I had completely forgot about the fact that we were going to spend the weekend out at the countryside, where I didn't have my precious computer or unlimited access to the internet and thus, I couldn't get started on typing this frikkin' chapter into word. Yes, I tend to write it all in a small notebook (small by my standards. It's really 11,5x15x2 cm big. Because of it, one of my top priorities among the attributes I want my pants to have is large-ass pockets) that I carry around pretty much everywhere I go. It's served me well, even if it has broken a few times (Like 10) and I've been having to find a decent glue twice a month to glue the effin' cover back. I've been carrying it around for about half a year(!) now and it's lasted all the way since chapter five, which was about when I found the little bastard deep down in a drawer. But because of its 0,5 cm rows (or squares, since there's vertical lines too) it's lasted for quite long. Like, really long. And my handwriting has shrunk like hell. And no one except for me (apparently) can read what the hell I'm writing. I'm thinking of actually scanning a page (which I will do anyway, because I wasted precious writing space to make a neat drawing that I got satisfied with and will upload) and see if any of you can actually decode it.

On a side note: I've been watching Zero Punctuation all day (and yesterday) and it's really effin' contagious. I can feel myself thinking in hyper-speed in very British English. And I'm Swedish, for fuck's sake. And it did nothing to help my cynicism. But I did think it somewhat improved my writing, for some strange reason…

Enough rant, here goes chapter 24: "Holes out of nowhere". And I hope you liked Frey, 'cos he's back this chapter.

(… Why the hell did I keep that silver pen? MY BRAIN!)

A few days had passed since we had left the shores of Whiskey Peak, and I was getting bored. Out-of-my-effin'-mind kind of bored. In fact, the most of the crew was getting restless, with the exception of the two ever-training resident swordsmen aboard and the ever-busy chef. Zoro had claimed that all of our gaming had been taking too much time when he should be training. A statement I knew was most probably false since he would otherwise have slept all of that time otherwise. I guess he was just a little sick of losing all the goddamn time. Maybe I'd let him win once. But nah, he'd see through it at once and just get pissed off about it. But now almost a whole week had passed without anything interesting happening. Oh well, there was that one time when I got attacked by a rather large seaking during one of my routine swimming rounds, but it wasn't all that interesting, since I'm not stupid enough to walk around unarmed in the Grand Line when I'm a weapons specialist and not a freaking martial artist. Even when I am in the water. At least we had meat for another few days, though.

Not having anything better to do, I decided to go bug Tashi. "Ne, Tashigi…"

She wiped her forehead with a conveniently placed towel and turned to me, seeming somewhat annoyed. "Embla, I know what you're going to ask, and the answer is still no. I'm not going to play cards with you."

I sighed, but I wasn't planning on giving up anytime soon. Mostly because I was so bored I could bang my head into the wall. Besides, I hadn't played cards against her even once and I really, really wanted to. It was in fact a great way of getting to know a person, just watching someone's strategies in Talisman, to make an example.

"C'mon, it'll be fun!"

She just frowned. "I said No, and I'm not changing my mind."

I crossed my arms and tilted my head a bit to the side, giving a small smile in an attempt to be friendly persuasive. "Only one game. I'll go easy on you."

She just crossed her arms stubbornly. "A no is a no."

Gods damn you Nami for warning her! Right, let's change tactics. "Che, I didn't peg you as the type to back down from a challenge."

She gave me a look. "I know you're trying to tease me into accepting. Sorry, but I ain't stupid enough to fall for that."

I sighed in defeat. Her mind was set and she was going to keep on being idiotically stubborn on the subject. Gods damn it, it was such a stupid thing to be stubborn about. What the hell could hurt about a little game, seriously?

Since Zoro was sleeping, the lazy bastard, I wouldn't ask him. I wasn't dumb or desperate enough to wake him up in the middle of a nap, even if it was for a round of Munchkin. So I decided to ask Ruffy instead. While the rather complex rules of most of my games escaped him, I had found out that he was a natural at Fluxx[1]. The quick turns the game took constantly were no match for his fickle mind and he had nearly beaten me on quite numerous occasions.

