It was those damned Marines that got him into this mess. Usually, they only dealt with pirates, but Winged Isle was, despite the name, a very boring island. It was small and unimportant, with very little tourist attraction; the rivers that seemed to take flight and come crashing down to pools that were many feet below had long since dried up after years and years of drought. The residents were simple-minded and careless-hell, they hadn't even known that the mysterious "flying rivers" were, in fact, very large waterfalls. It was a perfect haven for one desperate to escape the horrors of the past. Or so he thought.

But no, he regretfully repeated past errors and was in the same situation as before, only this time with the lack of a boat. There was no escape and the Marines were closing in.
Suddenly, a lion appeared. His heart stopped for a split second and he bit back a shriek of surprise and he realized it wasn't a lion. At all. It looked more like a sunflower, to be exact, carved out of wood and expertly painted in bright colors. He had no idea how he could have mistook such a thing for a wild beast in the first place.

The sunflower, of course, was the figurehead for a brightly-colored, friendly-looking ship. Its massive sails were furled and it bobbed gently with the lapping waves that had never become violent enough to damage the aged wooden docks.

He could hear the shouts of advancing Marines and decided to take a gamble. The ship's rope ladder was conveniently freed, and so he scurried up quickly and braced himself for an attack that never came. The deck was completely empty, which meant that he was safe for the time being. He watched the halfwitted Marines approach and then dash past, and his neck was saved, finally out of danger, because those dumbass Marines didn't know shit-

But they did not, in fact, dash past, but instead came to a screeching halt and stared up at his ship in bewilderment, which then morphed into mixed emotions of horror, anxiety, and further confusion. The lieutenant in charge recovered quickly and spun on his heels to face the others. He barked out what could only be assumed as orders, pointing frantically to a vague southward direction. He and his comrades fled, only two remaining.

Perplexed, he did a double take of his new asylum. Oddly enough, there was green grass growing on the deck, as well as some sort of orange tree. The main mast loomed above him, atop that a crow's nest, with the fluttering flag of a skull with a straw hat resting on the top. There were several doors, one of which likely led to a galley, another the living quarters of the ship's inhabitants. Stairs led up to a deck where the helm resided.
And so, he was on a pirate ship. The Strawhats' pirate ship to be exact.

He had heard of them, of course; unlike the average resident of Winged Isle, he was actually concerned with the current events that rattled the Grand Line like a storm. He knew ambiguously of what happened at Alabasta, the severity of their actions at Enies Lobby, their crushing, utter defeat at Sabaody Archipelago(a stunning victory for the marines), the captain's suicidal but successful infiltration of Impel Down, and the subsequent reappearance of the pirates a full two years later. Hell, everybody knew who they were, and that they were all mindless and merciless. He would likely, if not definitely, be killed if he were to be discovered as a stowaway.

Nonetheless, he loved freedom, and the mere thought of jail was enough to make his lips curl downwards with distaste. He would, really and truly, rather die than be locked up.
He opened a door and started his search for an unused room to take refuge in.

After the initial surprise of learning that the islanders of Winged Isle were vegetarian, and then the wave of mind-blowing shock and horror when he learned what that was, Luffy claimed the island to be boring and that they should take off as soon as the Log Pose was set. Nami didn't necessarily mind; Sanji and Chopper had likely finished their shopping for ingredients and supplies, and the small, family-run shops were doubtful to hold anything of interest to Usopp or Franky. Nami had lost any regard for the island when she realized that they had their own form of currency. One-hundred beri was equivalent to three of their pretty, but worthless tin chips. She could barely stand to give her crewmates(minus Zoro and Luffy, who had been chosen to keep watch over the Sunny) their shares of her money to go shopping. Oh, the sacrifices she made for this crew.

Nami really didn't have much room for complaint, however. She was unbelievably grateful that Usopp had managed to keep Luffy distracted for as long as he did before Nami decided on the route, choosing out of three the needle that didn't seem to be moving at all. When their course was set, Nami reported to Luffy that they were heading towards the next island, who cheered loudly, leapt up from his sitting position where he had been listening to his sniper's new epic, and catapulted to the Sunny's figurehead, where he waited eagerly for hours for the first sight of land. Winged Isle was so small and insignificant compared to the other New World islands that it was pure, raw luck that her Log Pose picked up on its minuscule magnetic field at all.

The only drawback of her captain's decision was the tooth-grinding, hair-pulling frustration of the task to round up the rest of the Strawhats. Luckily, Zoro should still be back at the ship, which saved her a good hour or two of tedious searching.

Unless he wandered off the ship just as Luffy had, Nami realized murderously. He was already to be fined for not making sure the captain stayed on board the Sunny at all costs like he had been firmly instructed. If he wasn't on board when she got back, he was going to have hell to pay for if he ever found his was way to the ship. If Zoro was gone, then no one was present to guard her valuable treasure, and that was absolutely unforgivable.

Nami wasn't sure if she would be able to contain her fury if there wasn't at least one person at the ship by her arrival.

PLEASE feel free to point out any mistakes that I have made. When I transferred this document over, I lost any of the formatting that I had done, so I did a shitty job of re-formatting the chapter before excitedly and childishly publishing it right away before doing any thorough read-through.

Welp. The first chapter of my first story! The plot will be somewhat loose because I'm not going to focus on our dear stowaway's story for the most part; this will mostly be about rumor vs reality as it refers to the Strawhat pirates. This is mainly a trial for my writing skills and what I need to improve on before I start on any better-thought-out fics.

Anyway, the next chapter will include a great deal of Nami shrieking and beating Zoro's sorry ass down. Until next time!