Arc 1 - Chapter 4: Entering Goldenfalls
Lavender had just made her way past Lincoln's now empty sentry post. The dark orange stone paths and golden waters were quite a sight to behold. As soon as she entered the falls, there was already a branching path awaiting her. Lavender knew this new place would prove to be more daunting to navigate. However, the first thing she noticed was another chest. She was curious what the sign said this time. It read 'This is a chest. You can put items in and take them out. Not sure the of the purpose yet, so a little on the fence on this one. Sincerely, a chest novice.'
Nevermore then chimed in. "Well, what do you think? What should we do?" Lavender responded by treading towards the flooded path with large colorful flowers floating down. The flowers were surprisingly tough, so she had to weave around them. But rather than crossing the path, Lavender walked up to the waterfall and discovered a little room behind it. Nevermore spoke again. "Oh yeah, shoulda figured something like this would be somewhere."
Lavender found dress shoes, and put them on. She quickly rushed back to the box and deposited her old shoes in it, and took off eastward, passing by the waterfall this time. Past the waterfall, the cave-like space of Goldenfalls opened. Lavender passed through the cave's exit into what looked like the foot of a canyon, as steep walls surrounded the now grassy path. She noticed a patch of taller grass ahead, and rushed for it, but stopped inside once she heard voices.
Up on top of the northern wall of the canyon, somebody was standing in the shadow of a shadewood tree, named for being pitch black all over and casting unnaturally dark shadows. Judging by height, she was slightly older than Lincoln. On her head appeared to be a modified football helmet equipped with the protective visor of a fencing mask, thus hiding her face. Her body appeared to be equipped with padded hockey-wear, or something similar. Lastly, upon her hands and feet were studded gloves and sneakers.
Just then, Lana walked in from the westward direction, seeming panicked. "Hey Lynn, I came here to report. Regarding the human I called you about..." Lana seemed to be interrupted by a question from Lynn, though due to her speaking much more quietly, Lavender couldn't hear. Thankfully, Lana's responses were loud enough. "What? Did I fight them? Of course I did! Did I capture them? I tried to, I fought them to the point of exhaustion, but I couldn't push myself further, I had to just spare them and let them pass. Oh, you're going to look for them yourself... okay, if you insist. I'll be back to help in a few." Lana said before she took off back to where she came from.
Lavender tried moving through the grass, but stopped when he heard Lynn from above quickly turn in response. Lynn summoned a magic javelin to her hand, and peeked over the edge of the canyon, ready to attack. However, after seeing a bird fly out of the tall grass, she quickly dismissed the noise and took off. After hearing her leave, Lavender walked the rest of the way out of the grass, and not far behind was the Snake Kid from earlier.
He was all jittery. "Yo, did you see the way she was staring you down!? Wasn't that cool? Nice plan making noise to get her attention. Let's go watch her beat up some bad guys!" He exclaimed, running off.
*That close call got your blood and sweat running. You have Faith that you'll make it out. Goldenfalls - Cave Exit
Lavender made her way down the canyon and came across a river breaking the path. Lavender saw dried sprouts of the giant flowers from before. Nevermore then noticed too. "Good idea. If you give them some water, they'll spring back to life." She said. Lavender picked them up and put them in a line across the river. After they lined up on the golden waters, the flowers sprung back to life, and opened, forming a bridge. Lavender carefully crossed, and made it further down the road. However, while crossing a mildly flooded patch, the area entered fight mode.
*Max Splash flows in!
The monster in front of them was a buff fish man. Nevermore sighed. "Ah, damn it, Max Splash. He has weird obsessions, so try and use that to distract him." She said. Lavender nodded. She splashed the water they were standing in. Max retaliated by also splashing, sending water projectiles towards Lavender, which she weaved around. Lavender splashed the water again. Max responded by splashing harder, sending waves that lavender had to jump over. Upon landing, she created a big splash. Max challenged it by attempting his biggest splash, but he jumped up too far and forced himself out of the room, ending fight mode.
After progressing, Lavender made it to the other side of the water, and found that it was more of the river coming from the north, where the pathway was also now leading. However, she needed to u-turn over the river again, which required her to form another bridge out of the giant flowers. After putting them together, she crossed the bridge.
