Before Juan could start his initiation into the children of the sun, he would need to wait for the others to prepare for the trip. This initiation would apparently take place on the island of Water 7, and the journey apparently was one that the men would need to pack lots of their prayer supplies for. "These cult guys are fucking nuts," Juan said to himself, glad to finally be out of their presence and able to freely speak his mind. "I wish I could take this opportunity to just leave these guys alone and go off to the Sky Island or something, but that sort of place won't be safe for me while these guys are still on my tail. So I guess my best move is to just wait for them to get ready and figure out what to do next once I finish whatever initiation they want me to complete." Unable to really go anywhere, Juan would have to be content with just exploring the island.

With his cartography tools tucked into his robe, Juan itched to get back to map making and exploring, but there wasn't much to make a map of on Jaya. Juan started to get his usual feeling of being stuck; the sort of feeling he usually got before he jetted off to the next island or the next town, but since that wasn't an option, Juan decided that a drink would be the best thing to help him at the moment. His former captain's words rang in his ears: "A true pirate knows when it is time to explore, as well as when it is time to sit and have a drink.' Shaking off the fact that he was listening to the words of a dead man, Juan walked of in search of a drink,"Right now is definitely time to sit and have a drink."

As Juan walked, he was also listening intently. You could always find the best places on an island to drink by listening to where the most noise was coming from. From Juan's left, he could hear some sort of violin music; and from his right, the sound of loud yells and the sound of chairs being broken. Naturally, the young man decided to go right. Juan stepped into the dimly lit tavern and was greeted by the sight of what appeared to be a large pirate crew taking over the place. There were about 30 men inside and none of them appeared interested in leaving peacefully. In the middle of it all stood a man that Juan could only assume was the captain, he stood almost a foot taller than anyone at the tavern, at about 7 feet tall, and had a large hat on sporting what appeared to be a jolly roger. The tall man was also impossibly fat, requiring such a wide area that he sat at a table alone away from the other men. Juan was about to just turn around and avoid interacting with the men when the captain spoke,"I'm looking for a navigator for my pirate crew! The Greenbeck Pirates have soared all over paradise, but we have been unable to compete with other crews without someone to guide us from island to island!" The announcement stunned Juan, causing him to begin mulling over the possibility of joining another pirate crew. 'I haven't even considered joining another crew since the storm. Maybe its time to go back to my old life. I'm sure being a member of a pirate crew would be a significant advantage should the Children of the sun ever decide to come after me,' Juan thought with his hand on his chin. 'Am I finally ready to sail the seas with a crew again?'

Before Juan could even decide whether or not he would step forward, a young lady who couldn't have been any older than Juan himself took the initiative and stepped towards the Captain. "I am Reya Sativa, and I have long dreamed of sailing the seas as a part of a pirate crew, and I've even been working on a map of Jaya and the surrounding islands." Juan could not help but notice how attractive she was, standing at approximately 5'4 inches tall and having one of the most beautiful faces Juan had ever laid eyes on, she had almost every man in the tavern struck, even if only for a moment. The young woman seemed to be serious, but the Greenbeck pirates didn't think so, and burst into laughter right in front of her. "Okay little lady, Captain Greenbeck said while wiping a tear from his eye,"Let's see this map you seem to be so proud of." With her confidence a bit shaken by the men's laughter, Reya reached into her bag and pulled out a large sheet of paper and handed it to Captain Greenbeck. Opening the map and examining it for a moment, the Captain smiled. "This is quite the impressive map you got here little lady, I think we actually could use this. We'll take it!" Reya sighed from relief, and began beaming widely,Wonderful, so when are we going to be leaving?" The captain and his men laughed even harder following her statement,"We? My men and I will be leaving immediately. But you, little lady, are going to be staying right here."

With that statement said, the large man finally stood, and began to exit the tavern. "Wait! You said you could use my map! You said you'd take me with you!" Realizing her dreams weren't actually coming true, Reya became frantic, yelling at Captain Greenbeck and trying to push towards him through the wall of pirates between them. The Captain turned towards Reya, and with a big grin he said,"Take you? No, I said I would take your map. I have no use for you. Turning to walk out of the tavern, Captain Greenbeck came face to face with a furious Juan,"Give her her map back!" the normally stoic Juan screamed. The young man didn't usually find himself consumed by rage, but now all he could see was red. As a cartographer himself, Juan couldn't stand to see someone's hard work be just ripped away from them. He lept towards the huge man instantly, and with his palm resting on the man's huge belly, pulled it back to deliver a massive thrust directly into the mound of fat. Captain Greenbeck, unlike Juan and the surrounding men who instantly drew their weapons, had no physical reaction to the rage filled strike, aside from a few ripples from his stomach "You think you can stop me with physical force? I am unfeeling! But I do not think that you are!" The statement from the Captain was followed by a loud boom has his huge fist smashed the poor winged man into the ground, cracking the floor beneath him and instantly rendering him unconscious."Men, let's leave this trash heap."All of the Greenbeck pirates left the tavern, leaving only Reya, an unconscious Juan and the terrified owner behind.

