Chapter 8
Morning was once again upon the Yoshies of that tropical
isle. The sky gradually worked its way up from black to a pale blue. He hadn't
suffered any new attacks that night, but still, things weren't going too well
for him.
In spite of everything, things around the village began
to start back up like normal. Their morning routines continued with hustling,
bustling, and fruit-related business. Xoshi's morning, however, didn't exactly
begin overnight. He didn't get any sleep.
...So, if it were me, I would have made it so that
each world was composed of 3 sets of levels, the first one of one, the second
one of 24, the third one of seven, but of course- Blast it, why don't those
stupid birds ever shut up?! Xoshi was thinking. Of course it didn't really
have much relevance to the thoughts he was happening to have about multiple
storylines. The conversations he had with himself in his head tended to drift
from topic to topic. Come to think of it, he was pretty surprised that he was
able to steer his thoughts away from the troubles he was having, which reminded
him of just what he didn't want to think about, but knew he had to anyway.
Another conversation started.
Good morning, Xoshi, the spirit named Beel
thought to him.
NN-guh. Morning, Xoshi grumbled mentally. That
night, the two of them managed to work up some way to differentiate between
thinking to one's self, one's "head-mate", and one's memories. This
was another of those times when they were on to the "head-mate"
issue.
I... Take it rest was mediocre, Beel thought to
him.
You got that right, thought Xoshi. He got up out
of bed to stretch, massage that awful, sleepless feeling out of his tired
eyelids, and reluctantly decided to begin his waking process, although some
extra chances for slumber would have been appreciated, but they were obviously
not going to come to him, what with all the action that was going on. Let's
get this over with, he thought. He was referring to preparing for their
outrageous trip to Isle Delfino.
Yes, let's. At that, they proceeded onwards to
commit their mandatory acts. As usual, Xoshi had a few other Yo'sters to walk
around in order to make it to his odd shortcut. Once he got to that opening
once more, a thought came from Xoshi to Beel.
Hey, he thought to him. Now that we're
technically sharing the same mind, can you take control of my body?
Well, I'm not sure if the way to answer that would start
with the word "fortunately" or "unfortunately", but either
way, I can't.
...Can't answer?
Can't control you. You are, after all, in charge of your
own self.
Hmm... Xoshi continued
walking after that. He was a little closer to the botanical hut again when Beel
thought something more to him.
Say, wasn't that Yoshi fellow to stop by, by now?
Xoshi stopped walking. Had anyone else have been there,
they probably would have taken note of his unusual behavior. It was tough
having a foreign spirit in his head. What did I tell you about reading my
mind? Xoshi scolded.
...Sorry.
Besides, he's... not as fanatical as I am. He only visits
on Sundays.
Whereas, you visit daily.
Pretty much. Xoshi
continued walking. He was inside the hut, although, like half the time, the
priest was out. He didn't always need his presence in order to pray to the
Super-Happy Tree. He moved on through the back and onward down that
semi-hallway.
If that's the case, how will you be able to survive
on this trip?
At first, Xoshi thought his personal memories were being
invaded again, but he let it slide since that last line didn't seem to have
more intrusion than simple detective traits and curiosity. I get around,
Xoshi thought. Once he was in its presence, he began to "talk" to it
again.
Good morning, Xoshi, the Super-Happy Tree said to
him.
Good morning. He repeated his prayers as usual,
but, like yesterday, he had a little extra to talk about. Mother, something
crazy happened last night... Could it have anything to do with the dream?
Just about anything could be connected to anything,
dear. You'll just have to find out on your own.
Yes, Mother. After
telling it the bizarre story and gathering its fruit, he headed on back.
You told her, Beel said to Xoshi, probably
accusingly.
She's the only person I trust.
...Really?
Well, that was a slight exaggeration. I mean, who else
could I be able to talk to about things I've never told anyone before?
Hmm... At that, the
two of them left the sacred area, went back through the opening and the
shortcut, without incident as before. However, as soon as they got a little
back into the village...
