Chapter Six: Forward the Expedition! Again!
Mt. Rugged, The Mushroom Kingdom
From the train station, a thousand colors of brave dawn made the endless cragged mountains and flat-top mesas appear stark and infinite, rising out of the past and piercing far into the future. It was a cloudless day, but the altitude made for a pleasant, warm climate with the cold sun blaring harmlessly above.
“What do you mean you can’t take us back to Toad Town?” Yoshi had just woken up and was more than a little surprised to find them so far away. “Are you just going to stay here forever?”
The conductor wiped at his forehead with an oily cloth. “I told you, sir, the train’s due for repairs, and everyone else got out on one of the stops along the way. If you didn’t want to come here, you should’ve asked your bulbous friend there to tell me.”
“I am not bulbous!” Blue Boo said, crossing his arms proudly.
“We don’t have any supplies,” the Yo’ster explained. “There’s no way we can make it to the Outpost without a day’s jug of water and food.”
“Look, you can hang around here if you want. It’ll only be a week until the parts come in for the engine, and then—”
“A couple of weeks?!” Blue shouted. “That’s the rest of our vacation, and I’m not wasting it here. Come on, Yoshi, we can find the Oasis and camp by the water. There’s a pipe that’ll take us to Toad Town at the Outpost.”
“And what makes you so sure we can find the Oasis?”
Blue thought it over and fiddled with his hat. “It’s just a sprawling, ten-mile desert. How hard could it be?”
“Listen, I’m not going to be responsible for you two going out there unprepared and getting yourselves killed.” The conductor spat on the ground. “But I’ll get you a jug of water out of the kitchen car, and wish you luck.”
Yoshi whimpered and patted his fruit rations, shielding his eyes from the slopes of Mt. Rugged. “Well, I did say I wanted an adventure…”
~*~*~*~
“So, youse creeps want an adventure, eh?” the light blue crocodile’s eyes gleamed with greed. “I’ll be glad to give ya one! Half price even!’
“I can’t believe you talked me into partnering up with you again,” his stouter comrade grumbled, a short rat with huge ears and a pair of sunglasses larger than his head. “These losers don’t have anything, Croco. They’re tourists!”
“Ah-ha, but that’s where you’re wrong, Mouser! That dino down there isn’t just any green lizard. It’s the Yoshi, and one of Mario’s best buds. If we can bag him, the ransom possibilities are endless!”
“And risk having Mario fry the living daylights out of us?” The rat shuddered, remembering his previous run-ins with the fire-wielding human. “No thanks!”
“I’ve heard of ‘fraidy cats, but never ‘fraidy rats. Now shaddup and help me clear a path through the shrubs. Once we get ‘em off alone on the mountain trail, we’ll disorient ‘em with a few of your bombs and drug the egg-sucking wonder so he’s easy to handle.”
“Now you’re talking my language.” Mouser laughed hideously and pulled out a brown sack bulging with explosives. “They won’t know what hit them!”
~*~*~*~
Yoshi was feeling much better by noon, with the old remnants of sprinting across Dino Land and fighting with Mario rushing back to him. Every uprising of rock shot past him meaninglessly, almost as an afterthought, and he began to imagine he was leaping from ledge to ledge across the treacherous slopes of Chocolate Island, Wendy’s twisted castle jutting dead and cold in the distance.
“For the love of stars, slow down!” Blue huffed as he struggled to catch up, hovering out of breath over the next hilltop. “What’s gotten into you? I’m about to... to die back here.”
“Sorry, pal. I guess I just realized how lazy I’d gotten sipping mango drinks and lounging around in the shade on Yo’ster Isle. Now that I’ve got a chance to stretch my legs, the old spirit of adventure is back with a vengeance. I feel like I could travel the whole world, eating all sorts of delicious fruits. Yum, apples and kumquats and bananas and cantaloupes and—”
“Sheesh! Give it a rest already.” Blue clamped his hat down angrily. “So I’m a little out of shape. Where are we anyway?
Yoshi sniffed the air briefly. “We’re close to the desert. Only another mile or so.”
“Good, because I can’t stand these mountains much longer. Flat land is easier to float across.”
“Hmm…” The dinosaur stood still for a moment, lifting his nose and looking ahead. “There’s a bridge over there. That’s not what I’m smelling, though...”
Blue smirked. “Ghosts don’t sweat, so don’t look at me, Mr. Health.”
“No, it’s not that. Something’s... wrong. I think we’re being followed.”
“Are you kidding?! That’s a good thing. They can give us some of their water and help us find the Oasis.”
