could see her two sisters and her father sitting at the table in the living room. "Who are you? What do you want here?"

"It's me, father, your daughter Akane!", The young woman exclaimed, hurt and confused, before she realized that the candlelight, while her freshly washed body, which was wrapped in a new, beautiful, white dress, was her family couldn't see, but didn't illuminate her relieved, smiling features, so she lifted the candle a little higher until she heard her sisters gasp in amazement. "What are you all doing here at the table so late? You weren't waiting for me, did you?"

"Yes, Akane, we have been waiting for you," replied her big sister with a calculating and envious look at the white dress that her little sister was so proudly wearing. "And I think we don't even have to ask how it went, because where else than from that horrible wizard were you supposed to get this dress? So you're still under his spell."

"He's not horrible, Nabiki!", The young woman defended her master irritably and gave her sister a dark look."And I'm not under any spell either! How often should I explain this to you? I'm just trying to show you that he's a perfectly normal person!"

"But if you are not under a spell, why did you get this beautiful dress from him, Akane?", The elder sister of the black-haired woman asked gently. "He certainly didn't just give it to you because you were nice to him."

"No, he didn't give me the dress because I was nice to him; there is an agreement between Ranma and me, father," Akane whispered fearfully, putting down the candle in front of the skeptical-looking elder of the family and taking his right one Hand warming in both of her hands. "I've never asked anything of you, father, but today I beg you to approve this deal. It's, this dress, he gave it to me after I asked him to take me on as an apprentice that everyone knows." that I belong to him. Father, please let me go this way! "

For a few seconds after the young woman's words, an unnatural silence spread inexorably in the little hut until she had formed an impenetrable glass barrier between the speaker and the silent ones, which swung faster and faster with the last tones of the pleading woman finally burst into a thousand pieces of glass when her father spoke up, breaking through the connecting gate of two different worlds that were forever and a day apart.

"You know we can't afford the training, especially not with a wizard to whom we owe eternal gratitude," the older man remarked cautiously, while his two largest daughters stared at him in silence but intently. "So how are you going to pay for the training?"

"I don't want any money from me," his youngest daughter replied breathlessly. "He is lonely and is avoided; he wants nothing more than company, I think, and I can understand him. I would have kept him company too if he had rejected me as an apprentice, because he is a really friendly, amiable man, no matter if magician or not. "

"Well, we will miss you here; who should take over your household chores when you are not there? We can hardly make ends meet with you," argued the black-haired man, tired and visibly battered, his daughter's To deny pipe dreams. "We need you here, Akane."

"I know," replied the young woman with an enchanting smile that could even have warmed mountains made of pure ice in the northernmost regions of her homeland, and knelt in front of her father, his right hand still buried in her warm hands. "I promise you, I will not go to him a day before the third hour after sunrise and return to you every evening so that I can fulfill my duties and help you.You can also divide up my rations, because Ranma insists that I have dinner and lunch with him. So it will only help you more than harm that I begin an apprenticeship with him, father. "

"I still don't know," said the old man skeptically, but his daughter clearly felt how he was softened not only by her arguments, but also by her radiant smile and joyous eyes, and with a fluttering heart he squeezed his hand, assuring him that she was nothing It would happen that she trusted this man wholeheartedly that she wanted nothing more than to be his apprentice, and thus, although his fear of the hermit's apparently supernatural abilities had not been overcome, moved him to a resigned nod. "Please do not tell anyone what you are doing until I have informed the villagers of your decision; and now go to bed, after all you have to get up early tomorrow to do your work before you go to your training."

With a relieved sigh, a kiss goodbye on her father's cheek and a hasty wish for a restful night, the young woman said goodbye to her confused, silent sisters and her resignedly smiling father, before disappearing smilingly into the next room, which her sisters and her as Served the bedroom, closed the light wooden door, leaned against her and pressed the palm of her hand tightly against her chest to calm her heart beating wildly with excitement, which was beating a little faster with every thought of the young wizard despite her efforts and so on forced a satisfied smile on her lips. Happily, she closed her eyes and after a short time, when the pounding of her heart seemed to slowly subside, she decided to go to sleep while her eldest sister asked her father the question that haunted him too.

"Are you sure you did the right thing?", Kasumi asked worriedly after the three family members had pondered the strange development of events for a few minutes in silence.

"I don't know, Kasumi, I don't know," he answered her exhausted, while he stood up at the table to support himself. "I just know that I haven't seen my little darling so happy since your mother's death. She would have followed this path if I had forbidden her, I think, because she is very similar to your mother and you know as she was. Good night, dear ones. "

With this, the head of the house blew out the fire of the growth stump and left the living room into the kitchen, where his bed was, while he left his two daughters at the dark table. The oldest woman in the family stared motionless at the blown out candle, the flickering flame burned into her eyes and still clearly visible in the sudden darkness, and sighed sadly when she felt her little sister's gaze on her and hers not answered the question with a deep sadness in her voice."I don't know either, Nabiki," she whispered. "But I fear that he will hurt her terribly, because she is still under his spell, the strongest spell in the world, the magic of love."


When Akane woke up the next day, the young woman heard the beautiful orchestra of the night, whose soloist was performing her favorite piece flawlessly with such passion that she could not fall asleep with excitement until a few moments later the rising sun paid her eternal adversary respect and with their animals gave the symphony of silence a thunderous applause, which soon woke the other residents of the hut. The black-haired woman quickly got dressed and devoted herself enthusiastically to her tasks, which she had done so quickly that she could leave for her master a little later, who was waiting for her in his hut with a happy smile.

"You're here earlier than I expected," he noted and offered her a place at the table after tucking the scrolls that were spread out on one of the shelves. "Have you already done all of your work?"

"Yes," she replied nervously, kneading her hands under the table to calm down.

"Don't worry, you don't have to be nervous," he assured her with a friendly smile, since the young woman's nervousness had by no means escaped him, and looked deep into her dark brown eyes. "If I were not sure that you would manage this training, I would not have accepted you as my new apprentice. I see great potential in you! Unfortunately we cannot start your training yet because your body is still too weak, and but today, in the next days and weeks, depending on how fast you are, the hardest task of your training awaits you. "

Embarrassed by the unexpected praise, confused by the apparently contradicting statement, and desperate by the expected difficulty of the task, the young woman fought a hopeless battle against her nervousness and feelings, which in her heart, like a raging storm, were waging a bitter battle , and thus determined her temperamental streak, which she tried to hide in the presence of her master. The thunderous storm of her heart had carried her far out into the wild foaming sea, in which only one island could save itself from certain drowning, but the harder she tried to fight the waves, the further the saving shore seemed to expand with one to remove certain black haired man on him.

"What do I have to do?" She asked hesitantly.

"You don't have to do anything," the young man explained simply and got up from his chair. "Every day at lunchtime you will have lunch with me here, every evening before you return to your family you will have dinner here with me, in the interim hours you will devote yourself to your only task until you have mastered it and your body is strong enough to handle your subsequent workouts.Come with me!"

The wizard walked slowly to his front door, opened it and went through the first row of trees to a small clearing, in the middle of which there was a large stone on which he sat down. For a few seconds he silently closed his eyes and breathed deeply in and out until a young deer broke out of the low branches of the surrounding bushes and trees, which approached the young wizard without any fear and finally stopped in front of him.

"I want you to call the animals of this forest to you while you are sitting on this stone", the magician explained, while the young deer disappeared again between the branches, got up yawning and made his way back to his hut before he was held back by the confused words of the young woman.

"But how am I supposed to do that?"

"You have to find