Verified By : @90-ghost

there was only one cave

https://archiveofourown.org/works/63742741

my piece for the @alabasta-zine

the rest of the zine is available for download now so please check it out! there's so many amazing pieces including the cover art for this fic :)

as usual fic below the cut <3

~ ♡ ~

“They got away! There was a huge wall of fire!” Isuka walked past the marines gathered by Captain Smoker, she didn’t know the man that well.

“Who was that pirate anyway?”

“Yeah, he looked strong.”

Isuka rolled her eyes: the quality of recruits these days.

Isuka recognised the swordswoman standing near them, Tashigi. She had an exasperated look on her face. “You guys seriously don’t know the commander of the Whitebeard Pirates' second division?”

Isuka froze as she was walking down the streets of the bustling Nanohana. She had heard rumours and even seen photos, but she was here to see for herself if what people were saying was true. 

Portgas D. Ace was back in paradise. 

She had missed him in Drum Island, but had heard from the locals that a man matching his description had been by. They remembered because, strangely, it didn’t snow that day. They said he was going to be waiting for someone in Alabasta for ten days. That meant she had a chance to finally catch up to him.

She had spent the last two days in the port town of Nanohana, hoping this was where he was waiting for whoever it was he was waiting for. The journey itself to the Alabasta Kingdom had taken five days. She was already three days behind Ace, meaning today was her last chance of finding him. Her time off was also coming to an end, so, in reality, this was likely the last chance of seeing him again. 

She grabbed one of the marines by the collar, surprising him. “You’re sure it was him?”

Tashigi nearly drew Shigure on her. “Isuka!”

“I asked. Are you sure it was him?!”

The marine was shaking. “Yes ma’am!”

“Thank you,” she let him go, nodding at Tashigi. “Where are they?”

“Escaping, probably out to sea already.”

She knew it was a long shot as she ran towards the coast, but she just had to try. Maybe she could catch a glimpse of him. That would be all she needed.

She almost fell into the sea in her haste, and two nearby people had to grab her stumbling form to make sure she didn’t.

“You should be more careful, Miss,” the man said. The lady next to him nodded.

She bowed in embarrassment, “Sorry. I wasn’t watching where I was going.”

“Where are you going in such a hurry, love?” The lady asked.

She couldn’t answer, instead spinning around to scan the view. She saw the Straw Hats’ ship sailing and at least five other ships burning around it. This fire meant he had to have been there. So where could he be?

She nearly gave up hope, turning to once again apologise to the helpful people, when out of the corner of her eye she saw him heading back to land.

She had a chance.

“Where is that boat headed to, do you know?”

Both of them looked over to where she was pointing. “It’s all desert over there, I’m not sure what is there.”

She sighed. “Thank you for your help,” she bowed again before running in that direction, hoping to see where he landed.

~ ♡ ~

Isuka had never run so fast in her life. She sprinted back to her room and grabbed her things. She was wearing her usual vacation clothes under an open white robe and a red shawl wrapped around her neck that she covered her head with when she went outside. Her sunglasses were on her face instead of her head. Her uniform was stuffed haphazardly in her bag, and her rapier at her side once again. She had paid in advance for the room, quickly thanked the clerk and got back to the chase. 

She pulled out the map of Alabasta she purchased when she first arrived. She didn’t know where exactly he was going, but there were a few places he could land. There was a small cove-like area in between Nanohana and Katorea that was her best bet.

Stuffing the map back into her bag, she began running again. She knew it was stupid to try and run all the way. However, her options were very limited, she didn’t really have the funds to rent one of the animals that could transport her. They were hard to catch and tame and therefore cost too much. Sandboarding was also off the table since the desert was mostly flat near the coast. So, trying her best to pace herself, she continued.

By the time she made it to the edge of the town, her lungs were on fire. She knew the heat would be affecting her stamina, but didn’t think it would be this much. Her view of the cove was being blocked by a sand dune, so she began clambering up it. 

When she had made it to the crest, she stopped, taking a sip of her water and looked down. She spotted the cove, but it was hard to tell whether such a small boat was docked there. She was starting her descent when she tripped over something in the sand, an orange scale stuck out of it. Steadying herself, she drew her rapier. She didn’t know what types of animals dwelled in the Alabasta desert. She was surprised when a timid-looking purple gecko emerged tearfully, holding its head.

She immediately sheathed her sword, apologising to the animal. It didn't seem to hear her at all, and she felt bad, so, rummaging through her bag, she found some crushed biscuits and opened the packet to offer them to it. The noise snapped it out of the pain, and it suspiciously accepted them. She watched as it ate them, seemingly enjoying them. 

