Mushrooms, mushrooms, everywhere! Not only do mushrooms cover much of the ground, but the residents themselves appear to be mushrooms as well, resembling the common Myconid enemies, but with more intelligence and less aggression. The regular version of "Dancing Beasts" plays in town.

It's literally just the same word with the characters reversed. That should at the very least be "GONTAMA".

Well, the mushroom people have been friendly enough so far. Wtih any luck, their king might help us out. But first, let's visit the item shop to buy some new armor. Watts has somehow beaten us here, too, and he's chatting up one of the locals.

Oops. I think that sentence was expected to have an automatic line break sooner than it actually does.

On to the throne room!

King Truffaut must be the one with a chair who wears a crown and sports a remarkable moustache.

"Angel's Fear" plays as the legend appears one line at a time.

"Dancing Beasts" resumes as he continues.

He may be a bit pushy, but it's nice that someone finally takes us seriously, even if he is a mushroom. I'm not sure how the topic turned to temples, though, since we came here looking for dragons, and no one has said anything about there being a temple around here.

Regardless, let's get that chest...

Nice. Next to Watts, then on to the cave! We have to pass through a mushroom field with forest creatures along the way, though.

"The Boy Heads for the Wilds" plays in the cave. Numerous Molebears, Blood Owls, and Garashas appear, along with a few Sahagins. Enemies that are out of weapon reach but can still use magic may cause problems.

The cave system has a few visible stairways that remain forever out of reach, even after solving all the tricks and traps. Were they always just there for decoration, or were the caves once meant to have further passages to explore? Perhaps they would have opened up later on in the storyline.

After hitting a few blocked paths and dead ends, we come across a crystal orb. This one responds to Earthquake (Earth Slide).

That breaks some stalagmites on the floor below, opening a new pathway that soon leads to a mushroom field where "Crisis" plays. There's that giant snake they were talking about! The Great Boa (Great Viper) may attack with Diamond Missle (Gem Missile), but that's the least of our worries. Its sinuous movement makes it difficult to strike or avoid, and its attacks may cause Munchkin status, causing the damage to rack up even faster, especially combined with a tendency to stun lock characters. Keep a safe distance, aim for the head, and, of course, use plenty of magic, specifically Jinn's attack spells. The Girl may also be able to use her enemy-targeted spells to help pin it down, though only for the duration of the spell animations, and she'll more likely have her hands full with healing anyway.

The Great Boa explodes differently from most bosses, bursting in segments from head to tail.

Let's keep going. We pass through another cave, without any more monsters, before coming to a larger cavern with beams of light shining in. A strange creature stands here. It does look dragonlike and mostly white, but it's hardly any bigger than the boy is.

It makes an interesting noise, and "Soul of the Night" starts playing.

It makes its noise twice more.

The dragon makes its noise twice more, and the scene fades out...

...and we return to the throne room. The dragon sits next to the king now. "Soul of the Night" continues playing.

They did say he tended to act before thinking. The chancellor steps up to protest...

...but quickly gives up and returns to his place.

It looks like an ordinary prompt, but the cursor never appears, and after a moment...

Exploring more of the forest earlier would have revealed a temporarily closed cannon station just southeast of Matango.

Well, yes, we are looking for temples, but I still don't recall mentioning that to him. Oh well.

Ah, so there was a personal aspect to this mission, too. Interesting. We have business with a cannoneer, though.

Thanks to kahran042 for catching my initial spelling error and for noticing out that マツケタ is an anagram of マツタケ (matsutake), a type of mushroom.

As promised, the cannoneer has returned.

Well, the temple is supposed to be in the desert, so let's head there.

Though note that we could tackle the Ice Country first, and unsurprisingly end up needing to go both places regardless.

That... does not sound promising...