Author's Notes: Greetings, everyone! I hope you had a happy holiday.
First of all, I must apologize for waiting about a month to update, but Christmas came along, followed closely by New Year's, which was, in turn, tailed by finals, which included tight newspaper deadlines. The time and energy to write was far and few between. My apologies once again, and I hope the updates for the remainder of this story will be fairly regular.
Secondly, I know that several of you who've been kind enough to review have mentioned my problem in the casting with this story. I would like to say that this isn't an accidental oversight on my part. When I first began this story, I was still tottering along in Alabasta. I didn't know how it would end, I didn't know if I'd ever get my hands on the rest, nor did I feel I'd seen enough of Vivi to do her justice in a story. I'd recently seen the 3rd movie, and I felt that particular casting would work better in this story. It's out of story line, I know, but after trying fruitlessly to make several elements fit, I realized that something was going to be out of place no matter what. So, I decided not to worry about it. As for "the other person" who later joins the crew, her case was the same as Vivi's. I simply didn't feel like I could do her justice yet. I've managed to get up to Skypiea now, however, and have full intention of adding at least one of them to a story later on. My sincerest apologies if I've disappointed anyone.
Well, I hate writing author's notes, so, in short, think of it as a movie and sit back, enjoy, and share some of that popcorn with me. ^_~ Thanks for taking the time to read this. On with the story!
- Quatrina Raberba
"Saw."
"Check."
"Hammer."
"Check."
"Eegyak."
"Ch--a what?" Tony Tony Chopper turned to Usopp suddenly, as the two sat beside the nearly repaired helm in the kitchen, tool box resting between them.
"An eegyak," spoke Usopp matter-of-factly. "No tool box is complete without one."
"An…eegyak." The reindeer blinked and rummaged through the box, blinking curiously. "I…don't see it…"
There was a gasp. "That's awful! There has to be one in there somewhere!" Usopp clapped his hands over his face, apparently shocked. "I can't fix this without it!"
Chopper's mouth gaped open, and he stared at Usopp with wide eyes. "Are you serious?!"
Usopp nodded sagely. "Dead serious."
"We'll be stuck here forever!" Chopper exclaimed, suddenly frightened.
"Isn't that awful? And it's all because we don't have an eegyak." The long nosed man leaned a little closer to his helper, eyes narrowed, his voice lowered. "I'll bet you anything Luffy ate it."
"No!" cried Chopper, as if saying it would make it not so. "No! No, that can't be true!"
His friend suddenly snorted, unable to keep up the act. "It's not!" Usopp suddenly grinned, a mischief look overtaking his face. "I was kidding."
"USOPP!" Chopper scowled. "Don't do that!" Usopp merely laughed when the reindeer looked in the box again.
"So the eegyak has to be in here somewhere, right?"
"Right, right," chortled the sniper. "You just have to look really hard."
There was a brief pause. "Usopp, why don't you let Sanji help us?" inquired the reindeer, as he continued fumbling through the tool box.
"Didn't you know? He's awful at fixing things," answered Usopp, while screwing some bolts in on their helm. "Once he blew up the refrigerator when he was trying to repair it. Took him three days to come around and let me fix it."
"Really?" giggled the doctor, surveying several tools for a moment before deciding that none were an eegyak.
"It's true!" Usopp grinned. "By the time it was fixed, all the food had been spoiled."
"That's an obvious lie," spoke Sanji coolly, as he strode into the kitchen, lit cigarette hanging from his lips. Both sniper and doctor froze, eyes wide that they had been overheard.
Laughing nervously, Usopp looked up to behold the smoking chef surveying them. "Then I'll let you fix the helm," he answered, lifting his hands from it, dropped tools clattering onto the floor.
The blond visibly twitched. "You just quit being lazy and stick to your own work." And with that, he strode to the counter to prepare a drink for Nami. Chopper gave a confused blink, and Usopp chuckled under his breath.
"See? He should stick to his cooking and us to our eegyakking."
Irritated, Sanji called over his shoulder, "And just so you know, there's no such thing as an eegyak, Chopper."
"USOPP!"
The long nosed man laughed, as he peered forward at the helm. "No, it's all right. We don't need an eegyak after all!"
Sanji growled. "How many times do I have to tell you, there's no such thing--"
"It's fixed!" announced the sniper, as he fastened the final screw into the large steering stick. Chopper broke into applause, beaming suddenly.
