The Yeti of Mt. Paozu
-By Alenio Conspiriakalos
When I returned to my offices here in West City, I felt as if I had a renewed sense of purpose. I rescheduled appointments and reassigned TV production logistics to my colleges. I dedicated myself to research in a way I hadn't since the early days of AE. I felt a growing sense of paranoia around each turn in those first few days. One careless slip-up could alert the very organizations that I was investigating.
I thought back to those unexplained stones and their origin. Is it possible, I asked myself, that the impact craters associated with Lonsdaleite formation were not simply natural phenomena, but the direct result something of an intelligent design? I reviewed the data from my previous meteor impact research and the reported meteor over Mt Paozu in 737 caught my interest. I wondered if there were any Lonsdaleite deposits associated with this sighting. It seemed peculiar to me if there was a large meteor why was the crater never located? Was there some sort of influential enterprise concealing the crash site? I had to visit that mountain.
Mt Paozu has always had the reputation of being as dangerous as it is beautiful. The remote location and rugged terrain along the eastern Diablo Desert has long been a haven for thieves and bandits. Some of the rarest and most fantastic animal species still inhabit these dark forests and deserts. As is often the case with ancient mysterious places, a mythology as strange as the landscape itself has arisen around the mystifying mountain.
The Villages: Aru and Carrot
In ages long past, the area we now know as the Eastern District were the lands of the Oryza Empire. Though diminutive, the Oryza emperors of antiquity were ruthless conquerors. The last great ruler, Emperor Onigiri died in 716 and the empire landed in the diapers of Onigiri's infant son Pilaf. History will paint a dim picture of "emperor" Pilaf. While stories of the young emperor tell of his callous savagery, he didn't command the same respect or loyalty as his ancestors. According to recorded accounts, the land on and around Mt. Pauzu began to fall from the young emperor's administration in order to pay off debts. By 731, all that was left of the great Oryza Empire was the magnificent castle and roughly two hectares of the surrounding Mushroom Forest.
There are two incorporated villages in the Eastern District that lie between the Diablo Desert and the foothills of Mt. Paozu; Aru Village and Carrot Village. The later, Carrot Village takes its name from, of all things, the organized crime syndicate that once owned the village. I was fairly certain, if there was a meteor impact on Mt Paozu, the residents of these two villages would know.
In a diner in Aru Village I met with three ranch hands on their lunch break. Johnny, Clem, and Chet were eager to relate some of the tales they heard over the years, as well as some of the things they have witnessed. Johnny and Clem remembered a boy and girl who came into town. "'Bout ten years ago." Chet recalled. "Round about the time them girls was taken by the Shape-changer"
"Those two; they had no fear. They were about our age. They stood up to the shape-changer and exposed the monster for what he was, just a pig!" Johnny added.
Chet remembered the old hermit who lived up on the mountain. "Quiet old man would come down once a year for supplies. Momma said he was always such a gentleman"
They also remembered stories of a giant ape man. Folks said it was a deadly creature that killed everything in its way. The Yeti, they said, leveled an entire village with the swipe of its arm. Clem told me he never heard it, but his father swore he would hear it howling at the full moon. Amma, my waitress, also heard of those stories. She added some interesting details of her own.
"When I lived in Carrot Village a few years ago, I heard stories of two kids and a shape-shifter about fifteen years back over there. They were the ones who kicked the rabbit mob out of town. That was about the time they say the giant ape-man, the Yeti, destroyed Pilaf's castle."
I read about the destruction of Emperor Pillaf's castle in official insurance investigation claimed an errant weapon test was responsible for the damage. It wasn't long after that incident that the emperor went into hiding and resurfaced a year later working with King Piccolo. Could it be that the destruction of the castle was the result of some sort of feral ape creature and not an explosion as the authorities would have you believe?
The next day I traveled to Carrot Village. This is a larger, more sophisticated town compared to Aru. Hafeez a local tailor recalled a boy and girl coming into his tailor's shop when he was an apprentice.
"I figure it was about fourteen, fifteen years ago. The rabbit mob was lousy in this place. 'Boss R' bought the town from the bank. He wasn't any better than that Pilaf kid. I remember that kid with the tail stood his ground and fought off the whole mob. That girl she was a cunning one too, till 'Boss R' did that carrot thing on her. Bad sort they were; the mob I mean. We've been better off ever since."
Safi, a strong middle aged mechanic with wise gray eyes remembered hearing tales of the ape-man from some elders. They told of horrible howls echoing across the mountain during a full moon. One old trader, Safi told me, brought a story back from Aru village.
"The trader told my papa, while he was working on his truck, about a hunter in Aru village who told him about a giant Yeti-like beast that he saw with his own eyes. Toward the top of the mountain, he claimed. This was about thirty years ago or so; the trader said he met the guy in a tavern, so you know how these things are. The trader said something about the Yeti was bigger than anything his hunter friend had ever seen, uncontrolled, the thing destroyed a small village that used to be up there."
I met Nida, a waitress and part time mystic. She told me she had heard of the stories of the boy and girl who fought off Boss Rabbit. She also told me that legends speak of a supernatural force that surrounds Mt. Paozu and she was sure this energy gave rise to the giant ape-man that destroyed Emperor Pilaf's castle. They say Pilaf captured the Yeti and tried to use it as a weapon but it escaped and destroyed the castle.
