Okay, guys. My bad. I…yeah, my bad. Allow me to explain myself.
First of all, Force Unleashed comes out tomorrow. That's a big deal. Second, Spore came out—also a big deal, even though I don't have it. Also, school started, and I've been reading the fall play, and will be attempting to take the role of the bumbling, sniveling henchmen Cecil in it. If anyone can guess what play it is, which I couldn't do all summer, you're awesome.
And, of course, I got Gears of War. Yeah, I know. AWWW SNAP!
No, but seriously, I spent an entire day blazing through the campaign on Casual, and (second day owning it, mind you)—I'm almost at Fenix Manor/Mansion on Hardcore.
But enough about me. Without further ado, here be the chapter.
--
The ground was sparse. There was very little vegetation, and the earth was merely hard dirt. So many pairs of feet had crossed the land, that any chance for plants to grow on the ground had been vanquished.
He ground itself was rather like a very short valley. About five feet across, it was flat, but then rose up almost two feet on each side. The depression in the ground was uninhabited.
Until, rather suddenly, a single umarked spectralid—yellow in color—landed in the middle of the valley. It didn't seem to have a motive for doing so—there were no food sources in the valley—but perhaps it merely needed to rest its wings.
It stood there in the valley for almost thirty seconds before it heard something from far off. It sounded like the very earth beneath the spectralid was shuddering—something large was coming this way. Quickly, the noise became a loud rumbling that really did seem to rock the earth with its intensity.
Then, as the noise reached its climax, its source could be seen. Reds crested the right side of the valley—hundreds of reds. They completely covered the slope leading into the valley, one of their number pausing and pointing towards the other side of the valley. The reds rose up and gave a battle cry.
From the other side of the valley, howling and shrieking added to the noises of thunderous footsteps. Mushroom pikmin loped and sprinted into the canyon, at least four puffstools among them. They shrieked and howled, but simultaneously rose in a feral bellow as the largest of the puffstools bristled in anticipation, eyeing the reds from the other side of the canyon.
Both sides closed on one another, mere seconds from striking. The spectralid, panicked, rose into the air and quickly flew away.
Not a second later, the battle began, and many were dead.
--
"Yeer?" Lear said to his companion quickly. They were away from the main group, talking to only one another in hushed voices.
"Yes?"
"I think…I think we may have made a mistake leaving the Brush, Yeer."
"Wha…" Yeer was shocked. "What do you mean?"
"Well…" Lear said slowly. "I mean, look what's happened to us. We're running around talking to pikmin of all sorts of different colors, fighting monsters and zombies, and walking through dangerous, scary forests."
"And…well…you think that's bad?"
"Dangerous…" Lear said again, slowly. "Scary…Forests."
"Well, um, I think you kind of have to look at it in perspective."
"Perspective?" Lear asked dryly. He had always made his friend out to be a bit of a hard-working simpleton, but 'perspective'?
"Well…We're protecting the Brush, aren't we? We're trying to keep it safe."
"We're not soldiers, Yeer, we're…well…workers."
"From what I remember, you didn't do very much working—"
"Oh, just listen, damnit!" Yeer was shocked by his friend's outburst. "This isn't what we were meant to do in life, man, I just know it. We're not heroes, we're just…people. Yellows are just people, after all—why didn't we just stick to our little bit of peaceful land instead of coming out into the big world of war and danger?" As he said the words, the mushroom pikmin that had spoken to him directly still haunted his thoughts. He shuddered.
"Lear," Yeer said determinedly, "You can't look at it like that. We're trying to guard the Brush from a very great threat. If we don't succeed, we may not have the Brush at all. We can't let that happen. You know that."
"Yeah…" Lear said slowly. "I…I never thought of you as an adventurer, Yeer."
"Yeah, well…" Yeer paused. "I didn't really either. I mean, you're right, we're just regular people, not heroes. We're not packmasters, or scholars, or commanders. But we can't do anything about that. We're here now, and we can't change the past. We have to make the best of this predict…this predico…this, um…"
"Predicament?" Lear finished, a humorous glint in his eyes.
"…Yeah," Yeer said sheepishly. "You know what I mean." He looked up into the canopy of the Hallowed Forest and chuckled slightly, despite the intimidating environment. "I prefer the Brush to this place…I wonder what's going on back there."
"Yeah, I hope that Lead hasn't become a dictator," Lear said with a chuckle.
They both laughed, and—considering what they had been through—they felt good about laughing.
Something interrupted their laughter—a light sounding, animal-like chirruping noise. Both turned to their left, where the nose emanated from, but neither was prepared for what they saw.
For, indeed, there had been some sort of creature watching them. It was a pikmin…sort of. It had a stem, but other than that…
The bulbmin was rather small for its kind, but that didn't mean it was small. The yellows were far taller than the creature, but it was wider than they were. Lear fell backwards in fright, letting out a yelp of surprise. Yeer leapt back and raised his fists when he saw the bulborb-like features, but lowered when he noticed the creature's young innocent curiosity… and stem.
Around the group of pikmin, bulbmin were emerging from the shadows of the forest, curiously staring at their very-distant kinsmen. The greens looked immediately ready for a fight, but Dorunot, seeing their reaction, quickly waved them off.
