The Trouble With Camping Trips


-Prologue-


It had all started the day we left for a camping trip. Mom, Dad, Krillin, 18, Pan, Bra, and Goku and his two sons were all trotting down the windy trail in the woods. I was following not far behind, and Chi-Chi was up with Mom trying to persuade her to turn around and go home. Yeah. As if Mom would skip a chance to "bond" with her family. Gag.
"Come on, Bulma! It's not too late; we can still turn around and go home. It'll be fine!" Chi-Chi pleaded.
Mom stopped. She turned around and looked Chi-Chi straight in the eye. Uh oh…
"Look. I have been planning this little get-together for some time now," she turned to all of us, "and you are all going to enjoy this trip whether you like it or not!!!"
At that, everyone except Dad and I stepped back a few steps. He ended the conversation with a 'humph!' and we all continued.
When we got there, everyone dropped his or her things and we all started to look around. The 'campsite' was really nothing more than your basic hole in the woods. Sure, it had a place to make a fire and stuff, but that was it.
We then proceeded to set up. I was sharing a tent with Gohan and Goten. Dad was with Mom, Krillin with 18, etc. Gohan and I were the first to set our tent up, and Goten was helping the girls.
"Trunks, will you go and gather some wood for the fire?" Mom asked me.
"Sure."
I jogged off. I didn't quite know this forest, but I'm sure I could manage. Grumbling all the way, I finally got into the center of the forest. Or so I thought. Nope. Just another branch of it. Like a giant maze.
"Great. Lost and Hungry." I thought aloud. All of a sudden, I tripped over an uprooted vine and fell over a cliff. A high cliff.
"Even better. Lost, hungry, and in pain."
I kept marching through the forest, picking up the most reasonable sized logs I could find. When I thought that I had gotten enough, I decided to head back. That was the easy part.
Using their ki signatures, I flew back, not caring who saw me. When I got there, everyone was glad that I got back with no problem, and we made our dinner (which Gohan caught) over the open fire.
That night, when the sun went down and the night sky was filled with bright, twinkling stars, we made (yes, made) Dad tell us stories about what happened on Vegettisei. Ok. So they're not the most exciting stories in the world, but they'll knock the socks off of your Grandpa's old war stories.
After we got tired of Dad bragging about himself, we went to bed. Gohan and Goten fell asleep immediately. I chuckled as Goten mumbled incoherently in his sleep, and that left me. Wide-awake, alone, and in complete silence.
*CRACK!*
I jumped about 3 feet in the air, bringing the tent down with me as I fell. This had better be good.
"Hey guys?"
"GOKU! WH-"
He cupped his hand over my mouth and then gave me those irresistible puppy dog eyes that no one -except my father- could resist.
"Shh!" He told me.
"Goku! What are you trying to do?! Give me a heart attack?!" I said in a softer, but vicious tone.
"Trunks, what is going on here?!" I heard a familiar voice demand.
"Uh, nothing, Gohan! Heh heh!" I stuttered.
"Whatever."
"Hey, Gohan! Sorry to wake you!"
"DAD?!"
"W-Wha hapnd? Goten mumbled. Uh oh. Here it comes.
"Dad! Is there a new enemy!? Oh no! A new enemy and I'm not even dressed yet! Just let me go and get-"
"Shut up! Do you wanna wake 'tousan up or what!?" I asked the panicky Goten. He shook his head vigorously and I nodded at Goku to explain.
"Well, I was having this bad dream about Vegeta eating all of the food at C.C.," he glanced around nervously and continued, "and I just wanted to make sure you guys were ok!"
"Yeah. Really." Gohan said sarcastically. He rolled his eyes, gathered his things, and went to sleep under the full moon. A wolf howled and Goku shivered.
"You're sure you guys are ok?" He asked.
"Yep!"
He smiled a goofy son grin and murmured and ok. He then turned and started walking back to his tent, looking back every 10 seconds to see if anyone was coming to get him.
I sighed. I really needed some fresh air. I decided to take a walk. I lifted back my navy blue sleeping bag and stepped out of the dome tent, which was now propped up with a stick.
The fresh air was brisk, but refreshing on my skin. The leaves crunched under my feet as I walked towards the dark oblivion set against the horizon. Dark clouds rolled across the eerie glow of the moon. The light from the moon had seemed to be swallowed up into the creeping darkness of the forest.
Walking through the forest, it seemed as though a butning evil had existed within it. The very animals that had inhabited it that day were all gone. Like they were never there to have begun with. 'Man. I go for a walk, and I find what? A depressing blackness that just seems to consume anything that even tries to confront it.' I though bitterly. Suddenly, a blindingly bright light engulfed me and knocked me unconscious.
When I awoke, the first thing I noticed was that I was no longer in a forest, but lying on a hard, damp floor in a room lit by large candles. The cement walls were lined with moss, and there was a very old and decayed skull in the corner. Just then, I heard a menacing voice say:
"Well well well. The brat awakens."
I couldn't remember anything. It was probably because of the blood-loss to my brain when I was unconscious, but besides going from a forest to a dungeon, I might as well have been brain-washed.
I looked up. There were two figures standing there. One was too tall (in my opinion, anyway), and the other didn't seem quite tall enough.
"Where am I? Who am I? Who are you?" I asked them.
"My, aren't we quizzical today, hmm?" the taller figure asked in return. From the shadow, you could not pick out any facial features except for a moustache that trailed to below his chin, and that he was completely bald. He wore full saiyan armor, and it looked as if he wore a scouter as well.
"Silence, you fool!" the shorter figure ordered the other. He too, wore full armor, but had a small cape attached as well. His hair, as I took it, was stuck straight up. It looked eerily familiar, but I couldn't quite pick out why. He wore a smaller, more compact scouter, and stood with better posture; as if he were royalty.
The two stepped out of the shadows and looked straight at me.
"Well, brat. Since it would be rude not to introduce ourselves, this is Nappa, and I am Prince Vegeta."