Dragon Ball/Z/GT Fan Fiction ❯ RipTide ❯ 2 ( Chapter 2 )

Chapter 2

Well, here we are... Hitomi thought to herself as she stood at the tall, golden gates of the Palace of Vegetasei. She huffed, remembering how she got in this stupid situation in the first place...

"WHAT?! ME? BABYSIT?!! ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?!!" Hitomi screamed at her father who leaned against her doorframe with a smirk. Her mother placed her hands on her shoulders.
"I don't see what the problem is. Many would consider this a great honor," Lea tried to reason.
"Yeah right? Give me one person who'd be honored to watch the king's second brat?!" Hitomi looked at her mother skeptically. Canta sighed, "Hitomi, we decided that you need to get out more. It's bad for your health to stay in so much and frankly, I'm sick of watching you waste your life away on machines."
"Yeah, when I can be getting beaten bloody or become the whore of one your buddies' sons?" Hitomi remarked coldly. Canta's eye twitched, "I've had it up to here with your smart-ass remarks!"
"And I've had it up to here with you trying to run my life for me!" Hitomi got up in his face.
"QUIET!!!" Lea yelled, finally making her presence known.
"How about we make a deal? Hitomi wants to run her own life," Hitomi nodded, "and Canta wants you to act like a traditional saiiyan," with that, Canta nodded.
"Well then, how about this: Hitomi will stay at the palace for say...a few weeks? If she doesn't like it, she can come back and Canta will never harass her again," Lea said, causing Canta's eyes to widen and Hitomi to smirk.
"But Lea--" Lea placed a finger over his lips. "But if by some miracle, she likes her job, she can continue to work at the palace. She might not find a mate, but she'll have the respectable title as Princess Vitani's caretaker and bodyguard. Who knows? You could become one of her personal elite when she reaches adulthood," Lea said. Hitomi folded her arms, "Fine, if it's the only way to get the old man off of my back." And before her father could snap at her, she grabbed her knapsack, stuffed it with a few belongings and took off.

As she walked up to the gates, the two soldiers guarding it eyed her funny.
"What is your business here?" one guard asked.
"I am Hitomi, born of Lea by Canta. I am to be the caretaker of the young princess Vitani," Hitomi stated in a diplomatic tone. The two guards were a little surprised, but soon opened to the doors and she allowed herself in.

"Hello. You must be Hitomi. I'm so glad that you could do us this favor." This greeting came from Vaya, who was the first person that Hitomi ran into. The young female immediately inclined her head.
"Greetings, Your Majesty," she replied politely.
"You don't have to be so formal anymore, my dear. During your stay here you will be treated as any member of the Royal Family," Vaya said warmly. She snapped her fingers.
Instantly the bag of possessions that Hitomi had brought with her lifted slowly into the air, and stayed there. Hitomi stared. Vaya merely gave a slightly amused smile and motioned Hitomi forward.
"Come, Hitomi. I'll show you to where you'll be staying, and then you'll get to meet your charge," the queen said.
Hitomi blinked, not expecting this at all, but then proceeded to follow Vaya down the long halls, her bag still floating alongside her. They passed many servants, all of whom didn't seem surprised to see the queen walking with a common girl, but they did stop their work to bow respectfully.
"I'm sorry that my husband could not be here to greet you," Vaya started with a sigh. "He is...detained at the moment, meeting with a group of Elite with another ridiculous problem." She rolled her eyes lightly.
Hitomi didn't know what to say to this, so she just kept silent.
Vaya glanced at her. "You know, Hitomi, we want you to feel as comfortable as possible here. So if it makes you feel better to just call me Vaya, you are completely welcome to do so."
Though she managed to remain modest and sincere around the queen, Hitomi's smugness came out, "Thank you, Your Highness, but I think the formality is what I'm used to." Even though she could tell that her queen was serious, she didn't think she would be able to do that.
Vaya smiled softly. "As you wish."
When they reached Hitomi's bedroom, Vaya opened the door and Hitomi's jaw nearly dropped.
The room was massive, and had every bit of comfort she could have asked for. The big room that they were standing in had soft couches and chairs set up around a video screen. Along the opposite wall was a huge canopied feather bed with soft blankets and many pillows. A huge window with equally large curtains gave Hitomi a beautiful view of one of the courtyards. Connecting to the bedroom/living room was a kitchen including a full refrigerator and a table-and-chairs set. There was also a bathroom with a bubble-jet tub.
"This can't all be for me..." Hitomi breathed.
Vaya chuckled. "Of course it is. You are doing my husband and I an enormous service by watching Vitani. Anything you need will be provided, and if there is anything else you wish for, the palace servants are completely at your disposal."
"Whoa...I--" Hitomi mumbled, losing herself for a minute. Then she started with embarrassment. "I mean, thank you, Your Highness."
Vaya nodded. "You are infinitely welcome."

