"One's Quest,

Another's Journey"

Part 4:

1 "Cold Nights in Russia"

Not long did it take them to cross over the border of where Mongolia and Russia connected to the west. The day's travel was easy, the weather was just about perfect and coming to the beginning of Russia like this was just great.

"What exactly is in Russia?" Piccolo asked as they walked through a bit of forest.

"Well, it's a harsh land, the winters are very, very cold, they have Siberian tigers up here, but mostly up in the most northern area and they are rarely seen. There's some desert, many great mountains, a lot of forest, as you can see, and a great big city that I've always wanted to see. That city is called Moscow and it's really big, and in the center of the city there is this place called, The Red Square. I don't know how to really explain it to you, but the main building is breath takingly beautiful. You'll have to see it to believe it." She said with great passion in her voice.

"How far is it to Moscow, Russia?"

She stopped and sat on a stump and took out her map and ruler to measure the miles. "Its about.Oh my God."

"What? Is it really far?" Piccolo asked looking over her shoulder at the map.

"It's 3,600 miles to Moscow, Russia. It will take us about two months or much more to walk it there," she said looking up at Piccolo with wide eyes.

"Well then, I guess we'll have to fly the rest of the way, but fly carefully and secretly."

"But are you in the mood to fly that far carrying me and that big pack of mine?"

"I'll carry the pack on my back and I'll carry you in my arms. It won't be much, considering I can carry much more and for that matter it takes a lot for someone to punch me and I hit a wall straight through."

"Oh yeah, I forgot."

"How much more are you going to forget about me?" he asked, with a smirk. Cora shrugged and took off her pack to fix things more securely to it.

"There, I think this will be more of a balanced piece of work for you to carry," she said handing the large camping pack to him with one hand. Her muscles bulging up as she lifted the heavy pack.

"You're stronger than you look, Cora," Piccolo commented.

"Thank you. You want to walk more or fly instead?"

"I think we should take to the air now while we can," he said as he took off his cloak and put the camping pack on his back, securing it tightly over his shoulders. "This isn't very heavy at all," he said as he stood up straight. He bent down and picked up his cloak and put it back on, putting it over the pack, it making him look like he was a hunchback. Cora buttoned up her trench coat and put on her leather gloves and earmuffs. "You need all of that cause of the cold air?"

"Yeah, cause it's not good to let your ears and hand get cold up here. You could get frost bight, but you look like you can handle anything," she said smiling up at him, Piccolo nodding.

"Are you ready to go?" Piccolo asked, as he covered his face with some of the fabric of his cloak and his arms out ready to carry her, she nodded as he picked her up in his arms. Very quickly Piccolo took off into the air, missing the fur trees by inches of scratching Cora's face. "How long will it take us to travel to Moscow by air?"

"At your fastest, but most careful speed not to over do yourself, it could take us a few hours, but I'd rather we travel about a quarter of the way there by air, that way we can see the rest of the land and its towns by foot. What do you think?" Piccolo nodded as he flew up higher a bit and finally leveling off straight. Cora took out her compass, from her pocket and looked at it. "Keep going about northwest and we'll be just fine."

The land seemed to blend together as one big mass, as Piccolo flew past it, way up over head, where no one would notice them in the sky. Russia was beautiful with its many forests and mountains, a few big lakes as they passed overhead.

"What a view this is. I can barely get a view like this even on a plane," she said, chuckling a bit.

"What's so funny?"

She chuckled again, "Flying by Piccolo is the best way to fly," she said laughing very hard and holding onto him tightly. Piccolo just rolled his eyes at her with that joke. "I couldn't help myself, Piccolo, sorry."

"It's okay, I got the joke, but I didn't like the idea of it being about me."

"Sorry," she apologized with a soft smile, Piccolo smirking back at her a bit, trying not to laugh. "Oh, look over there," she pointed to the southwest, Piccolo looked into that direction. "Those are white artic geese. They must be heading south for the winter. Wow, there's so many of them," she said starting to count them.

"There's thirty of them," Piccolo said.

Cora blinked, "Wow, you're fast with counting," she said as the geese kept flying past them.

Hearing something so familiar in the sky, she looked out in front of her. A Russian black eagle was flying straight for them and it wasn't very happy.

"We must have crossed over its territory. If the eagle does attack, don't kill it, just scare it away okay," she said, Piccolo nodding.

Sure enough, the Russian black eagle came straight up to them with its talons bared out sharp. The bird bombed over Piccolo, dodging that, the bird of prey returned again with great anger. Piccolo spun around, throwing Cora out of his arms as the bird went after Piccolo.

"Cora!" Piccolo yelled, as she fell faster to the Earth. Piccolo growled and blasted an energy beam near the bird's left wing. The eagle screamed off away from him finally. He looked down seeing that the ground was coming up very close to Cora.

Screaming as she fell, Piccolo dived for her as fast as he could. "Hold on, Cora!" He yelled, as the ground got faster and faster up behind her. He just couldn't stand it any more and quickly disappeared and then reappeared underneath Cora. She landed into his arms, unconscious, just in time. He held he tightly, making sure she wouldn't fall; looking down he saw that they really made it just in the nick of time. Piccolo was floating just fifty feet above the ground. He landed and found near by a bit of a ruined down castle, he then carried her carefully to the castle and put her on the ground in a corner gently.

He then put the camping pack on the ground and looked for her cloak. He finally found it and covered her up in it, making a soft pad for her head with one of her shirts.

"You better wake up, Cora, if not, I'll have to make it on my own, no matter how hard that will be," he said softly as he looked around the castle.

What was left of the castle was a main tower, not that tall, about thirty feet and a roof on top to keep the rain out, but it seemed a bit rattan, some stone window slits and a main door. He walked around more and found some wood to start a fire. The clouds began to gather in great thunderheads as he gathered more wood outside. A single raindrop hit him on the tip of his nose as he bundled the wood up and carried into the castle ruins. With the fire going, it was much warmer in the castle than before and Cora began to stir from under the cloak. Piccolo gently picked her up and placed her near the fire in the center of the room. He just sat there warming himself up waiting for Cora to wake up.

A few hours later, Cora finally woke, finding Piccolo meditating, his cloak hanging up in a dry spot on a wall and her camping pack next to it. She looked down beside her and found some snack bars that he had found in her pack. She smiled at him and quietly ate some of the energy bars.

'I forgot about these,' she thought as she ate.

Piccolo opened his eyes and looked up at her sitting by the fire, her cloak around her and her trench coat off lying next to her.

"You're finally awake, I'm glad," he answered.

"You happy? That you don't see everyday now do you?" she said with a smirk on her face, she giggled a bit and then hushed seeing the stern look on his face. "Excuse me for just one moment," she said getting up and walking over to her pack, Piccolo going back to his meditating. She got out some things of hers and went outside a mile or less away from the castle. She came back a few minutes later to find Piccolo looking at her funny. She was fairly wet from the rain. "Hey, I had to do my business you know and for that matter I'm a woman, I have womanly things to attend to, if you don't mind," she snorted, her nose in the air, she giggled and curled back up in her cloak, trying to dry off.

Piccolo shook his head. "I knew that, you didn't have to say it in that way either."

"I swear if you heard everything from me, so help me God, I'm going to kick you, which I doubt I could do successfully," she said, her eyes wide.

He looked at her in shock. "Do you think very well I even would give a care?" he said, falling back on the ground flat. "Oh, my Kami, you have got to be joking?!"

"Well, um."

"Exactly my point," he said sitting back up.

They both looked at each other for a full minute and then both burst out laughing hysterically.

Trying to breath from the laughter, "When was the last time you ever laughed, Piccolo?" she asked, hoping that he wouldn't get upset over a question like that.

