Well, I say it's finally time to begin the Boggly Woods arc! With one Crystal Star in hand, the gang needs to get to Boggly Woods to find the next! Hopefully, they find someone from the other world there! Will they? …maybe…
Now, on with the show!
Chapter 2: The Great Boggly Tree - Part 1 - A Not So Puni Problem
Dipper yawned and sat up in his bed. Rubbing his eyes, he looked around. He was still in the Rogueport Inn. Every time he woke up, he expected the previous days to be a dream, but he was proven wrong the following day. He got out of the bed, rubbed the back of his head, yawned again, then grabbed his staff which was up against the wall.
"Another day, another task at hand…" Dipper said to himself. "I wonder what the Boggly Woods is like."
"The pictures of it look really weird." Dipper turned to see Pacifica wide awake and holding her golden scepter. "It's all black and white and stuff."
"When are we heading out?" Dipper asked.
"Mario said we should leave after breakfast." Pacifica answered. "In my opinion, that sounds like a good time to leave."
"Well, let's go what then." Dipper said. The two of them walked down the stairs to the bottom floor of the inn, which was a restaurant/bar. They saw Mario, Koops, Goombella, and Wendy sitting around the middle table. The two joined them, with Mario sitting between Mario and Wendy, and Pacifica sitting between Koops and Goombella.
"Well, morning everyone." Mario said. They all replied with a sleepy, yet heart filled good morning. Mario passed Dipper and Pacifica two menus.
"You know, I do have some coins left over…" Dipper said. "I say I'll order something more expensive…" He scanned the menu. "I'm settling on a Meteor Meal."
"Are you sure?" Goombella asked. "It costs a whopping 30 coins!"
"I'm quite sure, Goombella." Dipper replied. "I have enough."
"Someone's gonna have to order for me." Wendy said. "I don't have any… coins…" She looked over the menu. "I don't even know what any of these foods are."
"I have enough to order for two… wait, I have enough to order for three!" Pacifica said.
"How do you earn so much money?" Koops asked.
"During my free time, I take on troubles at the Trouble Center." Pacifica answered. "Or I go into the Pit of 100 Trials and sell my loot that I find afterwards."
"Wait, you took on the Pit of 100 Trials?!" Goombella was shocked. "That's like, totally extreme! Did you get to the bottom?"
"No, I got to Floor 20." Pacifica said. "I left at that point, but returned with two rare badges." She pointed to her Sleepy Stomp badge and Dipper's Fire Drive badge. "So in short, I make every second I'm here worth it."
"That's… something…" Wendy said.
"Now…" Pacifica looked over her menu. "I'll go with the Love Pudding, and Wendy… you'll have the-"
"Shroom Broth." Wendy said, cutting off Pacifica.
"Wow, that was fast." Pacifica said. "You sure?"
"Positive." Wendy answered. "It looks gross… yet awesome."
"Well, that settles it for both of our orders, I guess." Pacifica said. The others noticed Koops wasn't looking through his menu.
"Koops, why aren't you ordering anything?" Dipper asked.
"I'm saving my appetite for the Love Pudding." Koops said.
"But, you didn't order a Love Pudding…" Goombella said.
"I know. I'm having it with Pacifica." Koops said.
"The very name of the dish described us!" Pacifica said. "We're in love!"
"Whoa, didn't see that coming." Dipper said. "Good for you guys, I guess."
"Doesn't it feel weird to be in love with someone from another world?" Wendy asked.
"Not at all!" Pacifica said. "After a few days here, you think anything is normal." The waitress came by and, after writing down their orders, took their menus and walked off.
"We have a lot in common, so we really hit it off!" Koops said.
"Well, I support you two whole-heartedly!" Goombella said.
"I don't mean to spoil your happiness," Dipper began. "But I think we should set up a plan for Boggly Woods. We know how to get there, but we don't know what's in store for us."
"Dipper, give it a rest with the planning." Mario said. "I would prefer Boggly Woods to be a surprise."
"Fine." Dipper said, sighing. "I did some research, though, and I got some strange information." Dipper pulled out a book and opened it. "Says here that the Boggly Woods is inhabited by small, strange creatures called Punies, and they mainly inhabit this place called the Great Tree." He turned the page. "It also says that long ago, the Puni Elder came into contact with a strange star-shaped gem, and the Punies keep it hidden in the deepest depths of the tree."
"That sounds like that star crystal you guys are after." Wendy said.
"Crystal Star." Dipper corrected her. He closed the book. "Well, after breakfast, we all should immediately head out to the Rogueport Sewers to find the pipe to Boggly Woods."
"You mean you guys are heading there." Wendy said. "I'm staying here."
"What? Why?" Dipper seemed confused.
"You guys can go after your Crystal Stars, I'd rather stay in Rogueport where I can find a way back to our world." Wendy said.
"Wendy, we need all the help we can get in finding the Crystal Stars." Dipper said. "They might be our only way back to out world."
"…I don't know." Wendy said. "…okay, I'll join you guys for now." Dipper smiled.
"Great, the more people in the party, the better." Dipper said. The waitress returned and gave them their breakfast, and for the rest of the morning, the six heroes dined on a fabulous breakfast.
