Who has a new chapter out? I do! And just before it got too late for me to go to bed (then again, I'm a night person, so my concept of late might be different from others). Anyway, you guys just want to get to the chapter now. So here are the review responses!

Alpenwolf: Yes, Terra loathes the cloak and the fact that she has to purposefully hide from the world when doing so doesn't give her the answers she wants. But, with Nami being sick and not knowing how the villagers will react to her, she doesn't have a choice if they want to get Nami the help she needs, so she has to suck it up for now.

S: Thank you! I'm glad you like the story so much!

Disclaimer: I do not own One Piece. Terra is my OC.

Chapter 26

Okay, so far the man-eating rabbit that was following them did not present itself as a threat to them. Yes, lapins were supposed to be extremely dangerous, which was why Dalton didn't want them to take this route, but the little bunny with sharp teeth had done nothing more than entertain Terra during their hike up to the mountain. Its attempts to get them were cute, even.

For a while, while the guys were talking about some nonsense stories about people from winter islands, the bunny had been jumping out at them from behind trees and whatnot, trying to get them. The guys didn't even show whether or not they were paying attention to their surroundings, even though they had been successfully dodging the young lapin's attempts.

Terra was only paying attention because the distraction from Nami's predicament meant that she wouldn't accidentally rush ahead of Luffy and Sanji, anxious to find the doctor. She still wanted to get to the doctor ASAP, but it was fun messing with the lapin. In fact, if she focused hard enough, she could almost feel where the lapin was going to strike next. To do that and then step out of the way, making the bunny land in the snow, was something she found entertaining.

Terra looked over at Sanji. She was pretty sure the lapin was going to try to attack him again. Well, she was right, but Sanji had also turned around and kicked the lapin waaaay up in the air.

". . . Was that necessary?" she asked as the bunny disappeared into the sky. The wind blew her hood off as she was looking straight up, but she didn't bother to fix it since there was no one around.

"Sorry Terra, but that bunny was getting distracting. We can't afford any of those with Nami in this condition," said Sanji. While his explanation did make sense, she didn't like the loss of the distraction because she was now back to focusing on not getting too far ahead of the guys as they hiked. Something that she found hard to do because their current pace seemed painfully slow to Terra. It was probably because of the severity of their situation that she was so impatient, but that didn't make things any better.

"Hey, Terra, isn't your hood supposed to be up?" asked Luffy when he noticed that he could see Terra's face. She shrugged.

"I'll do so when we're around other people. I see no reason to have to hide myself when there is no one around."

"Oh, okay." And thus, they continued their trek up the mountain.

It seemed like things were going to turn out to be easy for them when Terra, being farther ahead of the guys again, spotted something waiting for them further up the mountain. She stopped and waited for the guys to catch up to her again.

"What's wrong?" asked Luffy when he noticed that she didn't start walking again after they got close enough. She pointed at the gathering of white-furred creatures.

"That." Luffy looked up to see what she was looking at.

"What are those?" asked Sanji while smoking his cigarette.

"My guess is that those are the adult lapins we were warned about," said Terra. Her amethyst eyes wandered over the group of bear-like rabbits.

Then, one of them jumped forward at them. Instantly, the three pirates jumped away from the lapin. Sanji jumped to the right with Luffy and Terra jumped to the left. Okay, now these guys seemed dangerous.

It didn't help when Terra saw the same bunny Sanji kicked earlier in that group, standing next to who she guessed was its parent. Son of a . . .

"You know, this was probably your fault for kicking that bunny earlier," Terra said to Sanji as she crouched into a fighting stance.

"Sorry Terra! I didn't think it would come with back-up!" shouted Sanji. Terra decided to let the issue drop since arguing about it wasn't going to get them out of this mess.

She was watching the lapins as Sanji explained why Luffy couldn't fight this time.

"Then what am I supposed to do?" asked Luffy, surprised that he wasn't allowed to defend himself or Nami at the risk of her health. Another lapin charged at them at his question, only to be knocked away by Terra, who punched it mercilessly in the side.

"Don't worry, Luffy! That's what me and Sanji are here for. You just worry about advancing towards the castle with Nami. We got your back," she said as she continued to watch the lapins for any other sudden moves. Luffy nodded.

"Okay."

"Don't worry, Terra! Even if the lapins all charge at once, I will still protect you!" said Sanji with that annoying flourish. Terra's mood darkened in that instant.

"SANJI! I told you before that I don't need your help in a fight! The priority is Nami! So watch out for her and Luffy, not me!" she yelled. Honestly, what did it take for someone to believe her? She had pride, dammit! And she wasn't about to let someone belittle it!

