Two hours later Marco, Shaw, a lieutenant of the First Division, and a woman whose clothes informed about her belonging to the Bethesda community stood on the main deck of Moby Dick. She walked straight, avoiding eye contact with anyone, and when she saw Edward sitting under the mast, she became pale. She felt the gaze of the most powerful crew in the world on herself and it was not comfortable. They watched every move carefully, although they pretended not to be interested in her presence.
On the bridge on the left stood Namur, at the sight of whom the woman froze and almost retreated. Fishman snapped his mighty jaws with disgust and turned his back to her and the witnesses' eyes became cooler.
'There is nothing to be afraid of' She heard by the ear and swallowed hard, unable to control the fear of seeing the osprey. The blue skin and shark look seemed grotesque in the company of people, although only she thought so. They - the crew - didn't pay any attention to it at all. One could feel full acceptance for Namur's otherness and unwittingly the woman felt respect for them, and contempt for her fear.
She recognised Fossa - a bulky pirate who was said to have smoked one fifth of the world's tobacco. His letter arrived at Bethesda a long time ago from the nearby island of Glass Forsythia, where Fossa is said to have come from.
In the crowd she noticed curious looks, no face expressed a desire to hurt the newcomer, which she was afraid of when she went to port. At first it was hard for her to believe Marco's words about the child he found. In the end, the pirates were far from being gentle and those she knew would kill the baby sooner than take it on board. But the longer he spoke, nonchalantly describing the girl and his reaction to her crying, she began to believe him and took an interest in the fact that he found her eyes yellow. Marco described them as golden, but the men, according to her, did not have the ability to determine colours. She decided to assess it herself.
'Old man, this is Rida. '
She bowed with respect, and when she stood up, her eyes unwittingly slipped to the source of a joyful, childish laughter. Lerena, on all fours, was swaying back and forth, and then, chattering her own way, she put two fingers in her mouth and squeaked in delight. All this happened at the feet of Edward and Rida though that this little child is in the safest place in the world.
The woman stood straight, with her hands lowered along her body and only her hands clenched in her fists were a sign of nervousness. The subtle, cool facial features revealed nothing, just like the dark, deep eyes. When Marco introduced her, her narrow lips trembled as if they wanted to spread real horror to the whole world, but she mastered quickly and swallowed hard.
'She's afraid," Haruta said to Fossa, observing the whole event. Fossa shoved the cigar ashes into the water and laughed briefly.
- No wonder. You see such a giant that could wipe out a whole battalion in one move, must've send shivers down your spine.
- And you think we'll give her Lerena?
- And that's another thing.
The Emperor's yellow eyes looked at the woman carefully, and a deep, calm voice was heard, breathing even more respect into Rida. She had no difficulty imagining what panic Edward sowed in the ranks of the enemy when he ordered his divisions to attack.
'Do you want to take care of that child?' Once again, she swallowed it hard, and with all her soul, she wanted her voice not to tremble, but facing the Most Powerful Man in the World, she could not play back her fear. The power that had been radiating from Edward was overwhelming, Rida seemed to think that if she stayed aboard Moby Dick for longer, she would suffocate.
So how did this child chatter so joyfully, and over and over again, without fear, hit the Emperor's black shoe, demanding attention? The little one should be so terrified, according to Rida, to not even crying!
'Your son, mighty Emperor...' she started out slowly 'told me he found a child on the beach of this island. He said the girl had several months and golden eyes. Can I see her?' She knew she couldn't afford to be disrespectful aboard Edward's ship, and every word must be well thought out. All her knowledge of Whitebeard and his crew was based on rumors: He was patient and forgiven a lot, but no one who allowed himself to offend his sons survived.
Edward did not look at her for a few moments, giving his attention to Lerena, but at the woman's question the yellow eyes rested on her again. For a long time the captain remained silent, as if he was considering an attack from Rida, and his gaze hardened. She wanted to go back, but she simply frightened. It was the kind of fear that we wake up in the middle of the night and hear a sound, then we are not even able to breathe. She felt that this question aroused his vigilance, although she had no idea why. In her opinion she said nothing wrong, but the Emperor's face said something completely different.
'Marco. 'The pirate called up approached his captain and took over the little one, without saying a word, understanding that the Emperor does not agree to entrust the girl to a foreign woman, or at least not at that moment. Rida also understood this, and did not reach to the child, but watched very carefully.
'She is eleven or twelve months old," she said in an intermittent voice, smiling and watching the baby stretch out his hand towards a long necklace. 'But the colour of her eyes is not natural, Captain Newgate.'
'Demon not a brat, I told you from the beginning!' called Thach and turned to Marco. 'Why the hell would you take her from there? That's all the trouble with that.'
