It was around midnight.
Many children that lived in the streets were asleep, catching as much as they can to make sure they'll live another day. Rodents in the trash cans could be heard making noise. Maybe some drunk shouting. A few party and disco houses playing music could be heard further in the alleyways. Most of the village was sleeping.
Most street rat gangs left the oldest awake to guard the others and their leftover food. One gang had a black-haired, dark green-eyed eight-year-old guarding. He glances at the moon the stars and concludes his shift over.
He walks over to the next one who is supposed to guard. He reaches over to shake the seven-year-old awake but halts when he sees blue eyes already open.
The seven-year-old is awake.
"Couldn't get sleep, eh?"
"Oh no it's not that Frank. Rather it's my internal clock waking me up. Anyway, is it already my turn?"
The darker skinned boy sighs, nods and signals the younger to change places with him.
The younger slowly gets up, tucks the stolen piece of a curtain used as a blanket a bit further away. The seven-year-old shakes his head and yawns a bit. Sluggishly the child moves towards the older while rubbing the sleep away from his eyes.
"I'm going to sleep now" The older murmurs while moving towards the now tucked away curtain. The younger smiles, knowing that with what he has planned, he will probably never see the older again.
He waits patiently until the older is surely asleep. He looks over every other street rat in this particular gang and then softly gets up. Careful not to wake anyone he gathers a few things that look useful, including a new world log pose and then leaves.
The figure slipped along the streets, dodging now familiar sharp edges of trash or other garbage thrown around. Slipping along quietly, avoiding stepping on the rodents and cockroaches.
He skips past avoiding eye contact with another gang's guard that he had to pass by. The older by two years moved to a slightly more defensive position. The eyes narrowed and following the seven-year-olds figure even after he passed by.
Finally coming out of the shadowy alleys between houses, the child arrived at a port. Moonlight bled onto the once well-kept body. Light steps towards the wharfs and the ships in there. Looking for something one moment.
Next having found it.
Mr. Gano is an old gangly fisherman who has a decently successful life.
The man is awake, just left his boat, is on a rather cranky mood. He had a bad fishing trip and wants to go see his wife. He is now staring at the silhouette of a small child, sitting on the edge of a small wharf he pulled up to.
The child turns to him.
Blue eyes shine, and golden hair is free in the wind. He enters a slight daze at the beauty. A dragon pendant gleams in the moonlight.
A Smile
and then darkness.
Zeno looks up, he is ready to leave this island. His body is nowhere near strong or good enough for the New World but staying for 2 years on the same island is enough. At least fighting with other street rats or beating up drunk men off their money gave him some skill. But he was pretty confident with his memories experience anyways.
Not that he needed any skill.
Nothing could actually kill him.
But sinking to the bottom of the ocean and staying there with burning lungs because the boat was bad would be unfortunate. He could live like that, but it didn't mean he wanted to.
Drowning was one of the more painful ways to die.
And pain was getting quite boring.
He looked up, there was no stairs to get up to the boat, he would have to jump over what was between the wharf and the boat a few centimeters away and higher.
Quickly he backs up a bit, nods to himself and takes a running start before jumping aboard. He looks up and is greeted with a typical fisher boat. He sighs once again and with a determined expression he heads towards the cabin first.
After a trough check on everything, every corner and making sure no rodents or anything had come abroad he goes and checks the supplies. He had chosen Gano because of his boats sturdiness and the typical look that anyone would overlook. If he would pretend to be a boy who went on his father's ship and got accidentally washed away from the shore on a stormy day, he could surely fool all the marines who asked. After all no seven-year old knows how to sail nor navigate in the new world.
He takes the crowbar he sneaked earlier that week abroad and bends a few re hammered nails. He takes off the carefully placed planks of wood and reveals his secret stash of survival needs. The old man was really blind after all. If you were a little subtle and knew that you were doing, sneaking these things aboard was really easy.
He counts everything from food to arrows to the millilitre of water he has. Nods satisfied and them turns towards the cabin again.
The cabin was small, not really meant for traveling or staying in for long periods of time. He would have to change boats sooner rather than later. There was a table, a few cabinets on the walls. A corner for fishing supplies and a fishing poster on the same wall.
