Hello my friends, how're you doing? Here I'm with another chapter of our journey in the world of One Piece, this one.
Before starting I'd like to say a huge 'Thank You' to all of you, the story had arrived in the grand mark of 1k+ favorites and followers and is all thanks to you all, and for that I'm very grateful.
Another thing I've to say is about the other story I'm writing, I had started a new fic called 'DxD: The God of Wolves, Okuchi-no-Makami', my passion project the first chapter is already up. If you like my writing I'd suggest to there check it out there on my profile.
Anyway, that's all for now.
DISCLAIMER: I don't know if I should do this or not but whatever, I don't own anything here apart from my OC's.
May have grammar errors
...
...
...
...
Verdan Island, South Blue
On the researcher's ship's deck, Lucas stood before the man in charge of the vessel, Dr. Victor Sinclair. He regarded the doctor with an inquisitive look in his eyes.
Earlier, after they had saved the mercenaries from the Shoalstriders, Lucas had noticed some suspicious behavior from the mercenaries. This, combined with the Sea Kings attacking the ship, which, according to Oscar, was not typical behavior for these creatures, raised questions about the entire situation.
A few meters behind Lucas, Tashigi was assisting some of the injured mercenaries who had been hurt during the attack. Meanwhile, Khan remained on the ship's prow, keeping watch in case the Shoalstrider Leader returned.
"So, what exactly happened here?" Lucas asked the man in charge.
Looking at Dr. Victor Sinclair, the young marine had to admit that the doctor exuded an air of importance and renown. His purple suit was immaculate, his blond hair well-groomed, and his mustache quite impressive. Despite being visibly distressed due to recent events, Dr. Victor maintained an admirable level of composure when facing Lucas.
"I'm truly grateful. If not for your timely arrival, we might have been facing the grim reaper by now," Dr. Victor said with a sense of relief. "Now, in response to your question: after arriving here in the early hours of the day, I was advised by Vanix, the leader of the 'IronGuard Mercenaries,' to make a brief stop and wait for the sun to rise. Everything proceeded as usual until about thirty minutes ago when these Shoalstriders appeared and attacked us. This action, I might add, is quite contradictory to what we knew of this particular species' behavior."
"Indeed, I've heard that it should be nearly impossible for Shoalstriders to attack a crewed ship like this," Lucas replied. Turning his gaze to the mercenaries around him, he continued "Tell me, who is this 'Vanix' person? I'd like to meet him, if you don't mind."
"Not at all," Victor replied. He beckoned to a man standing at the bottom of the deck, who then approached Lucas, joining the researcher.
The man had a lean but strong physique, with short black hair and brown eyes. He had an overall unremarkable appearance. Like his men, he wore standard mercenary gear, but his was of higher quality, a thing that was evident from the sleek design of his grey leather armor.
"It's a pleasure to meet you," Vanix said to Lucas, offering his hand for a handshake. "My name is Vanix Thornblade, and I am the current leader of the 'IronGuard Mercenaries.'"
"MCPO Lucas," the marine replied as he accepted the handshake. "I believe I arrived just in the nick of time, didn't I?"
"You could say that again," Vanix said with a sheepish expression. "My team and I aren't accustomed to dealing with this type of enemy. We were essentially caught out of our element."
"Very unfortunate…" Lucas said with understanding. He then raised an eyebrow and asked, "But that raises a question: why accept a job like this if you're not well-versed in dealing with Sea Kings and other large creatures? We're heading to a wild island, so encountering some formidable foes is to be expected."
"I didn't say we don't know how to deal with Sea Kings and other large foes," Vanix clarified, his tone defensive. "I said we aren't used to these types of enemies, particularly multiple Sea Kings attacking as a group, something that even Dr. Victor here didn't anticipate. Dealing with the threats on the island should be manageable with the equipment we've brought; we mainly need to scare them away if they get too close."
Lucas nodded in agreement. "That's a fair point."
As Lucas conversed with Vanix, he couldn't help but notice something curious about the mercenary leader.
'This guy looks a bit too clean...'
Lucas observed that Vanix appeared relatively clean compared to everyone else who had been fighting the Shoalstriders. He also noted that the man had only sustained a few shallow scratches, and his breathing wasn't labored. While it could be attributed to Vanix being a skilled fighter, Lucas had a nagging feeling that there was more to the story.
"Your men seem to have some unusual priorities," Lucas remarked with a pause, glancing briefly at the mercenaries he had just rescued. "Just five minutes ago, I saved some of them from being dragged away over their 'lunch.'"
