The orange sky that had been once bright and tantalizing, was now becoming a few shades darker, eclipsing into an inky black. Under the starless, quiet night of the planet, three men sat around a campfire. These men all wore near-similar amour and had brown fuzzy tails wrapped around their waists. They were the Saiyans, soldiers for the galactic overlord, Frieza, and the trio were taking a breather after a day of purging the planet of all intelligent life forms.
It was just a usual day doing their usual job. "This was too easy," the shortest of the group huffed, taking a large bite out of the odd looking sienna coloured meat they had been cooking over the large fire. His black flame-shaped hair appeared an orange ting in the flames, his onyx eyes cold and uncaring. "Those freaks didn't even try to fight back. Pathetic!" "Humph, guess Frieza's trying really beginning to doubt our skills," the largest of the three grumbled. His bare head reflected the licking flames, his mustached-mouth twitching ever so slightly. "He's doing it on purpose, talking about how he would 'hate if something were to happen'."
The shorter Saiyan spat in disgust, a half-hearted chuckle following a few moments later. "The little freak's just worried about us getting stronger." "That's true. The past three months our missions have been getting tame, not even worth it." The third Saiyan, with long spiky hair trailing down to his legs spoke as he took a chunk out of what appeared to be an arm. "Pah, they're barely even worth the attention of the likes of us. Just one of us could've handled a job like this – we wouldn't have even needed Vegeta," the hulking warrior sneered, glancing towards the flame-haired man.
Vegeta chuckled, a dark sound that would send chills down anyone else's spine. "A Saibaman could've taken care of these Xanarnians." He tossed the leg he'd been feasting on aside, stretching his body and taking a few glances around their camp. They were in the middle of a thick forested area, tall tress and shrubs surrounding them at every corner. Nearer to them were the bodies of a few of the unfortunate Xanarnians, scattered and dismembered, meat and flesh missing from a few pieces.
This entire thing was just disappointing. Not only were these bug-like aliens laughably weak but the planet was so small that there was barely any real contest. The Saiyans were a warrior race who thrived on battle and destruction, and though a helpless enemy was enjoyable, an enemy who could at least put up a fight was much more desirable. "Ridiculous, that being of our caliber, we would be sent to clear such insignificant dust mites." Not that they'd ever argue with their superior; saying no to Frieza almost always meant certain death.
"Meh, at least we're finished. We could get off this pebble quicker. We might actually get a bonus for finishing before the two-day deadline…" Nappa mused, a grin coming to his face at the thought of being paid extra. He did not understand how this job was even estimated to take a whole two days. "Just hope Zarbon doesn't screw us over again," Radditz, the long-haired man muttered in disdain, tossing his newly devoured meat piece into the fire, sending hot cinders flying momentarily into the dark air. The group grew quiet then, nothing but the sound of the cackling fire filling the dark air. After a few minutes of blissful silence, Vegeta stood up. "Well I think I'm done here. I'm gonna catch a little shut eye before we leave." Nappa agreed to the idea of sleep, getting up as the prince moved to an area a little away from the fire.
Radditz, who waited a while as his two comrades took their spots on the ground, got up and stretched his muscled arms and looked towards the thick treeline about thirty feet from the fire. The area was dark, not completely touched by the flame's glow; the trees standing tall and ominously and he shivered inwardly at how creepy the place really was now that all the chatting had died down, and the pitch blackness of the planet's night time did not sit well with him. Still he wouldn't show his discomfort in front of his cohorts, for fear of being ridiculed over something as silly as being afraid of the dark– it wasn't like he hadn't grown accustomed to these impromptu camp-outs – and decided to just go to bed. He had just taken his spot near the fire, laying down and facing the sky.
For several minutes, all was quiet and still, with Vegeta being the first to doze off. Nappa was soon behind, and his loud snore soon permeated the area; as usual Radditz was the last to get any sleep. He wasn't sure why it was like that – he supposed he just had a lot on his mind. Then, about half an hour later, he had just begun to slip into the blissful state of sleep when… something weird happened. The fire that had been burning just a while ago suddenly went out. His eyes snapped open and he glanced to where it had been, confused as to what put it out. There weren't any strong winds here and it certainly wasn't one of them. Mulling it over in his head, he sighed, and concluded that maybe it was just a gush of wind. What else could it be?
Forgetting about it, and too lazy to start another one, he fell asleep again. Then, another about forty minutes later, he was woken up by a strange sensation, one that he couldn't quite pinpoint. He noticed also that the temperature in the forest had suddenly dropped; Xanar was a tropical planet, and even at night was said to be rather warm, even without a fire. But, for some reason, the low-class Saiyan felt cold, like someone had poured ice water all over his body.
He looked over to where his prince was sleeping, arms behind his head and one leg propped on top the other, and then to Nappa who lay flat on his back. Radditz turned to the side, now facing the woods, and the strange feeling hit him with full force. He didn't know why, but he felt… scared for some reason.Get it together Radditz! What's there to be afraid of? It's just some stupid trees and… His train of thought came to a screeching halt when, from the treeline he was facing, he heard what sounded like a bell tolling. It was loud and seemed to have an echo. Then, he saw someone, just in front of the trees, moving horizontally across the ground.
