Part II: Castle and Dragon

Chapter 6: Petalburg

When they popped out of the pipe, Matthew wondered if they had come back out into the ruins. He thought he could see the faint outlines of pillars surrounding them, but only just. Light was almost nonexistent. He experimentally waved a hand in front of his face.

He heard Goombella shuffle in front of him and then she said, "Good grief, it's dark here! Good thing I'm an archaeology student, huh? All good archaeology students keep this on their person at all times, and since I'm a good archaeology student…" There was a click and then a beam of light cut through the dark. It came from the flashlight on her helmet.

Matthew blinked the light out of his eyes where she was shining it. He asked, "Where are we, anyways?"

Goombella turned, shining her flashlight around. What Matthew had thought were pillars turned out to be willow-thin struts propping up a large dome that shielded the travel pipe from the weather. Beyond the struts was a field of green grass, which meant they were now aboveground.

"I think we're in Petal Meadows," she finally concluded. She glanced up. "And it's night."

Thanks for that, Captain Obvious, Matthew thought, feeling she deserved the slight. He couldn't bring himself to say it out loud though, so instead he said, "Hey, come here. I need your light to see where this map wants us to go."

But when she did come over, they both discovered something perplexing. There was no Crystal Star visible on the map anywhere. No signs pointing the way, either. The details of the place were meticulous but there was no clue as to which of the many sites actually held the mystical artifact they were searching for.

"What did you do to it?" Goombella demanded, snatching it out of his hands and tipping it as though it would make more sense sideways.

"I didn't do anything!" Matthew retorted, trying to take it back from her, but she scooted out of his reach.

"Well, obviously you did because it's not working anymore and you were the last one who had it!"

"You don't even know how it works!" Matthew blurted indignantly. "For all we know, it could have run out of juice and just needs to charge back up using a Crystal Star or the thousand-year door."

"We were just there! You must have used it all up getting…"

They were interrupted by a roar that split the sky like thunder. Matthew got the wind knocked out of him when Goombella leaped into his arms and then whispered hoarsely, "What was that?"

Matthew couldn't tell. His heart was beating too loudly. No, wait, that wasn't his heart beating. That was the beating of giant leathery wings and a strong downdraft whooshing into the pavilion. Something was flying overhead… something enormous!

"Quiet!" he hissed, clamping his hand over her mouth. She was too terrified to object.

They waited in tense silence. To his relief, it sounded as though the monster was flying on, the wind settling and the flapping sound starting to fade. Then his heart skipped a beat when he heard the monster speak, "Huh? What is this? Something shiny to put in my collection?" Then there was a high-pitched whoosh like a missile falling from the sky and then, in front of the two adventurers, something that didn't look too far off from an entire mountain crashed to the ground, causing the whole area to quake and sending Matthew and Goombella to the floor.

"Huh?" the monster growled. "Now where'd it go?"

Matthew's heart leaped right into his arm and sent it at Goombella's light to smother it. The monster must have seen it as she was shining it out of the pavilion and had come to investigate. He saw the monster twist to look over its shoulder and his heart leaped into his head, pounding on his eyes until all he could see was red, probably hoping that if he couldn't see it then it couldn't see him. He knew this wasn't true at all and was rather annoyed with his heart for being so silly.

Since he couldn't see past the red veil over his eyes, he couldn't tell if the monster could see the two of them or not. Lucky for him and his companion, the monster couldn't see them; at least, not that well. All it really saw was the unmistakable shape of a travel pipe and a few shapeless lumps piled against it – rocks, it decided. With a disappointed huff, which sent out a cloud of orange fire that briefly illuminated the area - momentarily exposing Matthew and Goombella for the rocks they were not – the monster leaped into the sky with a mighty flap of its leathery wings. Eventually the sound faded and all they heard was the nonchalant breeze chuckling smugly around the pavilion struts.

It was a long while before they dared to move again. It was far too soon when Goombella began hissing like a Fwoosh, "Do you know what that was, Matthew?"

