Year 659

Lord Goku sat before the gathered audience, his body heavily bandaged. Even one of his arms had been put into a slight, though no damage had been done to it. The healers wanted to make sure no excess movement he made would cause his wound to reopen. Though they had protested that he come here, Goku had been determined to show himself.

It had been a week since the kidnapping of his son, a week's worth of recovery that even he knew was not enough to allow him to search for his son once more. His wife had fallen into a deep depression, seeming to not even recognize anything in front of her. Many a time a maid had spoken to her and she had not reacted, only looking at them confused when they finally got her attention. It was devastating to him to see such despair.

And so Gero, the Stewart of the Head House, convened an audience with the three remaining Higher Houses, the Demon House being in the process of becoming a Minor House had not been invited. Good. Goku didn't need to hear their protests when he announced he knew who was responsible for the wound in his side.

So far, the Houses had gone on an endless cycle of wanting to find the one responsible for the current state of affairs. Each, especially the Monkey House, wanted justice for what had happened, though Goku felt the other two were only paying lip service. Though a child was taken from his bed was reprehensible to them, he truly doubted they were as willing as his House to do something about it. But if they did lend help, he would not refuse it. The more that sought for his son, the better chance they had at recovering him.

Gero watched the proceedings the whole time, not making a sound. As the current representative ended his "demand" to have the stolen child found, the old man raised one of his hands to silence the audience. "It would seem the council is in agreement of what must be done. Each House will supply volunteers to recover the missing Monkey child. Other resources will be given to the operation as well."

A loud applause came from the Monkey House, their sign of approval for the plan. As Gero called for silence, Lord Goku took this opportunity to make himself heard. "If I may have the floor?" he requested.

Gero looked surprised for a moment before he said "Lord Goku, I was not aware of your presence here. If there are no objections, the floor will indeed be yours."

When no one expressed their opposition, Goku limped to the middle of the chamber, a pulsing burn in his side. Once he had himself calmed, Lord Goku said "I know who is responsible for my son's kidnapping."

Immediately, hushed whispers echoed throughout the room. "Why did you not mentioned this at an earlier date?" Gero inquired, his eyes narrowing, his tone serious. "It would have saved this court's precious time and allowed us to procede more productively."

"I have been in less than ideal condition to inform anyone," the Monkey Lord said. "Such claim would have been labeled as the ramblings by the healers and subsequent visitors I have had since my return." Steeling his nerves, Lord Goku announced his belief. "It was the son of the Demon House Head. I saw his face before he left me for dead, taking my son with him."

A period of silence fell on the court. "This is a grave allegation," Gero responded eventually. "Though I have no doubt you are telling the truth, I must insist on verifying the Demon Lord's absence at his father's side. We do not want to lay waste on the wrong people the justice that should go to the perpetrator."

"He used a spell to blow a hole through my brother and I!" Lord Goku shouted, his anger evident in his voice. "Do you know of any other weapon that could cause such damage?"

"If it is true what you say Monkey Lord, then a quick check will not change the outcome. Would you like the blood of innocents on our hands just because you pointed at the wrong people?"

Yes! Goku would tear this kingdom apart if that meant having his son back. But if he said as much, his testimony would be tossed aside like trash, labeled as the ravings of a distraught parent. He needed to keep his head calm if he were to have his child restored to him. "If that is what this council agrees to, I will abide by it. You must understand my feelings for immediate action."

"There is not a Lord here that does not sympathize with you, Lord Goku," Gero replied. "If we must, we will tear the Demon House apart, brick by brick, to return your son to you. In the meantime, I suggest you develop some patience. We cannot show that the Higher Houses will attack at random because of a wrong done to them. Though powerful as they are, the Higher Houses are outnumbered by the Minor Houses and they may strike out on their own in self-defense, thus weakening each House in turn. I will not divide these lands any more than they already are."

Lord Goku bowed his head in acceptance of the rebuke. There were more important things about than keeping his pride intact. For his son's welfare, he would swallow it to the deepest pits of hell.

He had no choice but to do so.

Gohan couldn't have been happier to see mountains in his entire life. Usually they meant that he had a lot of climbing to do, sometimes over such traitorous terrain that one false move would lead to a very nasty death. Obviously, his current state of living was proof he had overcome them.

Now though, they represented a step closer to freeing Mr. Piccolo, the man that had blindly led them to such places. It was only a matter of time before they found the tower that held the princess he sought. It was a giddy feeling he had to admit.

