4This is a retelling of Hypnoyoukai's Dragonlord with their permission. Go check them out.
Prologue
The lake of stars
Thirteen years had passed since the defeat of the vicious conqueror King Piccolo, and even less since the defeat of his son.
In the way of sons, Chi Chi bore Goku's first son which they named Gohan after Goku's adoptive grandpa. He was a lively and healthy boy who reflected Goku's playful and inquisitive side, calmed by Chi Chi's softer mother's touch that Goku unfortunately did not have when growing up.
This led to a more docile and playful early childhood for the young boy, and Goku spent quite a large amount of time playing with Gohan and training him as best he could much to the chagrin of his wife.
The consequences of this training had a quite disastrous effect that neither Goku nor Gohan could have predicted.
The mid-afternoon spring sun provided a softly comforting warmth to all the inhabitants of Mount Paozu as the soft white clouds that were few and far between drifted quietly across the sky.
The greening spring leaves sent thin shadows across the young grasses and bushes near the trees giving the grass a sharpness that it usually wouldn't have. It seemed like tiny blades ready to stab the sky if they could.
The occasional wild animal or dinosaur stepped across the grass, crushing some as they stopped and looked up at the sky with a subdued interest.
A whitish yellow cloud flew through the sky carrying a man who had a young boy sitting on his shoulders, his little legs dangling around his neck and down to his chest from his back.
The man was Goku, who wore his orange Gi, along with his son who wore one of his own, crafted by his mother with care and compassion.
"Son, let's head down to that clearing. Chi Chi said the mushrooms would be at the edge of places like this" Goku said, willing the cloud down to an open clearing deep in the woods on the southeastern half of the mountain.
"Okay Dad" Gohan said as the cloud reached the treetops. Goku hopped off the cloud and floated down to the grassy knoll.
In the middle of the clearing surrounded on all sides by long Tufts of grass and colorful flowers was a tall stone that was completely white with the consistency of fresh cut granite.
Gohan hopped off of his father's shoulders and landed in a thick tuft of dark green grass.
His father stared at the stone for a moment and walked up to it, placing his palm on the sleek surface. It was cold to the touch, and a faint glow coated it in it's entirety.
As Goku stood there, he found himself entranced by a perculiar reflection in the white rock. It was he himself floating in front of a giant dragon that dwarfed him so entirely that he was less than a speck in the face of the absurdly large being.
Gohan was about to say something when a fluttering creature caught his attention. In the edge of the clearing, flickering in prismatic colors that sparkles and shimmered like stars in the shade of the trees.
Walking forward with a sincere interest, Gohan abandoned the spot he was standing in. Quickly rushing towards the sparkles and prismatic colors that had nearly hypnotized him, he all but forgot about waiting for his father. However, it seemed the closer he got to the sparkling creatures, the further they escaped into the shadows of the woods.
The trees began to grow thick, and strange howls of animals sounded through the woods. Gohan single mindedly followed the creatures that weaved their way through the ancient trees and thickets, not even thinking about how far away he was running.
Eventually, the sparkling creatures stopped and danced around the child, one landing on his nose. It turned out that these creatures were butterflies that sent sparkling powder from their wings with every flap.
Gohan danced around with the butterflies for a while before eventually getting bored and sitting down.
Only then did he look around him. He sat in another clearing at the northern end of a crystalline pond. The water of the pond sparkled like it was filled with a hundred stars even though the canopy of the trees hid it from the sunlight.
It was a picturesque grove with weeping willows drooping down over the southern side of the small pond.
Even more butterflies danced and flitted across the surface of the pond. Their hypnotic movements engrossing the young boy.
As Gohan sat in the grass watching the butterflies, Goku had made his way next to him and sat down beside him.
"Wow that's pretty" Goku's gaze drifted across the pond and settled on the butterflies.
One of them lazily made it's way over to Gohan's right shoulder, alighting atop it and occasionally flapping it's wings, sending a small sparkling cloud of powder through the air.
Goku looked down at it and poked gently at it, to which it peacefully accepted the gentle prods.
Both Goku and his son let out a little laugh as the butterfy flew up with a burst of sparkles and lazily made it's way towards the pond.
