Flaming Wings

Part 10

     With the disappearance of Sak a few of the Whitebeard crew decided to go looking for the now large black bird. They started by going to the village to see if any of them had caught a glimpse of the bird.

Ace found himself sitting outside the little tavern the villagers had maintained. No one in the tavern had seen Sak, or they said there were too many birds like that to count. Ace let out a sigh.

"You know," a young girl said approaching Ace "most of the Phoenixes hang around Burning Pyre. That's probably where your guy went".

When Ace picked his head up to look at her the girl was twirling a strand of curly brown hair between her tanned fingers. He smiled at her "Well thank you for the information. I'll just have to check there, but uh where would that be?"

The little girl was shyly returning Ace's smile when she replied "Burning Pyre is at the center of the island. It's not hard to get there if you take the right path, but you have to be careful of the forest since everything is on fire".

"Heats no problem for me," Ace said making sure to show off his devil fruit power by lightning the tips of his fingers on fire, and showing them to the young girl. She was in awe of the flames protruding from the stranger's hand. "So how would I get there. Which path is it?"

The young girl pulled herself out of her amazement "Oh um well I don't know. My older sister does though, so she could tell you! I'll get her!" The girl ran off calling out her sister's name. "Nesreen! Nesreen!"

Ace had to wait a while, but eventually the girl came back with a taller girl by her side. "This is my sister Nesreen! She knows how to get to Burning Pyre! Right Nesreen? Right?"

The older girl looked annoyed by her little sister's shouting. "I do, and I suppose I can take you there if you want" Nesreen said putting on a friendlier face.

"I'll take you up on that. Some of the other guys from the crew will be coming too".

The curls in Nesreen's black hair bounced lightly as she nodded. "Now Yusra please tell mom I'll be home later than expected, okay?"

Yusra nodded and happily ran off to oblige her sister's request.

Turning around to see the strange pirate Nesreen was met with a small group. "I'm guessing this is the rest of your group. My name's Nesreen" she smiled with her arms crossed.

"I'm Ace".

Letting her arms fall loosely to her side with a grin Nesreen turned to face the burning forest north of the village. "Let's go,".