Part 2- The Hunt
The whispy clouds glowed a spectacular crimson making the sky appear to illuminated with an unholy fire as the sun began to dip into the horizon. It would awe any one to look upon a vista of such beauty, that is every one but the saiyajin prince who sat alone on the beach unseeing anything around him. He was deep in meditation and, although he felt the last rays of sunlight warm his face, he had little interest in the sunset. His mind was engaged with more tantalizing thoughts. He smirked to himself as he felt the deliciously cool evening breeze caress his skin. He felt peaceful, but hungry, but not hungry for food.
"Soon" he thought with pleasure. "Soon it will be time and she will be mine."
He was truly looking forward to the hunt. If her evasion of him earlier that day in the gravity room was any indication of what lay ahead she would make it interesting, if nothing else. He had little doubt that he would find her easily and capturing her shouldn't take long either. Once he had subdued her, which again would be no contest seeing as he was far stronger than any human, let alone a weak female, then the real fun would start. At last he could act, without restraint, on all the desires that the earth woman had somehow managed to inspire in him. He would make mad, passionate love to her and somehow he hoped it would satisfy this strange need he felt for her. Vegeta hoped, by accepting this emotion and taking Bulma as his mate he at last would have some peace-of-mind and she would no longer torment his thoughts and dreams.
From the moment he first saw her on Namek she had captivated him. No one could deny that she was a beautiful and alluring creature and being a healthy male of course he had noticed. However, it wasn't until he was wished back to life and then to earth by accident that he had truly began to find her attractive. The first time he had bellowed a death threat at her and she screamed her own back at him, instead of shrinking back and running away as he had expected, she had become more to him than just a pretty face. He couldn't help it because up until that moment no one but Freeza had ever dared to speak to him in such a manner. Freeza had done so because he was far more powerful than Vegeta, and thus Vegeta's threats were empty, but Bulma was incapable of defending herself against him. He had to admit that it took guts to stand up to him knowing that and for this reason she had impressed him. From that moment on, in between being so annoyed with her that he had considered actually carrying out his threat of execution, he began to notice other things about her. She was brave, clever, intelligent, witty and endlessly patient (despite the way she tempermentaly carried on when being inconvienced). Her temper was as firey as his own and her ego was just as large as well. Before he knew it he began to feel inexplicable drawn to her and he tried to ignore it. He became interested in her welfare, jealous and protective. These feelings had only grown with time until they became first undeniable and finally unrepressable. He had heard others over the years talk of this kind of attachment, but he had dismissed it at the time. They all had different names for it and he discovered that the humans called it love. Yes he, the saiyajin prince, had allowed himself to form an emotional attachment to a woman, something he had never planned on or intended on doing.
If his father or any self-respecting saiyajin (Kakorot did not fall under this catergory) were still alive they would have surely been appalled by his descision to give in to this emotional attachment to an alien. However, for the first time, he didn't care what any of them would think. He was the Saiyajin Prince and he could do damn well as he pleased and at the moment nothing pleased him more than the prospect of this fastinating creature belonging to him and only him.
Vegeta stirred as he sensed the light wane into oblivion. He rose from his position and gazed out across the black churning ocean feeling his instinctual senses come alive expect for the ki sense that he had been recently cultivating. He had already decided he would not locate her by finding her ki, because it would be far too easy that way. Tonight he would hunt the old-fashioned way using his senses and instincts. Slowly he turned and confidently set out in the direction he had last seen the woman go after they had shared their meal. He entered the jungle allowing his eyes, ears and nose to take everything in. The hunt was on and soon he would claim his mate.
*************************************************************************
Bulma pushed her way through the thick foliage that blocked her path. She forged ahead pushing aside the branches heavy with leaves and the large palm fronds at her eye level while trying to be certain that nothing was in front of her feet that could trip her up. The dimming light was making it difficult to see what lay ahead of her and thus her progress had become more deliberate.
SNAP! A branch that she had shoved aside a moment before lashed out at her back throwing her off balance and flat onto her face. Bulma pushed herself up into a sitting position and tried for the hundredth time that day to remind herself that she was doing this for a good reason. The problem was that as time wore on, the more tears she got in her suit, the more blisters she got on her feet, and the more scrapes and bruises she acculmulated the more she doubted if Vegeta was worth it.
"What in the world ever possessed me to fall in love with Vegeta?" she asked herself shifting on her haunches while staring up into a sky that was almost black with night. He was stubborn, tempermental and arrogant. He was obsessive when it came to fighting and getting stronger. Then again so many of those annoying qualities were qualities that she herself possessed, which made it easier for her to over-look them in him. He was the only person that had never shrunk back from her or berated her for her explosive temper, vanity or stubbroness. His insults were far more creative and he never demanded that she change. She was as obsessed with inventing and tinkering as he was with fighting. Yes, her mother had been right, she and Vegeta were a lot alike, and for some odd reason this made her feel connected to him on some level.