Matthew opened his mouth to offer his postulation, but Goombella answered before he could, "That was a dragon! A real dragon! And we were almost its midnight snack! That was super close! Boy, I hope we never run into it again! Do you know what dragons do to Goombas? They gulp them down whole! Like grapes! Except Goombas are smarter. You probably don't believe me, but Goombas are the leading pioneers in the field of academia. Really! There was Goompert the Inquisitive; then there was Hogoombarth, the one who discovered the cure to the Purple Spot Disease; and Goombella wrote about seven properties of fire flowers. I was named after her, you know. Oh, I almost forgot about Goombexander…"

"We need to get out of here," Matthew interrupted. He picked up the magical map that had dropped during the terrifying episode with the dragon and gave it a shake to clear off dirt. "Come here, Goombella. Let's see if we can find a town or something to stay the night."

They found it after a moment of study. East of Petal Waypoint, as the map called the pavilion where they stood, was a town labeled Petalburg. It looked to be pretty close though Matthew did have a thought or two about how the real thing scaled to the map.

Ten minutes to every decimeter, he decided after a twenty-minute journey. He figured this thanks to Goombella, who had talked a mile a minute ("…the Ancients based their entire lives on the position and movement on the stars, from when to eat, to when a new baby would be born, to what dress they should wear…"). About five words per second was equal to three hundred words per minute, which made it six thousand words during the entire trip. Admittedly, he hadn't been keeping close track of the amount of words she used. He was just relieved when he spotted a single prick of light embedded in the black outline of a watchtower crouching defensively before the walls of what must have been Petalburg.

"Land ho," he said, pointing. He didn't put too much spirit into it, knowing Goombella was sure to scorn him for being so corny.

He wasn't disappointed. She huffed in exasperation. "Okay, first of all, that's what sailors say. You know, when they've been out at sea? In the water?"

"Let's ask the captain for permission to come aboard," Matthew responded, just to annoy her.

They moved closer. Then they were startled when a bell rang and the sentry bellowed, "It's eight o' clock and all's well!"

Goombella was red in the face. "Geesh!" she huffed. "Did he have to scare us like that? I thought we were being attacked or something!"

Within moments of saying this, they were. Before they realized what was happening, they were surrounded by Koopas armed with spears. The spears looked a lot bigger here than they did on TV, Matthew realized, and he threw up his hands in surrender.

"Who goes there?" barked a voice from a Koopa who was holding a torch instead of a spear. "State your business!"

Matthew gulped and then answered, "I-I'm Matthew. I-I'm a student at Whitford Junior High. And this is Goom-Goombella, an archeologist."

"Hi," Goombella offered.

"What are you doing in Petalburg?" asked the voice. "Where'd you come from?"

"Well, uh…" Matthew considered this question, not quite sure where to start.

"It's a bit of a long story," Goombella explained helpfully. "We're just doing some research here. Say, what's with the friendly greeting, anyhow? Do you do this to everyone who comes to Petalburg?"

"Oh, uh, sorry." The torch-wielding Koopa chuckled weakly while the rest lowered their spears. "We don't get many visitors all the way out here in Petalburg. Not since Hooktail's made his nest here ten years ago. And now that I think about it, you're not really Hooktail, are you?"

"That's why we have guards on the watchtower," said a second voice. "To make sure that dragon doesn't catch us off guard when he gets hungry for a midnight snack."

Goombella made a gesture that looked like a shrug and said, "Guess I can't blame you. I'd hate to have my beauty rest disturbed by a dragon invasion in the middle of the night. You probably have work the next day, huh? You can't stay up all night to make sure some hungry fire-breathing monster doesn't come knocking on your door. Hey, do you have just one guard who does all the night guarding or do you take it in shifts? It makes more sense to me to have someone do it in shifts. Sometimes I do some late night work though it's not something I want to do every day; I mean, after all, I'm not that much of a Boo…"

"Do you know a place where we can spend the night?" Matthew asked the guards. He was dangerously close to nodding off.

"Well, you'd best ask the mayor about that," the first answered. "He's the one who makes decisions around here. We can take you to him if you'd like."

"The sooner the better," Matthew responded, shaking himself to stay awake.

The group led them inside Petalburg. By the light of the torch, they could see the windows were all shuttered completely. If the lights were turned on inside, it wasn't getting out. It was like a cluster of bunkers made to keep anything from getting in. But aside from this, the houses looked very ordinary, the kind you'd see in any picturesque neighborhood – some painted white, others painted blue or green, and even one that was painted pink.

