CHAPTER 1

The cold winter wind blew through the valley, all was still, and everything seemed to have an eerie feel to them.

"Should've brought a thicker jacket….." Kel mumbled. There seemed to be nothing in sight, he just kept trudging on through the cold, clutching his bag close to his side. Suddenly her heard a cry in the distance, the screaming of a hurt creature.

"What was that?" he thought, he started to run to where the sound was coming from, deep into a forest of tall trees, the sound grew louder as he rushed ahead through the trees, and then he heard growling. The sound of a monster. He finally came before what was making the horrid sound. He stood in awe as he came face to face with a fierce beast.

"W-What the hell is that!" he exclaimed. The beast had a reptilian appearance, a long slender body with four legs, each had four sharp claws at the end of each foot. A hard green shell rested across the length of its body. "Back away you human scum, I have come for a meal, nothing more!" the wretched creature hissed, and he looked down to see a small crying creature, what looked like a baby yoshi. Kel clutched his dagger close to his body, ready for an attack.

"I said, what are you!" the creature just stared at him with cold eyes.

I am koopa beast, you best leave now, before I rip you to shreds!" all this was happening so fast, how could this horrible beast be a koopa, he had never seen such a thing before. It was if it had mutated from the regular, much calmer koopa.

Kel was weary, he dropped his bag before him and rushed forward, the creature turned around swiftly, exposing its shell, Kel's dagger clanged against the hard surface.

"Not even a scratch…"

"You are no match for koopa beast, your puny weapon is laughable." it sneered and taunted Kel. He took this advantage and thrust his dagger forward, scarring the creature's face, it let out a bellowing cry as blood ran down its face.

"Who's laughing now, koopa?" the creature growled and jumped forward, grabbing onto Kel's coat, the sharp claws were digging into his skin.

"You shall not mess with my beast's kind!" Kel took the last of his strength and brought his dagger up, slicing the horrid koopa's body. It let out one last deafening cry and lay on the ground, dead. He sighed and sat down, trying to catch his breath after such a battle.

The small yoshi cried and rushed by Kel's side. He studied the small creature.

"A yoshi? I've never seen any like this before…." the yoshi had dark blue skin, two little fangs peeked out of its mouth. About five orange spikes ran down it's small body.

"Oh, thank you so much! That guy would've eaten me up if you hadn't come along!" it snuggled closer to him.

"A koopa…eating a yoshi? What is happening here?" he sighed and picked up the little yoshi.

"So, you're a yoshi?" the yoshi nodded happily.

"Of course! What else would I be?"

"It's just…I've never seen a yoshi like this before…."

"Oh, there are many more like us, after the toxic poisoning a few years back…."

"Toxic poisoning?"

"A lot of us got turned into these cooler creatures, I'm much better than a normal yoshi!" it started dancing around playfully.

"So what's your name little yoshi?"

"My name? Oh, the others call me Spike. What's your name?"

'Kel Onyx…." he thought for a second.

"But you can call me K.O."

"Ok, um, K.O? Could I come with you? I have no where else to go….." the little yoshi's eyes saddened.

"Sure, I am wandering myself, looking for somewhere to live….."

"Oh, you came from the Mushroom Kingdom?" the yoshi stared at him with curious eyes.

"No, but that sounds like a good place where I could go, I was banished from my former town."

"What? That's awful!"

"Yeah, but they at least had a good reason, I…..murdered someone."

"WHAT?"

"Spike calm down, you've got to understand it was in self defense."

"Who was it then?"

"This thief by the name of Bru threatened me, and my…girlfriend, Yura."

"Wow, was she pretty?" Spike listened intently to his story.

"Yes Spike but that's not the point, he aimed a weapon at us, and swore he would steal everything from us, I was so overcome by anger….I just snapped."

"Gosh, so you don't see Yura anymore?"

"Nope, I had to leave the town and her behind, this jacket is the only thing I have to remind me of her."

"Sad story, I almost got eaten up by a monster, does that sound any better?" Spike chuckled and tried to get K.O's mind off of the matter.

