June 3, Age 761
The sun has risen over the horizon of the mountains, shining its glorious beam down at a three year-old child, whose been purposely left out in the wild to learn how to take care of himself and begin his first steps on becoming a fighter.

Said child, who now had his dream of standing on top of every book in the world he studied on being disrupted by the glowing orb in the sky, bringing him out of a dream that his own mother has drilled into his mind as long as he could remember and remind him of what he is to do right now.

"Huah..." The three year-old stretched his arms and back out, causing some of his bones to pop out of the kinks from sleeping for a good while, rubbed the sleeps and sands out of his eyes, and quickly got to his feet.

The birds let out their usual 'good morning' calls in the air, bringing a smile of comfort and delight on the child's face, while he pulls the sash of the sheath of his sword over his right-should and chest.

"Good morning to you, too, Birds." He said to the wind, though mostly to himself, before he grabs for the half coconut shell he's been using as a makeshift bowl and taking off towards the trees that bares him ripe, plus some sour, fruits.

It has been nearly three weeks since the unfortunate encounter with his alien uncle, Raditz, and the untimely death of both the alien and Gohan's own father, Son Goku. And the worse things about that day, his uncle's scouter has transmitted the information of the Earth's Dragon Balls to his fellow comrades and are now heading towards Earth, both to be arriving to Earth within a year.

With danger close at hand and the fate of the world at stake, Piccolo has made the unexpected decision to save Earth by taking Gohan, the son of his mortal enemy who he killed along with his older-brother, as his apprentice and teaching him how to become a fighter. However, before he could truly start his training with the boy, Piccolo's first lesson for the boy is to live... For six months, on his own, without any aid or help, Gohan has to learn how to survive in the wild and take care of himself. Once he can complete this task, will the enemy of his father take the boy's training to the next level and truly start him in his training to fight.

In just three weeks, despite it being a small amount of time, Gohan has learned a few things he was force to accept and understand, that not even the books he studied at home would ever get through to him: He can't always expect everybody to be there for him, hand and foot, when he's sad or doesn't know what to do when on his own. Doing completely nothing won't get him anywhere, and will only mean his death will be much closer if he doesn't even try. He even learned from the loss of an abandoned Capsule Corp robot, that saved him from being crushed in a lost ruin, the only person he has to rely on is himself, be strong when time gets rough and to take care of himself the best way that he can when out on your own.

Not many children his age, especially one who barely became three years old, would be able to handle death so well and be able to move on without being traumatized from the whole experience. If Gohan was still living with his mother, he would've still been the pampered, spoiled, forced future scholar his mother has raised him to be and drilled into his head to become, but would be suffering from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder of learning his father is dead... And the guilt from the realization, that it's all his fault that his daddy died.

Luckily, his daddy's friends are looking for the Dragon Balls to bring him back, so he won't be dead for long. The big question is: How long will the child have to wait for his father to come back, and when will he be back? On a count that the child doesn't know that his father is going to do training with King Kai in Other World and won't be back until the Saiyans arrive, when a year has passed. For now, the toddler will go along with Piccolo's instructions and continue to survive on his own in the wild.

After kicking a tree to force the fruits it carries within its branches, which happens to be Lannea microcarpa (Tree Grapes), to fall from the branches while moving swiftly to gather as much of the grapes as possible into his makeshift bowl until it was nearly filled up to the edge, he sat himself against the trunk of the tree and swiftly munch down on his breakfast. Despite some of the grapes having a sour taste and all of them having seeds in their center, Gohan is completely satisfied of his meal and stomach being full.

"Ha..." The boy sighed out, leaning back against the tree and staring up at the sky, taking a short break from eating his food fast and to relax in the morning air and sun. Out on his own, in the middle of wherever he's at, he's come to enjoy the outdoors a lot; back at home, he doesn't get to go out much, since his mother keeps him in the house to study and rarely lets him go out to play.

Thinking about his mother, made the boy feel a bit homesick and wishing he could see her for just one moment.

"Oh, Mom..." He whispered to himself, staring up into the clouds, imagining one of them looking like his mother... With a stern look on her face, almost thinking he can actually hear her lecture of him not studying his textbooks.

