The four found themselves sitting at the edge of a swamp when the golden light faded. There were sentient flowers, humanoid fish, and other things you’d generally want to avoid lurking in the swamp water. Behind them was a cave entrance.

They didn’t even go near the swamp, and instead went in the cave straight away, as any sensible person would. Inside, there were a dozen small, chubby, green creatures with thin, black arms and beady black eyes. They ambled around the cave and generally avoided eye contact with anyone.

After Buzz Buzz flew in effortlessly and Tori, Gran and Leicra squeezed inside, Tori greeted, “Hello!”

None of the creatures replied. The one that was near her scampered away.

“What’s their deal,” Tori muttered, putting her hands on her hips.

The other three looked around momentarily. Buzz Buzz darted over to another of the green creatures and landed on their shoulder. He tapped it, causing the creature to look at him with fearful eyes.

“Hello,” Buzz Buzz said softly, “could you perhaps tell us where we are?”

The creature glanced down at the ground and fiddled with their fingers. “…We’re shy…”

Buzz Buzz returned to the other three and told them, “Well they’re shy.

“Okayyy… And how do we get them to not be shy?” Tori asked.

“Tori, you can’t make someone not shy instantly,” Gran told her. “That kind of thing takes years to achieve.”

“And we don’t have that time, Gran!” Tori replied, turning to face her.

“There’s probably someone in charge here,” Leicra said. “If we find them, we might be able to find something out.”

So the four went further into the cave, being careful not to accidentally tread on any of the creatures. Not too far away was a slightly taller green creature, who had a pair of black horns and a moustache, and a walking cane, sitting at a table. Buzz Buzz darted onto the table and cleared his throat, gaining the slightly taller creature’s attention.

“Excuse me, but do you know where we are?” Buzz Buzz asked.

The slightly taller creature was silent for a moment before replying, “...We’re all shy. Rumour, I heard a book to fix shyness, there is.”

The four let out a collective, “hrmm.”

“When was the last time… you went outside…?” Leicra asked.

The slightly taller creature thought for a moment, before answering, “Don’t remember.”

“Ah, well…” Buzz Buzz inhaled sharply as he thought. “The earth is kind of… in darkness… It’s very… not good. And basically, we wouldn’t be able to get that book, because there’s a very good chance it got destroyed years ago.”

“Oh.”

“Yeah. Sorry.”

“It doesn’t seem like these little critters will be saying much else to us, then,” Gran said as Buzz Buzz buzzed back to Tori’s shoulder.

“Well, the Sanctuary’s gotta be around,” Tori said, “we’ll just have to find it ourselves. Not that that’s ever been a problem, right?”

The four wandered down to the end of the cave, where two of the green creatures and a rock stood.

“Oh! Hey there!” the green creature farther away from the rock called out, waving.

“You can say other things?” Leicra awed.

As the four approached the creature, they replied, “Yup! I’m the only Tenda who has conversational skills here.”

Tori crouched down and asked the Tenda, “What else do you know.”

“Weeell…” the Tenda pointed behind the four and said, “There’s an inn over there; the guy running it has one thing he can say, and fortunately that’s asking if anyone wants to stay in his inn.”

The Tenda gestured to the rock nearby with their head and added, “And under that rock there’s a place filled with dinosaurs! But I ran all the way back, because I was so surprised! There’s also a whole ‘nother tribe of Tenda down there who are much better at conversation. And a talking rock!”

“A talking… rock?” Tori repeated.

“Yup!”

“Oh God…” Tori clutched her head as she muttered, “That’s… really weird. I think we should just rest up in that inn for now. Agreed?”

Buzz Buzz, Gran and Leicra nodded.

After a rest in the inn (which was a lot rockier than Tori had expected), the four were back in action. They wasted no time in heading back over to the rock they had met the talkative Tenda by.

“So. The rock,” Tori said to the Tenda she and the others had talked to before, “How do we move it.”

“The guy next to it can move it, but he doesn’t have conversational skills,” the Tenda replied, pointing at the other creature by the rock. They dashed behind the rock once they had figured out the first was talking about them.

Tori looked over at the rock for a few seconds, before looking back at the Tenda. “Ugh. Can’t you move it?”

“Nope, sorry. I’m not as strong as I look.”

Tori growled to herself. “Fine. I’ll just move it myself.”