"WHAT? Who set this up?!" Xoshi got that Deja
Vu feeling again. Boshi was yelling at Yazzee. Exactly what about was pretty
obvious.
"I did! Sort of."
He said something else, then handed the same paper over
to Boshi. Boshi read it over a little, then said something like, "Googa
looga snory fargy snargy spu hoo??"
"Just keep readin' it!" At that point, Xoshi
was standing in the very spot that would form a triangle between the three
characters. "Oh, hi there, Xoshi! Boshi here is just a little reluctant to
go on our little trip!"
"You told him about it today?!" Xoshi said,
exasperatedly.
"Well, yeah! I mean, I meant to tell him about it
earlier, and..."
Xoshi groaned and let his face fall into his hands. He
shook his head a little as Boshi continued reading, then lifted it up to speak.
"Yazzee, you have got to stop being so flaky all the time. It stresses
people out!!"
"I know, but..."
Little did they know, as their conversation was carrying
on further, two mysterious figures were watching from the bushes of the distance.
"So that's their little game!! Listen, Crookie; as
soon as they have their ship arrive, we sneak aboard, and act as
stowaways!"
"But, Boss, couldn't we just steal the doll right
here and now while no-one's guarding the house?"
"The broad daylight's guarding the house, dummy!!
We're sneaking aboard, and that's final!!"
"But how can we sneak aboard in broad
daylight?"
Sackle chuckled. "You just leave that to me, my
narrow-minded apprentice!"
Crookie was flustered. "'N- Narrow minded'?!"
"That's what I said! Now follow me before you hurt
yourself..."
"Gwugh!!" Crookie was once again grabbed by
the collar of his attire and dragged into the deep woods behind them.
"By the way... For how long can you hold your
breath?"
Later, the four of Yazzee, Xoshi, Yoshi, and Boshi were
just about ready. Xoshi had managed to answer Beel's question of earlier with a
small statue of the Super-Happy Tree.
"It's called an 'idol'," he explained.
"You pray to it every night before you go to bed."
He packed that, a few fruits, and, of course, the
forbidden doll (all according to plan). Pretty soon, the four of them were at
the docks, awaiting their way of transportation. Once there, Xoshi couldn't
help but take note of the new garment Yazzee was wearing.
“Yatzee, I mean, Yazzee,” Xoshi stammered. “What are
those things?”
“Oh, these? Why, they’re my lucky dice! Never leave home
without ‘em.” Yazzee was wearing a pair of fuzzy dice dangling from the “chest”
of a necklace.
“But, when we went on that one mission against Kamek,
you weren’t wearing them,” Xoshi contradicted.
“Huh? Oh, uh, sure I was! They can turn invisible,
that’s all!”
“Really,” Xoshi said disbelievingly. He couldn’t help
but also notice a foul Boshi standing beside him. “’Still ticked off about the
extemporaneous trip, Boshi?”
Boshi snorted. “All I’m gonna say is that they’d better
have cookies!!”
“Hmm. Oookay.” They waited a little while longer while
the other Yoshies minded their own businesses. After some time and conversing
had passed, finally a speck was beginning to show up in the distance. It
grabbed the attention of Yazzee first.
“Hold up,” he said, whipping a four-fingered hand above
his eyes for focus. “Doth my eyes deceive me?!”
“Well, ‘sabout time,” Boshi grumbled. Xoshi and Yoshi
caught on too; it was the ship!
“Well, boys, looks like pretty soon we’ll be getting all
that fruit and sunshine after all,” Yoshi mused, scratching his chin.
“Alright,” Xoshi said, taking his turn. As the faded
image from the distance grew ever so slightly, a tap arrived upon the shoulder
of Boshi. Boshi, un-startled, turned around. It was the purple one, Pish,
followed by his two cronies, Oshi and Pinky.
“What’s the latest, Pish?” Boshi said to him.
