A Dinosaur's Lone Journey

Location: Tunnel to Peach's Castle via the Post Office; Peach's castle

The tunnel slowly gets darker and mustier the further they walk in. Water drips slowly at a certain section, where Parakarry concludes that they are under the fountain outside the castle. He takes a flashlight out of his satchel and illuminates the passageway. Moss grew in small patches along the wall and tiny holes litter the wall as well. An occasional subterranean critter scurries away from the light.

Yoshi and Parakarry finally reach a vent closing off the underground passageway, and is large enough to allow them to go through. Yoshi nose whacks the vent out of its place, and just like Parakarry said, they enter the five-star kitchen in Peach's castle. Yoshi remembers about the fruit he had on his back, so he removes the bundle made from the picnic blanket and leaves it on the floor.

Both reptiles leave the kitchen and take the stairs toward the second floor. A surreal, eerie stillness of the obscure hall sends chills down Yoshi's spine, who was accustomed to the brighter, upbeat atmosphere of the palace. The braying at the castle's gate continues, its thundering echoes scream throughout the silent castle devoid of life.

Parakarry pushed the doors of the new room. This formerly lavish and dazzling castle hall is no different from the rest of the forlorn and unlit palace. Toadsworth is looking out the window toward the castle's gate, witnessing the Toad guards and two large characters resisting the oncoming frenzy of Toad Town. He hangs and shakes his head as he sighs, deeply disappointed. Yoshi is slowly being invaded by the Chancellor's melancholy, but he sighs and musters the strength to approach the saddened Chancellor. Toadsworth hears Yoshi's footsteps and turns, getting teary eyed when he sees Yoshi and Parakarry there.

"Yoshi!" His voice slightly cracks. "Seeing the last of the kingdom's heroes here gives me a sliver of hope that everything will go back as it was."

"Mr. Toadsworth," starts Yoshi, "What happened? Did Bowser do this? And where are Mario and Luigi?"

Toadsworth replies, fighting back his emotions, "The morning after the ball, I went to the Princess' room for her morning tea, but she didn't answer my call. After a couple of minutes, I barge in and…" He sheds some tears as he shrugs and shakes his head, dropping his arms thereafter. "Not only has Peach been abducted, the Mario Bros. and even Toad were kidnapped! We don't know anything else at the moment, and I'm sorry to say that, young one." He then bitterly sobs into his hands. "If only Mario wasn't kidnapped as well! We are so powerless! We… we failed to protect the princess!"

Parakarry hears some footsteps behind, turning to a shadowy figure approaching from the first floor. He elbows Yoshi and takes a fighting stance. However, once the shadow comes into view, it is revealed to be Professor E. Gadd, sporting his usual goofy grin, and is carrying an assortment of objects as well. Both Yoshi and Parakarry stand down, Parakarry sighing in relief.

"Oh, Toadsworth!" exclaims Professor E. Gad, "Don't beat yourself over it. You were busy at the port, and the guards stood in their positions faithfully while respecting her highness' privacy. Besides, the kidnapping was so sudden and silent unlike other times."

"The professor is right, chancellor," Parakarry interjects, "The kingdom was truly in utter shock when we found out they were all kidnapped."

Toadsworth begins drying his tears as the professor continues.

"This has been the most mysterious of abductions as of yet, very unlike Bowser's style. But I have been researching these occurrences for the past few days, so I think I'll take it from there, Chancellor." He approaches the green dinosaur and sets everything down on the velvet carpet.

"I know getting news to Dinosaur Land from the Mushroom Kingdom takes a while, so let me connect the dots for you, Yoshi. The morning after the ball, all that was found in the princess' room was an unsigned note saying that the Mushroom World was going to be conquered. However, the room was surprisingly neat, like if there was no struggle whatsoever. Also, a week after the ball, the entire world was shocked to hear that the Koopa Troop was annihilated."

The professor takes a white handkerchief from his lab coat and wipes off some sweat from his brow. He continues, "The day after their defeat, as I was investigating this rather mysterious case, my radar picked up an unusual frequency, and suddenly, many reports swarm from many news outlets of Shyguys, birdos, sniffits, and few other creatures being petrified. Therefore, I conclude this wave to be the cause of petrifaction, or at the very least, this radar or frequency is somehow involved in this crisis."

Parakarry interjects, "Not only that, I think that somehow, that same ray placed a mind controlling curse on the non-Koopa citizens of Toad Town. Here I thought that with the Princess, the Mario Brothers, and Toad kidnapped, an uproar would befall Toad Town. And boy, it did; the Toads have been flipped into a partying frenzy, and they could care less that she is gone. This whole ordeal has been a hard pill to swallow for everyone."

The paratroopa sighs. "We at the post office are doing our best to find clues while we perform our duties. We even asked Merlon for help, but as always, he turned us away; he did seem very sick and troubled, though. Anyway, I'd go and search too, but I must run the Postal services and help maintain whatever peace we have left. A postman's job is never done, as we say."