“You’re not very dangerous, are you?” She chuckled as it tried to bend down, presumably to be scratched. She obliged, “You’re just as needy as Kotatsu.”

She smiled fondly at the memories of the precious lynx and his owner, suddenly missing those days. She gave it the rest of the biscuits she had.

She began to draw her arm away when she had an idea. A ridiculous one but worth a try.

“Hey, do you think I could ride on you?” The gecko blinked in confusion, she signalled that she needed to get to the cove in the distance, and it seemed to understand. “Could you carry me there?”

The gecko nodded, apparently happy to be useful, it bent down to allow her to ride on its shoulders. As soon as she stopped adjusting herself, it began moving.

~ ♡ ~

She held onto her scarf as the gecko raced across the desert. Never in a million years did she think this would happen. When she neared the cove and saw the striker pulled up onto the sand, she let out a sigh of relief. Ace, however, was nowhere to be seen. 

She jumped off the gecko a small distance from the striker, just in case he would notice her from somewhere and take off. She gave him a chocolate bar he was saving for herself and watched him run back. Walking towards his striker, she noticed his footprints walking away from it, but close to nothing else. He’d left his watermelon bag in the striker. She rummaged through it, finding nothing but maps, some food and water and some pictures. She was inspecting the pictures, there was one with a suspiciously familiar vermilion bob in the background, when she heard a noise from behind her.

She drew her rapier and spun to face the source of the sound.

“Birdie?”

“Fire fist?”

Ace stood with his arms up in surrender, “What are you doing here?”

She pointed her rapier at him, “I could ask you the same thing.”

“You already know why,” he smirked. She was chasing him again, there was no way she was here out of pure coincidence.

“I don’t think I do,” there was a small blush settling on her cheeks. He stepped closer, slowly lowering his arms. 

“You don’t have to lie to me, Birdie.” he was in front of her, pushing down her sword. “Were you expecting a chase? For old times' sake?”

His smile was infuriating to her, she sheathed her sword, “I don’t have the energy for that.”

He began to jog, “Another lie, afraid Isuka? You’ll probably lose again.”

He was laughing, and she had to prove him wrong, so she chased after him, not bothering to drop her bag. They hadn’t even run 100 metres when Ace turned to taunt her and fell through the ground. Simply vanished.

Isuka ran closer, “Ace!”

There was a hole in the ground where he had disappeared. She tried to peer into it but felt the earth give way, and she was falling too.

~ ♡ ~

Isuka groaned as she sat up, a dull pain in her back. She looked around to see where Ace had fallen. She didn’t immediately register that she had fallen onto him, her vision struggling to get used to the dark.

“You know you don’t exactly weigh nothing, right?” The voice came from below her, and she scrambled off of him. Dusting herself off and holding out a hand to him.

“Are you okay?”

He accepted her hand and got up, “Don't worry about it, I'm sturdier than I look.” 

She chose to ignore his charming smile and look around instead, “Where on earth are we?”

“Good question,” he peered around the tunnel they’d fallen into, lighting a fire in his hands. “Looks like ruins of some sort.”

“Oh, I read about this!” Isuka rummaged through the bag and pulled out a book, the known history of the kingdom. “Apparently, the Alabasta Kingdom once fell victim to a massive sandstorm. Much bigger than the other ones. It buried most of the tunnels they used to use to avoid the sun. The people just built over them since their old homes were too buried. Some have been unearthed, but the majority are still buried to this day.”

“Why do you even have that book?”

“It looked interesting,” she defended, putting it back in her bag.

“Well, does it say anything about how to get out?”

“No, just that they exist.”

“Great.”

“Hey, we wouldn’t even be here if you didn’t run away!” she stabbed a finger in his direction.

“Me? You're the one who followed me out here!”

“Not to capture you! I just wanted to talk!”

“Oh,” he scratched his neck sheepishly, “about what?”

Her throat suddenly felt dry. “What on earth are you back in paradise for?”

“I’m chasing someone, a traitor. I plan on bringing them to justice,” he pulled out the photos in his pocket, “someone said they had intel to give me if I met them out here.”

She accepted the stack of photos, scanning through them, “Why did you have a photo of me in your bag?”

“Huh?” he looked like a deer in headlights, “You saw that?”

She handed him the photos, “Yes, I did. It was from far away, like someone was spying on me.”

Ace stammered, “Well, uh, Skull said that, someone said they saw you, and that photo was proof.”

“And?”

“And I kept it?” He really didn’t have any other explanation. Thankfully, she sort of believed him and hadn’t found the stack of newspaper clippings of her (that would be impossible to explain). Or that he had been the one to ask Skull about her whereabouts.

“Well, we should probably get out of here somehow. You think one of these leads out to sea?” She pointed at the fork they were standing at.

