Yoshi's Island: A New Tale

[Strangie]

Strangie took notice of the fact that Yoshee looked like she was on her last legs. He took action, refilling his coconut half with clean water. "Don't worry..." He made his way over to Yoshee. "You'll be fine in just a minute." He got Yoshee on her back (if she wasn't already), lifting her head up slightly and tilting the makeshift coconut bowl towards her a little, letting the curing water trickle down her throat.

Once the bowl was emptied, he set it aside, kneeling by Yoshee and watching her to see if she woke up. He looked over at Teo for a moment when he spoke. "Yes, you're going to need one of these." He waved the crystal shard he'd been using to purify the water. "You'll need something to put it in, too. If you can, go break open a coconut and use that. There's a bunch I knocked down over there," he said, pointing to the tree he hit earlier. He then looked back down at Yoshee, waiting to see her awake.

"Now that I'm able, I've got to help every single person I possibly can..."

[Teo]

"Wait, I'm going to need one? I didn't eat any of the fruit, I was never poisoned..." Which was true, I hadn't eaten any of the poison fruit yesterday, and I had drunk from my own water bottle in my sack. Shoot, now they'll think I'm suspicious. "I'll keep the crystal in case we need it for other people, but I don't need it myself..."

[Moot]

Once again being new to pretty much everything on this island, Moot didn't know whether exploding crystals or magical healing liquid were regular things here, or what. He shrugged his shoulders, and went to pick up one of the crystal shards that had landed nearby him. "I figure we should take a few of these back for the other guys back in the village, that way we'll have enough to go round... and you know, spares in case they break the only one again." There was a hint of annoyance in his voice with his final words, but it did seem strange to Moot that there wouldn't be a huge stash of these crystals for such emergencies.

Turning back to their original starting location, Moot gestured over to the rest of the group, and mentioned his plans. "After we fix up everyone here, we should probably be getting back, right?" Glancing around again for more crystals, Moot picked up a few of them, and stored them for their return to the village by de-materialising them. In the process, now would be a good time to dispose of the tainted fruit he picked up earlier, but had the good fortune to leave alone.

[Lord of the Dance]

My heartbeat was getting slower, and slower, as I slowly ran out of energy to even stay aware of everything around me.
I could feel a few people next to me, then something warm go down my throat. The stomach pain faded and the mist around my thoughts cleared. My eyes suddenly could open, but my vision was blurry... then it got clearer, and I had the urge to do something instead of lay there. I jumped up, almost knocking down the odd human sitting next to me.
"Man! What the heck did you guys feed me!?" I demanded. Then I choked for a second; I hadn't swallowed all the liquid in my throat. I quickly regained my composure and glanced around quickly. I noticed several Yoshis, one being that pupil-less one I had seen yesterday. There was the cat-thing, and the two humans. Then I noticed Vicks, and a chameleon. I scratched my head a little; there were more of us than when we started; I was sure of that.

[Strangie]

"Oh right, sorry Teo- GAH!" Strangie suddenly recoiled from Yoshee, his fast reflexes keeping him from falling over. He stood up straight, brushing himself off. "Sheesh... are you okay, now? You looked like you were seriously losing it for a moment there," he asked Yoshee.

He took a quick glance around the area. Was there anything else to be done? It didn't seem that way. He gathered his coconut half and shard and stashed them away, now just waiting for everybody to cure themselves so they can pack up and go back to the village. He kept a wary eye out for trouble, though, knowing that if there were creatures watching this, they would surely come by and try to take the crystals for themselves, possibly to cure themselves with it or maybe something else.

[Wildfire the Dragon]

(Sorry, Slept in. I'm a little tired and confused so I may mess up, but hopefully not.)

Jay was still upset, but only a little. He heard that others are being cured. He looked up to see others happy. They were cured. "Heh, they're cured. That's good..eh?" He looked to the right on the ground to see a shining object. He slowly walked to see it right near his foot. 'A crystal...' Jay slowly grabbed it. Being sick and almost having a nervous breakdown made him seem really tired. It looked like his skin went pale and his eyes weren't that bright green that used to be. He looked and saw a few coconuts, well half on the ground. He grabbed it and headed for the water. He dunked a small portion of the coconut in the water and dropped the crystal in. He brought it up to his face and swallowed the water a few times. Jay waited for a second and felt something good insinde him. The pain was going away by the second, his eyes were back to their bright original colors, and his skin was back to normal as well.

'I'm...cured...' "I'm cured..." Jay couldn't help but laugh "I'm cured! I feel better!" Jay now couldn't help himself but this time tears of joy were rolling on his face. 'I thought I was going to die here.' Jay looked inside the coconut. The crystal was at the bottom, but not much water left. ''I better take this with me, you never know..." he snatched it out of the coconut and safely placed it in his pocket. He looked at the others with a grin on his face.

