Two giant wooden doors loomed over them.
"Should we go in?" asked Toad.
"Yeah," whispered Luigi, as he gently pulled the handle. The door creaked open and the two adventurers slowly stepped into the room. They paused and looked around.
It was empty.
There was nothing interesting in the room whatsoever, other than it being perfectly square. There was an opening to a long corridor on the far wall, so Luigi and Toad looked at each other, shrugged, and began to walk forward. However, when they reached the opening, Luigi's large nose bumped into what felt like a stone wall, only it was invisible.
"What's going on here?" he questioned aloud. He and Toad started pushing on what felt like some type of force field. "Stand back," he warned his companion. Pulling out his wrench, he swung the tool down onto what looked like an open passage. The wrench bounced hard off the "wall" and bonked him in the forehead.
"Ouch," grumbled the plumber, rubbing his head.
Just then, the room began to vibrate.
Like islands rising through water, large blocks began rising from the ground below Luigi and Toad's feet. Each block was about eight feet tall and lifted the two almost close enough to touch the ceiling. When the rumbling stopped, Luigi looked around and saw each block was different lengths and facing different directions. Toad hopped down and investigated the ground in the empty spaces that the blocks left. To his surprise, he saw each block was on tracks, as if they were meant to be moved. Luigi, still standing on one of the blocks, looked behind him and noticed one block was a different color than the others. While most blocks looked dark brown and wooden, as if cut from an enormous tree, one block by the entrance was a bright pink.
The two continued walking around the blocks, hopping on and off of them, trying to figure out what to do. Suddenly, Luigi had an idea. He jumped onto the pink block and examined the corridor. The pink block is aimed directly toward the exit and it's just wide enough to fit! It's just these other blocks were all in the way...
"That's it!" exclaimed Luigi. Toad jumped on the pink block and looked around curiously as if the answer might be right in front of him. "I've played this game before! Each of these blocks need to be moved in turn until we can roll this pink block out the exit!"
Toad had never heard of a game like this before, but trusted the plumber. He shrugged and began helping Luigi push the blocks around the room. The task took almost an hour, with both of them making mistakes and having to reset many of the large blocks back to their starting positions. But eventually, the sweat covered adventures moved the final obstructing block, freeing the way for the pink one. The force field let the pink block pass through just as Luigi had predicted, and then allowed the two of them to walk through, as well. Toad grumbled to himself about hating puzzles while Luigi thought to himself, "I knew it!"
The hallway was short and after hopping off their pink ride, the two of them quickly found themselves in another room. This one was longer than the last and at the far end stood a pedestal with a glowing, floating compass above it.
"There it is!" called out Luigi.
"Um, yeah, but what about that?" Toad was gesturing to a giant crack in the floor halfway between themselves and the compass.
Luigi looked cautiously into the bottomless chasm and judged the distance across to be about ten feet. "Eh. We can jump over this easy." And before Toad could argue, Luigi took a running leap over the crack. Just as his plumber's boots landed on the other side with a thud, the ground began to shake.
"Oh no," groaned Toad, "not again." The shaking continued and then traveled to the crack in the floor, getting louder with every passing second. "I think there's something down th-".
Before Toad could finish his thought, a giant purple worm burst through the crack, knocking Luigi and Toad (each on either side of the chasm) onto their butts. The worm had three rows of sharp, jagged teeth and made a terrible, monstrous roar as it whipped it's head in the air. The two fighters had their weapons out and ready before they had even stood back up. Toad's mace bloodied and bruised the worm while Luigi bludgeoned it's sides with his plungers. But, when the worm regained his focus, he bit back at the two of them, causing serious damage.
Frustrated, Luigi swung wildly with his two plungers. The first struck true, but the second slipped right of his fingers, spun through the air, and fell down the large hole disappearing into the darkness. "No! My plunger!" shouted Luigi. Seizing his opportunity, the worm tore into the distracted plumber, knocking him unconscious.
"I got you, buddy!" shouted Toad as he backed up slowly from the worm. In the next moment, Toad was running toward the gap and leaping across, narrowly dodging the snapping worm. He landed safely with a soft thud and grabbed Luigi as quick as he could. Whispering his magic words, a blue aura enveloped the plumber, closing his wounds and reviving the fallen warrior.
"Thanks," he groaned. "Let's finish this." With a few more swings of their mace and plunger, the worm began swaying and then finally collapsing down, down, down, into the darkness of the chasm. The two heroes stood slumped over, covered in blood and sweat, breathing hard. Without saying a word, Luigi turned his gaze from the hole to the compass floating in the air. With pained steps, he walked closer, outstretched his hand, and carefully cupped the compass. Bringing it closer to his face, he could see the arrow spinning wildly around and around.
Then, suddenly, the arrow stopped and glowed a dim yellow light, as if to say "Found it! It's this way!"
Luigi turned back to Toad. "I think now we can find the Wendigo Flower," he said with a smile. And before he could ask how they were going to leave this underground world, the same green pipe they used to get here grew from the ground just in front of Toad.
"Well, that's convenient," said Toad, smiling for the first time since they arrived. The two of them headed quickly to the pipe.
A moment later, the room was empty again.