Pish responded. “Well, ‘Boss’, I was just wondering:
Since you’ll be spending a week or two over in 'everyone's favorite little
paradise', who'll be left in charge in your place?"
Boshi snorted again. He shook his head and held out his
arms, almost as though he was asking to be embraced. "You are, Pish!"
Pish gave himself a light slap on the
"forehead". "Oh, yeah," he muttered.
"Just remember," Boshi said to him, while
wrapping his right arm around his shoulders. "24/7, you gotta act cool, be
cool, and always, ALWAYS race the slow."
"Gotcha, Boss," Pish nodded. Boshi slipped
away from him pointing his left finger at him in a reassuring way. Then it was
Pinky's turn.
"Don't you worry about a thing, Xoshi," he
said to the brown Yo'ster. "Me and Oshi, here, will keep your house from
any burglars while your gone." He said that while giving the air before
him a confident pound with his left arm and fist. Xoshi simply nodded, feeling
trusting, yet at the same time as though it wasn't really necessary.
"Thanks," he said.
"Yeah, we'll take 'em on! You just enjoy your vacation,
Xosh!" said Oshi. "Xosh" gave another nod. Why did everyone keep
calling him that?
Before long, the ship was at its designated docks. It
was a modern, white thing with the title, "S. S. Dolpic", on its
side. Everyone got all excited, and the boat let a platform fall down so the
quartet would have had a way to walk on. A young Yoshi with pale green skin
walked down to greet them. About him, he had an air of pure dignity, but
strangely also an air of what almost seemed like creepiness. He moved his way
to the fronts of Xoshi, Yazzee, Yoshi, and Boshi and began to speak in a
youthful voice.
"Greetings, lucky winners. This is the boat to Isle
Delfino, and I shall be your captain." He cocked his head specifically
towards the yellow one with dice around his neck. "You're Yazzee,
correct?"
Yazzee jumped up and down in excitement, even though the
others were feeling a bit uneasy. "Yes! Yes, that's me!"
The captain let his eerie eyes shift a little, out of
sync with his head to scan the others. "And these would be your
companions?" he asked, practically suspiciously.
"Yup!" Couldn't that guy ever tone down his
perkiness?
He glared at Yazzee, but it didn't seem to douse his
mood. "Please present your letter of notification," he demanded.
"Oh! Right." Yazzee reached behind him and
pulled out the infamous message. Xoshi was personally surprised that for once
he was actually right on track. The captain took it from him and looked it over
with his foreboding eyes. A second later, he lowered the paper and handed it
back, mechanically. Yazzee took it as the others were beginning to feel as
though maybe this guy didn't have a soul.
"That would be it," he said. "Let's be
off." He turned and began waltzing back. Yazzee, of course, was the first
to follow.
"Well, what are you guys waiting for? Let's
go!" he stopped to say to them. Then he continued his journey. The
three-some exchanged looks, shrugged shoulders, and trekked onwards. Behind
them, their friends were calling.
"'Bye, Yoshi!"
"Don't forget to write!"
"Have a good time!"
"Bring back some sunshine!"
Once they were on, the four took it upon themselves to
move to the back of the moving ship and wave back.
"See you all later!"
"I LOVE YOU, TOO!!"
"Don't do anything I wouldn't do!"
"BYE!"
It was Yoshi, Yazzee, Boshi, and Xoshi that said those
things in that order. Xoshi was busy waving with the others when suddenly he
was hit in that same spot by a similar coconut.
BONK! Sploosh...
"SORRY!" Xoshi heard a familiar voice say as
he commenced rubbing his nose like before.
"Sheesh," he muttered. The ship drifted off
further, and more people were waving.
Azure, of course, was still moving his arm back and
forth in the gesture of goodbyes. Rachi, beside him, was muttering something
about being in hope that they would bring back some "sunshine". Not
too far away from them, the Yoshi Priest and his daughter, Jeila were present.
