Nothing really mattered in life once a beloved four-legged creature dies. Be it a dog, a cat, a parrot, or a horse. Any animal that was everything to one single person's whole being was gone. Forever and there was no bringing them back. It hurt worse more than death, it was an absolute torture. Where they used to be is the empty space occupying it now and the warmth gone from my hands entered a cold nothingness. There was nothing to touch but the cold air of fall, nothing kept me warmer than my beloved dog. I barely ate, but I drank sweet tea a lot because it was all I wanted to drink other than water and Juice Monster.
One thing my family offered was to pay for another dog or have him genetically engineered to be brought back by scientific results. It was a lot of money just for one dog, $25,000 just for bringing a creature back from the dead.
I don't think anything will be the same after that. I never want to bring back my dog because he will never be the same dog with the same soul. Sure, it will look like him, sound like him, act like him, and all personality-wise, but it will never feel like him again. As for that, I never wanted a dog again. I was very loyal to my dog and it's somewhat similar to a romantic relationship. You love the person, you don't want anyone else, but that person only. One day, your person is gone and you're all alone. Many people continue to try to become your person, however, you want nothing to do with them. It's like The Notebook, The Fault In Our Stars, and A Dog's Purpose all mashed up together in one sad-tragic-life. There's no way to describe it due to what you feel and it's really hard. Even I cannot do that either, describing your feelings is like saying that you don't want to replace your loved one is like drawing scribbles on the wall and hoping your parents understood the art when they actually don't. My dog, Littlebear was everything to me. He surpassed his time, living at the old ripe age of 21. He was a mix of a german shepherd and a golden retriever. He was there yesterday in the sunflower fields and then he was gone like it was nothing.
What once was the sun had now become the moon.
And then one day, everything changed, for better or for worse. I was nowhere, yet I was everywhere. I was in a place of time and frozen in time. In the sea of darkness, and forever lost in the dark void. Where I was, is where I shall be now. From the old beginnings to the new beginnings of a new world in spiritual time, space, and soul.
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When the world brought me to where I was now, the sights I've never seen and the world before me was a land of adventure and freedom. It was a land known to all mankind, the age of miraculous, and crazy unlogical adventures. There was more sea unknown and further beyond than there was land known to humankind. It was a sight to behold because the first adventure I had started on the sea, far away from the prying eyes, and stuck into a small yellow room with a four-panel window just beside the crib. I may be small, but I can see the glistening sea and the soothing sky just past the glass frames. The white-wash of the waves danced like horses ran across and then disappeared and I loved the glancing at the waves quite a lot. There are a lot of beautiful horses out there in the ocean, dancing and running free with all their spirit and souls. The waves rocked the boat softly and it always made me easily sleepy.
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I have no memory of when I was born, however old I am is how I regained my senses. What I want to know is what my name is and I will do my best to uphold that name in spirit and all. My walls weren't much. Just flowery and yellow, the flowers, although, do look like a five-year-old just made that and that's saying something coming from me because I have a feeling that I can do better than that. I glared at the man-made walls. Vibrations felt like drums and my head immediately snapped to the door. I may be a quiet baby, but I have used vibrations to sense where I am and what's happening. I'm not quite sure, but this might have happened in my past and that's only a theory.
The door creaked loudly as it opened, revealing a woman with ginger hair and brown eyes. Behind her stood a man with black hair with red tattoos layering the left of his face. "Luffy's already up! Look at her, Dragon!" The woman picked up her daughter and nuzzled her face repeatedly, earning a sweat drop from the man named Dragon. Luffy's mother continued to brag about her. "She's so smart, she knew we were coming!"
The man sighed, "that's more worrisome than her being smart. I don't want her to be like me." He tried to take Luffy from her mother, but her mother just gave him the glare, 'just try it and see what happens.'
Dragon chuckles. "She's more like you than you think, Almere." Dragon instead ruffles Luffy's hair. His wife is very possessive of her daughter and quite selfish too, but she does let him have Luffy when she's busy navigating. Right now, it's just him, Luffy, and Almere out alone on the sea in the New World. Their main goal was to deliver Luffy to Garp in the first half of the grandline where she would be protected, but they both want to take it easy and not rush anything. Almere wants to be there for Luffy's first walk, talk, crawl, and anything before they hand her off to Almere's father.
My parents, as I know called me Luffy, the name so familiar in my mind was stuck there because I have no clue how or why. But it made me uneasy and determined at the same time for whatever reason. I babbled at my mother, grabbing her hair, and feeling how incredibly soft it was. Almere chuckles and pulled her hair out of my reach.
