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Last time on Plan B: Ballad of Swords
Rock began training Ness to better use his powers as well as magical items that would be beneficial in the quest they were about to embark on to unite the new champions of the elements. The Mushroom Kingdom, though battered and war torn, equipped the two with what supplies they had at their disposal and sent them off with hope, prayers, and a map of the Mushroomy Desert.
Though at first the Mushroomy Desert proved to be a harsh climate to traverse through, the real danger did not present itself until after dark when the predators of the sand emerged. Ness and Rock awoke in the night to find themselves surrounded by buzzy beetles. The beetles shells proved to be resilient against their magic, and so in a think fast move by Ness, he reached for an unfamiliar magical artifact, a block with the word "POW" written on it, and threw it. The POW sent out a shockwave that flipped all of the creatures onto their backs, but the foundation of the old fort caved in under the stress of which Ness and Rock were unable to escape and the two plummeted into the darkness of the underworld.
Chapter 6: Creeping Through the Sewers
Ness opened an eye and saw it was still dark. Definitely too early to get up, so he closed his eyes in order to sleep longer.
"Psst… hey… wake up dammit!" Ness felt a hand knocking on his head.
Ness looked up again at the boy standing over him, "It's too early Ninten… What are you doing?"
Ninten crossed his arms as an annoyed look washed over him, "We're going to go find out what Mr. Minch and The Sharks are hiding in their warehouse, remember?"
"Can't it wait 'til later? I'm really sore for some reason…" Ness tried rolling over but Ninten grabbed his sheets and ripped them off the bed.
"Nope, this is important for everyone, and we need to go before the sun rises!" Ness sighed as he sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes. He knew Ninten was too sold on the idea to back off.
"Alright fine, just give me a minute to get ready," Ness slowly started dressing.
"Just hurry, I'll be waiting outside," Ninten hurried out of the room to finish his final preparations.
Once dressed and ready, Ness started sauntering through the house after his cousin. He was startled when he heard, "And where do you think you're going at this hour?"
Ness jumped and turned at the sound of his mother's voice, "Don't scare me like that mom!"
His mother grinned, "A few scares makes the heart stronger. And if you're going to save the world then a strong heart is a requirement."
"Save the world?" Ness laughed, "Don't you think that's a bit much, I'd be happy if I could make our lives here just a little bit better."
Ness's mother sighed, "Did I ever tell you about the day you were born?"
"Umm…" Ness gulped looking for a way out of the conversation, "I really need to get going, Ninten is waiting…"
"I'll do everything I can for Ninten, but I can't help but worry about you," Ness's mother took a seat and looked up at him, "When you were born, you were heavy…"
Ness leaned to one side, "Gee thanks mom…"
Ness's mother laughed, "Not heavy as in fat, you were never overweight, but when you were born you were already carrying the weight of the world on you."
"What? I don't…" Ness tried to understand what she was saying.
"I didn't understand it at the time, but to be a chosen one, or even next in line to a chosen one, you were never destined to stay in this town or do anything so meager as to improve this one place."
"You're being really weird mom," Ness chuckled to himself to try and ease his own confusion.
"You just need to know, no matter where you go or how far you travel, you'll always carry a piece of home with you. I'll always be thinking of you and praying for you no matter what. There's no need to be sad or angry and don't ever feel lonely," Ness felt arms wrap around him from behind and could tell it was Ninten. Ness suddenly noticed that Tracy and Ninten's sisters were also in the room. Rock came in also and stood beside his mother as she patted him on the back, "Your friends are with you, and your family will always be behind you. Go be the strong, brave, courageous hero I know you're going to be."
Ness finally began remembering what had been going on lately, "Mom… I…" Ness sniffed as he gripped onto Ninten's arms, "I miss you… I have to save all of you!"
"Any boy would be a little homesick venturing off on their own, but you won't let that stop you. I know you'll save us and the whole world, but it's an adventure, don't forget to enjoy yourself and make new friends. That's what life is all about. And the bonds you create are what will truly bring salvation to our land."
Ness knew he was waking up, "Thanks mom, I will!" He looked over his shoulder and saw Ninten grin wide at him before he and everyone else faded away.
As Ness's real senses began to clear he became aware of the sound of running water that made him want to find a place to pee. His eyes opened again but it really was still dark. He also felt the left side of his body was really sore. Like in his dream, he felt arms wrapped around his stomach, "Ninten?"
Ness's head finally cleared as his eyes adjusted to the low ambient light. It wasn't just arms wrapped around him, he was on top of someone, "ROCK!"
Ness untangled himself and tried to assess the situation. They were obviously underground somewhere, and surrounded by the rubble of what looked like it used to be the fort they had been spending the night in. Ness finally remembered the beetle attack, he threw the POW Block, and then then they fell. Ness's eyes widened as he realized Rock must have moved underneath him to take the brunt of the fall, "DUMBASS! WAKE UP!"
Rock groaned and slowly his eyes opened, "Hey…"
A wave of relief and anger flooded through Ness, "If you ever do something so stupid again…"
"Says the guy who threw a mysterious magical POW Block," Ness cringed realizing he was the one that did that.
Ness averted his gaze downward, "I'm sorry, I guess that was pretty dumb…"
"It turned out for the best, you beat the beetles, and we're both alive, can't ask for more," Rock tried sitting up but winced in pain and his hand went to his side.
Ness tried taking a closer look, "Are you alright?"