"Ah, that Xoshi. Someday he'll probably be the one
guarding the Super-Happy Tree. I know that boy will make me proud."
"Be safe, Xoshi..."
The ship was already a great distance away from the
docks. The creepy Yoshi captain was showing them around.
"...And this," he was saying. "Is my
first mate, Jax. He doesn't speak Yoshish, but he makes for one reliable
crewmember." Jax was a little brown man with a goatee, a white shirt, and
a pair of purple shorts. He said something to the vacationers in English, and
made a gesture of acknowledgement. Then he continued working. "For those
of you who didn't understand, he said, 'Greetings, friends! Enjoy the
trip!'"
"Oh. How nice of him," Boshi said, probably in
a sarcastic manner. At that, the tour continued.
"And this is the hold. Here, we keep all of our
crates and stuff." There wasn't much to look at besides a room loaded with
stacks and stacks of various Delfino brand boxes.
"Neat," Yazzee commented.
"And here would be your quarters, but since only
two are available, you'll... Have to figure it out on your own," he said
unusually as usual.
"Great," Boshi moped.
Once the five Yoshies were on the deck again, the
captain told them, "Which concludes the tour. Of course, the real tour
shan't come until later."
Of course, Xoshi thought.
Logically, the isle ought to be dozens of sizes
larger, Beel thought back.
"Lunch will be served in about an hour. Please, be
ready by then, and while your waiting..." He let loose another one of his
trademark pauses. "Enjoy yourselves..." Then he disappeared to below
the surface.
"What a weirdo," Boshi broke the silence.
"'You sure this was such a great idea,
Yazzee?" Xoshi asked.
"Oh, come on; he's not that creepy," Yazzee
mused. He wandered off to explore certain areas of the ship. The others stayed
behind for a second. With a shake of the head and a "Hoy", Boshi was
off, too. It was just Xoshi and Yoshi. The two of them meandered over to the
the ship's railing and made themselves comfortable, side by side.
"Yazzee's a flake," Xoshi said, starting the
conversation.
"He's a scatter-brained one, alright," Yoshi
agreed.
"Well, personally, I feel as though winning this
free trip for no reason in one day (and through Yazzee, might I add) was bad
enough. Now we're on a boat with only two other people, one of them, a human
who doesn't even speak our own language, the other one, a guy that's as strange
and freaky as all get out."
"He may be a Yoshi like us, but there must be
others like him at Delfino. Maybe he's considered 'normal' there!"
"Maybe. But… That's just so hard to imagine!"
"Ah, we'll probably grow accustomed to it in
time."
Xoshi sighed. "It feels like this just keeps
getting worse and worse."
Yoshi turned his head towards him. "Hm?"
"Come on; don't you feel as though something bad is
going to happen?"
Yoshi hummed a little out of contemplation. "Maybe
a little. I wouldn't worry about it, though. After all; we were the ones that
took down those koopas!"
"Ah... I guess you're right..."
♠♣♥♦
Meanwhile, those very "koopas" were
on the same ship as before, going about their various businesses. Arris was
steering the ship for their destination, the oddly-named Clattagin Woods, a
green Koopa Troopa was doing room service, and Kamek was at one of the round,
white clothed tables of the ship's dining room writing stuff down.
"...I didn't think it was possible, but the
villainess was then squashed by the same spaceship as before. In the process,
the whole place started to crumble. A miracle was all it was that
allowed-"
Kamek stopped to continue deeper with his thinking. Was
this what always happened when people were busy writing their memoirs? Or was
it that...
"Blast," Kamek muttered. "How did I wind
up having to write Gorroh's memoirs?! I can't believe the things I'm making up
about him!! 'Timulators', melting ice caps... It's all rubbish!" He used
his left arm and elbow to hold his head up above the table and his right hand
to strum his fingers impatiently. Then inspiration hit him. "But of
course!" He continued writing down the tripe.
"-that allowed the rubbish to survive the
blow..."
The same green Koopa Troopa approached. "Another
Maple Syrup, Sir?" he asked.
