TAVEREN 1/2: TALES OF THE RONIN --- by John Walter Biles (rhea@maison-otaku.net) and Jeremy Blackman (loki@maison-otaku.net) --- DISCLAIMER/CAUTION This fanfic is a crossover between Rumiko Takahashi's Ranma 1/2, which you all should be familiar with by now , and Robert Jordan's _Wheel of Time_ series (8 books and growing!), which if you aren't familiar with, you should be. For shame. Go buy the whole set. Right now. Well, ok, finish this paragraph first. While it is not necessary to have read _Wheel of Time_ to enjoy this fanfic, if you have, we warn you that while we didn't follow the plot of Wheel of Time exactly (in fact, we plan to deviate pretty majorly by the time we reach the plot of book 3), obviously there will be some spoilers. Having warned you about that... *** CHAPTER 5 Lost in the woods. *** Akemi and Ryouga stumbled through the dense forest. "I think we're going in circles, Ryouga..." "What? We've been following the sun! That should guide us east out of this woods." Ryouga looked around, refusing to admit he'd seen any of this before. "It's afternoon now, Ryouga..." Akemi sighed. She shouldn't have ever agreed to let Ryouga lead, but he had insisted, and she had been too tired to argue. At least they weren't going hungry. Ryouga was a good hunter, and even with only limited amounts of small game available, he seemed to have a knack for rooting it out, along with plenty of nuts and berries. The sun tried to shine down on them, but the overhanging trees blocked enough sunlight to make it cool and dry, rather than hot and oppressive. Ryouga looked around and listened carefully. He could hear movement far off. "Something's coming." With a bit more thought, he realized several somethings, probably with four legs each. "Deer maybe." "I don't hear anything." "I do. Could be wolves, I suppose. Keep an eye out." She nodded, and wished again she'd had time to actually learn something useful about channeling, but Cologne had been unwilling to teach more than theory...yet. "The tower can teach you better than I. A little knowlege can be a dangerous thing," Cologne had said. She clutched her knife. I should have learned staff fighting...or archery...or something. What am I going to do with a knife, she thought, when something is biting my leg off. She shuddered slightly. "Are you cold, Akemi?" Ryouga asked. She blinked. He noticed?, she thought. "I'm fine...I just..." "I'm sure everyone is okay. We got out alive and we hardly knew what we were doing..." Ryouga trailed off. Everyone has to be okay...We didn't leave Nerima's Field just to die, he thought. Akemi smiled faintly. "I'm sure Ranma is just thrilled about yesterday's rain, wherever he is..." Ryouga heard the movement again, louder. This time he could hear something with two legs, also. "Hmm. There's a person out there too." Akemi strained her ears, and only heard a bird singing somewhere, and maybe a few twigs breaking...as she stepped on them. "You sure you're not imagining things?" "Yes, I'm sure!" Most of the movement moved to one side of them. "Must just be wild animals. They're going around us." He sniffed the air. "Smoke..." Akemi instinctively tried to smell it, although by now she doubted she would. However, this time, she was able to confirm what Ryouga thought. "Smells like...beef..." She tried not to drool. Rabbit and racoon get kind of boring after a while. Ryouga felt a vague uncanny feeling...like he could almost sense something...but not quite. He shrugged it off, then tried to head for the smell. "Probably another lost traveller." "What if it's fanboys?" Akemi said, tugging Ryouga the right direction despite her fear. "We'll hear them before we see them...They never shut up." They slipped quietly through the woods to a small stream. A little upstream, they could see a small fire with a man sitting by it. He had short black hair and was wearing pants made from some strange blue fabric, a plain white shirt, a leather jacket, and a odd-looking brown hat with a wide brim. He was busily frying a steak in a frying pan over a fire. While it cooked, he was busily piling nuts and berries in a large stack on the ground nearby. Akemi tried hard not to drool at the sight of the steak. She turned her head to Ryouga and whispered, "You think he might share if we ask him?" Without looking at them, the man said, "If you keep skulking about, you may never find out." Ryouga stepped out into the clearing with Akemi. "Um, hello. We're sort of lost." Akemi said quickly, "Can we have some of your steak...Please please please?" She got down on her knees and begged. Ryouga looked embarrassed. The man laughed. "If you're that desperate, sure." Akemi ran over and Ryouga had to restrain her from grabbing the steak right out of the frying pan. They sat down, then Ryouga thought he heard voices in the forest, though he couldn't quite tell what they were saying. "Are you alone?" "I have all of nature to keep me company. No humans, if that's what you mean," the man said. "So what are you and your girlfriend doing lost in the woods?" "He's not my boyfriend!" Akemi said. "Ranma's her boyfriend. I'm just a friend. We got separated from some friends on the road by a fanboy attack." Ryouga sighed. "Now we can't find our way back to the road." "Well, if you'd let ME lead," Akemi said. "And Ranma is NOT my boyfriend." Not yet, anyway...I