He and Sharpner had only been in them for a day and though the young man still felt the excitement of being halfway done with his quest, the blond was less than thrilled. Though they were on a relatively safe mountain trail that weaved its way between the mountain bases, Sharpner had not stopped complaining since they had woken up that morning. "Stupid, bloody mountains," he muttered. "Why do they have to be so bloody filled with rocks? They kept poking my in my sides all night long. And I almost twisted an ankle on one."

Gohan, for his part, did his best to ignore the grumblings. If he let Sharpner's attitude annoy him long enough, he'd be feeling the same way soon. So in order to keep that from happening, the young man focused on finding any man-made structures. That would surely be where a princess would be kept, unless the builders got lazy and just used a cave. That would suck so much, since there was no telling how many caves were littered in this mountain range.

Thankfully though, there hadn't been any caves in sight so that shot down that possibility. He hoped that way, anyways. Otherwise, this searching was going to get old very fast. And with Sharpner still complaining, there was no telling how much longer he could resist the urge to climb a mountain and push the blond off. Gohan was pretty sure Mr. Piccolo would do something like that.

Eventually, they found a small, peaceful-looking meadow, a bit surprising since they were in the mountains. Grassy plains spread out in all directions, reaching to the base of the mountains surrounding it. Flowers grew at various places here, especially around a crystal-clear pond. Small, rolling hills interrupted the flat landscape here and there, creating small ledges at various points.

And towards the other side of the vale was a tall, stone tower, sticking out like a sore thumb. Both young men lit up when they saw it. "There it is! The princess is there!" Sharpner exclaimed, sounding excited for the first time since yesterday. "I'll race you there! Last one to the tower is a smelly old fart!"

Immediately, Sharpner dashed towards the tower, fully intent on getting to it first. Unfortunately, the blond hadn't realized that the two of them had been standing on one of the rolling hills here and ran right off of it, a small high-pitched cry coming from him before he landed face first on the ground.

Running to him, Gohan looked over the edge and found Sharpner lying facedown in the ground, his arms and legs spread out from his body. That must've hurt.

Jumping down, Gohan picked Sharpner's upper body off the ground, seeing a large clump of grass stuck in his mouth. Spitting them out, the blond began wiping his mouth of dirt and other blades of grass. "Perhaps we should just walk over there?" Gohan suggested, sounding very amused.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever," Sharpner grumbled as he stood up. Though it took longer, the two eventually arrived at the tower, looking at its cylindrical appearance, a pointed, shingled roof sitting at its top. There were windows at various places, but for the most part, the place looked fairly boring.

Except for that one window towards the top that had long golden hair hanging out of it.

The two men had immediately got to the hair and stared at it in wonder. Who knew that someone could grow their hair that long? It practically touched the ground!

Of course, it was Sharpner that broke their silence. "This is the right tower!" he exclaimed. "Who other than the princess would have hair as long as this? All the beautiful princesses have long hair, so it's only natural she'd have hers this long after being here for so long!"

"But how do we get to her?" Gohan asked. "This place probably isn't that easily accessible if it's out in the middle of nowhere."

"And that is why you are the sidekick and I am the hero," Sharpner replied. "Don't you see? The reason the princess has her hair this long is so that her rescuer will use it to climb to her bed chamber. It practically screams 'this way up'." Grabbing the locks, the blond then said, "Follow me. I'll show you how it's done."

Dropping his pack onto the ground next to the tower, Sharpner began climbing up the hair. Gohan had to admit he was impressed with his friend's ingenuity. Copying his example, Gohan began following him up.

That was when they both heard screaming. "Oh no! The princess is in trouble! Step on it, Sidekick, we have to rescue her! Hold on Princess! We'll be up there in no time to save you!" Sharpner shouted.

As they quickened their pace, the scream grew louder and louder. They were about halfway up when they felt the hair in their hands grow very slack.

And then it was their turn to scream as they began falling.

To put it simply, she was a beautiful woman. She had the long, golden hair to make other women envious, light blue eyes that made very special promises, a smile that captivated armies of men; she even had the perfect rack to keep their attention. She was a princess and deserved the title. She was Princess Erasa, a woman who sought the attention of someone worthy of her.

A rich prince to be precise.

Though she lived in a tower in the middle of nowhere, there were always adventurous princes out and about and she felt that one day one would appear at her tower and sweep her off her feet. And to ensure that one would do such, she maintained her beautiful looks.