"I don't laugh very much, and when I do, I don't show it and laugh to myself. I'm a very private and quiet kind of guy," he said with a bit of stern voice.

"From the anime, I don't think I ever saw you laugh fully like you just did a bit ago. I have seen you smirk and if the fan really knows it, he or she knows you actually laughed," she said smiling a bit, Piccolo nodding.

Cora got up and looked through her camping pack. "Wow, I totally forgot about these things to eat," she said pulling out some freeze dried food packs and taking out her pan and some water from her canteen. "If you ever go camping, never leave home without these wonderful little packets of food. You just add water and cook it a bit and there you go." She said smiling as she prepared her dinner.

"Is it just me, or do you look like you haven't been eating enough since we meet?" he asked.

"Yeah, its me. I don't eat much cause I can handle it most of the time, but when I get hungry, look out," she laughed. She ate there quietly as Piccolo kept looking around the ruined castle. After she was finished, she got out her anti-skip portable CD player and put on some music to dance to. She hooked the player to her belt loop and pushed play and put her earplug set in her ears, she smiled as the music began.

"What are you doing?" he asked as Cora lip sang to the music, she looked up and smiled, turning the music down.

"I have to listen to some music for a little while. Music frees my soul and pumps my blood like a river through my body. I bet you can hear it quit well from there."

"Turn it up and I can hear as good as you are right now with your ear set." He said as she turned it up quit loud for herself and that was enough for Piccolo to hear as if he was hearing it from the stereo itself. He smiled a bit as the music went though his ears. She looked at him a bit and knew he liked it, and then she continued to dance to the music and lip sing to it too. Piccolo sat down and went back to meditating, the music sounding good to him.

Turning it down a bit, "I bet you will be happy to know that in most of my music I brought with me, does not contain any whistling at all."

"That's very good to hear, thank you," he said feeling grateful to know that.

She danced and danced, for what seemed forever. Hearing the music change to different ones on the player, Piccolo gave up and just watched her dance there by the fire. She danced beautifully, as the music went through her body. Soon a slow song came up and she continued to lip sing to it, her body moving to the rhythm as a belly dancer. Her hands were of a temptress of the night and flame and it pleased Piccolo greatly. He had never seen such dancing before and it mesmerized him as he watched. She soon came into a dance move that widened his eyes; she stood one leg straight up from behind her and stood thereon the other leg and slowly bent over, holding the other leg over her shoulder. She out stretched her free hand to the flames, the heat lightly warming and almost burning her, but she quickly whisked her hand the flame let go of it's grasp on her fingers. She looked up at Piccolo, seeing he was amazed to see such movement, she stood back up and untwisted her body and turned off the music and stood there looking at him, smiling.

"You like?" she asked with a smile.

With a blink, "I've never seen anything like that before. How did you do that?"

"With lots of practice, but I'm not that good of a contortionist. If I was really good I would have learned this at a very young age and you would have really seen some movement. In China and India they have many contortionists, they learn at a very young age, about four years old and the training takes years to prefect," she said as she sat down on the other side of the fire across Piccolo. "With your physique, you wouldn't be able to bend like I do or at least try. You have to stretch everyday for the rest of your life to get where I'm at of navies."

"I see and how long have you been working at this art?" he asked as the rain fell harder all around them.

"I started doing this when I was probably thirteen and kept doing it. I learned it on my own by watching TV specials and my mother wasn't too happy that I was doing this to my body, but before she died, about a month before, I showed her what I could do and she was happy."

Clearing his throat, "You haven't told me about your family, does this bother you?"

"No, I'll tell you know, while I'm on the subject," she began as she curled back up in her cloak, Piccolo shivered a bit as the wind blew in from the door and he too go this cloak and put it on. "I thought the cold didn't bother you?"

"It does at times."

"Anyway, I was born in up state New York, in America, my mother was a good woman, but when my father left us when I was born, she got a bit cold and hidden from me. She never told me why he left, but I made up a good reason why and I don't want to mention it." Piccolo nodded as she continued. "When I turned eighteen, my mother and grandfather were killed in a car crash and by that I was left alone to live by myself. I inherited my mother's rich money and my grandfather's house, that's how I knew about the world. In his house he had so many books about all kinds of land on this Earth and about how to live out in the forests of America and all kinds of books about animals and plants. That's how I know mostly everything you ask about. It's good to have me around it's it?" Piccolo nodded, as she put her head down, a tear falling from her eyes. She looked back up at Piccolo as more tears fell from her eyes. "I miss my mother and grandfather so much, but if they could see me now where I'm at, they would be so proud." She said with a sniff, Piccolo saying nothing, but in his eyes she could see that he didn't do well with anyone crying around him. "I'm sorry, I'll stop crying now," she said whipping her tears and calming down.

"It's okay, Cora. Unlike Gohan when I trained him, he cried a few times and seeing a young boy cry isn't good to see. It showed he was weak in some ways and well, in the end he grew up to be a very strong and wise young man. All that training on him did some great good. If I hadn't trained him like I did, there would be no telling what would have happened if Cell would have won. I wouldn't have been here right now talking with you," he said, Cora smiling at him greatly.

Suddenly, Cora doubled over in pain in her side and groaned, as it got worse.

"Are you okay, Cora?" Piccolo asked.

"I'll be fine when I pop a midal down my throat," she said with a moan of pain and crawling to her camping pack. She finally found the pills and took them with water from her canteen. "Being a woman can have its perks and pains that's for sure," she said crawling back to where she sat before.

Piccolo didn't know what to make of it of course, but he knew it was going to probably be explained to him sooner or later. Personally he didn't want to know about it, cause it was her business and not his of course.

"Well, I think we should both get some rest," Piccolo said as he got his black cloak up around him and hooded his face from the wind. Cora nodded as she got out her sleeping bag, taking off her wet clothes and hiking boots and leaving on her still dry wool pants and short-sleeved wool shirt and socks, she climbed into her sleeping bag, zipping it up all the way.

The cold night Russian air was so windy, and rain wet that Cora thought she wouldn't get any sleep. She shivered in her sleeping bag, even with all that wool she wore and thick wool sleeping bag lining; she was still cold for some reason, even if she was fairly close to the fire. Piccolo looked up at the flames and sniffed the air; it had a faint smell of chocolate and blood. He looked at Cora and snickered at her, as the smell got a bit stronger when he looked at her. He couldn't but help staring at her, as she shivered in the sleeping bag. He got up from the cold ground and folded up her cloak as a pillow for her head. As he placed it under her head, he put one hand down on the bag, her body still shivering badly, he slowly pulled back the cover and saw her breathing out air that came to a cold mist. He sighed and being so kind he wrapped himself up in his cloak and slowly unzipped the sleeping bag and slowly curled inside with her. He placed his arms and one leg around her body to warm her shivering. Soon she began to calm down and she seemed to cuddle up against him lovingly. She was out cold asleep and probably had no idea that Piccolo was helping her warm up. He knew that he couldn't let her die no matter what, because she was the only friend he had here on this planet and he needed her help to survive on it.

As Piccolo lay there next to her, he couldn't but help looking at her soft dark brown hair. He lightly touched it, it being soft between his fingers like silk. He sighed softly as he pulled the hood of his cloak over his head. He just laid there, his eyes open and ears open to any sounds outside the castle ruins. A dove had flown in from the cold night and landed up in the rotten rafters in a corner, lightly cooing as it settled down for the night. His heart beating softly as he felt Cora's body moved slightly to turn over on her back. He kept still until she was calm again and wrapped his arms around her once more, sighing to himself.

'What am I doing? I wouldn't be doing this for just any female," he said to himself as he sighed a bit. He then closed his eyes and tried to meditate with curled up with Cora in his arms.

