Sea Winds and Rogue Waves

Disclaimer: One Piece belongs to Oda not me.

Chapter Two: Finding A Hidden Place

Hanging next to the door was a small oil filled lamp, which she was quick to snatch up and haul along with her. If her initial estimate of the ship's crew was accurate, they wouldn't miss a few appropriated items so long as nothing she took for herself was either personally valuable or too unique to be missed. A simple missing lamp would be of minimal concern. The oil for it would be another matter. Most ships, even pirate ships, kept a close watch on their oil supplies. Although more and more ships were incorporating electricity, many pirates opted for older ships that hadn't been updated since they didnt want to lose storage space to an engine or generator that could have been used for treasure or supplies instead. This one appeared to have a few small updates - She saw a small conduit running along the corner of the ceiling that had to contain electrical wire and as she traveled along the hallways, there were small covered light bulbs providing some illumination in the otherwise pitch-dark passageways.

Taking the first set of stairs she found going down, she noted that this level appeared to be crew quarters. Unlike smaller ships, this one possessed several rooms, each with its own door. Here, again, the unnamed prankster had delighted in decorating the doors of each compartment in images. She snorted at the one that was carved and then painted to look like an explosion. If the other doors were anything to go by each compartment was likely decorated to match those who inhabited them, as one had an actual gun glued to it while another had a knife hilt for a doorknob.

Going down more stairs, she found a room full of folded sails and coils of heavy rope. The further down she went the less electric light there was and she was forced to light her lamp to continue on.

The hold she eventually found her way to was dark as a pit. In the light of her lamp it proved to be divided into small compartments - this ship seemed to have been a produce transport at some point in its life and the old built-in bins for separating the various fruits and vegetables that would be hauled to the next port were still there. Finding a small one that had a thick layer of dust in it near the stern, she moved a stack of crates to hide the opening and set down the small bag of personal belongings that had survived her flight from her father's grasp.

Now all she needed was a bit of bedding and some food and she would be set for a few days. Scooting out of her hidey hole, she wound her way back up to where she'd found the crew's living quarters. Opening a few cupboards rewarded her with a couple bits of obviously much reused sailcloth and several old blankets. She eyed the pillows scattered about and snatched one up that had been stuffed into a corner. Thankfully it smelled rather clean despite the many stains. Hauling all this back to the hold took only a few minutes and then she was racing back up, this time to hunt down the kitchen.

The quiet of the ship as she wandered around was eerie. She could still hear the echoes of the party but the slap of water against the hull was louder. But it was the quiet hum of electrical appliances that finally led her to the kitchen. The minute she stepped into the area it was plain that this room was where the most modern updates had been incorporated. The gleaming, industrial sized kitchen had four separate stoves and four more standard wall ovens, an enormous griddle, and one oven that took up an entire wall, complete with a rotisserie spit big enough to roast entire pigs. Everything was obviously just so, each with its own place in a drawer or on the magnetic strips on the wall. She smiled. One could always tell when a chef enjoyed his work.

The three refrigerators on the far wall were almost empty, aside from some fruit on the bottom shelf and a few strange items she didn't want to attempt to identify. The fruit she took, using a discarded flour sack to carry her finds. The door to the left of the refrigerators led to a pantry and this was stuffed to the gills with all kinds of food that had her drooling from the aroma they released into the small space. Mentally slapping herself for a moment of greed, she hastily grabbed a couple sticks of dry cured sausage, a large box of crackers, a loaf of bread, a small round of smoked cheese, and after a bit hesitation, a jar of jam. There was a small barrel full of hazelnuts she would have liked some of but she had no way of cracking the shells. Shoving all this into her makeshift sack the started to leave the kitchen only to hear voices just outside the kitchen doors.

"... 'ashira wants ... 'oney."

A laugh. "Good luck. They took the last of it two hours ago."

"Damn. I'll have to look in town then."

They moved away then, but she had to wait a moment for her heart rate to steady. Damn and double damn. That had been way too close. It was more than time to get back to her hole and pull it in after her.