"Wark?!"
The three stopped and glanced at each other. Slowly they turned to see what horrific monster had snuck up upon them.
It was huge, a beast standing fully two heads taller than even Rin. Stunted vestigal wings held close to its body, which was sort of teardrop shaped with the point erupting into a fan of long feathers. A thickly muscled neck ended in a head with a large thick beak. Two thick legs ended in widely splayed digits which themselves terminated in thick claws.
All in shades of pale yellow to dull gold, except for the eyes - a startling blue-white.
"IT'S SO CUTE!" declared three young girls upon seeing a chocobo up close for the first time.
A halfling nearby looked up from his work. "You clean up after 'em for a few years and see how cute you think they are then."
Naturally the girls ignored the little guy grumping about his job. The chocobo merely sniffed the girls over, hoping they had sweets or special greens.
"I want to ride!" said Chizuko.
"Wark," said the disappointed chocobo. No treats detected.
The Rowan was breathing hard. Many of the contestants had not immediately heeded the request to go belowdecks and relative safety, and ALL had been on deck prior to the attack.
Which ended in her using most of the charges in her dorje just throwing Feather Fall spells on various bridal candidates.
Worse was that this and the stream of communication being kept between newly airborne candidates, members of the Guard, members of the military, and various folk in the city - she was going to be too exhausted by the end of it to do anything but try to recover.
She had a sneaking suspicion that was part of the dark ship's plan - and scattering the candidates was another part.
Unfortunately the anti-scrying defenses of the ship in question were such that it would require a focussed effort on her part to probe there now.
The black ship rammed the Hammership once again, sending chunks of wood and those not lashed into place flying from either deck.
The Hammership captain saw this happening and set upon a plan. The ship dove with all possible speed, finally coming to land within the palace grounds itself. The intruder attempted to follow - once the other vehicle was grounded it would be more easily destroyed.
Large tubes swiveled to point at the black ship. Brief bursts of fire erupted from those tubes.
"Status report," demanded Ranma, buckling on his bracers.
"The enemy ship has been dealt with," rumbled Velocirex. The silvery head pointed towards the recent path of the ships. "There are some still drifting down."
"Round them up quickly," said Ranma. "Those from the attacking ship will be placed in cells and watched carefully. Do we know who the attackers were?"
"From what we've seen so far, milord, they are a mixed bunch of mercenaries from various systems offworld," said one of the elves. "Though some speak of a woman in hood and cloak who gave their orders."
"An assassin trying to mix in with these contestants?" asked Velocirex.
"That is what we think as well," said the elf. "Most likely the crew was deemed expendable for the opportunity to infiltrate the group."
"Check them out for enchantments and the like," said a dwarf. "Sneaky underhanded things are more likely than something straightforward."
"Do it," ordered Ranma. "The safety of those girls is a priority though - they're guests after all."
"La da da da da da ta da daa daaa," sang Chizuko as she tried to move with the odd gait of her mount.
"La da da da da ta da daa da da daa da," added Rin from her own blue-feathered mount.
"La dee da da da dee da da da dee da da da daa," added Miyuki from her green-feathered mount.
"Dat da daa da da, dat da daa daa da da da," continued all three, singing the chocobo theme from a number of Squaresoft adventures.
"I didn't know you played," remarked Chizuko as they did another circuit of the farm.
"I was over at Rin's place once," admitted Miyuki. "She had it on. Otherwise no - I'm kept too busy working at the bathhouse and helping to take care of my little sisters."
"Wow, we're really going places now," said Rin, "riding chocobo. Involved in airship battles. Next thing you know we'll-"
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 12 Jul 2004 10:02)
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.