A mourning state overcame the entire Kuja tribe which put the whole island on halt. The schools were closed, no one was training in the arena and the market streets were all completely deserted. It was unusual for this island full of life and sound to wear this veil of depressing quietness. Every inhabitant of Amazon Lily was struck hard by the loss of their beloved Harpy Empress and pirate captain. The tribe's palace, which was build into the mountain chain surrounding the village, was the only place that still attracted people. The island's inhabitants were all showing their respects by placing flowers, candles and other little gifts in front of Aurélie's late place of guidance and power.

Even after all the preparations Aurélie took to make her people aware of the probable outcome of a harpy's pregnancy, no one really seemed to willingly accept the fact that their strongest fighter and proud leader really was gone now.
Not only leaving behind an orphaned spit image of herself, a tiny harpy with porcelain skin, lavender hair, big yellow eyes and huge pastel purple wings, but also three already orphaned sisters and giant footsteps for the next Empress to fill in.

Sorella, the doctor and first mate, kept the promise she made to close friend and took the infant harpy and the Boa sisters in.
Until the day of Aurélie's funeral the three Boa sisters didn't come out of Sorella's bedroom, which she willingly gave them, so they could grieve by themselves without any foreign intruder bothering them. As Sorella had been living alone to this point in her life, her house was rather small, with only one bedroom and an open kitchen connected to her living room where she spend most of her free time in. Her house didn't have much decoration in it, as Sorella was a rather practical human with simple tastes. But here and there were pictures hanging on the wall or cut-out paper articles where the Kujas were mentioned in.

The house possessed it's own bathroom, wich was a rather rare thing on this island. Due to her rang as First Mate she earned this privileged house. Her living room was rather cramped right now, as not only Sorella herself was sleeping in it right now, but also Charlie whose crib was three times the size of a normal one. But the little harpy needs the extra space due to her large wingspan.

The only real eye-catcher Sorella possessed was her giant wood shelf which took in one whole side of her living room. Since Sorella wanted to become a doctor from a very young age on, she already lost account on how many books there actually were in her collection. The small red haired woman wasn't known for her strong fighting skills, but for the huge amount of knowledge she possessed. It's a rather rare thing for a Kuja child to dream of becoming a doctor, but since Sorella had lost her mother to an unknown disease.

The doctor decided that it'd be better to feed Charlie one more time before leaving to prevent that she'd be crying for food later. After checking that the bottle did in fact have the right temperature Sorella put up one sleeve of her shirt and sprinkled some of the liquid on her arm. After almost doing that mistake of giving Charlie a way too hot bottle, the guardian never forgot to check it anymore. During her precautions Charlie was eying the bottle all the time, her face growing that giant smile of hers as the bottle was flying towards her mouth.

All of this caring for children was new to Sorella, sure she was confronted with them on a daily basis as she was one of the three only doctors the island had, her being the most competent one, but having to care for them at all times, and even having to feed and change a newborn was rather scary to her.

But this precious little creature in her arms always reassured her with her giant and contagious smile that she was doing the right thing.
„You have no idea what's going on here little one…" Sorella sighed and smiled back at little Charlie.

„It's time to go now girls, or else we'll be late!" she knocked on the bedroom door, waiting for the girls to come out so they could attend the funeral.

The door immediately swung open and three girls of very different statue came out, wearing the black dresses Sorella had picked out for them. Their eyes were swollen and red while their faces were full of matching red streams.
They must have been sobbing the last two days straight. Poor girls…

As soon as the sisters came out of the room Charlie stopped laughing, which caused Sorella to look at her confused.
„Are we going or what?!" the oldest of the sisters gave off of her.

„Y-yeah sure." Sorella answered, being ripped out of her thoughts.

She opened the door and off they were.

The whole tribe gathered on the island's graveyard, which was situated on a cliff on the island's coast, to bid their farewells to their late Empress. It was a rather dissonant sight seeing the usually colorful clothed villagers wearing such dark vestments. But the clothes perfectly reflected the inhabitants emotional state. In all of her 27 years did Sorella never see so many, naturally strong and stable, Kujas completely loose control over their emotions. Their loss left all the Amazons in complete agony. Even the Elders who were the most serious ones, were completely overwhelmed by the tribes common distress.

