The force of Vegeta's descent slapped against his skin like waves of needles, his flame-shaped hair wildly flapping behind him. Up ahead, the young woman's body slammed against the side of the mountain and immediately her screams were silenced. Unconscious, she rolled off the face of the mountain and was once again falling.
Vegeta somersaulted, placing as much energy as he could on his legs. With a grunt, he propelled himself off the face of the mountain towards the tumbling body of the girl.
Extending his arms, he caught her and held onto her tightly, looking around for a branch or rock to grab onto with his tail. But it was useless. The ground surged upward towards him like a hammer and Vegeta did the only thing he could think of.
He twisted his body in mid-air, placing himself between the limp girl and the ground. The next instant, they landed on the ground, hard.
Vegeta's breaths were ragged as he fought hard to remain awake. He closed his eyes against the painful throb in his head. For a long moment the two bodies laid there. Feeling around for any broken bones and ignoring the electric pain shooting up his left leg, Vegeta steadily pushed himself up into a sitting position.
His adrenaline began to subside, replaced quickly by anger.
"You idiotic woman! Were you trying to get us both killed?" Vegeta spat venomously, shoving the girl off of him. Bulma landed on the carpet of grass, completely still.
Vegeta crawled onto his feet and began to walk away when an approaching roar got his attention. The tree leaves around them began to rustle in unison as giant footsteps pounded on the ground. He turned to see a large Rex running straight toward him. The Rex roared with hunger, its large orange eyes glowing at the sight of its prey.
Vegeta raised his fists, preparing to hold his ground, but the large reptile completely ignored him. Vegeta suddenly realized what this beast's true prey was.
The girl was barely beginning to regain consciousnesses, and she screamed at the sight of the hungry beast running towards her.
Ignoring the pain, Vegeta bounced back to the clearing as fast as he could, leaping forward and grabbing the beast's long tail, digging his heels into the ground.
The dinosaur yelped in surprise as it fell to its knees. Vegeta dug his fingernails into the thick leathery tail, straining against the strength of the Rex.
"Go, get out of here!" He yelled, but the girl was paralyzed with fear. The Rex, realizing what was happening to him, lifted Vegeta up with its tail and swung him against the side of the mountain.
The hard rock cratered around Vegeta's body, and he fell back to the ground on his knees. He heard a blood-curling scream in the distance and once again jumped to his feet.
The Rex was now on top of the girl, baring its razor sharp teeth. With a single move, it lunged forward, intent on finally devouring its prey.
From the creature's flank, Vegeta flew in with a mighty kick against its neck. The force of the kick lifted the beast up off the ground and sent it hurling towards the trees.
In the same movement, Vegeta scooped Bulma up and ran in the opposite direction.
The furious creature spat out the dirt and bark, giving off a wounded, deafening roar.
Bulma's mind finally registered what was happening. The Rex got back on its feet and continued to chase after them furiously. Bulma screamed in terror and dug her fingernails against Vegeta's neck.
"Stop yelling, woman, and hold on!" Vegeta yelled over the loud footsteps. Pain shot up his left leg again.
The creature was so close now that Vegeta could feel its hot breath over his head. Realizing that they could not outrun the creature, Vegeta's eyes scanned the side of the mountain for an opening to crawl into, but the mountain's face was nothing but solid rock.
"My bag!" Bulma yelled, suddenly. "We have to go back for my bag!"
"This brainless creature's about to eat us and all you can think of is your stupid bag?" Vegeta yelled back.
"Just take us back, I have an idea!"
Vegeta growled in frustration, but he knew he could only keep running for so long before the beast finally caught up to them. He slammed a fist into the ground and used his momentum to spin around and run in the opposite direction. Bulma's was flung with the motion, but she held on tightly to his neck.
The Rex lunged forward, but its long neck stiffened, and the animal fell over onto its back. As it scrambled to its feet, Vegeta sprang towards the clearing where they had landed. There on the side of the mountain was Bulma's white bag. As soon as they reached the clearing, Bulma hopped off Vegeta's back and scooped up the bag.
