Chapter 6-The Rescue
Wesley and I decide to go with the plan that Johnson gave us. We will escape through the ventilation system and follow the trail that he left behind for us. We both agree to head out after our next meal is delivered the next day. That way we will have the maximum amount of time to escape without them noticing we’re gone.
The next day…
“Breakfast time” I hear a man outside the door say before entering. “And this time I managed to get you some good food!”
Wesley and I go over to the table that he places the platter and top on and reveals to us our breakfast. Blueberry pancakes and bacon!
“Sweet! Thanks Bill!”
He nods. “No problem. You will need your strength if you are going to escape from here alive.”
I almost choke on my chomp when I hear this. I manage to swallow and ask him how he knew.
“I’m a friend of Johnson’s. I agree with his views of the Shadow Witch. Take her down. Oh, and land an uppercut for me will ya?” He says with a wink as he turns to leave.
“Sure thing” I tell him with my mouth full of blueberry pancake. When he leaves, Wesley and I scarf down our food and take a few of the oranges that Bill left behind for us and put them in my backpack’s empty pouch on the far front. We may need some energy for later on if it takes a while for us to escape.
After packing up our small provisions, Wesley helps me up to the vent on the far wall, and helps me get in. It was just small enough for me but Wesley was too big. We hadn’t counted on that happening.
“Go on without me” he tells me after I tell him the news. “I can live here for a while before-“
“No” I tell him defiantly and interrupting him. “Never leave a black Yoshi behind. That’s my motto.”
“Since when?”
“Just now.”
He shakes his head. “Well, the only way I can get outta here, is the main front door.”
“That’s not true.” I explain that my abilities of Seeing has improved a little and that I found a weapon’s storage. “It has dynamite in it. I will get some of that and come back to here. I will make you a back door.”
Wesley sighs. “Or you could just silently take out the guards right around the corner and let me out.”
I think about the two options. “I’ll try that first.”
I turn around and head through the ventilation system. I follow the map that Johnson gave me and follow the arrow on it to find the escape hatch. I bring up the main map to find a detour to help Wesley. I follow the system to the closest one by the main doors. It led me to a room filled with spare uniforms for the people like the guards at the door to the chamber. I open the vent and hop in. I put back the vent and put on a spare uniform. It fits quite well, which is a little surprising, and head out the door. I walk down the corridor until I turn the corner and see the chamber door but bump into another guard.
“Hey watch it bub!”
“Sorry, I was-“
“Uh, dude, your skin is yellow.”
Crap! I forgot about hiding that part!
“Why is it yellow?”
“I’m, uh, from a far-off land and got a job here to I can help my mother afford her operation. It is a little difficult to talk about, so if you, you know…”
“Oh man! I’m sorry! So, you’re new, right?”
I nod. “Yep.”
“Do you know your post?”
“It was guarding some chamber I believe.”
“Oh yeah! It is this way.”
“The guy told me that I was supposed to earn experience by holding both of the positions that are there.”
“Wow. You are new here. Well, it’s right down here, and here we are!”
We arrive at the door and the man with me tells them what I told him.
“What guy was it?” Asks one of the two guards.
“I don’t remember his name, but the guy in the grey uniform.”
“Was he scary beyond all reason?” Asks the same guy.
“Like Ezma?” Says the other one. We all look at him. “What can I say; I like the Disney movies…”
“Anyway, you both get a break. This guy here takes both of your posts over. And…wait. What was your name again? You never said it.”
“Oh, it is Cody. People call me Code-Cracker since my problem-solving skills are so out-of-this-world.”
The two guards laugh. The first one asks his buddy if he wanted to go get a bite to eat. He agrees. The two take off at about Mach 5 and the other guy tells me to take this job seriously. “Don’t worry” I tell him. “I will.”
“Good. Carry on soldier!” We both salute each other at the same time. He smiles at me, I smile back, and he leaves with a small chuckle. I wait until he is out of sight and I take a quick look around. Nobody in sight. I unlock the door and whisper to Wesley.
“What do you want?” He says almost meanly at me.