The next morning, the sun shun through the windows as it rose over the mountains, its brightest rays shined through the door onto Cora's face. Piccolo had woken up from his mediating a few hours earlier and waited for her to awaken. He sat near the fire, tending to it to keep the room warm.

Cora opened her eyes and smiled at the rays of sun.

"Good morning, Piccolo," she said turning over to him with a smile, he nodded in reply.

"It's best you dress in warmer clothes. Your shirt and jeans are still lightly damp from last night," he said poking at the fire with a stick.

She smiled and got up from the ground, Piccolo walking out of the room and waited for her up a hill. She quickly got dressed in another pair of wool- lined jeans and a sweater and her hiking boots once again. She stepped outside the entrance of the castle ruins and looked up to a small hill near by. Piccolo was standing there atop the hill looking around, the sun hitting his green skin brightly. She smiled and ran up to him.

"Did you have a good rest?" she asked standing next to him, he nodded to her. "That's good. It sure was cold last night, but I guess my wool I wore kept me warm. It was so strange though; I could swear someone was in my sleeping bag as I slept. But you wouldn't dare now would you?"

Piccolo turned to her with a blank look on his face. "No, of course not."

Cora looked at his face closer and giggled to herself. "You were in my sleeping bag warming me up last night, weren't you? I couldn't have been anything else."

"I hoped you wouldn't notice me there."

"Fat chance, Piccolo, I can sense crystals and other things around me with my eyes closed and hands out. I knew you were there, even thought I was out cold asleep," she said as she looked out over the land. "It sure was nice of you to warm me, if you hadn't I would have gotten ill and we can't have that, now can we?"

"No we sure can't and you are welcome, Cora," he said as he walked back to the castle ruins. "And remember that won't happen all the time. Okay."

"I understand," she said following him back to the castle.

"We should be on our way again to the air," he said putting on his cloak and fixing it to cover his face a bit.

"You bet, I can't wait to get started again," she said smiling as she put her things neatly back into her camping pack and rolled up her sleeping bag and tied it back onto the pack. "Everything's set, Piccolo," she added as she buttoned up her trench coat and put on her gloves.

He put the pack on his back like before and walked out of the castle, Cora following behind. He picked her up once more and they were off into the air back on the same course.

"Now, let's hope that we have a nice flight, unlike yesterday," she smirked, Piccolo nodding as he flew faster over the land. "It shouldn't take very long for use to reach Moscow, Russia now, maybe a few more hours at least or less."

An hour or so later, Piccolo landed a few miles from the boarder of Moscow. He placed Cora on the ground as he looked around.

"Now Piccolo, you will have to stay close to me while we are in Moscow. The city can be dangerous and with the way you are, you better stay close," she said, Piccolo nodding his reply as they walked the next few miles into the city. They both kept quiet thinking to themselves as they walked. "Piccolo could you stop for a moment so I can get out my CD player?" Piccolo kneeled on the ground as he took of the pack and put it back on over his cloak this time. She got into the pack and took out her CD player and her Michael Jackson "History" disk 2 to play. She fixed herself up with the music, as they continued to walk. She pushed play and Piccolo could hear the song begin. "You'll get an idea what this song is about."

As the song began, Cora stepped her walk into the beat of the music and smiled. Piccolo looked at her and smiled a bit at the beat of the song. A light whistling was heard on the song, but it didn't bother him. Soon, the title of the song was sung, it being, "Stranger in Moscow".

'Typical,' he said to himself as he enjoyed the song as they walked.

Soon they made it to the outskirts of Moscow, Russia, the sun shinning brightly, a few clouds in the sky. The song set the mood of the city well and it made both of them feel good inside. Cora looked up at him and could see a bit through the vale, he was lip singing to the song, she giggled, he hearing this and he stopped.

"No, keep doing what you feel, it's okay," she smiled. "At least the some whistling isn't bothering you." She pushed play on the same song again as they came into the city.

The old buildings along the roadside looked dirty gray, but to Cora they were beautiful. Some streets lined with brick and stone, a horse drawn carriage moving by them, the sound of the horse's hooves seeming to move in the beat of the song. She turned the music off and took out the earplugs.

"Why don't we get a horse carriage ride tour of the city? It will be much safer that way," she suggested.

"Sure why not. I hope you have the money for it."

"I'll have to exchange my American money for Russian ruble," she said looking for a money exchange. A little ways down the main street they came upon had a money exchange on it. "Wait right here outside and don't act odd to them okay. Make sure you back are to the wall. It won't be long," she said as she went into the building.

She came back out with $500 dollars in Russian ruble. She turned to her left to see Piccolo leaned up against the wall, his vale off and only showing his eyes.

"Now I have to find an English speaking Russian for a tour," she said as a man walked up to her.

"You looking for English tour of Russia?" he asked in a Russian accent, she nodded. "Come, let me show you." Not long the man showed them a building that read in Russian, Tour of Moscow. Cora thanked the man and they both walked in the building. Cora paid for each other for the tickets and was soon in a horse carriage to start the tour. Piccolo took the pack off and put next to him as the carriage moved a bit.

"Sir, do you speak English well?" she asked.

"Yes, mame, I do. You are lucky, most of our English speaking tour guides are on holiday," he said looking back at Piccolo. "Is your friend going to wear that hood the whole time on the tour?"

"I guess so," she said, getting out her camera. She bent over to Piccolo and whispered to him. "Don't worry about him. If he gives me any trouble, I'll take care of it." Piccolo nodded as he looked around.

The guide pointed out everything in Moscow and told about its history as Cora took pictures of what buildings and the people she wanted. Soon they came upon the Red Square of what Cora told him of what she could of it, but with all her explaining, it didn't compare to the size and beauty of the main building. It was the Cathedral of The Red Square that Piccolo set eyes on.

"Is that what you were telling me about?" Piccolo asked, mouth gapping as he stared at its colors and stonework.

"Yes, that's what I was trying to tell you, but couldn't. Isn't it beautiful?" Piccolo could only nod his head as the carriage halted to a stop, Cora getting out and taking a few pictures. She ran back to the carriage, "Hey, do you think it will be okay that I call you by your real name here or even anywhere?"

"Sure, I don't think anyone would care to notice."

"Good, so come out here and we'll get a picture of us next to the Cathedral," she said handing the camera to the guide. Piccolo lowered the fabric of his cloak down a bit so his face could be seen a bit more, but not too much as to make the people aware. The guide took the picture and they were on their way for the rest of the tour.

They saw the Peterhov Palace, Peter The Great statue, the Alexander Pushkin statue, Nicholas I statue, the Pantheon building, the Catharine's Palace, and Smolny Cathedral and many more wonderful things.

"Where can we find almost the most expensive place for the night?" she asked, the guide looking back in surprise. "Don't worry I can afford it."

"I'll take you there," he said as he turned the carriage around back through the city, the richest part of it. After a few blocks, the carriage came a stop and Cora stepped out of the carriage, Piccolo following with the camping pack in his hands after her. "This is the best place I can think of it you can afford it, Miss."

"It's perfect, thank you so much," she said turning to give the guide a nice tip for his very well done tour of Moscow. "Well, we'd better get a room. It's not good to camp out in this kind of cold country in the woods. You have no idea how bad the winters can get here," she added as Piccolo walked in with her into the lobby. Cora ran up to the front desk to start getting the key to a room, a very good room at that. A few minutes later Cora came back with the hotel room key.

"What kind of room did you get?" Piccolo asked as he followed her onto an elevator, Cora then pushed the sixth floor button going up. The elevator started going up and Piccolo just about fell to the floor. He braced himself up against the wall, his eyes wide with some bit of fear.

"You've never been on an elevator have you?" she said, Piccolo shaking his head. "We'll be up in the room soon. Don't worry, these elevators are safe."