She marched up to it and put her back to it. She attempted to push it aside, with very little success. Leicra soon joined her. The rock now visibly slid across the dry dirt. It took the combined strength of Tori, Leicra and Gran as well to move the rock over, though. And then… they fell in the hole that was covering. There was a rope there, but none of them managed to grasp it in time. Buzz Buzz was lucky enough to dart up from Tori’s shoulder just before she and the others fell. He then darted down into the cave after them and they had fallen with a thud.

“Are you guys okay?” Buzz Buzz asked.

Tori let out a groan, and replied, “Not really, no.”

“My ears are still ringing…” Leicra mumbled

“You-” Tori held up her finger and narrowed her eyes as she thought. “...Oh yeah. I remember now.”

Once Tori, Leicra and Gran had taken a few more moments to recover, they gingerly stood up, and Buzz Buzz perched himself on Tori’s shoulder again. The cave they had fallen into wasn’t very large. There were a couple patches of thin grass, and some small, green mushrooms. And a large rock with dents and points that made it look like it had a face. And naturally, rocks that looked like they had faces needed to be investigated.

The four approached the rock and stared long and hard at it.

“Didn’t that Tenda say there was a talking rock?” Leicra mused.

“Maybe this is it,” Gran said.

Tori turned to Leicra and Gran, saying, “Come on, guys. Just because it looks like it has a face, doesn’t mean that it can ta-”

“Good evening.”

Tori let out a shriek. She spun back around to face the rock.

“I’m a talking rock.”

Buzz Buzz gave Tori a smug smile.

“But the rocks around here don’t talk too much.”

“Oh,” Leicra commented. “By chance, are you the only talking rock around here?”

“No. The rock that talks the most is deep down in the labyrinth a ways ahead… in the Lost Underworld.”

“Okay! There is another talking rock in the Lost Underworld! I will remember!” Leicra said.

“And there’s a labyrinth,” Tori grumbled.

“Don’t forget to talk to the rock! It’s important!”

As Tori walked to the entrance to the labyrinth, she yelled to the rock, “If we manage to get out of the maze, we will!”

Leicra gave the rock a polite wave as they and Gran followed Tori out.

Tori put her hands on her hips and huffed. “Okay. Maze. Let’s get it over with.”

The mazey caves were dark, cold and dry. And worst of all, there were enemies everywhere. The four found themselves in dead ends and wandering in circles more times than they liked to admit. It was tiring to go through, but everyone had gotten stronger. Tori had learned Paralysis Alpha and PSI Magnet Omega, Leicra had learned Offense Up Alpha and PK Water Beta, Gran learned PK Freeze Beta and Brainshock Alpha, and Buzz Buzz learned Shield Sigma.

But at the end, they found another one of the Chosen One’s Sanctuaries - a long, dark hall, with strange, fluorescent green rocks lining one wall. The strangest part of all is that only some of the rocks glowed. But enough of them gave off light for the four to navigate the hall. At the end of the hall was a stretch of rocks lining the wall. The four stared at it in wide-eyed awe. A couple of minutes passed before Tori fished out the Sound Stone and held it up. With the Sound Stone charged at the hall, there was only one more Sanctuary left to find.

Some more of the rocks sparked into life, their glow spelling out a message: Good luck.

Buzz Buzz wiped away the tears that had formed in his eyes. Thankfully for him, nobody noticed.

The four dropped down into another hole - prepared, this time, of course. They fell for what seemed like forever. Air rushed past them, and there didn’t seem to be an end. Until there was. They fell on the ground with a heavy thud, like someone had thrown them to the ground. It took everyone a while before they could bring themselves to move. Tori had to splutter out a fit of coughs once she had sat herself up. While hard to read due to the nature of Starman shells, Leicra gave off tones of sickliness. Gran looked rattled, but otherwise okay, and Buzz Buzz had flown down instead.

The grass around them was dry, and smelt absolutely horrible. It wasn’t an identifiable smell, but it was undeniably awful. There were also palm trees scattered about in clusters. The rock walls were taller than most skyscrapers, and the sky… well, nobody could say, because they couldn’t see it. There was a ceiling made of rock, too. And yet, there was light.

“So… Is this the Lost Underworld?” Leicra asked, their voice barely above a murmur.

“I suppose it is,” Buzz Buzz replied, lightly flicking his wings as he landed back on Tori’s shoulder.

As if to interrupt, the ground beneath them shook fiercely. The deafening sound of the earth rumbling beneath them filled the air. It lasted for a few seconds, then returned to peace like nothing had happened. From not too far away, a geyser shot up into the air. The four were silent as they processed this new information.

