Chapter 10: Walking Through the Sands

Barren landscape. That was all Nebule could describe upon entering the new land that awaited them. Desert Land was certainly something he was not looking forward to either, considering that the desert is hot, dry and full of sand that could easily get in your shoes. And what made matters worse was that the sky was just as red as Grass Land was when upon entering it.

Oh, and Chalk was with him too.

Nebule started to wave his hand over his face, already feeling the intense heat of the desert. He decided to see what Chalk was feeling the same way. Upon looking at him, he saw him shoot blue pain into his mouth with his Spectrum Paint Brush.

"Wait… What in the world are you doing?!" Nebule gawked.

"I'm drinking some water here!" Chalk answered harshly. "What does it look like?"

"But… But… That's paint!"

"Yeah, I know. Apparently it turns into water after a moment. And it's unlimited! I know I'm going to be good for this place!"

"And what about me? Would you be willing to offer some to me?"

"Get your own, Nebuke!"

Nebule sighed, expecting that kind of answer from Chalk. "Well, anyway… We have to trudge through this desert to find the Desert Tablet. Try to be on the lookout for anything, OK?"

Chalk stopped shooting blue paint into his mouth and jumped on top of Nebule's head again. "Then giddy up, horsey!"

Knowing he wouldn't get off, he forced himself onward through the sands. He was actually thankfully he wore boots, or else going through these sands would probably be as difficult. Why Chalk didn't want to walk, he had no idea.

He inspected the large, barren wasteland for anything important. All he could see was a hill up ahead, but there probably wasn't that much there. There were a couple of rocks around, ranging to some small and large ones. They eventually ran into one large rock shaped like a circle.

"Whoa, look at that rock!" Chalk gaped, pointing at the rock.

"Yeah. I know. Spectacular, isn't it?" Nebule asked with sarcasm in his voice. Chalk eventually got off and sprinted over to the rock. He seemed to be gazing it at awe, which left Nebule confused.

"Man, look at the size of this thing! That's the biggest rock I've ever seen!" Chalk gaped.

"But that rock isn't really spectacular! It's just round!"

"Perfectly round at that! Never have I seen a rock this…perfect."

Nebule blinked for a moment as he walked over to Chalk. The rock was indeed perfectly round. It was gray, but when he looked at the other rocks, he noticed they were brown. Something wasn't right here…

"Hey, Chalk… Could you move away for a moment?"

Chalk listened and stepped away from the rock. Nebule had a bomb ready in his hands, and with the fuse lit up, he placed it in front of the rock. The two quickly took cover as the rock exploded. A large chunk landed in front of them.

"Cool… Do that again!" Chalk smiled.

Nebule looked at where the rock once was and discovered a hole. He stepped over to the edge and tried to take a look down, but he felt himself get pushed into the hole by Chalk, making him let out a scream. Chalk smiled with satisfaction filling his mind before he jumped in.

Nebule ended up landing on his face, but for Chalk, he had a much softer landing, since Nebule was already lying on the floor. He let out a grunt as the gray puffball landed on top of him.

"Thanks for the soft landing, Nebuchi," Chalk thanked.

"Ungh… Will you ever get my name right?" Nebule groaned, slowly getting himself up and wiping the dirt left on his face. "I'm already hating this place already… Plus, this place is so dark!"

He took out his sword, which lit up the area around them slightly. The dim light from above helped them a bit, but all they saw was a door up ahead. Nebule was a little confused, while Chalk ran over to the door and tried pushing it open. The blonde boy walked over to the door to help him push it.

Surprisingly, they found themselves in a round room with a marble floor and a five pillars circling around the center. There were at least two doors, with one up ahead and one to their right.

"Strange… Why would there be a place like this in a desert? Especially underground?" Nebule questioned, inspecting the area.

"It's pretty cool in here, if you know what I mean," Chalk commented.

He was right, actually. Unlike outside, where it was blazing hot, it was much cooler around here.

Unfortunately, when they took a couple of steps away from the door, bars blocked it, preventing them from escaping.

"I swear this is just like some kind of game…" Nebule trailed.

"I don't know and I don't care!" Chalk declared, his tongue sticking out while he held his paintbrush up. "Let's check this place out!"

