CHAPTER 19

Ari is Sick? The Tale of Lost Bracelets and Memories!

The first thing that stands out is the cold. I can no longer wiggle my toes or feel my body, perhaps because I don't have one anymore. A numb chill. You know it's there, you know it's cold, but you don't feel it. And as soon as you're in it, you're in it. No return. No hope. But sometimes, I feel, really feel. A spark of hope, like a candle. And as soon as you believe that it may stay lit, it's snuffed out again. Then suddenly, as if the ice had been set aflame I feel warmth. Familiar warmth. Like a crackling fire's embrace. I look up to see the face of someone I failed. But she's different. I can't quite put my finger on it, but something is different. Her brow is furrowed, she's worried. Her worry soon turns to panic. I'm pulled back down, down to a room somewhere. All at once, the warmth is gone. The comforting fireside is now replaced with a burning, stinging sensation in my chest. My chest. I have a chest? What-

Ari's eyes fly open, and she hurls forward, coughing up air. She feels a chill run across her skin. I can feel the cold? Right after she thinks it, she has no idea why the thought even occurred to her. Of course I can feel the cold, dumb me.

She takes a look around her and finds that she's in a metal-framed bed with light-blue blankets. The bed rests opposite of the door, which has been left ajar. The room around her is warmed by a blazing fireplace. A small oil lamp sits on the desk past the nightstand beside her, where one of the Straw Hats searches through his books frantically. She sits to maneuver out of her bed, when a sharp pang rings through her head. She instinctively reaches to touch it, but instead of her head, her palm meets soft gauze.

The pirate at the desk instantly zips to her side. "You need rest," he orders, "you're just getting out of hypothermia; it's a miracle that you're still alive. Most patients that have undergone the trauma that you did would've been dead before they got here."

Ari wasn't sure what the racoon-dog was talking about, but his voice was annoying her. She didn't have time for bed rest. She had something… something important… What was it that I really needed to do again? I can't remember… "I… I nee… ta do somethin impotant." Ari resisted the urge to get back under the covers and attempted to push the little creature aside, but he was stronger than he looked. Either that or she really was weakened by some illness. Just the act of using her muscles alone made her feel dizzy. She didn't even have the energy to push the pirate aside as he tucked her back under the blankets.

"Rest," he says again, "you'll feel better in the morning."

And at that, Ari's eyes flutter shut and she falls into a deep sleep once again.

XXX

When Ari wakes, she keeps her eyes shut for a while longer as she attempts to remember her dream the night before. To her disappointment, she only remembers it in fragments: heels pounding on a bridge, the smell of pumpkin bread, and a racoon-dog that could talk. She laughs to herself, but the sound doesn't come out as expected. Instead of a laugh, it sounds more like a half-croak, half-wheeze. This sends her into a coughing fit, and she doubles over. Opening her eyes, she notices a glass of water sitting on the nightstand beside her, and hurriedly takes a few gulps. She sighs with relief as her cough subsides. She takes another sip just in case, and places the glass back down on the nightstand when she senses another presence at her bedside. She freezes in place before slowly peeking down to see who it is.

"You're awake!" a racoon-dog cheers.

Her eyes open wide and she accidentally sprays her last sip of water on his face as she erupts into another round of laughter. "The… racoon-dog… that was REAL?!" The scratchiness in her voice goes unnoticed due to her own amusement.

"I'M A REINDEER! REIN. DEER!" he rebuts, but this only makes her laugh more, until tears form at the corners of her eyes. "AND IS THAT ANYWAY TO TREAT YOUR DOCTOR?!"

"You're the one supposed to be treating me!" She bubbles up again, but soon regrets it as she coughs up more air and heaves, "Water… water…" She stretches out to the nightstand and reaches for her glass, but in her haste, it topples over the side and spills onto the floor. "Water…" she whines.

"Here," the ra-reindeer hands her another glass.

She greedily gulps it down and sighs, "Better." She leans back against her pillows.

"This will help with your cough." He hands her a small tablet.

She shrugs and pops the tablet in her mouth, washing it down with another sip of water. Her eyes pass a glance at the door, which has been left ajar like it was last night. A brief flash of green goes past the door. Last night… "I'm sorry, what's your name?" she asks, fighting down a chuckle as she makes eye-contact.

"Chopper!" he cheers. "You were brought in here late last night."

"Last night," Ari mumbles. Now that she's calmed down, she realizes that she has a headache. "My head hurts," she notes as she touches the bandage there.