The sixth floor finally came and the doors opened as Piccolo quickly walked out of the elevator.

"Okay, we have room 381," she said as she looked around for room number signs. "Ah, there, we go this way." She said as she counted the room numbers. "Here we are, room 381." On the door it read in Russian and in English, honeymoon suit 1. She opened the door and turned around to see Piccolo's face with a total disgusted look. "Hey, I can afford this and well, we can both truly relax for once. It's got a hot tub and a bar," she said smiling. "Get in here."

Piccolo walked in shaking his head. "I almost can't believe you."

"I can't believe me either," she said smiling as she took off her trench coat and threw it to the bed.

Piccolo closed the door behind him and put the camping pack on the large dinning table on the other side of the room.

"Tell me, why in the hell did you choose such a room?" he asked looking around.

"I've always wanted to be in one of these rooms even though I'm not married, nor will I ever be. Room service will be around very soon to take any orders, and such I'm the only one eating, that means more for me," she said grinning her little head off, Piccolo just shook his head and sat in a chair.

Soon someone came up to the room door and knocked.

"I'll get that, of course," she said running to the door and opening it a crack.

"Madam, I'm here to give you the hotel chef's menu. Everything is inside that you would find appetizing." Cora took the menu and thanked the man and gave him a small tip.

"Oooo.I can't wait to pig out!" she said, closing the door and locking it. She ran to the bed and jumped on it, lying down on her stomach as she looked through the English readable menu.

"If you start eating like a Saiya-jin, I'm leaving the room to yourself."

"That would not be wise, my green friend," she said as she looked at him from head to toe. "Aren't you going to take that heavy cloak off?" Piccolo smirked at her and took the dark cloak and his gloves off and hung it up on a rack the best he could. Suddenly, the clothes rack snapped and came falling to the ground with a crash. "I don't think you'll be doing that again and looks like I can't hang up my stuff now. Oh well," she said turning back to her menu and drooling as she read what kinds of foods they had.

"I think I'll just take a bath before my brunch," she said as she got off the bed, Piccolo got up and found a clean corner to meditate in, quit far away from the sound of the bathroom. She pulled the window curtains closed in the main room and got out some clean clothes and her music CD collection after she caught eye of a stereo in the bathroom. She walked into the bathroom and closed the door after her. She then turned on her music about five CDs inside it and started with the Tomb Raider soundtrack and pushed track 13 and began to draw her bath. As the water filled the tub, she lit some candles that were in the bathroom and around the tub. The bubbles filled fast as she finished lighting the few candles. She took off her clothing, it falling to the floor slowly it seemed, her soft body shinned in the candle light as she turned off the main lights and stepped into the tub. The water was warm, as she felt her body soften up and finally relax. "Oh this feels so good," she said as she turned off the water and turned on the spa part to the tub. 'I think this tub is big enough for Piccolo and I together,' she thought to herself giggling and making sure to block her thought of passion about Piccolo from him.

Piccolo could hear through his mind of Cora's music, it calming him greatly as he continued to meditate in full peace, at least he hoped it would be a peaceful meditating evening. He soon levitated up in the air a few feet off the sand colored carpet, his shoulders not as tight as he would usually have them when he meditated, his arms crossed like always.

She turned to the next song by the stereo remote and as it played she sank further into the hot bubbling bath of the spa. The bathroom was fairly large, a shower room big enough for two people, a spa/bath tub big enough for two, the whole room being colored in a light tan, desert like brown. Two white bathrobes hung at the back of the door, and a list of what the hotel offered for comfort in its spa room. After an hour or so, Cora stepped out of the bath and dried off. She put on one of the white bathrobes and opened the door to find where Piccolo had gone. She found him sitting, or more a less levitating above the floor in the corner of the main living room area of the hotel room. She stepped out of the door way and quietly, oh so quietly tip toed over to Piccolo, the music now playing peaceful, soft ocean music as she sat in front of him, cross legged, her arms down resting on her lap as she closed her eyes and began to meditate with him.

Her mind was open to him at anytime to step inside and if he did so, she didn't mind what he found from within. The music surrounded both their bodies in pure bliss of peace, until that peace was sad fully broken by Cora's growling stomach. Piccolo so deep in his meditating he didn't hear her growling stomach. She quietly got up to get dressed, she put on some sweat pants and a sweatshirt with cotton socks, she then dilled up the front desk to take down her order of food for the evening.

"I'll have a pound of king crab legs, steamed with butter," she began as she kept her eye on Piccolo making sure he didn't awaken from his deep meditation. She whispered to the man on the phone, "I'll also have three pounds of breaded popcorn shrimp, a pound of scallops, a fairly large bowl of cocktail shrimp, topped off with one slice of cheesecake with cherries on top and a pitcher of sweetened ice tea, please," she said to the man as he wrote everything down.

"Madam, don't mind me by asking, but why are you whispering on the phone?" the deskman asked.

She looked over at Piccolo and her eyes went wide as the cruelest thought came across her mind, she smiled and said it with great delight, but still in a whisper. "My husband is resting in the bed at this moment and I don't want to." she said as she saw Piccolo get up from his seated position, his eyes glaring, but wide with question and annoyance all over his face. "Wake him," she finished finally.

"Will that be all then?" the man asked.

"Yes, that will be just fine, send the bill up with the meal please," she said with a light chuckle, as she hung up the phone. She looked at Piccolo trying not to laugh so hard, she covered her mouth, laughter trying to escape from her mouth. She put her hands down and opened her mouth to speak, but Piccolo stopped her before she could.

Putting his hand up in front of her face, "I really don't want to know," he said finally with a grunt of disgust, he turned around and took the camping pack off the dinning table and sat down in one of the chairs, staring at Cora.

Cora hung her head in apology, "I have to have some fun, and I can't help it if I have a fun loving mind."

"A sick one at that," he added.

"What do you mean?"

"I saw the thought you had when you were in the tub. I could even slightly hear you giggling at the thought," he said glaring harshly.

"Well, excuse me for having fun on this trip, Mr. Scrooge!"

Piccolo's right ear twitched as he heard the Enigma CD start to play, hearing a woman slightly breathing heavy as if she was into a sexual act.

"You can turn that off now."

"I'll turn it down, but not off. After getting you mad and me feeling if, I have to calm down some how and this is how I do it."

"You listen to people moaning?"

"Not exactly, but that's part of the music of Enigma. Sex, love, meditation, peace, and music of nature with some techno sound, is what they create in their form of music and I love it. You'd have to admit, you really enjoyed the music of that Oceans CD, I could see if all over your face and that's in a way of how their music is. And just to let you know, if you trash my CDs out of anger, so help me I'm going to kill you for it and you'll have to buy me all my CDs again during this whole trip!" she said turning the music down, enough for herself to hear.

"Okay, let me get this straight. If I destroy your music collection, you'll kill me and then I have to buy you the new ones? Hey, won't I be dead, where I wouldn't be able to buy them?" he snapped with a slight grin and chuckle to himself.

Cora stood there flabbergasted and suckered into her own words of silliness.

"You catch on too quick, Piccolo," she said pointing a finger at him and winking. Piccolo grinned widely at her, he felt proud to have made her feel like a fool for the first time during the trip.

Soon a knock was heard at the door.

"That must be my feast," she said as she opened the door, Piccolo moving out of view. "Thank you." She said as she rolled the large wheeled tray into the room and over to the dinning table. She went back and closed and locked the door.

"What did you get?" Piccolo asked.

"Almost anything and everything that a seafood lover could ever want," she said, putting out the silver covered trays of food onto the table. She opened one of them and saw it to have a nice filet of salmon and note next to it. It read,

'Madam, such you had ordered our best seafood for the evening, we have given you a free filet of salmon to go with it. Enjoy.' Signed the kitchen staff.

