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The Merry sailed down the coast of a winter Island, the Island had been spotted shortly after Luffy had defeated the invading pirates; it was ironic had they not stopped to attack the Merry they would have made it to their destination. Luffy had been very excited to land on an Island Covered in snow, Sanji reminded the captain that there was no time for an adventure but Luffy ignored him promising to teach Connor some fun things to do in the snow.
Sanji, Luffy and Vivi re-joined Zoro and Usopp on deck while Connor had gone into watch Nami. Evie had come out of the men's sleeping quarters and dumped the man she went in with into the ocean; she had a very serious look on her face. She refused to speak to anyone about what had happened in there.
As the Merry slowed to a stop at the end of the coast line Evie walked behind the cabin and disappeared. Suddenly the straw hats found themselves surrounded and guns pointed at them for the second time in the same day.
A man in a green snow suit stepped forward, clearly he was the leader.
"Pirates we demand that you leave our shores immediately," the man demanded.
"Please we need a doctor, our friend is very sick," Vivi tried to explain.
"Do you think we'll believe that?" a man in the crowd asked.
"They've only known us for ten seconds and they already hate us. That's a new record," Sanji joked.
Unfortunately the man took it as a threat and fired at Sanji, thankfully the bullet hit the deck. Sanji was about to attack when Vivi grabbed him, and held him back; a second bullet fired and this one hit Vivi. The straw hats watched in horror as she fell to the deck.
"VIVI!" Luffy screamed and charged at the armed forces.
But before he could attack Vivi grabbed him.
"Wait I'm fine, don't attack them," She begged.
"But Vivi…" Luffy stated but was interrupted.
"If you do what happens' to Nami,"
This stopped Luffy in his tracks, realising what Vivi was implying. Vivi turned to the armed mob and lowered her head to the deck.
"As you wish we will not dock here, we won't even leave the ship. But please we need a doctor right away," Vivi pleaded.
Luffy got on his hands and knees as well.
"Please help our friend you can have our weapons and anything you want just please save her," Luffy begged.
The armed mob had no idea what to do, they had never had pirates act this way before. After what seemed like hours the man in green made a decision.
"Bring your friend and follow me, I'll lead you to our village. Leave all weapons on your ship," the man ordered.
Luffy nodded and ordered Zoro to watch the ship, knowing his first mate would never part with his swords willingly; Sanji and Vivi decided that they would go with Nami; Zoro made Usopp go as well. Luffy then went to get Nami, he explained what was happening to Connor and the boy insisted he be part of the shore party.
Connor left his sword in the cabin and followed Luffy on deck; Evie had reappeared and decided to join the group going a shore. When they disembarked the man in green searched them all and when he was satisfied that they had no weapons on them he led them and the armed mob to his village.
During the walk back to the village a large bear passed by them and Usopp pretended to be dead, but it turned out that the bear was harmless and Usopp got embarrassed. Connor over heard a few men muttering silently about him being in a pirate crew and how they pitied him, but he ignored their comments.
When they reached the village named Big Horn Usopp and Luffy were excited about all the large hairy animals wondering around. The man in green dismissed the mob and while some were hesitant to leave him alone with the Pirates they eventually all left.
"They weren't you countries military?" Vivi asked in surprise.
"No they're civilian volunteers," the man in green answered "Come I'll take you to my house,"
He led them down the street into one of the smaller houses in the village. Once inside he offered the only bed to Nami which Sanji immediately placed her in and covered her with blankets. The house was a small two room unit, with one bed and a kitchen all in the same room a fresh fire was burning in the fire place keeping the place warm. The ceiling was a doomed hollow triangle shape and Connor could not help but be curious about why it was built that way.
"I'm sorry about the rough welcome," the man apologized.
"Its fine we're pirates after all," Sanji said accepting his apology.
"My name is Dalton and I'm in charge of the defences of this island," Dalton introduced.
"Nice to meet you, I don't mean to be rude but we really need that doctor," Vivi said "Our friend here has a temperature of 42° degrees(1),"
"What? 42° if it gets any higher she'll die,"
"Yes so as you can see we really need help,"
"Unfortunately it's not that simple, our Island has only one Doctor and she's a witch,"
"A Witch?" Sanji questioned.
