Geez, time just really slipped away from me this week. I look up and it's already Friday, I almost didn't get this chapter out this week. Alright, the original title is 'The Milkmaid and Her Pail' but due to circumstances in the story it has now changed. Ya'll have no idea how hard it was to figure out how to make a simple girl walking into town alone an interesting story. Hopefully, it's a little better than what the original was.

Thanksgiving is next week and besides all the family visits and stuffing myself silly it also means my only way of getting on the internet is going to be closing for the holiday so no chapter next week. Chin up though I'll be working on a bigger one over the break to post the week after.

Dis: Aesop and One Piece are not mine

The Farmer's Daughter and the Cart

On a small farm just past the outskirts of a peaceful little village there lived a young woman and her father. Early every morning the girl would come out of the house and tend to the four geese, the sturdy plow horse, the bearded old goat, and the two milk cows that lived on the farm with them. Then in the afternoon the young woman would be seen walking into the village with her produce to sell to the market.

Early one cool, misty, morning the door to the farmhouse opened on creaky hinges. Vivi stepped outside with a happy sigh. She really loved waking up before the sun had risen fully. She had on a light blue summer dress that matched her long, wavy, hair perfectly.

After her morning chores were completed and breakfast was eaten. She cleaned up the kitchen and packed up the weeks' worth of produce that she had kept in storage. She packed it all in her little cart and set off for the market after giving a goodbye to her father. Pushing the small cart was easy enough, she just had to be careful not to tip it over. Vivi waved hello to their neighbor as she passed by. Chaka was a large man with short, straight, black hair and a great sense of loyalty. He lived there with his brother, Pell, who was probably back in the barn by this time of the day.

Letting her thoughts wander onto what she was going to do with this week's money she didn't notice the hole in the road until it was too late. The wheel of her cart hit the pothole and the whole thing shuddered and rocked causing her to jump back into reality. With a gasp Vivi quickly tightened her grip on the handles and just in time managed to save her cartful of produce from spilling out onto the dusty road. "Whew, that was close. If this happened to tip over then all my hard work would have been for nothing."

Getting back on track again, this time Vivi kept an eye out for any pitfalls that would otherwise have run her off the road. 'I know what I'll do with the money I make from selling this milk.' Vivi thought excitedly as she continued on down the road.

'I know I'll make enough money to buy a few chickens from Pell and Chaka. They'll probably even give me a discount. When those chickens lay their eggs I can sell them at the market. In no time at all I will be able to buy a brand new dress.' Vivi giggled as thoughts of the pretty dresses she had seen other girls wear filled her head. Especially the most beautiful girl in town, Boa Hancock.

That girl always had the finest of everything, money, gorgeous clothes, the adoration of most of the boys. Everything. However, even though she had all that, she wasn't a very nice person. Boa and her sisters were always talking down to anyone who wasn't their standard, especially poor farm girls.

"Oi, Vivi, what's got you so happy?" A curious voice asked, bringing the blue haired girl out of her thoughts.

Glancing over Vivi saw one of her best friends, she was surprised that she had already made it to Nami's orchard. The orange haired young woman was leaning on the fence surrounding her front yard and had a large tangerine in her hands. For as long as Vivi had known her, the other girl had loved the citrusy fruit, maybe it was because her long hair seemed to match the color of the peels almost exactly.

"Oh, hi, Nami. I'm taking these vegetables and fruits and milk to sell at the market. I have a great idea on how to use the money this time." She said as she walked over to the other side of the fence, stopping her cart near the roadside.

Meanwhile, somewhere near the center of the small village, a young man was walking down the road. His red vest was open, showing off his tanned chest, and the light summer breeze ruffled his messy black hair under the worn straw hat he had on his head. He was trying to whistle but it wasn't working out so well for him so instead he began to hum. It was a little tune that his fiancé had taught him the other day. That's where he was headed, in fact, to see his girl.

Luffy grinned widely as he thought about the young woman that had agreed to put up with him for the rest of her life. He never thought that anyone would do that, heck his parents hadn't even done that, but she did and he loved her for it. His grin stretched to the impossible mark when he thought about the wedding they would have… all that food was gonna be so good.

A loud noise is what finally distracted him enough to get his mind off his hungry stomach for a while. "Eh, what's that?" He asked, looking up, down, and around himself.

Finally he spotted a cloud of dust heading his way from the direction he had been walking. Waiting for a few moments in the center of the street he saw the reason. One of his best buddies, Ussop, was running like a mad dog was on his heels.

"Oi, Ussop!" He called to his friend as the long nosed man ran closer. "What'd ya do this time? Shishishi."