“So… there’s light from an unknown source and earthquakes. Good to know,” Buzz Buzz stated.

With that, the four were off to explore more of the crazy world they had fallen into. The earthquakes turned out to be a lot more frequent than anyone had thought they would be. Not only that, but there were Tendas down there too. They met a couple of them in a pen about half a kilometer away from where they had landed. They were friendly, and a lot more talkative than any of them had expected, but inquizitive of their whereabouts.

“None of you are the one the talkative rock keeps yammering on about, are you?” one asked.

They weren’t, they assumed, then explained why they were in the crazy world and their entire goal.

“Ah,” the Tenda replied. “That makes enough sense to me. Good luck, by the way!”

The four continued upwards from there. During their trek, they felt the earth shake underneath them again. But this time, it was in bursts, and not nearly as strong. A shadow loomed over them, and they looked up to see a giant, dull green reptile with a rounded black horn on the end of its snout and spines running from its neck down to the end of its tail.

Buzz Buzz stammered, “I-Is that a…”

“Is that a dinosaur?!” Tori finished.

“I don’t know what a “dinosaur” is, but, it’s kind of cute.” Leicra looked up at the dinosaur’s beady black eyes. It opened its mouth to reveal many sharp teeth. “And very scary…”

The four screamed simultaneously as the dinosaur roared at them.

The dinosaur raised a foot. Everyone ran away from the giant foot as the dinosaur slammed it down on the ground. Tori let loose a PK Fire Beta, and Leicra followed up with a PK Water Beta. Buzz Buzz used Shield Sigma, just in case anyone were to get hit, then promptly dived into Tori’s pocket.

The dinosaur turned somewhat, and raised its tail. Tori grabbed the Sound Stone and Buzz Buzz and held them both up in the air. The dinosaur’s tail hit Tori, Gran and Leicra and slammed them against a nearby rocky wall. Once the dinosaur pulled its tail away, Gran used Lifeup Beta on Tori and Leicra as quickly as she could, then on herself.

“Okay guys, I have a plan,” Tori said to the others. “I’m gonna try Paralysis on that guy, and if it works, we run.”

“What if it doesn’t?” Leicra asked.

“Attack it like mad and hope it goes down. That might work.”

Tori glared at the dinosaur, who was now stomping on the ground in place. She pointed at it with her free hand, and a stripy aura surrounded the dinosaur for a few moments as it revolved around it. The dinosaur froze mid-stomp, then fell onto the ground, shaking the ground.

“RUN!”

Everyone sprinted away from the dinosaur and towards another Tenda-made pen. They skidded to a halt in front of it. A couple of Tendas gave them odd looks as they stopped outside their pen.

Tori shoved Buzz Buzz and the Sound Stone back into her pocket, then shouted, “Let us in!”

The Tendas looking at her, Gran and Leicra were silent for a moment, before one asked, “Do you have any Tendakraut?”

“No, but we have a very important mission to do and we can’t do that if we get MURDERED BY A DINOSAUR!”

“Hm, yeah, that might be a problem.” One of the Tendas casually walked up to the gate and opened it. “Come on in. Don’t know why you were in the dinosaur cage, but whatever.”

Tori sputtered under her breath as she walked “out of” the “dinosaur cage”. Gran and Leicra came “out” behind her.

Another Tenda came up to the group and said, “Sorry that the Boss was like that. He’s been really aloof these days.”

“Oh, it’s alright,” Gran replied. “As long as we’re safe.”

“So do you guys have an inn, or anything?” Tori asked.

The Tenda pointed to a hut just across from them and said, “There’s one just over there!”

The group ambled over as Buzz Buzz peeped out from Tori’s pocket.

“Hello! We would like to stay here for a bit, please,” Gran said to the Tenda running the inn.

“Cool,” the Tenda replied, “that’ll be $400.”

“$400?!” Tori exclaimed. “We don’t have that kind of money! No one’s had that kind of money in years!”

The Tenda raised an eyebrow at her.

“It’s true,” Gran added. “Ever since Giygas successfully took over Earth, not many people have had a good sum of money. Most of it was burned, and anything else that was found was taken by those pig people that came about three years afterwards.”

“Oh.” The Tenda looked down at the ground and thought for a few moments before asking, “Is there anything you could give me for payment instead?”

The four collectively “umm”ed.

“What about that blue one’s bandana?” the Tenda asked, pointing at the bandana tied around the base of Leicra’s head.