Rock nodded, "I think I might be bruised up a bit, but I'll be okay." With a little more effort, Rock pushed himself to his feet and stretched, "Yeah, ow, how far did we fall?"
Both boys looked up and could see the crevice at the top of the cavern they were in at least twenty meters up. Ness whistled at the site of the place "Yeah, no wonder that hurt. Who would have thought there'd be this huge cave right under the fort though?"
"Whoever ran that fort did at one time," Rock kneeled by a waterway that was overflowing from the rubble of the fort above, "The ground around this channel is bricked forcing the water to flow in a particular direction like an aqueduct."
The rest of the cavern was beginning to light up as the sun rose and shined down through the hole above. Ness looked around nervously at the huge underworld, "How do we get out of here?"
Rock examined the walls of the cavern they had fallen into, "Hmm… We can't climb out the way we fell in, the walls are too steep." Rock squinted his eyes to try and see where the water channel snaked off to in the dark, "Looks like the track keeps going a long way over there."
Ness pulled out Mario's hat, it tugged in the direction of the tunnel, "That tunnel is going the way we want to go, maybe this will work out and keep us out of the sun."
"That would be nice," Rock slightly limped toward the dark tunnel, "Good thing if it's light we need that I got us covered!" a ball of light formed in Rock's outstretched hand and began to float above him. The illumination made everything nearby visible at it floated over Rock's head.
"Let's take it slow for now," Ness suggested as he started walking through the tunnel at an easy pace, "just in case."
The two walked through the tunnel for over an hour without seeing anything besides brick and the channel of water along the center of the tunnel.
"I think it's opening up over there," Rock pointed out as they saw something that looked darker than the rest of the tunnel. Once their hovering light exited the tunnel with them it lit an enormous cavern. The water channel seemed to be cutting an edge through the cavern like a micro canyon joining several other underground streams that flowed in from other tunnels.
Both boys looked around the cavern in awe for a moment. Ness returned his focus to the hat which was still pulling along the same path, "I guess we keep going that way."
Rock nodded in agreement, "This is probably the point of no return, we may not be able to track our way back with the way so many water channels connect in this room. Let's hope the water eventually leads back outside."
Ness gulped nervously but kept pushing forward. The scenery started changing wildly. Strange rock formations began looking like multi leveled platforms, and other rocks formed staircases that required some climbing to get over. Ness climbed up quickly then turned to offer a hand to help Rock up.
Ness pulled himself up to a higher level quickly but almost fell into a pit that he didn't notice until Rock held him steady, "Careful!"
"Huh?" Ness's eyes widened as he looked down at the hole he almost fell backwards into.
"There are a bunch of pits up here," Rock looked over the side of one, "It would be hard to climb out of them if you fell in."
"Yeah, we'll have to watch our steps." Ness looked around at the various pits and started hopping over them in order to climb to the next platform.
Once Rock was lined up, he would kick off one ledge with his good leg and grab onto the next ledge where Ness would help him climb up, "Thanks."
Ness was becoming more concerned with the way Rock was limping around, "This is harder than we thought it was going to be, we should really find a place to rest or we're gonna end up falling into a hole and getting stuck."
Rock shook his head, "We need to try pushing for a while longer, we only have enough supplies for the week and we'll be in serious trouble if we end up stuck down here with no food."
A slight rustling sound caused Ness to look further down the cavern, "What was that?"
Rock was also on guard, "I'm not sure, I don't see anything, but that didn't sound like water flowing… Keep your guard up."
Ness nodded and tried to keep quiet as he started climbing down to the next rocks. Neither boy spoke any more as they focused on listening while moving silently. Still only the sound of water could be heard in the enormous cavern. Ness couldn't keep from shuffling the dirt under his boot as he hopped down to the bottom level but froze as a definite scurrying sound reached ears. Both boys stared towards a boulder with anticipation as the sound had definitely come from behind it.
Rock slowly slid down and stood beside Ness. They looked at each other and nodded before moving as silently as they could toward the boulder. The light Rock still had above his head moved around the side of the large stone and onto a small brown creature.
"Oh," Ness's apprehension softened, "Hey little guy, what are you doing down here?"
"Be careful Ness," Rock started looking around more frantically.
"Why?" Ness looked between the small creature and Rock, "It looks like it's just lost down here." Ness tried reaching closer to the creature to touch it as it opened its mouth and revealed many sharp fangs. It lunged at Ness's hand and chomped at him; Ness barely pulled his hand back in time, "Oh crap!"
"Yeah," Rock swatted at the creature, scaring it back slightly. It ran around the boulder and growled at them. "Small monsters like that aren't bad to deal with when they're alone."
More shuffling noises began closing in from around them, "And you when you say that it's because…"
A multitude of growls sounded off in the darkness as several more of the brown creatures stepped into the light, "Just that small, helpless looking creatures rarely are alone."
The goombas began slowly crawling forward, their mouths open revealing many sets of sharp fangs.
"Nope, nope, nope…" Ness reached for his belt and pulled out his yoyo. He tossed the metal disk causing it to spin down the cord, growing into large metal blades as it did so. It sparked with electrical current and gave off loud cracks of thunder as it spun against the ground in front of the goombas. The light show was enough to spook most of the goombas which turned and ran in other directions.
A few goombas continued pushing forward and rolled towards the boys with open mouths. Ness swung his yoyo behind his back, again it sparked with high voltage as it spun rapidly in place before he swung his arm forward causing it to release its charge as the yoyo reached the end of its range. The electrical sparks raced past the goombas and flung them back from the force of the bolts.
