Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ A Much Needed Healing ( Chapter 22 )

(A/N: I just wanted to take a litte bit of time outside of the story to let you all know how much all your support and encouragement has meant to me and still means to me. A great deal, let me say! There is nothing like the wonderful feeling you get when someone likes your stuff and takes the time to let you know by writing a little review about it. Thank you all soooo much for being there with through all of this very strange, twisty story and no, this is NOT the end, so don't panic!! hehe! I just wanted to thank you all for being so cool, and especially Vicky aka Ryven Sorane, for letting me play around with writing her character. Okay, onward with the update!)

Dende looked looked up from his reverie, startled out it by Piccolo's heavy hand on his shoulder. Dende wasn't a fool and one look at the powerful namekian warrior told him exactly what was on his mind. Especially when he glanced over his shoulder at the little elf he'd come to know and love as his own daughter.

"Dende?" He asked, knowing that this was what Ryven wanted, she had told him as much on the way home inbetween bouts of much-needed sleep, "Do you think you can find it in yourself to try and heal Tel and Yarrah?"

"I can possibly heal Tel," Dende said, chewing his lip in thought, as he watched the young woman, short hair a tad bit mussed, standing to one side, looking uncomfortable around all these people she didn't know. He also noticed how the little white-haired princess, Yarrah, had moved closer to her as if they were drawn to one another, two beings from the same place who had suddenly found themselves thrown into a sea of unknown.

It was understandable they would cling to each other, each being the only thing familiar to the other, Dende though, as he answered Piccolo's query, "But I don't know about the little Princess, I've...felt...something dark inside her. She's taken a life. I don't know if anything can heal that, Piccolo."

"Can't you at least put forth the effort?" Piccolo asked, "I don't mean to sound like I don't know you all ready have a busy work load, but it would mean so much to..."

"Ryven and Rowyn?" Dende asked, sighing, he knew that attempting to heal a person who was tainted, such as Vegeta, would take a lot of him, but he had healed Vegeta, he remembered, and if he could heal someone as dark-hearted as Vegeta was back then, he could probably get away with fixing whatever's wrong with Tel and Yarrah. He smiled, cofidence swiftly back in place as he nodded at Piccolo, giving him the thumb's up sign that showed he had agreed and was willing to try it.

Ryven looked up from Snowblind's coat and saw Piccolo talking with Dende. She had spent the last few moments emerged within his wolfish-thoughts and the thickness of his fur, filling herself with the long-missed scent of him while Rowyn stood off to the side, recognizing her friend's need for this private greeting with her bond-beast. She touched her locket absently, feeling closer to her mother than she had for a long time, now that her locket was with her once more.

Her keen elfin ears had picked up most of what was said between the two nameks, but not all of it and she knew they had spoken telepathically one-to-one for part of the conversation. Rowyn difted closer and sent, unexpectedly, though by now Ryven was getting used to the sound of Rowyn's soft voice in her head and her presence near her, though she would have to let her know sooner or later than once in while she just wanted to be left alone to think or whatever, but she knew that now was not the time to worrying about such things. Still, she couldn't help but worry that Rowyn wouldn't leave her alone once in awhile in the future...

** Do you think he can really do it? ** Rowyn's voice interrupted Ryven's train of thought and she felt her cheeks flush red, it wasn't that she was sick of the other elf, not really, it was just...after all that had happened, she felt that she needed some time alone, to think things through and to rest for a while. ** Heal them, I mean? **

Well, Ryven found herself thinking, Maybe after everything is back to normal, I'll ask Papa if he could take me on a little vacation so I can get my wits together again. She thought, I hate the thought to having to leave Rowyn, but I know how much she's grown since we were kidnapped, I know how much stronger she is now, how strong of spirit she's always been but was just afraid to show any of that strength. I'm sure she'll be all right here with everyone to help take care of her, help her and guide her along.

