Chapter 4: Cloud Village

„Luffy, please stay away from the lake! We don't know what might be in there!" Alice called out in a worried tone as Luffy leaned dangerously over the water.

Luffy extended his hand into the lake, reaching down to a certain depth, and muttered something under his breath. Suddenly, he pulled his hand back with a quick jerk, causing a splash as a fairly large, blue fish jumped out of the water into his hand.

"A fish? I had no idea there were fish in this lake!" exclaimed Mikey in surprise.

"Fantastic! We can use it for food!" Luffy said excitedly.

"But how do we cook it? I've never cooked meat before..." Alice started to express her concerns.

Alice was reminded of her conversation with Luffy in Silent Village about her not eating meat before.

"Don't worry, I'll make you the best meal you've ever eaten!" Luffy exclaimed, tossing the fish over his shoulder.

Mikey sighed, knowing that Luffy's cooking would likely end in disaster. "This probably won't turn out well."

Luffy in the kitchen was always a recipe for chaos. Alice and Alfredo never let him cook for a reason - he was more likely to set himself on fire than actually cook something edible. Alice could already envision herself having to swoop in and rescue him.

"Luffy, this is a bad idea. And where are you planning to cook this fish anyway? We don't have any supplies," Alice tried to reason with him.

But Luffy was already off and running, a determined grin on his face. "I know just where to fry this fish!" he declared, dodging obstacles in his path.

Alice and Mikey hurried to catch up, wondering what crazy plan Luffy had come up with this time. Looking up, Alice spotted smoke in the distance. Smoke?

„Alice! He's running towards someone's campfire!" Mikey exclaimed.

„Don't even say that, Mikey!" Alice replied.

But Mikey was right; not far away, someone had a bonfire. When Alice and Mikey reached the source of the smoke, they saw four mysterious figures sitting around the fire. One figure resembled a female hippo, another a male zebra, and the third a giraffe. And the fourth person was none other than Luffy himself.

"They don't seem like a threat. If they had wanted to attack us, they could have done it already," Alice reassured Mikey.

Indeed, the group did not seem hostile at all, as they were casually chatting with Luffy when Alice and Mikey approached them.

"Hey Alice, Mikey! We're going to fry some fish!" Luffy called out to his friends as they joined the group by the fire. The clouds of mist still surrounded them, and the landscape seemed almost magical, with vibrant colors and exotic plants.

Luffy continued speaking, not missing a beat. "These are the friends I told you about. We're all heading to queen together." It was as if Luffy trusted these strangers implicitly, without hesitation.

"Luffy should not tell them where we are going!" Alice said loudly with disapproval.

"Relax, we don't intend to harm. We are simply curious about human beings!" Mr. Zebra said enthusiastically. "My name is Toby, and our friend here," he pointed at Giraffe, "His name is Leo..."

"And I am Sicilia! Nice to meet you, dearies!" Mrs. Hippopotamus with a large sun hat suddenly interjected.

"That's right. We heard that you are hungry, my dear. Come sit with us, we have enough food for everyone by the bonfire," Mrs. Hippopotamus said in a warm, motherly tone.

Alice was taken aback by the kind words of the lady hippopotamus. It was so different from Alfred, yet there was a comforting familiarity about it. It was her aura that made Alice uneasy, not trusting them completely.

Alice sat under the shade of the tree, with little Mikey on her lap. Luffy awkwardly attempted to fry fish and ended up burning it. Alice smiled as she watched them try to cook, imagining Luffy running away with food in hand instead.

"Luffy, dear! Let me see your hand. Mrs. Sicilia will take care of it," Mrs. Sicilia said, noticing a wound on Luffy's hand.

"But I'm okay!" Luffy began to protest.

"Don't try to hide it. Mrs. Sicilia can see everything. Don't worry, just give me your hand, I'II be gentle." she insisted, gently taking Luffy's hand in hers.

Mikey laughed. "Finally, someone can set Luffy straight and make him obey for a while."

"Mikey, you bastard! Laugh while you can; I'll get to you in a moment." Luffy was struggling, but Mrs. Sicilia held him firmly and bandaged his arm. Mikey laughed even more and his round body rolled around in Alice's lap.

"Come on, Luffy, honey, don't fidget like that," Mrs. Sicilia smiled.

