You know what they say about rumours.
Solomon's footsteps resounded throughout the hall as he climbed up the grandiose staircase of truth, indeed the truth was about to be unboxed.
The box was big and beautiful, with the starry blue flames glistening off of its primed and polished Amethyst exterior. He could even see his smooth, angular hairless face, battered and bruised.
Though, the thing was more like a crystalline coffin than any treasure box he'd seen with how big it was.
Anyway who cares about how it looked? He wasn't there for aesthetics. Remember? Very serious business.
Solomon slid off its heavy rectangular lid and low and behold:
They weren't just rumours.
Beatrice was going to lose her mind over this.
Inside, along with the sweet sweet smell of lavenders, a single scroll rolled up neatly with a single black ribbon that had a bunch of random symbols and runes on it that definitely weren't important.
How the scroll had stayed in a humid moist jungle crawling with hungry bugs for all of 770 years (at least that's what it said in King Coco's writings back when he'd studied them in North Quartz) was beyond Solomon.
And right next to the scroll...a single cube of gold. Small enough to fit in your hand, like those pieces of cheese they put on toothpicks at parties, but bigger.
And it was exactly what our favourite white-haired man had been looking for out in the boonies of East Quartz. The only reason any sane person would find themselves in Papaya Jungle, rummaging around the hellhole that was Phopho Ruins.
Had it not been for Beatrice, this wouldn't have happened. He wouldn't have found...
The Map piece. Well...A Map piece.
And then came the hard part.
The doors FLEW open stirring up a hurricane gust that blew out every single flame in the room...happy birthday?
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A spinning golden axe whistled by Solomon's face, biting off a piece of his ear–Before a ROCKETING KICK was plunged into his gut like a spear and sent him flying through the wall like a bullet shattering a sheet of glass!
Solomon tossed and turned in the air, the crushing pain of crumbling ribs tearing his sanity apart–but its not like the jungle gave a flip!
Branches bashed his back, vines viciously whipped his body and the ruthless rugged bark SCRRRAPED his body as he tumbled through the trees like a ragdoll CRASHING into a murky, swampy opening of mushy, snotty algae and wood!
His body shattered the surface of a sludgy limey lake, with glittering water roaring up into the evening sky.
Like an anvil he sank, air bubbling up from his mouth and nose.
Back at the temple, Jouer cracked his neck in fury, picking up a small worn-out leather book that had fallen onto the ground when he attacked the white-haired man.
And upon opening the first page...his blood began to boil.
"Property of Solomon Knowmorr. If you're reading this and you're not a handsome white-haired king named Solomon Knowmorr, kindly return this to Solomon Knowmorr and find something better to do than try reading Solomon Knowmorr's Journal. And this is not a diary dammit."
Laughter sputtered out his mouth uncontrollably as he violently shut the book and flung it across the large hall upon reading the words written on the first page in fine black ink.
"So Solomon's the name! Not that I've heard of any Iridian named Solomon...but a swine is a swine. Not matter how famous..." the blonde brute grit his teeth so hard you would've thought they would shatter.
Quickly, he launched himself up the stairs and froze. King Kai's sacred treasure box, gleaming with all its violet beauty, perfectly crafted with prismatic punctuation encrusting it...
(And yes, he cared how it looked, it was marvellous).
But it was empty.
No Zest Scroll...no Map piece. And now he was angry. He hadn't beaten that stupid snowhead nearly enough especially now that he'd taken his treasure.
more.
MORE!
THIS WASN'T ENOUGH BLOODSHED FOR HIM!
Jouer EXPLODED through the leaves and landed on the branch of one of the THOUSANDS of trees. He gazed down at the rippling wetland covered in yucky specs of algae riding the rocking waters.
"Solomon!" Jouer scanned the new landscape. But the white-haired freak was nowhere to be found.
There were some big snotty marbles that looked like eyes bobbing about the water in clumps; the size of boulders, some drifting across the swampy wetland for miles.
The air was...eggy and wet, with blades of grass and giant leafs springing out the watery ground, there were even these HUMONGOUS lilies floating on the green water.
But of course, only a split-second of relief is allowed in Papaya jungle!
The waters RUMBLED and spat a stupidly HUGE frog in a volcanic eruption of white water!