"Oh, that?" Vanix replied nonchalantly. "Eating 'Blue-Finned Elephant Tuna' is part of their culture, and it's considered a delicacy among them. Besides, it's quite expensive. They probably explained that to you earlier, so why ask again?"
"Nothing. It was an unusual situation and reasoning, so I was curious, that's all," Lucas said calmly. "I also found it curious how the Shoalstrider Leader pursued it with such vigor."
"This type of 'Elephant Tuna' is a delicacy even among other sea creatures," Victor added. "It was likely just too tempting for the Shoalstriders."
"That makes sense," Lucas agreed.
With a hand on holding his chin Lucas nodded in understanding at Dr. Victor's explanation, then with a dismissive look of someone that already threw that matter to the back his head Lucas said:
"We came here escorting the other research that was on Bullfrog Island, but seeing as we're all now together it's better if we move forward as a group. What you think Dr.?"
"I've absolutely no problem with that!"
Said Victor with so much enthusiasm that his 'refined' image broke a bit, what the young marine said being something he was actually planning to ask.
Turning around the researcher chief saw the look Vanix was throwing him, coughing on his hand he recomposed himself then offered the man an apologetic look "Don't take this the wrong away my dear man, it's not that I don't believe in your men's skill. It's just that, as you saw, the capabilities of the marines present here today aren't of giving up"
"No problem there, I too saw his strength so no complain there. Now if you two excuse me, I and my men need to get ready to land"
With a dismissive and shrug the leader of the mercenaries walked away, behind him both Lucas and Victor looked at his figure vanishing back into the cabin.
Lucas stayed a bit more discussing how they will the escorting will work but then he too walked away, calling Tashigi and Khan over the three marines returned back to their ship.
…
…
…
"How was it on the other side?" asked my friend Torlo just as I stepped back on our ship.
"Relatively well, though I've some misgivings about some things"
Of course it could all be a big trick of my mind, but when interacting with the man called 'Vanix' and his mercenaries I couldn't help but feel something was off. The whole ordeal surrounding this unusual attack, and how the man and his mercs acted, had put a seed of doubt in the back of my mind.
"What you mean?"
"I could be wrong, but something tells me these 'IronGuard' might be hiding something. Especially about that crate, I ain't buying their story about it"
Scratching my head I recalled the fight from some minutes ago.
"My experience talking with Sea Kings is very limited, so I'm don't quite fully understand the meaning behind their roars and such, but looking back now I believe one of the Shoalstrider said 'Retrieve the crate, they're there…' or something along these lines, its kinda unclear"
While I do get to understand animals, it isn't the same as understanding humans, their 'words' aren't the same as ours.
And how much I understand of one animal or species depends on how much I've interacted with them, the closes comparison as to why'd be you knowing a language but not all accents and local dialects that arise from it.
To me the Shoalstriders are basically speaking with one heavy accent, one that I'm not familiar with. That's why I didn't understood everything they said as I do with Khan, only truly getting this one particular phrase.
"Wait, you can speak with animals?" asked one honestly confused Oscar.
"Yeah, I can"
Walking up to the cabin I knocked on the open door to catch Thomas's attention, looking at our head of communication I said "Do me a favor my friend and contact the base for information on these 'IronGuard Mercenaries' and their leader"
"Already working on it"
"My man!"
After giving my orange haired friend a thumbs up I turned around to see Torlo behind me, his eyebrow raised as he looked at me.
"Are we still going to work with them?"
"In the end my suspicion of them is just that, a suspicion. At the end of the day we still need to do our jobs"
Shrugging his shoulder Torlo accepted the answer "You're the boss here, we do as you say"
"Thanks" grinning at him in appreciation I turned to look again inside the cabin "Alvara, tail their ship to Verdan Island"
"Roger that!"
The next hour or so went about calmly, with each group on their respective ships we carefully sailed towards the island in the distance.
Even from our ship's deck I could see the nervous look on the faces of the mercenaries and researchers on the other ship, most certainly all very much afraid of a repeat of the earlier attack. However their fears didn't come to pass, whatever that triggered the Shoalstriders didn't happened again and things went pretty smoothly.
Standing on my ship's deck I took a moment to marvel at the sight before me, the wind carrying the roars and growls of the beasts living deep inside the island brushed past my face bringing me a nostalgic feeling.
Having lived for a whole year in a similar wild island the feeling this place brought me was a very pleasant one, looking at the forest before me and the mountains far away in the distance I couldn't help but smile.
Backing out of my daydreaming I went back to help the others prepare for the landing, Tashigi had already arranged our supplies for the trip so all I really need to do was help Oscar carry his research equipment, which wasn't that hard since the man had quite the modest set of gear.
