Chapter 7.
Life As Normal.

Even after their first meeting with the Dishian natives, Garagus relocated the ship a mile out from them because he woke to the sight of some of their kids climbing over the hull.
He didn't expect them to damage the ship with their fun, but he was afraid that if he didn't see them and he tried to take off, death would be a certainty.
But despite this, they kept in contact and would frequently visit them. Mostly to sit in the spring as it saves power to not have hot water fed into the shower.

Outside the ship, Garagus had wondered what to do about the skeletons.
Giant birds rarely come to the village, but since learning of where they congregate, Garagus has taken to using himself as bait to lure them home.
The planet's preserving temperature acts as a natural freezer, so whenever Garagus or Rhuba felt hungry that'd snap a chunk of bird meat off and stick it in the oven. But now the bones were piling up and neither of them knew what to do with them.

Rhuba muttered something incomprehensible to him while he was thinking of a solution.

"Say that again, without the bone in your mouth." He suggested.

"I said, Palete doesn't understand how we could eat three of those birds in a month. She told us to get rid of the bones before they attract any more animals." Rhuba reiterated before continuing to gnaw on the marrow inside the bird bone.

"I hope more come," Garagus answered. "We'll add them to the pile."

"true." Rhuba giggled as she wiped her mouth.

When she first arrived on Dishia with Garagus, she couldn't bring herself to eat in the days beforehand. Now she's trying to make up for it. With a full belly and a time to adjust, Rhuba had been aching to go toe to toe with Garagus again.
"So hey." She tossed the completely hollowed bone to a separate pile as she approached him. "You've kept me waiting. I want a fight, Now."

Garagus turned on the spot and was met by her gleaming but focused eyes staring back. Only now did he realise she was wearing her combat gear, but with Freeza's emblem crudely scratched off.
If they spent time standing around in the snow, she'd start to freeze. Good thing her intentions will keep them warm once they start.
"Okay." He walked over to her.

Sensing he wasn't about to start, Rhuba dropped her guard just for a moment. Garagus put his hands around her, so she did the same.
"Where are we going?"

"Somewhere we won't be bothered." He answered before taking off.

Rhuba pressed her face against him to stay warm with the wind blasting through her hair. But counter-intuitively, the more energy he put into flying, the less wind resistance they met.
He explained it to her long ago, back when he was still sure that daily prods would convince her to learn how to fly.
Even now, on their way to battle, he was still Not so subtly trying to spark an interest within her.
While holding on to her, Garagus began rolling over in the air. He was flying on his back, with her still attached to him.
On top, she could see the trees and hills as they sailed over them at speeds greater than even their ship can manage within atmosphere.
Garagus started to fall away from under her, but he maintained a firm grip.
When she saw his face, he was grinning at her between looking ahead to make sure they wouldn't crash.
Carefully, Rhuba let go one finger at a time until she was able to hold her arms out like she was flying herself.
It was an exciting prospect to be sure, but you can't draw blood from a stone. Some people can but others can't, and she knows what she is.

"Wait there!" Garagus told her before letting go and dropping away behind.

"Garagus!" Rhuba flailed her arms and legs before he caught up and grabbed her hips once more, this time from behind so they were both facing the ground. "Ass, Hoooole!" She screamed back at him.

Half a moment later, they touched down in a snowy valley, far from the ship and even further from the village.
Garagus' scouter detected no potentially problematic lifeforms in the area, so there'll be no need to hide out here.
The moment he dropped Rhuba into the two feet snow, she shot him an angry glare.
When he landed, she punched him square in the gut.

"One, Fucking, Rule!" She yelled, punching him with every word. "Don't Let Go!" She wasn't as strong as before due to her not training in so long, but she was still packing a wallop that was starting to hurt.

Garagus stepped forward, swinging his arm to bat her away.
Rhuba managed to dodge the first attack but always messed up on the second. "ooF!" She flew across the snow and got buried when she landed.
Surrounded by burning ice, she kicked up to land on her knees before getting right back on her feet.

But Garagus wasn't there. Instead, he was hanging forty feet off the ground. "If you won't fly, I will!" He called down to her.
Extending his hand, Garagus charged and fired a concentrated energy ball at Rhuba.

Rhuba tried to deflect, but since she couldn't match the output required, the ball exploded on impact with her skin, again sending her crashing into the snow.
Garagus kept up the pressure, firing more and more blasts around her.
None of them were aimed at her, but the constant explosions and tremors will be causing her to panic and possibly leave an opening.

Rhuba jumped from the snow, her hand alight with a blast of her own before lobbing it straight for Garagus's face.
Garagus ceased fire, preparing his right hand to deflect. He batted it aside, as Rhuba knew he would.

Which was part of the plan to direct is attention away while she leapt up after it with her left hook ready to punch his lights out. One hard swing threw Garagus off but also left her tumbling back towards the ground.

