Gosh, it's been some time since I last uploaded sorry about that, cause I've had this chapter just sitting around for a month by now. Sorry

Mario, Luigi, and Peach belong to Nintendo

The night was crisp and clear, rather refreshing in fact; especially after the chase. Peach didn't notice, not really. The loss of Daisy still stung like a slap to the face so hard that the wind was unable to soothe it. The worst part was that she couldn't change the past.

They were back at Luigi's castle, resting on just one of the multiple balconies it seemed to have. Mario was leaning over the rail. His ears where erect, and if you looked close enough, you could see his nose twitch as he sampled the night air for scents. Luigi said he had gone inside to search the library for information, but Peach thought that he had wanted to get away from Mario's "friend."

The large black wolf with bat wings had turned into a guy as well. He had pale skin, scruffy black hair, and intelligent, glowing red eyes. His ears had been distorted the same way Luigi's had. However, something about his smile seemed more sinister than friendly. Maybe it was the pointed teeth, the bushy eyebrows, or maybe even the cargo pants or black tee. More likely, it was that there was fear behind his cocky expression; it was most prevalent when he looked at Mario.

In any case, Peach didn't like him, and was glad when Luigi returned to the balcony.

The only clue Mario gave that signified he even noticed his brother's return was how his right ear swiveled backwards, possibly catching the faintest trace of Luigi's footsteps, possibly. Peach, however could not hear a thing. The silence of his footsteps was absolute.

"Everything the gorgon said was true, according to multiple accounts," Luigi said. "The forest will shift so its center will be where the blood from the death blow was spilled."

"What if she suffocates?" Asked the black-winged-wolf-guy.

"Wherever her last breath was taken becomes the center," Luigi answered.

"How do you know that it wasn't just where she died?" He retaliated.

"Because certain people actually killed a cursed maiden and collected her blood before it fell to move the forest for their own personal gain," Luigi retorted, sounding a little ticked.

"Then what ab-"

"Others have also suffocated men inside bottles and let out the air and the forest sprung forth," Luigi spat.

"I was just asking," the other party haughtily replied.

"Luigi, do you and Chuck always have to fight?" Mario sighed sourly.

The fear in Chuck's eyes soared.

"My dear alpha," he crooned, "you can't blame your brother for such things. He's a slave to his instincts. You just can't force vampires to like each other."

"But you're a werewolf, aren't you?" Peach asked, confused.

"My dear lady! I… am a chupacabra."

"Bless you," Luigi sniffed.

Chuck growled at the snide comment.

Luigi's wings unfolded from his back and he took to the air, releasing a grade-A raspberry from his mouth as he did so. His lips may have been shaped to avoid his elongated canines from puncturing them, but it made them the perfect shape for maximum vibration.

"Chupacabras are those things that attack goats, right?" Peach asked

"Chupacabra does mean goatsucker, and that's where our myth came from. Goats started disappearing in the night and were found dead with two puncture holes in their heck's the next morning. People who thought they had found actual dead chupacabras had only found wolves with mange. It's kind of sad that nobody ever thought about the possibility of a cross between a vampire and a werewolf," Chuck explained.

"Probably because nobody thought the two kings of monsters would ever mate to foster such a despicable, back-stabbing, no-good, overpowered, arrogant, sly, manipulative, and mutilative, monster like you," Luigi ranted under his breath.

"Best control your jealousy, buddy-boy, or I'll twist your wings until you'll kill yourself to get me to stop," Chuck whispered, unknown to Peach or Mario, but Luigi heard every bit of it.

"I'll rip you up until your father comes out of the underworld to plead for your release," he threatened.

"You leave my father out of this!" Chuck snarled.

"Why, because you're ashamed of him?"

"Luigi!" Mario yelled. "Control your instincts. Why don't you go inside and do something helpful."

Mario didn't even turn around, which only made the rejection seem all the more horrible. Peach only had a second to glimpse the hurt in Luigi's eyes before he melted into shadow and was gone.

"I think I'm going to… go to... the... bathroom! Yes, the bathroom!" Peach said.

Chuck glared at her suspiciously.

"Follow the smell of something mortifyingly bad, but not that smell of something really super bad; you know?"

"Got it!" Peach said. She ventured into the castle.

Mario's right ear once again swiveled forward.

"You know she is lying to you," Chuck warned.

"I can smell lies just as well as you can," Mario reminded Chuck.

However one true thought played over and over in his mind:

They should have been here by now.

Peach was effectively lost in two minutes. She figured that she would just follow wispy clues to find which way Luigi had gone. Something like his retreating shadow, the echo of his footprints, the tip of his wing disappearing around a corner would lead Peach to their owner. None of that revealed itself. Luigi had efficaciously vanished.

However, the farther Peach ventured, the more she heard what seemed to be discontented murmurings. She took hallways, and soon the murmur grew to an utterance, a yell and a shout. Peach turned a corner to be blasted with sound. So loud she had to retrace her steps to behind the corner and brace herself before she could battle through the waves again.

