May ran through the forest as fast as she could, her legs weakening from her constant effort. She couldn't keep this up for long but she had to get away from those who wished to harm her.
"When I find you, you're gonna pay bitch," she heard from somewhere behind her. She didn't even try to look back because she knew that would only slow her down.
As she dodged the trees and underbrush, the branches catching and tearing her thin garment and her bare feet. She screamed as she was thrown to the ground. May lie on her stomach, a heavy weight pressing down on her back, and attempted to rise. The weight was too much for her. A hot breath on her ear drew her attention as the man whispered, "You're mine now."
May screamed again before the man twisted her onto her back and slapped her. Her cheek stung and she knew that it would leave a huge bruise, but that was not what worried her at the moment. The man tore the remains of her gown from her body leaving only her underclothing. She screamed again, tears streaming down her cheeks, as the man roughly grabbed her chest and squeezed.
May bucked her hips, trying to get the man off of her long enough for her to escape, but she wasn't strong enough. He seemed to like her attempted struggles and treated her rougher the more she tried to run. She turned her head to the side and closed her eyes, not wanting to see what was about to happen to her.
Just as he had torn the right strap of her bra and was trying to get the thing off entirely when she suddenly felt the weight lifted off of her. Afraid that this would be her only chance of escape, May turned over and jumped to her feet, grabbing out for any scrap of clothing she could, and began running once again.
She soon approached a small lake into which a tall waterfall flowed. Behind the waterfall, she saw that it grew even darker than the already darkening sky. It could be a cave. Being as careful and quick as she could, she used the stones as steps and tried to get to the cave. Climbing up a little, her leg slipped once and she could feel blood running down the side of her leg. She regained her footing and climbed the rest of the way in.
Once inside, she looked back to see if anyone had followed her. She didn't see anyone and hoped that whoever they were would think that she was still running. The loss of blood and the weariness from running that she felt caused her eyelids to droop and herself to crawl deeper into the cave.
May felt around on the ground and soon came across something soft. Assuming it was some sort of moss growing in the damp atmosphere, she lay down and soon drifted off to sleep, too weary and hurt to even care if they found her at this point in time.
Piccolo's concentration wavered, yet again, and he growled in frustration at his lack of control. Deciding that he needed a spar, Piccolo rose from his meditative position and stood in the air. He directed his thoughts looking for a familiar ki, and when he found it, he took off in that direction, knowing he could get a good fight out of Goku.
As he flew through the air, his sensitive ears were suddenly assaulted by the unmistakable scream of a woman. He came abruptly to a halt midair, his hands remaining by his sides, not wanting anyone to think him weak, as he looked around at the ground beneath his feet.
At first, all Piccolo could see was the top of the trees, but through the dense foliage, he could barely make out the shape of a human. Looking closer, he noticed that there was actually two human, one on top of the other, and the person on the bottom looked to be struggling fiercely against the other. He guessed that the scream had come from the person on the bottom, and for some reason, he soon found himself flying towards the two humans, and pulling the larger one off of and away from the female.
Piccolo lifted the man high, considering the Namek's height, and watched as the woman got up and ran away. He waited a few seconds to see if she was really away, and then looked at the man he held in his hand by the scruff of his neck. The man appeared to be scared out of his wits, just the way Piccolo liked them.
Before he could do anything, another man appeared behind Piccolo and tried to hit him with what looked to be a long piece of wood. Piccolo just side stepped the man and picked him up as well. He was deciding what he should do to them when they began blubbering about not hurting them.
Disgusted by the two pathetic humans, he just brought his hands together, causing them to hit their heads and go unconscious. He dropped them on the ground and left, flying up above the trees and back to his cave behind the waterfall.
When Piccolo landed in the mouth of the cave, he could sense that something was different. Using a ki ball, he lit the pile of kindling in the middle of the floor and looked around. He noticed that the woman he had helped earlier was lying on his mat on the ground.
Piccolo also noticed that she was hurt pretty badly, her leg had a large gash along the side from her ankle to her knee and it was still bleeding. Not wanting to get blood all over his cave, Piccolo decided to use the bandages he kept in the back of the cave for when his sparring sessions became a little too violent.
He bandaged up her leg and used the fresh water from the waterfall to clean her cuts and bruises. Surprising even himself, he was quite gentle and the woman didn't even stir at his gentle ministrations.
When he finished dressing her wounds, he pulled his cape over her to keep her warm and went to sit by the fire. All he thought about after that was that Gohan had made him softer than he thought.
