☠☠☠Luke POV☠☠☠
I've been sailing on my large fishing boat for the past three and a half days and my food and water stock was starting to run a tad low. But I wasn't worried, based on the map and compass I was given in the bag the next island should be within sight... soonish. I idly tore at a chunk of meat in my hand, some random sea monster thought I was easy prey and tried a sneak attack on me about an hour ago. It was too bad for him that he could not remove that large shadowy shape he made when rising from the water.
Honestly, how could anyone miss that?
I tossed the bare bone over the edge of the ship and reached for another piece of meat. The supplies I got were well and good and all but all the food was made of vegetables and fruit. While I did like vegetables and fruit, I was also no mere rabbit. I needed meat so that little annoyance did me wonders. It was just too bad that it was a smallish thing, barely two to four elephants in weight I'd wager. The brazier I found the day I left Banana Town was still crackling and kept the last of the meat nice and warm. Why there was a brazier on a fishing ship I'd never know, signaling maybe?
It was a stroke of luck nonetheless. I tore my eyes from the sizzling meat and to the direction I was heading, some sort of blob was now visible.
I squinted my eyes and wished I had some binoculars but I could guess what it was, "I guess that's the next island. Breezy Town if I followed the map correctly." I looked down at the map in my hands for a second before shrugging and putting it back away in my new bag.
"Well, even if it isn't. Adventure still awaits." I grinned widely, "Gurarara, I hope this'll be fun!"
-A few hours later-
I finally got to port and tied the boat off at the pier, making sure to stash the bag inside the small room portion of the boat before getting off. The wood of the dock groaned and creaked a bit under my weight but it held fast. I looked around and noted few ships here, they were small ships like the one Luffy and Zoro first used in their journey before getting the Merry. One of them was particularly... messed up. It looked like it saw Hell and back and kept going for seconds and even thirds.
Not seeing anyone around the dock I shrugged and sauntered down the pier, taking note of the arching sign saying "Breezy Town" at the end of it. I guess I did well enough navigating by myself. A feat most worthy since I never steered a ship before in my life, despite what these weird feelings I keep getting that say that I have. Mentally shrugging off those feelings I walked down the street without a care in the world. I wasn't wanted... yet.
A lot of the anthro ponies stopped and stared at me with wide eyes and dropped jaws. I was getting the feeling that this will be a common occurrence in this world. I looked around the street, making sure to not accidentally knock someone over. The street was nicely paved with cobblestone and everyone seemed a tad bit more well dressed but not along the lines of nobility, hinting that this town was much better off than Banana Town. A metal, cell tower lookalike stretched high above the town, at least four to six times higher than the houses.
I was about to make a left at a corner when I heard some sort of commotion to my right instead. Not even an hour on the island and something interesting was already happening. This place is turning out great so far. Myself and every other person stopped what they were doing and looked to the general direction of where the commotion was coming from.
"Gah! You scoundrel! You're not getting away with this you thief!" Some voice bellowed out from a bakery across the street.
A window shattered into the street, some sort of black form shot out of it with the force of a cannon and with what seemed like fire surrounding the edges of the window. Luckily the wood of the building didn't catch. He, or I think its a he, rolled on impact with the ground and immediately bolted down the street in my direction. He didn't seem bothered at all by the fact that he just rolled in glass. He was carrying a wrapped up bundle, probably some sort of pastry I'd hazard. He did erupt from a bakery after all.
The mystery figure stumbled a bit when he got a good look at me, but he continued his sprint when I didn't make any move to stop him. The baker he stole from was also sprinting out his door with a rolling pin in his hand, he had an awesome Mario mustache and was swearing loudly enough to make a sailor blush. As the thief got closer I was able to make a few more observations about him.
The first was that he did look male, the second was his obviously well worn black cloak and brown pants. He didn't have any shoes on, like most people I've seen in this world. But while they had weird hooves for feet, this stranger had purple, scaly claw feet. His sprint brought him even closer and time seemed to slow down around us. He turned his head to look at me and I could make out a bit of his face. A purple snout, a sharp tooth sticking over his bottom lip and a yellowish underside of the jaw greeted my gaze. I couldn't see his eyes but I knew he was looking at me.
Time seemed to speed up and he looked forwards again. He sprinted a few blocks with the baker in tow, but he seemed to lose him when he turned into an alley if the pissed baker storming back down the street was any indication. The poor baker was practically stomping holes into the street, he was so pissed.
When he got close to me I spoke up with a question, "So who was that? I'm rather new here."
"Listen buddy, I'm not in the-" He cut himself off impressively quick when his gaze fell on me. "Uh, I mean... Uh."
He started blabbering at this point and I simply rolled my eyes and sighed a bit. I realize I'm a scary guy to look at but come on. I raised my hand not holding my bisento in a 'don't worry' gesture and said, "I'm not gonna hurt you, I just want an answer to my question."
