"Ones Quest, Another's Journey"
Part 6:
"To the Highlands"
The next morning, Cora woke quit early, feeling good about the next journey to a distant land across the water. She checked her calendar, the date saying November 27, she smiled up at Piccolo as she stood up.
"What are you so happy about?" he asked, looking at her oddly.
"I think we should be heading out to sea again, over the North Sea to Scotland and don't worry, I'll tell you what I can about what's in Scotland," she replied with glee in her voice. She quickly got her shower and got dressed in her best Medieval style velvet attire. It being, a lovely dark shade of green long sleeved blouse, with long tapered Medieval style sleeves, trimmed in gold ribbon; her pants brownish green velvet, almost looking and feeling like leather. Her belt around her waist was braded dark brown, with a buckle of gold colored brass; her boots black soft leather, with tied shoelace looking bows in the back. On top of it all she put on the crowning piece she wore, a soft leather brown vest, made in the old Medieval style of royal riders on horseback.
"You really know how to dress," Piccolo commented, his cheeks blushing a bit.
"Aye, my lord, I do," she said in a Scottish/Irish accent as she cleaned up her things, putting them neatly back into her pack and taking out her Celtic music CD to play on the way to Scotland.
"What's so special about this country?"
"I shal't not give thee a word of the wonder of Scotland, Ireland and England, until we are amongst it, sire," she said in her best Shakespearian speaking accent. She bowed to Piccolo and smiled calmly. "Shall we be on our way, my lord?"
Piccolo smiled as he followed her out of the room. They soon checked out of the hotel and were walking towards the shores of Norway, over looking the North Sea of where the United Kingdom lay in wait for them.
The sea was not all that rough with the wind blowing fairly cold, but it was inviting to Cora to say the least. She smiled like a child about to enter into the biggest maze ever. She turned on her music and looked to Piccolo, he holding in his hands her dark green velvet cloak, he tied it around her and gathered her up in his arms once again.
"You aren't going to eat breakfast?"
"I already did while in the bathroom after my shower, I ate one of my energy bars," she grinned as he took to the air, flying over the sea, she then turned up her music, Piccolo hearing it well. 'These are the sounds and songs of England, Scotland, and Ireland that you hear, my all time favorite kind of music,' she said to him in telepathy.
Piccolo blinked as he heard her words in his mind. "You never used telepathy before?"
"Anyone can do it, you just have to find the right person that can hear it, and you are that person," she said smiling.
Even with her music playing, she could feel and hear the sounds of the clouds way above her, rumbling out thunder like there was no tomorrow among their traveling. Piccolo looked up, seeing the deep grayness of the clouds bellowing everywhere with their thunder crashing, his ears not caring in the world of what may come next. The soft Celtic flutes brought a smile to Piccolo's face, he had never heard such soft inviting music like this, unlike Cora's other songs she played. It seemed to him that Cora was in her truest element of home, a place that he could sense from her that was strong and pure of an ancient time that he knew he would soon learn about from her. Just like Japan and China from what he could tell of being very old; ancient, this United Kingdom would be just as the same of old; ancient. The music the he heard, he could already get an idea of what the culture was like and warmly it could be.
With a sudden crash of thunder, Cora barred her head in Piccolo's warm chest, her head wrapped up in the hood of her cloak. She peeked out of the hood and looked around a bit.
"I don't know if you have noticed but we seem to have such great luck, with no one around," she said as she barred her face back into his warm chest.
"I know what you mean. It does seem odd that there isn't anyone out here at sea in boats."
After a while, Cora came to hear the wonderful calling of sea gulls calling out over the sea, the wind carrying them high up in the sky, the music that played for both of them seemed to highten the wonder of Scotland's beauty guiding them to the land. The harps in the music made Piccolo feel as though he were under a spell, but he knew it was only the music. The feel and taste of the salty sea air, gave Piccolo a bad taste in his mouth, he held Cora tightly with one arm, and grabbed his water canteen and taking a drink.
"You need a drink?" Piccolo asked.
"No thanks, I don't drink much water, my body can handle it, you'd be surprised," she replied as he put the canteen back in his pouch and carried her properly in his arms again.
After about an hour flight, they made it to the shores of Scotland, he landed on a cliff that over looked the North Sea. Placing Cora down on her feet, Cora sat on her knees at the edge of the cliff, smiling at the land as she looked around.
She looked up at Piccolo and smiled. "Welcome to Scotland," she said in her best Scottish accent, as Piccolo helped her up by one hand.
"Have you been here before?" he asked, as they walked the grasses and valleys.
"I have been here, once and when you leave, you never will forget it," she said looking up at the clouds, a hint of a rainbow lay before them in the sky. "Look, it must have rained here a bit ago, cause there's a rainbow about to fade," she pointed, Piccolo looked and nodded. She looked down and laughed. "There is one main rule you must know here, watch out for the sheep shit."
Piccolo looked down at the ground and sure enough he had walked right into a small pile of sheep droppings, he turned his nose up and scuffed off his boot clean on the grass. "You should have told me earlier."
"I kind of tried, but I was in the moment of Scotland and when I am, I'm a completely different person, like a changeling child in spring, so watch out," she said with a chuckle. "What is here in Scotland are many things. First off, we are on the main island of the United Kingdom and it has many other smaller islands around it, on being Ireland which I love most of all," she said in a Scottish accent, bowing a bit as she walked.
Cora took out her map of Scotland and looked in front of her, they had come upon the town of Inverness. A fairly large town, but quit nice to Cora's taste of Medieval living that was perfect to her in every way. To its old buildings, to the culture it held inside its museums of art and history.
"Let's not stay long here, I have a feeling you want to show me something very special," Piccolo said as he fixed his cloak to hide him better.
Cora turned off her music and put it away in the camping pack. "I intend to show you Loch Ness, the most famous lake in the British Isles of the United Kingdom, and if we are lucky, which we have been in some odd things, we could get a chance to see the Loch Ness monster the Scott's all know and love, her name be Nessy," she told him, his eyes went wide at the word of a monster on this Earth. "Don't look so shocked. She's real, I believe, but a lot of people believe she's not. When we get to Loch Ness, you'll see," she said grabbing Piccolo to by the hand and pulling him to the entrance of Inverness. "Now I can get something to eat that will stick to my gullet," she added as she saw the closed pub. "And you will be coming in here with me, okay," Piccolo nodding as they walked in.
She sat at a table with Piccolo across from it, he put the camping pack down next to the wall, keeping his face hidden for sure. For some reason, Piccolo didn't feel comfortable being in the pub at all.
"What's wrong?" she asked, holding his hand.
"I sense something strong in this place, something isn't right."
"Don't worry about it, I won't have you getting into any bar brawls while we are here in the United Kingdom, I'll take the fights for you and you know exactly why," she replied to him sternly, Piccolo nodding as a waitress came up to their table.
"What will it be, lass?" the woman asked, pen and pad of paper in hand to take down their order.
"I'll have a fairly large breakfast of everything you have that will stick to my gullet," she replied, Piccolo eyes looking at her oddly from underneath the hood, the blackness of his eyes could be eerily seen from under the hood.
"Okay, one Jake's Breakfast, anything else?"
"One shoot of your best Scottish whiskey afterwards."
The woman looked at her shockingly, "Are you sure, you look like you're a lady that might not be able to take it after a breakfast like what you're about to get."
"Her stomach can handle anything," Piccolo added, as the woman wrote the order down.
"And for you, sir?"
"Nothing for me, thanks," he replied keeping his eyes hidden from her.
"Make that, two shoots of your best whiskey. My friend here already ate," Cora added, the woman writing it down and going on her way to make the order up quickly. "Going to restaurants with you is going to be hard on me."
"I know, but I promise you that I will taste some foods on this trip," he said looking into her eyes, she blushing a bit.
Thirty minutes to an hour later, Cora's fairly large breakfast came to her. It's main plate full to the brim of anything you could think of for breakfast.
"I think your eyes were bigger than your stomach," Piccolo smirked turning his nose up at what was in front of her.
"Nope, they were both just the right, over the top size for what I like. I don't know if you've noticed yet, but I mainly eat only one large meal a day and some snacks on top of that. That's why you don't seem to see me eat much, cause I pig out for the first part of the day," she said smiling and chuckling as she started to eat. She ate slowly this time, not to over do herself and to let the food last her most of the day. Piccolo leaned back in his chair against the wall and closed his eyes, trying hard to ignore Cora's munching and gulping down food. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed he was destined to be around big eaters in his life, but at least she wasn't like Gokou, he certainly thanked his lucky stars for that.
After a few hours it seemed of eating, there was hardly any thing left for her to take with her on the road. The waitress returned with the bill and took the plates away, she soon returned with two shoots of Scottish whiskey.
"Are you two going to the Winter Medieval festival in Ireland?" she asked placing the two shoot glasses of whiskey on the table.
"Yep, that's exactly why I mainly came here, my friend here was almost forced to come with me. Do you know the price for passes and all that?"
"Aye, I do. The way you're dressed, the way both of you are dressed you might be lucky to get in for free, but you don't know. The main full pass around the festival is fifteen pounds, it's their best price to date, and don't forget to see Nessy."
"We intend on see that old girl and thank you very much for the information and don't worry I know when it will begin," Cora added, the waitress nodding and going on about her business.
Piccolo sat back up straight in his chair and took the shoot glass in his fingers and sniffed the light brown liquid, he turned his nose, his eyes watering a bit.
"This is to be the best stuff around and this is one thing I want you to try. Just take it straight down, Piccolo," she said as he put the glass back in his hand, the looked at each other, Cora smiled and winked, as they both shoot the whiskey down their throats. Cora slammed the glass down on the table, where as Piccolo placed it on the table almost dropping it out of his fingers. The look on his face that she could see was pure surprise. "It's something else, it's it?" she chuckled, whipping her mouth with her hand smiling.
