by KJ Harlow
“Duh, I can see that. Why?”
“Because it’s more fun.”
“Hey, Yoshi?” Starry asked.
“Mm–?”
THWACK!
Yoshi copped a snowball straight into his face. He fell back and was swallowed by whiteness. Even with a foot of snow against his ears, he could hear Starry and Ai giggling.
“Hey, two on one, not –”
THWACK!
“Pffffft! Hey, that got into my eye!” Yoshi yelled, his voice echoing through the valley.
He struggled to his feet and stabbed his fingers into his ring belt. “Crystal, Arlif!” The rock and grass-types appeared. “Snow fight!”
“How do you have a sn–OW!” Arlif squeaked as she took a baseball-sized ball of snow to the gut.
“Hey, no fair!” Ai said, ducking to let a snowball whizz over her head. “I want Crystal on my team!”
“Nuh-uh,” Yoshi said, “she’s got a good throwing arm, she’s mine. You have Starry. I have Arlif and Crystal. Alright, let’s…”
Arlif and Crystal waded through the snow, going to the left and right sides where there was more freshly fallen snow waiting to be turned into ammo.
“Hey, you two are–” he dodged right “–meant to be protecting me.” He balled up some snow in his gloved hands and threw it at Starry. It landed five feet short.
“Sorry, Yoshi,” Arlif said, leaping away from him. “I feel safer with Starry and Ai.”
“I will protect you,” Crystal vowed. Her hands worked methodically, moving faster and faster until they were a complete blur. “Can you build a barrier?”
“Uhhh, yeah I guess…” Yoshi hummed, as he dodged yet another snowball. He couldn’t build it fast enough. Plus, with every snowball they threw, their aim was improving. Crystal knocked some straight out of the air, catching some and throwing them back at their foes.
With eight self-made snowballs in her left arm, she ran out from the sorry excuse of a barrier Yoshi was erecting and started targeting the closest girlfriend, who happened to be Starry. Even with the bulky down jacket, she managed to dance around Crystal’s barrage. To make matters worse, Arlif and Ai kept their attack up, raining more white, spherical missiles onto Yoshi.
THWACK, THWACK, THWACK!
“Argh!” Yoshi said, hopping on the spot as he tried to dig out some snow that had slipped down his neck. “I surrender!” he yelped.
“No we don’t,” Crystal said firmly. Yoshi wiped the snow from his eyes and looked at his rock-type.
Crystal used Charge!
His eyes grew wide. She was in a brace position, right by the right side of the valley. Energy rippled about her hands.
“Crystal, what are you doing?” Yoshi asked slowly. She isn’t doing what I think she’s doing…
Crystal is biding her energy!
“Crystal, sto–!” The other girlfriends hadn’t accepted Yoshi’s surrender and were relentlessly pelting Yoshi, their shrieks of laughter blanketing his voice.
Crystal is biding her energy!
Crap. Yoshi fumbled to get the rock-type’s ring out.
“Crystal, get back!”
Crystal’s energy is full!
Crystal used…
A blue beam zoomed over the top of the snow and struck Crystal before she could strike the snow-laden valley wall.
Yoshi clutched the ring to his chest. Frank… she really was going to use Bide and slam all that snow down. Who knew she was so competitive?
BRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR–
There was a vibration so low it was almost imperceptible. Yoshi looked up and that’s when he saw it: a tidal wave of white rolling down from the left mountain, coming straight for them. All the commotion from the snow fight must have set it off.
“Fuuuuuuck!” Yoshi swore. “Ruuuuun!”
Ai, Starry, and Arlif were way ahead of him, half jumping, half running through the plain of snow. The white apocalypse was devouring trees and stones in its path, charging faster and faster towards them.
BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…
Yoshi looked to the right side. A line of Naseemas stood at the top of the right mountain. They had formed a long, merged Ice Barrier and wedged it into the snow, like a giant wafer in a ice cream cone. Fifty, maybe sixty, stood on top of their combined defensive barrier, timing their jumps to the beat of a drum, pushing the giant lever of ice down. With one final synchronised leap, the ice barrier shattered. Suddenly, an avalanche had begun from the right side too.
