Today he decided to take the north path up to the waterfall, but as he approached the place he could sense that something was amiss. The birds were quiet or missing, and something had clearly spooked the wildlife. There was very little up here that was afraid of humans, and so normally on his walks he saw plenty of small animals that simply watched him curiously as he passed by. Today what few creatures were out and about at all scurried back into their hidey-holes the second they noticed him coming.
Soon he found the reason for all the trouble. About halfway up to the waterfall there was a break in the trees where normally there wasn't one, and as he got closer he could see a rather large crater in the ground that hadn't been there before. The air held the smell of ozone and freshly upturned earth. Something had happened recently, perhaps even early this morning before he had woken. Cautiously he approached the lip of the crater, making sure his feet were firmly planted on solid ground before sticking his head over the precipice. At the center of the crater was, not a large meteorite as he had been expecting, but some sort of vehicle or device. It didn't look like anything Gohan was familiar with, and the door was open.
Fearing that someone had been hurt Gohan slid gently down the side of the crater and over to the vehicle. He slowly peeked his head inside, and noticed two things right away. One, there was no one inside, meaning that whoever had occupied this vehicle had been at least well enough to leave it. Two, it was filled with more technology and wires and buttons than he knew what to do with. It was very possible that Capsule Corp. or some similar company had come up with inventions even more fantastical than the ones he was familiar with during his time in isolation, but he doubted it. There was something about this craft that was decidedly otherworldly.
Fearing perhaps that whoever had occupied the craft was nearby but too injured to call for help, Gohan reached out with his senses to try to see if he could find anyone. Before he could properly settle his mind, however, he heard a rustling in the bushes up above the crater. He looked up and saw what looked like a brown tail poking out of the bushes. There was a slight rustle as the tail was jerked back inside the cover of leaves, although not all the way. Curious, and a little amused, Gohan walked quietly closer to the bush and, using his walking stick, he gently poked the tail where it was still barely visible behind a scant cover of leaves.
Immediately the tail fuzzed-out: an expected reaction. What was unexpected, however, was the accompanying cry of a baby. Even more unexpected was the young girl that launched herself out of the bush with her fist raised, clearly intent on punching him. Gohan moved easily out of the way, and with nothing to take the force of her punch, the girl fell flat on her face on the ground. In an instant she had jumped back up and was looking around wildly. When she caught sight of Gohan her eyes widened with fear, and after staring at him for a moment, during which he did not move or do anything threatening, she turned tail and fled.
Turning tail was more accurate in this case than Gohan had ever known it to be. The tail that had first caught his notice seemed to belong to the baby in her arms, but as she turned around and leapt away he could see that the girl had a matching one. She moved fast, faster than Gohan had known most people could move other than himself and a few select others, and before very long she was gone, along with all evidence that she been there.
Gohan, not in the habit of borrowing trouble, looked back down at the pod at the center of the crater as though perhaps it could explain something. When nothing seemed to be forthcoming, he shrugged and turned around to go home.
As part of his daily routine, once his walk was finished Gohan fixed himself a hearty lunch. He usually didn't bother with breakfast, and dinner was usually simple foods. Lunch was his chance to go all out, and today, despite not having walked as far as usual, curiosity seemed to have done the work of increasing his appetite in the place of exercise.
The beans that had been soaking since the previous night now went into a pot over a nice fire, along with fresh vegetables from his garden and a little bit of preserved fish. He got out the last of the jerky and opened up a new jar of pickled eggs. Once the oven was hot enough he took the dough that had been rising all morning and put it inside. Before long the smells of baking bread and piping hot soup filled the tiny hut, and Gohan, although not as consumed by his bodily appetites as he had once been, could admit that here was a meal worth eating.
Right as he was sitting down ready to eat, however, the door burst open hard enough that it rocked off its hinges and fell to the floor. Standing in the doorway, eyes wide and crazed, was the young girl from earlier. Gohan could do nothing but stare as she looked wildly around the hut. Her eyes fell on Gohan and she took a step forward threateningly.
"Where's the food!" she shouted. Gohan noticed the baby in her arms, which took an opportunity to let out an especially loud yell. Realizing the person that had busted down his door and was demanding his food was holding a baby softened her crazed demeanor in Gohan's eyes from serial killer to frazzled mother.
"Please, come in, sit down, have some food," Gohan said, as though it were normal for his guests to burst in uninvited. "You must be starving."
