Hot summer wind blew in the face of a white polar bear in an orange jump suit. Yes a polar bear in an orange jump suit, most residents of the island did a double take just to make sure they were seeing what they were seeing and it was not just a mirage from the heat. Said bear was currently dying from the heat. Though he had grown use to being on warmer islands, this particular one seemed unbearable. There were no clouds in the sky to shield him from the harsh ease of the blazing sun. "Captain why are we here?" the bear asked. Talking polar, this made the surrounding residents jump away with shock. A smirk spread slowly to my lips as we walked further into town. With Bepo around people were always a little more interesting at least. "First island the log pose set to." I answered Bepo without looking back at him. "I understand your distress with the weather but you will just have to bear with it." Bepo did not say anything to that, I did not expect him to. He hardly ever questioned or talked back against anything I said.
"Captain," Luke piped up after a moment, he adjusted his hat which read Penguin across the cap. "Perhaps, for Bepo benefit, we should go into one of the taverns to cool off." A Leon agreed whole heartedly, fanning himself with his hand. I resisted the urge to roll my eyes at the man. Honesty if it was not painfully obvious they just wanted to drunk. I looked back at my small crew about to tell them to shut it but when I saw them I stopped. They were all sweating through their jumpsuits, sweat stains visible as they lifted their arms to fan themselves. That was rather disgusting.
"Fine go to the bar and cool off. I will join you later." I stated before turning away and kept walking.
"Where are you going Captain?" Bepo called.
"I am going to go gather medical supplies." I informed him so he would not follow me around worried despite his exhaustion. After checking with a few local pharmacies I found that their medicine mostly herb based. The supplies they did have that was not already made were things I did not need and truly had not interest in.
"If you want raw material I would suggest you check the forest. Our island is always in a summer climate and we have ideal conditions for most medical herbs to grow wildly just about everywhere but the forest has the best ones." The old lady at the store told me. She smiled at me sweetly in a grandmotherly way, those eye raking over me were anything but on the other hand. "But you should be careful boy."
"And why is that?" I questioned, I was not to happy that the old lady was telling me what to do much less telling me to be watchful. What could really be so dangerous? Probably some animal.
"There is a skunk witch living out in those woods." Skunk witch? Well I was partially right about it being an animal. I left the store without asking her to explain further. It did not seem like it would be to important to listen to the old lady as she would just drown on and on about something that was most likely just a local legend anyway. I made way through town slowly, the heat was starting to get to me as well. The wind earlier had made thing bearable for me but now it had died and I was starting to sweat a bit. I rolled up my sleeve further than normal as I walked bumping into a few people when I was not paying attention. I just kept walking like nothing happened and never offered an apology no matter who it was. I was a pirate it was not something I was going to get into the habit of doing.
The forest was a little more tolerable, the canopy of leaves the trees created proved enough shade from the sun. I noticed as I walked deeper into the forest the canopy got thicker and a amount of light that managed to push through it became less and less. When I got to the area where the herbs grew the light in the area was the same as it would be if the sun was just about to set completely. It was also a lot cooler.
I sighed contently and pulled my selves back to the length I normally kept them at, then set to work. The area looked great for low light growing herbs to grow and they were growing in abundance. However upon further inspection the ones I wanted were not there at all, which made not sense at all. Frowning, I scratched the side of my head confused slightly. As I walked further into the forest looking for the elusive herbs I herd the strangest thing. Singing.
I stopped in my tracks and listened closely. Yes that noises was someone singing, very off key but singing non the less. What the hell? Now to interested in finding out who or what was singing I gave up on my look for the herbs.
The source of the singing as it turned out was….. Is that a skunk? I tilted my head slightly to the right, confused was not even the word for what I was feeling. A singing skunk? I knew the Grandline was going to throw some fucked up things at me but a singing skunk was not what I was expecting. Then even weirder it stood up.
When it stood I could see it was wearing jeans. Ah now I get it, this must be the skunk witch that old hag was talking about. Seems like that old hag wasn't full of it after all. Next to her was a basket that she bent down to pick up. What was it about this woman that made the old bat think she was a witch? Couldn't hurt to find out.
I walked up to her, any sound my foot steps were making were drowned out by her singing which got louder as she reached the chorus.
"You sing quite terribly." I said, smirking slightly. She jumped and turned on me quickly. The next thing I know is there is a great pain in the side of my head and that the world was turning quickly. Before I passed out completely I felt hot wet blood start to flow down the side of my face and her yelling, "Oh crap."