“Don’t bet on it,” Yoshi growled, dashing from place to place with his nose raised. “I can’t find it. They could be anywhere!”
Screeching cracks of thunder ripped across the sky, an explosion throwing up a rain of brown-red earth and blotting out the sun for a single instant. The ghost held his hat down in a panic and rolled over as gallons of dirt piled on top of him.
“Where are you? Blue?!” Yoshi yelled over the deafening roar of aftershock, seeing nothing but a dense cloud of dust and larger clumps of mud still falling through the air. “Answer me!”
“Ya pathetic do-gooder, he can’t hear ya!” a voice came through the blindness, and there was Croco, grinning wide. “Didn’t expect to see me again, did ya?”
“Me neither!” Mouser joined in, standing on the other side with a bomb bouncing in one hand. “Don’t even think about moving, or I’ll blow you to kingdom come.”
“What’s this about, Croco?” Yoshi said, failing to find an opening. “We don’t have anything, no money, no treasures. Go rob a sultan.”
“Mr. Funny Guy thinks he can tell a joke, yeah? What’dya say we make him laugh ‘til he jokes? Eh, Mouser?”
“Sounds like a plan,” the rat grinned, and lit the explosive with his free hand. “Say goodnight, greenie!”
Another earth-shattering boom shook the atmosphere, but this time more smoke than dirt billowed out from the point of impact. It was run through with a taint of sickly yellow and smelled worse than Bowser in a sludge pit.
Croco held his long snout and waved the gaseous poison away. “This stuff is rancid! It’d better do the trick.”
“Oh, it’ll work all right. As soon as it clears, that dino will be out cold and ripe for the picking. He won’t know what hit him for another twenty-four hours—!”
“What the...?” Croco’s mouth hang open as the smog cleared, revealing a short dip in the earth and nothing else. “How’d he dodge that? I saw it hit right beside ‘em!”
“I don’t miss when I throw a bomb,” Mouser snarled. A brief flash of sunlight streaked across his jet-black shades. “That guy should be in a heap!”
“Ack!” The crocodile lost his wind when Yoshi gave him solid kick to the back, and he went flying headfirst into the dirt.
Mouser whirled just in time to see Blue rear back a glowing boomerang and throw it, feeling the painful contact slice across his forehead and send him hard to the ground. “Sniveling little freaks! No one dodges me!”
“Maybe not,” said Yoshi. “But Blue here can make himself and someone else invulnerable for a short time just by going transparent. If it helps out your ego any, though, you were right on the mark. Too bad we weren’t there.”
“I’m about fed up with your sass, ya egg-laying creep!” Croco hissed and pulled out a long whip that crackled with electric energy. “Picked this baby up from Booster’s Tower. Who knew a tour could be so rewarding? Those Snifits are the worst guards since Nimbians.”
“Blue!” Yoshi shouted behind him. “This is your territory. He can’t shock thin air.”
“Not so fast, we were just getting acquainted,” Mouser said, and wiped a trail of blood from his head. “How’s about we play another game? See if you can handle a full-blown barrage!”
Near twenty bombs flooded the clear sky and lost themselves in the glare of the sun, only shedding a high whistle as they arced and came rushing down. Blue tried to make himself transparent, but the shrill whine of the weapons was throwing off his concentration and forcing him to close his ears just to keep his head from bursting. All at once, the cluster of bombs broke through the earth and sent more roaring jets of fire flaming upwards.
“Eeek!” Blue screamed, and felt himself tossed around from one broken shard of footing to the other, constantly spinning in order to maintain his balance.
Yoshi ground his teeth and turned to help, but he was jolted to a stop when the whip wrapped painfully around his leg and sent a bone-blazing wave of electricity coursing through his body. Paralyzed, smoking, he fell to his knees and choked for air.
“Heh, not so tough now, are ya?” Croco pulled the whip tighter and yielded another painful scream. “Give up, or I’ll make ya a smoking lizard barbecue. Dead or alive, you’re not getting away!”
Yoshi spat in dry coughs, barely managing to shoot his tongue out and wrap it around the handle of the whip. With one swift gulp, he took it all in and swallowed, producing an egg spotted with flashing yellow shapes.
“Nice trick, but first ya gotta hit me,” the crocodile growled, setting his feet loosely in the dirt.
A sage bush tumbled across the dust-whirled space between the two, and the faint whistle of Mouser’s bombs could be heard buzzing in the distance. The sun was high, beating down a thick heat even at the tops of Mt. Rugged.