The same couldn't be said about Dr. Victor Sinclair and his researchers though, looking to the side I could see the IronGuard mercenaries loading all the many pieces of research equipment in what I could only call a very long, almost train like, carriage which would be pulled by a pair of donkey like animals.
Are they carrying too much? Maybe, though I found truly funny was how Dr. Victor hasn't changed out of his suit. The man was going to traverse a wild island while looking pristine as always, the man's determination was something else, and I honestly respected him a lot for that.
Apart from taking some bags of supplies me and my friends also didn't changed much; Tashigi was with her trusted Shigure on her hip, and Torlo had his rifle and a backup pistol with him and ready for any situation.
They, alongside Khan, will be the ones following me on this escort mission. Alvara was behind to look after our ship, and Thomas needed to stay behind to keep an eye on any incoming call. Furthermore both of them aren't fighters like us, so even if they came they wouldn't really help out much in any fight against the beasts of the island. Thomas gave us a den-den mushi so we could keep contact, so all in all this setting was the most optimal for the current operation.
"Can I ask you a question Oscar?" said Tashigi as she gazed at the depths of the island "What exactly is our goal here? What animal are you all looking forward to research?"
That was a nice question, while Oscar showed some big interest all manners of local fauna I myself felt like there should be one in particular that was the target of his research.
"I'm actually glad you asked" said the man with a content smile on his face "Though all the fauna living here is amazing, there's one in particular that stands above all others. The one animal species that brought me, and Dr. Victor and his men, here to this corner of the South Blue is none other than the Gryphons!"
Hold the phone!
"Wait a minute" I looked at Oscar with a stupefied look on my face "Gryphons? The same ones that appear in fairy tales? You're talking about those?"
"Do you know any other Gryphons my friend?"
I was genuinely surprised with that one.
One might say I shouldn't be surprised, after all standing three meters away from me was a giant tiger, and about one hour ago I literally fought giant sea monsters, so why be surprised with Gryphons?
For one the feathery creatures are one of the staples of fantasy settings, that type of fantastical creature most people saw in a book, it's honestly a bit hard to not be a little surprised when hearing such fabled creature from my old world is real here.
Furthermore I had zero fucking idea this world had Gryphons in it, and this isn't because of my fading memory either, looking through my journal I could see that not even the me from when my memories were more intact knew a thing about Gryphons being real here.
"This escorting mission just became more interesting"
Ten minutes later with everyone ready we began our search for the elusive Gryphons, assuming a caravan like formation the researchers stayed in the middle with the carriage, I and my friends walked before everyone else as the vanguard, and while we did that the mercenaries used their numbers to cover the rear and flanks.
Khan, my feline friend, followed our little caravan from some distance, his predatory aura helping keep away some of the wild inhabitants of the place away. However it didn't took long for him to vanish from sight, here on this wild Island he must've felt at home again and thus couldn't help but go forward and explore a bit.
Not that I really minded, even if not within sight his presence on the general area should still help with keeping other animals away.
In this first part of our journey we traversed the forest the immediate vicinity of the shore, with tall trees and thick vegetation growing everywhere this particular forest was quite the dense one. Going through it wasn't exactly the easiest of tasks, especially if you factor in the cumbersome carriage we gave to lug around.
Still, we managed to force our way through these problems and our reward for it was, in a way, plentiful. The forest was like a queen's jewelry box, everywhere you looked a new plant, a new jewel could be seen, be it a flowery vine that naturally grew in a start pattern, or the grape like fruits that basically glowed with how vibrant their color was, this place was full of wonders all over.
Of course not everyone was enjoying the moment, I could with my enhanced hearing clearly hear many of the mercs mumbling how annoying and boring everything has been so far. And I get their points, if you aren't that big of a enjoyer nature being deep inside a dense forest like this wouldn't be the most pleasant of times.
Thankfully they're all professional enough to no let this level of displeasure hinder them, maintaining formation the mercenaries dutifully did their part. Near the end of the evening their efforts got rewarded, after many hours of walking we had finally made our way out of the forest.
Stepping out of the forest what appeared before our eyes was some plains, green and vast it only took a single cursory glance to see that traversing this thing in the little time of daylight we still had left wasn't going to happen, so with that in mind we collectively decided to set up camp and wait for the next day.
Although I was no wilderness expert, my time training in that island in the Grand Line gave me enough experience as to allow me to quickly set up a simple, but cozy enough, camp near a nearby rock.
