September 1st, 11:08 AM — Mount Paozu, Wontonka Border
Capsule Bike No. 9
Ground into the clay, digging a hole instead of moving forward.
A spray of brown mud flew up.
The filth landed on Bulma's boot.
She cut the engine.
The silence of the forest that follows was a scary new experience for Bulma, but she ignored.
Wontonka was exactly as her studies of world geography had described.
Vast, mountainous jungles stretching endlessly into the distance.
Seventy-four hours.
Three full days of travel.
The local infrastructure hadn't helped either.
The energy gignature tracker,
Or,
The "dragon radar", as she called it,
was taped to the dashboard, shrieking loud enough to rattle her nerves.
The green dot on the visor had stopped blinking.
It was steady now.
Bright.
One hundred meters away.
She pushed the floating bike through ferns that hit at chest height.
The trees parted.
The valley emerged.
Sunlight hit the waters of a shallow river that cut through the terrain filled with white stones.
Mount Paozu rose in the background.
At the center of the clearing stood the source of the most complex energy signature her father had ever recorded.
The reason she was here at all.
A hut.
It was a strange, charming little structure.
A blue, tiered pagoda roof sat atop it, textured to look like cylindrical tiles and crowned with a golden finial that glinted in the sun.
The walls were two-toned mooth grey plaster on the top half, resting on a foundation of chunky, orange-brown stone.
It looked peaceful, almost sleepy.
A circular window with a red lattice grid stared out from the left wall, and the entrance was marked by bright green double doors, each painted with a distinct red diamond.
Bulma took off her motorcycle helmet.
...Are you serious?
She stared at the structure.
That powerful signal was coming from an… oriental hut?
...
The wind shifted direction.
Smoke.
Bulma let go of the bike.
The vehicle remained hovering in place.
She adjusted the pistol holster on her thigh and walked toward the smoke.
Someone was home.
////////////////////////////////////
The cold water flowed around the mossy stone, but the boy didn't register the cold.
He was crouched, his heels resting on the damp rock, motionless as lichen.
His chest barely expanded.
He had synchronized his breathing with the rhythm of the current.
Only his tail moved.
Submerged in the murky water, the furry tip swayed, tasting the river.
Short vibrations.
Longtail. Calorie waste.
Fast vibrations.
Celestial Carp. Too much bone, too little meat.
Then, the pressure changed.
A dense displacement of mass pushed the water against the current.
He didn't think.
His body reacted before the electric impulse reached his brain.
The tail whipped.
The river's surface exploded in white foam.
A two-meter tiger fish was ripped from its element, scales gleaming in the sun as it spun in the air, its mouth full of teeth snapping at nothing.
The boy pivoted on his body's axis.
His right leg traced a perfect arc.
His foot connected with the animal's head.
Crack.
The fish fell into the tall grass, dead before it hit the ground.
He stepped down from the rock.
Grabbed dinner by the tail fin.
He took a step toward the forest, but stopped.
His ears twitched, swiveling slightly to the north.
A hum.
It wasn't the chirping of cicadas, nor the howling of wolves.
It was continuous.
High-pitched.
The sound of metal grinding against metal at high rotation.
He dropped the fish.
His right hand closed around the red staff, leaning against a cedar tree.
The boy tensed his legs.
The ground sank beneath his feet.
He shot upward, ignoring gravity, landing on the highest branch of a centennial oak.
The thick leaves concealed him completely.
Down below, the source of the noise emerged.
A red and black metal beast broke through the treeline.
It had no legs, just wide wheels crushing the bushes. It floated a handbreadth off the ground, kicking up dust.
Mounted on the beast's back... a human.
Female.