In The Land Of Pikmin
Part 10
Note: Italics are pikmin speaking in the ancient pikmin language.
For all those concerned, the Buggy Hills bit will end over the next couple chapters. From there, the next part of the storyline will begin.
Disclaimer: I do not own Nintendo or Pikmin. As much as I wish I did, I do not. If I did, we would be up to Pikmin 6 by now.
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Zap
It turned out that I was the one doing all of the spirit lifting thru joke telling and a positive mental attitude. I was used to telling jokes, I considered myself a genius, but I was used to having someone else doing the leading. I had always been more of a follower. I followed Flamer from the day we met. I followed all of those in the army that ranked higher than I, such as Smog and Bubbles. The last time I remember striking out on my own all by myself, I had gotten trapped under a ten-pellet. My judgment wasn't the best unless Flamer was by my side. And he always had been, up until just about now.
I tried to sound confident when we first emerged from the cave. All around us were hills and plateaus of all kinds. Buggy Hills was a much larger place than I had imagined. I told our small group to follow the path that led to the lowest part of the slope. I don't mean path as in brick-lined, but as in brush and thorn lined with absolutely no sign of a previous crosser to the other side.
I was surprised when they listened to me. Somehow I had made myself the leader. Flamer did it all the time. How hard could it be?
Spout allowed Rugburn to lean on him as we made our own trail. Rugburn had regained what little dignity he had, and refused to be carried. I found this a bit odd. Rugburn seemed to be the sort of pikmin who was passive, a shy and timid sort. He had claustrophobia for one thing, and now both of his legs were all but useless. But he still insisted on trying to walk on his own. Perhaps I had underestimated him. Maybe now the shock of his injury had passed, and he was finally showing his true fighting spirit. Unluckily for his pride, he didn't make it very far before he admitted that being carried was a wiser choice. Toxin and Spout picked their way carefully along the trail, now carrying Rugburn.
It wasn't long before we saw some incredibly large plants poking up over the last of the hills. We walked towards these, with me joking the whole way. I think I did a good job at keeping our spirit up, but I cannot remember any of the jokes that I made during the walk. This was most likely due to what happened after we arrived at the strange plants.
We carefully made our way down from the hills. Slowly, veeeeeery slowly. The climb was a long one, and everyone, save Rugburn, was out of breath when we reached the bottom. I explained my plan to circle around to the north, and catch the army on the other side. I estimated blindly that this would take the rest of the day, maybe longer. We then turned to the plants.
These plants were nearly as tall as the hills we had just climbed down from. Their stems were a bright red color, all the way up until the very top where they abruptly turned green and spread into leaves as wide as onions. The stems themselves were very wide around; so wide that the four of us together couldn't touch hands around it. The four of us marveled at their peculiar appearance, and missed something very important.
From the stem of the plant directly behind us descended a large reddish dweevil. We turned around just in time to spot it. It looked similar to a fiery dweevil in many ways, except it's legs were covered in some sticky glue like substance and its front two legs were equipped with claws.
Before we could react, it had grabbed the four of us in those large pincers at the end of its two front legs, and quickly ascended about a quarter of the way up the stem.
We were all screaming and struggling, but we couldn't break loose from the creature's grip. I was caught up about the ribs, and I couldn't breathe very well. My lungs struggled to find air, but it was no use. Just as my eyes were beginning to lose focus, it released us.
It tossed us mercilessly into a large bowl-shaped web, to which we immediately became stuck fast. The height itself was startling, mostly because we could see right through the 'floor' of the web. The creature left for the top of the plant for reasons unknown to us at the time. But we knew it would be back. We screamed for a while longer, but soon we regained our level heads, and began talking to each other.
"Well this sucks," began Rugburn, "Any ideas?"
"If I could get to the stem, I could climb down," suggested Spout.
"Shit guys. I'm sorry about this. I've never really been good at leading. I can't do anything by myself. I shouldn't have let Flamer go after Bubbles, he could have gotten us though this." I lowered my head sadly.
"There isn't need to swear Zap," stated Toxin firmly. "We aren't dead yet. I'm sure that we'll find a way out of this. I've actually been inside the mouth of a Hairy Bulborb before. I managed to escape because my comrades killed the creature before it could swallow. We can't lose hope Zap."
But I wasn't listening to him. All I could think about was how I had failed them. And once again, I proved to myself that I wasn't a leader.
We stayed up there for what may have been five hours. The sun had eaten its way across the sky by that time. It was also about that time I got fed up with my self-pity.
