Sitting on the Captain's shoulder listening to his laughter as he rushed towards Cricket's place, Faythe was howling in laughter as the wind rushed through her feathers at how fast Luffy could run.
"HEEEEYYYYY!" He called out with a giant satisfied grin.
The crew turned around to see Luffy rushing towards them.
"It's them! Thank god their back!" Masira chuckled at the sight.
"I DID IT!"
Nami waved her hands in the air frantically at them, her patience running on thin ice, "HURRY UP, LUFFY, FAE! YOU'RE ALREADY LATE!"
"LOOK!" Luffy's smile only grew as he shoved the most precious thing he found along the way, into the air like a trophy.
Everyone quieted down to see what the hell he was making a fuss over and their faces went pale in color as they realized what took him so long.
"A HERCULES BEETLE!" Luffy held it up for the world to see it's magnificence. It looked almost like he was frolicking towards them.
Faythe twisted back into her human form and started laughing in pure joy at finding a beetle as well, "ISN'T IT COOL! MY SERPANT BEETLE!?" She showed up her own beetle with sparkling eyes.
Nami, Zoro, and Usopp's jaws dropped at the sight of their beetles, "JUST WHAT THE HELL WERE YOU GUYS DOING!?"
Finally getting a good look at the Merry, Faythe started laughing at the sight, "IT'S A FUCKIN' CHICKEN NOW!"
Luffy gaped at the ship with sparkling eyes, "WHOAA! IT'S AWESOME!"
Usopp raised an arm up towards the ship like he was presenting his greatest masterpiece, "IT'S GOING MERRY'S 'FLYING MODEL!'"
"THAT LOOKS LIKE IT'S SOOOOOOO GONNA FLY!" Luffy looked on in amazement with Chopper by his side.
"RIGHT!?" Usopp was starting to get pumped up. Leave it to Luffy to hype your homie up. Nami stood next to Faythe with Zoro on her other side. The green head smacked the squirming snake with beetle wings out of Faythe's hands. She then received a smack in the head herself from Zoro, because of the stupidity of carrying around such a thing.
"Personally, I'm getting uneasy just looking at that thing. "Nami huffed out.
Zoro crossed his arms with a serious expression, "Yeah, a pigeon's much better at flying than a rooster..."
"THAT'S NOT THE PROBLEM HERE, YOU BLOCKHEAD!" Nami snapped.
Faythe let out another fit of giggles, "WE'RE ALL GONNA DIE!" she laughed.
"THATS NOT GOOD EITHER!" Zoro and Nami both snapped this time.
Faythe ignored them and nudged Luffy on the shoulder as she passed him. He glanced over at her and saw her poke the bag tied to his back, "Go and give Mister Cricket his gold back."
"On it!" He nodded with a grin, and skipped over to the man while everyone else made their way onto the ship. Nami was striding next to Faythe as they walked on the deck, "So what made you so pissed? I know it's something other than the treasure getting stolen." Nami drawled out lowly as she glanced at the red head.
"The Jolly Roger is the same pirate group that does business in human trafficking. The ones that coincidentally sold me off when I was a child." She whispered lowly as she glanced around them. Thankfully everyone else was just preparing to set sail and wait for their Captain.
Nami let out a short gasp, "That's the group!? No wonder you were angered that way. Neverminded that, you should've told me so I could've gone instead and beat their sorry asses. Show 'em what a scary ginger could do if pushed the wrong way." She raised her fist threateningly, but oddly enough Faythe didn't feel the dark swirling feeling in her stomach anymore. Right now she felt peaceful at the moment. A smile slowly rose on her face as she placed her hand on the girl's head comfortingly.
"It's fine. It wasn't the main group anyways." Faythe gave her a cheeky grin before looking forward at the deck, "Besides..."
Nami watched the red head's facial muscles relax as they scanned over the ship. Her amber eyes glowing at softened and sincere expression, "Besides...?" She muttered out, urging the girl to continue. Curious as to what made this woman keep going and how she processed things.
