CHAPTER 9: THE CASTLE IN THE CLOUDS AND THE BLUE-NOSED REINDEER

Leo sat under the big gray rock for what felt like four hours, but it might have been only forty minutes. His toes were totally numb. The storm kept dropping heavy buckets of snow right onto the path, and his ears were getting that weird, cold itch that means you need to get inside fast or lose a piece of skin. He stood up, shaking a whole layer of white crust off his shoulders, and stamped his feet until the leather felt tight again. He gave his left boot buckle three short, blunt taps with his thumb. Click. Click. Click. Still holding together.

The stone wall looked even bigger from down here, going straight up into the fog. He couldn't see Luffy or Sanji anymore. They were somewhere way up there in the white soup. 

Suddenly, there was a loud whistling sound coming from the lower trail. It wasn't the wind. It was too regular. 

Leo leaned out from behind the boulder, squinting down the slope. A big wood sled was coming up the hill, but it didn't have any horses pulling it. It had two big, ugly guys in heavy steel armor running next to it, using their boots to propel it forward like a pair of giant skates. And sitting right in the middle of the sled, wrapped in a blanket that looked like it was made of gold coins, was Wapol. He was chewing on a large metal frying pan like it was a piece of dried meat.

"More power, you fools!" Wapol yelled, his voice bouncing off the stone walls. His tin jaw made a loud clicking sound every time he bit down on the handle of the pan. "The old witch has my castle! I want my bed back! And I want to eat those pirates who kicked me into the sea!"

"King Wapol!" one of the armored guys said, gasping for breath. He had a big afro hair style that was completely full of frozen slush. "The snow is too deep! The sled is going to get stuck!"

"I don't care about the snow! Eat the snow!" Wapol roared. He actually leaned over the front of the sled, opened his giant mouth until his face looked like a split pumpkin, and started scooping up huge mouthfuls of the snow bank, swallowing it down with a loud gurgling noise. "Mmm! Needs salt! But it clears the path!"

Leo drew back behind the rock, his back pressed hard against the cold granite. He didn't want to fight Wapol alone down here, not with his bad leg. He needed to get up to the top before they did. He looked around the base of the pillar. There wasn't a ladder, but there was a weird wooden basket hanging from a thick hemp rope further around the back side, near a frozen waterfall. It looked like an old supply lift that the villagers used to send food up to the castle before the king went crazy.

He ran over to it, his boots skidding on the ice. The basket was small and smelled like rotten turnip sacks, but the rope went straight up into the clouds. He jumped inside and grabbed the iron handle attached to the main pulley wheel. It was rusty and stiff, frozen solid by the ice.

"Come on," Leo muttered, throwing his whole weight against the lever. 

*SCREECH.*

The iron gears groaned, throwing off a few red sparks, and then the basket gave a violent jerk, lifting off the ground about three feet. Leo kept cranking, his arms burning from the effort. It was slow work, like trying to pull a fat cow out of a mud hole, but the ground started dropping away below him. Down in the valley, he could see Wapol's sled turning the corner, the fat king still eating his way through the drifts like a giant white mole.

Up and up the basket went. The wind up here was vicious, swinging the wooden box back and forth until Leo had to sit down on the bottom and hold onto the sides with both hands to keep from being thrown out into the empty air. The gray stone wall was right next to his shoulder, covered in long, thick icicles that looked like giant silver teeth.

After about ten minutes of swinging, the basket hit a wooden platform with a loud *thump*. 

Leo climbed out, his legs shaking. He was at the top of the stone column now. The air was so cold it felt like breathing needles, but the storm was a little thinner up here. Right in front of him, sitting on the flat top of the mountain, was a massive castle made of gray stone blocks. It had huge round towers and iron gates, but half of it was smashed in, with giant piles of rubble and ice blocking the main doors. It looked like a place where an old giant had lived and died a long time ago.

Luffy was already there. He was lying flat on his back on the snow right outside the main gate, his face completely blue and his fingers looking like stiff pieces of wood. The rope around his chest was still tied, and Nami was still stuck to his back, but she wasn't moving at all. Her head was hanging down, her orange hair covered in white frost.

Sanji was there too, but he was sitting against a stone wall, his legs stretched out straight. He couldn't move them. They were completely white from the knees down, frozen solid from the climb.

"Hey... Leo..." Luffy croaked, his jaw barely moving. He didn't look up. His eyes were staring at the stone sky. "We... we made it... to the top... Where's... the deer?"

Before Leo could answer, the big iron gate opened with a loud, rusty shriek.

