Chapter 3
"What?! You mean-" Pikarina was about to shout loudly before I shushed her by pinching her lips shut, her looking at me in shock as I spoke.
"Shh! I want to speak quietly, because the king has a spy watching our every move. A master of camouflage," I said with a hushed voice, her then nodding and me then releasing her lips, her then speaking to me in another manner. With her thoughts!
"Do you mean that you've known about me before you saved me?" she asked only me with her mind. I simply nodded. "What else do you know about me?"
"I know your dad is currently sick, him being the sun, and that your proper title is the Beaming Beauty," I said with a hushed voice, her nodding as she then asked another question to me and only me.
"Do you know what we'll expect, then?"
"I do, but you never know, some things may be different... for instance, Tiger wasn't supposed to shrink to his normal self when I fought him. He would've been turned into a bed instead and I would've had to rescue you from his stomach, had I not rushed in and knocked you out of the way," I said, her gawking at my words.
"Wow... I see... well, I've gotten my answers, so let's go find that General Rat guy!" Pikarina said, me smirking at her as we then moved forward into the bamboo areas... and we then saw the shadow of General Rat in the distance before he then sprayed the bamboo stalks with his Plum Miracalixir, which turned them into monstrous, deformed creatures that gained dangerously venomous teeth!
"What the heck happened to the bamboo?!" Pikarina asked in shock.
"I think I smell a rat! Hint hint," I said, her then smacking me on the head for that.
"Bad joke," she pouted at me as I proceeded to go through the mouths of the bamboo without getting hit and making sure to get to the end and to the magical gateway to the next part, which was the area with the Koi and the pandas.
"Aw, look at that cute panda bear! It's so adorable!" Pikarina giggled when she saw it.
"Good thing it's in the wild, then. Pandas in captivity become incapable of living on their own, they forget how to breed, and it's nearly impossible to re-teach them how to cope in their natural habitat," I explained... and I then heard a tell-tale Wah Wah noise coming from the Koi streamers, which Pikarina then laughed out loud.
"Now THAT was funny! It's just like Debby Downer! HAHAHA!" she laughed out loud, me looking at her in confusion.
"You know about Saturday Night Live?" I asked, her nodding at me.
"Well, yeah, Earth is both mine and daddy's favorite in the Solar System, since it has so much life and culture on it! I love the funny cartoons and the video game scene!" she smirked.
"Well, this adventure was in one of them," I said to her ear in quiet, her then sighing.
"Really? What was the name of it?"
"Puppeteer, for PS3," I smiled at her.
"Ah, gotcha. The one game system I didn't care for," she admitted.
"I would've thought that would be the Nintendo games, since they don't have trophies or achievements," I admitted.
"Good point. If I wanted to play a game, I'd love to get the feeling of accomplishment from getting a Platinum trophy," she admitted as we then got to the river and we saw the dangerous fish. "What the heck happened to these poor fish?!" she asked.
"Most likely the same purple gunk that General Rat used on the bamboo! We need to find him so we can put a stop to that poisonous goo!" I said, her nodding as we then got to the waterfall.
"Ugh... do we really have to climb this whole waterfall?" she asked as I then heard some splashing and I looked over the bridge.
"Um... Pika? Trouble alert," I said, her then looking as well to see the slew of dangerous fish swimming up the waterfall towards us, with spikes and poison coating their bodies!
"Eep! Let's climb, then!" Pikarina shouted as we then proceeded to climb with Calibrus and Pikarina, all the while freeing the souls of the children in the grubs we found, not stopping until we finally got to the top to find the giant cherry tree, filled with lots of cherry blossoms.
"Wow, look at the cherry tree! It looks so romantic!" Pikarina said with a sigh as I smiled... should I? Would she be okay with me holding her hand? I did the deed and held her hand, her looking at me in confusion. "What are you doing?"
"Um... holding your hand?... Romantically?" I asked, her smirking and simply picking my wooden fingers off of her.
"Not yet. We only just met. Sure, you rescued me, but I want to know you more before you get any ideas in that wooden head of yours," she smiled at me... and then, the purple gunk attacked the cherry tree, which made Pikarina gasp as I then proceeded to go through the entirety of the transformed tree to slay the grubs and destroy the cursed blossoms! And with one final slash of the bulb at the top, the tree returned to its normal state and lost the purple gunk completely!
"Wow... you saved it! A hero to nature as well!" she smirked at me... and then I heard something.
"The cave..." I heard a shy voice of a man say, me then seeing said cave near the tree and going towards it. And when I did, I saw a ninja scroll that was trapped in the Moon Bear King's dark magic. "Free me... take my scroll... save the goddess..." the voice said, me nodding as I worked with Calibrus to slash away the dark seal before then grabbing the scroll, my head then turning into a detachable bomb that I threw at the ground instantly!