It was here that their escort led them, shepherding them right up to the door. The lead Koopa gave it a resounding knock intended to wake, not just the mayor, but all of Petalburg. It did the job well. It wasn't too long before they heard a voice behind the door muttering loudly, "…waking me up at the unholiest of hours to report a butterfly's just gone past… oh, confound it, where'd I put my good shell? …I'm getting too old for this…" and then the door opened.

"Mr. Mayor, sir," said the lead watchKoopa with a salute. "Sorry for disturbing you. We just found some, er, visitors who'd like to spend the night here."

The mayor turned out to be a very old Koopa with eyebrows so hairy they draped over his eyes like bearskin rugs. His skin was so wrinkled it looked like a rumpled suit that had been soaked and then tumbled in the dryer for a few days and yet had not shrunk enough to fit his thin frame. He leaned on a cane that was only half as gnarled as he was.

His voice came out thin and wavering, "Eh? Spirits, you say? As if we didn't have enough to worry about with that accursed dragon flying about."

The watchKoopa cleared his throat. "Er, no, sir. Visitors. From out of town. They want to spend the night."

"Visitors picking a fight?" he said, scrunching his brows together threateningly. "Well, I'll have to warn them: I may look old but I can still deliver a mean hook." He put up his fists and bounced on his feet.

Goombella shook her head as though she had been struck. "Whoa! Deja vu."

"No, no, sir!" The head watchKoopa raised his voice and spoke more slowly, "They… want… to… spend… the… night!"

"Well, then, why didn't you just say so," snapped the old Koopa, "instead of wasting our time yammering nonsense? No sense in being up in the middle of the night if you don't have to! Just take 'em to Em T.'s inn." Then he shook his head. "On second thought, I'll do it. Seeing as you can't decide to pick your nose without my say-so." He hobbled past Matthew and Goombella, who couldn't help but stare at the strange, old Koopa. Realizing they weren't following him, he turned and yipped, "You coming?"

Goombella leaned toward Matthew and whispered out of the corner of her mouth, "He's a few spots short of a mushroom, isn't he?" Matthew shrugged and came up behind the mayor. Shaking her head with a woeful expression, she followed behind Matthew.

They didn't get very far when the mayor halted. Matthew skidded to a stop and Goombella ran into him with an "oof!" The mayor turned around. "What did you say your names were again?"

Matthew didn't remember giving him their names. He didn't mention this though. Instead, he answered, "I'm Matthew, and this is Goombella." He gestured to his companion behind him.

The mayor nodded. "Is that so? Pleased to meet you, Murphy and Delilah." Before Matthew could correct him, he turned around and began walking again. "It's a right shame you two had to come at a time of such crisis. We used to be a very peaceful place right up until that dragon, Hooktail, showed up some fifteen years or so. Now he's gone scared off all our tourists and made trading dangerous… not to mention expensive. Fifty coins for Koopa Tea!"

Goombella asked, "Why do you stick around then? Just move away and you won't have worry about him anymore."

"Of course we've tried to get rid of him!" snapped the mayor crossly. "But every time we send someone up there, he doesn't come back, and we're running fresh out of heroes!"

"That's not what I..." She heaved a sigh of exasperation. "Never mind."

The mayor suddenly stopped and spun around to face them. "Hold on. Did I just hear you correctly? You want to give it a try?"

Matthew took a step back as Goombella hopped in agitation. "No! I didn't say that at all!"

Matthew had the feeling the mayor wasn't even trying to listen to them anymore because he said, "Well, I'll be a Gulpin's uncle! You strangers are serious about this, aren't you? Taking on old Hooktail and saving this town. Well, I'm obliged to ask you if you know the risks you're taking in accepting this task." His eyebrows rose as he waited for their answer.

"We're not fighting a dragon!" Goombella yelled. "NOT... FIGHTING... THE... DRAGON!"

The mayor shrugged. "Okay, okay. I know you're not stupid. It's just part of protocol, you understand. I can't be legally responsible for any reckless decisions you make within my town, even if it's fighting the dragon."

"Well, don't worry because we're not," Goombella said with emphasis.

