By Pteryx
8
Very Strange Dreams
When the three adventurers landed on the huge, mysterious, star-shaped piece of land in the sky referred to so casually as the Star Road, they noticed that their path was littered with Koopas of all types. Since the strange place was flat and therefore lacked a horizon, they could see that the entire Starpath had been taken over, and that the path to the Vanilla Dome star transporter, the very direction they were going in, was, by far, the easiest! With a large amount of effort, they managed to practically cleanse that piece of the path of Koopas so the people of Upper Sky Land could get to the Vanilla Dome for food safely.
When they finally got to the big star that would send them whirling into the Vanilla Dome, they were exhausted to the point of collapse. They just plain couldn't move, weakened by their hunger and worn out by their extremely active day. Having finally arrived in a relatively safe place, they slept while they had the chance.
While asleep, Lakitu had the first of what would soon become a horde of rather strange dreams. He saw a turtleshell that shone with a white light that would have been blinding in real life. It had a pale lavender star in the center, but otherwise had all the normal markinds of a Koopa shell. It also had hints of glowing, pastel rainbow hues shimmering randomly on it. It seemed to be just floating there in the darkness, until a chorus of voices spoke, seeming to almost form a chord as they cried out, "Lakitu, where are you?" Lakitu almost thought he heard his own voice buried in there somewhere. He then woke up still, sore, tired, hungry, and, most of all, confused.
"...ungh... What a strange dream!" he mumbled to himself. "That could top that Princess-kidnapping coincidence. Weird." Clutching his mildly, oddly aching head, he woke Luigi and Yoshi. At first he wanted to tell them about the dream he had had, but then decided against it. That thing was strange even for a dream. I mean, I'm not evne sureI'd believe someone if they told me they had a drwam like that. Maybe I should just clam up. After stretching, the three of them went onto the star that would send them directily into the Vanilla Dome.
When the threesome arrived, they found it was unbelievably cold, even for that frozen underground world.
"W-w-we could s-suf-f-fer from exp-p-p-posure in j-j-just ten m-minutes in th-th-this p-p-p-place!" Luigi shivered.
Still half asleep, Lakitu didn't hear. He just started to stumble of in some random direction. The others followed him, wondering if he knew where he was going. As he went, he becamse weaker and weaker, slowing to a crawl, then literally crawling. Soon, he could barely drag himself. Finally, Luigi asked:
"W-w-w-where are y-you g-g-going, an-n-ny-w-way?" At first, Lakitu didn't answer. Finally, he managed to moan to himself:
"...ohhh,,, m-m-m-must-t-t... f-find... h-h-house..." Somehowm he got back on his hands and knees long enough to crawl just far enough for a pea-sized, icy mushroom house to appear on the horizon. Once he managed to get this far, he could no longer support his own weight or his eyes. His two hungry friends were just barely able to carry him to the house. Once they gotthere, they put him down and knocked on the door.
"Yes, who there?" asked a male voice. Neither Yoshi nor Luigi was sure exactly what to say right at that moment, so they just looked at each other, each expecting the other so say something. The door opened, revealing a turquoise blue dinosaur like Yoshi. As soon as he saw the situation, he gasped.
"Oh my goodness! Let Hapshu help you." He helped Yoshi and Luigi carry Lakitu inside. He immediately brought some toast and chicadacktyl soup to them.
"I'm surprised you helped us. Most people were scared of Lakitu because he's a turtle."
"Hapshu no scared. Hapshu noticed that shell looked different from Koopas' shells. See the rings?" Taking a good look at Lakitu;s shell, they noticed for the first time that his green shell had black, concentric circles on it that looked more like stripes from many angles (Lakitu usually called them stripes). The t wo conscious adventurers ate while Lakitu slept.
