Chapter 3 – The unexpected change
The calm, usual sounds of the forest could be heard in the wood house as well, where the three teens were sitting. For Ace and Luffy this place always has been a nostalgic and important place what was built with Sabo long ago, and however Dana didn't know him because she arrived to Dawn Island only after his death, this place what the two boys showed her and shared with her became close to her heart as well.
- Hey...
Dana raised her head up and looked toward the direction of the voice. The freckled boy looked back at her, smiling friendly.
- What are you thinking about so deeply with that face? Everything is okay?
While Dana watched Ace with her huge eyes and dreamy, little melancholic face, her lips instinctively widened to a smile again.
- Yes. It's just... It popped to my mind that five years passed since I arrived to Foosha, and I still don't know what my mother wanted to tell me. But, maybe the answer is really not here... but far on the high seas...
Dana looked out of the wood house up to the blue sky, what looked so endless just like the ocean she yearned for. The birds flying above, all looked so free... They could reach anywhere in those wings, just like the pirates sailing on the sea searching for new adventures. She wanted to do it as well... exploring everything what seemed to be so far away...
- Maybe I can be sure only when I will become a pirate.
- Don't be afraid. You sure will know the truth one day, anyway.
The words of Ace made Dana blush slightly as she turned her face toward him again, and with her so pure and innocent look she looked deep inside his dark eyes. Somehow Ace could always make her feel embarrassed and excited, but in that time she didn't understand why. From the strange, good daze she awaked by Luffy's gaily shouting.
- Yes! When you will join me, you will know it because we will sail through all the Grand Line and I will be the Pirate King!
Dana smiled kindly at their always enthusiastic friend, but before she could have said anything, Ace frowned at the youngest boy and interrupted him.
- Hey, Luffy! Dana will be in my crew!
The girl would have never expected it. Her heartbeat became very fast as her eyes widened from the surprise, but filled with excitement and joy as she watched the fifteen years old boy. Ace looked back at her with his determined face and his stubborn expressions still frowning, and with a slight blush on his freckled face.
- When I will be seventeen and I will leave Foosha... Will you join me?
The blush deepened in her face. Slowly a wide, happy smile appeared on her face as she closed her eyes.
- Of course!
That so glad smile couldn't vanish from her face on that day.
Dana opened her eyes exhaustedly. She needed a few moments to pass until she realised she is lying in the bed of the hostel room where she spent the night.
- It was just a dream...
Her almost mute and little husky voice seemed to be disappointed. How good it would be staying in that dream returning back to that old memory, back to the time when everything was so great... She loved dreaming about the past, especially from that age when they were at Dawn Island, so young and careless. That time was one of her favourite, the old tree house, the sound as the breeze gently flew the trees bringing that nice scent of the summer, Foosha with the lot of familiar people, Makino's Bar, Ace's smile... Quite a bit, she still lived in the past because it could make her handle the present and believe that the path forwards her can lead her to a brighter future.
The girl sat up on the bed, letting herself time to be clear and gain power after the slumber. Her thoughts were still around her dream and she was just there quietly, thinking back to the promise what she couldn't keep. Her quiet, slightly yearning whisper broke the empty silence of the hostel room.
- I wish if it could have happened like this...
The fourteen years old red-haired girl was walking deep in thoughts on the streets of Goa. It wasn't unusual seeing her there. She liked walking around alone at times. It just felt so great, exploring streets and paths in Dawn Island, what became her home while the time she spent here. She knew the place and the people well, so she easily recognised those who stayed here just temporarily. Just like on that hot, but normal day on the calm street under the summer sky.
The girl between the so many familiar faces suddenly saw a group of people. They seemed to be pirates. Dana glanced at them but she ignored them just like everyone else, until they didn't want something. But still, as she was calmly walking away next to them, wanting or not she heard their talk.
- I can't go back anymore – said a woman from the crew. The sun shone on her wavy, blonde hair with some brown highlight. Her strong, yet calm look was dyed by the regret. – The village was attacked by a pirate crew fourteen years ago. They despoiled and burnt up everything. Most of the people were killed by them.
The girl slowed her steps. Those words just couldn't be out of her mind.
"Attack? Fourteen years ago...?"
- So your friend you talked about was also lost there, Mira? – asked a crewmate of her.
- No... – the woman called as Mira shook her head. – Some of them survived. When I met one of them, he said she escaped too. But she wanted to be in the East Blue, who knows why... So she separated from them however she was pregnant. The survivor man from my destroyed village said nobody heard about her anymore.
- I see... – said another crewmate. – What was her name, again?
- Maylene. Willow Maylene.
The girl slowly fully stopped as she couldn't move from the shock. She slowly turned toward them, still eyes widened, while the light trembled in her now very small pupil. She didn't hesitate more... and she started to run toward the woman without thinking.
- Is it true? – she asked on her trembling voice filled with excitement while watching Mira, not caring about the surprised, suspicious looks and glares at her. – A woman... with the family name Willow... East Blue... fourteen years...!
She was so nervous that she couldn't be able to speak coherently. Mira was still watching her confused, not really understanding what the young girl wants to say.
- Slower... – she said on her calm voice, however still not understanding. - ...First of all, who are you?
- My name is Willow Dana! – said the girl on a little trembling voice as she started to talk excitedly and nervously. – I was born in a small island on the East Blue, not far from here. When I was old enough, they told me... A black-haired woman with blue eyes suddenly arrived in the island, seeking for help... Nobody had seen her before... She was pregnant, and I was born on that day... But she lost too much blood and she was weak already, she died. In her last words she gave me a name, and she wanted to say something about Foosha but she couldn't finish it. When I became eight years old, I asked some people to bring me to Dawn Island but when I asked the people in Foosha village, nobody knew her. But now... Finally, this is the first time when I hear someone talk about the family name Willow...
