Untamed: Do Angels Exist?

"Just as I said" Tea gloated, his mouth widening in an unpleasant grin "While that brat was distracting us with his " poor little beast" act, his friends moved the balls to another place."

"You already said that"Tidaba mumbled" When we saw the hole".

They had just found the three dragonballs left in a hollow tree. The new hiding place wasn't much far from the clearing where they had spotted the mentioned hole minutes ago. It was surrounded by fresh-digged earth, giving hint that someone had just opened it, probably to take something from it. Tidaba observed that it was weird that the so-called "namekuseijin" had concealed the spheres in a place so close to their former hiding place. Tea grudgingly replied that probably the guardian of the balls hadn't time enough to go further with them.  

"Whoever was, just dropped them in this trunk, so we wouldn´t caught him. Or her;" he theorized as he, Tidaba and Dromel flied to the spot signaled by their scouters. "The little brat probably was protecting the spheres guardian when our hunting party got too close from their hiding place."

And now they were there, standing in front of the last balls left. The pieces their chiefs treasured so much. Tea hoped to be greatly rewarded for that. With luck, perhaps he received some of that magic food master Turles was giving to Coffee...

A gush of wind brought them the unpleasant smell of burning wood, caused by Coffee´s favorite attack. None of the group commented the fact that the misterious "brat"- Gohan - who was fighting Coffee had survived, according to the scouters, but that gave them goosebumps. Especially to Tidaba. As he reminded how carelessly he had attacked the little monster, his green scales became almost white.

"Master Turles will have a fit if they´ll destroy the forest" Dromel commented with some concern"He was so..."

"Will you go back and ask them to stop?" Tea cut him off as he grabbed two spheres and tucked each under one arm "We must leave now!"  he added, shoting TIdaba a look.

Grudgingly, the fish-like alien picked up the last sphere as Tea took off, his red eyes scanning nervously the forest and meadows surrounding them. 

"Why such a hurry?" Dromel sneered, not leaving the floor "Whoever was with the balls has gone, right? You said that yourself."

"The friend of that brat might come back with reinforcements at any moment! I heard Master Turles saying that our scouters can't detect them because they can power down." 

Tidaba gaped at him.

"Wait! You´re saying that the friends of that little monster might be watching us right now and we don´t know?!" he rebuked his orange colleague in disbelief.

As if in a cue, a serie of numbers started running in their scouters, hinting that a strong ki was around. Panicking, Tidaba dropped the dragonball he was holding and jumped in the air.

"You brought us to AN AMBUSH! And you call us stupid..." noticing the horrified looks of his colleagues, he trailled off and looked behind.

A huge ball of energy was coming in his direction. Quickly, Tidaba and Tea flied each for one side, dodging it easily. Dromel just crouched and covered his head with his hands, even though he was out of reach. For their surprise, the ball flied past them and kept going, as if it didn´t give them a damn. Tea and TIdaba exchanged a confused look and glanced around, expecting for more.

Seeing that nothing had happened, Dromel joined them in the air, a bunch of fresh gibes ready to be spilled by his saw-teethed mouth.

"Pff. That was the big danger you two were expecting, big wimps?"he started "I can´t wait to tell everyo..."

As if it had heard Dromel´s remark, the big energy ball raised a few meters, drawing a big curve in the air. Then, it split in three smaller balls, which charged towards the pirates. And unlike their mother ball, these ones came very, very fast.

"OH SHIIIIIIIIIIT!"  Dromel's scream resumed the general feeling. 

The trio split, too, each flying in one direction the faster they could. Tidaba and Dromel were soon caught and disintegrated by the two first balls. A little faster than his cohorts, Tea was able to fly for a few meters carrying the two  precious dragonballs. When he finally realized it was hopeless, he dropped them, just some seconds before the painful, blinding light reached him.

*****

Gohan was at his wits' end. He was getting exhausted while Coffee still looked in high spirits - and worse, apparently unsensitive at most of Gohan´s blows. "I have to go and see Bulma", the kid thought desperately "But if I try to leave, he´ll come after me and try to kill me with that mouth blow again. How do I get this guy out of my hair?"