Yoshi narrowed his eyes. “I know what you’re thinking, punk. Does he have it left in him to hit me with the egg? Well, to tell you the truth, I’m not so sure I do. But being as this number’s packed with an electric punch, and will shock you into a blackened crisp, you’ve got to ask yourself one question: do I feel lucky?”
“Stop jabbering and just toss it already! Oh...”
Croco’s eyes widened when the glowing egg caught him full in the face, and tendrils of pure electric fire whipped across every inch of his body, drawing out the most unpleasant shriek possible. A final crack of charred scales left him whimpering pitifully on the ground, eyes still open and looking straight up.
Yoshi wiped his hands triumphantly and turned around. “Blue, are you all right? Uh oh.”
Mouser held the ghost dangling by his tail, poised to drop him off a high cliff. “Good show, but I’m not so easily thrashed as Big-Mouth. Now step away from that bridge and let me pass, or your friend here’s going to wake up playing a harp.”
“It’s over, Mouser, you’re not going anywhere with him. Just put the Boo down, and I’ll let you leave.”
“Without some payment for trekking all the way out here? You must be insane!” Mouser snickered to the point where it looked like he was having a seizure, and then suddenly stopped, groaning, and fell face-forward.
“What an awful sound!” said a teal-skinned Pianta standing behind the fallen foe with a cudgel the size of a pillar. He lifted the Boo in his arms and hefted him over his shoulder. “Hey, Mr. Yoshi, I’ve heard a lot about you.”
“Uh, thanks, I suppose.” The dinosaur scratched his head and looked from Croco to Mouser. “Now if you don’t mind me asking, who are you?”
“Oh, sorry!” the squat kid said and dropped Blue to hold out his hand. “The name’s Taber, and I’m working with the famed explorer, Kolorado. We’re investigating a local myth about some hidden temple. He’s already looked for it once, but now we’ve got some proof it exists.”
“Yeah, Mario’s told me about him,” Yoshi sighed. “We could really use some water and rest, though, it’d be great if you led us to your camp.”
“Of course!” Taber grinned, and picked Blue back up. “Come on, it’s just at the entrance to the desert. We’re having a big feast tonight before we embark.”
“Sounds delicious,” said Yoshi, already anticipating a mountain of fruit.
~*~*~*~
The feast was elaborate, indeed, with over fifty hired hands spread out across three long tables that lined the outer walls of a massive tent. Shining brilliantly at five-foot intervals, antiquated candles from one of Kolorado’s countless expeditions stood between densely crowded platters and bowls of exotic foods.
“My dear boy,” said Kolorado, already having asked Yoshi and Blue Boo to sit by him, “do you know it’s been precisely twenty years since I first set out on one of my many adventures? That’s why we’re celebrating. I had to fly all this out here, of course, but for such a momentous occasion, I spare no expense!”
“Don’t remind me,” said his top assistant, a Goomba with a pad of bills spread out before him. “It’s a good thing you got the supplies for this little venture on credit. There’s no way we can cover the cost without a substantial grant.”
“And we’ll receive it, Henry, straight from the Mushroom Academy.” He punctuated the claim by stabbing a knife into his salad. “Especially now with two genuine heroes on our team, what, what!”
“Er, actually, we weren’t planning on doing any—”
“That’d be great!” Blue interrupted Yoshi. “You know, Mario went to the temple once. He told me all about it and how he fought Tutankoopa and... Hey!”
Yoshi had kicked the ghost under the table and gave a grin, too late to stop the conversation. “That being said, we have no knowledge of how to find it.”
“Don’t worry, my boy, all of that’s already been investigated.” Kolorado groomed his mustache conspiratorially. “Apparently, one needs a little jewel called the Pulse Stone to gain entrance to the ruins and the temple. We’re convinced the chaps at the Outpost will know more about it.”
“They’re a very secretive people, not prone to liking outsiders,” Yoshi said, and gulped another slice of watermelon. “And since Tutankoopa defiled the ruins, they’ve set up even stricter rules. We might be thrown in jail if we so much as show up with pick axes and digging tools.”
“Which is why just a few of us are going in,” Kolorado winked. “The suspicious blokes won’t distrust just five people. Henry, Taber, myself, and well, you two are also welcome. I’m sure they’ve heard of the famous Yoshi.”
“We’ll go as far with you as the Outpost, but not to the Temple. We have to get back to Toad Town. Right, Blue?”
The Boo rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I guess. This place is dull anyway.”
“Oh, I’m convinced you’ll change your minds,” Kolorado said confidently. “For now, though, eat and be merry. Tomorrow is the first day of a new disco.”
To Be Continued...
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