(A/N: Thank you to everyone following, favoriting, and who added this story to your alerts. And thanks to A. Doctor and Le055Li0n for your reviews. ^_^)
"May I ask what you're writing?"
At the curious voice, Toffee looked up from her notebook to see Vivi, and she smiled while nodding her head.
"To be honest, it's nothing that special. Just what happened at Whiskey Peak," Toffee replied, holding out the leather bound book for the princess to take. "I've been chronicling the Straw Hat's journey since I met them."
"It's amazing how much detail you've gone into. And these drawings. They're almost lifelike," Vivi said in slight awe. She hadn't expected to find a picture of herself. Toffee seemed to have captured her yesterday when she was staring out at sea, a peaceful expression upon her face. The portrait made Vivi smile, yet it slightly faltered when she came across a picture of Igaram.
"S-sorry! I should have mentioned I drew him, too!" Toffee gasped out apologetically, noticing the sudden sadness within the princesses eyes.
"You don't have to apologize. You captured Igaram perfectly. I'm sure he'd be happy to know you honored his memory," Vivi expressed gratefully, wiping away a single tear and handing the book back to Toffee. "Nami and the others must be happy to have you writing about their adventures."
Toffee stared at Vivi a moment, wondering if she was really okay? Once deciding Vivi seemed to be, she rubbed at the back of her neck. "I'd say I'm the lucky one. I've always wanted to write a story filled with grand adventures, and if I stick around Luffy and the others, maybe I'll get to do just that..."
"Oh, yeah. Luffy told me you mentioned something about that," Nami mused, approaching with an ice cold drink in her hand.
"I guess it's been a dream of mine since I was young," Toffee admitted with a distant smile. "Once I developed a fear of blood, my family grew overprotective over me, so they made me stay inside a lot...I started to read because of this, and found myself feeling excited whenever I learned about all of these strange and wonderful sights. It didn't matter if they were real or not."
A small frown formed on Nami's face. "So I'm guessing that's part of the reason why you left that messed up family of yours?"
"That's part of the reason. I also wanted to escape from the violence. I understand sometimes you have no other choice but to kill, yet some of the things they did were excessive," Toffee said in a hushed tone. "It didn't help that I also felt like a burden to father and my brother's...So I thought maybe being on my own, I could overcome my fears and become a stronger person in the long run."
"Do you ever plan on returning to your family?" Vivi asked curiously.
Toffee placed the pencil she was using against her lip. "Maybe. Once I decide for myself whether killing corrupt nobles, marines-well, anyone who abuses their power and title-was the correct form of justice for myself," She didn't notice Vivi and Nami tensing up and turning pale from her words, giving a little bonk to her head. "I probably should find a way to get in contact with my family one day...They might think I'm dead..."
Vivi was nervously about to ask Toffee if her family had truly executed such important people-if she had-but hearing Luffy exclaim, "So that's it! The second island of the Grand Line!", caused Nami, Toffee, and her to turn their attention on the island that was coming closer into view.
The three girls made their way down to the lower deck, Luffy making his way over to the railing where he continued cheerfully, "So this is Little Garden,"
"What the hell do they mean 'little'?" Zoro mumbled, his arms folded over his chest while he gave the island a criticizing gaze. The setting looked like a tropical jungle and the foliage was huge, seeming to cover the land.
"It doesn't look nearly as cute as the name..." Nami agreed, a look more of shock upon her features.
Usopp gulped, backing up with perspiration dripping down his face. "This is like, unexplored territory. An untamed jungle!"
"We have to be careful..." Vivi said solemnly, running a hand across Carue's head and causing the duck to close his eyes in content. "I'm still concerned about what Miss All Sunday said."
"It's possible Miss All Sunday was just trying to intimidate us, but I suppose her associates could be waiting to ambush us," Toffee murmured with a small frown, cupping her chin. "Then again, maybe the island just has a lot of scary creatures on it..."
These words caused Usopp to let out a frightened squeak, and he looked nervously at each of the other crew members. "D-d-doesn't that sound like we should try and avoid this island at all costs, then?!"
"Have you forgotten we need time to set the log?" Nami sighed out exasperated, though truthfully she'd rather avoid the island herself.
"Not to mention it's about time we picked up some provisions," Sanji added. "We didn't get to stock up at the last town."
