"Ones Quest,
Another's Journey"
Part 5:
"Winter Winds of Passion"
The next morning was quit misty with a fog over the Gulf of Finland and around the cottage. The sun mysteriously rose over the fog mist like clouds, it's golden rays hitting Piccolo's face as he watched it from behind the cottage. The ground was frosted lightly from the cold crisp night and morning air, the frost cracked beneath his booted feet as he walked back to the front of the cottage to see if Cora was awake. He slowly opened the cottage door to find Cora slowly crawling to the fireplace to warm herself.
"Get back into that sleeping bag right now!" Piccolo yelled, Cora jumping at the sound of his loud deep voice.
"I was getting too hot in my sleeping bag and needed to cool off, then I got cold and saw the fire dying. So." she said, her words cut off suddenly.
"So you wanted to catch your death of cold out here, uh?" Piccolo snapped, as he walked over to pick her up like a kitten his hands, he carried her back to her sleeping bag and covered her up a bit. "I'll deal with the fire right now. I had delt with it all last night and you too," he added as he tended the fire, putting the last amount of wood and sticks in it. "With you injured with that ankle, we might have to stay here until it heals, but I could still carry you over the water."
"Yes you could, and I think my ankle feels much better from what you did to it last night."
"I kept heating it with my energy all night long," he said turning to Cora.
"You took care of me all night long?" she said with a bit of shock in her voice.
Piccolo snickered, "I can't let you die you know. You would have done the same to me if I couldn't heal fast enough," he said, Cora nodding to him with a smile.
"Could you pass me the rest of the mushroom soup?" she asked her hand out stretched.
"I'll heat it for you first," he said taking off the top of the container and warming the soup from all sides with his energy, he then passed it to Cora. "Is it warm enough for you?"
"Yes, it's perfect," she said after taking the first bite.
"I put those other white mushrooms in another one of your containers, it's in the front pocket with your energy bars and other foods you have with you."
"Thank you, Piccolo," she said smiling and then chuckling a bit. "Oh, good morning to you," she said in a Swedish or at least a British accent. Piccolo shook his head at her and lightly smiled as he walked out of the cottage.
"The wind has finally died down where we could be on our way now, if you'd like?" he said popping his head back in the cottage looking at Cora, she nodding a yes with her mouth full of the soup. "Fine then, I'll give you time to get ready," he said getting his dark cloak, turban and gloves on, he then stayed out front of the cottage and waited for her to call him.
She quickly finished what was left of her soup and, slowly crawled to her camping pack, putting the container inside and getting a clean pair of socks and underwear on and changed her womanly things. She then slowly stood up, by the help of the wall to support her and put on a clean bra and sweater. She took one little hobbled step back to her sleeping bag and as she fell she screamed out a bit, Piccolo hearing this very quickly dashed into the cottage to catch her before she fully fell to the floor. He held her up by one hand, her left foot holding up her weight of her body as he held her there for a few minutes. She looked up finally and found herself safe in the arms or at least his large hands holding her up. He slowly moved her to her feet, still keeping her balanced by one hand on her shoulder. They stood there saying nothing, but only looked into each others eyes, both standing fairly close to one another.
As they stood staring, Piccolo could feel Cora's heart pounding fast. She wasn't out of breath or anything, but it just made him aware of her more now. He had never felt such energy from a females heart before, and it didn't beat at the normal speed that it should, it beating a rhythm of passion all its own. He cleared his throat as he broke his gaze from her and helped her over to her sleeping bag. She sat on her knees as she rolled the sleeping bag up tightly; Cora putting the rest of her things in the pack and then sat down and tried to put her hiking boots on. She winced in pain as she slowly put the right boot on and then the next and tied them up. Afterwards Piccolo tied the sleeping bag to the camping pack.
Piccolo put the pack on his back, covered his face with his hood, as Cora put on her cloak and covered herself up.
"Shall we go?" Piccolo asked, as he took the two canteens off from the side of the cottage and handed her canteen to her, she tying the canteen to her belt loop. With his arms out stretched to carry her, she nodded as he gathered her up in his arms again, covering her up better with her cloak and taking to the air.
Both of them kept quiet, thinking to themselves of what Russia had shown both of them to each other.
'Her heart felt so strong as I held her like that. I can't tell her how I feel, damn it! Not yet. I bet she doesn't even remember what she said to me in her sleep. Oh, Kami, I hope she doesn't remember just yet, I think I'd rather tell her, but when?' he thought, his mind racing with many things as he flew across the Gulf of Finland and soon both of them would be in Finland with no problems.
'Oh my heart. How could my heart feel like this for him? I only have a crazy, silly little childish crush for the green guy. If I tell him how I really feel, it might make him mad and he might leave me. He can't leave me, he needs me so much it hurts. Oh, when will this torture end?" she thought, her thoughts running wild in her mind. Both of them knew how to block their thoughts quickly from something like this that pleeged them so deeply.
Cora looked down at the water, her eyes widened as she saw a small family pod of pilot whales diving under, their tails slowly going under and making a bit of a splash.
"Piccolo, stop for a moment and look down there," she said pointing down to the water, Piccolo stopping his flight as he hovered a good two hundred feet above the water. He looked down seeing the great creatures swimming. "Let's get down closer to the water so you can get a better look at those pilot whales," she said as Piccolo slowly lowered himself over the water about three feet above it, the waves slightly splashing on his feet. Suddenly, one of the whales came up for air, its blowhole mist rising over its great body, it startling Piccolo a bit. "Those are pilot whales, they're common here in these kinds of cold waters."
"They're so big," Piccolo added. His eyes wide as he looked at them swimming by.
"Does Chikyuu have whales in their waters?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. I really don't pay attention to what's on Chikyuu, except the enemies and that's about it."
"Okay, just wondering," she replied as Piccolo continued with his flight up high in the sky for the shores of Finland.
After a very short flight, Piccolo and Cora made it almost safely to the shores of Finland. The only thing that stood in their way was a bunch of people out on the shore having a fall festival.
"Now what do you we do?" Cora asked, looking down at the town's people.
Saying nothing, Piccolo disappeared with Cora in his arms and then reappearing somewhere in the middle of Finland in the sky.
"That was cool," Cora commented as Piccolo began to land on the hard cold ground.
"I don't think it would be best to stay here very long. I smell another storm coming up this way," he said as he held Cora in one arm and hand, taking a drink from his canteen with his free one.
"You're right, but I think we need to find a hospital first so I can get my ankle checked," she added, Piccolo nodding and taking to the air again.
After a while of flying way above Helsinki, the capital of Finland, Cora spotted a hospital. Piccolo finding an alleyway to land in, quickly landed and put Cora on her feet. She grabbed a stick and hobbled her way to the hospital.
"I won't be long, Piccolo, just stay right there," she said as she hobbled out of the ally, some towns people seeing her come out, rushed to her aid, the people only speaking in Finnish. She pointed to the hospital and one man carried her to the lobby. Piccolo watched this from the safety of the dark alleyway shadows.
In the hospital, a doctor checked out her ankle, luckily he spoke some good English.
"How long have you been without a proper bandage?" the doctor asked as he took the white cloth of Piccolo's toren cloak off her foot.
"All night long, a friend of mine bandaged it up the best he could," she said wincing in pain a bit as the doctor check the swelling.
"Whatever your friend did to your ankle to help it heal, he did a good job. The ankle of where it was twisted, the swelling seems to have gone down a lot and the twisted muscle is quite warm."
"How long will it take to heal completely where I can walk?" she asked hoping for a good answer.
"If I were you, such you were carried here from some of the citizens of the city, you might as well tell your friend that you will be here for a few days. We need to check up on that ankle, it looks like you really twisted a vane and some nerves and they need to be cared for."
"My friend is busy and he can't make it here for a few days. He's got very important things to work on for his business," she lied to the doctor, knowing that Piccolo was just across the street from the hospital.
"Okay then. Then that means, he'll have to find out later. We'll put you in for free and check you out, the bill shouldn't be that high," the doctor added.
"Don't worry, I can pay for it," she said as she checked her pants pocket, finding that her wallet of money was in her camping pack. "Opps, I left my wallet with everything in it with my friend. Great!" she said rolling her eyes.
"That's okay, just between me and you, I'll be nice and pay for it instead for you."
"Wow, are you sure that will be okay with the hospital?"
"Yes, I've done it before and I've been prassed for it," he said as he opened up a wheel chair for her to sit in, she sat down as the doctor wheeled her to x-ray room.
"What date is it?" she asked.
Checking the calendar on the wall as he passed a bulletin board. "It's November 20th on a Tuesday."
"Okay, thanks."
After the x-ray check, the doctor found no broken bones, only the usual twisted muscle and some nerves of the sprained ankle.
"Well, you've checked out pretty good. But for it to heal really well, if you are needing to be on your feet, I suggest you stay here at the hospital for at least two days," the doctor said, Cora nodding a yes to him.
'I hope Piccolo will be okay with me being in here. I hope he won't worry about me too much,' she thought as she was taken to a private room.
The next two days, Cora stayed in the hospital getting anything she pretty much wanted, but what she wanted most was Piccolo carrying her in his arms.
On the last night of being in the hospital, Cora slept a bit uneasy for some reason. She felt something wasn't right, as she tried to fall asleep. Piccolo was outside still in the alleyway, passing back and forth like a wild cat in a cage, worrying about Cora's well being.
'She shouldn't be in the hospital that long,' Piccolo said to himself, his mind racing with worry.
Back in Cora's hospital room, the door to the room slowly opened as a figure in white lab coat and blue doctor's mask came into her room. Cora kept still as the figure came closer, closing the door behind him. Once the figure got close enough to her bed, the figure quickly jumped on top of her, keeping her hands tightly against the bed. She turned around, her eyes wide with fear as the doctor that she had seen a day ago helping her, was about to rape her. She gasped and almost couldn't speak as the doctor began to take off his pants.
Gasping again she screamed out as loud as she could, "Piccolo!!" she yelled, Piccolo jumping to his feet, his ears flicking to find where the scream came from. Quickly finding the scream, he disappeared and then reappeared at the window of Cora's hospital room. He growled loudly as he saw the doctor beginning to take her clothes off, Piccolo busted through the window and with one single right hook punch to the face, the doctor flew against the door of the room out cold. Piccolo quickly grabbed Cora's clothes and grabbed her and both disappeared out of the hospital, as hospital personal came in the room to find the doctor out cold.
Piccolo reappeared on top of a near by business building with Cora in his arms.
"Did he hurt you?" Piccolo asked.
"No, he never got that far with me, thanks to you," she said hugging him tightly, with tears falling from her eyes as the reality finally sunk into her mind of what had just happened. "He was the doctor I saw about my ankle," she continued with a sniff. "He was trying to rape me," she cried out, Piccolo holding her tightly, rocking her a bit in his arms.
"Can you walk you think?" Piccolo asked as he put her down on the rooftop.
Taking a very slow step with both feet firmly on the ground, she nodded and finally smiled up at him.
"You better get that hospital gown off before you get too cold," he suggested as he gave her clothes. Piccolo turned around the other way, looking down on the hospital, about two cop cars parked outside the hospital front entrance. Now dressed back in her original clothes, she looked over the roof's edge with Piccolo.
