"I think I see something up ahead!" Fox panted as he dashed through a dimly-lit passageway towards a turn in the path ahead. Something caught his eye as he was running, though. A spark of light in the distance that disappeared just as quickly as it had formed. Fox switched his goal to finding the source of that strange light, whatever it was.
Fox skidded to a stop as he approached a T-shaped intersection. Slippy clumsily bumped into Fox from behind, but fortunately that brought the frog to a halt as well. Ignoring the fact that someone had run into him, the fox concentrated instead on what was lurking in the hallway around the corner. Fox carefully leaned over to look, but before he could see anything, Slippy stopped him in his tracks with a low whisper.
"Fox, I hear someone coming!"
The fox looked around, and listened. Footsteps were drawing closer, as was another strange sound... It was that same yelling. Fox couldn't understand where it was coming from, though. Everything sounded like an echo. He jumped out into the hallway ahead, hoping to see anything that would provide a clue.
BAM!!
Slippy gasped as the Lylatian that was standing right in front of him was tackled and sent flying out of his view by a speeding shadow coming from the tunnel on the frog's right. Another shadowy figure approached from the same direction, and it too was sent flying as it tripped over something up ahead. Slippy cautiously looked around the corner to see where Fox went off to, but the next thing he knew, he had met a similar fate as yet another running shadow collided into him and sent the frog flying into the darkness. Two more shadowy figures arrived on the scene just a second later.
"Arg! What is this!?!" someone hollered from the mass of fallen animals. Slippy sat up, rubbed the new sore on the back of his head, and adjusted his vision to the sudden darkness.
The shadow which had run into Fox, who revealed himself as Falco, sat up and stared into the tunnel behind him with a blank, quite baffled expression. The second shadow, which Slippy discovered to be Peppy, picked himself up off the ground and backed away from Fox, who he had apparently landed on after he tripped over Falco. The third shadow, the yellow Yoshi, recovered quickly from ramming into Slippy head-on. He was up in a split-second, and was already searching for his other companions, the pink Yoshi and Sara, who happened to be the last two shadows. As soon as everyone had recognized who they collided with, a chorus of confused greetings filled the cavern.
"Falco??"
"Fox??"
"Sara!?"
"Slippy??"
"Get off of me!!"
"Fox?"
"Here."
"Where?"
"Who said that??"
"I didn't."
"Who asked you?!?"
"Shut up, already."
"Get out of here, fast!!"
"Who said that??"
"What's going on?!?"
"SCREEECHH!!!"
"Yikes!" the five reunited Lylatians simultaneously yelped. Almost as an entire unit, StarFox, Sara, and the two Yoshies got up and started running just as a large, winged, fire-breathing, bright-eyed beast thundered into the room. The giant creature tore large chunks of rock from the surrounding walls as it charged at full speed through the narrow tunnel. Huffs of fire spat from the beast's mouth with every breath, and the hot flame licked at the heels of the seven victims running away from the giant monster.
It was only until the passageway that everyone was running through dropped off suddenly that anyone was forced to stop running. Falco couldn't stop fast enough, however, and he was the first to fall prey to the steep slope ahead. Without another second to rethink the situation, the falcon was sent barreling downhill.
Fox, having no where else to go anyway, charged downhill right behind the falcon. Unfortunately, he slipped his foot on a loose pebble sitting on the side of the slope, and was quickly sent into a violent tumble for the rest of the way down. Falco eventually hit the base of the slope with a thud, and Fox hit the floor right after him.
As soon as the dizzy fox could focus his eyes on his surroundings, Peppy, Slippy, Sara, and the two Yoshies emerged from the end of the tunnel, and they too fell as soon as they hit the drop-off. Fox and Falco shuffled out of the way to make room for the incoming animals. Peppy landed on solid ground first, but he could barely get up before Slippy dropped in on his back. Sara and the Yoshies all came down as one, giant tumbling mass of pink, yellow, and black, which scattered into the respective animal forms as soon as the floor was reached. Falco and Fox were quickly on their feet and helping everyone else regain their bearings.
