Stolen Hearts Chapter Twelve
Bulma awoke being shaken roughly. She slowly fluttered her eyes open with a groan of protest to see Vegeta standing over her with an expression of confusion and anger.
"This isn't the palace dear Princess, no one is going to wait on you here. I told you to get up an hour ago, and you said ok, but here you are still zonked out?!" he spluttered both enraged and shocked at the fact that some would cross him, lying blatantly to his face even!
"I said ok?" Bulma said slowly processing his words, still half captured in sleep's clutches and trying to get her brain to function properly, "I don't remember saying that, and I obviously didn't mean it if I did...where am I? ……..Oh yeaaaa," she mumbled, finally becoming fully conscious and aware.
"Oh yea?" Vegeta snapped with no humor, "So get your lazy ass up, you have work to do. By the gods you are so perfect at acting like a...a Princess!" he finished disgusted and tramped out intending to come back much sooner to make sure she 'remembered' to get up this time.
"I AM a Princess you mongrel!" she shouted after his retreating form, very perturbed that her lovely rest had been disrupted, "To hell with all the pleasantries in the light of day I guess, sheesh."
She had half a mind to go back to sleep out of defiance, but figured there would be no more 'warnings' and pain would be her next wake-up call. You never could trust these wild folk to be civil, manners were absolutely beyond them.
And what was this about work? Maybe he would force her to work in the mines or something as a slave and never had the intention of taking her back at all. That seemed possible, but not probable. She wouldn't be much help at manual labor anyway. Maybe he was going to ransom her?
"Eeep," Bulma gasped at the thought and the fluttering of the doorway as someone entered.
"Damn it woman are you up yet?...Oh.."
Bulma slowly registered that she was half naked and let out an unearthly screech as she quickly fumbled to cover herself and look for something to throw at her perpetrator.
"Shit," Vegeta said, if possible more flustered then Bulma, whirling around to face the other direction, "I didn't..I wasn't.."
BANG!
Vegeta grasped his head as pain shot through it when something extremely hard came in contact with it. The angry princess had finally composed herself and found a convenient pan that she could hit her intruder with.
'Why the hell was there a pan in here?!' Vegeta thought in pain, fully prepared to rip her head off and cook it in the same pan she had dared attack him with.
"You crazy wench! I didn't mean anything by it I just wanted to make sure you were up this time!" her roared in fury.
"Just..Get...Out," Bulma howled, winning the volume match by quite a few decibels and Vegeta retreated, more to get away from that awful sound then to obey her.
'Maybe I should just burn the tent down and be done with it,' he thought crossly not enjoying this awkward position one bit, but he had to admit, it wasn't the worst thing in the world to walk in on. A wicked smirk crossed his features and he suddenly didn't feel so angry anymore. Smoke always made him sneeze anyway.
A few long moments later a surprisingly composed and icy Princess emerged from the tent and stood glaring at him in detached silence. Vegeta simply retuned the cold indifference with ease and decided to continue as if nothing had happened, guilt was not something he easily felt.
"You will do some gathering for Galatea as payment, nothing is that elusive so you shouldn't have any problems," he said with pragmatism as he handed her a list. Bulma felt like snarling at it.
'Back to square one like at Grandma's,' she thought, feeling she could almost burn the paper with her detestation. She was immensely grateful for Galatea though, and she wanted to repay her for all she had done.
"Most creatures know better then to meddle with a Faerie so you should be safe. I don't want you going and getting killed after all this effort I have already wasted on you. I trust you know the plants?" Vegeta continued ignoring her flaring eyes.
She suddenly felt offended by his doubtful tone and she said haughtily, "Of Course I can! I am practically a Zeladonii, of course I can gather a few simple plants! And I'm only doing this because of GALATEA'S kind service; don't think you can force me to do anything, like I owe you something."
He just arched his eyebrows up in mocking pity like she was some pathetic child and shook his head, and without another word disappeared into the crowd.
Bulma gave one last angry 'hmph' as she turned in the opposite direction of that barbarous man and looked down at the list she hadn't bothered to examine until now. She felt slivers of embarrassment and dread creep in as she failed to directly recognize quite a few of the items on the list.
"Just like before you idiot, did you expect anything to change in one day?" she cursed herself but felt a dogged intent set in. She would do this if it was the last thing she did, she would not ask for help, she would go into the forest and not come back until she had every last one of these plants, even if she had to wait for divine intervention. She still had some shred of pride left and she would not let that Elf have a reason to laugh at her.
She would show him, she would show them all.
"Fuck me gently with a chainsaw!" Bulma yelled in frustration as she flopped to the ground after almost a whole day of scouring the sloping hillsides around this infernal place and her brain, but there was still one elusive flower that escaped her.
Most would have been excited and proud that they had found so many things that at first were unknown, but Bulma was only furious at the incompletion of the list, her failure. It was like a sports game, it doesn't matter if you lose by one point or a hundred, you still lost. One failure is much more remarkable then many successes.
