To Wren it seemed like the sun never completely set in the evening and the days began to stretch as far as they could get which was a big change to Wren from her days back on Volca.

At the height of summer back on Volca, the sun might have been out for three quarters to four fifths of the day but on Dawn Island it seemed to her the sun stated out for five sixths of the day and never truly completely dropped below the horizon.

It took a little over what she believe two weeks before she had been able to have a decent nights sleep and in that time she had only caught glimpses of Ace in the morning at breakfast before he left and Luffy took off after him dragging Wren behind him until they inevitably lost track, Luffy lost track to be exact because Wren could tell where Ace was for a good long distance with her Observation Haki but didn't bother telling Luffy, and at night before the sandman took them all.

And Wren was quite content with that being all she saw of Ace the little brat.

Her attitude towards Ace wasn't helped by the unbearable heat that covered the island. Back on Volca the summers would be mild, shorts and t shirt weather with that but of wind to keep cool, but on Dawn Island it was constantly a muggy heat and Wren could feel the sweat start to form on her back the moment she sat up from the lukewarm tub water.

Wren could safely say she hated the heat with a fiery passion and much preferred the crisp and moderate temperatures of her home island.

But she was here now and for an unspecified amount of time before she either set out on the seas with Luffy or her papa decided to come back to pick her up, so she had to deal with it as much as it pained her.

And where Wren was all too happy to ignore Ace for the rest of her time on the island, Luffy was near perfectly opposite of her choosing to chase after Ace every day without fail.

If Ace was an immovable and stubborn object then Luffy was the unstoppable force of nature unleashed upon him. And seeing as there was no way to change either boys minds about the other, Wren knew from her memories of the Before that Ace would eventually give in, somehow, so it was better to try and speed that process along no matter how much the older boy annoyed her.

So that was how she found herself carefully removing the remaining membrane off exposed hide from the rabbit she had hunted, skinned, cured with salt and left to soak in a barrel of salt water a few days prior while Luffy had been off searching for a blue flower with red thorns that Wren told him she wanted. Not that she hated being around the younger boy but when hunting animals you needed patience and silence, something Luffy did not seem to have any or enough of for hunting.

The cured rabbit skin was her first attempt as Wren to try and create a decent pelt that Charlotte had some memory of from her own family and a way for Wren to make a few beris on the side to buy new clothes for herself and some sweets for Luffy and Ace.

Granted, Wren would not give Ace the sweets herself but manipulate Luffy into sharing his with Ace to make the older boy at least friendlier for a short while to the future King of the Pirates. Might speed so things up if all went well and she could get to work training both boys to use Haki before they even hit their teens.

If all went well with the rabbit pelt she was working on, Wren would try to find a fox to work on next and try to work her way steadily up to a tiger like the one Ace had brought back to the bandits hut a few night back. The amount of money she could get from a perfect tiger pelt would probably set herself and Luffy up pretty well for a little while.

"When!" Luffy's voice bellowed through the forest causing an eruption of cawing as a murder of crows took off from the canopy of trees nearby.

For the life of her, Wren couldn't figure out just where Luffy had picked up on calling her 'When'. She knew he had done it when he introduced her to the bandits and she had corrected him once they were out of ear shot but, as evidenced by his hollering, he seemed to keep calling her that. There were worst things in the world to be called, so Wren would deal with it now and maybe in a little while Luffy would grow out of it.

She could only hope.

"Wren - ohmp." Luffy barreled into the clearing, tripping over a large root half hidden by dead fall, Wren was carefully rolling her rabbit pelt up to stuff into the once crisp and clean but now mud crusted backpack. He popped up, none the worse for wear with that big smile on his face as he a fixed his - her papa's - straw hat back on his head.

It wasn't fair in her mind; she was the true born child of Red-Haired Shanks not Luffy, not the son of the Revolutionary Dragon and grandson of Garp the Fist. That hat should have been her birthright, her papa should have entrusted it to her not some kid who couldn't tell when someone was trying to kill him but her, the girl trying to change the world for the better.