About a dozen meters away from us Dr. Victor, his researchers, and the mercenaries set it up a camp too. Watching was a bit of a feast for the eyes, the carriage had some mechanism that allowed it to 'unfold' and be set it up as a camp, and watching it all happen was honestly quite the fun experience.
After everything was set up we had a nice dinner, sitting beside our campfire we all chatted away for some time. I also took the chance to call the ship to check on Alvara and Thomas, see if they're doing alright, after that I gazed upon the sky and guessed that it was around 20:00, taking note of that I turned to my friends and said:
"I'll take the first watch turn, you guys can sleep first"
"You sure?" asked Tashigi.
"Yeah" I showed them a reassuring smile "Sleep with no worries"
And sleep they did.
Walking through the forest must've tired them more than I thought, no long after we had this talk everyone was already sleeping. At the moment apart from me and two or three mercenaries everyone else was sleeping.
well, almost everyone.
Khan who had returned from his ventures was also awake and there being my company for the night.
Resting my head on Khan's furry back I gazed upon the stars, marveling at the work of art that stretches into infinity memories of my time doing back on that certain island on the Grand Line came back, memories of night where I looked up to the starts and allowed my mind to wander around.
'It's truly amazing how much time it had passed…'
After a time there keeping watch I eventually allowed the sleep to claim me, joining the others in the world of dreams I blissfully slept away until morning, where I rose up with the rising sun as I basically always do.
Doing my morning routine I already started preparing a breakfast for my friends, the smell working as a sort of alarm as shortly after I started cooking they all one by one began to wake up.
About one hour later we discussed with the others about the plans for the day, with everyone in one mind we packed everything up and continued our search for that fantastical feathery creature.
Marching through the plains we spotted dozens of interesting looking animals in their natural habitats, the one that caught my attention the most was a type of rhino which actually had a long tail who was also armed with a sharp horn.
The thing was obviously one hella of a weapon, at a certain moment a group of jacked hyenas tried to scare up to the rhino, only to get absolutely stomped no matter which angle they attacked.
Quite the interesting scene it was.
As we walked forward many similar scenes such as the one with the rhino could be seen, moments where nature could be beheld at its most finest. However no matter how many hours we spent traversing and looking all over these beautiful plains, not a single sign of the fabled Gryphons could be found. Early Khan had gone out again to explore the area, but until now I hadn't heard his call so he too mustn't have found any sign of the Gryphons.
"These things are proving harder to find than I expected"
Said my dear friend Torlo in a grumpy tone, Oscar who had been chatting with one of the researchers of Dr. Victor's group heard and saw the need to clarify a point to my heavy friend.
"The 'Gryphus Magnificens', or Gryphon, is a rare animal for a reason, be in the island they inhabit as we're it's expected that our search will take some time"
Torlo then uttered a long, tedious sigh "I know, just expected something to happen during this mission. Watching these other animals, it's interesting not goin' to lie, but it isn't the exact type of excitement I expected"
"Don't be like that young man, though they make their nests in high places like those mountains in the back, the 'Gryphus Magnificens' tends to have open places like these plains as their hunting grounds. Should we persist a bit more I'm sure we'll eventually will across a specimen or two" reassured Dr. Victor from his vantage point in the carriage.
"Are you sure?"
"You can believe in my words youngster, I'm someone of renown for a reason after all!"
Dr. Victor Sinlcair's words must've some type of power in them, because barely five seconds after he said that the target of our search appeared.
"▂▂ ▂▂ !"
His presence was first announced by a grand call, a mix of the regal screech of an eagle with the majestic roar of a lion, so perfectly blended that only the hands of nature could've done it.
Raising my head I could a certain figure flying in circles in the sky some distance from us; It was a big chimera like creature, the upper body was that of a large predatory bird, covered in a brown feathery plumage it had the head of a raptor and matching large wings on its back. The lower body and hindquarters however was that of lion, with muscular limbs it was covered in a sandy, almost golden, dense fur.
There was no mistaken here, that animal in the sky over there was without a doubt a Gryphon!
"What a magic mouth you have Dr.!"
I said in utter astonishment, to which an equally astonished Dr. Victor retorted "Magic isn't real my boy, this is all-… all just a big coincidence that if I had time I'd explain more but I need to quickly take a hold of this opportunity!"
When he was halfway through his sentence the Dr. was already rushing on his speech, moving into action he and his men quickly began taking some equipment to study the creature, in our group Oscar was already with a sort of juiced up binoculars and was observing the Gryphon.
"What an amazing creature!" stated an awestruck Oscar.
He wasn't wrong there.
