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Chapter 22:
Ten Wands... Revealed.
~Masamune~
Ten's studying had taken longer than
the few mintues that had originally been planned. He had
resolved to study them no matter how much he was urged to
finish. Finally after a long period of silence, he
suddenly broke the silence with a "AHA!",
diverting all eyes to him.
"What did you find?" Toad
asked quickly.
"Well... the wands all together
make a message, a spell of sorts I beleive. But with two
obviously in possesion of Sparkoopa and Necrokoopa, I
cannot fully read it." Ten explained, "It is
read as such in ancient Koopa Text, Figra-Liqii-magmor-Missing-aerie-aurean-Missing-kichra-petlae-polarti."
"Wow, what does that all mean?"
Toad asked in suprise.
"They somehow translate into...
Fire-Water-Earth-Unknown-Wind-Life-Unknown.... I am
unsure what 'Kichra' translates too and finally cold."
Ten explained, "Kichra was located on the purple rod.
And the msising ones must have to do with Thunder and
Death... but the Ancient Koopa Language had several words
to describ one thing. So it is near impossible to gues
what it is... as well as what order they go in."
Toad nodded as he took all the
information in, "We are going to need someone
knowledgable in such things to help us. But I wonder what
the spell would do?"
"Each one had inscribed these
words translated 'The gathering of all power shall
unleash the ultimate power'." Ten replied uneasily,
"These wands are dangerous... I suggest we destroy
them."
"What!?" Toad exclaimed
incredulous at the suggestion. His eyes turning to the
wands with a sort of addictive fascination to them,
"We NEED these wands... I will not destroy them!"
The other mysterious mushroom person
could only wince as his fears became true. They were
controlling Toad, the worst of all their hardships lied
inside those wands. And it seemed Toad would be unwilling
to seperate from them at any cost.
~lzn64~
Toad took no notice of Ten's concern,
however. Now that things had calmed down, in fact, the
hike was rather on the boring side, he was content to
obsess over the Magikoopa wands. They had been taking a
rest soon after entering a dense forest, and were now
sprawled out at various areas in the clearing. Some
children were playing hide and seek around the wood,
though they were careful not to wander too far off at the
risk of getting punished by their wary parents. Most of
whom were relaxing under the trees, ironically glad to be
out of the sun when not long before they had been wishing
for nothing else.
Toad and Ten were sitting across from
each other, the wands laid out in a neat line between
them.
"Well, until we find someone
fluent in ancient koopanese, we're out of luck," Ten
finally said. "We should keep on before they get
used to this break stuff and get lazy."
"Huh? Oh... well, yeah, I guess,"
Toad reluctantly agreed, picking the wands up and placing
them in their original bag. He lifted the bag over his
shoulder, and cleared his throat to get everyone's
attention.
While Toad was informing the mushrooms
that they would soon be on their way, Ten mused about the
situation his newfound friend was in. I wonder what
would happen, he thought, if someone else were to
insist on carrying the wands for him? How would he react
if he caught a little mushroom playing with one? Ten
shuddered at these thoughts, knowing that the answers
were not what he would want to hear. Before his mind
could take him further along that gloomy path, however,
the company started their monotonous hiking again. Not
that they knew where they were going.
Before long, the sound of rushing
water could be heard in the distance. Toad and Ten
decided that a bath in a river, or even a lake, if there
was one, would be beneficial to everyone, and of course
they should never pass up an oppurtunity to refill their
water canteens. The group made their way toward the
sound, stumbling over roots and holes in the ground.
There was no path through this forest, which worried Ten,
since there really were no unexplored parts of the
Mushroom Kingdom. There should have been a path,
somewhere.
They came upon the river quite
abruptly, in fact, Toad nearly walked right in. The river
was moving along at a fast pace, accounting for the sound
of rushing water, but it wasn't too fast nor dangerous
for them all to wade in. They filled the containers with
the clear water first, then promptly swam in. Several
splash fights occured, on of which was between Rinaz and
Ten, and the expedition was a great spirit-booster for
the exhausted mushrooms overall.
Toad, however, seemed reluctant to go
in. He stayed on the shore, not really wanting to abandon
the wands. Who knew what could happen to them? The
magikoopas had lost them by chance, who's to say they
wouldn't? He dipped his feet in a bit, and kicked water
at Ten, who had playfully splashed him, inviting him to
join in with him and Rinaz. Toad started to shake his
head, but before he could, he was pushed from behind into
the river by Rinaz, who was giggling madly at his shocked
expression.
"Hey! You little cheat!"
