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Apis' Secret and the Ledgendary Island
"The clam belt?" Usopp asked, completely relaxed and frowning. If only he knew, he would be as terrified as Nami and I!
"Whats that?" Luffy chimed in, already drooling at the thought of food.
"CALM belt." Nami's voice was shrill in her panic, and I don't blame her one bit. The boys were not taking this seriously. But I haven't even be able to voice a single word since finding out where the ship managed to go. Luckily Nami did a good enough job for us both. "Its a part of the sea where nothing moves a muscle!"
"So there's muscles and clams?"
"NOOOO!"
"Nami, let it go. We have bigger issues." I whispered. I shouldn't have said anything though, because her sharp gaze was now directed at me.
"You." Her voice wasn't loud, but it was harsh enough that I winced. I also knew what was coming by now. "Did you know about this?"
"Uh, I thought I already stopped it?" I said, and her eye twitched.
"Does it look like you stopped it?" Her voice was low, and even. I think I would prefer if she was yelling at me. Angry calm Nami is terrifying.
"What exactly is so bad about staying still?" Zoro cut in, bring Nami's fury onto himself, for which I was thankful. But she couldn't even get an answer out. Below us, something shook the Merry. The whole ship wobbled under our feet.
Something was below us.
Shhaddooowww
The voice that spoke was deep and it almost sang the elongated the single word it spoke. It was almost nice, the little tune, but then they spoke again and it sent a chill down my spin.
Tell Others
I whimpered. Shaking now in both body and voice I managed to speak loud enough for the two near me to hear. "We are so fucked."
I quickly bent down, wrapped my arms around the railing, sitting and using my legs to wrap around it too but forced myself to only grip it slightly, waiting.
"What are you doing?" Nami asked me.
"Holding on. There's nothing left to do." I said. It was the truth too. I had the image of a sea king sneezing this ship off its nose stuck in my brain since I got here. We didn't make it out of this in time.
Luffy of course was still distracted by the original shaking. "What was that, an earthquake?"
"Good trick, considering we're at sea." Zoro said dryly. He was frowning at me, but rather than say anything he moved closer to the rail, standing right next to me. A few inches and his leg would brush up against my shoulder.
Nami of course didn't like my answer, and started yelling out tasks."All of this chit chat and this sitting around isn't going to get us out of here! Fold the sails and start paddling now! We have to get back on course!"
The only one excited about Nami's instructions was Sanji, who lit up at the direction and floated hearts up to her as he told her to count on him. Yes, he floated hearts up here. I don't know how, but it wasn't even enough to pull my mind out of its panic to roll my eyes.
Luffy was utterly confused, but tried poorly to calm Nami down. "Don't panic. And besides, this is a sailboat, what do we need to paddle for."
"True. And why would we go through the trouble of doubling back when the marines are waiting for us." Usopp said. For a coward he sure was being oblivious right now. In a few minutes he would be just as scared as Nami and I though, if not more.
"Look, theres no time to argue. Just shut up and do as I say!" Nami demanded.
"At least its nice and quiet here." Luffy pointed out, and Usopp nodded in agreement.
"Fine! Since Tani's not explaining it and you're not getting I'll have to explain it to you myself!" Nami took a short breath to gather herself and her words came out clipped and harsh. "In our haste to escape from marines we ended up going too far south and now we're off course and stuck out here."
"South? So we entered the Grand Line?" Luffy asked. Usopp cheered, and I witnessed Nami lose her fucking mind.
"If we're at the Grand Line do you think I'd waste my time explaining this?!" Nami screeched, and I winced and shifted my position to the rail.
There was a pause, and when the moment passed and nothing happened, I thought I might just join Nami in screaming. My heart was beating wildly in my chest, the feeling of my limbs tingling and panic building reminding me of the moment a rollercoaster cart took longer than expected to crest over the first hill.
"This is taking too long." I said. How long did it take to get some more sea kings? I don't know if Nami heard me or not, but she seemed to talk a bit faster, maybe thinking that was directed at her. I couldn't clarify because she whipped out a map, the perfect visual aid, and held it up.
"The Grand Line is sandwiched in the middle between these two green areas you see here. You understand?" Luffy hummed in agreement, and Nami continued explaining and pointing out what she was talking about. "These areas, just as they're labeled, are called the calm belt. Thats where we are. No one knows why but inside the calm belt theres no wind and no current. Its like a void where everythings stagnent. Given that sailboats move by catching winds this is more then a dangerous region, this could be fatal. Get it!"
