By Pteryx
9
A One-Turtle Family
The cave was riddled with passages weaving all over the place and even back into each other or backwards with warp pipes. It wasn't long before they were separated, got lost, and were totally confused.
"Yoshi!"
"Lakitu!"
"Luigi!"
"Toad!"
"Toad stayed behind, remember?"
"Lakitu?"
"Yoshi?"
"No, it's Luigi."
"Are you sure?"
"Uh..."
"Yoshi over here."
"Over where?"
"Not here."
"Not where?"
"Not here."
"Huh?"
"Okay, wait a minute. Let's just have only one of us move at a time and another of us call out. That way we can find each other. Once we're together, we can all go forward holding hands."
"Good idea, Luigi."
"But I'm Lakitu. You're Luigi."
"I am?"
After a bit more of this, they decided to each keep moving separately without talking and wait for one another calling down the pipe they came out of it they reached the top. After a while, atop Cookie Mountain, Luigi was shot out of a warp and made a rouch landing on the dusty ground, losing his hat. A few second later, Lakitu came flying out of another shooting pipe and landed on top of Luigi. Finally, Yoshi was thrown out of yet another pipe to land on top of Lakitu's shell and force him out of it. After everyone got upright, replaced their things, and got their heads completely straightened out, they noticed a Koopa fort that looked small compared to most of the others they had seen. It probably housed Morton Koopa Jr., also known as "Big Mouth," the seventh and final Koopa kid they would have to deal with.
While Luigi sat there wondering what the catch was, Lakitu heard the female voice again, this time seeming to come from the Forest of Illusion, which was easily seen under the evening sky from this spot. It spole a little louder than it ever had before, but it was still rather quiet.
Lakitu, my precious, you must find me in the forest. I must speak with you there. Please hurry... He felt as if he knew that voice from a long, long time ago, but he couldn't remember when. Somehow, his memories of the Valley of Bowser seemed very, very far from the answer. They just seemed wrong in some mysterious way. Then, Lakitu threw the whole thing aside, rather frustrated and, deep down, scared of this unknown thing that he didn't exactly hear and couldn't even begin to understand.
The threesome then proceeded to enter the fortress. As soon as they entered, they had to dodge a Thwomp. Three more tried to crush them before they all ducked through a door. The next room was mostly a lava pit with fireballs ricocheting everywhere and a few jump blocks to bounce across on. The place got no better as they proceeded downward through the dangerous little place. As it turned out, the place was actually larger than the others, the bulk of it being underground.
After getting out of a room full of wizards within an inch of their lives, they findally found what appeared to be an empty room. The three adventurers fell to the floor in exhaustion, grateful to be someplace relatively safe. The door into Morton's room washere, a reminder that they needed to continue. Luigi suggested that they rest a bit before entering. After about five minutes, he pulled a tube of something out of his overalls.
"Plumber's putty?" Lakitu asked, wondering, What did he get that out for?
"If we hope to survive Big Mouth, we'll need some in our ears," Luigi explained.
"Good idea!" praised Yoshi. After getting their ears plugged, they went in the red metal door.
"INTRUDERS!" Morton immediately exclaimed, shouting so loudly that the trio's ear plugs couldn't hold it all back. "How dare you invade the great, wonderous, humongous, stupendous, Kooptacular castle of Morton Koopa, Jr., lord of towering Cookie Mountain, ruler of the vast, misty Forest of Illusion, and great overseer of the almost bottomless Soda Lake under our glorious leader, King Dad, who, at the moment, also rules the Valley of Bowser, Chocolate Island, the Vanilla Do--" Before he could say any more, Lakitu stomped on him, then Yoshi, then Luigi.
"Ooooooh! You'll pay for that, just like Mario's about to pay for stopping us from taking over Dinosaur Land and the Mushroom Kingdom at least a million, billion, trillion, jillion --" Lakitu, out of agony, pulled his shell off and used it to hit Morton squarely on the head. He fell down, but then said:
"Arrrrrgh! You'll be sorry, just like Mario's gonna be sorry, and the Princess is gonna be sorry, and whoever that other turtle was is sorry, and all the mushroom people who try to oppose us are gonna be sorry, and --" Lakitu then shoved a green Spiny egg into Morton's mouth to stop him. He still tried to keep on talkimg, even after the threesome found a beanstalk in a block, used it to tie him up, pried the putty out of their ears, and left.
As night fell, they descended the gigantic ladder that ran down from the top of Cookie Mountain to the Forest of Illusion. The forest was shrouded in mist; however, it was a comfortable, natural mist, not the disturbingly artificial fog that shrouded Grass Land. They took supper from some large apple trees which they then slept under.
