Chapter 33
Frilly Frills
Walking in the desert wasn't as hard as Eli thought it would be. After all, she was kind of used to walking on the beaches of her motherland, and even if the heat was harsher than expected, Eli got used to it rapidly... which wasn't the case for Chopper. The poor reindeer was used to the very low temperatures of his winter island, and if his fluffy fur was really useful there, it was really a bother in the desert of Alabasta.
"I'll carry you," Eli offered happily. After all, in his tiny form, Chopper was very light, light enough for her to carry him easily.
Chopper nodded timidly, walking toward the girl with his head slightly drooped in embarrassment.
Awwww... he's so CUTE ! Eli's eyes sparkled as she reached out to grab him and put him on her back. Hehehehehehehe...
A blissful smile plastered on her face, Eli sped up to catch up with the group.
During the walk, Vivi told the pirates a bit more about the situation in Alabasta. The country was suffering from a three-years-long drought. It had been three years since the Alabastans had seen rainfall... except in the capital city where the royal palace was, Alubarna. The people used to call it the 'King's Miracle', until a large amount of Dance Powder was found. Apparently, it was supposed to be delivered to the King.
Dance Power, Nami explained to the rest of the crew, was a powder that was used to call rain, and this would be really perfect for a country like Alabasta if the side effect wasn't a terrible drought for the rest of the country...
Obviously, the shipment of Dance Powder for the palace was a setup planned by Crocodile. After that scandal, Vivi's father lost the trust of his people, and the rebellion arose...
Seeing Vivi so desperately shaken by the terrible condition her country was in caused anxiousness to grow in the pirates' minds. The fate of a whole nation was weighing heavily on her frail shoulders, and they couldn't find words of encouragement to cheer her up...
"CROCODILE !" Luffy yelled out, clenching his fist. "I will kick your ass !"
"Luffy..." Vivi muttered.
The captain's resolve was inspiring and with it, the anxiety vanished. The pirates grinned proudly at their captain and kept on walking forward.
"What's wrong, Chopper ?" Eli asked as she felt the reindeer crawling up her back.
"Something... is coming..." Chopper said quietly, sniffing the air with a grave look on his face.
"The wind is rising," Nami said, looking at the distance.
Soon a powerful and growing wind started blowing on the group, making their cloaks flutter noisily. The pirates' hike came to a stop, and they observed the horizon apprehensive about the uncertainty of what was coming at them...
"Everyone !" Vivi called out urgently. "Take cover ! A sandstorm in coming !"
Shielding her eyes with her forearm, Eli caught a glimpse of several tornadoes swirling at an amazing speed toward them. Unfortunately, as much as they wanted to take cover like the princess had told them to, it just seemed impossible. They were in the middle of a desert, and there was nothing but sand as far as the eye could see.
As a last resort, the pirates lay down on the ground briskly for the threatening storm was about to hit them. Eli could feel Chopper's grip on her shoulders tightening as the wind blustered violently upon them.
Clutching her knees tightly as if to gain density, Eli clenched her eyes to protect them from sand, hoping that the storm would soon get past them... but the wind wasn't showing any sign of weakening and the featherweight gritted her teeth as she started to feel her body lifting off the sand.
Instinctively, Eli tried to get a grip on the intangible ground, and like a shot, she was blown away. Shielding her eyes from the sand, she managed to catch a glimpse of her friends drifting away. Like her, they had been thrown away by the mighty storm...
Frak !
Eli coughed to get rid of the sand that was in her mouth and quickly looked around to find her crewmates. Seeing a small antler half buried in the sand, Eli rushed over to dig Chopper up.
"Where -cough- are the -cough- the others ? -cough-" Chopper asked.
"I have no idea." Eli stood up and scanned the surrounding area, a hand over her eyes to shield them from the blinding sun. "Let's go find them," she said, fixing her hood.
"But where ?"
Around them, there was no kind of landmark to rely on. Therefore, if they started to walk in the wrong direction, they would most likely only end up further away from their friends. Eli took a deep breath, closed her eyes, and pointed in the direction her guts enjoined her to follow.
Trusting the girl's instincts, as it was the only thing they had, the two pirates started walking unwaveringly.
After a few minutes, Chopper started sniffing at the air.
"Over there," the small reindeer said, pointing to a large dune on their right.
Reaching the top of the dune, they grinned seeing Ace lying on the sand downhill.