'What do you mean by that?' Edward leaned his head on a bent arm and waited patiently, ignoring Tahch's yelling. Jozu purred something underneath his nose and slapped a 17-year-old boy in the head, silencing him.
'Every child...' she stressed 'is born with blue eyes. Then they change and it can last until the age of three. But she...'
'Lerena," corrected the Whitebeard, to which Rida again bowed with respect.
'Forgive me' she said and her hands were shaken 'Lerena is an exception, as you can see. And her exceptionality will not be accepted at Bethesda. The child is from North Blue, only there the children have the golden colour of the irises, you know that, Captain Newgate.' Rida gave the child a necklace - a long, golden chain with a cross - and she watched the girl squeeze it tight, looking at Marco.
'I can't leave her here, I understand.' Whitebeard agreed. 'However, there are a lot of islands in the New World, there's sure to be a place for her.'
'I can take care of her if you wish' she offered quickly, seeing an opportunity to leave her home island.
Newgate remained silent, weighing her words in his mind, and his gaze seemed to say that he knew what Rida meant. As if he knew the woman wanted to use him for her purposes.
'Be ready for tonight. We'll take you to Turmalin. It's one of my islands. We'll get there in a few weeks. Whatever Lerena needs or you need, my sons will provide.'
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It seemed funny to Rida how Thach approached Lerena. Sitting in the ship's galley she watched the process of feeding the little one and couldn't help but smile, seeing the pirate's delicacy masked by anger. A seventeen-year-old boy with a yellow scarf around his neck, which was of great interest to the child, fed the little one with warm milk from a bottle, walking around the whole room. A huge one, it had to be added, like everything on Moby Dick. It was midnight, and Bethesda's lights had disappeared in the dark an hour earlier, assuring Rida that she was far enough to breathe.
'You look as if you're happy to be so far away from home' Tahch chased out, and if it wasn't for little Lerena in his arms, he'd probably sit down to Rida and try to flirt. The woman was nodding her head, not letting the baby out of her sight, but she didn't continue the subject. 'No wonder why live on an island when you can sail in the New World.'
'How long have you been here?' She asked the question, directing the conversation to him so that she could talk about herself as little as possible.
'A year now, the old man took me in. I stole from the local mayor and broke his two ribs' he cheerfully chipped out, infecting Rida with it. 'I was supposed to be flogged, but then pops showed up.' He pointed his head at the boarding, thinking of Edward. 'And he had a chitchat with me. Then he offered me to join the crew, and since I had nothing better, I agreed. On the first day I got such a beat-up from Marco that I couldn't walk and we became brothers' he confessed with disarming sincerity, without pretensions in his voice. Rida laughed quietly, imagining how a blond pirate with a bored face beats Thach.
'It must have been a sight.'
'It was. Woman, I thought I was gonna die...' he broke off, looking at Lerena, who refused the milk and yawned. 'What cuttlefish? Don't you want it anymore? Well, then, I'll sleep now. You could go through the whole cruise and not eat all the time. I'm sick of your screaming and...' She interrupted him again, yawning, which Thach put her in an upright position, like the new babysitter told him before, and patted the little one on his back.
'I'll take her if you want' Rida offered, which the boy welcomed and gave Lerena back. 'We'll go to bed, yes?'
'Don't you dare to cry. And you won't get any more food until breakfast, you hear me?'
The girl was bounced back in response, which pleased Thacha completely, and then Rida left, smiling under her nose, convinced that the whole trip to Turmalin would be one big adventure.
___________________________________________________________________________
'I think you should give her a middle name.'
Edward watched Rida walk around the deck with Lerena in her arms, saying something to the girl.The blond looked at his father first and then at the woman with the child and shrugged his shoulders indifferently.
'Somehow I don't have a gift for names, old man.'
'And yet it was you who found her, so she should get something to remind her of it.
Newgate leaned back in his chair and took a deep breath. The sun heated the earth, air smelled like the ocean, the clear sky looked like an invitation to a long voyage, and the gentle splash of waves crashing against the hull sounded like a symphony. Several pirates were playing cards on the deck, doing nothing from the early hours, and drinking vodka. Marco looked at them for a while and then decided to chase them to work, the cargo hold needed a little remodeling.
Moreover, on board, as usual, there was a bustle of everyday life. Marshall and Thatch were arguing about something, Fossa and Jozu were wrestling with a dozen or so members of the four divisions, someone else was loudly talking about the last voyage to Fishman Island.
'And that name is supposed to be that thing, yoi? You called her Lerena and you think she'll remember who you are?' He asked on the outsider.
