The sun rose over the White Sea, casting a brilliant, blinding light that pierced through the cloud layer and slapped Ben right in the face.
"Urgh..." Ben groaned, shielding his eyes with a forearm.
He sat up, blinking away the sleep. The scene around him looked like the aftermath of a war—which, ironically, it was, but the casualties were mostly from overeating and dancing rather than combat.
The bonfire was now just a pile of smoldering white ash. Scattered around it were the sleeping forms of the Straw Hat Pirates, Shandians, and Skypieans, all mixed together in a chaotic pile of limbs. They had danced until late into the night, collapsing where they stood.
Luffy was snoring loudly, a snot bubble expanding and contracting with his breath, his arm draped protectively over a meat bone. Usopp was curled up using Masira's fur as a pillow, while Chopper was hugging Zoro's sword hilts (Zoro himself was sleeping sitting up, arms crossed, looking menacing even while unconscious). Shojou was hanging upside down from a nearby ruin, fast asleep.
Ben stood up and stretched, his joints popping. He looked over to the makeshift kitchen area.
"Morning, Ben," Sanji said quietly. The cook was already up, fresh cigarette in mouth, looking remarkably pristine despite the night's revelry. He was currently whisking a massive bowl of eggs.
"Morning, Sanji," Ben yawned, walking over. "Coffee?"
"Brewing," Sanji pointed to a pot. "The ladies are already up. They're by the edge of the ruins with the snake."
Ben poured himself a cup of black coffee and looked where Sanji pointed. Sure enough, Nami, Vivi, and Robin were awake, looking fresh and talking to Mont Blanc Cricket and Wyper.
In the middle of the group was Nola, the Master of the Sky coiled happily around Cricket, enjoying head scratches.
Sizzle.
Sanji threw a slab of bacon onto the hot pan. The scent of sizzling fat and salt wafted through the air, carried by the morning breeze.
It traveled five meters. Ten meters. It hit a certain rubber nose.
POP.
Luffy's snot bubble burst. His eyes snapped open.
"BREAKFAST!" Luffy roared, rocketing from a prone position to a standing one in zero seconds flat. He launched himself toward the kitchen.
"It's not ready yet, you bottomless pit!" Sanji shouted, intercepting Luffy with a precision kick to the face that stopped his momentum but didn't hurt him. "Here, eat this while you wait!"
Sanji tossed a loaf of bread into Luffy's mouth. Luffy swallowed it whole, chewed once, and grinned. "Shishishi! Thanks, Sanji!"
Ben chuckled and finished his coffee. He set the cup down and looked at Robin, who was reading a book near the treeline.
"Robin," Ben called out.
The archaeologist looked up, closing her book. She walked over, her movements graceful. "Good morning, Mr Magician. Did you sleep well?"
"Like a rock," Ben nodded. "Get ready. We've got a job to do. We're going... well, I don't know what to call it. Tomb raiding? Stomach raiding?"
Robin blinked, a puzzled expression crossing her face. "Stomach... raiding?"
"Treasure?!" Luffy's ears twitched from ten feet away. He appeared beside them instantly, bread crumbs on his face. "Are we going treasure hunting, Ben?"
"Treasure?"
ZOOM.
Nami materialized out of thin air, berry symbols practically spinning in her eyes. "Did someone say treasure? Where? Is it the City of Gold? How much is there? What's my cut?"
Ben shrugged, amused by their predictability. "Follow me. You'll see."
He led the small group—Luffy, Nami, Robin, and a curious Vivi—over to where Cricket and Wyper were standing with Nola.
"Yo," Ben greeted.
"Ben!" Cricket smiled, patting the snake's head. "Sleep well? This guy sure did. Snored louder than the giants."
"Hiss!" Nola denied it indignantly.
"Hey, Nola," Ben crouched down, looking the snake in the eye. "I need to ask a favor. I need to revert you to your original size for a bit."
Nola froze. The happy expression vanished, replaced by a drooping sadness. It looked at its small body, then at the ruins it hadn't crushed, then at Ben. It let out a sad, low whine. It liked being small. It liked fitting in.