was going to ask him at Bel Tine. She sighed. I may never see another Bel Tine celebration again. He may not even be a boy at Bel Tine. More sighing. "But you wish he was, eh?" the man said. Akemi nodded yes, then caught herself and nodded no. The two men laughed and looked knowingly at each other. She frowned. I hate it when men do that, she thought. "Oh, I'm Akemi al'Vere. Nice to meet you!" The steak was ready. The man threw a second one in the pan, and cut the first one in half, giving Ryouga and Akemi each half. Ryouga said, "Thank you. I'm Ryouga Ayabara." The man nodded. "You can call me Buford." He looked at them both carefully. "You're both Two Rivers folk, right?" Akemi started, half-choking on the steak as she gulped it down. "How...how could you tell?" "You sound like Two Rivers folk." He frowned slightly. "So, how did a group of fanboys get this far south to attack you?" Ryouga shrugged. "I haven't got a clue. I suppose Cologne might know, but she probably wouldn't tell us if she knew." Buford started and frowned. "So she's tangled up in this?" Akemi nodded. "She's taking me to the Tower for training." After saying that, she regretted it. Clearly this man didn't like Cologne very much. "So she'll be looking for you?" His voice sounded casual, but Ryouga could tell he was nervous. Ryouga nodded. "Can you show us the way back to the road?" "Too dangerous to go straight to the road with fanboys on it. I assume you were on your way to Caemlyn?" Akemi heard movement in the forest and turned and looked. She saw nothing. "Yes." Ryouga heard it too, but ignored it. Lots of animals in any forest. If you jumped every time you heard one, you'd go nuts. I've had a lot more experience in the forest than Akemi, though, he thought. She hasn't gone out in the woods much since the time when she was six and tried to walk to Ranma's house to visit him and got totally lost. She was knocking down trees when they found her, trying to make a clear path so she could see where she was going. The man said, "Don't worry about the pigs. They don't eat people as long as you don't cook pork around them." Akemi relaxed. "Oh, just some cute little pigs." "A boar can kill you after it's already dead," Ryouga said quietly and Akemi tensed up again. The man laughed quietly. "Well said, boy. Anyway, I have some friends going your way. I can take you to them if you like." "Thanks! I'd really appreciate that!" Akemi said, then laid down. "I'm full. Time for a nap." She dropped off to sleep. Ryouga laughed. How can she do that? I guess Akemi can sleep anywhere. She and Ranma are both like that...I guess they'll be pretty happy together. Buford blinked. "Does she always do that?" "Only when we've been running for our life." "This happens a lot?" "Only lately." Ryouga told the man everything, only leaving out things like how he had been tied to a horse several times. It was all so bizarre, he felt compelled to get reassurance that he wasn't going insane. The man listened to everything. "Well, it's only going to get stranger." He stretched. "I think your friend has the right idea." "I'll stay up for the first watch. The fanboys might find us." "Don't worry. We're being watched over." Buford laid back and pulled his hat over his eyes. "What, you think the pigs will stop the fanboys?" I suppose even pigs aren't in too much danger from those loons. They can't understand what the idiots are saying, anyway. Buford replied with a snore. Geez, everyone but me falls asleep at the drop of a hat, Ryouga thought. He resolved to stay up and show them that he at least, had some common sense. Ten minutes later, he was asleep. *********************** Akemi ran up the slope of a mountain that seemed to stretch endlessly before her. She wasn't sure how she had gotten there. A horrible storm was raging over the mountain, which had a huge curving gash carved into it. A flash of lightning illuminated the goal of her running. Five people had Ranma, each of them tugging him in a different direction. Cologne was pulling on Ranma's right arm. Hinako was pulling his left arm. A girl with short black hair, wearing a long yellow dress with a tiara in her hair was pulling on Ranma's left leg, while a purple-hairdo girl in weird clothing was tugging his right leg. Finally, a boy who looked vaguely familiar was trying to feed Ranma something that looked sort of like a wagon wheel made out of dough. Behind them all, out of their sight, a sixth figure lurked in the shadows, watching them all disdainfully. None of the others seemed to notice her. She spoke, but only Akemi could hear her. "I will have you, Godai. You were denied me once, but never again. You will be mine." Akemi shouted, "LET GO OF RANMA! You can't have him! None of you can have him!" Ranma shouted, "Akemi, help me! They're trying to tear me apart!" She tried to run to him, but it was like trying to run through a rushing river. The very air resisted her movement. Cologne said, "You cannot defy the will of the wheel. It will weave you away from his life." Hinako said, "You all have to come back to Nerima's field and have a normal life!" The purple haired girl said, "Ranma must come join the Masons, and the Kiwanis, and the Elks, and..." "Together, we will rule over the nations," the girl with the crown said. "You will be mine, as you always are in the end. We will