Lavender then heard a ring from her phone, Lana was on the other end. "Hello Human, it is I, Lana. How did I get your number? Easy, I just asked my brother. His quantum physics know-how makes it easy for him to get info. But that's not important right now, is there anything on you that, well, stands out? I'm asking because my sister Lynn thought she saw you wearing dress shoes? Is that true?" Lavender confirmed that she was. Lana responded. "So you are wearing dress shoes... got it!" Lana hung up.
Nevermore watched the whole thing. "Brave of you to tell the truth, but then again, I suppose Faith is your thing." She said. Lavender continued to walk, making it through the door. After making it through, Lavender made it to a section of Goldenfalls that seemed to be some form of observatory to stare at the crystals on the ceiling of the Underground. Strange, abstract shadows sprouted from the ground. Lavender assumed these were the shadow stalks Lincoln mentioned at the Burger Joint. Lavender starting walking east again, but the area entered fight mode.
*Hosea slithered up.
The monster coming forth was like a snake, but its head was similar to a multipurpose hose. Nevermore intervened. "This is Hosea. As you can sea, they're like a hose, so naturally it loves clean things." Lavender nodded in response and asked Hosea to be cleaned. The monster hopped in place with joy. It cycled through the nozzles, spraying magic water projectiles in various speeds and formations. Lavender noticed some where green. She let herself be hit by these ones, with any bruises on her being cleaned up when she did. Hosea jumped with joy and Lavender spared him, allowing the fight to end as he jumped off.
Lavender continued forward until there was a branching path. Nevermore took notice. "Well, the left wing seems to be a dead end. There's a boulder plugging the thing." She noticed. However, Lavender didn't accept this as an answer. She walked up and began winding up her tactical glove, with the power of her Faith lighting up the punch. Nevermore realized what was happening. "Uh oh." She muttered as Lavender's Faith powered punch blew the boulder blocking the path apart, revealing a wooden bridge. Nevermore looked over the result. "Dang, kiddo. You just learned how to do that with Lana and you're already putting it to use. Nice."
Lavender and Nevermore followed the newly open bridge path. Lavender saw there was land westward, but decided to just go east since she was being hunted right now. The bridge ended and a big lily pad was sitting in a big lake. Lavender hopped on it and it started floating her across the golden waters, meanwhile Nevermore floated behind her. They eventually reached the other side, another bridge, and began walking down it. However, a forest of shadewood trees was making the area ahead very dark.
They continued onward, as the bridge was very long, now acting as a simply path built over the river. Nevermore then felt something. "Move back!" She warned. Lavender heard the warning and quickly followed, dodging a magic javelin that had spiked into the bridge. From the northern riverside, Lynn emerged from the shadows of the shadewood trees. Nevermore turned to Lavender. "Make a break for it!" She yelled. Lavender sprung up and ran down the bridge. Lynn followed along the riverside, summoning her javelins and throwing them, with them splitting into three as they fly.
As Lavender was running from Lynn, holes in the bridge impeded her progress, which allowed some javelins to strike. Lavender got grazed by one, bringing her HP from 20 to 16. As she ran further down the bridge, another one scraped her, dropping her to 12. Even further down, she got hit a third time, dropping to 8. The bridge from this point on was a straight path. Lavender booked it, eventually making it to land at the end, and diving into a patch of tall grass as Lynn, now far behind, threw javelins at her.
After diving into the grass, the javelins stopped. Lavender heard Lynn's footsteps drawing close. Lynn had entered the grass patch, and was drawing dreadfully close. However, as Lavender waited for Lynn's hand to grab her, Lynn had instead grabbed something else. When she pulled up, she was actually holding the Snake Kid from earlier by the head. Taken aback by the mistake, Lynn swiftly yet gently set the kid down and ran off back west, thinking Lavender had juked her. After Lynn was long gone, Lavender and the Snake Kid came out of the other side of the tall grass.