A woman stepped out into the snow. She didn't look like an old witch at all. She was tall and thin, wearing a bright purple coat that was open at the front, showing her stomach, and she had long blonde hair and sunglasses even though there wasn't any sun. She looked about thirty years old, but her eyes looked ancient, like she had seen everything in the world twice. She was holding a bottle of dark liquor in her right hand.

"Well, look what the wind blew in," the woman said, her voice deep and scratchy from too much smoke. "A bunch of frozen brats. Are you here to buy some medicine, or are you just trying to freeze to death on my porch?"

"Doctor..." Sanji whispered from the wall, his head tilting back. "Save... the lady... please..."

"Shut up, track-suit," the woman snapped, taking a long swig from her bottle. She looked down at Luffy, then at Nami on his back. Her expression changed just a tiny bit, her eyebrows drawing together under her glasses. "Tony! Get out here! We have work to do!"

A tiny shadow moved behind the gate.

Leo watched as a small creature stepped out into the light. It was short, only reaching up to Leo's knee, and it was wearing a massive pink top hat that had a white cross painted on the front. It had thick brown fur, little hoofs for hands, and a bright blue nose that stood out like a berry in the snow. It looked completely terrified, hiding half its body behind the iron door frame.

Chopper.

"Aaaah! Humans!" the little reindeer screamed, his voice high and squeaky like a little girl's. He tried to hide behind the door, but he did it backward, so his body was sticking out for everyone to see while his head was hidden. "Doctor Kureha! There are monsters on the mountain!"

"They aren't monsters, you idiot, they're patients," Kureha said, hitting the little reindeer over the head with her heavy bottle. *Clonk.* "Grab the big one's legs. The girl has the Kestia fever. If we don't get her into the hot bath in five minutes, she's going to turn into a corpse."

Chopper stopped being scared instantly when she said the word 'fever'. His little round eyes went very serious. He did a quick spin, and suddenly his body grew into a massive, furry gorilla shape with giant arms and legs. *Pop.* He grabbed Luffy and Nami with one hand and Sanji with the other, lifting them like they were bags of feathers, and ran back inside the dark castle.

Leo followed them through the doors. The inside of the castle was huge and empty, full of cold drafty hallways and broken stone statues, but Kureha had set up her clinic in the main dining hall. There was a huge log fire roaring in the hearth, and three large wooden tubs full of steaming hot water were sitting in the middle of the room. The smell of vinegar and old leaves was very strong.

"You," Kureha said, pointing her finger right at Leo's chest. "You look like you can still walk. Help Tony strip those wet blankets off the girl. And don't touch the purple jars on the table or I'll cut your ears off."

"Right," Leo said. He walked over to the tub where Chopper had laid Nami down. The little reindeer was back in his small form now, his blue nose twitching as he used a pair of scissors to cut the wet ropes off Luffy's chest.

Luffy didn't even notice the scissors. The moment he hit the floor near the fire, his eyes closed and he started snoring so loud the glass windows in the room vibrated. He was completely out, his body totally spent from the climb.

"Is she going to be okay?" Leo asked, helping Chopper pull the heavy quilts off Nami's arms. Her skin was covered in small, purple spots now, especially around her wrists.

"It's the five-day fever, alright," Chopper said, his tiny paws moving very fast as he felt Nami's neck. He didn't sound scared of humans anymore; his voice was professional and quick. "The bacteria is multiplying in her blood. Doctor, we need the white root juice and the hot leaf compress! Now!"

"I'm already making it, don't yell at me, brat," Kureha said from the corner. She was grinding some white roots in a stone bowl with a heavy pestle, making a loud *thump-thump-thump* sound. "She's lucky she has a tough heart. A regular person would have died down by the pine trees."

They lifted Nami into the hot water tub. The heat made her gasp, her eyes snapping open for a second, but they were cloudy and didn't see anything. Chopper held her head up so she wouldn't drown, while Kureha poured a thick, green liquid into her mouth from a horn cup. Nami coughed, spitting some of it out onto her chin, but most of it went down.

"Now we wait," Kureha said, wiping her hands on her trousers. She looked over at Sanji, who was currently lying on a bench with his legs wrapped in hot wet towels. He was awake, but he looked like he was about to pass out from the pain of his feet thawing out. "You, tracksuit. Your toes are fine. No rot. But you aren't going to be walking for two days."

"Nami..." Sanji groaned, his eyes fixed on the tub.

"She's alive," Kureha sighed, sitting down on a large velvet chair that had half its stuffing falling out. She took another drink from her bottle. "Now, who are you people? You don't look like Wapol's idiots. And you don't look like the regular village trash from below."