“It is your time. Please come with me.” I disguise my voice.
“You mean my time to die?”
“No. Your time to leave this world.”
“What’s the difference?!”
“The difference is that by this world I am referring to this chamber-like world of yours. Now come with me if you want to live.”
“As if Dorkinator. Go away!”
I grunt in disbelief. “Is that any way to treat a guy who is trying to break you out?” I say in my regular voice.
“Cody?!” He comes out and into the light so we can see each other. I nod and take off the cap of the uniform. “Now you have to be relocated to a different jail cell block. Follow me.”
“If I must I must” he says as he begins to come out with me when I hear someone approaching from down the hall. I shove Wesley back inside and lock the door without saying a thing. I hear him exclaiming but when I told him someone is coming he shut right up. At that second another officer was coming down the hallway. He was wearing a different styled uniform than mine. I assumed that he was a higher ranking person. As he walked past me, whistling, he stops in his tracks and takes a few steps backward and stops next to me. I straighten and stiffen when he looks me over. When he is finished he makes eye-contact and I can’t stop watching him from my own fear.
“Who are you?”
“I’m the new guy. Cody. My friends call me-“
“I didn’t ask what your friends called you. Only your name will do.”
I gulp. “The name is Cody.”
“And what are you doing here?”
“This is my post. Both of them actually. The guy in grey said that I had to do both of them to gain more experience.”
“For your information, that guy in grey has a name.”
“I do not remember it.”
“Then you will do well to memorize it. His name is Mack. Merciless Mack. You may have heard of him from the major Civil War over in America.”
I nod. “Yeah, the name is familiar, but I don’t 100% know. You see I am not from this place. This kingdom. This country.”
He raises a single eyebrow. “Really? Where are you from then?”
I gulp but keep it hidden as best as I can. “I’m from a different country far beyond the great sea of Rougeport.”
“I see. What is the country’s name?”
I hadn’t thought that one through yet. I didn’t know what to say! Then the unthinkable happened.
“Wait a minute. Your yellow skin. You must be…”
“Must be who?” I say almost panicking. Had he figured it out already? Did he figure out that I am not a real officer, that I’m a prisoner? I’m in deep bullsh-
“Your country, it is Koopakistan, isn’t it? I hear everyone from there has yellow skin but the body of humans. Like as if a human and a Koopa did the boom-chicka-boom or something.”
I was left speechless by what he said. He asks me in anyone was home and I dash back into reality.
“You alright bub? You kinda spaced out there…”
I nod. “Yeah I’m fine. It happens sometimes. I have a mental disorder that makes that happen. Epilepsy. And yes I am from Koopakistan.”
“I thought so. Epilepsy you say?”
I nod. He stares me down for several long seconds before he humphs and tells me to carry on. He continues down the corridor. I sigh in relief and re-open the door. I peek inside and don’t see Wesley anywhere.
“Wesley? Wesley where are you? It’s me Cody.”
I hear something muffled but it sounded very close. I look around but I don’t see anything. I shut the door after entering and I pulled out my flashlight. I heard the muffled sound again and I turned around. I found him stuck to the door like a fly on a piece of flypaper. “Sorry” I tell him as I pull him off of the door.
“Let's just get out of here” he tells me as he straightens out his snout. “So I can survive in one piece!”
I chuckle nervously and nod. “Let’s go” I say as I opened the door. And as luck would have it, Merciless Mack is standing right there! His face changes to shock when he sees me with Wesley. “What is going on here?” He says this as another officer is passing by. He sees me and waves hello. “Wassup Code-Cracker? How ya been?”
“I’ve been good! You?”
“Ah, same-old same-old, you know.”
“How’s your girlfriend doing?”
“Oh she’s fine! Yeah, fine, but she has this, hair thing going on, but other than that we’re both just okie-doke!”
“That’s good” I say and wave him bye.
“See ya later dude!” He waves back and proceeds on down the hallway, but not until after he salutes Mack and says “Hello sir” to him. Mack is even more confused. “What the HELL IS GOING ON HERE?!”
