Another update for yall, just because I'm so nice. And no I'm not betting again, so no pressure on Thumbs.
Disclaimer: Sigh...see the last chapter
Snow continued to float down gently. The light blue hue became turquoise signaling inevitable evening. It seemed placid again, after what had just happened.
The question was why it had happened. What had killed the creature?
Or who.
I looked around at my fellow pikmin; they all seemed dazed and confused as me. The white pikmin was still blinking his eyes in disbelief. The yellow budded pikmin was scanning the clearing for any signs of danger, than he looked up. Of course.
That rock had come from the sky.
But how can a rock fall from the sky?
The sky isn't the only thing up there though. I gazed up into the metropolis of spiky green branches, searching for an explanation. Nothing obvious of course, no noises either, just silence. The eerie thing about snow was that it made no sound at all, everything was so……quiet.
"It was a bomb rock," said the yellow pikmin, his eyes were still gazing into the trees.
"A bomb rock?" I asked.
"Our special skill," the yellow pikmin answered. "Yellow's carry bomb rocks."
That was right. My memory was still vague of my time with the first leader. "So you're saying there are yellow's up there that saved us?" I asked.
"Maybe, but yellow's don't climb trees, and bomb rocks don't grow on trees," the yellow pikmin replied.
"So you're saying it's not yellows," the white pikmin butted in.
"Pretty much."
I sighed "Well let us hope it does not become our problem."
The other two nodded but their stems were still straight and alert.
Slowly but cautiously we all began to move back into the clearing. Everybody was still alert and nervous, we had learned from our mistakes. It was getting dark very fast now and snow kept falling, it would soon be difficult to see. It was also getting pretty cold and I could see each of my exhales in a wet frosty cloud.
The white pikmin immediately went to the unconscious mushroom pikmin. He checked to see if the pikmin was okay and hadn't been hurt in everything that had happened. I admired the white pikmin for his care. I was also surprised that the mushroom pikmin hadn't waked from everything that had happened.
"He's alright?" I asked the white pikmin.
"He'll be fine," the white pikmin assured me. "I just wish he would wake up."
"What are those things over there!"
The shout had come from a red pikmin, the one with the leaf. He was pointing at the dead creature.
I squinted through the thickening snow looking at the carcass. I couldn't see anything besides the dead creature and dark splotches of blood.
"I don't see anything," a blue pikmin said, even closer than me.
"There's something moving there," replied the red pikmin still squinting. "I saw movement."
Instinctively we all moved cautiously forward. Besides gently falling flakes of snow there were no signs of movement. Hopefully the red pikmin was just seeing things. Hopefully.
There was nothing obvious on the front side of the creature. I looked into the thing's dull eyes and felt a little pity for it, it had died so fast. Those eyes made me think that this new movement might be the creature's killers.
As other pikmin scanned the front side I crept around the creature. I moved quickly and quietly past mounds of white soft fur. Maybe I could catch this movement off guard. Unfortunately the movement was already prepared.
I followed the creature's gentle curving torso all the way around when a flash of movement came from my left. That flash suddenly became a jolt of pain, I found myself taking a few steps back. Something had hit me in the torso.
A dose of warning came from my senses, bringing my instincts back into the world. I brought back my mushroom, ready to strike my opponent……..
…which was a cyan pikmin.
I stopped myself in sheer surprise to identify this new pikmin. He was the same size as me and was a dark cyan all over. This made him blend in perfectly with his surroundings in the cool of evening. He had no distinct facial features but each of his limbs ended in three short claws. The most interesting thing about him was his stem; it was very long and hung limply off of his head. I could see a navy blue bud attached to the bottom of the stem which was swinging between his legs. The stem also tapered off, starting out very big in diameter near the head but ending up quite thin nearer to the bud.
My torso felt sore and I glanced from the cyan's smirking face to its left hand, its three claws still maintaining a fist. Obviously not very friendly. I heard footsteps from behind me, my pikmin friends had come to see what was going on.
"Well, well, well," the cyan pikmin said crisply. A light accent seemed melt on each of the words that clicked out of his tongue. "A mushroom pikmin, a……white pikmin? And some primary colours of course. Quite unusual indeed."
"You hit me," I snapped at him, not liking his mocking attitude.
The cyan gave a sarcastic look of surprise, "Oh did I?"
The white pikmin came to my side, not liking the pikimn's attitude, and asked, "What are you doing here?"
"Let me first tell you who we are," replied the cyan smirking. As if on cue two more cyan pikmin appeared from the mist and stood beside the first. "We are cyan pikmin. We rule this forest and keep it's creatures in check. We have sharp claws for gripping ice and climbing trees, long, whip like stems and have the ability to carry bomb rocks." He then came up to the white pikmin and hissed each syllable of the phrase into my friend's ear. "And we do not like the presence of pikmin below our standards."
He thought cyan pikmin where greater than any of our colours? I was about to talk when the yellow budded pikmin asked something.
"You can't carry a bomb rock, that's what the yellows do."
