Journey to One Piece

110. Ancient Palace

Ken was sitting inside the carriage sipping some water. The desert of Alabasta was really scary with frequent desert storms. One such desert storm was actually going over them and Nami had to use magic to make a protective guard over themselves.

Vivi wasn't in a good mood because according to her such storms weren't common before but after Crocodile was messing up the weather with his Dance powder which could bring rain, it changed the weather of the country and was now suffering.

Nami went over and told to calm down and that everything would be alright. Luffy and others were busy looking at the storm which was passing above them. It was both a dangerous and beautiful sight to behold from inside the cover.

The storm at last blew over and the sky was again visible from the naked eye.

"The desert is scary." Chopper was a little scared seeing such harsh and hot weather even though they were in a carriage.

"Your winter island is more scary." Usopp retorted. This invoked an argument between Chopper and Usopp and everyone had fun looking at both of them. They started moving again and crossed over massive sand dunes. Ken in his previous life had never visited a desert. And actual desert with no vegetation and just sand dunes.

So this was new for him too. After hours of travel they finally saw a huge black mountain from afar. As they came close to the small mountain, they got to see that it was eroded by wind for ages and on the bottom of the mountain was hollowed in one part. Probably because the winds on the lower level carried heavier sand and thus eroded the lower part of a rock or a mountain more heavily than the upper part.

"Let's take a break under the mountain. Banchi had been walking in this hot weather for hours." Robin suggested as her pet had been in the scorching heat for some time. Though the turtle was made for a desert environment, Robin always felt a pity for her pet that had been out in this weather while they were just sitting in a carriage enjoying the sights.

Everyone accepted the proposal and just and just went under the half hollowed mountain. After stopping everyone got out and everyone was welcomed by a strong burst of hot wind in their face.

"This is hot!!" Chopper almost fainted sensing the heat and others too wrapped their bodies in clothes so as not to be burnt from the hot winds. Luffy wanted to have fun, but was stopped by Nami.

As they sat under the shade, out of nowhere a huge quicksand appeared underneath them. The radius of the quicksand was almost the size of the mountain and before they knew it many were sucked in. Ken and others didn't expect that and shouted at each other.

Sanji, who could fly, immediately lit up his feet and went scurrying over to Vivi and Robin to save them but it was already too late. The quick sand had already eaten them up. Sanji was enraged and had tears in his eyes. Vivi and Robin weren't the only ones who got sucked in quicksand. This included Chopper and Nami too.

Ken, Ace, Luffy and Zoro looked at each other. At first they thought that this was some kind of trap but it wasn't. The quick sand was a natural phenomenon and the earth was hollow inside. Their Haki told them that the people who got sucked in were alive and well.

"Cook, stop crying they are alive." Zoro spoke out to stop the incessant cries. Sanji, who was ready to go inside the quick sand to be the savior, stopped and looked at others. He was happy to know that they were alive but he needed to save them and thus he dove into the quicksand.

"I guess we should go and see what the big deal is." Ken said.

"Yosh. I wonder if there is a treasure inside." Usopp said. Luffy already had stars in his eyes and just dove into the quicksand. Followed by Ken and others. They had been stopping themselves from falling because they were making sure that there was no enemy and thankfully there was none.

The quick sand just proved to be a hole underground that had been covered by sand over years. They didn't have to pass much time in the sand and landed on solid ground after falling for about 10 feet.

Ken and others saw that the women were on their butts and Sanji was trying to take care of them. Chopper, being the doctor, came forward and checked if there were any injuries. Everyone was relieved to see that nobody got hurt and were alive and well.

"That hurt. What was that all of a sudden?" Nami shouted.

"It was a quicksand, Nami-san."

It was then, Ken saw the surroundings. The quick sand had thrown them into a huge space that was definitely man made. There were pillars in this open space that held the ceiling but some of these pillars seemed ancient and were already on the verge of destruction.

"Where is this place?" Ace asked as he looked around.

Luffy and Usopp had already started running around exploring the space while Ken's eyes were on the far end of this huge hall.

"What is this place?"

"This place looks like it was built in ancient times. These pillars look so old. Vivi, do you know this place?"

"No, I have never read about this place in the books before. But they say that the old palace of the kingdom was somewhere here." Vivi replied as she joined others in looking over the place. None of them panicked as they knew that they could get out of this place easily.

Meanwhile, Ken and Robin went to the other side of the huge hall and laid their eyes on something that was shining from afar. Robin stiffened at the spot when she realized what the eyecacthing thing was.

It was a Poneglyph.