-We cannot let that continue, Chancellor! We must call Mario back from his tournament at once!
A young toad with purple dots on his white cap was arguing with the Chancellor of the Mushroom Kingdom. The latter was making only a semi-interested face while listening to the younger one. He responded while looking toward the window, the spring catching more his attention than the matter at hand.
-We have no proof that something is going on at the moment, Pigno, so disturbing the hero during the most important tournament of the year is out of question. You know yourself that many important persons are attending, and it would be disastrous if the Mushroom Kingdom lost one of his representative there. No, we will wait until there's no more doubt before contacting him.
-But, sir, there is an impending crisis at hand and
-No but, the chancellor said with force, just who would threaten the peace, please tell me? Grodus has been gone for more than six months now and the Shadow Queen died in the same period. No one in their right mind would actually try anything after seeing how Mario defeated them. Also, I heard that Bowser is also attending the tournament, so there's no more potential threat that would require a hero. Heck, the town guard would be more than enough to deal with anything left!
Breathing slowly, he asked the guard to escort Pigno outside, so he wouldn't cause a ruckus inside the castle. Not that it was really busy, quite the opposite actually. Almost all of the toad working in here were attending to both Princess Peach and Toadsworth at the aforementioned tournament.
Once outside, both guard surrounding Pigno let go of his arms and told him to go home.
-Yeah right, don't come whine that the hero is taking too long once trouble starts up. I know that I saw a large group of monster gathering outside the old Petalburg castle.
Hands in pocket, the young toad slowly started walking away, thinking. If there is indeed some trouble brewing up and the hero wouldn't come, he could always try to get his sidekicks to help out! He took off in a sprint toward his old and smartest friend's house, Russ. T.
-Russ, he said while barging in, Russ, are you here?
Looking around, the place hardly changed at all, except that it seemed like there were even more book laying around. If that was possible. A small shuffling sound was heard from the middle of the room, where Russ. T. apparently was taking a nap.
-What is it, Pigno? I hope it's important, I was having this wonderful dream where I could jump inside book and...
-Later, Russ, he interrupted, I need to know where are Mario's sidekick as soon as possible.
-That won't take too long to check, I always make sure to monitor their movement with this little star piece. Oh right, you probably didn't know that, star pieces are used to know things that would usually be outside of your reach. I suppose that's why that Merlow guy was collecting them, to actually improve his own power and not be the shame of the family. But I digress, here's what you wanted to know.
Russ passed the star fragment above a sheet of paper while closing his eyes, and after fifteen second yellow ink seemed to come from the inside of the paper.
-Well, here we go. Gombella and Kooper are both in the Dry Dry desert, looking for ruins with Kolorado. Bombette went to Fahr Outpost to get to know more about the Bob-omb. Bow and Vivian are inside Doopliss mansion, probably to get to know more about the Big Boo living there. Goombario and the small Yoshi Gonzales Jr. are both following after Mario inside the tournament. Flurrie is still playing the adventure she went through in the theater. And... Oh? For the rest you should come back tomorrow, the star went out of power.
The ink indeed looked a lot paler than it did a few seconds ago, and it soon disappeared.
-So, at the very least half of the strongest persons around are out town, and we only have the town guard to protect us, is that right?
Russ T. answered yes, intrigued, and asked if there was a problem.
-I'm sure I saw a large group outside the Petalburg castle, and they didn't look friendly. I wouldn't be surprised if we were to be attacked in a matter of days, and considering our troops force we would definitely get annihilated.
-Well, we could always go and check out for sure. I always wanted to check that castle first-hand to see if there are any piece of knowledge I could salvage. And in the worst case scenario it isn't too far from Koops's village.
-Oh right, Pigno said, he became mayor a little while ago so he's most definitely there! Good thinking, Russ! Let's leave as soon as possible!
-Right, give me a few minutes to gather some important item and I'll join you soon at the underground tunnel.
-Alright, he answered while smiling, we'll get to the bottom of this story for sure!
However, both Toad didn't know into what kind of adventure they were stepping into...
