Chapter 5: Into the Woods
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“Watch out,” Maria shouted as more of those odd pillars came crashing down towards the three of them. “Everyone get down.”
“I got you,” Yoshi shoved them into one of the gaps before scrunching his body up.
Maria curled into a ball and covered her head with her hands. She can easily handle the different types of ghosts, the turtle skeletons and hollowed out beetle shells, the bats and blocks that fall from the ceiling, along with the smaller ones that just merely jump. The pillars were a pain in the butt. She couldn’t destroy them with a flick of a cape or by throwing fireballs at them. They were unable to be destroyed.
“It’s rising,” Pauline said.
“Good,” Maria slid off her hands and looked up as the pillars were being drawn. “Lets keep moving. Yoshi, how is your appetite?”
“I’m still a little hungry,” Yoshi said as they climbed out of the gap. “And remember what I don’t digest I can turn into ammunition.”
“That is something we could use about now.” Maria said as they continued to run. They had nothing, they were not powered up by anything.
“I see a couple of question blocks,” Pauline pointed to the two blocks hanging over the entrance to what they assumed, and hoped would be where they would find Ludwig.
“Please have some goodies,” Maria rubbed her hands and jumped. Her fist struck one block and a fire flower sprouted on the top. “Thank you.”
Pauline’s block was filled with coins, ten of them considering how many jingles Maria heard when she retrieved the flower and was powered up. She felt the wave of heat wash over her as her pants and the blue trim on her shirt sleeves turned white.
“Is everyone ready?” Yoshi asked.
“I’m ready,” Maria said. Enchanting organ music had started to play from inside the room. “Looks like he is inside, don’t know if this means that he knows we are here or not.”
“Beautiful,” Pauline gasped and started to sing.
“Pauline, now is not the time for that,” Maria placed her hand over Pauline’s mouth.
“We have to be quiet,” Yoshi brought his finger to his mouth and pushed open the doors.
The room was as large as the others, but more lavishly decorated. There were fine rugs covering the ground and paintings and tapestries on the wall. There were even potted plants and a few sculptures on pedestals. Maria had to admit that Ludwig had refined tastes.
Ludwig was seated in front of his large pipe organ. The brass pipes snaked across the walls. The young Koopa’s fingers danced across the keys as he played. His eyes were closed, he was so into the music.
Maria felt herself mesmerized by the music. She hadn’t even noticed Pauline had started to sing again and was swaying to the notes.
Ludwig paused in his playing and turned around. “Please miss Pauline, don’t stop.”
“What?” Maria was ready to blast him with a fireball.
“We will fight, that is inevitable,” Ludwig said. “But I want to finish playing my song first, and I know miss Pauline would want to finish singing. Let us make music together, before we fight.”
“It sounds fair,” Maria shrugged.
“Thank you,” Ludwig turned around and started to play again and was joined a few minutes later by Pauline. The combination of her voice and his skills were beyond elegant, beyond beautiful. Maria did not have any way to describe it.
Pauline sighed when it was over. “It’s a pity we have to fight.”
“It is,” Ludwig slid off his stool.
“There can’t be any other way?” Maria asked.
“I’m sorry,” Ludwig sighed.
Maria nodded sadly. The fireball was not about to go to waste anytime soon.
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Mario ignored the delicious aromas wafting from the tray he was carrying and the various rumbles from his stomach. He had told himself he was going to eat after he had made sure the Princess had been fed. That had been the arrangement for the past few days. Mario would bring the Princess food, even if he wasn’t on guard duty, then he would eat. If it was change of guards then Mario would have brought his tray as well.
The Ninji on guard duty was in the middle of playing jacks when Mario had arrived. “Good afternoon, General. I thought prince Morton was going to be taking over in a couple of hours.
“He is,” Mario said. “I’m just here to bring food for the Princess.” He paused in his steps. “Are you hungry?”
“I ate something before I went on duty,” the Ninjii said. “And I’ll eat something later, after my shift is over.” He bounced the red ball and managed to pick up four jacks. “I’m in the zone today.”
“That is good,” Mario shoved the tray through the slot. “Hello Princess.”
“Hello Mario,” Peach glanced up from the comic book she had been reading. Mario had been giving her books, newspapers, magazine, comics, just about anything to read when he was with her.
“Lunch time your highness,” he smiled boldly.
“What is for lunch?”
“Grilled chicken with crinkle cut fries, veggie noodle soup, a roll, and a brownie for dessert oh and water to drink.”
“That sounds delicious,” Peach set the comic down. “Thank you for lunch.”
“I’ll see you again around dinner, when I go on guard duty again.” Mario wanted to say more to her, and he had a feeling she wanted to say more to him, but that was impossible with the other guard around.