"That's the guy, right there!" she said pointing down to where two cops were taking him into custody. "There was a video camera in my room and they caught it all on tape. I just hope they didn't catch you on tape too."
"They didn't see that part, only at the part were I punched the guy out and him trying to rape you," he said as his ears heard everything that the main security guy of the hospital told the news crew. "The rest of it they say was all stack and broken tape from the recorder."
"Oh yeah, you can hear everything they say," she added, Piccolo nodding. "Well, that's good, at least he's gong to jail and I'm safe now. But if they need me to testify against him, I'm not doing it, such you're here. I can't take that risk, such they have all the evidence they need right on the tape."
"Hai, and I think we should get going again. I don't want to stay here another second after what happened to you," he said as he took Cora in his arms again.
She looked back behind him, "Aw, I see you still have my camping pack on your back, that's good."
"I don't really have a reason to take it off, unless you need something. By the way, didn't you have to pay for that doctor check up?"
"Nope, that 'doctor' said he would pay it for me, well, he's really paying it now," she said laughing at bit, Piccolo chuckled a bit as he took to the air quickly making sure no one saw him, he then flew quickly towards Sweden.
As they crossed the Gulf of Bothnia, that separated Sweden and Finland by water, the night sky became clear to them to see the stars.
"Isn't it beautiful to see the stars like this, all in their natural splendor?" Cora said as she looked at the stars passing overhead as Piccolo flew. He stopped after a while and looked at the stars with her. "Too bad I don't have my star constellation chart out, I think it's in my pack, but I don't want to get it out right now."
"Do you know the constellations by heart?" he asked, looking at her beautiful face glowing in the moonlight, the moon being at half and in a few days it would be full.
"I'll try and remember as many as I can, but when we get to Sweden, in a nice cabin lodge, I'll show them to you on my chart," she said looking up at the night sky. "Okay, today's date is November 24, and I would be looking in this direction," she said pointing the way and looking up, following her finger. "There, right at the tip of my finger is the star constellation of Perseus and right above him is Charioteer and next to that is Gimini, the twins. Do you see them?" she asked, Piccolo nodding, his eyes wide to see the stars better than she could. "The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper are gone for the early morning hours right now I think, but the Northern Star should still be up." She looked all around and finally found it way above her over the mountains. "Right there, the Northern Star," she said pointing. "I wonder what kinds of constellations Chikyuu would have?"
"No one has ever really tried to figure that out I don't think, but if they have, I could find out for you some time," he said looking at the moon.
"Then that means you'll have to come back here and give me the charts and a map of Chikyuu," she said looking at the moon too. "I bet you are very happy to not have a Saiya-jin with a tail here with you right now."
"You have no idea how free it feels to not have them here at my heels."
"What was it like to blow up the moon?" she asked, considering she couldn't very well dream of how it felt to have such power to destroy things.
"At the time, it was the only thing I could think of doing to make Gohan stop being a crazy ape. He was very close to probably blowing up Planet Namek and well, I had to do it, and I wasn't all that happy to blow up my home planet's moon," he explained, hanging his head, looking at the water.
"Well, every time you see our Earth's moon, you have the right to proclaime it as Planet Namek's moon if you want?" she said smiling at him a bit.
He looked up at her eyes and smiled softly, "I guess I could," he said looking back up at the moon feeling a bit better after what he told her. Clearing his throat, "Let's go now, you need your rest to heal the ankle a bit more."
Not long they found themselves surrounded by three fishing boats with their lights on brightly on them.
"What is that?" one of the boat's captains asked, pointing out the window.
"Whatever it is, we should shoot it!" another man cried out.
"Let's get out." before she could finish her sentence, Piccolo had flown very fast up high into the clouds, before those fishermen could blink. Cora held onto Piccolo tightly, after such a rush of speed, her stomach all the way down to her gut and her heart racing.
"It's okay now. They can't see us from up here," he said as she opened her eyes looking up at Piccolo.
With a long sigh, "That was close."
"Not even, that was too easy to get away, but that's because those humans were too slow anyway," he said looking back down on the fishing boats, that were not moving away out to sea.
"Maybe we should go to Norway from here, they have many more mountains to hide in and such," she said Piccolo nodding as he flew west for Norway.
Not very long at all, about maybe a ten-minute flight, they came over the mountains of Norway, the peaks full to the brim of freshly packed snow, bright white shinning snow in the moon light. Piccolo lowered his altitude and began to disind down to the mountain range.
"Those are the great mountains of Norway, where Odin is fabled to live in Asgard. It looks like he's been checking out his home land, if you see snow on the peaks, that's where his footsteps had been," she said looking at Piccolo. "Hey, I know my stuff and it pays off."
"Where should we go from here?"
"Well, I wouldn't mind finding a nice warm cabin lodge for at least a few nights. Trust me, you'll love the building work and how nice it will feel to be next the snow right outside your window. Trust me," she said, Piccolo rolling his eyes as he landed a few miles away from a fairly large city. "Are you sure you don't know your way around this planet?"
He looked at her oddly as he put her down, "What the hell do you mean by that?"
"You seem to find the main cities sometimes without me telling you were they are, even if you can't see the city from way above."
"Are you just a bit ditsy? I can see more than you ever will from way up in the sky," he growled at her.
"I'm sorry, Piccolo, I don't know what's wrong with me right now. I guess I'm still shook up from tonight."
With a sigh, "Let's get out of the snow while we can," he said as they walked to Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Cora again took care of all the payments to the cabin lodge room for them both, but for some reason Piccolo wanted a room all to himself and Cora gave it to him with no argument and soon they were both in a dry room. He had gotten tired all of sudden from Cora being there almost all the time at his every whim and it drove him almost to insanity. Even though their rooms were right next door to each other, the wall that separated them were thick enough where they wouldn't want to hear each other, even if they screamed for some reason.
Piccolo threw his cloak, gloves and turban on the floor and fell to the bed flat on his stomach, groaning as he turned on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Cora was busy unpacking a few of her things as she just thought of what she could have done wrong to make him angry. After unpacking some of her things, she looked out her room window, seeing some teenagers playing in the snow at the early morning hours, it still being a bit dark. She sighed and went to her bed and slept for the rest of the time. Piccolo just lay there staring endlessly at the ceiling, not even thinking, but some thoughts had crept up to him anyway.
"She's such a child, but not a child. She is a woman, but how do I react to that?" he said softly to himself. "I have to keep myself under control, or one of us will leave the other and I know that isn't good one bit. Oh, my Kami what am I going to do?" He growled as he sat up on the bed and began to meditate the best he could.
Back in Cora's room, she was tossing and turning as her mind began a dream she probably would never forget.
She was running to a bank for some reason. She looked up and saw the Eifel Tower of Paris, France lite up at night. She turned a corner and stopped dead in her tracks once she saw a figure in a black cloak. She looked at him for a moment and saw his face to be just like Piccolo's, the coloring being perfect in everyway, but his eyes, the eyes were too small. She looked up and saw the words Bank of Paris and looked again at the cloaked Piccolo, he pointing a gun right at her and just before the gun went off, her dream sent her to another part of it very quickly. She was then sitting in a courtroom, as both Piccolos' went up for questioning and then she woke up with a cold sweat, shaking harshly.
Sensing her distress, Piccolo ran out of his room and knocked on her door. "Are you okay, Cora?"
She got up and opened the door for him, "I just had a bad dream, that's all. You can come in if you want," she said sitting on her bad covered up warmly.
He locked the door behind him and sat a table near the window. "What was the dream about?"
"I.I.I don't want to talk about it right now," she stammered, her mind still fresh with the dream that had already been played. "What time is it anyway?"
"It's three in the afternoon," he said looking at the clock in the room. "And while you slept, it snowed pretty hard. All the roads up to this hotel cabin are closed do to snow and ice build up," he added as he opened the curtains to show her.
"Wow, glad we're in here then."
"Hai. I would be caught dead out there right now. I watched about an hour or more of the weather and news."
"English channels I hope?" she asked, cutting him off, Piccolo nodding.
"And they said there will be another storm coming in soon. From what I can tell from just looking outside, is that the storm will rage on for almost a week or more."
"I think I'll pay for another four days worth of staying here," she said as she got up to get dressed. She soon left with her wallet and was down at the lobby in no time. To her amazement she found the lobby full of people trying to get rooms and trying to pay for extra nights for their rooms. She shook her head and went back to her room where Piccolo was waiting, but before she left the lobby she checked with a manager on something.
"Don't you have private hot tubs that you can rent for a few hours?" she asked, kind of blushing.
"Yes, madam, we do, it's 50 krona each two hours."
Cora quickly paid for four hours worth of renting the hot tub and ran to get Piccolo. "I hope he likes it, we both need some relaxing and my ankle could use it too."
"Piccolo," she called out as she opened the room door. "Would you like to go in the hot tub with me down stairs? I've already rented one for four hours and they are all enclosed with blinds too for privacy."
"Uh.Okay, I guess," he replied with an odd look on his face.
"I think we both could use some relax time," she added as Piccolo went to his room to take off his gi and put on his cloak and Cora getting her bikini bathing suit on and a robe.
Piccolo followed close behind, wearing his cloak of course to hide himself. Down this one hallway, there were five rooms that had one hot tub in each on both sides of the hallway, most had vacancy on them, but Cora finally found the one she had ordered for. She quickly opened the door with the key and let Piccolo in first, she then walked in and locked the door behind her, as she threw off her robe and turned on the bubbles to medium. Feeling the heat from the room, Piccolo quickly threw off his cloak and hung it up on the wall. He sat at the edge, his feet in the water, and only wearing a good sized towel around his waist.
"This is the best way to live, I think," Cora said as she sat down in water, only her shoulders showing.
Looking up at her, "It sure is," he said with a sigh.
"I need to get you some swimming trunks. You can't always wear a towel you know," she said looking at him, her face blushing a bit.
For quit some time, both of them just sat in the Jacuzzi saying nothing, only the sound of the bubbles could be heard.
Piccolo looked up at her, his eyes slightly glazed over from being so relaxed. Cora slowly got out of the water and sat on the edge, her body dripping wet, her hair slick back from the water and dripping down her back and chest. Cora smiled softly at him as he just kept looking at her.
'She's so beautiful,' he thought blushing quit a bit, he could hear Cora giggling at him.
"Stop being so shy, will you!" she said playfully. "I can sense it from you, like reading a book or even sensing a crystal in your hand," she said looking deep into his eyes, she then lowered her gaze to the water. "Do you really want to know about my nightmare?" she asked softly.
"Yes, I would like to know."
She looked him square in the face, her eyes locked to his. "All I can tell you, is in the future we may need Dende to help you at something that will protect you on this journey across this Earth. You may or may not be in great danger, but if you are, we will need Dende to help."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to tell you right now. You will know when the times comes, don't worry about it right now." With that they both kept quiet once again, both of them with their eyes closed and sitting almost perfectly still in the water.
'Oh, Piccolo, I know how you feel about me. Why don't you just come over here and sit next to me at least,' she thought, her thought not being blocked Piccolo had picked it up right away like a bicin of light.
