolded woman with red hair
wielding a golden halberd, you running around a wheel, a silver-haired
man, you reaching down in the ground and pulling light from it, a
redstone doorway..." The rest was cut off as Ranma's face suddenly
stiffened in shock.

  "Redstone doorway? Are you sure!?" Ranma asked, grabbing Min by the
shoulders.

  Min tried to pull free. "Let me go!"

  Ranma began to shake her. "Where is it? Where's the doorway?"

  "Hey!" Rand intervened. "Don't shake her like that!"

  "I don't know where it is!" Min snapped. "All I know is it will play
a role in your future!"

  Ranma released her, looking disappointed. "Chikuso," he murmured.
"So close."

  Min kept looking at him strangely while rubbing her shoulders
absently. *He _looks_ young. How can he be so strong?* she wondered.
"Can you answer one question? No matter how insane it sounds?" she
asked.

  Ranma looked at her, frowning. "What?"

  "Are you a red-haired girl?"

  Ranma's left eye twitched. Rand simply gaped at Min.

  "NO I'M NOT! Do I _look_ like a red-haired girl?" Ranma said
ominously.

  Min was curiously unfazed by Ranma's outburst. "The images say you're
a red-haired girl. I don't know _why_, but they do, and they never
lie."

  "Well they do now!" Ranma shot back. "I am _not_ a _girl_!" Inside,
however, he was a nervous wreck. *Damn! Is she going to tell
everyone about the damn curse?*

  Rand finally made his jaw work again. "He's not a girl, trust me Min.
We would have... noticed by now."

  Ranma used the moment Min turned towards Rand to slip towards the
staircase. Min turned around. "Hey! Come back! I'm not finished!"

  "Well _I_ am!" Ranma shot back.

  "If you fight the silver-haired man, something really bad will
happen."

  Ranma halted in his steps and looked at Min over his shoulder.  "What
was that?"

  Min looked somewhat uncomfortable now. "I told you. You'll
eventually encounter a silver-haired man. He's extremely dangerous.
If you fight him, a tradgedy will happen. Something that will
threaten your life."

  Rand stared once more at Ranma.

  Ranma stared at her, then straightened. "I am Ranma Saotome of the
Saotome school of Indiscriminate Grappling. I can fight _anyone_."

  Min shook her head. "Fight him and you stand a very good chance to
die, trust me."

  Ranma frowned, then proceeded to hop down the stairs without glancing
back.

  Rand and Min stayed in the corridor, watching Ranma's departure.

  "By the way, farmboy, did you know your other friends are about as
strange as you?" said Min after a while.

  Rand blinked. "What?"

  * * *

  Ranma made his way downstairs and after a bit of asking around, was
led to the dining room where everyone was beginning to eat. He took a
seat near Akane and Ukyou and began serving himself. He looked at the
two girls, then at Moiraine.

  <Akane, Ucchan, did you meet a b... a girl with curly hair who
dresses like a boy?> he asked in Japanese.

  Akane and Ukyou both stopped eating and looked at him. <I saw her,>
slowly replied Ukyou in the same language. <What did she do?>  If it
was a marriage proposal, she'd kill her.

  Akane merely frowned.

  None of them noticed Moiraine watching them and looking generally
annoyed. Mat, Perrin and the gleeman were looking at them with
equally puzzled expressions.

  <She knows about the curse,> said Ranma after a while.

  "Nani!?" burst out the two girls. <You got splashed?!> asked Ukyou
quickly.

  <No, no!> protested Ranma. <She could see it in my aura.  She said
she saw a red-haired girl that was me, but she didn't understand what
it meant.>

  The girls relaxed. <They don't believe in magic here, Ranchan, so I
guess you're safe for the moment,> said Ukyou.

  Ranma nodded. <I hope so.>

  "Why did you talk like that?" asked Mat curiously at the same moment a
flustered Rand came into the dining room.

  Ranma shrugged. "'Cause I felt like it." He certainly wasn't going
to explain the curse to the Aes Sedai if he could help himself.  She
did not seem the type who would just accept it and go on.

  "What took you so long?" asked Perrin, directing his question at Rand.

  Rand shuddered. "That Min girl. She's crazy."

  Ranma raised his cup towards Rand. "I hear you!"

  Rand just looked at Ranma. "You know, Ranma, I still don't know how
you managed to think she was a boy."

  Mat immediately snarfed his drink, which prompted Perrin to ask him if
he was okay.

  Egwene just stared uncomprehendingly at Ranma.

  Akane frowned and Ukyou groaned.

  Moiraine raised an eyebrow, while Lan didn't display any visible
reaction. He just kept eating calmly.

  Ranma blushed. "She was dressed like a guy, okay?" He then proceeded
to try to bury himself in his food plate.

  Rand blinked.

  "Just when I think you've begun growing up..." Akane said, shaking
her head.

