Saturday, May 19, 1990

This morning when I woke up I set out down the path towards the lake in the center of Donut Plains. The next level took place close to the shores of the lake, and involved more new enemies. First was another type of football Koopa, although in a particularly confusing mixed metaphor, this one was throwing baseballs at me, so…yeah, not sure what to make of that. There were also several weird-looking plants on the ground that intermittently sent sprays of flaming-hot particles shooting into the air, and Koopas with capes that let them fly.

But if I jumped on these Koopas, they lost their capes and sometimes left behind a new power-up. It was a feather, but if I grabbed it, it gave me a cape and let me fly like the Koopas. Sort of ironic that the most unnerving adventure I've gone on has also now given me my new favorite power-up.

And towards the end of the level, there was something else unexpected.

Blocking my path was a vertical wall of more blocks with exclamation points on them, but unlike the yellow ones I'd seen back in the first level on Yoshi's Island, these were green. I looked up into the sky, and the blocks ended near a Warp Pipe sitting on a pair of stone blocks in the sky. And there was some sort of triangular, pink block at the base of the wall. I thought maybe I was supposed to use my cape to fly up into the gap between the wall and the pipe, although that seemed a bit unfair for there to be an obstacle I couldn't possibly get past without a power-up greater than a Super Mushroom.

Anyway, after a few tries, I was still unable to make my way through the narrow gap between the wall and the pipe. And then, on my next try, I ran a bit too far before taking off and dashed onto the triangular block.

And then I…ran up the wall.

Somehow, the triangular block made it so I was able to turn vertical and run straight up the side of the green wall.

Well, this was new, but at least beneficial-new for a change.

At the top of the wall, I found myself on a yellow, wooden platform with another one directly above it. I ran down the platform I was on and leapt onto the upper one. And on it was a key, along with some sort of black…keyhole-shaped portal, it looked like. It was hovering just off the edge of the platform, and upon closer inspection, the space on the other side of it seemed to be not solid black, but swirling with some inky, blue-black substance. I figured something would happen if I grabbed the key and stuck it in there, but I wasn't entirely sure I wanted to know what that something was.

On the other hand, the other end of the platform was blocked by a yellow pipe stretching into the sky. But I figured if I ran back and forth on the platform enough that I could take flight with the cape, I might be able to fly over the pipe and see what was on the other side of the wall of green blocks.

Yeah, I really didn't want to see what would happen if I stuck that key in that keyhole. I mean, it seemed like the sort of thing that could be a normal part of one of my adventures, but that keyhole-portal-thing…there was just something off about it. I didn't trust it.

And as it turned out, over the pipe was the pair of posts that signaled the end of the level. So there was no way to get past those blocks and finish the level if I didn't have the cape power-up? I mean, it was fairly common throughout the level, but that still seemed unfair.

As I finished the level, the path ahead illuminated, turning sharply to the west. At least at first, because then it curved to the north along the southwest shore of the lake. As I walked along it, curling tendrils of fog blew off the water, reaching out towards me like grasping fingers. And the fact that it was constantly shifting kept tricking my eyes, making it look like there were figures floating above the lake, out in the deeper water.

At least I hope it was just a trick of the fog.

The path extended quite a ways up the western edge of the lake, and there were still no signs of a level in sight ahead of me. The closest landmark, aside from the narrow strip of forest curving around Donut Plains' northern and western shores, was the other large building to the north of the lake. I turned back to look again at the other building, the one to the south of the lake, and wondered what its purpose was. It didn't seem likely that the path would take me back down there at any point, given that this world's castle was clearly to the northeast.

And suddenly, while I was distracted thinking about this, the ground gave way beneath me.

Down, down, down I plummeted, bouncing off one rocky outcropping after another, until finally I landed on solid ground. Well, not really ground, since the real ground was far above me, but you get the point.

I sat up, groaned, and looked around me. The cavern I'd landed in was made of grey stone, and even though I was underground and it was the middle of the day, shining down from above and faintly illuminating my surroundings were countless stars and a full moon.

And upon looking around, it was clear I'd lucked out by landing where I did, because this ground wasn't even the bottom of this place. Instead, it was a stone path about three feet wide that led away into the gloom, but dropped off sharply to either side. Filling the spaces to the sides of the path were the tops of giant trees, their leaves and branches motionless. I edged towards the side of the path and reached out, brushing my hand against some of the closest leaves.

They were made of stone.

No wonder this underground forest was so still. It was all petrified.

I strained to see as far to my sides as I could, but was still unable to make out any walls of the cavern aside from the one directly behind me. In every other direction, the trees stretched away, on and on into the darkness. And I'd lost all sense of orientation on my way down, so I didn't even know which direction anything was in relation to the surface world.

But with no way to climb back up the shaft I'd fallen down, there wasn't really anything I could do except head down the path ahead of me and hope it led to another way out. That, or find a way to climb down the side of the path and look for an exit down where these petrified trees were planted. But that would only be a last resort.

A very last resort.