Chapter 10
Gorroh and Helga gazed together at that night's lucious
full moon while standing by eachother right in front of their ship's railing,
on its course to the Clattagin Woods. Things were quite peaceful.
"Dear," said Helga. "It's quite the
lovely night, wouldn't you say so?"
"Indeed it is, my sweet petunia," he replied.
"It's nights like these that remind me of the time we first met."
"Ah, yes," she purred as she edged in closer
to him. "The time you kidnapped me from that one Toad creature."
"I know. It was such an experience." He let
that hang in the air followed by the sound of the water flowing beneath them
and all around them under that dark canvass.
Finally, she asked, "Speaking of kidnappings, dear,
when exactly will we be getting to the Clattagin Woods?"
"In a moment, dear, in a moment. These things take
time, you know. We can't very well be snatching babies when we have no fortress
to bring them back to, now can we?"
"I suppose not," she replied. They stood still
and let time drift slowly as they drifted across the sea towards the
destination at a seemingly equal rate. Then she said to him, "Well, dear,
I'm going to go check on our son. Do you mind?"
"Not at all, darling. I'll meet you back in our
room. Does that sound good?"
"It's great, honey," she agreed. At that, they
sauntered away from eachother so they could reach their designated rooms.
Uneventfully, she walked across the wooden floor of the
deck, past some of the doors, and finally she reached the one her son was in.
She extended a claw and knocked.
"If you anudduh wunnadose mean guys wit da needles,
beat it!"
"It's alright, Bowser, honey. It's Mommy," she
elicited.
"Oh. Come on in!" he said. She then twisted
the knob, pressed forward and came in, as instructed. This room had two beds in
it, both of them mostly white complete with the plain covers and the ordinary
bars. Her youthful offspring, Bowser, was in one of them with an icepack
resting on his head, and a pair of bandages overlapping each other on his
snout, forming an X shape. Other than that, he was in good condition.
"How's Mommy's little baby?" she asked sweetly
as she walked up to him, knelt down beside him and kissed him on the cheek.
"Good," he said, with his mother resting her
head on her folded arms, which she had laid down on the bed close to him. This
caused the buoyant surface to smush downward in a slightly different direction.
Her eyes were focused on him as she started talking.
"So, is there anything I can get for you? Something
to eat? Something to drink? A bedtime story?"
"Oh! Bedtime story! BEDTIME STORY!" Bowser
bounced up and down in excitement at the suggestion, causing the pack of ice on
his head to flop around.
Helga hurriedly tried to calm him down and get the
icepack back atop its rightful spot. "Okay, okay, darling. Which one would
you like to hear? The one about the beanstalk? The one about the pirate ship?
The one about the Super-Happy Tree?"
Bowser heard something that struck his interest.
"The Happy-Slappy what?" he asked.
"The Super-Happy Tree," she corrected.
"Would you like to hear about that one, dear?"
"Ooh! Ooh! Yes! I wanna hear it! I wanna hear
it!" He bounced some more.
"Okay," she said, reaching over his lap to
pick the pack back up and place it back on his head. "Let's see, where to
start..." she contemplated. "Oh, yes.
"Once upon a time, there was an island. No-one was
on this island, except for an egg with green spots on it. One day, it hatched,
all on its own, and out came a strange, but cute lizard-like creature. He looked
around and asked, 'Where is everybody?' It didn't take him long to realize that
he was all alone.
"So he decided to go on a journey in search of
someone. He searched high..." She made legs out of her two pointing
fingers and used them to walk across Bowser's icepack. His eyes shifted upward
curiously to observe. "And he searched low..." She then playfully let
them scuttle across his stomach. He jolted a little, being tickled like that.
"Did he find someone?" he asked.
"No, dear. He did not. However, he did find
some-THING the next day. He noticed how his stomach kept making noises at him.
Luckily, that was when his nose picked up a heavenly scent. An IRRESISTABLE
scent. And you know what he found?"
"What?"
