As Aokiji called out, a short figure emerged from the yurt.
He had an old face and a thick white beard growing from his chin. Looking up at Aokiji, he asked, "Um... it's all right now, isn't it... Navy boy?"
"Huh? This old grandpa..."
Luffy looked at the figure who had come out, then at Aokiji. Scratching his head, he asked in confusion, "Why aren't you as tall as him?"
Aokiji: "..."
"That Navy guy is just naturally tall!" Usopp shouted irritably.
As they watched the short old man haul one thing after another out of the yurt, Aokiji chatted with them without the slightest reservation.
It turned out that after arriving on the island, he'd found the old man, who was afraid of heights and had been stuck on stilts for ten years without climbing down. He'd gone ahead and rescued him.
Long Ring Long Land was made up of ten small islands. Because of the geography, the residents there had a custom of migrating, moving to the next island every so often.
Everyone else had left, leaving the old man on stilts alone on this island for ten years. The only one waiting for him there was his beloved horse, Shirley, whose neck was as long as a giraffe's...
Before long, the old man had moved all his belongings out of the yurt. Finally, he packed up the yurt itself and piled everything onto a crude cart made of wooden logs, then harnessed his white horse, Shirley, to it.
"Um... Navy boy, I've gotten everything ready like you said, but..."
The old man on stilts looked up at Aokiji, his wrinkled lips parting as he asked, "How are you going to take me there? You only seem to have that..."
The old man on stilts raised his short