Chains That Bind Us |One Piece

Sky Island 3

Before the crew stood a man claiming to be a knight, after stopping the attack from the unknown bull man that attacked for no real reason. "He's retreated." This had been noted by the old knight as the attacker was nowhere to be seen now.
"What's going on here? Just who was that?" Nami was firing question after question. "And what's more..." but soon her sights fell onto the three useless males that were taken out in seconds. They were all breathing heavily once again for some reason. "What's wrong with you guys? That was pathetic! All three of you together couldn't handle him!" She was shouting this to them.
"Thank you for helping us!" At the same time, Chopper was bowing respectfully to the old knight in appreciation.
"No need for thanks. This is a service." Had been his response after turning around.
"Dammit... I'm disappointed." This was said by Sanji who was speaking of himself.
"Somehow, my body... won't move that well." Luffy explained to why they were unable to fight. Though he didn't understand why.
"It must be because the air's so thin." The one that spoke had been Robin as she was looking over to the three of them.
"Yeah, now that I think about it..." Zoro seemed to be in agreement with her.
"But I don't feel any different." As Lián stated this to Jián while as she jumped up and down, her breathing not changing.
"It's because of that." He responded to her with this, even though it didn't help.
"Oh, makes sense!" But it appeared that she understood what 'that' he was talking about.
"Are you Blue Sea dwellers?" All their attentions turned to the old knight who asked. He began walking up to the stairs of the bow deck.
"Blue Sea dwellers? What do you mean?" His question had been replied with one instead of an answer. "Oh yeah, who are you?" But soon the original question had been repeated.
"I am the Knight of the Sky." He had repeated the answer he gave before. "'Blue Sea dwellers' is the general term for those who live beneath the clouds." Then the answer to Nami's question had been given to explain the meaning.
"Knight of the Sky?" Chopper seemed confused repeating.
"So, I presume that you traveled up from the Blue Sea." However, the old knight continued as he asked this to the crew.
"Yeah, that's right." Which Luffy answered him.
"This this is no surprise. This is the White Sea, 7,000 meters above your Blue Sea. Furthermore, above this sea is the White-White Sea, 10,000 meters above your own. Ordinary Blue Sea dweller' bodies cannot handle it." This had all been explained as the old knight was sitting on the inner railing, looking down at the crew on the deck below.
"Yosh, I think I'm getting used to it!" But then Luffy began hitting his chest as he was speaking.
"Yeah, I feel a lot better than before." And it appeared that Zoro was saying the same thing, still breathing a bit heavily then normal.
"No, no, no, no, no, that's not possible." Though the Sky Knight seemed to disagree with them since that wasn't normal.
"I have to know! How was that guy running on top of the clouds?" Chopper wanted to know this, since the clouds were like water up here so it shouldn't be possible.
"Yield, yield, yield. I am certain you have many questions for me, but first we must talk of business." Although the Knight appeared to have something else he wanted.
"Business?" Nami seemed confused at what he meant by this.
"I am a free mercenary. And this is a sea of many dangers. Since you know not the battle of the sky, you will be easy targets for the guerillas or the Skyfish." He was explaining to them. "One whistle and I will rescue you for a price of 5,000,000 extols." However, hearing this part only caused everyone to either look at him side ways or in confusion as they didn't know what he was talking about.
"What're you talking about, Ossan?" Luffy came to ask, since he didn't understand.
"You fool! It is a small price to pay!" Which only sent the Knight into panic for some reason. "I will not take on extol less! I have to make a living, you know!"
"What are Extols? And what about a whistle?" Lián turned to the left, where her brother stood.
"How would I know?" Which had been his response.
"You mean you did not come by way of the High West?" The old knight looked at them with wide eyes, as he was in shock at the fact that they didn't know about extols. "You you must have at least stopped by one or two islands!"
"C'mon, what're you talking about, Ossan?" Luffy repeated the question, as to them the old man wasn't making any sense.
"Hold on! You mean there are other ways to get to this sky sea?" Nami appeared to have gotten something from listening as she asked this. "And one or two islands? You mean there's more than one Sky Island?"
"You mean that you—" The Knight began realising that...
"We rode the Knock-Up Stream here." Robin clarified what the man was getting to.