"Oh really?" said another cyan pikmin, speaking in the same accent as the first. "Then catch this." And he tossed a small chunk of rock at the yellow pikmin.
The yellow pikmin caught it with his hands. Suddenly he yelped in pain as if it had burned him and let it drop to the ground. The rock suddenly started to sizzle and burn up, before crumbling in a tiny explosion. The yellow bud pikmin looked at his burned hands in confusion; it had obviously been a bomb rock.
"Looks like you've been demoded," the first cyan pikmin said, a smirk crawling across his face again.
"So then if you are the best type of pikmin," I challenged. "Then what element can you survive?"
"Elements?" one of the cyan's asked.
"Yeah elements," I replied, glad that they were questioning us now. "Reds can survive fire and blues can survive from drowning in water."
"How 'bout yellow's?" the first cyan asked teasingly.
I said nothing; once again they seemed to know what to say.
"I'll tell you what element we can survive," the cyan said. With that he glanced up into the sky, as if expecting something to come down. "We can survive…the Freeze."
"Doesn't sound like an element to me," I scoffed.
"Oh but it is the most realistic and harshest element of all," the cyan replied. "You think it's cold now, well it's going to get a lot colder. Neither you nor your friends will survive the Freeze.
I spoke up, frustrated with their sarcasm, "Listen, if you don't want anything to do with us, we'll leave you alone."
"Oh it's a tad too late for that," replied the cyan. "We're already having that…….urge."
"What do you mean by that?" a red pikmin asked in confusion.
The cyan pikmin simply shrugged and gave an innocent smile. Then he and his companions backed away, disappearing through the veil of sapphire mist.
We returned back into the clearing, not sure what the cyan pikmin meant or what his intentions were. I was mad that they had gotten the better of me.
"I should've tried harder," I said to the white pikmin. "If we'd been friendlier they might have listened."
"Possibly," the white pikmin replied. "But they seemed too jammed up in their own world. Beside they think we're lower than they are."
"Well they're gone now, but I have a feeling they're going to return," I said.
"Probably, but I'm more worried about this thing called the Freeze," the white pikmin said gazing up into the turquoise coloured sky.
I wondered what this Freeze would be but said nothing. It was pretty cold already and I did not want it to get colder.
I eyed the nectar pile, I was pretty hungry and it was the only food we had. Good thing there was a lot of it. I was about to go and get one when the white pikmin shouted.
"Everybody take cover!"
After what happened with the large creature, I didn't hesitate to throw myself down upon the snowy ground. The white pikmin lay down beside me, but his head was up and his red eyes were alert.
"What's going on," I hissed into the white pikmin's ear.
"They've surrounded us," the white pikmin whispered back.
A loud whizzing suddenly filled the clearing as a small and smooth dark blur jetted over us. It was moving so fast that it was impossible to identify what it was. More light whizzing sounds filled the air as dark objects continued to be thrown across the clearing.
A yellow pikmin who had his back to a tree was suddenly hit on the leg. A loud crack filled the air, and fluid erupted from the pikmin's thigh. He went down hard, clutching his leg in agony. The object that hit him ricocheted off and landed on the ground not far from me and the white.
It was a small rock, dark, rounded and smoothed in a non natural way. It had been thrown impossibly fast, as if it needed more momentum than an arm could supply.
After the first wave, the stones seemed to suddenly stop, but I could still feel the danger. I raised my head cautiously, and glanced around the clearing. Out of the blue mist and snow appeared two cyan pikmin, charging at me. More cyan pikmin appeared from everywhere, surrounding us.
I raised my head eager to fight when suddenly another flying stone struck the top of my mushroom. It had just grazed the top of it but at the speed it was flying it hurt a lot. I kept my head down but no more stones seemed to be thrown, so I raised my eyes cautiously…
….Only to be tackled by one of the cyans. He jumped right on top of me landing on my back and drove it into the ground; the soft snow not even attempting to cushion my body. Recovering from the tackle I tried to lift the cyan off me, only to receive a head butt from him. I felt a crack of pain and saw stars, I tried to lift the cyan again but he was too heavy.
Suddenly the cyan screamed in pain and was dragged off of me. I quickly got up, my body pulsing with adrenaline and ready for an attack. My friend, the yellow budded pikmin had tackled the cyan off me and now his bud was hitting the cyan's head repeatedly. The cyan's head snapped back in pain but one of his three clawed hands rose up and scratched the yellow on the face. The yellow budded pikmin screeched in pain.
All around me the clearing had turned into a war zone. Pikmin were battling each other in any viscous way possible. Stones flew through the air, trying to lick off solitary pikmin not fighting. I couldn't see the white pikmin but I could see the cyan charging at me...
I prepared myself, expecting him to tackle, I raised my arms, planted my feet, my mushroom raised and ready to hit. The cyan pikmin suddenly slowed five metres from me, and raised his head. His very long stem followed the head and coiled up. I looked in confusion wondering what he was going to do. The cyan flung his head forward and his stem whipped through the falling snow at me. It struck me hard on the shoulder, causing a long stinging pain. I grasped it with my other arm trying to numb the pain. The cyan was using his stem as a whip.
