.: First chapter of the new year. I want to try releasing four chapters every month. We'll see how that goes. For this one, a tiny bit of time travel happens. And more Outlander stuff, of course. But regardless, I hope you enjoy this long one. :.

The Girl with A Half-Soul

Chapter 6:

The Lass Who Was Gone

The curly-browed cook was not even following a certain path through the market anymore. His one revealed eye remained a pulsating heart, and he admired every single woman that crossed his path. It did not matter if her arm was tucked inside another man's elbow, or if children hung from slings around their torso and ran around their feet. He wanted all of them.

Usopp was long gone at this point. He gave up trying to keep the same pace as his lusting crewmate and decided to find a place to sit down. And Luffy was still nowhere to be found. Their group was unofficially disbanded.

But in the middle of his controlled lustful episode, the sun began unknowingly setting with the cover of the overcast skies. The gray horizon muffled the orange hues, and darkness began falling over Edinburgh. Naturally, the villagers manually lit up lanterns and lamps that were hanging from building walls or sticking up in the roads. Before Sanji could formally notice, his only way to see women were from little collective flames scattered around. And they drew him in a nonstop stroll around what seemed like the entirety of the village. He passed by a high intensity match of villagers competing with a ball on the ground and curved sticks in their hands. There were stalls of other games and little shops that both natives and visitors were partaking in, but he noticed none of it. Even a display of a great bonfire with many families surrounding it did not faze him in the slightest.

But his sight caught that of a woman who did not appear like the rest of them. While the others wore layered dresses with altered versions of attractiveness, this one only wore a thin white garment that was loose around the shoulders but came down to her knees. Not even sandals protected the soles of her feet. It was the most skin he had seen since he left the Merry that afternoon. Her curly bronze hair secured an ornate piece on the side of her head, and her freckled face focused on a mysterious lantern that rested in the palm of her hand. Sanji was locked in in an instant. And he realized how sheer the fabric of her dress was when he noticed "certain" features underneath. Blood dribbled from his nostrils as a result.

The woman kept her focus on the flame inside as she walked fluidly through the street. She never noticed Sanji keeping up behind her a few feet back. And the farther they walked, the quieter it became, the darker it got from no artificial lighting, and more females wearing similar garments appeared out of the woodworks. A group of tall stones that stood in a circle came into view. With the tallest and flattest of them all standing in the middle, the band of majestic women approached it from all sides. Sanji tried to follow as his desired lady slipped through the small crowd of onlookers, but it was like they were barricading him.

The women all held their concealed flames high as they surrounded the middle stone. In the dusk, they burned brightest. Then, they all began to perform a ritualistic dance full of gentle spins with arms fully extended and tracing patterned steps around each other. They never touched each other even as their slack garments swayed in many directions. Sanji wiped away the blood on his lip as his lusting transformed into a state of hypnotism. Time was suddenly nonexistent. A whisper of a song began to sing in rhythm with their dance. Sometimes they all paused in front of a stone, and other times they bowed or kneeled to acknowledge each other's presence. It all melted together as if they had spent their entire lives perfecting the timing of each body movement and how their sleeves and skirts flowed around with the breezes they were stirring up.

Then, suddenly, a hand pressed against his shoulder, pulling his attention from the display to find a familiar face reflecting a little light off it. He could never mistake those taupe brown eyes for anyone else's. But before he could greet her, Nami spoke with urgency. "Aurilee is missing," she informed him.

Usopp was starting to get worried the more he sat in solitude. It was not that he was afraid of being alone, but he watched as dusk took over for the day and there was still no sign of the rest of his group. He even kept an ear out for any commotion in the middle of the festivities, but all there was were recurring cheers and chants from different directions. There was no telling where Luffy had ended up. As for Sanji…he wandered off chasing women, so he was probably still off chasing women. Was there really a point in him waiting for them to magically show up again?

Sighing, he stood up and slung his massive bag of groceries over his shoulder. He had been sitting for so long that his backside was starting to ache. It would not hurt to go drop off their things back at the Merry for a few minutes. But the moment he took the first step, his eardrum almost popped out. "USOPP!" a very loud but very happy exclamation bellowed out.