For all that they had in common Bulma also couldn't deny that there were still great differences between them. He was a merciless alien warrior that delighted in killing. She couldn't fault him for that either though for he was a product of his life experiences. Kami only knew what his life had been like before he came to earth or what hidden scars he carried because of it. She had an inkling that it had been dark and terrible because of the nightmares she had witnessed him experiencing while on her bedside vigils while he had been mortally wounded those three times. This and the fact that he had no concept of what love was spoke volumes in his behalf. She who had been sheltered and loved her whole life had no right to judge him so she had long since ceased trying to.
The other major differences they had could be summed up in one thought, he was from an entirely different culture than her, an alien one, and looked at things from a whole other perspective. From the moment they met they bickered almost constantly about saiyajin verses human philosophy and the day's events had made these differences shine through even clearer than before. Bulma thought back to the strange meal they had shared on the beach. Vegeta, still smeared with the blood of the wild pig he had killed feasted on its raw, bloody flesh while she had eaten cooked, meticulously cleaned meat. He had, however, demanded she try a bite of his meat. Since he had agreed to taste hers she thought it only fair and had complied. Despite the fact she nearly threw-up Vegeta had seemed very pleased that she had tried. At the close of the experiment, as in most things, they had agreed to disagree about which way of eating meat was better. They both acknowledged it as a fact that they would never completely see eye to eye and yet they didn't try to change one another. Thus in each other they found a kind of acceptance that they had received no where else. Perhaps that was why they gravitated to one another.
"No it's a little more than that," she admitted to herself. She admired his courage, his tenacity, his cleverness and his wit. She knew that he was intelligent, just how intelligent he was she couldn't be sure, and it shown through in his speech and actions. She had to admit, though Vegeta had the distinct talent of irritating her, she enjoyed their arguments. He thought outside of the box and forced her to keep her own thoughts sharp and pointed. He was the only individual to have ever bested her in an argument, let alone several times, and she respected him for that. He was also the only individual, other than her father, that she didn't feel she had to talk down to or keep to meaningless, vacuous, small talk with and that also earned her respect. She also admired his skill as a fighter, his strength, and she couldn't knock his physical appearance either. "Maybe this is worth it," she mumbled to herself a smile gracing her lips.
Bulma started at the sound of a rustle in the bushes nearby and looked up into a world that was now only illuminated by the stars that twinkled above. She felt the uneasy feeling that she was not alone. It was almost pitch black amongst the dense over-growth of vegetation and she still hadn't found her way out of the jungle. What was worse was that it was dark and that meant he was out there stalking her and there was no way she could show his-royal-highness that she wasn't a push over if she was lost. In fact it could even be him that she had heard in the darkness. She heard the rustling again and sprung to her feet and began rushing straight ahead away from the noise and in the direction which her trap lay in wait. She smiled at the thought of Vegeta's surprise when he was caught in her trap. It wouldn't stop him completely of course, but it would slow him down and inconvinence him a great deal.
Bulma stopped dead in her tracks as the sound appeared in front of her and a shape rushed at her from the under growth. She screamed and ran from it hearing the pounding of hooves and the squealing of her pursuer from behind. She realized it was a wild boar and this frightened her knowing of their vicious reputation and sharp tusks. Bulma ran from it and desperately tried to find a way to get away from it and suddenly it came to her; the trees.
Vegeta confidently ambled down the path of Bulma's flight in the comforting darkness. He was at home here, in his element, feeling the instinctual craving of the hunter to skulk in the shadows, common to all of his people, making him come alive. All his senses were at their best and sharpest as he stalked his prey. The silence that followed him attested to the fact that the creatures here acknowledged his role as ultimate predator on this island. His countless hunts here had ensured the instinctual fear the animals out of their need for self-preservation. Little did they know that now they were safe for his quarry was of a different sort this night and the prize he would get would bring him fleshly pleasure beyond anything that dining on their meat could hope to give him. Tonight he, as countless other saiyajin males had done before him, was hunting a woman to make her his mate.
It seemed she had been very busy this afternoon because her scent and signs of her activities were all over the clearings that he ran across. From the look of things she had been gathering cane, vines and all manner of strange items and Vegeta knew that it could mean only one thing: the little minx had planned something. Vegeta smirked at the thought of her hatching some plan to help her escape from her ultimate fate. Regardless of what she did he would claim her that night as his own and he knew that she knew this and wanted it. He, however, also knew that wouldn't stop her from making it as difficult as possible for him to capture her.
