Lucy examined the island, which we were nearly upon. "So this is Little Garden!" she said.
Zoro was unamused. "What the hell do they mean by little?" he grumbled, scowling and raising an eyebrow. I had to admit, it was pretty much the exact opposite of its name. All the trees on Little Garden were so huge, they towered over us. I had to crane my neck back to see the tops, and we were still a good ways out from shore.
"Again," I complained, "why the hell is everything on this stupid ocean SO FREAKIN' BIG?"
"This place is nowhere near as cute as it sounds," Nami agreed.
Usopp backed up, raising his hands protectively. "This is like, unexplored territory!" he said, sweating nervously. "An untamed jungle!"
"Only untamed by human standards," I pointed out. "I'm sure the local wildlife's mastered it just fine."
Vivi looked up seriously. "We have to be careful. I'm still concerned about what Miss All Sunday said."
I huffed. "Oh, give it a rest, princess. We said we'd get you home no matter what, didn't we?"
Usopp was freaking out now. "Eh!? Do you think she meant there's gonna be monsters here?!"
"Maybe," Lucy said bluntly.
"What!? Let's just go to the next island without stopping here!"
"Idiot," Nami said, hitting him over the head. "Honestly, do any of you pay attention at all? Even if there are monsters here, we have to stay here until the Log Pose resets!"
"That, and it's about time we stocked up on some provisions," Sanji added. "We didn't get a chance to get anything at the last town."
Zoro pointed to a spot on the coastline of Little Garden. "I see a river mouth up ahead!"
"I'd say you did a good job, Marimo," I muttered sarcastically, "but the river's on the other side of the ship. Dumbass."
"WHAT WAS THAT!?'
Everyone ignored our squabbling, leaning out over the railing to see the river for themselves. It cut through the jungle in a slow current. Once Nami had ended the brimming fight between Zoro and I (her fist was smoking afterwards—no surprise there), she had us sail into the river mouth.
As we entered the river, Lucy giggled. "I wonder if there's a yakiniku restaurant here!" she sang.
"What the hell would one be doing here?" Usopp deadpanned.
She looked at Sanji. "But didn't you just say we needed provisions?"
"Just because we said that doesn't mean a restaurant will randomly appear, idiot," I admonished her with an amused snort. "And anyway, ya get supplies at shops and stands, not restaurants."
"Really?"
"Yes."
"Landing is going to be dangerous," Nami noted, scanning the edge of the river. She frowned and pointed. "I mean, look at those plants! Those aren't in any botany book I've ever read." It was true. The plants were strange and I couldn't place a name on them. They looked like they came from a whole different age... which, of course, they did.
"You read botany books?" I said. "No wonder you're so mad all the time!"
"WHY THE HELL ARE YOU SO SARCASTIC LATELY!?"
"PMS?" Zoro suggested.
I glared at him. "STFU MARIMO!"
A few loud and ugly cries rose up from the jungle, making me jump and Nami scream. Sanji swooned and cooed something about us being cute when we were afraid, which earned him two punches from me.
The local ginger looked behind the stupid love cook, who was sitting on the railing. A bird was flying above him, descending. "What is that ?" Nami gasped.
"Don't worry," he reassured her after taking a quick glance at it and turning back to us. "It's just a little old bird. And this is just your normal old jungle. Nothing to worry about."
My eyes widened. "A little old bird that could eat you whole and think you were a snack!"
He blinked and turned, just in time to see the green-plumed giant parrot snatch at him with its claws. He only barely rolled across the deck, missing it by the blonde hair on the back of his head. Sanji popped back up and glared at it, tic-pulsing. "WHAT THE HELL, YOU SHITTY BIRD!?"
Lucy blinked and looked at the retreating... thing. Now that I got a better look at it, it wasn't a parrot at all. It was some weird cross between a chicken and a lizard, more on the chicken side, and only had parrot wings. Its plumage was bright green and red in color, and its beak and talons looked razor sharp.
"A lizard?" the straw hatted girl wondered. "I wonder how it tastes."
"Can't be a lizard," I told her. "Lizards don't fly. But what the hell is it?"
BOOM.
"That sounded like a volcano erupting!" Usopp shrilled.
I rolled my eyes, though the sudden rumbling explosion had secretly scared me, too. Not that I'd admit it. "Well, considering we did see volcanoes on our way here, that's not altogether surprising, isn't it?"
Nami's eyes were wide with terror. "Is that the kind of sound you'd hear in a NORMAL jungle!?"
We didn't have much time to answer her, though, because at that second, yellow eyes flashed on the edge of the treeline. And out stepped a tiger, or lion, or something like that. I always got those two mixed up... in any case, that in itself wouldn't have been much of a shocker (this was a jungle, after all), but that was leaving out the fact that it was HUGE. Like everything else we'd seen so far, it had to have taken steroids or something, because it was at least the size of the Going Merry. And speaking of the Merry, the tiger/lion was stalking the ship along the coastline, eying us hungrily.
