Having out danced a fish at Puyo, Suketoudara splashed our heroes wet for defeating him. That would not sound too bad. Especially for Carbuncle, who just shook it off. Arle had the problem of already wearing some heavy clothing articles, and now the water was weighing her down. It was also kinda chilly where they were, Arle could get sick.
After a few minutes of running and they, fortunately, came across a quaint solitary cottage. There was smoke coming out of its smokestack. Arle lit up. 'A warm place to take shelter!' "C'mon Carby! Let's get inside!" Carbuncle nodded. They sprinted towards their goal.
Arle and Carbuncle knocked on the door in the rhythm of Shave and a Haircut. Arly and Carb alternating between each note, finishing together. They high fived.
"Coming!" A voice said inside. A familiar voice said inside. A familiar feather plucking voice said inside. The door creaked open to a sour looking familiar face. "Arle." The door opener said as calm as she possibly could, which was difficult for her.
"Witch!" Arle said loudly to the rival wearing her usual green robes. Arle explained her problem. Witch begrudgingly complied.
"Fine, you can go inside. BUT BE QUIET! I'm this close to getting my potion for my witch exam." Witch was dead serious and Arle could tell. "So keep your pet in check." Normally Arle would defend Carbuncle from naming calling, but she needed Witch's hospitality. It's also why Arle decided not to call her out for what she did to Harpy until she's warmed up.
All three of 'em were in the living room, the duo at the fireplace, one clutching the other tightly. Witch was standing next to the dinner table which supported several beakers, colored fluids, and some weird things.
Witch was holding two beakers in each hand. One with green fluid the with red. She changed the fluids between the two for a while. Reading a spellbook. Arle just watched.
After a while Witch poured one of the liquids into a pot. She got several of the table and muttered out loud to herself she dropped items in: "Some teeth of a cockatrice, horrid flute music of a brat, an Owlbear mauling, a teal Puyo, acknowledgment that Mamono exists, and lastly the feather of a siren."
Arle's eyes widened. She wasn't a crafter of potions, but she figured confusing Harpy's feather for a siren's feather(, which a not a thing,) can't be a good thing. Arle leaped out the way for safety. Unharmed by the explosion.
All that was left of Witch was a chicken with a green hat. The next five minutes was spent undoing the hex with Puyos.
Chapter 8: A Yeti's no Joke
School's finally out. And everyone's been assigned to observe, document and take pictures of the local creatures. But Silvana had something else in mind. She got teamed up with Sig, who she convinced to go mountain climbing.
Sil heard of a rumor of a hermit yeti living near the peak of Zigzag Peak, something many haven't tried to visit, so no one failed it yet. A semi-reliable source she knows of said peak told her so. Silvana made sure she mentioned it to no one to secure no competition with the likes of the Four-eyed Brain Klug and Beauty 'n Brawn Raffine. She didn't even mention it to her partner.
"Why you wanna do what?" Sig didn't come across as too shocked. But that was mostly because, like usual, he seemed to be barely in touch with of the world of the awake.
"You heard what I said, Sig." Sil folded her arms teasingly. "If we can snap a picture of the beast we'll definitely get the top grade!" Sil said all excited like.
"Why? You get good grades while not even trying." Sig scratched his head. Sil was more than happy enough to explain Sig's confusion away.
"Because this is a great excuse curb my boredom, Sig!"
"You lost me."
Sil rolled her eyes. "We basically go on an adventure for a school assignment, because I want a break from the nerve wrecking that my circus life can be."
"I get it now. I'll go get great grunkle Andere's mountain climbing gear. Seeya at the mountain foot." Sig left. Sil didn't say anything out of all the convenience of it.
She didn't think of gear like that at all. She'd just do it a with her hands and magic.
*Ready, at ZigZag's foot*
Sig and Sil equipped themselves with the necessary gear. Sil asked Sig what every item did just to be safe.
"Oversized ski clothes."
"To keep us warm at the peak."
"A tether." "To catch one of us, should we fall."
"Pickaxes."
"I think we need to use them to climb."
Sil became kinda unsure about this. What a coincidence, Sig was unsure what everything did. He made some guesses.
"Staples."
"To make ladders?"
"Safety Nets?"
"They might be parachutes?…"
"…We don't need earmuffs, Sig."
"But it'll get cold, won't it?"
