Yay! More adventures with fairy and friends! I hope everyone likes it.
In spite of all the pirates Rayman had managed to take out so far, it still seemed there were always two more to take their place! This was made abundantly clear when the small group was suddenly ambushed by a whole horde of them on their way out of the swamp! It appeared that they were trying to update their tactics.
"Ahhhh!"
Globox yelled in alarm when the first several leapt out of the bushes to block their path. His attempt at retreat ultimately proving futile when he turned, only to find several more marching up on them from behind.
"Oh no! They're everywhere! What are we gonna do, Rayman?" he squeaked out, shivering as the three of them bunched together until they were all standing back to back.
What were they going to do? Lottie agreed with dismay. In their current position, it was going to be difficult for Rayman to both fight and protect them at the same time! The fairy girl wished there was a way that she could assist in this, but was also simultaneously frozen with uncertainty. She didn't want to try. Not if it would only end up once again being a mistake.
"Stick close, and first chance you get, try and run away," Rayman muttered in reply, the glare in his eyes telling Lottie that he didn't like their chances any more than she did.
The pirate nearest Globox was the first to attack, lunging at the poor, terrified frog man. Rayman tried to make a move to help, but quickly found he already had his hands full with robots from his side of the circle. Globox succeeded in getting off one rain spell, but wasn't fast enough to counter as the rest of the horde came for him and he was soon overwhelmed.
Meanwhile, with no way to defend herself, all Lottie could do was crouch down and brace for the worst. She squeezed her eyes shut, waiting for the inevitable – except, it never came. What she heard instead was a sudden, loud crunch right in front of her.
Wondering what was going on, she slowly peeked up. Only to find to her surprise that instead of a pirate, there was now a yellowish, hulking creature standing before her and sporting the single biggest chin she had ever seen! He held the crushed remains of the robot in one of his massive hands and was peering around at all the others with an expression of righteous fury! That certainly gave them pause!
"How dare you try and hurt Clark's friends!" the giant roared.
Tossing the scrap metal aside, he then proceeded to make short work of the rest of their attackers in a glorious display of destruction and carnage! Meanwhile, all Lottie could do was stare in shock and awe! Huffing from exertion after he was finished, the ogre turned to the group with an impressively large grin.
"Hi little friends. Anybody wanna arm wrestle?" he wondered down at them.
Lottie felt her mind blank at the question. He wasn't serious, was he? Even if Rayman had arms, she didn't think any of them would be a match for him. Not even if they all tried to wrestle at once!
"Clark!" both Rayman and Globox exclaimed simultaneously, dashing over to greet him.
"Thanks for the save! If it wasn't for you, we probably would have been captured by the pirates again," Rayman stressed in gratitude.
"Clark is just happy you are safe. Those pirates are real meanies," he boomed in reply.
"Yeah, and they're scary too!" Globox added in a whimper.
"So, I guess you're the reason why Menhir Hills is still safe?" the limbless hero surmised.
The giant's head bobbed up and down enthusiastically.
"Clark doing good job protecting. Ly say so," he boasted.
"Wait, you've seen Ly? Is, she doing alright?" Rayman was quick to wonder, and Clark nodded again.
"Ly said to come find you. She gave a silver Lum for me to deliver," he informed the group.
"She was able to create another silver Lum? Awesome!" Rayman cheered as Clark reached around to pull it out for him. It moved into Rayman's chest just like the previous one had, causing him to jump around, merrily waving his hands. "Alright! At this rate, I should be back up to full power in no time!"
Finally having recovered from the whirlwind of events that had just taken place, Lottie was able to heft herself back onto her feet and brush off her skirt. The movement and flash of green grabbed Clark's attention.
"Who is little, green fairy? A new friend?" he wondered.
"Oh yeah!" Globox blurted, as if just remembering that Lottie was still there.
Snatching her off the ground, he held her up to Clark's face so that he could get a better look. Much to the fairy girl's surprise, who let out a cry in displeasure at the sudden man-handling, or frog-handling, as it were.
"Clark, this is Lottie. Lottie – Clark," Globox introduced.