That was just another sign in her mind that her father couldn't wait to be rid of her, not only did he not say goodbye and left her in the middle of the night on a strange island he also left nothing for her to remember him by expect for the few memories she had of him spending time with her.

"Are you okay, When?" Luffy's voice broke through her thoughts and Wren had to rapidly blink her eyes to rid them of the sudden feeling of dryness, like she hadn't blinked for a long time. And maybe she hadn't if Luffy's questioning expression was anything to go off of.

She looked down at her hands, slowly releasing the white knuckled grip she had on her pelt, biting the inside of her cheek as small droplets of blood welled up on the skin of her palm where her nails had dig in from her grip. "I'm fine Luffy." She shot him a small smirk to reassure him and hide any evidence that she was jealous, which she was not and would deny to the end of days. "Just," she hoped he didn't notice or think her pause here as suspicious. "Thinking. What's up?" She zipped up her bag after carefully placing the rabbit pelt at the bottom and attaching both daggers at her hips as she stood up to her full height.

That seemed to be the right thing to say to him as Luffy's face lit up and he all but bounced in place at her side, Wren's critical gaze eyeing how one of the stings his sandals was barely holding onto the wooden base.

That would need to be replaced with money she didn't have at the moment because it was obvious that Dadan and her bandits had no intention of buying clothes for any of the three kids living under their roof and who knew how long it would be until they saw Makino again.

"-check it out?"

"Huh?" Wren clued back into the world around her to see Luffy standing in front of her with his hands clasped together and a pleading look in his big brown innocent eyes, his big brown innocent puppy dog eyes and how could she say not agree to whatever it was he wanted. "Sure kid." She hiked her backpack over her shoulders before being dragged along behind Luffy as he took off in a sprint towards the west side of the island.

It had only taken a few times of Wren getting literally dragged along like a rag doll swing through the air as Luffy, the deceivingly strong and fast kid for his age and size, would take off in some direction holding on to her before Wren had finally put her foot down. Sure on the outside she was willing to bet money it looked hilarious but being in the middle of it, she could firmly state it was not fun.

What Wren expected to see, what she expected to have fully captured Luffy's attention so much he just had to show her, was an animal of sorts that he wanted her to hunt down for its meat as he done at least five times previous or even show her some new cliff face he found that, in his mind, had the design of a face carved from water erosion even if all Wren could see was hoodoos and agreed with him just cause.

It was that which Wren expected to be sighted with, even preparing herself to attempt to keep an open mind and see this face in the cliff he claimed to see because they were making just a bit too much noise for him to have found an animal he wanted to eat, that had been a chore trying to instill in Luffy's mind that if he wanted her to hunt an animal for him they had to be silent.

She hadn't expected what she got though.

Breaking through the tree line, she was momentarily blinded from the sun...except that was wrong, it wasn't the sun that blinded her it was the mixture of smoke and dust in the air that slowly moved to the north to reveal a large valley below the hill she and Luffy were standing on the edge of.

A large valley covered and piled high with trash.

Charlotte had gone with her family many times when doing renovations on the various houses they had over the years to the local dumps each city or town the lived in had. Dumps were never a pretty sight to begin with but the people who worked there did their best to keep it organized and 'clean', keep it all controlled and make sure that every item left behind where placed in the right area. An apt description of organized chaos.

Whereas the sight revealed by the slight breeze was just chaos.

It was smog, sat heavy in the air like a thick fog in the lower valley, that did nothing to cover the distinct scent of rot and garbage and Wren had to cover her mouth and nose with her arm to hold back her gags as her seafoam coloured eyes slowly trailed over the enormous amount of garbage sitting high then even the thick smog layer.

There was a giant wheel, why someone made one the size of a house Wren couldn't tell, being held up by what looked to be a pile of washers and dryers when the wind blew the right way and a person could see under the smog, trusses galore from what looked like run-down buildings, bags and bags of garbage containing who knew what, but a of fabric caught on sharp angles blowing in the wind and sometime straight off of what they were caught on, a dying neon sign cut through with a venomous green glare the words flickering to spell out The Muddy Rudder, half a house was in the mix as well with its roof half caved in with large stones. Among it all, there was movement, silhouetted figures among all the trash.