Even though it was literally black out there, his superior Saiyan sight gave him an advantage, and he was able to make out this strange person; whoever they were, their appearance genuinely spooked him. This stranger was a pure white from head to toe, looking to be wearing some kind of white ragged robes and had a strange green glow surrounding them. They were tall, taller than any of the Xanarnians they killed earlier; in fact, whoever it was they were taller than him by at least two feet, and appeared huge from where he was. He could see they had impossibly long arms, one dragging on the ground and the other held in front of him, holding a long white and glowing stick that was at least a foot taller than the ghastly figure, with a large bell attached to the top. Their face, from what he could see, was also unnaturally long and oval-shaped.
He gasped in shock, jumping back and bumping into Nappa and waking him in his fright. The older Saiyan growled, fists clenched in anger as he glared at his teammate. "Whaddya think you're doing Radditz!" he demanded groggily. Radditz sputtered and stammered, his tail frizzled out as he pointed at the direction where he'd seen the creature. "T-There's something there!" he squeaked. Nappa saw his tail and noted the look of terror on the younger man's face. He chuckled. "Aw relax, it's probably just some wild animal or something." No sooner had he said those words did they hear it: a loud, deep and mournful cry that made the battle-hardened ex-general jump to his feet in light-speed. He looked into the trees and saw the white figure that was making the terrifying sound. The person moved very slowly, as though their feet were tied to something very heavy and it was hard for them to move, or like someone who was in a slow-mo movie. "What the hell is that!?" he yelled, eyes wide and disbelieving.
Another mournful cry split into the night air, accompanied by the echoing of the bell, this time waking the snoozing prince. Vegeta opened his eyes, already gearing to attack whoever woke him up. He jumped to his feet, a white ki attack developing in his hand. "Alright, who wants to die-" His threat cut short when he noticed the fire was out and his two comrades were standing with looks of utter horror on their faces. "What's going on here?" he demanded, the orb of energy not wavering in the slightest. When the two said nothing, his well-trained eyes followed their line of sight and he made a little sound of surprise when he too saw the thing. "What the hell? What is that thing?" he asked, not to anyone in particular though.
Both Nappa and Radditz' tails were frizzled out behind them, their fear unmistakable. Not wasting any time, he sought out his scouter, finding it quickly by use of his ki. He quickly attached the red-lensed device to his ear, pressing a button and watching as yellow characters fluttered before the glass over his eye. If this thing was some sort of mutated Xanarnian he would deal with it personally… although, how was it possible for it to be one of the slaughtered natives? He was sure they were all dealt with, as there was no one else around by the time they were through. They had doubled checked all the villages and there weren't many places on this planet for anyone to evade them; they would have seen someone cowering in a hole somewhere, but that thought had not really sunk in at that moment. The symbols being displayed on his scouter came to a stop, and, eyes widening, he sputtered in shock. "This thing… it has no energy reading," be breathed. If something had no energy, then that meant only one thing…
With no words or coherent thoughts being formed to rationalize all of this, he did the one thing he could do, and instantly launched his attach at the spectral visitor. Then, to his and the others' further shock, the powerful attack didn't even phase the thing; in fact, it seemed to… go through it, without causing even the slightest damage. Then, a second later, the apparition stopped and turned to face them; it's eyes were a glowing red and were very, very big and wide open. No one dared to move when it looked at them for what seemed like an eternity, but was only a few seconds; then, it continued to glide into the trees, rang the bell and released another chilling cry, and then vanished before their very eyes. It didn't go behind a tree or use some kind of technique – it literally just vanished into thin air.
There was nothing but silence once more, with none of the Saiyans making a sound, shock-stilled and frozen. Then, Nappa was the first to snap out of the trance. "Did you see it? You two saw it, right?" "Yea… but what was that?" "I… I don't know," Vegeta replied, unsure if what he had seen was really true. But, all of them had seen it, they saw when he tried to attack it, and they saw when it disappeared altogether. A moment later instincts kicked in, and they had gone to seek it out, combing through the forest, returning to the desecrated villages, even looking into the caves that dotted the planets… but the creature was nowhere to be seen.
They rejoined at the camp, and the next several minutes were spent with them discussing what had just happened, and giving theories on what that thing possibly was. After more than thirty minutes of arguing back and forth, and fully accepting that this had not been a figment of their imagination, the mutual understanding in the end was that, even though they did not want to believe it, the group may have just seen their first real life ghost.
As foolish as it sounded, it was really the most logical thing they could come up with at the time. The thing was so unnatural, looking nothing like the natives and, certainly, they did not dream or imagine it. They knew nothing about the planet's folklore – they did not care to since this planet would soon be sold on the planetary market, or if the existence of spirits was even a thing for them, but there was no other explanation for why it had no energy whatsoever, or how it had managed to escape Vegeta's attack and then just seemed to disappear from the planet without a trace, or how it had seemed to appear out of nowhere. Was it possibly the planet's spirit manifesting itself, and mourning the lost of its children? Was it a vengeful ghost of all the murdered Xanarnians? Or was it something that was straight out of native legend... or something even more nefarious than that? They did not know and, though they would not admit it openly, they were too spooked to ponder on it for too long.
"We are not going to talk about this to anyone, am I clear," Vegeta warned sternly. "Not even to Frieza." They agreed to keep this encounter a secret, as no one would believe them anyway, so what was the use? They left the very next morning and carried on as though nothing weird had happened; but the Saiyan squad would never forget the time they saw the ghost on Planet Xanar.
Ok so this is the last chapter for tonight - ghost encounter with the Saiyans takes place No. 4! Gonna try and get more stories; please, don't forget to Rate, comment, even if it's just to say 'Hi' or whatever... I wanna hear your opinions on these 'creepies'. Have a G'night!
