The Duck Princess

Fairy-Tale AU: When a spell-caster hypnotizes a kingdom into thinking the sovereigns killed their daughter, little Vivi is forced to flee as Crocodile takes over the kingdom. Sixteen years later, Vivi meets the three brothers of D. who are on a quest to find the old witch of the mountain – could this be the lost Princess' chance?

AUTHOR'S NOTES:

. As this is AU, I can do whatever I want and get away with it.

. Sabo; Luffy and Ace are all blood-related.

. They're not related to their normal families from the OP-verse.

Anyways, on with the story!

CHAPTER ONE

Golden Feathers

"Once upon a time, in a land far, far away…"

Ace rolled his eyes. "Luffy, bro, this'd better not be the story about the island full of treasure again."

Luffy pouted. "A-ce," he whined. "It's my turn to tell the story, not yours!"

"Yeah, but at least my stories are somewhat realistic." Ace pointed out.

"Pirates are realistic!" Luffy protested. "More realistic than metal people, anyway!"

"They're called robots, and they are way more realistic than pirates!" Ace defended his own imagination.

"Are not!"

"Are too!"

"Are not!"

"Are not!"

"Are too…hey!"

Luffy dove at his older brother but, before things could escalate, a third, more reasonable-sounding voice said: "Come here!" There was a note of excitement in the voice.

Luffy and Ace stopped fighting, and looked further down the path, where their older brother, Sabo, was crouched down, something shimmering held in his hand.

He turned when Luffy and Ace approached him, and held up a small golden feather.

"Ooh…" Luffy's dark brown eyes glowed in the light coming off the feather. Then: "What is it?"

Ace rolled his eyes, but didn't say anything, as he also had no idea what was so special about the feather, aside from the fact that it was glowing.

Sabo answered the question: "It's a feather belonging to a juvenile Spot-Billed Duck. Supposedly the ducklings have magical properties." He added.

Luffy's eyes grew wide at this. "You mean, enough magic to-!" He winced suddenly, as Ace whacked him upside the head.

"Not enough magic!" Ace scolded. His brown eyes darkened slightly. "It's going to take more than something like this to help us completely." He took the feather from Sabo, and turned it over in his hands a few times. "Still, something that rare would fetch a decent price."

Sabo stood up, dusting off his blue coat. "What are you thinking?" He asked Ace.

Ace twirled the feather between his fingers. "That we catch one of these little critters, and use it in the next town to barter for information on the reindeer's whereabouts."

Sabo nodded. "Good plan." He looked around the dark forest, at the moonlight streaming in through the thick canopy of trees. It created interesting patches of silvery light on the ground, but also gave off an eerie sort of feeling.

A strange sort of bird-call pierced through the night just then, and Luffy jumped.

Ace looked around, but didn't see anything. "How strange…I've never heard a cry like that before…hang on, is that another feather?" He hardly needed to ask – the soft illuminating golden glow was hard to mistake.

Luffy ran to the feather, and picked it up. "Yeah, it sure is! And, look, there's another one!" He left the path, and his two older brothers hurried to catch up with him.

They heard Luffy's exclamation as he located another feather. The ground had started to become stickier somehow, the further they ran into the forest.

"Something's strange about this…" Sabo said suddenly, stopping briefly to test the ground with his feet. His eyes widened as his boots seemed to get drawn down into the ground, and then he gasped. "Luffy!" He called ahead. "Ace, don't go any further – it's a trap!"

But, it was too late.

Sabo suddenly felt something akin to fishing wire wrap tightly around his body, and he was as helpless to move as the two in front of him, who had run further into the swamp.

"Huh?" Luffy stopped, as he realised that he was now up to his ankles in the strange, sticky ground. He tried to pull his feet out, but they wouldn't come – if anything, he just started to sink further. He flailed about in panic. "Ace! Sabo! Help me – the ground's eating me!"

"Luffy!" Shouted Ace, who was only in up to his knees. "Stop moving around so much or it will only make you sink faster!"

Luffy gulped, and stopped moving, even though the urge to fight against the sinking motion was nearly overwhelming him. Already now, he was in up to his waist. He looked around him, at the strange, leafless trees, and the seemingly harmless-looking ground, and said: "What is this place?" His voice trembled slightly.