** I don't know, ** Ryven aswered, while carefully keeping her private thoughts away from the forefront of her mind, ** He was able to heal Vegeta and, of course, you.**

** I know he's healed physically wounds before,** Rowyn sent, sitting down on the grass that wrapped about Mr. Popo's prized flower and plant garden, tucking her legs in under her. Ryven and Snowblind did the same, finding seats upon the grass close by Rowyn, ** But does he know how much more of a challege it is to heal emotionally damage?**

** I don't know, ** Ryven shook her head, she'd taken her headband off and stuffed it into her belt pouch, since her head felt sticky and dirty with sweat and promised herself that the first body of water she came to she was diving in and that was that! ** But we're about to find out, look! **

Both elven females looked up, each of them realizing that the air around them was growing more and more heavy, charged would be a much better word, as they saw Dende getting himself ready for the double healing. Tel and the Princess were looking over at Dende and Piccolo with worried expressions, unsure of what was happening.

Both elves hoped beyond hope that he could do it, that it woudn't be too much of a strain for him, but Ryven had more confidance in the little Earth's Gaudian than did Rowyn, who really hadn't gotten to know him very well, just that one time he healed her wounds and kept her from dying, and nodded at Rowyn to let her know she thought it would be okay.

Dende approached Princess Yarrah first and her eyes became as wide around as Krillin's destructo disks. When he held out his hand to her, smiling in, what he hoped, was a friendly and passage manner, though he was aware of how nervous his fangs tended to make people who did not know of his race. They thought he was some kind of green vampire with antannae or something.

He nearly laughed at the memory of one particalar summer he'd gone with Mr. Popo to a tropical island that was having some problems and the primitive people had thought he was some kind of vampire god come to claim everyone's enteral souls or some such rubbish. His thoughts rushed back to the present at the look of pure horror in Yarrah's eyes.

He was taller than her her, but not by much. By human standards, or, in her case, humanoid at least, she looked like a very small child, but her eyes looked older, much much older, as if she had seen things no child should even have seen or been forced to grown up much too fast. Dende felt sorry for her and reached out, trying to help her.

"Get away from me!" She cried, backing up, little by little and Dende noticed, with fear, that with each step she was coming closer and closer to the edge. If she stepped off and fell, did she know how to fly? He wondered and suddenly knew the answer. It would be up to one of us to keep her from killing herself.

He glanced over at the others and saw Goku deep in conversation with Chi Chi, Bulma and Goten while Vegeta was sulking off a ways with his young son; Trunks, trying his hardest to impress him with certain moves and power blasts he'd been working hard on. Vegeta looked at his fingernails, then yawned, barily realizing poor Trunks was still around.

Dende secretly hoped the boy would give up on trying to gain his father's attention and work on being a great son to one who all ready thought he was the best thing since sliced bread; his mother, Bulma, who was watching him out the corner of her blue eyes, a tiny smile filled his a mother's pride across her face.

"Please," Dende said to Yarrah, as the wind ruffled his robes about him and sent a chin down his spine, "Stop. Your going to step right off the..."

"Stay away!" Yarrah cried, gaining everyone's attention that time, "I heard what you said about doing some weird magic thing to me and so-called `healing' me of I did wrong!"

"Yes! Don't you want that, Y-" He paused, understanding this one's need to addressed formally, if only to calm her down some, "Your Highness. Don't you want to be free from the darkness that surrounds you, free from what you..."

"Shut up!" She cried, eyes glaring, walking backwards blindly, "You don't know what your talking about! Leave me alone! Just leave me alone!"

Dende watched as he blood ran cold in his veins as the little girl stepped right off the ledge and disapeared within the cloudy mass that always seemed to surround The Lookout. Tel ran to the edge and looked down, trying to see past the thick, fluffy-white clouds. "Princess!" She whispered, fear in her voice, her hand reaching out and touching empty air.

