we stick together and don't give up hope, we'll definitely make it. After all, piracy is in your blood, so you can as captain don't be such a failure. ", he talked soothingly to her and stroked her wet hair. And his efforts seemed to be having an effect, because slowly Bunny calmed down again.
"That's a lot of sentimental nonsense that you're poking around, but thank you anyway. For everything ..." she mumbled into his sweater. Even if Joe had no idea about seafaring, he had become indispensable as a friend and Bunny hoped that her brothers would also have such loyal comrades on their side.
Joe liked himself quite well in his new role as a ship psychologist and the feeling of holding a girl in his arms wasn't exactly uncomfortable either, but suddenly he stopped and stared into the distance.Something was looming on the horizon ahead of them and he was pretty sure it wasn't another ship this time.
"Bunny, do you see that too? I think there is an island back there.", He exclaimed excitedly.
"It's nice that you want to cheer me up, but you should at least be reasonably believable ..." grumbled Bunny, who was feeling very well again and didn't feel like moving an inch because of such sailor's thread.
"This is no joke! Get your binoculars out and have a look yourself!" He squealed, grabbed Bunny by the shoulders and turned her in the right direction.
At first Bunny saw nothing at all, but when she screwed up her eyes and almost squinted a bit, she could actually see something back there. She rummaged in her pocket for her binoculars and was surprised herself that it hadn't been lost during her little dive. She shook out the water and held it to her eyes."I think you're really right. There's an island over there," she mumbled astonished and handed Joe the binoculars.
Now there was no stopping it. The two soaked and freezing pirate candidates put themselves one last time in the oars and so they made it to the white beach of the longed-for island in less than an hour. There they pulled their boat ashore and dropped exhausted into the sand.
At first glance, the island appeared to be quite small, and behind them stretched a thick forest of palm trees and other vegetation. There were no signs of houses or streets here, no evidence of civilization.
"Do you think the island is uninhabited?" Asked Joe, speaking Bunny's thoughts out loud.
"I don't know. Maybe there is a village behind this forest or something. We should explore the island and try to find something to eat. Can you hunt?" Asked Bunny, but Joe's horrified expression said it all."Me? I can't kill an animal! I can't see blood!" He replied, grimacing in disgust.
"Also good. Then we'll find some berries for you.", Bunny laughed and pulled herself up. Then she held out her hand to Joe and pulled him up.
"Come on Buster, your nose is needed. Find us a nice Fressifressi!", She added to the four-legged friend and he immediately started to carry out her order.
So they wandered through the green thicket for a while, Bunny having problems with the dense foliage and Joe struggling with the extremely intrusive mosquitoes. Besides, the whole time he had the feeling that someone or something was watching her. He looked around again and again uncertainly, tripping over stones and tree roots a few times.
"Do you have two left feet or do you just stand on bruises?" Bunny smirked as he made contact with the mossy ground again.
"I think we are being followed."he whispered to her.
"Oh really? And who is the bad stranger? Rübezahl maybe? Or the ghost of Gold Roger personally? Maybe the legendary One Piece is not on the Grand Line, but somewhere here on this island and now he wants us to scare us hunt in, so we can just get out of here quickly. Come on, you ghost heiny. I'm not afraid of you! ", Bunny shouted loudly and her voice held through the dense forest, but the ghost heini didn't seem to want to join in to entertain them, in any case everything remained calm.
"You said yourself that we can't be sure whether this island is inhabited. Perhaps cannibals or dangerous predators live here ..." Joe replied, on the one hand anxious, on the other hand insulted that Bunny was not taking him seriously again. As if as a kind of confirmation, the dark undergrowth parted in front of them and they stepped into a clear clearing, which was flooded with sunlight due to the absence of the tall trees.There was a small bamboo hut in the clearing. It looked a bit cobbled together, but it even had a terrace and curtains over the windows that looked like palm leaves. A fireplace was set up in front of the hut and something that looked like a bird and gave off a delicious smell sizzled on a spit above it. Both of them had their mouths open for a moment, but at the sight of this culinary delight they were already watering. Joe caught himself first.
"I told you, but you never listen to me. You don't mean to say that this delicious roast chicken flew here all by itself and then impaled itself over the fire, right?" He asked and tossed Bunny gave a triumphant look.
