Chapter 5: Climb to the Peek
"I think he's waking up."
Iggy lifted his eyelids to see he was lying in a soft bed in an old cabin. "Huh?" He was bewildered.
"You were hit with a Super Scope shot," Lemmy explained.
"That Koopa did it." Wendy was looking out a snowy window. "Henry helped us escape in Dark Land and…" She was about to tell him about Paul, but she couldn't deliver the dreadful news.
"Who's Henry?" Iggy got out of the bed.
"My Boom Boom," Lemmy reminded him.
"Oh."
"We barely made it out of Pipe Land," Lemmy added. Wendy was beginning to be afraid. Something told her she would have to tell Iggy. "But a Piranha Plant named Paul helped us."
"Where are those two?" Here it comes; she had to tell.
"Henry flew off." Wendy was ready to make an adult decision. "And Paul was killed."
"By that Koopa?" Iggy was shocked, even though he never knew Paul.
"Yeah," Lemmy answered. "That no good Shiny-Eyes."
"Who?" the two other Koopalings asked in unison.
"That will be his nickname," Lemmy explained. "Just saying ‘Koopa' will get confusing."
"Good idea." Wendy continued to look out the window.
"I think you're taking this way to seriously," Lemmy said. "After all, we shut down the pipe."
"But he can get here an alternate way," Wendy exclaimed, "can't he?"
"She has a point," Iggy said. "Every land has a second entrance. Water Land, Giant Land, and Lower Sky Land are right next to each other. Desert Land is over the mountains of Grass Land."
"That's a good point," Lemmy said. "Maybe we should climb the mountain."
"What mountain?" Iggy asked.
"The one this cabin is in front of," Wendy answered. "We can enter Upper Sky Land from the mountain, can't we? Then we can travel further through Plit, finding a safe place."
"That's an excellent plan!" Lemmy said. "Let's do it!"
"Now?" Iggy asked.
"Yeah, we've got nothing to lose!" Lemmy said.
* * *
The Koopas walked up the mountain trail, Wendy still watching for "Shiny-Eyes". A blizzard was roaring in their faces.
"Wendy," Lemmy said, "give it up. You can't see past this snowstorm."
"Easy for you to say," Wendy exclaimed. "He's not after you!"
"Don't worry," Iggy reassured. "If you go down, we go down."
"Thanks!"
They kept walking through the blizzard until the snowy trail got thinner and thinner.
"I think the hard part begins here." Lemmy tied his ball to his back with a rope. "We'll have to climb with our hands from here. The snow will give us something to hang on to. Be careful."
They climbed up the mountain for an hour, when Wendy had a strange feeling in the back of her mind. "Guys?" she asked.
"What?" Lemmy responded.
"Something's wrong."
"What do you mean?" Iggy asked.
"I think the Koopa's coming," she whispered.
"How can you tell?" Iggy whispered back.
Wendy thought of how she would do this. They were on a mountain, in a blizzard, and had no supplies. What was she to do? She decided to throw some snow down and listen if it hit anyone. She scooped up a handful of snow and threw it down.
Thump.
Wendy gasped. "Guys, he's behind us!"
"How do you know?" asked Lemmy.
"An experiment," she answered hastily. "Climb faster!"
"You're a smart one!" yelled Shiny-Eyes, revealing he was indeed behind them.
"He's gonna get us!" Iggy exclaimed.
"No," Lemmy objected. "The peek is right up there!"
"That looks like another mountain trail."
"That's the peek," Lemmy said.
The three Koopas climbed onto the peek, a few yards ahead of the Koopa.
"You said there was an entrance to Sky Land up here?" Wendy asked Lemmy.
"Yeah," Lemmy pointed down the mountain. "See that ramp? If you fly off that at just the right speed, you'll fly straight into Upper Sky Land."
"How will we get there?" Iggy asked.
"With this." Lemmy pointed to a sled laying up against the mountain. "I left it here in case of an emergency."
"Well, come on." Wendy took the sled and sat in the front. Her two brothers sat behind her. The Koopas took off down the mountain.
"You can't run!" The Koopa was right behind him sledding on his Super Scope.
"Wow," Wendy looked back, "you're good!"
"And so are you," Shiny-Eyes replied. "I guess it runs in the family."
Everything slowed down; Wendy was confused beyond anything else ever before... Family?
Iggy scooped up a pile of snow from the speeding mountain as they went by. "Take this!" He threw the snow at him. He ducked as the snow flew over his head.
Lemmy then picked up some snow and rolled it into a ball. "Watch and learn." He threw the snowball with all his might. It flew through the air like a comet and nailed the Koopa in the face. He stumbled on his Super Scope and disappeared into the blizzard.
"Is he gone?" Iggy looked back.
"I don't know," Lemmy responded. "But if I've learned one thing on this journey, it’s that he never gives up."
"I see him coming!" Wendy yelled.
Shiny-Eyes was coming up behind them, a Bob-omb in his hand.
"Oh no!" Iggy exclaimed. The Koopa tossed the Bob-omb. It hit the sled and blew up, throwing the Koopalings into the air. Lemmy grabbed Iggy's hand. Iggy's other hand grabbed Wendy's. Wendy's last hand grabbed the Koopa's ankle.
"Game over," Shiny-Eyes smiled. He pulled out a long knife and raised it into the air.
"Iggy, Lemmy, HELP!" Wendy's heart was beating faster than ever before. Lemmy, with his only free hand, scooped up some snow and threw it right at the Koopa's face. He stumbled backwards as the Koopalings jumped away. He fell to the ground, his Super Scope falling to the ground with him.
The three siblings were now left without any ride and flying through the air. Wendy thought quick. She grabbed the ball tied to Lemmy's back and jumped on it. She grabbed her brothers’ hands and rode Lemmy's circus ball through the snow.
* * *
The ball had gathered snow on the way down and was now a giant snowball. The ramp was coming up. Wendy rode right into it and they flew through the air.
"Nice job," Lemmy smiled. "You're a natural."
"Thanks." Wendy took the compliment .
They landed on a cloud and the snowball exploded. The siblings fell onto the soft clouds of Sky Land.
They had once again evaded Shiny-Eyes.