In front of Dorunot himself strode a rather large bulbmin—almost the size of a dwarf bulborb—and, clinging to its left flank, an orange pikmin. The orange had a very strange set of traits—it was smaller than all of the assembled pikmin, a little shorter than the average white pikmin, and it had no facial features whatsoever. No eyes, to mouth, no ears, nothing. Its stem, too, was surprisingly short, and instead of a leaf, bud, or flower, the stem was adorned with a small thorn that curved forwards. The orange's limbs ended in not fingers and toes, but instead root-like feelers that couldn't have been any longer than fingers.
"You say this is the one that spoke?" It asked kindly, to no one in particular. The bulbmin it was holding onto gave a low growl in response. "Well, all right, then," the blind orange said. "Azure pikmin! …You are a cobalt pikmin, I believe?"
"Ah, yes, I am Dorunot, a captain of Sanras Varninor," Dorunot replied, a mix of wariness and humbleness evident in his voice. He then broke into a fight of coughs but quickly spoke, "We apologize for trespassing in yo—"
"Oh, there's no need for that sort of thing, friend!" The orange interrupted kindly. "Allow me to introduce myself. I am called Orow, and I apologize for not having greeted you on the border, but my scouts only informed me of your arrival a few moments ago." He talked loudly—which made sense, considering he had no idea how close to him Dorunot was standing. "Please, allow my people to escort you to a clearing. We are intrigued by your arrival, and you will be treated as honored guests by my people." As he said it, the small bulbmin next to Lear affectionately nuzzled the ne'er-do-well's leg, and he looked on with a mix of fear and interest. "You have nothing to fear from this forest. Please, follow me, esteemed guests!"
And so, with confused expressions, they followed.
--
In some ways, the Hallowed Forest was similar to the Brush. The clearing, for example, was a hill in the middle of the forest that was free of trees and other large vegetation. Bulbmin ran everywhere, exiting small , pikmin-sized tunnels in the ground. The ground was still cast in shadow from the thick canopy above. One thing was clear—this was a much older forest than the Brush.
Yeer was sitting on the end of a large twig, watching as the yellows, blues, and greens set up their seed-pods. Lek said next to him, motioning wildly at passing bulbmin. Any who glanced at him didn't motion back, but gave him curious expressions on their carnivorous features. The pikmin were confident they were carnivorous—they had seen a group of them drag in a few sheargrubs and shearwigs minutes earlier.
Lear strode over to the yellow and the pink, and sat down next to Yeer. "Where's Flewow? Seen him anywhere?" Yeer asked.
Lear's eyes glinted mischeviously as he looked back at his friend. "Who, you mean Fleewoah?" His expression then turned moody and resigned, and he continued, "He's having one of his 'let me gather evidence for the yellow archives' moments. Seems to be having fun, even though he seems to be scared of these bulborb-pikmin hybrid things."
"They seem to have taken to you," Yeer pointed out, remembering the young one that had nuzzled his leg earlier.
"I guess I'm just an awesome person." Lear said nonchalantly.
"That's interesting…" Lek muttered from the other side of Yeer. "Because they just…wont…pay attention to me!" He finished with a murmur of frustration as another pack of bulbmin went by, not noticing his wild motions at them.
"Wait, what? Sorry, I wasn't paying attention," Lear said absentmindedly.
"Oh, shut up."
Lear laughed. "Kidding, dude, kidding!"
"You tend to zone out a lot, though," Yeer said. "Like, remember that time Chieftain Lod asked you to go scout for any pellet posies?"
"Oh, man," Lear said, laughing while shaking his head at the memory. "Don't remind me."
"I haven't heard this one! What happened?" Lek said, stopping his motioning and turning to the other two, interested at the story.
"Well, back in the day…" Yeer began, but then saw Urdnot approaching. "Hey, Urdnot, is something up?" Yeer knew that Urdnot usually only mentioned things that were important to him or their mission, so his arrival was probably significant.
"Dorunot sent me to tell you that the orange wishes to discuss your mission and motives with all of the leaders. He asks for your presence, along with that of Flewow."
"Oh, fantastic, just leave me out of everything…" Lear muttered.
"Tell him we'll be there as soon as I find Flewow," Yeer replied. Urdnot nodded and walked off towards a group of large, bud-stemmed blues. "Well, I'm off to find Flewow. You two want to come to the conference with me?"
"Nah," Lear said, somewhat bitterly. "If Dorunot didn't ask for me, whatever, I'll just stay here, I guess."
"Yeah, same goes for me," Lek said. "I'm not much of a negotiator, and its not like I have anyone to represent."
"Well…Okay, then." Yeer replied. It'll be weird not going to a conference with them…Guess I better find Flewow. As he walked off, Yeer felt good that he and his companions were able to let loose a bit with conversation, even in the seemingly hostile environments.
--
Aw, jeez. Now all I can think of in the fall play is that character Cecil running up to William Shakespeare, chainsaw-bayonetting him, and screaming "THAT ONE'S FOR THE HIGHLIGHT REEL!"
Okay, I'm going to go kill RAAM, because I hate him and his effing Kryll. Please drop a review, or I will send Theron Guards after you when you go to sleep.