He slowly walked over to Cora, who was sitting across from him. He sat down next to her, putting his arms up on the side of the Jacuzzi. With his fingers he lightly moved a bit of her long hair away from her right shoulder, having it fall down her back, his eyes locked on her every body curve and movement. She slightly shivered with the feel of her neck going cold suddenly, she looked up and saw Piccolo sitting next to her.
"You read my thoughts again, didn't you?" she questioned him with a bit of stern voice.
"Yes," he replied to her with a long almost sensual yes out from his lips.
She backed away a bit, her eyes wide with shock all over her face. 'Oh my Kami, is he falling for me?' she thought, making sure this time to block her thoughts from him. She sat back down next to him and laid her head on his chest, she could hear his heart beating softly. He wrapped his right arm around her shoulder gently and smiled to himself.
'I think we should start things out very slow,' both of them said in their minds, both not able to read what the other had said.
Cora just kept the side of her head on Piccolo's chest, as the warmth from the Jacuzzi and the sound of his heart almost making her fall asleep.
She looked up at him, his black eyes seeming to sparkle in the fog of the water.
"Piccolo, I." her words cut off by Piccolo's fingers covering her mouth gently.
"I know, Cora, but we can't rush into anything. These travels around this world are going to be hard, especially such winter is coming sooner than expected I guess and we don't want to get into something we can handle from each other," he said holding her a bit tighter in his arms, the side of her face on his chest. "From what you told me about your nightmare, we can't risk anything at this point."
"You're right, Piccolo," she said looking up at him with a sigh. "I." Piccolo again covered her lips with his fingers and slowly moved in front of her, standing up a bit. He then bent down, Cora's eyes glazed over and soft with passion in them, as Piccolo came down to kiss her very softly, almost air soft to her lips. It was so light and slow, that she thought he hadn't kissed her, but he had and in her heart she knew he did. Time seemed to stop for only her as she lightly felt his lips touch hers. He stood up again facing her, his hand lightly touching the side of her cheek, her skin feeling soft and wet. She stood up and looked deep into his eyes as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Whatever and however we feel for each other, we both have to wait for things to calm down more. Winter is here and you know it," he said, putting his hand to the back of her head, holding her there oh so gently.
She looked at her fingers and chuckled a bit. "I think we need to get out of the water, I'm getting all pruned up here," she said as she slowly walked away from him, Piccolo watching her dry off, watching every curve of her body, it being supple and a bit muscular.
'She's so beautiful,' he thought again, blushing lightly. He then got out of the water and dried off and put his cloak back on, both of them returned to their separate rooms to get dressed. Soon after, Piccolo came back to Cora's room, he locked the door behind him and sat at the table. Cora came out of the bathroom dressed a long sleeved dark purple nightshirt and wearing cotton boxers underneath and thick socks. She sat up in her bed, as she turned on the TV, only stack snow coming on.
"Man, not even the TV cables are working. It must have snowed really heavy last night," she said shivering a bit, as Piccolo got up to turn on the heater. Suddenly a knock came to the door, Cora jumped out of the bed to answer it. She opened the door, a hotel waiter with a menu in his hand.
Giving her the menu, "Before out power goes out, if it does, we are earging all of our guests to have any of their food they would like to be cooked and brought to them quickly. Plus, could you tell your traveling companion to move into your room, for another couple to get his room for the storm," the man said, Cora looked back at Piccolo from behind the door, he nodded a yes.
"Sure, that will be no problem."
The waiter then took out his order list to write down her order. "I'm sorry, miss, but we must hurry with this, before the snow takes out our power." Cora nodding as she quickly looked through the menu and made her order.
The waiter only looked at her in shock of how much she had ordered, "Your order will be up soon." He said as he left for the kitchen.
Closing the door, "Must you always eat so much?" Piccolo asked.
"For this case, it's different. If we are stuck here for what you said we might be, it's best to have plenty of food just in case and I can eat a lot of things cold. I don't know if you noticed but mostly everything I ordered I can eat cold, so don't worry about it," she said. "Man, you are such a worry wart, worse than my mother."
Before her order came to her, Piccolo went to his room to get his cloak and other articles of clothing to her room. After a while, her order came to the door, Cora paying the waiter the bill right away as she wheeled the cart into the room. After a while of eating, she climbed back into the bed, covered up by the thick comforters and sheets.
"You aren't going to go to sleep again, are you?" Piccolo asked, as he sat on the bed next to her.
"No, I'm just cold," she said covering up more.
Piccolo smiled softly to himself as he laid down beside her on top of the covers, wrapping one arm and leg over her body and gently moving his fingers through her hair. He breathed warming over her face to warm her skin, it feeling so calming to her as she seemed to sink deeper into the bed and covers.
"What do you think we should do tomorrow, or in the next few days here, if the snow isn't so bad?" Cora asked, turning on her back to look at him.
"I don't know, what do you humans do here in the snow, in winter?" he asked as if he were a child again.
"I do know how to ski and ice skate. I bet you would love to see that. I think there's an ice rink near the hotel lodge, we'll go there tomorrow if it isn't too bad," she said smiling at the thought of ice- skating again. "Have you ever seen some one ice-skate or ski before?" Piccolo shaking his head no. "Well, you are in for a treat. If you want to learn how to ski I can do that for you, because I don't think you want to ice-skate, it just isn't you," she said chuckling a bit.
"What's so funny about that?" he smirked.
"You'll see, trust me, you'll like it," she said thinking of how funny Piccolo would have looked in ice skates wearing his gi and black or even his white cloak, if it wasn't so torn now. She sighed as she closed her eyes, remembering how Piccolo had kissed her for the first time, even though it was more of a sweet friendship kiss, it didn't bother her one bit, instead it made her feel warmer inside.
"Cora," Piccolo began, Cora opening her eyes looking at him. "I'm sorry if I made you feel hurt yesterday. It was just so stressful, having you in that hospital so long and then what happened after that and when we were coming over here."
"It's okay, Piccolo, I forgive you for your anger towards me. I was just kind of out of it at the time," she replied, putting her fingers to his lips. "Hey, let's not talk about the past, let's just lay here and rest," she said turning over towards Piccolo. She curled up against him, he then quickly got up, turned off the lights and closed the blinds, and then returned swiftly back; slipped under the covers with her, holding her gently, but tight enough not wanting to let her go. His body was warm and soothing, almost like being next to a fireplace, wrapped up in a fur blanket. They both lay there resting for the night, as the snow began to fall once again around the log cabin style hotel.
The next morning, Cora awake first, not noticing that Piccolo was still in the bed. She got her shower and dressed and then finally saw him. She slowly walked over to the side from which he lay, and knelt down before him, moving the covers over just a bit to show his face.
"What's this? He is actually asleep?" she said to herself softly, slightly hearing what seemed to her to be a snore from Piccolo. She smiled at the sound and gently nudged him awake. He opened his eyes and smiled softly, almost unable to see the smile it seemed from her view.
"Did I fall asleep?" Piccolo asked slowly sitting up.
"Yes, you sure did. I thought Namek's never need to sleep," she added, as she put on her copper colored maple leaf earrings.
"We do sleep, when needed if we are injured badly or we sleep in the worst way of being knocked out cold on the ground and that is how I mostly got my sleep it seemed, fighting with the Zetto senshi on the field."
"I bet you woke up with the worst of headaches."
"Not really. My head can take a lot of punishment, but a headache isn't much," he said sitting at the edge of the bed, whipping his face with is hands.
"So, are you ready to watch me ice-skate?" she asked, sitting at the table putting on her hiking boots. She wore a royal blue velvet dress, it being fairly long all the way down to her knees, and she wore thick winter light royal blue stockings to keep her legs warm.
"Let me wake up a bit first," he said reaching for his canteen of water and taking a drink.
Cora looked at the leftovers of food from last night and ate quit a bit of it, even if it was cold she still liked it. Piccolo just looked at her and about lost the water he put down his throat as he watched her eating that cold food.
"Even a Saiya-jin would never eat food that was cold, because it would still be warm or even hot going down to their abyss like stomachs."
"Yeah I know, but I guess you could put me as a different kind of Saiya-jin, if I even was one," she said scarfing down food like it was the last thing she would ever eat again.
After resting her stomach and Piccolo getting dressed in his black attire, they were off to the nearest ice-skating rink. The snow outside was very well packed, but it had gotten blown away by workers to leave a trail to walk through the snow. The ice-skating rink was not all that busy, due to the snowstorm last night. Getting her ticket to skate, she and Piccolo walked in and sat at a bench watching some of the other skaters do there fancy tricks and some kids just learning how to skate.
"I can't wait to get out on the ice," she said putting the white ice- skates she rented.
"How could anyone do that on solid ice? It doesn't look possible," Piccolo said watching the skaters go by.
"It's not easy when you start out, but when you get the hang of it, it's so worth the practice you can almost do anything on the ice," she said looking up at Piccolo as you tied on the other skate. "Maybe you might want to ice-skate," she grinned, Piccolo turning up his nose.
"If I want to deal with speed, I'll just go flying."
"Okay, I'm off," she said leaning up against a wall to balance herself as she walked to the opening of the rink. Piccolo sat closer to the wall to watch her.
At first she just skated around the rink slowly to get her balance and soon went faster. As she glided across the ice, she found herself an opening away from people and did a quick camel spin, her body moving very fast as she brought her body closer inward, the she stopped and looked for Piccolo watching from the other side. She smiled to him as she skated back to the wall.
"So," she said a bit out of breath. "what do you think?"
"Pretty good, but it looked like from my view you almost lost your balance."
"Yeah, only if there weren't so many people on the ice right now, I would be fine not worrying if I ran into someone," she said looking around the rink, the intercom suddenly coming on, it blaring over the rink loudly.
"All children between the ages of five and sixteen please leave the ice. Professional skating has begun."
"Oh, that's my turn," she grinned happily as she took to the ice again. This time only three adults that could skate, plus Cora were on the ice. All four of them making wonderful moves, as they glided across.
Piccolo just watched her in awe and wonder as she moved quickly around the smooth ice, her body seeming to be acting just like the wind. Her hair flowed like soft feathers around her body, every movement of her body almost flawless in motion. With every spin she did, she landed perfectly, seeming to Piccolo almost too perfect. As she glided she passed Piccolo quickly, leaving behind a great blow of gold wind across his face, she looked back and smiled as she came into another flair out of her body on the ice.
After what seemed forever, the ice rink had to close do to the coming storm of the day. Cora got off the ice and ran into Piccolo's arms totally out of breath.
"Let's hide and wait for everyone to leave, so I can skate more," she said with a glimmer in her eyes, Piccolo smiled and flew up to the rafters and hide, waiting for everyone else to leave.
After every had gone, the ice rink was theirs, Cora turned on the lights to a nice brightness, but not to bright to aware the towns people. She then turned on some music that they had on their stereo system and turned it up. She quickly got back onto the ice, happier than ever to have the rink all to herself, even though they were breaking the law, but Piccolo kept his hearing and eyes out for any people coming.
She was true happiness for that day, gliding across the ice like she was an ice fairy playing at her iced over pond.
"Would you like to be on the ice?" she called out to Piccolo as she passed him swiftly by, the cold air hitting his green face.
Sensing it was safe, Piccolo took off his dark outfit and stood at one of the entrances to the rink watching her. "You can have the ice all to yourself," he replied, Cora shrugging and smiled as she passed him again even faster, his antenna blowing in the direction she took.
