Joao Franco: Yeah I like writing profiles except when its hard to find tiny bits of info. How will they level up? It will be revealed this chapter, but I will tell you anyways. There are diamonds that are found in various parts that have magic power, however they need someone who can allow the power to be placed into somebody. Super blocks, shine spirits, well I guess it keeps up with the shiny looking theme.

Smith: It is reviews like this one (and consistent reviewers) that makes me keep writing, I am glad you really like it.

The next morning

The previous night King K, AJ and their latest member Bandy Andy had finally settled in and would enjoy what was left of the now 1 day trip, as long as Andy remained hidden to everybody else. However when King K woke he found that Andy was missing, or more accurately sleeping below him when he looked downwards. He carefully stepped down from the top bunk, not wanting to make noise on the floor and placed his shell on his back before heading out to the dining car and found AJ, nobody else was around yet.

"Hey what's crackin'?" King K asked with his usual cheerfulness

AJ gave his usual shrug and answer when asked this question "Nothing much"

"You and Andy swap places or somethin'?"

"Pretty much yeah, he was chattering his teeth off"

"Listen, I know this probably wasn't such a good idea, I mean you don't even know Andy"

"Nah, not at all it's cool with me really, he seems nice enough I guess. Also I trust your judgement that's why I never said anything before"

King K seemed positively surprised "Really?"

AJ gave a grin and a nod reconfirming his view "Yes, really. So if something goes wrong, I can't say I told you so"

Sunset – Day 2

The train was going to make its stop at Riverside and had arranged with the conductor that they would get off, the conductor thought they were a bit crazy to want to look around for anything more then the sunset. The train pulled into the station, while King K talked to the conductor as a diversion, Andy went through the baggage hold and out the rear of the train and crept around the rear of the train station.

After the train had left, Andy popped back into view "So where to now?"

"Maybe we should head over to those mountains, the mark when the map formed up seemed to be near them" AJ pointed into the distance

"Well it's a start, it'll get dark soon but nobody lives around here accordin' to the conductor"

They had walked for some time in the general direction of the mountains, it had become darker a while back, there was only a tiny amount of light guiding them. Andy then suddenly stopped.

King K looked over his shoulder "What's the matter man? You already tired?"

Andy looked around "Don't be stupid, something gives me a creepy feeling"

"Scared of the dark then Andy? Just chill okay, I got a flashlight"

Andy gave King K an irritated glance in return "Cut it out K. I'm being serious"

Suddenly the three were surrounded with spear blades and axes.

"See I told you" Andy rolled his eyes

The holders of the weapons were difficult to see but based on the varying heights it was a safe guess they were of different species. One of them said something in a language none of them understood however they got the message when they were prodded along the path. They came to a rather primitive camp site with stick made huts and a fire burning in the middle, a Toad stood behind the fire, but seemed quite shadowed for some reason, could have been the light. The fire also revealed that one of their captors was a Koopa, another was a Bom-omb. More talk between the Koopa behind them and the Toad who merely nodded before they all left, they also noticed they had been tied up.

The Toad behind the fire got closer to them, even in the light while the frame looked like that of a female she still had a shadowy look about her "What are you doing wondering around such a deserted place?"

None of them replied

She spoke again in that language and a Goomba pushed King K and AJ's bags in front of her.

The shadow like Toad opened one of them "If there is anything you really don't want me to find you can just tell me"

Still no response

"What is this shiny thing?" She drew out the orb and it shone with its usual magnificent light. A gasp of awe was heard across the camp "Tell me now, did you steal this? If you do not speak I will only make my own assumptions which is very bad for you"

It was King K who spoke "No! It got passed down to us, they wanted us to find the others" he seemed slightly panicked

"And what were their names?" she demanded still untrusting

"Koopol and Koopinse, they gave us a few items to help us track these down, one is apparently located near here" AJ felt sweat trickle down his shell and probably not because of the fire.

