"Now where to start…"
Hat Kid looked amongst her choices. Which one should she start with? Should she go at random? Counter-clockwise or vice versa? The one that looks the coolest?
"Perhaps I could make a suggestion?"
Hat Kid jolted and turned around. Facing the cottage behind her, she saw the Badge Seller standing close by. He's here too? She questioned this outloud and he simply responded, "Quite. I am capable of traveling to many places on this planet."
"Huh...okay. Well uh, what do you suggest then?"
"I suggest you pick the one that intrigues you the most. It would make it faster and easier to find what you're looking for as you feel more of a need to search in said place."
The Badge Seller went to her side and knelt down to her level. He then pointed to the various spots with the sparkling lights on top, including the giant bell which didn't have a sparkling light. He first pointed to the tower of lava.
"That there is the Lava Cake. Consider it as a...wedding cake made of lava and for giants."
"Weird."
He then pointed to the old-looking windmill. "The name is as it appears: the Old Windmill. The complex mechanic that mainly powers most of this village."
Hat Kid hummed in thought. That may explain why it's so big. But that's going to be a hassle to climb.
Next was the giant bell. "That's the Twilight Bell. They say when it is rung, it can have you appear in the realm of Dwellers."
Interesting. But she didn't see a sparkling light there. ...Could it be in the realm Badge Seller told?
Finally, he pointed to the large bird cage. "And that is the Birdhouse. Most birds you have encountered usually reside there. I have been told that they like shiny objects as well."
Given the sparkling light, there is a solid chance that some bird took her Time Piece there. The birds here were jerks, as far as Hat Kid encountered. That's not gonna be fun getting back.
"So. What will you do now?" The Badge Seller stood to his full height and looked down to Hat Kid. She looked up to him, then looked back to the different areas. She hummed, thinking.
"After Mafia Town, I don't think I'm up for navigating through lava once more. I'm not really up for dealing with the birds either."
She finally looked at the bell and her curiosity grew. Could it really take her to the realm of Dwellers? Maybe she could put her new Dweller Mask to use there.
She turned to the Badge Seller and said, "I'll check the bell first."
"You may need this then." He held out a new badge for her. It had 3 bars on it, from red to yellow to blue. "It's the Fast Hatter Badge. If you wear this, then whatever ability you use on any hat can have a quick cooldown time so you can use it almost immediately."
Oddly specific, much like the umbrella badge he gave her. It's almost like his inventory is made for her. That or one of the places in his travels had people with hats that had abilities. But that's ridiculous. Tim was the one that taught her the ancient art of mystic hat making. No one else is known to be capable of this art except herself.
Shaking away the train of thought, she looked up to him and asked, "How much?"
"250 pons."
Compared to the scooter, that was pretty cheap. She nodded with a small smile and pulled out 3 pouches. Two large ones had 100 pons while one small one had 50. After paying him, she equipped the badge with a warm smile. This could come in handy.
"Thank you." With a nod, she headed to the zip-line that lead to the Twilight Bell. As she headed off, she glanced back to see the Badge Seller waving to her. She waved back then grappled onto the green zip-line.
She then ended up halfway there on a few rocky platforms and transparent green platforms. Just as she hoped, her Dweller Mask was going to come in use. She equipped it, its design representing a fox, and began navigating.
Once she reached the continuation of the zip-line, she headed straight for the Twilight Bell. When she hopped down and looked around, her eyes widened with surprise.
"Safe travels, I assume?" The Badge Seller was standing right off to the side. Hat Kid was baffled.
"But how...you were…" She was pointing back where she came from and looking back to him, beyond confused.
"You could say I have my shortcuts." Hat Kid blinked and decided to drop the subject. If she continued thinking and questioning, her head may explode.
He then continued, "I also wanted to point out something you may miss." He pointed to her far right. Sitting atop a tree branch was a blue time rift. How did she miss that?
"Wow...uh...thanks." She climbed up and reached her hand out to touch the rift. And just before she was transported into it while time froze, she faintly heard the Badge Seller's voice once more.
