…It feels good to be posting again. I apologize for the long interlude; after the end of the Winter musical season, I foolishly decided to do both Theater and Sport (Lights Crew for Theater and Novice Rowing Crew for Sports), which was a harsh venture. My grade point average may have taken a bit of a dive, which is never a good thing…But nonetheless, the Musical had its last performance some time ago, and Rowing ended earlier today, so…here I am.
Updates should be more frequent from now on, meaning I won't do a summary of recent events in notes. But here, since its been a while, is such a summary:
In their quest, Geer the Green Packmaster, Flewow the Recorder, Lear the Slacker, and Yeer the I-Just-Want-a-Simple-Life guy have traveled far through the Canyonlands, even gaining a new member of the team (Lek the Pink Oddball), but—after trudging through a long distance of ankle-deep water—have met a dead end. Let us see what happens, shall we?
--
The cul-de-sac dead end was almost six feet across in both directions—the water level had risen slightly, as well. On the right side of the open area was the source of the water—a steady trickle coming from the top of the canyon. It certainly was not a waterfall, but it did block the canyon wall behind from vision almost completely.
Geer gave a growl of rage. "Nothing!" He hissed, hands clenched. Lear, in frustration, kicked the wall of the canyon forcefully—and almost instantly regretted it, giving a grunt of pain. Flewow squinted at the other side of the canyon wall, as if attempting to contemplate a way around it, while Yeer looked down at his feet gloomily. Lek let out another trademark "huh."
Geer stormed over to Flewow and Yeer, and was about to say something, when Lek's voice piped up in the distance. "Hey, what's that?" He asked rather loudly, pointing to the other side of the rounded area.
As they looked a little more closely, the pikmin spotted a pair of odd looking, pikmin-height stalks rising from out of the ground. The top of each one was spherical, and seemed to be barely supported by the base.
"I don't know," Lear said, standing alongside the pink. He picked up a small pebble—ignoring the sickening feeling of water on the pores of his hand—and lobbed it a good distance at the two stalks.
It bounced off of the left one, and then all hell broke loose.
The ground seemed to explode, and water went flying into the air, fortunately not landing on any of the startled pikmin. A behemoth figure pulled itself out of the muck and roared loudly, almost knocking some of the closest pikmin off of their feet.
The figure quickly became clear; it was similar to a bulborb, but much, much larger. Its head was enormous, the largest maw that any of the assembled pikmin had ever seen—and saliva dripped from it. The stalks—its eyestalks, rose above the creature's wide head as it squinted at the pikmin. The back of its body was rock-like, most likely for camouflage, and its feet were centered directly below the beast. Its weak eyes were barely able to spot the pikmin, but it could most certainly detect their presence.
With another roar, it took a step towards the terrified pikmin mass, shaking the ground beneath them. Geer almost suicidally got into an attack position, as did several of the other greens, but everyone else let out yells of terror or backed up warily.
"Emperor Bulbax…" Flewow muttered under his breath. "The guard…Damn, I forgot…"
"Hey!" A voice called out over the uproar, garnering the attention of the assembled pikmin. "Over here!"
They turned and looked over towards the trickle of water. Two pikmin were standing beneath it, holding up leaves to prevent the water from falling completely. Uncovered behind the two pikmin—who were blues—was a wide tunnel. A secret exit from the deathtrap. "This way! Come in here!" One of the gilled and mouthed blues called out.
Yeer took command in a split second decision. "Hurry, bring the seed-pods this way! NOW!" He roared to the greens and yellows. "We can get out through there!"
Now began a desperate race. The yellows and greens, seed-pods in tow, made a dash towards the two blues. The leaves they were holding caused the water to slide to the side, meaning that they could run to the tunnel without being drenched with water. Some of the front running yellows and greens, Lek among them, dashed through. Yeer made it to them, and yelled to them over the shouts of terror and roars from the Bulbax.
"Who are you?" He called to the blues.
"Allies," One replied. "You will be safe in here."
"Hurry!" Yeer shouted, calling to the seed-pod carriers while waving his hand. They were going full speed, but the Bulbax was fast. It was almost upon them now, trying to cut them off from the exit.
Until it was distracted.
Geer, along with five other greens, charged at the beast with battle cries. It looked at them, surprised, and let out a deathly roar. They strafed around to its right flank, distracting it from the pikmin carrying the pod, but putting themselves in grave danger.
