Mallow III: The Golden Guardian
With the Golden Thwomp deactivated behind them, Geno and Mallow proceeded from his game room to the entrance of the Golden Citadel that lied behind his pedestal. The passageway was dark, as it is with every passage before a mighty temple these days. Along the way, Mallow turns to Geno and asks him "Say, something has been bugging me for a bit."
The star herald, focused on his own affairs with his arms folded in front of his chest, nonetheless answers the cloud prince's desire for knowledge with a quiet "Yes?"
"The Golden Thwomp mentioned that the Golden Citadel needed an immortal guardian to protect it forever. If he was only used for two of the three trials necessary to enter the Citadel, then that would mean that another creature would have to have been created in order to fulfill the role of the third trial's guardian." As Mallow thinks about all of this, he stops in place momentarily.
Geno turns to face his friend and says in an alluring voice as she swings his right arm towards the darkness "Mallow, we should get a move on. Who knows if there are any traps in this passage that might activate if we stick around."
"Now hold on a minute there Geno." Mallow pushes his right hand out from the fold in front of his chest and then proceeds to look up at his wooden friend as he asks him "Did the information you receive on the Golden Citadel mention anything on the second guardian?"
Geno flinches for a moment, as if the star herald wasn't expecting such a question from his friend. After slowly turning to face the cloud prince, Geno sighs and proceeds to say to Mallow with a firm fold of his arms before his chest "Actually, yes it did. I just didn't want to say anything beforehand because you might have assumed ulterior motives on my part for coming here."
"Huh, why?" Mallow says in a tone of abject confusion.
"Well you see, the guardian directly outside the Golden Citadel differs greatly from the Golden Thwomp we came across earlier. The guardian we are about to face was born from alchemy performed by the Shadow Queen, aka Cackletta, thousands of years ago. It is a dragon much like the three Mario faced during his journey in Rogueport, but this one was created to match the theme of the temple." Geno explains punctually.
"Why would she create a dragon to guard this citadel?" Mallow asks.
"Most likely Cackletta sought the fortune buried around here at some point since the materials would likely have helped Smithy or allowed her to perform stronger feats of alchemy for her owns ends, but for whatever reason she couldn't access the temple and thus chose to create a guardian that would make sure that nobody else but her would be able to access the place."
While Geno's explanation made a bit of sense, there was something about it that Mallow was quick to point out. "But wouldn't the Golden Thwomp have mentioned that the Shadow Queen/Cackletta created the guardian since we answered that one question correctly?"
"He probably assumed that we knew the truth and would be prepared to face the dragon. Truth be told though, I won't know what the beast is capable of until we get a close look at it." Geno doesn't have a lack of confidence in his voice as he speaks, something that reassured Mallow and cast away any doubts about the battle ahead as he cracked a smile towards his friend.
"Alright, then lets stop wasting time and move on." The cloud prince decrees.
The two heroes, after Geno nods his head, proceed down the rest of the passage and are greeted by a powerful golden light at the end of the sleek dirt road beneath their feet. When they finally enter the room at the end of the passage, Mallow in particular is taken aback by how incredibly huge the cavern is. The ceiling was at such a height above the ground that if it weren't for the incredible golden glow coming from afar the ceiling would be pitch black. The walls are sleek, and those near the glistening golden gates in the distance seem to have been merged together to create a nice smooth surface with not a single crack between them.
But a strange crunching sound fills the air of the cavern, and the heroes look down to see a dragon guarding the gates to the Golden Citadel as Geno explained just moments ago. The creature was entirely golden from its three-toed claws back to its hook-like tails, with the only difference between the body parts as far as coloring goes being the tone of the gold itself. The dragon had no wings, which makes sense when one considers how much a creature of this size would weigh. It had a mouth with flattened teeth like a human, which would make it difficult for it to chew on prey. However, the dragon could currently be seen crunching down on a large leg bone despite the above factor.
