When they got to Planet Frieza 79, the nurse Val had been living with was not happy to hear she was going to stay on planet while Val replaced her as a new medic on board the ship for the mission that was labeled top secret. The nurse berated her for taking her place in their rooms privately after she found out. Val figured if she could have berated Frieza instead, she would have.
Once they left Planet Frieza 79, they left for the next planet, Namek, which was not under Frieza's control. Val looked up information about the planet on her tablet when alone in her rooms where she stayed by herself now. There was not much information to go on. Two different clans had been on the planet, the Dragon Clan and the Demon Clan. After a cataclysmic event, the Demon Clan which had males and females of the race, were mostly died out. One remained on planet. One left the planet before the cataclysm. The Dragon Clan was led by the eldest one who remained, who saved those who remained, using some kind of magic to prolong his life and keep the race alive. She wondered if the Anthromorph home planet had not been destroyed if they would have come to help like they did with the Aviarians. It was not much to go on, pictures of the planet were sparse, grass, water, tall trees that bloomed on the ends. She liked the look of it at least. It was peaceful looking, but not like her home planet which was usually sunny, warm, and hardly rainy. She sighed, feeling another pang of homesickness. She looked at the one picture of a native, not sure what to make of him. He was shorter, squat, dark green skin, and two antennae on top of his head. If others were like him, she doubted any of them could fend of Frieza and whatever he was after. Not to mention shield her if she managed to escape.
After two more days traveling, they landed on the planet. Val watched everyone getting ready for going off ship, while she and Appule were ordered to stay in the med bay and await further orders. She kept her distance from him, quiet when he try to engage her in conversation. She watched him, bidding her time to see when she could give him the slip. When he told her he was going to go take a nap and to wake him up before the others get back, she agreed, trying to sound disgruntled about it.
Once he was gone for twenty minutes, she looked over at the stash of spare scouters, charging and upgrading in the med bay. She broke all but one of them and then slipped away from the ship. She hid behind a large rock next to the water, putting the scouter on and turning it on. She looked at it, seeing a small collection of low energy signatures close by, ones she was certain were not Frieza and the others. She took off, flying as quickly as she could towards the energy signatures.
She got most of the way there, feeling too winded to make it much farther. She landed on the ground, hot, tired, and sweaty. She could the white buildings in the distance. She wished she had grabbed water or food or something to bring with her from the ship, regretting not doing so now. She bent down over the edge of the land to look at the water. She cupped her hands, drawing up some water and drinking from it carefully, thirstily. She saw a few fish swimming about, making her start to crave some. Her scouter beeped, alerting her of a few beings fast approaching. She flinched, turning around to see not one but three Namekians landing before her. They looked different from the picture of the Namekian she had seen on her tablet. These three were tall, strong, and lean looking. Not to mention mean looking.
She stood up, spilling the water in her hands down her front by accident. She raised her hands up in a rush, blurting out, "my name is Val, and I'm an Anthromorph."
The three Namekians looked at her, the one in front with a white cape and dark green pants frowned down at her. "A what?" he asked.
She bit her lip, trying to think of something, anything to say. The one in a purple tunic behind the one with a white cape said, "she wears a scouter, like the ones who landed here earlier. The ones who attacked another village not long ago."
The third one, with a dark red vest shook his head. "She's a child, though. What threat could a child make?"
She shook her head, saying, "no threat. I'm trying to escape from them." She took the scouter off and brought her hands down in front of her in fists. "They, Lord Frieza leads them. They- they want the dragons balls. Lord Frieza wants them to wish himself to become immortal," she confessed, hoping saying all that would help.
The three of them looked down at her, gawking at her. "Those were not created for selfish wishes such as that," the one with the white cape told her. "How do you know about them?"
She shook her head nervously. "He, we, they got reports about them from another planet that the Saiyans in Frieza's employ attacked. I don't, I don't know that much. This mission is more or less top secret, but I don't want to be apart of it. I just want to escape before I grow." She felt butterflies moving about in her stomach.
The three studied her, with the one in front looking back at the other two. "We should take her to the village elder," the one in the purple tunic reasoned.
"Why not just kill her?" the one with the red vest asked.
The one with the white cape shook his head. "Let the village elder decide that," he decided. "Her information on the others is valuable." He nodded down at her and then over to the village. "You flew this far, can you make it a little farther, child?" he asked.
"I'm not a child," she huffed, not sure how to explain it, but figured to hold off so she would only have to explain once to their village elder. "And... no... I was trying to, but I couldn't quite make it."
The one with the white cape stepped closer, holding his hands out in front of himself. She watched him carefully, not quite sure how much she could trust him to fly with her. "I'll get you the rest of the way there then," he offered.
She took a step back, foot almost slipping into the water. "I want protection," she demanded. "If I go with you, I want protection from Lord Frieza and his soldiers. I don't want to go back to them. I'll tell you, your village, your elder, anything and everything you want so long as I get protection."
