Author's Note: This is my first fanfic, so I hope you like it. I could really use some reviews too, so I know if I'm doing alright so far. But anyway, the second chapter will switch over to DBZ, so don't worry!
Alteration
Chapter One
Dusk had been setting over the thousands of miles of Brazilian landscape in its early days of spring. Birds of every size, shape, and kind had taken to the trees, while the bats crawled out from the crevices of the earth to take flight. The many other nocturnal mammals snuck out from their dens or nests to search for an evening meal. Vicious and hungry carnivores were mostly the first ones to slip out into the forests during the night. Showing no shred of mercy, these creatures would take down any physically weaker animals, even if they were twice as big as themselves.
The beasts, being mostly large cats, stalked out into the forest. One of the lone beasts had split from the rest of the pack, searching for a kill of its own. Lifting its nose to the sky, the hunter caught the scent of two deer. Taking off in the direction of its target, the beast's massive paws pounded on the forest floor with deadly stealth. Upon reaching the hunter's destination, it spotted the two female deer in a small, mostly-dirt clearing, which had been bare of any trees. The beast narrowed its yellow, slitted eyes and circled around the clearing, hidden in the brush and foliage of the dense forest. Tensing its muscles, the beast froze on the spot and got ready to attack. Both of the does' lifted their heads and perked their large ears in alert of the hunter. A split second later, the creature lunged out of the brush, causing one of the deer to bound off in terror, while the other awaited the oncoming attacker. The beast descended upon the lone doe, which seemed to have rooted itself to the ground, and pounced toward its right side with all its might.
In a blur of motion, the doe leapt to the side, letting the hungry creature land on nothing, but dirt. Recovering quickly from surprise, the beast lunged to the right, determined to take the animal down. In mid-leap, the doe had disappeared from sight yet again, leaving the beast totally baffled. Before its paws had a chance to reach the ground, an iron grip had locked around its throat and left the beast to swing helplessly in the air. In a wave of panic and instinct, the beast lashed its claws out at its assailant in attempt to free itself. This only made the assaulter's firm grasp tighten around the beast's neck, making its thrashing movements falter slightly. With one last attempt, the beast twisted its lower body and wrapped its powerful back legs around the attacker's arm, that still had a hold of its neck, then slammed its paws back at the attacker's face.
The assailant immediately freed the beast from their grasp, allowing its intelligent counter-attack to fail as they watched the beast drop to the ground. In a split second, the animal was on all fours again, growling threateningly at its attacker. Its muscles tensed as it lunged at the intruder who dare disturb its hunt.
In one swift movement, the assailant jerked to the side, avoiding the attack. A blur was the only thing the beast had seen from them before a strong force had slammed against the entire left side of its body, sending the beast crashing into a tree and falls unconscious to the ground. The assailant stepped over to the fallen beast, lifted their hands up into the dark hood that had concealed them, and lowered it to reveal the face of a young woman of mixed race. She appeared tall and lean, as well as elegant, with flowing light brown hair and the facial features of one of Elvin blood, including the long, pointed ears that framed her enchanting appearance. Her eyes seemed to be the most alien part of her face, having them the color of crystalline blue, with the slitted pupils of a dragon.
She gazed down at the unconscious beast, and then averted her attention to the path that the frightened doe had leapt off into, while she had remained. Shape shifting from a doe, back to her original form had to be done quickly and accurately; otherwise the hesitation would be to the beast's advantage. She turned from the fallen creature to look off into the forest. "Come out, Vivian," she called with a gentle, but commanding voice. A moment passed until a rustle of leaves could be heard, and the lone doe that had run off earlier, stepped cautiously back into the tiny clearing. The doe's large ears perked when she saw the young woman and warily began to approach her. "Shift back into your original form. You still need to learn how to control that animal's instincts," the young woman stated and folded her arms underneath her midnight-blue robes.