Usopp almost jumped out of his skin. And the other townspeople looked to see what was going on.

Laughing, Luffy came running. "Usopp! Look what I found!" In his hand was a rope, and at the end of that rope was a baby goat. It was so young that a shriveling umbilical cord was still dangling from its stomach.

Upon seeing it, Usopp squawked. "Where the hell did you find that?!"

"There was a guy with this cool staff and there was a bunch of goats he was following," he explained with a big smile on his face. "This one strayed away without him noticing, so I caught it, but the guy disappeared."

"So you kept it?!"

"I couldn't just leave him!" Luffy protested. "He's like Merry's little brother!"

Usopp stared at the little goat. Its fur was a gray and black mix. And tiny nubs were growing out of its head instead of proper horns. Other than being a goat, it looked nothing like Merry. "Luffy, you gotta give the shepherd back his goat," Usopp sighed.

"I tried to but he was long gone by the time I caught Twitchy," he argued.

"Twitchy?"

"Yeah, because he twitches a lot."

Both of them gazed at the little goat, which was not standing still like they were. It did not take it long to swing its neck and kick its hindlegs, making Luffy laugh again.

"Well regardless, you have to find that shepherd and return Twitchy," Usopp insisted.

"But whyyy? Don't you want a pet?"

"Goats aren't pets! They're livestock. That shepherd uses goats for milk and cheese production, I bet. If you keep him for yourself, that's stealing from a shepherd trying to take care of himself and maybe even his family. Plus, Twitchy still lives off his mother's milk. How can we take care of him?"

"Well Chopper doesn't count as a pet," Luffy mumbled under his breath.

Usopp adjusted the bag on his shoulder. "Try to find Sanji while you're looking for the shepherd. I'm going back to the ship."

But a roar of drums and continuous airy melodies interrupted Usopp's plan for a second time. A quick glance up the road showed the instrumental part of the parade had arrived in their area. People moved to the sides of the road to let them all pass, so Usopp pulled Luffy and Twitchy the goat to do the same. The leading dancers were the first to go by, then the drumline, and then a group of people holding and blowing into odd-looking instruments that had an inflating fabric bag and long pipes sticking out in the air. While Usopp and Luffy were questioning what those were, they noticed something very odd. One of the players was not blowing into his instrument, and not only did he look irritated, but in the face he kind of looked like Zoro…

And then they realized that it really was Zoro.

"Zoro?!" Usopp exclaimed, trying to keep up with the marching band.

"Wait that really is Zoro?!" Luffy asked as he followed. Seeing the swordsmen turn his head and glare at them made him bust out laughing. He was wearing the same kind of skirt outfit that the others were wearing, but he still looked very out of place.

"What are you doing?!" Usopp called out, trying to be heard over the loud music.

"I don't know!" Zoro angrily answered. "Help me get out of here!"

Luffy had tears being squeezed out from between his eyelids from laughing so hard.

Seeing that Zoro was locked in the middle of all the players, Usopp did not have an easy solution for him. "You're either slipping through the side or you stop walking and let them go on without you!"

Feeling a vein bulge in his temple from more irritation, he opted to just stop walking. The two players directly behind him bumped into his back, causing a small pileup and disrupting the song the entire band was playing. Luffy laughed even harder until he could not walk anymore. But the annoyed players quickly went around Zoro and joined back up with the others, and he was left behind rather fast.

"What was that about?" Usopp questioned him. But before Zoro could answer, he got a good look at the getup he was wearing and started laughing along with Luffy. His layered skirt thingy was red with many stripes and squared patterns running all around it. A leather, unbuttoned coat revealed a tied vest overtop his white shirt and his green belly warmer was still sticking out. It was like he was still wearing his normal clothes with extra articles having been added, minus his pants.

"You're not wearing any pants," Luffy laughed, bent over with a convulsing stomach.

Zoro felt his eyebrow twitch. "It's called a kilt!" he defended, feeling the breeze brush across his exposed knees and bring a draft up to his nether region. But his legitimate response caused both of his immature crewmates to laugh even harder, and his teeth started to grind. He looked around for that kid who was responsible for putting him in this situation. And he was indeed following.