Mallow and Geno slowly approach the creature, who hears their footsteps and stops gnawing on the bone in his mouth for a moment and turns a glance towards their direction. Mallow looks at the bone and is surprised by what he sees. Half of the bone has turned to gold with a perfectly flat line dividing both the bone and the gold itself, which signifies that the dragon chewing on it is the reason as to why the bone's composition was being changed so significantly. Looking down upon the two heroes with its eyes as big as their bodies, the dragon says in a jolly laid-back tone "Oh, its been quite a long time since I had any visitors…"
Dropping the bone onto the ground with the help of its right claws, the dragon lays down in front of the two heroes and says politely with a smile on its face "Well ok, that's a bit of a lie. I think it was probably a couple months since the last set of fools attempted to breech the gates. So are you two another set of fools who want to try and make a run for the treasure, or are you here to see me for other reasons?"
"Nah, we are just adventurers trying to have a little fun exploring an old temple of legend." Mallow says with the utmost honesty in his voice despite how fearsome the creature is before his eyes.
The dragon blinks its eyelids twice, looking stumped after hearing the little cloud's reasoning for being here. With a claw folded beneath its chin, the dragon looks to the ceiling and mumbles to himself in a tone that's quiet for him yet normal volume for the others "Hmm…Nobody has ever said that before. Ummm, darn, I don't know how I'm supposed to handle a reason like that."
Mallow grins and says to the dragon "Well, you could just let us go explore without any trouble."
The dragon is quick to turn and face the cloud with a firm glare, saying to him in a more angered voice "Hey hey hey! You are trying to trick me, aren't you? You think you can leave me stuck with a logical conundrum and sneak on by while I'm distracted, huh?"
Mallow, surprised by the dragon's sudden leap in logic says to the being while nervously waving his arms in front of his body "Not at all! We are seriously just wanting to explore the temple. We have no reason to collect any treasure inside, honest."
The dragon slants its eyelids at the cloud boy and says in a growling tone "Hmmm…True as that may be, I still believe it right as a guardian of this citadel that I must stop anyone from entering, whether they want a treasure or not."
The dragon then turns to face Geno, who has been rather silent up until this point and says to him "And just who are you supposed to be?"
The doll looks up at the beast and says in a firm voice "I am Geno, a herald of the Star Spirits."
The dragon reacts to this with surprise, saying in a puzzled voice "Wait a second, you look nothing like a herald of those Star-"
Geno glares harder at the beast, and for a brief millisecond that doesn't get noticed by Mallow the pupils of this dragon flash purple and he quickly corrects himself with an apologetic tone of voice "My mistake, I should have realized it was a star herald sooner."
Mallow was confused by the dragon's sudden shift in behavior, but he only gets a moment to turn his head at his friend before the dragon addresses him with a polite "Well, as nice as it is to converse with someone after quite some time, I'm afraid that I am going to have to turn the two of you to gold."
"Huh? Why?" Mallow looks at the dragon and asks in confusion.
"Well what do you think I'm able to do in my spare time down here? I'm too big to crawl through that passage, and my weight prevents me from flying out of this place, so can you imagine what type of hobby a dragon like me has?" The dragon responds in an inquiring tone.
Mallow glances off to the left of the dragon's girth with a tilt of his head and upon noticing a pile of golden covered bones glances up at the dragon and says to him "Well you do seem to have an impressive collection of golden bones back there."
"Exactly!" The dragon says in an overjoyed voice. "Whenever someone tries to infiltrate the citadel behind me, they always try to pick a fight with me because they assume that I have to be defeated in order to be allowed entry!"
"…But you're the guardian of this citadel." Mallow is quick to point out in confusion.
"Yeah, but that doesn't give them the right to just wildly attack me first! Literally every time I've had to kill someone, its been out of self-defense! Of course, I can't really kill someone with my powers…Not in the way that you'd expect a big dragon like me to, anyways." The dragon's words bring a smidge of curiosity to the cloud prince's mind.
