However, as soon as Ranma was sitting back, he heard a familiar voice call out to him. “Uh, excuse me, Mr. Smilodon, sir?” Turning his head, Ranma saw it was the tanned brunette talking. “Thank you for saving us from those mean people.”
Snorting, Thirty-Eight rolled her eyes. “You’re such a suck-up, Six.”
Blinking his eyes once, twice, Ranma stared at the girl. He really wasn’t used to people saying, ‘thank you’. “Uh, you’re welcome.”
Silence reigned among the group for a few uncomfortable moments. Ranma was never one to like silence in situations like this. “Say,” Ranma began, as he looked at the two he hadn’t intended to spring form their cells. “Are you two from around here?”
“Yes,” Six said. “We’re both native to Jade. Why do you ask?”
“Well, you’re certainly not dressed like you’re from Jade,” Ranma said. “In fact, I might even guess you’re from Earth.”
“Well, we were staying there the past three years,” Six started. “With our husband.”
Raising an eyebrow, Ranma asked, “Don’t you mean ‘husbands’?”
“No,” Six said. “We’re both married to the same man.”
As his eye twitched for a moment, Ranma would have sworn, Tanya swerved the cart for a moment before straightening it back onto course. Ranma noticed that G’nolga didn’t seem surprised at all. “Uh, Six?”
“Yes, Mr. Smilodon, sir?” Six asked rather innocently.
“Ranma,” Ranma said. “Call me, ‘Ranma’.”
“Okay, Ranma,” Six corrected herself.
Ranma noticed G’nolga snort, and the one known as Thirty-Eight roll her eyes in disgust, but he ignored it. “Say, what the heck did you do to get arrested?”
“Well, it began with Thirty-Eight and I getting here and-” Six tried before getting whapped on the back of the head. “OW! Thirty-Eight, what’d you do that for!?”
Growling, Thirty-Eight said, “First off, Six, even though he saved us, we shouldn’t just blab our story,” a serious look came over Thirty-Eight’s face. “And second, DON’T CALL ME THAT! Call me, ‘Jane’!”
“Sorry, Thirty-Eight,” Six apologized, causing the purple-tressed woman to slap herself on the face in aggravation.
Smirking at the sight, Ranma couldn’t help but chuckle. “Well, look at it this way. I sprung you outta jail, and I could just easily drop you too off right here and now, and let the authorities catch up with you.”
“WAH! NO, PLEASE!” Six cried out. “I’ll talk, I’ll talk, I’LL TALK!”
Groaning, Thirty-Eight mumbled, “Stupid stool-pigeon.”
Forcing himself to keep a straight face in front of the antics of these two women, he asked, “Okay, explain from the top, please.”
“All right,” Six began. “Well, our husband Master Duke Elliot Fauntleroy is a Golden Dragon... Or rather, was until he was locked in human form and cursed from being able to return to Jade.”
“Wait, wait!” G’nolga interrupted. “You two are married to Fauntleroy? As in the QUESTING DRAGON Fauntleroy?”
“The very same,” Six chirped happily. “Anyway, those meanies of the Conclave, specifically, that tight-wad Balthazar cursed poor master Fauntleroy, and made it impossible form him to return. When he lost his power, he lost almost all of his wives, except me and Thirty-Eight.”
“JANE!” Thirty, er, ‘Jane’ added irritably, her arms crossed underneath her breasts.
“All right,” Ranma mumbled. “And how many wives did he have?”
“Oh, fifty,” Six answered helpfully.
*THUD*!
Ranma would have groaned if his face wasn’t implanted in the floorboard of the cart. “Fifty!?” Ranma thought in shock. “Kami-sama, the man’s a bigger pervert than Happosai!”
Pulling himself out of his face-fault, Ranma looked over to the driver. “Hey, Tanya! Keep this thing on course already!”
Getting up from her own face-fault, Tanya leveled a glare at Ranma, which quickly shut the weresmilodon up.
Leaning over to Thirty-Eight, Six asked, “Is this normal for humanoids?”
“Yes,” was all Thir-JANE said.
Collecting his thoughts, Ranma said, “All right. Enough of this; never mind the full story, just tell me why you were here, and why you were arrested.”
“All right,” Six said. “Well, master Fauntleroy managed to get a piece of the Mymior that had belonged to the dreaded “Dreadwing, the Iron Fist. He used the power from that to turn us into adult dragons.”
