Chapter 12
While a snake of glowing green ooze was swimming and
twisting its way about high above Lava Lava Island, things were going on inside
its famous gigantic tree.
"Well, well, well, brother. We meet again..."
Fyooshi and Raphael at last were before the man they
were looking for. He looked just like the Yoshi's big bird of a handy
companion, only he was significantly smaller in size as Ravens generally are
supposed to be. He was resting in a suitably-sized nest in the middle of the
part of the tree they were then on the premises of. The treacherous fowl was
between two Yoshies, one black, one white, both of them fanning their master
with a pair of long, bristly palm leaves. This was Ren, and something had to be
done about him.
"Well," Ren continued, "you certainly
have gotten taller, brother. What's the story, hm? Did those Koopas make you
eat a little too much of something? Do tell."
"That is not important now," Raphael
responded, a serious expression plastered on his mug. "Something else has
brought us into your presence..."
"I see..." said the island's ruler. The
treacherous bird closed his eyes and nodded slowly. He picked himself up from
his last sentence. "So... May I ask you boys what brings you to my humble
presence?"
Raphael spoke up. "We have come to undo a few of
your misdemeanors, Ren."
Fyooshi was nibbling away at his fingertips with his
body jittering while the enemy Raven remained sitting in pure comfort with the
fans waving.
"Is that right?" he asked. "And what
could I have possibly done to have angered you?"
"For starters," Raphael began. "This poor
fellow, here," he motioned towards Fyooshi, still acting nervous,
"tells me you've been forcing him and his people to perform various
pain-staking tasks for you, such as building statues of you, gathering food for
you, entertaining you, and even fanning you!"
The black and the white Yoshies glanced at each other
out of the corners of their eyes and continued fanning.
"So?" the corruptive bird scoffed. Raphael
glared. Fyooshi started sweating.
"To 'entertain' you, you require them to face each
other in battles to the death, and humiliate themselves before you!"
Fyooshi clenched his eyes shut remembering a time Naji
got into a fight with a good friend of his, Blushi. According to Ren's
standards, it was a good fight, complete with all the blood and disembodied
limbs he could ask for, but it was definitely something he would rather not
have done. He also remembered a time Naji had to wear some type of helmet from
one half of a coconut on his head and do this chicken dance in front of the
tyrant. However, these were but two examples of the kinds of things he would
make them do. Come to think of it, where had Naji gone since he last saw him?
"Yeah? So?" the spoiled bird retorted again.
Raphael shuffled his way directly in front of his brother. The distance between
their eyes was not very spacious in the least. The big one leaned forward while
the small one remained still.
"You force them to undergo many a degrading
punishments whenever they disobey orders, even for little things, such as
chipping one of the statues and staying up past their curfews..."
Fyooshi remembered that fateful night when the three of
him, Naji, and Noshi broke the rules a little so they could have a run-in with
a gang of space aliens. Double come to think of it, where had Noshi gone?
"Sooo?" the uncaring individual cooed. Raphael
squinted his eyes feeling his amount of displeasure rising.
"Ren, I thought I could trust you. We thought we
could trust you. You let everyone down. You let Mother down! This is
unacceptable," he growled.
"Mother didn't know what she had. I'm putting it to
good use. What's the big deal?" Ren shrugged.
Raphael took a step back and squared what probably could
have been considered the black thing's shoulders. He maintained his posture.
"That's not what power is for, Ren. Just because you're the master of the
island, doesn't mean you should act like it. I'm here to take back my position
and straighten you out. Now you get out of your seat and get in bed. I'll come
up with a suitable punishment for you in due time."
"You know what, I've got a better idea." He
hopped out of his sitting position, landed before his previous location and
shuffled closer to his sibling. As soon as he did this, the Yoshies ended the
fanning and exchanged more weird looks. Fyooshi had his hands clasped over his
mouth as though to keep it from spitting something out that could make the
situation even less comfortable. Ren stood on his toes and craned his head back
to look into his fellow family member's eyes. Raphael looked down, similarly.