  Rand gave up trying to understand the outlanders. He took a few
servings when he glanced at Ranma, who was emptying his plate at a
speed he had never considered to be possible. "How can you eat so
fast?" he asked, staring at Ranma. His question drew the attention of
Mat, Perrin and Thom to Ranma's decimation of his food.

  "I'm hungry!" Ranma protested between two bites. "You guys've been
sitting on your horses for the last week. I _ran_ most of the way
here, remember?"

  "Not anymore," said Lan. "You'll have a horse tomorrow, but remember
that you'll also need to find yourself a weapon."

  "A weapon?" asked Ukyou, puzzled. "Why would Ranchan need one? He
fights barehanded."

  "Intimidation, Ucchan," replied Ranma.

  Ukyou nodded thoughtfully. "I see. Well, I might go look for some
breeches, myself. The dress Mistress al'Vere gave me is nice and all,
but I _really_ don't feel comfortable wearing one. Besides, if I have
to fight, I'll trip all over myself if I wear this."

  Moiraine frowned a bit at that, but said nothing. The rest of the
meal passed in relative silence, except when Lan related what he had
heard in the common room to Moiraine. Ranma listened, trying to fit
the concept of False Dragons and Whitecloaks in his mind along with
all the other things he had learned from Thom and Lan during the last
week.

  Soon, though, everyone became tired from the meal, and withdrew to
their rooms, where Ranma found himself bunking with Lan and Rand.

  * * *

  That night, Ranma dreamed again. He saw the mysterious black-haired
man again, who this time was talking with two other men. What caught
Ranma's attention is that one of them had silvery hair. Ranma tried
to remember the face, but the scenery abruptly changed once more.  He
was now standing in a village, the black-haired man there once more,
only this time he was facing another person. *A duel?* wondered
Ranma, when he saw the two men bow to one another.

  The opponent, who had dark green hair, was wielding a huge curved
blade, like a massive steel crescent moon with a small bluish orb on
one side of the blade. The black-haired man was wielding...
something. It looked like a giant, golden kusarigama, but when the
opponent attacked with a horizontal slash, the kusarigama's chain
retracted and the scythe-like blade righted itself on the weapon's
looped haft and became a giant halberd blade. Ranma only had time to
see a few thrusts being exchanged before he woke up.

  Ranma stared at the room's ceiling for a few minutes. *What the hell
kinda dreams are those?* he wondered in confusion. *The more I have
them, the more I remember... I wonder if the guy with the silver hair
was the one Min was talking about.* He soon gave up trying to
understand and fell back asleep.

  When he woke up again, Lan had already left the room and Rand was
tossing and turning in his sleep. Ranma quickly got dressed, but
looked at Rand before leaving the room. On a hunch, he went back to
Rand's bed and started shaking him. "Oi!" he said, "Wake up!"

  Rand stopped trashing and opened his eyes, blinking. "Whaaa?" he said
groggily.

  "I think you were having a nightmare or something," explained Ranma.

  Rand's eyes suddenly widened, all traces of sleep disappearing
immediately. He looked around in confusion. "No rats?..." he
mumbled.

  Ranma's expression became slightly concerned. "Rats? Are you okay?"

  Rand stared at Ranma for a few moments, then started. "Um..  Yeah,
I'm fine, Ranma."

  Ranma shrugged. "If you say so. Well, I gotta go buy some things.
Seeya later!" he waved, while leaving the room.

  Deciding to let the girls have their beauty sleep (Kami-sama knew
Akane needed it), Ranma headed out into the streets of Baerlon.

  He spent almost half an hour, browsing through different shops, trying
to think about which weapon he could buy, when he approached yet
another smithy. Looking over the swords, he was about to pick one at
random when he spotted something hanging on pegs on the back wall of
the shop. He suddenly smiled. "Excuse me," he told the blacksmith,
"but is the combat staff you have on the wall for sale?"

  The blacksmith looked at Ranma, sizing him up, then slowly nodded.
"Aye, it is, though you seem to be a bit too scrawny to be able to use
it properly."

  Ranma smirked. "Can I test it anyway?"

  The blacksmith shrugged. He took the staff out of the pegs and held
it towards Ranma over the counter.

  Ranma took it and smiled, examining it. Held upright, the wooden
staff was taller than he was, standing at a little under two meters in
length and about four centimeters thick. What made Ranma smile was
the way the tips of the staff had been configured. Instead of two
plain wooden tips, someone, presumably the blacksmith, had installed a
heavy steel cap studded with little lumps of metal on each end.  Each
cap was about twenty centimeters long and looked to be thick enough to
block a cutting weapon without much trouble. That is, if you were
good enough to intercept a weapon that way, of course.

  Ranma spun the staff twice, appreciating the smoothness of the wood.
He looked at the blacksmith curiously. "I haven't seen this sort of
staff in a long time. Did you make it?"