"Know this: the red does not exist in both planes."
Wait, what did that mean? Hat Kid blinked her eyes open, finding herself back in the underwater-like rift area. There were many solid white and blue platforms that had the large goats marching back and forth between them. There were also transparent green and solid galaxy-colored platforms just ahead and above.
Adjusting her mask, she headed forward. She kept out of the way of the goats, knowing they will shove her right off the small platforms they marched along. There were a couple of transparent green platforms in front of her as well, but her Dweller Mask aided in getting her across. So far, so good.
She then reached the next level of the rift and found something new. She propped her mask up to get a proper look at this new obstacle. It was a Dweller wrapped around a bell like the ones on the green bells she rang. Only this one was red and had a sort of red bubble around it. The galaxy platforms behind it practically vanish altogether when in its bubble. Outside it, they reappear.
Hat Kid then recalled what the Badge Seller told her before entering. "'The red does not exist in both planes.' ...So this thing erases both the green and galaxy-like platforms that exist in different planes?"
Testing this, Hat Kid used her Dweller Mask. In her green bubble, nothing came into being. The red bubble practically made it non-existent. She'll have to be quick then if she's going to get across.
Once it went to her left, she leaped across and quickly climbed up, almost losing her footing as it hovered back in her area, making the platform disappear at her feet. That obstacle was done. Now she had one more: a galaxy-colored wall. On the other side should be a platform, but she was standing on a galaxy-colored platform.
She stepped back and took a running start. She jumped at the wall, used her mask, and went right through. She immediately switched off the mask just before she landed on the galaxy-colored platform.
With a proud smile, she hopped up a couple regular platforms and grabbed the Time Piece. It flashed in her hands and teleported her out of the rift.
Upon arriving the Twilight Bell once more, she pocketed the Time Rift and looked to where the Badge Seller was. But to her surprise, he was gone. Odd...but no time to dwell on it.
Hat Kid headed up to the bell and looked up in mild awe. The inside of it looked like a starry night sky and it was humongous.
A nearby nomad, dressed in blue Egyptian-like clothing, shouted while looking up as well, "Look at that thing! If only I could reach it and ring it."
Hat Kid hummed and looked to her trusty umbrella. Curious, she hook-shot herself to the large rope and swung herself back and forth. She rang it three times then hopped off.
Suddenly, a green aura similar to the one she emits from her Dwellers Mask appeared. Then, it swirled around her, making her gasp and cover her eyes.
When the wind current cleared, Hat Kid dared to open her eyes. A slow soft gasp escaped when she found herself someplace new. A black abyss surrounded this new open area around her that had many transparent green platforms and ancient white regular platforms. Glowing white flowers bloomed in many of the areas and water flowed clear through the place. Looking up, the bell now looked like a galaxy or aura lights on the inside.
Hat Kid was starting to think she was someplace she shouldn't be in. But then she looked up at the highest platform in this abyss and her eyes lit up. A familiar bright glow was coming from there. A Time Piece!
How it ended up here was beyond her knowledge, but at the moment, it didn't matter. That Time Piece will soon be back in her possession once she reaches the top. Getting her boots wet, she ran across the flowing river and towards the direction of the Time Piece.
Past a galaxy wall with her dweller mask, she found herself facing different paths. The path ahead of her had a door with a huge lock, so the key must be either to the left or right. Hitting the dweller bell in front of her, she made the galaxy walls to her left and right vanish and took the left path first.
Just like the time rift, there were red dwellers that made parts of any alternate planed path vanish. She dodged those as she navigated through and up regular platforms as well. The red dwellers even floated along galaxy-colored bridges, making it difficult for Hat Kid to just walk straight through. But after quite a few jumps, she managed to grab the key and hop back down to the door.
Hitting the dweller bell once more, she hopped onto the path in front of her and unlocked the door. But before she entered, she glanced back to the path on her right. She decided to check the area out before entering the next room.