Before anyone could realize where they were, though, the fire-breathing beast arrived in the arena-like chamber. Instead of sliding down to where its prey was, however, the winged creature took a mighty leap across the room, and landed after a few flaps of the wings at the other side of the cavern, on a high, overlooking platform. It held up its scaled head over its body and let out a terrifying cry. The walls shuddered from the sound of that call alone, but to everyone's surprise, that sound was instantly joined by other shrieks from more monsters... many more monsters. The entire bowl-shaped room was soon echoing with the ferocious hollering of dozens of winged beasts, all of which emerged onto the scene from several hidden entrances and tunnels high overhead. Weak spots in the limestone-composed roof, just like everywhere else in the caves, allowed sunlight to creep into the darkness and fall onto the backs of some of the giant beasts. Their scales gleamed in the golden rays of light almost as much as their eyes did all on their own.
The ledges and platforms at the top of the stone room were soon enough flowing with beasts of every shape, size, and color, but all shared the same thoughts as to what to do with their intruders.
"Oh my stars..." Sara breathed. The salamander, along with the six others who were standing at the bottom floor of this vast chamber, could only look up and watch in awe as the room they were trapped in quickly filled with blood-thirsty, fire-breathing monsters.
"I don't suppose you have a plan for this right about now..." Falco hoarsely whispered to the fox, who happened to be ready to ask just the same question in reverse. The pair backed up against a far wall, hoping not to be seen. Slippy and Peppy joined them, while Sara searched the room frantically for the two Yoshies, who seemed to had gone missing.
"Allow me to be the first to say goodbye to our sorry tails," Falco interrupted the panicked thoughts of the other three members of the StarFox team with his own version of a farewell.
"No one's going out yet. Not yet," Fox reassured everyone. However, as the situation grew progressively worse, and the winged creatures prepared themselves for a feast on Lylatian blood, Fox found it to be harder and harder to even believe his own words.
Meekachu glanced to his left, then to his right. He knew what it was, and where it should be, he just couldn't find it.
And time was running out. As the yellow one and Miya continued to search along the walls of the vast cavern, more and more dragons poured into the room, all of them just waiting to have a delicious Yoshi dinner.
"We must hurry, Miya! Keep looking!"
"I don't even know what we're looking for! Is this it??"
Meekachu checked where the pink dinosaur was nervously pointing. There was a small depression in the rock wall, but not large enough to be what the yellow Yoshi was hoping to find.
"No. Keep looking!" he demanded.
Miya obliged to this command, seeing as she had little else to do to improve her chances for survival. Meekachu continued his search alongside his daughter. He scanned over the surrounding walls quickly and impatiently. He didn't have time for this.
Finally, Meekachu spotted something. A few yards away rested a reasonably-sized boulder, and just under it...
"Miya, come here! Quickly!"
The pink Yoshi scrambled to the spot, and silently observed the boulder that Meekachu was speaking of as he gave out orders.
"Look, we need to move this right now. Try and shove it over to the side while I go get the others. Now hurry!"
Miya nodded. Again, she was in no position to argue or disagree. She set to the task immediately, while Meekachu ran off to the other side of the room to gather the foreigners.
"Arg... Move, darn you, move!" Miya grunted as she forced the rock in front of her to start sliding over. The huge obstacle finally jumped out of the way after one great heave, and the pink Yoshi whooped with glee. She peered over at the spot on the floor that was exposed from the moving of the boulder, and found a large, gaping hole that appearantly led deeper underground.
'A secret passageway?' the pink dinosaur guessed. 'How did Meek... How did he know?'
Miya assumed that she was supposed to climb into the chamber, but something spooked her about the idea. It was dark, and looked cold and dangerous. She considered it for a moment, before craning her neck upwards and checking out the ledge just overhead.
It was swarming with dragons, just like when she last checked, but something was odd about them... Why weren't they attacking? None of the beasts were moving from their high posts above the cavern floor, which sparked a serious question in Miya's mind: 'What are they waiting for??'
Before the Yoshi could answer her own question, Meekachu came running back, with the five foreigners trailing just behind him. The yellow one called out to his daughter, who seemed to be trapped in a strange daze.
"Miya, get underground! Now!"
The pink Yoshi snapped out of her question-related trance and instantly fell backwards into the crevasse right behind her feet.