"Well, my dear," said the mayor, patting her on the head affectionately, "I'm mighty proud to have met such a brave lass like you. But I must insist you wait until morning. Follow me, and I'll see that Em T. gives you the proper treatment." He turned and led the way with such a vigorous spring in his step it was almost as though they had already defeated the dragon. Goombella noticed the swagger and she muttered darkly about senile coots foisting dangerous tasks on total strangers. Matthew had the feeling her mood would only get darker.

They soon reached Em T.'s inn, which was small but clean, and the proprietor, a cheery female Toad, had a warm smile, despite the fact they had woken her up in the middle of the night. Her smile became absolutely radiant when the mayor told her, "These folks have got it in their heads to take down old Hooktail. Be sure to give them the royal treatment, if you would, dear."

"Why, certainly!" she exclaimed enthusiastically. "The executive suites are this way!"

It was a bit of an exaggeration for a couple of dorm rooms, but Matthew's bed was comfortable. He didn't fall asleep right away, but lay in bed, staring at the ceiling and contemplating his adventure so far and what the next day would bring. Goombella had insisted they weren't here to fight a dragon. There were plenty of ruins to search, she said, meaning the odds of the Crystal Star being hidden in one of them was fairly high. Yet Matthew had the feeling the dragon was an important part of their quest for the Crystal Stars. It was a vague but insistent feeling - almost like a memory...

...

He didn't realize he had fallen asleep until he woke up the next day to the sound of the door opening, and Em T. entered his room with a tray practically spilling with breakfast.

"Good morning!" she said brightly, plopping the tray right onto his lap, which was surprisingly hot. She pranced to his side. "I made you a big breakfast so you can build your strength before you go fight that nasty Hooktail!"

"Oh," said Matthew, adjusting the tray so that it didn't burn his legs. He put his glasses on and peered at the food. "Thanks."

"No trouble at all! Your friend is already finished with hers. She told me to tell you to meet her at the library."

She gave him the directions there. He thanked her, and she curtsied and then pranced out of the room, her face glowing with joy.

Once he finished breakfast (which was actually very good), he stepped outside to find the library, but found instead a crowd of Koopas gathered outside. They cheered upon seeing him and began gossiping in loud whispers to each other.

"There he is!"

"He's going to slay the dragon for us!"

"Seems kind of scrawny, though."

"Nah, that's lean muscle, like a runner."

"What, like he's going to run away from the dragon?"

Matthew wasn't used to getting so much attention and it made him anxious. He quietly slipped through the crowd and they flowed in behind him, eager to see what he would do to stop the dragon. His face was red and he was acutely aware of how awkward he was: the way his arms swung when he walked, the way his feet slipped on all the tiny bits of gravel on the path, the way he had to constantly push his glasses up his nose every time they slid down, the way his hair flopped every time he moved his head. If he hadn't been so focused on all of this, he might have noticed how pretty the town was. The streets were paved with stone and lined with rosebushes. The houses were few and small, leaving a generous amount of space for all the flowers that grew so abundantly here. As it was, he was so focused on not being such a total goof that he almost passed right by the library and had to double-back, forcing his way through the crowd to get to the doors.

At last, he was inside with his back against the doors and the townsKoopas on the other side. He let out a sigh of relief and then scanned the library for Goombella. Like everything else in Petalburg, the library was small and he found his companion without too much trouble. The towers of books on the table was the dead giveaway.

"About time you got here!" she hissed without looking up from the history book she was browsing. "I think I know where to find the Crystal Star."

Matthew perked up. "Where?"

He should have known better than to expect a straight answer from her. She said, "I've done a bit of digging through the local archives - which is a lot bigger than you would expect in a tiny little burg, but then again with all the archeological sites scattered around Petal Meadows, it really does make sense - but anyways, each place has a different history - it's all just a matter of tracking down the time and place of each event and the likelihood that the Crystal Star was part of it - and by the way, did you know..."

And off she went with wars and settlements and dates he'd never remember. It wasn't easy, but after a long and very confusing history lesson, Matthew managed to piece together the gist of her theory. "So you're saying it's in a place called Shhwonk Fortress?"