"I wanted to feel her soft hair!" I gave my mother a glare with my cheeks all huffed up.
"Awww, that's the scariest glare I've seen! I wonder who she looks like…" Almere spoke in a creepy way, making Dragon sweat and slowly walked out of the room.
'Take your time with Luffy, someone has to keep an eye out for any changes in the weather."
Almere waved her hands nonchalantly in a casual way. She was just playing with Dragon, but when Luffy glares, she looked like Dragon in a more adorable way. Dragon's glare scares off people in comparison to Luffy who would just receive adoration from anyone of how she's looking. They definitely could worship her daughter if she stayed cute this way forever.
"Say, Luffy." Luffy's head snapped up to her mother. "I'm going to tell you a story of how I meet your father."
Luffy looked ready to learn as she babbled excitedly, clapping her small hands.
"It all began a long time ago when many dragons ruled the sea. Many of those dragons were really cruel, but our family was not one of them. I was from a lost family that belonged to the darkness and should have been kept there forever just because of the name entitled. The secret of the D that lies in our families name goes back generations to the void…" Almere looked out the window of the sky becoming evening, a beautiful shade of red, pink, and orange intermixed.
"Your grandfather, my father, could not save me when the dragons took me. I was a marine just as my grandfather insisted for my own protection, but—" Almere stopped when she looked at Luffy's facial expression. Her daughter was very focused and kept quiet. She chucked inwardly on about how Dragon was right. Their daughter was very smart and always woke up before they entered the room. Before they entered, they would always look at the small porthole window on the ship of her asleep and the moment they open the door, she was already awake and on her legs, holding onto the crib for support. Returning to the matter at hand.
"But I was foolish and did not wear my uniform that day. I wanted access to their library without their knowledge because the books they had were old and untouched, and they contain the secrets of the darkness. I got caught and was made a slave that day. They were harsher with me than they were with other slaves because of the D initial I wore proudly in my name." Luffy whimpered and Almere held Luffy's hand.
"It's okay, it was a long time ago. What's in the past, stays in the past no matter how painful it was. What matters the most is that you made it and you're strong because you're still beating." She kissed Luffy's head that made Luffy smile as she continued the story.
"One day, your father entered the castle and set free a few of the slaves, I wanted to go with him because I didn't want to be a marine anymore due to the restrictions and some corrupted justice. I wanted to help people more. The dragons need to be stopped no matter what. I fell in love with your father each passing day. He was always working and I always trained to the extremes. One day I passed out from overworking, your father brought me to the infirmary and he stayed there until I woke up. I confessed my love for him while I was unconscious." Almere laughed as she reminisced the events.
"He was very adamant about trying to make sure we stay business-related because he didn't want us to be together. I knew he loved me, he wanted me to be safe, but I was stubborn about it and then one day he got sick from the rain outside and I spent all my time taking care of him. He finally realized that I won't back down and he gave up, and we spent a lot of time together since then and then we had a beautiful treasure. Who was that treasure, Luffy?" Almere askes her daughter who looks quizzically at her. Her brown eyes were filled with amusement as she chuckles and tapped Luffy's nose.
"That's you. You're our treasure, the hope we share together." Almere frowned, "this is why we have to give you to my father. He doesn't know I'm alive because I had your father wrote a letter to my father that explained the events which happened in the story, leaving out some details. Only the part is that I died during childbirth. It is better that way where he doesn't know I'm alive, and he never will. It's best I stay hidden, otherwise, he will just search for me." Almere's tears dripped down her face and she hugs Luffy who tried to console her mother with her tiny hands.
"You may never remember me, and that's alright. I just want you to be safe and happy. After all, you will soon be the wave that shocked the world to a core one day. I have a feeling you will. After all, you are Monkey D. Luffy and nothing stands in your way."
Almere picked her daughter up and lifted her where the sunset hit at the right time, bathing Luffy in the reddish-orange hues.
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A few more months passed by as they entered the first half of the grandline where a marine ship was docked in the middle of the ocean with no land in sight. Almere had took a rowboat and landed on a nearby island as Dragon sailed without her. He knew Garp would most likely search the boat, as a precaution, Almere had to leave and luckily, he had a spare rowboat to ease the suspicion that someone took it. If Dragon didn't have a rowboat, Garp would suspect he left someone nearby. Dragon sighed, Garp was not his father, but rather his father-in-law. He knew about the famous Love Fists from when Almere started her training days in the marines and that was what he was dreaming of.
