Mario and Olivia made their way into the mystical forest, the way they were going slightly shrouded in mystery, though the mystery of the mist let up as they found themselves in a quaint little pocket in the forest, one secluded from the other parts. There was a rather large tree trunk in the middle which seemed to have been logged recently, flowers and grass scattered about. There were a few oddly curvaceous trees near the side, but other than that the room wasn't that particularly interesting.

Mario and Olivia continued onwards, walking past the quaint little place and into an exit that was rather close to the entrance to the odd mist, making their way through.

…

Mario and Olivia made their way into the odd mist exit, the way they were going slightly shrouded in mystery, though the mystery of the mist let up as they found themselves in a quaint little pocket in the forest. This place was secluded from the other parts, and there was a rather large tree trunk in the middle which seemed to have been logged recently. Occasional foliage scattered about. There were a few strangely circular-around-the-middle-area trees near the sides, but other than that the room wasn't that particularly interesting about the...

…?

Mario got a weird thought that he had been here before, but that couldn't possibly be it. Ignoring the odd thought, Mario and Olivia continued onwards, walking past the odd little glade and into yet another exit that was rather close to the entrance to the mystical mist of mystery and other words that start with 'mys.'

…

Mario and Olivia made their way into the mystical mist of mystery and other words that start with 'mys' exit, the way they were going slightly shrouded in mystery, though the mystery of the mist let up as they found themselves in a quaint little dell in the forest. There was a rather large tree trunk in the middle which seemed to have been logged recently, and foliage all around. There were a few... trees, but other than that the room wasn't that particularly interesting about the-

"Hey, is it just me or are we not getting anywhere?" Olivia noticed, both of them stopping in their tracks. "I'm pretty sure we've walked past that rather large tree trunk at least two times by now."

"Now that you mention it, this foliage does seem familiar..." Mario agreed. "I mean, I don't think mist should bring you back to where you started, I don't think we're in Hyrule."

"Well, I've been told that, sometimes when the folding gets rough, you should take a break to clear your head." Olivia suggested. "Maybe we should sit on something nice and flat like... that tree trunk, and clear our heads?"

"Well, that or get a massive fan to clear the fog for us." Mario suggested, though he had nothing, and no Things to pull that task off. "But I like your idea, so let's do that." he said, hopping up onto the rather large tree trunk, walking over to the middle and promptly sitting down with Olivia.

…

The air was... nice, to say the very least, not that much of a breeze going on, decent temperature all around, lovely scenery, and wonderful lighting. Would be a delightful place to relax, maybe for a picnic, or a get together, or to house a sword that seals away darkness. Either way, the fleeting moment of reprise felt very-

"HEY! Who's there?!" a female voice suddenly yelled, and Mario snapped up from his seat along with Olivia. They both made their way off of the tree trunk and back onto terra firma, not seeing anybody new in the area. That was, until a voice behind them spoke, and they turned around to see...

A TREE WITH EYES?!

"You can't sit on ol' Grandsappy's head, Mister!" the tree declared in a surly tone, and Mario just had his mouth open, trying to wrap his head around what was going on. Olivia was hiding behind him.

HUH?

Then a tree to the side of the first tree spoke in a rather haughty manner, "That's right, he's the elder of this 'ere forest, so show some respect!" the second tree commanded. "He's got bark older than ya!"

HUH?

Then the third tree, farthest away from them spoke, in a low tone. "So what if he's been logged by those nasty little buggers at that 'Bar-bee-que' place?" the third tree scoffed. "He's still the man!"

HUH?

"Wait, so that means..." Mario turned to the tree trunk in the middle of the scene, slightly leaning forward, though it probably didn't change much about the situation. In front of him, the stumps face took form, revealing a rather sad face with a moustache looking ahead.

"Mario..." Olivia whispered. "Why are the trees talking?"

"I don't know, usually they speak in Vietnamese, though..." he answered back in a whisper.

The rather sad tree which he assumed to be 'Grandsappy' then hacked out a horrible cough, not at all following CDC guidelines. Grandsappy then spoke, "Thank you, girls, bless your bark..." Grandsappy said, peering towards the three trees that just spoke. "Now, you... paper... paper... paper man, yes!"

"Yes?" Mario asked, taking a step back.

