Author's Note: Alright guys, let's all DO THIS THING!

Chapter 13: Boggly Woods

Enter Pax:

"…and that about wraps it up," Goombella said.

"Okay… wow," blinked Koops. "That's… a pretty crazy story."

"It's not a story, it's true," I said as I climbed over an old fence and climbed down. The three of us were in the Rougeport sewers again, searching for a pipe leading to the Boggly Woods.

"Okay, but what I REALLY find hard to believe is that whole Nightmare thing," Koops said as he slid down as well. "I mean, I can believe it because I saw your hand… but still, knowing things like that can be anywhere or come at any time is…"

"Disturbing, yeah," Goombella finished. "Don't worry, you're not the only one who's freaked out by that. But that sword Mario has should be able to keep them-what was that?"

She suddenly turned to a corner. I followed her gaze and found nothing.

"What?" I asked her.

"I saw… something move back there," Goombella said. "But… I couldn't see exactly what it was. I think…"

She bent down near the corner.

"Yeah, it went into this," she said, backing up and nodding to a tiny hole in the wall.

"Hm," I said, peering down at the hole. I looked around and saw close to the hole a doorway blocked by iron bars. One slice with my Nightmare hand later, we were walking through the doorway into a new room, a small one that smelled a bit of forest. Shaking in a corner was a tiny creature, light grey with dark grey stripes and an antennae with a green orb on the end.

"P-please don't hurt me…" it said meekly, making itself as small as possible in its corner.

"Wha… hey, we're not gonna hurt you," I said, kneeling down next to it… er, him.

"You… you're not?" the Puni (I assumed this was what it was from Frankly's description) asked. "Wait… you're not one of those horrible X-Nauts, are you!"

"Wha… of course not!" Goombella said. "Do we LOOK like a bunch of short, smelly, stupid men?"

"Well… now that you mention it, you do smell a lot better than the X-Nauts," the Puni said in thought. "Then… who are you?"

"Mario," I introduced myself.

"Goombella," Goombella said.

"And I'm Koops," Koops said. "We're… uh, looking for the Boggly Woods so we can get a Crystal Star."

"Hey… that's exactly what the X-Nauts are looking for!" the Puni said, jumping. "My name's Punio, and I'll make a deal with you: If you get the X-Nauts out of our tree, then we'll gladly find and give you the Crystal Star, whatever that is!"

"Sounds fair," I nodded. "Count us in. Where's the pipe?"

"Oh, just right over here!" Punio said excitedly, running through another tiny hole nearby. There was a click, and the wall nearby opened into a corridor. We walked through it to see a black and white wooden pipe sticking out of the wall.

"Just jump through here and you'll be in the Boggly Woods!" Punio said. "I'll meet you there!"

With that, he jumped into the pipe and was sucked in. Following close behind, we rushed through the pipe at normal Aerosmith speeds (in hindsight, I'm surprised we didn't get any splinters…) and popped out in the middle of a grove, surrounded by black and white trees. Everything looked like it came from a children's book the way it was…

Okay, here I have to stop the story for a minute and vent my frustration. I mean, I KNOW that I know a great example for this, the story's in my head, I used to read it all the time when I was little, but… for the life of me, I cannot remember what it was! Geeze… don't you just hate it when that happens?

…right, I get it. You don't want to hear me complain, you just want my chapters, is that it? Well fine, I won't hold it against you…

Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah…

"Come on!" Punio said in excitement, running ahead. "The X-Nauts are in the Great Tree! It's just ahead, follow me!"

"Right…" I said, following along with Goombella and Koops. "Hey wait a minute… why are even the plants black and white?"

"It's the woods," Goombella said simply. "Everything's black and white here… but wait… oh, I get what you're saying!"

"Thank you!" I said, throwing my arms into the air.

"Wait, what?" Koops asked, looking between the two of us. "What are you two talking about?"

"The thing that allows plants to undergo photosynthesis, and thus stay alive, is chlorophyll," I explained.