“You see sir, I got reports from him to move this prisoner to another cell block. I don’t know why but orders are orders. You yourself should know about that.”
“I see. And who are you?”
“I’m the new guy here, and-“
“The new guy is Phillip. You’re not Phillip. And your skin is yellow like that of Cody in there.”
“Oh. Well, you see, I am from Koopakistan and” I look down both hallways to see if anyone was coming, and since the coast was clear, I continued. “And, I didn’t want to tell this to the lower-ranks, but I am from direct appointment from him, and if anyone else knew that, then they would be sucking up to me, and you must understand, I hate that.”
“Right. So explain that.”
I gulp. I couldn’t think of anything! What was I going to-
“He already got moved to a cell at some other place. The guard didn’t tell me where or what its name was, but it was obviously somewhere very high in security because the guard that picked him up was in all dark blue and black highlights.”
Merciless Mack’s eyes widened. He almost seemed scared. “Oh man. I see. And you say you came directly from, him, himself?”
I nod.
“I don’t believe it.”
“Well, if you don’t believe me, then arrest me or whatever. But, if you are wrong, then imagine the consequences that HE would give you! Do you really want that to happen? Are you really prepared to take that chance?”
He gulped. He was officially putty in my hands. “I’m terribly sorry sir. After the move, would you mind coming back for some tea or something?”
I think about it. Or fake it anyway. “That sounds quite nice. I’ll have to think about it. I’ll get back to you though!”
He smiled, saluted me, and allowed us to pass. We walked down the corridor and I finally take in the scenery. The walls are over twenty feet tall, have the same pattern and color scheme as the Palace of Shadow, or I think it is. When I compare it to what I was told it looked like they seem to match. There are also some old chandeliers hang from the ceilings. After Wesley and I turned the first corner, I pulled out the map and plotted a course out of this place. It didn’t show anything outside, just the blueprints to inside.
After the course had been decided on, we simply followed it and it led us right to the front door. We exit through them and we see something that we definitely didn’t expect. What we saw was the entrance to the Palace of Shadow right behind us after we left. It shut with a soft yet slow slam which echoed throughout the entire area.
After staring at the Shadow Palace doors for what felt like hours, Wesley cleared his throat and grabbed my attention.
“Did you have any clue that we were in there?”
I shake my head still staring at the large door. “No.”
“Did you know that we were supposedly that close to the Shadow Witch?”
“Nu-uh.”
“Wow.” He whistles. Then he starts chuckling. It slowly grows into a full out laughter. “I cannot believe that we were that close to death and didn’t even know it!”
I continue staring at the door. Something is tugging at me from inside but I don’t know what. That’s when I remember. Mack somehow knew about Maria. But how would that be possible? Unless…
“Wesley.”
“Yeah?” He says taking a breath from laughing.
“I’m going back in.”
“Are you crazy?!”
“Think about it. How would Merciless Mack know about Maria?”
“How do you know his name?”
“Answer my question please. How do you think he did?”
“Well, either he has her in custody, which seems way too easy for us to rescue her, or a higher power reported her to him when they got her.”
“So you don’t think that she’s in there?”
He shakes his head. “No. They wouldn’t dare take you right to where she is. If they did, and you found out, then they probably figured that you would have gone completely berserk and kick their asses to the moon.”
I think about it, and then nod. “You’re probably right…”
“Yeah. Speaking of which…”
I look at him. “What is it?”
I have been noticing some odd light phenomenon near the moon for the past few weeks before I joined up with you. I believe something is happening.”
“Is there any way to get there?” I ask him now turning my entire body towards him.
“Only one. And it is nearby too.” He takes off and I quickly follow him. He takes me through the long ancient halls to a town of Bandits, Goombas, and other species. He walks over to one door and pulls out a key. He unlocks it and opens it up. He walks in, me behind him, and he turns on a light from the ceiling. There is a large machine that doesn’t look like it’s been used in a while.
“Well, there goes that idea. I thought maybe the Shadow Witch may have been using the moon as a base like the X-Nauts did, but if this hasn’t been used in a long time, then that isn’t the case.”
