onepieceyaoi100 | Yet more drabbling.

I'm not sure when the entry deadline is... I'm trying to post this before it's midnight my time, though.

drakyrna just posted a wonderful reunion drabble. Damn. Beat me to it. Oh well. I was thinking of doing something in two parts along the same lines. This is the first part.

Title: King's Ransom
Rating: G
Word Count: 276
Pairing: Chaka/Pell in the background
Theme: Zoan-types

ran•som:
1: a consideration paid or demanded for the release of someone or something from captivity
2: a redemption from sin and its consequences.

A country is its people. Great and small, old or young, rich or poor. Joyful and celebrating; mourning and rebuilding. Returned and triumphant. Lost and remembered. Power, worn over clothes, can’t seep into his skin, can’t let him do more than any other man. It is for those whose power dances in their veins to pay his ransom.

The weight of the land lies heavy on a king’s shoulders. This weight is not shed with his royal robes, so when he faces those who pay his prices for him, he is naked before them, and burdened. He can no more ask such men to let him pay his own way from his sins than ask to change the nature of their lives. To ask to carry his own burden is to make their lives, their deaths meaningless.

But he wishes, then, facing such a man, that it would not be such a cruel favour. Their saviours are all gone, to sea and sky. This man, who can touch neither, turns to him and smiles.

“It is a great day for Arabasta, your Majesty.”

There is little he can say. Jackal and falcon, hound and fowl, they had served him together, always. Placing the burden of his blood above their light touches, quiet looks, hard embraces. What does one say when such a gift is set aside so that one man can live, one country thrive?

A king’s ransom paid, a country saved. A falcon’s flight, a jackal’s grin.

“Yes, Chaka. It is.”

---

Oi. Not sure how I feel about it. Also not sure if it qualifies as a contest entry, cause I think it's a minute or two past midnight here. Or something. Oh well. Don't think I care, since I'm learning to enjoy this quite a bit =)