"Why don't you go to bed? It's past your bedtime, anyway. The same goes
for you, too, Yoshi boy. You're gonna get it, now." Fyooshi's pupils
suddenly jolted into a smaller size. He stopped breathing.
"THAT'S ENOUGH!!" Raphael turned red, bulged a
vein across his forehead, leaped up into the air, backflipped, and slammed into
the ground, harshly. This time, the force of it sent a ripple swimming across
the area surrounding him so hard, not only did his black-feathered enemy get
knocked down, but all three Yoshies as well. They all yelped in surprise. Once
it was over, the four victims of this began struggling to get back to standing.
The Yoshies managed this before the fourth guy did. Ren scrambled back up onto
his feet shaking his head. He had an angry look on his face. The two brothers
continued staring each other down. Raphael resumed with an equally fierce
facial expression. "Ren, you are stepping down, and that's final. Now get
out of here, before I really lose my temper. Is that understood?"
"Understood, my eye!! Listen, you: This position is
mine, and mine, alone! You are not taking it away from me, and neither is
anybody else! You want your precious little island back? You're gonna have to
fight me for it, first!!"
The Yo'sters remained perfectly still with little to no
signs of any respiratory action. They watched as the two brothers glared at
eachother directly in their eyes. Raphael and Ren could feel both their eyes
burning twice as hard. They could feel their anger. One could feel his own and
his brother's, the other could feel his brother's and his own. They were
inhaling and exhaling crazily. This extremely unsettling bout of a staring
contest continued until finally Raphael said something.
"Tommorrow at sundown," he growled,
"every villager will gather, and you and I will have our fight. Winner
becomes the island's new ruler. Clear?"
Ren carried on with his intense staring as his brother
did the same. "Clear," he agreed. The three reptiles that witnessed
this could suddenly feel heavy boulders of immense heat suddenly form in the
pit of their guts. Fyooshi placed one hand over his chest and the other over
his mouth. Ren turned around, shuffled back to where he previously sat and
returned to the way he was before the conversation. The two birds glared at
each other some more. The black and white Yoshies maintained their stillness.
At last, Raphael turned his head towards his magenta
colored companion. "Come on, Fyooshi," he said quietly. Fyooshi
brought his hands away from their places, and let them float by his side for a
few seconds. Then he placed one in the other like he was holding his own hand.
He turned towards the exit like his black savior did. Raphael began to shuffle
towards it. Fyooshi took one step, then looked behind him. He saw the tyrant
still glaring like a basilisk. He felt a freezing icecube twist itself up his
spine and he turned around to catch up with the tyrant's brother.
As soon as they made it back to where they entered,
Raphael turned around to give his sibling one last look. "Be ready."
"I will."
After that exchange between the big one and the little
one, the two visitors could finally leave. Ren watched them go in spite. He
took a moment to speculate about how he was going to show his brother who truly
was the "bigger" one.
I don't care if you're huge, now. I'm Ren. You can't
beat me. Noone can...
Nevertheless, this other feeling of his that something
was missing did not seize to hang around him.
"A-hem," he grunted. The black and white
Yoshies beside him jolted back to life and began fanning him again. Feeling the
rushes of cool air sweep across his body over and over again in that rhythmic
pattern did little to rid him of the furious look on his face...
A ways beyond, the two adversaries of the island's
master were continuing with another one of their journeys. "Don't worry,
Fyooshi," the magenta-colored dinosaur heard. "We'll reach the
village soon enough..."
♠♣♥♦
"So, he's in the third room to the
left?"
"Yes, honey. He might still be sleepin', though.
I'd leave him be, if I were you."
"Alright! Thanks, lady!"
He made his way up the stairs, down the hallway, and
started passing a few of the doors. The first... Second... Third one.
"Nga-HA!" he said happily. He turned the knob,
pushed his way in, and took note of the personality of his environment.
The room was pretty silent. All it really had was a
closet, a dresser, a table, a chair, and a bed with a nightstand next to it,
all of them composed mostly of wood in a rather rustic manner. This didn't
necessarily mean that one individual couldn't have a good night's rest in it,
though.