Such as the flowing, strapless green dress she wore to accentuate her figure, one that was tight around her body and drew attention to her perky breast, then exploded from her waist into a hoop skirt. It gave the impression she was a blossoming flower from all the green around her. Pink lined the bottom of the dress, along with a pink bow placed right below her belly button. A large bow sat just above her supple rump and a smaller one was nestled in front of her bosoms. There was a pink band around her neck and her arms were covered in arm length gloves, a small tiara sitting atop her head. In her mind, this was the perfect image of a princess.

And if her lucky prince were to take a peak beneath her dress, her thigh-length leggings led to a very special surprise.

Yet, she had to work for this sexy body of hers. Any exercise that kept her fit and tight was done; any food that kept her thin was sought and devoured. And her hair, her precious hair, was brushed and cared for like a child.

Unfortunately, as long as her hair had gotten, it made caring for it a very long chore. Erasa had found that the easiest way to brush it was to hang it outside her window. Sitting in a chair with its back to the window, she went through her ritual serenely. If only her Prince Charming would come through that door on the other side of her bed chamber, he would be captivated by her.

That was what she had been doing this morning. She had just started bringing her brush through the locks to straighten out any possible knots there were when she felt something pull on her hair. Odd, that hadn't happened before. Just as she was about to brush it off as nothing, she felt it again, this time her head moving backwards a little. The next thing Erasa knew, her head was being pulled towards the window, her hair screaming out as it felt as if it were being pulled out of her head.

Grabbing onto the windowsill as best she could, Erasa tried to pull her head forward, but found that only caused her more pain. She couldn't help the scream that left her lips.

And that was when she heard someone call out to her, telling her they'd be up to save her. Were…were people using her hair to climb up to her room? Those morons! Didn't they know that pulling hair hurt? As their pulls became more and more frantic, she couldn't help screaming louder and louder, hoping they realized they weren't doing anything good. Unfortunately, the persistant tugging didn't cut back at all, making the princess wonder what would happen first: would they actually reach her bedroom window, tear her hair out of her head, or pull her head first out the window?

...oh HELL no!

Panicking, one of Erasa's hands reached towards the small table she had sitting next to her hair. There she kept many instruments that maintained her hair, from split-ins to removing curls. As her hand bumped and brushed against them, they finally settled on something and she brought it up to her eyes.

Scissors! Perfect! With her unoccupied hand, she gathered as much of her hair as she could and held as still as she could. With the scissors, Erasa began cutting the hair on the side of her hand furthest from her head. Snip, snip, snip, Erasa just wished the pain would stop, it was almost unbearable!

And then a large amount of relief flooded her senses. Two screams went off outside of her window before a loud thud was heard, but she didn't care. Those bastards deserved to fall for what they had done!

As she let go of the hair in her hand, she then looked at the hand and felt an intense amount of rage as she saw the tiny strands of sniped hair. Those…those bastards had made her cut her glorious hair. How…how could they?

Nearly leaping from her chair, the chair falling to the floor with a clatter, Erasa leaned out her window and glared down at the mass of blonde hair and limbs of the men responsible for it. "What do you two think you're doing?" she bellowed.

One of the men, a guy with long blond hair poked his head out of her hair, or least she thought he was blond. It was possible her hair was covering his true color. "We heard screaming and came to your aid, Princess!" he called up to her.

"My aid? You're the one that made me scream you dolt!" Erasa roared back.

"How was I suppose to know that? I only used your hair because it was the obvious way up!"

"There's a door you loser! Use it!"

That was when his companion poked his head out of her hair. He didn't say a word for a moment, then said "I think she's right, Sharpner. There's a door right there."

"Oh, you're taking her side now? What kind of sidekick are you?"

"Get your butts up here!" Erasa roared again, causing both men to jump in fright. "And bring my hair with you! You're the ones to cause this mess; you're sure as hell are gonna fix it!" Erasa then turned away from the window and made her way to a chest. Opening it, she pulled out a crossbow, cocked and ready to make someone's day a bad one. If one of those guys made a wrong move, she'd put one between their eyes.

And if they pissed her off anymore, she'd shoot them anyways.

Erasa, Erasa, let down your hair. Or not. This could just be me, but when the Repunzel story has the prince climb up Repunzel's hair, I wonder what the storyteller was thinking. Climbing hair is the same as pulling hair, so it must hurt something horrible. I guess the storyteller never had their hair pulled.

Chapter Arts for Chapter 6 through 9 are up and look awesome. I have to say, the one for Chapter 7 is looking to be my favorite so far. There's plenty of story to go over, so that might change.

RyRy tested; MaMa approved.