Hearing Zoro suddenly yelling that he saw a river mouth up ahead caused everyone to perk up and run over to the railing to see the curving body of water. Nami instructed Usopp to direct the Going Merry down the river, and the ship leisurely started to cross it once the sniper had.
"I hope there's a yakiniku restaurant here~!" Luffy chirped, lightly bouncing on his feet in excitement and looking around as if expecting to spot it.
"What the hell would one be doing here?!" Sanji cried out in irritation.
"But didn't you say we needed provisions?" the straw hat wearing boy continued with an innocent tilt of his head.
"I meant we needed to get ingredients! I don't know what goes through that tiny brain of yours!" Sanji growled out, giving a small bonk to his captain's head.
Nami shook her own head at the two, placing her hands on her hips. "Our problem is that landing will be difficult...I mean, take a look at those plants. Those aren't in any botany book I've ever seen."
"That big red plant over there looks like a corpse flower. There supposed to be one of the biggest flowers known to man," Toffee said, smiling reassuringly when noticing Nami and Usopp's pallid features from the most likely disturbing name. "Don't worry. Its harmless. The flowers just produce a smell like rotting flesh, is all."
"O-oh, is that all...? I'm amazed you actually know what some of these plants are," Nami mentioned weakly, looking hopefully at Toffee after she nodded. "Please tell me you read something that might have told more about this island?"
Toffee was about to reply, but she lightly jumped when hearing an odd screeching sound that caused Nami to yelp and hide behind the gray haired woman.
"Cute~" Sanji sung out seeing Nami peeking over the slightly shorter girls shoulder.
"You mean me~?" Usopp teased, his words only causing Sanji to snap at him.
"Wh-what is that?!" Nami asked, shakily pointing to something coming closer toward the ship in the sky.
"Don't worry. It's just a little old bird. And this is just your normal jungle. Nothing to worry about," Sanji comforted. Yet the bird wasn't so little, and the exotic creature nearly took out a startled Sanji's head with it's talons if he hadn't ducked in time.
If that sudden event wasn't alarming enough, what sounded almost like an explosion caused the group to tense up even more than they already were. Luffy and Zoro being the exception.
"Is that the kind of sound you hear in a 'normal' jungle?" Nami gasped out panicked.
"That sounded like a volcano erupting!" Usopp screeched, gripping onto the sides of his head.
"Aw, how cute!" Toffee cooed out when spotting a tiger watching them with a hungry expression, his form stalking them from the embankment. Oddly enough Heartless was holding onto a piece of meat as if he was trying to coax the tiger onto the ship, dangling it from side to side.
"THERE'S NOTHING CUTE ABOUT THAT! IT'S FREAKIN' HUGE!" Usopp bellowed, giving the awestruck girl a look that said she had clearly lost her mind. "AND WHY DOES YOUR SHADOW HAVE THAT? DOES IT WANT US TO GET MAULED TO DEATH?!"
Luffy had instantly taken the meat from Heartless and was already devouring it himself. Nami and Toffee meanwhile both let out startled cries when blood abruptly spurted out of the tigers mouth and it fell over, no longer appearing to move.
"What? What happened to it? This is not normal...!" Nami shrieked, the light having faded from her eyes while she glanced over at a calm faced Luffy, hoping he could some how explain. "How can a tiger, the king of the jungle, collapse in it's own blood?!"
"Are you alright?!" Vivi asked with concern since Toffee looked to be in worse shape than Nami for the girl had wrapped her arms around her body that was trembling.
"...Y-yeah. The blood just startled me, is all," Toffee expressed meekly. She smiled faintly when Heartless was patting at her leg, placing a hand on top of his head before letting out a shaky breath of air. "I-I didn't notice those gashes on the tiger at first, but something bigger than it must have injured the poor thing..."
Usopp balked at this. "Wh-what could be big enough to take out a tiger?! O-okay! It's decided! We are NOT stopping at this island!"
Nami nodded her head in agreement with a grimace. "We'll just sit on the ship and quietly wait for the log to set...Then we get out of here as fast as possible...We do have to hurry to Alabasta, right?"
Zoro tossed the anchor down into the water while Sanji and Usopp furled the sails. Luffy was meanwhile giggling excitedly, which caused Nami and Usopp to give their captain worrying glances. That excited look on his face could only mean one thing...
"Sanji, lunchbox!" Luffy cheered, grinning when the cook gave him a questioning gaze. "To recharge my power! A TON of meat and NO vegetables! A PIRATE lunchbox! I smell an adventure!"
