A Country Girl's Dream
A gunshot ran through the air, the bottle that had been placed on the rail of the ship shattering as the bullet hit its mark. Flints of glass flew through the air, most of the pieces falling into the ocean
Mouda smiled at the scene, the pistol in her hands smoking faintly from the recent use.
It had been roughly two weeks since she and Ace were saved by Shanks' crew. The girl never had much to do- the interesting books on the red haired captain's self had dwindled to none, and the tasks on board she could help with seemed to fall into the minus zone. Rather than helping, Mouda would have been a nuisance. She knew that and the crew knew that, so neither made any offers.
She had been well on her way to becoming a very bored country girl, until one of the men approached her and asked if she'd been taught how to use a gun. She said no- that her da had always been against the use of firearms.
So today Mouda found herself under the tutelage of Yasopp, the Red Haired pirate's sharpshooter. He was a very nice man despite his burly appearance, and the blonde felt happy as he praised her for her good aim.
"You've got good eyes" the man told her, making a motion as if to pat the girl on the head, but stopping half way to reach towards the gun in her hands instead. "Make sure to keep yourself steady, though-" he lifted her arms, squeezing them lightly so the gun pointed unwaveringly at where the glass bottle once sat. "You have to remain on target no matter how much your insides quiver. If you miss, it could mean the end"
"R…right" Mouda breathed, the pistol suddenly feeling very heavy.
"What are you guys doing?"
The blond girl lowered her gun as she looked to her left, Ace approaching them with a curious expression on his face, his dark eyes trained on the firearm in her hands.
"Yasopp-san is teaching me how to use a gun!" she told him cheerfully, removing one hand from the weapon to brush some of her hair back.
"Not just a gun, but a pistol" the sharpshooter corrected. "What type of gun you use is very important, since their all made differently, and even the slightest change can affect your accuracy"
The girl nodded diligently.
"Hey!" Ace looked to the older pirate with a frown. "Don't teach her stuff like this!"
"Why not?" Mouda tilted her head to the side as though it might help her see a negative side to the lessons.
"The way I see it, boy, is that you don't have any say in what she wants to do with herself" Yasopp pointed out.
"I wasn't asking for your opinion!" Ace barked. "And don't call me boy!"
"I want to learn" the country girl put her foot between the two men cautiously. "Target practice gives me something to do"
The sharpshooter nodded at Mouda's comment while speaking to Ace again. "She needs to occupy herself. Better to have her do something constructive while she's at it"
"Why can't you just have her help with cooking or something?" the black haired man complained, taking the gun from Mouda's hands without warning. "It's a lot less dangerous"
The blonde got on her toes, reaching for the pistol that was being held out of her reach. "I don't know how to cook fancy things!"
"What kind of girl doesn't know how to cook?" Ace asked with an unconvinced laugh.
"That's not what I said! I said I couldn't cook fancy, that doesn't mean I can't cook at all!" Mouda dropped to the flat of her feet and took a few gulps of air before trying to reach for the weapon again. "And please give that back to me!"
Yasopp stared at their antics for a moment before giving Ace a sidelong glance. "…Now your just teasing her, aren't you?"
"Looks fun, right?"
In the end, Mouda had never gotten the gun back. Yasopp assured her they could continue with practice another day, but for now her lessons were on hold. Bored, the country girl made her way below deck and headed to the room she had been given. Flopping down on the bed, She gave a short sigh before wriggling out of her boots. It was a bit early, but no harm would come of simply lying in bed for a little while.
"It isn't as though there's anything else for me to do…" she mumbled, rolling onto her stomach and pressing her face into the blanket.
Being at sea was nice- to a degree. The water was beautiful during all times of day and night, and the sea breeze was revitalizing. After so many hours of it, however, the sun would begin to burn or the nighttime air would go cold and Mouda found herself loosing interest. She didn't love sailing. She didn't love being miles away from land, traveling for weeks at the thrill of what she might find once they arrived at the next island. Her eagerness to reach their destination was simply the eagerness to get back trees and rocks and grasslands- nothing more, nothing less.
She wasn't someone who enjoyed the lifestyle of a pirate. Not like Ace. Knowing this, the girl couldn't help but sense a gap between them. It made her worried and unsure of how to act. Her father had always disapproved of using guns, and as his daughter she followed his ways- so the desire to learn how to use one was probably nothing more then an attempt at filling that gap. Ace was against the idea, which could be taken in a number of ways. Either he liked her as she was, a simple country girl, or…
Or he wanted to keep her as far away from him as possible, hoping eventually they would disconnect completely and she would forget about him.
Her thoughts were interrupted by a loud sniffle that came from none other then herself, surprising the girl. With a weary sigh Mouda lifted herself and slid under the blanket, pulling it over her head shortly afterwards. She curled onto her side, hands pressing against her chest tightly. Trying to endure all of these feelings was tiring. It hurt.
Mouda closed her blue eyes, the blanket shielding out the light in the room and the noise from above. All that was left was the distant rocking of the ship and the faint crooning to be heard as the water pushed against it.
The next time Mouda opened her eyes, it was because of a knock at her door. Realizing she had been asleep, the girl scrambled out from underneath her blanket, rolling off to the bed and onto the floor. Feeling more awake thanks to the sudden collision with the wooden planks, the blonde tried to stand up and tripped to the door, grabbing the handle to keep herself from falling over. Steadying herself, Mouda then took a few quiet intakes of air and opened the door to see who her visitor was.
"Sorry," Ace told her when looking at the girl. "Did I wake you up?"
"Wha- n-no, why? What time is it?" Mouda lifted her hands to her head, patting down her static blonde hair. Strands of platinum were sticking to her face and she pushed them away, only to have them cling to her neck instead.
