Disclaimer: Rumiko Takahashi is truly amazing to have created Ranma & Co and put them through everything she did. Like wow! :)

Notes: I guess you might say this was a filler episode, to let you know what everybody’s up to. It’s fairly short, but the next one should be longer, and it should be up in a few days. Thanks for all the exam wishes! ^_^ They’re going well, so far, but I needed a break and so here’s Ch 9! :)

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Nabiki Saotome had never seen so much sand in her life. She stealthily massaged her sore bottom, and glared across the campfire at her Arun captors. She hated horses, she decided. Palanquins were made for a reason, after all.

“We’ve been riding for a week, now.” Kasumi looked up from where she was stirring the contents of the big, clay pot that hung over the fire. Her red caftan somehow remained clean. “Do you think we’ll be rescued before we reach Dara, Nabiki?”

“Don’t count on it, sis.” Nabiki brushed the sand off her sandaled feet. It felt so gritty! “In fact, who do you think is going to come and rescue us in the first place?”

“I’m sure everyone wasn’t captured, Nabiki. We mustn’t lose hope.”

“No, your sister’s right, Kasumi.” Nodoka smiled at them grimly. “We cannot hope for rescue from anyone at the palace. You saw the destruction before the soldiers took us. They are all dead or captured.”

“Mother...” Nabiki stared at the queen somberly. Was the queen right? But then...

“But then what will happen to us, Mother?” Kasumi asked, smiling gently, only her eyes betraying her fear and confusion.

Nodoka smack her curled fist on her palm. “We must save ourselves, girls!” she cried.

“Save...?” Nabiki could feel her face growing slack in surprise.

“Ourselves?” Kasumi looked blank.

The two princesses stared at each other, carefully feeling out this new concept.

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Fools. Utter fools.

Genma sneaked through the halls of his palace in panda form, swatting aside the Arun guards who tried to get in his way. Escaping from his cell had been fairly easy, once he’d splashed himself with water from his meal and driven the guards into a panic over where the king had disappeared and where the panda had come from.

Most importantly, he’d learned from another guard that Ranma had neither been captured nor killed. His whereabouts were a mystery, and the consensus was that he must have somehow escaped.

Genma smacked his paws together and went in search of hot water and a fast horse.

I’m coming for you, Ranma. And then I’m going to find this Kuno, whoever the hell he is.

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A duck wearing glasses sat on the back of a horse that was leaving behind an oasis filled with many small springs.

Jusenkyou, thought Mousse to himself. So that’s how you escaped me, Ranma. I searched all over this place, but you were nowhere to be found. Luckily I ran across...

The duck looked down at his feathers...I ran *into* Jusenkyou, and I understand how you tricked me. But my King and I need you. I *will* find you.

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Far away from all this, in Dara, Kuno sat stiffly on his throne, covered completely by his golden robe and gloves. He mused on his predicament.

“Ranma Saotome. Where are you? Come to me. I need you to fulfill my destiny.”

“Come free me, Ranma.”

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“Oh, no.... look at that!”

Ranma, Akane and Ukyo sat astride their horses and stared down with horror. At their horses’ feet, the land dropped away into a deep valley where two armies clashed and fought. The noise was unbelievable.

“So this is where the Arun are fighting with the Jinian and Jiyan armies.” Cologne, seated behind Ranma, considered the battle thoughtfully.

“We can’t go that way! We’ll be caught in the middle of the battle!” Akane turned in her saddle to look back the way they’d come. The foothills stretched across the horizon as far as she could see. “We’ve got to go back.”

“She’s right, sugar,” Ukyo confirmed. “We’ve gotta find another way.”

Ranma stared down at the battle taking place below him, feeling a strong urge to go down and join his army, perhaps even take command. He could leave all these females up here to continue their journey by themselves. They made him uncomfortable. He found himself changing somehow, being around them these past few days.

After all, they could protect themselves. Akane and Ukyo were pretty competent fighters, and Cologne...

A scene from two days before flashed through his mind.

They’d left the jinni’s cave and were making their way north, Cologne having decided to join them.

“Cursed to be a girl, eh?” Cologne tut-tutted from behind Ranma. “How is it affecting your martial arts?”

“It’s become hell!” Ranma scowled. “Now I have to work twice as hard to do the same things I could do as a boy.”

“Because you’re smaller...”

“Yeah! My reach is shorter, I’m weaker, and I have to jump higher, faster.” Ranma remembered the fights he’d had with Genma after the curse. He had lost more times than he cared to remember.

“Faster...” Cologne mused. “You realize what you need to do, don’t you, boy?”

Ranma twisted in his saddle. “What?”

“You must increase your speed. It will compensate for your lesser strength and reach.”