The remaining goombas scurried away to other hiding places.
The yoyo returned to Ness's hand as a smaller metal disk, "They're not too tough but there's a lot of them."
Rock kept a close eye on where they ran off to, "I'm worried they may regroup and try again."
"I don't suppose they get much food down here," Ness shivered at his own implications.
With an ear open for the sounds of the goombas footsteps crawling towards them, the two continued pushing forward. Every time a group of goombas began to get a little brave, Ness would hurl another lightning bolt in their direction to scare them off. Hours of exploration through the underground cavern passed and not much changed.
Another bolt and nearly a dozen goombas scurried away, "These guys are getting annoying."
Rock patted Ness on the back, "But you're still only scaring them."
"Huh?" Ness was unsure why Rock looked happy.
"You're not killing any of them," Rock clarified.
"Well…" Ness watched as two goombas ran behind another boulder, "They look vicious, but really all they do is walk around. I guess they could be trouble if they got too close, but if they run away from every crack of thunder then why would we need to kill them?"
Rock grinned to himself as he limped forward, "Yeah huh?"
Ness frowned as he watched Rock move, "I think you're limping worse than you were earlier."
"I'm fine," Rock insisted.
"No, we need to find a place to rest for the day," Ness looked around at the rocky structures in the cavern. "There," he pointed towards a high ledge on a rock formation not too far off, "If we can climb up there we should be pretty safe from these things sneaking up on us."
"Alright," Rock finally agreed and looked around and saw something out of the corner of his eye, "Look over there, is that a sack?"
"Yeah," Ness ran over and took a look. Inside the sack was a bunch of dried vines and twigs. "I think we can make a fire with these!" With those in hand the two made their way towards the rocky structure. Ness only had to scare off a few more goombas as they approached their resting spot.
The wall was steeper and higher than most of the platforms they had scaled to earlier. Ness jumped at the wall and clawed his way up, "Yeah we should be pretty safe up here." Once Ness made it to the next level, he took a look around, made sure there was enough room, and that it provided enough cover. Ness reached over the side, "This looks perfect, come on up."
Rock was a little sluggish climbing up to the gap but managed to roll himself over the ledge without his normal dignity. Rock fell back against the wall and laughed, "Don't tell anyone that I had a hard time climbing that.".
Ness was still feeling guilty that Rock wouldn't be hurt if it wasn't for him,
"Oh yeah," Rock opened one eye and smiled, "I think you're right, just needed a break for a while."
"Okay," Ness pulled off his backpack and set it aside with Rock's before pulling out the sack of dried vines and twigs.
Ness took care of setting a ring of rocks in the middle of their outcropping and threw all of the dried twigs and plant parts in the center. He reached for a flint lighter to ignite the plants.
"Wait," Rock called out from where he was sitting.
Ness looked up in worry, "What?"
Rock grinned daringly, "Don't use a lighter, use your magic."
A grumpy frown formed on Ness's mouth, "You know I'm not good with fire magic."
Rock couldn't help but chuckle, "We've never talked much about magic have we? Do you know what lightning is?"
A nervous gulp made its way down Ness's throat, "Well yeah, I mean… Lightning… it's… powerful…" Ness shook a clenched first for emphasis, "storm… stuff…"
Full laughter broke out from across the landing. Ness didn't hide the dejection from his face as Rock calmed down, "I'm sorry, I guess I just took it for granted that you understood a few things about it."
Ness sighed, "So are you gonna tell me or not?"
"Of course I am," Rock grinned as he adjusted how he was sitting, "Before you can understand lightning you have to know what an atom is. The ground, the air, even us are made of atoms which are tiny particles that you can't even see. Atoms in turn are made up of a core nucleus of protons and neutrons which are orbited by electrons. Electrical current is when electrons move between atoms. When a magnetic field causes the electric current to flow with enough excitation it becomes a plasma, or what you actually see as lightning. So lightning magic doesn't actually create plasma, it creates electrical and magnetic fields, that once powerful enough, mimics lightning. This is why a lot of people actually refer to lightning magic as energy magic."
Ness blinked helplessly a few times, "I know a little bit about atoms and molecules… kind of… but I still don't get what that has to do with starting a fire?"
Rock pulled a metallic rod from his jacket, "Lightning can start fires but it's hard to control at that level. But if you're careful with your electrical current..." Rock held the spark rod up and let it give off a few bright sparks, but he quickly brought the current under control to the point the rod only glowed with energy and heat. He pushed the tip of the metal rod into the middle of the dried plants, "...you can naturally generate heat, and heat…" The plant parts began to glow from the heat for a moment before one finally lit into a small flame, "...once past the flash point will start a fire."
"Wow," Ness watched as the pit emitted a gentle glow and little bit of heat. "I guess there's more to lightning magic than blowing bad guys away."
"Lots more," Rock grinned as he watched Ness gaze into the small flames. "If you practice control on the small scale, you'll be surprised how it can affect your more powerful offensive magic. And we haven't even gotten to magic circles!"
"I'll give it a try next time," Ness agreed. He started sniffing in the air, "Do you smell that?"
Rock scrunched his face as a strange scent reached him as well, "Yeah, it smells kind of sweet huh?"
"Yeah…" Ness looked all around then down, "It's coming from the fire."