Luffy noticed her grandfather's ship, "Papa, Papa!" She pointed and jumped excitedly in Dragon's arms as he steered the ship with Luffy on his hip.
Luffy knew who he was straight away which made Dragon frown. He certainly didn't have pictures of a marines boat or Garp in the slightest. How she knew about what Garp's boat looked like perturbed him. This scared Dragon to an extent, he wasn't sure if Luffy would be safe since she seemed to be smarter than most babies at a year old. Still, he cannot keep her, for others would use Luffy to their advantage.
As he neared the dog ship, a plank was planted between their ships. Dragon set Luffy down near the mast. "Stay Luffy." He demanded his daughter to, he stared at he a little longer then moved his head to watch Garp's men enter the small vessel. Dragon looked behind him only to see nothing but wood. He panicked, searching for Luffy. "Luffy!" Dragon called out, looking near the body of waters for his daughter.
Luffy was eyeing the planks and ignored her father's orders, she walked straight to the plank and pushed herself on it then bounced on it as she giggled and then she was picked up by large meaty hands. "Now that isn't a toy and it isn't safe." She was meet with a man draped in all white with gold fluffy-shoulder-things as she dubbed them to be.
"Papa!" Luffy squealed loudly, earning the attention of Dragon who swerved his head in Garp's direction where Luffy is being held. Dragon walked over with worries plated on his face. "Luffy, don't you ever do that again!" He reprimanded her, she casually babbles incoherently.
Garp laughs as Luffy grabs his beard and plays with it. "Don't worry so much! She's a Monkey. I never stay in one place long when I was a child, she's bound to be the same!" Garp laughs again as he saw how Dragon deadpanned when he thought Luffy would do.
Luffy, jealous of her father taking Papa's attention She grabbed his beard roughly and had him face her when Garp walked back to his ship with Dragon.
"Papa, papa, look! I goths flowa!" She shoved a plastic sunflower in Garp's face who took it and planted the fake flower in his ear.
"Why thank you, Luffy! It is a pretty flower just like you!" Garp smiled widely, ignoring Dragon who was staring intently at him.
Luffy furrowed her brows, "No! You purty! Putry flowa!" She stated with a cute face as she tried to make Garp more beautiful.
Garp played along with a fake bashful smile. "You're right, Luffy. I am the most beautiful man on the sea! This sunflower will attract all women!" Luffy laughed at her boisterous grandfather, clapping her hands.
She then looked at her father. "Dada." Luffy said as she made grabby hands only for Dragon to allow her to hold one finger.
Dragon looked straight at Luffy who trembled instantly as her mood switched from happy to sad. How she knew what he was going to do, he will never know. "Luffy, you may not remember me, but it's for the best. It is the only way you can be alive and happy. It's what mama would have wanted as well. I love you, goodbye Luffy."
Luffy squeezed his finger, "Dada come back?" and to this point, Dragon shook his head she cried because she knew. She would not meet her father again.
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Luffy, who was still held by her grandfather waved her hands at the ocean. There was no ship in sight, not even her father."Bye-bye…"
"Now, don't be sad, Lu," Garp assured his first grandchild, he took out a package and handed a weird circle-smelling food. "This is a rice cracker, these are my favorites!" He declared proudly as she slowly took the food into her hand and sniff it, then she took a tentative bite out of it. Her eyes widen and she ate the whole thing with her hand in an instant. It was the first junk food she ate that her parents won't allow her to eat.
Garp sat her down on his seat and chuckled at her actions. "Here's a few more crackers for you!" He placed some crackers on her lap which was covered by her yellow dress.
Bogard, Garp's right-hand man saw the whole thing and sweatdropped. "Sir, I don't think giving your granddaughter rice crackers are a healthy thing to do, considering that she might choke."
Garp just slapped the man on his back with a grin. "Nonsense! I survived in a dangerous forest with nothing but a chockful of rice crackers and I hunted for meat for months. Look where I am now, Lu's gonna be fine. She's not gonna die from eating rice crackers!" He declared proudly.
As if on cue, Luffy started to choke on her rice cracker she was in the process of swallowing. Garp's mood switched from 0 to 100 real quick when he yelled and hugged his face with his hands. "Ahhhh! What do I do?! What do I do?! Luffy's gonna die!"
Bogard sighed at his captain's actions, luckily he had a glass of water that he had not drunk yet. Bogard slapped her back gently and gave her water, she drank it all in one go and smiled brightly like she wasn't just choking a second ago. Bogard's shoulder slumped. So much for a normal kid, he thought.
