Beasts Below Ground

Endrino hauled himself to his feet, thanks to the throbbing pain in his head which was affecting his balance this was quite difficult to do, but with on hand on the cave wall, he managed it.
The bulky teen groaned, he must of hit his head pretty damn hard, and perhaps lost a bit of blood too. He knew he had been in some pretty ruthless fights and had felt better afterwards than he did now.
He stood still for a few minutes, hoping his head would balance out a little, and it did, but only a little. He staggered along down the cave, keeping his hand on the wall for balance, he smirked, "Great when Isamu and the others see me they're going to think I've been boozing without them." He spoke out loud, the sound of his own voice echoing though the tunnels made him feel a bit better.
Endrino didn't even want to think about the possibility that he might not find his crew.
He continued on, slowly his head was clearing and now he could walk without resting his hand on the wall. He splashed through the standing water on the floor, and the sound of dripping alerted him to being near water, perhaps he was under the river that they used to cross reverse mountain.

Endrino carried on like this for hours, the dripping had now gone, so he must of moved away from the water, away from his crew. He carried on regardless, as far as he was concerned, staying underground wasn't going to help him get back to them anyway.
Endrino stopped as he sensed something near, it didn't feel good. And sure enough a growl came from a metre or so ahead of him. Most people would back up and run in this situation where they couldn't see the enemy, but not Endrino, because just as his 1st mate had said, Endrino was a monster. He stood his ground, his hair bristled and his hands and feet became huge clawed paws. His new huge form filled the passage, leaving only inches to spare, and a tail thrashed behind him. If anyone could see him now, the only thing to give away who he was would be his stretched ears and piercings. His coat too stretched but fit tightly to his now massive form.
Endrino bared his new fangs at whatever had growled at him, he presumed it must be able to see him better than he could it because it squealed and ran away.
Endrino relaxed, this form wasn't just good for scaring people then. He sighed and continued in this form just in case there were more creatures that he couldn't see lurking around.
Then a breeze of fresh air caught his attention, he couldn't be too far from the exit now, and he was right, for as he turned a bend in the tunnel, a speck of white told him the exit was within sight, and he picked up speed.

The Tsubasa crew sat on the deck, milling around, all their usual cheer gone along with their captain. Eric stood in the crow's nest, scanning around with the binoculars. The suddenly the boy dropped the binoculars and screamed, he slide back down the mast and hid behind Yuudai before anyone knew what was going on.
The giant looked over his shoulder at the boy. "what did you see Eric-kun~?" he asked, obviously concerned along with the rest of the crew who were staring at him curiously …. Well apart from Sangrie that is.
" T-the-there was a m-m-monster!" The boy cried, clearly terrified.
Isamu and the other members of the crew looked at each other, and a look of excitement appeared on their faces.
"Where did you see it Eric?" Isamu asked, The urgent tone in his voice told Eric it was very important.
Eric pointed to the side of the mountain. "T-there" he said, not understanding why all the crew was so excited when that thing might try and eat them.
Isamu grabbed some binoculars and held them to his face and scanned over where Eric had pointed, and soon he found the beast.
There it stood, head tucked down away from the sun as though the light had stunned it. It was lion-like with golden fur and a luxurious black mane, it looked to be the size of a bus. But that wasn't the most amazing thing about it, that was the two black feathered wings that were tucked in along its back and sides. Its ears where long and pointed and there seemed to be blood on the huge beasts head.
Isamu grinned, it was a grin like Eric had never seen before, on the usually composed, butler like 1st mate. "Rino!" The bulky white hair guy yelled with all his might.
The beast looked up at once, and if anyone had been close enough that would of seen its emerald green eyes light up with joy. The two huge black wings fanned out from its back and beat down hard, launching the beast into the air. Where its winds had been, something red was now visible fluttering about in the downdraught of its wings.
Eric looked at it and screamed, "it's coming here! The gryphon is coming here!" His eyes were wide in terror.
"Eric-kun, there's nothing to be afraid of. Just look around you, is anyone else afraid?"
Eric looked around, no they weren't everyone seemed surprisingly happy. "no"
Yuudai smiled. "then trust the crews judgement, and know that that beast is not a threat."
Eric nodded shakily, but still hid behind the giant just in case.

The gryphon landed on the deck and Eric realised that there was something very familiar about it. Not only did its green eyes match those of Sangrie, but it had the same stretchers in its ears as Endrino did. It also had the same piercings on its left eyebrow and lower lip. And when it opened its huge mouth to yawn, not only did it reveal a row of terrifying teeth, but the same two tongue piercings as the captain too.
"N-no way….. C-c-captain?" Eric asked carefully.
A familiar rumbling laugh erupted from the mouth of the huge creature, a laugh that belonged to Endrino alone.
Eric ran over to the creature and buried his teary face into its thick mane.
Endrino turned his head and nudged Eric gently with his large wet nose (which is about the same size as Eric's head in case you're interested) "What? Did you think I was gone? I said it'd take more than that to get rid of me didn't it?"
Eric couldn't answer, his throat was choked up with tears of happiness, so he just nodded enthusiastically.
Endrino chuckled. And once Isamu had pried Eric out of this thick mane, he returned to his human form. "All right! Well that was an interesting start but now it's time for us to set sail" He called enthusiastically to his crew.
"Aye Sir!" came the ever ready reply, and the ship began to move, as Yuudai hauled up the anchors.
Katashi strapped a log pose onto this wrist, and turned the ship in the direction Endrino had told him to. This would bring them onto the route that lead to Endrino and Sangrie's hometowns. The left route of the grand line.
Isamu questioned Endrino about what had happened, by Endrino didn't seem very sure himself, or at least he didn't know of much before he had woken up in the cave. Eric butted in now and again with a question about Endrino's ability to transform.

Ahaha, so Endrino is back safe and sound, of course he is. And now two of the crews devil fruit users have been ravelled.
That's Katashi – tori tori no mi, model herring gull
And Endrino – neko neko no mi, mythical model gryphon

There's a few more to come so you have been warned. And also I'm hoping to bring in some new crew members… but they could be chapters away yet, hehe I love teasing you people ;)
Reviews please and I'm happy to answer any questions you have.