The Snake Kid was once again jittery. "Yo, you saw that right? She saw me! If you were just standing a little more to the left... ah, don't worry, we're sure to see her again." He said. He then took off. Lavender followed simply because she needed to go east. She had entered a room that contained a mysterious crystal embedded in very dark colored stone. If Lavender had to guess, this is how the mountain got its name.
*The mystical nature of this land amazes you, even through the hardships. You have Faith that you'll make it out. Goldenfalls - Crystal
Lavender felt herself heal after taking it all in, and made her way down the path, and saw Lincoln. She decided to talk with him. "Hey, I've been thinking about getting in the observatory business. Usually I'd charge a few to use it, but since you're my friend, I'll let you give it a shot for free." He said. Lavender agreed and looked through it. She actually was able to look around at the crystals far away and study their structure. However, noticing a weird feeling on her eye, she stopped and wiped her face, revealing that Lincoln had but some ink on the rim, putting a mark on her face. Lincoln chuckled. "Don't worry kid, it wears off real fast." He said.
Lavender chuckled slightly and was ready to continue on after going back to Nevermore, who was now laughing. After noticing the branch in the path ahead, Nevermore spoke up. "If we're to continue, we're actually gonna have to head south into the Shadow Zone of Goldenfalls. The foliage goes from green to pitch black, and the shadow stalks flourish in that little environment." Lavender nodded in response, and made her way to the Shadow Zone by walking the bridge of pitch black wood.
True to what Nevermore said, almost everything was pitch black. Apart from the golden rivers and fireflies, it was a little difficult to make out what was what, though it was still possible to navigate if you focused. As Lavender kept making it south to the point where she could start going east again, she heard her phone ring. Lavender picked up, and as she expected, it was Lana. "Hey, it's Lana! Remember when I asked you about the dress shoes? Well, you probably knew what Lynn was like, and knowing that you knew, I told her that you were wearing them, because naturally, you would have taken them off. That way you're safe and I don't have to lie to my sister, everyone can be friends all around!" She said enthusiastically as she hung up.
Nevermore sighed. "Well that explains why you were still attacked. I have a feeling no matter what you did, there was still gonna somehow be conflicting info here." She said. Lavender shrugged it off and just decided to move forwards. Lavender moved on the eastward path before having to turn north again. However, before rounding the bend, the area had entered fight mode.
*Slimmar rises up.
The monster appeared to be a stack of four monsters like Slimy from the ruins, but rather than being green, they were yellow, blue, red, then purple, from bottom to top. Nevermore chimed in. "They like to be called 'Slimmar' when they're like this. Like, slime pillar, you get it. Kinda like Slimy, they don't really want to fight, but you're gonna have to be a bit more clear about it with them." She said. In response to this info, Lavender told them that she wasn't planning on fighting them. After realizing this, the four of them smiled, and they all kinda just slid away while maintaining their tower, ending fight mode.
Lavender then took the turn north and made her way up the path, eventually making it to a giant lake. A stone path formed a way through the lake. Lavender took the path, turning east, and making her way. She saw it was very long. As she made her way across the huge lake, she heard splashes in the water. She looked around to see a big tail sink in. Lavender took a minute to stop, as out of the water came a large mutant girl who's monster half was a whale. She had her hair in a long braid.
She began to speak. "Hey there. Visiting Goldenfalls? It's quite nice isn't it? I like it, it's my favorite place to be. Even if a lot of it is because I'm a whale. But hey, it's better than the city. When we get out of here, I'm gonna find my family's old ocean home and throw a party!" Lavender was looking and engaging with her the whole conversation, but they hit the end of the lake. "Oh, it's the end of the room. Well, it was nice having a talk with somebody new. Not many people come around here. Enjoy your time in Goldenfalls." She said as she sank back into the lake. Lavender moved to the next room, which was an intersection with a puddle of water in the middle, then the area suddenly entered fight mode.
*Pipen hides in the water.
Before them was a large cephalopod monster, but made of wood. Nevermore looked at the monster. "This is Pipen. Her tentacles are like wood pipes, and she likes playing, but she's insecure." She said. Lavender attempted to conduct for Pipen, but the only response received was a couple of notes. The notes took on a magic form and swayed towards Lavender, which she leaned around. Lavender instead tried to whistle a melody. Pipen started peeking out the water and began to play along to Lavender's melody. The notes were still flying out as magic, but this time Lavender to dodge around a wave of them. Lavender lowered her weapon as a sign of sparing, and Pipen sank back into the puddle.