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After their breakfast, the six heroes wasted no time in leaving the inn and running toward the pipe to the Rogueport Sewers. They all jumped inside the pipe and made their way towards the chamber of the Thousand-Year Door. They went down a pipe that led to the room before said chamber, and saw a small little grey creature with four tiny legs and a stem on its head with a green ball attached to it. The creature noticed them and scurried into a small cracked hole in the wall.
"That might be a Puni." Mario said.
"But how do we get to it?" Koops asked.
"Maybe through there?" Dipper pointed to a doorway in the wall next to the hole, but it was blocked off by some bars. Mario, Goombella, Koops, and Pacifica walked over to it and flipped to paper, then walked through the bars.
"Whoa…" Wendy was mystified by the strange power. "Unlike you guys, I don't think I can change to paper like that…"
"I think I have an idea…" Dipper said. He grabbed Wendy's wrist.
"Wait, what are you-" Wendy was cut off as Dipper flipped into a flat piece of paper, followed by Wendy. They both walked through the bars and returned to normal.
"That felt… weird." Wendy simply said.
"You get used to it." Dipper said. The two walked through the now accessible doorway to meet up with the others.
The room they were now in was a somewhat larger room. It had a pillar in the far left corner that had something on top of it, and in the right corner of the room were three steps that lead up to a platform that went nowhere. This whole room seemed like a dead end. Near the corner pillar, however, sat the strange little gray creature they had seen minutes before. It looked around for a way to escape, seeing as it trapped itself in this room with the group and ran into a dead end. The heroes ran over to it, and it jumped in fright.
"EEEEEEK!" The creature shrieked. "Please, don't eat me!"
"Whoa whoa, calm down!" Dipper said. "We aren't going to eat you!"
"You… you aren't?" The creature calmed down slightly.
"Yeah, we won't eat ya!" Goombella said. "Who are you, anyway?" The creature sighed in relief.
"I… my name's Punio, and I'm a Puni." The creature answered.
"So, Punio, why are you here?" Wendy asked.
"Well, I came here from the Boggly Woods." Punio answered.
"The Boggly Woods?" Dipper asked. "That's the place we're trying to find!"
"Really?" Punio asked. They all nodded. "Then maybe you could help me out with my… predicament?"
"Sure, if it means getting to the Boggly Woods." Koops said.
"You see…" Punio began. "Me and the rest of the Punies, my 'people', I guess, were attacked by some creeps called the X-Nauts, who were looking for something called a Crystal Star. They trapped all of the others, including my little sister, but… somehow, I got out."
"The X-Nauts!" Pacifica said angrily. "We aren't friends with those cross-eyed losers!" She looked down at Punio. "I'd be glad to help."
'Dang, she changed a lot in a few days…' Wendy thought to herself.
"Thank you all very much!" Punio said. "Those X-Naut screwballs won't know what hit them!"
"It's our pleasure to help." Mario said. "But… how do we exactly get to Boggly Woods?"
"Oh, right! This way!" Punio scurried over to the other side of the room toward the entrance, and the gang followed. "Hold on a second…" Punio entered a small hole in the wall.
"And this goes there…" He fiddled around with something in the hole as the others stared in confusion. "AH-HA!" A large clanging noise was heard, then at the top of the stairs, some of the wall vanished, revealing a doorway and two windows going to the right.
"Wow, awesome job, Punio!" Wendy called out. They all jumped up the stairs and went through the doorway, but instead of going right like everyone else, Dipper went left. This part of the tunnel was long and dark, but a light was at the end. Upon exiting at the light, he was all the way on the other side of the room, standing atop the pillar. On the ground was a badge. He picked it up and read the note to himself.
"Damage Dodge. Requires 2 BP to wear. When worn, if the bearer times his or her guard correctly, the damage taken will be lowered." Dipper pinned the badge to his hat. Then, he felt something in his pocket. He took out the piece of paper he found a couple days earlier. Unfolding it, he saw the pine tree, the star piece, the ice bag, the hammer, the pickaxe, and the bandage were all in color, but the other pictures were black and white.
"Strange… does this correspond to the people in the group?" Dipper shrugged and folded the paper back up, then put it in his pocket again. Running back through the tunnel, he returned to the others in little time.
"What were you doing over there?" Mario asked.
"Getting a badge." Dipper answered. In the new room they were in, a pipe sat against the wall. It looked like a gray-brown colored log, and little chips of the tiled ground near the pipe were broken, revealing gray grass with gray weeds growing out of it.
"This pipe should take us to the Boggly Woods!" Punio said. "Come on! Let's go!"
Punio scurried inside the pipe, followed by Mario, Goombella, Koops, Pacifica, and Wendy. Dipper smiled and looked into the pipe. It was like it was beckoning him to continue forward.
"Let's do this." Dipper jumped inside the pipe, ready for the adventure ahead.
-(End Of Chapter)-
I'm back to updating, and it's fun to write again! I'll be posting chapters of this and Gravity Falls: Sinnoh Adventure pretty regularly from now on, then my other stories will follow suite. I hope you enjoyed this chapter, reviews are highly appreciated, and as always…
Stay Tuned!
~087-B