"Nope. But it sounds like we're in big trouble." Luffy told her. She nodded and rolled the map back up.
"Good. You retained more then I thought you would."
"So this is what that old geezer meant when he said it was dangerous." Sanji said, scratching his chin. My nails dug into my skin as I forced myself to refrain from asking Sanji something that would be incredible stupid about his past.
Zoro spoke up, thankfully taking with it the opportunity to open my mouth. "Well that explains why we haven't gotten a single gust of wind."
"How are we going to get out of this if our ship can't move?" Usopp asked.
"Maybe the wind will start blowing again!" Luffy loudly suggested, and Nami lost it again.
"Wind never blows in the calm belt!" She yelled. "And that's not all, there's another good reason that people call this region dangerous. It's infested with-"
In true ironic and dramatic fashion, just as Nami was about to mention them, the sea kings started rising all around us. The boat was rocked against the slaughter of waves, lurching harder than before, and dark shadows appeared all around us.
"What was that?" Usopp asked. All of us had our arms out, trying to stay upright as our ship rocked beneath our feet.
"Its big." Apis warned, having been silent to allow the grown ups to argue up until now. I gripped the rail tighter, trying to just breath. Everyone around me was crying out in alarm as our ship rose into the air, along with the spray of water as dozens of different sea creatures broke the surface. They were obnoxiously oversized, like comically large frogs and fish and eels and creatures I could identify. One looked like a dinosaur. It was absolutely insane, like a bad nightmare, and I had never been so terrified in my entire life.
How the fuck did this crew manage to live to see the Grand Line?!
"Sea Kings!" Luffy cried out. "They're gigantic!"
While Luffy, Sanji, and Zoro stood mouths gaping and eyes bulging from their sockets, Nami and Usopp grabbed the mast and let their tears flow.
"The calm belt is also home to the sea kings." Nami explained, tears pouring down her face. "It's their main place for breeding. They're the biggest reason people can't pass the calm belt."
It took a moment before anyone else could speak, everyone shocked at the size of the creatures in front of us, all so large that our ship was like a flea in comparison.
And every single one of them seemed to be grumbling about hunger.
Fuck this 'voice' shit hard. Its ten times worse hearing them say they're hungry then just hearing a dumb roar and assuming that's what they're saying!
"Any idea how we get out of this?" Sanji finally managed to speak up.
"Yes." Zoro said, which surprised even me until we heard his idea. "Everybody don't move a muscle. We don't want to give them any reason to stick around or eat us."
"YOU CALL THAT A PL-?" Usopp screamed, but Nami covered his mouth, cutting off the shouting, telling him to shut up.
It didn't matter though because a second later Luffy started screaming.
"A giant frog is attacking us!"
The Merry started tipping, and everyone was shouting. In the chaos I watched Apis lose her footing, and my frozen body moved without my direction. I jumped over the top rail to try to grab her, but she went over the edge and I grabbed air instead of her arm. Before I followed, someone had grabbed me by wrapping an arm around my waist.
"NO!" I screamed, trying to break free of the hold, but it only tightened around me, pressing me into a familiar chest.
"Hold on!" Luffy yelled, and with on hand on the railing he streched his other hand to grab Apis, right before she fell into the frogs mouth, and reeled her in so quick she shot back up over the Merry, high in the air. I covered my own mouth so I wouldn't scream. My heart felt like it was about to beat out of my chest.
"Luffy!" Apis called down, sounding so much more calm than I felt. I tried to tell myself to calm down. I was always more scared of things then her, she was fearless, and so was Apis. "Your arm is stretching? Did you get your ability from eating a devil fruit?
"Yeah, thats right."
She seemed to catch sight of something in the air, because she started yelling down at Luffy again, asking him to strech his arm and her down again. She also screamed a little as Luffy followed his instructions, Usopp, Nami, and I protesting of her rough treatment.
"What are you doing!" Nami screamed.
"No idea." Luffy told her.
"One! Two!" Apis could be heard shouting.
"Everyone grab onto something, and don't let go. And Luffy, don't you dare let go of her!" I yelled, once again grabbing the closest rail with my arms and legs.
"What in the hell did she just do?" Zoro asked, following my lead by taking a seat next to me.
"Yanked a nose hair." Luffy told us all, still leaning over the edge to watch. Below the ship the creature started shaking, and he started making an odd rumbling sound.