“No!” Leicra yelped. They were silent for a moment before explaining evenly, “It’s a gift.”

“Ah. Well, you gotta give me something, otherwise you’re not getting in.”

“We don’t have anything else we could give him, do we?” Tori whispered to the others.

Leicra shook their head, and Gran just replied quietly, “No.”

The Tenda that had apologised to the group earlier sighed and came over. “Yo-ga, just let them in! They were fighting a dinosaur, for goodness sake.”

The Tenda running the inn, Yo-ga, sighed, then droned, “Okay. You can stay for free. But only because Tendo said so.”

Tendo gave the four a smile with their eyes as the four walked into the inn.

They had a much better rest in the inn compared to the last Tenda inn they slept in. Once they were up and moving again, Tendo was waiting outside for them.

“Hello again! Did you have a good sleep?”

The four nodded.

“That’s good to hear. Have you visited the talkative Mystery Rock yet?”

“No… no yet,” Tori replied.

“Oh! That’s right! We were meant to talk to the most talkative rock!” Leicra exclaimed. “I may have forgot myself if it weren’t for you.”

Tendo smiled. “Not a problem!”

With Buzz Buzz perched on Tori’s shoulder, the four went over to the talkative rock.

“Hey, talkative rock dude,” Tori said, finger gunning.

“You finally came, Ness,” the rock replied after a moment. “Finally, you ta-”

Tori frowned with confusion. “What? I’m not Ness. I don’t know anyone called Ness, either.”

“But… you have the Sound Stone with you… I can feel its power…” the rock said.

“That is correct, we do have the Sound Stone with us!” Buzz Buzz said, flying off Tori’s shoulder. “We’re charging it for the chosen one.”

“Ah… That makes sense…” the rock was silent for a moment, before going on, “Have you reached all eight power spots yet?”

“Not yet… we still have one more to go to,” Buzz Buzz replied.

“I see… You are quite excellent heroes, all of you… The last of the power spots is southwest of here. It is called-”

“Sorrytointerruptagain, BUUUUUUT, could you please not tell us? It ruins the surprise,” Tori requested.

The rock was silent for another moment, before saying, “You are also… weird heroes… but I will follow your request. The final power spot is southwest of here. And as per request, I will not say what it is called. Even though someone else will…”

There was a pause. Leicra momentarily lost balance, then blinked.

“I do not know what your destiny entails, but I wish you well,” the rock concluded.

With that, Buzz Buzz returned to Tori’s shoulder, and the four headed off to the final Sanctuary. The way there was relatively quiet. There was only one other dinosaur, a purple quadrupedal one, which seemed more interested in eating the leaves off the palm trees. There was also a giant rock with a face. It was unlike the other rocks with faces the four had encountered in that one, it had an actual face, and not something that looked like a face, two, it didn’t talk, and three, it tried to squash them. It was a very traumatizing experience, encountering that giant rock.

The four soon found the cave in which the last Sanctuary was located. And oh boy, was it hot.One step inside and everyone was already melting. It didn’t help that there was literal lava coming out of mounds in the ground. Fiery spirits roamed both near the roof and on the ground of the cave. They weren’t too hard to deal with - just splashing them with PK Water Beta, a follow-up with PK Freeze Beta and then stomping on them like mad was enough to beat them. On the way, Tori learned PK Thunder Gamma, and Leicra remembered how to use PK Beam Gamma.

It was a long trek to the end of the caverns; it seemed even longer due to the insane heat. Everyone was more than happy to reach the final cave. Inside was a narrow path high off the ground, which led to a overflowing spring of lava. Tori got the Sound Stone out of her pocket and held it up. The Sound Stone charged, and the name of the final Sanctuary was whispered into the four’s minds: Fire Spring.

“Oh, just like I thought,” Leicra said.

Tori, Buzz Buzz and Gran turned to face them, looking at her with varying levels of curiosity and confusion.

“Just after the talkative rock said it wouldn’t tell us the name of this place on your request, I got a bit dizzy, and then, somehow, I just…” Leicra shrugged. “Something told me it was called Fire Spring.”

“That’s…” Tori trailed off.

“Weird,” Buzz Buzz finished.

“But we’ve been to all of the chosen one’s Sanctuaries now!” Tori cheered.

The Sound Stone, which was once a pearly white, had now become a pure blue, like the ocean on a bright and sunny day. It started glowing gold, and soon the golden glow had filled the entire cave.