Forbidden Lands [Rescue Challenge]

[juusan]

Ollie lay slumped against the railing of his ship, staring at the water with a bit of a pout on his face. He'd gotten the ship a bit spontaneously, and now found himself dangerously low on money... but a pirate crew did need a good ship! Ollie slumped a bit more. Well, he didn't actually have a pirate crew yet, even though he'd been searching East Blue for over 2 years for nakama. He didn't think it would be that hard to find good crewmates...

He figured that now that he had a ship, it would be easier to find people to join him (recruiting someone to join a pirate crew on a raft was pretty difficult), an it was. But the guys who tried to join were always bad news, violent guys, and many times Ollie had to step in to help out some of the townspeople they decided to unleash their bad mood on. Those weren't the type of people he wanted on his crew. He wanted great nakama like his mentor Captain Reo had on his ship, or better. But so far he'd been having terrible luck.

And worse than that: he was bored. He hated being bored. Since he'd gotten this new bigger ship no sea monsters had tried to eat him, and he'd had smooth sailing, not a cloud in the sky or so much as one choppy wave. On his raft he had to keep on his toes to avoid falling into the water and drowning due to the fact that he was a Devil Fruit using hammer, and being gobbled up by a Sea King. It was dangerous, but now he felt that he would trade one of those moments from this one.

He sighed and turned around so he was bent over backward and staring at the sky. He looked up at his white sail that was yet to be painted. In fact he hadn't even come up with a Jolly Roger, or a name. He remembered something the Galley La guys had said years ago, that a ship without a name was bad luck, maybe that was why he hadn't found another island yet (and because he was sailing along aimlessly).

"Well I can't have that holding me back, can I?" The future captain said grinning jovially and jumping up. The first thing he saw, however, cleared his mind of his previous task. "Island!"

Indeed, though he didn't know where or what it was, it was an island, ripe for exploring. Without a second thought he turned toward the island in the distance, unaware of the clouds gathering.

By the time he got the the island, the water and wind had gotten so out of control that he had to beach his ship on the sand, mostly sure he could push it back into the water when the storm passed. Ollie stood on the beach and looked up at the dark sky where rain had yet to fall. He looked over at his ship and laughed a bit, "Bad luck, huh? Well, I'd better think up a name. Now what would be a good one?"

Even though Ollie said this, his mind wasn't on names but exploring this strange island. As far as he could see there were no towns or cities, just forest. "Well, maybe it'll come to me while I have a look around, right Shippy?" He grinned and began walking along the shore of the beach, getting farther away from his ship even as the clouds got darker and thunder began to boom and crackle.

[Renegade]

Albel strode across the island, poking around in the bushes for food. He hadn't eaten since the day before and was craving something with meat, anything. As he stepped around a hedge movement caught his eye toward his left and he spied a dear walking by. A grin shown across his face as he saw the poor creature and he reached into his pocket slowly, drawing a card slowly. With a flash of his arm the card flew into the deer's throat. After a frantic kick the beats fell to the ground with a thud.

Smiling, Albel walked over and grabbed the beast, turning and dragging it. "Mmm, you're gonna make a delicious dinner my good friend. I hope you enjoy being seasoned and roasted over an open flame," he said, licking his lips to keep back the water in his mouth. He had been on this island for about one month, defending himself from the tribesman and fighting for his life. It was a life of fun that he was enjoying, however he was starting to get tired of the place. One moment he was helping a crew find their way to the Grand Line, the next moment he had insulted the cook's food and wound up alone on an island full of crazy people.

As he arrives at his campsite, a cave in the side of s cliff face. Albel starts a fire and begins to prepare the food and after a couple of hours he had food. By this time it had already begun to rain, and Albel sat on a rock, staring out into the terrible weather silently. He had witnessed the ship pull onto the beach, seeing as the cliff face was up on a hill so he could keep watch for boats. He tore another bite out of the meat and shook his head, Bah, it's probably just some fool who got stuck on the island during the storm. He's not even flying a flag.. he thinks to himself, his eyed narrowed in thought.

With a deep breath he leans against the cave wall. If the man followed the path through the woods he would eventually notice the cave. Maybe at that point he could get some answers, but until that time came: nap time. Tossing the cleaned bone to the floor Albel closes his eyes and pulls the front of his hat down over his eyes...

[juusan]

"Gah! It's raining, raining!" Ollie chanted out-loud as he ran about trying to find some shelter. He was already soaked through, so there was no point in running, but it was funner to do so. "Huh? Raining? Reigning? The Reigning-" Ollie thumped smack into a tree. "Tree... Un, tree is no good, ow." Ollie sat and rubbed the red spot on his forehead. He hadn't been very lucky at coming up with a name either, and now he was soaking wet and too far from his ship to turn back, it might have been quicker to go all the way around the island.

Ollie stood up again and looked around for anyplace he could stay. He'd wandered into the forest to try to get a bit of shelter from the rain, but the rain seemed to pass right through the barrier of the leaves, straight onto him.

