What has happened before: A young girl named Raeni had
grown up over ten years in the care of a kindly old
sorcerer.  On her 16th birthday, her master cast a spell
to allow her to regain memory of her past.  Upon waking,
she finally recalled her name, "Ranma".

Sword and Sorcery
Chapter 2

by D.Fire
phongb9@idt.net

	Sighing in relief, the sorcerer Hariule gestured to
Azure, his familiar, "Azure, make yourself useful and get
me that pillow from over there."

	The blue cat hopped off stool on which he sat and
jumped onto the indicated oversized couch, snagging a
fluffy pillow.  Then he half-carried, half-dragged the
pillow over to his friend and master.

	Taking the offering from the cat, Hariule gently
placed the pillow under Raeni's head.

	The girl, by this time, had already closed her eyes
and had gone back to sleep.

	"That's it, Raeni," Hariule gently whispered to her
sleeping form.  "Sleep heals all.  There will be time
enough when you wake.  It is best you sleep protected down
here."

	Leaving her within the chalk circle, the old sorcerer
stepped to the outside of the chalk.  Bending down low, he
placed his hand on the floor within the circle and spoke,
"Orin Placatus".  A light gathered in his hand and
traveled into the floor, imbuing the floor within the
chalk with a dim yellow glow.  Without a further word, the
old mage gathered Azure into his arms and teleported away.

	***

	The sorcerer reappeared in his room on the second
floor of the house.  Dropping heavily into his bed, he
released Azure.

	Azure in turn, bounded off the bed into his own
resting spot, a basketed pillow laying on the ground.

	For a moment, Hariule lay there saying nothing.  Then
he spoke, "That was certainly exhausting, wasn't it,
Azure?  I think I'll just lie here for awhile."  Receiving
no answer, he closed his eyes.

	Almost immediately, the old man, upon hearing a crash
from downstairs, snapped open his eyes.

	Rising slowly from the bed, he cautiously moved to
the doorway and peered into the hallway down the
stairwell.  An odd play of shadows greeted him from the
stairs.

	Azure, having risen at the same time, shouted out
telepathically, <Let me check it out, master!>  Before
Hariule could stop him, he bounded down the stairs.

	Hariule heard something slam into the ground in
conjunction with an agonizing wail unmistakably from a
creature feline in nature.  He shouted out, "Azure! 
Azure, answer me!  What happened to you?"

	At Hariule's shout, the crashing from below stopped,
and a sinister chuckling began.  "Aww, cat got your
tongue?" taunted a voice from below.  "Why don't you
answer your master, little familiar?"  The voice was
baritone in nature, almost low enough to fall into the
bass range.  "Come outside, Hariule, if you want to see
your little pet."  After that statement, downstairs became
deathly silent.

	::Azure!  Answer me, Azure,:: the sorcerer thought at
his old friend.  He received no reply.

	'Damn.  I hoped I would have more time to explain to
Raeni,' he thought.  'It looks like I have no choice.' 
His shoulders slumped, and teleporting once more, he
disappeared from the room.

	***

	"Owww," muttered Raeni as she slowly rose from her
sprawled position.  "Five more minutes, Pop."  Shaking her
head clear of the cobwebs that fogged her mind, she said,
"Hey, this ain't the dojo."  Suddenly, it all came back to
her.  The past ten years with Hariule came back in a flash
and stayed in the fore of her mind.  "Wait, I'm Ranma. 
I'm a guy.  I can't have lived like a girl for the past
ten years!"

	She stumbled to a mirror.  Peering within, she saw
her visage as Raeni-chan greeting her.  "Augh!  I'm in a
dress!  And ... and ... my hair is fluffy!"  Panicking,
Ranma-chan started running in circles around the room. 
'Gotta find Hariule.  Gotta find Hariule.  Gotta find
HARIULE!' she thought in a panic.  Rushing to the great
door, she threw it open.

	Upon seeing the stairwell once more darkened, Ranma
threw out a palm, yelling "ORU!"  The torches, rather than
simply lighting, exploded in a rain of flame and wood,
showering sparks all over her.  "Augh!  My dress is on
fire!"  Indeed, her dress had caught aflame.  She quickly
swatted out the miniature fires on the dress.  

	Throwing out her palm once again, this time she
yelled, "LAIRU!"  Her call summoned hurricane force winds.
The winds sped up the stairwell and burst through the
top, incidentally exterminating the minor fires raging in
the stairwell.

	"Oops."  For a moment, all was still.  Then Ranma
noticed something amiss.  Outside light showed through the
hole at the top of the stairwell.  "Uh, oh!  Don't tell me
I punched through the entire house!  Hariule's gonna kill
me!"  Rushing to the top of the stairs, Ranma stopped in
shock when she looked outside.

	A sight of devastation greeted the girl's eyes. 
Where once a thriving forest lived, a burnt plain now
existed.  Where the house once stood, only a broken husk
of wood remained.  The lake behind the house had only a
short time earlier had contained myriad fish and other
life.  Only an empty crater marked its passing.

	'I couldn't have done THIS!  That was just a simple
wind spell,' she thought to herself.  'Hariule!  What
happened to Poppa?'  With this thought, she continued to
panic as she ran from one clump of shapeless wood to the
next, shifting the wreckage indiscriminately.

	After five minutes or so of fruitless searching,
Ranma calmed down enough to think.  'This ain't getting me
anywhere.  If he's here, I gotta use magic to find him.' 
After re-locating the entrance to the basement, she
retrieved a crystal from the room below.  Clutching the
crystal to her heart, she closed her eyes and thought,
'Please, help me find my Poppa.'