The one with the white cape looked back at the two behind him and nodded. "We can give you that for now, but the village elder can rescind it," he countered.
"Agreed," she answered stepping over to the one with the white cape.
She let him pick her up, hating how small it reminded her she was. He was careful as he flew with her, holding her carefully and not scratching her with his long, sharp finger nails. He and the others flew quickly to the village, faster than she thought she could ever fly herself.
They landed in the village, he sat her down gently. She looked around the village, noticing just a few odd looking white buildings. There was a garden not far from one of the buildings, making her wonder at what they were growing. She watched the others, not sure where to go or what to do. "This way," the one with the white cape told her, gesturing for her to follow as he stepped towards the biggest building.
She followed him, noticing the other two flanking behind her. He lead her into the biggest building. A short, older Namekian was in the main room, along with two smaller ones who looked like children. She kept her head down, but trying to see what she could out of her peripheral vision.
"Who is that now?" the older one asked, looking over the four of them.
"Elder Moori, this child surrendered herself to us," the one with the white cape answered. "She fled from the other strangers who landed on the planet not long ago, but has asked us for protection. Apparently the other strangers are after the dragon balls."
"I'm not a child," she rushed out, but then bit her lip as this Moori looked at her curiously.
The elder, Moori stood up a little straighter, taking a more keen interest in her. He then looked behind her, briefly, before looking back up at her. Val turned to look behind her, seeing four other older looking Namekians behind her. She swallowed thickly. Moori gestured for the other four to come into the room with them. It felt a little crowded when they did that, the ten of them surrounding her.
"Speak, not-child," Moori advised. "Who are you? What do you want? Why are your friends wanting the dragon balls?"
She looked at him and then scanned her eyes carefully around the room. "Well, my name is Val. I'm an Anthromorph from the Planet Aviary..." she kept speaking, sharing everything she could think of as honestly as possible, especially to warn them about Frieza, what he wanted, what he was capable of. "... and now I don't want to be stuck with him, grown or un-grown. Please, shield from him. I'll do anything, please," she ended, not sure what or how any of them would do or say in response. She offered up the scouter to him, which he took and examined. "That can be used to track power levels nearby. I stole it, but destroyed the others so I could not be tracked."
He looked it over a little longer before handing it back to her. "You would have more use of it than an old man like me would," he ruled. She took and placed it in her pocket. She wrapped her arms around her chest, feeling cold and vulnerable. She felt her stomach growl loudly, wondering if any or all of them could hear it. "Child," Moori started, but corrected himself, "no, not child... young one yet... Lost everything, your family, your home, your caretaker... " He looked around the room at the others. He sighed, thinking to himself. "We will take you in, shelter you. Count you as one of our own, as a sister, until we can get you to the Great Elder for his final approval. When it's safe, of course."
She blinked up at him, almost not believing his words. "Really, thank you..." she breathed, not sure if she could be that lucky. Her stomach growled again, reminding her how hungry she was.
"Are you hungry, sister?" Moori asked down to her. She nodded shyly. "What can you eat? We don't eat much here, hardly needing to if we can get out to the sun, but you don't look much capable of that. The wrong color for it."
She brushed her hair out of her face. "I can eat fish... and vegetables... I saw some fish in the water when I was drinking earlier. I could go catch a few." She started to get up.
"No, take a rest, sister," he advised, hand gesturing for her to sit still. Moori nodded over to one of the small children. "Cargo, go catch her a few." He looked over at the other child. "Dende, a few vegetables from the garden if you would."
"Yes, sir," the two children echoed before running out of the building in a flurry of pint sized excitement.
Val watched them go, allowing a small smile to etch across her face. "Young sister, come have a seat," Moori said, gesturing for her to follow him to the table on the other side of the building. She sat down after he did, sitting across from him. The other seven Namekians stayed where they had been, watching her in fascination. Her stomach felt queasy, quite likely from the hunger. She watched the door, eagerly waiting for the children to return with something for her to eat.
Dende returned first, bringing a basketful of far too many freshly washed, raw vegetables for her to eat by herself. She stared blankly at the basket, wondering if she were hungry enough to eat them all. "Thank you," she answered.
Dende just stared at her, saying nothing.
"Eat, sister," Moori gestured to her and the basket. Cargo came in, giving her a basketful of energy blast cooked fish, which made her mouth water. "Brothers, don't stare." He looked over at the others in the room. Dende seemed to pop out a trance, running over behind the one with a purple tunic, but peering behind him at her curiously. Cargo stayed near her though, trying not to be obvious about his staring. In fact, all of others were staring at her curiously. "Brothers, don't stare," he added to the others.
They all looked away. Val grabbed up a vegetable at random, taking a bit from it, enjoying the bitter taste of it since it was her first bite of food in freedom.