AN: Here is my first fanfic. I've posted the prologue and the first chapter at the same time, after that the updates will be one chapter only. Reviews are always welcome but no flames. Constructive critism is the best. I might have some long sentences and if the point of them is lost to anyone just point it out. Will be greatly appreciated!

Also, I have looked both of these over myself - I don't have beta - so if there are mistakes you could point them out too. More notes at the end of the prologue.

Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece or its characters. My own OCs and the plot in this one, though, I do own. Everything else belongs to Eiichiro Oda.

Prologue
Yellowbirds

The muddy ground clenched its wrists under the stained grass. Moist dropped in triplets from the bending leaves and the sky was covered in grayish cloud blanket. It had stopped raining about an hour ago, but it had been an unusual rain, and so the mud stayed.

There, in a wide cliff from where broadened a sight down to the green forest, which might have been grand had not the weather been so upsetting, stood a young boy with unkempt piano-black hair in sandy black trousers and a shirt. In front of the boy was a simple grave, consisting of only round marble rock that was not bothered to hone to its prime, and a name. Some flowers where laid down next to and in front of the grave, but all of them were ruined by the rain.

It had been a while since it had last been sunny. A whole two long weeks to be precise. Of course it hadn't rained all the while - mostly it had been ruefully cloudy. It wasn't even the pretty kind of cloudy when it was still clear and white during the day even though the sun wasn't shining. It was the dark and foul and not-so-sure-if-it-is-a-day-or-night cloudy. And there were beautiful varieties of that kind of cloudy too, but, as mentioned, none of them were in question.

It had all started with the death of one of the townsfolk of the village. She had been a thirty-something year old woman, still fairly pretty and proud. She had been strict, caring, moody and menacing female entity, and people of the village had loved her, some more, some less.

When she and her now widowed husband had been declared to get married none were able to come up with a better mix. The husband was outrageous and carefree, living sternly by his own rules (although, being most of the time out in the world working as a marine) and laughing usually when one should have been (by all the goddamn common sense) serious. It was quietly, and sometimes not so quietly, mused how it was a relief that someone finally put that happy-go-lucky no-good into his place.

And then she had died.

She hadn't died alone, though. But it wasn't her husband who was at her side when the time came. It wasn't the doctor or anyone else of the villagers either. It was her son. Yes, the same son who stood at that muddy cliff now alone, staring into the jungle.

Other villagers who had come to the funeral had left over an hour ago, a little before the rain had stopped. None had said a single thing to the boy that whole evening, before, during nor after the funeral and burial. There were whispers and glances, and half-thought feelings of somewhat weird guilt but none of these reached the boy.

According to the boy, if you hurt an animal once, it would never trust you again. He didn't know much, as he was still inexperienced and not to mention young, but this he knew for a fact. Which was why he didn't understand the villagers. His mother had been and his father still was fairly well liked, but he, their sole son was avoided. He hadn't really done anything to them. Sure, he was rather wild and should it be said, raw, to the world, but that wasn't any different from the other children of his age that he had seen. It just didn't dawn to him how exactly he was different.

Frankly, he wasn't very fond of the townsfolk because of this. This, and the fact that now he was practically alone. His mother had died and his father was all the while who knew where. He wasn't even in the whole wretched funeral. One of a father he had - the geezer didn't even show up home when his wife died.

Couple of birds springing out of the forest disturbed the boy's pace of thought and for the first time in half a quarter he moved his gaze. The birds swirled and danced around each other up and down readily moving higher. A moment the boy followed the chirping duet, until a rustle from the forest behind him reached his ears.

There was a moment of waiting before anything happened.

"So you were here after all," thirty-something year old Garp walked to the boy.

The boy huffed.

"Where else?" He said. Garp didn't seem to notice the accusing tone in his son's voice or if he did, then he paid it no mind.

"Home, for example," the marine countered looking down at his son who still hadn't moved from his place and had returned his gaze back at whatever it was that he was looking at before the birds appeared.

"The burial just ended." The boy said sharply.

"Yes," Garp returned while he placed a bunch of yellowbirds in front of the grave. "An hour ago." He turned at his son. "And you're still here."

The boy looked for the first time in a year at his father and frowned. It felt weird having to look so upward. He swore, his father was just too ridiculously huge. "Where were you?"

Garp sighed. "On my way. It takes time to reach Goa Kingdom from the Grand line in such a short notice."

"You were contacted three weeks ago." The boy insisted.

Garp bent down so that he was closer to the same eye level with the boy. "I know, Dragon, I know. And I don't like it any better than you do."

The boy moved his gaze back to the forest in front of him and said no other word.

Garp sighed again, and awkwardly tried smiling sincerely. "It's getting late," he said. "We should get back."

Dragon glanced at his father, and before making eye contact snapped his head back and merely nodded.

If someone has problems with the way I switch between the words 'jungle' and 'forest' the explanation is that you really can't tell which one it is in the manga/anime. I mean, it has bears and tigers. The trees most of the time resemble a forest but the climate is jungle. I mean come on, Oda XD

So I decided that it's a little bit of both.

Yellowbirds is a flower, by the way, if anyone got confused. I have drawn it and the picture can be found in my tumblr. The link can be found in my profile.

I actually like Dragon's mother so it's a shame that she doesn't get to appear. Her name will be mentioned later on, but it's no secret so I can already tell that it's Deliya.

More notes at the end of chapter one.