Chains That Bind Us |One Piece

Jaya 8

The night came, food was out on a mat with everyone around it and mugs or glasses were filled with either booze or wine as laugher echoed loudly with the music. "Damn, the rum tastes great today!" Cricket was saying with a bottle in hand, completely drunk.
"Hey, eat up! Eat up!" There's a whole course of pike and more still to come!" Sanji was shouting with his hands full with plates.
"Here." Usopp had come to throw something into Masira's mouth. Seconds later her was breathing out fire. "You fell for it, you salvaging nut! That was my Tabasco Star!" Which had the long nose laughing his head off.
"GET BACK HERE, LONG NOSE!" The large monkey shouted in anger, chasing after Usopp, who was running away while still laughing.
"Oi, 'Née-chan, some sit by me!" The drunken old man was talking to Nami, that was sitting quietly with mug in hand.
"Bastard! You're 100 years too early to be hitting on Nami-san!" This was begging said as Sanji was shoving his foot into Cricket's forehead.
"They sure are lively." Liàn was smiling away, eating and watching everyone.
"That's a nice way to put it." While Jiàn appeared to care very little, drinking from his mug. As this was all going on, Robin was stilling on her own with Norland's Log Book in hand, reading it.
"'The skull's right eye...'" until Cricket, still drunk, had randomly gone up to her and spoke those words. Surprisingly, the woman was quite startled. "...is where I saw the gold.'"
"Gold!" Everyone had come to a stop upon hearing the drunk man.
"Blotted with tears, those were the last words Norland wrote." He turned to the others, explaining this. He appeared to be sober all of a sudden. "'The skull's right eye is where I saw the gold.'" He had come to repeated himself, but it didn't make much sense. "The same day, Norland was executed. Even after coming here to Jaya, I still don't understand what he meant by that. 'The skull's right eye...' maybe it;s the name of a city that used to be here. Or maybe it was a metaphor for his own inevitable death. The blank pages that follow tell us nothing." What he said almost sounded poetic.  But why everyone else was listening, Luffy was away stuffing his face happily. "That's why we dive! We see a dream! There on the ocean floor!" Once again the old man began drink.
"That's right!" Masira shouted in agreement, with Usopp on his shoulders. Zoro and Shoujo had clapped their mugs together in agreement.
"We;re gonna fly!" The captain had stated before shoving an entire smoked fish into his mouth and gulped it down, bones and all.
"We'll never fly if you keep eating so much!" Usopp had come to joke as Luffy was stuffing his face even more, which had caused almost everyone to burst into laugher. The night was moving fast and before long...
"'Today I arrived at Jaya. May 21, 1122.'" Cricket was reading the Log book out loud to everyone had surrounded him, as they were continuing to drink or eat.
"Norland! Norland!" The two large monkeys were shouting and singing, as they were completely wasted.
"'Upon landing on the island, we heard a most peculiar bird call coming from the forest... and the sound of a large, very large, bell striking. The sound of that great, golden bell... was carried far and wide... as if it was signalling the prosperity of a great city of the past. The fleeting sound that, upon this vast sea for a great many years, a prosperous civilisation bloomed.'"
"Norland! Norland!"
"'For us, who have lived but mere decades, there were no words tit to describe it!'" Cricket was speaking louder as he came to stand up, and everyone's gazes followed the man. "'We were spellbound by the ringing of that bell!'" It was then when he shouted a battle cry or something, which Luffy had followed in doing as well.
"Greatly told, Norland!" Shoujo come to shout up to the roof before falling on his back.
"How wonderful! A golden bell!" Nami clearly wanted to see the gold.
"That sounds amazing, right Jiji-chan?" Liàn was looking to her brother, filled with excitement.
"I guess." But as always, he seemed indifferent to it all. Although, the was something in his eyes that his sister spotted and it caused her to grin.
"Ossan, what's the deal? So you do like Norland!" Usopp was smirking at the old man, who had been speaking about this with excitement and joy. Completely different then what he had been saying about Norland before and everyone, excluding Jiàn, come to laugh.
"Look at this!" Cricket had soon pulled out something shiny and placed before all to see.
"Wow! A golden bell!" It was three bells that had been made out of pure gold.
"Exactly what so large about them?" This had been asked by Jiàn, who wasn't impressed or anything really.
"This isn't the bell he wrote about." Cricket went on explaining, however, Nami didn't seem to care as she was rubbing one of the three bells with her cheek. She was completely loved struck by it. "They're just bell shaped ingots. I found these three on the ocean floor."
