This presented a problem, even for someone with Ranma's newfound intelligence. After all, a child of seven was still a child of seven, regardless of how smart she is.
"Pop?" she asked the wind softly. As the genie said, she'd be given time to grow into the wish, so her speech was still as rough as ever, something she'd have to attend to later.
There was no answer to her query. She looked around for a little longer and turned back to her book still sitting down. This time having even more trouble trying to clear her head. Had Pop even bothered to note the title of the book she was reading? She doubted it.
"It isn't like a can't be a girl genius AND a martial artist," Ranma shouted to no one in particular.
Desirable is a very relative term and, while Ranma was still only seven years old and not capable of putting such into words, she had a vague concept of desirable.
It seemed to her that men in the stories always seemed to go for either the damsel in distress can't do anything type, or else they would go for the type that could generally take care of themselves, but every once in a while needed help.
And while she really did want to be lady-like, serene, and all that. The idea of being a helpless victim that did nothing to aid her love or friends was abhorrent. So, no damsel in distress for her. Martial arts wasn't the only thing anymore, but it was still a big part of who she was.
Of course, this is all stuff she would decide had happened much later in life, when she had the maturity and experience to understand her emotions better. At the moment she was still just a lonely and tired seven year old who'd been treated in a manner that often went past abuse.
"I'm a little girl!" Ranma shouted. "Not a WEAK little girl." And unfortunately, that statement was another thing that Ranma wouldn't truly believe until later, thanks to her father's already enthusiastic discussions on the subject of genders.
Ranma quieted down again and tried to go back to reading her copy of Miyamoto Musashi's Book of Five Rings. It was nice of the genie to give her a book she'd be interested in at least.
She was interrupted again by the sound of the cats mewing in the hole her father had dug. It was only a small challenge to find a way to free them, she found a long fallen log easily enough. Then she went back to reading and trying not to cry uncontrollably.
In the stories she had heard, crying seemed to be something that was considered not lady-like and she was still upset with herself for yelling. Yelling and crying were shows of weakness, and a proper lady had to be always serene and calm, or so those books seemed to indicate. Crying was only permitted in extreme cases, and Ranma was still refusing to admit this was an extreme case. Part of her still expected Genma to come back for his child.
It was an hour later, with her just sitting there and drawing some pictures to go with the book, that her stomach first growled. Not much later the sun began to go down, and a black cloud ripped open to bring rain down upon her. Ranma finally permitted herself to start crying in the rain.
As for her growling stomach. She found, to her surprise, that the ten cats she had saved had brought her some things to eat. Not civilized food, but nothing worse than she had eaten before, so she sat down to eat, and then to looking for a dry spot where she could try to sleep and save this nice dress the genie had given her. (It had a few more frills than she liked, already preferring a more elegant style, but it was still nice)
The next day she changed into some of the spare clothes in her pack, after cleaning and drying the dress as well as she could and then packing it carefully away into her pack. Arranged for travel she shouldered her pack, finding it much more difficult than before, and started traveling, the ten cats traveling with her.
See other episodes by Thrythlind
(Posted Mon, 10 Jan 2005 18:34)
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