save the world together." The boy spoke, "All I ask is to be with you, wherever you may go." His voice sounded strange, almost feminine. Akemi felt herself getting angrier. She began advancing faster. "HE IS MINE!" The woman in the shadows laughed. "You always think that, but you always lose him in the end. You did last time, and you will this time as well. He turns to you only because he cannot have the one he wants!" It began to rain, and Ranma turned female. She howled. The women and the boy didn't seem to care. They continued to tug him in different directions. Her rage peaked, and the resistance shattered in a burst of light. She leapt forward and grabbed Ranma to pull him away from them, but even at the height of her strength, all she could do was pull the whole mob around. "If you try to fight the will of the wheel, it will only grind you beneath it," Cologne said. "I don't care what the wheel wants!" "It feels the same of you," Cologne said. "If you cannot learn to flow with the power instead of fighting it, it will destroy you, just like the wheel does to those who fight it." Akemi howled and felt power erupt out of her. Everyone went flying, and the dream shattered. **************************** Akemi woke up. The forest was leveled for several hundred feet around the camp. Buford was still asleep, but Ryouga was awake, looking terrified. He turned to Akemi. "What the...WHAT DID YOU JUST DO?" She began to cry. "They were ripping Ranma apart. I had to do something. They were trying to take him away. I had to help him." Ryouga put a hand on her shoulder. "It was just a dream." I hope she doesn't dream about cooking, he thought. I want to live. She continued to cry, but her voice calmed a little. "I guess you're right. It was full of people I've never even seen before. One of them was calling Ranma 'Godai' of all things. As if Ranma was the Ronin or something." Ryouga laughed. "Ranma couldn't save himself from getting cursed by a bunch of fanboys. How could he save the world?" Akemi nodded. She stopped crying. It was all ridiculous. Why would some boy be in love with Ranma? What was that purple haired girl babbling about, anyway? It was just a silly dream, that was all. What could that other woman have meant about me having lost him before or always losing him? She shook her head. "I guess I just ate too fast." "You remember the time you had the dream about being Queen Shinobu and you woke up the wisdom in the middle of the night asking what had happened to your palace?" Ryouga laughed. Akemi has always had a hyperactive imagination. "Or the time you and Ranma both had the same dream and you thought that the Dark One was hiding in your basement so the two of you set it on fire?" Akemi laughed. "Don't remind me." They spent close to an hour reminiscing before they both dropped off to sleep again. ******************* Ryouga woke from dreams of dancing the Great Circle dance with a bunch of pigs in Two Rivers garb. One of them was just asking him to marry her when he woke up. He laughed. Geez, I'm worse than Akemi, he thought. He looked around. The others were asleep, and he needed to relieve himself. I'll just slip off and come right back. Surely I won't get lost going just that far. He was, of course, wrong. He hadn't gone very far, but when he tried to return to the camp, he found himself at the foot of a mountain. Where'd this mountain come from, he asked himself. There aren't any mountains in Andor, right? He strained his mind, trying to remember the few times he'd seen a map that showed more than the Two Rivers. In fact, there wasn't just one mountain...there was an entire mountain range. From the stars, he guessed it ran north-south, but he wasn't sure. Maybe the mountains snuck in with the fanboys, his brain tried to rationalize, then gave up as that made no sense whatsoever. He heard movement nearby. "Hello?" The moving figure came into the light. It was a tall, handsome man with short, neatly combed black hair. He wore strange spectacles, which had been darkened so that you could not see his eyes. They were strange to Ryouga, especially since the man was wearing them in the middle of the night. He wore strange clothing, trousers that went only down to just above his knees, and a loose shirt with incomprehensible symbols on the front. He had a strange weapon that looked sort of like a flat sieve attached to a short staff, which he carried in a casual manner, twirling it about as if he had almost forgotten he was carrying it. He smiled at Ryouga and his teeth glinted. There was something wrong about him, yet at the same time, Ryouga couldn't help but feel attracted to the man, not in any sexual sense, but a feeling that this was a natural leader, someone to be admired and obeyed. "Ahh, lost, are you?" Ryouga sighed. "Where am I?" The man smiled broadly. "The Roninwall mountains. Just beyond this mountain range, teeming hordes of Aiel sit in the Wasteland, reading T.S. Eliot and arguing over whether a sixth-rank Mason has more social standing than a sixth-Rank Tiger or less." He turned and pointed with his weapon behind Ryouga. "And that way lies the great nation of Cairhien, so riven with paranoia that people sometimes betray themselves just to get it over with." He laughed loudly. "As to which nation is a greater menace, I cannot say. I must admit to preferring