“We’ll stop here for a bit” Nabiki pronounced. They had left the Metryll raod behind and were now travelling across open grassland, punctuated only by rolling foothills. For most that halt was more than welcome. Nabiki herself had enthusiastically taken charge of one of their two wagons, expecting the going to be easier. She had been cursing that decision ever since. The damn world seemed completely unaware of inventions like suspension or even decent padding. Her rear end felt like it had bounced off every rock between here and Pathandaway.

Their departure had been more than a little hurried. Even before the finale of the games Nabiki had been in full wheeler-dealer mode. A lot of people had lost a great deal of money that day as a result of the Neriman accolade storm. Between the lot of them they had rocketed out of obscurity to take every big prize in the games. Some citizens had desperately tried to wager their way out of debt only to lose again. Cue Nabiki, she swept around the local merchants who were worst hit and offered to buy their debts for goods. Of course they had to accept near cost prices for their goods but they did get to walk out without their loansharks eyeing their kneecaps.

The dealing had gone on late into the night, with the last trader leaving the quiet repose and his dearly bought goods long after midnight. Through the long afternoon and evening Ranma had been by Nabiki’s side. Ever since one punter had tried to go back on his deal and got silly enough to draw a knife on the ice queen he had decided she needed protection. She hadn’t objected, his presence made prices a lot easier to manipulate. It was only when the buzz finally died down that she realised that the fool had been standing on his injured leg all the time.

She had leapt up after the last person left and finally allowed herself to celebrate. A celebration that involved a happy shout, a hug of her ‘bodyguard’ and a substantial kiss. It was only after the other participant in the kiss’s expression turned from cute confusion to an outright wince that she connected the dots. As the realisation lit up in her face he shrugged as if that would explain things, and she responded by slapping him.

So here they were, stopped in the foothills of the Aershtyl mountains and she was even more confused than ever. Ever since Pathandaway something fundamental seemed to have changed in their relationship. The final vestiges of the self-absorbed boy from Nerima appeared to have fallen away and he had been exhibitin a newer more considerate nature, he was even being nicer to Akane. She had promised herself that she would think on it during the trip but between the demons-in-draft-horse-form and the butt-bruiser seat she had just never had the patience.

“Thank god” offered Akane, swinging from the saddle to land heavily on the ground. For all her professed expertise she was probably th person having the most trouble riding. Ukyo and her had started in a similar boat, experienced enough to know the basics but totally unprepared for full says in the saddle. Where Ukyo and Ranma had adapted, working together to find what worked, Akane hadn’t. Her temperament demanded that the horse do exactly what it was told when it was told. The result was that she had been fighting the poor animal every step of the way.

Ranma had honestly tried to help, even swapping mounts without protest when she clamed that hers was a bum rap. Of course it helped that he had taken to riding like he took to anything else physical. Within days of leaving the city Ranma was riding as if born in the saddle. Where everybody else ended a day sore and abraded he still found the energy to do Katas and train with his sword. In the evenings he had taken double watches without protest and even spelled Ukyo on the cooking without being asked. He had even managed to avoid antagonising Ryoga much. As he swung out of his own saddle and went straight into a jog to help the lost boy with his own horses Nabiki had to fight back the urge to curse the irksome bastard.

“Okay” agreed Ukyo, also swinging off her mount, but managing to stand easily when she landed. She may have been rubbing her sore rear but, unlike Akane, after a stretch she was soon walking fine. She glanced over at Ranma, already moving to the back of the chuck wagon to find lunch and shook her head. She couldn’t get her head around this new Ranma. Where the hell had he learnt to care. She watched as Nabiki walked over, peering over the pig-tailed man’s shoulder, and saw him pass her a sweetmeat from the jar without even turning around.

“Where are we now?” asked Gos. It wasn’t a good sign, he had been paired with Ryoga for all sorts of reasons and saving the pig-man from getting lost had been one of the largest. If the fanged guy’s direction sense was catching then they were all in trouble.

