~Setting: After the initial entrance park, the Long Long Safari was an open range of space that would virtually cover the entire Island. Ezekiel talked his way into a guide giving him a ride out into the safari. They traveled about two or three hours out before Ezekiel decided to take the rest of the way on foot to find the poachers hideout.

The Long Safari wasn’t just any safari, and Ezekiel didn’t realize until he started his journey. During the ride with the guide; he saw numerous different landscapes and environment through his drive but the one thing that he lacked seeing a lot of was the unique creatures of Long Safari. “Alright man, I will take it from here.” Ezekiel thanked the guide before embarking further into the grassland of Long Safari.

Ezekiel was dressed in his normal attire of light brown combat pants with his boots. For his upper body, he simply donned a white v-neck shirt with a  loose fitting floral button-up shirt. He wore his hair pulled back into a braided bun while he hiked through the bush with only his Hunter’s knife and Hunter’s Archery equipment. The Beast Tamer kept a look out for any beasts that would see him as an easy mark for dinner, but they still didn’t show themselves to him. He could hear rustling in the brush, but he couldn’t ever make out any shadows or partial images. So he just kept his wits about him and decided to wait for nightfall.

When the sun was setting and Ezekiel couldn’t make anymore head way in his search of rate poachers. he decided to roll out his one person sleeping bag and settle down for the night. While most people would set up camp with a fire and everything to keep beasts away, Ezekiel had another idea for them. He needed them to draw in close within range for his abilities to be effective. He wanted to speak to the vast amount of wildlife supposed to be here on this island. They had taken every creature from the other Long Ring Islands and placed them here. This could be one o the largest sample studies that he could perform for his bestiary. The moonlight shone through the clear sky enough to light the grassland in a soothing light, but it began to put Ezekiel to sleep.

Ezekiel probably dozed off for about ten minutes before a hot breathe in his face snapped his eyes wide open. He couldn’t really make out what exactly was standing above him, but he could make out the Emerald green eyes peering directly into his soul. Reaching out with his mind since the beast was obvious within his Devil Fruit’s range, Ezekiel spoke “Easy now... I am a friend. There isn’t any reason to harm me.”  The beast quickly jumped back while the rest circled around Ezekiel forming a tight parameter to aid and attack when needed. Pushing himself into a more upright position, he held his hands out to show the beasts that he didn’t mean them any harm. Reaching out with the Devil Fruit abilities again, it was the beasts that responded to him this time. “How did you do that? You can speak to us with your mind?” The voice sounded rather feminine and once the beasts had all gotten in their formation, Ezekiel could finally make out a feline appearance to their body structure as while as walking mannerisms.

“Yes, I ate one of the mysterious Devil Fruits while on this strange island full of Shamans. They told me that the fruit would allow me to telepathically communicate with the heart of beasts.” The energy of the felines seemed to calm down a little bit once he finished his statement. “I am here for the poachers that have set up shop taking and killing the creatures out here. Any advice on where to look?” Ezekiel continued to speak with them hoping he could get a good amount of information or even help from these beasts. They obviously weren’t strong enough to take on the “leaders” of the poaching squads, but they could help out a lot with distraction and even taking on some of the weaker individuals.  The female feline that that had him pinned earlier on revealed a little bit of her teeth before saying, “We have had humans come through before that could communicate with us. The human that actually transported us from all the islands had that ability as well, but this is the first we have heard of a human acquiring it from a fruit.” She tilted her end at the end to give a bit of a signal that she was confused by the statement that a fruit gave him his abilities. “Yeah, you are telling me doll. It is fucking weird to hear myself.” He thought to himself as he looked around at the little pack that she had around her. He could reach his knife, but he would be in a fight with all of them. She seemed to be answering his questions... SO WHY PUSH IT?

Ezekiel’s eyes had begun to adjust the moonlight and the darkness, he could vague make out spots or stripes on the felines backs, which could give theory to them being Cheetahs or Leopards. “We know were the poachers are located. They have a main base on the outskirts of the grasslands tucked underneath a rocky overhang. We can make the trip in the morning. They have enough food it looks like for a continued stay.” Ezekiel nodded to the beasts before cautious rolling back on his side. He left his eyes open until he saw the shadows retreat back into the brush to hopefully watch over him through the night.


Word Count: 901
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~Hunter's Equipment
~Hiso Hiso no Mi Skillset

Ezekiel woke up to the greetings of the same felines from last night, and they were indeed cheetahs. They were unusual coated cheetahs though. The female, he assumed spoke to him last night with the green eyes, she had a coat that was almost striped and black on her back shoulders. It almost seemed like a rare Genetic Coat mutation or something along those lines. “Excuse me..” Ezekiel reached out with his mind again to ask the Female before about her coat, but she seemed to almost immediately knew what he was going to ask. “We are called King Cheetahs. It is a rare mutation in our fur that allows the different patterns. I am one of three of my kind here. My father and brother were taken by he poachers yesterday. We better get moving.” She seemed rather cold, but she was a rare beautiful among the other cheetahs. He quickly packed up his lightweight sleeping bag, tucked his bow and quiver on his back, and strapped his knife to his hip.