Garp stopped panicking and smiled. "I knew she wasn't going to die!" He laughed off as he lied through his teeth then ruffled Luffy's head and walked to the main deck.
Bogard kept his tongue shut and wondered how he even raised Almere, the famous azure marine of east blue and from the New World, known for her chemical fires. She had eaten the chemical-chemical fruit where she could produce anything chemical-related. Her favorite chemical was copper because it burned blue, hence why she was called azure. He shook his head, better not question the Monkey genes.
Luffy was left alone to her devices as Garp went back to ordering his men. One unlucky lieutenant was tasked to watching 'precious Luffy' as Garp called her. She explored the huge ship. There was a lot of space that her father's vessel didn't have and she loved it. She forced the said marine to open the kitchen doors when she smelled meat. "Meat, meat, meat, meat!" Luffy repeated as the little Monkey stormed in and ran around the kitchen with the poor lieutenant running after her.
"W-wait! Don't run around my kitchen, you little brat!" The chief yelled as he tried to catch her but end up slipping when she went under him and evaded the lieutenant's hands, jumping on the chief's back. She grabbed a large cooked meat on a plate and ate it like she wasn't running around. "No! That's for the boss!" The chief yelled enraged. He took the half-eaten meat and was shocked that the child was still eating the meat in the air.
The door flew open, everyone, but Luffy stood still as Garp came in with a serious expression which made his subordinates sweat profusely and then he noticed Luffy who was now gnawing on a large bone while being held in the air. Garp began to laugh with his hands on his hips. "That's a Monkey for ya! That's my Luffy, just like her papa!"
Luffy ignored the whole situation until she was yanked from the bone and she glared at her the person who got her until her face brightened and lifted her hands up in the air. "Papa!" Luffy called out and nuzzled her face in his chest with the remaining bits and pieces of meat on her face.
The chief who was no longer still, instead he and the lieutenant stared jaw slacked to the ground as both of their eyes popped out at Luffy. A very small child had eaten the meat in more than mere minutes, the meat was larger than the size of Luffy's body and was meant for Garp. "I'm so sorry, sir! I'll make you another portion right away!" The chief dashed for the fridge and brought out another larger meat, even bigger than one Luffy ate and she just drooled at how big it was. The chief glared at her even after Luffy ignored him and stared at the beautiful uncooked meat.
And at the same time, the lieutenant bowed deeply as he apologized. "I am sorry as well sir! Luffy is just too fast!"
Garp slapped the man's back. "No need, Luffy is meant to be fast. She'll make a good marine and this will be a good practice for you when you get kids after you get married to that gal of yours, eh?" Garp winked his eyebrows at the young marine who became flustered and left the kitchen when Garp started to laugh.
Luffy was busy drooling on her grandpa's uniform and then the meat was suddenly out of her vision and the clear blue sky replaced it. Luckily, while she was distracted Garp has requested warm milk for Luffy who hadn't noticed it until Garp shifted Luffy and she was laying head down on his arms staring at the sky. He placed the nipple of the bottle near her lips and she immediately suckled on it, placing her hands on the bottle in order to hold it the way she wants. Garp has three extra bottles just in case. He opened a door to his cabin and closed it, sitting on the bed and staying still. The boat rocked her to sleep as she drank all of her milk within the past hour. The vice admiral was fast asleep with Luffy on his chest as the waves took them to the Marines headquarters where Garp would brag to Sengoku about his grandbaby.
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Sengoku could only wonder how he even got stuck to babysitting his old friend's grandchild. The girl is playing in the corner with animals, on the other side of the wall were destroyed dolls. The heads were ripped off, the hair either cut or halfway cut and uneven. The limbs were scattered and the dress was off of all of them, placing the dolls in the naked light, there was some hardcore makeup on them which make them look creepy. There was a level of hatred on Luffy's face when she destroyed the dolls, she obviously hated them on a level that would scare Sengoku.
His eyes shifted to the child who looked way too innocent with the animals he bought recently in comparison to the dolls Garp bought for her on a nearby island. Luffy didn't seem to be like the average one-year-old and half as he suspected.
Sengoku groaned, rubbing his forehead, oh how he wished there was a normal Monkey in the family.
Luffy brought her plastic dog and walked over to Sengoku's office. "Pway with me!" She said excitedly, giving him a black dog with pointy ears while she had a golden dog with floppy ears. "Woof, woof. I wanna be your fwiend!" Luffy barked, urging Sengoku to play with her. He sighed in defeat and allowed the child to give him the black dog.
