There were many aspects about the area that caught Ranma’s attention where he’d landed after jumping through his portable hole. For one thing, as forest this dense and this kind of vegetation, (these weren’t the Ringed-cupped Oak trees of his native Japan but rather something along the lines of the thicker Muller Oak) told Ranma he wasn’t anywhere near Asia... although in some cases, this one included, being the further away from his fiancées was the better. He would much rather have been lost than in the middle of a forest than back in the middle of some action that would have only given him further pains, thank you very much! Weird and new breeds of trees over same-old beatings any day!
Yet there was another aspect that told the pigtailed martial artist that something was very off about this place, and that was the animals. They weren’t like anything he’d ever come across before!
Strike that. They were similar to certain things he knew of butterflies, mice, rabbits... but these things certainly weren’t the aforementioned animals! They were too large in most cases, oddly shaped or with aspects of anatomy and coloration that certainly weren’t natural. Yes, the raven-haired male got a certain vibe in the back of his head that he thinking something was odd was the pot calling the kettle black but this was just too odd even for his standards! It certainly didn’t help that some of the creatures in the area were giving off the vibe of being... cute.
Shuddering, Ranma shook his head. No. No way. He was not thinking something like this was cute! Guys didn’t do cute!
Fortunately for the heir of the Saotome School of Anything Goes Martial Arts’ continued (in)sanity, his attention was taken off how foreign the environment was when he noticed something standing out on the forest floor. Splattered along blades of grass and staining the dirt were splashes of scarlet.
“Blood...” Ranma whispered as he recognized the sight. Growing up under the tutelage of Genma Saotome, it was a sight that one would come to know all too well. And experience told him that this was just more than a little splatter from a broken nose, a cut lip or a bad scrape. Someone or something was hurt... and bad!
Moving quickly with stealth honed over years of practice, the Nerima martial artist moved through the forest, weaving between trees with grace that only one of his caliber and dedication to the art could accomplish. His sights were on the trail of crimson life, and getting further worried from the length of the trail. Whoever or whatever had been injured had lost a lot of blood. That they had managed to get such a distance with such a serious injury meant one of two things. They were either desperate for to get away or to someplace... or that were being dragged which could have been friend or foe. “Not good,” Ranma thought as he continued to move.
In just over a minute, the pigtailed martial artist came to a halt, his slipper-covered feet skidding across the dirt as he came to the source of the bloody trail. His eyes trailed over the fallen form before him. It was similar to one of those other things he’d seen when he’d first arrived. So much like animals he knew and yet... it just wasn’t. It was just lying there; sides barely moving from its shallow breathing. Whatever it was, it was obvious to the martial artist that it wasn’t doing too well.
Getting down to his knee and leaning over to take a good look, Ranma frowned at the seriousness of the wound; a very deep gash along the right side of the downed creature’s torso. Unless he did something, the little creature was going to be as good as dead. Now he may have been scared of cats but Ranma was an animal and nature-lover at heart. To see something like this in the state it was, his heart went out to it.
His choice decided the pigtailed martial artist reached a hand out... but stopped as the creature raised its head slowly. Opening its eyes half-way, the being looked up at Ranma with a pained expression. Its lips moved in silence for a moment before whispering...
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(Posted Mon, 16 Feb 2009 19:36)
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