The cyan's head was ready to spring again already, his stem coiled in loops behind him. This time though he flung his head sideways, his stem coming from the side in a long arc towards my head. My instincts forced me to duck and the leaf tipped stem above me whipped harmlessly over my mushroom.
Without hesitating I charged towards the cyan pikmin. I slammed my mushroom into his chest, knocking the wind out of him and sending him a few steps backwards. He recovered and took a swipe at me with his clawed hand. I dodged and my mushroom met him in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground. Before I could do anything else, the cyan's stem lashed out and wrapped around my left leg. With a pull from his head, the stem went taut and pulled me off my feet.
I broke the fall with my hands and struggled to get out of the awkward position. The cyan tried to kick my arms but I kicked him in the side first. He groaned in pain and I quickly got up. I looked down at my struggling opponent who was still clutching his side in agony. When I saw his stem coiling up again, I kicked him in the same place. Then I brought my other foot up….and sent it crashing down upon his neck.
I felt a large crack and my foot seemed to sink down into something gushing out of the base of the cyan's neck. I pulled my foot out of whatever I ripped open. The cyan pikmin was still choking, fluids gushing out of his mouth and his neck. A bit of snow landed on the stuff and started to melt in its warm material.
Snow continued to fall everywhere, slowly and gently. It contrasted with the violent movements of pikmin grappling with each other. It was as violent as any other thing I had seen in my life. A cyan fighting with a red brought up his clawed hand and slashed it through the red's flower. Ribbons of petals flew everywhere; the red trying to catch them as if they still meant something to him. It was pretty much impossible to tell who was winning; it seemed as if both sides were losing.
My body suddenly erupted in pain as I was whipped in the back by a cyan pikmin. I felt the back of my body trying to find where it had whipped me. I could feel a large gash there but I quickly withdrew my hand as it caused more pain to touch it.
I stepped to the side and turned around. There was the cyan pikmin ready to whip me again, stem coiled at the ready. I prepared to dodge his stem when the cyan suddenly cursed aloud and started pulling on his stem.
Behind the cyan was the yellow budded pikmin who was grabbing the cyan's stem with both hands and keeping it taut. The cyan let out a tormenting screech, but other than that he could do nothing, trying to pull back would cause him too much pain.
I approached the cyan and the yellow pikmin gave me a nod. Without hesitation I slammed my mushroom into the cyan's face. The cyan fell to the ground; his face seemed to be indented. The yellow pikmin let go of his stem and let it fall to the ground limply besides the cyan's body. The cyan whimpered and buried his head into the shallow layer of snow.
"Don't hit him again," the yellow advised me. He had two nasty scratches on the left side of his face.
"Why not?" I asked.
"It seems we've won."
I gazed around the clearing and the yellow seemed right. Cyan's were backing off, whipping the ground in front of them to make sure we stayed back. We let them disappear slowly into the mist. I looked behind me to find the one cyan pikmin scrambling away; one by one they all left.
"We'll have to see how many are wounded," the yellow said. "Then we need to prepare if they decide to….."
A red pikmin that was standing 10 metres from us was suddenly hit in the face by another rock. His head snapped backwards and fluid spurted out, he was thrown back onto the ground by the force of the rock. Immediately a couple of pikmin near him rushed to his side, but they probably knew what I knew. The red pikmin was dead.
Two more rocks hissed through the air, barely missing two pikmin. Then there was silence. The sky was a rich dark blue now; it wouldn't be long before the gems came out.
It seemed only the red pikmin died. Others were just badly injured; I felt fortunate that I wasn't hurt at all. We needed to sleep though, we were tired, hungry and exhausted.
We all gathered in the middle of the clearing, ever wary of our surroundings. We needed to plan for the night.
"Okay," said a blue. "We can sleep but we should always have one pikmin on guard to make sure the cyan's don't attack us. We won this battle; we should be fortunate but prepared."
"Yes, we could use the fur that had fallen off of the creature to keep us warm," agreed a red.
"And we should have two on guard," I spoke up. "Just incase one…….dies."
Everyone agreed to that, but we were all still nervous about being attacked.
I volunteered for first watch along with my white friend. I watched enviously as my fellow pikmin laid themselves into beds of soft fur and settled down to sleep. Oh well get it over with now.
I watched the clearing as my white friend watched the area behind the creature. We stayed in constant chatter so that we'd know if something happened to either of us. We talked about things that had happened before the spores, old adventures and friends and such. It was getting pretty cold out and I was beginning to shiver. All the time I had my eyes scanning for any sign of movement, besides snowflakes, but nothing happened.
Finally when our watch was over, we woke up the next two pikmin. Then I settled myself down upon a bed of fur and floated away into a dreamless sleep.
Wow look it here! No cliffhanger!
Anyways this might be my last update for a while, because after next week I'm gone for two weeks. So I'll try really hard to update again and hopefully I am succesful.