As First Mate it was Sorella's duty to introduce the beginning of the funeral. A big podium was positioned in front of the mausoleum where all of the former Empresses took their eternal rest. The wooden staircase attached to the podium eased the climbing for the rather short red-haired doctor.

Once Sorella's heels made contact with the wooden stairs a wave of complete silence took over the island. Nobody was sobbing anymore, or blowing their nose, no more giving comforting words to one another. Every inhabitant of Amazon Lily's eyes were fixed on Sorella who was caring a sleeping newborn harpy in her arms. A mild autumn breeze blew through Sorella's short red hair, which she wore in a pixie cut, which she took this as a sign, indicating her to start now. Never before having spoken in front of so many people, she took a deep breath and commenced with the funeral's rituals.

„Today is a sad day indeed… A day donated completely to sadness and remembrance.
Like all of you, I t-too m-miss Aurélie, my b-best friend so much. There hasn't been an Empress like … h-her ever before, her striking beauty and a strength… no one has ever seen before.
B-but all of us should be happy, happy to be part of this generation who got the privilege to live and fight under Aurélie-sama's reign. We are the ones who have to pass on her strength onto the upcoming generation!"

Getting more and more confident on stage, Sorella's voice mesmerized more and more inhabitants. Still fighting back her tear filled eyes to let go of her tears. She squeezed the harpy in her arms a little tighter to gain strength and continued.

„Now is not the time to loose ourselves, but to become stronger than ever! I know that no one of us right now could fit into the footsteps she left behind… But maybe, maybe we will be the one's to help grow an even stronger Empress…"

While Sorella was actually referring to the feathery infant in her arms, she light up a fire in so many other young girls.
But a certain black haired girl became more determined than all the others to become a powerful Empress one day.

„I hope my words gave you all a reason to not give up now, but to keep on fighting and become even stronger warriors. Now I will pass on to Elder Eliza, who also has some words of support for you.
Thank you."

Sorella got down from the podium and took in her seat in the front row, while the first one of the Elders began with her religious rituals. Being one of the rare women on Amazon Lily who possessed some scientific knowledge it was hard for Sorella to believe what the Elder proclaimed that Aurélie would be now. Some magical better place, watching over us all.
Bullshit…

All the prayers led to Sorella completely zoning out, getting completely devoured by her own thoughts.
She didn't even realize that they'd already arrive to the last ceremony of the funeral - the proclamation of the next Empress of Amazon Lily. Sorella completely overheard that Elder Marlene, who got the honor to announce the identity of the next Empress, spoke out her name.

After that everything changed so fast. All of Sorella's belongings got moved from her house into the island's palace. Never would ,the rather quiet and distant first mate of the Kuja Pirates, have thought that she would actually be voted the next Empress. But Aurélie must have given the Elders a personal recommendation, whom she saw fit for the position.
Why would you think that I can handle this? You idiot…

Not only was Sorella proclaimed 348th Empress of Amazon Lily, but due to her promotion she also automatically became Captain of the Kuja Pirates.
So much power and responsibilities were handed to her in one brief moment.
However Sorella swore to herself to keep on fighting for her late Captain and make her proud, to honor the position she was handed to.

I will take good care of our people and your girls my dear friend.

_

Sorry it took me so long to update this story!
But seeing that people are actually interested in it makes me so happy.

Sorry, this chapter is rather short and not very interesting, but I needed to put those infos in here.
The next chapter will come out later as I already have half of it, as I wanted to post more at first in the second chapter.
But decided that this moment would be a nice moment to do the cut.
In the next chapter Charlie will grow up a little, but it'll take maybe another 2-3 chapters until she leaves for her adventure.

Reviews:
mini consts: Sorry, the story is neither about Aurélie or Hancock. They do play important roles in it, but Charlie is the main protagonist of it! And no, a Dofla x Hancock pairing won't happen. But Doflamingo will be paired with someone, but I won't spill the surprise yet, haha. But I hope that you'll still continue with the story!

Yuuki no Yuki : Love all of your speculations, haha! Guess we'll see if you are right or not! Hope you'll enjoy the story and continue on feeding me with your speculations! It's real fun to see where people think this is going :D