The blazing flames of the sparse fireplace devoured their meager supper, filled the hidden corners of the dark wooden house with the white and yellow spectrum of their play of colors, so that only the shadows dancing on the walls, like a time-honored ritual, plunged the room into impenetrable blackness, smashed the glass Wall of silence through her crackling tongue, the thousandfold splinters of which rained down on the young woman to cut the iron chains that had wrapped around her chest and prevented her from breathing, and drove the icy cold of despair from her heart which the resistant seed of love had found its way into, which now called the spring and threw the first buds of the year.

The convivial feeling of cozy warmth, which did not originate in the crackling flames of the fire, but rather in the words of the young man warming her heart, flowed through her entire body, so that her fingertips tingled with excitement, her left leg began to tremble, her pale cheeks glowed with a delicate touch of red, and the innumerable exuding happiness hormones played her body with the breathtaking feeling of free fall until she saw his expression, twisted for a split second by self-doubt, which quickly turned the beautiful smile of her ruby ​​red lips swept from her face a roaring storm that had raged in her heart for so long and now the waves of her uncertainty, breaking on the wall of her heart, rushed up again, the spray of which was reflected in her eyes when she saw him and realized, that he did it for her, and not because he really loved her, but she did Leaving the buds of her love untouched.

She knew she had to be grateful to him for doing it for her, she knew she had to be grateful to him for risking a feud for her, she knew she had to be grateful for him to be her family for she lied, and yet her wounded heart whispered into her pernicious thoughts, thoughts that she shouldn't leave his side to break the spell of other women that lay over him, thoughts that she had to force him to love her, Thoughts that she should go with the young knight, to harm him in some way, so that he might share her pain; for a moment she seemed to lose herself in the raging storm of her emotions until she closed her eyes and found herself in her mind on the very stone on which she had spent so many hours over the past few weeks.

The memories of the quiet hours of solitude in the forest, the memories of the kind words of his deep voice, the memories of her accomplishments lessened the pain, soothed the storm in her heart, helped her to suppress all those thoughts and feelings until she felt nothing but a perfect silence that helped her understand that his act had bought her time to get used to the idea of ​​marrying the young knight or looking for another suitable candidate.With a deep breath of the warm air she slowly opened her eyelids again to thank her Master despite her pain, but she only saw his confused and startled look with which he was giving her.

Only then did the young woman notice the colorless diamonds that pearled incessantly from her eyelashes, the salty flow of which ran down the velvet skin of her cheeks to wet her bravely smiling lips until they, dripping from her chin, fell on her trembling hands thousands of tears burst. She desperately tried to block the flow of her tears as she put her right hand over her still smiling lips to stifle a sob, and averted her gaze in shame from his azure eyes as the young man approached her, hers Gently took his left hand into his own hands, and with light pressure asked them to stand up.

Even as she complied with his unspoken request to get up from her place at the table, she felt the weight of the heavy burden on her heart, which she had previously been able to displace so successfully, as hundreds of enchanting pearls emerging from her hazel eyes erupted as the unstoppable flow of life-giving water from its source high in the deserted mountains gushed untouched and beautiful. Without wasting a single thought on her family or the young knight, she buried her head sobbing in the fabric of his shirt, moistened it with her tears, and began to tremble with suppressed sobs until he put his arms around her slim figure to give her the support she needed so badly.

The longer the two young adults remained in this embrace, the more desperately the black-haired woman buried her fingers in the white fabric of her master's shirt so as not to be separated from him, and, spurred on by her fickle heart, tried to hate him to despise him for not loving her, but her beating heart soothed her poisoned thoughts at the same time, asking her how she could hate him if she did love him. How she wished she could be trapped in this little blink of an eye of eternity so that she never had to let it go again when a loud clap of thunder suddenly drove the two apart.