"Freckles !" Eli called out happily, trotting toward her friend.
But her smiling face quickly turned into a frown seeing that the young man was sleeping like a log.
"Damn !" Eli cursed, wondering how they would manage to go on with this millstone rounding their necks.
"We could just wake him up," Chopper said naively.
Apparently, the young reindeer wasn't aware of the fact that waking Ace up from one of his narcoleptic fits would be like talking Luffy into quitting meat... a long, annoying, meaningless, and painful waste of time...
We could just leave him here...
"Well, we can't just leave him here," Chopper said, sitting next to Ace.
Damn !
After what seemed like an eternity, Ace showed signs of awakening. He yawned and stretched his arms nonchalantly until he saw the heavy glares that Chopper and Eli were blasting him with.
"Oh..." Ace sat up and scratched the back of his head sheepishly.
"Yeah..." Eli said coldly, before standing up. "Anyway... allons-y !"
After considering that their trusty crewmates had probably kept on with the journey, they decided to give up the search and to walk directly toward Ido. The good thing about waiting for Ace to wake up was that now the pirates knew where to go thanks to the sun's course.
However, their hike was interrupted once more as they heard a stampede behind them. Swinging around, they saw a large cloud of sand moving extremely fast toward them.
"WAAAHH !" Chopper yelled in fear, running around frantically.
The pirates blinked in awe at the herd of large, pink lizards with frills around their heads as they dashed past them at an amazing speed.
"Wait !" Eli yelled. But the lizards just ignored her, so she ran and stopped in front of the leader, her arms spread wide. "I said wait !"
Thankfully for her, the lizards stopped and looked at her questioningly before tilting all their frilly heads to the side at the same time.
Now that she got their attention, Eli walked over to the leader. "Hi, I'm Eli," she said, bowing politely. "My friends and I would like to go to Ido. Could you take us there, please ?"
"Fru fruui fru frufruhii ?" the leader said.
"He said 'And why would we do that ?'," Chopper translated as he and Ace walked up to Eli.
"Well... to be nice...?" Eli smiled, calling for the lizards' sympathy.
"FRIFRIFRIFRIFRI !" The herd burst out laughing, their frills swishing rapidly.
Eli frowned looking at the mocking lizards. Apparently, appealing to their better feelings wasn't the right course of action, yet she wasn't one to give up that easily. With their speed, the three pirates could catch up with the rest of the crew in no time. Therefore, she decided to titillate their pride.
"What if I challenged you ?" Eli waited for the leader to look at her. "A race. The fastest one of you against me."
"Fru ? FRIFRIFRIFRI !" The lizard laughed. "Frifui frii fru fru fruii, fruuu !"
"You ? And he laughed. I'll take you on anytime, puny human !" Chopper said.
Seeing Ace smirk, Eli gave him a mischievous wink. The outcome of this challenge was easy to foresee. She got rid of her bag, cloak, and shoes to be as comfortable as possible, not that she really needed to...
Of course, the race ended right after Chopper had said "GO !"
The lizards looked outrageously amazed, yet they fairly accepted their utter defeat, shaking Eli's hand humbly. Right after the exchange of courtesy, the pirates could enjoy the fast ride on the lizards' backs, not worrying anymore about being behind their fellow crewmates.
"Well, that was fast," Ace said, as they entered the town of Ido. "It must be barely noon."
"Why didn't we come across the others ?" Chopper asked worriedly. He was in his human form so that he would not attract the townspeople's attention.
Eli shrugged while putting her cloak in her bag.
"We'll see them tonight," Ace said reassuringly, patting the reindeer's back. "Now, let's find food." He rubbed his hands together briskly, looking around hungrily.
While searching for a restaurant, Eli observed the town of Ido. It was nestled in a large rocky formation, and thanks to the natural shield, the temperature was really pleasant. Apparently, Ido wasn't suffering from the drought as the streets featured a nice amount of greenery: palm trees, flowers, vines on the white walls, and even some patches of grass here and there.
Overall, it was a really nice-looking town.
The pirates got into the first restaurant they spotted and sat at table under the questioning stares of the customers. On top of wearing really untraditional clothes, a huge hairy man, a beanpole, and a shirtless guy were obviously quite a surprising sight to them.
"Are... they looking at... me ?" Chopper stammered, slightly embarrassed.
