Growing Heart

Ch 17 - A Quiet Assessment

By the time Sid and Boo arrived at the farmlands, it was too late.

It took her and Paddy 4 hours just to get from the farmlands to the capital, where the fortress was, via a horse-drawn wagon because they had to go around the mountain. Even though she was able to cut that time in half by having Boo just go straight over the mountain, she had already mentally prepared herself for the worst.

When she arrived, the smoke was too thick and the fire burned too high for anyone to save anything besides themselves. No matter how much Boo rained, no matter how many times the Saruyama Alliance refilled the Water Dials, and no matter how many buckets of seawater the farmers threw on their land, the fire continued to rage until there was nothing they could do but to retrieve the people still caught in the fire and retreat to a cliff of the mountain, safe from the fires, while they watched it destroy the land. It was very jarring to the Shandian that despite the heat from the fire scorching her skin, how chillingly numb she felt on the inside.

"Everything is gone..."

"What do we do?"

The survivors had clung to each other and wept throughout the night while Sid had tended to the ones who had breathed in too much smoke or got burned, and too many of both. When everyone had been tended to and accounted for and the last of flames flickered into nothing, the sun was rising, shedding it's light on reality. The quilt of green and yellow patches that once blanketed over this side of the island was now nothing but a crusty rag of ash and dust. The farms and houses that once stood with quiet dignity were reduced to black, unidentifiable lumps.

"Ah! There they are. Dad?! Dad?! Where are you?!"

"PADDY!"

"Oh, thank god. You're okay!"

Paddy came sprinting up the trail and reunited with his father, both of them clinging and sobbing together. Very soon Law appeared too with his men behind him. All of them were still wearing the clothes they had on the night before. No one had time to change.

"Oy! Is Bepo with you?" Law demanded when he saw Sid, sitting at the edge of the cliff with Boo on her shoulder.

"Bepo?" she asked and turned back to surveying the damage, "Your bear?"

"Yes! My navigator," Law snapped and he turned to call out towards the group, "Oy! Bepo! Are you here?"

"Your bear is not here," Sid said. She rested her elbows to her knees, and leaned forward, "Javier and Leroy are involved in this. I know they are. I can just feel it. I don't know why but I'll find out."

"I don't care," Law said replied, "This has nothing to do with me and my crew. I'm just here to find Bepo."

Sid straightened up her back but kept her eyes forward. "Crew...Navigator...You are pirates?"

"Ah," he said.

"Two and two...I guess that's about right..."

"Meaning?!"

Sid thrusted two fingers in the air. "I've met two honorable pirate captains...Luffy and Cricket....and now I've met two, who are not. Doflamingo and yourself. It balances out."

She couldn't have said anything more shocking or offensive to the Heart Pirate. He grabbed her by the arm, with the idea to toss her against the mountainside, but he was startled to find that she grabbed him right back, pulled him to her, and used her hip to hurl him over her shoulder. He dangled over the cliff with both of them holding onto each other by one arm.

"Oy! Sid!"

"Captain!"

Cricket, Mashira, Shoujo, and Iwan came running towards them along with Law's men but Sid brought out her trident with her free hand and held it out to stop anybody from coming any closer, all the while not breaking the glare down she and Law were locked into.