A large body crashed through the undergrowth, and Akane froze on the faint path. Sure enough, seconds later a rabbit burst from the brush, followed by a much larger form. Both vanished into the ground cover on the other side of the path, Ranma’s passage marked by violent thrashing of greenery.
“Ranma! What did that rabbit do to you?”
“Woof!”
Abruptly, the movement in the undergrowth ceased. “Ranma?”
“Woof.” A bush shuddered momentarily, and a red-furred head popped up into view.
Akane sighed, and shifted the combined pack. “Come on, Ranma. I want to get to the camp site soon.”
“Rrrr.” The bushes shook again, and the big canine emerged onto the path. Once clear of the undergrowth, Ranma shook herself and turned up the track, and Akane jerked back into motion in her wake.
“You still haven’t explained why you attacked that poor rabbit.”
“Dnnrr,” growled Ranma.
“What?” asked Akane. Then, “Dinner? You can’t eat rabbits!”
“Can,” insisted the canine. “Tassty.”
“Eww.”
“Ahhh.”
Ranma regarded her companion for a few seconds after announcing their arrival at the site they were to camp for the night – a small clearing distinguished from a dozen others they had walked through merely by being more nearly level and within hearing distance of a small waterfall. Then she walked over and thrust her wet nose under the dark-haired girl’s ponytail.
“Eeep!” Akane twitched, and then slumped back onto the log she had adopted as a seat. “Stoppit!”
“Rrr. Tent.”
“Lemme get my breath back, Ranma.”
Ranma sighed – a most peculiar sound from a large dog – and worked around her friend. Then she wriggled under the girl’s knees and stood up.
“Ahh!”
Ranma danced away from the flailing limbs. After a moment, Akane stopped thrashing, and commented, “You know, if you want me to get up and do something, making me lie down probably wasn’t a good idea.”
The big canine made her way around to poke her muzzle into the fallen girl’s face. “Tent,” she insisted “Dnnrr.”
“Gah. Doggy breath.”
“Grrrrr.”
Akane shoved Ranma away and rolled over. She scrambled up to all fours, and then to her knees with the help of the log. She rested there until Ranma moved closer, the glint in her eyes suggesting some new indignity to inflict, inspiring the rush of energy necessary to get to her feet.
She weaved around the log and pulled open the pack she had leant against it as her first action on being told they had reached their destination. Grunting inelegantly, she heaved Ranma’s pack out, and then pulled out a bundle of canvas with several thin sticks at its centre.
Remembering family camps in the past, she walked around the small clearing. Ranma watched her quizzically for a while, and then bounded directly to one particular spot near the edge of the space. She sat and pronounced, “Tent herre, ‘Kane.”
Akane frowned at the patch selected. It looked no different to the rest of the clearing; then again, it was so long since the last family expedition she wasn’t really sure what she ought to be looking for. “If you’re sure… I was thinking over there…”
Ranma shook her head clearly. “Big rroo’ frm tree.”
Akane took another look at the patch she had indicated. “How do you know?” she asked. True, it was overhung by a fairly large tree, but the ground had seemed unbroken.
“Cmp herre t’rree yrrs ‘go,” explained Ranma. “Hd to mve tent.”
“Oh.” Akane nodded, and undid the tie holding her bundle together. Carefully, she unrolled it where Ranma had suggested. “I’ve never put this up on my own,” she admitted, “so any help you can offer is much appreciated.”
“Rrrr?” answered Ranma absently, sniffing the canvas. “Mmussty.”
“It’s been in the garden shed for a long time, but Kasumi will have looked after it and Daddy would never have let us go if it wasn’t all right.”
“Rrrm,” opined Ranma doubtfully.
Akane finished unfolding the fabric and figuring out how the parts fitted together. Eventually, with Ranma’s advice, she felt ready to begin erecting her home for the night.
The springs that ran up the inside of the poles were all broken, but Ranma assured her they weren’t needed once the tent was up, so she just had to sort the pieces to make a symmetrical A-frame and a shorter single pole. Once she had those, she crawled inside the canvas and fumbled them into the eyelets let into the material. The single pole fell apart before she got to the back, but she put it back together more or less by feel, and found the hole for it much the same way. The A-frame remained intact, but by virtue of its size was more awkward to manoeuvre.
