Alright, Nami, you're the better thief. Better, but that doesn't mean that I'm not a good thief! Got it?"
Nami grinned.
"Got it. Stick around me, and you'll become an even better one, one day!" she said, and the girls looked at each other and laughed. Vivi shook her head.
"Nah, Penny, you haven't sung for us in a long time! Sing a song about ninjas!" Luffy said, and the girl frowned.
"I don't know any songs about ninjas…"
He blinked.
"Hm… Me neither… Then sing a song about pirates!" he said, and she looked at her captain and crew, then laughed as she opened her mouth and begin to sing.
Penny sighed as she sat on the deck, her back against the rail, the wind blowing in her hair…
Then groaned as it stopped.
Again.
"The wind has stopped again" Nami said, and there was obvious confusion in her tone. What was up with the winds?
"And when were in such a hurry to get to the next island, too… Well have to take another break."
Penny bit back another groan at the navigators' words. ANOTHER break?
"And we sit here idle… time is…" Vivi started, but was interrupted by Penny, who was near enough to hear the two girls.
"Don't worry. We know you have to get to Arabasta as soon as possible"
Nami nodded. "That's right. And now that we have money in stock, we will be able to move faster. So no worries, ok?"
The blue haired girl smiled.
"Yosh! Let's go fishing! Fishing!!" Luffy suddenly declared happily.
"Oi, anyone know what happened to the bait?" Sanji asked, and Penny narrowed her eyes. Surely their idiot captain wouldn't have eaten the bait…
"Bait? Oh, that stuff in the bucket I ate." Said idiot captain stated as he looked in the bucket, a hand on his chin.
"You ate it?! Those were mealworms!!" Sanji said in disgust, and Penny didn't know whether to laugh or cry.
"You don't say? They're pretty good." Luffy said as he picked up the last worm and put it in his mouth. A shudder ran down Pennys' spine. Ewww.
"You're not supposed to EAT them!!" Usopp yelled, eyes nearly popping out of his head, while a vein throbbed on Sanjis' head.
"What do we do now that you've eaten the bait?!" the cook demanded angrily. "We can't fish anymore!!"
"We'll use this."
From her view point, Penny couldn't see what he held up, but whatever it was, it got a response out of the blonde haired cook.
"WE CANT FISH WITH THAT!!" Sanji yelled, and Penny snickered a bit, along with Vivi.
"There a real riot, aren't they?" Vivi giggled slightly.
"Oh? No good, huh?" Luffy said, more to himself then to Sanji. "Then how about him?"
Luffy suddenly pointed to Carue, and Sanji blinked.
"Yea, that might work."
"QUAAAACK!!"
The bird took off with the two pirates chasing after him.
"WAIT!"
"Come back here!!"
The duck then made the fatal mistake of accidentally running over Zoro, one big webbed foot stepping right in the middle of his face.
"DORKS!! SIT DOWN AND SHUT UP!!" The first mate screamed as he sat up, a vein showing on his brow.
Penny laughed heartily, and then stopped abruptly when she heard Nami sigh.
"Would you guys… CALM DOWN FOR ONE SECOND?!" The orange haired girl screamed, and everything on the ship seemed to freeze.
"Why are you so worked up?" Penny heard Luffy ask, but hoped for his sake Nami didn't.
"Ahhh. Nami-san is even wonderful when she's angry!" Was Sanjis' reply. Penny felt a sweat drop. Oh, the poor love sick cook…
"It's so strange. Him being worth a 30,000,000 belli bounty, you'd expect him to be a bit more terrifying."
Penny let out a laugh at the blue haired princess' words.
"Well, I guess you wouldn't imagine it. But just look at the strong guys that he has beaten. The iron fist dominator of the East Blue, Merman Arlong. Admiral of an entire pirate fleet, Don Krieg. And although no one will ever know about it, even the infamous trickster, Pirate Captain Kuro." Nami said, pride in her voice.
"That's not all." Zoro said, and the girls looked at him. "There was this Marine bastard brandishing a huge axe for a hand."
"Ah. Axe hand Morgan." Nami said in realization.
"Axe Hand Morgan? I've heard of him. He was a Marine Captain feared throughout all of East Blue for his cruel supremacy." Vivi said surprised.
"You defeated someone as strong as him?" She asked Luffy, who was struggling with Sanji to get Carue tied up.
"Ah. The Axe Hand Ossan. Oh yea, I wonder what happened to that guy I was with…" Luffy muttered, and Pennys' curiosity peeked a bit.
"That guy?" She asked, and he grinned at her.
"Ah. His names Coby. He's my friend!" Luffy said with a beaming grin, and Penny left it at that.
