Doodle Champion Island Journeys!

12.

"Uwahhh!"

Lucky jumped from the sudden cold touch. Ironically, the Archery Torii - the teleportation post to the Northwest Docks, was planted on water. Unlike when she came to the Bridge Garden, prepared for a water sport, this time she totally did not expect to be thrown directly into the sea!

The feline hopped onto shore, rubbing her wet feet on the sand. A seaside, it might be, but not a beach. The long, big Marathon Beach and the small, narrow Bridge Garden Beach both had soft sand and shallow waters clear of obstacles for visitors to lounge. The Northwest Beach, however, had targets placed on boats and fans attached to bamboo sticks on floats, drifting around. The sea went deep so suddenly that it came in the color of navy instead of aqua.

She followed the only path that lead further into the docks. The ground there was rough, soils and sand the same, and lacked nutrition that there were more rocks than plants. A few lanterns placed on the side were not painted red as often seen in other parts of the island, but were left brown the colors of the wood from which they were made. And there was a rather bizarre sight of arrows sticking on a particularly large boulder.

The road took a turn to a fleet of stairs leading up to a boat-shaped house built on a stone platform. The design, the decorations, and the stand lamps at the entrance, all of that pointed out that the building was the Archery Dojo, also the residence of the Champion, Samurai Yoichi.

Oh crap...

Lucky just remembered something she forgot to ask.

She was new here, this is her very first day on Champion Island. She had no idea how many housings are there in which area.

Yet too eager to help, she forgot to ask Lady Usagi what Fluffy's Arrow Shop looked like, or which corner it lay.

Hopefully, there weren't too many arrow shops here, in the territory of Archery!

Lucky came to a pig man standing by the end of the stairs, fidgeting. He seemed distressed somehow and if it's not really that he did not need any support, she still had to ask for directions, or at least some information on how to find Fluffy.

"Uhm, hi, mister..?"

"Arrows... Arrows everywhere..." he said under his breath, addressing nobody in particular as if in a trance.

"Are you OK?" Lucky asked, trying to get his attention as he was indeed unsettled.

"Of course not! Look around. There are arrows everywhere! What a mess!" his tone switched to complaining, "I am the royal arrow collector. Yoichi-sama trusts me to collect all the arrows and bring them to him for target practice..."

"So-..."

"But there are too many of them!" he snapped and cut off before Lucky could even form words, "I'll never get them all in time!" He whined.

"Then, I can help you collect them!" Lucky offered her help, to which received back a look of disdain from the collector:

"You? You look like you've never picked up an arrow in your life..." he examined her head to toe.

"Well, that's probably because I haven't," Lucky crossed her arms and returned with an unimpressed expression. What can be expected from a young cat born in a distant town? "But I'm willing to learn!"

"Very well," replied the collector, "I suppose I've got no other choice. See those arrows scattered on the ground? Red arrows, green arrows, yellow arrows, and blue arrows. Pick them all up, sort by colors, and be gentle. You won't believe how fragile these things are in the wrong hand. Then bring them to me."