"Do you have any idea what time it is, young man?! It's time to come home and study! I won't have my precious baby become a delinquent, just like his father and his gang! Now, get your butt back home and become the scholar you're meant to be!"

Gohan let out a deep sigh of breath, feeling tired and stressed out from the thought of books his mother makes him read. For as long as the three year-old can remember, at just the age of three, barely a year ago, all the toddler ever knew in life is to study and to one day become a scholar... Like his mother always wanted him to be.

The boy can't remember, not once, that he told his mother he wanted to become a scholar. She always told him she wanted him to become and scholar and that he was destined to be one... It has always been that way: What she wanted him to be, and not what he wanted to be.

'I guess all those time drilling her thoughts and dreams into my head for who knows how long, forcing me to study for over ten hours a day, it somehow made me want to become what she wanted me to be and not what I truly want to do in the future.'

Out here, out on his own, in just a little over three weeks, without his mother controlling him and his life, Gohan can see and think clearer about the short life he's been living with his parents... And really, he mostly remembers more about his mother, since she's always there all the time, rarely leaving the house if it involves visiting her father (taking the boy with her, during the process), the Ox King, or going shopping. While his father would be gone for most of the days to train and/or provide for his family, only to come back home when it's time for eat, bathe and sleep.

"I guess I should be thanking Piccolo for kidnapping me and leaving me to fend for myself, rather than think he was a monster and trying to get back home to my mom."

The boy got back to his feet and stretched his bones and muscles, letting out a huge yawn during the process, before he decided it was time for him to get back to learning how to survive and how to fight.

"Alright, let's work on my punches." Turning his view to one of the many plateaus of earth and clenching his hands into tight fists, Gohan immediately went to work by charging towards his target and pounding his fists into the hard earth.

Punch! Punch! Punch! *Crack* Punch! *Crack* Punch! Punch! *Crack*

With each punch he makes and thrusts into the plateau, a new sets of dents and cracks forms into the earth, weakening its defense piece by piece and its hold on each other. With each strike he makes, the boy puts in more strength and energy into his hits, forcing himself to keep pushing himself into breaking the plateau in front of him... And each time he switches his fists to lay a hit on his target, he makes sure that the rhythm of his punches follows a certain pattern, by what he hears that goes on around him or even farther than where he's at.

So far, the rapid beating of his heart is the only sound he hears, which means the pace he's setting for his strikes right now are fast and heavy.

*Crack* Punch! Punch! *Crack* Punch! *Crack* ~Snap~ Punch!

Near the tree that he kicked for its Tree Grapes, the grass surrounding and sitting underneath its branches would allow whatever amount of dew drop into the earth. Whenever he catches a sound of drop hitting the ground, the boy would have the fist that just hit the plateau to do a double punch.

Punch! Punch!-Punch! *Crack* Punch!-Punch! ~Snap~ Punch!-Punch! Punch! Punch! ~Snap~ Punch!

In just fifteen minutes, the droplets of dew water would cease and Gohan will continue with his punches with the beat of his heart... Until his knuckles would give off an impulsion of pain, making the child flinch and stop punching the plateau.

"Ugh...!" He grunted, staring down at his knuckles to see what was when. On top of his hands to where his knuckles are, Gohan found that the skin has split and is bleeding from both of his hands. "Great..." He muttered, glaring down at his hands, disappointed and annoyed that he damaged his hands and wasn't able to bring the plateau tower down into rubble during the process.

In a situation such as this, a child his age would be crying from hurting their hands, feeling the stinging moment of their split skin, and scared by the sight of their own blood pouring out of them. However, in just a short amount of time, Gohan has gotten used to the cuts, the blood and stinging sensation he would gain during his time in the wild... But that doesn't mean he likes it, let alone comfortable at the sight of his blood spilling from his wounds.

And right now, the sight of his own blood is the least of the reason to why he should be worried... It was the sent of copper, of the iron-smell like, the sent of life, that makes the child worried.

