Chapter 13-Hostilities Revealed

Soshi tumbled headfirst into the volcano. He tried spreading his wings, but the downward drag force was too great. His wings were literally stuck to his sides. As he plunged farther down, he reflected on all the people he had let down. Peach, his father, his mother, and all of Plit. Fractions of a second away from impact, he wondered why he had ever taken this upon himself to solve. The frothing pool of magma was coming in fast, and Soshi was powerless. He could feel the heat radiating onto his face.

"Wait a minute," he told himself. "No, I can't." Soshi plunged into the magma and didn't feel heat, or even warmth. Something wasn't right. This "magma" was actually a viscous, yellow fluid. It reminded Soshi of honey. He opened his mouth and some of the sticky fluid filled it. Soshi spat it out immediately with disgust. No, definitely not honey. As Soshi tried to get the bitter, sticky fluid off his tongue, he tried to keep his wings above it. The honey-like substance would cling to his wings, preventing him from flight. Looking down however, Soshi could see a faint network of tunnels, much like the ones on Proarctica.

"That's strange."Soshi said out loud, and stuck his head in for a closer look. Immediately upon opening his eyes, the fluid seeped in.

"AAAAARRRRRGGHH!" Soshi screamed, frantically pulling the slime away from his eyes. In doing so, he accidentally coughed up a fireball. He continued to do so until he could see again. He noticed immediately that he had created a gap in the slime, which immediately filled itself back up. This gave Soshi an idea. Filling his lungs up with as much oxygen as possible, he spewed his flame straight down, boring a gap through, and quickly fell, landing on the ooze at the bottom. Wasting no time, he coughed up another, just as the tunnel he had made closed up again. Soshi pulled himself through to the air pocket he had made and coughed up another fireball. In this way, he managed to eventually pull himself into one of the tunnels.

Gasping for breath, Soshi collapsed onto the cold, rocky floor, his body drenched with fluid. Wait, cold? This was a volcano. Well, sort of, at any rate. The next thing that entered Soshi's head was why the tunnel had not filled with the same fluid that was on the outside. Soshi reasoned that the only answer was to follow the tunnel. So, bravely, he marched in. Watching the light fade from the opening, Soshi eventually had to feel his way around. He smacked himself into a wall more than a few times. By the end he could swear he had a concussion. But there was time for that later.

"I've got to try to keep focus. Everyone's counting on me." He whispered, lost in the dark. "If only I could-AAAA!" the ground suddenly slipped out from under him, and Soshi's wings were still saturated, so there was nothing he could do. Eventually, he unceremoniously landed in a heap, presumably at the bottom of the volcano, he stood up, his head still reeling, and four dim orange lights came into view. Soshi shook his head and they merged into two. He blinked a few times and they merged again into one.

"First things first." he thought, flapping his wings a little to get them dried off. He continued to do this as he walked toward the light. As it got bigger and brighter, Soshi noticed a shadow blocking part of the light. It was an aged, wizened Koopa, standing facing the light, which Soshi saw was coming from a candle. Even his shell had grayed a little. By his feet was a medium-sized red orb. The Koopa did nothing as Soshi approached. It merely stood there, watching as if mesmerized by the light. Soshi was right up beside the Koopa when it dawned on him: Whoever this Koopa was he was guarding whatever was inside that orb, presumably the artifact he was looking for.

"So." The first word the Koopa spoke made Soshi jump back. The word echoed several times before dissapearing. "You have come all this way. You have braved the volcano. You have proven yourself." Soshi opened his mouth to speak when the Koopa interrupted. "Stop, I know you have questions, and I will answer them. First, this volcano only opens to those with pure motives. To all others, it is a veritable deathtrap, like all others. You may be wondering why anyone would venture in at all. You see, this," he indicated the orb by levitating it inches in front of Soshi. "is a treasure that, in the wrong hands, could forever plunge the world into despair, but in the right hands, can bring peace in times of need. By merely getting this far, you have proven yourself." The candle was snuffed out, and the orb began to glow bright red, illuminating both Soshi's and the Koopa's faces. The orb transformed from a sphere shape to a torch shape. When the blinding light faded a little, it's features were made out. It was a red rod, with a flame shape at the top. And set into the very heart of the flame was the biggest ruby Soshi had ever seen. "This is the Radiant Ruby. It has deemed you worthy." Soshi stepped closer to the powerful wand in awe. As he gripped it, the light completely faded. "Good luck" said the Koopa, giving a smile as he vanished into the darkness.

Soshi felt a familiar feeling around his feet and it slowly surrounded the rest of his body. The fluid was filling the chamber. Soshi couldn't fight it, but realized he didn't have to. It carried him up out of the chamber, into the light, to the top of the volcano. As Soshi grabbed the mouth of the volcano and pulled himself out, he wondered if he had dreamt the whole thing. He looked at his hand. It tightly gripped the Radiant Ruby. No, it hasn't been a dream. Soshi remembered suddenly what he needed to do. He needed to get back to the castle as soon as possible. As he shook off his wings and took flight, a cannonball flew through the air, flying over his head. Soshi looked in the direction it came and saw the same pirate ship he had landed on earlier, only now it seemed to have a bright green shimmer to it.

"Give up the treasure, ya curdled dragon! Or do I 'ave ta blast it out of ya?" Captain Kaller waved one fist at Soshi, who flew in a circle over the ship.

"I don't know what you want, but I never back down from a challenge!" he yelled back, and dove at one of Kaller's crewmates, knocking him into the water.

"Grr. Fire again!" Kaller yelled, another cannonball flying through the sky. Soshi breathed a fireball at this one, but it seemed much stronger than usual. The cannonball exploded into a million pieces, sending red-hot iron raining down on the sharks. Soshi followed it up with a wing attack, right at Kaller's gut. The shark keeled over, obviously in pain.

"That's enough." he wheezed. Kaller then pulled out a mysterious wand that looked like a moon. "Let me show you true power!"

He pointed the wand at Soshi, and a bright green flash of light enveloped the dinosaur. Kaller snickered as he held his stomach, but his grin was wiped away, as Soshi still hovered there having covered himself with his wings. Soshi looked at his own wand. "Let's see what you can do." He said. He fired five bursts in quick succession, all aimed for the shark captain. Kaller held the Essence Emerald horizontally in the air and created a forcefield around himself, absorbing the impact of the blasts. Kaller retaliated by sending out a beam of energy rings at Soshi, who dove at the last second. His wand glowing with power, Soshi fired two fireballs that homed in on Kaller. He was too slow to dodge and was consequently cooked. Soshi tried finishing him off with a series of blasts from the wand, which quickly mowed down Kaller's men, and damaged Kaller himself. He managed to get up to his feet and cast a shield around the entire ship with the Essence Emerald. He glared at Soshi. "You win this time, but I'll get that treasure from you yet!" Kaller's ship slowly turned around and headed back the way it came.

Soshi looked at his new magical weapon. "If he's talking about this, he's not getting it." Soshi chuckled, and flew on back to Toad Town.