Another training session came to an end with the setting of the sun. Bura collapsed between two large roots of a tall pine tree she slept next to nightly. Her joints and muscles had already begun to shoot bolts of tight pain through out her limbs, not even giving her the chance to rest and instead be woken early in the morning with such pain like the days before. She rubbed her arms and legs the best she could, trying to relax and ease the tension within her but eventually gave up and put her head back against the tree. The bark of the tree was cool and she could smell the scent of pine drifting down from the branches above. A small gust of wind swept above the tree sending small bits of debri down while carrying small leaves into the air. She watched them as they floated out of sight with slight envy, why couldn't she be swept away by the wind? Nappa landed close by heavily with a deep "thud" causing the surrounding trees to shake sharply. Tall, staunch and bald, he was easily one of the largest saiyan members Bura had encountered in her forced education of combat. He was also loud, arrogant, a bit hot-tempered, a lot actually and a total brute. He showed her no mercy what-so-ever in his sparring matches with her. She had spent nearly all of her energy just trying to dodge his attacks yet he was still able to get a few hits in. She was getting a bit faster, after all, his bulky body did kinda of slow him down. Nappa stretched his large arms above his head and then glared at Bura, she pulled her legs in and wrapped her arms around them in response,
"Tomorrow you better do somethin' more than just run away. Even a half-blood saiyan brat like you should have the potential to make a hit. You can't escape from me forever!" he sneered at her as he walked by.
Bura burried her head in her arms up to her eyes and glared at the back of his head. Needless to say, she didn't like him.
"He has a point, you know," said a voice above her. Bura glanced up to see Raditz descending from the dusk sky.
"You need to go on the offensive if you want to break his assault".
Raditz landed and also stretched his arms, rotating his right shoulder as he spoke,
"At least try and jinx him out first and then go for a hit. Maybe that will shut him up".
Raditz was ok. He didn't go for the kill shot everytime when he sparred with her. He actually left himself open alot of the time, trying to lure her into attacking him. He was a bit tall himself, with a much leaner build than Nappa. Not to mention that hair that was almost as long as his entire body. It was long, thick, black and spikey like most other male saiyan warriors. Maybe not that long but, Bura often wanted to ask him if he had ever been caught by the hair in battle. Perhaps she'll ask later.
"My arms were aching", she said, more to herself than to Raditz, "They were aching from the start. I couldn't put alot of energy into them for an attack".
"Then you should of stretched properly before your sparring match like I told you", he said bluntly.
"Well it's not like he'd let me," Bura replied, defensivly, "He just shows up out of no where and starts blasting at me. And if I hide from him, he levels the surrounding area. I can't even catch my breath."
Raditz thought for a moment.
"Well that sounds like Nappa, completely reckless. Stupid too. It would be hazardous to our survival if you were mortaly injured in one of his training sessions"
Bura raised her head, "Why?"
"That's what I wanna know" he muttered as he sat down against a tree across from Bura and folded his arms."It's late, go to sleep".
She had no argument for that comand. To be honest, this was the part of the day she'd been waiting for. Finally, a good night's rest. The night's before had been gradually getting colder, but she was prepared for tonight. Little by little, Bura had constructed a make-shift blanket for herself by stitching large tropical leaves together. It was just big enought to cover her and at least sheild her from the wind at night. She had rolled it up and stashed it securly in a knot-hole that was in the side of the pine tree she was sitting under. Bura pulled it out and unrolled it and sat back down in between the roots of the tree. Just as she closed her eyes and pulled the cover up to her chin,it was violently yanked away from her. Startled, she managed to keep her grip on it long enought to be dragged face first on the dirt a bit before it tore leaving only a small scrap in her hands. She looked up to see Nappa holding the rest of her cover with one fist.
"What the hell is this?", he said in disgust.
"Not yours!", she yelled at him,"Give it back!" Bura lunged at him but was knocked away with his other arm.
"What a baby! Can't even sleep without a blanky!" With a simple sphere of energy, Nappa set fire to Bura's leaf cover. A few seconds later, it was nothing but black ash.
"Was that really necessary?", asked Raditz with a slight tone of anger.
"You gonna do something about it?", Nappa replied, giving Raditz a deadly look. He narrowed his eyes, but said nothing. Raditz already knew he was out of his league to pick a fight with Nappa. And why would he? To come to the defense of this half-blood saiyan child, when the full-blood members were more than capable to fend for themselves? He and Nappa were responsible to educate this girl in survival just like any other normal saiyan kid, no holding back, no pampering. So why did he just speak up for her? What was he thinking?!
"What about you, runt? You got anything to say?", snapped Nappa turning back to Bura. She wasn't looking at him, she was sitting on her knees still looking at the remains of the leaves. Her head dropped causing her hair to fall in her face. She turned abruptly and crawled back to the pine tree's roots and layed on her side, her back to Nappa and Raditz.
"HA! The 'silent treatment'. That's what I thought!", laughed Nappa as he lumbered to his designated rest spot, a fallen tree, which he caused himself. Raditz glanced at Bura across the way, she was still turned away from him. No doubt she was crying silently out of anger. He gave his head a quick shake, trying to lose that odd feeling of 'concern' from his mind, closed his eyes and attempted to fall asleep.
