Okay, I’m sure you’ve all started to wonder. Anyway, what inspired this story is my older sister. For my birthday she once gave me a One Piece shirt, a One Piece deck of cards, and some little One Piece plastic figurines. Among these figurines was an incredibly ugly Alabasta camel. And I was sitting in my room staring at the hideous little thing when this story came into my head. ENJOY!

By the way, I DO NOT OWN ONE PIECE OR ANY OF IT’S CHARACTERS!

“Huh? Whadja say?” Shanks asked obliviously.

Ben Beckman sighed. “It’s been twenty years since you first formed us, and the rest of the crew wants to do something.” He repeated for the third time.

“Oh really? Cool! But wait, what’s stopping them?” Shanks asked. His mind seemed to be on others things just now.

“Well, they want to do something special. Stop at a pleasure island or something like that.” Ben replied.

“Why not?” Shanks said shrugging. “Tell ‘em we stop at the next island that seems interesting.”

“Aye Cap’n.” The redhead’s first mate said nodding. Then he briskly walked out of his captain’s cabin.

Hmmm…I wonder what’s up with Shanks. Ben thought. He must have been thinking pretty hard when I came in, he was really distant. Then he smiled. Or maybe his brain’s finally just snapped.

“OI GUYS!” Ben shouted from the doorway to the inside of the ship. “Cap’n says that’s fine, and that we’re stopping at the next interesting island.”

This was met with raucous cheers from the crew.

Smiling again, Ben lit himself a cigarette, and went to lounge on some barrels.

Shanks WAS thinking hard, and no matter what anyone said, his mind still had yet to fully snap. What was he thinking about? His dreams. Never were they the same, but every one in some way had to do with the same creature. This creature had haunted Shanks’ dreams since he was a boy was part of the reason Shanks had never spent much time in Alabasta.

Shanks had no idea how long he had been thinking about this since Ben came in, but all of a sudden he heard Yasopp’s familiar voice shout “LAND HO!” With that Shanks pushed all thoughts of his dreams out of his head, and left his cabin for the deck.

After the Red-haired Pirates had docked their ship, Shanks took it upon himself to tell his crew. “Okay! Be back here by at around midnight, and try not to kill anybody without a good reason!”

Even though Shanks’ words were standard procedure for the Red-hairs when it was only a day trip, they still responded with a hearty “AYE CAP’N!” before the set to wandering the town.

Shanks himself after seeing his crew split up, also went to explore.

As he neared the town square, he came across a small shop of knick-knacks, and something in the window caught his eye. Running to the window, Shanks saw that actually was what he thought it was. It was the creature, the camel, from his dreams.

Running into the store, he quickly bought the horrible little camel from the surprised shopkeeper and ran back out of the store.

Sitting down in a bench conveniently positioned five feet away, Shanks examined the little fellow. It a blue and red saddle, and was poised as if it were walking. It’s head just a tad to big for it’s body, and it’s faced somehow reminded him of Yasopp.

Now Shanks had nothing against his marksman, but never the less, the camel’s eyes did resemble Yasopp’s.

After staring at the hideous camel for about five minutes, Shanks felt like he had split personalities.

One side wanted to take the camel back to his cabin and to cherish it always. The other wanted to brutally destroy the horrible little thing so he could finally be free of it.

This would have been an angel on one shoulder and devil on the other situation, but sadly Shanks had no angel, which gave the “brutally kill it” side of the argument a huge boost.

Brushing his little devil away, Shanks tried to think about this rationally. “What did the camel ever do to me?” His nice side asked. “Haunted your dreams since you was six, that’s what!” Came his hating half. “But maybe it was just lonely.” “It’s been trying to steal your soul idiot!” “Why would he want to do that? He’s only a plastic camel.” “Just look at the wretched little thing!”

Shanks did look, and suddenly agreed with his evil-er side. It was a horrible little soul-sucking camel out for his blood.

Quickly getting up, Shanks went to the nearest armory. Giving the camel to the owner of the shop, Shanks told him to destroy it, and watch out for it’s charms. The bewildered smithy took the camel, and did as Shanks told him, throwing the little piece of plastic into his forge. Just as the camel finished it’s sinister melting, it felt as if a large weight were lifted off the place. Embracing his long awaited freedom, Shanks thanked the smith, and swiftly went about enjoying his day.

That night, after everyone had gotten back to the ship and they had set off, Ben went over to Shanks, who was staring over the rail, smiling at the dark water.

“So Cap’n. How did you spend your day?”

Shanks’ grin broadened at this. “I destroyed a camel!”

At this Ben’s eyes widened and his cigarette fell out of his open mouth, as watched his captain join the rest of the crew in their merry making.