A Great Fall

It had been a stressful two days for Tora. He had no idea where he was or how he could find Goku. "That stubborn old man." Tora's father the Tiger Hemit's martial arts had given him a solid base to build on but it had no ki applications. The old man seemed to resent ki based attacks, the Tiger Strike is a Kiai attack meaning it was probably made by the old man to nullify the Kamehameha or Dodon Ray if he ever got to fight his own elder disciples again.

However due to this Tora couldn't sense ki to find anyone or even to compare his strength to their own. Tora had a decade of knowledge of his last opponents strengths and weaknesses, he would not have the luxury again.

The area Tora was in were full of mountains and valleys in between, even after these two days of wandering in one direction he still didn't know how much further until he'd find civilization. Even worse however were the massive dinosaurs roaming in the area. Tora had managed to hide and avoid them so far and he had no intention of fighting if he could help it. Tora had a goal for what he wanted this lifetime, the same as he wanted in his last. Marry a beautiful girl, start a family, and die peacefully at an old age surrounded by loved ones. He made a mental list of Rules of Survival to make sure that happened.

Number one, never fight unless absolutely necessary! Fights were unavoidable in this world it was just a fact, and there were some he'd have to seek out himself to grow stronger, but Tora would never fight a battle he didn't need to. Number two, don't steal the protagonists moments! Goku needs to be the one to defeat Frieza by going Super Saiyan, if Tora took that from him that means Vegeta might not learn how to go Super Saiyan by the time the androids show up, he couldn't risk making the earth's defenders weaker by stealing their opportunities. Number three, don't significantly change the story! Tora's absolute greatest advantage was what he remembered about the world of Dragon Ball, if he changed the events too much things would play out so differently he'd barely be able to his knowledge to ensure his survival.

Tora would recite his rules to himself before he slept, making sure they were ingrained in his brain so he'd be able to remember them in the moment. When Tora awoke that morning he felt hot air on his face, he opened his eyes to the see the face a T-Rex, its jaws open into a mocking smile with lines of drool connecting his top and bottom teeth. "God dammit!" Tora immediately got to his feet and ran as fast as he could, with his bag tied to his back.

As he ran he heard the massive steps of the dinosaur behind him. "Chasing me with that look on your face, leave me alone you freak!" Tora felt the hot air of the T-Rex breath on his neck and dived to the side, the massive jaws of the creature bit through the tree next to where Tora was before turning with it's confident smile at him and starting running after Tora again. "I forgot how much dinosaurs suck in Dragon Ball." He thought.

After a minute of close dodges, Tora found himself trapped at a cliff. He peered down seeing a river flowing at the bottom many, many feet below. "I don't know if I could survive that fall." Behind Tora were the thunderous steps of the T-Rex who would be there any second. "I have to try and fight it, maybe if I can strike it hard enough it'll run away scared." He thought.

The creature's face tore through the tree line with a idiotic look of happiness. It was intelligent enough to see that it's prey was trapped, and slowly approached before trying again to bite him. Tora jumped to the right of the bite, barely avoiding it and found himself backed into a tree. Tora poked up to see the fangs of the T-Rex lunging at him again. He shot to his side again hearing the sound of the tree collapsing and as soon as his feet touched the ground ran straight toward the creatures head. The T-Rex spat out the tree an turned to see Tora with his first raised.

*WHACK* Tora fist slammed into the monster's face, it recoiled in pain. "I hurt it!" Tora smiled for a moment before realizing the T-Rex had started to spin after his attack, it used a spinning tail attack and smashed into Tora's unguarded side. It took a moment for Tora to realize what had happened as he examined his surroundings.

The tail attack had shot him straight off the cliff. Tora began panicking as he fell at a rapid speed, looking for any hope of salvation. He noticed a branch and grabbed on to it as hard as he could, Tora managed to stop his fall for a moment. He breathed a sigh of relief only to hear a crack, his weight was too much for the branch and it snapped off the wall.

"No way I can't die yet!" Tora looked around in vain for anything else to stop his long fall. He panicked and the realization set it that this may be his final moment in this world. "There's no way I'm going to die even younger in this life, think!" The rushing wave of the rapids below flooded his thoughts making it even harder to think.

If only the Tiger Hermit could have taught him how to fly instead of the Tiger Strike. "Wait the Tiger Strike?" Goku had used his Kamehameha to move himself in the air several times, and while the moves weren't similar maybe it could help slow his fall at the last moment at least. He turned to face downward seeing the water below and got in his stance.

The anxiety felt like death to Tora, starring into the spot where he may die. He watched as the rapids grew closer and closer as he waited for the right moment. He felt like he could almost feel the water spraying on his face slightly. "Please work!" He said before taking a large breath.

"HA!"