Shit, shit, shit… They had walked straight into a trap. At this rate, they were going to be swallowed one way or the other. With his heart in his throat, he looked forward. The end of the valley was ahead.
There! What was that? A glistening expanse of… ice? A lake? Whatever it was, it was better than being crushed by tonnes of snow.
“Go to the ice!” he yelled. It was useless; his voice was swallowed up by the roaring twin avalanches. Thankfully, his three girlfriends were heading that way already. Wait! I’ll just call them back into their rings!
Yoshi slapped his hands onto his side, feeling for his rings. One… two… three. Starry… Arlif… Ai. He looked ahead, trying to ignore the lactic acid building up in his legs.
The gym bunny was closest. “Ai! Get back!” He pointed his fist at her. The blue beam shot out, striking her arm. That was enough; her form froze in the air, flickered and collapsed back into the ring.
Who’s next? The petite form of his grass/poison-type was next. “Arlif! Get back!”
PSHEW! PSHEW!
Damn it! The left avalanche was 11, 12 seconds from impact, tops. The right one wasn’t too far behind. Come on, third time lucky.
PSHEW!
The grass-type slowed down in mid-air and the Lifee too was withdrawn.
Yes! OK, last but not least…
The valley opened up, a wide expanse of ice stretching as far as the eye could see. Even further ahead, the tower of ice charged up towards the cloud-clad heavens. 50 yards ahead, the snow had thinned considerably. Starry’s midnight blue hair whipped in the air as she kept running.
She was going to make it to the ice!
Yoshi smiled through gritted teeth, willing his stiff, tired legs to carry him to safety too. Starry looked back and caught Yoshi’s glance. Her eyes became wide and suddenly… she fell - and disappeared.
“Starry!” Yoshi’s yell was a squeak in the presence of the avalanches’ roar.
7…
“Starry, get back!” The blue beam shot out, dissipating in the air when it couldn’t connect with its target.
6…
“Starry!” He aimed slightly lower this time. The beam struck the snow over and over, each time unable to penetrate it.
5…
“Damn it, where are you?” There was an imprint of her falling through the snow… but where was she?
4…
“Starry, get back into your ring!” He aimed it directly into the hole, trying different angles, just hoping, wishing that it would be close enough to strike her body. A finger… a hair… anything…
3…
Damn it! Yoshi put his head down and ran. Ran away from his first girlfriend. Ran away from the avalanche as it piled into the valley. Every step he took drove one more nail into his heart because he was abandoning the girlfriend that stuck by his side from day one.
White gave way to blue. Not the same sort of dark blue as the Downedge Sea, a lighter, clearer blue. The blue of a lake. Like the sea, this lake also had frozen over. Something else about it was different though. Yoshi couldn’t quite put his finger on it.
He slipped across the frozen lake, almost overbalancing several times. Somehow, he managed to stay upright. He kept sliding forwards across the perpetual sheet of ice. The frigid wind sliced across his cheeks, stealing the tears that fell from his face. He looked over his shoulder, slowly.
A cloud of white powder reached for the sky, like the residue of an atomic bomb. Somewhere, within all the snow, Starry was dyin
g.
Or maybe, she was already dead.
33
Annoying Ice Puzzle
How long have I been sliding for? A minute? Five minutes? However long it was, with a gentle thump, he had finally come to a complete stop. He looked behind him, curious to see what had stopped his inertia. His chapped face stared sullenly back at him in the reflective ice. Harden the fuck up, Yoshi. Starry is not dead. Get out of here and look for her. He rubbed the dried tear streaks from his cheeks and tried to stand up.
THUD!
He slipped and fell on his ass. OK… there’s slippery, then there’s slide-for-a-mile-with-just-one-push slippery. Why was it so slippery anyway? His snow boots could get no traction on the ice.
Slowly, he got onto his hands and knees. So far, so good. He straightened his back and looked around. The wall of ice that had stopped him stretched along the perimeter of the lake as far as he could see. He scrambled for purchase along the ice wall, eventually struggling to his feet. The ice tower stood solemnly in the distance, chill gales whipping the top. Beyond the ice wall that ringed the lake, a trail burdened by knee-high snow separated him from the mysteries that lay inside. Was the Legendary inside, waiting to greet guests who could make it to her humble abode?