The giant gave her a smile and small wave.
"Uh. . . hi, Clark," she told him awkwardly.
Now that she was face to face with the gigachad chin, Lottie thought she remembered seeing him in the game at one point, but the image was fuzzy at best. Either way, she couldn't deny that it was fortunate for them that he came along when he did.
"Thank you so much for saving us. It would have been really bad if the pirates had managed to get their hands on Rayman again," she offered sincerely.
"You are welcome. Ly said you all still have long journey ahead. Good luck, small friends," he told them with another wave and turned to go, presumably to continue patrolling the area for any more pirates.
. . .
Upon reaching the Pier, they were all delighted to find that Bzzit was there to greet them, just as he said he would be. He had busied himself with cleaning his transparent wings as he waited at the base of a small boat. At noticing the approaching party, he smiled at them and waved them over. At least, Lottie thought he was smiling. It was honestly a bit hard to tell with his needly nose and lack of a proper mouth.
"I'm glad to see you all made it. Hop in the boat and I'll take you to the Lost Island," he buzzed.
Lottie understood now. The little guy was going to act as a kind of motor. Which seemed far quicker and more efficient than trying to row out into open sea. She did have one concern, however.
"Are you sure you're going to be able to push all three of us?" she questioned the bug. True, he was pretty big for a mosquito, but still. He probably would have been better off keeping his original design.
Even so, he simply waved off her comment with a spindly leg.
"No sweat. I'm a lot stronger than I look," he assured her.
"You could always try assisting with your wings if you're that worried," Rayman suggested.
Lottie opened her mouth with a sassy retort in mind, but nothing came out. Not only did she have no room to talk, but she also couldn't seem to summon the energy for it. Wordlessly, she turned and climbed into the boat, scooting herself all the way to the edge and placing her head in her palms as she stared out over the water. With the way she was feeling after everything that had just happened, she didn't think she'd be able to get her wings to move, let alone beat effectively enough to actually make a difference. Either way, him rubbing it in certainly wasn't helping!
Rayman just rolled his eyes as he climbed into the boat and moved near the front, while Bzzit turned to Globox with a raised brow.
"What's going on with those two?" he inquired.
"What do you mean?" the frog-man wondered cluelessly as he took a seat next to the fairy.
"Never mind," Bzzit muttered with a head shake, remembering who he was talking to.
Pushing off, the mosquito began wildly flapping his wings as he steered the boat and it's silent occupants towards the island in the far distance.
They arrived only to find the beach littered with pirates, all appearing to be hunting for something. Which struck everyone as odd. After all, there was no way they would be looking for the temple. It wasn't like they knew about Polokus' masks, right?
Either way, since they weren't surrounded this time, and had the element of surprise, Rayman had no trouble taking them out, with some occasional help from Globox. As Lottie hung back, doing her best to not make things any more arduous, she couldn't help but notice that Rayman was dispatching robots even easier than he previously had. Guess those silver Lums really were making a difference in his power.
"Wow, Rayman. Those pirates are simply no match for you. If they were smart, they'd all leave before you get the chance to pummel them all!" Bzzit praised when the limbless hero wandered back to shore to check on him.
"Well, I don't know about that. Although, no one's about to go around accusing these guys of being smart, either," he quipped in reply. "Anyway, since they're gone for the moment, would you mind hanging around for us out here? We're going to need to get a ride back once we find the mask," he requested.
"Of course. I'll be waiting right next to the boat. Come and find me when you're all done," the mosquito assured him.
"Great! Come on, guys. Let's see if we can find a way into this temple," Rayman encouraged his traveling companions.
Working their way deeper into the island, they journeyed through several mountain passes until eventually stumbling upon a very large, formidable doorway that appeared to be carved directly from the rock face. It was flanked on either side by a pair of floating, ethereal looking pyramids. One of them was glowing an icy blue, and the other, a creamy orange.
"This certainly looks like an entrance to a temple if I ever saw one," Lottie commented, poking at one of the pyramids. Despite appearing transparent and empty, the stone actually felt quite solid.