His Onyx-black eyes immediately survey the area around him. He took deep breath to calm his racing heart, while sniffing for any changes in the scent of the air. He listened, as far and hard as he can, for any sound that would alert him of any danger he should know about.

Whhoooooossssshhhhhhhh...

*Chirp* *Chirp* Tweet! Tweet! *Chirp* Tweet!

~Ssssqqqqquuaaaaakkkkk! Sssssssqqqqqquuuaaaaakkkkkkk!~

...Snap!

Gohan's eyes darted to where he heard the snapping sound of a stick, which was coming from one of his trees that has given him fruit. His eyes narrowed at the tall grass, seeing it slightly shifted from whatever it was that's most likely stalking through them, as he tore at the right-shoulder sleeve of his gi to make strips into bandages and wrapped them around his knuckles.

"Who's there?! Come on out!" He yelled, grabbing for the hilt of his sword with his right-hand, ready to pull it out of its sheath.

*Rustle* *Rustle* *Rustle*

The grass underneath the tree continued to shift, coming closer and closer towards the boy. He slowly pulled his blade out of its sheath, but when he barely moved the cross-guard away from the hilt, a shadowy figure swiftly hopped out of the grass and landed right in front of him.

...False alarm. It was a rabbit. In its mouth, some of the Tree Grapes that Gohan didn't catch into his bowl and are laying on the ground.

Seeing the confused and stunned look on the boy's face, while seeing a small part of his sword flashing brightly in the sun's light, the small creature scurried away for its burrow to feed its little ones.

Gohan let out a deep sigh and let go of his sword, leaving it in its sheath.

"That was embarrassing," he said to himself. "I actually thought it was some sort of preda-"

Snap! *Rustle* *Rustle*

"...Rrrrrr...*Hiss* Huuurrrrraaaaaa!"

He made an immediate grab for the hilt of his sword. He had enough time to turn to the direction to the sound, but didn't have enough time to either block or to pull his sword out. The creature launched itself out of the grass and landed on top of the child, pinning him to the ground. The creature made a mixture of a purr and a chirping sound, which the boy immediately identified as a bad thing before he gotten a good look at what was it that pins him down.

It's body, by his calculation, is a little over six feet tall and about seven meters long. It's body is completely black, with white-stripe patterns on its upper body and three red claw-like stripes on both its sides. The arms curved and hanging underneath its chest, with talon-like claws that could easily rip flesh from its victim. Thick and powerful leg muscles that indicates it's built for running and hunting, thicker claws that could tear away rocks from the ground. The end of its snout in the form of a beak that can pierce flesh like a knife, the top of its head covered in feathers, many rows of teeth flashing underneath its mouth and red bird/reptilian-like eyes glaring down at the child.

...It looked like some kind of Utahraptor mixed with a Deinonychus, though it wasn't any sort of raptor Gohan has ever seen or even heard of from any of his books. Then again, not every creature on Earth has been spotted and/or accounted for that was mentioned in books.

"Huuuueeeerrrr... Huurraaa!..." The creature cocked its head like a bird would expect on its prey, its tail swaying from side-to-side, letting out its purr-click sound and sniffing at the boy for the scent of life and copper... It has found its prey. "Rrrrrrrr... eeeeeeaaaaahhhhhh...!" It licked its salivated fangs with its tongue and brought its snout out to inflict pain.

Gohan immediately pulled his sword out of its sheath and made a quick swipe for its neck.

Woosh! *Clink*

The creature caught the blade with its fangs and, with ease, yanked it right out of the three year-old's hands and tossed it to the side, out of reach from the trapped boy.

"Uuuuuurrrr... *Hiss*" That wasn't a good sound. Now the raptor is hungry, angry and threatened and, digging the claws of its feet into the boy's left-shoulder and right-thigh, it decided to not go easy on the child and to end him slowly.

"Aaugh!" Gohan cried out, feeling the piercing of the claws forcing through into his body, knowing that blood is being drawn and can dig into the bones if the creature keeps up with adding more pressure to hurting the boy.

His cries seemed to please the raptor, giving in to its thirst for blood and to kill. And so, its beak-like snout pulled apart and launched itself down on the boy.

