Chapter 2 Snake Man

What now? Luffy thought. Where was he supposed to go?He wasn't about to go back in the woods and get lost again! I guess I'll just have to keep walking..

After walking a ways he came upon town, a ghost town more like it! Not a soul anywhere. Plus it was still night out so the place looked totally creepy!

"This must be the town that old hag was talking about," Luffy thought out loud. He walked down the streets a ways then stopped. "Hello!" he called, "Anybody there!"

Nothing, just the whispering of wind or the sound of it making a door or a window bang open and shut.

Luffy walked into a saloon, to see if anyone was there. Cobwebs stuck to everything, it looked alot like The Gold Roger bar he had been in at Rogue town.

"Hello!" he called, "Anybody home!"

Nothing.

Well there didn't seem to be anything in this spooky old town so he decided to keep walking. He walked out of the saloon and kept walking straight forward. After awhile he came to a graveyard.

"Wow, creepy!" he remarked.

The whole graveyard set up was the sort of thing you would see in a scary movie. Trees hanging over graves, cobwebs stuck against them. (Whatever creepy critter makes your skin crawl is the best way I can describe how this graveyard makes you feel).

Chills shivered up and down Luffy's spine.

Luffy was so intranced with the graveyard he didn't even notice Nami was starting to wake up.

I must be dead.. I'm floating... Her eyes fluttered open and looked up, "Mm, Luffy's carrying me.. What a nice dream.." she closed her eyes again.

"Nami?"

Nami opened her eyes, "Luffy?"

A big grin spread out on his face, "Hi, Nami!"

Her face went red, "LUFFY!" Nami shrieked trying to scramble out of his arms, "WHAT THE HELL DO YOU THINK YOU'RE DOING!"

"Carrying you."

"I-I know that, b-but why?"

"Well, how else was I supposed to get you out of that old lady's house?"

"Old lady? What? Huh?" Nami looked around. We're in a graveyard? She gasped, "What are we doing here? WERE YOU PLANNING ON BURYING ME!"

Luffy laughed, "No I-"

"Oh my god!" Nami shrieked, noticing the bandages around Luffy's body under his shirt, "What happened!"

Luffy explained.

"So this is "Dead" Town?" Nami asked.

"According to the old lady it is." Luffy answered.

Nami wiped her forehead, "Well whatever.. At least we're alive." She looked up at the sky, "We'd better find some place to rest for the night."

"Well there are plenty of places to stay in the town."

Nami frowned grinding her teeth. "No way Luffy!" she exclaimed putting her hands up. "I'm not staying in some creepy old ghost town!"

Luffy looked around. He noticed another forest a little ways away from the graveyard. "There should be another town around here. Let's go!"

Nami started to walk when she noticed a familiar shadow. She gasped.

"Nami! Come on!" Luffy called back to her.

"C-coming."

She glanced back and the shadow was gone. Nah, it couldn't have been..

"Ok, let's try this again," Zoro sighed, "One, two, three!"

Zoro pointed South, Robin pointed North, Sanji pointed West, Chopper pointed East and Usopp pointed Up.

"One, two, three!"

Zoro pointed West, Robin pointed East, Sanji pointed North, Chopper pointed South and Usopp pointed Up.

"One, two, three!"

Zoro pointed East, Robin pointed West, Sanji pointed South, Chopper pointed North and Usopp pointed Up.

Zoro had just about had it.

"USOPP, WHY DO YOU KEEP POINTING UP!"

"Oh, I was just stretching," Usopp pointed down.

Zoro held his head and groaned, "THAT TEARS IT! THIS ISN'T GETTING US ANYWHERE!"

"Actually Zoro, I know exactly which way we should go!" Usopp spoke up.

Zoro looked at him.

"You do? Where?"

Usopp pointed and struck a heroic pose, "Wherever the wind may take us!"

Zoro groaned and fell over.

Luffy and Nami looked around desperately for a way out of the forest. But every time they had thought they found a way out they just came back to the same tree stump again.

"Oh, great we're lost." Nami groaned.

"Guess we're camping out here tonight!"

"ARE YOU KIDDING? WHO KNOWS WHAT LIVES IN THIS FOREST!"

Luffy closed his eyes and grinned. "Don't worry, I'll protect you!"

Nami blushed a little then turned away from him and laughed, "Yeah, right, like I need your help!"

Luffy frowned, "Hey! What's that supposed to mean!"

