"See you!" Jenny called
"Yeah" Tim replied from the boat. Belle and Karl had already said their goodbyes and now it was only Jenny who was left.
Tim had insisted on them not doing the entire thing over email, because he wanted to hear the stories as the storyteller told them, because reading just wasn't the same.
Jenny watched as the boat left the dock, and then decided what to do. She had five coins on her, so she decided to go find the storyteller and find out what happened to the wise Goomba.
"The hiding places of many of the crystal stars have now faded into legend but some say that the wise Goomba hid one in the Great Tree."
The Great Tree was the tallest in the Boggly Woods and probably the oldest. Its bark was black, and its leaves were white, like all the trees in those Woods were.
"At that time, many monsters wandered in the nearby Boggly Woods. The tiny Punies were always tormented by their fierce appetites, it was said. Pitying them, the Goomba hollowed out the Great Tree for the Punies to live in."
She noticed that the Punies were being bullied, always, and it wasn't fair. 'I'll hollow out the Great Tree!' she thought, and then proceeded with this plan.
It took a while, but before long the tree was habitable and the Punies moved in, thanking the Goomba for her wisdom.
"The Punies were so grateful they swore to protect the Crystal Star there..."
They were so grateful that they even agreed to protect the Crystal Star. The Goomba had already prepared a place for the Star to go, and she agreed to let them.
'The Stars need to be protected, so the seal will remain' she told herself. But she did not know what her fate was, and soon found out.
A black box appeared to take her soul.
A heaviness weighing on her heart, some from Tim's departure, and some from hearing this sad tale, Jenny thanked the storyteller and left. 'Maybe' she thought 'there's something down in the sewers… just waiting to be found.'
Having decided where to go next, Jenny headed down into the sewers. She ran into it on her way to the Door, by mistake if anything, but there it was. A black chest.
She approached it carefully, and the closer she got, the more she knew, that this chest held the soul of the Wise Goomba. After all this time, she had told Tim that she didn't believe that this tale was real, actual history, something that did happen. But here was the proof, staring her in the face.
Slowly, Jenny pulled out her own Mailbox SP and sent an email to Tim. "I believe you" she said "this tale actually is real."
The response came quickly, as if Tim had just been waiting for someone to email him. "Took you long enough" he said.
Jenny smiled, and put her Mailbox SP away, and then a thought occurred to her. 'If she left the Star in Boggly Woods, then why is the chest here?' Jenny pondered this thought for a moment 'maybe there's an entrance to Boggly Woods around here somewhere…'
She went looking for it immediately and was surprised when she ran across a little Puni. It looked at her, and then smiled. "Follow me!" it said, before darting off. Curious, Jenny followed.
Jenny found herself inside the Great Tree within no time, and spent quite a while exploring it. Half of the heaviness in her heart was eased, but now she wished there was something she could do to help Tim out.