The sound a giant creature might make right before they sneeze.
"That didn't improve anything!" Usopp screamed.
"It sounds like its gonna!" Nami said, but couldn't finish out of terror. Both still grasped the mast. Sanji grabbed the rail by Luffy, leaning over to look down too.
Sanjis voice held a bit of horror when he shouted at us, not that we hadn't already guessed what was about to happen. "Brace yourself, I think this behemoth is gonna sneeze."
Luffy continued to reel in Apis, who landed in Sanji's arms, and on impact the large hair that she had held onto went flying out of her arms.
"Its huge." Luffy was in awe over the size of the hair, and honestly I sort of was too but not in the same way. It was disgusting, and it was way way way too large. So gross. -4/10 would be bad to touch. I shuddered and looked away, to catch Zoro's side and terrified eyes.
"Get ready we're going for a ride!"
Just as Luffy finished his sentence the beast sneezed, splashing water high into the air, and sending our small boat flying fast through the air.
I'm flying! A delighted giggle echoed across the deck amung the screams, and though I was happy someone was enjoying themselves, I wasn't. Merry and Luffy seemed to be the only ones having fun.
We hit the water a few times, skipping like a stone before finally coming to a stop. Everyone was getting to their feet, looking around for any more danger, panting and clearly on high alert. But it seemed like we were all fine.
"Oh my gods." I said, putting a hand over my racing heart, pleading with it to slow down now that we were out of danger.
"That was." Nami said, but stopped. She shook her head.
Though most of us agreed, Luffy had a different opinion about the whole thing, laughing as he said "Lets do it again!"
"NO!" All our voices echoed at once.
After that, Nami figured out we were right back where we had started this morning, which was incredibly lucky.
"No sign of the Marines either." Zoro called as he came down from the crows nest.
Usopp was sitting by the mast, knees to his chest, still complaining. "I thought I was a goner."
"We all did, buddy. Now suck it up and repress it like all the rest of us." I said, and got frowned at by most of them. "What, like that's not what we all are doing."
Again, all of us but one. Luffy was smiling, giving Apis a thumbs up. "Quick thinking!"
She smiled and returned the praise with her own thumbs up and a quick thanks.
I squated down so I was at eye levers with Apis. "That was so incredibly dangerous, but without your quick thinking we would have all been goners. So know that though I say good job, and thank you, I never want to see you put yourself in that kind of danger again."
"O...Kay?" Apis said, confused and thinking over my words. Instead of lunging forward to hug her like I wanted to, I clasped my hands together and stood, trying to smile at her.
"Hey Apis." Luffy called, grabbing her attention as I stepped away.
"Yeah?" The girl asked.
"You ready to go home?"
"Yes please!"
"Okay, set the sails!".
"And our destination is?" Nami asked.
"Where else? Warship Island!"
With so much going on in my head now I decided to go to the girls cabin. I made my way towards the door, ignoring the cheerful Luffy and Usopp who were dancing around, and Nami with Apis who were discussing the route to her island.
A pressure gripped my upper arm, and I glanced to my left, seeing Zoro's hand smacked around my bicep, frown on his face.
He opened and closed his mouth, looking around at the noisy boys, cheerful Apis, and the curious eyes of Nami and Sanji who had seen him come over here, then put an arm around my shoulder, ledding me to the back deck, giving us some privacy.
"You okay?" He asked me.
"Fine." I said nodding, looking out over the sea. My mind was racing, and I just wanted to go scream into a pillow.
Zoro stood silent next to me, looking out at the water too.
"You mad at me?"
"No." I said, the surprising question actually making me turn to look at him. Why would he think that?
"You mad at him?" His head nodded towards Luffy, who was up on the riggings and shouting something down to someone on the main deck. I shook my head.
"No." I replied again, also telling the truth.
He didn't say anything else, just stood there, and waited. And waited. Until finally I caved.
"I'm mad...but at myself. For not remembering enough. For not protecting her well enough. I'm mad at the world," and as soon as I said it something clicked, because that really was who I was mad at here. "At this world, at the people in power here. For putting her in this position. For being so wrong, so corrupt, so cruel."
"There's not much you can do-"
"Oh yes there is." I cut him off right away. "I can help Luffy become king. And then the world will be better. It has to be better."
Zoros eyes seemed to look deep into me, and when he spoke he sounded tired. "I don't know if that's how it works."
