Ok... seriously now... I have like no writing aura around me anymore. It's all been poisoned by the chlorine! Be happy.
Chapter One
"You mean we have to sail through the island to get to the other village?" Nami asked the man at the docks at the town of Ala Bairt.
"Yes. The village is Ala Cree. You should be able to pick up all your things there and be on your way with fresh supplies. It takes about three to four days to sail through the island."
"Thank you," Nami said and looked down at her map of the island of Ala they were on.
"You're welcome, miss!" he said and started walking away when Nami called out, "Wait!"
"Yes?"
"There's nothing in the middle of this map... just the river?" she asked, pointing to the middle of the map where nothing was drawn but the river. Just the parchment was there.
"Oh... well... the cartographers that went into the middle to map it out... never came back," he said darkly. "Have a nice trip!" he added with a big grin and left with a jolly wave.
As soon as he was among the crowd, "That was weird." Sanji said, taking out a new cigarette and lighting it.
"We'll be fine!" Luffy said with his signature grin on his face. His hand protecting his hand from the wind.
"You've got a lot of confidence on a blank map." Zoro said as he sat on the railing up on the ship, his right leg swinging as it dangled in the air.
"What could possibly be in there that we can't handle?" Luffy said, looking up at Zoro with a smile.
The rest grinned.
"I guess he's right! Let's get the ship ready!" Nami called out.
L-E-A-V-I-N-G-P-O-R-T
The forest that was around the river was spooky, in Usopp's words.
"This place gives me the creeps." he said aloud as he sat on the main deck with Chopper playing checkers.
"It's been an hour." Nami said, looking up from her paper as she sat on the upper deck in a stretched out lawn chair.
A day passed...
"IT'S BEEN A DAY, NAMI!" Usopp cried as he gazed out into the forest still passing.
"Would you shut up? I'm trying to navigate with a blank map!"
"IF ANYONE CAN DO IT YOU CAN!" Sanji cooed loudly, heart in his eye.
"Hey! Look! A lake!" Chopper, who was up in the Crow's Nest, called out.
Nami and Sanji got up and went to the bow for a better look.
"Interesting... this lake isn't on the map? I better draw it in." Nami said, turning back to the table she was sitting at down on the lower deck.
"What do you think of it, Captain?" Sanji asked Luffy, who was sitting in his seat, again. Of course.
"I'm hungry. Saaaaaaaaanji! Can I have some meat?"
"NO! YOU JUST HAD LUNCH!"
"I could go for a snack, Sanji, if you don't mind?" Nami asked, not looking up from her map.
"RIGHT AWAY, NAMI-SAN!" he cried joyfully, speeding into the kitchen blocking the door so Luffy couldn't get in as he yelled, "HEY! THAT'S NOT FAIR! WHY YOU GIVE NAMI FOOD BUT NOT ME!?"
"Idiots." Zoro muttered as the ship suddenly stopped dead in its tracks, causing it to rise slightly in the stern and fall back suddenly.
"What the hell just happened?" Nami cried as she steadied herself on the railing.
"Usopp! Check for damage below deck!" Zoro yelled, pulling himself out of the pile of barrels that fell onto him when the ship stopped.
"Oh. That was weird." Luffy said, standing up from where he landed on the mast.
A terrible scream was emitting from the kitchen as Sanji ran out screaming, holding his left wrist.
"I BURNT MY HAND!" he cried.
"OH NO! WE NEED A DOCTOR!" Chopper cried, hopping down from the Crow's nest and waving his arms about.
"You're the doctor, Chopper." Nami reminded.
"Oh, yeah."
"What happened?" Zoro asked, looking over the railing with Nami, seeing only their reflections in the dark blue water.
"I don't know? Usopp? How's the damage?" Nami asked as Usopp came out from below deck.
"There is none!"
Zoro and Nami exchanged glances.
"None?" the asked together.
L-O-S-T
Luffy, Usopp, Nami, and Zoro went ashore leaving Sanji and Chopper behind so Chopper could treat Sanji's hand.
"Do you even know where we're going?" Zoro called to Luffy, who was leading the pack.
"Nope! There's got to be people around here somewhere?" he said back.
"But there's nothing on the map!" Usopp shouted.
"The man said that the cartofers are out here!" Luffy said happily.
"Cartographers, Luffy," Nami corrected, "And who said they're alive?"
"Someone's out here! I'm sure of it!" Luffy said, turning back to grin at Nami and tripping over a root in the path.
They continued down the beaten path for another hour at the least. Till they reached the fork in the road.
"Which way should we go?" Usopp asked, switching his head back and forth.
"Let's split up! Zoro, you're with me! Usopp, you go with Nami!" Luffy said and he and Zoro automatically went to the left without another look, or to listen to Nami's yells about how they should stick together.
"OK! IF YOU TWO GET LOST IN THERE WE'RE NOT COMING TO FIND YOU!" Nami screamed and took Usopp's wrist in a vice grip and dragged him down the right path, which lead down a slope while the left path went up one.
S-E-P-A-R-A-T-E-W-A-Y-S
Back at the ship...
"OW!" Sanji yelled.
"Lay still! Stop moving your hand!" Chopper shouted back as he wrapped up Sanji's hand in bandages.
"Why does it hurt so much still?" Sanji shouted, holding his newly bandaged hand close to himself.
"It did look puffy and maybe a little green." Chopper mused as he examined the bandaged hand.