Vegeta paused in front of a tree and bent down to inspect the twigs that had been snapped off by a passerby. A tiny piece of the woman's blouse had caught on one of the twigs and he lifted it up to his nose confirming his visual observations with her intoxicating aroma. The strength of her odor in this area told him that this was the direction she had most recently gone in so he stood up and continued his pursuit only stopping a few times along the way to confirm her passage by snapped twigs, footprints and other signs that indicated this was indeed the path she had trasversed.
After trailing her for some distance he came across a densely vegetated area that was filled with her odor. She had touched the branches and waded through the high grass. After a few steps his keen nocturnal vision spotted an area that had be trampled down. He knelt down and the strength of her scent was overpowering. She had been there, on the ground, for quite sometime and recently. He grinned a wicked grin as his heart began to race in anticipation. He was close. In only a matter of moments he would have her.
A high-pitched shriek pierced the quiet. It was the fearful cry of a woman and not just any woman, his woman. Vegeta cursed under his breath and allowed his ki sense to flare. He had not wanted to find her like this but trust Bulma to ruin his fun by getting herself into some kind of mess or another. Once he located her he raced to her aide vowing that he'd find some delicious way to make her pay for ruining the hunt.
***************************************************************************
Unthinking Bulma rushed up the nearest tree with branches that were low enough to facilitate being climbed. She leapt onto the low-lieing branches and latched onto the closest branch above her head. She started to pull herself up, scrambling to brace her feet against the trunk of the tree to aide her ascent. As she tried to pull herself up the branch began to bend and snap from her weight causing Bulma to panic for just a moment. She was quickly brought back to reality as the angry pig thrust at her and caught her skirt with its sharp tusks. A squeal of fear escaped Bulma's lips as she failed her hands around to find a steady limb to latch on to. After finding it she pulled herself up with only her arms using the adrenaline boost fueling her muscles with unusual strength. The swine came away with only a large piece of her skirt and Bulma with a slight scratch on her thigh. Panting with exertion, her heart pounding in her ears, as she listened but could not see her assailant angrily attacking the ground level branches below her.
Vegeta stopped short of entering the clearing and moved the branches in front of him so he could see exactly what he'd have to face. He had arrived there just in enough time to witness the woman escape her pursuer by climbing into a tree. Her attacker was one of the bad tempered creatures that he found to have some of the tastiest meat he had ever consumed. It was the same sort of creature he and the woman had shared as their meal earlier that day. She was lucky to get away because he had once been hurt very badly by underestimating one of the beasts before. The stupid creature continued to blindly attack the tree leaving Bulma stuck up in its branches. The scene brought a smile to the prince's face. The stupid beast had cornered her making his task that much easier. Although he would have preferred to have found her and cornered her himself this wasn't too bad of a coincidence. In fact it put him in the perfect position to have a little fun with her, the kind of fun he had been denied by her stumbling into the creature in the first place.
"This is just beautiful" she thought angrily to herself "if what I've heard is true I'm going to be stuck up in this tree for hours." Bulma shifted slightly on her perch and calmly began to assess her situation. "I guess being stuck up here is better than bleeding to death from being repeated gored by a wild boar" she told herself. It was then Bulma noticed that the swine abruptly broke off the attack and was standing stark still focusing its attention on a stand of trees up ahead. What was really odd was that it was completely silent. There wasn't a single sound, no crickets, no night birds, no strange noises and it made her nervous. Suddenly a blast of energy shot out illuminating the area. The pig scrambled to run away but the blast was too fast for it too avoid. The swine exploded upon impact and Bulma closed her eyes in disgust. She heard the pieces of pig rain down around her and winced as a slimy piece of something hit her head. Bulma wrinkled her nose and tried to wipe it away only to have it cling to her fingers. Feeling sick she wiped it off onto the branch on which she now perched before being snapped out of her preoccupation by a familiar looking siloheutte as it entered the clearing.
Having disposed of the annoying animal Vegeta walked into the clearing. Of course he knew exactly where she was because he had seen her climb into it the tree but she didn't know that. He smirked at the clever plan which he would use to torment her. "Woman I know that you're here" he announced. "The beast saved me the trouble of running you down myself" he continued speaking in no direction in particulair. "I know that you are in one of these trees so I suggest that you come down and surrender yourself because its only a matter of time before I find you."
"Why that no good baka" Bulma thought to herself angrily. "He doesn't even ask if I'm okay. He only demands that I surrender myself. How dare he think that its going to be that easy! There's got to be some way I can get down this tree and past him."
