CHAPTER 10: BLUE FLAKES AND THE BIG RUMBLE

The snow outside didn't look like regular snow anymore. It was getting dark, that deep kind of blue that happens right before the sky goes completely black in the mountains. Leo stood by the broken stone window, feeling the freezing air hit his face. His left arm was still a little stiff from pulling that old wooden basket up the cliff, but his leg felt okay. He looked down at his boot buckle. He didn't tap it three times like he usually did. He just gave it one hard shove with his thumb until it clicked into place. Just one click this time. It was good enough.

"Hey, blue nose," Luffy called out. He was sitting on top of a big turned-over table in the middle of the room, swinging his legs back and forth. His straw hat was crooked. "Where do you keep the big meat sacks? The old lady said there was food in the back, but all I found were these little dried yellow roots. They taste like old dirt."

Chopper was over by Nami's tub, checking the water with his small furry hand. He looked up, his big round eyes blinking fast. "Those are medicine roots! You shouldn't eat those, Luffy! They make your stomach turn inside out if you don't boil them for three hours!"

"Already ate five," Luffy said, chewing on something small and brown. He didn't look sick at all. He just looked bored. "Didn't do anything. Still hungry."

Sanji groaned from his spot on the bench. He was trying to lift his right leg, but the heavy wet blankets kept sliding off onto the stone floor. His face was pale, and he had a tiny bit of smoke coming from his mouth even though his cigarette was mostly gone. "Luffy... shut up about meat for five minutes. Is Nami-san waking up yet? The water is getting less cloudy."

"She's fine," Doctor Kureha said. She came out of a small side door carrying a big iron pot that smelled like burnt vinegar and old fat. She didn't look at any of them. She just dumped the pot right into the fire, making a huge cloud of gray smoke blow across the room. "The fever is broken. She'll be shouting at you idiots by midnight. Now get out of my way, track-suit. I need to check your toes before they turn green and drop off."

"They aren't going to drop off," Sanji muttered, but he let her pull the blankets back anyway. He looked away, like he didn't want to see what his own feet looked like.

Zoro was sitting on the floor in the corner, his back against a broken stone pillar. He had his three swords lying across his lap, and he was using a piece of greasy cloth to wipe the snow off the black sheaths. He hadn't said anything since Wapol went flying out the window.

"Hey, green head," Leo said, walking over to him. "You see anything on the way up the back path? Any of Wapol's other guys?"

Zoro didn't look up from his sword. "Just snow. And some big white rabbits with long teeth. One of them tried to bite my boot. I hit it with the flat of the blade."

"Those are Lapahns!" Chopper yelled from across the room. He ran over, his little hoofs making a soft *clack-clack* sound on the gray floor blocks. "They're really dangerous! They live in the big snow banks and they can cause giant snow slides if you make them mad! You shouldn't hit them!"

"It started it," Zoro said, his voice flat. He put the sword back into its sheath with a sharp *clack*. "If it comes back, I'll cut its ears off."

"No! Don't do that!" Chopper looked totally scared again, his blue nose twitching as he hid behind Leo's leg. But he did it backward again, so his little brown bottom was sticking out toward Zoro while his head was pressed against Leo's trousers.

Leo reached down and moved Chopper's hat so it was straight. "He's just talking, Chopper. He won't cut the rabbits unless they try to eat us. Where's the ship stuff? The old king had a big storage room near the back towers, right?"

Kureha stood up from Sanji's bench, wiping her hands on her purple coat. She looked at Leo for a second, her sunglasses sliding down her nose just enough so he could see her sharp, old eyes. "Wapol kept all the good stuff in the treasury behind the big iron gate in the north wing. Sleds, old wood, ropes. Even some old sails from the ships he broke up when he became king. But you can't get in there. The lock is made of three heavy steel bars."

"Luffy can break it," Leo said.

"I can break it!" Luffy shouted, jumping off the table. He stretched his arms way up high, his rubber skin making a weird *bloop* sound. "Let's go look at the big iron gate! Maybe there's a kitchen behind it!"

"There isn't a kitchen, you rubber idiot," Sanji said, his voice cracking a bit as he tried to sit up straight. "But if there's wood, we need it for the Merry. The front railing was mostly smashed when we hit the ice chunks near the shore."

They left Sanji and Nami in the warm dining hall with Doctor Kureha. Chopper didn't want to come at first, but Luffy grabbed him by the back of his blue vest and dragged him along anyway. The little reindeer kept complaining about how cold the hallways were, even though he was the only one with thick brown fur.