"GREEN!?" Sanji screamed, toppling the little reindeer over.
B-O-R-N-T-O-H-A-N-D-J-I-V-E
Luffy and Zoro trudged up the hill.
"I'm hungry!" Luffy whined loudly.
"I am too! Stop complaining!" Zoro said and looked up, "Oh, there's the top of the hill. Maybe we'll be able to see something up there." he said as they reached the summit.
"I don't see anything." Luffy said, sitting down on a rock and placing his chin in his hands.
Zoro was scanning the vast area only seeing the tops of trees, hills, the ship off in the far distance and smoke coming from a small black clearing.
"You were right, Luffy. There are people here." Zoro said and turned around to see Luffy stretching his arms like a sling shot.
"What are you DOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!" Zoro shouted as Luffy propelled himself, and Zoro, into the air off the steep hill and towards the smoke rising in the air.
I-F-I-F-A-L-L-Y-O-U-R-E-G-O-I-N-G-D-O-W-N-W-I-T-H-M-E
Nami and Usopp were at the valley between two big, steep hills. They were standing at a small rushing creek in the dense shade.
"Boy is it humid here." she said, fanning herself with her hand.
Usopp was looking at the blank map.
Suddenly they heard Zoro's screams from high above.
In the opening between some trees they saw Luffy and Zoro soaring through the air and slowly starting to curve into a decent.
"Oh crap!" Nami shouted and she and Usopp took off running towards the spot Nami thought they were going to land.
"What were they thinking?" she yelled as she and Usopp ducked about trees and over rocks and puddles.
"Probably... Luffy's... idea!" Usopp panted as they kept running.
"Idiots!" Nami shouted.
They ran on, slowly starting to go up a small hill where Nami was sure Luffy and Zoro landed, since they landed a few minutes back.
Nami and Usopp ran but stopped when they saw all the angry men with weapons standing at the edge of what looked like a village.
"Looks like the people are unfriendly." Usopp said as Nami peered over their angry heads and into the brightly lit village to see a crowd of women and children around something in, what looked to be, the middle of the village.
"Found Luffy and Zoro." Nami said.
F-A-L-L-R-I-G-H-T-I-N-T-O-P-L-A-C-E
"THAT WAS FUN!" Luffy shouted, bounding up after being out for about three minutes. Scaring all the women and children around him and Zoro.
"Ow... DON'T DO THAT TO ME AGAIN!" he screamed at Luffy, who just laughed, throwing his head back slightly as he did. Automatically he felt his head.
"WHERE'S HAT!?" he screamed suddenly, scaring all the people again.
"Is this it?" a little boy with orange hair asked, bringing up the straw hat.
"AHH! THANK YOU!" Luffy shouted happily, putting the hat on his head, and spun the boy around in his arms.
"PUT MY SON DOWN!" a woman with just as orange hair as the little boy yelled, stepping out of the circle towards Luffy.
Luffy and Zoro looked at her and her face flickered from power to fear but didn't move. She stood her ground.
Luffy obeyed, putting the little boy back on the ground, where he was giggling.
"Mommy! That was fun! Can I do it again?" he asked, running up to his mother and pulling on her long skirt.
"No!" she said loudly and pulled him back into the crowd, who were all staring at Luffy and Zoro. Luffy was standing, still, and Zoro was sitting up against a stone pillar that was in the town square.
"What'd we do?" Zoro asked.
"YOU FELL INTO OUR VILLAGE!"
"So?"
The women glared now.
"What's going on? Are you women alright?" the men started asking, running into the village, Nami and Usopp with them.
As the women replied, Nami ran up to Luffy and Zoro and bashed them both on the heads.
"HOW COULD YOU TWO BE SO STUPID?"
"Ow! Nami!" Luffy whined.
"What's going on here?" a diplomatic booming voice sounded, quieting everybody.
A muscular, tall man walked into the circle. He had black hair and was wearing long black robes fastened around his waist, but they could see the tee-shirt and jeans on underneath.
"The Straw Hat and the Swordsman fell into the square and the others ran up to the village edge. They claimed they knew the two that fell into the square."
"Why do you men have your weapons?" the tall man asked.
"We were practicing drills when they ran up." another man said.
"Alright, then. Why are you in our village?" the tall man asked the four standing and or sitting next to the pillar.
"Our ship got stuck out in the lake out there and we needed help getting it out. We figured there were people out here because someone told us that all the cartographers who went out here never came back." Nami explained sweetly as Luffy stood up from where he had been lying, spread eagle, on the ground because Nami hit him.
"Oh, is that all? That always get's people stuck!" the tall man said, laughing, "We have someone who can help! Could someone go find Mer?"
A loud murmur rang through the crowd of people as they all asked each other where this Mer was.
"What's a Mer?" Zoro asked, grouchy.
"Not what, who," the man corrected, "Mer is... Here!" he said, looking up to see the crowd parting so that a girl with long wavy black hair that was pulled back in a high ponytail could be seen.
"S'up?"
Ahh! My new story for the new year! Please enjoy or I'll kill you all. I mean... Be very annoyed. At you all.
Songtime...
Leaving Port- from Titanic
Lost- Coldplay
Separate Ways (Worlds Apart)- Journey
Born To Hand Jive- from Grease
If I Fall You're Going Down With Me- Dixie Chicks
Fall Right Into Place- ???