"What do you mean by that?" Mallow proceeds to ask.
"Well, I have something of a golden touch…Except spread across my entire body. Anything that gets in contact with even a molecule of gold on me will turn into gold instantly. Well, their skin will turn to gold, anyways. Everything beneath that, on the other word, stays alive until a lack of air food and water causes them to become nothing but a skeleton. Once that happens, I poke a hole in the back of the statue and deposit the bones like candy from a piñata, gnawing on them until they are perfectly gold so I can add them to my collection and use them as building blocks for projects…Actually, wait a second…"
The dragon scans over Mallow's body a little bit, and says to him "Oh darn, you're a Nimbusian. You don't have a single bone in your body. Oh well, perhaps I can still do something interesting with your skin if I put my mind to it."
Mallow confidently pulls out his wooden magic stick and swings it at the dragon with a smile, saying to him "Ha, if you think it will be that easy, then try your luck against the two of us!"
"Actually, he'll just be fighting you." Geno states with his arms folded in front of his chest, which causes Mallow's bravado to snap apart instantly as he tilts his head to look at his friend and blurts out "Huh? Why?"
"I've already taken a scan of the dragon's capabilities. His sleek skin makes him completely immune to my star-based attacks, which means relying on the Star Spirits' power wouldn't work in either of our favors either. If it makes you feel any better though, I'll support you with a bit of stat boosting magic." As Geno says this, he turns his back towards Mallow and slowly begins to walk off, the cloud prince turning to face the dragon with a somewhat lessened grin of confidence on his face.
The dragon lowers his head and puffs out a bit of golden dust from its nostrils to show aggression towards Mallow, but after a moment of nervous chuckling the cloud prince whips his magic staff in front of his body and launches a mighty thunderbolt that digs right into the dragon's right nostril and creates a electrified explosion. The dragon twitches a bit, but is otherwise unfazed by the spell. However, Mallow had fired off a rather weak shot as a warning, and used the smoke from the dragon's nostrils as a means of covering his dash away from the creature's body. After all, with its particular weight, there was no way that it would be able to mount much of a pursuit.
However, the mighty dragon didn't need to do much to chase after the cloud prince. Widening its maw, the golden goliath launches a raunchy breath attack of golden flames at Mallow. The boy turns around and notices the attack burning across the ground, turning everything it touches to slick gold with each passing second. Mallow somersaults to the left of where he currently stands to dodge the attack just barely, with only the bottom of his shoes being touched by the breath and turning into solid gold. Though there was a bit of weight now attached to the bottom of his feet, Mallow stood up and didn't feel the least bit concerned.
A starry aura covers the cloud prince's body, and Mallow looks to the right to see that Geno has his right hand up to show that he is helping out with his magic. Smiling at his friend, the cloud prince points his staff at the ground and taps it to summon forth a single cloud that he can ride on top of with ease, seeing as his other means of flight would prove useless against the dragon. As he takes to the skies of the cavern, the dragon raises its head and opens its mouth again, switching its method of attack from a widespread breath to a barrage of pure golden fireballs.
Mallow, with the enhanced magic given to him by Geno, uses his staff to cast forth a mirror shaped barrier that deflects any encroaching fireballs back at its master up to three times before the mirror shatters. The reflected fireballs strike the dragon, but naturally do nothing but make him flinch. Though Mallow was able to handle most of the barrage with a well-timed barrier, he is forced to quickly create another cloud below his current one and dispel the one he stands on now in order to dodge one last fireball.
However, this lines him up perfectly with the beast's mouth, and after twirling his staff around with both hands Mallow says "Lets see how you like it!" and casts a gigantic fireball that burns through the air at speeds too quick for the dragon to react to in time.