---
Penny yawned at the commotion that awoke her from her nap. Apparently, Luffy had broken one of the water drawing machines with his abnormal strength while getting Nami some water, and so Usopp was stuck using the back one.
Zoros' bad sleeping habits seemed to be rubbing off on her.
Penny stretched and sighed as she followed the others into the cabin, and plopped down on the ground and leaned back against the wall. Her back still wasn't completely healed, and she couldn't do anything strenuous for a bit. The girl really hoped there wasn't anything dangerous at the next island they were headed too. It was called Little Garden, from what they had picked up from Shuriken Island.
"But why does the morning newspaper always come during the afternoon break?" The navigator whined as she flipped through the papers. Penny suppressed another yawn.
"It can't be helped. This is the Grand Line, after all." Vivi explained. "We should be grateful to get any information at all."
"You're right about that." Nami agreed, and then turned the page. Through her groggy, but still sharp eyes, Penny noticed Namis' expression change to horror and shock, before she flipped the page quickly. What exactly could she be hiding?
---
"I wonder if it will snow again?" Luffy pondered aloud as he sat on Merrys' head, excitement in his voice.
"How the hell can it snow? That's impossible." Zoro said, and Penny snorted. The three were sitting around, Zoro on deck, and Penny cross-legged on the rail.
"Sure it can! You were asleep, so you wouldn't know."
Their captain then turned to Vivi, who was listening amused from nearby.
"Nah, it'll snow again, wont it?"
"Well, it's not as if it will never snow again, but that first stretch of ocean is unique. The seven magnetic fields emanating from Reverse Mountain affect everything in the area." She explained, and then looked out over the ocean.
"Never the less, we must stay on our guard. It's quite rare to have such a violent trip as the first one. But this sea is much more difficult to navigate than any other in the world. The iron clad rule is to never take this sea lightly."
"Oi, you louts! How about a round of my special drink?!" Sanji called as he stepped out of the kitchen. Zoro and Luffy were gone in a whirl, and Penny chuckled.
"Don't worry. When the situation comes to it, they will be ready." The rouge said as she too went down to get a drink, wincing a bit at her wound. If she didn't know any better, she would think that it was a bit infected. Oh, well.
"Oi! Look, everyone! A dolphin!" Sanji called after spotting the said creature.
"It's cute!" Nami, who had stepped outside unnoticed by Penny, said, and they all watched the creature as it begin to jump.
Then it jumped over their ship, and they realized it was anything but little.
"IT'S HUGE!" The crew exclaimed, Vivi included.
"RUN AWAY!" Luffy yelled, a large grin on his face as he said so.
Everyone went into action immediately. Vivi watched, amazed, as everything was taken care of.
"These guys…." she said softly, realizing that Penny had been right.
"Full sail!" Luffy yelled as everything calmed down. The dolphin jumped again.
"YOSH! We'll catch the wave and ride it outta here!!"
And that's exactly what they did.
---
"Nami! What's our course?" Luffy called once the waves settled, and the navigator looked at her wrist.
"Just a minute!" she studied it, and then grinned.
"Turn us hard to port!" she ordered.
"AYE AYE!"
Penny sat back and watched. With her wound, Nami had forbidden her from helping out.
There, in the distance, she got her first glance of Little Garden. It was shrouded in fog, but Penny could tell that it was uninhabited. Or at least, it looked uninhabited.
"No doubt about it. Our next destination is that island!" Nami said as she pointed to the island. Penny grinned, despite herself. She was getting excited. What would they find, what sort of adventure would they have?
"So that's it! The third island of the grand line!" Luffy said, just as excited, if not more, then Penny herself.
---
"So this is Little Garden!" Luffy said, cheerful as ever, as they sailed alongside the bank of the island, ready to make dock somewhere.
"What the hell do they mean by 'Little'?"
Zoro voiced what Penny was thinking as she looked at the huge trees in disguised awe.
"It doesn't look nearly as cute as its name…" Nami said, and Penny resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Even if it was, Nami would find some way of taking the cuteness from it.
"T-This is like untamed territory, unexplored jungle!" Usopp said, sounding a bit scared. A "bit" putting it lightly. He was sweating bullets.
"We have to be careful…unexplored Islands of the Grand line can hold impossible possibilities." Vivi said, and Usopp gasped.
"D-D-Does that mean there's gonna be m-m-monsters?!"
"Who knows?" Luffy answered for the princess.
"Lets just go to the next island without stopping here!" Usopp said, near hysterics. Penny snickered.
"But we need to set the log." Nami answered, not sounding the least bit worried.
"That, and it's about time we picked up some provisions." Sanji said, and took a drag off his cigarette. "We ran out of food from the last town."
