Here's another chapter. Very dialouge heavy, but I needed this to move the story forward. Anyways, I hope you enjoy it :)

~Daybreak~

Brook hummed quietly to himself as he walked through the jungle. He knew what to look for but not where to look for it, and as the newest crew mate Brook felt obligated to prove himself. Of course failure was not an option, but he wanted to get this out of the way without any incidents. He had already had to be saved by Zoro back on Thriller Bark when he could not take back his shadow by himself. It was time for Brook to do something for the crew he had sworn his second life to.

Brook was the person responsible for finding the snake which had bitten Luffy to begin with. Being only a skeleton, Brook couldn't get infected with its venom, so he had been the obvious person for the job. Brook wandered aimlessly around the jungle, and for hours nothing happened. Brook was mildly aware of the fact that he didn't actually know where he was, but it shouldn't be too hard to find his way back, so that complication could wait for later.

About an hour before dawn Brook's attention was caught by a person screaming, and as he didn't recognise the voice his first instinct was to just drop and play dead. Not long after he regretted this decision as he was extremely uncomfortable, but the people were now so close that should he move he would be found out, and a conflict was the last thing he wanted.

"What the hell is this thing?!" Someone yelled, "Get it off of me!"

"Navigator-san, if you'd stop moving it'd be easier for us to help you," a woman said sounding slightly annoyed, but overall just like she was done with absolutely everything.

"Fine, fine!"

"There. No harm done."

"No harm done? I was bitten by a snake? It could be poisonous!"

"If it's poisonous then you should have nothing to worry about," the woman said sarcastically.

"You know what I mean!"

"Look, it was hardly the length of your arm. Even if it was venomous there is no way it'd affect you. Now let's get going. I'd prefer to be back at base before the sun sets."

"Don't order me around, girl! Need I remind you that I have a higher rank than you?" The people were now extremely close, and it was only a matter of time before they found Brook. Of course to them he'd just be a random dead person.

"Higher rank? As a navigator you might be useful at sea, but as long as we're here, you are beneath me. You can't fight! You know shit about this forest! What can you even do on land? Look," the girl who was now close enough for Brook to see her pointed at the skeleton, "Without me you'd end up like that. Nothing but bones!"

There were a few screams when the people noticed Brook, but the girl just shrugged it off. She was the smallest of the bunch, but she wore a black tank top that stopped just before her pierced bellybutton, and it perfectly showed her muscularly figure. Her brown hair was tied in a loose bun, and showcased the small tattoo of a jolly roger on the side of her neck. She wore white and tight trousers, as well as black boots and by her right hip she had a long slender sword.

"You!" The woman suddenly said and pointed at a guy, "Why are you still holding the damn thing? Just let it go!"

"Yes! Of course!" And then Brook saw it. In the guy's hand was a snake. A small yellow snake that glistened in the sun. There was no doubt, this was the snake which had bitten Luffy and Brook had to bring back.

Now to make a choice. Did he want to move and reveal himself or wait until they had left. If he moved he might get to the snake, but there was also a chance that a fight would break out before he got the chance to act. It wasn't just anyone who'd take it lightly when they saw a walking and talking skeleton. On the other hand, if he waited too long the snake might get too far away from him. As luck had it, the snake, when released, slithered towards Brook, and as no one was really paying attention to him, he only had to grab it.

Then someone screamed, and Brook moved his hand holding the snake into the hidden safety of some bushes.

"What now?" The woman was really reaching her breaking point here.

"The- The skeleton moved!"

"Are you an idiot?" The woman exasperated. She then took him by the neck and moved closer to Brook. They were now both extremely close to his face. "Do you see that? That's a skeleton. You know how skeletons appear? They appear when people die. Do dead people move?"

"No..." The guy whispered, trying to avoid looking at both her and Brook.

"That's right, they don't. Now let's get going, the sun is about to set."

Brook waited until he could no longer hear them before he moved. He then looked at the snake in his hand, and made sure that he had the right one, before carefully placing it in a jar. Now to find his way back.

He still had no idea where he was, but the safest option would be to not go the same way as the people from before. Therefore Brook ventured in the opposite direction, and hoped that he could find his way back before long.