She had entered a huge cylindrical room with a floor that was at least as big as Bowser's ego. It had some rather plush brown, gold, silver, and black sofas as well as comfy chairs, from recliners to orthopedics. Many had two slits in the back of them. There were also loveseats, although not many, and several tables. All of them lay on a massive blood-red shag carpet. The whole room filled from the ceiling to floor with books, and on the ceiling paced Luigi.

He was so wound up that he filled the whole room with sound, a fact that Peach would have found impossible if it where not happening at that very moment. His wings flapped viciously, although not at regular intervals like they probably should have been. Luigi was usually such a calm and easygoing guy that to see him this angry threw Peach for a loop. Ranting at the top of your lungs on the ceiling upside down had to be some type of extreme talent, but all Peach could experience was pain. She covered her ears the best she could with the two pillows from the nearest loveseat and screamed as loud as she could: "LUIGI!"

He was so surprised he forgot he could fly for a moment. He recovered halfway into his descent and floated to the ground.

"What's up?" He asked nervously.

"Well you were up there, on the ceiling."

"Yeah, just looking for something useful," he said, spitting out the last couple of words.

Peach placed a hand on his shoulder. "What's up with you and Mario?"

Luigi sighed, like this was a painful topic he'd rather not share. He took to the air about halfway up to the ceiling, retrieved a book, and settled down at a table. He began to flip through the pages.

Peach took her time strolling over, and by the time she got there, Luigi had found the page he wanted.

His eyes closed slowly and he exhaled like he was about to regret what he was about to do.

Peach read the chapter title.

"The Werewolf Scourge. That sounds like a fantasy story," she remarked.

"This is no fantasy," Luigi promised. "For thousands of years, the vampires have hated the werewolves. So much so that it became an instinct."

"Is that why you two argue so much more in this forest?" Peach asked.

Luigi nodded solemnly. "The worse part is the effect it's had on the werewolves. When he's in this forest, it's a challenge for Mario to feel compassion for me. Werewolves are pack animals, and some of the most compassionate monsters in this forest, but only the unalloyed canines can feel that bond with others. Alloyed werewolves naturally feel no positive emotions to any monster except for other werewolves."

"Wait, what is the difference between an alloyed monster and an unalloyed monster?" Peach asked.

"The technical difference is that unalloyed monsters don't have souls, but I think they do. Alloyed monsters are all part human, and once out of the forest will be normal. Also if they die, they're dead. If an unalloyed monster ventures out of the forest, they instantly die. If they are killed in the forest, however, they will be resurrected."

"Got it. So, why can't alloyed werewolves feel anything?"

"It's supposed to make them great pack leaders. If they feel no compassion towards monsters outside of their pack, it is harder for their intentions to waver, and without emotional attachments, it is easier to see the big picture."

"But the opposite is true!" Peach said. "Without feelings, how could anyone see anyone big picture?"

"They can smell them."

"They can smell feelings… like.. other than fear?"

"That's what the book says."

"How do you know you can trust the book? It was written by vampires," Peach pointed out.

"We have our ways," Luigi replied.

"But I bet you can't find a way to keep me from dying," Peach said, forlorn. "Or a way to keep you and Chuck from fighting."

Luigi's face turned sour and strangely: guilty.

"He's right you know. I am a slave to my instincts."

"Aren't we all?" Peach asked. "Well, at least when we have superbells. Besides, if you were really a slave you'd rip open my neck this instant, right?"

"Actually I'd probably just suck you dry, but I guess you're right."

"Besides, negative one is equal to negative one."

"It doesn't matter. I wronged him more than he could ever repay with insults and poking."

This comment took Peach by surprise. "You couldn't have done anything that's possibly as bad as you think it is." Peach reassured him.

"I killed his father."

Nothing could have prepared her for that. "What! But, how?" she stammered.

"It was an accident, and to be fair, he tried to kill me first," Luigi said sulkily. "But it doesn't change what I did."

"Sure it doesn't, but you don't have to feel guilty for an accident that happened in the past. Then is not now, and we need to focus on what's ahead: finding a way for me to not die."

Luigi shook himself. "Right," he said. He unfurled his wings and soared to the top of the library. Peach hadn't noticed it before, but there was a massive, half-finished map on the ceiling of the whole Forest of Monsters. Little baskets teemed with more rolled-up papers: the notes for the project. Luigi grabbed some of his notes from the ceiling and another book closer to the bottom of the wall and rejoined Peach at the table. He spread out the rolled-up piece of paper on the table, and Peach saw it was a miniature of the map on the ceiling. The whole forest was a circular shape. Close to the circumference of the circle and equidistant from each other where eight castles. A ninth castle was placed in the center.