"Really?" Rock leaned in to get a better whif, "You're right, what the heck are we burning?" Rock became slightly concerned as he looked as though he were flipping through catalogs in his head.
"I don't know, it was everything in that sack," Ness tried to help, "Mostly some vine like twigs and branches, and some other dried plants were mixed in… one was hard and red, the other was like an orange flower."
"Orange flower…" Rock shifted quickly and pulled his backpack out from behind him. His eyes widened as if a light bulb went off over his head, "Hey! That didn't hurt anymore!" Rock pulled up his shirt to take a look and saw the bruise was slowly fading away. "I normally heal pretty quick, but not that fast. Whatever plant combination we're burning must have some healing properties!"
Ness watched in amazement as Rock's bruise vanished before his eyes. He noticed he was also feeling refreshed, "That's awesome! We should get more of these!"
"Definitely, we might be able to make some potions out of them." Rock leaned over the edge of their outcropping, "The dried orange flowers have to be the legendary Fire Flowers of the Mushroom Kingdom, so that makes sense, but what the heck is the hard red plant that it mixed with?"
"Only one way to find out," Ness suggested energetically.
Rock took in another deep breath, "Let's rest a little more just in case and we'll get to it."
It was impossible to tell what time it was while underground. The boys knew the sun was just coming up when they started their walk, and that hours had passed. Though they had both planned to rest for a while, they were both feeling reenergized from their makeshift incense.
The two climbed down and continued scaring off goombas while marching further down the tunnels.
With their energy restored the two pushed on for several more hours down the tunnels of the underground while making really good time. Ness was focused on the ground ahead of him, so the sound of Rock laughing unnerved him a bit. He looked over his shoulder at his smirking friend, "What?"
"This is really cool," Rock was messing with the sack they had found their fire flower bits in earlier.
"What is?" Ness stepped back to take a look at whatever it was Rock noticed.
"Here," Rock pulled on the drawstring so Ness could see, "Look familiar?"
There was a medallion hanging off the string to the pouch. Engraved on the medallion was a familiar "M". Ness's eyes widened as he pulled out Mario's red hat that was leading them to the new champion of fire, "It's the same M!"
Rock nodded, "Yeah, we are literally on Mario's trail. Following in his footsteps."
"I wonder what he was even doing down here," Ness thought out loud as he looked further down the long tunnel, "You think Mario is pretty cool huh?"
Rock shrugged, "He's one of the most famous people alive… well… I hope he's alive somewhere. Actually, when I was a kid I heard more stories about his guardian Ryu where I came from. Ryu is one of the greatest fighters in the world, so when he became Mario's guardian I had to find out all I could about Mario too."
"And I don't know much about Ryu at all, most people in Onett called him a wandering mystery," The two carried on down the hall with their hero worshiping.
"That's probably because Ryu comes from the same land I do, even there he never talked much, but his mastery over spirit magic was unheard of." Rock held his hands to his side, "He would manifest tonnes of energy from the astral plane into his hands," Rock moved his hands forward mimicking the move, "HADOUKEN!"
"Don't normally see you so excited!" Ness laughed as he walked ahead into the next room then stopped abruptly, "Hey Rock… You know that red hard shelled plant that you didn't know what it was?"
Rock hurried in behind Ness, "Yeah, what abou…"
"Found them…" Ness and Rock blinked as the light flooded into the cavern overgrown with chomping piranha plants. Ness decided to pull out Mario's hat to orientate himself.
"Let me guess…" Rock sighed and pointed through the middle of the piranha plant patch, "That way?"
Ness felt the cap tug in his hands and then nodded, "Yup…"
Rock pulled out his sword, "If that's how it's got to be!" His sword gave off heat and light as the blade transformed into orange energy like flames.
The plants seemed to immediately take notice of the threat and turned as if to face the boys. Many of the piranha plants opened their jaws and let out a violent hiss, but others began conjuring fire within their beaks.
"Watch out!" Ness threw his yoyo at the incoming fireball and managed to dissipate it.
"Thanks!" Rock made a quick nod before running towards the first row of plants and quickly slashing at their stems. Once cut off from the roots, the piranha head appeared to fall lifeless to the ground.
Ness followed suit and flung his yoyo sideways into groups of plants chopping through them like a buzzsaw. He heard a jaw chomping just to the side of his ear which freaked him out enough to twist his body in jump and throw a lightning bolt at the plant. The bolt synged the leaves off the plant, but it seemed to shake off the effects of the electrical charge and continued chomping.
"Damn it, they're grounded!" Ness swung his yoyo to chop the plant down. "If only Ninten were here, I could make a bolt big enough to clear all these out in one shot!"
Rock jumped out of the way of a lunging chomp and ended up back to back against Ness, "I'm starting to regret going over the nuances of lightning instead of magic circles now…"
Ness used his yoyo to cancel out another fireball being hurled at them, "What about new ounces?"
"Just keep mowing'em down!" Rock took another wide swing with his flame sword, chopping down a large row of piranha plants.
From the right a piranha plant opened its jaw wide and launched a ball of needles like those from a cactus. Ness sucked in his stomach and leaned back as the ball got caught in his mantle, "Too close!"
"Keep your guard up and push up the middle!" Rock swung his large sword in wide arcs. His range with it was greater than the piranha plants could lunge.
More fireballs and thorns were spat in their direction which Ness tried to defend against.
After half an hour of extreme hedge trimming, Ness and Rock were out of breath and panting on the other side of the piranha patch. Both of them had small balls of thorns sticking to them that some of the plants had spit their way. Ness reached for one to try and pull it out but hissed and drew his hand back, "OUCH!"