"Don't worry," Ben promised, raising his hands. "I have something to do inside... well, with you. After the work is finished, I promise I'll make you small again so you can hang out with Cricket. Okay?"
Nola hesitated, then looked at Cricket. Cricket nodded encouragingly. "Trust him, big guy. He's a wizard."
The snake sighed (a very strange sound for a reptile) and nodded. It uncoiled from Cricket and slithered into the open clearing, away from the ruins.
"Alright, stand back," Ben ordered.
"Command T: Enlarge."
VOOM.
Space distorted. The small snake rapidly expanded, mass appearing out of nowhere. In seconds, the cute, dog-sized serpent was gone, replaced once again by the titanic, mountain-sized Master of the Sky that towered over the trees.
"Okay!" Ben clapped his hands. "Open wide, Nola!"
The giant snake lowered its head and opened its massive jaws. Its mouth was a cavern, lined with fangs the size of spears. A dark, damp tunnel led down into the abyss of its throat.
Ben pulled out his wand. "Bubble-Head Charm."
Bubbles of fresh, filtered air formed around the heads of Ben, Luffy, Nami, Robin, and Vivi.
"Alright," Ben stepped onto the snake's lower jaw. "Let's go inside."
Luffy immediately started to follow, but Nami grabbed the back of Ben's coat and Luffy's vest, digging her heels in.
"Wait, wait, wait!" Nami screamed. "Are you crazy?! Why are we walking into the snake's mouth?! It's going to eat us!"
"We're entering the dungeon," Ben said casually. "Think about it, Nami. This snake has been living on Upper Yard for 400 years. It's been eating the ruins. It's been eating the ground."
Ben pointed into the dark throat. "Shandora was the City of Gold. If the snake ate parts of the city... where do you think that gold is now?"
Nami froze. Her brain processed the logic at supercomputer speeds.
Snake = 400 years old.
Diet = Ruins of a Golden City.
Stomach = Piggy Bank.
"And besides," Ben added, "We already went inside Laboon. Who knows how many animals' stomachs we'll end up in before we reach Laugh Tale? It's practically a crew tradition."
Nami released Ben's coat.
"Move it, people!" Nami shouted, marching past Ben and straight into the snake's mouth. "There's treasure to be rescued! Luffy, stop picking your nose and hurry up!"
"Shishishi!" Luffy laughed, running after her. "Adventure in the snake!"
Ben shook his head and followed. Robin smiled, her eyes gleaming with curiosity, and Vivi followed nervously.
"We'll wait out here," Cricket called out, sitting down on a rock with Wyper. "Have fun in there!"
Inside the Beast
The throat was slippery and steep, like a fleshy water slide. They slid down for a solid minute before landing on a pile of something soft and mossy.
"Dark in here," Luffy noted, his voice echoing.
"Lumos Maxima," Ben cast.
A ball of bright white light shot from his wand, floating up to the "ceiling" of the stomach chamber.
The group gasped.
It wasn't just a stomach. It was an archaeological dig site.
The sheer size of Nola meant its stomach was like a massive cavern. And inside, embedded in the walls, sitting in pools of gastric acid (which luckily didn't seem to be active right now), were ruins.
Stone pillars. Broken archways. Pieces of golden bells. And scattered everywhere, glinting in the magical light, was gold.
Gold cups. Gold plates. Golden chunks of masonry.
"MY PRECIOUS!" Nami shrieked.
She didn't hesitate. She opened the Spatial Pouch Ben had given her—the one already loaded with Crocodile's millions—and started shoveling gold into it like a woman possessed.
"This is incredible," Robin whispered, walking toward a half-digested stone wall. She ran her hand over the carvings, which were surprisingly preserved. "These markings... they date back to the Shandorian Golden Age."
Ben walked beside her, looking at a large stone slab partially buried in the stomach lining. It depicted a carving of a warrior with a spear clashing against a man with a snake head.
"History preserved in a belly," Ben mused. "That looks like Calgara's ancestors fighting the ancient inhabitants, maybe? Or a depiction of the snake god itself."
