I woke up with a groan of pain. "Damn this," I muttered rolling from my aching back to my front before pushing myself up. I took a moment to appreciate the fact that I was even alive and not buried under snow before cursing again. "My back…" It hurt just as much as when I first got slammed by Pearl. Before, the pain had at least dulled down some, but now it was back with a vengeance.

"God that hurts…" I muttered opening my eyes and looking over to see Luffy snoring loudly on another cot. "Luffy. Luffy wake up," I said kicking the edge of his bed despite how bad it hurt to move. I didn't see Nami around, and I had no idea where I was. If I was out of fighting shape, we'd need him at least awake to help us out.

Luffy snorted and blinked. "Huh?" he said slowly sitting up despite the bandages all over him. He yawned loudly and stretched his arms above his head. "That was a good nap."

I felt my eyebrow twitch. "Nap? Where the hell are we?" I asked.

"At the castle. The doctor hag said she would help us," he said finding his hat nearby and picking it up before putting it on his head.

"Doctor hag?" I echoed in confusion before I heard something off to the side and looked up. "Wha? What the hell?" I asked as I saw a furry… animal of some sort with hooves and horns wearing a pink top hat.

The animal, a raccoon-no raccoons, don't have horns or hooves- well whatever it was, it froze and its eyes went huge. Luffy looked over, and I realized suddenly that all of our mouths –even the animal thing's- were wide open in shock. Suddenly, Luffy's stomach growled.

I could practically see the gears turning in his head. "Meeeaattt!"

I scrambled out of bed after my captain who was chasing the poor creature at full speed. "Luffy! Wait! You need to have meat cooked first!" I shouted as I ran after them. "You can get sick if you eat raw meat!"

"Don't run away, you sweet meat!" Luffy shouted as he grabbed for whatever it was.

"Luffy! I told you that you can't eat him now!" I added as I grabbed for the creature too. I got a hoof to the face for the attempt. "Ow!"

"I hate you, humans!" I blinked in surprise. Was that the animal thing talking? "I said stop!" My eyes widened at how deep his voice suddenly became. "-I am not your food!"

Suddenly, a huge fist slammed into the back of my head, and I hit the ground hard. So hard that the stone floor shattered under us. "Oowww…" I groaned as I let my vision realign. I looked up after it had and blinked in surprise at the little animal standing there huffing from exertion. "Did you give out that punch?"

He was trembling but nodded. I rubbed my head to check for blood and was glad when I didn't feel any. "Damn… not bad, fuzzy…"

The little thing started to flail and dance. "Shut up, bastard! Don't compliment me like it makes me happy or something!" he shouted even as he wiggled in pure happiness.

I gave him a dull stare. "Doesn't make you happy, huh?" I drawled.

"Shut up!"

I chuckled and shook my head. After that, everything settled down thankfully, and I pulled out a cigarette as I sat down in a nearby chair. Luffy had lost his interest in eating the fuzzy thing in the top hat, which was probably for the best as I really didn't really want to eat something that I'd spoken to and had spoken back. It made things a touch too personal for my liking. That was like naming your chicken before you butcher it. It just wasn't done.

It didn't take more than few minutes for Luffy to get a silly idea in his head, though. "Please come with us. I beg you. Please, Granny!" Inviting the hag to join the crew. Why the hell would he be so stupid as to want that loose cannon in the crew? It had taken five minutes for her to threaten us with knives. Even Nami wasn't that crazed.

"Your name is Luffy, right?" the old lady asked casually.

"Yes."

"You'd better watch your language!" she shouted before kicking out, her heel bashing into Luffy's chin. "I'm just a hundred and thirty years old. I'm still young!" Wait, hadn't Dalton said a hundred and forty?

"Woah… nice kick for an old lady…" I murmured as Luffy hit a nearby wall. Suddenly, he leg whipped around and hit me square in the jaw.

I didn't even have time to scream before I hit the wall hard. Next thing I knew I was on the ground and my face felt distinctly flatter. "My nose…." I murmured against the stones. "Some crappy doctor you are… hurting patients. I hate old people…"

"You want me to become a pirate. That's ridiculous! I don't want to waste my time. Besides, I don't care about going to the ocean," the hag said. What is it with old people and pissing me off anyway? First the shit geezer Zeff. Then flower head with Laboon. Now this hag of a doctor.

"It's ok if you don't care. Just come with us!" Luffy said. "Let's have adventures together, Granny!"

"Didn't I just warn you to watch your mouth?"

Suddenly, I realized the reindeer from before was crouched in the doorway, his one eye behind the frame. What the hell was he doing? He looked surprised we spotted him, which was a little weird too. I mean, he was right out in the open. Luffy took off running after the little guy, and I scrambled to follow. "Hey! Reindeer, why don't you give up and let us eat you!?"

