"I am Hildon," the creature behind Bepo, a round man with a bat-like body, sharp fangs and claws, and spikey blonde hair, said, bowing politely.
"I thought you people might need help, so I snuck up behind you..." he added, smiling as he adjusted his posture while looking at Bepo with a hard-to-read expression.
"Don't sneak up on people!" Bepo retorted, his beady black eyes twitching as he visibly struggled to stop himself from slapping Hildon for startling him like that.
"My apologies," Hildon apologetically replied, bowing down again. "It seems my help was not needed, but it's getting late, and this place becomes considerably more dangerous in the late hours of the night..." he added, sending Bepo and the others a meaningful look.
"If you are willing, I'm sure my employer, Dr. Hogback, will be more than happy to shelter you three in his mansion for the night..." Hildon concluded, gesturing to the side of the clearing where a mummified centaur creature and a stitched funny-looking horse drawing a carriage arrived.
"Hm? Do you mean The Dr. Hogback? As in the world-renowned doctor?" Doc asked from the back of his horse as he approached Hildon, playing dumb as naturally as he breathed air.
"Oh! So you've heard of the good doctor? That's right. My employer is none other than the world-renowned Dr. Hogback," Hildon replied, smiling and nodding in satisfaction as he assumed the doctor's reputation would make his job go more smoothly.
"Well, as aspiring doctors ourselves, we would definitely like to meet someone like Hogback, assuming we wouldn't impose?" Doc remarked, warmly smiling, making Hildon's satisfied expression even more pronounced.
However, Law, who knew Doc better, raised an eyebrow upon noticing the strange way Doc said the two words "aspiring doctors" and the deeply hidden ridicule and mockery in his tone.
"What do you two think, Law, Bepo? Should we accept the gentleman's generous offer?" Doc asked, smiling as he turned to the surgeon and the polar bear mink, giving them a meaningful look.
"It's getting late, indeed. So I don't see why not," Law flatly replied, heading towards Hildon's carriage, unphased by the strange creatures chained to it as he dragged Bepo along without giving the humanoid bear a chance to speak.
"You go ahead and join them in the carriage, Mr. Hildon," Doc said while gesturing to the round, stitched man, earning a puzzled look from the latter.
"I'll follow along on Stronger's back. He gets terribly jumpy in dark forests. Don't you, boy?" Doc added, affectionately patting the horse's main, getting an annoyed neigh in response to which he merely chuckled.
"I see, then it can't be helped," Hildon said, nodding his head as he walked to the carriage. "However, I must advise against straying too far from the carriage and the beaten path we'll trudge as these monstrous creatures roam the surrounding areas..." he concluded as he climbed into the carriage, closing the door behind him.
"I'm sure they do..." Doc muttered under his breath, turning to the surrounding shadows with a bloodthirsty smile that sent chills running down the zombies creeping within them.
...
"This looks like a good spot, Laffite," Elvis said as he looked down while riding Laffite's cloud, noticing a structure that looked more like a stage than a harbor, a big sign with Thriller Bark grandly inscribed on it, resting on top of its entrance.
"Are you sure you sure?" Laffite asked while looking at the docks that looked like the entrance to the world's most conspicuous ambush location, with how inviting it looked and the true nature of the wondering island.
"I may have joined the crew as a shipwright, but I have been fighting for my life for a good couple of years before joining, you know?" Elvis replied, smiling with a raised eyebrow, as he understood Laffite's meaning.
"I can take care of myself," Elvis confidently added, waving a hand to the side to assure the navigator, who smiled and floated the cloud towards the dock, gesturing for the fish-man to suit himself.
"Take care," Laffite remarked, smiling as he floated his cloud above the wandering island's tattered inner wall and sped towards the island's center and the big mansion resting on top of it as it seemed the most likely place to find Moria's treasure trove.
Elvis smiled as he watched Laffite's disappearing figure, cracking his knuckles and turning towards the wandering island's entrance after the latter disappeared into the foggy skies.
He walked towards the entrance, unmindful of the pitch-black darkness engulfing him that only gave way to light after several minutes of walking towards a faint light source ahead.
Elvis frowned upon hearing a crunch under his foot after he stepped into the light, finding himself in a dried moat enclosed by grey, cracked walls on either side.
He turned to the ground, his frown growing more intense as he noticed the countless bones littering the ground.
"Human...? No. Animals too..." Elvis muttered as he kneeled, inspecting the bones below him. However, he quickly got to his feet upon hearing the crunching bones behind him.
"A dog...?" Elvis muttered as he turned to look behind, noticing a rather large, three-headed creature growling as it stared at him menacingly.
The three of the creature's heads looked similarly canine, with only one of them looking somewhat different. The two identical heads had blue fur. However, the last leftmost head had a yellow coat of fur instead, making it stand out from the other two.
The creature threateningly growled as it slowly approached Elvis, its three yellow tails warily standing in attention.
However, instead of being alarmed or afraid, Elvis was merely confused as he heard the creature's growl as its yellow head made a distinctively different sound from the other two.
"Isn't that a fox head instead of a dog on the left?" Elvis remarked, rubbing his chin in thought with a tilted head as he stared at the three-headed creature, causing the yellow fox head to stumble in apparent depression as it miserably howled.
"Ah? Did I perhaps hit a sore spot?" Elvis asked, smiling despite the creature's apparent anger as it recovered from the fit of depression, lunging at the fish-man.
"Well, the island is quite big, and I need a ride, so you came just in time," Elvis said, smiling as he squinted while staring at the three-headed creature, causing it to freeze, seemingly having second thoughts.
"It's late for that already!" Elvis exclaimed, laughing as he jumped at the poor creature that quickly started howling in agony so loudly that even people near the mansion heard it and sympathized with the heart-wrenching cries of the three-headed dog.
...
"A dog howling?" Johnny muttered while standing on the bridge between Hogback's mansion and Thriller Bark's mainmast as he heard a miserable howl coming from the island's borders.
"Whatever," he shook his head as he turned to look at Thriller Bark's mainmast, activating his observation haki and trying to locate Moria's whereabouts.
However, Johnny had to stop, sighing as he looked up, noticing a small, white, transparent, ghostlike creature, with small beady eyes and a big pair of red lips with a tongue protruding from between them, floating in the air above himself.
"Negative... Negative... Negative~♫" the creature hummed, flopping its transparent arms up and down as it multiplied, turning into three ghosts instead of the original one.
Johnny took a deep breath, looking around to make sure none of his crewmates were present to see what was about to happen. "I already knew I'll have to go through this when I came to this island, so let's get this over with..." he remarked, beckoning the ghost after making sure none of his crewmates were nearby.
The ghosts seemed content to oblige Johnny's request as one of them charged toward him, passing through his stomach and exiting through his back.