"Where are we now?" Luffy leaned on the side of the gondola.
Sanji sighed, "It's the place for our next trial. There will be more priests. Be careful!!"
Usopp peeked out from behind the two, "What...? One trial is enough! Damn it!! We already lost one crew mate!"
Sanji elbowed the sniper in the nose, "Don't title Faythe-Chan as dead yet!!"
"It's just an average looking plain."
"It's not 'average'!! Look carefully!! Those are human skulls on those poles!"
"Ah! They are."
"Oh?"Luffy glanced behind the gondola again, mostly because he kept making sure if Faythe was flying back to them as she said. His eyes narrowed at the sight of multiple dots in the distance, "EH!? Something's coming!!"
Usopp shrieked, "It appeared—!!!!"
And like birds of prey the Shandorian's swooped past the gondola and dropped off a package.
"HEY! I'm back!!"
The boys gapped at the sight of the red head.
"Faythe!!!????"
"FAE!"
"FAYTHE-Chan!!!"
Faythe landed on the gondola with a slight sway of the boat but she turned and waved back to the Shandorians that turned their heads in her direction.
"KEEP GOING! I need to get back to my other crew mates to make sure their safe!!" She cupped her mouth when she yelled.
"We hope to see you in battle soon, Arcus!"
"Hurry back!"
"We need as many reinforcements as we can get in this fight!"
A large built and tattooed guerrilla turned and raced back.
"Wyper?" Faythe stated with a tilt of her head.
He stopped in the air and and jutted a pointer finger at the boys, "Protect our Arcus with your lives! I will not forgive you next time she is left alone!"
At that statement, the boys' expression hardened into one of sharp rivalry...? Faythe couldn't quite put a finger on it but she felt a tug on her wrist, bringing her closer to three crew mates.
"Faythe is one of my crew, I won't allow anything to happen to her." Luffy stated with a blank face.
Wyper scoffed at his look, and turned to Faythe one last time, "I hope your injuries heal quickly. Until then." He gave a small bow and skidded back into the sky with his dial mechanism skates.
"Bye, WYPER—!!!" Faythe cheered back happily with a small giggle as she noticed the skypiean race off even faster.
Usopp placed a hand on her shoulder and hurried her to sit down so he could do basic aid, "So what's the deal with those Guerrillas?"
"Well let's just say I am now worshipped by a Shandorian tribe!" Faythe laughed.
"EHHH!?"
"Yeah it was pretty surprising... But they really look up to the Arcus. Apparently they also hate this Enel God. And are searching down the priests. They didn't tell me everything but I just know that I promised to help them."
"Help them!? Faythe! We don't have time to help them!! We need to find the rest of the crew and get the hell away from here!" Usopp shook her by the shoulders.
"Oi! Usopp, Faythe-Chan is still injured!"
Faythe glanced over at Luffy for a hard moment, "I want to help them. Whoever this Enel person is. He's a tyrant and not a good person. What should I do, Captain?"
Luffy now had all the crew mates attention as he kept silent. He glanced down at his hand, which Faythe just now noticed her bracelet was still in. He glanced back up and handed it to her gingerly, "Let's meet back with the others and let me decide then."
Faythe brushed her fingertips along the gold band, her eyes flickering to meet Luffy's and then down at her bandaged wrist.
"Okay... Captain..."
/:/~***~/:/
"OH! LOOK! ITS THE GOING MERRY!! THATS THE ALTER!!"
"YAH~~~~~~!! NAMI-SAN~~~!!! ROBIN-CHAN~~~~!! I HAVE FINALLY PASSED THE TRIAL OF LOVE~~~!! AHAHAHAHA~~~!!!"
"Bro why you gotta moan like that."
"AHAHAHAHAHAHA!"
"HAHAHAHAHAHA!!"
"FAYTHE-CHAN.....!?? WHY????"
"WERE YOU SCARED!? WELL CAPTAIN USOPP IS HERE. YOU CAN RELAX NOW!!!"
"They seem full of spirit... That's good." Nami commented as she saw the gondola come into view with her four other missing crew mates.
Faythe scrambled over the edge of the gondola and flew over to the ship, "Chopper...!"
She noticed a small bundle of brown fur waddle out from behind the rails and peek over to see who called him. His cute little button nose twitched at the sight of Faythe making her way over, resulting in big fat tears roll down his face.
"Faythe—!!!" He cried out. Faythe had made it as quickly as possible and wrapped her feathered wings around the reindeer.
"I'm back!" She grinned down at the still crying doctor who glanced up from her bundle.
"I was scared-!!!"
"Mhm. It's okay to feel scared... Even the bravest people can feel scared sometimes." Faythe rubbed small circles on his back while her other arm held him up from the bottom.
"Really...?"
"Yep! Even I was scared during a little part in the journey to get back here." She whispered, smiling softly at the awed look Chopper gave her.
Usopp had used the ladder on the side of the ship, "Ah-! What happened here!?"
That question made the reindeer in her hold to stiffen and jump from her hold to go talk to Usopp.
The sniper walked over to survey the damage to the ship and saw that the whole mast was torn off. If Faythe looked closer, she could see scorch marks at the edges of the broken bottom.
"The mast... Is gone...!!"
Chopper hurried over with small steps and waved his hooves out on frantic motions, "....Ah.... That... Usopp, I'm sorry.... I was fighting hard... But they burned a bunch of things..."