"Go... go tell your paper friends to never come back!" he declared, waiting a few seconds perhaps for a response, though Mario gave none and just nodded. "I've hardly the hardwood to speak, let alone learn you some manners..."

...

'That's right!'

'You tell em, Grandsappy!'

'No Toads allowed here!'

...

The tree closest to them let out a sigh and Mario turned to face... her? "Grandsappy hasn't been the same since they cut him down." she lamented. "That's why we hate y'all paper folks, cutting down trees in their prime, you should be ashamed!"

"Oh, and by the way, if you want to leave, you'll need Grandsappy's permission..." the tree farthest away from them said.

"Good look getting it though~" the tree in the middle laughed. "Better get comfy because you're gonna be 'ere FOrEvER!"

"But didn't he just say to go tell people to not come back?" Mario noted. "So, we have his permission then?"

"Uh... Grandsappy misspoke is all." the tree closest to them excused with a wave. "He's been doing that a lot lately."

Olivia leaned forward from behind Mario. "UH, I think forever means a really long time, and I can't deal with that, I have to stop my brother!" she then cleared her throat. "Mr. Grandsappy sir, you see... we're not the people who did this to you, I'm not even paper, I'm Origami!"

Grandsappy then spoke, "Ori... I think I've heard of Origami before... from uh... you know, the thing?" he shook It off then tried again. "Sorry I couldn't tell; my eyes aren't what they used to be." he excused. "Anyways, I'll tell you what, if you can find some way to restore me to what I used to be, I'll let you all go..."

"Wot?" the tree in the middle gasped. "Grandsappy, you can't be serious, we just got em trapped!"

"I mean... he said if they could restore him, and the chance of that happening is lower than a rose growing in a daisy patch." the farthest one muttered in a dejected tone.

The tree closest to them looked to the side, "I mean... maybe if they can find one of them rare seeds." she said.

"When was the last time we saw one of them?" the middle tree pondered.

"Fifteen years ago ... give or take." the farthest away one answered with a sign. "I doubt they even exist anymore."

Grandsappy then interrupted with a loud wheeze, and attention turned to him. "However long it was, if you can find it, give it to me, then we'll let you leave," Grandsappy inquired. "Girls, turn off the... the uh... the..."

"The mist?" the closest tree guessed.

"Yeah, the missed... the... you know..." he sputtered out like a dying horse.

"Alright Grandsappy..." she confirmed, holding up two of her branches, and the mist around the exits slowly dissipated like the military was coming through, though there was no sudden murder before it was gone "Well, good luck y'all, if it's anything the seed needs a dry climate to grow, so I wouldn't bother anywhere near the Spring."

"Oh yeah, what's with that lake anyway?" Mario asked. "Some things dropped into it and they came out looking refurbished."

"That's..." the closest tree looked to the side once more. "None of your business, just go on your merry way along the mountain!" the closest tree huffed, turning away. "It's not a lake..."

"Okie Dokie." Mario said, nodding and walking back to the previous area with Olivia. Soon enough, they both made it back from the path towards Grandsappy's domain, and perhaps it was just being out of the darkness, but something about the area felt a little more... alive.

"So... this place is a mountain?" Olivia asked, noting what the closest tree said prior.

But before Mario could say much, another voice spoke. "Yep, it's pretty chill if I do say so myself!" Mario and Olivia turned towards the source of the voice, and...

A TREE WITH EYEeeeee...

Oh wait, they've seen something like this before. Still though it was kind of weird, the tree, a pine tree from what it seemed just peered down at them like this was a perfectly normal occasion.

"Hey..." Olivia greeted in an awkward tone. "Do you know where we can find a seed by chance?"

"Well, that's not much of a way to introduce yourself, is it?" the tree asked in a jovial manner. "Come on then, tell me your names, go on!"

"Oh uh... I'm Olivia and this..." Olivia motioned towards Mario. "This is Mario."

"Well, nice to meet you two, and more importantly, sorry about the little prank those lads did back there, sometimes they just don't know when to stop, honestly?" the tree paused, perhaps for a nod or something, then continued. "Honestly, not a fan of pranks."

"Cool." Mario said, nodding, and went back on topic. "So, uh... the seed?"

"Not even going to ask my name?" the tree laughed. "Kinda rude, innit?"

