Role Play Pool Party!

Crystal looked up quickly and saw the tail of Xiuhcoatl hanging well over 10 feet above her. Flapping her wings furiously, she flew straight up and grabbed a hold of the front of his tail, just hanging below his rear end. Gripping tightly, she dug her claws into the tail to keep from slipping. "Come on, Clive!", she shouted, not daring to look down at what she had nearly crashed onto before.

Immediately after Xiuchoatl had shouted NOW, Clive jumped and grabbed hold of his tail as tightly as he could.

She looked up, her eyes filling with fear as the trio was dangling high in the air. "The log is in the air, do we sway to the right?", she shouted, her voice quivering with fright.

"YES!", he shouted, closing his eyes feeling the claws of Crystal dig deep into his tail. "SWAY TO THE RIGHT AS HARD AS YOU CAN!", he yelled. Counting to three in his head, feeling his hands begin to lose traction on the rope, he swung his body with massive force to the right as the log began to move in the air from the ledge, over 40 feet high above the ground below.

She swung her body to the right as hard as she could, losing grip for a moment off of Xiuhcoatl's tail but digging her claws in hard. She was terrified out of her wits as the force moved them so quick to the right. She couldn't hold on much longer.

Clive swayed as far right as he could as Xiuchoatl commanded. He closed his eyes and kept hold of the rope as tight as he could.

"I hope this works. Just whatever you two do, don't let go."

Xiuhcoatl heard something slip up above him, looking up towards the rock formation, the rope was just about to slip off. He caught a glimpse behind him at the log, it was swaying fast towards the direction of the doorhead first.

"I'm not letting go, Clive", he shouted. "But the rope is!"

Watching the last of the rope slide from the rocks, his eyes widened in fear. "We're going down, brace yourselves!"

The entire rope began to free fall towards the bottom with the trio holding onto it as he felt himself falling through the air.

Clive opened his eyes and looked up at the rope about to fall. He remained still and kept hold of Xiuchoatl's tail as he began to fall.

Still digging her claws deep into his tail, she tried to flap her wings to help keep the two in the air.. but the tiny silver wings has no impact on the speed they were falling at. Closing her eyes, she braced herself as they got closer to hitting the ground.

Hitting the ground, he crashed hard on his stomach and caused his body to roll several feet and into the wall with his back with a nasty smack. He hoped that the other two, still holding onto his tail were okay from the hard fall.

The tree went flying directly towards the middle of where the two door halves met, knocking the entire door off of its ancient hinges and flying out into the bright sunlight of the outside world around the Dome, the doors coming down with a very loud thud that almost sounded like a giant had just taken a footstep onto the land.

Lying there motionless against the wall in a cloud of dust, his tail twitched a little bit.

Just before he hit the ground, Clive withdrew into his shell and landed on the floor with a bang. After a few seconds, he slowly got came back out his shell and slowly climbed up his feet. He walked over to Crystal and Xiuchoatl.

"Hey are you guys okay?" Clive asked.

She rolled along with him as he hit the ground after she landed onto her stomach hard from the tremendous impact from the crash. She finally came to a stop and opened her eyes. She had wound up flat on her back, with a single claw still dug into Xiuhcoatl's tail. She couldn't see through all the dust that the crash caused, she just layed there trying to catch her wind and figure out where she was.

Finally sitting up, she looked at Clive and Xiuhcoatl. Xiuhcoatl had not moved, she feared the worst. "Clive?", she cried out. "Are you okay?"

Crawling over to Xiuhcoatl, she turned him onto his back from against the wall. "Gosh, I hope he's okay.. he has done so much for us.", she whispered, with tears in her eyes.

"Yeah I'm fine, how about you?" Clive replied. Looking over at Xiuchoatl he then said,

"He'll be okay. Just a bit of concussion. Xiuchoatl is strong. There's no way he's going to let this keep him down. Besides we have a long way to go before we get back to he castle."

Xiuhcoatl slowly opened his eyes and groaned, his back was killing him and his head felt a little heavy. It was blurred at first but things came together as he saw Crystal looking down at him. He let off an evil little smile and saw daylight pouring out from outside and into the dome. "The bad news is, we need to get a new door,", he said quietly. "But the good news is, your crazy little dolley worked!", he said as his voice came to a shout. Slowly sitting up, he leaned over and hugged Crystal. "You're a genius. A crazy genius.", he whispered in her ear.

Moving to all fours, bending over a little bit because of his back, he looked at Clive and smiled. "We're almost back home, let's go see what awaits us outside."

Hobbling out with the other two, he made his way into the bright sunlight.

Clive walked behind Xiuchoatl through the now open door into the sunlight.

"Finally we're back outside. We can finally get back to the castle. I hope Orinda and the others are okay." Clive said.

If he were aware of Clive's comments at that moment, Chugami would have enjoyed the irony if he wasn't on the business end of the whole affair.

His torch had almost run out of fuel and was on the verge of going out. And given the light was the only thing keeping the all-consuming darkness at bay (he was going need some help after all this), he was quickly losing his cool. He had found a cutting board and tried using it to gently fan the flame, but he knew it wouldn't keep it going forever. The stinky food trail had not worked as immediately as he had hoped.