I slam my head against the wall. “Damnit!” I sigh and slam my fist against the wall. When I did this, someone outside jumped and shrieked. “Sorry!” I yell.
“Don’t worry Cody, we’ll find her, and rescue her. I’ll make sure of it.” Wesley tries to cheer me up and assure me that it will happen.
“So what? We don’t know where they took her!”
“I know. We just have to find some kind of clue or lead.”
That’s when I had an idea. I feel around in my backpack and sure enough it was still there. I sighed in relief. I told Wesley that I was tired and needed some rest. “Where could we do that?”
“Well, there is always the Inn in Rougeport, so let’s head there.”
We agree on this and head out for the green pipe. It takes us right next to the Inn on the east part of town. We head over to the Inn and we notice the “CLOSED” sign was put up. “Well that sucks” Wesley says. I tell him to not worry about it and to watch this.
I walk up to the door and open it. “I’m back!” I yell. “Zess T.? Bartender guy? Anybody home?”
“Is that the yellow kid?” I hear a voice whispering.
“I don’t know. If it was, wouldn’t Maria still be with him?”
“Maria ain’t here because she got kidnapped. I am here to rest up so we can head out tomorrow and rescue her.”
“That must be the same guy” I hear the bartender whisper. “But I am not taking any chances.”
I walk over to the counter as he is whispering this and I peek over it to see them talking. “And besides, can’t the enemy disguise their voices?”
“Maybe, but they can’t disguise their looks now can they?” I say loudly. This causes the bartender to jump so high that a skylight was made to the beds on the floor above. He plummets back down and stands up immediately after landing. “Well! Welcome back, er…”
“Cody. The name is Cody.”
“Ah. Thought it was Killer.”
“I changed it for security purposes.”
“Ah. So you want a room eh? Same as last time? One night and a breakfast?”
“Double everything for two people and put in two dinners and you’d be correct.”
“Double them?”
I motion for Wesley to come on in. He does so and the bartender gasps when he sees him. “Wesley?! Is that really you?”
“Yep. Nice to see you again.”
“It’s been ages!”
“It’s only been about twenty years.”
“Well that is ages to me!”
At that moment Zess T. comes up from underneath the counter as well. She smiles when she sees Wesley. “Nice to see you again deary. How is Sir Break-a-lot?”
“Mario’s been fine. He and Peach have finally settled down. For real this time.”
“They have? That’s nice. Now you needed a dinner?”
“Both of us actually.” He said this while motioning his head to me.
“Got it. Coming right up Blackie!”
She rushes into the small door to the kitchen and we immediately hear the appliances being turned on. The bartender gets me a drink of his juice from last time and Wesley gets a beer. We drink slowly while we wait for the meal to be finished. After we are done drinking the meal comes right through the small door that Zess T. went through. When we see her lift the lid off the platter I can hardly believe her generosity! A whole meal made of sandwiches of many different kinds, a steak big enough for four, some different drinks, and many other things! “This is for all four of us” she explains as she cuts herself a part of the large steak. “Eat up and enjoy!”
I look at Wesley who glances at me, then both of us look to the steak, and in unison we both get ourselves a piece of steak.
After the wonderful meal, I head upstairs to get some rest. Wesley got a little…silly…from the beer, and decided to stay downstairs with the others.
After unlocking the door with the key that the bartender gave me, I choose a bed and flop onto it. I place my backpack next to the bed on my left, and I quickly cuddle up with the object from my backpack that I searched for earlier. “I hope this works” I say out loud. I fall asleep relatively quickly.
I open my eyes to see myself in the same void as last time. “Hey Sean? You still here?”
“I said my name isn’t Sean. You may call me the Scribe.”
I shrug. “Whatever. Now I need to know something. I am a Seer, correct?” I say hinting that I would have more to say.
“Yes you are. Why do you ask this since you already know?”
“Well, I have with me a trinket from someone and I was wondering if I could trace it to her location with my abilities.”
Silence. I apparently said something that he wasn’t expecting me to ask.
“Hello? You still there?”
