Drought

...

-Gulp, gulp, gulp, gulp...!-

"Hey, drink slower, I don't have that many bottles to spare, just so you know..."

"Haaah... Sorry, mister..."

"Don't be... I can just go and bring some more later anyway... but still, try to restrain yourself a little bit"

Inside Farid's house, he and the three kids from before could be seen sitting on different couches facing each other in complete calmness, even despite their rather unusual first meeting when Farid arrived at the house.

Farid, on one side, was calmly watching the kids in front of him with an impassive expression on his face, seemingly waiting for something, while the kids on the other side were too busy drinking hastily the water on the bottles in their hands to notice Farid's gaze.

As they drank the water, the expressions of the kids were full of bliss and joy to no end, as if they were receiving a gift from God, or had just won the lottery, despite them actually being drinking plain water.

Seeing them like that, Farid couldn't help but look at them with a bit of pity, imagining just what kind of hardships they might have faced until then. Moreover, due to their resemblance and their similar facial features, it seemed as if the kids were siblings, so he couldn't help but wonder where their parents were at such a moment.

Well, it wasn't like he had parents either, so he could make a few assumptions, but he still couldn't be sure about them.

-Gulp, gulp, gulp...!-

'They sure were thirsty...'

Waiting for the kids to finish drinking, Farid looked calmly out the window to pass the time, before suddenly, the voice of one of the kids reached his ears and startled him.

"Umm... Mister..."

Turning to look at the girl that had called him, Farid raised an eyebrow in curiosity, before he noticed that she had already finished drinking the water, and way before her siblings at that.

Seeing the empty bottle of water in front of her, and the pleading expression of the girl, Farid sighed helplessly, before he then looked straight at her.

"What's up? You want more?"

"No, it's just... Uhm... Do you have any food?"

"..."

Staring at her for a few seconds, Farid shook his head briefly before he then sighed and started looking inside the bag.

-Rustle...-

Soon, and to the delight of the other kids who were looking at him with curiosity, Farid took three big pieces of bread, before he then tossed them towards the kids.

"Ah...!"

Letting out surprised gasps, the kids grabbed the pieces of bread as if they were gold before they started devouring them at an alarming speed.

-Nom, nom, nom!-

'Jeez... the pieces of bread I gave them aren't even that small, yet they are eating it so fast... just how many days had these kids been starving?'

Looking at them with a slight frown, Farid groaned in a low voice, before he then turned to look all around the living room, and squinted his eyes when he noticed just how empty the house seemed with only the furniture around.

'Well, while they eat, I might as well start organizing everything right away'

Standing up from the couch, Farid opened the bag once again, before he started taking things out, and began placing them all around the house.

Water, food, tools, etc... There was nothing that didn't come out of that enormous bag.

He was gonna spend the next month there, so at least he made sure that there would be nothing that he lacked during his vacations.

-Rustle...-

-Rustle...-

'I wonder what I will do for the next month... I mean, resting is fine and everything, but my inhuman stamina just doesn't allow me to stay put for that many days...'

While he organized everything, Farid's mind started wandering around about what would he do for the next month inside this house in the middle of nowhere.

After all, even though he had said that he wanted to rest for the rest of the month, in reality, he just wanted to take a break from hunting pirates, since he had been doing that for the past six years over and over again.

He didn't actually want to stay put for a whole month, as he wouldn't stand it in the first place... However, he indeed wanted to put a stop to hunting pirates for the time being... But as for what would he do for the rest of the month... He honestly had no idea.

'Should I practice my cooking? Since I have nothing better to do anyway, I might as well entertain myself by improving my cooking skills... Though, I don't know if I will be able to do it for a whole month straight'

Looking at the cooking utensils he had brought with him silently for a few seconds, Farid rapidly shook his head before he went back to organizing things.

It took a few minutes for him to finish organizing his supplies for the next month. Furthermore, by the time he organized all of them, the kids had already finished eating and were simply looking at him with curious expressions on their faces.

Noticing this fact, Farid smiled slightly.

'At least they are patient...'

Walking up to them, Farid sat on the couch once again, before he looked at them with a deep gaze.

"Now, tell me. Where are you from, and what were you doing in my house?"

The three kids looked between themselves, visibly having it hard to answer, before one of the girls, and seemingly the older among the kids, cleared up her throat shyly and started speaking while looking at Farid with a slightly timid gaze.

"O-our hometown was destroyed by terrifying sandstorm, and our parents, who were with us until that moment, disappeared during the incident and left me and my little sister and brother alone..."

Clenching her fists, the girl looked sadly at her siblings, who were looking gloomily at the floor, before she sighed in sorrow.

