So this is my first attempt at writing. I´ve got no idea what I´m doing and this will probably suck. I´ll probably add some chapters later on, but yeah. Constructive criticism welcome! I own Amarock but that´s it.
Three boys were walking under the trees of the forest covering most of Dawn Island. The older ones, Sabo and Ace were leading while Luffy stumbled after them, a stick he found a couple minutes ago trailing behind him limply.
"I´m huuuuuungry! Why are there no animals around?" he complained.
"Shut up! You´ll chase anything living away if you´re this loud!" Ace immediately retorted.
"Not like there´s much around anyway." Luffy grumbled "I want Meat!".
"You´re no better than Luffy, Ace. This is strange though. Normally at least the bigger animals would be around trying to eat us but even they´re gone. I wonder why…" Sabo trailed off, jaw going slack.
They just arrived at a clearing and in one of the gargantuan trees opposite of them a giant wolf was hanging in the branches.
"WOW! She´s bigger than Tiger Lord!" Luffy bellows.
"I wonder if that's the reason we can´t find anything to eat?" Ace notices wryly.
"We should probably leave before it wakes up." Sabo tries even as Luffy goes running over to the base of the wolfs tree, stick forgotten on the forest floor.
Despite immediately starting after him Sabo and Ace can only watch Luffy reach the opposite treeline seconds before them. They desperately hope that the beast will stay asleep till they can get their idiot brother to safety but just as they´re about to catch him Luffy jumps and stretches.
Then they realize even they don´t have enough luck for this new-found danger to continue sleeping despite Luffy catapulting himself on top of it and they won´t ever climb fast enough to reach him in time if the wolf decides to eat him.
They still try though, simply because he´s their precious little brother.
Then Luffy lands on top of his target and the wolf opens one eye, glancing down at them. It sniffs the air and yawns, showing a maw full of blindingly white dagger-like teeth before turning its head around to the grinning, Straw hat wearing boy sitting on its back.
"Hello Wolf-san! I´m Luffy and I´ll be the next Pirate King!" he introduces himself whilst the animal blinks at him "Those are my brothers, Ace and Sabo!" he points at the two 12 year old's still frantically trying to reach them and the wolf follows the gesture "We´re very hungry! Do you have any meat?" the question draws another blink and then a noise oddly similar to a laugh escapes the wolfs throat.
Added to the fact that it didn´t make any move against them, the noise is unexpected enough to give Ace and Sabo pause halfway up the tree.
Luffy is still grinning when the wolf wraps it´s long tail around him, and jumps.
Now that wouldn't be surprising if this was a normal tree, but we´re talking about here. No living being should survive a fall from that height. But just as the beast is about to come crashing down and likely break every bone in its body, giant bat-like wings unfold on each side of Luffy and they land perfectly fine.
The animals fur is midnight black, but it´s paws, as well as the tip of its tail are a brilliant blood red. Sharp, yellow eyes meet Aces own and he can see the intelligence in them. The wings are black too, with red lines running from the "thumbs" towards the back like veins.
The wings flap once more and then Luffy is sitting on the floor next to a girl, no wolves to be seen anywhere.
She doesn´t look like a typical girl though. They can´t make out much of her body because of her clothes, but her frame is definitely female. She´s wearing a loose black sweater with startlingly real but definitely non-human yellow eyes (similar to the wolfs, Ace notes, even if they aren´t quite as sharp) that seems like it could hide an innumerable amount of weapons and black, equally loose sweatpants. Her feet are clad in black combat boots (does she know there´s other colours too?) with some non-reflective metal wrapping around the toes and heel.
Even her messy hair is black, reaching to her waist without anything holding it together. The tips of said hair however are a brilliant blood red, resembling the wolfs fur. He hopes it´s dyed or natural. Her skin is tanned and her eyes are brown with a slight reddish hue to them.
They twinkle in amusement as she watches him and Sabo pick their way down to the forest floor. Luffy´s laughing for some reason-has been since the landing and the unknown girl looks like she´s struggling to keep her own laughter in. Ace´d shout at them, but he´s too focused on the stranger and getting down safely.
When his feet finally touch the floor again, Luffy repeats his earlier question about meat and the girl tells him to follow her after giving a positive answer but he grips his brothers arm before he can even move. Once his youngest sibling is safely stowed away behind Sabo and his trusty pipe he cuts right to the important questions.
"Who the fuck are you?" he all but demands, because honestly the whole wolf-with-wings-transforms-into-girl thingy has him slightly freaked out.
She smiles at him and it´s not the nice expression he saw on the village girls he sometimes met but instead it´s sharp and feral and tells him that she knows that he knows they wouldn´t stand a chance in a fight.
Not if the sword on her hip and the way she holds herself were any indication.
But just as he is about to lose his patience she answers "My name is Amarock. If you´re looking for the who though you´ll just have to follow me, won´t you? I have meat, if you´re truly as hungry as Strawhat over there said."
Then she just turns around and walks away. She shows her back to him and that's aggravating. But contrary to popular believe he does know when he´s outclassed and if she doesn´t attack him or his brothers he won´t attack either. Still, that doesn´t mean they´re suddenly friends, or that he trusts her.
