Aurieste walked from Ranma’s room in deep thought. Considering the young man’s life, it would be hard NOT to feel attracted to him. To have gone through so much hardship, and still be true to his own ideals and near innocent nature… it was amazing that he wasn’t insane, much less dead!
Thus it wasn’t until one of the priestesses came up to her that she was aware of where she was, “Mistress, we have a problem…”
The dragon turned human blinked in surprise, “Yes, what is it?”
“There is a small band of Elven females who are looking for the young man you brought with you earlier. They are rather insistent that they meet with him…”
Aurieste sighed in amusement; if she had had any doubts about Ranma’s tale, she had a feeling that they would have been dispelled because of this. “Send them to meet with me in my Business Quarters, and I’ll see what this is about.”
“Yes mistress.”
/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/-/
The six Elvin girls shifted nervously as Aurieste entered the room. “Greetings, travelers. I am the mistress of this temple. May I help you?”
Dagger sat poised as high elves of noble standing are expected to. Drijari and Tempeste shifted nervously. Valoure rolled her eyes and looked towards the other two members of their party. Mist, noticing this, elbowed Thorn in the side. “Ow, what the… do I have to… Oh all right!” The girl then turned towards the golden haired ‘woman’, who was politely holding back her laughter. “Earlier today, we were in danger. Mist and I were the only ones who were left uncaptured, and we were outnumbered by quite a bit. Mist offered up a prayer for help, and then this human boy comes along. Mist asks her god or whatever,” She winced at the elbow to her side again, but endured it, “if the boy could help us. In return, she was told that if he helped us, we were supposed to help him.”
“Pretty basic,” Aurieste mused, “though it is rather unusual for a God to ask for you to give the lad a boon at this level. Normally, they are all about negotiating between themselves.”
“That’s what I thought,” Thorn agreed, “So seeing that we needed the help, I… well, I kind of offered him something, and he seemed agreeable…”
Aurieste delicately raised her eyebrow at this, “Seemed agreeable?”
“Well, he didn’t speak any language I ever heard of…”
“Just to be sure, can I have a description of the boy in question?”
“He was about as tall as we are, black hair, blue eyes, some kind of hair tie in the back… oh, and he had some sort of gender shifting curse… not sure exactly what it was, but he had it.”
Aurieste nodded her head, “Ah, I believe I know who you are speaking of. Before we move on though, may I ask what you offered him?”
Mist glared at Thorne, as did Drijari and Valoure. “Well, I kind of… offered him… us…”
Aurieste blinked, and then chuckled heartily, “Well, I can see that he wasn’t lying when he complained about his luck with women…”
This caused the six elven females to blink, “What do you mean?” asked Dagger.
The woman before them sighed, “To make a long story short, the warrior you are in search of is from a distant world, and has ended up here by means of a rather dangerous magical artifact. The artifact is far too risky to use for a return trip, so he is stuck here for now.”
“During his childhood, his father took him out into their world and raised him in a fighting art involving the use of the body and its natural energies as a weapon, kind of how some of the old monasteries practice here, but a bit more extreme. The father was an idiot, and put his son into many dangerous situations, one leaving what seems to be a primal possession, and another leaving a divine curse that seems to have a lot of minor add-ons that can be altered with the right means. Also during this time, his father made many arrangements in his name. In the last year, two of those arrangements have come to light, as well as two more who have attached themselves to him for some rather unusual reasons.”
“Of these four engagements, two of them are rather violet, one of them is insane, and one is a sister figure who seems intent on making him uncomfortable for the rest of his life. Because of this, and due to the fact that nobody has explained anything about a relationship to him, he is rather wary of female interaction.”
Of the six elven girls, five of them seemed to understand what she was saying. Thorn, however was confused, “So, what does this have to do with us?”
As Mist slapped the back of her head, Aurieste chuckled, “It means that Ranma had no idea of what you were offering when he helped you of his own free will, and offering yourselves to him like that now would just make him skittish and uncomfortable. If you really wish to pay him back, however, I believe he would be willing to let you travel with him as he seeks out a cure for his possession and curse.”
Thorn nodded in understanding, but Tempeste asked, “What do you mean possession and curse?”
“His father forced Ranma to undergo a flawed training session for a flawed technique. It was meant to create a berserker of some prowess to destroy one’s enemies, but was apparently banned for producing out of control monsters. Now whenever Ranma nears anything of a feline nature, he suffers from an intense fear that may soon call out the cat spirit within him. He’s rather harmless to those who mean him no harm in this form, but it’s not something I’d want to face as an enemy. As for his curse, it seems to have been given to him at a sacred site, and has allowed him to correct some erroneous views that his father left him with. Whether or not it can be cured is unknown, though I have promised to help research it myself.”
Valoure nodded at this, “So this fighting style of his, how good is it?”
“It seems to give him an advantage against most of the common and uncommon enemies you may find here, though I doubt it would have much effect against something really dangerous, like a chromatic worm or a Hell fiend. Against other humanoids, though… well, I’d have to say that few could stand against him.” Aurieste watched the girls take this in, and then concluded, “Ranma has a few things to think about right now, so I would advise that you rest here for the night, and I’ll see about letting you see him again. I have offered him the use of a Pearl of Tongues, so you won’t have to worry about misunderstanding each other.”
The girls got up to leave, but Tempeste stopped to ask, “Pardon me, Mistress, but I heard rumors about a dragon residing in this temple. Are there any truth to these rumors?”
Aurieste laughed at this, spitting out a small bit of flame that shocked the six travelers. “Why yes, a Golden Dragon and her new hatchling reside in this temple. Thank you for asking!”
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(Posted Tue, 07 Dec 2010 05:22)
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