“…Yes it is possible, but it is a little difficult. You say you have it with you?”
I nod and bring out from my pocket the trinket. It is Maria’s scarf from when we first met. She dropped it and I was going to return it to her but she was taken. I kept it ever since. “This is the scarf of a friend of mine. Will my idea of tracking her and locating her work with just this one thing?”
“…Well…if you are able to harness enough of your power, then yes.”
I hold up the scarf. “Do you believe that I could do it?”
“Whether you can or cannot is simply whether or not you try. If you try, and keep at it, they you can and will. As for at your current level, I’d say, maybe.”
I place the scarf on the ground in front of me. “How do I do it?”
“That much is simple. Simply sit across from your item and focus on the one who owned it. Using their mana and aura residue, you will be able to follow a path created by their aura and mana residue. In other words, it leaves a traced line leading from the item to the person. It is actually quite simple after you think about it.”
I sit down across from the scarf and focus on it. I focus on Maria. I focus on finding her. I shut my eyes to focus, and soon I see something swirling around my eyes. I keep my eyes shut as the darkness swirls around and begins to take focus. I see a dark room and iron bars. It is a jail cell. In the cell I see a person that I can’t make out. I can just barely see its silhouette. I focus harder, which makes it more clear, but this is beginning to hurt now. I try to endure the pain and focus on the person. I lose my focus just as I see who it is. Maria. She’s alive!
I open my eyes and I find myself panting heavily. I feel exhausted in both my mind and body. It feels like my soul just took a beating from Rocky Balboa and was put through a ringer and flattened by a steam roller. In a nutshell, I feel like total crap.
“Why am I so tired?” I manage to pant out.
The Scribe seems to chuckle. “You must have focused too hard for too long! You need to rest for now, so return to your bedroom, and wake up so you may exit this realm. Then you can rest in peace for the remainder of the evening.”
I nod. I am beginning to get used to the idea of a teacher that I can’t see. “That sounds lovely. I’ll be back soon for more training” I say as I lay down and shut my eyes. The very next instant as I feel myself drift away I open my eyes to see the Inn. Night has fallen and the moon is at its peak in the sky. I go downstairs and see the bartender behind the counter cleaning some glasses with a cloth. He sees me and asks what I’m doing up so early.
“What do you mean early?” I ask him. He points to a nearby clock and it says 3:30. It must already be past midnight then.
“So, what you doing up?”
I explain that I had a bad dream and needed something to calm my nerves.
“Bad dream eh? What was it about?”
“Do you really have to know?”
He gets a glass of tap water through the Pür filter on the faucet. “Well, I don’t need nor have to, but the curiosity is getting the better of me.”
“I see.” He slides the glass down the counter and I grab it with a single hand. I take a short sip and continue on. “In short, it was about me trying to save Maria, and then she gets killed before my eyes. Afterwards I get killed.”
“Killed?” He asks with a curious tone.
“Yeah. Shadow Witch.”
“Ah” he says while getting himself a glass of water too. “I suppose that makes sense. I mean, you are the offspring of the same Killer that defeated her.”
“I know that, but still, I haven’t had this dream at all until tonight.”
He shrugs and gulps down his water in one go. I just sip mine again. “Well, I guess that is a little odd, but just remember that is ain’t real.”
“Not yet” I say under my breath.
“What?”
“I said I bet. I bet it ain’t real. Just a dream.”
He places his glass on the counter and me mine. “Well good night” he says. “I’m finally going to bed. I have to be up in about” he says while looking at the wall clock. “…Thirty minutes.”
“Wow” I say as if I wasn’t really all that interested. “Sounds rough.”
“Yeah. See ya tomorrow.”
He walks up the stairs and heads over to the badge shop. It has been out of business for a long time and has become the personal quarters of the bartender and Zess T. for a while. That’s what I was told anyway.
I finish my water, place the glass next to his, and head back upstairs. When I open the door, I finally notice Wesley in the other bed. I head over to my bed and flop down. I fall asleep instantly.
