"Princess? Princess!"

Daisy felt something nudge against her, like two little feet pushing against her back.

"Princess! Get off me!"

Daisy's eyes shot open. The afternoon sunlight glared against the tree tops wavering slightly in the breeze. Several faceless clouds floated above, peacefully and happily. Those trees, were they just an illusion? She felt the ninji push against her once again, jarring her from her thoughts. "Oh sorry, Ninjetta." She sat up, releasing the ninji from her imprisonment under Daisy's weight.

Turning, she picked up the ninji, setting her down on her feet. "What just happened? How long were we out?"

"It's called the 'Forest of Going Astray' for a reason."

Although she was still sitting, Daisy nearly leapt backwards and back onto Ninjetta who was still recovering from the last assault. "Wh-wh-" she stammered, looking around quickly and nervously. She didn't recognize the voice, but after encountering Apricot, there was a good chance other minions of the Star Eater existed. And after a possible attack, it was probable they'd stay around.

Instead she spotted a somewhat small wiggler, young in appearance. He looked like a normal wiggler, yellow in color with a white flower sprouting from his head. He didn't show any signs of shadows or strange coloring.

"So. You've experienced an illusion," he clarified. "It happens a lot here, kay?"

Ninjetta brushed herself off and rounded Daisy to properly introduce everyone. "We're sorry we kind of invaded your forest, Mr. Wiggler-"

"Call me Wiggly, kay?" he interjected.

"Ah, Mr. Wiggly then," Ninjetta corrected herself. "We've been forced to take an alternate route to Donut Plains and got kind of lost."

"So. Now why would you wanna go there?" Wiggly asked, looking somewhat sideways at the trio. They were a strange bunch. A guy who couldn't stand up straight, a girl in armor, and a ninji. They didn't seem like they'd get along on a normal basis, yet there they were. Perhaps they were a strange assemblage of a family. "So. Weird stuff's been happenin' over there, even weirder than what happens here in the forest, kay?"

"That's actually why we're here," Ninjetta replied. "We're investigating that weird stuff. We-"

"Are you associated with that Star Eater in any way?" Daisy suddenly interjected.

"Huh?" Wiggly blinked, surprised to hear those words. "So. You mean the star lord?"

"So you are associated with him!" Daisy leapt to her feet, leaning forward slightly in an attempt to appear more intimidating. She placed her hands firmly on her hips, frowning.

The wiggler frowned in return, drawing closer to get in her face. "Why would I do that?"

"Don't lie to me," Daisy demanded.

"Don't make me angry, kay" the wiggler countered.

"ENOUGH!" Ninjetta shouted, wiggling her way between the two in an attempt to push them apart before they started fighting. "We're here to fight the star eater, not each other, so stop it! Both of you!"

Daisy stepped back, folding her arms. Wiggly stepped back as well, rearing up a bit to fold his front feet together. "So. You're making such quick assumptions, kay?" he frowned.

"Then tell me," Daisy retorted, "why are you calling that thing the star lord? Hm?"

"So," Wiggly replied. "The elders said the trees started whispering the name, kay? The trees said it was dangerous, kay?"

"Star eater a big cheater! Cheated Waluigi out of Wario and home," Waluigi added, still standing awkwardly off to the side. It was the first thing he'd spoken since everyone awoke from the illusion. While it was mildly entertaining to watch Daisy verbally attempt to manhandle the wiggler, Waluigi needed to establish how much he also hated the star eater. In turn, at least according to his own logic, that would free Daisy of any suspicion of being associated with it.

"He swallowed my home too," Daisy added bitterly.

"Is there any chance we can speak with the elders?" Ninjetta asked, relieved that the tension was somewhat out of the air. If these elders could hear the trees speak of the star eater, maybe they heard what happened over on the Donut Plains.

"So," Wiggly replied. "I don't see that as being much of a problem. Follow me."

...

On the eastern edge of the forest, a small settlement stood out against the forest and the shoreline. Gardens decorated the sides of the road, filled with various kinds of vegetables. Houses were fashioned out of fallen trees, covered in dirt with grass and flowers growing on them. Dirt roads lead up to the houses, beaten down by hundreds of feet crossing them. At the end, near the shoreline gathered a group of wigglers, their flowers on their heads slightly drooping with age. The council of elders had gathered to speak once again.