Nami laughed, "Just forget it! Let's just find somewhere to sleep."

"Ok, let's split up and see what we can find!"

The two split up .

The forest was actually kind of nice. At least it wasn't totally creepy like that graveyard! After searching awhile Nami decided to take a break and sit down on a rock.

She sighed.

Then something caught her attention. She listened. Water?

"Nami!" she heard Luffy call.

"I'm coming!" she called back.

Nami listened and followed the sound of the water until she came to a river with a waterfall. She stood in awe. It was really beautiful!

She looked back and forth, but she didn't see Luffy anywhere.

"Luffy!" She shouted.

The sound of a bush rustling startled her. She turned, "L-Luffy?"

It happened so quick Nami didn't have a chance to think. One minute she was standing staring at some tall bushes in front of her, and the next minute she was on the ground. Nami was almost afraid to look behind her. She could hear a creature roaring so she knew it couldn't be good.

She rolled onto her back. She gasped.

The creature was a strange site. It looked kind of like a man but it obviously wasn't. It had the body of a man but only it's whole body was bronze and scaly like a snake. Its head was the head of a snake, a cobra snake. It had long claws coming out it's human like hands and feet. And it had horrible red snake eyes.

The creature raised its hand, threatening to smack her again.

Nami felt her leg, feeling for her staff. It wasn't there! Damn! I must have lost it in the ocean!

The creature roared.

Nami closed her eyes, screamed and shielded her face. Nothing happened. She opened one eye.

She gasped, "Luffy!"

"Stay back!" he told her, as he tried to push the creature back.

Luffy had blocked the blow and now was trying to keep the thing from crushing him! The creature flickered it's snake tongue at him, hissing dangerously.

"Gum Gum Rapid Fire!" Luffy rapidly pounded on the things chest. It swiped at him but he dodged. "Gum Gum Whip!" He kicked it and it fell flat on its back. He turned to Nami. "That was easy!"

"Look out!"

Luffy looked but he was too late. The thing smacked him, smashing him into a tree. The creature slowly aproached the now unconscious pirate.

"Hey!" Nami shouted at the creature picking up a thin tree branch that resembled her staff, "Leave him alone!"

She wailed on it. The creature turned to her angrily. She swung at it again. The branch went right into the creature's mouth and it chomped it in half. Nami looked up at it helplessly.

"He'ssss been exssssspecting you..." it said.

All she could get out was, "Huh?"

The creature raised its hand. She closed her eyes.

"UGH!" Nami heard someone groan.

She opened her eyes to surprisingly see Luffy up again and also to see the snake man take a nice chunk out of Luffy's arm.

"OH MY GOD! LUFFY!"

He growled and glanced at her over his shoulder, "Don't worry! I'm handling it!" He brought his arm back, "Gum Gum, BLAST!"

With one hard pound the creator went sailing across the sky.

Luffy chuckled, then fell to his knees holding his arm. Nami knelt beside him.

"Oh Luffy! Are you okay? Can you stand? Do you need a doctor? Here, let me help you!"

He pushed her away. She gasped in surprise.

"I'm fine.."

She said nothing.

"I found somewhere we can stay.." he grabbed her hand. "Come on.."

Luffy drug her along. She wasn't sure where she was going then realized where they were headed. They were going up to the falls. No! They were going behind the waterfall! Luffy drug her in, over rocks, and under dripping pointy rocks.

All Nami could think about was what had just happened. Who was that guy? And what was he talking about? Someone's been expecting me? Nami didn't want Luffy to know she was upset so she tried to make it seem like nothing was wrong. Then she finally was able to push it out of her head.

"This is cool." Nami remarked looking around.

"Yeah!" Luffy laughed, "It's totally awesome in here!"

Finally they were in.

Nami stood in awe of the view. It was really beautiful! "Wow." she said. She went to walk forward but tripped over a rock, "Eeek!"

Luffy caught her and stood her up, holding her against his chest.

"Are you okay?"

Nami was fine but she didn't reply. She was too caught up in the moment.

"Nami..."

Her eyes had fixed on his and she was totally intranced with them. Wow, I never noticed how nice his eyes are.. Nami flattened one of her hands against his chest. She liked how her body felt against his. His chest is rock hard! It feels nice.. He looks so hot without that hat.. Wait! What am I thinking? Why am I thinking? I'm acting like I like him... I don't like him, do I? But I feel so comfortable... And his eyes are swallowing me! Like two dark-

"-you're heavier than you look!"