He takes the log pose now neatly tied on his wrist. He look at it for a while. One of the three needles was a bit damaged, the fastening on the pose a bit loose so he should be careful, so it will not slip off his wrist. He had picked the usually sold for 1,500 beri pose in the dumpsters. A lucky found considering how well it works still.
Now he should decide where to dead towards. One of the needles wasn't working so he had only two options, he had to get a new one. The last two were however both bad options. The more the needle shakes the more dangerous or less stable the island is right?
So, should he choose the needle which has never stopped trembling and twitching or the one that keeps changing 90 degrees every one minute.
He had only once glanced upon a map. It had been in Mrs. Maaris stand when she was looking for the route a vegetable ship wants to take the stands products to. He had seen that
Getsubi island is around the middle, leaning more towards North Blue and the entrance from Fishman island than the opposite side where Raftel is at the end.
So, he doesn't know which island will lead him closer towards his goal before his tenth birthday, Fishman island.
Oh well. Adventure is at the end of both of them, right? He can get a map from where he arrives at. It's not like he's in a hurry. Three years is a short time for maybe him true but to the sea it's a long long time.
The 90-degree needle it is then!
_
He started calling the needles names. The trembling g one is scaredy cat, scared of whatever it is on the end of its tip. And the 90 degree one is the nope-don't-go-there one, nicknamed nope.
And he really should have listened to nope, since now he was staring at a giant elephant. It was indeed, a moving an island. The resigned marines that would tell the town kids stories about the island they had been to were not kidding when they said there are moving islands and crazy shit out here.
He was silently considering going back to sailing and just leaving and following scaredy-cat but whatever was at the end of there would be even more crazy probably.
So instead he sailed towards the elephants... head? Front? The head was too high up there so, to the front two legs? Let's hope he won't get crushed. He doesn't have any kind of thing to keep the boat attached to the moving island. No rope and his abilities didn't include anything that would help.
He could fly himself up but that didn't help his boat. And he would rather not have dragon wings attached to his back. They were heavy and Zeryllis' body wasn't developed enough to handle the strain to transform fully into a dragon, and in no way the god form.
So, he would neither have to give up his boat and start climbing up the leg. Extremely dangerous and a high risk of falling to the ocean.
Or he could stay on the ship and wait until some resident from up there would notice him. Then they would come investigate and he would play the innocent lost child card. But that's assuming there are resident's and if there are, that they would come check outside on the elephant's legs.
For all he knows they wouldn't even know the island is moving or an elephant for that matter.
Oh well, he doesn't think there could be another ship up there, and the chances there is one up there is slim so if he gives the boat up he probably won't get to traveling again. So, waiting it is like always. Although his food will last only twenty more days and the water thirty so if nobody comes and gets him in ten days, he'll start climbing.
But now he's curious about the elephant. If he shouts would it hear him? What if it notices him and attacks him? The possibilities! He never saw an ancient elephant island before so of course he's curious.
He stares up in awe.
The biggest question is. Which of them is older. In spirit Zeno had passed the hundred thousand mark a long time ago, as in thousands of years ago. He was reminded by the black dragon. He had been in a universe where a hunter was a privileged and wanted but dangerous occupation. It had been one of his favorite universes. When he told his companions at the time they had held a small celebration.
He could faintly remember a white-haired boy and a black-haired boy with bright smiles and a blonde and an another ravenette. All boys had had fun. It was one of those universes he wanted to remember.
The ancient being moved along, Zeno smiled.
He would converse with the huge animal island sooner or later.
Suddenly he could hear small sounds of scraping from above. He looked up and saw two incoming figures. Before long the two figures had landed on the boat. They held their weapons towards him.
Zeno stared, careful not to make any of his usual expressions of smiles and wise faces. He took on the natural wonder and curiosity and still made the touch of lost and scared child believable.
The animal human deer girl and wolf girl in front of him started to take their weird spear weapons back. Slowly taking a less apprehensive stance.
"A lesser mink child" The deer one wonders out loud.
"Does Koarahanaki*-sama know that the inhabitant is a pup-teia?"
"We must inform him, this one is of no harm and most likely lost-teia."
"Yes, I will go inform him, will yutia stay here?"
