Chapter 3 Freak
I woke up, lightheaded. And yesterday was strange. I didn't remember very well. Because something had taken over. But it was mostly me. I could control myself. But my mind was racing to fast. And I mistook the other thoughts for my own. Although the words I was saying weren't my own. And I finally admitted it. I was a freak. I looked around the cave's room tiredly. The pikmin were asleep. But one of the reds was awake. And then I noticed he was the one I almost killed yesterday. He was staring at me. And when he noticed I was looking at him he looked away quickly. He seemed a bit confused about something. KT had her body sprawled out on the ground. I swear I saw drool out of the corner of her mouth… Two yellow pikmin seemed to be having a nightmare of some kind. They tossed and turned. A red pikmin with a leaf kept murmuring something under his breath. A budded blue was lying next to KT. And he was smiling in his sleep. I blinked.
"Uh, sorry about yesterday." The flowered red pikmin whispered. It startled me. I quickly looked over at him. He was walking over to me.
"Sure, but I'm not saying sorry to you. It's your fault I'm tied up in the first place." I was tired of being tied up… He sat down next to me. I turned my head away.
"That's the reason I'm saying sorry." He said.
I grunted. "I'm still not saying sorry. Because you had the choice to fight me or not."
The red pikmin scoffed. "You wanted to kill me even before I said anything." He said.
I huffed. "You shouldn't have stood up in the first place."
"Why are you even here? And why were you with the cyan girl?" I shrugged.
He sighed. "She saved me. From the black pikmin I think." He looked at me curiously.
"Black pikmin?" He asked. I stared at him.
"Yeah, the black pikmin. The ones with the balls on their stem?"
He blinked. "Uh, I don't remember seeing any black pikmin. But I can understand if they hurt you." He said with a grin. "But they sound gross too…" He mumbled to himself, frowning.
I held up a fist. "Do you want me to prove a point again?"
He gulped. "Sorry. I need to work on shutting my mouth." He said.
"What's your name?" He asked.
Ugh.
"I don't have a name." He looked disappointed. But then held out a hand with a smile.
"Oh, well my names Eden. Nice to meecha. Kinda…"
I shook his hand. "And the yellow over there," He said, pointing at a yellow pikmin that was tossing and turning. "Is Yeralla. And the blue over there," He pointed to a blue who seemed in deep sleep. "Is Atlanta. She's pretty nice." He looked back over at me. I was staring at Yeralla; she stopped tossing for a second, but started again.
"What's wrong with her?" I asked.
He shrugged, like it was nothing.
"She's just traumatized by what happened to their onion." He explained.
"Oh, I guess I wouldn't understand. I don't have an onion."
He looked at me sadly. "Neither do white, purples, or greens." I stared at him.
"Really, then how are they made?" He laughed.
"Definitely not from weird monsters like you are." He looked away from me for a second and snickered. Then he looked back over at me. "They're made from flowers." I stared at him like an idiot.
"Flowers?" I asked.
"Yeah, big giant flowers. And if you jump in one you get turned into that color. Although there are every color. All those colors have onions though." I crossed my arms.
"So what if I jumped in one?" He looked at me, confused.
"You get turned into a different color. What difference does it make to you?" I shrugged.
"None, just wondering."
"Actually, there is one that I heard from myths that if two different colored pikmin jump in it mixes their colors together to make a completely new one. Or just a regular one. Like if a red and blue pikmin jumped in it would make an orange pikmin." I continued to look away.
"What if a mushroom pikmin and another color jumped in?" I asked.
"Uh, I don't know…" He said. Humph, some flower. Not even making something for a mushroom pikmin. Suddenly I was startled by a groan, and a yawn. I looked over to see Yeralla sitting up tiredly, yet her eyes were wide open. She looked scared. Then she looked over at me and Eden, her eyes darting between me and him. Then she got up and slowly walked over.
"Morning, I guess." She said, more to Eden then me.
"Morning, get any better sleep than last night?" Eden said. She nodded.
"A little, but still not very good." She answered.
