"Usopp!"
Sanji had been hollering at Usopp's distant back for over a mile now, but Usopp's legs did not want to stop. Even Sanji was nearing his limit, given his fight against the snow, but he still jerked his knees as high as they could come when he missed the snowplows Usopp had already made. He had made ample progress after Usopp, yet it had differed off as soon as Usopp realized he was being followed - and made to come back to the ship.
Usopp's lungs heaved. He had only spared a look over his shoulder to acknowledge Sanji was nearby. Have to conserve my strength, he told himself at that moment, and he told himself even more now.
But neither he nor Sanji were deaf to the cries of the strange beasts in this dark forest. The snow was mostly clouded above them by the canopy but even still, there were thick bands of moonbeam illuminating their way. Then why can't I see what's making that infernal noise? Sanji thought, looking to the left and right when the path was clear enough.
The cries were getting closer.
"Usopp! I'm serious! Get over here!" Sanji yelled.
"Don't tell me what to do, Sanji!" Usopp yelled back despite his previous prerogative.
"Usopp! Stop playing around!"
"I'm not playing anything! I'm Luffy's First Mate! I can't just let this happen!"
"Let what happen? We're getting help, aren't we?"
"How do you know?!"
Before Sanji could reply, a huge white beast sprang from the undergrowth near Usopp. It sent a kick into Usopp's jaw, sending him mercilessly to the forest floor. Sanji's eyes went wide but his pace didn't lessen at all, still plowing through the snow until he came to Usopp's side. All the while, he still looked this way and that for whatever had erupted and just as quickly escaped without his notice.
"Usopp! Are you okay?!" Sanji cried, taking a knee and rolling Usopp onto his back.
Usopp had a massive cut and bruise forming on his jaw where the beast had attacked him, but he sneezed the snow from his nostrils, the more pressing matter as his free hand brushed his face clean. "Good god! What was that?!"
Sanji huffed, his fatigue properly catching up with him in this small, unsafe moment of respite. "If you'd given Nami more of a moment to explain things to us," Sanji said sassily, sitting on his rear now. "There are things out here far more dangerous than the thought of any human. Okay?"
Usopp propped himself up on his elbows. "Is that what just decked me? I thought that was you."
"ME?! NOW, WHY WOULD I DO THAT TO YOU?!" Sanji flared, wanting to do it now more than ever.
There was a great trampling from Sanji's left, and he realized the cries of the forest beasts had stopped shortly before Usopp was attacked and had not resumed. He turned his head as a great form burst from the overgrowth and tackled Sanji. The two went rolling away from Usopp in a huge ball, but the Lapahn's arms were swinging wildly already. Sanji used his arms as shields for his hands and head, curling up in a tight ball.
"Sanji!" Usopp screamed, guilt coursing through his veins, and he lifted his slingshot and fired an Explosive Shot at the back of the Lapahn's head. It exploded, flaring up the forest for a moment and giving Usopp a snapshot image of the other Lapahn hiding just out of sight in the vegetation. His blood went cold.
The Lapahn attacking Sanji indeed stopped, but the Explosive Shot did nothing to it other than singe his hair. He turned to Usopp, huffing steam from his huge nostrils. Look at that, Usopp thought, remembering Dalton the Ox-Man attacking Luffy. The Lapahn turned and went to all fours, thundering toward Usopp, still trapped in the snow.
But Sanji held tight to the Lapahn's fur. Already, he was terribly beaten just from a few of the beast's lazy attacks. And Usopp's already taken one, he thought, climbing up the back of the Lapahn's fur. He can't take much more of that.
Sanji climbed up to the Lapahn's shoulders and tucked his knee under the creature's chin, tightening it with his hand on his ankle while his other arm hooked under the Lapahn's armpit. This drew the Lapahn off course at least, and it grew short of breath. Sanji heaved with all his weight to further the off-balance he'd created, and the Lapahn fell from its feet onto its back while Sanji picked himself up with the beast's own chest.
He brought a kick down upon the beast's face.
A great spurt of blood shot out from the Lapahn's nose, but its arms grabbed hold of Sanji's leg. He jerked this way and that, but they would not let go.
With both arms, the Lapahn jerked Sanji to the right, but then hurled him to the left, switching one handed from its laying position to send Sanji's back against the nearest tree. Sanji hacked and coughed like Usopp had never heard before. He scrambled to his feet as Sanji fell into the snow, splattering blood from his mouth onto the snow.