That done, she pegged out the edges of the tent and hooked the guylines to the poles where they poked out the top. After roughly setting the guys, leaving the canvas loose and floppy, she frowned at the small pile of leftover pieces. “Can you see where all these pegs are supposed to go, Ranma?”
“Gno.” The canine wandered around from her casual inspection of the tent. “Ssparres?”
“There’s nearly as many left as I used, though,” objected Akane.
Ranma moved in a way that suggested a shrug, and immediately rolled over and rubbed her shoulders on the ground.
Akane sighed. “Well, if you don’t know I certainly don’t. Got any idea what these round things are?”
Ranma paused her faintly comical writhing to look. “Ffee’?”
“For the poles, you mean?” said Akane. “Could be, I suppose. But how would they stay on? The hole in the middle is too small, and the poles have end cap things anyway.”
“Rrrr.”
“Oh, I suppose it doesn’t matter. The tent’s up without them.” She scooped up the pieces and dropped them into her pack. “Let’s just tighten the guylines and I’ll put the packs inside and start making dinner.”
“Rrokay!”
Quickly, she shortened the guylines at the front until the A-frame stood vertical, and then she went to the back of the tent. With one hand, she held the rear pole upright, and with the other she pulled up the adjuster on one of the rear guys.
Rrrip
“Ruh-oh.”
“Please tell me that wasn’t what I think it was.”
Ranma, perhaps wisely, held her tongue.
Timorously, Akane circled the tent. She found her friend peering round from the other side, inspecting a great rent in the canvas near the zip.
“Oh, no,” she breathed. She knelt by the hole and tenderly ran her fingertips down the rip. It was clearly big enough to take her spread hand. Ranma moved closer, and Akane asked hopefully, “Can we fix it?”
Ranma gave her a uniquely canine doubtful look, and told her, “Nno ssewing git. Rrrotten anyway. Rrip easier after.”
“So what do I do now?”
“Ssilly,” retorted Ranma. “Usse mmine.”
“Use – oh, thank you!” gasped the girl, throwing her arms around the canine’s neck. “Thank you thank you thank – wait a minute. I’ve been carrying two of these things all this way?”
“Gnnn,” managed Ranma. With a heave, she pulled her head out of Akane’s grasp. “Mmine’s ssmallr…”
“Oh, good. But still…” Noticing Ranma had been distracted towards the undergrowth, she asked, “Are you going for a rabbit again?”
Ranma shook her head. “Mmousse. Orr shrew.”
“Ohh. Don’t try telling me they’re good for dinner!”
“Gno,” assured Ranma. “Gnice snack…”
“Eww! You – Eww!” Akane grabbed for the collar still around her friend’s neck, thinking to drag her away from temptation. Ranma dodged, and retaliated with a shoulder charge that left Akane on her backside in the leaf litter.
Akane looked at the big rufus canine lolling its tongue at her, and came to an appropriate decision.
“Of course, this means war.”
Fifteen minutes of chasing one another around the clearing, with diversions through the nearby shrubbery, had miraculously not furthered the damage to the tent. However, after the second time she tripped over the packs, Akane slumped onto the log and admitted defeat.
She was rewarded with a doggy head rested on her shoulder with a satisfied ‘wuff’.
“Gahh.”
They sat, catching their breath, for a few minutes. Eventually, Akane gently pushed Ranma away and leaned over to pull the packs closer.
She undid the ties on Ranma’s and started to rummage. She soon found the clean underwear tucked inside a cookpot. The packet of dog biscuits tucked alongside the noodles was hardly hidden. The box of matches fell out of the kettle wholly by accident.
“Where’s the tent?”
“In pack.” Ranma pushed her out of the way and shoved her head into the nearly-empty pack. She sniffed. “Rrr. Popss…”
It took a moment for Akane to make the connection. “Oh, great. You think your father took it? What for?”
“Gno’t gno.” Ranma gave her a mournful look. “Rrorry.”
“Not your fault,” sighed Akane. “So now what do we do?”
Ranma looked up at the light clouds overhead. “Rope gno rrain,” she suggested.
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(Posted Sat, 11 Aug 2007 15:21)
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らんま1/2 © Rumiko Takahashi
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