Lakitu was having another unusual dream. In this one, he saw Tineeko wearing a green cloak, offering him a blue one. He was afraid to touch it at first, but finally put it on. He held his hand for a minute, but then Tineeko was no longer visible. He could still feel his hand, but his blue cloak dropped off and he saw Tineeko's green one fall He then asked, "Are you still there? Areyou okay?" A few seconds later, he heard Tineeko's comforting reply: "Yes." He was then shaken awake by Yoshi.
Yoshi had also put a bowl of soup in front of Lakitu's nose. The sweet, warm smell brought enough energy to him to pick up his spoon in his shaking hand and bring a spoonful of the food to his mouth (a half-spoonful, really; his quivering hand spilled a lot of the broth on the way). Noticing that he could barely do it himself, Hapshu spoon-fed him, at the same time telling the threesome about how Wendy O. Koopa had frozen the place over so she could see herself in the ice wherever she looked. After an hour or so, they were all able to walk, but it was easy for all of them to tell that they would need to spend more time at this kind gentlesaur's house.
Meanwhile, Mario and Princess Toadstool were pulling with all their might on one of the bars of the cell. After about five minutes, they collapsed.
"It's no use. They must be made of steel," said Mario. Just then, Larry Koopa came along and pulled the switch that made the lightning strike in the middle of the cell. The two prisoners jumped and Larry cackled. He then said:
"King Dad says that since everyone here is having so much fun torturing you that he's going to keep you another week! I'll beseeing you!" He then walked off, laughing madly all the way.
"It's just like that cowardly reptile to send someone else to say something like that," jeered Mario. "To tell you the truth, I don'tknow whether this is good news or bad."
"I think it's good news," the Princess answered. "It means that Luigi, Toad -- no, not Toad, he was too suspicious of the turtles -- Yoshi, Lakitu, and -- what was the other turtle's name? -- will have more time to work with."
Then, a blue, silver-winged Paratroopa fluttered over and said, "You mean Tineeko? He's not coming. My Paratroopa squad pushed him down from Upper Sky Land, and I did the most to accomplish that."
"No way!" another blue Paratroopa insisted as he walked over. "I did the most!"
"In your dreams!" butted in a third. "I did the most!" Sone, the whole squad had gathered and was in a fist-fight in from of Mario and the Princess's cage. The two helpless prisoners just watched in shock and despair.
Vack in the Vanilla Dome, Hapshu was telling the three adventurers about something that interested Lakitu tremendously.
"Before Koopas took over the Valley of Bowser, it was a beautiful place called Valley of Paradise. Hapshu went there once, but Chocolate Island still tough to cross then because of Dino-Rhidos, Dino-Glidos, and Dino-Torches. Lots of turtles, mostly friendly, lived there in peace. Each family had different kind of shell. Many turtles lived in Forest of Illusion. But then, Koopa clam took over and killed, captured, or drove out all good turtles in Dinosaur Land. Hapshu think none survive, but Lakitu nice and have different shell."
"I wasn't always this way," Lakitu admitted with much guilt. "I was with the Koopas from my first memories until a little over a week ago. I still feel bad about my past. I may never --"
"But Lakitu change!" retorted Yoshi, interrupting. "That important part!"
"I know, I know..." Lakitu mumbled, not really listening. He just couldn't forgive himself for all he had done. He had wounded Mario and Luigi several times, not to mention all the completely innocent people he had hurt over the years and some of the traps he had set. At the end, he had simply followed orders and no longer took pleasure from seeing people in pain, and the last time the Koopas tried to take over, he didn't remove the silver switch blocks that turned Spinies into coins, hiding instead so King Koopa would think he had gone to do so. But all the same, he still believed that everything evil he had done in his life still outweighed his good deeds. He felt depressed about being so flagrant before. I wish I wasn't a Koopa, he thought. It would be nice to at least know that I wasn't carrying Bowser's evil bloodline, even if nothingI've done makes up for my working for him. That bit of history Hapshu told could be the key. If I was at least partly unrelated, it would make me feel much better. At least my heritage has a change to be forgiveable, even if my past never will be... After a little while, the fueled-up threesome finally prepared to continue. Hapshu gave them some provisions and parkas, one of which magically generated its own heat for Lakitu, and they were off.
