Disclaimer: If you recognise it, surprise, I don't own it.

 

Chapter 13– Boats and Bros. 

 

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I lean left, then lean right, back up, jump around, roll to the side and then duck before getting back to my feet. The wolf that had leapt over me quickly skids to a stop and turns around to keep on coming from me, its claws inching forward to slice open my neck. 

 

Again it tries to barrage me, but I dodge with an ease borne of familiarity, and then once again, it starts to run. I can tell that it wants to leap at me again, and so I run forth as well, and when it jumps, I slide on the ground, and I kick my leg up and kick it in its neck as it goes above me, dealing severe damage.

 

The wolf goes flying as I skid along the ground, coming to a stop, and I stay there, laying on the floor, breathing heavily and looking up at the sky as I try to catch my breath. I don't worry about the wolf that is out of my sight, Garp has been ordering me to fight all sorts of animals lately, and I have gained a wealth of experience, which is how I know that wolf is down for the count and won't be coming back at me.

 

"Tch, you are this tired just from that little bit of jumping around? And all you did was kick one lousy little dog?"Garp comments from the side where he is sitting, leaning back against a tree, from where he supervised my fight. This has been regularly happening since my first failed boat attempt. First, Garp would pick me up by the scruff of my neck, and then my vision blurred since we were moving too fast, and then we would be in another location entirely, usually in front of some sort of animal.

 

Sometimes it would be a pack, but Garp would just glare at them, and they would all be cowed, and then he would send the others away and keep just one, which he ordered to try to kill me. Otherwise, he would kill it, and it would come at me with lethal intent, and Garp would let me fend for myself. I am sure Garp would intervene if it actually came to me being in deathly peril, but thankfully it has never come to that.

 

Of course, I was surprised the first time it happened, but I quickly reacted and got to fend off the beast. Otherwise, I would get cut up, though thankfully started off with an animal that was not too dangerous for me. And from there, the fights slowly escalated as I worked on making the boat. The animals would get bigger and meaner each time. I even faced off against two animals at one point, but that was the max.

 

"Whatever, old man, just take me back to the beach so I can get back to working on the boat," I tell him, lifting myself up to rest my palms against the ground, still exhausted from fighting off the wolf. The wolf, which I now noticed, has scurried away after losing, just like all the other animals before it.

 

"Fine, let's go, shrimp." And then, before I could even do anything, I felt him grab me by the back of my shirt, and then we whooshed away, and all I saw was a blur of colours and a harsh wind in my ears as Garp took me back to the beach at an unbelievable speed. At first, this was very jarring for me, and my stomach was very unsettled. However, humans are the most adaptable beings in existence, and this hardly phased me anymore.

 

"Ugh," I grunt as I am thrown onto the sandy beach, Garp having chucked me as soon as we got here, but instead of making mention of it, I simply get back up to my feet and walk over to my workstation, where my next boat is in the process of being assembled. Well, not my next boat. I stopped counting after I had four failed attempts. It just got harder to do when I had to make it for me, Garp and George.

 

My first attempt at making a boat after Garp told me we were taking George with us was a big fail, and Garp knew it would be. Just remembering it makes me want to bury my head. The problem was obvious, after all.

 

---

 

"Why aren't you getting in the boat, Garp-san?" I ask, resting next to my newly built boat. Not as sleek or nice looking as the first, but it is now wide enough to hold all three of us. But while George is already sitting in the boat waiting to depart, and I am behind it all ready to go, Garp is there sitting on the chair he had me build for him with all the scraps I had that I didn't need.

 

"Hm, oh. Well, after the first time, I don't really trust your building skills or your boats anymore, so I am going to stay here while you go test it out, and if it works, then I will get in with you, and we will go. Now shoo, your annoying me." Garp waves me away, trying to relax in the sun while reclining on his chair.

 

"Tch." I tut at his lackadaisical attitude as well as the fact he is ignoring me, and then I turn to my boat and pick up my book that I left inside and go place it safely down on the sand away from the shore. It is not that I don't have faith in my boat. Because I do, I made it with my own two hands, but it is just good sense to place any valuables away from the ship and test them first.

 

I am very happy about the first boat I made. I was too excited about it and climbed in and tested it, completely forgetting about my book that I left on land, so it thankfully did not become wet and get ruined like Garp's sack of crackers did. And I won't be risking it this time, and I will leave it here. I will have to come back to land after I test it out anyways to get Garp, so it isn't really a big deal.

 

"Hop out, George, and help me push this thing into the shallows. Then you can get back in," I tell the giant lazy silver-backed gorilla that has been sitting in the boat since I finished it and excitedly hopping about, waiting for us to set off. Seriously, George is way more excited about us going off on the ship than either Garp or I am. The gorilla has been watching me build the thing and has actually been helpful, assisting me in its making and doing some heavy lifting.