He had no time to think of anything else, because Coffee charged on him, laughing as a playful child. Gohan barely could block one punch after another in time. He noticed Coffee had left his guard temporarily open and tried to fight back, but the giant unexpectedly kicked him in the chest and onto the trunk of a tree, leaving Gohan breathless. For a few instants, the boy just laid against the tree, struggling to get his air back; then he felt Coffee´s ki raising and opened his eyes. 

"CAPUC..." Coffee was opening his mouth wide to use his special attack again. 

Gohan raised his hands and shot a quick kamehame-ha to block the attack, just as he had watched his father do to Nappa´s, a few months ago.

"HAAAAA!!!!!

"...CINOOOO!!!!" 

The energies of Gohan and Coffee´s attacks met violently and fought each other for a few seconds, before blowing out. Vegeta ran away, but was caught by the shockwave and sent away along with the pieces of trees, stones and other things around the two fighters.  His bare backside collided against the debris that already filled the floor. A thick piece of a branch hit him in the middle of the legs, expelling the air of his lungs. He kept himself in time to not scream, revealing his position, but he wasn´t able to move, either, even after the dust clouds vanished and revealed two heaving, exhausted silhouettes.

Fortunately, they were both too focused on each other to notice anything else in their battlefield. Coffee was still on his feet, but no longer was the immaculate pirate of a minute ago: most of his armor had been destroyed and his clothes were in tatters, revealing a few yellow-bleeding scratches. Save for this, he still looked fine. Gohan, by turn, hadn't suffered the effects of the explosion that much, but he obviously wouldn´t be able to stand much longer. Clenching his teeth to not moan, Vegeta painfully crawled behind of a pile of charred trunks and branches. Besides the hard blow on his dangly bits, his body was plenty of scratches and cuts produced by flying debris, but he didn´t feel any. Even the throbbing between his legs couldn´t be compared to the excruciating pain in his soul. 

His scouter was broken now, but its last register had been about 20.000...  that was so much more than Vegeta ever had, even in his best shape!

How... how that is possible? How can an unexperient brat and a moron have gotten a power that even I wasn't able to reach...  THAT power supposed to be mine!"

During his years slaving for Freeza, the only thing that made Vegeta´s life bearable was his faith in his own potential. He always had fought in the front. Several times he had almost been killed. Not only because he risked himself too much, but because Zarbon and Dodoria did their very best into convincing Freeza to send Vegeta to the most dangerous missions. It was their way of showing to the Saiyan prince that they could do to him whatever they pleased. There were also those times when Vegeta had been punished under some stupid pretext - though that didn´t happen too much, because Freeza STILL didn´t want to loose his favorite "monkey pet".  Fools...  Instead of breaking him, they had just increased Vegeta´s strength and hate. And there was also the living hell that his diary training was.

Most of Freeza´s soldiers trained just when they were obliged. Save Ginyu troop, anyone else who worked out voluntarily was followed by a rain of insults,and sass whenever he entered the gym. When it came to the despised Saiyans, this unpleasant rain became a storm. Vegeta´s self- control was tested everyday and he also had to keep Radditz and Nappa - especially Nappa - from reacting to the insults. It was a remark from Guldo, in a day when Vegeta had been pushing himself especially hard, that alerted the prince he could be drawing too much attention on himself.

"Why having so much trouble? If it wasn't an absurd, I'd think that you´re trying to become stronger than Master Freeza."

Nappa stupidly opened his mouth and almost spilled the beans. Fortunately, Jeice and other bystanders started laughing at Guldo´s foolishness. As if a mere Saiyan monkey would dream of surpassing the Great Freeza! That was really absurd! Guldo´s suspect was taken as a joke and apparently forgotten.

"Was it, really? What if Guldo and his cohorts had been following me and watched my secret trainings?"

From that day on, Vegeta tried to not push himself too hard in his training at Freeza´s quarters. Only when he was out on space, along with Nappa and Radditz, he was free to give all his might. Initially, he made Nappa and Radditz fight him, together; but soon it became obvious that Vegeta was already much stronger than the other two Saiyans. So he started training alone, at every precious minute of the few free moments he had away of Planet Ice. Every small, slow progress put him closer and closer to his goal; that made him . One day he would be the strongest being in the universe... and all those who humiliated him would die painfully!