With a bit of a cough, "I've never tasted anything like this."
"But do you like it?"
"A bit, it sure does make your blood warm up," he said whipping the tears from his eyes. Piccolo looked up in front of him, a dark red haired man seated in a corner watching them.
Looking back up at him, "I know, I'll handle it," she said softly as she took off her cloak, throwing it to the chair, the man standing up moving over closer to Cora.
"I don't like you and your friend!" the red haired man said, Cora looking at the man with a stern face and not flitching. "You and your kind are not welcome here."
"Now, come on Drake, let's not start this again," the bartender said.
"Shut up, Duncan, I'll take care of the clean up," he added, anger in his voice as he looked at Cora and gave her one hell of a punch to the face. She feel back, but quickly jumped back and high kicked him in the chest, it not even hardly making him move back. She jumped back in fighting stance ready for the next hit.
"Oh, look at this, a little Kung Fu fighter," he smirked, taking another punch to Cora, she dodging it with ease as she came down punching the man right in the center of his stomach, hitting him so hard he doubled over in pain. With that she jumped up on top of the man, he looked up and as she came down on him, she swiftly kicked him in the face. She landed on the floor, and stood up again, for more. The guy got up again and tried to do the best he could of a sidekick to Cora, but she dodged that too and grabbed his leg, hitting his knee with her elbow, and trying to swing him to the ground, but with no chance. She fell back and looked up at Piccolo who was watching this closely, finding it very amzing.
"You're doing just fine, keep it up," Piccolo said to her, as she looked up at the man, who was about to punch her once more.
She then swiftly swung around, kicking the guy on the neck, spinning him around just a bit, but as he was slightly dazed, she came up again, with her fist clutched very tightly, anger in her eyes. Piccolo looked up right away at Cora with wide eyes as she swung hard, everyone in the pub could hear a crack come from Drake's jaw and a slight pop from her knuckles. The punch to his face was so powerful, by such a woman like herself, even though she didn't look like much, it caused Drake to fall to the floor flat on his back.
She looked at Piccolo and smiled slightly. 'Take him out for the count one last time,' he said to her by telepathy, she looked up and sure enough Drake got back up on his feet, but not so well. She did what he told, ran up to him and jumped up high, coming down on him with one very hard elbow jab to his neck, it causing him to go unconscious, his body lay still on the pub floor. Those who stayed in the pub watching looked at Cora with surprise, the bartender was sure he would faint right there after what he had seen. She stood there over her enemy, breathing hard as she slowly walked away. Suddenly, everyone in the pub began to cheer with yells and clapping.
Piccolo looked from under his cloak and smiled at Cora, she turned to look at him and smiled back. "You did well for just that one guy."
"Thank you, Piccolo," she said sitting back down at the table, putting her cloak back on and looking at the bill and placed the payment of it and a nice tip at the table. They got up, Piccolo put the camping pack back on his back as they began to walk out of the pub, five men began to drag Drake out of the pub.
"Hey, for your bravery to face Drake, and finally taking him out of here, have this on us," the bartender said, as he threw a bottle of that same Scottish whiskey to Cora.
"Thank you. I hope Drake never comes back, if he does, he better not pass my companion and I again on the road," she said as they walked out of the pub and back onto the road once again.
The highland sky finally cleared, showing beautiful blue sky and the sun shinning down on them.
"Well, you've experienced your first bar brawl and I can't promise you that you'll not see anymore of them. I hope you know why I would usually do most of the fighting."
"How many times do I have tell you, I can't because of how strong I am and what I could do and who I am. I know, I know. I wonder if you know that I wish I could get into some of that fighting myself, I'm a better fighter than you and you know it," he said, with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"Yes, you sure are. Maybe you will get into one, one of these days while you are here, but I doubt it. I'm starting to have fun at this and yes I know there is more to fighting than some fun, so don't you start!" she yelled.
Piccolo laughed, "All right, I won't bug you on it," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. "So, where do we go from here?"
"Well, we can't stay long, cause in a two days will be the Winter Medieval Festival of Ireland. The festival lasts for almost a full two weeks and it's very worth the trip to get there," she said smiling up at him. "And I'm not going to tell you what to expect, because with me, you have to expect the unexpected, especially at a festival of the Medieval times."
"And you will have to expect the unexpected with me too," he added.
"Not really, cause you're quit predictable."
"Yeah right! Are you saying you didn't look at me with surprise when I sat next to you or when we kissed? Do you call that predictable and expected? I think not!" he snapped, giving out a bit of a chuckle.
Cora sighed as she looked around the town, soon her eyes catching the sight of a tour bus going to Loch Ness.
"There's our way to Loch Ness," Cora said, pulling at Piccolo's cloak sleeve. "Why don't we start out there now while the weather is good?" Piccolo nodded and followed her close behind to the bus. They got their tickets and boarded the bus and they were on their way to see, or at least hopefully see the Loch Ness monster.
"What wrong with you?" Cora asked look at Piccolo who was staring out the window and feeling a bit uneasy.
"I don't do well in a tight place like this," he said groaning a bit.
"It is kind of cramped today. I guess you're a bit claustrophobic and a bit of motion sick. That happens to some people when they get on a bus or plane, it's okay, we'll be there soon," she said trying to calm Piccolo. "I hope," she said under her breath the best she could, but Piccolo turned his eyes to her, and she knew he still heard her. "Gomen."
"It's okay. I think I can make it," he said holding his stomach, as the bus drove around some big turns.
"Here, drink some water, maybe it will make you feel better," she said handing him her canteen of water. He took it and drank a good bit of it and handed it back to her. She looked up underneath his hood and saw his eyes clenched tightly closed and holding his stomach, from that she gave him a barf bag. "Just hold it in the best you can for now, until we get off this bus, okay, please Piccolo just hold it."
Her words were in vane with no help at all, and Piccolo lost it right there in the bag. She turned her eyes away from him as lost it, she cringed and almost felt sick herself from hearing him heave.
"Will he be all right?" a bus attendant asked as she came over to see what was going on.
"He's just a bit motion sick I guess. Do you have any of those motion sickness pills?"
"I'm sorry miss, we do not; only the boats have that mostly."
"Then could you get me a cold wet wash cloth for his forehead, please?" she asked, the woman going to get the wet cloth, she returned quickly with it and gave it to Cora.
After a while, Piccolo finally stopped getting sick and the attendant threw the fairly full bag away. Cora bent over to see his face, it being a lighter shade of green and his eyes looked very tired and a bit puffy. She put the wash cloth to his forehead and held it there for a while, until Piccolo held it in place himself.
"At least it was all water and nothing else," Cora said putting her hand on his back trying to calm his nerves.
"I've never gotten sick before, not to mention I've never been on a bus before," he said as Cora got up to open his side window to let in some air, he lay his head on the window taking in as much of the air he could.
"Do you feel any better now?" she asked, Piccolo shaking his head slowly. "Maybe it was that whiskey drink, that might have really kicked your insides without knowing it until now. Remind me not to give you any more alcohol again or trying to get you drunk."
"It was that small shoot of whiskey, it's just the motion of this bus moving. If it was the drink, I would have known about it about five seconds after taking it.
Suddenly a voice over the intercom could be heard of a man's voice speaking.
"Here we are, lads and lassies, Loch Ness, home of the Nessy."
"Well, you can finally get off this bus," she said as the bus stopped, the attendant came over to them and helped Piccolo out of his seat, making sure that Piccolo and Cora were the first ones off the bus. After getting back on solid ground, Piccolo leaned up against a light poll, while Cora got her camping pack out of the bus' holding compartments. "I think we should leave this at the front desk of the tour," she said carrying it on her back and walking over to the front desk. After leaving it with it's own tag to find it again, Cora ran back to Piccolo who was now sitting on the ground groaning. "Maybe you need something you can actual eat. Will that be okay?"
"Yes, I think you're right, just don't get me anything spicy," he groaned as she went to get him something.
She came back with some regular bread and some saltine crackers and a glass of milk.
"Here," she said handing him the food. "This is the best I could do for now. I promise you that these will calm your stomach and give you the strength you need to feel better," she said as Piccolo ate the bread and crackers slowly and drank the milk, even though he didn't like the taste of it at all. After a while, the food was gone, but half of the milk in the glass was still left. "You don't want the rest of the milk?" she asked Piccolo shaking his head, she drank it down quickly. "I can drink milk all day, if I wanted to."
"You can eat and drink anything all day if you wanted to," he said slowly standing up, Cora helping him.
She looked to see the tour boat leaving. "Well, we've missed the boat tour, but that won't bother us, now will it. We can just walk around the land and see Nessy ourselves," she said walking with Piccolo slowly, as she held onto him. Before they started to get going, Cora went back to pick up her camping pack, she put it on and walked back to Piccolo.
The colors of Scotland were such beautiful shades of green; that Cora couldn't but help herself to a bad joke, but she kept it to herself.
'If he runs around here naked in Scotland or even Ireland, and hides somewhere in the grass, I'll never find him again,' she said to herself, hiding the joke from Piccolo's mind.
"Scotland sure is beautiful," he said looking around.
"You'll soon find out why I love the United Kingdom so much and how you will know this is just how I feel at this very moment," she added, smiling as she looked around. Quickly, she caught the eye of a Scottsman playing his bagpipes up atop a hill, the wind blowing his kilt and frays at the end of the pipes. "Piccolo, look over there," she pointed.
"What kind on instruments are those?"
"Bagpipes, Scotland's most popular and ancient of musical instruments around," she stopped walking and just stood there watching the man play, the sound of the pipes quit loud, it made her blood flow fast through her body. "I love the sound of the pipes," she said looked at Piccolo. "Is the music hurting your ears?"
