Heya guys! All right, I know it's a few days later than it should be, but I was finishing the prologue of 'The Legend of Luca'. So all's fine, right? Right? Anyways, yes, this chapter gota bit lot shorter than usual, but I wanted to end it at an appropriate place. So, here ye go, chapter 29. Enjoyeh!
Cat's PoV
All of this shaking was really getting on my nerves. I almost broke a circuit. For the sixth bloody time. Enough was enough.
And what was it that met me when I walked out on deck? The Hippo bastard's freaking soldiers. Not to forget the Great Hippo himself, standing on the railing. Yeah, that's right; right beside the starboard wing, where I stored the quantum cores, crucial to upholding the dimensional distortion that my lab required.
And the fucker was going to- oh no, he weren't! Not on my watch!
"Die! You enemy of science!"
Luckily, he never had time to take a bite off of my lab before he got what most probably was the heaviest head-butt I had ever dealt, right to his forehead, before he could so much as blink.
"And that should teach you to keep away from the starboard wing!"
"You seriously built your lab all over the ship?"
"Not all over it, only in the walls."
"That's what I meant."
"In that case then, yes."
I had to say that one could see that Whitehead really was in her right element here on drum, as we walked up the snowy hills towards Bighorn. Her pale features melted well with the snow and I bet she would make a most brilliant snow ninja, hadn't she fancied black clothing so. But seriously, that tolerance was just plain ridiculous. During all of my travels, she was one of the very few humans who had ever impressed me. And she never ceased to surprise. I mean, seriously, even captain was wearing more clothes than her. Even I was freezing, with my thick fur. And she didn't even have goosebumps. Yes, she was still wearing her normal clothes, in fifteen degrees minus.
And she says I'm weird.
Embla's PoV
"You are not leaving without me."
Sanji blinked. "But Embla-san-"
"No buts. I'm going instead of you, Sanji."
Ruffy raised an eyebrow, puzzled. "I still don't get why."
Sanji lit a cigarette, face serious. "Embla, look, you if anyone should understand why I can't just stay behind in a situation like this."
"True," I admitted. "I understand that quite well, but allow me to list the reasons why you should stay behind this one time. One: Lapahn. Carnivorous bunnies the size of polar bears happens to live in the mountain range that we are going to cross. They're a lot stronger than one might think, and for now we should avoid fighting at all costs. Two: the snow here is really deep and your fighting style relies on a good, solid footing to be effective. This puts you at a disadvantage if it would come to that."
He muttered something under his breath that I couldn't hear, but he didn't protest. He knew I was right.
"Third," I continued," we're going to climb a ten kilometer tall mountain. A frozen mountain. Barehanded. If not having a crazy tolerance against cold, one could sustain permanent injuries. I know how important your hands are, so don't risk them unnecessarily." I paused for a second, giving him a genuinely concerned look to help it sink in before continuing. "Fourth: Avalanches are annoyingly common in this area and-"
"Ok, fine! I get your point," Sanji abruptly cut me off, sighing in defeat. He pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it, taking a deep, heavy drag. "I'm not going to get out of that avalanche unscathed, am I?"
I let out a single chuckle, knowing I had won, yet lost. I hadn't managed to avoid spoilers. But what the hey, I guess this once couldn't hurt. "Clever. You're right Sanji; you'll crack your spine, fall unconscious and be deadweight during the climb. Sorry about that."
"Oh." He fell silent, looking for words. "That's certainly…"
"Inconvenient?" Cat offered, suddenly having popped in from nowhere. Neither of us cared. She usually did.
"I guess. Fine, you win Embla," he admitted. "But remember than I'm only doing this because I trust you."
I have him a hearty smile and started to slowly walk in Ruffy's direction, but not turning around just yet. "Someone has to protect the princess, right?"
"Oi! How long are you gonna stand there? Hurry up!"
I exchanged a last glance with Sanji before I turned on my heel and hurried after our most impatient captain with a smirk playing on my lips. Victory.
Glancing back, I could make out heart-shaped puffs of smoke, but as a sort of thanks for complying, I decided against throwing a knife after him. Just this once.
