Several moments after the stork faced his cruel and unusual death, the bag he had in his beak was fluttering in the wind with the two crying babies inside. However, all of a sudden, the wind died, and the bag fell.
On an unidentified island, Yoshi, a green dinosaur with a big round nose, a row of orange spines down his head, orange shoes with yellow soles, and a saddle-shaped shell on his back, was taking a stroll through the island. By pure chance, the babies fell onto his shell unharmed.
"Oh, my gosh!" Yoshi said, startled. His speech appeared to be incoherent. "Are you two okay?"
One of the infants stopped crying right away. Then he nodded enthusiastically as if he understood Yoshi's garbled speech. Then, to his chagrin, he realized that his brother was still sobbing uncontrollably. So, he violently shook his brother to get him to stop, which was successful…even though his brother appeared to be feeling queasy.
"Wow! Aren't we a little hot-headed?" Yoshi said, amused. Then he got an idea. "Hey… Maybe that should be your new name: 'Hot-Head'! How 'bout that? You like the name?"
The newly-named Hot-Head nodded energetically once again. Then Yoshi noticed the other baby was quivering in fear the second he saw the dinosaur. He must have thought Yoshi was some kind of monster (which, in a way, is exactly what Yoshi is) and, as such, he was scared straight.
"Are you okay, little one?" Yoshi asked. "You look like you've seen a ghost." Of course, you can already guess what idea he had hatched. "'Ghost'... Aha! From now on, that's your new name, yeah?"
Ghost pondered the decision before shrugging.
"Excellent!" Yoshi said. "Now that that's settled, I've got to go tell the others about this! Hold on tight!"
Hot-Head and Ghost latched onto Yoshi's shell to prevent it from falling off. Then Yoshi sprinted back to where he came from, leaving the brothers to wonder where they were even going. And who were "the others"?
But then, in what felt like an instant, the two had their eyes feasted on a colorful island called YOSHI'S ISLAND, appropriately named after the inhabitants of said island: a batch of colorful dinosaurs that all looked exactly like Yoshi!
Red, orange, yellow, green, blue, purple... all of these dinosaurs were nearly every color imaginable, living and playing in harmony until they saw their leader carrying the two baby brothers.
They all ran towards the three and started clamoring in the same indistinct language as him.
"Heavens! What is that?"
"It looks like they're humans...baby humans!"
"Where did they even come from, though?"
"Well, earlier I was just minding my own business until they just fell from the sky. Maybe that's where they came from?" said Yoshi.
"How can babies even fall from the sky?!" said one Yoshi, incredulously.
"WHO CARES?!" Yoshi yelled back. "Look, we need to focus on how to figure out what to do with the babies!" He then realized the brothers were listening to them argue.
"Shoot, where are my manners?" Yoshi said, turning to the babies. "I don't think we've gotten started on introductions yet. My name is Yoshi. These are my brothers…"
The other Yoshis enthusiastically waved to the brothers. Then their leader spread his arms through the area. "...and this is where you two ended up: on an island where we Yoshis reside. You're gonna love it here."
"He's right," a Yoshi said. "We're going to take good care of y'all."
"No, you won't!" boomed a voice from afar. Then it was revealed that the voice came from a Magikoopa with a blue robe and hat of matching color, swooping in via broomstick.
"Who are you two?" Yoshi said, somewhat intimidated.
The Magikoopa tipped his cap. "You may call me Kamek," he said. But then he felt something tapping his shoulder—that "something" being a significantly younger Koopa.
He had a green face, red hair tied into a ponytail, bushy eyebrows, black cuffs on his wrists, a green shell with spikes, and stubby horns. And he seemed a bit huffy about not being mentioned.
"Oh, and that's Bowser," Kamek sighed, a bit exasperated.
"Thank you," Bowser said arrogantly. "Now, enough talk! Give us those babies!"
"Why?" Yoshi asked suspiciously.
"Because of those babies," Kamek snarled coldly. "They'll cause irreparable damage to us sometime in the future!"
"Wait, you can predict events that'll happen in the future?!" one Yoshi said incredulously.
"Yes," Kamek replied. "I knew that one day those two would wreak havoc on the Koopa name, so I hatched the perfect plan to make sure that doesn't happen—we kidnap those babies!"
"No way!" cried Yoshi angrily. "We found those babies fair and square, so don't even think about laying a finger on them!"
"Oh, yeah?!" said Bowser. Then he turned to Kamek and barked, "Hurry up and kick their butts already!"
"With pleasure, Your Highness," Kamek growled, grinning maliciously. Then, with a twirl of his wand, a bolt of energy shot out of the scepter's jewel. It ended up hitting all the Yoshis, and as such, they went flying.
Ghost was screaming and crying in fear, and even Hot-Head was practically hyperventilating. Was it all going to come down to this? Were they going to die?
But when things couldn't get any worse, Kamek scooped up Ghost and trapped him in an orb of energy!
"Yeah, we got 'em!" Bowser cheered. "Now let's scram!"
"Much obliged," Kamek agreed. Then he turned to the immobilized Yoshis. "Looks like our work here is done! We would love to loiter, but that would be rather pointless, wouldn't it? Anyway, toodle-oo!" And then the two flew off, laughing evilly in sync with Ghost's screeches of fear.
Understandably, Hot-Head was furious. He went over to the pained Yoshis and started babbling furiously. Then he pointed to the sky, where he could faintly see the cackling cohorts fly off.
"Oh…" Yoshi groaned, rising to his feet. "You want us to chase after those two hoodlums? Well, I'm sorry, but there's nothing to be done."
Hot-Head's fury diminished into worry. Could Yoshi be right? Was there no hope?
But then he saw something on the ground. He went over to the object, and it was revealed that it was a map to Bowser's Castle!
Then he crawled back to the Yoshis, who were now back on their feet again, and showed them the map. They gasped.
"Wow, you're a genius, little dude!" one of the Yoshis said. "With that map, we'll be able to catch up to Kamek and save your brother in no time!"
The Yoshis started clamoring in excitement (except for their leader, who began to develop some doubts).
"I guess we're going on an adventure, then," another Yoshi announced, grinning. "You coming with us, little dude?"
Hot-Head jumped in anticipation.
The same Yoshi just chuckled. "It looks like someone's excited." Then he walked over to Yoshi (the main one). "What do you say, Yosh?"
"Um, I don't know..." Yoshi spoke hesitantly.
"WHAT?!" the Yoshis shouted in shock.
"Look, I want to save Ghost as much as the next guy," Yoshi explained, "but we have to admit: It's probably going to be a long, treacherous journey! Who even knows what enemies we're going to run into?"
But then Yoshi saw Hot-Head's big, pleading eyes and realized this was no time to flake out. So he declared, "But on second thought, there's nothing more important than family. I mean, look at us! We're brothers, right? And since we are family, it's up to us to make sure Hot Head here reunites with his."
Everyone, even Hot Head, nodded in agreement. Then Yoshi knelt so that the baby would ride on his shell.
"Okay, then, it's settled!" Yoshi announced. "Let's stop Kamek and get Ghost back!"
Fortunately, Yoshi was not alone. Some of his brethren—pink, light blue, yellow, purple, brown, red, and blue—decided to come along for the ride, while the other Yoshis wished them goodbye as they left to begin their journey.