There were a lot of places that had been covered in untouchably freezing sheets of metal. Luigi recognized them as being where lava pits were supposed to be. The whole underground dome was consequently frozen over to the point that even the residents' cold-weather crops couldn't grow, although they were obviously very well prepared for such an emergency, judgingby the large supply of food Hapshu was able to give the adventurers.
They found quite a few dangers on the way to Wendy's castle. Most of the Koopa Troopas had parkas, and some carried the fire-spitting variety of piranna plant to keep themselves waem -- and to shoot with. Some turtles who looked quite closely related to the Hammer Brothers threw snowballs at a dangerously fast rate, almost faster than they could be dodged. Goombas in sleds bowled them over by surprise more than once. Eventually, they got to Vanilla Lake, the huge, frozen bodyof water that was in the center of the dome. When they arrived, Lakitu got out one of the butter knives that he had picked up in the mysteriously familiar ruined house in the Forest of Illusion and began to cut at the ice.
"What are you doing?" inquired Luigi.
"I thought maybe some fish would be a good change from eating mostly potatoes and frozen chickadacktyl," Lakitu replied.
"Well, you'll never get through before the day's overthat way. I'll try to find a fire flower." Luigi hit a few blocks and soon found one. He shot a fireball at the ice, melting a hole in it just big enough for ice fishing. Lakitu took out his pole, tossed it in, and waited. Soon, something pulled. Lakitu started to reel it in, but the Cheep-cheep jumped out itself and attacked Lakitu! Fortunately, Luigi shot another fireball to kill it. Just was Lakitu went over the the fried fish to cut the inedible parts away, though, Yoshi grabbed it with his tongue and ate it whole. "Yoshi!" Luigi and Lakitu cried in unison.
"Sorry," he said, "but Yoshi hungry."
"Oh, go eat a Koopa Troopa," Lakitu muttered just loudly enough so it could be heard. Yoshi then snagged the grouchy turtle and pulled him into his mouth (as a joke, of course), leaving his coat in mid-air to float to the ground.
"That's not funny, Yoshi," Lakitu complained sternly, now inside his shell as well as Yoshi's mouth, crossing his arms. Luigi had to hold his mouth to keep himself from snickering. After Yoshi spit him out, even Lakitu had to smile a little.
Soon, the three rescuers could tell it was getting dark above ground. It just so happened that they were approaching a haunted house at that time. Seeing that there was no other way they could go to get past the slippery rocks ahead, they started to go in. Yoshi, however, was shaking in his red boots, and I don't mean from the cold.
"Come on, Yoshi, we've goota get through here if we want to save Princess Toadstool," coaxed Luigi.
"Uh, Luigi and Lakitu go on," he replied. "Yoshi find some other way across."
"Come on," Lakitu said, "just go without him. He'll eventually get spooked or lonely or something and follow us, and if he doesn't, we'll just haul him over with my fishing pole." The two braver adventurers left the cowardly dinosaur behind. After they went in, Yoshi heard a moan behind him. He went rigid, slowly turned around, and found himself staring a huge ghost in the face.
"AAAAAH! Wait for Yoshi!" he desperately screamed as he ran to catch up to the others and ducked through the door. The door slowly closed with an ominous boom after him.
The house had many holes in the floor and a few loose boards, but the most dangerous part of the house was the ghosts inside it. There were ghosts that appeared right in front of them just far enough ahead so the trio could stop in time, spooks that swooped down that they had to duck, haunts that followed them unless they looked back, spirits that rode in clouds and had fishing poles with blue flames at the end, and countless other dangers.