 

"Greh eh." George grunts, shaking his head back and forth, still excitedly rocking about in the boat, unable to contain himself. This sometimes helpful, mostly lazy gorilla is refusing to get off the ship, and I don't have the physical strength to force him off, and as I look at the only other person on the beach that will actually be capable of that, I realise I will get no help since Garp is much too busy enjoying himself in the sun.

 

"Fine, whatever. I am usually doing stuff by myself on this island anyway. why should this be any different." Resigning myself to my fate, I place my hands against the back of the boat and dig my feet down into the sand behind me, and then I begin to push. I am not strong enough to pick George up and take him off the boat, all without damaging the ship itself, but I am more than strong enough to push the boat into the water. What else has the training all been for?

 

But this gorilla sure isn't light. It is going to take quite a bit of dedication from me to have this done quickly. And so I scrunch my eyes up real tight and tense my whole body before pushing forwards, pushing with all of my might, and it really does suck a lot of energy out of me. George must have gotten quite fat after pretty much sitting around all day and eating fruits that I still peel for him.

 

I might have overestimated just how strong I am, or perhaps I underestimated just how heavy George is, but either way, I know that if I stop now, then I will find it harder to come back and try again, so I have to push it. So, scrunching my eyes closed even harder and gritting my teeth, I just face my head down and start to walk, pushing the boat very slowly but surely across the sand.

 

Step by agonising step, I make staunch moves forward, and I don't stop for anything. Finally, I quit focusing on everything else and completely blocked it out. I just concentrated on pushing this boat forward so that it could embark upon the oceans. Right foot, left foot, right foot, left foot, right foot-

 

"GREEHHHH!" George shrieks, and my head jolts up in surprise at his sudden scream, only to get a face full of gorilla in my face.

 

"Agh," I grunt as I am knocked on my ass as George barrels past me, and my entire body dips into the water, my head submerged underneath it. A shock runs through my body, and my brain gets a kick from the sudden ice-cold water washing over me. And I quickly bolt upright, and I start to brush my face trying to clear my eyes so that I can figure out what the hell just happened.

 

"What the... Where is my boat?" Once I have wiped my face clean and can adequately open my eyes, I look out at the open ocean in front of me, and my boat is nowhere to be seen. Looking out at the empty blue sea, I am befuddled when I cannot spot my boat anywhere. When a moment ago, I was just pushing it, and now I am sitting in water that comes up to my chest.

 

"BWAHAHAHA, YOU DUMB BRAT! THAT WAS TOO FUNNY. WHAT DID YOU THINK YOU WERE DOING? BWAHAHA, THAT WAS TOO FUNNY!!" Garp bursts out laughing as he sits on the beach, enjoying my misery to the fullest. I turn around in the water to glare over at him for laughing at my misfortune, and this affects him as well, but then I catch sight of Geroge, who is standing on the beach, water dripping off of his legs.

 

"IT WASN'T MY FAULT, YOU SMELLY OLD MAN. IT IS HIS! GEORGE, WHY DID YOU SUDDENLY SCREAM AND RUSH AWAY? YOU KNOCKED ME OVER, AND NOW I CAN'T FIND THE BOAT!" I shout back at Garp first, angry that he is laughing at me before my ire transfers over to the actual culprit behind my boat's disappearance, who stands there looking confused.

 

"Geh?" George mumbles out, recoiling a bit at the tone I have used. Since I have never been angry with him before, I am usually quite mellow and calm with him, sometimes being exasperated by his antics. Still, I have never, ever been negative to him before today, which must be pretty jarring for George, and that is evident as the gorilla shields its face while backing away.

 

I start to make my way out of the shallow depths of the water and towards Geroge, who acts like a child that has just been told off, with his head down and looking at the ground. It is taking me some time to walk onto the sand, but that is because my footwear is entirely clogged up by wet sand, and moving forward, especially in the water, is difficult.

 

"Oi, brat. Leave the monkey alone. It isn't his fault you are dumb. You should try using your head more than your weak fists. George didn't do anything wrong, really." Garp calls out as I near the diminutive form of George, which is contradictory since George is still a towering giant, and yet he is acting very small. After hearing Garp's words, my anger and bluster immediately fade, and I look away from George to see what Garp actually means.

 

"It isn't his fault? I am dumb? Then, where is my bloody boat?" I direct towards Garp since he seems to have seen all that happened, or at least enough to have a good laugh at my expense. Because I was seriously perplexed about just where my boat was, it completely disappeared after I took a dip underneath the water.

