Acting Tough

"You want this dangerous place to be your home base? You are crazy."

Doll was stunned by Mark's bold and reckless idea, although Mark himself didn't see it that way.

"I assure you, Dear Doll, I am not crazy! Now let's go; we have to explore our new home!"

Mark pointed forward and started running in a random direction. Doll was taken aback, then quickly followed after him.

She caught up with him and huffed. Knowing that they weren't familiar with this place, Doll recalled what she knew about Little Garden.

"They say that this island is stuck in prehistoric times, even today."

"It's supposed to be filled with ancient plants, animals, and bugs."

"The creatures living here are now extinct around the world, so nobody knows much about them."

This was all the information Doll knew, because the official Marine handbook had only this much data about Little Garden.

Normally she wouldn't trust the handbook without checking the facts herself, but the unknown plants around her had convinced her.

She had not seen these plants anywhere before, and the creatures here were huge too, including the living dinosaur that was currently walking past them.

"Is that a dinosaur? Wow, I thought they were extinct for sure."

Mark whistled while looking at a building-sized dinosaur; Doll lowered her voice and asked in amazement.

"What dinosaur is this? I have never seen this species before."

"It looks like a giraffe with the wings of a bat. Can this thing fly?"

Even after looking at the dinosaur personally, Doll couldn't believe that such an odd animal existed back in the day.

"This dinosaur is called Quetzalcoatlus; it's the largest flying dinosaur."

"At least that's what they say; as for if it can really fly… Let's check it out."

With a big smile on his face, Mark crouched down. Doll's face froze when she realized what Mark was about to do.

She quickly tried grabbing Mark's hand, but before she could stop her captain, he had already jumped towards the dinosaur.

Cursing his reckless actions, Doll followed suit and jumped as well. The next thing she knew they were standing on the dinosaur's back.

_SCREECH_

Their sudden intrusion on his back startled the dinosaur; it started screeching while trying hard to shake them off.

Mark quickly grabbed the dinosaur's neck and sat down on its back; he then held Doll in his arms so she doesn't get thrown off.

Loud screeching noises continued for a while before the dinosaur realized that it couldn't shake them off, so it did the next best thing.

It ran with heavy steps and jumped off a nearby cliff. Doll crazily gritted her teeth, and her heart jumped with fear when this happened.

But soon the Quetzalcoatlus began flapping its massive wings, the cold air blew, and the creature started flying.

Peaceful winds and Mark's steady presence behind her slowly settled Doll's beating heart; now she finally had time to confront her captain.

"Mark, what the hell! We should hide from unknown creatures, not ride them!"

Doll turned around and yelled at Mark; she wanted to shake some sense into him and angrily glared at him.

Not bothering with her glare, Mark hummed and looked at the scenery below them; he was observing his territory.

He could see so many species of dinosaurs; the forest was filled with different types of bugs and reptilian creatures.

Noticing that Mark was ignoring her, Doll stopped bothering him. Looking down at the forest, she too noticed the animals.

"There are a lot of animals and bugs here."

Doll said while rubbing her eyes again; for some reason they were feeling a very itchy, but she didn't pay much attention to it.

The duo then sat close together and roamed the island from above; they were observing key locations and areas of Little Garden.

By noon, they had observed around one third of the island but had to stop with their journey, as Doll was having some problems breathing.

Mark carried Doll and jumped down from the dinosaur.

"Huff… Huff…"

Doll panted while holding her chest. She felt tightness in her upper body, like she was wearing a shirt which was too tight for her.

She undid her buttons and felt a little better, but it still felt like her top was too small for her.

"Did my top shrink? It hurts wearing these clothes."

Doll was confused about her situation. She was wearing a pretty small top but it wasn't supposed to be so tight.

"You idiot, of course your clothes didn't shrink; you are having trouble breathing!"

Mark cursed while pointing at her. How the hell did she come to such a silly conclusion?

Something fishy was going on; Mark needed to know what happened. He deployed his observation Haki and put his hand on top of Doll's head.

He scanned her body from top to bottom, and soon found a hyperactive location in her body.

"The cells around your eyes extremely active, did something happen to your eyes?"

Mark asked Doll, and she tilted her head thoughtfully.

"When I was holding the dinosaur's feathers, I had rubbed my eyes by accident."

"My eyes were burning after I did this, and soon my chest started feeling stuffy."

After Doll finished explaining, Mark smacked her on the head. Why would she hide something so important?

"You are telling this to me now?! Don't you know everything here is prehistoric??"

"That everything includes diseases! You have gotten a prehistoric disease from the dinosaur fur."

In the original story, Nami had contracted a prehistoric disease from Little Garden; her disease was then later cured by Kureha.

But Mark couldn't go to Kureha; she lived in Drum Island, and he didn't have a ship. Doll's disease was also different from Nami's.

Who knows if Kureha knew the cure to the virus affecting Doll?

"A prehistoric disease made me like this...?"

Doll looked down and hid her face; Mark pursed his lips seeing her so sad, and patted her shoulder.

"Don't worry, I will find a cure. There should be some herbs here, that can cure your illness."

Mark promised to help her and Doll looked up, but Doll's face wasn't sad like Mark had thought.

"Ugh, Captain, you don't need to find any herbs. I'll recover after some sleep."

Doll rubbed her cheek sheepishly, but Mark smacked her head again.

"Stop acting tough, we have to cure you! Who knows what will happen if we ignore this?"

"Now stay here and wait; your captain will be right back with the cure."

Mark disappeared at high speed; Doll silently watched him leave and soon winced in pain.

"Did you read my mind, captain? Did you know I'm trying to hide the pain?"

Doll stared at the sky in silence; for years she had gotten used to hiding her weakness and putting on a strong facade.

She did the same with Mark as she didn't want to look weak before anyone, but it seems like Mark cared enough to look past her act.

"Maybe I can have someone I can depend upon."

Doll chuckled while waiting in anticipation. Meanwhile, Mark was beating up dinosaurs everywhere and questioning them about herbs with Conqueror's Haki.

Both were busy with their own things, so both of them failed to notice something important. The mountain that Doll was sitting under had started emitting hot smoke.