"And chlorophyll naturally gives a green pigmentation," Goombella continued.

"So… why the heck are these plants black and white?" I finished, pointing to the trees around us. "The bark, the leaves… everything. It's like they're surviving on a completely different method…"

"…I don't think we're supposed to think about it too much," Koops said, blinking.

"Yeah, but-" I started, then came to a stop when I saw in front of me three Nightmares. Well… I assumed they were Nightmares. No… I defiantly knew from just looking at them what they were, but… they didn't exactly look like the Nightmares I've seen so far. For starters, they were more humanoid than the Nightmares I've seen. They had purple skin instead of black, they had fully developed torsos, regular hands, tails that reached into shadows on the ground instead of legs, and heads that were covered with Witch's hats. I could see their mouths and their noses (well… one of the three's noses, at least), but the hats covered their eyes.

The smallest one also had the aura of deep cruelty and hatred. She wore a blue hat, had a HUGE nose, and an evil smirk. Grey hair came out the back of the hat.

The one that was about my height had an aura of someone who's just sitting by and waiting for someone to hit her, like an abused child who expects nothing more from the world except the horrible treatment she has been given. She had pink hair coming out of the red hat she was wearing.

The biggest one was… well, big, though she defiantly had that "middle child" aura going. She had yellow hair sticking out of her yellow hat, and she just seemed like the strong, silent type to me.

I wanted to call these three Nightmares, but another word came to mind from the same part that reacted to seeing that girl at the Inn and entered fits of rage occasionally:

Mutts.

Even just looking at them started to make me angry, but I couldn't for the life of me figure out why. Maybe I just don't like Nightmares after all the experiences I've had with them? But I had a feeling that wasn't the real reason…

"Alright now…" the blue hat Nightmare said to her two… sisters, I was guessing. "What's the plan again?"

"Let's see…" the red hat Nightmare said in thought. "We… wait for the Dream Keeper-sorry, Mario to come by, ambush him, take the map and return to Grodus. Do we kill him, or is that bad?"

"Bad things happen all the time," the blue hat Nightmare cackled. "But you're right about the map. So give me… wait, what's that you're holding?"

"Oh, this?" the red hat Nightmare asked, holding up a pearl necklace. "It's a pretty necklace I found on the ground! I liked how it shines in the light, so I picked it up…"

"Pheh," the blue hat Nightmare scoffed, making the motion with her head of rolling her eyes. "Well, your packrat habits are your own, I suppose. Never mind that, though! Vivian, where is the sketch of this Mario?"

"W… why are you asking me?" the red hat Nightmare-Vivian-asked. "You took it away from me b-because you said it was way too important f-for me to hold!"

"WHAT!" the blue hat Nightmare screeched. "How DARE you blame me for YOUR incompetence!"

She smacked Vivian to the ground in rage. She screamed a bit as she hit the ground.

"Wha… she can't do that to her!" I said.

Who cares? A voice inside my mind asked. They're just mutts, soulless creatures with no real purpose…

But no one deserves to be treated that way! I retorted. Not even a Nightmare!

… The voice in my head stayed silent.

…what? Okay, I know what you're thinking, and to answer you: No. I'm NOT developing schizophrenia. I know it really seems that way, but still…

Anyway, the blue hat Nightmare picked up the necklace and shoved it under her own hat.

"Little liars like you don't deserve such fine jewelry!" she said. "Now stop groveling and help us find that sketch!"

"Y… yes sis…" Vivian said submissively as she slowly pulled herself up.

"…maybe if we walk around them quietly, we won't be caught by-" Punio started quietly, moving forward slowly.

"Hey you!" the blue hat Nightmare screeched at us.

"…well, it was a nice thought," Goombella granted as the Nightmare approached us. For a minute, I considered pulling out the sword, but she suddenly interrupted by saying:

"You four seen a sketch lying around?"

"Uh… no, sorry ma'am," I said, rubbing the back of my head.

"Then SCRAM, you worthless…" muttered she, sulking away.

