[Mission 0] Something Fishy Amidsts The Frogs

[Blaka]

Grand Line, Goya Island, “Hell’s Garden”: A small green creature was hiding in an opened crate of fruit, peeping outside through a tiny hole in the wood. Their little paddies clang tightly to the crate’s walls, so the frog wouldn’t be thrown around with the apples and pears in here. It had been quite the bumpy ride for the past few minutes, as the soldier carrying the box didn’t exactly pay attention to the wellbeing of his stowaway.

Said stowaway was relieved to see the outside looking fairly familiar. As in, there were at least trees here, like back home. As soon as they had arrived on the last island, full of heated sand and volcanic activity, Frogchops had decided to simply change ship instead of staying there - of course they hadn’t known, and still didn't, that the one they had hopped on to had been a Marine vessel headed for the Grand Line. Nor did they know what the Marines or the Grand Line even was. However, hiding in the food storage, they had done well for themselves for the length of the journey, ready to be excited for this new island.

“Put it down here, theyll come pick it up, lets get more from the ship"
All of the sudden, the rumbling stopped. The soldier had stopped walking. A final bump shook the entire crate as he said it down on the ground. Quickly, multiple people’s steps hurried away. A minute later, its inhabitant crawled out from under the fruits, fastened the cord strapping their knife to their back, straightened their sunhat and pulled their dungarees up properly. It was time to explore this new land! Without looking back at the familiar pile of wooden boxes they had lived in for so many days, the fun sized frog hopped into the sunny forest.

[Bobbie]

A few days ago, Nina found herself on a new island – Goya Island. She had no real reason for being there, nor did she know where ‘there’ was, actually, other than a game of hide and seek. Having been sought out on the last island she was on, the girl was convinced that she had found the best hiding spot where nobody would find her and she would win the game. She was correct!

In fact, her hiding spot was so great that it took her across the seas down Whale Shark Route while she was nestled in a cosy corner among the cargo. What started off as a fun game of hide-and-seek, excitingly imbalanced as the one hider faced multiple seekers, soon turned into a boring waiting game, and then a fascinating treasure hunt as her grubby fingers dug through all the cargo. Following that, Nina engaged in creating her own form of a ball pit with all the insulation packing that she tore out of the crates in cargo. Eventually, however, her mind would tire even of this and she would seek stimulation elsewhere. That opportunity presented itself when the ship came to a halt as it docked at the port of Goya Island, three days ago.

After her swift evasion from the crew that her hiding spot actually belonged to, she was left to her own devices in the lusciously green forestland of the island.

Now presented with all sorts of exciting adventures, Nina was eager to make her way through the thick foliage like a true jungle girl, chasing every creature that provided a fun chase, gawking at every reflection in puddles on the ground, and giggling at every insect that tickled her skin. As the days passed, keeping herself amused was never an issue, but the greatest challenge was keeping herself fed. All she had on her was a small pack that she carried across her chest and never took off, as was the instruction from Mr Ridley. This pack held her medicine and kept it safe and at the appropriate temperature to ensure it maintains maximum efficacy.

Nibbling on some berries that she had gathered and counted until she reached the exact number of 52 berries, the girl in a red and white striped top and denim shorts walked through what she called The Jungle of Magic Men. Magic Men who had magical suits and spoke in their own weird language that she didn’t understand.

“Fifteen~!” she sang as she threw in a fifteenth berry into her mouth, her cheeks huge with all the berries that she had tucked away in there. “Six-“ she was about to chuck in another one when she heard a voice nearby, talking about getting things from a ship. Sucking on the juices of the berries that were slowly being crushed and torn apart by her razor sharp teeth, she seemed to have reached the edge of the forest as she peered over some bordering bushes and watched some people walk away from a box that they had just left behind.

With one swift chomp, the berries were flattened at the mercy of the girl’s teeth and she slurped the juices before swallowing the chewed fruit and approaching the abandoned box. She had only set one foot out of her shaded spot, when something small and green seemed to hop out of it!

A little gasp escaped her, followed by a giggle, and then a wide toothy grin was on her face. “Finally!" she muttered to herself, having just found her newest obsession.

It was such an odd creature – she had never seen a frog wearing a hat and dungarees before! Her childish imagination was sneaking into all sorts of corners and pulling out all kinds of crazy scenarios of what else this amphibian could do!

With a playful hum, the fishwoman followed her new prey, her hands forgetting the berries as they fell to the ground and rolled into the nearest burrow.

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Nina: #ffa516

[Blaka]

Nina’s prey had no clue about the girl who was watching. Nothing but the nice day was a concern right now. No humans, no birds, no other dangers around and the sun was shining brightly, what more could one want!? It was time to enjoy life and discover everything there was to discover around here!

Right away, the little skipper discovered a fun path to take. There was the root of a tree here, which had been growing above ground in an arch, forming a fun little tunnel to crawl through. Excited, they leapt towards and under it. Frogchops could do stuff like this for days without getting bored, appreciating the tiniest details.

The conditions were quite similar to back home actually, same deciduous woods, same regular old grass, very similar flowers. Honestly, they had expected a little more alien variety from other lands, just like they were told. But oh well, this really was a most minor detail. They strolled on like this for a while, not noticing a soul in sight.