Despite being a mash of two very different animals, a chimera, the creature didn't evoke any repulsive or incongruous feeling. The avian and mammalian parts blended to perfection, thus giving rise to a creature that was more than the sum of its parts, a figure that took the best of both top predators and turned into its own.
"No wonder it appears in so many books" said Tashigi to my side, her eyes gleaming in wonder "It's truly beautiful…"
"No doubt there"
Saying that I took my eyes off the Gryphon in the distance and turned to look at the others, Dr. Victor and his men had deployed an array of equipment I truly only thought I'd only ever seeing in a lab. The man himself was looking through a telescope that by all means looked to be cutting edge, in his hands a notebook in which he furiously noted down all that he could glimpse from the creature.
"What an amazing specimen, going by the shade of its plumage and the slight curve on its beak this most likely is a male" asserted Dr. Victor as he observed the Gryphon "His strong limbs and glistening feathers and fur shows that he's on his prime, the skillful way he maneuvers through the sky betray the superb aerial prowess the 'Gryphus Magnificens' are known for. What an amazing apex predator!"
"You're totally right Dr. Victor" replied Oscar "Though I wonder, why is he by himself? From what I had learned in my studies before coming here the 'Gryphus Magnificens' has a strong social structure, most of the time hunting in pairs or even groups. So is this alone?"
"Young Oscar you must understand that researches done on this species aren't hundred percent conclusive, a lot still up in the air. Furthermore as an apex predator it shouldn't be strange for a Gryphon to hunt alone, it definitely has the strength and skill to do so with ease"
"Not wrong there…"
From amidst the mercenaries Vanix walked forward, standing beside the enthusiastic Dr. Victor he asked him "Question: If one would to sell this beast as, let's say a pet, to someone, how much would they gain? Just a hypothetical question, it came to my mind and I had to ask"
Dr. Victor clearly didn't wanted to take his focus away from the Gryphon, however seeing as the question came from the leader of his hired escort group he saw that it was best to reply. Stepping back from the telescope he put a hand on his chin and pondered about the question, after a minute coming up with a reasonable answer he said:
"Well, it's hard to truly quantify. Gryphons are very rare creatures, with social and mythological significance behind their name that few groups of animals can rival. Furthermore, their majestic beauty is undeniable so it isn't far fetch to say some people would be willing to pay a few hundred million for one specimen"
Replied Dr. Victor after a bit of thinking of his part, from my position I couldn't clearly see Vanix's face, but the tone on his voice next had a certain… pleased tinge in it.
"Oh really? That's some good money..."
"Certainly it is, though if I was to give my two cents on the matter I'd say no amount of money is good enough. Such amazing product of nature can't possibly have a price tag attached to its name and it's unethical on every level" having given his opinion on the matter Dr. Victor quickly went back to the telescope "How I wished I could stay all day here observing this creature…"
One again Dr. Victor's words made me think they had some form of magic in them, the moment he said that sentence the Gryphon which had been flying in circles in the sky straightened his flying pattern and came in our direction.
"▂▂ ▂▂ !"
Letting out another majestic cry it flew above our heads and zipped away into the distance, one curious thing to note however was that I clearly saw a sort of mocking look on the creature's eyes as he gazed down at us while flying away.
What was that?
"Damn..."
"He got away!"
"We probably scared him"
All the researchers in our midst exclaimed in frustration when seeing the Gryphon flying away, Oscar clicked his tongue in annoyance with even Dr. Victor having a troubled look after the creature's departure.
Feeling like I needed to say something I stepped forward and reassured them with a clear voice
"The hard part was finding the Gryphon the first time, now that we already caught wind of him meeting the Gryphon again would be easier. I already have his scent locked so we'll not be losing his trail any time soon, be sure of that"
Though the others not from my group didn't quite understand exactly what I meant with 'having his scent locked', but the confidence I had in my voice was thick and enough to convince all of them, putting their frustrations aside they all began packing the research equipment away so we could proceed with our search.
"Nice one man"
"Thanks"
Said my dear friend Torlo while giving me a thumb up, Tashigi to my side said nothing but the nod she gave me already said enough.
That thing is a Gryphon, a big flying animal with the head of bird and the body of lion, how hard can it truly be to follow him? Not much if you ask me.
"Let's go people, time to follow that bird"
And with that we set out again.
…
…
…
..
Well, that's was the chapter.
Not much action happening here, but I still liked the end result. Though if you still wish for some action be assured that, next chapters, will most certainly have some.
Anyway I don't have much more to say, I had been working on this for some time now so I'm tired and not feeling like writing a long author note now.
Thanks everyone for the constant support, you all are awesome.
Constructive critics are always welcomed.
Fiquem Bem!