She skated on the ice until it probably hurt, but that didn't bother her. She seemed she had to be on the ice and keep on skating. She did many combined spins, her body spinning very fast as she did them, and then moved out, going into a few camel spins and half pikes in the air. But just as she was about to begin another take off into the air with a spin, the air in the rink got extra cold. She fell to the ice hard, her knees hurting as she landed. She slowly got up, and before she could get to her feet completely, a large gust of wind came in from the North, blasting all the windows and doors to the rink open, glass flying all over the place. Piccolo flew over to Cora the best he could, but this Northern wind kept him away from her, she was stranded in the direct center of the rink, the wind whipping all around her.
"Piccolo!" she cried out, as the wind picked her up off the ice, having her float above the ice about ten feet in the air. Piccolo could only land back down on the ground and watch in horror as Cora was being taken away by the wind, but it did not take her away. The wind suddenly took on a ribbon look around her body, her body glowing solid white.
Suddenly, she passed out and from that her soul came out of her body. Her soul all dressed in a flowing white dress, hair solid white, eyes as blue as ice from the rink. Her soul fully left her body and began to dance around the ribbon like wind. The wind and Cora's soul seemed to become one, their mystic forms winding around each other softly. Piccolo could only watch, he could do nothing, how could he fight this, when he couldn't sense it, or even see it really and he couldn't fight it also because Cora's soul was in the middle of this Wind. As Cora's soul finished becoming one with this Northern wind, the wind finally died down and her soul returned back into her body. She gently floated to the ice rink, she lay there flat and not seeming to breath. Piccolo flew over the ice quickly to be at her side, he landed slowly not to slip on the ice, but no matter how much he tried he still fell kind of hard on the ice, leaving an cracked imprint of his hip on the ice. He moved over to Cora's lifeless body and wrapped his arms around her protectively. She soon awoke, her eyes slowing opening and seeing Piccolo in her sight, she smiled softly.
"Are you okay?" he asked, brushing some of her hair away from her face.
"I'm just fine, I feel so good right now, you have no idea what it feels like to Soul Travel and when the Wind comes in to become one with you."
"What are you talking about?"
"The shaman, he told me about this in a way as he trained me. He said I would find the one to help me give life to seven crystal spheres," she said reaching up to touch Piccolo's face.
Piccolo looked at her in shock. 'Seven crystal spheres, how could they have their own Dragon Balls?' he asked himself, his mind all in shock.
"I'll tell you everything of what just happened when the time comes," Cora said as she passed out, but just as she did, Piccolo could see Cora's soul now finally going back into her body. Cora's soul was the one speaking, not Cora and it seemed at that point that Piccolo really had to keep his mouth shut for her safety, not knowing the "truth" of how Cora would react to this.
He picked Cora up in his arms and flew over to where her boots and his dark color outfit were laid out on a table where they left them. He laid her down on the dry floor and began to take off her skates and put her boots back on. He then got himself dressed up again and picked Cora up in his arms again and took off out of the skating rink, just in time when the owners came running to see what had happened to their ice rink. Only the building had window and door damage, the ice rink itself inside only had some chairs and tables turned over and the ice only having one cracked dint in it of Piccolo's hip hitting the ice.
Piccolo placed Cora underneath his black cloak, hiding her from anyone that might think she did the damage. He soon made it safely back to the hotel room and locked the door behind him. He lay her on the bed, taking off her boots and sat on the bed next to her, waiting so patently for her to awaken.
After a while, Cora awoke, her eyes opened to the sight of seeing Piccolo meditating at the end of the bed. She slowly moved up and sat there right across from him in the same seated position and began to meditate with him.
Piccolo in such deep thought, didn't even notice Cora's awakening and beginning of her meditation with him. She could feel her body relaxing as she felt a warm light coming from Piccolo's mind. She went into her meditation deeper than she had ever gone before and found herself face to face with Piccolo's inner self inside his mind. Piccolo's inner self opened his eyes and saw her.
"What are you doing in my mind?"
"I didn't know I could be able to go this deep into meditation. Is it okay that I meditate with you?" she asked, Piccolo nodding and then going back to his mediating state of being.
Both of them sat before each other meditating late into the night, or at least until Cora broke her meditation to go eat. She slowly opened her eyes and walked over to the food on the table and sat to eat.
Piccolo opened his eyes then and looked to her sternly. "I don't want you to go in that deep unless I tell you that you can."
"Okay, I just thought it would be a good idea at the time," she said still eating her feast of leftover food she had ordered the other day.
"But for what you went through today, you can come in and join me once again, to clear your mind, if you want," he suggested, Cora smiling a bit at him at the offer. "I'm just wondering though, do remember anything that happened to you on the ice today?" he asked her, hoping that she wouldn't remember the great details of what happened.
Putting down her fork, "I remember it all. I remember being swept up in the air by this great gust of wind, it was cold on me as it wrapped around my body," she said closing her eyes and then quickly opening them again. "I can also remember my soul, she left my body again. I can never forget any of my Soul Travels, how could anyone forget even their first. I'll tell you about it sometime."
Piccolo looked at her in amazement. "Do you remember anything else that happened with your soul, of what you call a Soul Travel?"
"I remember everything of my Soul Travels. I remember seeing my Soul flying around with the element of Wind, she slowly became one with this great element and I think I can still feel that element within me," she said putting her hands to her stomach as if she were pregnant, Piccolo seeing this with his eyes he suddenly couldn't move, talk, or even almost breath. "What wrong with you?" she said looking down at her stomach. "Hell no I'm not, if I was I would have known about it by now and for Kami's sake you better not have done anything with me, even if you could!" she yelled, throwing a fork over his head, it hitting the wall, fork points sticking to the wall.
"Hey, just calm down a second. If I did anything to you last night, which I know I didn't, I would have known it too. But tell me, do you remember what your soul said to you or even to me, while you were unconscious?"
"Not much, only something about these crystal spheres," she said with her mouth full of food, she then swallowing. "I've known about those seven crystal spheres for a while now. You look like you thought I would know?" she said laughing. "That's why I had to find you, you baka."
Enraged with anger, Piccolo grabbed Cora by the fabric of her dress in one hand, holding her in the air, his eyes seeming to growl all there own, his voice starting out a growl as he spoke. "You just want to use me to create those Dragon Balls for your own pleasure?"
Gulping hard, "No, the shaman told me that I would find you, he didn't know who or what you were, he just said it was destined to be and we have to take this a day at a time. Already I can feel the first Crystal Dragon Ball forming within my soul," she said, as Piccolo placed her on the bed, he stood there in anger, his Namekian blood boiling. "I think you should have a talk with Dende about this or maybe Dende has no idea, because from what I know, this Earth has it's own Fates and Guardians and Dende had no idea what he did, he only sent you here just for a vacation and nothing more of what he knew. You have to believe me that he had no part in this what so ever. The Fates of this Earth are the ones controlling it, and I've worked with them before on something like this. How else would I know what's going on inside me!" she cried out, tears falling from her eyes.
Piccolo looked down at her, his eyes finally relaxing. "I must have forgotten that Namek's are the ones that can create the Dragon Balls," he said sitting on the bed next to her, Cora moving over to the foot of the bed, feeling a bit scared of Piccolo. He turned and looked at her, her back to him, her head down. "I'm sorry, Cora, I'm so sorry."
"I don't think you are this time, and I don't want you near me right now okay," she snapped at him, as he got up to stand in front of her. She got up and moved over to the door, her back to him. He followed, putting his hand gently on her shoulders, she flinched and moved away from him. "I said not to come near me!" Piccolo not listening to her plea, put his hand on her shoulders tighter, he said nothing. "I said, leave me alone!" She yelled, running out of the hotel room crying. She ran down the hall outside to the winter snow, her feet not covered by her hiking snow boots, they quickly got wet and cold, but she kept running straight for the snow covered forest crying.
Piccolo got his dark attire back on and ran after her in the snow, following her tracks as he ran. He soon found her sitting on her knees in the snow, surrounded by trees, quit far away from the hotel and anyone that may see them. He quietly walked over to her and wrapped his dark cloak around her shivering body. She looked up and just before she felt she had to run away from him, she could see a single tear from his eyes falling down his cheek.
"You said it yourself, we need each other on this and we need to work together and trust each other," Piccolo said as he kept the cloaked wrapped around them both. She put her fingers to the tear and touched it, feeling how warm it was.
"Can you trust me for what I say to be the truth of all of this that's going on between us?" she asked as she looked deep into his black eyes.
"Yes, I trust you, more than ever now. Do you trust me with the way I can be?"
"Yes, I promise to never let you down," she said as Piccolo picked her up into his arms, wrapping the black cloak around her body, holding her tightly. She looked up at the sky and found it to be snowing, the flakes falling gently to the ground all around them.
"I believe it is now winter," Cora added as she stuck out her hand to catch some snow. She laughed like a young child as the snow fell on to her face and hair, Piccolo seeing this smiled for what seemed his best smile ever, even though he didn't show his teeth like most other people the would smile. She looked back up at Piccolo and smiled back at him, he then held her up in his arms, their bodies pressed against each other, as he slowly came into a kiss with her lips. Their embrace could probably be seen by all the spirits of the Earth, their kissing being that passionate and true for the first time, unlike the little tiny friendship kind of kiss before. Their lips warming each others bodies, as they held each other tightly, seeming to not let go, the snow falling gently all around them. Soon Piccolo broke the kiss and he went back to carrying her in his arms, walking back to the hotel, his hood covering his face once again.
Back in the room, they sat on the bed together, looking at a map.
"Where do we go next?" Piccolo asked, eager like always to keep moving.
"We'll just have to let the Winds of the Earth take us where they want us to be, I guess," she said, Piccolo playfully throwing a pillow at her.
"But there's still one more thing that is bothering me," he said laying back against the headboard of the bed.
"What's that?"
"I don't understand how a Dragon Ball could be made by me, when I never called upon them to be made."
"The shaman told me, that you carry the power of creating them inside your heart and I guess now, I'm the one that will carry them until they are ready to be awakened," she said pondering this in her mind. "I get it now," she added, Piccolo turning to her.
"That first kiss!" they both said in unison, they both fell back in a bit of laughter and then sat back up again.
"I wonder what will be next?" Piccolo said, putting his hand on her stomach, Cora noticing this, slapped him across the face. "Hey, what did I do?"
"I may not be pregnant in the natural way, but don't you dare put your hand on my stomach like that again," she growled, slipping into bed for the night. "But tell me, are you full A sexual or are you capable of making children the other way with someone of the opposite sex?"
"No, I'm full A sexual, I can only impregnate myself when it is truly needed or if I want to. I can't get you pregnant at all, I don't have the means to do it."
"Okay, thank Kami on that one then. Well, I'm going to sleep now, I'll see you in the morning."
With that, Piccolo got off the bed, bent over and kissed Cora on the forehead and sat on the floor in a corner to mediate the night away, his mind full of thought and great joy and satisfaction he had never felt before within him. Cora had found a calm inside her, as she knew she carried inside her soul, the first Dragon Ball of its kind for this Planet Earth.
