Chapter 7: Yoshi's Message

Yoshi sat atop his hut, trying desperately to get a better view of the oncoming figure in the distance. He had spotted something in the sky earlier, and as it came nearer, he was able to get a clearer picture of the figure in the darkened sky. He squinted, attempting to get a better focus.

What he saw sent him reeling backward and tumbling down the side of the roof, onto the soft grass, where he peered out from under the tropical leaves. It was a massive ship. It was as long as the length of his island, and the hull of the ship was as deep as the ocean surrounding it. In other words, huge. It's enormous wings flapped gracefully, carrying the large doom-bringer across the sky, casting Yoshi's Island in its shadow. Alongside it were several smaller ships, dotting the sky with their silhouettes.

Yoshi's eyes widened, and he let out a strangled yelp. He had seen a ship like these before, many years ago in the Third War . It had moved across the Mushroom Kingdom, annihilating everything in its path. It had nearly destroyed half of the beautiful kingdom alone, but now there were more. More ships, which meant more danger, more bloodshed than ever before. And it looked as if Bowser was going all out this time.

He had to go warn the Princess.

Yoshi scrambled out of the underbrush, racing to the nearest warp pipe to Toad Town, where the Princess' Castle was located. He gulped and threw himself into it, rushing at top speed towards the kingdom. Even though it was miles away, he reached it in mere minutes, and dashed out of the pipe, shoving various mushroom people out of his way, and muttering forced apologies.

He reached the closed castle gates, and cried out to the guard nearby,"Yoshi has bad news! Yoshi must see the Princess immediately!"

The guard was jolted awake, and slowly got up to speak to the distressed dinosaur. He stood in front of the golden gate, with Yoshi on the other side, and spoke sleepily, "Sorry buddy but you can't just waltz in and expect to see her."

"What? Yoshi's a friend of the Princess!"

"Got any proof?"

"No..."

"There you go, no entry, lizard."

"But I-"

"Nope. Besides, she isn't here. She left for tea with the Mario Brothers and Princess Daisy. At the Marios' "

Yoshi groaned, "Why didn't you tell Yoshi that in the first place?" he muttered, before turning tail and walking off to the Mario residence.

Upon reaching the house, he couldn't help but notice the lack of Princess. Or lack of anyone for that matter.

Where had they gone?

The table sat in the middle of the sitting room, perfectly set, with the tea from the previously planned tea party. But Yoshi found it strange how everything was left untouched, and the tea had since gone stone cold. The dinosaur licked his lips with his long tongue and resisted the urge to down everything on the table in seconds flat. However, Yoshi's stomach got the best of him and the biscuits, cakes and cold tea had a new home in his stomach.

"Mario?" he called through the empty house, "Princess Peach?" he said, running though the house as fast as he could, "Mister Luigi? Princess Daisy?"

The dinosaur sighed when he received no response. He sat down on the nearest piece of furniture, which happened to be Luigi's bed, and let out a frustrated growl. How could he tell them about the airships when they weren't around?

Yoshi's eyes began to wander around the room, for he had the attention span of a gnat. He looked around Luigi's room, which was very tidy, and studied the various things strewn about, albeit in a strangely organized manner. There were various books, a vacuum, pictures, and a note on his desk.

The note seemed very interesting to the lizard, and he picked it up off the carefully dusted desk. Yoshi was taught to read by Mario when he was younger, and knew simple words, as well as ones that even Mario himself could not pronounce. He cocked his head curiously and read the neat handwriting of Luigi out loud.

"Toad,

If you manage to reach the house before we return, please help yourself to some tea and wait for us. We've gone into the forest to look for you. If you are reading this, stay here. We'll come back soon enough.

-Luigi"

It seemed that Luigi had scrawled the note and had forgotten to tack it onto the door, as one would do in such a situation. Yoshi sighed, Luigi was so absent-minded. But at least now, he knew where they might be.

So the dinosaur left to search for them in the forest nearby, but not before tacking the note to the door in case Toad did come by.

"Did you hear that?" Waluigi said suddenly, stopping in his tracks, causing Daisy to bump into his back, and the rest to stop in their tracks.

"Hear what?" Daisy mumbled into his shoulder, and pushed herself off him. She was regretting bringing Waluigi and his brother along, they had been nothing but a nuisance. The decided to take every opportunity to scare each of them out of their wits, stop to laugh, and repeat the process. But it was partially their fault for being so jumpy in the first place.

"That sound!"

"Don't be stupid, you've pulled that one three times already! We won't fall for it again!"

Waluigi snarled and rounded on Daisy, who took a step backwards from him to avoid being pummeled by the lanky man, "Listen! I really heard something!"