"I'll make it how it works. Well make it that way. We will make it better. Because stupid, arrogant, corrupte people put that girl into this situation. If the marines never took her, this wouldn't have happened, she wouldn't have almost fallen off our ship into the mouth of a sea king, she wouldn't be at sea."
"Then we wouldn't have survived the calm belt." Zoro said, and I shook my head and counter back.
"We wouldn't have been in the calm belt if there were no marines to chase us into it."
"You can't say the marines wouldn't have been there otherwise."
"We could have fought them without a child on board."
Zoro opened his mouth, then shut it and shook his head, joining me to stare out over the rail at the sea.
Rather than stay quiet like I expected though, he went for the hard sell: the full guilt trip.
"You know about my past, about Kuina's death. I'd think it's only fair you share some of yours?"
The air left me like I had been punched, but he wasn't being unreasonable. That was a totally fair request, even if it was to share the worst moments of my life with him. But I knew his. And he didn't have a choice.
And really, it was Zoro.
This crew, these people… they're all I had now. They're namaka. I could talk to any of them. And they would all understand.
"My parents divorced when I was little, and both got remarried. My dads new wife had my little sister….Lily." Her name still felt wrong in my mouth, like I didn't deserve to speak her name. I never thought I'd describe a word as turning to ash in my mouth, I didn't think that cliche happened, but anything in One Piece was possible. Was my tongue grey?
"That's a pretty name." Zoro's voice cut through my thoughts, grounding me. I nodded, to me it was the most beautiful name I could think of, though I was heavily biased. I didn't realize when I had looked away from him, or when I had started gripping the rail so tight.
"She stayed with her grandmother one night, out in the country with wide fields and a forest great for exploring. And my stepmom said to watch her outside, not to let her near my uncles dogs. They had attacked someone before, and my uncle hadn't fixed their cage yet, so while her grandmas back was turned and Li-she was running free, the dogs got out. And she wasn't lucky like the girl you saved back when we first met. The women was too weak and the dogs too quick. No one was in time to save her. I wasn't there to save her."
"Do you think you could have?" Zoro asked, and I snorted, because I had spent years asking that question, and I knew the answer definitively.
"Save her? If eight year old me had been with her? No. I would have died with her."
His shoulder nudged min, and I glanced over again at him. "And how is Luffy supposed to change the word without you here to help him?"
Though I knew his words were meant to cheer me up, suddenly I was more depressed than ever and a sharp pain went through my heart like I had been stabbed. My breath felt like it had been stolen from me.
"He would do it. He doesn't need me to be King. This crew doesn't need me to succeed." I said with as much confidence as I spoke of future events, and he seemed startled at how ready that response was.
"What? Of course he does, we all do." He was fully facing me again, but I kept turned out towards the water. If I looked at him the control I had over the tears would fail, and I wouldn't cry.
"No, you guys really don't."
"Tani," he seemed pretty annoyed now, but I cut off whatever he was going to say. So I looked him in the eyes with tears streaming down my cheeks as I told him the truth of things.
"No, you not getting it Zoro. Everything I saw, everything in the future, I was nowhere. I didn't exist. You were the first mate, remember? This crew doesn't need me to survive. Every one of you play a role that I've seen directly lead to your success. I'm not a linchpin in any of our victories, i'm not essential to anything we do on the islands, but without any one of the rest of you this crew is dead. I'm not needed here-" I swallowed, emotions overtaking me. I had to get out. I didn't want Zoro to see me cry again, but here we were. I had cried enough in front of him, in front of people. I quickly turned tail before Zoro even had time to think of something to say to my frankly a bit melodramatic speech about my worth.
I stayed in the girls room undisturbed until later that night. If I didn't love Sanji's food so much, I might have skipped dinner just to avoid Zoro, but the call of food that delicious was too good to pass up and I decided to take the route of pretending it didn't happen.
Zoro of course said nothing either, but did stare at me quite a bit, which was unsettling. I also didn't stick around long enough for Zoro to try and talk to me, not that I knew if he would or not. He would probably stare at me for a few more days. I said I was exhausted, which wasn't a lie, and took off to bed early. I practically fell asleep falling to the pillow.
I woke up gasping.
My heart was nearly beating out of my chest, my lungs burned and it felt like a building had landed on my chest. Quickly I smothered my frantic breathing with the blanket, and strained to heat around my own choked off noises of distress to see if I had woken the other girls. When no questions came from them, as quickly and quietly as I could I wrapped the blanket around me and scrambled out of bed, shutting the door slowly and twisting the handle back into place, then continued to the deck.