In yet another dream, Lakitu heard the soft female voice again, this time stronger but not much louder. It sounded as if it was on the verge of bursting into a fit of tears as it cried:
Lakitu, my sweet, final ray of hope, please hurry! I shall suffer for the rest of eternity if you don't come! I must reveal an important truth about you before I can rest, and I can only do so at the site of the house wreckage! Come to me, please! I bet it of you! Please, come!
Lakitu's eyes snapped open, and he sat up with a sudden burst of energy. What's going on? Why am I awake?... The voice! In some dream I heard that voice again! Though he was suddenly burning with what he now recognized as a sense of justice, his logic refused to let him to after an imaginary voice. Then, he heard it again, bursting with agony and despair:
Please, my darling Lakitu! Don't deny me my freedom! PLEASE! With a gasp, Lakitu realized that the voice had to be real! Crying out with more feeling than any mere figment could ever hope to musterm it had finally convinced Lakitu of its existence. The strange thing was, he wasn't hearing it in his ears, but in his head. Knowing Luigi and Yoshi would never believe him, he sneaked out of camp and slipped into the forest. After he thought he was out of their sight and hearing range, he started to run towards the house rubbled.
He had never been through this part of the forest he was racing through, but somehow he knew the way regardless of that, bowling over enemies in his blind rush to get to the ruins. He was driven purely by instinct. He knew that voice, whether he could remember where or not. All this had to be connected to the weird feeling he experienced whenever he came the forest; indeed, he was feeling it now, stronger than ever. He had to find that voice, whether it really would help anyone at all or not.
Finally, Lakitu found the rubbled that
used to be a house. Digging through it, he found a half-ripped, decaying
family portrait. The painting had pictures of turtles who all had black-striped
shells like his. In one tall, yellow-shelled lady's arms lad a baby with
a green shell. It held a blue blanket with one hand and was sucking the
thumb of its other. A single word was engraved on a little metal rectangle
attached to the bottom of this bit of art: WYTORTIEL.
Digging through the wreckage some more, he found a little blue blanket
that had almost rotted away. A sickening stench rose from the decaying
fabric, forcing him to cover his nose and turn away. However, his curiosity
eventually becamse more overpowering than the smell of the dry rot, and
he took a good look at the blanket. It had words stitched onto it which
were still barely legible: 
Lakitu tried to puzzle out the words: "From Feymer to... Relippi... to N... A... R... C,,, oh, Narciss... to... to..."
"Lakitu," he heard(?) the voice whisper. Lakitu turned his head and saw the silvery smoke from his second dream in the Vanilla Dome behind him. "From Feymer to Relippi to Narciss to Lakitu..." Just then, it started to change color and take a blurry form. A dim, dull yelow light shined from it as its shape became that of the yellow-shelled female turtle in the painting Lakitu had found. The transparent figute floating down to Lakitu, who just stared at in in awe. Then, its voice told him a sad tale:
"Lakitu, my dear, Feymer and Relippi were your brothers, and Narciss was your sister. I was your mother to all four of you. I stitched each name on as each of you hatched and the blanket was passed to a new owner. You are the youngest member of the Wytortiel family," (she put the accent on the "-tor-" and pronounced the last syllable, "-tiel," with a long E sound and no L) "and the last. You're the only one who didn't share the cruel fate the rest of us suffered.
"Thirty-five years ago, when you were only one year old, the Koopas began to take over the Forest of Illusion. They had already plunged the underground Valley of Paradise into darkness, put the Dino-Rhinos and their kin from Chocolate Island under their control, and killed, drove off, or kidnapped every kind-hearted turtle who lived in those places. Many turtles fled the Forest when they heard that the Koopas were coming, but we were among the few who dared to stand our ground. Some called us brave, others deemed us fools. Strength of will tended to run in the family.
"Bowser Koopa himself was among the many evil Koopas who came to destroy our house. The very first thing he did was to steal you right out of my arms." At this point, she began to sniffle a bit, and her voice began to crack. "I was too shocked at this act of cruelty to defend myself when they attacked me. Your father and Feymer rushed out to see what the commotion was, but there were too many of them and too few of us. Soon, I had a broken leg and was too weary to be helpful anyway, you were screaming your head off and pouring teads like a waterfall, and the rest of the family was unconscious. I screamed, 'Please don't take Lakitu!' but Bowser just laughed at me and ordered the Troopas to destroy the house.
"As the rubble buried the five of us, I cried out, 'You animal! You'll never win!' He just replied, 'I already have. You're the lastgood turtles in the forest. As for your baby, I'm going to bring him home and train him to be another of my Troopas. He'llnever know he was ever from a good family.' He then cackled as the remains of the house were burned. I swore with my last breath that you'd know the truth, and now you do, regardless of the fact that he tried to trap me in the ghost house in the Vanilla Dome."
