Monster Hunter
Chapter 1
Hunter and the Mage
In a little white, green, light brown and pink shop, in the middle of a bustling port town, a young blue haired woman opened up the shades of the windows. She walked around and opened the front shop door, the doorbell rang with a delightful little jingle.
Bulma looked around the street while shading her eyes from the morning sun. A boy on a bike rode past waving, Bulma smiled and waved back. She had been in the seaside town for a year now. She finally found somewhere she could slow down and settle in. Her life before this town had been hectic and chaotic. She was happy to step back and live a simpler life.
After greeting her neighbours she walked back into her little medicinal store. She supplied the townsfolk with potions and topic creams for all kinds of ailments. Every few months she would travel to collect plants and herbs for her stock, but apart from these trips, she would stay in her cute little cottage store, in the middle of town.
Bulma actually had another skill, one that she did not share with anyone in this little town. She could use magic, and often used it to make her product stronger and to have healing powers. Her little shop was very busy from the moment she opened in the morning until late at night. People came from neighbouring towns for her products, to help their sick loved ones, to buy a potion to help them land a new job, to travel sickness and pregnancy nutritional supplements. They came for a variety of reasons and issues, but they all came with high recommendations. Her stuff really worked.
"Good morning Bulma, did the new shipment come in?" An older gentleman asked her as they walked into her shop together.
The store was small, but stock full of everything that one could ever need, drying herbs, potions, balms, medical tools and everything in between.
"Yes Jacob it did, could you take it down to the hospital for me?" She asked with a smile.
"It would be my pleasure, I'm heading down there to see my wife today" He explained.
"How is she? Feeling better?" Bulma inquired as she handed him a basket of her homemade soap.
"Yes, thank you for that rub. Her skin is clearing up more and more each day. She will be coming home soon!" He shouted, waving as he exited the store.
"That's great news! Take care!" She yelled after him.
Bulma smiled to herself and quickly stepped out the back of the store to bring out some more merchandise that she had completed over the night. Two big baskets full of a new experimental additive to put into water, making it clean to drink. It worked out better than she had ever thought possible.
Ding, ding, ding
She stepped back out into the store, the two big baskets obstructing her view slightly from telling who entered the store next.
"Hi there!" She announced from behind her product.
Bulma heard boots slapping the wooden floors as the person approached her. Bulma put the baskets down on the counter and looked back up into a set of black eyes she immediately recognised. The outfit and smell gave him away too.
"No!" She yelled and waved her hand in a gesture for the person to leave.
"Now Bulma, don't be like that. Is that how you greet your old friend?" Vegeta smirked, leaning down onto her counter.
"You're no friend! Get out of here! I don't want the shitstorm that follows you, to drown me here too!" Bulma spat through a clenched jaw, flinging her arms around in anger.
Vegeta chuckled while he stood back up, folding his arms. He watched Bulma as she pushed back the hair that had fallen out of place from her mini melt down. She took a deep breath and composed herself. Vegeta thought he'd give her a few moments to calm herself before it layed it out for her, she hadn't changed.
"I have a proposition for you, and this time it will not turn to shit, I promise" Vegeta said reaching into his back pocket and pulling out a full, fat coin purse.
He dropped it onto the counter, making a loud metallic slap as he did so. He stepped back, folding his arms again. He heard her mumble something about promises under her breath as she considered the purses size. Her eyes betraying her and revealing some of the truth.
"The rest when we finish the job" he offered raising an eyebrow.
That coin purse would have been more than she would make in her shop in a year, not to mention the bigger one waiting on the other side of the dangerous quest he was probably deeply involved in. Bulma sighed hard. She had left this life a year ago and never looked back, but Vegeta had a way of finding her, just as she was getting comfortable.
"Why now? I just want to be left…" She started but stopped.
"Alone?" Vegeta finished her sentence, looking out a small window to the right of him.
The street was bustling with people, going about their day, saying hello to each other. Bulma fiddled with her hands and sighed again. There were many people in this town, but none, he mused, knew who she really was and what she was capable of. No one did, except for him.
"I like it here, I really do" Bulma's eyes met Vegeta's.
He saw a glance that he recognised. Bulma would never be satisfied with this life. The quiet little shop keeper.
"How long has it been since you used your FULL potential? Don't you care for the truth anymore? What is this comfortable little life you've made?" Vegeta asked, moving back toward the counter.
Bulma shrugged, trying to conceal her true feelings. Acting as if what he asked wasn't something she thought about every night before she fell asleep and every morning after she woke.
"I don't need that life anymore Vegeta, I have all I need here" She tried to smirk.
Vegeta leered at her, unconvinced. He reached down and took the coin purse back off the counter.
"I leave in the morning, if you decide you want to live the truth again, and leave this… place of pure hell" He flashed her disapproving look, waving his hands around her store. "Meet me outside the town's northern exit on the side of the road at sunrise."
He looked her in the eyes once more and turned on his heels, walking back out of her store.
Vegeta's horse snorted as he fixed the saddle up tight and gave it a bit of a tug. He ran his hand over the beasts neck. Comforting and reassuring the creature.
Bulma had not shown up, the sun had risen fully into the sky. He has waited a little longer for her to appear. But it seemed she had fled from doing what she really wanted to out of fear. It disappointed him, he really could have used her skills on his next hunt. He was investigating a possible werewolf. Usually these kinds of reports turned into someone who enjoyed killing people and consuming their flesh, and others were just innocent people being accused. He had never actually seen a werewolf, at least not in its transformed state.
Bulma made a very effective bomb of scents that attracted such a creature. She had been taught this recipe from her elders when she was young, but it had to be prepared fresh as it would not last more than a few days before it became ineffective. He really could have used one on this trip.
He jumped up onto his horse.
"Looks like it is just you and me" He said kicking his legs to encourage the horse forward.
As Vegeta focused ahead of him, he noticed a figure on a horse coming toward him. The bright morning sun behind him was casting them in shadow, completely unrecognizable to Vegeta. He waited and listened to the horse clopping toward their direction. He shielded his eyes from the sun's light, trying to get a better look at the person ahead of him. As the horse approached him, the sun began to sink behind the figure.
"Just some last minute foraging" Bulma called out to him, swinging a handful of freshly plucked plants.
Vegeta smirked.