The two approached the center of the room and scanned for anything important. Nebule was pondering at the two other doors, but then he turned to Chalk to see if he had any ideas. He ended up seeing him painting one of the pillars.

"Wait, what are you doing?" Nebule gawked.

"Painting, of course!" Chalk smiled, painting a picture of a horribly-drawn bat. "It's Battilio!"

"How do you know it's him?"

"Well... I guess he's supposed to be a bat." the puffball shrugged. "But isn't it a masterpiece?"

"Uhhhh… Sure, I guess."

Nebule took notice of one of the walls It appeared to have a Star Piece depicted on it. He told Chalk about it, who took notice of it. The gray puffball used some clear paint on it, which caused a Star Piece to pop out of the wall for him to take.

"Hey, look at this! I got this...thing!" Chalk cheered.

"Star Piece," Nebule corrected. "And... Good job with that."

Chalk nodded in approval as he approached the door up ahead. He tried opening it, but it didn't appear to budge. He even painted it red to set it on fire, but since it was made of stone, it didn't appear to do a thing. Instead, the two checked the door to their right to find a square-shaped room with a couple of blue and white jars.

Nebule approached the jars first while he had his sword ready in case if there was anyone inside. Unfortunately, Chalk ran ahead and picked up one of the jars, even if it was larger than him.

"Chalk, what are you doing?!" Nebule cried.

"Picking up this jar! I mean, it's bigger than me and I'm holding it up like it's nothing!"

"Well that's hardly realistic…"

He looked up at the jar Chalk was holding and noticed it slowly float above him. Getting his bow ready, he aimed it at the jar, which was surrounded in a purple glow.

"What're you giving me that look for?" Chalk asked, noticing Nebule readying his bow. "Are you going to shoot me?"

"Chalk… I need you to stand still…" suggested Nebule, aiming a light arrow at the jar above him. He fired the arrow like a laser and let it pierce through the jar, shattering.

The gray puffball looked up and saw the jar pieces fall down. Before he could comment about that, another floating jar was coming their way.

Chalk took action and whacked it with his paintbrush before Nebule could get himself up and fire a light arrow at the same jar to destroy it.

"Whew… Well that was close." Nebule sighed. "You think there's more here?"

"I'll check," Chalk decided, smashing the rest of the jars with his paintbrush, making Nebule gawk. He eventually finished smashing them all and turned to his companion. "Nope! Nothing else here! …Well, except for some kind of depiction on the floor."

"Wait… What is it?"

Chalk took a moment to look down at the depiction in the center of the room. "Looks like some kind of square with a triangle inside. Don't know what that means, and I don't care! All I know is that it's drawn in green paint!"

"Hmmmm… Maybe this might be something that can help us. Try to remember that symbol, OK?"

"Sure, whatever."

With that aside, Nebule noticed a crack on the right wall. He took out a bomb and rolled it over to the wall, creating a hole from the explosion. A small room was revealed, but all it contained was a jar. Nebule broke it with his sword to find more Magic Powder. Afterward, they went back to the main room. There wasn't much else around for them except for two Shadoos Nebule remembered encountering before in Grass Land.

"Great… Not these guys!"

He got an arrow ready, but one of the Shadoos extended its arm and made Nebule fall over on his back. Chalk decided to shoot some paint balls at the Shadoos to cover them in green paint, leaving them poisoned. While Nebule got up, he decided to take out a bomb instead.

"I think I might have an idea…" he muttered, rolling the bomb over to one of the pillars. It exploded, making the pillar fall over on both Shadoos. "See? I guess using the pillar to squish them worked just fine!"

Before doing anything else, Nebule looked back at the pillar and noticed two gooey substances slowly moving away from the pillar and forming into the same two Shadoos. He gulped as a Shadoo tried grabbing his free arm.

"A little help here, Chalk!"

"…Oh, OK," Chalk started to hit the Shadoo's arm with the bottom of his paintbrush. While it didn't appear to do much, it eventually made the enemy release its grip on Nebule's arm.

Sighing in relief, Nebule ran up to the Shadoo and brought his sword down to finish it off. The poison helped kill off the other Shadoo, which slowly began to disintegrate.