Another's Journey"
Part 5:
"Winter Winds of Passion"
The next morning was quit misty with a fog over the Gulf of Finland and around the cottage. The sun mysteriously rose over the fog mist like clouds, it's golden rays hitting Piccolo's face as he watched it from behind the cottage. The ground was frosted lightly from the cold crisp night and morning air, the frost cracked beneath his booted feet as he walked back to the front of the cottage to see if Cora was awake. He slowly opened the cottage door to find Cora slowly crawling to the fireplace to warm herself.
"Get back into that sleeping bag right now!" Piccolo yelled, Cora jumping at the sound of his loud deep voice.
"I was getting too hot in my sleeping bag and needed to cool off, then I got cold and saw the fire dying. So." she said, her words cut off suddenly.
"So you wanted to catch your death of cold out here, uh?" Piccolo snapped, as he walked over to pick her up like a kitten his hands, he carried her back to her sleeping bag and covered her up a bit. "I'll deal with the fire right now. I had delt with it all last night and you too," he added as he tended the fire, putting the last amount of wood and sticks in it. "With you injured with that ankle, we might have to stay here until it heals, but I could still carry you over the water."
"Yes you could, and I think my ankle feels much better from what you did to it last night."
"I kept heating it with my energy all night long," he said turning to Cora.
"You took care of me all night long?" she said with a bit of shock in her voice.
Piccolo snickered, "I can't let you die you know. You would have done the same to me if I couldn't heal fast enough," he said, Cora nodding to him with a smile.
"Could you pass me the rest of the mushroom soup?" she asked her hand out stretched.
"I'll heat it for you first," he said taking off the top of the container and warming the soup from all sides with his energy, he then passed it to Cora. "Is it warm enough for you?"
"Yes, it's perfect," she said after taking the first bite.
"I put those other white mushrooms in another one of your containers, it's in the front pocket with your energy bars and other foods you have with you."
"Thank you, Piccolo," she said smiling and then chuckling a bit. "Oh, good morning to you," she said in a Swedish or at least a British accent. Piccolo shook his head at her and lightly smiled as he walked out of the cottage.
"The wind has finally died down where we could be on our way now, if you'd like?" he said popping his head back in the cottage looking at Cora, she nodding a yes with her mouth full of the soup. "Fine then, I'll give you time to get ready," he said getting his dark cloak, turban and gloves on, he then stayed out front of the cottage and waited for her to call him.
She quickly finished what was left of her soup and, slowly crawled to her camping pack, putting the container inside and getting a clean pair of socks and underwear on and changed her womanly things. She then slowly stood up, by the help of the wall to support her and put on a clean bra and sweater. She took one little hobbled step back to her sleeping bag and as she fell she screamed out a bit, Piccolo hearing this very quickly dashed into the cottage to catch her before she fully fell to the floor. He held her up by one hand, her left foot holding up her weight of her body as he held her there for a few minutes. She looked up finally and found herself safe in the arms or at least his large hands holding her up. He slowly moved her to her feet, still keeping her balanced by one hand on her shoulder. They stood there saying nothing, but only looked into each others eyes, both standing fairly close to one another.
As they stood staring, Piccolo could feel Cora's heart pounding fast. She wasn't out of breath or anything, but it just made him aware of her more now. He had never felt such energy from a females heart before, and it didn't beat at the normal speed that it should, it beating a rhythm of passion all its own. He cleared his throat as he broke his gaze from her and helped her over to her sleeping bag. She sat on her knees as she rolled the sleeping bag up tightly; Cora putting the rest of her things in the pack and then sat down and tried to put her hiking boots on. She winced in pain as she slowly put the right boot on and then the next and tied them up. Afterwards Piccolo tied the sleeping bag to the camping pack.
Piccolo put the pack on his back, covered his face with his hood, as Cora put on her cloak and covered herself up.
"Shall we go?" Piccolo asked, as he took the two canteens off from the side of the cottage and handed her canteen to her, she tying the canteen to her belt loop. With his arms out stretched to carry her, she nodded as he gathered her up in his arms again, covering her up better with her cloak and taking to the air.
Both of them kept quiet, thinking to themselves of what Russia had shown both of them to each other.
'Her heart felt so strong as I held her like that. I can't tell her how I feel, damn it! Not yet. I bet she doesn't even remember what she said to me in her sleep. Oh, Kami, I hope she doesn't remember just yet, I think I'd rather tell her, but when?' he thought, his mind racing with many things as he flew across the Gulf of Finland and soon both of them would be in Finland with no problems.
'Oh my heart. How could my heart feel like this for him? I only have a crazy, silly little childish crush for the green guy. If I tell him how I really feel, it might make him mad and he might leave me. He can't leave me, he needs me so much it hurts. Oh, when will this torture end?" she thought, her thoughts running wild in her mind. Both of them knew how to block their thoughts quickly from something like this that pleeged them so deeply.
Cora looked down at the water, her eyes widened as she saw a small family pod of pilot whales diving under, their tails slowly going under and making a bit of a splash.
"Piccolo, stop for a moment and look down there," she said pointing down to the water, Piccolo stopping his flight as he hovered a good two hundred feet above the water. He looked down seeing the great creatures swimming. "Let's get down closer to the water so you can get a better look at those pilot whales," she said as Piccolo slowly lowered himself over the water about three feet above it, the waves slightly splashing on his feet. Suddenly, one of the whales came up for air, its blowhole mist rising over its great body, it startling Piccolo a bit. "Those are pilot whales, they're common here in these kinds of cold waters."
"They're so big," Piccolo added. His eyes wide as he looked at them swimming by.
"Does Chikyuu have whales in their waters?" she asked.
"I'm not sure. I really don't pay attention to what's on Chikyuu, except the enemies and that's about it."
"Okay, just wondering," she replied as Piccolo continued with his flight up high in the sky for the shores of Finland.
After a very short flight, Piccolo and Cora made it almost safely to the shores of Finland. The only thing that stood in their way was a bunch of people out on the shore having a fall festival.
"Now what do you we do?" Cora asked, looking down at the town's people.
Saying nothing, Piccolo disappeared with Cora in his arms and then reappearing somewhere in the middle of Finland in the sky.
"That was cool," Cora commented as Piccolo began to land on the hard cold ground.
"I don't think it would be best to stay here very long. I smell another storm coming up this way," he said as he held Cora in one arm and hand, taking a drink from his canteen with his free one.
"You're right, but I think we need to find a hospital first so I can get my ankle checked," she added, Piccolo nodding and taking to the air again.
After a while of flying way above Helsinki, the capital of Finland, Cora spotted a hospital. Piccolo finding an alleyway to land in, quickly landed and put Cora on her feet. She grabbed a stick and hobbled her way to the hospital.
"I won't be long, Piccolo, just stay right there," she said as she hobbled out of the ally, some towns people seeing her come out, rushed to her aid, the people only speaking in Finnish. She pointed to the hospital and one man carried her to the lobby. Piccolo watched this from the safety of the dark alleyway shadows.
In the hospital, a doctor checked out her ankle, luckily he spoke some good English.
"How long have you been without a proper bandage?" the doctor asked as he took the white cloth of Piccolo's toren cloak off her foot.
"All night long, a friend of mine bandaged it up the best he could," she said wincing in pain a bit as the doctor check the swelling.
"Whatever your friend did to your ankle to help it heal, he did a good job. The ankle of where it was twisted, the swelling seems to have gone down a lot and the twisted muscle is quite warm."
"How long will it take to heal completely where I can walk?" she asked hoping for a good answer.
"If I were you, such you were carried here from some of the citizens of the city, you might as well tell your friend that you will be here for a few days. We need to check up on that ankle, it looks like you really twisted a vane and some nerves and they need to be cared for."
"My friend is busy and he can't make it here for a few days. He's got very important things to work on for his business," she lied to the doctor, knowing that Piccolo was just across the street from the hospital.
"Okay then. Then that means, he'll have to find out later. We'll put you in for free and check you out, the bill shouldn't be that high," the doctor added.
"Don't worry, I can pay for it," she said as she checked her pants pocket, finding that her wallet of money was in her camping pack. "Opps, I left my wallet with everything in it with my friend. Great!" she said rolling her eyes.
"That's okay, just between me and you, I'll be nice and pay for it instead for you."
"Wow, are you sure that will be okay with the hospital?"
"Yes, I've done it before and I've been prassed for it," he said as he opened up a wheel chair for her to sit in, she sat down as the doctor wheeled her to x-ray room.
"What date is it?" she asked.
Checking the calendar on the wall as he passed a bulletin board. "It's November 20th on a Tuesday."
"Okay, thanks."
After the x-ray check, the doctor found no broken bones, only the usual twisted muscle and some nerves of the sprained ankle.
"Well, you've checked out pretty good. But for it to heal really well, if you are needing to be on your feet, I suggest you stay here at the hospital for at least two days," the doctor said, Cora nodding a yes to him.
'I hope Piccolo will be okay with me being in here. I hope he won't worry about me too much,' she thought as she was taken to a private room.
The next two days, Cora stayed in the hospital getting anything she pretty much wanted, but what she wanted most was Piccolo carrying her in his arms.
On the last night of being in the hospital, Cora slept a bit uneasy for some reason. She felt something wasn't right, as she tried to fall asleep. Piccolo was outside still in the alleyway, passing back and forth like a wild cat in a cage, worrying about Cora's well being.
'She shouldn't be in the hospital that long,' Piccolo said to himself, his mind racing with worry.
Back in Cora's hospital room, the door to the room slowly opened as a figure in white lab coat and blue doctor's mask came into her room. Cora kept still as the figure came closer, closing the door behind him. Once the figure got close enough to her bed, the figure quickly jumped on top of her, keeping her hands tightly against the bed. She turned around, her eyes wide with fear as the doctor that she had seen a day ago helping her, was about to rape her. She gasped and almost couldn't speak as the doctor began to take off his pants.
Gasping again she screamed out as loud as she could, "Piccolo!!" she yelled, Piccolo jumping to his feet, his ears flicking to find where the scream came from. Quickly finding the scream, he disappeared and then reappeared at the window of Cora's hospital room. He growled loudly as he saw the doctor beginning to take her clothes off, Piccolo busted through the window and with one single right hook punch to the face, the doctor flew against the door of the room out cold. Piccolo quickly grabbed Cora's clothes and grabbed her and both disappeared out of the hospital, as hospital personal came in the room to find the doctor out cold.
Piccolo reappeared on top of a near by business building with Cora in his arms.
"Did he hurt you?" Piccolo asked.
"No, he never got that far with me, thanks to you," she said hugging him tightly, with tears falling from her eyes as the reality finally sunk into her mind of what had just happened. "He was the doctor I saw about my ankle," she continued with a sniff. "He was trying to rape me," she cried out, Piccolo holding her tightly, rocking her a bit in his arms.
"Can you walk you think?" Piccolo asked as he put her down on the rooftop.
Taking a very slow step with both feet firmly on the ground, she nodded and finally smiled up at him.
"You better get that hospital gown off before you get too cold," he suggested as he gave her clothes. Piccolo turned around the other way, looking down on the hospital, about two cop cars parked outside the hospital front entrance. Now dressed back in her original clothes, she looked over the roof's edge with Piccolo.