"ZZZZzzzz... ZZZZzzzz..." the figure in one of
the beds snoozed away. Peacefully, it slept. Then suddenly...
"SNIFIT!!" Oof! "You
son-of-a-Goomba!!" Oof! "I can't belive it's you!" Oof!
"You! You! You!!!" Oof! Oof! Oof! A similar person was bouncing up
and down upon the formerly slumbering one's chest, shouting all the while and
hearing some painful grunts at the same time.
"GET OFFA ME, YOU FREAK!!!" Snifit roared as
he shoved this unexpected guest off of him with great force. This caused the
guest to practically fly off and land with a THUD on the ground. Snifit leapt
onto his feet, causing the mattress of his foothold to scrunch up and down as a
result of the weight and the movement. He turned towards his intruder and let
him have it. "WHAT IN THE NAME OF BONUS GAMES IS THE MATTER WITH YOU?! YOU
DON'T JUST GO JUMPING UP AND DOWN ON PEOPLE WHILE THEY'RE TRYING TO SLEEP!! ARE
YOU CRAZY?! GET OUT!!!"
The person on the floor poked his head up from behind
the bed, rubbing his sore noggin. "But Snifit! Don't you remember me? It's
me! Shy Guy! We went on that one mission against that one wooden doll thing,
remember?"
Snifit started breathing a little easier letting it all
come back to him. The laser beams. The giant Koopa Troopa. The cloudy place.
Even the wooden doll thing. Everything. All of it including the man who stuck
with him throughout the whole ordeal. That man was the white-masked, red-robed
weirdo that just attacked him, and he was right in front of him after all this
time. He looked at him and changed his tone. "Oh, cripes. Not you,"
he moaned.
"Snifit! You do remember me! Ah, I'm so
happy." He jumped back onto the springy bed and ensnared his old
acquaintance in a massive hug of skin-tightening proportions. It wasn't
returned, though.
"Yeah, yeah. Good to see you, too, buddy,"
Snifit mumbled.
After that, Shy Guy stepped back and let a little space
to be between him and the other 8-Bit. "So, what do you wanna do, now?
Ruin some picnics? Recruit new members? Eat some candy?"
Snifit sighed. "No, I don't want to ruin anyone's
picnics, recruit any new members, or eat any candy. Besides: The Shy Gang's
days are over, Shy Guy. Face it. We've got new lives, now."
"Oh no, we don't! Sure, the Shy King's gone, and so
is Robin Hifit, and that one little guy, too. Heck, maybe the whole crew's
gone!" He wrapped his left arm around the Snifit's shoulders. "But
there's still you," he pointed to himself, "and me!" then to his
fellow ex Shy Gang member.
"Um..."
Shy Guy released his hold of Snifit. "With my
slingshot," he said, pulling out that very weapon, "and your... Um...
Big nose... We can accomplish anything!!" Shy Guy stuck his arms into the
air and waved them.
Snifit lowered his head and squeezed his eyes shut with
one of his fin-like arms. "Look, Shy Guy, it's great to see you, and all,
but pretty much the only thing I want accomplished right now is me getting some
sleep. So if you'll excuse me-"
-DDDDRRRRIIIINNNGGG!!
The alarm clock on the nightstand beside Snifit's bed
went off. He slapped his forehead and grumbled something.
Shy Guy started talking again. "Sooo," he
dragged on, "you wanna go get some breakfast?"
Snifit rested his face in his hands and started swaying
his head from left to right. He looked up from them, and plopped both arms
beside his belt. "Sure, why not," he conceded.
"Great!"
