Chapter VIII: To the Island of the Kongs
After he braved the chilly conditions of Sherbet Land, Luigi was able to claim the second yoshi egg. Now he was relaxing in his cabin with Purpley and Pinky.
"I'm so sorry I left you, Luigi," Purpley confessed. "I got so scared when I couldn't see you anymore that I had to come back here."
"Don't worry about it," Luigi said as he pet Purpley. "I understand. I'm just glad nothing happened to you. How is Oshi doing anyway?"
"He'll be fine tomorrow," Pinky answered.
"Good to hear that."
Someone knocked on the cabin door. Luigi got up and answered it. It was Wario.
"Hey, guys. Chow time," the captain said.
"Good to hear that too," Luigi smiled. "I'm famished!"
Luigi and the yoshis followed Wario to the kitchen where Waluigi got some ravioli ready for everyone.
"Hey, Luig-" Mario began to say.
Luigi didn't seem to notice him. He quickly served up a plate for himself and chowed down without talking to anyone.
"Whoa! Slow down!" Mario said in alarm. "You don't want to choke, do you?"
"You really wanted that, huh?" Wario asked.
Luigi burped. "Sorry. But cold weather like that can give one a bit of an appetite."
"You've got a point there," Mario admitted. "Heck. Adventuring in general can do that."
Luigi got right down to business after everyone was finished eating. "So, Wario. Do you have any idea where we should go next?"
"Waluigi had some time to check The World of Plit," Wario replied. "Go ask him."
"Okay then. Waluigi, same question. Replace Wario's name with yours."
"After looking at that book, I think we should head for Kong Isle."
"Yeah," Wario agreed. "It's not too far from here and I don't think D.K. will be a jerk like that one guy. That was just dumb."
Luigi nodded. "Sounds fine to me. We can probably get the Kongs to team up with us and help look for the egg."
"What are Kongs?" Yosheta asked. She and the other yoshis had never heard of such a thing.
"The Kongs are good friends of ours," said Mario. "They're really nice folks. You gotta watch out for Cranky though."
"I better give them a call and let them know we're coming."
Luigi pulled out his phone and dialed D.K.'s number, then he waited as the phone rang a few times.
Eventually, the main monkey himself picked it up. "Hello?"
"Hi, D.K."
"Hey, Mario! How's it going, bud?"
"Actually, this is Luigi."
"Oh, dang. You two sound a lot alike over the phone. So what's up?"
"I've got a quick question for you. Have you seen any yoshi eggs lately?"
"You mean one with blue spots?"
"Huh-what?" Luigi sputtered, surprised by D.K.'s answer. "Yeah! One of the eggs I'm looking for has blue spots. Where did you find it?"
"Diddy and Dixie were out for a walk through Fungi Forest and found it there. They asked me if I knew anything about it, but I didn't. So I've been holding onto it until someone came to get it."
"Great. I'll be over there tomorrow to pick it up."
"Roger that, good buddy. Catch you later."
"Was that good news I heard?" Mario asked when Luigi ended the call.
"Yup. D.K. found one. This is gonna be a piece of cake."
"Wanna bet that he'll make you do something for it anyway?" Wario snickered.
"Like what?"
"He'll probably make you play a mini-game or something."
Mario disagreed. "C'mon now. Even if that was the case and Luigi happens to lose, I'm sure D.K. will give it to him anyway. He's a pretty nice guy."
"Whatever," Luigi yawned. "I'm hitting the hay. Good night, guys."
Meanwhile, inside a dark castle in a distant land, a large shadowy figure sat upon a throne and gazed at a crystal ball that he had in his grasp. The throne also had a rather unhappy pink Birdo chained to it.
"MOUSER!"
The mouse that Luigi faced in Sherbet Land appeared and bowed down. "Yes, my master."
"I'm trusting that Luigi has been properly dealt with."
"Of course, master. I got him good! I put him on ice! I-"
"Then what do you call this?!" the dark presence bellowed as he showed the crystal ball to Mouser.
Mouser gulpped. The ball showed that Luigi and Purpley were sleeping soundly on the S.S. Garlic.
"Well...I guess I made a...miscalculation...master...?"
"Get out of my sight, you useless rat!"