"Woof woof, of course, I will. As your friend, I will protect you! Woof!" Sengoku barked, doing a silly dog dance with the toy in front of Luffy who shook her dog.
"No, we will pwotect eash other, thash whaf fwamwey doeth! Be it your jowb, your enemy, your boss. Nothing sthands in our way! Why? Becausth blood don' have nofing to do with it. Famwey is fwamwey and fwamwey means nobody gets left behind!" Luffy cheered as she made her dog do a dog dance and smiled blindly at Sengoku who stared at the child in astonishment
In all his years, Sengoku had never heard a child say that, not one with the mentality of a fifteen-year-old. He ruffles Luffy's hair with a smile, she would be a great marine, but as a pirate, she would be a lot of work.
God rest her mother who was an amazing marine that died during childbirth, the father was unknown and so attaining the blood sample would be like asking many men around the world who drank his sake. Hopefully, she had clean blood otherwise, the elders would order this child to be executed based on her blood-lineage. In Sengoku's opinion, it wasn't justified, but he has no choice. Even being a fleet admiral has no power of changing that when it came to the old croots that knew the void century and ruled before it. Sengoku shook that thought away and enjoyed his time with little Lulu as he called her. She played with the animals for an hour and a half until Luffy wanted to play 'Guess Who?', a game she played with her mother. It was Sengoku and Luffy acting like the people they both knew and objects or animals right up until she yawned.
"Lulu, go hide!" She screamed with her hands in the air happily and hide underneath his desk as he walked out of his office to get some warm milk and came back five minutes later, he spotted her under his desk as she stared at him wide awake, but in a sleepy manner.
"Sennie, nap, nap." Luffy made grabby motions with her hands as he picked her up and sat her on his arm, the fleet admiral gave her the bottle as she sucked on it happily.
Sengoku felt old, staring at the child in his hands who had himself in the palm of her hand, then he looked at her large bracelet that looks like it could fit his finger instead of her arm. It was a sunflower bracelet that he got for her when he heard from Garp that she loved sunflowers, and so he brought it out of kindness along with her animals.
A few hours passed by, Luffy startled Sengoku by sitting up so quickly that his paperwork flew from the desk, her head was positioned to the door and she cheered, "Papa!" A few minutes after that, Garp came in strutting with some rice crackers in his pocket and chewing on one.
Garp's eyes roamed the room for the dolls he brought her until he spotted the mass destructed of what appeared to be her dolls, Garp spat out his food as he eyes bulged out of their sockets. "Luffy!" He shouted in a morbid way that his snot dripped from his nose. Garp gaped at the smiling girl, there were litters of animal toys around the room and two dogs on Sengoku's desk. Garp shakily raised a finger. "W-what happened to the beautiful dolls I gave you? Did you do this to them?" He breathed as he waited for a reply.
"Hah!" She clapped her hands cheekily at her grandfather's reaction when she confessed in her own way. "Boring!" She laughs as she pointed at her art of decayed dolls.
"Sorry chap, she just isn't like your daughter who played with dolls. She's a menace in her own way. But we had fun, didn't we, Lulu?"
"Aye! A lot of fun! We made pwomises!" Luffy hugged Sengoku who gave her a hug back as he placed Luffy down so she could run to her Papa. She bragged about her bracelet Sengoku gave her and said it was her treasure.
"You took care of that pirate?" Sengoku started at Garp who picked his nose casually and flicked it to hell-knows-where before wiping it on his shirt.
"Yeah, yeah, he's in impel down now. Easy peasy." Garp used his nose to nuzzle her tiny nose with a big grin. "Sengoku, I'm going to take that long vacation until Luffy learns how to take care of herself! See you then!" He walked right out the door and closed it, but not before Luffy waved Sengoku bye.
Sengoku's eyebrows twitched in annoyance at Garp's casual long vacation. "At least he's not here to brag and eat junk food in my office for the rest three years." He turned around and picked up his scattered paper and the animals. He placed the animals in the bottom desk drawer, sweeping the discarded and disembodied dolls into the broom and into the trashcan. He was about to take the two dogs into the drawer until he decided to leave them there as a memory stand. Sengoku smiled at the memory of Lulu playing family with dogs. "No family gets left behind, huh? It's a nice notion and a good thought." He returned to his work of filling out the paperwork, the cons of being a fleet admiral.