The Next Friend Found
Hullos! Is Selphie again, Lord of birds and socks. Hopefully, if you're reading this it means you read "The First Adventure" and are coming back for more. If that is the case, then squee and kudos to you. Loves ya. If you haven't read "The First Adventure" then I advise you to go back and read that first, otherwise you will be pretty confizzled.
I just wanted to catch everyone up before the story starts: Jessie and Ian were from Mushroom Kingdom, they disappeared when they were one year old and went through a bunch of other video game worlds and a small town that I actually live in, and finally they got back to their home in Mushroom Kingdom. They found each other at the Smash Bros. tourney, and then Jessie helped Ian try to find his family. But her brothers, Mario and Luigi, Yoshi, and Peach were all kidnapped and kept in his castle. Jessie and Ian go to save them, and find Ian's sister: Princess Toadstool! So they beat Bowser, yada yada yada, go home, Peach and Ian rule Mushroom Kingdom. I actually had them do Mario Party 2, but that too is really crappy and lame, so I'll just tell you the Jessie won (because she is my brainchild and because I copied it right out of the game I was playing) and now it's back to business as usual.
For anyone who forgot how the last story ended (and it is important because the whole of this story is based off the fact that is established by those last few paragraphs) here it is real quick, and then I will shut up and get out of your way to let you read my story.
A little later that day, Jessie was looking at the pictures again. She found the picture of her, Ian, and the little girl and boy from before. Little girl and boy? "Wait a second," she said, "Who're they?" That is another story entirely...
Dun Dun Dun! Yeah, see? That's why it's important. This story is about that picture again.
Disclaimer: I do not own anything Mario-ified: the characters, world, etc. I own Jessie, Ian, and one other person in here, who will remain unnamed for the time being. I don't own "A Thousand Miles" or "Prince" or any Vanessa Carlton song for that matter. But "A Thousand Miles" really helped give me the idea for this story and for some reason I just like putting music in my fanfics. Oh, and just for the record, when it talks about musical instruments and stuff, I do not really know this stuff. You could probably call me a hypocrite when it comes to music because I don't know about the instruments or anything. So please don't get mad at me if you realize it talks stupidly about music.
I'm giving fair warning again: REVIEW! When you review I feel special, and when I feel special I don't feel wrathful. If you don't review, you will pay and my birds or socks, or the minions of some of my friends, the lords of cows and monkeys, will come after you and make your life a living hell.
Now, ON WITH THE STORY!
Chapter 1: Business as Usual
Some time after the Mario Party, things went back to normal. Bowser went back to his castle and started thinking of new ways to take over Mushroom Kingdom. Peach went back to teaching Ian how to rule the Kingdom. Jessie went back to learning about Mushroom Kingdom. Mario and Luigi went back to one of their lesser-known hobbies: trying to make music for Mushroom Kingdom (notice all of those sentences ended in the word, "kingdom?").
One day while they were practicing, Jessie came out of her room for a break. Her brothers were in the living room with their instruments, playing one of their songs.
"What're you guys doing?" Jessie asked.
"We're getting back into practice. We haven't played since you came. Everything's been too hectic," Mario told her.
"Oh, can I watch?" she asked.
"Why not?" Luigi answered. They started playing again. Their music wasn't that bad, but it wasn't great. Finally Luigi said, "I think that's enough warm-up. Let's get to the real stuff." They started playing. After listening for a minute Jessie stood up and told them to stop.
"Okay, first off, you're lyrics are pretty good. The melody is good, but you gotta work on the instruments," she advised them.
"What do you mean?" Luigi asked.
"You don't need to be playing it dead with an electric guitar," she told them, "You should try a regular guitar, it would sound better because you can distinguish the notes and hear the rhythm that the percussion sets up."
"Umm, okay?"
"Next, you don't have to both be singing at the same time. Probably you should let Mario sing lead and Luigi do back up. Duets at some points like in the chorus would be the way to go I think," she continued, "Can you try that?"
They nodded their heads and took up their instruments. They started playing. The singing definitely sounded better but, "Mario, you're not very good at the regular guitar, sorry."
"What do you mean?" he asked.
"You're trying to do the same thing you do on the electric guitar and slur the notes together. The point of playing it on the regular guitar is to have the notes heard individually. You get what I'm saying?" she told him, "Try again."