As he walked, he watched as the sky above him slowly turned from blue to orange. As the sun was shining it's last rays upon the small island, he came to a small clearing. It was smaller than the one with the pond, where they had all relaxed on their first day, but it was a clearing nonetheless. Sat by a tree was a boy no older than fifteen. Judging from the way he rubbed his hand on his arm, Brook would say that he was wounded. Whether it was from fighting or something else, he couldn't tell, but the boy seemed to hold no other injuries. The weird thing about this place wasn't the injured boy though, it was the grass. It was both burned and wet. The area itself looked like it had experienced heavy rain, although everywhere around it was relatively dry, and there were spots where the grass had turned completely black. The boy seemed to not have noticed Brook, and he would have walked away quietly had it not been for the sound.

Something that reminded Brook an awful lot of wood chopping followed by a loud bang told Brook that something was going on. The scream that followed made him move as fast as he could. As he arrived at the scene he knew that if he had been just a little slower it would have been too late. Some guy was hovering over Nami with a dagger aimed straight at her heart. Brook acted quickly, drew his sword, and sliced right through the man's shoulder making him drop the knife. Noting the big guy who had been an observer until now, Brook picked up a discarded Clima Tact, now knowing why the grass had looked the way it did, and gave it to Nami.

"The fight isn't over yet, Nami-san. We still need to take down that guy." They prepared for battle.

The guy was strong, and had an endurance like Brook had never seen before. The two strawhats had both speed and wit on their side, but they would soon grow tired of jumping and running around, and neither of them seemed to have the physical strength needed to take the guy down.

In the end they were saved by a wolf who mercilessly jumped at the guy. This gave Brook the opportunity to take the injured Nami on his back, and run as fast as he could. Nami of course knew the way to the Sunny and guided Brook in the right direction, but they soon noticed that something was following them.

Brook sped up when they saw the first wolf, but they would quickly come to find out that these wolves were quicker than they were.

"Brook! Can't you sing to them?" Nami asked horrified at their situation, and Brook was glad that he always brought his violin with him.

"Nami-san, hold on tight!" He felt her grip around him fasten and he let go of her to start playing. At first it seemed to work, and the wolves slowed down before coming to a halt. Brook continued to play, and when the song was finished, he and Nami took off again. Not even five minutes later the wolves were at their heels.

"Isn't it supposed to last longer?" Nami cried and clung onto Brook.

"It is!" Brook answered, "Maybe they are immune, yohoho~"

"Not funny!" Nami smacked him lightly on the head, "Look, even if you run all the way to the Sunny, it'll still take us almost two hours to get there. We need a plan to get these wolves off of our trail."

"Why don't you try attacking?" Brook suggested.

"What? All of them? I can't do that!" Nami protested.

"Well, wolves normally form packs, right?"

"Obviously," Nami gestured behind her at the wolves still running after them.

"Then there should be a leader. Just attack that one."

"Oh, I see!" Nami said calmly, before... "Wait, wouldn't that just make them angrier?!"

"Let's just try it, Nami-san. We have nothing to lose."

"Fine," she said and not long after a familiar sound of thunder striking was heard.

"Did they stop?" Brook asked, afraid to stop running.

"They did... for now. Let's just keep going!"

Brook ran for a long time, taking very few breaks and every time the wolves caught up Nami would strike the one in the lead. Then they reached the pond and the wolves caught up to them again.

"Why are they so persistent!" Nami cried and let out a very high pitched scream when a wolf suddenly appeared in front of them. Brook was quick to act, and cut the wolf down where it stood and made a last sprint towards the Sunny. However the wolves were closing in on them with rapid speed, and Brook feared that they would have to stop and fight. But they were saved. Running towards them was Sanji, and as soon as he noticed the wolves, he kicked the ones nearest them away. With Sanji protecting them, they safely made it to the ship. Or so they thought.

It turned out that these wolves weren't afraid of the low waters, and they were forced to sail further away from shore. Thankfully once a safe distance was made the wolves gave up and ventured back into the jungle.

Brook was completely exhausted, but directed Chopper to go help Nami who was actually injured. He could always sleep his discomfort away. The four of them gathered in the kitchen where both he and Nami gave Chopper the ingredients that they had gathered. Brook then excused himself and went to bed. Sleep came quickly.

҉

When Brook woke up he was alone in the Men's Quarters and he decided to go to the kitchen where he knew he'd find Sanji. Whether it was good timing or Sanji's super senses Brook didn't know, but when he entered Sanji had a cup of freshly brewed tea waiting for him.

