Inspired by "The Nameless City" by H.P. Lovecraft, a short story I read for my Science Fiction class.

"New Island!" Roger jumps onto the beach. Well if it could even be called that.

:: Roger, it's a rock. Look to your right, there's flat rock. To your left is valley rock. And in front of you, there's hilly rock. I don't feel a single living creature on this island. WHY did you make us stop here again? ::

"Because it's an adventure!" Roger exclaims, staring up into the sky and folding his arms. "For some reason, the people on Faris warned us to stay away, but no matter how much I needled them, they just said to listen to the warnings. Then one of them finally told us that even they don't know why they stay away, but that just means we need to find out!"

:: I don't understand where the "we" comes from. I'm pretty sure I said to leave the matter be. ::

"Oh come on, Felix!" Roger makes his way across the pebbly terrain that seemed to constitute the beach around here. "There's bound to be something interesting!"

:: No, I don't see how- huh. ::

"What is it?" Roger asks, looking around to try and see what his steadfast companion noticed.

:: Well, it appears that this island is not so dead after all. I think I can see plant life just beyond those mounds of stone over there. ::

"You mean the ones shaped like large rats?" Roger points out.

:: I think they're squirrels actually. See the bushy tail? ::

Roger approaches the shapes, turning enough to see the tail behind the body. "Okay, yeah. I can see it now." He places a hand on the rock, feeling the smooth texture. A bit too smooth actually. "Hey, these feel like they were carved."

:: You're right… It doesn't look very old either. They must have been made sometime in the last couple of decades or so. ::

Roger brightens. "You think there are people still living on this island?"

:: There might be, but I don't know about this Roger. Even if there are people on this island, they're probably not friendly. The warnings we got were there for a reason after all. ::

Roger ignores his friend's hesitation and walks past the squirrel shaped stones. Felix was right, there was plant life. It was concentrated in a depression between two stone hills and seemed to be shaped in a circle. "It seems like the stone part of this island is only surrounding the edges of the island. There's tons of bushes here in the center."

Roger can practically feel the frown Felix would be sporting if he had a face. :: But why only bushes? Why not grass? Where are the animals? ::

Roger starts to move down the hill. :: Roger! Something's not right here! ::

"So?" Roger raises an eyebrow. "That's how adventures go. Sometimes you find lame things and sometimes - which is most of the time - things turn out awesome!"

:: … That has nothing to do with our situation. ::

"Look, it'll be fun! You'll see!" Roger enters the bushes. "It'll be fiaaaaAAAAAAHHHHH!"

:: ROGER IF WE MAKE IT OUT OF THIS ALIVE I'M GOING TO KILL YOU! WHATEVER YOU DO DON'T LET GO OF ME! ::

"HEAR YOU LOUD AND CLEAR." Roger shouts over the sound of rushing wind as we fall down, down, down past what is now clearly visible as ginormous trees. He has a hand clasped over his head, securing Felix, while the other reaches out to the trunk of the closest tree to slow his fall.

Eventually, he managed to land on a thick branch without it breaking underneath him.

Roger whistles as he gazes at the bits of sunlight he could see past the leaves. At the rate they were falling, they had to be at least a hundred meters down.

:: Roger, that's not sunlight. Take a closer look at the tree. ::

Roger blinks and inspects the bark underneath his hand. His eyes widen. The bark was glowing. It wasn't much, but when combined with all the trees around them, it lit up everything underneath the thick canopy above them. It created an ethereal feel to the land beneath the branches.

:: The trees here must have evolved to take in so much sunlight that they could carry it to the other parts of it for energy. These things are huge, it would take more than what a normal plant absorbs to survive. Especially since only the top most leaves get exposed to the sun in the first place. ::

Roger grins. "See!" He crows. "I knew it would be worth it to come here! If we hadn't we would never have seen this! And look at how amazing this place is!"

Roger wasn't wrong. The branches twisted and tangled all around them. They were large enough to comfortably walk on and created pathways between the different trees. The leaves underneath the trees were much larger too, as large as a human compared to the palm sized things on the surface. For all intents and purposes, the land seems like a safe haven of light and tranquility.

:: ...But then why did the islanders warn us to stay away? It can't be because they want to protect this place, all of them only spoke of this island with fear. ::

"Who cares?" Roger shrugs, jumping to another branch. "They can do what they want and we can do what we want. It's not like we're going to destroy this anyways. They'll never know."

"Hey look!" Roger climbs a tree trunk koala style to a lower branch. "That one's hollowed out! I bet it's an awesome slide!"