Toad yelled, jumping out of the water to chase Rinaz. Ten
watched this and breathed a sigh of relief; the wands
didn't have as much power over him as he had feared. Toad
caught Rinaz moments later, punished him by throwing him
head-first into the water, and then proceeded to fall on
the floor in a mad fit of laughter.
Not long after that, the temperature
of the water began to override the refreshing quality it
had, and the mushrooms climbed out one by one to dry off.
Toad hadn't gone in the water again after being pushed in
by Rinaz. He had still been too preoccupied about leaving
the wands alone. He watched as his people lay themselves
in patches of sunlight, himself having dried off long
before. He frowned as a sudden wave of dizzyness passed
over him, and placed his hands on the ground beside him
to steady himself. Ten caught the look and a concerned
expression appeared on his face.
"What's wrong?" He asked,
trying not to think of the wands.
"Oh, nothing. Just felt a little
dizzy for a second there..."
"Dizzy? Try laying down or
something. It's probably the backlash from those- that
stress we've been under." He had very nearly said
'those wands,' but had caught himself at the last moment.
"Yeah, I guess."
Toad straightened out on the earthen
floor, and was soon fast asleep. The other mushrooms
dried off soon enough in the heat, and that's when Ten
realized something was wrong. They should have been
energized after the swim, yet they were dropping to sleep
like flies. He overheard a little child complaining to
his mom about being dizzy, and something cold seemed to
settle in his stomach. What was going on? Just then the
world seemed to give an abrupt spin, and he gasped and
shut his eyes. He knew that something must have been in
the water, but before he could start thinking about it
his thoughts were interrupted by a large yawn. His
thoughts became fuzzed out, and soon enough, he was
laying next to Toad, sleeping peacefully along with
everybody else.
Toad opened his eyes blearily. Through
his blurry vision, he could see patches of sky through
the trees, but not much else. The Wands! He
thought suddenly, and sat up frantically. He was
immediately pushed back down. He looked up at the object
that was casting its shadow over him, and felt his
stomach drop away. They were done for. For, standing over
him, was a spear-wielding, green-shelled koopa troopa.
"What do you think you're doing?"
He asked suspiciously, peering down at him. Toad groaned
as he realized they were caught. They'd undoubtedly be
sitting in a dungeon in Bowser's castle by sundown.
"Where are we...?" He
finally asked, and the troopa laughed.
"You're still by the river. We've
never caught anyone that way before, so we figured it
might not be safe to move you while you were out. You
might say you were our guinea pigs in this little
experiment. Kiero's gonna be happy it worked."
"Kiero? Who's that?" Toad
knew that being too nosy might be dangerous, but it seemd
as though he had gotten lucky and been found by the
talkative guard.
"Kiero's my brother, but he's
also our boss," The troopa replied. "He's a
real card. Wait 'till you meet him."
"Your boss?" Toad inquired,
a bit mystified. "I thought that Bowser was your
boss."
"What!?" She exclaimed,
horror on her face. "Oh, my. I guess I should've
known you'd make that assumption. Oh, no, we're against
the Turtle Tribe."
"Then why don't you just go live
in the villiage with all the other reformed troopas?"
Toad asked, intrigued.
"Well... I'm sure Kiero will
explain it to you. It's sort of complicated. Don't worry,
we're not going to ship you off to Dark Land or anything,"
She laughed at that, not realizing that Toad didn't find
it funny at all. "We just want to know what
mushroomers are doing in our forest. Kiero is sort of
paranoid, as you can probably guess."
"Great..." Toad muttered.
"Can you let me up?"
"Sorry. I have my orders. I might
be the boss's sister, but his orders still stick."
"Then can you at least tell me
what happened to those wands we had?"
The troopa's face took on a troubled
expression. "Well, you see, that's another thing.
Kiero doesn't like that you have those. Those mean
trouble, he says..."
"Are they here, still?"
"Oh, yeah. Kiero has them,"
She said brightly.
Toad sighed. Although he had never
seen a female koopa troopa before, he was already
starting to hope that not all of them were like this one.
This was going to be one of the longest waits of his
life, he was sure of it. If he's done anything to
those wands, I'm going to clobber him... he vowed.
~Ditto McCloaker~
Looking up began to get dull, so Toad
anxiously rolled over onto his stomach. From that
position he looked around him. The other Mushrooms were
still asleep, which made sense, considering he had been
the first to go. He wondered how long until they too,
woke up.
His mind also brimmed with thoughts of
getting away from his captor. He suddenly realized that
he didn't feel helpless, like he probably should.