Eden laughed. "I could tell. I guess we might as well get up. Um, and do something."
Yeralla nodded. "Yeah. But what do you want to do?" Eden seemed deep in thought.
"First let's untie her." Eden said. He walked over and untied my stem. It slumped in front of my face. I stood up and pushed it behind me. I looked at KT, and then walked over to wake her up.
"Wait. Let her get some rest." Eden said. I stopped and nodded. We walked out of the cave. The sun was at the edge of the horizon. Morning…
"That's nice." Yeralla said. Eden nodded, I didn't really do anything. I was tired. And wished I could go to sleep. But I would probably have that weird dream again.
A faint outline of black could be seen in the distance. I stopped and looked at it as it passed by. The grass blocked most of our view. Eden and Yeralla looked at me.
"What's wrong?" Yeralla asked. I shook my head.
"Black pikmin… I've got to stay away from them." Eden looked around.
"I don't see any black pikmin around." I sighed and started walking again, they followed soon after.
"I've never heard of black pikmin. Why do you have to stay away from them?" Yeralla asked.
"Because they were the ones that tied me up. I think they did… And KT saved me from them. So they are probably looking for me." I answered, looking around for any signs of one.
Another black line passed by, and Eden noticed it this time too.
"I have a feeling if they find you with us nearby we would be in trouble too." He said. Yeralla looked puzzled.
"Why would they do that?" Eden looked at her.
"Because they would assume we are helping her." He said.
"Actually, you are helping me." I said. Yeralla snickered.
Two more black lines passed, no, they were the same lines. Just heading back. Yeralla noticed and seemed a bit nervous.
"I think we should head back. It's dangerous out here. Why are we even out here?" She said.
"Because we should find nectar, then we can have food. So we can eat. And get some more for the other pikmin too." Eden said. That popped up an idea in my mind.
"Where I woke up… There was some nectar." I said. They both looked eager.
"Do you know where you were tied up?" Eden asked. I nodded.
"But we have to be quiet, and sneaky." Yeralla seemed to be a bit more nervous.
"Why? Is it near the black pikmin?" She asked. I nodded.
"Of course. Plus we have to pass their camp too." I said. Yeralla whimpered.
After the sun was partly in the sky we got near their camp. I signaled for them to be quiet. And did what KT did. We passed through the grass. And looked at the pikmin nearby.
There was a group near their onion. I listened in on their conversation.
"No, it probably got away from another pikmin. And that other pikmin is probably another mushroom. We have to find them both, danger looms over us all." The black pikmin in the center said.
"But they probably went back to the monster. It makes no sense why they would stay around and wreak havoc." A pikmin surrounding him said.
"It makes total sense why they would stay and cause havoc." The one in the middle said, turning to the pikmin who protested.
"Why would they stay then?" Another black from behind him said.
"Because the beast cares nothing about their puny lives. It would make them stay to hurt others, like I already told you earlier." He said, turning towards the pikmin behind him.
"Yes, but why would it not care about them? If it did it could make a bunch of pikmin, and then strike against the other colors with many pikmin." The same pikmin that had asked the question before said.
"The main reason it makes them stay. So they can capture other colors and bring them to the monster." The one in the center said.
"And plus they aren't that smart either." He added. My hands balled up into fists. I would show them who was puny, who was smarter. I could walk over there and knock him out right now. Eden was covering his mouth to keep himself from laughing. Yeralla looked truly scared, half of her face covered by her leaf. We passed by their camp and relaxed a tiny bit, but we still didn't dare get out of the tall grass yet. They followed me until we got over to the spot I was hoping to find.
The sun was high in the sky. As we forced ourselves out of the grass. I walked over to the grass that earlier I had been drooling over. And I began to pull at the grass.
It was harder than I thought. And when it finally came lose I fell over onto my rear. Luckily a yellow liquid seeped from the ground. I grabbed a little a sipped it up. Eden and Yeralla ran over and grabbed some too.
