Destination: Chai

Location: Kingdom of Sarasaland, in the country of Easton

Three days have passed since Yoshi left Peach's castle. Yoshi rests inside a new bullet train from Easton, a country of the kingdom of Sarasaland, en route to the seat of the entire realm, Chai. Yoshi is overwhelmed as he sees the flora and fauna, and watches the ancient Moai line the vast Easton plains. Occasionally, a flock of Batadons fly freely across the noon skies.

Yoshi thinks, 'Princess Daisy has sure done a bit. I remember Mario's story about this place, but a lot has been modernized since.'

He saddens a bit when he remembers Mario and the worldwide predicament. He slumps into his seat. 'I must hurry to Daisy to save Mario and the others. But I need some rest.' He recollects his memories of the trials from the past few days.

...

Flashback: Outskirts of the Grass Land Kingdom, three days ago…

Yoshi, still powered by the blue vitamin, dashed across the night skies as he approaches the northern edge of the kingdom of Grass Land. Past the grassy plateau, the kingdom was bordered by an uninhabited, craggy wasteland that went as far as the eye could see. Yoshi landed on the edge of the plateau just as the sun had almost set, while an eerie breeze whistled throughout the lonely region.

'Great!' thought Yoshi as he read the map with the scant light available, 'According to this map, Sarasaland is a few days north of Grass Land, and I'm pretty sure that following this straight line will lead me there, but… Where am I going again?"

The sun finally sets, so it is far too dark to read the map or to see anything for that matter. He is slowly getting frustrated but stops to think.

'Let's see, what did Mario say that one time around the campfire…?' He pondered for a bit. 'He said he followed a red star, rested in an active mining town north of Grass Land, and continued until he reached a desert full of Goomba things and pyramids.'

He surveyed the skies, and just barely spotted a faint red light. The cold wind howled once more, the chill sending shivers up Yoshi's spine. He was fully resolved to press forward, so he jumped off the precipice, not noticing that the transformation wore off when he'd landed, so he plummeted like an anvil. Confused with the turn of events and on the spur of the moment, he opened Stuffwell 2.0, and managed to take the vitamin jar out without spilling the contents. He gulped down the first chewable that landed on his hands and snapped the suitcase shut.

To his surprise, instead of sprouting wings, his entire body, with the exception of his limbs, became bloated like a balloon and inflated triple in size. His now contoured, balloon body slowly floated up from the dark abyss, Stuffwell 2.0 firmly gripped in his hand. After floating up to a better lit area, he tried to push his body forward by flapping an arm, but that only made his body spiral upward.

Suddenly, he squinted and sees floating spore-like entities approaching at a walking pace. After analyzing them for a while, his eyes widen, realizing they are fuzzies, and flapped his stubby arms and legs to try to escape the approaching menace, but still failed.

'I thought fuzzies only lived in my home island!' thought Yoshi as he struggled to escape, but to no avail.

Another untimely breeze blew the fuzzies close in mere seconds. One of those floats to Yoshi's side. Yoshi tried to yell, "Go away!" but a small stream of air escapes his body, pushing him away from that fuzzy but closer to the others. He covered his mouth with his free hand before more air escaped, profusely sweating as many fuzzies make contact.

He waits. None pop, but bounce off his gelatinous belly.

More float over and make contact; Yoshi closed his eyes.

Nothing… He waits again… He slowly opens them…

To Yoshi's surprise, no psychedelic rainbow illusions pop up, only the white drug puffs float away. Relieved, Yoshi flapped forward as much as he could, battling the constant sporadic winds blown off course. But nothing worked. He "lays" on his back and let out a frustrated scream, which released the air from the inside. He deflated very quickly, and because he still held on to Stuffwell, he went straight forward and crashed into a nearby mountain, rolling down for a bit before stopping by an empty cave on the cliff. Tired and slightly banged up, he spends the night in there.

The next morning, he woke up at noon cold, but brushed it off. He was very hungry though, but remembered he went on the mission without proper supplies, so he resigned to eat another dark blue vitamin, and flies off to the mining town Mario told him about.

After another half hour of flying, he reverts back to his normal self, falling and crashing into gritty sand. He slowly stands in pain and brushed of the tiny pebbles on his skin. He surveyed ahead, and finds mostly deserted ruins, rusty signs with the town's name illegible and almost wiped off, and many buildings were in a bad state of disrepair. His stomach grumbles, and begins feeling a bit weak. He shook his head and decides to walk to the town, hoping to find a small morsel to eat.

He scavenged the place top to bottom, but found himself mostly dodging rotten wood full of termites, and heavily rusted metal from the roofs. A building almost collapsed on top of the hungry dinosaur during his search. Some places near the mines emitted very foul gases, and other places just had unbearable stench.