Lakitu stared with his mouth hanging open for three straight minutes before stuttering, "Y-you mean... I'm not a Koopa?"
The ghost proudly and happily replied, "No, you are Lakitu Wytortiel, the last of the bloodline, and probably the best. All Wytortiels inherit more than just a proud heritage, but you receiving our special gift stronger than any other Wytortiel ever did." She then began to fade, continuing to speak with a waning voice. "Because of this, I believe you are destined to become..." Then, she was gone.
"Mom!" Lakitu wailed. "No! Don't leave!" The wind seemed to sigh almost inaudibly, "I'm sorry ..." He then pulled his shell off, put it in front of him, stood it so that its hard side faced away and its soft side was pointing towards him, and leaned his head on it, unknowingly performing the ancient mourning ritual of the turtle people. He silently grieved for his deceased family like this for hours that night vefore he was discovered by Luigi and Yoshi at dawn.
"Is Lakitu all right?" Yoshi inquired.
"What's wrong?" Luigi asked.
"I found out I'm not a Koopa, but the rest of my family was wiped out," Lakitu replied. "This was their house. They were smothered and burned and I was kidnapped." Yoshi then began to cry quite dramatically.
"That terrible! That horrible!" he managed to moan between wails. "How Lakitu stand it? That worst thing Yoshi ever heard!"
Luigi then muttered to himself, "And Yoshi called Lakitu a crybaby!"
When the sun got all the way up, the trio continued on their way through the Forest of Illusion. On their journey they found giant caterpillars (quick snacks for Yoshi), hawks that had been trained by Koopa, and, of course, the Bob-omb dropping Paratroopa. It took them all of that day and most of the next to get out of the confusing forest. Once they got out, they realized they had another problem.
"Where's Rhino Cay?" Luigi blurted when he saw a whole islet was missing. "There;s no way to get to Chocolate Island now!"
"Maybe there is!" shouted Lakitu from a few yards away. "Come look at this!" Lakitu had found a magic keyhole floating in mid-air. If the key could be found to it, it could transport them a short distance in the direction they wanted to go.
"That's great, Lakitu, but where's the key?" Luigi asked as he and Yoshi came over.
"I haven't the foggiest," Lakitu replied. Then, an explosion went off right behind him! Spinning around, he saw the red-shelled, gold-winged Paratroopa with the Bob-ombs against the dimming evening sky, holding a Bob-omb in one hand and the magic key in the other.
"Looking for this?" the Paratroopa said in a sassy teenage girl's voice. "There's no way out now. I blew up Rhino Islet just so I could force you to surrender. The only way across from either side is to use this key. But I'm feeling generous today. Just give me Lakitu and the water control medallions, and I'll let the rest of you live."
"I know that voice!" Lakitu then exclaimed in a whisper. "Her name's Pyrime. Sheinvented Bob-ombs, and she's beenmaking them for Bowser ever since. She's afraid of heights, though, so I haven't the foggiest how she can stand being up there."
Pyrime, who had overheard, explained, "Oh, it's not so scary when you can fly. But back to business. Which will you give up, Lakitu and the medallions or all your lives?" She cackled maliciously and got closer, forcing them towards a cliff.
"That long way down!" Yoshi gasped as he looked down towards the sea about five hundred feet below. Lakitu then got an idea. He took his shell off, tossed it to Luigi, and shouted, "Try to hit Pyrime!" Luigi complied, and Lakitu caught the falling turtle and pried the key out of her hand. Her winged shell remaine in mid-air.
"AAAAH! You may have me and the key, but I'll never talk!Never!" When Lakitu picked her up and brought her near the cliff, though, she frantically changed her mind.
"Okay, okay! Bowser's gonna gather all his kids to try to ambush you. He's planning to do everything possible to keep you delated for three days cuz' that's when he's frying your friends. Please don't drop me over the edge!" Lakitu brought her to level ground and let her go.
"Npw, the dinosaurs who live in the Vanilla Dome would appreciate it very much if you would go rebuild the damage you'vedone in it. Go do it," he calmly ordered, "or else."
"Or else what?" Pyrime asked cockily.
"Or else," Lakitu said, still speaking calmly but scowling, "I'll personally see to it that you'll never be able to hold your body still for the rest of your life!" Pyrime immediately ran off into the forest, and Lakitu put the key in Luigi's pocket.
"Why Lakitu act like that?" Yoshi asked.
"When dealing with Pyrime, you have to speak her language or else she'll insult you so badly you won't be able to recover fordays." Lakitu explained.
The threesome yawned and tried to get to sleep on the sandy ground.