Chapter 4: Trouble Brews

The next day was nice and sunny with only a few clouds in the sky. About an hour after they had breakfast, everyone went to the beach for a game of Tag. Wario and Waluigi wanted to start looking for treasure, but Luigi made them play anyway.

"Tag! You're It!" Yellowy shouted as he tagged Luigi.

"Nope! Redy's It!" Luigi yelled after tagging Redy.

"Gotcha!" Redy called when he tagged Wario. "Now yellow Mario's It!"

"Get back here!" Wario growled.

Unfortunately, Wario isn't known for his agility. He set his sights on Mario, hoping that he would be the slowest. Despite his appearance, Mario is surprisingly quick.

"Hey, Stinky! Over here!" Mario taunted.

Ignoring his rival's comment, Wario tried his luck with the blue yoshi, Bluey.

Bluey is one of the biggest yoshis in the herd, so it is understandable that Wario targeted him. He can be described as a gentle giant. The guy wouldn't hurt a fly. He is also Yellowy's dad.

"Nice try!" Bluey cheered. Even he was too fast for Wario.

Going after Luigi would be a huge mistake, so Wario tried going after Waluigi instead.

"You're lousy!" Waluigi teased.

Angered, Wario closed his eyes as he threw himself at Waluigi. Just as he landed, he felt something with his left hand. "Yes!" he hissed.

Waluigi, as well as everyone else, just laughed. It turned out that Wario landed between Waluigi's long legs and tagged a palm tree.

"I give up..." Wario panted. "I'm too thirsty to run anymore."

"Yeah. I'm feeling rather parched myself," said Luigi. "How about we all go to the waterhole for a drink?"

The yoshis nod in agreement. Everyone went into the forest and walk to the waterhole. Luigi decided to lag behind a bit and have a word with Oshi.

"That was some great jumping," the young yoshi said.

"Heheh. Yeah," said Luigi. "You were quite good yourself."

Oshi chuckled with glee. "Thanks, Luigi."

"I see that you speak English now. When did that start?"

"A few days after you left. Mom taught me so I'd be able to talk to you when you came back."

Luigi just smiled and nodded.

Elsewhere on the beach, two humans have showed up. One of them, a female named Vicky, wore a gray uniform and had a net in hand. Her eyes were green and she had long blond hair that went down in her waist. The other one, a male named Nicky, also wore a uniform and wielded a net. He had blond hair like Vicky, but his only came to his shoulders. Unlike Vicky, his eyes were brown.

"I'm so happy, I could kiss this ground right now," said Vicky. Her voice was a bit on the snooty side.

"I don't think that's a good idea," said Nicky. He had a rather meek-sounding voice.

"Following that yellow ship was a great idea. I thought we were lost for sure."

"But...I'm the one that thought of it..."

"Be quiet and get your blowgun out. We won't have our jobs much longer unless we catch some new animals for the zoo."

"Yes, ma'am," Nicky said somewhat reluctantly as he got out his bamboo blowgun and followed Vicky.

Back with Luigi and friends, they've just arrived at the waterhole. Some of the yoshis drank from it while the others sat down to rest.

"Hey," Wario said as he drank greedily. "This water ain't half bad."

"Don't drink too fast," Waluigi warned. "You might drown or something and Mario will have to do mouth-to-mouth again."

Luigi shook his head in disgust. "Sicko."

Mario leaned against a tree and stretched. "Ah. That feels good. Say, what do you guys usually do for fun around here anyway?"

"Well," Blacky began. "To be honest, we didn't do a whole lot. But when Luigi was here, he showed us how to play these neat games like Rock-Paper-Scissors."

"Speaking of which, I've got a new one," said Luigi. "If it's okay with you, Blacky, I'd like to go back to the beach and teach it to you guys."

"Huh? Did you forget?" asked Blacky. "You're our leader. You get to make the plans. But if you really want to know, I think that it's a great idea and I'd love go with it."