The fresh air helped. The cool breeze made my wet checks turn to ice, probably not literally but it definitely felt like it. I didn't stay out long, but instead of going back I went up to the kitchen.
Careful not to bang around too much, I set to work making some tea. I didn't particularly like tea, but I also didn't dislike it. It was something to do, and it's been said that it helps.
I was so focused on not making a noise as I removed the boiling water to pour into my cup that the door slamming opened startled me, and I spilt some of the hot water onto my foot, burning as the water soaked into my sock. It quickly faded to a dull warmth as I wiped away the last few tears from my face. Sanji came forward apologizing and asking me if I was alright, which I waved off, trying not to show him my red splotchy face.
"You're making tea? You could have come and gotten me, I could have done this for you."
"Oh, No, I wouldn't want to wake you just for a cup -"
"I was up in the crows nest, on watch. But you could wake me up anytime, for anything. I noticed the light on and thought it was Luffy, which is why I came in so aggressively, which again I'm so sorry about."
"It's fine, no harm done." There was a pause as I stirred in some milk, going over to the bench to sit. Sanji was about to open his mouth, and I didn't want to answer questions really, so I asked him one first.
"What snack did you make for Luffy tonight?" I used my cup to gesture to the cover dish on the table.
"Some sandwiches with the leftover meat from dinner."
"Smart."
We were back to the silence. I didn't expect this to be so awkward. Was it me? Him? What was going on?
"Anything, uh interesting happen tonight?" I asked.
Sanji shook his head, walking towards a chair at the table and sitting.
"Nope, everything's quiet out there. No sign of any marines or sea kings."
"Good, don't need either of those right now."
"They were so… gigantic. Did you know they would be that big?"
"I knew they were huge but it's different, seeing them in person?" I didn't really know if I was describing what I meant well, but Sanji seemed to understand. He nodded as he lit a cigarette and sat back, looking out towards one of the windows.
"Is there anything bigger than them, waiting for us out there?"
I frowned. That wasn't really a fair question. I squinted, trying to think of everyone we would face over the next few years.
"If you mean literally, I can't think of an enemy that I know who is as big as a sea king from the calm belt. But power level, like raw capabilities, or if you factor in that people aren't just a singular they're part of an organization. A larger group. We face the strongest across the entire sea after all."
"Do we face…" Sanji choked, and I looked closer. He was shaking, one hand pinching the cigarette at his mouth tightly, the other hand clenched at his side before unfurling to comb through his hair, tugging as he went. He took a deep breath, to settle himself. My own breath got stuck as I realized what Sanji was trying to ask me, or at least what I thought. But what if I was wrong? I waited for him to say what he meant, my own heart rate spiking again because I didn't not expect this to happen tonight, when Luffy came outta no where and slammed open the door.
"Are you guys eating my food without me?!"
"No you shithead Captain!" Sanji yelled, but the collected himself and much quieter added "and keep it down the others are still sleeping."
"Both of you keep it down, and your food is untouched on the table Luffy."
He didn't say anything else, launching himself at the dish and chowing down quickly. When every bite had been devoured he looked back and forth between Sanji and I.
"What are you guys doing up?"
"Night watch." Sanji said, and Luffy turned to me. Sanji's eyes also looked up from the floor where they had been since Luffy stormed in to me, also waiting for my answer.
"Couldn't sleep."
"Did you have bad dreams?" Luffy asked, making Sanji look at him in surprise.
"Luffy, some people don't want to talk about bad dreams-"
"Ace told me talking about bad dreams to the people you trust helps them go away! And Tani trusts us, right Tani?"
"Ah. I do trust you both. But I'm fine, in fact I think I might go-"
"So you don't trust us?" Luffy's sad heartbroken face made me freeze halfway to the kitchen sink.
"I trust you, it's just…"
Luffy's arms stretched so his hand was on my shoulder and then retracted so he was squishing against my body, wrapping me in a tight hug.
"It's okay if youre sad about the dream. We can help, but you have to tell us what's wrong."
I swollowed, because Luffy was persistent and wasn't going to just let this go now.
"We we're back in the calm belt, and Apis fell off the ship, and without her we didn't make it out."