"Right. The only question now is, how do we get the door open?" Rayman wondered, studying the other odd rock.
"I'm guessing it's not going to be as easy as shouting 'open sesame' at the gate here. Meaning, it's got to have something to do with these," the fairy surmised.
"That's exactly what I was thinking," Rayman nodded in agreement. "Alright then. Let's fan out and see what we can find," he ordered the others before heading off to the right. And since he was going that way, Lottie turned and began to wander in the opposite direction.
Globox glanced back and forth between the rapidly retreating pair, as though he were struggling to decide on what to do. After another second of deliberation, he ultimately made up his mind before scrambling after the green fairy. Hearing a sudden huffing and puffing from behind her, Lottie flipped around and was surprised to find the blue frog hurrying to catch up with her.
"Globox? What are you doing here? Why didn't you go with Rayman?" she wondered at him once he'd reached her.
"I know Rayman can take care of himself, so I wanted to make sure that you were going to be okay," he answered with a big smile.
"Oh, right," she stated flatly, because of course she was so hopeless that she couldn't be trusted to be away from the heroes for even five minutes!
Logically Lottie knew that he hadn't meant it like that, but it was still a struggle not coming to such a conclusion. Even so, she kept the negative opinion to herself. "Thank you, Globox," she opted to tell him instead.
Rounding a corner, the pair suddenly found themselves standing in front of what Lottie guessed used to be a hut of some kind? The structure had certainly seen better days, the walls looking faded and worn by the weather, and the roof seeming as if it could collapse at any moment. The structural integrity, or lack thereof rather, had the girl feeling a bit reluctant to go inside. Still. . .
"How much you wanna bet what we're looking for is in there," she mumbled, more to herself than anything, but Globox responded in turn nonetheless.
"I can go see," he volunteered, apparently not the least bit fazed at the idea of getting buried inside.
He skipped through the door before Lottie had the chance to argue. She considered going in after him, but quickly realized that they probably shouldn't risk disturbing the unstable building any more than was necessary. She could only hope that he knew enough to at least try and be careful.
Several minutes later, and the frog man reemerged, toting along a large, blue sphere. It had the same aesthetic, swirly glow as the pyramid, and appeared similarly transparent. Seemed as though she'd called that one.
"Lottie! Look what I found!" Globox cheered excitedly, proudly brandishing his discovery.
"Great job, Globox! I'll be a monkey's uncle if that isn't what we need to get the temple door open," she told him with an approving nod. He waddled up to her with a befuddled look.
"What's a monkey?" he asked, cocking his head.
"Uh, never mind," she shook her head.
Returning to the temple entrance, they found Rayman had already beat them back. He was busy placing his own sphere that he found on top of the matching pyramid. The orb seemed to be attracted to it, defying gravity as it hovered just above the point of the polyhedron.
"Well, I guess that answers my question on what we were supposed to do with this," Lottie voiced, gaining his attention as she gestured towards the glowing ball they had found.
Rayman brightened when he saw it.
"Oh good! You guys were able to find the other one," he acknowledged. "And yeah, looks like all we gotta do is set the same colored spheres on top of the pyramids, like this," he motioned towards the one he had just completed.
"Simple enough. Globox, if you would be so kind," the fairy girl made an elaborate bow towards the blue stone.
"Be kind to what?" he wondered blankly, cluelessly cradling the other key up against his belly.
This time, Lottie was unable to stop herself from grunting out a groan and slapping a hand across her forehead. Which despite not completely appreciating the gesture, even Rayman couldn't blame her for.
"Globox, put the ball on the triangle," Rayman explained in simple words.
"Oh! Well, why didn't you say so?" he told them, as if they were the obtuse ones!
Doing her best to ignore the inadvertent insult, Lottie instead focused her attention on the large door. As soon as Globox had placed his orb, the whole thing shuttered, and with a great grinding noise, it slowly slid open in three different directions. Each piece pulled away from the center until it had disappeared entirely into the rock face, leaving the entrance wide open.
"Alright! Let's go get that mask!" Rayman cheered, dashing into the temple, the others keeping right on his heels.