The girl's blue eyes were shiny as she watched the shocked Mira, filled with hope. The pirates were quiet, her eyes widened as watching the red-haired girl. The woman's hazel eyes were wide as well as she listened to her, watching her in disbelief, yet listening to her with her emotions swirling inside.
- The description... is correct... – her voice trembled from the surprise. – Are you really Maylene's daughter...?
The unexpected change filled her with both sorrow and joy inside. It was painful facing the truth Maylene really died because inside she hoped one day they can meet again. But knowing that her daughter is fine, she grew up to a teen and looks cheerful, made Mira happy.
- Maylene... – repeated Dana quietly the name she heard for the first time, and her lips widened to a smile. – Her name was beautiful...
Some of the other pirates watched them with empathy, others with shock, surprised. Only one of them, the other only female crewmember was watching Dana still repulsively, tightening her golden eyes as her brown, shoulder-length hair was blown by the breeze. The girl ignored her, still watching Mira for waiting for answers, hoping that she can know more.
- Who is my father? Is he alive?
Mira slowly shook her head.
- I'm sorry... I don't know who he is. Maylene and I were young at the time when I left the island to become a pirate. I don't know what happened in her life after that.
Dana hung her head a little. She was glad that now she knows more about her mother... But her father was still unknown. Mira tried to keep calm on the outside, but her mind the thoughts didn't let her peacefully.
"I must help her. I can't leave her just here after all of it. In the memory of Maylene..."
- Join us! If you sail with us on the high seas, I can help to you finding out who is he!
From the sudden words of the woman, her crew got even more shocked.
- But Mira... Are you sure? – asked a tall, chubby man with large round eyes.
- She is too young now... – wondered another man.
- Rea could prove as well despite her age. And anyway, guys... There is no right time or right age to start being a pirate. If someone has the will and the chance for reaching their dream, not even fate can stop it.
The girl called as Rea, still glanced at Dana suspiciously.
- Can you fight at all, if it comes to that?
The red-haired was easily pissed off by the sniffy tone in her voice. She took her fan in a second, opening it with a fast movement. The sunlight shone and sparkled on the sharp blades sticking out of the fan
- This is my weapon. I have been training and hunting since five years. I wanted to be a pirate since a long, so my friends taught me how to fight hand-to-hand combat, so I know the bases.
The girl closed the weapon again with her confident motion. Some of the pirates smirked, and their looks became less sceptical about her. But it still wasn't enough yet, especially not for Rea.
- Recruiting is the choice of the captain, not us – said she. Her voice still was cold, filled with expressionless confidence with that irritating superior behaviour. – How could we be sure about he would accept her?
Mira became quiet and she started thinking. Some of the pirates changed looks. But one of them, a man around the age of 35, with dark eyes and long brown hair in ponytail, leaned against the wall lazily. His smirk seemed to be self-assured.
- Well, we can know it for sure only if asking Bailey.
His words evoked a smile on Mira's face.
- Spike is right. Let's go!
- But... but...
Dana became nervous from all of the unexpected things. She looked at the pirate crew, anxiously and unsure. Suddenly the face of her friends flashed into her mind, and scenes were played inside her, the fragments of the time she spent here with them. How they trained together, had fun, hunted in the forest, the talks when sharing their dreams with each other... They grew up together...
"I can't leave it all behind just in a second!"
- I must go back! – she said quickly, worrying. – My friends won't know what happened to me! I must tell-...
- We have to go – said the brown haired girl with that sharp look, not really seeming like someone who cares. – Captain Bailey already told us that he doesn't want to stay a lot in Goa.
A huge man, looking strong and intimidating on the outside but warm-hearted on the inside, looked at the red-haired girl sympathetically, then back to the other girl.
- C'mon, Rea, take it easy. She sure has people important to her here. It doesn't take anything to wait a little until she gets back.
The eyes of her still didn't change.
- What is more important to you, this brat, or the order of the captain?
Dana's large, innocent blue eyes now suddenly flared from anger.
"...Brat?!"
- You don't look much older than me to say it... – growled Dana with an enemy look. – And by the way, why are you so picky? This is not a thing that I can decide in a second!
Rea turned to her eyes filled of rage what made Dana change again quickly in a second, eyes widening and gulping suddenly. But after it, her look tightened again stubbornly, keeping the eye contact.
- If you really want to be a pirate, you shouldn't flinch at the start. Only cowards and weaklings do that. A person, who is not sure in their dreams and acts, shouldn't be a pirate.
The anger got more and more intense inside the red-haired as she glared at Rea stubbornly and seriously.
„Ace, Luffy..."
Her hands became fists, trembling from the passion.
"...I'm so sorry!"
- I JOIN YOU!
Her determined shout made the whole crew turning toward her. Most of them widened a smile at her. They felt with Mira as her crewmates, and they saw she feels it important giving helping hands to this girl, so they shared Mira's happiness. Just like the old captain who hearing the story on the deck of the ship, accepted Dana gladly.
- Welcome to the Bailey Pirates! – he said on his deep voice then laughed merrily. As the girl looked at everyone from the crew there, friendly faces smiled back at her. She still felt achingly because of the guilt about Ace and Luffy, but she could think about only that if they meet again somewhere on the high seas and she tells this story, they may understand...
Dana shook her head a little. When she awaked from her thoughts she realised she is still in the bed of that room with gray walls. She frowned, and her eyes suddenly filled with anger as looking in the front of herself.
- Tsch... It was the worst decision of my life...
She growled from the memories, as she stood up from the bed.