Instead of being crammed into a tight hole that was dug into the rock centuries ago, Miya had fallen instead into a large, deep, sub-chamber of the M'hakashan caves. The only light that entered this dark realm fell in from its only entrance; the one which Miya had apparently dropped in through. The place was dry as a bone, and a cool updraft somehow flowed into the small room, seemingly from the floor itself. The pink Yoshi strained her eyes to try and find the surrounding walls, or at least any significant feature of this black chamber, but her sight failed her this time.
One by one, everyone else crowded into the small hiding spot and breathed a long-awaited sigh of relief.
Meekachu staggered over to the far wall of the small chamber, dropped to the floor, and closed his eyes for a brief rest. Tieka and her four friends milled around in the darkness, slightly curious as to where they were, and in the meantime Miya crawled over to the worn-out yellow Yoshi.
"Meekachu, where is this??" the pink one questioned.
Meekachu pried open one eye and regarded the Yoshi sitting before him for a moment. He finally returned to his feet, and wandered away towards the other end of the room. He side-stepped around Tieka and the other four animals, who were again discussing something in their own private language. Miya watched the Yoshi briefly disappear into shadow, then emerge back into the light with a strange object in his left hand. Meekachu turned to Miya, held the object a safe distance away from his face, then ignited the item with a quick flick of his wrist. As the torch-like object burst into a soft orange flame, Miya gasped in amazement.
"How did you-?"
"Miya, welcome to the real M'hakashan," the yellow Yoshi finally answered. He smoothly waved the temporary torch in mid-air to test the strength of the flame, then, once satisfied with what he held in his hand, the yellow Yoshi turned to face the shocked audience of foreign animals. Their frozen faces were clearly outlined in the light of the small fire, and Meekachu gave them a smug grin in return. He explained to the pink Yoshi:
"These were the caverns in which our ancestors had hidden themselves in very long ago. Their presence still influences the very atmosphere around here. Can you feel it? If you wish, now would be the time to pray to them for luck... We'll be needing it."
Meekachu glanced back at the five foreigners, who seemed to have an amazing talent for constantly talking while Meekachu was. The Yoshi smirked as he thought to himself, 'How annoying that is. Tieka, of all the savages, would know better.'
The yellow Yoshi barked out a strange grunt that only a Yoshi could make, which caught the pink Yoshi slightly off-guard, and also managed to catch the black salamander's attention so that Meekachu could give her a message. As always, so that Miya could understand what was going on, the Yoshi spoke out loud as he hand-signaled.
"Tieka, tell them to follow me and stay close. The dragons are gone for now, but it's still not safe around here."
Meekachu swung the torch in his hand from left to right, thus throwing light into the corridors behind and ahead of him. The full length of the cave opened up before his eyes, and the path that he would have to take was instantly made clear. Meekachu checked the many tunnels and openings that branched off from the center room he was standing in, and pointed to only one.
"There. That way. Let's go."
He motioned for everyone to follow, but only Miya got up and began to tail along as the yellow Yoshi headed off deeper into the caverns. Upon noticing everyone else's absence, the pink Yoshi stopped, turned back, and hollered to the rest of the group.
"HEY! Com'on!"
Miya watched as the five weary animals stopped their persistent chatter and hopped to their feet. One by one, they began to follow, and once everyone was on the move, the pink Yoshi nodded her approval and scampered away to catch up with Meekachu.
"Remind me again why we're following this guy," Falco requested as the five Lylatians wandered deeper into the eerie cavern, following their only real source of light; a flickering torch held by a yellow reptile.
"Perhaps because Meekachu is the only one who knows where we're going," Sara answered coolly, as she too kept her eyes on the pale light ahead.
"That's been his excuse long enough. I thought he said he didn't even know where this place was, much less how to move around in it. And what's with that torch??"
Fox merely shrugged. "Would you rather go back with those monsters, Falco?"
The falcon shook his head. "Thanks, but I think they can keep themselves company fine without me."
Sara chuckled. "Aw... That might have been something really fun to see..."
Falco raised an annoyed eyebrow. "Sara, if I'm going back there, you're coming with me. Or should I say, ladies first?"
"Ha! In your dreams, featherhead."