"I see a river mouth up ahead!" Zoro said suddenly.
"Really?!" The group, including Penny, ran to the side of the ship and looked over. Soon they were sailing up the river, looking for a landing spot.
"You know, landing is going to be dangerous. I mean, just look at those plants! That's not in any kind of botany book I've ever read or seen before!" Nami said, then threw her hands over her ears when an animalistic screeching sound tore through the jungle.
"GAH!!" She screamed, and Penny jumped, hands on her knives.
"Cute…"
Usopp turned from where he had been standing near the two girls, eyes large.
"You mean me?"
"I MEAN NAMI-SAN AND PENNY-CHAN, SHIT HEAD!!" Sanji exclaimed.
"What WAS that?" Penny and Nami asked at the same time, and then they both paled when a huge bird flew down at Sanji.
"Don't worry. It's just a little old bird. And this is just your normal jungle. Nothing to worry about."
Penny took out a knife, then turned and ran, along with Nami and Usopp.
"Huh? What's wrong?" Sanji turned around, and barely ducked away from the birds claws.
"WHAT THE HELL, YOU SHITY BIRD?!"
"A lizard…? I wonder how it tastes." Luffy asked as he stepped towards his cook.
Suddenly, a loud explosion rocked the entire jungle, shaking everything. Dust was sent up on she shore and waves rocked Merry.
"Is that the kind of sound you hear in a NORMAL jungle?" Penny asked, a bit of a tremble in her voice from fright.
"That sounded like a volcano erupting!" Usopp said as he held his head in fear.
A roar from the side caught all of their attentions, and they went to the other side of the deck.
"A tiger?!" Nami said in disbelief.
"It's huge!!" Usopp yelled, from the safety of the other side of the deck.
Then, as suddenly as it appeared, the tiger gave one last roar, and fell over dead. Penny narrowed her eyes as she studied it.
"What? What happened to it?! This is not normal. This is definitely NOT normal!" Nami said, once again near hysterics. "How can a tiger, the king of the jungle, collapse in its own blood?!"
"Well then, it's decided, we are not stopping at this island!" Usopp said, his own voice close to Namis' hysterical one.
"We'll just sit on the ship and quietly wait for the log to set…." Nami said, and Penny inwardly sighed. She knew with her wound she wouldn't be much help, but she still wanted to get off the ship and explore the island! Though she was scared....... Maybe if she was with some of Luffy or Zoro...or even Sanji......
"Then we get out of here as fast as possible. We do have to hurry to Arabasta, right?" Nami was speaking much softer now, and the auburn haired girl worried for the navigator for a second.
---
"Sanji, bento!" Luffy declared as soon as the anchor was thrown overboard.
"Bento?" The cook asked, confused.
"Yea, to recharge my power! A ton of MEAT and NO vegetables! A PIRATE bento! I smell an adventure!" Luffys' grin couldn't get any bigger, even if he stretched his face.
"Now hold on a minute, where do you think you're going?" Nami demanded as she stepped in front of the straw hat wearing captain, hands on her hips.
She found herself nearly blinded from the sparkling of his face that clearly showed his excitement.
"On an adventure!" he said happily. "Wanna come? Adventure! Adventure!"
Penny thought for a second that Nami would hit their captain; she even thought she saw her lift her fist, but it never came.
"You're kidding, right? That monster that killed that huge tiger is still out there!" Usopp said, mouth hanging open in disbelief.
"Sanji! Bento!!" was Luffys' reply, but the cook was already on his way to the kitchen.
"I heard you. Gimme a minute." he said, and Penny grinned, seeing her chance.
"Sanji-kun! If there's anything left over, will you make me a small one too? I wanna go with Luffy!" she called, and grinned hearing his more than enthusiastic reply.
"Hey, is it ok if I go with you two?" Vivi suddenly asked, and Penny blinked at her, before smiling.
"Sure! Adventure! Adventure!" Luffy said, and then continued his chant, dragging Penny into it and making her sing.
---
"OK! One Pirate Bento for three and one special drink just for Carue! You're all set!" Sanji announced after he tied the large backpack to Luffys' back. Penny would walk, while Vivi would ride Carue.
"Yup!" Luffy said and jumped on the railing. Penny followed, ignoring the discomfort in her wound, and the two jumped off, followed by Carue.
"Ok! Were off!" Vivi turned and waved to the others,
"Alright! Lets go!" Luffy yelled as he took off at a run. Penny laughed as his enthusiasm as she too ran, still ignoring the discomfort in her back.
"We'll be back soon!" Vivi called, and the three vanished from sight of the ship into the darkness of Little Garden.