Mario then began, "What's your-"

"Nah, I'm joking mate, we're trees, we don't have names." he laughed. "The correct term would be Sir for me."

"Okay, well Sir..." Olivia began, but the tree interrupted him.

"Nah mate, that was a joke as well, I'm just a tree." the tree explained, seeming content with the jokes. "Anyways, you lot are looking for a seed, yeah?"

"Yes." Olivia confirmed, perking up. "Do you know where it is?"

"Well, just between you and me right, I know a guy that knows a guy who knows a guy who might know where a seed is." the tree explained. "The problem is, I kind of forgot who, so I can't really help you there."

"Well, do you know anything about that lake over there?" Mario wondered, pointing towards the lake a distance away.

"Oh, I know loads, loads about it, you can throw anything in there and it'll just POOF, good as new, it's amazing, I accidentally broke my nephew's football once, threw it in, good as new." the tree explained, letting out a snicker. "Nah, I don't have a nephew, but that lake is pretty cool, I will say."

"So, do you think we could throw Grandsappy in then?" Olivia asked, and she got a very concerned look from the tree.

"That would kill him, you can't just uproot a tree and put him in the lake... we've tried before on someone else, and uh... we do not talk about it, God bless his bark..." the tree sighed, looking away. "Anyways, that's all I got, I'm going to go try to forget about that..." the tree muttered, and then closed his eyes, the two walking away.

"Sorry," Olivia apologized, though they were mostly out of earshot by the time she said it. Hm... do trees have ears? Well, ears aside, they made their way forward, though stopped when they saw a branching away path they noticed before, one with a hole that separated the path from... well the end of the cliff, and what seemed to be... some sort of treasure chest, just idling there.

"What's a thing like that doing just standing there?" Olivia asked.

"Psst, you talking about that?" A TREE WITH... eyes... *ahem* another tree a bit closer to the outwards path asked, and Mario and Olivia walked towards it. "One of them Toads put it there a week ago, said something bout' the only way or something other."

"But didn't they say you all hated Toads?" Mario wondered.

"That was- I kid you not- a day before those Toad's logged Grandsappy, I don't know if it was planned, but it's rather suspicious." the tree explained, its eyes darting around. "I'd leave it if I were you though, it's probably locked anyways."

"I say we check it out still," Olivia disagreed, making her way towards the chest.

"I mean, if it's like any other chests I've opened, it might be something helpful." Mario agreed as he and Olivia walked towards the treasure chest, the outlook it was on overlooking the quaint little plateau where those vines they pulled were. "Alright, let's see..."

Mario opened the chest with a hefty YANK and it opened up in a springy quick movement, Mario jumping back a smidge as it happened. "What is it?" Olivia asked, and they both peered inside to see.

…

…

A butterfly.

A pink butterfly to be precise, though something was off about it compared to a typical one you'd see. This butterfly had strange white polka dots all over it, and the sides of it seemed... almost like Olivia, looking to be made of some sort of folded paper.

"Oh my god, it's a butterfly!" Olivia cheered, then turned back to Mario. "Mario, what's a butterfly?"

Mario quickly responded, "When you throw butter out the window, usually." he said, peering closer to the chest, "Though, why was a butterfly inside?" he wondered, peering inside once more, but finding nothing else of interest.

"Maybe the guy who put it here was a butterfly enthusiast?" Olivia guessed, the polka dot butterfly fluttering around her. "Or maybe this butterfly is the key to finding the seed we need!"

"I mean, I doubt it, but we could always test it out." Mario said, looking towards the butterfly, not at all expecting anything from the creature. "Hey, butterfly, show us where the Soul Seed is."

"Please." Olivia added, and the butterfly stopped moving for a moment, seeming to almost look at Olivia before fluttering away, Olivia tilting her head to the side. "Let's follow it!" she declared, speeding ahead of Mario and behind the butterfly.

Mario followed Olivia, gaining traction in front of her and the butterfly with a brisk pace, though he let the butterfly go in front of him, in case it was actually leading somewhere, which didn't seem likely as it landed on the tree with the Party Ball that had the vine they collected earlier.

"Oooh, maybe this tree knows the answer?" Olivia guessed, and the tree's eyes looked towards them with the exaggerated swagger of a tree with eyes, "Excuse me, Mr. Tree Sir, do you-"

"Do I?" the tree responded. "Do you?"