Sanji never got the chance to respond to that because the lapins decided to attack all at once. Luffy ran off with Sanji following close behind him and fending off the lapins that went after them. Terra was running towards them at first, but more lapins blocked her path and forced her to stop. She jumped over the first one that lunged at her and punched the second one in the face. The third one, however, managed to scratch her right arm, the same arm that had the bullet graze. Yeah, that was painful the second time around.

But, she gritted her teeth and gave that lapin a roundhouse kick to the head. She landed in the snow on her feet. She looked over her shoulder to see the lapins she took down getting back up again. She stared incredulously. What did it take to keep them down?

Oh well, she bought herself a window of escape that she needed. Not wasting any time, she booked it towards where she thought she saw Luffy and Sanji run to since they were now out of sight.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

"Wait! Luffy! We lost Terra!" shouted Sanji when he realized, after fighting off yet another giant bunny, that they were one head short in their group.

"Don't worry! She'll be fine!" said Luffy as he continued to run.

"What do you mean? This mountain is full of those damned bunnies! They could have hurt her and . . ." Sanji started to say angrily at his captain.

"Don't worry, Sanji! Terra's tougher than that! She's not going to let these guys take her down so easily," said Luffy as he kept running to get away from the rabbits.

"But . . ."

"We can trust her to be able to fight. After all, she's one of us!" And just like that, the argument ended as the lapins kept dogging them.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

Terra had managed to lose those infernal lapins after a few minutes of running (apparently Luffy was right about her being able to run fast), but she had yet to find the guys in her mad dash away from the rabbits. She was so sure that they had ran this way, but she was starting to think that they either made a turn somewhere or she was never running in the right direction in the first place.

"Where did they go?" she thought aloud. In the end, she decided to just go back to running towards the mountain. That was their destination, after all.

She just needed a short break to catch her breath. She took the opportunity to look at her injured arm she had been clutching the whole time. She was still bleeding profusely and she could start to feel the cold biting at her wound. This definitely wasn't good. Now she needed a doctor. She thought about the condition Nami was in for a second.

She stood straight up and started to run towards the mountain again. It was just scratch. It wasn't that bad. She could afford to ignore it for the time being. Nobody could afford to ignore Nami's condition right now. She would ask for assistance only after Nami was taken care of.

She ran with that purpose in mind . . . only to falter at the sight of an avalanche coming down the mountain.

Damn it! She was going to kill those two if she survived this!

She was forced to turn around and look for some kind of shelter from the avalanche before it reached her. Unfortunately, there was no nearby outcropping that was tall enough in her opinion and a quick glance behind her told her that the trees around her weren't going to cut it, either.

Terra was stuck with no way to outrun the snow or to take cover from it.

. . . Shit.

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .

It was a while before the snow finally settled and Luffy was able to hike back up the mountain, helping a lapin out of the snow on the way.

He was still carrying Nami on his back, and he was now carrying an injured Sanji under his arm. He walked with determination towards the steep mountain, until the three pirates from the other day blocked his path while riding a wooly hippo.

"Halt! Your impertinence is unpardonable!" stated Wapol.

"Move!" demanded Luffy, who didn't have time to face such a weakling. Wapol just laughed.

"Are you a fool? Why should I move? Your two friends there are more dead than alive?" he said. Realizing that Wapol wasn't going to do as he said and not wanting to waste any more time on them, Luffy marched past them.

"Halt!" shouted Wapol, but Luffy was ignoring them completely. Wapol turned to his lackeys.

"Aha! I just thought of a new law. Chess! Write this down."

"Yes, sire!" The jester pulled out a piece of paper and quill on demand.

"Anyone who ignores the king, dies! Start by killing the two who ignored me the most – the sick one and the injured one!" demanded Wapol. His two goons jumped to fulfill that order. Luffy was angry now.

"Eat this! Marimo's Surprise!" yelled the guy with the afro, aiming a spiked glove at Luffy. Luffy managed to dodge the attack as he glared at the enemy. He wanted to fight them, but he remembered what Sanji said about Nami feeling the blows as well should he fight. And Sanji was injured as well.

With no other choice, he ran away from them.

"I'll remember this, you jerks! Don't follow me!" he shouted as he ran as fast as he could. He soon had to jump to miss the arrows coming at him from behind. As soon as his feet touched the ground again and he looked over his shoulder, he noticed that the pirates weren't there.