Ocean like eyes peered down at her happily.
"As long as I'm with you guys. I'll be fine. Because you guys are my family."
Nami could feel her eyes sting a bit as she gazed at the red head with dusted pink cheeks, "You really know how to say things. Your gonna make your readers cry at this point when they read your stories..!" She let out a faint chuckle as she wiped her eyes gently. She gave the red head a pat on the back before going off to set their course, South.
Faythe stood in her spot for a moment as she had seemed to have forgotten something, "Stories..." Her face lit up as she dashed towards her cabin, "Shit! I gotta write down the events!"
Slamming the Cabin door open, she scrambled over to her desk and opened up the drawer. Spotting her notebook with notes peeking out of the pages, she let out a sigh of relief and pulled out her ink bottle and Quill.
She grabbed her utensils and strutted out of the cabin and out on the deck. Making her way to her spot, she accidently bumped into Robin. She twisted on her heel and managed to not make them both fall, "Sorry 'bout that, Robin!" Faythe waved back apologetically while skipping happily over to her rails that she likes to sit on. The older woman smiled softly at the giddy red head and suppressed a chuckle.
Plopping on the rails, Faythe tossed her items to the side and flipped her notebook open to her last written page. Striking her quill down on the next blank page, she scribbled down a few notes about Noland's log and the new information about a new phenomenon on weather. Like the emperonimbus cloud for example. And how the Knock Up Stream works from the underwater cave and it's build up. A smile was drawn in the corner of the page to signify to was satisficed with the wording.
"Luffy! Hurry!"
Faythe peeked her head up to see some of the crewmates near her and beckoning Luffy to hurry the fuck up with his chat with Cricket.
"Right!"
Faythe glanced over at Cricket grabbing the fabric that held all the gold that he collected. A Solemn look took over his face. He then turned his attention to his members, "SARUYAMA ALLIANCE!"
"UOHO!"
"AYE-AYE SIR!"
He stood up and crossed his arms with a determined look, "DON'T GO SLIPPING UP NOW, Y'HEAR!? NO MATTER WHAT! PUT EVERY LAST OUNCE OF ENERGY YOU'VE GOT TO GET THEM UP IN THE SKY!"
A smile grew on Faythe's face as she could feel the shivers run down her spine in excitement. Her mind taking everything in and never letting go.
Luffy leaped over the rails with a grin, "Alright, let's go!"
Nami turned to the crew with a smile of her own, "Let's set sail!"
"Woohoo!" Usopp cheered with a fist to the sky.
"Aye-Aye, Nami!" Sanji simped.
Cricket walked over to the modified Merry and looked up to Luffy, "Kid! This is good-bye for you and me now!" Not a cigarette in sight, "There's one thing, I know for certain at least...!"
Luffy leaned over the rails to get a good look at Cricket, which was right next to Faythe.
"Whether it's the city of Gold, or Sky island, There's never been a person who's proven they don't exist!"
"Yup!" Luffy replied with a grin in place.
"Sure, people might laugh, calling it an absurd fantasy, but so what!?" Cricket looked like he was having the time of his laugh as he thought about the adventure the crew would go on. With that, he threw his fists in the air and started laughing in pure joy.
"ISN'T THAT FANTASY, PRECISELY WHAT MAKES IT ROMANTIC!?"
Faythe's eyes widened slowly, as a grin slowly made it's way up her face. The quote felt like it made her want to fight any man that said doubted his dream.
"Romantic, huh!" Luffy thought about what he said.
"That's right!" They could see and gratifying grin cross his face, "Thanks... For getting back my gold..! Now don't you go falling out of the sky!"
"SHISHISHISHI!" Luffy could only laugh at the old man's somehwat worry for them, "SEE YA, MISTER!"
"Thanks for everything, Mr. Cricket!"
"I'm sure the city of gold exists!"
"DON'T PUSH YOURSELF TOO HARD, MISTER!"