Thanks to his newly developed quick reflexes, Gohan jerked his head to the right, narrowly missing the fangs of the predator and having it bury its mouth into the hard ground. Then, clenching his right-hand into a fist, feeling the wrappings of his torn gi around his knuckles tightening, the boy pulled back and, when the creature pulled its snout from the ground, delivered a powerful punch to the left-side of its face.

The force of the punch was just enough to force the raptor off of the boy, its body skidding back until it rammed into the plateau that was being punched earlier, and freeing the boy from its clutches. The sudden attack left the creature stunned from what its prey just did to it, but immediately shook it off and went to get back on its feet. It staggered while trying to find its bearings, its body still shaken from the attack, and the left-side of its face most likely damaged from feeling some of its fangs coming out and the pain of possible broken bone coursing through his skull.

Immediately, Gohan got to his feet and ran for his sword, grasping it in his hands, aiming the blade towards the animal to prepare himself to kill. With the creature still appearing unfocused and seems to have left itself wide open for an attack, the boy made the choice to take the risk and dash towards the predator.

"Hyah!" He cried out, leaping in the air and raising his sword over his head, ready to deliver a powerful strike to cut off the dinosaur's head... Only for that plan to be interrupted by the animal's attack; hearing the sound of its prey coming down for its head, the raptor shifted its body to move its head away from the boy and use its tail to swat the child aside. "Gah!"

Gohan bash his head against the plateau, causing a terrible migraine to form and part of his head to bleed from the force of impact he sustained from colliding with the plateau, head first that would've easily had a child's skull to crack and break their neck.

"Grrrrrrrr... *Hiss* Raaaah! Raaaah!" It's vision finally went back to seeing one prey lying on the ground instead of three, no longer feeling its feet are slipping on ice or mud and are back on solid ground. The left-side of its face still hurts and the light of the sun irritates its eyes, but it wouldn't be enough to stop this predator from ending the life of its kill.

Now, it was the toddler's turn to go through the blurred vision and vertigo process that the dinosaur went through, who struggles to his feet by leaning on the plateau to stand and not back on the ground. His sword, held in the tight grasp of his right-hand, dragged into the earth and now being held in a tilted position.

"Grrrrr... Huuuuaaaahhh!" Body crouched as low it can near the ground, its posture showing signs of thirst to fight and kill, the dinosaur immediately ran at the boy and, using the same move the boy did to it, leap in the air, the claws on its feet aimed out to both pin the boy down and rip through flesh.

Gohan, still trying to get over the dizziness and the blurred vision, glared at the two -or is it three?- Utahraptor/Deinonychus hybrid coming down at him from above, bringing his sword up in front of him to prepare himself to either block or stab the large creature... Only to see a large, orange-blur to come out of nowhere and collide itself against the raptor.

"Wh... What the-?" The boy mumbled out, not sure if what he's seeing is playing out to be, even when his vision is still seeing double and/or triple: The raptor hybrid, bashed away from the plateau the boy was at, is being pinned down by a Saber-tooth... a Saber-tooth that Gohan believe to being the same feline who stole his hat, since he (somehow) recognize its growls and snarls that it once made to him.

"Rrraawwlll! Rrraaaaawww!" The long-fang feline cried out, swiping one of its paws to claw at the lizard's face and clashing with its own claws, while the other paw pins it down. Having to have more muscles than its pinned down opponent, the Saber-tooth showed to have no problems on keeping the dinosaur down and not allowing it to get back on its feet, as it continues to scratch at its face and neck.

"Grrrraaaaahhh! Grrraaaaahhhhhhh! *Hiss* Urrrrrrraaaaaahhhh!" The Utahraptor/Deinonychus hybrid thrashed around as hard it could, fighting to break free from the Saber's grip and return damage by clawing or snapping its jaw at the feline, while releasing its cry right back at its face and, at times, to the sky.

As if figuring out what it was doing by its signal cry, and wanting to end the fight when the raptor's claws were able to leave a couple of good marks on its face and its fangs catching a couple of its fur in its mouth, the Saber opened its mouth wide enough to show all of its fangs and clamped its long-canine fangs into the back of its neck.