"It's a swamp of some sort," Ace said, as calmly as he could, hearing the tremble behind his younger brother's voice. "The ground back there appears to have taken on the characteristics of the swamp's surface – that's why we didn't see it until it was too late." He sounded remarkably at ease, despite now being in up to his waist. "Probably, the swamp has also taken on the characteristics of quicksand." He added.

Now he tells me. "You sound like Sabo." Luffy commented, and then he and Ace both remembered their big brother. "Sabo!" Luffy called.

"Sabo, can you hear us? !" Ace added. "Sabo! We need help!"

"He can't help you." Said a new voice.

There was a rustle from the tree above and then, to Luffy's utter astonishment, a big yellow duck landed right next to him as light at a butterfly. The speaker was a girl his own age, whose blue hair was nearly luminous in the moonlight.

Sabo struggled against the wire that was binding him, but to no avail. The person who had done this to him – a girl, from the sounds of her voice – had tied him up quickly and silently, and then left him here, saying that she needed to attend to 'the other two' before they became the next victims of Swampy.

No amount of yelling on Sabo's behalf had influenced the girl to turn back, and now he was on his own, helpless to do anything while the girl robbed his brothers and then left them to die in the swamp.

Cursing at his own actions, and blaming himself for getting them into this mess, Sabo struggled some more, barely noticing as the wires cut into his skin. He was also sinking, and cringed as the swamp mud got into his cuts. Was this how it was all going to end? Were they going to die like this, without even completing their mission?

Thoughts of home flooded back into Sabo's mind, as he pictured their Father back at home, unable to leave the confines of their small farmhouse home on the hill. He was counting on them – and they were about to fail him. Sabo also thought about their Mother, and how they had promised to find her – were they really going to break that promise now?

Unaccustomed tears gathered in the backs of Sabo's clear blue eyes, but he refused to shed them.

Just then, completely out of the blue, a small glowing duck dropped down to the ground in front of him.

"Aroo?" It cocked its head to one side.

Sabo stared at it.

"What do you mean he can't help us?" Ace questioned the girl, who appeared not to have heard him, as she looked at Luffy instead. "Hey, are you listening to me? What did you do to my brother?"

The girl did not reply, and just directed the large duck she was riding over to where Ace was slowly sinking.

"Hey, Ace!" Luffy had just noticed something important. "She's not sinking like we are! Why is that?"

"How should I know?" Ace replied.

The girl finally spoke again. "I'll tell you why – it's because Spotted-Bill Ducks have specially designed feet that allow them to traverse Swampy and not sink…like you two are."

Luffy laughed. "That's cool – I want one of those things!"

"I know." The girl said coldly. "That's why this is happening." She reached down and deftly swiped the orange cowboy hat from Ace's head.

"Hey!" Ace protested, struggling now, as he was up to his elbows. "Give me back my hat – my Mother gave me that hat!"

"Like I care." The girl scoffed, although the hand holding Ace's hat trembled slightly. She stared down at Ace with cold eyes, the same colour as her hair. "You should have thought about that before you came here!" She shook her head, placed Ace's hat on her own head, and then directed her mount over to where Luffy was in up to his neck. "Now, you shall die here." She removed the straw hat from Luffy's head.

"Hey, wait a minute!" Luffy protested, finally getting upset. "Give me back my hat!"

The girl laughed without mirth. "Now, where have I heard that before?" She placed the straw hat on over the cowboy hat, something that was painfully familiar to both Luffy and Ace. "Did your Mother give you this, too?"

"No, my Father did!" Luffy shouted, before he was choked off by a mouthful of the swamp mud.

"Luffy!" Ace yelled, as his brother finally went under, although his nose was still visible, allowing him to breathe. Ace turned to the girl angrily. "Why are you doing this? !" He asked her, his heart pounding in his chest.

"Because," the girl said angrily, clutching a pair of small, peacock-blue jewels in her left hand. "You were going to take away one of the ducklings – it's my duty to stop anyone who tries to do that! They're my only family…" She added, in a softer voice, patting the Spot-Billed Duck she was riding, that Ace now noticed was wearing goggles and a chullo. No doubt stolen from other helpless victims.

"We're only doing this to protect our family!" Ace cried, in desperation. "We understand the need to help and protect our family just as much as you do!"

The girl stared at him, but didn't say anything.

"Look," Ace tried to calm down. If he sounded upset, then the girl was less likely to see reason. "I can't tell you everything, but I can say that our Father is terribly ill, and if we don't help him then he will die. We don't have much time – I'm begging you, please help us!"