"Woman? What's the plan?" Vegeta said urgently as the Rex caught up to them, cornering them both against the mountain. "Woman!"
"I may have a way of trapping it!" Bulma yelled, digging into her bag. "Pokemon, don't fail me now!"
"Poke-what?"
"Just keep it distracted for a few seconds!"
Vegeta slammed a fist onto the ground.
"That's your great plan? Fine!" He roared. "Come on, you mindless beast. Show me what you've got!"
The Rex responded to Vegeta's taunts with a roar. It spun around, swinging its tail in Vegeta's direction. Vegeta was ready for it this time and he side flipped over the swinging tail twice.
The third time connected with him, but Vegeta used the force of the blow to spin in the air, aiming his landing on the Rex's spiny back.
Vegeta ran up the Rex's back and onto its neck. He jumped high in the air and came down hard with his fist against the creature's skull.
The Rex yelped with pain again, finally landing on its stomach.
Bulma was suddenly in front of them.
"Move!" she yelled.
Vegeta jumped off of the creature as Bulma wound her arm back, a small capsule in her hand.
The beast surged forward and Bulma swung her arm down, releasing the small capsule in her gloved hand. The capsule struck the beast's forehead with a loud boom of wind and smoke. The animal yelped, confused as it was enveloped in a cloud of dust and light.
When the dust settled, the creature was gone and the single, small capsule rested in its place.
Vegeta gulped in air, trying to regain his breath as his adrenaline settled.
"Wow, I wasn't sure that would work," Bulma said, collapsing against the rocky mountain.
"Woman, what did you just do?"
"I used a capsule I made these babies myself to pack large items for travel," she said happily. "Though I wasn't sure it would work on an animal... By the way, my name isn't 'woman', it's Bulma. And you're welcome."
"I didn't ask, Bulma."
"Hey! I just saved your tail," Bulma said. "Literally. You have a funny way of showing some gratitude!"
Vegeta flushed with anger, wrapping his tail around his waist.
"Gratitude? I did all the heavy lifting," Vegeta muttered, crossing his arms. "What are you even doing here? Your lights are clearly not all on upstairs for you to go jumping off of mountains like that."
"For your information, flame-head, I'm here on a very important mission."
"'Flame-head'?"
"So if you don't mind," Bulma said, turning and digging in her bag for the dragon radar.
"Hey! I just saved your life!"
"And we just established that I saved yours."
"Fine!" Vegeta scoffed, turning around. "You're on your own. Next time you find yourself running away from a hungry beast or falling to your death, you'll have to save yourself!"
"Who needs you? I've got a Rex now," Bulma said, slipping the capsule into her shirt pocket. Bulma turned her attention back to the radar. With a few clicks, the power slowly flickered on and began to beep, indicating the location of a single dragon ball.
Bulma swung her backpack over her shoulder and stepped forward.
A twinge of regret nudged at her.
"Look," she said, swallowing her pride and turning. "Thanks for-" but there was nobody there.
"So rude," she growled. She turned back to the Dragon Radar and started walking.
(…)
The leaves on the trees swayed with the sudden burst of wind that was propelled by Vegeta's leap. With every jump forward, the many trees in the dense jungle consolidated into a single emerald ocean, teeming with life and movement. From up here, everything seemed simple; No, Vegeta thought, not simple; condensed, for lack of a better word.
From here, the hungry, cattle sized sabertooth were as small as ants, and the trees looked like grass.
"Even the face of the great Mount Paozu is a blade of grass, from a different perspective," Grandpa Gohan had once said.
For a moment, the wind became still as Vegeta's ascent reached its peak. Perspective.
How come he had he never left Mount Paozu?
It was such a silly question. He had no reason to leave in the past. He had always been content, fascinated even, by the abundance of food and life here. And he was completely focused on his martial arts, too.
When he was a young boy, Vegeta would spend weeks on his own exploring every corner of the seemingly endless mountain island. But now that he was older, it seemed so much smaller.
The trees rushed back up towards Vegeta as he landed, the impact leaving a crater on the soft ground beneath him. As Vegeta propelled himself back into the darkening purple afternoon skies, the world around him once again condensed.
