Chapter 53 - Chapter 55 (1/2)

Gildarts took a step off the boat and his foot touched the sand. He had an ear to ear smile on his face that added to his cute factor by a thousand times. Inside, he was so excited that he thought he might explode any minute now.

He looked around and saw that the sandy beach stretched for as long as his eyes could see. There weren't much on this beach that was noteworthy. It was mostly sand with the occasional rock or loose twig.

Gildarts breathed in and felt the incredible abundance of magic in the air. This was exactly like the rumours and legends had said. A paradise for mages. The high density of magic in the air made it very beneficial to train on this island.

”Now I need to figure out how to climb this damn cliff wall.” He looked up at the rock wall that acted as a natural barrier for the inner part of the island. It surrounded Paradise island so you had to climb it to actually enter the island itself.

”Should I just climb it or are there stairs around here somewhere?” Observing the surroundings yielded him no results in locating any stairs.

He decided just to try and climb it instead of wasting time looking for some random stairs.

”Okay, here we go.” Gildarts was standing in front of the wall and grabbed a hold of a crack in the wall and then from there he used rocks that stuck out or other cracks in the wall to continued scaling the wall.

He had to escalate this cliff wall to get to see his father. That single thought motivated him enough to climb this with no hesitation. He wanted to meet his father badly, but he also had this uneasy feeling inside of him that his father wouldn't be here. Or worse, that he wouldn't accept him because he was weak or something.

He had heard about his father from Sylvia, but who knows if he had changed during the 12 years since he was born. There was also the added pressure of being Portgas D Dragon's son. He had to live up to the family name and he always had one thought at the back of his mind. That he wasn't good enough for it.

'Dad can't be like that! He is not a bad guy!” Gildarts kept saying to himself while climbing the cliff wall carefully.

'And one more!' His hand finally touched the top of the wall and he pulled himself up over it. His feet finally landed on the top and he stood up and got a look at what the island really looked like.

'Wow!' In front of him played a big forest that could only really be described with the word magical. The air itself seemed to sparkle and it looked like tiny little diamonds were hovering everywhere around him.

'Where is Father?' After a few seconds, he snapped out of it and looked around. The island was continental in size so you couldn't just take one look around and see everything the island had to offer.

”Guess I have to explore a bit. But how am I supposed to find someone on this massive piece of land.” Gildarts stretched his body and yawned and gave himself a light slap on the cheek to wake up properly.

”Nothing I can do about it. Let's start in that direction.” Gildarts picked a random direction and started walking with quick steps, and each step he took caused more and more emotions to surface on his face.

-----Meanwhile-----

Outside the castle, on the edge of the mountain stood Portgas D Dragon and stared out on the island. To most people they would assume he is just taking in the sights. And now while that is true. People might be shocked to know that his gaze is traveling far, far into the distance and is currently locked on a small boy.