"You sustained a head injury. What's the last thing you remember?"

"Umm… I remember I took a walk somewhere last night, but after that it's in bits and pieces."

"Ok, don't worry, you're only experiencing a little short-term amnesia. It should subside over the next couple of days, but I'd like to keep you on bed-rest to monitor your condition."

Ari swings her legs over the side of the bed and stands up. There's a slight twinge in her foot as she does so, but she ignores it.

"I said bed-rest!"

"And I say I'll be fine," Ari argues back. She feels a little dizzy upon standing, but brushes it off. There was something I had to do… what was it?! She takes the robe that is draped on the end of her bed, ties it securely around her waist, and then drinks the last of her water before heading on her way.

"Well, at least make sure to drink plenty of fluids, and don't overdo it," he orders. "You're still recovering, your body needs time to heal itself properly."

She waves a hand over her shoulder as a response.

After heading up the stairs to get to the second floor, she walks down the halls to her room. She shuts her door, and puts herself to work changing out of the robe and hospital nightie. She pulls on a flowy white dress in its place, and a turquoise necklace. She accessorizes with some other bracelets to match and- bracelets. BRACELETS! She searches frantically along her right arm, but her spiked bracelet is missing! She looks all over her floor, thinking that it may have fallen off there, but she only finds her Stony Brooke Sword Shop receipt. She tosses the receipt back on the floor. Chopper. He may have taken it off along with my wet clothes. Ari's own thoughts confuse her, since she has no recollection of getting wet, but somehow, she just knows.

She rushes back down to the west wing of the basement, where the medical rooms are, and heads down to the one she believes was hers. She bursts through the door, only to find another person in the bed, and Chopper nowhere to be found. This room smells spicier than I remember it being… maybe it's not mine after all. Ari's thoughts are interrupted when the girl in the bed springs up from her sleep, panic written across her face. Her face…

"Sorry, I didn't mean to startle you, I'm just looking for Chopper. It's really important, have you seen him?"

The girl attempts to speak up, but a harsh rasp is the only noise that comes out. So, she opts to just shake her head instead.

Ari rushes and checks the other medical rooms, more discreetly this time, but with no luck. She groans in frustration. The bridge… I should check there. Again, she has no idea where this thought comes from, but it's there. Ari bounds up the stairs for the second time today and races through the front door, passing someone as she goes. She tours to the back gates, which have conveniently been left open, and continues onto the dirt trail leading to the bridge. She slows down as she gets farther along the path and closer to the bridge. Bit by bit, her surroundings evoke bright flashes of her memory to return: dark boots, green, something familiar that she can't quite make out.

As she steps onto the bridge, she stops looking at the scenery around her, and more at the wooden planks themselves, partly out of care, and partly to aid in her search. She stops as soon as she reaches about where the middle is, deeming that there's no point in searching any farther than that. She doesn't know how she reaches this conclusion, but she figures that it's either her instinct, or just her memory slowly coming back. She leans over the edge of the bridge, taking a peek into the waters below. Not much point in that I guess. The swamp is pretty deep. She shudders. As she makes her way back from the middle of the bridge, she passes a faulty plank that she failed to notice on her way to the center. I've been here. That's it! This is where I was last night. This plank wasn't faulty before. And it looks familiar. Ari moves closer to where the part of the plank caves into the water. But all she sees are splinters from where the plank snapped. An image flashes across her mind. She sees her own foot falling onto the broken wood. And just as quickly as it came, it disappears. An idea comes to mind, and she sits on the bridge, making sure to be a safe distance away from the rotting wood of the plank. She lifts up her right foot to inspect it. Sure enough, there's bruising there as well as tiny scrape marks. That settles it, then. I definitely broke this plank.

She feels so victorious that she's managed to regain some of her memory back already, that she forgets the original goal of her coming to the bridge. "The bracelet! That's right, I have to find it!" she exclaims as she smacks her fist in her palm. For at least another hour, she continues to look along the bridge, sometimes even wandering off farther than the middle. In fact, she wanders so far that she comes upon where the crocodiles like to nest, which is near the end of the bridge. She finally gives up for the day, and trudges back along the bridge to where she came. She picks up the pace towards the end when she sees a crocodile staring at her. Suddenly a thought comes back to mind, but she brushes it off. Finally, she comes back to the palace and peeks around in the back courtyard, but the spiked bracelet is nowhere to be found.