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, 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. 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, "What do you mean, Azure?" she demanded in a panicked voice. came the blunt reply. Azure reminded her. He closed his eyes in regret and continued, "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, '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!" the sleepy familiar finally replied. "Tell me what to do, Azure. Poppa never showed me this." 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, Then he began to convulse. "What's wrong, Azure?" Ranma quickly asked as she tried to hold him still. 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. 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.' 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,