The shadowed Toad thought about this before speaking again "While I am not entirely sure of your true intentions it is clear you have no interest in hurting us, may I ask who you are?" While the she had been speaking the three of them had been untied

"People call me King K, he's AJ and that's Andy"

She smiled "Good, good, if you want to go after the orb of fire that is fine, however those two who you spoke of have been here before, they could not find it. As for my name… I cannot say for my own reasons. However it will be hard for you to find the entrance in the darkness so I suggest you stay here for the night"

After the three had got into a small hut. Soon after they had eaten some fried shroom that were cooked here they decided to sleep for they wanted to get going as early as possible, if anything to escape this creepy woman who for some reason wouldn't reveal her name.

"I don't trust her, something is very suspicious about this" Andy thought out

King K looked over at Andy "Don't go doin' your investigations now dog, you know what kind of trouble that lands you in… we already had a close call with these guys"

"Yeah, I'm with K, as much as I'd like to know what this place is all about it's really none of our business. I'll be sleeping in my shell, I'm not taking chances. Anyway I need to catch some z's, something tells me it's not going to be easy tomorrow" AJ withdrew into his shell

However Andy's interests had already peaked, when he made sure the Koopas were asleep he left from the hut. He had heard conversation from a hut, and approached it.

"This is most unusual, why are they here and not Vivian with her stupid Goomba friend, they should have come here if they have that orb as we are certain they do" A woman's voice, she seemed rather stern.

"GUH!"

The sound of the one worded reply was a bit louder then Andy had expected making him jump.

"Well, if you have not found what you came for, may I have my body and name back please" The Toad woman's voice from before, she seemed rather annoyed

The first woman spoke again "We could and probably should leave you like this forever"

"Aw come on Beldam, its no picnic being in her body" A new voice that of a fourth woman, but it sounded... off

Whoever it was, seemed to be ignored "Well since we cannot intercept Vivian here there is nothing more for us to do in this stupid primitive place, let's just…"

However just then Andy felt something sharp in his back, a Doogan was behind him with spear in hand. He called loudly out in that unknown language.

"Marilyn check it!"

Andy pushed the Doogan out of his way, the call had everybody in the camp shouting out. When Andy went back into the hut that King K and AJ were sleeping but the noise was loud enough to wake the both of them.

"We got to run, the entire camp is probably after us" Andy signalled for the two to follow him

Without a chance to reply Andy had left the room, the two Koopas followed knowing that all that shouting couldn't possibly be good. They kept running but could see barely anything in the darkness, however when the edge of a cliff came Andy was running so fast that he didn't see it until it was too late, he nearly fell off but was just teetering on the edge, his two companions were fortunately close enough to pull him back on.

"What did I tell you about being nosy" King K looked to Andy ticked off as the group behind them approached

"STOP!" A voice called out in the group. She then spoke in her language again. This caused the group to turn around and a circle was formed, the shadowy Toad woman stood in the centre, Beldam, another Toad and another rather plump shadow stood across from her.

Beldam gave a dangerous look "Are you aware of the consequences of this?"

"I realise now it is already lost and I will not have them killed for no reason, get her!"

"Not so fast, mwhehehehe" Beldam gave her typical laugh, before fading, her shadow counterpart followed suit just leaving the Toad woman.

"Nooo! Wait for me!" The Toad woman transformed back into some kind of creature with a white sheet before it ran off, the group running after him.

"Just what is goin' on here?" King K spoke to the now unshadowed Toad woman

"They came here a few hours ago threatening to expose what I have here unless I cooperated. They were looking for somebody called Vivian"

King K and AJ exchanged troubled glances, they knew Vivian was the shadow who they were with yesterday morning and also knew she had involvement with the orbs.

Eventually the group returned back to the campsite after failing to catch the impostor. The toad woman invited them into her hut.

"If you still want to go inside the cave you will need to rest. Since I can finally use my name again I am known here as Sisiariel" Sisariel told them. She had the standard white and red spots.

