~X*X*X*X~
:A Meeting in the Forest:
As expected, Roronoa Zoro was lost.
Not that he would openly admit it. About an hour ago, he was told by Usopp and Chopper they were getting ready to leave the island and told him to head back to the Going Merry. And that's what he did. Or so he thought.
How did he end up in the forest?
The trees were a mixture of dark wooded with muted green leaves and lighter bark trees with a more yellowish green color in their leaves. Some had thin branches that brushed the detritus like fingers. Mushrooms sprouted along the exposed roots of the larger trees. Bushes with red and orange spiky fleshed berries were scattered across the forest floor. At least he had something to snack on as he wandered aimlessly in the woods.
This place was depressing. Rain or overcast every day. Sketchy people darting in and out of alleyways. Merchants desperate to sell their wares to anyone that would give them a glance. Women showing off more cleavage than needed calling out to those passing by. It didn't help that most of his crewmates had the attention span of a puppy and immediately wandered off into the town. At least the alcohol and food were decent.
But where the hell was the town? He cursed this maze of a forest as he passed a clump of berry bushes for the hundredth time. There was now a path embedded into the forest floor from how many times Zoro had walked the same line. He stopped several times, looking around for anything of notice. It was just trees. And bushes. And boulders. And ponds. Having the permanent overcast made it impossible to tell the time. Not that he'd be able to tell with the thick canopy above.
Zoro paused when he came across a river, something he hadn't seen yet. Rivers usually lead to the ocean so if he followed it so he'll be able to leave this accursed forest. He went in the opposite direction though, going against the gentle run of the water. Tall reeds danced with the breeze. Small frogs sang their songs along the shore of the river. Ducks dipped under the surface to clean their feathers. There were a few deer on the other side that scattered as soon as they saw the swordsman. Birds hiding among the branches cooed to one another.
How can the forest be so big? It didn't even look this massive from the harbor. Was this even the same island? Zoro was so deep in the forest that he couldn't hear the afternoon noises of the town. It was like a completely different place and it was pissing the swordsman off.
His luck was about to change.
The trees began to thin out into a clearing. At first, Zoro didn't notice anything. He looked it over a few times as he got closer, thinking nothing of it until he finally saw what was in the middle of it. A woman with dark hair. He stopped right at the edge with a hand going to one of his blades. She was barefoot standing in the river in front of a little waterfall, admiring what looked like a clump of thinly stemmed mushrooms. Her skin-tight clothing revealed a lithe, willowy form like the few trees circling the glade and made her look taller than she actually was.
Why did she look familiar?
It was the weirdest sense of deja vu. He stared at the woman, trying to wrack his brain. Then it hit him. It was just a brief moment, but he had walked by her in town. The only reason why he actually remembered was she felt out of place. She didn't have the corrupted air around her that nearly everyone else on the island had. Not that she had much of a presence anyways. He barely noticed her when they passed each other. She wasn't wearing the tunic from earlier and he saw it laying across a large rock along with a pair of ankle boots.
"Do you need help?"
Her tone, like the gentle river she was standing in, startled him. Their gazes meet. Her foxlike eyes of liquid yellowish-orange showed no hostility, but intrigue. They seemed to shine softly in the muted colors of the forest.
"I was just heading back into town."
Her head tilted to the side with a soft pout playing on her lips. "You're lost, aren't you?"
His brow twitched. "I didn't say that."
"You've been wandering around this area for I'd say about ten minutes," she said as she tapped the side of her nose. "My sense of smell and hearing are better than a person's."
"Like I care. Just tell me where the town is. I'm getting sick of this damn forest."
The woman said nothing as she stepped from the river and placed the mushrooms she had gathered into a basket resting against the stone. She grabbed the tunic, pulled it over her long-sleeved shirt, and tied a scarf around her waist. She stood about the same height as Nami and while the navigator had the bust and the obvious curves, her figure was more boyish. There was nothing about her that told Zoro she was threatening. But that could be dangerous in itself. Once she was done, she started to walk with boots in hand in the opposite direction of the river and gestured with her head to follow. He didn't. When she noticed, she paused and glanced over her shoulder.
