City of Caverns

The Passage

His arms crossed over his chest, Luffy gazed out over the desert landscape, his form, and hat all bundled into long robes. The wind was blowing sand and dust about, whipping it into the rock formations surrounding the two figures.

In fact, the entire opening was nearly blocked completely by the sandstorm tossing outside, and his lower lip stuck up before he turned around.

"I don't know where we are."

Nami looked up from their packs, "Huh? Of course not. We can't see out there because of the sandstorm, Luffy."

"But I dunno where we are either!"

"Like you'd know even if you could see out there!" Sniffing, she turned back to the three rucksacks, and said, "In any case, come away from there, and help me."

"Ah? What're you doing, Nami?"

"I'm trying to find our dinner. Sanji-kun packed us all something to eat for the trip, but I can't find them."

Luffy smiled, "Oh, those were real good!"

"Well, if Sanji-kun cooked them, I'm not surprised," she said before she paused over the packs.

It was quiet for a long time as Nami had froze, and Luffy reached up to pick his nose, watching her still form before looking back out to the entrance of the tunnel in the rock. The sand was still blocking out the sight of the outside, and the wind was all he could hear.

"Luffy …"

"Nah?" He looked over at her, seeing that she had turned around and risen to her feet.

"So."

"So?"

"You had your meal already, huh?"

"Yeah." He pulled out a booger to squish and roll it between thumb and forefinger, "They were good."

Nami wilted suddenly, falling to her knees, and dropped her face into her palms, "He wants to starve me. My captain wants to see me suffer and wither away into nothing in this hole …"

He jerked at that, "Heh!? You're turning into nothing!?"

"Hey, guys? Are we … able to leave now?"

Luffy looked up to see the flicker of the torch at the other end of the tunnel held by Vivi, and he said, "Nah. It's still stormy."

"Oh …"

Glancing over, Nami frowned, "What's wrong, Vivi?"

"Well, I was thinking," she was walking quickly through the tunnel toward them, and Luffy blinked, tilting his head at her slightly nervous air, "we could probably, you know? Charge right on through the sandstorm!"

Nami said, "Vivi, you're the one that told us to find a place to hide. You said it could filet our skin right off."

Vivi flushed a bit, not looking at either of them directly, "Yes, well, I might have been a little hasty. After all, we need to get to Rain Dinners as soon as we can. We can't let a little sand get in the way."

Luffy smiled, thrusting his fist into the air, "Right!"

The tunnel trembled around them suddenly, and he blinked, looking up at the ceiling of the tunnel. Frowning, Nami slowly stood up, "Is it … caving in?"

Dropping the torch, Vivi grabbed the bags then, starting to push Nami toward the entrance where Luffy was standing, "C'mon!"

"Hey, what …!?" Nami stumbled in the sand, taking Vivi down with her.

The tunnel trembled, and then crumbled down on top of Luffy.

"Aaa-! Gh!"

Gasping, Vivi coughed, and covered her head, a heap of dust and sand spilling into the rest of the tunnel, swooping over Nami and her in a hot, musty gush. She quivered, feeling a few small rocks strike her from the tunnel ceiling before it seemed to go quiet and still.

The two slowly looked up when the sand outside grew louder, baring more of the outside sandstorm to them. Vivi jumped to her feet, digging through the rubble before them where Luffy had been, "Luffy!"

"Vivi! Calm down, it's Luffy. He's fine."

"He didn't sound fine when the mountain fell on top of him!"

Vivi twitched when the tunnel shifted slightly again.

Narrowing her eyes, Nami looked from her to the tunnel to the rubble before she whispered softly, "Well, he … doesn't seem to be moving."

The princess began digging into the pile of rock on again. Nami grabbed their bags, and put one on before she helped Vivi with the excavation. She lifted one stone when a huge gust of breath and dust hit her face, "Paah! Vivi? Nami?"

Nami twitched before she punched him.

"Nami-san!?" Vivi gaped at her, looking between Nami and the visible mouth of Luffy in the rubble.

"His breath smells so good … Sanji-kun really did make a wonderful meal …!"

"Geugh!" Luffy sat up, scattering rocks everywhere as he did, and he shook his head hard before patting his head. Upon finding it bare, he reached into the rocks before popping his hat onto his head again, "Shishi! Thanks, guys!"

"Ah … Luffy-san, Nami-san, we can't stay here long."

"You're telling me," Nami said with a sigh before she stood up. "Let's get out of this tunnel before it collapses again." She frowned at Vivi, "And not out into the sandstorm which would rip us to shreds."

Vivi's lips bunched up slightly before taking her bag up and rising to her feet, "All right, but just out of this passage. We don't need to go any deeper than the second hallway."

Luffy perked, "It goes deeper?"

"Hallway?"