~*~
Next, Vaya took Hitomi to a room a few halls down, to meet the six-year-old Princess Vitani. Vaya knocked on the closed door softly.
"Tiny? There's someone here for you to meet," Vaya called out in her silky voice. Hitomi waited in anticipation.
Suddenly there was a rapid series of thumps and the door swung open. Standing there was a very small little Saiyan girl with big, bright, violet eyes. As soon as she saw her mother standing with Hitomi, Vitani gave an excited squeak.
"Mommy, is she my new caretaker?" Vitani chirped, gazing at Hitomi with wondering eyes.
Vaya chuckled and nodded, bending down to pick up her daughter. "Yes, Vitani. She's going to be staying here for a while to help Daddy and me take care of you. But she doesn't know much about the palace yet, so you're going to have to show her around, okay?"
"Okay!" Vitani replied with childlike enthusiasm. She hopped down from her mother's arms and stood in front of Hitomi, staring up at her with a friendly smile. "Hi! My name is Vitani. What's yours?"
"I'm Hitomi," Hitomi replied with a slightly surprised smile, squatting down to make eye-level with the pint-sized princess. She had expected the young princess to be a spoiled little brat, but it didn't seem like this first impression was correct.
"Hitomi. Wow, that's a pretty name. You wanna play House with me?" Vitani asked brightly.
"Uh...sure," Hitomi shrugged. She was still a little uncertain as to what she was doing.
Vaya smiled, obviously pleased at how the two were getting along. "I'm going to leave you two alone for now," she said. "Vitani, don't forget to give Hitomi a tour, and make sure the others know she's here, okay?"
"Okay," Vitani replied vaguely. She had already taken Hitomi's hand and started leading her into her room.
Vaya shook her head with amusement and affection. She caught Hitomi's eye. "I'm sure you're going to do a wonderful job here," she whispered. "And remember, if you need anything, all you have to do is ask."
When Vaya said this, Hitomi strangely enough started to feel better. "Thank you, your Highness," she said sincerely.
Vaya merely smiled and turned down the corridor.

~*~
Hitomi found herself playing House with the princess for over an hour. Hitomi was the mother, Vitani was the daughter, and all of the princess's stuffed animals and dolls were her friends. And that was saying something. Vitani's room was filled with stuffed animals of all sizes and kinds. There were at least a hundred teddy bears alone; a few were even bigger than Hitomi. She had dollhouses and dolls, tea sets and tables, and even a very realistic little playhouse for herself. And there was room for all of it, too. Vitani's room was larger than Hitomi's, except there was no bathroom or mini-kitchen.
It wasn't like Hitomi just sat for the whole hour, though. Vitani had a very large imagination, and concocted up a new sequence every ten minutes. Whenever Hitomi didn't play her part right, Vitani was right there to correct her and show her how it was done. Although she was a little bossy, Hitomi realized that the little girl wasn't used to playing with someone else. They would work on that, though.
Finally, after an hour and a half, Hitomi was growing stiff from playing so much House. She stood up. "Princess Vitani, why don't you show me around now, like your mother said?"
"Okay," Vitani agreed with a surprising lack of reluctance. She hopped brightly over to Hitomi and took hold of her hand happily. "Call me Tiny, though, okay? That's my nickname."
Hitomi smiled. "All right."

~*~
"You're lucky your mother was there or who knows what kind of punishment your dad would've given you this time," Gohan remarked, digging through the prince's large selection of musical discs. At the moment, the prince was selecting some tracks on one he picked.
"Yeah yeah yeah, don't remind me. I guess I'm gonna have to tone down the pranks a little bit. Dad's starting to keep me on a tighter leash," Adrian said, as if it was no biggie. Gohan reacted differently, nearly falling out of his chair.
"Tone it down?! Are you kidding? From all the yelling I heard, I thought I would've had to rush in there and help you!" Gohan said incredulously.
"Please--" Adrian said, but was interrupted when the sliding doors to his room opened.
"...And this is the room of my stinky older brother, Adrian," Vitani said, stepping into the open and looking around, wrinkling her nose at her brother.
"Hi Gohan-kun! Oh, and this is his bestest friend, Gohan," Vitani said, pulling her caretaker in. Both guys gawked at her, not expecting her at all. Hitomi felt more than a little uncomfortable under the boys' gaze, but she managed to keep an impassive look on her face.
"Well, stop staring like a dummy and say something!" Vitani remarked meanly to her brother who raised a brow at his sister. He soon forgot about her and turned to his guest.
"Hey, I'm Prince Adrian. Judging by the way my bratty little sister is acting, I'd assume you were her new caretaker. Welcome to the palace," he greeted her with a friendly grin. Hitomi could only nod with a light smile. His smile, for some odd reason, made her feel more at ease. Before starting an awkward silence, Adrian turned to his partner-in-crime, "Oh, and this is my best friend, Gohan."
Gohan merely waved with a winky-eyed smile and Hitomi nodded to him.
"What did you say your name was?" Adrian asked.
"I'm Hitomi."
"Oh, well, it was nice meeting you, Hitomi." The prince gave her one last cocky little grin, and turned back to Gohan and his CDs.