By the time Juan finally awoke the Greenbeck pirates were long gone. As he opened his eyes he took in the environment and noticed that he was no longer in the tavern he had been knocked out in. Juan was currently in a small hut in what appeared to be a forested area. On his head there was a cool rag, and Juan noticed how badly his head was hurt. Juan then began to hear footsteps coming towards him, but he was unable to get up to prepare himself because of how much pain his body was in. His worries were for nothing though, because from the door of the hut came Reya, with another cool rag and a look of concern on her face. Noticing that Juan was awake the concern melted away and was replaced by relief,"Oh! You're awake!" Reya then saw the look of pain on Juan's face and jumped towards him,"Oh my god you poor thing!" She exclaimed. Reya replaced the rag currently on his forehead with and even cooler one and helped the young man sit up in the bed he was in. "You took quite a beating back there Mr. Hero," she said while handing him a glass of water.

After drinking the water Juan was finally able to speak again,"Yeah, that fat guy knew how to punch. Good thing I was the one that got hit and not you though." While Reya had been smiling as he sat up, her words caused it to be replaced by a loo of fury,"And just what is that supposed to mean Mr.Dumbass? You're glad you got fucked up instead of me because I'm a girl? Well newsflash Mr. Clueless! I'm the one who had a problem with that guy!" After her outburst Reya said there breathing heavily and staring at Juan, waiting for him to say something else dumb. No, No that's not what I meant at all. I just know how much it sucks working on a map and having it taken from you. I wouldn't want anyone to have to go through that and have to deal with a beat down too, Juan would say before wincing, both from pain and from fear of how Reya would respond. "Really? You like to make maps too? Noticing how her smile had returned and it didn't seem like she was about to blow up again, Juan pointed to his robes that he just then realized he wasn't wearing, and said "Yeah, I've been doing maps my whole life." Reya grabbed the robes from the floor next to Juan and pulled out a folded sheet of paper from within them."This the only  one you got? You must not be very good," Reya joked, but stopped laughing when she saw the pained look on Juan's face. "I was only joking, you definitely god more than just this one right? The pained look on Juan's face only got worse as he looked Reya in her eyes and said,"No, That's my only map now. The others were...lost. Reya realized that they had reached a sensitive subject, and decided to try and cheer Juan up,"Well, I'll have to start my map of Jaya all over again since those pirates stole it. Maybe you could come with me around the island and we could work on a new map of it together." Juan was greatful for Reya changing to subject, he wasn't ready to talk about his old crew at the moment, but he was willing to befriend Reya even if she couldn't yet know the truth about why he only had the one map.

You know what Reya, I would very much like to work on a new map with you. Jumping up to shake her hand, Juan momentarily forgot about his severe pain, but he remembered his pain as soon as he got out of bed when he got instantly dizzy and fell onto the floor. Reya giggled and reached down to help Juan get up,"How about you worry about getting healed up before you worry about jumping straight into exploration" Juan understood that, but he didn't want to miss any parts of the process of making the map of Jaya. "I promise to let myself heal up, but only if you promise you'll wait for me to get better before you start marking down the cool landmarks" Reya laughed at how excited Juan was to work on the map, and laughed even more before she agreed with his terms,Fine, I promise. But you better get your rest and recover quickly, because I'm not going to wait for you much longer." The two shook hands, and Juan rolled over and fell asleep instantly, determined to heal quickly and start working on the map before he would be forced to leave the island of Jaya for his initiation.

Juan was a quick healer, that much was certain as he only took one night's sleep to recover from the absolutely massive blow he had received in the tavern. As promised, the two cartographers got to work on their joint map of Jaya as soon as Juan was well enough to explore the island. So, what are we going to explore first? the excited young man asked. Well the closest landmark to where we are now would be the large pond, i took the liberty of adding mock town to the map while you were asleep so we only need to go to the interesting locations. It'd be even better if I still had my old map and we could just go to the locations already on it, Reya said, getting sad as she spoke on her old map. "Hey, I'm sorry about your map. I wish there was something that I could do to help you get it back." As Juan stared at Reya, and took in how sad she was, he began to feel guilty about failing to get her map back. "If i wasn't so weak, that fat pirate wouldn't have been able to just take it and leave like that,' Juan though. He continued to stare at Reya, and thought about how nice she had been to him despite not really knowing him, and how amazing it was for her to just go on to making a new map after he last one had been ripped away. "When I get back from my trip, we're going to find that fat bastard and get your map back Reya!" Reya snapped out of her sad state at Juan's words,"Really? You're going to try and fight him again, after what happened last time?" Juan was expecting her to be happy at his words, but it seemed like that had only made her more upset. "Isn't that what you want? To get your old map back? Once again, Juan's dumb mouth only made Reya angrier, even though he was trying to make her feel better. "That doesn't mean you need to throw your life away trying to get it back Mr. Idiot." This time, Reya couldn't even stand being around Juan and his mouth anymore, and so she ran off. Juan wanted to chase after her, but he had no idea what he was supposed to say, and so he just let her go.

Later that night, Juan and the Children of the Sun all met at the Seatrain Station, and once they boarded, all Juan could think of was the stupid argument with Reya. 'As soon as I come back, I'm going to have to get Reya to be my friend again, and I'll have to make sure I'm strong enough to prove to her that I can beat Captain Greenbeck.' The Seatrain left Jaya, and a newly determined Juan was filled with a desire to become stronger in order to beat the Greenbeck pirates and get Reya's map back.

Fin