As the girl moved cautiously into the room and slowly sat down, looking as though she were ready to flee at a moment's notice, curiosity welled up inside Gohan yet again. She was certainly wearing strange clothing. It was possible that changing fashions in the city had resulted in what looked like some kind of armor, but somehow he doubted it. The pod and the crater, not to mention the tails, all pointed to there being a story here, and a very strange one.
The babe in arms was crying even louder now, though, and the girl was staring at the table with unfocused eyes, so Gohan put his questions to the back of his mind and gestured to the food.
There was no hesitation. Before Gohan was even aware of what was happening, half the food was already gone. All the jerky in practically one bite, and half the loaf of bread in another. The girl paused for breath and to hand the baby some of the pickled eggs, which it tore into with as much ravenous enthusiasm as its mother. Then she was back at it, gulping down a bowl of soup and asking for another before Gohan had even managed to put the ladle back in the pot.
Once every scrap of his lunch was totally gone, minus one small bowl of soup Gohan had managed to smuggle into his gullet before his guest could notice, the baby fell asleep with his head cradled comfortably against his mother's shoulder.
"Now, my dear," Gohan said kindly, "why don't you tell me what you're doing out here. You've obviously been through a lot. Are you in some kind of trouble?"
Gohan did not miss the way the young mother's hand curled a little tighter around her child's back protectively. She looked down at the wood grain table and seemed to think for a moment. Then she looked back up and met Gohan's eyes.
"I suppose there's no reason not to tell you the full story," she said. "But I don't know if you'll believe me."
Gohan smiled. He stood and began gathering the tea things.
"Why don't I fix you a cuppa, and you tell me the whole story, and I'll be the judge of that."
Over two cups of piping hot tea the girl began to relate a tale as strange as Gohan had ever heard, a tale of space emperors and planetary genocide, of space travel and revenge and legendary warriors, of a mother trying to protect her child while mourning for another child and a man that was only something like a husband. By the end of it Gohan had only one question.
"But you're not here to do that to Earth, are you?"
Gine shook her head vehemently.
"We're just here to get away from Frieza," she said. "I didn't really have a plan after that, but I have no interest in purging planets. I'm… I'm not much like other Saiyans," she admitted, stroking Kakarot's hair pensively. "I'm weak, and I don't like bloodshed. Kakarot is weak too, so he probably takes after me. I suppose… we might end up just living here. We have nowhere else to go." She looked back up at Gohan with a wry smile on her face. "Do you think I could pass as an Earthling?"
"Absolutely, my dear," Gohan said. "Why, there's nothing strange about you except your clothes, which are easily fixed, and that tail. Even that's just a bit unusual. If I didn't know better I'd say you were a normal Earth woman."
"A normal Earth woman," Gine repeated softly. "That doesn't sound half bad."
"While you're getting your bearings, why don't you stay here? It's out of the way, quiet. The accommodations are a little small, but I certainly wouldn't mind some company for a while."
"And the food is to die for," Gine added with a grin. "If you really don't mind, I might just take you up on that."
Gohan did not mind. But that night he got a bit of a nasty shock. As he was gathering up his bed roll, content to sleep in the woodshed while Gine and the baby took the bed, Gine turned to him suddenly.
"I just remembered something," she said. "It won't be a problem with me, but don't let little Kakarot ever look at the full moon."
Gohan stood up slowly, amazed.
"Why ever not?" he asked incredulously. Gine looked almost ashamed.
"Whenever a Saiyan looks at a full moon, they take on their Oozaru form. I suppose to you it would look like a giant ape. A child as young as Kakarot won't be able to control the form, and he would almost certainly kill you."
"My goodness," Gohan breathed. "You Saiyans seem to be full of surprises. I will certainly keep that in mind." He moved to turn away, and then thought of something and turned back. "Is it only if they look directly at the full moon?"
Gine nodded.
"Even half moon or an almost full moon won't do."
"I wonder…" Gohan muttered to himself as he rummaged through the cabinet in the back wall. Eventually he emerged with a pair of sunglasses. "If he were wearing these, would that prevent the transformation?"
Gine took the unfamiliar object and inspected it. Gohan took it from her and placed it on her face. She smiled when she realized what it was.
"Oh, I see. It reduces the amount of light your eyes receive. Yes, that would do just fine."
She took the glasses off and turned them around, placing them on Kakarot's face. The glasses were comically oversized, and she laughed. Kakarot, aware only that his mother was laughing, giggled in response, which only made her laugh harder. Soon the two of them were laughing uproariously, with Gohan looking on, a fond smile on his face. If Gine did not bring up leaving to go somewhere else, he wouldn't bring it up either. Having such smiles and laughter around the hermitage would certainly make it less lonely, if a little less like a hermitage.