Chapter Four
Anna seemed suspicious of the koopaling as well. "Do you have any idea where he came from? Who he is?" She asked uneasily, looking at the koopaling, who was slurping away at some soup, the bowl held up to his mouth, his elbows on the table.
"No." Peach said.
"He didn't say?"
Peach shook her head. "No." She answered again. "I thought he might be, you know, from Koopa Village."
"Well, wherever he's from, he doesn't seem to have very good manners." She said as he set the bowl down with a thump, belched, and started on the sandwiches. "Just be careful, Princess."
"I will." Peach promised the magikoopa.
Peach sat down at the table and began eating her soup. Noticing her use of a spoon, the koopaling pulled his elbows off the table and began chewing more slowly, and with his mouth closed.
"Good?" Peach asked the koopaling. He nodded eagerly.
"Why thank you." Said Tayce T, the cook, who had been watching the koopaling eat in amusement.
At those words, the koopaling jumped and looked nervous.
"What is it?" Peach asked.
The koopaling shook his head, and went back to his sandwiches. He finished the rest of them off, and yawned.
"He's probably exhausted." Tayce T. murmered. "Poor lost dear."
Peach took the koopaling up to one of the empty guest rooms so he could get some sleep. With a yawn, she decided she could use a nap herself. She asked Toad to keep an eye on the koopaling.
"Of course, Princess." He had said.
Then she went up to her room to lay down for a bit.
As she slept, she had a dream. She was in it, and the koopaling, and someone else, but she couldn't see who it was. Whoever it was kept telling the koopaling he had done a good job with the Princess and the koopaling kept saying thank you and then covering its mouth and then the whoever it was turned. "Now, as for you, Princess." It said, and then she woke up.
She sat straight up in bed, gasping. It had been a weird dream, but it had been just that- a dream, right? It couldn't be real.
Peach checked the clock by her table and realized she had been asleep for several hours. She got up, washed her face to help her wake up, and went to check on the koopaling.
"How is he?" Peach asked.
"Fine." Toad answered, but there was more to it, judging by the look on his face,
"What is it?" Peach asked.
"He only slept for about an hour," Toad said, "but he's been quiet the whole time."
Peach entered the room. The koopaling looked up from a book he was looking through. "Hello." She said.
"Hi." He answered. "I'm reading." He explained.
"You can read?" She asked. He was rather small for that.
"Of course," he said proudly, "My teacher taught me."
"Who was your teacher?" Peach asked curiously.
The koopaling simply shrugged.
"Are you from Koopa Village?" Peach asked.
The koopaling shook his head. "Nope." He said. Peach wondered where this little guy was from.
They spent the rest of the afternoon reading. After the first book, the koopaling had come over to Peach and asked her to read some. And he had sat beside her, listening as she read about the adventures of Glorm the Goomba.
It really was a pleasant way to spend the day, and Peach realized the enjoyed having the koopaling around.