"Raahhh! Raaaahhh! *Hiss* Raaaahhhh!"

The raptor got to its feet, allowing the Saber-tooth to get on its back and dig its claws into its sides, and tried to shake the large-cat off. The more it kept on shaking, the deeper the Saber's fangs dug in its neck, forcing more blood to be spilled and weakening the raptor.

During the two animals fighting, Gohan's legs finally collapsed when his body could no longer handle the effects of the Vertigo symptoms and leaned himself against the plateau. He had sheath his sword away and, while keeping an eye on the two predators, slowly attempted to crawl away from the battlefield and to at least hide in the tall grass in case the victor tries to hunt him down for food.

"Rrrrrrrrrrr... Huuuuurrrrrraaaaahhhhhh!" The loss of its blood eventually got through to the dinosaur and, when it could no longer hold itself up or even try to claw at the Saber's face with its talon-like claws, the creature's body collapsed to the ground.

The very moment the dinosaur's body hit the ground, showing no signs of being able to get back up but limbs still jerking as if trying to right itself up, the Saber-tooth released its hold of its fangs on the raptor's neck and backed away, letting out low growls of satisfaction and licking the blood off its canine fangs.

"Huuuuueeeerrrrrr... Huuuuuueeeerrrrrr... *Hiss* Raaaaahhhh!" The raptor is still very much alive and appears to be fighting to still be living, though it appears to be struggling to stay conscious from the loss of blood.

"Raaaaahhhhhh! Raaaaahhhhhh! Uuuuurrrrrrr... Raaaaahhhh!" It continued with its cries, adding in the chirp/purr sound that both the Saber, and Gohan, feel wasn't a good sound at all.

"Raaaaahhh...! Raaaahhh...! Huuuuurrrrrraaaaaahhhh...!"

A cry from a distance gained the two's attention to the north-east, the cry matching to the beaten and bleeding raptor, who kept on with its call.

"Huuuurrrraaaaahhhh...! Huurrrraaaahhhhh!"

Another call, coming from the north, signaled to the feline and boy that a third raptor is coming.

"Raaaaaahhhh...! Huuuuurrrrraaaaaahhhh!"

"Huuuueeeeeerrrrrr...! Huuuuueeeeerrrr...! Huuuurrrraaaahhhh! Huuuuueeeerrrrr...!"

Two more sounded off, both in the same direction from the west.

Immediately, Gohan knew what was going on: The raptor has called in for help, and its pack was coming right for them to kill whatever it was that dare to harm one of its own.

'Oh no! If I don't get out of here by the time even one of them shows up, I'm a goner.' Pulling the sash of his sheath off from his shoulder and chest, he pushed his concealed weapon into the ground and try to use it as a makeshift crutch to lean on. His body regained some of its strength back when he was laying down, but his head wound wouldn't let his eyes see clear and the urge to vomit would bring him to his knees.

"Huuuurrrraaaahhhh! Huuuurrrraaaahhhh!"

*thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump* *thump*

The sound of running feet were getting closer and cries of the other raptors told the boy he's running out of time to either hide or make an attempt to get out of the area.

'And I doubt playing dead will get me out of this one... What am I going to do?'

While the three year-old tries to figure out how to get out of this mess, the Saber-tooth was also trying to figure out what to do.

It knew that it should've finished its opponent off the moment the raptor collapsed on to the ground, but it would run the risk of allowing its victim to go for one of its fangs and breaking it off. Besides, when Saber-tooth Tigers hunt prey and/or fight to the death, they prefer to have their victims bleeding to death.

The saber was thinking about heading back to the tree that it was just in, before it pounced on the raptor when it tried to go for the kill on the boy, and stay hidden until the other creatures leave once they find the threat that attack their own isn't around. However, those dinosaurs are more intelligent than they appear to be and, as trackers, they would find the threat in the tree from the smell of their pack's blood and both saber and human child be killed by the Utahraptor/Deinonychus hybrids. And on its own, there was no way that it can take on four raptors, especially when they can easily take the saber down if they work as a unit.

The only option that may be the feline's only chance of survival, is to leave behind its barely living kill and leave the area.

