"Okay, let's head back to the ship now." Zoro grabbed Sanji's wrist again, pulling him back on his feet as he stood up. The cook was still dripping, and his face was pale where it wasn't flaring angrily red, but at least he wasn't bleeding anymore. He also did smell a lot better after the wash. Zoro took one glance at the crumpled remains of what had once been a black suit jacket, and discreetly forgot about it. No need to bring more baggage than he had to, especially not such stinky stuff.
He led the wet blond back to the snarl of trees on the bank that had been so tricky to maneuver before. He must be getting the hang of this guiding, because it went much easier this time. Once clear of that, he could see where the ground started sloping gently downwards. It was good that they were getting closer to the ship, because no matter how good Zoro felt he was getting, this was slow and cumbersome going. Even with his warnings, Sanji bumped against a tree, and the ensuing bout of swearing back and forth distracted him from noticing the same tree's root sticking up right in front of the cook. Obviously nature had it in for him today, and he went down hard, leaving Zoro grasping at empty air.
The crash sent a flock of small birds flying in twittering fright. The wind sighed through the trees, rattling branches. Zoro waited for the outraged cursing to begin. When none was immediately forthcoming he felt a small pang of – concern, maybe. It sure as hell wasn't guilt. It was the cook's own damn fault he was in this situation in the first place, but Zoro had accepted the task of bringing him back safely, and he had let himself get sidetracked by his charge's annoying bickering. He couldn't let that keep happening, or they would never get anywhere. Which they wouldn't anyway, if Sanji didn't get back on his feet.
The cook was sitting up now, brown ferns flattened around him, lighting a cigarette as if he didn't have a care in the world. Again, that small feeling nagged at Zoro. Something in the way he was doing it, in slow, deliberate motions, and without cursing first, felt off. "Are you coming, or do you want to stay there?" Zoro asked as the cook released the first puff of smoke. He moved to stand over Sanji, resisted the impulse to poke him with the tip of his boot.
"I'm thinking… staying here might be safer." Sanji grinned tightly around the cigarette. "But I don't want to keep a lady waiting. Nami-san's probably found Chopper by now."
"Yeah." He really should not have been dropping his blind person like that. There was not enough aggression by far in Sanji's voice, and the skin showing under his tangled bangs was a shade paler than before. Considering that he had been doing a fair impression of a ghost recently, that was not good.
"Here, let's go." It was becoming habit now, to grab Sanji by the wrist and haul him to his feet. Before, though, Sanji hadn't needed quite so much help getting himself upright, and he hadn't been swaying, either. Zoro was still facing him, and caught him in a hold around the shoulders. "What's wrong?"
Sanji shrugged out of his grasp, turned away. "Nothin'. Told you, it's rude to keep a lady waiting." He backed up his words with a sluggish step away.
"Don't be more of an idiot than you already are." Zoro, who could see he was heading straight for a low branch, made a grab for him and swung him around by the shoulder.
"I'm not! I'm fine. Just… let's get back, okay?" Sanji batted at his hand, pulling away. At least he seemed steadier on his feet now.
"Stop that. You're heading into the tree again, stupid."
"Oh." There was a brief pause, then another puff of smoke. "So you noticed this time."
"Yeah, yeah. If you hadn't been so noisy before, I could've told you to lift your lazy feet. So shut up, stop distracting me, and just walk." Zoro urged Sanji in the right direction, slightly less remorseful now that the chef was mouthing back at him. But that nagging feeling didn't quite let go. It was obvious that Sanji wouldn't tell him if he had hurt himself worse in the fall, but the way he was favoring his right leg now gave him away. That, and every now and again a shiver ran through the lean shoulder under his hand. It could be this cold wind that had just picked up, but Zoro would feel better if Chopper was here to handle this. Collapsing crewmates was the doctor's area of expertise, not Zoro's. Zoro made things collapse, he didn't take care of them. Not that the cook had collapsed yet, but his steps were slowing, and his reactions were getting more sluggish.
