"Let me go!!! Let me go!!! I don't wanna be here anymore!!!"
The girl struggled in the man's grip, his hand clutching her scrawny arms that wrestled to get away. The man dragged the girl in her dirty clothes down the metals halls. Her legs scraping the sides of the walls. With a loud Clang a door swung open to two people in white lab coats. Their lab goggles gleamed in the bright light from the middle of the room. Their faces curled into a painful looking grin. The two were different in looks entirely. One was super tall as he loomed over the man dragging the girl. While the other was shorter in his stance as he held a clipboard. But their smiles were everything but the same.
Twisted.
"Bring the girl to the table. We don't have all day!" The shorter man hissed, annoyed, as if he was waiting in line forever for some brand new trinket. The man gripping the scrawny girl, slung her onto the table, locking her in the shackles the table presented. The girl's body jerked upwards as one of the scientists poked one of their needles into her wrist.
"Leave me alone! I didn't do anything!" The girl screamed desperately as she tried to reach forward with her arms, but to her shackles she couldn't even budge it.
"Caesar, shut her up." The short doctor barked out, scratching down notes as the girl was gagged.
"Don't worry, this won't hurt, though I couldn't care less, if it hurt, we just need you alive." The short one looked up and stuck another needle in the girl's collar. Hot wet tears streamed down her face in fear of what they were going to do to her.
The girl's consciousness faded in and out as time went by, the torturing kept going. They wouldn't stop until one day, they had given a artificial Devil Fruit to the girl. At this point the girl had given up on calling for help.. What's the point? All she would receive was a beating instead.
Once she had eaten the Devil Fruit, she was shoved back into her cage to wait out the days.
It wasn't that bad as she had some people next to her to chat too. One of them was named Yimo, she was at least 4 years older than the little girl, she was brought in way before her.
"You, know... If we get out of here.. We'll get to see the ocean..." Yimo said softly from her side, "Maybe even get to eat candy.."
"Candy..?" The little girl asked confused.
"Ya Candy! They're like this super sweet things that melt in your mouth every time you eat them!" exclaimed Yimo excitedly.
"....What else is out there...?"
"Uhh.. lets see.. there are pirates, Marines, the New World, the Grand Line, treasures, and islands of different kinds!"
"Treasures...? The Grand Line..?" The girl looked up to the wall that separated them.
"Treasures can be anything of any worth to anybody or something personal to a person! Ummm Imma say this from the text of a book I read about the seas! The Grand Line is this gigantic ocean current that circles around the planet, flowing from west to east. It follows an imaginary line that runs from northwest to southeast across the middle of the world and perpendicular to the Red Line, a vast ring-like continent that circles the globe from north-east to south-west!"
"What are Marines and Pirates..? Are they Good?" The girl questioned, now getting more curious about what else is out there.
"Lets see.. The Marines follow this government that capture pirates, who have bounties on their heads. So in a sense, Marines are the good ones, but, Sometimes Marines over use that power and do bad things, while using their titles as excuses. Now Pirates! Pirates are everywhere! They go around the world to make it to the New World! The New World is where the last Pirate King left his treasure!"
"His treasure?"
"Yep his Treasure those almost everyone wants to get his hands on... And that is called the One Piece!"
"One Piece..." The girl trailed off, the word sounded weird on her tongue.
"Personally I like the pirates more than the marines!" Yimo squealed happily.
"Why is that? Aren't pirates supposed to be bad...?"
"Well most pirates... but not all! It's like most marines are good but not all. Some of them are bad like I explained earlier."
The girl itched closer to the wall, curious as to why her friend was on the pirate side, "Are you gonna be a pirate if we leave here?"
"OH YES! you see, pirates are the most free people in the world!" Yimo said. The little girl could almost see her friend, waving her arms around to get her point.
"Most free..." The girl smiled at those words.
"Do you wanna be a pirate with me?" Yimo asked.
"You want me to come with you, to be a pirate?" The little girl asked in her caged walls.
"Why of course! You can be in my nakama! Since you'd be the first to join, that'd make you be my first mate." Yimo chirped.