"Wow, I'm in heaven now. Look out Piccolo, it's going to get messy."

"I think that's my Q to get out of here, or at least relax in that spa, while you pig out," he said as he looked in the bathroom.

"You've taken baths before?" she said with one eyebrow up.

"What the hell do you think? I don't very much, but when I do, it's worth it. While I was out in the forests of China, I came across this waterfall that had a fairly large pool at the bottom."

"Well, in that case, I'll get your gi washed with my other dirty clothes, while you're in the bathtub. It won't take long for me to call up a maid to take them down for me," she said as she started to take out her dirty clothes from her camping pack, it being a full load, especially with Piccolo's gi outfit and his soft fabric boots.

Piccolo closed the bathroom door slightly and took off his gi outfit and boots and threw them to Cora. She held his gi outfit up and with one smell of it, she just about passed out.

"When was the last damn time you washed this thing? Wait, don't answer that."

"I'll keep the music going," he said as he turned on the water.

"I told you would like my kind of music. It's already programmed as to what I wanted to hear, so it will just play all the songs over and over until you push stop," she said as she pilled the clothes near the door. A knock at the door and it was the maid ready to take the clothes. Opening the door, "There you go, miss. It's not much but please don't lose any of our stuff, especially this," she pointed to Piccolo's gi outfit. The maid nodded and put the clothes in a basket and went on her way. Cora closed the door and locked it again, as she turned to the slightly opened bathroom door.

She slowly crept up to the door hinges and peered inside.

"Ha! Caught ya!" Piccolo yelled, as he threw a pillow at her. Cora jumped about four feet straight up into the air, screaming as she did and turned around. Piccolo was standing next to a wall; he had a towel tied around his waist. "You know, you won't last long with me around if you jump like that from the slightest snick up," he said with a chuckled as he walked into the bathroom and locked the door behind him.

"That was so mean!" she yelled at him, hitting the bathroom door with one fist.

"Yeah, but it was sweet revenge after what you said on the phone to that man."

She huphed and went to her feast and ate like a pig as she cracked the first king crab leg.

After the tub was filled, Piccolo turned the water off and quickly figured out how to work the spa. The bubbles and water jets soothed his body all around; he had never felt such luxury and pleasure before. He sighed slowly as he sank deeper into the spa tub, luckily it was big enough for an almost seven foot man. The music soothed his ears as he turned down the light in the room, he laying back and closing his eyes. He could slightly hear Cora eating her feast, hearing her crack the crab legs and putting the rest of the food down her throat.

'She better not get sick,' Piccolo thought, suddenly a very loud belch came from the dinning area of the room. He opened his eyes wide and felt sick to his stomach. 'She better not be a Saiya-jin,' he thought.

"Sorry about that Piccolo," Cora called out as she kept eating.

After a few hours, Cora had finished her dinner and Piccolo got out of his bath and began to dry off. Cora had eaten almost everything in sight that she ordered, only some popcorn shrimp, some scallops; some cocktail shrimp were left on the plates. She scrapped all that was left of the foods to one large plate and covered it with the silver cover and placed the rest of the dishes on the rolling tray. She wheeled it outside the door, seeing a waiter walking down the hall. The man stopped and rolled the tray to the kitchen with the bill paid in full with it and a bit of a tip.

"By the way, how much was all that food?" Piccolo asked still drying off with a towel.

Closing the door, "About $300 rubles," she replied, Piccolo sticking his head out from the bathroom in amazement. "That actually is pretty cheep from what I have heard. France is much more expensive, trust me," she added as she sat on the king size bed. "Now we have to wait for our clothes to get back, it shouldn't be long now." Just then, a knock was heard at the door and sure enough it was the maid back with their clothes all cleaned and folded nicely. Cora knocked on the bathroom door, holding Piccolo's clothes. "Your clothes are here," she said as Piccolo opened the door a bit, grabbing the clothes and closing the door quickly. "Aw, fooey!" she said snapping her fingers.

"What are you, drunk?" he added.

"No."

"Why do you want to see my naked body then?"

"Oh, come on, you don't think one of your fans would like to know a few things about your body? I would love to see it in all its beautiful glory."

"Not on your life, woman!"

Cora laughed as she put her clothes in her camping pack. Piccolo came out fully dressed in his now clean gi outfit and soft leather boots.

"Feel better?" she asked, with a light smile, Piccolo nodding as he sat down at the dinning table.

He looked at what was left of the food and smiled, "At least you don't eat like a Saiya-jin. If you had, there would be no leftovers."

"I know that, and if I did eat like those pigs you wouldn't have liked it at all," she said holding her stomach as she sat on the bed.

"Now, don't you dare get sick on me okay."

"I won't. My stomach can handle just about anything I put in it," she said with a groan as she laid down slowly. "I think I'll start taking my slumber right now." She said getting back up to get fixed up for bed. "By the way, how is that you are able to speak such good English, when I mainly know you to speak Japanese only?"

He pondered this for a moment, "I really don't know, but my guess is, that the wish Dende made on the Dragon Balls when I was taken to Earth, the magic from the Eternal Dragon granted me to speak English. That's the only thing I can think of."

"That sounds about right on my side of things. Well, it's good that you can speak Japanese and English. Maybe you could teach me some Japanese, better than what I've learned on my own," she added, Piccolo shrugging his shoulders.

She went into the bathroom and then returned soon after and crawled into bed.

"Where are we going next, Cora?" Piccolo asked.

"I guess we could go to Finland or Sweden? Pick one."

"Sweden."

She grabbed her map and opened it up to the European side. "Well, we have to start going towards Finland first, then Sweden. We'll, talk about this later tomorrow, but are you finished with seeing Russia?"

"Are you?"

"Yeah, I've taken all my pictures I've ever wanted of Russia."

"Very well then," he replied as he got up to sit in his corner again to meditate. Cora turned off the lights in the room, leaving one light on in the bathroom, lightly turned down not to be so bright. She curled up into the bed and laid there listening to the rain lightly falling on the hotel roof. After a while, she slowly drifted off to sleep.

Late into the night, about two in the morning, Piccolo awake from his meditation, he got up and looked outside the room window. The night sky was cloudy and rain pounded against the windows and roofs of the hotel, and the window was very cold to the touch. He closed the curtains and turned to look at Cora. She was covered up warmly underneath the thick comforter blanket and sheets; her long wavy brown hair lay softly on the pillow. Piccolo bent down to her face, sighing as he lightly touched her soft cheek with his hand.

'She may be a bit annoying at times, but she is fun to be with,' he said in his mind. 'What am I doing? I don't have any feeling for her, only that she is a friend and nothing more. Why does my heart feel this way?' He backed away and turned around, facing the mirror; he could see the reflection of her face. He turned back around to face her and just stood they're watching her sleep; she even snored a bit, but not very loudly. She turned over on her stomach, Piccolo keeping still like a stone statue, making sure she did not wake. 'Why do I feel this way?' he asked himself, the words of that question pounding at his mind. He finally moved slowly to sit in a chair; there he waited for her to awaken in the morning. He just kept his eyes on her all through the rest of the night, sighing softly every once and a while to himself as he looked longingly at her soft beauty.

The morning sun shinned brightly; it's golden rays shinning through the window, as Piccolo slowly opened the curtains up. Cora turned over towards the sun, her eyes squinting a bit from the brightness. She covered her eyes and whipped them as she slowly sat up.

With a yawn, "Good morning, Piccolo."

Piccolo just stood there by the window looking out over the city of Moscow and the morning sun, his thoughts racing. 'I love it when you say that to me every morning,' he said in his mind, making sure Cora didn't hear it from within her own mind. He lightly smiled as he turned to look at her, she sitting up in the bed stretching.