"Come and see!", Akane heard her sister's voice, drowning out the rumble of thunder, who stared enthusiastically out the window at the white sky, in which the young woman thought she recognized the image of a branched lightning bolt from the corners of her eyes clouded by her tears . "A winter thunderstorm!"

While the family members of the young woman indulged in brief contemplation of the rare winter thunderstorm, the black-haired man turned to the young knight, who returned his gaze for a few moments with furrowed eyebrows before he turned abruptly and pushed the door open to the little one Leaving the peasant family's hut with mighty strides; but before the father of the desired woman or the magician could react to the disappearance of the knight, the residents of the house saw a magnificent, white horse, in whose brown leather saddle the knight, who wore his beaked helmet like a crown, signified the master of the black-haired woman to come to him."Don't think I'll give up so quickly," he shouted to his rival when he stepped out of the warm living room into the icy cold of the winter snowfall, reached for the bow and quiver attached to his saddle, from the depths of which he took a heavy one Drew a wooden arrow, which he bowed with skillful ease and shot it at the young man's feet as a token of his determination. "I will win the heart of this young woman! I will court her every day until she accepts me and we have settled our dispute."

"You cannot court her without visiting her, and that is exactly what I cannot allow you, knight," replied Ranma, who during the show of the knight's determination had neither moved nor blinked when the arrow in front of his feet had entered the Snow had shot and carefully lifted the arrow off the ground. "At the moment Akane is teaching with me and I cannot allow you to visit her while she is doing her exercises, as these are for my apprentice, and my apprentice only."

"If you don't want me to," answered the knight from his horse, which was now snorting nervously and impatiently, while he returned to his bow and quiver with a sneering grin that was not visible to the young man hung his saddle, "then I'll have to visit her without your permission. Everything is permitted in love and war, and this seems to be a little of both."

When Ranma heard the knight's words, he paused in silence, his right hand, which had just picked up the wooden arrow, in the cold snow, his calculating gaze fixed on his counterpart, his posture bent as if he were bowing to him, and waited thoughtfully for the young man's next words, who only looked at him with interest from his beaked helmet, as if the man bowing to him was only his next prey. Since neither of the two opponents moved or appeared to want to speak, the young woman's father stepped carefully out the door and quietly cleared his throat.

"Excuse me?" He interrupted the silence of the two men, fearful but determined, and continued slowly when he was not scolded. "Since the gentlemen cannot come to an agreement, could I perhaps make a suggestion? My daughter should live with one of the gentlemen for a month; if the gentlemen have not reached an agreement during this time, my daughter should move to the other of the two gentlemen for a month, and this until the gentlemen have decided which of you can marry them, so that my daughter has the opportunity to get to know both of the gentlemen. "

"It is," breathed Ranma into the cold evening air, while he rose, not taking the questioning, worried look off his rival's helmet, and handed him the heavy wooden arrow, which the young knight refused to accept."It's a good compromise. Since I don't expect we will have our dispute resolved within a month, I can assure you that Akane's education will be advanced enough to be able to continue herself."

"I'll pick you up here in a month," replied the knight with a slight nod, reined in his horse and finally gave him the spurs to ride as fast as the wind into the growing snowfall.

His azure eyes wandered silently over the snow-covered ground, whose immaculate purity was stained by a swath of different shoe prints, and longingly absorbed the peaceful stillness of the dying year, which was only interrupted by the cheerful cries of the children playing in the snow while the young man For a long time he looked thoughtfully at the fading silhouette of the knight. He loved the bell-like laughter of youth that reminded him so much of his innocent childhood, but he knew that he was in a deserted place where the shadows of his past thought to torment him.

Sighing heavily, he closed his eyes and felt part of the oppressive burden that sat on his black soul leave his body as he followed the last echo of his sound, which would carry the fresh winter breeze to the distant shores of unknown regions. Slowly he opened his eyes to catch the breath visible in the wintry cold with his fingertips before he disappeared into the infinite nothingness, and noticed that the snowfall did not want to decrease.

While he saw out of the corner of his