"Yes.. That would be nice.." The girl said sleepily.
"Once we leave, were gonna have so many adventures! So many stories when we finish them too! OOOOH~ It's gonna be so cool!" Yimo chattered on about how their crew would be so amazing as they travel the sea in hopes of being free.
The girl curled up in her cage, the feathers on her legs and arms grew just a tiny bit as she listened. She enjoyed Yimo's company, almost thought of her like a older sister. The little girl crawled to the metal bars and put her hand through.
"Yimo...?"
"Hm?"
"Can you hold my hand?"
"Yes yes.. I got you."
Another hand popped out from the cage beside her and took hold of her own. The feeling was warm, almost intoxicating. The little girl couldn't get enough as she gripped Yimo's hand. Almost as if the hand would disappear at anytime. Yimo's hand tightened as well, almost thinking the same. because they both knew that it was the truth.
"Tell me about what happened before you came here.." The little girl asked.
"Again..?"
"Mhm.." She always enjoyed listening to her tales of how she grew up around pirates. They always seemed to laugh even though they were in the middle of battle.
"Okay, i'll tell you again as many times as you want.." Yimo said softly, rubbing her thumb of the girl's cold hands, just to try and warm them.
"I was born on a pirate ship and grew up on one, the smell of cigars and rum would always fuel the air for almost every pirate ship. Every time I woke up, I would come to see almost dead drunken pirates sprawled out across the floor. Some in the crow's nest, others on rails, and some just passed out on the top deck." Yimo laughed quietly. The girl was giddy always imagining the scene.
"When we go out on adventures, some of the pirates would drag me along, others would spoil me because, 'I was they're angel of salvation, that kept them sane sometimes', or so they said."
The girl laughed from hearing that, imagining the pirates that marines titles cruel and evil, begging Yomi to go with them, just to bless their eyes and fuel them for battles.
"Sounds fun." The girl giggled.
"It was." Yimo rolled her eyes.
"What else?"
"There was this one pirate who always scolded me when others didn't, though, god bless him now, if he didn't, I would be a spoiled brat full of shit!" Yimo barked out her fits of laughter.
"Do you remember what he always said..?" The girl asked quietly.
"Ah yes I do, almost as if he smacked me yesterday. Good times. He would always say these exact words, 'If another pirate comes up to you and offers you treasures, without an explanation, what do you do', and I would answer, 'Grab a gun and shoot 'em in the cock, if we don't have a gun, use my foot. Just so they could lose their manhood!'. God.. Those are some god blessing words, sent from the fallen angels themselves."
"I don't know how to feel about that. Or understand why you shoot their....'cock'? " The girl said nervously.
"Don't worry about it!" Yimo exclaimed hurriedly, still holding her hand.
"Sounds like you have a nice family.." The girl sighed, Leaning her head on the bars.
"Don't worry, When we get out, we'll become pirates together, and find a crew to be our family!"
"Really...?" For the first time, the girl's eyes shined in a long time.
"Yep! After all, Isn't that what nakama are for?" Yimo clenched her hand on the girl's own.
"Yea.. I hope that day will come soon..!" The little girl smiled softly, already day dreaming about their adventures together. The same was for Yimo as they both leaned on the wall that separated them, still holding there hands, never wanting to be separated.
"Lets leave that to faith, shall we..?"
Wa-
Wake-
Wake up.
"WAKE UP!"
The girl opened up her eyes, the first thing she realized was that she wasn't in her cage. She was being carried, in a rushed manner. Her body suddenly felt cold. She looked around to absorb her surroundings. She was outside... It was snowing.
Snow.
Oh how she never wished to see it like this. She looked up to the one who was carrying her, it was Yimo, her clothes dirtied with dried blood, snow, and dirt. Her breathes coming out in rasped coughs.
"Get those kids! We cant let them escape!"
"There over there"
"Hurry up, it seems one of them in injured!"
"They're legs are small, they couldn't have gone far in this snow!"
I looked up at Yimo in panic, wondering who was injured. I stretched my hand out to her forehead but she caught my hand with hers in a swift movement.