"Now we can go find Luffy and Zoro!" he exclaimed, standing up from the floor.
"That's right," confirmed Usopp as he, too, stood up. "Since Nami has the coordinates of where we last were, we should be there in no time. I mean, it's not like we were blown that far off course."
"Nami-san is so wonderful," sighed the chef. And with good timing, too, for the orange haired navigator entered the kitchen just as he had uttered those words.
"I thought I heard someone say the helm was fixed," she simply said, glancing at the item in question.
Usopp puffed himself up proudly. "That would be me. Chopper and I worked hard on it." Chopper merely grinned sheepishly, choosing not to mention the case of the missing eegyak, which apparently wasn't supposed to exist at all. He still wasn't entirely sure about that.
Nami, upon peering at the helm, placed her hands upon it and gently moved it back and forth to test it out. The ship seemed to lurch accordingly, and she gave a satisfied smile. "It works!"
"Of course!" Usopp folded his arms over his chest. "You were expecting something different?"
Sanji raised a curled eyebrow at him. "Do you really want me to answer that?"
Usopp's eyes suddenly darted over to the blond, a frown suddenly coming across his face. "Hey."
"At any rate," Nami went on, ignoring the light banter between the two, "I'd say we should go South for now. That should get us to where we were soon enough." She lightly nudged the helm with her foot, as if still unsure of its stability. "Who knows? Maybe Luffy and Zoro are still floating around on a piece of wood or something."
"Nah, I doubt it," said Usopp, sitting down at the kitchen table. "That would get too boring for Luffy. He'd make themselves be found by another pirate ship or something." He grinned and placed his chin into his palm.
"I thought we decided they were safe on an island," voiced Chopper suddenly, looking concerned.
"That's right." Sanji took a drag from his cigarette, slowly exhaling smoke from his mouth and into the air. "We've all ready had this conversation, Usopp."
"Why're you looking at me?!" The curly haired man suddenly looked over at the chef, appalled. "Nami was the one who brought it up!"
Sanji's eyes glinted dangerously, the cigarette making him look all the more sinister. "Say that again."
"A-ah, d-did I say something?"
"I thought so."
Nami suddenly sat at the kitchen table, her sugary voice being implemented into action once more. "Oh, Sanji-kun, could you please fix me a snack? Preferably an apple tart. And it'd be nice if you could finish with that drink. I'm awfully thirsty."
The chef's ominous air suddenly melted into something far less threatening. "YES, Nami-san!" He quickly turned to the kitchen counter, pulling out his tools of trade from various drawers.
"Oh, and Usopp?" Nami's eyes shifted to the darker fellow. "Steer for us for awhile, okay?"
Usopp had a feeling that "awhile" really meant "until we get there", and he almost had a mind to protest, but his eyes cautiously wandered over to Sanji before he gave a resigned, defeated sigh. Standing up from his seat, he ambled over to the helm and placed his hands upon it.
"We're going South," the navigator reminded him.
"I know, I know," he mumbled in response, shifting the stick forward and lightly to the left.
He missed Luffy and Zoro; he really did. The absence of their comments and laughter from the ship were painfully obvious today. He had half expected Zoro to suddenly stride into the kitchen and get into some sort of squabble with Sanji over something silly. He lightly frowned to himself. The idea of playing hide-and-seek with Luffy in Zoro's stead didn't sound nearly so bad, now that he thought about it.
Besides, if they were here, the two of them would probably be taking turns steering. And then he, Usopp, would have been able to sit down and taste one of Sanji's delicious apple tarts instead.
"South, Usopp," came Nami's voice once more. He adjusted the helm accordingly, and he silently admitted to himself that it wasn't meant to be.
***
The air was dense with heat and moisture, and a drop of sweat leisurely made its way down Roronoa Zoro's face as he ambled his way out of the forest and into the small clearing around the rocky mountain's base. He paused for the fifth time since he had started his hunt for food, his ears straining to hear any sound. While one might have thought that was an awfully strange thing to do, this seemed perfectly normal for Zoro.
In hunts on other islands, various beasts would always cross his path at some point or another. Being the skilled swordsman that he was, he would have no problem in slaying it and bringing back more meat that anyone ever needed. But after hunting for an hour on this island, the green haired man began to notice something quite amiss.
No matter how still he stayed, and no matter how soundless he remained, complete and utter silence always reigned the seemingly deserted island.