	"Track the lost and light the way, Mirus."

	When she opened her eyes, she saw a brilliance
flaring off to her right.  To her left, a smaller fire of
light danced.  Heading toward the larger phenomenon, she
quickly dug into the blocking debris.  

	Soon enough, she managed to uncover a hand.  As she
clutched Hariule's hand, she felt the clamminess of his
skin.  After uncovering the rest of him, she found
horrific wounds on his body, as though an animal had
ravaged him.

	Master Hariule was, alas, beyond the mortal coil of
this world.  The stiffness of his body and the coldness of
his form betrayed the fact that he had been dead for quite
some time.  Ranma clutched the body to her chest and wept
over it.

	As tears cascaded down her face and dripped onto the
lifeless face of the old sorcerer, images of their shared
past bombarded Ranma.

	In one memory, little Ranma-chan was taught her first
spell, one to light dry timber.  Ranma-chan laughed as the
sorcerer swept her laughingly onto his shoulders.  "Now
you have fire, my little fire-spirit, to match your
personality."  Soon after, she was taught how to summon
water as she repeatedly burned herself with the fire
spell.

	In another memory, she found herself in the arms of
Hariule, as a lightning storm raged outside.  "See little
one, lightning cannot hurt you while you are in here, and
thunder is only sound."  The child she was shivered in
reply as she cuddled against Azure.

	'Azure,' Ranma suddenly thought.  'Where's Azure?  He
must be the other light!'  Gently laying the old man down,
she left him and turned to other magical fire.  Digging
through the rubble soon revealed the still form of Azure. 


	Then, she remembered something.  "C-c-cat!" she
yelled as she quickly backed away.  From a safe distance,
she gazed fearfully at Azure, recent memories warring with
long buried but recently recovered ones.

	<That's right, I'm a cat.  What of it?> Azure's voice
resounded irritatedly in her head.

	Relief flooded her system, as she rushed to Azure,
fear momentarily forgotten.  "You're alive!" she cried as
she cradled him to her bosom.  "I thought I lost you,
too."

	The little familiar only shivered in response and
coughed, <I'm found, but not for long, I'm afraid.>

	"What do you mean, Azure?" she demanded in a panicked
voice.

	<I'm dying,> came the blunt reply.  <I was Master
Hariule's familiar,> Azure reminded her.  He closed his
eyes in regret and continued, <And Master Hariule is dead.
I will soon follow.>

	"I can't lose you, too," she cried.  'What can I do?'
she wondered.  Thinking hard, she latched onto an answer,
and she asked him, "Can you be my familiar?"

	Azure's eyes snapped open in shock at the question. 
Incredulous, he asked, <Are you sure you want me to?  This
is a serious commitment.  Once you choose this, we will be
bound until one of our deaths.  You know, we have not
always seen eye-to-eye.>

	'Am I sure I want to?'  She contemplated her newfound
fear of felines.  'But this is Azure.  He's been my best
friend for as long as I can remember.  But he's a cat! 
But he's Azure.'  This internal argument continued for
quite some time as Azure kept quiet.  Eventually, years of
loyalty and friendship won over a two-decade-old memory of
horror.

	"Yes, Azure, I want you to be my familiar," she
stated resolutely.  She received no reply from Azure. 
Seeing his closed eyes, she shook him roughly.  "Azure!
Azure, don't die on me!"

	<Yowch!  Not so hard, Raeni,> the sleepy familiar
finally replied.

	"Tell me what to do, Azure.  Poppa never showed me
this."

	<It's simple, since I am already here.  Hold out your
hand.>

	Ranma did so.  Before she could retract her hand,
Azure clamped down on it with his teeth and bit, hard.  He
quickly lapped up some blood as her hand bled.

	Dumping Azure on the ground unceremoniously, Ranma
cradled her hand.  "Owww.  Did you have to really bite
that hard?"

	A feline grin gave her the answer, but Azure said
anyway, <Not really, but I always wanted to do that.> 
Then he began to convulse.

	"What's wrong, Azure?" Ranma quickly asked as she
tried to hold him still.

	<No... every... thing... fine...  New... master...
new... form.  Fine... little... bit.>  Bones cracked and
popped as Azure's shape began to dissolve.

	"Really?  I wonder what you'll be?  Can you be a
monkey?  I always wanted a monkey," she gushed.

	<Ha... ha...  Very... funny> came the reply.

	Ranma watched in silence as Azure's shape finally
solidified.  'Oh, great.  It's another cat.  And this
time, it's bigger.'

	<I heard that!  Damn, that was painful.  I'm tired. 
And weak.  Carry me?> Azure plaintively asked.

	Chastened by the reply, Ranma laughed, "Oh, you big
baby.  I'm gonna put you somewhere safe while I deal with
this mess," indicating the environs and more solemnly,
Master Hariule's body.

	Hefting the panther's mass with ease, Ranma carried
him down into basement and placed him inside the chalk
circle.  After taking a glance at the still dimly glowing
circle, she said, "Master Hariule's warming spell is still
going so you'll be warm in here."  Rubbing her face
against his, she said, "I'm glad you're still here. 
Though I can't rightly call you Azure anymore.  You're
more purple than blue."  In truth, the feline's coloring
almost bordered on black.  "How about Fred, for a new
name?" she jokingly asked.

	With wounded dignity, Azure answered, <I think not!>