Chapter 1: The Island of Statues

Two weeks passed since the straw-hat-band of the princess of Alabasta, Vivi and their folk helped and defeated Ruffy

Two weeks had passed since the strawhat-gang helped the princess Alabasta, Vivi and their folk and defeated Ruffy Sir Crocodile. In these two weeks happened... like... nothing. Everyday life reigned again on the board of the Flying Lamb. Well the strawhats got a new member called Nico Robin... but this one is more like a fellow passenger than a member. Since she had worked for Sir Crocodile and furthermore just appeared on board, the mistrust of the strawhats was probably justifiable. Ruffy however took her up into her crew.

Apropos Ruffy...

The captain of the pirate ship hang tired and exhausted over the rail. "Hunger", he whined and yelled:"SANJI! MAKE ME SOMETHING TO EAT!"

Sanji sighed:" You ate the whole provisions for two months, Ruffy..." The named moaned furthermore:" I'm so hungry..." The cook of the strawhats only sighed and looked then with heart-shaped eyes to Nami, who just watched the sea and to Robin who read a book while laying on a lounger. "Namini, Robin dear...", he hummed and danced elegant like a noodle towards the two and asked:" Can I bring you something, my dears?" Nami thought about it shortly and then said:"Yeah, I'd like a smoothie." Robin smiled and looked up from her book and ordered:"A coffee for me please, Sanji."

The blond nooded and disappeared towards kitchen. Zoro in the meantime trained his three-swords-style while Chopper and Lysopp watched him. "Ey, have you nothing better to do?", asked Zoro. To that the two responded:"No."

Nami still looked at the sea... until she suddenly got a bad feeling in her belly. "A STORM!", she yelled and roiled the whole crew. They prepared the ship for the oncoming storm.

But suddenly a lightning hit the mast of the Flying Lamb. The deck began to burn in a split second, but thanks to the high waves that washed over board, the fire was immediately extinguished. Still the pirates had to take care not to capsize...

"A monster-wave is coming!", one could hear Nami over the sound of the roaring waters and pointed to a massive wave that came towards them...

Before anyone could do something, the monster-wave devoured the Flying Lamb. On the next morning, Ruffy woke up first of all and looked around. The ship had a big hole and the mast was burned down. Besides the ship was alright. Ruffy stood up and screamed:"GUYS! WHERE ARE YOU?"

Nami replied the first:" Ruffy, I'm here...", and then ran towards him. Also the others came. Miraculously they were hardly injured. Except maybe the Flying Lamb.

"Okay...what now?", asked Lysopp. Zoro responded very serious:"We have to collect some wood to repair the ship."

"Ehm...guys... you have to see this...", meaned Nami and pointed right behind the pirates to an emormous statue in the shape of a dragon. "Wow!", whisperd Ruffy and pointed to another statue, this time in the shape of a unicorn. "There's another!", said Chopper and turned to the statue of an angel. "Why are these statues all around?2, asked Robin. But noe had an answer to that question.

"Coem on, we have to find some firewood", said Zoro and went into the woods. The others were doing the same. On their way, they found more statues of fairies... dragons... unicorns... and other mythical creatures. "Weird... why are there so many statues?", whispered Zoro and placed himself in front of a high and thick tree trunk. "Well, Not important" he thought and used is swordsmanship and cut the trees around him. Zoro laid the trunks already to a bunch as suddenly new trees grew right there where he cut the old ones. No it was official... this wasn't a usual island. But which island on the Grand Line was?

"Tz", Zoro could hear behind him. "Easy to fell these innocent trees... you could at least ask them..." Zoro turned around and saw a young woman with black hair that were light-brown at the end, and violet-pink eyes. She smiled and stood on a branch of a tree. Zoro slightly blushed, but soon catched himself again. "Who are you?", he asked confused. The strange girl jumbed from the tree and introduced herself:"I'm Venus Verdure and I'm a girl of the nature."

"Does that mean you live on tree or...?", Zoro asked sassy. "Well... similar..." answered Venus and raised her hand. One of the branches suddenly got longer and wraped around Zoro just to lift him up in the air. "But with a little extra", grinned the black-haired triumphant. "Impressive! Is thtat a sort of devil's fruit?", Zoro wanted to know. "Devil's fruit?", asked Venus laughing and let the green-haired down again. "I have these powers since birth... I didn't get them through any fruit...", explained Venus and helped the swordsman to get up. "Really?", said Zoro. Venus nodded and continued:"Where I come from, every creature has got special powers since birth. But hardly everyone can control these from the beginning. So we have to learn to control them." Zoro nodded and asked again:"And where do you come from?" Venus lifted the treee trunk with the help of her telekinetic powers and replied:"From Gaia." gain Zoro nodded and said:" Oh before I forget, my name is Zoro." Venus grinned cheeky:"Nice to meet you … Stick-man." Zoro looked indignatly after her, but then also grinned and said:"Nice to meet you too... Flowergirl."

Together they went back to the ship wreck.

"On this island are everywhere statues of magucal creatures... but because some reason there are hardly animals here...", said Nami. Sanji nodded:"Yes, but for that there are many fruits here... only I don't know these fruits and I don't know if they are poisonous..."

"Don't worry, you can eat the fruits... after all I created them", said Venus. Immediately Ruffy, who was still very hungry, grabbed and devoured them. Sanji who saw her, started to danse like a noodle towards her and ensnared her:"Oh, hello beauty, and who are you?"

"Venus Verdure", responded Venus unimpressed and went to Lysopp who had to repair the ship all on his own. "Do you need help, buddy?" Lysopp looked up:"Yeah, but a g-" before he could finish his sentence, the Flying Lamb was covered in a green-pink and sparkly mist. As the mist disappeared, the shi was completely repaired.

"Amazing!", yelled Ruffy and jumbed onto the ship. "Hw did you do that?", asked Nami and turned to Venus who responded smiling:"I'm a girl of the nature and as you can see I have special powers since birth." Ruffy, surprised, asked furthermore:"What? Since birth?" Venus nodded. "Awesome! Do you want to be a part of my crew?", asked Ruffy grinning. " I'd like to", Venus accepted the offer. But suddenly her friendly expression turned dead serious. "Oh yes... the statues... they are magical creatures that are in a rigidity and over us, on the dense clouds-", started Venus and pointed upstairs. And really there were big and dense clouds over them. "There stands the castle in the sky..."

Ruffy looked confused up, then to Venus and asked:"And what's the point of all of this?" But Venus only smiled mysterious and responded:"You'll know soon enough..."

Epilogue:

Shadow (Author): Ok... why the heck do I always write the chapters at night when I'm totally tired?

Imperfect: Well, because the whole day you do nothing except starring at pictures of Ace * grins *

Shadow: No way! * blushes and sulks *

?: S-Shadow?

Shadow: Hm?

?: Wh-When... i-is... m-my... fir-first... a-appear-appearance?

Shadow: Soon..

Imperfect: If you liked the story, tell us in the comments... please... Shadow needs that ;-)

Shadow: * mumbles * I need Ace!

Imperfect: * sighes *

Credits: Written by I'mWritingStorys

Translated by: Alwaystardis221B