"I'm not sure how we can prevent you from dying. Still working on that, but we can prevent the forest from shifting; taking over the Mushroom kingdom as it does." Luigi pointed to one of the castles around the rim.

"We're here, in the Castle of the Waning Gibbous," he explained. "Each castle has a shadow-travel system between them. It only opens for a few minutes once per night at the crest of high tide."

"But there's no ocean around here," Peach pointed out.

"It's when high tide would be were this the ocean; basically when the moon is directly above the center castle."

"That makes sense," Peach remarked.

"If we travel to the opposite side of the forest, to the castle of the waxing crescent, it gives us plenty of room to roam, and when we do release this curse, the forest will shift away from the Mushroom Kingdom, and not overtake it."

"Luigi, that's wonderful!" Peach said, overjoyed. "You've found us more time!"

It seemed to make him smile. "Come on, maybe I can convince Mario before it's time to leave."

The two rejoined Mario and Chuck on the balcony. As soon as Mario smelled his brother he whipped around growling. The Werewolf was really on edge. Every fiber of his body knew that the pack should have been there by now, yet they weren't.

To Luigi's credit he didn't jump, although Peach did.

"Sorry," Mario apologized.

Chuck was unamused. "Did you find anything useful at least?" he groaned.

Luigi explained his plan. Chuck looked somewhat uneasy.

"Say we did go to the castle of the waxing crescent, and we either released Peach from the curse, or got her killed. Wouldn't the forest just shift the other way and cover some poor old village who had nothing to do with it?"

Peach's heart sank. "You're right. We can't just shift it somewhere else and dump this burden on others. We have to keep the forest from shifting."

"Then we could travel to the center castle," Luigi reasoned. "We will be confined in there until we figure out a cure, but the forest will only shift by a matter of buildings and not half a country. Besides, the grand library of the central castle has books from all over the world. I'm sure that could at least help."

"Great! How long until the portal opens?" Peach asked.

"In a couple of hours. We have some free time to kill,." Luigi answered.

"When you are the prey, there is no such thing as free time," Chuck reminded them. "I'll do a security sweep, and maybe bring back some prey for you two. Hunger will only make the kill instinct worse."

Marvin climbed onto the thick stone railing and lept off, turning into his chupacabra form and rising on the night air just before hitting the ground. He circled around the castle once before the shadows swallowed him and he was gone.

"Marvin may bring something back for you, but most definitely not for me," Luigi said. "Anything worth catching he will suck dry himself. I'll be back."

He launched himself off the balcony and disappeared under the tree line.

"Are you going to leave me here too?" Peach asked Mario.

"No," he replied. "I wouldn't leave you alone in a place like this."

"Should you call them back? In horror movies when they split up is when the bad stuff happens."

"Both Luigi and Chuck are perfectly capable of holding their own. They are masters of the night."

"So we have some time," Peach realized. "One thing I never got, why are both of you so sure that Daisy is gone? Werewolves become werewolves by being bit by a werewolf, right?"

"There is a little more to it than that." Mario said. "Once you are bitten, you have to survive the madness."

Peach was taken aback. "Madness?"

"At first, it's an unbelievable rush of power that few mortals will ever experience. However your mind has to control and withstand that wave of power, or it will flip you and drown you. Less than ten percent of bitten males survive, and zero females have ever lived. This is also assuming that they just bit her, and didn't rip her arm off. No, Daisy is gone."

Luigi returned before Chuck did. His now glowing red eyes somehow made him look less threatening to Peach because she knew that there was a less chance of him biting her. Mario seemed indifferent, but Peach knew better. His mind was simply clouded by something concerning him. She had no idea what it was, but whatever it was it was tying his tail in a loop. Mario hated mind games. Whenever he was confronted by one he just froze, trying to piece together the puzzle.

Chuck returned much later than Luigi did, presumably fighting off monsters trying to make their way to Peach. Just as he had promised, he brought a carcass for Mario, who wolfed it down. Just as Luigi had predicted, Chuck had brought nothing for him, which was fine with Luigi.

When the time had come, soon before midnight, Luigi showed them to the shadow travel center of the castle.

It was a large rotunda, open to the sky that seemed to be empty. Different phases of the moon were beautifully muraled around the walls, each one touched the floor and rose up about six feet from the floor and looked like doorways. In the center was a gaping black hole about seven feet in diameter.

"Is that the portal?" Peach asked.

"Yep," Luigi answered.

"Are you sure it's not a bottomless pit?"

"Nope."

"Well that's reassuring," Peach mumbled before jumping in.

"That was interesting," Chuck commented. "You got quite some girl there alpha." He followed Peach's lead and jumped. Luigi gave Mario a questioning glance. Mario returned it with a shrug.

Together, they jumped into the hole - right into an ambush.

They fell out of the shadows into an almost identical room to the one they'd left, except this one was filled to the brim with wolves. The pack had beaten them there.

Thank you for your time.