He was about to give up finding food, when he sees a small shack resembling a cabana near a dry trough. It was also in disrepair, with many of the palm leaves missing, but unlike the rest of the abandoned town, it looked like someone had actually been in that cabana recently. There was a mound of ashes, which could only come from a fire lit no more than a few days before. Around it, he finds a few useful tools and some dried fruit and canned food that hadn't expired yet, clearly also abandoned recently. He eats as much as he could without questioning his apparent luck, and packs everything left and continues, eventually reaching Birabuto, Sarasaland's desert country. From there, he transversed Muda and reached the new modern port on Easton's coast.

...

Present time…

A female voice booms from the speakers, interrupting his back-story. "Five minutes to the next stop at the base of Chai."

'That's my stop,' thought Yoshi as he readies Stuffwell 2.0. Before closing it, he spots the vitamin manual and pulls it out. He scans through it and quickly points his finger once he found what he was looking for. It reads:

Dark blue vitamins made from blue berries and blue Koopa shell extract. Sprouts wings for flight, but once in air, keep your feet aloft or else the vibrations from landing will end the transformation.

Light blue vitamins, made from blimp berries. Inflates body like a balloon, bouncy enough to repel any object. Don't talk or blow air to keep the balloon figure.

'Just wonderful,' he thought as he pouts, 'Had I known this, I would have not almost died many times. Oh well, better knowing late than never. But as soon as this ride ends, I'll need Daisy's help; my friends can not wait.'

With this, he waits patiently as his train speeds through the plains of Easton, the mountainous Chai in sight.

…

Location: Toad Town, outside the outer castle walls of Peach's castle

Meanwhile back in Toad Town, around the same time Yoshi is about to reach his stop, a group of five, more specifically, Iggy, Wendy, Roy, Larry, and Bowser Jr., wait outside of Merlon's house, all but Junior carefully eyeing the Post Office. The main gates of the outer castle walls have finally been torn down, but the front door of the castle has been left intact so far. Junior is busy scribbling behind the news bulletin board.

The door to Merlon's place opens, causing the five to look back at the door. Lemmy, Ludwig, and three other unknown entities wearing hooded blue robes with a Toad cap design on the hood, walk out of Merlon's house in Toad Town and join those waiting outside the house.

"With Merlon done with," says Lemmy in his deep, sinister voice, "All we need to do is attack Shooting Star Summit."

"So, you like, killed him, or like, what the…?" Wendy inquires, but is interrupted by one of the hooded creatures.

"More like ssssssealed him away in thisssss," replies on of the hooded creatures.

Lemmy grabs everyone's attention by holding up a card with a picture of Merlon seemingly trying to get out of his paper prison. The creature of the serpentine voice continues, "We may need him later for a greater tasssssk."

"The boss also marked eight for abduction," says another of the three unknown guys. He sounds like a stereotypical Italian mobster and is noticeably shorter than the other two cloaked creatures. "Ludwig, you got this, Wiseguy?"

"Naturally," Ludwig replies haughtily, "The strategy is child's play. As already stated back at headquarters, we need eight strong warriors for the first part of our plan to work. We need them unconscious, so assassination is not an option. Do what you must and as you please to beat them an inch from their life. Understood?"

While Roy stretched and scratched his belly, having completely ignored Ludwig's commands, the rest of the Koopalings present and Bowser Jr. all nod. Knowing this, Ludwig pushes his pink-headed brother at the shoulder, causing the short, mobsterish guy to step in between both Koopalings, preventing Roy from retaliating.

"And here I thought you were the mature one, Wiseguy," he scoffs, "Save it for the soap operas. We got work to do. These are our targets."

He pulls out three pictures, one of Kooper, one of Goombario, and the last one of Parakarry. The short hooded creature begins giving orders.

"Larry, you go to Goomba Village in the east, and you, Roy, to Koopa Village in the west."

Ludwig interjects, "I believe Iggy should give the Postmaster our candid salutations, if you will. I think his 'chill pill' is at its final minutes; a newer dosage can wait for now."

"Someone got over his hissy fit quickly, huh Wiseguy?" remarks the mobster creature.

Ludwig sneers. "The rest of us, we march to Shooting Star Summit." He turns away and chuckles. "I wish to no longer delay my latest modus operandi."

"Yesssss, let'ssss go," the serpentine voiced creature said. With this, they all depart to their respective assignments, blending into the party crazed crowd.

-o-

As Yoshi travels parts of the world unknown to him and learns more about Professor E. Gadd's newest invention, the Koopalings and their allies have begun to make their moves. Who's their leader, and what are they up to? Next chapter: Iggy versus the new Postmaster, Parakarry!

Localizations and enemies found in Sarasaland are endemic of the Mario Land game involving Daisy and Tatanga; Wikipedia is your friend here.

The fuzzies are the white puff balls from Yoshi's Island, not the ball of static or whatever it is.