"ah!" she gasped when her weight was suddenly baring down on one ankle.

"Clever girl," Garagus said as he rubbed his jaw with his free hand. "But now what will you do?"

Rhuba had more than enough strength to lift her body from her current position. So after pulling her self up, she produced and fired another energy blast right at Garagus's face.
He let go, and she was able to control her landing to hit feet first on the snow.

It was a hard landing though, and when she looked back up, Garagus was already rushing down for an attack of his own.
Rhuba tried to jump out of the way but was still pummelled by him.

Clearly, he was trying to make a point. Flying was a huge advantage that he was making full use of.
Three punches and a kick to the gut later, and Rhuba found herself stuck in defence only, unable to spare anything to hit back.
Garagus didn't even have to save a leg to keep himself standing. The fact that he could remain in the air meant he could use his whole body as a hard-hitting projectile if he wanted.
Rhuba crouched, her arms cross blocking both her face and as much of her upper body as she could. A poor choice and she knew this. But her arms were failing her, and more than much else she wanted to avoid being hit in the face.

Garagus burst out in a short laugh, unable to believe his luck. Rhuba peaked up from her arms, just before he whipped around to the back of her and grabbed both of her wrists from behind.
In one quick pull, both her arms were locked at opposing sides of her body, with no way of breaking free.
Garagus even lifted them both off the ground so her legs were left swinging as she kicked widely, unable to gain any vantage at all. Even bucking her head back hoping to connect with his chin or nose was futile.

"Give up." It wasn't a request. Garagus was demanding that she surrender the battle to him.

"No." Rhuba swung her legs forward before kicking behind as hard as she could, sharply getting his shin.

Garagus responded in turn by kneeing her hard in the buttock. "You've lost Rhuba, right now it takes more strength to admit it."

"Up yours!" She said looking over her shoulder to him. "I've got you right where I want you."

"Hmm." Garagus took a moment to assess her options. Surrender now or flail wildly until the sun goes supernova and consumes the surrounding planets.
He didn't intend to wait that long, so he simply kneed her again and again.
"I can do this all day-…"

"Gotcha!" She yelled, now that his left leg was scissor locked between both of hers'. "Ahow!" She yelped when he kneed her with his other leg. "stupid… Urh, Arrh!" She grunted, pulling and twisting with everything she had trying to get free.

"This is getting stupid." Garagus sighed.

"Then You surrender."

"No, I've got you dead."

"I've got your leg!

"I've got your… Everything!" Garagus looked at the ground. If she won't surrender then he'll make this even worse for her.
Without his limbs, balancing in mid-air will be tricky. Even now he was drifting slightly towards the ground. So he carefully lowered them both towards the snow, then just before landing, tipped forward before crashing into the freezing powder.

"Aaa ooll!" Rhuba muffled through the snow.

"Just let me know when you need air, okay." Garagus was chuffed with this plan.
Rhuba beat him with a chokehold last time. It's poetic he would get her this way. But more than this, the snow will be brushing against her face. She'll be burning in there within a minute if she doesn't surrender sooner.

Rhuba tried to wriggle herself free, grunting and groaning as she went and even tried whipping him with her tail, but there was no escape.
Using his free leg, Garagus tilted both of them over onto his back to give her a chance to breathe. As fun as this is to watch her tucker out in the dire futility, he didn't want to risk her actually suffocating.

"Rhuba?" He asked softly, as she breathlessly coughed and tried to blow the snow from her nose. "Rhuba. Come on. Give up."

"I've got you… right where I-…" She got another face full of snow when Garagus rolled back over.

Since both his and her own body weight was bearing down on her arms, Garagus let go of the one trapped between her ribs and other arm. She wasted No time trying to break free at that point, but it was far too difficult to manoeuvre.
With one hand freed, Garagus brushed the snow away from his face and hair. Gave his neck a scratch and took a moment to think of what to do with his time while Rhuba got her life together.

"Oh?"
Rhuba's grip on his leg broke while she tried to kick him off. With both legs back, Garagus reclaimed her other arm before leaning back again dragging her to sit upright on his lap.
"I'll make you a deal. If you don't want to eat snow, I suggest you pay attention."

"what…?" She sighed, feeling her energy drain with every minute that ticked by.

"I'll let you go and we retake our starting positions, and this time I'll fight you on the ground."

"And what do I need to do?" She asked, dropping her struggles and leaning against him. If this offer is real, she wanted to use every second she could get to rest.

"I'll teach you how to fly." Garagus was amazed he had to strike this bargain with her. Flying lessons should be the reward for winning the fight, and anyone else would probably jump at the first offer. But not stubborn Rhuba.

"I, Can't, Fly!" She yelled, pulling her arms with everything she had. By some miracle, her arm slipped free from his cold and wet hand.
Rhuba charged and fired an energy ball at him. The shockwave was powerful and hurt Garagus, but not as much as he was about to deal to her.