As far as video game dungeons went, Lottie had to admit that this one wasn't too bad. It was decorated with very pretty architecture, had nice easy to climb slopes, and even when they began to cross over some fairly narrow walkways, there was adequate railing to keep her feeling relatively safe.
Eventually they entered a room that at first glance, appeared to be a dead end. The only clue on how to progress rested in a pool on the far side with a cryptic message scrawled in a strange language just above it. Padding closer, Lottie squinted and cocked her head at it. Logically she knew that she shouldn't be able to read the curious text. However, the longer she studied it, the more it oddly started to become clear.
"If the sanctuary's treasure – is what you seek. You need to travel – to the bottom – before you can reach – the peak," she slowly puzzled out.
"What does that mean?" Globox wondered.
"Sounds like we're gonna need to take a swim," Rayman determined, wading into the pool.
Of course, Globox had no qualms about this, diving in right after him. Lottie, on the other hand, visibly hung back, staring suspiciously into the murky depths.
"You know, I'm not really the strongest swimmer. Maybe I should just, wait here for you guys," she attempted to suggest, but that only earned her a scoff from Rayman.
"You don't have to do that. Just hold onto Globox. I'm sure he'll be able to get through this cavern in no time," the limbless hero attempted to reassure her. Although she didn't feel particularly reassured.
"But, but what if it just leads to another dead end? What if we can't find any air on the other side? What if–?"
Her tirade of arguments was swiftly cut off when she suddenly felt a hand take a firm grip around the back of her belt and hoist her into the air. A moment later, and the girl found herself deposited on the back of the blue frog man. She blinked in surprise at the realization that the hand belonged to Rayman, but it wasn't that he'd managed to sneak it around behind her that left her startled. It was much more the fact that he could just pluck her up like that one handed, as if she weighed nothing at all.
It was strange to think that he could have so much strength with no biceps, or maybe being a fairy made her lighter than she thought. How? Magic, she supposed. Either way, it was still rather trippy. Not to mention leaving her feeling grateful that he was on their side!
"We're not about to let you drown! You really need to learn to put a little more faith in us," he lectured lightly, flashing her a half smile.
Lottie felt her face grow strangely warm despite the cold water, but was disrupted just a moment later by Globox pulling her arms securely around his neck.
"Just hang on tight, and take a deep breath," he told her.
She nodded and did as she was told, taking a few sharp, rapid gulps of air first to purposefully hyperventilate herself, somehow knowing it would allow her to hold it for longer.
"And here we go!" Globox declared, before diving head first into the dark pool.
The pull of the water around her gave Lottie the sensation that they were moving rather quickly, making it a bit of a struggle to maintain her grip. Although, she was too nervous to open her eyes in order to find out for sure, keeping them squeezed almost as tightly as her fingers around the frog man.
Except, they hadn't broken to the surface yet, when she suddenly felt an urgent tapping on her arm, as though someone wanted to get her attention. Feeling compelled to open her eyes, the fairy girl blinked into the blurry face of the limbless wonder. He was smiling and pointing towards the area ahead of him as they passed through the rocky tunnel. She couldn't help but notice that he was using his helicopter hair to propel himself forward.
Once her vision cleared a bit, Lottie decided to humor him by craning her neck around her froggy floaty, and had to fight the urge to gasp at what she saw! There, displayed before them, was a massive collection of bioluminescent algae that painted every square inch of the walls of the underwater cave. It was an absolute aurora of color that was so bright, it completely lit up the water with an incredibly gorgeous rainbow glow!
Lottie couldn't remember seeing anything so beautiful in the games before, but then again, she'd come to accept that this was much more than a simple game at this point. In fact, this most likely had to be the most amazing thing she'd ever seen! They certainly didn't have anything quite like this in the real world! It was enough to take her breath away! Which was actually good on the one hand, since she could feel her lungs starting to burn with the need for fresh air.
Luckily, they didn't have much further to go, until Globox found a place to emerge, dramatically breaking the water's surface before slowing to an easy tread. Lottie took a deep breath, trying not to appear too overly excited at what she'd just had the opportunity to see.