"Point Blank Lead Star!" Usopp cried as he ran up to the Lapahn's face, and shot right into his eye. The Lapahn cried out, cupping its face and writhing in pain. Its body caught Usopp's legs and sent him backward into the snow next to Sanji. Worse for wear, the two Straw Hats were still awake.
"You okay?" Sanji groaned with what felt like the last of his strength as he rose.
"Good as can be," Usopp groaned back, knowing he'd taken less but feeling like he'd taken the most already.
Sanji got up first and walked over to the Lapahn, rolling on the ground with his face in his hands. "God damn jerk!" Sanji shouted, and began sending kicks into the Lapahn while it laid on the ground.
"Sanji!" Usopp called out as he struggled to stand, using the tree for leverage. "Stop. There's more in the trees!" he managed to call out.
And Sanji did register it, but his wailing on the Lapahn started the forest into its cries again. Sanji stopped, looking to the left and right as the cries seemed to surround them in mere wavelengths themselves. But in no time at all, the rest of the Lapahn pack hurtled from either side of the forest and hounded Usopp and Sanji. Neither remembered much past this point - only the pounding of the Lapahns' attacks, and the great big one with the blood stained fur and the scar across its face.
"Here we go! Hold on!" Kureha shouted. The sleigh was nearing the top of the Drum Rocky.
And it hurtled over the side in an arc identical to the mountain's side at first until gravity took back over and the sleigh turned back for earth. It seemed to slam but harmlessly landed onto the thick blanket of snow beneath Castle Drum, a thick black fortress turned gray by the constant and unscrubbed snow.
Hililuk kept a hand on Zoro to steady him, but even on the gurney, Zoro felt nothing from the impact. The sleigh slowly compacted the snow beneath it. Zoro snored. But the doctors, including Chopper the reindeer, dismounted and disentangled from the sleigh. "This can wait. Let's get him inside and prepped," Kureha called as she began work on Chopper's reigns.
Hililuk walked to the back of the sleigh and unstrapped Zoro from the gurney, slipping the coverings back to get a look at his wounds - but suddenly heard the clanking of the skycar in operation, and looked at the small station on the edge of the mountain. It was the last working station up here; in fact, the doctors had disassembled the other ones for spare parts to use in other places around the castle already.
"Kureha! Chopper!" Hililuk called out, and he pointed at the skycar cable, rotating slowly and clankily.
They had not noticed by the look of their reactions. Kureha grumbled but Chopper's eyes went wide. The elder doctors unclasped him from his reigns and Chopper suddenly transformed into his great, hulking form, taller than anyone else on Drum by at least a head, muscles wider still than any of them beside Dalton. "I'll get the patient inside," Chopper said in his still high pitched voice.
Yet he walked through the snow and gathered up Zoro from the gurney, coverings and all, carefully into his arms and moved back through the snow toward the castle's front gates. "Need us to get those for you?" Hililuk asked.
"No, the skycar's almost here," Chopper said, not even remotely out of breath. "I'm getting started." He was already at the door, walking through snow like it was light as air, and swiveled to shove his back against the front gates. It was a great, wood and bronze door that Chopper shouldered open easily. There was snowdrift inside, as well; the ceiling in this entry hall had been blasted open by the citizens when they'd claimed the castle as their own.
Hililuk and Kureha let Chopper go on ahead and walked over to the station, really just a small pillbox with controls inside that worked but were non-necessary for use now. "Wonder what the issue is now?" Kureha grumbled, sipping from her wine. Hililuk had left his bottle behind, staring suspiciously at the figures inside the skycar as it leveled out on the mountain's top and shuddered to a stop.
The big figure was unmistakably Mayor Negikuma Maria, and the doctors eased up to see her. Curious though she was, Maria was no threat to the doctors' secret. But there was someone else with her, someone very injured. And Kureha grimaced as she saw the silhouette of the straw hat through the light of the operation station shining through the skycar's glass. The door opened, the doctors waited a few paces away, and Maria carried Luffy out on her shoulder.
"Doctors! Good timing, it seems!" Maria exclaimed, waving with her free hand. "We have an issue!"
Straw Hat bled from his side, dripping out onto the snow below. His face was pale as a human's could possibly be. Even Maria's clothes were covered in his blood. Hililuk and Kureha gasped, though were none too shocked. "What on earth happened?" Hililuk asked dryly.
Maria took a deep breath, shaking her head as she said, "Tsk. I dunno. Dalton hurt him at sea. I think he worked himself up and opened the wound is all, but it won't stop bleeding."