The hill they were on was rapidly leading them downwards, and after a little while Zoro could hear the sound of waves on the wind. The glimpses he got of the choppy sea told him that they were still pretty high up. He couldn't see any hint of the Going Merry, or the beach where they had anchored, but it would probably just be a matter of getting down to lower ground. Through the sparse foliage of the branches overhead he could see dark clouds now completely hiding any sign of blue.
"Hang on." He waited for Sanji to halt, then looked up again. "Those weren't blowing in that direction before, were they?"
"Those what weren't doing what?" The cook turned his head blindly.
"The clouds. I think the wind might have changed."
Sanji was silent. The clouds moved overhead, apparently going somewhere completely different than the two pirates.
"Nami said to go down, and follow the wind. So the wind must have changed."
Sanji groaned.
"I guess we should just go down to the shore and see if the others are there yet."
Sanji's shoulders dropped. "If you've gotten us lost, I will kick your directionally challenged ass."
Zoro snorted. "Sure. And we're not lost – I can see the sea, and that's where we're going."
Sanji turned around to snarl at him – or at least at his hand. Zoro himself was not really within that snarling range. "We're on an island! There's sea on all sides, and you've brought us to the wrong side, you seaweed-headed moron."
"You can't know that. Winds change."
"Do you see the ship anywhere?" Sanji gestured vaguely behind him, in the direction of the distinctly ship-less ocean.
"Do you?" Sometimes it paid off to go with a low blow.
There was a short silence in which Sanji's jaw clenched, a vein at his temple throbbing. "No. I'm blinded."
"Exactly. You couldn't even see if we were still on the same island or not."
Sanji looked honestly appalled. "Please tell me we're on the same island."
"Of course we are! And we're at the right place, too. Probably."
The cook breathed a sigh of relief. "You're sure?"
"Absolutely." At least about the island. "How could we not be on the same island?"
Sanji shrugged. "With you, it could happen."
"Says the idiot who couldn't beat up a flower."
"I…!" Sanji flailed, obviously spoiling for a fight – and instead doubled over, turning away with shoulders heaving. Convulsions wrenched his body as he braced his hands on his knees and retched. As the shudders disappeated, Sanji gasped and spat weakly. The dry yellow grass at his feet was stained with large splatters of fresh blood. Even Zoro knew that couldn't be a good sign.
Sanji's face was even more drawn when he straightened, wiping his mouth with a shaking hand. "Shit," he mumbled, his long legs unsteady as he took a step backwards. "Thought it wouldn't…" And then he fell.
Zoro caught him before he hit the ground, looping Sanji's limp arm behind his neck and putting his other arm around the chef's slim waist. The blond head lolled against his shoulder, then jerked up as another spasm gripped Sanji's body. The arm around Zoro's neck tensed, and he tried to pull his wrist out of Zoro's grip.
"Can stand m'self." Sanji coughed.
Zoro ignored him. "You said you thought it wouldn't what?"
"Nothing. It's nothing." At Zoro's silence, Sanji relented. "Just that I think I swallowed some of whatever the hell was in that shitty plant. And I thought it wouldn't matter, not if we got back to Chopper…" He trailed off as another shudder hit.
"You swallowed that crap?" Having felt its effect on his skin, Zoro would not be eager to have it in his guts. "Wonderful."
"It wasn't on purpose!"
"And now you're throwing up blood." Sanji didn't contest that. Chopper needed to see to this mess as soon as possible. Although the cook was standing up now, it wasn't clear if that was going to last for long. The way he was leaning against Zoro, now that he had stopped struggling, suggested he might not be up for much more walking. He had been getting steadily worse ever since they left Nami, no matter how much he tried to hide it, and now with the blood… But the sea was there, and the ship would be on the sea, so they had to be close. "Let's go."
The woods grew sparser, the trees clinging to the thin soil on the verge of the sea stunted by the wind. None of them had any of their leaves left, and Zoro could see where the island ended now, a steep cliff plunging down to meet the crashing waves. Here was a place where he could finally get a good view, and locate that elusive beach.
Still supporting the cook, Zoro carefully brought them to the edge. The wind was stronger here, cold and laced with salt spray reaching even this high. He could feel Sanji shiver when it hit. The sea was dark and roiling, echoing the sky, white foam cresting the powerful waves that surged around the island.