"I'm fine, We just need to make it to a cargo ship! We just have to keep going!" Yimo smiled, her hand holding tightly to the little girl's. The men were catching up, they were gaining on them.
"Yimo...!"
"I know, I know!"
The men suddenly came to a abrupt stop on a hill, the kids dashed down, gaining more speed and gap between them. The girl turned her head to look ahead of them, and saw the docks.
"Yimo! I can see the ships! We can make it!"
"Look see? Told you it'd be fin-"
Bang!
Yimo's expression was excitedly as she saw the docks, but was soon twisted in a face of pain and horror. The little girl's body was suddenly thrown forward, her tiny body crashing into the heap of snow. The girl looked back, only to see the snow tainted in red, surrounding her friend, as Yimo laid there. a sudden chill went down her spine, as the feathers on her arm and legs ruffled.
"Yimo!" The girl dashed forward, ignoring the shearing cold in her skin.
"R-run.. I..I-I can't make it to the ship.." Yimo coughed, gripping her side, the blood seeped through her dirty clothes and stained the snow white ground. the little girl coming to a realization that her friend was shot.
"But we have to go together! We're gonna be pirates together!" The girl's voice cracked as she lifted Yimo's head gently onto her lap.
"I won't make it with this wound.. You h-have to go alone.." Yimo said clutching the girl's hand.
"You said we'd go on these adventures together! You said we'd travel the world together!" The girl held her other hand on top of the wound, desperately to stop the bleeding.
"Fayth-"
"You said we were going to be free! Together!" The little girl yelled at Yimo, the words seemed to hit the older child hard, as she know realized that her dreams with the little girl will only be crushed to nothing. Tears started to sprawl down Yimo's face. Her lips curled up into a quivering smile.
"Y-you have to be a pirate for the both us!" Yimo held the girl's hand to her chest in a desperate manner.
"But-"
"You will go travel the world for t-the both of u-us!" Yimo cut her off, "You will have adventures for the both of us..!"
"Y-yimo..!" The girl started to cry as the bleeding wouldn't stop.
"You will join a crew in which will treat you like f-family..!" Tears kept falling down Yimo's face as she watched the girl try to help her.
"And you will be free! For the both of us!" Yimo grabbed both the girls hands tightly, tears kept falling from the both of them as they stared at each other for a hard minute.
"T-take this...." Yimo pulled out a bracelet, that had pretty blue sapphires indented in the outer layer, little markings engraved around the gems.
"Y-yimo.. this..." The girl started, but was shushed when they heard men hollering in the distance.
"Go! y-you have to make it to the ship, before they depart!" Yimo shoved the girl away into the snow. The tears wouldn't stop as the girl took one look at Yimo and knew she wouldn't make it. She whipped her head around and started to run.
"Run! Fae, run!" Yimo hollered the little girl's nickname one last time weakly, her voice trailing off as she fell back due to blood loss, "You have to be free! Be free from this cage!"
"For the both of us!"
"For the both of us!"
They both hollered at the top of their lungs, though it was painful due to the crisp air. the little girl gripped the bracelet in her hold and kept running. The snow seemed to get colder as she heard another gun shot in the distance behind her. Biting her tongue to hold back a strangle scream of grief, she shut her eyes and just kept running, her legs started to burn as she descended down the mountain. her legs telling her that they are long over due of over exerting herself. but she couldn't. she made a promise, that'd she would be free. meaning she had to get away from this place so her friend didn't sacrifice herself in vain.
She skidded onto the dock as she felt wood beneath her feet, she didn't stop. She kept running til she made it onto a ship. almost all of them were departed except one, though it already unanchored, she would have to jump for it. She sprinted forward, her feathers cascading down her arms and legs twitched in excitement as she twirled into the air, and felt her legs turn to talons, her arms feathered to the brim into wings, and her body dancing with an array of colors. She flapped her wings aimlessly as her target and mind were just to get on the ship, before it made any bigger gap between it and herself. The wind swirled around her, giving her a advantage that could ever hope for and glided downward onto a heap of crates.