"I'm ninety percent positive," Goombella affirmed. On the table was a map she had copied, with arrows weaving around each other and notations detailing the possible locations of the Crystal Star. It looked credible, yet Matthew could not shake the feeling that the college student had missed a vital clue. Though there were so many possible locations to search, he had the strong suspicion that he knew exactly where the Crystal Star was hidden, and that's when it occurred to him.

He said to Goombella, "You remember last night, with the dragon? What it said when it landed next to us?"

"What do you mean?" she asked, giving him an odd look.

"'Something shiny to put into my collection,' remember?"

This gave her pause for a second or two but she very quickly responded, "It doesn't necessarily mean anything... oh, ugh!" An expression of disgust crossed her face. Matthew figured she had finally cracked under the strain of his stupidity. Then he felt someone standing behind him.

"Um, excuse me," said the Koopa timidly. He was young and rather glum-looking with his head bent and his hands tucked in the pockets of his gray hoodie. "Are you the ones going to defeat Hooktail?"

Matthew looked to Goombella, but she turned back to the books with an expression that would have set them ablaze if looks could kill. So he turned back to the Koopa. "Well, uh..."

The Koopa reacted guiltily. "Oh, I was just asking because... uh... I was just wondering..." He tugged distractedly at the tassel at his hood for a moment and then finished quickly, "You know what? Never mind. Forget I said anything. Sorry for bothering you." Then he turned, pulled his hoodie over his head, and shuffled out of the library. Matthew wasn't quite sure what to make of that strange encounter.

Goombella put her book down. "I don't know how you managed it. Me, I had people coming in here and bothering me, and even when I used my most evil eye on them, they wouldn't leave. It was only thanks to the Ms. Murtle here that I could finally do my research in peace." She gestured to an old, wrinkled Koopa wearing half-moon glasses with a beaded chain attached to her ear and pink hair tied up in a bun. "I've got to hand it to you: you know how to scare people off. What's your secret? That dumbfounded stare you always have?"

"Shhhhh!" came the unexpected voice of the librarian, who had a finger to her wrinkled lips.

Goombella smiled apologetically and then disappeared into her book again.

Matthew mused over what his companion had said. Did he scare the young Koopa off? No, there was something else going on with him. The look he had given him before taking off... it was something else... something like... desperation. But what was he desperate for?

He tossed the question around in his mind. He came up with several theories borrowed straight from soap operas that his mom liked to watch until Goombella finally slammed her book shut and stood up. "All right," she said, "I think we're ready."

"We're going to Shhwonk Fortress?" Matthew guessed.

"That's right." She nodded. "We're going to Shhwonk Fortress."

Stepping outside the library, they were greeted by a thunderous cheer from the crowd of Koopas, which was even larger than when Matthew had stepped out of Em T.'s inn.

"Hail the dragon slayers!"

"They're going to beat up Hooktail!"

"They're warriors from a distant land!"

"They're a professional team. Never lost a battle once!"

"Fifty coins says they don't come back."

"Just ignore them," Goombella said to Matthew, raising her head with dignity.

They shuffled their way through the crowd, who flowed in behind them. As the two of them moved toward the eastern gate, the townsfolk's words of praise became words of confusion.

"Where are they going? Are they going the right way?"

"That's not the way to Hooktail's Castle. Are they really professional dragon slayers?"

"They've got to be confused. They'll realize soon that they're going to wrong way."

"Do you think we should tell them Hooktail's Castle is the other way?"

"Pay no attention to them," Goombella warned Matthew.

They stepped outside the eastern gate and the townsKoopas halted behind it, watching the dragon slayers leaving, with bewilderment. Then, at once, they began shouting.

"They're not going to fight the dragon! They're running away!"

"They're not heroes, at all! Just selfish cowards!"

"They betrayed us! They're leaving us to be dragon chow!"

"Just ignore them!" Goombella trilled, raising her head as high as it could go. Matthew tried his best to follow her advice, but that became impossible after the first tin can hit him on the back of his head.

"Ow!" he cried, shielding himself. They were under attack by a barrage of tin cans and broken hammers.

"Run!" Goombella cried.

They beat a hasty retreat until they were well out of range of both the falling projectiles and the angry shouts of the townsfolk.