Mikey stuck his tongue out at Luffy, and Alice laughed. The atmosphere around the campfire was very pleasant, different from the constant alertness they usually had to maintain since they never knew where an enemy or threat might come from.

"Is it true that you humans have short lives?" Mr. Leo suddenly asked, roasting something resembling a red vegetable over the fire, which was already turning dark and fried. His question surprised Alice. Looking at Luffy, she could actually believe that someone like him might have a short lifespan, given his constant recklessness.

"There is no particular age to which we live. Those who live long may reach 100, maybe a little more, but not much longer," Luffy said thoughtfully, eating his fried fish.

"Only a hundred years?" Mr. Zebra and Mr. Giraffe whispered in surprise.

"I told you that humans are very delicate creatures!" Lady Hippopotamus suddenly whispered, releasing Luffy from her tight embrace.

"We don't actually die at all," said Mr. Toby, crossing his hooves.

"Well, I heard you guys can live a long time," Alice started. She remembered how Alfred had told her a long time ago that he had lived for a very long time and had stopped even counting. Alice herself didn't know how long humans lived until Luffy told them now. First of all, Alfred didn't tell her that she was human, and secondly, maybe he didn't even know how long a human lives. So do people here live forever or what? How is this possible? "But how do you live so long?"

"None of us knows why we live so long. In fact, we don't even have a concept of time, but we don't mind. Look at this beautiful land around us. Life here is magical and peaceful," Toby says, feeling relaxed.

Alice understood them a little; living in such a paradise sounded really good, but living forever? Not necessarily. She wouldn't want to be immortal herself. Something didn't seem right here, if Luffy was saying that humans don't actually naturally live that long...

"So we don't come from here," Alice suddenly stammered, stating a fact.

"It is obvious," Mr. Leo nodded as he continued. "We don't know how you humans arrived here, but this land is clearly not meant for humans. You come from another world." He chuckled with amusement, but Alice did not find it funny.

Alice should have guessed. Everything seemed strange to her, and now it was as if all the missing puzzle pieces had come together. So when she was little, she went to this magical land and she didn't even know why and she lost all memory of her past. Which is what Luffy has now.

"So I lost my memory when I got to your strange world," Luffy said suddenly, swallowing his food. "That makes sense." Alice was surprised that Luffy was listening to the conversation, and even more surprised that he understood the meaning of it.

"Yes," Alice confirmed immediately. "Now there's no answer to what happened to the humans who ended up here earlier."

"Yes, there were more people here, although we saw few ourselves, unfortunately," Mr. Zebra said sadly.

"There were those who were afraid of us! Some of them went ahead, wandered around this world, or eventually found their way to the queen, who probably took care of them," Mrs. Sicilia replied suddenly.

"Although we hope to see you again! We are sad when humans we met disappear without a reason!" Mr. Zebra beamed and stood up from his stump, stretching his legs. "Well, there's no point in guessing, you have to go back home."

"Dear children, take some food with you!" Mrs. Sicilia handed them the wicker basket of food she had with her.

"Oh my gosh, thanks, Mrs. Hippopotamus!" Luffy's eyes lit up when he saw the basket full of food.

"Be careful," said Mr. Giraffe, extinguishing the remains of the fire. "You still have a long way to go."

They bid farewell and began to walk back to their village, Alice presumed.

"I listened calmly to your conversation and realized something," Mikey said suddenly after a moment of silence. "What if all of them who aren't human, including me, were once human?"

Alice went numb upon hearing Mikey. They couldn't help but entertain this possibility, but she also hoped it wasn't true. If this were true, it would mean that even Alfredo was human. But according to Luffy's statements, humans only live for about 100 years, and that's why many things do not add up.

"It's not possible for people to suddenly become different beings and live forever," Alice voiced her thoughts.

"Let's remember that this realm probably has a slightly different logic and physics. People who come here may also live longer? We don't know," Mikey replied.

"Well, the food is good, you have to admit," Luffy suddenly blurted out, completely breaking their train of thought with his irrelevant observation.

"You're talking completely off-topic!" Alice shouted.

"We'll just have to talk to the other weirdos and find out more. Each of them says something different," Luffy shrugged.

