Shampoo focused her determination on the task at hand as she practiced the skills that her great-grandmother had shown her, taken from the masters that she had been observing for this exact purpose. Rising her hands with effort as she could feel the earth on the other end like a weight on her hands and arms, like she was lifting something with her own limbs rather than with some kind of magical power that might be spiritual in nature. Slowly a wall of rock rose from the ground in front of her with a slow and study manner that surprised even her with the knowledge that she had the power to control the earth itself.
Soon the wall stood a little bit taller than she was made of the same brown stone that made up most of the city that they were in. Changing her hand's motion, she placed her hands together for a matter of seconds before they pulled them a part as if she was opening a door. A crack formed in the wall that split it open down the middle which was followed by two different pieces of wall moving away from each other giving a passage through the wall. The purple haired woman then moved her hands in reverse and caused the rock wall to move back together, fusing into a single block once again. Then with a final motion of her hands, she sunk them in a downwards motion that was followed by the block causing it to sink back into the ground.
"Very good great-granddaughter, you have perfected the skills needed to use the doors in this city using the skills of earthbending that I have managed to pass on to you. This should give us a great advantage if we have to go hunting for our friends in the palace. Hopefully Ranma will be back with a room for the night and enough food to make our supper before we move on to the mission to recover our allies." It was then that Shampoo felt someone coming towards the deserted area that they had found to practice the new skills of the younger Hero Woman. They had been trying to avoid the guards of the city as they might have to do battle with them in the future if necessary.
Using abilities that had been honed with years of practice in the wild and dangerous lands of rural China, they moved with great speed to hide in the shadows of the area using their chi to blend in with the darkest places of the landscape. A few minutes later a patrol headed into the spot that they had been practicing before hand, looking around for anything that was out of the ordinary from the normal behavior of the city. Occasionally they would thrust their spears into the shadows as a measure to flush out anyone that might be hiding in those areas that they could not see well enough. But the women of the Hero Women tribe guessed that this would happen and use their training to avoid the spear points while keeping hidden. The patrol passed peacefully from the area and moved on to the next part of their rounds for the city. Waiting a few more minutes before acting the two women left the shadows as they stood back into their relaxed attack stance.
"I see that your training with your other skills is still as sharp as ever, but we will still need to work with the new martial arts. Hung Gar should not be too much trouble in our training methods as some of our own martial arts have some of the same motions as that art, given that we share some of the same terrain as those that developed the art that earthbending seems to be based on. In fact some of the techniques that you use for your own martial arts seems to link up with the ideology of earth, much like Ranma's arts link up with the ideology of air which might explain his own abilities.' Cologne told Shampoo, with the young women bowing her head in respect for the older and wiser women.
"Yes great-grandmother, Shampoo has been trying Shampoo's best to understand the basics of the art." Shampoo then stomped her foot on the ground a few times as three small rocks lifted up in the air which were then caught by her hand and caused to levitate above it in a manner that resembled juggling but with only the one hand. She looked like she was having trouble keeping the balance of the three stones, looking like she was about to drop them a few times before she could get a hold of the items that she was tossing in their air with her powers. She caused the stones to meld into a single rock acting like the rocks had melted into one another as they came in contact with each other, which caused her to lose her control on the stone as it dropped for a few seconds before she caught it and pulled it up, regaining the balance of the earthen fragments. Then she dropped the stone onto the ground, after making an over adjustment with the rock she was controlling.
"You have learnt much during these sessions with the secrets that I have managed to dig up from this city. You might not have the knack that Ranma has for learning new things, but you have improved with your own learning abilities with the practice that you have put in." The old woman smiled at her blood relation as she saw the growth of the young woman, secretly wondering what it was that had cause this transformation. Shampoo stood in thought before her sensei, knowing the reasons for her improvement with the arts were many fold. She wanted to see if she could help Katara, one of the first real close friend that she had made in her life as she didn't make many close friends in her life in the village and within Nerima. She just didn't have much time to find close friends given her missions to become the village champion, hunt down the outsider women that had defeated her and then tried to gain the love of the man that she had fallen for. Though the girl was younger than her, Shampoo could feel the same kind of warrior spirit that was beating within her own soul when she looked at the Water Tribeswomen. It was something that had caused Shampoo to bond with her and would cause the Amazon to battle for Katara's safety.
Then there was the fact that she wanted to keep up with her Airen, a man that lived the martial arts so hard that he picked up any form of combat skills with ease and turned anything that he could think of into training to improve those same combat abilities. Shampoo knew that to be with Ranma would have to mean making the martial arts a part of her life, which they were in a minor way when they were in Nerima. But being this close to Ranma during their trip through the new world they found themselves in had convinced the colorfully haired girl that she had to step up the on her work effort to become better trained with the arts. She knew that to truly keep Ranma with her always once she had won his heart she would have to become a skilled sparring partner for her beloved.
"Shampoo is trying harder to become a master for her own arts so that she can become a better help for everyone," was all that the young woman would say.
It was then that Ranma came running up to the two women that were standing together looking like he was out of breath which was something rather unusual for the expert athlete. He spoke to them, "I got some news about Aang and the others. I overheard the cabbage guy that we saw trying to get inta the city complaining about three kids that sound like the others, who crushed a mail chute crate inta his cabbage cart. The guards took them ta the king ta be punished, but for some reason the king gave them a feast. Then I heard from another guy that a guard told him that the king found out the one of them was the Avatar and forced them ta stay in palace for the Avatar ta pass some deadly test of the king."
Cologne looked thoughtful for a moment as Shampoo tried to digest the news that Ranma had learned.
"These rumors might not be true as we have no way of judging the sources of the tales that you have heard. However the grains of truth that we do know about what have happened to our friends seems to match up with the information that these rumors provide. So if we were to make a plan of action it might be best to believe the rumors for now especially since they paint a bleak picture for the fates of our friends," Cologne said.
"So what should we do now?" Ranma asked, looking curious as to what the old woman was thinking.
Shampoo knew that Ranma thought of her great-grandmother as one of the most cunning women that he knew, especially since that cunning had been used against him to the aid of having him marry Shampoo and return to their homeland of China. She knew that Ranma would respect the choice that her elder would make.
"We still have some time so we should eat and rest for the night so we will be strong enough in the morning to aid our friends if it is needed. I do have a strange feeling that there is more to this situation than we are seeing, but best to prepare for the worst so one is never surprised by things getting bad," Cologne told then as she continued by asking Ranma, "So where is the room I sent you to find?"
(Posted Wed, 21 Feb 2007 14:38)
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