the honest antagonism of an Aielman to the false friendship of a Cairhienen." A wolf howled in the distance and the man twitched. "How came you to be so lost?" Ryouga frowned. "There's wolves in these mountains?" "Don't remind me," the man said, beginning to slowly walk west. "There's a town this way." Ryouga followed him. "But...how can this be Cairhien? I was in Andor just a few minutes ago." There weren't mountains here then, either. The man turned briefly and said, "The world is full of mysteries. Perhaps you're a channeler and don't know it." His voice was quite light for making a statement roughly equivalent to 'Maybe you're a communist and don't know it' in the nineteen-fifties. Ryouga shuddered. No! It's not possible! "No...how could I channel without knowing?" The man shrugged. "Can you think of a better explanation? Unless you've been wandering for months and somehow blanked it all out. Or you've gone mad and you're imagining this. You don't seem crazy to me, though." Ryouga heard movement again. More pigs, he thought. He was starting to recognize the distinctive sound they made as compared to a deer, which he could also hear a few of. For lack of a better idea, he followed the man, sunk in his own thoughts. He heard a voice nearby, "This man serves the Great Butcher. Don't trust him. Can't you smell the darkness in him?" Ryouga frowned and looked around. The man did make him uncomfortable. He was too perfect. And how could he see with those dark glasses? But who was talking to him? Maybe I'm going mad, he thought. "You're not going mad," the voice said. "Run. We'll hold him off so you can get away." Ryouga looked around more frantically. "Why can't I see who's talking," he muttered. The man turned around. "Did you say something?" Ryouga put a hand behind his head and laughed nervously. "Just talking to myself." The man frowned. "We're being stalked by the wild pigs." He pulled a small yellow ball out of his pocket. He thinks he can stop an angry boar with a small yellow ball?, Ryouga thought. He himself was weaponless, not having thought he'd need anything on a simple trip to...anyway, he grabbed a stick. Five boars streaked out into the moonlight. They were all heading for the man, Ryouga realized. A sixth one sat at the edge of the clearing, and suddenly his eyes locked with it. "Come with me," it said. The man tossed the ball into the air and slammed his sieve into it, sending the ball flying at an unbelievable speed into the lead boar, which went flying. The ball ricocheted off its skull and into a tree, then came at a second boar. The realization struck Ryouga. He's a channeler! Given a choice between wild pigs and a channeler, Ryouga decided to go with the pigs. He ran for his life. Behind him, he could hear loud oinking and thunking noises. The huge boar he was following led him deeper into the forest. The sound of the fight gradually faded, and the pig slowed down. Ryouga said to the pig, "Are you a Saldean war boar?" According to the stories he had heard and the books he had read, the Saldeans used war boars as part of their army in the battle against the fanboys and lagmen that lurked in the blight. A few stories had even claimed some of their pigs could talk, though he had never believed that was possible. I don't know if I'll ever be able to eat pork again, he thought. "That's a good thing," the pig said. Ryouga looked and realized it must be somehow speaking to his mind, for its lips were not moving. It looked around and sniffed the wind. "And yes, some of my ancestors were Saldean, I think, if I understand what you mean. My great-great-grandfather was called Fartraveller, for he came from a distant land where he had been a great warrior by the side of humans who had not yet forgotten how to speak to us." "So the Saldeans really do talk to their pigs?" "What is a Saldean?" Ryouga laughed faintly. I suppose pigs wouldn't bother much with nations. "Do you know...how I got here?" The pig nodded. "I wish I could teach you to control it, but it is like trying to teach someone to walk. Everyone must fumble through to their own control over it. " He pointed with one leg. "You'll find your friends just beyond those trees." He turned to go. Ryouga said, "..." He looked around. "How did we get back?" "You followed me. You only seem to be able to control your ability when you are following someone. Otherwise, it flares out of control and you get lost. I can smell it is growing stronger, though I do not know why." Ryouga paled. "So I could take a wrong step and end up in Streamline Mountain or something?" The pig nodded, then turned towards the woods. "Walk in peace and may you not be made into bacon, young one." He bolted off into the woods, vanishing from sight. Ryouga stepped forward and he was in the clearing with Akemi and Buford, who were both still asleep. He went back to sleep, deciding not to say anything about all this. It has to have been a dream, he thought in the morning. **************** They finished breaking camp, and prepared to head east. Buford knew the woods very well, and they easily found plenty of fruit, berries, and nuts, as well as lots of fresh water and shady, yet easy to traverse trails. In the late afternoon, Ryouga said, "I'm impressed. You really know these woods well. Are you from around here?" "Do I look like I'm from around