"Fruit. Sweet, delicious fruit. There was a whole
horde of it in the tree right in front of him. Somehow, he was drawn to this
food. As he approached it, he couldn't help but throw out his long, sticky,
frog-like tongue at it, grab it with it, and swallow it. It was yummy."
...Fwog-like tongue?
"After eating that one, he soon found another one.
He ate that one, too. Then another, and another and another. Soon enough, the
tree was free of all of its fruit. But then he felt something. Something nice.
'What is this I'm feeling?' he asked himself. He soon found out he wasn't
lonely anymore. He was happy.
"The next day, he continued his journey. Then he
found a piece of fruit. But it wasn't in a tree like the other ones were. It
was just sitting there, on the ground. He munched it up anyway.
"After that, he walked a little more, and he found
ANOTHER one. He ate that, too, and after walking a little more, you know what
he found next?"
Catching on, he guessed, "More fruit?"
"Exactly. In fact: He found a whole trail of fruit.
But where was it all leading him? He wasn't sure, but he followed anyway,
eating all the way. So he kept following and eating, following and eating,
following and eating, until finally he bumped into someone."
Bowser gasped.
"He couldn't believe it, either! After following
that trail, he finally found someone. Not just anyone, as a matter of fact; a
special someone. This someone looked a lot like him, but it was a girl.
"He asked her, 'Are you a someone?'
"And she said, 'Yes. My name is Nisha.'
"He said, 'My name is Yoshi'.
Bowser had a puzzled look smeared across his face. He
turned his head towards her and said, "...Yoshi?"
"Yes, dear; Yoshi.
"They became fast friends. They did everything
together from gathering fruit to having races with one another. They grew up
together. And one day, Yoshi realized something else: He wasn't just happy
anymore; he was super-happy.
"They even had a million kids together. Pretty
soon, they, too, were all grown up, and Yoshi and Nisha had grown old.
"One day, they were on a hill together on their
little island, watching the sun set and their thousands of children. They were
proud. Yoshi said to her, 'Nisha, I'm ready to go now.'
"She said, 'So am I.' And the two of them kissed
each other."
Bowser screwed up his face and stuck out his tongue.
"Bleagh!!"
Helga laughed. She continued the story. "As they
were kissing, they slowly faded away into thin air. But then you know what
happened?"
"What, mama?" Bowser asked.
"Then something sprouted right out of the ground
from where they were just standing. It was a baby tree! So even though Yoshi
and Nisha were gone, that tree and their children were still there. In Heaven,
Yoshi and Nisha watched over them both. They made sure the tree would get its
sunshine and their children would get their fruit. As the days went by, the
tree grew, and so did their children. Eventually, the tree became full-grown
and their children started having children of their own. And it went on like
this...
"So had it not have been for Yoshi and Nisha's
efforts, Yoshi's Island would not be here today. Had it not have been for the
fruit, their children would not have been happy. But had it not have been for
their tree, they would not have been SUPER-happy. For this tree gave them fruit
like none other. Some even would come and see the tree everyday to get some of
it. The tree could also talk and give the children advice.
"And so the Yoshies are still alive today, enjoying
themselves with their fruit and their beloved Super-Happy Tree, that watches
over them with Yoshi and Nisha. The End."
With her story done, she then began leaning Bowser back
and tucking him in for the night, being careful to make sure that ice pack
stayed on his head.
As her hands were busy straightening out the covers,
Bowser turned to her. "Mama?" he asked.
"Yes, dear?" she said once she was finished
with the sheets and looking at him in the eye.
"Is the Super-Happy Twee weal?"
"Yes, dear, it's real."
Bowser scrunched his eyebrows in contemplation.
"Does it weally make all dhose Yoshies Super-Happy?"
"Yes, dear, it does."
Bowser thought some more. "What would happen if it
disappeared?"
Helga was standing at this point. "I'm not sure,
dear. They would be really sad, I guess."
Bowser laid back in silence for a second. Then he said,
"Okay, mama."
"Goodnight, Bowser." She bent down, kissed him
on the cheek again, and walked towards the door.
"Goodnight, mama."