The next few hours was long silent walks, various small talk topics, and the female King Cheetah told stories of her Father and Brother. They were almost god-like from the stories that she told him, but he knew that the likelihood of them still being alive with such rare coats was decreasing by the hour. FINALLY AFTER HOURS OF WALKING, Ezekiel finally decided to break the silence and small-talk. “Since it seems we are in a partnership to take out these poachers, can we at least do an introduce?” He thought while he wanted for her response. “I am Ezekiel Dayne.” Hearing a vehicle approaching everyone couched down into the tall grass, he could still the road a bit about a quarter mile away from him. The sounds were of two vehicles carrying three men in one and two in the other. They were hauling ass away from a mountainy rock formation. “You can call me Salem. That is the rock formation. What should we do?” They shrouded him awaiting a very hopeful attack plan, but Ezekiel simply sighed standing up slightly to take a better look athlete rock formation. The poachers had worn down a path between two trees where they seemed to enter and exit their hideout from. “We will set up a little watch camp over to the far right. You guys can hunt and send some cheetahs to follow the moving men.” Nodding his head to Salem, he quickly crouched down and made his way towards the far right side of the grassy opening around the large rock formation.

Ezekiel spent his time rewrapped his middle grip on his bow and checked the feathers on all of his arrows. The two jeeps nor anyone else came to or from the hideout underneath the mountain side. Salem finally returned with the rest of her group just before the sun started toast in the distance. The sounds of shouting could be heard in the distance followed by the sounds of the two jeeps. “Finally they are back. Let’s go over the plan.” Ezekiel spoke to the cheetahs as they gathered around him. He began to draw out a simple plan of the cheetahs taking out some of the smaller guys of the poacher crew. They looked up as the Jeeps roared through he grass with a couple of tied up lions in the back of their jeeps. They seemed to be struggling slightly. In the first jeep was what looked like furs, Ezekiel almost got sick of the sight of the bloody furs. “God damn it.” Ezekiel cursed outloud. “We have to rescue those lions, Ezekiel.” Salem’s green eyes peered deep into his soul.

Ezekiel finished the plan, went over it one more time, and they began their quiet and sneaky descent towards the base. As they got closer, he realized these guys didn’t even have watchers to keep the camp safe from wandering eyes. “They are fucking nuts.” He had a point because they were doing illegal activities, which would requires some sort of security as the very least. The rest of the felines had all moved out of his sphere of influence that was created by his fruit abilities. They knew the plan though. Ezekiel had a signal for them, which he would do once they got close enough.

They kept creeping up on the campfire and the rowdy poachers. The men from the jeep were all taking drinks, forcing food in their mouths, and shouting about their hunt today. The two lions and Salem’s father and brother were all kept in a cage on the west side of the camp, furtherest away from Ezekiel. The poachers seemed to be lead by two individuals that were sitting in larger chairs at the head of the fire. One was a woman and the other was a rough looking man. “Well, I would assume the man is the leader of the poachers.” Ezekiel raised up slightly, notched an arrow, and shot towards the man’s eye. The arrow flew in the air only to slam into the man’s throat. “Fuck...” Everyone instantly stood up and looked directly at Ezekiel.


“What should we do boss?” One of the Jeep guys asked the female who had a short sword and pistol in her hands. “We kill him of course!” Her words echoed briefly in the air before the cheetahs lunged out of the tall grass around them, and started taking out some of the weak-ass grunts. Standing up to look at the woman before taking off towards the cage with the animal, she only laughed before knocked a cheetah to the side and shooting it in the chest with her flintlock pistol.

Word Count: 957
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~Hunter's Equipment
~Hiso Hiso no Mi Skillset

The Beast Shaman didn’t wait to make to make his move. He launched a couple more arrows in the direction of the men and the Squad Leader. That only bought enough time for another Cheetah to take out another one of the grunt before getting stabbed and cut by the Woman. Upon arriving at the cages, Ezekiel opened up the surprisingly unlocked cage with ease to let the beasts within them out as well. They instantly took off towards the rest of the beasts running around and attacking the men and the grunts. The only King Cheetah that didn’t know only seemed to look at him before speaking through his mind. “You are Salem’s help?” Ezekiel shook his head while they both looked up again at the sound of another pistol shot.

The remaining beasts, Salem and her family included, all came back to Ezekiel as the Squad Leader and about three grunts made their way over to them. “Well Well Well. Looks like we got a little do-gooder here. What is your name kid?” Ezekiel scoffed right in the woman’s face. He wasn’t a kid. He was a young adult. “Well, I am not a kid for one.” Making a gesture for the number one before rising another finger to indicate two."Two; my name is Ezekiel Dayne. I am a Beast Shaman and I am here to help the helpless."[/b] Salem and her brother moved to both sides of his flank. “What are we going to do? One of the men has a rifle. The others have swords. She seems to tossed her pistol.” Salem’s voice sounded almost concerned. He gave a small wink before his attention was brought back to the large woman. “Well, I am Elizabeth. We are here to take these rare species back to our contractor. We have been paid pretty decently for you. I hope you understand.” Her voice was soothing but you could feel an underlining coldness that she was already planning on how she was going to get rid of the bodies.

