CHAPTER ELEVEN:
Dream Clouds
Luigi and Yoshi finally arrived on their second destination: World Seven.
"Okay, okay," Luigi'd said reluctantly, "that warp cannon wasn't so bad." He'd said that just seconds after they began to incline downward from being shot out of the World Seven warp cannon, and minutes before landing on a mound of soft cloud fluff.
Yoshi landed on his back to the clouds. "I guess we're just lucky we got ourselves a place to make a soft landing, huh?"
"You know we got lucky on this one."
Yoshi stood up and looked around. True to the riddle's words, they were now surrounded with clouds; all the green from the Yoshi's Island forest were now replaced with the 'white and fluff' of World Seven.
"A-looks like we're on the right track being here, Yoshi," Luigi said.
Yoshi smiled and shook his head. "The fact that you had sleuthing skills that was surely unheard of has been a huge eye-opener for me."
"A-well, then, congratulations for bearing second witness to it."
" 'Second witness'?" Yoshi quoted, confused. "Who was the first?"
Luigi grimaced, then he looked away at the mounds of cumulus clouds that were farther away. "It was...Mario."
"Oh," Yoshi mumbled, understanding Luigi's sudden change of tone and expression when he mentioned his brother. He changed the subject. "Uh, anyway...did you make sense of everything in that riddle?"
Luigi frowned. "No. The last one didn't sink in on me. Ya know, the one that said, 'Prepare to lift off to your next destination and stay real, this is where imagination keeps the deal.' "
"I don't suppose it has to be another monster we're gonna fight?"
"Your guess might just be as good as mine."
Suddenly, a low rumbling somewhere around the farther clouds interrupted whatever Yoshi was about to say. Both of them looked at the clouds where the rumbling had come from, and realized that they now took on a grayish hue.
"Storm clouds?" Luigi guessed.
"Looks like a case of bad weather to me," Yoshi said in response. "Let's go check it out."
"I think it's a-best to just stay here and away from the creepy-looking storm clouds," Luigi said in a slightly shaky voice, his entire frame shivering a bit despite the fact that it wasn't really cold where they were.
"Come on, Luigi, we just need to check it out. And it was only a low rumbling—nothing to be afraid of."
"I know—you go check it out, then come back here and a-give me a status report, while I stay here and patiently wait for your quick return."
Yoshi sighed. "Are you seriously scared of a bit of rain rumble?"
"A-no, I'm not," Luigi snapped, a bit embarrassed to feel his teeth still chattering. "I'm j-just worrying—if you a-make me catch a cold, you'll know who I'll blame!"
The green dinosaur rolled his eyes. "In case you don't know this, Luigi, we're above the clouds—so if there is a storm coming up, it'll be below us, pal."
"You say," Luigi scoffed.
"Luigi…," Yoshi began.
Luigi groaned—apparently he didn't like the look on Yoshi's face right now. "Yeesh, okay, okay…."
Luigi grudgingly (and very sluggishly) moved his feet to put himself in motion. It only made him move about one step for every two minutes, so Yoshi facepalmed himself and eventually got Luigi moving by walking behind him and shoving against his stubborn state.
"You know, Luigi—for someone so thin, you can sure be so hard to move," Yoshi commented under his breath.
Luigi bit his cheeks to hide a smirk. "It a-pays to have stubbornness."
"That's not stopping me from giving up from moving you and going ahead."
Luigi frowned. "Have you always been so…determined?"
"Try taking babies off for strolls around the island and eventually you'll get something there."
Luigi turned his head a bit to Yoshi's direction to give him a disbelieving look.
Another rumbling sound came from the graying clouds, this time a lot louder than before.
"A-yeeh!"
"Luigi, it's only a bit of thunder—nothing to squeal about..."
"I was not squealing!"
Before Yoshi could comment more, they were shocked to see a flash of light somewhere among the graying clouds.
And then...
Zap!