'Lerena is the most beautiful name on earth, and she'll remember. I feel a little like her father, so I won't miss meeting her. Every now and then' Edward added. 'Only things that don't matter don't have a name, son. Give her a name that will always be associated with you.
A moment later, Rida approached the mast with her head bent, and the girl pulled out her hands towards Edward. When the Emperor took her she rubbed her eyes and yawned.
The hustle, as if by order, was silent, and when the Whitebeard's voice sounded, everyone heard it.
'Oh, you wanna take a nap before dinner, little one? So sleep safe.' He covered her with his captain's coat from wind and sun, and Lerena fell asleep almost immediately. 'The unusual thing is that a man can create such a crumble and leave it to the mercy of fate' he started and Rida had no doubt that the Emperor spoke to her. 'I cannot help but wonder that she is so filigree and was completely alone.'
'She is not alone anymore' she dared to deny it. 'She has you, you saved her. I promise she will remember that for the rest of her life.'
About a week later, the schedule of the day was set by despotic Lerena. She woke up early in the morning, then after breakfast Marco would take her around the ship and he caught himself talking to a chattering baby about serious things like loading, bills and direction of the cruise. Later he passed her on to Edward for her midday nap, and after lunch Lerena crawled around the deck under Rida's watchful eye and became a centre of general interest, which made her very happy. During these first days, the child met everyone on the mother ship, so there had to be an incident with a second name, and it began more or less like this:
After dinner Lerena didn't intend to go to sleep and announced it with a loud shout as soon as Rida put her in a hammock in the cabin. She would cry until the woman took her back in her arms, but for obvious reasons she didn't answer the question "what's going on". She calmed down a little, but big tears in her golden eyes continued to shine and she sob quietly when the babysitter decided to take her on board for a few moments. The hustle and bustle of the crew always calmed the child down, not to mention the rocking on the captain's hands, but Edward was sleeping in his cabin and Rida would never dare to wake him. As for the crew, most of them gathered in the galley that day and had a card evening, so the air loaded with tobacco smoke and alcoholic fumes was not suitable for girls in their eleventh month.
Rida walked aboard Moby Dick, from the navigation bridge to the bow, but Lerena kept on sniffing around and every now and then she would start screaming as if she wanted to cry, but wasn't quite sure if it would work.
'What's wrong with you, darling? Why don't you want to go to bed?' Rida asked the baby, not expecting an answer from the child, and it was only the blue light that made Lerena completely silent. She looked over Rida's head and slowly left her eyesight as the blue flame gently descended from the seal to the deck.
'And what do we have here? You don't sleep at this hour, yoi?' Marco's voice was filled with laughter and when he faced the woman, she saw a hidden smile in his dark eyes. Lerena stretched out her hands to him, and the pirate did not dare to refuse. 'Again, you are in a hurry and you are not letting Rida sleep' he made a gentle excuse and gave the child a finger.
Rida watched for a while, not knowing if she should admit her thoughts out loud, but she had the impression that Marco was a little bit older than Thach and would take her words.
As the pirate's hand caught on the blue flame, the little one laughed loudly and looked as if she had been enchanted by an unusual phenomenon, trying to hold the fire with her other hand.
'She got used to you' said Rida quietly, observing Lerena.
'And why not, after all, we're her now... family, yoi' He admitted, watching what the little one do.
Rida nodded her head and fell silent for a while.
'But you seem to be her closest.' She saw his interested look and finished it: 'She's silent when she sees you, and when you're not looking, she calls out. She seems anxious when you're not there, and I'm afraid that if you hadn't come to take her round one day, she'd be hysterical.'
Marco looked at the child with undisguised pride and smiled, satisfied with the words he heard.
'Yeah' he agreed 'she acts as if I had to watch over her, yoi.'
'I think it was because of your fire.' Rida watched little Lerena rest her head on the pirate's arm and squint her eyes sleepily, and the blue glow of the flames reflected on her face. She didn't let go of the boy's finger, squeezing him all the time. 'She feels safe with him, Marco.'
The pirate's dark eyes flashed and he smiled joyfully. The words of the father echoed in his head and he finally came up with something that would perfectly reflect his relationship with the child. Eventually he found her, he had full right from Edward to give her that name.
'Saphira' he spoke quietly, as if to himself, and gave the woman a communicative look, then he led her to the cabin and put Lerena to sleep.
On board he felt the same bliss as when the child squeezed his finger on the beach for the first time.