"Yes I will stay, now hurry along Okarai, they will send more to investigate if you will not return-teia." The deer girl hurried the wolf girl along to go.
"Well, if you're so sure.. I'll be back with orders soon-teia!" The wolf girl 'Okarai' answered before putting the weapon on her back, then climbing up the elephants leg.
He continued to stare until he couldn't see her anymore. Then turned his face towards the deer girl with hopeful eyes. She melted a bit and started cooing.
"Hello little one, my name is Shikami, I'm a deer mink-teia. Have you ever seen a full mink before?" She introduced herself and asked in a soft voice.
"I'm Ze! What is a mink?"
"Well a Mink is a cross of an animal and a lesser mink and.. its hard to explain Ze-teia"
"Was the other girl a mink too?"
"Yes, her name is Okarai and she's a wolf mink. But what happened to yutia?"
He didn't pause or blink at the question, no hesitance like a real child. He made his eyes start to water a bit. A more sad and scared face appearing.
"Papa left Ze, he said-*snyft* to wait in the boat! Then the b-big kaboom and dark c-clouds ca-came and *sob* the water was spl-splashing a l-lot! And Ze t-tried to call *snyft* papa bu-but when th-the *sob*the clouds went away Ze co-couldnt see h-home or papa a-anym-more and *sob* then Ze was all alone!" He started to mildly sob and let his nose run a bit.
Before long he was weeping in front of the deer mink that looked so sad and helpless at the face of a crying human child. He kept on crying with the honed skills of over a good hundreds of thousands years.
He started to limit his sobbing when the mink started to rub his back and say small comforting words. He sniffled and kept his eyes teary. He grabbed his rags helm for good measure.
She eyed the rags on Zeno and then while patting his head started to talk.
"Oh-oh my, Okarai will come back soon, let's get yutia some proper clothing and food. Dont worry we'll take care of yutia's papa's boat ok? Everything will be fine-teia.." She then saw the log pose on my wrist. "Why wont yutia tell me about that log pose-teia?"
"I-it was Ze's sixth birthday present from papa.. one of the needles went all still and the glass funny when Ze fell. The strap wouldnt hold it on Ze's wrist properly neither- Ze is scared Ze broke papa's gift- it's not broken right?"
Her face and eyes soften again at the sight of a small child crying and worrying over their fathers gift.
Just then the sound of small hops and multiple claws against the elephants skin was heard. Shikami looked up and smiled while he sniffled. The wolf mink, Okarai he reminded himself, from before along with a dog and a tiger mink were coming down.
"Okarai you're back-teia!" Then Shikami took notice if the two male minks with Okarai "Benretto-teia! Kalmium-teia!"
"Shikami how is the lesser mink pup-gara?" The tiger mink went straight to the point.
"Benretto, we need to get Ze some proper clothing! She has probably been starving!" Shikami answered the tiger.
"What happened to yugara?" The dog mink came and asked Zeno. Instead of replying, he ran behind Shikami as if scared of the new arrivals. Shikami stared at where Zeno had ran behind her legs before replying to the dog mink.
"She was lost from her home island on her father's boat on a stormy night-teia"
"How long has yagara been lost at the sea?"
"I dont know Kalmium, Ze-teia how long have you been apart from yutia's papa?" Shikami turned her attention back to Zeno.
"Z-Ze has slept forty eight nights alone.."
"Horrible! Almost two months!" Okarai held her hands to her mouth.
"Come on, let's get her out of this thing and some proper clothing-teia." Shikami held Zenos hand as she hurried them along. She quickly put Zeno on Benretto's, the tiger minks back and hopped on Okarai's back herself.
Zeno watched in awe as wind rushed past his cheeks and the force whipped his face. He held himself even closer to the tiger mink. He could see Shikami on Okarai's back hopping behind him. Moving fastly above him was Kalmium the dog mink.
Before he had realized they had climbed to the top of the elephant. Now the boat was not in sight, above the fog that had earlier blocked his view of the elephants upper back.
The lands were weirdly shaped. They looked hard to move around in. Yet Benretto who carried him and every other mink moved flawlessly on the bumby ground.
Shikami who had come off Okarai's back was now running close behind him. He watched in awe as they went deeper into the jungle. He looked at the landscape and the view and-it was breath-taking.
