Sorry that this chapter took so long to get out. I’ve been so busy lately. I’m really, really sorry. I just hope that I didn’t lose any readers.

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The Himegimi Bride

By: LadyB

Chapter Two

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On the edge of the Florin Channel a small sailboat was moored in an isolated spot, lightly swaying with the rhythm of the waves. Napa carried Bulma, who was still unconscious on board the boat quickly, making sure not to trip and fall over himself. Rays of the hot afternoon sun beat down on him like a curse, making him regret his choice of attire for the day. Of course the added weight of the girl in his broad arms wasn’t helping, not that she was that much heavier something he would usually consume in one meal. He groaned and walked across the narrow stright connecting the ground to their ship. Elsewhere, Freeza was occupied ripping tiny pieces of fabric from an army jacket and tucking them along the sides of the saddle of Bulma’s horse. About the entire operation, there seemed to be a sense of tremendous skill and precision.

Freeza’s actions were making Zarbon grow curious. “What’s that you’re ripping?” He inquired from the shorter man whom never looked up to reply.

“It’s fabric from the uniform of an Army officer of Guilder.”

Napa turned around, hearing the voices behind him. “Who’s Guilder?”

This time around Freeza had the courtesy to look up and regard them with his glance. He pointed straight out to sea as he spoke to them. “The country across the sea; the sworn enemy of Florin.” He cast his violet eyes down on the rump of the brown horse, brining his hand upon it moments later. “GO!” With that motion the horse took off in the direction far from them. After a few seconds of watching it go, they started out for the boat. “Once the horse reaches the castle, the fabric will make the Prince suspect the Guilderians have abducted his love. When he finds her body dead on the Guilder frontier, his suspicions will be totally confirmed.”

A worried glance crossed Napa’s eyes, for a man of his stature it was a sight to behold. “You never said anything about killing anyone.”

Freeza hopped onto the boat, once again, he didn’t even look back. “I've hired you to help me start a war. That's a prestigious line of work with a long and glorious tradition.”

He heard all of Freeza words, they were true, he had been hired to start a war. However, simply because he had heard what his ‘master’ had said didn’t mean that had agreed with it. He sent his brown eyes towards Bulma who was knocked out cold; her hair spilling along the lines of her body messily, even still her beauty remained unmatched. Her soft porcelain skin shone in the glory of the beating sun high above them, eyelids which concealed eyes as blue as the sea adorned the upper part of her face; her supple eyelashes brushing her checks. “I just don't think it's right, killing an innocent girl.” Napa mumbled mostly to himself yet it was still audible to Freeza and Zarbon.

Freeza turned sharply, whirling around on Napa. His voice wickedly hung on the air around him as he mocked Napa, a man nearly triple his size. “Am I going mad or did the word "think" escape your lips? You were not hired for your brains, you hippopotamic landmass.”

Despite the harsh words that Freeza had shared with the gentle giant, there seemed to be someone else who agreed with Napa. Zarbon turned his head full of ocean jade hair towards the men, if they could be called that, behind him. He glanced at his employer and then back at his friend. “I agree with Napa.”

All of the grotesque features on Freeza’s excuse for a face began to battle up into what could have been mistaken for anger. Just when you thought that his face could not concoct into something viler, one was proven wrong. It took on a look that was altogether sickening to the eyes belonging to sane humans, everything, even the pupils of his nauseating violet eyes was sent askew. Finally the final form of anger rested on his face as he moved his lips, some unknown force holding him together. “Oh. The sot has spoken. What happens to her is not truly your concern--I will kill her --” he paused only to allow his voice to grow louder in timbre. “And remember this--never forget this--” he pointed one of the fingers on his hands towards Zarbon while making an advance on them.

Nothing was shone on Zarbon’s face, his delicate green complexion remained collected and calm, signifying that the man before him wasn’t as great a threat as all believed him to be. Napa on the other hand was quickly sent into a frenzy of panic by Freeza’s nearing presence. To the tranquil and composed Zarbon, Freeza’s next words were directed to. “--When I found you, you were so slobbering drunk you couldn't buy brandy --” Freeza now turned all of his livid rage towards Napa, whom stood towering over him in fear. Napa tried to retreat from Freeza as much as he could, avoiding his advances. “--And you--friendless, brainless, helpless, hopeless-- Do you want me to send you back to where you were, unemployed in Greenland?”

No words came from the two men that stood before Freeza in silence, each of them slowly contemplating what he had said to them. This was the response that he had expected from them; he laughed internally. They really as half hearted as he though. With one final glance at them, the sorry excuse for a tyrant walked off, leaving them alone in the bewilderment of their thoughts; an ocean of treachery. During the few minutes’ time that had passed, Zarbon had unconsciously moved closer to Napa, who was very distressed at the insults that he was forced to receive ass first, one would think, from Freeza. Zarbon swam out of the infidelity of his own mind. “That Freeza, he can fuss.”

A small smile played on the suffering on Napa’s face. He noticed the extra emphases Zarbon had left on the word he chose for his last. Before speaking, he looked at Zarbon. “...Fuss...fuss...” His voice broke off in innuendo. Again there was emphasis on his last word, much in a manner like Zarbon’s. “I think he likes to scream at us.”