"That was so pretty!" she chimed with a grin once Rayman had joined them above the water.
"Really, just pretty?" he wondered at the casual term, but didn't press it. "Now, aren't you glad you came with us?" he opted to argue knowingly instead.
Cheeks growing rosy again with embarrassment, Lottie considered denying the inquiry, but found that she couldn't. It's not like he would have believed her anyway.
"Yeah. Thanks for carrying me, Globox," she mumbled softly, glancing away as she rested her cheek on his head.
"You're welcome. I'm just glad we didn't find anything scary down there," he added, paddling towards the shore to pull them back onto dry land.
"Me too!" Lottie agreed.
. . .
It was a shame that the beauty of the temple couldn't last. It was designed to test anyone who entered, after all. Which was made abundantly clear as the trio stepped into the next room. Although, calling it a room was honestly a gross understatement!
Stretched out before them was what appeared to be a series of broken and disjointed platforms, all angled down and spanning out into what could only be described as an endless void. Lottie leaned over the nearest railing, but couldn't find any sign of a bottom.
"This is, ominous," she commented.
"Also not particularly stable," Rayman added, testing the incline on the first piece of broken floor. "It's too steep to walk down. We're going to have to slide," he determined.
"Oh boy! I always love a good slide!" Globox spouted, clapping his hands together.
"Slide?" Lottie questioned with concern, her eyes following the janky path, noting the significant gaps in between some of the chunks.
Rayman picked up on her tone and internal fretting, turning to fix her with a narrowed look that was practically daring her to protest. While tempting, Lottie was starting to learn that it not only upset him, but would ultimately end up proving moot anyway, so why bother?
"Would someone be willing to carry me down?" she requested instead, earning her a satisfied smirk from the limbless wonder.
"Sure thing," he agreed readily, motioning her towards him.
Hopping up into his hands, this time Lottie was much more comfortable about pressing herself against him for balance. She wrapped her arms around the top of his torso, taking a firm grip on his hood and tucking her head in around the area where a neck should be for good measure. The fairy knew she wasn't supposed to be worried about him dropping her, but at the same time, she didn't want to take any chances!
Once he felt her settle, Rayman leapt into the air to begin the descent, Globox right behind him, moving along on his belly rather than his feet.
"Whee!" The blue frog cheered with glee once they started to pick up speed.
Lottie felt herself tense on the first jump, her head growing a bit disoriented as Rayman pulled off a flip in the air, even while holding her. However, his landing was so smooth that the girl barely even felt jostled. And after a bit longer, the sensation began to strike her as, rather fun! It was a little like the flying lesson, but much faster, reminding her of a roller coaster. Which meant she must have ridden a roller coaster at some point in her previous life.
Although, it was during one of the final jumps when the fairy girl was suddenly, rudely reminded of why it wasn't a good idea to get complacent. Rayman ended up taking the leap a bit weird, causing her to lose her grip on him!
"Lottie!" Rayman called in alarm, the girl letting out a terrified squeak as she began to plummet towards oblivion!
It was fortunate that was all she had time for, as Rayman tucked himself together to pick up speed in order to pass her. He let himself get thrown straight into the edge of the following platform, taking a firm grip on it. Then, before she was able to slip below the floor, he expertly threw out his free hand and snapped it around her wrist.
The girl merely hung in a stunned state for a moment, until finally realizing what had happened. Instinct took over then, urging her to reach up and get a grip on him with her other hand.
"I know I said I wanted you to put more faith in me, but that doesn't mean you should let go!" she suddenly heard him lecturing down at her. She fixed him with a pained pout.
"But, I didn't! I mean–" she attempted to defend, but he cut her off with a chuckle.
"I know. I was only joking," he assured her with a grin.
"Rayman! Are you okay?" They heard Globox call before watching him sail over the top of them.
"Yeah, it's okay Globox! Keep on going. We'll meet you at the bottom!" Rayman hollered in reply, making a move to pull Lottie up to his level.
Guess she had been wrong about him not dropping her. Even so, it was nice to know she could count on him to not let her fall.