“You’re dragons?” Ranma asked curiously, the wheels turning in his head. Ay seeing the nod from both, Ranma asked, “Okay. Well, why were you arrested?”
“Now that we are dragons, master Fauntleroy sent us back to Jade to try and steal some magical items,” Six whimpered. “Only we kinda screwed up.”
“Kinda?” Thirty-Eight repeated. “Kinda!? YOU MISCAST THE SPELL, LOST THE DAMN GEM OF RETURN TO GET US HOME, AND GOT US LOST IN THIS WORLD FOR OVER A WEEK!!!” At Six’s crying, Thirty-Eight rolled her eyes. “I swear, you’re such a baby sometime!”
Ranma rolled his eyes and looked at Thirty-Eight. “Just stop stalling and tell me what you did?”
“All right,” Thirty-Eight said, leveling her own glare at Six, “SINCE SOMEONE CAN’T STOP CRYING!” At Six’s sniffling, Thirty-Eight looked at Ranma. “We were lost. We found a mansion. We broke in, stole some food, ate...” Thirty-Eight trailed off and winced. “And found out the lord of that house had quite the goon-squad underneath his thumb. We were beaten down and tossed in jail faster than we could tell.”
Ranma nodded his head. Yep, they were arrested for a stupid reason. “One more question. Do you hate the Armsmaster and Weaponsmasters?”
“YES!” was the unanimous cry from Thirty-Eight and Six.”
Smiling, Ranma said, “Welcome aboard.”
“Grooooooaaaan...” Came the noise of someone, well, groaning, as something underneath the tap moved. Ranma moved himself to the ready, prepared to fight off anything.
And then the tarp was thrown off, revealing... Wow, that was one bruised mess.
“Stupid drivers,” the big bruise grumbled while rubbing it’s purple jaw. “Practically crushed my head underneath a barrel.
While the majority of those there were confused at the sight, G’nolga recognized the form vaguely. “Hanza?”
Blinking her eyes, the bruise looked up at G’nolga. “G’nolga? Hey! It is you!”
Looking between the newcomer and G’nolga, Ranma asked, “You two know each other?”
“We’ve worked together,” G’nolga said quickly. “So Hanza, what happened. I thought you were in prison.”
Smirking, (or rather TRYING to smirk) Hanza stared at G’nolga confidently. “I let myself out on good behavior.” Hanza then frowned. “Now drop me off, I need to get back to Trine!”
“Why?” Ranma asked.
“Because,” Hanza started, rounding on the source of the male voice, “I need to find...the...weresmilodon?” Hanza finished pathetically as he gave told her she was looking at what she sought out. “You’re the weresmilodon?”
“Mmmyep!” Ranma said in all seriousness. Staring at her, he asked, “You a bounty hunter after my head or something?”
“Probably not,” G’nolga answered. “She’s just a greedy mercenary.”
Hanza snorted at that, but didn’t correct the disgraced Weaponsmaster. Looking at Ranma she said, “Listen, I’m working for a man called ‘Rook’. He really wants to meet you.”
Looking at Hanza seriously, he asked, “He hates the Armsmaster too, huh?”
“Without the shadow of a doubt,” Hanza answered honestly. Lord knows she heard the undead asshole harp on about it time and again, on and on. It made her want to tear off his mandible and toss it to the guard-dogs to use as a chew-toy.
Ranma smiled. “As tantalizing as that sounds, I think this group might be getting to big to travel about and-”
“Just go and visit,” G’nolga said. “I’ve worked with the idiot before. He’s not too bad. He’s better supplied than a lot of the people in the Death’s Domain.”
“He is?” Ranma asked.
“Indeed,” G’nolga answered. “We’re heading out towards that way anyway, plus his castle will give us a place to hide for a couple of days.”
Nodding his head, Ranma answered, “All right. I’ll see what this guy wants.” Looking towards Tanya, Ranma said, “You hear that Tanya? When we reach Death’s Domain, keep going until we find this Rook-guy’s place.”
“I heard the first time,” Tanya grumbled. She hoped they got there soon. She REALLY needed to find a rest-stop or something. “Stupid time of the month!”
As the cart continued on, no one noticed the smirk on G’nolga’s face. Oh, she couldn’t wait to see Rook again.
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(Posted Sun, 18 Jan 2004 19:18)
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