Disclaimer: don't own one piece, all right?

Chapter 12: Let is snow, let it snow as we run!

I slept for five hours before waking up, the room was pretty cooler than last night. Loki, who was asleep, along with Zolo, Luffy, Chopper, and Usopp, moved his large wing away from me, I got up. Sanji was sitting against Loki's other side, his wing covered him. I looked out a broken window and saw, to my surprise, that it was snowing.

"You've got to be kidding me," I gasped as I went closer to look. There was snow everywhere, the garden, stables, and the lake was frozen. A sudden flash of red flew past the window, the nine tailed fox saw me and fired a blue fire ball at me. I jumped out of the way as the ball of fire blew up the window.

"Everyone, get up!" I screamed, no answer, I rushed over to Sanji and whispered,"Nami and Vivi were kidnapped by Zolo."

Sanji woke up and looked around the room franticly, he said,"Tell me where he is!"

I ignored him and rushed over to Zolo, I said,"Sanji stole you're swords." Zolo got up and rushed over to Sanji, they got in a fight, I went to Usopp and Chopper and screamed,"The nine tailed fox is here!" They both screamed in fright and ran around the room while I said to Luffy,"Sanji has meat, he cooked some for you."

"MEAT!" Luffy yelled as he got up and rushed over to Sanji and Zolo, whom were both fighting. He broke up the fight and said,"Sanji, where's the meat?!"

"I don't have anything for you, Luffy!" Sanji said, Loki suddenly woke up, he asked,"What's with the yelling and where's the meat?"

"SHUT UP, all of you!" I yelled, everyone stopped. "Listen, it's snowing outside-"

"That's what you woke us up for?!" Zolo bellowed at me.

"In case you ever noticed, this house is filled with nine tailed foxes that wish to kill us. If we don't get out soon, we're either going to starve to death, freeze to death, or get eaten...this sounds familiar."

"Yeah, yeah, you said that a week ago in someone's mouth," Zolo mocked, I glared at him.

"Hey, she's right," Usopp said, he poked his head out the window, but another blast of fire came hurtling towards him, Loki got up and rushed over to him. His beak got a grip on Usopp's leg and pulled him away from the window. An explosion happened outside as Usopp hugged Loki's neck and thanked him. "The f-fox is out t-there!"

"That's why I woke all of you up," I said, I looked at the two doors that led out of the dinning hall. "Okay, door number one has the kitchen with a fox. Door number two has the exit, but the fox is out there. Which to pick?"

"I don't know," Luffy said, he opened the door that led to the entrance hall while I flipped out. I ran over to him and pulled him back in before he could leave, I caught a glimpse of the nine tailed fox sleeping on top of the stairs.

"I'd go for door number two," Chopper whispered as we watched the fox sleep. We carefully tip toed to the front door quietly. The fox grunted and Usopp jumped, I looked at the door and turned the knob, then tried to push it open, it was stuck. "What, you mean we're gonnna be trapped in here?!"

"Be quiet, Chopper!" Zolo hissed as he placed his hand on one of his swords, as though the fox would jump at them. I pushed against the door, nothing. "Can you hurry up?!"

"It's frozen!" I said, Sanji and I pushed against it, it moved a bit. "Aw, come-on! This is just stupid, it won't budge!"

"C'mon, Luna," Sanji said quietly, I rammed into it and the door burst open, a roar was heard from behind us from the stairs. Oops, we woke the fox up, it went after us as we ran outside. To our horror, three more foxes were waiting for us. They snow was about a foot deep, so Loki, Chopper, and I switched to horse point, walking point, and beast point to carry the rest to safety.

"Chopper, can you carry people on your back?" I asked, he shook his head. "Usopp's going to be with you. Loki, take Zolo and Luffy, I'll take Sanji."

"What if one of us gets caught?" Usopp asked as Zolo and Luffy hitched Loki. "There's four foxes, two of them are going to go after one of us while the rest get to have one fox on their tails."