Nami quickly rushed up to Luffy, placing her hands on her hips and looking at him like a mother about to scold her child. "N-now hold on a second, you! Where do you think you're going?"
"On an adventure! Wanna come?" Luffy asked grinning from ear to ear, his form seeming to sparkle.
Nami and Usopp both unleashed defeated sighs, their shoulders slumping. There was no point in trying to talk any sense into Luffy at this point, and Toffee couldn't help but let out a small laugh from Luffy's chipper nature; moving to pat Nami and Usopp on their shoulders in a consoling gesture.
"Hey, is it okay if I go with you?" Vivi asked with a smile.
"Don't tell me you're going along with this?!" Nami cried out after Luffy had happily agreed.
"Well, if I sit around here, I'll only get depressed," Vivi admitted with a soft expression. "I might as well relax while we wait for the log to set."
"You can't! Luffy does this all the time. But it's far too dangerous for you!"
"I'll be alright. Carue will be with me," Vivi hummed out, her words causing the duck to let out a horrified quack.
"Carue doesn't seem too pleased about that," Toffee mentioned thoughtfully, her shadow meanwhile covering it's hidden mouth as though laughing at the duck's distress. Shaking her head when Carue ended up angrily whacking Heartless upside the head with it's wing, she placed her arms behind her back and smiled. "Guess I'll stay here and help watch over the ship."
"Please watch over us as well!" Usopp and Nami both exclaimed, bowing multiple times and making Toffee sheepishly scratch at her cheek.
Not too long, Sanji had returned, securing a blue bag to Luffy's back and doing the same with a pink bag to Carue. "Okay! One Pirate Lunchbox and one Special Drink just for Carue," Sanji voiced with a grin after placing a tankard around the bird's neck. "You're all set."
"Okay, we're off!" Vivi chirped, following Luffy when he hopped off the ship. "We'll be back soon!"
Usopp folded his arms over his chest after the two had disappeared. "She's got guts...Miss Wednesday..."
Nami sighed at this. "What would you expect from someone who infiltrated a criminal organization..."
Toffee nodded with a bright smile. "Vivi-san is nothing like the princesses in the fairy tales Theo-kun used to read to me. She's brave and doesn't end up in troublesome situations where she needs to be helped by a prince!"
Nami and Usopp both wore indifferent expressions when Toffee had yet again ended up tripping when walking off, the two muttering out, "Your right. That category seems to suit you a lot more..."
Zoro rolled his eyes at Toffee before rubbing at the back of his green hair. "Well, I've got some time to kill. I'm gonna take a walk,"
"Oi, Zoro!" Sanji exclaimed after helping Toffee off the ground with a kind smile, rushing up to the side of the ship when the swordsman jumped off. "We're out of food. If you see something that looks edible, bring it back."
"Right. I'll go hunt something you couldn't possibly handle yourself,"
"HOLD IT!" Sanji screamed, his 'obnoxious' voice making Zoro turn to give the cook an irritated glance. "I heard that. Bastard, you think you can bring something bigger than I could?"
"Damn straight."
Toffee couldn't help but have a small bead of sweat appear on the side of her head. The two men literally were exchanging electrical glares, declaring a hunting contest between the two of them. And she could hear the two of them still yelling insults toward the other even after they had walked off in separate locations.
"I can't believe they abandoned us!" Nami groaned out, suddenly marching over to Toffee and taking the girl by her shoulders where she jerked her back and forth. "I don't care if you're against killing! If anything attacks us, use those assassin skills of yours to take it out! Got it?!"
"U-understood!" Toffee squeaked out, more beads of sweat now running down her head.
Usopp exchanged a look with Heartless who was standing next to him. "I don't know. I think Nami's more likely to scare off any monsters with her temper than Toffee would be able to..."
"WHAT WAS THAT?!" Nami snarled out, the scary expression the navigator bore causing Heartless to jump into Usopp's arms where the two comically clung to each other and rapidly shook their heads.
Nami let out a sigh before realization suddenly hit her. "Now that I think about it..."
Surprising Usopp and Heartless when Nami was running into the meeting room, dragging Toffee alongside her, the two quickly followed the navigator into the the women's quarters.
"Wh-what the heck are you doing, Nami?" Usopp proclaimed. The orange haired female was tossing books off the shelf and he had nearly been hit by one. Heartless hadn't been so lucky, and he ended up getting knocked backwards when a thick novel collided with his face.
