Chapter 1: What Lies ahead?

With Toad Town to their backs, our hero guides Skye through open fields, full of flowers and enemies! What path lies ahead for these two? Will Luigi really be able to help her sing again? With only hope in their hearts, our heroes follow a dirt road. Eventually, they reach a gate...

Our wanderers followed the road through some trees and stumbled upon a gate. The gate was large and decorated beautifully with flowers of all sorts. In front of the gate stood two Goomba guards with green scarves around their necks.

"Halt!" they declared. Our heroes quickly stopped in place.

"What business do you have with Codonopsis Village?" One guard asked.

"My friend here lost something of hers and we think something in this direction might help us." our hero explained.

"That was probably the most vague answer we've ever gotten before." one guard said.

"Are you two lost? You should turn around, I hear Toad Town sells maps!" the other guard laughed.

"I'm serious!" Luigi tried to reason. "My friend lost her ability to sing, and I have a feeling coming here will help."

"Enough with the jokes." the first guard proclaimed. "We aren't exactly in a good way right now, but I'll tell ya what. If you can beat us, we'll let you in. How's that sound, Greenie?"

"Pfff! Look at this chicken! Of course he doesn't want to try and take us!" the other exclaimed.

Luigi, quickly becoming angry, took a fighting stance. "Fine! If I have to fight you to get in, I will!"

Skye pulled Luigi aside. "Are you sure you want to do this? Do you want me to help?" she asked.

Our Green Chicken shook his head. "I can take these guys. Just some Goombas, right? Besides, I got us past those other enemies safely, right?"

Skye took a second. "We ran and hid from all of them..."

Luigi turned to the two Goombas. "Enough! I'm ready when you are!"

Skye quickly took a few steps back.

The two Goombas charged our hero. One jumped up and quickly bonked Luigi on his head. The other got behind him before he noticed. As the second Goomba when to bonk Luigi, our hero faded left, completely avoiding the painful head-bonk. As the second Goomba hit the ground, Luigi quickly pulled out his mallet and gave a head-bonk of his own. The second Goomba was dizzy, but not done yet! After Luigi hit the second Goomba, the first one jumped up for another bonk. Luigi quickly guarded himself, saving the worst of the hit. Luigi then jumped up and stomped the first Goomba a couple times, knocking him out. The second Goomba tried to regroup and attack Luigi again, but missed horribly. Just one more stomp from Luigi finished that Goomba too.

Luigi turned to Skye, who rose from a bush she was hiding in.

"See? No biggie!" Luigi boasted.

"That looked like it was pretty rough..." Skye started.

"I took care of it though, right?" Luigi asked.

"Maybe I should help you next time. I'm not much of a fighter, but I can try." Skye persisted.

Luigi took a second to think about it. When the guards collected themselves, they reluctantly got up to face our hero.

"Wow, what were we thinking?" the first guard started.

"Whatever man. A deal's a deal. Just don't cause any trouble, ok? We have enough problems as it is." the second guard finished. They both then turned and opened the gate for our heroes, who happily walked through.

Past the gate was a beautiful village, adorned with bright, vibrant flowers. The village seemed pretty enough, except for one thing: There were a bunch of Goombas passed out all over the village. Some seemed to be just laying about while others seemed to be in distress or pain.

"Do Goombas usually do this in their villages?" Skye asked.

"My brother never mentioned them doing anything like this. It definitely looks weird though." Luigi stated.

"It's not very often we get travelers visiting us." an old Goomba said, walking up to our heroes.

"Hello. And who might you be?" Luigi asked.

"I'm Goombill, the mayor of our little village here. I must say, you two must have horrible timing." Goombill began.

"What's been happening here? We heard a few things from the two guards in the front, but we really have no idea what's going on." Luigi asked.

"Come. I'll tell you all about it at my home." Goombill then turned and started for his house. Luigi and Skye followed behind, passing by a large, dry fountain in the middle of the village, with a bunch of topsoil around it. Our heroes quickly got themselves situated in Goombill's house.

"You see that fountain on the way in? That's called the Spring of Life. It's water is able to make any flowers or plants bloom within minutes. The fountain is dead-center of the village too, which allows it to produce aquifers underground all around our village." Goombill explained.

"Wait, it produces aquifers? How does that work?" Skye asked.

Goombill gestured to a picture on one of his walls. In that picture was a blue stone, a deep, clean ocean blue. "That's called the Fountain Rock. When that rock is placed inside the fountain, that's when the magic happens. Water starts pouring through from nowhere, while also forming the aquifers. We're not exactly sure how it works, but we know for certain there is a correlation between that stone, the fountain, and all the water."

"But wait. On our way here, that fountain was bone-dry." Luigi stated.

Goombill nodded. That's because someone took it! Without that water, the plants in front of the fountain are almost impossible to grow. And we eat those flowers regularly, which means we don't have much else here..."

"So all the Goombas out front are hungry? Is that why so many are passed out?" Skye asked.

Goombill nodded again. "It's been at least five days already. We can feel ourselves get weaker by the minute. We need the Fountain Rock back. We need someone to go to Thornside manor and take it back from that terrible Koopa and his little gang!" Goombill was becoming heated.

"Wait, Koopa? What's his name?" Luigi asked. He immediately thought of Bowser.

"R. O. Koopa. We don't know what the R and O stand for, but that's what he was shouting when he and the rest of the Koopas came and stole that stone." Goombill explained.

"That settles it! We'll get your stone back for you, but I need to ask a favor." Luigi began.

"Anything!" Goombill pleaded.

"My friend here lost her ability to sing. We don't know the whole story, but know it isn't for something pleasant. Do you know anything that could help our journey?" Luigi negotiated.

"Hrmm... The last I heard of a voice being stolen, it happened to Princess Peach of the Mushroom Kingdom. Oh, that's a good story. But as for your friend?... I think I might of heard about something like this happening. Something specific about you tow maybe. I can go to our library and search through our archives? See if I find something?" Goombill explained.

"Agreed."