"Rrrrrrr... Rrrrrraaaaawwwwllll!" The saber let out a roar of frustration of leaving its kill, then made a quick pounce sprint away. Just as it took its few steps of sprinting away, its eyes locked down at the human-cub it, unintentionally, saved from becoming the Hunt Stalker's kill. The very moment it gazed at the struggling cub's body, the saber ceased its sprint and simply stared at the cub.

It knows that human-cub; time hadn't gone by that fast, and yet the feline can tell something had changed with the young one that it once almost hunted down. The child remained the same height and size, but appears strong and has less baggy fur to conceal its true appearance, the fur on top of its head seemed to had grown a bit and the startling discovery of its tail gone, though it shouldn't be that much of a shock when many animals would lose their tails for many reasons when struggling to survive... But then, there's its scent.

There was something off about the cub's scent, and it wasn't because of the scent of blood, the scent of its life, flowing from wound implants by the Hunt Stalker. No, the scent of the cub is of the Earth; the grass, wood, and even the scent of passed prey, fruits and herbs... But where is the scent of its pack? Where is the scent of the cub's sire?

The last human the saber had met, it was an adult male who wore an identical fur that the cub now wears, shorter black-fur on its head, and even the scent of wood, smoke and that of the human-cub once carried. The saber should know their scent are a complete match; the feline had the tough skin/fur that it took from the cub to prove of the two being of relation.

But now, all the human-cub carries on it is of the Earth, itself, and the blood of its own life. The scent of its sire, its pack, had been lost to the wind, water and earth.

To the Saber, that could mean a few things: The human-cub is lost and can't find its way back to its own kind, the young one could've been abandoned or left behind to fend for itself... Or, a terrible fate had befallen on to the cub's pack, and is now a Lone Young, no relations to take in the unfortunate creature and left to survive on its own until death will surely take its little life.

At the realization of the human-cub being on its own and forced to live out on the lands, with no obvious aid or any sort of learning on how to properly care for itself, paternal instincts immediately kicked in within the feline.

Cub protect help protect safety Cub protect safety den pack safety help Cub

Gaining new orders from its paternal instinct, the Saber pounce over the human-cub's body and, grabbing the back of its fur-scruff with its fang, making sure neither of its long-fangs were going to pierce themselves into the cub's true-flesh, once again forced its body into a full sprint away from the Hunt Stalkers.

Gohan was stunned when he found himself underneath the body of the Saber-tooth, even more confused when the large feline used its long-fangs to grab for the back of his gi and now being carried away in the mouth of the creature as if he were a newborn cub. Luckily for the boy, his grip on his sword didn't loosen when he got grabbed and, without hitting the Saber's face to blow its concentration on running, pulled the sash of the sheath over his left-shoulder, curling his body around his weapon to avoid losing it; not trusting his hands to keep holding on, when they are still bleeding from punching the plateau earlier and continue to bleed underneath his makeshift bandages.

The boy curling his body to make himself smaller had made it much more easier for the Saber to carry him and, with the cries of the raptors now being miles away from their current location, the feline continued on with its sprinting, taking both itself and the boy to safety... A place where the half-Saiyan will be learning a different way on how to survive in the wild.

TBC

I know in the English Version, Gohan said he's four and a half (in a different English version, however, he said he was five and a half), but the Japanese Version stated that he's four years old when he met Goku's friends before Raditz came and took him away [although, originally, he was supposed to be three years old, which is very interesting]. So, in the beginning of the story, Gohan turned three a few days before meeting Goku's friends.

Also... We only know the names of cities/houses in the shows, so we don't really know where Gohan is at, during his time in the wild... Heck, we don't even know about the names of their Continents, areas, or even some of their foods and animals. So, I'm just making up what Gohan will find in the wild.

One more thing... I just found out what an Orthopedist is: A bone surgeon... I think there was a missed translation (in the English Dub Version) back then, until they decided to change the term to scholar when Gohan got older... I never heard of a child, let alone a three year-old, say they want to become a bone surgeon... That's just creepy.

Anyway, hope you guys like this!

R&R