"I vote we leave and go hunting somewhere else.".
"But Aaaace, I´m hungry! I want meat now!" Luffy was quick to object and Sabo agreed reluctantly.
"If she wanted to hurt us she probably would have already done that. We aren´t likely to find any other animals either, even if we went to the other side of the mountain now we´d get there after nightfall. If we want to eat dinner today Amarock-san is our best bet.".
Ace frowned, looking at them and sighed. "Okay. But be careful. I don´t trust her. ".
"Don´t worry Ace, she´s a good Person!" Luffy shouted as he ran after Amarock.
She was quite far from them already but they didn´t notice because she never made a single sound.
"You don´t trust anyone, Ace." Sabo pointed out, rolling his eyes "But don´t worry. It´ll be fine. Probably.".
Not wanting to be left behind the older boys also ran after the wolf girl and their brother.
xXxXx
They walked for about two minutes before they ended up in front of a rock wall overgrown with mosses and other plants. After pushing aside some vines Amarock entered a well-hidden tunnel.
Sabo was impressed, if you didn´t know what you were looking for you´d never find it. After walking uphill of all directions for a short time they entered a cave.
It was obvious someone lived here, there were crates everywhere. Without them there would likely have been enough room for a small family to live here, but as it was four people made it seem nearly stuffed.
The crates on one wall were full of books, apparently their new friend(?) liked reading. Or she collected books for some reason, either one really. Another chest next to the entry was full of weapons of all kinds and one at the other end of the cave was full of what looked like fruits, but it was hidden in the shadows. The rest of that wall was dedicated to furs, skins and bones of animals as well as food and water.
In the middle of the cave there was a fire spreading light and the smoke escaped through a second tunnel on their right side. There also were tons of dead animals hanging from the ceiling for some reason.
It was pretty cool inside so the carcasses didn´t rot, but Sabo still felt slightly uncomfortable. He and his brothers sometimes kept a meat supply for emergencies, but never on this scale. The animals weren´t skinned or anything so Sabo suspected they were only waiting to be used for something or other. He knew that not only skins and furs but also necklaces made of teeth or pulverized bones (apparently there were people who believed powder made of rabbit bones could heal illnesses, who knew where they got ideas like that) scored high prizes in Goa Kingdom.
Sadly, neither he nor Ace had the skill or tools to make them and he wasn´t crazy enough to think Luffy would fare better than them, so they were limited to skinning their catches. Maybe they could make a deal with the inhabitant of the cave? Only if she didn´t try to attack them, of course, but it was worth thinking about.
There was no bed, surprisingly and the whole place gave off an aura of disarray.
Amarock took some meat from one of the crates and used a pocket knife which appeared out of nowhere to slice of a piece and eat it.
"There. Not poisoned or whatever." She explained, giving the rest of the meat to the boys with a wink towards Ace, who was still glaring at her with crossed arms. No-one but Sabo caught the fond look crossing her face as she stowed the knife away in the depths of her Sweater and he filed that away for later consideration.
"If you need more take as much as you want. I´ve got enough." she offered, gesturing to the ceiling and taking some raw meat for herself.
Sabo sighed before digging in, no use overthinking this now.
He had to admit he was curious about their hosts abilities though. And all the books! There had to be so much knowledge collected here! Some of them looked outright ancient, like they would crumble to dust if he touched them. Those were his favourite kind of books-they often held lost knowledge from times long past.
Just knowing about the existence of a place like this made him all fidgety. He always loved to learn about new stuff and read even back when he was with his so-called parents and there weren´t many books on the mountain.
"You can read them if you want, you know." he nearly jumped at Amarocks voice, seemed he wasn´t as discreet as he thought.
"Really? You´re sure you don´t mind?"
"Nah, it´s fine. Knock yourself out. Just make sure to put them back when you´re done."
He carefully moved over and took one of the newer-looking books with the charming title "Navigating the Grand Line - How to not get killed in three days" and sat down next to the fire. He opened the cover and all but left this world.
xXxXx
Meanwhile, Luffy had finished eating and was bombarding his newest sibling - he had decided that the cool wolf-girl would be their sister the moment she carried him down from that tree, she simply didn´t know that yet - with questions.
"Are you a pirate? Do you travel? Did you have any adventures? Can you tell us about them? Where are your Nakama? Do you have a Pirate treasure too? How did you transform from a wolf into a human? Why did the wolf have wings? Do you have wings too? Can you fly? What´s your dr…".
"Woah there, slow the fuck down! Lemme see... I´m not a pirate, but I do travel sometimes and yes I´ve had adventures before. No, I can´t tell you about them. I do have some treasure somewhere around here and I transformed because of my Devils Fruit, which is also the reason for the wings. I don´t have wings right now, as you can see, but I could grow a pair and yes I can fly. Do you know what Devil Fruits are?".
"You´re not a Marine, are you?" Ace, who had been looking through the weapons, interrupted before Luffy could answer.
"Nah. I´m neither Pirate nor Marine, don´t worry." Amarock narrowed her eyes at him "But why would you want to know that?"