"Yes, do you see those massive mountains out the window?"
Sanji turned to look out the window and found himself face to face with two giant snow men curtesy of Luffy and Usopp. One was poorly made while the other was dubbed Snow-zilla.
"How did they build them so fast?" Evie questioned.
Sanji ran outside and destroyed the snow men with a few kicks, he then dragged the two back inside.
"So what about those mountains?" He asked Dalton.
"Right…" Dalton was not sure how to react to his guests "those are called the Drum Rockies and at the top of the one in the centre is a castle, the witch lives there,"
"Why would she live up there? Surly as the only doctor on the Island she would need to be close to the village," Vivi pointed out.
"She comes down time to time to treat patients and give everyone some flu medicine. But she doesn't like to associate with people so she stays up there. We have no way to get in contact with her either," Dalton explained.
"So why don't we take Nami up there then," Usopp suggested.
"You'd have to climb a mountain to do that,"
"Surly there's an easier way, how would she get up and down then?" Connor asked.
"Well rumor has it that she flies, she has a sleigh and it's pulled by a flying creature in the moonlight. It's why she's called a witch," Dalton finished.
"Well guess we'll climb the mountain then," Luffy declared.
"Are you insane?" Sanji, Vivi and Usopp yelled together.
"What it's the fastest way to get her treatment," Luffy responded.
"You can't climb that mountain with Nami, you'll never make it," Vivi claimed.
"I can do it,"
"But Nami might not be able to take the stress,"
"It's the only way and I may be able to help," Evie interrupted.
Luffy and the others looked at the other female in the room.
"How?" Luffy asked.
"My coat is made out of special weather resistant material. Supposedly it can even keep its wearer warm in the most extreme blizzards and cool in the hottest desserts," Evie explained "If Nami were to wear it then the cold would not bother her,"
"Impossible no such material exists," Vivi argued back.
"Then I suppose the clothes I'm wearing are just a figment of your imagination then," Evie shot back "Luffy if Nami and I switch jackets then she'll make it up the mountain,"
"Hold on you had those types of clothes on all this time. Why did you borrow some winter clothes then?" Usopp asked.
"I didn't want to be rude. Besides it's only my coat that's made out of that material," Evie explained.
"Okay let's do it,"
Evie nodded and took off her coat and put Namis on, she handed her coat to Luffy who put it on Nami.
"I'll want this back by the way," Evie warned.
"You'll get it back as soon as we get back from seeing the doctor," Luffy promised.
"Oi Luffy, I'm coming too," Sanji said "If you're carrying Nami-swan then you'll need someone to fight for you,"
As soon as they were ready to go Dalton warned them about a herd of flesh eating rabbits that lived on the mountains but Luffy and Sanji reassured him that they would be fine and took off towards the mountain. Dalton offered his house as a shelter to the reaming four until Luffy got back but none of them were quite ready to go back inside so they all sat in the snow watching the horizon.
Connor noticed that all the houses in the village had the same tall cone shape and he suspected that they were hollow too.
"Dalton, do all the houses here have hollowed out ceilings?" Connor asked.
"Yes they do, all the houses share a similar design," Dalton answered.
"Why have hollow ceilings though?"
"In case of an avalanche. When one occurs this village gets buried in snow, the roofs are designed in a cone shape so the snow doesn't completely cover it, also the very tip opens up so people can take shelter in their homes and then climb out,"
"But wouldn't the top freeze over?"
"No, all of our roofs are made of stone and stone can remain warm for a long time. With the fires going in the house the roof stores the heat in and it's that heat that prevents the escape hatch from freezing over," Dalton explained.
"Do you get avalanches often?" Usopp asked.
"At least once or twice a year," Dalton answered.
After a while Usopp got bored of watching the horizon and roped Connor into helping him build a snow fort. Evie decided to take it a step further and give them advice on where to build the defences, while Vivi and Dalton watched from the sidelines.