Spotting the curly-haired juvenile carrying his swords by his side, Zoro marched over and grabbed him by the collar. "Your name was Fergus?" he asked.

Gulping, he nodded, seeing how forcing him into the marching band has not ended well.

"Well my name isn't Ian. I was out looking for someone. Have you seen a pregnant girl with a big pale patch on her forehead?"

Overhearing him, Luffy felt a stone settle in his gut. He did not think about it before, but Zoro being out here should have meant Aurilee came with him. But Zoro was making it sound as if Aurilee was not here at all. Keeping a grip on Twitchy's leash, he went up to the swordsman. "Aurilee is missing?"

Zoro paused before he released Fergus and pushed the bagpipes into his arms in exchange for sheathed blades. He could hardly bear to look his captain in the eye. Aurilee had slipped away hours ago, and instead of finding her, he just wasted many hours bumbling around. "Yeah," he simply replied. "Nobody's seen her."

"Then we need to find her. I'll go find Nami and Robin and spread the word." He almost broke out into a run toward the docks, but Zoro stopped him.

"She's nowhere near the ship. I've checked everywhere down there."

"Then we'll check everywhere but the docks!" Luffy corrected himself, pulling Zoro's arm from his chest. "We'll meet back at the Merry at midnight. But bring her back safe!" He ran off toward the docks with Twitchy in tow, practically dragging the poor thing behind him.

After that, Luffy had found the females of the crew coming toward him with Chopper. They were heading for the market since that was where Sanji's group was. But when Luffy caught them up on the new plan, they all went in separate directions. Nami would find Sanji. And for many more hours, they would scour the entire village but come up empty handed.

It was very late at night when the wagon finally came to a halt. Aurilee had been wanting to sleep for a while, but her transportation was too bumpy to get comfortable. The horse pulled up to a building, and quickly there were many men that came to unload the cargo. One with a clean-shaven face was the first to notice Aurilee sitting in the very back. "Alas, I have found a lass!" he chimed, unlatching the tailgate and opening it for her. "What brings you to Lollybroch?"

Shyness forced her to not meet his eye, but she took his hand to help get her down gently. "Um…the shipwrights," she answered quietly.

Others came around, avoiding her to get their last work for the night finished up. Aurilee got out of their way, but the man who helped her followed her. "The shipwrights are done with their work for the day, but they should be back at the docks first thing in the morning," he informed her. "Find an inn to stay in for the night. Get some rest."

She nodded and secured her jingling bag of berries, and then left the area. If the man driving the wagon wanted a thank you, he missed out on one. She slipped away unnoticed.

Unlike Edinburgh, there was no festival taking the village by storm. It was quiet, and because it was so late, it was almost like a ghost town. Businesses were closed up. Homes were going dark until dawn. She had to silence her own footsteps to keep from making too much noise. It was only her, the light jingling of her bag, and the chirping of crickets.

The only thing about that, though, was that she was not alone. The sound of her berries had attracted some unwanted attention.

The main reason why a festival was not in Lollybroch was because of a heavy presence of Navy forces. Since the government had stomped out the rugged culture a couple centuries ago, the island and its people changed. Some officials wanted to keep it that way, but others were more lenient as long as no rebellion brewed.

The places where an iron fist was used to rule had disgusting individuals under their command. And Aurilee was going to learn that the hard way.

"I hear taxes that need to be collected."

Upon that, she stopped and looked over her shoulder to see a single Marine that had been following her. She had not been around one in so long. The same day she earned the hideous, deep, purplish scars on her back from her keelhauling was when she was a mere teenager. She single-handedly took out a whole group of them back then. But today, she was far from that rambunctious and mutinous juvenile. The person encountering this Marine was a silent, timid, and renounced expectant mother who barely had any fight left in her. The only thing that made her move was recognizing that malicious grin.

Holding her abdomen in place to protect the little ones growing inside, she broke out into a run. She went as fast as her out-of-shape stamina could take her. Her eyes constantly checked the hanging signs for an inn, or anything else that she could use as an escape route. And when she knew he was closing the distance, she tried to cry out for help. But nobody was available or outside. And even if someone was, they would have turned a blind eye.

