The moonflow.
It's a quiet river in the middle of a nice, relaxing landscape. Surrounded by trees, only mildly mannered beings live here (except for the fiends).
Two of these beings are the Hypello and the shoopuf. These two live together in almost perfect harmony.
The shoopuf are like big, gentle elephants with a strange furled nose and dinosaur-like tails. They wade through the moonflow and suck water and little organisms through their noses. These are their only food.
The Hypello are a race of blue-skinned, amphibian people that have a very easygoing character. They believe nothing will be solved through battles, so they prefer to avoid confrontations. They are the best swimmers in Spira though, and it makes the other people of Spira wonder why they didn't choose to introduce their own blitzball team.
The moonflow itself has not a very strong current, but is actually very deep. So the travellers have to rely on the services of the Hypello. They are always ready to transport travelling groups over the river, with the help of their trusty shoopufs. The only thing they demand in return is that fighting at the banks of the moonflow is forbidden. Fiends are generally no problem... for some reason, they avoid the direct contact with the moonflow water.
When the travellers from Nerima saw their first shoopuf, they certainly were dumbfounded at first. Tidus too, as he had never left Zanarkand before this adventure.
"They look kinda peaceful, don'tcha think?" Ranma asked. "And they seem really strong... I wonder how many people they can transport at once."
"I don't really know," Wakka had to admit. "But the cabins on their backs are a little small, so the Hypellos only allow six people at most to go on board. I fear we have to split up into two groups."
"Only two shoopufs are available to ride," Auron explained. "And they cross the river at the same time. So the other half of our group has to wait until the second one arrives."
"Works for me," Ranma shrugged. "It's not like we're in a big hurry. And if we're safe here, we can relax a little while waiting for the other pooshuff to arrive."
"It's called shoopuf," Kasumi corrected him.
"Whatever," Ranma shrugged. "It's not like they can understand me or something..."
That's when the waiting shoopuf decided for a shower and sprayed itself with some water... and by accident, some of the water managed to soak Ranma. Everyone else curiously stayed dry, though...
Ranma-chan pouted. "Stupid curse..." she muttered.
"Wanna get some hot water before getting on the shoopuf?" Akane asked. Ranma shook her head. "Nah, I'll wait until we reach the other side. With that many water around, I'll surely get wet again."
----
As planned, they divided into two groups. The first group consisted of Yuna, Tidus, Akane, Kimahri and Kasumi, the second group was formed by Ranma, Wakka, Auron and Shampoo.
"Actually, Shampoo wouldn't need to cross river on nice elephant-thing. Could just transform into water form."
And with a grin, she transformed into a humanoid cross between fish and cat.
"Hey, let's just stay together, ya?" Wakka asked her. "It's bad enough that we have to divide into two groups." Shampoo shrugged.
At that moment, one of the Hypello was approaching them. "Shoopuf ish reddy too go. Rides ze shoopuf?"
----
Ranma watched the first shoopuf quietly wade through the calm waters. Just the top half of his head and his huge back were sticking out. The passenger's cabin was shaking a little up there, but it was safe and dry. She tried to look over to the other bank of the river to detect the second shoopuf, but it was too far away.
She leaned back against a tree and closed her eyes. After all these battles, a nice, relaxing river crossing was just the right thing...
She startled when she heard a loud shout of surprise from the river. Quickly, she jumped to the riverbank and looked to the shoopuf. It looked like it was under attack. She heard loud voices, and then someone yelled: "Yuna!"
Ranma wasted no time and jumped into the river. "Yuna is in danger," she said to Wakka, Auron and Shampoo. "I'll go help them."
"Shampoo help," the purple-scaled Amazon exclaimed and dove under the surface. Wakka really wanted to help too, but he couldn't swim nearly as fast as those two. What a shame, though...
When they approached the shoopuf, Ranma could see how SOMETHING was pulling Yuna under water. He gestured towards the place, and Shampoo nodded. Tidus was just jumping into the water as well and dove under. Shampoo jumped out of the water with the grace of a dolphin, made a somersault and plunged below the surface like a torpedo. Ranma quickly followed them.
Below the water, a strange apparatus was awaiting them. On its back, a force field contained the confused Yuna, while the machine itself was flailing around with numerous mechanical tentacles. The front side of this weird submarine was shaded, so they couldn't see the driver.
"Yuna! We'll save you," Tidus mumbled, his voice damped by the water.
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Sat, 22 Jul 2006 23:42)
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.