As Courier 6 kept stride with king Bowser (who now that he thought about it, didn't look or behave much like a King at all. Where was the haircut? The accent? The singing? He had a white suit, but it was the wrong kind of white suit to be a King.) another newcomer approached, one that had yet another unique physiology about him. Some sort of furry dog-like person? No, that was the wrong animal to compare this guy with. Wait, he recalled something vaguely in some of the old pre-war books he'd seen. Pictures of some kind of animal called a cat? Yeah, this guy looked more like a cat person. Of course, cats had been extinct for over two hundred years on earth so he could only go off of memory of vague pictures, often burnt or scorched, but it seemed to feel right. The cat person had a sort of sass about him, and was worried about a friend. A robot friend? My my, there seemed to be a good share of robots going around today. The Courier wondered how one could be a "friend" with a robot (unless he meant a very special sort of friend, wink wink nudge nudge), but now wasn't the time to ponder such things. The-not-so-King Bowser had answered his inquiry of payment by melting down one of his own golden buttons into a coin and passing it along to the Courier, who caught it and had to toss it between his hands a few times before it cooled off, with the promise of plenty more. For the mailman used to being paid in bottlecaps, he practically beamed in anticipation.

"Yeah... I reckon this will due nicely, Your Majesty."

That's when they had come to a crossroads, as it were. Three paths of varying levels of danger. One clearly quite treacherous. One looked like a cakewalk. One more of a wilderness than a dangerous battle zone. Even still, someone else had their own camp setup nearby. The Courier thought it strange, but paid the hooded figure no mind. He was being paid to deliver a package safely to the castle of the Mushroom Kingdom. That package? The Koopa King, Bowser and Kirby. Courier 6 never failed a delivery.

"Looks like y'all have got things handled over there," the Courier called out to Bowser and company as the koopa king made his declarations to the goombas and koopas, burning up some grass for good measure. "I reckon we need to minimize danger and secure the area if we're to work out of that castle. Anybody who wants to head into the thick of certain doom, I'll kindly accept your company!"

With his intentions made clear, the Courier holstered his Ratslayer and drew out his hunting shotgun, but made sure to keep a hand near his magnum as well, just in case he spotted something dangerous out of range. Carefully he strolled into what appeared to be the most dangerous of the three-branched path: into the dark canyon. If he could walk the Lonesome Road of the Divide, he could walk this. Easy peasy.

[hider=word count]520[/hider]