"Do I what?" Olivia asked. "What do I do?"

"You do, what I do." the tree responded once more. "I do, do I?"

"Is this guy okay?" Mario asked himself, the butterfly fluttering around the tree like it was a bonfire. "Is he even a guy?"

"I do do what I do, but what do you do?" Olivia asked with high conviction. "You do what I do, or I do what you do, do you do?"

"Maybe I should..." Mario took out his hammer, and as soon as he did so the butterfly went from the tree and landed on it, though it took off afterwards, going back to the tree, then back to the hammer. "Well, if you're saying what I think you're saying..." Mario held his hammer back, and with a mighty SWING, smacked the tree with all his might.

"YEOWCH!" the tree yelled, and the sounds of birds flying away could be heard. "Finally, somebody has the courtesy to hit me upside the head..."

"Mario look!" Olivia exclaimed, pointing towards he leaves of the tree. It seemed to be... an orange... rock? Something, it looked rock-like at the very least, and a few moments afterwards, it fell to the ground, a circle around it lighting up in a bright white and forming a Magic Circle.

"Thanks man, some nutjob threw that up here for some reason, didn't catch his face though." the tree complained, peering down to the Magic Circle below. "Dunno what that Is though."

"I guess that butterfly was pretty helpful after all!" Olivia cheered, wiggling in happiness. "Where'd it-" before Olivia could finish what she was wondering, the butterfly landed on her cap, "There you are!"

"I wonder if there's something around here I could use this on..." Mario said to himself, peering upwards towards the Party Ball, a hand to his chin. "Maybe..." Mario walked up to the Magic Circle and extended his arms upwards, his hands springing outwards and into the Thousand-Fold Arms.

Without further ado, and without conversation, Mario reached up to the Party Ball with his arms, said arms feeling a tiny bit of strain as they stretched out towards the sides of the Party Ball, grabbing onto both sides, and with a firm pull, CRACKED it open.

Soon after, something as small came out, and Mario caught it with both of his outstretched hands!

YOU GOT A MYSTERY SEED!

Despite not feeding or sneeding, it feels as if this belonged to somebody named Chuck...

Mario's hands retracted as the circle beneath him disappeared, and he looked at the seed in greater detail, noting a grey-ish blue color to its very rough and hard exterior, kind of like a walnut.

"There's something weird about these..." Mario said, and Olivia went over to him looking at it as well.

Olivia seemed confused, "These what?"

"These nuts." Mario responded, showing the seed to Olivia. "Though I guess it's more like a seed than a nut, and it's more like this than these, but doesn't it look weird?"

"Maybe it's that seed those trees were talking about?" Olivia guessed, a slight gasp coming out afterwards. "That has GOT to be it, I mean, I'm no expert on Seedology or whatever, but it looks pretty special, so maybe we just need to give it to Grandsappy?"

"We could always try." Mario confirmed, nodding his head and turning back towards the forest entrance.

"Thanks for the help, butterfly!" Olivia said to the polka-dot butterfly who was still hovering around her like she was a precious jewel. "If you want to come along with us, that's fine, you can be our comic relief sidekick!" Olivia said, and the butterfly didn't respond. "I'll take that as a yes."

"Well, they're certainly a relief of comedy, but I dunno about comic relief." Mario responded, beginning to go toward the inning in the forest towards Grandsappy. "By the way, do you think we should go talk to those other trees back where we came?"

"Oh yeah, I bet they have very interesting and inciteful dialogue that tell very funny jokes are aren't just generic flavor text involving the location." Olivia hoped, and unfortunately in a localization studio somewhere in a world, somebody shook their head with a big fat NO.

{===}

. . .

. . .

Being a butterfly sucked.

. . .

. . .

{===}

"Hey, we found a seed!" Mario exclaimed as he and Olivia walked into the shrouded pocket of mystery, the trees noting their arrival and springing back into action, taking a quick glance at the two.

"Well, that was fast." the closest tree noted, seeming a bit skeptical in her voice as Mario held out the seed. "You sure that's the right seed?"

"Yeah, looks kind of dry, honestly." the tree in the middle noted with a crooked look. "Probably some kind of blue walnut." they guessed.