The fireball burns right through the dragon's throat and forces the creature's mouth shut, his eyes widening briefly in surprise at Mallow's tactic as the cloud prince grins confidently and pumps his right hand in the air. However, the dragon then gives the Nimbusian a sly grin and says with smoke seething between his teeth "I thought that was perhaps a bit too spicy, do you have a milder fireball to give me?"
Mallow droops his arms and says in disbelief "You have got to be kidding me…" For some reason, the cloud prince also starts to pant slightly out of weakness.
"Huh? I didn't use up that much magic, did I? That was one of my weaker spells…" Mallow thinks to himself in suspicion, but doesn't get much time to linger on the issue as the dragon opens his mouth and prepares another breath attack from within the glowing confines of his esophagus.
"Shoot!" Mallow exclaims as he quickly swings his staff up to guide his cloud out of the way of the dragon's attack, rising above the height of the beast's head just in the nick of time once more.
After sticking to this particular height, the cloud prince looks down upon the dragon and thinks to himself "Maybe I'm just so out of practice that it takes more out of me to use spells. Got to conserve my strength then for a decisive blow…But how am I going to take down a massive golden dragon when inside attacks don't even make it flinch?"
The dragon launches another barrage of fireballs, forcing Mallow to use more magic in order to create a mirror shield to deflect some shots. He becomes a little weaker after all of this, but the peril created by this makes the cloud prince quickly come up with a solution to deal with the mighty beast. "Of course!" He thinks with his eyes widening in brilliance.
As the barrage of fireballs comes to an end, Mallow rises up on his cloud and focuses his staff's magical energy towards the dragon's back. With electricity surging through the length of the staff, Mallow rips open the sky above the golden goliath and summons forth a piercing lightning bolt. The dragon only gets a second to look up at this phenomenon and say in a puzzled tone "What the heck?" before his backside is quickly struck hard by the descending lightning bolt.
A pulsating flash fills the entire cavern, in the midst of its Geno glares hard at the golden dragon and its eyes momentarily turns purple just like earlier. As a gaping hole is torn apart into the skin of the dragon thanks to the lightning, the beast goes silent, and once the lightning fades from existence the monstrosity collapses against the ground with a powerful crash. Mallow, with staff extended in front of his body, blinks twice in surprise and says quietly to himself "Huh? I didn't expect it to go down that easily."
But in spite of his minor suspicions, the cloud prince descends from the sky and leaps off beside where Geno stands, taking a quick glance over at the fallen dragon as the doll says to him "How did you pull it off so quickly, Mallow?"
Flinching in surprise and turning back to face his friend, the cloud prince weakly waves his right hand after putting his staff away and says to Geno "Gold isn't a perfect defensive substance. Every type of gold created by alchemy has a specific weak spot to it that can be exploited and be made used to prove that the gold is fake. I figured the weak spot of the gold goliath would be its back because that's where its flaw, aka the lack of wings, was. But I still didn't expect to take it down with one shot."
"That's probably because my enhancement magic was assisting you. Either way, the dragon was a momentary distraction in the end, so we are now free to enter the Golden Citadel without anymore perils." Geno is quick to point out.
"Y-Yeah…Lets get a move on." Mallow says, his words spoken with a bit of exhaustion in his tone. He then turns to the now open gates on ahead and begins to walk forward, while Geno turns to the dragon.
The golden beast can be seen grumbling slightly from the corner of its mouth, and as the star herald stands in place for a few moments his lips begin to curl upward on both sides. In seconds the doll has formed a fanged grin in its wooden face, and deep within its dark mind 'Geno' thinks to itself "This is all going easier than I expected it to…"
'Geno' begins to follow after Mallow, but before entering the Citadel 'he' takes his left hand and shoots a barely visible stream of dark purple magic at the golden dragon. In seconds, the wound carved into its body heals up perfectly, and with pupils drowned in pitch black the dragon opens its eyelids up wide and quietly growls out of range of the cloud prince's ears…
To be continued in Geno's Story…
Next Story: Gemini's Week Off (To be posted after the Kirby Story of Part 4...)