The north wing of the castle was totally dark. The windows here didn't have any glass left, and the wind was blowing huge drifts of snow right down the middle of the carpet. The carpet used to be red, but now it was just a dirty gray color and felt like frozen mud under Leo's boots.

"This place is huge," Zoro said, walking in the wrong direction down a side hallway that went toward a laundry room.

"Other way, greenie," Leo called out, grabbing the back of Zoro's shirt to pull him back. "The big gate is down the stairs."

"I knew that," Zoro muttered, though he hadn't even looked at the stairs.

At the bottom of the stone steps, there was a massive door made of black iron. It had three giant padlocks hanging from it, each one as big as a regular man's head. The keys were probably at the bottom of the mountain with Wapol, but Luffy didn't care about keys. He walked right up to the gate, took a big breath until his chest looked like a giant balloon, and ran backward about twenty feet.

"Gum-Gum... BELL!"

Luffy launched his head forward, his neck stretching out like a thick rope. His forehead hit the middle iron bar with a giant *BANG* that made the whole stone ceiling drop a shower of white dust and little pebbles down on their heads. The iron bar bent right in the middle, popping out of its sockets with a loud *ping* sound.

"Whoa!" Chopper's eyes turned into giant white squares. "His head is harder than iron! Is he made of rock?!"

"Rubber," Leo said, kicking the remaining bars until the door swung open with a rusty scream. "Come on. Let's see what the fat king left behind."

Inside the room, it smelled like old oil and wet dog. There were piles of boxes everywhere, mostly full of old clothes, shiny plates that weren't real gold, and rows of empty glass bottles. In the corner, under a big gray tarp, were three large wooden sleds with steel runners. They looked heavy, but they had long ropes attached to the front for pulling.

"Look at this!" Luffy yelled. He didn't look at the sleds. He had found a big wooden box full of dried fish that were frozen hard as boards. He picked one up and bit it in half, making a loud *crunch* sound. "Mmm! Cold fish! It's better than the roots!"

"Don't eat that all," Leo said, walking over to the sails. He pulled a heavy piece of white canvas out from under a pile of rusted anchor chains. It was a little torn around the edges, but the cloth was thick and dry. "Zoro, help me carry this sled canvas out. We can use the ropes to drag one of these sleds down the mountain path once Nami can walk."

Zoro grabbed one end of the heavy tarp, his face totally blank. "We're going down the path? What about the fat guy's lift?"

"The lift is too slow," Leo said, thinking about how long it took him to crank that rusty handle. "And Wapol's guys might have smashed the gears at the bottom by now. The sled is faster. We just slide straight down into the woods."

"That sounds dangerous," Chopper whispered, his small hoofs tapping against an empty box. "The woods are full of the big rabbits this time of night. They don't like sleds. They think they're big monsters coming to take their trees."

"Let them try," Zoro said, touching the hilt of his white sword.

They spent about an hour pulling things out of the dark room. Luffy carried three boxes of frozen fish by himself, stacking them on top of his head while he walked. Every few steps, he'd reach up, grab a fish, and stuff it into his mouth without stopping. Chopper watched him the whole time, looking half-terrified and half-interested, like he was studying a weird new animal he'd never seen in his medical books.

When they got back to the main hall, Nami was sitting up in her tub. She had a thick gray blanket wrapped around her shoulders, and her face wasn't blue anymore. It was a little pink from the hot water, but her eyes were sharp and angry.

"Luffy!" she shouted, her voice shaking a little bit from the cold air outside the water. "Where have you been?! And what is that smell?!"

"Fish!" Luffy said, dropping the boxes onto the floor with a loud *thud*. One of the frozen fish skittered across the stone and hit Nami's tub. "We found a bunch of them! And look, we got a deer too! He's our new friend!"

Nami looked at Chopper, who immediately hid behind the big boxes of fish, his pink top hat showing over the top. "A reindeer? With a blue nose? Wait... is he the doctor?"

"I'm a great doctor!" Chopper squeaked from behind the box, his voice high and defensive. "I can fix fevers and broken legs and everything! Don't look at me like that! You're a human! Humans are scary!"

"He's not a regular deer, Nami-san," Sanji said from his bench. He was finally able to wiggle his toes, though he was still wearing the wet towels. "He turned into a giant monster and carried us up here. It was very graceful, like a big furry angel."