"I'll try it..." Grandsappy said, and Mario walked over to him and held up the seed to his mouth, and after what felt like forty-five minutes, but was actually a few seconds, Grandsappy sucked up the seed into his mouth.

"Well?" Mario asked, Grandsappy swishing the seed around in his mouth, the thought of whether or not if trees had Saliva flashing into Mario's mouth before Grandsappy spat it out directly in his face, the seed colored in a sticky yellow sap as it landed on the ground in front of Mario.

"PBLEH, this tastes like it came from the garbage!" he declared, and Mario picked back up the seed, though the sap did get on his hand. "That's NOT it, if you wanted to make that garbage remotely satisfying, you'd have to take it to the Spring!"

"You mean the lake?" Mario asked, and Grandsappy twiddled his moustache.

"Yes, the lake- the Spring just right of here, it freshens things up, that seed could use it!" Grandsappy muttered in a gruff manner. "In fact, I'll tell you what... go get that seed purified, then come back here, I'm hungry!"

"Grandsappy... trees don't get hungry." the farthest away tree noted.

"They don't?" Grandsappy said, looking towards her. "Oh... well, still, go right from here and uh... uh... what I said before, go get my seed wet- THAT seed, go get that seed wet." Grandsappy corrected.

"Right... so we head right?" Olivia attempted to make sure of, and Grandsappy confirmed her thoughts as Mario examined the seed. "Alright, short visit, but let's head over there!"

"Hey uh... Grandsappy... do they call you that because of the sap you spit?" Mario asked before they left, and the trees to the side gasped.

"HOW DARE YOU?!" the tree in the middle asked, leaning back. "You bloody... shoelace!"

"That's very rude..." the farthest away tree noted with a look away. "You should watch your mouth." they said.

The closest tree then spoke, "That would be like me asking you about how big your-"

"OKAY I GET IT!" Mario yelled with his hands pushed out. "I get it, I'm sorry, I won't ask again..." he assured, giving a nod towards Grandsappy and slowly backed up and into the exit of the quaint little inlet of the forest, this time instead of going back to where they came from, they found themselves somewhere else, what looked to be heading down the mountain.

Here the trees were far less plentiful, and it was honestly a rather quaint downward heading curved path that headed towards the lake, the smell of posies fresh in the air, and nothing at all to bother them. They made their way downwards, Mario lightly humming to himself, when a bush stood in the way of their path.

…

A bush that looked like it had been drawn in pencils, plastered in glue, and then nailed onto a square piece of cardboard. It looked very suspicious...

"Mario, is it me, or does that bush look... off?" Olivia wondered, putting her hand to her chin. "Almost... fake?"

"Yeah, usually bushes are starting pointless wars, but this one is just kind of standing there." Mario confirmed, also putting a hand to his chin. "What do you think we should do?"

...

Mario looked at Olivia.

Olivia looked at Mario.

Someone who was behind the bush looked at Olivia and Mario.

Olivia and Mario looked at the person behind the bush.

...

"Seems perfectly safe to me!" Olvia shrugged, putting her hands back to her side and cheering. "Let's go!"

"I agree, absolutely nothing about this situation could go wrong!" Mario said, him and Olivia walking in front of the bush, the bush graciously rotating to the side and letting them past without a care in the world, and the two continuing ahead along the trail to the lake.

"Hey... Mario?" Olivia said, her head held high.

"Yeah?" Mario asked, holding a hand out towards Olivia as they walked forward. "What's up?"

"Am I crazy, or did that bush move?" she said, and her and Mario stopped in their tracks.

...

Mario looked at Olivia.

Olivia looked at Mario.

The person behind the bush looked at Olivia, and in fact the person behind the bush was right behind them, the sneaky fellow, a Folded Soldier he was! A Goomba in fact, and said Goomba as it turns out wasn't alone. There were two Goombas, so many actions happening that this was getting far too big to be contained within two ellipses-

…

-thus, now outside of the ellipses, the Goombas struck into action and jumped at Olivia, Mario himself jumping back in shock as they took her and began to run down the cliffside like the Ice Cream Truck was outside.

"HELLLLLP-!" Olivia yelled like a typical damsel in distress, and Mario rushed down the path, not stopping to take in the scenery like you'd do on a natural path, and rushing past flowers and a few real bushes until he got to the main centerpiece of the place, none other than the lake.