Vegeta had never known life outside the island.
Mount Paozu was by no means deserted, of course. There were tiny farming villages lining the mountain's spiral ascent. Vegeta had even attended a basic school at one of these villages once, where he had first come into contact with boys and girls his age. But despite the diversity among the children of the village, Vegeta was nothing like them.
This had led to bullying from some of the children. Vegeta was a hothead himself and had earned a rival from one of the older students, and soon enough, the two were involved in a fight that completely destroyed the school, and the villagers begged Gohan never to send him back.
He still remembered the bloodied smirk on that three-eyed bastard when he successfully got Vegeta expelled…
But he sighed and pushed the thought back into the inner folds of his memories. None of that mattered anymore. He had won the fight. But that had left him with one single burning question.
Why was he so different?
"Your abilities are a gift," Gohan would always say. "This world needs gifted young men like you. They may not know it, to be honest, even you might not know it, but one day, I know you will make a difference in this world."
This world, Vegeta thought as he landed one last time, in front of his house. Walking up to the door, he placed his hand over the writing etched on the doorpost. Son House. And now he remembered why he had never left the island. This is my world. My home.
Home is good enough for me.
The world didn't need him. For all anyone cared, Mount Paozu was a blade of grass in an endless world after all. He would obey his grandfather's dying wish. He would deliver the Dragon Ball to Master Roshi and complete his training with him.
But after that, he was coming home, the world be damned.
After a relaxing bath, Vegeta settled on having fish for his evening meal. As he prepared some firewood in the dark, he suddenly felt a rumble on the ground. The next instant, something smashed against his already beat up body, sending him flying against the house.
A/N : Hello my dear friends! Thank you for waiting for this chapter that took 2 years to cook up. I hope you all enjoyed this chapter that has been long overdue. Sometimes life happens and before you know it, it's been two years since the last time you put pen to paper. But I want everyone to know I am still committed to making this fic happen. I've got it all completely outlined and am determined to be more regular in updating.
It also helps that I finally have a decent laptop, so I don't have to write on a tablet, like two years ago! Again, thank you so much! You all mean so much to me and I hope that you're all safe during this pandemic. If you have any questions, suggestions, etc, make sure to let me know in the reviews! Until next chapter, see you all then!
Review Responses
AsokaBaadshah chapter 3 . Jul 21, 2018
The plot will now begin! I loved the Gohan/Vegeta scene. It will be important in Vegeta's future emotional development I assume. Will be here for the next chapter. Wonderful work!
Hey! I am sooo so sorry for making you wait so long before an update! I will try to update way more regularly. and yes! Although Vegeta has some things to figure out about his future, the events that will soon take place will open the door of adventure for our favorite Saiyan Prince!
V 4 Vellianchapter 3 . Jul 22, 2018
I see Gohan knowing of the Dragon Balls may either be something insignificant or something to fit into a narrative of your story, seeing how in the original he didn't know they held such power.
One of the other reviews in respect to Goku had me thinking. I was wondering if you knew the sole reason for the movie villan Turles' creation was to display that Goku (Kakarot) would be just like him had he never bumped his head as a baby. Can't wait to see how you continue to write everyone.
Will stay tuned.
Hi there, Vellian! Thank you so much for your kind review! Yes, there is a reason for Grandpa Gohan's knowledge of the Dragon Balls' power, and I promise it will pay off in future chapters. And actually, I had watched the Tree of Might a looong time ago and your review made me go back and watch Turles absolutely whoooooop Goku. Great movie. Thank you again and see you soon!
The Violent Kurumi chapter 3 . Sep 14, 2019
Please update when you can I LOVE this!
Thank you so much for the continued support! It really keeps me going! I hope you continue to enjoy this chapter and those soon to come!
Athena Hirdman chapter 3 . Oct 13
I love this story please keep writing chapters
Thank you! I absolutely will! The current outline sits at 100 chapters so lots of story still to tell! Hope to see you again next chapter!
Guest chapter 3 . Dec 9
Update.
Okay ;)
