Island of Golden Sugar[OPEN!]

[outsanity]

"I heard..." his boss began to speak to him and a few other workers. "That there is a gold sugar on this island that only grows from the stalks to the north! This sugar is said to be one hundred times the sweetness of normal sugar!"

The group all looked at each other with wide eyes, 'Oooing' and 'Awwing' at the potential. They all seemed to understand or at least pretending to understand what was going on. Jazz stood in the background, picking his ear in a classical uninterested sort of way while only half hearing what his boss had to say. Over his shoulder was a sack of sugar weighting maybe about 50lbs and though it would normally be heavy he carried it over his shoulder with easy. He had worked and lived here for quite some time as it was an island as much like his own as he could find in the South Blues. One would thing that for the south blue there would be more islands of the same style, but tropics and the like were hard to come by and even then he was swapping the lovely resourcefulness of his own home for that of one based around sugar only. However, it wasn't anything he could complain about. Everything here was mellow. Few troubles came about and thus few things that were exciting. Thus, in his opinion, why people could get so excited about the prospect of really sweet sugar.

"It's the treasure of all sugars! The legendary gold sugar. And we know that it does exist because the world government has requested it personally. If we can refine this for them, we can make the island rich! There is only a very specific stalk of sugar with the special attributes of the gold sugar, so watch out for it..." he said looking around the group of people as if to build nestagia. "Its only a singl stalk, reaching into the sky like bamboo and colored gold like the sugar itself. One would think that it would be easy to fine right!? But it can only be seen at night... during the day, the gold sugar retracts into the ground and no one can find it! Thus... because of how hard it is to find..."

Once again he paused. The wide eyed workers looked on begging him to continue, silently stammering in awe of the magic and wonder that only golden sugar could provide. Jazz on the otherhand, could only devote a part of his attention as he was much more interested in many other things then that, but even he wanted to hear at least the conclusion. It was like listening to a comedian and only hearing the punch line, but at least he could get the jist of the joke itself.

"Because of how hard it is to find, if you do manage to bring back a stalk of this golden cain, you will get a 10,000 beri bonus on the spot!" Everyones eyes beamed as whoops and holars were heard through out the crowd of workers. This was a processing factory for sugar, if you haden't realized. On this island, a bamboo cain sugar grew, and it grew very quickly. It was, however, the prominant plant on the island, and it was said that there was even a devil fruit some where on the island that could make the eater a sugar man, though that only interested him so much as well considering he too had his own devil fruit power. In any case, a bonus like that was a big deal when sugar is your main product. This even perked the ears of young Jazz, whose uniterested eyes looked up with some symptoms of actual inquiry. With 10,000 beri he could afford a boat of his own and leave this island in which he had been stuck for so long. Don't get me wrong, he was completely content on this island, but he had a sense of adventure that was much bigger then just this place. He didn't see himself pushing sugar for the rest of his life, after all. Here was his chance!

Otherwise he was quite docile, but finally, after such a long time a small spark was lit. If he could find this sugar cain then he could leave the island once and for all, to find where he himself belong. A Clay man, whose very body was the same composition as the substance he was named after, had no business sitting around being complacent! The more he thought about it, the more he got himself pumped up. Here he really knew no one other then the people that worked around him. He had his own shelter and home that he built, and caught his own food. He was practically a stranger on this island that he had been so long. This was a fact easy to ignore until the potential for more came over the horizon. Hope... it makes fools of us all, and stars out of some!

But is seems he wasn't the only person that had some ambition. He looked about himself after his own personal excitement and came to realize. Many of these men around him that celebrated in the news were also dreaming of what they would do with that sort of bonus. Many of them were much older, had houses, bills to pay, mouths to feed. Many had wives and families; they would search for the treasure with more then just themselves in mind, they would be doing it for others. What motives people more then doing something for themselves is doing something for the ones they love and care about, and this powerful influence only brought him to question himself. Did he have the drive to not only beat himself, but also the hearts and motives of an entire crowd of people who have spent their lives on this island? Well, there was only one way to find out...

When the day came to an end, and everyone was clocking out, the masses of workers was bustling with anticipation. Some claimed it was a waste of time to chase after a treasured golded cane of sugar, others said that they may have seen it or have heard rumors themselves and knew exactly where to look first. Wildfire among individuals and one couldn't ease drop on a conversation without hearing an elaborate tale or wild disclaimers. It was the most excitement he had heard from here in awhile, and it was oddly refreshing. What did Jazz do? He didn't talk to anyone about anything! He went back to his little bamboo shelter and put up his things. He then looked to the setting sun in the east... then to the north, his destination.

"This will be too easy! All these islanders know nothing about hunting and gathering... i'll find the golden sugar before midnight!" And set off into the Sugar cane forests...

[For anyone posting... FEEL FREE TO EITHER JOIN THE PLOT OR TAKE IT ANYWHERE YOU WANT!]