  The blacksmith looked at Ranma with a raised eyebrow. The lad had
spun the staff around as if it only weighed a fraction of its weight.
"I didn't make the staff itself, but I was the one who designed the
steel caps. It was originally meant for a mountain of a man, a
merchant's guard, but the fool tried to cheat me of the price we'd
agreed on in the first place, so I kept it." He paused. "You're
stronger than you look if you can spin it that way, lad."

  "You might say that," Ranma said almost absently. He looked at the
staff. This was more than good enough. Even a halfwit would realize
what the staff was dangerous upon seeing the studded steel caps and a
staff was a weapon he had used several times before. Ranma also felt
the damage was easier to control than with a sword. "I'll take it,"
he suddenly said. When the blacksmith told him the price, Ranma
became doubtful. "I dunno, isn't that a lot of money for a staff,
even with the steel caps?"

  The blacksmith suddenly grinned. "I see you haven't seen what makes
this staff more special than most."

  Ranma raised an eyebrow in confusion.

  Still grinning, the large man took the staff back and pointed at one
particular protrusion at the bottom of one of the caps. "See this?"
he said. He took one of his hammers and suddenly poked the protrusion
with it. Ranma's eyes widened when he saw the small spike-like rivet
exit the staff on the other end of the steel cap. The blacksmith then
easily removed the cap from the staff and presented it to Ranma.

  "My own design. Both caps are removable so they won't rust if you use
the staff as a walking stick. You can even tie the caps with a small
rope to your waist through one of their holes to keep them close by."

  Ranma whistled in appreciation. The staff itself sported a small hole
where the rivet had gone through. "Well done piece of work."

  The blacksmith grinned. "Isn't it, though?" He suddenly became more
serious. "There's only one problem with this sort of thing.  If you
remove and put back the rivets all the time, it might wear out the
holes in the staff itself, so don't do it _too_ often. The good side
is that if the staff ever breaks or is worn out, it can be replaced if
you find another staff similar in size. All you would have to do then
would be to have two holes bored in the staff and you'd be all set!"

  Ranma smiled. A somewhat recyclable weapon. That could be handy. "I
see. Well, in that case, I don't think the staff is _too_ expensive."
He payed the blacksmith and turned around to leave, but suddenly
turned back. "What's your name, anyway?"

  "Daryl Miron," the blacksmith answered proudly. Having your name
spread around in good faith was always a good thing.

  Ranma bowed his head. "Pleasure doing business with you, Master
Miron." A few moments later, the staff was fastened to his back with
the help of a small leather harness. Ranma was happily walking back
to the Stag and Lion with his new staff when he noticed something
shiny on the ground near a house. Thinking it might be a coin, he
bent down to examine it when he suddenly felt himself get drenched
from above.

  The now-female Ranma almost cursed out loud before catching herself.
*What the hell is it with this town? Don't they ever _watch_ where
they toss their damn water?* she thought furiously, as she made sure
to put her cloak's hood up to conceal her red hair. She slowly got
back up, glancing around her to see if anyone had noticed.
Apparently, she had had that much luck at least.

  She began walking back to the inn, making sure to readjust the staff,
which was now almost dangerously oversized for someone with her petite
stature. She could still wield it, but it would be a bit more
awkward. *Oh well, small price to pay...* she thought. She also had
to rearrange the clothes she was wearing, not to mention that her
boots were now uncomfortably large. She had not gone a block when she
turned a corner and bumped into a man wearing a white uniform.

  "Sorry," she said, keeping her head lowered and tried to go past the
man, but he grabbed her shoulder and pulled back her hood.

  "How dare you..." the Whitecloak began, then blinked as he looked at
Ranma's obviously female face and red hair. "Lord Bornhald!  Look!"

  Ranma cursed when she realized that standing not five feet away from
her were Mat and Rand. She then felt hope as she realized that the
two had never seen her female form. It didn't erase the fact that
everyone was now looking at her in surprise, the Whitecloaks, Mat and
Rand.

  Bornhald's eyes had switched from Rand to Ranma at his officer's
shout. He looked at the new arrival for a few seconds before
regaining his poise. "Who are you and how dare you interfere in the
duty of the Children of the Light!" he demanded.

  "I just bumped into him and I apologized!" replied Ranma indignantly
"What's your problem?"

  Bornhald took a few steps towards her, unsheathing his sword.  "Are
you threatening the Children of the Light? Only a Darkfriend would do
that!" he sneered.

  Ranma gaped at him, not believing what was happening. "Shut up! I
just wanna pass through!" she countered, risking a glance at Rand and
Mat. They were both staring at her far too much for her liking.  She
tried to walk past Bornhald, but he put his sword in her face, telling
her to halt. She reacted instinctively with a snap-kick that laid
Bornhald out cold on the ground, just as the town Watch arrived on
scene. The other two Whitecloaks stared at Ranma in shock, then
rushed her with their swords raised. She threw one in a cart and
tripped the other before the Watch surrounded her.