"For you to smile like that, so calmly and gently, so gentle in fact your smile being as soft as a baby's touch, the morning sun must really be a wonderful sight for you to see," she said getting up to stand next to him at the window to look at the morning.

He lightly nodded, 'You have no idea, Cora, you have no idea,' he said to himself.

"Well, may our travel to Finland be a good one," she said patting Piccolo on the shoulder and then turning to put her tennis shoes on, Piccolo flinched a bit from her touching him.

"Where are you off to?"

"I'm hungry for breakfast and I think I'll go take a little jog around their indoor running track before I eat. I am a bit out of shape and I need to keep up." She said as she took her CD player and the Batman Forever soundtrack CD. "You might as well stay here, if you leave, I hope no one notices you."

"If I leave to find you for anything, I'll be hidden by the cloak and you know it."

"Okay then, well I'm off. I'll be back in an hour I guess," she said taking one of the hotel keys with her and closing the door after. She stretched a bit outside the room and then jogged her way to the hotel gym for her morning work out.

Once she got there she showed the gym manager her pass and started to jog around the indoor track. Piccolo didn't stay long in the hotel room by himself, and got dressed to find Cora and watch her work out. He was dressed in his cloak of course, but he made it look less strange to everyone there by showing his face a bit more than usual, but no one noticed nor cared to notice him. He finally found her on the track running slowly at first, but soon she stepped up her pace. She looked up as she passed the bend in the track and waved to Piccolo who was watching her from above from the top floor. He nodded to her as she passed by.

After a few more laps on the track, Cora went to the free weights. She cracked her neck twice and knuckles and picked up thirty-pound free weights in each hand and started to do curls. Soon she found herself sweating greatly, she put the weights down and took off her sweat shirt, wearing underneath a tight work out small top, it showing off her six pack on her stomach. Piccolo took a double take look at her six-pack and the form of her muscles of her arms and back, he couldn't believe how strong she looked and wondered how much she could lift and press only for a human. She then took off her sweat pants, underneath a pair of black jean shorts. Her bare legs full of muscle but not too much to over do her true natural beauty. Piccolo seeing this, again wondered how much she could press. He could only watch her, knowing that if he worked out, he would have to have a lot more weights than these normal humans had, it being in the range of tons not pounds like these beings only had. He couldn't even run the track, it being too small for him, he needing the wide open spaces of a field out stretched before him. So he got a chair and sat in the gym watching Cora work out.

She did about fifty curls before going to forty pound weights in each hand. After the free weights she went to leg pressing weights, she fixed the weight to sixty pounds, turned off her music and began. Piccolo got up to go watch her.

"Hey, Piccolo," she said with a breath as she pressed slowly not to over work herself.

"How much can you can you leg press?"

"When I've really trained good, I can press maybe a full hundred pounds, but usually I can press about sixty or a bit more. For me today, this is a light work out, you should see me really work out seriously. Maybe sometime you will," she replied as she pressed her legs onward with the weights.

"How much can you lift?"

"Not much, about maybe fifty if I'm really in the mood, but I usually lift thirty or forty."

Piccolo nodded, "You can only dream at how much I can lift," he said with a wink. Cora smiled as she remembered from the anime on how much tons he can lift.

After a few more leg presses she went to bench pressing, laying down on the bench. She set the weight to fifty and began. She took one press and got up again, to reset the weight to hundred and thirty pounds and began again.

"How for a woman like yourself, you sure can work out pretty good," he commented.

Saying with a breath, "Yeah, I can when I'm up to it." She put the weight down and looked in the mirror, a gym trainer came up from behind Piccolo.

Tapping at his shoulder, "Sir, if you aren't going to work out, I must ask you to set outside."

"Excuse me, sir," she said standing up in front of the man. "I asked him to watch me and I would like for him to watch and just in case something happens to me, he'll be my sparing partner."

"Okay, but not for long, that long cloak could get caught in the machines."

"I understand," Piccolo replied as the gym trainer walked away.

"I won't be much longer, Piccolo," she said taking to the track once more, she turned on her music and ran much faster this time around it. Piccolo sat back down in a chair and watched her pass him many times.

'She's fast too,' he thought as Cora passed him again for the fifth time around. 'Maybe once we get started on the road again, and we find a safe hidden place I could work out a bit myself,' he said to himself as he flexed his arm muscle a bit, it feeling like it needed it.

Cora soon slowed down and jogged over to Piccolo, out of breath, "Okay, I think I can eat a horse now," she said Piccolo's eyes going wide. "I'm only kidding, it's a saying, don't worry, I won't eat a horse," she said chuckling a bit as she walked out of the gym with Piccolo by her side.

Once they got back to the hotel, Cora headed for the shower. She soon came out a few minutes later with just a towel around her body, her hair wet, and the bathroom stereo playing some really good music.

"What music is this?" Piccolo asked as he sat down at the dinning table.

"It's the Labyrinth soundtrack. Maybe sometime we'll watch that movie together," she replied as she began to towel dry her hair with another towel, Piccolo shrugged and had finally noticed she was just wearing a towel.

"Do you have to just wear that around me? Get something on, woman!" he cried out, turning his gaze to another part of the room away from Cora.

She looked up and laughed, "Why should I? You were in the tub last night and when you were about to get in, you came out only wearing a towel around you waist, so nah," she said sticking out her tongue.

Piccolo twitched his eye a bit, noticing he has been suckered.

"Ha, I got you this time, Piccolo. That means we are even on picking on each other. So you can't say anything about it," she said sticking out her tongue again and laughing.

"Just hurry up and get dressed."

"Not until I finish my breakfast, so you will just have to cool it for a while," she said dialing the front desk phone number and ordering her breakfast.

After eating, she finally got dressed in some black jeans, dark green sweatshirt, and hiking boots. Soon they gathered their things and were checking out of the hotel and back onto the road of their travels.

Out on a dirt road out away from the cities and towns going north, Cora and Piccolo found their traveling very easy in the morning. The birds were singing and other small animals were doing their daily foraging for food. Cora stopped walking a bit, Piccolo turned around and looked at her oddly. She bent down and a few feet in front of her was a gray squirrel, she took out some bread from her breakfast she had left and put it in her finger tips for the squirrel to take. After a little bit of squeaking and chirping sounds to the creature, it came over to her and took the food quickly. The squirrel ran over to a tree to eat it, but was suddenly stopped by a sound it had heard. It dropped the food and ran up the nearest tree, by that time Piccolo's ears twitched, hearing the light footsteps of two heavy broad men coming up from behind them.

"Cora, when I tell you to run, run. I'll take care of these two guys," Piccolo suggested.

"No, I'm not going to let you do that. We both can't risk it of what and who you are. I'll take care of them, you noticed how strong I am, so let me," she pleaded.

"Okay, but if you need me I'll be up in the trees a few feet away," he said as he ran up a steep embankment and climbed a very large tree and hide himself from view of the approaching men. Cora slowly stood up as the men came close up from behind her.

"I thought you had a friend with you?" one of the men asked, as he cracked his knuckles.

"He had to leave, I only traveled with him for a short time," she said turning around to face the two men.

"Well, we wanted to ask him a few things of where he came from. He seems to always wear that cloak around you or wherever he goes," the other man said as he too cracked his knuckles.

"You don't know him at all, nor do you care. Are you two gentlemen drunk this morning or just got up on the wrong side of the bed?" she asked, glaring at them.

"No, but it looks like you'll have to do, such your bodyguard isn't around anymore," one of the men said as he took a right hooked swing at Cora, she dodging it and high kicked him right square in the caller bone, breaking it instantly, causing the man to fall to his knees holding his throat.