Most of the sounds in the house were moaning, cackling, and other clich d ghost sound effects, but Lakitu, and only Lakitu, thought he heard some unknown, soft, beautiful female voice, coming from no particular direction, call out his name. He barely noticed it, and it only spoke once. He just dismissed it as hearing things and continued.
Once they found their way out of that haunted place, they found a family's house to sleep in. They were accepted quickly, fed supper, and whisked to the guest rooms for some sleep. Exhausted and relieved to be out of the ghost house, they all fell asleep almost as soon as they hit the pillows.
That night, Lakitu had yet another weird dream. This time, he was standing in the middle of the frozen Vanilla Lake, not wearing his coat but not getting cold, either. He stood there for a minute until a twinkling, greyish smoke came out of the ghost house at the top of the distant cliff. It began circling high above Lakitu, forming a silvery, sparkling ring. The same feathery,hauntingly familiar he voice he thought he had heard in the house, seeming to come from all around him, whispered this message:
"Lakitu, you have freed me at long last, but for me to finally rest, you must come to the forst. Only there can I delieve my message and disclose an important truth about you. Please come, for both our sakes." The feathery cloud then started to drift away quickly in the direction of the warp to the Cheese Bridge, gradually disappearing as it went. "Take care, honey..." it breathed as it finally faded away completely. Lakitu then silently woke up in the middle of the night, totally confused and thinking. Well, that definetly beats that coincidence with the Princess getting kidnapped a few days ago. What was that? He drank some berry juice and went back to bed. He didn't have any more dreams that night, but as he drifted off, he thought he heard the voice, hidden deep in the wind, even quiter than ever before, whispering ever so softly with a crack in it as if whatever-it-was was about to weep the rest of her night away. He could just barely make out the silently breathed words: ...I love you, my poor, misguided little angel...
The next morning, the threesome wasted no time in preparing to go out the door. They ate a light breakfast (Yoshi finished his in one gulp), gathered their belongings, and started on their way to Wendy's castle, the top of which couldjust be seen in the distance. They still had a long hike ahead of them, which was riddled with different Koopas, expecially the Boomerang Brothers and a golden-winged, red Paratroopa who dropped Bob-ombs with parachutes towards them at every opportunity.
Soon, they made it to the castle. It was made entirely of ice blocks, which were in turn coated in solid, smooth sheets of ice. The place wouldn't have been able to exist for long at normal temperatures in the Dome, but here it sat, radiating more cold to the point that the three cloaked companions had to wrap their parkas tighter around them as they went in.
This place would have actually been less hazardous than Roy's castle if it weren't for the extra Thwomps and the ice. Every place they went, they had to be careful, lest they should slip (whihch they often did). The castle was otherwise very similar to the other ones with the exception of a lack of lava pits. After making their way to the top, they found Wendy's room. The thing was,there was a small pit in the way that kept them from reaching the handle.
"Now what do we do?" asked Luigi.
"Y-Y-Y-Yoshi not ab-ble to th-th-think," Yoshi shivered. "Y-Yoshi t-t-too c-c-c-cold."
Lakitu stopped and thought for a few minutes, moving a little to keep warm, then got a idea. He took out his fishing pole, cast it at the door handle, and pulled.
"Somebody help me with this!" The others pulled with him until the door handle bent. "So much for that plan... Wait! There's ablock way up there! It's too far up to toss my shell up to, though. How am I supposed to reach up there?"
"I've got it!" Luigi suddenly exclaimed. "Hand me your shell, Lakitu," When he gave it to Luigi, Luigi moved under the block, jumped quite high, threw the shell upwards with plenty of force, and picked up the shell when it landed. The block had a pair of silver wings inside for Yoshi, which enabled him to fly over and open the door. The little pit was easily hopped over now that Yoshi had revealed a place to land.