 

"Dumb little shrimp, are you dumb? You were so focused on pushing the boat with your head down that you didn't realise you had gone too far, and the boat was already deep into the ocean. The boat started to fill up with the ice-cold water, and with George not being familiar with the sensation when the water hit his legs, he freaked out and ran back to land, knocking you over in the process." So Garp reveals to me, which doesn't explain where my boat is now or what caused it to sink since I made it just as good as the last boat I made.

 

"But then, why was my boat sinking? It was just as good as my previous one, and that held me and you perfect- oh." I realise my mistake now. I made a boat the same as the last one.

 

"This time, you were-"

 

"This time, I was taking a gorilla with us as well, a very heavy gorilla. But unfortunately, the boat was made like the last one, which meant that it was not good enough to hold George's weight, and it sank. But then, where has it gone now? I shouldn't have pushed it that far in that?" George was sitting near the front of the boat, so when I was pushing it, it stayed against the sand. Even when it was in the water, it started to go along the sea floor.

 

But since George was near the front when the water raised enough to enter the boat and touch his legs, it shouldn't have yet been deep enough for it to sink, so where the hell is it?

 

"Well, uh, maybe it is a little bit of the gorilla's fault. When the big monkey rushed to get back to the beach, he made a big jump from the edge of the boat to the sand, wanting to avoid as much of the sand as possible, and he ended up pushing the boat out further into the sea." I didn't see it because George pushed me down beneath the waves, and it took me a while to get up and clear my eyes to see correctly. By that time, the boat had already sunk since there was already some water in it, and it kept coming in, making it sink, and George's push probably didn't help either.

 

I look over at George, who is looking down at the ground, having just been berated by me, and I can't help but feel a little bad about it. But, even though it was a bit his fault for panicking like that and pushing the boat further off into the sea, it doesn't really matter since the ship would not have worked anywhere. 

 

Plus, I was so focused on moving the heavy boat that I probably would have pushed it in till it was too late, so George didn't really do anything that wouldn't have been done anyway, and we would have had to scrap the boat since George would not have been able to use it.

 

"I... I am sorry, George. It was my fault, not yours. I should have taken into account that there were going to be three of us, not just two, and built to accommodate that." So I tell George, whose head perks up at my apology, which I made since I unjustly got mad at him. But after a moment, he seems to realise something, and he narrows his eyes at me.

 

"Grah," George says and turns his head away from me, not deigning to look at me. Confused, I move to the left to get back in his eyesight, but he then turns his head in the other direction, so I try again, but again he avoids my gaze.

 

"Hey, come on, George, I said sorry. It was an easy mistake to make. Let's go back to being buddies and make another boat, yeah?" George starts to walk off to the tree line and takes a seat, with me following alongside him, trying to get him to be friends with me again. I am stuck on this island with Garp, who is hard to get along with at the best of times, not to mention when he is making you do intense training and laughing at you when you mess something up. 

 

George is my only companion on this island, who sits there listening to the random crap I spout and the smack I talk about Garp. The best thing is he can't actually tell anyone about anything I say, and yet he understands what I am saying perfectly. I mostly even sleep against him since his fur is so soft and comfortable, I hate to admit it, but the closest thing that I have to a friend in this world so far is this gorilla, who is now ignoring me.

 

"Come on, George, let's make another boat. You were having fun when we were doing it before, right? How about a break first? Let's get some fruits and have a snack break, relax a little. Then, we can start working on the boat tomorrow. What do you say? George? Come on, just look at me, man." 

 

---

 

"So brat, how many does this one make it? Six boats? Seven? Are you sure it will even float?" Garp questions looking down at my newest creation, the latest boat to have been made, which will fit all three of us, and if my calculations are correct, then it will hold each of us as well and float just fine on the high seas.

 

"GRAH!" George loudly shouts, crossing his arms and nodding his head in the affirmative, assured that it will float, having complete faith in it. George is very proud of every boat we have made together, having forgotten about the little tiff he was having the very next day and then excitedly working together with me on the next ship. 

 

George was actually very helpful with the heavy lifting and building of the boats, holding things in place as I affixed them together, he was genuinely helping me and making things easier on me, and he was a good partner.

 

"Don't worry, this time it will work. I am sure of it." I say, looking down at the boat, which is much the same as all the other boats I have made, but just a little larger so we can all comfortably stay on it, but apart from that, it is practically just the same, which is where Garp's doubt comes from.

 

"But how is this one going to work when it is just the same as the others, and there is nothing different about it? Won't it just sink?" Again Garp discussed his concerns when I had just reassured him that it would work. For some reason, he doesn't trust my word, possibly because I have had several failed previous attempts, but this one will be different. 

 

"George, pick up the boat and follow me to the evacuation point," I called to George, who saluted and immediately followed my orders and picked up the boat and followed behind me as I walked along the beach towards my destination. Garp, confused as to what we are doing, follows behind us, unaware of the other project I had going on while working on the boat.

