Chapter 14 Exploring Seawell

Lemmy rose out of bed, taking note of the rich golden sunlight coming in through the hotel window. Roy woke up around the exact same time, reaching his arms up to the sky as he stretched. Lemmy smiled at the sight of this, almost falling into a laughing fit as well. He didn't do that, but he certainly got close.

"Good morning, Roy."

Roy yawned. "Morning Lems." He rubbed his eyes before looking around the hotel room, blinking nonstop as he did. "Dang, this room is so clean! It's like the exact opposite of my room!" He chuckled. "I have to admit, waking up in a neater space is so much less stressful and a lot more peaceful than waking up in a dirty one."

"Yeah, it is; it really is." Lemmy was silent for a second before giggling. "I still don't feel motivated to clean my room though."

"Oh no, me neither." Roy pushed his cover back and put his feet down on the floor. "My room is my haven, and the messiness of it has something to do with that. At the very least, it's something familiar."

"Yeah, see! I'm glad somebody understands!" Lemmy yawned before getting out of bed himself. "So, today is the day we're going to find Morton's trait!"

Roy's face fell. "Well… yeah, that's what we say." He scratched his head as Lemmy went to the door and opened it. "But World 4 is a big space, and even though Morton is gigantic to us, he still isn't big enough to fill this place." His brow furrowed as Lemmy closed the door behind them, and as they began walking down the hallway, he pursed his lips in the tightest way possible. "It's probably going to take a while to find him here."

Lemmy paused. "Huh." He thought about this for a little bit, mulling over the facts in his head. "That is a good point, Roy…"

Roy gasped. "Wait? You think I made a good point?" He grinned, the expression brighter than the morning sun right outside. "My goodness, that almost never happens! This day is getting off to an amazing start!"

Lemmy laughed. "Considering what region we're in right now, I feel obligated to say: Roy, you are one lucky son of a beach!" Both Koopalings laughed for a good long while. They didn't even stop when they got to the hotel lobby, and they got some weird looks from the reception as a result. Thankfully, they calmed down in time to check out, and they stepped out into the sunny, tropical paradise of World 4 with clear heads. They both took deep breaths, breathing in the floral ocean air, before Lemmy got an idea.

"Hey, why don't we ask Iggy to get more details from one of the other Mortons! They were able to tap into each other's mindsets before; I don't think there's anything stopping them from doing it again."

Roy nodded. "Good idea, Lems. See, it's nice to have a brainiac with you when you go on a giant, world-hopping quest."

Lemmy snorted. "I don't know if I'd call myself a 'brainiac,' but I appreciate the compliment regardless." He fished his phone out of his hammerspace and typed into the textbox. It took a little bit for Iggy to respond, which honestly did make Lemmy worry that they had hit some sort of dead end. Thankfully, just as he was about to enter panic mode, Iggy respond, and Lemmy couldn't help but let out a breath of relief when he did. "Okay! Iggy says that the next Morton is hanging out in this town near the ocean."

Roy's entire body drooped. "Dang, that's about half of the towns in World 4…"

"Hold on; I haven't read the whole text yet." Lemmy scrolled through the rest of the message. "Hmm. There are a lot of tropical flowers…" Lemmy gasped. "As well as a well constructed out of gold in the middle of the town!" He grinned, jumping up and down as he did. "That's a pretty significant landmark!" He immediately went to the web. "Now, which town in World 4 has a golden well in the center…" he typed into the search bar before grinning. "Seawell! The place is called Seawell!"

"Seawell?" Roy snickered. "That's fitting."

"Yes, extremely." Lemmy beamed as he put his phone away. "So, let's head towards Seawell, shall we?"

…

It took about an hour and a half with the help of a well-placed warp pipe, but Lemmy and Roy eventually made it to Seawell. The golden well in the center was probably one of the most dazzling sights Lemmy had seen in a while, which was saying a lot because he lived in a castle. It shone in the sunlight, letting off the most warm and welcoming glow Lemmy had seen in a while. It made perfect sense why it would be the town's defining landmark. Aside from that though, the town was also pretty impressive. There were a few typical mushroom houses all around, which to Lemmy indicated that there were some Toads living there. While in the process of deciding how he felt about that, he studied the rest of the town. It was certainly colorful, with enough space between the house for the residents to have their own yards and property. Said property held some of the most eye-catching flowers Lemmy had seen in a while, with colors ranging from pink and yellow to blue and violet. This whole town kind of reminded Lemmy of Sparksville, except somehow even more visually appealing.

Of course, Lemmy and Roy didn't have enough time on their hands to get distracted by those sights.

"Well well well." Lemmy laughed at his pun (seriously, he was on a roll today!) before putting on a serious face. He decided now was the best time to enter into his authoritative mode. "You have your phone, right?" Roy nodded as he pulled his phone out of his shell. "Awesome!" Lemmy got his own phone out. "We're going to split up; cover as much ground as possible." He pointed to the well. "I'll go south of the well. You go north. As soon as we find the Morton, we text each other and meet back here."

"Sounds good," Roy said with a nod. He started walking off, causing Lemmy's face to fall.

"Uh, Roy, you're walking south. You're supposed to go north."

Roy halted before cringing. "Right." He turned back around, now heading to the north of the town. "I… I knew that."

And with that, the two Koopalings were off. Lemmy looked from left to right, making sure to keep his eyes open in case the trait was wandering around in the open. Every ten minutes, he would text Roy to see if he made any progress. And unfortunately, each and every time, Roy reported that he had no such luck. Of course, Lemmy wasn't about to let those reports discourage or dishearten him. They had all day to do this, and a whole town to cover. They could find the trait before the end of the day. They could find Morton and bring him back to the castle. They just had to keep looking!

