Day One: Morning

[Zangya]

The food was getting gradually more enticing to her, and the Ader-jin had to struggle to keep herself away from Celipa’s duffle bag. The woman was suddenly feeling quite hungry, hungrier than she’d felt in a long, long time. Her stomach had been growling endlessly since the pair had looted the farm, and Zangya couldn’t understand why—and then, it hit her.

The symptoms were showing.

The jade-skinned woman followed the saiyan girl, who had taken the lead since their last bit of bantering. She was now attempting to act like a magician with a stalk of celery. Zangya simply looked on with the highest form of tediousness, not wanting to speak down to the woman—she had seen what had happened when Celipa was angered last year. She didn’t want to risk making the saiyaness turn on her.

“You want to eat, Zangya,” she said, waving the celery wand in front of her companion’s face. She repeated herself several times, but Zangya was already convinced. She snatched the celery from Celipa and took a bite out of it, and then continued to move towards their destination.

The food was good. It melted in her mouth, sliding down her throat soothingly and smoothly—the green girl was absolutely sure why this sudden burning feeling of hunger was happening, and for a second, she contemplated about telling Celipa. But she decided that for the time, it was best that she didn’t know. It hadn’t hindered their game yet, so she wasn’t going to let it out until it did. She hoped that wouldn’t be for a long, long time, because to be honest, she didn’t really trust Celipa with such a big secret.

She rubbed her stomach, which still didn’t feel full but felt slightly better. It stopped its harsh growling, and she felt thankful for that, at least. The beast that was resting in there wanted food, and so the Ader complied, and it had finally stopped its demands.

She didn’t expect that to last long, though.

The Ader suddenly felt a lurching deep in her gut. The food she had just stuffed in her mouth wasn’t reacting right—it was not going to stop its violent swashes throughout her stomach until it escaped that chamber, and so, right in front of Celipa, Zangya collapsed to her knees and spit up the vegetables that had been digested over the last several hours.

“Zangya!” Celipa said, “What’s wrong?” The saiyaness fell to her friend’s side, patting her back gently, attempting to comfort her. “Come on, don’t get sick now, we’re just now getting started!” The Ader couldn’t help it though. She just kept throwing up. The food and the stomach-monster were not getting along well at all.

“Well, I know not to feed you vegetables anymore,” Zangya gasped through the regurgitations. Her sickliness was not about to ruin this competition, but this was something that would plague Celipa for a long time if she didn’t know what this was now. The Ader looked up to her friend, and then looked back down quickly to spit up some more. “Celipa,” she said, “I’ve got something to tell you. Something I should’ve told you a while ago.”

“What?” Celipa asked, interested in her new friend’s predicament.

“It’s not healthy for me to be in this competition,” Zangya told her, smiling. Celipa’s eyes widened, and she looked her friend in the eye.

“Why?”

“Because, Celipa…” Zangya said, throwing up once more. “I—I’m pregnant.”