I spoke in broad terms, and didn't describe how my heart felt it was ripped out as she disappeared into the mouth of a sea king, how our ship tipped off the sea king nose and crashed upside down into the sea. Sanji, Zoro and I had broke the surface first. They both had dived down to try and save Nami, Usopp, and Luffy, but no one resurfaced. Eventually a shadow under me grew large, and the water sucked me down below, and when I couldn't hold my breath any longer I sucked in a breath expecting water-
And woke up.
"Well that's stupid, because I caught Apis, and because of her we all made it out just fine." Luffy said frowning at me. Sanji yelled his name, but I snorted. Of course, it was just that simple to Luffy. That's not what happened, so it was stupid to think that way.
"I couldn't help it. And it made me sad." I told him with a shrug.
"It's okay, Tani. We're all fine. No one was hurt, and we all made it out alive!" His small laugh filled my ears as his grip tightened. "You care a lot, about all of us, and about kids, but we're fine."
"Luffy…"
"We're all fine, Tani."
Luffy held me for another minute, until my shaking stopped, and I pulled away slowly, wiping my tears so only Luffy saw them.
"She's just a kid, Luffy." I whispered. "She's so young and she has so much of her life ahead of her."
"That stuff doesn't matter. You don't know how long someone has, people die at any age." I sucked in a harsh breath at Luffy's words, and remembered a blond boy in a top hat with a pipe. "but what matters is how it's spent.
The next morning, after a few more hours of sleep, things were going better.
"I can't see a thing." Usopp said, lowing his spyglass.
"Well we can see the fog." was Luffy's helpful response.
It was going better if you didn't count the fog. Which I didn't.
Sanji turned to Apis. "Are you certain about the coordinates?"
"No."
Usopp let out a small nervous giggle. "No? But you said-"
"Relax." Nami said, waving her hand. "I'm sure we'll come across it any minute now."
"You're so confident!" Sanji gushed.
"I sure wouldn't side against you." Luffy said, and Nami actually blushed at his words.
"LOOK!" Apis cried, bringing everyones attention back out in front of us.
A large shadow slowly became more detailed, and we could clearly see a ship twice the size of don krieg's in the distance. If I didn't know that was the island, I would once again be freaking out right now.
"Whoa! Its a sailboat!"
"Uh, I think its a bit bigger than a sailboat Luffy." I said.
"You're right, its gigantic!"
"Not so fast." Sanji said, and Zoro cut in.
"You say its gigantic? That doesnt begin to describe it."
Both of their voices were low and serious, not understanding quite yet what was going on. They thought that was a real warship, coming right at us.
"Okay, its super humungous!" Luffy corrected.
Nami shook her head at the boys. "No, your missing the point."
"Thats not a ship, thats the island itself!" Apis explained. "It was named because it looks like a warship!"
Luffy leaned out as far as he could over the figurehead. "Yeah, I see it now!"
It only took about twenty more minutes for our ship to reach the shore. By that time, a welcoming party had gathered at the shore, and by that I mean all the villagers able to fight had gathered their weapons and waited to fight us.
"Why do they look so scared?" Apis said, clearly upset to see her village so afraid.
"Because we are technically pirates, they don't know that were nice yet. It might be best if you greeted them first, Apis."
She nodded, and ran over to the rails, jumping up and down and waving her arms. "HI EVERYONE! I'M HOME!"
We could hear the crowd start to murmur, clearly confused as to what was going on. We dropped the ladder and Apis went scrambling down to the cliffside shore, smiling and clearly very excited to be back home.
"Apis?" One of the men spoke up as we all followed the girl and disembarked. "What are you doing with pirates?"
"Yeah, Apis, why did you bring them here?"
"Hey you." Startled at Luffys serious voice, I looked over at him with wide eyes. The men all tightened their grip on their weapons.
"Yeah, what do you want?" The guy who Luffy singled out asked.
"Do you know of any good barbaque restaurants here?"
I sighed, and pinched the bridge of my nose. I heard Nami mutter 'oh my god' while Sanji smacked him upside the head and reminded him that we all just ate like a half hour ago.
All of the gathered villagers were extremely confused at this point, and the one from before demanded to know what kind of question that was.
"Relax!" Apis said, standing between us and them. "They're not bad pirates! They're nice and helpful."
Although still clearly weary, all the men seemed to have relaxed a bit, not actively pointing their weapons our way anymore.
"I didn't think there was such a thing as a nice a helpful pirate." The most talkative villager said.
"Yep!" Apis said.
"How is it that you ended up with these people, the last time we saw you, you had been taken away by the marines."
"Thats right. But I escaped from the marines. And then I was stranded in the ocene, but then I was rescued by them just in time."