"LUFFY!" Nami roared, smacking him in the back of the head knocking him down, "WHY DO YOU HAVE TO SPOIL EVERYTHING WITH YOUR BIG MOUTH!"

The confused boy blinked in confusion, "What? What did I say?"

Nami groaned, "Never mind..."

She sat down helplessly. He sat down across from her. There was a silence. She glanced at him. Looking at Luffy without his hat looked kind of weird. She had hardly ever seen him without it. Then she started thinking. He lost it because of me...

"I'm sorry about your hat." Nami began, "I know how much it means to you.."

"Don't worry about it. It's not your fault."

There was another silence.

"So I guess that hat's pretty special to you?"

Luffy smiled. "Yeah, my friend Shanks gave it to me!" then he frowned, "I was supposed to give it back to him..."

Now Nami felt even worse about it, "Sorry."

"It's okay," he grinned, "I'll find it!"

My, my, isn't he naive. She lay on her side.

Silence..

"So, how are you feeling?" Luffy asked.

"I'm the one who should be asking you! You're in worse shape than me!"

Luffy shrugged, "It's nothing."

She rolled towards him, "Yes it is! You could have gotten killed!"

Luffy shrugged.

"You should have let go of me.."

"What?"

"When we fell over board.."

"It's no big deal.."

"You should have let go of my hand!"

"I can't swim. It wouldn't have mattered either way."

"You would have had a better chance if you wouldn't have had me dragging you down!"

"I said 'it was no big deal'!"

Nami got on her knees and yelled at him, "Yes it is, Luffy! I-I." She lay down again onto her side facing away from him. She held back tears, "I could have gotten you killed.."

"Nami.."

"Just like when you saved me from Arlong. You could have gotten killed just because I needed your help! I never even, even-" She began to cry," I never even thanked you for that!"

Luffy got on his hands and knees and hovered over her, "You don't have to thank me, Nami. I did it because I wanted to. Besides I couldn't have let go of your hand even if I wanted to! I promised I wouldn't!"

"But you-"

Luffy turned her so her back was flat against the ground and she was facing him.

"Nami! I promised I wouldn't let go and I didn't! I wouldn't let that happen to any of my crew!"

"Luffy..."

"And you don't need to thank me for anything! I wouldn't have let go even if I hadn't of promised! I wouldn't let anything like that happen to you!"

"Luffy.."Nami put her hand on his forehead and slid her fingers threw his hair. Nami surprised him by smacking him in the back of the head again. He looked at her surprised.

She laughed.

He started to laugh as well.

Nami covered her face and started to cry as she continued to laugh.

Luffy removed her hands from her face with a concerned look on his own.

"Nami?"

She laughed and pushed him away. She rolled on her side, "It's nothing."

There was a silence. Then Luffy finally said, "Ok."

She sighed.

Luffy rubbed his forearms, "It sure is cold in here! But at least we'll be away from that stupid snake man!"

Nami frowned, rubbing her forearms as well, "Yeah, I wonder who he was.."

Luffy shrugged, "Probably just some wacko."

"He said something really strange to me.."

Luffy looked at her, "What?"

"He said, "He's been expecting you" I wonder who he was talking about.."

Luffy didn't say anything.

She shivered, "Geez! It is cold in here! I'm freezing!

Luffy layed down beside her.

"-and it's too damp to start a fire in here. How are we-"

Glomp!

"Hey! What are you doing!" Nami shieked, suddenly having Luffy's arms thrown around her.

"Keeping you warm."

"B-b-b-but, Luffy-"

He gave her a mischievous grin, "You don't want to freeze do you?"

She was still surprised but then she smiled and gave a little mischievous grin as well. "I guess not." She turned her head.

"Ok. Good night.." he closed his eyes.

Nami tried to go to sleep but couldn't. Especially when the arm around her was the one that had gotten scratched. Plus Luffy's snoring was really hard to sleep through! Nami stared at the wound, feeling guiltier and guiltier about what had happened the longer she looked at it. He got hurt because he was protecting me. He got that because of me.. Without my staff I'm useless.. She closed her eyes. Completely useless.. She opened them again. And who was that guy? And what was he talking about? Maybe it would have been better if Luffy had never met me.. She closed them. Maybe...

She fell asleep.