After hearing tales of the fate of Pilaf, I was eager to see for myself the ruins of his once great castle. I was only able to glimpse the ruins from a distance, but it was clear some sort of catastrophe happened there. A single light in a high window of the last surviving tower suggested the place had been taken over by squatters. Oddly, the security measures set up before the emperor's disappearance seemed to still be active. From what I was able to see, I have no doubt that whatever happened there was no errant weapons blast but the work of some form of intelligence. Perhaps there is some truth to the accounts suggesting Pilaf's castle was destroyed by the Yeti.
These types of stories are familiar to me. Tales of Yeren, Yeti, and Sasquatch are found throughout the local mythologies of indigenous remote villages all over the world. These sightings have been corroborated by eye-witness accounts and hard evidence such as footprints and hair samples. Is it possible that the stories of the Yeti of Mt. Paozu are in fact not a myth, but a living breathing denizen of the mountain? And what role did this little boy and young girl play in the story? I left Diablo Desert with no more insight into the meteor, but now my curiosity was leading me down another path.
Fire Mountain Connection
Not only was I fascinated by the similarity of the tales the villagers related to me, but I became intrigued by the identity of the children and the reports of an old man that lived atop Mt Paozu. My searches lead to the hall of records in Orange Star City. In a dusty dog-eared paper ledger I found a deed to a twelve hectare plot of land located high on the western slopes of Mt. Paozu registered to a man named Son Gohan.
A short computer search of Mr. Son reveled that he was declared legally dead in 749 and, without any living relatives, the land was bequeathed to the Ox-King of Fire Mountain. Further archival searches showed that Son Gohan and Ox-King were pupils of the venerated Turtle School of Martial arts, under the tutelage of Maser Roshi. Sometime after the 18th Budokai around 736 the pair left Rosihi's school and went their separate ways.
I traveled to Fire Mountain to request an audience with Ox-King. I thought perhaps he could tell me if his friend related any stories about the meteor that may have landed near his home or verified any of the Yeti claims. Unfortunately, Ox-King wasn't available to receive me, but I did consult with people close to the palace.
I spoke with a laundry-woman named Ausan who remembered a time when the palace was surrounded by fire. She didn't recall a man named Son, but she told me a rather interesting story about the princess of Fire Mountain. Apparently Princess Chichi currently lives on Mt. Paozu with her husband and son. Ausan told me of the horrible years when the mountain burned and told a beautifully poetic tale of the great Turtle Hermit extinguishing the fires in one powerful movement. Chipa, another palace aid related a story that happened about three years ago. It seems that right before the royal wedding, the palace caught fire and Princess Chichi's betrothed was the heroic young man who extinguished the fire. It was Chipa's understanding that this young man was also a student of the Turtle school.
Visit to Mt Paozu
I was fueled with nervous anticipation as I drove up the cart path toward the Son home. While my visit was unannounced, I still felt as if I was on the cusp of a great discovery. As I crested the final ridge the forest thinned out and I was bewildered by the scene that played out before me. This was a modest compound, a combination of old world architecture and modern engineering. The main house was built in the classic pagoda style of the orient, but strangely, a modern capsule dome was added on to the side.
I was greeted by a charming young woman who introduced herself to me as Chichi. I was amazed that this humble mother and home-maker was a princess. She was most gracious and more than willing to answer my questions. She explained that Son Gohan was one of her father's oldest friends and the adoptive grandfather of her husband Goku. After they married, her father was more than willing to give them a wing of the palace, but the young couple wanted to make a home for themselves on the mountain. I asked Chichi about the stories of the Yeti, and if she had ever seen anything similar in her time on this mountain. The unflappable young lady laughed with a most dismissive tone befitting a princess.
"Oh that's just foolish! You know how superstitious villagers can be. Why my Goku used to say his Grandpa Gohan was killed by a monster."
We were suddenly joined by Chichi's son, a serious looking keenly aware boy of about eight or nine. Chichi introduced him as Gohan. As only a mother could, Chichi reinforced my impression of Gohan with a laundry list of his impressive intellectual accomplishments. I asked Gohan what he thought of these stories.
"The existence of cryptids has never been disputed by mainstream science. Until there is proof, though, the stories can only be considered folk lore."
He might have been a boy, but he spoke with the maturity of a scholar. Gohan then filled me in on just about every creature living on or around the mountain. He assured me that in all his life (which by his own admission wasn't terribly long) he had never seen a giant ape creature on this mountain. While thorough, and quite accommodating, I couldn't help but feel like he was hiding something from me; but in all fairness, his guarded nature could have been a means to protect his mother from a stranger in his home.
Chichi and Gohan were walking me to my car, when we were joined by two men returning home from the forest. An athletic young man with the most laid-back amicable quality about him was greeted warmly by Chichi with a hug. I assumed this was her husband Goku. He shook my hand with enough force to level a mountain and I explained that I was investigating the local folk stories around the area. The other man with him maintained his distance. He was a tall, strapping man who radiated the presence of a warrior. His skin tone and eyes were an astonishing emerald color. There was a definite air of mystery about this man, and I was certain I had seen him before.
I thanked Goku and his family for their time and as I drove away I couldn't help but feel a bit deflated by the lack of information I gathered. A radio commercial for an upcoming pay-per-view fight triggered my memory and in a flash of remembrance, I realized where I had seen this green man. It blew my mind to think of the ramifications of that discovery. It was clear to me what my next step must be.
-next- Tenkaichi Budokai: Behind the Tournaments
All publicly recognizable characters, settings, etc. are the property of their respective owners. The original characters and plot are my own. I do not own Dragon Ball(Z) nor am I making any money off of this. No copyright infringement is intended. Beta by Sporadic Writer.
