Love Between the Living and Dead

Solitude and Healing

Some time alone with Luffy. Next chapter is the last one. I think people who like the romance part are going to like it.

Enjoy~

He walked alongside the fire for a while, down the street driving perpendicular to the street. There were only a few real entrances into the park because the sides were dense trees or stacks and walls of rocks. When he ran out of road to walk on, he hiked up the terrain next to the designated park, still perpendicular to the park.

It took over four hours to hike uphill on the rocks to get past the fire. It was like a different world above the fire. Once he climbed and jumped to the side and into the park, he had to climb up a cliff before he could see the whole park below him. Below was full of fire, and the smoke was blocking the view of the city. Behind him, the water was still clear and the plants green. He saw some deer far uphill from him watching the fire. He hoped they hadn't lost any of their family or friends to the flames.

Luffy stood there for a moment, watching the fire rage. He felt he was paying his respects to the dead plants and wildlife. His dead home.

He hadn't gone up this high in years, so he didn't know where the trails lead, but he climbed them up and up and up for hours. He knew no one would be up here, except maybe people who have gone extreme mountain climbing and lived. Some of the things he climbed were sheer drops down, so high you'd die if you fell from it.

Luffy found no more giant trees, not that he expected to. He would have seen them before if there were any more. He found a cave, bigger than his old one, but it wasn't behind a waterfall and the walls didn't glitter when Luffy was inside.

He came across some animals he hadn't seen in a very long time, like the mountain sheep and wolverines running through the underbrush. The area was abundant with wildlife, but they must all be over here to stay away from the fire. Maybe they were on the opposite side and ran away behind the fire.

He tried not to get overwhelmed by the sounds of helicopters desperately trying to put out the blaze. He tried to ignore it as best as he could.

There were so bears up here, but there was no rapids with fish coming through and feeding them. It seemed that the bears ate other animals because he could see one eating with its baby, chewing up a deer carcass.

Luffy wondered why he had never come up this far in the winter. There had to be a lot of snow. He wouldn't be able to play in it, but it would be pretty. How he wished he could interact with things. He hadn't held anything except Zoro's hand in all the time after his untimely death. He missed Zoro already, but he felt he made the right choice in staying. He hoped Zoro was okay and not trapped in a smelly warehouse with a bunch of strangers.

Luffy stayed walking and hiking up the ridges and mountains cropping up now for a couple more hours before it got dark out. He sat on a small rock ledge next to the creek and swung his legs, watching the fire for the rest of the night. It was beautiful, but terrifying at the same time. He was planning on going up higher tomorrow. He decided he wouldn't look back at the fire until he made it to the peak of the first mountain behind the park. Yes, the massive trees were the tallest things in the park but where he was now wasn't considered the park. Just the rest of the land no one visits because of the dangers accompanying the area.

Luffy continued to climb for the next day, and the next. It took so long because he'd not only go up, but explore around the area, the sides, the forest areas, climb trees, and do random things to stall for time and relieve him of boredom. He'd watch the animals. He wanted to take as long as he could to get to the top, so that maybe the fire would be out by the time he got to the top and looked back. He couldn't smell the smoke up here because the wind was still going, albeit not as forcefully. Thankfully for Luffy, but terrible for the city. The fire was still going downhill, not ruining what was left of the land Luffy loved. He felt selfish thinking like that. Living people and their homes were in danger, and here he was, thankful the fire was lower, closer to the people.