He pulled himself along, making sure to grip any protrusions to help steady himself. I’ll make my way around the lake, step by step, until I’m back at the entrance. Then I’ll start looking for Starry. For the next 15 minutes, he edged his way counter-clockwise around the lake. After falling for the seventh time, he forced himself up and looked around.
Ice blocks of different shapes and sizes he hadn’t paid attention to before were scattered throughout the middle of the lake. “Wait a sec…” Yoshi murmured. He tightened his grip on the edge of the ice wall, shuffled 10 more steps to the left, then pushed.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!” He was sliding away from the edge of the frozen lake and towards the middle, only just managing to stay upright. He pivoted on his heel, surprised when he didn’t fall. Seeing the ice block in front of him, Yoshi opened his arms wide and descended into a half-squat. He lightly thudded into it, his arms only able to embrace one side of it. Sliding’s much faster than inching around… why didn’t I think of that sooner?
He looked to his left and right. There was an inverted triangular pyramid, its tip embedded in the ice. On the other side was a perfect sphere. I can use these ice thingies to push myself around the lake until I get back out of here.
He shuffled around, lined himself up with the ice sphere and pushed off. With his hands in his pockets, he took in the ice structures marking the lake as he slid past them. It was like a maze… only without walls. He hugged the new cube he had just bumped into, gazing around, his breath misting in the air.
Question is, where is “out of here?” Was there just one way in, one way out? Yoshi craned his neck around. I’m going to need a hand. “Flick, Crystal, Arlif, Ai.” The moment his water-type girlfriend appeared, he snapped his hand onto her arm.
“Brrrrrr, you’d better have a good reason to call me out here.” Flick seethed, teeth chattering.
“Grab onto Crystal,” Yoshi said, eyeing the rock-type, who had begun sliding away. Flick frowned, grabbing the rock-type’s arm. She in turn clasped Ai’s arm, who grabbed onto Arlif at the very end. They formed a chain, all holding one another upright. He side-stepped around the cube, dragging his cautious girlfriends around until they each had their hands on the cube.
“Where’s Starry?” Arlif asked.
“She… I wasn’t able to withdraw her in time.” Yoshi clenched his fists.
“What’s been happening?” Flick said, looking around at everyone’s pale faces. “What’d I miss?”
Yoshi took a moment to explain the events leading up to the current point of time.
“Frank almighty,” the water-type whispered. She looked back at the hill of snow in the distance where the valley had been.
“There’s a path that takes us out of this frozen lake. Problem is it’s super slippery, so we can only move in a straight line. The ice blocks will help us get around. We can use them to help us stop, change direction and move in a new direction. With five of us all looking at the same time, we can find the way out of here.”
“I can use Charge and try to smash a hole in the wall,” Crystal said.
Yoshi held his hand up. “No Charge. We were lucky to barely get out of the valley before. I don’t know if there’s another trap laid for us by the Naseemas on this lake. It could shatter and freeze us. We push ourselves around until we find our way out.”
“What if they come back?” Arlif asked quietly. “The Naseemas?”
Yoshi gazed back at the valley. It seemed like a lot of trouble to trap one trainer and his girlfriends. Perhaps it was the Legendary they were trying to protect? “We’ll have to attack. But don’t worry, if things get hairy, I’ll withdraw you.”
“Hopefully we’ll find our way out of here before that happens,” Flick said, breath frosting in the air.
“You guys seem to have forgotten something.” Everyone looked at Ai, who had been quiet up to this point. She put her hands on her hips. “They could be waiting for us back at the entrance to finish us off.”
SWIIISSSSSSHHHHHH…
“Weeeeee!” Arlif skated past, wind ruffling the hood of her jacket.
Yoshi sighed then smiled. Can’t blame them if they want to have a bit of fun. “Any luck, Arlif?”
“Nooooope,” she sung, now 10 yards away.
“Flick?”