"…wow, wasn't she just sunshine and lollipops?" I said sarcastically as we left the three behind.

"You… think that girl's going to be okay?" Koops asked.

"Vivian?" I asked. "Hope so… geeze, not even a Nightmare deserves THAT kind of treatment… and from her own sister, too…"

After a bit more walking, we were soon in front of a HUGE black and white tree.

"This is the Great Boggly Tree!" Punio said proudly. "Everyone's here! Including those stupid X-Nauts…"

"How do we get in?" I asked.

"We just walk through the hole in the front," Punio said simply.

"…you mean the hole that mechanical door is now covering?" I asked, pointing to said door.

"Yeah, exa-say what?" asked Punio, taken aback by the door. "Wha… this wasn't here when I left! Those X-Nauts must have installed it! C'mon, we gotta get it open!"

"No prob," I said, clenching my left hand into a fist. "Just leave it to me."

I pulled my fist back, slammed it against the door…

…then was suddenly thrown back in pain.

"Mario!" Goombella and Koops shouted as they ran to me.

"Geeze man, you okay?" Koops asked as I sat up and shook my head clear. I looked to see the door glowed for a minute before turning to normal.

"There's… something not right about that door," I said. "Like… something's built into it that prevents Nightmares from entering."

"Hm… do you think it's possible… the door's tapping into the Crystal Star's power?" Goombella suggested. "I mean, it's not really that hard to believe… If it's in the same general area, it can tap into the same kind of frequency, like a radio tuning into a station. And we've already seen how your hand reacts to the Crystal Sword… I'm betting the same sort of thing would happen with the Crystal Stars, too."

"You're probably right," I grunted as I stood.

"I thank you for stating the obvious, but we need to find a way to get past this door!" Goombella said, rolling her eyes.

"And I thought I was the one with the superiority complex…"I muttered.

"What?"

"Oh, nothing…"

"Well…" Punio said, looking the tree up and down. "Hm… oh! I got it!"

"What?" I asked.

"I remember the Elder telling me before that there's a secret entrance to the tree!" Punio said. "But… the thing is, I'm not totally sure where it is. I know it's in this general area, but… it's not a SECRET entrance for nothing. It's not like it's going to have a big, flashing neon sign that says 'SECRET ENTRANCE'."

"Wanna bet?" I retorted. "From what I've seen so far, I wouldn't be surprised at all if it turned out it did…"

"But… it's covered by an invisible… thingy," Punio said. "And to remove this thingy… we need… oh, Madame Flurrie!"

"Who?" I asked, tilting my head.

"Madame Flurrie!" Punio repeated. "She's a really great wind spirit who lives not that far from here! C'mon, I'll lead the way!"

With that, Punio scurried off to the east. The three of us followed close behind him.

Enter Flurrie:

*Pat pat pat*

"There…" I said to my beautiful reflection in the mirror as I examined my makeup. "It's perfect! Gorgeous, even!"

Floating away from the mirror, I brushed my hair as I paced the room.

"It feels so… soothing in these woods," I sighed. "No stress from the spotlight… no directors screaming at me from every direction… just me and these wonderfully ADORABLE Punies!"

I squealed at the thought of the adorable creatures! I mean, they were just so small and CUTE!

"Well… I noticed they haven't been to check up on me," I said to myself, looking out my window. "They ALWAYS come around to at least say hi. It's a bit strange… actually, what's strange is that I'm talking to myself like this. Huh."

Shaking my head, I moved over to my jewelry box and opened it up to pull out-

"OH NO!" I cried out. It was missing! Oh no, my… my…

…I was told to end this on a cliffhanger. So sorry, dears.

Author's Note: What is it that Flurrie lost! …well, if you played the game (or even if you didn't) it should be fairly obvious. ANYWAY, next chapter the group goes on a fetch quest and, for the first time in the series, battle Nightmares that AREN'T Coron! 'Till then, this is Pax the Dreamer, signing out!