“Only one way to find out.”

~ ♡ ~

Isuka sighed as she watched Ace try to push random tiles on the wall in front of them.

“Like I said,” she whacked him on the back of his head, “it’s a dead end, so stop trying!”

“How could I have been wrong! This has to be a secret passageway!”

“Why are you surprised? You’re not correct very often,” she scoffed as she picked up her backpack and began to walk away.

“Hey! What was that supposed to mean?” He chased after her.

“We should have gone right like I said,” she mumbled to herself. “Just cause you won the coin toss.”

“Hey, I won that fair and square!”

~ ♡ ~

As soon as they were back to where they started, Ace let out an annoyed noise.

“I can’t believe we’re at the start again!”

“I don’t know why you’re acting like it wasn’t your fault.” She slid onto the floor, not caring about the sand that would end up on her. She was hungry, so she began rummaging through her bag.

“Wow,” he sat down next to her, “it’s like nothing has changed.”

She didn’t look up. “What do you mean?”

“Us,” she looked up, “we haven’t changed, we’ve been reunited for like an hour, you wouldn’t assume we haven’t seen each other in two years.”

“I guess,” she finally managed to find her emergency snack bars. Wordlessly handing him one and eating the other.

They ate in silence, mulling over Ace’s words. He was the first to get up, holding his hand out to her. She accepted it, dusting herself off when she was standing. 

“Okay, let’s get out of here,” she began walking towards the path on the right. “This time the right way.”

He jogged after her, “How many times do I have to apologise for that?”

“You haven’t apologised at all.”

“Oh, well, I’m sorry.”

“Save it, Fire Fist.”

“Yes ma’am.”

~ ♡ ~

“See, the sand here is damper than the sand where we fell,” she held out her hand to him. “We have to be getting closer to the sea.”

“No, it is not,” he poked it, “what are you? A dampness meter?”

She threw the sand at him, “Believe whatever you want!”

He spluttered, coughing out the sand that ended up in his mouth, “Hey! What if that makes me sick or something?”

“I thought idiots couldn’t get sick,” she continued walking down the corridor.

“Yes, we do!”

“No comeback for the idiot thing?” She asked when he caught up.

“Not a convincing one,” she burst out in laughter, and he stared in confusion. He’d never made her feel anything but annoyance before. It was starting to get increasingly warm, even though he only held a small fire in his palm.

“Come on, I think we’re nearly out.”

She was correct; they only had to walk another 10 minutes before they saw the light. It was a welcome sight. 

“It’s so beautiful,” she took a deep breath in as they stood in the sheltered cave. The waves crashed lightly, and a breeze blew past them, making her hair flutter. 

“It really is,” he smiled, looking out at the view.

~ ♡ ~

her expressions are like drugs to me

The Fourteenth Target 🎯

She's so beautiful it's not even funny anymore

my best friend told me to post this here! this is my first attempt at editing i hope you enjoy <3

Rescue from danger 🚨

Unfortunately, the tent sank and collapsed, and we are now without shelter.

For several days we have been asking for warm clothes for the children for fear of the winter cold and to buy nylon to secure our tent, but unfortunately we were unable to buy it due to the weakness of donations.

Now all the adult members of the family are sick, old and young with colds and flu. What we are asking for now is simply shelter. We are now temporarily hosted by another family in their tent on the street, and their space is very small.

Help save these lives from death.💔

gofundme.com

Donate to Help me and my family escape the war in Gaza, organized by Asma Ayyad

I am Asmaa, 25 years old, the daughter of this beautiful family of 8 members. … Asma Ayyad needs your support for Help me and my family esca

Note:

Verified campaign. Vetted by @gazavetters, my number verified on the list is (#43)

do you read gaiden. have you read gaiden. will you read gaiden. when will you read gaiden

having a mutual who’s a good artist literally feels like beyonce saw me at a supermarket and decided to make me her best friend

What I wished happened in Tears of the Kingdom 🥲

Been itching to draw something like this since first playing the game.

I absolutely HC that Puppet Zelda's "true form" is a grotesque gloom abomination.

An alternate version of the climax of "Crisis at Hyrule Castle" "lives rent free in my mind. The cat and mouse chase ending in the Sanctum, with Puppet Zelda revealing her true self: an attrocious horrific monster wearing Zelda's face. This is the real her and all this hatred breaks her Zelda looking shell apart. Time for an emotional and tormented final confrontation.

Also, it's my one year Tumblr anniversary!!?? Whhhaaaatttt already?

Thank you for tagging along by small LoZ corner of the interwebs.

Cheers!! AND GLORY TO PUPPET ZELDA!

Lineart and color accent portrait commissions

Other portrait available :

Half-chibi (flat colors) - 5€

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