Rock nodded and pulled some clips out of his bag, "It's not so bad, hold still." One by one he pulled the prickly mounds from Ness's arms and legs. Ness winced every time one was pulled out, "Almost… and there."
"Thank you," Ness sighed in relief that the thorns were finally out of his skin. Ness took the clips from Rock and helped pull a few that had gotten stuck in Rock's back out. "Oh, this is a good one," One of the thorny balls was stuck to Rock's pants just below the belt line. Ness wasted no time in gripping it with the tool and quickly yanking it out.
"YEOW!" Rock jumped and rubbed his bum where the offending object had been pulled from.
"It's not so bad, remember?" Ness grinned as he handed Rock's clips back.
"Remind me that you're also vindictive sometimes," Rock kept rubbing his sore spot as he lifted his backpack up with his other hand.
Ness picked up both his bag and Mario's old pouch which was looking completely full, "At least we got plenty of ingredients for those potions you were talking about."
Rock nodded, "Now we're only missing one thing… but we haven't seen any fire flowers anywhere."
The two carried on for a few more hours before it became apparent their pace was slowing. Ness finally asked, "What time do you think it is?"
"I have no idea, could be the middle of the night, could be early morning, we should probably find a place to camp though," Rock looked around their current cavern and picked a place to climb to.
Once the two were sure they were safe from anything that might crawl by while they were asleep, Rock cancelled out his light spell.
"Oh crap," Ness whispered, "I can't tell if my eyes are open or closed." The steady sound of water only a little ways off in the canal could still be heard. Aside from that everything was pitch black and quiet.
Rock let out an amused snort, "Should make it easier to sleep right?"
"I guess," Ness fidgeted around unable to find a comfortable position on the hard rocky floor. "It's just going to take a bit to get used to sleeping on the ground."
Another amused chuckle came from the other side of their small dugout, "We had a really long walk today, that should help knock you out soon."
"Or leave me too sore to sleep," Rock could tell that Ness's griping was all in fun.
Ness could hear the shuffling as Rock rolled onto his side, "Try and sleep at least, we've got more ground to cover tomorrow."
"Night," Ness rolled from one side, then the other. Every minute or so he'd turn to try and find a better way to lie down. Ness was definitely tired from walking all day, but he really was also sore and restless.
Ness rolled again, swishing pebbles under his feet, convinced now he wasn't going to be able to get much sleep. He sighed as he stared at nothing in the black. His ears picked up some fidgeting from Rock's side.
"Rock? Are you asleep yet?" Ness whispered into the dark.
A quiet reply came, "Nope."
"Sorry," Ness shifted again.
"Just try and relax," Ness could hear Rock take a deep breath then let it out, "Do whatever you gotta do to calm your mind and ease yourself to sleep."
Ness also tried taking in a deep breath. He closed his eyes and focused on letting everything go. It wasn't working too well and he had to roll over again.
A few more minutes of silence passed and Ness groaned into the darkness, "I still can't sleep…"
A curt laugh came from Ness's side but was quickly muffled followed by only a steady breathing.
"You gave it away that you're awake too…" Ness giggled as he tried to imagine the look on Rock's face in the dark.
"Nope, totally asleep, you're dreaming this right now," Ness could hear the grin in Rock's voice.
"Wow I have lame dreams then if I'm only dreaming in sound," Both boys tried but failed to hold back some chuckling.
"Actually…" Rock was grinning again, Ness could tell, "Sometimes the dark can make things a lot more... interesting."
"I thought you were sleeping," Ness joked.
"Oh yeah!" Rock shuffled on the ground a bit and then everything became silent once more.
Ness closed his eyes, and once again noticed there was no difference. He took in a deep breath and realized he just had to keep quiet and still long enough and hopefully, eventually, he'd get some sleep. He felt consigned to this fate when he heard a series of five soft snaps followed by a slight slide.
Again it was quiet and Ness tried lifting himself slightly to roll himself over more quietly this time. His ears then picked up Rock fumbling with something for a short moment. Again things were quiet except for their breathing. Rock's breathing was getting a little louder though. Ness wasn't paying much attention until the unmistakable sound of a slightly wet pop reached his ears, causing his eyes to open wide but still he couldn't see a thing.
On instinct, Ness tried listening more carefully. He could definitely hear the rhythmic sound of something moving slowly in the dark, with occasional wet slurps and pops. Rock took in a sharp breath and the noise grew a little bit louder, a little bit faster. Ness's couldn't help it as his heart started beating harder once he was sure what was going on beside him; he smiled as he realized this was a game in the dark he'd have to compete in.
There was another set of snaps popping open in the darkness and the sliding of cloth. Ness took in a breath through his teeth, being just a little louder than Rock as if to signal that he was all in.
From one side of the darkness came a deep breath, a spitting sound, and three wet slips. From the other side the same pattern followed, a deep breath, a spit, and three slow slips. From the first side came another six rapid slips, then six from the other side as if creating a game of simon. Three quick slips, a pause, then four slow slips and a slight grunt. From the other end of the darkness came three quick slips, the pause, then an ongoing mash of at least twelve slips and a grunt. Laughter ensued from the darkness as the first game was abandoned.
Again the sound of a spit came from one side, followed closely by the same sound on the other and then indistinguishable fast slipping sounds and many wet pops came from both sides. Two sets of heavy breathing joined in the chorus that began to hitch erratically.
