Sarasa Nightmare

Chapter 3-2

Boos only knew how many disturbingly similar hallways later before there was finally a change.

Luigi came to an abrupt halt at the sight in front of him. It was clear, at one time, the hall he was in with Daisy was much the same as the rest. But that wasn't what it currently looked like.

In one section of the bright yellow and pale gray marble tiles which made up the majority of the wall, giant gouges were torn into it.

The span of the claw marks was huge, easily as big as Luigi's head. And a little farther ahead, there was a support beam which had been turned into rubble.

"This was discovered about a month ago. The scary thing is my bedroom isn't very far from here. I was in my bedroom at the time it happened and I didn't hear a thing," Daisy said.

"How could that even be possible?" he pondered aloud.

"I don't know, though my father always said I slept like the dead. Guess it's true. But do you still believe my people are lying, or do you think there's an actual monster?"

"There's definitely an actual monster," Luigi muttered. "As a matter of fact, though it doesn't look quite right, I almost agree with my neighbor."

"Your neighbor?" There was evident confusion in Daisy's voice.

"I live near a family of Goombos, and one of the kids, Goomborio, came and told me about the announcement in the town square that was petitioning for help. When he started telling me, it was an unknown beast, but by the time he left to tell someone else, the announcement was supposedly about a giant fire-breathing dragon. Needless to say, I had to read the actual bulletin for myself... But now I'm almost wondering if the kid isn't right."

"You think we have a dragon?"

"The gouges don't seem quite right, but the size of the marks... the sheer strength –" Luigi glanced at the pile of golf ball size pebbles again "– I can't imagine what else it could be."

He saw out of the corner of his eye as Daisy frowned. "A dragon, eh..."

Almost without warning, a bell tolled six times.

Daisy started. "Huh. We've been searching for twelve hours now. I think it's time we call it a day. We can head to the dining hall, and I'll have Kersti make us a grand meal. Then we can continue our hunt tomorrow."

Luigi opened his mouth to say he probably should head to bed, but what came out was, "Sounds fun."