So I turned away from the young marine swordswoman and walked towards the fore where he and Usopp were fishing, all the while mentally cussing out Nami. But perhaps Vivi wouldn't mind joining the fray.

"SCREE!"

The avian cry made me briefly look up from my cards for only enough time to register what kind of bird it was. Deciding it was of no great concern I directed my attention back to the game. In the end, Ruffy had woken Zoro up anyway and bugged him into joining us, and Usopp had tagged along as well out of lack of better things to do. Vivi, however, hadn't. And Cat had hid away in her 'secret' lab, saying something about a masterpiece of science, or something of the like. She had barely come out at all, with the exception to eat and sleep.

"Just what was that?" Nami exclaimed at the sight of the 'bird', sending my train of thought severely in reverse. Sanji, assuming it was merely a bird tried to reassure her by pointing out that fact, which was an action that my brain barely registered. Because it was busy subconsciously searching through my old archives of knowledge-not-frequently-used-anymore that I had accumulated during my brighter days of childhood. Having found the file, my mouth simply spoke what my brain found while the conscious part of my brain was focusing on the game.

"Archaeopteryx, also known as 'The Original Bird'. It is the first known creature to have evolved feathers. It roamed the skies during the late Jurassic period." Then my conscious mind registered that I had just spoken, and with some afterthought I decided to add, "Of course, that might be different here, but I suppose it's mostly accurate. It's also carnivorous, by the way."

When I observed their reactions, I decided to merely shrug. I had a game to win here, after all. It was my turn and I drew, as the current rules said, four cards, and snickered at my impending victory.

"Jurassic Period? But that's impossible!" Nami burst out.

Smirking even wider, I retorted, "Never say 'impossible' when it comes to the Grand Line."

"That's right," the local, meaning Vivi, filled in. "Due to the unpredictable currents and unforgiving weather of the Grand Line, most islands on the Grand Line has become isolated and have developed their own individual ecosystems and cultures."

"And this one has stayed in the era of Dinosaurs," I finished for her.

Nami and Usopp appeared absolutely terrified at the thought of gigantic lizards stalking the jungle island, while my fellow monsters seemed more enthusiastic at the subject; Ruffy in particular. Vivi seemed relieved at the distraction from her homeland's predicament while Tashi seemed quite thoughtful. I didn't yet know her well enough to be able to tell how she felt and thought about it.

So I just shrugged it off and played the two cards that would finish this game of Fluxx; 'Flying Cow' and 'Fetchez la Vache' [2].

"Aargh! Dammit!" The exclamation came from, guess who, Ruffy. Apparently he had a really good hand at that time.

"THIS ISN'T THE TIME TO BE PLAYING CARDS!" Nami yelled angrily. I had a nasty headache for quite a while after that.

Ultimately, I was to look for and gather any edible fruit I could find, teamed up with Tashigi. Cat was nowhere to be found. Working on her ground-shattering project, no doubt.

I couldn't for my life understand why they had picked me to look for edible fruits. I barely knew anything about plants, dammit! And what little I knew was about the Swedish, Earthen flora, not jungle plants in the OP universe! Hopefully, Tashi had some experience on this subject.

I sighed and shook my head to clear it and decided to strike up a conversation with Tashi instead. It wasn't as if we didn't have a Gods damn lot of time on our hands, after all.

"So," I said. "How long do you plan to stay with us?"

She stopped searching through the ground-level plants and turned around with a joking smile. "Oh? You want to get rid of me already?"

I crossed my arms, not amused. "You know very well that I don't, and if our captain was to decide then you would probably permanently join, but I know you won't. I just want to know for how long that I'll be able to count you as an ally."

"Well…" she stood up and smiled. "I haven't reached my answer yet and…" She clenched her fist and her teeth, addressing a more important matter. "I can't let Crocodile carry on like this!"

It was very understandable why she would feel a certain amount of responsibility regarding the Croc-case, but I also knew that she couldn't stay with us during that arc if she wanted to stay a marine, as I had no doubt Smoker and his men would be present in Arabasta anyway, probably frowning even more than usual.

