Standard Disclaimer: I don't own Yoshi, the Swoopers, or the Lava Piranha. They belong to Nintendo. Everything else in this chapter, including the Yoshi characters, is owned by me (Toomai).

Chapter Three

Vewaque's Anger

The Yoshis appeared in a small circular chamber. A door was in front of them, but it had a padlock on it. Around the room were ten torches, one of them lit. There was also a small pile of bones next to the wall.

"First room," said Windoshi. His voice echoed in the chamber. "Now what? I don't suppose anyone has a spare key?"

"These torches must do something," analyzed Poisoshi. "The problem is how to light the rest of them."

"Can we use the bones?" wondered Shockoshi. "It's dry enough in here that they would probably act as torches. We could take fire from the lit one and transfer it to the rest."

"Well," said Flamoshi, "there's nothing else around. Let's try it."

Shortly after, all ten torches were lit.

"Done." Earthoshi then exhaled. "Now what?"

Suddenly, a hole appeared in the ceiling. From it a small silver key dropped. Flamoshi picked it up.

"Hey, a key!" he exclaimed. He darted over to the door and stuck the key in the lock.

The lock clicked and the door opened. But the key burst into flames.

"YAH! HOTHOTHOTHOTHOT!" The red one threw down the key, but it had burned to ashes before it hit the ground.

"So much for that key." Iceoshi's voice.

"Well, at least the door's open," said Healthoshi. "Maybe we can only use each key once."

"Gee, you think so, Einstein?" Poisoshi crossed his arms. "What was your first clue?"

The Yoshis moved into the next room. A cavern of lava immediately confronted them. It seemed to be the main area of the volcano.

"Right," said Windoshi. "Two paths. One leads up, the other down. Which one do we pick?"

Some further visual investigation revealed that the upper path had a sizable break above the magma, while the lower path lead to the other side of the room. Iceoshi consulted the map.

"The upper path leads to a room with a drawing of a temple. The lower one leads to a long, squiggly room. That room has a door at the end of the passage."

"Squiggly room." Shockoshi started on the way down. "I can tell that we won't be able to flutter across that huge gap in the upper path." The others followed him.

The room they entered seemed to be taunting them. At the other end of the passage was an unlocked door. But the passage was filled with lava. Not only that, but the floor was littered with irregular stone slabs.

"Section one. How to cross lava." Windoshi put on a documentary-type voice. "First you interview those involved, ask for help, then if you don't get it, you push them in."

"Maybe we could build a bridge with these rocks," suggested Healthoshi.

"Can't," responded Icoshi. "Not enough of them."

"Well, what else can we try?"

Flamoshi got a wild idea. Not telling the others because he thought they would stop him, he grabbed a slab about the same size as him and sprinted towards the lava.

Watoshi was the first to flash a cry. "Flamoshi, NO!"

Ignoring the yells of his friends, the red Yoshi dove towards the molten rock. Then he got up and used the slab as a board, quickly making his way towards the other side.

"Schweet!" exclaimed Shockoshi. "Lava surfing!"

Without hesitation, he too grabbed a board and shot across the room. The other eight followed, most of them reluctantly.

Windoshi went last and, as per his personality, attempted to show off with a bellyflop. However, he couldn't stop himself at the other side and slammed into the closed door.

"I'm OK!" He then collapsed.

Emoshi bent over the fallen comrade. "Is your nose broken? How hard did you hit? Are you really okay?"

The muttered reply was, "Wee…I see flying watermelons…melon, banana, shell, Spiny Shell, Fireball, YIKES!" He leapt up and contacted the ceiling.

Emoshi shook her head. "He'll be all right."

"Yeah," said Healthoshi. "He just has a temporarily flat face."

After Windoshi recovered, the Yoshis entered the next room. It was circular with a hole in the middle, guarded by a ring of fire. Multiple Swoopers were aflight in the room, and many more were hung on the ceiling. About five were guarding an egg-shaped dent in the wall.

As soon as the door closed, all the Swoopers perked up and swarmed the Yoshis.

"Bleck!" Shockoshi tried to ward them off.

"What now?" cried Emoshi.

Earthoshi conceived a plan. "Did we all bring our tennis rackets?"

A yell of assent was heard.

"Well then, start whacking these Swoopers with them!"

The Yoshis did so. Swoopers were being smacked with force and flying into the walls so hard they were destroyed outright. Soon the air was clear again.

"What's this egg-shaped thing in the wall?" Windoshi's eye had spotted the dent.

"It's obvious, isn't it?" Poisoshi spoke like he was bored. "You stick an egg in it, like this…"

A click was heard as the egg went into the dent. The Yohsis turned around and the fire around the hole had gone out.

"Well?" Flamoshi's voice echoed in the empty chamber.

"Well what? Last one in's a rotten egg! JERONIMO!" Windoshi flew into the hole head first.

Wondering what Windoshi would have as a hostipal bill in a few years, the Yoshis headed – in a safer way – into the hole.

The room they appeared in was circular, like the last. It had a large pit of lava in the center. Luckily, the hole was on the side of the room so they didn't land right in.

The first thing the Yoshis realized is that there was no way out. The room was high so they could not jump out of the hole, and there was no ladder or jump pad. The only thing that might help was a large metal bar sticking out from the side of the room, right under the hole.

"I think we made a mistake," said Shockoshi. "There's no way out of here except up there."

Windoshi popped out of the rock ground and spoke. "Maybe if we pulled out that metal bar, something would fall out from behind it, like a ladder."

Watoshi thought then said, "Even though our tongues can reach that high, they don't have the power to haul something that big."

Suddenly, an evil laugh filled the room. It seemed to be coming from the pool of lava.

"Whatever you are, show yourself!" Flamoshi commanded.

It obeyed. Three Piranha Plants on long vines rose from the lava, the center one much bigger than the others.

"WHAHAHAHA!" The center Plant spoke like a lunatic. "I WAS HOPING YOU'D FIND ME HERE!"

"The Lava Piranha!" exclaimed all the Yoshis.

"YOU GOT THAT RIGHT! MY LAVA BUDS AND ME WERE GUARANTEED A SAFE SPOT HERE! NOW WE MUST GET RID OF YOU TO KEEP YOU FROM GETTING THAT THING!"