Her body aching as she had ever first flown in her life but at least she made it on board. She was looking out into the sky as it kept snowing. The air still cold as ever, but it seemed to more freezing at the realization that her friend wasn't beside her. the dreams she would fantasize with her in the cages, holding her hand, they were gone. The adventures they promised together, were gone. The stories they wanted to tell others together, was crushed. Her mind whirled in and out as she remembered she was holding onto something. It was Yimo's bracelet that she told me, she got it from the pirate crew that she traveled with.
Her Treasure.
Holding the bracelet close to her chest, she crawled over to a giant ship load of crates to hide, away from any of the people dressed in white with caps. The white tailored people moved out in a stiff manner like they were in some kind of army. She opened up some lids of the crates and found some kind of the uniforms inside, must be some kind of shipment for another island. The girl grabbed the biggest one and wrapped it around herself. She made achieved one promise, now she had to find a crew, though now that she thought about it.. What pirate crew would want a child..
Yimo would've.
She would've taken control, she could've been her captain.. She could've been beside the girl, telling her stories about the adventures she had. She could've been beside me for it all.
But she wasn't. The bracelet that was in the girl's grasp kept reminding her about the bloody scene. The tainted red snow that gripped her friend to the ground. The dying will that she trusted her with.
The will that the girl was gonna fulfill to the end if she had to turn the world upside down just to be free. To just be a pirate.
The ship came to a stop at an island that was coated with think jungle trees. The plants growing wildly, flowers of all sorts, made the girl excited, her feather twitching in impatience. She unwrapped the sweaty uniform of her feathers. Her messy hair flowing in the wind in its messy sense. The wind felt nice as it ruffled the feathers dripping down her legs and arms. Now that the sun hit the color of her feathers, the colors danced to a bright red and blue, some tinted yellow. It looked amazing in the little girl's eyes. Hearing the uniformed men laugh while hollering to their fellow other uniformed men, they drunk a lot of sake and rum and trailed to a bar that looked close to the jungle, a town forming on the edge of its over looming trees, that swung around dangerously.
"After this stop, were gonna stop and deliver these uniforms to the new recruits at the Marine corps." One of the uniformed men said to another man. The word Marine made the girl's feathers ruffle up in fear. The girl had to get off this ship, or else she'll be going right into Marine territory. And that is something she did not want to mess with, especially since pirates get arrested daily by the marines. She can't have her adventure start and then stop here!
getting up, the girl scurried around the talking men as their backs were facing her, she made a quick run for the rails. As she used her foot on the rails, she propeled herself into the air twisting into the winged figure that she was, when she made it onto the ship. Flapping her wings tirelessly, her bracelet dangling on her talons as she made her way to town. She narrowly made it to an ally, seeing the safest place to stay would be there she peeked out to see the streets. It was littered with people of different kinds. Some in stands that were decorated with accessories and others, bread of different kinds. Some people were holding out these different colored cloths that had different patterns engraved in them.
"Come get your Fresh out of the oven bread!"
Here we have different ornaments from The New World or Grand Line, We even have some from the North Blue!"
"You see this craftsmanship, its carved out of the best tools!"
"Get yer' silks here! Some homemade, some delivered from the South Blue!"
The girl peered around, now back in her original form, though It would look weird if she came out with feathers sticking out of her body. She scanned what she could in the ally way, she found a old box full of dirty cloaks and rags. The girl didn't mind if it meant she could cover the feathers that littered her body. She took a old looking cloak and wrapped it around herself, it dragged behind her but did the job good. She creeped out of the alleyway and looked around the crowded area in wonder. This place was the most craziest place she's been at. In a good way.
She walked around seeing many things, like different kinds of foods, clothes, weapons, some different building that sold some weird medicines. It was amazing. The little girl kept walking til she bumped into a drunken uniformed man, most likely from the ship she came off of.
"Hey you little brat, watch where you're going! You spilled sake on me!" the man hollered angrily, as the girl peered to see a stain of the liquor on his uniform.
"Now look what you've done! Now I gotta pay someone to clean this shit!" The man spat furiously, his face flush from how drunk he was. he glanced down at the bracelet that hung loosely from the girl's wrist.