The slipping sounds were purposefully getting louder, trying to overtake the other in a new game of making the most noise only using wet hand motions. With only the sound of quickened breathing and fast stroking pops, the two had managed to compete with the noise generated by the nearby flowing stream.
"Mmmmm…" Ness couldn't help but let out. Somehow only listening to what Rock was doing, but knowing he was doing it right next to him had excited him more than he thought it would. There was something about this game that made him imagine that Rock was feeling what he was feeling. That Rock was feeling just as good as he was. That maybe Rock was imagining what he was feeling.
"Ohhh…" Ness heard his friend moan and he knew he had to be feeling good.
"Yeah…" Ness's muscles tensed, his head and back lifted up from the ground as he gripped himself tighter. A wandering thought passed through his head that he couldn't help but say out loud, "Oh crap, I don't know where my rag is to clean up."
The noise from the other side stopped, replaced by a stifled giggle, "Oh my gosh Ness, we're outside!"
Ness didn't quite understand, "And?"
"When you're ready just roll over and shoot at the ground," Ness was glad it was dark otherwise he was sure his face would be very red tinged.
"See?! You do know everything!" Both boys laughed for a moment but hardly paused their game. Their breaths were becoming more labored and their feet kept shuffling and scraping against dirt and sand as if trying to dig into it.
In the dark Ness was the first to call out, "I'm gonna…"
"Yeah," a reply came from beside him, "Me too…"
Ness's whole body tensed tightly as he rolled onto his side. "Ahhhh…" He couldn't help let out a few quiet grunts as his whole body shivered.
"Oh yeah…" Behind him, Ness could hear Rock reaching a climax too. His breathing was hard, the slipping was fast, and the sand was practically grinding under him as he slid around. All of the noise stopped suddenly and Ness could hear Rock roll the other way and then small spurts and quiet splashes. Rock started breathing again; he took in long deep breaths to quell his lungs. Ness thought that Rock must have been holding his breath in order to listen more carefully.
After a few moments there were sounds of clothes sliding up. Ness felt a tap on his shoulder, "Now you should sleep easier."
"Mmm-hmmm, thanks," Ness was already nodding off as his body relaxed.
The next thing Ness knew his eyes were open and there was a glow coming from the entrance to the small cave. There shouldn't have been any light in the cavern even during the day though. He crawled out and noticed Rock was sitting with his back leaning against the wall below. Rock was looking down and seemed to be creating the soft glow in front of him.
Slowly Ness tried to look around at what Rock was doing without alerting him that he was awake. He saw that Rock was looking down at a small picture. Ness could barely make out that it was a picture of an older man with a young boy and girl beside him and they were surrounded by what looked like quite a few animals.
Rock started putting things down and Ness tried to duck back into the cave, "Oh hey, you're awake."
Ness cringed slightly, "Yeah. What time is it?"
Rock turned around, "No idea, but we can go whenever we feel like it right?"
"Guess so," Ness sat up and rubbed the sleep from his eyes, "Just give me a minute."
"Whenever you're ready," Rock opened up his bag and put his stuff back in it and made his ball of light much brighter.
It was impossible to have a true grasp of time while underground. The two snaked through cavernous corridors for what felt like hours but could have been shorter or longer. As the two trekked through a particularly long tunnel with the canal at their side a slight but constant hiss in the air could be heard along with the flowing water.
Rock put a hand out, "You hear that?"
Ness nodded, "Barely."
The two continued walking through the tunnel, the sound slowly became louder, much louder. They could see an opening that looked like the end of the tunnel ahead. The loud hiss had become more like an echoing roar as they approached.
"The heck is that?" Ness ran ahead to take a look at the open room.
"Thats… WAIT!" Rock's eyes widened and he dashed ahead and pulled on Ness's collar before he could run out of the tunnel.
Both boys fell back. As the light caught up to them it was clear the next room had no floor, and the canal was flowing into it like a waterfall. "Whoa… good catch. Sorry about that."
"Always be mindful of your footing young grasshopper," Rock helped Ness back up and they took a look into the next room. At the bottom was a giant pool where the water was collecting before flowing under some kind of platform. But what caught their attention was the numerous glows on top of the platform.
Ness pointed towards them, "Are those…?"
"I think so," Rock grinned and nodded in excitement, "Fire flowers!"
The two searched the opening for a moment and found an edge with enough slope and bricks to climb down. The bricks were slick and wet from the falling water near the bottom, but by that point they simply jumped off the rest of the way into the pool.
It was an easy climb up onto the platform, and once their eyes were over the edge they widened at the site of dozens of glowing fire flowers.
"We can make enough potions to last awhile!" Rock beamed enthusiastically as he climbed to his feet and helped Ness onto the platform. As they were walking towards the fire flowers the light spell Rock had following them was abruptly extinguished, "Huh?"
A slight rumble made both boys look towards a nearby rock wall. Ness could almost swear he saw the whole wall move, "Does that wall have a… face?"
Both Ness and Rock stared in awe as the wall moved closer into the glow of the fire flowers. The whole wall seemed nearly ten meters tall and as it slowly approached, stone facial features were revealed such as eyes, ears with diamond shaped earrings, a fancy stone headdress, and a large mouth.
"Ummm… okay then…" Rock was on guard as he took a few steps closer to the face which was still several meters away from the edge of their platform.
Ness gulped as he kept at Rock's side, "Is it… alive?"
