Hey there everyone! Long time no see. First, I'd like to say that if you are in the habit of skipping the authors notes (and I don't blame you) you might want to read this one as it will have some important info.

The chapter I have for you today is not a complete chapter, in fact it's about a quarter of the size I have laid out in my head. Why is it still in my head and not up here on the screen? That, I'm afraid, is the big announcement part of my author's notes.

I've finally hit my first absolute burnout while writing this story. I waited to see if it would clear up after I climbed my way out of my depression but, it did not.

I don't want to say this story is going on haites, simply because I've never liked that phrase much. It's always sounded so... final to me. I prefer vacation or perhaps a time-out. Whatever you want to call it, I'll be taking some time to be away from writing, at least for this fic.

I'll see if I can work on my other story and try to work on some short works for Furry Tails. At this point I don't know if it's a selective burnout or a total writing burnout.

I'm sorry everyone. On top of feeling like I let myself down, I feel like I'm letting you all down too.

Thanks to some wonderfully helpful reviewers out there, I'll be doing a re-write of this story when I get up and going again. They've pointed out some areas that could use some work and I've had a few ideas of my own. A lot of my ideas were put in at the spur of the moment, without too much thought (sometimes) about the direction they would go in later. I'll be able to re-write those moments better now.

So, thank you everyone who's bothered to drop by and read this, review, follow or favorite this. I hope to come back to writing this bigger and better than before.

To RainbowGuardian13: Thanks so much for the review and the encouragement.

To Wolfgurlaa: Thank you for the review. I'm sorry it will be awhile now before there is more of this fic.

To ShadowDeity'sFire and Edhla. Thank you both so much for you helpful cirque and praise. It really has been a joy to get some helpful direction.

Feel free to PM me with any comments/questions.

I don't own One Piece. Just my Ideas, OC's and my burnout but, I'll sell that last one off really cheap. Any takers?

No... How about free?

Still no-one...

Drat...

So, without any further delay, let us get onto the last update this story will see for the time being.

"Acccceeeeee!" With more enthusiasm then anyone should have at this early hour, Meli flung the fire users door open.

This had become routine on the Moby Dick. Every morning, Melisandra would pick a random victim, barge into their room shouting and pounce on them. All resistance was futile, even if you managed to get the little fluff ball out of your room, you were by then awake like it or not.

This however was something that Ace was already used to. Having Luffy as a younger brother got Ace accustomed to a lot of craziness. After that, Meli was fairly normal by comparison.

It was no surprise then, that Ace already had his arms up to catch Meli just as she was leaping. "Cooomeeee on, let's get breakfast! Come on, come on! Times a wasting!"

Ace groaned though he couldn't help but smile. Today Meli had her first play date with some kits around her age. While nearly everyone had played with her at some point, it was not the same as getting to play with others your own age. It was also full moon tonight, something that always boosted her energy levels.

Still, it was good to see her acting her age. On a ship full of adults, Meli all to often followed their example and unfortunately, following Thatch's example too.

"You know after last night, there's no way Thatch will be up this early." Ace reminded her.

Melisandra grinned.

"Oh, I know that. But, Allen will know that I will be up and will be wanting breakfast before I can leave. So, it's that or let me find my own way around the kitchen." Meli's eyes danced with mischief as she refreshed Ace's memory of this fact.

Ace chuckled. "You really shouldn't have messed with his copper jelly molds."

Melisandra shrugged. "They were there and they're shiny. You can't expect me not to mess with something that's shiny."

Ace's wonderful laughter rang out as he opened his cabin door. Meli did like it so when her siblings or Pops laughed, she liked them to be happy.

Allen was indeed up and had begun breakfast early in preparation for any early departures among the crew. That wasn't much of a surprise considering the apatite of some crew members and the youthful impatience of others.

All of them were in a hurry after hearing the late night watch talk of a ship docking beside them. It was a were-neko craft, here for the meeting.

~~~~~ Page Break ~~~~~

An extra surprise awaited them as they exited the galley and went on deck.

Vespira was on the deck of the ship anchored off the port side of the Moby Dick, along with a few other were-nekos. She was leaning against her ship's railing, chatting with Marco, Vista, and a few others that had gathered. Pops was in his usual chair, watching over the proceedings.

Melisandra and Ace came over just in time to hear what sounded like a small explosion below the deck on which Vespira stood.

Vespira clutched the railing and shut her eyes. She appeared to be counting under her breath.

"What... was that?" Vista asked, breaking the odd silence.

"The sound of my remaining sanity diving overboard..." Vespira replied, exasperated. One got the feeling that this was not the first time such an incident occurred.

That brought on some amused smiles and a few chuckles from the Whitebeard Pirate's. There was something familiar about the chaos going on over there.

a name="yui_3_10_0_1_1454786916110_519"/a"If sspan style="font-size: small;"o/spanspan style="color: #000000;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: small;"meone would be so good to go find out who did that and what the damage report is and when you've found out that is was /span/span/spanspan style="color: #000000;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"span style="font-size: small;"René/span/span/span span style="color: #000000;"span style="font-family: 'Times New Roman', serif;"an/span/spanspan style="color: #000000;"d Rayne a/spangain, could you kindly toss them overboard." Vespira added with a sigh.

One of the were-nekos on the upper deck grinned. "You want them to have a look for your sanity while they are taking their swim?"

"Oh, I wouldn't worry about that," Vespira said, rolling her eyes and twitching her ears. "I'm sure it's sank to the bottom by now. I should never have volunteered to make a second voyage so soon."

~~~~~ Page Break ~~~~~~~

Marco stood with his arms crossed, a serious look on his face."what are the rules again?"

"Don't go anywhere that the local were-neko kits aren't allowed to go or do anything the local kits are not allowed to do. No hunting alone, even if it is allowed. Be back before dark and don't spoil my apatite for dinner with sweetened meats. " Melisandra repeated for what felt like the thousandth time.

Marco nodded in satisfaction. They, along with many other Whitebeard Pirate's, were on the beach awaiting the arrival of the were-nekos. Ever since the unfortunate results of Melisandra's last solo hunting trip, the family had been reluctant to chance a repeat of the events.

It was felt by all that Meli would be better off playing with others while the adults talked. 888 had suggested that it might be best if Meli played with some kits that were a year older. Melisandra's long isolation might have left her definition of "play" a little rougher than those of her age would be prepared to handle.

When Marco and the rest of the family caught sight of the male twins that were to be Meli's playmates for the day, they could better understand the adult were-nekos concerns. Melisandra was only three or four inches shorter than them and her muscles were just as defined as theirs.

If the crew had not been informed of the age difference they would have assumed that they were the same age.