"No, not really, I'm glad it's not a human whistling, but it does sound very interesting," he commented, as Cora went to her camping pack to take out her camera to take some pictures of the Scottsman. As she took the pictures, Piccolo could see her twitching her eyes a bit and turning her head to the side. "I see it hurts your ears though."
"Yeah, just the high pitched blows hurt, but if there where more interments playing it wouldn't hurt as much," she said taking more shots of the man, she then stood back next to Piccolo. "The pipes are best played during a parade and by themselves out in the highlands. For ceremonies they are played at weddings and funerals. When they are played at weddings they are said to bring great fortune to the wedded couple and when they are played during a funeral, they bring great pride, honor and closing for the one that passed away. When you see a funeral here and they play the pipes, you will know what I mean," she said as the man finished playing his song, he soon walked over to them both smiling.
"How are ye travelers doin' this fine day?" the man asked in a Scottish accent.
Cora answered in her best accent for fun, but the man knew she was American. "Quit marry, this day, sir. You're playing was the best, I've heard in a long time."
"That was my first time hearing them, I liked it," Piccolo added.
"Then I've done my job to make you feel at home here in Scotland. Lassie, your accent is pure, you must have lived here once."
"In a way I have," she said smiling.
"Well, I'm off, good journey to you both," the man said as he walked back to the town of Inverness.
"So, what do you think of Scotland so far?" she asked again speaking her best accent.
"It sure is ancient."
"Aye, it is, quit ancient in fact, my lord."
"Why are you calling me that?"
"Cause, I want to, it suits you, you are a higher being than I will ever be. Would you like me not to call you that?"
"Nay, it's okay. I kind of like it that way," he said with a smirk of pride beaming through him, just like Vigeta, but more of a mannered way.
They went back to walking the dirt roads up deep into the highlands. "You know, we should be coming across some castles by now."
After a good walk of some miles, they finally came upon Urquhart Castle, on the side of the Loch Ness. It's main building seeming that it would fall apart, the stone dark gray from weather. The tower over looking the Loch from the north, the water a dark blue and moving with great life, the sky blue and sunny. They walked up to the bridge that connected the castle to the road and walked across, Cora taking pictures as they walked.
"The stone work is so old," Piccolo said as she looked up at the towers and ruins that were left of it.
"Aye, but still with plenty of life in the lady still," she said smiling, as she took more pictures of the Loch, her camera suddenly stopping and rewinding her film. "Oh, I'm out of film now, but I'm glad I brought plenty," she said as Piccolo kneeled to the ground for Cora to get after her pack.
"How many rolls of film do you have?"
"I think about twenty, this is the first one that is finally full, and while we're here in Scotland, all we are mainly going to do is travel down the loch towards Ireland, take pictures and keep an eye out for Nessy. I hope I can see the old girl." She said, suddenly hearing someone playing the bagpipes once again, this time it was the song that got to her the most.
Up atop a hill above them, there was a funeral taking place. The pipes playing Amazing Grace, as the casket was being placed into the ground. Cora looked up and stood tall for the respect for who had died.
"Now you see what I mean," Cora said, as Piccolo watched and listened.
"Hai, I do. Your kind really know how to respect the dead with great honor and pride," he said standing up with Cora.
"May the man or woman that lay in the highlands of this land rest in peace," she said bowing her head. "Well, we shall get moving then," she said as she put the old roll of film in her pack and put the new in her camera.
"Where to next?"
"Just up the road, to see some more castles. If we had the time, we could travel around just Great Britain alone and find all the castles that I would ever need to see, but we don't really have that pleasure."
With a sigh, "Cora, would you mind playing your Celtic music again?" he asked, smiling at her.
"Sure, glad you asked," she said going back to her pack to get the CD out and her player. As the music played, Piccolo smiled softly as he looked around the land.
They walked on and on, admiring the land, and it's creatures that passed them by. The trek across was easy by far, the sound of rushing waterfalls and rivers could be heard everywhere, but one waterfall caught Cora's eye the best.
Piccolo stopped and looked up towards where Cora looked, her eyes going wide with wonder. "You want to climb up there?"
"You bet, or at least try and get close to the waterfall. I love waterfalls and when I see one that is worthy of me, I shall climb it and be among it's beauty, for I am Pisces and must be close to the waters of Earth," she said her eyes sparkling with happiness as she ran up the hill to see where she could go from there. The music had heightened her eagerness greatly and this made Piccolo worry just a bit for her safety. She did not know how to fly like him, and she was a bit clumsy, but when it came right down to it, Cora was like a child, a fairy child in the forest and Piccolo could sense this strongly from her, like smelling a rose up close.
He looked back behind him and around, no one was in sight, but how could this be, there should at least be some people watching. "Be careful Cora," he called out catching up with her quickly.
She sat atop the hill and smiled at the great waterfall. "I must climb it, or at least be below its white flowing liquid hair of the maiden of Scotland."
"Then I shall join you," he said looking up at the waterfall.
"You are welcome to join me at any time that I feel I must be around my element of life," she said standing up, the wind blowing her cloak, the wind feeling a bit cold. "Here I am a child, a child of the fae, here and anywhere else of the United Kingdom I am home," she said running down the hill, heading for the bottom of the waterfall.
She looked up at the waterfall and hung her head, "What is it?" Piccolo asked.
"A great Earthly structure that has said no to me to climb. It be too much, but here," she said pointing. "There be a stone I can sit at," she said walking carefully to the large bolder, she climbed it with great gentleness and sat in the center of it. The water misting over her body a bit, making her hair a bit damp.
Piccolo looked up and found himself a place to sit and meditate with her among the waterfall. Cora covered her head with the hood and sat calmly and began, Piccolo doing the same, even with that camping pack on his back, it didn't bother him at all, he then covered his face and began. They both sat at their places, feeling at peace, as the sound of the waterfall did not seem as loud as it was before, it seeming to put them deeper into the state of trueness. After some great hours of meditating by the waterfall, Cora began to get tired, her legs aching a bit as she came out of her state of meditation. She turned to Piccolo and smiled and quietly got off the bolder she sat on and walked back down the waterfall to a dry place to wait for Piccolo to awaken from his state of meditation.
Piccolo opened his eyes and looked across from him finding the bolder empty, he looked down and saw Cora looking up at him, taking a picture of him still sitting there on the rock.
"I think we should get going now, it's getting late in the day," she yelled as Piccolo stood up and flew down to her.
"You're right, we should keep moving," he replied as they got back on the path.
Walking a bit southwest, Cora and Piccolo came across three more old castles and Cora of course took pictures of them and of the waterfalls she found. After a long time of walking, Piccolo stopped suddenly, looking out over Loch Ness.
"What is it?" she asked looking in the direction he was looking.
"Look right over there," he pointed as Cora looked hard. They weren't sure what they saw, but it got them both to wondering and curious. Piccolo and Cora calmly walked down to the shore the best they could to get a better look. "There, what is that?"
Cora looked harder and then her eyes widened. "Oh my God!" she cried softly, a long necked creature came out of the water and looked straight at them both, its skin black; slick and long, the water slightly splashing up against it.
"Is that Nessy?" Piccolo asked keeping his eyes on the creature, he then took off his hood to see it better and for it to see him better.
"Yes, that's Nessy all right and she's alive," Cora said as Piccolo flew down over the water. "Piccolo, no, don't bother Nessy, she might swim away."
"Will you shut up and take some pictures," Piccolo growled softly. Cora quickly took the pictures of Nessy, making sure that her camera wasn't taking pictures of Piccolo once she would get them developed. "I'm not going to hurt the creature," he added as he flew across the water getting closer to Nessy.
The creature looked at Piccolo in wonder and fear, like it could sense his power of what he could do, but with all of that, the prehistoric creature swam a bit closer to Piccolo as well. Both soon found it to be just enough of space to check the other out in safety, as they kept their distance. Cora could only stand there on the rocky shore watching this whole thing unfold and to keep an eye out for anyone that may come by.
Suddenly, the lights of a boat came into view, Piccolo looked up and took off for the shore quickly, as he grabbed Cora in his arms and flew for the dirt road. He quickly put his hood back on, seeing Nessy swim away to safety.
"That was close, too close if you ask me," Cora said as Piccolo put her back on her feet. "At least we both got to see her and I got some great pictures, I think the best ever in the world since that 1950's first time photo of Nessy."
"Nessy's a dinosaur," Piccolo said in disbelief.
"Yeah, what did you think she was?"
"After living around some really dumb dinosaurs on Chikyuu, I've never meet one quit like Nessy before. And from what I can tell, she's no threat to anyone."
"Of course, she can't leave the loch really and she's supposedly the only living dinosaur on the planet still to this day. They say there's a dinosaur deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and I believe it."
"What happens if she's caught and kept in a tank or something?"
"Trust me, that will never happen. There are so many caves under that dark; deep cold water that no one will ever find her. No one even really wants to, cause they think she's not real, but the selected few really do believe, and as you can see, we both saw her and she's as real as they come, about as real as you right at this very moment," she added, Piccolo nodding as they got back to their trek across Scotland.
"By the way, when is this festival we are going to?" Piccolo asked as he took a drink from his canteen.
"It starts the day after tomorrow and we have to at least get there before then so we can get our special passes and for me to get dressed up in the right costume I want. But when we get there to the festival, you'll love it or at least have some fun," she replied. "The festival is always held in Dublin, Ireland for these parts of the United Kingdom and around the world, there are many more Medieval/Renascence festivals every year and season."
Piccolo stood there for a bit just thinking, Cora watching as she could feel his mind turning with every thought. "I think the best way to get there, such you say you need to get there right away, is to fly."
"But what about all the people that will see us? Wouldn't it be safer to fly at night?" Cora asked.
