Hi this is Frederic Marile! Sorry it's been so long since my last update, school started last week, which equals slow updating. You are reading my original story, Legend of the Clouds: Chapter One: Part Six. Well, actually, you're not, you will be soon, but what the heck ever. DISCLAIMER TIME. I don't own the Mario series (but I wish I did). Jojo the Gigantic Talking Baby does…yeah, no he doesn't. The only things I do own are all of my original characters; hopefully you remember who they are. So don't steal them. They're mine. But, if you can cast your laziness aside and ask to use them (which you can do by clicking on the magic green button (I know that gag is probably getting really annoying by now)), then I'll most likely say yes. Are we on the same page? Cool beans.
"It's up here somewhere," Clairie told the party, shuffling around on the 8th-or it could have been the eighth; Mario was too tired to remember-floor. "Miss Regali is right; I do need to clean this place more often. It's dustier than the air outisde when we had that giant sandstorm!"
"No kidding," Goomessa muttered. "This is sick and now so am I."
"There's the photo of Tarin, so it somewhere close here," Clairie said to herself.
"Are you sure it's in this hall? Cause there sure are a lot of other hallways up here," Mario pointed out.
"Oh, yes, definitely this one," Clairie called back. "I think it's this grate up here…yeah, that's it!" And she pushed the said grating upwards and forward. "I think there's a spring in Dickory's room over there," she continued, walking into a different room and returning with the rather large spring, on which side 'Dickory' was engraved.
"Dickory Dofter loved this," Clairie told them. "The books say he always wanted one of these. Not sure why."
"Why don't you ever just take the chest down from the attic?" Koopetto spoke up for the first time in a while.
"Because it won't move," Clairie answered, hopeless for an explanation. "We're not sure why, but it's just stuck to the floor. Even some of our strongest movers couldn't push it out."
"Oh," was all Koopetto said in response.
"If I put it right…here, you can get into the attic," Clairie nodded to herself when the spring was in place. "I hope it still works…" she added quietly.
"You hope?" Goomessa repeated.
"Well, yes, it's rather old, and it hasn't been used in a while," Clairie answered. "But you shouldn't have a problem. Look, I'll go first, if it makes you happy."
And she jumped on the top of the spring and was bounced exactly the ten feet needed to get her into the attic.
"Wow," Koopetto clapped as he spoke.
"Sweet!" Goomessa nodded, impressed.
"Like corn syrup!" Clairie called down. "Now jump on!"
Goomessa jumped next, and Koopetto made the leap after her, leaving Mario to make the final rise.
But before he could, something grabbed him by the arm. He turned around and saw a creature that made his eyes bug out.
It was tall and slender, and it floated a few inches off the ground. Though not transparent, it had ghost-like holes for eyes, which shone yellow and bright, piercing Mario's skull. It wasn't until he ripped its hand off that he realized it emanated a frothy green ooze, which seeped through his skin and left a hideous mark where the ghost had gripped him.
"Mario!" Goomessa screamed and jumped down the grate hole, followed closely by Koopetto.
"Oh gosh are you okay?" she asked, terrified.
"Dunno," Mario replied, his voice cracking not with fear, but with rage. "What is that thing, anyway?"
"It's a Wisper!" Koopetto answered the question before Goomessa, who shot him a surprised look. "How did you know that?" she asked him.
"We're taught in school to stay away from those things," he answered as he crawled into his shell and threw himself at the Wisper.
"Its maximum HP is 8, its attack is 2, and defense is 0. But it says here it's dangerous to attack it directly cause of it's…poisonous ooze."
Mario stared again at his arm, whiting in the face and searched through his pockets. "Tell me we have a Tasty Tonic some-Goomessa!" he cut himself off as the Goombette was smacked in the face by the ghost.
"I'm fine," she told him, getting back up and waving him away. "Fix your arm."
"Okay." Mario searched his pockets again and found what he was looking for. Drinking the Tonic, gagging at the taste, and pulling out his hammer, he was ready to fight. Running up to the Wisper, he gave it a hit.
Koopetto hit the monster again with his shell, and the Wisper reared back with its mouth open in a nasty grin.
"What's it doing, Goomessa?" Mario turned to face his comrade, who narrowed her eyebrows, and came up with only three words as she turned back towards Mario with a scared expression. "Poison gas! Duck!"
So they did, but Koopetto was too tall to be skimmed over by the gas. Shaking his head to try and clear it as Mario hit the Wisper a final time with his hammer, he decided he was okay.
"How do you feel, Koopetto?" Mario asked him worriedly.
"I think I'm fine," he answered.
"Good," Mario nodded and the party walked back to the spring. When the three of them had bounced back up to the attic, they saw Clairie staring, amazed, at them.
"I can't believe you could actually do that!" she gawked. "It usually takes us two fire extinguishers and a box of matches to get rid of one of those things!"
"Well, I've had a lot of experience with creepy monsters that sneak up on me with scary faces," Mario answered.
"But seriously!" Clairie squealed. "That was just…whoa."
