It didn't rain often in the Darklands, and on the rare occasion that it did, it was even more uncommon for it to steadily drizzle the way it was now. Either thick, dark clouds conquered the sky, or a full-fledged storm roared in fury. The constant, easy pitter-patter of droplets only happened once or twice a year, among the dozen or so squalls that battered the already barren landscape.

Now, the interesting thing about this calm type of Darkland rainfall was its effect on the land it fell onto. Because of the rivers of lava snaking every which way, there was always a constant hissing noise from the rain hitting the molten liquid below. The lava, being too vast to solidify, simply evaporated nature's teardrops the moment contact was made. Steam would rise, creating a type of mist that usually shrouded the tar-coloured earth. To outsiders it would seem eerie, but it held a strange beauty for the natives. These seldom seen occasions were the only times troop members would be permitted to have a day to themselves, since thunderstorms proved to be a good way to practice braving the elements in the field.

Therefore, the atmosphere inside the castle was a rather lazy one.

A pink Bumpty sighed dully as she looked out into the land that lay before her, safe and dry high up in the castle. Bumptys were extremely rare to find in any place that wasn't filled with ice and snow, and it would be unthinkable that one would willingly take up residence in Darkland, but there she was, staring out the window with an almost unnatural feeling of longing. She rarely got homesick, but it was these cooler days that reminded her of her place of origin, in a small, secluded place known as Shiverville. She was the mayor's granddaughter, and often it was expected that she was going to take over her grandfather's role. However, she was a bookworm at heart, a lover of learning, and once she'd exhausted their village's meagre literature resources, she had decided to voyage in search of a vaster reserve knowledge. Even the traders rarely visited their secluded little home, and when they did, they only brought one or two interesting and good quality volumes, at best.

And so she began to reminisce, her mind drifting into her own personal mist of memories.

XXXXXXXX

Against all common sense and good judgment – things she prided herself in having in great abundance – she had set off for the dangerous world of Darklands, a treacherous journey in itself. The Bumpty knew that the wiser, more sensible course would be to head to the Mushroom Kingdom in order to increase her mental repertoire, and that's where she headed at first. But on her journey, she had learned from many a passerby that the libraries there were limited, lackluster at best. Even two toads she encountered agreed that her time could be better spent elsewhere. It wasn't that the Mushroom Kingdom lacked in knowledge; on the contrary, its libraries claimed to be quite impressive, to which her acquaintances could attest to. But it limited itself simply to knowledge of its own Kingdom and its allies, bias causing them to refuse outside literature from nearly every kingdom it was unfamiliar or at odds with. Caution, to be sure, and she had admired that. But she wouldn't be fully accomplishing her goal if she was forced to ignore so called "banned" books simply because of monarchal prejudice. She didn't care for territorial or romantic squabbles between rulers. No, she wanted fact, trivia, and information. Information free from the shackles of biased thinking, and clearly the Mushroom Kingdom wasn't the cream of the crop. Besides, due to the constant attacks, most of which involved fire in some way, they'd been forced to limit their libraries to merely kingdom history and factual books on agriculture, finance, education, and the like. While still impressively larger than her own personal collection at home, it paled in comparison to the vastness she desired to locate. At most, she would be finished in about a week. That isn't to say she ignored the kingdom entirely; she did stop by to stock up on her rations and examine the wares for herself. Unfortunately, and as expected, her efforts proved fruitless and she left that place early the next day in search of metaphorically greener pastures.

The next place she had thought to go was Beanbean. It wasn't far from the Mushroom Kingdom, and besides the odd jump-roping scenario that was enacted in order to cross the border, the short trip went on fairly uneventfully. But, like the previous Kingdom, it too proved to have a disappointed lack of information, besides the vast novels dedicated to jokes, puns, the kingdom, and a shocking amount of works all centered on Chuckolacola. Given her ability to speedread to a fairly good extent, and the ridiculous lack of pages that the books contained, they took less than a day to read to their completion. Asking around, she learned about some places such as the Woohoo Hooniversity, but she didn't feel that the study of laughter would be very beneficial to her quest. Besides, she liked to learn and ponder at her own pace; otherwise she would've gone to a school a long time ago. There were other places, such as Fawful's old hideout, though due to her timid nature she didn't feel comfortable sneaking into an old villain's home. She'd rather avoid any villains at all, to be perfectly honest, so she left the day after she arrived at the castle, already having exhausted their literary resources.

She did end up staying in the Mushroom Kingdom for a week afterwards, though. Despite the bias, she figured that she might as well read as much as she could before figuring out where she was going to go next. The Bumpty had approached the princess directly to inquire of the library, and a smiling Peach waved her through without even a second thought.

Well that was quite kind of her. I didn't even need to be questioned!

She met a few kind Toads who studied alongside her, answering any questions she had, such as Toadbert and Toadiko, but it still didn't take her very long to finish all she wanted to read.

And, of course, there was also the fact that the castle was attacked by Bowser a day prior to her scheduled departure. He kidnapped the princess, and left the kingdom devastated and full of panic. She realized that this would probably be a regular theme and so decided to head out before things got too out of hand with the townsfolk. Who knows how they would react…

There were a few kingdoms she thought of going to next, such as Dinosaur Land, Jewelry land, and Rogueport, but the two former were even worse off than her own home, according to other travelers, and Rogueport was just too far away, not to mention too risky for someone of her inexperience. She would have liked to meet Professor Frankly, but finally decided that the risks outweighed the rewards and settled on somewhere a bit closer:

Sarasaland.

It seemed perfect. The land was essentially a gutsier Mushroom Kingdom; it was almost never under siege, and she was told it had quite an impressive library. Despite the heat, she thought it would be easy to simply stay inside, away from the overbearing harshness of the sun, and it would only take a few days across the Sparkling Ocean to arrive at the castle in Chai.

So, with determination in her body and food in her backpack, she began the long trek to where the desert met the sea.

It wasn't very difficult at first. The worn path through the Grasslands was pleasant and relaxing, and she chose to stick to Glacier Forest instead of the Dry Dry Desert – an obvious choice, as she was used to the colder climate. Once she got closer to the sea, it would only be a day's journey to the Dry Dry Outpost, a small village that had torn down its walls in the past few years and had expanded into more of a seaport, what with the water being so close by. Though she ran into some Goombas and Koopas, they paid her no mind and she was able to carry on her way.

However, once she began her small journey through the hot sand, things were a much different story. Her feet ached with every step she took. The top of her pink head burned up in the sun. She, in desperation, put an oddly familiar blue flower on her head in order to offer the tiniest bit of protection, though she couldn't remember where she saw it or what she knew about it. It served no purpose, and seemed as though nothing could abate the pounding heat. She used up all her water in an hour alone, and slowly munched on some fruit to keep her distracted from the sweltering agony. She hadn't expected the heat to become so unbearable so quickly, and realized far too late that she had made a huge mistake.

Just two and a half hours into her journey, she collapsed in the sand, a defeated mess.

How foolish of me... To think I could survive such desert heat.

Before losing consciousness, she began to see mirages in the sand. A tall palm tree laced with coconuts, and smaller, bare ones beside it. A bright blue oasis with green grass with lemons and limes scattered about. A large brown mass racing towards her.

And then it all faded to black.