Chapter Ten: New Considerations
Day Six...
I was still shaken up after seeing the giant snake; never had I seen a creature that even resembled it in the games. Of course, the same could be said for the elephant, but elephants are much less creepy and deadly. Sure, there have been incidents, but they rarely happen. Snakes have poison and their bites hurt. You can't really see them through thick foliage and their attacks can be fatal. The same doesn't really apply to what I had seen earlier, but it still maintained its deadliness.
Hold on, I'm wrong. The blowhogs resemble elephants somewhat, with their large trunks and grey colors. That made it even more frightening: there could be smaller snakes in one of the levels. Invisible snakes could be lurking somewhere. I thought none of these things as we were rocketing up to the surface, but what I've just said only increases the danger of our situation. At any point we could have been ambushed and overwhelmed by the second scariest animal alive. Second only to, of course, spiders.
My first thoughts at the time were as follows: Oh my god what a freaking horrible creature! Was I just imagining it or did I really see it? I've never seen a snake in the games. It can burrow underground too! It could appear anywhere! My most fearful thought, that was so scary I voiced it aloud, was this: "What if it has hands? What if it has human hands?"
Although Olimar couldn't understand my words due to the roar of the geyser, he looked at me in confusion. I hid my frightened face and tried desperately to calm myself. I thought about our situation. The positives: we had defeated, what I assumed, was an underground boss. We had obtained the ship part and thus only had one more to go before we could go to the Distant Spring. We were alive. The negatives: I had forgotten to get the wing of the ship again. I had seen one of the most frightening creatures in the Pikmin games. We wasted far too much time with the boss and had probably stayed in the creature for a majority of the night. If the nocturnal creatures were still out, we'd be in Murtiv.
Eventually, after what seemed like an eternity because of my thoughts, we were blown out of the ground and landed in the pool of water. The hole from which we were shot out was located inside the bottle. Thus, another mystery from the games had been solved.
After surveying the land, Olimar came to a conclusion. "There is a good news and bad news, Jason. We have spent the entire night in the beast. It's morning. However, we have another of my ship's parts. We may only have fourteen days left, but soon we will only have to get nineteen parts. At the rate we're going, we'll make it."
Oh yeah. My suit. I had forgotten, and his reminder didn't help my attitude. "Yeah," I said. "It's great. I won't die."
"Not from the atmosphere, at least," corrected Olimar. He glanced at the disappearing ship part. "There are still plenty of creatures that can kill us, including your snake."
"You aren't helping," I muttered. "Are you ready for today's plan?"
"That was quick," Olimar commented. His mouth twitched as he tried to smirk. "You've planned for this, I suppose."
I ignored his comment and told him my plan. I had to get the wing, and would do so while Olimar takes all of the remaining pikmin and destroys the black wall blocking the path to two of the ship parts. When my job was finished, I would meet up with him and help destroy the wall.
After we followed the pikmin, being careful to watch for any surviving shearwigs, and getting out the required number of pikmin from the onions, we separated and did our respective jobs. The plan went perfectly, not that there was any reason for it not to be. We had killed most of the enemies the past two days and they didn't respawn. I avoided the flame geysers, "c-sticked" my pikmin to the ship's wing, and performed the incredibly boring job of following the pikmin as they slowly carried the darn wing up the long path to the ship.
"If I learn anything from this," I muttered as we reached the rocket. "Creating these long paths that we have to walk across that bend and twist and turn an irritating amount of times is completely stupid. There's a complaint I have with the game. The bulborbs become invincible when about to bite and the paths are too long." Finally, the pikmin reached the rocket and I watched - somewhat guiltily - as I was the only one to witness the rocket upgrading and that strange whisk growing out of the rocket.
"That's the second time Olimar hasn't been able to witness his rocket," I said to a pikmin that happened to be looking at me. "I cheated him out of this extraordinary, impossible experience." The pikmin said nothing in response so I assumed it agreed with me. I called the pikmin and walked straight to Olimar. There, I saw a dead blowhog, several pikmin beating the wall down to its last level, and a bored-looking Olimar staring at the ground. I "c-sticked" the pikmin to the wall and we watched them hit the wall.
"Jason, please, I have to know why you know this planet so well," Olimar said calmly. "You do not look like a Hocotatian. You are not from Hocotate, although I don't know how you have managed to obtain a suit. An old, slightly damaged suit as well. You are not from this planet or you wouldn't need the suit. Who are you? Why are you here? How do you know so much?"
"I don't know anything, Olimar," I said, rather hastily. "Do you know how scared I was when I saw that snake? I've never seen anything like that, or the elephant, or the hand, or felt a gust of wind that powerful."
"You haven't answered any of my questions," Olimar stated. "Please, Jason, in order to trust you I need to know the truth."
"Haven't I given you enough proof of my trust already-" I began, but Olimar interrupted.
"No. As you've just said, although you seem to know a lot about this planet, you don't know everything. What you don't know could mean death for both of us. In order to trust you, you have to tell me why you know what you know. That way, we can plan for the rest of our time here and for more unexpected surprises. If you tell me the truth, we'll have the best chance of making it out alive."