Before he could dive off and go after her, Piccolo jumped in front of him and flew downward, after the distraught child, as Tel unexpectedly grabbed him from behind and pulled him around to face her. "Just what were you doing to her?!" She cried, livid, she pointed to the edge, "That's my people's last chance, you know! You better pray that her wings are sprouted!"

"W-what?" Dende cried, not understanding her at all, "What are you talking about? I was only trying to help her! She was scared...or something, and fell backwards, I tried to warn her!"

"Liar!" Tel cried, "I saw you! I saw both you and that large green one with your heads together talking all hush-hush a few minutes ago. I know you were talking about getting rid of us! I know you pushed The Princess off the edge! I saw you! I saw you!"

"No!" Dende cried and Mr. Popo ran over to Dende, "I would never do something like that! You must believe me! You misunderstood what happened!"

"Yes!" Mr. Popo said in his deep voice, "Dende would not do such a horrible thing, Miss Tel. You must calm down and realize this. Dende here only wished to heal your little princess so that she would not have bad dreams anymore. He can do the same for you, Mr. Popo thinks so, yes?"

Tel was looking from him to Dende, unsure of what to do, where to go. She began aware of the rest of the group, those who had stayed behind, moving around her as if to prevent her escape, or, which was probably more the case, to prevent her from becoming violent and harming anyone. But, I don't want to harm anyone, Tel thought, not really, I just want to make sure my princess is all right so I can figure out how to get her back home to her people where she belongs!

Suddenly, someone very strong had grabbed her arms from behind, holding her in place against them, she cried out and struggled but had never felt anyone as strong, she felt like she was being held inside a massive vice of some kind, unable to move to get free for the live herself. Then she recognized Vegeta's voice and knew who held her in place. "Hurry up, Dende!" He growled, "Get to work before I decide it'd probably be better to just kill her!"

"Let me go!" Tel cried, terrified that they wanted to harm her. She could not understand, on the entire way here, why they were being so kind to her if they didn't want something in return. In her experience, nothing was gained for free and everything had a price, she may have slipped past paying it before, but she knew, deep in her heart of hearts, that one day she would have to pay what she owed for such treatment.

She had suspected, all the way here, that they were bringing her and The Princess here for a reason, but she just couldn't figure out what because everyone would clam up whenever she entered a room on The Blue Beauty and found them talking about something.

As Dende reached out to touch her forehead, she felt the strange heat emanating from his hand and, even more odd, how it seemed to calm her down and soothe her thoughts. She sighed and slumped down against Vegeta, who had fallen to his knees in order to hold her at a more comfortable angle and allow Dende better access. Dende paused one moment before placing his other hand lightly upon Tel's heart, feeling it beating fast, much too fast and focusing on bringing her blood pressure down and sending her tempering, relaxing vibrations before he started on the actual healing. He wondered, before he began, it it was right, what he was doing, healing another being without their permission, against their will, actually!

Vegeta caught Dende's concerned look and said; "Sometimes an animal who's hurt will snap at the one who tries to give it medicine and bandage it up, but whatever was done had to be done for the sake of the injured animal who didn't know any better. She's just like a hurt animal, Dende, who's snapping at those who try to help her. It's for her own good."

Dende nodded, understanding and also thinking that was possibly why Yarrah acted the way she did when he approached her. He closed his eyes and felt himself falling into darkness filled with anger, greif, deceit and fear, so much fear. Ignoring Tel's soft cries, he began the healing, believing that what he was doing was in her best interest and, when he was done and she was whole once more, she would possibly even thank him.

***

Piccolo was just thinking what a pain his tail this so-called little Princess was becoming when he came closer gaped in shock at the sight of her, and for once neither Nail nor Kami had anything to say, either.

The princess wasn't falling. She wasn't even hysterical anymore. She was hovering in place but not, Piccolo could see and feel, by any use of ki manipulation. The back of her dress had been ripped and from those tears, out her small back had suddenly sprouted two delicate-looking dragonfall-type wings. They were beating so fast at the moment that he couldn't tell where one ended and the other began.