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“Nice,” Maria said as soon as the two of them had stepped inside the mist-shrouded woods. “This is the type of place that would have ghosts, or psycho camp counselor killer, or the Blair Witch.”
“Gee thanks,” Pauline deadpanned. “As if I wasn’t a bundle of nerves already.”
“There are no ghosts in these woods,” Yoshi said as they continued on. “None of the other stuff. There is a lot of fruit.” He pointed to the large berries in the tree above. “Let me get you some.” He jumped up and used his tongue to grab two of the berries. Upon landing he spat them into his hands. “Here you go.”
“Thank you,” Maria used a cloth and water from her canteen to clean hers. “No offense or anything. It’s just that, this has been in your mouth.”
“No offense taken,” Yoshi jumped up and ate some more of the berries.
“I’m not really that hungry,” Pauline stared at her fruit. “It would seem wrong to refuse it, because he gave it to me as a gift.”
“I just feel slightly hungry,” Maria took a bite out of hers. “I think I like these ones better than the ones on Yoshi’s Island.”
“We should eat these now,” Pauline took a couple of bites out of hers. “Who knows when we will get to eat again?” She swallowed. “Then again there were all that sugary sweet stuffs we came across at those other places. I kind of wish those bridges were made out of cheese and butter instead of just smelling like it.”
“You can that again,” Maria spied several Goombas and Super Troopas heading their way. “We have been spotted.” She ran up the mushrooms.
“Wait for us,” Pauline called out.
Maria didn’t listen. She leaped and hop scotched on the Goombas, the last one gave her an extra boost to leap into the air and land on one of the Super Troopas. “You guys really need to improve your skills.” She saw a question block ahead. “Great, this makes up for the fire I lost when fighting Ludwig.” She punched it and a feather floated down.
“Nice cape,” the creature was not one of Bowser’s usual flunkies. It was a giant caterpillar like creature with a flower on its head. “Can I eat it?”
“Um no,” Maria grabbed onto the edge of the cape and pulled it to her.
“Okay. I’ll use it as a napkin after I eat you.”
“I don’t think so” Maria spun around. The edge of her cape removed the flower from the caterpillar’s head.
“You made me loose my flower,” the caterpillar turned red. “Wriggler angry, Wriggler smash.” It charged to her.
Maria jumped and spun around before she landed on the Wriggler’s head. “Nope, I smash you.”
“Maria, Yoshi,” Pauline shouted before she let out a scream. She was surrounded by several more of the caterpillars.
Yoshi arrived first and with his tongue he gobbled them down. “I love Wrigglers.” He belched.
“How many times are you going to allow yourself to be surrounded?” Maria asked.
“I don’t know,” Pauline shrugged.
“Let’s keep moving.”
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Mario took a sip from his bottle of beer. “I only have a couple of chapters left. Molly has figured out it was Tad Tuna’s secretary who was sleeping with him is the one behind the murders. She couldn’t risk getting her boss fired since she loves him so much.”
“People often do almost anything for love,” Peach said.
“That is true,” Mario sighed.
“I can understand why you want to stay with the Koopa Troop,” she ran her fingers through her hair. “Even more than before. You care about your soldiers. You care about them a lot. I have seen the way you talk with your guards and the way the talk with you. They respect you.”
“A general is only as good as his soldiers,” Mario said. “I have to make sure they are in proper shape and well trained and I have to make sure they are well cared for. My brother is the same.”
“I never really got to meet your brother,” Peach sighed. “Although from the way you describe him, I can picture him to be as sweet and caring as you.”
“I’m not that sweet,” Mario took another drink. “Luigi is a bit sweeter. He is a little bit shy, more timid, but much more sweet than I am. I can see why Wendy was attracted to him.” He stared at his book. “I’ll be lucky if I ever find the right person.”
She reached through the bars and placed a hand on his shoulder. “Once they get to know the real you, once they see what a good and kind and caring person that you are, they will fall in love with you.”
“Yeah,” Mario sighed, except he keeps on pushing them away.
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Maria was panting. Her lungs were burning and begging for her to stop running and she knew her legs were feeling the same. They had just finished swimming past a large groups of strange fish, several that had decided to stay asleep unless they got to close, now they were being chased by one of the Hammer guys while riding on a flying platform.
“I got an idea,” Pauline said. “He can’t go in three directions.”
“Great idea,” Yoshi said. “I’ll take the left.” He darted to the left. Pauline darted to the right and Maria continued on ward.
So did the Hammer thrower. “I’m going to get one of you, and then one of the generals will give me a promotion.”
“Good for you,” Maria gasped. She had hoped that either Yoshi or Pauline return would return.
A green shell shot out from the left, but had missed the Hammer Brother. “Darn,” Yoshi called out.
