Enter Senju Natsu! I'm going to be King of the Pirates!
"The King and his men stole the Queen from her bed and bound her in her bones," Natsu sang softly to herself. Senju Natsu lay stretched out across a long but narrow raft, her hands laced behind her head and a long white coat acting as a sail and covering from the sun.
Natsu had been afloat for almost three days, and was looking for land as she has recently finished her rations.
"The seas be ours, and by the powers; where we will we'll roam," Natsu continued just as soft with a small smile on her face. This song reminded her of happier days with her family and she found herself singing it when times were tough.
Just as she started the next verse Natsu's stomach growled painfully. "Aww stomach," She complained sitting up from her reclined position. Now upright Natsu grinned to herself when she spotted land, "Well what do you know. Looks like my luck is finally changing!"
Carefully, the woman maneuvered her jacket to catch the wind so that she would sail toward the island in the distance.
It took only a few hours for Natsu to make landfall, she carefully tied her raft up at the docks and paid the docking fee with a smile, even as the man working the dock gaped at her 'ship'. Ignoring his protest she pressed a few bills into his hand swung her long white coat around to rest on her shoulders without putting her arms in and headed into town.
Now one couldn't tell it just by looking at her, tall and thin, with her dark red hair clipped close to her scalp on the sides and back with it a few inches long on top, but Senju Natsu was a pirate. Not just any kind of pirate either, Natsu was a pirate Captain and she had a very specific goal in mind. Natsu had her eye on the legendary One Piece.
"Hmm I wonder where I am?" Natsu mused to herself as she wandered through the town she had landed at. It was a bustling little port town, not unlike her hometown. It seemed peaceful enough, there was wasn't a strong Marine presence, in fact there didn't appear to be a Marine presence at all.
To be fair, there wasn't much of a pirate presence either, so these people had little reason to call upon the Marines.
"'cuse me Mister, where am I?" Natsu asked a random man walking by.
The little man blinked at her confused, "This is Caen , young lady."
Natsu nodded ignoring his confusion, "My thanks, Mister. Where can a gal get some good food around here?"
"There is an inn just down that street, they offer cheap food for travelers until sundown," The man suggested.
"Wonderful! My thanks, again, Mister!" Natsu said with a little wave already heading to her next destination. Natsu often wandered into towns having no idea where she was so she was used to the confused and bemused looked of the locals when she asked her she was.
The inn wasn't hard to spot, and the food was, like the man promised, cheap and it was pretty good for the price. In the end Natsu rented a room for the night electing to sleep in a bed rather than on her raft again.
Still after days on a piece of wood as long as she was and just slightly wider Natsu spent her evening out exploring the town. The sea breeze cooled the town quite a bit but that didn't stop the citizens. They still ran back and forth, doing their jobs even as the sun sunk lower past the horizon.
"What a nice little place," Natsu remarked to herself stopping to lean against a stone building. Most of the town was made of wood structures but the 'important' buildings were stone crafted.
A loud crash startled Natsu and many of the people around her. "What the hell?" She asked moving toward the sound of the noise, unlike the Caen citizens who were moving away from it.
Ever so slowly, Natsu dropped her hands close to her belt where her weapons sat, as she squinted into the dust and debris that had kicked up at the loud crash.
Suddenly a large black blur jumped from the dust and ran off down the street. "Someone stop that dog! It's rabid!" A male voice cried out.
As the dust cleared she could see a little old woman covered in bites and scratches. "Please someone help me catch him. He's sick and he could hurt someone!"
Beside her a young man, possibly her adult son, looked grim. "Can anyone help? My mother's dog was attacked by a wild animal yesterday and he's gone crazy. We need to catch him before he hurts someone."
Natsu shifted her gaze from the young man to the older woman and sighed. "I'll help," she said raising her hand a little. "I don't have anything else to do."
"Oh thank you so much my dear!" The little old lady said with a watery smile.