Because of his excessive self-confidence, this day never came.

"Everything I fought so hard to win has gone and I don't even know how that happened."

In spite of this, however, he didn't gave up. After many fruitless, painful tries, it became evident that it would be dangerous for Vegeta to keep forcing himself, so he started to train only physically. Even without the strength obtained with ki raising, he was stronger, agiler and faster than any animal in his prison planet, and as time past these habilities improved. However, no matter how hard he trained, nothing would give him back what Vegeta had lost. More than loosing hope of being rescued, it was the lost hope of being powerful again that slowly ate him inside and made him careless of himself for so long.

"Even as a child, I was much stronger than I am now."

And now he knew that he never had been nothing, even in his best shape. All pain, patience and efforts had been in vain.


A part of himself wanted to die right now. Vegeta wished that Coffee used again his mouth attack, disintegrating both him and the blasted kid who had put him to such a great shame. At least the universe never would now that the former Prince of the Saiyans was now just a weak vermin, good for nothing but crawling in the mud. His stronger, rational part, however, called him a coward and stupid. It argued that Vegeta shouldn't allow emotions to sweep him away. As hateful as that brat was, he could be his salvation.

But this same side of him knew that probably the child would die soon. And now it screamed with despair.

Gohan felt his strength leaving slowly."This... this monster... is he undestructible? He´s worse than Nappa and Turles!"  That was all he had the time to think before Coffee charged on him again. 

"Ho! Ho! Why did you stop? Let's go! Now we´re really heating up!" the big bully egged on as he tossed a new series of punches at Gohan.

Gohan dodged to left then to right; then, he ducked to avoid a kick that probably would break his neck. Taking advantage that Coffee had left his guard opened, he pushed the giant´s groin with all of his remaining strenght. Coffee bent forward, his mouth opened wide, but his howl was promptly muffled by a sudden, strong headbutt. Gohan felt, more than heard, a sound like rocks rubbing onto each others and realized he had broken Coffee´s teeth. Not wasting time, he kicked Coffee´s stomach.

For Gohan´s total shock, Coffee´s big hand grabbed his ankle. He hadn't even the time to yelp in surprise, because at the next instant he was spinning in the air, just like he had done to Tidaba, the green pirate. But, instead of tossing Gohan away, Coffee kept spinning and spinning him, as he laughed childlishly.  Until he heard a very suspicious sound. Quickly, Coffee lifted Gohan up, holding both the boy´s ankles with a hand, and stretched his arm as much as he could, so Gohan wouldn´t vomit on the remains of his armor. When the sickening sounds stopped, Coffee bent to pick some leaves from a nearby bush and used them to clean Gohan´s face. He stared with curiosity at the child´s pale, chubby face, at Gohan´s spinning, stunned eyes. If Goku´s son wasn't so dazed, he could have noticed a hint of pity into the giant´s face.

"That was closhe. Can we continue?" Coffee asked, his voice hissing through the holes between his teeth. 

He swang Gohan´s body slightly, to get his attention. Not having any reaction, Coffee looked disapointed, like a child realizing that his favorite toy is out of batteries.

"If you can't fight anymore, I´ll have to kill you. I heally didn't want to do that yet... even if you've deshtroyed my prey."

That "I´ll have to kill you" reached Gohan´s ears. He was still a little dazed, but noticed something important: he no longer felt the kis of Coffee´s colleagues - specifically, the three who had broken off for the dragonballs. "Krillin san must have killed them",  he thought "I can´t feel his ki... he must have flied away on the bike Bulma gave us... Bulma! She's waiting for us! I have to get rid of this monster at any cost!" 

With determination, Gohan started to rock to-and-fro. Thinking that the kid was trying to break free. Coffee tightened his grip a bit as he watched Gohan´s struggles with amusement. Joining both fists under his head (he was still upside down), Gohan started powering up to fire another mazenko. 