"Hope for your sake the wind's changed," came a mumble from his side. "'Cause what I'm feeling now is hitting us head on."
"Yeah, yeah. I did just what Nami said."
"Are you claiming this is Nami-san's fault now?" The outrage in Sanji's voice was accompanied by a burst of energy, as he picked most of his weight up off Zoro. He didn't quite disentangle himself from Zoro's grasp, but he was managing to stand mostly on his own.
"Well, I did follow her directions."
"You… no you didn't, you numbskull! I should never have let you-- if you hadn't--" Sanji was spluttering, mostly incoherently, but at least he was articulating all the insults. Zoro let him keep at it while he surveyed the area at the cliff's base. There had been cliffs where they had left the ship, hadn't there? And a beach, of course. So if he could only spot that beach… Maybe a bit further down? Because the beach had been in a bay. And a bay would be hidden by the cliffs.
"Are you even listening to me, you great moldy dumpling head?"
"Moldy dumpling?" Zoro cocked his head. Where in the world was Sanji getting these insults? Had he really emptied his whole regular arsenal already? "No, I'm not."
Sanji growled, and only because he couldn't see it, Zoro grinned at him. "Let's keep going down." He didn't give Sanji much choice on the matter, since he still had his indignant crewmate in a secure hold. If the quivering he could feel through that tattered blue shirt wasn't just outrage, the extra support might soon be necessary again. Besides, he didn't want Sanji wandering off on his own right now. He had very precise instructions – no letting the cook walk off cliffs.
Zoro stopped frequently to look over the edge, scanning the gray rock-face for any sign of a golden beach or a small sheep-headed ship. When neither was to be found, he scouted the land around them, hoping to catch sight of one of the others come to meet them. The light was failing, the winds were growing ever stronger, and the crew would need to be gathered to help the ship ride out the bad weather.
At his side, Sanji had fallen silent again. His flaxen hair was whipping around his face, and his mouth was clamped tightly shut around a cigarette that Zoro had no idea how he had gotten there. At least it wasn't lit. There were spots of red flaring around the scrapes on his skin, very bright against the bone whiteness of the rest of him.
"Just a little further now," Zoro said, and got an answering nod from the blond head, but still no sound. The wind would probably blow the cook over if he tried to stand on his own now. None of the others were in sight; the only things around them were gnarled trees with their branches groaning as they fought the wind, and the boulders that had become an increasingly common fixture in the landscape. Beyond them was the forest, but in there, under coverage of the foliage, it was already impenetrable night, a night created by the heavy clouds and approaching dusk.
But true to his word, Zoro spotted a glimpse of yellow sand in the gathering gloom just a little further down. There seemed to be some kind of cove down there, even if he couldn't see the ship. Maybe Nami had decided it would be safer to take the Merry to deeper waters – the waves sounded loud and fierce as they echoed against the sea cliff's walls. But surely Chopper would still be waiting for them, and maybe Usopp too, with a signal flare. Then they could take Sanji and fix him, and Zoro could get some rum to warm himself up with, and then a nap. He couldn't see the way down at the moment, but he would probably find it as they got closer.
The rocky side of the island wasn't that steep over the bay, Zoro discovered once he was close enough to see the whole little beach. It was more like a slope than a cliff, with grass growing in tufts on outcroppings between boulders on it nearly all the way to the bottom, where gray cliffs on both sides parried the blows of great black waves.
"We might have to climb a bit over there," he said. It could be that this was the best way they had found to get up on the island when they anchored. "It's not so bad, though."
It seemed as if Sanji had something that he wanted to say about this. He raised his head and opened his mouth, but what came out was a cough that wracked his entire body, tearing the cigarette from his lips. It was as if he were choking, and when the cook wrenched free from his support, Zoro could only watch as his crewmate doubled over again, spitting blood and fighting for breath between the bouts of coughing. Sanji's arms were clutching his chest, and even after the agonizing coughing ended, his breathing still sounded shallow and labored.