"Okay, now that you've met the dark prince and his friend, I can show you where all the fun places are!..." Vitani's voice lessened as she pulled her new caretaker down the hall and the sliding doors closed behind them.

~*~
"All of the fun places" was a long list.
It included the library, which had rows of shelves upon rows of shelves stretching high to a domed glass ceiling that streamed light down on the carpeted floor. There were all kinds of books...novels, fantasies, horror stories, adventures, actions, dramas, tragedies, histories, textbooks, encyclopedias and more. At the opposite end, there was a huge fireplace and enormous comfy chairs. Hitomi took all of this in with wonder.
"This is my mommy's favorite room," Vitani told her caretaker matter-of-factly.
"I would've guessed," Hitomi answered with a smile.
The next stop was the virtual reality chamber. It was unlike anything Hitomi had ever seen. It was an enormous room that was completely empty, but upon pressing a few buttons it could become any of a number of preprogrammed sequences. There was an ancient temple, and a haunted house, and even an underwater cave. And the whole time, the chamber affected the senses to make whoever was using it not only see and hear, but taste, touch and even smell their surroundings. Hitomi was amazed.
"How did you do this?" she asked Vitani.
"Mommy found a book in the library that told you how to do it. She gathered the servants to build it when Adrian was little," Vitani replied nonchalantly.
Hitomi nodded slowly and whistled.
"I like playing in here," Vitani said. "There's a fairy world that's really fun."
After that was the training facilities. Hitomi gazed over the older models of equipment, and smiled when they reached her own gravity chambers at the end of the facility complex. Vitani squeezed her hand, causing her to look down. The princess was gazing up at her.
"Mommy and Daddy said you made these up," she said quietly, as if very respectful.
"That's right," Hitomi replied with a nod.
"Wow, you must be really smart," the little girl said admiringly. "This is my daddy's favorite room. He's in here most of the time, when he's not busy working."
Hitomi nodded. "I thought so."
Then there were the kitchens, the dining halls, the ballroom, the main corridors, and the treasure chamber. Vitani called it, "the sparkly Rainbow Room". It was filled with jewels and gold, but was surrounded by bars of steel so thick that no one could have broken through -- not to mention radar and locks. There were also the airy courtyards, and the beautiful palace gardens with fountains and flowers. Vitani also showed Hitomi the communications room, which was very small, but had a row of computers and monitors on one wall. Several Saiyan engineers were working diligently, their fingers flying across the keyboard. Some of them mumbled a brief hello to Vitani, but most did not notice their presence. However, everywhere else they went, servants stopped to bow to Vitani, and gave Hitomi a good-natured greeting.
After that was the Menagerie. This was like an indoor rainforest. The air was warm with a slight breeze, and sunlight glinted off the leaves and shone down through the canopies of the tall trees from a netted roof designed to keep in or out anything larger than a small bird. The foliage was emerald green, and there were a variety of exotic plants and flowers. Hitomi couldn't see through the thick undergrowth, but she assumed that the area must have been very large, for she could hear the sounds of wild animals and they sounded distant. As Vitani led her deeper into the Menagerie, Hitomi caught the occasional glance of a small mammal or lizard, and she saw birds with beautiful feathers and even more beautiful songs.
"This is amazing," she said with approval.
Vitani nodded. "This is where Adrian and Gohan like to be," she explained in a whisper. "They like to play games in here because it's big and quiet and they can hide, and besides, all the animals are used to them."
Before Hitomi could respond, a slight tremor ran through the ground beneath them. The chittering of the smaller animals in the vicinity stopped, and the squawking of the birds became more frantic as the rumbling continued. There was a crashing sound in the undergrowth that was getting louder, and coming towards them. Something very big was headed their way.
Hitomi's eyes grew big, but when she glanced nervously at her royal charge, she saw that there was a large grin spread across her little face.
Suddenly the noise was right behind them. Hitomi whirled around just in time to have a heart attack as two giant white winged tigers broke through the undergrowth and passed over her head on either side of her without so much as a glance. The massive behemoths were so big that Hitomi had to tilt her head all the way back to see the rippling muscles and the folded feathered wings on the animals' backs. Hitomi had never seen an Emera up close before, but she knew what they were, and the sheer size of these two staggered her. One had sapphire blue eyes and enormous wings, and the other had one emerald green eye and one scarred one. They moved at a steady pace, each footstep making the ground shiver, but their movements were graceful and powerful. Hitomi had heard of these two...they must have been the Royal Guard Emeras, Warfrost and Cassinian. She wanted to touch their beautiful fur, but she couldn't really gather the courage to do so. They were absolutely magnificent.
Vitani was jumping up and down excitedly, apparently delighted to see them. But the scar-eyed Emera merely ducked its head to sniff her in one sleek movement, and they both continued on without stopping into the forest. They soon disappeared through the trees, and gradually the rumbling sounds and tremors died away. Normal activity returned to the Menagerie.
"Tiny..." Hitomi breathed. "Were those..."
"That was Warfrost and Cassinian!" Vitani cried happily. "Warfrost has the green and yellow eyes. He's my daddy's favorite pet, and he plays with Adrian, too. Cassinian likes my mommy, but he doesn't belong to her. He just lives with us."
"Oh."