...eh, covered up by a weird circle. The circle was smack dab in the middle of the lake, a short hop away and had multiple odd multi-colored segments that were separated in a checkerboard pattern, what looked to be... rings? Maybe rings, though it was hard to tell what it was. The Goombas had jumped on it, though they stayed away from the middle.

"Olivia, hang on a moment!" Mario yelled, getting a head start then jumping across from the small extension of the cliff he was on to the circle.

{===}

…

"LINE EM' UP!"

Olivia's voice suddenly declared, and the Goombas let go of her, jumping onto the sides of the ring, Mario running to the center to make sure she was alright. "Are you okay?" Mario asked, and Olivia nodded.

"Ignore me, you have work to do Mario, though this should be fairly simple and not at all long." she explained, pointing him towards the Goombas who had scattered, said Goombas not at all moving. "You have to direct me on how to line these guys up, there are only two, so this should be simple."

"Line them up?" Mario asked, and Olivia nodded, pointing to the floor below.

"That's a ring, in a battle there are four rings, you, as the Ring King have to instruct me, the Ring Spinner on where to spin the ring to line em up, got it?" she asked, seeming oddly fired up compared to her jovial attitude prior.

"Ring King?" Mario repeated, and Olivia nodded once more. "What is this, some kind of tabletop RPG?" he asked, and Olivia along with the Goombas seemed confused. "Nevermind, uh... you said I'm supposed to line these up, yeah?"

"Instruct me to line em up, tell me which ring to spin, and I'll do it!" Olivia confirmed, and Mario looked out at the board in front of him. For the four rings, the first Goomba was on the innermost ring, and the second one was on the second to last ring, though a bit scattered away.

"Spin the ring the farthest Goomba is one towards the one the first one is on." Mario said, and nothing happened, as he looked towards Olivia who was looking towards him like she was expecting something. "What's wrong?"

"I need the exact numbers." Olivia explained.

"yEAh, eXAct nUmbERs." the farthest Goomba yelled, seeming annoyed. "tHIS iS sEriOUs sTufF."

"Why?" Mario wondered, "I'm sure you know what I mean, yeah?" Mario asked, and Olivia shook her head.

"I might know what you mean, but I need the exact numbers in order to accurately surmise what I'm supposed to do in the scenario." Olivia inquired, seeming a bit angry. "Let me show you..." she insisted, moving in front of Mario and holding her hand outwards.

The ring the second Goomba was on lit up, and Olivia began to count as the ring turned in a rather exact movement, one of the different colored tiles on the ring shifting to where the other was previously. Olivia counted to One for this, then counted to Two as she shifted it once more.

"Do you get it now?" Olivia asked, and Mario nodded, the ring suddenly resetting to the position it was in before, the Goombas still totally okay with what was going on.

Mario took a look at the board in front of him the Goomba on the second to last row was around four... "tiles" away from the other one, so he made haste in giving the command. "Okay... move the second to last row... four to the right!" he said, and Olivia nodded.

The ring moved to the left in a semi-smooth way, and quickly stopped once the two Goombas were lined up, prime to be attacked.

"Nice one, though usually that lineup wouldn't be legal." Olivia noted. "I'll allow it, but only because there are two enemies, as according to the rules." she finished, turning towards the Goombas. "Now, I'm sure you know how to attack MEASELY level one enemies, I'll let you handle this!" Olivia oddly yelled.

"Uh... right." Mario confirmed, getting ready to pounce, then jumping on the first Goomba, doing a quick flip midair to make the extra distance to the second distance. As he landed, he looked back to see both Goombas were spinning, and sure enough they exploded into confetti.

Mario took out the bag and made sure the Confetti all got sucked in, before looking towards Olivia who was happily moving back and forth. "YEAH!" Olivia cheered, looking towards Mario with an extremely happy face. "WE TOTALLY CRUSHED THOSE STUPID LO...s..e...r...sssss" Olivia looked towards Mario.

{===}

"Well, you seem happy." Mario noted, and Olivia floated back to the grass, Olivia seeming rather bashful. "By the way, what was that?"

"Oh, that was a Ring Battle, it's kind of... a thing we do, if you're challenged you have to..." Olivia paused, then did a rather snooty voice that seemed to be mimicking somebody. "Fight until the very end, and leave no ring unturned!"