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Namur has belonged to the third division since the day White Beard took him in. On the ship he was treated as an equal, the initial reserve turned into boundless trust when the fishman became known as a devoted companion. After four years under sail of Moby Dick Namur was called "brother" by the crew, and "son" by Edward, and he called them "family". He felt safe on board, avoiding being on the islands, not wanting to get noticed and provoke people. He knew that they were afraid of him and that this fear made the pirates feel bad, and there was one step from fear to hatred. He didn't need others, anyway. The crew was enough for him, and by the time Rida and Lerena showed up, everything was in order.
Namur saw Rida's reaction to his otherness - the bluish colour of his thick skin, the shark's appearance and his powerful, frightening jaws - because he could not be masked by human clothing and walking on two membranous fins. That is why he tried to get out of her eyes, not wanting to see fear, disgust or contempt in them. The woman sensed it, but every time she wanted to apologise for it, Namur disappeared. The case was solved by Leren, who had not had the slightest contact with the fishman until then. "The human fry" was so fragile and so eager to cry that the pirate had no heart to "torture her with his appearance." Thach's speech about tolerance didn't help much.
So when the day after Lerena's second name was given she was aboard Moby Dick, to the delight of the gathered trying to stand on two feet, Rida was looking for a way to approach the fishman. Namur talked to Marco, standing near the captain's chair, and Rida and the child were about six meters away. Edward looked at the little one's stunts, drinking supposedly water from a barrel from time to time.
'Hoppy, naturally' threw Thach in his own way and more loudly encouraged Lerena to take the first steps. Unfortunately, the child was not particularly keen on this and after a few seconds of standing she clapped on the deck again, clapping her hands to the second disappointed moan of the pirate, as if it was amusing for her to make him angry.
After a while she looked around, turned on her stomach and started crawling towards Marco and Namur, and Rida followed her. Miraculously, the fishman didn't notice them, he was so absorbed in the conversation, and only a jerk by the leg caught his attention. He looked down and froze, seeing tiny Lerena touching the membranous fins. She lifted her astonished gaze at him and laughed soundly, then patted her right fin and pulled her hands up.
'She wants you to lift her up' said smiling Rida, leaning out from behind the fishman.
'A... But I can't...' He denied in a hoarse voice and took a step back, to which Lerena again jumped in his direction.
'Her Majesty doesn't know a word like no, yoi' Marco laughed and congratulated the child on her cunning. She was guided by her instincts and could do something extraordinary with her short walk. 'Take this despot in your hands, or she will force pops to order and you will have no choice.'
'Marco... I can't... She's so tiny... ' He protested with a broken voice, showing sharp teeth in a gesture of astonishment. Lerena didn't like the long wait. She got a grunt and tried to get up. When she finally stood with her hands stretched out to Namur, and he retreated to the false side, the girl took the first step towards him. Marco held his breath, Rida became frozen, and the child was pushing forward, step by step, to the fishman, chattering to herself as if she was announcing to the runaway that she would catch up with him.
She did not took six steps, and her legs bent underneath her and sat down, but after a while she rose again and took a few steps.
Namur bent down and lifted her up slowly, not realising why the buckthorn didn't run away crying. Why she forced him to accept responsibility for her safety. And she did it with a smile and childish confidence, making the fishman completely surrendered. He looked into the girl's golden eyes for a while and felt that all anger and grief to people for hatred and distrust melted away. The girl's little hands healed the wounds in his soul that others had caused, Namur looked in disbelief first at Marco and then at Edward.
'She... she's so tiny... You know' he whispered, holding the baby with both hands. Her hands examined the big neck, one finger stabbed him in the gills, another in the cheek, and then Lerena took up the examination of the jaw and, with a clumsy gesture, ordered the fishman to open his mouth, which he immediately did.
'Hey, hey, hey, where are you pushing that tiny head, yoi?' Marco reacted immediately and pulled Lerena back. 'Namur, don't open your mouth, you'll hurt her by accident.'
'I didn't want to!'
'I'm saying by accident...'
'Marco, take her away! I can't hurt her! She's so fragile!'
'Shut your mouth or you'll scare her!'
The dispute was interrupted by Edward's loud laughter, who watched the whole incident. Lerena looked around, always reacting to his voice.
'Lerena Saphira took her first steps today' he announced to those who had not seen the incident. 'This should be properly celebrated!'
A collective cry of joy rolled over the deck, putting everyone in a great mood. Some people ran to the mess hall, cargo bay and galley to announce the order and start preparations.
Namur passed the child on to Edward, and then she yawned in his hand, decided to take a nap without understanding the confusion. In fact, she had already taken a few uncertain steps in her cabin, and on board she simply didn't want to, knowing she had a lot of people to carry her.
She only woke up in the evening and she got warm milk from Thach, who exceptionally did not complain about this.405Please respect copyright.ＰＥＮＡＮＡUM85iS54oe