"You want some of this?" she said finally slowly putting her leg down from the high kick.

With no answer the other man charged her, forcing her up off the ground, hitting an oak tree. The tree slightly cracking after she hit it hard, she slowly opened her eyes, glaring at the broad man that was pinning her to the tree. With his free hand he clutched his fist and just as he was about to punch her, Piccolo stood behind him. Piccolo took one punch to the man's back, hearing it crack as he let go of Cora from the tree. He groaned and screamed in pain as he fell to his knees. With the man down on the ground, Cora motioned for Piccolo to move out of her way, as she football kicked the man across the path to another tree, hitting it hard and knocking him out for the count. The other man that was still riving in pain over that one high kick to the caller bone, Cora knelt down before the guy and pull his face up to her view by the hair on his head.

"Now, tell me why the hell did you follow us really?" Cora asked, glaring at the man angrily.

"We just didn't like the way he looked hanging around Moscow like that and some of the people wanted him out of the city."

"Yeah, right, I would have heard about it. But aren't you the two guys from the gym this morning?" she said to him, the man grunting out a yes. With that, she dropped his head and with a swift blow right punch to his jaw the man hit the ground out cold.

"Let's go, Cora, before anyone else shows up," Piccolo suggested taking her by the arm and flying away. He flew very high into the sky, far enough were no one could see them. Once he got high enough he gathered Cora in his arms and floated there for a while. "Did those guys hurt you?"

"No, not really, but my back does hurt a bit, but not as bad as you think and when I bet those guys up a bit, it didn't hurt me at all, but probably that last punch was something else. That guy has a hard jaw to break," she said holding her right hand.

Holding Cora with his arm wrapped around her waist, Piccolo searched in his pocket for a sinsu bean. "Here, take this and don't argue with me okay," he said in a demanding deep voice as he put the bean in her mouth, she chewed it and swallowed, a few seconds later she felt much better.

"Wow, I thought those beans wouldn't work here on this Earth. Those things are amazing," she said, her eyes shinning with life again.

"I only have five left, they will have to last us quit a while," he said looking in his pouch.

"I think it will be much safer if we fly a good ways away from the main city, we need to get to the mountains," she said as Piccolo gathered her up in his arms and flew north to find a safe place to land.

A few hours later, Piccolo landed in a meadow and let Cora down on the ground. The meadow had some patches of snow on it, the grass brown, and the leaves on the trees turning to the autumn colors.

"I've never seen trees like these before," Piccolo said as he looked around.

"They're turning to the season of fall. All over the northern hemisphere this kind of changing is happening as we speak and soon it will snow greatly," she added, as she picked an orange maple leaf from the tree, she put it in her hair and smiled softly at Piccolo. "Whenever I put nature in my hair, I feel closer to the Earth than any way else possible."

"Shall we go then?"

"My, you are in a rush today. Why hurry?"

"I'm just wanting to see more of this Earth and I want to get to the next country."

She smiled and walked up to him. "You're just like a school boy, wanting to be the smartest kid in geography class and I wasn't very good at it either."

The two of them walked for hours it seemed, but such Piccolo had flown so far after the attack, it wouldn't take them long to reach the Gulf of Finland. There they would probably fly over the gulf in the middle of the night.

As the day came to be the late afternoon, the wind picked up a bit of a colder feel to it, clouds flowing in from the artic north of Russia. Piccolo put Cora's pack down off his back, as she went through it to find her trench coat and black leather gloves, she put them on and they were on their way once again.

She checked her pockets and found an energy bar. "Oh, glad to find this," she said as she opened the bar and started to eat it. Piccolo stopped a few feet behind her; she turned around and found him just standing there with his eyes closed. She looked around the forest, her ears at their peak of hearing ability. "What is it, Piccolo? What do you hear or sense?" she asked whispering to him.

"I was just listening to what's around me, that's all. There isn't anything for you to worry about, Cora," he said, Cora nodding her reply as she looked around her, scanning the forest for anything interesting. Deep in the forest, as far as she could see, she suddenly saw a very large bush of blueberries. "Hey, look what I found," she said running to the bush, Piccolo looked up and walked over to her.

"What are they?" he asked picking one of the berries from the bush.

"There blueberries, big and plump ones too," she said her eyes wide with glee as she picked and ate as many as she could. "Try one, they're very sweet," she said with her mouth full. Piccolo looked at her with a disgusted look on his face as he watched her eat so many. After a while she was full, she took one look at her energy bar and put it back in her pocket. "That was worth it, I haven't eaten so many blueberries in my life and fresh wild one too. Aren't you going to try one at least?" she said to him, as he finally put a few in his mouth and ate them. "So, what do you think?"

"They are pretty good, but you know me."

"I know, you don't need to eat anything, but for a few times you will. Every time I see you just drinking water and nothing else makes me think you aren't healthy, but then again, you actually are," she said before Piccolo could fully speak.

"Alright, if you are that concerned and I will tell you this, the Namek race did consume food before what we did to our planet of that great war and such this isn't Planet Namek, I will eat some things, as long as you know I will like it."

"And only if you are really up to trying something new. Agreed?" she said both of them shaking hands on the deal. "Now that you've seen and tasted blueberries, what else would you like to learn of this forest?"

"What kinds of trees are mostly in this place?"

She looked around to figured out what trees were what and finally answered him. "That's an aspen," she said pointing to it. "In Aspen, Colorado of America, they have tons of them around and in France too. These are pines, and these are furr pines. Well, that looks like that's about it up here in this area." Piccolo listened to her every word, he felt pleased to learn new things, just what Dende said to him when he made the wish.

For the rest of the time of the afternoon, they kept quiet, walking side by side through the Russian forest, Cora explaining more of the animal kingdom of this area and its planets and trees. Finally, after a long days trek across the forest up close to the Gulf of Finland, it had finally gotten dark once more.

While Cora was out looking for some eatable mushrooms by what was left of the sunset, she came across an old cottage close to the shore. She checked it out the best she could before returning back to where Piccolo was waiting for her, sitting calmly in a bit of a meditative state.

"Piccolo, come see what I found," she called out a few feet away from him and the cottage. "Its dry enough for the night, I hope, unless it doesn't ran, but I think it will."

Piccolo checked the house even more closely than what she didn't see he had found some holes in the roof of where a bedroom had been. He quickly got some straw and long sticks and found some wooden boards and nailed them over the holes in the roof.

"I didn't know you could fix up a house?"

"I can, after what I saw what happened to Master Roshie's house a few times from Gokou and watched Roshie fix it up," he said as he came off the ladder.

Chuckling, "I know Master Roshie would not have been very happy about it one bit."

"That's for sure," he said as he walked into the cottage lowering his head a bit not to knock it on the doorframe.

"While you were almost finished with the repairs, I fixed up the place inside," she said as she sat at what was left of half a kitchen table with a bench.

The cottage was quit old and smelled a bit like molded wood, but not too bad as to make them sick. The floor in the main room was dry and fresh, with sawdust chips all over it to save heat. The fireplace and chimney were useable, with a hook to hold a pot over a fire to cook food. The windows had been boarded up with wooden boards, the nails from the boards seem very old and if touched, they could have gotten tetanus. The one bedroom, its roof over head now fixed, Cora got up to place her sleeping bag on the floor, and an extra thick blanket next to it just in case and her cloak as a pillow.

"Its nice, of what's left," he commented, snickering at the smell of the cottage.

"Once we get a fire going, maybe the smell won't be so bad or it could even go away," she said as she gathered up what she could find of kiln for the fire, as Piccolo went outside to search for wood. She soon joined him, but she was still looking for the right eatable mushrooms, she put the mushrooms in a basket she found in the cottage.

