Shichibukai Hunter
Posts : 2289
Join date : 2010-04-28
Age : 30
Location : In your bushes.
 | Subject: Chasing Ghosts  Tue Oct 04, 2011 9:38 am | |
| This is a multi-part story about my character Quintus Verronus and what happened to him after he left the Hooded Knights as they were going to Amazon Lily. I'm not sure how many chapters this story will have, but I am guessing it will be either four or five. There should also be a brief epilogue at the end. I'm not going to set a schedule for when I update this story since I'll be writing it when I have the time and when my brain is in working condition. Suffice it to say though, despite my poor track record, I will finish this one without a shadow of a doubt. Chapter 1: A New Arrival - Spoiler:
A girl was walking all alone along a beach. She was very young. Six years old to be exact. She had just come from her village to this place in search of seashells. It was a hobby of hers to collect them.
Her older brother had told her about this giant purple shell he had found at the beach the day before. He had said that the thing was huge, at least two feet across! And yet, when he had gone off to tell someone about it, it had disappeared. The young girl was hoping to see this shell for herself, but even if she did not find it, she was sure that she would find something else good out here.
What she found was something far different from a purple seashell. When she first saw this thing, she wasn't quite sure what to make of it. It was a sort of yellowish color. More like blond than anything.
As the girl drew nearer, she realized that this something wasn't hard like a seashell. It was more wavy...like...like...the girl gulped and she came to a stop. She would have said it was like hair, but that wasn't totally true. It wasn't just like hair, it was hair! And it was connected to a body. The body was human...a man, to be specific. He was lying face down on the beach. The lower half of his body was still in the water. One of his hands was closed tightly into a fist while the other was laying palm down in the sand with the fingers splayed open. He was dressed in some kind of uniform. It looked familiar, but the young girl couldn't quite say where she had seen it before.
The young girl took a step back, uncertainty filling her mind. Was he...dead? If he was, what could she do? Then it hit her. Not wasting another second, she took off back towards her village. She had to tell someone about this! Her father or her mother...maybe both. They would know what needed to be done.
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The first thing Quintus realized was that he was laying on something soft. A bed, maybe. It certainly felt like a bed. And he was so warm... For a moment, he wondered if he wasn't back at home. If he was, then he should soon be smelling the scent of his mother's cooking, drifting up from the kitchen. But this wasn't his home. It couldn't be. The last time he checked, he wasn't even in the same ocean as his home.
Slowly, Quintus eyes cracked open. He was, as he guessed, laying on a bed. The covers had been carefully pulled up to his chin. He pulled them down slightly to look at himself. He had been changed. His Marine uniform was gone. It had been replaced by an ordinary shirt and shorts, both of which were just a little bit too small for him. This did not bother him so much, however. What he didn't like was the fact that his sniper rifle was nowhere in sight. He had already looked around the room and unless it had been stuffed under the bed, it wasn't here.
Quintus heard the sound of footsteps coming towards his room and he pushed the covers off of him and dropped to the floor lightly, landing in a defensive crouch. He watched as the handle of the door opened, admitting a woman. She wasn't an old woman, but the signs of age were fast appearing on her face. Despite this, Quintus couldn't help but think of her as pretty. She certainly wore a nice smile as she entered the room. As soon as she saw him on the floor, watching her suspiciously, her smile faltered, but it quickly returned.
"You're awake!" she said. "I'm glad."
"Who..." Quintus began to ask, but his voice was weak and it quickly gave out. He coughed and tried again: "Who are...you? Where...am I?"
"My name is Reasa," the woman said. She pronounced it like: Ree-sa. "And you are on Yamato Island." She walked over to Quintus but stopped when he pulled back. "Don't worry," she said soothingly, holding up her hands to show that she was unarmed. "I won't hurt you. Please, let me come."
Quintus didn't respond at first, but after a couple of seconds he nodded. Reasa came over and helped him up and set him back on the bed.
"There now," she said quietly, smiling at him again. "You stay right here. I'll bring you some soup."
With that, she slipped out of the room, leaving Quintus alone once more. Since he had nothing better to do, and he didn't think it would be a good idea to try and run away, Quintus took another look around. The room was mostly empty except for the bed he was sitting on and a dresser over in one corner. The walls of the room were made of wood. Although Quintus could tell that the person who had built the walls was no amateur, it had still be done in such a way that he could tell was not modern. Whatever this Yamato Island was, it certainly wasn't up to date.
Quintus allowed himself to relax. If these people were not modern then they probably did not have a strong Marine influence in the area. If that were true than he was almost certainly safe here.
Reasa reentered the room carrying a wooden bowl and spoon. She handed both of these to Quintus, who accepted them with a nod of thanks. He still didn't trust himself to speak unless he had too.
As he was eating, Reasa sat down on the edge of the bed and watched him. Quintus raised his eyebrows questioningly and she smiled again.
"I'm sorry," she apologized. "We don't get many visitors on our island. I guess I'm just surprised to see you..." Her voice trailed off and she cocked her head to one side. "What is your name?"
"Quintus," he told her, after swallowing his last mouthful of soup. He had no intention of lying to this woman. Not only could that cause him trouble later on, but he wanted to make sure that she could trust him just as much as he trusted her.
Reasa folded her hands on her lap. "Well Quintus. What brings you to our island? It can't be anything good, if the state my daughter found you in was any indication." Apparently she realized that this statement was confusing to Quintus because she immediately said, "Oh, my daughter found you out on the beach. She thought you might be dead and so she came back here to fetch me and my husband. We've been taking care of you ever since."
"I...." Quintus hesitated. Though he had decided not to deceiver Reasa, he didn't really want to tell her he had gone AWOL from his Marine unit in a fit of anger.
Reasa saw his nervousness and she placed a comforting hand on his arm. "You don't need to tell me if you don't want to," she said.
"I'm sorry," Quintus murmured, looking downcast. "You've...helped me...and I can't..." He frowned. "...wait...how long...was I out?"
"Don't worry about that," said Reasa. "We only just found you yesterday morning. It's almost noon now, so you haven't lost to much time."
Quintus nodded and went back to his soup. So a whole day had passed. He wondered how the Hooded Knights were doing on the mission to Amazon Lily. For the first time since he had run off, Quintus felt a pang of loss. His foolishness may have lost him his career. In fact, he would be surprised if Darnel had not already kicked him out of the unit. He could even be considered a deserter and be shot if he was caught. He could never go back...never...
Despite the warmth of the soup and the covers, Quintus shivered. Reasa took note of this and she stood up.
"I'll leave you alone now," she said. "Call me if you need anything."
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