"Whew… That takes care of that." Nebule sighed. "So… Let's see what we can do about that sealed door…"

When the two approached the door, they noticed it looked a lot similar to the depiction on the floor in the other room. However, this door was gray…

"Hey, Chalk… You remember the color of that depiction, right?"

"I think it was green or something," Chalk shrugged. "But it's not like it's going to help us with anything!"

"Well… Maybe you can do something here? You know, change the color of this door to green?"

"…Yeah, I guess I'll do that," Chalk began to paint the door green, which triggered the door to open on its own. "YEAH! I bet we'll find something through here!"

The two walked through the doorway, but their hopes were shattered when they found a few jars. But upon further inspection, it turned out they were real, so they broke them all to find a few coins.

"You know, I always wondered why there are coins in these jars…" Nebule trailed. "Who would even put money in a place like this? I wouldn't say this is exactly something smart…"

Chalk collected the coins and noticed a beam of light above them slightly light up the area around them. "Wait, we came in here just to get some measly coins? Well that's dumb!"

Nebule shrugged and stepped into the beam of light, along with Chalk. They found themselves being lifted off the ground and slowly ascending to the surface. Nebule was gawking, while Chalk thought it was cool.

The two were taken back outside from a hole that happened to be surrounded by a circle of small grass. Unfortunately for Nebule, he had to deal with the blazing hot sun, making him groan.

"Ugh… Why must deserts always be so annoying?" Nebule asked.

"Beats me!" Chalk smiled, dumping more blue paint into his mouth. "But I'm going to be just fine!"

Nebule rolled his eyes and decided to see where they were at this point. They seemed to have made their way further from the starting point of the desert, which was very nice. But even still, it was still nothing but barren wasteland – with the exception of the hill ahead.

Unsure of what else to do, Nebule began to run toward the hill, with Chalk following after finishing up his drink. But with the extreme heat, Nebule only started to slow down.

"Ugh… Chalk, is there a way to tell whether it's day or night here?" Nebule moaned, looking up at the red sky. "That red sky's not helping…"

"Maybe that thing can help us," Chalk noted, pointing to a figure up ahead. This caught Nebule's attention, and soon he was running toward the figure. It didn't appear to look like anything evil. But when they got closer, they noticed it was actually a round cap buried in the sand.

Chalk started to kick at the cap, but there was no response. He resorted to picking it up, but surprisingly, there was nobody stuck to the cap. "Uhhh… I guess no one's home?"

"That looks like a Toad's cap," Nebule realized, taking a look at it. "Come to think of it… Doesn't this look like something Toadburt would wear? I wonder if he lost it? …Or maybe he's…"

The blonde boy paused for a moment before dropping the cap, which began to blow away. "No… That's not a good thing to be thinking of…"

"Thinking of what?" Chalk asked.

"Errrr… It's…nothing, really. Let's go up that hill. I think we're close to it, I believe."

Once they reached the hill, their movement began to slow down, but not by much, considering that the hill wasn't too steep. But what they saw over the hill was another section of the wasteland, only this time there was an army of Shadoos and other people dressed in bandit attire patrolling. They happened to also spot someone in brown, leather armor with tan skin, a desert scarf covering his mouth and nose, brown eyes and a sombrero. He also held two swords, with one being brown and the other being orange.

"Whoa… Nice sombrero!" Chalk smiled. "I'd love to have that!"

"Shhhh! Keep your voice down!" Nebule whispered, pulling Chalk down by the hill's peak. "We don't want these guys to see us! Plus, there's a huge army too! We probably don't stand a chance against them!"

Chalk frowned before they turned their attention to the person with the sombrero.

"Listen up, everyone," he began. "The Shadow King told me some blonde kid's going to be arriving here to wreck this place up and claim the Desert Tablet."

Nebule's eyes widened upon seeing the tablet the person took out. Its vein was glowing yellow, and a sand dune was carved on it. "The Desert Tablet! Wow, getting to it was much easier than I thought!"

"Sir Sandstorm, what about the storm?" one of the desert bandits asked. "The one you planned on causing?"

"…I was just getting to that," Sir Sandstorm said as he put away the ancient rock. "In order to stop that blonde kid, I am planning on setting up a sandstorm to not only hinder his progress, but also overwhelm him so much that he would eventually give up and leave. If that doesn't work, the sandstorm might be strong enough to do away with him."