"Well, are you going to help me or just stand there?"

Tashi's question utterly threw my train of thought off-track. "Say again?"

She frowned. "I said, are you going to help me collect fruit or not?"

I frowned right back. "I told you already; I'm an Alien! I'd like to, but this flora is entirely foreign to me. I don't know what's edible!"

She immediately rose up again and strode towards me with a very annoyed glare. "I told you; stop it with that stupid alien-thing. It's not even fu-AAAAAAAHH!"

I blinked. She had just suddenly disappeared. Downwards. Conclusion; she fell down a stupidly deep hole. Wait… Why would there be a hole like that in the jungle, unless it was some kind of animal den? Wait… Shit. Hoping I wouldn't encounter a blasted Digestion Pool at the bottom, I jumped down. I hadn't encountered one before, and I'd be grateful if it stayed that way.

Typically Tashi to fall down a hole out of nowhere.

The hole was deep. Unreasonably deep. The walls were also strangely smooth. I was falling for quite a few seconds before finally hitting the bottom. I then gazed up to estimate how much a buggeration it would be to climb up again. Not that much, I decided, thanks to my spiky-ninja-shoes. The tunnel had widened into some kind of really large cavern, which only light-source was the very hole we had just fallen (or jumped) down. A hole that happened to be twenty-or-so meters deep.

To put it simply, it was dark. Dark as helheim would be if you removed all of the snow. Snow tends to brighten things up a bit. Good thing I ate lots of carrots. [3]

When my eyes had adjusted somewhat, I spotted Tashigi. She was sitting on the ground, searching for her glasses. I saw a glint of reflected light a few feet away, which proved to be what she was looking for, so I picked them up and handed them to her, after which I helped her up.

"Thank you," she said and put them on, after which she gave the room a scan. "Just what is this place?"

I didn't answer, as I had no idea, and it was not like she expected an answer from me anyway. But I was certainly going to find out. So I walked to a random cavern wall, only to find out that it wasn't an animal den after all. Probably.

"Runes?"

"Really?" She hurried to my side. "What is this? This cavern is actually a ruin?"

"I can't believe people actually lived here…" And what was more, it was runes of a, to me, very much familiar kind. It looked a damn lot like old Scandinavian runes, although I couldn't be entirely sure, since it was too damn dark. I flexed my fingers. I had my gloves on; fully recharged. "Give me a minute."

"Huh?" Tashi turned around. "What are you going to- WHAA?" She tripped to the floor in surprise when I opened the dimension-portal.

"I'll be back in a moment!" I said casually as I leaved an utterly shocked Tashigi behind.

I walked out in the living room of my former home where Frey happened to be sitting, reading a book. He idly looked up at me before returning his attention to his copy of 'A Short History of Time' before saying, "Welcome to the Sanctuary."

I gave him a look. "Funny. In any case, I am in the need of a flashlight. And my camera."

He didn't even look up. "There's a flashlight in the cleaning cupboard, and you know where your camera is better than I do."

I just nodded and fetched said stuff before turning back to the portal to leave, when he stopped me. "Don't I get to know what you need them for?"

I turned around with a loving smirk. He just wanted something of an update. Knowing him, I wouldn't need to give any detail. "Tashi fell down a hole. I jumped down after her, but it proves the cavern was a ruin with some runic inscriptions on the wall. But it's dark as hell, and I can't read the runes like that."

He pondered this for a moment, mumbling something along the lines of, "Ruins at Little Garden. And Scandinavian runes of all things… Strange indeed." Then he seemed to reach a conclusion as he looked me straight in the eye. "Mind if I take a look?"

I blinked. I had honestly not expected that. But it was true that he was practically fluent in runes. While he was not exactly an archaeologist, he did have a deeply rooted interest in our proud ancestors.

Poor Tashigi would be in total shock. More than she already was in.

Tashigi's PoV

What? What the- What the- What was this madness? First she opened that… that… hole in the air and casually walks through it. I've seen many strange devil powers in my days as a marine, but I thought that the only two fruits that could do things like that were already occupied! Besides, I'd seen her swim in the sea on countless occasions this latest week!