:: Roger, wait. We have no idea where that thing ends - and you're not listening to me. Why am I still expecting otherwise. ::

True to form, Roger was whooping and hollering as he slid down the tree slide. It curved, zig-zagged, zag-zigged, twisted and looped and it didn't take long for Felix to just sit back and enjoy the ride. Roger's joy was just infectious like that.

Much to Roger's disappointment, he reached the end five minutes later and tumbled into a giant pile of leaves at the bottom. Popping up from where he was covered by the leaves, Roger's grin looked like it could split his face. "Let's do that again!"

:: Oh for Goda's sake. Really? We do need to find food before leaving you know. It's going to take time for you to get up there again to do that. Time that we don't have. ::

"But that was so much fuuuun." Roger pouts, shoulders slumping slightly. "I wanna do it again."

:: What are you, five? It's not like you can't do it afterwards, we just need to be responsi- uh oh. ::

Roger snaps out of his sulk and narrows his eyes. "What's wrong?"

:: I think I know why they told us to stay away… BEHIND YOU! ::

Roger ducks just in time letting his attacker go sailing over his head instead of onto his back, leaving him vulnerable to attack.

His attacker wasn't human, that was obvious. In fact, it greatly resembled the stone statues they walked passed to get to this part of the island. Its eyes glowed a sickly green and its fur was a shade of golden yellow, much like the trees around them, and it had given it the element of surprise. It had large curved claws, presumably for both attacking and climbing. Its teeth were sharp and not unlike those found on tigers and other carnivorous beasts, suggesting that unlike its smaller, much more harmless counterparts, it was the hunter. It was larger than Roger, though fortunately, not by much.

Unfortunately, it looked like it was tiny when compared to the ones behind it, making it obvious that it was a kid.

:: RUN! ::

"GOT IT!" Roger yelps, already scrambling through the branches to climb up the trees again. Only. There was a veritable army of them there too. Roger backs up against the tree trunk and watches all of them warily, falling into a fighting stance. "Uh, Felix?" Roger weakly asks. "Now would be a really good time to pull out Conqueror's Haki!"

:: I'm trying, I'm trying! I'm still new at this! ::

Roger curses as the monster squirrels finally attack, apparently eager to start their feast. He punches one away and another immediately takes its place. It's fortunate that they're so large because it keeps more than a few of them from being able to reach him at once.

"Well try harder!" Roger shouts, barely managing to snatch his arm out of the way of one of the creature's jaws. "The first thing we're doing as soon as we get out of here, we're stepping up our Haki training! That hardening thing seems like it would be a lot more useful than normal Armament right about now!"

:: YOU try activating Conqueror's Haki on demand when you only did it twice before! ::

"Less talking, more focusing!"

:: I don't want to hear that from you! ::

Roger jumps on the head of one of the squirrels and fights his way up to a higher branch. Alas, his opponents were simply in their element. He was not made for navigating through tree branches, nor was he fast enough for it not to matter. It took only a moment for him to be pinned down underneath one of them and just seconds away from becoming the thing's next meal.

:: ROGER! ::

Roger stares into the beast's gaping maw, several more around them ready to pounce. "I'm not going to… DIE HERE!" He shouts, unconsciously releasing a blast of Willpower at his attackers in his determination to live.

All around them, the monster squirrels start dropping like flies, not intelligent enough to withstand the force of Roger's instinctive attack. The few that remain seem to deem them as too much effort to attack because they take the young and leave the rest.

Roger stands and picks up Felix, watching them leave carefully. He strains his meager abilities with Observation Haki to the limit to make sure they alone are conscious before he lets himself sag. "Man Felix, you weren't kidding when you said that awakening Conqueror's Haki takes a lot out of you."

:: Of course I wasn't! ...But Roger, are you okay? ::

Roger places Felix back on his head. "I'm in one piece anyways. And I got Conqueror's Haki out of this so hey! Consolation prize!"

:: This was way too close for something in the West Blue. I would have expected creatures like that on the Grand Line. ::

"Least we know why those people were so scared." Roger offers, climbing and jumping through the trees to get out of this forest before the fiends either woke up or decided to go after him again."

:: Yeah, and they certainly had good reason to. If we didn't have Haki, we would be goners by now. ::

"Speaking of which." Roger smiles smugly. "That was my first time using Conqueror's Haki and I managed it before you."

:: Oh just shut up! It's not like you're going to be able to do it again any time soon! Just you wait, you'll see EXACTLY how hard it really is! ::

"Sure, sure." Roger glances at the brim of his Hat with a pitying look.

:: I can see that, Roger! ::

The statues that they came across? It was placed as a warning as to what kind of creatures can kill them. Incidentally, the squirrels are an invasive species from the Calm Belt and the islanders are now terrified of squirrels of all kinds.

Comments, Questions, Concerns? Please Review.