Chapter 6
Smashers on Stilts
For whatever reason, stilts suddenly became quite popular within Onett and you can see kids walking around on stilts all around town.
Not everyone who wants to play stilts is good with stilts however. Pit sat alone within his room and was bored because the others had gone out to play with stilts. Obviously he does not know how to play with stilts. Plus, all the stilts had been taken, so he had none to play with anyway.
As he rested his head on the window frame and let out a sigh, Snake walked into the room and said to him, "Hey Pit! You want to play with stilts badly, right?"
"But I don't know how and there is no more…" he replied with a sigh.
"If that's the case, I'll make another one for you and also teach you how to play it also."
Hearing this, Pit turned around and said, "Really? You will teach me how to play the stilt, Mr. Snake?"
"Yeah, so come over to the garden. I'll get the materials necessary for making one."
Pit jumped up and down happily like a little kid and squealed with happiness. "Thank you so much, Mr. Snake!"
-
Soon, they were both out in the garden in front of the garage and Snake had brought along a pair of very long bamboo poles, some woods, and also tools. "Okay, let's get started," Snake said. "First, we should cut the poles a bit. They're too long."
"Can I try it?" Pit asked, holding up a saw in his hand.
"Go ahead," Snake said. He got out a measuring tape and measured the size of the pole before drawing a mark on a part of it saying, "Cut here then. I'm off to get something first, so try your best." Snake got up and walked away and Pit approached the pole to saw it.
He cleaved the jagged blade of the saw into the mark on the pole and started sawing, but somehow, he only bended the saw in place and did not actually cut the pole. Being ignorant about this, he continued bending the saw over and over and made those indescribable sounds that you usually hear when you bend saws.
Snake finally came back and he couldn't believe the progress that Pit made: None. "Um… What are you doing?" Snake asked him.
"Sawing the pole, Mr. Snake," Pit replied. "But it's taking a while."
"You're doing it wrong…" And thus Snake took the saw from him and showed him the appropriate way to use a saw and Pit felt ashamed of himself for not noticing his mistake earlier.
"I'm ashamed of myself…" he cried. "I'm not fit to do this…"
"Don't feel bad," Snake said, patting his shoulder. "There are things that certain people can do and cannot do."
After Snake had cut both the poles shorter, he got ready to nail the steps onto the pole. "Can I try this one?" Pit asked.
"Sure, go ahead," Snake said as he handed him the nails and hammer. "This shouldn't be hard for you."
Pit carefully placed the nail over the step that was placed against the pole and lifted the hammer and then brought it down onto the nail, but he accidentally hit his finger instead.
BONK!
"OW!" Pit jumped up and held his finger in pain and cried, "I broke my finger!"
"Are you all right?" Snake said as he got up to look at his finger. "Oh, that's no big deal. There's not even a visible wound."
"But it hurts… Aren't you supposed to use your hands to play with stilts? I hurt my finger, so how can I grip onto stilts anymore? I can never play with them again…" Pit said sadly.
Snake patted him on the shoulder and said, "Do not say such a thing, Pit. You do really want to play wit stilts, right? If you are a real man, you will not allow obstacles of any kind to get in your way!"
"Mr. Snake…"
"Grow up, Pit. Be a real man and do what you have to do. So long as you have a strong will and determination in your heart, you can always succeed! A real man will always accomplish anything he wants to do without giving up!"
Hearing this immediately gave Pit encouragement and he wiped his tears off his eyes and said, "Yes, Mr. Snake! I will not give up! Even if I broke my finger, I will still learn how to play with stilts!"
"That is the spirit, my boy!" Snake then pointed in a random direction and said, "Look! The sunset is beautiful! It is the symbol of hope! Let us shout together into the sunset and continue where we left off!"
The two of them shouted out loud phrases related to manliness and determination at the imaginary sunset and unknown to them, the Hanagumi were watching them from over the fence in the back. "What are they doing…?" Kanna asked.