"What was all that?" Ruffy wondered.
I gave him a calm smirk. "Oh, I just spared Sanji a nasty crack in his spine."
"Ah."
We ran for a while, not really saying much. We simply didn't find much to say, but I did notice Ruffy's uncharacteristically serious expression. It made me speculate what could have caused it. He rarely spoke about himself, so I doubted he would tell me if I asked. He probably wasn't even conscious about it. Still, I couldn't help but think about it.
That was, until the bunny appeared and started pouncing us, trying to munch or feet off.
"Ah," I said.
"What now?"
"Seems we entered Lapahn Territory." *hop* "Let's try not to piss them off."
*dodge* "Why?"
"Well…" *sidestep* "Mainly because fighting overgrown rabbits while carrying a deathly sick individual," *jump* "Seems like an immensely bad idea."
"I see." *dodge* "But seriously, what's this guy's problem?"
I shrugged while sidestepping yet another pounce. "Can't tell. Cat didn't add a program for animal speech."
"What? That's boring!" Ruffy exclaimed, sticking out his tongue, disappointed.
I just shrugged. "I guess. But then, I guess not even Cat can think- FORSOOTH!"
We both halted at my sudden outburst. Ruffy's gaze traveled downwards, landing on my right leg, where the little critter had finally succeeded in biting firmly into my right calf. Blood war starting to drip down and the force of the bite were only increasing. In short, it hurt like bloody hellfire.
"Ouch," Ruffy observed.
"Not comfortable." Knowing the teeth would only sink in deeper if I struggled in the wrong way, or if I tried to pull it off or beat it away, I decided to go with a bit more of a gentle approach. So far I hadn't encountered a single animal who didn't like being scratched behind the ears, so I gave it a shot.
"What are you doing?" Ruffy wondered.
I kept scratching the little critter, doing my best to give it a friendly smile despite the most bothering pain and dripping blood. "Just trying to save my right calf from being chomped off without pissing off him or his herd."
"Oh."
Slowly, its jaws were loosening around my leg and he seemed to enjoy being cuddled. If he could, he would probably have purred quite audibly. But then, rabbits does not purr.
He was actually looking incredibly cute now that he wasn't trying to bite my leg off. "Hmm, maybe I should keep him…"
"Yosh! Good idea! He's cool!" Ruffy exclaimed before I had even registered that I had said that out loud.
"We'll see," I said, ignoring my throbbing calf and lifted up the little creature, who quickly hopped up onto my head, which he for some reason decided to start chewing at. Affectionately, mind."
"Doesn't that hurt?"
I shrugged. "Meh, Cat bites harder."
He frowned. "You're bleeding."
As if on cue, I felt a small trickle of blood slowly run down my forehead. I decided that I didn't give a damn. "No matter, we have more urgent concerns on our hands, am I right?"
"Ah! You're right!"
And so, we hurried onwards to the mountain.
Cat's PoV
"Meh. Never thought you'd actually agree to stay behind."
The heart-shaped puffs of smoke dissolved and a thoughtful expression soon occupied Chef's face. "Neither did I. But if I was only going to be deadweight during the climb, then I might just as well stay behind. Embla knows what she's doing."
A cold wind blew by, carrying chill that even penetrated my thick hide. A yawn escaped me. Sheesh, cold really made me sleepy.
"Hey, Cook. Can I sleep on your head?"
He gave me a puzzled look. "Come again?"
I rolled my eyes, explaining the obvious. "Your head looks like a mighty inviting pillow, and I'm sleepy."
He raised an eyebrow. "Should I take that as a compliment?"
I yawned again. Humans… "That's your choice. Now, can I sleep on your head or not?"
Embla's PoV
"Polar bears."
"Snickerdoodles."
"They're Snickerdoodles?"
"No, they're Lapahn."
And indeed. We were now facing the little bunny's enraged pack. Guh-reat. And to add to the fun, the little fella had for some reason decided that it was appropriate to somehow fall asleep, and thusly he was unable to sort out the apparent misunderstanding.
