Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ Little Slave Girl ❯ Hunger Pangs ( Chapter 26 )

[ Y - Young Adult: Not suitable for readers under 16 ]

Ryven sat on the grass, rubbing a clothe over and over across the blade of her sword absently. Not realizing that the blade had gone passed shiny awhile ago. Not that it could ever really lose it's sheen, magically infused as it was. Her brows were drawn down over storm-dark blue eyes, trying in vain to ignore the voice of worry screaming in her head.

Beside her, Snowblind waited, as tense as she was, their emotion link a powerful one. She could hear Tel talking with Vegeta and Goku and the others a little ways off and her pointed ears pricked at the sound of thier voices, trying to catch what she could. She knew by their hushed tones that they were speaking about the sythwasps and what to do about them.

"You kow more about them than we do, Tel," Goku was saying, "Is there anything about them that can help us defeat them?"

Ryven listened closely. This would be very important information. She had to help. Somehow. She just had to!

"They do have one weakness," Tel said, she sat on a rock with her legs crossed under, the annoying brat of a princess was off somewhere with Bulma and Chi Chi. If Ryven remembered correctly, they had taken her shopping, which, of course, pleased Yarrah to no end. Ryven shook her head, it was like a child didn't even realize what was going on. She thought, Didn't she realize that she could die?

"They need to be touching thier victim to drain them," Tel went on, "But they can attack like sharks, a nip here, a tear there, until the prey is complete empty of any type of energy. That's when they go for the blood."

"Blood?" Goku asked, "What do you mean? I thought you said they drain ki..."

"They do," Tel agreed, looking grim, her short dark hair having been recently washed and brushed into place upon her head. She wore an orange gi, given to her by Chi Chi, obviously belong to Goku. It was a little large on her, but Chi Chi had pinned the shoulders up so that it didn't fall off her when she moved, "But they drink the blood of thier victims as well. Didn't I mention before about their fangs...they use them to piece the skin. Alot of slythwasps will drink and drain their victim at the same time."

"How do you know so much about these...creatures?" Vegeta asked, his voice suspicious.

"Because," She looked down, "My family and world was taken from by them. After that, I spent a great deal of my time getting to know them, if only from a distant."

"It's good to know your enemy." Vegeta grudgingly praised her in his own way, "That's why I'm still here listening to you drone on and on."

Ryven watched them and watched to stab her sword through Vegeta's heart. Or at the very least, smack him upside the head with it! She didn't trust Tel as far as she could throw her, but she knew that the information she held was valuable, essential to thier very survival. She wished he wasn't such and...ass.

Her thoughts drifted to Piccolo and Rowyn. She wondered how they were. She could still feel Piccolo's strong ki from the distance, so she knew he was still alive. Rowyn's however, flickered in and out, growing fainter and then suddenly stronger in turns. She feared for her friend's life and sanity. She hated having been forced to leave them. She felt more than helpless, with nothing to do but wait. Train and wait.

***

They struggled against thier bonds. Breath coming out of their meager little host in great gasping waves due to their efforts. There was always someone there, watching over them. Mostly it was the large green one. The one they wanted more than any other. Though they could feel several strong ki signatures far below...

Somewhere deep inside her mind, Rowyn watched in horror, waiting, listening, as a million voices whispered a deadly need between her ears. She wanted to climb out of her prison, but she didn't know how. For a few moments, a few nights ago, she'd been able to, but she had been too tired to stay awake and be of any service. The younger namek, Dende, had told her to sleep and she found she could not refuse him.

They could feel the little elf listening, waiting. They could feel her terror and enjoyed the sensation as one might enjoy a rich peice of chocate. She trembled inside herself and drew her mental form into a ball, folding herself up inside and trying to block out everything, wishing frantically that there was a way to get out of her own skin.

Piccolo floated near the end of the bed, eyes closed in repose but senses still alert to her every movent. His hands were clasped lightly on his knees and his head bowed slightly. His ears twitched at the sound of her soft growl of frustration and waited until her breathing became less ragged.

"Your going to hurt yourself if you keep that up." He said simply.

Instead of answering, she closed her eyes and fell silent. At first Piccolo assumed that the creatures ruling her mind just then had decided they were too weary to go on fighting and went back to his meditations. Then, he felt it, small...soft, like a cat's paw touching his skin. He opened his eyes and looked down at Rowyn's still form, the whites of his eyes large. Rowyn opened her eyes and smiled.

"What did you do?" Piccolo asked, fear mingled with irritation and anger in his tone as he glared at her, forcing himself to see the slythwasps before him instead of the small, normally docile little girl, "Tell me!"

Rowyn screamed a silent scream inside her head. No...no...please...

Outwardly, the being that was not Rowyn laughed in evil glee. They had been calling, scratching at Rowyn's mind for hours now. Hungry. So very hungry. They had no choice. She watched as the slythwasps inside her mind called the others, the physical ones, towards them. She didn't know what would happen to her, being the host, but she was certain that after they were through with her they would have little use for her.

Rowyn continued to chortle and Piccolo's eyes narrowed dangerously. "What did you do?" He asked slowly, pronouncing each syllable in a carefully measure tone. "Tell me right now!"

He turned as he heard Dende and Mr. Popo cry out in shock and fear, mouth open in horror as dozens of slythwasps flew through the doorway of the bedroom. They hovered around Piccolo, who floated in a defensive stance in the center of the room, surrounded by them. He thought briefly that this must be what a trout feels like in the middle of a school of sharks.

He was ready to fight, but knew that they could sap him of his strength and there were so many! His healing ability could only work so fast...so long...Instinctively, he began to power up. Dende appeared in the doorway, shouting; "Piccolo!"

But, oddly, they did not attack. They merely circled him and seemed to wait, gossamer wings beating fast against his skin, the sound assaulting his ears. He heard a ripping noise and turned to see four of the slythwasps at each of Rowyn's bonds, ripping them apart with their teeth. Free, Rowyn rose once more, the remnants of the bonds falling away from her wrists and ankles.

A strange bluish cast began to surround her, glow from her fingertips to her toes and bath her in it's eerie, unnatural light. With a flick of her wrist, the slythwasps left Piccolo and bowed down low in front of her. Piccolo watched, as she seemed to hold some kind of communion with them, unspoken, silent.

Then abruptly, she spoke, or rather, the slythwasps spoke through her; "Then it's time. Go! Fed! I will follow and savor in our triumph!"

The slythwasps let forth a high pitched cry that humans could not catch, but that Piccolo, with his sensitive namekian hearing, cringed at, and blinked, one by one, out of sight. "It has begun, namek." Rowyn grinned down at him, "Though I still hunger for your energy, I will settle for taking my fill from that child of yours. She's filled to the brim with a very strong power."

With a cry of rage and fear, Piccolo launched himself at Rowyn only to come away with empty air as she had suddenly vanished from sight.

"No!" Piccolo gasped, he knew exactly where she had gone. Without waiting for Dende to say anything, he touched his fingers to his brow and disapeared as quickly as Rowyn had moments before. He had to get there in time! He just had to!

Mr. Popo turned to Dende.

"Mr. Popo doesn't like this one bit..."

"Me either..."

"Mr. Popo thinks we are in deep..."

Sighing, Dende nodded, he couldn't agree more.