"You've got a point there," I said. "Just try to get to town, maybe they'll stop fallowing you! Have luck, me hearties!"

"That's your idea of help?! There's a blizzard happening!" Chopper screamed as we all split into three groups and ran off in the snow. I ran towards the gates with Sanji on my back, he held tight as a nine tailed fox ran after us. I looked back to see a blue ball issuing from its jaws, I ran to the left and dodged it.

"I can't see a damn thing!" I yelled, I turned a corner, another fox was in our way. I turned around to see the fox from earlier growling at us. "So, they're after me, then. Someone really wants me gone."

We ran into own, Sanji threw a glance back, he said,"You could stop, it seems they can't go out the gates."

"Luna, Sanji!" called out a voice, Usopp and Chopper came running towards us.

"How'd you get here within ten minutes?" I asked.

"Luck of the draw!" Chopper said, rather cheerfully, I frowned at him. "Usopp was pretty cool, he took down that fox with a single shot from his slingshot!"

"Ah, it was nothing Chopper, I used to kill nine tailed foxes all the time when I was a kid!" Usopp bragged, I rolled my eyes at him. "Then there was this large bear I'd wrestle with."

"You wrestled with bears?!" Chopper asked in amazement, I looked at the Silverback Mansion, the blizzard suddenly stopped. "Hey, doesn't it take an hour for blizzards to stop?"

"Normally, yes," said a girl, it was Constance. "These sudden storms are caused by the ghost of Nine Tailed Trace. I suspect you guys are miss Nami and miss Vivi's friends, they told us what you looked like, they're staying at my father's inn. Would you care to join us?"

"Er...," Usopp said, but Sanji cut in with hearts in his eyes,"Ignore what the fish just said, yes, we accept your offer."

"Great," Constance smiled, but the sound of Loki's hooves were heard from a distance. Loki came galloping towards me with Luffy on his back, Zolo was out cold. "Oh, dear, what happened?"

"Nothing, Chopper, can you see if Zolo is all right?" Luffy said, sounding concerned. "The fox got him, and...did something."

"Right," Chopper said, he switched to heavy point and carried Zolo, we fallowed Constance to the Shirt Tail Inn, there, Nami and Vivi were waiting for us.

"I thought I said to look after the ship," I said.

"Yeah, but it wasn't there," Nami explained. "When you told us to go and find it, it wasn't there. Constance told us we were on Fannette Island, and asked us to stay for the night, she told us about a man named Edgar Silverback from his journal. We heard noises from the Silverback Mansion, by the time we wanted to leave and check out the place, a blizzard came in-"

"Wait a moment," Sanji said, Loki came inside in bird point. "You said Edgar Silverback? Luna found his journal in the library."

"That's right," I said, I gave her the book.

"It can't be!" Constance said, she took out another journal of Edgar Silverback and gave it to me. I looked through it. "I have it, and you have it, who owns the original? Who has a fake?"

"Questions, questions, questions," said a bored voice from the door that was left open, I looked at the source of the voice to see Silverback's ghost again. He came towards me and I dropped the book, he walked closer.

My breath thinned as he grabbed my throat with his hand, I backed up against the wall as he pushed me. I caught a whiff of whiskey, hay, and gunpowder from the ghost...wait, aren't they not supposed to smell? Everyone stared at me, but they couldn't see Silverback, no wonder they didn't scream or yell.

"Luna, are you all right?" Luffy asked. "You look like you've just seen a ghost. You don't look good."

Silverback disappeared in a puff of gray smoke and I slumped over a table as I shuddered. My vision was suddenly blurred by the time Sanji came over to me and held me.

"Luna-kun?" Sanji asked me, he waved his hand in front of my face, the smell of cigarette issued from his mouth. He's just inches away from my face, I can feel it!

"Do you believe in ghosts?" I whispered in his ear, I was able to tell, there was a long pause, then he nodded. "I-I-I j-just s-saw one...it attacked m-me."