She merely sniffed and crossed her arms, "Fine then, what was it?"

"I don't know, that's why I asked!"

"But we didn't even hear it!"

"Oh, will you shut up!" Luigi snapped, turning to the two, "Seriously, you're bickering like a married couple!" he said, and immediately regretted it, "Ugh, what a bad thought," he muttered, shaking his head. Luckily, his statement had succeeded in shutting them up.

Mario chuckled slightly, but stopped suddenly, causing the others to bump into him, "Hey what the hell are ya doin?" Wario's voice shrieked, after carefully picking himself up off the ground.

"Did you hear that?" Mario said.

A frustrated groan sounded from the back of the group after this had been said, which could easily be identified as Luigi.

"No, I'm serious. I really heard something."

Waluigi smirked, "What did I tell you, witch?" he said to Daisy, who promptly smacked him.

Mario's eyes darted around the forest, but they saw nothing. It was so dark that they could barely make out who was who in the darkness.

They all went silent when the aforementioned noise sounded again, very close. It seemed to be a rustling in the bushes, but the creature that made these sounds had to be large. It was most surely not a fuzzy, who took up residence in the Forever Forest, or a goomba, for sure.

The group of six trembled, and huddled closer together against their will, but stayed frozen in place as the rustling grew nearer and was accompanied by the panting and growling of a creature.

"What is that?" Peach whispered to Mario, who was standing very close to her, for protection. He covered her mouth after she spoke, signaling her to keep quiet. Maybe if they kept quiet enough, it would go away.

The rustling came nearer, and they could now see the bushes swaying back and forth beside Waluigi, who stiffened up and tried to edge away from the bushes.

Suddenly, a green blur streaked forward, pinning Princess Peach to the ground. She gasped as she felt the weight of the creature on her chest, and tried desperately to push it off. In the darkness, nobody could see what happened, but only heard the Princess' stifled cries and the rustling of the leaves on the forest floor.

"Peach!" Mario cried, desperately trying to see what was going on before him. He wildly thrashed around, hoping to catch the attacker or at least deal him a blow. Slight relief washed over him as he grabbed a wrist in the darkness. He was completely sure it wasn't Peach, because the skin was tough and leathery, not soft and smooth as hers.

Mario wrenched the creature's wrist backward, pulling him off of the princess, and was answered with a squeaky, "Ow!"

"What?" Mario gasped, letting go of the attacker's wrist, "Yoshi?"

"Of course it's Yoshi!" came the dinosaur's voice, in a high pitch. He drew back his wrist from Mario, rubbing it and glaring at him.

"Why'd you attack Peach?" Mario yelled frantically, still in a panic.

"Yoshi had to make sure it was the Princess. Yoshi needed a closer look, Yoshi didn't hurt her, don't worry Mario. Yoshi had to grab her and check, if it were a Forever Forest monster, it would have attacked Yoshi!" he cried, "Yoshi had to take precautions! Better to attack first, than to wait and be attacked."

Mario shook his head and knelt down to help the Princess, who still lay gasping on the forest floor, "Whatever you say, Yoshi, just don't do that again..." however strange Yoshi's reasoning was, he'd have to accept it as an apology.

Once Peach was back on her feet again, she turned to Yoshi, "So that was you? God, Yoshi! You scared the life out of me!" she cried, near tears.

Yoshi looked crestfallen, "Yoshi is terribly sorry Princess..." he said, bowing slightly. He suddenly straightened up again, and let out a panicked yelp, "Oh! Princess! Yoshi has something important to tell you!" he cried, his little yoshi legs stomping on the spot frantically, as if he were performing a strange sort of dance.

Peach eyed the rest of the group, who were watching Yoshi intently. There was something in his voice that unsettled her. He seemed scared of something.

"Yes, Yoshi?"

"The sky! Ships! Bowser!" he cried frantically, waving his arms about, "Ships! Airships! Bowser's Airships! Coming this way, to the kingdom!"

A terrified silence washed over them all, as Yoshi's words began to sink in.

"Bowser's Ships?" Mario asked, "Are you sure?"

Yoshi nodded, sobbing, "Yes yes! Yoshi is sure of it! Just like the Third War, they've come to burn us!"

"Come to...burn? The Mushroom Kingdom?" Daisy gasped, raising a gloved hand to her mouth, "What are you going to do, Peach?"

The Princess didn't answer. She stood frozen in shock, the sudden realization kicking in. She wasn't there. She couldn't help her people because of this stupid forest. She was helpless, and could only watch as her kingdom burned to the ground, and the koopas rebuilt it in their image. She shuddered, managing a few words between gasping sobs.

"We... we have to go back."

Third War - Super Mario Bros 3