Lookout for the Straw Hats!

Chapter 15: Reindeer mascot?

"Hey Vivi. Are you sure we're going in the right direction to get to this Giasta town where the witch is?"

We'd been going in a straight line for a while now, so I could only hope we were going in the right direction to wherever this witch lady was. Being in my helpless state, all I could do was keep myself sitting upright and try my best to keep up with what Usopp and Vivi were saying.

"Well, now that you mentioned it, I'm not exactly sure where we're going."

Oh man, that sucks big time.

"Well, we're in pretty bad shape if you're not sure. You know, if Luffy and Sanji manage to make it to the castle and the doctor isn't there, they'll just turn around and leave. We have to make it to the place, find the doctor and tell her to go back up the mountain. Nami's running out of time pretty quickly."

"Yes, I realize that Usopp."

"Well, if you realize that, then do something about it. You're a princess, right?"

Opening my eyes finally, I spoke up, my voice raspy from the weather and my lack of speaking.

"That's not cool, Usopp. She's trying her best to lead us, and the last thing she needs is you asking her to do the impossible. If you have anything to rant about, talk to me about it and let Vivi focus on getting us to the right place. Whether I listen to you or not is a whole other matter, but let's not worry about that."

The sniper turned his head halfway to get me in his view and replied, "Sorry, guys. I don't mean to be like this. I'm just worried about Nami and don't want anything bad to happen. And you're not in the best condition either, Y/n, so I guess that's been weighing on me."

Turning back to Vivi, he apologized to her, making me feel better about the situation.

The last thing we need is to start bickering amongst ourselves. It's bad enough that we don't have Dalton with us anymore, but now it's just gotten worse with Wapol's unwelcome return.

"Keep your eyes open for a sign to this town, okay?"

I really hope she wasn't asking me to keep my eyes open because I am going to be a helpless baby back here until I'm back inside a warm building.

Please, Usopp. Please, be pulling all the weight right now. If we don't find this place soon, I will be putting full blame on you. It's not my fault nature hates me and wants me dead. Well, extra dead, compared to everyone else.

"This doesn't look good."

Pulling my eyes open from the frost and wind blowing in my face, I looked around, frog-blinking and dazed, not knowing a thing that was happening.

But whenever Usopp says anything like that in an actually serious tone, it does raise some concerns.

"We won't be able to keep going in this deep snow."

Getting my bearings, I finally took in the situation we were in and noticed that we were surrounded by feet of snow taller than me.

"I couldn't have been sleeping that long! How did we get stuck in this mountain of snow anyway?! We were moving great before! What happened?!!"

Neither one got to answer me when the entire ground began to shake violently.

"What is this? Why is the ground shaking?"

Turning a bit, the princess looked at both me and Usopp and said, "Oh no! Usopp, Y/n! Is this what I think it is?!" The sniper immediately stuttered out "avalanche", while I just stared at the snow, tumbling down toward us, without uttering a word.