"I'll just fly up high enough were they can't see us," he replied. With a sigh Cora went along with it, Piccolo carrying her again, he took off quickly to the air, way above were no one could see them from land. "You said you had to get there quickly and it would be the best thing to do."
"Yeah, but I thought we could enjoy Scotland some more, but oh well," she said as she held tightly onto him. He stopped suddenly in mid air, way up high in the sky for a moment.
"We could turn back you know."
"Let's keep going then, Scotland is a bit boring anyway," she smirked, as she then kept her mouth shut.
It didn't take them long at all to reach the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. From the air, they could see already, out in a large green grassed field, the festival being fixed up with rides, jousting arena, food market like area, shopping booths, archery contest arena complete with the royal booths and high council with many different colored flags and banners up in the air.
"Looks like they went all out this year," she said, as Piccolo landed.
"So, what am I going to do while you're at the festival?" he asked, hoping he would be by himself for the time instead of hanging around with Cora all the time, like a dog on a leash.
"Sorry to bust your bubble, but I'd feel safer if you stayed with me. I don't want to take any chances, but then again, you might be lucky enough to walk around without wearing your vale. Hey, there could be a contest for dressing up like someone of the faery realms," she said smiling, picturing him walking around normally.
"Alright, if you insist."
"Now, I'm going into town to find the right maiden dress, you stay here and I will be right back. I hope it won't take long."
"Don't you already have something like that?"
"If you mean this of what I'm wearing right now, this will not do, but I could wear it for other things," she replied as Piccolo took off the camping pack and Cora got into it to find her wallet. "Now, I won't be long, okay," Piccolo nodding as he sat beneath a tree keeping himself hidden from view of anyone passing by.
Cora made her way through the bit of woods into Dublin, there she found everyone bustling around like it was already Christmas. Everyone in the city was so busy getting Christmas present shopping done and on top of that the Winter Medieval Festival was fast approaching.
"Where might I find the nearest dress shop?" she asked a man that was walking her way.
"Just up the road a bit, about three blocks on your left, miss," the man replied with an Irish accent.
"Thank you," she said as she walked swiftly down the street to the store. She soon found it, and with her amazing luck there were maybe three more dresses left in the store that were for sale for the festival. She walked in with a big smile on her face.
"May I help you, madam?" a woman clerk asked as she stopped what she was working on and attended to Cora.
"I'm in need of a Medieval dress for the festival and if those are the only three you have left and they need to be tailored, that is fine with me."
"You are correct, those are our last three and they are at 75% off today," the woman added as they both walked to the three dresses on the wall.
The first one, nearest to the window was solid black, with royal purple trim, a straight sleeved design, with a very large ribbon tied around the chest and waist. The next one to that, was on a deep rusty wheat orange, with three layers of sleeves to it, a bit short to the elbow, with a bit of a diamond design and tied deep orange ribbon around the bust and chest. The third one was the best she could find, with such luck. It was of deep royal purple, with tiny diamond designs all over it, tapered three layered long sleeves, with a deep royal blue ribbon tied around the bust and waist, the neckline being cut a square. After a few minutes of deciding, Cora finally chose.
"Which one will it be, madam?" the clerk asked.
"I'll buy the purple one," she said finally, her eyes sparkling. 'I can't wait until Piccolo sees me in this and for one thing we'll match together with his gi outfit, it is purple after all," she thought as the clerk took the dress down from the wall. Cora quickly tried the dress on and found it to be two sizes too big, but that didn't bother her one bit.
"Looks like we'll have to size it, I'll start on this right away for you, madam," the clerk said as she began to take Cora's measurements and went to work on the dress. A few hours later the dress was ready and looked perfect to Cora's eyes. She paid for it and was on her way back to see Piccolo who was waiting for her in the forest.
Piccolo opened one eye, to see Cora walking up behind him. "I was wondering when you would finally come back," he said as he stood up.
"I found the perfect dress, and it was one of three that were left," she said holding the dress up to her body for him to see. "Just you wait until you see me in it tomorrow."
"It is a nice fabric, but you know good and well you can't keep this with you during the trip."
"I know, I'll have to mail it to my house in New York," she added as she folded the dress up in her arms. "Now we need to find a hotel for the next two weeks and that may be hard to do."
"Another dang hotel?" Piccolo growled.
"Okay then, where do we stay for the night?"
"There's plenty of places were we could go out in the forest."
"Uh, I really don't think so, Piccolo. I don't know if you haven't noticed yet, but in Ireland there isn't very many trees here. We have to have another hotel, sorry."
"Alright, fine," he growled as he put his hood and vale over his head and face and covered up the rest of his body with the cloak.
"We might not get a good hotel this time around, because most of the good ones are all booked up because of the festival, but we can try and find a cancellation," she said as they walked into the city.
Being around a city with so many people made Piccolo a bit uneasy. He felt a bit paranoid and aware more so than usual. It was like he was having a panic attack or something and Cora could sense it right off his body. She could even hear him breathing heavier than normal whenever he walked and that made her worry for him. She knew very well that there would be times that they would have to be out in public and they both wouldn't be able to help it at all and to make matters worse with Piccolo, he could just blow something up or even have such a panic attack that he might have to go home early and/or take some medication about his attacks. Of course there would be no telling how medication would react to his kind of body chemistry. She had never seen anything like it to happen to Piccolo, yeah he didn't care too much to hang around big groups, but even then with just Vigeta, Bulma, Krillin, 18, Trunks, Goten, Gohan, Gokou, Videl and Chichi, that wasn't very much of a large group anyway. But she figured that from him being out on his own so much that he never really experienced being around a lot of people and she hoped that he would learn to handle that better and more often as they traveled.
As they walked to hotel to hotel and motel to motel, still nothing to cancellation could be found. Until the usually strange stroke of luck that seemed to always follow them, a manager from a fairly fancy hotel happen to come up with a cancellation.
"You know," she began saying as she leaned up against a green marble pillar. "This is getting to be just a bit too much for my own well-being it seems," she said waving the hotel key in front of Piccolo's valed face.
"Well, you do have a lot of money you can get into. I hope very well you don't carry mostly cash with you," he whispered to her as they got into the elevator. "I hate these things," he added as the elevator started up.
"Nay, I don't always carry cash with me, but if I do it's not much and I carry it in the form of the wonders of plastic cards," she said grinning like a wild cat from ear to ear.
"Plastic cards?"
"I'll show you when we get to our room."
"And for Kami's sake, please don't be another honeymoon suit."
"What! You didn't care for that room we had in Russia?"
"Not really, the only good thing was the hot tub in the bathroom."
"Well, there you go, you did like it after all," she added as the elevator bell went off and the doors opened. "Okay, now we have to find room 432," she said stepping out of the elevator and Piccolo following behind. She looked down the hall to her left and Piccolo just stood there looking at one door, grinning to himself. He turned to see her walking down the hall a bit.
"Wouldn't it be down this way," he said pointing to her right, she turned and walked down it, while he stood right in front of the room door, hiding the numbers.
"Aw, gezz, it has to be here somewhere, I know this is the right floor," she said facing Piccolo, his arms just crossed and a light smile could be seen from his mouth.
"I honestly don't know where the room is, maybe it's one of those rooms that they don't have a number for," he chuckled.
Cora glared at him and pushed him out of the way and there in front of her was room 432 in gold numbers on the door. "I'll deal with you later, you baka," she snarled as she turned the key and opened the door. As she entered she could hear Piccolo laughing a bit quietly to himself, she turned and looked at him and closed the door right on his face.
"Hey, what the hell was the for?"
"That was for your stupid little joke. Just for your childishness, you'll stay out there for a while until I call you," she said looking through the door's peephole, seeing Piccolo's eyes glaring.
Banging on the door hard, "Hey, let me in damn it!" he yelled as he turned to his left to see a few people stepping out of their rooms staring at him of how loud he was yelling.
"Not until you say you're sorry for what you did to me."
Piccolo just looked around him, he could feel the blood rushing to his face to change it to a blush. "Okay, I'm sorry, really sorry for what I did, now may I come in now?"
"I guess so," she said opening the door, Piccolo ran inside, locking the door behind him. "Gezz, what's wrong with you?"
"Just some friendly hotel neighbors wanting to know what was going on," he said pulling off his cloak and dropping that and the camping pack and Cora's staff on the floor.
"Well, that should teach you not to trick me like that again."
'Not until next time,' he said to himself, smirking a bit.
"I mean it, Piccolo, these little pranks and jokes will get me very angry if you're not careful," she said as she laid down on her back on the bed, as he turned off the lights in the room, leaving the bathroom light on and the door barely open.
He looked at her with eyes of contentment and stood in front of her. She opened her eyes and lightly smiled at him as he slowly laid down on the bed beside her. She rolled over to face him and cuddled up against his chest as he put an arm around her shoulders.
Sighing softly, "Where do we go from here, on how we feel about each other?" she asked.
"I really don't know, but the only thing I can tell you is, I want to take it slow with you," he replied as a sudden rumble was heard coming from Cora's stomach. "What the hell was that?"
"I'm hungrier than I thought and this time I think I'll go down stairs to the hotel's café, were you won't be hearing me chow down so loudly."
"That's fine with me, just when you come back, don't be so loud when you come in through the door."
"Sure, no problem," she replied as she took the room key and walked out the door.
A few hours later Cora came back to the room, with some leftovers and two special passes for the festival the next day. She slowly turned the key and opened the door, there in a corner she saw Piccolo meditating, his arms crossed, his body levitating. She quietly walked in and set the food on the table and locked the door. She then got her close changed into her sleep ware and curled up into bed.
From all of the movement, Piccolo opened one eye and smiled softly to himself as he got up. He walked over to the side Cora was sleeping on and kissed her gently on the cheek, then went back to meditating the night away in the corner as she slept.