"It's almost noon" the man answered, a grin on his face. He was no doubt laughing at how frazzled she must have looked.
Mouda paused in fixing her hair. Almost noon? That couldn't be right- she had lain down just shortly after noon, hadn't she?
Her stomach growled and she covered her abdomen in embarrassment. She'd slept right through until the next day! "Why didn't you wake me sooner?" she complained, following Ace as he headed towards the galley.
"I didn't think I was supposed to" Ace admitted, scratching the back of his head as he walked. "I came by last night, too, but you'd already gone to bed. I figured you must have been tired and let you sleep"
"Next time, please don't let me sleep in so much…" the girl mumbled.
They entered the galley and Mouda shyly asked the chef for something to eat and a glass of milk, to which he laughed. Some of the crewmembers thought it was funny she didn't drink, this one included. More for them, she thought, sipping her milk with pink cheeks. Beside her, Ace had fallen asleep with his face buried in a plate of food.
Later, when Ace had woken up and bother their plated had been cleaned, they went up on deck and traveled to the rail of the ship. Mouda was starting to notice that a majority of their conversations over the past little while had occurred in such places, and the girl wondered if he liked this sort of setting the most. Shutting her eyes, she took a deep breath of the salty air and exhaled as her muscles unwound. Lifting her eyelids, Mouda smiled a little at the passing clouds.
"So," Ace asked suddenly. "Does the sea look any different to you?"
Mouda stared out at the mass of water, searching for something out of the ordinary. The girl finally shook her head, her hair swishing back and forth against the breeze. "…Should it?"
The man at her side chuckled faintly. "Well, I wasn't expecting you to notice anything, but it is different…" leaning against the rail, Ace pointed out into the distance at a place she couldn't see. "Out there is my hometown of Fuchsia…we'll reach there in about two days time"
In Ace's voice was pride, but also a bit of reluctance. He might have been happy to be visiting home, but the black haired man had mentioned to her that these circumstances weren't the ones he wanted. He'd been dragged away from his task of hunting the man named Marshall D. Teach and was now further away from him then he would have ever liked. On top of that, having to carry around a country girl like herself probably did little to help Ace's situation. Although Mouda should have been feeling guilty at this point, a bubble of giddiness filled her chest as she looked out at the ocean in awe.
"So…we're not on the Grand Line anymore?" she breathed, her blue eyes widening along with her smile. "I'm looking at East Blue…wow…"
The afternoon light glittering atop the water pricked at her eyes and Mouda looked away. Her head bowed, the girl's hair spilled over the railing slightly and tried to cling to the splintered wood. As she continued to stare downwards, Mouda saw the edge of her red skirt and noticed how flattened some of the frills had become. She should have changed before coming outside. Her clothes had become creased from sleeping in them.
"Something wrong?" Ace asked from beside her, possibly curious about her sudden silence.
As if the question had been a trigger, Mouda felt her eyes water. Swallowing, she shook her head and let the sensation of her forehead brushing against the railing sooth her. "No…I was just thinking about something…" the girl's voice faded, and this time there was nothing for her to swallow. "I never thought I'd see an ocean different then the one that I grew up seeing" Mouda admitted. "I've never thought of traveling the seas or becoming a pirate or anything like that. I'm just a bit shocked"
The fire user kept silent for a moment, perhaps sensing her melancholy. "Is that a bad thing?" he wondered.
The country girl lifted her head again, resting her chin on the railing as she stared at the waters of East Blue, this time not minding the pinpricks of sunlight in her eyes. "I'm a little jealous" she told him. "That you and so many other people can have these really big dreams"
"You don't have any dreams?"
Mouda shook her head a little. "Not really. I'm happy with my daily life of taking care of the cows and picking apples, and walking two hours to get to the post office…" she trailed off for a moment but soon finished. "It's a simple life and I don't think there's any room for big dreams in it"
"I didn't say big dreams" Ace pointed out, and the blonde felt him flick her head. "I just said dreams. They don't have to be really big ones…" the man put his arms behind his head, his scarred back pressing against the wood rail. It's not like I'm aiming to be the pirate king myself, you know"
The country girl nodded, not quite thinking about what she'd been told. "I might have some…just the really simple ones, though, the kind every girl has…"
Her ocean blue eyes shifted towards Ace, curious of what his thoughts were. He was looking out at the sea, his face tilted ever so slightly in the direction he had pointed to not that long ago. The pirate didn't wear any revealing kind of expression, and Mouda soon looked away, her face becoming scarlet. The jealously she had been feeling twisted into a bitter sort of disappointment. Mouda knew that even if she had a dream, no matter how simple or common it was, she wouldn't be able to achieve it.
She was only a country girl, after all.
Well, it's sure been a while, hasn't it? I'll have to apologize, I got awfully sidetracked with a different story of mine. The good news is I finished a multi-chapter story for the first time in my life, and I wrote it in less than a month! If you're a fan of Rumiko Takahashi's new work, 'Kyoukai no Rinne' then feel free to check out my story 'A Date', which was the very fist story submitted for that series!
So, it was a pretty calm chapter…something like a prelude to the new arc. I kind of did a cop-out with getting them from the Grand Line to East Blue while Mouda was asleep, but I was working with Oda's one single plot hole, so can you blame me? Other then that, I actually don't have much to comment on. Hm. Can anyone guess what Mouda's dream is?
BY THE WAY. If any of you happen to be One Manga fourm members, an AcexMouda fan club was created recently. I've doodled up some fan art and slapped it on there, so feel free to take a look or maybe even join, if you feel so inclined.