Chapter 12: Southwards to Arrows Island!

Once the treasure had been hauled over in the long boat, Shanks asked to go back and bring over the fishing boat since it could easily be sold or used by any of them on their journeys. The throbbing in my shoulder told me that I needed to take it easy for a bit so I stayed behind and got working on a few things that didn't take too much movement. I sat in my cabin figuring out how to attach the odd contraption Boulra had bought to my denden mushi that would allow me to fax pictures from the camera to be printed. Once that was done I pulled out my maps of North and West Blue and began to see if I could locate either of my treasure maps while I waited for my star map pictures to be printed.

Quest: X Marks the Spot!

Find and visit the location of the hidden treasure marked on your treasure map.

+200 xp per map

Undiscovered Treasure Maps: 2

I paused in my plotting to look at the notifications. Hmmmm. When I had thought about climbing the Red Line a quest had popped up and now only after looking at the maps and starting to look did I get a quest for it- were quests based off of intent? If so why did I not get a Siren quest of some sort?

I looked over and sighed as the pictures printing were still on Shanks posing at the first ship… I would have to wait a while to see if I got a quest for the star maps as well. So I pulled out an abacus, extra paper and a pencil to try and calculate a vague location for the island based on the guiding lines of the map.

After an hour of staring at maps, way too much math and geometry I came to the conclusion that both maps were about halfway through the Grandline and near the northern calm belt boundary… unless I had done my math wrong or the cartographer had gotten something wrong. Only one way to find out: going there! I'd managed to at least narrow down the location to a less general area other than 'near the calm belt' but it would still take weeks of sailing to search the area I'd marked off but it was better than sailing blind.

Standing up to stretch and pop my back, I skimmed the pictures Boulra had taken before finding the ones with the maps and poneglyphs in them. The first few pictures were rather blurry but the more he took the better they got. There was one rather beautiful picture of Mihawk looking down with the clouded light playing on the waves above him; really caused his eyes to pop! I also rather liked the one he'd gotten of me as I swam upwards in one of the rare sunbeans that had broken through the clouds that day. Placing the other photos aside for a later time to really look at them, I headed back to my desk and maps. Before I started to try and find where the maps were located, I had to translate them and make a copy I could safely hang up on my wall without worry. The pictures I hid inside Bloody Bergaher's logbook before stashing that inside the desk. I would need to find a safer location later.

Quest: Following the Stars!

Find and visit the location marked by the poneglyph star map.

+200 xp per map

Undiscovered Star Maps: 7

Turns out truly intending to follow a thought or dream plus some action caused a quest to appear. I bet if I had some evidence of the siren beforehand or had thought about 'proving' she existed I would have had a quest rather than just a 'I want to go there and see if she's there!' Ah well, it wasn't like I had to only go places where quests lead!

Since I didn't hear my companions come back yet, I started to work on the star maps, some of which had vaguely familiar constellations; they were from my part of the hemisphere! Comparing the markings to my astrological chart and the Blue Maps I had, one map appeared to be overlapping with a known island: Sealsburg far to the south. It didn't match the outline at all, but considering most of Sealsburg was iced over perhaps it had changed? I could, however, match up the tall mountain peak on both maps!

Going over the photos and information this island, once called Windaju, had been where the merchants would go for big game items: apparently the Lord's family there were all big time hunters who went after large creatures from around the world and sold the exotic gruesome trophies and materials.

Quest: Following the Stars!

Undiscovered Star Maps: 6

Potentially Discovered Star Maps: Sealsburg

Well… apparently I wouldn't receive any hints if I'd gotten it correctly: potentially discovered indeed!

Hmmmm… If I left the West Blue now I'd be missing the opportunity to visit this island for a long time. I didn't need to drop off Shanks, Phil, and Mihawk at Louge town since they were bringing back a boat of their own so I could theoretically leave now….

Choices choices!

I managed to place a second one soon after: the island the ancients had called Ardhi'Nyasi was currently called Belkra and it used to be a much larger land that was probably pure grasslands based on the amount of textiles and wool based products they traded. Today it was a much smaller dryer island in North blue that had very little to recommend it.

