The party had just started when it unfortunately had to end. Cricket stressed the importance that we needed to catch a bird that faces south at all times to direct us to our destination. Without it we'd lose the once in a lifetime opportunity to reach Sky Island. So we split up into four groups to try and cover as much ground as we could and increase the chances of us catching one. Group one consisted of me, Lunna, Nami and Sonya. Group two is Robin, Gin, Zora and Kaya. Group three is Vivi, Carue, Chopper and Shushu. And finally group four is Keith, Valentine and Quiet. Group one was set east of the forest and group two was set on the west side of the forest. Group three is the super smell squad and will try to track the bird down by scent and group four will check the tops of the trees. Eventually we will all meet up somewhere in the middle of the forest to regroup and head back if one of us finds the bird.

Group 1

POV: Freddy

So far over here on group one we aren't having much luck. We just keep running into large bugs that are super aggressive. It almost seems like they've been hunting us with how organised they are. Suddenly we heard a booming echoing call from above. Cricket had told us that the bird has a very peculiar and specific call that we would recognize easily. This must've been the bird he was talking about. It was a fairly large toucan looking bird. One noticeable feature was the direction it's head was facing. It's body was turned towards us but it's head was turned 90 degrees to the left from its body.

"That must be it! Lunna grab it!" I told the Rubber girl but she didn't do anything. I look back and I see Lunna's head between the mandibles of a beetle scurrying off into the forest with Nami and Sonya following behind. I sighed. "Guess it's up to me." when I turned around the bird was gone. "Damn it! We had it right in our grasp. Wait…" I looked around frantically to see that I was alone. "Great now we're split up and I'm lost. The others can't be having this bad as well."

Group 2

POV: Gin

"Holy shit this is bad!" I screamed. At the moment me and Robin have been separated from Zora and Kaya by a horde of wasp. This all began because Zora thought she saw the bird so she sliced what she thought was the bird but ended up being a wasp nest. These wasp were each as big as my fist and I really really don't want to know how their sting would feel. I looked back to see the cloud of killer wasp right on our tail. "Hey Robin got any ideas? I'd rather not get stung by one of those flying knives." said woman had a thoughtful look as she ran but soon realised something. She crossed her arms and said clutch and a branch fell right behind us. The leaves and branch itself held the wasp back enough for us to get away.

"Holy shit that was a close one nice going." I said trying to catch my breath.

"I wonder where the two others have gone? We're supposed to meet up at the middle with the other groups but it seems the wasp had made us lose track of where we are." Robin said.

"Well damn, I can climb one of these trees and see just where we are."

"No need" The woman replied. "I'll just use my hands." She grew an eye on her palm to show what she was planning on doing. She closed her eyes and after a while she opened them back up. "It would seem we have reached our destination since we are directly in the middle of the forest."

"So we made it to the middle just by chance? Hah, just my luck. Well now what? Should we wait or should we go look for the others."

"I have confidence that our captains will find their way here so we should just stay here and wait like the original plan."

"Shoot it's not them I'm worried about. There's a certain Swordswoman who is horrible at directions." We both laughed at the comment directed towards the green haired swordswoman. I swear to god her laugh is so sexy. If we ever meet God I will be sure to thank you for this beauty. There are some real beauties on the crew but Nico Robin takes the cake. "So uh, you like jazz?" I almost facepalmed at the cringy question but before she could answer we heard screaming coming from the forest. I wonder if they are in just as bad as a position as I am in.

Group 3

POV: Vivi

"You guys get anything?" I asked the three animals. Carue shook his head and gave a quack. Shushu did the same except he barked.

"I'm not getting much but we are getting pretty close to Lunna. I can smell her from here. She must be real close." And she was definitely close since out of the bushes a large beetle had sprung forth scaring us to death. In the mandibles of the beetle was the head of Lunna as she screamed for help while being dragged along. To prevent the beetle from escaping I gooped up the path ahead of it to act as a glue trap and it worked perfectly. The moment the beetle stepped into the jello it stopped moving and started struggling to escape. It let go of Lunna and she fell face first into the jello. She tried getting up but her face was glued into the floor and she was suffocating. I retracted the jello back into my body and the two were set free as the beetle ran for it's life.

"Oh my God Lunna are you alright what happened to you?" I asked the Captain. She seemed to be very dizzy. Just then Nami and Sonya came rushing to us.

"Finally we caught up to you." Nami said. The two were we on their knees tired from all the running.

"Lunna, Nami, Freddy and I were following the bird when Lunna got kidnapped by the beetle but it was so fast that we couldn't catch up." Sonya said.

