......
The sea...
with quick splashing sounds of Rei shoes, the little girl looked back to the chained warship which now begun to fade on the horizon behind them, she still couldn't calmed down her agitated heart as they traversed the calm and wavy blue sea.
just a few moments ago they were in dangerous situation with death hanging around their head! all she could seen were destruction and the unceasing cannon fire, but now it was only blue sea and the mysterious man's back with his overflowing white hair running on sea, with splashing sounds of water!
feeling they were now safe, Rei stoped on his track in the middle of the sea, he saw right ahead the cloud began to darken and he had uncomfortable feeling seeing that.
"hey, where to go now?" Rei asked feeling lost,
"huh? huh? what did you say?" the little girl tried her hardest to calm herself down.
Rei sighed and asked once more, "okay, where we going right now, maybe you have an idea?"
the little girl exclaimed, "ah thats right, wait, wait please."
the little girl seems looking around in search of something, just a few moments later she closed her eyes and moving her mouth seemingly in conversation with someone, nonetheless, Rei wouldn't know about what happened on his back.
after a few minutes, the little girl stoped what was her doing, she opened her eyes and frowned while she said,
"there's gonna be a storm coming here."
Rei squinted his eyes and saw the cloud gathered faster and faster ahead of them both,
Rei nodded and asked, "okay i can see that, so? where to go now? we need to find shelter first."
the little girl repeated what she had done before, not taking too long, she opened her mouth and said,
"my island is not far from here, maybe we can get there before the storm hit us."
Rei, "do you know the way?"
Rei saw her little hand pointed upfront towards the sea not far from them and he heard,
"follow him!"
bewildered by her reply, Rei wanted to ask more and yet,
'SPLAAASH!'
'WOOOSH!'
there was a huge orca right on the spot where the little girl pointed at earlier, it jumping out of the sea making the water splashing around! it was seemed like saying to follow it behind.
"thats..." Rei was amused of what he saw,
"go! lets follow him!" exclaimed the girl.
the orca swam quite fast and Rei followed closely behind, the little girl giggled with glee as the orca sometimes splashing sea water towards them in playful manner.
unknown to them there was a small sailboat followed from behind, Eric the weirdo Mercenary were seen on the boat using a binocular, monitoring Rei and the little girl. Eric smirked as he begun to follow them both using his small sailboat.
after Eric got stomped away by Rei, he pretended to lose his consciousness so he could slipped away unnoticed from Nelson and his hencheman, in fact the reason why Eric cooperate with Nelson was none other than money and the same goal as Nelson himself.
the Dragon, indeed most of people said Dragon was only a myth and none existed, that was until Nelson found the legend about Dragon in East Blue, it turns out after several research the 'allegedly' dragon bones or it could be called 'dragonite' has the effect to prolonging ones life and it was often called 'Elixir of Immortality' in legend.
Eric as wandering merchenary had also heard of such stories, but he chose to rather believed it rather than casts it aside as old wives tale like his other compatriots did. so, when Nelson hired him for help in his quest to find the mythical Dragon and its Nests, he gladly accepted it.
the reason why Eric successfuly captured the little girl was also simple, in his quest he went to the island which he thought has the highest probability in finding some clues, which was coincidentally the island which the girl lived in.
as he came ashore, he stumbled upon the girl whom asking around about 'dragon nest' towards the merchants whose embarked on the island dock, Eric coincidentally saw the little girl pendant hung on her neck which resembled 'the Millenial Dragon Claw'.
following his gut feeling, Eric captured the helpless little girl and took her back to the marine base so he could hear her answers whether or not she knew about the dragon.
'clip, clip, clip, clip.....'
'ZAAAAAASHHHH.....'
after brewing the cloud, rain finaly came pouring down, the rain was just drizzling at the beginning however as the time goes on, it turned into heavy downpour!
'CRAAAAACK...!'
'RRRRUUUUUMBLLEEEE....!'
with a flash of white light the thunder resounding loudly on the sea! lightning and thunder repeatedly smited from the dark cloud.
