Chereads / The Greatest Journey / Chapter 9 - Chapter 9- Bounties and Beginnings

Chapter 9 - Chapter 9- Bounties and Beginnings

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Grey beard was walking down a red carpet as snow was falling around him and as he pushed open the pair of golden doors in front of him, he walked in slowly. A mysterious old man was punching a bag of sand and as he turned around to see who had entered, his face grew with a smile. The old man had the body of a twenty year old but short grey hair with a grey mustache. "Did you come here to turn yourself in or did you just wanna stop by?" The old man asks with a smirk. "Don't be foolish Don, I'm here to deliver some news to the Coastal Guard." Grey beard says as he pulls out a folded up piece of paper and then hands it to Don. Don takes the paper with a confused face as he begins to unfold it.

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Don looked at Grey Beard with a face of confusion. "The hell is this?" He asks in an offended tone. On the paper was a picture of Erick, smiling widely, and under the picture it stated that Erick had a twelve million Estos bounty on him. "You joking or something Grey?" Don says as he looks at him with a baffled expression. "Not at all." Grey beard says with a straight face. "It may not mean much to you now but pay attention to him. There are reports that he has already used Aura against Neoma and he defeated Kekela last night using Aura as well." Grey beard says bluntly.

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Don chuckles boisterously. "I knew I was old but damn!" He says with a prideful smile. "I just thought you should know of his existence." Grey beard says. "Is this your way of looking after your old man or something?" Don asks sarcastically. "No, but if he defeats you then my plan may have no hope." Grey beards says as he turns around in an attempt to walk away. Don touches his right shoulder as soon as he turns around. "Come on Grey, you know I can't let you leave unharmed." Don says in a playful tone causing Grey beards eyes to widen. Don punches Grey beard through the doors and down the five hundred steps leading to the doors, until he hits the very last step of the stairs. Grey beard gets up and dusts himself off with anger on his face. "I hate that hold geezer." Grey beard says to himself.

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Don was staring at the picture as he began to chuckle slightly. "Captain Erick Drake huh? Well if Grey thinks you're worth it…" he says with a smirk as he pushes open the large golden doors, revealing a large and prosperous city below the steps, with thousands of citizens walking around, different animals everywhere and Pathfinder ships lined across the harbor of the city. "…I'll see you in North Estoria." Don says as he begins to chuckle boisterously while holding his gut. Erick was sitting down on the floor of The Black Pearl eating a plate of rice fish that Kora had made for him. Jonah was at the edge of the ship, studying the map intensely until the caw of a bird breaks his concentration and causes him to turn around.

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As Jonah looked closer he saw a large box being held within the birds talons. "Did you order something?" Jonah asks with a confused face. Erick looks up with a blank stare. "I don't think so." Erick says with an entire rice fish in his mouth as the package fell into Jonah's hands. Jonah sits down across from Erick and places the package onto the floor of their ship. "There's a letter or something." Erick says with his mouth full but he was correct, on top of the package was a small note tied to the package with both of their names on it. Jonah unties the letter and unfolds it as he then begins to read it. "It's from Kora… "This is a small token of gratitude for liberating our town from Kekela and his team. In each box Kuma and I placed some of his old exploration gear inside them. Obviously it isn't much but please visit us sometime so all of us can repay you both in full… sincerely, Kora and Kuma." Jonah reads, causing Erick's face to widen with joy.

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"Ahh sweet a present!" Erick exclaims as he begins to rip the package open. Erick pulled out two boxes from the package and as he throws Jonah the box that had his name on it, he sat down and begin to open the lid of his package. "I think… their clothes?" Erick says with a slightly confused face. "Oh that makes sense, North and West Estoria are notoriously cold!" Jonah says with a slight smile. "Ohh. Damn, now I wish I could tell her thanks." Erick says as his face begins to sadden. "Calm down, she asked us to visit again so…" Jonah says with a smirk. "So we can go back soon?" Erick asks as his eyes widen. "I didn't say all of that but at least we know we're welcome there." Jonah says with a slight smile.