It was an eerie silence. Nothing stirred at all in its wake, save for the branches that lightly swayed in the small breeze. He hadn't felt like he was being watched anymore since that morning, and he was quite sure that he would have seen anything that had been spying on them. Fact was fact -- there was nothing alive on that island, save for the countless, ancient trees that loomed over the island, and the scattered plant life that lived throughout them. Zoro's mind told him time and time again that this simply couldn't be right. But every instinct in his soul shouted at him that this was exactly what it was.
He and Luffy were truly and absolutely alone.
It struck the swordsman as almost amusing that it had taken him as long as it did for him to realize that there positively weren't any other creatures with them in this wretched forest. But he was also quite sure that Luffy hadn't given the lack of animals a second thought. The rubber man had wandered away excitedly in an effort to go further explore the island, leaving Zoro to do the hunting. Since there seemed to be nothing to actually hunt, he decided that the two of them would have to decide on an alternate source of food. Meat was out of the question, for now.
Suddenly, however, his eyes darted up the rocky paths of the old mountain he and Luffy had visited that very morning.
Maybe there's something up there to kill, he silently said.
As soon as the very thought flittered through his mind, he immediately began to make his way up the difficult slope. While it didn't start out incredibly steep, it was only a matter of time before he was forced to implement both hands in maneuvering up the mountain.
Minutes drifted by, accompanied with the heavy climbing, until he got to a sturdy path along the side of the mountain that was safe to stand upon. Crouching lightly, he maintained his balance as he realized that he was quite a ways up from the ground. Even so, he knew just as well that he was no where near the very top of the mountain.
He took another pause and listened carefully, however, in hopes of hearing some sort of sound of life. As he did this, his eyes scanned the little cliff he stood upon. Resting along a large slab of stone that helped compromise part of the mountain's side, was a gaping cave. He turned to it and couldn't help but notice that the shape of it was strikingly similar to the one that was at the base of the mountain, although this one was a good deal smaller.
He paused once more, listening, before he heard a sudden noise emit from the shadowy cavern. It was a soft, shuffling noise that barely tickled his sense of hearing. Wasting no time in checking it out, he swiftly entered the cave and lightly gazed around. The shuffling sounded again, and his eyes instantly located the source -- behind a large, oddly shaped boulder that seemed to have fallen from the stone ceiling eons ago.
He took great care in remaining silent, however, as he made his way over to it, his eyes never leaving the massive stone. He grinned suddenly as one of his hands came to a rest on a sword. Perhaps they would have something to eat after all…
But just as he was about to make a move, a round face abruptly popped up from behind the boulder and loomed in front of his own. Wide, curious eyes bored into the swordsman's, and an unnaturally large smile appeared out of no where.
Although startled for the briefest of moments, Zoro regained his composure and growled with irritation. "Luffy!"
"Hi!" The younger fellow continued beaming as he leaned over the boulder to stare at his companion with barely contained enthusiasm. "I was messing around with the rocks around here! There sure are a lot of funny rocks, aren't there?"
"Yeah…rocks," muttered Zoro vaguely, glancing around the cave, irritation all ready half forgotten. "Why'd you come up here, though? I thought you were at the other side of the shore."
"I came up here, too," Luffy simply answered. "This place is so interesting!" A brief pause. "I'll bet you caught lots of meat, though! Good thing, too, because I'm starving!"
Zoro's eyebrow twitched lightly. "Does it look like I caught anything?" he asked, raising his arms lightly at his sides to emphasize his lack of game. "I really don't think there's anything here to catch."
Luffy blinked before grinning suddenly and pointed behind his first mate. "Why don't you try catching that thing then?"
It was then that Zoro abruptly felt hot, moist breath against his back. He gritted his teeth and swiftly whirled around only to be faced by massive, gleaming eyes that were both the size of footballs. An even larger, blue snout accompanied the eyes, along with frighteningly sharp teeth that were glistening with saliva.
A soft growl emitted from its terrible throat, and Zoro wasted no time in trying to figure what in the world the hostile creature was. He swiftly placed a sword in his mouth, withdrawing two more immediately thereafter. But just before he could lunge forward to attack, the ground beneath them gave a sudden lurch.
"What?!" The word was barely uttered from his clenched mouth before the stone beneath them gave way and the two went tumbling into the dark abyss that swallowed them whole within moments. Huge eyes gave a perplexed blink before the monster's head slinked out from what remained of the cave.
True silence reigned once more.
-End Chapter Four-