Ok, so. I kind of lied on the whole 'I'll get another chapter out tomorrow' thing. I had my head focused on my semester tests. School has to come before this, sadly. Luckily, I'm on my second semester of senior year in High School. So come May 20th, I'll be done with my high school career. I can't guarantee I won't be lazy as shit after that, though. Christmas vacation has been hell, and I may just have a new chapter idea. You'll know if it was a good idea by how long this chapter actually is.

"You know I can't promise you my granddaughter without her being her." an old marine growled.

"Oh, but on the contrary, seeing as your grandson's have left you and you are becoming poor, you'll have to, old man. I doubt your granddaughter could even come back off that mountain and ready to take care of you!" the younger smirked.

"I can't just place Annabell into an arranged marriage that I know she'll be unhappy in. I don't care if I am going broke, Akainu. My answer is no. I will not sign any documents on an arranged marriage just so you can brag about having the most beautiful wife in this damn town!" Garp grumbled. "Now get out of my house."

Akainu glared at the old man, obviously pissed at the old man's stubbornness. "Then I'm taking your house and everything from you, starting the week after your granddaughter is due back. If she is not home by then, then good luck finding someone to live with." with that, Akainu got up and left.

This was bad. Garp hadn't expected to suddenly stop receiving money from his job. He was a veteran! How could they do this? Well, maybe he needed to get back to it and come out of retirement to work again. So, he started searching for a job. Luffy and Sabo had been outside, of course, having returned to see their old man, only to hear the ridiculous proposal. The two looked at each other and nodded. Luffy would stay there with Gramps and Sabo would head out to look for their older sister.

So far, Ann was being held captive, or so it seemed. She had learned that all the creatures in the valley had amazing healing abilities. Marco received top prize for being the fastest though. Haruta, had managed to recover in three weeks from his broken leg. Everyone else in the family was slowly warming up to Annabell, but the ones that hung around her the most were Thatch, Izo, Haruta, and Marco (when he didn't have to take a look around the forest for lost travelers or go hunting.)

Since Haruta had recovered and Ann was not allowed out of the valley without two of the boys with her, she often actually rode on Haruta's back and Thatch just shifted into his bird of paradise form to hitchhike on Anna's shoulder. Annabell didn't try to run away, she actually preferred to go out with at least two of them and see all the different sights they could show her. It was absolutely perfect. Except for the time they'd almost been eaten by a bear and Curiel and Vista had to rescue them or the time when Annabell and Haruta had fallen down a cliff and onto a ledge below because they had stood on a crumbling part of a cliff after Izo had told them not to go past a certain line. Kingdew and Blenheim had to rescue them. They could always guarantee that someone would have to go rescue Haruta and Ann each time they went on an outing. So the two became known as the trouble making duo quite quickly.

Of course, Whitebeard found all the stories quite hilarious. Though, they all knew Ann would have to return soon, no one was looking forward to it. Ann was getting worried about her family though. She wanted to go back and check on them at least. Haruta had already agreed that when the time came, he'd take her back down there since he was the easiest to hide. He could always hide his horn and just look like a regular horse. So, it had been decided, once Anna needed to go home, they'd allow Haruta and her a few weeks to come up with an excuse of why Haruta had disappeared. For now, they just continued to grow closer with Annabell. Whitebeard had even started calling her his daughter and Ann had grown to like him as a father figure and so far would call him Pops when she wanted his attention.