Quest: Following the Stars!

Undiscovered Star Maps: 5

Potentially Discovered Star Maps: Sealsburg, Belkra

+1 to Mind Stat for a session of strenuous calculations

The notification popped up after I'd finished most of my calculations and was down to rewriting some notes. I wondered if there was some sort of experience bar for gaining a point in a stat: easy to gain at first but took longer the more you practiced.

A knock on the door startled me out of my math induced haze. Looking up I saw an amused Boulra leaning against the door frame backlit by a reddish light. I realized the sun was setting as and I was squinting to see the words on my papers. I'd been so focused I hadn't noticed the fading light at all!

"Having fun with the maps?"

"Sorta." I smiled at him as I stretched out the kinks from back; hunching over a table with a compass and maps had caused the muscles to stiffen up again. "I think I've located the general vicinity from some treasure maps I have. I worked on that while the pictures were printing. I think I also located two of the star maps you took pictures of, though I'm not too sure since it's been eight centuries since the Lost Century and the lands have apparently changed."

"Oh?" He walked in to look at my sketched maps.

"Sealsburg today has the same mountain and matches the location but the shape is very different. Probably due to ice." He looked at the stolen map I'd taken from Bergher's ship on Chutorial Island and smiled.

"You thinking of maybe heading down that way?"

"Well… It might be years before we are in West Blue again… and there is that fishing boat." I hesitated before sighing. "And the only reason I was headed to Louge Town was to watch the execution of the Pirate King for… respectful reasons. You know-honor the king and all that. I don't really need to see the world government gloat over his dead body. And since I have a ship now all I really need is a few more crew members and I'd rather do that here in West rather than the weakest of the blue seas. Not to mention I'd like some time to get used to new crew members and the Lark before we enter the Grandline." I rambled a bit as I tried to put my thoughts in order. While the original feelings of going to honor the fallen king were still there, the call of ruins from the Lost Empire were stronger!

"They'll understand. You are right about needing a crew. We can pick up some deckhands at Arrows Island since it's the closest island south of us. I've had to do some deliveries in the past there and it's usually full of sailor and merchants." Deliveries?

"You won't be in trouble there right? I mean- you mentioned fleeing to the monastery…"

"Nah. I don't have a bounty and the ones who would have an issue are further west." His fingers traced a path down the map from island to island before stopping at a small string of islands. "Since we are headed down south… perhaps on the way back if we are in time we can stop here. Dragon's Spine."

"Oh? Something there of interest?"

Boulra looked up at me with an amused smirk. "For someone so interested in legends I cannot believe you'd forget about the Crane Drake Festival!" I tilted my head and tried to figure out what he meant by that. I rifled through my 'memories' and found one; Crane Drakes would show up at this one island once a century when an exceedingly low tide would reveal a sunken island filled with ruins. There they would lay eggs and wait for last centuries eggs to hatch; it was a sea wide event and people from all around would show up for the biggest festival in West Blue. The marines were always there in force to keep people away from the nesting spots while on the main island a huge week long party took place.

"Ohhhhhh! I remember now! Yes; definitely stopping there!" And maybe sneaking across to the nesting site! My pause might be off cooldown by then right?

"It'll be in a bit more than a month so we should have time." Boulra chuckled before heading back out the door. "We finished divvying up the treasure if you want to come out and see. You got most of the art objects since you weren't out to stake a claim on the rest."

I chuckled as I followed: I should have expected that! I didn't mind too much, that dragon statue was pretty awesome! It would look lovely right next to my beautifully carved boxed compass.

Turns out since I wasn't there I got all the metal ingots while the boys had claimed the loose coinage. I could trade those to a smith in exchange for items needed in my brewery or just provide the materials and pay half price to forge them if need be so I wasn't too upset. And how could I be unhappy with the sheer amount of treasure? Especially the beautiful gems! More sparkling gems to add to my collection: large fist sized emeralds, pearls of many different sizes and colors, large chunks of gem quality star rose quartz and jaspers in addition to my pretty coral pieces and the large dragon statue. I did end up trading some of the emeralds for the arm guards to Phil who was just going to sell them anyways. Boulra was the happy owner of Shukketsu since Shanks and Mihawk both used a different style of blade. The large moonstone that was carved and polished into a skull shape was Shanks' while Mihawk had claimed the extra gems. Everyone had one of the horrifying carved coral that glowed; apparently they decided it would be the memento from this adventure. Mihawks was reddish with a deep pink glow: I think the man has a fixation on reddish things… Like blood and roses.