Wendy's gigantic room had walls that were entirely made up of smooth ice that acted as perfect mirrors. The place also contained an icy throne, myriad pink, ice-coated pipes, and a pile of golden charm bracelets. Wendy was admiring herself in one of the glittering walls, holding a young, fire-breathing piranna plant under one arm, a pink for coat under the other. She was currently wearing a red coat, probably seeing whether she looked better in that one or the pink one. Suddenly, she noticed the intruders in a reflection of one of the other walls. She tried to jerk her body around, spun on the ice, slipped, fell, dropped her pink coat and her fire plant, and finally saw where they were. Pulling herself up, she shouted at them:
"You'll never free the Dome from my glorious rule! I'll teach you to get this far!" She leaped into a pipe and came out in another one across the room from it. Luigi tried to grab her, but she just jumped into another pipe and got send to another location in the room. Luigi went for her again, but every time he did so, she'd just shpw up in another pipe somewhere else.Lakitu was just watching all this action carefully.
"Why Lakitu not help Luigi?" inquired Yoshi, puzzled.
"I will, I will," blurted Lakitu a bit rudely, waving his hand, "but first I have to figure these warps out." A minute later, he noticed Wendy getting ready to jump into another pipe. "Yoshi. jump into that pipe way over there!" Lakitu suddenly ordered as he landed on Yoshi's back and pointed at a pipe quite far from the one Wendy was jumping into.
"That one?! But --"
"Just fly over while there's still time!" he replied impatiently. Yoshi complied, and when they got there, Wendy emerged from that pipe and Yoshi dropped on her. She screamed and was forced through the other pipe, where Luigi hit her squarely in the face.
"DON'T YOU DARE DAMAGE MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!" she shouted in a berserk rage, flailing away at Luigi but fortunately missing every time. Lakitu removed his shell, had Yoshi quietly fly up behind her, and dropped it on her head. She was knocked unconscious and fell into the warp she was in. She was thrown out of the opposite pipe, landed on the slippery floor, and something fell out of her pocket. Going over to see what it was, the three adventurers realized it was some sort of animal call. Her coat also contained some shiny rope which they used to tie Wendy to her throne of crystalline ice. Lakitu pointed out the one pipe she had never used, the threesome all hopped in, and they found themselves near the warp to the Cheese Bridge just as Yoshi's wings vanished.
When they made it to where the bridge should have been, they found that it had been destroyed, most probably by the Koopas. Searching the area, they failed to find anything to get them across the gaping strait far, far below that separated them from Cookie Mountain, which peeked over the horizon, beckoning them to come. Lakitu thought he heard the meek, feathery female voice again, this time coming from the direction of the mountain, quietly beckoning in a nearly inaudible, sobbing whisper that once again, only Lakitu heard: Please, my only remaining one, I implore you to come.
With no way to get across, and therefore no way to ocntinue on his way to rescue Princess Toadstool, fulfill her personal yearning to atone, and answer this oddly familiar voice that made his heart churn for some reason as well as making him wonder what it wanted or needed, Lakitu was compelled to scream but managed to hold back enough so that all that came out was an especially long, tortured, unsettling groan of frustration and agony.
"Lakitu! What on earth the matter?" asked Yoshi.
Too upset to get into detail, he wailed, "Unless I get across, I'llnever be able to syand it!" He then pulled into his shell, moaning in an attempt to release the tension he felt, but finding that it only built up more. Finally, he broke down and wept a little, releasing no tears but sobbing quietly in despair.
"Lakitu crybaby," Yoshi whispered to Luigi.
"No," Luigi corrected, "he's just under a lot of stress. I think a lot more is pulling him towards the Valley of Bowser than the need to rescue the Princess to prove himself to us. I think," he continued, "now lowering his voice to a whisper, "he's trying toprove himself to himself."
"But why Lakitu need do that? Lakitu change, that all that matter!"
In response to that, Luigi simply admitted: "I don't know."