The Marine crashed into Aurilee, almost knocking her straight to the ground and sending her into premature labor. His pair of callused hands caught her in time, though, and he covered her mouth to keep from disturbing those who were trying to sleep. "Those who fail to pay their taxes have to serve jailtime," he condescended into her ear, pulling her away from the road. "But I can make exceptions."

Knowing exactly what he was inferring, she dropped the berries. His hold on her face did not falter. Either he was not aware of the surrender, or he did not care. He just continued dragging her away from the open despite her muffled pleas and sobbing. Her condition did not matter, either. Just like Calisto, this monster was going to get what he came for. Aurilee was stuck, reliving her own personal Hell.

As time ticked away, the festival began to dwindle. The crowds were thinning as people got their fill and were going home. Although it worked in their favor in finding Aurilee, there was still no sign of her. But Usopp wanted to check one more place before he made the trek back to the Merry for the midnight rendezvous.

He knew this island was pretty big, and other towns were bound to be scattered about. And if that were the case, they would be interacting with each other. There had to be a trading port somewhere. Usopp wanted to believe it would be located at the top of the slope where the village of Edinburgh ended. Too bad he had to lug around the huge grocery bag with him. His exhaustion was becoming second-nature at this point.

Coming to the last building of the village, Usopp looked around for someone to talk to. But it appeared that all workers were gone for the night. It was eerily quiet here. For a moment, he wanted to call it a night but try again in the morning when work resumed. The thought of Aurilee being in potential danger kept him from giving up yet, though.

One thing that was odd about this building was the lack of doors. Peering down a corridor, he found it be large enough to fit a wagon. There were also animal sounds. He took a chance by wandering inside. And he felt like it was taking him through a maze. There were locked cages of animals and closed doors for unknown rooms. But no people. After a few minutes, he came to the other side. Just as he had hoped, it was definitely a trading port for land transportation. He did not know why Aurilee fled, but if she was to get away completely and not want to be tracked, then she might have gone here to vanish without a trace.

"Hello?" he spoke with a hand funneling his mouth, trying to have anyone hear him. "Is anyone still working?"

Waiting a moment, he heard no response. A little wandering could not hurt. As he did so, he continued to call out. Until the whole perimeter was searched, he would not stop. And it was a good thing he persisted because eventually he heard a response. "Oi. No more exports for the evening. Come back tomorrow."

Usopp jogged to where the voice came from. He found a muscular middle-aged man sitting on a full crate and looking like he was keeping watch for something. "Hey, I just have a question," Usopp said. "By any chance, did a pregnant girl with patchy skin come by here today? You couldn't have missed her."

"Pregnant, eh?" he repeated. "It's been like five hours, but yeah."

The sudden relief that jolted through his body made him want to jump high in the air despite the grocery bag weighing him down. "Really?!"

"Aye. We sent her to Lollybroch. She paid for a ride, so we gave her one. She might have made it there by now."

"And where's this Lollybroch?"

"It's almost on the complete opposite side of this island, but not quite. It's hard to miss it with all the ships anchored in its bay waiting for a shipwright to work on them."

Holding onto his words, Usopp knew he had to pass the information to Nami. They could sail to Lollybroch and bring her back. All was not lost. "Thanks a lot, old man! I owe you!" he said as he hurried out of the trading port.

Aurilee squeezed her eyes shut and waited for the Marine to finish. The whole time, as she tried to mentally block out everything happening to her to protect her sanity, she pleaded for her children to hold on. Calisto was supposed to be a figment of her past, but here she was enduring more of his wrath from another man. A burning sensation was growing in her belly, something she had never felt before. It scared her to death.

When the moment came she was dropped to the ground, she almost did not feel the impact. Her breath came and went erratically. Her fingers felt ice cold and numb. Holding them to her mouth, she tried warming them with some air from her lungs. But then she realized she was shaking violently. This was what going into shock felt like.

Looking over her shoulder, the Marine was nowhere to be found. He robbed her, brutalized her. It all happened to fast yet also felt like it went on for hours. Realizing she was finally alone, she began to weep and wrapped her arms around herself. Forehead pressed to the ground, she wailed out and waited for her children to indicate they were ready to enter the world. Although she was unfamiliar with labor pains, she very much expected them. And if they did come, it would bring death to all four of them. There was nobody here who could help her. She was all alone.

