CHAPTER 13: THE COLD SANDS AND THE OLD MAN UNCLE TOZA

The desert at night was totally different. The hot oven feeling from the afternoon had disappeared so fast it made Leo's teeth chatter against each other. The air felt thin and sharp, almost like the top of the snow mountain they had left behind, except there wasn't any snow here. Just endless black waves of sand under a sky full of tiny white stars that didn't move at all.

Luffy's camel, the big one that had spit on him earlier, was leading the way. Luffy was sitting backwards on the leather saddle now, his legs dangling over the animal's tail. He had tucked his chin into his red vest to keep the cold wind off his neck.

"Hey, Vivi," Luffy shouted, his voice echoing across the quiet dunes. "When are we gonna see the water city? My stomach is doing the flat thing again. The water from that cave didn't stay in my middle very long."

Vivi was riding the middle camel with Chopper. The little reindeer had crawled completely inside her big white desert cloak so only his blue nose and his round black eyes were poking out of the cloth near her shoulder. "It's not a water city anymore, Luffy. Yuba used to be the big meeting place for all the water wagons in the west, but... the sand has been moving over the old wells. If Uncle Toza is still there, he might have some dried cactus fruit."

"Cactus fruit tastes like wet dirt," Zoro muttered from behind them. He was sitting very straight on his camel, his three swords clicking against the big stirrup iron every time the animal took a long, clumsy step. He didn't seem to care about the cold wind at all, though his bare arms had tiny goosebumps all over them.

Nami pulled the map roll out of her small side pouch, but it was too dark to see the fine ink lines. She tapped Leo on the shoulder. He was sitting right behind her on the third camel's gray hump.

"Leo, look at the moon," Nami said, her voice sharp and tight because her fingers were getting stiff from the cold. "Is it leaning to the right? The log pose needle hasn't moved a millimeter since we left the cave, but it feels like we're turning toward those dark rocks on the side."

Leo leaned over her shoulder, his left boot pressing against the camel's leather rib strap. The buckle made that old familiar sound.....click, click, click.....as he shifted his weight to get a better look at the horizon. Three short, dull noises in the dark. "The rocks are fine, Nami. The old trail follows the stone ledge because the sand is too loose near the bottom of the valley. If we go down there, the camels will sink to their knees."

"I don't like it," Nami grumbled, stuffing the paper map back into her pocket. "It's too quiet. In the East Blue, you could always hear the waves or the birds. Here it's just... nothing. It feels like we're walking inside a big empty box."

Suddenly, Luffy's camel stopped. It didn't just stop; it dropped its front knees directly into the sand with a loud, wet grunt.....UMPH.....that sent Luffy flying straight over its head.

Luffy didn't hit the ground hard. His body just stretched out like a big rubber band, his hands catching the top of a buried stone wall that was sticking out of the sand about ten feet ahead. He bounced once and landed on his feet, his straw hat flipping upside down over his nose.

"Whoa! A house!" Luffy yelled, his arms snapping back to his sides with a loud thwack.

It wasn't a whole house. It was just the top part of an old stone doorway, mostly buried under a giant drift of white sand. A tiny yellow light was coming out from a gap between two broken stone blocks near the bottom.

"This is the outer gate of Yuba," Vivi said, her voice shaking a little as she slid down from her camel's side. Her boots sank deep into the cold sand. She ran toward the stone doorway, her white cloak flying out behind her. "Uncle Toza! Are you down there?!"

A loud, scratching sound came from inside the gap. A long iron shovel blade poked out first, throwing a big heap of dry sand right over Luffy's boots. Then, a small old man scrambled out of the hole. He was wearing an old blue shirt that was completely covered in grey dust, and his skin looked like a piece of dried leather that had been left in the sun for twenty years. He had a big bald head with a few white hairs sticking out near his ears, and he was holding the shovel like a spear.

"Go away!" the old man, Toza, shouted, his voice cracking like dry wood. He didn't look at Vivi at all; he just pointed the shovel at Zoro's swords. "We don't have any water for pirates! The company already took the last barrel from the lower cellar last Tuesday! Go back to the coast and drink the salt!"