“Well I guess we shall have a stand off then.” Ezekiel quickly grabbed and released an arrow that flew through the eye of the grunt with a rifle about 5 meters away. It rang true and the rest of the cheetahs flew at the remaining grunts. While Elizabeth just started walking towards Ezekiel, he quickly bend down and touched Salem’s neck. “Hiso Hiso Telepathic Link.” The link rang out in his mind as he connected with Salem’s. The infinity mark would appear directly underneath the fur on her neck where Ezekiel placed his hand. “We got more distance with our mind link now.” Salem ran off with her brother to help the remaining beast take out the two sword welding grunts and they left Ezekiel to fight Elizabeth. She could cover the five meters with ease, which is what she did. Darting forward she smacked the bow out of Ezekiel’s hands, She immediately slammed her shoulder into his chest forcing him to stumble back. “You gotta be able to back up whatever you say! BOY!” The emphasis on boy was in straight disgust.

Word Count: 525
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~Hunter's Equipment
~Hiso Hiso no Mi Skillset

Pulling his knife from its hostler, Ezekiel barely managed to parry the attacks of the Kuja into the dirt next to him. “SALEM!” Ezekiel’s mind rang out to empty black. He couldn’t feel her anywhere around. Where was she? “You have a little fear in your eyes, boy!” Elizabeth smirked as she brought her sword down this time ringing true to give him a inch deep cut across Ezekiel’s chest. “Arghh!” He screamed out as a shadow leaped onto Elizabeth’s back followed by something grabbing ahold of her back leg. “Sorry we had to finish off the other two before we could come aid you, Ezekiel!” This little distraction gave Ezekiel enough time to roll away from Elizabeth and pushed himself back into a standing position. He tossed the knife between hands, and he was about to make another move on Elizabeth when she threw Salem towards him only for her to slide to a stop in front of him. She got up as well to watch Elizabeth push the sword through the back of the Cheetah on her leg. “We have to regroup and figure out a plan. She is decent at wielding that blade. She is also hug because she is a Kuja race.” Elizabeth broke off the mental regroup with a loud and booming laugh. You could see blood dripping from her shoulder and a little bit pooling on the ground. “It doesn’t look like you got a long fight in you, hun!” Ezekiel spoke out over the three meter distance between her and the pride of Cheetahs.  

She gave a pissed off and disgusted look before closing the gap between her and the pride with ease. The knife had stopped in Ezekiel’s left hand as she made a move towards his left. The Cheetahs sprang back as the blades met, and she swung again horizontally this time towards his chest again. This strike would put a large gash along the center mass of Ezekiel’s body. He watched how she pulled back the blade, which gave away her striking spot along with her eyes, and he bent down while pulling an arrow from his quiver. Slamming it down with the arrow tip pointed down, he placed the arrow right into the top of Elizabeth’s foot.

She screamed out while she slashed downward towards Ezekiel wildly and blindly only to slice air. He had rolled to the side and front kicked her to the ground. Salem crunched her teeth down on Elizabeth’s sword hand, locking it on the ground, and caused her to let go of it. The other cheetahs pinned her bod down while Ezekiel walked into her view. “I WILL NEVER STOP! The money for these guys are too much! The only way to stop The Strix is to take out the Chief of Animal Trafficking.” She could only laugh more as Ezekiel slammed the knife into her chest. Twisting it 180 degrees to the right and pulling it out, Elizabeth’s last months were of annoy and pain. She bleed out rather quickly and the cheetahs and lions feasted on the human corpses around the small camp.

Ezekiel made a small campfire finally, washed out his wound, and wrapped some of the poachers torn shirts around his chest a couple of times before laying down against a log with the Cheetahs still gathered around him. “Thanks for today guys. We still have another group to handle, but we can regroup and gather ourselves for the next part.” He winced slightly at Salem coming over and laying down next to him. “I talked to my father and brother. They allowed me to go out into the vast world with you. The fighting connection we have is undeniable. And... I kind of like your attitude about life. So I decided to accompany soon the journey!” She purred slightly as she closed her eyes and laid her head down in his lap. Ezekiel looked around at all the sleeping beasts and got kind of homesick for the Shaman Island. They slept around creatures, beasts, and predators of all kinds. “We will figure out our next step in the more, Doll. Get some rest everyone.” Ezekiel slid down to a fully laying down position and let the fire die out. He could sleep peacefully knowing that he had a pride of cheetah around him.

Word Count: 724
Tags:
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~Hunter's Equipment
~Hiso Hiso no Mi Skillset