Finally able to relax after releasing all that tension, Lakitu fell asleep right inside his shell. He had yet another weird dream. In this one, he saw Tineeko standing in the middle of a cold, barren wasteland with a bright grey sky above him and dust blowing past his knees. He was looking skyward, his tiny hands folded in front of him, his legs crossed at the ankles, a slightly sad, empty look on his face. Soft music seemed to fill the air around him. After a few seconds, he starting to sing a peculiar tune in the small range of notes shared by both altos and baritones:
I know you're there, I heard you...
At least, I think I did...
Am I mistaken?
I know you need me,
Just like I need you,
I hope you can hear me.
I think you can, somehow...
Oh, carry on and seek me, my friend,
Until the end.
The music then died down, and the wind blew harder as Tineeko seemed to shed a minute tear from his now-hanging head. Just then, Lakitu woke up, more baffled than he had been left by the other dreams. He had a dull headache rather deep within his head, and a mysterious feeling of comfort that helped him come out of his shell.
He noticed immediately that Luigi and Yoshi had managed to climb down the steep cliff to the water's edge and carry himdown with them. However, it was quite obvious that there was no way that Lakitu, who was a poor swimmer, and Yoshi, who just plain hated water, could get across deep Soda Lake. There were no more blocks down here than there were up above, either. Seeing no other course of action to take, Luigi decided to try blowing the animal call whistle they had found at Wendy's castle. It made a squeak like the sound a balloon makes when its air is let out at a very slow rate. A second later, several dolphins surfaced. Happily squeaking, they offered a ride. Lakitu tried to climb on first, but the dolphins dodged and he landed face-first in he water. The dolphins then splashed water on him as he got up.
"What their problem?" Yoshi asked.
"Many years aso, when Mario and Luigi first drove us Koopas out of the Mushroom Kingdom, I was over Soda Lake and was made about being defeated. I threw some Spiny eggs at some young dolphins to get out my frustration," Lakitu explained. "I guess these are them. I suppose I don't really deserve a ride..."
"Don't talk like that!" insisted Luigi. "You've changed, and even if these dolphins don't forgive you, I do!"
"Yosho too!" added Yoshi.
Meanwhile, the seven dolphins were chattering under the water while listening to this conversation. One nodded, and another went up to the surface. It squeaked at the trio with anticipation in its eyes and a question it its voice. Curious about what it was trying to say, Lakitu waded over to it. It nudged him with a whine when he got deep enough for it to reach him.
"What's the matter?" he asked as he petted its smooth hide once. It then pushed its head under his hand and closed its eyes. With a small squirt of water from its blowhole and a gasp, it suddenly dove and chattered excitedly at the other six dolphins. They all made a joyous squeal, then the whole group of them dove deeper, sped up to the syrface, and breached, singing their happiness out to the world.
Simultaneously, the threesome asked each other, "What's that all about?" After a pause, they all replied, pointing at one another, "I was hoping you knew!" Then, they heard a distant BOOM.
"It must be that gold-winged Troopa with the Bob-ombs we had problems with in the Vanilla Dome! Hurry!" They each hopped onto a dolphin, and they swam away with the flying turtle close behind, dropping Bob-ombs towards them with parachutes faster than ever. Even with the appearance of Cheep-cheeps and other fish in the water, the dolphins skillfully dodged every danger thrown at them. After ten minutes, they all finally reached the opposite shore, the dolphins worn out and the adventurers not feeling much better than the aquatic mammals. The dolphins all chattered happily, then swam off.
"Why do you suppose they were so happy after I touched one of them?" Lakity wondered. "They were awfully mad at me before then."
"Don't ask me," Luigi replied. "All I'm thinking about now is how to get up this steep cliff."
"Yoshi find cave!" the twosome suddenly heard Yoshi shout. "Come see!" They rushed over to take a look at Yoshi'sdiscovery. The cave had dull brown walls and its entryway went up and to the side.
"Do you think this might be an easier way up?" wondered Luigi.
"Well, there's only one way to find out," replied Lakitu, moving towards the cave entrance. The others followed him as he started up the cave passage.