"NO NEED TO WORRY ABOUT ME!"
Faythe then cupped her mouth to get a louder volume, "MAKE SURE TO READ THE LETTER, CRICKET MAN! IT'S IMPORTANT!"
Cricket paused mid wave, his face contorting in confusion, "Wha-. What letter??"
Some of the crewmates looked at her confused.
"What letter, Faythe?" Usopp wondered out as he walked over to her.
Faythe looked up at him with a sly grin, "Just gaining myself a new purchaser and pen pal."
"WHAT!?"
Nami came rushing over at the word 'Purchaser'. She gave the red head a tight hug out of joy, "You always seem to sneak in a little cash for the road, every time we leave places huh!?" She giggled.
"You betcha! AND he'll be able to read our great adventure to the sky island and know how incredible it is!" She smiled in excitement.
The crew could only smile at the thought of Cricket and his monkey followers reading about the adventures to Skypiea.
Robin chuckled, "I'm sure he would be most happy to read it."
"RIGHT!?" Faythe continued her scribbling in her pages as the rest went about their ways.
/;/~***~/;/
"Listen up! It's 7 in the morning right now! It'll be around 11 by the time we get to our destination."
"Like our boss said, The Knock-Up Stream changes location every time, so we'll have to quickly search for it's location as soon as we arrive there."
"Now since we're a little behind schedule... Hey!" Shoujou glared down at the playing pirates that were messing with the Southbird. Luffy had it's head twisted to the side, "Look, look!" He let go of the head and it whipped towards South like it was supposed to, "It turned back around!" Luffy laughed at it.
"That sure is one weird bird." Usopp chuckled at the bird as it started having a fit.
Luffy was still laughing, "It really can't face any other direction than South! It's like a compass!"
The Southbird was now just squawking out it's queer call as it seemed to lose it's patience with the pirates around it.
Usopp looked to Chopper who was observing the other two mess around, "What did it say?"
Chopper sighed, "He said he'll face another direction to make trouble for us."
Luffy was sitting down, slapping his knee in amusement, "Ahahahaha! Let him try!"
The Southbird did just that and twisted his head in the opposite direction with a sneer of victory painted on it's long peak.
"Oh!"
"It's facing North!"
"Did it just break it's neck..?"
The Southbird didn't even last a full minute until beads of sweat starting falling and it's head whipped back to South.
"AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"It can't rest unless it's facing South!" Luffy snickered, pointing at the done bird.
The bird started squawking again in full on rage at the laughing boys, letting out screeches that might as well level with Shoujou's singing.
Some of the monkey divers on Shoujou's ship started leaning over the rails as they saw the pirates weren't even paying the slightest attention to Shoujou's lecture.
"HEY!"
"HOW DARE YOU IGNORE OUR BOSS!"
Shoujou waved his hand at his members dismissively, "Ah, it's fine, it's fine. Their ignoring me is giving my heart the jitters..."
Faythe wanted to copy his statement again because she had the urge too, "'Their ignoring me is giving my heart the jitters...'"
Usopp snickered at Faythe's random statement, "Shut the fu- the fuck up.. Faythe!" He said in between laughs.
Faythe rolled her eyes and dodged a thrown boot with her tongue sticking out playfully.
Luffy turned towards Shoujou's ship when he heard their concern, which was on the right side of the Going Merry, "Huh? What is it?" He then smiled up at them when they glanced down at him, "Panicking now ain't gonna solve anything, so let's take this easy, eh, guys!?"
Sanji narrowed his eyes tiredly at his Captain, "Whose fault do you think it is that we're late?"
Masira leaned on the side of his ship's railing's, taking in what Luffy said, "Well, he's got a point. We've still got a few hours left, so there's no point in staying nervous all the way through." He stated to his members. His ship was on the other side of the Going Merry, so it looked like the Straw Hat's ship was getting sandwiched between two giant ships that was double the size of it's own. It would have been a funny sight from an outsider's view.