Part 6:
"To the Highlands"
The next morning, Cora woke quit early, feeling good about the next journey to a distant land across the water. She checked her calendar, the date saying November 27, she smiled up at Piccolo as she stood up.
"What are you so happy about?" he asked, looking at her oddly.
"I think we should be heading out to sea again, over the North Sea to Scotland and don't worry, I'll tell you what I can about what's in Scotland," she replied with glee in her voice. She quickly got her shower and got dressed in her best Medieval style velvet attire. It being, a lovely dark shade of green long sleeved blouse, with long tapered Medieval style sleeves, trimmed in gold ribbon; her pants brownish green velvet, almost looking and feeling like leather. Her belt around her waist was braded dark brown, with a buckle of gold colored brass; her boots black soft leather, with tied shoelace looking bows in the back. On top of it all she put on the crowning piece she wore, a soft leather brown vest, made in the old Medieval style of royal riders on horseback.
"You really know how to dress," Piccolo commented, his cheeks blushing a bit.
"Aye, my lord, I do," she said in a Scottish/Irish accent as she cleaned up her things, putting them neatly back into her pack and taking out her Celtic music CD to play on the way to Scotland.
"What's so special about this country?"
"I shal't not give thee a word of the wonder of Scotland, Ireland and England, until we are amongst it, sire," she said in her best Shakespearian speaking accent. She bowed to Piccolo and smiled calmly. "Shall we be on our way, my lord?"
Piccolo smiled as he followed her out of the room. They soon checked out of the hotel and were walking towards the shores of Norway, over looking the North Sea of where the United Kingdom lay in wait for them.
The sea was not all that rough with the wind blowing fairly cold, but it was inviting to Cora to say the least. She smiled like a child about to enter into the biggest maze ever. She turned on her music and looked to Piccolo, he holding in his hands her dark green velvet cloak, he tied it around her and gathered her up in his arms once again.
"You aren't going to eat breakfast?"
"I already did while in the bathroom after my shower, I ate one of my energy bars," she grinned as he took to the air, flying over the sea, she then turned up her music, Piccolo hearing it well. 'These are the sounds and songs of England, Scotland, and Ireland that you hear, my all time favorite kind of music,' she said to him in telepathy.
Piccolo blinked as he heard her words in his mind. "You never used telepathy before?"
"Anyone can do it, you just have to find the right person that can hear it, and you are that person," she said smiling.
Even with her music playing, she could feel and hear the sounds of the clouds way above her, rumbling out thunder like there was no tomorrow among their traveling. Piccolo looked up, seeing the deep grayness of the clouds bellowing everywhere with their thunder crashing, his ears not caring in the world of what may come next. The soft Celtic flutes brought a smile to Piccolo's face, he had never heard such soft inviting music like this, unlike Cora's other songs she played. It seemed to him that Cora was in her truest element of home, a place that he could sense from her that was strong and pure of an ancient time that he knew he would soon learn about from her. Just like Japan and China from what he could tell of being very old; ancient, this United Kingdom would be just as the same of old; ancient. The music the he heard, he could already get an idea of what the culture was like and warmly it could be.
With a sudden crash of thunder, Cora barred her head in Piccolo's warm chest, her head wrapped up in the hood of her cloak. She peeked out of the hood and looked around a bit.
"I don't know if you have noticed but we seem to have such great luck, with no one around," she said as she barred her face back into his warm chest.
"I know what you mean. It does seem odd that there isn't anyone out here at sea in boats."
After a while, Cora came to hear the wonderful calling of sea gulls calling out over the sea, the wind carrying them high up in the sky, the music that played for both of them seemed to highten the wonder of Scotland's beauty guiding them to the land. The harps in the music made Piccolo feel as though he were under a spell, but he knew it was only the music. The feel and taste of the salty sea air, gave Piccolo a bad taste in his mouth, he held Cora tightly with one arm, and grabbed his water canteen and taking a drink.
"You need a drink?" Piccolo asked.
"No thanks, I don't drink much water, my body can handle it, you'd be surprised," she replied as he put the canteen back in his pouch and carried her properly in his arms again.
After about an hour flight, they made it to the shores of Scotland, he landed on a cliff that over looked the North Sea. Placing Cora down on her feet, Cora sat on her knees at the edge of the cliff, smiling at the land as she looked around.
She looked up at Piccolo and smiled. "Welcome to Scotland," she said in her best Scottish accent, as Piccolo helped her up by one hand.
"Have you been here before?" he asked, as they walked the grasses and valleys.
"I have been here, once and when you leave, you never will forget it," she said looking up at the clouds, a hint of a rainbow lay before them in the sky. "Look, it must have rained here a bit ago, cause there's a rainbow about to fade," she pointed, Piccolo looked and nodded. She looked down and laughed. "There is one main rule you must know here, watch out for the sheep shit."
Piccolo looked down at the ground and sure enough he had walked right into a small pile of sheep droppings, he turned his nose up and scuffed off his boot clean on the grass. "You should have told me earlier."
"I kind of tried, but I was in the moment of Scotland and when I am, I'm a completely different person, like a changeling child in spring, so watch out," she said with a chuckle. "What is here in Scotland are many things. First off, we are on the main island of the United Kingdom and it has many other smaller islands around it, on being Ireland which I love most of all," she said in a Scottish accent, bowing a bit as she walked.
Cora took out her map of Scotland and looked in front of her, they had come upon the town of Inverness. A fairly large town, but quit nice to Cora's taste of Medieval living that was perfect to her in every way. To its old buildings, to the culture it held inside its museums of art and history.
"Let's not stay long here, I have a feeling you want to show me something very special," Piccolo said as he fixed his cloak to hide him better.
Cora turned off her music and put it away in the camping pack. "I intend to show you Loch Ness, the most famous lake in the British Isles of the United Kingdom, and if we are lucky, which we have been in some odd things, we could get a chance to see the Loch Ness monster the Scott's all know and love, her name be Nessy," she told him, his eyes went wide at the word of a monster on this Earth. "Don't look so shocked. She's real, I believe, but a lot of people believe she's not. When we get to Loch Ness, you'll see," she said grabbing Piccolo to by the hand and pulling him to the entrance of Inverness. "Now I can get something to eat that will stick to my gullet," she added as she saw the closed pub. "And you will be coming in here with me, okay," Piccolo nodding as they walked in.
She sat at a table with Piccolo across from it, he put the camping pack down next to the wall, keeping his face hidden for sure. For some reason, Piccolo didn't feel comfortable being in the pub at all.
"What's wrong?" she asked, holding his hand.
"I sense something strong in this place, something isn't right."
"Don't worry about it, I won't have you getting into any bar brawls while we are here in the United Kingdom, I'll take the fights for you and you know exactly why," she replied to him sternly, Piccolo nodding as a waitress came up to their table.
"What will it be, lass?" the woman asked, pen and pad of paper in hand to take down their order.
"I'll have a fairly large breakfast of everything you have that will stick to my gullet," she replied, Piccolo eyes looking at her oddly from underneath the hood, the blackness of his eyes could be eerily seen from under the hood.
"Okay, one Jake's Breakfast, anything else?"
"One shoot of your best Scottish whiskey afterwards."
The woman looked at her shockingly, "Are you sure, you look like you're a lady that might not be able to take it after a breakfast like what you're about to get."
"Her stomach can handle anything," Piccolo added, as the woman wrote the order down.
"And for you, sir?"
"Nothing for me, thanks," he replied keeping his eyes hidden from her.
"Make that, two shoots of your best whiskey. My friend here already ate," Cora added, the woman writing it down and going on her way to make the order up quickly. "Going to restaurants with you is going to be hard on me."
"I know, but I promise you that I will taste some foods on this trip," he said looking into her eyes, she blushing a bit.
Thirty minutes to an hour later, Cora's fairly large breakfast came to her. It's main plate full to the brim of anything you could think of for breakfast.
"I think your eyes were bigger than your stomach," Piccolo smirked turning his nose up at what was in front of her.
"Nope, they were both just the right, over the top size for what I like. I don't know if you've noticed yet, but I mainly eat only one large meal a day and some snacks on top of that. That's why you don't seem to see me eat much, cause I pig out for the first part of the day," she said smiling and chuckling as she started to eat. She ate slowly this time, not to over do herself and to let the food last her most of the day. Piccolo leaned back in his chair against the wall and closed his eyes, trying hard to ignore Cora's munching and gulping down food. No matter how hard he tried, it seemed he was destined to be around big eaters in his life, but at least she wasn't like Gokou, he certainly thanked his lucky stars for that.
After a few hours it seemed of eating, there was hardly any thing left for her to take with her on the road. The waitress returned with the bill and took the plates away, she soon returned with two shoots of Scottish whiskey.
"Are you two going to the Winter Medieval festival in Ireland?" she asked placing the two shoot glasses of whiskey on the table.
"Yep, that's exactly why I mainly came here, my friend here was almost forced to come with me. Do you know the price for passes and all that?"
"Aye, I do. The way you're dressed, the way both of you are dressed you might be lucky to get in for free, but you don't know. The main full pass around the festival is fifteen pounds, it's their best price to date, and don't forget to see Nessy."
"We intend on see that old girl and thank you very much for the information and don't worry I know when it will begin," Cora added, the waitress nodding and going on about her business.
Piccolo sat back up straight in his chair and took the shoot glass in his fingers and sniffed the light brown liquid, he turned his nose, his eyes watering a bit.
"This is to be the best stuff around and this is one thing I want you to try. Just take it straight down, Piccolo," she said as he put the glass back in his hand, the looked at each other, Cora smiled and winked, as they both shoot the whiskey down their throats. Cora slammed the glass down on the table, where as Piccolo placed it on the table almost dropping it out of his fingers. The look on his face that she could see was pure surprise. "It's something else, it's it?" she chuckled, whipping her mouth with her hand smiling.