"It's okay, then you were right once in your life, but I am less interested in how it got there than in the quickest way to get it into my empty stomach.", Bunny said and stormed over to the fire. Buster, whose tongue was already hanging out of his mouth, was right on her heels, but Joe hesitated.
"You can't just eat it like that. His owner might react quite angry about it and then maybe want to roast us as a substitute." Hadn't he just seen a couple of eyes flash in the bushes back there? Or was his subconscious just playing a trick on him?
"Then just stand there and watch us eat. You like berries more. Mmh, that's delicious!", Bunny babbled with her mouth full and pushed the next piece of tender meat between her teeth. Joe was still uncomfortable with this mouth robbery, but now he could no longer ignore his growling stomach. He sat down with the others and let Bunny pass him a crispy chicken leg. It was as if he had never eaten anything so good.He wanted to enjoy every bite, but he was so starved that he greedily gobbled it up.
"MUAHAHAHAHA !!", suddenly a creepy voice sounded behind them and Joe choked on his last piece of meat, startled. Coughing, he turned around and saw a gloomy figure break out of the bushes and pounce on them.
"Who is messing with my lunch here so blatantly?" The monster roared and came menacingly closer. Joe jumped up and ran screeching back into the underbrush. Bunny couldn't suppress a scream either, but somehow she couldn't run away. She felt paralyzed. Buster had positioned himself protectively in front of her and bared his teeth with a growl. Now the monster stepped into the light and Bunny couldn't believe her eyes. In front of her stood a well-fed, middle-aged man whose brown hair had become a bit sparse on his head, but grew all the more splendid in his face and chest.He wore sandals and large-lens sunglasses, but the most unusual part of his outfit was a kind of bikini that he had apparently made himself from leaves. The whole thing was rounded off with a straw hat, which was also decorated with leaves and branches. If the shock hadn't been so deep in her bones, Bunny would probably have laughed herself to pieces at this strange sight. But now it was more important to clear up this matter as possible without bloodshed.
"Uh, ... sorry, ... we, ...", she started and looked around for Joe, but he was still nowhere to be seen.
"... well, we're terribly sorry. We definitely didn't want to eat anything away from you, but we were stuck on a boat for a while with no provisions and therefore had a great deal of hunger. I hope you can understand that and will refrain from it to eat in return ... "she added hesitantly.
The man slowly pulled his sunglasses a little further down with one finger and then looked at Bunny with his small, brown eyes."Eat you? I'm not a cannibal! Besides, there is almost no meat on you little scoundrels.", He replied and then began to laugh out loud, whereby the leaf skirt around his fat belly began to rustle softly.
"I can't tell you how relieved I am about it. By the way, my name is Bunny D. Kate and this is my dog ​​Buster. Somewhere back in the bushes my friend Joe is also hanging around. He's a bit .. "Shy." Bunny said cheerfully.
"Very pleasant. My name is Norman and I live here." Her opposite replied and took her hand.
"It's nice to have visitors again! Your little friend can come out now. I don't usually bite.", Norman called a little louder and after a few moments Joe ventured back into the clearing with hesitant steps. He too was greeted warmly and when Norman even offered them a delicious dessert, most of his fear was gone.Now they were sitting comfortably around the campfire and Bunny told her whole story for the first time since they had set off on this trip.
"Yes, I saw your nutshell on the beach. And you really want to take it to the Grand Line? You are either very brave or pretty naive!", Norman interrupted with a giggle.
"That's just the beginning. We will of course get a bigger ship and then we need a few more members for our crew. You wouldn't be interested by any chance?", Bunny asked him with a wink.
"Well, if I squeeze myself into this little boat, we'll go under before you can say" Jello ". No, no, that's where it comes from. Besides, I have my own ship. It's a bit better equipped, so yours." , Norman replied and just couldn't stop the giggle.
"You have a ship ???", Bunny and Joe called out of one mouth and looked at him in disbelief.
"Yes. Why? What about it?""asked Norman. He didn't think this fact was particularly exceptional.
"I thought you were stranded here on this island and couldn't leave, but if you own a ship you could have disappeared long ago.", Bunny said, still looking very confused.
"That's right. I was stranded on this island three months ago. I went fishing in this remote area