"Hm?" the eldest looked up from the circle to see Wiggly approach with three strangers. "Wwwwhat's this?"

"So," Wiggly replied. "These three are looking for information about the star lord, kay?"

"Hm?" the eldest replied with a question. "You're not Princess Peach, are you?"

Daisy stared at the old man flatly. She'd have to forgive him as he was old, but she still looked nothing like Peach. She didn't even like wearing pink. "I'm Daisy from Sarasaland."

"Didn't Sarasaland disappear?" another elder pointed out.

"It did," Daisy replied bitterly. "Ninjetta and I are the only survivors. We're out to stop the star lord or star eater or whateverthehell it's calling itself and get everyone and everything back. So if you can help us out, that'd be swell."

"Waluigi want to fight it too," Waluigi added.

The eldest looked the odd trio over. They turned, conferring to one another about possible paths of action and what might result in each path. The star lord was definitely a threat and many of the wiggler citizens in their tiny town were concerned that the star lord would attack the Forest too.

"Hm." The eldest turned back to Daisy and her party. "Wwwwwe'll tell you what wwwwwe know. Wwwwwe don't wwwwant this town to fall to the star lord's touch. Wwwwendy," he turned to one of the younger wigglers off to the side. She appeared to be an assistant of sorts with a bow tied around her flower. "Bring our guests some fresh food!"

As she scampered away, the trio of guests sat down on the sand with the elder wigglers. Ninjetta climbed into Daisy lap. She felt safe there. And while she didn't feel threatened by the wigglers at all, the illusion they'd experienced was still eating away at her mind. Daisy leaned forward, wrapping her arms around the ninji. Waluigi sat next to them in some awkward form of crossing his legs and leaning forward in ways a spine shouldn't bend.

"Hm," the eldest wiggler continued. "Last night, the trees began wwwwhispering a name. Star Lord Seth, they said."

"It has a name?" Daisy blinked. Since this all began, Daisy had only thought of the star eater as an ominous cloud, but could it have been more?

Waluigi paused as well. He still could recall that man he saw emerge from the hole where Fortune Street once stood. The man seemed marginally human, save the galaxy he had living in his coat. He still wasn't entirely sure who the man was, but he marked him an enemy after he'd kidnapped Wario. He still had yet to mention the man, though it was becoming increasingly more possible that the man was the star eater itself.

"Mm." The wiggler looked up at the trees near by that marked the edge of the forest and the start of the beach. "The trees began sighing that name. 'Star eater', they said. 'Destroyer of wwwwworlds.'"

"They began chanting words over and over again," another elder chimed in. She looked up at the trees too. "Reeeed. Turquoise. Greeeen. Gooooold. Over and over until it became almost deafening, see?"

"Wait, wait, wait," Daisy interrupted. "Those colors! They're the same ones that Dr. Toadley saw in his vision. They're the same colors of the people abducted from our worlds. But I thought that it was still missing gold." She'd considered Wario took gold's place, yet after she'd been attacked so much herself, she wasn't so sure anymore.

The elder shook her head. "I do not know, but they chanted it. Then everything fell silent. Not a word. We looked out and the Donut Plains across the water were gone, see?"

"That's just like what happened at home," Daisy frowned. She still could remember the gaping hole that once was Birabuto, then watching Chai suddenly disappear right before her own eyes. "That's definitely a sure-tell sign of the star eater's work. Was there any mention of shadows or some chick named Apricot?"

"Hm," The eldest wiggler replied. "In the morning, the trees began wwwwwhispering that. 'Apricot'. I thought they were talking about fruit."

"She was here. She's still alive," Daisy mused aloud. She didn't know how, but that resilient irritating woman had survived the fall into the Gorge. "Then I think we need to go look at something. We got word this morning that the Plains have been replaced."

The elders glanced at one another. A nod almost in unison, and they all agreed. They too had to see this change for themselves.

Author's note

The odd forms of speech are making fun of how no one really speaks normally in the any of the rpgs.