LITTLE star - Ace

#5

Chapter 4

A stranger encounter

From the whips of snow beating against Ace like tiny pellets, he could confidently say the storm had definitely picked up. He was not happy, but overall, he couldn't complain. Afterall, Ace was that moron who thought it was a great idea to go out searching for a hermit in the beginnings of a snowstorm.

Morons didn't get to complain about the messes they make, but they could sure sulk about them.

This weather is starting to get on my nerves... the pirate grumbled as he shuffled his way above the snow.

He didn't know how deep the snow extended under his feet, but what he did understand was that walking on top of the snow using his flame abilities wasn't cutting it any more. Ace had come to that conclusion after stumbling onto a particularly soft layering of snow that sent him up to ears into the snow... So naturally, he did what any intelligent individual does; he stole a pair of snowshoes.

Apparently, snowshoes were an easy commodity around here, and the pair that Ace had stolen were simply sticking out the snow haphazardly and left unattended.

A pirate will do what a pirate must.

The shoes were clunky on his feet, and Ace was quick to decide how much he hated them (enthusiastically and morbidly loathed them). Never had he ever felt more like a waddling penguin. He could almost hear Thatch's obscene laughter, or Izou's obnoxious teasing snickering through the icy winds at his demise.

Then of course Marco would never let me live this down, god forbid he ever finds out... Pop's right hand man was a much 'laxed individual. Instead of out right teasing, he would prefer a much more effective and long lasting term of torment. By sliding it casually into the most random conversations. Every day. For the foreseeable future.

Ace shuddered.

No. No, they would never learn about any of Ace's miserable attempts at walking with snowshoes.

Ace stuck to the outside ring of forest circling the igloo village, hiding amongst their unmarked trunks and rolls of snow banks. He was out of sight, but also still close enough to town to not get lost in the monotonous forest of snow and pines.

It gave Ace the chills whenever he stared too hard into the woods... like a deep gut wrenching feeling. The trees were too narrow, too towering, too pointed. Unnaturally natural. Everytime he stared out into the hazy horizon of falling snow, Ace had a deep, creeping expectation that he'd find something staring back. But he never did.

However, Ace refused to be intimidated by a few trees and a blizzard. So, naturally he kept waddling, with the exact words of 'I'm not going to be scared off by a few sad trees!' Ace then proceeded to, fantastically, walk straight into a low hanging branch weighted heavily with snow. Then, he was promptly buried in said snow as it had dumped practically all of its weight onto a thrashing Ace.

He had long decided he hated this forest.

With a loud growl, Ace exploded from the bank of snow, shivering like mad. It's the first time he'd been so cold since before getting the mera mera no mi... he hated it. And it confused him to no end.

How could a literal fire man be cold? It hurt his head just thinking about it.

Just as Ace took a trembling step forward, baring his teeth in frustration, he... fell asleep. No, sorry. He didn't just fall asleep, he full fledged dumped himself onto the snow midstep, completely dead to the world. His body had crumbled awkwardly beneath him, giving the appearance of a toddler who'd fallen asleep in the middle of a sack race, slumped over and eating dirt. Or snow, in Ace's case. His bag had been carelessly thrown from his shoulder, tumbling freely across the snow while a dirtied fist still clung to its strap in a death grip.