With a bit of a cough, "I've never tasted anything like this."
"But do you like it?"
"A bit, it sure does make your blood warm up," he said whipping the tears from his eyes. Piccolo looked up in front of him, a dark red haired man seated in a corner watching them.
Looking back up at him, "I know, I'll handle it," she said softly as she took off her cloak, throwing it to the chair, the man standing up moving over closer to Cora.
"I don't like you and your friend!" the red haired man said, Cora looking at the man with a stern face and not flitching. "You and your kind are not welcome here."
"Now, come on Drake, let's not start this again," the bartender said.
"Shut up, Duncan, I'll take care of the clean up," he added, anger in his voice as he looked at Cora and gave her one hell of a punch to the face. She feel back, but quickly jumped back and high kicked him in the chest, it not even hardly making him move back. She jumped back in fighting stance ready for the next hit.
"Oh, look at this, a little Kung Fu fighter," he smirked, taking another punch to Cora, she dodging it with ease as she came down punching the man right in the center of his stomach, hitting him so hard he doubled over in pain. With that she jumped up on top of the man, he looked up and as she came down on him, she swiftly kicked him in the face. She landed on the floor, and stood up again, for more. The guy got up again and tried to do the best he could of a sidekick to Cora, but she dodged that too and grabbed his leg, hitting his knee with her elbow, and trying to swing him to the ground, but with no chance. She fell back and looked up at Piccolo who was watching this closely, finding it very amzing.
"You're doing just fine, keep it up," Piccolo said to her, as she looked up at the man, who was about to punch her once more.
She then swiftly swung around, kicking the guy on the neck, spinning him around just a bit, but as he was slightly dazed, she came up again, with her fist clutched very tightly, anger in her eyes. Piccolo looked up right away at Cora with wide eyes as she swung hard, everyone in the pub could hear a crack come from Drake's jaw and a slight pop from her knuckles. The punch to his face was so powerful, by such a woman like herself, even though she didn't look like much, it caused Drake to fall to the floor flat on his back.
She looked at Piccolo and smiled slightly. 'Take him out for the count one last time,' he said to her by telepathy, she looked up and sure enough Drake got back up on his feet, but not so well. She did what he told, ran up to him and jumped up high, coming down on him with one very hard elbow jab to his neck, it causing him to go unconscious, his body lay still on the pub floor. Those who stayed in the pub watching looked at Cora with surprise, the bartender was sure he would faint right there after what he had seen. She stood there over her enemy, breathing hard as she slowly walked away. Suddenly, everyone in the pub began to cheer with yells and clapping.
Piccolo looked from under his cloak and smiled at Cora, she turned to look at him and smiled back. "You did well for just that one guy."
"Thank you, Piccolo," she said sitting back down at the table, putting her cloak back on and looking at the bill and placed the payment of it and a nice tip at the table. They got up, Piccolo put the camping pack back on his back as they began to walk out of the pub, five men began to drag Drake out of the pub.
"Hey, for your bravery to face Drake, and finally taking him out of here, have this on us," the bartender said, as he threw a bottle of that same Scottish whiskey to Cora.
"Thank you. I hope Drake never comes back, if he does, he better not pass my companion and I again on the road," she said as they walked out of the pub and back onto the road once again.
The highland sky finally cleared, showing beautiful blue sky and the sun shinning down on them.
"Well, you've experienced your first bar brawl and I can't promise you that you'll not see anymore of them. I hope you know why I would usually do most of the fighting."
"How many times do I have tell you, I can't because of how strong I am and what I could do and who I am. I know, I know. I wonder if you know that I wish I could get into some of that fighting myself, I'm a better fighter than you and you know it," he said, with a bit of annoyance in his voice.
"Yes, you sure are. Maybe you will get into one, one of these days while you are here, but I doubt it. I'm starting to have fun at this and yes I know there is more to fighting than some fun, so don't you start!" she yelled.
Piccolo laughed, "All right, I won't bug you on it," he said putting his hand on her shoulder. "So, where do we go from here?"
"Well, we can't stay long, cause in a two days will be the Winter Medieval Festival of Ireland. The festival lasts for almost a full two weeks and it's very worth the trip to get there," she said smiling up at him. "And I'm not going to tell you what to expect, because with me, you have to expect the unexpected, especially at a festival of the Medieval times."
"And you will have to expect the unexpected with me too," he added.
"Not really, cause you're quit predictable."
"Yeah right! Are you saying you didn't look at me with surprise when I sat next to you or when we kissed? Do you call that predictable and expected? I think not!" he snapped, giving out a bit of a chuckle.
Cora sighed as she looked around the town, soon her eyes catching the sight of a tour bus going to Loch Ness.
"There's our way to Loch Ness," Cora said, pulling at Piccolo's cloak sleeve. "Why don't we start out there now while the weather is good?" Piccolo nodded and followed her close behind to the bus. They got their tickets and boarded the bus and they were on their way to see, or at least hopefully see the Loch Ness monster.
"What wrong with you?" Cora asked look at Piccolo who was staring out the window and feeling a bit uneasy.
"I don't do well in a tight place like this," he said groaning a bit.
"It is kind of cramped today. I guess you're a bit claustrophobic and a bit of motion sick. That happens to some people when they get on a bus or plane, it's okay, we'll be there soon," she said trying to calm Piccolo. "I hope," she said under her breath the best she could, but Piccolo turned his eyes to her, and she knew he still heard her. "Gomen."
"It's okay. I think I can make it," he said holding his stomach, as the bus drove around some big turns.
"Here, drink some water, maybe it will make you feel better," she said handing him her canteen of water. He took it and drank a good bit of it and handed it back to her. She looked up underneath his hood and saw his eyes clenched tightly closed and holding his stomach, from that she gave him a barf bag. "Just hold it in the best you can for now, until we get off this bus, okay, please Piccolo just hold it."
Her words were in vane with no help at all, and Piccolo lost it right there in the bag. She turned her eyes away from him as lost it, she cringed and almost felt sick herself from hearing him heave.
"Will he be all right?" a bus attendant asked as she came over to see what was going on.
"He's just a bit motion sick I guess. Do you have any of those motion sickness pills?"
"I'm sorry miss, we do not; only the boats have that mostly."
"Then could you get me a cold wet wash cloth for his forehead, please?" she asked, the woman going to get the wet cloth, she returned quickly with it and gave it to Cora.
After a while, Piccolo finally stopped getting sick and the attendant threw the fairly full bag away. Cora bent over to see his face, it being a lighter shade of green and his eyes looked very tired and a bit puffy. She put the wash cloth to his forehead and held it there for a while, until Piccolo held it in place himself.
"At least it was all water and nothing else," Cora said putting her hand on his back trying to calm his nerves.
"I've never gotten sick before, not to mention I've never been on a bus before," he said as Cora got up to open his side window to let in some air, he lay his head on the window taking in as much of the air he could.
"Do you feel any better now?" she asked, Piccolo shaking his head slowly. "Maybe it was that whiskey drink, that might have really kicked your insides without knowing it until now. Remind me not to give you any more alcohol again or trying to get you drunk."
"It was that small shoot of whiskey, it's just the motion of this bus moving. If it was the drink, I would have known about it about five seconds after taking it.
Suddenly a voice over the intercom could be heard of a man's voice speaking.
"Here we are, lads and lassies, Loch Ness, home of the Nessy."
"Well, you can finally get off this bus," she said as the bus stopped, the attendant came over to them and helped Piccolo out of his seat, making sure that Piccolo and Cora were the first ones off the bus. After getting back on solid ground, Piccolo leaned up against a light poll, while Cora got her camping pack out of the bus' holding compartments. "I think we should leave this at the front desk of the tour," she said carrying it on her back and walking over to the front desk. After leaving it with it's own tag to find it again, Cora ran back to Piccolo who was now sitting on the ground groaning. "Maybe you need something you can actual eat. Will that be okay?"
"Yes, I think you're right, just don't get me anything spicy," he groaned as she went to get him something.
She came back with some regular bread and some saltine crackers and a glass of milk.
"Here," she said handing him the food. "This is the best I could do for now. I promise you that these will calm your stomach and give you the strength you need to feel better," she said as Piccolo ate the bread and crackers slowly and drank the milk, even though he didn't like the taste of it at all. After a while, the food was gone, but half of the milk in the glass was still left. "You don't want the rest of the milk?" she asked Piccolo shaking his head, she drank it down quickly. "I can drink milk all day, if I wanted to."
"You can eat and drink anything all day if you wanted to," he said slowly standing up, Cora helping him.
She looked to see the tour boat leaving. "Well, we've missed the boat tour, but that won't bother us, now will it. We can just walk around the land and see Nessy ourselves," she said walking with Piccolo slowly, as she held onto him. Before they started to get going, Cora went back to pick up her camping pack, she put it on and walked back to Piccolo.
The colors of Scotland were such beautiful shades of green; that Cora couldn't but help herself to a bad joke, but she kept it to herself.
'If he runs around here naked in Scotland or even Ireland, and hides somewhere in the grass, I'll never find him again,' she said to herself, hiding the joke from Piccolo's mind.
"Scotland sure is beautiful," he said looking around.
"You'll soon find out why I love the United Kingdom so much and how you will know this is just how I feel at this very moment," she added, smiling as she looked around. Quickly, she caught the eye of a Scottsman playing his bagpipes up atop a hill, the wind blowing his kilt and frays at the end of the pipes. "Piccolo, look over there," she pointed.
"What kind on instruments are those?"
"Bagpipes, Scotland's most popular and ancient of musical instruments around," she stopped walking and just stood there watching the man play, the sound of the pipes quit loud, it made her blood flow fast through her body. "I love the sound of the pipes," she said looked at Piccolo. "Is the music hurting your ears?"