Usopp turned to Chopper and glanced down at his bandages, "Are your wounds okay?"
"Eh!?" Chopper looked up confused, "Oh... Yeah."
"A lance that burns stuff? That's one tough opponent..!!" Usopp made a face of apprehension and then smiled down at Chopper, "Good thing the one that got burned wasn't you!! Hahahahaha!! We'll deal with the ship later."
"Huh....?" Chopper stared on in even more confusion, fully expecting to be blamed for the attack. But that confusion slowly turned into a burning determination to prove himself more, "I will become a dependable man!!!"
Luffy walked on board and glanced over at Chopper who was on the rails with his hooves raised to the sky in a silent promise, "Hey, Chopper!! Where's that weird Ossian!!?"
Chopper whipped his head around in realization, "Yeah! The Knight of the Sky...!!" He then waddles off the rails and into the cabin that leads to the kitchen.
Luffy and Faythe glance at each other and follow close behind.
While on the way, Chopper began to explain what happened when we were away.
Luffy had crouched down next to Gran Fall, "—He would try that hard... Just for a free whistle he gave us...!?"
Chopper nodded solemnly, "If the Knight of the Sky didn't come, the ship and I would've been goners."
Sanji and Nami were standing behind the weird injured Pegasus thing, watching the whole thing til the Cook spoke up, "There are a lot of things I want to ask him... I'll just wait until he wakes up!" He then turned his gaze to the Pegasus who cradled his broken arm, "Thanks to you, too."
Faythe glanced over at Luffy to see him messing with Gan Fall's long beard.
Sanji beckoned the crew to follow out as he spoke, "With the ship like this, and the sky getting dark... We'll have to wait until tomorrow to go back to Angel Beach Island."
Nami nodded and added onto the idea, "—Anyways, let's just go ashore in the forest. We'll go camping next to the lake!"
Sanji nodded, "If something happens, it'll be a better place to fight, too!"
Luffy and Faythe jumped at the idea, "Woohoo!! Yeah!! CAMPING!! Party!!"
Usopp gapped at the idea, "Eh!? Wait. We're in enemy territory!! How can we go camping...??"
Faythe shrugged with a grin, "Hasn't stopped us before. Remember in Alabasta?"
Usopp just sighed in defeat.
Chopper gently pulled at Faythe's torn shirt, gaining her attention, "Let me go treat your wounds first... They seem to be very severe if I noticed you start breathing strangely."
Faythe sighed at a few looks turned her direction.
"Okay..."
/:/~***~/:/
As they all settled down around a giant fire while eating some Sky Sharks. They decided to give out information they learned on their way here.
Usopp had a thin stick tapping on his shoulder as he stared at his chalkboard full of little notes. Faythe doesn't know where he got it but she assumed he pulled it out of Nami's room, "Ooooookay... Thanks for everyone's report. Good work!!" He then raised a hand to point things out, "With everyone's information, many things became clearer."
Zoro sighed in his spot as he crossed his arms over each other, "I still can't believe you defeated a priest before I could..." He glanced over at Faythe who leaned on a log lazily.
"He was surprisingly nimble for his fatass." Faythe chuckled to herself as she took a sip from her mug.
Zoro raised a brow, "~~What about the Mantra thing?" He waved a large fish fin in the air.
Sanji turned to Zoro, "I only know that he used it to predict our next moves."
"And how did you defeat this person?" Zoro nodded in Faythe's direction.
"By predicting his next moves as well!" The red head laughed at the two boys' looks.
Sanji sighed and turned to Chopper who was still tending to Gan Fall's wounds, switching bandages, "Chopper, should it be finer?" He pointed to the bowl of soup in his hand.
Chopper glanced over and nodded, "Yes. Make it so that he could drink it... Because his gullet has been injured."
Usopp on the other hand was rousing the crew in multiple yells, "However the most important information is this!!" He smacked the the thin stick onto a very circled note, "This Island is actually the Golden City that Saruyama United Armed Forces had been trying to find!!"
Luffy shouted in surprise with his cheeks full of Sky Shark, "WOW!! REALLY!?"
Nami gasped at Usopp, "Uh... I was reporting that earlier!!"
Luffy clenched his fists with a widening smile, "Gold, eh!? I've been waiting for an adventure like this!!"
Nami chuckled at Luffy and winked his way playfully, "Yup. If you're interested, it makes things easier."
Usopp glanced between the two with a horrified look, "Oi, Oi, Luffy!! Did you forget... There's still three more priests!!"
Chopper looked equally as scared at Usopp, "The God will be angry!!"
"Pssh!" Faythe waved Chopper and Usopp's worries off, "I guess we have a change in plans. I'll apologize to Wyper later!" She laughed out.
Robin laughed lightly at Faythe's unbothered figure, "Heheh... Sounds interesting...!"
"Nonetheless, with treasure up for grabs, pirates won't stay quiet. Yeah!?" Sanji grinned at the rest.
Zoro gave a smirk at the comment, "With plenty of enemies..!! This is a game of survival!"
Faythe leaned into Zoro's shoulder with a playful nudge, "A game of the fittest one might say."
Usopp jumped in his spot and pointed at the two fighters, "You two are menaces!!"
Luffy laughed out and jumped in his spot with excitement,
"YOOOOOOOOSSSSHHHH!!! IT'S DECIDED!! We'll go and find GOLD!!!"
/:/~***~/:/
Word Count:(1899)