The black-haired woman slowly let her naked body slide into the water in the metal tub, heated by the crackling fire, which gave off a sweet, enjoyable smell of an exotic plant, which she had not yet smelled like, in the kitchen, which was lit by the fire of many candles, and sighed heartily when her brown eyes, which for the first time in her young life spoke full of worry and not influenced by unfathomable depth, closed exhausted, while the pleasantly warm water relaxed her muscles and threatened to lull her into a healing sleep. Her sighs quietly penetrated the thick walls of the strange house, combined with the hoarse howl of the icy night wind, which was to carry her innermost thoughts to the distant shores of unknown continents and conveyed her indescribable joy to the world, accepted as an apprentice to a young man to have become, whom she could give her full confidence.

After resting for a few minutes in the gentle warmth of the water, the young woman carefully reached for the soap lying on the edge of the tub and tried to waste as little as she could as she cleaned her sweaty, dirty body from the hard work as he told her to. Before she finally broke through the hard surface of the water and escaped the seductive feeling of weightlessness that caused her carelessness, Akane immersed her face covered by shoulder-length black hair one last time in the soothing warmth, and felt the rivulets of the water more intensely than ever before stream on her bare skin as she touched the cold ground with her feet.

Smiling, she took the fresh towel in her soft hands and sucked in the drops of water on her skin with it, before she shyly stood in front of the mirror provided, looked at her thin features, and put on the borrowed dress. With bowed head she looked at her reflection in amazement, which seemed to be smiling teasingly at her as it looked inquiringly at its counterpart in that gleaming white dress that clung to her narrow hips as if it had been made for her, but still left enough space , emphasized her figure, although she had none, showed her a world that could be but was not. Confused, she shook her pretty head, pulled on the frilled straps until she was sure that the dress would not slip off her shoulders and, without looking back, walked elegantly from the kitchen into the living room, while her reflection in the mirror fell silent paused in his place, giving her a smug grin.

"A bath and fresh clothes make the world look better, right?", The young man mumbled absently, having heard that she had entered the room, and leaned against the wall by the fireplace for a few seconds to read the document in which he was absorbed in studying further, before he finally crumpled it in his fist in resignation and offered it to the eagerly waiting flames as Lord's Supper, which they immediately ate with joy.Finally the magician looked up from his work and froze in the midst of the bright light of the blazing flames, as her sleeping beauty, irregularly accentuated in the penumbra by the flickering candlelight, which after a meal and a bath is no longer that incomparable wildness, but the roaring shine of one carried itself in the sea of ​​stars reflected in the waters of the lake, held his gaze captive. Breathlessly he sucked in the silky-white skin of her uncovered legs, which snuggled into the innocent white of the dress without transition, her promising figure emphasized by the new clothes, her shy, almost fearful, look on the floor, her beautiful, blue-black Hair before he broke out of his stupor and scolded himself for his looks.

"The dress is beautiful, but I don't know whether I should wear it," the young woman breathed shyly into the oppressive silence of the house and turned around her own axis with playful elegance, so that the flat skirt danced playfully with the evening air. "See? The dress was made for a beautiful, rich woman, not me. It doesn't suit me."

In those seconds in which the young woman turned around herself, a silvery-white ray of light from the full moon, which had always dominated its seat high up in the firmament during her bath, broke through the loose cloud cover, whose gray appearance made melancholy awakened at the late hour, fell into the glass window of the bedroom, and drew the revered gaze of the man, whose eyebrows drew together thoughtfully, on the white lane formed by the moonlight on the rippling, pitch-black lake surface, which is a gentle path for her to which she seemed to move slowly dancing away from him, into the darkness of the night.

"It suits you," the wizard whispered softly when he saw her questioning look, imperceptibly shook his head to part with that dark future message, and met her innocent smile with an affirmative wink. "You look good in it."