Wren blinked.

Was there something alive in all that garbage?

How could something be alive in all that garbage?

She could barely stand the stench of it from where she was standing even now; she couldn't even imagine living in the middle of it all.

There. Just past the smog and the light reflected off any half clean surface amount the trash, sits high a large and thick stone wall separating the trash from what looks to be a spotless and bright kingdom much like the ones described in the fairytales her mama used to read when she was younger. In what looked to be the middle even stood a large castle with towers extending well into the sky.

Wren could almost picture long blonde hair cascading down one of those towers or even a live dragon landing on the roof of one, warning any knights that might try to rescue the princess within to stay back.

It was so oblivious where all the trash a kingdom that size might generate goes but it does surprise Wren that it is so close the walls separating the trash from the people within the walls.

Maybe just some bad planning?

But how did Luffy even find this place to begin with?

"Isn't it amazing!" Luffy gushed from her side as Wren soared him a glance from the corner of her eyes, watching as his face lit up with every word and he threw his arms away up in the air above him accidentally activating his devil fruit abilities. "There must be so much treasure in there! No wonder Ace must come here lots."

Ah, that explains how Luffy knew where this place was, he followed Ace here during his time away from her today and came back to show her himself. That also practically explained where Ace went some days but didn't explain the days when Wren could feel him in a different part of the forest with some other presence.

"It's...something." Wren hummed, giving herself a nod internally and digging the toe of her left foot into the soft ground below her. As disgusting as the place is, people do live within the piles of trash making a living for themselves and Wren won't stand by knowing that the nobles of the island will burn this place to the ground in the coming years. This was home to some, possibly even many, and the rich and powerful of the island had no right in burning the eye sore to the ground.

"Can we go exploring!" Luffy asked from her side pulling Wren's narrowed gaze away from the trash heap some called home.

Fingering the dagger on her right hip, Wren brought her left thumb up to her mouth to gently bite it as she went over the pros and cons between either letting Luffy go down there on his own or going down there with him.

Seeing as sooner or later one or both of them would have ended up down there around the haze of smog and milling about around the people who lived there, it was beneficial to tackle this with numbers even if there was not much two pre-teens could do against possible crazed adults.

"It can be our first adventure as captain and first mate." Wren removed her thumb from her teeth as Luffy let out a cheer. "BUT," she interrupted grabbing the back of his shirt before he could run away, "we have to stick together." It was a reasonable enough request, neither of them knew just what was down in the depths of the valley under all that smog.

Luckily Luffy was agreeable to Wren's simple clause, grabbing her hand and swinging their conjoined hands back and forth as they found a safe way down the overlooking hill into the valley below, well as Wren found them a safe way down the hill as Luffy wanted to take the shortest path which was straight over the sharp edge in front of them.

The view was no better above the smog layer then what it was below it. In fact, Wren partially regretted even agreeing to go with Luffy into the trash heap, the smell of rotten eggs assaulting her nose the closer they got causing her to have to stifle her gag reflex. Not to mention in spots her shoe cover feet would sink into the grey muck and make the most disgusting of noises as she pulled them out.

Yet none of this even fazed Luffy.

Even among all muck and garbage, people had found a way to survive, make homes for themselves and start families if the sight of the shoddy houses standing at a lean with the occasional child running in and out of their doors wearing what was little more than rags barely covering their bodies and their laughs shocked Wren as she couldn't picture any reason to find joy in a place like this with strangers eyeing her and Luffy as they walked among them.

Tightening her white knuckle grip on the hilt of one of her daggers to the point she could feel the Armament Haki slowly creeping up her hand and wrist, shooting back her own sharp glare at those that she believed looked at the two of them wrong, vowing to herself that Luffy would not be coming here without her until she had put the fear of God, or whatever deity controlled this world, into those that thought the two of them as easy marks.

Luffy stopped suddenly tearing most of Wren's attention to him while also allowing just the barest hint of her full Observation Haki that she could use while focusing on other things, just enough that she could sense a circle roughly ten meters in diameters around them, watching as his eyebrows furrowed, head tilted, and he tried to cross his arms but had difficulty doing it as Wren refused to let his hand go.

