Chapter 38: The Finding
"It's this way, right?"
"No, seriously, how big is this place?"
"Did we sctually get lost? We walked in a relatively straight line from where we started... right?"
Those were some of the murmurs that echoed in the desert as Toad's army wandered around. The entire congregation wore faces of confusion and bewilderment.
"Listen, guys, even if we are lost, we aren't calling for help. Who knows if they've hijacked the support planes? We could be leading ourselves into a trap if we call anyone, for all we know." Toad argued, leading the pack with narrowed eyes and a little frown on his face. "I get that you guys want this to be over, but it won't be unless we find out where Bowser is and what he's hiding. So let's keep going." Some of the armies groaned at this speech, but Toad ignored them, and the group soldiered on.
The heat beat down on them unrelentingly for the next hour, as the Toads' facial expressions grew increasingly frantic and worried. Eventually, one Toad with a purple vest saw a glint off of a nearby boulder and detached from the group to go look. He started with a walk, then broke into a run, as fast as his little legs could carry him. The group stopped almost as one, and started up a conversation, mainly with the question of 'What is he doing?'. This continued until a yell was heard.
"I think I found something!" the Toad proclaimed. The talking ceased and the Toads ran in double file to go look. When they arrived, the thing in question appeared to be some sort of metal strip. It was a couple of feet long and curved to the right slightly, a bright glare at its apex. One by one, the members of the coalition stepped forward to inspect the foreign object.
"What is this doing here?" a Toad asked.
"Not sure." another replied, scratching his cap. "Could it be a piece of something?"
"It could. But what? I mean, it's a freaking piece of metal. It could be part of anything." the first Toad proclaimed, and the second just nodded his head. "Wait, there's another one. Look." He pointed, and indeed, there was another metal strip, slightly smaller than the first, glinting in the half-sunlight. "Whoa, there's another one over here and one more over there." Two more strips were beside the first two, a bit farther out and not seeming to be in any sort of pattern.
"What does this mean?" Toad asked himself, walking over to the recently spotted metal when his foot hit something. He winced and looked down. "Ahh! What was that? I can't - what did I hit?" he wondered, leaning downwards to get a closer look. Upon closer examination, he found it to be a piece of wood, hidden so well in its environment because of its dark shade. "Oh, it's wood." Toad stamped on it to produce a hollow thunking sound. "Huh. What could this be for?" He turned to the group, now acting like an exploration party, wandering around in clusters of two or three. Toad clapped his hands three times and everyone turned to look. "Guys, I found something that might be useful. Come on," he ordered, and they did. They crowded around the slab of wood that Toad found.
"What could this mean?" a voice from the crowd asked, though no answer returned. The Toads brooded over the question for a couple of minutes until a blue Toad pointed off towards the distant rocks.
"Hey... What's that?" he asked with a hint of worry in his voice. Everyone turned to look almost as one body, and as soon as a consensus formed about what the object was, panic ensued. Some of the Toad soldiers rummaged their packs for ammunition, while others tried to make themselves as small as possible to avoid being seen. Almost all the rest began running in the opposite direction. Toad looked around his divided company, then yelled out.
"No one is going anywhere! Everyone get in battle formation, now!" he commanded, and they obeyed, sprinting to get to their spots. "Just like we did before, people! Let's go, move it!" Within thirty seconds, the formation was made, six in the front, six in the middle, and four in the back, Toad himself being somewhere in the middle of all of it.
The unmistakable noise of airship rotors filled the air around them as they looked into the distance to see one such ship heading their way. The company didn't break gaze as the vessel slowly stopped moving laterally. A hatch opened up, the creaking of the wood not heard over all the rotors. Within seconds, the king of Koopas himself stepped out, his footsteps shaking the ship he was standing on.
"Thought you could hide from me, did you?" he taunted suavely, looking down at the ants that were the soldiers below. He slowly looked back towards the main deck in anticipation. 'Well, what are you cretins waiting for?" he asked impatiently. "Fire!"
To be continued...