Prologue: Veles and Sir Crocodile

A three year old girl laid on a bloody pile of straw that was in the corner of a sea prism cage, her black hair was matted and her green eyes were dull, not even the rings of gold around the pupil and outer band of the iris could be seen. Her small body was covered by a tattered white dress, cuts and bruises covered her arms, legs and face.

She was in constant pain from the beatings that the pirates kept giving her, they wanted her to reveal her Devil Fruit powers. To know if she was a desired Zoan or one of the undesirables but she never did, no matter how hard they hit or kicked her. She never once revealed it, she would rather die first than to do that.

The girl was slowly losing her will to live. How long was she here? Was her Mama looking for her? She was starting to forget what her mother looked like, she just remembered a sweet, woodsy scent and a warm embrace now. The pain had pushed all good memories to the back of her mind.

She jolted when she heard the sound of fighting and screaming then silence, she sat up and scooted into a corner as a sound of footsteps came down the stairs. Her eyes narrowed when an unknown man came into view, he wasn't dressed as the other pirates. Her nose twitched when she caught a smoky and sandy scent coming from him, he was smoking a cigar but why did he smell like sand? The man noticed her and walked over to her, in his hand was a key.

"You got the eyes of someone ready to die, brat." The man spoke around his cigar.

"...." She didn't speak, she just stared at him.

"Heh, you want to die that badly?" He scoffed. "You're a fool, you are just giving them power over you."

She blinked, relaxing her tense, wary posture. His words finally breaking through the fog that had hung in her mind.

He smirked as he unlocked the door to her cage, "So you still want to die, girl? Or do you want to spite these bastards and live? You won't be a victim ever again if you come with me."

"...I want to live, I want to show them that they have no power over me." 

"Good girl." The man said, he held out his hand. "Come here."

"...My name is Veles." The girl said as she crawled towards the man, her small hand touching his massive one.

"Crocodile." He helped her out and picked her up, tucking her under his furred coat before he left the haul of the ship. He passed many mummified bodies but Veles didn't look away, her pitiless eyes absorbed the death around her...