The baker broke out of his stupor, "Uh, right. Anyway I don't know." He scoffed, "It's just some punk dragon that recently got here. I don't know his name, he's been a known thief though. Easy to get recognized when you're the only one of your species here after all. Damn dragons, probably on his quest for a hoard." The baker muttered that last sentence so quietly I almost missed it.
"A dragon?! Oh that is so cool! I want him as a crew member!" I excitedly thought.
My first mate is chosen, and is already awesome in my book. Keeping my glee down I thanked the man and headed in the direction the supposed dragon ran off in. I got to the area the baker lost him in, when I didn't see anything or anyone hiding in the alleys I jumped up onto one of the roofs, making sure to avoid a metal antenna thing. I was glad it was a sturdy roof, I put a hand over my eyes to block out the sun and scanned the surroundings from my new vantage point.
I didn't see anything immediately and hopped over a few more roofs. I looked over the crowd and pointedly ignored the various questions they posed to themselves of why I was roof hopping. When I didn't see anything I was about to jump to the next set of houses when I caught sight of a black cloak turning a corner. Not taking any chances that I might miss him I leaped from the two story roof and sailed down. I barely registered the screams of the townspeople as they thought I would surely die or get seriously injured from the fall.
My powerful legs absorbed the impact and I chased the purple dragon down the street. I made sure to always keep him in some sort of sight as I slowly gained on him. The dragon looked behind himself, he probably sensed he was being followed, that was when I finally caught sight of one of his eyes, it shot open in surprise when he saw me chasing him and he started running faster.
"Waaaaiiiittttt!!!" I desperately screamed out while putting a hand in front of me, I put more effort into running as well. "I want you to join my crew!!!"
Instead of placating him as I hoped this only seemed to serve to spur him on. His hands flattened and swung up and down in an arc at his sides, as if he thought that will speed him up. I didn't give up, even when I had to constantly move my bisento to keep from hitting various townsfolk and mutter apologies as I nearly bumped into random strangers. Everyone was looking at us as we raced through the town, it must've been a comical sight to see a huge behemoth chase the town thief around.
Our chase came to a close though, but I do imagine we ran across the entire city at this point, when the unknown dragon made a fatal mistake. He turned down an alleyway and was forced to stop when he saw that it was a dead end. I skidded to a halt in front of the entrance to the alley, blocking his escape route and shadowing my body. That probably didn't help.
The cloaked dragon slowly backed up down the alley as I walked to him. Eventually there was no more room to back up to and we were now mere feet away from each other. There was a rampant silence in the air as we stared each other down, neither of us moved and the dragon was breathing rather heavily. I hope he wasn't sick.
I needed to break the ice. "H-"
I was interrupted, "What the hell do you want from me?! I don't have any money!" He bared his teeth at me in anger.
"Well-" I started.
"What?! Do you want to turn me into the Marines?! As if! I'll never go back there do you hear?!" He swiped an arm in front of himself in anger to emphasis his point.
This was getting kinda annoying now, "No, now if you'll let me finish-"
I was cut off once again by the dragon shouting, "I won't let you take me back!"
He looked absolutely feral, I was too busy being distracted by the annoyance of being constantly cut off so I didn't expect my new potential crew mate to swipe at me.
"Whoa!" I exclaimed, stumbling back in order to dodge the razor sharp claws. The dragon took his chance to escape and darted past me while I was still recovering my balance. I saw him make a right turn around the alley corner and moved to chase him back down. Sadly I tripped on a trashcan and fell face first on the stone ground.
"Ouch," I rubbed my face. I got back up and ran back out the alleyway, successfully this time. I looked left and right but did not see the cloaked dragon. "Damn it, he got away." I muttered.
My pride was a little sore but I was not about to give up. I had a gut feeling that this guy should be my first mate, and I'm gonna follow it.
-???-
"Are you certain it is him?" A soft voice coming from a magic pocket mirror in someone's hand asked.
"Yes ma'am, I'm certain. The color of the scales match and I was able to get a good look at his face." A second voice spoke, the one holding the mirror. The unnamed individual looked around the corner of a building and eyed the unknown creature towering over the ponies. "And what about this other... variable. How should we proceed?"
The other voice was silent for a moment before replying, "If this is the same individual that Captain Feather reported then we should move silently. Too many unknowns right now, we don't need this getting larger than needed. Stay out of sight."
"Roger." The second voice said while looking at the mirror and snapped it closed. The unknown person looked back at the strange being with the large white mustache for a while longer, but had to duck back behind the wall when the being's head snapped in her direction.
Deciding not to tempt fate any longer the spy rushed down the alley and hopped over a wall. A glint of pale blue hair flashed briefly before disappearing.