"Look at this!" Luffy yelled.
He had wandered over to the stomach wall. He poked the squishy, purple flesh. "It's bouncy!"
Luffy, being Luffy, decided to test the elasticity. He grabbed a fold of the stomach lining and pulled it back like a slingshot.
SNAP!
He started scratching the walls rapidly with both hands. "Gomu Gomu no... Tickle!"
Outside, the entire forest shook as Nola let out a weird, high-pitched laughing-hiss, thrashing its body around.
Inside, the world tilted violently. Gold coins rained from the ceiling. Nami fell over, burying her face in a pile of jewels.
"LUFFY!" Nami screamed, pulling herself out of the treasure. She marched over and smacked him on the back of the head. WHACK! "Stop tickling! You'll make it throw up on the gold!"
"Sorry," Luffy rubbed his head, pouting. "It was funny though."
Ben walked over to the largest cluster of ruins—a section of a temple that had been swallowed whole.
"We can't study all of this here," Ben said. "And we can't leave it inside Nola if we want to shrink her back down safely. It might cause indigestion."
"Command T: Shrink."
The massive stone ruins, the pillars, and the heavy golden artifacts that Nami hadn't grabbed yet began to shrink. Ben reduced them down until they were the size of dollhouse furniture.
"Whoa," Luffy picked up a tiny temple. "It's a toy!"
"Careful," Ben warned. "It's still heavy if I release the magic. Nami, put these in the pouch. We can check them out on the ship later."
"You're the best, Ben!" Nami cheered, scooping up the mini-ruins and the mini-gold.
"Alright," Ben checked his watch. "We've got the loot. We've got the history. Now, let's get out of here before Nola gets hungry for breakfast."
They made their way back up the throat. It was a steep climb, but Ben created a magical floating platform to carry them.
As they neared the top of the throat, close to the opening of the mouth, Luffy looked up. Hanging from the roof of the snake's mouth was a large, pink, fleshy stalactite. The uvula.
"Ooh," Luffy's eyes sparkled, mischievous grin spreading across his face. "It's a punching bag!"
"Luffy, don't touch that!" Nami warned, sensing impending disaster.
"Gomu Gomu no..." Luffy stretched his arm back, ignoring her completely. "Bell Ringer!"
He grabbed the uvula with both hands and yanked it down hard, treating it like a church bell rope.
BOING!
Outside, Nola's eyes went wide as saucers. A massive tickle started deep in her chest, building up like a volcanic eruption.
"Ah... Ah... CHOO!"
Nola let out a sneeze that could have cleared a hurricane.
WHOOSH!
Inside the throat, a gale-force wind erupted from the lungs. Ben's magical platform was blown apart instantly. The group was launched out of the snake's mouth like cannonballs fired from a mortar, coated in a fine mist of snake saliva.
"AAAAAHHHHH!" Nami screamed.
"SHISHISHISHI!" Luffy laughed as he flew through the air.
SPLAT.
They landed in a heap of tangled limbs and slime right in front of Cricket and Wyper.
Nami sat up, wiping snake saliva off her face. She glared daggers at the rubber man who was currently bouncing unharmed on the grass.
"LUFFY!" she roared, bonking him on the head with her baton. BONK! "I told you not to do anything stupid!"
Ben stood up, dusting himself off with a quick cleaning spell. He turned to the giant snake, wiping a bit of slime from his shoulder. "Bless you, Nola."
"Command T: Shrink."
Nola shrank back down to her dog-sized form, looking visibly relieved but sniffing slightly. She slithered back to Cricket, happy to be small again.
"What's next?" Luffy asked, picking his nose as if he hadn't just been sneezed out of a kaiju.
Ben looked toward the center of the island, where the giant beanstalk pierced the heavens.
"Now," Ben said, "We go to the City of Gold in Skypiea properly. And then..." He pointed up. "We go to the top of the beanstalk. There's a Poneglyph up there near the Golden Bell that Robin needs to see."
"Then let's go!" Luffy threw his fist in the air. "To the sky beanstalk!"