"Yup." Luffy confirmed.
"Apis, why were you taken from us in the first place?"
"Yeah, the reason the marines came after you was a mystery!"
"It isnt safe for you to stay here. Those marines are still lurking around."
The crowds less then enthusiastic welcome made Apis draw back, deflating and looking around unsure.
"But...where should I go?" She asked quietly. I put my hands on her shoulders, trying to offer comfort and support. These men were turning her away from her home.
"Wait a minute, these guys are pirates right?"
I shook my head, these men wanted us to fight their battles for them, which looking at their weapon situation was understandable but also very cowardice. Usopp had more bravery then these men.
"Listen," said brave warrior of the sea spoke up to the crowd, "We aren't out to get you."
"APIS!"
The crowd parted as the looked back, reviling an old man walking along the path towards us. Apis immediately perked back up when she saw the man, but waited by me. She knew this man, but she didn't know how he would react to her being home. Would he turn her away too?
"Come to my house child."
"Who's that?" Nami asked. I felt eyes on me, and I turned to see all of my crews eyes were now on me.
Apis ran forward now, tears in her eyes as she cried out her grandfathers name.
"Its her grandpa." I said, and Nami scoffed.
"Yeah, we got that now." She said.
The old man addressed us while he hugged Apis. "Thank you for saving my granddaughters life, I'm in your debt. I know! In honor of Apis safe return ill throw a celebration for you and your crew."
"Whats on the menu? Maybe barbeque?"
"'Sorry, I'm afraid not Luffy. But Grandpa Bokuden's Pork buns are the best on the whole island!"
"Alright! Lets eat!" Luffy cheered, throwing a fist in the air.
Zoro was the only other person really on board. "Sure, I could eat."
Lucky for me I was right next to Sanji, who I whispered to. "It takes like fourteen hours for them, Luffy does not have the patients for that."
"Oh geeze."
The old man led us back to his small house on the island, Apis jumping around and excitedly explaining her adventure to her calm and stoic grandfather, who listened and nodded along and indulged the girl with occasional "Oh my's".
It was an hour later that the old man placed a wicker lid on steam basket for the pork buns, telling us they should be ready soon, and clarifying that meant four to five hours. We all settled in for a long wait, while Nami started asking our host questions, jumping right to the point.
"Why are the marines after Apis? What could they possibly be after."
"Apis, do you know why?"
"No sir."
"Thats not what you said earlier-" I elbowed Nami in the side and looked at her like she was crazy. You don't just call women out like that, or children, not in front of their main authority figure. That's how abuse happens.
"Seems like we'll have to ask the marines why they're so interested in Apis, or maybe it has to do with the island itself and any little girl would do." I said, prompting the old man to tell us he knew nothing of why anyone would be interested in his grandaughter or this boring island, except for the legend.
"The legend?" Zoro asked, propping his arms behind his head as he leaned back against a wall. Apis sighed quietly, her head slumping down only to be propped up by her arms, looking bored already.
"Some say the people of this island are the descendants of those from lost island, which sunk into the sea thousands of years ago. It was also home to the millennial dragons, the bones of these dragons were called dragonite, or the elixir of immortality."
"But it doesnt make sense that the marines would inade your home over a legend. And why steal the girl?" Sanji spoke aloud, working through his thoughts.
"I agree, they'd have to have a better reason than that."
"It certainly sounds desperate to me." Nami said.
"We're overlooking something. Maybe the legend holds a clue."
"Well then! We should start at the beginning." The old man seemed to brighten at the thought.
Next to me Apis sighed again, looking drained at the thought of sitting through her grandfathers history lesson for the hundredth time. "Here we go again."
"Kill me now." Usopp muttered, realizing that this was going to be incredible long when the grandfather started naming heirs of people and starting basically at the creation of the island. I made a face at Apis, who giggled quietly, looked around to see everyone else distracted, and then held her finger up to her lips at me, getting up and sneaking out of the house, catching Luffy's attention as she made the same shssing gesture. He look over at me, watching Apis leave, and settled back down, and almost immediately fell asleep. Zoro followed suit, while the rest of us listened as the old man gave one of the lengthist and most dull lectures I had heard since high school.
Luckily I was used to quietly leaving boring lectures and for the past hour had been readjusting how I was sitting on the floor, leaning back onto my hands, drawing up my legs, and repeating, making my way towards the door, and when I was a foot away and everyone was entraptured by a particular detail involving a duel that was probably the most interesting part in the last three hours, I managed to quickly take my leave, and looked around.