Zoro had no idea why all of that should mean he missed everything else going on at the moment, but apparently it did, because he didn't notice the crazy mass of animals until they were almost upon them. They came from below, running at a frantic pace with their heads lowered and gray backs bumping together so close it was hard to tell if it was one animal or fifty.
"What is that noise?" Sanji croaked, his head tossing from side to side as he attempted to localize it.
"I think we've just found your flower's second favorite snack, after Idiot," Zoro snapped. He lacked the time to describe them, and even with time, he wouldn't have known how to even start explaining what he saw. Up close the beasts looked a bit like pigs, if pigs were clawed, covered in soft gray fur, and didn't have snouts. Whatever they were, they were not the least bit afraid of people, and very, very determined to get to wherever they were going. And apparently he and his confused charge were blocking their way there.
Though they were only about knee-high, Zoro couldn't tell how many of them there were, or if they might be poisonous or inflatable or whatever else that Grand Line critters could possibly think of being for maximum annoyance. He let Sanji go, pulling the unsteady cook into cover behind him as he drew one katana.
The strange animals rushed at them, not swerving an inch even at the last second, and Zoro brought his sword down to deal the first one within reach a deadly blow, stopping their charge. Well, that had been the plan, anyway. But his blow ended with a rebound that sent shockwaves up through his arm, the impact making the metal ring in an ugly way. The animal gave an outraged squeal, tufts of gray fur flying in the air behind it as it shoved past Zoro. It was definitely not dead in any way.
Zoro tried again, stabbing straight down at a pest that had just bumped its head hard against his. The tip of his sword caught for a second, then skipped straight off the animal's back and buried itself a couple of inches into the soft soil the beast had just vacated. So the little bastards had some kind of armor. That was just not right. Furry creatures should not have armor, and definitely not armor that resisted his swords. Some days he really hated the Grand Line.
There was a thump behind him, followed by a breathless curse and a dazed critter flying through the air dangerously close to his head. "What the hell are these things? That felt like kicking a rock!" Sanji's voice was strained, and his next curse was cut short by another thump.
Zoro had sheathed his useless sword and was busy trying to get his legs free of the seething mass of creatures to kick at the furry armor-pigs that were determined to bound straight into him. Even that wasn't easy. He felt his footing slip, and unbalanced as he was they were getting dangerously close to the edge. The beach had not looked so far down when he considered climbing, but they were not there yet, and this was all different anyway.
Behind him, Sanji staggered, bandaged hand splaying on Zoro's back and grasping a handful of his shirt for balance. Over the ruckus they were making, Zoro could hear the cook breathing in shallow pants. How many of those little things could there be here – they hadn't seemed to be so numerous when he first spotted them, so unless they were multiplying or… doubling back? Which would mean that they were using a strategy. That they were actually attacking, not just running madly. But there was no biting or clawing or anything, just the small hard heads ramming into their legs and - pushing them. In a flash, Zoro put the pieces together, but for a moment his brain refused to accept what he was thinking. It was just too absurd. They were attacking?
In that moment Sanji's hand vanished from his back, torn away. Out of the corner of his eye, Zoro caught a glimpse of blond and blue and black tumbling backwards over gray.
He turned, kicked his way through the enemy animals just in time to see Sanji fighting to regain his balance, unaware of where he was and what lay ahead. Zoro's shouted warning came too late. And although Sanji had survived worse and the cliffs weren't that high and Zoro had not yet showed these pesky furballs who was the strongest, he could not let Sanji fall. Not alone, not now, and it was getting too late to catch him.
As his crewmate toppled backwards, Zoro launched himself after him. Under him the gray backs were replaced by the black and white of foamy waves breaking on rocks – he was over the cliff's edge, and so was Sanji. When he caught up with him there was nothing more Zoro could do than wrap his arms tightly around the cook, shielding his injured body with his own as they fell headfirst. His last thought before the fall knocked the wind out of him was the question of whether getting outmaneuvered by small furry animals was more embarrassing than getting eaten by a flower.
To be continued…
Again, thank you to those who have commented! It makes me very glad to know that people are enjoying the story, and I hope you'll all like what comes next...