"Ah, okay then..." Shoujou looked around at his own men, "Alright boys, put just half of your spirit into it, and sail on!"
It seemed like even the ships relaxed a bunch because of the energy going around the three.
"Aye... Aye..."
"Ahh... Nice weather... we got..."
"Uo... Uo..."
Zoro looked around in concern at the ships' attitude, "Is this really gonna be fine?"
"'Course it is! When has it ever been not fine?" Faythe raised a brow as she kept writing down the Southbird search and perspectives from the other groups when she asked around earlier.
"Multiple times!" Zoro threw his hands in the air flabbergasted.
Faythe let out a laugh, "Are you dead?"
"No?"
"Then I see no problem!" She sent him a cheeky grin.
Zoro crossed his arms and let out a sigh of defeat, "Arguing with you is a losing battle of it's own..." He groaned annoyed.
"I'll take that as a compliment." Faythe's gaze went back to the pages in front of her as she leaned in to write down a couple of dash notes about the time and different animals that they met in the forest. Pigs was one that she wasn't expecting to be in a forest like jungle.
"Hey, Faythe, your hair bun came loose and it looks like it'll fall out." Chopper pointed out as he waddled over to brush some loose bangs out of her face when she wrote.
Faythe blinked a couple of times not noticing, "Oh, really? Seems it came undone while we were going around the jungle and back at Mocktown." She grabbed the hair tie and pulled it out of her hair, which almost exploded from how messy it had been contained.
Chopper was almost startled at the sudden poof of hair that came from the red head. he then turned around rushing into the cabin, "Brush, brush, brush...!"
Faythe chuckled at Chopper's milk panic at her situation.
"My.. I had no idea you have so much hair, Miss writer..." Robin came walking over to she an almost afro sitting on the girl's head. Faythe laughed nervously as she tried to get the knots out of her hair with her fingers that combed through it roughly.
"Yeah... It can be a pain sometimes... Maybe I should cut it?"
"NO!"
Faythe jumped a little at the little outburst that came from Sanji, Nami, Luffy, and Usopp.
She blinked a few times at the four crewmembers, "Why...? It gets in the way sometimes when I fight.." She twirled a loose strand of her bangs in front of her face.
Chopper came waddling back with a brush in his hooves and looked up at someone who could reach up to brush Faythe's hair. That someone happened to be Luffy.
Faythe picked up Chopper in her arms as she sat in front of the rails when Luffy sat behind her on the rails. He was surprisingly gentle when he held up a few puffs of hair and began working his way up the head.
Nami sat down in front of Faythe and examined the pages with careful eyes. Robin was on Nami's side doing the same as a smile could be seen reading the notes and seeing the smiley faces.
Chopper pointed that out curiously as he looked up at the red head with his cute blue button nose.
"It just means that I'm satisfied with that piece of page and notes to begin writing it down in the actual book.
Nami flipped the pages to see a lot of sticky notes poking out of the notebook as she read through them.
"Description of the underwater experience... Meeting of Masira... Meeting more of Luffy's relatives... Noland's true background... Noland's Log.... Cricket's dream... Wow, Faythe, you keeping track of everything huh?" Nami commented as she looked up at the red head curiously.
"Yep, I never forget a think once I see something. Once I hear, see, or smell something, it's engraved in my mind forever." She smiled cheerfully, "So it becomes real handy when I'm writing a story and I have to stop and go on an adventure."
"Wow.... That's super cool!" Luffy snickered as he stuck his tongue out in concentration, trying to get rid of a nasty knot. Thank god Faythe wasn't a tender headed girl.
Chopper smiled as he felt giddy sitting in Faythe's lap. He grabbed Faythe's hand and placed his hoof on her palm to compare hand sizes. Faythe over Chopper as he looked up from his spot with a cheeky grin, that she herself was giving him.
"A mother and son in their natural habitat..." Robin muttered to Nami who snorted in turn.