'HUUUUUU...'
the wind began to picked up the pace, Rei frowned as he and the little girl now drenched by rain water on the sea, he raised his voice to the little girl,
"hey, is it still far away?"
the wind storm slammed their body repeatedly as Rei sometimes swaying left and right, the little girl on his back heard what Rei was saying and she replied with a yell,
"he said, its just in front!"
"...'he?' the orca?"
"yes! AAAAAAA....."
'RUUUMBLEEEE....!'
the little girl screamed right besides Rei's ear making the later's ear buzzing, it can't be helped as the last thunder struck just right besides them both!
"hey! bite your teeth! my ear hurts!" exclaimed Rei in displeasure.
"ah! ah! im sorry...!"
"just keep silent okay!"
after a few moments in the middle of storm, Rei finaly saw fog appeared right ahead, he followed the orca into the fog.
"yes! this is it! my island is just ahead!" yelled the girl excitedly once more beside Rei's ear.
clicking his tongue, Rei couldn't help but pinched her calf because of her voice.
"ah! what are you doing!"
"stop screaming! my ear hurts!" yelled Rei's back comicaly!
the little girl burried her head into Rei's white hair feeling embarassed.
"KUOOOONG.."
suddenly there was loud voice of orca came from ahead, as Rei squinted his eyes he saw a structure resembled those of warship in a distance! it was massive, much more huge compared to the 8th branch marine base mothership earlier.
hearing the sound, the little girl also raised her head and saw the familiar scene, she smiled so hard as she put her mouth closer to Rei's ear once more and said carefuly,
"thats my island!"
"thats? is that warship?" within Rei's vision he could identified several parts that looked like a massive warship silhouette from behind the fog.
"no, no, its island but yes, its look like warship from distance, it has 'Warship Island' as name after all." added the girl whom giggled in glee hearing how surprised Rei voice was.
'i see, so that is the so called 'Warship Island', it sure has different vibe from the anime.' Rei thought while finaly he could see more clearly its coastline.
the orca stoped just several distance away from the coast and whistled loudly!
"KUOOOOONG....."
the little girl waved towards the orca from Rei's back and yelled,
"THANK YOU VERY MUUCH! BE CAREFUL OF STORM!"
Rei pinched her calf once again as his ears buzzed, the storm was getting heavier and heavier currently. so, Rei rised his speed to maximum in order to reached the island shore.
just right when Rei's chakra almost emptied out, both of them finaly reached the sandy beach.
"UWAAAAAH....!" Rei shouted on top of his lung and droped the girl from his back, he kneeled on the sand and breathed out sigh of relief as they finaly stepped out from the sea.
〜〜〜〜〜
meanwhile...
in the middle of the storm, a small boat could been seen swaying between huge waves.
"GOD DAMN IT! WHY THERE IS A STORM?!"
inside the small cabin boat, Eric were cursing out nonstop, the wind, rain and thunder drowned all of the other voice inside the cabin, it was all dark all around him as there was no way he could light up the candle in the middle of storm.
"JUST WAIT YOU DAMNED GIRL! WHEN I CATCH YOU, I'LL RIP OUT YOUR GUTS IF YOU DON'T TELL ME ABOUT THE DRAGON!"
heaving up and down, Eric's rage couldn't stop, in fact, his wrath and resentment began to climb unprecedentedly when he recalled the 'creature' whom had kicked him before.
"AND YOU TOO FREAK! I DON'T KNOW WHO YOU ARE, IF WE MEET AGAIN, I'LL MAKE SURE TO CUT ALL OF YOUR LIMB ONE BY ONE!
all of sudden the boat swayed heavily as the huge wave crashed at it, the world seemed spinning non-stop all around Eric.
"GOOD! DAAAAAMN! IIIIT!"
'CRAAAASH....!'
"RRRRUMMMBLEEEE..."
the storm engulfed a lonely boat without mercy in the night without any signs of stopping!
.......
1 of 2 bonus chapter.
just moved my work from Novel to Fanfic section, thx to one of our reader for the notice