Peach's POV

I stared ahead blankly through the wide window, letting the cool breeze brushed by me and played in my hair. Hand upon the windowsill, I took in a long breath, letting the scent of forest, evergreen, and pumpkins in fall mix together around me. It was a delightful scent, one of which I'd never experienced in my own kingdom. But I was not in my kingdom now.

No, I was far along the edge of my kingdom now, in the castle of a royal family who's named had been long forgot in the tides of time. I ran my hand gently along the aged walls and pondered my current situation. Then the pitter-patter of tiny steps summoned my attention, and I turned to see a familiar short boy with a red-on-white mushroom cap running toward me.

"Princess Peach, it's time!" He called to me. I turned to him fully, dusting off the pink-on-pink gown and brush my white gloved hands over my hair one last time before nodding.

"Lead the way." I said, trying to keep my voice from wavering. In all honesty, as I followed him down the long, dimly light hall, my nervousness washed over me, growing like a snowball racing down the snow covered mountains in December. Only that was far easier to handle...

We exchanged no words to each other, as if the silence between us said everything for us. 'This is dangerous... We're to far from home. We shouldn't have come. We should have brought Mario, at least.' I sighed softly, but Toad did not look back at me, as if to focused to keep his wits about him in this foreign land. For that, I was beyond thank full.

I had, of course, considered asking Mario to come as one of my guards, but after learning of his affair with a certain red-dress-brown-haired-man-stealing-woman, I found it difficult to look at him the same way. So instead I settled for my usual guards, 16 mushroom soldiers, Toad-my most trusted advisor, and Perry- my talking parasol.

Perry, however, was napping silently as he hung from my arm, so only Toad's and my footsteps accompanied us. As we neared the end of the hall, I saw four more toads standing in front of two large twin doors with engravings running along the sides. On each side of the door frame, two toads stood; one holding a spear while the other held a fire flower. They looked at me, smiled with a greeting, and opened the doors by having one toad on each side stand on the head of his companion to hold the knob while his companion walked backward.

Under any other circumstance I would have found the sight amusing and cute, but there was to much weighing on this moment for giggles. In this moment, I could gain my kingdom a much needed ally or start a war we weren't even prepared for. Light filtered through the doors as they cracked open, reaching out further to light the hall behind me.

The doors opened fully and my jaw dropped...