“Back end of beyond and getting further away” Ukyo replied, pulling a hip flask from her pocket and taking a swig. Suddenly a flash caught her eye and she turned to the trail behind them, sure enough the caravan was still there. It had been behind them since Aeryk and had shown no sign at all of catching up. Hardly surprising considering the pace they were setting but still the sight was starting to worry her.

In the beginning Akane had suggested joining up with them, for mutual defence and the like. It had seemed a good idea until Ranma shot it down. All he had needed to do was remind them of the bounty hunter that had attacked them in Aeryk. They had passed a week there, resting and replenishing supplies before they chanced the waste. The fool had tried to take them all himself, creeping into their rooms in the middle of the night. Only Ranma had been on watch, the poor idiot had tried to use his knife and now he would never use the hand he had held it in again.

They were all wanted people. It seems there were enough losers from Pathandaway that the city itself had put up money to have them returned for punishment. Following the revelations about their pet dragon come sewer system’s untimely release the crime had been traced to the Nerimans and when the city found out they had apparently decided that the lot off them had cheated in some way to win the games. The reward for one of them would tempt a saint, if they collected the set they would never have to work again. It was, as they say, not good, hence no contact with anyone as long as they could avoid it.

Ryoga bounced down from his seat in the front of their stores wagon and immediately headed over to the groaning, grumbling Akane. The two of them were starting to make Ukyo sick. He fawned over her and she accepted it as her due, and should anyone point out how unfair this was on the lost boy he would bristle. Add to that that the two of them were distinctly less than subtle when they spent their nights together and you had a recipe that was designed to get on Ukyo’s nerves.

“Any more of that jerky?” Ukyo asked, turning her back on the pair’s display and moving over to the back of the wagon where Ranma and Nabiki stood. The young man in question nodded and passed her a few strips of the dried beef.

“How long till we get to the waste?” she asked, prompting the other two to look at each other.

“We should reach there later this evening” Ranma replied, somehow he had become the unofficial guide. His long experience on the road had leant him an aura of expertise that the others had instinctively come to rely on, at least when Akane or Ryoga weren’t arguing.

“Any idea what to expect?” Ukyo asked, watching the others for some sign of what they had been discussing.

“Its not good” Nabiki confided. “If the stories are true we are looking at something that makes salt flats look lively. From the moment we enter it until the moment we reach the Bremon mountains all we’ve got is what we bring with us.”

“Ouch,” Ukyo observed, “have we got enough?”

“Food? Yes. Water? Maybe,” Nabiki informed her, “If it’s as hot as the deserts we know then it’ll be touch and go.”

“We could travel at night” Ukyo offered, “That should help.”

“We thought of that” Ranma agreed, “and we may well have to. Even so the problem is the horses. They’re gonna go though water a lot faster than we will.”

“So we ditch some and take to the wagons” Ukyo guessed.

“Actually we were thinking of ditching one of the wagons” Nabiki replied. “we’ll feed the animals we’re taking up as much as we can before we do and then take only what we really have to.”

“And hope there is a water supply the other side?” Ukyo added unenthusiastically. The other two nodded in agreement. “When were you going to share this?”

“This evening when we stop” Nabiki replied, “no point in having the argument for any longer than we have to” she added looking at the couple by Akane’s horse.

“I’ll go take Gos’s his grub” Ranma offered, the other pair looked over to where the young man was sat. His face was buried in another one of the books they had managed to afford, his brain full of higher mystical truths.

“Make sure he eats” Nabiki ordered. Ever since the young man’s first visit to the library his mind had been firmly elsewhere and it had been getting worse. These days he rarely managed more than a few sentences to the others before his tomes drew him back in. Nabiki had once made the mistake of asking him what he had discovered but only once, the answer had been so far above her head that she had been left feeling punch drunk.

Of course as another result of that conversation she put herself to sleep at night with one of those same tomes. The hole in her knowledge was simply unacceptable to her so she was fixing it.

o

o

They set off again less than an hour later, once more setting a brisk pace and leaving the hills behind them. Less than two hours after that they finally got their first look at the waste.

