eye how the various snowflakes became part of the whole as they united with their ancestors frozen on the ground, he watched with interest how a single star-shaped snowflake settled on the back of his hand and spread through his Catalyzed body heat, converted it into a drop of cold water, and only noticed that someone had approached him when he felt a warm hand in his own hand, which it gently squeezed to express her gratitude.

"I couldn't buy you more time," he whispered into the silence of the village, still trapped in his thoughts in the knight's words, before he escaped from prison and turned to face his apprentice, shaking his head. "I'm sorry, but I've done all I can."

"Thank you," she breathed in his ear, so that her warm breath tickled his neck and made him blush before standing on her tiptoe, pressing her lips against his cheek for a brief moment, like a kiss, to express her gratitude , and immediately afterwards, without another word, returned to the house in whose door she was waiting for her master."No, Akane, I think I should go now," he said apologetically when he heard the young woman's hand gesture invitingly, and yet the tender touch of her lips had awakened that well-known feeling of need, that insatiable need for the war of love, the drums of which dictated the rhythm of his pounding heart and his next movements, he was to enter the house now. "I have to prepare a few things and look up a lot."

"Come and see!" She pleaded urgently, reaching out her hand to him, looking into his eyes, and was startled when she saw those blue eyes that up until that moment had shown her nothing but tenderness and affection Believed to see shades of an animal red, which revealed the ferocity of an indomitable animal in them, but which immediately disappeared again, so that she believed to have imagined this appearance. "We, we have already prepared the food! At least come in until the snow has subsided!"

"No, Akane!" He replied calmly, taming his thoughts and feelings by placing the cold hand in which he was still holding the arrow on his neck and closing his eyes. "The snowfall will not decrease any more today, it will get stronger and I have to go home urgently. Please pack whatever you want to take with you and a few slices of bread from your table so that we have something to eat because I have no time to buy more of my inventory. Don't ask, do what I tell you! "

Akane dared not question his haunted spoken words, backed by a second, even louder rumble of thunder, since in all the time they had spent together she had never seen him so agitated that he had never been so powerful had broadcast like now, since he had never looked nervous or even fearful, but hurried into the house as quickly as they carried their feet, asked her older sister to pack her dinner, and quickly wrapped the two dresses that he gave her had, in a woolen blanket that she hid under the coat, which she hastily put on before she gratefully grabbed the food ration from her sister's hand and said goodbye to her family with the promise to visit them as soon as possible.

Fearfully, the young woman approached the black-haired man, the tears of her fate forgotten, and stood next to him, who looked thoughtfully at the fall of the snow before he turned to his apprentice and looked at her with deep sadness. Finally, with a gesture of his hand, he silently motioned for her to follow him, so that the so unequal couple ran side by side into the forest, their shoes drawing deep aisles in the snow-covered ground until they reached the dry, frozen forest floor, where only a few snowflakes hit. because the tree tops lying close together provided a stable roof for the inhabitants of the forest."You don't have to be afraid to ask me questions," said the young man after they had entered the forest in silence, and turned to his apprentice for the first time since they had left the village behind. "I know you have a thousand questions burning on your heart, and I'll be happy to answer them if I can."

"Thank you, Ranma, but actually I only have one question," answered the young woman, trembling because the coat only partially protected her from the freezing cold, and was about to ask what was going on here, why he was so nervous was when her Master turned back to the narrow path that revealed the way to his hut, and she saw something that burned every other innocent thought in the soulless depths of the sea in a flameless fire; Slowly she reached for his hair, pulled a single, waist-length, chestnut-red hair from his raven-black hair, held it up between thumb and forefinger, and studied it intently while her Master turned to her, feeling the touch of her fingers. "What's this?"