Instead, he felt himself feeling resentful, outraged at
being held like this. He felt restless and bitter. The
more he thought about it, the madder and more hostile he
felt.
And then it hit him.
His rage began to recede a bit,
allowing him to catch himself. He wondered what had
causes this sudden change in him. Such things were not
like him. He chalked it up to the stress of the adventure.
Hardening of soul, he thought. Yeah, that had to be it.
He looked around some more. There were
other Koopas standing around, looking over the sleeping
Shrooms. He wondered about how much danger he might be in.
Presently, there came the sound of
footfalls over the thick grass. Toad flipped back over to
see who was coming. To his surprise, he saw a Koopa
wearing, of all things...
~Masamune~
... a full body coat of armor. Quite a
odd sight, a usual koopa settled for their own shell as
proper equipment. Then he walked up towards Toad and
looked him over, "Kiero has summoned you. Follow me."
Toad reluctantly stood up and
followed, leaving the rest of the mushroom people alone
with the guarding koopas. He was led through a short path
through some woods. The area was still wet, muddy and
moist. Although it was nice to be on land again, it was
far from 'Dry Land' that he had longed for. Up ahead a
hut sat in the clearing, the koopa continued towards it
and stopped at the entrance.
Since the koopa made no motions or
even any speech, Toad assumed he was to go in. And so he
did, stepping inside the hut. The interior, while simple
was decorated as well as possible. Apparently after the
major flooding, this was the best that could be done
since then. Kiero, or the koopa that Toad presumed to be
Keiro, stood on the other side of the tent. Currently
occupied with hanging a ornamental weapon.
"Ahem." Toad coughed,
attempting to gain attention.
"One moment..." Kiero
mumbled as he straightened the weapon, "What do you
think?"
"Looks uhh... good" Toad
answered, suprised by the koopa.
Kiero looked back at Toad and stared
in suprise, "Oh! It is you... I assumed you were
someone else..."
"Yes, you summoned me." Toad
replied.
"Yes, so I did. It is about...
these." Kiero answered, pointing to the bag of wands
over in the corner, "And why they are in your
possesion..."
"We found them at the castle east
of here" Toad exlained, trying to avoid details.
"I see, I noticed that one of
them has a certain... link to you" Kiero said,
"The purple one, or 'Kichra'."
"Linked... to me?"
"Were you able to command their
power?"
"Yes... the purple one."
"It has chosen you, how odd. It
is rare enough for a koopa to be chosen by one of the
wands, but a mushroom. What sort of ill omen is this?"
Toad was about to protest, but
remained silent.
"Well, with that answered. It
would be best we hold a more official meeting. We don't
have much to spare, but tonight we shall feast."
~lzn64~
That was hardly the reception Toad had
been expecting, but it was hardly unwelcome, either. This
strange bunch of koopas did not seem like enemies, yet
did not act in an entirely friendly manner, either. Kiero
kept his suspicious gaze on Toad as he exited; the
mushroom could feel his beady eyes boring into his back
as he left.
He was surprised to see a good number
of his companions sitting and looking around with bleary,
yet fearful eyes at the troopa guards. Those who had
opted to get out early were yawning themselves awake one
by one. Whatever strange effect the water had wore off
after a set amount of time, it seemed. Toad just hoped
that there were no ill effects coming to him in the near
future.
The rebel troopas had apparantly
gotten word from Kiero that the prisoners weren't
dangerous; they were allowing them to get up and stretch
their stiff limbs. Toad took up the task of reassuring
his people that their guards weren't part of Bowser's
army, and the tension that had been slowly stifling the
group lifted perceptibly. The mushrooms remained together
at first, but by the time night fell they had already
begun making tenous friendships with the surprisingly
good-natured Koopa Troopas. Many mushrooms were intrigued
by the prospect of female koopas just as Toad had been;
Bowser did not let them in his army, and so they had
never had reason to meet them. Except for, of course,
Wendy O. Besides, not all of them were as chatty and
annoying as Kedeja, Kiero's loudmouth sister. (or, for
that matter, as nitpicky as the spoiled koopa princess.)
As the darkness began its slow advance upon the horizon,
torches popped up around the camp, casting flickering
shadows and a mysterious sort of mood. Toad sat off to
the side, brooding over the ominous words of Kiero. Why
should it be odd that it had chosen him, anyway? He's
probably jealous that HE couldn't do it... Toad
thought sullenly, but was pulled from his thoughts
abruptly by Ten and Rinaz, the latter careening into him
and attempting to use him as a sheild as the former
chased after with a michevious look in his eye.
