Stuck In Paradise

Sweetheart's Castle pt8

The group moved down from the giant Sweetheart statue and found a whole group of sprout moles holding axes in front of a bunch of vines with thorns. Walking up to one of the moles they decided to ask what was going on.

“We have to cut down these vines! Though they are going to be the death of me…” The mole complained.

They walked forward to the vines and looked straight ahead.

The shadow creature with one eye stared back.

Aubrey felt a chill run down her spine as Kel grabbed a rock off the ground and quickly chucked it at the monster. It disappeared almost instantly.

“God, that thing is so creepy…” Hero muttered.

This was their second time running into that creature here and Aubrey was growing hatred for it. Well, not like she doesn't dislike it already.

“Honestly...l-let’s go back to look for the password…” Kel muttered, clearly with something on his mind.

Aubrey kept silent though, she knew Kel would speak up about it sooner or later. After all, it is Kel. He can’t keep a secret for the life of him.

They walked through the top right hedges before spotting a platform Kel could stand on. Kel climbed up the platform and saw...nothing. Nothing for him to hit at all.

“Huh, must be a way for them to see around the place.” Kel whispered to himself, “There is nothing up here to hit!” He yelled to the others.

“Huh, weird. Alright, we’ll continue up ahead.” Hero decided.

They walked up to another path with Omori leading the way and everything was going smoothly. That was until Omori walked in front of a mini Sweetheart statue that shot lasers out of its eyes.

“Jesus!” Kel shouted.

“Dude, are you okay?” Aubrey asked.

Omori gave a thumbs-up as Hero handed him another cookie he made.

“We should make a challenge. Omori doesn’t get hit with lasers!” Kel joked around after he knew Omori was alright.

“We should head back, remember that platform Kel?” Hero reminded Kel.

“Oh, yeah! I’ll just knock down the statues! No problem!” Kel grinned as he ran back. A few moments later a rock crashed into the statue and another fell down nearby.

“Nice job Kel!” Hero gave a supportive smile to his brother.

Kel smiled back before remembering something.

“Oh yeah, there is another statue blocking the path but I can’t hit it without getting closer. I think I saw another platform a bit back though, down another path.” Kel informed.

“Ah, alright, thanks for the heads up. Let’s go!” Hero nodded in understanding as he and the group made their way down another path that led to yet another platform for Kel to stand on. Kel got up and threw his ball at a Sweetheart statute.

“Hey, there is a mushroom over there! We might be able to jump over the hedge with it!” Kel pointed it out.

“Sweet! Fast travel.” Aubrey joked to Kel.

Kel laughed and got off the platform as the group made their way to the mushroom.

It was tall and suspicious-looking but it looked sturdy enough to get on. Before they could however Omori raised a finger up and walked to the mushroom himself.

He plucked a bit of the mushroom off and proceeded to shove it in his mouth.

“Didn’t I just give you a cookie?” Hero asked as Omori shrugged.

“Dude, really- Oh my god!” Aubrey shouted as she realized Omori taking a bite out of the mushroom led them to a new location.

In the middle of the room, there was a hole with tiny mushrooms surrounding it. Suddenly a giant mushroom burst from the ground and landed in front of the group. Scanning the surroundings, its eyes happened to land on Omori.

“You! Bulbous one! Your eyes say that you yearn to learn!” The mushroom stated.

Aubrey looked at Omori’s eyes. They didn’t look like they yearned for anything...which was honestly kind of concerning.

Just one more thing to talk to Sunny about she supposed.

“Excellent! Absolutely excellent! I shall teach you, come!” The mushroom motioned for Omori to come to him.

Omori walked forward and pointed to the bulb plant behind him, “You see, these plants hold creatures like me inside them. We, however, can’t escape by ourselves. With a very specific technique, you should be able to free us from these prisons!”

“However, this technique might take years, even decades to learn!” The mushroom stated.

Decades? This would be a long sleep then...wait isn’t that a coma?

“Do you agree on learning the technique?” The mushroom asked.

Omori nodded and walked to the bulb, easily breaking it and freeing the mushroom inside.

“Excellent! You already knew the technique! I knew you were a chosen one!” The mushroom beamed.

...Well, at least they weren’t trapped here for a decade…

“At last! I am free! Excellent! Here's a gift for you!” The mushroom handed Omori a dandelion.

Omori pocketed the dandelion before jumping on top of the mushroom and getting to the platform above it. Opening a watermelon he was able to get some Jam Packets. He jumped back down and went back to the group. He touched the mushroom in the ground behind them and they were back in the mini hedge maze next to the giant mushroom.

“Well, that was...something…” Hero muttered.

“Yep.” Kel nodded.

They jumped on top of the mushroom and over the hedge with the help of Hero and made it safely to the other side.

They walked until they ran into a knight standing still in the hedges. Omori walked to the knight and it spoke, “There are four passwords that must be spoken to the Sweetheart statue to unveil the secret tunnel! As one of the elites, I was chosen to be given the third password,”

“Can we know it?” Kel asked.

“You want to know it? Uh, oh man, I am sorry. I’m not allowed to tell anyone…” The knight muttered the apology.

“Damn.” Kel snapped his fingers.

Hero sighed and stepped up, activating the Hero charm, “I am sorry to inconvenience you, sir…” Hero trailed off.

“Alex! The Esteemed!” The knight introduced himself.

“Ah, sorry for the inconvenience sir Alex, but me and my friends really need that password of yours! Can you please let us know what it is?” Hero asked.

“...If you really need it that much...the password is ‘Filled’.” The knight muttered, “Now leave before I get in trouble!”

“Will do, sir Alex!” Kel grinned as he and the others ran out of that part of the hedge maze.

“So what do we have down?” Kel asked.

“He said he had the third password. So that means we need to find three more.” Hero stated.

“That means the code is something, something, filled, something,” Aubrey informed.

“Alright, let’s get searching for the rest…” Hero sighed.