"Good question," A slight rumble caused Rock to look up, "WATCH OUT!" Rock pushed Ness out of the way and rolled out himself as a large stone hand crashed down from above with the apparent intention of flattening them both.
Ness coughed out the dust the hand brought down with it, "What the crap?"
The eyes of the face on the wall opened and stared menacingly at the two boys. The hand on the ground got back up and formed a fist that pounded on the platform, "WHAM!" Another fist dropped from the ceiling and hit the platform on Ness's other side, "BAM!" Everything quaked as the boys got up and stared down the enormous Wham Bam Rock.
"Run!" Rock ordered a retreat and they both turned and sprinted as fast as they could toward the exit where the canal was flowing. One of the stone hands flew over their head and crashed into the cavern wall above the next tunnel. The impact caused a cave in and dropped dozens of small boulders to block the exit path.
Ness slid to a halt once he saw the exit blocked, "No good!"
"Alright then, we got no choice but to put this thing down!" Rock reached behind his back and pulled out his flame sword which began to glow red hot like fire.
Ness pulled out his yoyo, it spun violently at his side releasing several cackles of electricity. Ness looked at their weapons and back up to the face wall, "These aren't going to work are they?"
"Nope…" Rock confirmed as the hand swung their way and they dived to the ground to avoid decapitation.
"What do we do then?!" Ness tried swinging his yoyo at the hand, but even the spinning blades had little effect on the hardened stone.
Rock pushed Ness out of the way as the second hand swung at them, "Obviously this thing isn't really alive, right?"
"What are you talking about?" Ness pulled Rock with him as he rolled to the side to avoid the other hand as it slapped its open palm at the ground where they had been.
"This thing has to be some kind of magical entity, like a golem," Rock jumped off of Ness drove his sword towards one of the hands, but much like Ness's yoyo it merely scratched the surface.
After jumping back to Ness's side, the two boys stared down the gigantic face, "By not alive you mean?"
"It can't have the bio processes necessary to sustain itself so there must be some kind of enchantment animating it," Rock tried to explain as the hands flew up toward the ceiling of the cavern.
"You're being all sciency and not making sense again!" Ness yelled out as the hands collided with the ceiling and caused boulders to fall over their heads.
Both boys were busy looking up and dodging the falling boulders that they failed to notice one of the hands return to the ground and swipe at them. Rock took the hit first before it collided into Ness and the two of them tumbled off the platform and into the pool of water below.
Ness pushed himself up while trying to cough the surprising amount of water from his lungs, "Are you okay?"
Rock nodded as he stood as well. He looked down and noticed how the water was reaching past his waist, "Uhoh…" He looked from the waterfall to the sealed exit, "The water can't escape the room, it's starting to fill."
Ness looked up at the floating hands of the Wham Bam Rock, "That might not be a bad thing, if we can get his hands wet, then my lightning magic may be able to effect it."
"That might work but be careful, and keep looking for something that stands out" Rock looked like he was calculating the factors in his head, "There's gotta be something physical holding the magic animating this thing like a scroll, or rune, or imprint somewhere. If we destroy that then maybe…"
"MOVE!" A fist collided with the ground between them and created a wave of water that washed over Ness and knocked him off his feet. Ness kicked up off the ground again searching for breath. Once his coughing died down he noticed the first floating back up but he didn't see Rock anywhere, "Rock? ROCK! WHERE ARE YOU?!"
"I think I found it!" the voice echoed from high above. Ness looked up and saw Rock hanging onto the stone hand as it floated through the air.
"That can't be a good idea…" Ness jumped at the pillar support for the higher platform as the other fist punched at him. He managed to shimmy his way quickly up to the platform and was once again level with the face of the enormous monstrosity.
"INCOMING!" Rock shouted as the fist he was holding began to soar in Ness's direction.
Ness ducked out of the way again, "What did you find?!"
"There's a rune inscribed on the back of the hand, it has to be the source of the magic keeping this thing alive!" Rock held up his sword to slash at the rune. As if sensing danger, the hand lurched up quickly and smashed Rock against the ceiling of the cavern.
"ROCK!" Ness shouted as Rock's sword came clattering to the ground without him. Panic washed over Ness for a moment as he waited for the hand to reveal what was pinned above it. The other hand took Ness from behind and pushed him back off the platform and pursued him into the water.
As the large hand separated from the ceiling, Rock was still clinging to the top of the hand but looked a little roughed up, "Don't want me touching that rune huh?"
The hand turned directions and slapped Rock against a side wall of the cavern. It dragged up through the stone but Rock continued to hold on. He reached to his belt and pulled out one of his trusty metal blades and expanded to its normal size, "Just gotta sever the link!"
Rock dug into the back of the stone hand with his blade, taking out small chunks of muddy rock with every swipe, "Thanks for getting yourself wet for me! Makes it a lot easier to do this!" The hand began writhing crazily trying to shake Rock off of it. Even the face on the wall made a grimace in pain and howled as the hand drove through several stalactites, breaking them off the ceiling in an attempt to get Rock off its back. Rock held his grip tight and continued swinging at the inscribed rune, "Just need to sever a line of the rune!" Rock continued picking at the inscription, but it was obvious the water from before had only soaked so deep, and the stone beneath was beginning to dull the metal blade.