"Thanks," Mario folded his arms as he peered around the room and asked politely, "Where is the chest anyway?"
"Right over here," Clairie replied, indicating a box in the middle of the room that was as tall as Mario. It was slightly curved in the middle but otherwise rather plain. Mario sighed and walked up to it.
"Anybody home?" he said. Clairie narrowed her eyes doubtfully, as though she doubted talking to the chest would help. "Does he know what he's doing?" she whispered to Goomessa.
"I'm not sure what he's doing either," Goomessa answered," but he's Mario, so he probably does."
To Clairie great shock, it worked. The chest rumbled, and spoke. "What? Did someone say something?"
"Yeah, that would be me," Mario answered. "And don't try the whole 'legendary hero' thing on me, I've heard it four times before."
"Darn…" the chest said quietly. "I suppose you've seen us before then?"
"That's what 'four times before' means," Mario replied, irritated.
"Killjoy," the chest judged sourly.
"Maybe so, but could we just get this over with? It smells like rotten eggs up here," Mario said as he looked around and gulped.
"Well, first you have to find the black key, remember?" the chest snapped with a touch of mocking ignorance on the last word.
"Right," Mario answered and starting searching the room for the black key that was required to open the chest. "Can you look around with me, guys?"
The others agreed and searched the room with him. Mario found a few objects a few feet it front of him that resembled the key he was looking for, which turned out to be wilted flowers that crumbled in his hand. Another contestant in the corner across from the grate hole, when inspected, proved to be a large pen. "This is annoying," he said to himself.
"I got-I don't got it…" Koopetto cut himself off, showing off a long black tube of what looked like lip gloss. Scratching his head, he dropped the tube. "Is there even a light switch in here?" he asked, talking towards what he thought was Clairie's general direction.
"Not exactly," Clairie answered from behind him, pulling out a golden candle and lighting it, then passing one to each of the others with the lighter.
When Mario lit his candle and once more adjusted his eyes to the light, he gave the room around him a quick glance and was immediately embarrassed. He was standing on the key. Considering the fragility of everything else in the room, he was briefly surprised it was in one piece. "Found it," he said quietly.
"Oh, good job, Mario," Clairie praised him. "Now, since apparently you know how that chest is supposed to work, do…whatever."
Mario walked back over to the chest and shoved the key in the lock. "Here's your key, now curse me with your curse that doesn't hurt so I can get into the cave thingy and find what's-his-bucket Dofter."
"Well," the chest said slowly, "you've got this whole production all planned out, haven't you?"
"Yes, I do," Mario replied impatiently.
"Can I still do the evil curse thing?"
Mario sagged his shoulders. "Yeah, what the heck."
He covered his ears to brace for the annoying squeal that was going to come from the chest.
"WHEE HEE HEE HEE! Fools!" it screamed as the room spontaneously turned purple and a yellow mouth with eyes forming a wicked grin sprung from inside the vessel.
Putting two fingers to his forehead, Mario stepped forward, ready to be 'cursed'.
"Prepare to be infested with the horrifying power of wood! You will be morphed into a block of wood, and a cannon that will shoot your body into the sky will curse you! You will look simply pathetic!"
Mario couldn't help the amused look on his face. This hardly qualified even to be a chest curse. Luckily, as the curses were wont to do, it would help him get into the lair of the boss enemy. It did sound odd though. Hopefully it wasn't painful.
He received no more time to think about it, however, as the face opened its mouth wide and chanted the same strange spell the chests always did to curse him. "Oogly-googly-boo!"
An uncomfortable feeling washed over Mario, but was gone quickly.
"Do you understand what has happened to you?" the chest face bellowed.
"Yeah, sure," Mario replied tiredly.
"Oh, seriously, would it kill you to play along? Really?" The chest frowned.
"Hey, its okay," Mario answered consolingly. "You helped me and I helped you…and now I can get into the cave thingy, and you can roam the world and do whatever-" he thought for a moment, "-chest face things to when they have no chest to be inside."
"Thanks, man," the chest said gratefully as it disappeared into midair and turned the room to its correct colors.
"Well, that was spooky," Clairie spoke after a few moments. "Really weird."
"You get used to it," Mario answered. "Anyway, since I'm now apparently cursed, I can make it into the cave. Would you show me the way?"
"Yes, of course," Clairie replied. "We can take the elevator."
Everyone else's jaw dropped. "There's an elevator?" Goomessa demanded.
"Yeah, there is," Clairie answered nonchalantly. "But it only works from here."
Goomessa's eyes twitched. "Does it?"
"Well, like I told you, this place is really old, so lots of things on the upper floors are broken, and dirty, and dusty. I guess someone should have called the fix-it people."
"And whose fault is that?" Goomessa breathed.
So? What did you think? Clairie's a bit of a ditz sometimes, and really smart other times. At least, that's what I wanted her to look like. I modeled her off of my friend who shall remain nameless lest she wake tomorrow with a knife in her stomach…
I hope your still enjoying the story! It'll finally be time for Mario and the gang to move on into the cave next chapter, so be patient!
Have a nice day!