With a growl she resolutely arose, refusing to give in, even with the scrapes multiplying on her newly healed legs. It mattered not, as long as she had her success. Maybe it would come to her if she saw the flower.
She came upon a curious overhanging of vines and she decided to investigate. Surprisingly the vines covered an entrance to a cave, and Bulma gasped as she saw the interior was lined with beautiful fuchsia flowers.
"Ah, maybe these are it! I certainly have never heard of them in my studies," she said to herself in excitement.
"These are what?" answered the flowers in a high angry voice.
"They are talking flowers? How curious," Bulma was shocked but figured it was one of her hallucinations and to just go along with it. Stranger things had happened.
"Um, hello flowers, could you tell me your name?" she said unsure of how to address flowers, especially if you were planning on picking it.
"My name is Folora, you simple-headed trout!" and out lolled the beautiful camouflaged Nymph.
Bulma gave a muffled 'baaa' like a sheep and nearly fell down.
"A Nymph, ah...haha, I thought the flowers were speaking," Bulma said putting a hand to her ear and looking around guiltily.
"Yah I noticed, I get that a lot. How come people always are scared when they see me? I guess they are afraid of my beauty. You are pretty dumb. But it's a good thing you aren't as dumb as you LOOK because then you'd be eating your foot or something terribly foolish."
Bulma simply looked at the Nymph with her head tilted as if she actually were a talking flower. She had though Nymphs were sweet-natured creatures and this one seemed quite the opposite. But the again, it is entirely possible that she fell asleep in class that day, and if that was the fact then there was no telling what this thing could do.
"Um, yeah...pardon my intrusion Folora, but maybe you could help me..."
"Help you? Ha! You think I would help you? Now I know you ARE as dumb as you look!" she said with her shill cutting laughter, "So," she said eerily cutting her laughter short, "You're her."
"I'm who?" Bulma said noting the crazed look in the Nymph's eyes that were locked on her in hatred. Bulma sighed. It looked like something else hated her. How original. But if this Nymph thought that she wasn't used to returning nasty banter with just as much potency, then she had another thing coming. It was like breathing to Bulma.
"You are the one he left me for..you must indeed be some kind of wicked enchantress for I see nothing but a silly ugly little Fey girl...why would he go to you?" Folora seethed, not even pretending to have a hint of a laugh anymore.
"Maybe you need to get out of this cave a little more, because you are talking crazy talk. I have no idea who you are or what you are talking about. All I want to do is find this damn Serillus Castalla flower, ok you crazy witch? Do you know of it or not?"
"Ha, of course I do," she replied her eyes sparkling with challenge, "I am not as stupid like you." She was seemingly distracted from her previous topic as she took up her piercing laugh again.
"Well will you tell me of it?"
"No fool, I don't help my enemy."
"That's just a pathetic excuse. You're just saying that because you are embarrassed that you don't know the flower…….and I don't even know you so how could I possibly be your enemy? So," Bulma taunted, "Who is the fool now?"
"Bah! Everyone knows that it is the proper name for the daisies that grow on the west side of the mountain here!" she said in a flustered angry defense before she realized she had fallen right into Bulma's trap. Bulma smiled, she knew this would happen because it is exactly what she would have done. They were not so different. Both frazzled and angry and prideful.
"No," shrieked Folora.
"Haha, you fell for it! Maybe you should spend less time calling others stupid and look in the mirror!" Bulma gloated in her triumph, fully prepared to exploit this situation. It didn't happen very often, usually she was on the other end, but that didn't bring one ounce of sympathy to her hard surface.
In the meantime Folora was chanting something too low for Bulma to hear, and when she did she was shocked to see a burst of light jumping at her. Thinking as quick as she could she shut her eyes and threw her arms out in front of her willing the light to stop.
It did.
Bulma had to blink a few times along with Folora before she actually believed what happened.
"Heh," Bulma let out a nervous puff, trying to act as if she has known that was going to happen. Has she really just repelled the Nymph's attack? She had never been able to do anything like that before….
"How did you do that?! Fie on you!" Folora fumed in resentment and shock, "No matter. Revenge would be wasteful on you. Fate will punish you enough. You are the curse of the world!"
Bulma's frown deepened as the words stabbed at her. The pain was only from her own belief that Folora's words were true. It is a fatal weakness, self- doubt.
Bulma turned back to look at the Nymph when she spoke again, and to her surprise she saw tears. The anger seemed gone from her for a moment, even the tone of her voice differed greatly, it was quiet and sweet, the way one imagined a Nymph's voice to be.
"Please, take care of him...be strong...be brave...promise me!"
"Yes, ok I promise," Bulma replied quickly, not knowing entirely what she was agreeing to. She was unnerved by this sudden change in the Nymph.
Folora disappeared back into the flowers and Bulma quickly made her exit. This was all too strange. Maybe all of the past few days had been one great fever induced dream. But Bulma knew better. This was the way her life went.
She found herself breaking into a run to collect the last flowers and return as quickly as possible, for the sun had already begun its descent.
AN: A lot of stuff which may seem confusing now will be explained later, I promise thanks to reviews thumbs up