“Don’t worry,” Pauline said. “I’ll get him.” A fireball shout out from her direction and struck the hammer bro in the back with enough force to knock him off.
“Thanks,” Maria stopped and leaned against a tree to take in a nice long breather.
“That platform is still here,” Pauline pointed at it. “I wonder.” She took a flying a leap and landed on it. “Onward.” She pointed forward. The platform kept going in the same path. “You can hop on Yoshi.”
“Good idea,” Maria climbed on Yoshi’s back when he rejoined her. “We can find shelter for the night if we travel a little faster.”
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“Not too bad,” Mario yawned and stared at his book. There was plenty of suspense, but not enough surprised. The series was addictive and he was going to check out Koopazon dot com to see when the next one will be out in paperback.
“Mario,” Bowser growled and grabbed Mario by his horn. “Ludwig returned about an hour ago.”
Mario winced. “They defeated him?”
“Yes they defeated him,” Bowser glared. “Your soldiers cant defeat those two girls and bring them to me, and what’s more you told Iggy that it was my fault they were attacking us in the first place?”
“Wait,” Mario wrenched himself away from Bowser’s grip. “When did I say anything like that?”
“You mentioned that I had kidnapped the Princess. It wasn’t difficult for Iggy to put the clues together, now he has told his brothers that because I kidnapped Peach I had made them lose their castles.”
“Are you sure you are not blaming yourself?” Mario asked. “I remember just telling them that the Princess was here.”
“Don’t you start that again.” Bowser shoved him against the wall. “I have told you not to question my orders, and I don’t want you to ever blame your failures on me.”
“My failures?” Mario asked in a low voice.
“If you had trained the soldiers to fight better then we wouldn’t be in this mess.” He snarled. “Get some rest. You are waking up early tomorrow for training.”
“Yes sire,” Mario glared at the back of his head.
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They had made it through another castle, and once again the had to climb across a fence to avoid lava, avoid having pillars and thwomps land on them and duck around other creeps while jumping on others.
Maria had lost her cape again. She didn’t mind. They still had Yoshi with him and he had several eggs. Pauline still had her fire power. All Maria could think about were the blisters on her fingers and the Magikoopa in front of her.
“We are only going to be nice and ask this one time,” Pauline said. “Are you going to let us in, or do we have to get nasty?”
“You can try and get as nasty as you want,” the magikoopa said. “I am not going to let you inside.”
“Can’t say that we didn’t try.” Maria threw an egg at the wizard. While Pauline threw a fireball.
The Magikoopa jumped and avoided being burned while he waved his wand at the egg. The magic rained down it had turned it into a Goomba, which Yoshi immediately ate. He waved his wand at several blocks and turned them into more flunkies.
Maria jumped on them while Yoshi gobbled them up and laid even more eggs for ammunition.
“Yeowch!” The Magikoopa’s foot was on fire. He stomped around trying to put it out.
“Here is egg in your eye,” Maria threw an egg at the wizards face before she jumped on his head. “That should be it. Ready to see if Roy is as tough as last time?”
“Tough?” Pauline retrieved the Magikoopa’s wand. “Or is he as tough as he had once thought he was?”
“What are you doing with that?” Maria pointed at the wand.
“A little extra help.”
“Do you even know how to use one?” Yoshi opened the door for them.
“I read how to use them in books,” Pauline said. What did she mean by that?
Maria just gave her an odd look. “Let’s just find Roy.” She stared around the room. “Except where is he?”
“Up there,” Yoshi pointed at the pink Koopa kid as he was climbing up the wall.
“He thinks he’s Spiderman now,” Maria said.
“I’ll distract him.” Pauline pointed the wand at him. “Expecto Patronum.” The Ghostly image of a gorilla appeared causing Pauline to scream and drop the wand. The gorilla disappeared.
“Wha!” Roy screamed and fell down. He landed belly first on the ground.
“It worked,” Maria jumped on his head.
“You broads are going down.” Roy got back up on his feet and climbed the wall again. This time he reached the top before he let go and was trying to land feet first on them.
Maria and the others ran around in circles to avoid being landed on.
“I hate it when some arrogant loud mouth decides to throw his weight around.” Pauline threw a fireball at his feet.
“I’m not done yet,” the Koopa climbed the wall.
“Yoshi think you can hit him?” Maria asked.
“I know I have a shot.” Yoshi picked up one of the eggs. When Roy had nearly reached the top he threw the egg at the back of the Koopa’s head, and struck him.
Roy grunted and fell to the floor. He did not get up. “Ouch.”
“Pack him up and send him home to daddy,” Maria rubbed her hands. “Lets find the other Yoshis and blow this place.”
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