here?" Akemi laughed. "Not really. I've never even seen a hat like yours before." "There's not much shade in Saldea. You have to learn to keep the sun out of your eyes." He adjusted his hat, then munched on a handful of nuts. "Otherwise, the fanboys will get you." "I guess you have to fight them a lot up there," Akemi said. "I can't imagine why anyone would want to live that close to the Blight." Buford sighed. "That's because it didn't use to be that close to the Blight. Every year it creeps a little further south. We may drive back the armies, but we can't drive back the Blight. It hasn't really retreated since the end of the Fanboy Wars, when it fell back close to a hundred miles." He casually snapped a branch off a tree and began breaking it into halves. "We fight and die so that you southerners can pretend that the things we fight don't even exist. We remember the Covenant of the Ten Nations which you have abandoned. Sometimes...sometimes I almost wish the fanboys would break through just so that you people would realize that we've been protecting your thankless hides for two thousand years." His voice was growing angrier as he kept talking. Ryouga wanted to say something, but he didn't know what to say. Neither did Akemi. "But then I realize how you'd all just die to no point if that happened. Even with the wolves at our door, we still squabble at times in the Borderlands. It's twenty times worse down here. All we can do is pray the Ronin comes to lead us before the Dark One finally gets his act together and crushes us all one by one." He fell silent and none of them dared to break the silence. They walked quietly through the woods for a while, then Akemi said, "So why are you here, then?" "I was young and stupid once. I loved someone and followed her far away from home. Unfortunately, eventually her sisters forced me away from her." The word sisters got an especial sneer. "And I can't go home because her brother wants me dead. He's noble, and I'm not. So now...I travel." "That's very sad," Akemi said. "You're telling me?" The woods suddenly parted in front of them and they entered a large clearing in which many gaily painted and decorated wagons were ringed around a central fire. Several bored looking dogs popped up and growled at the trio, then suddenly started to bark happily and ran over to Buford, who petted them. "Good doggies," he said. There were people scattered around the clearing, but none of them had noticed the group before the dogs started barking. They were all dressed in dark blue pants of the same material that Buford wore and brightly colored shirts dyed in some strange manner that caused them to resemble cloth woven from multi-colored clouds. Two of them broke off from the group and left the circle of wagons, walking over towards the dogs, Buford, Akemi, and Ryouga. One was a tall man with short black hair the other was a beautiful blonde woman. The man wore a bandanna dyed like his shirt, but styled like the one that Ryouga himself wore. There was a good reason for this. The man stared at Ryouga. "Brother!" Ryouga's jaw dropped. "What are you doing here?" Buford blinked. "You know each other?" Akemi said, "We thought we'd never see you again when you left town with that merchant!" Ryouga continued to stare. He'd written his brother off as dead a long time ago, since they hadn't heard anything from him in six years. His brother ran over and embraced him, the woman following more slowly. "C...cosmo? Is that really you?" Cosmo laughed. "I'm surprised Mom let you out of the house or Master Luhan let you leave the forge." Akemi hugged Cosmo saying, "He's got me to run herd over him." Cosmo winked. "Ahh, it's like that, is it?" "No!" Akemi and Ryouga shouted in unison. Buford said to Cosmo, "You never told me you had a brother." "I never expected to see him again." Ryouga looked around. "So who are these people you're traveling with, Cosmo?" The woman said, "We are the Deadheads. Your brother has become one of us. Come and share a meal with us. My name is Sunshine, and I welcome you to our camp." Akemi said, "I thought you all went to join the Dark One during the Fanboy wars." Sunshine sighed. "There are many lies spread about us. We are a peaceful people, but some of us were desperate enough to join the Dark One once, hoping he could lead them to the Band. Those of them who could channel became some of the Grateful Deadlords and gave their name to the entire group. We are those who were neither foolish enough to leave the way of the leaf nor desperate enough to join the Destroyer of Stories in his evil plans. We are pacifists and those who channel are even rarer among us than among most peoples." She began walking back into the circle of wagons. "Come and eat with us. I would gladly speak with those who have known my husband in his youth." Ryouga got big eyes. "You got MARRIED?" Cosmo blushed and followed his wife. "For three years now." Akemi laughed and followed them. "You know, your mom is going to kill you if she finds out you got married and didn't invite her, Cosmo." "Mom used to kill me for just getting up in the morning the wrong way," Cosmo said. "Anyway, let's grab some food. I'm famished." The meal was excellent and the company was good as well. After they had eaten, several of the Deadheads had gotten out flutes and lutes and drums and began to