"Robin...!" Nami snickered as she lightly nudged Robin who only chuckled.
"But am I wrong...? Is it an animal instinct or a Zoan type thing to take care of other ones near them." Robin observed with a serious face.
Nami let out a sigh and a silent giggle, her gaze softened at the sight of Faythe holding up her book for Chopper to read the first few pages. His eyes glowing in excitement as he occasionally looked back at Faythe make sure she was listening to him. Faythe was nodding along with a smile at his happy energy.
Nami smiled, "It's really cute that I sometimes think that Faythe's not a parrot but a mother hen."
It was Robin turns to supress a giggle herself.
Luffy was watching the scene with a smile as he went back to focusing on Faythe's red hair. His hands trailing down the silky strands that fell through his hand like sand. It so soft to the touch when he finished brushing it that it looked a bit shiny in the sunlight. He then placed the brush handle in his mouth as he grabbed a few strands of hair and tried to do some sort of a braid. He thought it would be easy as he's watched girls back at his home island do it multiple times.
"Eh? What are you doing, Luffy?" Nami peered over Faythe's shoulder to see the messy braid and a pouty Luffy.
"I tried to do those twisty knot things that girls do with their hair but it doesn't look like it at all." He held up the messy looking braid as it started to come undone.
"A braid?" Robin leaned into the palm of her hand.
Usopp who saw the pitiful thing came running to the rescue, "Move aside Luffy! Your gonna cause split ends in her hair! I'll show you how you actually braid hair!" With that, he got to work like a professional.
Nami grabbed some strands on the side of her head to start braiding as well, "Ooo! I haven't braided hair since I was a little girl!"
Chopper nodded in understanding, "Must have. You don't exactly have much hair to braid anyway..."
Faythe was just humming to herself as half of the crew was now braiding her hair as Luffy had now gotten the hang of braiding and Chopper was taught by Usopp due to him telling the boy that he was the number one braider so he'll be gracious to pass down his teachings.
Robin just watched from the sides with a smile as her eyes glanced down at a couple pages of the forgotten book that nobody was paying attention to.
"ROBIN! NAMI! FAYTHE!" Sanji busted out of the kitchen with plates balancing on his head and arms, "I HAVE YOUR EXTRA SPECIAL SMOOTHIES!"
Zoro, who was coming back from checking the rudder, was walking onto the deck to see the whole crew in a circle braiding Faythe's head of massive red hair.
"What the hell..?"
/;/~***~/;/
3 hours later
"BOSS! THIS IS BAD!" one of Masira's monkey men called out to him as he held the binoculars.
"WHY, WHAT IS IT!" Masira came running over beside the man.
"Night's falling... From the Southwest!" Sweat started dripping down his face, "IT'S THE EMPERORNIMBUS!"
In due Southwest was a very dark area which Faythe would consider the darkned skies that she saw yesterday with the giants. She could already feel the feathers on her arms rise up in excitement of what was to come, "Let the fuckin show begin..." She whispered to herself as she slammed her notebook closed and tucked it in her back pocket.
"ALREADY? WHAT TIME IS IT!?"
"IT'S ONLY 10! IT'S HERE MUC SOONER THAN WE THOUGHT!"
"UTAN DIVERS! DIVE AT ONCE AND FIND WHERE THE STREAM IS FORMING!"
"THIS IS BAD... SHOUJOU! YOU THINK THEY CAN STILL MAKE IT!?"
"So that's the emperornimbus..."
"UOHO!"
Everyone came rushing out of the cabin and wandered what the hell was causing a fuss.
"WHAT'S GOING ON!?" Sanji came out with two frying pans cooking rice and eggs.
Nami was the one to reply, "The emperornimbus cloud's here much sooner than they thought! And we still don't know where the Knock-up stream will be!"
Shoujou pulled out his microphone and started singing to send out echos to his divers to report.
Multiple shot up out of the ocean to report instantly, "Echo detected! Large ocean currents at 12 o' clock!"