They tried again.
"I can't do it," Mario said.
"Here, like this," Jessie said taking the guitar. She and Luigi played through the song.
"That sounded great!" Luigi said.
"Thanks," Jessie said handing the guitar toward Mario.
"Why don't you do it?" he offered.
"Me?" she asked, "Are you sure? I mean, this was you and Luigi's thing. I probably shouldn't have cut in, in the first place."
"We want to sound as good as we can, and since you're apparently the best, you should do it. Besides, I'm still singing lead," he said.
"Yeah, you can be in the group too. It'll be like a family thing," Luigi said.
"Cool," Jessie said and put the guitar back on. They played through with Mario singing and it was perfect.
"You gotta help us with our other songs too!" Luigi said.
"All right, but I'm gonna try to help Mario with the regular guitar too," Jessie told them.
"Why?"
"So we'll have a broader variety and we can have better sounding music," Jessie said.
"But what other instrument will you play? I thought this was all you played," Mario said.
"Heck no! I also play vibraphone, strings, keyboards, some woodwinds and brasses, and a little bit of percussion," Jessie told them.
"What don't you play then?" Mario joked.
"Bagpipe."
Later they were walking to Peach's castle. Peach and Ian were going to a smaller kingdom within Mushroom Kingdom to the east, called Sarasaland, to meet with the royals there for the first time in many years. Mario, Luigi, and Jessie were going to escort them to make sure that nothing happened, as it often did. When they got to the castle they found that Peach, Ian, and Toad were waiting with a carriage. Carriages in Mushroom Kingdom are pulled by a hired and trained yoshi and are only used by the royals and only when they are traveling long distances or in other special events, such as the return of the prince.
"You're pulling the carriage, Yoshi?" Jessie asked when she saw their good friend hooked up to the carriage.
"Over such a long distance, Peach wants as much protection as possible," Yoshi answered.
"Are we ready to go right now?" Mario asked them.
"Yeah, we're ready," Peach answered. Mario, Luigi, and Jessie put their camping gear in with Peach, Ian, and Toad as they got in the carriage and Yoshi started pulling with the Marios walking behind.
They left early in the morning and walked all day. Finally the sun began to dip below the horizon.
"Are we going to stop soon?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, Wedding Hill is just half a mile off. We're going to stay there tonight," Mario answered.
About fifteen minutes later they were in a small town set around a tall hill. That night they stayed at the town inn. Jessie was talking to Yoshi.
"So we're just heading due east? You're not really sure where you'll end up?" Jessie asked.
"Well, I know where we're going for a while. But no one's been to Sarasaland in a long time so there's some stuff we don't really know about," Yoshi explained.
"So, we don't really know for sure what we'll be running into?" Jessie asked.
"Yeah, but that's why we're along, to protect the royal family from the unexpected," Yoshi replied.
"Well, we're not going to be prepared for the unexpected if we don't get some sleep, and you are pulling a carriage tomorrow," Jessie said. So they went to bed.
The next day they were on their way again. "So, how long is it going to take us to get there?" Ian asked.
"Assuming nothing too serious happens," Luigi answered, "We have about four or five days."
"Where're we stopping tonight?" Ian asked.
"What's it called again, Mario?" Luigi asked.
"We're not stopping in a town tonight, Luigi," Mario told him, "We're camping out on the edge of the jungle."
A while later they got to the jungle. "Is this where we're camping?" Ian asked.
Mario answered, "No, we're going through and camping on the other side."
All that day they were trekking through the jungle. They kept hearing snapping noises but never saw anything. "What's that snapping noise?" Jessie asked.
"Piranha plants," Toad answered.
"And you're not in the least bit worried?" she inquired.
"Well, the piranha plants are rooted in the ground and can't really go anywhere beyond their stem," Peach said, "So a while back a path was cleared of them."
"Oh, okay," Jessie said, "So, there's nothing to worry about?"
"Pretty much," Toad answered.
Later they could see a small clearing ahead. "Wait a sec, I don't remember that clearing," Mario said. A loud snoring sound was coming from somewhere in the clearing. "Why do I think I know that snore?" Mario asked himself. When they got to the clearing he found out: a large piranha plant that was not rooted to the ground was sleeping on the ground next to a stream. "Petie Piranha!" Mario exclaimed quietly, "Guys, don't wake him up!" The group hurried quietly past Petie, fortunately without waking him up. Petie was one of the monsters that Mario had to fight in his adventure that had been christened Super Mario Sunshine, as he explained to Jessie and Ian.
