Lakitu's Defection

By Pteryx

3

Something About the Forest

Soon, the twosome were floating in Lakitu's cloud high over the Valley of Bowser. The view of the grey, sparkly ground far below was breathtaking for the Troopa, but was just more scenery to Lakitu. They just had to go out the passage to Dinosaur Land, make their way to Koopa Beach and take the pipe to the Mushroom Kingdom, and find Mario. That couldn't be toohard, could it?

"By the way, what're you known as?" Lakitu asked the Koopa Troopa.

"Tineeko," he replied, almost in a mumble.

"Well, it's a pleasure, Tineeko," Lakitu replied, offering a handshake. Tineeko slowly brought his little paw out from behind him and accepted it.

When they got to the only exit from the Valley of Bowser, they were in for a surprise. Ten Paragoomas were swarming around it!

"Well, now what?" There's too many of them to avoid," said Tineeko.

"Nah, I bet he could make it if we went fast enough," answered Lakitu. And with that, he shot towards the passage to above ground as fast as his cloud could go! Five Paragoombas were bowled over as the turncoats zoomed by, but the remaining five followed them! As Lakitu's cloud sped on, a bunch of ghosts from a nearby ghost ship joined the chase just as a few Super Koopas floew out of the entrance to the underground Valley of Bowser. When they passed over Chocolate Island, a Dino-Glido came along carring a Dino-Torch on its back (with difficulty). The Dino-Torch was was brought closer and closer, until Tineeko tapped Lakitu's shoulder rapidly and said:

"Uh... L-L-Lakitu, I think we're in serious danger..."

Lakitu turned his head and saw the huge swarm of flying enemies, which was growing bigger and bigger by the minute, seeing the Dino-Torch atop the Dino-Glido most of all!

"Oh my stars! If that Dino-Torch condenses this cloud, we're through! Tineeko, throw some Spi--"

But it was too late. The Dino-Torch breathed fire at the cloud, which disintegrated all at once. The flame didn't touch Lakitu, since Tineeko took the full brunt of the attack. He shot up from the cloud an instant before there was nothing to shoot up from, while Lakitu began falling about fifteen feet below him -- and twenty-five thousand feet above ground level!

Now, as you might have guessed, Lakitu was terrified. This had never happened to him when he was this high up! He had had nightmares that were something like this, after which he'd wake up in a cold sweat, but he never thought they'd come true!Frightened as he was, though, he told himself, I am not gonna panic! No matter how scared I get, I've gotta keep a coolhead! Unless I do that, I'll never be able to keep myself confident! Then he got an idea out of nowhere, for no obvious reason, of how to make the landing less painful for Tineeko.

"Hey, Tineeko!" he yelled up to Tineeko. "I'm gonna get right under you, get into my shell, and turn so the top of my shell hits the ground! Try to make sure you land on me, okay?"

"What?! You crazy? I'd knock the life out of you if you hadn't already died from the impact!" Tineeko exclaimed.

"Hey, at least you'd live and I'd feel a lot better about myself for the second and a half I'd still be with you! So just -- just do it for me, okay?" By the time Lakity said this, he was in position.

"Well... I guess I should, since you insist so."

The things Tineeko has said hadn't helped. Lakitu was cringing inside hs shell, shaking for all he was worth, but he still refused to admit how afraid he really was. As alarmed as he was, he was going to hold himself together.

Then, he hit the ground. It didn't hurt especially badly since he was in his shell and landed hard-side down, but the force of the crash itself was much more than he had ever imagined. The only thing he could compare it to was Tineeko's landing on himabout half a second later. The two blows were more than enough to force Lakitu to pop out of his shell and his his head on a tree.

"Lakitu!" Tineeko shouted when he saw what a terrible condition he was in. He rushed over and took his pulse. He breathed a sigh of relief and collapsed. It felt so good to relax a bit. In the shade of a tree, with Lakitu unconscious beside him and Lakitu's shell not far off, he fell asleep.