Gohan looked to Goku and with a pleading face asked if he could go chase the butterflies. It seemed the normal course of things that Gohan would chase the butterflies. It wasn't the first time that he had done so, and there didn't seem to be danger. Nodding and giving Gohan a pat on the head, Goku acquiesced.
Gohan burst up from his seat and chased after the butterfly that was moving towards the water.
Goku raised an eyebrow as the butterfy dived right into the water with Gohan hot on its heels.
Before Goku realized, Gohan had dived into the water after the butterfly.
Then, his energy disappeared.
Goku's smile turned to fear and he jumped up from the ground and dived into the water faster than one could say his name.
Back in the original clearing, the white stone shattered like spun glass. Abruptly, the butterflies disappeared and the water of the pond returned to the muddy brown of a regular pond.
Goku and Gohan were gone.
Goku found himself standing in a clearing with a pond not unlike the one he had just dived into. Gohan sat on the brownish yellow late summer grass as the hot sun beamed down upon them.
"Are you okay Son" Goku asked, picking up and inspecting his son for any injuries or oddities. Oddly enough, something was wrong.
Neither him nor his son had a drop of water on them from the pond besides the sweat that had began beading up on their heads and arms.
However, Goku just took it for granted, and Gohan was a bit to young to conceptualize why it was absurd.
Something stalked through the trees, keeping it's black shiny eyes on the pair. It's shadow hidden, and it's large body skillfully weaving through the trunks and boulders.
It's prey didn't seem to have noticed it despite how it's eyes practically bored gouges into the two humans. It paused for a brief moment of confusion seeing the tiny tail that wagged behind the smaller one, but it wasn't of concern.
Prey was prey, tail or not.
The forest was silent, as if the world was holding its breath when the predator approached it's prey.
The wind moaned in the trees but all else was still.
The two preys stood up. The older one picking up the smaller one and placed it on its shoulder. For a moment the hunter thought the prey glanced at it, and it's heart sunk. It's body tensed, but disregarded it moments later. It was a needless worry. A phantom fear.
Raising it's long tail like a javelin, the hunter congratulated itself for it's stealth and sent it's tail shooting forward faster than anything else in the forest could possibly have done.
With the sound of a soft sonic boom, the sharp and powerful tail of the hunter struck it's target right in the chest with the thwack of flesh being struck.
The resplendent hunter chuckled, retracting his tail to strike again.
However, the tail simply wouldn't return to it no matter how much the hunter willed it.
Looking forward with a growing pit of fear in his stomach, the hunter saw his prey several meters away, grabbing his tail with cold black eyes looking directly at him.
The hunter shivered a cold shiver, quickly realizing he was in fact the prey. He had a reason to be afraid. Anyone who could react to his sneak attack and catch it more so was someone he didn't want to fight.
He felt a cold ball in the pit of his stomach as tears began welling up in his large eyes.
"I'm sooooooorrryyyy!" The once hunter squealed pathetically as he was pulled towards the would be prey by his tail.
Rolling across the dirt and grass, a giant hamster stopped and threw up clouds of dust and dirt.
It was several times longer than a car and almost three times as tall as Goku.
"Why'd you do that?" Goku asked the now pathetically cowering creature that cowered like a terrified dog.
"This one is very sorry. I did not recognize your greatness" the giant hamster said flattening himself under the domineering cold gaze of the man.
Realizing that the creature wasn't a threat, Goku spoke up.
"Get lost" he said, waving the creature away.
It had taken him by surprise, but once he sensed it's meager power he decided to let it go. He had more important things to do than talk with a large rat.
Frowning as the large hamster whimpered, not daring to move, Goku released the creature from his gaze.
Shooting off in a shambling run, half running half sliding through the trees the hamster made itself scarce.
Ordinarily, if anything about this situation could be called ordinary, Goku would have asked some questions. However, it seemed to him that the frightened creature couldn't help him get home.
Turning towards a large village or perhaps a small city he sensed in the distance, Goku set off with Gohan on his shoulders who had been quite excited as he watched the earlier confrontation.
Things were going to be interesting.
Author's Note: I got permission from Hypnoyoukai to rewrite Dragonlord and that's what I plan to do. I will be changing a bit of stuff and I hope you share your thoughts with me. Also, Goku and Gohan are replacing Nazarick in the New World. So if you came here looking for Goku vs Nazarick, you won't find that here.
Anyways, with that said to anyone still sticking around, welcome aboard.