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"Well what did she give you?" Erick asks as he begins to pull out red clothing but Jonah had his pair of clothes already out of the box. "Woahh!" Erick says as he sees the outfit Jonah had gotten. Jonah had pulled out a sky blue puffer jacket and on the right chest area of the jacket there was a J in dark black colors. At the same time Erick pulled out an identical puffer except that it was dark red and had an E and D on the right peck. "Wait there's some other stuff in here too!" Erick exclaims with excitement as he places the puffer jacket on the floor. "Huh?" Jonah says with a curious face as he looks down into the box again.

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"What is all this stuff?" Erick says as he pulls out a compass, causing Jonah's eyes to widen with pure glee. He then runs over to Erick and snatches the compass away from him. "Hey give it back, that was in my box!" Jonah exclaims in a pouty tone. "You don't even know how to use this thing." Jonah says in an annoyed tone. "I can to." Erick says bluntly. "Then what's it called?" Jonah asks in a confident tone. "A… uhhh. Oh! It's a director!" Erick exclaims with confidence. Jonah's face drops in disappointment and annoyance. "Exactly." Jonah says in a bothered tone. "It's a compass. Once we get to West Estoria the map will pretty much be useless so keeping direction becomes more difficult but with a compass I'm sure I can get us through!" Jonah says as he holds the compass close to his chest

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Erick chuckles as he is walks over to Jonah's box, while Jonah was still in awe of the compass. Erick looked into the box and saw a load of Estos inside of it, causing his eyes to completely widen. "JONAH WE'RE RICH!!! WE'RE RICH JONAH!!!" Erick yells as he was bound around the ship. "Wait what?" Jonah says as he looks over to Erick with a confused face. Erick kicks over the box with a smile and as Estos began to flood out of the box, Jonah's eyes began to grow wider. "That old man left us all this Estos! WOHOOO!!" Erick screamed into the sky. "This is at least two hundred thousand Estos but why would he give us all of this just for saving that town?" Jonah said out loud curiously. "I guess he was really grateful huh?" Erick says with a wide smile on his face.

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"Hey Erick. I have a question." Jonah says with a curious face. "Hm?" Erick says curiously. "That technique you used to defeat Captain Kekela… was that Enkai?" Jonah asks him. "Yeah… Aura uses the energy of the body but Enkai uses the energy of the soul." Erick says with a smile. "At least that's what old man Ezi told me." Erick says with a childish grin. Jonah looked down with a baffled face as he held his chin. "What you thinking over there?" Erick asks him. "It's just confusing." Jonah says with a baffled face. "Sounded pretty simple to me." Jonah says as he fills his mouth with another spoon full of rice fish.

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"It's just, if Enkai uses the energy of the soul… wouldn't that eventually kill you?" Jonah asks, causing Erick to stop eating as his face widened because he had never thought of this before. "Yeah, that might be right." Erick says as he continues to eat. "CAN YOU TAKE IT A LITTLE MORE SERIOUS?!? Using that technique might shave away at your soul and in return… the span of your life, this isn't a joke Erick." Jonah says in a tone of aggression. "I know that but… why would it matter now?" Erick says as he unfolds his legs and begins to stand up but this sentence made Jonah's eyes widen with shock. "What do you mean? You can't die before you find the North Star, can you?" Jonah asks him.

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"There you go again, worrying so much. I'll be fine and plus, if you hurry and get me to Fruit island I won't have to use Enkai as much now will I?" Erick says with a wide smile. Jonah's face turns from shock to calmness as a smirk appears onto his face. "You're such an idiot." Jonah says as Erick chuckles childishly. "Speaking of Fruit island, how close are we?" Erick asks with a curious face. Jonah steps out of the way with a smile on his face causing Erick smile to widen as well as he began to chuckle again. "HELL YEAHHHH!!!"Erick yells as he saw Fruit island a few miles in front of them. "WE MADE IT! WE MADE IT!" Erick yelled as he hopped around the ship with glee, causing Jonah to slightly smile.

