The First Day with Timpani

The room was out of focus as I opened my eyes and I felt a stabbing pain. My head felt like it was about to explode and I groaned aloud. Quickly a figure appeared by my side and spoke, "My goodness, are you awake at last?"

The room I was in finally came into focus, and it was certainly not familiar surroundings. The figure I saw was a human girl! "Where… am I? Is this… a human's home?" I chose to make a noise befitting the circumstances. My father had taught me much about humans; they were not creatures to be admired.

This was confirmed by my own small experience with humans. I once met two human girls walking along a forest path. One screamed and ran while the other one fainted. They were definitely not worthy of respect.

Ignoring my tone of disgust she warned me to quit moving so much. I had tried shifting in the bed I lay upon, and indeed, the room swam out of focus for a moment as I felt a wave of nausea roll over me. She continued on explaining this mysterious circumstance in which I found myself, "I found you at the cliff base. You took quite a fall."

I noticed that she was quite calm; this was rather odd considering that I was supposedly viewed as a hideous blue monster to this girl. The other two had acted just as Father said, why wasn't she? Just to make sure the fall hadn't made me completely loose my mind, "You're a human, correct? I don't… repulse you? I am of the Tribe of Darkness."

She instantly responded, "Why would that matter? Anyone with a heart would not ignore an injured soul!"

I was shocked at the conviction with which she spoke. She truly did not care that I was of the Tribe of Darkness! A human who was not afraid of my kind! I was definitely intrigued at this point. I wanted to talk to the girl who spoke rather than screamed in my presence. I kept up light chatter as she gave me some water and sat down on a chair near the bed.

I tried sitting up straighter, and once more the room swam as I nearly dropped the glass she had just given me. Her hand shot out and supported mine before I broke anything. She glared at me and spoke sternly, "You really shouldn't try to move until you feel better."

I groaned and replied, "I feel fine until I move." I closed my eyes and rubbed my temples willing the dizziness to stop again.

She giggled this time and said, "I feel that I should get you some orange juice. You look like some of the men after they wake up after the royal feast. Mom says that she always gives them orange juice when they look like that."

I laughed hard, "I am not hung over! And you never did answer my question. Where are we? ... Wait, wait, wait! Royal feast? You should also explain how you got invited to that."

"Yeash, so many questions. Very well, then. This is my parents' vacation home. It is actually pretty close to the castle, but the cliff obviously covers up the view from the beach. As you can imagine, anyone with enough money for two homes can obtain an invite to the royal feast. My mom's a nurse at the castle and my father is a successful businessman. I feel that there are two important questions I've neglected until now though. Who are you? How did you fall? My name's Timpani, by the way."

"I am very glad to meet you, Timpani; my name is Blumiere. Your second question is indeed pressing, and at the moment no explanation comes to mind… How did I manage to fall off of a cliff?" I chuckled under my breath, thinking about how ridiculous that question would be under any other circumstance. Truth be told, it seemed ridiculous even in this situation…

I began racking my brain trying to remember anything, starting with some of my earliest memories before the fall just to make sure I didn't have any memory loss. I didn't appear to have memory loss as I remembered a great deal of my past enterprises… Ah, the foolishness of my youth. Timpani looked at me curiously as I laughed aloud multiple times while I reminisced.

Finally, I remembered my mundane breakfast yesterday (or was it longer?), and my decision to go exploring. "I do… actually remember how I came to fall off that cliff."

"Do tell!"

"Well, it started with my decision to go exploring… How many days ago? How long have I been unconscious?"

"Less than a day."

"Ok, wonderful, it started with my decision to go exploring yesterday after breakfast. I live quite a long way to the east of the castle, but I wanted to see if I could get close to the castle using ghost flashing. The people of the Tribe of Darkness are able to move swiftly by moving like a ghost, by levitating and flying at something quickly. It creates a small image of ourselves flash shortly behind us as we move, hence the name. Moving like that is really quite exhilarating and so I just kept on going, ignoring the weariness that was building up as I moved towards the most forbidden place of my culture.

After about half an hour I reached the outskirts of town and saw the castle, but a guard also saw me. As I'm sure you're well aware, people of the Tribe of Darkness are considered criminals in your area, and that guard and three others began to chase me." My emotions of the memories were starting to get to me, and I was all but seething at how the guards had treated me. I had done nothing and yet they chased me out of the town like a dog begging for scraps. I knew that Father was right in his hatred of humans! How those guards disgusted me!

I gritted me teeth in anger and continued, "Normally, this would not be a problem because ghost running for even a brief period of time will shake off all but the best hunters, and I am quite capable of powerful attacks if necessary! That thirty minute joy run had exhausted my magical reserves, though, so I had to run as if I were a weakling human!" I was in a rage at this point at my own foolishness and at the guards behavior, but I remembered my surrounding and looked at Timpani again. I saw fear in her eyes and realized I had scared and offended her. I knew I needed to calm down and not let my anger get the best of me if I was not to scare her away. I waited a moment breathing deeply.

