It was dark and all she was aware of was running. She didn't know where she was or what she was running from, she was just running. Judging from the burn in her lungs and legs she figured she had been running for quite some time. Up ahead she noticed light and started running towards it. As she ran into the light she realized the ground wasn't as solid as before. She as running on sand now; and was still absent mindedly running. Then she ran into somebody. The impact made her fall onto the sand. She looked up at the person she ran into and saw that he had tan skin, black hair with an orange hat, and black shorts. She also noticed he had freckles splashed across his face
The man looked at the girl with concern in his eyes; she was covered dirt, had a stick in her long red hair, and her clothes were extremely tattered.
He crouched down to where she was on the ground and asked "Are you ok?"
She looked up at him, as he was taller than her even when crouched down, and simply stared at him, too panicked to speak.
"Hey come on, what happened to you?" he asked her again.
She continued staring at her as four men came running out of the woods behind them. She saw them and tried to get up to run but she fell back down when a bad pain shot up her leg.
The man she bumped into saw her reaction to the group of men and stepped in between her and them. He looked back at her and asked "Are you running from these guys?"
She nodded her head yes.
"Look this isn't any of your business, she coming back with us." One of the men said.
"Listen you guys you have two options here: you leave her alone or I'm gonna have to kick your ass." The guy she ran into told him.
"Yeah right." Another of the men said. Another added "Yeah just hand the girl over and nobody has to get hurt."
"Alright you guys asked for it." Said the man in the orange hat.
The girl watched in amazement as he turned into fire and single handedly took out all four of her chasers.
When he got done he walked back over to the girl and sat down next to her. "Well, you don't have to worry about those guys anymore." He told her smiling.
She gave him a small smile in return and said "Thank you" in a shy voice.
"So you can talk" he said jokingly. "My name is Portgas D. Ace, but you can call me Ace. What's your name?"
"My name is Ruby." She replied.
He reached over and pulled the stick out of her hair. "Why were they chasing after you?" He asked.
"I don't know, I don't remember anything except for the last few minutes." She told Ace.
Ruby started rubbing her wrists while she was talking because they were sore. Ace noticed this and saw that her wrists were red.
Ace's eyebrows rose in surprise "Really you don't remember anything, not even if your house is nearby?"
She shook her head no. I don't know where I am but I don't think this is the island I'm from." She explained while looking around the beach they were on.
Ace hmm'd as he looked up at the sky. He looked back at her and said "why don't you come with me back to Whitebeard's ship, I'm sure he'd let you stay for a while. At least until you can remember where you live.
"Well ok, if you think he'd be ok with it." She responded.
Ace stood up and said "alright then, it's decided; you're gonna be staying with the Whitebeard Pirates."
He stuck out his hand and helped Ruby onto her feet to begin a new adventure on the seas.