As far as the eye could see flat, sun-baked earth stretched into the distance. The line of destruction was shockingly abrupt, one side of the long curving border there were grasses and trees, the other there was only earth. There was not one single sign of life anywhere in view across that line. As Nabiki watched a bird approached the border and swerved away as if struck.

“Oh my god!” Akane observed, truly shocked by the twisting of nature that the waste represented, “what on Earth is that?”

“We ain’t on earth sugar” Ukyo observed “and what do you think it is?” she finished in a condescending tone. The two of them had been rubbing each other the wrong way for a long time and it was getting worse. When Ukyo had found herself a ‘friend’ in Aeryk Akane had been openly rude, only stopping just short of the word whore.’ Ukyo had responded by rubbing her cooking ability in Akane’s face. And so it went on.

“Nabs?” Ranma asked.

“Huh?” she replied, looking up from her book. Ranma had told her before that her ride would be much easier on her rear if she made an effort to steer around the holes but she hadn’t taken his advice. Simply put she didn’t find driving a cart that engaging. As long as her horses were happy to follow the wagon in front she was happy to spent the time doing other things. “Oh” she added having seen the newest permutation of their view. “Guys we’ll stop at the edge” she announced.

“Why?” demanded Akane, eager to get the days travel over with already and being very careful to protect her ‘I can ride as well as any of you’ attitude. Any hint that this halt was on her account and she would be fighting it till doomsday.

“The horses will need time to acclimatise themselves to the new terrain” Nabiki lied, “and we have some re-organising to do now we are leaving the hills behind.”

“Fine” her sister grumbled, turning her horse back towards the broder.

O

O

The halt was hardly more restful than the travel. No sooner had the stopped than Nabiki was handing out jobs. She and Ukyo had discussed their needs in more detail during lunch and she had a mental list of things that needed done. For once nobody seemed inclinded to argue.

Ranma and Ryoga went off to collect firewood; Ukyo took Gos to find a water source, led by his magic; Akane was given the task of dealing with the stubborn draught animals, and unloading one of the wagons. Nabiki was checking and rechecking the list. Gos’s sudden revelation that there was a water supply nearby was causing some serious recalculations. With the extra water she could refill the barrels and undo the diminishment since they left town. That meant that they could keep more horses and possibly even the second wagon.

O

O

Night fell late on the plains, the dying sun bathing the waste in burnt oranges, magentas and beautiful reds. The sunset was observed by very few from the Nerimans camp though, most had turned in early so as to be brighter for the early start in the morning. Ranma, as was his custom had been the one to volunteer for first watch. Unusually Nabiki had stayed up too, and now watching the alien sun set over the desert, the two of them were sat side by side on a fallen tree.

“Pretty,” she observed quietly.

“Very,” he agreed, letting her cuddle in closer as the first of the cool night airs blew in.

“Ranma” she began.

“Yup” he agreed.

“Thanks” she said, not explaining. Instead she rose, stretched and smiled at him before heading off to her tent. Ranma was left more than a little shaken, that girl was just too cute. And what the hell was that supposed to mean.

He settled in for the rest of his watch, thinking of more interesting things, like Ken-jitsu sword combinations.

A little after midnight he finally allowed himself to sleep, turning the watch over to the dozy chef.

O

O

Ukyo hated night watch. As much as she knew that it was necessary she just could'nt stand the mind-numbing boredom of it. Still it was her turn and she was determined to do her job. She suppressed a rude thought about Akane and ‘jobs,’ instead walking to the chuck wagon and pulling down a water skin.

As she took a swig she briefly wondered why she hadn’t seen it there when she came on watch but shrugged the thought aside.

She had just enough time to curse her mistake as the drugs in the planted skin combined with a powerful sleep enchantment to rob her of her consciousness. Her last view was of the ugly bald face of Ohlmin rippling into visibility with the cruellest look on his face.

“Got her,” she heard him offer smugly, “now get the others secured” he added, turning her onto her back. “Business before pleasure.”