Chapter IX

With Ak’gorak behind them, Lich and Ark had reached the Talk’gu road as the hot midday sun bore down on their hiding place behind a rock atop a cut-away dune.

“I could do with another drink,” Ark muttered, passing a cup to his brother.

Lich held his hand in the classic pistol position and willed water to squirt from his forefinger until the cup was full. He passed it back to Ark, the water already warm, as he fired some into his own mouth. When he had finished, he peered around the corner of the rock.

A rickety truck was parked a few hundred metres down the road, facing towards them, the words “Highway Patrol” emblazoned upon its bonnet. He sighed and withdrew.

“No change?” Ark asked.

“None,” Lich reported. “They’re still on the lookout.”

Lich knew that the Koopan Highway Patrol was reliable; reliable in that they would not get out of their vehicles unless they really needed to, not even to do something as sensible as, say, search the nearby rocks for wanted Yoshies after half an hour of sitting there. They had stumbled upon the truck when they arrived at the road, and since then, it was a waiting game for it to leave. The fact that they had to wait was what frustrated him, as he did not really want to have another battle and give his location away if he was merely seen by them.

He looked to his brother and saw him deep in thought once more, his lips moving slightly. “You thinking about something?” he asked casually.

“Hmm? Oh, well…sort of,” Ark replied, shrugging, not lifting his eyes.

“Well?” Lich prompted.

Ark looked up. “You didn’t finish telling me about Olympus.”

“Olym–” Lich started, then looked around, finishing with a quiet, “–pus?”

Ark nodded.

“What do you want to know?”

“Well…how you got there and…yeah.”

Lich nodded. “You know Nessie, well,” he started quietly, “I was flying home after visiting Kanto and Johto, first long haul flight on him, so I wasn’t experienced; we got into a snowstorm over Olympus, I had white-out; I crashed through the Markior’s roof.”

Ark blinked. “You did…what?”

“I crashed through the Markior’s roof. It’s how I met him, actually.”

“And then what?”

“He told me off for making a hole in his roof. Last thing I heard before I passed out. I woke up later in a really nice, comfortable bed and got an absolute fright when, yes, this was the Markior standing at the foot of the bed. After the initial shock, we got to talking about things – well, he mind read what I had to say first. Surprisingly, he let me speak rather casually, so, I said to him, ‘I’m feeling,’ and then he finished with, ‘Daunted?’ So I nodded and said, ‘Yes, and when,’ and then he said, ‘I answer your questions before you ask them you’re uncomfortable.’ I totally caught him off-guard,” Lich laughed quietly, spreading his hands.

Ark blinked. Lich blinked in return. He raised the equivalent of an eyebrow.

“Oh!” Ark mouthed, and then laughed. “Right. Good one.”

“Bit slow today,” Lich said, dropping his hands again.

“I’m…I’m, I’m just tired, from all of this,” Ark shrugged.

“Fair enough,” Lich nodded. “But, you have to admit, I’m one of the only few Yoshies ever to catch the Yoshi Guardian off-guard.”

“Did you tell him about me?”

“Yes.”

“You did? What did you say?” Ark asked, eagerly.

“I asked if you were still alive.”

“Yeah? What did he say?”

“Well–”

The radio, its volume dulled, flared to life, its frequency tuned into that of the Transportation Department. Lich raised his hand to silence Ark as it spoke.

“This is a General Broadcast from Central Command,” it stated. “The Realm Official for Transportation has decreed that no Yoshies are to use or be passengers of vehicles, public or private, from sunset today until further notice, in the provinces of Grl’rak, Va’kerik, Kokogar and Gu’ter’gi. This decree will be issued to all officers upon their arrival at their dispatch bases. Instructions will be given by commanding officers. End of transmission.”

“Well, that rules us out of driving or catching anything, then,” Lich sighed, dropping his hand.

“What did it say?”

“No Yoshies are to drive, be driven, or catch public transport from sunset in the southern provinces. They’re locking down.”

The truck started its ignition.

“Get down!” Lich hissed and crouched further, his brother following.

The truck trundled by. Lich dared not even breathe until he heard its engine fade into the distance.

“They’re gone,” he said. He peered around the rock and looked both ways. “It’s clear.”

Ark hopped up and moved to scurry down the steep slope but Lich quickly grabbed his arm.

“What?” he demanded.

“Don’t do that. They’ll see the dune’s been disturbed by your footprints.”

Ark twisted his arm out of Lich’s grip and sighed angrily. “Damn Koopas.”

“This way,” Lich told him.

They moved down the crest of the dune to a flatter section, and then darted across the road and behind a dune on the other side.

“The message was passed down from the Realm Official for Transportation,” Lich reported as they slowed and began to walk. “In other words, it’s not just the KBT who knows anymore.”

“Who does?”

“All the bigwigs, probably including Bowser himself, by now.”

“…Bowser knows?!” Ark asked, flabbergasted.

“It’s a fair guess. I didn’t want to have to fight our way out of Va’kotiku last night, but it’s quite likely that he knows because of it. Karkok was right: a few dead soldiers makes you more than noticed.”

“It was either them or us,” Ark stated.

Lich grunted. “I don’t like killing.”

“But we do it if we have to.”

Lich shrugged and sighed. “Yeah. We do it if we have to.”

“Even Bowser?”

Lich stopped and turned to Ark. “Why do you ask that?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. He’s in our way now, though, right?”

“He’s in our way merely because this sand is his,” Lich explained. “It’s not a justified reason, and we are certainly not here to kill him. We are here to do what we came here to do, and that is to keep that promise. As hard as we try, two Yoshies will never deal with the evil of this place. We can only deal with that part of it we can. Two humans did the same thing many times, and their names were Mario and Luigi. They could not deal with the evil of this place. The only part they could deal with was the return of Princess Peach to the Mushroom Kingdom.”

“What would get rid of it? Bowser’s death?”

Lich shot a glance to Ark. He seemed keen on this notion. “No. Despite Bowser’s attempts to invade the Mushroom Kingdom through regal abduction, the world as we know it is actually relatively peaceful thanks to his presence. When he dies, it’s going to be chaotic. He has eight children, each of whom has an eye on the throne.”

“Eight? I thought it was seven.”

“Eight. Bowser knew that the first seven would end up quarrelling among themselves for the crown upon his death, so he ended up giving it to none of them and had another child. Fortunately, none of the first seven want to lose favour with their father, so they have not tried to dispose of the eighth; but when daddy finally goes bye-bye, there’s going to be civil war, not only between the seven and the crown prince, but the seven themselves are still going to quarrel once the crown prince is gone. What makes it worse is that the seven are favoured by different factions of society. And even worse, the Mushroom Kingdom would probably deem itself a ‘good neighbour’ and step in to sort out the mess, drag in the Archipelago when they realise they can’t do it alone, and thus we have a new War.”

Ark sighed regretfully. “I never got into Yamauchian Studies at school. But, I see your point. No killing Bowser.”

“No killing Bowser,” Lich agreed.

“It is going to happen one day, though,” Ark mused. “What are you going to do then?”

“Pray the Archipelago doesn’t go to ruin, or live in Tasnica,” Lich chuckled.

Ten seconds passed without reply. Lich turned to see his brother’s eyes glaze over and fall forward onto the sand. He reached for the Boomerang, but a sting on his neck drew his hand up to it, feeling something small and metal lodged in his skin between his fingers. The world became blurry as he pulled on it, freeing it with another equally painful sting. He pulled it up towards his face, seeing it for what it was: a dart. As the rest of the world spun around the object, he started to recall something. Then, everything disappeared into darkness like a candle flickering out.