"Stop it, you little brats!" I glanced over my shoulder to see the old hag was chasing after us. I screamed some and tried to speed up. "Maybe, you will be eaten by me before you can eat my reindeer!" she shouted.

"Ahh! The Hag is coming after us!"

"She's taking her knife with her too!"

I spotted a door and made for it. The last thing I wanted was to be chopped up and eaten by some old witch. Luffy managed to stay right with me as we ran, which was impressive, but since the hag was still behind us, it didn't seem that important. As we ran, I soon realized how hard it was to do and that led me to realize that the entire inside of the castle was freezing and there was even snow all over the place. The snow was what was making it so hard to run.

"Do you think it's weird, Luffy?" I asked as I tried to maintain firm footing with heels in snow that could be covering ice. It wasn't the best conditions for running.

"Huh?" Luffy asked, looking over at me like he had no idea what I was saying.

"There is so much snow inside the castle," I clarified.

He stared at me for a minute before it finally seemed to register. He wrapped his arms around himself and began to shiver violently. "It's cold!"

"You just realized that it's cold!?" I demanded. How dense was he? I was wearing a long sleeve dress shirt, and I was freezing. He was still in his vest and shorts! "Look. The snow has covered everything in the castle. All the doors are frozen," I pointed out to him as we continued running around the huge column in the center of the castle that had a staircase wrapping around it.

"Die you little brats!"

"Gaah!" I nearly flung hit the ground as I twisted to avoid getting a huge knife to the back. "Luffy! I think you'd better not ask her to join us! She's not a good doctor; besides, she's trying to kill us!" I said as I jerked my head to the side so that another knife didn't kill me. She was worse than Zeff! I didn't think that was bloody possible!

I skidded around a corner and spotted a door, "There!"

We nearly had to fling ourselves through it in order to dodge a couple of knives but we made it through. Unfortunately, Luffy spotted the reindeer in front of us. "You're over there, reindeer!?"

I sighed angrily before hurrying to keep up with Luffy and the reindeer who had taken off through yet another door. As we were running, I suddenly noticed something and slid to a stop. I was on some ice, though so I kept sliding a ways. "Look at that door, Luffy! Someone must've left it open," I said pointing down to it.

"Eh?"

I abandoned the search for the reindeer that Luffy was dragging me along with and jumped down over the railing to land on the first floor. "It's so cold in here. Anyway, let's close the door. It's no different between inside and outside. That's why it's so cold in here," I explained as I made my way towards the door. Luffy, thankfully, was following me and no longer running around like a lunatic.

"Stop! Don't touch that door!"

I turned in surprise and saw the little reindeer had reappeared, this time up where we'd just jumped down from. I scoffed some and wrapped my arms around myself. "Don't pay any attention to him. Just close it. I'm freezing here," I said. It was just a door. A door that was letting in snow and freezing air from outside.

"That's right," Luffy agreed.

"I said stop! Don't you understand!?" The reindeer roared. He grew into a huge looking beast and broke the railing apart in utter fury, but he wasn't close enough to us to be a threat, so I just kept moving. My curiosity had gotten the better of me, and I peered around.

"What's wrong with him!?" Luffy demanded.

I blinked in surprise when I noticed what the reindeer must have been so upset about. "Hey, Luffy! Come here and take a look at this," I called, looking up at what I'd found.

Luffy came over and I nodded to tell him where to look. "Huh?"

Up at the top of the rather large door, there was a birds nest with four little birds in it. "A Snowbird nest," I stated in case it wasn't obvious enough for Luffy. "If we closed the door, we would have destroyed their nest," I added as I lit a new cigarette and took a drag.

"That's why we can't close it," Luffy finished. I was glad I didn't have to explain that part to him. It would have worried me if he hadn't been able to even make that leap on his own.

A sudden gust of wind had us running back inside the castle. "Cold!"

"Wait a minute! Didn't he just talk?" Luffy asked.

I jerked some as I realized the little guy had, in fact, been speaking. It hadn't quite fully registered before, the full depth of what that meant. Apparently, it didn't take very long for me to grow way too used to strange things. "That's right. He also stands on two legs," I said. We skidded to a stop as the bizarreness of it finally hit home. "Monster!"

"That's so weird. He's a reindeer, but he can stand on two legs!" Luffy said and I could see a bit of excitement starting to seep into him under the surprise.

"And he can change into a bigger body!" I reminded Luffy.

"He must be a monster!"

By now, the excitement had completely taken over my captain. "But he looks like a nice person! Let's ask him to join us!" he said with a huge grin and an excited sparkle in his eye. Suddenly, Luffy took off running again.

"Gah! Luffy! That's not how you ask someone to join your crew!" I said running after my captain. The poor thing would be totally traumatized by Luffy if I didn't do something to put a damper on things. We'd already chased him around the whole castle because Luffy wanted to eat him. That didn't leave the best impression after all…