Change, Grow, To Live
					  by Shaule Sachs
						  Part 5

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Version 0.4

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	Outside of the house that they came out of, which looked much too
small to contain everything Ranma saw inside, there was a huge tree.
It was the largest tree Ranma had ever seen. The base of the tree was
at least as large as Furinkan High School was. He noticed that off to
the side there was a lake. Within the lake there was a water wheel.
The wheel, in turn, gathered water and through a series of open pipes
watered the tree.
	"The irrigation system was Skuld's idea," Urd said off-handedly.
"It was one of few ideas she had that worked the way it was suppose
to."
	In a small voice Ranma asked, "That's is that... Yggdrasill?"
	"Yep," Urd said proudly.
	Softly, Ranma asked, "Can I touch it?"
	Urd shrugged and said, "I don't see why not..."
	Nervously Ranma touched Yggdrasill and the Universe stopped...
for Ranma. Only once before had Ranma touched something Old.... Within
the Shinto Temple there was a rock in the center of Temple that the
priests said was the oldest rock in Japan.... Ranma had thought it was
stupid and touched it even after Genma had said not to touch anything.
When he had touched it, he could feel the age of the rock as if the
weight of the years pressed on him. One of the priest had smiled
nervously when young Ranma had agreed that it was a very old rock.
But if that rock was Old, then Yggdrasill was Ancient. If the
millenniums had pressed onto Ranma like the years of the rock had,
Ranma knew he would have been crushed. Instead, the age of Yggdrasill
felt like a vast sea and Ranma floated in it like a mere leaf caught
in a storm.
	After what felt like eternity to Ranma but was only a few
moments, he turned around. He noted his reflection in the lake that he
had a vertical line on his forehead. He also noted that he felt both
refreshed and calm despite the fact that almost everything in his life
that he thought was true wasn't.
	From Yggdrasill to where Urd said Kami-sama's office was very
short trip. In fact, Ranma didn't remember passing anything on the
way. The doors to the office opened by themselves as Ranma approached
them. As he was about to enter the office, he noticed that Urd wasn't
with him.  Turning around, he noticed that she had assumed a seat on a
coach in the reception area from which she waved him on.
	It wasn't fear exactly that caused him to wait for a moment
before entering the office... it was just that... How does one meet
Kami-sama?
	"Come in, Ranma," a gentle voice came from the office.
	Ranma walked into the office. Inside, he found a elderly man
wearing a white monk robe with a long white beard seating behind a
desk with a computer on it. It was just as Ranma pictured it when Urd
suggest 'Kami-sama's office.'
	"Of course it is," the elderly man said with a touch of humor in
it.

	After a few moments had passed for Urd, Ranma exited Kami-sama's
office. She knew that Kami-sama's office existed outside of Time, so
while only a few moments had passed for her, Ranma could have spent
an eternity in the office and she, being outside of it, would never
know. So she was curious as to what they talked about and what
happened. Since she wasn't include in the meeting, she knew that
whatever the detail of what did happen in Kami-sama's office, she
wasn't to know... Still she was curious so she asked, "Well..."
	In response, Ranma handed her a card. The card said, 'Ranma
Arashi, god of Change, second class, first category, limited...'
	"Second class?" Urd asked. Both Urd and Skuld were second class
goddesses. Skuld because she hasn't yet come into her own domain yet,
and Urd because she tended to be careless in her spell-casting... She
wondered which case her son fell into...
	"Grandfather said I'm suppose to stay with you on Earth," Ranma
stated. "You're suppose to teach me how to use my powers, Mother."
	It was a small thing, only six letters, but Urd never felt more
happier than at that moment than when her *child* called *her*
'Mother.' Chocked up with emotions, Urd simply nodded her head, took
her son's hand, and walked back towards the television set she felt in
her cottage so she and Ranma could travel back to Earth.