"I just hope I´ll have enough energy left", he thought.  

He raised his fists to Coffee´s face... just to have both grabbed by Coffee´s free hand. 

"Not thish tshime, you little rashcal!" Coffee gloated.

Gohan screamed in despair and pain; he felt his hands getting crushed and now he was completely .Holding the kids´ hands and feets tight, Coffee lifted him up above himself and stretched his arms. He pulled Gohan down, so the kid´s stomach landed exactly at the top of Coffee´s head.

"Thish ish for breaking my teesh!"  he gloated. 

The child´s scream rang into Vegeta´s ears. 

"Stupid little scoundrel... " the Saiyan thought coldly "hHe could have disposed of this moron of a thousand different ways. What a waste of power."

Putting his small opponent down, Coffee backed away a few steps, watching as Gohan clutched on his pained stomach, his knees folded in a fetal position.

"Aaah... owwww....  it hurts....  hurts..."

"Don't be shuch a baby. If I really wanted to hurt you, Id would have broken you shpine!"Coffee rebuked"But I admit that you´re  very tough for a kid." 

He stood still, hands on hips, watching thoughtfully as his little foe embraced himself on the devastated ground.

"Well...  we had a good fight, but now I have to go or Shuice will chew me out." Coffe said aphologetically " But don't worry... you're not going to feel anyfffing. I'm going to turn you into dussht, shust like the beasht you deshtroyed."


All Gohan could do was clenching his teeth tighter. He felt unable even to take his hand from his stomach. He just closed his eyes, fighting the imminent tears. "I´m sorry, Dad, Piccolo-san, Krillin-san, everyone...   I just could'nt be strong enough."

As an answer, he suddenly felt a very well-known evergy close too him. His eyes snapped open in shock - unfortunately.

"TAIYO KEEEN!!!"  Krillin screamed.

Everything disappeared into a intense burst of light. A few steps away, Gohan could hear Coffee making a big fuss about having become blind. Judging by the thumps and thuds Gohan heard, the brown-skinned giant probably had hit some of the trees they had put down during their fight. Gohan was temporarily blind, too, but he didn't panick. He struggled painfully to get up, but this was unnecessary, because two strong arms picked him up from the floor and carried him away.

A few instants later, he felt the hands putting him down. Slowly, the anxious face of his big friend and pal showed up in front of his eyes.

"M...Mr Krillin! " Gohan whispered, because they weren't still out of Coffee´s reach "I-I thought that you had ran away. The dragonballs..."

"Chhh..." the monk cut him off "I dropped them into a holel. With luck, nobody will come after them so soon."

"The pirates knew all the time that the spheres were around," Gohan said in a depressed tone "Turles told his goons to not look for the dragonballs. He´s playing to us..."

Krillin frowned at his, but didn't answer. Making sure there weren't any witnesses around, he tossed a capsule on the floor to pop up the minibike Bulma had lend him. The small vehicle had only one seat, but it had a sort of box for luggage attached behind. They had used it to carry the dragonballs way without using ki, so the pirates´ scouters wouldn't detect them. 

"We´ll think of this later," Krillin said, as he helped Gohan entering the luggage compartiment " First, we´ll have to take care of you." 

Thanks to Capsule Corps excelence in machinery, the minibike wasn´t much noisy. It would be needed very acurate ears to notice its smooth, bee-like humming among the noises typical from woods; besides, Krillin´s senses would help him to avoid any hunting parties that could be wandering around. Unluckily, the bike was very slow. Even by foot, jumping and scamping, Krillin and Gohan would go much faster. Gohan felt that he was slowing them both, but there was nothing he could do now. Despite the aches running through his entire body, he was feeling sleepy. Gohan was already dozing when he felt an abrupt halt and heard Krillin mumbled: "Damn! I can't believe that!"

"What? Are we there yet?" Gohan questioned with groggy concern.

"I wish, but no. And we´re getting out of gas, too. Do you think you can walk?"

"Yes. I´m feeling much better now" Gohan stated sound more entusiasted that he actually felt. He stood up and tried to jump out of the luggage box, but his legs got stuck in the border, making him fall. Luckily, Krillin was fast and grabbed Gohan´s shoulder before the kid dived-nose on the ground.