[Not-Garr]

Vicks smiled brightly, and caught the coconut cup as it was tossed to him, administering to himself his own shot of clear water. "Ah... ...It does taste better than even ordinary water, doesn't it?", he stopped to look at everyone, then noticed the river, "It's still poisoned... ...and without the crystal to purify it... ...We've gotta get rid of the poison at the source!" he turned to everyone, "Now that you see I wasn't lying, will you help me? For the good of everyone on the island."

Toshi, Twi, and Teo would all notice that the shape of their crystal shards were...different. Teo's was in the shape of a key, Twi's in a rough lens shape, and Toshi's in the perfect shape of a drop of water. In each of your minds, the three of you hear a voice that you and only you hear.

"The Key of Truth..." echoes in Twi's mind, "Will keep you to your path, free of lies."

"The Key of Health..." echoes in Toshi's mind, "You will be able to aid the sick and wounded."

"The Key of Purity..." echoes in Teo's mind, "May you be free of your bonds."

The moon was larger than ever, yet oddly, the sun shone around it, though it sure cast a shadow across the jungle.

[Teo]

(You guys really don't know how hard coconuts are )

"He-hey, she's okay!" I said in a cheery voice as the yoshi sprung up, bowling over the ice climber. She then stopped, having swallowed water down the wrong tube as one might say. "Welcome back to the real world! Don't leave us so soon... please." So I got up, and all of a sudden, a voice appeared in my head. The key of purity... may you be free of your bonds. "Hmm? Uh... uhm... uh... never mind actually." What key of purity? Hey wait, where'd that crystal shard go? "Hey where'd that crystal thing go? The one that landed on my nose... does someone have a good handle on it?"

[Twi]

"The Key of Truth will keep you to your path, free of lies." echoed in Twi's mind, before he looked down at his shard, shaped like some sort of lense. "Key of Truth? That's the last time I smack myself with a coconut.." Twi thought to himself. Strangly, he felt compelled to keep the shard he possessed, he would throw it, but something made him keep it. He hid it under his cape. "Free of lies? With this I'll be free of lies?"

A sudden breeze immediately picked up and his cape started to flap in the wind. "Crap!" he thought as his cape revealed his claw for a few seconds, he quickly covered it back, and the breeze died down again. "Hope no-one saw that.." He still had the shard, even with this he kept it, it could be useful.

[Toshi]

Toshi's body started to change inside, he felt stronger and sharper than before, "Wow, what is this feeling?", he looked at his paw which held the crystal, shaped perfectly like a water drop, soonly, he started to hear something... "The Key of Health... you will be able to aid the sick and wounded..." Toshi palmed the side of his head on hearing this voice, "What the? What is that voice?", he whispered. "The Key of Health... you will be able to aid the sick and wounded..." The voice in his head was constant, echoing quietly in the back of his mind, he shook his head as he got to his feet, whispering to himself, "... i'll be able to aid the sick and wounded...?" he looked at the crystal shard he possessed, "... this crystal... does it have some sort of special power?" He kept a good tight hold of it, looking over at the group, it seemed like everyone was finally cured, but what about the water that was still poisoned? Is there more to this journey? He felt ready for it though, the sudden body change within himself definately changed his personality, if there is more to this, he wasn't gonna back down now.

[Strangie]

Strangie was glancing around, waiting for everyone to finish, and he saw Twi's cape rustle and flap up.

And that's when he saw it. THE CLAAAW.

"What in the nine hells was that?!" he thought to himself. "So THAT'S what that guy's been hiding from us... huh... I better watch out for that. That thing looks like it can do some serious damage... sooner or later, the others will find out too... but I don't want to scare them all during their time of celebration..."

[Enrique]

One by one, Enrique observed the rest of the traveling group purify their own share of the water and drink it to become healthy again. He still still had no idea how a simple little clear mineral could purify an entire source of water. He also felt better about Vicks; he knew with this that Vicks wasn't lying or leading them into a trap. He started to approach Vicks to apologize to him for not fully trusting him earlier.

Along the way, a moderate breeze blew, almost taking Enrique's hat off his head. He glanced over at the Yoshi with no pupils to see his cape flap in the air. A sharp claw-like feature appeared, then quickly recovered by the cape. Enrique commented briefly in his thoughts. "That was quite... different." He didn't go any farther than that.