"I take it from your silence that you've decided to do this the hard way" Vegeta stated. "So be it" he announced "it just means more fun for me." With that he randomly picked one of the trees that he knew she wasn't in and shot a few lances of ki into the treetop and then paused for dramatic effect. "I guess you're not in that one" he said "but I will hit you eventually."
Bulma gapped at what she had just witnessed. "Why the onore!" she cursed to herself. "He's trying to shoot me! And to think that I agreed to give everything I have to him and he repays me by hunting me down and trying to shoot me! Well that's it! I'm not letting that baka lay a hand on me! I'll swim all the way back to Capsule Corporation if I have to but I'm not ever going to let him near me again!"
Vegeta moved on to a second tree and gave it the same treatment. He smirked wickedly and made like he was heading for a tree next to Bulma's but then he stopped his progress short placing himself right in front of her tree. "You might as well give up now woman" he said charging his ki in his hands "you know its inevitable."
Bulma couldn't stand it anymore. "STOP!" she cried "I SURRENDER ALREADY!" she screamed.
Vegeta laughed in triumph letting his ki dissapate. "It took you long enough to see sense" he told her.
"At least I'm not the moron who nearly killed the woman he was supposed to mate with!" she replied testily.
"Don't make me laugh" Vegeta replied. "You honestly think that I didn't know where you were the whole time?"
"Why you stupid monkey" she cried indignantly "If you think I'm going to let you get away with scaring me half to death then you've got another thing coming!"
"Just come down woman" he commanded "and spare me your raving. I won this little contest of wits and you are now mine to do with as I please."
"That's what you think" Bulma swore under her breath. She started down the tree and carefully made sure she had a good grip. Instead of lowering herself down onto the limb below, remembering that it had nearly broken under her weight before, she struck it repeatedly with her feet until it was dislodged. The huge limb crashed down onto the surprised saiyajin below and she released her grip landing on the ground in an expertly executed crouch thanks to the instincts honed in her gymnastic classes as a child. "And that's what you get for underestimating me!" Bulma giggled with delight. "See you around" she called sprinting away "that is if you can even find me!"
Vegeta cursed and sputtered as he tried to disentangle himself from the twigs and branches of the offending limb. "You are mine woman!" called after her in rage flaring his ki in an effort to destroy his prison. To his shock it only caught on fire compounding his problems. Feverishly he busted the braches with his bare hands until he could escape. He was almost angry enough to leave the burning branch and charge after her but he knew better. He threw loose dirt over the flames and took care of the rest by either stamping them out with his feet or blowing them out with ki generated wind. Taking a moment more to ensure the fire was out he then locked onto her Ki. He didn't care what was traditional or not anymore. He had to find her and take her down before she had time to savour her small victory.
Bulma stumbled into where the jungle stopped just before the cliff. She ran and looked up into the tree to be certain that the packages of rocks were in the proper place and down to make sure the leaves covered the ground enough to disguise the vine noose. From what little she could see in the dark everything was set. She grinned realizing that all of those trips up the tree to be sure that her suit coat and panty hoes held enough rocks to counter balance his weight would finally pay off. She then turned towards the jungle to be sure Vegeta wouldn't catch her unawares. "Now all I have to do is wait" she said smugly to herself.
Vegeta flew through the trees as fast as he could and as he drew close to her ki he smiled realizing where she was. "The stupid wench" he thought with pleasure. Bursting through the trees he landed just a few feet in front of her relishing the surprise on her face. "Well, well" he said tauntingly. "It looks as if you've gotten yourself trapped." He smirked as she backed away from him when he began to advance. "That little stunt you pulled back there wasn't enough to stop me" said as he continued his advance. He smiled as she backed right up into a tree. "You see little human there's no escaping me" he said with a chuckle taking another step. To his surprise Bulma smiled, reached up and yanked on a vine that hung in front of her. As he watched her dart away he suddenly found himself yanked off of his feet and rising, feet first into the air. His foot then slammed into a branch and his ascent abruptly stopped. He was shocked to find himself hanging upside down high up in the tree and all he could hear was the woman's laughter.
"Bye, bye Veggie" Bulma said wiping tears of mirth from the corner of her eyes. "This little human is escaping now!" she said walking cockily away.
Vegeta felt his anger well up from inside but he tried to remain calm because he knew he had to be thinking clearly if he was going to catch her. After a few quick breaths he found himself thinking more clearly. He shot a beam of ki at the vine across from him realizing whatever was at the other end of it was what was holding him aloft. He didn't, however, have enough presence of mind to fly and so he dropped towards the ground. When his head hit first one branch and then another it proved to be a sufficient enough distraction so that his next impact was with the ground.
"Kuso!" he heard over the sound of the ringing in his ears and he looked up to see Bulma staring at him in shock. As he glared at her she turned and ran into the jungle once again.