"Do you want to get back to town or not?"
Her tone was slightly mocking. Zoro muttered a curse under his breath and joined by her side. It stayed silent between them. At first, the swordsman felt like he was walking by himself again. The woman's presence blended in with the woods, like a mountain lion hiding in the rocks to wait for prey. As weird as that was, what was stranger to him was she showed him no fear. That made him think she doesn't know who he was or she didn't care if she knew.
"You're not from around here, right?" She asked suddenly.
"How can you tell?"
"You smell more like the sea. Are you a pirate?"
His muscles tensed a little. "You have a problem with pirates?"
She shook her head. "Quite the opposite actually. I'm rather fond of them. They always have such interesting stories. Where is your crew from?"
"The East Blue."
"Oh really? What brings you guys to the Grand Line?"
"Our captain wants to be King of the Pirates."
"That's quite a big goal. Do you have one?"
"You ask a hell of a lot of questions," he muttered loudly, becoming somewhat annoyed. Why was she acting like a five-year old?
She chuckled softly. "I'm just curious about new people. And if your captain has such a big endeavor, it would make sense for you to have one as well. So do you?"
He took a moment to reply. "I'm going to become the greatest swordsman in the world."
"That's very impressive. You sound quite a bit more convincing compared to others I heard. Oh, here we are."
The two stopped at the edge of the forest. She had led them close to the bay and he could see the other ships in the harbor. The crowds of townspeople paid them no mind as they continued with their day. He did notice it was a bit darker now. The woman sat on the fence to pull her boots on and stayed there staring at him with a little head tilt like a curious dog.
"What?"
"What's your name?"
"Zoro."
"I'm Bramble. Nice to meet you."
He just nodded.
She stood with a faint smile and turned her back to him. "Your friends are on their way. Try not to get lost again."
"Shut it, twerp."
She chuckled again and walked off with a wave of her hand, vanishing into the sea of people. He looked in the direction she disappeared in with a slight scowl as he heard Chopper's voice calling out his name. He turned to the left where the reindeer and the idiot chef were jogging towards him. The blond gave him the most sour look as possible as he grumbled to himself, but loud enough for Zoro to hear.
"Why did I have to find his stupid ass?"
"You have a problem, dartboard?"
"Guys! We gotta leave! Nami said the ship is ready!" Chopper quickly said in hopes of stopping the impending fight then looked over at Zoro with his little blue nose twitching. "Was there someone else with you?"
"Yeah. She led me back to town."
"Huuuh? She? What type of beautiful, kindhearted woman would ever want to help an empty-headed shitty swordsman like you?"
"Piss off! You want to fight, bastard?!"
"I'll gladly kick your ass to the bottom of the ocean!"
Chopper immediately shifted into his human form and held the two apart. "If we don't go now, Nami is going to get mad at us."
Not wanting to deal with the wrath of the navigator, the two backed off. For now. Still in human form, the doctor jogged off first with the idiot chef close behind. Zoro stayed where he was for a few moments and looked over his shoulder. The amber-eyed woman was on a hill and waved at him before leaving his sight for good.
~X*X*X*X~
Bramble was quite intrigued. As she passed through the threshold of the bookshop, she thought back on the interesting encounter in the forest. The swordsman Roronoa Zoro, a man with an intimidating aura and piercing gaze. She's heard the stories and read the articles about a man killing pirates with ease. He spoke with a voice like a storm, rough and rumbling. A fascinating man indeed.
She hummed softly as she headed up the stairs in the back to the large room that included the kitchen, dining, and living room. Mercer was sitting on the dark blue couch that faced a bay window with a newspaper at hand and grunted a greeting towards Bramble. She set the basket on the table to divide up the contents, leaving most of the fungi for the bookshop owner.
"You're in a good mood," Mercer stated as he flipped through the newspaper. "Something different happen on this monotonous island?"
"You know, if you actually left the store every once in a while, you might discover something new."
He scoffed. "I've been living on this island for three decades and nothing about it has changed."
"Different people show up weekly. That's new."
"They're all the same. Greenhorns without knowing what hides in that waters or ones full of themselves lying for attention."
