The troops of Dark Mistress Ekana kept on marching the rest of the day and a good part of the night. Ranma felt really tired and wished he could have taken a small break, but he couldn't risk exposing himself.
When finally, the black army stopped for the night, Ranma almost fell down from his horse. He was tired... but the captains of the squad he had sneaked in never gave him a rest. He and the other knights had to put up the tents, take care of the horses, polish their weapons... and when they were finally allowed to go to sleep, Ranma felt as if he would never wake up again.
But, shortly before falling asleep, a sleek figure came out of the big main tent in the middle of the camp.
And before Ranma's eyes slowly got closed, he had the feeling that a cold aura of darkness was surrounding that female knight...
----
The next day started as early as the previous day had ended late. Ranma and his squad had to clean everything up, saddle the horses and get moving.
Ranma got pretty nervous when he saw none other than Baron Koan, who was instructing his own troops, some distance away. Luckily, he didn't seem to be the lead general of the army. Ranma was hoping he wouldn't get too close to him, so the dark baron wouldn't recognize him.
He also was hoping that they would reach the end of the cave pretty soon, so he could end this charade.
His prayers were being answered.
A few hours after they had started, the light within the tunnel turned brighter and brighter. And then...
...then Ranma had to close his eyes because of the unusual light that was shining down on them, the rays of the bright sun that was up in the almost cloud-less sky...
Wait a minute...
Sun?
Ranma gasped as he looked upwards. After spending all those days in Na'aj and the dark tunnel, it was kinda surprising to see the sunlight again. But that could mean only one thing...
After walking a short distance, Ranma turned around and looked up... at the massive mountain range that rose behind him.
They had left the Shadow Mountains behind.
They had arrived in Ja'an!
----
The commanders of the troops have shouted several harsh orders to their men, instructions for going down the mountain trail they had to follow. The tunnel exit was situated on a big plateau on the side of the mountains, to reach the mainland of Ja'an, they had to go down this trail, into a valley at the bottom of the mountains.
Ranma realized that the descent of the army was the ideal situation to get away from them. They had to be especially careful while leading the horses and carriages down the trail.
Luckily, Ranma's squad was the first to go down the slopes, and he was going to make use of that fact.
When the captain asked for a volunteer to scout ahead, Ranma was happy to oblige.
He took Boy by the reigns, went ahead and acted like he was watching the ground and the steep cliffs carefully and waited for the right moment...
He acted when the captain was yelling at a knight who had acted disobediently... he jumped into his steed's saddle, grabbed the reigns and shouted: "Now, Boy! Run as fast as you can!"
The black stallion neighed loudly and began dashing down the steep slope. Ranma realized the wild ride down the mountainside was pretty dangerous, as he and Boy had to watch out for boulders lying in the way, and for the steep abyss that was right next to them. One wrong step, and they would plunge down into their doom...
Also, when he heard an angry yell, he knew that his cover was blown. He ducked in his saddle when a black arrow flew over his head.
As Ranma wasn't a skilled rider, he almost completely had to trust the abilities of his horse. And Boy truly did his best... any normal horse would have already fallen down the cliffs.
As Ranma turned his head around, he could see a small group of riders that came after him. The leader was a tall knight who was swinging an impressive morning star... it was Baron Koan!
When the slope made a sharp turn, Ranma feared that this would be the end... Boy almost didn't make it. But, at the last moment, the black stallion found his balance and continued their escape.
A loud clatter of metal sounded behind Ranma's back, followed by an angry curse... Koan didn't make the turn without falling from his saddle. Sadly, he didn't fall down the chasm, but at least his horse was blocking the path, so Ranma would have enough time to escape.
When they turned around the next slope, the dark knights vanished out of their sight. But Ranma and Boy didn't stop or even slow down until they had reached the foot of the mountain. Ranma quickly looked around and then rode into a lush thicket, right in front of them.
After a while, he stopped his steed and listened carefully. But he couldn't hear anything... they had successfully escaped from their enemies' clutches. And finally, Ranma had managed to make it to Ja'an.
But the war has followed him. And it won't be easy to hide from it forever...
See other episodes by Shritistrang
(Posted Thu, 02 Nov 2006 20:54)
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.