On the one hand, he was right. In fact, every person here knows more or less, but not everyone will be so nice and sympathetic to them. Alice had the impression that the further they went, the less they could trust the people here.

"I think that we should approach subsequent residents carefully and sometimes eavesdrop first to secretly obtain information," Mikey suggested, looking pointedly at Luffy as if he were an obstacle.

"Hey, don't look at me like that! They seemed nice, so I approached them," Luffy explained.

"You don't really know who's good and who's not!" Alice said immediately.

Luffy suddenly looked at her, slightly frozen, as if he remembered something.

The man with the hand that turned into a hellish hand. He would even say lava. The very appearance of this person made Luffy's veins want to burst. This man wanted to attack him, but before he could do so... his fist pierced through the chest of an older young man... the man smiled at him. Who is he? Luffy felt a pain in his heart that he didn't understand. For a moment he thought that he wished the memory hadn't come to him. Maybe it's better that he doesn't know who he is? Luffy knows one thing, he will definitely recognize a bad person, and that person is a person with a lava-like fist.

Ace!

He heard someone scream. Ace. Who is Ace...?

"Luffy!" He heard Alice's voice, which jolted him from his strange memories. "Is something wrong, Luffy? I'm sorry if..." Alice looked at him worriedly. Maybe she overdid it? Luffy had never looked so... confused and strangely sad as he did just now. Did she make him remember something unpleasant?

Luffy suddenly smiled.

"Sorry, I was just thinking. Shall we go further? I'm very excited to see what we find next!"

Luffy started walking forward with a smile and heard the footsteps of his companions behind him. But when his face was already out of their sight, Luffy's smile disappeared, and his face expressed anger—anger that he did not understand. But soon, soon everything would come back to him... and the face of the man named Ace occupied his mind like a tapeworm.

"Madam! We found a man in the land of Firefall," said the tall, wolf-like servant of the kingdom. Meanwhile, a lizard-like servant Zoran stood patiently next to the queen's throne.

The queen, dressed in her wide red and gold dress, had a face that was not young, but her shoulder-length white hair shone. Her dark brown eyes looked at the man—a boy with blond hair, tall and brave-looking. His face showed anger, and the wrinkles on his forehead indicated his confusion and alertness. Well, she had met a lot of humans in her life, and each of them was special in their own way. A little fun wouldn't hurt her.

"Hello, young man! I am Queen Isabell, and I help people like you," the queen said, spreading her hands friendly.

"I don't believe you. I've heard stories. I know very well that I don't belong here," the blond man said immediately.

The queen smiled. "Your name is Tony, right? Well, I know people don't come from here. That's why I'm helping them get back to their world. All you have to do is—"

"Stop screwing around!" Tony interrupted her with a shout. "No one here goes back to their world. Tell me the truth, what did you do to Emily?"

"Ah, Emily…" the queen began. "I guess it's obvious. Emily is home. Where she belongs." For a moment, it seemed to Tony that the queen's answer actually had a different meaning.

"Emily promised we would get back together. She wouldn't do it without me. You must have forced her to do something!" It was true. He and his friend Emily, whom he met in one of the lands, promised each other that if they found a way to return to their world, they would go together. But the queen's subordinate took Emily away, and before he knew it, Emily had never returned. So he allowed himself to be taken to the palace by the queen's men to find her.

"You humans are often skeptical and distrustful." The queen sighed dramatically and stood up from her throne. "And I just want to help you."

"If you don't believe me, come with me. Emily left a letter for you, addressed to you," the queen said suddenly, walking towards the door leading out of the hall. "Just you and me," she said firmly to her subordinates. Tony looked at her warily and followed the queen. When she saw Tony obediently following her through the halls, she smiled, and her smile wasn't sweet, but dark.

After their last successful conversation with the librarian, the Straw Hat Crew wasted no time in setting off to search for the fairy tale author's home island. They were eager to find him and learn more about the mysterious land. Despite some skepticism from a few members, they had no better plan at the moment. Finally, after navigating through a heavy storm with hail and downpours - typical weather events in the Grand Line waters - they arrived at the island.

"We have to split up," Nami said. "This guy could be anywhere; we have to find him as soon as possible."

"I will stay on the ship with Luffy to monitor his condition!" Chopper probably said and the crew nodded.

