Lydia grit her teeth. "We, we broke out from the prison we were being held... It took us time, but we got Gothwrain his @#$%ing gold... But we did it..."
Ranma could see Lydia was trying hard to hold back tears. Before he could say anything to try and relax the distraught rat-woman, Lydia continued in Cantonese, "THE BASTARD! He betrayed us! We got his damn gold to him and he had his men hunt us down... Romeo... Oh God, Romeo... He stood in the way for us, taking bullets, giving us a few split seconds to run... Oh Romeooo..."
Lydia wasn't holding back her sodding. Ranma relaxed his hold and pat the girl on the back. He noticeed that there were some slight burns all over her body, but nothing looked deep. Still, Ranma kept silent about that now, not wanting to overbear the girl with possibly gortesque details. "I'm... Sorry... But what happened if you and your friend got away?"
Lydia shivered. "M, Moisha and I got pretty far before things went worse, all things considered. W, we literally ran to the end of a hall and literally jumped through a closed window on the third floor. The landing hurt, but we knew we couldn't run. Our very lives depended on it. Others soon came out of the building and started shooting."
"You were hit?" Ranma asked.
Lydia nodded her head. "The back of my left leg... And I got scathe dnow and again. So did Moisha... We managed to keep from being hit anywhere vital and kept moving." Lydia shook a little, a in a close to shell-shocked state of being. "We knew if we stopped, we'd be as good as dead."
Lydia chuckled morosely. "And you know what... We did it? It was hours later... We spent all night running... But we got away from Gothwrain's grunt soldiers. For all the @#$%in' silver and skills those bodyguards had, they couldn't keep with us, or track us down fully once we headed down into the sewer. To many noises and smells down there already..."
Ranma's nose twitched. That explained the slight smile coming from the ratgirl.
Looking over at Moisha, Lydia's eyes watered more. "We stopped for a moment, to try and make some sort of plan. We figured to head over to Nerima, since Moisha mentioned she had some relative in Nerima who's place we could hide out at for awhile, until we figured out what we should do for long-term plans..."
"Nerima?" Ranma asked.
"Yeah." Lydia answered. "What about it?"
"That's the district I'm staying." Ranma said. "Maybe I could help you find her relative."
Lydia sighed and shook her head. "It wouldn't matter. Before Moisha could tell me much more, HE showed up..."
"He?" Ranma asked. "Who's he?"
"Kage." Lydia answered. "A black-furred wererat who's the head of the Wererat Clan's Warrior Caste. He's also fiercely loyal to Gothwrain." Lydia shook and felt her arm where silver had brushed up against her. "He personally took over the chase. And he was far more competant than the bodyguards...*
Lydia sniffled. "He chased us... No matter what we did, ro tried to do, he was more or less ten steps ahead of us... He... he toyed with us! We were at his mercy... And he had none..."
Lydia groaned as she tried to sit up. "Eventually, we were at the opening of a pipe, a sewer duct which let sludge and other shit fall out from the sewer. It had to be a four story fall... And Kage was blocking us off. We were caught between a @#$%in' rock and a hard place..."
"What happened?" Ranma asked, somehow knowing this is where things went wrong for the girl.
Lydia trembled a bit. "He tossed a silver dagger... Moisha jumped right in front of me... She took it to the chest... I tried to hold her, but her weight caused me to fall back. We fell and landed into the river... I got us out downstream, when the flow took us into a canal... Moisha changed for me so I could carry her safely, but... She died..."
Ranma nodded his head, and found himself trying to pat the distraught ratgirl on the back. Damn, did that ever sucked, to have lost two friends in such a brutal manner. Ranma looked over at the dead ratgirl, noticing how she reminded him a little of Shampoo, and... "WAIT!"
Lydia looked up. "Huh? What is it?"
"She's alive!" Ranma said.
"WHAT!? DON'T @#$% WITH ME!" Lydia said in Cantonese.
"I'm not!" Ranma said. "Don't you see? She still has a slight chi-flow."
Lydia blinked ehr eyes. "C, chi-flow?"
"Yes! As long as she has one, there's still a chance to bing her back!" Ranma said. After all, at the end of the Mount Phoenix Disaster, Ranma thought Akane dead, even though she had a slight chi-flow. It was then that Ranma realized that as long as there was som chi in a person, they could live! "If we act quickly enough, we can get her to a doctor."
Lydia nodded her head. She really did not want to get her hopes up... But if there was even the slightest chance to save her friend. "Yes. Please! Where can we go?"
"Dr. Tofu's clinic." Ranmna said. He walked over to Moisha and lifted her in his arms gently. Yes, she did have a chi-flow, but they neeeded to act quickly. Ranma knelt down a little. "Climb onto my back, Lydia."
"What?" Lydia asked. "I can walk you now!"
"I can get us there faster." Ranma said. He was surprised to see Lydia turn into a rat-form. He decided to put her into his pocket and he took off like a rocket.
(------)
Dr. Tofu looked the rat-girl over, simply amazed. "You say she's a wererat?"
Ranma relayed Tofu's question in Cantonesr to Lydia, who frowned. "Of course she's a @#$%in' wererat! What else would she be!?" Lydia said.
Ranma blushed a little and relayed Lydia's answer to the doctor in Japanese.
Grimacing a little, Tofu just nodded his head, It would make sense. However, while he was a master of shiatsu points and chi-flow, this woman's physiology went over his head. It felt human in most places but certain trigger points were off, some missing, and some totally new ones. And then there were these strange burns. He looked at Ranma and said, "I'm sorry. I can't make much sense of this. Magic is not a specialty of mine. I suggest we call a professional..."
Ranma nodded his head. he relayed the information to Lydia, who replied, "Why do we have to keep getting more and more @#$%in' people on this!?"
"Do you want your friend to live or not?" Ranma asked seriously.
Lydia winced. She nodded her head sadly. She just hoped that this wasn't going to come back to bite her in the ass...
(------)
Cologne looked over the purple wererat. It was somewhat unsettling, the physical similarities to her granddaughter Shampoo. But still, this was quite a unique situation. She hadn't worked on a werecreature in over 200 years! So, it was good she was getting more practice in. That huge silver burn and stabe-wound between her chest was going to be VERY difficult to deal with.
Turning to Ranma and Lydia, the elder began speaking in Cantonese. "I'm sorry, young ones. I cannot do further to help. My herbs and medicines will stabilize her for quite some time, but they will not work forever."
"Isn't there anything we can do?" Lydia asked seriously, a wave of nervousness passing over her body.
"Yeah, elder Cologne." Ranma said. "I mean, there's gotta be some way to save Moisha."
"Oh, there are ways to save her." Colgone answered. "But, unfortunately, I do not have the skills to help." Sighing, Cologne said, "You see, I can try to stabilize her body, but her soul... Something is wrong... Something I cannot place..."
"Soul Burn..." Lydia said. "Damn it... I don't want to lose Moisha too..."
Ranma sighed as he held the distraught wererat in his arms. He knew this girl was suffereing because of all that's going on. That didn't well settle with him at all.
Cologne nodded her head. "The only way to save her now is if we had an Arch-Mage here. They'd have the skill and knowledge to help mend spiritual damage."
Lydia blinked her eyes at hearing an Arch Mage could help.
See other episodes by Red Priest of the 17th Order
(Posted Sun, 13 Jul 2003 21:08)
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