Knowing him, it would just take her letting go of his hand, and he would find trouble within seconds.

It was kind of his super power.

"What's that?" He lifted their conjoined hands and pointed one of his skinny fingers a head of them to the distance ground of people in a clearing, a makeshift town square of Wren had to guess, standing all in a circle cheering on whatever was in the middle of them all.

Cocking her own head slightly, Wren couldn't even begin to guess just what was going on other there; a dance off? a rap battle? a busker performance? or something else entirely.

"Don't know." She hummed quietly, brows furrowed slightly as a loud cheer went up from the group only echoing across the clearing in a low volume from just how far away the group was, watching as some people stormed away only to be replaced by others just as quickly. "Woah, hey, Luffy." Wren protested as Luffy started to drag the two of them towards the group with no care to the looks people were shooting them, pushing his way through with no tact until the two of them stood on the edge of the group overlooking a white circle drawn in the ground with blood dotted all around on the ground with two chickens, one a pitch black and the other a rusty brown colour, attacking each other and squawking at each other barely heard over the roar of the crowd.

Cock fighting, there was an actual cock fighting ring in the middle of the square and there was no one stopping it.

From what memories of cock fighting Charlotte had, and there were not many that Wren could recall, cock fighting was illegal where she had lived and one only ever heard of the blood sport when a police raid had been done on properties or an undercover sting operation was successful.

Here though, in the Grey Terminal, people were actively participating and cheering, or booing, the chicken they were visibly betting on.

Wren took notice from the corner of her eyes as Luffy seemed to feed off the high energy of the crowd around them, all but vibrating with excitement, but she couldn't understand the excitement all the men, because she was seemingly the only woman in the group, were exuding and was in fact a little bored watching the two chickens attack each other.

Maybe it was a guy thing.

Keeping her grip tight on her dagger with the amount of people standing around them, bumping shoulders and almost knocking the two of them into the middle of the makeshift ring she had to release Luffy's hand and take a fist full of the back of his shirt.

"Isn't this amazing!" Luffy whipped his head around the wrong way so his devil fruit abilities activated and make his neck a coil before he whipped his head the correct way around.

Wren gave a small shrug, looking on as a clear winning was decided between the two fighting chickens with the owner or the large black one holding it above his head and the owner of the brown one collected his now quickly dying bird from its sprawled position on the ground.

There was niggling feeling, like the hairs on the back of her neck were standing up, as around her and Luffy people were betting on the next round with the victor of the previous match going up again another chicken, this one a mix of grey and white feathers, seemingly none the wiser to the danger that was nearby.

Her Observation Haki was acting up, responding to danger that she couldn't see even as she whipped her head side to side, her vision blocked by all the bodies around her and Luffy.

Then it happened.

The best way for Wren to describe it was a herd of startled deer as everyone in the audience save for herself and Luffy snapped both their mouths closed so an uneasy silence over took them all and snapped their heads in the direction of the large kingdom wall.

It only took a few seconds, what seemed like a lifetime in the tense atmosphere, before a shout was heard, echoing through the square.

"GUARDS!" A voice cried out from the smog.

The effect was instantaneous.

Like a herd of startled deer, there was a mad rush of bodies trying to grab the money they or the people beside them dropped in the mad scramble, the chickens that had been thrown in the ring, themselves and any belongings that had brought to the match. No one caring if they trampled over anyone, shoved them to the ground, or throwing an elbow in someone's face.

Wren knowing that last one personally as she was one the receiving end of a wild elbow.

And it was in that moment, that split second, which she flinched and brought both of her hands up to her nose in an attempt to alleviate the sudden pain and make sure that it hadn't been broken from the impact.

Luckily, pulling her hands back and wiggling her nose as the pain was just a dull throbbing, it wasn't anything to serious in her mind at the moment but she needed to focus on Luffy to see if he had suffered any injuries in the scattering of the crowd-

-he was gone.