"Did you sleep well?" Sanji asked when Brook had taken a seat by the counter.

"Yes, I slept quite well, and you?" He took a sip of the tea. How he loved Sanji's tea.

Sanji didn't answer for awhile, but then he just said: "Watch duty," which Brook found strange.

"What about Zoro-san?" Brook remembered how Zoro hadn't made an appearance last night either, and he was supposed to be their so-called body guard.

Sanji turned to him, bit his lip and then gestured to the Sick Bay. "Enemies," he mumbled and went back to making breakfast.

"I suppose he hasn't healed yet?" Brook wondered out loud, remembering Zoro's sacrifice on Thriller Bark. It was a miracle that Zoro had even survived the ordeal, and Brook had hardly believed his eyes when Zoro woke up after only three days. Not that Brook actually had eyes.

"But that also means that we are now potentially dealing with three enemies," Nami's voice came from the door, and both men turned to her. She then came to sit beside Brook and Sanji gave her a cup of tea too. "We need to figure out if we're dealing with one pirate crew or multiple. If Luffy and Zoro can't fight, and we want to avoid Chopper fighting all together, then their lives depend on how well the three of us can protect them."

"Only the three of us?" Brook asked, "What about the others?"

"Robin won't be back before tomorrow. There is a chance that if Franky has sensed the danger, he would help her out, since he'd have to go past her location anyway. We don't know about Usopp, but if what Chopper tells me is true, then he set out late yesterday, and he still has two ingredients to gather. We don't know when he'll be back. We'll have to assume that there is only the three of us here if we should get attacked again."

"But how do we figure out how many enemies we're dealing with?" Sanji asked, "We don't know where they are, and even if we did, we can't just stroll up to them and ask. Besides, the guys who attacked us yesterday should be sailing away from us at the moment."

"There is no guarantee that you got all of them yesterday. We have to keep every options open, and that includes the return of the guys you took out earlier." Brook was trying his best to piece everything together, since it was clear that Nami and Sanji had talked after he had gone to bed.

"Why don't we start by trying to describe them?" Brook said, "One of the pirates I met had a tattoo of a jolly roger on her neck. Skull and crossbones, and eyes shaped as tear drops."

"That eliminates the possibility of three pirate crews," Sanji said, "The ones we fought used the same symbol."

"I don't think the ones I met had any trade marks," Nami sighed, "The only thing I could gather was that they were new recruits, but that probably means that their crew is pretty powerful."

"Why would you assume that?"

"The ones Brook and I fought were extremely strong, yet they were sent out to gather food. There is no way they would take on such a trivial task if there wasn't someone stronger giving them orders."

"That's not comforting," Brook said, almost too himself.

"Why?" Sanji asked and looked at him, "Were they really that strong?"

"Well, I didn't really fight two of them, but the one I did fight had an endurance like nothing I've ever seen before, and I've lived for quite a long time. If he is not one of their top fighters, then I just hope that we don't meet them again."

"Let's talk about the people who we think posses the biggest threat," Nami suggested and they began exchanging information. Sanji told them about a guy who had been defeated by Zoro, but had a Tiger Devil Fruit. Although they all doubted that he would return after taking a powerful attack from Zoro head on, Nami kept reminding them to not rule anything out.

Nami told them about the three guys she had fought. The weak boy with a Porcelain Devil Fruit, who Brook assumed was the boy he'd passed by just before reaching Nami. She told them of the guy who was probably a sharpshooter, but had still shown a considerable amount of strength when Nami had taken away his weapons. And she spoke about the mountain of an enemy who had been taken out by the wolf.

Brook then told them about his encounter with the girl and the navigator, and told them that they should probably watch out for the girl with the tattoo.

"Hold on," Nami interrupted suddenly and they both looked at her, "You said that he was bitten by a snake, right?"

"Yes," Brook confirmed.

"The same snake which bit Luffy and made him ill."

"Yes," Brook said once again and reached the same conclusion as her.

"That means that their navigator is currently suffering from the same thing Luffy is whether he has realized it or not."

"Well, that's one enemy less to think about," Sanji said nonchalantly.

"No," Nami said gravely, "This is bad."

They both looked intensely at her.

"No matter what kind of pirates these are, we are on the Grand Line and people don't last long here without a navigator. They'll definitely come for the antidote, and judging by the way they talked about this place, they must know it better than us. Which means..."