"Ah~ Where did you steal that from, little shit..?" he pointed at Yimo's treasure. The girl quickly retracted her arm to hide under the cloak, slowly retreating if possible.
"I-I didn't steal it..! It was given to me by a friend!" The little girl started to run the other way, but the same drunk man grabbed her wrist and yanked the bracelet away from her.
"Ya right! Like a alleyway rat like you could even dream of getting something like this! this thing is probably way more worth than your very life!" he barked out a laugh.
"Give it back!" The girl tried to jump up to grab it but was kicked violently away from him.
"Lets just say, that my cleaning expenses are now covered thanks to 'your' gift." he snickered and stumbled a bit. The girl stared in disbelief. Her friend's treasure was getting taken away from her, in front of her eyes. the girl looked around for any help, but the people just crowded around and whispered to themselves. Anger that boiled up from back to her escape, seemed to drip out as she got up shaking in fury. Her fist clenched, as she sprinted forward and tried to punch the living hell out of this man.
"Oh Dear it seems that we seem to have a problem here.."
The girl's body was being carried by the waist of a very strong arm. She saw that the drunk man was pinned to the ground by his arms tied behind him. The girl looked up to see a old man smile fondly at her, his tiny glasses dripping down his nose as he held up the bracelet to the girl.
"This yours?" His voice soothingly light.
The girl nodded quickly and snatched the treasure back. She was then hoisted up on his hip like a toddler would be by a mother. the girl was surprised by the strength in this old frail looking man. The old man and the girl both whipped their heads to the sound of hollering voices, probably the same uniformed men.
"Hang on tight." The old man whispered as he pulled the cloak's hood more over the girl's head. He sprinted forward at a fast speed that the people in the streets looked like blurs. It was a very cool sight to behold as she opened her arms out, feeling the wind flow by the feathers. We leaped into the dense Jungle area, but the old man didn't seem to have a problem. He jumped over giant roots, some snapping plants that tried to bite down on his legs, but he leaped out o the way gracefully. The wind that was whipping the girl's face from the speed of the man's sprinting came to a stop. The girl looked to where the man was looking and saw a house that was platformed in the biggest tree she had ever seen in her life.
"This will be your home from now on.." the old man chuckled as he watched the girl's eyes sparkle at looking to the tree.
"Home?" The girl looked to the man confused.
"Yep, it's where you get to sleep, eat, play, and maybe you'll get to use those little wings of yours if you wish." he lifted up the cloak to show the feathers that sprouted from her arms. they continued to talk as they made their way up the tree to the platform.
"You aren't scared..?"
"Are you going to hurt me?" he laughed at the question.
"No..." she said quietly.
"Then there's no need to be scared of you." He smiled, "Are you a Devil Fruit User?"
"Yes..." The said girl frowned.
"It seems not by choice, by the looks of that frown." He sighed, "Looks like you treasure that bracelet dearly if you were gonna pick a fight with the Marines!" He glanced down at the bracelet that the girl was holding tightly to her chest.
"It was given to me by a friend.." She said in a whisper, her feathers drooping a bit.
"Who are you..?" The girl questioned looking at the man with her head tilted cutely.
"Why Im just a doctor that helps those need!" he chuckled heartily, "My name is Dr. Hui!"
Once they opened the door, Dr. Hui plopped the girl down on a bed that he would use for patients. The girl waited quietly, kicking her legs back and forth as she looked around the room.
"Back!" Dr. Hui said excitedly as he brought back some old clothes that were dusty. The girl tilted her head to an angle, looking at the clothes that he presented excitedly.
"Im wearing that?" she asked still processing what was infront her.
"Yep!" He placed the clothes by her side on the bed and kneeled in front of her with a now serious face from the excitedly over happy one when he pulled out the clothes, "Now before you put these clothes on, Its only manners that you tell me your name after I told you mine." He smiled softly placing his hand over the little girl's. She paused for a moment, thinking. She took a deep breathe and look him in the eye. Holding the bracelet tightly in her grip, she smiled.
"Faythe, My friend called me Fae."
/:/~***~/:/
Word Count:(4277)