"That's the guy, right there!" she said pointing down to where two cops were taking him into custody. "There was a video camera in my room and they caught it all on tape. I just hope they didn't catch you on tape too."
"They didn't see that part, only at the part were I punched the guy out and him trying to rape you," he said as his ears heard everything that the main security guy of the hospital told the news crew. "The rest of it they say was all stack and broken tape from the recorder."
"Oh yeah, you can hear everything they say," she added, Piccolo nodding. "Well, that's good, at least he's gong to jail and I'm safe now. But if they need me to testify against him, I'm not doing it, such you're here. I can't take that risk, such they have all the evidence they need right on the tape."
"Hai, and I think we should get going again. I don't want to stay here another second after what happened to you," he said as he took Cora in his arms again.
She looked back behind him, "Aw, I see you still have my camping pack on your back, that's good."
"I don't really have a reason to take it off, unless you need something. By the way, didn't you have to pay for that doctor check up?"
"Nope, that 'doctor' said he would pay it for me, well, he's really paying it now," she said laughing at bit, Piccolo chuckled a bit as he took to the air quickly making sure no one saw him, he then flew quickly towards Sweden.
As they crossed the Gulf of Bothnia, that separated Sweden and Finland by water, the night sky became clear to them to see the stars.
"Isn't it beautiful to see the stars like this, all in their natural splendor?" Cora said as she looked at the stars passing overhead as Piccolo flew. He stopped after a while and looked at the stars with her. "Too bad I don't have my star constellation chart out, I think it's in my pack, but I don't want to get it out right now."
"Do you know the constellations by heart?" he asked, looking at her beautiful face glowing in the moonlight, the moon being at half and in a few days it would be full.
"I'll try and remember as many as I can, but when we get to Sweden, in a nice cabin lodge, I'll show them to you on my chart," she said looking up at the night sky. "Okay, today's date is November 24, and I would be looking in this direction," she said pointing the way and looking up, following her finger. "There, right at the tip of my finger is the star constellation of Perseus and right above him is Charioteer and next to that is Gimini, the twins. Do you see them?" she asked, Piccolo nodding, his eyes wide to see the stars better than she could. "The Big Dipper and the Little Dipper are gone for the early morning hours right now I think, but the Northern Star should still be up." She looked all around and finally found it way above her over the mountains. "Right there, the Northern Star," she said pointing. "I wonder what kinds of constellations Chikyuu would have?"
"No one has ever really tried to figure that out I don't think, but if they have, I could find out for you some time," he said looking at the moon.
"Then that means you'll have to come back here and give me the charts and a map of Chikyuu," she said looking at the moon too. "I bet you are very happy to not have a Saiya-jin with a tail here with you right now."
"You have no idea how free it feels to not have them here at my heels."
"What was it like to blow up the moon?" she asked, considering she couldn't very well dream of how it felt to have such power to destroy things.
"At the time, it was the only thing I could think of doing to make Gohan stop being a crazy ape. He was very close to probably blowing up Planet Namek and well, I had to do it, and I wasn't all that happy to blow up my home planet's moon," he explained, hanging his head, looking at the water.
"Well, every time you see our Earth's moon, you have the right to proclaime it as Planet Namek's moon if you want?" she said smiling at him a bit.
He looked up at her eyes and smiled softly, "I guess I could," he said looking back up at the moon feeling a bit better after what he told her. Clearing his throat, "Let's go now, you need your rest to heal the ankle a bit more."
Not long they found themselves surrounded by three fishing boats with their lights on brightly on them.
"What is that?" one of the boat's captains asked, pointing out the window.
"Whatever it is, we should shoot it!" another man cried out.
"Let's get out." before she could finish her sentence, Piccolo had flown very fast up high into the clouds, before those fishermen could blink. Cora held onto Piccolo tightly, after such a rush of speed, her stomach all the way down to her gut and her heart racing.
"It's okay now. They can't see us from up here," he said as she opened her eyes looking up at Piccolo.
With a long sigh, "That was close."
"Not even, that was too easy to get away, but that's because those humans were too slow anyway," he said looking back down on the fishing boats, that were not moving away out to sea.
"Maybe we should go to Norway from here, they have many more mountains to hide in and such," she said Piccolo nodding as he flew west for Norway.
Not very long at all, about maybe a ten-minute flight, they came over the mountains of Norway, the peaks full to the brim of freshly packed snow, bright white shinning snow in the moon light. Piccolo lowered his altitude and began to disind down to the mountain range.
"Those are the great mountains of Norway, where Odin is fabled to live in Asgard. It looks like he's been checking out his home land, if you see snow on the peaks, that's where his footsteps had been," she said looking at Piccolo. "Hey, I know my stuff and it pays off."
"Where should we go from here?"
"Well, I wouldn't mind finding a nice warm cabin lodge for at least a few nights. Trust me, you'll love the building work and how nice it will feel to be next the snow right outside your window. Trust me," she said, Piccolo rolling his eyes as he landed a few miles away from a fairly large city. "Are you sure you don't know your way around this planet?"
He looked at her oddly as he put her down, "What the hell do you mean by that?"
"You seem to find the main cities sometimes without me telling you were they are, even if you can't see the city from way above."
"Are you just a bit ditsy? I can see more than you ever will from way up in the sky," he growled at her.
"I'm sorry, Piccolo, I don't know what's wrong with me right now. I guess I'm still shook up from tonight."
With a sigh, "Let's get out of the snow while we can," he said as they walked to Oslo, the capital of Norway.
Cora again took care of all the payments to the cabin lodge room for them both, but for some reason Piccolo wanted a room all to himself and Cora gave it to him with no argument and soon they were both in a dry room. He had gotten tired all of sudden from Cora being there almost all the time at his every whim and it drove him almost to insanity. Even though their rooms were right next door to each other, the wall that separated them were thick enough where they wouldn't want to hear each other, even if they screamed for some reason.
Piccolo threw his cloak, gloves and turban on the floor and fell to the bed flat on his stomach, groaning as he turned on his back, staring up at the ceiling. Cora was busy unpacking a few of her things as she just thought of what she could have done wrong to make him angry. After unpacking some of her things, she looked out her room window, seeing some teenagers playing in the snow at the early morning hours, it still being a bit dark. She sighed and went to her bed and slept for the rest of the time. Piccolo just lay there staring endlessly at the ceiling, not even thinking, but some thoughts had crept up to him anyway.
"She's such a child, but not a child. She is a woman, but how do I react to that?" he said softly to himself. "I have to keep myself under control, or one of us will leave the other and I know that isn't good one bit. Oh, my Kami what am I going to do?" He growled as he sat up on the bed and began to meditate the best he could.
Back in Cora's room, she was tossing and turning as her mind began a dream she probably would never forget.
She was running to a bank for some reason. She looked up and saw the Eifel Tower of Paris, France lite up at night. She turned a corner and stopped dead in her tracks once she saw a figure in a black cloak. She looked at him for a moment and saw his face to be just like Piccolo's, the coloring being perfect in everyway, but his eyes, the eyes were too small. She looked up and saw the words Bank of Paris and looked again at the cloaked Piccolo, he pointing a gun right at her and just before the gun went off, her dream sent her to another part of it very quickly. She was then sitting in a courtroom, as both Piccolos' went up for questioning and then she woke up with a cold sweat, shaking harshly.
Sensing her distress, Piccolo ran out of his room and knocked on her door. "Are you okay, Cora?"
She got up and opened the door for him, "I just had a bad dream, that's all. You can come in if you want," she said sitting on her bad covered up warmly.
He locked the door behind him and sat a table near the window. "What was the dream about?"
"I.I.I don't want to talk about it right now," she stammered, her mind still fresh with the dream that had already been played. "What time is it anyway?"
"It's three in the afternoon," he said looking at the clock in the room. "And while you slept, it snowed pretty hard. All the roads up to this hotel cabin are closed do to snow and ice build up," he added as he opened the curtains to show her.
"Wow, glad we're in here then."
"Hai. I would be caught dead out there right now. I watched about an hour or more of the weather and news."
"English channels I hope?" she asked, cutting him off, Piccolo nodding.
"And they said there will be another storm coming in soon. From what I can tell from just looking outside, is that the storm will rage on for almost a week or more."
"I think I'll pay for another four days worth of staying here," she said as she got up to get dressed. She soon left with her wallet and was down at the lobby in no time. To her amazement she found the lobby full of people trying to get rooms and trying to pay for extra nights for their rooms. She shook her head and went back to her room where Piccolo was waiting, but before she left the lobby she checked with a manager on something.
"Don't you have private hot tubs that you can rent for a few hours?" she asked, kind of blushing.
"Yes, madam, we do, it's 50 krona each two hours."
Cora quickly paid for four hours worth of renting the hot tub and ran to get Piccolo. "I hope he likes it, we both need some relaxing and my ankle could use it too."
"Piccolo," she called out as she opened the room door. "Would you like to go in the hot tub with me down stairs? I've already rented one for four hours and they are all enclosed with blinds too for privacy."
"Uh.Okay, I guess," he replied with an odd look on his face.
"I think we both could use some relax time," she added as Piccolo went to his room to take off his gi and put on his cloak and Cora getting her bikini bathing suit on and a robe.
Piccolo followed close behind, wearing his cloak of course to hide himself. Down this one hallway, there were five rooms that had one hot tub in each on both sides of the hallway, most had vacancy on them, but Cora finally found the one she had ordered for. She quickly opened the door with the key and let Piccolo in first, she then walked in and locked the door behind her, as she threw off her robe and turned on the bubbles to medium. Feeling the heat from the room, Piccolo quickly threw off his cloak and hung it up on the wall. He sat at the edge, his feet in the water, and only wearing a good sized towel around his waist.
"This is the best way to live, I think," Cora said as she sat down in water, only her shoulders showing.
Looking up at her, "It sure is," he said with a sigh.
"I need to get you some swimming trunks. You can't always wear a towel you know," she said looking at him, her face blushing a bit.
For quit some time, both of them just sat in the Jacuzzi saying nothing, only the sound of the bubbles could be heard.
Piccolo looked up at her, his eyes slightly glazed over from being so relaxed. Cora slowly got out of the water and sat on the edge, her body dripping wet, her hair slick back from the water and dripping down her back and chest. Cora smiled softly at him as he just kept looking at her.
'She's so beautiful,' he thought blushing quit a bit, he could hear Cora giggling at him.
"Stop being so shy, will you!" she said playfully. "I can sense it from you, like reading a book or even sensing a crystal in your hand," she said looking deep into his eyes, she then lowered her gaze to the water. "Do you really want to know about my nightmare?" she asked softly.
"Yes, I would like to know."
She looked him square in the face, her eyes locked to his. "All I can tell you, is in the future we may need Dende to help you at something that will protect you on this journey across this Earth. You may or may not be in great danger, but if you are, we will need Dende to help."
"What do you mean?"
"I don't want to tell you right now. You will know when the times comes, don't worry about it right now." With that they both kept quiet once again, both of them with their eyes closed and sitting almost perfectly still in the water.
'Oh, Piccolo, I know how you feel about me. Why don't you just come over here and sit next to me at least,' she thought, her thought not being blocked Piccolo had picked it up right away like a bicin of light.