Cora stopped for a moment and looked out over the sea, the sound of the waves that washed ashore sounded calming to her, her body seems to flow in the feel and sound of the gentle waves. Piccolo looked at her and smiled very softly, as he too heard the sound of the waves. He stepped back inside the cottage and dropped his very large bundle of wood and sticks in a corner near the fireplace. Shaking her head of the peaceful feel she had found, she quickly ran back to cottage and just as she jumped over a rock, she tripped, screaming in pain as she heard a sudden crack of her right ankle. Piccolo walked outside quickly to find Cora on the ground, holding her ankle, tears in her eyes.

"What happened?" he asked, considering he had already figured it out of what happened.

"I sprained my ankle. I think this is the twelfth time this had happened, and I don't need a sinsu bean either, I can heal in three days, it's no problem, I'm used to it," she groaned out in pain, as Piccolo gently picked her up in his arms, carrying the basket of mushrooms with him.

He laid her on the sleeping bag and propped her hurt ankle on his bunched up white cloak, as he slowly untied her shoes and took them off. He came to her right one and very gently, oh so gently took that one off too and her sock to see about the swelling.

"It's nice and purple; blue," he said gently touching it to feel how tender it was with his fingers, Cora wincing in pain.

"Glad it's those colors. It shows that it's only a sprain and not broken, but I've heard that even a broken bone can show a brose and look sprained," she said, suddenly having fear over come her. "No, don't you dare!"

"I have to, and it's the only way for now," he said as he gave her a stick to bite down on. She bit it hard and closed her eyes as Piccolo tested her ankle for any broken bones. He lightly twisted her foot, hearing a pop to it, he then pressed down on the swollen area a bit hard, Cora groaning and with muffled screams of pain. After what seemed forever for Cora in a torture chamber, the test was finished. She opened her eyes and saw him tearing one long strip from the white fabric of his cloak, he slowly began to bandage up her ankle and foot, not too tight as to stop the blood flow, but tight enough to make it secure.

Spitting out the stick, "It's only a sprain, thank Odin."

"Who?" he asked, as he finished up her bandage.

"It's the Norse God of Thunder and nature up here in these parts of the world. He lives on Mount Asgard, a mountain like fortress in Norway. It's not really real, only in mythologies does he live, but I believe he's real as anyone else could be, he's just smart to stay away from humans," she said as she ugusted her potation on the sleeping bag, Piccolo nodding as he sat at her feet.

"Looks like you won't be dancing any tonight, and I don't know how to cook these mushrooms."

"I'll teach you, it's so easy," she said as Piccolo handed her a cutting board and the mushrooms and a knife. Cora sat up, placing the cutting board on her lap and began to cut the white mushrooms. "Now, all you have to do is fill the pot I brought, half way with water, wait until the water is boiling and put the mushrooms in. It should take them thirty minutes to cook," she told him as she did what was told. "Lucky for me I brought with me some powdered milk cream to put in the mushrooms to make it as a soup."

"Do you always bring so much stuff with you?"

"Always, you never know what you might come across out in the forest of what you could eat. I could eat a thick grub in Africa if I wanted to. It's just how you look at things that are eatable and what's not, it takes practice to figure these things out and plenty of errors too."

Soon the water came to a boil and Piccolo put the chopped mushrooms in it to cook, after it was cooked, he dished them out in a bowl for Cora. She put in her powdered cream and stirred it.

"You better hope those are actually eatable."

"I know they are, I've studied all kinds of forest foods and these are eatable and they'll help with my healing too," she said as she took the first bite. "Mmm.this is really good. They're a bit tart, but that's okay with me."

"Those better not make you sick," Piccolo said under his teeth. "For one thing, that sinsu bean I gave you after that fight, you shouldn't have been able to get hurt again so quickly. I guess those beans work differently with you humans on this Earth." Cora shrugged.

She quickly ate her mushroom soup and put what was left in a sealed container and put it near her camping pack. She slowly moved down into her sleeping bag, wincing in pain as she moved downwards. She covered herself up and looked over at Piccolo, who was sitting in the kitchen area in the next room.

"Why don't you come in here?" she asked, Piccolo looked up at her and walked over, sitting down next to her with his black cloak around him.

"I have to tend to the fire you know."

"I know, I'm just wanting you over here for a while," she said looking at how strong his face and hands looked in the firelight, she sighed a bit and just kept looking at him with her green eyes.

Piccolo cocked his head to the side as he looked at her. "I think I've now just noticed you have green eyes. I thought they were blue."

"Nope, they are usually green or a greener shade of blue. My eye color changes with my surroundings and how much light is in the room or even what I wear or what some else is wearing around me," she said smiling softly at him, her eyes sparkling in the firelight that lit the two rooms fairly brightly. She moved down a bit to touch her hurt ankle and before she could, Piccolo stopped her.

"Don't touch it," he said moving over to her feet and flipping the sleeping bag flap over. He then gathered her right foot in his left hand; cradling it gently as his other hand moved slowly an inch above it. He closed his eyes as he moved his hand around her foot and ankle, the heat from his hand that he called upon warmed and soothed her pain slowly away. He kept this up for at least an hour, her foot quit warm and his hand glowing an orange; yellow color around it. He opened his eyes and looked at Cora, who was slowly falling to sleep. He recovered her up with the sleeping bag and zipped it up all the way to keep her warm. He then went back to feed and tend the fire.

The sound of the crashing waves of the Gulf of Finland felt soothing to his ears as he tended the fire with more wood. He then sat back next to Cora, drinking some water from his canteen. He soon found it going empty and went out to refill it with the sea water, he knew he had to boil the water for it to be drinkable, but before he could get to the sea the wind quickly brought with it a large thunderstorm and lots of rain. He flew back to the cottage, fixing his and Cora's canteen to the cottage roof rim to fill up with rainwater. He came back into the cottage just in time, before the rain poured down on top of him. He closed the door, bracing it with something heavy to keep it from opening during the storm.

All through the night he kept the fire going, kept Cora warm and every once and awhile soothing her hurt ankle with his warmed up energy. It didn't seem like much work, but he knew he had to keep the fire going and Cora's pain down of something could go wrong. The rain raged on and on, the wind howling wildly across the rocks of the cliff of where the cottage stood. Cora tossed and turned slowly, but a lot as the wind and rain entered into her mind to form a bad dream. Piccolo sensing this, he came over to her side, putting his hand on her forehead to check for a fever and not finding one, he kept her mind calm by keeping his hand on her forehead. By doing this, he found himself able to tap into her subconscious and find what she was thinking as she slept.

Inside her mind a bit, Piccolo found all the knowledge she had about living out in the woods of this Earth. She was very well taught in these things and it impressed him greatly. Deeper into her mind, he found information about all the Japanese anime characters she knew about. Wanting to know more about this, on his side of things, he went in deeper. Soon he found a list of his British Zodiac sign, Chinese Zodiac sign and other bits of information about himself that he thought only he knew and no one else knew about, but it looked like Cora was truly the only human that knew mostly everything about the Namekian race, or at least as much as she could find. After reading what he could of the list, he left her mind, glad to have not found any nightmares inside as well, her mind now calmed and it was safe to let her sleep alone for the rest of the night. But deep inside of himself, he did not want to leave her side, he longed for something and he wasn't quit sure what it was, but he began to know something that almost wasn't normal for a Namek. He found himself falling in love with Cora, not just on her looks, but how well trained she was and what she knew, and how nice and fun she was to be with.

"I can't fall in love with a female," he said softly.

"Yes you can," Cora said even softer, not knowing what she had said to him in her sleep. He looked at her with wide eyes, and then smiled at her very softly.

"See you in the morning, Cora," he said as he sat next to the fire. He knew he couldn't tell her about how he felt, it just wasn't the right time to say it.