“What?” the water-type snapped. She really was struggling on the ice. “No, I’ve been sliding around in circles for the last half hour,” she grumbled.
“The others are fine,” Yoshi said. He pushed off a block, trying to retrace his steps for the umpteenth time. Left at this biggish cube… straight ahead at this one… right at this triangular block of ice… oooh hello, who left this here?
You have found Repel!
“Yoshi.”
Yoshi was about to push himself off from the tip of the upside-down triangular pyramid. He let go a little too early, clawing at the air to try and grab a hold of it, causing him to fall forward and crash into the ice, gliding slowly backwards.
“Yoshi.”
“Crystal,” Yoshi said, lifting his head. “What’s up?”
“There are clues.”
Yoshi sat up and crossed his legs. He reached out for a cube, missing it by a couple of inches. “Where are the clues?” he yelled.
“The pyramids,” she said. “They’re not pyramids.”
THUD.
Yoshi got to his feet slowly, gliding his hands up the sphere he just collided with before struggling into a squat then slowly standing up. “What do you mean?”
“They’re arrows.”
“What?” Yoshi edged himself along the smooth, rounded surface and pushed off. She grabbed his outstretched arm and she swung him around, nailing him in the stomach on one of the corners of the pyramid.
“Owwwwww…”
“The corners are a different color.” She peeled Yoshi off, pointing at the tip that poked into his stomach. “See?”
Crystal was right. The tip of the ice triangle Yoshi was clinging onto had a dark blue tip, while the others were light blue.
“Hmmm…” He puckered his mouth dubiously. While looking at his girlfriend, he pulled himself into the block of ice and pushed off. Cuboid, spherical and other pyramidal ice blocks swished by, some close enough to touch. Yoshi kept his hands to himself, facing forward. 30 seconds later he arrived at another upside-down triangular pyramid wedged into the ice, which had a dark blue corner.
OK, that could have been a fluke… He lined himself up with the dark blue corner and pushed off again. Sure enough, he arrived at another pyramid with the corner pointing a different way. He kept following the arrows, finding himself in previously uncharted territory on the lake.
“Everyone!” Yoshi yelled. “Look for the triangular py
ramids! Follow the dark blue markers! They’ll lead us off this lake!”
Hopefully.
“Way ahead of youuuuu,” Arlif sang.
Could have told the rest of us.
But Yoshi didn’t mind. He was beaming as Crystal glided towards him. He collected her in a bear hug, cradled the back of her head and planted his lips on hers. Warmth coursed through his body and into his nether regions. “Good work,” he said, breathlessly. The rock-type flushed pink, before managing the smallest of smiles at Yoshi.
“Not doing this anymore,” Flick shouted grumpily. She was 20 yards away, resting her head on the side of an ice cube.
“Alright, alright.” Yoshi aimed his ring at his water-type and withdrew her.
“Weeeeeeeeee – aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!”
Yoshi spun around, almost losing his balance. “Arlif?” He looked left and right but she was nowhere to be seen. “Daddy!” Ai had a scared look on her face. She had just pushed herself from an ice arrow and was trying her hardest to jump back the way she came. She slipped and crashed, chin to ice, sliding helplessly away from him.
She clawed at the ice, sliding faster and faster until she disappeared out of sight.
“Dadddyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!”
“Ai!” The blue beam from her ring struck the spot she had been in, missing her by a second. “Damn it!”
Yoshi followed the arrows, hitting another 15 triangle pyramids before he found himself in the same spot that Ai had been in. Crystal joined him soon after.
“Is that a…?” she asked, leaving the question hanging.
Yoshi nodded. “Yep, definitely looks like it.” He glanced at his remaining girlfriend. “A slide.”
Yoshi could see how Arlif and Ai got tricked. From their angle, they wouldn’t have been able to see the slope until they had pushed themselves from this last marker.
Yoshi crouched. The incline of the ice here was different too, sloping towards the entrance of the slide. Once you got going, you couldn’t turn back.
“Are you going to–?”
Crystal disappeared back into her ring and Yoshi locked it back into his belt.
“Yeah, I am. But I’m not going to lose any more girlfriends.” You’re safer in your ring than you are out here.