"Benretto! Kalmium! Okarai! Shikami! Yugara-ra are safe!" A horse mink came in sight.
"Tammy, we need to get this little lesser mink proper clothing and food! Yatia has been stranded at the sea for forty-eight nights!" Shikami took Zeno from Benretto's back and held him towards the horse mink.
"F-Forty-eight nights?! The pup is lucky to be alive-gara!"
A female hedgehog mink ran towards Shikami, grabbing Zeno from her arms. "Let us make haste towards the capital! I will not look upon a lost child with suspicious eyes!"
And then Zeno was being carried deeper into the jungle once again.
_
Zeno twirled around.
It was quite funny to see the minks confused expression when they dressed him. While Qwinty, the nice hedgehog mink, had dressed him she had asked a lot of questions.
With a little emotional manipulation, the hedgehog mink was sold to his innocent-girl-abused-by-her-mother-now-lost-at-the-sea act. As she had been the one dressing him along with Chel, a pretty monkey mink, they had seen the scars. He really couldnt hide what had been done to Zeryllis so he had to craft some backstory.
It was also funny to see himself in a mirror, in a skirt clearly meant for the child minks. The outfit was simple enough, a blue suspender skirt over a green and white striped t-shirt.
The land of what he had heard- called Zou, was on a top of an elephant named Zunisha. Its current leader was a Koala mink named Koarahanaki, he had a squadron of mink fighters for intruders and they also worked a bit like the worshipped police. Okarai and Shikami had been a part of the squadron patrolling Zunisha's back when they had smelled him.
The reason Shikami and Okarai were even patrolling was because Okarai had felt nervous. She was nervous something would go wrong while her cousin, Inaki was giving birth. And thus, to reassure Okarai while Ineko went to labor Shikami took Okarai patrolling.
Zunisha also sprayed water on his back two times a day as he had witnessed just after getting dressed. Seeing different kind of animal people cooing, at you and at the same time rushing in to a safe place to not get washed away by the water was quite the sight.
Not that he complained. Zou was already a better place than neither the Ryuugano mansion or Getsubi port island. The food was all vegetables and really good. All the minks had diffrent kinds of habits and quirks that make Zou unique.
Qwinty had shown the rodents lair, a club if you will, to him. There were apparently all kinds of clubs formed between same species. The city was full of life and they treated him like he had lived here his whole life.
Now he was holding Shikami's hand while she lead him to meet the leader. He had been in Zou for two days, getting familiar. Now suddenly he felt scared at the thought of Koarahanaki kicking him out of Zou.
While yes, he wanted to travel the world, but staying with the minks for a while seemed like a good plan. Plus, Zeryllis doesn't have a good body so he has to train at some point. Might as well do it earlier than planned.
Shikami went through the veil of dried leaves. She led her to the room with no hesitation. As soon as he entered he felt being watched. He looked around and saw a giant koala, scar over his eye and wearing typical kung fu clothing. The koala was sitting on a pike of fabrics and pillows. Around were a few other minks. He recognized Benretto but none of the others.
"So, this is the lesser mink pup-gara?"
"Yes, this is Ze Koarahanaki-sama."
The old eyes of the giant koala turn over to him. Staring at his eyes. Zeno almost forgets to act. Nonetheless, he tightens his hold on Shikami. The mink smiles at him and whispers a small it's okay.
"Hmm, and this pup has nowhere to go-gara?"
"We could try to find her home island but-" Shikami was interrupted.
"Even if we would know the islands name, there are very few boats in here-teia!" An old cat lady said.
"Hmm.. Yagararara!" The giant koala started laughing suddenly. A bit baffled Zeno blinks his eyes and holds a hand to his chest.
"We'll keep the pup-gara! For as long as the pup wants to stay-gara!" Koarahanaki says before bursting to laughter again.
Well. At least he knows where he will stay the next few years. The wait will until he leaves again, will be a bit longer than Getsubi. Bet he will leave with lots of good memories.
So, 2-4 years maybe? Yes, that'll do.
_
Hi! Its me, and Im here with a lot longer chapter. I hope you guys like it.
Again I don't speak English as my first language and Eli(my proofreader) doesn't neither so forgive me for any errors in grammar or spelling.