♠♣♥♦
The dining room
of the tavern had only a few people in it. One was sitting alone here, another
was seating himself at a different table in a solitary manner, and two others
were in front of the counter, enjoying their breakfasts a ways before the mole
behind where they were dining, cleaning out a glass, or two. One of these guys
had on the traditional suit of samurai armor complete with the vest, the helmet
with long bristles of differing colors sticking out of it, and an axe resting
across his back. On each hand, he donned a pair of white gloves. His face
consisted of a duo of warm eyes, and a big, black beard to go with his long
hair sticking out of the back of his headgear. The other one had similar hair,
but it was a little thinner. Plus: It was brown, not black, and it wasn't
covered by any such attire for the cranium. He had a mustache plastered across
his face. In a different fashion, he donned an orange tunic to go with his
black shoes and his mostly white outfit. At the moment, both were in the acts
of consuming their breakfasts. The bearded one was enjoying a nice plate of
toast whereas the mustachioed one was having some fried eggs and sizzling
bacon. The bearded one was finishing up a story.
"...And just before I could defeat the diamond
thing, I woke up," he was saying.
The mustachioed man swallowed another bite.
"Interesting," he mused. He shoved his fork beneath another section
of his egg. "You know, last night, I had a similar dream. I dreamed we
were on another treasure hunt. This time, we had ourselves in a room with a few
others, I think. The room was checkered with tiles of black and red, like a
chessboard. As soon as we saw the chest at the end of it, I said to you, 'This
is it, Chak! We can finally finish this and put this crazy journey behind us!'
I can't remember what you said, but after that, we got to run up to the chest,
and open it up. I remember us gasping, but I woke up before we could find out
what was inside." He shoved another fragment into his mouth and commenced
chewing.
"Ah, well I can see the similarities," said
his companion. He munched some more away at his meal. He swallowed, then turned
his head back towards him. "Which reminds me: What shall we be doing for
our next big mission, hm?"
"I'm not sure, to be honest. I suppose we should
just linger for a while longer until we come up with something." He
continued his consumption.
"You're right." Then they both resumed
finishing up their delicacies.
To the left of the counter, footsteps could be heard.
The mole with the glass looked in that direction for a split second to realize
it was two individuals descending the stairs before returning to his
glass-cleaning.
"...And then we can go on a train-ride, and all
that stuff!"
"Yeah, yeah..."
The hairy men in front of the counter took note of two
small red figures coming their way. The one with the white mask was the first
to speak, and the one with the black, the second. As soon as they reached the
two stools to the right of the man seated next to the one named Chak, they
climbed up, sat down, and let the obnoxiousness flow.
"YO, BARTENDER!!" Shy Guy shouted. Snifit
placed a hand over his eyes and tilted his head back. The mole wandered over to
their presences.
"What can I do for you boys?" he said, still
cleaning that drinking implement of his.
"Um, uh, ummm, lemme think..." Shy Guy
babbled.
Snifit shook his head. "I'll just have the
pancakes," he said.
"I'll have what he's having," said Shy Guy.
"I'll have it to you boys in just a few
minutes." The bartender scribbled something down on a notepad, tore off
that page of it, and hung it up with the others above a window leading to the
room behind him where all the smells were coming from. He struck a dome-shaped
bell on that very window, and soon after that, the note was gone. Then he went
back to the glass-cleaning.
"Boy, Snifit, I can't wait! It'll be just like old
times!" Shy Guy blabbed on.
"I know, I know..." Snifit responded.
Chak turned to his friend. "Say," he started,
"You don't suppose these guys could tell us where we could find some more
treasure, do you?"
The mustached man shrugged his shoulders. "I'm not
sure. Perhaps it's worth a shot..." He swiveled to his right so he could
face the 8-Bit beside him. "Excuse me," he uttered.
Shy Guy turned around. "Yeah?" he said.
"My friend was wondering if you knew where we could
find some treasure," he asked.
Shy Guy placed his chin in his hand, and the elbow of
that hand in his other to represent his contemplation. "Hmm," he
hummed. Snifit just waited patiently behind him. "Have you tried Mushroom
Maze?" he asked.
"Yes, we have," said Chak.
Shy Guy thought some more. "Have you tried... The
Forest Way?"
"Yes, that, too," Chak replied.
"HMM..." Shy Guy thought some more about it.
"What about Koopa's Pass?"