"I hope that was worth it!" He barked, narrowing his eyes on her as she ran away. "You're done." He put his fingertips together forming a cage around the air between his palms.
As the energy condensed between his hands, the light intensified and sparked as he took aim.
"Hail Storm!"

Rhuba skidded to a halt. Hearing his attack be named, she knew she'd have to block this as dodging was going to be almost impossible. In a moment, she'll be hit with energy blasts as sporadic and fast as raindrops from the sky.
Only this rain hits with the force of a solid punch, and he can sustain this attack for as long as it would take for him to wear himself out with actual punches.
Garagus has a Lot of stamina and right now he's pissed. So this is going to hurt.
As Rhuba braced for the attack, taking another step backwards, her foot missed the ground and she fell, vanishing completely out of sight.

"Rhuba!" Garagus dashed across to where she disappeared.
They had been fighting on what appears to be a frozen river this whole time. At the very least, tens of feet of compacted snow that perfectly blended the walls of the crevasse in with the surrounding ground.
Rhuba was laying about fifty feet below him.
"Rhuba-a!" He called down before gently floating himself down to her. "Are you hurt-urt?"

"just," She squeaked softly, holding her knee. "Where the hell are we-e?"

"You fell down a hole-ole." The echo was pissing him off. "c'mere." He slid an arm under her legs and another at her back before lifting her from out the crevasse.
The scary part was that they'd been fighting all that time and didn't know there was a crevasse. Even knowing where it is now, it was still difficult to spot, even from the sky.

"lucky…" Rhuba mumbled as she hugged into him.

"Why are we lucky?"

"Not we, You. Just five more seconds and," She snapped her fingers. "I'd have had you crying for mercy."

"Yeah?"

"Yeah!" Her tone was challenging, but her voice was breathless. "Let's go home. You probably need a rest after that, yeah?"

Garagus began heading over toward the distant steam plume. "You know, you could have gotten out of there yourself, If you knew how to fly."

"I have better things to do than fall off a cliff all day."

"You don't start on a cliff, Rhuba. You start on water."

"So what are my options? A, we find an ice-cold lake for me to fall in. Or B, I have an audience of glossy-eyed reptiles watching me fail over and over." She held his face as she looked up to him. "There's something I never told you about me, Garagus."

They'd been apart of each other's lives since they were nine years old and Garagus thought he knew everything about her as she does him.

"what is it?" He asked, slowing down to hear her.

"I don't cope with failure well." She sighed sadly.

"Yeah, no shit." He laughed and powered back on toward the ship.

"I can't fly, stop asking." Rhuba laughed back as she slapped him.

Arriving back at the ship, Rhuba hopped out of Garagus's arms and marched up inside. Her leg was sore, but she wouldn't let Garagus see her limping.
But he already knew. Getting her to admit she's hurt would do more to her pride than what's already been done to her knee, so he didn't press the matter.
First thing Rhuba did the moment she was in her room was slip out of her leggings to free her tail from the waist as she went to find something dry to stick on instead.
All their legwear have holes cut at the back for their tails to thread through. But getting it to work out that way needs to be premeditated before the waist of your trousers goes above your knees, otherwise, it's a complicated mess getting the tail in.
But after years of wearing these sorts of garments, Rhuba's tail self guides through the hole much like her feet do with the legs without her having to put much thought in herself.
As she was getting ready to close the wardrobe, her eyes fell upon a fur blanket folded on the shelf.
It was her favourite one from as far back as she could remember.

"Don't ask. She'll just take a huff with you if you do." Cressin sighed after Garagus spied Rhuba sitting the bedding, snuggling into a fur white fur quilt.

"What animal is it?" Garagus asked after failing to recognise the unique colour.

"I don't remember." Cressin looked through to see her young daughter rubbing the fur against her cheeks in mindless content.

Rhuba dried away her tears with the soft fur before folding it back up and setting it safely in the wardrobe again. The last thing she wanted was to spend another two weeks crying about the past.
After getting dressed, Rhuba made her way to the bed to lay down and rest her leg for a while. As she looked up at the strangely clear sky, she was curious by the white floating disk hovering up there.

"oh shit!" She rolled out of bed, ready to flee.
But she stopped. Remembering this panic happened before. Seeing the full moon through a naked eye is dangerous, but the ship's windows are reinforced.
Right now, she was able to stare at the full moon from within a planet for the first time in her life.
"Garagus!" She called, skipping through to the main bridge to tell Garagus so they could look up to the moon together, something they never had a chance to do back home from fear of becoming monsters.
Despite its many craters, it was beautiful.
Setting his hands on Rhuba's shoulders, Garagus leaned into her ear.

"You know what? I'm feeling nostalgic."

Author's Note: Eey! Look at that.
A battle! With ki blasts and flying and things blowing up. Now it's Dragon Ball.