Chapter 12

CHAPTER 12

P aige's eyes went wide, and her heart hammered. She had no idea what a magical vortex was but it didn't look pleasant. And Dewey's reaction was enough to frighten her.

"Help!" Dewey shouted as his wings beat hard to try to pull away from the force.

Paige scrambled to her feet, her hair blowing around wildly. The soles of her shoes slid across the smooth floor, inching her closer to the turning turbine.

She fought to dig her heels in and reach for Dewey. Her fingers slipped off his scales, failing to close around his paw. He slid further from her and nearer to the cyclone.

"Help! Paige!"

Paige squinted as the wind whipped around her. She dove for Dewey again, tackling him to the ground and hanging onto him tightly. "I got you, buddy."

He clung to her as she tried to stand. The whirling vortex's winds proved too much for her, though and she slid backward closer to it.

"Paige! Hurry! It's going to suck us in. "

"I know! I'm trying to get away from it, but it's too strong. Hang on."

Dewey dug his claws into her as he clung to her. Paige let go of the scaly dragon and slapped her hands against the floor, trying to gain traction on it. If she could get to the shelf across from them, she could hang on to it until the wind died down or use it to pull herself further away from the funnel.

Her sweaty hands slipped on the smooth floor with each movement. She let out a groan as she slid further back.

"Paige, it's not working. Do something!"

"I'm trying," she shouted, kicking her feet and reaching an arm toward the shelf opposite her.

The move proved futile. Her right foot slid out from under her and she splatted onto the floor. With nothing to hang onto, the wind tunnel pulled her backward easily.

Her foot disappeared inside of it first. A tingling sensation shot up her leg before her calf disappeared, too.

"No!" she shouted, kicking a foot in a desperate attempt to break free from the cyclone.

The sound of a train barreling through a thunderstorm filled the air as the tornado finally sucked her bottom half inside. Her hair whirled around, blocking her view as the gray windstorm threatened to eat her entirely.

Seconds later, she slipped inside of it. She spun in circles with Dewey still clinging to her and screaming in her ear.

After several pained breaths, she finally landed in a dark space. Water dripped in the distance as she climbed to her feet. Dewey shifted himself to her shoulder and glanced around in the dim light.

"Hello?" Paige called.

"Shh, stop that."

"Why?" Paige whispered.

"I have no idea where we are or what may be lurking around in the shadows. "

Paige grimaced as she studied the area, waiting for her eyes to adjust to the dim light. "Where could we be?"

"There are several possibilities. We could be in another dimension. Or we could be in another time."

Paige slid her eyes closed. "Not time travel again."

"Or we could. Be in an elemental plane, a test ground for magical puzzles, or a dreamscape. Any of those are possibilities.'

"How can we tell which one we got stuck in?"

"Walk around a little and see if we see anything that tips us off."

Paige took a few steps forward in the near-blackness, shuffling her feet as she moved. "Which one do we want it to be?"

"Magical testing ground. If we fail, we'll just get spit back out with a nasty report card."

"That doesn't sound so bad. Maybe we'll pass."

"While we are pretty awesome, we have no idea what the settings were on it, so we may not. Don't get your hopes up."

"My hopes are already up that this is just a magical testing ground and not another dimension, time, or…whatever else it could be."

"Alternate time period. But that doesn't seem to fit here. This place is weird. It doesn't look like Earth in another time."

Paige's heart thudded faster. "Maybe another dimension?"

"Could be." Dewey fluttered into the air, then landed on the floor. He knocked against it. "Weird."

"What's weird about it?"

"The floor's made of these strange blue-colored bricks. This isn't a crystal cavern or an earthly cave. Hmm."

"Maybe this is a dreamscape. That sounds reasonable. My mind could make up blue bricks."

"I'm not convinced. If it would have been a dreamscape, I feel like we would have seen something familiar to you by now. Like we would have landed at the mall or inside your high school and you'd be naked."

Paige glanced down at her clothes, glad they were still there. "Also, I'm still green and in my dream, I bet I'd be normal-colored."

"Right. So that leaves alternate dimension and elemental plane."

"What is an elemental plane, anyway?" Paige questioned.

Dewey started to answer with a low grumbling echoed in the chamber. He landed on her shoulder, his claws digging into her flesh.

Paige froze in a half-crouch. "What was that?"

"I don't know. Sounds mean, though."

The grumbling growl sounded again. Paige winced. "Yeah. And we don't even know what realm we're in so it could be anything."

In the dim light, Paige inched a few more steps forward. Out of the darkness ahead of them, an armless mushroom-shaped creature wobbled forward on two feet. Two pointy fangs poked from its mouth as it waddled toward her.

The hairs on the back of her neck stood up. "What the hell is that?"

"OMG." Dewey gasped, his claws digging deeper into her skin. "It's a Goomba."

"What?" Paige cried.

"A Goomba."

"Like the things in Mario Brothers?"

"Exactly like the things in Mario Brothers. We're in the elemental plane."

"What? How did you figure that out?"

"That's where Goombas live."

Paige shook her head as she dug her fingers into her hair. "I thought Goombas were video game creatures. "

"Where do you think they got the idea for them, Paige?" Dewey clicked his tongue and shook his head. "Get with it."

The thing ambled closer to her, its mouth opening and closing.

"What should we do? Run away?"

"Jump on its head."

Paige stared in horror at the creature. "Are you serious?"

"Yes. We need to find the end of this plane to exit. Jump on its head to squash it and then keep going."

Paige stood frozen for another moment, unable to process their predicament.

"Paige, jump on it before it cuts you down to half size, and you have to find a mushroom to grow again."

"This can't be happening."