"Which means...?" Sanji and Brook said together.

"They'll definitely come for the flower, and, as far as we know, there is only one of them on this island."

"But..." Sanji wondered, "If we assume that both Robin-chan and Franky are by the flower, then they should be able to handle it right? They are both strong, and our enemies don't know that we are after the flower."

"I don't know about that," Nami said, and Brook was starting to get surprised by how many bad news Nami could give, "Let's assume that our enemy is smart," she began, "If the guys I met were indeed members of the same crew that you two encountered, then they can figure out that we are collecting ingredients for the antidote. The porcelain boy saw me take the fruit, and I doubt that people would just eat something that weird looking."

"Furthermore," There's more? Brook thought gravely, "We still haven't met the captain, which means that there is still someone stronger than the guys we have met."

"How can you know that we haven't encountered the captain yet? He could have been the tiger dude Zoro took out," Sanji argued.

"No. I know for certain that he haven't met them, because their captain is a woman. And since the girl Brook met was supposedly of lower rank than the Navigator, it's not her. That's where our next problem occurs."

"There are more problems with this?" Brook exclaimed. Their situation was beginning to look quite bleak.

"Yes. If both Luffy and Zoro are down, then our strongest fighter is Sanji, who has the stupid weakness of not being able to fight women." Nami glared at Sanji who for the first time looked like he regretted that chivalrous side of his. Brook had yet to find out why Sanji was the way he was around women. He could understand loving them and worshipping them, Brook was the same way, but something about Sanji's attitude was off. As much as Brook adored women, he would not hesitate to fight them if need be, but from the stories he had heard, Sanji would rather die than fight a woman. Brook silently wondered if there was something more to it than met the eye.

None of them got to speak again as a loud crash was heard from the deck and their conversation was put on hold. They all stared wide eyed at each other for a moment before they hurriedly left the kitchen. Could they already be under attack? When they arrived at deck there was no one to be found, but in the middle of the grassy area there was something that resembled leaves.

"What...?" Brook heard Nami say as they got closer to examine what had landed on their ship.

Upon taking a closer look at the thing before them, they found that something that looked like a big coconut shell had presumably been wrapped in huge leaves, then tied together with some vines and lastly shot towards them. Sanji was the one to figure out what it actually was, and found that on one of the leaves, there was some sort of message. They all huddled close to read it, but apparently it was all in code.

W: Ship, N: Base, F: R & F, N: X, D: O

"What does it mean?" Brook wondered out loud.

"Hmm, they probably didn't have more space, and were making sure that enemies wouldn't understand it."

"They?" Sanji asked, and Nami clarified.

"R & F. It has to be Robin and Franky, which means that they are together, safe and probably on the volcano."

"Okay, but what about the rest?"

"I think the two first are locations," Nami said, "On the West coast there is a ship and in the North there is a base."

"The F before Franky and Robin must be for the flower, right?" Sanji said, and Nami nodded. They all turned their attention back to the messages trying to figure the two last codes out. But in the end none of them could come up with a good answer.

"What are you guys doing," They suddenly heard Chopper's voice say and they all turned to the little reindeer who was standing by the kitchen door. He looked very sleepy, like he had just woken up, probably because of the crash.

"We got a message from Robin-san and Franky-san," Brook answered and Chopper looked at them, and then behind them for some reason.

"How did you get the message?" Chopper asked slowly.

"They must have shot it towards us using this," Sanji said and pointed to the mess of vines and leaves at his feet.

"Then," Chopper said and again stared at something behind them, "What's up with that deer?"

"What deeeee~r!" Brook exclaimed as he turned around and found himself face to face with a deer. Apparently Nami had had the same reaction and had fallen back in shock.

The deer was big. It stood as tall as Brook, even taller with its antlers, though it seemed that it had been injured not too long ago. Pieces of its antlers were missing, it had a scar that was probably closer to being a wound on its side, and when it moved a little closer to Brook its walk made it apparent that it had an injured leg. But aside from the strangeness that was the massive deer that had somehow made it to deck without any of them realizing, there was something far more grave about this situation. In its mouth the deer was holding two things. A bag and and some goggles that had a striking resemblance to the ones Usopp always wore.

What has happened to our favorite sniper? How will the strawhats get out of this situation? All to be revealed at some point ;)

As always, fave if you enjoyed reading, follow for more and leave a review with your thoughts.