"What? Oh. Yes, please." Kamek took it
obligingly.
As he was ridding the bottle of its cork once more, the
servent was bringing up something else. "Did you know that they're
throwing some kind of sweepstakes with those syrups?"
"Yes, I did," Kamek said, not caring. He took
a sip of it.
"They say you could win some kind of fancy-"
"-Yes, yes. Why don't you go and offer someone else
another one of these, hm?"
The Terra Pin was a little insulted, but he obeyed
nonetheless. He sulked off and let Kamek continue with his work. Kamek was
making more stuff up as he went along. The pen in his right hand moved this way
and that making up more lies, when suddenly the hand started to hesitate. Upon
further inspection, Kamek's face wasn't looking any more willing. Something was
wrong.
"Ahh..." he moaned quietly. Then he saw it:
Two apes, a male and a female, obliterating a Koopa with wild, blue hair. It
was there for a second, then the image of the dining room returned to his eyes.
He stood still for a spell, blinked twice and shook his head.
"Strange," he muttered, and he continued with the false statements...
♠♣♥♦
"...So some people actually believe that
there are only four elements?" Xoshi was saying.
"Yeah, you could say that."
"But Rachi was telling me the other day how there's
a theory going on about how there probably actually is twelve, including
'Shadow'. You know how everyone's got an elemental connection?"
"Yeah?"
"They're saying how whatever your attribute is, it
can be determined by what those of your parents were. I'm not exactly sure how
it works, though. Rachi might have showed me the grid for it once. It was
something like... If your mother was 'Fire' and your father was 'Ice', somehow
that would make you 'Water'."
"Huh. Weird."
"Yeah. Oh, and speaking of parents, do you know who
that one orange guy is?"
"Um..."
"The one with the son that keeps hitting me in the
nose with a coconut?"
"Oh, you mean Loshi."
"Yeah, him. I don't know, it just appalls me that
the guy would have so little control over his own child as to not know how to
get him to stop doing that to me."
"Yeah. Some people..."
"The priest told me I had yet to become a father
myself. I can't wait!"
"Heh heh. I'm sure you can't," Yoshi joked
back. That was when Boshi arrived for them.
"Hey, slowpokes, lunch is ready. Now, are you two
going to come and eat, or are you just gonna stand there talking about the
supernatural?"
Xoshi interjected. "Well, lunch sounds nice, but we
weren't talking about the supernatural, or anything." The two of them
began to follow Boshi back to below the deck.
"That's good! The less you talk about it, the
better," Boshi voiced.
"Wha- Why?" Xoshi was a little offended.
"Because! It's weird! You don't want people
thinking you're weird, do you?"
"You don't want people to think of you as a
stuck-up jerk, do you?"
"Now, let's not change the subject! I'm just saying
that it's probably more healthy for you to look at the more logical/rational
sides to life. My pappy always told me, 'Believe too much in all that
"hooie", and maybe eventually you will get sucked into another
dimension! That wouldn't be good.'"
"Oh, the mental aspects those parents can
corrupt," Yoshi retorted.
"Parents were what we were really talking
about," Xoshi said.
"Yeah, but still. I'd be hearing you go on about
how you heard voices the other night or how you thought you saw a shadowy
figure... No."
At that point, they were in the room of crates like
before. Xoshi had his next sentence prepared. "Come on, Boshi, not
everything has a scientific explanation to it. Aren't you the least bit
religious?"
Boshi stopped in his tracks and turned around. He
scratched his chin a little and finally held up one finger. "'You know how
there used to be a secret military base known as 'Half Moon'?"
"Yeah," both Xoshi and Yoshi said at once.
"You know there were rumors goin' about about how
they had a big weapon, or something, capable of changing the moon's face?"
"Yeah."
"You know how it was locked up in a room, and the
only way to get in that room was to enter, you know, the password?"
"Yeah."