"I'm going to get you for that,
you little scamp!" Ten howled, diving for the
scurrying Rinaz and bowling Toad over in the process. A
hot flash of anger boiled up in him, and threatened to
overflow, but Toad hastily checked it. He realized a
minute later that he had never been so easily angered, at
least not to that extent. He shook his head a bit,
mentally pouring cold water on himself, and decided to
join in on the fun to get his mind of those darned wands.
As it turned out, Rinaz had dropped an ice cube down
Ten's back, and so he had to pay in the worst possible
way imaginable: be tickled to death. Ten caught him, and
he and Toad summarily began the famous tickle torture,
until the poor mushroom had tears running down his face
and threatened to pee all over them. "I'll aim!"
He swore through gasping breaths. At that horrifying
thought, Toad and Ten let him go, slapping each other
high fives as the mushroom lay gasping for breath and mud-streaked
on the mushy earth. Their attention was soon diverted by
a attention-getting clap of reptalian hands, and they
turned to see Kiero and his sister standing in what was
obviously a position of leadership.
"As is customary after a catch,
we will now have our night-time feast," Kiero began,
and that struck Ten as funny. He hardly felt like a mere
"catch" here. After the cheers as the mention
of the word 'feast' had died down the chief continued.
"Enjoy yourselves, mushrooms and koopas both. After
the festivities, we have a bit more serious matters to
attend to..."
"Yeah," Kedeja interrupted.
"but that's later. Bring out the food!"
Kiero rolled his eyes at his sister's
outburst, but as the food appeared in the campsite
courtesy of several personal servants, it was clear that
he would not get his tribe's attention anytime before the
food was gone.
There was quite a lot of food, too.
The mushrooms, who hadn't eaten properly in a good many
days, nearly matched the koopas in food consumption,
which was a nearly unheard of concept. Toad thought he
recognized some of the food from Yoshi's Island, and
still otheres he couldn't place at all, but nevertheless
he gorged himself. He caught a glimpse of something
purple winking at him from the edge of his peripheral
vision, and nearly choked on the mushroom he had been
munching on. What's he doing with that?! his mind
screamed at him, and that strange, mildy frightening
anger flooded into him, white hot. That was his! He had
said it himself; the wand had chosen him!
Ten felt Toad tense up beside him, and
caught sight of wand a minute later. That blasted wand!
He nudged Toad a bit, and the other mushroom turned to
face him. The look in his eyes was more than a little
frightening. What's that thing doing to him? He
wondered, as Toad turned away again. Suddenly the food
didn't seem to tast all that good anymore...
Kiero took the stage again not long
after, unaware that there was a very irritated mushroom
ready to tear him to shreds less than ten feet away. He
clapped his scaly hands again, and the casual
conversations that had broken out stopped at once.
"Now," he said, clearing his
throat. "This meeting is about our new...guests."
The food was taken away silently, but hardly anyone
noticed. Kiero took out the bag of wands, holding
'Kichra' in his yellow claws. Ten sensed Toad's rising
animosity, and put a firm hand on his shoulder, wishing
fervently to the stars that he would keep his temper in
check. A shocked whisper rippled through the assembled
troopas, many of whom had not seen the wands as of yet.
The mutterings ceased as Kiero resumed his speech.
"As you all know, this is the
legendary wand, kichra. Along with all the others. These
mushrooms somehow managed to steal them from the nearby
transkoopa keep..." More incredulous whispering
interrupted here, this time laced with unmistakable tones
of admiration. A look of annoyance passed over Kiero's
face, but faded as he continued his speech. "Not
only that, one of these mushrooms has somehow managed to
impress one of them; in fact, the one I now hold in my
hand."
The whispering escalated into
disbelieving, outright protest. That was impossible,
after all.
"I know it seems impossible, but
it's happened, I'm sure of it. That mushroom," he
pointed at Toad, "should be able to confirm this
well enough."
Toad, who had been coiled like a
spring throughout the speech anyway, jumped up at the
chance to speak, and nearly knocked Ten off the chair he
was perched on. He barely resisted the urge to tear
Kichra from the hands of the surprised troopa leader, and
contented himself with a shout instead.
"Yes, that's mine! The wand chose
me, you said it yourself! So hand it over!"
The other mushrooms glanced at each
other uncertainly, and Ten felt his stomach drop. Toad
was going to get them all imprisoned, or killed, or
something if he kept it up. The troopas murmered uneasily
amongst themselves, their eyes fixed on Toad, whose eyes
were flashing uncharictaristically.
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