Felling reluctant to hurt them badly, as it would likely make the little one much upset with us, and probably both pissed off and disappointed as well, I settled for the staff form this time. I was quite confident that I wouldn't be able to defeat them, but hopefully I'd be able to manage to hold them off until kiddo awoke. On second thought, I think I'm gonna call him Jake for now.
"Ruffy, listen up."
"Hm?" he replied, already having attained his fighting stance.
"Don't fight them. Leave that to me."
He frowned, definitely not liking the sound of that. All the while the Lapahn were rapidly approaching. "Why not?"
I clenched my teeth, readying myself for the incoming attack. "Think for once. For every hit you deal or receive, a big part of the shock will be directly absorbed by Tashi. Being shaken up is the last thing she needs now."
Understanding swiftly dawned. "I see. So for now we run."
I nodded, repeating his words. "For now we run."
We shared a glance, smirking respectively grinning, before simultaneously bursting out the word "Forward!"
Because running the other way would have been most stupid.
I ran in front, acting plow. It wasn't exactly what I was used to, and I certainly preferred fighting one enemy at a time, but this would be a good practice session, I guessed.
The first overgrown bunny came in from the left. I raised my staff with both hands to block the blow over my head. They were strong- stronger than I'd first thought. But I could not allow that to stop me. Redirecting the force of the impact, I swung the back of the staff straight into the bunny's head, successfully knocking it out. Sensing another coming from behind, I jabbed it right between its eyes, not even bothering to turn around. The next one came straight up front in our running direction. I sped up further and spun the staff for the centrifugal boost, settling for knocking it out with a simple head strike. It had a sturdier head than I thought, though, so I had to make it a double strike. The world was speeding up again, and I could feel that my energy was already draining. Hadn't my stamina training wielded any result at all?
My focus dropped for just a split second.
I was handsomely rewarded with a clawed paw to the face, which sent me prettily flying straight into a tree. My left arm was the first part that made contact, followed by the rest of my body, practically piled on it. There was a sickening crack.
Fudge. Left was my dominant arm.
"Embla!"
Ruffy's startled shout rang out throughout an area of at least a 500 meter radius as I was launched through the air and he hurried to my side to see if I was alright, which I kinda weren't. I was by no means a doctor, but judging from the relentless stinging pain in my upper arm, I definitely was not. Bugger. Strange, really, since I had survived getting tossed through a stone wall and getting a huge chunk of concrete to my torso just a few weeks earlier at Arlong park without more than a broken rib or two.
Jake, who had somehow managed to stay on my head while I was fighting, had finally gotten thrown off when I was sent through the air. He was now standing in front of us protectively, growling in a somewhat disappointed way at his pack. It was most probably the one and only reason why we weren't being maimed right now.
I managed a smile at the brave little bunny before attempting to move my arm, little by little. Fingers- check. No problem there, except for some minor stinging. Elbow- "Gah!" I gasped out in pain. That hurt a fuckload.
"Are you alright?" Ruffy asked, gently placing a comforting hand on my left shoulder as a gesture of concern, but I immediately swatted it away. Even that light tough hurt like hell.
"Apparently I ain't," I groaned in response. "I'm quite sure it's broken."
All right folks, I know what you're gonna say; "J, this was the shortest chapter you've released since chapter bloody eight, and it's late again too!" And yes, you are right. But I have my reasons. And I do believe I listed them earlier.
I also now officially hate Minecraft. Why? It's great fun and all, and therefore it's cutting into my writing time. It's actually the main reason why this chapter is almost a whole week late. But then, I guess I should warn you about this: As you know, school has started again, which means that, for me, it's the Gymnasium that's ahead. (No, it's not a gym where you go train your body, it's the Swedish equivalent to High School) And it's a game design profile. This means that I'm going to spend a lot more time in front of TV-games to study them (partially) and I'm also going to spend more time with my schoolwork than I did before. So the two-week intervals might just become standard as of now on. Really sorry about that, but there's really nothing I can do about it. It's my dream to become a Game Designer, after all ;)
So, until next time, whether it'll be next week or the one after that, have fun, or else!