There was a slight pause before Andy spoke "Just curiously, what do you have going on here? What are you so worried about them taking away from you"

"Those who are here want to live away from the hustle and bustle of standard life, away from the usual worries of coins and problems with others, I seek out those who want to be here and teach them how to speak a simpler variant of the ancient language, just to lose themselves in what is here. That Beldam threatened to destroy what peace we had, whether she meant by force or something else I don't know. But enough of my problems, I want you to recover that orb, Beldam may be gone now as she is seeking this Vivian, however she may return, or it may be an empty threat. Either way you will need your rest for tomorrow"

When the next morning came the sunlight did not take long to become harsh, they were eating breakfast of fried shroom with Sisariel before leaving.

"Sheesh it's hot around here" AJ had just his shell on his back and his black shoes on his feet

Sisariel gave a slight laugh "Ha. What do you expect, it isn't deserted for nothing you know"

AJ shrugged "A fair point I guess"

"It used to rain quite frequently around here, there used to be a river which was why the drawbridge was built but there's simply no need for it anymore there hasn't been decent rainfall for ages now"

AJ sometimes found little bits of information about places interesting "How odd. Anyway about this mountain. It has an entrance on the other side and nobody really knows what's inside?"

"Nope no idea. The only thing I know is that according to my sister who's more into this stuff then I am, well anyway she says that about 150 years ago the orb was placed here in order to give it more protection"

After they finished eating they headed for the mountain and after they walked around it they saw the cave like entry Sisariel referred to. It seemed to have some reasonable light in there, as they headed into the cave they soon found the source of this light.

"Burning hot magma… why did it have to be fire?" AJ grumbled, the heat outside seemed like nothing compared to what was in here.

Andy got a closer look, there were a few pools of lava in between several sturdy looking rocks "It seems like it's an inactive volcano"

King K shook his head in disagreement "I don't think so, this doesn't seem natural. I think we should all be careful of fiery like surprises, you dig?"

With that in mind they headed over to the other side of the cave going through a small entry which brought them into a square room. It seemed simple enough with an exit on the other side however walls of fire came around the room then calmed but still blocked the entry and exit.

"Now that ain't cool. What do we do now?" King K looked around the room looking for another exit

"There's an unusual bit of stone on this wall" AJ ran his finger on it "It's in that ancient language, you know the one we decoded before, but you don't read it, you feel it, sort of like the blind would read it. I haven't done this before so here goes"

"Riiight man, as long as you can read or feel it" K looked at the wall and could see tinier letters as AJ ran his finger across them, after he ran his finger over the message twice he read it out aloud.

"It says… Read this aloud in your own tongue and the flames will vanish"

Sure enough the flames disappeared

"Nice… I like that, let's go" Andy headed through the corridor, the others followed through, however it suddenly felt as if the floor dropped beneath them. The floor had become a slide sending them downwards, it seemed like they were falling for some time until they came to a room and they came out. This room was much cooler then the others, in fact it was cold, so cold they could even see their own breath.

King K stood up and brushed a bit of the ash off him "Man it's freezin' in here, what just happened?"

AJ pulled out his SP "This gets weirder by the second, we aren't even in Riverside anymore… according to this digital map, we are in Goomstar temple"

Before any of them could work out how they managed to travel back to Leincart, they heard the loud chattering of teeth. Going to explore they saw a green shelled Koopa huddled up.

"Aw man, I knew my chattering would give away my hiding place" The Koopa continued to chatter his teeth.

"Hiding place? What are you talking about? What are you hiding from?" Andy like the other two was really confused

"I'm the hide and seek Koopa, my name is Koopook, my life is searching for the ultimate hiding place, but its way too cold in here to stay quiet, and saying which what are you doing here?"

"We… got warped here, I think" K scratched his head

"Yes, there are warp pipes between way over in Riverside and here in Goomstar. Apparently I heard you need use the warp pipes here and in Riverside to get around either temple. You get burned in one place and frozen in another, sounds like fun doesn't it" Koopook remarked sarcastically "But anyway, since you guys found me I need to find another hiding place hopefully somewhere more comfortable this time, not to be nasty but I hope I never see you again" Koopook then ran off towards where there was light and the exit of the temple

AJ watched him leave "Ooookay then, somebody never learned how to grow up"

"Yeah, but hey if what he said was true it means there is a way to get back to Riverside" King K just finished that sentence when two snowmen appeared.