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry for scaring you like that. I did not mean to... I ran like a human from them," I said much more calmly. "The guards were able to herd me like a dog herds sheep, and I did not know they were herding me towards the cliff. When I finally realized what they were doing, I was already flying without wings. Next thing I remember is waking up with metaphorical knives stabbing my brain, and a human girl who thinks I look hung over next to me."

Timpani laughed slightly at this, but quickly regained her seriousness. "I can not believe that there are such horrific acts of cruelty being commited in my town. You could've died from that fall!"

"I think that was more or less the point…" I said as I shifted my eyes trying to avoid her intense gaze.

She broke off her gaze as well as she composed herself. Her anger had riled her up the same way my own anger had just a moment before. After a few breaths, she had calmed down, "Why are you criminals? So far all you have done is shown me kindness. You do not seem to be an evil being, and even when you encountered those guards your plan was simply to ghost run."

"We have the Dark Prognosticus, a book of dark prophecies." I shuddered at the thought; all the horrible things done because of that book. "My ancestors were fools for trying to use the power of it. I was thankful that it had not been used in such a long time… That book is why there are legends of our tribe being evil, and is mostly why we are not welcome here. Also, I am less aggressive than most of my tribesmen. It is unusual to find a member of the Tribe of Darkness that is as peaceful as I am."

"Hmm, so those legends are true?" Timpani murmured to herself. She looked back up and our gaze met once more. She flashed a small, shy smile at me and spoke with slightly more cheer, "Well I'm glad that I met someone like you. It's good to see someone going against the norm and being nice to me. My parents are not particularly high on the royalty scale and so most people at those feasts look down on me, and most people "below" me who do like me are all rejected by my parents, even if I like them back." She sighed and shook her head.

In the silence that followed, I took note of her appearance. Despite her frightening paleness, she didn't look… bad (I always thought the girls I had met looked deathly ill, but apparently all humans are just colored like they're about to revisit lunch). Nonetheless, her eyes were a beautiful shade of green and her hair was rather short and a light brown. Her face was also short and slightly rounded. I liked the difference between her face and the angular faces of my own kind. It was one of those details I knew I would hold onto: Timpani's face while she was in thought. She gave her head another small shake and looked back up; I wondered what she had been thinking about.

"Well, I think about an hour has passed. Do you feel much better?"

Had it truly been only an hour? It felt so much longer than that!

I consciously sat up completely straight. Nothing. I began to stand up and Timpani told me to wait a moment. She went around the bed to the side where I was getting up, and offered me her hand. I accepted it gladly, but the kind gesture was unnecessary because I learned quickly that my sense of balance and stability had returned. I checked to see if my magic was back as well, and sure enough a small black flame lit in my hand at my command. I released the flame and saw her staring at where the flame had been.

I chose not to give any explanation for the fire. Her staring had made me feel like it was a crime to cast that spell, and I felt that our farewells were upon us. Timpani was no longer as happy as she had been just a while ago, and I was sure that this test of health was the transition to our departure. My suspicion was confirmed when she hugged me and began to speak quietly, "My parents let me stay here to get away from life for a few days. They were too busy to accompany me, and I really prefer it that way, but I must return soon. Now that I know you are well, I really should go back home; I was supposed to return before now. Blumiere, I cannot think of you as the monster everyone says you should be; you have shown that you are kind in just the little while I have known you."

The flame no longer felt like a crime, and Timpani no longer felt like she was an interesting anomaly amongst mankind, she felt like a friend to me. "Surely, it was you who was kind. I cannot thank you enough for saving my life and caring for me even though you probably thought of me as a monster at first. I will not keep you from your family any longer, but I must meet you again. Timpani, can you meet me here in a month? I will practice my ghost running so that I don't fall off a cliff each time I visit you."

She smiled and I found another image that would not leave my head soon, "I will be here in a month with some orange juice just in case."

I returned the smile and opened the door for her. Outside she hugged me once more and we said our last goodbyes. She began to walk towards the castle, while I began to find another way back to my home. With a flashing image of myself behind me, I went on my way back to the Tribe of Darkness.

* Note: All characters and the basic plot line of this story belong to Nintendo and the creators of Super Paper Mario and any other group that owns the right to this story. I have only filled in the space between the first two flashbacks of Tippi as best as I could.

Any comments and/or criticism is welcome. Also note that these stories won't be produced very quickly because of my busy schedule. Thank you for reading and I hope you enjoyed the beginning of the love story of Blumiere and Timpani.