Mouser did as he was told.
"I suppose that if you want a job done right, you've got to do it yourself. I'm sure you know what I mean." The shadowy figure pet the Birdo, causing it to growl.
The next morning was a rather quiet one. Luigi woke up and walked out onto the deck. He stayed there for a moment, enjoying the ocean breeze. After Luigi had enough of this, he went into the kitchen to get some breakfast. Strangely, the kitchen was deserted. All Luigi found was a box of cereal on the kitchen table with a sticky note on it.
"Let's see here," Luigi said as he looked at the note. "'Hey, you. The early birds got all the worms so here's your breakfast. Waluigi.' Heh. That guy has a weeeird sense of humor."
After having two bowls of cereal, Luigi went to look for his friends. He found all of them at the swimming pool near the back of the ship. Mario, Wario and Pinky were sitting on beach chairs. Waluigi, Oshi and Yosheta were swimming in the pool. Purpley sat at the pool's edge with her feet in the water.
"Hey, guys," Luigi called out to them. "What's up?"
"Just waiting for you," said Wario.
"Shouldn't you be steering the ship?"
"I've got two words for you. Cruise control, baby."
"That's three words. And I'd rather not be called 'baby' if you don't mind," Luigi frowned.
"Anyway, we're just chilling out since this egg will be so easy to get."
"Speaking of chilling..." Mario added. "Did you have to beat anyone to get that jewel yesterday?"
"I didn't actually fight anyone, but I ran into a big mouse. He was weird. He seemed to know about the egg in Sarasaland."
"Uh oh. You think he has any connection with the three-headed snake?"
"Maybe, Mario. Maybe. He also mentioned something called Fryguy."
"Huh... There's a lot of Shy Guy types, but the closest thing I can think of is Pyro Guy. Could just be another name for that."
"Hey!" Luigi shouted when he saw some of his friends in the pool. "Didn't your mothers ever tell you not to go swimming right after eating?"
"We all ate a few hours ago," Wario pointed out. "They're fine."
"Oh..."
"Hey, Luigi. Wanna have a breath-holding contest?" Waluigi challenged.
"Sure. Why not?" Luigi accepted and slid into the cool water.
Mario laughed to himself. "Poor Waluigi..."
"I'll say," said Wario. "He's never been able to beat Luigi at it."
"Excuse me, but what's a breath-holding contest?" Pinky asked.
"It's simple," Mario explained. "It's just a contest to see who can hold their breath underwater the longest."
"That sounds easy enough. I wonder why Luigi never taught us that one?"
"That's not fair!" Waluigi protested after he lost the contest. "How the heck do you do that?"
"Lots of practice," Luigi said with a grin.
"Darn it! Let's try this again!"
"Anyway," Mario continued. "Luigi's quite good at it. Heck, he's good at swimming in general. If there's anything he can do better than jumping, it's swimming. Heheh. It must be that sleek physique."
"I know," said Pinky. "We have swimming races. The only one of us that can even keep up with him is Yosheta."
"Really? Yosheta?"
"Yeah," Yosheta spoke up. "I love the sea, so I swim a lot."
"Hey! Whoa!" Purpley shouted. "Stop that!"
Waluigi lost round two and tried to pummel Luigi in a fit of rage. Luigi managed to get away before any damage was done.
"What a bad sport," Luigi scoffed. "Just the same as always."
"Hey, Luigi. I've got a question," said Mario.
"What's up?"
"Correct me if I'm wrong, but were you snowboarding in Sherbet Land?"
"Guilty as charged. But I didn't have a choice! It was do or die!"
"Where did you even get the snowboard?"
"It wasn't actually a snowboard. I ripped a door off a cabin that got wrecked and used that."
"Resourceful as ever, I see," Mario chuckled.
"With that said, it was sorta fun. Might be something I could get into."
"I've been thinking about it myself. Peach mentioned to me that she wanted to go skiing sometime. Perhaps we should go on a trip together."
"Sounds cool."
"We're almost at Kong Isle, guys," said Wario. "I'm gonna go to the helm before we run smack-dab into it."
"Excellent," Luigi smiled as he watched Wario walk away. "This egg is as good as got!"