Lavender went the northern path, but only found a piano, so she didn't know what to do. She went back and went east, and found a stone statue with golden water dripping onto it. She also couldn't quite figure it out, so she passed onto to the next room, where she discovered a bucket of umbrellas. It was then Lavender connected the dots. Nevermore was confused as Lavender grabbed an umbrella and set it on the statue, shielding it from the water. It was then that a strange tune started to play from the statue. Nothing really happened, so Lavender decided to just go back east. Nevermore stared at the statue for a bit longer before just following Lavender again.
As Lavender crossed the umbrella room again, it started to rain, with the drops above turning golden as they entered the apparent magic aura of Goldenfalls. Lavender continued east through the rainfall. As she continued east, through the now puddle-covered land of Goldenfalls, Lavender bumped into Snake Kid, who was using facing up to catch a couple drops in his mouth. He then noticed Lavender. "Yo, you got an umbrella? Awesome! Let's go together!" He said. He then started following Lavender after squeezing under her umbrella.
As they were about to round a corner to the south, he started talking. "Yo, Lynn is sooo cool right? She fights If I was a human, I'd be so scared." He said. Lavender was a little bothered by him not being able to tell she was one, but let him live his fantasy to keep him upbeat. They turned south and started walking down a long path. "So one time we had a school project where we took care of a flower. The queen, or Ms. Loud as we had to call her, volunteered her some of her own flowers, and she talked about responsibilities and stuff. That made me think about how cool it would be if Lynn came to our school." He said. Lavender chuckled as they continued on.
Lavender and the Snake Kid passed by a cliff that overlooked a large golden ocean with the castle of the Underground on the other side. They both stopped to gaze at it for a minute, with Nevermore also joining, before deciding to continue on. Lavender saw another umbrella bucket and thought it would be right to return it to the bucket. However, the two of them had run into a bit of a cliff. Snake Kid then turned to Lavender. "Hey, you wanna go see Lynn right? Climb on my shoulders." He said. Lavender obliged as Snake Kid helped her climb up the cliff. "You go ahead, don't worry about me." He said. Lavender gave him the thumbs up and took off east. It was then the rainfall started to fade away.
*The now distant sound of the music box soothes you. You have Faith that you'll make it out. Goldenfalls - Great Bridge
Lavender and Nevermore continued. Nevermore spoke. "We're about to cross the Great Bridge. It's the biggest bridge in Goldenfalls, and most paths through this place likely cross it at some point. Lynn might be waiting for you here, so be ready." She warned. Lavender nodded and was on guard as she crossed the big wooden bridge. As she walked, a red spot on the ground appeared in front of her. Lavender put up her glove. Another red spot appeared behind her. A third spot appeared to her side. Lavender started sweating, then all of a sudden she was surrounded by these red spots. Then magic javelin heads shot up from them.
Lynn appeared from the second layer of the Great Bridge below. Lavender ran down the bridge as Lynn tried using groups of the floor traps to attack her. Lavender dodged around them while running, stopping if the whole bridge was blocked. For some reason, the bridge started taking a maze like structure. While trying to cross it, she got scraped by one of the traps, bringing her HP down to 16. Lavender had to take a long twisty path across the bridge, frantically dodging the traps while making her way across the Great Bridge.
Eventually the bridge took a normal structure again as Lavender bolted away. As she was running, she was almost jabbed by a javelin trap, but she just barely weaved out of the way for is to only hit her clothes. She kept running down the bridge, only to realize she had hit a dead end. She dreadfully turned around as Lynn drew closer. Lavender put her tactical glove up, but was only greeted by Lynn using a wave of javelins to sever the bridge, causing the section Lavender was standing on to fall. As she fell, she blacked out.
"It sounded like it came from over here."
"Oh dear. Hello, you've fallen down, haven't you?"
"Are you okay? Here, let me help you."
"Who am I?"