She had lost him in all the madness.

Spinning around in a quick circle, head snapping back and forth, Wren could feel her breathing start to pick up and felt as if her heart was beating out of her chest. Bringing her hands up to take fistfuls of her red hair, she could see black vignetting on the edge of her vision.

She lost him, she literally lost Luffy on their first outing into Grey Terminal and who knows where he had gone or if he had gotten himself into trouble and it would be all her fault if anything happened to him.

She had promised to look after him but in no memories from the Before did Luffy ever come to the heart of Grey Terminal with Ace or Sabo so maybe she had created too big a ripple and this was it for the would be pirate king.

Wren almost didn't register the first closing around her arm, large and littered with scars and calluses, until she was jerked around to face a man with a large dark handlebar mustache, a red scar running down the left side of his face from his forehead and disappearing underneath the uniform that screamed he definitely was not from Grey Terminal with burning brown eyes glaring down at her.

It didn't take a genius for Wren to know this guy meant trouble and so, with as much force as she could muster with a hint of Armament Haki, she slammed the heel of her boot clad foot into the man's own taking the chance to book it from the square when, in that second he reacted to the pain of her probably breaking his toe or even foot, the guard or police officer, she couldn't really tell, let her go.

It didn't matter to her just where she was running as long as she put as much distance between her and the man who grabbed her, and if that meant running deeper into Grey Terminal where word had not spread about the guards coming into the junk pile people called home and people openly stared as she charge past, not caring if they were eyeing her like a piece of meat.

There were only two things on her mind at the moment and that was run and far. And the only thing that shook her from that mind set is when she ran head first into another body.

With her breath coming out in short gasps and feeling as if she was physically shaking even sitting on her butt in the muck, Wren couldn't bring herself to stand back up from, her legs shaking so much she felt like. nothing more than a newborn foal unable to stand on her own feet.

She jerked her head back when a hand was outstretched in front of her face, it taking her a few seconds to identify the stark differences between the hand in front of her face and the one that had grabbed her, this one clearly more feminine and soft looking.

Trailing her gaze up the slim, bare arm, up the slick red clothed shoulder and the pale milky neck with an equally red bow tied daintily around it, plump red lips and looking eyes with a soft emerald gaze, the corners of the feminine almond shaped eyes crinkled to give a friendly and inviting look.

"Hey there, darlin'" The voice was smoky and light, a night and day difference between this woman and Dadan's own grating voice. "You okay there?" The hand that wasn't outstretched towards Wren at the moment carefully tucked a lock of dark brown hair back behind her ears.

Pointedly ignoring the outstretched hand, Wren skittered herself upright, dusting off the back of her stolen - borrowed - pants, turning her body so that her side was caving the red dressed woman who merely sighed at her actions and retracted her manicured hand.

That warm smile was still on the red clad woman's face even as Wren all but spit out her response, "Fine." She didn't trust this woman as far as she could throw her without the added help of Armament Haki.

"Well," she drawled, putting both hands on her hips with a sly half smile, "most kids your age don't come 'round this part-a town." She had an accent that Wren couldn't put but knew from her limited experience that this woman neither came from Volca or Dawn Island. "So, som'thing tells me you didn't come here on purpose. Go on, yah can tell Mama Cherry."

That was possibly the most ridiculous name that Wren had ever heard in her short nine years and that was including Lemonjello who was an actual person, well kid as he was only a year older then Wren herself and nothing more than a huge cry baby, back on Volca.

"I don't trust people who don't give out their real names." A shot in the dark it might have been but Wren was willing to bet that no one would have actually name their child after a fruit, a bird she was willing to concede as she was clear evidence but her mama always had a sick sense of humour to but not a fruit even THAT would be to ridiculous for this world.

"Now, ain't yah just quick as a whip." The woman had the audacity to tap Wren on her nose with a long pale finger. "Name's Roxanne, but most just call me Roxy or Cherry." That smile never disappeared from her lips even as Cherry, or Roxy or whatever her real name was - she had already given out a fake name once and who was to say the second one she had given was just as real as the first - cocked her head to the side and closed her eyes to give off a friendly persona.