The taste was wonderful as its warm sugary liquid flowed down my throat. I sighed and grabbed a little more. Then I stopped myself and grabbed another grass shard. I pulled hard.
It came out easier than before. Maybe because I was kinda weak from hunger before. Eden and Yeralla helped.
By the time all the grass was plucked the sun was starting to set. We all sat there, panting. There was plenty of nectar. But the problem… We didn't have enough time to get back. I stood up and grabbed as much as I could. And looked around. Yeralla stood up and grabbed a bunch too. Eden followed her example. I started to walk the direction I first saw KT.
"Where are you going?" Eden asked. I turned my head.
"We've got to find shelter for today. We can head back tomorrow." I answered.
Yeralla nodded and started off with me. Eden stood there for a second, but after it got awkward he hurried after us.
I looked around. This place seemed oddly familiar. And then I remembered that it was from my dream. Odd… I didn't remember being here before.
Thinking everything through since me... Changed... made me realize just how fragile my memory of before was, I didn't remember my name. I knew I was with someone, but not who... And worst of all, I remembered the tragedy…
Speaking of that, something Eden said before popped in my mind, and it connected. My eye widened in shock.
I swiveled around, nearly dropping the nectar in my hands.
"Wait, earlier, you said that Yeralla was having nightmares because she lost her… onion… right?" I asked, he nodded slowly, and I slowly turned my head to Yeralla, who was looking down at the ground.
"I remember… I remember that…" I said, she looked at me quizzically. "Because I was there, I was the one that could have stopped it, and I didn't! I can't believe myself, letting everybody down, killing lives, and worst of all, that onion, the one that made you… Even… Me…" I said.
I didn't realize I was on my knees, the nectar dropped on the ground, and that I was sobbing uncontrollably until Yeralla grabbed my shoulders with wide eyes.
"S-So… you remember that? " She asked, her voice strangely calm.
"How could I forget? Even after I turn into a monster… After I turn into a murderer, how could I forget about that? It stands out so much, so well, and the only reason I haven't said anything is because I pushed it out of my way… But I shouldn't do that, because I was right there. I was the one it saw, and I could have called for help, I could have, but I didn't…" I screamed, she shook her head.
"Stop taking the blame, when we got there, nobody tried to fight, nobody did anything. We just stood there and waited to die…" She said, and then hugged me.
"That means that I was with you all while we were traveling. And that means that I found you guys again, I found… My family…" I said, she hugged me tighter. Eden just stood there, shocked.
"B-But we double checked to make sure if anybody was alive after the attack, and… Nobody ran off, or got left behind. How could you have been with us?" He asked. I looked up at him, and racked the memories up in my brain.
Now that I knew that I was with them, it became clearer, I remembered being with a certain red, but I don't remember his name, and there was some explosion, then I remember jumping down a cliff of some sort to save somebody… No, wait… It got all fuzzy again.
"I think I jumped off of… Off of… I remembered just a second ago!" I said, pushing my hands up against my forehead, squinting, trying to remember what I just remembered. But it wasn't working, I cried out in anguish. Yeralla, no doubt, was the one patting me on the back.
"It's all right; you don't have to remember little details like that. At least I know that you got lost along the way and now I have somebody who actually knows what I feel like." She whispered in my ear.
But I knew she still didn't like me. She wouldn't ever trust me in a million years…
"First that, then I get turned into a monster, and all I can do is sit here and watch!" I cried, she shook her head.
"Everything happens for a reason, a reason we have to find out. We'll find out sooner or later, please, stop crying." Yeralla said, clutching my hands. I nodded and slowly got up, then she hugged me, Eden blinked.
"It's getting dark, we better start going." Eden said, and we started off.
It wasn't long till we found a rock that sloped to create a miniature cave. We stayed there and, with a little trouble at first, fell asleep.
I'm sorry, but this story is getting more stupid as I read it… Write it… Anyways… Hope it's not as stupid to you guys as it is to me… :(
This place is, well, according to Olimar, Forest Naval. Sorry about the difference in the actual game and in this story, as I only got pikmin 1. I am on day 3.