Ace's brown eyes stared into the girl's blue ones, imploring her to forgive them and save them.

"Your Father…is dying?" The girl asked softly.

"Yes!" Ace replied.

The girl hesitated for a moment, before glancing over at the spot where Luffy had disappeared. Then, with the same bird-call they had heard before, she directed her mount to turn, taking off across the swamp at full-speed.

"No!" Ace shouted after her. "Come back, please!"

Sabo watched in astonishment as the little duck swiftly clawed away the wires binding him. For such a little creature, its claws were remarkably sharp. It couldn't have been very old, as it still had some of its duckling down. While it worked, it occasionally looked up and let out a piercing cry, as if calling to someone.

When the duck was about three quarters of the way through the wire, its call was finally answered. Two Spot-Billed Ducks dropped down from the trees, and Sabo realised with astonishment that one was the mount of the blue-haired girl.

"Kuku, go!" The girl ordered the duckling, whilst taking out the sharp blue-gems that she quickly began using to cut at the wires. "Ivan X and I will stay! Go, now, as Swampy is almost here!"

"I thought Swampy was the name of this place!" Sabo exclaimed, as the girl reached down and, with surprising strength, hoisted him out of the mud.

"It is!" The girl practically threw Sabo onto the back of the other duck, which was wearing a horned helmet with goggles. "But, it's also the name of the monster that lives in there, and it's highly carnivorous!"

"You're telling me this now? !" Sabo exclaimed. "You must be joking!"

"Just go!" The girl yelled, and Ivan X took that as his cue to leave, jumping up into the trees. Sabo clung to the bird's feathers, and looked down in time to see the girl's duck carrying her towards the deeper part of the swamp where Ace and Luffy were.

Then, Sabo looked up, and saw a huge shape moving in the same direction…

Luffy felt a hand grab his, and opened his eyes as he was yanked free of the mud. He was shocked to suddenly find himself sitting on the back of a Spot-Billed Duck wearing a conical hat. Ace was beside him, riding his own duck that was, ironically, wearing a cowboy hat.

The blue-haired girl from before was with them, too.

"Hurry, Carue!" She ordered, as an angry roar filled the air around them. "Swampy will kill us if he catches us! Head back for the trees!" She directed him to jump up, and the mounts of Ace and Luffy followed.

The two brothers could only cling to the necks of their mounts, which followed the girl and Carue through the treetops.

"What about Sabo? !" Ace called to the girl.

"He is fine, it's us who are in danger!" The girl responded, as the trees around them shook. "Swampy is a meat-eating creature that lives in these swamps! His favourite meals are humans and poultry!" She told them.

Luffy and Ace were stunned. "Why do you and these birds live here, then?" Ace asked.

"Never mind that!" The girl snapped. "We must hurry to the Sacred Grove – Swampy cannot venture onto such pure ground!"

"Where is this Sacred Grove? !" Ace called.

The girl pointed with her left hand up ahead. A small island was there. "Just up there – see the white flowers on the tree? If there's one thing Swampy can't stand, it's anything good and pure!"

Luffy glanced behind him, but couldn't see anything in the darkness of the swamp. He could hear the thing, though, whatever it was…it sounded angry…

As soon as they landed on the shimmering grass of the Sacred Grove, however, all noise from outside immediately ceased, and a calming feeling came over all six of them.

The girl slid off the back of her mount, and Luffy and Ace did the same.

"We're safe here." The girl said, placing a hand on the side of Carue's neck.

"You came back for us…" Ace said to her, as Luffy began wiping the off the swamp mud.

"For some strange reason, yes, I did." The girl replied, before turning to Luffy. "Stop doing that." She ordered him. She looked at both of the brothers. "Both of you need to purify yourselves in the Sacred Springs – the swamp mud is very dangerous."

"How come you know so much about this place?" Luffy asked her.

"Because it's my home." She said simply.

"Who are you, anyway?" Ace wanted to know, wondering what a girl like this was doing in such a place. Now that he was looking at her properly, he could see that something just didn't add up.

"Is it not customary to introduce oneself before asking the same questions of a lady?" The girl raised an eyebrow.

"You're right," Ace nodded. "I apologize." He bowed to her. "My name is Ace. This is my younger brother, Luffy. Our older brother is called Sabo."

The girl nodded, and then curtsied slightly, the formality of it taking Luffy by surprise, but not Ace. "My name is never used around here but, if you wish, then you may call me…Wednesday."