Far below the right hand, Ness was swimming through the water as the left hand splashed and swatted at him. The hand rolled over and under the water and Ness was able to see the same rune that Rock was talking about on the back of the hand. Ness's eyes gave off a bright glow before he moved his hands forward and fired an underwater lightning bolt. He felt the electricity charge through him, and knew using lightning magic underwater was risky. He grinned as realized his own lightning did little more than leave his skin tingling.
The hand burst from the water, opened the palm, and tried smashing down over Ness's head. The waves of the water pushed Ness out of the way before the hand was too close and allowed him to fire another thunderbolt at the hand. The ionizing pulses of Ness's lighting blasts were chipping away the muddy hand, but Ness saw his position wasn't good for actually hitting the rune on the back.
As if the hand were getting frustrated, it began swirling under the water. At first Ness wasn't sure what it was doing but then realized the turning motion was creating a whirlpool like effect that pulled him towards it. He tried holding on to the ground to keep himself still, but immediately slipped and was washed away by the powerful current. He knew if he didn't do something he'd be grinded down to nothing by the spinning stone hand. Again he made a desperate attempt to halt his movement as he reached for a pillar as he was swept by. He barely got his fingers onto the column and took a deep breath to recover from being underwater for so long. From the corner of his eye he saw something metal in the water being thrown in his direction.
Rock had refused to let go of the right hand. It flew through the air, hitting walls and nearly smashed him several times. He was hurting from the walls he had hit and wasn't sure he'd be able to keep holding on as the next wall was coming up fast. Rock let go of his grip on the stone hand, and put both his hands through the center ring of the metal blade. With all the strength he had left, he drove it into the back of the hand as hard as he could.
"BREAK!" The blade completely severed a line of the rune. A bright glow escaped from the cut point as the magic drained from it and the entire hand began to crumble into many different stones.
Rock couldn't stop his momentum as he continued to the wall. He tried to brace himself as his back hit the wall and he slowly slid down to the platform, "Well… I could have done that with a little more grace…"
Slowly Rock pushed himself to one knee and looked around. The large face stared at him furiously, "What do you want?!"
The left hand burst out of the water and landed nearby. The palm opened wide as it swiped at high speed toward Rock. Rock braced himself for another hit when there was a flash of light behind the hand. Rock's eyes widened as his sword pierced through the center of the palm.
"RRRAAAAAARRRGGGHHH!" The face howled as both it and the remaining hand gave off a brilliant light before crumbling to the ground.
Genuine surprise washed over Rock as he saw Ness standing behind the crumbling hand, shielding his face from the light, but still holding onto the flame sword. The face on the wall crumbled a piece at a time, losing eyes, nose, and mouth, before the entire wall splashed into the water below. All the boulders and falling rocks settled, and the noise in the room died down, "You did it!"
Ness was completely out of breath as he looked up at the still burning blade, "That worked?"
"Totally!" Rock limped over wrapped his arm around Ness, "That was awesome!"
Ness closed his eyes and gave Rock a tired smile, "I was underwater for a while and just hoped it would make it easier to stab through if the water would just soak through."
"A much better strategy than mine, I can tell you that," Rock rubbed at his sore spots, "How did you climb back up and hit it so fast though?"
Ness handed Rock his sword back, "I'm not sure, I saw it floating up over my head and I just knew I had to stop it… I don't really know what I did after that."
The smile faded from Rock's face as he thought about Ness's words for a moment. Ness mimicked the worried look, but then immediately Rock smiled again, "Doesn't matter! You were awesome and destroyed that hand easy!"
Ness smiled again as well, "Thanks! But you're hurt, we need to make those healing potions!"
The two quickly mixed the fire flowers with their piranha plants and immediately Rock took a swig from the concoction. Like before his bruises immediately faded, "That's the stuff! And we got enough to last a while this time."
With their potions to keep them energized, the two made quick work of removing the boulder blockade from the tunnel and continued tirelessly down the cavern.
Three more days passed. It was night time at a fort on the far end of the Mushroomy Desert. Red and green shelled tortoise creatures were asleep in the abandoned fort but were awoken by a rattle sound as a hatch in the basement was knocked on from below. Some of the creatures approached to investigate the noise. The sewer lid began to move from one side to another violently. The tortoises backed away before the lid was blown off entirely. The lid bounced off the ceiling and clattered noisily to the ground as most of the turtle creatures ran for their life.
"I think I can see the sky!" Ness climbed out first. Over his clothes he had on pieces of beetle carapace supplementing his armor.
Rock climbed out in similar fashion, "Still a desert, but I'll take it!"
Any creature that had remained in the fort quickly scurried away at the sight of the two boys as they ascended the stairs, "How long do you think we were underground?"
Rock looked up at the stars, "We made good time, but at least four days if I had to guess."
The hat in Ness's hand appeared to be tugging harder than normal toward the southeast, "I think we're really close though.
Looking out the window the two could see the torchlights of a town at the horizon nestled between two mountains, "That city has to be where we're going then," Rock tried to estimate its distance, "We should be there tomorrow no problem."
"The next champion…" Ness beamed, "We may actually be able to do this!"
"Are you tired?" Rock asked while turning only his eyes to look at Ness.
"No way," Ness psyched himself up, "Let's do this!"
Under the cover of the night sky the two continued on.
End Chapter
Sorry I'm being really slow at writing lately, but I'm not giving up. I still plan on concentrating mostly on this for now and we'll see if we can get anywhere. Thanks for reading and please leave me some feedback. I'd love to know what you guys think of where this is going and what could happen still!
'Til next time!