But that changed in a split second as those warm emerald eyes went from friendly and inviting to piercing, freezing Wren in place with the sudden and unsuspected change. "Now, how 'bout yah tell me what you're doing on this side-a town." Roxy lent down with both hands on her hips, her face mere more inches away from Wren's own face so that the younger girl could see the flecks of blue among the emerald green. "Or do I need to get the guards involved."

Wren would never admit openly, but she could feel her legs shaking just being under that stare. So she settled for the next best thing, after all what if she did call this woman's bluff and she did end up getting the guards then Wren would be no closer to finding Luffy in this maze. "I was running away from some guards." She halfheartedly mumbled, "Broke up some cock fighting ring that my," - what was Luffy to her? He referred to her as his sister yet never once had she said out loud that he was her brother. Would be easier to explain then saying he was the future king of the pirates and she had made a promise to see his dream become reality, less questions that way too - "brother and I-"

"Wait-shit. They didn't break up the one in the middle of town did they?" Roxy's attitude did a complete one-eighty as her head pulled back from Wren's and the look in her eyes went from piercing to a mild level of concern.

"I think so." Was Wren's hesitant reply as she slowly slid her feet along the ground back in the direction she had come from. The sooner she got away from here and found Luffy, the better.

"Damn it." Roxy whined, tilting her head back to look at the cloudy sky, "I had two hundred beris on Riko winning the whole thing with his chicken." It was clear that she was talking to herself. "That puts me behind on rent this month and Frigo is already up my ass ask about being late last-wait, yah said brother," Roxy's head whipped to pin Wren with a stare. "I only see you, so where's yah brother?"

Nervously rubbing her left arm with the opposite hand, she might have just screwed the whole timeline losing Luffy as she did. "Got separated when the guards showed up." Some wild card she was proving to be, might have just caused the main character's death from her carelessness.

"Well," Roxy's voice pulled Wren out of her self-loathing, "yah got any idea where he would go if he got separated from yah?"

That was a good question, when puffy finally put two and two together and realized that she wasn't by his side just what would his next actions be and where would they take him.

Judging from the lack of buildings being destroyed or people yelling about a kid made of rubber, Wren was confident that he was staying out of relative trouble for now but that could change in the next second as it was Luffy she was talking about.

But maybe?

"Home." The bandits hut, he seemed to have an internal compass always pointing him in the direction of Dadan's place every time they went out together. "He'd go home."

Where Luffy had his internal compass always pointing home, Wren had the exact opposite which was to say she had no such thing and knowing her sense of direction, would only lead her to wall circles around Grey terminal which is why she always marked the trees around Dadan's with a small arrow on the base of the trunk pointed back in the direction of the hut.

That smile was back on Roxy's face, the one that she closed her eyes for, "Well that's good then, ain't it. Just gotta head yah butt home then and everything should be right as rain."

The look on Wren's face must have spoken volumes of Roxy's next statement was anything to go off of.

"Or," she drawled, " yah can come back to my place for a bit. Think I've got a map back there somewhere that you can borrow. If not," she gave a lazy shrug with both shoulders and a closed eye expression, "I could always help yah get home. No skin off my back."

A map could be useful for later, for both Wren trying to find her way around and just in general. The amount of exploring, or 'adventures', she and Luffy could have without Ace could be endless if they got their hands on a map of the island. And it would be good to know where Grey Terminal stood in proximity to Foosha Village, would be nice to know where the village was on the island in general as well.

With no hesitation on her part, and no snide looks of disdain either, Wren accepted Roxy's outstretched hand and followed side by side with the older woman as they walked further into Grey Terminal, and into the unknown.

A/N:

Wow, that took a lot longer then I thought it would to be completed, but there is good reason for the long delay between this chapter and the last.

I'll sum it up quickly; depression, hating my job, and lack of inspiration.

Good news though; not so depressed, got a new job, and have a bit more inspiration now.

I can't promise that thve new chapter will be out next month at the usual time, but it is in the works now.

Please remember to comment as that helps gives me inspiration and motivation to write.