"Well sweetie, you can call me..."
Lavender shot up awake on a bed of flowers like the ones she landed on before. She was greeted by Nevermore. "Hey! Thank goodness you're awake, you were out for a second there. After Lynn severed the bridge, she went to look for you thinking you wouldn't survive the fall. What she didn't know is that you landed in a stream that carried you here." She said. Lavender rubbed her eyes and stood up, hearing a couple cracks, which surprisingly got a shiver out of Nevermore. "Aaanyway, we're in the scrap dump. This place is flooded in both water and metal trash, so let's get a move on." She urged. Lavender agreed and moved forward.
*Managing to survive such a close encounter makes you feel strong. You have Faith that you'll make it out. Goldenfalls - Scrap Zone
Despite the events that had just occurred, Lavender felt better. She made her way through the scrap dump and turned north with the path. While making her way up to the exit, what walked through was another mutant girl. She's probably the oldest mutant Lavender has seen yet, though that's not a high bar, and it still isn't, as she appears to only be like a year older than Lynn. She had brown hair in a ponytail with a yellow hair-tie. Her clothing appeared to be like that of a yellow and black jester outfit. Her monster half appeared like that of a dummy or doll.
She noticed Lavender and pointed at her. "Hey! Water you doing here?" She said with a giggle. Lavender guessed by the pun and a previous conversation between Lincoln and Lana that this was Luan, their comedy-loving sister. "A human in the dump? Makes sense to me after seeing what your trashy motives have led us to." Sje taunted. "But this is where I gather junk to repurpose into funny contraptions, and I am supposed to be looking for humans, so I'm afraid..."
The area around Lavender entered fight mode. The golden water's appearance changed to that of root beer, the surface covered in the same foam-like fizz of said liquid. The piles of scrap turned into what looked like somewhat functional comedy robots. Luan reached forward and a yellow light flashed from her hand. Lavender's orange soul turned yellow, as Lavender split into two smaller copies of herself, connected by a slinky attached to bracelets they were wearing. "...I'll have to spring into action." She quipped. Three platforms lines up in a row for the Lavender copies to stand on, essentially forming three lanes for attacks.
*Luan blocks your path.
Luan opened with the first attack. She threw three small magic pies at Lavender. Now in two pieces, Lavender's copies kicked off each other to stretch the slinky, allowing the pies to travel between them, and then the slinky pulled them back in. Nevermore chimed in. "I see you already figured out this soul mode. Luan is like part dummy or doll or something like that, so you don't have to be afraid of being just a little rough." The two Lavenders nodded. They whipped their arms back to whip back the slinky connecting them, then whipped their arms forward, causing the slinky to go with them and lightly bash Luan's torso.
Luan giggled. "Funny, but I wouldn't call that a good snap back." She joked. She sent more magic pies, this time each wave alternated between going down the middle, and then two on the sides. The Lavenders kicked off each other like before to dodge the ones in the center, then focused their energy into making the slinky pull them in faster to dodge the ones going down the sides. They repeated this pattern a couple times to dodge the waves of pies. They then responded by doing the weak whip attack again.
Luan readied herself again. "A comedy type huh? Trying to slink past me?" Luan then sent more magic pies, this time some of the waves included formations that made the only hole on one of the sides. The Lavenders did their bounce method to dodge the first one going down the center, came back together to dodge the ones coming down the sides. For the waves taking one of the sides and the center, one of the Lavenders kicked off the other to the empty space, and pulled the other to them. They kept using this kick-and-pull method to get to the hole in the wall, which was zig-zagging in the formations of pies. Then came a wall with full magic pies down the center, and yellow half-pies coming down the sides. The Lavenders kicked off each other, with the half pies not harming the Lavenders as long as they don't touch their hand with the bracelet. They did their slinky whip again.
Luan laughed. "Well, when cut in two, you really make it look like a piece of cake." She said. The next attack contained more walls of 1 full pie and two halves, only this time, their positions changed. The two Lavenders kicked off of and pulled each other so that their halves occupied the correct half-pie lanes and avoided the full pies. Thankfully standing in adjacent lanes didn't strain the slinky enough to have it pull them back. The Lavenders tried to converse. Luan smiled slightly. "A nice try, but you need to try double time to match my comedic genius!" She boasted. She sent more waves of the pies, with the Lavenders dodging them more with their kicking and pull strategy. They tried to spare Luan, but she persisted.
