Hello everyone! Here is the fifth chapter! Thank you to those who support the story, that includes you shy people who don't leave reviews! Enjoy your reading!
Tani was leaning against the edge, her arms over it and in the water. She was hoping to catch something to eat. She was starving. It didn't help that Luffy kept complaining every 5 seconds.
"Sooo hungry" Luffy whined again. He was hanging over the rail, his arms also over the edge. He was facing the edge, though, and had his head forward as well.
"When the hell are we gonna reach land?" Zoro complained. He was sitting on Tani's side of the boat. He had an arm against the edge. He looked hungry too. The boat was titled a bit, thanks to Luffy.
"Who knows? We'll be sailing on the wind and the waves, going where they take us. We might not even reach the land. Naw, I guess we will someday." Luffy said. The movement of the boat on the waves was rocking her into a sleepy fuzziness. Her eye lids lowered. She'd been asleep a lot lately. Nothing better to do.
"Don't you find it dumb that someone trying to be king of the pirates has no navigational skill at all?" She heard Zoro say before she fell asleep.
Tani usually never had dreams and when she did, they were always so strange. This was one of those times.
She was standing in the darkness, feeling comfortable. She liked the dark. It made her feel like she was wrapped in a blanket, protected. Then the darkness changed, getting less comfortable. It felt hostel to her and that scared her. She felt like running, but couldn't. She couldn't move or speak, she found out quickly. She wanted to yell for help. She looked around her, looking for something else in the darkness, something warm. She found nothing.
She suddenly found she could move, so she started running in any old direction she could. She kept running and running. The darkness didn't let up; her breath was puffing out now as she tried to find some kind of light. Then she found one, a small light in the darkness. She ran towards it with all her might and once she got there, what she saw shocked her. It was her mother, standing there in a long white dress; she smiled her bright and happy smile and said "my dear Tanith. Continue along your adventure. Live with the freedom you deserve."
She woke up with a start. What was that dream? Something about her mother… The details where leaving her now. She couldn't remember anything of the dream, only that she had been terrified.
"Your finally wake, Tani" Zoro said to her. She blinked at him, noticing that a certain straw hat wearing kid was missing. She also noticed that there were 3 new guys on the boat. They were rowing.
"Luffy got carried off by a bird, didn't he?" Tani asked, face palming. Zoro looked at her with a shocked face.
"Yeah, but how did you know that? You were asleep" Zoro asked, his face going from shocked to suspicious.
"Don't make that face. I had a feeling something like this would happen. He gets himself into a lot of trouble just by existing" Tani answered as she sat up and looked at the 3 new guys. "So who are they?" She knew who they were. She just asked to seem less suspicious.
"Their guys from Buggy the Clowns pirate crew" Zoro answered before turning back to them. "So what was this about a girl?"
"She can predict the weather!" The middle guy said. Hm, they must be talking about Nami. Tani tuned out the conversation in favour of thinking about the dream. Or what she could remember of it. It gave her chills even when she couldn't remember all of it. Lost in her thoughts, she didn't see where they were or that they had docked until Zoro called to her.
"Hey Tani! We're here" He said to her. She looked at him and blinked. Then she stood up and got out of the boat. When she was on dry land, that was when an explosion happened and they saw a row of houses get destroyed nearby.
"That was one heck of an explosion" Zoro commented when he heard it.
"It looked like it was one of the Captains beloved Buggy Balls" one of Buggy's men said.
"Buggy balls?" Zoro asked with a smile. He probably found the name funny. Tani sure as hell did. She laughed at the name.
"Hey Zoro. I'm gonna go find us some food. I'm probably going to have a shower as well. That okay?" Tani asked him, mumbling the shower part.
"Yeah. Though you don't have to ask permission for that stuff" He said with a smirk. Tani smacked his shoulder lightly and said "You are the first mate" before running off in a random direction, waving good-bye as she went.
First thing she wanted to look for was a grocery store. That way, she wouldn't steal from people's homes. After a bit of running around, she found one. Tanith knew that most of the stuff must have gone bad by now, so she braced herself for the smell and walked in.
The smell wasn't that bad, but it still made her feel sick. Taking a deep breath of fresh air from outside, she held her breath. She walked in quickly, looking through everything as quickly as she could. Most of the stuff had gone bad, besides some dried fruits and nuts. As well as some water. She got as much dried fruits and nuts as she could, put them in small barrels the store provided, and rushed outside between each bag.
It took her two full hours to collect a good amount of stuff. In the end, she had about 25 small barrels of dried fruits and nuts, as well as 3 barrels of water. She'd found still good sake as well. She picked that barrel and brought it out as well. It surprised her that she could pick up a barrel of booze without much strain. Guess she was stronger than she thought she was.