I gulped. Not good.
The huge beast roared at us, showing off the fangs that had replaced its teeth.
"A tiger!?" gasped Nami. Oh, so that was what it was. Nice to know what's gonna eat me.
The long nosed sniper's eyes grew as large as dinner plates. "It's freakin' huge!"
"Thanks for that, Captain Obvious," I gulped, my voice small.
"Oi, I'm the captain! Not Usopp!" Lucy said, pouting at me, seemingly unaffected by the massive tiger that wanted to make us its lunch. Zoro and Sanji just glanced at it in boredom, making me gawk at their passiveness.
Suddenly the tiger randomly spurted blood and screeched, thrashing about before just falling on its side, covered in its own blood. Nami, Usopp, and I both shouted in fright, wondering what the hell could've killed that thing so suddenly and yet not have been seen by us.
"What?" Nami demanded, horrified. "What happened to it?" She looked at me as though I knew the answer... which for once, I didn't. "What could've killed the king of the jungle!? This is not normal! This is most definitely not normal!"
I shook my head, trying to clear my thoughts. There was nothing to fear here, I told myself. I beat those huge hellhounds on Conomi Island. I can beat these things, too, and if I can't, well, we've got the Monster Trio with us. I actually managed to make myself feel a little better.
Usopp nodded and declared, "Well then, it's decided! We are NOT stopping on this island!"
"We'll just sit on the ship and quietly wait for the Log Pose to record the magnetic field," the navigator agreed, sounding scared out of her mind. "Then we get out of here as fast as possible. I mean, we do have to get to Alabasta as soon as possible, right?"
We managed to find a clear stretch of land and dropped anchor near the edge of the river. The flag stopped waving and sank down. We rolled up the now-useless sails.
Lucy was beside herself with excitement, giggling like a maniac. "Sanji, bento!" she ordered. That means lunchbox.
The cook, who had just lit another cigarette (I wish he'd just stop smoking already, it made me sick!), blinked. "Bento?"
"Yeah, to recharge my power!" she turned away from the island to give us an impossibly wide grin. "A TON of meat and NO vegetables! A purate bento! I smell an adventure!"
Nami was unsympathetic. "Now just a moment, you!" she snapped, sliding in between the two. "Just where do you think you're going?"
Sparkles lit up on Lucy's face and she clapped her hands together excitedly. "On an adventure! Shishishi! Wanna come? Adventure! Adventure!"
The poor redhead cried anime tears. Usopp's jaw dropped at her.
"Sanji, bento!" our captain repeated.
"Coming right up, Lucy-chan!" he cooed.
"Oi, ero-cook! Might as well get me one, too."
"You can count on me, Yuril-chan!" he declared. "Gimme a minute."
The two wimps stared at me in shock. I shrugged at them. "What? I might as well go. I've been bored out of my mind anyway."
Lucy giggled at me and wrapped her rubbery hands around my body in a stretchy hug, making me blush a deep maroon. "Yay! We're going on another adventure together, Yuril!" she cheered.
My eye twitched in embarrassment. "Y-y-yes. Now can you p-please let go?"
Vivi grinned. "Ne, is it okay if I go with you guys, too?"
"Yes, come on!" Lucy accepted. "Let's go!"
This was too much for Nami. "Don't tell me you're going along with this, too!?" she gasped in disbelief as Lucy continued her incredibly stupid dance.
The desert princess looked at her apologetically. "Well, if I stay here, I'll just get depressed," she explained. "I might as well relax while we wait for our Log to reset."
"Don't!" the navigator advised her. "Lucy does this all the time and Yuril's just freakishly strong, but it's far too dangerous for you!"
"It'll be alright! Carue will be with me."
The duck face-faulted and looked at her in horror.
Nami sweatdropped. "He's so surprised he can't speak."
"He can't speak anyway," I laughed. "He's a duck!"
Sanji slid out of the kitchen, holding up boxes in different colored cloths: Red for Lucy, black for me (I assumed because of the color of my jacket), and blue for Vivi. "Here are my special Love Bentos!" he announced.
We took them gratefully, though my eye twitched at the "Love" part.
"Can you make some of your Special Drink for Carue, too?" Vivi asked.
"Of course!"
Once everything was put in a backpack carried by Lucy, except for Carue's Special Drink, which the duck wore in a mini barrel with a long straw strapped to his neck, we all leapt off the Merry and onto the shore of Little Garden. I grinned as I landed. I was gonna get to see dinosaurs IN REAL LIFE! How many people would ever get the chance to see this back home? None! This was really amazing!
Vivi boarded her duck. "Okay, we're off!" she said, and together, we took off into the jungle, eager to see what would await us in its dark depths.
Little did I know that a ghost from my past was coming back to haunt me... One that I'd previously thought to be long gone. One that was supposed to be locked away. One that hated me to my bones.