Another day in Karate island... Linnea had been on this island enough to get the gist of, she had seen just about everything truly worth seeing. But then, why was she still around? Maybe the whole proximity to reverse mountain just happened to unconsciously hold her there. After all, like any pirate worth their salt, travelling to the Grand Line was the Dream all of them shared. But she wasn't ready yet, anyone could tell that much, especially a perceptive and introverted girl like Lin. So there she was, patient as ever, unwilling to move either forth or backwards while she awaited the perfect opportunity to make her move.

For now, she simply wandered happily through the forest, scanning every inch of her surroundings as if looking for something yet unseen. She had mentally mapped out most of the island; drawing and writing some of it in her Journal. There were animals going about their daily lives, completely heedless of Lin's presence who for the most part managed to blend in with the woodlands. She didn't find any living soul, until she heard the sound of someone shoveling the dirt...

She watched on from a distance, curiously examining what appeared to be an old man nervously struggling to dig up a hole. The old man was probably between in his 70's-80's, this task appeared much too straining for him... But he kept on, as if breaking a bone or two would be worth it in the end. Had he commited a crime and was now hiding the evidence? Or perhaps he was looking for something. Ever more intrigued as time went on, Lin kept on watching and eventually noticed something else interesting. As the old man put the shovel aside to catch his breath, he wiped the sweat off his forehead and sat on a rock, intently examing an old piece of paper. Could it be? Was he looking for a treasure?! Luckily for him, Linnea wasn't the kind of pirate to go around robbing every one who might have treasure. Riches were secondary to exploring and adventuring, the Kuja archer had lived a simple youth after all...

"Hey, mister! You should be more careful or you'll hurt your back for good!!", intervened a concerned Lin, walking up to the old man. She looked at him with a kind smile not bothered by his rather obvious hiding the map behind his back, "Don't worry, I may be a pirate but I'm not going to steal your treasure."

The old man seemed to ease up towards the pretty young girl in front of him, smiling thankfully and not really scared of her presence. Her kindness and mostly innocent look had that effect on people anyways...

"Then how about this?", the man was obviously reluctant to speak his next words, but he clearly acknowledged how he was in no condition to be digging for treasure, "Help me dig up this treasure, and you're welcome to 20% of it! Sounds like a good deal doesn't it?"

He winked, rubbing his index and thumb as if tempting the young girl with money. Deep down, he probably just wanted to oggle at her while she did all the hard work, but Lin was too much of a stranger to the male gender to even imagine that...

Linnea was clearly interested. Her eyes glimmered as the old man offered her a chance to go on a little treasure hunt. As an adventure loving pirate, this chance was too good to pass up. Of course, there was also her own desire to find something interesting she could sell for cash - even if she far too kind to attack an old man to get it - so without any further ado, she picked up his shovel, taking the man's place. The man himself remained sitting at his rock, grabing a waterskin and drinking eagerly; he'd obviously been at this non stop.

Shovel in hand, Linnea dug. She was hardly physically imposing but she had more than enough strength for such a task, and with each strike she moved yet more dirt out of the way and widened the gaping hole... But it wouldn't be so easy. A good few minutes and she was wiping the sweat off her forehead, having dug a hole deeper than her own size:

"There isn't anything here mister! It has to be buried someplace else.", Linnea pointed out.

"Indeed, at least not in that spot. But it must be around here, of that I'm sure!!", answered the old man, clearly certain of his words.

He was basically telling Lin to go dig another hole in the same site, and as she leaned over to start digging from scratch, the perverted old man enjoyed the view of her butt as she got to work, and she was none the wiser. But over an hour later, both her and the old man were now surrounded by holes, and an exhausted Linnea sat down, leaning her head against a tree next to the man:

"Are you sure its here? Can I see the map?", she asked, breathing heavily. She was completely drained and no longer willing to simply dig randomly and hoping they'd find something. The man heeded her request, and why wouldn't he? At this point, he was mostly refreshed while his hired hand was too tired to work anymore.

Examining the map, Linnea was able to see a trail a marked from the village to roughly this part of the island, and a scenery they would be able to notice if they looked towards the ocean... But something about it felt off. For the most part, the scenery depicted was pretty close, but there were some small differences, like trees out of place, and mostly a different shape in the edge of the beach. Not to mention how the end of the trail seemed somewhat faded out.

"We're defenitely close, but I'm sure this isn't the place.", Linnea assessed, standing up and taking a deep breath.

The map seemed quite a few years old, so the trees depicted in the scenery should be a little bigger by now. The edge of the beach should look mostly the same, but not exactly like it...

The real treasure site couldn't be too far so the two of them got moving quickly enough. But as they searched for the real location, Linnea had a wierd feeling. As a ranger and a hunter, she was used to stalking her prey, and just the same way, she was also used to detecting when she was being followed. Whoever it was, they weren't particularly careful. If she focused on sound coming behind her, she could hear consistent rustling of leaves and snapping of twigs at approximately the same height. This meant the source of those sounds was trying to keep a set distance between themselves...

She thought about it, how long was the old man digging that site? Probably a while before Linnea appeared given how slowly he was digging... Still, she wouldn't let these thoughts get in the way of her investigation. Another half an hour and her keen eyes had correctly deduced the real burial site judging by how the trees would have grown since they were drawn. This time, she knew exactly where to dig and once it finally appeared they would find it, she gave out a bright, expectant smile. Once the treasure chest became visible, the leaves rustled louder and three rough looking bandits jumped out to attack them!!

"Look out!", she warned the old man while quickly drawing her bow with a loaded arrow. Already expecting the ambush, she had her weapon primed on the trio much faster than any of them could imagine...

One of the bandits dashed at her and Linnea took aim. Only she didn't fire at him... The bandit further away, wielding a rifle and awaiting the opportunity to get a clear shot was a much more important target, even if that wound up leaving the archer wide open. Sacrifices had to be made in order to win any battle most effectively and this was one of those times, letting loose the arrow, the bandit closest to her flinched but the arrow simply flew past him, soaring through the air and catching the rifleman right in his left eye, killing him instantly.

Linnea had but a split second to leap back when the sword wielding bandit took a swing at her, she still felt the sharp pain in her left arm as his blade sang through it, leaving a large but fortunately shallow slash wound. The pain was but a small obstacle to overcome as she still kept her bow primed, and let loose another arrow. Though she didn't draw it nearly enough for a long shot, it was more than enough to pierce a point blank bandit to the chest and left her free to turn towards the last enemy who was now focused on unlocking the treasure chest after knocking down the old man... In a flash, she had another arrow loaded and stopped the only pirate yet standing from doing anything else by taking aim:

"Fly or die. The choice is yours.", spoke Linnea with a cold glare

The bandit was clearly not interesting in losing his life over a treasure chest he wouldn't even be able to open at this rate. Standing up, he ran off for dear life, leaving Linnea and her "employer" free to split their booty.


Took down 1 T2 bandit, 1 T1, and scared off the remaining T1

[Thread End]