Ollie looked up, then blinked. It looked like there was something glowing out in front of him, like a fire. The blue-haired captain started toward it right away. The light led him to a cave, and it was a fire he could see. Ollie grinned, so someone was on the island after all. "Hello!" He called into the cave, before walking in, chanting lightly as he did so, "I'm coming in!" in th casual way that for some reason got on some people's nerves. He just hoped the person living here wouldn't be one of those people bothered by it.

[Renegade]

"Hello! I'm coming in!"

With those words Albel's eyes darted open and into focus, darting around and finding the man as he entered the cave, soaking wet. He looked like he must have been walking around out there for a while, and the ground around him was wet from his dripping. Rubbing his eyes casually, Albel rises to his feet and walks to the dear, still over the fire. He tears off a meat covered bone and tosses it over his shoulder to the guy. "It's no fine dining, but it's food. Eat," is all he says before walking to edge of the cave.

He stares out into the rain for a few moments, reading the clouds. From what he could tell it was just a flash storm, and would soon be over. These sorts of things happened out in the ocean, where the winds blew in new things every day. He closes his eyes for a minute and lets the wind brush his face before nodding and turning around. He walks back into the cave and sits down on a nearby rock.

"The storm will be over in thirty minutes, with the wind coming from the southern direction. You should be able to return to your crew and take your ship out of here safely at that time. Until then I'd recommend you stay here to wait out the storm and warm up before you catch a chill," he tells him politely, figuring the man would want to escape from the island and continue his adventure with his crew as quickly as possible. It's how all of the people were in this age. It's how his mother was.

[juusan]

(um, Jassop I PM'd you. Your post is kinda off topic so I'm going to skip it until it's edited, alright?)

Ollie took the offered meat with a grin. "It looks great in any case." He said taking a bite. He had been rationing his food aquite a bit since he bought his ship and so the food was a welcome offering. The blue-haired boy listened as the other man spoke, eating the roasted deer as he did. He looked out at the cloudy, raining sky and bllinked up at it. "30 minutes... you can tell that just by looking? Sugei!"

He finished off his piece of meat and stretched his arms behind his head. "Well, I got no reason to hurry. I came here because I was bored anyway... and I like storms." AWith that Ollie bega to chuckle a bit. "Well, anyway, I'm Ollie by the way, or Odie depending on what you wanna call me. I'm a pirate captain, though I don't actually have a crew yet, exactly... but I'm looking for some good guys to join up!"

The aspiring pirate captain smiled and sat back against the wall of the cave. "So do you have a crew waiting for you or do you just live here?" Ollie couldn't help but be especially jovial, the lightning and thunder pounding outside always got his heart pumping and made him a bit excited. That type of casual attitude got him on the wrong side of some people, but he neve saw anything wrong with joking around and being excited.

[Renegade]

Albel listens silently from his perch, or rock as it's more commonly called. He rubs his forehead tiredly and chuckles, "You'll get yourself a crew, it shouldn't be all that hard. Just gotta find the right people," he tells him, a smile on his face. It was true too, in this golden age of piracy, finding a crew who was loyal wasn't a hard thing to do. You just had to have what it takes to lead them.

"As for myself...well," he sighs and looks back outside. He wasn't too fond of sharing the fact he had been thrown out of his first crew after three days of travel. "I had a crew, but I decided to leave it because the captain wasn't all the reliable," he lies, deciding it best to keep what really happened to himself.

He pauses for a few minutes before reaching into his pocket and pulling out a deck of cards. He pulls them out of the box and begins to subconsciously play with them, sending them flying through the air from one hand to the other, catching them and shooting them off in another direction. As he does it his eyes widen, "Hey! You want to kill some time with a game of 21, or poker," he asks with a smile.

[juusan]

Ollie nodded a bit absently at the words of encouragement. He really should be able to find a crew, it seemed like he found pirates everywhere he turned. But so far he hadn't found anyone he'd want on his pirate crew. He thought back to Captain Reo's nakama, and how they all seemed like a big, awkward family. Ollie though he might be being a bit too picky, he often was about the dumbest things, but he always considered nakama to be an important issue.

The second part of the statement sort of alarmed Ollie a little. "You just left?" He never doubted the words for a moment and instead found another thing to worry about. He didn't like thinking that once he had nakama that they could leave again suddenly. Ollie frowned and tried to objectively if he was reliable or not. He really never got the chance to be...

He looked back up at the damp sky and let out a breath. He wasn't the type to worry over things normally. But he'd been feeling the absence of a crew for the last couple of days even more now that he had a ship. Oh well, he'd find someone eventually who would say 'yes' to his offer, until then he shouldn't worry too much on it. It would ruin his adventure.

The sound of the cards being handled behind him drew Ollie's attention and he turned around. More depressing thoughts watched his cave-mate shuffle and throw around the playing cards with such skill and dexterity. "Sugei~!"