"Uncle Toza!" Vivi said, pulling the white cloth away from her face so the yellow lantern light from the hole hit her blue hair. "It's me! Vivi!"

The old man stopped waving his shovel. He blinked his small gray eyes three times, leaning forward until his nose was almost touching her chin. His jaw went loose, and he dropped the shovel right into the sand with a soft thud.

"Vivi... Princess?" Toza whispered, his old hands reaching out but stopping before they touched her shoulders, like he was afraid she was made of dry smoke. "You're... you're alive? The news from the coast said the bounty hunters caught you at the cactus town."

"I'm fine, Uncle," Vivi said, catching his old wrinkled hands with hers. "These are my friends. They brought me all the way from the middle ocean. We came to stop the rebellion."

Toza let out a deep, tired sigh that sounded like sand sliding down a hill. He looked past her at Luffy, who was currently trying to see if there was anything to eat inside the empty shovel blade. "The rebellion can't be stopped, child. Toto and the young men already marched to the southern oasis three days ago. They have swords now. Real ones from the old navy store."

"Toto went?" Vivi's hand went to her mouth. "But he promised my father... he said he would keep the peace in the west."

"The wells died, Vivi," Toza said simply, turning around and heading back down into the dark stone hole. "When the water stops coming up, the promises don't matter much. Come inside before the night wind brings the sand spiders up from the rocks."

The inside of Toza's buried house was very small and smelled like damp clay and old vinegar. The walls were made of big stone blocks that were leaning inward, held up by three thick pine logs that looked like they had been stolen from an old ship deck. In the corner, a small oil lamp was sitting on a wooden box next to a rusty iron pot.

"Sit," Toza said, sitting down flat on the dirt floor. He didn't have any chairs or benches. "I have some dry bean cakes. They're hard, but if you soak them in the gray pot, they'll go down."

Luffy didn't wait for them to soak. He grabbed four of the grey cakes from the box and stuffed them into his mouth all at once, his teeth making a loud CRUNCH-CRUNCH sound like he was chewing on gravel. "Mmm! It's like crackers! Hey, old man, you got any salt?"

"Luffy, behave!" Nami hissed, sitting down next to Vivi. She looked around the small room, her eyebrows wrinkling. "Mr. Toza, you said the company took the last barrel? Which company? Baroque Works?"

"The green coat men," Toza said, taking an old clay pipe out of his pocket but not lighting it because he didn't have any tobacco left. He just chewed on the wooden stem. "They have an office in the town square now. They say the King's tax is too high, so they take the water to pay for the rebel weapons. They have a big machine near the central well that pulls the moisture right out of the deep mud."

"A wax machine?" Leo asked, sitting near the entry hole where the cold air was coming in.

"No, it's iron," Toza said, half-listening as he watched Chopper, who had crawled out of Vivi's cloak and was currently inspecting a small purple root on the floor. "It makes a big noise all night. Thump-thump-thump. It keeps the camels from sleeping. If you brats are looking for the rebel army, you're too late. But if you want to hit the green coats, their office is just over the next sand hill."

"We hit them!" Luffy yelled, his mouth still full of grey bean crumbs. "Let's go right now! My legs are tired of sitting on that bumpy camel!"

"We wait for morning," Zoro said from the corner. He hadn't sat down; he was leaning against one of the pine logs with his arms crossed over his chest. "The camels are tired, and I can't see the green coats in the dark anyway."

They spent the night on the dirt floor of the buried house. It wasn't very comfortable because the stone blocks kept making little clicking noises every time the temperature outside dropped, but it was warmer than the open dunes. Chopper stayed curled up near Leo's boots, his small furry chest going up and down in a regular, slow rhythm that sounded like a little clock.

The next morning, the sun came up with that same yellow glare. Leo was the first one out of the hole. The air was already dry, and his throat felt like it was coated in fine powder. He walked over to the camels, who were still lying down in the sand near the stone arch.

