"I'm still afraid I'd loos myself in it..."Thought Locke, though the captains words were reassuring...

Event though she spun quickly like a drill as she dived down, she could tell that Linnea was worried, and to be true, Locke was also worried she'd hurt her friend... Luckily though, Linnea seamed to put up her own Armament Haki and reduce the force of the attack considerably...

But Locke continued going, not of her own accord. She started breaking of shards of the captain's ice body off, before being redirected to the ground with a resulting CRACK!!!

Locke was dizzy, more dizzy than she was ever before in her life... "Oh, what happened?" she asked as she slowly stood up and stumbled... Her hands hurt, and after her vision stabilized, she knew why.

Her fans were almost 6 inches in the stonework of the floor, the cloth wasn't even ripped, but they were stuck, almost to the fact that she couldn't get them out. "Great..." thought Locke as she pulls on her weapons... These weren't gonna get out with only one person pulling on them.

"Would you mind helping?" asked Locke, sheepishly... But to Locke, there was a look in Linnea's eyes that showed a desire to fight even more... That started to scare her.

I think I spun a bit too fast... Locke admits as she regained her balance "I never had the time or the area available to train that skill.... In fact that's the first time I used it in practice." It was a skill she thought of once when watching a cork screw at work, and it stayed in her mind ever since then.

Yeah, that would be disastrous... Hopefully you'll help me get that fixed before I need to rely on it. Locke thinks as Linnea gave her two cents on the attack... It would be really bad in this case.


"Alright... Let's pull on three: One, two... Three!!" Said the blond, and as Locke pulled on the separate fan she grabbed, beads of sweat started to form... And after what seamed like minutes of pulling, each fan loosened and came out only a second apart.

"Good work Linnea! Now let's get that cut I caused bandaged, shall we?" Locke may not be a doctor, but living through as many scrapes, bruises, cuts, burns, and even a broken bone as she had in her childhood, she was forced to sit through a basic first aid class... And she hasn't regretted it since.

"I know I had a bandage around here somewhere..." She thought out loud as she looks through the little bit of supplies that she brought with her.... [color=#00ff00]"Knife? No... Why do I even have these maple cookies in here?..... Locke says as she pulls out a bag of recently baked maple cookies. "You want one, or a few?"... She finally found the bandage that she was talking about before Linnea could reply and hands it over to the captain.

The praise coming from Linnea was making Locke blush, but not out of the same type of pure embarrassment, sure there was some embarrassment in there, but it was mostly pride that had started the blush this time.

"Great!, I'll be looking forward to our next session... Only next time I'm not gonna use Haki to augment my Sky-born Strike, and see how powerful it is then." Locke discussed with her captain... Strangely enough once the training battle had stopped, peace returned, birds and other the other noises that made up the islets ambiance came from their holes and started their lives again.

A quick, somewhat tight, wrapping of a hand later, and Linnea's hand should have no chance of infection now, but the cold that Linnea's body exudes had already started to freeze the blood. I'm glad I dont have to worry about you getting too badly cut then."

She couldn't help but blush at the way Linnea complemented her cookies "Yeah, but it's my mothers recipe... Most of what I learned about cooking was from her, the rest of it was trial and error... I'm no professional chef though, and I never will be if I'm to work on my blacksmithing."

After taking one of the cookies for herself, Locke starts to try and push her Haki towards a singular aura, Linnea, and tries to make her feel like someone was watching. "I still need some practice after all." she thinks, biting into the cookie and remembering her mother... She was sure that her mother would have her letter by now, and probably freaked out over it...

"Ah, home." she unknowingly remarks as a smile creeps along her face.

"I bet she'd take your compliment gratefully." Locke says as she remembers the first time she tried cooking..

Her mother and father weren't home, and her brother was fussing about being hungry, so she had looked through the house and tried to find something to fix.
By the time their parents got home from whatever they were doing, it was too late. There were open eggs and flour all over the kitchen table, the odd smell of cooked meat and maple hung in the air, and the both of them were covered in flour, to the point that even Locke's locks, which are naturally the green she has today, were ghostly white. Of course the both of them were in trouble after words, but Locke and her brother both had somehow made something edible...

"There isn't much there that you wouldn't expect from a blues island. The summers were always warm, the winters were a bit more variable, and most the people there seemed like they were content with their daily lives..." Locke thinks as she answers her captains question.
"Well, other than the kingdom in our back yard and the deadly sea monster that was said to be living in the bay... But the monster didn't attack most ships, so the people there dont worry about it."

"Foosha village is known for... not much actually. About the only things we export are food stuffs, and even then we dont get much business other than marines who stop by and get supplies."
Locke picks up another cookie that she made and bites it while she thought about her home.

"But as you would guess, there's no place like home!...Even if you were adopted into it...
It was this last part that Locke didn't notice come out of her mouth. That was her personal mission, but she's thought about it so much, that she cant remember talking about it out loud.

Thousands!? And creatures large enough that our ship wouldn't even seem like a nibble?!" Locke says in shock, her imagination could comprehend those things, but they terrified her to the very core. "How does your people even survive there? And how did you survive getting to the blues?"
she asks, with only a smidgen of doubt in her mind.

After Linnea's new question, Locke blinks for a second...
"Oh, did I say that out loud?"asked the greenette as she tries to remember her fuzzy past "I...I dont know who or what my parents are. The only thing I remember from that long ago was a storm, and a woman looking at me who looked like me... As in the hair color and amber eyes, I cant remember what her face looked like though."
Locke's eyes started to tear up as she sifted through her past "I was going to travel out on my own to try and find her, that's what I promised myself... But with your crew in the works now, I.. I guess I'm not doing this alone anymore."
She smiled at Linnea, though here eyes were still shedding tears, it was a genuine smile. "Captain, I would like to be the girl you can depend on, whether it be in battle, reinforcing your bow, or even a shoulder to cry on! Locke saluted her captain, in a funny yet respectable way...

Yet in her mind she cant help but think "If I was to have a sister... She would be the one."

Venomous snakes huh? I wouldn't want to mess with them ether..." Thought Locke as she heard a bit more about Linnea's homeland. It sounded like the Kuja were extremely dangerous... "I'm glad I'm on your side then."

As long as they are friendly."
The greenette thought as she wound her head around a culture full of snakes while wondering what other things might be the more unique about the captains people.

The words of worry from her friend brought Locke out of the foul memories, but not enough to stop the tears. She wasn't expecting the captain to bring her in for a reassuring hug, and though the greenette had seen the blond's body turn to ice a few minutes earlier, the personality of Linnea hadn't changed icy.

After most of Locke's tears had stopped falling, she asks her captain, while slightly embarrassed about herself opening and letting loose her shadows "Would you mind helping me find my mother, when we get the chance from between attacking and being attacked by Marines?"

After Linnea puts her answer down, whether it be good or bad for the greenette, Locke starts to sense a few figures that might be a part of their crew... and then remembers the lack of clothes on her. After a quick run to the ship, she quickly changed into some better clothes and comes out with a big smile on her face to welcome back her crew mates. [End]

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