Lek and Lear dashed in right before the seed-pods did, panting with exhaustion as they sprinted into the uncovered tunnel. They turned to watch the last pikmin run in, then the seed-pods (which were a tight fit), and then looked up at Geer and his allies.
Seeing the last of the others get into the tunnel safely, Geer called out to his team. They split into two groups, three running around one side of the beast and three around the other. It opened its mouth and swung its gargantuan tongue at one of the groups, and almost got them; the trailing green literally had to jump over its tongue.
The group of greens were slightly slowed down by the muddy terrain underfoot, but they were going to beat the Bulbax back…or so it seemed.
The creature roared loudly, and the trailing green fell forwards from the force, falling flat on his face into the water. Geer turned around and yelled, but a single pikmin broke out and ran past him towards the green.
Lek's strides almost seemed to take him off of the ground completely, and he was at the green's side faster than the green Alpha himself. Lek hefted the green out of the muck, only to see him hacking and coughing, covered in mud and with pores half full with water. He slung the green over his shoulder and began to dash back, the Bulbax's tongue literally right behind him. Running alongside Geer, Lek looked back at the monster as it continued to chase them. He outpaced Geer, who trailed behind even when Lek was hefting another green.
"He's fast!" Lear exclaimed as he watched. Lek raced back under the leaves, a trickle almost hitting him as it made it past the leaves. One of the blues dropped his leaf and ran over to see to the waterlogged green, while the other one waited for Geer.
Geer dashed to the leaf with time to spare, but then suddenly paused. The creature began to gain on him as Geer looked to the passage onder the drizzle of water, then back at the Bulbax, then back at the passage. He looked as if he would rather fight the beast than risk ducking under the water.
"What are you waiting for!?" Lear yelled, as the behemoth got closer and closer to the green Alpha. "C'mon!"
Geer looked back at the Bulbax one more time before closing his eyes and dashing under the leaf, stopping when he got to the tunnel and giving a hiss of relief.
The second blue pulled his leaf out from the would-be waterfall, and the passage 'closed' again. There was a pause from the other side as the Bulbax stopped, and then gave a roar of rage. The blues, calm now, began walking down the tunnel. The waterlogged green, now okay and no longer covered in mud, shakily got to his feet as Lek supported him with one hand. Geer and Lek exchanged their first 'not unfriendly' glance; there was something thankful about Geer's gaze.
The party slowly began to move down the tunnel after the two blues, leaving the roars of the Bulbax behind.
--
The tunnel was, unfortunately, quite damp and quite dark. It was slowly rising, but there was as steady level of ankle-high water nonetheless. Every once and a while, a droplet of water would fall from the tunnel's curved ceiling, but the pikmin were lucky enough to avoid these drops, which echoed through the tunnel for a good distance. The darkness did not help; Yeer could barely see his outstretched hand.
Over the course of the passage, One of the blues (the one who had replied to his question of 'who are you?') moved to stand alongside him. The other lead the procession silently.
"Thank you," Yeer said to the blue, who was slightly shorter than Yeer himself.
"Do not thank us. We must apologize; the guard is far more belligerent than it used to be." The blue's mouth, not nearly as wide as those of the greens (and lacking fangs, for that matter), moved as he spoke. It was odd to see such a thing for a pikmin lacking a mouth. Still, after keeping company with the greens, Yeer was more used to it now.
"The guard?" Yeer asked.
"Yes. We keep that beast to protect the border of blue territory." He sighed, "Normally, the breadbugs that accidentally come this way are enough to satiate its hunger at this time of year, but…" Yeer, realizing that the entrance was protected by not only a bulbax but also water, realized that the blues must have been fairly protective of their land.
"Where are we going?" He asked curiously.
"This tunnel will take us out of the Canyonlands and to…the Steppes." The blue responded. Yeer noticed that he had been about to say something, but had instead said the Steppes. "They are our home." He turned to Yeer, and spoke up, "Now, if I may ask, what are greens and yellows doing in the same company?"
"…Long story," Yeer said, "…But, after all, I guess that's what we're here for."
--
So, they've found a passage to the blue homeland, supposedly. What will happen next? What will the blues be like? Will I find a new ending-update gag? Find out next time on One Must Die!
Review, or I'm-a slice you up and feed you to that Bulbax. And trust me…he's hungry. Sorry for the long author's preliminaries and (um…)postliminaries, by the way…