"Well, you seemed to be into it." Mario noted, and Olivia looked away sheepishly.

"Sorry... it's um... y'know, just stuff." she explained away, and Mario tilted his head. "I'll tell you some other time, we should probably chuck the seed in!" she said, pointing towards the lake. Mario looked towards the lake; it was practically sparkling truth be told, he hadn't noticed it quite before, but the water looked amazing, like something you'd see in a travel brochure.

Mario then noticed something else,

"Where'd the ring go?" he asked, and sure enough the ring that they had just been fighting on had disappeared, quite literally nothing left behind.

"I'm... not sure actually." Olivia said, looking around for a moment. "Maybe it went on vacation?" she pondered, and Mario shrugged as the polka-dot butterfly from before landed on Olivia's head. She turned towards the lake. "Oh hey, this is that Spring that we saw before!"

"Isn't it more like a lake?" Mario asked, and Olivia shook her head.

"There's a difference, I'm sure." she responded. "Anyways, I somehow feel... calmer just by being around it..." she noted, her voice getting slightly softer. "Mr. Grandsappy said we should throw the seed in, yeah?"

"Yeah, he did." Mario confirmed, taking out the seed. "The lake purifies things, he says."

"Oh wait, we got that shriveled Mushroom a bit ago, didn't we?" Olivia asked, and Mario pulled it out of his pocket.

"Yeah, we could totally try throwing that in," Mario said, holding the seed in his other hand. "We could throw both in..."

...

Mario looked at Olivia.

Olivia looked at Mario.

The butterfly probably looked at them both.

...

"Throwing contest?" Olivia asked, tilting her head.

"Throwing contest." Mario confirmed, tossing the seed to Olivia who caught it with quick precision. "Whoever tosses their item the farthest gets... Five Hundred coins, by the time we get enough coins." Mario decided upon, and Olivia nodded.

"Deal!" Olivia said, and her and Mario went to the farthest point of the land extending out into the lake, both readying their throws like they were pitching for the Olympics, and Olivia began to count.

...

"Three..."

…

"Two..."

…

"One..."

…

"GO!"

...!

The two quickly moved their arms forward and TOSSED their objects at high velocity towards the far end of the lake, soon afterwards looking to see who went the farthest, being surprisingly neck and neck for the first few seconds, as...

-plonk-

The seed touched down, and a bit further away from it, the mushroom, landed, Mario cheering for his victory with a thumbs up.

"Awww, no fair!" Olivia complained. "I don't even have arms."

"Eh, don't worry about it, you don't have to pay, it's just a game." Mario responded, and Olivia looked a bit taken aback.

"Are you sure?" she asked, looking around. "Like, really sure?"

"Yeah, don't worry about it." Mario confirmed, looking towards the lake as it glowed a magnificent and semi-blinding white, the color soon disappearing as Mario looked ahead to see-

The Mushroom being tossed as high velocity directly towards his face. "MAMA MIA-OUCH!" Mario yelled, the Mushroom hitting him smack dab in his schnoz, and making him spin and fall over.

"Mario are you okay-OWW!" Olivia complained, as something seemed to hit her as well, sending her for a spiral midair before she hit the ground with a light thud. The two picked themselves up, and looked at the items the lake spit out, seeing a now golden-brown seed and a fully grown Mushroom in front of them.

"Well, that was easy." Mario noted, and Olivia nodded as he picked up the items.

YOU GOT THE MUSHROOM!

It won't make you big, but it'll recover health if you need it to!
= = =

YOU GOT THE PURIFIED SEED!
Maybe this'll do the trick on Ol' Grandsappy? Or maybe It won't...

Mario put both of the items back into pockets then looked bath towards the path where they came from. Oddly, he was expecting something to happen, but... nothing. They had gotten the seed, and that was it, nothing out of the Ordinary about it.

"Well, let's go give this to Grandsappy!" Mario cheered, as he and Olivia made their way back up the path they came down from, the items in Mario's pocket feeling fresh against the fabric. All the while they were walking, just... out of the corner of his ear, Mario could hear an odd sound.

Some sort of...

"Hon hon hon..."

{===}

As you all know, this is Origami King refolded, and as such sometimes I'll step off the beaten path and do things... well, not in the game, simply put. Next chapter, you'll see what I mean, see you all then... sorry I took long.