"Hey, Leo," Kaelen said, coming up behind him. He looked tired, his hair full of gray dust from the ceiling logs. He started to say something about the map, then stopped himself and rubbed his eyes. "I think... I mean, Nami said the town square is just five minutes away. But we shouldn't just run in there. If they have the big machine, they probably have guards from the lower numbers."

"We'll just follow Luffy," Leo said, unbuckling his left boot to shake out a small pile of sand that had gotten in through the side seam. Click. Click. Click. Three short sounds against the stone wall. "He doesn't do the waiting thing very well."

Luffy was already at the top of the next sand ridge, his straw hat held down against the morning wind. "Hey! Look at the big wheel!" he shouted down to them.

They climbed up the ridge. Below them, in a wide, circular hollow between the dunes, was the town of Yuba. It looked like a skeleton city. Most of the mud houses had their roofs caved in, and the streets were completely full of yellow sand drifts that reached all the way to the windows. In the very center of the square, where a giant stone well-ring sat, a massive iron machine was pumping up and down. It looked like a big black beetle with six iron legs, and a thick stream of black smoke was coming out of a tin pipe on top.

THUMP. THUMP. THUMP.

The noise was heavy and regular, making the sand under Leo's boots vibrate just a little bit with every stroke.

Sitting on a wooden bench next to the machine were four men wearing long green coats with white numbers painted on the sleeves. They had big iron iron clubs resting between their knees, and they were watching three old townspeople who were currently shoveling sand away from the machine's lower gears.

"Baroque Works," Nami said, her hand tightening on her wooden staff. "Those are the Millions. The low-level soldiers."

"They're bothering the old guys," Luffy said, his face going flat and serious. He didn't wait for Nami to make a plan. He just slid down the side of the sand dune like a sled, his boots kicking up a giant cloud of yellow dust behind him.

"Luffy! Wait!" Nami screamed, but he was already halfway to the square.

One of the green-coat guards, a big man with a white '7' painted on his shoulder, stood up from the bench when he heard the sand sliding. "Hey! Who's that?! The square is closed to regular travelers! Show your permit!"

Luffy didn't show any permit. He ran straight at the big man, his red shirt looking bright against the gray mud walls of the houses. "Gum-Gum... PISTOL!"

His arm shot out like a long red rope, his fist hitting the guard right in the middle of his white number '7'. BOOM. The force of the punch sent the big man flying backward through the front window of an empty bakery shop, the old dry wood of the frame shattering into small grey splinters.

"Pirates!" the other three guards yelled, dropping their iron clubs and reaching for the short swords at their belts. "It's the Straw Hat crew! The boss said they were coming from the river!"

Zoro was down the hill next, his boots making long, fast tracks in the loose sand. He didn't even draw his swords; he just used the wooden scabbards, hitting the second guard right across the side of his neck with a quick, hard strike.....CRACK.....that dropped the man into the sand before he could even get his blade out.

The last two guards looked at Luffy and then at Zoro, their faces going a weird shade of yellow under their desert hats. They didn't try to fight. They turned around and ran toward a larger stone building on the north side of the square, their green coats flapping around their heels like big leaves.

"They're going to get the boss," Nami said, coming down the hill with Vivi and Chopper. She looked at the giant iron machine, which was still going THUMP-THUMP-THUMP in the middle of the well. "Leo, can you stop that thing? The noise is driving me crazy."

Leo walked up to the iron frame. The gears were covered in thick black oil that smelled like burnt grease. He looked for a switch or a lever, but the controls were locked behind a small iron plate with three keyholes. He turned back to the bakery window where Luffy was currently looking through the broken shelves for old bread.

"Luffy, hit the big pipe on top," Leo said.

"Okay!" Luffy jumped up onto the machine's iron back, his rubber feet sticking to the oily metal. He grabbed the tin smoke pipe with both hands and twisted it around in a huge circle until the metal tore open with a sharp screeech.

A giant cloud of black soot shot out of the break, covering Luffy's face until he looked like a chimney sweep. The machine gave a loud, wet choke.....GURGLE-GURGLE.....and then the big iron legs stopped moving, the gears locking up with a loud clang that sent a shower of sparks into the sand.