He swore that if he ever got out of this alive, he would pay to have this place electrically wired and running on light bulbs entirely out of his own pocket if he had to.

He quickly looked around the kitchen, desperately trying to find something else that would make a sufficient light source. Even with his keen eyes, the dimming light meant he couldn't even see the far walls clearly. Then he happened to look up. Simplistic chandeliers were hanging from the ceiling, and they looked completely stocked with fresh candles. Perfect, assuming he could find out how to get that high before his torch died...

Orinda was fooled, it wasn't a person he kicked the door in on.. it was an old coat rack. Where did the strange music come from he wondered as he searched the room. The room looked like it belonged to a child he thought, full of computer games, magazines and the sort. Walking towards the bed, the sound became the loudest he had heard it at. Removing part of the top bedsheet, he found a tape player under the bed. Stopping the player and opening it, there read a tape that said "8-Bit Music". Guessing that had been the source of the sounds he had heard, he put the player back under the bed. Exiting into the hallway, he shut the door behind him.
With the torch still lit, he walked down the hallway wondering where Kollin and the Squeek had disappeared off to.

As his eyes adjusted to the outside world, he looked around him and almost cried. It was an awful looking mess. Donut Plains had been reduced to a place overgrown with tall weeds, dead broken trees and buildings that were nearly demolished with the scattered remains of the ones that weren't. There was a broken bridge that once linked across the lake. The lake was covered in a thick layer of green moss. The only sign of life was the sun, that shined brightly.

"Once we get back to the castle, we've got a LOT of work to do.", he said with a sigh.

He pointed straight out in front of them as they stood in front of the entrance of the Dome at a green warp pipe that rested beside the lake. "That's our way home, let's get going." He sat down against the wall, he would need help from the healer before they returned to the Valley.

She walked outside and gasped at the wreck that once had been the Plains. "You're right, I will come with you and help", she said as she sat with Xiuhcoatl.

"Relax.", she whispered as she placed her hands on his shell gently.

Clive walked over to Crystal and Xiuchoatl and said,

"I can't wait to get back home. Orinda must be wondering where we are"

Looking round the wreckage, Clive shook his head in disgust.

"It's amazing how such a lovely place can come to this in just a couple of years. In all my years, I have never seen anything as bad as this."

Walking down the hallway with the light of the torch still guiding him, Orinda smelled something. Whatever it was, it smelled terrible.. like rotten vegetables. He covered his nose and continued to walk down the hallway. The smell got stronger with every step he took. He wasn't sure who or what it was, but he had to investigate.

Getting up, he hugged and thanked Crystal. That was definately quite a skill to have, he was curious about how she learned her trade but that would have to wait for another time.. they had to get back to Koopa Castle and quickly. "I'm sure the whole land is a mess", he said to Crystal and Clive. "We definately have our work cut out for us to get everything cleaned up."

Walking over into the warp pipe, he took a peek inside and saw nothing but darkness. Remembering the last trip down a warp pipe, he shuddered a little hoping that this one would be a much smoother landing. He held his breath and jumped down inside it.

After Xiucoatl jumped, Clive looked at Crystal and said,

"I'll let you go before me. I wouldn't want anything to happen if you were alone. As a fellow koopa troopa and a loyal troop of Bowser, I never leave one of my own kind behind. I'll go in after you."

Chugami exhaled a massive sigh of relief once the candles in the more central chandelier was lit. He had managed to create a stack of various kitchen items, including almost house-of-cards arranged wooden cutting boards and a pile of large pots, in order to get high enough, but despite the made haste he had made in construction, it held up well enough for him to climb it and get a few of the candles lit before the torch finally extinguished itself, completely spent. From there, he was able to finish the job using the then lit candles to light the others.

He decided not to question the good fortune that there happened to be fresh candles in the chandelier in the first place.

It was only a moment after he finished, however, that the pile started to wobble. He dived for the table as the entire thing toppled onto the floor with a resounding CRASH! He laid still and panted heavily for a time. For whatever reason, making a lot of noise seemed... dangerous.

As he turned yet another corner in these mysterious hallways, he heard a very loud crash.. it sounded like the clangs of pots and pans along with other objects he could not place the sounds of. It sounded very close, he decided to run down the hallway. He saw a doorwayto the right of him just directly in front of him, there was a very dim light source coming from it. Someone was in there, it had to be Kollin or Chugami.. or could it be? He didn't even think about who else it was, it didn't matter.. there was something in the castle and he had to find it.

Stepping into the doorway, he saw what looked to be a kitchen.. or what remained of one. The smell was very strong.. he looked at the kitchen table and on the floor, it was exactly what he thought it was. The smell of a rotten tomato, very rotten for that matter. Stepping around the mess quickly, he saw a pile of kitchen utensils and cutting boards laying all over the floor with a lit chandelier just above it. "Is anybody in here?", he yelled, looking around the room. "Chugami? Kollin? Are you in here, answer me!"