"You know how only one guy was able to find that
password, and he got executed by the moon freaks for knowing top-secret
information?"
"Yeaahhh." The "you know"s and the
"yeah"s were starting to get old at this point.
"And you know how eventually they shut the place
down, but years later, some guy broke into it, and even though all the
employees were dead, and their lips was sealed, this guy got the password just
right, and in one try?"
"Riigghht."
"Some say it was the ghost that told him what it
was. Others say he reincarnated. I say..."
"Yes?"
"...He got lucky."
THUD! Both Xoshi and Yoshi topped off their words of
synchronization by falling faces downwards onto the hard floor.
"Yeah, but you know it's true." He was saying
this while the two of them were getting up rubbing their bulbous noses. Boshi
held up his closed hand. "In this world, there are only two ways you can
win: Through skill, and through luck."
"What about cheating?" Yoshi suggested.
"That'd go under the 'skill' category."
The creepy Yoshi captain stepped into the room from
beyond.
"Your lunch is getting cold," he said
forebodingly.
"Funny; I didn't think fruit could get any
colder," Yoshi joked.
The captain just glared and let the three follow him
back. In the room at the end of the hallway, past the "bedrooms", was
a kitchen of sorts. Really, it was more of another storage room, but with
hordes of fruit littered everywhere. Yazzee was already there and helping
himself with his long tongue.
"Hey, guys! This stuff's great!" Once again,
Xoshi and Yoshi got that unconfident feeling, but they decided to go ahead and
enjoy themselves anyway.
Strangely, this almost seemed to make the time go by a
lot quicker. As the ship sailed onward, and the food's rations continued to
gradually deplete, two suspicious figures were making the water bubble up from
the back of the bottom of the ship. FWOOSH! They were up and about. The
blue-capped boss and his yellow-capped apprentice began to claw their ways up
the "wall".
"Boss," Crookie croaked. "I don't ever
wanna see water again."
"Oh, come on, wimp. It wasn't that bad." They
continued upward, and soon they were on board, albeit still dripping wet. Their
next destination was the hold. "Just a few more paces, and we'll be in the
clear."
"But, Boss, what about that little man over
there?" Brightly, Crookie was referring to Jax who was still mopping the
floors of the ship.
"Time it right, doofus! If we can make it down
there without him seeing us, then we'll have outsmarted the sun and every
sentient being it has shined down upon ever since it arose!"
"You're so romantic, Boss."
"And smart, too! Now stay on your toes..." Jax
thought he heard something, so he looked around a little, but not being able to
see a pair of bandits hiding behind the corner over there, he decided to shrug
it off and continue working. "Go! Go! Go!" Sackle rushed himself and
his whiny apprentice through the slightly open door before Jax could notice
anything unusual again. Once they were in the shadows, Sackle breathed a sigh
of relief. "That was too close. Let's get moving."
"Righ-toh, Boss!" At that, they began to
quietly amble down the ladder leading to the crate room. Once they were amidst
all those boxes, curiosity got to Crookie once more. "That doll couldn't
be in here, could it?"
"Of course, not! It's in his room, remember?"
"Oh, yeah..."
And so, the two thieves continued their journeys to the
quarters of the four Yoshies. Sackle got one room while Crookie got the other.
They checked every last nook and cranny, making sure not to leave much evidence
that their rooms had been raided while they were away minding their meals. They
may have been able to have come across a few eggs, a few fruits, a few cookies,
and maybe even a few pictures of particularly attractive female Yoshies, but
that was about it. Soon, the two of them were out of those rooms and back
amongst each other.
"Any luck?" Sackle asked.
"Nope. Sorry, Boss."
"Well, we'll just have to keep on looking,
then!"
Just when they were about to "keep on
looking", Disaster struck, and the two of them needed a place to hide.
"Footsteps! And they're coming our way! Quick;
gotta hide!!"
"Gwugh!!"
"Man, I couldn't eat another bite!"
"I may have to sneak into this place at
night..."
