Smiling to herself at how straightforward these minds were, at least compared to some others, the Rowan watched in more detail.
These three knew only of the prince through visions sent through their heraldic network, and in fact had only seen those visions during highlighted repeats of the actual events. This might be amusing.
"Rin Todoroki?"
"That's me."
"May I see your ticket. Hmmm. Yes, that's genuine. These two are your friends?"
"Y-yes. Chizuko Oe and Miyuki Sakura."
"This way please."
Rin was the heir of her family's school of martial arts. She put her nervousness behind her with some effort. She envied Chizu - who didn't seem phased at all.
The three turned at the end of the ramp and waved back at the family, friends, and well-wishers who had seen them off, then the ramp retracted and the ship lifted.
"Why is this ship shaped like a leaf?" asked Miyuki of their guide.
"It's a thri-kreen design," said their guide, seated in some kind of chair that was bolted to the deck.
"Thri-kreen, that's those bug people aren't they?" asked Rin.
"The mantis folk," agreed their guide. "They tend to be back-to-nature types who live a nomadic existence. We've got four transport-shuttles based on designs from different races."
"Wow, look at that. I can see Feynman's Bakery. They make those tasty little raisin cakes there," said Chizuko as she watched from near the edge.
"EEEEK!" said Miyuki as she looked out from her own position and saw an eye looking back at her from a distance.
"That's just our escort, miss," chided an armored dwarf.
"Oh, that's Tarre, isn't she?" asked Rin as she came up to the deck. "Helloooo!"
The dragon seemed to nod in reply and then rose to a higher position.
"They look bigger when they're flying," commented Miyuki.
"It's caused they're stretched out," said the dwarf. "Especially along the wings."
"Why are you all armored up like that anyway? Expecting trouble?" asked Rin.
"Well, we are a military force," said the dwarf. "We've all been in some tough fights and sometimes the other forces don't exactly give you notice they're in the neighborhood, much less they're wanting to attack."
"So, do we get weapons?" Miyuki asked, an image from 'Magic Knight Rayearth' coming into her head.
"Probably," said the dwarf. "You are bridal candidates to a prince. Or at least your tall friend there is. If'n the castle were besieged by creatures from the Abyss, you likely wouldn't be able to do much but havin' at least basic competence with a weapon might give ye a few more seconds for rescue to arrive."
"Who's the cameraman?" asked Chizuko, gesturing at someone who was clearly Japanese and clearly not one of the crew.
"He's filming for that Usagimaru fellow, one of the heralds who toured the Citadel earlier," explained the helmsman from his chair. He wondered why the girls spoke in one voice when speaking to each other, then in another higher-pitched one when speaking to him or one of the other males. Was it a cultural thing of these Earth-people?
Rin considered the dwarf who was at ease but still watching the skies periodically. "So what kind of enemies does Rangard have?"
"Just the normal ones, lass," said the dwarf. "Evil Beings From Beyond, undead, pirates, criminal empires trying to establish a presence, neogi, illithid, yuan ti, fiends from the Abyss or Nine Hells, and that sort of thing."
"You don't say," said a suddenly nervous Rin as she began looking at the skies herself.
Miyuki had been listening and licked dry lips. "So, uhm, what kind of weapons are we talking about?"
The Rowan sat back in amusement. She couldn't remember ever being so innocent.
She turned her attention to one last candidate, this one from the military.
This time, however, she went to a physical examination first as a list of names and basic statistics had just arrived via a teleportation spell. Thanking the courier, some sort of air elemental, the Rowan turned her attention to the list.
Rangard's military forces were fairly powerful, with a number of races meeting within its ranks. In the current system, young men and women (and beings) served a tour of duty in the military forces for a few years. Some elected to remain. Most served their tour and then went on to other things, but their tour had served to help them determine what they were skilled at and introduced them to the various other races.
Those that remained with the military beyond that single tour were mostly those showing exceptional skills that would serve them well within that group and one of the four Services within the ranking.
Marines - whenever a spelljammer landed or a boarding party was needed - it was the Marines who were in the forefront. Even the mages and clerics among their number were counted as warriors. Mostly composed of dwarves, werefolk, some elves, genasi, and the like.
Navy - the spelljammers themselves were crewed by those specializing in ship-to-ship combat and in keeping ships functional. Elves and the other more dextrous races dominated the Navy. While halflings and gnomes and less physically imposing races tended to avoid joining the Marines, they were quite welcome within the Navy. Small stature was not a liability there, though being exceptionally large was a problem for those races serving this service. The exceptionally large species therefore tended to stay out of the Navy or else serve in the shipyards and docks and bases where space was not as much a problem.
Those two made up the bulk of the military. That left the Guard - who policed the cities and responded to disasters like fire and flood, and the Scouts - who were the ones who looked for dangers and resources and trouble within and without the kingdom. The Scouts were an elite force, while the Guard was more along the line of a militia. Both groups tended to attract those with "special talents" such as psychics, shapechangers, mages, clerics of certain faiths, monks of certain temprement, animal speakers, and the like.
Since the military of all four services could only select a single candidate, there had been a considerable amount of frantic searching before settling on that one young girl. About the Prince's age, she was in her second tour of duty. Well educated, disciplined, and showing considerable promise in her service, as well as having a certain attractiveness.
Rowan read the brief description and then the scribbled line below it that gave the most basic view of the girl in question.
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 31 May 2004 10:57)
Questions? Problems? Suggestions?
Send a mail to addventure@bast-enterprises.de
or use the contact form.
らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
All other series and their characters are © by their respective creators or owners. No claims of ownership of these characters are implied by the authors of this Addventure, or should be inferred.
The Anime Addventure is a non-profit site.