I was going to carry the barrels of metal down but Boulra and Phil took my three barrels away before I could even try to lift them.

"Sit back down and tell 'em what you've got planned." Boulra said with a smirk as he stole my barrel of gold and silver.

"I could carry them! It's not too bad a wound… really." I grumbled before leaning back against the mast. I looked at Shanks and Mihawk, one with an open question on Shanks' face and a blank mask on Mihawk's. "So I'd love to keep going north with you all… but one of the maps I found points south to Sealsburg. It'll be the safest way to figure out if the maps are accurate at all or just a lost goose chase."

"Wait, you found maps? Like... treasure maps?" Shanks asked with a confused expression.

"Yeah I… oh wait. You didn't know what I found in the Siren's lair. In the water there was a poneglyph and a bunch of star maps carved on the walls leading to where the residence of the sunken city traded. Most of that city is probably still up on the Red line somewhere. A lot of the carvings were destroyed since they weren't made of the same material as the poneglyph but seven of them survived. The maps might lead to other poneglyphs so I wanted to try following one."

"Is that what you were taking pictures of? Think there will be more treasure?" Shanks grinned as he leaned back into a pile of gold bars. He had apparently managed to talk his way into owning most of them.

"Not sure about treasure… but if the carved words are right, Sealsburg used to be where the big game and monster hunters lived during the Lost Century so I'm hoping for information on creatures they used to hunt that might not exist anymore or are hard to find."

"For someone who keeps insisting you are not an archeologist you do seem to want to explore ruins a lot." Mihawk quietly commented from where he was cleaning his gems and silver bars.

"Well... I'm not. Not really. I mean- I was raised by archeologists so you pick some things up. But I was formally trained as a brewer!" I protested. "I just like going on adventures and learning about historical things!"

"Like archeologists do?" Mihawk smirked before looking over at Shanks. "I see no problem with it since we do have a working ship to go north in."

"Same here. We got a bit of adventure and I'd love to keep traveling on the Lark but we did all know we would eventually split up. It's just happening a bit sooner! We'll have to throw a party for the success of today and to say goodbye!" He grinned and Phil, who was returning to the deck with Boulra at that moment, laughed.

"Not sure if we got enough food for a big party. Boulra and I purchased enough for two weeks of travel but not a lot of leeway…" I cautioned him as I tried calculating how much food they'd all eat… while adding in the fact that I would be heading down south with a bit less than a week's travel with favorable winds till the next island.

"We'll just have a normal dinner and lots of booze. And look through my pictures." Boulra chuckled. "And since Shanks offered he can make dinner tonight…" The others agreed over the red haired boys objections. So as he slaved over a stove, the rest of us grabbed a few of the beer barrels Boulra had bought back at Shattered Heart, a few of my own bottles and settled around the simple table inside the dining room to browse over the photos. Boulra took his favorites and placed them into an album while the rest of us took the leftovers or reprinted extras for ourselves. I pinned several up on the wall next to my desk and mapping workspace. I would have to see how safe it would be to make a wall map of everywhere we'd been… of if I should just keep it in a logbook. A logbook of my own sounded like a good idea now that I was thinking about it!

The next day was a late start as we all slept off hangovers(and Boulra got a photo of all of us standing in front of the Lark), but eventually we managed to get supplies on to their ship and wave goodbye before Boulra and I turned our gazes southward.