  "Don't move!" they shouted.

  Ranma looked around in anxiety. Just great. Everyone was looking at
her now! Not wanting to knock down the entire Watch, she turned
around and jumped on one of the roofs of the adjoining buildings, to
the crowd's amazement. Cries followed after her. The Watch gaped for
a few seconds and quickly began to circle the building she had jumped
on, hoping to cut her off.

  Watching everyone leave, Rand and Mat looked at each other.

  "Did you see her!?" asked Mat excitedly.

  Rand, no longer so flushed from his confrontation with Bornhald,
nodded dumbly. He spied the remaining conscious Whitecloak who was
trying to wake up Bornhald. "Let's go before they remember we're
here," he surreptitiously told Mat, who quickly nodded.

  Once they were out of sight, Mat took up the subject again.  "Did you
see her hair? I've never seen bright red hair like that before...
And she was wearing men's clothes, too."

  "Everyone saw her hair," Rand commented dryly. He frowned.  There was
something odd about all that. "Did you see how she fought? She had
this really large staff on her back, but she didn't even bother to use
it. Seeing her move was almost like watching Ranma in his practice
sessions. And the way she jumped..." he shook his head.

  Mat nodded slowly, but shrugged after a bit. "Yeah, well maybe she
knows the same tricks as Ranma, but she can't possibly be him - he's a
guy!" he joked.

  Rand jumped when Mat said that. He remembered Min's accusation of
Ranma <You're also a girl!>. Now that he thought about it, the girl
had looked a bit like Ranma. Oh well... Probably because she was
wearing clothes like his. He was about to give the matter further
thought when they ran across Thom.

  * * *

  Ranma had, for once, gotten lucky. Losing the Watch had been fairly
easy, since no one in this town seemed to realize that roof-hopping
made for excellent evasion techniques, although she had nearly lost
her now-oversized boots twice doing it. She was now jogging back to
the Stag and Lion with her hood up and the staff still strapped on her
back underneath the cloak, hoping to get some hot water before
anything _else_ happened.

  She sighed in relief when she saw the inn's entrance. She quickly got
inside, only to slam into someone who was about to come out.  They
both fell to the floor

  "Sorry 'bout that..." grumbled Ranma, getting back up. She had not
noticed that her hood had come down, but the other person did.

  "You!" exclaimed Min loudly from her sprawled position on the floor,
thus getting the attention of nearly every patron in the Stag and
Lion.BR> Lion.

  Ranma's eyes widened. "Oh no," she squeaked. She chose to face this
new challenge with the Saotome school's most secret technique.

  She ran for the staircase.

  "Stop!" shouted Min, getting up and running after her.

  Ranma didn't listen, of course. Once she made it to the stop of the
second staircase, she saw Akane and Ukyou walking into one of the
rooms. *They'll hide me!* thought Ranma, as she ran at full tilt
towards the room they had gone in. She opened the door, spinning on
herself and slammed it shut. "Whew!" she said, her face still leaning
on the door. "At least I'm safe here."

  "Who are you?" came a cool voice from behind her.

  The aquatransexual martial artist's eyes bugged out as she spun
around, only to see Akane, Ukyou, Lan, Moiraine, Egwene, Ryouga and
the Nynaeve woman from the village. They were all staring at her,
too. Well, Akane and Ukyou each had a hand on their faces, but
still...

  *Sometimes, I _really_ hate my life,* Ranma thought.

Author's notes:

  - Kusarigama: a chain sickle, often used by ninja types, though not
exclusively.

  - Yes, I gimped on some scenes. Sue me, this part is already a *lot*
bigger than I'd originally planned... I didn't want to recopy *all*
the dialogues again... Read The Eye Of The World for the details.  I
*might* expend a few sections, such as the one where Ranma first
begins to train the Randlanders, but no promise. The pace (as well as
the story deviations) *will* pick up in chapter 3. I promise!

  - There's no mention in the manga about Ukyou knowing about the
Neko-ken or Nodoka's promise by that time in the manga, so I claim
author's perogative. I also gave 17 as the Nerimians' ages, even if
they're supposed to be 16. I needed to adjust a bit, folks...

  - Hope you'll have fun trying to figure out Min's visions about Ranma!
The other Nerimians will have their images too, don't worry.  :)

  - Yes, the sequence of events with Min changed a bit from the original
timeline. So what? It'll probably get a lot uglier later on...   :)

  - Particular thanks so far on this chapter go to Chris Rijk, Mike
Rever, David Johnston, Ranmas, Richard Robinson and Bloodblade for
their quick C&C speed...:)