May could hear the rush of water and see the sunlight through her eyelids as she began to stir to wakefulness. Her body felt heavy and sluggish, and as she opened her eyes, she was met with the sight of a grey, stone wall. She closed her eyes again as she attempted to sit up, her body protesting the movement.
Reopening her eyes, she saw the sunlight glinting through the waterfall. It was quite beautiful and she smiled a little bit.
"You shouldn't move that much," said a deep voice, startling her out of her revelry.
May looked over into the shadows when out stepped an extremely tall, green man. She gasped in surprise and clutched the cloth that lay over her, to her chest. It was then that she noticed her leg had been bandaged and that someone had covered her with a large, white cloth that was attached to something heavy at the end.
"Who are you?" She asked, trying to keep her voice steady, but not succeeding entirely.
Piccolo stepped forward, into the light, and said, "My name is Piccolo."
"I'm May. Can you tell me what happened?"
"I found you in the forest being attacked by some man."
"You saved my life," May said, "I owe you so much, thank you."
"It was nothing," Piccolo huffed, not wanting anything from this human. "What were you doing out there anyway?"
May lowered her head for a moment, just then noticing that she was almost naked. She flushed and asked, "Do you have any clothes that I could borrow?" She looked up and saw that he had a slightly annoyed look on his face, but he leaned over and put his hand on her forehead.
In a flash of light, she noticed that she wore almost the exact same thing he did. A purple top and pants with a red sash. She was stunned for a moment before asking, "How did you do that?
"Ki," he said simply, not elaborating. She knew that it was useless to ask him to explain and so began to tell him why she was out here.
"I live in the woods, far away from the city. I don't like to be around a lot of people. Those two men came out here to hide and they found my home. One of them came in through the window and opened the door for the other one. Before they turned on the light, I hit one of them with a bat. I think he was knocked out, and then the other one came at me. I dodged him and ran outside, through the forest until he caught me. Then, you came and saved me."
After listening to her story, Piccolo turned and left the cave. He had heard her stomach rumble and didn't want her complaining about hunger in a little bit.
May watched him leave; secretly hoping she hadn't done anything to upset him. She took the time to look around the cave and noticed that what she thought had been a bed of moss was in fact a mat that looked to serve as a bed of some sort. She attempted to rise, not putting to much weight on her damaged leg.
She went to the edge of the cave and looked out, noticing how the light seemed so beautiful reflected off of the surface of the lake below. She carefully climbed down from the cave, almost slipping once, and kneeled down on the edge of the lake.
Running last night and sleeping so long had made her very thirsty. As she sipped from her hand, the cool water running down her throat, she heard a soft thump behind her. Turning around, she saw Piccolo had returned.
"Here," he said, setting something down beside her.
She reached out and picked up several apples. "Thank you," she said, biting into the first. Piccolo just stood there, watching her until she finished.
"Let's go," he said, as she stood back up.
"Where are we going?" she asked as he picked her up in his arms, causing her to gasp in surprise and cling to his neck.
"I'm taking you home. I want you out of my cave," he said, and with that, began to lift off of the ground.
"W-w-we're f-f-flying!" May exclaimed in a shrill, high voice.
Piccolo winced slightly at the assault on his sensitive ears and said, "yes, it's the fastest way to get you home."
"I've never flown before without a plane," she said in a shaky voice, "how do you do this?"
"Ki."
"What's ki?" She asked, remembering that ki was the same reason he gave for the clothes.
Piccolo sighed in frustration, but decided that he would be rid of her soon and he could answer her questions for now. "Ki is the energy force inside of everyone."
"Even me?"
"Yes, although yours is extremely weak, so you can't use it."
May huffed a little at being called weak, but decided that compared to Piccolo, who had a very muscular form, she was pretty weak.
They arrived soon at her house, but she was still a little afraid that those men would come back and so she asked, "What if those men come back?"
"I saw some humans in blue uniforms take them away."
May sighed in relief and said, "Thank you again, Piccolo. If you ever need anything let me know. I owe you my life."
"Forget it," he said, and with that, took off towards his waterfall once again.
May walked into her home and looked around. She noticed that a lamp had been knocked over and a side table had been moved. There was also the broken window to take care of. She sighed and got to work cleaning up.
She covered the window with plastic until she could get it fixed and decided that she was tired and sore, but she had to get her mind off of things. She went to her study and sat down at her desk. Upon the desk was her computer and behind it was an entire bookshelf full of books written by someone called M. K.
May turned the computer on and opened her files and began to write. She wrote for almost three hours until her hands were sore and worn from so much typing.
'My editor is going to flip' she thought, saving what she had written so far and deciding that she needed a long, hot bath, and a good nights sleep in her own bed.