"I remember reading about Little Garden in one of these books," Nami admitted, flipping through the pages of the current book she held. "It seems like I just read it recently..."
Toffee, who had scooped a teary eyed Heartless up into her arms, sat down on the corner of her bed. "I didn't get to mention it earlier, but I never read about Little Garden...The thing is, some of the plants did look like ones I once saw and read about in a book about prehistoric creatures..."
Her brown eyes widening, Nami happened to find the very book she was searching for right after Toffee had spoken. "Y-you're right. This island actually is-"
A loud booming noise came from outside, the force of it making the ship jerk. Not really wanting to find out what was causing it, Nami, Usopp, Toffee, and Heartless all rushed back out onto deck knowing they needed to check. Much to the crews surprise or horror, they were met with a menacing figure that was huge enough to tower over the tallest trees. In fact, it had ended up destroying a good many of the ancient looking foliage.
"GABABABABA!"
"AHHHHHHHHH!"
While Heartless had taken to running back and forth alongside a terrified Nami and Usopp, who were crying nonstop tears, Toffee was staring at the large male in wonder, who had knelt down in front of the ship and seemed to be staring at them with interest.
"Amazing! It's a giant! I only thought they existed in fairy tales~!" Toffee gasped out, stars having formed in her eyes.
"Of course giants exist, little girl. Now, I have a question for you. Do you have any ale?" the blond bearded giant, who was garbed similar to a viking, asked with a friendly grin.
"W-we might have a little..." Nami spoke up weakly while Usopp rapidly bobbed his head up and down beside her. "W-we haven't drunk much of it lately. We sometimes need it for cooking and things. But if you'd like some, you can have it all!"
The giant suddenly screamed, this in turn making Nami and Usopp scream shrilly themselves and cling to Toffee while Heartless latched onto her leg and sent the giant a cautious glare.
"A-are you alright?!" Toffee gulped out, seeing a T-rex of all things clamped onto the giants backside.
The large male merely let out an "aye!" pulling out one of the largest axes Toffee had ever seen and easily slicing the dinosaur in half like it was nothing more than a common reptile.
"I, and I alone, am Elbaf's mightiest warrior! Brogy!" the giant proclaimed, displaying the tyrannosaurus head like it was a trophy, this making Nami and Usopp scream yet again. The fact they hadn't lost their voices yet was an amazing feat...Toffee had lightly flinched herself, but at least there was no blood dripping from the severed head.
Letting out his rather odd laugh, Brogy looked cheerfully down at the teenagers and young adult. "Now I've got some meat. Join me, as my guests."
"Poor Luffy. He's going to be so upset when he learns he missed this," Toffee decided, placing a hand on her cheek. Seeing Nami and Usopp fall to the ground, pretending to be dead made the pink eyed girl smile sheepishly.
"Your friends are very odd," Brogy observed, blinking down at the non-moving male and female.
"They probably think I'm the one being odd right now," Toffee mused with an awkward laugh.
"Definitely..." Nami and Usopp said in unison, only to quickly clamp their hands over their mouths where Brogy tilted his head at this.
Riding upon Brogy's shoulder-Nami and Usopp resting in his palm for the two were continuing their charade of playing dead-Toffee saw that Brogy was bringing them to a large cave that she guessed must be his home. There was a huge pile of straw that was probably used as the giants bed, and he placed Nami and Usopp gently upon it, helping Toffee off his shoulder before he got to work on cooking the meat over a stone fire pit.
"This is a very odd creature. I don't believe I've seen anything like it before," Brogy commented, poking carefully at Heartless with a large finger. This made the shadow fall over where he chose to lay and not move a muscle at all.
Toffee shook her head at her shadow before pulling her knees up to her chest. "Heartless is actually my shadow. I ate the silhouette-silhouette fruit, and it gave my shadow a life of its own," she explained with a smile. Breathing in the smell of the meat, Toffee's mouth started to water a little. "That smells really good!"
"Dinosaur meat is the best~" Brogy declared, beginning to sing a little tune while he turned the meat to make sure it was thoroughly being cooked.
Toffee hummed along to the tune he was singing, only for her to blink when a hand was placed over her mouth and she was being drug off by Usopp. Giving him a questioning look, Nami placed a finger against her lip, instructing Toffee not to make a sound. The next thing the gray haired girl knew she was being carried underneath Usopp's arm, Nami and him taking off at a mad dash.