"Ingots?" Chopper didn't seem to know what that word meant.
"Oh, so the City of Gold does exist!" Luffy seemed completely convinced at this fact.
"That doesn't prove it, though." However, Shoujo had sat back up and told him. "You could find something like that lying in any old ruin." That had been explained to him.
"But, it does prove that there was a civilisation here." Robin came to point this out, because if that hadn't been the case they wouldn't be here.
"How?" Liàn come to ask, as she didn't understand how the woman got to that conclusion.
"Because ingots were designed to divide up gold into gram masses. Meaning there was also trade and commerce here." This had all been explained to not just the one that asked but everyone else.
"Right, and the call of that strange bird...Oi, Masira." Another piece of gold had been pulled out, however, this one was not in the shape of the bell but a bird.
"Whoa, there's more!" Everyone was looking at it, amazed at its shinning reflection.
"This one's big too!" It was almost twice the size of the bells.
"That's all of them." Cricket informed them.
"Ah, it's beautiful." Nami was once again love struck.
"Golden bells and birds. They might be symbols of ancient Jaya." Sanji stated this fact, since it would be the only explanation.
"I'm not sure, but this might have been part of an ancient moulding." Cricket began explained more about it. "This is a Southbird, and it lives right here on this island." The golden statue was pulled towards him.
"And it sounds weird when it calls?" Luffy come to ask this,
"Yeah, just like it says in the logbook." as that was what had been written.
"Southbirds have been used in ships since ancient times to..." Marisa was explain but had then come to a stop, as if he come to remember something. It wasn't just him but Shoujo as well and the two of them turned to each other sweating.
"OH DAMN!!" Both of them and Cricket had come to snap at once.
"W-What!? What's wrong?!" Which did come as a surprise to the others.
"This is bad! You guys have to get to the forest! The forest to the south!" Cricket was suddenly telling them, which was confusing.
"What're you talking about, Ossan? You lost it?" Luffy had bluntly asked him, since that was what it sounded like.
"You need to capture one of these birds! Right now!" And he was making less and less sense by the minute.
"How come? What's up?" This time it was Usopp that asked the question.
"This bird? Why?" Followed by Sanji.
"Listen carefully. Tomorrow you are going to sail for the Knock Up Stream! It's directly south of this cape. How are you going to get there?!" That had been a good question, as compasses were useless due to the magnetic Fields of the islands.
"We'll sail just our ship straight there." The captain come to answer like the idiot he was.
"This is the Grand Line!" If they had been in one of the Blue seas it might have worked. "The moment you stray from your course, you'll have no idea which directions is which!" This was due to the changes in the currents and winds.
"I see, since we're going to be sailing towards an area of water instead of an island, we won't have anything to tell us the right way." Nami finally came to realise this fact. "Then how do we tell which direction to sail in?" She moved onto asking.
"You have to make use of this bird's special trait." The explanation had began. "Certain species of animals have an accurate internal sense of direction. You can use that to determine your own position." Hearing this caused Luffy to laugh because...
"So that would make Zoro less evolved then an animal!" Because the swordsman always got lost no matter the situation.
"You're the last one who can tell me that!" That had been shouted by the man in annoyance.
"The Southbird is the most extreme example of this." Cricket had continued. "No matter how large a stretch of land is or how much the sea tosses and turns, it's body will remain pointed in a single direction." This seemed as a shock to Luffy, as his mouth was wide open. "Anyway, without the bird, you'll never be able to set out form here. And as for the Sky Island, you'll miss your only chance to get there!" Hearing this caused Luffy, Usopp and Chopper to all scream and shock.
"WHY ARE YOU ONLY TELLING US THIS NOW!?" And before long everyone had gotten up, running for the door.
"Don't stand around griping! There's no time! You have to go now" They were out the door running.
"It's the middle of the night and you want us to go tramping around in the woods!?" Usopp was shouting back to the house as they were outside.
"You forgot these!" But Cricket had thrown a few nets out the door for them. "We're gonna get to work on your beat-up ship. In hindsight, we really shouldn't have had that party!"
.how can you say that now!?" This was shouted by Usopp, who was being dragged into the forest by Zoro and Sanji.
"Now listen. You have until morning to catch a Southbird and bring it back here!"And with that they large group had come to enter the forest in order to hunt for a Southbird.