In the vast, boundless desert, a bright moon hung high in the black sky, casting down a silvery glow.
The brown hawk spread its wings wide and tore through the night sky at incredible speed.
Reiner sat cross-legged atop the hawk, his blond hair blown into a wild mess while his blue shirt flapped loudly in the wind.
He was heading for Rainbase, the Dream City of Alabasta, the only city untouched by drought and war.
Crocodile's Rain Dinners casino was also one of the city's greatest attractions.
"Have we reached the Santo River already?" Reiner looked out over the river's endless surface.
Moonlight spilled across the water, making it glitter as the moon's reflection trembled faintly in the ripples.
The Santo River flowed into the sea, beginning west of the port city of Nanohana and stretching through half of Saintine Island.
It split the entire Kingdom of Alabasta in two. Many cities had been built along the Santo River, with canals dug to connect them to the river for water.
However, Crocodile had secretly sent Baroque Works agents to blow up all the major canals years ago.
Dream City Rainbase and the royal capital, Alabasta, faced each other across the river, but almost no one traveled between the two cities by crossing the upper reaches of the Santo River.
That was because the river reached a maximum width of fifty kilometers and was filled with all kinds of enormous vicious beasts. Reiner had been startled when Vivi told him about it.
It would take several islands the size of Little Garden lined up together just to barely fill this river.
Reiner gazed into the deep darkness ahead and directly guided the hawk straight across the river.
Not long after entering the airspace above the river, a dark shape gradually