"My machine!" a voice shouted from the north building.

A tall man stepped out onto the wooden porch of the store. He wasn't wearing a green coat; he had a fancy purple suit with big gold buttons down the front, and his hair was tied up in a high topknot that looked like a black onion. He had a long silver rapier hanging from his hip, and he was holding a small glass bottle full of purple juice.

"I am Mr. 11," the tall man said, puffing out his chest so his gold buttons shined in the sun. "The district coordinator for the western wells. You brats have just destroyed five million berries of company property. The high office will have your heads for this."

"Mr. 11?" Vivi said, stepping forward from behind Zoro. "You're the one who ordered the wells to be buried?"

The tall man looked at Vivi, his small eyes narrowing behind his gold-rimmed glasses. "Ah, the Princess. The boss said you might show up with these sea tramps. The wells aren't buried, child. They're just... redirected. The company needs the water for the big army at the coast. The regular people don't need it anyway; they're just going to die in the rebellion."

"You're a bad man," Chopper said, peeking out from behind Leo's leg. His little blue nose was shaking with anger. "People need water to live! My doctor said the water belongs to everyone, even the small bugs!"

"Your doctor was an idiot, goat," Mr. 11 sneered, drawing his long silver rapier with a clean shwing sound. "Now, who wants to die first? The green head or the rubber boy?"

Zoro stepped forward, his right hand going to the hilt of his white sword. "I'll take him. He looks like he thinks he can fence."

"No, I want him!" Luffy yelled, jumping down from the broken machine, his face still completely black from the soot. "He called Chopper a goat! Chopper is a reindeer!"

"I am a reindeer!" Chopper shouted from the back, doing a little angry dance in the sand.

Before Luffy or Zoro could move, a loud BOOM echoed from the sand ridge behind them, coming from the direction of the old trail. It wasn't a cannon this time. It sounded like a giant animal hitting the ground with its whole body.

A massive yellow bill, as wide as a wagon, poked over the top of the dune. It was Karoo. The giant duck was running down the hill so fast his webbed feet were just a big yellow blur in the dust. Sitting on his back was Sanji, his black suit covered in a thick layer of yellow sand, his dry cigarette still stuck in the corner of his mouth.

"Vivi-chan!" Sanji shouted, waving his arm as Karoo skidded into the square, his feathers flying everywhere. "We have a problem! The ship... the boat guys came back!"

"The boat guys?" Nami asked, her face going pale. "Wapol's men? Or the navy?"

"Both!" Sanji said, jumping down from the duck's back before it had even stopped moving. He looked at Mr. 11 with his eyes narrowed. "There's a big group of them coming down the river channel. Usopp is trying to hold them off with the front cannon, but he's running out of the blue shells. We need to get back to the Merry right now."

Mr. 11 let out a loud, high-pitched laugh, his rapier shaking in the sun. "Ha! You're trapped! The company always wins! You can't run from the Millions!"

Luffy didn't listen to the laugh. He ran straight past Zoro, his arms stretching out behind him until they were twenty feet long. "Gum-Gum... BAZOOKA!"

He slammed both of his flat palms right into Mr. 11's purple vest, the force of the blow sending the tall man flying backward through the wooden wall of the office building. CRASH. The whole front porch collapsed down into the sand, burying the gold buttons and the silver rapier under a giant pile of grey pine boards.

"Okay! Let's go back to the boat!" Luffy yelled, turning around and running toward the camels before the dust had even settled over the ruins.

"He's so fast," Toza muttered, poking his bald head out of the bakery window where he had been watching the fight. He looked at Vivi, his old eyes full of something heavy. "Go on, Princess. Fix the river. We'll keep the well open now that the beetle machine is dead."

They scrambled back onto the camels. Karoo was running next to Luffy's animal now, his big yellow beak snapping at the air as they raced back over the high dunes toward the river channel. The midday sun was right over their heads now, the heat coming back fast, but nobody was talking about the thirst anymore. The sound of distant cannon fire was starting to echo from the south, and the real trouble was waiting at the water's edge.

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