Princess Peach's Daughter, A Warrior?

Real World

She ran into the woods, trying to get as far as possible from the house. She stumbled into a pipe, exhausted. In her dreams, Princess Peach, the videogame character, was begging her to come home. When she woke up, she was lying in a pool of blood. She sat up, looked around, and screamed. The source of all the blood was lying on the ground, clawed to death. She got up and ran, crying as she ran. She finally bumped into an elf. In horror and fright, she saw herself changing into a small werewolf.

Ten seconds later…

"Reena, Reena! Wake up, darling!" Reena opened one eye to see her mother holding her. "You were having a nightmare."

"No, not a nightmare, it was a horrible dream." Reena pushed her mother aside in disgust. Reena took a black shirt and black pants with her to the bathroom.

"It's Thursday!" her mother called to Reena.

"You could've told me that earlier!" Reena muttered. She tramped back to her room, exchanged the black clothes for a black dress and shorts. After she changed, she went downstairs and barely dodged a knife thrown at her. She ran out of the house at full speed. She headed towards the woods like she did in her dreams. Finally, when she was too tired to walk, nonetheless run, she crawled into a pipe and heard a strange noise. Her sleeping body was thrown out of the pipe, slamming into a dragon-like creature into a nearby potted cactus. His screams of pain woke her up.

"My head," she groaned.

"My foot!" the dragon hopped around, holding his foot in the air.

"Sit down and let me have a look at it." The strange creature did as he was told. "Hmm." Reena plucked a cactus prickle out. "My name's Reena. What's yours?"

"Bowser."

"B-O-W-S-E-R? Like the antagonist in those Mario games?"

"Uh, yeah. Um. What's a ant-ag-on-ist?" he sounded out the syllables.

"The person who is against the main character."

"Well, I guess you could call me Mario's antagonist!" Bowser laughed and Reena dropped his foot. "What's the matter, scared?"

"Mario's real?" she ignored the snide remark.

"No duh!"

"I first heard of him from my brother!" she picked his foot back up and started again to pull out the prickles.

"What about him?" Bowser was trembling, but she kept on going.

"He's really powerful, he's got a brother named Luigi, his girlfriend's Peach, and you're his main enemy!

"Peach is his wife."

"Oh. Um, sorry to disturb you, but you gotta say he is awesome for all his size. And I still don't know how my brother got me into all of this stuff!" Bowser had to laugh at that.

"You're one of a kind, I gotta give you that."

"Why do you say that?"

"Nobody gives me that kind of respect. I mean you said sorry when you didn't need to!"

"Everybody needs a little respect." She smiled.

"Good motto."

"That's not my motto. My motto is:

Every day

Find a way

To pray

"I like the rhyme."

"It helps me remember." By this time Reena had gotten all the prickles out of Bowser's foot. "When you go to nab Peach, ask her if she had a daughter that disappeared."

"Uh, okay." Bowser heaved himself up and walked away, tossing a bag to her. "Pays for any costs."

"Thanks, mister!" she went over to a nearby pond and spread some mud over her exposed skin and worked it through her hair. She walked down the street to an old Koopa who was in a rocking chair to ask directions to Bowser Castle.

"If you go to the pub and anger some goombas, I'm sure you'll be taken to his castle, licketty-split!"

"How do you get there by walking, though?"

"Go left and try not to get KO'd."

"Thanks!" she followed his directions. On the way, she found a hood that attached to her dress. "Perfect!" She trudged on. When she finally got to Bowser Castle, Bowser had just walked out for a walk.

"Hey, you! Yeah, you! Who are you?"

"Is that the way to treat someone who pulled those cactus prickles out of your foot?"

"Oh hi, Reena. You can never be sure around here. C'mon inside." Bowser and Reena walked into the throne room, where Mario was waiting for Bowser.

"Your enemy." Reena held up her hands. "Besides, I don't know how to fight. Good luck not getting beaten to a pulp."

"Thanks for the encouragement." Bowser turned to fight Mario, and Reena dashed to where Peach was. Peach turned, expecting to see Bowser, but pleasantly surprised to see the urchin in front of her.

"One." Reena washed her face, hands, and hair to get all the mud out. "Two." Reena grabbed Peach's hand and jumped out the window. They landed in a Clown Car. "Three." Reena took hold of the controls and managed to crash land in Toad Town. "Four." She helped Peach get out of the wreckage and then Reena ran back to Bowser Castle. "Five, six." Mario and Bowser turned to see her and she slammed a fist into Mario's face and knocked him out. "Done."

"Uh…"

"One-wash mud off, two-jump out window with Peach, three-crash land Clown Car in Toad Town, four-get Peach out of wreckage, five-get back to Bowser Castle, and six-knock Mario out to get the answer. Now, did she tell you?"

"A little girl about five named Peace ran away."

"Thanks." Reena punched Bowser and knocked him out. "I don't like liars." She picked up Mario as best she could, and dragged him to Toad Town.

"Mario! What happened?" Peach had been pacing, trying to think of a plan to tell Mario about the strange girl without risking herself or her people.

"I had to knock him out. Did you have a daughter who disappeared?"

"Grace and Raven, in that order. Grace looked like me and Raven looks like her father." Peach worried over Mario. "Why?"

"I had a dream where you were begging me to come home."

Peach looked up, surprised. "I had a dream where Grace was calling to me, saying, 'I'm coming home!"