"Better leaving the jumps for later", the monk gibed as he pulled Goha back on his feet"You´re all bruised, don't forget." and turned the bike into a capsule again.

Despite Gohan´s insistence that he was fine, after half an hour walking it become pretty clear that he needed so much more than a few resting minutes. His stomach was hurting again, now of hunger. Besides the wasted breakfast and the last drops of water from Krillin´s canteen, Gohan hadn't consumed anything through the entire day. Besides, his face was getting swollen and red.The leaves Coffee had rubbed on him probably had triggered some kind of allergy.

Krillin had to support Gohan a shoulder, or the boy would have fallen on the ground. Carefully, the monk leaded his weakened friend to a big tree and helped him to lay among its roots.

"Gohan, this is silly", he rebuked the kid softly "I know you don't want to slow us down, but forcing yourself like this will just make things worse. The head-blow you received in your stomach must have hurt you more we thought. And there´s your face, too."

"My belly is aching and I´m feeling sick, but I think that's because I'm hungry"Gohan replied"That gorilla made me throw up everything I ate this morning. He rubbed some leaves on my face... I think he was trying to clean my face but didn't know the leaves were poisonous." his half-closed eyes looked thoughtful "I know that sounds crazy, but I think that goon really didn1t want to kill me. He repeated that to me the whole time."

Krillin shook his head but preferred not to argue about the so-called kindness of one of Turles´ henchmen.

"I keep forgetting that you´re a half-Saiyan" he said, instead "Your father always get hungry after every battle." the memory of Goku eating all the food of a restaurant after their first tournament came back to Krillin´s mind. Feeling guilty, he also reminded the small breakfast of sandwiches and fruit he and Gohan had shared that morning. He should have give Gohan a bigget portion, instead of dividing the food in equal parts.

"You Saiyans must eat so much because you spend a lot of energy. It hadn't ocurred me that. Your mother would kill me if she learned I neglected you like that."  he concluded .

"No, she wouldn't. She would be very grateful because you saved my life." Gohan stated with conviction.

"Well, I think it's better if we´ll spend the night here... and the rest of this day." Krillin forced a smile. Days on that planet last a bit longer than Earth´s. " I'll try to find some water for you... maybe even some of those fruits we collected yesterday." he added as he started walking away.He advanced a few steps, but suddenly reminded something and turned around "If a beast or some of Turles'  men show up, DON'T fight! Just call for me, okay?"

"´kay." Gohan´s murmur almost couldn't be heard.

Krillin explored the entire area around the place where his friend was laying. Unfortunately, there was no water around. There weren't any of the fruit trees they had found nearby their ship yesterday, either. They found themselves resourceless. He could hunt something, but he didn't want to leave Gohan alone for too long, neither go too far away. He was so frustrated that punched a tree, ripping out a rain of   from its trunk.

"Damn it! Damn it! I´m doing everything wrong! Why didn't I rationed the food? Why didn't I get more water when I had the chance?"

He could call Bulma throught the walkie talkie, but it would be dangerous for her or Oolong to come through the woods after them. What he should do right now was putting Gohan on his shoulders and fly as faster as he could to the shelter. He still had energy for it... but it wouldn't be enough if he ran into any of the pirates. Worse, if he flied, the pirates could track his ki and finding the shelter, putting his friends´ lives in danger. 

"What am I going to do?" a despaired moan escaped through his lips.

CRACK!

Krillin jumped and whirled around at the sound - it came from the direction where he had left Gohan! In one instant, the small month reached the place, but it was empty. He started panicking, before noticing Gohan´s ki a few steps from him. 

"Gohan Gohan!" he looked around as he called, trying to not scream too loud despite his fear.

"Mr. Krillin!" Gohan´s voice replied from a tree at his back "You have to see this!"

Krillin rocketed to the other side of the tree. Gohan was there on his knees, exhamining attently something on the plant. Krillin noticed that the child didn't look as bad as when he had left him minutes ago, but his relief came mixed with irritation.