"Wow! You got a bomb head!" Pikarina gawked as I then had my real head grow back as the bomb exploded on the ground, right next to a chunk of purple goo, which made it evaporate immediately!
"Let's keep going! We need to find that rat!" I said, her nodding at my words as we then went towards the gateways and we saw that Rat was turning all of them into monsters! I proceeded to bait the first corrupted lantern into smacking into a bomb, sending it into the sky for me to chase with Calibrus! And when I slashed the dark eyeball, Pikarina then smirked.
"Pow! Chicalachow! I love fireworks!" she smirked at me as we then moved forward again to contend with the next one. For each one, Pikarina did some more fireworks sounds before admitting on the third one: "Okay, I admit, I'm making these up as I go," she smirked.
"Can I do the last one, then?" I smiled at her.
"I give you permission to try and impress me," she smirked as we then got to the final gate and Rat's poison turned it into a Weaver! The monstrous gate tried to squish me with its large clubs before I baited him into smacking my bomb, which smacked the mallet into its face as I chased it into the sky and proceeded to slash through its center carpeting with Calibrus. And when it was back to ground level after I sent a bomb into its mouth shortly after, it collapsed as all the souls within it popped out! I then slashed each one with Calibrus's fine blade to free the souls of every last child in its clutches! And once I accomplished this, the pagoda then flew all over before flying into the sky and I then did the deed.
"PEW! Chachapikachoo! ! !" I smirked widely, Pikarina smirking at me.
"Not the best I heard, but it made me smile, so that's a win," she giggled at me.
"I try to make people smile no matter the occasion," I smiled back.
"100 percent truthful? Nice," she smirked as we then moved forward once more, finding that the pagodas were leading us closer to the Elder Cedars. But first, we had to trek through the bog. And I had to hope I could save the Kappagaeru and her kids at the same time.
Meanwhile, back in Castle Grizzlestein...
"Ugh... I can't get any sleep! And where in the world is General Tiger at?! Don't tell me that they killed him and took his body from me!" the Moon Bear King shouted in anger before he then got a call on his phone. "Ugh, of all the! GRAGH!" he growled before picking it up. "What is it?! This had better be important!" He then heard the voice of his most trusted General on the other end.
"Well, my Lord, I have found out that Minsie and the sun princess have defeated your Weaver in the Moonwood and have gained the powers of the Moon Ninja," said the voice of General Monkey, the master of machines, chemistry, and spy extraordinaire. At least, that's what he thought of himself as.
"WHAT?! How did they know to look there for it?!" the grizzly tyrant asked in anger.
"I don't know how, but I do know that they're looking for General Rat. And they were saying stuff to each other in secret that I couldn't quite understand... almost as if they knew something was going on as I spied from afar," Monkey said with seriousness.
"BAH! Just my luck! First they steal Calibrus, then they kill Tiger, and now that stupid puppet girl has the powers of the Knight and the Ninja!"
"Well, I do know that Tiger wasn't killed. I overheard that he had been shrunken down and that he's being kept as a prisoner of war by their allies," Monkey said with a sinister chuckle.
"WHAT?! Tiger reverted to his puny original self?! Curses! If they do the same to all the other generals, my powers will continue to shrink! I guess I need to take drastic measures! Keep an eye on them, but when I give the call, clear out of the Moonwood and go to the Wild Wastes, understand?!" the Moon Bear King growled at his banana loving spy.
"As you wish, my lord!" Monkey snickered before hanging up as the Grizz then went down to the lower parts of the castle to speak to the most deadly of his generals, if only because of how dagnerous her toxins were.
"Halt all poison production, Snake! I need you to do a job of utmost importance!" the king snarled at his subordinate.
"Ahh? I am finally releassssed from my prissson? What sssshall you have me do, my liege?" the slithering serpent of General Snake asked with a venomous hiss.
"Go to the Moonwood and kill the puppet Minsie Carver! Leave no tree untouched by your poison and do not stop until the puppet is killed and you get me back Calibrus and her Moonstone Shard she stole from Tiger!"
"Sssss! A perfect exxxxcussse for violenccce! Time to feasssst!" General Snake hissed in glee as she then uncoiled herself and proceeded to slither through the lower parts of the castle and out to the top. She needed to make sure her venom was 100 percent potent before engaging a puppet child capable of killing General Tiger, so she had to wait for at least a half hour before she made her move. And when she did, the whole Moonwood would be nothing but dry desert if it were the last thing she'd ever do!