The journey south took longer than it should have: instead of a five day journey, it took eight days. The reason being we had too few hands; with only one person on the rigging and the other at the helm we weren't able to keep the sails at the best position to catch the wind the entire trip down. Add in a day of no winds and quiet seas and we were even slower! While we did have a workable engine and paddle wheel we didn't have the coal to fuel it; something I would definitely have to rectify next town we hit. That windless day Boulra and I spent chatting, fishing, and sparring; it was a very nice break and allowed us to get to know each other a bit more. When we sparred, Boulra swapped what weapons he'd use, sometimes his staff, sometimes just fists, and a few times with his cutlass. I tried my hand at a sword but it didn't feel right so I stayed with my fists and staff for now. We were pretty even skill wise; he always won with a blade while I would win a staff spar and unarmed it was a toss up. As we sparred I noticed that there was decreasing rewards for each round: I guess you could only gain so much experience from sparring one person! The training also nabbed me a Body stat increase which was nice. Once I got a bigger crew I could put some more time into training, the simple stretches, katas, and exercise routine I did before I went to bed was keeping me in shape but not improving myself. I would need to do some training for my speed since it was falling down and I didn't want to rely on Soru for fast movement all the time.

I also got a bit more of his history; turns out he'd actually wanted to join the marines at one point but had gotten dragged into crime. His love of photography was something he'd always had though his skills had always been more with people and numbers.

After we weighed anchor each night and had a few spars, he did his best to teach me how to shoot a pistol and how to appraise items while I taught him more about navigation and sailing. I ended up spending my stored skill point on appraise; it was a useful ability! It gave me far more information when I tried observing items which was nice, plus when I tried observing someone I got a bit of information on the clothing and items they wore. One night we were talking about bounty hunting and if we should actively try and that's where I found out that unless your bounty was above a million they didn't distribute them in the news coo's and even then they only distributed a bounty poster in the general area you were active in or had been through. That made it fairly easy, in my opinion, for a criminal to hide as long as they moved far enough away. I would have to check up on new bounties when we hit new islands just to keep abreast of who was in the area. I wouldn't actively hunt people down unless truly strapped for cash or if they attacked, but it would be good to be known for following laws and being friendly with the marines.

About a day out of Arrows Island I sat down outside with a book pretending to read while I took a look at my character sheet since I hadn't checked it since the siren's fight.

A single line below my Statuses caused me to stop: Unknown Status Effect: 0% Incubation

I stared at it trying to recall when this had happened… It had to have been sometime during the fight or afterwards since I hadn't really been paying attention to notifications at that point…. Unknown status… was my wound infected? That incubation… Do sirens have rabies? I need a doctor! I ran a hand over the raised red scabbed bite mark, it didn't feel infected...

I couldn't really do anything about it other than keep track of when it increased and try to find what caused the incubation to increase so I shoved down the flare of panic and continued on.

There wasn't any other surprises waiting for me, though I did notice that I had a quest log tab next to my Bounty tab and all the weapons that had been identified finally had weapon damage listed next to them. Swords really were deadly! Gōrudenkorāru dealt 50 per hit compared to my wooden staff's 10 damage. Maybe I should look into a naginata for the more dangerous opponents or monsters?

"Think we'll be able to find a good doctor at Arrows Island?" I asked Boulra as he came out with two plates full of food.

"A doctor?" His eyes flickered to where my fingers were tracing the bite mark. "Not too sure about that. Arrow's is known more for merchants than doctors. We can always ask around and see if an apprentice is willing to set sail, might get lucky."

"I'll look for that then and leave hunting sailors down to you." I closed my book and accepted the food with a smile. It was a simple meal of stew and bread but tasty nonetheless.

"So what kind of people are you looking for? I know you're wanting fighters, a doctor and a chef but what else? Anything special you are looking for, personality's you'd like to avoid or things like that?"

"Hmm. Well a shipwright would be nice but I think maybe that can wait till we are in the Grandline since they'll be more familiar with it than a blue sea shipwright. Otherwise I can't think of a job we'd need you didn't mention. As for personalities, preferably people who want to adventure but not too bloodthirsty. I don't want to deal with murdering pirates. I'd like people who've sailed before." I chuckled as I thought of how hard it would be to find people who wanted to adventure, could fight, were sailors, but weren't pirates or marines. This world didn't have a high population of merchants or travelers who took to the seas without a marine escort and all the issues that came with it.

