Had she been able, Diana would have grit her teeth in frustration. Failing that, she still had a pretty good snarl going.
"Ooh, you..!" She forcibly collected herself. "Calm." she thought inwardly, "Grace and decorum... Grace and decorum." She was only marginally successful. After all, even with her (in her own view) herculean effort at discipline, the way she stalked over and around Ranma's torso with her tail switching back and forth rapidly and her ears laid back most of the way still projected "pissed off kitty" quite clearly.
After several long moments she perched on his chest as she tried to control the jerking of her tail. "You're just bloody fortunate that she told me not to hurt you," she raised her nose with a dainty sniff, almost haughtily, "you big oaf." Of course, knowing the possible consequences of hurting this particular young man was the majority of the reason she followed said directive.
"Oh, wonderful... now I'm starting to sound like my mother." This statement coincided with a fresh bout of tail-switching. Again she had to quell her irritation and she was starting to feel a little foolish. "OK, OK. So... how to wake you up?" She started grooming herself a little to calm down. It wasn't very dignified, but she was the only witness. "Scratching and biting is out, and I don't think I could yell loud enough to wake you even if I were willing to try. I'd probably just wake up your clod of a father."
She padded off of his chest and circled around his head. She put her little paws on his cheek and basically stood halfway on his face. She gave him the equivalent of a feline grin. "I think I saw the queen do something like this to Small Lady once." That said, she lay bodily across his nose and mouth. The results were not quite immediate; in fact she was about give up and try something else:
*snrrt*kack*hough*WHAZZA?*blech*pteh*
...but they were spectacular.
Ranma flailed for a few seconds before gaining of enough consciousness to identify the problem, giving Diana a short, impromptu lesson in flight. She couldn't help but protest a little. "Well! That was rude!"
Ranma's mouth was going before even turning to look at the speaker. "What're ya tryin' t'do? Kill me-EH?" And he noticed just who he was talking to. "This ain't a dream?"
Diana, for her part, was a little... perturbed by being flung end over end. As evidenced by her fluffed up tail. So, her response is somewhat understandable: "Would you like too see how much of a dream this is?" While holding up bared claws, curled into as much of a fist as a cat is able.
"Er, I'll take your word for it." He lay back down and turned away.
"Good, now I-HEY! You are not going back to sleep!" She scrambled over to him so they were nose to nose. "At least not until you listen!" He pushed her away.
"Oh yeah? Watch me. Whatever it is, it can wait till morning."
She visibly bristled. "If it could wait until mor..." She trailed off. Instead she stated, calmly: "Your princess misses you."
Ranma's eyes snapped open, all desire for sleep instantly gone. He sat up, but didn't turn toward her. "Which one?" That surely threw her off kilter.
"'Which one?'" She repeated. "What do you mean-" She cut off when noticed the intensity of the gaze he had turned on her.
"What I mean is..." His eyes unfocused for a moment, when shook his head to clear it, the intensity was gone. "I don't know. Whatever it was... whatever I remembered... s'gone now." His brow creased in thought and he set his teeth on his knuckles.
Diana was somewhat hesitant to interrupt his thought, however, she had a job to do. "Um, I can help you find her." She quickly decided to ammend that statement, "One of them."
Ramna turned his scowl on her. "Why'dya wanna help me anyway? Who are you? For that matter, what are you? And how come you can talk?"
She tried her best not to be offended, she really tried. Even so, her words were cool and clipped. "I'm helping for the sake of a friend. My name is Diana, as I'm sure I have already told you. As for the rest, I really can't say... I was born this way."
He abruptly stood up and started packing his supplies up. "So you can help me find one of 'em, huh?" At her tentative nod, he continued, "I thought ta ask how you know... what you know, but I don't really care, I guess. I just... need to figure this out. So! Where we headed?"
Diana was startled to realize that all his gear was gone. In just those few short moments while he was speaking, he had packed it all into the enormous pack he was currently hefting onto his back. "Yes, hmm, well... we, uh..." She decided to try again, "Minato. We need to go to Minato."
"Minato, eh?" He emited a small groan, "I'm not sure where that is."
For whatever reason, Diana giggled at this. "Don't worry, we'll get there by morning if we leave soon. You should have time to-"
"Why d'we gotta wait? Let's go now!" With that he headed off in the general he remembered Minato to be in. She was taken aback by his cavalier attitude.
"Wait!" He stopped and turned around, looking expectant. "What about your... father?"
"Eh..." He shrugged indifferently, "he'd only try to stop me." He walked back to her, picked her up and set her on top of his pack. He then resumed his previous course. Cavalier indeed.
"Aim a little more east."
"'Kay." He walked silently for a few minutes when something occured to him (or rather, occured to him again.) "Y'know somethin'?"
"What's that?" She crawled forward on the pack a bit to hear him a little easier.
"I'm usually scared o' cats... terrified," he shook his head, "don't know what's goin' on here..." Diana had no response to that.
Meanwhile:
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(Posted Thu, 20 Mar 2003 14:36)
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