"Riding that monstrous current?" It was then that the Knight was in shock. "To think there are still souls brave enough to dare to do that..."
"Yeah, it was fun!" Lián gave the answer with excitement. "I want to do it again!"
"You're the only one." Which had been followed by Jián stating this, arms crossed.
"I knew it wasn't a normal route!" On the other hand, Nami was in tears after hearing this. "I THOUGHT WE WERE GONNA DIE! IF WE'D GATHERED MORE INFORMATION WE WOULD'VE HAD AN EASIER TRIP!!" The tears turned to rage as she had Luffy by his shirt and shaking him while shouting.
"We're here now! It's all good!" He wasn't fighting back.
"IT'S ALL YOUR FAULT!"
"Have you lost any of your crew?" The Knight had spoken up to ask this question.
"Nope, we all made it!" Luffy turned to him, still gripped by the shirt, answering.
"The other routes would have been so merciful. If you had brought 100 people, it would be a gamble as to how many would survive.but by using the Knock-Up Stream, either you all die or you all survive." This was then explained to the lot of them. "There are few left willing to risk losing everything. Especially in recent years.  I have great respect for your brave and trustworthy navigators." Nami seemed a bit surprised by his words, but before she could say anything in response...
"Well, it was the course I picked, after all!" Usopp seemed to have recovered from his shock.
"When did he recover?" Lián was asking as she was looking over to Usopp.
"Who knows with these weirdos." Which had been Jián's answer to it.
"At the time, these guys were crying and had given up on their lives, but I told them—" His cheek being grabbed by Nami. "'I'm the navigator!"
"Hey!" She felt annoyed that he was stealing her title and credit.
"One whistle means blowing sharply into this." Sky Knight moved onto the question about the whistle he spoke of, which he was holding out in front before tossing it down onto the deck. "I will descend from Heaven itself to lend you aid. I normally ask 5,000,000 extols for future visits, but I shall give you one whistle as a present." He had come to stand up as he was speaking.
"Wait! We don't even know your name!" But Nami called out to him/
"I am the Knight of the Sky, Gan Fall! And this is my partner, Pierre!" He finally gave his name to the crew, along with the large bird at his side. "I should have mentioned that my partner, Pierre..." the bird was beginning to shift shape out of nowhere. "...is a bird who has eaten and gained the ability of the Uma Uma Fruit." (Uma-Horse) the crew was looking on his shock as they were watching the bird transforming. "Meaning, he can become a winged horse! Namely..."
"Oh my! How wonderfull! A Pegasus?" Nami's eyes began sparkling.
"Yes, a Pegasus!"
"That's... questionable." However, expectation and reality didn't match in the slightest.
"Brave souls, may luck be with you!" And with that being said the Knight began flying off on his... disturbing creature.
"Well that was certainly strange..." that had be the only thing Sanji could say as they watched.
"And by the way... was there any point to it transforming?" Had been the Question asked as it was already a large bird cable of carrying a person.
"Dunno..." No one had the answer to that since they were all still in shock or stun by the appearance of the creature.
"In the end... he didn't really tell us much." Robin stated this fact, since knew even less then before.
"That's true. In fact we know even less now." Jián came to say as he picked up the whistle. "We only know that if we blow this, he'll come back."
"How are we gonna get higher?" Zoro wanted to know the answer as the Log was still pointing up.
"Yosh! I'll call that Ossan and ask him!" Luffy ripped the whistle out from Jián's hand and was about to blow it.
"W-W-W-W-W-Whoa, hold it Luffy!" If Nami and Usopp had grabbed ahold of his face, neck and arm to stop him. "That's only to ask for help in an emergency!" The navigator was shouting at him.
"What if that weirdo in the mask shows up again!?" This question came from Usopp.
"Anyway, let's move the ship somewhere." Zoro told the others, but the question eouod be where, until...
"Hey, look over there!" Chopper shouted to the others, as he was looking over the metal brackets.
"I wonder what that is." Robin moved to be standing behind him.
"Whatever it is, it looks weird." Lián had kneeled beside the doctor. "Waterfall made of cloud."
"Yosh, that's that then. We'll go over there." It seemed that this had caused the swordsman to decide where they were heading. Soon Merry's course changed after turning the helm and they began heading towards the Waterfall like thing.