'Sandstorm, huh? I heard that they are indeed becoming more usual lately... Should I build some kind of protection for the house just in case? That will be a good entertainment for the month to come...' Ignoring the girl's sad gaze, Farid massaged his chin in contemplation while looking at the desert through the window, before he snapped out of his thoughts and went back to listen to the children's story.

"After that, we... Uhm, we wandered through the desert in order to find a city where to stay for the time being. However, during the way... We got lost, and somehow ended up stumbling upon this house that we thought was abandoned in a beginning..."

"And I guess that's when I appeared?"

"H-hmm..." Nodding her head, the girl looked at Farid with a nervous look, before she looked at the floor in shame.

-Sigh...-

"... It's fine, this house was practically abandoned in a certain way, so you don't need to feel bad. However, there's a certain thing that I'm curious about..." Closing his eyes and crossing his arms in contemplation, Farid looked at the three kids with a deep gaze, before his eyebrows furrowed in a displeased manner.

"You three... How long has it been since you have drank any water?"

"...!"

Surprised by Farid's question, the three kids looked at each other for a brief moment, only for the oldest girl to look at Farid and answer timidly.

"We didn't drink anything during the previous two days... Why do you ask mister?"

Looking at them in silence for a brief moment, Farid sighed shortly, before he then looked at them with a serious gaze.

"Your bodies are in a pretty bad condition... So bad, in fact, that it's hard to believe that something like this is just caused by two days of starvation and thirst...-"

"Are you a doctor, mister?" Suddenly, while Farid was still talking, the little boy, who had been silently standing behind his sister until then, widened his eyes and looked at Farid with an admiring gaze.

'Does he like doctors?... That's rather unusual' Hearing the kid call him a doctor and look at him with glistening eyes, Farid let out a snort, before he grinned and shook his head briefly.

"No, I've just seen a lot of things traveling around the sea, and I've got to know a bit about such topics... Anyway, as I was saying, your bodies are in a condition that's worse than they should be... Do you perhaps know the reason?"

Hearing Farid's words, the children stayed silent for a few minutes, seemingly contemplating his question, before the second girl widened her eyes and timidly gazed at Farid.

"I- I think that it's because we didn't drink water too often... Our hometown's well was on the verge of drying since there was no rain to fill it up. So the people there had no more option but to start rationazing the water for everyone, or else we would all die of thirst..."

"I see..." Hearing the words of the girl, Farid narrowed his eyes for a brief moment, before he looked to the side, seemingly thinking deeply about something.

While he was still in deep thought, the three kids suddenly looked at each other for a brief moment, before the three of them stepped up and called out to Farid in shy voices.

"Mister... thank you for giving us food and water... Without you, I don't know what would have happened to us..."

"Thank you, mister..."

"Thank you, mister..."

"..." Looking at them silently, Farid looked through the window with squinted eyes, before he let out a silent groan and then walked up towards the kids.

Suddenly, as he arrived in front of them, Farid kneeled and smiled slightly at them.

'Well, since I have a month of free time, I guess I can spare some of it to help them'

...

°

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°

|Some hours later...|

...

"So... this is your hometown...?" Looking at the landscape in front of him, Farid couldn't help but gaze pitifully at the kids beside him, as if he was looking at very miserable existences.

What was in front of them, was an almost unrecognizable village that seemed to be on the verge of collapsing completely.

Most of the houses had crumbled, and any decorations like fences had been torn off from the ground... All in all, it looked exactly like a ghost village.

"Yes...This is our home... Well, at least it was before... Now it's nothing but a deadland..." Looking sadly at the view in front of her, the oldest girl sighed in sorrow, before her expression started wrinkling, about to break up crying.

-Pat, pat-

Patting gently the head of the girl, Farid smiled softly, before he spoke in a gentle tone.

"Now, don't go crying on me, girl. If there's something I can't stand is brats crying"

Of course, Farid's words were anything but gentle.

"..." Looking at Farid with a speechless expression, the girl took a deep breath, before she started cleaning the snot and tears with a dissatisfied expression.

-Sigh...-

"Come on, I told you that I would help you find your parents, don't make that face" Making a helpless expression, Farid sighed before he closed his eyes and started concentrating on his surroundings.

At that moment, time seemed to have slowed down for everyone but Farid.

-Sssss...-

The dry sound of sand moving because of the breeze pushing it around.

-Fwoooosh...-

The calming and endless sound of the air moving across the desert with no apparent destination.

-Shkshkshk-

The strange sounds of some creature moving through the sand, probably looking for something to eat.

Nothing escaped Farid's senses.

Then, suddenly, as if everything was a lie, time started moving fast once again and Farid opened his eyes with a resolute expression on his face.

