Chapter 5: Time to pay the toll
Disclaimer: Same as before.
I set off for the Goomba family's house not long after I finished making them a cake. "The chocolate dessert will hopefully be enough to stem Goompa's short temper." Before I left I made sure to pick up some battle items in the case that Bowser's goons are on the prowl. "I should be careful since I'm travelling alone not too long after the kidnapping. You never know if something could happen."
I popped out of our hidden warp pipe and peeked out of the large bushes that surrounded it on all sides. I left my cover once I was sure that no one was around. With no one in sight I continued on my way by taking the path to my right. Moments later I was passed the large entryway of Toad Town and started climbing up the natural steps of the trail. The cake was secured in a box that I placed in my dark green backpack, so I was ready for a fight if it came to that.
The journey to their home was quiet. Not a soul was walking along the trail that was usually teeming with people. The local toads from Toad Town as well as many travelers like to take hikes along this path because of the scenery. Many kinds of trees as well as flora grow throughout the area. There is also a river that flows further down the trail that lies in a beautiful, open area. Picnics are very common to see around there because of that. So it was unusual for this normally frequented place to be devoid of any travelers at this time of year. "Well it could be that no one feels like hiking with the recent kidnapping, but knowing my luck there are some minions of the latest bad guy on this path."
Ten minutes later and I found out that my hunch was right. There were a few goombas and a koopa spread throughout the narrow path, and they didn't look very friendly. I was positive that they were henchmen because of two reasons. One was that they couldn't have been strolling along the path without provisions unless they were patrolling the place. The second was that they appeared to be harassing a couple of toads that were wearing backpacks and looked to be hiking along the path themselves.
The first toad that I noticed had dark blue spots, light brown hair, and was down on the ground. He was noticeably older than the second toad and his face was scrunched up to keep from crying out. He was clutching his leg and looked to be in obvious pain from the way that he was shaking. The second toad was just a kid that had sky blue spots and her dark brown hair in low pigtails. Although she was smaller than her enemies she stood tall and protectively in front of the other toad with her arms out. I could see her visibly shaking, not from pain, but from fear of what could happen next.
"Well, it looks like my quiet walk is over." I ran closer to where the shakedown was happening and shouted to take their attention off of the victims. "Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" I succeeded in placing the attention on myself and continued to jog closer to the enemies. By the time that I was close enough the goombas formed a line and had the red-shelled koopa with triangular black sunglasses in the middle. This confirmed that he was the leader of their squadron.
"I should question you on why you're here green cap. This is Bowser's turf now! King Goomba was put in charge of this lovely area and his first decree was to instate a toll booth. We of course didn't have enough time to create the perfect booth before these clods came waltzing in like they owned the place. To make up for their error we simply asked them for their payment. They decided to be difficult, so here we are."
The younger toad behind the line chimed in afterwards. "Asked?! You never asked us for anything! You just ran out of the bushes and hurt my brother!" The minions all turned around and one of the goombas chimed in. "Shut up brat. Know your place!" She flinched as he began to turn around and started walking towards her.
I sighed and muttered, "Well it's now or never," before charging my fire. A green flame engulfed my right hand as I aimed it at the hostile goomba. With all of them distracted already I blasted him with my fireball and watched him tumble to the ground with a smirk. The rest of the group whipped their heads around to focus on me, and didn't pay any attention to their fallen comrade. "So, it looks like I have your attention now. Good." My smirk never let up as the remaining koopa and goombas gained a battle stance.
They were all either new to their job or too enraged to care about formations as they all launched themselves towards me. I laughed at their strategy and quickly rifled through my pockets. With my prize in hand I lifted it to the sky and watched as it disappeared to form a red flower that bloomed immediately from the ground. Large fireballs burst out of the red flower and hit all five remaining opponents before turning to ash and blowing away in the wind. The goombas and koopa were all left on the ground just as singed as the first goomba that I attacked.
"Wow that was a little too easy." I slowly walked closer to the downed minions and lightly pushed on the koopa with my boot. "I don't think that they're getting up anytime soon." My smirk turned into a small smile as I turned my attention towards the frightened toads. "I won't be stupid and ask if you both are okay, since it's obvious that you're not. Do you think that you could you tell me what happened here?"
The older toad with the dark blue spots answered me rather than his little sister. "Yeah, my name's Taylor. I was just taking my sister Belle on a walk like we always do when we were ambushed. The koopa came out of the brush and spun into my legs. The force of the blow knocked me down, and I think I sprained my leg. That's when the rest of the gang came in. I stumbled when I tried to get up to grab my sister and run before a goomba head butted me to the ground again." He flinched as he tried to sit up to talk to me. I stopped him from moving further before speaking.