"Heh, you're just lucky I was here when I was, I don't understand how a koopa could get that monstrous."

"I told you, the toxic poisoning." K.O pondered the thought.

"Spike, please tell me what you know about this 'Toxic poisoning'"

"Oh sure, some years back this mad koopa went wild with his experiments and created some mutating potion, I'm not sure what it was, but my grandma was there when it happened, she told me it was a bright green liquid, and that the mad koopa injected this into his victims." Spike shivered in disgust.

"So your grandmother was one of the…experiments?"

"Yeah, she said she used to be a regular yoshi until…..He changed her."

"But I don't understand, how could this affect so many other creatures?"

"My mom says this stuff can spread when two creatures mate, she said that by now the whole world has cool creatures like us!" he smiled.

"So….you're happy about this, there's no side affects?"

"Well, my mom also said that some bad creatures like koopas can become even more bad! Like that one that tried to eat me."

"I've never heard of something like this before….." all this was making K.O's mind scrambled, a mad scientist making mutant creatures? This was unheard of to him.

"Oh I think it must've been on the news one time, I wasn't born yet then."

"Ok, I understand, um…now that you've told me, it's getting late. I don't know where we could stay for the night…."

"I don't think there's a place for a little while's away, we could stay here…. I can make fire!"

"Oh I don't know, I don't even see any wood arou-" Spike suddenly opened his mouth and spat out a burst of flames toward a small log. K.O was amazed. The log sparked and fire emerged, crackling against the cool air.

"You…..can breathe fire?"

"Of course! You're a funny human, you act like you've never seen a yoshi breathe fire before!"

"You act like I'm used to seeing mutant yoshis!" they both laughed and sat down by the small fire. K.O looked inside his bag and pulled out a big cover. He wrapped it around him.

"Cold out, do you think there's any more koopa beasts around here?"

"Oh no, my mom led the rest off a while ago, she's really strong!"

"I bet. Would you like a cover?" K.O asked thoughtfully.

"Oh no thanks, I'm cozy enough by this fire." he curled up into a little ball and lay down.

"Ugh, I'm hungry, what could we eat?" K.O checked his bag for any snacks he might of packed.

"We could eat that koopa over there!" Spike pointed to the dead koopa monster.

"Are you kidding! You can't eat a koopa!"

"You can this one, and after all, it tried to eat us first!" the idea didn't seem completely crazy, he once heard some fancy restaurants served high-priced koopa meat, he never really thought of eating such a creature, but in a time like this, it wouldn't hurt to try.

"Alright, only if you know how to cook it." Spike grinned, eating the enemy seemed to be a fitting act of justice. He cooked the koopa with his breath until it looked done, K.O had to admit, it did look pretty appetizing at this point.

"Ok, one chunk of koopa meat!" he laid out a piece for K.O, and he tried a tiny bite.

"Not half bad." He thought, it was pretty satisfying to him. They munched on the koopa meat until they were full, and then decided to lay down.

"So…..where do we go tomorrow?" Spike inquired, licking the last of his koopa meat off his fingers.

"I guess we could try heading to the Mushroom Kingdom….."

"That's an awful long way to walk, and I'm not old enough to have you be able to ride me."

"Well we're probably not going to get there in one day, Spike, we'll just see how it goes."

"I just hope we don't run into any more monsters…." he shivered.

"Hey, if you have fire breath, why didn't you just fry that koopa in the first place?"

"I was too scared, I didn't really know what to do at that point….."

"Oh well, we better get some sleep. If we run into any more monsters, I've at least got my dagger with me…."

"Ok, good night K.O!" the yoshi quietly curled up and closed its eyes.

"Good night Spike." K.O yawned and closed his eyes as well.

"If there's so many wretched creatures out there, maybe I could….well, I saved this yoshi from that one beast, maybe I could save others too! I could be a hero, I could redeem my self , then maybe, I might be able to see Yura again!"

Those were his last thoughts before he slipped into darkness and fell asleep.