Featherbrite's Tale, the Bet. revised version 
by Gregg Sharp based on Rumiko Takahashi's situations/char
CJ_Angel TM CJAngel (mentioned but does not appear) 
other char TM Jack Chalker, JRR Tolkein, Pioneer, and various
other sources credited in the chapters they appear. Otherwise
standard disclaimers, limitations, substitutions and refunds apply.
Metroanime@aol.com
http://members.aol.com/greggsharp/index.html
1a: A Nervous Child (ANC)
---------------------------------------
	A yattai sat in a forest clearing, with two small tents
nearby. Titania walked into the clearing, the Queen of Faerie 
inspecting the area where a change was to be made.

	She'd won the Bet, and while many of those present
had cried "cheat" (especially Loki, but he'd always been a poor
sport), Titania was not one that even the Norse god of mischief
wanted to cross without a lot better payback.

	Titania smiled and watched invisibly as Ranma stirred,
then got up to go relieve himself. The child was feeling particularly
lonely and unhappy, having just left his best friend Ucchan behind.

	Now other bets were being exchanged. Who would 
Ranma end up with? Nabiki? Ukyou? Akane? Kasumi? Shampoo?
Oberon? Vladimir? Madame Lao? Kodachi? There were even a few
bets being made on a Ryouga-Ranko match, which amused Titania
no end. Of course, you got excellent odds that way.

	Oh, and one of the planar Nabikis from a timeline that
was to end soon, had lost her wager. Titania suppressed a laugh
at that. The dangers of hubris and now Toltiir was trying to 
convince the God of Moments to take an "apprentice demon" in.
What do you expect from Toltiir, a primal force of mischief? She
personally had thought that turning Nabiki into a tooth fairy was one
of the little cat's better ideas.

	Titania watched Ranma move off, and clicked the timeline
into a permanent mode. Now it was time to sit back and watch to
see what developed.
---------------------1981-----------------------------------
	Ranma wandered from the camp. He wanted to
go back and visit Ucchan. Why had the other boy been
running after him? Pops said to forget about him, but he
was Ucchan's buddy! It really hurt to leave another friend
behind.

	Still, for whatever reason, they had the okonomiyaki
cart, so at least they were still eating well.

	The tinkling of bells caught Ranma's attention.
A tiny pink glow, visible inside an enormous spider's web.

	Ranma saw the huge and hideously black 
spider, and seemed to split. One image was of a Ranma who
ran back to his camp, to later awaken and think it was all a
nightmare. That Ranma faded.

	The other Ranma solidified and threw rocks at
the big hairy spider until it fell. A tree branch impacted the
thing three times until it was reduced to splattered bug bits.
Ranma had absolutely no idea what kind of spider it was,
but anything bigger than his head was not something he
wanted crawling around while he was asleep.

	If he knew that this was actually a bog imp,
he would likely have been far more careful.

	"Thank you," came a voice like chiming bells.
"Could you please free me, little boy?"

	Ranma turned and stared at the butterfly caught
there in the web. Carefully he freed it, using another tree
branch push the sticky webs away from the creature. "What
are you, anyway?" It kinda looked like that pixie on the 
"Aura Battler Dunbine" ads he'd seen. 

	"You call my kind yousei here, though my kind
are called faerie elsewhere. Thank you, son of Adam, my 
name in your reckoning is Featherbrite."

	"My pop's Genma." Ranma wasn't
too sure what he was looking at. Pink pastel wings that
seemed a cross between a butterfly and a dragonfly,
the figure looked mainly like a human woman, nude,
with long pointed ears. There were other differences,
particularly with enormous (comparitively) long eyes.

	"Well, then, son of Genma. You have freed
me, so ask me a wish, and if it is within my power, I 
shall grant it." Featherbrite nodded. There were Rules
about this sort of thing, and they had to be followed.

	"You must not be very strong if a 
spider was gonna eat you. What kinda wish?" Ranma
sniffled. He still missed his buddy Ucchan.

	"True. My personal power rating is not
impressive in the manner of my kind." The six inch
tall figure glided closer, examining the child. "Wow,
you've been through some serious problems." There
were aberrations in the child's aura she had trouble
interpreting.

	"Can you grant a wish that I'm back home
with my mother?"

	"If I knew where your mother was, I might
be able to take you there." Featherbrite paused. "Uhm,
why exactly are you here, and not with your mother?"

	Ranma gave his muddled explanation of
why they were travelling, that he was to learn and
devote himself to the martial arts.

	"Isn't that...kinda limiting?" Featherbrite
had no idea about normal human childhoods, despite
the number of centuries she had been alive. It all
just didn't seem right. "If you focus only on martial
arts, won't you be kind of stuck for the times you're
not fighting?"

	"Dunno."

	"Well, then, have you decided what you
want to wish for?"

	"How about I wish you could be my friend?"
Ranma held his pinky up.

	"You wish for me to be your friend?" The
faerie blinked. Well, certainly the child seemed to need
one. It was an unusual wish. Seeing the child nod in 
response, Featherbrite smiled. "Deal."