“My speed, huh?”

Later, when they’d stopped, Cologne had illustrated the Kachu Tenshin Amaguriken technique for him. He’d practiced determinedly for the last two days until he learnt it.

Now, looking down at the battle raging below, Ranma’s urge to join the battle fought with his desire to reach Dara and confront this Kuno. Who knew, he might even find his sisters.

Well, the army’s doing fine without me, he decided. I might as well keep going.

“Okay.” Straightening, Ranma turned his horse around. “We’ll have to take the long way around. I don’t know the way too well from that direction, do you, old ghoul? Ouch!”

Cologne righted her stick and folded her tiny arms. “Learn respect, boy. However, in this instance, the wisdom of my age fails me. I don’t know the long route anymore than you do.”

“Well then,” They had all turned around, and Ukyo scanned the line of foothills now facing them. “Looks like we’ll have to find ourselves a caravan.”

Luckily, that didn’t take long. They hadn’t been traveling more than a few hours before they spotted a camp of raised tents, grazing camels, and men going about their tasks. Ranma hailed the camp.

A short, richly dressed man spotted them and shouted back a greeting. He didn’t wait for them to arrive but instead trotted up to them.

“Greetings, fellow travelers!” He smiled and wiped his brow. “Warm day for you to be out.”

Ranma dismounted and found himself being embraced by the shorter man. He shuddered at the touch out of reflex and moved away.

“Welcome to my humble camp!” The man smiled at them all. “I am Cassim, the leader of this caravan. I bid you and your harem welcome.”

“We’re not his harem!” Akane cried furiously.

“Say you so?” Cassim looked at them with curiosity. “I imagined, three women and a young man...”

“You thought *she* was part of my harem...?” Ranma pointed with a trembling finger at Cologne, who preened. Akane and Ukyo simply looked green.

“Yes, well...enough of this.” Ukyo sighed. “My name is Ukyo Kuonji, and we’ve been traveling for days.”

“Please, come into my tent. Make yourselves comfortable!” Cassim bowed and led them to a green, silk tent. Inside, he served them tiny cups of rich coffee and date pastries.

“How is the business of your caravan doing?” Ranma asked politely, trying to remember any manners he might have picked up in court.

Cassim hung his head. “Ah, good sir, your perspicacity has seen to the heart of my troubles.”

“Say what?” Ranma asked. “I...I mean...go on.”

“Good sir, my caravan has been prosperous for many years, carrying silks and spices from the ships that unload at the sea towns, carrying them to the cities beyond the mountains.” Cassim wiped away a tear. “Now, however, bandits have begun attacking caravans that pass through the foothills, stealing our goods. We have tried employing guards but...”

“Hm?” Cologne studied the caravan master. “What is it? Why haven’t your guards worked?”

“It’s very strange, revered grandmother. A strong wind springs up out of nowhere and blows many of them away! The bandits who come charging down easily pick off the ones that are left. I am afraid that soon I will be operating at a loss.”

“Don’t worry!” Ranma leapt up. “To thank you for your gracious hospitality, we will repay you by guarding your caravan.” He was starting to get the hang of all this flowery speech, Ranma decided. It wasn’t that hard.

Cassim blinked. “All of you?”

“Don’t worry, Cassim.” Akane smiled at him. “We’ll take care of it. You’ll be safe.”

“That’s right, sugar. Bring it on!” Ukyo grinned at Ranma and Akane, who smiled back, happy that they had secured a place with the caravan without arousing comments or suspicion.

“Oh, thank you!” Cassim bowed to them again. “It is early afternoon, and we shall be leaving shortly. I must go get ready.”

As soon as he left, they all began to talk.

“If you’ll excuse me, I think I’ll put my bindings back on. I’ve no desire to be considered part of your ‘harem’, Ranma.” Ukyo slipped behind a handy screen.

“What are you doing?!” Ranma yelled. Akane had discovered a flask of water in the tent and now she up-ended it over Ranma’s head and watched the transformation in slack-jawed astonishment.

“Amazing!” Akane couldn’t believe her eyes, even though she’d watched Ranma become a girl right before her eyes. “And hot water turns you back?”

“Yes, you dummy!” Ranma shrieked. “And where am I going to find hot wate...Ow! Hot!”

“You were saying...?”Akane smirked at Ranma and put down the carafe of hot water Cassim had used to make their coffee.

“Grrrr...Someday, princess, I’m gonna take you to Jusenkyou and throw you in the Spring of Drowned Idiot. Oh wait! Hot water won’t fix that for *you*, will it? So sad!”

“He deserved that,” Cologne noted, watching Akane break an urn over Ranma’s head.

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