I couldn't let that happen; I had to make this trip as difficult and exciting as possible. I answered, "I can't tell you, Olimar. I'm sorry, but for now I can't tell you."
"You don't want to escape?"
"I want to escape. That's the reason why I can't tell you."
Olimar frowned. "That means I won't like the answer. That makes it even more important that I know the answer now, Jason. Especially when, according to you, we won't have any obstacles. If it's something that I may not be able to handle, I'll need as much time as possible to recover."
"What if you take too long to recover? What if you mope and give up for three days? What if you never recover?" I stood up. "I'm sorry, but I can't risk it, Olimar. Not yet."
Before Olimar could answer, the pikmin destroyed the final section of the wall. I whistled the pikmin, "c-sticked" them to the wall, avoiding the fire geysers, and moved away from Olimar before he could speak. I quickly reached the area with the bridge leading to the island. I separated the pikmin into groups and took twenty blue pikmin, keeping close to the wall as I traveled, to the yellow computer in the pool of water. I swarmed the computer, waited until the pikmin carried it out of the water, and called the pikmin back. Finally, I met up with Olimar, who to my relief had led the remaining pikmin to the bridge and was watching them build it.
After watching them in silence, the pikmin finished the bridge. We separated them and, while Olimar worked on the small puzzle that led to one of the ship parts, I traveled to the computer with 20 red pikmin and let them carry it to the rocket. When I returned, Olimar had solved the puzzle, thanks to my advice, and was surprisingly on his knees and staring at the ship part.
"Olimar?" I asked, confused. I then realized what the treasure was, and Olimar confirmed my realization a few seconds later.
"This is a present that was given to be my daughter," Olimar whispered. "She gave it to me just two years ago. She's such a beautiful, thoughtful girl. I- I miss her." He looked at me, tears filling his eyes. "Jason, I could have left here without it. I could have lost it forever. Thank you for helping me recover it. I'm sorry for my suspicions."
I smiled, thinking to myself, I couldn't have left without it; the game wouldn't let me. I waited for him to speak again: "Jason, you knew this was here. Is there another similar ship part? It's called a Sagittarius."
I thought for a few seconds, recalled a ship part, and replied, "Yes, there is. It's in the Forest of Hope."
"Good, good," whispered Olimar, turning back to the Libra. "Jason, could you leave the pikmin here. I need a few moments."
I nodded, left the pikmin with Olimar, and followed the other pikmin as they carried their pikmin to the rocket. I figured that now was as good a time as any to think about this situation.
"Although, really, I doubt I won't have a lot of time to think," I continued my thought out loud. "There are only three possibilities for this adventure. The first I have eliminated: a dream. It can't be a dream for a few reasons. First, I haven't woken up. If this was a normal dream, I wouldn't have made it past the first day. Second, for at least a fourth of the time here, we have been waiting for you pikmin to finish building, destroying, or carrying. Third, I am incredibly weak. It would be the other way around if it was my dream. Finally, this wouldn't be so much like the game. There would be no giant snake, there would be explosions and babes and you pikmin would be swearing and drinking booze. Action would happen every moment and it'd be epic."
I looked at the pikmin and continued. "This leaves two others: This is real and is actually happening, or this is a realistic experience that my mind is having while my body rests peacefully and unconsciously. Something like the movies, where the main actor imagines something that seems realistic, but doesn't happen. I'm not sure which to believe, but I know I'd prefer this not to be real. I'm sorry, pikmin, because I know it hurts your feelings, but Olimar and I have caused many deaths. I don't want those deaths to have actually happened. Olimar, too, I don't want to actually let down if we fail. Then there's this suit; if we're too slow and my suit actually runs out of power, I don't want to actually die."
I thought I head Olimar approaching, so I silenced and waited. Nothing happened, so I continued in a whisper. "Finally, there are the days we haven't lived. We've been through most of the easy stuff. Sure, we're almost done with this area, but we have to face the Beady Long Legs. We also have to face the Burrowing Snagrets, the Emperor Bulblax, the Armored Cannon Beetles, the Spotty Bulbears, and the Puffy Blowhogs. If we're really unlucky, we'll have to face the Snake, the creature with the hand if that isn't already the Snake, the creature that blew the wind, if that was a creature, and other creatures that weren't even in the games. We may almost be half way through the game, but this was the easy part. We have a long, long way to go before we get off."
I had finished my thoughts and waited for Olimar to arrive. He did so many minutes later, following the Libra, when it was nearing night. Not that I was disappointed, but it was far too late to finish the Beady Long Legs puzzle. Olimar also offered an alternate suggestion, which I wholeheartedly agreed with.
"Jason, can we please go to the Forest of Hope tomorrow," he asked. "I don't know if it intereferes with your plans, but I want to get the Sagittarius as soon as possible."
And so, the day ended with us getting four ship parts and, after several awkward conversations, Olimar and I renewing our trust. I was more than happy to fulfill Olimar's request. So the next day we were going to tackle the Forest of Hope.
End of Day 6
Ship Parts: 14/30
Red: 60
Blue: 130
Yellow: 45