"I´ve also eaten a Devils Fruit, so I do know what they are! See?" Luffy exclaimed proudly (and loudly), stretching his cheeks and breaking the tension before it could even build "They give you cool powers but then you can´t swim anymore, which kinda sucks…".
"That´s true, but how come you can transform into an animal, Amarock-san? Luffys fruit does something completely different. Aren´t there some rules for the powers the fruits contain, or are they completely unpredictable?" Sabo wondered, stopping Luffys rambles and catching both his and Ace´s attention.
"Well, first of all, quit the –san shit. I´m 15, dammit. Second, yes there are "rules" as you put it, namely different types of fruits, which grant different types of powers. There are two main types: the Normals, which everyone who´s not a civilian knows about and the Legendaries, which officially don´t exist. Then both the Normals and the Legendaries have three subtypes: Parmecia, Zoan and Logia. The most common fruits for both main groups are Paramecia types, which basically grant the user superhuman abilities or traits. The fruit Luffy has eaten is one of those. The second type is Zoan, which allows the user to transform into an animal - I have eaten a Legendary Zoan type - and acquire some or all traits of that animal. Zoan users are normally able to speak to their type of animal but only to their type. Sometimes Zoan types also have a Hybrid form, half human and half animal or multiple animal forms. The rarest fruits are Logia types. Those allow the user to control an element and transform their own body into said element, making them immune to most attacks. Normals generally are more common than Legendaries - a Legendary Paramecia will make a Normal Logia seem common and there has never been a recorded case of a Legendary Logia user. Legendaries are stronger than Normals most of the time too, so basically the rarer, the stronger." she explained.
"Is there another significant difference between Normals and Legendaries? And why does your wolf form have wings?" Sabo immediately asked.
"Well, we don´t know if there´s a difference between the two Logia types since there are no known Legendary Logia, but there is a difference between the Paramecia types: a Legendary Paramecia can be awakened. This is mostly confused with simply being a rare trait of Normal Paramecia fruits but it actually isn´t. A awakened fruit will not only affect the users body but also the environment. How you go about awakening a fruit is unknown and there is no way to tell whether or not your fruit has such a stage till it happens. The difference between the Zoan types is quite simple: a Legendary Zoan combines two animals. That's also the reason I have wings, my Fruit, the Ookami Omori no Mi combines wolf and bat.".
"So Lu here might´ve eaten a Legendary Paramecia? And we won´t find out till he awakens his fruit?" Ace asked incredulously.
"Exactly!" Amarock exclaimed cheerfully as a very big bat suddenly vaulted itself from above them and flew outside, shocking everyone but the girl. It looked like it wore some sort of armor made of the stuff that also was on Amarocks boots, but it was gone too fast to be sure.
"Now, since Ash´s going hunting I´ll go out too. Both bats and wolves prefer the moon over daylight, after all. It´s pretty late already, so I suggest you stay here for now. Just don´t touch the crate with the fruits over there and don´t destroy anything. G´night!" and with that she was gone.
It took some time for them to relax and actually fall asleep, especially Ace, but in the end they all drifted off.
xXxXx
The next morning Sabo woke up early. He searched the crates for more books he might want to read (and just maybe he was curious about the girl too) while he still had the chance, until Amarock returned. When she did half an hour later, he had found a couple interesting books and a box full of gold. There was more than he expected and he wanted to ask her about it. He also wanted to ask her if just maybe he could read some more of those books.
"Say, Amarock-san, would it be possible for me to come back some time? Your books are extremely interesting and I would like to read more of them, if you don´t mind." He asked cautiously.
"Sure, come back whenever. I´m pretty much nocturnal though, so if you want something specific you should come at night. Also, not a single book leaves the cave. And quit the fucking –san!"
Her hair had changed, he noticed. It seemed a bit less wild and was pulled back in a ponytail, but it still stuck out in every possible direction. He smiled widely.
"Of course! Thank you!". He wasn´t concerned about her cursing, as he had a feeling that was normal.
"Not a problem. Tell your brother that I´d be willing to teach him how to use those weapons too, if he´s interested." She chuckled.
"Could I also ask you another question?"
"Sure. There´s no guarantee that I´ll answer though."
"Hmm. How did you get that much money? I doubt it´s all from selling animals."
"Ah, so you found my treasure box. I take it you know about Marines and Pirates?" Sabo nodded and she continued "There are two more parties out there. One would be the revolutionaries, who mostly fight the corruption in the government and stuff. Their full motives are unknown, but they also free slaves or take down idiot nobles, like those retards in High Town."
"They sound pretty cool. So you are one of them?" Sabo interrupted. He didn´t have any problem with his parents being called retards, because honestly…they were retards. Amarock sent him a glance he couldn´t quite decipher before answering.
"No, let me finish, Pipe-face. I´m with the fourth group. We aren´t as numerous as Marines or Pirates or even the Revolutionary Army and we don´t normally travel the seas but we´re still an important part of the power balance in this world. You see, I´m an Assassin."
Thanks for reading! Please leave some feedback on the way out!