"Yeah! A sandstorm!" Chalk cheered, making Sandstorm pause and also made Nebule's eyes widen.

"…Pardon me? Who just said that?"

The rest all replied with a shrug, but Sandstorm was no fool. His eyes shifted over to the hill, saying, "Someone go check that hill out…"

Three Shadoos volunteered and sank into the ground. Realizing this, Nebule gulped, but then he gave Chalk a glare.

"What?"

"You blew our cover!" Nebule whispered. "Now we're screwed!"

The three Shadoos appeared in front of them, but when they got a look at them, they were left unsure.

"Hey… Didn't Sir Sandstorm say there was only one person coming here?"

"Yeah. Some blonde kid. But I see a blonde kid and a puffball!"

"Did he specifically say who it was? I mean, Sir Sandstorm could've been talking about some other kid with blonde hair!"

"Hmmmmm… Should we go ask him?"

"Good idea!"

The three Shadoos left and returned to the rest of the army. Nebule sighed for a moment and quickly tried to run someplace else away from the army with Chalk.

"We just dodged a bullet there," Nebule realized. "For a second I thought we had to fight…"

"Dodged a bullet?" Chalk gawked, looking around him. "I see no bullet."

Nebule sighed. "It's a figure of speech, Chalk. You should look it up sometime."

Chalk was left confused, but he continued to follow Nebule anyway. Unfortunately, there were no other ways to get around the army. The only thing they noticed were two boxes hanging from the top of the hill. Nebule grabbed one and noticed it fit over his whole body.

"Hmmmmm… Hey, Chalk, you thinking what I'm thinking?"

"Uhhhh… I'm thinking about something, Nebgu!"

Nebule rolled his eyes and hid under the box. Chalk was still pondering until he was told to hide in the box. They slowly began to sneak past the army and Sandstorm, who was waiting for the three Shadoos to come back.

"Did you find anything?" Sandstorm asked, seeing the three Shadoos return.

"Well... We were wondering if this blonde person was with someone..."

"From what I recall, the Shadow King only said he was a blonde person. Did you see him?"

One of the Shadoos began to rub the back of its neck. "Errrr... Maybe?"

"And did you stop him?"

"Well... We weren't sure what to do. So... We decided to ask you what we should've done."

"You should've brought him to me in the first place," Sandstorm grumbled. "Great... The Shadow King won't be pleased to know that our target has already fled."

"Oh… I guess we really messed up here."

"Yes, you certainly did. Good job, Shadoos. …Though, I'm certain they haven't gotten far. So, I'll give you a chance to redeem yourself – if you can find them, that is. The rest of you find that blonde boy and bring him to me. I don't care if he is dead or alive. The job must be done."

"What about you?" a Shadoo from the audience asked.

"I'm going back to my hideout. That's the only place I believe is safe from a sandstorm. Although, I wouldn't be too certain on that with the dam up ahead… Just make sure they don't get there either."

With those words, Sandstorm spun around in a cyclone made of sand, and soon he was gone, leaving the Shadoos to separate and search for the two.

Seeing the Shadoos walk in the opposite direction, Nebule smiled and lifted the box off himself. "Phew! Well that was a relief! We were almost lucky there…"

"There were a lot of them, but we showed them!" Chalk smiled, lifting the box off himself too. "So… How do we get that thing that guy was holding?"

"The Desert Tablet? Well… I guess we have to go find him first. I know Merlon said another shaman named Merlee is here. Perhaps she can help us?"

"I don't know… I wasn't even listening!"

Nebule gave him a disapproving look before moving on ahead. They passed by a few cacti, but they didn't feel like trying to get the water out. There were at least a few rocks that could be destroyed along the way. One contained a Star Piece, and another had more Magic Powder. But what caught them off guard was a small oasis they found ahead.

There was some actual green there, and also a dark crystal right by a Koopa artist. They couldn't get much of a glimpse of him, but they had a feeling he was taking care of that item.

"Hey! Look at the size of that turtle!" Chalk commented, pointing at the Koopa.

"A Koopa artist? And he's standing right by a Dark Orb! Why, that looks just like the one I saw in that well in Grass Land! Maybe we can ask him a few questions, maybe?"