"We're pirates," Leo said, sitting down on a stone step near the fire. He unbuckled his boots to let his feet get some heat. "Our captain is the rubber guy snoring on the floor. We're going to Alabasta to stop a war, but we needed a navigator first."

Chopper looked up from Nami's tub, his big ears twitching. "Pirates? Like... the guys with the black flags? One that go out into the big ocean?"

"Yeah," Leo said, looking at the little deer. "The big ocean. It's got islands made of gold, and islands where the fish are bigger than this castle. It's a lot of fun, Chopper."

Chopper's face turned bright red, and he started doing a weird little dance, his hoofs hitting the stone floor while his body wiggled back and forth. "Hey! Don't call me Chopper, you bastard! It doesn't make me happy at all! Idiot!" He was trying to sound angry, but he had the biggest, happiest smile on his face, his blue nose wrinkling up.

"He's an idiot," Kureha said, but her voice was softer this time. She looked out the broken window toward the path. "You brought trouble with you, though. I can hear those heavy steel boots from here."

Leo stood up, his boots going back on with three quick clicks. Click. Click. Click. "Wapol is coming up the lift. He wants his castle back."

"My castle," Kureha corrected, her eyes narrowing behind her sunglasses. "The fat pig ran away when the black-mustache guy came with his five ships last month. He left all his sick people to die in the snow. He doesn't get to come back here just because he's hungry."

Luffy suddenly sat straight up on the floor, his hat falling off his head. He didn't look tired at all anymore; his rubber stomach gave a massive *RUMBLE* that sounded like an earthquake. "Meat! I smell hot soup! Is it time to eat?!"

"No, it's not time to eat, you lazy rubber," Sanji yelled from his bench, though he couldn't lift his legs. "The fat king is outside! Get up and fight!"

Luffy blinked, looking around the room until he saw Chopper. His eyes turned into giant soup plates. "Whoa! The deer! It's the blue-nosed deer! It's real!"

He launched himself across the room, his arms stretching out like two long snakes, trying to grab Chopper around the waist. "Join my crew! Let's go to the desert! You can be our emergency food!"

"Emergency food?! Aaaah!" Chopper screamed, turning back into his big gorilla form and running around the water tubs with Luffy hanging onto his fur like a giant monkey. "Doctor! The rubber monster is going to eat me!"

"Stop running inside my clinic!" Kureha roared, throwing her heavy stone bowl right at Luffy's head. *CRASH.* It hit him square in the forehead, bouncing off his rubber skin and shattering into a hundred pieces against the wall. Luffy didn't even care; he just kept laughing and trying to wrap his legs around Chopper's neck.

*BOOM.*

The main wooden doors of the castle hall suddenly flew into pieces, stone dust and splinters filling the air. 

Wapol stepped through the smoke. He had eaten his armored men's spears on the way up, and now his body looked completely different. His arms were made of heavy iron cannons, and his chest was a big steel plate with the royal crown of Drum Island painted on it in yellow. His tin jaw was wider than ever, green sparks flying out from between his teeth.

"I'm back!" Wapol shouted, his voice echoing off the high stone ceiling. "Kureha! You old hag! Get out of my kitchen! I'm going to eat all the royal medicine and then I'm going to turn this whole mountain into a giant tin factory!"

His two remaining henchmen.....the afro guy, Kuromarimo, and a guy with a big bow made of frozen bone, Chess.....stepped in behind him. They looked dirty and cold, but they had their weapons ready.

"Look, Chess," Kuromarimo said, pointing his fuzzy glove at Nami's tub. "The pirates are here. They're using the royal bath."

"Unforgivable!" Chess yelled, pulling three arrows out of his white fur quiver. The tips of the arrows were made of frozen sulfur that smelled like rotten eggs. "Die, lawbreakers!"

He let the arrows fly. They didn't go toward Luffy; they targeted Nami's tub where she was still resting her head against the wooden edge, her eyes closed.

"Nami-swan!" Sanji screamed, trying to throw himself off the bench, but his legs failed him and he crashed hard onto the stone floor, his fingers clawing at the dust.

*SHING.*

A flash of green light came from the side window. 

The three arrows were instantly sliced into six neat pieces, the frozen sulfur tips falling into the fire place and making a loud *pfff* sound with some green smoke. 

Zoro stepped through the broken window frame, his green hair completely white from the snow outside. He was only wearing one sleeve of his shirt, his chest bare and covered in small red scratches from the pine trees. He looked incredibly annoyed. "Man, this place is a maze. I've been walking around the back garden for two hours looking for the kitchen. Why is everyone shouting in here?"

"Zoro!" Luffy cheered, still hanging onto Chopper's leg. "Look! A deer!"