"I think we're about to the end. You should be able to handle the rest on your own," he told her with a wink, and before she could argue, hefted her over the side and back onto the slope.
"Ah!" Lottie yelled as she slid away and along her backside with little to no control.
Thankfully, it turned out that he had been right about them being basically at the end. Lottie barely had a chance to register what was happening as she cruised through a doorway and into a tunnel. Which she was happy to find was flanked with floor to ceiling walls, meaning there was no longer a way to fall off.
She began humming the Princess Secret Slide theme as she went. Although, she wasn't entirely sure why. It just kind of came to her. In the end, she supposed it was fitting. It wasn't every day you got to experience everyone's favorite Mario 64 level first hand, after all!
Eventually, the floor began to level out, signaling that she was about to the finish. She ended up having just enough momentum to reach the prostrate frog man in front of her, bumping into him and finally bringing the girl to a stop.
"Woo! Again!" she exclaimed, until she noticed that for some reason Globox wasn't just lying there for the heck of it, but instead was actively cowering, his little froggy mitts covering his eyes as he shivered.
"What's the matter, Globox?" Lottie wondered in concern. Weren't they just having fun a moment ago?
He managed to pull a hand away from his face long enough to point a shaking finger off into the distance. That was when she saw it.
It appeared to be some kind of crazy, faced golem. Only this one didn't have the normal round, rocky look most of them had. It's head and torso were pointed, almost like a diamond that had been cut in half. And while it's extra large fists were pretty blocky, it didn't seem to have any legs to speak of, instead just floated in the air, menacingly.
"Oh, that must be the guardian," Lottie guessed.
A moment later, and Rayman slid onto the scene, having finally caught up with the others.
"Everyone okay?" he wondered.
"We're fine," Lottie nodded. "But don't look now, because we've got some dangerous looking company!" she warned, directing his attention towards the golem.
Rayman glanced up to find the creature glaring and making motions as if to attack. He narrowed his own eyes right back with determined resolve.
"Right then. I'll handle this guy," he told them, moving towards the behemoth, but not before suddenly rounding on Lottie, his expression stern. "Stay here with Globox. I mean it!" he ordered, as though he were scolding a small child.
"Yeah, I got it. I'll just sit back and let you fight the boss," she assured him, throwing her hands up in exasperation at being lectured.
Despite not fully understanding her answer, he seemed satisfied with it nonetheless and stalked off. He then proceeded to do his usual Rayman thing, namely throwing his fists at the enemy as quickly as he could until whatever he was fighting eventually went down.
However, it was soon made apparent that this creature could not be dealt with so easily. In that, no matter how hard he hit it, the golem wasn't fazed by the attacks at all! How could his strikes be doing absolutely no damage? He didn't understand what else he was supposed to do. Maybe go for the head?
As Rayman continued the assault, eventually one of his fists went slightly astray, connecting with a large stalactite that just so happened to be conveniently positioned right above the golem's head. With a mighty crack, the whole thing suddenly came crashing down, right on top of the unsuspecting guardian! The impact caused the creature to surprisingly shatter into what had to be thousands of tiny pieces, and just like that, it was over.
"Yeah!" Rayman exclaimed triumphantly, throwing a fist in the air.
Lottie, on the other hand, wasn't quite so impressed. "Is that it?" she wondered skeptically, thinking that hadn't been much of a boss fight, but oh well.
"How did you figure out that you had to hit the stalactite to beat him?" she asked as she wandered up to the hero, Globox having no problem joining her now that the monster was gone.
Rayman opened his mouth to reply, but then suddenly closed it again. He shuffled, sheepishly rubbing at the back of his head.
"Actually, I didn't. Hitting the rocks above him was kind of an accident," he confessed, his cheeks reddening slightly.
"Oh, well – whatever," Lottie played it off as if it were no big deal. "The important thing is that you won. Now there shouldn't be anything else between us and the mask – I hope," she added warily.
"Uh, right! Let's go get it!" Rayman agreed, appreciating her not fixating on the happenstantial victory.