He slowly walked over to Cora, who was sitting across from him. He sat down next to her, putting his arms up on the side of the Jacuzzi. With his fingers he lightly moved a bit of her long hair away from her right shoulder, having it fall down her back, his eyes locked on her every body curve and movement. She slightly shivered with the feel of her neck going cold suddenly, she looked up and saw Piccolo sitting next to her.
"You read my thoughts again, didn't you?" she questioned him with a bit of stern voice.
"Yes," he replied to her with a long almost sensual yes out from his lips.
She backed away a bit, her eyes wide with shock all over her face. 'Oh my Kami, is he falling for me?' she thought, making sure this time to block her thoughts from him. She sat back down next to him and laid her head on his chest, she could hear his heart beating softly. He wrapped his right arm around her shoulder gently and smiled to himself.
'I think we should start things out very slow,' both of them said in their minds, both not able to read what the other had said.
Cora just kept the side of her head on Piccolo's chest, as the warmth from the Jacuzzi and the sound of his heart almost making her fall asleep.
She looked up at him, his black eyes seeming to sparkle in the fog of the water.
"Piccolo, I." her words cut off by Piccolo's fingers covering her mouth gently.
"I know, Cora, but we can't rush into anything. These travels around this world are going to be hard, especially such winter is coming sooner than expected I guess and we don't want to get into something we can handle from each other," he said holding her a bit tighter in his arms, the side of her face on his chest. "From what you told me about your nightmare, we can't risk anything at this point."
"You're right, Piccolo," she said looking up at him with a sigh. "I." Piccolo again covered her lips with his fingers and slowly moved in front of her, standing up a bit. He then bent down, Cora's eyes glazed over and soft with passion in them, as Piccolo came down to kiss her very softly, almost air soft to her lips. It was so light and slow, that she thought he hadn't kissed her, but he had and in her heart she knew he did. Time seemed to stop for only her as she lightly felt his lips touch hers. He stood up again facing her, his hand lightly touching the side of her cheek, her skin feeling soft and wet. She stood up and looked deep into his eyes as she wrapped her arms around his waist.
"Whatever and however we feel for each other, we both have to wait for things to calm down more. Winter is here and you know it," he said, putting his hand to the back of her head, holding her there oh so gently.
She looked at her fingers and chuckled a bit. "I think we need to get out of the water, I'm getting all pruned up here," she said as she slowly walked away from him, Piccolo watching her dry off, watching every curve of her body, it being supple and a bit muscular.
'She's so beautiful,' he thought again, blushing lightly. He then got out of the water and dried off and put his cloak back on, both of them returned to their separate rooms to get dressed. Soon after, Piccolo came back to Cora's room, he locked the door behind him and sat at the table. Cora came out of the bathroom dressed a long sleeved dark purple nightshirt and wearing cotton boxers underneath and thick socks. She sat up in her bed, as she turned on the TV, only stack snow coming on.
"Man, not even the TV cables are working. It must have snowed really heavy last night," she said shivering a bit, as Piccolo got up to turn on the heater. Suddenly a knock came to the door, Cora jumped out of the bed to answer it. She opened the door, a hotel waiter with a menu in his hand.
Giving her the menu, "Before out power goes out, if it does, we are earging all of our guests to have any of their food they would like to be cooked and brought to them quickly. Plus, could you tell your traveling companion to move into your room, for another couple to get his room for the storm," the man said, Cora looked back at Piccolo from behind the door, he nodded a yes.
"Sure, that will be no problem."
The waiter then took out his order list to write down her order. "I'm sorry, miss, but we must hurry with this, before the snow takes out our power." Cora nodding as she quickly looked through the menu and made her order.
The waiter only looked at her in shock of how much she had ordered, "Your order will be up soon." He said as he left for the kitchen.
Closing the door, "Must you always eat so much?" Piccolo asked.
"For this case, it's different. If we are stuck here for what you said we might be, it's best to have plenty of food just in case and I can eat a lot of things cold. I don't know if you noticed but mostly everything I ordered I can eat cold, so don't worry about it," she said. "Man, you are such a worry wart, worse than my mother."
Before her order came to her, Piccolo went to his room to get his cloak and other articles of clothing to her room. After a while, her order came to the door, Cora paying the waiter the bill right away as she wheeled the cart into the room. After a while of eating, she climbed back into the bed, covered up by the thick comforters and sheets.
"You aren't going to go to sleep again, are you?" Piccolo asked, as he sat on the bed next to her.
"No, I'm just cold," she said covering up more.
Piccolo smiled softly to himself as he laid down beside her on top of the covers, wrapping one arm and leg over her body and gently moving his fingers through her hair. He breathed warming over her face to warm her skin, it feeling so calming to her as she seemed to sink deeper into the bed and covers.
"What do you think we should do tomorrow, or in the next few days here, if the snow isn't so bad?" Cora asked, turning on her back to look at him.
"I don't know, what do you humans do here in the snow, in winter?" he asked as if he were a child again.
"I do know how to ski and ice skate. I bet you would love to see that. I think there's an ice rink near the hotel lodge, we'll go there tomorrow if it isn't too bad," she said smiling at the thought of ice- skating again. "Have you ever seen some one ice-skate or ski before?" Piccolo shaking his head no. "Well, you are in for a treat. If you want to learn how to ski I can do that for you, because I don't think you want to ice-skate, it just isn't you," she said chuckling a bit.
"What's so funny about that?" he smirked.
"You'll see, trust me, you'll like it," she said thinking of how funny Piccolo would have looked in ice skates wearing his gi and black or even his white cloak, if it wasn't so torn now. She sighed as she closed her eyes, remembering how Piccolo had kissed her for the first time, even though it was more of a sweet friendship kiss, it didn't bother her one bit, instead it made her feel warmer inside.
"Cora," Piccolo began, Cora opening her eyes looking at him. "I'm sorry if I made you feel hurt yesterday. It was just so stressful, having you in that hospital so long and then what happened after that and when we were coming over here."
"It's okay, Piccolo, I forgive you for your anger towards me. I was just kind of out of it at the time," she replied, putting her fingers to his lips. "Hey, let's not talk about the past, let's just lay here and rest," she said turning over towards Piccolo. She curled up against him, he then quickly got up, turned off the lights and closed the blinds, and then returned swiftly back; slipped under the covers with her, holding her gently, but tight enough not wanting to let her go. His body was warm and soothing, almost like being next to a fireplace, wrapped up in a fur blanket. They both lay there resting for the night, as the snow began to fall once again around the log cabin style hotel.
The next morning, Cora awake first, not noticing that Piccolo was still in the bed. She got her shower and dressed and then finally saw him. She slowly walked over to the side from which he lay, and knelt down before him, moving the covers over just a bit to show his face.
"What's this? He is actually asleep?" she said to herself softly, slightly hearing what seemed to her to be a snore from Piccolo. She smiled at the sound and gently nudged him awake. He opened his eyes and smiled softly, almost unable to see the smile it seemed from her view.
"Did I fall asleep?" Piccolo asked slowly sitting up.
"Yes, you sure did. I thought Namek's never need to sleep," she added, as she put on her copper colored maple leaf earrings.
"We do sleep, when needed if we are injured badly or we sleep in the worst way of being knocked out cold on the ground and that is how I mostly got my sleep it seemed, fighting with the Zetto senshi on the field."
"I bet you woke up with the worst of headaches."
"Not really. My head can take a lot of punishment, but a headache isn't much," he said sitting at the edge of the bed, whipping his face with is hands.
"So, are you ready to watch me ice-skate?" she asked, sitting at the table putting on her hiking boots. She wore a royal blue velvet dress, it being fairly long all the way down to her knees, and she wore thick winter light royal blue stockings to keep her legs warm.
"Let me wake up a bit first," he said reaching for his canteen of water and taking a drink.
Cora looked at the leftovers of food from last night and ate quit a bit of it, even if it was cold she still liked it. Piccolo just looked at her and about lost the water he put down his throat as he watched her eating that cold food.
"Even a Saiya-jin would never eat food that was cold, because it would still be warm or even hot going down to their abyss like stomachs."
"Yeah I know, but I guess you could put me as a different kind of Saiya-jin, if I even was one," she said scarfing down food like it was the last thing she would ever eat again.
After resting her stomach and Piccolo getting dressed in his black attire, they were off to the nearest ice-skating rink. The snow outside was very well packed, but it had gotten blown away by workers to leave a trail to walk through the snow. The ice-skating rink was not all that busy, due to the snowstorm last night. Getting her ticket to skate, she and Piccolo walked in and sat at a bench watching some of the other skaters do there fancy tricks and some kids just learning how to skate.
"I can't wait to get out on the ice," she said putting the white ice- skates she rented.
"How could anyone do that on solid ice? It doesn't look possible," Piccolo said watching the skaters go by.
"It's not easy when you start out, but when you get the hang of it, it's so worth the practice you can almost do anything on the ice," she said looking up at Piccolo as you tied on the other skate. "Maybe you might want to ice-skate," she grinned, Piccolo turning up his nose.
"If I want to deal with speed, I'll just go flying."
"Okay, I'm off," she said leaning up against a wall to balance herself as she walked to the opening of the rink. Piccolo sat closer to the wall to watch her.
At first she just skated around the rink slowly to get her balance and soon went faster. As she glided across the ice, she found herself an opening away from people and did a quick camel spin, her body moving very fast as she brought her body closer inward, the she stopped and looked for Piccolo watching from the other side. She smiled to him as she skated back to the wall.
"So," she said a bit out of breath. "what do you think?"
"Pretty good, but it looked like from my view you almost lost your balance."
"Yeah, only if there weren't so many people on the ice right now, I would be fine not worrying if I ran into someone," she said looking around the rink, the intercom suddenly coming on, it blaring over the rink loudly.
"All children between the ages of five and sixteen please leave the ice. Professional skating has begun."
"Oh, that's my turn," she grinned happily as she took to the ice again. This time only three adults that could skate, plus Cora were on the ice. All four of them making wonderful moves, as they glided across.
Piccolo just watched her in awe and wonder as she moved quickly around the smooth ice, her body seeming to be acting just like the wind. Her hair flowed like soft feathers around her body, every movement of her body almost flawless in motion. With every spin she did, she landed perfectly, seeming to Piccolo almost too perfect. As she glided she passed Piccolo quickly, leaving behind a great blow of gold wind across his face, she looked back and smiled as she came into another flair out of her body on the ice.
After what seemed forever, the ice rink had to close do to the coming storm of the day. Cora got off the ice and ran into Piccolo's arms totally out of breath.
"Let's hide and wait for everyone to leave, so I can skate more," she said with a glimmer in her eyes, Piccolo smiled and flew up to the rafters and hide, waiting for everyone else to leave.
After every had gone, the ice rink was theirs, Cora turned on the lights to a nice brightness, but not to bright to aware the towns people. She then turned on some music that they had on their stereo system and turned it up. She quickly got back onto the ice, happier than ever to have the rink all to herself, even though they were breaking the law, but Piccolo kept his hearing and eyes out for any people coming.
She was true happiness for that day, gliding across the ice like she was an ice fairy playing at her iced over pond.
"Would you like to be on the ice?" she called out to Piccolo as she passed him swiftly by, the cold air hitting his green face.