	"Umf," Ranma nodded once, solemnly,
just like he'd seen his father do.
----------------------1983-------------------------
	Ranma had just turned seven, and
Featherbrite was miffed at Ranma's father. This
was something that occurred on a regular basis.

	"I can't believe that man, honestly,"
she huffed, her little bell-like voice breaking off
into the same monologue she usually had 
regarding the youth's father.

	"Oh, come on, Brite. He just wants
me to focus on the Art." Ranma looked a little
sadly at his present, though. The wooden
flute the diminuitive fairy had made for him was
smashed beyond even Featherbrite's ability to
put it back together.

	"Ranma, I want to start teaching you
some things beyond the Art. Things that may
not help you in a fight, but that will help your
life outside the match." Featherbrite didn't add
that this was also to take a large stick and 
forcibly insert it in Genma's eye. While most
faerie couldn't even begin to understand moral
behavior, they tended to tone some of it down 
around human children.

	With as few births as occurred among
the faerie, children of any kind were seen as a 
blessing most wondrous.

	She'd been able to observe a lot 
more human behavior back when Ranma had
started attending school and thought she had
the basics down. Leaving Ranma for brief 
periods to spend a lot of time in a human library
had helped enormously, though using faerie
magic to decipher the text had been a bit draining.

	"Okay, I guess. Like a new game?"

	"Yes," Featherbrite nodded happily.
"A new game entirely. If you stand in the middle
of this ring, I will take you to someplace new,
where a second here is an hour there."
---------------1984---------------
	Genma stared at what was becoming
a usual sight. After two years of this, he still had
no rational explanation for some of the odd stuff
that happened around Ranma.

	In this case, food. Here they were in
the mountains of Japan, near a monastery where
the monks lived lives of aesthetic hardship.

	Genma's stomach grumbled as he
looked at the small mound of banana peels,
apple cores, orange rinds, and other foods
that somehow the boy had managed to forage
during the night.

	He puzzled over the foreign
words on the bottle, wondering what the
heck "Flintstones Chewables with Iron" 
was, and where the boy had gotten THAT.

	He'd wanted the boy to eat ONLY
rice. It would toughen his stomach and then
Ranma would have a much more efficient
digestive system. So, he had to find out
how Ranma was getting this food, and stop
it. 

	That and figure out why he kept
getting the feeling that someone was laughing
at him.
---------------1986----------------	
	Genma looked over at where a ten
year old child named Ranma was exercising
and shook his head.

	Ranma was a wimp. He, Genma
Saotome, had failed. Failed miserably to steer
his son on the True Path of Martial Righteousness.

	The boy wouldn't steal. He wouldn't
lie. He talked about a Code of Honor. Where he got
such strange ideas, Genma had no idea.

	He was using strange techniques and
odd skills that he claimed his imaginary friend was
teaching him.

	Instead of stealing food, the boy would
get out a hat, kneel down in the plaza or market,
and begin playing tunes on that bamboo flute.
People actually paid Ranma to keep playing. He
would "find" things for people, and get more
money that way. Then he'd BUY food.

	The shame of it all weighed heavily
on Genma. Turning his gaze to the heavens, he
implored them as to WHY he had such a worthless
son! Where had he gone wrong?

	What he said, however, was to the
shopkeeper. "Two deluxe beef ramen." Ranma
wouldn't begrudge his father the money. This
was another sign to Genma that he had failed.
--------------1989--------------------------------
	"Ranma, for the insult of the bread,
I challenge you!"

	"Oh, keep your shirt on, Ryouga.
What about all the fruit I've shared with you?
What about all those pastries? You wanna 
fight me, I ain't got no problem with that, but
you want to do it over a few lousy sandwiches?"
Ranma tossed the eternally lost boy an apple
streudel, turning his eyes heavenward in an
unconcious imitation of his father's frequent
pose.

	"A FEW sandwiches?!" Ryouga
caught the streudel, noting the light flaky
crust, that it was so fresh that the icing was
still moist and the apple filling was still hot
as if it had just been pulled from the oven.
Considering that the nearest bakery that 
produced these was over fifty miles away,
Ryouga found himself wondering yet again
just how Ranma did that.

	Ryouga shook his head. "How dare
you try to change the subject! I made you a
man-to-man challenge! And don't you dare
cheat by using your magic on me!"

	"Yeah, right, Ryouga. Whatever."
Ranma cracked his knuckles. "You wanna name
the time and place?"

	"The empty lot behind my house!"
Ryouga knew he could find it, even without
using the magic compass that Ranma had given
him. Like he could trust anything Ranma did.
"Tomorrow afternoon!"

	"Yeah, okay. Ryouga." Ranma shook
his head. "Hey, afterwards you wanna go by the
mall? I'll bring my flute and your drums, we can
practice that piece, maybe get enough money for
a really decent meal?"

	Ryouga smiled, remembering the last
group of lessons in drum techniques. ESPECIALLY
remembering the way some of the girls from that
other High School had looked their way. Ranma 
had been right about that, at least, musicians got
attention from the girls. "DEAL!"
-------------Mar/10/1990------LIME WARNING(1)--------
	"Featherbrite, you've been naughty!"
Ranma shook his head at the little pixie. They
were in the Faerie Realm so he didn't have to 
pretend he was muttering to himself.