Zarbon was glad that there was at least some way in which he could aid his friend to forget the harsh words that were previously exchanged. “Probably he means no harm.”

“He's really very short on charm.” Napa added.

Zarbon seemed to gleam with pride. “Oh, you've a great gift for rhyme.”

The look that marched along the lines of Napa’s already calming features gave the impression that he was about ready to brake off in laughter “Yes, some of the time.” he began to give way to his widening smile.

Yet again Freeza turned on them without warning, in fury. “Enough of that.”

As they commenced to sail off, voices could be heard as the boat receded.

“Napa, are there rocks ahead?” The voice belonged to Zarbon.

The man of the subject replied. “If there are, we'll all be dead.”

Freeza growled; a noise worthy of a beast. “No more rhymes now, I mean it.” He truly was growing irritated.

Caught up in the moment, Napa was too content to notice. “Anybody want a peanut?”

Freeza’s screams could be heard as the boat took off into the horizon of waves, it disappeared for the day just as the sun slowly began to lower, hardly noticeable to them. Afternoon was finally coming to a close, and now night was upon them. In a couple of hours they would be left to maneuver the traitorous waters of the Florin Channel in the dark. Something that neither of them were looking forward to.

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Zarbon stood at the helm of the boat, Napa near the body of the princess, when suddenly her eyes fluttered ever so slightly--or did they? Suddenly Napa couldn’t remember, his head hurt. On the other end of the ship, sitting as motionless as a statue, was Freeza. The waves were growing higher; there were only occasional flashes of the moon slanting down between the clouds, the silver light playing with the brightness and shadows on Bulma’s face. She stirred in her state of unconsciousness.

“We'll reach the Cliffs by dawn.” The comment from Freeza to Zarbon was passed on nonchalantly. So just as casually Zarbon replied to it with a nod of the head, then glanced back behind him.

“Why are you doing that?”

“Making sure nobody's following us.” Zarbon replied so casually it was as if he had been asked the color of the night sky hovering above him.

Freeza knitted his brows together; he didn’t like the idea that Zarbon had passed at him. Yet he dismissed it as if it had never been brought to his attention. “That would be inconceivable.”

“Despite what you think, you will be caught. And when you are, the Prince will see you all hanged.” A voice startled them; the voice was female. All heads on the boat turned around to find the source of the speech and there was a large amount of surprise as Freeza turned a cold eye on the Princess. There was such a significant quantity of arrogance to her voice; all of which was customary to royalty. It seemed that the added privilege of the royal life had taken its toll on Bulma.

A laugh of pure malevolence ran like water from Freeza’s throat. “Of all the necks on this boat, Highness, the one you should be worrying about is your own.” His train of thought was slightly jolted when he noticed that once more Zarbon kept staring behind their ship. There really did seem to be something back there that had attracted his attention. It was irritating the hell out of the smaller oppressor. “Stop doing that. We can all relax, it's almost over-”

Taking the chance of a lifetime, Zarbon dared to cut off Freeza’s words. “You're sure nobody's following us?” Curiosity was getting the best of him, it was a question he had to ask before it ate him alive.

This was making very little, if any, sense to Freeza. “As I told you, it would be absolutely, totally, and in all other ways, inconceivable. No one in Guilder knows what we've done. And no one in Florin could have gotten here so fast. Out of curiosity, why do you ask?”

“No reason. It's only, I just happened to look behind us, and something is there.” Zarbon explained as if he had been questioned on the color of the sky.

“NANI!” A small violet vein began to bulge on Freeza’s forehead. They all turned around in a large whirl, their eyes landing on the waves of pound behind them. Suddenly everything around them had gone ominous; the way the moon was covered in silver clouds and the very way the wind whistled were making the men onboard of the ship horribly uneasy.

The endless velvet darkness behind them was making it hard to see anything within an inch close to their face. Zarbon, Napa, and Freeza began to squint back, trying desperately to see anything. At the moment, they were holding their breaths as if the slightest movement could offset a chain of dire actions. Still, no matter how hard they tried there was nothing behind them to be seem, yet the portentous feel clung to the air around them, a quieting feeling joining in the concoction this time around.

Suddenly something happened. The moon broke through the clouds with all of the glory of the sun, proving once and for all to each and every member on the boat that Zarbon had been right. There was indeed something behind them, a sailboat, black, with a great billowing sail also tinted black to match the night. There was still a good distance between both boats, something settling inside of Freeza. He blinked; that thing was actually speeding up. It was speeding towards them faster than an ice cube melting in the very pits of hell.

The men could only stare. Freeze was becoming ill at ease with his own shadow by then. He glanced at both of his men and replied, with as much logic as he could muster. “Probably some local fisherman out for a pleasure cruise at night through eel-infested waters.”

One of Freeza’s men was about to grace his leader with a reply when suddenly there was a sound coming from their boat as they turned a corner of the sea. They all led there eyes to where Bulma had once laid, only to find that now their hostage princess was gone; she had dove into the water trying to swim away.

Back on the boat, Freeza stood at the edge of the wood, yelling at the top of his lungs. “Go in, get after her!”

Zarbon gave Freeza a most interesting look. “I don't swim.” He muttered, saving himself from diving in for Bulma.

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