The sack was partially open and Mai could see what was inside it.
"FOOD!" the little girl shrieked diving towards the sack.
"Mai!" Sanji shouted as the man hurled a knife at the ground in front of her.
Mai gasped as the knife sank into the ground just an inch from when her hand had been.
"Mai!" he exclaimed rushing to her side.
Seeing that she wasn't physically hurt Sanji dragged the stunned Mai back.
"Sanji," she whispered cowering behind him.
The older boy began to back away and he slightly jumped when the man spoke to him.
"How long have you been here?" his voice was dry and raspy showing that he'd been deprived of water.
"I don't have to answer to you jiji!" Sanji shouted his eyes narrow.
The old man laughed and he picked up the sack to tie a knot in it.
"I'll give this to you if you tell me where the water is," he said his grip firm around the sack.
"Never!" Sanji snarled.
"But Sanji," Mai whispered. "Hara heta."
Sanji sighed.
"Throw us the bag jiji and I'll show you where the water is."
The old man chuckled. He stood up and turned around to face the blue eyed children. Sanji and Mai could see how thin and shrivelled the old man was. Sanji's eyes drifted further down his form and to his legs. He only had one, the other had stopped at the knee and been substituted by a thin piece of wood that didn't look all too sturdy. It clearly didn't make that good of a leg because the man had a large branch rested under his arm to act as a walking stick. The man hobbled over to the two children wincing as a trickle of blood slipped down his temporary wooden leg.
"You'll have to crawl," Sanji snapped reaching out his hand for the food sack.
The old man passed it to him and lowered himself onto all fours. He stared at the mass of braches before them.
"One of you go in front and one of you go behind," he instructed.
"Majide jiji!" he answered.
"I'm staying with her," he held the trembling Mai further behind his back.
"Fine," the old man moaned. "Then you both go behind me. And stop calling me jiji, my name is Zeff."
Sanji furiously blinked back the tears. Just thinking about her hurt too much. It wasn't fair, it was Ace who had done something wrong and yet he was the one feeling awful, the one who had considered suicide more than once. Mai was the first and only girl Sanji had ever loved and Ace had taken her away from him. The tears continued to pour down his pink cheeks as he curled up in a tight ball on the floor willing for the pain to disappear. He felt as though the whole time he'd spent getting over her had never happened. But I was never really over her, Sanji reminded himself.
"Sanji..."