She turned out the light, turned the doorknob, and
walked back into the night. The moonlight shined on Bowser's face for the split
second while it was open, and then it was gone. He lay there on his back, in
that white bed, in the dark, with that icepack behind his head, and with his
eyes open...
♠♣♥♦
William was in Dr. Kamenstein's laboratory
having a look around while everyone else, including his mother, his sister, the
stork, and those two creepy babies were enjoying themselves at the dinner table
in the kitchen. The two of Wario and Waluigi were in their highchairs, eating
their semi-liquid dinners out of their bowls in unison. They were...
Spoon-feeding themselves.
Marilyn and Tessa probably should have been eating their
machine-induced steaks, but they couldn't help but give these two tykes a good
stare.
Storko was in his oversized cage again, pecking at his
seeds. Finally, he noticed the women weren't touching their meals. "Is
something the matter?" he asked.
"Um, no, uh," stuttered the mother. She let
her fork twirl around in midair above her plate nervously. "It's just...
Um..."
"How can those babies feed themselves without getting
all messy?" Tessa interjected. "I mean, they don't even look that old
and..."
"Oh," said Storko. He shifted his feet a
little so he'd be facing their direction in his cage. "Well, I'm not sure,
myself, actually, but I DO know these boys were created by my master, Dr.
Kamenstein, and you know how perfect he likes to make everything."
"So... They're fast bloomers?" said Marilyn,
still not being able to get her eyes off the brothers.
"Mm, you could say that," Storko said.
The family continued eating in peace, and William kept
looking around the doctor's lab. All kinds of strange things were present.
Warped looking glass containers, tubes with little turtle shells floating
around in their green liquid, and this one metal thing on the counter that looked
as though someone just stuck a big corkscrew into some lead pipes. He couldn't
help but notice some blueprints lying around. He walked up to the counter where
they lay, and placed his hands down on either side so they'd flatten out.
"Hmm," he said curiously. "Perfect
hearing, perfect sight, perfect smelling?" He let his eyes scan the other
odd markings of these weird pictures. "What IS this?" He tried
looking at it some more, tried allowing his brain more time to analyze the
newfound data, but something even more interesting called for his attention...
Quite literally.
He bolted his head into an upright position and started
turning it this way and that. "Who said that?"
In the kitchen, the dinner was going relatively peaceful
until Wario put his spoon down, grabbed a handful of his mashed peas with his
right hand and used his left to reach across from his high chair over to his
brother's and tap him on the shoulder. Waluigi immediately ceased his activity
of consumption to turn his head to the right and see what was up. Then SPLAT!
Wario heaved the gunk right into his eyes.
Waluigi screeched as his little hands flew up to his
face so he could wipe the stuff from his eyes. He then looked at his sibling
and growled. Wario was blowing a raspberry at him with his fingers waving at
him beside his ears, mockingly. Then Waluigi got his own handful of ammo, and
chaos ensued.
This didn't seem to spell good news for the other
attendants, unfortunately. "Oh, my," said Marilyn, worriedly, her
hands going to her mouth in worry. She was about to get out of her seat, but-
"-Oh, no no, Madame, I've got it," said
Storko. He hopped out of his gigantic cage so he could resolve this little
foodfight...
Yes, boy, come here. Come and give your old Annie a
hand, hm?
William was confused. He was wandering around this
stranger's laboratory, hearing two different voices at once. One of them was
beckoning him forward, and the other was saying, "Now, now, boys, none of
that." He was trying to strain his ears for the beckoning one, but it
wasn't like he could hear it. It was all in his head. He stood in the middle of
the lab between two of these counters still shifting his head left and right
looking for the source of the "voice".
"Where are you?" he asked out loud.
Here... Over here...
"Where?" He pressed forward, still not too
sure of himself.
The box, dear.
"The box??" he said. His eyes were darting
here, there, and everywhere, looking for the smallest shred of a hint for what
this voice could possibly be talking about.
The MUSIC box, dear.
"The MUSIC box??" This was just getting more
and more confusing. He practically wasn't thinking anymore at that point,
letting himself go where ever his legs would take him.
On the shelf, dear.