"They are weird people, you know…" Macchi replied.
-
Soon afterwards, the stilt was finally completed and both Snake and Pit were glad that their hard-work came to an end. "All right! It's done!" Pit said happily. "We did it!"
"Okay, let's get started," Snake said. "First, I'll show you how this is done." He took both the stilts in his hands and then lifted his feet onto both the steps and slowly balanced himself before walking around in circles. "See? As long as you can hold your balance, stilts are very easy to walk around with!"
"Wow! Let me try it!" Pit said.
Snake got down from the stilts and Pit quickly took it for himself, but the moment he got onto it, he fell forward. "Ah!"
"Easy there! Don't start walking so fast," Snake told him. "Try to make sure you can stand first before actually trying to move."
"Okay…" Pit said. He got up and tried to stand in place using the stilts but his legs were wobbling very hard.
"I'll hold you." Snake helped Pit stood still by holding the front of the stilts and Pit eventually stopped shaking. When Snake let go of his hand, Pit had no problem standing firmly.
"I can stand in place now!" Pit said happily.
"You sure learn fast!" Snake said. "Now let's learn how to walk. I'll hold you in the front and slowly guide you." Snake held the front of the stilts again and slowly lifted it for him so that he can learn how to walk. However, Pit accidentally raised the left stilt too fast and it came up in between Snake's legs and hit him hard.
KICK!
"OOOOOOOOH!!!!" Snake cried in sheer pain as he jumped up and down with his hand on his crotch.
"I'm starting to think stilts are dangerous…" Pit said after he lost balance and fell down.
After Snake recovered, he taught Pit how to walk using the stilts again and Pit tried by himself and he was showing neat progress. "Good, that's the way!" Snake said.
Pit walked in circles around the garden and his skills were improving more and more. But he accidentally lost balance again and was about to fall backwards, so Snake quickly rushed to the rescue. Too late; Pit fell backwards and when Snake got there to help him, the right stilt swung up and smacked Snake in between the legs again.
SMACK!
"YEEEEEEEEEEEOW!!!!!" Snake once again jumped up and down with his hands holding over his crotch.
"Stilts really are dangerous…" Pit said.
-
ROB went into Snake's room and noticed Snake lying down on his bed and asked him, "Were you not teaching Pit how to use the stilts?"
"I have enough of playing with dangerous toys," Snake replied in an annoyed voice.
-
At the park, Ness, Young Link, Popo, Nana, Diddy, and Lucas were walking around the place on stilts happily. Their happiness was suddenly ruined when Billy the Bully came rushing towards them on his own stilt and rammed into Ness, causing him to fall back and crashing into the others, and thus they all fell down.
CRASH!
"Haha! Serves you right!" Billy the Bully laughed.
"Serves us what?! You're the one who started it!" Ness shouted back angrily.
"I have enough of you already!" Young Link said, but Billy the Bully just stuck his tongue out at them mockingly.
"Out of the way!" shouted a voice. Pit suddenly came walking into the place really fast and crashed into Billy the Bully from behind and caused him to fall face first onto the ground
CRASH!
Pit regained his balance afterwards and apologized to him. "Oh! I'm so sorry!"
"Hey Pit! You finally know how to play with stilts?" Ness asked him.
"Yeah, Mr. Snake taught me," he replied.
"You sure learn fast!" Popo said.
Billy the Bully got back up again and shouted to Pit, "Hey you! You got guts to ram me down like that! I'm not letting you get away with this! I demand a match with you! Let's have a race using our stilts!"
Ness stepped forward and said, "Don't bother asking him. I'll be your opponent instead!"
But Pit said to him, "It's okay, Mr. Ness. He wants to challenge me, and I will gladly accept his challenge."
"But you just learned how to use the stilts," Nana said to him in concern. "Can you win against him?"
"I will try my best!"