"But these Ski masks cover our ears anyway. Anyways: pencil and paper…"
No need to hear the rest. The 'muffs were left behind.
They climbed really hard before they found a flat ground place to rest. On the way, a constant noise was heard.
"Let's rest."
"'Kay."
They sat down with their backs leaning against the mountain. Sil looked slightly to her right. It was a sign, Sil read it.
"Valley of Hohow. Do not even think of walking past unless already deaf or crazy." Just barely over the edge, there were some multicolored figures flapping about.
"Hmm? What about walking past the a valley."
"You just committed a thought crime, Sig." Sil was on autopilot when she made that joke, because her ears tuned in on that valley.
"…hmhmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhmmhohohohohmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhohohohmmhomhomhohohmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhmmhohohohohmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhohohmhmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhmmhohohohohmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhohohohmmhomhomhohohmmhohmmhomhomhohohmmhmmhohohohohmmhohohmmhohmmhohhmmhohmmhoho…"
"Sig." Sil said both defeated and annoyed. "I think I figured out what those earmuffs are for…"
"Think I do too…" Sig plugged his ears.
*One tedious backtrack and a risky climb to their destination…*
Our two students made it. They were at the top! It was surprisingly wide with a modestly sized cave and a two-segmented snowman, besides its yellow and orange scarf and a purple scholar hat, both damaged, covered in snow was featureless. Presumably, because they were behind it. The snowman faced the cave.
Sil took out a notebook to write down her findings. "Take pictures of the area, Sig."
"'Kay."
"Little sign of the Yeti up here." Sil wrote down. "But there's definitely some activity up here if the snowman and…" Sil looked around for some bigfootprints, but they must've been filled in with the snow. "That's about it. The cave…" Sil stopped writing. "Let's go explore that cave."
They did. They lit Sig's Grunkle's lantern. "Huh." That pretty much summed up their surprise. There was a plain bed and that comes with it, a dinner table and some chairs, a bookcase with a variety of books consisting of mostly high reading levels, a reading chair, a punching bag, a telescope and a nice poster to tie the whole room together. Most of the furniture was bigger than usual. Sig started making pictures.
Sil's eyes drew to a picture frame on the desk beside the bed. It was of six young kids having fun building a snowman. Aside from one, all of them looked familiar. One purple-clad, glasses-wearing nerd. A pink haired expensively dressed girl. A blondie with a red hat too big for her head. Looks like she'd had the most fun. A short green haired girl with a bob cut, some yellow knobs stuck out of it. A really, really big round kid. And an unemotive kid with a happy spirit sticking out who couldn't have been confused for anything else with his red arm.
"Si-" Sil wanted to let her friend see this. But- "BRUUUUUUUUUUUUUAAAAAAWRR!" Shivering, their necks turned towards the sound. It was the snowman from outside!? It's alive and about 1.5 times bigger than them. Its bottom segment was blank aside from the torn scarf. Its top segment houses its face and its arms. The arms were very big and muscley. Its mouth was comprised of small gravel stones, shifting in whatever shape the mouth needed. Its nose was a carrot of course, which supported some circular cracked glasses, and behind those glasses some buttons. Its scholar cap was also damaged. It did look familiar though and so did the scarf… Wait. A kneesock around its neck?
"WHO DARES INFILTRATE YETI'S COZY ABODE!?" "Y-y-you're the y-y-y-yeti?" Fearing for their lives, Sil managed to muster up some courage to speak up against the golem. While of course hiding behind Sig, even though her magic was probably better magic to defend themselves.
"YES, ME YETI. WHAT IT TO YOU CRIMINALS?!" Yeti hunched over a bit. Looming over the teens. "ME HAVE NOTHING WORTH SWIPING, AT ALL, HONEST!"
"We're trying to study you for a school assignment." Sig said as stonefaced as possible, even managing not to stutter. But he wasn't fooling Silvana. The spirit usually sticking out of Sig hid behind her.
"ME SKEPTICAL, YOU CARRY BIG BAGS AND WEAR MASKS, I SHALL BURY YOU IN AVALANCHE! ME WIN, YOU LEAVE! YOU WIN, ME KEEP THROWING AVALANCHES UNTIL YOU LOSE." He clutched the two in his giant hands and took them outside. His victims awaiting the dreaded avalanches.
'Oh, thank goodness. Avalanche means Puyo Puyo… Why not call it Puyo Puyo then! Calling it something else is dumb!' Sil thought. Our duo (or at least Sil) got the confidence to fight back knowing he's not gonna use brute force.