"Shut up, track-suit," Kureha said, hitting Sanji on the shin with her wooden spoon. *Whack.* "He's a monster because he ate the Human-Human Fruit. Just like that rubber brat on the table. Now, girl, get out of that water and put these dry clothes on. We don't have all night for you to sit there like a boiled turnip."

Nami climbed out of the tub, keeping the blanket tightly around her. She looked at Leo, then at the pile of white canvas Zoro had dropped near the door. "Are we leaving tonight? The storm is getting worse out there. I can hear the wind hitting the roof towers."

"The storm is fine," Leo said, looking out the window again. The blue sky was completely gone now, replaced by a thick, heavy blackness. But the snow wasn't falling straight down anymore. It was swirling around in big, slow circles. "But Wapol's men are still down there. If we wait until morning, they might get more help from the towns below. We should move while they're still scared of Luffy."

"I'm not scared of anything!" Luffy said, his mouth full of fish tail.

"Nobody asked you," Nami sighed. She took a bundle of thick wool clothes from Doctor Kureha and walked behind a big stone curtain to change.

Chopper came out from behind the boxes, looking up at Kureha. His little shoulders were drooping, and his pink hat looked heavy on his head. "Doctor... am I really going with them? To the big ocean?"

Kureha didn't look at him. She walked over to the fire and started stirring the gray pot again, her back turned to the whole room. "You're a nuisance here, Tony. You eat too much sweet root and you always drop the medicine jars. Go with the pirates. Get out of my sight."

"But... but Doctor..." Chopper's voice started to crack. Big tears were already forming in the corners of his eyes, making his fur look wet around his nose.

"Don't start leaking on my floor," the old woman snapped, though her hand was shaking a little bit on the handle of the wooden spoon. "I've lived for a hundred and thirty-nine years, and I don't need a crying deer keeping me awake at night. Get your bags and go."

Chopper stood there for a second, then he turned around and ran out of the room toward the back quarters, his little hoofs making a loud, frantic *patter-patter-patter* against the stone.

"You're a tough old lady," Leo said, walking up to the fire.

"I'm a beautiful doctor in my prime," Kureha said, her voice dropping into that deep, scratchy tone. She didn't look at him either. "Now go help that green-haired idiot with the sled. He's currently trying to rope it to the wrong side of the door."

Leo went outside into the courtyard. The wind was so loud it felt like someone was screaming right into his ear. Zoro had dragged one of the large wooden sleds out onto the snow bank, but he had tied the thick hemp rope around the back runner instead of the front iron loops.

"Zoro, you're going to pull it backward like that," Leo said, his voice loud against the wind.

"It doesn't matter," Zoro said, his teeth chattering just a little bit. He wasn't wearing his coat, just his green trousers and his white shirt with the single sleeve. "It slides both ways."

"The front has the curved wood so it doesn't get stuck in the drifts," Leo sighed. He knelt down in the snow, his hands getting cold instantly as he untied the wet knot. His fingers were stiff, but he managed to loop the rope through the front iron ring. He gave it one short tap with his palm. Just to make sure it was tight.

Luffy came out next, carrying the boxes of fish under one arm and Sanji under the other. Sanji looked completely furious about being carried like a sack of grain, but his feet still weren't ready for the deep snow.

"Let me down, you rubber bastard!" Sanji yelled, his arms waving around in the air. "I can walk! I can crawl! Just don't let the lady see me like this!"

"You're too slow," Luffy said, dropping Sanji right into the middle of the wooden sled. *Thump.* Sanji landed on a pile of blankets, his face red from anger and the cold.

Nami came out last, wearing a huge brown fur coat that looked three sizes too big for her. Her orange hair was tucked under a wool cap. She looked at the sled, then at the steep, white slope that went straight down into the black forest below. "Are we really going down that? It looks like a cliff."

"It's not a cliff," Leo said, though it really did look like one from up here. "It's just a forty-degree hill. Once we get past the first three turns, it straightens out into the old logging trail. We'll be at the bottom in fifteen minutes."

"And if we hit a rock?" Nami asked, her eyebrows going up.

"Then we fly," Luffy said, laughing as he jumped onto the very front of the sled, his boots locking into the wooden frame. "This is going to be great! Hey! Blue nose! Hurry up or we're leaving you!"

Chopper came running out of the castle gates, carrying a giant blue backpack that was twice as big as his whole body. He was crying so hard he couldn't even see where he was going, and he tripped over a frozen stone block, face-planting right into a soft snow bank. His big backpack landed on top of him, pinning him down like a turtle.