Hililuk and Kureha walked over to Maria. Kureha leaned down and lifted Luffy's jacket and shirt, examining the still bleeding wound. "Eugh. Those horns of Dalton's are fierce." She got up to Luffy's eye level, and though he was near unconscious, his head still lolled about, and he groaned. Kureha said, "Did you do this just to worm your way up here with your crewmate?"
Luffy's head lolled so hard to the left that his neck went to rubber and his head drooped into the snow. "I'b dyin'," Luffy said, his tongue scrambled with his teeth as he spoke.
"What on earth?!" Hililuk said. "Devil Fruit, huh? Weird. Well, we'll care for him, too, I guess. Hand him here."
Maria suddenly saw a light turn on in one of the glass panes on the castle's turret. There was a hulking figure inside that stooped over to drop something down, then stood at its full height - and suddenly began to shrink until it finally withdrew from Maria's vision. "I can carry him inside," she offered as innocently as could be, not wanting to seem suspicious to the doctors.
"That's alright. It's late, you should go get your beauty sleep," Hililuk replied, attempting to be as debonair as possible as he cradled Luffy under his arm and took his weight. Kureha crossed her arms as he began carrying Luffy over to the still open entrance to Castle Drum.
"Oh . . . well, thank you," Maria finally said simply and flatly. She did not want to press her luck.
"Wish this could have been the understanding girl, but oh well," Kureha replied, winking at Maria with a grin and a swig from her wine. "We've got a long night ahead of us, Mayor. If you don't mind, I'll send you back down."
You will? Maria thought. Most often, you would have to signal with the bell inside the skycar for the operators down in Gyasta that the skycar needed to come back. The doctors never bothered to work the skycar themselves. In a hurry to get me out of here, Maria resolved, and she realized Kureha wasn't moving until she did. As soon as she turned on her heel to reenter the skycar, Kureha began walking behind her.
"Like I said, thanks though," Kureha said to Maria before they split ways. "Don't worry. We'll talk to the pirates about further payment."
Maria laughed as best as she could, but instinctively thought, Don't highball them, Kureha. The skycar door closed behind her and Kureha entered the operation pillbox to send it careening back down to Gyasta. Maria looked out the forward window at the retreating Castle Drum.
In that same window she had seen the hulking figure, she saw a figure standing on a platform. This figure was quite small, but still bore the same antlers that the huge figure had. Antlers, Maria realized, having never even laid that much of an eye on the fabled third doctor of Castle Drum before. Yet she put two and two together, thinking of the surgical look the reindeer had in her own home as he observed Zoro's wound.
Maria settled onto the blood-free seat for the journey back to Drum's mainland.
Chopper was busy scraping away infected flesh when the door in the connected room on the left burst open. He heard Hililuk heave his way inside and he stopped what he was doing to see Hililuk hurl Luffy onto the operating table, which were once snack bars. Straw Hat! Chopper thought, recognizing the ornery fellow from Bighorn who had impeded their departure from the town.
"What's going on, Doctor?" Chopper exclaimed, lifting his tools from Zoro's infected wound.
"This one got pierced by Dalton," Hililuk explained. "Mayor Maria brought him all the way up here, and since we've got his friend . . . might as well." He lifted Luffy's clothes up to expose his wound, setting a large bandage towel down underneath Luffy's torso. He zoomed around the adjoining room to gather what supplies he needed. "Keep working! He's in more serious condition than this kid."
"Are you sure, Doctor?" Chopper had to ask.
"Yes!" Hililuk exclaimed.
Chopper set back to work quite dutifully at that response, not offended whatsoever. He did notice Hililuk administer a staunching agent to Straw Hat's wound, as well as an oral medication. Painkiller, Chopper thought, working deftly even without looking at Zoro's wound directly.
The doctors worked quietly on their own work when Kureha came into the operating room Zoro was in, hurrying but not stomping over to the table Chopper worked at. "How is he? He got a chance?" she asked gruffly.
"Not sure!" Chopper replied. "But I'm trying."
"Good boy," Kureha replied, clapping Chopper on the back jovially as she could be. The smile warmed Chopper to his heart, inspiring him to work harder.
Kureha moved into the adjoining room and looked at Hililuk's work. "Need any help here?" she asked respectfully.
"If you want to do the bandaging," Hililuk responded, noting their own strong suits. He was wiping away at Luffy's wound now to prevent infection as his partner grabbed a roll from the nearby island table. They traded off as Hililuk finished and moved to the sink to wash his hands. Kureha lifted Luffy's body easily and began wrapping up his wound around his entire torso with the roll of bandages.
