She was a dead goddess of the drow named Eilistraee, or rather the living shadow of said dead goddess.
To accomplish this pulling of a minor fragment of 'happy ending' from the jaws of 'death and oblivion' was the work of a trickster god named Erevan Ilesere. It had also involved getting other trickster gods involved, and it had only been possible because the foe who had killed her had managed to "torque off enough gods across dozens of pantheons that just about any opportunity to stick it to her would be enthusiastically seized."
So, that brought her here.
What she'd gotten was an obviously incomplete briefing and muddled memories and a mission. Said mission apparently being one of the deals made to get her out of the fast-track to decaying on some Astral Plane. She was engaged to this human-turned-elf who was supposedly the best martial artist of his generation, which she guessed made him some sort of monk or fighter/unarmed specialist.
She also had some reference manuals dealing with something called 'Tenchi Muyo' which she was assured depicted a similar situation. She'd have to go over them later and try to glean details.
That this world had magic was at least somewhat comforting, though the manner was strange and apparently it was very commonplace. Craftsmagery was common. Being able to get glass so clear and rolled out into sheets large enough to front an entire building? Very impressive. Likewise there had to be some other magic involved in that this human city did not have filth lining the gutters and was relatively inoffensive. Compared to places like Skullport this was incredible.
The strange garments her fiance wore, and that were worn by others nearby caused her to consider that briefly before touching her charm bracelet again. Apparently armor and weapons were out of place here. Fortunately, the Charm Bracelet Of The Wanderer she had been equipped with stored a few equipment/clothing combinations on it.
Now clad in soft white cloth with a few ornamental bits of armor, she frowned as apparently a native set of clothing would still have to be procured before it could be added. This was still very much out of the local fashion judging from the crowd of people staring.
"Uh, you do realize you're briefly naked when ya do that?" asked Ranma, blushing a lot as he got out of the fountain.
"Yes?" asked Elle with apparent innocence.
"RANMA!" declared a stranger as he rushed up. "HOW DARE YOU FIND A CURE WITHOUT ME?!"
Seeing that her fiance was about to be attacked and that he had not gone into anything resembling a ready stance, Elle reacted by fingering the charm that gave her armor and sword back and prepared to defend her fiance.
The reaction of the stranger seemed to downgrade the hostility of the situation. His eyes bugged out, his face turned red, blood spurted from his nose, and he went down as if an ogre had used one of those tree-trunk clubs on him.
"Do you know this... warrior, my fiance?" asked Elle as she tried to make sense of this.
"Kinda," said Ranma.
"Is he... unwell?" asked Elle, still puzzling this out. It still made absolutely no sense that she could see.
"Kinda," said Ranma, going to the fallen warrior - who still looked quite dazed.
"Ah," said Elle. If the boy was unwell, perhaps that explained it. Some illness involving hallucinations or enhancing aggressive behavior. "If I can find the requisite herbs, I can mix something up to help him."
"I think he's kinda beyond help," mumbled her fiance.
"naked... elf... girl..." muttered the fallen warrior, looking quite dazed still.
"Oh! That's right!" said Elle, clapping her hands. "I had forgotten. Humans have a problem with nudity!" No doubt it was because they aged so swiftly and needed to cover up to protect themselves from temperature variants. Not that nudity was common in elven civilization either, it just didn't get as strong a reaction as humans tended to show.
"Well, yeah, I guess that kinda works," said Ranma, hoping that meant his newest fiancee wasn't going to wander around naked. Even if all she'd done so far was brief flashes where the naughty stuff was mostly covered up by the swirling clothing and sparklies.
Elle shrugged. "I can try a healing spell. Even though magic seems to operate differently here, the basics should carry over."
"Nah, Ryoga's tough," said her fiance, "he'll be back to 'Ranma prepare to die' in no time."
"He's an assassin then," said Elle, eyes narrowing as she ran her hand along her sword's length. Silver fire responded by crackling along the edge.
"Ah, no, it's kinda..." Ranma paused as if considering how to put it. "It's kinda an expression around here. 'Have a nice day.' 'Thanks a million.' 'Prepare to die.'"
"Very odd customs," said Elle.
"Uhm, yeah, I can see where ya might think so," said Ranma.
Elle sheathed her sword, NOT in the assassin, and leaned close to the boy as she met his gaze. Her voice was a bare whisper calculated to reach only one set of human ears. "If you EVER seek my fiance's life in earnest, know that an elf's vengeance is terrible and their patience can last for human generations. Do you understand me?"
The boy nodded once, slowly.
"Good," said Elle. Yes, she had been a nice goddess. Of the drow. And apparently that had gotten her killed.
"Her memories aren't clear," noted Corellon.
"Well, of course not," noted Erevan, looking down at the board game that occupied the table between them.
Sehanine sat back at her seat. "Why do YOU get the race car?"
"It's my game," said Erevan. "And we're just playing a friendly little game around the two players who are IN the game."
Sehanine looked down as the little prancing horse and swordsmaid figurines advanced on the board. "Elfopoly. I suppose that just using a crystal ball for scrying would be too easy for you. So what does THAT mean?"
"Ah, our two stars have just," said Erevan, checking the position the two figurines had stopped at, "landed on:"
Read the comments on this episode
(Posted Mon, 18 Aug 2008 18:04)
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.