"No, not really, I'm glad it's not a human whistling, but it does sound very interesting," he commented, as Cora went to her camping pack to take out her camera to take some pictures of the Scottsman. As she took the pictures, Piccolo could see her twitching her eyes a bit and turning her head to the side. "I see it hurts your ears though."
"Yeah, just the high pitched blows hurt, but if there where more interments playing it wouldn't hurt as much," she said taking more shots of the man, she then stood back next to Piccolo. "The pipes are best played during a parade and by themselves out in the highlands. For ceremonies they are played at weddings and funerals. When they are played at weddings they are said to bring great fortune to the wedded couple and when they are played during a funeral, they bring great pride, honor and closing for the one that passed away. When you see a funeral here and they play the pipes, you will know what I mean," she said as the man finished playing his song, he soon walked over to them both smiling.
"How are ye travelers doin' this fine day?" the man asked in a Scottish accent.
Cora answered in her best accent for fun, but the man knew she was American. "Quit marry, this day, sir. You're playing was the best, I've heard in a long time."
"That was my first time hearing them, I liked it," Piccolo added.
"Then I've done my job to make you feel at home here in Scotland. Lassie, your accent is pure, you must have lived here once."
"In a way I have," she said smiling.
"Well, I'm off, good journey to you both," the man said as he walked back to the town of Inverness.
"So, what do you think of Scotland so far?" she asked again speaking her best accent.
"It sure is ancient."
"Aye, it is, quit ancient in fact, my lord."
"Why are you calling me that?"
"Cause, I want to, it suits you, you are a higher being than I will ever be. Would you like me not to call you that?"
"Nay, it's okay. I kind of like it that way," he said with a smirk of pride beaming through him, just like Vigeta, but more of a mannered way.
They went back to walking the dirt roads up deep into the highlands. "You know, we should be coming across some castles by now."
After a good walk of some miles, they finally came upon Urquhart Castle, on the side of the Loch Ness. It's main building seeming that it would fall apart, the stone dark gray from weather. The tower over looking the Loch from the north, the water a dark blue and moving with great life, the sky blue and sunny. They walked up to the bridge that connected the castle to the road and walked across, Cora taking pictures as they walked.
"The stone work is so old," Piccolo said as she looked up at the towers and ruins that were left of it.
"Aye, but still with plenty of life in the lady still," she said smiling, as she took more pictures of the Loch, her camera suddenly stopping and rewinding her film. "Oh, I'm out of film now, but I'm glad I brought plenty," she said as Piccolo kneeled to the ground for Cora to get after her pack.
"How many rolls of film do you have?"
"I think about twenty, this is the first one that is finally full, and while we're here in Scotland, all we are mainly going to do is travel down the loch towards Ireland, take pictures and keep an eye out for Nessy. I hope I can see the old girl." She said, suddenly hearing someone playing the bagpipes once again, this time it was the song that got to her the most.
Up atop a hill above them, there was a funeral taking place. The pipes playing Amazing Grace, as the casket was being placed into the ground. Cora looked up and stood tall for the respect for who had died.
"Now you see what I mean," Cora said, as Piccolo watched and listened.
"Hai, I do. Your kind really know how to respect the dead with great honor and pride," he said standing up with Cora.
"May the man or woman that lay in the highlands of this land rest in peace," she said bowing her head. "Well, we shall get moving then," she said as she put the old roll of film in her pack and put the new in her camera.
"Where to next?"
"Just up the road, to see some more castles. If we had the time, we could travel around just Great Britain alone and find all the castles that I would ever need to see, but we don't really have that pleasure."
With a sigh, "Cora, would you mind playing your Celtic music again?" he asked, smiling at her.
"Sure, glad you asked," she said going back to her pack to get the CD out and her player. As the music played, Piccolo smiled softly as he looked around the land.
They walked on and on, admiring the land, and it's creatures that passed them by. The trek across was easy by far, the sound of rushing waterfalls and rivers could be heard everywhere, but one waterfall caught Cora's eye the best.
Piccolo stopped and looked up towards where Cora looked, her eyes going wide with wonder. "You want to climb up there?"
"You bet, or at least try and get close to the waterfall. I love waterfalls and when I see one that is worthy of me, I shall climb it and be among it's beauty, for I am Pisces and must be close to the waters of Earth," she said her eyes sparkling with happiness as she ran up the hill to see where she could go from there. The music had heightened her eagerness greatly and this made Piccolo worry just a bit for her safety. She did not know how to fly like him, and she was a bit clumsy, but when it came right down to it, Cora was like a child, a fairy child in the forest and Piccolo could sense this strongly from her, like smelling a rose up close.
He looked back behind him and around, no one was in sight, but how could this be, there should at least be some people watching. "Be careful Cora," he called out catching up with her quickly.
She sat atop the hill and smiled at the great waterfall. "I must climb it, or at least be below its white flowing liquid hair of the maiden of Scotland."
"Then I shall join you," he said looking up at the waterfall.
"You are welcome to join me at any time that I feel I must be around my element of life," she said standing up, the wind blowing her cloak, the wind feeling a bit cold. "Here I am a child, a child of the fae, here and anywhere else of the United Kingdom I am home," she said running down the hill, heading for the bottom of the waterfall.
She looked up at the waterfall and hung her head, "What is it?" Piccolo asked.
"A great Earthly structure that has said no to me to climb. It be too much, but here," she said pointing. "There be a stone I can sit at," she said walking carefully to the large bolder, she climbed it with great gentleness and sat in the center of it. The water misting over her body a bit, making her hair a bit damp.
Piccolo looked up and found himself a place to sit and meditate with her among the waterfall. Cora covered her head with the hood and sat calmly and began, Piccolo doing the same, even with that camping pack on his back, it didn't bother him at all, he then covered his face and began. They both sat at their places, feeling at peace, as the sound of the waterfall did not seem as loud as it was before, it seeming to put them deeper into the state of trueness. After some great hours of meditating by the waterfall, Cora began to get tired, her legs aching a bit as she came out of her state of meditation. She turned to Piccolo and smiled and quietly got off the bolder she sat on and walked back down the waterfall to a dry place to wait for Piccolo to awaken from his state of meditation.
Piccolo opened his eyes and looked across from him finding the bolder empty, he looked down and saw Cora looking up at him, taking a picture of him still sitting there on the rock.
"I think we should get going now, it's getting late in the day," she yelled as Piccolo stood up and flew down to her.
"You're right, we should keep moving," he replied as they got back on the path.
Walking a bit southwest, Cora and Piccolo came across three more old castles and Cora of course took pictures of them and of the waterfalls she found. After a long time of walking, Piccolo stopped suddenly, looking out over Loch Ness.
"What is it?" she asked looking in the direction he was looking.
"Look right over there," he pointed as Cora looked hard. They weren't sure what they saw, but it got them both to wondering and curious. Piccolo and Cora calmly walked down to the shore the best they could to get a better look. "There, what is that?"
Cora looked harder and then her eyes widened. "Oh my God!" she cried softly, a long necked creature came out of the water and looked straight at them both, its skin black; slick and long, the water slightly splashing up against it.
"Is that Nessy?" Piccolo asked keeping his eyes on the creature, he then took off his hood to see it better and for it to see him better.
"Yes, that's Nessy all right and she's alive," Cora said as Piccolo flew down over the water. "Piccolo, no, don't bother Nessy, she might swim away."
"Will you shut up and take some pictures," Piccolo growled softly. Cora quickly took the pictures of Nessy, making sure that her camera wasn't taking pictures of Piccolo once she would get them developed. "I'm not going to hurt the creature," he added as he flew across the water getting closer to Nessy.
The creature looked at Piccolo in wonder and fear, like it could sense his power of what he could do, but with all of that, the prehistoric creature swam a bit closer to Piccolo as well. Both soon found it to be just enough of space to check the other out in safety, as they kept their distance. Cora could only stand there on the rocky shore watching this whole thing unfold and to keep an eye out for anyone that may come by.
Suddenly, the lights of a boat came into view, Piccolo looked up and took off for the shore quickly, as he grabbed Cora in his arms and flew for the dirt road. He quickly put his hood back on, seeing Nessy swim away to safety.
"That was close, too close if you ask me," Cora said as Piccolo put her back on her feet. "At least we both got to see her and I got some great pictures, I think the best ever in the world since that 1950's first time photo of Nessy."
"Nessy's a dinosaur," Piccolo said in disbelief.
"Yeah, what did you think she was?"
"After living around some really dumb dinosaurs on Chikyuu, I've never meet one quit like Nessy before. And from what I can tell, she's no threat to anyone."
"Of course, she can't leave the loch really and she's supposedly the only living dinosaur on the planet still to this day. They say there's a dinosaur deep in the heart of the Amazon rainforest and I believe it."
"What happens if she's caught and kept in a tank or something?"
"Trust me, that will never happen. There are so many caves under that dark; deep cold water that no one will ever find her. No one even really wants to, cause they think she's not real, but the selected few really do believe, and as you can see, we both saw her and she's as real as they come, about as real as you right at this very moment," she added, Piccolo nodding as they got back to their trek across Scotland.
"By the way, when is this festival we are going to?" Piccolo asked as he took a drink from his canteen.
"It starts the day after tomorrow and we have to at least get there before then so we can get our special passes and for me to get dressed up in the right costume I want. But when we get there to the festival, you'll love it or at least have some fun," she replied. "The festival is always held in Dublin, Ireland for these parts of the United Kingdom and around the world, there are many more Medieval/Renascence festivals every year and season."
Piccolo stood there for a bit just thinking, Cora watching as she could feel his mind turning with every thought. "I think the best way to get there, such you say you need to get there right away, is to fly."
"But what about all the people that will see us? Wouldn't it be safer to fly at night?" Cora asked.