~*~
By the time they had finished the long tour, the sun was setting and the palace was getting a little cold from all of the marble and titanium. But Hitomi had been paying close attention to her miniature guide, and now had a pretty good idea of where everything was. Vitani had even pointed out the hallway that was private to the king and queen, just so Hitomi could make sure to stay out.
They stopped in the dining hall to get food. Since the entire Royal Family rarely ate together except for special occasions, but most of the males in the vicinity had huge appetites, the servants just laid out a huge buffet with all sorts of delicious food and drink. Hitomi and Vitani grabbed and loaded plates, sat down next to each other and ate away.
At one point there was the sound of laughter and stomping, and Adrian and Gohan ran in. They each took as many plates as they could carry, and filled them with anything they could get their hands on, to take back to Adrian's room.
"Does Gohan spend a lot of time here?" Hitomi asked Vitani, watching the boys from the other end of the long table.
Vitani nodded, swallowing her mouthful of food before answering. "Gohan's daddy Kakarrot is my daddy's advisor, and he's here most of the day. Gohan likes to spend the night here a lot."
Hitomi nodded and was about to go back to her meal, when she happened to glance up at the same time that Adrian glanced over by accident. They caught each other's eyes, and Adrian gave her another friendly-yet-cocky smile. Hitomi smiled back slightly, feeling the slightest pink creep into her cheeks, not even enough to see. Then Gohan tugged at Adrian's arm and said something to him, and in no time they had gone.
Hitomi shook her head quickly, disgusted by her blushing. She frowned.
"You okay, Hitomi?" Vitani asked suddenly.
Hitomi blinked, then gave the princess a smile. "Yep. I feel great. C'mon Tiny, finish your dinner, and then we can go back to your room and play a little while before you have to go to bed."

~*~
Vitani finished quickly and they headed back to her bedroom. There, they played a game that Vitani called Super Adventure, until finally it was dark outside and Hitomi concluded that it was bedtime.
After Hitomi helped the princess into her pajamas and tucked her into bed, Vitani suddenly spoke up quietly.
"Hitomi, will you read me a story?"
Hitomi raised an eyebrow, and grinned. "All right. Which one would you like?"
Vitani reached over to a small table that was next to her bed and pulled a chapter book off of the top. She handed it to her caretaker, who was surprised.
"You want me to read this to you?" Hitomi asked.
Vitani nodded. "Mommy was gonna read it to me, one chapter at a time, but I want you to do it."
Hitomi smiled. "Okay then. I'll read you one chapter tonight. And then you go right to sleep, promise?"
"Promise."
Hitomi opened the book and began to read to the child. It was a fairy tale, about a hero who was chosen from all of his people to save his world from an evil sorcerer, even though he was only an orphaned farm boy. Hitomi found herself getting interested in the story as she read, and was slightly disappointed when she reached the end of Chapter One.
She closed the book and turned to Vitani, whose eyes were half-closed. The princess stirred when she sensed Hitomi watching her. "And now you have to sleep," Hitomi said, softly but firmly.
"Just one more chapter?" Vitani pleaded, right before a huge yawn almost split her head in two.
"Tiny, you promised."
"Okay..." Vitani agreed resignedly. "Good night, Hitomi."
"Good night, Princess Tiny," Hitomi replied with a smile. She got up and strode to the door, turning the light off, but leaving on a small night light on the opposite wall. She was just about to leave when...
"Hitomi?"
"Yes?" Hitomi looked back over her shoulder. Vitani's eyes were open just barely.
"Thanks for watching me," Vitani said softly.
Hitomi paused, then smiled again and nodded. "You're welcome."
She left the room then, closing the door behind her and proceeding down the hall. She wanted to have a look at the VR chamber before returning to her own room. She thought about the day's events, and how they had been nothing like she had expected. The queen was kind, Vitani was sweet, and even the overconfident prince had been polite to her and hadn't used his status as an excuse to make out with her, something she was accustomed to with the Elite.
Maybe this wouldn't be so bad after all.