Sensing it was safe, Piccolo took off his dark outfit and stood at one of the entrances to the rink watching her. "You can have the ice all to yourself," he replied, Cora shrugging and smiled as she passed him again even faster, his antenna blowing in the direction she took.
She skated on the ice until it probably hurt, but that didn't bother her. She seemed she had to be on the ice and keep on skating. She did many combined spins, her body spinning very fast as she did them, and then moved out, going into a few camel spins and half pikes in the air. But just as she was about to begin another take off into the air with a spin, the air in the rink got extra cold. She fell to the ice hard, her knees hurting as she landed. She slowly got up, and before she could get to her feet completely, a large gust of wind came in from the North, blasting all the windows and doors to the rink open, glass flying all over the place. Piccolo flew over to Cora the best he could, but this Northern wind kept him away from her, she was stranded in the direct center of the rink, the wind whipping all around her.
"Piccolo!" she cried out, as the wind picked her up off the ice, having her float above the ice about ten feet in the air. Piccolo could only land back down on the ground and watch in horror as Cora was being taken away by the wind, but it did not take her away. The wind suddenly took on a ribbon look around her body, her body glowing solid white.
Suddenly, she passed out and from that her soul came out of her body. Her soul all dressed in a flowing white dress, hair solid white, eyes as blue as ice from the rink. Her soul fully left her body and began to dance around the ribbon like wind. The wind and Cora's soul seemed to become one, their mystic forms winding around each other softly. Piccolo could only watch, he could do nothing, how could he fight this, when he couldn't sense it, or even see it really and he couldn't fight it also because Cora's soul was in the middle of this Wind. As Cora's soul finished becoming one with this Northern wind, the wind finally died down and her soul returned back into her body. She gently floated to the ice rink, she lay there flat and not seeming to breath. Piccolo flew over the ice quickly to be at her side, he landed slowly not to slip on the ice, but no matter how much he tried he still fell kind of hard on the ice, leaving an cracked imprint of his hip on the ice. He moved over to Cora's lifeless body and wrapped his arms around her protectively. She soon awoke, her eyes slowing opening and seeing Piccolo in her sight, she smiled softly.
"Are you okay?" he asked, brushing some of her hair away from her face.
"I'm just fine, I feel so good right now, you have no idea what it feels like to Soul Travel and when the Wind comes in to become one with you."
"What are you talking about?"
"The shaman, he told me about this in a way as he trained me. He said I would find the one to help me give life to seven crystal spheres," she said reaching up to touch Piccolo's face.
Piccolo looked at her in shock. 'Seven crystal spheres, how could they have their own Dragon Balls?' he asked himself, his mind all in shock.
"I'll tell you everything of what just happened when the time comes," Cora said as she passed out, but just as she did, Piccolo could see Cora's soul now finally going back into her body. Cora's soul was the one speaking, not Cora and it seemed at that point that Piccolo really had to keep his mouth shut for her safety, not knowing the "truth" of how Cora would react to this.
He picked Cora up in his arms and flew over to where her boots and his dark color outfit were laid out on a table where they left them. He laid her down on the dry floor and began to take off her skates and put her boots back on. He then got himself dressed up again and picked Cora up in his arms again and took off out of the skating rink, just in time when the owners came running to see what had happened to their ice rink. Only the building had window and door damage, the ice rink itself inside only had some chairs and tables turned over and the ice only having one cracked dint in it of Piccolo's hip hitting the ice.
Piccolo placed Cora underneath his black cloak, hiding her from anyone that might think she did the damage. He soon made it safely back to the hotel room and locked the door behind him. He lay her on the bed, taking off her boots and sat on the bed next to her, waiting so patently for her to awaken.
After a while, Cora awoke, her eyes opened to the sight of seeing Piccolo meditating at the end of the bed. She slowly moved up and sat there right across from him in the same seated position and began to meditate with him.
Piccolo in such deep thought, didn't even notice Cora's awakening and beginning of her meditation with him. She could feel her body relaxing as she felt a warm light coming from Piccolo's mind. She went into her meditation deeper than she had ever gone before and found herself face to face with Piccolo's inner self inside his mind. Piccolo's inner self opened his eyes and saw her.
"What are you doing in my mind?"
"I didn't know I could be able to go this deep into meditation. Is it okay that I meditate with you?" she asked, Piccolo nodding and then going back to his mediating state of being.
Both of them sat before each other meditating late into the night, or at least until Cora broke her meditation to go eat. She slowly opened her eyes and walked over to the food on the table and sat to eat.
Piccolo opened his eyes then and looked to her sternly. "I don't want you to go in that deep unless I tell you that you can."
"Okay, I just thought it would be a good idea at the time," she said still eating her feast of leftover food she had ordered the other day.
"But for what you went through today, you can come in and join me once again, to clear your mind, if you want," he suggested, Cora smiling a bit at him at the offer. "I'm just wondering though, do remember anything that happened to you on the ice today?" he asked her, hoping that she wouldn't remember the great details of what happened.
Putting down her fork, "I remember it all. I remember being swept up in the air by this great gust of wind, it was cold on me as it wrapped around my body," she said closing her eyes and then quickly opening them again. "I can also remember my soul, she left my body again. I can never forget any of my Soul Travels, how could anyone forget even their first. I'll tell you about it sometime."
Piccolo looked at her in amazement. "Do you remember anything else that happened with your soul, of what you call a Soul Travel?"
"I remember everything of my Soul Travels. I remember seeing my Soul flying around with the element of Wind, she slowly became one with this great element and I think I can still feel that element within me," she said putting her hands to her stomach as if she were pregnant, Piccolo seeing this with his eyes he suddenly couldn't move, talk, or even almost breath. "What wrong with you?" she said looking down at her stomach. "Hell no I'm not, if I was I would have known about it by now and for Kami's sake you better not have done anything with me, even if you could!" she yelled, throwing a fork over his head, it hitting the wall, fork points sticking to the wall.
"Hey, just calm down a second. If I did anything to you last night, which I know I didn't, I would have known it too. But tell me, do you remember what your soul said to you or even to me, while you were unconscious?"
"Not much, only something about these crystal spheres," she said with her mouth full of food, she then swallowing. "I've known about those seven crystal spheres for a while now. You look like you thought I would know?" she said laughing. "That's why I had to find you, you baka."
Enraged with anger, Piccolo grabbed Cora by the fabric of her dress in one hand, holding her in the air, his eyes seeming to growl all there own, his voice starting out a growl as he spoke. "You just want to use me to create those Dragon Balls for your own pleasure?"
Gulping hard, "No, the shaman told me that I would find you, he didn't know who or what you were, he just said it was destined to be and we have to take this a day at a time. Already I can feel the first Crystal Dragon Ball forming within my soul," she said, as Piccolo placed her on the bed, he stood there in anger, his Namekian blood boiling. "I think you should have a talk with Dende about this or maybe Dende has no idea, because from what I know, this Earth has it's own Fates and Guardians and Dende had no idea what he did, he only sent you here just for a vacation and nothing more of what he knew. You have to believe me that he had no part in this what so ever. The Fates of this Earth are the ones controlling it, and I've worked with them before on something like this. How else would I know what's going on inside me!" she cried out, tears falling from her eyes.
Piccolo looked down at her, his eyes finally relaxing. "I must have forgotten that Namek's are the ones that can create the Dragon Balls," he said sitting on the bed next to her, Cora moving over to the foot of the bed, feeling a bit scared of Piccolo. He turned and looked at her, her back to him, her head down. "I'm sorry, Cora, I'm so sorry."
"I don't think you are this time, and I don't want you near me right now okay," she snapped at him, as he got up to stand in front of her. She got up and moved over to the door, her back to him. He followed, putting his hand gently on her shoulders, she flinched and moved away from him. "I said not to come near me!" Piccolo not listening to her plea, put his hand on her shoulders tighter, he said nothing. "I said, leave me alone!" She yelled, running out of the hotel room crying. She ran down the hall outside to the winter snow, her feet not covered by her hiking snow boots, they quickly got wet and cold, but she kept running straight for the snow covered forest crying.
Piccolo got his dark attire back on and ran after her in the snow, following her tracks as he ran. He soon found her sitting on her knees in the snow, surrounded by trees, quit far away from the hotel and anyone that may see them. He quietly walked over to her and wrapped his dark cloak around her shivering body. She looked up and just before she felt she had to run away from him, she could see a single tear from his eyes falling down his cheek.
"You said it yourself, we need each other on this and we need to work together and trust each other," Piccolo said as he kept the cloaked wrapped around them both. She put her fingers to the tear and touched it, feeling how warm it was.
"Can you trust me for what I say to be the truth of all of this that's going on between us?" she asked as she looked deep into his black eyes.
"Yes, I trust you, more than ever now. Do you trust me with the way I can be?"
"Yes, I promise to never let you down," she said as Piccolo picked her up into his arms, wrapping the black cloak around her body, holding her tightly. She looked up at the sky and found it to be snowing, the flakes falling gently to the ground all around them.
"I believe it is now winter," Cora added as she stuck out her hand to catch some snow. She laughed like a young child as the snow fell on to her face and hair, Piccolo seeing this smiled for what seemed his best smile ever, even though he didn't show his teeth like most other people the would smile. She looked back up at Piccolo and smiled back at him, he then held her up in his arms, their bodies pressed against each other, as he slowly came into a kiss with her lips. Their embrace could probably be seen by all the spirits of the Earth, their kissing being that passionate and true for the first time, unlike the little tiny friendship kind of kiss before. Their lips warming each others bodies, as they held each other tightly, seeming to not let go, the snow falling gently all around them. Soon Piccolo broke the kiss and he went back to carrying her in his arms, walking back to the hotel, his hood covering his face once again.
Back in the room, they sat on the bed together, looking at a map.
"Where do we go next?" Piccolo asked, eager like always to keep moving.
"We'll just have to let the Winds of the Earth take us where they want us to be, I guess," she said, Piccolo playfully throwing a pillow at her.
"But there's still one more thing that is bothering me," he said laying back against the headboard of the bed.
"What's that?"
"I don't understand how a Dragon Ball could be made by me, when I never called upon them to be made."
"The shaman told me, that you carry the power of creating them inside your heart and I guess now, I'm the one that will carry them until they are ready to be awakened," she said pondering this in her mind. "I get it now," she added, Piccolo turning to her.
"That first kiss!" they both said in unison, they both fell back in a bit of laughter and then sat back up again.
"I wonder what will be next?" Piccolo said, putting his hand on her stomach, Cora noticing this, slapped him across the face. "Hey, what did I do?"
"I may not be pregnant in the natural way, but don't you dare put your hand on my stomach like that again," she growled, slipping into bed for the night. "But tell me, are you full A sexual or are you capable of making children the other way with someone of the opposite sex?"
"No, I'm full A sexual, I can only impregnate myself when it is truly needed or if I want to. I can't get you pregnant at all, I don't have the means to do it."
"Okay, thank Kami on that one then. Well, I'm going to sleep now, I'll see you in the morning."
With that, Piccolo got off the bed, bent over and kissed Cora on the forehead and sat on the floor in a corner to mediate the night away, his mind full of thought and great joy and satisfaction he had never felt before within him. Cora had found a calm inside her, as she knew she carried inside her soul, the first Dragon Ball of its kind for this Planet Earth.