"Well, it is. And if you don't make a hop onto its head pretty quick, you're going to be half the size you are now. And I have no idea which of these blocks may have a mushroom in them to grow you back to big."

"I can't even…" Paige began before backing up a few steps. The Goomba waddled closer. She leapt in the air and stomped on its head.

It flattened down to nothing before dissolving into the blocks below. Another one appeared out of the shadows.

"You've got to be kidding me," she said.

"Stomp on him, too, then keep going forward."

"Until we reach the end of the world?"

"Essentially, yes. If you see any glowing blocks along the way, smack ‘em with your horns. Maybe we'll get lucky and get fireball magic or flying magic."

Paige stomped on the next Goomba before she continued forward through the cavern-like space. "This is insane. You're telling me that Nintendo literally based Mario–"

"Off of the elemental planes, yes," Dewey finished as Paige raced forward to a glowing block and leapt up to hit it with her head. "Shoot, just a coin."

"Those are useless."

"Yeah. I'm really hoping for some magic. The Goombas aren't too bad, but the Koopas…well, those turtles are nasty. Especially the flying ones."

Paige slid her eyes closed for a moment and shook her head. "I can't believe this. How do we get out of here?"

"We have to finish all the levels, er, planes."

"How many planes are there?" Paige leapt up to climb onto a stack of blocks floating in the air.

"Four. Earth, Air, Water, Fire."

She stopped mid-step as she ran across the blocks to avoid two Goombas patrolling below. "You mean like…"

"Like the floating island levels in Mario, the underwater levels in Mario, and the lava castle levels in Mario. Get with it, Paige. I hope you were a decent gamer."

"Are you kidding? We didn't have many new things at the convent, but we did have Nintendo." She hopped up to hit another brick but only found a coin. "Mario was my jam."

"Let's hope it's your jam in real life, too. And please let the next block have a fire flower." Dewey clasped his paws together and raised them to the sky.

"So, what happens if I don't make it through this?"

"Game over, sister."

"Like game over and I get spit back out into the real world, no harm, no foul? Or like game over, and it's my entire game that is over. Like I'm dead."

"Second one."

"Oh, great," Paige grumbled as she reached a large pit. "So, if I jump and fall…"

"Yeah, that would be bad. Here, I'll help you out. I'll fly across, then you jump." Dewey fluttered into the air and buzzed across the chasm. "Okay, come on over. "

"I can't jump that! It's like six feet across."

"You have to get a running start. Get some air under you. I'm starting to wonder if you actually played Mario."

"Of course, I played Mario. He was a video game. He did impossible things."

"Not really. He did things entirely possible in the elemental plane. Just go back and leap across." Dewey waved her back.

"Really? Why couldn't I be the princess then? She could float across using her dress."

"Peach? You really want to be Peach? She's kind of a jerk."

Paige trudged backward with a shake of her head. "No, she isn't."

"Yes, she is. She spent the first game crying for help at every turn. Oh, right, she redeemed herself in the second one with her floating dress, but only just."

Paige crouched into a lunge and stared ahead before launching herself into a run and flinging herself into a flying leap as she hit the edge of the pit. She landed on the opposite side and skidded to a stop. "Peach was the only girl video game character you could have picked."

"I wouldn't have picked her even if I was a girl."

They reached another set of floating bricks. A pair of Kuppas patrolled underneath and a lone Goomba ran across the top.

He reached the edge and tumbled down, still barreling toward them. Paige stomped on his head before she ran toward the floating slab and climbed on top. A glowing box floated above her and she smacked into it with her horned head.

"These horns are really coming in handy. I bet my head would be killing me by now if I didn't have them."

"Oh, Paige, score!" Dewey said with a grin. "A fire flower! Quick, climb up and eat it. "

"Okay." Paige clambered on top of the box and snatched the orange-red flower from it. She bit off the petals and chewed. After a few crunches, she opened her mouth, fanning herself. "Hot. Spicy hot. Soooo hot."

Dewey snatched a few petals and chewed them. "Who cares. You'll be able to throw fireballs after this."

Dewey downed the rest of his portion of the flower. His teal scales started to turn orange. He stared down at his color-changed hands before he flung his paw forward. A fireball shot out of it. "Check it out, Paige. Magic fire."

Paige held her hand out in front of her. Instead of green skin, she now had orange skin. She flicked her hand out and a fireball bounced across the bricks before falling to the ground below. It took out one of the Kuppas.

"Yay!" she cheered. "This'll make it so much easier."

"Heck, yeah," Dewey exclaimed. They continued through the cavern, using their new magical powers to remove any enemies from their path.

After jumping over a few more chasms and climbing onto several more floating platforms, they reached a large chamber. A pipe lay across the room.

"There's the entrance to the next plane." Dewey poked a claw at it.

"Okay," Paige said with a bob of her head as she strode toward it. When she had made it halfway across the space, something stirred from the dark corner.

"Uh-oh." Dewey wrinkled his nose.

"Uh-oh, what? What is that?"

Dewey shot her a glance. "Are you serious? Didn't you say you played this game? Did you ever make it to the end of a world?"

"Of course, I did. You just ran off the screen most of the time. "

"Unless it was the end-end of the world. The final battle in that world, right?"

"Yeah, that's when you had to fight–" Paige's eyes went wide and her jaw dropped open as she shook her head. "No."

Dewey bobbed his head up and down. "Yes. A Koopaling."

Paige's forehead pinched as the creature rose in front of her. A bipedal, turtle-like creature rose, clutching a wand in one hand. A spray of blue hair stuck out on the top of his head.

He waddled to her with booming steps, blocking her path to crawl into the pipe. Paige grimaced as she gazed up at the towering figure. This time, it might be game over.