With a beaming grin, Luffy ran between them to the end of the long tunnel, "Sounds fun!"

Cringing, Vivi picked up his bag as Nami started to go after him, "Luffy, hush! The tunnel could collapse!"

"You're being louder'n me!"

"You're much louder than me, Luffy!"

Vivi sweated slightly as she followed them, "You're both too loud …"

She paused long enough to pick up the torch she had dropped, glad that it was still lit even after all that dust.

Nami stopped at the end to look back at her, "Vivi? Hurry up." Swallowing nothing, she tried to walk faster. "Luffy! Slow down! You can't see what's in front of you without any light, idiot!"

"Luffy-san, please, stay with us!" Vivi sped up, jogging a bit to them. A few steps out of the passageway, it groaned and shuddered, and she gasped, looking back at it as their entire way out began to close in completely, "Oh! No! No, no, no! Don't do that, please!"

"Vivi!" She jerked slightly when a rubbery arm wrapped around her, whisking her through the hall and into Luffy's chest.

Blinking, disoriented, she stared at where she had been standing as the tunnel closed over it before settling.

Nami frowned down at her, "What do you think you were doing?"

"It closed up!"

"It could have closed up on you, Vivi!"

Vivi broke away from Luffy, staggering slightly toward where the tunnel had caved in, "But that's the only way out!"

Gaping, Nami grabbed her shoulder, "What do you mean 'the only way out'!? You said this was a hallway! That means there should be tons of ways out of here. This wasn't even really a door anyway, Vivi."

She turned to her, frowning, "It's the only way out because I'm not going any deeper. The only other entrance is down south, and that'll just make our journey that much longer!"

"You're lying."

Eyes widening, Vivi stared at Luffy as his lips turned up in the middle with his deep frown, "I …"

"You just don't wanna have an adventure!"

"Luffy! That's not it! She needs to go save her kingdom, idiot!"

Vivi slowly relaxed biting her lip, "Ah, yes …"

"Okay, so there's no way we can go out that way. It's too unstable and it could crush us," said Nami, pouting at the rubble.

"Ah? It won't crush me!"

"That's because you're not normal!" Nami faced Vivi then, "We'd be pulverized! We need to find something like … a crack somewhere along the walls. Luffy can break us out quick as he can, right?"

"Right!" Luffy pumped his fist into the air.

"But we'll have to wait for the sandstorm to stop."

Vivi chewed on her lip nervously, and cocked her head slightly, "It's still blowing out there … I can hear the whole mountain groaning …"

Grinning, Luffy said, "Shishishi! It sounds like a big snoring giant!"

Nami frowned, "Groaning? Vivi, maybe there are more openings. We wouldn't hear sounds like that otherwise."

She shivered, and said, "Ah, well … maybe … But I – I know there's no other way in here! We can't go south!"

"We can't stay here though. This place could collapse too …" Nami's eyes focused on Vivi before she slowly said, "Are you going to tell us what's wrong now?"

Vivi twitched back a bit, and stared at Nami before she gradually bent her head forward, "Well … There really is only one exit I know of, but … but the others are all hidden in mazes and traps! It could take hours or even days to get through them all! We don't have that kind of time! And even worse … I don't know when this storm will stop. Sandstorms can last a long time. Even if we find a way out of here, we'd have to wait for it to stop."

Luffy grinned, "We'll just find a way out of here."

"But that's not why you wanted to leave so soon!" Nami stepped up before her, "You really are hiding something."

"It's called the City of Caverns." Vivi raised her torch to the wall, illuminating the inscriptions there, "One of my great-great- … great-great grandmothers ruled here. When she died, she left orders to her people to abandon the city so she could rest her body in her palace, and make it her tomb."

"What?" Nami frowned, "That's ridiculous! Why did they listen to her?"

"They didn't! They tried to just build her a temple to house her body, but the … the stories say she grew angry and cursed the city! She came back, causing droughts and starving hundreds of thousands before they gave in! The moment they moved her body, and started burying her, it finally rained, so they swore to board up the palace and city … She really did make the entire city her tomb, and so the people buried it all …"

"Vivi … you don't believe that hokey, do you?"

She jerked up straight, "I just don't want to curse my people any more than what's been done!"

"If they buried the whole place, then why's there a hallway here then?" Nami said, grinning.

Vivi blinked, and looked around, "Well … it says here that this is her city, and the stories say it was buried."

"So stop worrying. A story's a story."

She frowned a bit before slowly smiling, "Heh, I guess you're right …"

"We're not getting anywhere standing here any …" Eyes narrowing, Nami looked down the hall, "Where'd Luffy go?"

!#$%^&*()_+

OKAY. This time I feel more like writing this. So just review or whatnot.

Early Happy Halloween.