'A very weak presence, and the faint sound of a heartbeat over one of the houses there... It seems like we arrived just on time... Probably'

"Follow me, there seems to be someone over there" Signaling the kids to follow him with his head, Farid started walking towards the ruined village, while the kids just stood there speechless about the sudden information that he had told them.

"R-really?!" Finally snapping out of their dumbfounded state, the kids' mouths rapidly curled up into a smile, before they started running after Farid with happy expressions.

-Tchk, tchk, tchk-

Slowly, as their steps on the sand echoed in the deadly silent place, Farid's eyes started moving all across the place, as his Observation Haki kept surveying the entire place.

'This much damage was caused by a sandstorm...? It is really hard to believe that an entire village was destroyed just by the power of the wind and sand...' Farid looked around with an incredulous expression.

There was almost no house around that hadn't been destroyed beyond recognition. Normally, sandstorms are only able to mess everything up and maybe cause some accidents with the objects that are sent flying and can cause some severe damage to whoever gets hit by them. However, the scale of destruction from this sandstorm was something he had never seen before.

Though, maybe it was because he was almost never in Arabasta, or maybe it simply was because this was an abnormal event that happens every hundred years... He had no way of knowing.

Fortunately, there didn't really seem to be any gruesome sight within the now destroyed village, and considering that there seemed to be just one person in the whole area, it was probable that all of the other people had either escaped successfully like the kids... Or sent flying several kilometers away from the village, which considering the power of this sandstorm, it wasn't an unbelievable possibility.

'Well, let's just hope everything turned out well...' Shaking his head with a wry smile on his face, Farid continued walking forward.

Soon, after a few minutes of walking, they reached the ruined and dusty house that Farid had pointed out earlier and entered inside while looking cautiously around.

Suddenly, however, pitiful gasps for air reached their ears, and the figure of a wrinkly and thin old man appeared in their view, sitting in a powerless manner on one of the corners of the house.

"Haaah... Haaah... Haaah... Is... there someone there...?"

Suddenly lifting his head to look ahead, the old man miserable expression turned slightly brighter when he heard several steps entering the house, before he then was tackled down without warning by the three kids that Farid had brought with him.

"V-village head, it was you..!"

Surprised by the sudden scream of happiness from the kids, the old man accidentally let out a surprised gasp, before he finally understood who they were.

"So it's you, kids... You have finally appeared..."

The old man, who looked weakly at the three kids, smiled slightly as if he had finally achieved his life purpose, and let out a long and raspy sigh of relief.

Judging by his relieved tone of voice, it was easy to guess that the reason that he was here in the first place was that he had been waiting for the kids to come back. However, judging by his horrible state, it seemed that he had been through a lot of hardships during the whole process.

Closing his eyes peacefully the man scratched his face with the small strength that he had left, and turned to look at the ceiling.

"I... I knew that you were somewhere in the desert alone and scared, so I came back here and waited for you to come back... Unfortunately, I didn't notice that thanks to the sandstorm our well had dried up completely and that there was no water anymore..."

Hearing his story, the kids widened their eyes and immediately opened their mouths wide in order to voice their confusion, however, before they were able, the old man opened his mouth first and let out a silly laugh.

"Kehehe... Though even then I couldn't help myself and still waited for you kids here for the past few days, even if there was no water..."

Shaking his head in embarrassment, the old man turned to look at the kids, before he suddenly noticed Farid's figure standing a few meters away from them, and let out a surprised expression.

"... There was someone else here..? My apologies, I didn't... -Cough...!- notice you there..."

"It's fine" Shaking his head as if telling the old man not to worry, Farid looked all around the house, before he approached the old man and asked him with a calm gaze while signaling the kids with his thumb.

"Hey, do you perhaps know where their parents are?"

Hearing Farid's question, the old man widened his eyes briefly, before a sullen expression appeared on his face as he lowered his gaze.

Understanding the meaning of his expression, both Farid and the kids widened their eyes for a moment, before then the kids broke down crying on the spot, and Farid stayed silent watching them.

Today, fate had not gone his way, once again.

...

°

°

°

|An hour later...|

...

Sitting on top of the debris of one of the collapsed houses, Farid looked amused at the setting sun on the horizon with a blank gaze.

He seemed to be thinking deeply about something, as his gaze kept wandering from time to time to the group of kids in the distance that was sitting on the sand with sad expressions in their eyes, seemingly talking about something between themselves.

'Death, huh...?'

Looking at his own hand, Farid focused deeply on each of the slight wrinkles that his hand had, narrowing his eyes deeply each time he saw one.

They weren't huge, and his hand still looked plenty youthful. However, he still couldn't help but wonder how would it look once he turned into an old man... And what kind of death he would have when the time comes.