"Now, now, don't start quarreling again, you two," Peppy warned.
"Yeah, we're supposed to be working together!" Slippy reminded everyone.
"Shut-up, Toad," Falco snapped.
The frog smirked. "I only said ONE thing! No need to get all touchy about it."
"Yeah, and one thing is enough. The last thing anybody wants is for you to strain your voice and have it go any higher."
Slippy crossed his arms in front of him and pouted. "Hrmph. Just wait and see..." he grumbled, lucky for once that Falco didn't hear him.
Fox shook his head and groaned. 'This is getting old,' he thought to himself. The fox rubbed his eyes sleepily, and when he opened them again, the yellow and pink reptiles were gone. In their place, a faded light shone from around a turn in the path. Fox was surprised that they were actually that far ahead of him. He motioned for everyone to pick up the pace, then took off in a run through the dim cavern. When Fox finally rounded the corner at the end of the tunnel, he spotted the two Yoshies, stuck, at a dead end. Quite puzzled and curious at the same time, the vulpine watched the yellow one peer upwards at the ceiling while the pink one held the small torch over her head.
"What's with the hold-up?" Fox asked them, but he realized in mid-sentence that they couldn't understand. Sara and Peppy came up just behind Fox, and Slippy and Falco arrived soon after. They all watched the Yoshies' behavior with perplexed faces.
"Ahem... Sara, do you mind?" Falco spoke up while nudging the salamander in the arm. "Oh, yes, of course," Sara stammered. She stepped forward and waved her arm to try and catch the attention of the yellow Yoshi. The reptile didn't notice until the pink one swiftly kicked him in the foot. The brightly-colored creature flinched, growled some sort of speech in reply, then watched his daughter point over to the salamander with her free hand. The yellow Yoshi turned to Sara and sighed in a sort of disappointed gesture. He grunted and signed out a quick message.
The two beings exchanged a brief, silent conversation, while everyone else in the crowded passageway looked on with great curiosity. When it was finished, Sara whirled around and spoke to her companions with, for once, a serious and businesslike attitude.
"Meekachu say that there is room right above us. The entrance is blocked by a huge boulder right over our heads. He needs us to help him move it."
Falco laughed. "Oh, is that all? Just move a single one-ton boulder. Sure, no problem. Just let me get my forklift..."
Sara placed her hands on her hips shot the avian a scolding stare. "Your sarcasm is not needed here right now, bird-breath. It's not such a big rock to move. Just be helpful," she ordered. As an afterthought, she added, "...For once."
Falco frowned and grumbled something inaudible once again, but by that time Sara had already turned away and was trying to help the yellow Yoshi. Peppy started the task off with an optimistic note. "Well, let's get to work. The sooner we finish, the sooner we can go home."
'Home. Now there's somewhere I'd kill to be at right now,' the fox mused. He had only a second to stray to his own thoughts, however, before he had to go and help the others.
Like a dogpile, Fox, Falco, and the two Yoshies were standing on top of each other in order to reach the ceiling of the chilly, dark room. Surprisingly, the Yoshies' hard-shelled backs made convenient stepping stones for the two Lylatians on top of them. Sara stood back and held the flaming torch with one hand, while Slippy and Peppy made sure that the odd stack of animals didn't fall over.
"Move the light!" Falco barked. "I can't see a thing!"
"Like this?" Sara inquired as she moved over a step and held the lit torch over her head.
"Yeah, that's fine, Sara," Fox answered. He and Falco clawed at the edge of the smooth rock just above their heads. Once they each got a good hold with their paws... or wings, in Falco's case, they pulled against the rock with all their strength. The two reptiles below faltered in their step a little as a sudden force was placed upon their backs. Peppy and Slippy scrambled around the two Yoshies and leaned against their scaly hides to help them keep balanced. The pink one slipped her foot slightly, however, and the blue falcon on top of her nearly fell to the ground before he got back his footing.
"Hold it, guys! I can't do two jobs at once!" Falco complained to the two helpers on the ground.
"We're doing all we can down here!" Slippy whined. The frog stood aside and allowed the pink Yoshi to balance the weight of the avian on her back by herself. Fox, who was standing on the yellow Yoshi's back, called out to everyone on the ground, "We've almost got it!"
