Jade Force

Chapter Ten: Oh look, there's my dinner!

Just giving everyone a heads up that at the end of this month (May) and start of next, I mightn't be able to update for a while. Reasoning? I'll be digging for dinosaurs. Yes, you read that right! That will be happening on my days off for three weeks, although I will try my best to sneak in an update or two if I can!

Aubrey was about to die. Her stomach was revolting! Her brain was trying to stab its way out of her head, and her skin was slick with sweat. Had she caught some kind of plague? Ray-san said that there were some weird sicknesses on the Grand Line. Or maybe she'd taken a more severe injury in her battle with Borsalino? Head wounds had strong reactions on the body, right?

"Oi, Yassop, where's that bucket? I think she's gonna hurl!"

… Wait a minute…

Cracking one eye open blearily, she managed to get a glimpse of wooden walls with dancing water reflections, and a teenaged boy with blonde hair. Salt was heavy in the air and on her skin, and everything moved.

Aubrey moaned.

"Oi, she's waking up!"

"Thrice-cursed Akagami…" She choked, bile in her throat.

"Eh? Did you say something?" The blonde asked.

"Get me off~" Aubrey groaned. "Are you try – *hurk!* –ing to kill me?!"

"Eh?" The blonde asked in surprise. "No, we rescued you from the Marines!"

She glared at him balefully. "I get motion sick!" She managed to get out in a rush before the next wave of illness. That bucket was sounding pretty good round about now! "Get me off of… *urgh* off of here!"

The blonde flinched. "We, um… might not be able to do that for a while… We're kind of at sea at the moment?"

It only took another, in Aubrey's opinion, large wave for her to make up her mind.

"I'll swim behind you. Just *gag* just get me off!"

Another five minutes saw her getting her wish as, jacket, bag and all, Aubrey dived over the side of their ship and into the ocean, jade scales forming on both her body and encasing her satchel during her freefall overboard.

"Waah, Aubrey-chan!" Redhair's voice called out to her when she surfaced. "Man overboard! I mean, woman!" He made to cast his coat off and jump in after her, but Aubrey blasted a pillar of jade at his nose, treading water angrily.

"You dumb idiot!" She yelled up at him. "Didn't I say I didn't want to go to sea with you?! Didn't I say I get severe motion sickness?! And what has you talking so familiarly with me, anyway?"

Holding his red face (it matched his hair beautifully, Aubrey thought vindictively), and looking completely shocked, Redhair spluttered back before yelling, "You would be dead if we'd left you behind!"

"Like hell!" Aubrey yelled back furiously. "I'm the Jade Dragon Slayer, idiot! In strength and sturdiness, a Jade Dragon's scales are only topped by an Iron Dragon! I'd have been fine!"

The dangerous, darkhaired man was watching impassively, but even he decided to add his two cents after a puff from his pipe. "You passed out after taking out that Admiral. Whatever form you had taken on disappeared once you'd lost consciousness."

Aubrey was quiet for a moment, thinking his word over.

"Well, that makes sense. I burnt through a large amount of magical power in that fight. I went all out…" She sighed then, but a ripple in the currents beneath her caught her attention. Narrowing her eyes and creating a thin jade film over them, similar to that of a crocodile, Aubrey ducked under the surface for a better look.

It was a great big sea serpent with a lion's mane! It had to be at least a hundred metres in length!

Aubrey's eyes widened, and without a second thought, she roared, the force blowing her out of the water. Creating wings, she glided back to the ship's deck, gasping for breath.

"The hell was that?!" She exclaimed, her magic not quite as replenished as she thought it had been. Then motion of the ship caught up to her, and immediately Aubrey collapsed, groaning.

"Boss! Look!" Someone shouted. "She just took out a Sea King! All on her own!"

The large man, meat still to hand, laughed. "You okay with Sea King Stew for dinner, Boss?"

Sea King… Ray-san had mentioned something about them…? Once she got off of this floating deathtrap, Aubrey was sure she'd remember! However, the mention of food seemed to be the last straw for her stomach.

…

"EW!"

Sorry this is short this week – I only had one day off, and I've spent it trying to teach my seven and ten year old brothers (they do distance education and my parents were busy out of town, so they were dropped at my place… It was 'fun').
Hopefully next week I'll be able to claim back my missed RDO and will have three days to write! But we'll see -_-"
Reviews are welcomed!