Chapter 2: A Place to Stay

"Nice to meet you Luffy", the boy named Sabo said. "Where did you come from?"

"Not here", I answered. I could not, would not tell this guy that I had come from an other dimension.

"Well, yeah, we figured that out. No one wears clothes like that," said Ace, "At least no one who considers themselves normal. And what's with the weird hat?

This got me really mad. People had always told me I had good taste and color coordination. I could live with others insulting that, though, but no one, and I mean no one insults my hat. "You try saying that again", I said through gritted teeth.

Luffy was staring at Ace with a menacing look in her eyes. You could practically see the dark aura rolling off of her in waves. I was starting to fear for Ace's life. But why had she gotten so mad about a hat? Was it special or something? Ace didn't appear to have noticed Luffy's anger. Scratch that - he did and wanted to make her even more furious than she already was. I could tell this was not going to end well.

"I called that ugly old straw hat of yours weird, what're you going to do about it?"

I mentally facepalmed. How could he be so stupid. Now he was well on his way to making sure that he would be bound to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Needless to say, Luffy had had enough. She lunged at Ace and tackled him to the ground before either of us had a chance to blink. That girl was fast. She tried punching Ace in the face, and succeeded once, before I had the chance to pin her arms above her head.

"Let me go", she squirmed, "I'll make him pay. He dug his own grave. No one insults my hat and gets away with it." She thrashed herself into exhaustion. When she was finished I helped her stand up.

"Come on. If you have nowhere else to go then you can come to our house, though I don't know if you could actually call it that. You can tell us everything about yourself once we sit down somewhere", I tried to persuade her. It didn't take long for her to agree, especially when I mentioned we were going to have bear meat for dinner.

I followed Sabo. I don't think he's going to hurt me, and I'm not planning on hurting him unless I have to (though I can't say the same for Ace), and even if I tried I was pretty sure I wouldn't win. He was strong, stronger than me (at least in my current state), and it seemed pretty stupid to refuse free food, especially since it was meat. Yes! Who knows in how long I hadn't eaten, and this way I could fill my stomach for free.

Sabo helped me up the rope ladder that led to the treehouse, while Ace followed behind us, sulking. I couldn't help but wonder why he hadn't fought back, though I think it was the shock. I was always being underestimated. Most people seemed to think that being scrawny meant being weak, and apparently this guy was no different. Once we were inside Sabo told me to sit down on one of the many animal skins in the room. He went outside to start a fire, and start cooking the meat. My mouth was watering. I couldn't wait to find out what the food in this dimension tasted like. As soon as he got back and sat down, he started asking me questions.

"So, Luffy, how old are you?"

"Fourteen", I answered.

"How did you even get here in the first place? Ace and I found you unconscious in the middle of the forest about to be eaten by a giant tiger injured holding a weird rock."

"Oh, you mean this thing?" I took the artifact out of my pocket and showed it to them. I could see Ace was interested in it, seeing a hint of curiosity in his eyes.

"Can I see that?", he asked. I handed it to him, wondering why he would want to see something like that.

He looked it over." This is written in Adai", he suddenly said.

"What is?", I asked. Up until then I hadn't noticed the writing on the relic. "And isn't Adai an extinct language? Can you read it?"

"Yes, I can, though some of the words carved into the stone have faded away and are impossible to read, at least without a magnifying glass", he answered.

"Ace has always been good with languages", Sabo said, "It sounds impossible, and I don't know how he did it, but he managed to learn most of the extinct languages and is able to use them fluently. He's a genius!"

I nodded my head, eyes wide open in shock. Was this guy for real? "Can you translate what it says for me?"

"Something about traveling through time and space to an other dimension, people getting seriously injured if they don't know what they're doing and winding up dead most of the time", he suddenly looked up, suspicious. " Now how about you tell us how you got here?"

"I seriously don't know. Last I remember I was tending to my garden when I noticed a stone. It looked cool, so I picked it up." Ace and Sabo sweat dropped. " Next thing I know I was here, injured and lying in a bed in your treehouse, with no clue as to my whereabouts. Is the food ready yet?" I finished my speech. I couldn't help it. I was too hungry to think clearly at the moment.

Sabo went outside."You can come on down, the meats ready", he yelled. I swooped down onto the food as fast as I could. It was great, and it was gone in less than five minutes. Apparently I wasn't the only one who ate a lot here.

"I have a problem", I announced, patting my full stomach. "I have no place to stay, and I would be grateful if you let me stay the night here."

"Sure I don't see why that would be a problem", Sabo replied.

"Thanks a lot! I appreciate it! To make up for it I'll find us some breakfast tomorrow, hm?"

"Really... you don't have to."

"But it's the least I can do to thank you", I said.

"OK, OK, do what you want, but it's not going to be our fault if you get killed out there by some giant beast", said Ace. He was trying to scare me off, but I didn't back down.

"I'll be fine. I know how to fight, and I'm strong, too.

Both Sabo and Ace just sighed. Apparently they didn't think that a girl could fight. Boy was I going to prove them wrong.

"You can sleep on the bed in that room", Sabo said, pointing to the room I had woken up in.

"Thank you!", I ran up to him and hugged him. Sabo blushed, but I didn't notice. I was lost in thoughts. 'They aren't bad people. Maybe a little scary at first, but definitely not bad. How could a person be bad when they offer you a place to stay and food?' I ran to the room. As soon as I got in I dropped onto the bed and fell asleep almost instantly.

(A/N) This chapter didn't come out like I wanted it too. Oh well. I haven't updated for the past few days because I'm just to lazy. Unfortunately, I'm starting school on the 3rd of September, so I'll only be able to update like once a week. Please review!