Free Heart

Ch 77 - I am Still So Scared

Emmy and Nami stood in front of a familiar scene that perplexed them nonetheless. The waver swayed against the moving ocean clouds beneath their feet but the navigator kept it balanced as they took in the sight of an island.

Lush, green trees dominated the land with it's thick roots sprouting out from the ground and it's branches and leaves knitted to each other, making it hard for the pirates to see anything past the first few trees. By any accounts, it was a sight they've come across frequently. For the first mate, she knew that Mount Colubo had a dense forest much like this one and so did the one in Jaya, just neither of them had one so tall. Since the navigator was the more well-travelled of the two, it was safe to think that she was familiar with this type of terrain too.

However, what truly baffled the pair was that this island was situated in the sky as if it had been plucked right up from the Blue Sea and dropped into the clouds.

While everyone else had retreated to Pagaya and Conis' house for a meal, Nami and Emmy had continued riding the waver and exploring the ocean clouds surrounding Angel Beach. With every passing minute, the navigator gained more and more confidence in maneuvering the vehicle. That is how they had found themselves out of sight from Angel Beach and in front of this curiously placed island.

"So the sky island has ground too..." Nami whispered.

"These trees are huge," Emmy added, "They're taller than any building in Fusha Village and thicker than even Merry-san's mast."

"How old are these trees? Several hundred years?" Nami wondered.

"There's no doubt about it. The treasure should definitely be here."

The pirates looked around them to find the source of the echoey voice but they spotted no one.

"An extraordinary treasure is here. We're very close. It's almost to our grasp. The treasure is close by! Hurry up!"

"It came from over there," Nami said as she revved up the waver and pulled around the island into a small cove. They found a broken down boat that had deep claw marks along it's wooden sides and scorch marks over it's torn cloth canopy.

Nami stayed on the waver while Emmy hopped onto the boat and looked around.

Click!

"There's no doubt about it. The treasure should definitely be here."

Emmy spun around to see a green bird flying off of a spiral seashell with the echoey voice emerging from the opening at its end. The shell was about the size of a halved coconut and weighed the same as well.

"An extraordinary treasure is here. We're very close. It's almost to our grasp. The treasure is close by! Hurry up!"

"The seashell is talking!" Emmy gasped. She picked it up just as the apex of the shell popped up with another Click!

She went over to Nami and showed her the shell.

"This is a seashell, right? There's no way there's a human in here, right?" Nami asked nervously.

"Could...a Transponder Snail switch shells?" Emmy asked but then she shook her head, "But I don't feel anything in this...There's nothing in here..."

Kaboom!

"Eh?" Emmy turned to face the island. Flocks of blackbirds shot out from the leaves and flew away as far and as fast as they could.

"We can experiment with the shell later. Get back on the waver," Nami said.

Emmy got onto the waver and she held the seashell with one hand while hooking her arm around Nami's waist with the other. The leaves from some nearby trees began to rustle and Emmy sucked in a breath.