	"Hey! Define 'naughty' if you would!"

	"It took me awhile to realize it, but 
you've been using enchantments on me, haven't
you?"

	"Hmmmph." Featherbrite floated in
midair and turned her back on Ranma. "You got
some objection to that? You can eat food of the
Faerie Realm without fear now. You're taller and
stronger than you would have been just eating
rice gruel and what that damn father of yours would
have gotten you. What makes you think I've done
anything else?"

	"From oyaji's reaction when we took
the bath at that hot spring. His eyes bugged out 
and said something about how he HAD promised 
to make me a 'man among men' or some crap like that."
Ranma paused. "I would'a thought it was just some
kinda trick but the other people were staring too."

	"Oh." Featherbrite did something that
was very rare for a faerie. She blushed. 

	"Promise me. No more enchantments on
me unless you clear it with me ahead of time." 

	Featherbrite turned back to Ranma and
held her hand up solemnly. "If you feel that strongly
about it. Except for normal healing magic, I promise 
not to cast any additional enchantments on you without
your prior consent."

	"Good." Ranma knew that there were 
probably some loopholes there, but that this was
as good as he could reasonably expect to get. "Now
what exactly DID you do?"

	Featherbrite looked embarrassed. "Well...
I've heard how human males have this thing about
size and stamina. I've also heard human females 
complain about a lack of stamina, endurance, and
THAT sort of thing. So...'cause I didn't want MY
friend to grow up with any sort of deficiency or 
inadequacy...I kinda made a couple of...corrections."

	"Why do I have a feeling I'm probably
better off not knowing the details?"

----------Apr/13/1990-------END LIME WARNING----------
	"So, you'll engage my Rink to your Ranma?"

	The woman was impressed with the young
man. A good cook, a musician, and a capable martial 
artist from what she could see. Yes, a fine catch.

	"Well, I don't know. He's already..." Genma
watched as the amazon put another nugget of gold
on the table. "Sold."
		
	Genma gleefully made off with the money.
This was wonderful. The boy was such a disappointment
in so many ways, but he had become marketable somehow.
What these various parents saw in Ranma was unclear
to Genma, but he'd already sold Ranma six times to 
parents who wanted a good mate for their daughters.

	Not that he had any intention of keeping
any of the promises.
---------------------1991------------------------------------
	An impromptu jam session in the Faerie
Realm. It had been bound to happen sooner or later.
Featherbrite was just as glad that it had been later.

	A minor functionary of the Seelie Court,
one of the Princesses was out surveying when she 
heard one of Ranma's music lessons. (Faerie Princesses, 
contrary to what mortals might think, were actually fairly 
numerous.) She and her little group had come to find
out what a mortal musician was doing in the Realms.

	So Featherbrite was hanging protectively
near Ranma. Ranma was attempting to follow along
on his flute a tune that was old when the world was
young. Or, at least, a good deal younger.

	A grinning satyr set the beat with his
drums. A pair of twin sylphs sang a wordless melody
that seemed to curl in and around the voice of Ranma's 
flute. The whole thing had an appropriately otherworldly
quality to it that wouldn't have sold well in mortal pop
culture, but did fairly well as an attempt to gauge the
mortal's skill level.

	"So...Bri'te," a hamadryad paused in her
examination of the mortal. "Are all the tales about mortal 
lovers true? Are they a raging tempest to the cooler winds
of faeriekind?"

	"I don't know, and I'm NOT going to find out.
Nor should you, Holly! By the standards of his culture,
he is still a child." This was one of the things that Brite
had been nervous about. That one of the faerie would get
curious and decide to lure Ranma off.

	"Hmm. He's your changeling, then?" Holly
knew there was an old custom of saving human children
from abusive parents, stealing and adopting the child.
It was rarely done, especially nowadays with all the
problems of living in the mortal realm now.

	"Yes," Featherbrite nodded. "And a friend.
He saved me from a bog imp when he was no bigger than
a leprechaun. I would appreciate it if you didn't mess
with him."

	Holly laughed. "I'll tell the others he's under
your wing, so to speak. He's got more than one of us
curious, you know. I take it the resistance spells woven
through him are yours? Nicely done."

	"I've had years to build them up and refine
them." Featherbrite nodded, proud of her handiwork.
She had made those enchantments years ago, and they
continued to strengthen on their own since her promise
not to lay additional enchantments on Ranma.

	That promise didn't keep her from refining 
the ones already in place.

	Featherbrite looked nervously around. The
Princess, the oriad, the naiad, and both sylphs were
looking quite curiously at Ranma. Speculation and a
certain degree of hunger were evident.

	She was just glad they weren't closer to
Makai. That could have been bad.
------------------------------------

(1)-	Featherbrite has never associated this
closely with humans before, but has observed them
off and on for over 9,500 years. Yes, she does have
some truly odd concepts about humans. That's
where some of the humor of this story will come 
from. She may be an ANC but she's definitely not
an AKC (All Knowing Character).   


<clip here to splice to 1b>
ja ne,
gregg