"Yoshi, please believe me when I say we remaining functional subjects of the kingdom feel terrible about not being more proactive, but at the moment, we can't do much other than try to keep chaos at bay before everything collapses," responds E. Gadd, "And honestly, I must stay and continue to research this entire ordeal. Information is power, ya know. Hopefully I can find something hidden in the castle's library or maybe in the basement. So for now, I give you these."

He picks up a clear brown, plastic jar, a gray suitcase resembling Stuffwell, and a contraption resembling a Wii U.

"This suitcase is my latest traveling commodity: Stuffwell, version 2.0. No matter how big, you can store all of your items in here, but I'm not certain how much you can carry with it, 100 things may be pushing it. Now, this [pointing at the Wii U device in his right hand] is, as I call it, a Wii Me. It's kind of like a GPS locator, but it tracks down people and creatures listed in its DNA database. It contains DNA samples of Mario, Luigi, Peach, and Toad I found in their personal grooming items. Whenever you are within range of any of them, a beeper will ring, and the closer you are, the more frequently it beeps. And my latest and best scientific creation: Yoshi vitamins."

He picks up the jar. Yoshi becomes fascinated with the jar, almost like when he smells cookies. He tries to grab the jar, but the Professor pulls back just enough from Yoshi's reach.

"Not so fast! These vitamins aren't very stable and eating too many at once can be very dangerous." This manages to stop Yoshi trying to take away the bottle; the professor continues as calmly as before.

"These assorted chewables I specifically made for only Yoshis give you the fabled powers of different colored Yoshis. For example, eating the pink chewable made from Dash Pepper will transform you into a pink Yoshi. It will make you twice as fast, but diminishes your accuracy and overall power."

He opens the jar and pulls out a small manual. "I enclosed a manual listing the many flavors you have at your disposal, each with different strengths and weaknesses. Also, each pill lasts for about half an hour or until you eat another, but the latter option seems rather risky, as I've not run tests for that. They can be lifesavers in a pinch, but be wise about consuming one. They are there to help, not to be your crutch, okay?"

Yoshi readily snatches the jar and proceeds to open it, but feels embarrassed for his rudeness. After an awkward silence, he clears his throat.

"Um, sorry 'bout that," he apologizes, "Thank you, professor, I'll take everything you say into consideration." He reads the manual, and picks a blue vitamin out of the jar.

"Be careful, young one," said Toadsworth, "A perilous journey is unfolding before you. I almost feel guilty about sending you alone. But I've become so used to Mario bailing us out from every crisis."

"I have the support of all of you," replies Yoshi with a reassuring smile, "Besides, you are right. Being the kingdom's hero doesn't suit me. Better find Mario fast so he can continue being the hero."

Toadsworth goes over to an ornate drawer located in the same room, and pulls out a dusty map, which he hands to Yoshi. "I hear that Princess Daisy has returned safely to her palace, and nothing has befallen Sarasaland as of yet. Please go to the distant Sarasaland and find Princess Daisy. She should be able to help."

Parakarry pulls out a bag of coins and a couple of letters from his satchel, and hands them to Yoshi. "I kindly ask of you to deliver these. One is for Daisy, and the other is… well, I don't know where to find the guy, but if you do find him in your travels, please give him the letter. Here are also some coins I saved for an emergency. I'm sure you'll be set for your travels. Good luck and farewell."

Yoshi puts his new belongings into Stuffwell 2.0. He eyes the now sweaty blue vitamin staining his hand and mumbles, "Hope this works," and eats the blue chewable.

No fancy transformations ensue, just his green skin simply becoming dark blue and some wings sprouting on his back. He checks out his wings and nods approvingly. He starts flapping his new wings and slowly becomes aloft. He almost falls a couple of time but gets the hang of it, saying, "Not bad, professor."

Toadsworth sighs again. "Sorry to burden you like Mario, but please, be careful. Recruit as many others as possible, find everyone missing, and beat this new menace."

Yoshi flies toward the window and opens it. He looks back and gives them thumbs up. "Don't worry, we'll find them."

He flaps his wings harder, getting thrust further up into the sky and flies toward Sarasaland. The chancellor and the professor wave good bye. Parakarry smiles and silently goes back to the post office to resume his duties, hoping to still find it intact.

Yoshi feels somewhat invigorated and free as he flies. Deep inside, however, Yoshi felt very uneasy.

'Who is responsible for this catastrophe? How can I defeat the one who defeated Bowser and his army? And after getting Daisy, what then? Where will I find even one of my friends? Should I search the entire Mushroom World? Even if I try, will it be too late?'

Many other thoughts begin to worry him about the future. Unable to appease his thoughts, he dashed in direction to Sarasaland, hoping to not waste precious time, hoping to solve this great mystery.

-o-