Yoshi ran down the dark, damp path westwards. He then stopped in front of him, to notice a dead end. Cursing under his breath, Yoshi turned around to his right, to see a yellow-orange, small Styracosaurus looking at him. Yoshi screamed and fell down, crawling back.
The yellow-orange Styracosaurus laughed, standing on its two hind legs. "Oh, I didn't mean to scare ya, partner!" He reached out to Yoshi. "The name's Speccy! I'm the fastest there is in the Triceratops Cove!" He winked. "And I heard that you're looking for the five stars scattered around here, am I right?"
Yoshi nodded, getting up to his feet. "Yeah...how did you know?" He curiously asked, putting his right palm on his chin.
Speccy laughed, and he then pulled back his right arm, grabbing a bright, golden Star from his back. "I just happen to have one. You see, I've been waiting for someone to challenge me, but all of the ceratopsids who live in this unpleasant stink-hole don't even pose a challenge to me. I need someone who can actually give me a run for my luck." He nudged Yoshi by the shoulder. "Am I right, or am I right?"
Yoshi chuckled nervously, nodding a bit in agreement. "Ehhh...yeah..." He shook his head, and then smiled, asking, "How about we have a race to see who gets to keep the star? Is it a deal?"
Speccy cheered, pounding his chest proudly. "WOOO!!!! You bet your sweet buck that we can have a race! When I say ready, then go, okay?" He asked, getting into racing position.
Yoshi nodded, grinning as he also gotten into position. A few seconds passed, before Speccy shouted, "Ready...GO!!!"
The yellow-orange Styracosaurus started to run as fast as he could as he got a quick head start. Yoshi swiftly followed behind, catching up with the speedy ceratopsid. Speccy glanced briefly behind to see Yoshi, and smirked. He ran down on the right, going on his two hind legs before finally charging downwards on all of his four legs. Yoshi gasped, and without hesitation, he fell on his stomach and started sliding, taking the pain he received while sliding downwards the right.
Speccy jumped over a boulder in the oath, continuing to run. Yoshi got up to his two feet and jumped over the boulder, though he tripped and started tumbling down the path, moaning in pain as he got up and tried to keep his pace. He then turned to the left and jumped up, fluttering and climbing up the ridge above. He got up, and started running upwards, turning left and glancing to his right as he saw Speccy jump over a small stream of water and head down to the right spiral. Yoshi then looked straight, and jumped over the small boulders in the way, heading down to the right and started sliding down on his stomach again as he went downwards the spiral, before he fell off the ridge and landed on top of Speccy. Moaning for a few moments, Yoshi got up, shook his head, and proceeded to run again. Speccy also got up, and he charged up his feet, before running again.
Yoshi didn't glance back this time - he kept running forward, grabbing the edge and swinging to the right, heading downwards. He then tripped again on a small pebble and started to tumble down the path, getting bruised by the small rocks on the rather smooth path. Yoshi gets back on his feet and starts to flutter up, fluttering over the small, bottomless creak below. Yoshi then turned right, and ran as fast as he could. Wiping his forehead with his hand, Yoshi started to sweat as he breathed heavily, the running starting to exhaust him. Luckily, Yoshi spotted the finish line (a pair of rocks lined up together in the back formed to the word "Finish"), and jumped over, landing on his body. Exhausted, Yoshi let out a sigh of relief as he turned around and sat down on his bottom, watching an even more exhausted, and slightly depressed, Speccy pass through and run up to Yoshi.
"Huff...puff...gasp..." Speccy was for a loss of words, "Huff...I can't...believe...I finally got a worthy challenger...who...actually managed to...beat...me..." He collapsed on the damp ground.
Yoshi smiled, before he, too, collapsed on the damp ground, sighing as he took the time to recover his stamina.