"Don't ever do that again!" he admonished"I thought that a beast had carried you away!"

"I´m sorry", Gohan muttered. He looked down aphologetically, then looked up again " I heard a loud noisy and came here, but there wasn't anyone around. And look at this."

Krillin looked where Gohan was pointing. A big piece of bark had been ripped off the tree, exposing a thick, orange, creamy-looking substance. He frowned in repulse, but its sweet smell make his stomack moan with hunger.

"Is that.. honey?" he asked hopefully.

"No. No bees or  hives. It's sap. The noise we heard must have been some animal ripping off the bark to eat this, but I scared it away." Gohan theorized as he dipped his fingers on the sap. He started taking them to his mouth, but Krillin stopped him.

"Wait! Don't do that. It might be poison. Or a kind of alucinogenous. Just like when..." his prudent lecture trailled off in face of the kid´s hungry, pleading look. 

Grudgingly, Krillin considered the situation. Gohan was right, nobody besides an animal would have hurt the tree that way  - and for what it would do that, if not for eating that sticky thing? Even if one of Turles'  goons decided to hurt trees just for fun, he would do much more than just ripping a piece of bark off. To confirm his thoughts, a small, winged insect landed on the border of the opened wound and licked the sap with its trunk.The two youngsters stared the small being for seconds, before Gohan's eyes met Krillin's, af if he was saying: "see?"

"All right", Krillin relented as he hesitantly dipped some fingers on the sticky substance He was very hungry, too "I think this is not going to make things worse than they already are." carefully, he took his fingers to his mouth to taste. His eyes opened wide and he immediately picked up more sap "Hummm... this is delicious. Try some, Go..."

Gohan was already digging in, drinking the sap at the palms of his hands as if it was water. He look like a baby digging on a bowl of porridge, and Krillin had to laugh, even knowing they souldn't make loud noises. Gohan started laughing, too, pointing at Krillin's equally   mouth. For a long moment, the height of fears and issues left their shoulders and they just cracked up cheerfully, as if they were back to the good old times with their friends at Kame's house.

Krillin made a move to rub his eyes but stopped just in time. It would be terrible if his eyelids were glued by the sticky sap.

"I haven't laugh like this in ages" he sighed, as reluctant to come back to reality "Funny, this slimy stuff   . "he lifted this hand to tap his belly, but stopped to not dirty his clothes "But I wish we had some water. This sap is too sweet."

"Maybe we´ll find water at our way back to the shelter." Gohan offered "We´re not that far, now."

Krillin opened his mouth to automatically say no, but gave his friend a better look. And his eyes opened wide in shock. Gohan was standing straight on his feet, his shoulders high, no longer leaning on the tree for support. His eyes were opened wide, instead of half-closed with weariness. Allright, he didn't look exactly full of energy, but was far much better than when Krillin had to help him to walk. Even his face didn't look that red now. Krillin stared suspiciously at the big, slimy wound opened in the tree. Was that thing like senzu beans? Or was it just producing a temporary feeling of welfare, just like some Earth substances, like chocolate and coffee?  

"A...are you sure?" he stammered "Not a minute ago you were almost fainting!"

"I know, but I´m feeling much better now. My body still aches a little, but my stomach doesn´t hurt anymore. Even my cheek stopped ticking. Aren´t you feeling better, too?" Gohan insisted.

Krillin had to admit that he wasn´t feeling tired anymore. Actually, he felt like he could fight another Coffee, and all by himself!

"We should take some of this sap for Bulma. Too bad I haven´t anything to where to carry it... maybe my ..." Krillin hesitated as he looked for his canteen. It was the only thing, aside the capsule-bike, that he hadn´t discarded when he left his hiding place to help Gohan. 

"No need. Just wait a little." Gohan said calmly, before licking off as much sap as he could from his hands and rubbing them on his pants. He picked up a leave of the tree and a small piece of its   . Using the as a shovel, he pushed some  on the leaf and folded its borders over the stick content, to make a sort of envelop. He still rolled a second leaf on the small package to keep the sap from leaking and tied it with a thread from his sash.

Krillin gaped in disbelief.