After all, he might have inhuman abilities and a monstrous strength that is beyond what he should be capable normally. However, even with all that, he was not immortal... or at least not that he knew.

In the end, one day he would still die, just like the parents of the kids had done.

-Sigh...-

'Hmph, well, with this thing beside me, I doubt it will be a normal death...'

Gazing at the screen beside him, Farid let out a tired expression before he looked at the sky and grinned slightly.

"How wonderful would it be if I died while being surrounded by beautiful chicks instead of having to die with this screen beside me..."

Muttering something like that with an ironic tone of voice, Farid moved his eyes away from the screen, before he noticed someone approaching him.

'The village head...?'

Gazing at the figure of the village head slowly approaching him from the corner of his vision, Farid raised an eyebrow in curiosity.

After talking a bit previously, Farid had given him some of the water and food that he had brought with him since he looked like he needed it desperately, helping the old man recover a little bit of his strength in the process.

However, since the old man was busy dealing with the sad and depressed kids, both of them didn't talk much more than that after that.

'What would he want now...?' Wondering that inside his mind, Farid watched silently as the village head arrived next to him before he sat down right beside him without saying anything.

It took a few seconds for the village head to say something, as he seemed to be thinking deeply about something, even though Farid was looking at him with a confused gaze.

"Farid, was it? -Sigh...- Thank you, if it wasn't because of you, I doubt any of the kids would have been able to survive there in the desert... And not to mention that you also saved my life" Shaking his head in shame, the village head smiled slightly before he looked at Farid with a thankful gaze, making the latter grin proudly in the process.

"You're welcome" Farid said.

Seeing his proud expression, the old man couldn't help but let out a laugh before patting Farid's back amiably.

-Smack, smack!-

"Kehehe, in a way, I can't help but feel like heaven sent you to us! Otherwise, how could we have been so lucky to survive?"

Hearing the village head's words, Farid snorted briefly, before he looked at the kids in the distance and shook his head.

"Well, those kids found my house in the middle of the desert by mere chance. So in a way, they were certainly lucky"

"What a humble guy you are!" The village head said while laughing.

Farid only smiled slightly at this, before suddenly, the smile on his face disappeared, and a more serious look appeared in his eyes.

"By the way, I'm rather curious. How is it possible that there hasn't been a single rain for your well to replenish...?"

"You don't know?" Looking at him bewildered, the village head widened his eyes briefly, before his expression turned sullen, and he started looking at the clouds with a longing gaze.

"There have been a lot of rumors for the last three years about King Cobra using "Dance powder" to make it so that it only rains in the capital... I didn't really want to believe it at first... However, seeing how everything has turned out, I can't help but start believing those rumors"

"..." Hearing the words of the village head, Farid squinted his eyes for a brief moment, before he crossed his arms and started tapping his left arm with his finger relentlessly as if exasperated by something.

"What's more, after the other villagers and I escaped from the sandstorm, I heard several rumors in a nearby city about other villages like us that had gotten completely dried up because there was not a single rain droplet that fell on their well..."

Frowning deeply as the village head continued speaking, Farid clicked his tongue.

'I had already heard something like that... But since I haven't been so much here in Arabasta, I didn't think that it was this bad...'

Opening his eyes with a strange glow in them, Farid started tapping his arm even more relentlessly, before he asked the village head something without even looking at him.

"Say, how many villages are being affected by this drought?"

Looking at him in silence, the village head tilted his head confusedly, before he let out a resigned snort, and looked towards the ground dispiritedly.

"Almost every village is going through the same thing... There are only a few villages over Arabasta that are somehow managing on their own. However, from what I heard, it is only a matter of time before they end up like us... Besides, there is also the matter of the sandstorms, that for some reason seem to have increased a lot after the rain stopped appearing in our villages..."

Shaking his head, the village head tightened his hand into a fist before he bit his lips angrily.

"If things continue as they are right now, there will be no village or small town left, and only Alubarna will remain in the end!"

"..."

Hearing the words of the village head, Farid closed his eyes in silence.

His finger, which had been tapping ferociously his left arm until then, suddenly stopped, making the village head looks at him in confusion, since he had somehow gotten accustomed to hearing Farid tap his arm with his finger until then.

However, right when he was about to ask him what was wrong, Farid opened his eyes and made the village head widen his eyes in shock.

On Farid's face, there was a very deep and pronounced frown that made his expression look very furious... Similar to a devil, even.

'Annoying... So annoying'

That was exactly what Farid's expression seemed to say at that moment.

...

-To be continued-

°°°

(A/N: Sorry for the wait guys, I was getting done with all this matter of university. Fortunately, today it's officially the last class from this semester, so from now on I will be a loot freer!)