Chapter 4-Land's Embrace

Soshi barely had flown for an hour before he noticed a peculiar island floating in the middle of the Aria Sea. Soshi thought there were no landforms here, much less whole islands. It was shaped rather peculiarly, too. Not quite a circle, for it had two oval-shaped peninsulas at the North end. Soshi then noticed a strange figure walking along the beach. It was green and rather tall. Soshi flew a little closer, being careful not to be spotted by it. As he neared it, he noticed some red spikes on its back, and it wore red shoes.

It was a Land Yoshi, and it appeared to be a well-trained one. Something about this particular one startled Soshi, however. When it turned its head, it revealed four large claw marks, two on each side of his face. His father had the same marks. Soshi gasped as he realized this was the Land Yoshi his father had fought before. Koujin would have to wait. The Yoshi began to run off, probably in response to a call, but Soshi wasn't going to let him escape. He dove down at a breakneck speed, kicking up a cloud of sand in the process. The Yoshi shielded his eyes with his arm. When the sand and dust settled, Soshi was glaring at the Land Yoshi, fists clenched.

"Who are you?" he asked.

"I'm the one who will avenge what you did to my father." Soshi growled, and slashed at the Yoshi's throat. He instantly dodged, and began running in the other direction.

Soshi smirked. "This dinosaur doesn't seem like the fighting type." he thought. Soshi began the hot pursuit of the Yoshi, using his powers of flight to his advantage. His wings turned as hard as iron, and struck the Yoshi in the back, knocking him to the ground. Soshi flew up and hung a U-turn in the air, aiming directly at the Yoshi's head with his claws. Suddenly, the Yoshi stood up and grabbed Soshi by his feet. Soshi stumbled in mid-air, and the Yoshi flung him to the ground.

Soshi shook it off and growled. "So you can fight a little." The Yoshi said nothing. His cheeks puffed up and hesquirt out a burst of acidic juice at Soshi. The dragon dodged, conjuring up a fireball in his own mouth. Tasting the fire, he spewed out the purple flame. The Yoshi appeared to be hit directly, but when the smoke cleared, it was revealed he had curled himself into a ball to avoid the attack. Soshi brought up as much flame as he could. He waited for his foe to lower his guard, then spewed out a flame so large and powerful it propelled him backwards into the air. A small explosion followed the attack.

Descending lightly to the ground, Soshi's breathing was heavy. However, he had a triumphant and malevolent smile on his face. His job was done. As Soshi walked over to deliver the final blow, a green hand shot out of the smoke and choked the dragon.

"Impossible" Soshi thought as he broke free. This Yoshi had more tricks up his sleeve than any he had seen in the past. Soshi then noticed a long red object coming fast at him. He realized too late it was the Yoshi's sticky tongue. Since Yoshis can swallow any object up to twice their size, fitting Soshi into the Yoshi's mouth proved to be no problem. Soshi's foe then conjured up more juice. This time however, Soshi could not escape. His foe swirled the juice inside his mouth, suffocating Soshi. He finally spit him out. Soshi tried to take flight, but his wings were drenched, and useless. He felt exhausted. His combatant gripped his throat tightly, an enraged expression on his face.

"Father, forgive me." Soshi thought just before he blacked out.

Soshi opened his eyes. He was surprised that he even could. He was supposed to be dead. Soshi looked around. He was in a rustic-looking room, sticks and logs making the walls. Something was strangedly comforting about it, though. He climbed up off the bed he was on and looked at it. It was nothing more than a rather large log split in half vertically and covered in leaves.

"Some handiwork." Soshi thought to himself. He tried to fly, but a sharp pain in his wings prevented that. Soshi slumped to the ground in a heap and looked at his wings. They were still dripping with acidic juice from the vile Land Yoshi. He got to his feet and tried to walk around. He felt a shock of pain in his left leg. The battle had worn him out.

The battle! Where was he? Where was the Land Yoshi? Slowly, painfully, Soshi made his way down the flight of stairs in front of him. He saw the same Yoshi cooking something on the stove. It glanced at him, then went back to its cooking without a word. After a long, awkward silence, Soshi spoke up.

"Why did you bring me here?" No reply.

"Why didn't you kill me?" Soshi asked.

"Because." the Land Yoshi stated simply. Soshi waited patiently for it to continue. "Yoshi no like to kill unless necessary."

"Wait a minute...your name's Yoshi?" Soshi asked.

"That right. I brought you here because you seemed to need rest."

Soshi was thrown for a loop by this. Here this Land Yoshi was, him having attacked it. He gets knocked out and the Yoshi not only doesn't kill him, but brings him back to his house! Soshi couldn't understand. Never had he seen anyone so forgiving. However, that still didn't change things. Forgetting his gratitude, Soshi demanded answers.

"You were the one who fought my father, weren't you?"

Yoshi paused in the middle of his cooking and sighed. "That was a long time ago."

"You-" Soshi was interrupted.

"You wish to take revenge on me, right? For fighting your father. If you so wish, then I will not stop you. Kill me if you wish." Yoshi said.

Soshi blinked. The fool. He had practically handed his life to him. He looked at Yoshi to make sure he wasn't pulling any tricks. Yoshi's face was steel. Soshi pulled back his hand, claws glistening. He shot it full speed at Yoshi's neck, aiming for a clean cut...

And stopped inches from it. He couldn't do it. Yoshi grinned.

"Welcome to Yoshi's Island." he said.

Soshi looked up at Yoshi. His arm fell limp. The smile on the green one's face told Soshi that he knew he wasn't going to kill him. Soshi brushed it off.

"Soshi, there's something you don't know. About the battle, with...with your father. Come on, we'll talk outside."

Soshi followed Yoshi out to the front porch. Outside was nothing like Soshi had ever seen. Lush foliage covered every square inch of Yoshi's Island. Even more impressive, fruits of all varieties grew on them. Having spent most of his life on the volcano-dominated Isle Soshi, Soshi had never seen so many different species of plants in his life. Little Yoshi children were running around in their carefree world, and for a brief moment, Soshi wished he could be like them. He stared at his now-dry wings. He was proud of them, that much for certain, but he wondered what it would be like to be an ordinary Land Yoshi.

"Soshi, your father led a group of dragons to Yoshi's Island it a last-ditch attempt to get rid of us, the Land Yoshis. He headed straight for me, as I am their leader. Both of our small armies were crushed, and only we were left to battle, one on one. He was fighting to eliminate me, I was fighting to save both of us. I cut open his chest, then I let him go. His lesson was learned. Was yours?"

Soshi sat in silence for a minute. This was the Yoshi that almost killed his father. Why did he let him go? Soshi was too confused to be mad at Yoshi.

"All that doesn't matter now. We must prepare for the coming trials ahead." Yoshi explained.

"You mean..."

"Yes, I do. Koujin will not hide forever. We must prepare our army, and we must be on the same side." Yoshi said.

Soshi nodded. He understood now. "But now I must get to Proarctica. I have some unfinished business there."

"Then go. I will stay here, and hopefully be able to put together an army to stop Koujin." the green dinosaur responded.

Soshi unfurled his dark wings and hovered inches, then feet, then yards above Yoshi's Island. He flew off once again.

"What exactly is Koujin planning?" he thought, as Yoshi's Island dissapeared beneath the horizon.