Tales of the Venturous Three

After getting bored and seeking out something to do, the **Tales of the Venturous Three** follow the happy-go-lucky trio as they travel deep into the jungles of the unexplored Macaroon Expanse within Tropicalis, and hopefully find a tale worth recounting while they're at it.

## Chapter 1: Boredom and Ennui

It was an average, clear afternoon in Tropicapolis, Tropicalis, the busy capital city of around 3 million residents. Sun shone through the windows of Lagois Mansion, illuminating the entirety of its three stories, perfectly undisturbed by any clouds.

In the living room of the mansion were three individuals - a blue puffle with glasses who was reading a book, a fully suited ninja with visible blond hair, and a lime green penguin with a yoyo who wore a red hoodie and blue facepaint, topped with a cap. Everything in the vicinity was almost completely silent, save for the occassional flip of the puffle's book, the whisk of the lime penguin throwing and catching the yoyo, and the whistle of the wind through the open window.

Suddenly, after several moments, the lime green penguin caught the yoyo one last time.

Wikipenguino45: Yeah, okay, I'm gonna be honest. I'm bored.

The ninja, Falco, who had been staring out the window, sighed.

Falco: Same.

The puffle paused from his book and looked up to them.

Terry Van Furry: Well, you could always watch television.

Wikipenguino: True, but there's nothing showing right now that's new, isn't a rerun of a show, or particularly interesting.

Terry: In that case, you could play a game.

Wikipenguino: True, but I've already completed most games that I own and I'm still waiting on the others to update, which doesn't seem to be anytime soon.

Terry: Then you could watch a WaddleTube video.

Wikipenguino: True, but there's not exactly any new video I want to watch.

Terry: Well, then maybe you could read this book about the study of humans and the culture of the lack of contact with penguinkind-

Falco: Terry, please. We need something *actually* fun to do.

Terry frowned.

Terry: Well, if none of my recommendations suit your liking, you're more than welcome to think of something yourself.

Falco: No, no, no, that's the thing. We can't think of anything!

Wikipenguino: Perhaps an adventure...?

Falco: But then again, where?

Terry: Where, indeed. At this point, I'd say there isn't any place that isn't or hasn't already been explored.

Wikipenguino thought for a moment, before his eyes lit up.

Wikipenguino: Wait, that's it!

Terry: ..."it" as in there's nothing to explore? If so, I'm perfectly content with that. No need for us to needlessly pursue something and endanger our own safety in the process as we have a tendency to do-

Wikipenguino: No, I mean the part about there not being any place that's been left unexplored. Because there is...

Wikipenguino got up and went over to a nearby bookcase. He began rummaging through the many drawers in the bookcase, before pulling out a map of Tropicalis. He then brought it over to Falco and Terry before pointing towards the southern end of the second main island of the country, Beakíl Island.

Wikipenguino: There's a region towards the south of Beakily, bordering Maritimus. It was left mostly unexplored and untouched throughout history, mainly because it was dense jungle and river, and nobody really wanted to make the effort to map it all out. My great-great uncle Zephaniah said that he and other explorers at the time left it unexplored because of how close it was to the border of the Imperial Empire back when Tropicalis was split into two.

Falco: Aren't there, like, any highways going through it?

Wikipenguino: Well, uh, not really. Hardly anyone lives in that region. Plus, the workers constructing on it didn't really feel the need to want to cross dense and unexplored jungle just to build a highway, so they didn't build any roads through there. Some historians think it may have been inhabited during antiquity, but nobody has really touched the area since. Nobody really knows what's in there now.

Falco: Cool...what if it's been hiding golden puffles all this time? I heard that according to legend, they not only have advanced telekinesis but can *fly* too. Didn't Zephaniah try to find them at some point?

Terry: Yes, he did, but no proof of the existence of any such gold or "golden puffle" was ever recovered by any known explorer in history besides myths. If golden puffles existed, we would have at least found or seen them by now.

Falco: You're really sure about that, huh?

Wikipenguino: Well, does it really matter? It looks like we've got some exploring to do...

Falco: Count me in, pal.

Wikipenguino: In that case, *towards adventure*!

Terry seemed reluctant.

Terry: This better not involve any exhilarating or life-threatening situations.

Falco: Oh, come on. It's better that nothing. Plus, we're only mapping out an unexplored region of the Tropicalian jungle that hasn't been explored since days of yore. Nothing we can't handle. It's just like you always say, Terry - nothing could go wrong! This should be *easy*. Even for you!

Wikipenguino: Alright, Falco, I think he gets it. You in, Terry?

Terry: I'll come, but remember that we're *only* going to map things out. Nothing else.

## Chapter 2: This Should Be Easy

After some time, the Venturous Three landed the airport of in Beakciudad, Maritimus at dawn.

Falco: So your telling me that nobody has ever explored this place?

Wikipenguino: Well, not exactly. There have been some attempts, but either none of them thought to explore all of it or just didn't wanna record their travels. Strange, huh?

Falco: Guess that makes us the first, then.