"Thank me after I find your dog, ma'am," Natsu insisted, turning in the direction that the dog had went. Surely finding a dog couldn't be too difficult. The town wasn't that large but if the dog happened to escape into the woods it could be a problem.
After two hours Natsu was almost ready to admit defeat and just head back the inn. She didn't owe the old lady anything anyway, and she'd be long gone by mid morning anyway so it wasn't like the dog was her problem. But still, Natsu had a bad habit of helping people and she could still remember the sad, watery smile the old woman had given her.
"This is the worst," Natsu complained lacing her fingers behind her head as she walked her signature long white coat having been put on properly as the temperature continued to drop. The townspeople had retreated to their homes an hour or so ago and the moon was steadily rising in the sky.
"Here, doggy! Doggy, come here!" Natsu called not expecting anything to come of it. A soft whining caught her attention after the second call.
Freezing in place, Natsu strained her ears for another sound. After a few seconds she heard another whine and smiled. 'Found 'em.'
Moving quickly and quietly Natsu snuck up on the dog. The large dog, that looked more like a wolf up close than a dog, had hidden itself in an dead end alleyway behind some boxes and was pawing at it's mouth.
Natsu frowned in thought when she noticed the dog was wearing a muzzle, a rather painful looking one at that. It was metal, she could see it gleaming in the moonlight and blood dripped steadily from it's face.
"Hey, buddy, I'm Natsu," Natsu said softly, trying to startle the dog. Said dog jumped to attention, growling as best it could with his mouth bound like it was.
"Calm down, I'm not here to hurt you," Natsu soothed. "I was just looking for you. That old lady really seems to miss you, don't you miss her?"
As if the dog could understand her, he began to growl louder, while looking for an escape.
Natsu was an animal person, always had been. Growing up her mother had kept four or five dogs in the house at all times so she was used to their mannerism. This dog wasn't acting normal in any sense. He hadn't run toward the woods, instead he stuck to the town. He wasn't attacking, even though the man from earlier claimed he was rabid. Plus he seemed to understand her when she spoke. It was all very strange.
"It's none of my business, if you don't want to go home, but if you can be calm I'll take that muzzle off and assuming you don't try to tear out my throat you can do whatever," Natsu reasoned with the animal.
Strangely enough, the dog appeared to listen. Slowly the dog, a much bigger dog than she had expected, it really looked like a wolf up close, walked toward her and just stood there.
Natsu waited a second before moving quickly, the muzzle was metal and wrapped around the dog's head in a very uncomfortable way but was able to easily snap the thin piece of metal and pull it away from the dog.
For a second, no one moved. Natsu started at the dog and the dog stared at Natsu. In that moment she noticed that the dog had very pretty eyes, one brown and one light blue.
"Well, you don't seem rabid to me, so you're free to go," she remarked turning to leave the alley way.
"Thanks," a rough voice from behind her called.
Natsu froze mid step before whirling around to look at the dog wide-eyed. "Did you just say something?"
"Yeah, thanks," the dog repeated.
"Uh…" Natsu frowned and tilted her head in confusion. "So you're a talking dog?"
The dog seemed to jump to attention turning his head back and forth, "Talking dog? Where?"
"Ah…" Natsu sweatdropped in exasperation. "That would be you."
The dog flicked his ears back in embarrassment, "Oh yeah, right."
"Rex! Where are you boy?" A familiar voice called out from nearby.
The dog, 'Rex' jumped like he had been hit and turned to Natsu pleadingly. "He can't find me, I won't go back with them!"
Natsu frowned and looked at the dog before sighing. "Fine, if you can sneak into my room at the inn I won't say anything," She agreed, ignoring the doggy grin that was sent her way. "But! I expect an explanation. Something is fishy here and it's not just the docks."
"Deal," The dog said lifting a paw to 'shake' on it. Natsu took his paw and shook it.
"Good now, come on."