The two ran straight to the oasis, and upon making it to the pond, Nebule began to drink some of the water, while Chalk dove in and left a splash, which got on the Koopa and his painting.

"Hey! Watch where you are splashing!" the Koopa snapped, turning around. He had a short, black mustache, a black artist beret, a paintbrush and a paint pallet with many different colors. "Zis art is very important! And I cannon let you monsieurs butcher my masterpieces!"

Chalk got out of the pond and looked at the Koopa and laughed. "Look at that guy's nose! What kind of guy is he?"

"For your information, my name is Monsieur Koopartist, the greatest artist mankind has ever known, especially to the great Shadow King!"

"Shadow…King?" Nebule gawked before two Shadoos landed behind the two.

"Mmmmmm… So, you are zee ones looking for that Land Tablet, no?" Koopartist wondered. "Ah. I've been expecting you. Zat is why I was painting in the first place!"

One Shadoo tried to approach Chalk from behind, but his paintbrush ended up unintentionally knocking it on its back. The other noticed its comrade lying on the floor and stepped away from Nebule.

"Wait… So you were waiting for us this whole time?" Nebule questioned.

"Zat is correct. Zee Shadow King asked me to guard zis Dark Orb so you two don't restore zee light to zis area. We don't want any of that, no?"

Nebule was about to approach Koopartist, but he forgot about the pond and fell in it, resulting in Chalk and the Shadoos laughing when his head reached the surface. Annoyed, he got himself out of the water and approached the Koopa without the pond getting in his way.

"Listen, er…Koopa, do you realize what could happen with this kind of darkness in the sky?"

"Hmmmm… I find it more interesting, especially how nice it looks with zis art." Koopartist stated. "Am I sensing a challenge?"

"Oh, you can count on it!" Nebule smirked, readying his bow and aiming it at the Dark Orb. "But first…"

He shot a light arrow at the Dark Orb, only to have one of the Shadoos jump in and take the hit instead.

"Honh honh! Try as you wish, but my friends won't let that happen!"

"So you're asking us to fight, then?" Nebule wondered.

"Oui! Of course! And it will be my art zat leads to your demise!"

Mid-boss: Monsieur Koopartist

Koopartist's paintings have a strange power to them. His magical paintbrush can make his paintings come to life! It is this that allows him to make those who despise his art fall to their knees.

"Oh! I know what to do!" Chalk announced, bashing the other Shadoo with his paintbrush. He painted it red to light it on fire and watched as it began to scurry around before disintegrating.

"Good idea, Chalk," Nauzchi smiled, firing an arrow at the last Shadoo remaining to kill it off. "See? That was too easy!"

Koopartist smirked and turned back to his artwork. He painted a Shadoo, which jumped out of the picture and landed in front of Nebule and the approaching Chalk and let out a snicker. Chalk could only stick his tongue out at it, while Nebule gawked.

The Shadoo started to jump toward them and tackled Chalk to the ground. Its right arm turned into a blade, but it stopped when Nebule swung his Sword of Light at the dark critter.

While it wasn't yet defeated, the Shadoo turned to Nebule and tried to attack him, but the blonde boy was quicker and stabbed the gooey monster in its chest, enveloping its body entirely by light before it exploded. Smiling, he turned back to Koopartist with a glare.

"Is that all you've got?" taunted Nebule.

Not too surprised, Koopartist looked back at his papers and painted up another monster. Two Darknights were painted and were now ready to attack. One swung its sword at Nebule, but he blocked it with ease. As for the other Darknight, it turned its attention to little Chalk.

Chalk raised his paintbrush and bonked the Darknight's head with the bottom of his weapon before painting it yellow, causing it to become electrocuted. To make matters worse, it was kicked into the water, which also became electrified in the process for a moment.

"Hey, Nebuke! Look what I did!" Chalk shouted, catching Nebule off guard and making him get pushed near the water by the Darknight he was facing. Koopartist smirked and began to paint up something else.

Thankfully the water was no longer electrified, but it didn't stop Nebule from fighting back. He managed to kick the Darknight off him, but he could do nothing else when he saw it get defeated by a paintball.

"What in the…?" Nebule turned to Chalk, whose paintbrush was aiming in the direction the paintball fired. "Wait, how on earth did you…?"

"I don't know," Chalk shrugged. "But man in this thing awesome!"