So, Lemmy did just that. As he searched, he realized that a lot of the Toads who lived in the town gave him weird looks. He tried not to think too hard about this; the looks weren't necessarily hostile, and the Toads weren't going out of their way to cause trouble for him. This made walking through this town a much better experience than walking around the Mushroom Kingdom. So, really, there was no reason to worry! None at all!

"Morton!" Lemmy called out as he walked through the town. He searched in every nook and cranny he could find, ducking into alleyways and entering any store he found. Unfortunately, he didn't find his brother in any of them. "Morton! Morton!" After about half an hour of searching, he came to a halt in front of a smoothie stand and pinched his brow. He decided now was the perfect time to pull out his phone again.

Found him yet? He asked Roy.

Nope, Roy replied less than a minute later. After another minute, he sent another message, one that practically had frustration leaking out of the screen. I swear, this shouldn't be this hard. Morton's our brother; we should be able to find him.

Lemmy sighed. Yeah. He took some time to think about this before smiling again. Maybe we should expand our search by asking the townspeople. I bet they would remember seeing a dark-skinned Koopa like Morton.

Hey yeah! That's a great idea! I'll get right on that!

Sounds good! With that, Lemmy put his phone away and got to thinking. Who should he start asking first? A store owner? A regular citizen?

"Hello, Mr. Koopa!" Lemmy blinked to see the Toad operating the smoothie cart that he stood right in front of. They smiled at him, which actually made Lemmy do a double take. His surprise only grew as the Toad started up a conversation with him. "Would you like to buy a smoothie? We have only the best in World 4!"

Lemmy thought about this. "Hmm, a smoothie…" he was right in the middle of deciding what to do when his rumbling nelly answered his question for him. "That doesn't sound like a bad idea!" he said with a laugh. "I'll try a triple berry smoothie!"

"Awesome choice!" The Toad got right into making it. Lemmy had to admit, with how fast he moved and with how expertly he handled the machine, that he was very much impressed. Lemmy had never seen anybody with this type of skill in any area in his life, and he was a guy who regularly walked across tight ropes!

"And… there!" The Toad grinned as they handed the smoothie over. "That'll be three coins!"

Lemmy paid without batting an eye. "Thank you!" He took the drink and sipped it. "Oh man, that's good!" He giggled. "And best of all, it goes down smoothie!"

The Toad laughed. "Thank you. Like I said, we only have the best in World 4!"

"Oh, I believe you! I definitely believe you!" He took another sip of his smoothie before something occurred to him. "Hey, if it's not too much trouble, I was wondering if you could help me with something else." The Toad didn't say anything, just leaned forward with a grin. Lemmy couldn't help but relax when he saw this, and any discomfort he might've had over talking to a random stranger completely disappeared. "I'm looking for my brother. He's about six foot seven, has dark skin, and a starbite on his face. Do you think you might have seen him?"

Lemmy expected the smoothie vendor to think about this for a little bit, but surprisingly, he answered right away after having a good laugh. "Oh yes! I have seen him!"

Lemmy's heart skipped a beat. "Really?"

"Yep! He had a lot to say when he came to my cart. He talked about everything, from the racism problem in both the Koopa and Mushroom Kingdoms to a certain show he liked to watch." He put his hand to his chin. "I don't remember what the show was though. Maybe something with rainbow talking ponies?" He laughed. "I honestly can't say for sure. Honestly, he talked so much and said more words in a minute than I thought there were in the entire English dictionary."

Lemmy did a double take. That… what? That sounded nothing like Morton! That didn't even sound like somebody that could be a trait of Morton's! Was the smoothie vendor mistaken? Well, he had seemed to recognize the physical description pretty well. Even still, this was more than a little strange…

"Did you happen to see where he went?" he asked.

"Oh yes." The smoothie vendor pointed to the left. "He went down that road. Said something about needing to find lodging for the night."

Lemmy beamed. "Great. Thank you so much!" With his smoothie gripped tightly in his hand, he broke out into a run. He made sure to keep his eyes open; while the possibility of a dark-skinned Koopa like Morton being hard to spot amidst a town bursting with color was pretty slim, he still didn't want to lose sight of him. Like earlier in his search, he checked in alleyways and in several other out-of-the-way parts of the town. He searched and searched and searched until, much to his delight, he saw him. He sat on a bench overlooking the ocean, sporting a yellow shell as opposed to his normal black. Even still, there was no mistaking that this was Morton Koopa.

"Thank you, God!" Lemmy whispered before he made his way over. The closer he got, the more he became aware of the fact that this Morton was… talking to himself? What?

"Man, I really like this town," he said. He looked out at the splashing sea, giggling as he did. "I bet, if I really tried my best, I could learn how to surf? Ooh, or maybe I could become some sort of competitive swimmer! Yeah, that would be really cool!"

Once again, Lemmy felt confused. Without a doubt, this was the personification of Morton's Chattiness. A trait that, in all honesty, Lemmy had no idea his brother had. Seriously, was this for real? Or was this some sort of elaborate prank or hoax?

Well, the only way he could find out was if he went up to the Morton. So, sporting a grin, he ran over to the trait.

"Morton! Morton Morton Morton!" The trait blinked just as Lemmy came to a stop. He laughed with delight as soon as he got his breathing back under control. "Oh, I am so happy I've found you!"

Chattiness stared at Lemmy. He blinked, not once, but twice. He then said something that made Lemmy do a double-take.

"Uh… who are you?"