The Lost Boy
Disclaimer: Don't own One Piece. Toby and Kairi belong to Wolfen-Ways.
Axe yawned loudly as he and Kairi left the inn, "I had a great sleep last night...though," he reached up and felt a bump on his head, "Where'd this come from?
"I don't know," Kairi turned away, I didn't mean to knock him out, I just wanted to get him to stop saying stuff about trolls! I hope he's gonna be okay...
The two of them headed towards the village center, where a large group of people had gathered outside of the meeting hall.
"What, another meeting?" Axe bounced up and down, "Damn, can't see. Hate being short...can't wait 'til I have a growth spurt and get taller,"
Kairi sweatdropped and turned to a nearby villager, "Pardon me, but what's going on?"
"The mercenaries that the Chief called arrived. They're talking to him right now,"
"Oh," Kairi turned to her captain, only to find that he was gone, "Axe?"
"Over here!"
She turned and saw him standing in front of one of the windows, "Axe, it's about-,"
"Check it out!" he reached out and pulled her close to the window, "Looks like the mercenaries came last night," he turned to the glass, "Looks like an interesting bunch of people. I'm sorry, what were you trying to say?"
"Er, nothing, nothing," Kairi quickly waved him off, "So they're in there?"
"Mhm. Oh, wait, hang on, they're coming out!"
The doors to the meeting hall opened all the way up and the crowd moved to the side to make room for a trio of rough-looking people as they made their way out of the building. Kairi and Axe slipped through the crowd and took a good look at them.
"I thought you said there was a bunch of them?" she asked, "There's only three!"
"Three's a bunch, ain't it?"
"No," Kairi facefaulted, "No it's not,"
"Huh...oh well, but they look interesting, at least,"
It was true, the three mercenaries were indeed interesting. There were three, two men and a woman. One of the men wore camoflauge-style clothing, a pair of binoculars around his neck, what appeared to be a wicked looking aresnal of firearms on his body, combat boots and a long knife strapped to his waist. It was so long, Axe and Kairi mistook it for a short sword!
The woman gave off a cold aura. She had an ebony fleshtone, short dark brown hair, a pair of cold eyes that matched her hair, wore a tight dark outfit and an impressive looking rifle on her back. The rifle had a long barrel, a large scope and a sturdy looking stock.
The second man, obviously the leader, was a giant of a man. He was at least ten feet tall, his body was covered with muscles. He wore what looked like briefs made of fur, boots that were made of the same material and on his back, he wore a massive animal pelt. A bear, by the looks of it, it's long pelt covering most of his back, the legs and claws dangling behind him and over his shoulders, and the scalped head of the bear sat on top of his own.
The village chief came out of the meeting hall and cleared his throat, "My friends, there is no need to worry now! These great warriors have answered our call and will deal with the monster that hides in our forest and terrorizes our village at night! All I ask of you is not to interfere with their work, show them hospitality and respect. Do this and we'll pull through with no more deaths,"
The villagers clapped for their heroes while Axe and Kairi pulled themselves away from the crowd.
"What do you think? They certainly look like they can handle themselves," Axe folded his arms, "The big guy looks like a giant, but from what I've read, they're way bigger than that! I wonder...," he stopped and noticed a troubled look on Kairi's face, "What's wrong?"
Kairi reached up and rubbed the cross necklace around her neck, "I'm getting a bad vibe about these people...," she glanced at her captain, "A very bad vibe,"
As the day went on, Kairi and Axe followed the mercenaries as they traveled around town, getting info, buying food and looking at the small shops the village had. Axe didn't see what was giving off the bad vibe Kairi had, but he could tell these weren't the nicest of people.
For one thing, the man in camoflauge (whose named they learned to be Jim Boe) shot at every animal that popped out of the forest treeline, but not before screaming at the top of his lungs...
"OH MY GOD! ITS COMING RIGHT FOR US!"
Luckily the village pets, what was left of them thanks to the attacks, managed to avoid being shot at it. However, the squirrels, chipmunks and birds had no suck luck.
The woman, Flint, was as cold as she looked. If she wasn't talking about business, she wasn't talking very much at all. She seemed very skilled with her firearm, as she demonstrated for a few villagers.
Lastly, the giant of a man, Indora, was rude, crude, and annoying. He was strong, yes, and like Axe, he carried a giant axe weapon he could carry with one hand, but he was nothing like Axe. He showed public flatulence, made people get out of his path one way or another, and even wrecked a few things without an apology or offer to fix it.
At dinner in the inn, Kairi and Axe watched the trio from afar as they ate their meal.
"Like I said earlier today, interesting bunch,"
"But they're so...," Kairi shook her head, "...I can't find a word for it,"
"Well, not all people grow up in churches and become all proper, Kairi," Axe speared his meat and let it drop into his mouth.