Ahead of her after hopping from different color-planed platform to the next was a long green path. Her Dweller mask was only going to get her so far as well as the green bell next to the start of the path. But willing to see what's on the other side, she whacked the bell and snapped in her scooter. Riding across as far as she could, she hopped off and used her mask to get her up the rest of the way.
At the end of the path, there was a horn, much like the ones she blew to open up the zip-lines. She blew into it and a zip-line, close to where the Time Piece was, appeared. That may come in handy at some point. Satisfied, she hit the dweller bell beside her and scootered her way back to the door.
Upon entering, she stood in a small room with a gate in front of her. Strangely, there was a slightly visible green wall phasing over it. Hat Kid turned on her Dweller Mask and the wall appeared, making the gate bars go up and stay on top of the wall. Handy. She took a running start and turned off the mask, slipping past the iron bars.
Ahead of her was another iron gate, this time to another locked door. Only instead, there was a galaxy-colored wall keeping the bars up. She turned on her mask and the wall disappeared, bringing the bars to a lower level. Hopping down to a lower platform, there was another galaxy-colored platform keeping the bars up. Using the same technique, the bars lowered once more. It was now lowered far enough so the top was open. Now all that's left is to figure out where the key is.
She looked around for another room for some kind of key. She then faintly spotted a red dweller on the other side of a gate with a green wall. Having the wall reappear and disappear, she entered the room and looked ahead. A key past another gate! The only problem is that this wall was shorter. No way she could run through and grab the key. Then her eyes locked onto the red dweller bell.
Curious, she hit it with her umbrella, which to her surprise was possible. It extended its red aura out to half of the green wall. Gears started turning in Hat Kid's mind. If the red cannot exist in both planes, but there's still some green wall that can lift the bars...then maybe she could grab the key while running through the red field of the area. Trying this idea out, she was immediately successful. Key in hand, she patted herself on the back for being a genius.
She hit the red bell once more to open back up her way out and headed to the door, unlocking it. On the other side, she was greeted by a small flowing stream and a large green platform. Luckily, there were 3 dweller bells, one each on a small circular regular platform. She would have to be careful on which ones to ring, however, based on their positions. If she did them all at once, a large chunk of the platform would be canceled out. She carefully navigated through and hookshot her way up to the zip-line she unlocked.
Off the zip-line, the Time Piece was now within reach. Just up a green alternate platform staircase, where a dweller bell stood at the bottom of it. Hat Kid rang it and ran up the staircase. There was also now a green box surrounding the Time Piece, but Hat Kid knew how to reach it. Standing over it with a prideful smile, she turned on her Dweller Mask and grabbed it. The satisfaction of holding the glowing item was immense.
"Now that I know where the rest are, I can finish what I started." She then looked around. "But...how am I gonna get out of here?"
Then, as if the Time Piece heard her question, it started to glow and pull her off the platform and to the Twilight Bell. Hat Kid hung onto it as it flew into the bell. Pulling out her umbrella, she decided to see if whacking the bell 3 times will bring her back. She swung her umbrella and whacked hard three times. The world around her spun in many colors as she found herself floating down.
In a blink of an eye, she was back in reality, just underneath the Twilight Bell. With a satisfied smile, she pocketed the Time Piece and headed back to the zip-line, ready to get the next one.
As she zipped off, a sort of dark purple flower with a shady aura then bloomed at the very end of the zip-line. Two more popped up as well close by. The wind blew some of its seeds off, much like a dandelion's seeds.
A couple of those seeds flew to a cottage nearby the Twilight Bell, where one of the goats was standing in the sunlight peacefully. It was a beautiful day and he was taking great advantage of it and the gentle lullaby of the wind. That is until he felt something go into his nose when he took a deep breath. He snorted and shuddered, rubbing it. That was odd and unpleasant.
Suddenly...this day didn't feel so peaceful anymore.
.
.
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Okay! Took longer than I thought I should have. But y'know, summer comes and things come up that's more than just my Rome Trip. Personal matters even. But I didn't want to leave this unfinished, so here we go! Back in action! :)