Now what?
I had to find Apis, but how. And where? She was in a cave with a dragon, but how does one find said cave?
Well, to my left was the forest, which lead up to the peak of the island, and my right the town, so forest it was. As I climbed up the medium sized mountain, I looked for clues that apis had come this way, if she did it often enough maybe she created a tail in some spots, but I was having little luck. That is, until I found a split in mountain, creating a large ravine. I walked along the edge, and came across exactly what I was looking for.
A rope was connected to some trees, allowing a person to swing across, with a dirt trail leading up to and away from the edge. The problem was that the rope was across the other side, leaving me no way to get over.
Rustling behind me put me on alert immediately, and I spun and searched the tree line, spotting a familiar straw hat and mop of red hair.
"Hey guys."
"Tani!" Luffy cried. His grin was wide, making up for the frown on Nami's face.
"Are you making the trail?" She asked.
I shook my head. "Nope. Look, it continues over there."
Nami looked where I was pointing and then looked to Luffy, who I also was looking at. Though I wasn't looking forward to being slingh shotted over there.
"On it. Gum gum..." Luffys arms stretched back at his words, and he shot them out across the divide. "Suspension bridge!"
His entire body lay flat allowing us the chance to walk across the back of his legs, back, and arms to get across. Which was without question one hundred percent worse then being sling shotted. He was wobbly, I was shaky, looking down made me want to puke. It was a minute tops, but it felt like an eternity before I reached the other side, breathing out a sigh as my feet touched land.
"How far are we gonna go?" Luffy asked after we had been walking on the other side of the mountain for about ten minutes.
"Far as we want." I said, and he accepted the non answer. A minute later we cleared some tall bushes and found more rockface, and an entrance.
"A cave!" Nami gasped, and all three of us made eye contact, seeing how comfortable everyone was, and seeing the excitement in all our eyes we pressed forward without question, and found a surprising amount of light coming from deep inside. It only took a moment for us to hear Apis' voice clearly, chatting about her the pirates who rescued her, offering food she brought, and reporting that she had found no clues yet, but wouldn't give up her search.
Nami stopped, so I did too, asking her what was up. Before she could speak, Luffy was shouting a few feet ahead, greeting Apis and asking about the pork buns like this was a normal place to be.
For someone who grew up on a mountain for years, it probably was.
Apis did not take our intrusion well. She started shouting, throwing her arms out as if her small body would do any good to hide the large creature behind her. A few more steps, and Luffy gasped, freezing in place.
"What the hell are you gwaking at-ahhH!" Nami moved farther into the room, and saw what Luffy just took in. I stepped up too, and got my first look at a millennial dragon.
It was odd. It looked more like a doctor sue's dragon than one from game of thrones, which was silly to expect really. For one, it had feathers, not scales, which were a dull teirquoise color. It was also massive, and it was a wonder they fit in here at all. His face and head were the only parts without feathers that I could see. He had an odd lump on his head, which made it seem like he had on a hat actually.
Luffy's brain finally caught up with him, and he starting spazzing out all around the creature, shouting off compliments while Apis yelled at him to get away again. The dragon looked unperturbed, and like an old dog just continued to lay there with the commotion going on around them.
Nami meanwhile took a step back, her eyes nearly bugging out of her head. Then her head swiveled to me.
"You." she snarled, and I stepped back from her, mentally noting that I was more afraid of Nami than a literal dragon. "You know these things are going to happen! WARN ME!"
My mouth opened but only tiny noises came out, until finally I managed a few words. "Its a friendly dragon."
Nami threw her hands up, and went into sarcasm mode. "Ohhhhh its a friendly dragon, my mistake. So its going to ask us if we'd like to be eaten instead of just burning us to a crisp, huh?"
"Nami, look at them." I said, and reluctantly she did. Luffy had now stopped running from spot to spot and instead was now pressed against his face, hugging him for all it was worth as Apis struggled to pull him off. And then something happened.
The dragon opened his eyes, and looked at Luffy. Nothing else. Apis stopped trying to pull Luffy away, and there was silence in the cave as something passed between the dragon and the rubber man.
"I think I understand." Luffy broke the silence. "You want to go home, is that it?"
The dragon only stared at Luffy, who nodded and turned to the rest of us.
"Nami! Set a course for this dragons home! Shishishsishishi!"