Hours had passed now since Usopp and Sanji had left the Going Merry. The militia camp was all but wound down, with only Tamachibi, a skeleton crew of guards, and a couple revelers remained, singing jaunty sea tunes. Their calls came through the windows and walls of the Merry's cabin, almost like a great taunt to Nami as she leaned on the dining table, nearly tugging her hair out.
"This is not good. I don't know what to do," Nami said, feeling especially weighed down by being the most senior crewmate in charge for once. I didn't expect to be in these shoes so soon, she panicked, also wondering if Gaimon or Robin expected her to play first fiddle now.
"They're strong customers," Robin said stiffly in as much reassurance as she could. "They won't die tonight."
"Yeah, c'mon, Nami," Gaimon pleaded. "It's not like we can go after them. Even with Robin's powers, these Lapahn seem out of our league."
"So you two can just sleep things off tonight while the others are who knows where?" Nami said, not accusing in any way but upset about their seeming helplessness. She sniffled, unable to stop her emotions and her tears.
She expected Gaimon to silently agree with her plea, bowing his head. What she did not expect was to see Robin make the exact same gesture, bowing her head without a word. You're either a good actor or . . . She knew how that sentence ended, but she couldn't finish it, even in her own mind.
Nami wiped the tears from her cheeks and eyes, sprang from her seat, and said, "Come on. Let's go wait at Mayor Maria's place. I don't even know if she's gotten Luffy to Gyasta yet, but . . . if we wait for her, she can help us!"
Gaimon nodded, he and Robin both agreeing with Nami's decision making here. "Okay. Want us to guard the Merry?" he asked. Little use I'd be alone in either party, he thought bitterly.
"No. We're all going," Nami replied. "The Merry will be fine. I'm more worried about Usopp and Sanji!"
Maria finally returned to Gyasta. The ride down was quite long, about thirty minutes in total, and she had fallen asleep to the rhythmic clanging of the skycar cable at work. Yet the clanging grew and became more vicious as it entered the docking station in town, drawing her awake from a few snores. I don't think they noticed, she thought with a chuckle as the skycar operating team opened the doors for her.
"Did you get him up there successfully, Mayor?" the foreman asked Maria as she exited the skycar.
"Yes," Maria replied, feeling the exhaustion further. Her body had sunk into deep sleep; her back ached for her bed. "You've all worked quite hard. Sleep in tomorrow. We all know there will be no need for the skycar in the morning." She stifled a yawn and rubbed her eyes. "I'm heading home myself. I can't thank you enough. Let me repay you in the morning."
"Think nothing of it, Island Mayor," Foreman Gene said, smiling wide under his facial hair. "It is a pleasure to help." His crew around him stood at attention, hands clasped behind their back, mirroring their foreman.
Maria left the skycar station with a smile, mounting her carriage and waking Bo and Po from a nap themselves. "I'm sorry, guys," Maria sighed. "Let's head home now. I'll give you guys a huge brunch tomorrow." Since we'll have to return to Gyasta right after, she thought as the White Wullies rumbled off down the street, turning to the left to the enter the forest directly, gathering speed to the road.
A little over an hour later, Maria saw the lights of Bighorn peeking through the forest, wondering how many microsleeps she'd taken while Bo and Po led the way home at a good pace to avoid the Lapahn. Years before, it had been unnerving to her to live so close to the town's edge, but on nights like these, since taking an administrator's role, she was glad to be right there where she could crash quick and early.
She found her barn door open as she directed Bo and Po into the backyard, feeling almost positive she had shut it when they left earlier. She trudged through the snow, which still feel liberally from the sky, and entered the warm barn, the stove fire still blazing.
And found Nami, Gaimon, and Robin sitting inside on a bail of hay and the ground. They each held a steaming cup as they turned toward her. "Hi, Mayor Maria!" Nami said with a wave. "We helped ourself to some coffee. We're kind of anxious! We made you some, too."
Maria sighed, but had to chuckled as she rubbed the back of her head. "Good to see you again. Glad Tamachibi didn't skewer you guys," the mayor told them as she entered the barn fully.
"Yeah, we 'didn't pose a threat' to him," Gaimon replied cockily, his pinky itching the pistol tucked into his box just in reach. Maria took the extra coffee on the opposite bail of hay.
"Mayor Maria, forgive us, but it doesn't seem this night's over," Robin said cordially.
"What's happened now?" Maria asked hesitantly, sipping at the perfect cup of coffee she'd ever had.