Wikipenguino: I heard that Jacob Macaroon - one of my great-great-uncle's fellow explorers - tried to explore the whole thing but uh... never actually did. Although, he did manage to land himself the honour of naming the place, so that's cool, I guess. Called it "Macaroon Expanse".

Falco: Huh. What do you think we might find in there?

Terry: Likely nothing too remarkable.

Wikipenguino: Whatever it is, I'm sure it's worth exploring! Come on, let's take the bus. I doubt any taxi or car would be willing to take us as far out of the city as we're going.

The three approached a nearby bus station while Wikipenguino went over to get them tickets.

Wikipenguino: Three tickets to Santa Pitaya, please.

The Venturous Three later arrived in the small, but bustling environment of a small town. The sky was clear and tinted a yellowish-green colour, the sun still rising from the horizon.

As the three stepped off of the bus, they found themselves in what looked to be the town square. An open area with small roads stretched around them with two-storey buildings surrounding a bronze fountain featuring the statue of a penguin drawing a sword. Surrounding them were the large, thick leaves of both tall and short palm trees and jungle flora - a noticeable change from the bustling, populated and building-clustered city of Beakciudad. A dock was visible nearby, sitting on the banks of a large river.

Falco: Why is this place called "Santa Pitaya", exactly?

Wikipenguino: Well according to what I've heard, the townsfolk were gifted pitaya fruit by Santa Claus on Christmas. They'd never tasted much of the fruit before and liked it so much they named the town after the two best things that had happened to them at the time.

Falco: Really?

Wikipenguino: I don't know, probably just a rumour. If that's the case, I'll be a slab of smoked salmon.

Terry: Interesting. The statue on the fountain seems to be a sculpture of Galliard the Great.

Wikipenguino: Yeah. This town's been around since it was a settlment in the days of old Sphensidean. The architecture reminds of buildings from the Kingdom of Tropicalis, too.

Falco: Yeah. It's like this place was merged with the jungle around it.

Terry: I believe we should have a guide somewhere around here. They said they'd be willing to show us around before taking us into the region.

????: Over here, fellow explorers!

The trio turned around to see an orange penguin beaming at them with a wide smile. He wore safari gear and a pith helm, much like that of a colonial Tropicalian explorer.

????: Greetings! You're the three explorers, correct? Terry Van Furry, Penguino Lagois and Falco Hochstadt?

Wikipenguino: Uh... yeah. That's us.

????: Excellent!

The penguin enthusiastically shook hands with both Wikipenguino and Falco.

????: My name is Leo Santano, although you can simply call me Santano. I'll be your guide for this... journey. You're wanting to explore the Macaroon Expanse, correct?

Falco: Yeah.

Terry: We're on a cartography excursion. The region is unmapped, and we're just here to chart it.

Santano: Oh, that will be no easy feat, my friend. One cannot simply conquer this jungle in a day. Anyways, I have a boat ready at the docks. I'll show you to where your hotel is, then I'll take you down the river.

Wikipenguino: Alright then, thanks.

Santano: Oh, and take your time, I can wait. Let me know whenever your ready to set off. I'll be at the docks.

## Chapter 3: Jungle Expedition

Terry: We have paper, a compass, magnifying glasses, torches, binoculars, a medical kit as well as food and a GPS.

Wikipenguino: Yep, we should be good to go. Oh, and just in case...

Wikipenguino drew out his keysaber from his luggage before slipping it into a brown messenger bag he wore.

Wikipenguino: Can't be too sure of any safety.

Falco: Hey, you guys have got me around. If anything tries to bite, I'll just toast them.

Terry: That wouldn't be ideal considering the local flora and jungle landscape we'll be entering. If you miss, it could cause a large forest fire.

Falco: Oh come on, my aim's not *that* bad.

The trio then left the hotel and made their way to the dock, where they found Santano waiting for them beside a hovercraft.

Santano: Ah, so we're ready now, correct?

Wikipenguino: Yeah. We've got just about everything we need.

Santano: Alright then, hop in!

The three took their seats in the hovercraft as Santano started the engine.

Santano: Next stop, Macaroon Expanse!

The hovercraft began to hum as the large propeller behind them began to spin, pushing them forwards.

Wikipenguino: So this "Macaroon Expanse"... it was named after Jacob Macaroon, wasn't it?

Santano: Quite right, my friend. Although if you ask me, I'd say Macaroon didn't deserve to name it.

Falco: But why?

Santano: Well, it was a little something involving an argument and a disagreement... or two... but nevermind that! Macaroon was one of the many explorers that tried to pass through this place. My great-grandfather I remember saw quite a few of them around this town in his time. Haven't really had any around this place since.

Wikipenguino: Why didn't they explore all of the jungle? Like, they just left parts of it out when they could've continued.

Santano: Ah well, you know. Some complications involving the authorities coupled with the fact that this place is ....er...not exactly for the faint of heart shall we just say, heh.

The group passed several fishing boats on their way out of the dock, heading towards the wider mouth of the river. The town behind them grew smaller and smaller as the jungle increased in size with every meter they passed. Terry examined almost everything he saw, especially if it moved, enthusiastically swinging the pair of binoculars in every direction.