play a series of haunting tunes. Couples formed up to dance. Ryouga turned to ask Akemi to dance, only to find that someone else had somehow already taken her hand and led her out to join the other dancers. He blinked. Cosmo laughed. "You always were too slow, Ryouga. Someone always gets to the girl while you are trying to make up your mind." Ryouga sighed. "Usually it's because I get lost on the way to ask her." Sunshine smiled. "I'll dance with you, Ryouga. I'm curious to see if you dance as well as your brother." Ryouga knew the answer was no, but he went forth to dance anyway. Meanwhile, Cosmo leaned back on the grass and stared up at the stars. "So, will you be staying this time?" he asked Buford. Buford sighed. "I am not ready, and it would only bring you trouble. You get trouble enough from outsiders." "How is...she doing?" Buford laughed faintly. "You don't have to use pronouns, Cosmo. As well as might be expected." He sighed. "Let's not talk about this. I don't want to be depressed." He looked over at Ryouga. "Are you sure he's your brother?" Cosmo laughed. "Mom used to wonder about that too, sometimes. I used to be more like him than I am now, though. He just doesn't really know why he is alive, what he's supposed to be doing with his life. He's lost in more ways than one. But when he does find a purpose, he can't be moved. He hasn't found one that could last his entire life, though." He watched Ryouga crash with Sunshine into another couple, then apologize embarrasedly. "The girl is to become an Aes Sedai," Buford said quietly. "A sister of the Blue Ajah was taking her to the Tower. They were cut off from their friends by a fanboy attack." Cosmo paled. "Fanboys? This far south?" Buford nodded. "I suggest you head further south." "We were planning to head further north. There's been a Ronin proclaimed in Murandy, and we didn't want to risk getting tangled up in that. The last we heard, he was striking north at Andor." Cosmo sighed. "Maybe we'll go west and I could visit Mom. She might not throw me out of the house." He laughed faintly. "Is this that Kumon Ryu fellow?" Cosmo nodded. "Of course, by now he may have already been defeated or captured Caemlyn for all I know. He's a strong one, though. Apparently, the Red Ajah first found him when he was leading what seemed to be a petty peasant revolt. They managed to shield him, but he broke the shield and stripped them of their ability to channel like they had hoped to do to him, then made them be his personal maids." Buford paled. "How many Aes Sedai did he beat at the same time?" "Just three." Cosmo sighed. "This is what...the fifth false Ronin in ten years?" Buford nodded. "Four channelers and the renegade Illuminator who tried to seize control of Tarabon. There's never been this many in so short a time, and if you're right about how strong he is, he's probably one of the strongest in decades. What really worries me is that I've heard rumors about another one in the Borderlands." "Two at the same time?" "It's beginning. I can feel it. I can smell a storm in the wind." "Well, we do seem to have something big happen every thousand years or so. Hawkwing a thousand years ago, the Fanboy wars 2000 years ago, the Breaking three thousand years ago..." He sat up and stared north. "And each of them has been a little less bad than the one before it, so maybe we don't need to worry." "And each one has left us less able to stand united against the Dark One than before. If the Fanboy Wars start again, the North will fall. Malkier fell a few decades ago to much less than anything that happened back then, if even HALF the legends are correct. The fanboys have had 2000 years to breed and prepare for a rematch." Buford sighed and stared at the North Star. "Then you think we are doomed? Why go on living?" "I'm hoping that when the Dark One eats me, my hat will get stuck in his throat and choke him to death." Cosmo laughed. Before he could reply, Sunshine traded him Ryouga for Buford, whose efforts at resisting being made to dance were utterly futile. Ryouga plopped down. "Wow, I don't get this tired after eight hours at the forge." "Now you know why I let you soften her up for me first," Cosmo said. "Buford tells me that you're taking Akemi to the Tower." Ryouga nodded. "I guess now we know why she's always been so strong. Sometimes I think she should have been Master Luhan's apprentice instead of me." Cosmo looked at Ryouga's well-muscled arms. "Better you than me. Are you still mad I skipped out and you got stuck with my apprenticeship?" Ryouga sighed. "I'm too tired to be angry. Besides, I got to like it after a while. Making things is just...it's satisfying. I can look at an ax or a plow or a fork and know that I've made something that is helping people, something that will last." "So why did you decide to go with Akemi to the Tower?" Ryouga rolled over to face his brother. "Well, we sort of left in the middle of the night and I didn't have much of a choice." He sighed. "Cologne hustled us out of town after the fanboys attacked. They seemed to have especially targeted me and Ranma and Shinnosuke." Cosmo blinked. "Why?" Ryouga shrugged. "Who knows? It's kind of exciting to see the world, anyway." I just hope I don't start seeing it at random like I did in that weird dream, he thought. Cosmo sighed. "In other words, you don't really