"W-wings?!" He cried, "You didn't have wings before...?"

"Oh!" She cried, as if she just realized he was there, "Only the females of my race have wings. We keep them hidden, they dissolve into our skin when we aren't using them."

"Listen? We have to get back up there," Piccolo said, gesturing towards the Lookout, he noticed Goku racing towards them as well, his dark eyes widening at the sight of Yarrah and her, until now, little secret, "The Gaurdian of the Earth doesn't mean to scare you, he only wants to make you right again, don't you understand?"

"I understand that if he heals me or even tries," She said, her voice stiff, too old of a child's voice, really, "That I may lose the memories the my mother because whenever I think of her now, I remember what I did, and I am sorry, but if I look past that I can remember some other times, when it was just me and her, and...and...it wasn't so bad being the heir to the throne, then."

Tears were falling from her eyes, unbidden and unchecked, Piccolo and Goku just watched, listening and waiting, "I can't allow anyone to mess around inside my head and maybe make me forget the good times I had with my mother, even if I do have to remember all the bad and...and...the way she died...."

With that, Princess Yarrah turned about in midair and started to fly away, before she did, she turned around and said; "Please, leave me alone for awhile. I...I need to think about things..."

Piccolo started to go after her, but Goku reached out and grabbed his cloak's end, stopping him. Goku shook his head at Piccolo's angry questioning look. "She'll be okay, Piccolo," Goku said, "I have a feeling about that one. She reminds me, in alot of ways, of both Vegeta and Trunks. Funny, huh?"

"Hmmm." Piccolo responded, deciding to fly back up and let everyone know what was going on before they all paniced and decided to take a flying leap off the edge of The Lookout themselves. Goku, after glancing in the direction Yarrah had gone, wondered if it really had been the wisest thing he'd even done to let her leave like that. She was still a child after all, and now she was a child in a strange land filled with strange people.

"Aww, baka!" He sighed, recognizing his error, "We have to go after her, Piccolo."

Piccolo turned around and grinned ferally at Goku, "Happy to see you've come to your senses."

"I just remembered she's a little kid and this a strange place, even for those who've live here all thier lives!"

As he flew next to Goku, Piccolo sent a quick telepathic explaination to Ryven and Rowyn and the rest of them still waiting for him and Goku to come back with the upset little princess; ** Yarrah's sprouted wings, she's flown off somewhere. We were going to just let her go, but after thinking for half a second, Goku's decided that letting a little girl fly around alone in an unfamilar place isn't exactly the smartest thing one can do, so we are going to find her and bring her back.**

"Aargh!" Bulma cried, pulling at her hair, "Will this nightmare ever end?! I was looking foreward to working on my bike this afternoon!!"

"Don't worry," Dende said, "She's not far, I can feel her ki signature, it's very strong and closeby."

"Well, I sure hope so!" Bulma said, still in a huff, "Because this little adventure is getting to be a tad bit too old for it's own good!"

Chi Chi nodded her agreement before sighing.

"Hey!" Rowyn cried, marching up to the two women, "That's a Little girl out there! She could be either one of your's children?! Did you ever stop to consider that?! I didn't think so!" While both woman gasped at her in shock, Rowyn turned about on her heel and walked purposefully back to where Ryven and Snowblind were standing, watching everything.

When she had seen Piccolo fly off over the edge, Ryven's stomach plummeted and she had the fight the urge to jump and and follow. But she knew that he didn't need her help for this and didn't want to cause him to have to worry about herself as well as Yarrah. She had enough love and faith in him to know and believe that he would be back soon, followed by Goku and, if all went well, the annoying little princess who was seriously starting to get on her nerves again.

"Dende looks tired." Rowyn commented as they watched the healing taking place a few feet away. The young Guardian had been submerged in a deep healing trance for the better part of twenty or so minutes. She and Ryven stepped around closer to Vegeta, Tel and Dende, curious in spite of themselves.