"I'm... I'm ready!" Chopper wailed from under the snow, his voice muffled by the white crust.

Zoro walked over, picked up the backpack by the straps with one hand, and tossed it into the back of the sled. Then he picked Chopper up by his pink hat and dropped him right next to Sanji.

"Everyone stay low," Leo said, climbing onto the back of the sled where the small wooden brake lever was. It was just a thick piece of iron with a blunt tooth that dug into the snow. He grabbed the handle. "Zoro, get on."

Zoro jumped onto the side runner, holding onto the wooden stakes with his large hands.

Doctor Kureha stood at the main gate of the castle, her purple coat blowing wildly around her legs. She had her bottle of liquor in her hand, but she wasn't drinking it. She just watched them.

"Hey! Old hag!" Luffy shouted, waving his hand so hard his sleeve made a whistling sound. "Thanks for the food! We're taking the deer now!"

Kureha didn't answer. She turned around and walked back into the dark castle, the heavy iron gate closing behind her with a final, echoing *BOOM*.

"Okay," Leo said, his hand tightening on the iron lever. "Hold on."

He kicked the wooden block out from under the back runner.

The sled didn't move for a second. The runners were frozen to the snow crust. Then Luffy gave a huge shove with his legs, stretching his body forward and pulling the whole frame with him.

*CREAK.*

The sled gave a violent lurch and then it started to slide.

At first it was slow, just a smooth, cold glide over the flat top of the mountain. But then the front runners hit the edge where the slope dropped away. The whole world seemed to tilt forward.

"AAAAAH!" Chopper screamed, grabbing onto Sanji's tracksuit jacket with both hoofs, his eyes rolling back into his head.

The wind didn't just blow now; it roared. It hit them like a solid wall of ice, throwing huge sheets of white powder right into their faces. Leo pulled back on the iron brake lever, trying to slow them down before the first big turn, but the iron tooth just skated over the hard ice crust, throwing off a shower of bright blue sparks but not slowing the wooden frame at all.

"The brake isn't catching!" Leo yelled, his voice swallowed by the wind.

"Don't slow down!" Luffy shouted from the front. He was leaning so far forward his chest was almost touching the snow. "Go faster! We're going to catch the wind!"

The first turn was coming up fast. It was a sharp left right around a massive pillar of gray stone. If they missed it, they'd go straight over the edge and land in the pine trees three hundred feet below.

"Zoro! Lean left!" Leo roared.

Zoro didn't ask questions. He threw his whole upper body out over the left side of the sled, his boots dragging in the snow and kicking up a giant white wall of slush. Leo pulled the iron handle with both hands, forcing his weight onto the left runner.

The sled tilted up on two runners, the wooden frame screaming from the strain. The right side lifted two feet into the air. Nami let out a sharp, angry scream, holding onto the side stakes until her knuckles went completely white.

*SWISH.*

The back end of the sled swung out, clipping the gray stone pillar with a loud *crack* that shattered the top corner of the wooden rail. But they stayed on the path. The sled slammed back down onto all four runners, skidding wildly before straightening out on the next slope.

"We're alive!" Chopper gasped, his pink hat completely full of snow.

"Not yet," Leo muttered.

Down below, the path went straight into the dark forest. The trees here were huge pines, their branches heavy with thick blankets of white crust. It looked like a tunnel of teeth. And right in the middle of the trail, about two hundred yards ahead, were five giant white shapes.

The Lapahns.

They were huge, each one twice as big as Zoro, with thick white fur and long, sharp ears that stood straight up. They were standing in a line across the logging trail, their red eyes glowing in the dark. They looked like they were waiting for the sled.

"More monsters!" Chopper shrieked, trying to climb into Sanji's vest pocket. "They're going to jump! When they jump together, they break the whole mountain!"

"Luffy! Zoro!" Nami shouted from the middle, her cap flying off her head into the dark. "Do something! We can't turn here!"

"I got it," Zoro said. He unhooked his black sword from his belt, his eyes narrowing as he watched the white rabbits.

"No, let me!" Luffy yelled. He didn't use his swords because he didn't have any. Instead, he grabbed the two side ropes of the sled with his hands, his arms stretching out like thick rubber bands as he dropped off the front, his boots dragging in the snow between the runners.

"Luffy! What are you doing?!" Sanji yelled, trying to reach over the side.

Luffy didn't answer. He let himself drag behind the sled for three seconds, his body stretching out until he was fifty feet behind them, then he snapped back forward like a giant stone out of a slingshot.

"Gum-Gum... CROSSBOW!"