After drinking their fill, everyone left the waterhole and returned to the beach. Mario decided to catch a few winks in the shade of a palm tree. Wario and Waluigi saw an opportunity to go treasure-hunting and went to get a few sacks from Blacky's cave before setting out.

"Okay, everyone," Luigi began to explain. "Sit down in a circle. The game I'll be teaching you is called Duck-Duck-Goose."

Yosheta playfully clapped her hands. "Ooh, that sounds like fun," she squealed with delight.

Luigi and the yoshis weren't completely alone, however. The zookeepers, Vicky and Nicky, were poking around at the edge of the beach.

"What are those things?" Vicky thought when she noticed the yoshis. "Check this out, Nicky."

"Just a second," Nicky's voice came from within a nearby bush.

"What are you doing in there?!"

Nicky popped his head out of the bush. "I just found a cocoon. Interested?"

"Bugs bug me. Look at the size of those lizards," Vicky pointed out the yoshis to Nicky.

"Oh, yes," Nicky thoughtfully rubbed his chin. "One of those could replace our komodo dragon quite nicely."

"We're not replacing Mr. Komody," Vicky said sternly.

"I don't think he can hold on much longer, Vicky. Besides, these look much cuter and they seem to adore that guy. He must've trained them very well."

"Let's see if he's willing to sell one to us," Vicky walked toward Luigi.

"Okay then," Luigi said when he finished explaining the game. "Who would like to go fi- Ack!"

Luigi was startled when Nicky tapped him on the shoulder.

"Sorry to alarm you, sir," Nicky said politely. "But I couldn't help but notice how well trained your lizards are."

"Oh. Hi there. Yoshis are so cute, are they?" Luigi smiled.

"Yoshis? That's what they're called?" Vicky asked.

"Of course. You didn't know that? As a matter of fact, this lovely isle we're on is Yoshi's Island."

The zookeepers looked around cluelessly. "It is?" they both said.

"You didn't know that either? You folks aren't from around here, are you?"

"I'm sorry. Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Nicky and this is my sister, Vicky. We work for a zoo. Unfortunately, the zoo will soon be going under unless we get some new animals. We believe that a yoshi is just what we're looking for. We'd like to buy one for, oh, five hundred coins?"

"I don't want your dirty money," Luigi said calmly.

"But, sir..."

"I said I don't want your dirty money," Luigi was now getting a little angry. "How can you people even think about keeping animals in captivity?"

"Fine. I'll double it," Vicky tried to haggle. "I'll give you one thousand coins for one yoshi. How does that sound?"

"The answer is still no."

"Hey...um..." said a nervous Oshi. "What are coins?"

"Oh my gosh! Did you hear that, Nicky?" Vicky said to her brother. "One of them just asked what coins are!"

"He won't need to know what they are because I decline," said Luigi, who was still irritated.

"But, sir-!" Nicky tried to reason with him again.

"I decline!" Luigi huffed as he folded his arms and turned his back to them.

"Well, if you change your mind, come find us. We'll be around," Nicky said as he and Vicky left Luigi and the herd.

"If he doesn't want to sell us one," Vicky quietly said. "We'll have to steal one."

"What was that about?" Mario yawned. The commotion between Luigi and the zookeepers woke him up.

"I don't know," said Bluey. "There were a couple of humans here and they wanted one of us for a zoo. But what is a zoo?"

"A zoo is a place where animals are put on display and people gawk at them," Mario explained. "You really don't want to go there. Right, Luigi?"

Luigi didn't reply. He stared at the direction he saw the Nicky and Vicky go and growled.

"Hey. Weren't we going to play a game?" Oshi asked, still feeling nervous about the humans that seemingly appeared out of nowhere.

"Sorry, guys," Luigi sighed. "I guess I'm not in the mood for fun right now. You go ahead and frolic for awhile. I have some thinking to do."

Luigi went to the palm tree that Mario was at earlier and sat in the shade. It would seem that the visit was not going to be the walk on the beach that Luigi had hoped it would be...