You don't have to tell me that... Kairi turned away, disgusted by his eating habits, One would think I'd be used to him and the way he eats by now!
"OI! INNKEEPER! GET OFF YOUR ASS AND SERVE US SOME MORE MEAT AND BEER OVER HERE!" Indora shouted, banging the table, "WE'RE STILL HUNGRY!!"
Axe facefaulted, "I hope they don't keep us up tonight...,"
The two treasure hunters ate their meal in peace (or as much as they could get) and when they were finished, they spotted Indora coming their way. The large merc looked down at them, grinning from ear to ear.
"Well, well, well," he leaned down to their level, "Have a good supper, kiddies? You should run home to mommy and daddy now, this is a grown-up place,"
"Yeah, and you should learn how to bathe," Axe grabbed his weapon and started to move, heading for their room, "Seriously, you smell, dude,"
Indora growled and planted a large hand on his shoulder, "That's a nice piece of equipment, kid. Though, you're not fooling anybody, no kid can lift a weapon that size, unless you got some giant blood in you," he snatched Axe's treasure away and hefted it, "See? Totally light!"
"Give that back,"
"Eh?" Indora looked down to see Axe glaring up at him, "Aw, kiddy want his toy back?" he held it out, "Take it and you can have it back little bo-," he stopped when Axe swiped it from him.
Strapping his weapon on his back, Axe continued to head for their room for the night.
As he and Kairi left, Indora watched them leave.
"Buncha punks," he spat on the ground and turned to the other two, "C'mon, guys, we got work to do!"
BOOM BOOM BOOM
Kairi growled and turned over, pillow clamped over her head, All night with this! I don't care if they're having any luck hunting the wolf at night, it's rude to keep people up with their hunting!
"OH MY GOD! IT'S COMING RIGHT FOR US!!" Jim's scream echoed from outside, "GET IT!"
"Okay, this is getting really annoying!" Kairi threw her pillow away and sat up, looking exhausted, "Captain, can't we just go and ask them to be-,"
Axe was fast asleep, snoring like crazy.
Kairi fell off the bed, her leg twitching.
How in the world can he sleep through this?!
Axe yawned loudly as he stretched, his hair a complete mess thanks to bed-head, "I FEEL GREAT! KAIRI, WAKE UP! TIME FOR A NEW-," he stopped in mid-sentence, noticing his nakama was out of her bed, "...day...?" he slipped out of bed and headed for the door, but as he moved, he saw that Kairi was laying on the floor, looking ragged.
He crouched down, Man, she looks terrible. Must've had a nightmare or something, why else would she have stayed up the whole night? Aw, I don't have the heart to wake her... he noticed her pillow nearby and slipped it under her head while he pulled the covers off her bed and draped them over her.
"Sleep tight, Holy Knight," Axe rose and entered the bathroom. As he sat down to do his stuff, a thought popped in his mind.
"Sleep tight, Holy Knight...HEY, THAT RHYMED!"
After getting dressed, Axe entered the main room of the inn and sat down at a table, "Awright, time for some breakfast!" he raised his arms, a grin on his face, "BRING ON THE FOOD!"
Nothing happened.
"Okay, let's try this again...," he took a deep breath and smiled again, "BRING ON THE FOOOOOOOD!"
Again, nothing happened.
Axe looked around to find that the place was empty, "The hell...?" he darted over to the counter and saw no one there, "Aw, must've gone to buy food...those bastard mercs ate most of the stock," he picked his ear, "I'll try another place today,"
With that, he left the inn.
Sometime later, Kairi woke up, got dressed and headed out as well. As soon as she opened the door to the outside, she let out a terrified scream. There, hanging in front of her, was a large, dead, black wolf and holding the dead wolf was Jim of the merc group.
"Check this out, ain't it a beauty?!" Jim lowered the carcass, "Nearly got me last night, but man we kicked it ass and showed it whose boss! You okay, girl?"
Kairi was too freaked to say anything.
The village was in an uproar at the death of the wolf beast. The three mercenaries paraded their kill around town like a trophy while the villagers cheered them on. Axe had to admit, the wolf was pretty big, easily capable of taking down a villager or two at the same time, so it must've taken a little while to take down. He was pretty impressed.
When the chief asked the heroes of the village to say something, Indora had something to say alright, however it wasn't something anyone wanted to hear.
"We thank you for your kind praises, villagers of Kohaku, we are proud of our victory last night. However, there is bad news this day!" Indora shouted over the masses, "You're still in danger!"
The villagers went silent almost instantly.
"All this time, you've been in fear of a lone wolf, a beast that hides in the forests and steals life at night. However, we have evidence that there is more than one wolf out there!" the large man pointed to the treeline, "We have seen many tracks, far more than there should be, even for a single wolf!" he raised the dead wolf high, "This may not look like it, but this is a young wolf, and it is much smaller than the leader of the wolves! There are more, and because blood has been shed, the others will attack tonight!"