	Once back at the Temple, Urd showed Ranma her room and suggested,
"There's another room next to mine, if you want it, or you can stay
at your father's temple in Nerima... You should complete High School,
you know."
	"Oh mother, do I have to?" Ranma complained.
	"You need an education," Urd said sternly. "A mortal one will be
a good beginning... But enough about that, let's go see your Aunts.
And it's almost supper time too."
	Ranma was a little nervous... he really never had much of a
family before.... Besides Urd's smile remembered him of how Shampoo
smiled before trying to give him some food that had some type of
potion in it.
	When Urd and Ranma entered the dining area, Keiichi and Skuld
were already seated. Belldandy was giving out the dinner on various
platters. For some reason, Belldandy reminded Ranma of Kasumi...
	Upon seeing Urd, Belldandy asked, "So how did it go?"
	"Well," Urd began but Skuld upon seeing Ranma screamed, "What *he*
doing here?"
	"Well..." Urd began again but Skuld ran up to Ranma and stated,
"You'd better have not wished for Urd as a fiancee! Mortals..."
	Everyone could tell Skuld was preparing to launch into one of her
lectures about how mortals and godlings should not be involved
together.
	"SKULD! That's enough!" Urd commanded.
	Skuld blinked and turned around to face Urd in surprise. Urd
never commanded... Yelled yes, but commanded, at least, not in Skuld's
presence. Skuld was doubly surprised to see Urd in the formal dress of
the Eldest Norn. Something she wore only at very formal occasion and
even then only at their Father's insistence. Urd could and did put
any mortal monarch to shame when she was in this state.
	Urd stated calmly to her younger sister, "You will NOT talk to MY
son like that, young lady."
	Skuld began her imitation of a fish upon hearing that bit of
news. Belldandy, on the other hand, simply nodded and continued with
serving dinner to everyone, starting with Keiichi. She motioned for
Ranma to sit next to his mother.
	Regaining her composure, Skuld sat down at the table, looked at
Urd and then at Ranma then back and forth. Finally, Skuld asked Urd in
a small voice, "He wished that *you* were his mother?"
	"Gods don't get wishes, Skuld," Belldandy stated the obvious.
	"Then how?" Skuld was confused.
	"Yeah," Keiichi put in. "Then how is Ranma your son, Urd?"
	With a smile, Urd said, "The old-fashion way, silly."
	"Nani?!?!?" both Skuld and Keiichi went.
	"But...." Skuld began and kept repeating.
	Keiichi was confused and looked it. So he asked, "I thought you
are twenty-four..."
	"So," Urd replied.
	"And Ranma looks, at most, sixteen," Keiichi continued.
	"Hey," Ranma injected. "I'm seventeen."
	"Sorry," Keiichi said. "Seventeen, then. Simple mathematics would
make you only seven years old when you were pregnant."
	"Keiichi, Keiichi," Urd began. "You can't believe a girl is going
to tell you, or any man, how old she truly is, do you?"
	"Well..." Keiichi replied.
	"You heard of the myths about us, right," Belldandy put in.
	Keiichi nodded.
	"That was *us* in those myths," Urd stated calmly. Under her
breath, she added, "Even if they were wrong a lot of the times..."
	"But those myth are, at least, a thousand years old," Keiichi
responded.
	"Well, yes," Urd said. "They are... and that idiot poet got most
of it wrong too. If it makes you happy, I'm around twenty-four hundred
years old... Belldandy is about two thousand years old, and Skuld is
about a twelve hundred years old. You wouldn't believe the number of
diapers we had to change for Skuld back then... They weren't like the
diapers you have now..."
	"Hey!" Skuld exclaimed. "Don't you start that again!"
	"But..." Keiichi started, but Belldandy put a finger on his lips
silencing him and said, "We age a lot slower than mortals do."
	"Twenty-four, twenty-one, and twelve years are our human
equivalent ages," Urd answered. 
	"Hey," Ranma put in. "I *am* seventeen but you're saying that
she's..." Ranma pointed at Skuld and continued, "A thousand, two
hundred years old but she looks only twelve..."
	Skuld was offended at being called a kid. But she was still in
shock over the fact that Urd had a kid of her own.
	Urd answered her son with, "Kami-sama aged you like a mortal to
keep others from figuring out that you weren't a mortal..."
	That explanation satisfied Ranma for a moment.
	"Where is he going to stay?" Keiichi asked.
	"Why here, of course," Belldandy stated matter of fact.
	"There isn't much room, Oneechan," Skuld put in.
	"Actually, I was think of us staying at his father's temple in
Nerima," Urd replied. "That way he could continue his schooling
there."
	"His father's?" Both Keiichi and Skuld asked.
	"What you thought a mortal got me pregnant?" Urd asked in
surprise.
	"Well..." both Keiichi and Skuld had shameful faces since that
was what they first thought.
	Belldandy thought a moment and said, "It was Raijin, right,
Oneechan?"
	Urd nodded with a blush on her face.
	"Then why..." Belldandy began.
	Urd cut her off with, "He wouldn't talk to me!" In disgust, she
added, "Men!"
	"Hey!" both Keiichi and Ranma exclaimed at the offense.
	"Well, why don't you tell us all about it, Oneechan," Belldandy
asked.
	So Urd did.

[=== End of Part 5 ===]