"Gohan, you´re a genius!" he exclaimed "Where did you learn to do that?"

"One of our neighbours taught mom how to pack meat and rice with cabbage leaves. Daddy loves it!"

The remembrance of Chichi´s food filled Krillin´s mouth with water.    Even though the sap had his clenched hunger, he craved for some of the good old Earth food.

"Please ask her to invite me when she´ll do it again." he asked, giving the tree a last look "I´m going to take a piece of its   , for identification. Maybe wel´ll find another trees nearby the lake."

They decided not camping. Krillin, however, told Gohan that they would make pauses ocasionally, and that the kid should ask to stop, if he didn't feel well.    However, as they went closer and closer to their goal, nothing happened and Krillin thought they could walk a little more. The programmed pitstops were totally left out. They were too close now, and it still was day, not mentioning that they would have much water in Oolong and Bulma´s hiding place. Ocasionally, Krillin checked on Gohan, afraid that he could be pushing his little friend too much. But, saving for some ticking on his cheeks, Gohan was doing well, his spirits going high.

"That sap is really a kind of senzu." the child commented heartily "It just takes longer to work. Look, another sap tree there! These trees are pretty easy to find, when you know how they look like."

"You may toss the leaf pack away, by now. Or give it to me. I´m getting tired again."Krillin joked, but his face was serious, the small dots tatooed on his head almost dsappearing under the frown "Gohan, don't you think this is too convenient?"

"What do you mean?"

"We were both tired and hungry. And you were hurt. Then, out of the blue, an animal - if it really was an animal - opens a hole in a tree that is both food and medicine. It´s just as if someone has been noticing we were in trouble and said:'here, problem solved'."Krillin reasoned.

"You saying that one of those bandits might be following us to know where our shelter is, and that´s why he helped us?" Gohan widened up his eyes at the horrible suggestion and instintively looked around, as if he expected to see one of Turles' henchmen crouched behind a tree" But, if it was a pirate, we would have felt his ki! They can't hide it like we do. I feel a lot of kis around us, but they are too small to belong to people." 

"You're right" Krillin admitted with a sigh "I think that thirsty will making me delusional."

"No, you´re right, too." Gohan replied, his eyes very serious " It was convenient. I think that the animal that hurt that tree could have been leaded by Kami-sama. Back in the hospital, daddy told me that, even though Kami-sama has died along with Piccolo, he is looking on us from Heaven. And there's Mr. Kaioh, too. Any of them could have sent an angel to help us. We had much luck untill now."

"Do you really believe in guardian angels?" Krillin made an effort to supress a laugh.

Although he was a monk and had met Kami-sama personally, Krillin was sceptical about spiritual issues. During his early, disheartening years in the Oorin temple before he ran off to Kameroshi´s, the young fighter learned at the hardest way that you can't could count on any help coming from above, just on yourself. As time passed, he learned that wasn't entirely true -you can count on friends, too, as long as they are honest and faithful like Goku. However, friends are mortal and limitated. For Krillin, Heaven´s forces came to help only when there was something important at the stake, like the safety of Earth and universe. Mostly, the celestial beings just stood and watched the living one´s misery without giving a damn. Of course he didn't dare to say these things openly.

"Grandpa told me that there are angels living among us, but they have no wings" Gohan stated, his tone firm and sure as a grown-up´s "There are those who live to make good, like dad... and those who make good even when they don't mean it, like Mr. Piccolo." he silenced and stared self-consciously at the small leaves his feet stepped, just for a few moments, before gaining courage to look at Krillin and finish timidly "When you came and carried me in that light, I thought you were really an angel." 

So many names Krillin had been called throughout his life... most of them insults, just a few were really compliments. But he never in his life would imagine that someone would call him an angel. Only Goku´s san, with his pure eyes, would be able to think something like that.

Krillin gasped, completely lost about what to say... and then he heard a very, very pleasant sound.

"Gohan... " he started in disbelief "... listen to this sound... it´s water running! We´re almost there! Water! WATER! WAAAATEEEEEEER!!!!!"

Forgetting friend, fear of making loud noises and all the rest, he broke into a wild run.