[Teo]

The key of purity... will free you of your bonds... what could that mean? Did I hold the key for a few seconds? The only way to unlock my shackles, but did I lose it? I was still sitting on the ground, and realized that if I said anything, people might not acknowledge me as much as when standing up. So, I promptly stood on two feet and leaned against the tree. Everyone seemed all better, but there was still a whole town to save. A gust of wind came up, but not enough to worry me. Looking up, the weather was partly cloudy when it had been clear this morning. Even more of an excuse to get back to the village to cure everyone. To everyone and in a high tone, I said, "Hey peeps, now that we're cured, think the people in the village could do with a curing?"

[Not-Garr]

Teo's shard fell out of the tree rustled by the wind, and right into his arms.

Vicks shook his head, "We've still got time, and there's more ta' do. We've gotta stop this poison from poisonin' the river or it'll've been a waste of our time," he was holding his own shard, a perfect crystal shape, and looked down at it, before tucking it into a side-pocket on his rucksack, "C'mon, who's with me, now thatchya know I'm not lyin'?"

[Lord of the Dance]

"I'm totally in!" I exclaimed, maybe a little too loudly. I wasn't used to my energy again, after that little haul up here.
"Hey, you," I gazed over to the light blue Yoshi's iron-looking shackles. "Those look really heavy, but I think they'll come off. Tried it?" I asked him. I then turned to face Vicks.
"Shouldn't we help cure the other people first? Or is curing the source of the poison easier?" I rolled my eyes upward, trying to think. What I found instead of ideas was that huge moon.
"Wow, a solar eclipse..." I gasped quietly. I had never seen something so close to one.

[Enrique]

Enrique finally approached Vicks, and addressed him on his apology. "Hey, man, I'm sorry about not trusting you a while back. I'm with you on this. Do you forgive me?"

Enrique was obviously hoping that Vicks would forgive him for his thoughts. As he thought about it, he determined that the mistrust was likely him thinking to much while trying to distract himself from the headache that he was suffering. The successful lead to the waterfall and out of his misery made Enrique tust Vicks again.

[Teo]

(I thought Strangie took my crystal and kept it in his possession... aw whatever!)

As soon as the words, "Where's the crystal?" left my lips, there it came, dropping from the tree above me, right into my hands. It was in some sort of key shape, cold as anyone would expect a crystal, but with some sort of energy to it... "Well, now that that's settled, I'm set!"

"Hey you," the yellow spiked one said shortly after the crystal dropped in my hand, "those look really heavy, but I think they'll come off, tried it?" I looked at her, and I knew my answer as I had been asked this before. "They've been heated, hit, smashed, shot, filed, and even bonked, but they won't come off..." All of a sudden though, the left shackle flashed a bit, a sign that the unbreakable spell on that shackle had weakened. It would come off, but according to the mage, not until ... what was it again? Ah! Bad memory, curses! You'd think you'd remember when your own curse would wear off. "Well it looks like these things are a working progress..." the right shackle shown bright, indicating that one had weakened. "Hope they'll be off soon! Anyhow, no time to waste! Where to?"

[Strangie]

(I did no such thing, Teo. And... Strangie can break coconuts with his hands because he's into martial arts. I think Twi was able to do it because he has a hard head... probably explains why he's not too bright. *brick* HEY HE SAID IT HIMSELF! *shakefist*)

Strangie turned to Vicks, a new, determined look in his eyes. "We'll be with you all the way," he said to Vicks. "Just lead the way."

He put the claw of Twi in the back of his mind for now... the whole thing left him suspicious, though... in fact, the character, Twi, himself, was just covered in suspicion. Dark, dreary, and no pupils. Not too sharp either, after he smashed a coconut on his head... he thought about it for the moment, but pushed the thought aside, deciding that looks might not tell the whole story, and concentrated on what Vicks had to say.

[Not-Garr]

(Two, your shard is shaped like a key. Not like a cross or anything. Also, I want you to know that though the shackles can be removed, you won't be able to change into a dragon or human anymore.. ...Well, yet, anyway.)

Vicks smiled at Enrique, "Yeah, I forgive you. Everyone, we need to go upstream I think. I remember someone tellin' me they saw a lot of stuff up there...", he turned his back to the group, and pointed, easily flutter-jumping up the short cliff the waterfall fell down, "This-a way! Come on!"

[Twi]

Twi was listening to Vicks as he said they needed to unpoison the water supply. Twi decided to come along to see if Vicks knew about his shard and if it could be useful later on.

"I'm in, but it doesn't mean I trust you, any of you.." Twi said and walked over to Vicks to walk with him. He noticed the ice-climber to be looking at him strangly, maybe he saw his claw, if he did, he may have to shut him up about it, stop him from talking. For now, he left it be until later and continued walking.