The next morning…
I awaken to the sound of Wesley snoring. I look at my wristwatch and it says that it is 5:00. “Yep, time to get up” I say as I tuck my sleeve back over my watch. I lean over and sit up over the edge of the bed. I brush my hand through my hair and stand up to stretch. After doing so, I scratch my back, straighten it out by pushing it forwards and stretching. I then head downstairs and breakfast is being fixed as I was arriving. The bartender is already behind the counter getting the drinks.
“Soda this time” I say as I take a seat. “And make it a double. Double carbonation that is.”
“Sure thing” he says as he gets it. I wait for my soda as Wesley comes downstairs rubbing his head.
“Damn my head is pounding” he says as he too takes a seat. At that moment the phone starts to ring. Zess T. quickly comes out of the kitchen and grabs it.
“Hello?” She asks this once and her eyes widen. “Just a sec.” She takes the phone into the kitchen with her. We all watch the door as it shuts. We wait a few minutes and she returns saying her goodbyes into the phone’s transceiver. She hangs it up. The ring the phone makes echoes throughout the Inn.
“Easy!” Wesley says as he clutches his head.
“Isn’t your hangover done yet?” Zess T. asks him. I save him by asking her who it was on the phone.
“Well, it was one of my eyes and ears outside of town. And we do not have much time left until this town is overrun with bean people! I suggest we get out as fast as we can!”
I rush upstairs and grab my backpack. I then turn around from the top of the stairs to grab Maria’s scarf. I quickly put it into the empty pocket of my backpack on the middle front. Second from the front that is.
As I am rushing downstairs I can see everyone else except for Wesley rushing around to gather up their stuff. I ask him why he isn’t.
“My stuff is always in my saddle pouches remember?”
I facepalm myself for being so forgetful. I am at the front door when the others are just getting finished. “Are we all ready?”
Everyone nods.
“Now, from the information that you gave me Zess T. they should be arriving here right about now. We have a very small window to get by them unnoticed but we will have to move now. They won’t be in the town’s center until about two minutes. Now let’s go!”
I open the door and we rush outside. The bright light seems to paralyze Wesley because of his hangover. I rush back and grab him. I drag him all the way to the docks. I take a small lifeboat that has been in the docks for years now and use it to row us around to the small little living quarters behind the left-side wall. I get us there and I tie up the lifeboat to the post that’s there. I have us all in the shadows of this little housing area of somebody that never seems to have come home and we all shush. I hear them marching up to the Inn. I hear soft voices from the Inn hovering over the wind to our location.
“Search the Hotel! Find them! They must not escape us! They know too much!”
I figured that was their captain. Or at least the guy in charge.
“I’m serious! I want them found now!”
“We’re looking sir but there’s no trace of them!”
I hear them rip apart the Inn’s doors and toss them to the ground. I have to cover the bartender’s mouth so his crying out loud for them to stop isn’t heard. I then hear them march inside and many breaking and crashing noises are heard. This causes the bartender to pass out completely. Then I hear them completely stop. I wonder what happened?
“Sir! We found these! They haven’t gotten far!”
What is he talking about?
“Shoes? What kind of a clue is this?!”
I look to my feet which are only bare. I forgot to put on my shoes in my haste. I feel stupid.
“These could be anyone’s shoes!”
“They have the name of our prisoner on them” I hear the guy who found the shoes say.
“Just because his name is on them doesn’t mean he is still nearby you moron!”
“But sir-“
“I WILL HEAR NO MORE! You have spoken several times out of turn soldier! I will not have it happen again!”
“…Yes, Sir. Sorry it happened. It’ll never happen again sir.”
“Good. Now let’s move on to the next sector.”
I hear him shouting commands and the rustling of the soldiers feet. “Forward, march!” They begin marching in tune with a basic tempo of the military. The normal tempo for those “I don’t know but I’ve been told” songs.
I wait until I can’t hear them marching anymore until I peek my head over the wall. I don’t see anyone near the Inn anymore and the docks are clear.
I untie the boat and get us all back to the docks. Once we are all back on the stone ground we make a short circle.