Yazzee and Yoshi said that. Since the meals were over,
they could retire to wherever they might have wanted to go. Boshi went to his
temporary bedroom (shared with Yazzee) and the other three returned to the
surface. They passed right through the crate section and up the ladder without
incident.
"Cripes! Another close one!" said Sackle from
behind one of the wooden boxes.
"Yeah, it was," said Crookie from another.
"Now let's return to finding that- Hold on! Gotta
hide again."
The two of them couldn't come out just yet. Another
trespasser was coming on through. It was that Yoshi captain. He ambled his way
into the room, lifted the top off of one of the crates, removed a strange
bottle of red liquid, closed it back up, and leaned his form against the
makeshift wall of storage contraptions. The next thing he did was indeed
peculiar to the two thieves as they sneakily poked their heads out from behind:
He was rhythmically tapping his rubber shoe-wearing foot against the floor.
Then he left it there for a second or two before removing the top from his red
drink. Then he sauntered off to the other depths of the ship, drinking his
beverage along the way.
"That was odd," said Crookie.
"Yeah, yeah. Did you see what he was tapping his
foot against?" said Sackle. The two of them emerged and took a gander at
what the boss was talking about.
"Well, what do ya know, Boss! It's a trap
door!" his apprentice said excitedly.
"How silly of us! Thinking it was somewhere else
when that would have clearly been unlike that brown guy! That was your fault,
Crookie."
"But- But you said-"
"Enough chat! Let's get to jimmying this thing
open, shall we? Crookie; crowbar."
Instead of futilely arguing with his superior on who was
to take credit for what, Crookie obeyed as usual, slinging down his sack of
goodies to rummage around in until coming across what his mentor wished for.
"Thanks again, Crookie! Here we go!!
Hhhhuuurrrggghhh ugh ugh UGH! GurrrrrrrRRRPHH!!! N- Gah!!!"
Unfortunately, any logic that was calculated beforehand
was soon questioned as the two of them realized that the same technique as
before was not working.
"What's with this thing?!" Sackle fumed as he
wiped a few beads of sweat off his forehead. The jimmy didn't stick like
before, but rather it fell to the floor with a clatter.
"You know, Boss," Crookie was saying.
"Maybe this isn't really a trapdoor after all."
"WHAT?! Changing minds on me now, are ya?! A second
ago you were saying it was!!"
"But- But-"
"That's great thinking, Crookie! Now, how can we
open this?"
Crookie was flabbergasted by how quickly his boss's mood
could swing. He shook his head over it and began to ponder.
"Well, boss, maybe there's a switch or-"
"-Shut it, Crookie! We gotta hide!!"
"Gwugh!!" For about the third time (or so)
that day, he was pulled aside by his boss. That time, Jax was coming down. He
was descending, hopping down, and walking through while singing some song in
English.
"If I were an animal,
I'd like to be a bee,
'Cause then I'd be able to sting the ones
Who obliterated me..."
The song and the little man faded away quickly, and
Crookie spoke up.
"A bee? If I were an animal, I'd be a-"
"-Shut it!! We obviously can't be doing this during
the daytime even if we're where the sun don't shine!"
"You-"
"-We'll have to wait 'til nightfall..."
Crookie silently agreed as Jax returned with an
assortment of things in his arms, from rusty buckets to telescopes.
"I would be so yellow,
Making puns of 'honey',
Which I would puke up the day away
For ones to sell for money..."
Once again, his body and his voice disappeared. The two
were alone again, but they weren't taking any risks.
"'Gonna be a laaawwwnng day..."
♠♣♥♦
Kamek was at a loss again. What happened after
the archery contest? Curse those writer's blocks. Just then, the door to the
very dining room he was then in swung open again. The big, red Gorroh Koopa
walked in and up to his royal vizier.
"How are the memoirs coming along, Kamek?" he
asked, trustingly.
"Splendid," Kamek said, mopily.