She had to find a carriage or something to be able to carry around her. After looking around, she found one. Picking up the harness part of it, she pulled it to where the food, water and booze were. She stopped it next to the bag and barrels and started loading each onto the carriage. Once she had loaded everything on, she grabbed the harness, braced herself and pulled it.
She surprised herself when it was somewhat easy to pull. Sure she had to strain quite a bit, but it was bearable. Now, to find a house that wasn't going to be destroyed and take a shower. She really needed one. She had BO and her hair was greasy. Pulling the carriage along slowly, she looked for a house she knew wouldn't get destroyed. After a while, she found one.
It was too stories, with a front porch. It had a chair swing next to the door, under a window, on the porch. It was blue in color and the roof was black. There was a place next to the house that was a good hiding place for a carriage. Smiling to herself, she pulled the carriage into the hiding place and left it there after making sure it was well hidden. She tried the front door, finding that it was unlocked. Smiling happily, she walked right in.
The house was, of course, empty. The front door opened into the living room. When she walked in (closing the door behind her) she found that the living room was connected to the dining room which leads into the kitchen. It was like a curve. In the kitchen, she found what she was looking for. A staircase leading up. She walked up it. She found herself in a long hallway with rooms on either side. About 6 rooms, she counted. And one of them has to be a bathroom.
She walked down the hallway, opening doors as she went. At the fourth door, she found what she was looking for. A bathroom with a shower! She did a little victory dance as she walked in. It had a sink, a toilet, cabinets, and a bathtub/shower. She checked to see if it had running water and to her surprise (and delight) it did. Opening one of the cabinets she found soap and shampoo. Opening another one, she found some towels. Picking a large towel and a small one, she went to the bathtub and started the shower. She pulled the curtain closed and started washing.
After her 30 minute shower, she dried off, got dressed and found she didn't stink anymore and her hair smelled like wood. She liked the smell. It reminded her of trees and she loved nature. Anyway, she dried her long dark brown colored hair as best she could, got dressed in the only clothing she had (she needed to go shopping) and walked out. When she was down stairs, she decided to leave a note, saying 'please forgive her for using the shower without permission but she was in a hurry. She didn't steal anything, so don't worry. Signed, a friendly stranger.'
Yup, that was good. She wrote it down and left it on the table in the dining room. Best place to see it. Smiling happily, she skipped out and toward her carriage.
After making sure nothing had been taken from the carriage, she started off for the docks again. She made it there just in time to see Zoro scare off the 3 idiots. She noticed Nami was with them and Luffy was carrying Zoro over his shoulder. She pulled the carriage over to them just in time to hear Luffy said "Where's Tani?"
"Right here" She answered him. She was out of breath and was panting by now.
"Hey! You got food!" Luffy said happily. Tani smiled and nodded. She dropped the harness and with Luffy's help (He put Zoro down in the boat) loaded the two boats. She left the carriage there and climbed into their boat. The two boats set sail. Tani looked at Nami then and Nami looked back at her. Introductions where then given.
"Alright! Let's get going!" Luffy said.
"Can I ask you something? Isn't that Buggy's mark on your sail?" Zoro asked Nami as she stood in her boat.
"Well, this did use to be Buggy's boat. Do you think I should change it?" Nami asked, looking at the sail.
"Wiping it out is the best option" Tani put in. She had her legs stretched out before her and her arms on the edge of the boat. She leaned her head back. God was she tired.
"HEY WAIT! YOUNG ONES!" An old man she didn't know yelled at them from the docks. Tani looked over at him lazily.
"It's the old mayor guy" Luffy said, looking over at him. 'Must be the mayor of this town' Tani thought to herself. He just stood there, breathing hard for a few minutes. It looked to her like he was thinking something through. Zoro and Nami were also starting at the old guy.
The mayor lifted his head and yelled "Thanks! Thank you!" He was crying as well. Luffy, Zoro and Nami smiled at that. Tani smiled too. She remembered this part, vaguely.
"DON'T WORRY ABOUT IT! TAKE IT EASY!" Luffy yelled back. That was when Nami noticed the missing bag of gold.
"WHAT YOU DO, LUFFY, HUH? Don't tell me you left that bag of treasure back there?" Nami yelled at Luffy.
"Yeah" was Luffy's answer.
"THAT BAG WAS WORTH AROUND 5 MILLION BELIS, YOU IDIOT!" Nami yelled back at him.
"That's right. And they're gonna need that money to repair their destroyed town" Luffy answered. Nami leaned toward Luffy menacingly.
"THAT WAS MY TREASURE, JERK! DO YOU KNOW HOW HARD I WORKED TO STEAL IT?" Nami yelled before she pushed Luffy's head into the water between the two boats. "WHY DID YOU DO THAT?" Luffy was struggling to get back up, but Nami kept his head near/in the water.