The young man silently saw the red hair in the hand of his apprentice and shuddered at the fire in those beautiful brown eyes that unmistakably showed him all that he had not seen and did not want to see, all those memories, her embarrassed smile, when he'd presented her with the cloak, her flushed cheeks as they talked, her determination to get the job done, the kiss, her strangely volatile aura he'd mistaken for curiosity, her request to have dinner with her , her tears: she had fallen in love with him. Slowly, but with his heart beating wildly uncontrollably, he clenched his hands in fists and closed his eyes before he thought of answering her; but his words should never be spoken, as it preceded him.

"You don't have to answer me," she whispered, but with every word her voice grew louder, since with every word her love, like a magnificent, blood-red rose that bloomed beautifully in her heart and grew up into the sky, but its thorns opened on her stabbing the path stitch by stitch until she wished that the rose would wither so that she wouldn't feel the pain anymore, grew to him and caused her excruciating pain. "I saw her when I stayed with you; she's beautiful, isn't she? Is she your wife? Or your lover, or maybe just a playmate?"

She knew that she was exceeding all limits of courtesy, she knew that she was endangering her education, she knew that she might lose him forever, but she also knew that she would not be able to continue her teaching if he did not understand how she felt what an incomparable fire burned within her, fueling her hatred of that beautiful stranger, so that she was unable to form a rational thought that kept her from blaming, insulting, and hurting him until he told her the truth, which she did not want to hear and to which she was no more entitled than the moon to take the place of the sun in the firmament during the day."She is none of the above," he answered her. "I promise I will explain what this is all about when the time comes; now we have to go home, please trust me!"

"No, Ranma," Akane said calmly, tears welling in her eyes and she tossing her red hair to the ground, and fixed her gaze on the distant tree tops. "I trust you more than you can imagine, I would walk over hot coals for you if you assured me that I could not hurt myself, I would jump from the highest mountains if you assured me that I could fly, I would do anything for you, but I can't come home with you if you don't understand, if you don't know what I'm feeling. I love you! "

Desperate, the young man buried his face in his hands as she uttered the words he feared more than anything, those three words that would cause him more pain than he had endured than he felt for the young woman had kept closed to his heart. He knew he should have stopped her from speaking the words, but his cheating heart had prevented him from opening his mouth, had made her say the words he wanted to hear against his better judgment, and he knew that he was causing her excruciating agony with every passing second.

Slowly, celebrating the pain, that breathtaking rose broke her glass heart with its thorns, spreading in her body until she could feel the pain the thorns inflicted on her in every pore of her being as she waited, from the black-haired one To be accepted by the man to whom she offered herself. When he buried his head in his hands, however, she felt how an icy cold entered her body, which burned her hands, and gave her hope to freeze to death here, in the midst of the strange but friendly forest, that the shame of her Rejection may be spared, with which she would have to live her life with the young knight. She wanted to go home, she didn't want to feel anything anymore, she wanted to surrender to her tears when she suddenly felt the warm breath of a person in her ear and heard the whispered words that she dreamed of hearing so much but never dared to think would have.

"I love you too, Akane," he whispered in her ear. "I fell in love with you the moment you walked into my house, because I have never seen such determination, strength, and beauty as I did on this day. But I could, I was allowed to you don't say because I know it can't go well; I know that we can never be happy together. "

When Ranma had breathed the last, auspicious words into the young woman's ear, an unnatural silence fell over the forest: no more breeze from the wind blew, no more flakes of snow fell from the sky, no more sound of the forest could be heard.She looked anxiously into the searching eyes of the young man, who took her hand in his and haunted her insistently as he let his gaze wander through the forest.

"Don't say anything until we're home," he warned her and marched quickly on the narrow path through the forest to the frozen lake, where his little wooden hut stood, the door of which he hastily opened, and the young woman who, as asked of him, hadn't said a sound as he led her through the forest.

"What's going on here?" She asked carefully after the wizard had indicated with a nod that she could speak again, and watched with eyes wide with surprise as he closed the door and the fire in the fireplace with a snap of his Finger inflamed. "How did you do