Chapter 1: The Espiritu Festival

Mario went to bed as soon as he got home. Everyone else in the house was already sleeping, including Toadsworth, who had made an annoying habit of working on his novel and somehow making a lot of noise that often kept Mario awake at night. Mario slept soundly that night, however, but had strange dreams of Flavio dying and Luigi singing at his funeral. Mario didn't actually consider this a nightmare.

He woke up the next morning feeling refreshed and ready to do something around town, but then he remembered the Espiritu Festival he was forced to attend. Maybe if I act sick, I can get out of it, Mario thought I just have to make sure Peach doesn't see that I'm-

But it was already too late; Peach rushed into the room, looking like she was in a hurry to get ready for an event that didn't start for over an hour. "Oh good, you're awake," she said to him while putting on her shoes. "You've got to get ready. We're leaving in twenty minutes."

Mario, looking shocked, replied. "Peach, the Festival doesn't start for an hour. It takes what, twenty minutes to get there? And we're guests of honor, so we our seats are reserved."

Peach stopped getting ready and looked at him with a shocked expression. "That's exactly why we need to be there early, Mario," she told him. "Guests of honor need to be there before everyone else. The carriage is leaving in soon, and you're the only one not ready."

"Alright, just give me a minute." He showered, got dressed, and ran downstairs to eat breakfast, where he found Toad struggling to climb a stack of boxes next to the table. Mario could see that he was never going to make it to the top and was there to catch him when he slipped and fell down the mountain of cardboard.

"Woah, thanks a lot, Mario," Toad said with relief. "For a second there I thought I was a goner."

"No problem, Toad," he replied, setting him down and sitting down at the table to eat his breakfast. "What exactly were you trying to do?"

Toad took in a deep breath before he replied. "Well, Toadsworth insisted that Peach where this necklace to the Festival today that's still packed in that top box up there and he told me to get it and he thinks I've been slacking off lately but I told him I would get it. So… here I am, without the necklace." Toad began to walk away gloomily, but then turned around and looked at Mario with a smile. "Hey, you think you could get it for me? And maybe you could tell Toadsworth that I was the one to get it?"

"No problem Toad," Mario said happily.

"Great…Oh, and tell him I almost died getting up there, you know, make me heroic." He walked away, and Mario snickered to himself, thinking that the words "heroic" and "Toad" would probably never be used by Mario in the same sentence.

After retrieving the necklace, Mario joined the others in the carriage, where he gave Peach the necklace and was interrogated by Toadsworth. Mario told Toadsworth that Toad had obtained the necklace all by himself, although it seemed dangerous and was pretty sure Toad had almost died. Toadsworth didn't seem convinced. "I didn't actually think he would get it," he told Mario, "He's just been slacking off lately, and I wanted to give him some impossible task to do just to get back at him. But I guess I was wrong…" He now directed his attention towards Peach and began asking her how she was feeling. "Are you sure you feel alright, Princess?" he asked her; Toadsworth could not give up the habit of referring to her as "Princess". "You look pale; we could turn this carriage around right now and I could tell Allegro that you weren't able to attend"-

"For the tenth time Toadsworth, I'm not sick," Peach interrupted. She would often tell Mario how overly catious Toadsworth was whenever he wasn't around. He finally stopped talking, and the ride went by much quicker because of it.

Mario didn't know exactly where this celebration was, but the Pianta controlling the carriage was taking them to a part of the island where he had never been. They had went off the main road a long time ago and were now traveling through the jungles of Isle Delfino, and Mario didn't see a place where there could be a large gathering.

Almost instantly, the carriage arrived at a large clearing in the middle of the jungle. There was a small crowd of people surrounding a large stone platform where a few people were sitting down, and right in front of them was an altar, and a cloth covered what could only be The Great Espiritu. Mario thought that the platform was where he and Peach would be sitting as well, and he was correct. He followed Peach towards the stone platform, with Toadsworth walking behind him. The group shook hands with many familiar people. There was Allegro Pianta, leader of the Pianta tribe, who was one of the biggest Piantas Mario had ever seen. He nearly picked up Mario with a warm hug and thanked him for coming to this gathering.

"This event is very important to our culture," Allegro informed him. "Almost every citizen on the island attends."

"Well," Mario lied, "It sounds like a very exciting occasion." He then shook hands carefully with Saggio Noki, the leader of the Noki tribe. He was probably the oldest person on Isle Delfino, and Mario was always afraid that he was going to break him whenever he was near him. "It's very nice to see you again, Saggio."

"Yes, nice," Saggio repeated, before walking away and greeting others silently. Mario never knew Saggio to be much of a talker.

By the time Mario, Peach and Toadsworth had finished greeting the rest of the guests of honor, the crowd surrounding the platform was much larger than before, and it was clear that the festival was about to begin. Mario sat down in between Peach and a female Pianta he was not familiar with. Allegro and Saggio were the only two people left standing; they stepped forward, faced the enormous audience, and made a gesture for them to quiet down.

"Ladies and gentlemen," Allegro began loudly, "May I have your attention please, for the celebration is about to begin." The crowd cheered loudly, and Mario turned to Peach, still not knowing what this festival was really about.

"So, what exactly is The Great Espiritu?" He asked her.

"Well," Peach replied, still listening to Allegro' speech, "The spirit represents the unity between that Pianta and Noki; apparently they weren't always friends with one another."

"So the festival celebrates the day when peace was formed between the two groups?"

"Exaclty."

Satisfied, Mario looked at Allegro, who seemed to be telling the audience exactly what Peach had just told him. Mario never liked hearing the same thing twice, so he began searching the crowd for Luigi. He didn't expect to see him, but he thought that there just might be a chance that he had changed his mind about coming.

"Mario, are you even paying attention?" Toadsworth asked him from the other side of Peach, noticing that Mario seemed to be in another world. "This spirit is only revealed once a year, you know. It's actually quite exciting, if you think about it…"

Mario didn't respond, but could not think of any reason why this would be exciting. He desperately continued to look for Luigi.

"…And now, the moment you have all been waiting for," Allegro announced. "My dear friend Saggio and I will now unveil The Great Espiritu, the representation of the peaceful lives we all live!"

The crowd roared with pleasure, and it was at that moment that Mario saw him. Standing in the back of the audience, cheering with everyone else, was Luigi. Mario could not believe it; he waved towards him, but apparently Luigi was caught up in all of the excitement that Mario did not have. He was still trying to get Luigi's attention when the crowd went silent; Mario stopped waving at this and looked at everyone in the audience, who all had shocked looks on their faces. He had no idea what had just happened.

He turned to Peach. "Uh, what's going on?" he asked her.

"Mario, look!" she yelled.

Peach was pointing to the altar where the covered Espiritu had just been, only now it was not covered, and Mario now saw why the crowd had gone silent. There was a small glass box on the altar, but The Great Espiritu was nowhere to be seen.

Way to not pay attention, Mario thought to himself.