“What do we do now?” The bartenders asks almost immediately. “My Inn must be trashed, so we can’t stay there, and I don’t think that anyplace in town is safe anymore!”
“I say that we find a place to camp out” Zess T. suggests. “I hear that the Punies’ Great Tree is safe from peering eyes. Not many remember how to get there through. Your father was one of the few that do” she says while pointing to me. “Did he ever tell you the directions?”
I think really hard. “I…think…so…but I don’t remember them.”
She sighs. “Well, that idea is out.”
“I remember where it is.”
We all look over to Wesley who by this time must have gotten over his hangover. He seems like it at the least.
“It’s not very far from here actually. I could take you there. But, before we do, we need a backup plan. In case it is run over already by the Shadow Witch’s minions.”
“That reminds me” I say out of turn. But what I have to say is pretty important. “If she wants us back so badly, then why hasn’t she sent her Shadow people for us yet?”
Wesley gasps. “Good point! That is pretty odd…”
At that second I thought I heard something behind us at the main town entrance. I quickly glance over but I don’t see anything. I shrug it off but become more cautious. “Alright. So what do we do? We may have those Shadow folk after us any second now, we have those bean soldiers after us too, and now we have to find a new place to stay. I don’t think that the Glitz Pit would work, since Wesley and I got caught there the first time, and next thing we knew we had to escape. Now we are being hunted down by the bean soldiers. That’s why they were here in the first place: looking for us.”
The bartender dashes forwards and starts attacking me! I manage to push him off by using his momentum to toss him behind me when I fall to the ground, but he recovers incredibly quickly and dashes in for another go. I grab his head and he runs in place. He can’t move. It’s like what a bully does to a student that he is after.
“YOU BASTARD! YOU’RE THE REASON WHY MY INN IS DESTROYED!”
I keep him at bay until Zess T. and Wesley help me get him down. “Dude! Calm down! You actually think that I wanted any of this to happen?”
His quick sharp breaths gradually begin to slow.
“I didn’t want this to happen, but it did. And what’s worse, they have Maria and I still have to save her! Now if you want to kill me now, then who will save her? Ask yourself that!”
Zess T. looks at me shocked at turns back to the bartender. He instantly stops his flailing.
“I know you didn’t mean for any of this to happen” he finally says. I pat him on the back and say that it’ll be alright.
“We’ll get through this. Just you wait and see!”
He looks back up at me and smiles. I put my hand out and he grabs it. I lift him up and we shake hands. “Truce?” I ask him.
He nods. “Truce.”
Wesley gets between us. “Good! Now that we are all lovey-dovey again, maybe we ought to get going?”
I nod. “Sure thing. Let me just get my shoes back if they left ‘em behind and do one last thing.”
He nods. “We can wait.”
I rush up the stairs and head for the Inn. I go into the open doorway where the front door was and head up the stairs. Surprisingly, the upper floor had minimal damage. They left my shoes behind and I quickly slip them on. I whip my head towards the stairs, thinking that I was being watched, and I don’t see anything. “Maybe I’m just paranoid” I say to myself. Then I hear something clink downstairs. “And maybe ParaGoombas will fly out of my pants!” I rush down the stairs and prepare to fight. I don’t see anything. I look around me and behind absolutely everything. Nothing to be found. I shrug it off and head back outdoors. “That is so weird…”
I get back to my pals in the docks and we decide to head for the Great Tree of the Punies. Wesley leads us to the green pipe below Rougeport and we head down it one at a time. As we exit the pipe we see a white wonderland! It ain’t snow, just white and grey. Everything is white and grey. “I don’t believe it! My dad was right; there isn’t any color on anything!”
Zess T. whistles in amazement. “Impressive” she says.
Wesley closes his eyes and reminisces. “Ah, sweet memories…”
The bartender doesn’t seem very impressed or anything. “Meh. I’ve seen better.”
We all head out down the only path we could find and start to head for the great tree. We had to climb great distances, fight off some clouds, and even climb from branch to branch like Tarzan to get to the next platform. But when we reach
the end, the pipe that is there takes us directly to the Great Tree.
END OF CHAPTER