"That, too, I'm afraid," he said.
Shy Guy gave his noggin a good scratch. Then he gave his
shoulders a good shrug. "Well, I guess I can't help you then. Sorry!"
Chak sighed. He just said, "Thank you anyway."
Then the two of him and the mustached man could return to dining.
Shy Guy returned to facing towards the counter before
him. "Anyway, Sniffy, as I was saying..."
Snifit looked at him. "Shy Guy, what do you suppose
that was all about?"
Shy Guy resumed making eye-contact with his old friend.
"Well, I don't know. You know. They're a couple of guys, and they're
looking for some adventure! Just like us, don't you think?"
"I guess," Snifit said.
"So, what do you suppose we should do now?"
asked Chak.
The person he asked this shrugged his shoulders once
again. "The same thing: We wait."
Chak nodded. "Alright."
Shy Guy and Snifit had other things on their minds,
though. They waited a while longer, until finally a pair of plates showed up by
the window to the backroom that the mole had referred to earlier. The smells it
emitted into the air seemed to spell good news for the two red-robed beings. He
brought them over to them and placed one on the counter in front of each of
them.
"There you go," said the mole.
"Thanks a bunch!" exclaimed Shy Guy. Then the
two red guys whipped their forks and knives out of nowhere and went on with the
eating. Before going on with the slicing up of the delicacy, Shy Guy had to
make note of something. "Hey! These things have squigglies all over
'em!" He was talking about the various S-like shapes in a deeper shade of
tan that were going all over his flap-jacks.
"Yup," Snifit agreed. He went on with his
meal.
Chak scrunched his eyes up. Something had caught his
attention. "Say," he mused, "do you hear that?"
"Hear what?" said his fellow treasure hunter.
"It's coming from the outside. People are hollerin'
about something."
The other man was beginning to know what he was talking
about. People from outside the vicinity seemed to all be speaking rather loudly
about something. Something green, maybe? "They are yelling," he
agreed.
Snifit was busy systematically sawing his stack into
various geometric segments. His comrade just carved out a piece and shoved it
into that hole in his mask he called a mouth. He chewed it a little, then the
two other holes that weren't his mouth suddenly widened and he spat the mass
out. It went splat against the door leading to the kitchen. All four of Snifit,
Chak, his friend, and the mole looked at him as he started clutching at his
throat.
"Oh, my God!! What's in this stuff?!" he
moaned.
"Worms," Snifit said simply. He took a bite of
his own helping, chewed, swallowed, then went for another.
Shy Guy fell backwards and landed on the floor,
squirming. The others continued staring, save for Snifit. At one point, he just
turned and looked at the idiot, shook his head and continued eating.
"Heaven, help me!!" Shy Guy squealed. "I think I'm gonna be
sick!!"
"Oh, lighten up," muttered Snifit. "They
eat this all the time down here. It's not that bad, actually."
Shy Guy remained writhing on the floor. "Heaven...
Help... Me..."
Suddenly, the entire place started shaking. Noone was
looking at the man having a fit anymore. They were looking at the ceiling. Not
only was dust falling from it, but they could also hear a sound coming from
above. It was like a river of mutating gunk twisting and turning around itself
as it splashed across the rocks and whatnot, rolling downwards. Little did they
know, frantically trying to keep various plates, glasses, and other fragile
things from falling over and breaking, that that pretty much was just what it
happened to be.
SMMAAASSHHH!! BBLLLOORRRPP! This gigantic snake of ooze
made a huge hole in the roof, plummetted downwards, and mayhem ensued. The two
other people attending the place suddenly dropped everything and headed for the
door. As one of the four people stuck gawking at it, the mole suddenly stopped
trying to keep various things from falling and ducked for dear life.
"WHOA!!"
"OH, MY-"
"SHY GUY, LOOK OUT!!"
Chak, the man, and the Snifit were in a panic. Shy Guy
was still distracted, rolling on the ground. Snifit suddenly went heroic, stood
up on the stool, leapt from it, sent himself tumbling around on the ground, and
slamming into the red-garbed one. Unfortunately, his efforts were in vain.