Later when the sun went down they stopped and set up camp. "Oh, it feels good to be camping again," Jessie said that night as they were sitting by a campfire, "I used to have so much fun camping with my Girl Scout troop."
"Girl Scout?" Peach asked.
"Oh, you don't have it here do you?" Jessie answered, "It was an organization for girls. We did community service and went camping and earned patches and, my personal favorite, sold cook-" Jessie's face showed horror for a moment. Everyone looked around to see what had scared her.
"What?" Mario asked.
"Cookies!" Jessie exclaimed.
"You sold cookies? That's neat, but I don't see why you're so shocked," Yoshi said.
"I was selling cookies when I came back here. I had like three hundred people who had bought from me. I had told them that I would be delivering cookies within the next few days when my aunt gave them to me!" Jessie said.
"So?"
"That was on Monday and Tuesday. I came here Tuesday. There are like three hundred people who I didn't get to give cookies to," Jessie explained.
"Boy, you must have really liked selling cookies," Luigi said, "You make it seem like it was life or death!"
"I mean, all those people! They'll be really mad!" Jessie said.
"Oh, my God! They'll never forgive you for disappearing without a trace! Everyone will hate you because you are gone forever and can't give them their cookies! I mean, all they care about is cookies! I'll bet they don't even notice that you've completely disappeared!" Ian rambled sarcastically.
"I-... I guess you've got a point," Jessie said with a hint of thoughtfulness in her voice and expression. A little while later they went to bed.
The next morning they started off again. Not very long after they started they found the end of the jungle. "The desert?" Jessie, Luigi, Toad, and Peach exclaimed.
"I didn't know we had to go through the desert!" Peach continued, "Did you know, Yoshi?"
"Yeah, I knew," Yoshi replied without a trace of concern in his voice.
"And you didn't think it was important?"
"What're you guys so worried about?" Mario asked.
"Earth to Mario?" Luigi shouted.
"There are whirlwinds in the desert!" Jessie continued.
"Yeah, we could get separated!" Toad added.
"You forget that the whirlwinds run in specific trails. There hasn't been one through this part of the desert yet," Mario answered casually.
"That doesn't mean there won't be!" Jessie exclaimed.
"All right, all right, all right!" Yoshi said loudly, "There's no other way to this place, so you've got two choices: one you can not go to Sarasaland, or two you can cross the desert."
Peach thought for a moment then answered, "I guess we'll have to cross the desert."
"But not without some kind of precaution!" Jessie added.
"Like what?" Ian asked, who had previously been silent because he'd had no idea what a whirlwind was.
"We should decide on a meeting place in case we do get separated," Jessie suggested.
"Okay, where?" Toad asked.
"I think we should probably keep heading east to Sarasaland from wherever we end up," Luigi said, "When you get there, stay until everyone else is there."
"Not that any of this is really necessary," Mario said, "I really think you're all being paranoid."
They all started into the desert. After a while of walking they found an oasis. It was starting to get dark so they decided they would camp out for the night and finish getting through the desert the next day. They didn't do much before they decided to go to bed. In the middle of the night, Jessie woke up. Feeling thirsty, she got out of her tent to get a drink of water. While she stood sipping on some water, gazing at the stars, she shivered as a wind blew through the previously still night. "What?" she murmured. The wind started getting stronger as Jessie started to wake up everyone else.
"Get up!" she shouted into each tent.
"What's with the wind?" Ian shouted over the howling.
"There's a whirlwind coming!" Toad yelled.
Indeed, a swirling funnel, not really like a tornado because it was tiny in size, came billowing toward them. But it looked like it could definitely pick up several people and throw them somewhere far away.
"Run!" Luigi shouted, they all started running away from it, but it continued to gain ground on them. Finally it caught them and they were all sucked into it. Everyone screaming, as they were all swirled around, suddenly they were all thrown outward from it and could feel themselves flying long distances very fast. No one knew where anyone else was...
First chapter! I now leave you for the rest of the fic. Enjoy!