Again, the fox and falcon braced themselves against the backs of the two Yoshies and forcefully pulled at the large rock above their heads. Despite the squeals of complaint from the pink and yellow creatures, the boulder slowly slid off to the side and opened up a hole in the roof of the thin passageway. Too overjoyed at finally completing the task to remember to watch his step, Fox whooped in triumph before stumbling over his own foot and crashing into Falco. The pair toppled over onto the cold floor below with a thud, and the two Yoshies were shoved out of the way and thrown into a wall in the process.
Fox sat up and dusted himself off. Falco did the same, then looked to Fox with a scowl on his beak. "You couldn't have waited to yell out like that, could you?"
Fox had barely gotten to his feet again when another force brought him to the floor. A terrible rumbling sound and a slight earthquake was the cause. The room suddenly grew darker right afterwards.
"What was that?!" a stunned Slippy blurted out.
"I don't know... It felt like an earthquake! But what in the world could have caused it?" Sara wondered. The salamander swept her hand across the smooth floor. "Oh no! I lost the torch!" she realized, much to her horror.
It didn't matter, though. The hole in the ceiling that Falco and Fox had just created allowed a dim light to penetrate the room, which fell as a soft blue haze onto the faces of the five Lylatians and two Yoshies looking up at the ceiling. Everyone was a bit reluctant to move.
Fox got to his feet first. He quickly analyzed the situation, and then spoke up into the silence. "Well, what are we waiting for?"
No one answered aloud, but eventually the six fallen travelers got up off the ground and were ready to start moving again. Fox gave out instructions to the small audience.
"Okay, we can use these Yoshies here as stepping stones to help us out. Slippy, you can stand on my shoulders and I'll boost you out of here. When you get out, check to see if there are any surprises waiting for us. Once you, Sara, and Peppy are out, me and Falco can stay down here to give the Yoshies a lift up."
Fox paused to allow Sara to translate the message into simpler terms for the colored reptiles. The yellow one stepped forward with an eager grin, and flashed a quick message in reply. Sara shrugged, then turned to Fox.
"Meekachu say that Yoshies no need help up. They can get out fine."
"They have another way out?"
The yellow one snorted and grunted at the sound of Fox's inquiry. "Yo, yo yi yo!" the Yoshi remarked before hand-signing another message.
"They can jump."
Falco laughed almost instantly. "Ha! Who do they think they are? Air Jordan?"
Sara snickered at the private joke, but Slippy could only scratch his head in wonder. "Who's Air Jordan?"
The falcon waved a single wing in front of the frog, as if to dismiss the question and the one asking it altogether. "Never mind, Slip. You'd never get it."
Sara passed Slippy a curious look. "You don't...?" She paused. "Oh yes. You fell asleep during my story, too," the salamander realized.
Fox smirked at that hidden reference to his poor manners. "Hey, don't rub it in," he complained.
Peppy, being completely ignorant to the topic, raised an eyebrow at the yellow Yoshi's response. "Are they serious, Sara?" he asked while pointing towards the two bright-skinned reptiles.
Sara nodded again. "Absolutely. You wouldn't believe how high these Yoshies can jump. It's one of their many talents."
Fox shrugged his shoulders and glanced back up at the hole in the roof. "If they say so. Just tell them to come over here. The rest of us will need a foot up."
In a much more orderly fashion than before, a stack of animals was formed which quickly brought the five Lylatians to the room above. Once they were out safely, everyone watched in amazement as two colorful blurs shot from the opening in the floor without assistance, hovered briefly over their heads, then softly landed on their feet just a few yards away.
"Wow," a dumbfounded Slippy remarked.
"Heh. Go figure," Falco reluctantly commented.
"So... where to next?" Peppy asked, thus bringing everyone's attention back to the yellow Yoshi.
"Umph... er... uh..."
"Where are we going, Meek?"
Meekachu took a few steps forward into the large, dimly-lit chamber. It was big and roomy, much like the room with the dragons, except it seemed to be a bit more cluttered with extra stones and rock ledges, and it was much darker and quieter.