"Hmm. And backgrounds? If they've got a bounty or were a criminal…"

"Eh? Well… If they want to make an honest effort to not be a criminal I've got no issue! And bountied people- well we just left three of them behind! I guess it depends on what they got that bounty for. Mass murders are a no go, but political bounties, or pirates like Phil, Shanks, or Mihawk I don't mind." There were times that people were framed or the government put a bounty on a someone for politics or because a noble asked or those who simply refused to follow rules.

"That I think I can do. You'll want to dress up a bit while we are in town." Boulra's dull grey eyes glinted with amusement at my confused expression. "Since you are officially a captain it'll be expected: nothing too fancy, but enough to convince people that it'll be profitable to join. Your usual tank top and cargo shorts will make it seem like we are fishermen rather than adventurers heading for the Grandline."

"Really?" I looked down at my comfy simple outfit. "So I should bust out that captain's coat I looted from the Emerald Corsairs?"

"Wouldn't hurt. Might look a little odd with sandals, a tank top and shorts though." He chuckled as I frowned at him.

"I'll add clothes shopping to the list." I suppose I could stand to dress myself up a bit. Maybe a snazzy vest and some different belts or sashes?

"We have a list?"

"Mm. We need to trade in the metal for some gear for my brewery, buy supplies needed to make some brews, coal and replacement parts for the engine, restock on food and grab a spice chest, cold weather gear since Sealsburg is frozen. Sell some of my treasure if I can stand to part with it, see if I can get maps of East and South blue, some extra journals for logbooks, parchment and ink for maps…." I ticked them off on my hands as I thought of what I would need going forward. "Maybe a few extra pistols and ammunition. I should probably buy a second weapon just in case my staff breaks. Can you think of anything else?"

I finished my meal while Boulra thought on the question as he ate.

"We might need a cannon. Pirates usually attack with cannons to try and cripple a ship before coming in to board."

"True. Maybe some extra wood and metal sheets for repairs if the Lark gets damaged. I'm going to spend all the treasure I just got aren't I?" I sighed sadly.

"It's why pirates are always attacking! It's expensive to keep a ship and crew afloat!" Boulra laughed.

We headed off to bed after our conversation, tomorrow we would hopefully be hitting Arrows Island and gaining some more people. I wanted at least two more before heading further down south. Hopefully we'd find some entertaining people who just wanted to sail the seas and have an adventure!

On the eighth day we finally spotted Arrows Island about noon; on our way into port we passed a marine ship finishing up what looked to be a fight with pirates. Their flag was a jolly roger holding a dagger in its teeth and had crossed swords rather than bones; I spotted a ton of blades among the crew. Was that their theme?

"Think they are the blade pirates or something?" I called down to Boulra from my perch on the main mast.

"Not all pirates have a theme you know!" Boulra laughed as he called back. "They might just be a group who really like swords! Themed crews come from a captain who's really loony or a dreamer who thinks it looks cool."

"So… they could be the blade pirates is what I hear?" I snickered and scampered about reeling the sails in now that we were getting close to the docks.

"They could." He sighed and adjusted the wheel to keep us on course, tying it in place before he joined me in the riggings. Together we managed to tie the sails up so we slowed down as we approached the docks.

Arrows Island was a lightly forested island with a large impressive cliff pointing southwards. It was named for the shape of the island: an arrow pointing south with a few smaller islands at the northern end. We were docking at the second largest port here, the largest was a city in the Nala Kingdom on the other side of the island from us. While we probably would have better luck finding a doctor in the city, it was full of nobility and had the royal palace so Boulra and I chose to avoid it. Mikan Town was a loud port town filled with lots of fishermen and some merchant ships filling the piers. The town itself was clean looking, the white walled buildings and blue tiled roofs a nice contrast to the abundance of greenery and vining flowers everywhere.

"Pretty town." I remarked to Boulra who was tying up the ship to the dock as I headed in to my cabin to change. I was going to wear the captain's coat, until I realized I had nothing that worked with it! Simple tank tops and t-shirts plus cargo pants did not work the elegant coat at all! There was no way to make the coat fit with anything I owned. Oh well; I'd get some more clothes then change before we went crew hunting.