The offer to play snapped Ollie out of his awed state and he grinned a bit. "To pass time, sure. Though I gotta say, it's almost a given I'll lose. I love games, but I don't think any of them love me." He got up to move closer to where they would be playing. "I'm not too good at too much of anything." The captain chuckled, sitting back down.

---

Meanwhile in the forest near the cave where the two pirates where setting down to a game, the Kumate Tribesmen where hunting for new prey. Recently they'd captured a group of human explorers, all of which were captured and imprisoned until that very night when they would be boiled and eaten by the entire Tribe of cannibals. However in the excitement that followed the squall that was passing over, one of the explorers had escaped.

Most of the hunters figured the explorer had abandoned his comrades and fled the island, but their chief was insistent that they search anyway, as he was certain he would try to rescue the remaining explorers.

[Renegade]

Albel smiles and swiftly deals him five cards before tossing five cards down in front of himself. He takes a few moments and closes his eyes as a flash of lightning shoots across the sky outside. It seemed kinda of like an omen towards bad things to come. If there was one thing that Albel trusted, it was the weather. It always seemed to be appropriate for whatever situation anyone was in. This night, as it would turn out, was no different.

Turning back to his cards he picks them up off the ground and studies silently. He had a three fives, a jack, and a nine. It was a decent hand, a three of a kinda was hard to come by in this game of chance. Biting his lower lips he decided to trade in the jack and see what he could get. Hopefully he'd pull in a three or a nine and have a winning hand. However, as the dealer, he had to wait for his opponent on the other side to draw first.

Albel rubs his eyes tiredly and looks back up and Ollie, who sat across from him. "Well my friend, luck comes and goes. It's never bad forever, and at the same time it won't stay good for long. If there's one definite in this world it's that nothing stays the same.Your luck will change, just like the winds," he tells him with a smile, "Now any cards you'd like to exchange?"

[juusan]

Ollie looked at his hand and smiled and let out a small laugh. His hand was pretty terrible, but he expected that anyway. "Well that seems like it should be true." He said with good humor. He had a two of hearts, a four or diamonds and spades, a five of hearts, and an eight of clubs. Having two cards the same had to be some kind of miracle.

He put out the eight of clubs, and hoped to get another four, however when he pulled up the card it ended up being the eight of diamonds and Ollie almost laughed again. "Gyah.." That had been completely useless.

---

Meanwhile the escaped explorer was making his way through the forest as quickly and quietly as possible. Preston Pine was his name and he was a botanist, not a fighter. He had never been strong, or fast, or even a particularly good strategist. It was a curse to have landed on this island with those monstrous people, and it was a miracle that he'd managed to slip away.

Knowing that he still hadn't left the island. He knew where their ship was, he could be gone from this place forever, which was exactly what every survival instinct in his body told him to do. But he couldn't. His crew was still caught by the Kumate Tribe and they were still in terrible danger. He wasn't the captain but he still felt responsible for the others, and he couldn't stomach the idea of leaving them and taking away their only means of escape by getting away on their ship. The only thing he could do was somehow take on the tribe, and maybe cause enough chaos that the others can get loose.

There was a rustling of trees and Preston let out a muffled yelp and jumped behind a tree. A deer jumped out then scampered away. The botanist let out a sigh of relief and cursed his own cowardice. He wasn't the person cut out for things like this. He felt ashamed thinking that if it had been anyone else on his crew who'd escaped they would know what to do, but instead his nakama where stuck with having little old him as their savior.

There was another rustle, and this time it wasn't a deer. He saw the figures of two hunters and stiffened. He backed up slowly, trying not to draw their attention over to where he was. He backed up until he bumped into a stone wall, then slid along side the wall until he found a cave opening, and quickly darted inside.

[Renegade]

Albel chuckles as he watches Ollie groan at his hands. That man definitely did not have a poker face. He tosses down his jack into the discard pile and draw another card. It was a nine. He laughs openly as his cards showed a full house. "Well my friend, I'm just going to assume by your reaction I won this game," he says, tossing down his hand to show three fives and two nines. As the cards hit the table another man darts in, looking terrified out of his wits.

Albel rises to his feet swiftly. He knew something was wrong on this day, the weather didn't often lie. As he watched the jittery man he took a few deep breaths and picked up two of his cards. When there was one man looking terrified there were usually others behind him that were not so terrified. Almost as if on cue, two men followed him into the room, looking threatening.

"Get down," he shouts to the scared man who wiftly dived out of the way. Very smoothly Albel proceeded to throw one of the cards at the man, stabbing him right in the jugular with one of the cards. He then spins to add momentum to his next throw, the card nailing the man in his right arm. While it wasn't his most accurate throw he was lucky enough to hit a nerve and stop the man's arm from use.

Albel turns to Ollie, "You finish him off, I'm going to check up on the man and make sure he stays safe. I wouldn't want to steal all of the fun," he says with wink, obviously implying that he was enjoying himself.