The yellow Yoshi fumbled with his words, as if he weren't exactly sure of which path to take. In any case, he couldn't even find a path, much less choose which one to go through. The room was dark and cluttered, as mentioned before, and it seemed that behind every pillar of stone or rocky ledge another tunnel leading out of the room was placed. It was indeed simply shadows playing tricks on the Yoshi's eyes, but getting spooked then tricked wasn't a good combination for the yellow one.
As a matter of fact, Meekachu was quite spooked. That quake a few minutes earlier didn't seem to be an everyday occurrence... But then again, he hadn't been in the mountains long enough to know what was ordinary and what wasn't. Perhaps it was nothing to worry about.
"Er... well... uh..."
"Well, where?"
"Give me a minute, Miya!"
The pink Yoshi smirked and tapped her foot impatiently. Behind her, the five foreign animals were pondering just the same question as she was. Unlike the creatures' blind faith in Meekachu's leadership abilities, however, Miya was quite skeptical of where she was and where she was being led.
"Are you sure you know where we are?"
"Look, if you think you could do better, then why don't you lead this party?"
"Oh no, I wouldn't want to bruise your mountainous ego by actually doing better than you at something."
"Miya, you couldn't lead us out of a cream pie if it was thrown at your face, so shut your mouth and let me do my job."
Meekachu spun around and stomped off in anger. Miya grumbled some quiet curses, then did the same.
'Arg! Why does she do that?!? As if she could do better...' the yellow Yoshi silently fumed. Meekachu nearly tripped over a loose stone as he paced across the cavern. He stepped backwards, examined the rock for a moment, then looked up.
In front of him stood an odd assortment of stones of every type and size, all piled into a cramped corner of the cave. The heap of pebbles and rocks nearly reached the ceiling of the vast room, but at the top, there was a tiny opening, and from it, a shred of golden light penetrated.
"Bingo," he muttered. The Yoshi leapt into action, and scaled the stone structure in record time. Once at the top, Meekachu bent over and peered through the crack in the wall. What he saw nearly made the Yoshi fall over.
"Oh my Gods... Miya, come look at this!"
A sour-toned voice answered from across the room. "What is it now, Meekachu?"
"My excellent guidance has come through again!"
The ever-skeptical Miya was still unwilling to entrust Meekachu's 'guidance' another step forward, but her curiosity at the moment had the better of her. In no time at all, the pink Yoshi was climbing straight up the pile of strangely-placed stones and rocks. Upon reaching the top of the heap of stones, Miya fell onto her knees and placed her face up next to the opening in the rock wall. She scanned the room next door with her sharp vision... It was bright with incoming sunlight, and at the center of the room stood a strange object... It was glowing a bright green, and it resembled a wooden cane with a wide-eyed hawk perched on top of it. Embedded on the hawk's forehead was a bright gem, an emerald, which appeared to be the source of the green glow that enshrouded the cane. Miya's mouth dropped open in amazement, and she continued to watch over Meekachu's shoulder as he explained the sight before them.
"See that there? That's the emerald staff... Do you know what that is for, Miya?"
Without even giving the pink Yoshi time to answer, the yellow one continued:
"That is the symbol of the most ancient of councils... Well, the name's not important, but that staff right there is a very essential key that guards the gates to the other worlds... We need it to get those creatures home."
Miya finally blinked out of her awe-inspired trance when a question arose inside her mind. "So why don't we go out there and get it? What's stopping us?"
Meekachu replied with unusual calm. "Well, for starters, this hole is way too small for either of us to fit through. Secondly, if you would look right over there..."
The yellow Yoshi shifted to one side and allowed Miya to see something into the next room far off to the right. The pink Yoshi gasped.
"Meekachu..." she breathed. "There has to be at least a dozen dragons in there! How are we going to get past them?"
"Well, this time we have the advantage, my daughter," the yellow one pointed out. "As you can see, they're all asleep. We only need to sneak in and grab the staff without being noticed."
"You made that sound easy... Besides, like you said, we won't fit through this small hole. How would we get in?"
"Ah yes, the first problem..."
With the same cool, calm attitude, the yellow Yoshi hopped down the staircase of stones and approached the small group of animals below, a plot up his sleeve.