"AAAAUUUUGGGGHHHH!!!" The four people in front
of the counter took the hit full on. All of them were simultaneously engulfed
in a white light the instant the slime came too close to them. The quartet was
too busy falling down, clutching their heads, and moaning to notice the thing
had flown up afterwards, and went SMASH right through the ceiling again. More
people could be heard outside beholding the spectacle.
"Oh, my gosh!"
"Did you see that??"
"I hope no-one got hurt..."
Hoping was what they could only do. Pieces of wood were
falling from the ceiling while other things were going on. Crouched down on the
floor, the four individuals that got caught in this river of slime's warpath
were still covered in light. Upon closer inspection, one could notice the changes
they were undergoing. Shy Guy was growing larger, Snifit's shape was morphing,
Chak's was mutating, and the other man was shrinking. The groaning sounds they
were all emitting couldn't be ignored by the mole. Slowly, he poked his head up
from behind the counter, and was horrified. The glow that the four were
surrounded by had died down and so had the noise. The four men stayed on the
ground at first, still recovering from the ordeal, then one-by-one, they each
picked themselves up off of the floor, very slowly. Then they began examining
their new forms. Each of them had their eyes extremely wide open and
unblinking.
Shy Guy had gotten huge. He was an eight-footer. He was
much taller and more muscular. It was like the muck had taken a hold of his
head and his feet and pulled until he was all stretched out in this massive
form. Somehow, his red robe had changed as well to match his new size. That,
and it had become all orange and fuzzy as though it wasn't of the traditional
red cloth anymore, but rather that of some type of ferocious beast of the
jungle. He was an intimidating sight. He also seemed to be more humanoid. It
was like he was no longer a Shy Guy, but rather a bit of an enormous muscle-man
wearing an oversized Shy Guy costume. He couldn't stop flexing his arms,
admiring the bulges they made.
Snifit only got slightly bigger. What was noticeable was
how his robe went from red to grey. Also, his snout got longer and indeed more
strangely-shaped. It almost seemed to resemble some type of rod with a ring of
red surrounding it. The long body was blue whereas the ball-resembling tip was
all yellow. His mask had gone from being mostly black to being mostly white.
That, and the band strapping it against his face was red, not black. The same
change occurred to his belt. He only observed himself in confusion.
Chak was in lower spirits. His form had definitely
mutated. His skin had become completely black and hard, like nails. His legs
had split in two, so he was then walking around on four of them! Also, they
each had three toes as his hands, similarly, had three fingers. Like with Shy
Guy, their garments had changed as well to fit. As for the rest of him, there
wasn't a single hair standing proud in sight. Not even on his once grizzly
face. His entire head had been replaced by this black thing with two vicious
mandibles sticking out of the front. On top of that, two antennae were coming
out of the front of his helmet. At least his eyes got to remain relatively the
same. Nonetheless, he still wasn't too pleased by this occurrence.
As for the fourth one, he, too, had a horrified look. In
addition to becoming smaller, his body had also become less defined. His hair
looked unchanged, but his facial features had become softer, not to mention
completely hairless, not unlike his companion. Like the others, his clothes had
also changed to match this about himself. He wasn't liking it, though. He
didn't just get smaller; he got younger.
"Whoa-ho," Shy Guy chuckled in a slightly
deeper voice, flexing a bicep. "Check it out, Snifit. I'm Arnold
Koopanator. WHOA! Look at you!!"
"What in the name of Bonus Games..." he
mumbled, still twisting his head around, observing the changes.
"Wh- Wh- Wh-" the once bearded man stammered.
His three-fingered hands trembled before his face. "WHAT HAPPENED TO ME?!
I'M A MONSTER! A HIDEOUS MONSTER!!"
"I'M A CHILD AGAIN!!" screamed the other one,
no longer a man, in a voice that had become higher-pitched and almost
woman-like to complement it all.
