This was the course? Sure, it had a starting line, and it went in a complete circle, but this place just seemed too gloomy. I could even see imprisoned workers trapped in large cells off to the sides. Even though it was the daytime, the sky acted as if it was permanently stuck on nighttime. I was already sweating from the high concentration of lava on the course, and I wasn't even inside my kart yet. We still had another 15 minutes to prepare. My vehicle was sitting on the starting line, patiently waiting for its chance to boost off the line.
Just like Koda said, he wasn't here. However, this was the first time I'd seen Yoshi and Daisy. I tried talking with Yoshi, but I couldn't understand a thing he was saying. He did smile at me, though - or maybe he was always smiling. My conversation with Daisy wasn't much better.
"Hey there. How many times have you raced on this course?"
Enthusiastically, she replied, "Hi! I'm Daisy!"
That answer seemed pretty irrelevant. "...Uh, okay, you didn't really answer my question there. Why'd you say that?"
Acting as if I was talking about her career, she gave a confused look to me. She then stepped slightly closer to me and secretly whispered "Because they give me extra coins every time I use that phrase."
"Who's 'they'?"
"........."
She ran. I didn't get a chance to speak with her again.
_________________________________________________
Including me, there were now eleven racers all vying for the same prize. I, of course, was also battling for a long-term prize. Koda warned me multiple times about the bridges and the lava. If I crashed and melted my kart, I have no idea where I'd get enough money to try making a new one. I needed to be completely aware of my surroundings, which Koda told me wouldn't be much of a problem as long as I was winning.
There came the Lakitu dangling the light from what seemed to be a fishing rod. I couldn't really tell what he was hanging it from. If it actually was a fishing rod, who cares? That's not what everybody stares at anyways. The only thing that mattered was the buzzing lights. As the first two lights came on, I mapped the exact line I would follow for the first part of the track with my eyes and see what I could do from there. The green light went on right after I finished my line, and I boosted down it perfectly, cutting two racers off, forcing them to slown down. I cut right to the inside of the series of turns, grabbing my first item (just a banana) and preparing for a straightaway of Thwomps.
As I looked to see what paths the others were taking, I realized something - nobody was in front of me. I managed to get an early lead in. The ultimate question was, could I hold this lead for the four laps needed to finish the race? In my mirror were Yoshi and Toad, agile enough to dodge the Thwomps that were slamming onto the track. All three of us cut through quickly, and Yoshi saw this as a time to hurl a green shell. I noticed this in advance and sailed to the right of it, where it ended up getting flattened anyways. I took a sharp right next, and almost flew out of my kart. The next drop was steeper than I expected. I straightened myself out for the stone bridge I was about to cross, but a lightning bolt crashed down onto where I was driving.
This time, I was more used to the feeling - I was small and wasn't going as fast. About seven seconds later, we were restored and going through the second half of the lap. A quick glance to my right had revealed that Luigi had caught up to my spot and was battling for the lead. Yoshi and Toad still weren't too far behind, either. I was setting up my banana for him, when I heard a peculiar noise. A faint
romromromromromromrom was coming from behind me. No time to worry about that. I cut Luigi off, slamming him into my banana. I power slided off the next turn and was darting past several pictures of Bowser's big head, which became the least of my concerns when I heard Toad scream.
The
ROMROMROMROMROMROM came from an incoming spiked shell. There was no way I could avoid it, so I braced for the impact. I flew straight upwards, hopped into the direction I was supposed to be going, and punched the gas to not lose much time. Yoshi did pass me, but he was an easy target - if I had an item. He took the last set, so I waited patiently as we ended the first of four laps.
Origin of Entria