have much of a reason for why you're doing this." "I have to keep Akemi safe until we rejoin the others. That's reason enough for me." Cosmo cocked his head at his brother. "Are she and Ranma..." "The same as ever. I don't know what he'll do if she enters the Tower for real." "She will." Cosmo said. "Even if the Aes Sedai you were with never finds her, she'll make sure some other Aes Sedai will. Aes Sedai rarely marry and they never stay the same as they were. The Tower bends all those who pass within its walls. They certainly won't let the two of them spend much time together while she's an apprentice." Ryouga said, "He'll probably try to become her warder, I guess. If the cu...If they let him." I'd best not spread Ranma's curse around without asking him, he thought. "So what are you going to do once you get Akemi to the Tower?" "Go home, I guess. I really haven't got a clue." "You should come and find us. We could use a good smith, even though we don't exactly have much in the way of the tools you need." "Maybe. It's very nice here. Do you do this every night, or are we just lucky?" "Both," Cosmo said, smiling. "We do a lot more work when we're near towns, but when we're traveling, we relax a lot. One day, we'll find the Band, and then we'll be able to teach everyone to chill out like us." "The Band?" Cosmo's eyes lit up. "We're following the Band. Everything might be a clue as to where they are. In the Age of Legends, there was a band of musicians who possessed the secret of using the Power through song." "They were Aes Sedai?" "Not at all. Channeling is only one way to use the Power. Music has power. Can't you feel it?" Ryouga watched the sea of whirring bodies. He saw the smiles on their faces and the way they moved in unison, speaking the joy of their hearts with their bodies. It wrought a compulsion. He wanted to be part of it. It wasn't like the calm dances of the Two Rivers. It was a surge of primal joy, of the wisdom that escaped words. He was terrified and attracted to it at the same time. He wrenched himself away. "Yes." "Once, those who knew the Band's secrets could raise crops in a day with their music. They could calm angry mobs, bring peace with but a word. The Dark One sought to corrupt their power, but he could not, for those he corrupted ceased to have power. So he slew them." Cosmo's voice grew solemn, and he looked to be on the verge of crying. "They all died, trying to the last to bring hope and joy to the hearts of those who killed them." "If they're all dead, how can you find them?" "Time is a wheel. What has been will come again. One day, we must find their secret, find the Band which we seek, for we already have once. We have peace because we know we cannot fail." That's completely insane, Ryouga thought. You're chasing a dream that might not even have ever existed. He turned and looked at the joyful dancers. And yet...it called to him. They knew a peace he had never quite been able to find. All his skills at making things had never been able to reforge himself. Akemi needs me, he thought. I can't let her go on alone. "I have to make sure Akemi gets to the Tower," he said. Cosmo sighed. "Well, look us up after you finish with that, okay? I'd like to see you again." "You'll probably find me under your bed again one night, and then you'll change your mind," Ryouga said wryly. They both laughed and talked of things past, and for a time, all knew peace under the clear starry sky. *********************** Madoka, the Wise One of Cold Feet Hold, looked down from the balcony and sighed. Her niece, Shampoo, was playing 'Whack the Stone Dog' with LinLin and RanRan, using poor Yusaku as their victim again. They were worse than Hikaru had ever been to the poor boy. He's not a boy anymore, she reminded herself. He's only two years younger than me, she thought. How can he be so patient with them? Not that patience is a bad quality in a man, but putting up with this more than once was overdoing it. Of course, he probably thinks Hikaru will marry him if he only shows enough patience now. He should have thought of that a few decades ago. She tugged her skirt irritably and wished that the other Wise Ones hadn't decided that guitar picks counted as weapons so she couldn't carry them anymore. But that was dust in the wind and decades past, besides. She had learned more subtle methods, though using subtlety on Shampoo was a waste of water, so to speak. "Shampoo." She spoke just loud enough that Shampoo could hear without appearing to be shouting. Shampoo didn't hear her. She whacked Yusaku in the head with her bonbori while he was trying to tell Linlin and RanRan to go away. It was the third Wednesday of the month and by the rules of his club, Yusaku couldn't strike anyone without owing them a year of window washing, which he really hated. Luckily, it wasn't also the third month of the year, in which case he would also have owed them a lifetime supply of rice-a-roni and a golden Shmoo if he struck any of them. The rules of Tic-tac-toe are easily a snare for those unwilling to memorize all 5,235.34 of them. Madoka raised her voice slightly. "Shampoo." Yusaku turned to chew out Shampoo, then Linlin and RanRan whacked him in the back of the knees. They weren't normally cruel, except that the rules of their club required randomly tormenting Stone Dogs on this day of the