"STOP! I CAN'T SWIM!" Luffy yelled at her as he kept struggling.
"THAT'S THE WHOLE IDEA!" Nami yelled back.
"IF YOU WANT IT THEN GO BACK AND GET IT THEN!" Luffy then yelled. Nami pulled his head up then pushed him back into the water.
"I CAN'T DO THAT! YOU GO BACK AND GET IT!" Zoro and Tani started laughing at the two's antics.
"That's dangerous! I could die you know!"
"I DON'T CARE! And if you do that again, I really will throw you into the ocean!" Nami released Luffy then and Luffy started coughing water, trying to breathe.
"Well, for better or for worse, we finally have a navigator in our crew" Zoro said after he stopped laughing. Tani nodded her agreement. She got as comfortable as she could on a wooden boat and before she knew it, she was asleep.
When she woke up next, Nami was talking.
"There's no way we can make it through the Grand Line in this condition"
"Uggghh" Tani moaned, singling her awakening. "How long was I asleep?" Her back hurt. Damn it! Why couldn't she have slept through the pain?
"Only for about 5 hours" Zoro answered her question before asking "You okay? You don't look well." That phrase just got the 'understatement of the year' award.
"I'm fine. My backs just sore" Tani answered before sitting up and stretching, making her back pop loudly. It didn't help at all.
"Your tattoo might be infected" Luffy commented, trying to look thoughtful.
"I doubt that" Tani mumbled as Nami asked "Tattoo?" Luffy smiled at Nami and said "Yeah! She's got this awesome tattoo that's really detailed!"
Nami blinked, then looked at Tani and asked "Can I see it?" Tani blinked and nodded to Nami. Tani got up and jumped over to Nami's boat. Then she sat down and pulled off her shirt shamelessly. Tani still had her bra on, so nothing could be seen, but Zoro's and Nami's face both turned a bit red. Zoro looked away, and Nami looked over the tattoo, surprised at the detail. She made sure that it wasn't infected and after a few minutes of inspections, Nami declared it fine. Tani had thoughts so anyway. She was probably just sore from the awkward sleeping positions the small boat made her sleep in. She put her shirt back on and crossed over to Luffy's small boat again.
"You're right. We're gonna need a lot more meat" Luffy said. He was eating an apple. "Eating fruit every day is for the birds." To explain why there was a barrel of apples there; Luffy had eaten all the food Tani had 'borrowed' and they stopped by a floating bar. After some chaos, they left with the barrel of apples. Tani had slept through it all, woke up only once they left, grabbed two apples, ate them both and went back to sleep. What surprised Tani when she woke up now was that she didn't remember doing that.
"We'll also need some more booze" Zoro said, causing Tani to say "'ear 'ear!" Both Zoro and Tani had drunk half of the barrel of sake each on the first day they set sail. She loved booze, so what? They were both hit with apples. Luffy caught the apple that hit Zoro and Tani caught the one that hit her. She started eating it. Zoro looked like a scolded kid right then.
"Shut up you bone-heads! That's not what I mean. The Grand Line is a dangerous place. We'll need more then beer and meat to survive there. Not to mention the place to crawling with other pirates that are also after the One Piece."
"Then don't mention it" Tani said, which caused another apple to hit her forehead. Luffy caught that one. "LUFFY! That was my apple! It hit me first! Give it back!" Tani called.
"You snooze you lose" Luffy answer, taking a bit. Tani started to growl 'why you little' when another apple hit her in the side of the head. She caught that one and subsided, settling for fuming silently as she ate.
"And they all have ships that are way better than this" Nami finished her rant.
"And we don't have a crew" Luffy added.
"We don't have a real crew, we don't have any equipment. We don't have a real ship for that matter" Nami said. "There's no way we'll make it like this!"
"Yup! We need a cook. And maybe a musician to keep us entertained" Luffy said.
"A musician? HAHAHAHAH!" Zoro said, laughing.
"So stupid" Nami said to herself. "A little south of here there's an island with a few settlements on it. And it looks like we can get our ship and some of the supplies we need there."
"FRESH MEAT AT LAAAST!" Luffy yelled.
"And some booze as well" Zoro added, causing Tani to laugh.
"Is that all you think about? Arg! What am I going to do with you?" Nami yelled.
"Wake me when we get there" Tani said, getting comfortable. She felt another apple bounce off her forehead again.
"ALL YOU'RE DOING IS SLEEPING!" Nami yelled at her.
"EXCUSE ME FOR WANTING TO SLEEP OFF THE SORENESS!" Tani yelled back before settling down again. She shut her eyes and went to sleep.
That end's that chapter. Tell me what you think and ask any questions you have (weather I answer them is another story... ) Enjoy your day/night and have a cookie! *gives out cookies*