| |
Chapter 14:
Ten and Toad
-Tenniru-
The green hooded figure moved toward the yellow
figure, and promptly blew it away. "I guess you're
not a Transa-Koopa." Toad said.
"Apparently not. You can call me...Ten. It's not
my real name, but you can address me by it." Ten
replied.
"Ten, can you help me save my friends?"
Toad asked.
"Yes. It will be a honor to save captives from
the Magikoopa's grasp."
-lzn64-
Ten turned down one of the corridors, and motioned
for Toad to follow him. He did so without hesitating,
although he had learned his lesson and was keeping his
guard up. Ten led him through the richly decorated halls
and rooms, presumably heading toward the dining room.
They reached a heavily barred door after a period of
time, and Ten turned to Toad, a solemn look on his face.
"This is where your friends are being held,"
he announced. "Of course, they know by now that you
are missing, and will be searching for you. There is a
passage which leads to the dining room, and a passage
which leads to the throne room. If we go to the dining
room, it will take longer to evacuate your friends, and
there is a chance that they will discover us and we will
be imprisoned, too. If you choose the throne room, we
will have to fight, but after that we will have control
of the castle and be able to let everyone free in mere
seconds." He looked at Toad expectantly, awaiting an
answer.
"Well, it seems as though we would be better off
fighting for the throne. That would not only free my
friends, it would prevent these transa-koopas from doing
this to anymore mushrooms."
"Know this, though... it will take us much
longer to reach the throne room from here. And each
second that passes, one of your friends could be...well,
killed."
Toad swallowed, remembering the spunky mushroom girl,
the villiage elder, the entire party of brave mushrooms
that had refused to give up after it seemed that they had
lost everything, and nodded his head. He took a deep
breath and leveled a hard look at the steel door which
seperated him from his people.
"I've made my choice," He said finally,
turning to face Ten.
-Masamune-
"And that is?" Ten questioned.
"Were saving them, they saved me from the bloop,
I must save them"
Meanwhile...
A young toad child is looking about confused. He cannot
tell where he is, suddenly he sees Mario at the end of
the hall.
"Mario! Help me! I'm lost!" The mushroom
child yelled out.
"Really? Well then... you should of stayed with
the group. Naughty child.... naughty..."
"Huh? What do you mean?" The child said
fearfully, "Why are you so mean?"
"Little children should be seen and not heard...
or better yet... not seen and not heard..." 'Mario'
began to shapeshift into an evil Transakoop whose wand
was pointed at the child, "Farewell young child...."
-Tenniru-
The Transakoopa's wand was pointed at the Mushroom
Child, when a green-robed figure came crashing down on it.
The Mushroom Child began to cry, scared.
"Do not worry...I am here to help you. You can
call me...Ten." The figure spoke.
"I'm Rinaz. My parents are Raz and Raini...will
you help me find them?" The Mushroom Child,Rinaz,
asked.
"Yes." With that, Ten took Rinaz in his
arms and went to find Toad.
-lzn64-
Rinaz sat on Ten's shoulders, confused, but no longer
scared. He had been reassured many times that his parents
would be okay, and that they would find everbody safe and
sound.
Ten, however, wasn't as easily placated, and was
indeed very fearful for the mushrooms. He and Toad had
separated after reaching the prison/dining room. Toad was
to begin evacuating the mushrooms through the underground
system, and Ten was to save any mushrooms that were being
led to their doom. Since the transakoopas had been
ordered to destroy the mushrooms one at a time, this
young child had been the only one to save.
After a time, faint voices could be heard. Rinaz
scrunched his face up, listening hard for his parents,
and Ten quickened his pace. He had been hiding in these
tunnels alone for quite some time, and was very eager to
get out. They came out of the tunnel, and were greeted by
a gang of confused mushroom people huddled in the chamber
beneath the dining room. Ten looked about uncertainly,
and breathed a sigh of relief as he caught sight of Toad,
who was helping the older mushrooms into the room. At the
same time, Rinaz saw his parents.
"Mommy, Daddy!" He yelled excitedly. Ten
hastily put him down, and he summarily dashed off into
the crowd.
"Rinaz! Oh, we were so worried!" Came a
female voice.
"Oh, I'm okay. I got saved by a nice man,"
Rinaz replied, pointing toward Ten, who smiled sheepishly
and waved. The mushroom family waved back, and Ten
glimpsed Rinaz one last time before they were swallowed
by the surrounding tumult.
"Ten, hey! Over here!" Toad called,
pointing up to the room above. "I need some help,
there's way too many, and the guards will come to see
what's up any minute now."
"I'm coming!" Ten replied, making his way
through the crowd. Toad lifted him up through the
passageway entrance, and gestured to the group that was
still above ground.
"I was thinking, that you could start leading
the ones already down there out of here, since you
already know the passage ways pretty well," Toad
began. "While you're out, I'll get the others down
here, and seal off the passages so that the transakoopas
won't know where we went."
"And I'll come back after leading the ones below
out to get this group, right?"
"Do you mind? It's not too far, right? I'd go,
but I don't know my way around..."
"No, no, it's alright. I'll take them."
"Whew... Thanks a lot!"
"It's no problem," Ten replied, shrugging
his shoulders. "I want to get you guys out of here,
too."
Toad nodded, and jumped down into the passage below.
"Listen up, guys!" He yelled, instantly
quieting the crowd. "We're going to be evacutating
in two groups. Ten, my friend over here, is going to take
you guys first. Please, please, listen to him like you
would me, okay? I'll see you all when we're out of here!"
The other mushrooms shouted their consent, and turned
to face Ten.
"Alright, then," Ten muttered, as he took
the lead, "Let's get out of here!"
|