About half an hour later, Lakitu woke up with a terrible headache and blurred vision. He wanted to stand up, but his head throbbed when he tried. It was hard enough crawling without his shell, so when he bumped into it, he didn't bother putting iton; he draped himself over it and tried to remember what happened, where he was, and why he was hurt. Then it began to clear: the defiance, the escape, the attack. But something was missing. Tineeko! Where's Tineeko? He tried again to stand up, but the pain was still too great. He tried to look around, but it was hard for him to see much more than where the ground ended and the trees began. He brushed the dirt off of his hands so he could rub his eyes. He finally was able to make out a few things: the general shapes of the trees, a shady path out of the clearing, a blue shape back in the direction he came from... Blue?! Tineeko! He attempted yet again to rise, but the pounding sensation in his cranium once again defeated him. He dragged himself over to his friend, wishing with each step that he could go faster. When he finally made it over to Tineeko, he rested his hand on his shell. He was comforted when he felt the gentle movement of his breathing and heard him softly snoring.

"Tineeko?" he said in a fairly weak voice as he shook him awake. Tineeko rolled over and rubbed his eyes.

"...Lakitu?!" Tineeko said in a tired surprise. "You're... okay?"

"Well, not exactly," he replied, his voice still not at full strength. "I can't stand up. My head aches too much if I try. What happened?"

"When I landed on you, you flew out of your shell and crashed into that tree head-first. I was afraid you wouldn't be able to goon."

"I need you help in order to do so. Is there anything around that could be used as a bandage? Things are still quite blurry, so I can't tell."

"Not as far as I can tell. We'll have to search for something."

All they needed to do was to figure out some way to take Lakitu along without straining him. First, they thought of dragging him on his shell, but in order for Tineeko to see where they were going, they would need rope, and they had none. Then they tried putting Lakitu on Tineeko's back, but the weight was too much for him.

"Well, now what?" asked Tineeko.

Lakitu looked around a bit, saw something, and got an idea. "Tell me... Tineeko, is that a blown-down tree?

"Yes."

"Is there any tall grass around?"

"Yes, there's some over there."

"How tall?"

"About a foot and a half. But why --"

"Just hear me out. Are there any rocks around?"

"Sure, all sizes of them, but --"

"Any with an edge?"

"Well, this one does, sort of, but --"

"Good. You gather some grasses, and give the edged rock to me."

"Well, okay, but what are we doing?"

"Making a travois."

"A what?"

"A primitive type of stretcher. I need another stone."

The two set to work. Lakitu chipped the rock's edge to a fairly sharp point, while Tineeko gathered some grasses. They exchanged loads, and Lakitu held the grass while Tineeko chopped some branches off of the fallen tree. Lakitu then gave up the grass and told Tineeko how to put the travois together. Lakitu's shell was then put on the crudely made vehicle andTineeko carefully put Lakitu in. The vehicle consisted of two long poles connected to three shorted poles, two spaced just right to hold Lakitu's shell,and one mossy one to support his head. It was very uncomfortable, but it was easier for Tineeko to pull the thing than to carry Lakitu on his back. As slowly as they were going, they were off.

After about half an hour of stopping and starting, Tineeko said, "I'm getting tired. You're not exactly easy to carry. I need a rest. I'll lean you against here." He rested for a few minutes, then decided to look around. He then noticed some rubble around a tree.

"Lakitu, I think you should see this. There's some painted, broken wood around this tree. What could it mean?"

"I think we're in the Forest of Illusion. Try touching the tree," said Lakitu.

Tineeko complied, and a small grove of trees faded away one by one, revealing the remains of a destroyed house. It looked as it if had been chopped, munched, burnt, and smashed all at once. Digging among the three-decade-old, rotting remains, he found an intact towel to wrap around Lakitu's head.

"Could you please bring me over to the wreckage? I might think of other things to look for."

When Lakitu saw the wreckage, though, he suddenly had a strange feeling, as if he knew this place. When he first saw the Forst of Illusion a couple of years before, he had felt some weird fondness for it, but all he did was request patrol there and shake it off the rest of the time. But this was too strong a sensation of deja vu to ignore. I'll have to investigate it later, he though. Right now I have to warn Mario about the attack. "Uhh... come on, Tineeko." he said "Let's just, uh, get a fewtools from the rubble and go forward."

Tineeko searched the rubble and found a jar, a fork, three butter knives, and a small ax head. He also stumbled upon a question block. He cleared the way in front of it, took off his shell, and threw it at the block. A new cloud for them emerged from it. Putting his shell back on, he asked Lakitu, "Think you could control it?"

"Who do you think you're talking to?" he exclaimed. "I grew up in these! Come on, let's go!" He pushed himself off of the travois and onto his own two feet. Unfortunately, he still couldn't stand upright, though he could at least manage to stay on twos. Tineeko helped him walk over to the cloud, and they lifted off.

Read on!

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