Watching a namek healer work was always an awe-inspiring sight. Ryven noticed that Rowyn's observation was correct, Dende was getting tired! She saw his annatane tremble as sweat dripped from his forehead in concentration, his hands shook slightly as power rushed from them into Tel's body, moving past the outer wounds and finding and mending those that never showed on the outside.

Though he was begining to fell weak, he cursed himslf and struggled to stay focused, he wasn't about to give up now. Now when he didn't really know what would happen to someone who was suddenly forced away from a half-finished healing. He had no idea if she would be lost in the void of her own mind and terror-filled nightmares forever or if she would just wake up and go completely insane over time.

He wasn't about to find out! But even as the words came to him, he felt his body growing sluggish, too weary to continue and felt a great deal of shame filling his heart, until, that is, he felt someone's hands upon his back, small yet determinded, two pairs of hands in fact and felt a rush of enegry flooding over his skin and though his muscles and bones, breathing like a blast of fresh air over his face and scenses, giving him enough strengh to go on and finish the job.

Rowyn and Ryven both hit the ground, what they had just attempted and, luckily, succeeded at, had taken the stuffing out of them something bad! Snowblind was licking Ryven's face and Rowyn couldn't move, so she was merely laying down, eyes closes, trying to regain some of her strength back. Ryven didn't even have enough of own left to shove the wolf's hot tongue from her cheek.

Chi Chi and Bulma understood that they were needed and, like most Mother Hens, rushed in to take control of what needed handling.

"Come on," Bulma said to Chi Chi as she carefully picked up Rowyn, "We can put them in the bed Trunks and Goten always sleep in when they visit."

Chi Chi nodded and lifted Ryven, knowing well to hold her at an angle so as not to touch her sword, which was in it's place in it's sheath upon the elf's back, "They need more sleep as it is anyway."

Ryven thought about trying to get free, it was horribly embarracing having Chi Chi-Harpy carry her in to bed like this! But she was just too exhausted to move. One eye twitch Rowyn's way told her the other elf felt pretty much the same way. Suddenly sleep didn't sound too bad. She just hoped they had been able to help Dende, if not, then, they had just wasted a ton of thier own ki for nothing.

She didn't want to even consider that thier effort had been wasted and fell alseep before her head even hit the pillow, her last thought was; Hope Papa gets back soon...

***

"Chi Chi?" Bulma drew the other woman into the kitchen with her, "After all this is over, you know, I was thinking, we all missed Ryven's birthday, you know..."

"I was thinking about that the entire way home, actually, Bulma," Chi Chi answered, "I think we should do something extra special for her, after all she's been through, you know? Do you have any ideas, Bulma?"

"How about a surprise party?" Bulma suggested, "You know how I love arranging those things! And you can make the cake, Chi Chi, well, with our husands and sons, probably several cakes would have to do, and all the food, and I can concentrate on the decorations and stuff!"

Chi Chi nodded, thinking of that poor little child fast asleep in the bedroom several rooms down the hall, as well as the other one she'd grown so found of in the short time she's known her. She wanted to do something for them to let them know she loved and was grateful for both of them being brought into her life. But, Bulma was right, she thought, they had to concentrate on Ryven, since it was her birthday they forgot!

"We'll get started as soon as possible!" Bulma said, and walked off, leaving Chi Chi to stare after her in amusement.

That was, until, the screaming started.

(A/N: Sorry about the cliffy here, but you guys must know by know how much I love them! I really don't mean to torture my readers, honestly, I don't! I just...sometimes I don't know what comes over me and...suddenly....CLIFFIE!!!)

(A/N: Well, at least ya'll can't complain that I took forever updating this time, huh? Though, that is how I am, sometimes I will update all the time, and sometimes every once in a blue moon. Good thing it's the latter this time, huh? Anyway, I really hope you all enjoy this and I will have the next update sooner or later, you should know that by now!)

:D

~Ami