Who am I? Smog? I don't need to get so pessimistic! What would Flamer do in this situation?
And soon, the glint was back in my eye. I had a plan.
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Smog
I held my tongue for about five more minutes while Head Chief Richard spoke about the new plans for a green onion addition (with Bubbles translating). Apparently he had been hoping to convince some greens to join HTC in eradicating all of the natural enemies on the continent. Bud, Phyll and Viper were committed to joining the army by now, and Richard was filling them in on all sorts of tactical plans. The three greens also mentioned the fact that there were other outcasts scattered around, and they would probably be willing to go to the HTC headquarters and start the green colony there.
I still wasn't paying close attention. Nobody here had mentioned Zap, Toxin, Rugburn and Spout since Richard had arrived. I could easily see that Flamer wanted to say something as well, but we didn't want to interrupt.
Eventually though, we did. "Sir! The three of us plus these three greens are not all that survived the cave."
My commander shot a glare at me. He then released all of his pent-up anger. "You mean the four that you mentioned when you came back to camp and told me to send a recon? The four that make up but a tiny fraction of our Troop? Four of the seven out of the fourteen, plus Flamer, who entered that goddamn cave, to emerge alive? Soldier! I made you a sub-leader of Troop 45 because I believed that you could take care of the others using that brain of yours. Yet only half of the pikmin who entered that cave came out. Half. If there were anyone else in my Troop capable of doing your job, you would be replaced instantly! You had better make sure that those four make it back, or your head will roll!!"
Well, I was right when I said he was pissed off. He had a right to be. Seven pikmin from the 30 in our troop were dead. I couldn't have prevented Clyde's death, or the blue he crushed. And I was sent sprawling while we fought the wollywog; Bubbles took command then. But I still felt I was to blame. I vowed to myself that those who could still be saved would be.
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Flamer
Phyll was the only green out of the three that had ever been to the surface. He had gone out where Zap and the others had, using a rope ladder that had since been broken away. He quickly explained to us that Zap and the others probably had ended up in the TallPlant Forest. Our commander assigned what was left of Troop 45 to retrieve the missing pikmin. That would be the sixteen who hadn't fallen down the hole, Bubbles, Smog and I, plus Phyll and Viper to show us the way. Bud would be going back to the camp to assist with the wounded.
Before we began gathering our expedition party, the Troop's commander pulled me aside and yelled at me for leaving my bed rest. Then he immediately thanked me for coming to the assistance of the green pikmin and those lost underground. The transition between his anger and his gratitude came so quickly that I wasn't prepared for it. I figured out what had happened. Smog had told the commander that it had been me who saved the greens in order to make him forgive me for leaving while I was injured.
It took about ten minutes to organize our party of twenty-one. I caught Smog and thanked him for covering me, and he told me that I was ridiculous.
"You know you were the one who helped out the most down there. Bubbles was about to give up, until you showed your face. If you hadn't come, Bubbles and I wouldn't have been able to bounce back. I didn't give you credit for anything. You earned it." Smog then turned his heels to begin the march. I couldn't decide if I wanted to slap him or thank him, so I did neither.
We set off for the other side of Buggy Hills, The TallPlant Forest. What a silly name. It only sounded silly because of the bad translation from pikmin old, though.
Phyll led the way, and Bubbles let it be known that she was in charge. We had 'conveniently' left out the part about me hurting my leg when we spoke to Richard. Only our commander knew about that. Bud had told me to take it easy, but I wasn't about to skip out on my best friend when he might be in trouble!
The rest of our army was now on cleanup duty. They were rounding up what was left of the enemies and eradicating them. Our commander had told us that that would take about one day at longest, so we would have to hurry and bring back those missing.
Phyll led us about four miles around the base of the Hills to an easy way over them. We all climbed up and found this part of Buggy Hills to be mostly a plateau with many dips and crevices. We worked our way steadily along, keeping a lookout for anything suspicious.
I spent most of the long hours discussing the war campaign with Smog. Seemingly, the army had to clear three more areas on the East side of the continent before moving along the coast to the north, where the really dangerous foes lurked. Smog explained that the war would probably last for two or more years, and we'd all be used to life out here by then.
I wasn't feeling homesick at all, actually. It was kind of nice seeing the world. I'm sure Zap didn't mind.
Zap… I wonder how he's doing.
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Bubbles
And so here we were. After narrowly escaping death, we were put right back on the field. Our procession moved along at a steady pace for a few hours, until we caught site of the strange plants that made up the TallPlant Forest.