That confidence dipped hard, Yeti played really smart. He did his best to keep the team of two on their toes. He chained together an unsurvivable avalanche of Puyos. ARLE SHIELD… SIL SILD… SILVANA SHIELD ACTIVATED! Because writing Puyo battles is repetitive.
"WHAT THAT CHEATING RUBBISH? ME CHEAT TOO!" The coal hearted snow creature made up a super attack on the spot. He covered his opponents' top two Puyos in ice for a second. There was still breathing room for the S-Team. They managed to keep their field half-full despite the challenge. That didn't last long, Yeti got the slight edge over them.
"Too Bad…"
"Fufufwuuuaah…"
"ME CAN DO ANYTHING!"
*No Retry, no Scene Select and no Main Menu option. Straight back into the story*
"Owie!" Sil squealed that understatement as she moved to search for her mask underneath the same rubble that knocked her mask off.
"ME WON. LEAVE MY HOME!"
"'Kay, 'kay! But we'd be gone faster if you helped us from this garbage!" Yeti gave a frown as he dug them out.
Sig reached out a hand to be tugged out. "WAIT A MINUTE!"
"Ow…" Sig quietly muttered to himself because of the volume.
"ME SO SORRY, ME DIDN'T RECOGNIZE SIG!" Yeti sped up the digging progress.
"Wha?" In stereo.
"DON'T RECOGNIZE YETI?"
"Hmmm… Not really."
Yeti seated himself on a rock near the edge to explain. "YOU AND FRIENDS MADE ME WHEN YOU WERE CHILDREN!"
Sil looked at Sig tapping his head. The picture from before made some more sense now. "Barely… Think it was Amitie's idea?"
"CORRECT, I WAS MADE IN THE IMAGE OF KLUG AND RAFFINE!"
Sil somehow simultaneously suppressed a quick snort of laughter and her lunch rising up. Everything made sense now. "So we really came up here to study for afar for school. But since our cover's blown mind if we just interview you?"
"ME DON'T MIND AT ALL! IF ME CAN SEE CREATORS AGAIN! ME STUCK UP HERE!… NICE BIRDIES GIVE ME STUFF!"
"Sure. My first two questions are: How are you alive and why live up here? Forget the second part, that's pretty obvious now I think about it."
"ACHOOOOOOO!" Yeti sneezed. Blowing the students and himself in opposite directions. Sig and Sil are safe, but Yeti tumbled down the mountain. The non-tumbling watched rolling right into the Valley of Hohow. There's no saving him now.
Sil felt kinda bad. 'However he was created, he probably had more soul than I do…'
They decided to study the next animal they saw because no one's gonna believe what they saw. Climbing wasn't fun, battling wasn't fun, they got a below average grade and got a cold. What an unfulfilling day.
Author's Notes:
Sonic and Puyo fans unite! Let's keep this truce going, I hate being on both sides of a war. That's a lie, I love it. But still, Sonic Mania did something neat and I'm happy for a change. The future of Puyo looks bright. And Sonic too I guess. I mean Mania is a contender for my top 15 favorite games.
I promised adventure but I kinda skimped out on it. Sorry.
It was either Yeti (voiced by Fred Tatasciore) or a dream sequence starring NiGHTS & Knuckles. But replace NiGHTS with Yeti and Knuckles with a supporting role similar to his appearance in Sonic 3D: Flickies' Island. It's open to interpretation if I am serious or not… And if I am, where am I serious.
Whatever the case above is, after the case above is after I'm done with this fanfic, I've been thinking writing my own fiction. Luckily for you, or maybe not, wait and see, it'll be a before this is over.
Yeti was supposed to be a snow hybrid of Raffine and Tarutaru. But I thought back to my description of Klug being brains and Raffine being Brawn I changed it at the last minute. It fit better. He also has a slight austrian accent, because Austria has mountains and Yeti live in a mountain. A logical connection.
In unrelated news I watched the first episode of the new Ducktales, and then a Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers episode. The quality of the writing is night and day.
Unrelated 2: I just remembered I actually knew a Sil. It was someone's mom but I can't remember if it was spelled with a Y or an I.
Last one I swear: I started watching Sonic Boom Season 2 and I'm jealous at its writers' ability to tell jokes.
Next up: Fun with masks!
