Jade Force
Chapter Sixteen: Kujakujima
So, my overseas trip was a lot of fun! Now to save up for the next one ^_^"
Now, this was supposed to be posted on the thirteenth, as my birthday present from me to you, but because the river between my homestead and the highway was up, my brother and I had to swim to cross it, so no Lappy Toppy until today.
(*note* until the point in stage where Shanks' crew are named, I'm just going to call the blonde doctor Doc. It'll totes work out! But any other suggestions are welcomed!)
"I'm never going to sail again," Aubrey moaned as soon as they landed on Kujakujima and Beckman had helped her onto the pier. "Why does the Klabautermann hate me?"
"If that ship even has one, I doubt it hates you." Beckman answered calmly.
"Then why doesn't it want to be friends?! Is it because I'm always sick? That's not my fault, you know!"
*sigh* "Yes, I know that. But Klabautermanns are spirits, and it only knows you to be seasick." At the positively dejected look on Aubrey's dark face, he sighed again and added, "Some people are harder to make friends with than others, you know."
"Mm," Aubrey agreed. "Nasuada and I took forever to get along, and we were guild mates for two years! But, Ben-san, I don't think I can do this for that long!"
"Well, maybe you'll get lucky. We'll be on Kujakujima for five days, so you'll have plenty of time to make nice."
"Maybe if I tried meditating next to the ship again…"
"That didn't work the first time," Beckman pointed out dryly, but at the depressed air that came over the Dragon Slayer at that, he quickly backpedalled. "Come on, let's go find you a nice camp spot before everyone else gets to it, ok? Then we'll see about some food, the Kujakujima pheasants are delicious. Just don't touch any of the shakkan beads, ok?"
Still on board the ship, Shanks and the doctor watched carefully.
Not that any of the crew were going to admit it, but they were worried. Whilst they all agreed that, despite her size, Aubrey was a skilled and tenacious fighter, the life of a pirate – that is, the sea – just wasn't for her. But with her bounty, there was no way that they could leave her behind on some island; the Marines would find her easily, with her odd appearance and strange abilities.
"What are we going to do, Boss?"
"I don't know… We can't make this old girl want to be her friend. And none of the anti-motionsickness pills you've given her to try have worked, and we can't leave Aubrey-chan behind! We're going in circles here!"
Doc sighed. "Look, maybe the herbalists here have something that might work? Her magic, or the nature of her immune system, might just be why those pills haven't worked so far."
Shanks sighed in agreement. "Yeah, maybe. Anyway, this is the last stop before East Blue, and it'll be all smooth sailing after that."
"Mm. Maybe, Boss; the Peacock Warriors are known for their use of the land, so I'm going to go and talk to some of their healers. Save me some of that pheasant if you spot any, please? There's never any left when I go looking."
Shanks laughed, and gave him an easy smile. "No worries!" He turned serious again. "Good luck with the herbs."
"Yeah. Good luck with the pheasant."
With Doc gone ashore, there was only a handful of crewmembers left on board, as everybody else had gone off to try and find some form of hospitality from the locals. Every time they journeyed through this island, it was the same story. The Peacock Warriors lived off of the land, and were known throughout the Grand Line for their fierce fighting abilities, extensive tribal tattoos, and understanding of plants and their purposes. If there was anyone capable of helping Aubrey with her motion sickness, it would be them. Otherwise, Crocus-san was their last hope… Something would come up, surely!
_ * . * . * _
Of all the islands that Aubrey had visited so far in the Grand Line, she had to admit that Kujakujima was both the strangest, and yet the most familiar, island yet. Instead of a township, familiar groupings lived scattered over the differing terrains, with a loose judicial system and trading network in place. Or at least, that's what Ben Beckman had told her over lunch, before she'd made up an excuse to leave him behind with his lady friend.
It must be getting on to nine months since she'd landed on Saboady Archipelago, and in that time, she had never felt quite as homesick as she did now. The wooded fells and soft glens had reminded her of the countryside surrounding Salix; the hardy forests of Kujakujima bore a strong resemblance to the ones that clung desperately to the sides of the Boscan ranges, tangles and tangles of briars and vines, woody trees and strippy grass tussocks that goats would fight over, clinging to steep surfaces by the skin of their hooves (there a mountainside, here sharp cliff faces carved by the elements). There were also animals that were ridiculously disproportionate in comparison to their "normal" counterparts: wolves that would have easily towered over those from Bosco (which were already the size of large horses, anyway), pygmy elephants no larger than the pumas Aubrey had once hunted for their coats, and, unique to the Kujaku, pheasants and peacocks the size of woolly mammoths.
It wasn't just the wild life that was disproportionate, however. Amongst the towering conifer trees of the lower ridges were many miniature trees that, were she in Earthland still, Aubrey would have called Bonsai. Here, though, they were called Shakkan, and they came in a plethora of different breeds, with a multitude of strange bead-like berries growing off their branches. Master had had a fondness for the art, so Aubrey actually suspected that the Shakkan were a separate thing altogether. Deciding to have a closer look at one particularly eye-catching specimen, Aubrey crouched just in front of the tiny tree, and used a fallen twig from one of its more naturally-sized neighbours to lift the small branches, careful not to touch the bead-berries.