"Where is Freddy by the way?" I asked. The two girls looked behind me and Nami gave a sigh in defeat whereas Sonya started freaking out.

"Oh my God we left him behind! He's probably all alone waiting for someone like me to rescue him from the evil that lurks within this forest. This all your fault you rubber bastard!" Sonya said kicking the still dizzy Lunna into a nearby tree. We all heard an explosion followed by a scream but it wasn't from the captain, it came from the forest. "I'm coming Freddy!" Sonya yelled off running to the direction of the scream. The scream was too feminine to be Freddy's but nonetheless we followed Sonya dragging Lunna along with us.

Group 4

POV: Keith

You'd think flying around looking for a bird would be easy. Normal birds sure but this certain bird was proving to be elusive. I was holding onto Valentine's leg as she flew over the trees."Find anything down there Quiet?" I said to the woman hopping from tree to tree. She landed at the peak of the tallest tree and shook her head.

"Wait are those the birds?" Valentine said. Up ahead was a murder of crows and it looked like they were getting closer.

"Uh oh this can't be good" I said. The crows swarmed the three of us pecking and scratching like crazy. There was nothing we could do against this many enemies while flying in the air. The swarm flew past and landed on the trees behind us and stared at us. While we were recovering from the pecking a large explosion was heard from underneath us. Because the explosion we hadn't noticed a large bird land on my shoulder. I made eye contact with the bird and it gave off a peculiar call before biting the hand that was holding onto Valentine. As I fell I cursed at the bird. Quiet tried catching me but was too late as I fell below the tree line. Just before I hit the ground I gave off a very manly scream. (It wasn't manly)

POV: Freddy

"This damn forest is a maze and half. I can't find anyone around." I said to myself. I took a look around my surroundings and saw just endless trees and undergrowth. The only thing that was noticeably different was a large thick tree.

"Well this has got to be the middle right?" A voice said nearby. I looked towards the voice and saw Kaya followed by Zora who was just about to walk in a different direction.

"Hey! Girls over here!" I yelled waving at them. They looked my way and their eyes bulged out. I quickly found out why when I was struck on the head by a giant stick bug wielding a branch as if it was a swordsman. I rubbed the growing swell on my head and faced the bug. "Alright asshole you want some you got it!" I lifted up my left leg and pulled the trigger and BOOM! After the smoke had cleared all that was left was the branch. "Serves him right."

"Seems like the new leg was a good investment." Zora said with a smile.

"Yeah, has a helluva kick to it though. Where's Gin and Robin? I thought they were with you guys?"

"We got separated so I thought it'd be best if we just head towards the middle and you know I had to practically hold Zora's hand through the whole forest. At the mention of the swordswoman's biggest flaw she started blushing.

"I could've found it on my own." She replied. I gave a chuckle before we heard someone yelling above us. We looked up expecting a female due to the tone of the screaming but were surprised to see it was Keith. I had no time to move as I unfortunately broke his fall.

"I'll save you Freddy!" Another voice came from the forest. It was Sonya who instantly for no apparent reason kicked Zora aside. "Darling are you ok?" She asked holding her hand out. As I was reaching for her hand Zora punched the back of her head. "What was that for mosshead!"

"For kicking me you damn swirly eyebrow" The two got into their usual fight as I helped myself up pulling Keith up with me. Soon everyone started gathering by the large tree.

"So anyone have any luck." I asked. Everyone looked down with disappointment as no one had captured this elusive bird. Just then a familiar call was heard. We all looked to the large tree to see the bird resting on a branch.

"It said he is the king of the forest and we are trespassers who will be punished by death." Chopper translated.

"So it was the bird that was commanding everything to attack us" Vivi said. Two hands grew on the side of the bird and pulled its wings to the side and a third hand pushed it off.

"As long as I can see it nothing can escape my grasp." Robin said. We all started cheering as Zora picked up the struggling bird.

"Let's head back to the old man as fast as we can. We've already wasted enough time in this damn forest." I said. Everyone agreed and we headed back to Cricket. Once we were at the entrance of the forest we saw the horror displayed in front of us. "Diamond-Head Mister!" Lunna yelled out.

Author's Note:

Hey guys not dead btw. Just had a good ole Miura hiatus. Life has finally settled down for me so now I have the opportunity to get back to one of my favorite hobbies, writing. So to both readers new and old, ya boi is back in town so as always if you haven't already leave a favorite and a follow if you enjoyed and also leave a review, show some love(or hate) and tell me what you think of the story so far. Anyways till next time guys.