Ussop frowned at his friend. "I don't like what you're insinuating." He huffed breathlessly as he paused beside Luffy to pant for air. "How do you know I did anything? This is all a frame up!"

Just then the angry mob came around the corner. They were yelling and shaking their fists and the other things mobs usually do. Ussop yelped and dashed away with a quick 'Bye Luffy'. The straw hat wearing boy only laughed, that is until he heard one of the crowd point him out.

"Hey! There's Luffy! Get him too!" Sanji, the restaurant chef, yelled to his fellow mob members. "He's an eat-n-run. He still hasn't paid for the fifteen meals he had yesterday."

"Yeah! He stole meat from my shop last week!"

"And mine too! We gotta make him pay!"

"Get him!"

Luffy smiled nervously as the crowd of villagers turned their attention to him. "Hey, wait a minute you guys…" He gulped when it didn't seem the mob would be satisfied until he was strung up by his toes. In no time at all he had caught up to his long nosed friend and the two raced down the streets of the village.

"So, what about you?" Vivi asked after she had told Nami her idea on how to make enough money for a beautiful dress to wear. "I know you must be looking forward to your big day. That would be the perfect occasion to wear my new dress and then all the boys would stumble all over themselves at the sight of me, just like they do with Boa."

Nami laughed as that image played in her head. "I can just see the expression on her face when you walk into the room, looking even more beautiful than she ever could. That would sure show Miss Perfect Boa Hancock." The two farm girls had a nice giggle fit together at the idea of finally showing up the rich, snobby, woman. "And, yeah, I'm really excited about everything, It's a lot of planning to go through but I know it'll be worth it. Luffy is really special."

"Yeah, I'll say, he managed to convince you. After all, you always said you were going to find someone rich, and that would be the only way you'd tie yourself down." Vivi giggled as her friend blushed heavily.

"Oi, Nami!"

"Well, speak of the devil." Nami muttered under her breath but she grinned anyway.

Luffy was running all out down the dirt road toward the two girls, and Ussop was right beside him, panting and wheezing as he went. The straw hat boy was laughing madly as he waved a greeting though he didn't slow down or stop. "Oi, Nami! We need you to hide us. If the villagers come by, you didn't see us, okay."

Nami shared a long suffering look with Vivi. The blue haired girl only chuckled at her friends. "Luffy, what did you do this time? And, by the way, there isn't anyone chasing you." The orange haired young woman said and pointed behind the boys to an empty road.

Both Ussop and Luffy turned to look over their shoulders to indeed see that the angry mob of villagers had disappeared. However, they hadn't stopped running, and they weren't looking where they were going. So, maybe it was inevitable when the boys ran headlong into Vivi's cart.

One straw hat and one long nose tumbled over the upturned cart. The lids on the pails of milk went flying and the dairy product poured out and soaked into the ground. The vegetables and fruits were spilled all over the roadside from their baskets. Most of them were actually squished under the bodies of Luffy and Ussop when they landed in the dirt. And the wheel of the cart itself was broken off its axel by the impact.

All Vivi and Nami could do was stare for a few agonizingly silent minutes. The blue haired young woman could feel all her great plans blow away in the wind. The chickens she was going to buy, the eggs she was going to sell, and the beautiful dress she was going to wear. All those plans had disappeared.

Luffy was the first to pick himself up off the ground. The remains of squash and tomato were smeared across his red vest, blue jean shorts, and his chest. Ussop remained on the ground, his overalls were stained with bits of apple, lettuce leaves stuck in his hair, and he was soaked from the milk puddle he had landed in.

"Ah, sorry 'bout that, Vivi." Luffy chuckled nervously as he rubbed the back of his head, over his hat. "We didn't see your cart there but don't worry, Ussop can fix the wheel in no time, and then everything will be good."

He didn't even have time to let out his signature laugh before Nami had jumped the fence and slammed her fist into the young man's head. "You idiot! What makes you think everything will be good with just that. Don't think just because I decided to marry you I'll go easy on you now. You two better be able to pay Vivi back for everything you just ruined."

Ussop was cowering behind the broken cart and Luffy was lying dazed with his face implanted in a watermelon. Attitude doing a complete 180, Nami turned to her friend, and placed a comforting hand on the silent girl's shoulder. "Sorry about this, Vivi. I know you were planning a lot of stuff when you sold all this at the market today."

Heaving a big sigh, Vivi let a tiny smile slip onto her face. "That's alright, Nami. It's not so bad. I just have to wait a bit longer to get my dress, that's all. It's mostly my fault for getting all excited beforehand. But, I think that next time, I'll wait to do all my planning until after I have the money."

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Moral- Don't count your chickens before they are hatched