"The SHELF??" he repeated again. Finally, he
saw something that seemed to satisfy his needs somewhat. He saw over there,
lined up next to where one of the counters ended a big, old, metal shelf.
However, this music box the voice was speaking of wasn't the only thing it had
in stock. There were toolboxes, piles of wires, bottles of glue, and so on. He
advanced towards it.
Yes, that's it, dear. Come a bit closer...
His hands were digging through all the cardboard boxes,
past all the spray bottles, and he almost knocked over a case of the doctor's test
tubes, which would not have ended pleasantly. He STILL couldn't find that music
box.
Dear...
He stopped sifting. "Yes?"
It is brown...
He started to keep his eyes peeled for something brown.
It has a big question mark on it...
Didn't he just see something like that a second ago?
It's on the middle shelf...
His eyes started scanning once more.
It's on the right...
He moved his eyes until...
"WILLIAM!"
He jolted. Reality had come back with a vengeance. His
mother was calling. "YEAH, MOM?" he called back.
"IT'S TIME FOR BED, HONEY," she said.
"OKAY, MOM, JUST A SECOND!" He took a look at
what the voice was talking about. Indeed, right there, as he was told, was a
small, treasure chest-like box with a big, white question mark on the front and
a crank sticking out of its side.
Don't worry about me, boy. Go. Do as she says. We'll
meet again...
William sat there staring at the box for a second. Then
he got up, and ran out of the lab, leaving it behind.
...
♠♣♥♦
Helga found Gorroh in their personal room
like they agreed she would. He was at his desk again writing some of his
memoirs.
"...But then something fell right out of the sky
and plopped onto his head. It was a brick... A brick with a note
attached!"
"Hmm..." Gorroh munched away some more at the
top of his pen. He was at another loss. His mood brightened, though, as soon as
his lovely wife stepped into the picture. She walked into the room, closed the
door, and his attention was stolen. He looked up from his work so he could greet
her once more. "Hello, Helga. How's our son doing?"
"Oh, he's just as feisty as ever. I just told him a
bedtime story," she summarized as she sauntered over to sit down on the
edge of their bed.
"Ah. Which one?" he inquired.
"The one about the Super-Happy Tree."
"Ah. THAT one." He nodded his head,
remembering it perfectly well. "Did he enjoy it?"
"I think he did," she said, looking around at
her surroundings. There was a lamp here, a table of liquor there, a painting in
the other direction, and of course her husband. "So how are the memoirs
coming along?"
"They're going alright. Although, I'm afraid I may
have writer's block again." He turned to look at his work for a second
there.
"Where are you now?" she asked, leaning
forward from her seat on the bed.
"Well, I've just come back from telling you about
the villainess's hideout, and now I've been hit on the head with a brick with a
note attached to it."
"Hmm. Who's the brick from?"
"I don't know. Is it the Goomba? The Terra Pin? The
Magikoopa?"
"Definitely the Magikooopa," she suggested.
"Ah, yes. YES!" With an exciting left finger
wagging in the air, he returned to his work and started scribbling some more.
"Perfect!" He put his pen down and turned to her again. "You are
excellent at lying, Helga, my dear, you really are!"
"I know." She gave him a big, toothy grin.
They got up out of their seats, walked to each other, embraced, and starting
smooching again. A few seconds afterwards, they pulled away, but still stood,
holding hands.
"Speaking of Magikoopas, dear, Kamek was just
telling me something earlier today."
"Yes?" She tilted her head in curiosity.
"Well, he said he just had another one of his
visions. He said we'll probably have to take care of a few apes in addition to
a few babies."
"Hmm... Now why would he have a premonition like
that?"
"I don't know, dear, but I don't question his
visions."
"I guess not..." They massaged one another in
each other's arms for a little while longer. While resting her chin on his
right shoulder, she asked him, "So... How much longer now?"
He grinned. "Probably not long..."
He didn't know how right he was. As the ship was
drifting harmlessly across the sea, beneath the full moon's light, they were
drawing even closer to their destination. It was coming up on the horizon. A
lone island was slowly creeping into view; one covered in trees: The Clattagin
Woods...