His body shot past the sled so fast he made a loud *whoosh* sound that cleared the snow off the side runners. He hit the middle Lapahn right in the stomach with both his feet. *OOF.* The giant white rabbit went flying backward into the trees, taking two of its friends with it.

The other two Lapahns looked totally confused for a split second. They tried to jump out of the way, but the wooden sled was moving too fast. The front steel runners clipped their legs, sending them spinning into the soft drifts at the side of the trail.

The sled didn't stop. It shot through the gap in the line, its runners humming a high, buzzing note as they hit the smooth ice of the logging trail.

"We hit them!" Luffy laughed, his body bouncing back onto the front seat of the sled like a big ball. His hat was completely wet, but he was still smiling. "Did you see that, blue nose? The big rabbits are soft!"

Chopper peeked over the edge of the wooden rail, looking back at the trees. The Lapahns were pulling themselves out of the snow, shaking their heads, but they weren't chasing them. They just watched the sled go by, their red eyes looking more surprised than angry.

"They... they didn't break the mountain," Chopper whispered, his voice small.

"Of course they didn't," Sanji said, leaning his head back against the boxes of fish. He looked totally exhausted, but he managed to pull a fresh cigarette out of his wet pocket, though he didn't have a dry match to light it. "Our captain is more annoying than any rabbit."

The rest of the mountain went by in a blur of gray trees and cold wind. Leo kept his hand on the iron brake, using it just enough to keep the sled from turning over on the smaller bends. The trail was wider down here, and the snow wasn't as deep under the thick roof of the pine branches.

After another ten minutes of sliding, the trees suddenly cleared out.

The sea was right in front of them. It looked black and heavy under the dark sky, with large chunks of gray ice floating near the shore like big dead fish. And sitting right by the old wooden dock, its small yellow lights shining through the fog, was the Going Merry.

"Merry!" Luffy screamed, standing up on the front seat and waving both arms. "We're back! And we got fish! And a deer!"

The sled hit the flat sand of the beach with a dull, heavy *plow* sound. The runners dug into the wet gravel, slowing the wooden frame down until it came to a complete stop about ten feet from the water edge.

Usopp was standing on the deck of the ship, holding a small oil lantern over the side railing. His long nose was bright red from the cold, and he was wearing three coats stacked on top of each other. "Luffy?! Is that you?! Did you find a doctor?! The ship is freezing!"

"We got two!" Luffy yelled, jumping out of the sled and running across the sand, his boots splashing into the icy surf without him even noticing. "Look! The little one has a pink hat!"

Chopper climbed out of the sled very slowly, holding his giant blue backpack by the straps. He looked up at the big wooden ship, his small mouth open. He'd never seen a ship before. He'd only seen Wapol's old iron steam boats that smelled like coal smoke and oil. The Merry looked small, but it had a friendly face carved on the front.

"Is... is this the pirate ship?" Chopper asked Leo, who was currently untying the canvas from the back runners.

"Yeah," Leo said, dropping the heavy cloth onto the sand. He looked at his boot buckle again. No clicks this time. It was holding together fine. "It's a good ship, Chopper. It survived the big mountain behind us, and it's going to take us all the way to the sand country."

Nami got out next, her legs still a little shaky from the fever, but she walked straight over to Chopper and put her hand on his little shoulder. "Come on, Doctor. Let's get inside where it's warm. I think Usopp has some hot tea on the stove."

Chopper looked at her hand, then up at her face. He didn't run away this time. He just nodded once, his blue nose looking very bright against the white sand of the beach. "Okay. But... but I need to check your pulse again once we get inside. Just to be sure."

"Whatever you say, Doctor," Nami smiled.

They all climbed up the wooden rope ladder onto the deck of the Merry. Usopp immediately started asking fifty questions at once, mostly about the giant rabbits and whether Wapol had any gold in his castle, but Luffy just ignored him and ran straight into the galley looking for a big pot to cook his frozen fish.

Leo stayed on the deck for a minute, looking back up at the big stone mountain. The castle was completely hidden by the black clouds now, but he could still see the faint, blue outline of the peak against the sky. It looked lonely up there.

"Hey, Leo," Zoro called out from the cabin door. He had his swords back on his hip, and he was holding a dry towel. "You coming inside or are you going to freeze out here like a statue?"

"Coming," Leo said. He walked across the wooden deck, his boots making a solid, heavy sound against the planks. The winter island was behind them now. The next stop was Alabasta, and the big desert was waiting.

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