The transformed 8-Bits exchanged worried glances as
these two people started clutching their heads, shaking, and repeating,
"What do I do?" and "This can't be happening," over and
over and over again.
"Ummm..." Snifit spoke nervously, poking the
tips of his fin-like hands together like a pair of index fingers.
Shy Guy looked at him and gave him the thumbs-up. Snifit
arched one portion above his left eye like an eyebrow. He watched doubtfully as
the huge man waltzed around the hysterical duo, knelt down behind the middle of
them both, and began the comforting. His left hand went to the boy's left
shoulder, and his right went to the shoulder of his partner's right. He started
patting them.
"Hey, hey, hey. Come on, now. Cheer up! I know how
to return you guys to normal," he said.
Their moaning finally started to quiet down. Once they
got a hold of themselves, they both turned their heads toward his and said at
the same time, "You do??"
He gave them another pat. "Yup! I know exactly
where to go."
"YOU DO??"
Shy Guy nodded. He removed his hands from their
shoulders and stood up. "Not too far from this island, there's another one
with this temple on it. I don't know what that green stuff was or where it came
from, but I'm pretty sure there's a treasure there rumored to be able to undo
these kinds of things. We can take you there! Right Snifit?"
The other transformed one bolted his head up, looked
around nervously, and just said, "Um, uh, sure!"
The big Shy Guy held his hand out. "See? It's not
so bad. Come on. What do you say?"
The two people he was talking to looked at each other
and whispered a few things.
"What do you think?" the mutated one said.
"What have we got to lose?" the shrunken one
said. Then they nodded and turned to their new friend. "We'll do it."
Shy Guy clapped his hands together. "Great! Now
before we go, why not introduce ourselves? I'm Shy Guy, and he's Snifit!
Pleased to meetcha." He extended a hand down towards them. First the boy
shook it, then the mutated one shook it. They turned around to do the same with
Snifit.
"I'm Chak. This is my partner, David." He
motioned in the direction of the boy. David gave a subtle wave.
Shy Guy rubbed his hands together. "Well, now that
we're all acquainted, what say we get this show on the road?" The others
nodded in agreement. The mole remained staring...
As this newly-formed quartet of adventurers was just
beginning another quest, the slime that did this to them remained swimming
through the air, flying towards its next destination...
♠♣♥♦
Fyooshi and Raphael left the humungous tree
and continued walking beneath a sky tinted purple with the rising sun. They
headed back in the direction from whence they came. After a while, a thought
occurred to Fyooshi's mind, and he had to let it out. He asked the bird,
"Raphael?"
"Yes, Fyooshi?" the bird responded.
"Don't you feel bad for Ren?" His hands were
flapping around in random gestures as he struggled to get his point across.
"I mean, he's your brother, isn't he? Are you really just going to go
ahead and kill him?"
Raphael sighed. "I won't kill him, Fyooshi, I'll
just show him the price that comes with abusing certain privileges."
"Oh." Fyooshi hung his head as the forest drew
closer to them. "Do you feel bad about that?" he asked.
"I cannot lie," said the Raven as the two of
them entered the woods and started prowling about the shrubbery. "He is my
brother, after all. I wish there were another way, but there isn't." The
pair remained silent for a few seconds, pawing their ways through the
vegetation while they were at it. "Besides," he added, "it's
what Romona would have done..."
Onward, they continued, feeling the brisk morning dew of
the greens scrape against them as they wandered. They were left alone with
their thoughts until at last they reached a familiar place, but with a twist.
They were in the opening where Fyooshi was eating his dinner earlier, but
someone was there, lying unconscious on the ground. He was looking pretty beat
up, complete with his very long tongue hanging out like a dead serpent, and
bruises all over his body that were slightly deeper in color than the rest of
his green body. Was he going to be okay?
"Oh, my..." uttered Raphael, "this looks
bad."
"Could it be..." Fyooshi held his hands up to
his mouth in shock. "NOSHI?!" At that, he ran up to this passed out
individual and started doing what he could. Raphael a moment afterwards began
shuffling in the direction of the two Yo'sters to offer some of his services...