Koopartist finished up his next painting, and before them were two Shroudes spinning their bodies like spinning saw blades. Nebule gulped and threw a bomb at one of them to interrupt its attack. Chalk then proceeded to paint them white to leave them frozen, and soon his red paint did the trick.

"What? Hmmmm… So I underestimated you…" Koopartist trailed.

"Wait, how the heck did you underestimate us?!" Nebule gawked. "I mean, you probably most likely heard about me taking down a dragon, right? You probably would've known by now, you idiot!"

"Well, I never heard of you doing zat, but if you did, congratulations. But, I am not backing down just yet, monsieurs!"

He began to paint something else, and when it came to life, it turned out to be a much larger dark monster with larger claws and muscles. It looked similar to a Shadoo, that's for sure. Since its arms were longer, it began to charge at them with all fours while roaring. The inside of its mouth appeared to be orange, just like its soul-piercing eyes.

"Honh honh honh! How do you like this?" Koopartist asked, a grin now appearing on his face. "Zis is the Shadoo Brute! It's unlike any of the enemies you might have faced before! …Unless you did."

Nebule and Chalk shrugged, but they barely had much time to have a discussion, because the Shadoo Brute was charging in their direction.

Seeing its mouth open, Nebule slipped a bomb out and threw it into its mouth when it grabbed him. Before it could squeeze him to death, it felt an explosion from inside its body, leaving it stunned for a moment.

"Hey! It's not dead!" Chalk frowned, bashing its head with his paintbrush. "Die die die!"

"Chalk! Calm down!" Nebule cried, making Chalk stop. "I don't know if that's going to really kill it…"

The Shadoo Brute was able to push itself up and raise its arms in order to smash them. Taking notice of this, Chalk painted a yellow circle on its chest and left it paralyzed for a moment.

"Well that was nice of you to pull off!" Nebule smiled, getting his bow out and firing at least two light arrows into its chest. It let out a scream of pain before Chalk began painting it many different colors.

"Have some of this!" Chalk shouted, painting the Shadoo Brute red to burn it and let the enemy disintegrate.

Koopartist couldn't help but gape. "What?! Zis was not supposed to happen! …Fine then! I shall make more!"

He turned to his paper, but Chalk got on top of his beret and pulled the paper away from him. By painting the paper red, he let it catch on fire and burn, leaving Koopartist shocked.

"Why you… You…!" the Koopa growled angrily as he began to swing his paintbrush at Chalk. "I shall make you pay!"

Chalk raised his paintbrush and blocked Koopartist's own paintbrush. "Hey, Nebuv! This guy's gone mad!"

"Yeah, I can tell…" Nebule sighed, rolling his eyes as he approached the Dark Orb. "Just…keep him busy, OK?"

"Wait, what on earth are you doing, boy?!" Koopartist exclaimed, noticing Nebule raise his sword. "Don't you dare!"

Nauzchi brought his sword down on the Dark Orb, eliminating any signs of darkness inside it and eradicating the red in the sky. Now the sky was blue, and the sun was a lot easier to spot. Light had been finally restored in Desert Land – at least this section anyway.

"I don't believe it… Do you realize what you've done?!"

"Yes," Nebule nodded. "I just restored the light back to this place. That's pretty important, you know."

"Keeping zis place dark was helpful for my art!" Koopartist barked. "It made it stand out more! And with zee sun not getting in my eyes often, it made creating art easier!"

"Well, then I guess your days of painting are over then. Sorry…"

Koopartist stopped trying to go after Chalk and decided to go after Nebule instead, but he didn't expect Chalk to swing his paintbrush by his feet, causing him to trip and fall into the pond.

"I wanna go now," Chalk declared. "So onward, Nebucho!"

"Aw, come on!" Nebule cried, following Chalk, who forged onward. "He was THIS close to getting my name!"

While the two made their way ahead, Koopartist got himself out of the pond and began to squeeze the water out of his beret. With all of his art tools now ruined by the pond, perhaps his days of painting were finally over.

Well, here's the beginning of the desert area! ...Even though I'm not too much of a fan of deserts.

I can't really say much else here. This probably might be my least favorite area to write, but I think having two people makes up for it, since it makes writing chapters a little more easier when there's more than one person.