"Hey! It's mine!" Luffy shouted angrily, holding his large piece of meat above his head, out of the reach of the little thieves. "White! Come and get these brats off me! They're trying to steal my meat again! They're not even hungry, they're just being mean!" the boy yelled, practically being trampled by a crowd of white figures. White approached and shooed the smaller wolves away from Luffy with a sort of scolding look in her eyes. All the white figures eyed his piece of meat before scurrying off to different spots around the trees, their eyes, unlike their mother's, sparkling with laughter.
Crisis averted. For now.
The pups had grown considerably since the day Luffy first met the pack. He hadn't been in the forest long and had found them purely by chance, having already gotten lost. Well... perhaps not by pure chance. As the boy gazed at the forest and ate his large piece of raw meat, memories of his encounter with White and her pups flooded his mind.
It hadn't been long since Spencer and Luffy parted ways, and the teenager was already lost. He didn't know where north was, so he didn't know any other direction either. He'd gotten distracted climbing through the trees. Well... he'd been chasing some monkeys, and they'd led him on a pointless quest... or a monkey quest. So pointless, in fact, that they finally slipped out of his sight and disappeared into the treetops, leaving him lost and alone.
"What nonsense! Now I don't know where I am!" the teenager in the straw hat shouted toward an empty forest, sighing. "Besides, I'm getting hungry." His stomach growled loudly. He was definitely going to need food.
'PROTECT'.
Luffy gasped, clutching his head in unexpected pain. That word. It wasn't even really a word, more like... an instinct... Yes. It sounded good to the boy.
The boy heard a faint growl in the distance and, without even thinking, ran towards it. It didn't take him long to reach the source of the noise. Upon observing the small clearing from which the sounds were coming, Luffy immediately noticed a large white wolf that appeared to be standing next to a litter of pups. It was baring its teeth at a grizzly bear, three times its size. The bear had several bite marks and bleeding scratches all over its body.
Luffy wasted no time. He sprinted toward the area as he saw the giant bear preparing to pounce on the wolf. Without time to react, he propelled himself with his right foot mid-run and leaped toward the gray beast. In what would seem like an instant to most, Luffy's now-enhanced knee slammed into the side of the monstrous bear's head. The impact snapped the animal's skull back, and a crack echoed across the clearing. The force of Luffy's propulsion drove his knee even deeper into the side of the bear's skull. Soon, the beast's head began to buckle, its skull crushed, as Luffy rode it to the ground.
The boy cautiously rose from his place atop the dead animal. "GREAT! DINNER!"
The bear was enormous and very hungry, even though night was falling. It was difficult to eat in the dark, and he couldn't find any firewood. He tried to chop down one of the trees with his Haki, but it bounced back! Why hadn't anyone told him he couldn't cut down trees?
Now that the wolf pack was safe, Luffy began to reflect. He had moved quickly. Very quickly. The boy smiled to himself. He had already grown stronger since leaving home. All that training with Zoro had helped... He was only doing it for fun. The teenager looked toward the source of the growl and noticed that the large white wolf, still watching over her pups, had several red spots on her snow-white fur. "Are you alright?" Luffy asked the wolf. He assumed she was a female. Who else could be the mother of the pups beneath her?
The she-wolf pointed her snout at the dead bear, and the teenager understood instantly. "Are you a ferocious she-wolf?" he asked, laughing. The she-wolf had obviously given him a good lick. She just gave him a blank stare, which made the boy laugh even harder. With the large animal looking directly at him, Luffy noticed that her eyes were completely black, just like her cubs'. He found it a little strange. Cool... but strange.
The she-wolf pointed at the bear again with her snout, and, much to the black-haired boy's dismay, he understood too. She wanted him to share. "Finnneee. I guess I'll share. I should share something before I become a pirate because after that, I won't be sharing with anyone!" Luffy said to the large white wolf in front of him.
The she-wolf began to approach him, her pups following closely behind. As she drew near, she brought her snout close to Luffy's face and gave him a lick. "Yeah, yeah, I guess we can be friends," he smiled, backing away from the large animal. "But if you're going to be my friend, you need a name." The boy looked at the white she-wolf and all her identical pups, and a simple name came to him: "You're White!"
The giant wolf practically knocked the young man to the ground and began licking his face once more, this time with much more aggression. His pups weren't far behind, starting to climb all over his prone body. "I get it! I get it! That tickles!" Luffy laughed, giving in to the attacks of his new friends.
Once the pack of wolves stopped their attack, they began to move toward the bear on the ground. It was feeding time.
"Hello, White?" asked the black-haired boy, getting up from the forest floor. The wolf turned and looked at Luffy expectantly. "Can I stay with you for a while? My friend..." the boy interrupted as the wolf approached and brought its face close to Luffy's, nuzzling him with its snout in confirmation. "Thank you, White!" he laughed and hugged her. Then, the two walked together toward their next meal as friends. Who knows, maybe she could even help him find the cave!
Luffy snapped out of his thoughts when his teeth met on a bone. He tossed his meat stick into the woods and stood up from his seat, leaning against one of the many large trees. "White! How much longer until we reach the cave?" the boy asked, looking at his companion.