But nothing gripped her womb in agony. She waited and waited for the worst. Her children remained unmoving, however, and she found herself regulating her respiration. She quieted as an odd feeling of security overcame her fears. It was almost like…someone was giving her a hug. Sitting up on her knees and wiping the moisture from her eyes, she never felt the phantom hug leave her. And the only way she could explain it was the other half of her soul being the one receiving comfort.

Aurilee sniffled. She was alive but drained. Finding an inn was no longer a priority to her. She just wanted to find a place to sleep.

Getting to her feet, she found pain to be festering between her legs. Every single step she took was painful. She was limping and bleeding. That was the last thing she was concerned about right now, though. She just wanted the burning sensation to go away. Her babies were fighting to stay put; moving around was not helping.

So, she walked slowly in the dead of night until big barn doors loomed over her. Sliding one open, she found horses and pigs inside their respected stalls, along with a mountain of hay in the middle. She groaned with satisfaction and slipped inside. Settling on the makeshift prickling cushion, she curled up. Only sleep could ease her trembling and worried thoughts. The fate of her children was out of her hands now.

"Mehhh!" Twitchy bleated in the middle of the silence.

It was difficult to see anything as the Straw Hats sat around the deck, but they were waiting for the last one to get back. Hours spent searching throughout the entirety of the village just to come up empty-handed. Was Aurilee even real? Or was she a dream that they all hallucinated for three whole days?

"Meeehhhhhh!"

"Ugh, Luffy, make it shut up," Nami complained, poking her fingers into her ears.

"He's just talking," he defended, trying to place his straw hat on Twitchy's head.

"He's complaining about being hungry," Chopper translated.

After hearing that, Sanji got an idea. "Nami, did you happen to buy baby bottles today?"

With her ears plugged, she did not hear his question. So instead, Robin answered. "Yes. Do you need one?"

"I still have some goat milk in the fridge from our last pit stop. He can finish the rest," he explained, getting up. He disappeared below deck to go retrieve one from the shopping bags that were all over the floor of their quarters. It was hard to believe Nami bought all of it just for it to be potentially wasted with Aurilee's disappearance.

After filling the bottle with the remainder of the goat milk and securing the rubber cap on, he returned to the deck and prompted Twitchy to suckle. "There. Problem solved," he commented, holding the bottle steady.

"He's definitely happy now," Chopper said, standing next to Twitchy.

Luffy giggled. "I like having a pet."

"But Luffy, he really needs his mother for a few more weeks," Chopper reiterated to him. "Can't you find the shepherd you took him from?"

"I already tried. He's long gone."

"Well, we can't keep him for long," Sanji told his captain honestly. "We'll go through our new supply of goat milk too fast if we're wasting it all on a pet." With that being said, suddenly the bottle was empty, and once Twitchy let go, he went right back to making noise.

Chopper listened and then sighed. "He misses his mom."

"Guyssss!" a distant voice called out.

Hearing it alerted them all. They looked to see the last member of their crew running as fast as he could. Not long after, Usopp was on the deck. He slipped off the giant bag from his back and panted hard with sweat leaking down his face. "I…know…"

"Know? Know what?" Sanji questioned, feeling optimism overflow already.

"She's in…Lollybroch," he gasped.

A collective wave of relief and happiness went through the crew. They could not bring her back as of yet, but they were already much closer than they were before. "Okay. What's Lollybroch?" Nami asked, bending over to look Usopp in the eyes.

After a couple breaths, he spoke again. "On the other side of the island. Apparently it's teeming with ships so we can't miss it. We have to go now."

Nami hesitated. "We can't. It's too dark out. We could hit a reef if we tried."

"But she's out there all by herself," Luffy disputed.

"I know that," Nami concurred. "But it's too risky. We'll have to leave at first light."

Nobody said anything for a moment, but then Zoro spoke up. "Then we leave at first light. Everyone get sleep."

They all looked to him in surprise. Zoro was not one to give orders for the most part. But the truth was he felt responsible for all this. Getting Aurilee back was important. And if he had to row the Going Merry as she sailed to get to Lollybroch faster, he would not complain.