Dalton told Vivi about how his country used to be renowned for its medical practices, until they were invaded by Pirates and their former king fled with all the doctors and scientists. Vivi was disgusted by the idea that a king would so readily abandon his country, but Dalton explained that the king leaving was the best thing that could have happened as he was a merciless dictator.
"All right I've done what I can, good luck Vivi," Evie interrupted.
"Excuse me?" Vivi asked.
"You've got to invade that fort; Usopp said that nothing could breach its walls. So go prove him wrong,"
"Why, it's just a snow fort. It's not even real,"
"It's still a pirate fort no matter how you look at it. So go take them down," Evie said and pushed Vivi towards the snow Fort.
"Why should I play this childish game?" Vivi asked when a snow ball hit her in the chest.
"Direct hit," Connor cried out cheerfully.
"Yup no outside force can stop us," Usopp boasted.
Vivi smirked; she bent down and scooped up some snow. She threw her own snow ball and hit Usopp square in the face, "you should surrender pirates, give up now and I'll show you mercy,"
"Never, open fire!" Usopp cried and he and Connor began launching snow balls at Vivi.
Dalton could not help but laugh he'd never seen pirates act this way before, he watched the fight until a stray snow ball hit him and he joined Vivis side. a few of the villagers heard the noise and came to investigate Evie waned them not to get too close to the snow ball fight unless they wanted to join in.
The fight was interrupted when a villager ran up to Dalton and got pelted with snowballs.
"Dalton terrible news, the witch she's at Gyasta Village" the man said
"What? She's not at her castle?" Dalton exclaimed.
"What about Luffy?" Usopp asked.
"It's too late to find them and bring them back. But if we can catch her before she leaves then we can explain the situation," Dalton suggested.
"But how do we get to Gyasta?"
"I'll prepare a sled and you can take it there,"
"Thank you," Vivi said.
Dalton left to prepare the sled, once it was ready Vivi and Usopp were given directions to Gyasta, as well as a map. The sled only sat two, so Connor and Evie were left behind with Dalton. Evie promised that she would look after the boy for them and if the witch passed by she would send her back to the castle.
Once Vivi and Usopp had gone Connor went back inside Daltons house and sat in front of the fire. Dalton made some coffee for himself and Evie while Connor got some hot chocolate; they were just starting to drink their hot drinks when an injured villager burst in.
"Dalton… terrible news…Wapol…"
Dalton shot up and immediately went to the injured man.
"Wapol? What about him?" Dalton asked urgently.
"He…he…he's back," the man claimed before passing out.
Evie watched Dalton's reaction closely, Dalton didn't say anything he put the injured man on his bed, grabbed his weapon and walked out of the house. Once he was gone Evie poked her head out and saw an ox running towards the coast, it was wearing Daltons green suit.
"What's going on?" Connor asked.
"Don't know, apparently someone called Wapol is back,"
"Wasn't that the name of the guy who attacked us this morning?"
"Yeah, it was," Evie said thoughtfully "But I wouldn't worry about it, finish your drink before it gets cold,"
Evie thought about what her brother had told her and wondered why the name Wapol was taboo. She thought back to this mornings' attack, the captain had been called Wapol but he was a pushover and his men were even weaker.
She was pulled out of her thoughts when the house suddenly started to shake. Evie ran to the window and took a look outside, her eyes widened in fear at what was heading towards the village.
"What's happening?" Connor asked panicking.
Evie quickly ran over to him and scooped him up, she ran and hid in the closest, as something heavy struck the house.
"Avalanche," Evie hissed and held Connor tightly.
The force of the avalanche caused the windows to break and Connor tensed up and held tightly to Evie. Minutes passed by and what seemed like hours of shaking and loud crashing noises finally died down and eventually the house calmed down.
"Has it stopped?" Connor asked.
"Well one of two things has happened, ether it's settled down and it's over or…" Evie answered.
"Or what?" Connor asked, he was afraid of the answer.
"Or we're buried underneath the snow," Evie said grimly.
(1) For those that use Fahrenheit, 42 degrees Celsius is the equivalent of around 104 Fahrenheit. I live in Australia so we use the Celsius system instead of Fahrenheit.