"Okay, so the race is from here to that tree over there!" Billy the Bully said, pointing to a tree a few yards away.
"I will accept your challenge!" Pit said with determination.
Thus the both of them got onto their stilts and stood behind the starting line that Ness drew. "Do your best!" YL cheered.
"Don't hurt yourself!" Lucas said.
"On your mark… Get set… GO!" Ness shouted.
The instant the race begun, Billy the Bully played dirty by using his stilt to give Pit a kick to his left stilt. This caused him to lose his grip on the left stilt and the other kids gasped in shock. In his desperation however, Pit unintentionally spun around the only stilt left in a manner similar to pole dancing and gave Billy the Bully a kick to stomach in the process and the bully fell back onto the ground with a crash while Pit continued to hold his balance by using the stilt as a pogo stick. "I'm going to fall!" he cried. And using this method, Pit bounced forward constantly until he reached the tree.
The Smashers were surprised by this and they ran up to Pit and said, "Wow! That was amazing!"
"Eh… I didn't know what I just did now…" Pit said, scratching his head. "But I still won, right?"
-
Later, the kids continued playing in the park with their stilts happily and then Luigi came passing by and said, "Ah, look at the kids play! It's been a while since I played with these!"
Ness spotted him and went up to him saying, "Hey Luigi! Want to try this out?"
"Oh? You want to lend them to me? I'll happily try them then!" Luigi said. Ness got off from his stilts and Luigi stepped onto them, but when he tried to walk, he fell over onto the ground instead. "Ow!"
"Are you all right?" Nana asked him.
"Just a bit of an accident…" Luigi said. He got onto the stilts again but this time fell backwards. "Yeow!"
"You don't know how to play with stilts?" YL asked.
"I haven't played with them in a long time, but I'm sure I still know a bit…" Luigi said. He got back up onto the stilts again but once again fell forward. "Yeow!" When he got up, he saw Hippochin standing in front of him with a bag of groceries. He then turned around and snickered to himself and Luigi said, "I saw you laughing!"
"Oh no, I was laughing at the funny TV program I saw earlier today," Hippochin claimed.
"I know you're laughing at me!" Luigi said. "Do you think you can use the stilts better than me? Don't laugh at others if you cannot do it yourself!"
"Okay, I'll show you what I can do," Hippochin said. He placed his grocery bag on the ground and then took the stilt from Luigi and stepped onto the steps and then started running around the place in huge steps using the stilts. The others all watched with eyes and mouth wide open as they have never seen someone run this fast using stilts before.
"Oh my god… He's good…" Popo said in awe.
After running in large circles, Hippochin suddenly leaped up into the air with the stilts still in his hand and performed several spins before landing upside-down, and he started walking upside-down using those stilts. This was something that was never done before and the Smashers as well as passersby were all amazed beyond words. "Oh my god… Walking upside-down on stilts… I have never seen anything like this…" Ness said in shock.
After running around in circles again, Hippochin leaped into the air and did another spin before landing right side up, and then he got off the stilt and took a bow while everybody clapped claps and cheered. "Got to go," he said, and he got his grocery bag and started to leave, but Luigi called out to him.
"Wait a minute! Can you please teach me how to use the stilts?" Luigi asked him.
Hippochin turned his head around and said, "I can, but you must do me a favor first."
"What is it? I'm willing to do anything!"
"Clean my house!"
"Your house is a mess again…?"
-
Soon, Luigi became a student of Hippochin and learned stilt techniques from him everyday.
After several days of tough training, Luigi finally knew how to use the stilts. As the kids were going out to play, he ran up to them with stilts in his hands and said, "Hey guys! I can now use the stilts properly! Want to play?"
"Sorry, Luigi," Ness said to him as he put a helmet onto his head. "Stilts are things of the yesterday. Now kick scooters are currently the craze." And then kids set off on their scooters down the street to enjoy."
Luigi cried silent tears to himself.
END OF CHAPTER