AJ and Andy headed into battle "That's a Mr. Blizzard, loves throwing snowballs. HP is 3, attack is 2, defence is 0, without fail it will attack the enemy that is furthest away so we should plan our defending position based on that, oh and we could get frozen we if don't guard well. By the way, what do they call female Mr. Blizzards? Well I guess they don't exist because they are snowmen… haha" AJ's half hearted attempt at humour didn't go too well.

Andy ran towards one of the Mr. Blizzards and bumped into him knocking him out, the remaining Mr. blizzard threw a snowball over AJ and at Andy, the snowball came slightly faster then Andy had expected so it froze him dropping his HP to 8. AJ used a shell toss bringing the final Mr. Blizzard down to 1HP, the snowman tossed another snowball at Andy bringing him down to 6, AJ was able to finish the Mr. Blizzard off, two ice storms also appeared and Andy picked them up. Afterwards a door opened and a warp pipe was behind it.

"Hey I guess that's the warp pipe that hiding Koopa was going on about" Andy and the others headed to the warp pipe and went down it. They were back into the heat of the cave and quickly reminded of that when a breath of fire came over King K and AJ dropping K to 7HP and AJ to 5HP, Andy was out of the way. The fire came from a Goomba covered in a fiery aura.

AJ analysed his new opponent "Okay, fire Goomba. Name says all, Goomba now in fire flavour. HP is 2 attack is 2 and defence is 0. It can either headbonk us or use its fiery breath to attack both of us that does 2 damage. I'm not a big fan of fire okay, so let's get rid of them. Also don't try direct attacks or it will hurt, use shell tosses and stuff to deal with it"

As there was only one of them a single shell toss was enough to send him out of the battle. In the distance they spotted two more fire Goombas, but they ran away as soon as they were spotted, a treasure chest was also in the room.

"I wonder if this has the orb?" Andy approached it

"I think that's a bit of wishful thinkin' there man" King K kicked the lid open and found a diamond, on grabbing it he could feel the power inside.

Andy however didn't seem disappointed "Ooo I've seen these, a power diamond, they can make us stronger if they are beefed up by some kind of magic"

"Sounds cool, but let's go check out those Goombas"

When the followed them it led to an empty room. Until four fire Goombas dropped from the roof.

"You want that orb, we heard you before, well it's waiting for you in the next room" The nameless Goomba laughed

"Yeah, you can pay for it with your soon to be scorched bodies" His counterpart joined in the senseless laughing

However after King K and AJ had their attacks they seemed far less cocky as there headbonks just bounced off King K, while dealing minor damage to AJ and their second attacks knocked them out too. The four Goombas grumbled something as they lay on the ground knocked out

They all walked into the next room and just as the Goombas had said the orb was lying across from them, a river of lava flowed below them. Also a heart block was there, it magically absorbed 5 coins from them restoring their health.

"It's too easy" AJ looked across the room expecting something to happen.

"Easy? We had to come all the way to the middle of nowhere, got taken in by guys with spears an' their problems, then we nearly got roasted, got snowballs lobbed at us and got frozen, oh an' yeah we actually got roasted, I wouldn't call that easy" King K listed what they had been through off his fingers

"True point but…" Just as AJ was about to finish his cynical mind was about to be proved correct as two fireballs came from the lava and appeared in front of the orb, they formed together and morphed into shape. When the flames stopped moving it stomped on the ground with its newly appeared feet and what looked like a head appeared from the flames.

"Why do you go around beating up on these poor creatures who are smaller then you? Hmm?" The creatures voice was intimidating as he towered over the three of them.

"Hey that is not cool, they were the ones attacked first" King K argued even though the creature was about 4 times his size

"And yet you persisted. If you want this orb, you'll have to go through me to get it" the flames on the creatures newly formed body seemed to become more intense as it prepared for battle.