Disclaimer: I don't own One Piece.
A Pirate's Tale
Lion Mountain Part 1
Of Cows and Free Islands
A short time later finds Troy securing his boat to the pier of a thriving, if old fashioned port. After he finishes he reaches into the boat and grabs a brown leather bag and starts to walk into town only to have Crown swoop down and land on his shoulder. He looks at the bird and says "Why don't you make yourself useful for once and go find us a place to eat." With a loud screech Crown leaps into the air and starts to slowly circle the city, meanwhile Troy steps calmly into the crowded streets.
-/-
On another part of the island, in a small cove a large white ship is setting its anchor. Men in white and blue uniforms are scurrying across the deck tying up crisp white sails with the image of a seagull painted in blue on them followed by the word MARINE. A tall man in white pants and a blue dress shirt with dark purple hair watches as the ship is secured, and then orders the men to prepare to go ashore. He turns and steps through a door and down a hall stopping at a set of large double doors; he knocks and then enters saluting the man seated at the desk inside. "Captain Shrike, we are set to go ashore sir. We only await your presence on deck."
"Good," the captain says as he stands, "when we take possession of this pitiful island we are sure to be given not only handsome rewards but also promotions. This place has been a thorn in the side of The World Government for far too long." The captain steps forward and begins to walk toward the deck followed by his lieutenant. As he steps into the midday sun shining on the deck we can see that he his quite tall and has golden blond hair, he would be very handsome if it weren't for the disgust showing plainly in his dark eyes. He wears a crisp white suit, white captain's coat on his shoulders, and carries a golden hilted rapier on his left hip with a matching parrying dagger above it.
Upon seeing him the men salute, inform him that all is ready to go ashore, and lead him to a rowboat. As he steps into the boat with his lieutenant and six other marines he orders the boat lowered and heads to shore.
-/-
Back at the town Griffin D. Troy is sure he is lost. He is on a well kept dirt road with endless grain fields to his left and a large pasture with grazing cows to his right. He looks around but can't see anyone or anything resembling the town, so he walks over to the pasture's fence and calls out to the nearest cow, "Excuse me, I'm a little lost can you tell me how to get back to town?"
None of the cows even look at him, they just keep on eating their grass, and so he climbs over the fence and walks up to one of them. "Good afternoon Miss, I was wondering if you could tell me how to get back to the town?"
The cow looks up at him and says slowly, "Moo? Town? I've never been to the town. I don't know how to get there myself."
"Well, could you tell me how to get to a house? Maybe the farmer can tell me how to get back to town."
"Moo. Maybe. But I don't really know how to get to his house either." The cow answers before going back to eating her grass.
Troy reaches out and taps the cow on the nose to get her attention, "Well how do you get home if you don't know the way?"
The cow looks up again, "Oh. That. I just go where the dog tells me to, and we always get home just fine. Moo." Then she seems to stop and think for a moment, "But we always go to the barn anyway, never to the farmer's house." And she goes back to eating.
Troy starts to turn back to the road when suddenly a very angry bull charges at him. "You! Human! Stay away from my Sharla!"
Troy looks back and says, "Sharla?" But doesn't have time to consider what an odd name Sharla is for a cow before he is forced to run for his life from the charging bull. He runs and dodges his way to the tree line hoping he can jump into one of the trees and wait till the bull gets bored to leave. So, he puts his back to a sturdy looking oak and prepares to jump as the bull is charging at him, but just before he does a boy appears from behind him and runs at the bull.
-/-
Yuki is walking down the dirt road that runs between the fields and into town. Nothing much is happening today and that's good, boring days are always good, at least for the farmers and townspeople. However, just before passing the pasture where the cows are grazing a loud angry snort is heard. Upon climbing the fence to investigate Yuki spots a young man with his back against a tree facing off against a very angry bull. As the bull charges Yuki steps in front of the young man and runs at the bull. Meeting the bull halfway and grabbing its horns, Yuki twists and forces the bull to the ground using its own momentum and a little leverage; once the bull is down Yuki turns back to the young man standing by the trees.
-/-
Troy can't help but stand there shocked as a boy, who can't be older than 13, grabs the bull's horns and throws it into the ground thereby ending its charge. The boy then dusts his hands off and turns and walks back to where Troy is still standing by the tree. The boy is short, about 5 feet 2 inches, and he has short wavy black hair and dark green eyes. He is wearing blue jeans, black combat boots, and a black sleeveless shirt.
"What are you doin' just standin' there? Hurry up and get back to the road before he gets up again." The boy grabs Troy's sleeve and drags him to the fence, then shoves him over it and back onto the road.
After being shoved over the fence Troy stands and starts to brush the dirt from his pants and shirt while the boy climbs over after him, "Thanks for helping me out back there, my name's Troy." holding out his hand.
The boy looks at him oddly but shakes his hand saying, "I'm Yuki, and that was nothin'." He then walks a short way down the fence line and pikes up a dark green leather jacket with gray fur lining and slips it over his shoulders. Turning back to Troy he says, "By the way, what were you doin' in that field anyway?"
"I was just asking for directions back to town."
"What?" Yuki asks, not believing what he just heard.
"Well," he begins, "I landed here earlier in the afternoon and decided to find something to eat, but I got distracted while I was walking by these two sparrows that were arguing about where the best place to nest was and the next thing I knew I was way out here with no idea how to get back to town. So, I decided to ask someone for directions and the first person I saw was a cow named Sharla, but she didn't know how to get back to town or even to the farmer's house. And then that bull came along and started yelling at me and chasing me so I ran. And now I've met you and I hope you can give me directions back to town, please." And he clasped his hands together in front of him and looked down at Yuki with puppy dog eyes, which on a girl or young child would have been cute but on an 18 year old boy was kinda disturbing.
Yuki looks at Troy and decides that this young man has got to be crazy, but thinks "Oh well why not", and says "I'm headed to town right now why don't you come with me. That way you can't get distracted again."
Troy looks at him amazed, "Really? Thanks!" And they start walking back the way Troy had come just a short time ago.
-/-
After walking for a while in silence Troy is getting bored, so he decides to try and start up a conversation with Yuki. "So, that was pretty impressive what you did in the field back there. I don't know how you did it, but that bull sure went down fast."
"Hmph," Yuki says, "That was nothin', just low level martial arts training."
"So, you know martial arts? That's cool."
"Not really, every kid on this island is taught how to fight as soon as they're old enough. Some're just better than others at it."
"Really, that's cool…" Troy says unsure of what else to say then he asks, "by the way, how much farther is town?"
Yuki smiles, "We're almost there, we should be able to see it when we top this hill." Just then they reach the top of the hill and can see how the town fills the valley below and runs all the way to the sea.
"Wow, that's one heck of a view." As Troy looks down at the town he sees several people dressed in white and blue, "I didn't know there was a base on this island."
"What?" Yuki asks.
"Well," Troy says, "it looks like there are Marines down there."
"Shit!" Yuki yells, and runs down the hill toward town as fast as he can.