While the young woman completely embarrassed entered the room and sat down anxiously on her chair by the fire, for a moment she released the view of the kitchen and the mirror, from which for a brief moment the reflection of the black-haired man in red evening wear his apprentice seemed to be grinning teasingly before it finally said goodbye with its reflection in the mirror to adorn the walls as a shadow. For a few seconds the young man's eyes darkened until a tender, hesitant voice tore him from the gloomy thicket of his thoughts and made him feel the warming fire.

"What should I do?"

"Go home," he answered her question, amused, and silenced the woman, who was starting to protest loudly, with a charming smile and a raised finger."I suppose your family doesn't know what you're doing, even though they may have a legitimate interest in your self-chosen education, don't they? After all, it doesn't often happen that a marriageable young woman in a 'magician' the apprenticeship goes, and it is certainly not proper if she does not return home on the first night, is it? "

"Well," she agreed, staring intently into the crackling fire and the charring remains of the roll of paper to hide her red cheeks in the light of the flames as she thought she saw the apparent implication of his words, and tried half-heartedly taming the erratic pounding of her confused heart, while an unwanted smile adorned her ruby ​​red lips as she introduced herself as the bride.

"But of course you would like to know what will await you here, if you decide to choose this path," said the young man in the unfinished sentence of the woman, nodding to him in embarrassment. "You will come to me every day three hours after sunrise, as this will give you enough time to do whatever chores you have to do to support your family despite your education; you will also come back to your family every evening after dinner, because I don't have enough space in my home to let you spend the night here and I have to do my work undisturbed. In the short time I will try to teach you all the things that people are looking for in theirs on the darkest of all nights Longing for dreams, all those desires that remain closed and hidden, all those treasures that enrich life without being yourself. "

While she listened intently to the young man's words, Akane thought she recognized the faint glow of an ancient, long-extinguished fire in his azure blue eyes, the scattered sparks of which climbed the empty fireplace in her heart unnoticed, but did not ignite, so that the black-haired woman a warm, pleasant shiver ran through her body and spread an incomprehensible, unknown feeling of warmth in her. She felt this new affection so intensely, so intensely did she capture his blue eyes with her brown eyes, that she only noticed that he was offering her the same blue coat for warming that she had received from him the night before when he had given her to her elegantly offered his warming hand to help you get up, which she accepted with a smile.

"Come to me tomorrow three hours after sunrise, if you should decide to do this and you have been able to agree with your family to do this training," he said with a decidedly indifferent attitude, while he put the coat over the shoulders of the astonished woman and to her Door escorted. "If you don't come tomorrow, I know your answer too, so you don't have to deliver it to me personally.""But", the young woman interjected hesitantly when he opened the door for her to accompany her to the tree line, "I don't know whether we can raise the money to pay for the training or other costs."

"What are you talking about?" Asked the wizard into the sea of ​​stars, which was slightly covered by the grayish clouds, revealing his brightest smile to the woman lingering at his side. "You have already paid your tuition a thousand times over. I wish you a good night."

With these mysterious words the young man said goodbye to his companion at the edge of the gloomy forest, who, in a cold breeze of the night wind, gave her an encouraging rustle of its numerous branches, showed her his friendliest face, before Ranma connected with the darkness of the night and in her disappeared before her eyes. Smiling happily and yet thoughtfully, Akane walked steadily through the same forest, which had changed so significantly since she had first set foot in it that she could not believe she was treading the same path that would take her back to her beloved, safe place , but was supposed to lead strangely unfamiliar home, and was amazed at the events of the last day, which she did not seem to fully understand, so that she carried her feet unnoticed to her front door before she was startled from her thoughts. Reluctantly she raised her hand, knocked gently on the door in the late hour and opened it.

"Akane, my darling, is that you?" Her father's voice urged her from the absolute darkness of the small room, which caused an unnatural shiver to run down her spine, so that she quickly reached for the almost completely worn growth of a candle and hastily lit it until it conjured enough light into the darkness that she