"I hope you mean splitting into at least two people…" Usopp began hesitantly. Nami looked at Usopp with irritation and divided them into groups:

"Nami, Zoro, Franky."

"Robin, Sanji, Usopp, Brook."

"This is what our groups will look like," she said with satisfaction.

"Robin-chan! I will protect you at all costs! And you have to make sure that Nami-chan does not lose a single hair!" said Sanji.

"You won't tell me what to do, Cook," Zoro replied to him.

"Huh, who are you talking to, Mosshead?"

"I was talking to you, Nosebleed-kun!"

"What did you call me, Marimo? You better watch your blunt swords." Sanji walked up to Zoro in annoyance.

"What did you say? Do you want to see my swords up close?" Zoro was practically bumping foreheads with Sanji.

Nami walked up and hit them both on the head. "We don't have time for your bickering! Get your asses out there and start searching!"

...

"We've asked various residents and still found nothing! This man is an enigma," Usopp said.

"Maybe he changed his identity?" Robin suggested with a smile.

"The most important thing is that we find him first before Mosshead does," Sanji stated, a cigarette in his hand.

"Ohohoho, I see a pub ahead. Maybe it's worth asking there?" suggested Brook, and the others did not protest.

...

"His family house is not far from here. But I don't know if it will help you because the house has been empty for some time," said an elderly resident of the island.

"Well, even if it's empty, we can go there. Maybe he comes back sometimes and leaves something behind," Franky said.

"You're right, Franky, we have to try," says Nami.

A moment later.

A few meters in front of them, on the outskirts of the village, stood a wooden house.

"Oi, why are you telling us to go first?" Zoro asked irritably. Franky laughed next to him, enjoying the situation. "I don't mind," says Franky.

"I guess it's obvious! You're stronger," Nami said loudly, shrugging her shoulders dismissively. They are men, they can go first. What if something attacks her unexpectedly or drags her into the house? It's not that she completely dismisses Usopp's concerns about this guy!

"You just want to use us as bait!" Zoro said confidently.

"Not at all!" Nami shouted.

...

"He comes back to our bar often. He's still wearing a white research coat. He looks like a doctor or a scientist," the bartender said simply, cleaning the glass in his hand. "Who would have thought that someone like him would write such a good children's bestseller," laughed the bartender.

"If the guy turned out to be a doctor, Chopper would like it," Sanji stated as he lit another cigarette.

"Maybe he's exploring his dreams or that land he wrote about in the book?" Robin rested her head in her hands with a thoughtful smile.

"I thought about that too," Sanji replied.

"Oh, great! Another scientist. We've already dealt with one," Usopp stammered, placing his head dramatically on the counter, remembering the abnormal scientist Caesar Clown.

Brook looked at the woman sitting next to him and began to speak. "If you're sitting next to me, miss, maybe you could show me your..." Sanji hit Brook on the head with his foot and immediately walked up to the woman, "Please, don't pay attention to this impervious person. Instead, my beautiful lady, I will gladly tell you about my amazing cooking skills..." Robin just giggled at the situation unfolding before her.

...

"This house is incredibly clean! He definitely comes here and maybe even lives here!" Nami said confidently, looking at the various drawings lying on the table.

"This guy is not just an ordinary guy as we thought. Looking at his writings and drawings, he really seems like he's into something special," said Nami, holding one of the drawings, or rather a sketch of some machine?

"It appears to be some sort of project," said Franky, who occasionally creates small sketches, descriptions, and designs for his inventions.

Meanwhile, Zoro sat down against one of the walls, cross-legged, and closed his eyes, trying to sleep. Nami looked at him irritably and shook her head, saying there was no point in getting angry now.

"If his drawings are here, he will definitely come back," Franky said suddenly and started walking around the house, looking for hidden rooms. Nami did the same, while Zoro continued to sleep peacefully against the wall.

They walked forward and came across a strange-looking, almost heavenly town. Some houses were on clouds, or on strange large stems growing out of the ground. They looked like giant beanstalks reaching towards the sky and rising between the soft clouds. The sign outside the town read 'Cloud Village'.

Luffy, who had seemed strangely absent most of the way, beamed.

From a distance, it was visible that some of the inhabitants were flying with their small wings. His attention was caught by a tall woman with bee-like wings.