month, so there was nothing they could do. Sure, most of the other Sisters of the Mallet made sure they didn't encounter Stone Dogs they liked on this day, but Shampoo, LinLin, and RanRan had never quite been noted for their ability to even bend rules. It wasn't that they disliked Yusaku. They were simply following the rules. This was the day you tormented Stone Dogs. Hikaru walked out onto the balcony besides Madoka. She looked down and frowned. "They shouldn't do that to Yusaku. Of course, he ought to have the sense to not go out in public on the third Wednesday of the month, but still..." Like Madoka, she wore a simple white shirt and a gaily colored skirt that went down to her ankles. Unlike Madoka, she also wore a pair of gold earrings and a bright red bandanna in her blonde hair, which was starting to grey. "Shampoo," Madoka repeated a third time, a little bit louder. "SHAMPOO! GET YOUR DEAF SELF UP HERE!" Hikaru shouted. "Or I'll make you rearrange all the furniture in the ENTIRE hold, again!" That got Shampoo's attention. She could pretend to not hear her aunt, but when the roofmistress shouted her name all over creation, she had to answer. Half the hold was staring at her. Madoka stifled the urge to laugh. Unlike herself, Hikaru had never been big on dignity. Nor had the threat been an idle one. One of the rights of the roofmistress was to demand help moving furniture. Cold Rocks had accumulated a LOT of furniture, especially since Hikaru tended to buy every piece of furniture that traders brought into the Three-Ply Land, or at least every piece brought to their hold. What was a 'Audiovisual center', anyway? Shampoo quickly climbed up the wall to the balcony, since it was faster than going through the interior of the hold. Shampoo believed firmly in the proposition that a straight line wasn't just the shortest route between two points, it was always the best route. She spent a lot of time repairing walls as a result. "Aiya, why you take Shampoo away from her duty, Great-Grand-Mother?" Madoka only barely resisted the urge to whack Shampoo in the head. "I am your sister-mother, not your Great-Grand-Mother!" Shampoo had always called her that for reasons Madoka could not comprehend. "Anyway, the time has come for you to become a Wise One." Only Shampoo's iron-clad will kept her from screaming. That and the fact that the last time she screamed, Madoka had used her patented triple-slap on her. It was some sort of channeling trick, Shampoo was certain. "Shampoo not want to become Wise One." "You have the talent. You must learn. Still, there is one thing you could do for us before you begin your training, if you are reluctant to start at once." "Aiya! Shampoo do anything to avoid wearing ugly cloth...to serve the Wise Ones." Maybe she's starting to learn some tiny smidgen of sense, Madoka thought. "We have to send you across the mountains into the Wetlands." She waited for Shampoo to scream, but Shampoo fainted instead. Hikaru turned to Madoka. "You shouldn't make jokes like that." "I wasn't joking." Hikaru fainted this time. Madoka sighed. I bet they'll faint again when I tell them why. Feigning unconsciousness to avoid bad news was perhaps the most annoying of the 3,245 Aiel customs listed in the latest issue of 'Aiel Anthropology Today', which she really needed to read when she found time. The Anthropologist Aardvarks got annoyed when you didn't read their journal, and if they found out, under rule 2456-subsection B of Tic'Tac'Toe, they could require you to listen to a reading of their latest paper, which was almost as much fun as being suspended over an antbed while covered with honey. Madoka knew this by experience, which despite its reputation is not the best teacher, at least if you don't like pain. ************************* Ryouga had to shake Akemi twice as much as usual to wake her up. Finally, she rolled over and slugged him into a tree, then sat up and blushed. "I'm sorry, Ryouga! I mistook you for my brother!" Ryouga peeled himself out of the now hollow tree. "It's breakfast time. I think I'll take a nap now, though." Thunk. He passed out. Akemi dragged him over to the group of people having some nice soup for breakfast. Cosmo shook Ryouga awake. "What happened?" "I was mistaken for an eight year old." Cosmo decided it was better to not ask. "So, you two are heading on to Caemlyn?" Buford said, "Well, I was hoping y'all were going that way, but I guess I'll take them a bit further since you aren't." "Thank you," Akemi said. "We'll see if you thank me after a few weeks of walking." ***************** After several weeks of walking, Ryouga and Akemi had almost decided they never wanted to go anywhere, ever again once they got where they were going. Being tied onto a horse was starting to look like a fond memory to Ryouga. Buford simply loped along as if constant motion was his natural state. "I guess you travel a lot," Ryouga said one day. Buford nodded. "For a very long time." He cocked his head. "I hear people. Quite a few people." "Out here in the wilderness?" Akemi asked, frowning. I don't hear anything, she thought. Buford nodded. "Probably trouble. We should try to avoid them. We should go that way." He pointed and took off running. Ryouga, of course, went the opposite direction. By the time they circled back and grabbed him, it was too late. End Chapter 5.