Leaving behind my fancy coat, Boulra and I found a blacksmith first and ended up borrowing a cart to load all the barrels of ingots up to bring to him and trade. While he couldn't make the equipment I needed for my brewery he was certainly willing to trade for the coal needed to run the engines, a single cannon, 15 cannonballs, a barrel of gunpowder, basic mechanic tools, basic tools for a carpenter and the metal we needed to repair the ship if things went bad as well as a checkup on the engine to make sure everything worked. Boulra managed to also get him to add in some weapons and call it even. I'm not sure if everything we bought was worth the 40,000 or so beri of the ingots but I think it was a good trade! I think out of the four men I had traveled with, Boulra was the best companion to keep! I got someone who could haggle with the best of them and could figure out how to get everything I needed without me doing too much!

We hit several small stores that he knew of to trade in the extra coral bonsai sculptures, I traded one for a lovely painted picture of the Ohara Tree of Knowledge in a sunset. It was a wonderful surprise to find something of 'home' out here. It was worth Boulra's grumblings about me and my artwork! I had fun exploring the bustling marketplace, chatting with stall owners, listening to gossip, sampling the food, and taking in all the items for sell while enjoying the side comments from Boulra about the quality of items versus their prices. The folk here were far more relaxed and louder than the other places I'd visited, willing to answer questions and point me to actual stores that were off the main market square. I found some interesting books in one store that had Boulra joking about Ohara bookworms. In a quieter part of town Boulra pointed out several shops that sold higher end outfits and we had a shopping spree. I picked up some nicer boots, a couple of vests, sashes and some pants with bird decals running along the outside seams. I picked up some loose capri's in a light hardy cloth that was bound at the calves with decorative bands: they were light enough I would be able to swim better and they'd dry faster than my jeans. Boulra seemed to like the more rough and roguish look and picked up a few leather pieces and new boots. Overall it was a very fun morning and early afternoon of power shopping and Boulra and I had a blast bonding as we scoured the stores for the best deals on things we needed. We managed to pick up everything on my list except the food and water which would be bought after we got new crew members and had some food; shopping was exhausting and we both needed to recharge.

Straightening the cuffs of my captain's coat, I wandered back to the top of the deck. Looking around for Boulra, I spotted him leaning up against the mast and eyeing something on the docks. I looked over and saw the pier next to where we were docking had a large broad shouldered man with a huge sword strapped to his back and a small boy with bright blue hair standing next to him standing by a large cart filled with barrels and boxes. From the markings on the wood, it looked like they were filled with food. The man was completely covered in freckles and had dark red hair in a tight braid, a loose partially buttoned white shirt tucked into worn brown pants with thick black boots. What really drew my eye was his beard; instead of the entire chin being covered it was shaved except for two spots on the chin that he'd braided into two long braids. The boy couldn't have been more than fifteen, all long gangly limbs and an acne problem who was dressed rather colorfully in a long sleeveless overcoat of dark blue with green edging over a black shirt and tan shorts and bright blue sandals. The kid had a despairing shocked expression on his face while the man looked very put out…

"Those two- how much you willing to bet that pirate ship we passed on our way in is theirs?" Boulra said and with a crooked grin.

"No bet! Wonder why they got left behind?"

"My guess is they had just started shopping when the marines attacked and the pirates tried to flee. Probably should have stayed at the docks and tried fighting hand to hand since the marines wouldn't risk damaging the citizens." Boulra got a speculative gleam in his eyes. "You ready to go meet some pirates and see if they want to join? The boys too young to have a bounty and his clothes too new to have been at sea for long but his companion looks like a fighter."

"You sure that's a good idea?"

"Why not? I don't recognize the fighter so he either doesn't have a large bounty or only recently got one. Plus they come with supplies pre-purchased!"

"The supplies themselves would be worth taking on two for a bit wouldn't they?" I murmured giving them a second look over. "Well, it would be such a waste to let all that food go to waste. Let's go recruiting shall we?"

[[Jasmien Bio 1]]

When I went to upload ch 13 I noticed ch 12 had some formatting errors. Also fixed some grammer errors before reloading this chapter.