"Could I see your leg then? I need to see how bad it is." He nodded and took his hand off of his visibly bleeding leg. "I don't think that's sprained Taylor." He began to smile in relief before I continued. "I'm no doctor, but that leg looks broken to me." Taylor's relieved smile turned into a frown after he released a stressed sigh. "And where did you get head butted?"
Instead of answering me vocally he lifted up his blue t-shirt to show me. Dark bruises were beginning to form all along his stomach and they didn't look like they'd go away anytime soon. "Okay you're in worse condition than I thought. It's a good thing that I came prepared for this little excursion." I took off my backpack and opened the biggest pocket as I sat down in front of him. I had gauze inside as well as medical items that I could use as a makeshift medication along with my boxed up cake.
I picked up a roll of gauze and a bottle of healing salve and set to work. I took off my gloves and put some healing salve on a large bandage before gently pressing it against his broken leg. Then I held it in place by securing the gauze around the bandaged wound. The salve was made from healing mushrooms so there was no chance for an infection to occur. With that done I put the items away and made sure it was on correctly.
With my inspection complete I slung my backpack back into place. Then I slid my left hand underneath his back while my right hand went underneath his legs. I looked at him to see if this was okay and proceeded when he said to. I then slowly picked him up and turned to his sister. I motioned for her to start walking back the way I came from before speaking. "Did you both come from Toad Town then?" She nodded and said, "Yeah we live there. Do you live close by too?"
"Yeah I live close to Toad Town. I even live with my older brother like you do." She smiled and said, "That's awesome! So do you fight a lot mister? You were pretty cool out there beforeā¦" Her brother spoke up at that statement. "Yeah, you were calm throughout the whole fight, and you didn't get a scratch on you."
I let out a laugh at the quick change of topic. "Well I'm not a newbie when it comes to fighting, but my bro is the one who usually seeks out a battle. You don't want to get in his way when he has his mind set on something." My laughter trailed off as I thought about my brother's stubborn ways. We walked in a comfortable silence for the next fifteen minutes until we reached the hill that formed natural steps.
"Belle I'm going to walk a bit slower down this hill to not jostle Taylor as much, so you can go ahead if you want." She shook her head and replied, "Nah, I'll stick by you guys in case you need me to help out." I smiled and thanked her before slowly making my way down the dirt steps. We made it to the bottom a few minutes later and continued on towards the entrance to Toad Town. It came into sight soon after which made Belle laugh in happiness and run slightly ahead of me and Taylor.
I raised my voice slightly so that she could hear me. "Now don't run off too far Belle. We need to go to the Toad House rather than your home in order to help your brother." She sheepishly twirled her right pigtail at that and slowed down to walk at my side. "Sorry mister. I forgot that we were going there first."
I smiled to reassure her. "That's alright Belle. Now it's not much farther from here." We arrived at the Toad House a few minutes later. Belle held the door open for us without either of us asking, and then I walked in to see if there was a bed for Taylor to rest in. The place was packed, but thankfully the head toad said there was an available bed for him.
I gently set Taylor down on top of the bed after Belle pulled the covers down for him. He was resting against the headboard with a tired look on his face. "Thank you so much mister. Without your help I don't know what would have happened to us." Taylor's eyes began to water from the different emotions that were coursing through him. He was relieved that they made it back without his sister getting hurt. He was also scared for what might have occurred if this guy hadn't rescued them. The stress of the event finally caught up to him, and he was happy that he was at least in a safe place when it happened.
"I need to know your name sir. You saved me and my sister from further harm, and I'm very thankful for that." Belle nodded vigorously from her spot on Taylor's bed. Her pigtails flew around comically as she sat next to him on the bed. I rubbed the back of my head in my embarrassment. "Oh. My name's Luigi. I probably should have told you that when you told me your names." They both laughed at that and said that it was fine with them.
"Is this your first time in a Toad House?" They nodded so I began to tell them about how they work. "So now that you're in bed I'm guessing that you both are feeling the sleeping spell?" Taylor looked like he was nodding off while Belle started to look a bit tired now. They both slowly nodded at that.
"Well the princess made these places with healing and safety in mind. She made it so that sleeping and healing spells are on the medical beds of this House to promote healing, and she also put certain toads in charge of each House that know the spells. They keep watch of the House, as well as replace the spells once they wear off. This is to make sure that everyone is safe, and their valuables are safe as well. Once you fall asleep the healing spell will take hold, but the sleeping spell will wear off after five hours. You sleep normally after that time is up and heal until you fully wake up. Oh, and the healing beds have red covers and pillowcases, while the regular beds have blue ones."
"If you have any questions you can ask a Medic toad about them once you wake up, okay? Like the one we talked to when we first came in here." They agreed to that and snuggled deeper into the pillows. I told them that I would come back once five hours passed and tucked the covers over Belle and Taylor after they lay down. Then I pulled the curtain to surround their bed and walked out of the House. I still had to visit Goompa and Goompapa after all.