"Unidentified large animal at 9 o' clock! Most likely a sea king!"
"Waves crashing against the ocean currents detected at 10 o' clock! Likely to be a giant whirlpool!"
Masira shot up at the last report, "THAT'S THE PLACE! TURN THE SHIP FOR 10 O' CLOCK!" A mad crazy grin split his face, "THAT WHIRLPOOL IS OUR SIGN! WE HAVE TO CATCH UP TO IT!"
As they sailed, the ship was being flipped into the air by the sudden surge of the waves that were far larger than normal ones that Faythe had ever seen.
The ship itself was being tosseled around along with the crew, as they tried to catch themselves, "WHA!?"
"AGHHHH!"
"THE WAVES GOT HUGE ALL OF A SUDDEN!"
"GAHHH! WE'RE GONNA SINK!"
"IT'S THE TREMOR BEFORE THE BLAST! BE CAREFUL!"
Faythe's mind was going through multiple things and that was her lecture with Cricket, "THE UNDERWATER CAVE!"
Robin whipped her head up to Nami who caught herself up on the second deck, "Ms. Navigator!"
"What!?"
"Where's the log pose pointing!?"
Nami glanced down at her log pose and her eyes widened, "It's pointing straight up!" Usopp looked on in slight concern for his very life.
"THE WINDS ARE PERFECT! THEY'RE DIRECTING THE EMPERORNIMBUS RIGHT ABOVE THE WHIRLPOOL'S EYE!"
"WHAT WHIRLPOOL!? I DON'T SEE A WHIRLPOOL ANYWHERE!"
Masira looked across his ship at Shoujou, "LOOKS LIKE WE GUESSED RIGHT THIS TIME, BRO!"
"AND THE BLAST SEEMS TO BE THE RIGHT SIZE!" Shoujou agreed with a crazy smile.
Luffy was in the front as he looked between the brothers, "WE CAN MAKE IT!?"
"YEAH YOU SHOULD!"
"Huh!?"
Masira leaned over the rails and looked down at the pirate crew, "I'LL TAKE YOU TO THE WHIRLPOOL!"
Nami looked up at the monkey man in slight worry, "THEN WHAT!? WHAT DO WE DO AFTER THEN!?"
The ship was now in the side of the largest whirlpool Faythe had ever seen in her life. It was like she was in a large underwater tornado. With that, she noticed both ships of Masira and Shoujou have dissapeared with a last piece of advice for the poor panicking navigator.
"JUST FOLLOW THE CURRENTS ALL THE WAY TO THE CENTER WITHOUT RESISTING!" Masira's voice had seemed to trail off the farther had and his crew sailed away.
"THE CENTER OF THE WHIRLPOOL!?" Nami held her hands over her head, "I NEVER HEARD ANYTHING ABOUT GETTING SWALLOWED UP BY A GIANT WHIRLPOOL!"
Faythe picked up the amazed Chopper who was busy imagining out the ship was gonna get thrown up into the sky.
Sanji came rushing over like a gentlemen he was and dissed the males, " NAMI! ROBIN! FAYTHE! DON'T WORRY, I'LL PROTECT YOU THREE!"
Robin didn't know whether to be concerned for her life or be fascinated by the whirlpool itself, "Interesting, I've never seen a whirlpool of this size before."
"Turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back, turn back!!!" Usopp kept repeating like a mantra.
Zoro looked over at the pitiful sniper of the crew, "Give it up, Usopp... It's too late. We've already got two crew members gung-ho about all this." He sighed as he looked at the parrot and his Captain.
Faythe was in the front of all of this as her eyes scanned everything around her, her feathers spreading out into winged arms as the wind current drifted heavily past them, a large excited grin took over her face, "WHOSE READY TO DIE!"
"FAYTHE!!!!!" The whole entire crew shouted at the unecessary comment.
"LET'S GO!" Luffy shouted out in pure glee.
/;/~***~/;/
Word Count:(4132)
Working hard for ya'll!