"Let's have a look." Gorroh was almost
imitating his wife from before, taking the papers and looking them over. His
head moved gently from side to side until it stopped and his bushy eyebrows
scrunched. "'Peachie'?! I wouldn't say that!"
"Well, Sire, you did tell me to write down what
came to mind."
"Hm. True, I did. Carry on, then." He set them
down and began to walk over to the buffet table. Kamek continued improvising as
Gorroh was piling all kinds of junk onto his plate.
"'...So, dear, how was your adventure against
the Super Mushroom League?'
'Peachie. You should have been, there, dear. There were
floating masks, underground caverns, and everything! In fact: One of the
dungeons had the cutest little-'"
Gorroh sat down from across him and began to noisily
munch away at his gargantuan delectables of choice. Much to the displeasure of
the high-ranking Magikoopa, bits of duck and muffin were flying from the Koopa
King's mouth, some of it landing on the papers. Kamek scowled, gathered the
fruits of his labor and left to sit at a different table.
"'Something the matter, Kamek?" Gorroh asked,
looking up from his over-piled plate.
"I just needed another chair, that's all." The
excuse didn't seem good enough, though.
"Kamek, surely you could have just traded,"
Gorroh said, viciously chomping off the top of his corn cob, very
unceremoniously.
"I'm fine, thank you," he said simply.
"Mm. Suit yourself!" the king grunted, and he
continued devouring his mess.
Kamek wrote a little more, then felt the need to strike
up conversation. "I say, your highness, how is young master Bowser
doing?"
"Oh, he's doing fine. Just taking his afternoon
nap, is all."
"Ah." Those last two comments didn't seem to
allow much else to branch out, so Kamek took it up a notch. "Sire, I think
I had another vision."
He paused to look up with a strand of pasta dangling
from his closed mouth. "Hm?"
"A little while ago, I saw... Two apes... Defeating
another Koopa. He could have been related to you, Sire."
"Hmm. Mofe imfereffing." Gorroh's mouth was
too full of croissant to allow him to speak coherently. His next move was to
just grab the whole plate and let its contents slide down his wide open maw. He
chewed them around a little, washed it down with a little water, swallowed
hard, wiped his mouth, and got up. "This could mean that it won't just be
those pesky Marios that will be causing us problems in the future,
correct?" Gorroh hypothesized.
"I suppose so. But until I come up with another
vision, we'll just have to wait it out and hope for the best."
"Alright. Now I must return to the massage tables,
and you must return to the memoirs."
"Yes, Sir." Gorroh lumbered his way out,
leaving Kamek alone with the story and his thoughts.
This power of mine... It can be such a blessing and
such a curse...
♠♣♥♦
While Yazzee and Yoshi were conversing on the
other side of the ship, Xoshi was on the other getting pensive again.
Hey, Beel, he thought, who shall we be
recruiting, and where will we find them?
Well, Beel started
with interest even himself, one of them is named Jeremiah. We shall find him
at the top of a mountain.
Geez, thought Xoshi. This
is turning out to be some adventure, huh?
Yes, quite. Also, we'll meet a man simply known as
"White Rose". We'll find him in Dry Dry Outpost.
Wow.
Another is named Guido. We'll find him in-
"Xoshi. Dinner."
Xoshi jumped as Boshi snuck up again.
"A- Alright," he complied. The two of them
headed on back like before. "Hey, Boshi," he asked, "how come
you're always the one who gets to tell us when it's time to eat?"
Boshi just shrugged his shoulders, and the two of them
entered that door together like before to the hold.
I guess we'll just have to continue this conversation
later, thought Beel.
They were gone and Jax was still singing as he walked up
to the front of the ship.
"My favorite color's green.
It's pleasing to my eyes..."
He was getting out the telescope to spy on the upcoming
spectacle.
"It's like a jelly bean.
It can mesmerize."
He spied (with his little eye) an island off in the
distance, growing ever larger with each passing second.
"Va voom. Va voom. Va voom va voom va
voom..."