"It's our First Mate and cook," Nami explained, "Usopp and Sanji. Well, it's mostly Usopp's fault, but they wandered into the forest. I remembered you told me about those Lapahn, but Usopp wouldn't listen."
"What exactly are they?" Gaimon asked, furrowing his brow as he looked up at Maria.
Maria clicked her tongue and set the coffee down, shaking her head. "Oh, no. This is quite terrible." She sat on the bail of hay across from Nami and Robin. "This night is not yet over. They were surely beset. I was wondering what had the Lapahn so quiet on the return trip." No wonder she had slept so soundly.
"Come. Bo and Po are still ready for travel," Maria said, taking her coffee back for she would not waste such a good cup. "I hope you're a good shot with that pistol," Maria said to Gaimon. "These Lapahn are the strongest creatures on this island. Even Bo and Po stand no chance in a contest of strength."
The Straw Hats finished their own drinks, but Maria would savor hers. The four of them remounted the carriage, and after some reassuring words toward the White Wullies, Bo and Po were ready for travel once more. The carriage zoomed down the main street back into the forest where the Lapahn resided.
Deep in the forest, after finishing the cup of coffee, it occurred to Maria that the skycar would not be an option anymore. "It'll take us until morning to rouse all the operators it takes to boot that thing to life, especially with the warm up time it needs in the deep cold. By that time, the Lapahn could have beaten your friends to death."
"So what are our chances for success here, really?" Robin asked firmly against the whipping winds, her head poking out of the carriage where she sat with Gaimon..
Maria thought about it hard before responding. "Not high. But you all seem rather tough. Maybe I'm wrong?" she asked with a coy grin.
Nami had to shake her head. There was no threat of tears against that question. "No. They're tough."
Maria sighed through her nose. "So why the long face?"
Nami, sitting next to Maria, clenched her fingers against the bench until they ached. "We're just in bad straits. The last island we were on . . ." She couldn't go on with Robin sitting right there, though if she'd looked behind her, Robin had a similar look of melancholy on her own face.
"Perhaps we aren't ready for the Grand Line," Gaimon called from inside the carriage. "But we have to be now! We're here! And only getting deeper. After this island . . . we have to get ourselves together!"
"Save your inspiring words for when your crew are accounted for," Maria responded, smiling all the same. "I must say, you are the most intriguing man I've ever met, Gaimon! Perhaps you could be a spokesperson of morale for Drum!"
Gaimon guffawed. "Would that I could! I'm a pirate!"
"Mayor Maria!" Nami said, staring dead ahead. "What do the Lapahn look like?"
"Great, shaggy, white beasts, like big rabbits, only much chewier," Maria explained as she slowly looked ahead herself. Perhaps Bo and Po couldn't see against the whipping wind and further falling snow flowing past their eyes, but it was easier for the humans on the bench to notice the great, shaggy, white beast crossing the path just ahead.
Maria jerked on the reigns, and the White Wullies noticed the beast, scraping their feet against the ground to stop the carriage, but momentum was in motion, and the carriage continued forward, pressing against the Wullies' rears. Robin steadied Gaimon inside so he wouldn't slam forward against the opposite seat, while Maria stretched her arm across Nami to stop her from flying forward herself.
"THE LAPAHN HAS USOPP AND SANJI!" Nami cried out, the tears springing forth easily to her eyes once again.
Indeed, upon the beast's back, it had Usopp and Sanji, badly beaten, bleeding everyone, and seemingly dead like cradled prey from a hunt. Gaimon and Robin looked out of the side of the carriage at Nami's scream of terror, and Gaimon matched it with a simple but piercing scream of his own.
Maria continued hauling on the reigns until the carriage came to a stop - and the beast winced from the oncoming carriage until the Wullies finally veered to the left, just out of the way of knocking the big white animal down. Maria panted from the bench, but a smile began forming on her face. "Relax, everyone! Relax," she said calmly. "This is no Lapahn."
Nami's eyes had been clenched shut but she finally opened them and saw the kind face of the animal, as well as the walking stick in its right hand. Its left hand held Usopp and Sanji across it's shoulder because that was its best bet. "This is Drum's Hiking Bear! Thank you, Hiking Bear! These are our friends!" Maria exclaimed, standing and spreading her arms wide as the Hiking Bear bowed to the mayor.
ATB
I was unable to upload a new chapter on Monday, everyone. Sorry about that - I came home from work and had such a busy few days that I went to bed in my work clothes!
To make up for it, here's the first chapter of the day! The second one will be released sometime before 8pm!
Until next time
ATB