Chapter 10: A Revelation Wrapped in Ribbons

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The old man walked into a small temple and I closely followed. There wasn't much to see on the outside, just a yellow stone structure that was barely taller than a tent. There wasn't much light inside. Just a couple torches and whatever sunlight could make its way in through the entrance. We walked down a flight of stairs for a while, the amount of natural sunlight becoming smaller and smaller. Once we finally reached the bottom of the staircase, the old man grabbed a torch from off of the wall and turned the corner, walking along the wall until he came across a certain set of what looked to be hieroglyphics, but upon close inspection, I found that they were stone carvings that depicted the adventures and journey of Goku. The one that the old man specifically stopped at he held the torch up to. The stone carving depicted the battle that Goku fought with a man in a robe that had a long ponytail and had very squinty eyes. I recognized this key battle instantly. This certain set of stone carvings depicted the ancient battle that Goku fought against the one whom they called Mercenary Tao. In fact, if I remember correctly, the battle took place right outside this temple.

The thing is, though, the only thing that I really knew about that battle is that he fought Mercenary Tao and won. The old tales that I've heard about my grandfather primarily revolve around his later life. Not much is said about what happened during his early life, though. It's because of this as to why the other drawings surrounding the one depicting the battle confused me. What are all these extra drawings? One looks like Goku's lying on the ground and another looked like he was climbing something. Could it have been that tall column that I saw before?

"What do you know of the one called Goku?" the old man asked. His voice echoed throughout the entire temple.

"He's my ancient ancestor," I answered.

"Well the resemblance is uncanny," he said, "Do you know what happened during the battle that's depicted on this wall?"

"Not much," I explained, "I know that they fought and that Goku won, but I never quite learned about the specific details of the battle."

"Have you heard of the Red Ribbon Army?" he asked. As a matter of fact, they taught us about that army in grade school, but I didn't know that it had any relevance to this fight. In fact, though we did learn about them, not much about what they did or how the army died out was really explained in clear detail. The teachers always just told us that their bad luck came back around, and I never really know what they meant by that.

As for the old man's question, I told him that I've heard about them, but haven't learned much about them.

He proceeded, "The army was lead by a man named Red, who strived to us the magical orbs known as the Dragon Balls selfishly, in order to make himself taller. Resist as they might, Goku was miraculously able to take down the entire army on his own. Earlier on in the battle, Goku settled here and took down one of the captains who were trying to steal a Dragon Ball from us. The captain was unsuccessful, so General Red sent in reinforcements. He hired the most dangerous assassin on the planet to take care of Goku and get the Dragon Ball. During their first battle, he killed one of the first defenders of Korin Tower, Bora," I remembered the statue that stood outside the temple, "Not only that, but he almost killed Goku, but one of the Dragon Balls was right in the middle of were Tao's final hit would have been, so Goku was unscathed. It was then, when Goku realized that he needed to climb the Korin's tower, right outside this temple," he pointed to the picture depicting Goku climbing the tower, "When he reached the top, Goku met Korin, who gave him the magical water, and Goku returned stronger than ever. Tao returned later for the Dragon Ball that he forgot, the one that protected Goku. After noticing Goku's large increase in strength, he then strived to climb the tower as well. Once he reached the top, he drank the water and returned to the battle, but to no avail. Goku was still to strong for him, and Goku eventually vanquished him, eliminated the rest of the Red Ribbon Army, and brought Bora back to life. It was some time after these events happened, and the tribe finally began to grow, is when we erected a statue of Bora and his son, Upa, in order to commemorate them for being the first defenders. As for Goku, we built this entire temple in his memory, illustrating every battle of his that he's come back and told us about."

At this he gestured to the rest of the temple walls.

"What does all this have to do with me?" I asked, "Surely it's not just a coincidence that I look like him, there has to be some other reason that you decided to save me from your tribespeople today," I explained.

He nodded, "The last time Goku ever visited the village, he told us that even though he'd be gone, he will return to save us from tyranny once again one day," he paused, "and so he has."

I once again found myself confused.

"My boy, you don't just simply resemble Goku; you are his reincarnation."