During her walk through the rocky forest, Aubrey had noticed the bead-berries all had varying colours and patterns; the one that had caught her eye was a bright vermillion, with little red flame patterns climbing the sides, and had reminded her of Natsu-kun, for whatever reason. When she sniffed around the beads, careful not to touch, she'd caught the vaguest scent of woodsmoke and ash.
"I wouldn't touch that, if I was you."
Aubrey stopped, caught-prey-still, and flicked her jade eyes to her left just the littlest bit, enough to see the red-skinned teenager crouched on a low-hanging branch, bow held in his right arm. She slowly lowered the branch of the Shakkan, put the twig on the ground, drawing in a deep breath the whole time… and she couldn't smell a thing. There was rotting undergrowth from the more heavily-forested area, damp wood from an earlier shower, small animals tucked away beneath tree roots, the musk of a passing male wolf. There was no scent from this man-child.
"Who are you?"
The man-child grinned at her, teeth flashing bright against his ruddy skin, and tucked a loose braid behind his ear with a tattooed hand.
"Clea Peglar, Peacock Warrior. You?"
"Aubrey, the Dragonet. What is this?" She gestured to the plant, still staying close to the ground, scales sneaking up beneath her clothes, a pre-emptive defence.
"A Fire Larch Shakkan. They're the best for fire-arrows."
Aubrey frowned. "Huh?"
Peglar grinned, and dropped down to the ground, pulling an arrow from his quiver. Aubrey shot backwards in a series of bounds (she was seven, chasing goats across the ranges; fourteen, dodging throwing stars from a Dark Guild member), jade scales on her forearms and claws on her fingers.
"Wait, no, I'm sorry!" He exclaimed. "I'm not – I didn't mean – I just was going to show you the tip!" He held out the arrow, and sharp dragon eyes saw that it was fletched with crow feathers, and instead of a metal point, it had an orange-and-red bead-berry.
She didn't relax a great deal – mostly because the teenager was still armed, and she couldn't smell him – but she did lose the claws, at least. Peglar seemed to count that as a win, so he slung his bow over his shoulders, and walked forward slowly, holding out the arrow.
"See, on Kujaku, we use the Shakkan berries for our trick tips."
"Do you have normal arrows, then?"
"Only for hunting."
"Show me how it works?"
A wary grin lit up Peglar's face, and he unslung his bow; his eyes had darted around as he readied his weapon, and Aubrey could tell immediately that he was well-practiced with the instrument, for he nocked and fired at a bare cliff face, a hundred feet away and two hundred up, all in the one motion. As soon as the arrow smashed against the earthen wall, there was a crack like breaking glass, and then a small fire raced up the arrow, extinguishing itself in the fall back to earth.
Aubrey whistled appreciatively.
"So, all of the orange and red beads can make fire?"
Peglar wobbled his hand in a so-so gesture. "Only if the red is in a flame pattern. Colour is normally a good clue to what kind of bead you're looking at, but sometimes they're just pretty berries. The tree species also had to be accounted for, as well."
Aubrey hummed, crouching down to look at another beaded Shakkan, this one another larch tree, but with dark blue beads patterned with silver swirls.
"This one?"
"Hey, that's a find! We call those one's Storm Larch Shakkan. There aren't many of them, and Larches are the only tree that can grow those beads. If you fire enough of them into the right kind of clouds, you can encourage it to rain."
Aubrey looked around excitedly, and her eyes latched on to a little Shakkan with pretty bark, spindly, scratchy-looking branches, and plum-and-gold beads, tucked away behind a taller conifer.
"I don't even know what kind of tree this is… what do you call it?"
Peglar suddenly looked awkward. "That's a Foggy Acacia Shakkan. The beads can be used for confusing arrows, but… that's only during war time. The shamans use them to help them on their Spirit journeys… Most people tend to steer clear of them."
Aubrey had stopped listening after Spirit journeys. "Clea-san… have you heard of Klabautermann? The spirit of a beloved ship?"
A hesitant nod. "Travellers tell us stories sometimes. You can only see one if the ship is doomed, right?"
"Do you think that some of these beads might be able to assist someone trying to talk to the spirit?"
Peglar was quiet for a few moments, biting one tattooed thumb and thinking hard. "For your size, Dragonet-san, you shouldn't need more than two, if you time it right. If you like, tonight, I'll help you talk to your Klabautermann. Just… don't draw to much attention to it, ok? Or, well, any."
Aubrey gave a sharp nod, retracting all of her scales. "I can do that, Clea-san. Now tell me, how do we collect these beads?"
Say, Friz, how did you find out about hallucinogenic trees? you ask in totally non-suss voices?
Easy. Wikipedia-ed it until I came across a scientific name that looked vaguely familiar, and kinda hoped for the best.