And then she just walks out of there with some weird stranger in tow, speaking some strange language I'd never heard before! Who the hell was that, anyway? Then I remembered her words from Whiskey Peak.

"I'll tell you one thing; I'm an alien!"

True, I had asked Zoro and Nami, who appeared to be the most serious two on the crew, but they had only confirmed this crazy statement, apparently thinking it was no big deal. But I hadn't believed them for a second, thinking they were just taking part in her silly little joke, but right now…

"YOU WERE BEING SERIOUS?"

She blinked. When she next spoke, her voice sounded very much like a slab of granite being dropped on a marble floor.

WHY, YES. OF COURSE I WAS.

It was the most intimidating voice I had ever heard and it sent a ton of very uncomfortable chills down my spine. I got the feeling that it should have been coming from someone clad in a very long, black coat, wielding a scythe. And I didn't even believe in such delusions. It did not, however, have much effect on that other person, whoever he was. Instead he hit her over the head, now talking a language that I could actually understand.

"Don't use the voice without a reason to."

The voice? He must have meant that tone. What was this all about? And who was he?

Embla rubbed her head, apparently annoyed. "I didn't mean to. But she spoke in bold capital letters, and you know how accents are contagious."

Contagious? Huh? Capital letters? I most certainly didn't use a tone that was anything like that! Apparently, they didn't think it was any significant and just casually dropped the subject.

"Tashi, this is Frey, my older brother. He's a little bit strange, but he's damn reliable."

The stranger, apparently called Frey, gave me a casual wave before switching on some handheld lantern and started to study the wall. After a few seconds of trying to process all this information I grabbed Embla's outstretched hand and allowed her to help me up.

I wondered briefly how many times the Strawhats had heard that ominous voice of her.

And then a loud rumble echoed throughout the ruins.

[1] No, this is not a freaking typo. It is spelled with two X. I'll correct this in the earlier chapters when I'm not too lazy to bother.

[2] I might have misspelled that, but whatever. No one cares anyway.

[3] If you didn't already know that, carrots contain a substance called carotene, which is good for your eyesight. Consuming a lot of carotene improves your night vision. Take it from me, I know this from experience.

Alright guys, I'm just going to get this straight right away or I'll get my inbox flooded with complaints about Tashigi freaking out when Embla accidentally used the voice. First of all, if you haven't figured that out yet, the voice is the common way of referring to the tone of voice, or as Embla puts it, accent, that comes naturally to one person and one person only: Death. It's his bloody trademark, not counting the robe, scythe, bones and heavy gothic handwriting. If you are a fan of the Discworld series, like me, then you should know that it is common knowledge that Death speaks in CAPITAL LETTERS. And is the most awesome character in the entire series, followed closely by Ridcully, Granny Weatherwax and Rob Anybody.

To get back to the point; unless you just died, hearing his voice isn't exactly comfortable. It has a certain impact on people, unless they completely and utterly lack fear of death, such as Ruffy and Zoro does. Embla and her brother have different reasons for not being affected; they've simply heard it so bloody much that the effect has completely worn off.

According to my thorough calculations and estimations, Tashi is not such a person. She is brave, yes, but not completely unafraid. Hell, not even Sanji is, and you all know it. And yes, I will most probably write from Sanji's PoV very soon, because I haven't given him nearly enough stage time, when I haven't completely bashed him. He is awesome and we all know he deserves more. Even Embla knows it; she just hates it when he goes all 'mellorine' over her.

Man, I'm miles from the point now. No wonder my Swedish teacher always nagged at me about being unable to stick to the topic.

To put it simply: There's a reason why it is such an effective intimidation method. I mean, not even Sanji's comfortable with it.

And from this chapter on, I'm moving the SBS section to here: [this is where I will put up the URL when I actually get down to fixing the bloody web page] I will by no means drop the SBS, but it's simply taking way too much space. Add my rants and it's almost half a bloody chapter!

So that's it from me for this week. Hopefully I'll feel motivated enough to cram in two more chapters before I leave for my training camp, which will only be the beginning of a five-week hiatus caused by travelling. See you guys next time!