"Are you serious?" I gape in disbelief. "What do you expect me to do? In case it's escaped your notice, Baterilla just got sacked! Do you really think anyone's sailing out in the morning? I'd bet money there isn't even a ship still afloat in the harbor! They tend to be the first thing set aflame in a night raid. Unless you have some alternative, I am stuck here. And you threatening me more isn't going to change that."
Technically, I do have one possible avenue of leaving. Using [Geppo] to try and fly to the next island over. But since that sounds somewhere between impossible and beyond exhausting, I'm not going to bring it up. It's staying filed away in the back of my mind as the last lastresort.
I expected Berwynne to get mad again, or hit me with one of those 'sounds like a personal problem' type of lines. Instead though he's got two fingers on his chin and looking to the side rather thoughtfully. "An alternative..." He murmurs just barely audible. "Have you ever heard of a South Blue Super Sparrow?"
A fuzzy memory plays in my head at the name. Which is somewhat odd considering how good my recall ability is these days. It's a hazy image of a foxy pirate with a...just bizarre mouth, even for this universe...riding atop a large speckled brown bird and acting as a...sports commentator I guess?
"Umm..I think so.. "I reply hesitantly. "I might be thinking of the wrong bird." Truth be told I never actually sat down and watched the 'Davy Back Fight' arc of the main story. I skimmed through it to get the general gist, but several people had informed me beforehand that it's almost universally agreed upon as the weakest and most unimportant part of the canon storyline. If not for the encounter with Aokiji at it's conclusion it may as well be dismissed as filler.
Apparently for Berwynne though, my answer was plenty good enough. "Through the jungle, on the far side of Baterilla you should be able to locate a few flocks nesting. They stay here four months out of the year as part of an annual migration. Super Sparrows aren't known as easy things to tame... but I imagine your Devil Fruit will give you a leg up that others have lacked."
I followed the path of his finger and raised a questioning brow.. "So...I'm to do what exactly? Jump on an adults back and pray it doesn't start bucking like a bull? Or were you thinking more along the lines of 'snatch a chick when mom isn't looking' and then live like a hermit in the woods until its ready to fly me out of here?"
Berwynne stood up and began shifting back to his 'Mr. B' persona. "How the heck should I know sonny?" he asked in a voice that was noticeably cheerier. "I got three talents in this life and bird taming ain't one of them. You needed an alternative off this island and I just gave you one." His demeanor briefly turns sharp again and his voice darkens for a single sentence. "Now if you'll excuse me, I need to go find out if my store hasn't been burned to the ground."
His eyes close and he smiles a wide toothless grin. "You take care now young man. And thanks for helping me with those flowers!"
The Next Day
Both halves of the giant hornet plop onto the leafy ground with a tiny whisper of a thud. I eye the pale straw colored residue on Kugizume from slicing it in two and turn my nose away. "Fuckin' bugs.." I grumble, digging into my pocket for a cloth to wipe my new sword down. You see, I can handle giant fish. Giant sea monsters. Giant lions, tigers, and bears and the like. And apparently I'm hunting for some giant birds as we speak and that prospect doesn't unsettle me in the slightest.. But what I do not handle well is giant bugs. Maybe 'giant' isn't the correct term. That hornet was the biggest I've seen yet and it was only about the size of three of my fingers. Still, I think many would agree that that is already too large for comfort. It's always been my personal opinion that any type of creepy crawly -or one if their flying cousins- that is big enough to stretch from my nail to my knuckle rests solely within the 'kill it with fire' category.
I take a step over a moss covered log and use the Meito to clear some of the thicket ahead. While we're on the subject of animals I should mention that I really don't know what I'm walking into here.
Animal life in the One Piece world is always a bit of a crapshoot. Size and potential danger is one thing, but the category I'm currently referring to is cognizance and intelligence level.
Many species are around exactly where you'd expect them to be. Dumb, glassy-eyed, unthinking...well...animals...who don't really have much going on upstairs beyond a bundle of instincts and a set of operating instructions. Like that hornet I just diced or the marlin I caught a few days back.
On the complete opposite end of the spectrum though, there are those who demonstrate, not just self-awareness or sapiency, but complex thought on an equal scale to that of humanoids. Just off the top of my head there's Nola the sky-python, Laboon the island-whale, and the Dugongs of Alabasta. Shoot, Pappag the starfish could freaking talk and owned a business and lets not forget the Unluckies who didn't let something as small as 'being a vulture and an otter' stop them from being bounty hunters.
The issue finally rears its head at this point though. Those I've mentioned are the extremes. They may be present but they are atypical. The majority of species lay...somewhere..in the middle of these two groups and you'll never know exactly where until you meet the animal in question.
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