Journey of the Toads

Chapter III

After a delicious breakfast of some bacon and yoshi eggs, we set off on the road to the Koopa King's castle. As we approached, I noticed that it was getting hotter and hotter around us. This was the case not because it was going to be a hot day, but because of the heat radiating off of the many pools of lava that lined the road we were walking along. As I looked around, I noticed that there were several other much smaller castles off in the distance. I assumed that these belonged to several of Bowser's highest ranking minions, but there were so many of them, I knew not all of them were actually occupied. It was not difficult to find Bowser's castle for several reasons. For one, his castle was the largest by far. His castle also was built in a way that it resembled the Koopa King himself. as if it wasn't obvious enough, there were also several signs along the road that said things such as, "This way to the great Bowser's Castle chumps." with the distance left to go written underneath. Finally we reached the point were the road ended, and a bridge began that lead us straight to the castle gates. The sky was now dark, and the massive fortress loomed over us.

The bridge we needed to cross was made of steel, and it was lined with hundreds of spikes. It stretched over a gigantic pool of lava that surrounded the castle. The temperature here was almost unbearable.
"It's too hot! I can't take it anymore!" I heard Starlow shout from within my pants. She hadn't been in a place like this for a long time, so it only made sense that she wasn't very used to the heat. Of course Toadette and I were pretty unphased by the heat. I guess we had gotten used to it thanks to all the karting tracks that Bowser owned that all featured tons and tons of lava.
"Sorry Starlow, but you'll just have to deal with the heat like the two of us." I responded.
"Yeah Starlow, if you just deal with it now, then someday you won't even mind it like us." Toadette added.
"Err all right. I guess I'll just have to be a big girl and take the heat." Starlow whined. There was no more talking the rest of the walk across the bridge. The silence was only broken by the bubbling of lava below us, The splashing of Lava Bubbles as they jumped up and fell back down into the hot stuff, and the tapping of our feet as we walked across the metal bridge up to the gate.

It didn't come as a surprise to any of us that the gate was locked tight. After a certain incident where a careless guard had left it unlocked allowing Mario and Luigi to break in, Bowser always triple checked to make certain that it was locked.
"So um, how are we supposed to get in?" Toadette asked.
"It looks like we'll have to find another way in." I said. "Let's start looking for an entrance we can use." The three of us searched high and low for a way to get in but we had no luck in finding one.
"What are we supposed to do? We have to get in there." Toadette said with a worried expression on her face.
"I'm not sure. There doesn't seem to be any other ways to get past this dumb gate." I replied. It was then, that I had an idea. "Hey Starlow. Do you think you could possibly carry Toadette and I over the wall?"
"Sure I can!" She replied happily. "I actually helped lift Mario and Luigi up to dodge some attacks once, and you two should be much lighter then they were, so it should be a snap!" She bobbed up and down with excitement, and then she flew over to be within just a couple feet of the wall. "Ok so Toad, you gotta hold on tight to my ankles, and Toadette, you gotta hold onto Toad, and I'll carry the three of us up and over this dumb wall."
"But Starlow, it doesn't even look like you have ankles." Toadette remarked.
That's true. I can't really hold on to something that doesn't exist." I added. Starlow sighed.
"Fine. Toad, just hold on to wherever you think my ankles should be ok."
"All right. I gotcha." I answered. I walked over to Starlow and wrapped my hands around her feet. She then started to rise, and I started to lift off the ground. Shortly after lifting off, I felt a pressure pulling down on my own feet. Looking down, I saw that Toadette had grabbed on to them, and the three of us were slowly rising. As we ascended, I remembered the fact that us Toads didn't really have ankles either. Finally we hovered up and over the wall of the castle. Unfortunately, the combined weight of Toadette and I was just too much for my arms to take so my hands slipped off of Starlow, and the two of us fell to the ground of the castle courtyard, hard.