Eventually, they grew hungry again, so looking for food became the new goal. It would be great if some of those potato soups would grow here, the frog thought to themselves. Not that they knew what those looked like when not on a plate. They were imagining large, bubbly fruits, like water balloons, containing a serving of soup ready to go.

Instead, all they found was a bush full of blue berries. Those would do fine too for now. In a single motion, Frogchops draw the cleaver from his back and leapt up to a berry, slicing it clean off the plant so it could fall into their mouth.

Yummy!

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Frogchops: 00ff60

[Bobbie]

As Nina watched her prey, a harmless and playful smile on her face, she quickly moved to follow the little frog, her toes tippy tapping on the soil and natural debris of fallen leaves and twigs. She tried her best to be silent and keep herself hidden, maintaining enough distance for most targets to be oblivious to any sounds coming from her, should a twig snap beneath her bare feet.

The girl watched it crawl underneath the arched root and she frowned – there was no way she could fit under there, and this just wasn’t fair. Looking around her, she took a quick detour that didn’t lead her very far, just until she’d spot another curled root, similar to the one Frogchops had just leapt under, but larger, and then crawled under it too. With a giggle she emerged on the other end, feeling like a super spy, enduring all sorts of obstacles to pursue her target.

She continued to follow her new tag-partner with the full intention of catching it, and only came to a halt when it did, keeping herself concealed within the bushes as she watched on. Crouched in the brush, she noticed that the frog had stopped in front of a blueberry bush – which was a good thing, because she really was starting to get tired of chasing it.

However, what the frog did next, she did not expect, and her eyes widened. “A knife? What’s a frog doing with a knife?” she asked herself as she watched on curiously, before she finally decided it was time to go.

Inching forward as quietly as she could, she emerged from her hiding spot, before suddenly lunging forward in a burst of bubbly energy and recklessly reached out to grab the frog, despite having already caught a glimpse of a bladed tool that it wielded.

“Got you~!” she sang, already assuming her victory as her little hands clasped on what, by her childish calculations, would be the frog’s belly, and she raised it into the air.

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Nina: #ffa516

[Blaka]

Yuuummmmyyyy!

Delicious juice was filling up the frogs mouth as they squashes the berry between their palate and tongue. For a moment, this taste took them back to the sunny days of relaxing on a leaf in the pond back home. Exactly what they had needed right now! And there were so many more of these moments to come too!

Unfortunately, this excitement did not last for more than a few seconds. The touch of something large ripped the skipper right out of their dream. Surprises like these were what they truly despised. Immediately, every bad instinct kicked in. This touch could be anything, it could already be too late, life itself was on the line, time to react as quickly as possible!

A second later, a monster burst out of the grasp holding them. Using the power of their devil fruit, Frogchops grew over thirteen times in size, grew muscle packed arm, a bulging belly, hooves and a snout with threatening tusks, roaring as loud as possible. At the same time, they turned around and lept backwards, crushing most of the oh so delicious berry bush with their behind. This left a fair amount of juice on their pants, but that was the least of their worries. A predator was after them afterall!

For a split second, the frightened beast assessed the threat - a human girl, it looked like. Fairly inconspicuous, no dangerous weapons or anything in sight, but that didn’t alleviate any worries. Afterall, many beasts of prey knew well how to seem harmless, only to strike when their victims least expected it. In a calmer moment, Frogchops might have been able to stop and think this through, but their reflexes did not let them calm down yet.

“No you don’t!”, they yelled on top of their lungs, raising their cleaver, ready to chop anything that would come too close.

[Bobbie]

As she caught the frog and raised it as high as her arms could go, she let out a squeal of giggles not unlike what a young child would produce. She was victorious! She captured her prey and now they would be ‘it’, though she wasn’t sure if they would return with the same excitement or even chase her at all.

Before her thoughts could go on, something very strange happened, as the little frog in dungarees, was suddenly far too large and heavy for her little fingers to wrap around and her short arms to hold up. Her wide grin disappeared as she witnessed nothing short of a monster seem to appear out of nowhere, having somehow been hiding within the skin of that frog. Her eyes wide, she stared at it in horror, her arms hanging down by her side now.

It was huge and terrifying, the large belly that threatened to knock her back, the long hog-like snout that she could already hear snorting and roaring at her, and finally the pair of long tusks that looked perfectly capable of impaling her upon them, should this monster lunge at her.

While she was frozen in horror, she was also very curious, as her mind struggled to keep up with both sentiments and find a balance between the two. Her legs wanted to run, but her eyes just couldn’t look away. Every bone in her body screamed at her to move, but her mind urged her to stay, hungry for more interaction with this curious creature. However, a gasp escaped her as the beast raised its bladed weapon high into the air, reflecting the sun’s rays in her eyes for a moment, and a bellowing voice came from the monster that stood before her.

Nina let out a sharp and shrill scream before dropping to the ground, her bare feet rooted to the ground and her knees now held tightly to her chest. Afraid of the angry half-pig, half-frog that seemed to want to cut her down, her childish logic followed that of any young child in bed and in fear of the bogeyman knocking at their window: if I don’t look at it, it can’t hurt me.

The small girl lowered her head onto her arms that were firmly wrapped around her knees, and let her bright orange hair drape over her elbows. As she remained crouched, making herself as small as possible, she couldn't help but wonder if this was part of the game. It shouted 'no you don't' at her, but... she already did. Is this a new counter to being tagged?

Either way, she didn’t dare move.

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Nina: #ffa516