"Don't you two think you're overreacting? Brogy seems like a nice giant to me,"
"That's because you're naive, Toffee! You didn't see all the bones in the cave from that guys other victims!" Usopp yelled as he leaped rather gracefully over a log.
"I think...we put enough distance between us..." Nami wheezed, bending over to catch her breath.
Usopp groaned, releasing Toffee and falling onto his hands and knees. "You'll thank us later...that we're not being digested right now..." Feeling something wet falling on him, Usopp peered up, his features turning blue when seeing the fearsome predator lurking in a tree.
"Being digested in a Sabre Tooth Tiger's stomach isn't much better!" Nami gulped out. "Toffee! Do something!"
When Heartless shook his head and pointed up at Toffee who was staring at the prehistoric cat in the same manner she had the normal tiger, Nami groaned and pulled at her hair.
"I forgot she's the type of weirdo who actually LIKES animals that can rip you apart!"
"Do you think it would let me keep it as a pet~?"
"DON'T EVEN TRY IT!"
Easily dragging Toffee when Usopp and her took off at a run once again for their lives, Nami and the sniper ended up letting out blood-curdling screams when a T-rex appeared and they quickly bolted back the way they had come. The Sabre Tooth Tiger had taken to running away with the human's, seeming even more panicked than they did.
Usopp and Nami might not have felt so, but Brogy thankfully arrived, his mere presence having the effect of making the dinosaur and tiger scatter away.
"In the end, all we were doing was changing which stomach we wound up in," Usopp said tearfully. "It doesn't matter what we do, our fate is sealed."
"We tried our best, let's just accept our fate," Nami whimpered.
"Thank you for saving us, Brogy-san," Toffee said politely, this causing Nami and Usopp to gawk at her.
"Gababababa! I see your friends finally woke up. The meats ready. Let's get your ale and eat already!"
Heading back to the area they had ran from, Brogy sat down a steaming chunk of meat, using a leaf as a plate, in front of the humans. "Okay, let's eat. Dinosaur meat is really good!"
"I-I've lost my appetite," Nami stuttered out nervously.
"Don't hold back. Dig in!"
Seeing Nami and Usopp looking down while refusing once more, Toffee nibbled on her lip before removing her dagger from her pouch. Holding it did make her hand shake a little, but it wasn't like she was using it on a living person...and she managed to cut off some of the meat.
Giving it a small nibble, Toffee's eyes lit up from the surprisingly delectable taste. "It really isn't bad. Here. Just try a little piece. It would be rude not to, right?"
"See? Dinosaur meat is GOOD!" Brogy said cheerily, taking a much larger bite out of his.
"Doesn't Toffee realize he's only fattening us up to eat us...?" Usopp sniffled out, taking a hesitant bite of the meat alongside an equally teary eyed Nami.
"Toffee's just too trusting for her own good. That's what giants do, after all..." Nami sobbed with a shake of her head. But maybe, they still had a chance to get away before something like that happened? "Brogy-san, may I ask you one little question?"
"Hmm? What's up, little girl?"
"D-do you know how long it takes for a log to set on this island?"
"1 year," Brogy answered casually. Nami and Usopp toppled off the log where they sat when hearing this.
Toffee watched Nami and Usopp in light concern since they were continuing to cry once sitting up to eat, jumping when a sudden eruption sounded, and she turned to see one of the Volcano's active.
"That seems dangerous..." Toffee murmured, blinking when she heard the fire crackling. For some reason Brogy had tossed his food into the flames, and more of an intense look was within his eyes, something that also caught Usopp's attention.
"Sorry about this. I must be going,"
"Eh? Go?" Nami asked, a little surprised.
"Yeah. That's the signal for our 100 year-long battle," Brogy replied with a grin.
"Battle? Against who?" Usopp inquired. They hadn't seen anyone else except Brogy so far. Did this mean there were other giant's on the island? "Where? For what reason?"
"The reason? I FORGOT," Brogy voiced with a booming laugh, something that made Nami and Toffee look at each other in confusion. Usopp seemed more mesmerized by the giant despite his previous fear.
The three watched Brogy take off into the jungle, looks of both horror and amazement appearing on the Straw Hat's faces when Brogy and another giant clashed; their blows being so powerful that it made the entire island quake.
And that had only been from a single attack. The battle had only begun.