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At the shore of Fruit island there was moss lining the island instead of sand and then there was pure grassy plains for miles. At the center of the island was a large forest filled with small trees that bore various kinds of Fruits but in the center of them all was a tree that reached into the heavens. It was so tall that the top of the tree was not visible. "Why is that tree so big!?" Erick asks excitedly while pointing at it. "That's the mother tree, it's the only thing that can produce Berries that give us berry powers. As far as we know… this is the only Mother tree in existence." Jonah says with a smirk causing Erick's eyes to widen as The Black Pearl inches closer and closer to the mossy shore of Fruit island.

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"Erick." Jonah says abruptly causing Erick to turn his head to him. "Although I have never been past the shore of the island I doubt there are beast here but that makes this the perfect battleground for Pathfinders…." Jonah says as he looks back at Fruit island as Erick's eyes began to rise a bit. "…we know that Chopper is tailing us but we have no idea who is on the island itself. So I'm begging you… take this seriously." Jonah says with a straight face as the Black Pearl meets the shore of Fruit island but this time Erick didn't fall, instead he stood there with a smile on his face. He then raises his fist up to the level of their chest. "Yeah… I promise." Erick says with a smile causing Jonah to smile back at him and then connect his fist with Erick's. "Fruit island here I come." Erick says as he jumps off of the Black Pearl and onto the moss that covered the shore.

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"So where do we start Jonah?" Erick asks with a wide smile on his face as Jonah lands beside him. Jonah boasted a wide smile as he pointed to the middle of the island, where the forest that held the mother tree was. "I'm thinking there!" Jonah says with joy on his face, the most joy Erick had ever seen since they've been together. "What makes you say that… Navigator?" Erick says as he now was wearing a slick flannel short sleeve that was red with black strips on the trims. "I don't know… I guess I just feel it, Captain!" Jonah says with a smirk but then he looks over at Erick and his eyes widen with shock. "WHERE DID YOU GET THAT COOL ASS SHIRTTTT!?!??" Jonah yells in disbelief and anger. "It was under the compass in my box, I guess it's a captains shirt." Erick says with a smile. Jonah grunted with frustration as Erick chuckled profusely.

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Erick takes a step forward but as he does his eyes widen with shock and his vision begins to fade as he faintly hears Jonah screaming at him. 'What the hell is happening to me? What the hell is going on?' Erick thinks to himself as the moss begins to engulf his body and swallow him whole. "ERICK!!! ERICKKKK!!!!" Jonah yells as he began tearing through the moss frantically but to know avail. Erick had slowly opened his eyes and as he did he saw a faint light but as his eyes got wider and wider the light got brighter and brighter. When Erick finally stood up he was groggy but he could faintly see a woman in front of him, holding a square shaped berry but as his eyes got clearer he saw the woman was made of wood and was holding an Orange-like berry but it was Gold and had a red stem coming from it. The wooden woman then smiles softly at Erick. "I have been waiting so long for you… Captain Erick Drake." The woman says as Erick's eyes widen with shock.

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The man wearing the white pirate suit was staring at the silver banana in his hands with intensity. 'I've finally found it, the one berry power that can take down Greybeard… the Flame berry." He says as he opens his mouth to take a bite out of the berry and as soon as he does this, the entire berry burst in flames, except for the piece that was already in the man's mouth. He holds it in his hands, noticing that the fire wasn't affecting his skin at all and as the berry burned to ash the man swallowed the piece he had eaten. The man then smiles as he cracks his neck, side to side, and fire begins to engulf his arms, stopping at his elbows. The man then breathes out a cloud of smoke as he looked up at the mother tree with a smile. "Thank you… Mother tree." He says with low eyes as the fire on his arm begins to dissipate.

Chapter end