"Now, Ranma," the woman said, brushing his hair from his face, "we've got a kind of a tricky situation here."
"What do you mean?" Ranma asked, ducking belatedly as Ucchan reached over to bop him on the head. "Hey!"
Urd laughed slightly at the antics of the children. "Now stop that," she said with mock stern-ness. "Ukyou, you know, your little Ranchan didn't exactly run away from you."
"Did too!" Ukyou protested.
"Nuh-uh!" Ranma countered. "You were trying to catch up while Pops ran with the card. It's a training exercise, he told me so."
"How dumb do you think I am?" retorted Ukyou angrily, crossing her arms over her chest and pouting fiercely.
"Now, now," Urd interjected. "We don't have much time, so I'll explain it for you. Ukyou, Ranma was fooled." She paused for a moment, wondering how much she should risk stretching the truth... oh, hells with it. Total honesty would work here, anyway. "Ranma's father is a very evil man. He let Ranma think that you were a boy, Ukyou, and never told Ranma what you were following them for."
"Ucchan is a boy," Ranma asserted.
"Am not!" Ukyou countered, mellowing as she saw that Ranma really was cofused.
"Enough about that for now," Urd soothed. "Now, what we need to talk to you about is this. When a mortal perishes, if he is a hero, he's taken up to Valhalla to train for the great war."
"Perishes?" Ranma asked quietly, furrowing his brows. "But... I'm not dead!"
"Of course not," Hilda said, somewhat wistfully. "You're still both very much alive, and so you can't be Einherjar -- you're also too young to prove yourselves as warriors yet."
"We'll get to that," Urd grumped, shooting Hilda a dark glance. Hilda obligingly giggled in embarrassment and bit her tongue. "At any rate, since both of you were abandoned -- Ukyou's father left her because of your father, Ranma, and your father left you because he's stupid. But because your both orphans, you can follow me and my friends, and we'll teach you to become Einheriar."
"What's that?" Ukyou asked, now much pacified.
"Einheriar are heroes, children, and don't think that this world doesn't need them."
"A real hero?" Ranma asked, his eyes growing wide. "And I get to keep playing with Ucchan?"
That was apparently all of the encouragement that the girl needed. "If Ranchan's going to be a hero, I want to stay with him!" she asserted.
"Excelent!" Hilda crowed. "It's been so long since I've gotten a hold of real hero-making material -- you two will do just fine!"
"I think so too," Urd allowed, smiling. "Now, to begin with your training...."
See other episodes by Brian Randall
(Posted Tue, 05 Nov 2002 06:28)
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