 

"Evacuation point? Where are you going, shrimp? All the other times you just tried to push off from this spot of the beach, why are you changing that now?" Garp asks a very prudent question, as the change in location is very essential to why our boat will work this time, and we will set off without problems.

 

"You see, Garp, the reason for our change of location is because the boat would not have worked if we just pushed off the beach, especially because George would be joining us, an-"

 

*Boink* "OWW!" I crouch and clutch at my head, feeling a big bump sprout out of the top of it where Garp suddenly hit me on the head, completely unprovoked. I did not deserve that at all.

 

"Don't get clever with me, you little shit? Have some respect. You just got a bit stronger. That is no reason to be so arrogant. Stupid, little shrimp" So he is fine with me sometime calling him old man or senile old man, but he will get angry if I just call him by his name. How does that make any sense? And how was I even being arrogant? Ignoring that for the moment, I get back up and continue walking, restarting my explanation as well.

 

"Tch, whatever. Alright, so basically, our boat wasn't working because George was in the boat when we were trying to push off. Boats float because there is more water under the boat, and the weight of that water is more than the weight of the boat and the things on it, so it floats." I explain. But before I can get any more out, Garp interjects.

 

"So, water is really heavy?" He says, completely missing the point and the crux of this conversation.

 

"The force of the water pushing up is more than the force of the boat pushing down, so the water is pushing the boat up, which is why it floats. But since George was already in the boat when we were pushing off, the force going down was less than the force going up in those shallow waters, so the boat was sinking, which allowed the shallow waters in, which made it heavier so when it got deeper in it just sunk. It is why all of our boats have failed, which is why myself and George have built this." As we round around the corner, I point out the shoddy little dock that we have built, which will serve as our exit off of this island.

 

"So, it is mystery water!" My epic reveal is completely dashed when Garp ignores it entirely and makes a ridiculous comment like that while slamming his palm into his hand as if that made it definite. What the hell even is mystery water? He completely missed everything I was saying. I chose to ignore him and save my breath since it would take me a long time to explain it to him to the point where he would get it, and instead, I walked along the dock with the others till the end of it, where Geroge places the boat down in the water.

 

The dock itself isn't the best in the world, and it doesn't go out very far, but it is firm, and it will get the job done since it goes out far enough that the boat is resting entirely on water, and the water is deep enough that it should float fine. Looking at George, he gives me a firm nod before cautiously stepping down into the boat, and it doesn't sink. It works just fine. I hop down myself just to make sure and the ship doesn't dip in the slightest, confirming that it is completely working.

 

"Right, see, it is fine. So get in, and let's go. It's time for us to finally leave this boring island." I already have my book tucked into the waist of my pants since I was so assured that this plan would work. I can't wait to get back home and change into some new clothes because the stuff I am wearing right now is pretty much destroyed. All I have left are my little shorts, the rest of them having gotten lost and destroyed in my duration on this island.

 

Suddenly Garp disappears from view, and then a second later, he is right back holding a big sack which he plants down on the boat and then hops into the boat and leans back onto it. He then reaches behind him, pulls out a packet of crackers, and immediately gets to chowing down on it.

 

"What, where did you get those crackers? I thought they were all ruined when they fell into the water," I ask, confused since there should be no more of them, and I haven't seen Garp eating any crackers in a very long time.

 

"Hm, oh, these. I swam out to the nearest island with people on it and got some the night my crackers got soaked. People sometimes give me free things for some reason. I didn't even have to pay for these crackers." Garp reveals, and I raise my hand about to interject with the many problems with that story before I let it go. It is kind of blowing my mind that it is possible for people to swim through the ocean to another island, even with those massive Seakings out there, so I am going to ignore it for now and focus on rowing, to-.

 

"Um, wait. How are we getting back? I don't know the way, and that thing you gave me before only led us to Troga." I question, not having thought about this before. Focusing on just building the boat, and now that we are here, I am at a loss.

 

"Oh, right here, catch." Garp reaches behind him to grab something and then throws it at me. Catching it, I look down at it and observe it carefully. Instead of the thing he gave me last time, this time, it is just a glass dome on top of a bit of circular wood, and on the inside of it is a tiny bit of paper that seems to be moving.

 

"That there is a special paper that will move in the direction of Bogard, who is still waiting for us at your island. Just follow the direction the paper moves in, and we will get back to your island eventually." Saying so, he gets back to munching on his snacks, leaving me looking down at this mystery paper. 

 

Shrugging, I grab my oar and get to rowing. I have already seen a lot of weird things that I didn't think were possible, so it isn't that hard to just shrug this off, and right now, I just want to go home.