"Not everyone is like that. And even if their stories are lies, they're still enjoyable to listen to," the broker commented with a fake whine in her tone.
Mercer folded the paper, placed it on the couch, and stood from his seat. "You're just as green as the rest of them, Bramble."
"We aren't all Gold Rogers' era, Pirate-san. Some of us unfortunately were born after his time."
He gave her a hard stare but said nothing. Bramble let out a snort of victory and gathered up the mushrooms she was going to snack on to wash before doing the rest. The thin stems of the enoki were a dark purple that lightened to lavender on the cap. It had the taste of water chestnuts without the crunch, sweet and nutty. Before arriving on this island, she's never had any mushrooms like this before, and quickly rose to the top of her favorite things to eat. She made sure to keep some spores for a chance to maybe grow them again.
Her hands stopped washing and she stared blankly into the running water. The plan for her future was to retire in a few years with enough money to hide away on an island under the broker's law and start a garden of all the flora she collected. She wouldn't call it a dream. It was more of her end goal. She enjoyed traveling yes. She enjoyed seeing new islands. She enjoyed meeting new people. But she couldn't do this forever. Could she?
"Bramble."
She jumped at her name and quickly shut the water off. "What? I was just swimming in my thoughts."
"You were staring at the mushrooms like you were going to murder them."
"Maybe I was." When she turned away from the sink, her forehead was flicked. She scrunched her face from the sudden pain. "What was that for?!"
"Don't space out in the kitchen. You could get hurt."
He shooed her away, saying he'll wash the second bunch. She stuck her tongue out at him and walked to the hall on the right where her temporary room was. It was Mercer's study with a couch that was her makeshift bed under a window, a birch desk across from the door, and a closet opposite the loveseat. Bramble kept the rooms she stayed in as clean as she could. Everything she owned was in the large camping-like pack resting against the couch. Extra clothes, a wooden box with the vials of seeds, journals, some books on botany, and sometimes dried fruits or jerky. Next to it was a smaller satchel that she would usually take with her into towns.
As she munched on one of the riverbed enoki, she grabbed the journals she had laying on the desk and placed them in the smaller pack. Also on the birch table was a belt that had two butterfly swords, a gift from her mentor. It was worn over her scarf sash with the blades resting on her back, one above the other. While it was unavoidable in their line of work, brokers aren't meant for fighting. Bramble doesn't doubt her skill in close quarters, but she'd rather not. She had trained for a year before leaving to travel the Grand Line. Day in and day out until her hands were numb and bleeding from blisters. Even though her mentor was normally a jovial soul, he was ruthless when teaching his students and always told them to train every chance they could get. But it was necessary to survive.
"Finally heading out?"
Bramble paused her packing and glanced over her shoulder. "I think I've stayed long enough. It's been about half a year since I've checked in with the others."
She stood and placed the rest of the botany books in her big pack then tied her shoes to one of the straps. The buzz was back in her stomach. She was excited to know what island she'll go to next and what new plants there will be. Her smile dropped a little when she noticed the eternal pose still sitting on the desk. It lead to an island that belonged to the brokers. She doubts whoever she hitches a ride with would be willing to take her to the island. Her train of thought was disrupted when a hand placed itself on her shoulder. She looked up, only to have a coin pursed drop on her face. The pouch rolled to the floor with a soft thump.
"Was that necessary?"
"It's the payment we agreed on."
"Why did you drop it on my face?"
"It should be more than enough to get you to where you're headed next."
"Oi. Answer the question."
"You're always welcome back here. If you come back."
He left with nothing more to say. Bramble rubbed her nose as she stood with the purse at hand and a gentle smile. She was going to miss that old geezer. She peaked inside, seeing a few rolled notes and some coins for the extra drop damage. This might be enough to get her to the next island. She shoved that into the large rucksack along with the butterfly swords and pulled the straps over her shoulders.
This island was one of the better places she had been to and in another life, she wouldn't have minded staying. Yet it was time for her to leave. She hurried out of the room, down the stairs with a farewell shout to Mercer, and out of the front door, leaving behind the bookshop and the little eternal pose on the desk.
~X*X*X*X~