"Nah, don't worry." Eli smiled heartily while reading the menu. "They're looking at our cowboy wannabe," said the really tall, really skinny, and really underclothed girl.
After eating a quick lunch, Eli wanted to visit Ido a bit more, and Chopper joined her happily while Ace kept on eating.
They were in what looked like the main street of Ido. A variety of booths lined up along the street displayed all kinds of merchandise: clothes, fruits, jewelry... The pair avoided the perfume stands as much as possible since Chopper and his very keen sense of smell couldn't bear their strong smell. The visit was very enjoyable, the people of Ido were friendly, and the town was really pretty.
"Oh !" Eli was drawn toward a booth displaying a large choice of pearl jewelry.
"Do you like pearls, Eli ?" Chopper asked while attentively observing the nice pieces of jewelry.
"Not really, but..." The girl searched through her bag, and produced the small silk bag containing Ace's gift. "I thought I could do something with this one," Eli finished, looking at her pearl.
Ever since her birthday night, Eli had almost forgotten about the pearl, and seeing the beautiful pieces of jewelry, she thought that wearing it would be nicer than leaving it in a bag. Eli observed the items carefully and opted for a simple necklace; that way, she could wear it either around her neck or her wrist.
"What can I do for you, young lady ?" the jeweler asked.
"I wondered if you could mount this pearl on a necklace ?" Eli asked, handing the pearl to the old man.
The jeweler observed the pearl attentively. "Oh, it's a Firefly... It's been a long time since I've seen one of these," he said with a smile. "What kind of necklace would you like ?"
"Oh... something really simple..." Eli looked at the display of jewelry rapidly. "Just a chain, like that," she said, pointing to a thin silver chain.
"I can do it right now if you want," the jeweler said. "It'll cost you 15 000 Beli."
"Okay," Eli nodded, and she searched for her pouch to produce the amount demanded.
After a few minutes, the jeweler gave her the necklace. Eli attached it around her right wrist, and after thanking the old man, the two pirates went on strolling through the main street.
Chopper looked happy. Apparently, he was as eager as Eli to discover new things the world had to offer. After half an hour of aimless and enjoyable walk, they sat at a café. Asking for the specialty, they were served some delicious date balls coated in almonds and some sweet mint tea. As the little doctor wanted to check some stands out, Eli decided to stay idly at the table outside the café to rest her slightly sore feet. She pondered a minute if she should write about the recent events in her book but lazily put that idea aside drinking tea and instead watched the town's liveliness. It had been a while since the chronicler had time to relax on land. Ever since they started their adventure, the pirates had jumped from one exciting event to another. Of course, Eli loved her new life at sea filled with twists and turns, but it was nice for once to just sit there and enjoy the townscape.
"You look happy."
Eli turned her head, and found that Ace was sitting across from her, a warm smile on his face.
"Oh, Freckles. Look-"
"THERE HE IS !"
Eli squeaked as the young man grabbed her hand and ran away without any kind of warning or explanation... but seeing the waiter from the restaurant they had previously had lunch at screaming and dashing behind them, the girl quickly understood why he was running away.
"You didn't pay..." Eli said angrily, "AGAIN !"
After a few minutes of frantic chase, the pirates hid in a small and shady alley crouched behind a stack of barrels.
"Do you ever pay for your food ?" Eli frowned and lightly punched Ace's shoulder.
"What is that...?" he asked, when his eyes fell on the girl's new bracelet.
"Oh." Eli raised her hand to show him the piece of jewelry.
As Ace lightly touched the pearl with his finger, it started glowing faintly. "Why did you do that ?" he asked, intrigued.
"I wanted to see it more often," she said, smiling happily. "It was a waste to keep it in my bag !"
At that, the young freckled man beamed proudly.
"Okay now, let's go pay for your food !" Eli said, standing up. "And you've got to quit this bad habit of yours !" she nagged with a slight frown.
"Yes ma'am !" Ace said, following her obediently with his hands behind his neck and still smiling broadly.
to be continued
Betaed by Iwin Ulose.
Eli's coolness (for once), some relaxing time, and a cute scene...
Hope you enjoyed it as much as I did :)
Since I can't reply to them privately : Thank you anonymous reviewers :D
I published 'Twig' chapter 3 Friday and I'll publish 'Twig' chapter 4 on Tuesday (need to catch up) see you there~