Chapter Text
It's been a couple days since they left Aki Island behind. And Daniela is sure, her baby, her beautiful masterpiece. Their Wonderland is haunted….
There was no other explanation. Her tools should be a mess and not perfectly in their spots and she didn't remember pulling out a blanket. That she worked until she passed out is unimportant as she ran to the dining hall.
“Who brought a ghost aboard?” She asked, still holding the blanket.
“We have a ghost?” Sabo grinned excited at the prospect.
“I'm pretty sure we do. I fell asleep in the workshop and all my toys were in their places and I had a blanket over me. I know no one but me knows where all my stuff goes exactly,” she nodded vigorously.
“That calls for a ghost hunt,” Kuina nodded.
“Calm down, maybe it's a klabautermann,” Shamrock cut their plans short.
“Aaah, yeah, dad did tell me something about those. Apparently well loved ships attract protective spirits,” Daniela relaxed as she remembered the old stories of ships fixing themselves.
They decided to leave out cookies and milk in the evening and see if klabautermann would eat any. And largely ignored the situation for the rest of the day aside from listening in for the sound of hammers and unfamiliar steps.
If klabautermann could be detected with haki they'd probably have noticed them before.
After dinner Sabo and Luis went to watch the full moon for a bit. There wasn't much to do in terms of dates in the open seas. And Sabo just always liked looking at the moon. Even before he ate the fox fruit.
As they sat with Sabo's tails serving as a blanket they heard the distinct excited sound Sabo would make in his full (tiny) fox form when chasing birds. But Sabo was quiet so they immediately jumped to their feet with Shamrock dropping from the crow's nest.
“That wasn't me,” Sabo assured, looking about the deck.
They looked all over the deck and found nothing but then they looked up to the sails as a melody of a pan flute resonated over the sea. On the top one, directly on the covering of the crow's nest was a hooded figure with distinctive fox snout, ears and two fox tails shifting under their cape.
It stopped playing and made the excited sound again as Sabo waved to it. Could it be….
“Are you Wonderland’s klabautermann?” Sabo asked, feeling unreasonably excited.
An affirmative yelp had Sabo grinning.
“Do you have a name?” He asked and had a rock thrown at him. Written on it was ‘Vulpes’. “Thanks for taking care of us Vulpes,” Sabo said and did a polite curtsy.
“Wow,” Daniela breathed out as she came up, probably also heard the music.
“Did you like milk and cookies?” Vulpes did a bit less excited yelp. “How about milk and meat?” Sabo continued talking to the klabautermann. That got a very excited yelp in response. “We'll let the head chef know.”
With that Vulpes returned to playing the flute. Sound of a bell occasionally Joined in as their ship's spirit played for a bit more before eventually vanishing as they all blinked.
“Well, we might be haunted but at least they're friendly,” Daniela joked as she inspected the rock. “We should set up a little spot for them somewhere on the ship,” she proposed.
“We'll look for a good spot in the morning,” Sabo agreed, still looking where the spirit vanished. He just realised he liked the sound of bells.