That sent them into a panic.
Kairi turned to Axe, "There's more of them out there?!"
Axe glanced at her, then looked back at the mercs, "I suppose so,"
"We have talked to the Chief and we have promised that we would kill all of these beasts. However, our services come at a price!" Indora continued, "You don't need to worry about that right, all you have to do is staying inside at night while we do our jobs. The payment will be paid when the job is finished, so just stay out of our way!"
"Man, for an asshole, he can be polie and direct when he wants to be,"
Kairi and Axe turned to see the innkeeper standing behind them, a sore look on her face.
"What's up?"
"Something's not right here...," she murmured, holding her chin, "The village has had its troubles with wolf attacks, that is true, but this is the first time since I've moved here that I've heard anything about a whole pack of wolves...,"
"Well, you are relatively new, I'm sure it just wasn't mentioned to you, yet?"
"Maybe, but still...," she looked around, "I have to go take care of some business, you two. I'll meet you back at the inn tonight before the sun goes down,"
Before either of them could say anything, she disappeared into the crowd.
Kairi turned to Axe, "What was that about?"
"Why you asking me? I don't know anything,"
Nah, too easy...I'll get him next time, Kairi turned away, but quickly turned back when a thought popped back into her head, "Axe, you never did tell me where you went to the other day,"
"This is where you went off to?" Kairi stared at the old, abandoned home in front of them, "Why'd you come here?"
"Just checking it out, really," Axe hopped onto the front steps, "C'mon, it's okay to look inside, there's no one here,"
Kairi sighed and shook her head as she followed him inside, "Just because there's no one here, that doesn't mean you can just enter all willy-nilly, Axe,"
"Willy-nilly?" Axe stared at her, a stupid grin on his face, "Where the hell did you get that?!"
"Shaddup," Kairi looked around, "So, what's the story here, why is this place left to rot like this?"
Axe quickly retold her the story that the innkeeper told him.
Startled, Kairi around again, "How horrible!"
"Yeah, no kidding," Axe folded his arms and leaned against the wall, "I don't know about a giant wolf-beast going around killing people, Kairi, but I do think that something attacks this village and kills people. Whatever's out there, it's got this village and it's people scared so much, they had to hire mercenaries to get rid of it,"
"If you don't think it's wolves," Kairi tilted her head, "Then what was with their kill earlier?"
"I don't know, but-,"
"What are you two doing in here?"
The two pirates jumped and turned their heads to see a boy standing in the front doorway. He looked about Kairi's height and age, wore torn clothing, had a head of long, shaggy brown hair and Axe thought he caught a glimpse of gold light underneath the clothes. Looking closer, he saw a large, nasty scar on the boy's throat.
"What are you two doing here?" the boy repeated, sounding a bit angry, "This place is deserted, you shouldn't be here!"
Kairi turned to Axe, "Told you," she hissed before turning back to the boy, "I'm very sorry, but my idiot friend here said it was alright-,"
"Well, it's not," the boy cut her off, "You shouldn't be here, you gotta get outta here, now!"
"Alright, alright," Kairi said quickly and grabbed her friend's arm, dragging him out of the home, "Please, we meant no trouble!"
As he was dragged off, Axe craned his neck around and watched as the boy mov earound the old home. He stopped Kairi and pushed her into a bush.
"Hey, what the-MMPH!" Axe's hand clamped over her mouth.
"Shh!" Axe nodded to the house, "Be quiet!"
"Mmm?" Kairi turned and watched as the boy left the building, looked around and ran back inside the woods nearby, "Hmm?"
Axe released her, "That's interesting...,"
"Why is he going in there, doesn't he know that's dangerous?! It's one thing with something big and nasty out there, but with those mercs gunning down everything that moves-,"
"I get the feeling that he knows the danger already," Axe turned to her, "I saw this big scar on his neck, like something attacked him,"
"What?! We gotta go after him, he might be hurt!" Kairi rose from the bush, but Axe pulled her back down, "Hey!"
"It's an old scar, a few years at least," Axe explained, "I think that kid knows what's out there...,"
"Then why is he going into the woods?!"
Axe looked back at the treeline where the boy ran into.
"I think he ran inside because he has no other choice,"
Kairi blinked, confused, "Huh?"
"I'll explain later. Right now, we gotta find the mercs and let them know to be careful!"
Kilnorc: After a while, I finally updated Origin. Hope you guys enjoyed this, because it took me awhile to think up these OC mercs and everything.
On the next chapter of Origin...
Axe: She was right, there was something wrong about these guys...
Indora: If you can't pay, then we'll just help ourselves to what we want!
??: There's only one monster on this island...
Kairi: This isn't good, we gotta help them!
Beast Within
??: You don't know what's it like...having to go through that, year after year!