"I'll just fly up high enough were they can't see us," he replied. With a sigh Cora went along with it, Piccolo carrying her again, he took off quickly to the air, way above were no one could see them from land. "You said you had to get there quickly and it would be the best thing to do."
"Yeah, but I thought we could enjoy Scotland some more, but oh well," she said as she held tightly onto him. He stopped suddenly in mid air, way up high in the sky for a moment.
"We could turn back you know."
"Let's keep going then, Scotland is a bit boring anyway," she smirked, as she then kept her mouth shut.
It didn't take them long at all to reach the outskirts of Dublin, Ireland. From the air, they could see already, out in a large green grassed field, the festival being fixed up with rides, jousting arena, food market like area, shopping booths, archery contest arena complete with the royal booths and high council with many different colored flags and banners up in the air.
"Looks like they went all out this year," she said, as Piccolo landed.
"So, what am I going to do while you're at the festival?" he asked, hoping he would be by himself for the time instead of hanging around with Cora all the time, like a dog on a leash.
"Sorry to bust your bubble, but I'd feel safer if you stayed with me. I don't want to take any chances, but then again, you might be lucky enough to walk around without wearing your vale. Hey, there could be a contest for dressing up like someone of the faery realms," she said smiling, picturing him walking around normally.
"Alright, if you insist."
"Now, I'm going into town to find the right maiden dress, you stay here and I will be right back. I hope it won't take long."
"Don't you already have something like that?"
"If you mean this of what I'm wearing right now, this will not do, but I could wear it for other things," she replied as Piccolo took off the camping pack and Cora got into it to find her wallet. "Now, I won't be long, okay," Piccolo nodding as he sat beneath a tree keeping himself hidden from view of anyone passing by.
Cora made her way through the bit of woods into Dublin, there she found everyone bustling around like it was already Christmas. Everyone in the city was so busy getting Christmas present shopping done and on top of that the Winter Medieval Festival was fast approaching.
"Where might I find the nearest dress shop?" she asked a man that was walking her way.
"Just up the road a bit, about three blocks on your left, miss," the man replied with an Irish accent.
"Thank you," she said as she walked swiftly down the street to the store. She soon found it, and with her amazing luck there were maybe three more dresses left in the store that were for sale for the festival. She walked in with a big smile on her face.
"May I help you, madam?" a woman clerk asked as she stopped what she was working on and attended to Cora.
"I'm in need of a Medieval dress for the festival and if those are the only three you have left and they need to be tailored, that is fine with me."
"You are correct, those are our last three and they are at 75% off today," the woman added as they both walked to the three dresses on the wall.
The first one, nearest to the window was solid black, with royal purple trim, a straight sleeved design, with a very large ribbon tied around the chest and waist. The next one to that, was on a deep rusty wheat orange, with three layers of sleeves to it, a bit short to the elbow, with a bit of a diamond design and tied deep orange ribbon around the bust and chest. The third one was the best she could find, with such luck. It was of deep royal purple, with tiny diamond designs all over it, tapered three layered long sleeves, with a deep royal blue ribbon tied around the bust and waist, the neckline being cut a square. After a few minutes of deciding, Cora finally chose.
"Which one will it be, madam?" the clerk asked.
"I'll buy the purple one," she said finally, her eyes sparkling. 'I can't wait until Piccolo sees me in this and for one thing we'll match together with his gi outfit, it is purple after all," she thought as the clerk took the dress down from the wall. Cora quickly tried the dress on and found it to be two sizes too big, but that didn't bother her one bit.
"Looks like we'll have to size it, I'll start on this right away for you, madam," the clerk said as she began to take Cora's measurements and went to work on the dress. A few hours later the dress was ready and looked perfect to Cora's eyes. She paid for it and was on her way back to see Piccolo who was waiting for her in the forest.
Piccolo opened one eye, to see Cora walking up behind him. "I was wondering when you would finally come back," he said as he stood up.
"I found the perfect dress, and it was one of three that were left," she said holding the dress up to her body for him to see. "Just you wait until you see me in it tomorrow."
"It is a nice fabric, but you know good and well you can't keep this with you during the trip."
"I know, I'll have to mail it to my house in New York," she added as she folded the dress up in her arms. "Now we need to find a hotel for the next two weeks and that may be hard to do."
"Another dang hotel?" Piccolo growled.
"Okay then, where do we stay for the night?"
"There's plenty of places were we could go out in the forest."
"Uh, I really don't think so, Piccolo. I don't know if you haven't noticed yet, but in Ireland there isn't very many trees here. We have to have another hotel, sorry."
"Alright, fine," he growled as he put his hood and vale over his head and face and covered up the rest of his body with the cloak.
"We might not get a good hotel this time around, because most of the good ones are all booked up because of the festival, but we can try and find a cancellation," she said as they walked into the city.
Being around a city with so many people made Piccolo a bit uneasy. He felt a bit paranoid and aware more so than usual. It was like he was having a panic attack or something and Cora could sense it right off his body. She could even hear him breathing heavier than normal whenever he walked and that made her worry for him. She knew very well that there would be times that they would have to be out in public and they both wouldn't be able to help it at all and to make matters worse with Piccolo, he could just blow something up or even have such a panic attack that he might have to go home early and/or take some medication about his attacks. Of course there would be no telling how medication would react to his kind of body chemistry. She had never seen anything like it to happen to Piccolo, yeah he didn't care too much to hang around big groups, but even then with just Vigeta, Bulma, Krillin, 18, Trunks, Goten, Gohan, Gokou, Videl and Chichi, that wasn't very much of a large group anyway. But she figured that from him being out on his own so much that he never really experienced being around a lot of people and she hoped that he would learn to handle that better and more often as they traveled.
As they walked to hotel to hotel and motel to motel, still nothing to cancellation could be found. Until the usually strange stroke of luck that seemed to always follow them, a manager from a fairly fancy hotel happen to come up with a cancellation.
"You know," she began saying as she leaned up against a green marble pillar. "This is getting to be just a bit too much for my own well-being it seems," she said waving the hotel key in front of Piccolo's valed face.
"Well, you do have a lot of money you can get into. I hope very well you don't carry mostly cash with you," he whispered to her as they got into the elevator. "I hate these things," he added as the elevator started up.
"Nay, I don't always carry cash with me, but if I do it's not much and I carry it in the form of the wonders of plastic cards," she said grinning like a wild cat from ear to ear.
"Plastic cards?"
"I'll show you when we get to our room."
"And for Kami's sake, please don't be another honeymoon suit."
"What! You didn't care for that room we had in Russia?"
"Not really, the only good thing was the hot tub in the bathroom."
"Well, there you go, you did like it after all," she added as the elevator bell went off and the doors opened. "Okay, now we have to find room 432," she said stepping out of the elevator and Piccolo following behind. She looked down the hall to her left and Piccolo just stood there looking at one door, grinning to himself. He turned to see her walking down the hall a bit.
"Wouldn't it be down this way," he said pointing to her right, she turned and walked down it, while he stood right in front of the room door, hiding the numbers.
"Aw, gezz, it has to be here somewhere, I know this is the right floor," she said facing Piccolo, his arms just crossed and a light smile could be seen from his mouth.
"I honestly don't know where the room is, maybe it's one of those rooms that they don't have a number for," he chuckled.
Cora glared at him and pushed him out of the way and there in front of her was room 432 in gold numbers on the door. "I'll deal with you later, you baka," she snarled as she turned the key and opened the door. As she entered she could hear Piccolo laughing a bit quietly to himself, she turned and looked at him and closed the door right on his face.
"Hey, what the hell was the for?"
"That was for your stupid little joke. Just for your childishness, you'll stay out there for a while until I call you," she said looking through the door's peephole, seeing Piccolo's eyes glaring.
Banging on the door hard, "Hey, let me in damn it!" he yelled as he turned to his left to see a few people stepping out of their rooms staring at him of how loud he was yelling.
"Not until you say you're sorry for what you did to me."
Piccolo just looked around him, he could feel the blood rushing to his face to change it to a blush. "Okay, I'm sorry, really sorry for what I did, now may I come in now?"
"I guess so," she said opening the door, Piccolo ran inside, locking the door behind him. "Gezz, what's wrong with you?"
"Just some friendly hotel neighbors wanting to know what was going on," he said pulling off his cloak and dropping that and the camping pack and Cora's staff on the floor.
"Well, that should teach you not to trick me like that again."
'Not until next time,' he said to himself, smirking a bit.
"I mean it, Piccolo, these little pranks and jokes will get me very angry if you're not careful," she said as she laid down on her back on the bed, as he turned off the lights in the room, leaving the bathroom light on and the door barely open.
He looked at her with eyes of contentment and stood in front of her. She opened her eyes and lightly smiled at him as he slowly laid down on the bed beside her. She rolled over to face him and cuddled up against his chest as he put an arm around her shoulders.
Sighing softly, "Where do we go from here, on how we feel about each other?" she asked.
"I really don't know, but the only thing I can tell you is, I want to take it slow with you," he replied as a sudden rumble was heard coming from Cora's stomach. "What the hell was that?"
"I'm hungrier than I thought and this time I think I'll go down stairs to the hotel's café, were you won't be hearing me chow down so loudly."
"That's fine with me, just when you come back, don't be so loud when you come in through the door."
"Sure, no problem," she replied as she took the room key and walked out the door.
A few hours later Cora came back to the room, with some leftovers and two special passes for the festival the next day. She slowly turned the key and opened the door, there in a corner she saw Piccolo meditating, his arms crossed, his body levitating. She quietly walked in and set the food on the table and locked the door. She then got her close changed into her sleep ware and curled up into bed.
From all of the movement, Piccolo opened one eye and smiled softly to himself as he got up. He walked over to the side Cora was sleeping on and kissed her gently on the cheek, then went back to meditating the night away in the corner as she slept.
