Yoshi Legacy: Heroes of the Mushroom Continent - Chapter 6
Sunset was strangely quite short, unlike how I remember it from the island. Perhaps it was simply my sense of urgency that made time move faster, but whatever the cause, a moon-less night filled the sky. My newfound companion who had been hard at work on a pile of sticks lit it ablaze at last, and we took a seat on some logs we dragged up from the vicinity. "Doesn't it seem a bit excessive to run all the way out here and build this in the middle of the woods? It'd be a lot easier to keep track of the path if we had just camped on the outside of the road, right?", I thought out loud as the flames poured light all around us.
"Well, that just proves how little you know about this land, Edward. Had I not come along with you, you'd have been dead meat out here for sure.", Pengy replied.
Really? I would have died out here? How does she figure? I have a way to defend myself. I checked my bag to find that trusty... wooden... huh. I suppose I wouldn't have very good odds of surviving after all, for all I found in terms of weaponry in there was my wooden training blade. She looked at me rummage through my belongings with a look of slight dismay and inquired, "That all you've got?". Sadly, it seemed as so, and I nodded rather pathetically.
"I seriously doubt that your stick of a sword would do any damage against the bandits that lurk the continent. A bandit attack's what most likely would have killed you out here, as it would have for anybody else who walks the paths at night.
"What's a bandit?", I asked. "Are they some kind of beast?". I was met with a look of disbelief from my comrade, who let out a sigh.
"They're thieves. Robbers. Most of the time, murderers. Bad Yoshis or Koopas.", she replied with a bit of sadness and worry in her tone. "They like to travel in groups, where they're most deadly. They've been all over the place ever since a few weeks ago, and they stop at nothing to take everything people have from them. Once in a while, peoples' lives are taken with their belongings."
A shiver went up my spine. "T-They kill people!?", I shouted, which prompted Pengy to leap up from her seat and cover my mouth with her hand.
"Shh! Do you want them to hear us? I pulled us off of the path to keep us away from them!", she urgently whispered to me.
I sat back down and took a deep breath. If a group of bandits were to be upon us, we most certainly wouldn't have been able to do anything about it. At best, my entire pouch would have been gone, Pengy's belongings would have been taken as well, and we both would have been stripped naked by money-hungry thieves. I lent my ear to the surrounding vegetation, and to my horror, I began to hear some intense shaking from the bushes nearby.
"Edward... you've doomed us both. They're coming right now!", she yelped, as she drew an iron knife from her waist. Determined that we would make it out unscathed, I attempted to pre-empt the confrontation, and I swung my sword into the bushes as a figure began to emerge from them. However, to my surprise, it wasn't a Yoshi or a Koopa at all. In fact, it was a gelatinous, somewhat slimy being of white color, and a blank, emotionless gaze from its eyes. Its stare wasn't so bereft of feeling for very long, and its eyes curled into a scowl of rage. It leapt up and down furiously as I withdrew my wooden sword from its top. I looked over at Pengy, who had a relieved expression upon her face and replacing her knife into its sheath. "It's just a blob, Edward. They're near harmless; you can put away your sword." I began to sheath the blade in my pouch, but the outraged blob had called for a few friends. Three more blobs had emerged from the shrubbery, and they leapt upon us all at once. Quickly drawing our weapons again, Pengy and I readied for the confrontation that ensued. With a few sword swipes and footwork, we evaded most of the blobs' attacks and dispatched them all without too much of a struggle.
As I looked upon their now lifeless bodies, an overpowering feeling of shame filled my chest. I hardly heard Pengy's next mutterings as she began to take a look at the minor wounds I had incurred from the battle. I had just started a fight that I could have prevented. Those creatures were probably rather docile, and I had killed them for nothing. My forethought to attack first ended not only the lives of these otherwise-peaceful creatures but also my innocence and compassion. Tears of guilt began to run down my face, to Pengy's surprise. "Whoa, Edward. Are you all right?", she asked with clear concern in her voice.
"Don't you see what we've done? I just started a fight with a bunch of creatures that wouldn't have harmed us at all had I not struck at them first. We could have prevented their untimely deaths if not for my own fear and incompetence.", I lamented.
She was taken aback for a second, and hesitated for a while before finally responding. "You... you're right, kid. We could have prevented their deaths." Her face joined mine in a look of sadness and regret, and sat next to me on my log. Her hand touched mine, and she said "Edward, you have a level of altruism that's probably beyond that of anybody I know of on this entire continent. This world... this world isn't ready to embrace this level of love. The dangers and grief that plague this world are far too apparent to rationally allow for the mourning of a few blobs.". Her face changed to a stern expression, and she moved her hand to my shoulder. "If you plan to survive in this world, you'll have to accept some losses like these, or else you will crumble to the weight of this world's terrors." she said.
My heart sank. I began to sulk as Pengy returned to her log and douse the flames. The words that Pengy had spoken to me were far from comforting, and I felt no better than beforehand. Does tragedy happen so often as she says in this world? I trembled as the possibilities began to fly through my head, and I lay down my head to try to get some rest, despite the powerful feelings present in my mind.
Waited long enough for this? Heh, I bet most of you here had forgotten about me.
Gradients are fun to use.