Luan's smile grew, showing her braces. "Nice try, but you'll have to brace yourself for a little longer against me." She joked. Her next attack combined various pie formations from her previous attacks. The Lavenders now had to dodge by occasionally ducking into the correct half-pie lanes and pulling themselves together to dodge walls with two full pies. The Lavenders simply did their slinky whip again.
Luan chuckled. "Back to square one? Seems you have to try-angle harder." Luan said as she pulled out a scythe with a flower on it. Luan waved it at the Lavenders like a wand, with large magic water projectiles squirting at lavender from the flower. The water projectiles flew down the lane the Lavender's were currently on, so they quickly used their kick-and-pull to get out of the way. With Luan's frantic waving of the scythe, they had to quickly go from one side to the other, as while moving, Luan also started leading the target. They responded by using their slinky whip again.
Luan stopped joking to think for a second. "Though, I suppose I could take a second to relax a bit. Sparring with Lynn all the time can be a bit distracting." She said. With her mind a little distracted, she simply used the pie formations again. Though, the Lavender did slip up a couple times, bringing them to 14HP. Two more spots opened forward and behind the center. After seeing a pie coming from the side, the Lavenders pulled themselves together and jumped to the forward spot to avoid it. The Lavenders were now trying to converse again.
Luan sighed. "Lynn is a bit of a competitive and energetic type, as I'm sure you've seen by now." She commented. The walls containing one full pie and two half-pies were back, only this time they came from both Luan's direction and the sides, causing the Lavenders to have to kick themselves to the sides, then up and down, then repeat according to the formations of the walls. They tried conversing again. Luan talked more. "It's always about trying to train so we can be ready for a human coming through." She said. This time, walls of two full pies circled the Lavenders, forcing them to hide in sort of a clockwise fashion around the middle. After this, they tried to talk again.
Luan looked forward again. "Now it's basically every day she has me train with her, but Lynn's happy, so that also makes me happy." She said. Luan pulled out her flower scythe again as the forward and back platforms retracted, bringing the area back to three lanes. Luan began swinging, this time faster than the last time, forcing the Lavenders to quickly go back and forth on a constant basis if they wanted to avoid the water projectiles. They conversed again.
Luan once again looked a little away, with the forward and back platforms returning. "I still should tell her to maybe relax a little. Cause even if I love helping her out, she'll hurt herself if she keeps pushing herself so hard." She commented. Distracted again, waves of pies kinda just loosely flew in from Luan and the sides, which the Lavenders were able to dodge easy enough. The Lavender then told a joke. "Heh, nice one. You actually seem really nice. Guess I let my judgements from the past cloud my vision." She quipped while picking up the foam-like fizz from the root beer-like water.
The Lavenders spared, ending fight mode. The water regained it's 'normal' golden appearance with no fizz while the comedy robots returned to being piles of scrap. Lavender's soul changed back into her normal orange mode, with the slinky pulling the two copies back into a single Lavender. Luan then looked at Lavender. "Well, seems you pulled yourself together. I'm probably gonna head home for now. If you want to stop by, feel free, though I imagine you'll want to get out of Goldenfalls sooner rather than later because of Lynn. I'll see you around at some point I guess." She said as she left the dump.
Nevermore flew in front of Lavender. "Nice job, but we still have a bit to go before we're out of Lynn's stomping grounds. For now, let's just remain on guard and get out of this scrap heap." She said. Lavender nodded in agreement and made her way to the exit. Lavender exited the dump, and saw Luan waiting.
She pointed north. "My house is up there if you ever find the time. Good luck with Lynn." She said as she left. Lavender did feel that this new area she ended up in was a little more quiet. She definitely did feel like looking around to get an idea of where to go.
*You feel a tranquility after a little comedy and scuffle. You have Faith that you'll make it out. Goldenfalls - Quiet Place
To Be Continued...