Toad startled awake to the sound of Toadsworth snoring in the next room. He was still laying on his tiny childhood bed and the room was dark except for a reading lamp. The little notebook lay open on his chest. Toad stood up hesitantly and stepped over to the window. He opened it carefully and looked down noiselessly.
In the alleyway below, four Birdfaces entered the building. The final one, Mr. Pipe, stopped and looked up, staring Toad hard in the eyes. Toad rushed through Toadsowrth's manor, taking a flight of stairs down to a waiting elevator. He punched the top floor button and it only took a few seconds before he was at the crumbling rooftop of Toadsworth's manor, able to gaze out over to Petalburg.
When the Birdfaces entered the manor themselves, they just walked past Toadsworth. A crippled sleeping old man was none of their concern. Toad had already returned down into the manor by this time when he heard Mr. I moving up the corridor toward him. It was dark, but he couldn't make the tiny Birdface out, he could just hear the small dagger scraping against the walla sit moved.
Toad tore arund a corner to a dead end. There was nowhere to go, all he could hear was the scraping approaching behind him. No, there was a grill above his head. Pulling it off, Toad climbed into an almost impossibly tight duct. Yet he was able to advance all the way through it to the outside of the building but there was nowhere for him to go but five stories straight down to the ground. So, he turned and started crawling back. Yet, at the end of the duct, Mr. I crawled forward, with the dagger in his teeth. Gritting his teeth, Toad climbed out of the duct and grabbed the pipe on the side of the manor, running verticaly down to the ground.
He slipped, dangled but still held on. One hand was on the pipe and the other was on the edge of the duct. The pipe was greasy, slippery and practically impossible to get a grip of. Toad looked up to see Mr. I perche don the edge of the hole, inches from his hand. A soft noise reverberated in Mr. I's throat and he held the knife in his hand, bringing it slowly down to Toad's hand. Sweat beaded down Toad's forehead as the blade cut into his flesh. Blood ran down his arm and spattered Toad's face. He had no choice and so, he let go.
He shut his eyes, ready to die for a brief moment, but the ground never came. He opened his eyes and… he was hovering, about ten feet above a dark body of water, a canal. Where was the manor? Toad tensed his body and slowly, he moved forward until he was at an even height above the water. Just as Toad smiled in utter amazement, he plummeted into the water as if he'd opened up a trap door beneath himself.
He swam across the canal to the bottom of a pier, climbing up a rotten ladder to the dry air. Toad ran off, leaving a trail of wet footprints behind.