In the middle of the Calm Belt, where no air currents reach, there was a house made of clouds in the sky.
"Some Phoenixes like me have the ability to create clouds. The ones i did for the house aren't solid like some you might find in the Grand Line, so only other phoenixes can walk on them," Palila explained. "Since they are normal clouds, every so often we have to make a new House and move things around. But maybe in the future, I'll make it out of solid clouds."
Garp knew about this ability; he wasn't a veteran for nothing. He thought the safest place in the world was where no one else could walk. Besides, being in the Calm Belt was a great advantage due to the lack of currents.
"Can we do it too?!" Luffy asked, moving around everywhere. "It's possible, we just have to wait for you to grow a bit more," Palila said.
"We're in our human form, but how do we become phoenixes again?" Sabo asked.
After falling back into a deep sleep, the three woke up in their human forms again. Since then, they haven't been able to change between forms. "We'll figure it out, together," Palila affirmed.
Consequently, the children started their new life among the clouds, where their mother told them stories of the great Captain Prince, the boy who never grew up. These stories helped them cope with the nightmares that haunted them since the destruction of Dawn Island.
Finally, after much effort, they managed to access their Phoenix forms. That's why Palila decided it was time for them to learn how to fly. To the surprise of his brothers, this put Ace in a slight panic.
"Is the baby afraid of flying?" Sabo teased.
"In your dreams! I'm more afraid of knowing that you two," Ace pointed at his brothers, "will probably kill yourselves in the attempt."
"Ace is afraid of flying, shishishi," Luffy laughed.
Ace punched him on the head.
"Ace, don't hit your brother!" Palila scolded him.
"It's his fault for being so annoying!" Ace responded back.
Despite the denials, Sabo was right; Ace was indeed afraid, but not of flying. It was of heights.
In the end, he decided to give it a try. It shouldn't be that hard, they wouldn't go far from the cloud. If anything, they would fall on it and not into the abyss. But even so, Luffy flew before he did.
"Keep it up, Luffy, and soon there will be something where you surpass Ace," Sabo commented, laughing.
"Don't get depressed, Ace," Palila approached Ace. "Do you remember the last adventure I told you about?"
"Yes," Ace replied.
"Then, you know exactly what to do..." Palila smiled at him.
With that, Ace approached his brothers while remembering Prince's latest adventure. This time, Prince was losing, he had to act quickly, or this could be his end.
— Do you really think I want to win this way? — complained Jonathan Black, the black knight, with venom on his tongue.
— You're holding back out of the shame you have for your true nature. Just look at yourself, you keep using that patch to hide what you and I both know you really are…— Jonathan declared, preparing to attack.
—Shut up!— Prince shouted, —Water Fist!— His fist surrounded itself with water. With this, he gave a direct attack to Jonathan, sending him crashing. Before he could get up, Prince jumped on top of him and cut off his hand with his dagger. — It's over, Jon…— Prince declared, as his skin became scaly and his patch fell to the ground.
— You really are a monster…— Jonathan said upon seeing Prince in his fish-man form. — A malformed fish, an abominable and horrendous child,— Jonathan finished while trying to catch his breath. But he couldn't finish recovering it because Prince had stood up and was now stomping on his chest forcefully. —Then tell me, do you know what monsters do?— Prince asked while lifting Jonathan's hand.
Jonathan's eyes widened in surprise as he watched Prince devour his hand in one bite. — They eat their prey,— Prince declared while his instincts roared with thirst for revenge, overshadowing the fear. The only thing on his mind was protecting his friends at any cost. His conviction alone was more than enough to face that latent fear.
"Ace is flying!" Ace took off after several attempts, thinking only of one thing, to protect. To protect his family, he must become stronger. He can't let what happened on Dawn Island happen again. He finally found something to overshadow the fear and took flight.
Maybe the stories about Prince were nothing more than tales to convey a message. But even so, they were his mother's way of helping them.
Just as Prince overcame his fear of being judged for what he is in order to save what he loves most, Ace also overcame his fear.