"I see it," Zoro said, his hand resting on his third sword hilt. He looked at Wapol. "Is that the fat guy from the boat? He looks uglier now."

"You... you're that three-sword pirate!" Wapol roared, his iron cannon arms lifting up, the black holes pointing right at Zoro's face. "I'll show you what the Royal House-Eating Cannon can do! Fire!"

*BALOOM.*

Two massive iron cannonballs, each about the size of a water barrel, shot out of his arms with a huge flash of yellow gunpowder light. The force of the shot blew all the curtains off the walls and sent a huge cloud of black smoke into the center of the hall.

Zoro didn't even move his feet. He just drew his two black swords in a large cross shape in front of his chest.

"Two-Sword Style... HAWK WAVE!"

The air pressure from his swing created a giant wind blast that literally split the two iron cannonballs down the middle, the clean iron pieces flying past his shoulders and smashing into the stone walls behind him, throwing up tons of gray rock dust.

"He cut iron!" Wapol's henchmen screamed, jumping back behind the sled.

Leo watched from the steps. The fight was exactly like the original timeline, but it was much messier in person. The smell of the gunpowder was making his eyes water, and the floor was covered in slippery slush from Zoro's boots. He looked over at Chopper. The little reindeer was staring at Zoro with his mouth wide open, his blue nose twitching in absolute awe.

"So strong..." Chopper whispered.

"He's not strong, he's just loud," Kureha said, sitting back in her chair with a fresh bottle she pulled from under her cushion. She looked at Luffy. "Hey, rubber. If you're going to be my patient's captain, go throw that garbage off my mountain. He's breaking my floor blocks."

Luffy dropped off Chopper's leg, his feet hitting the stone with a solid *slap*. His face went completely dark, the shadow of his straw hat covering his eyes. He walked past Zoro, his arms hanging down long and loose at his sides.

"Hey, fat jaw," Luffy said, his voice very quiet under the sound of the wind outside. "You ran away from this island when your people were sick?"

"Of course I did!" Wapol laughed, his steel chest plate shaking. "I'm the king! My life is worth more than ten thousand village trash! I can buy a new country whenever I want!"

Luffy didn't say another word. He just took three long steps forward, his right arm stretching out backward through the broken door, going way out into the snow storm until it was over a hundred feet long.

"Gum-Gum..."

Wapol saw the arm going back and panicked. He opened his mouth wide, trying to activate his eating power to bite Luffy's head off before the punch could land. "I'll eat your whole body!"

"BULLET!"

Luffy's fist snapped back with incredible speed, turning into a red blur. It didn't hit Wapol's mouth; it hit him right in the center of his steel chest plate, right where the yellow crown was painted.

*CRACK.*

The steel plate buckled instantly, turning into a deep V-shape. The force of the blow was so massive it lifted Wapol's fat three-hundred-pound body right off the floor, launching him backward through the broken stone walls of the castle. He went flying out into the gray sky, his arms and legs flailing around like a fat white bird, until he disappeared into the clouds over the mountain valley below.

"King Wapol!" Chess and Kuromarimo screamed. They didn't even look at Luffy; they just turned around and ran out the door as fast as their boots could carry them, sliding down the snow trail like two sad rabbits.

The room went completely quiet again, except for the sound of the log fire cracking.

Luffy pulled his arm back, rubbing his knuckles against his shorts. He looked over at Chopper, his happy face returning instantly. "Hey! Deer! The fat guy is gone! Now you have to join my crew! Let's go!"

Chopper backed away, his little hoofs twisting together. He looked down at the floor, his blue nose looking very dark. "I... I can't. I'm a monster. I walk on two legs but I have fur. Humans don't like me. The village people always shoot at me with guns."

"Who cares about that?!" Luffy yelled, his voice echoing through the high hall. He didn't use any fancy words; he just pointed his finger straight at Chopper's hat. "You're a good doctor! And you have a blue nose! That's awesome! Let's go to the ocean!"

Chopper stared at Luffy for a long ten seconds. A big tear started rolling down his furry cheek, then another one, until he was crying so hard his pink hat fell off backward onto the stone. "You... you really want me?"

"Yeah!" Luffy laughed, grabbing Chopper by the hand and spinning him around in a big circle. "We have a doctor now! Set the sails!"

Leo sat back down on his stone step, letting out a long breath. He looked over at the water tub. Nami's breathing was steady now, her face looking pink and healthy under the warm water. The spots were already starting to fade.

The first part of the winter island was done. They had the doctor, they had the navigator back, and the Going Merry was still waiting down at the coast. Leo pulled his boot strap one more time.....click, click, click.....and smiled. Alabasta was next, and Crocodile had no idea what was heading his way.