"Huh? Did they give up?" he wondered out loud before jumping out of the way of Wapol, who appeared out of nowhere, trying to eat him. Suddenly, the two goons also appeared out of nowhere on either side of him, preparing to attack all three of them at once. Luffy was stuck with no way to defend his friends.

"Checkmate!" they shouted.

"THE HELL IT IS!" shouted a voice. Luffy looked over to see Terra punch the jester in the face while a lapin took out the other guy.

"Terra!" shouted Luffy, relieved that she managed to find her way back in time to save them and that she was okay.

"Lapins!" shouted a surprised Wapol. Terra landed beside Luffy and took off running with him (while making sure she didn't outrun him). As they did that, Luffy noticed the lapin he helped out earlier with the young lapin on his back.

"Thanks, lapins! You saved us!" shouted Luffy as he and Terra ran towards the mountain.

As soon as they got far enough away, Luffy started to talk to Terra.

"Good thing you're still alive! I got a bit worried when the avalanche started and I didn't know where you were." Terra shrugged.

"Well, I actually got lucky there. A lapin tried to attack me as the snow came down, and we both ended up getting buried during our fight. I think that since I was right next to him and downhill, I was close enough to be included in a small air pocket that his body provided after the snow settled. Since I was able to move, I dug my way out. Consequently, I also dug out the lapin. I didn't think anything of it until a group of lapins picked me up and ran off while I was looking for you guys. Turned out they were helping me find you and helping you with those pathetic pirates," she explained. It really had been nothing more than luck. But she wasn't going to get picky, since she was still alive and was able to return to her friends.

"That's good," said Luffy, but then the two of them got serious again as they kept running for the mountain.

They eventually slowed down to a walk since the pirates were no longer on their trail. Terra listened as Luffy kept repeating "Doctor" as they kept going.

Finally, they reached the base of the mountain. Terra looked up, the wind whipping through her short, wavy hair as she failed to see the top of the mountain. She turned to Luffy to see him preparing to climb the mountain with both Sanji and Nami when she noticed something.

"Luffy! Hold on." Luffy looked at her questioningly, wondering what she wanted. She untied the cloak from her neck and walked towards him.

"I get why you gave Nami your coat, but it's not going to do anyone any good if you freeze to death halfway up the mountain," she explained as she gently untied Nami from his back. Once that was done, she tied the cloak around his neck and flip the hood over his head.

"But don't you need this?" he asked. Terra shook her head.

"No, I've already got a coat, and I don't care who sees my face now. My identity is not the issue here." She turned to gently pick up Nami from the ground.

"It might not be as warm as these coats, but it's better than nothing," she said as she tied Nami to his back again. Luffy nodded.

"Thanks." When Terra went to pick up Sanji, Luffy noticed something.

"What happened to your arm?" he asked. Terra looked at the arm in question. It had bled quite a bit and the cold was harsh on the wound. She wasn't sure, but there was a chance that it got a bit worse since that was the hand she punched that jester with. It was her dominant hand, so she was in trouble if she had to fight with her arm like that again.

"It's nothing to worry about. I can carry Sanji up while you carry Nami. I'll be fine," she said as she made to pick up Sanji. But, Luffy saw through the ruse, as he walked over and picked up Sanji instead and gestured to his back.

"Hop on. I can carry all of you," he said. Terra frowned.

"That's kind of pushing it. I can carry Sanji and climb this mountain. I just might not be as fast as you," she insisted. But Luffy wasn't having any of that.

"I won't let any of you fall," he said before he clamped his teeth on a section of Sanji's coat.

"Now get on!" he said, although it was muffled. Knowing that she was fighting a losing battle, Terra carefully climbed onto his back behind Nami, trying not to put too much wait on the sick navigator. After making sure she was secured, Luffy started the climb.

The climb felt like it took forever. At the very least, it took several hours. The whole time, Terra couldn't help but be amazed by Luffy's stamina and determination. It was more surprising than the giant goldfish and the fact that one of their enemies was a Shichibukai combined. She didn't think that she'd ever met someone like that even before she lost her memory.

It was almost impossible to find people like that.

Finally, after hours of climbing in the biting cold wind and hanging on for dear life (for her life did depend on it after reaching a certain height), Luffy managed to get them over the edge and onto the top of the mountain.

After seeing the beautiful castle that sat there, a combination of exhaustion and blood loss made Terra pass out there in the snow.

I think this went okay. At least, I'm hoping it did. Next chapter, Terra gets to meet our favorite reindeer! How will this go? Find out next time!

In the meantime, please leave a review and tell me what you think of the chapter and story so far.

See ya! And (even though this is a bit late now) Happy Easter!