"Well, young priestess, you've certainly painted yourself into quite a cosy corner," said the head priestess, looking somewhat haggered after being woken so late in the night, "Lucky for you that I consider this is serious matter, important enough to forgive being awakened from my beauty sleep."
Looking at her, Rei once again fought back the smartass remark that the old bat needed all the beauty sleep she could get. She was in enough trouble as it was. "Yes, Lilac-sama..."
Lady Lilac, head priestess of the Temple of the Moon Goddess, scratched her chin in thought. "What confuses me is why you didn't wake me up earlier. A stranger, especially a thief, invading the temple is certainly a serious matter."
Rei held back on the reasonable fear of her own self being on the receiving end of one of Lady Lilac's rather infamous punishments. After all, Rei would be the one disturbing her beauty sleep, not Ranma, and would be the likely recipient. It had happened before. She didn't dare tell Lilac this, however. "I don't know, Lilac-sama..."
Lady Lilac glared at her suspiciously, causing the young priestess to cringe. However, the old bat venerable, nearly-young, shapely priestess didn't comment on what she knew the young whippersnapper to be thinking.
(Meanwhile, an author nurses a bump on the head.)
Lady Lilac glanced over the two yet again. "I must say, however, I find your story rather phony, young man," said the high priestess. "Are you stupid enough to honestly believe that I would swallow your little tale about how your father is a crippled invalid and you needed some of the temple's wealth to buy medicine?"
"Uh..."
Lilac rubbed her temple. "Or maybe you are stupid enough to believe it... I weep for your wife, one of our great holy order being married to such a complete git. I suggest you give up thievery, though. You are rather bad at it."
Ranma looked down, visibly miserable. "Yes 'm..."
"And you, Rei. You made quite a spectacle of yourself when you went down on poor Mimi."
"Hey, it wasn't me! It was this stupid ring that did it!" countered Rei, holding up the her left hand with the ring still stuck on the appropriate finger.
"Rei, that 'stupid ring' was forged by the goddess herself to serve as the physical manifestation of the bond of matrimony between you," the high priestess replied haughtily. "Do you profane the Great Goddess of the Moon because you were stupid enough to perform the marriage rite with some strange man? Then not five minutes later, you step out on him, with another woman, no less, and you forced yourself on the poor dear."
"And who told you this? Usagi-chan? C'mon, you know anything coming from her mouth isn't worth a dingo's left kidney! And Ami-chan's just as bad (her intelligence notwithstanding)," Rei countered. More quietly, she added, "And besides, Mimi-chan seemed to be getting into it, murmuring something about wanting my 'active moles' or somesuch, so it wasn't exactly forcing myself onto her, even if it were my volition..."
"Bare-assed naked, I might add," said the high priestess.
Rei cringed, her cheeks burning. "I didn't have time to put my robes on..."
"And you still haven't," the high priestess wryly informed her inferior.
Rei emitted a loud gasp as she realizes she was still stark raving naked. No wonder Ranma was turbo hyperblushing and trying so hard not to look at her. Immediately, she pulled the largest piece of her robes over he head and body and began dressing, her nakedness hidden by the shifting cloth. A few minutes later, she emerged wearing the innermost part of her priestess garments, which was sufficient enough to cover her modesty, and finished dressing in the open. Her entire face was red with a blush, though.
"I still can't believe the Moon Goddess still does marriages like that!" came her disbelieving murmur.
"It's the original, proper way to marry someone under the care of the Moon Goddess, child," explained Lady Lilac, rubbing her temples as if she was doing so for the umteenth time. "The rite may be in disuse, but that doesn't mean that the goddess considers the bond forged by the rite to be any less valid."
Ranma raised his hand. "Um... Ya say it's a marriage made by a goddess, right? Does that have anythin' to do with the fact we can't get more than some distance from each other?"
"You noticed that, did you?" "Yes, for as long as the marriage remains unconsummated, the rings cannot be separated more than some distance from each other. This distance contracts as time goes on, forcing the couple to be in closer and closer proximity, until the... *ahem* magic happens."
Rei's eyes widen considerably. She and Ranma growing closer together, physically, day by day, until they could no longer be in separate rooms, then beds, then clothes... Her blood chilled, yet her cheeks flushed. Ranma wasn't a bad specimen of manhood, after all.
"The way I see it, Rei, you have five choices.
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(Posted Thu, 08 Jul 2004 07:59)
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