"Miss Bianca, do you have today's delivery of white honey for me?" asked a man who looked like a large, pale bull.

"Of course! Nothing will be missing," Mrs. Bianca said with a smile.

"White honey? What's that?" A young man approached them with a questioning look.

"I don't recognize your face. Are you new here, boy? I'd love to let you taste my honey!" Lady Bee opened a jar of white honey and gave it to him. Luffy eagerly dipped his fingers in it and then brought them to his mouth. His eyes widened, and his face lit up.

"Damn, this is great! I've never eaten anything like this!" Luffy said enthusiastically.

"Luffy!" Alice and Mikey shouted, running toward him. When they arrived, Alice stopped and tried to catch her breath.

"Luffy? Is that Luffy?" Lady Bee raised an eyebrow.

"So everyone here knows about him too?" Alice sighed.

"Of course. We often hear news and information from the palace. We don't know why the queen is looking for you, but it's not our job to take you there." Mrs. Bianca smiled. "What matters to me is potential future clients, and this young Mr. Luffy looks like he's keen!"

"But we don't have money!" Mikey said.

"But that's no problem. In our world, we exchange whatever we can offer." Mrs. Bianca said proudly, her transparent bee wings fluttering. "If Mr. Luffy does me a favor or finds something we can trade for, I will give him my honey in return! That's how it works."

"Really? What can I do for you then?" Luffy said eagerly, motivated by the thought of having more jars of this wonderful honey. This honey is like a drug to him. He can't help but constantly need to eat more of it.

"It so happens that I need a man's hand to transport some things! You see, I'm a lady, and carrying heavy loads is not good for me. In exchange for that, I will give you a few jars of my precious honey, Mr. Luffy."

"Deal!" Luffy exclaimed with a smile.

Alice looked at him in disbelief. "Luffy, we don't have time for this! What if the queen's subordinates find us here!?" Alice whispered nervously into his ear so only he could hear her. Luffy raised an eyebrow and turned towards her, his face close to hers.

"Then let them come. I have already decided that we will reach the queen on our own. We don't need their help and furthermore, they will not escort us there forcibly." He smiled and grabbed Alice by the shoulders. "If we're already here, let's take advantage of it a bit, and if anyone gives us trouble, I'll take care of them."

How could Luffy be so confident? When she looked into his eyes, she saw the courage, the energy that infected her, in which she immersed herself. Could she believe him? In fact, she is here with him now, and they have already arrived here so far. So she really trusted him and believed in his strength. Some time ago, when they were running away from the two guardians of the kingdom, the lion and the rhinoceros, Luffy made them understand that he would not go with them. So this is what he meant? He wants to go to the queen with them and... along the way, get to know the world and its inhabitants.

"Somewhere, my friends are in this other world. I realized it after talking to Mr. Leo, Mr. Toby, and Mrs. Sicilia at the bonfire. And if they know I'm here somewhere, they'll look for me, and when I get more memories, I'll know what to do." Then he looked at the town. "But until then, let's enjoy the good things here together." He smiled widely.

Luffy moved closer to her ear and whispered, "Maybe I'll give you one jar of honey."

Alice went numb for a moment at the sudden closeness. Then, she looked at him with irritation.

"What do you mean, just one jar? What about the rest?" she asked, crossing her arms.

"I'll eat the rest!" Luffy replied, as if it were obvious.

"What if I want two jars?" Alice challenged.

"I won't give you two! We're friends, but this honey is heavenly!" Luffy exclaimed.

"What did you say? I'll show you what's what!" Alice started chasing him around, and Luffy just laughed. Mikey watched them, holding his head in his hands, but he couldn't help but smile.

"Alice, don't be like that! I cooked fried fish for you today!" Luffy tried to explain, dodging Alice's attempts to get him.

"Are you talking about the burnt fish from the fire that you were supposed to fry for us?" Alice laughed.

"It wasn't burnt!" Luffy insisted.

"It was," Mikey chimed in.

"Mikey, you're not helping!" Luffy shouted as Alice almost caught up to him.

Meanwhile, the various residents of Cloud Village watched the crazy antics of their group.

Among them, there was a figure hidden among the crowd who may not have had good intentions towards them.