Were kept low and peered over the edge of the hill ridge. Smog was the one who spotted them.
"Holy crap. They're caught in a web." Smog stated this grudgingly. All of us moved closer, and could see their faces clearly. We could also see the dweevil, seemingly sleeping quite a ways above its web. Viper and Phyll looked at each other, and then began to whisper.
"They must have been caught by a Bowl-webbed Dweevil. They use sap from the inside of these plants to make themselves able to walk on the stems. They prey on smaller things such as dwarf bulborbs by catching them with their nasty pincers and entangling them in the web until the creature gets hungry. By the looks of this one, it has just recently eaten."
I translated this and our company took a look at the beast. Its body was bloated in an odd way, and I assumed that it had just eaten a dwarf bulborb or something small.
"C'mon, we can take him!" Said Flamer enthusiastically. "It'll be no match for all of us!"
"But they have extremely aggressive attacks, plus we have no way to reach it. We need to find a way to get our allies down without alerting the dweevil."
But we soon saw that there was no need. We watched in awe as the following happened.
Zap wordlessly instructed Rugburn to use his makeshift splints as tiny saws to cut through his bonds. Then he showed him how to tell the difference between the sticky threads and the guiding threads by how much foliage and such was attached to them. Rugburn was soon able to move along the non-sticky threads and work the other three loose. Then Spout grabbed one of the guiding threads and used it to tie Rugburn to his back. The two of them then descended quietly, Spout proving again that he was an excellent climber. Toxin and Zap noiselessly carved some small holes in the stem using Rugburn's discarded splints as pitons, and coated their hands with the sap. Then they too, descended.
I was truly amazed. It must have taken one heck of a leader to come up with that plan.
In the end, all four made it to the ground in one piece. We quietly moved in and pulled them out of there. The four of them were clearly surprised to see us.
When we had moved about a hundred yards back the way we had came, Flamer spoke up.
"I don't know if you care or not, but Zap, I'm very proud of you."
"Spare me the romance Flamer. You could've done it all the same."
But I could see that he was pleased. We, the twenty-six members of Troop 45 made our way back to our camp. By that time, it was so very late, the whites and the two greens had to lead the way with their superior night-vision.
We had to be especially careful to avoid the small crevices and to keep our footing. Flamer and Zap spent the trip telling the members of Troop 45 the story behind their grand battles and narrow escapes. They might have exaggerated a tiny bit, but Smog and I said nothing because we were intent on delivering the Troop safely back to the camp.
The pikmin who had avoided the snagret hole filled us in on the surface battle. There had been an amazing number of bulborbs around the hills, and the army fought intensively for many hours.
They also told us how they had beaten the Burrowing Snagret using a bitter berry spray. The pikmin had conquered Buggy Hills, and we were going all the way to the top.
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Bubbles (Back at camp)
Needless to say, there was much rejoicing back at camp. We broke out some special drinks that the Head Chief provided. Flamer, Zap, Me, Smog, Spout, Toxin, Bud, Phyll, Rugburn and Viper all crowded into my tent to celebrate our survival. Bud had used the Fundi leaf to heal Rugburn, and he was feeling much better. Even Smog had a good time, despite the verbal beating he had received from our commander. We had all decided that it was better to celebrate life than to mourn death.
The casualties on the pikmin side equaled 43. That left 50 Troops with a total of 1471 pikmin. That included Phyll and Viper, who were both assigned to Troop 45 due to our having two speakers of pikmin old. Bud had joined the medical staff of about 120, whose figure was not included in the total fighting numbers.
We learned at about eleven o'clock that Flamer had been promoted to sub-leader. Smog and I had convinced our commander to promote him to the third position that had just opened. We then redoubled our efforts at partying, and nearly everyone was soon pooped. Rugburn actually fell asleep in the tent, Flamer and I had to wake him and send him on his way. At last, it was just Flamer and I.
"So, are you sleepy?" I asked Flamer.
"Not even a little bit." He replied.
"So what do you want to do?"
"What can we do? We should be sleeping."
"But we aren't."
"That is definitely true."
"So…"
"Tell me a story or something."
"What? I- okay, I guess." I realized that this was the perfect opportunity to tell Flamer the secret I had been keeping. I felt that he deserved to know, because he was the one who I had rescued, even with my lack of something vital.
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What is it? Tell me!! AGGGG!!
Next chappy, Bubbles' past is revealed as well as the commander's super tough training. And the move from Buggy Hills!
-SkippingZombie