The doe tilted her head and twitched her ears slightly, as if contemplating the young woman's request. Taking a small step back, the doe made up her mind and allowed her body to shift and change form. Hooves became hands and feet, and her long muzzle pulled back into a more humanoid face, as well as her large ears. Lifting herself to stand upright, the doe had finished her transformation back into her original form of a human. She appeared to be around the same age as the other young woman, the only main difference was the race she had become. The other attributes she had were the long, ankle-length, violet hair that swayed peacefully in the wind, and her deep maroon eyes that seemed faded. Her attire consisted of a short, black dress overlapped by a dark red one that split like an upside-down "V" below the waist
Vivian, as the other young woman had called her, rubbed her right arm uneasily as she looked up at her. "I guess I still need to work on that, huh? This is the fifth time I've choked! I can't believe it! Just the idea of that 'thing' getting the chance to rip me apart isn't really something I look forward to, Pure. I know you said Malco's trained and everything, but shouldn't he be in a cage? I don't want him jumping out at me when I'm least expecting it," Vivian argued and dropped her hands to her sides.
The woman she had spoken to, now known as Pure, raised a slender brow at Vivian before answering her. "That is the reason for your training, Vivian. You cannot lock away the problem and just expect it to disappear. You need to prepare yourself to take on the unexpected, no matter what. So far, the animal's instincts you have dealt with have been over-powering your own mind; you must learn how to control that. If you succeed in this, your reactions to sudden attacks will increase, and that will allow your shape shifting to be more fluid and attainable. And as far as Malco's actions go, you should know by now that he will do you no harm. I believe he is completely incapable of 'ripping you apart'....from a reasonable point of view," she pointed out. Pausing for a moment, Pure glanced over her shoulder at the unconscious beast that they had been calling 'Malco'. It seemed ironic that the hunter had become the hunted of two shape-shifting female deer. Such was not uncommon to either of the young women.
"For your sake, I hope you're right. But there's one thing I don't understand. How can he endure what happens to him when I have more of a chance of getting myself killed? Doesn't he ever get hurt after doing this?" Vivian questioned. I know I would be if I were in his place, she thought silently. She made her way over to the fallen beast before continuing, "I think you might've overdone it this time though; you knocked him out pretty hard. I'm surprised he hasn't---gahh!" Cursing under her breath, she jumped back and ended up standing beside Pure as she watched the fallen beast's top canines begin to elongate into lethal, dagger-like fangs; each a third of the size of a katana. Her eyes widened slightly at the sight of the creature climbing back on all fours again, though its figure was much larger than before, and trot nonchalantly in their direction. Too aghast to say anything more, she took a step behind her supposed 'teacher' just as the beast stopped before them and sat down, as if waiting to be instructed.
Pure had merely smiled and patted the beast on the head. "Thank you, Malco, you did very well. I propose we take a break for now, so I suggest that you head home," she looked over her shoulder at Vivian, "And maybe we should work on that fear of yours as well, since you've seemed to acquaint yourself enough to Malco." Smiling once more, she let him slip out from under her hand and watched as he took off into the darkness of the thickets before turning to her pupil. "Well?"
Taking a step back from her teacher, Vivian waved her hands in front of her to oppose. "Please no. The last thing I need right now is dealing with a damn spider. That's more than enough to make me run," she stated uneasily. Taking a quick moment to think up a different subject for her teacher to place her attention on, she blurted out, "Um...how about a vacation? Maybe we could go to Japan or something. How does that sound? You know what they say about 'all work and no play'." Vivian shook her finger at Pure, and then folded her arms as she waited for an answer.
"Even though I know how much you're trying to change the subject, I'll give you credit for this one. Come to think of it, we probably could use a little vacation before getting back to training." Gazing through the treetops behind Vivian, she silently calculated the amount of time it would take to get to the island of Japan. Dusk had already come and gone, bringing the entire area into a blanket of darkness where the only source of light were the shimmering stars and the luminescence of the moon. As Pure finished her calculations, she lowered her eyes back onto her student. "If we leave now, we could make good timing once we arrive there. What do you say? You game?"
Overcome with excitement, Vivian leapt into the air, thrusting her fist up high as she hovered. "You bet! Alright! Let's get goin' sister!" She spun around and hightailed it into the night sky and flew miles above the treetops. Getting a rather good distance from her instructor, she smirked to herself and counted the seconds it would take for Pure to catch up to her. Within only ten seconds time, Vivian suddenly spotted the dark outlining of her instructor actually waiting for her fifty yards ahead. "How did you get in front of me?" She flew faster to catch up to her instructor, who only laughed and took off again, still slightly ahead of her. "Hey! That's not fair! You're faster than me!" When she finally caught up to Pure, they both laughed in their own high-spiritedness and continued on their route toward the small island: Japan.