[Cirrus]

"Golden sugar?" questioned Dylan. The doctor had been reading a flyer that had decided to fly into his path. He had caught it, and then he had began to read it intently, scouring the page three times. The first time was scanning for details, the second time was scanning for information, and the third time was reading the flyer through thoroughly.
"A competition open to the public. Find six stalks of golden sugar cane, and receive 10,000 beli for each one. If you find it before the sugar plantation workers, you'll receive a bonus." He had said to himself.

It was an odd preposition. On one hand, he could study the effects of differently coloured foods on the body, a new paper would have been in order. But on the other hand, it could have been a hoax or a fleeting fancy. Ever since his visit to Noro Island Dylan was more cautious about doing things on a whim.
"Why not? If it's a hoax, I can find out why, and if the claim is legitamate, then it's free 60,000 + beli." he said.

At that moment, another poster flew on the wind into his path. The wind was becoming his mailman today. Although, this poster beheld some actual news.
"Oh...that's fortunate."

It was a picture of himself, and underneath were the words
"Wanted: Dead or Alive." and " "Black Cloud" Dylan Wolf"
Even better, the number in big lettering underneath the statement.
"B25,000,000 bounty."

Dylan tried to contain his excitement. He had received his first bounty, and it was a high one for the blues. Surely he could find a pirate crew now!

With a renewed spring in his step, Dylan walked to the north of the island, were the supposed golden sugar cane grew. Civillians seemed to have read similar posters, as they now ran away in fear.

[outsanity]

In all honesty he hadn't known where to start looking. There were plenty of rumors of individuals who had claimed to have it seen it themselves, but he knew better then to follow the silly banter of know nothing factory workers (only the more ironic that he himself was one of them). The dusk had settled in and the sun was set, thought its remnant still hung in the sky bringing an odd sort of time where night has yet to fall and all things that lived in the darkness were slowly beginning to unearth themselves to the world above. Little noises of creatures coming about; creeks and chirps from the world around him made the otherwise creepy silence seem ever more still. If he were to speak, he would do it in a whisper, as even he found it necessary to be quite; as if someone was listening to him. However, without himself and his own thoughts to keep, he wondered about where such a hunt would start. He was also surprised that there wasn't anyone else up here like himself, looking for it through the natural brush and forests of sugar cane. He was far from any trails that cut this far north, and it was really this part of the island that was left untouched because of its more active wild life and the need to preserve parts of the forest for natural reasons. It all worked out considering how quickly the sugar cane grew. In only an hour, it could rise an inch and the act of 'watching grass grow' really applied here. Seriously, it was probably a sport.

Well what did he know? If the shoot was literally golden then it's reflective properties would only been seen by light. He didn't have much in the way of light himself so maybe making a fire in the near future was a good idea. If there was a glimmer, he could catch it by torch light. If the gold was more of a... change in tint, it would be a bit harder to find, though he was aware that the cane itself was supposed to be 10x as sweet, and sugar itself had a very distinct scent. In this forest, one could basically open their mouth and taste the flavor of the air. It would take some sensitivity, but he could tell if he was around something spiking in sugar. In the mean time he thought he would get around to making that fire and continue his brainstorm as he did so. He looked around, a bit in paranoia; to make sure that no one was there to see him. You see, he was a Devil fruit user but no one on the island to date knew that. He decided a long time ago that it was better that no one knew that fact, and thus never used his clay ability unless it was absolutely safe to do so. Out here in the middle of no where, even on the small sugar island, he thought that he would check before hand. Of course there was no one he could see and from his own being it would seem as though a staff would extend. It was a handle forged of clay itself, and took some focus to make it just right, however, hardened, it would make a perfect extension of his own hand in which to carry fire.

The Cane itself was more then just sugar. unrefined it could be burnt, and the younger stalks, had a film of oil like substance that coated the inside of the bamboo like stalk that could be burnt very simply. It wasn't to hard to form a wedge torch from the clay and a few normal shoots. Harden clay could be used for a spark and before he knew it, he had light. It was lucky that he himself was so resourceful, as even though he lacked knowledge of the sea, taking advantage of land was his specialty. He was able to do this quickly enough that he still had a few moments of light left in the dusk. The real search could continue now! He held the fire slightly bellow head level so that the fumes could rise and from under his flame. The scent it carried was diluted because of the fire and thus the stalks scent would be noticeable to him. They had the next two days off, so he would search all night and find out all that he could. There was always the little thought in the back of his mind that perhaps there wasn't anything associated with gold cane and that this was just an elaborate wild goose chase, but if it was command coming from the the world government, then it had to be real enough... he was betting on this chance and so were so many other men like himself.

-----

Little did he know, somewhere out on the open sea, a group of marine ships were also headed toward the island in search of a treasure of their own. They themselves would get there by morning... and soon the Cinna island would have it's first run in with the Marines.